The effects of process parameters on evolution of microstructures of 7055 aluminum alloy in creep age forming were studied and the microstrucures were analyzed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Some important results are obtained: with the increasing of ageing time, the size of platelet shaped (known as Guinier-Preston (G-P) zones) precipitates and spherical shaped η' precipitates increased, the number of platelet shaped precipitates increased too, while the number of η' precipitates decreased; the precipitates with almost the same size distributed continuously and uniformly along the grain boundary with quite narrow precipitate free zones (PFZs) at 5 hours of ageing time, when the ageing time increases to 8 hours, the distribution of the precipitates along the grain boundary becomes discontinuous and the PFZs gets wider, while with the further increasing of the ageing time, the precipitates distributed continuously again along the grain boundary and the PFZs become more wider. From comparison of stress-aged alloy to stress-free-aged alloy, it was found that after 20 hours ageing, the precipitates in the stress-aged alloy are slightly coarser and the PFZs are wider, the density of retained η' is lower with the development of η phase.


Planar triangular and disk resonators may be tuned by loading them with magnetic wall ridges. This method of tuning resonators, particulary attractive at UHF due to the reduction in physical size, may be understood by invoking the duality between a planar circuit with magnetic walls and the dual waveguide problem with three metal ridges and electric walls. Measurements on stripline circulators using this type of resonator indicate good agreement between theory and experiment for both disk and triangular planar geometries. The loaded Q-factor of circulators using such circuits has been formulated using perturbation theory and found to be in good accord with experiment. Thus the paper gives a complete description of junction circulators using disk or triangular resonators loaded with magnetic wall ridges.


This paper begins by weighing the term sustainability and considering its meaning in "common culture" terms as people outside the academy might understand it. The first implication is that none of our current behaviour meets the simplest criteria of sustainability. The question "why?" is raised. In responding to this question I suggest that our social structure is founded on a number of myths. My view is that these myths provide a useful explanation for the false consciousness in which western culture appears to be lost. I conclude that educational efforts that do not confront the system of myths work against the environment by tacitly supporting the mechanisms and structures that are the causes of environmental problems. I suggest that the U.N. decade for sustainability must be made to work despite critique of the term sustainability. In closing I suggest that confronting the myths addresses only one aspect of a concert of forces that constrain education on behalf of the environment and elaborate some suggestions for new thinking.


Knowledge is increasingly substituting old (tangible) factors of production and becomes the most important (intangible) productive means and competitive weapon for the companies. Knowledge Management (KM) provides a particular opportunity to help the employees work more effectively and intelligently under these circumstances. Since knowledge becomes more and more important within all kinds of industries the research is aimed to analyse, identify and clarify the parameters from a multinational corporation's point of view which are influencing and facilitating the development of a company's Human Capital (HC) most and therefore can be regarded as essential for long-term corporate successTwo parts – a theoretical and an empirical one – are the main components of this dissertation. The theoretical part covers important aspects related to knowledge and KM as well as globalisation. The empirical study was based on several hypotheses developed as a result of the theoretical discussion, identifying four key success factors of KM. In order to conduct a statistical analysis the necessary data has been obtained by using a questionnaire which was sent to companies in Sweden, Germany, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK.As a result, three factors could be confirmed as being paramount whereas only one has been recognised as not being as important as expected.


Rohu (Labeo rohita) has been used as an important aquaculture species in Southeast Asia specially in Bangladesh and India. However, because of its higher consumer preference, higher market value, as well as exploiting food from whole water column, farmers like more to stock rohu in their pond either in monoculture or in polyculture with another bottom feeder fish like common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Rohu is very dependant on natural food but farmers get higher production of rohu when they use supplementary feed in their pond. Due to lack of real recommendations on how supplementary feed influences the food habit and growth of rohu, an experiment was carried out in 18 earthen ponds to know the effects of supplementary feed on natural food availability in the pond, their ingestion and growth performance of rohu. All ponds were fertilized each fortnightly with fertilizer: 1,250.0 kg ha-1 decomposed cow manure, 31.25 kg ha-1 urea and 156.63 kg ha-1 triple super phosphate. Half of the ponds received supplementary feed, the others ponds received no feed. All ponds were stocked with 1.5 rohu m-2. Three common carp densities: 0, 0.5 and 1.0 common carp m-2 were used with and without supplementary feed. The combinations gave following six treatments: rohu alone with and without feed; rohu plus 0.5 common carp m-2 with and without feed; and rohu plus 1.0 common carp m-2 with and without feed.
It was found, supplementary feed had no significant effect on phytoplankton availability whereas there was strong significant effect on zooplankton availability in the ponds water. Zooplankton was significantly higher in treatments with feed than no feed. Treatments with feed showed better growth performance of rohu than the treatments with no feed. Monthly volumetric gut content analysis showed, rohu generally ingest phyto- plankton better than zooplankton but in presence supplementary feed rohu ingest more zooplankton than phytoplankton. Rohu shifts food habit from phyto- plankton to zooplankton when zooplankton is easily available in the ponds in presence of supplementary feed. This shifting behaviour proves, rohu prefer zooplankton better than phytoplankton. This behaviour also may be affected by others various physico-chemical factors.


The objective of this study is to identify the characteristics of firms violating annual financial disclosure timing set by the Jordan Securities Commission (JSC). Sample firms average size, profitability indicators, total assets turnover, cash dividend per share and share market to book value were compared to industry-wide averages The study sample consists of all companies disclosed on the JSC sight as not providing their 2012 annual reports on time or provided reports with missing significant disclosure items and warned from further penalties by the commission. The study data on twenty six companies (divided into three sub-samples: 8 manufacturing, 7 service and 11 financial) who violated disclosure requirement was obtained, mostly, from the official audited Jordanian public shareholding companies guide for 2013. The sample company 2012 variables were subject to the one sample T-tests to find out if there are significant mean differences from industry-wide averages for the same year. Results of the manufacturing firms sub-sample indicate less average net operating profit, less profitability (based on return on assets), less cash dividend per share and lower share market to book value. However, the averages of firm size (market value), total assets turnover, earnings per share, and return on equity are all lower than the manufacturing industry-wide averages in 2012, but not in a significant way. Results of service firms' sub-sample, show only significant lower average cash dividend per share compared to average industry-wide service firm in 2012. Results of financial firms sub-sample show significant lower average total assets, less earnings per share and cash dividend per share than average industry-wide financial firm in 2012. The overall conclusion is that Jordanian industrial and financial firms who file their annual reports late or misfile certain important disclosure items underperform average company's profitability and cash dividend per share relative to their respective sectors.


The goal of this article is to investigate the relationship between the liturgy of the worship service, where prophetic preaching is delivered, and the liturgy of life, where the gift of prophecy must be put into practice. In what way could the 'prophets' be equipped to become practitioners of the gift of prophecy? A short description is given of what is understood by prophetic preaching and the gift of prophecy in an effort to determine the relationship between these concepts. In a brief summary, burning questions in church life and in the South African society are addressed: in church life, the questions of extreme conservatism and extreme liberalism are scrutinised and in the South African society, corruption and inequality are investigated. In conclusion, a few guidelines are given for putting the gift of prophecy into practice in the liturgy of life.


INTRODUCTION
Acquired erythroblastopenia (AE) is a rare clinical situation. It is characterized by the reduction of erythroid precursors in the bone marrow together with the low reticulocyte counts in the peripheral blood.

BACKGROUND
Main secondary causes of AE are drugs, Parvovirus B19 and other infectious reasons, lymphoid and myeloid neoplasia, autoimmune diseases, thymoma and pregnancy. The aim of this study is to assess the frequencies and clinical associations of AE via analyzing 12340 bone marrow samples in a retrospective manner.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
Bone marrow aspirations which were obtained from patients who applied to Hacettepe University Hematology Clinic between 2002 and 2013, were analyzed retrospectively.

RESULTS
Thirty four erythroblastopenia cases were found. Patients ranged in age from 16 to 80 years with a median of 38 years. Fifteen patients were men (44%) and nineteen were women (56%). In these patients, detected causes of erythroblastopenia were MDS, idiopathic pure red cell aplasia (PRCA), parvovirus infection, post chemotherapy aplasia, plasma proliferative diseases, copper deficiency due to secondary amyloidosis, fever of unknown origin, hemophagocytic syndrome, enteric fever and legionella pneumonia. We found that between those reasons the most common causes of erythroblastopenia are MDS (17.7%) and idiopathic PRCA (17.7%).

DISCUSSION
As a result, erythroblastopenia in the bone marrow may be an early sign of MDS. In those AE cases possibility of being MDS must be kept in mind as it can be mistaken for PRCA.

CONCLUSION
To conclude, in adults MDS without excess blast is one of the most common causes of erythroblastopenia in clinical practice and in case of erythroblastopenia the presence of MDS should be investigated.


The physical, symbolic and experiential aspects of receiving long-term care are examined in this paper using Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and field. We draw on data from an ethnographic study of home care in 16 homes in urban, rural and remote locations in Ontario, Canada. Across all cases, data about domestic and caregiving routines were gathered through observation, interviews with clients and/or the primary family caregiver, interviews with service providers and videotaped tours of the home. Based on the analysis of these data, we argue that a transposition of logics and practices occurred when the domestic and health care fields were superimposed within the spaces of the home. Although all of the care recipients and their family caregivers indicated a strong preference for home care over institutional care, their experiences and practices within their homes were disrupted and reconfigured by the insertion of logics emanating from the healthcare field. These changes were manifested in three main themes: the politics of aesthetics; the maintenance of order and cleanliness; and transcending the limitations of the home. In each of these dimensions, it became apparent that care recipients engaged in improvisatory social practices that reflected their ambiguous and changing habitus or social location. The material spaces of their homes signified, or prompted, altered or changing social placement.


Recent progress in electronic and electromagnetic topological insulators has led to the demonstration of one way propagation of electron and photon edge states and the possibility of immunity to backscattering by edge defects. Unfortunately, such topologically protected propagation of waves in the bulk of a material has not been observed. We show, in the case of sound/elastic waves, that bulk waves with unidirectional backscattering-immune topological states can be observed in a time-dependent elastic superlattice. The superlattice is realized via spatial and temporal modulation of the stiffness of an elastic material. Bulk elastic waves in this superlattice are supported by a manifold in momentum space with the topology of a single twist Mobius strip. Our results demonstrate the possibility of attaining one way transport and immunity to scattering of bulk elastic waves.


Around 80 enzymes are implicated in the generic starch and sucrose pathways. One of these enzymes is sucrose phosphorylase, which reversibly catalyzes the conversion of sucrose and orthophosphate to d-Fructose and alpha-d-glucose 1-phosphate. Here, we present the crystal structure of sucrose phosphorylase from Bifidobacterium adolescentis (BiSP) refined at 1.77 A resolution. It represents the first 3D structure of a sucrose phosphorylase and is the first structure of a phosphate-dependent enzyme from the glycoside hydrolase family 13. The structure of BiSP is composed of the four domains A, B, B', and C. Domain A comprises the (beta/alpha)(8)-barrel common to family 13. The catalytic active-site residues (Asp192 and Glu232) are located at the tips of beta-sheets 4 and 5 in the (beta/alpha)(8)-barrel, as required for family 13 members. The topology of the B' domain disfavors oligosaccharide binding and reduces the size of the substrate access channel compared to other family 13 members, underlining the role of this domain in modulating the function of these enzymes. It is remarkable that the fold of the C domain is not observed in any other known hydrolases of family 13. BiSP was found as a homodimer in the crystal, and a dimer contact surface area of 960 A(2) per monomer was calculated. The majority of the interactions are confined to the two B domains, but interactions between the loop 8 regions of the two barrels are also observed. This results in a large cavity in the dimer, including the entrance to the two active sites.


In Systems for Instructional Improvement: Creating Coherence from the Classroom to the District Office, Paul Cobb, Kara Jackson, Erin Henrick, Thomas M. Smith, and their colleagues showcase a long-term professional development project titled Middle School Mathematics and the Institutional Setting of Teaching (MIST). The MIST Project included an extensive team of researchers who engaged in a Research-Practice Partnership with teachers, instructional leaders, and administrators from four urban school districts for multiple years (two districts for 4 years and two districts for 8 years). The overarching purpose of this project, based on mutual goals of the school districts and the research team, was to "take a broad perspective that spans from the classroom to the district central office" (p. 3) to understand how to most effectively "support teachers' development of ambitious and equitable instructional practices" (p. 2). More specifically, the MIST team had two types of goals: pragmatic and research. Their pragmatic goal was to assist the four partner school districts with their instructional improvement objectives by engaging in annual cycles of data collection, analysis, and feedback to help district leaders understand the extent to which the district's instructional improvement strategies were being implemented as intended and to make recommendations for revising the improvement strategies. Their research goal was to identify effective improvement strategies that districts can implement to improve mathematics teaching and learning on a large scale.


This is a comprehensive casebook on federal income taxation of corporations, focusing almost entirely on issues arising under Subchapter C of the Internal Revenue Code. It is aimed at students who have already completed a basic course in federal income taxation, and so have an understanding of basic tax concepts. In addition to helping students understand the statutes and their administrative and judicial overlays, the book encourages them to evaluate the law and the various proposals for changing it. Attention is given to identifying long term trends and challenges.


The questions where the Kabbalah came from, how it appears, and under what circumstances, bothered the scholars of the Kabbalah, but no less the Kabbalists themselves in the Middle Ages. This article is concentrated on identifying and signifying three types of traditions in thirteenth-century Kabbalah, each of which reflects a unique stance concerning this topic. The first stance attributes the emergence of the Kabbalah to mystical revelation of Elijah to the ancestors of the first Kabbalistic circles in Provence. Another sees the Kabbalistic truths as part of the Torah of Moses and therefore as a national heritage. A third tradition, however, attributes the Kabbalah to Adam, the first person and the ancestor of mankind at whole. The article points out the self-consciousness behind each myth, the differences between them, and the hidden discourse between these traditions regarding the notion of the Kabbalah as universal wisdom and its cultural context in general.


This paper sheds light on the way Saul Bellow's (1915-2005) intellectual protagonists
deconstruct post industrial American ethos which are dominated by the hegemony
of capitalism and the values of democracy. These heroes are deeply immersed in
European liberal education, the 'Western Canon' to recall Harold Bloom; however, they
are marginalized, alienated, degraded and eventually rejected by the masses, junk
culture, the dictatorship of the commonplace, and the unqualified individual. Bellow's
heroes predict that American culture will be overwhelmed by mass culture after the
1950s characterized by liberal democracy, [ultra capitalism], scientific experimentation,
and industrialization, inspite of the high rate of higher education. Deploring a Derridean
method of deconstructionism and a Foucauldian epistemic design, they archeologically
question the roots of American cultural backdrop, that is, the massive industrialization
in the late age of capitalism. They centralize art, humanities, classical books, morality,
and religion; and marginalize science, commodity, consumerism, technology, and
psychiatry. They deconstruct all makers of culture industry based on analysis,
systemization, standardization, and not imagination and creativity. To achieve human
and noble norms, they admit a noble life away from the vulgarity and barbarism of
the age to cite Zygmunt Bauman. Special focus is on Herzog (1964), Mr. Sammler's
Planet (1970), Humboldt's Gift (1975) and The Dean's December (1982) for their common
concern with this issue.


The inversion channel mobility of 4H and 6H-SiC(0001) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) has been evaluated for its dependence on the re-oxidation annealing (ROA) conditions in a wet oxidizing ambient. The wet ambient was supplied by the pyrogenic reaction of hydrogen and oxygen gas (pyrogenic ROA), where the water vapor content (/spl rho/(H/sub 2/O)) was controlled by adjusting the hydrogen/oxygen gas flow rate. Not only the annealing temperature and the time, but also /spl rho/(H/sub 2/O) are found to be the critical parameters for improving channel mobility. As a result, field-effect channel mobilities as high as 47 cm/sup 2//Vs for 4H and 95 cm/sup 2//Vs for 6H-SiC MOSFETs were achieved by pryrogenic ROA treatment with a /spl rho/(H/sub 2/O) of 50%.


This paper studies an environment in which a decision maker choosing between acts may initially be unaware of certain consequences. We follow the approach of Karni and Vierø (2013) to modeling increasing awareness, which allows for the decisionmaker's state space to expand as she becomes aware of new possible consequences. We generalize the main result in Karni and Vierø (2013) by allowing the discovery of new consequences to nullify some states that were nonnull before the discovery. We also provide alternative assumptions which strengthen the predictions of the belief updating model.


Oysters enhance benthic−pelagic coupling in coastal systems by moving large quantities of suspended particulates to the sediments, stimulating biogeochemical processes. Recent research efforts have focused on quantifying the impact of oysters on coastal biogeochemical cycling, yet there is little consensus on how oysters influence processes across systems. A potential driver of this variance is availability of organic material suspended in the water column and subsequent loading to sediment by oysters. Here, we measured fluxes of sediment di-nitrogen (N2-N), ammonium (NH4), combined nitrate-nitrite (NOx), and phosphate (PO4) in spring, summer, and fall at 2 oyster reefs and 1 farm in a temperate estuary (Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island). We then linked these fluxes with patterns of water column primary production. Nitrogen removal from the system was highest in spring, when we detected net sediment denitrification (48.8 μmol N2-N m−2 h−1) following a winter−spring diatom bloom. In contrast, we measured sediment N2 fixation in fall (−44.8 μmol N2-N m−2 h−1) at rates nearly equivalent to spring denitrification. In the summer, we measured a nearly net zero sediment N2-N flux (−2.7 μmol N2-N m−2 h−1). Recycling of nitrogen to the water column was consistent across seasons, composed almost exclusively of NH4. These results demonstrate that sediment nitrogen cycling in oyster habitats is dynamic and can change rapidly based on seasonal patterns of productivity. At carrying capacity, the impact of oysters on nitrogen cycling is large and should be considered during efforts to increase oyster populations through aquaculture or reef restoration.


Highlighted with the newly released intellectual property (IP) protection white paper by VSI Alliance, the protection of virtual components (VCs) has received a large amount of attention recently. Digital signature is one of the most promising solutions among the known protection mechanisms. However, the trade-off between hard-to-attack and easy-to-detect and the lack of efficient detection schemes are the major obstacles for digital signatures to thrive. In this paper, we propose a new watermarking method which (i) allows the watermark to be public detected without forensic experts, (ii) gives little advantage to attackers for forgery, and (iii) does not lose the strength of protection provided by other watermarking techniques. The basic idea is to make part of the watermark public. We explain the concept of this public-private watermark and discuss the generation and embedding of such marks. We use popular VLSI CAD problems, namely technology mapping, partitioning, graph coloring, FPGA design, and Boolean satisfiability, to demonstrate its easy detectability, high credibility, low design overhead, and robustness. Finally, this technique is compatible with all the known watermarking and fingerprinting techniques.


Problem statement: Software development effort estimation is the process of predicting the most realistic use of effort required for developing software based on some parameters. It has always characterized one of the biggest challenges in Computer Science for the last decades. Because time and cost estimate at the early stages of the software development are the most difficult to obtain and they are often the least accurate. Traditional algorithmic techniques such as regression models, Software Life Cycle Management (SLIM), COCOMO II model and function points, require an estimation process in a long term. But, nowadays that is not acceptable for software developers and companies. Newer soft computing techniques to effort estimation based on non-algorithmic techniques such as Fuzzy Logic (FL) may offer an alternative for solving the problem. This work aims to propose a new fuzzy logic realistic model to achieve more accuracy in software effort estimation. The main objective of this research was to investigate the role of fuzzy logic technique in improving the effort estimation accuracy by characterizing inputs parameters using two-side Gaussian function which gave superior transition from one interval to another. Approach: The methodology adopted in this study was use of fuzzy logic approach rather than classical intervals in the COCOMO II. Using advantages of fuzzy logic such as fuzzy sets, inputs parameters can be specified by distribution of its possible values and these fuzzy sets were represented by membership functions. In this study to get a smoother transition in the membership function for input parameters, its associated linguistic values were represented by two-side Gaussian Membership Functions (2-D GMF) and rules. Results: After analyzing the results attained by means of applying COCOMO II and proposed model based on fuzzy logic to the NASA dataset and created an artificial dataset, it had been found that proposed model was performing better than ordinal COCOMO II and the achieved results were closer to the actual effort. The relative error for proposed model using two-side Gaussian membership functions is lower than that of the error obtained using ordinal COCOMO II. Conclusion: Based on the achieved results, it was concluded that, using soft computation approaches such as fuzzy logic and their advantages, good predication; adaption; understandability and the accuracy of software effort estimation can be improved and the estimation can be very close to the actual effort. This novelty model will lead researchers to focus on benefits of non-algorithmic models to overcome the estimation problems.


In this paper we consider a Boltzmann-type kinetic description of Follow-the-Leader traffic dynamics and we study the resulting asymptotic distributions, namely the counterpart of the Maxwellian distribution of the classical kinetic theory. In the Boltzmann-type equation we include a non-Maxwellian, viz. non-constant, collision kernel in order to exclude from the statistical model possibly unphysical interactions. In spite of the increased analytical difficulty caused by this further non-linearity, we show that a careful application of the quasi-invariant limit (an asymptotic procedure reminiscent of the grazing collision limit) successfully leads to a Fokker-Planck approximation of the original Boltzmann-type equation, whence stationary distributions can be explicitly computed. Our analytical results justify, from a genuinely model-based point of view, some empirical results found in the literature by interpolation of experimental data.


It remains a challenge for intensive care nurses to humanize highly technological health care environments while simultaneously maintaining the benefits this technology can offer. Helping nurses to understand the parent perceptions of pediatric intensive care hospitalization may assist nurses with addressing the need to humanize the experience. This qualitative study describes parents' perceptions of nurses' caregiving behaviors in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in the Midwestern United States. Mothers (n = 10) and fathers (n = 9) of 10 children were asked questions using a semistructured interview. Content analysis was used to analyze parents' verbal descriptions of nurses taking care of their child in a large midwestern metropolitan area PICU. Parents reported nurses engaged in nurturing and vigilant behavior, namely showing affection, caring, watching, and protecting. Parents' reports suggest that the best nursing behaviors are those that facilitate and complement critical aspects of the parental role, thus reinforcing family integrity during a time of turmoil and uncertainty. Incorporating this knowledge into practice contributes to nurses' understanding of PICU hospitalization as a family event, and also helps to inform interventions to improve family-centered care in the PICU.


Bladder cancer patients with lamina propria invasion (T1 disease) and residual T1 disease on restaging transurethral resection of bladder tumour (re‐TURBT) are at a very high risk for recurrence and progression. Despite this risk, most patients are treated with a bladder preserving approach and not immediate radical cystectomy (RC). In this study we have shown that a quarter of patients with T1 bladder cancer and residual T1 on re‐TURBT who are treated with immediate RC are found to have carcinoma invading bladder muscle at RC and 5% have lymph node metastases. We have also found that >30% of patients treated with deferred RC after initial bladder‐preserving therapy harbour carcinoma invading bladder muscle and almost 20% of these patients have lymph node metastases. Thus, immediate RC should be considered in all patients with T1 bladder cancer and residual T1 on re‐TURBT.


This thesis describes three different strategies employed with the aim of optimising targeted antibodies for the treatment of metastatic solid tumours. Whilst the search for improved predictors of response to anti-EGFR antibodies continues, paired primary and metastatic archived tissue from 32 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer was explored for the immunohistochemical expression of EGFR, pEGFR and pMAPK and activating mutations in KRAS, BRAF and PI3KCA. The resulting discordance between expression of pEGFR and pMAPK between primary and metastatic tissue CRC suggests they are unlikely to be useful biomarkers for response unless metastatic tissue is also analysed. Confirmation that mutations in KRAS, BRAF and PI3KCA are concordant in primary and metastatic tissue supports the analysis of archived primary tissue alone for mutation screening. PI3KCA mutations were shown to be present in patients with both wild-type and mutant KRAS, which provides both an additional method for resistance in wild type tumours and a mechanism for high resistance in those with mutant primary tumours, suggesting screening patients for all 3 mutations should be encouraged for future trials of anti-EGFR antibodies.

The Phase I biodistribution study of Ley targeting immunoconjugate in advanced epithelial cancers, primarily explored the biodistribution and pharmacokinetics of the immunoconjugate CMD-193 (a humanised anti-Ley antibody conjugated with calicheamicin) in 9 patients with advanced Ley expressing solid tumours. Cycle one was trace labelled with 111In for biodistribution assessment, and subsequent cycles were administered every 3 weeks, to a maximum of 6 cycles, depending on toxicity and response. Tumour targeting was assessed using gamma camera imaging and single photon emission computerised tomography (SPECT), and PK analysis was based on gamma counting of 111In-CMD-193. There were 2 dose cohorts (1.0mg/m2 and 2.6mg/m2), and patients with Ley positive, measurable, advanced and treatment refractory malignancies, were eligible. Nine patients (6 in dose cohort 1, 3 in cohort 2) were enrolled (and received 1-6 cycles of treatment) before the study was terminated. Biodistribution imaging demonstrated initial blood pooling, followed by markedly increased hepatic uptake by day 2 (persisting to day 8), and fast blood clearance. This pattern was seen for all patients and dose levels. There was no significant uptake in tumour visualised in any patient. The overall T 1/2 β of 111In-CMD-193 was 102.88 ± 35.67 hours, with no statistically significant difference between the 2 dose levels. One patient had a partial metabolic response on 18F-FDG PET after 4 cycles, but no radiologic responses were observed. Myelosuppression and effects on liver function were the most significant toxicities, but no severe or unexpected toxicities were observed. The result of this trial highlight the importance of biodistribution and pharmacodynamic assessment in early phase studies of new biologics to assist in clinical development.

The Phase I trial of oral capecitabine combined with 131I-huA33 in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer built on the previous development of the humanised antibody huA33 which targets the A33 antigen, known to be expressed in >95% of human colon cancers. This study used radiolabelled huA33 in combination with capecitabine chemotherapy to target chemoradiation to metastatic colorectal cancer, with safety and tolerability being the primary objective. Pharmacokinetics, biodistribution, immunogenicity, and tumour response were also assessed. Eligibility included measurable metastatic colorectal cancer, adequate hematological and biochemical function, and informed consent. An outpatient scout 131I-huA33 dose was followed by a single therapy infusion one week later, when capecitabine was commenced. Dose escalation occurred over 5 dose levels. Patients were evaluated weekly, with tumor response assessment at the end of the 12-week trial. Tumour targeting was assessed using gamma camera and single photon emission computerised tomography (SPECT) imaging. Nineteen patients were enrolled, and although the dose escalation protocol required an amendment following 2 dose-limiting toxicities in the second cohort, subsequent cohorts demonstrated good tolerability. Biodistribution analysis demonstrated excellent tumour targeting of the known tumour sites, expected transient bowel uptake, but no other normal tissue uptake. 131I-huA33 therefore achieves specific targeting of radiotherapy to sites of metastasis and can be safely combined with chemotherapy, providing a promising opportunity to deliver chemoradiation specifically to metastatic disease in colorectal cancer patients.


This Paper reports on a longitudinal study of Entrepreneurial Leadership by Design. It takes a new perspective through a 'designerly' approach to research, conducted simultaneously with generative activity (Cross 2006). In doing so it highlights the similarities in cognitive approaches common to strategic design and entrepreneurial leadership. The methodological approach is based on abduction; the core reasoning process that underlies design, as the starting point for focusing on the design practice of problem framing as the foundation for innovative activity. Donald Schon's (1987) views on design as a reflective activity and the central role of frame creation (Dorst 2016) are taken up as situated action and situated cognition. In particular, the improvisational nature of reflection-in-action and subsequently reflection on reflection-in-action, are considered appropriate when investigating the complicated realm of socio-economic value creation. The research was conducted in the shared setting of studio practice known as Strategic Design Labs. Here collaborative design was employed as research methodology through a process of naming, framing and sense-making. In particular naming that which warrants attention (problem or paradox) and framing the context as a problem setting activity. Frame creation is a design-based approach that is purely problem-focused; as such it is the fundamental underpinning of a repertoire of generative methods employed in Strategic Design Labs. Here entrepreneurial leaders, be they expert designers, managers and/or stakeholder, platform strategic design activity so as to co-evolve multiple solutions in a co-creation process. This participatory action led to retrospective sense-making and subsequently yielded new hybrid research methodologies. The paper concludes with a holistic Design Dynamics Research Model Canvas that aggregates a range of design and business approaches into a combined methodology; its phases, methods, activity and instruments. This new model is of relevance to those seeking to investigate how entrepreneurial leaders engage in developmental innovation.


The medical literature describing the gastrointestinal risks associated
with chronic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAlD) therapy is
increasing rapidly. In spite of this, clinicians remain uncertain about how to
translate this information into clinical practice. Clinical decisions regarding the
management of adverse reactions to medications have two components. The first
involves risk to the patient, and the second an evaluation of available alternatives
for managing that risk. Three research designs have been used to examine this
association: ecological studies, case control studies and retrospective cohort
studies. Although these designs do not provide the strongest evidence for
causation, their results point toward the existence of a risk of serious gastrointestinal
reactions of between 1.5 and 10 times greater for NSAID users than for
nonusers. The wide variation in results is due to multiple factors, including
different research designs, study populations and outcome measures. Several
subgroups have been suggested to be at particularly high risk. Risk factors include
advanced age, female sex, debilitating rheumatoid disease, previous gastrointestinal
disease, ethanol abuse and smoking. Only in the elderly has there been
adequate data to support this association. Although the data regarding females
is compelling, this may be confounded by the documented increased NSAlD use
among females. Decision analysis is a useful tool for the quantitative examination
of the costs and benefits of management alternatives available for dealing with
these risks. Research is needed to identify accurately subgroups of NSAID users
at high risk.


FinFET has become the mainstream logic device architecture in recent technology nodes due to its superior electrostatic and leakage control [1,2,3,4]. However, parasitic capacitance has been a key performance detractor in 3D FinFETs. In this work, a novel low temperature ALD-based SiBCN material has been identified, with an optimized spacer RIE process developed to preserve the low-k value and provide compatibility with the down-stream processes. The material has been integrated into a manufacturable 14nm replacement-metal-gate (RMG) FinFET baseline with a demonstrated ~8% performance improvement in the RO delay with reliability meeting the technology requirement [4]. A guideline for spacer design consideration for 10nm node and beyond is also provided based on the comprehensive material properties and reliability evaluations.


The recombinant cytokines IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha stimulate several macrophage-mediated functions important in host defense. However, systemic administration of cytokines may be limited by significant host toxicity. We investigated whether aerosolized cytokines can stimulate alveolar macrophage and blood monocyte function, and whether they induce an inflammatory response in the lungs of normal rats. We found that aerosolized murine rIFN-gamma or recombinant human TNF-alpha increased IL-1 production by both alveolar macrophages and blood monocytes for at least 5 days after administration. Furthermore, murine rIFN-gamma increased the expression of Ia Ag on alveolar macrophages and human rTNF-alpha increased alveolar macrophage- and blood monocyte-mediated tumor lysis. Sequential aerosolization of IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha significantly increased both IL-1 release and Ia expression compared to either cytokine administered alone. Aerosolized human rTNF-alpha achieved lung levels comparable to those produced by an i.v. TNF-alpha dose reported to cause diffuse organ injury and death in rats. However, plasma TNF-alpha levels were several thousand-fold lower after aerosol administration. Aerosolized cytokines did not induce lung edema or an inflammatory cell infiltrate within the airways or alveoli. Aerosolized human rTNF-alpha alone, or murine rIFN-gamma and human rTNF-alpha, induced margination of leukocytes in pulmonary blood vessels 1 day after aerosolization, and a few small foci of pulmonary hemorrhage 5 days later. We conclude that aerosol administration of IFN-gamma or TNF-alpha enhances both pulmonary and systemic monocyte function, and that the combination of IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha produce additive or synergistic effects. Aerosolized cytokines induce only a minimal pulmonary inflammatory response. Aerosolized TNF-alpha produces high cytokine levels in the lung but very low uptake into the circulation.


The study investigated Chinese and Indian test takers' performance on the Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic) and their motivation and anxiety-related factors and linguistic confidence. The association between the affective variables investigated and test performance was compared between test takers from these two countries that have the highest number of English as second language (ESL) and English as foreign language (EFL) students. The results indicated that: a) Chinese and Indian students differ in their PTE Academic performance; b) observed score differences between test takers from the two countries can be partially explained by the variance in their affective factors in English learning and testing. The study suggests that a score profile which contains not only overall scores but also communicative scores and enabling scores can provide additional relevant information for diagnostic and placement purposes. EFL and ESL teachers need to take affective factors into consideration when understanding their students and placing them in different teaching groups and designing their tailored classroom activities.


The medical records of 19 horses with cutaneous vasculitis were reviewed. Most (73.7%) affected horses were between 3 and 10 years old, and there were significantly more mares (14) than stallions or geldings (5) (P less than 0.01). Subcutaneous edema of the limbs, body, and/or head was the predominant clinical sign (18/19 horses; 94.7%). The single most prevalent laboratory abnormality was neutrophilia (greater than 7,000 neutrophils/microliter), which was detected in 10 horses (52.6%). Leukocytoclastic vasculitis was evident in skin biopsy specimens from 12 of 14 horses (85.7%). All horses were treated with corticosteroids and supportive care, and the overall survival rate was 63.1% (12/19). The mean duration of treatment with corticosteroids in surviving horses was 14 (+/- 5.3) days. Of the 7 horses that died, 5 failed to respond to treatment (4 were euthanatized, 1 died), and 2 others had persistent debilitating sequelae (euthanatized). The only significant clinical or laboratory abnormality predictive of poor prognosis was fever (odds ratio, 17.81; P less than 0.05). Seven horses had history of, or were exposed to horses with, abscessed peripheral lymph nodes and likely were suffering from equine purpura hemorrhagica. In spite of histopathologic evidence of hypersensitivity-vasculitis and/or the clinical suspicion that the cause for vasculitis was immune mediated, 7 of 19 horses (36.8%) had no history of bacterial or viral infection nor a history of current drug administration.


Aspergillus ochraceus is reported to be the major contributor of ochratoxin A (OTA), classified as one of the possible human carcinogen (group 2B) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The heterotrimeric velvet complex proteins, LaeA/VeA/VelB, have been most studied in fungi to clarify the relation between light-dependent morphology and secondary metabolism. To explore possible genetic targets to control OTA contamination, we have identified laeA, veA, and velB in A. ochraceus. The loss of laeA, veA, and velB yielded mutants with differences in vegetative growth and conidial production. Especially, ΔlaeA almost lost the ability to generate conidiaphore under dark condition. The deletion of laeA, veA, and velB drastically reduced the production of OTA. The wild-type A. ochraceus produced about 1 and 7 μg/cm2 OTA under light and dark conditions on media, whereas the three gene deletion mutants produced less than 20 ng/cm2 OTA, which was correlated with a down regulation of OTA biosynthetic genes. Pathogenicity studies of ΔlaeA, ΔveA, and ΔvelB showed their reduction in disease severity in pears. Furthermore, 66.1% of the backbone genes in secondary metabolite gene cluster were significantly regulated, among which 81.6% were downregulated. Taking together, these results revealed that velvet complex proteins played crucial roles in asexual development, secondary metabolism, and fungal virulence in A. ochraceus.


In this paper, we describe our recent work on metal matrix composites (MMCs) with submicron-size TiB2 and Al2O3 particulates that are synthesized in situ from Al-rich Al-Ti-B and Al-TiO2- B powder reactants by reactive sintering. Reaction sequences examined in the two different reactant systems are summarized, and some experimental results on elevated-temperature properties, i.e. thermal expansion, temperature dependence of dynamic tensile modulus and creep behavior, are shown and discussed from micromechanics-based viewpoints.


Spotting occurs in wildland fires when fire-lofted embers or hot particles are carried by the wind and fall in areas of unburnt yet flammable vegetation leading to ignition of new, discrete fires. Significant work has been conducted on predicting the trajectories of the embers but little fundamental work is available related to the capability of these embers or particles to ignite vegetation. This paper consists of an experimental and theoretical study of ignition of fuel beds by hot metal particles. Both laboratory and real life fuel beds have been tested. Spherical steel particles with diameters in the range 0.8 to 19.1 mm heated to temperatures between 500 and 1300oC are used in the experiments. A relationship between the size of the particle and temperature required for flaming or smoldering ignition is found in powdered cellulose. These results are used to assess a model based on Hot Spot Ignition Theory to determine the particle sizetemperature relationship required for ignition of a cellulose fuel bed. The model qualitatively predicts the ignition response of the fuel to a given particle size and temperature. Similar experiments were also conducted using pine needles as the fuel bed.


Ultrathin Ga2O3 films nanomixed with few atom-thick SiO2 interlayer were deposited on silicon and quartz substrates through plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition. Upon adjusting the number of SiO2 atomic layers, different Si doping levels in Ga2O3 films were obtained. Herein, we report for the first time the use of this method to investigate the doping effect and realize the precise control of the microstructural, optical, and electrical properties of the Ga2O3 films. The experimental results indicated that the microstructural properties such as density, roughness, and chemical composition of the films are all affected by the number of doped SiO2 atomic layers. As the Si doping concentration increased in the films, the refractive index of the Ga2O3 films decreased monotonically, the optical transparency improved, and the average transmittances were >95% from ultraviolet to visual wavelengths for all the Si-doped Ga2O3 films. Moreover, the energy band-gap increased with the increase in Si composition, increasing from ∼4.8 eV for the undoped film to ∼5.1 eV for the film with a 20 at% Si doping level. Moreover, the breakdown field of the Ga2O3 film linearly improved from 6.8 MV cm−1 to 10.7 MV cm−1 as a function of the Si content. More importantly, this result enlightened us that the breakdown field of the Ga2O3 film can be further improved by increasing the Si doping concentration. This study provides a means to expand the properties of the new doped films and develop Ga2O3 film-based devices, such as transparent electrodes, photodetectors, thin film transistors, or high-power high-voltage devices.


A majority of IS graduates (56% in one recent survey] are involved in server administration, network administration and IS security work. An important recent innovation in these areas is the deployment of separate networks dedicated to server administration and related tasks, combining the cost and productivity advantages of remote administration with risk levels comparable to console-based administrative access. Remote server administration is a previously undocumented artisanal tradition that evolved in scientific and technical network environments, and is now becoming applicable to an increasing range of business networks. This tutorial article provides an overview of current server administration network architectures, and of the software, workstation, and user interface technologies associated with remote server administration.


Many believe that Amazonian communities could benefit from the growing market for timber through self-governed approaches to forest management. However, there is no clear understanding of how communities are to develop such approaches given logging frontiers that are characterized by informal negotiations with loggers and community forestry initiatives that are promoted by development agents. This article reports on research from four study areas in Bolivia, Brazil and Peru which reveals that external players exercise considerable power over communities. First, loggers and development agents impose forest management schemes directly on communities, hindering them from developing their own approaches. Second, paternalistic relationships with loggers and development agents prevent communities from identifying common interests and expressing these through their representative organizations. Finally, loggers and development agents use powerful discourses to shape acceptable schemes in forest management, silencing communities' voices in debates. Through these different power mechanisms, external agents thwart the emergence of self-governed community management approaches.


Forest fires are one of the most important events causing an abrupt decrease in tree-ring width. Although humans are the main cause of forest fires, extreme weather or climate change may promote the frequency and severity of fires. The purpose of this study is to reconstruct historical fires in the Burabai Region of Kazakhstan including their frequency and seasons. Five tree cross-sections with fire scars were collected from two different sites, Akylbai and Burabai. After sanding the transversal surfaces of the cross-sections, the year and season of fire scars were determined. We identified 15 fires during the last 300 years in the region. The mean fire interval is 27 years, with minimum and maximum fire intervals of 9 and 53 years, respectively. The seasonally determined fire scars generally occurred during the middle earlywood formation (77%), and less in early earlywood (22%). Three site chronologies of Pinus sylvestris L. were also used to find the effect and extent of the fires. The negative effect of fires on tree growth lasted 1 to 8 years after the fire. Four of the fire scars had long-term negative effects (up to 10 years) on tree growth in the years of 1759, 1779, 1871, and 1952. Fires of 1759, 1797, 1824, 1833, 1852, and 1871 are seen in both sites, suggesting that these fires spread over large areas.


Understanding the neurological implementation of emotions is a major research subject from biology to computer sciences that, in the latter case, takes many shapes: from accurate detection of human emotions to the emulation of plausible responses to stimuli. There is, however, room for a more bottom-up approach in which we would thrive to recreate emotions from undifferentiated elementary building blocks. In this article, we used virtual creatures that interact with their environment through a low-level perception/cognition/action loop to demonstrate their potential for fear responses. Em- bedded in a physical environment in a typical prey/predator setting, they develop strategies for foraging while minimiz- ing their exposure to danger. By monitoring the neural activities of these subjects, we were able to highlight the regularities induced by an ES-HyperNEAT encoding and their eventual mapping into "men- tal states". We further emphasize the potential of this approach by clustering these ANNs and showing their resulting complexity in terms of conspecific identification, communication, and functional modularity. Indeed, through functional equivalence across numerous topologies, we identify a fear-related neural cluster that serves as a primitive defensive sur- vival circuit.


This thesis examines the motivation of volunteers through a study of front-of-house volunteers in museums and heritage visitor attractions in the UK. The heritage sector
proved an appropriate population for the study sample due to the wide involvement of volunteers.

A review of the literature found that research on volunteering had developed along two paradigms: the economic model, which views volunteers as unpaid workers; and the leisure model, which considers volunteering as a leisure activity. Within the heritage sector, the economic model was found to dominate.

The study adopted a case study methodology in order to investigate the contexts within which volunteers are motivated. However, a major consideration of the research was to maximise the external validity of the study and 222 volunteers were interviewed across ten case studies.

The findings of this thesis show that volunteers consider their activity to be a leisure activity, although this does not conflict with the introduction of professional volunteer
management procedures. Volunteer motivation was found to change with length of service. Initially volunteers were motivated by intrinsic motives, in particular subject
interest, while extrinsic motives, particularly social opportunities motivated them to continue to volunteer. An Interaction Model of Volunteer Motivation was proposed as a
means of understanding and identifying the role of social opportunities in motivating volunteers. In addition, volunteers within the heritage sector are typically older, retired individuals and the act of retirement was found to have a significant impact on their decision to volunteer.

The significance volunteers attributed to their encounters with visitors reinforced the importance of social interaction in motivating front-of-house volunteers. Three models of encounters were proposed: the service encounter, the host-guest encounter and peer tutoring. The volunteer-visitor encounter was found to be a hybrid of the three models,with volunteers gammg enjoyable social interaction and visitors learning from the encounter.


The varying terms associated with local and organic have the potential to confuse consumers as to their true meaning, especially with respect to production practices. For these reasons we examined the perceptions and misperceptions of the terms local and organic, specifically focusing on differences between U.S. and Canadian consumers. Our results show that a subset of consumers correctly identifies the main characteristics of local and organic. However, there is a subset of consumers that has inaccurate perceptions of these terms. Comparing U.S. and Canadian consumers we see numerous significant perception differences, especially with regard to local.


Premise of study Leaf morphology is dynamic, continuously deforming during leaf expansion and among leaves within a shoot. We measured leaf morphology from over 200 vines over four years, and modeled changes in leaf shape along the shoot to determine if a composite "shape of shapes" can better capture variation and predict species identity compared to individual leaves. Methods Using homologous universal landmarks found in grapevine leaves, we modeled various morphological features as a polynomial function of leaf node. The resulting functions are used to reconstruct modeled leaf shapes across shoots, generating composite leaves that comprehensively capture the spectrum of possible leaf morphologies. Results We found that composite leaves are better predictors of species identity than individual leaves from the same plant. We were able to use composite leaves to predict species identity of previously unassigned vines, which were verified with genotyping. Discussion Observations of individual leaf shape fail to capture the true diversity between species. Composite leaf shape—an assemblage of modeled leaf snapshots across the shoot—is a better representation of the dynamic and essential shapes of leaves, as well as serving as a better predictor of species identity than individual leaves.


Summary form only given. We recently proposed elastic storage, a new solution for storing a variable number of images in a fixed storage space. Initially, when only a few images are stored, they are stored losslessly (or near-losslessly). When more images have to be added, the storage space occupied by the previously stored images is adjusted to fit in each new image. A variable amount of space is allocated to each image, depending on its complexity. The implementation is based on bit-rate scalable image compression methods (such as JPEG 2000), which enable the data for each new image to simply overwrite part of the data of previously stored images. Thus, the method operates without any decoding and re-encoding of image data on the storage medium. The new strategy is implemented by a simple modification of the compressed image data block significance values used for the elastic storage method. Therefore, all basic operations (store, retrieve, delete) remain the same and the low complexity of the original strategy implementation is retained.


BACKGROUND
Inhibitors of HIV-1 protease produce a rapid decrease in plasma HIV-1 RNA, with concomitant immune reconstitution. However, severe metabolic side effects together with a previously unseen form of lipodystrophy have been associated with long-term use of protease-inhibitor therapy. The pathogenic mechanisms underlying HIV-1 protease inhibitor-associated lipodystrophy are still largely unknown.

METHODS
Fourteen HIV-infected patients with HIV-1 protease inhibitor-associated lipodystrophy had a biopsy of subcutaneous fat performed in the antero-lateral aspect of the right leg. The samples were submitted for standard pathologic study together with a careful search for adipocyte apoptosis. Apoptosis was assessed by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP-digoxigenin nick end labelling (TUNEL) method, using the ApopTag kit (Oncor, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA). The procedure was performed between three and five times for each sample. Appropriate positive and negative controls were used. Controls which were subcutaneous fat biopsies from patients with untreated melanoma were also examined for the presence of apoptosis.

RESULTS
Fourteen HIV-infected patients with a mean exposure to HIV-1 protease inhibitors of 12.6 +/- 3.7 months (range: 6-21 months), developed the characteristic features of HIV-1 protease inhibitor-associated lipodystrophy. All but one patient had an abnormal waist:hip ratio, and they all exhibited an abnormal serum lipid profile. Pathologically, subcutaneous fat atrophy was a constant feature, along with focal lipogranuloma formation and vascular proliferation. One of the eleven assessable biopsy samples was negative for the presence of apoptosis, six showed focally positive apoptotic cells, and the remaining four biopsies demonstrated moderate positivity. Apoptotic changes were also detected in endothelial cells. Apoptotic changes were more pronounced in patients with higher increases in CD4 and CD8 counts, and in those with a greater decay in plasma viral load.

CONCLUSIONS
Subcutaneous adipocyte apoptosis occurs in lipoatrophic areas of patients with HIV-1 protease inhibitor-associated lipodystrophy.


Political parties are the custodians of democracy. Following the return of democracy to Africa during the 'third' and 'fourth' waves, political parties are undergoing structural changes (from military and one-party authoritarianism to liberal multiparty systems) for the development of sustainable democracy. This paper is not about institutionalised political parties or party systems, it is about understanding the historical development of political parties and their transformational nature in relation to the development of democracy in Africa. The paper therefore identifies some critical challenges that are threatening the institutionalisation process of the parties.These include party funding and finance, party ideology, the dominant-party syndrome, ineffective civil society opposition and problems of fragile electoral institutions. The paper argues that though these problems are part of the wider socio-political and economic dilemmas inherent in Africa they are more pervasive and have a devastating affect on political parties as instruments of modern representative democracy. The paper thus contends that, given the main concerns and attributes of good governance, it is the only panacea that can wholly address the institutional problems of political parties as well as other structural and institutional obstacles to the development of sustainable democracy in Africa. Good governance is presumed here to be the ideal and pragmatic solution to such institutional obstacles.


Thermodynamically controlled deracemization of some acyclic ketones bearing a chiral center at the position α to the carbonyl group was satisfactorily achieved. Acyclic ketones with high optical purities could be isolated after treatment of the racemic ketones with base in aqueous MeOH in the presence of (–)-(2R,3R)-trans-2,3-bis(hydroxydiphenylmethyl)-1,4-dioxaspiro[5.4]decane (1a). The efficiency of the deracemization was appreciably influenced by the ratio of H2O/MeOH used as solvent.


Weak intercalated rock plays an important role in the stability of engineering rock mass. It controls the mechanism of deformation and breakage of rocks. Systematic numerical tests have been carried out to study the stability of surrounding rock mass with different distributions of weak intercalated rock has been analyzed by the FEM software ABAQUS. All of the numerical modelings are plain-strain type with elasto-plastic constitutive law and Drucker-Prager failure criterion. Some quantificational results about the influence of weak intercalated rock are summarized, especially the influence on the deformation, stress of surrounding rocks and plastic zone. Because of weak intercalated rock, the stress of surrounding rock appears the character of discontinuity. In addition, the distribution of plastic zone is also affected. When weak intercalated rocks exist in vault, spandrel and bottom, the situation of surrounding rock is comparatively unfavorable. These results have a certain role in guiding significance to the site selection and layout, the majorization of supporting system and the construction of tunnel of the same kind.


Lerner and Dempster' suggested that much of the indeterminacy observed by Park and his associates2 in competition' experiments involving two species of flour beetles, Tribolium castaneum (CS) and T. confusum (CF), was the result of genetic drift based on Mayr's founder principle.4 In Park's experiments, cultures were initiated with two pairs of beetles of each species. When in similar tests the founding population consisted of ten pairs of each species, the results were determinate.1 Should the founder principle, indeed, be of significance in the outcome of competition, it may be expected that an increase in the initial number of beetles would not only promote determinacy, but would also lower the variance of the census proportions of the two species between replicate cultures. The present report describes a test of this hypothesis in competition experiments using various strains of CS and CF, including the synthetic stocks described by Lerner and Ho,6 lines selected from these for fast and slow development by Dawson,5 and inbred lines previously reported on by Dawson and Lerner.7 Three different CS and four different CF stocks in 10 of the 12 possible interspecies combinations were used. For CS, these were the synthetic strain and two lines selected for fast and slow developmental rates, respectively, for 17 and 11 generations. The CF lines consisted of the synthetic stock, a strain selected for fast development for 13 generations, and two inbred lines CF-il and CF-11a. In a previous experiment, selection for fast developmental rate was attempted, unsuccessfully in CF-1i and with success in CF-11a. This suggested to Dawson and Lerner7 that, despite inbreeding, considerable residual genetic variation was present in CF-ha, which would also account for the previously observed indeterminism in competition experiments involving this line. The technique of the tests has been previously described.' In brief, either ten pairs or two pairs of adults of each species are placed in a vial with a constant amount of whole-wheat flour and a supplement of dried brewer's yeast. These are maintained in an incubator at 290C and 70 per cent relative humidity. At monthly intervals the contents of each vial are removed, the adults counted and discarded, and the remaining live stages transferred to fresh flour. This process is continued for each culture until three consecutive transfers show no adults of one of the species. Each set of competition cultures is carried in ten replicates. Table 1 shows the outcome of the competition, and one may readily see from it that all but one of the indeterminate sets is to be found when the founder population is small. A somewhat more convincing argument in favor of the hypothesis tested may be found in an analysis of the variability in the proportion of CS beetles between replicate cultures. Table 2 presents the relevant data. Firstly, it may be noted that the variance is indeed higher between the two-pairfounded cultures than between the ten-pair-founded ones. The comparison,


The polycrystalline chalcopyrite Cu(In,Ga)(Se,S)2 (CIGS) solar cell has been considered one of the most promising alternatives to conventional silicon solar cells, due to its achieving the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) among all the thin-film photovoltaic technologies, potentially lowered production cost and compatibility with large area flexible substrates. Unfortunately, almost all the high efficiency CIGS devices are presently fabricated via vacuum-based techniques, which still require expensive facilities and high power consumption, thus leaving the fabrication cost issue unresolved. Herein, a hydrazine-based, solution processed CIGS device with high performance has been demonstrated through the construction of a composition grading profile of the CIGS absorber layer, which enhances the charge collection efficiency and maximizes the solar spectrum absorption. ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NP), as the window layer, are proven to be an ideal alternative to sputtered ZnO, benefiting from high optical transparency, smooth and defectless interface, adjacent to the CIGS absorber layer. The CIGS solar cell with a certified PCE of 17.3% is achieved, which is the world record efficiency for solution-based CIGS solar cells, and also shortens the efficiency gap towards vacuum-based devices.


We compare the properties of ordinary strong magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in a strongly magnetized medium with the recently discovered viscosity-damped regime. We focus on energy spectra, anisotropy, and intermittency. Our most surprising conclusion is that in ordinary strong MHD turbulence, the velocity and magnetic fields show different high-order structure function scalings. Moreover, this scaling depends on whether the intermittency is viewed in a global or local system of reference. This reconciles seemingly contradictory earlier results. On the other hand, the intermittency scaling for viscosity-damped turbulence is very different and difficult to understand in terms of the usual phenomenological models for intermittency in turbulence. Our remaining results are in reasonable agreement with expectations. First, we find that our high-resolution simulations for ordinary MHD turbulence show that the energy spectra are compatible with a Kolmogorov spectrum, while viscosity-damped turbulence shows a shallow k-1 spectrum for the magnetic fluctuations. Second, a new numerical technique confirms that ordinary MHD turbulence exhibits Goldreich-Sridhar type anisotropy, while viscosity-damped MHD turbulence shows extremely anisotropic eddy structures. Finally, we show that many properties of incompressible turbulence for both the ordinary and viscosity-damped regimes carry over to the case of compressible turbulence.


This paper relates major functions at the start and end of the color vision process. The process starts with three cone photoreceptors transducing light into electrical responses. Cone sensitivities were once expected to be Red Green Blue color matching functions (to mix colors) but microspectrometry proved otherwise: they instead peak in yellowish, greenish, and blueish hues. These physiological functions are an enigma, unmatched with any set of psychophysical (behavioral) functions. The end-result of the visual process is color sensation, whose essential percepts are unique (or pure) hues red, yellow, green, blue. Unique hues cannot be described by other hues, but can describe all other hues, e.g., that hue is reddish-blue. They are carried by four opponent chromatic response curves but the literature does not specify whether each curve represents a range of hues or only one hue (a unique) over its wavelength range. Here the latter is demonstrated, confirming that opponent chromatic responses define, and may be termed, unique hue chromatic responses. These psychophysical functions also are an enigma, unmatched with any physiological functions or basis. Here both enigmas are solved by demonstrating the three cone sensitivity curves and the three spectral chromatic response curves are almost identical sets (Pearson correlation coefficients r from 0.95–1.0) in peak wavelengths, curve shapes, math functions, and curve crossover wavelengths, though previously unrecognized due to presentation of curves in different formats, e.g., log, linear. (Red chromatic response curve is largely nonspectral and thus derives from two cones.) Close correlation combined with deterministic causation implies cones are the physiological basis of unique hues. This match of three physiological and three psychophysical functions is unique in color vision.


The political, economic, and social history of present day Northwest Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, was, for the first two hundred years of European contact, a product of the fur trade. At various posts along the region's principal rivers and lakes, traders would exchange such manufactured goods as blankets, beads, guns, tobacco, and axes for native supplies of beaver, marten, and muskrat pelts. In fact, beaver was so abundant that it came to be treated as a currency throughout the Canadian North West. This trading system was highly complex, involving not only the French, Scottish, and Canadian traders who came from the St. Lawrence Valley, and the British traders who came from Hudson Bay with their financial base in England, but the various native groups as well. And the history of the fur trade is not only the story of the actual trade itself, but also that of the new society created by the intermingling of fur traders and natives in the Western interior. Refereed No Corporate University of Calgary The fur trade and Western Canadian society, 1670-1870 LIBRARIES AND CULTURAL RESOURCES  Faculty Library & Cultural Resources Publisher The Canadian Historical Association Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/29859 Uri http://hdl.handle.net/1880/44179 Collections Libraries & Cultural Resources Research & Publications Email SMS 403.220.8895 Live Chat  Privacy Policy Website feedback University of Calgary 2500 University Drive NW Calgary, AB T2N 1N4 CANADA Copyright © 2017


Introduction: The out-of-pocket expenditure is quite high in Punjab. Hence, a rapid review of health facilities was undertaken to suggest remedial measures. Methods: Mixed method research approach was used to identify strengths and weaknesses of the health services in Punjab. All health institutions were included in the assessment from the three purposively sampled districts – one from each of the three regions of Punjab. Tools were developed to collect data from record review, observations, and in-depth interviews. Six building blocks framework proposed by the World Health Organization was used for data collection and analyses. Results: In general physical infrastructure, especially the buildings were found to be reasonably constructed at most of the healthcare facilities. However, the maintenance was not regular. The vacancies for general doctors, specialist doctors, nurses, and paramedics were 26%, 38%, 31% and 12% respectively. Supply of drugs was irregular and inadequate. A large proportion (45%) of 'user charges' were spent on purchase of drugs and other consumables. Most registers were found to be updated, and reports were transmitted to higher levels usually on time. However, institutionalized system of monitoring and supervision was lacking. Govt. hospitals were providing in-patient care to about 35.5% of those who were estimated to need hospitalization. State had allocated about Rs. 1200 crores to health (0.46% of GDP), thus, spending only Rs. 433 per capita per year. Conclusions: Despite constraints, the government health service is catering to the needs of a large section of the population. Rapid health system assessment at periodic intervals using a mixed method approach can supplement routine monitoring of the health system.


This paper uses uniquely rich and representative data on the unit values of "outputs" (products) and inputs of Colombian manufacturing plants to draw inferences about the extent of quality differentiation at the plant level. We extend the Melitz (2003) framework to include heterogeneity of inputs and a complementarity between plant productivity and input quality in producing output quality and we show that the resulting model carries distinctive implications for two simple reduced-form correlations – between output prices and plant size and between input prices and plant size – and for how those correlations vary across sectors. We then document three plant level facts: (1) output prices are positively correlated with plant size within industries, on average; (2) input prices are positively correlated with plant size within industries, on average; and (3) both correlations are more positive in industries with more scope for quality differentiation, as measured by the advertising and R&D intensity of U.S. firms. The correlations between export status and input and output prices are similar to those for plant size. These facts are consistent with our model of quality differentiation of both outputs and inputs, and difficult to reconcile with models that assume homogeneity or symmetry of either set of goods. Beyond recommending an amendment of the Melitz (2003) model, the results highlight shortcomings of standard methods of productivity estimation, generalize and provide an explanation for the well-known employer size-wage effect, and suggest new channels through which liberalization of trade in output markets may affect input markets and vice-versa.


Individuals differ appreciably and consistently in the magnitude of their inflammatory responses to acute stressors. These individual differences in acute stressor-evoked inflammatory responses may be one biological mechanism that contributes to heightened risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and other inflammatory diseases. Critically, the clinical implications and physiological origins of these responses remain relatively unexplored. This thesis addresses these questions by testing whether magnitude of stressor-evoked interleukin(IL)-6 responses relate to (1) markers of cardiovascular disease risk (i.e., systemic inflammation and atherosclerotic CVD risk) or (2) stressor-evoked parasympathetic nervous system responses. Participants were 91 healthy midlife adults (30-51 years; 33% female; 68% white) who completed a laboratory stress protocol consisting of two mental stress tasks: a multisource interference task and Stroop color word task. During the protocol, cardiovascular psychophysiological measures were assessed and blood samples were drawn after a 30-min baseline and 30-min after task completion. Systemic inflammation was indicated by basal levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and preclinical atherosclerotic CVD risk was assessed with intima-media thickness. Parasympathetic nervous system activity was measured by high frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV). Hierarchical linear regressions controlling for age, sex, race, and BMI tested whether stressor-evoked IL-6 responses were associated with basal CRP, intima media thickness, and stressor-evoked HF-HRV responses. Ancillary analyses assessed whether these relationships differed by sex. Primary analyses indicated that there were no significant associations between stressor-evoked IL-6 responses and CRP, intima-media thickness, or HF-HRV responses. However, ancillary analyses revealed that sex and stressor-evoked IL-6 responses interacted to predict CRP (ΔR2 = .08, B = -1.33, β = -.39, p = .02); in males, larger stressor-evoked IL-6 responses associated with higher CRP while in females, larger stressor-evoked IL-6 responses associated with lower CRP. These findings indicate that inflammatory responses to acute stressors associate with resting levels of CRP; however, this association differs by sex. Previous literature suggests that there are sex differences in stressor-evoked IL-6 responses, but this is the first study to show sex differences in the relationship between acute inflammatory responses and systemic inflammation. The contribution of these sex differences to inflammatory disease risk warrants further investigation.


SUMMARY We have examined several taxonomic features of a number of strains of Eimeria from many sources world wide. The strains were isolated on the basis of their small spherical (or sub-spherical) oocysts. From a study of mean oocyst dimensions, electrophoretic variation of enzymes, ability to develop in embryonated eggs, absence of gross lesions in heavily infected chickens, and cross-immunity, all the strains were found to belong to one species. For convenience, the parasites when isolated, were referred to as strains of E. mitis/mivati-type, but after characterization they were clearly found to be E. mitis. In contrast, a laboratory strain of E. mivati supplied to one of us (M.W.S.) was found to be a mixture of E. acervulina and E. mitis. Evidence from these and other studies supports the notion that E. mivati is a nomina dubia.


Populations of large herbivores frequently display divergent migratory strategies, a likely consequence of the trade-off between the costs and benefits of migration. Globally, physical and environmental barriers disrupt migrations, leading to increased residency, which can have detrimental consequences. In the Okavango Delta, Botswana, veterinary cordon fences erected in 1982 may have caused enforced residency in some subpopulations of Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer caffer). We used data from GPS-enabled collars fitted to females in 1 resident and 1 migratory subpopulation of buffalo to test the hypotheses that 1) residents have access to less-productive forage than migrants, 2) residents occupy smaller home ranges and live in smaller herds than migrants, 3) reproductive productivity is lower in resident herds, and 4) residents have poorer body condition than migrants. Forage characteristics varied between resident and migrant ranges, both between and within seasons. Reproductive productivity and body condition did not differ between subpopulations, but residents occupied smaller home ranges during the rainy season and lived in smaller herds than migrants. Enforced residency could have decreased carrying capacity when the fence was erected, so resident buffalo may have adapted by forming smaller herds, allowing them to maintain their body condition. The area that residents occupied was located in a more central region of the Okavango Delta than that of migrants; therefore, this area would receive higher levels of nutrients from the annual flood, which would have increased heterogeneity in resident ranges, potentially compensating for effects of disrupted migrations. These results highlight the importance of conserving landscapes with spatially and temporally heterogeneous resources to buffer effects of anthropogenic activities such as artificial barriers on migrations.


Introduction Reduced susceptibility to azithromycin (AziRS) is increasing in frequency in Neisseria gonorrhoeae. We have shown that non-gonococcal alleles at the mtr operon, encoding the MtrCDE efflux pump and the transcription repressor, are associated with AziRS and sought to define further their role in resistance. Methods We transformed a susceptible strain (MIC <0.125 µg/mL) using gDNA from gonococcal donors carrying mosaic mtr loci and selected for AziRS (MIC ≥2 µg/mL) transformants. We sequenced the transformants' genomes to define the transformed DNA, compared growth rates of parent and transformant strains, described the phylogenetic distribution of mtrR, mtrC, mtrD, and mtrE alleles across Neisserial species, and defined the sequence diversity and π at these loci. Results Transformation studies confirm mosaic mtr alleles cause AziRS. Phylogenetic patterns support frequent AziRS-associated recombination of mtrR, mtrC, and mtrD between N. gonorrhoeae and other Neisseria. Conversely, 16 S and mtrE displayed almost exclusive species-based clade topology and no recombination events associated with AziRS. Within gonococcal populations, reduced nucleotide diversity at mtrE (n=1102, π=0.0054) compared to mtrRCD (π=0.014) suggests either equal rates of interspecific recombination across the mtr operon with increased levels of purifying selection acting to purge the introduction of novel alleles at mtrE, or a 'hotspot' of interspecific recombination at mtrRCD. Recombination of mosaic mtr alleles into novel gonococcal genomic backgrounds does not deleteriously affect growth rate in vitro, raising questions regarding the associated fitness cost. Conclusion This work supports that Neisseria serve as a reservoir of gonococcal AziRS through interchange of mtr alleles. The genomic epidemiological evidence of multiple acquisitions of these alleles underscores the importance of screening for mtr mosaics to prevent outbreaks of AziRS.


The present text discusses the significance of the postmodern condition in contemporary archaeology. Five themes associated with postmodernism are discussed (a) the relativization of truth, knowledge, and meaning, (b) the fragmentation of the grand narrative, (c) the relation between agency and discourse, (d) pluralism, multivocality, and heterogeneity, and (e) rhetoric and styles of writing. In contemporary debate it has been suggested that postmodernism is a past phase and that these contested issues have become less important. It is, however, argued here that these are by no means resolved, but rather bypassed by shifting focus to archaeology as a contemporary practice or, in theoretical terms, towards particularistic neo-materialist ontologies.


Wireless sensors network has been widely used in a real-time monitor, percept or gather physical information such as light, temperature, humidity, noise or Concentration of harmful gas. With its simple and efficient characteristics, Ant colony algorithm has been widely used in WSN rout. An energy efficient rout algorithm based on ant was shown in this article, in which an energy-related descending parameter was used. The improved algorithm avoids excessive repetition use in the network link, in order to use the network energy effectively, and at the same time transmission rate is also guaranteed.


Patients with gastric and esophageal (GE) adenocarcinoma tumors in which the oncogene ERBB2 has been amplified are routinely treated with a combination of cytotoxic chemotherapy and the ERBB2-directed antibody trastuzumab; however, the addition of trastuzumab, even when tested in a selected biomarker-positive patient population, provides only modest survival gains. To investigate the potential reasons for the modest impact of ERBB2-directed therapies, we explored the hypothesis that secondary molecular features of ERBB2-amplified GE adenocarcinomas attenuate the impact of ERBB2 blockade. We analyzed genomic profiles of ERBB2-amplified GE adenocarcinomas and determined that the majority of ERBB2-amplified tumors harbor secondary oncogenic alterations that have the potential to be therapeutically targeted. These secondary events spanned genes involved in cell-cycle regulation as well as phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase and receptor tyrosine kinase signaling. Using ERBB2-amplified cell lines, we demonstrated that secondary oncogenic events could confer resistance to ERBB2-directed therapies. Moreover, this resistance could be overcome by targeting the secondary oncogene in conjunction with ERBB2-directed therapy. EGFR is commonly coamplified with ERBB2, and in the setting of ERBB2 amplification, higher EGFR expression appears to mark tumors with greater sensitivity to dual EGFR/ERBB2 kinase inhibitors. These data suggest that combination inhibitor strategies, guided by secondary events in ERBB2-amplified GE adenocarcinomas, should be evaluated in clinical trials.


Introduction Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory disease of the colonic mucosa driven by a Th2-like response in which IL-13 leads to toxic effects to the mucosa and activation of the IL-13/STAT6 pathways. Inhibition of STAT6 activation has been shown to reduce the inflammatory response in UC. MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs inhibiting gene expression by pairing to the 3' UnTranslated Region (3'UTR) of their target mRNAs facilitating their translational repression/degradation. MiR-31 and miR-155 have been shown to be up-regulated in active UC and are involved in the regulation of innate and adaptive immune responses. Both microRNAs have been identified to target IL13Rα1. Methods Paired biopsies from inflamed and non-inflamed areas of the sigmoid colon were taken in 11 UC patients. MicroRNA expression and mRNA expression of IL-13 dependant genes were assessed by qPCR. In vitro experiments on a human colonic cell line (HT-29 cells) and a macrophage/monocytic cell line (THP-1 cells) were stimulated with IL-13. SOCS1 and IL13Rα1 mRNA expression were measured by qPCR in the presence or absence of transfection with pre-miR-31, pre-miR-155 or a combination of both. Data were analysed using the Wilcoxon matched pairs test. Results Our data shows a significant up-regulation of miR-31 and miR-155, as well as significant increase of IL-13 dependant mRNA expression of CCL18, SOCS1, Serpine and MMP-9 and a decrease of IL13Rα1 mRNA expression by 30% in the active segments of UC as compared to inactive disease. In vitro experiments on HT-29 cells and on THP-1 cells showed a marked reduction of mRNA expression of SOCS1 and IL13Rα1 in both cell types after treatment with pre-miR-31 and pre-miR-155 and their combination at a quarter of the original dose of each single pre-miR was equally efficacious. Conclusion Our data reveals a clear up-regulation of miR-31 and miR-155 in inflamed UC as compared to neighbouring inactive tissue in the same patient. IL-13 dependant mRNA expression is also significantly increased in the same samples. The fact that IL13Rα1 mRNA expression is down-regulated in active disease in the presence of high levels of miR-31 and miR-155 may indicate a protective role for these microRNAs attempting to reduce IL13Rα1 expression and therefore the STAT6 pathway activation by IL-13 through IL13Rα1. Reduction of IL13Rα1 mRNA expression in our in vitro models transfected with pre-miRs confirms this finding. Interestingly the combination of the two microRNAs at lower doses achieving the same effect may indicate a possible synergy of action. MicroRNAs targeting IL13Rα1 in UC could have a potential therapeutic effect by down-regulation of the IL-13/STAT6 pathway and combination of microRNAs may have a synergistic effect. Competing interests None declared.


The synthesis and the quadratic nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of (4-(4′-dimethylaminophenyl)pyridine)chromium and tungsten pentacarbonyl are reported. Experimentally, the chromophores exhibit molecular hyperpolarizabilities (β) equal to 15.5 and 21.7 × 10−30 cm5 esu−1, respectively at 1.064 μm, which arise from a charge transfer capability along the molecular C2 symmetry axis, in relation to the π-conjugated structure of the ligand. At a more fundamental level, these molecules have been investigated as possible synthetic targets to illustrate the ZINDO prediction that, in chromophores with one-dimensional charge transfer capabilities a specific set of substituents could be found to switch the β direction, on passing from a ground state geometry with co-planar aromatic rings to a conformation in which the rings are perpendicular. Due to the C2 symmetry requirement, this situation implies that β is necessarily vanishing for a specific conformation. The possibilities to observe experimentally and to use this intriguing effect in a perspective of a molecular switch are critically evaluated.


ABSTRACT Current sexuality education programs vary widely in the accuracy of content, emphasis, and effectiveness. Data have shown that not all programs are equally effective for all ages, races and ethnicities, socioeconomic groups, and geographic areas. Studies have demonstrated that comprehensive sexuality education programs reduce the rates of sexual activity, sexual risk behaviors (eg, number of partners and unprotected intercourse), sexually transmitted infections, and adolescent pregnancy. One key component of an effective program is encouraging community-centered efforts. In addition to counseling and service provision to individual adolescent patients, obstetrician–gynecologists can serve parents and communities by supporting and assisting sexuality education. Because of their knowledge, experience, and awareness of a community's unique challenges, obstetrician–gynecologists can be an important resource for sexuality education programs.


Cicatricose spores have been described from Cretaceous basins worldwide. A complete revision of previous records from Argentina and other parts of South America is presented here, as well as the results of a detailed taxonomic study of the species found in the La Yesera and Lagarcito formations (north and central-western Argentina, respectively). Four genera and 11 species are described: Cicatricosisporites cuneiformis, C. pramparoana, C. sp. 1, Fisciniasporites sp. cf. F. brevilaesuratus, F. sp., Nodosisporites sp., Ruffordiaspora australiens is, R. cardielensis, R. ludbrookiae, R. cf. R. ticoensis and R. sp. 1. The genus Fisciniasporites is recorded for the first time in Argentina (in the La Yesera Formation), and similarly Nodosisporites in the San Luis Basin. The abundance of cicatricose spores is higher in the La Yesera Formation (8–54.2% of the total assemblage) than in the Lagarcito Formation (2–16%). An acme of cicatricose spore diversity in Argentina was recognised during the Aptian—Albian interval. Taxonomic studies of these types of spores are very important as they constitute a useful example of accurate descriptions and illustrations within a morphological group that has many misidentifications, and also considering the biostratigraphical significance of some species, e.g. Cicatricosisporites cuneiformis in Australia.


A temporal-spatial scheduling model is used to consider the location and movement of equipment, material and temporary structures on a construction site over time, ensuring efficient yet safe processes. The model ties together activity scheduling and dynamic site layout planning, fully integrating two domains that have so far been treated separately. Their integration is facilitated by modeling temporary site objects like cranes as singularity functions. These objects are explicitly linked in the model with work spaces through Boolean operators.


This article reports on English-Italian code-switching in a Facebook group of university students. The aim of the study is to describe the students' interactional practices and their alternate use of English and Italian as lingua francas. 773 posts and comments written by 81 members of the group were analysed in a pragmatic and conversational perspective. The study shows that code-switching was ruled by precise norms of interaction and served to manage participant constellations. It also facilitated mutual understanding among students with different degree of language competence, and contributed to the creation of the plurilingual 'small culture' of the group.


: Imaging technologies have experienced rapid progress and are currently used widely both in medical diagnostics and in research. Imaging beyond X-ray and standard MRI became established in recent years. The extended set of imaging methodologies available allows methods to be selected according to the actual needs or even the combination of different imaging principles to obtain further improved read-outs. The symposium consisted of four overview lectures. Three speakers from academia and one speaker from industry described different techniques, recent developments and future needs from various perspectives in the lectures entitled: Non-Invasive Imaging in Biomedical Research: Annotating Structure with Molecular Information; Molecular Imaging with PET Tracers and Animal PET Scanners; Nuclear (PET-and SPECT-) Imaging Agents from Research to Approval (Perspectives from a Pharma Company Working on in vivo Diagnostics); Cognitive Neuroscience and Brain Imaging.


Two field trials were conducted in autumn-sown wheat cv. Domino, which is highly susceptible to speckled leaf blotch, in Central and South Canterbury. Eighteen fungicide treatments were applied at two growth stages (tillering and ear emergence) at the manufacturer's recommended rates. Severity of speckled leaf blotch and other diseases was assessed on several occasions. Speckled leaf blotch was severe in the South Canterbury trial, but only low levels of the disease were recorded in the central Canterbury trial. Most fungicides reduced disease severity and increased yield, especially in the South Canterbury trial, where disease pressure was highest and yield increases greater than 30% were recorded. The second fungicide application appeared to provide most of the increase in yield. The increases in thousand grain weights following fungicide applications contributed approximately one-third of the total yield increases in the South Canterbury trial and half in the


We demonstrate S-parameter characterization of membrane circuits in the WR-03 frequency band (220-325 GHz) utilizing thru-reflect-line (TRL) -calibration technique. The TRL calibration kit design features 3 μm thick GaAs membrane circuits packaged in E-plane split waveguide blocks with the reference planes inside the membrane circuit structure. A 300 GHz membrane ring resonator filter circuit has been characterized by applying the proposed calibration kit, showing good agreement with simulations.


Interferon-gamma produced by the human myelomonocyte cell line HBL-38 contained galactose, mannose, fucose, N-acetylglucosamine, and N-acetylneuraminic acid as sugar components. Sugar chains were liberated from interferon-gamma by hydrazinolysis. Free amino groups of the sugar chains were acetylated and the reducing-end sugar residues were tagged with 2-aminopyridine under new reaction conditions in which no sialic acid residue was hydrolyzed. The pyridylamino (PA-) derivatives of the sugar chains thus obtained were purified by gel filtration and reversed-phase HPLC. Seven major PA-sugar chains were isolated and the structure of each purified PA-sugar chain was identified by stepwise exoglycosidase digestion and 500-mHz 1H-NMR spectroscopy. The results indicated that the structures of the major PA-sugar chains were of the biantennary type, to which 0 to 2 mol of fucose and 1 to 2 mol of N-acetylneuraminic acid were linked as shown below. (formula; see text)


The Issaquah Creek basin is an urbanizing watershed of 144 square km in western Washington, where sediment aggradation of the main channel and delivery of fine sediment into a large downstream lake have raised serious local and regional concerns. The basin has many water quality problems that may be associated with erosion occurring throughout the watershed. The water quality of Lake Sammamish, located at the outlet of the basin, is degrading with time, and fine sediment entering the lake from the watershed is a likely source of phosphorus during periods of lake anoxia. Additionally, there are flood-prone areas in the basin, particularly along the mainstem of Issaquah Creek in downtown Issaquah, that may be exacerbated by channel aggradation and subsequent reductions in flow conveyance. Another potential in-channel concern is the effect of fine sediment on spawning gravel for the salmon species that occupy Issaquah Creek. A sediment budget was constructed for this mixed-use, rapidly developing watershed to evaluate the relative effects of land-use practices, including urbanization, on watershed-scale sediment supply and delivery. It also can be used to identify the major sources of sediment, and thus guide the most effective remedial measures.