Over 90% of breast cancer deaths are due to complications as a consequence of metastasis formation. Despite its devastating effects, metastatic disease is still poorly understood. Accumulating evidence indicates that cells and mediators of the immune system influence metastasis formation. In our lab, we use preclinical mouse models for metastatic breast cancer to dissect the impact of the immune system on the different steps of the metastatic cascade. Neutrophils make up a significant proportion of the inflammatory infiltrate in many tumors and their systemic accumulation in cancer patients has been associated with metastasis formation. Also in our recently developed spontaneous breast cancer metastasis mouse model that accurately mimics each step of the metastatic cascade in humans, metastasis formation is accompanied by pronounced systemic accumulation of neutrophils. Antibody-mediated depletion of neutrophils did not affect primary breast cancer outgrowth, but profoundly decreased spontaneous metastasis formation in lungs and lymph nodes. Using biological and genetic approaches, we have uncovered a novel mammary tumor-induced systemic communication network between gamma delta T cells and neutrophils that is critical for breast cancer metastasis. Our data indicate that targeting this novel cancer cell-initiated systemic inflammatory cascade represents a viable strategy to inhibit metastatic disease. Citation Format: Seth B. Coffelt, Kelly Kersten, Max Wellenstein, Chris W. Doornebal, Camilla Salvagno, Kim Vrijland, Cheei-Sing Hau, Jos Jonkers, Karin E. de Visser. Cancer-associated systemic inflammation facilitates breast cancer metastasis. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Tumor Metastasis; 2015 Nov 30-Dec 3; Austin, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(7 Suppl):Abstract nr IA04.


Based on multi-sited archival research, this article examines the racialized regulation of commercial sex in 1970s France, and whether and how this was intertwined with the protection of a racialized, gendered, and class-based sexual order. In doing so, this article contributes to a contextualized and historicized analysis of the construction of race and colour-blindness in French legislation and law enforcement. During and after the Algerian War, colonial anxieties about sexual threats posed by North African male labour migrants in the French metropole played a role in the discussion on commercial sex and motivated politicians, policymakers and journalists to argue for its selective tolerance. The author argues that the indirect legislation on commercial sex granted discretionary power to the police to protect the sexual order through colourblind justifications. This enabled law enforcement to implement and enforce universalist legislation 'from below' in a racially particularistic way.


The belief that weather influences people's health has been prevalent for millennia. Recent studies on the relationship between weather and pain for those who suffer from chronic pain remain indeterminate, with some studies finding strong effects and others finding no effects; most studies face limitations to their study design or dataset size. To address these limitations, a U.K.-wide smartphone study Cloudy with a Chance of Pain was conducted over 15 months with 10,584 citizen scientists who suffer from chronic pain, producing the largest dataset both in duration and number of participants. Compared to other similar citizen-science studies, our retention of participants was substantially better, with 15% still entering data nearly every day after 200 days. Analysis of the dataset using synoptic climatology and compositing revealed the daily weather associated with a prevalence of high pain and low pain across the population. Specifically, our results indicate that the top 10% of days with a high percentage of participants (about 20%) experiencing a pain event (represented here by a +1 change or greater in their pain level on a 5-point scale; referred to as a high-pain day) were associated with below-normal pressure, above-normal humidity, higher precipitation rate, and stronger wind. In contrast, the bottom 10% of days with a small percentage of participants (about 10%) experiencing a pain event (a low-pain day) were associated with above-normal pressure, below-normal humidity, lower precipitation rate, and weaker wind. Thus, these synoptic weather patterns support the beliefs of many participants who said that low pressure—and its accompanying weather—was associated with a pain event.


Leguminosae or Fabaceae is the third largest flowering plant family. It is economically important for food production and soil fertility. The molecular phylogenetic analysis of closely related species of Leguminosae family: Lens culinaris, Vicia sativa, V. palaestina, V. peregrina, V. faba, V. narbonensis, Lathyrus aphaca, Pisum fulvum and P. sativum aids in the discrimination among these closely related species. In this study, 18S and 28S as universal primers were used for amplifying and sequencing the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the studied species. This was conducted on around two-five plant individual samples of each one of the species under investigation. The phylogenetic tree construction was carried out using Unweighted Pair Group method. The phylogenetic analysis among the studied species revealed that V. peregrina, V. faba, V. narbonensis, V. palaestina, Lens culinaris, and V. sativa were grouped into one clade (clade І). However, V. sativa occupied the farthest position in clade І, and was separated from other species of Vicia genus. P. sativum, P. fulvum and Lathyrus aphaca were grouped into another clade (clade ІІ). On the other hand, Lens culinaris occupied a position within the core of Vicia near to V. palaestina. Accordingly, it is recommended to transfer Lens culinaris into Vicia genus based on its morphological and molecular characterization. Therefore, the new classification of Lens culinaris is recommended to be Vicia culinaris.


Abstract— Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a cancer treatment modality utilizing a photosensitizer, light and oxygen. Photodynamic therapy with Photofrin® has been approved by the US. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of advanced esophageal and early lung cancer. Because of certain drawbacks associated with the use of Photofrin, there is a need to identify new photosensitizers for human use. The photosensitizer Pc 4 (HOSiPc‐OSi[CH3]2[CH2]3N[CH3]2) has yielded promising PDT effects in many in vitro and in vivo systems. The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of Pc 4 as a PDT photosensitizer for a human tumor grown as a xenograft in athymic nude mice. The ovarian epithelial carcinoma (OVCAR‐3) was heterotransplanted subcutaneously in athymic nude mice. Sixty mice bearing OVCAR‐3 tumors (∼80–130 mm3) were divided into six groups of 10 animals each, three for controls and three for treatment. The Pc 4 was given by tail vein injection, and 48 h later a 1 cm area encompassing the tumor was irradiated with light from a diode laser coupled to a fiberoptic terminating in a microlens (Λ= 672 nm, 150 J/cm2,150 mW/cm2). Tumors of control animals receiving no treatment, light alone or Pc 4 alone continued to grow. Of animals receiving 0.4 mg/kg Pc 4 and light, one (10%) had a complete response and was cured (no regrowth up to 90 days post‐PDT), while all others (90%) had a partial response and were delayed in regrowth. Of animals receiving 0.6 mg/kg Pc 4 and light, eight (80%) had a complete response, and two of these were cured. Of animals receiving 1.0 mg/kg Pc 4 and light, six (60%) had a complete response, and two of these were cured. In additional experiments, tumors from animals treated with Pc 4 (1 mg/kg) and light were removed 15, 30, 60 and 180 min post‐PDT, and from these tumors DNA and protein were extracted. Agarose gel electrophoresis revealed the presence of apoptotic DNA fragmentation as early as 15 min post‐PDT. Western blotting showed the cleavage of the 116 kDa native poly (ADP‐ribose) polymerase (PARP) into fragments of ∼90 kDa, another indication of apoptosis, and the presence of p21/WAFl/CIPl (p21) in all PDT‐treated tumors. These changes did not occur in control tumors. Pc 4 appears to be an effective photosensitizer for PDT of human tumors grown as xenografts in nude mice. Early apoptosis, as revealed by PARP cleavage, DNA fragmentation and p21 overexpression, may be responsible for the excellent Pc 4‐PDT response. Clinical trials of Pc 4‐PDT are warranted.


Online social media (OSM) has a enormous influence in today's world. Some individuals view OSM as fertile ground for abuse and use it to disseminate misinformation and political propaganda, slander competitors, and spread spam. The crowdturfing industry employs large numbers of bots and human workers to manipulate OSM and misrepresent public opinion. The detection of online discussion topics manipulated by OSM \emph{abusers} is an emerging issue attracting significant attention. In this paper, we propose an approach for quantifying the authenticity of online discussions based on the similarity of OSM accounts participating in the discussion to known abusers and legitimate accounts. Our method uses several similarity functions for the analysis and classification of OSM accounts. The proposed methods are demonstrated using Twitter data collected for this study and previously published \emph{Arabic honeypot dataset}. The former includes manually labeled accounts and abusers who participated in crowdturfing platforms. Evaluation of the topic's authenticity, derived from account similarity functions, shows that the suggested approach is effective for discriminating between topics that were strongly promoted by abusers and topics that attracted authentic public interest.


Snatch process is the acting process that the human body consumes internal energy and can drive the devices off the ground and over the head; in its acting process, the body needs to receive force at reasonable posture. This article through biomechanics theory and function transformtheorem, conducts detailed analysis on the four stages of the snatch technology process prophase of squat, anaphase of squat, force and inertial rising, in order to obtain the mechanical features and data characteristic of function transform aspect of snatch technique; for body weight and snatch performance it builds regression equation, conducts data simulation study, and elaborates on the necessity of weightliftersÂÂ' reasonable lose weight from the simulation image. By the studying results we conduct the biomechanical description and argumentation on the overall process of weightlifting snatch, confirm previous findings and the advantages and disadvantages of existing technologies and make reasonable suggestions for the development of movement technology.


By focusing on direct monetary incentives, the traditional literature on motivating workers predicts that high-effort outcomes are unlikely unless workers become residual claimants of profit. However, real world employment contracts typically display a low incidence of profit sharing. In this paper, I extend the canonical model of a revenue sharing contract by integrating two more options for incentivising workers. The literature to date has discussed these strategies in isolation from each other. First, I assume that workers derive utility from following a work norm. The manager can influence workers' identification with a high-effort work norm at a cost. Second, workers risk being fired if they are observed shirking. Depending on the rigidity of their employment contract, this threat of termination induces them to increase effort. Key drivers of the optimal employment contract are then the variance of output, the costs of inducing worker's identification with high-effort norms and the rigidity of the labour market.


The article considers conceptual approaches to the formation of accounting integrated information flow of strategic company management. The comparative characteristic of strategic and operational management accounting is given. The authors suggest their own definition of strategic management accounting as a component of the management function "accounting" and the mechanism of its realization. They also point out its goal and tasks. The systems of strategic management costs accounting are analyzed they form accounting and integrate information flow to develop and realize company strategy. On the basis of activity based costing (ABC) method the methodology of strategic management accounting of company costs in the process-oriented management structures is suggested. The authors suggest six stages in ABC method and define their contents.


Our previously established model of cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2)‐deficient, differentiated PLB‐985 cells (PLB‐D cells) was used to determine the physiological role of cPLA2 in eicosanoid production. Parent PLB‐985 (PLB) cells and PLB‐D cells were differentiated toward the monocyte or granulocyte lineages using 5 × 10−8 M 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 or 1.25% dimethyl sulfoxide, respectively. Parent monocyte‐ or granulocyte‐like PLB cells released prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) when stimulated by ionomycin, A23187, opsonized zymosan, phorbol 12‐myristate 13‐acetate, or formyl‐Met‐Leu‐Phe (fMLP), and monocyte‐ or granulocyte‐like PLB‐D cells did not release PGE2 with any of the agonists. The kinetics of cPLA2 translocation to nuclear fractions in monocyte‐like PLB cells stimulated with fMLP or ionomycin was in correlation with the kinetics of PGE2 production. Granulocyte‐like PLB cells, but not granulocyte‐like PLB‐D cells, secreted leukotriene B4 (LTB4) after stimulation with ionomycin or A23187. Preincubation of monocyte‐like parent PLB cells with 100 ng/ml lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for 16 h enhanced stimulated PGE2 production, which is in correlation with the increased levels of cPLA2 detected in these cells. LPS preincubation was less potent in increasing PGE2 and LTB4 secretion and did not affect cPLA2 expression in granulocyte‐like PLB cells, which may be a result of their lower levels of surface LPS receptor expression. LPS had no effect on monocyte‐ or granulocyte‐like PLB‐D cells. The lack of eicosanoid formation in stimulated, differentiated cPLA2‐deficient PLB cells indicates that cPLA2 contributes to stimulated eicosanoid formation in monocyte‐ and granulocyte‐like PLB cells.


This report builds on the consensus developed at the August 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. It draws on the effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. And it looks beyond, to 2050, to envision a future that is far more prosperous and more equitable than today. This work raises some hard questions: How do we ensure that the progress achieved by 2015 is sustainable? What quality of growth will be required to attain this vision? Long-term thinking is essential in dealing with sustainability issues (economic change, ecological threats). A consensus has emerged about the need to move toward a new development path, one that integrates economic growth with environmental responsibility and social equity. The World Bank has been advocating this vision of responsible growth, together with the concept that poverty reduction is not just an end in itself but also a precondition for peaceful coexistence and ecological survival. The report examines the drivers of growth-agriculture, trade, energy, water, innovation, human development, and social development, as well as the global environment, in particular, forest preservation. It also considers challenges and constraints for socially balanced development.


This presentation takes account of animation's malleable character and its dedication to reproduction and lifelike-ness in an expanded knowledge space. Tracing the current state of art corrupted by the market, with modes of resistance being formed around representations of cultural difference (Chris Kraus), the paper's trajectory passes from Osamu Tezuka's 1963 'TV manga' Tetsuwan Atomu—an early example where a work/image/animation, a serialised mode of production, and an investment of rationalisation merge into an indiscernible unity—into contemporary anime, via a vital moment of multi-layered cultural investment in 1960s Japan. Incorporating anime in these various creative endeavors, and making a claim for animation's proliferating vocabularies and narratives rewriting history, the talk posits that this inherently reproductive force calls for experimental analytical models. In addition, the simultaneous refusal, necessity, and drive for these models produce an imaginary realm for such undertakings; Paolo Virno's new places for intellect, where "special places" of discourse dissolve and are replaced by "common places," speak to such undertakings.


It is extremely hard and time-consuming to make correct and efficient programs for microcontrollers. Usually microcontrollers are programmed in a low level programming language such as C which makes them hard to debug and maintain. To raise the abstraction level, many high level programming languages have provided support for programming microcontrollers. Examples include Python, Lua, C# and JavaScript. Using these languages has the downside that they are orders of magnitude slower than the low-level languages. Moreover, they often provide no remote debugging support. In this paper we investigate the feasibility of using WebAssembly to program Arduino compatible microcontrollers. Our experiments lead to extending the standard WebAssembly VM with: 1) safe live code updates for functions and data 2) remote debugging support at the VM level 3) programmer configurable (Arduino) modules in order to keep the virtual machine's footprint as small as possible. The resulting WARDuino VM enables the programmer to have better performance than an interpreted approach while simultaneously increasing the ease of development. To evaluate our approach, we implemented a simple breakout game and conducted micro benchmarks which show that the VM runs approximately 5 times faster than Espruino, a popular JavaScript interpreter for the ESP32 microcontroller.


Volunteer computing is a powerful way to harness distributed resources to perform large-scale tasks, similarly to other types of community-based initiatives. Volunteer computing is based on two pillars: the first is computational - allocating and managing large computing tasks; the second is participative - making large numbers of individuals volunteer their computer resources to a project. While the computational aspects of volunteer computing received much research attention, the participative aspect remains largely unexplored. In this study we aim to address this gap: by drawing on social psychology and online communities research, we develop and test a three-dimensional model of the factors determining volunteer computing users' contribution. We investigate one of the largest volunteer computing projects - SETI@home - by linking survey data about contributors' motivations to their activity logs. Our findings highlight the differences between volunteer computing and other forms of community-based projects, and reveal the intricate relationship between individual motivations, social affiliation, tenure in the project, and resource contribution. Implications for research and practice are discussed.


The current literature on Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) is split between two camps regarding their potential to transform the food system: the 'progressives' and the 'radicals', or 'optimists' and 'pessimists'. Likewise, China's concept of Ecological Civilization has prompted a polarised debate, with scholars arguing Ecological Civilization is either an authentic ecological ethos or a form of greenwashing. Exploring AFNs in China, this PhD suggest that these differing camps regarding AFNs overlap more than previously supposed and that the current debate regarding Ecological Civilization is the wrong debate to be having. By intertwining AFNs and Ecological Civilization, this thesis argues that the pragmatic approach Chinese AFN actors adopt in response to three core tensions of AFNs, reveals how radical change does not necessarily require a radical form of politics. It is this pragmatic approach that allows China to begin navigating the emerging cosmological rift of our times, namely that between human development (i.e. global capitalism) and the immovable ecological limits of this development. Based on qualitative fieldwork of Chinese AFNs (Guangdong), this thesis suggests that Ecological Civilization, as a pragmatic approach, can be characterised in three different ways. First, through the expectations participants have of the material (sensory and aesthetic) qualities of an Ecological Civilization. Second, through Chinese middle class subjectivities, which are both pragmatic and idealistic in form. Third, through forms of (rural) cosmopolitanism, which suggest that Ecological Civilization has the capacity to 'ruralise' global capitalism as a distinctive Chinese form of 'cosmopolitanization'. Together, these three insights indicate that AFNs have a transformative potential despite their internal tensions, and that Ecological Civilization is a productive and mobilising concept, not just an ambiguous slogan of an authoritarian government.


The present study was carried out to find the pattern of genotype distribution of Hepatitis C virus. Twenty-three Hepatitis C virus positive serum samples in various age-groups of both sexes attending, Microbiology Department, RIMS during the period from September 2002 to December 2004 were studied for Hepatitis C genotype. These HCV positive serum samples were sent to National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata. The serum samples were tested for HCV-RNA by qualitative RT-PCR test and then genotyped by type specific RT-PCR. Out of 23 serum samples, 22 were males. All the 23 HCV positive serum samples were also tested positive for HCV-RNA by qualitative RT-PCR. Majority of the cases belonged to the age group of 31-40 years. Higher percentage of Hepatitis C cases were Injecting Drug Users and next to it were patients with multiple sexual contacts. Among the IDUs, Hepatitis C virus 3a type was the commonest genotype (61.1%) followed by 1b (22.2%) and 3b (16.7%) respectively. Hepatitis C genotype 3a was predominant (52.2%) followed by 1b (26%) and 3b (21.8%). HCV genotype 3a occurred most commonly in the age group of 21-40 years.


Micah Lande, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering programs at the Polytechnic School in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. He teaches human-centered engineering design thinking, making and design innovation project courses. Dr. Lande researches how technical and non-technical people learn and apply design thinking and making processes to their work. He is interested in the intersection of designerly epistemic identities and vocational pathways. Dr. Lande received his B.S in Engineering (Product Design), M.A. in Education (Learning, Design and Technology) and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (Design Education) from Stanford University.


With the call handoff occurring more and more frequently in wireless networks, an effective call admission control is increasingly urgent for optimum utility of valuable bandwidth. The traditional guard channel scheme (GC) and its numerous variants cannot adapt to changes in traffic pattern due to their static nature. Recently, the dynamic call admission mechanism using stochastic control are found to be more stable and precise. But, it is still hard to get an effective dynamic call admission mechanism for multiservices. The main challenges with multiple types of traffic are that each has its own requirements of bandwidth, QoS guarantee and handoff rate. In addition, the computational complexity is another challenge. At present, most of the relative studies cope with this problem by setting up multiple dimensions stochastic model with high computational complexity. From this paper, it has found that it is enough to use the proposed single dimension stochastic model to compute the key parameters, such as call dropping probability, admission probability. So the computational complexity is greatly decreased. Numerical results of simulation show that the proposed scheme named OMDCA steadily satisfies the hard constraints on call dropping probability for multiservices while maintaining a very high channel throughput.


Substantial data sets have been collected on the relaxation characteristics, density, grain size, c axis fabrics, and ultrasonic velocities of the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2) core to its contact with bedrock at 3053.4 m. Changes in all these properties paralleled closely those found in cores from Byrd Station, Antarctica, and Dye 3, Greenland. Density increased progressively with depth to a maximum of 0.921 Mg/m3 at about 1400 m, at which depth the ice became bubble free. Below about 2000 m, in situ densities began to decrease in response to increasing ice sheet temperatures. Since drilling, much of the ice core has undergone significant volume expansion (relaxation) due to microcracking and the exsolving of enclathratized gases, especially in the brittle ice zone between 650 and 1400 m. Grain size increased linearly to about 1000 m, thereafter remaining fairly constant until the Younger Dryas event at 1678 m where a twofold to threefold decrease in grain size occurred. These grain size changes were accompanied by a progressive clustering of crystal c axes toward the vertical, including a small increase in c axis concentration across the Younger Dryas/Holocene boundary. Increased dust levels in the Wisconsin ice have contributed to the maintenance of a fine-grained texture which, with its strong vertical c axis fabric, persisted to nearly 3000 m. However, beginning at about 2800 m, layers of coarse-grained ice intermixed with the much finer-grained matrix ice are observed. Below 3000 m the ice became very coarse grained. This change, attributed to annealing recrystallization at elevated temperatures in the ice sheet, was accompanied by a dispersed or ring-like redistribution of the c axes about the vertical. Ultrasonic measurements of vertical and horizontal P wave velocities made at 10-m intervals along the entire length of the GISP2 core fully confirmed the results of the crystallo-optical observations. A return to fine-grained ice coincided with the first appearance of brown, silty ice 13 m above bedrock. Bedrock material consisted of 48 cm of till, including boulders and cobbles, overlying gray biotite granite comprising the true bedrock. There is evidence that disturbed structure in the GISP2 cores begins little more than 70% of the way through the ice sheet. This disturbance increases with depth until it becomes large enough to cast suspicion on features lasting centuries or more in the bottom 10% of the ice sheet.


Efficient call admission control (CAC) techniques are of paramount importance in UMTS networks to satisfy the quality of service (QoS) requirements of different traffic classes and to utilize the system resources in an efficient manner. In this paper, we propose a novel uplink CAC framework to enhance existing UMTS networks on three related accounts. First, we introduce a measurement-based component to calculate the current load of the system; second, this measurement-based component is integrated with a power prediction module to estimate the load increment that the new call will bring into the system; and third, the proposed framework feeds the results obtained to a call admission control algorithm with a QoS-enforcing mechanism that gives each class of traffic different treatment based on the QoS requirement of the connections. To the best of our knowledge, ours is a first attempt towards combining the above components into one uplink CAC framework that aims to enhance system performance and to achieve per-class QoS objectives. Simulation results show that the framework is able to reduce dropping ratio for active users to zero level. Thus, it satisfies mobile users' needs resulting in stable performance levels during heavy load periods. Furthermore, the framework provides a low blocking ratio for new calls, which translates into high resource utilization. This is a highly desirable property from the service provider point of view.


It is now well established that viruses are an abundant component of marine ecosystems and they are being increasingly recognised and accepted as important contnbutors to element cycling within the microbial loop. However, some of the key questions regarding the ecological significance of viruses in the marine environment still remain largely unanswered. Thus, particular interest is currently focused on the extent to which lytic production or lysoyeny predominates and the nature of factors in the marine environment, particularly nutrient availability and mult~plicity of .infection (MOI), which might influence the lysisflysogeny 'decision' The present evidence is still insufficient to unambiguously assess the relative ecological significance of lysogeny versus lysis and progress in this area will rely on the development and application of new techniques. This review attempts to collect recent information relating to this central question, focusing particularly on those viruses which infect the bacterioplankton and nanoand picophytoplankton.


ABSTRACT Background: In order to promote physical activity among youth, it is critical that communities offer options beyond sports that still provide similar health benefits. Purpose: Given the appeal of technology among today's youth, the purpose of our study was to evaluate geocaching as a technology-based platform for promoting physical activity in youth. Methods: High school youth (N = 31) participated in 2 separate activity sessions, walking and geocaching. Accelerometers were worn and questions concerning perceived exertion and enjoyment were addressed at both sessions. Results: Although repeated measures t tests (P < .05) revealed no significant differences between activity sessions, each session yielded approximately 60 minutes of physical activity in a relatively inactive sample of youth. Additionally, the youth from the study reported that both walking and geocaching were enjoyable and relatively easy activities. Discussion: Results from this study do not suggest that geocaching would lead to greater activity levels than walking. Rather, geocaching was found to promote activity levels similar to walking. Translation to Health Education Practice: Given its use of technology and its application of challenge, geocaching may instead generate more interest than walking, leading to an increased interest among youth and, ultimately, an associated potential for additional physical activity.


On the basis of literary data possible mechanisms of calcium ions transport into cell through the potential-dependent channel, Ca/Na exchange mechanism, channel opening due to receptor activation are being discussed. Electrochemical characteristics of potential-dependent Ca-channel in nervous tissue and values of calcium ions content of isolated nervous ends are presented. Discussing the mechanism of agonist-dependent channel action a hypothesis of coupling of phosphoinositol cycle and calcium ions current into a cell has been considered and the results concerning ionoforic properties of phosphatidic acid--the intermediate product of this cycle--are given. The influence of changes in phospholipid content of synaptosomal membranes and synaptosomal vesicules on different stages of synaptic transmission is analysed. These stages regulated by calcium ions include protein phosphorylation, fusion of synaptosomal vesicules with synaptosomal membrane and mediator release into synaptic slit. It has been concluded that phospholipids and products of their metabolism play active part in the process of transmembrane signal transmission by increasing intercellular calcium ions concentration.


Several investigations on senescence and its causative role in aging have underscored the importance of developing senotherapeutics, a field focused on killing senescent cells and/or preventing their accumulation within tissues. Using polyphenols in counteracting senescence may facilitate the development of senotherapeutics given their presence in the human diet, their confirmed tolerability and absence of severe side effects, and their role in preventing senescence and inducing the death of senescent cells. Against that background, we evaluated the effect of piceatannol, a natural polyphenol, on the senescence of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), which play a key role in the body's homeostasis. Among our results, piceatannol reduced the number of senescent cells both after genotoxic stress that induced acute senescence and in senescent replicative cultures. Such senotherapeutics activity, moreover, promoted the recovery of cell proliferation and the stemness properties of MSCs. Altogether, our findings demonstrate piceatannol's effectiveness in counteracting senescence by targeting its associated pathways and detecting and affecting P53-dependent and P53-independent senescence. Our study thus suggests that, given piceatannol's various mechanisms to accomplish its pleiotropic activities, it may be able to counteract any senescent phenotypes.


Haigh et al provide thoughtful, detailed summary of 3 decades of intensive work aimed at developing active, specific immuno-therapies (vaccines) for patients with melanoma. However, as the 20th century draws to a close, the key question is: Can any vaccine be considered an effective therapy for patients with melanoma? To rephrase the question: What constitutes proof of efficacy for a melanoma vaccine, and have any vaccines met those criteria? In a word, the answer to the first question is "no." The answer to the second question, however, requires more elaboration.


As America's most dysfunctional big city, Detroit faces urban decay, population losses, fractured neighborhoods with impoverished households, an uneducated, unskilled workforce, too few jobs, a shrinking tax base, budgetary shortfalls, and inadequate public schools. Looking to the city's future, Lewis D. Solomon focuses on pathways to revitalizing Detroit, while offering a cautiously optimistic viewpoint. Solomon urges an economic development strategy, one anchored in Detroit balancing its municipal and public school district's budgets, improving the academic performance of its public schools, rebuilding its tax base, and looking to the private sector to create jobs. He advocates an overlapping, tripartite political economy, one that builds on the foundation of an appropriately sized public sector and a for-profit private sector, with the latter fueling economic growth. Although he acknowledges that Detroit faces a long road to implementation, Solomon sketches a vision of a revitalized economic sector based on two key assets: vacant land and an unskilled labor force. The book is divided into four distinct parts. The first provides background and context, with a brief overview of the city's numerous challenges. The second examines Detroit's immediate efforts to overcome its fiscal crisis. It proposes ways Detroit can be put on the path to financial stability and sustainability. The third considers how Detroit can implement a new approach to job creation, one focused on the for-profit private sector, not the public sector. In the fourth and final part, Solomon argues that residents should pursue a strategy based on the actions of individuals and community groups rather than looking to large-scale projects.


This interactive session will highlight the work of Fraser Healthy Authority (FHA) in British Columbia, Canada over the past 7 years to champion the development, implementation, and dissemination of its Advance Care Planning work for 1.5 million people throughout our system of care – 12 acute cares sites, 7500+ residential/long term care beds, and community programs. The FHA Let's Talk program, with a passionate commitment to system level change and education, has developed user-friendly, culturally sensitive and easily accessible tools and resources which have been adapted by health and community organizations across Canada, USA and New Zealand for use in their jurisdictions. Our vision has led to a provincial Community of Practice with representatives from government, all BC regional health authorities, disease specific agencies, first responders, as well as the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA) ACP Project Task Group to continuously share resources and experiences. We have also been able to influence policy and uptake at a provincial level with a recent decision to adapt the My Voice Workbook and to place FHA's Let's Talk DVD in all community libraries. Advocacy has resulted in new Advance Directive legislation which broadens options for documentation and choice at end of life. In partnership with Calgary Health Region, Health Canada and the CHPCA, we have been an important leader to support a National Symposium, Consensus and framework documents, and other initiatives that have promoted a Canadian approach to ACP implementation and a national framework and research agenda.


In this study, the adsorption capability of Fe-HT3.0 for nitrite and nitrate ions in a binary solution system was evaluated. It was found that the amount of nitrite and nitrate ions adsorbed in a single solution (1.19 and 1.27 mmol/g, respectively) was higher than that in a binary solution (0.36 and 0.90 mmol/g, respectively). Equilibrium adsorption was attained within 6–24 h. The adsorption data were fitted to a pseudo-secondorder model (correlation coefficient: 0.999), and indicated that the adsorption of both nitrite and nitrate ions is controlled by chemical sorption. Additionally, the binding energies before and after the adsorption of nitrite and nitrate ions in the binary solution system were measured. After adsorption, new nitrogen peaks (approx. 399 and 403 eV) were detected. The results of this study show the potential of Fe-HT3.0 for the removal of nitrite and nitrate ions from aqueous solution systems.


ABSTRACT Teachers in the school subject Health and Physical Education (HPE) need to be able both to teach health and to do so in a healthy (equitable) way. The health field has, however, met with difficulties in finding its form within the subject. Research indicates that HPE can be excluding, meaning that it may give more favours to some pupils (bodies) than to others [cf. Webb, L. A., Quennerstedt, M., & Öhman, M. (2008). Healthy bodies: Construction of the body and health in physical education. Sport, Education and Society, 13(4), 353–372.; Webb, L., & Quennerstedt, M. (2010). Risky bodies: Health surveillance and teachers' embodiment of health. QSE. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 23(7), 785–802; Williamson, B. (2015). Algorithmic skin: Health-tracking technologies, personal analytics and the biopedagogies of digitized health and physical education. Sport, Education and Society, 20(1), 133–151], and thereby being unhealthy for unfavoured pupils. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate how HPE teacher education students in Sweden interpret health in HPE and discuss possible implications for future education in the school subject. The study involves 81 Bachelor/Master theses, connected to the HPE school subject and examined at six different Swedish universities. All the student theses were examined in 2012. Of the identified theses, 30 can be related more or less directly to health in physical education. These are the ones further scrutinized here. The contents of the selected essays may be categorized on the basis of tests as tools to measure health/ill health/performance, the knowledge required to teach health and also health as part of pedagogy. In sum, the theses display a reproductive approach to the subject, which involves the risk that the subject will subsequently function as disciplining, standardizing and excluding for some pupils, especially for those who do not engage in sports in their leisure time. In order to develop HPE's potential into becoming healthier and more equal, researchers, teacher education and teachers do not primarily need to perceive health from the activity and individual perspectives, but rather from a power relations and equity perspective aiming towards equality.


Labour bottlenecks and multiple operations at the start of a cropping season often result in inadequate early weed control and subsequent poor crop performance. Therefore, there is a need to establish management practices that provide the best opportunities for the gains associated with weeding and nutrient management across farms. We investigated the influence of soil organic carbon (SOC), fertiliser management, and weeding regimes on weed dynamics and maize productivity on smallholder farms with contrasting SOC in eastern Zimbabwe. On each site, and for two seasons, a 2 × 5 factorial experiment laid in a randomised complete block design was used. Fertiliser management was NPK or NPK + cattle manure (CM); weeding regimes were herbicide + hoe weeding, hoe weeding thrice/twice/once, or weedy check. Principal component analysis was used to evaluate weed density. The grain yield of maize increased by 13% on the sites with higher SOC. Integrating NPK + CM increased weed density and maize grain yield by 1.32 and 1.46-times, respectively, compared with NPK application only. The increased maize yield from fertiliser-managed treatments occurred only in early frequently weeded treatments. However, fertiliser application had little effect when weeding was delayed, as maize yield instead declined by 40–80%. We concluded that higher SOC increased weed density and weed biomass. Smallholder farmers are encouraged to combine herbicide application combined with hoe-weeding options for sustainable maize production.


A mathematical model was developed to describe the oscillating amplitude of the plasma arc injected transverse to an external transverse alternating magnetic field. The characteristic of plasma arc under the external transverse alternating magnetic field imposed perpendicular to the plasma current was discussed. The effect of processing parameters, such as flow rate of working gas, arc current, magnetic flux density and the standoff from the nozzle to the workpiece, on the oscillation of plasma arc were also analyzed. The results show that it is feasible to adjust the shape of the plasma arc by the transverse alternating magnetic field, which expands the region of plasma arc thermal treatment upon the workpiece. Furthermore, the oscillating amplitude of plasma arc decreases with decrease of the magnetic flux density. Under the same magnetic flux density, more gas flow rate, more arc current, and less standoff cause the oscillating amplitude to decrease. The researches have provided a deeper understanding of adjusting of plasma arc characteristics.


We evaluated the effects of mediastinal lymph-node dissection on outcomes in octogenarians with primary lung cancer. Outcomes and postoperative complications were retrospectively investigated in 48 octogenarians with anatomically resected lung cancer, of whom 23 underwent a mediastinal lymph-node dissection (ND2 group) and 25 a limited lymphadenectomy (ND0-1 group). Forty-three patients underwent a lobectomy, two a pneumonectomy, and three a segmentectomy. The five-year survival rate for all was 35%, while that for those in pathological stage I was 43.3% and for those in stage II+III was 21.2%. As for lymph node dissection, the five-year survival rate for the ND0-1 group (54.3%) was superior to that for the ND2 group (21.7%) (P=0.022). For patients in pathological stage I, those rated ND0-1 had a better five-year survival than those rated ND2 (61.9% vs. 28.6%) (P=0.041). In addition, mediastinal lymph-node dissection increased the incidence of postoperative cardiac complications (P=0.004). Our results indicate that major pulmonary resection with mediastinal lymph-node dissection is associated with a higher rate of mortality in octogenarians with lung cancer.


The purpose of this study was to examine whether 14 days of head-down tilt bed rest (HDBR) alters autonomic regulation during Valsalva's manoeuvre (VM) and if this would predict blood pressure control during a 60 degrees head-up tilt (HUT) test. To examine autonomic control of blood pressure, we measured the changes in systolic (delta SBP) and diastolic (delta DBP) blood pressure between baseline and the early straining (Phase IIE) period of VM (20 sec straining to 40 mmHg; N = 7) in conjunction with changes in muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA; microneurography) burst frequency (B/min) and total activity (% delta) from baseline over the 20-sec straining period. MSNA data were successfully recorded from 6 of the 7 individuals. The averaged responses from three repeated VMs performed in the supine position were compared between the pre- and post-HDBR tests. Compared with the pre-HDBR test, a greater reduction in SBP, DBP, and MAP was observed during Phase IIE following HDBR, p < 0.05. The increase in MSNA burst frequency during straining was augmented in the post- compared with the pre-HDBR test, p < 0.0001, as was the Phase IV blood pressure overshoot, p < 0.05. Although all subjects completed the 20-min pre-HDBR tilt test without evidence of hypotension or orthostatic intolerance, the post-HDBR test was stopped early in 5 of the 7 subjects due to systolic hypotension. The responses during the VM suggest that acute autonomic adjustments to rapid blood pressure changes are preserved after bed rest. Furthermore, MSNA and blood pressure responses during VM did not predict blood pressure control during orthostasis following HDBR.


This volume contains almost all mathematical papers published between 1943 and 1984 of Igor R. Shafarevich. They appear in English translations (with two exceptions, which are in French and German), some of the papers have been translated into English especially for this edition. Notes by Shafarevich at the end of the volume contain corrections and remarks on the subsequent development of the subjects considered in the papers. Igor R. Shafarevich has made a big impact on mathematics. He has worked in the fields of algebra, algebraic number theory, algebraic geometry and arithmetic algebraic geometry. His papers reflect his broad interests and include topics such as the proof of the general reciprocity law, the realization of groups as Galois groups of number fields, class field towers, algebraic surfaces (in particular K3 surfaces), elliptic curves, and finiteness results on abelian varieties, algebraic curves over number fields and lie algebras.


The LHCb experiment produces a huge amount of data which has associated metadata such as run number, data taking condition (detector status when the data was taken), simulation condition, etc. The data are stored in files, replicated on the Computing Grid around the world. The LHCb Bookkeeping System provides methods for retrieving datasets based on their metadata. The metadata is stored in a hybrid database model, which is a mixture of Relational and Hierarchical database models and is based on the Oracle Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). The database access has to be reliable and fast. In order to achieve a high timing performance, the tables are partitioned and the queries are executed in parallel. When we store large amounts of data the partition pruning is essential for database performance, because it reduces the amount of data retrieved from the disk and optimises the resource utilisation. This research presented here is focusing on the extended composite partitioning strategy such as range-hash partition, partition pruning and usage of the Partition-Wise joins. The system has to serve thousands of queries per minute, the performance and capability of the system is measured when the above performance optimization techniques are used.


Background: A substantial proportion of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have never smoked. Whether characteristics and consequences of COPD in this group are different from smokers is unknown. Methods: We examined 68501 participants from the general population and identified 1,476 never smokers, 2696 former smokers, and 2451 current smokers with spirometrically defined COPD. Characteristics, symptoms, disease severity, and levels of inflammatory biomarkers were examined at baseline. Risk of lung-related hospitalizations, cardiovascular comorbidities, and all-cause mortality was assessed during a median follow-up of 4 years. For comparison we included 24529 never smokers without COPD. Results: Never smokers had fewer symptoms, milder disease, and no evidence of systemic inflammation compared to former and current smokers. However, multivariably adjusted hazard ratios for pneumonia were 1.9(95% confidence interval, 1.4-2.6) in never smokers, 2.9(2.4-3.4) in former, and 3.7(3.1-4.4) in current smokers compared to never smokers without COPD. Corresponding hazard ratios for COPD hospitalization were 8.6(5.3 -14), 30(22-41), and 43(32-59), respectively. For lung cancer, corresponding hazard ratios were 11(5.7-23) in former and 18(9.2-35) in current smokers, while there were no cases of lung cancer among never smokers. Furthermore, risk of cardiovascular comorbidities and all-cause mortality was increased in former and current smokers, but not in neversmokers with COPD. Conclusion: Compared to current and former smokers, neversmokers with COPD have a milder disease which is limited to the lungs; however, morbidity due to lung-related hospitalizations is substantial.


A-site-ordered perovskites La1–xNaxMn3Ti4O12 with (x = 0, 0.5, 1) were synthesized under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions, and their crystal structures and magnetic properties were investigated. Ti/Mn occupancies at the B site were also examined by using resonant X-ray diffraction, and the results confirm that they are stoichiometric with high Ti/Mn site selectivity. Substitution of Na+ for some of the La3+ changes the valence state of the A′-site Mn but not of the B-site Ti, and thus the compositions of the synthesized samples are expressed as La1–xNaxMn{(5+2x)/3}+3Ti4+4O12. The magnetic properties change from spin-glass-like to antiferromagnetic to spin-glass-like behavior according to the valence states of A′-site Mn.


This document defines a way to configure a parameter set for MPL
(Multicast Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks) via a DHCPv6
option. MPL has a set of parameters to control its behavior, and the
parameter set is often configured as a network-wide parameter because
the parameter set should be identical for each MPL Forwarder in an MPL
Domain. Using the MPL Parameter Configuration Option defined in this
document, a network can easily be configured with a single set of MPL
parameters.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
The femtosecond laser is a promising tool for the micromachining of biological tissues. The current study investigated the feasibility of noninvasive glaucoma therapy by femtosecond laser ablation in enucleated porcine eyes by delivering the laser energy through a gonioscopic lens.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Freshly enucleated porcine eyes were kept in Optisol GS solution (Bausch & Lomb, Rochester, NY) at 4 degrees C for up to 48 hours. Photodisruption was attempted at the peripheral inner surface of the cornea using a gonioscopic lens and a custom femtosecond laser ablation system. Femtosecond laser ablation was performed using a Ti:Sapphire laser (800-nm wavelength) focused with a 0.15 numerical aperture lens. The laser treatment process was recorded by real time video and the lesions were examined histologically.

RESULTS
During laser surgery, bubble formation was observed and appeared to be positively related to laser energy and exposure time. When examined histologically, areas of ablation were consistently observed at the peripheral inner surface of the cornea. The extent of the lesion increased nonlinearly with both pulse energy and exposure time, showing saturation at high energy and long times. For a given energy dose, fewer pulses of high energy were more effective than many low energy pulses.

CONCLUSION
The current study demonstrates that laser ablation at the anterior chamber angle is feasible by a femtosecond laser ablation system using a gonioscopic lens in ex vivo eyes. The results indicate the potential of a novel noninvasive glaucoma laser therapy.


Synchrotron radiation is unique in its ability to deliver dose at high dose rates using kiloelectronvolt photons. We are investigating the use of Tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) nano-structured particles (NSPs) that are to date unexplored in synchrotron radiation fields as they have high atomic number (Z=73) are biocompatible and are therefore potential radio sensitizers. We exposed cell culture flasks containing 9L gliosarcoma tumour cells or Madin-Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) non-tumour cells to the NSPs and treated the cells using a broad synchrotron beam (140 keV median energy; average dose rate of 50 Gy/s) at the Australian Synchrotron. We compare the results with those from similar cells treated using a conventional 150 kVp orthovoltage field (dose rate of 0.0127 Gy/s). The results reveal that the high dose-rate synchrotron irradiation is more effective at killing the 9L cells relative to the MDCK cells than the orthovoltage irradiation. On the other hand, the NSPs are more effective at radiosensitizing the 9L cells compared to the MDCK cells in the orthovoltage radiation field, which is due to the NSP energy dependence in the kilovoltage energy range. Both the dose rate and energy spectrum need to be considered in future studies with synchrotron activation radiotherapy (SART).


This article discusses what we see as the critical role of individuals and their information seeking behaviour when using information and communication technology (ICT). In our fieldwork in northern Peru, we found that the role of particular individuals was critical in the sharing of computer-mediated information in six rural communities. These individuals tended to be people who enjoyed passing on information and people who had larger networks than their peers did. We develop a theoretical framework that combines theories of information seeking and social capital to explain the process of computer-mediated information sharing in a rural setting. We discuss this framework with some illustrations from our study. We conclude by calling for more research into the role of the individual in seeking and disseminating computer-mediated information, especially within the context of ICT for development projects.


We developed and validated a new instrument, called Measuring Concept progressions in Acid–Base chemistry (MCAB) and used it to better understand the progression of undergraduate students' understandings about acid–base chemistry. Items were developed based on an existing learning progression for acid–base chemistry. We used the Rasch rating scale model for validation and to gain understanding of how students at different ability levels conceptualize the topic. We then used latent class analysis (LCA) to place students into concept classes. We found that three concept classes were sufficient to describe students' various response patterns and that these concept classes described a progression of understanding related to acid–base chemistry. All items fit well with the Rasch model. The final 33-item instrument measured students along a continuous scale with a reliability of 0.74 and categorized students with a precision of 0.89. All students possessed nonscientific understandings of pH and the pH scale. However, even the most novice students displayed basic scientific understandings about how acid–base indicators work and the Arrhenius model of acids and bases. We discuss the utility of Rasch and LCA procedures for analysis of learning progression-based assessments and suggest a simple algorithm that can be used to help chemistry instructors diagnose students' misconceptions.


The paper focuses on dynamics of an electromechanical system composed of a DC motor and a planar four-bar mechanism. Minimization of mechanism/frame interactions is considered. Simultaneous elimination of frame shaking forces and torques is requested. The employed balancing method is counterweights allocation. Their parameters are found with a numerical modelling and a numerical optimization. They depend on shape of the mechanism's velocity. Three alternative drives are tested in the paper: constant velocity drive; constant torque drive; and DC motor. The optimal counterweight's parameters are derived for all these drives. Obtained results approved necessity of precise electromechanical modelling.


s, 46 IPS, Mangalore, 15-18 Nov 2018 The Journal of Indian Prosthodontic Society | Volume 18 | Supplement 2 | November 2018 S101 19. Esthetic and functional rehabilitation of the patient with severely worn dentition using twin stage procedure: a case report


What constitutes a 'good teacher' and 'good teaching' has come under much scrutiny in an age of globalization, transnationalism, and increased demands for accountability. It is against this evolving landscape and the pathbreaking work of the Douglas Fir Group (DFG, 2016) that this special issue engages the following two broad questions: (a) In what ways is language teaching 'identity work'? and (b) To what extent does a transdisciplinary approach to language learning and teaching offer insight into language teacher identity? We begin this Introduction with a discussion on identity research in second language acquisition and applied linguistics, and then address innovations in language teacher identity research, exploring how this work has been advanced methodologically through narratives, discourse analysis, and an ethical consideration of research practices. We then consider how the transdisciplinary framework of the DFG, and its focus on macro, meso, and micro dimensions of language learning at the ideological, institutional, and classroom levels, respectively, might contribute to our understanding of language teacher identity. In the final section, we argue that the host of complementary theories adopted by the six contributors supports the view that a transdisciplinary approach to language teacher identity is both productive and desirable. Further, the contributors advance the language teacher identity research agenda by taking into consideration (a) how teacher identity intersects with the multilingual (Higgins and Ponte) and translingual (Zheng) realities of contemporary classrooms, (b) the investment of teachers in developing the semiotic repertoires of learners (Stranger-Johannessen and Norton) and a socially inclusive learning environment (Barkhuizen), and (c) the emotions (Wolff and De Costa) and ethical practices (Miller, Morgan, and Medina) of teachers. Central to all articles in this special issue is the need to recognize the rich linguistic and personal histories that language teachers bring into the classroom in order to promote effective language learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


We have developed a practical static checker that is designed to interactively mark data races and deadlocks in program source code at development time. As this use case requires a checker to be both fast and precise, we engaged a simple technique of randomized bounded concrete concurrent interpretation that is experimentally effective for this purpose. Implemented as a tool for C# in Visual Studio, the checker covers the broad spectrum of concurrent language concepts, including task and data parallelism, asynchronous programming, UI dispatching, the various synchronization primitives, monitor, atomic and volatile accesses, and finalizers. Its application to popular open-source C# projects revealed several real issues with only a few false positives.


In order to perform thickness design of flexible pavements based on the HMA fracture mechanics framework prior to construction, the tensile strength and creep power law parameters of the mixture has to be determined. As samples are normally not available in the design stage, these properties will have to be modelled rather than determined in a laboratory. This paper evaluates material models based on the relationship between dynamic (complex) modulus and creep compliance in order to predict tensile strength and creep power law parameters for a mixture. For this evaluation, fourteen field sections from the United States have been used for verification and the results indicate that the crack resistance of a mixture can indeed be estimated without a development of extensive empirical relations between mixture properties and crack-resistance.


Adopting an urban entrepreneurial approach of selling the city of Melbourne as an attractive place in which to locate global footloose capital, the State Government of Victoria has, over the past three decades, strategically invested public funds into major sporting events. The aim of this thesis was to examine the production, representation, consumption, identification and regulation of Melbourne as a neoliberal 'sport city'. A (con)textual analysis of newspaper articles was conducted in conjunction with interviews of influential cultural producers of the sport city – most notably state Premiers, Members of Parliament, CEO's of Public Sports Trusts and journalists. Four case studies were employed to examine 'urban entrepreneurialism' and the re-regulating state. Characterising the 'sport city' as a cultural artefact, Melbourne's sportscapes were inserted into the 'circuit of culture' to illustrate that the 'sport city' does not passively emerge but rather is actively produced, represented, consumed, identified and regulated as various interest groups engage in a struggle to (re)construct their social world. Adopting Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of capital, field and habitus along with Loic Wacquant's understanding of neoliberalism as the reengineering and redeployment of the state, I illustrate the use of elite sport as a form of cultural glue to re-regulate the city in favour of market-like mechanisms that benefit the urban and political elite. The Victorian state has successively re-regulated this neoliberal urban entrepreneurial strategy, often preventing dissident groups from resisting neoliberal activities, through its monopoly over the legitimate use of symbolic and material violence.


The pneumonial agent, Legionella pneumophila, is the predominant bacterium responsible for Legionnaires' disease. Experimentally, these organisms have demonstrated the ability to adhere to host cells without the presence of a mucopolysaccharide layer. A recombinant plasmid, pLP 116, resulting from the ligation of a Hae III digest from the L. pneumophila, Nottingham N$\sb7$ genome and Sma I-digested pUC 19 vector was shown to encode for a 25 kilodalton (kDa) major outer membrane protein (MOMP) of L. pneumophila by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS). This protein was detected on the surface of an E. coli clone (LP 116) by immunoassays. Virulence testing using the fertile chicken egg lethality assay determined that the clone experienced increased virulence over that of the parent strain. The E. coli parent strain was found to be non-adherent to U937 cells in culture while the clone LP 116 experienced a 40-55% increase in adherence. The L. pneumophila N$\sb7$ strain demonstrated 100% binding; however, L. pneumophila and clone LP 116 incubated with MOMP-specific monoclonal antibody experienced a complete loss of adherence to U937 cells. Organisms coated with the monoclonal antibody did not infect fertile chicken eggs at any dilution. The outer membrane protein (OMP) profiles of the attenuated derivative of the L. pneumophila isolate used in this study showed a decrease in the 25 kDa protein and the presence of a 31 kDa protein not found in the OMP profile of the virulent strain. This laboratory strain experienced an increase in lethal dose (LD$\sb{50})$ values in the chicken embryonated egg lethality assay. When the recombinant plasmid pLP 116 was electroporated (electrically transformed) into the attenuated L. pneumophila derivative the 25 kDa protein was produced in greater amounts and the 31 kDa band was no longer present. The LD$\sb{50}$ values of the transformed attenuated L. pneumophila N$\sb7$ strain decreased to that of the original isolate. This study has shown the first reported difference between what appears to be genotypically and phenotypically similar organisms. It also has demonstrated that the 25 kDa MOMP of L. pneumophila plays an important role in adherence of the organism and that the 25 kDa MOMP can be recognized as a virulence factor related to the ability of the organism to cause infection.


OBJECTIVE
Hyperleptinemia, hallmark of obesity, is a putative pathophysiologic trigger for atherosclerosis. We previously reported a stimulatory effect of leptin on TSP-1 (thrombospondin-1) expression, a proatherogenic matricellular protein implicated in atherogenesis. However, a causal role of TSP-1 in leptin-driven atherosclerosis remains unknown. Approach and Results: Seventeen-weeks-old ApoE-/- and TSP-1-/-/ApoE-/- double knockout mice, on normocholesterolemic diet, were treated with or without murine recombinant leptin (5 µg/g bwt, IP) once daily for 3 weeks. Using aortic root morphometry and en face lesion assay, we found that TSP-1 deletion abrogated leptin-stimulated lipid-filled lesion burden, plaque area, and collagen accumulation in aortic roots of ApoE-/- mice, shown via Oil red O, hematoxylin and eosin, and Masson trichrome staining, respectively. Immunofluorescence microscopy of aortic roots showed that TSP-1 deficiency blocked leptin-induced inflammatory and smooth muscle cell abundance as well as cellular proliferation in ApoE-/- mice. Moreover, these effects were concomitant to changes in VLDL (very low-density lipoprotein)-triglyceride and HDL (high-density lipoprotein)-cholesterol levels. Immunoblotting further revealed reduced vimentin and pCREB accompanied with augmented smooth muscle-myosin heavy chain expression in aortic vessels of leptin-treated double knockout versus leptin-treated ApoE-/-; also confirmed in aortic smooth muscle cells from the mice genotypes, incubated ± leptin in vitro. Finally, TSP-1 deletion impeded plaque burden in leptin-treated ApoE-/- on western diet, independent of plasma lipid alterations.

CONCLUSIONS
The present study provides evidence for a protective effect of TSP-1 deletion on leptin-stimulated atherogenesis. Our findings suggest a regulatory role of TSP-1 on leptin-induced vascular smooth muscle cell phenotypic transition and inflammatory lesion invasion. Collectively, these results underscore TSP-1 as a potential target of leptin-induced vasculopathy.


Abstract. Soil microbial activity varies seasonally in frozen alpine soils during cold seasons and plays a crucial role in available N pool accumulation in soil. The intra- and interannual patterns of microbial and nutrient dynamics reflect the influences of changing weather factors, and thus provide important insights into the biogeochemical cycles and ecological functions of ecosystems. We documented the seasonal and interannual dynamics of soil microbial and available N in an alpine meadow in the eastern part of Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China, between April 2011 and October 2013. Soil was collected in the middle of each month and analyzed for water content, microbial biomass C (MBC) and N (MBN), dissolved organic C and N, and inorganic N. Soil microbial community composition was measured by the dilution-plate method. Fungi and actinomycetes dominated the microbial community during the nongrowing seasons, and the proportion of bacteria increased considerably during the early growing seasons. Trends of consistently increasing MBC and available N pools were observed during the nongrowing seasons. MBC sharply declined during soil thaw and was accompanied by a peak in available N pool. Induced by changes in soil temperatures, significant shifts in the structures and functions of microbial communities were observed during the winter–spring transition and largely contributed to microbial reduction. The divergent seasonal dynamics of different N forms showed a complementary nutrient supply pattern during the growing season. Similarities between the interannual dynamics of microbial biomass and available N pools were observed, and soil temperature and water conditions were the primary environmental factors driving interannual fluctuations. Owing to the changes in climate, seasonal soil microbial activities and nutrient supply patterns are expected to change further, and these changes may have crucial implications for the productivity and biodiversity of alpine ecosystems.


As infrared light is radiated, the CMOS readout IC (ROIC) for the microbolometer type infrared sensor detects voltage or current when the resistance value in the bolometer sensor varies. One of the serious problems in designing the ROIC is that resistances in the bolometer and replica resistor have process variation. This means that each pixel does not have the same resistance, causing serious fixed pattern noise problems in sensor operations. In this paper, differential input stage readout architecture is suggested for bias offset reduction, noise immunity and high sensing margin. In addition, using this scheme the effects of a process variation problem and various other bias heating noise problems, are reduced. In this paper, a prototype ROICs, intended for uncooled microbolometer infrared focal plane array, is designed and fabricated. The proposed architecture is demonstrated by fabrication of a prototype consisting of 32 times 32 pixels fabricated in a 0.25-mum CMOS process


In the story of King Ahab (I Kgs 16.29-22.40), Ahab is declared to be the worst person in the Hebrew Bible(I Kgs 21.25)seemingly because he repeats the infamous crimes of King Saul, King David and King Solomon. Because of the similarities in the behaviour of Ahab with his three predecessors, however, the story is a story about these three kings as well. As a result of the associations, Ahab's evil status is challenged. Views of the character Ahab in other literary traditions lend credence to the suggestion that Ahab does not live up to his bad name, and a close reading of the text of the story supports the suggestion. Such a reading leads to seeing King Ahab as a character who
is a composite of Saul, David and Solomon at their worst. These correspondences between the four kings lead to several results. Without saying that Ahab is not wicked, the correspondences (relatively) normalise the moral character of Ahab (in that Saul, David and Solomon may be considered 'normal'), while they diminish the moral character of the three kings by their association with Ahab. As a result, Ahab is viewed in a different and better light than what he is declared to be, while Saul, David and Solomon are viewed
in a lesser light. The diminishing after-effect also leads to rereading the stories of Saul, David and Solomon in the light of the story of Ahab. Read from such a perspective, their stories become stained by the stigma of being associated with Ahab.


Rapid and low power computation of optical flow (OF) is potentially useful in robotics. The dynamic vision sensor (DVS) event camera produces quick and sparse output, and has high dynamic range, but conventional OF algorithms are frame-based and cannot be directly used with event-based cameras. Previous DVS OF methods do not work well with dense textured input and are designed for implementation in logic circuits. This paper proposes a new block-matching based DVS OF algorithm which is inspired by motion estimation methods used for MPEG video compression. The algorithm was implemented both in software and on FPGA. For each event, it computes the motion direction as one of 9 directions. The speed of the motion is set by the sample interval. Results show that the Average Angular Error can be improved by 30% compared with previous methods. The OF can be calculated on FPGA with 50 MHz clock in 0.2 us per event (11 clock cycles), 20 times faster than a Java software implementation running on a desktop PC. Sample data is shown that the method works on scenes dominated by edges, sparse features, and dense texture.


: The recent findings of the research on the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) are reviewed. They provide information about the epidemiological, genetical and morphological features of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and HIV-like viruses, in particular, HTLB-1. Special attention was paid to the pharmacological aspects of preventing AIDS and its spreading among the population. Some new concepts and approaches to the elaboration of therapeutic measures are discussed.


This multiauthored volume is equally divided into chapters dealing with diseases of the peripheral cornea and neuro-ophthalmology. As with other volumes in this series, the chapters are brief, adequately illustrated, and selectively referenced. They are easily readable. Each of the 13 chapters dealing with the peripheral cornea takes up a specific disease entity. Their content and quality varies with the authorship. Most of the chapters are appropriate for an updated text, yet basic mechanisms are rarely discussed, and pathologic correlates are presented in only a few chapters. One might wish for more background information on corneal metabolism from the knowledgeable authors. Despite this reservation, the sections on corneal disease will provide valuable reading for clinicians. "The book warrants a good to excellent recommendation." The 11 chapters on neuro-ophthalmology begin with an update on the theory and application of various imaging techniques (computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and positron scans), ultrasonography,


A random beamforming technique for MIMO systems that simultaneously obtains downlink multiuser diversity gain, spatial multiplexing gain, and array gain by feeding back only effective SNRs is described. In addition, power control using waterfilling is employed to improve the throughput of our method. In a slow fading channel, we prove that the throughput of the proposed method converges to that of eigen beamforming when many users are in a cell. The number of users required to achieve capacity bound increases with the number of antennas and SNR. However, the capacity bound is achieved even with a small number of users, e.g. 16 users is a cell, when the SNR is low, e.g., 0 dB, and the number of transmit and receive antenna is small, e.g., 2.


The ASCE/SEI Seismic Design Provisions embody the seismic design requirements enforced by U.S. Building Codes. Since 1998, the basis for these seismic design requirements contained in ASCE 7 has been the NEHRP Recommended Provisions for Seismic Regulation of Buildings and Other Structures, developed and published by the Building Seismic Safety Council of the National Institute of Building Sciences under contract to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. BSSC has published the NEHRP Provision since 1985. The BSSC Provision provide a forum for new seismic design criteria including to be developed under an informal consensus process, and readied for adoption in ASCE 7 and other standards. Traditionally the NEHRP Provisions have provided a vehicle for the development of new analytical procedures, new structural systems and even entire design procedures. The 2009 NEHRP Provisions were instrumental in the development of new seismic hazard maps included in ASCE/SEI 7–10 as well as design provisions for AAC wall systems and cold–formed steel moment resisting frame systems, as well as extensive requirements for nonbuilding structures. Importantly, the NEHPR Provisions are accompanied by a complete commentary to the ASCE/SEI-7 seismic requirements as well as recommended new technologies that are not yet ready for adoption into the standard, but which may be suitable for such adoption in future years.


Abstract— Mössbauer spectra of martian meteorites are currently of great interest due to the Mössbauer spectrometers on the Athena mission MER rovers as well as the European Space Agency Mars Express mission, with its Beagle 2 payload. Also, considerable current effort is being made to understand the oxygen fugacity of martian magmas because of the effect of fO2 on mineral chemistry and crystallization processes. For these 2 reasons, the present study was conceived to acquire room temperature Mössbauer spectra of mineral separates and whole rock samples of 10 SNC meteorites. The results suggest that mineral identification using remote application of this technique will be most useful when the phases present have distinctive parameters arising from Fe in very different coordination polyhedra; for example, pyroxene coexisting with olivine can be discriminated easily, but opx versus cpx cannot. The MER goal of using Mössbauer spectroscopy to quantify the relative amounts of individual mineral species present will be difficult to satisfy if silicates are present because the lack of constraints on wt% FeO contents of individual silicate phases present will make modal calculations impossible. The remote Mössbauer spectroscopy will be most advantageous if the rocks analyzed are predominantly oxides with known stoichiometries, though these phases are not present in the SNCs. As for the detection of martian oxygen fugacity, no evidence exists in the SNC samples studied of a relationship between Fe3+ content and fO2 as calculated by independent methods. Possibly, all of the Fe3+ observed in olivine is the result of dehydrogenation rather than oxidation, and this process may also be the source of all the Fe3+ observed in pyroxene. The observed Fe3+ in pyroxene also likely records an equilibrium between pyroxene and melt at such low fO2 that little or no Fe3+ would be expected.


n order to promote access to non-tonal music, the fusion of musical time and space may be considered as a point of departure. As a pre-analytical strategy, it relies on direct experience of the music  as it is heard  instead of on specialised music theoretical knowledge. The music of Hans Roosenschoon is used to illustrate five ways in which the fusion of time and space manifests itself on a metaphorical level, namely the integration of Western and African cultural spaces through music as a temporal art form, the blending of time and space in the music itself and the fusion of art music from the past with everyday life by electronic means. A true story from the South African past that combines with a visual image associated with Cape Town represents another version of fusing time and space, while on a metaphysical level past and present coalesce as melodic references to Schubert's music are used to signify abstract ideas. Listening to music directly rather than through the filter of a rational analytical system helps to develop an appreciation of non-tonal music, a kind of music that is often regarded as inaccessible.


Sleep-wake disturbances are common non-motor manifestations in Parkinson Disease (PD). Complex pathophysiological changes secondary to neurodegeneration in combination with motor symptoms and dopaminergic medications contribute to development of sleep-wake disturbances. The management of sleep complaints in PD is important as this symptom can affect daily activities and impair quality of life. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective adjunctive therapy for management of motor symptoms in PD. However, its effect on non-motor symptoms including sleep-wake disturbances is not widely understood. In this article, we reviewed studies assessing the effect of DBS at various therapeutic targets on sleep-wake disturbances. Of the studies examining the role of DBS in sleep-wake disturbances, the effect of subthalamic nucleus stimulation is most widely studied and has shown improvement in sleep quality, sleep efficiency, and sleep duration. Although, studies investigating changes in sleep with stimulation of thalamus, globus pallidus interna, and pedunculopontine nucleus are limited, they support the potential for modulation of sleep-wake centers with DBS at these sites. The mechanism by which DBS at different anatomical targets affects sleep-wake disturbances in PD is unclear and may involves multiple factors, including improved motor symptoms, medication adjustment, and direct modulation of sleep-wake centers.


How are the arts important in young people's lives? Youth, Arts and Education offers a groundbreaking theory of arts education. Anna Hickey-Moody explores how the arts are ways of belonging, resisting, being governed and being heard.

Through examples from the United Kingdom and Australia, Anna Hickey-Moody shows the cultural significance of the kinds of learning that occur in and through arts. Drawing on the thought of Gilles Deleuze, she develops the theory of affective pedagogy, which explains the process of learning that happens through aesthetics.

Bridging divides between critical pedagogical theory, youth studies and arts education scholarship, this book:

Explains the cultural significance of the kinds of learning that occur in and through arts
Advances a theory of aesthetic citizenship created by youth arts
Demonstrates ways in which arts practices are forms popular and public pedagogy
Critiques popular ideas that art can be used to fix problems in the lives of youth at risk

Youth, Arts and Education is the first post-critical theory of arts education. It will be of interest to students and scholars across the social sciences and humanities, in particular in the sociology of education, arts education, youth studies, sociology of the arts and cultural studies.


The purpose of this study is to vindicate the position of Michał Kalecki as a pioneer of modern macroeconomics whose numerous papers in 1929-1933 laid foundations for what is presently known as the macroeconomic stock-flow consistent approach in examining the economic dynamics of a capitalist economy. Comparative economic analysis is used to define the critical differences between Kalecki's microassumption and his macro-analysis and policy recommendations against those of his contemporary, and the present-day mainstream economics. Following a concise intellectual biography note, Kalecki's mechanism of business fluctuations, and then his theory of distribution of national income are examined. Next his theory of profits is discussed, and his theory of effective demand which follows from it. This discussion culminates in outlining his theory of economic dynamics of a capitalist economy. In conclusion the present day relevance of Kalecki's macroeconomics and its limitations


I. SETTING THE TABLE: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF REGULATORY APPROACHES IN MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES Hunger Pangs in South Texas. Since the first gas discoveries were made in the Burgos Basin of Northeast Mexico sometime around 1945, Texas energy companies have been eyeing the Mexican landscape in anticipation of a time when a real natural gas market would develop between the two neighbors. In those days, U.S. gas demand was growing and, to a geologist, Mexico's Burgos was nothing more than an extension of the same fields in South Texas which would ultimately feed into the Big Inch pipeline as it snaked from Longview up to New Jersey. So that gleam in the eyes of the Texas wildcatters when they looked south was understandable. But in those days, foreign investment was not on the menu. Mexican law made direct participation by U.S. capital in the Mexican oil and gas industry impossible. In 1938, virtually the entire private petroleum industry, dominated by American, Dutch, and British companies, was summarily expropriated by the Mexican government, and Pemex1 was installed as the sole entity authorized to exploit hydrocarbons.2 Where oil and gas were concerned, an atmosphere of latent animosity lingered for many years between the two neighbors which could (and in some circles still can) become acute upon the mention of "foreign investment." Until the mid-1990s, Mexican legislation limited the role of foreigners to that of purchaser of production, supplier, or service contractor of Pemex working for cash. There were always a few cross-border business arrangements that drew outside the lines, small pipelines serving dedicated offtakers,3 but the opportunities were small and limited. There was even one major flirtation with rapprochement, a major longterm pipeline natural gas sales contract entered into between a Texas company and Pemex in 1979,4 but that venture ended in disappointment. Oil was not the only fulcrum for tension between the Mexicans and U.S. capital. After the 1938 expropriations, Mexico led the way among developing countries in fomenting a statist economic philosophy that questioned the role of private, let alone foreign, capital in the national economy.5 It later nationalized the electric industry, and over a period of some thirty-four years passed legislation that increasingly shut foreign capital out of the nation's economy, culminating in the xenophobic 1973 Foreign Investment Law (FIL).6 The possibility of a real cross-border energy market in Mexico seemed so far away that the industrious Texans forgot about Mexico and turned their energies elsewhere. A Dog's Dinner: The Growth of the U.S. Gas Industry. Meanwhile, growing gas demand north of the border pulled progress in its wake, and the decades after the second World War saw the buildout of the U.S. pipeline grid, eventually creating a solid northsouth corridor from South Texas all the way to Canada. In keeping with our own business culture, entrepreneurial effort was in the vanguard during this period, with the regulators scrambling to keep up. Imbalances between entrepreneurial zest and regulatory response characterized the development of the U.S. market. The classic conflict of the pipelines' natural monopoly and the need for competition marked the two ends of the seesaw. Along the way there were numerous tumbles as the U.S. gas grid and U.S. regulation slowly came of age together. California in 2000 was hardly the first energy crisis to touch the U.S. gas industry. Through the 1970s, pipelines acted as both transporters and marketers, and wellhead price controls seemed to be the right recipe for controlling the pipelines' natural monopoly. However, these controls had the unfortunate side effect, among others, of discouraging gas production. This, in turn, gave rise to shortages and rising prices for the utilities that bought from the pipelines. Responding to these shortages, Congress enacted the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 (the NGPA), which gradually phased out regulation of the price and terms under which producers sold their gas to interstate pipelines. …


Environmental aspects constitute main issues for our modern society in many ways, by the exploitation of natural resources or the development of road infrastructure. Studies of subsurface, called also Regolith, are at the crossroad of new geological point of view. Among wide range of geophysical methods, airborne geophysical tools is a fast method for providing informations about the near surface. Two different methods are been used: spectral radiometry and the time domain electromagnetic (TDEM). Spectral radiometry data were collected throughout "Region Centre" with a line space of 1km. The EM data were collected throughout three local boxes with a line spacing of 0.4 km. The three sites present very different geological and topographical characteristics. We have compared geological map with the two different airborne geophysical data. The three maps are consistent and show the same general structures but smallest structures are different. It appears that a decrease of resistivity a given geological formation is correlated with an increase of rock alteration. Moreover lowest potassium content seems to indicate the areas of accumulation of colluvial deposit. The 3D structure can be study with the TDEM data in regards of the resistivity variations.


A dynamic membrane is defined as a cake layer which forms on a support material, for example, filter cloth or mesh when the liquid to be filtered includes suspended particles. Formation of an effective dynamic cake layer is highly related with the retention of particles on the support material surface. Therefore, support material properties are considered to be of prime importance in the performance of dynamic membrane treatment systems. This study investigates the effect of support material properties including pore size and structure of the material on dynamic membrane formation and performance. In this concept, a comparative evaluation was made between support materials which have different yarn types. The results showed that high total suspended solids removal efficiency (>98%) could be achieved by using dynamic membrane filtration technology. Mono-monofilament and staple filter cloths were determined as the most appropriate materials in terms of the critical fluxes which were 9.2 L/m2 · h and 17–19 L/m2 · h for mono-mono filament and staple materials, respectively. However, considering the results of more long-term experiments, mono-monofilament filter cloth was found more suitable for cake layer accumulation. Therefore, we postulate that mono-monofilament cloth can be used in dynamic membrane filtration systems as an alternative to traditional membranes in anaerobic membrane bioreactors.


The experimentally observed ten rotational bands in 179Re are analyzed with the particle-number conserving method for treating the cranked shell model with pairing interaction, in which the blocking effects are taken into account exactly. The experimental moments of inertia of these bands are reproduced quite well by our calculations with no free parameter and the deformation driving effects are discussed. The bandhead energies and the variation in the occupation probability of each cranked orbital are also analyzed.


Problems with truncated data occur in many areas, complicating estimation and inference. Regarding linear regression models, the ordinary least squares estimator is inconsistent and biased for these types of data and is therefore unsuitable for use. Alternative estimators, designed for the estimation of truncated regression models, have been developed. This paper presents the R package truncSP. The package contains functions for the estimation of semi-parametric truncated linear regression models using three different estimators: the symmetrically trimmed least squares, quadratic mode, and left truncated estimators, all of which have been shown to have good asymptotic and finite sample properties. The package also provides functions for the analysis of the estimated models. Data from the environmental sciences are used to illustrate the functions in the package.


OBJECTIVE: Fetuin-A is a protein secreted from the liver that inhibits arterial calcification deposition and can contribute to insulin resistance. Hyperthyroidism is also associated with insulin resistance. It is not known whether hyperthyroidism has an effect on fetuin-A levels. METHODS: We measured fetuin-A levels and homeostasis model of assessment-insulin resistance before hyperthyroidism treatment was initiated and after euthyroidism was achieved. A total of 42 patients diagnosed with hyperthyroidism were enrolled in this study. Fetuin-A, insulin, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, fasting blood glucose, free T3 (fT3), free T4 (fT4), and thyrotropin were measured before and after euthyroidism was established. RESULTS: Basal fasting blood glucose, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, insulin, c-peptide, homeostasis model of assessment-insulin resistance, fT3, fT4 and fetuin-A levels were significantly decreased after euthyroidism was achieved (Table 1. Basal fasting blood glucose (r:0.407, p:0.008), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (r:0.523, p<0.0001), insulin (r:0.479, p:0.001), homeostasis model of assessment-insulin resistance (r:0.541, p<0.0001), fT3 (r:0.492, p:0.001) and fT4 (r:0.473, p:0.002) were positively correlated with basal fetuin-A levels. Basal thyrotropin levels were significantly negatively correlated (r:-0.553, p<0.0001) with basal fetuin-A levels. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that hyperthyroidism influences fetuin-A levels.


This dissertation features two projects concerning natural product synthesis and reaction development. The importance of natural product synthesis in chemistry and medicine cannot be overstated. In addition to providing a complex setting to test and apply new synthetic methodologies, natural products play a vital role in public health. Their influence in the pharmaceutical industry is profound, as approximately half of all chemical entities to treat disease come from natural product mimics, derivatives, or natural products themselves. With new natural products being discovered daily, there exists an ongoing need to develop efficient syntheses of these compounds and their derivatives.Chapters One, Two, Three, and Four focus on an unusual variant of the Fischer indolization reaction and its application in the total synthesis of a particularly interesting class of indole alkaloids named the akuammilines. Specifically, Chapter One provides an overview of the so-called 'interrupted Fischer indolization reaction'. This reaction is described from a methodological standpoint and is then evaluated in the context of akuammiline alkaloid total synthesis.Chapters Two, Three, and Four describe enantioselective syntheses of various akuammiline alkaloids, in addition to several akuammiline alkaloid derivatives. Central to our approach was the development of modern variants of the classic Fischer indolization reaction to generate high levels of complexity. These efforts culminated in the first enantioselective total syntheses of (–)-aspidophylline A, (+)-strictamine, (–)-2(S)-cathafoline, (–)-pseudoakuammigine, (+)-akuammiline, (–)-10-demethoxyvincorine, and derivatives therein.Chapters Five describes an application of the distortion/interaction model to a variety of mono and disubstituted benzynes and substituted indolynes. Chapter Six is focused on the development of a facile method to synthesize stereodefined quaternary centers from reactions of arynes and related strained intermediates with b-ketoester-derived substrates. Our approach provides a general solution to the challenging problem of stereoselective b-ketoester arylation/alkenylation, with formation of a quaternary center with enantiomeric excess up to 96%.


The pedagogical practices developed in articulation with the extension office called "architectural consulting" attached to the architecture program of REMOVED in REMOVED, Colombia, are presented in order to reflect on the exercises developed in the light of one of the functions inherent in the university in the 21st century, innovation, specifically speaking of recent trends in social sustainability and its relationship with pedagogical practice in architecture. The adopted methodology, with a participatory approach, was developed in 4 phases: problem identification, work criteria, conceptualization, and implementation. Examples of the participatory works developed by students of the architecture program are shown, which generate alternatives for local development in the city, in places where the municipal administration and its planning structures do not reach to arrive in an effective way. Changes are identified in the role of pedagogical practices focused on social innovation and the new functions they assume, students, teachers and communities involved in the critical construction of the new citizenship.


A problem with government-industry partnerships has been the lack of a central repository of information on how the government spends its $70 billion a year R&D budget. But now there9s a solution. A database called RaDiUS (Research and Development in the United States), developed by The RAND Corp., covers 24 federal agencies and provides information on more than 1500 programs and nearly 300,000 separate grants and contracts. Three years in the making, it9s currently available, at a price, to almost anyone in the scientific community (see
 www.rand.org/radius).


In this study, Pb isotope ratios in ferromanganese nodules were determined with good repeatability and minimum laboratory bias using laser ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS). One certified ferromanganese nodule reference material, NOD-A-1, in the form of pressed powder pellets (PPPs) produced upon ultrafine processing, was homogeneous enough to be used as an in-house matrix-matched standard or quality control sample for Pb isotopic microanalysis. The Tl normalization exponential law correction method with CTl-NIST SRM 997/CTl-sample ≥ 15 (method 1) and the standard-sample-bracketing (SSB) method (method 2) were utilized to determine Pb isotope ratios with good repeatability and laboratory bias. In situ measurements of the Pb isotopes yielded a good relative standard deviation (2RSD) of <0.036% for 207,208Pb/206Pb and <0.066% for 206,207,208Pb/204Pb. In addition, the matrix effect was insignificant when the silicate glass reference material was employed as the external standard in the ferromanganese nodules using these two methods, resulting in relative errors (RE) of <0.064% for 206,207,208Pb/204Pb, and <0.046% for 207,208Pb/206Pb. The in situ Pb isotopic compositions of three Chinese ferromanganese nodules, GBW07249, GBW07295, and GBW07296, were in good agreement with those obtained by solution nebulization MC-ICP-MS (SN-MC-ICP-MS) within 2s (standard deviation) measurement uncertainties, demonstrating the reliability and robustness of our proposed analytical protocol.


The crystal structure of the ordered double perovskite Ba2PrRu0.8Ir0.2O6 was investigated as a function of pressure at room temperature. High-resolution synchrotron powder diffraction measurements have revealed the occurrence of a first order phase transition at a critical pressure of about 0.5 GPa. Structural refinements indicate that Ba2PrRu0.8Ir0.2O6 transforms from an ambient pressure monoclinic (P 21/n) to a high-pressure tetragonal (P4/mnc) structure. The transition is consistent with a valence change of the Pr ions.


We report on the feasibility of applying high-resolution solid-state 195Pt MAS NMR spectroscopy for several PtIV-containing polyoxotungstates, and of 195Pt as well as 51V for a PtIV-containing polyoxovanadate. This method is particularly useful for polyanions which are unstable in solution and/or poorly soluble, as well as for systems exhibiting crystallographic disorder of Pt and W sites. We also report solution 195Pt and 183W NMR spectra of hexatungstoplatinate(IV) [H3PtW6O24]5− for the first time.