ABSTRACT The paper examines the performance of accounting and finance students entering university via a 'widening participation' scheme that seeks to attract students who have been historically under-represented in higher education. Focus is placed on the policy of providing contextual entry offers that recognise that academic qualifications be judged in the social context in which they were achieved. Accounting and finance recruits the highest proportion of 'widening participation' students at a UK 'Russell Group' university and provides a key arena for investigating widening participation policy. The study is based on a quantitative analysis of relative performance levels over 12 years and interview findings with 27 students. The quantitative results show that those receiving contextual offers perform at least as well at university level as students with equivalent entry qualifications, thereby supporting contextual entry offer policy. The paper also provides insights into why accounting and finance is popular with 'widening participation' students.


ABSTRACT The article aims to contribute to the still relatively unexplored area of the relationship between gender and online political participation. Using two complementary methods – a representative, post-election survey of the adult Czech population and a content analysis of communication on the selected Czech political parties' Facebook profiles during the campaign for the 2013 Parliamentary Elections – we attempt to challenge some established assumptions regarding the allegedly equalizing effect of the Internet and social media on participatory behaviour of men and women. While survey data discovered subtle yet statistically significant differences between men and women in some online expressive activities on Facebook, mainly commenting on other users' statuses, content analysis further revealed that there are not only notable gender gaps among the Facebook users who commented on the campaign, but also differences in the tone of communication produced by the respective gender groups, with men posting more negative comments addressed to parties as well as to other Facebook users. We suggest that these results question the prevailing perception about the narrowing of the 'gender gap' in the online environment and call for a more nuanced methodological approach to different forms of online political expression.


We investigate respiratory flow phenomena in a reconstructed upper airway model of an intubated neonate undergoing invasive mechanical ventilation, spanning conventional to high-frequency ventilation (HFV) modes. Using high-speed tomographic particle image velocimetry, we resolve transient, three-dimensional flow fields and observe a persistent jet flow exiting the endotracheal tube whose strength is directly modulated according to the ventilation protocol. We identify this synthetic jet as the dominating signature of convective flow under intubated ventilation. Concurrently, our in silico wall shear stress analysis reveals a hitherto overlooked source of ventilator-induced lung injury as a result of jet impingement on the tracheal carina, suggesting damage to the bronchial epithelium; this type of injury is known as biotrauma. We find HFV advantageous in mitigating the intensity of such impingement, which may contribute to its role as a lung protective method. Our findings may encourage the adoption of less invasive ventilation procedures currently used in neonatal intensive care units.


The question "artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) is therapy or not?" is one of the key point of end-of-life issues in Italy, since it was (and it is also nowadays) a strategic and crucial point of the Italian Bioethics discussion about the last phases of human life: determining if ANH is therapy implies the possibility of being included in the list of treatments that could be mentioned for refusal within the living will document. But who is entitled to decide and judge if ANH is a therapy or not? Scientists? The Legislator? Judges? Patients? This issue at first sight seems just a matter of science, but at stake there is more than a scientific definition.
According to several scholars, we are in the era of post-academic Science, in which Science broaden discussion, production, negotation and decision to other social groups that are not just the scientific communities. In this process, called co-production, on one hand scientific knowledge derives from the interaction between scientists and society at large. On the other hand, science is functional to co-production of social order. The continuous negotation on which science has to be used in social decisions is just the evidence of the mirroring negotation for different way to structure and interpret society. Thus, in the interaction between Science and Law, deciding what kind of Science could be suitable for a specific kind of Law, envisages a well defined idea of society behind this choice.
I have analysed both the legislative path (still in progress) in the living will act production in Italy and Eluana Englaro's judicial case (that somehow collapsed in the living will act negotiation), using official documents (hearings, texts of the official conference, committees comments and ruling texts) and interviewing key actors in the two processes from the science communication point of view (who talks in the name of science? Who defines what is a therapy? And how do they do?), finding support on the theoretical framework of the Science&Technologies Studies (S&TS).


This study reports on the development in road traffic accidents in Nigeria since 1994. The preliminary survey took Edo state, one of the 36 constituent States of Nigeria, as a case study. An intervention model, which is a combination of an ARIMA noise and dichotomous models, was employed in analyzing a seven-year monthly accident time series obtained from the Federal Office of Statistics and the Federal Road Safety Corps of Nigeria. The Durbin Watson's test statistic, used to ascertain the adequacy of our ARIMA predictive model, suggested that the intervention model adopted has a good fit. The study points up a significant reduction in the rate of road traffic accidents through multiple policy interventions of Nigeria.


This thesis is motivated by the large variety of high-temperature superconductors that contain iron in the superconducting layer. This number has grown rapidly since the discovery in 2008 of the iron-pnictides (and chalcogenides), where iron and arsenic form the superconducting layer. Also of interest are the iron-cuprate hybrid materials, where one out of three copper atoms is replaced by iron. The aim is to understand the superconducting, magnetic and electronic properties of these materials in respect to their iron content. This thesis describes some of these properties for the iron-pnictide compounds of CeFeAsO₁₋xFx and AFe₂As₂ (A=Ba, Sr), and for the ironcuprate hybrids of FeSr₂YCu₂O₆₊y and FeSr₂Y₂₋xCexCu₂O₁₀₋y.  Here it has been found that CeFeAsO₁₋xFx follows a 3D fluctuation conductivity above the superconducting transition and the thermal activation energy is correlated to the critical current density within a two fluid-flux creep model below the superconducting transition. NMR measurements show that there is considerable charge disorder within the superconducting doping region. The AFe₂As₂ show a positive magnetoresistance, which could be interpreted through three-carrier transport. Superconducting samples of SrFe₂As₂ display a large enhancement in the magnetoresistance below the superconducting transition up to 1600 %, which is due to three-carrier transport through metallic and superconducting regions in an inhomogeneous state.  The superconducting properties of the iron-cuprate FeSr₂YCu₂O₆₊y in respect to the location of iron was studied under the influence of electron and hole doping and with additional magnetic impurities. FeSr₂Y₂₋xCexCu₂O₁₀₋y shows a disorder induced spin-glass state and strong localization depending on the doping.


We show that for the problem of $\ell_p$ rank-$k$ approximation of any given matrix over $R^{n\times m}$ and $C^{n\times m}$, the algorithm of column subset selection enjoys approximation ratio $(k+1)^{1/p}$ for $1\le p\le 2$ and $(k+1)^{1-1/p}$ for $p\ge 2$. This improves upon the previous $O(k+1)$ bound (Chierichetti et al.,2017) for $p\ge 1$. We complement our analysis with lower bounds; these bounds match our upper bounds up to constant 1 when $p\geq 2$. At the core of our techniques is an application of Riesz-Thorin interpolation theorem from harmonic analysis, which might be of independent interest to other algorithmic designs and analysis more broadly. Our analysis results in improvements on approximation guarantees of several other algorithms with various time complexity. For example, to make the algorithm of column subset selection computationally efficient, we analyze a polynomial time bi-criteria algorithm which selects $O(k\log m)$ number of columns. We show that this algorithm has an approximation ratio of $O((k+1)^{1/p})$ for $1\le p\le 2$ and $O((k+1)^{1-1/p})$ for $p\ge 2$. This improves over the bound in (Chierichetti et al.,2017) with an $O(k+1)$ approximation ratio. Our bi-criteria algorithm also implies an exact-rank method in polynomial time with a slightly larger approximation ratio.


Logistics networks configuration is such kind of problems concerning facility location, production a nd distribution planning along the whole process of material flow. Abundant research has been done in this field from modeling by considering different scenarios to methods such as different heuristic methods. However, the models do not consider the influence of the important postponement strategy on logistics networks in the era of mass customization. Furthermore, the multi-commodity models till now do not consider the influence of commonality among products. In this paper, a logistics network model considering product commonality and postponement is formulated. This model is expected t o be used to analyze the impacts of commonality and postponement strategies on location-allocation decisions in logi stics network planning.


From the early to mid 2000s, economists, pundits, and other commentators engaged in heated debate about the possibility of a bubble in the U.S. housing market. Prognosticating in a variety of public forums, debaters divided along largely ideological lines, with adherents of mainstream neoclassical economics producing a forceful narrative accord that a bubble was unlikely or impossible. Approaching this debate as a case of the powerful discourses that strive to keep markets intervention-free, this essay explores market bubbles as sites of discursive tension and professional stigma, seeking to understand how the allegation of a bubble imbricates expectations of decorum and provokes a constraining rhetorical response. With particular attention to the phenomenon of "bubble denial," I highlight how rhetorical strategies of definition, insult, and risk dismissal functioned to sustain market confidence, discredit bubble predictors, and habituate decision makers to evolving market risk.


Impairment of insulin secretion from pancreatic β–cell constitutes an important pathophysiological factor in the development of diabetes mellitus. The changes of intracellular concentration of Na + , K + , Ca ++ and Mg ++ were observed in substimulatory and stimulatory different glucose concentrations. Pancreatic islets from Long-Evans rats were isolated by collagenase digestion. The concentrations of ions expressed in terms of islet protein in the homogenized islets were measured by using an ion-sensitive electrode based autoanalyzer. In the physiological medium, the islet content of all the four ions increased significantly in response to glucose with maximum level at 11 mM and no further increase at 20 mM. Initial depolarizing effect of glucose is due to reduction of K + permeability. The reduction of K + permeability by glucose in β–cell is a major step in stimulus-secretion coupling for insulin release. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jdnmch.v18i2.16016 J. Dhaka National Med. Coll. Hos. 2012; 18 (02): 17-20


Pastereulla multocida organisms were separated from the blood of experimentally infected turkeys by differential centrifugation. An average of 92% of the residual host-cell contamination was removed from the pasteurellas by density gradient centrifugation in sucrose. Sucrose suspensions of the turkey-grown pasteurellas partially lysed after freezing and thawing. Treatment of freeze-thawed suspensions with DNAse, hyaluronidase, lysozyme, EDTA, and Triton X-100 did not influence their ability to induce protection against homologous and heterologous serotype challenge exposures. Lysozyme, EDTA, and Triton X-100 completely lysed the pasteurellas and rendered the cross-protection factor(s) filterable. Addition of adjuvant to completely lysed P multocida did not appear to enhance protection in turkeys against heterologous serotype challenge exposure. Adjuvant added to the pellet or supernatant fraction of centrifuged complete lysate enhanced protection in turkeys. Vaccines prepared from different serotypes of turkey-grown P multocida protected chickens and mice against homologous and heterologous serotype challenge exposures.


The activity in the gustatory nerve from the anterior part of the tongue, the chorda tympani proper nerve, has been recorded during stimulation of the tongue of a New World monkey, Saguinus midas tamarin. A series of 0.3 M sugars and 0.07 M NaCl, 0.07 M sucrose, 0.004 M acetic acid and 0.00005 M quinine hydrochloride were used as taste stimuli. The concentrations of the last four stimuli were the same as those earlier found to be the lowest concentrations at which this monkey in behavioural experiments discriminates between them and water. The records showed that these threshold concentrations all elicited a neural response. Further, the neural activities during stimulation with the series of 0.3 M sugars were recorded. Using the amplitudes of the responses as a measure, the order between them was found to be fructose greater than glucose greater than lactose greater than arabinose greater than sucrose = galactose greater than raffinose. This order was discussed and related with the order found in behavioural experiments. With both methods, fructose seemed to be the strongest stimulus, but then the order among the sugars differed.


BACKGROUND & AIMS
This study investigated whether obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic factors are independently associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), stratified by hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) serostatus, and explored the possible joint influence of obesity/diabetes and HBV/HCV infections on the risk of HCC.

METHODS
A total of 23,820 residents in Taiwan were recruited and followed up for 14 years. All analyses were stratified by hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and antibody to HCV (anti-HCV) at enrollment, and 218 subjects positive for both seromarkers were excluded. Incident HCC cases were identified via linkage to the national cancer registry. Multivariate-adjusted relative risk (RR(a)) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models.

RESULTS
Extreme obesity (body mass index >or=30 kg/m(2)) was independently associated with a 4-fold risk of HCC (RR(a), 4.13; 95% CI, 1.38-12.4) among anti-HCV-seropositive subjects and a 2-fold risk (RR(a), 2.36; 95% CI, 0.91-6.17) in persons without HBV and HCV infections, after controlling for other metabolic components, but not in HBsAg-seropositive subjects (RR(a), 1.36; 95% CI, 0.64-2.89). Diabetes was associated with HCC in all 3 groups, with the highest risk in those with HCV infection (RR(a), 3.52; 95% CI, 1.29-9.24) and lowest in HBV carriers (RR(a), 2.27; 95% CI, 1.10-4.66). We found more than 100-fold increased risk in HBV or HCV carriers with both obesity and diabetes, indicating synergistic effects of metabolic factors and hepatitis.

CONCLUSIONS
The finding that both obesity and diabetes are predictors of HCC risk, possibly differently depending on HBV and HCV infection status, may shed some light in preventing HCC.


The regime for public bodies has always been problematic in the overall system of EU VAT. In recent years the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has handed down rulings leading to unexpected developments in this connection. These rulings cast light on the scope of the economic activity and relevant transactions carried out by public bodies as well as on the activity of bodies controlled and funded by the public sector. The CJEU has ruled that in certain cases bodies established as private companies may be considered 'other bodies governed by public law', and narrowed the 'major distortion of competition' exception set forth in Article 13 CSVD. These developments indicate a general orientation of the CJEU adapting the provisions in the Directive to the current economic scenario where the distinction between public and private is increasingly difficult to draw.


In this study, a method for free vibration analysis of wall-frame systems built on weak soil is proposed. In the development of the method, the wall-frame system that constitutes the superstructure was modeled as flexural-shear beam. In the study, it is accepted that the soil layers are isotropic, homogeneous and elastic, and the waves are only vertical propagating shear waves. Based on this assumption, the soil layer below is modeled as an equivalent shear beam. Then the differential equation system that represented the behavior of the whole system was written for both regions in a separate way. Natural periods were obtained by solving the differential equations by employing boundary conditions. At the end of the study, two examples were solved and the suitability of the proposed method to the Finite Element Method was evaluated.


Our research examines the effect of combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan on casualties. We use restricted data from the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) and Social Security Administration (SSA) to construct a panel of all U.S. Active Duty service members having served at some point during the years 2001-2012. Casualties disproportionately occur at higher rates among (i) young, white, males (ii) enlisted personnel (iii) less educated personnel (iv) and those in combat job types. Our estimates indicate that overall U.S. military personnel who deployed in an individual year to Iraq or Afghanistan had a 48 per 100,000 higher probability of death than non-deployed military personnel who remained stateside. The increased fatal injury risk of deployed U.S. military personnel is 15 times higher than the national average civilian workplace fatality rate, but roughly equal to the fatal injury risk faced in some of the most dangerous civilian occupations. Our estimates suggest a compensating wage differential equal to $808 per month would be appropriate, in comparison to the current status quo of $225 per month in danger pay (and additional tax benefits) provided to U.S. military personnel deployed into combat zones. The additional compensation should also be adjusted by service or job type.


The paper is dedicated to research on flexible rotor systems with anisotropic rotor material properties. In addition, the anisotropy of rotor supports alters the rotor system resonance frequencies and the machine has to pass till it attains the operating angular speed. This phenomenon of rotor vibration is observed in vertical rotors. The aim of this work is to compare experimental vibration measurements and results of theoretical modeling. In the paper theoretical model, created from physical one of really existing rotor system is described. Collected experimental data of rotor vibrations in bearings are compared with results of theoretically derived equations. The results of theoretical modeling and research enables for estimation of a more precise technical condition of the rotor system both after the overhaul and during the maintenance and thus to avoid unexpected breakdowns, especially concerning the fatigue development in ball bearing elements.


Background: Brain metastases have increased over time, and imaging has been considered an important diagnostic tool. In Indonesia, the record of metastatic brain tumors is limited. Therefore, understanding the epidemiology and the imaging characteristics of brain metastases will provide insights into a better diagnosis, management, and therapy towards the disease. This study aimed to evaluate the characteristics of patients with metastatic brain tumors.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Neurology Unit at Dr. Soetomo Hospital in Surabaya, Indonesia from August 2018 - July 2019. Patients with metastatic brain tumors were enrolled in the study. Data demographics, clinical, and brain imaging characteristics were collected from the patients' Brain Tumor Registry. Computerized tomography (CT) scan and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to assess the images of the brain metastases. Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) was used to assess the patient's cognitive function.
Results: Of the total 22 subjects, 14 (63.6%) were male, 13 (59.1%) aged ≥50 years. Headache was the most common clinical symptom, reported by 78.2% of patients. Most of the patients (63.3%) had MMSE score of ≤ 23. CT-scan and MRI imaging suggested that multiple lesions were the most common, 57.8% and 71.4%, respectively. The brain tumor's most frequent was in the parietal and temporal lobes (CT-scan imaging) and temporal and cerebellar lobes based on MRI. Lung tumors were the most common source of brain metastases (50%), followed by breast and nasopharynx cancers (13.6% each); 9% had unknown sources.
Conclusions: Our study suggests that the frequency of metastatic brain tumors is gender and age-specific. Headache with early stage of dementia is common among patients with metastatic brain tumor. Multiple lesions in parietal and temporal lobes with lung cancer as the source are common.


Hypothesis: Compared to the flawed antimicrobial interventions, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is more efficacious and safer in offering a significant clinical resolution of recurrent Clostridioides difficile (rCDI) – the world's leading hospital-acquired infection. Methods: An electronic search using Medscape, PubMed, and Google Scholar databases, limited only to articles published in academic journals with full-text access within the past ten years (2010-2020). Selection criteria consisted of quality research studies with relevant findings from patient follow-up post-FMT, considering both primary and secondary endpoints of the investigations. An evidence table was created to organize and evaluate the notable features of each source. Results: Three RCTs, two retrospective cohort studies, and two systematic reviews and meta-analyses have established that FMT is an effective alternative to standard care in treating rCDI. Multiple infusions of FMT as a monotherapy and rescue treatment demonstrated near-complete clinical resolution in patients with rCDI. Further management of rCDI with the recommended first-line agents (e.g., vancomycin and fidaxomicin) proved counterproductive to FMT in comparative studies. Conclusions: With its unappealing aesthetics and under-researched long-term implications, there is increased reluctance to FMT's regular use. Before declaring the novel procedure as the best form of medical practice, future studies should have a stronger emphasis on vancomycin and fidaxomicin to allow for the effective comparison of FMT to non-FMT treatments. Despite the existing limitations, including insufficient sample sizes, FMT has still shown overwhelming promise as a curative treatment for rCDI.


The function of nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB within the developing and mature CNS is controversial. We have generated transgenic mice to reveal NF-kappaB transcriptional activity in vivo. As expected, constitutive NF-kappaB activity was observed within immune organs, and tumor necrosis factor-inducible NF-kappaB activity was present in mesenchymal cells. Intriguingly, NF-kappaB activity was also prominent in the CNS throughout development, especially within neocortex, olfactory bulbs, amygdala, and hippocampus. NF-kappaB in the CNS was restricted to neurons and blocked by overexpression of dominant-negative NF-kappaB-inducible kinase or the IkappaBalphaM super repressor. Blocking endogenous neuronal NF-kappaB activity in cortical neurons using recombinant adenovirus induced neuronal death, whereas induction of NF-kappaB activity increased levels of anti-apoptotic proteins and was strongly neuroprotective. Together, these data demonstrate a physiological role for NF-kappaB in maintaining survival of central neurons.


THE n-ALKYL-α-cyanoacrylate monomers have the ability to adhere to moist living tissues. Methyl-α-cyanoacrylate monomer, in particular, has been used since 1960 by many investigators as a tissue adhesive for various surgical procedures, although the monomer is not widely used in clinical surgery. This is because of two factors: histotoxicity and relative failure of adhesive versus suture techniques. It is our belief that the success of surgical application of the cyanoacrylate tissue adhesive is dependent on the new surgical techniques suitable for the use of monomers in addition to development of a better monomer(s). New techniques have been developed at this Institute using the higher homologous monomers. This paper evaluates the various higher homologous monomers used for the surgery of internal organs. (Table 1). A useful tissue adhesive must possess several properties. These are (1) shelf stability, (2) polymerization in the presence of moisture to a thin polymer film, (3) adequate


a kind of multidimensional vibrating screen has been developed by the author in order to improve the screening efficiency of material. The paper introduces the structure composition and functional properties of multidimensional vibrating screen. The structural performance parameters such as degree of freedom, virtual constraint and coupling degree of the main mechanism have been calculated. And the motion performance of the multidimensional vibrating screen has been analyzed. Meanwhile the kinematics equation is established. This kind of multidimensional vibrating screen not only has concise structure and better symmetry and decoupling performance, but also improve the dispersion and leaking screen effect obviously compared with traditional vibrating screen.


Even before it had been fully drafted, the un International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families was blighted by a debilitating lack of support from States. Described by one of the participants in the drafting process as the un's best-kept secret, it remains the least popular of the ten core international human rights instruments and has not been signed or ratified by any of the 28 eu Member States. This article is the first substantive examination of the Convention in the context of the un's universal periodic review. It suggests that the universal periodic review may give the kiss of eu life to the Convention by raising awareness of it, re-energising civil society to more actively advocate for its ratification and forcing Member States to once again justify non-ratification.


This dissertation seeks to examine the ways in which Twitter users debate Saudi Arabia's ban on women driving, with a broader objective of explicating how gender roles and relations are negotiated in that discursive space. In Saudi Arabia, a social media site such as Twitter offers Saudi women an alternative public space when there is no comparable open-media space in which they can communicate and raise their concerns, including their right to drive. To capture part of the ongoing discussion about women driving, a corpus of Arabic tweets that discuss the ban was compiled during October, November and December 2015. Informed by a corpus-assisted discourse studies approach, which combines the discourse-historical approach (Reisigl & Wodak, 2001) and corpus linguistics (Baker, 2006; 2010), I analyze the views and arguments expressed by Twitter users in debating the Saudi ban on women driving.
The findings reveal that while some tweeters express their support for the ban, noting the social and moral threats posed by allowing women to drive and the symbolic function of women's roles as markers of commitment to the nation's traditional and religious identity, the majority of tweets reflect great frustration and a desire for change in women's situation. These tweets publicize the victimization of women and their disenfranchisement as a consequence of maintaining the ban. The tweets also display a degree of awareness about women's rights and resistance toward the contradictions that women face by being caught up in the tension between modernizing the country's policies and different aspects of public life and preserving traditional norms and patriarchal values. It is believed that this study contributes to the growing literature on studying gender in the multi-voiced, loosely structured discursive spaces of social media as sites for discourse construction and dissemination. The study also fills a void in previous literature that failed to theorize the online debates on women driving in relation to gender and critical research, and in situating these efforts within a broader frame of women's struggle against patriarchy and the social tensions and dynamics of power in Saudi society.


This study investigated a possible connection between the facial nerve andi or its chorda tympani branch, and the tympanic plexus with the aim of defining some of the innervation of the middle ear mucosa. The study involved 20 locally bred male and female Wistar albino rats that were 2.5 to 3-months old and weighed 200-300 g.. Horseradish peroxidase, a retrograde axonal tracer, was injected into the middle ear mucosa of each rat, and leakage from the injection po int s was carefully removed by wiping with gauze pads or suctioning with a micropipette. The total amount of horseradish peroxidase solution that remained in the middle ear mucosa was approximately 3-4 \ll. At 24-72 hours after this application, the animals were anesthetized and perfusion-fixed, and their geniculate ganglion, facial nerve, chorda tympani, and superior cervical ganglion were removed bilaterally under magnification. The tissues were then frozen, histochemically processed, and examined. Labeled neuron cell bodies were observed in the ipsilateral superior cervical ganglion, but there were no labeled neurons or axons in the geniculate ganglion, facial nerve, or chorda tympani. The experiment failed to show any connection between the facial nerve, its chorda tympani branch, and the tympanic plexus. yoklugu olabilir.


This paper aims to fill the gaps in the analysis of risk‐sharing channels at the microlevel, both within and across households. Using data from the Bank of Italy's Survey on Household Income and Wealth covering the financial crisis, we are able to quantify in a unified and consistent framework several risk‐sharing mechanisms that so far have been documented separately. We find that Italian households were able to smooth on average about 85% of shocks to household head's earnings in both 2008–2010 and 2010–2012 spells. The most important smoothing mechanisms turn out to be self‐insurance through savings/dissavings (40% and 47% in 2008–2010 and 2010–2012, respectively), and within‐household risk‐sharing (16% and 14%). Interestingly, risk‐sharing through portfolio diversification and private transfers is rather limited, but the overall percentage of shock absorption occurring through private risk‐sharing channels hovers around four‐fifths, as opposed to around one‐fifth of a shock cushioned by taxes and public transfers, excluding pensions. In addition, by exploiting subjective expectations on the following year's household income, we find significant evidence of a lower degree of smoothing of persistent shocks.

Household risk‐sharing precautionary savings consumption smoothing income smoothing C31 D12 E21


To foster the design and especially the implementation of curriculum reform, teacher involvement from the early stages of curriculum reform processes is advocated. By fulfilling the role of designer, it is expected that teachers' understanding of the reform and their ownership concerning the reform are being promoted. However, most teachers lacked the knowledge and skills needed for proper curriculum design. The assumption underlying this study was that teachers need to develop their curriculum design expertise to be able to cope with the problems encountered in design processes and to create quality curriculum materials. The study was guided by the main research question: "What opportunities do TDTs provide for teachers to develop curriculum design expertise?" For answering the main research question a mixed-method approach was conducted. Four studies were conducted during a project in which Teacher Design Teams [TDTs] collaboratively designed curriculum materials that were attuned to the Common European Framework of References for languages. The curriculum materials they developed included language tasks, assessment rubrics and vision documents. The TDTs received tailored support during the project. The results showed that teachers as designers have to deal with design challenges when they design curriculum materials. These challenges consist of the decisions they have to make about the curriculum materials and the design process. Teachers' ability to tackle design challenges is affected by teachers' prior expertise in curriculum design for collegial purposes, their pedagogical content knowledge and their curriculum design expertise. Teacher involvement in a TDT provides teachers with various opportunities to learn about curriculum design and the curriculum reform, which helps to develop their curriculum design expertise and PCK. These activities include using exemplary materials, sharing experiences about the design process with teachers outside the TDT, evaluating the curriculum materials and using the materials in classroom practices. Thus, although teacher involvement offers opportunities to develop teachers' curriculum design expertise, their involvement in a TDT as such is often not enough. Just-in-time support offered to TDTs has to focus on the activities that are not (yet) part of teachers' repertoire and need to be offered in the form of concrete tools.


Background The epidemiology of acute kidney injury (AKI) differs from country to country and varies from center to center within a country. Owing to the absence of a central registry, data on overall epidemiology of AKI are scanty from India. Methods This study aimed at describing changes in epidemiology of community-acquired AKI (CAAKI) over a time span of 26 years in two study periods, namely, 1983–95 and 1996–2008. Results We studied 2405 (1375 male and 1030 female) cases of AKI in the age range 1–95 (mean: 40.32) years. The incidence of CAAKI in 1983–95 and 1996–2008 was 1.95 and 4.14 per 1000 admission, respectively (P < 0.01). Obstetrical AKI has decreased because of the declining number of post-abortal AKI. Surgical AKI decreased from 13.8% in 1983–95 to 9.17% in 1996–2008(P < 0.01). Malarial AKI increased significantly from 4.7% in the first half of the study to 17% in the later period (P < 0.01). Diarrhea-associated AKI had significantly decreased from 36.83% in 1983–95 to 19% in 1996–2008 (P < 0.01). Sepsis-related AKI had increased from 1.57% in 1983–95 to 11.43% in 1996–2008 (P < 0.01). Nephrotoxic AKI showed an increasing trend in recent years (P < 0.01) and mainly caused by rifampicin and NSAIDs. Liver disease-related AKI increased from 1.73% in 1983–95 to 3.17% in 1996–2008 (P < 0.01). Myeloma-associated acute renal failure (ARF) accounted for 1.25% of the total number of ARF cases in the period 1996–2008. HIV infection contributed to 1.65% of ARF of the total number of AKI cases in the second period (1996–2008). Incidence of renal cortical necrosis (RCN) decreased significantly from 5.8% in 1983–95 to 1.3% in 1996–2008 of the total number of ARF cases (P < 0.01). However, during the same period ARF due to acute tubular necrosis, acute glomerulonephritis and acute interstitial nephritis remained unchanged. The mortality rate from AKI decreased significantly from 20% in 1983–95 to 10.98% in 1996–2008 (P < 0.01). Conclusions The epidemiological characteristics of CAAKI have changed over the past three decades. There has been an increase in the overall incidence of ARF with the changing etiology of AKI in recent years. Incidences of obstetrical, surgical and diarrheal AKI have decreased significantly, whereas those of AKI associated with malaria, sepsis, nephrotoxic drugs and liver disease have increased. RCN has decreased significantly. In contrast to developed nations, community-acquired AKI is more common in developing countries. It often affects younger individuals and is caused by single and preventable diseases.


In this paper, we consider a limited data reconstruction problem for temporarily evolving computed tomography (CT), where some regions are static during the whole scan and some are dynamic (intensely or slowly changing). When motion occurs during a tomographic experiment one would like to minimize the number of projections used and reconstruct the image iteratively. To ensure stability of the iterative method spatial and temporal constraints are highly desirable. Here, we present a novel spatial-temporal regularization approach where all time frames are reconstructed collectively as a unified function of space and time. Our method has two main differences from the state-of-the-art spatial-temporal regularization methods. Firstly, all available temporal information is used to improve the spatial resolution of each time frame. Secondly, our method does not treat spatial and temporal penalty terms separately but rather unifies them in one regularization term. Additionally we optimize the temporal smoothing part of the method by considering the non-local patches which are most likely to belong to one intensity class. This modification significantly improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the reconstructed images and reduces computational time. The proposed approach is used in combination with golden ratio sampling of the projection data which allows one to find a better trade-off between temporal and spatial resolution scenarios.


Tryptophan (TRP) is an essential dietary amino acid that, unless otherwise committed to protein synthesis, undergoes metabolism via the Tryptophan-Kynurenine (TRP-KYN) pathway in vertebrate organisms. TRP and its metabolites have key roles in diverse physiological processes including cell growth and maintenance, immunity, disease states and the coordination of adaptive responses to environmental and dietary cues. Changes in TRP metabolism can alter the availability of TRP for protein and serotonin biosynthesis as well as alter levels of the immune-active KYN pathway metabolites. There is now considerable evidence which has shown that the TRP-KYN pathway can be influenced by various stressors including glucocorticoids (marker of chronic stress), infection, inflammation and oxidative stress, and environmental toxicants. While there is little known regarding the role of TRP metabolism following exposure to environmental contaminants, there is evidence of linkages between chemically induced metabolic perturbations and altered TRP enzymes and KYN metabolites. Moreover, the TRP-KYN pathway is conserved across vertebrate species and can be influenced by exposure to xenobiotics, therefore, understanding how this pathway is regulated may have broader implications for environmental and wildlife toxicology. The goal of this narrative review is to (1) identify key pathways affecting Trp-Kyn metabolism in vertebrates and (2) highlight consequences of altered tryptophan metabolism in mammals, birds, amphibians, and fish. We discuss current literature available across species, highlight gaps in the current state of knowledge, and further postulate that the kynurenine to tryptophan ratio can be used as a novel biomarker for assessing organismal and, more broadly, ecosystem health.


Decisions on public policy can be affected if important segments of the population are systematically excluded from the data used to drive the decisions. In the US, Spanishspeakers make up an important subgroup that surveys conducted in English-only underrepresent. This subgroup differs in a variety of characteristics and they are less likely to respond to surveys in English-only. These factors lead to nonresponse biases that are problematic for survey estimates. For surveys conducted by mail, one solution is to include both English and Spanish materials in the survey package. For addresses in the US where Spanish-speakers are likely to be living, this approach is effective, but it still may omit some non-English-speakers. Traditionally, including both English and Spanish materials for addresses not identified as likely to have Spanish-speakers was considered problematic due to concerns of a backlash effect. The backlash effect is that predominantly English-speakers might respond at a lower rate because of the inclusion of Spanish materials. Prior research found no evidence of a backlash, but used a twophase approach with a short screener questionnaire to identify the eligible population for an education survey. In this paper, we report on experiments in two surveys that extend the previous research to criminal victimization and health communication single-phase surveys. These experiments test the effect of the inclusion of Spanish language materials for addresses not identified as likely to have Spanish-speakers. Our findings confirm most results of the previous research; however we find no substantial increase in Spanish-only participation when the materials are offered in both languages for addresses that are not likely to have Spanish-speakers. We offer some thoughts on these results and directions for future research, especially with respect to collecting data by the Internet.


DBA/1 mice were immunized by an intraperitoneal injection of 0.2 to 1.0 µg of ovalbumin precipitated with aluminum hydroxide gel and the antibody response was observed. Both reaginic and γ 1 antibodies were detected in the serum 10 days after the immunization and the antibody formation persisted for more than 1 month. The animals showed a secondary reaginic antibody response upon booster injection. An intravenous injection of 80 µg N of mouse anti-ovalbumin IgG antibody into the immunized mice within 24 hr after primary immunization prevented both reaginic and γ 1 antibody responses for a period of over 3 weeks, during which time passive antibody was detectable in the serum. Evidence was obtained that an essentially normal immune response followed after the passive antibody was catabolized. Both reaginic and γ 1 antibodies were detected in the serum 40 days after immunization. An increased interval between immunization and passive antibody resulted in progressively decreasing efficiency of inhibition of the antibody response. Passive administration of IgG antibody did not terminate pre-existing reaginic antibody formation nor suppress secondary antibody response.


For CMOS designs in sub 90nm technologies, statistical methods are necessary to accurately estimate circuit SER considering process variations. However, due to the lack of quality statistical models, current statistical SER (SSER) frameworks have not yet achieved satisfactory accuracy. In this work, we present accurate table-based cell models, based on which a Monte Carlo SSER analysis framework is built. We further propose a heuristic to customize the use of quasirandom sequences, which successfully speeds up the convergence of simulation error and hence shortens the runtime. Experimental results show that this framework is capable of more precisely estimating circuit SSERs with reasonable speed.


This study was conducted from August to October 2006, a disease caused by worms digestive tract is one of the causes of the decline in beef production . The purpose of this study was to assess the number of infected cattle nematode, the nematode types and amount of each type of nematodes in Bali cattle in Manokwari. Based onobservations on the worm eggs, total of 23 individuals (44.23 %) of Bali cattle ( puppies and adults ) infected with nematodes. Most of the infected cow is a cow that as many as 16 puppies cattle (69.56 %), while the remaining 7 animals (30.44 %) is the mother cow. Types of nematodes that infect cattle puppies and adult cattle are Cooperiasp., Bunostomum sp., Mecistocirrus sp. and Trichuris sp. The frequency of attacks in a row is as much as 13 cattle Cooperia sp, Mecistocirrus sp as many as 10 head of cattle, as many as 8 sp bunostomum cows and Trichuris sp. as much as 5 cows. The highest number of eggs in a row is Bunostomum sp. (1520), Cooperia sp. (1280), Mecistocirrus sp. ( 1200) and Trichuris sp. (280). The average number of eggs per gr feces ( EPG ) of 4 species of parasites that infect a row is Bunostomum sp . (190 EPG), Mecistocirrus sp. (120 EPG) Cooperia sp. (98.46 EPG)and Trichuris sp. (56 EPG). As many as 44.23 % of Bali cattle in three districts (Masni, Oransbari dan Prafi) attacked nematodes which are predominantly cattle aged less than one year .


Gastric adenomas are rare neoplastic growths characterized by localized polypoid proliferations of dysplastic epithelium that tend to progress to infiltrating adenocarcinoma. Therefore, the identification of molecular markers that could reliably recognize adenomas at risk of progression is advocated in the clinical management. In this study we investigated, in a series of gastric adenoma specimens from an area at high risk of gastric cancer, the relationship between clinicopathological characteristics of adenoma and Helicobacter pylori infection, APC mutational status, and COX-2 and the down-stream enzyme mPGES1 expression. Helicobacter pylori infection, detected in 24%, and 33% by histology and PCR analyses, respectively, did not show any relationship with growth pattern, localization, size, dysplasia grade and presence of synchronous cancer. Pathogenetic mutations of MCR region (codons 1269-1589) of the APC gene were detected only in one case corresponding to a single, small size, low grade, H. pylori-negative adenoma. The expression of COX-2 largely matched that of mPGES(1). Both were overexpressed in 79% of cases showing a relationship with high-grade dysplasia, size >10 mm and presence of a synchronous carcinoma. In conclusion, COX-2 may play a key role in the development and progression of gastric adenoma and could be an attractive target in the management of gastric adenoma at major risk of cancer development.


Serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs), especially potent ones given at high doses over long periods of time, are often effective in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, a large percentage of patients do not respond to treatment with SRIs, and those who do respond often do not fully remit, which should be the standard goal of treatment in OCD. If a patient has been treated for several months and has not yet responded to treatment with several SRIs, the physician should perform a careful assessment of resistant and/or residual clinical symptoms and any comorbid conditions to determine which next-step treatment would be the most appropriate. One strategy for patients who have not responded to treatment with an SRI is to switch them to a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, because some patients may respond better to agents that target multiple systems. Another promising approach is the augmentation of SRIs with neuroleptics. In addition, open trials have shown that intravenous (IV) clomipramine and IV citalopram may be effective in the treatment of resistant OCD. Novel pharmacotherapeutic treatments and electroconvulsive therapy have been attempted, with mixed success. Recently, researchers have been studying repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, vagal nerve stimulation, and neurosurgical approaches such as gamma knife capsulotomy and deep brain stimulation to learn if these procedures are effective in treating treatment-resistant OCD. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation has possibilities not only as a therapy but also as an instrument that can help researchers describe the neurocircuitries involved in OCD. More results are needed before the effectiveness of the nonpharmacologic treatments for OCD can be determined.


Feature selection encompasses a wide variety of methods for selecting a restricted number of input variables or "features", which are "relevant" to a problem at hand. In this report, we guide practitioners through the maze of methods, which have recently appeared in the literature, particularly for supervised feature selection. Starting from the simplest methods of feature ranking with correlation coefficients, we branch in various direction and explore various topics, including "conditional relevance", "local relevance", "multivariate selection", and "causal relevance". We make recommendations for assessment methods and stress the importance of matching the complexity of the method employed to the available amount of training data. Software and teaching material associated with this tutorial are available [12].


To determine whether the increased activity of cathepsin D observed during starvation-induced cardiac atrophy results from activation of preexisting enzyme or synthesis of new enzyme, a solid phase double-antibody radioimmunoassay was developed for measurement of immunoreactive cathepsin D in extracts of rabbit myocardium. Cathepsin D activity was significantly increased in the hearts of animals starved for 3, 7, and 14 days (82.6 +/- 0.8, 87.2 +/- 3.8, and 95.3 +/- 3.5 U/g wet wt, respectively) compared to controls (65.5 +/- 1.4 U/g wet wt; P less than 0.001). Immunoreactive cathepsin D was increased to a greater extent (168 +/- 7, 179 +/- 16, 200 +/- 17, and 104 +/- 5 micrograms/g wet wt for 3-, 7-, and 14-day starvation and controls, respectively; P less than 0.001) than that expected on the basis of the observed increase in enzyme activity. Sephadex G100 gel filtration of cardiac lysosomal extracts from starved and control animals revealed no evidence of high or low molecular weight forms of cathepsin D. The results suggest the observed increase in cathepsin D activity during starvation-induced cardiac atrophy is accompanied by an increased synthesis and/or decreased degradation of cathepsin D protein, rather than activation of preexisting enzyme. The lower activity levels observed during starvation possibly result from alterations in the concentrations of endogenous inhibitors or activators of cathepsin D.


Glucocorticoid hormones can regulate the posttranslational maturation of mouse mammary tumor virus (MTV) precursor polyproteins in M1.54, a stably infected rat hepatoma cell line. We have used complement- mediated cytolysis to recover variants of M1.54 that fail to express MTV cell surface glycoproteins in a hormone-regulated manner (Firestone, G.L., and K.R. Yamamoto, 1983, Mol. Cell. Biol., 3:149- 160). One such clonal isolate, CR4, is similar to wild-type with respect to synthesis of MTV mRNAs, production of the MTV glycoprotein precursor (gPr74env) and a glycosylated maturation product (gp51), and hormone-induced processing of two MTV phosphoproteins. In contrast, three viral cell surface glycoproteins (gp78, gp70, and gp32) and one extracellular species (gp70s), which derive from gPr74env in glucocorticoid-treated wild-type cells, fail to appear in CR4. CR4 showed no apparent alterations in proliferation rate, cell shape, or expression of total functional mRNA and bulk glycoproteins. We conclude that the genetic lesion in CR4 defines a highly selective hormone- regulated glycoprotein maturation pathway that alters the fate of a restricted subset of precursor species.


Official trade-union histories are often a mixed blessing for the researcher. They fulfil valuable functions as chronicles of events and digests of milestones in the life of the union concerned, but the 'authorized' history can frequently be a 'sanitized' account, reflecting the Weltanschauung of the dominant political factions in the union leadership at the time of writing, and marginalizing the views and significance of alternative viewpoints. That this should occur is perhaps unsurprising when the authors of such works, often trusted officials of the union, are inclined to use their own editorial judgement about what content is likely to be classes as acceptable. By Mike Ironside and Roger Seifert, (Oxford University Press: 2000), xxiv + 420 pp., hardback £40.00, ISBN 0-19-924075-2


Background: "In situ vaccination" immune-gene therapy has the ability to induce broad, polyclonal anti-tumor responses directed by the patient9s own immune system using standard "off the shelf" agents. In this trial, we activated endogenous tumor immunity by injection of an adenovirus expressing a Type I interferon into the pleural space of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MM). Based on preclinical data showing synergy with chemotherapy, all patients then received standard systemic cytotoxic therapy. Methods: Two doses of intrapleural administration of a replication-defective recombinant adenoviral vector containing the human interferon-alpha (hIFN-α2b) gene at a dose of 3x1011 viral particles were given concomitant with a 14-day course of high-dose cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor (Celecoxib) to reduce side effects and to modify the tumor microenvironment by decreasing PGE- 2 levels. This was followed by standard first-line or second-line chemotherapy agents. Primary outcome measures were safety, overall best response rate, and survival. Bio-correlates were measured. Results: Forty patients were treated in this study: 18 patients received first-line Pemetrexed-based chemotherapy; 7 patients who had previously received front-line Pemetrexed-based chemotherapy >6 months prior to enrollment received Pemetrexed-based second-line chemotherapy. Additionally, in the second-line chemotherapy arm, fifteen patients (n=15) received gemcitabine-based chemotherapy. Treatment was well tolerated and adverse events were comparable to historical controls. Follow-up chest CT scans demonstrated an overall response rate of 20% by Modified RECIST criteria and disease control rate (DCR) of 85% (partial and complete responses plus stable disease) at initial follow-up scan after the first two cycles of chemotherapy. Encouragingly, median survival for all patients with epithelial histology (including both first and second line) was 26 months (95% CI: 15-ND); median overall survival (MOS) for patients with non-epithelial histology (both first and second line) was 6.5 months (95% CI: 5.50 – ND). [See figure] Historical MOS with first line chemotherapy alone is 13.3 months. No clear predictors for response were identified including: baseline immunologic parameters (i.e. activated T cells or number of regulatory T cells); the presence of the immune-gene signature in their biopsies; peak levels of interferon in blood or pleural fluid; or induction of anti-tumor antibodies, activated T cells, or natural killer cells in peripheral blood. Conclusions: The combination of intrapleural Ad.IFN-α2b vector, Celecoxib, and systemic chemotherapy proved safe in patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma. Overall survival rates were significantly higher than historical controls, particularly in the second-line groups. The results of this study support proceeding with a multi-center randomized clinical trial of chemo-immunogene therapy versus standard chemotherapy alone. Citation Format: D. H. Sterman, E. Alley, J. Friedberg, S. Metzger, J. Stevenson, E. Moon, A. R. Haas, A. Vachani, S. I. Katz, G. Cheng, J. Sun, D. F. Heitjan, L. Litzky, K. Cengel, C. B. Simone, II, M. Culligan, M. Culligan, S. M. Albelda. An immuno-gene therapy clinical trial evaluating in situ vaccination of malignant pleural mesothelioma with intrapleural delivery of adenovirus-interferon-alpha-2b in combination with chemotherapy. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy: A New Chapter; December 1-4, 2014; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2015;3(10 Suppl):Abstract nr B56.


In the Philippines, there are neither regulations nor standards governing the remediation of contaminated sites. Using the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) Procedure, ESA Phases 1 and 2 were conducted on a contaminated facility suspected of VOCs and TPH. Initial testing using auger drilling up to two (2) meters depth showed at least five (5) impacted areas. The 2.4-hectare property was then subjected to a 5m x 5m drilling grid in the 5 areas and test pitting. The following were found to have contributed to the contamination in the area: an underground storage tank which contained, among other compounds, acetone and esters; a drainage system emptying into a series of settling ponds; and another drainage system which was older but apparently was not part of the plant facility. Most of the subsurface contamination was in the clay layers which were of two kinds: a lighter brown type which was deposited from the nearby mountains, and a dark, organic matter-bearing clay, which has been deposited by an ancient river in the area. Contamination in the clays took the form of a plume which spread out from the storage tank and leakage of TPH from the drainage systems overprinted the plume. A layer of coarser sediments (sand- up to gravel-sized) at depths of 4 meters or more marked the deepest parts of the pit; behaviour of contaminant movement was not easy to follow in this stratum due to the high porosity/permeability. Tests included visual, olfactory, pH, PID and laboratory tests for VOCs and TPH; a correlation between the last two tests was done to lower cost of laboratory testing; water produced during the excavation was chemically treated using FeCl3 before discharging to a nearby creek. Bioremediation using white rot fungus, Phanerochaete chyrsosporium, was done


Abstract Given the increasing awareness of oral communication in this era of globalized collaborative learning trends, there is an imminent need to inform language educators of ways in which the under-researched oral interactional strategies are related to first language (L1) teaching. However, no consensus has yet been reached on the relationship between interactional strategy use and oral language proficiency. This study investigates the effect of oral interactional strategy use on group discussion performance in L1 Chinese for Primary 5 students (N = 140) in Hong Kong. Based on ANOVA and regression analyses of the data on group discussion performance, five strategies have been identified: expressing actively, asking for opinion, expressing attitude, giving clarification and non-verbal language. They all significantly predicted students' group discussion performance, with overall strategies explaining 55.5% of total variation of the performance, where higher-proficiency students tended to use more strategies that enable comprehension and elaboration in the group discussions. The patterns of strategy use among students with different levels of discussion performance have also been identified. Implications of the findings are discussed with reference to the roles individuals play in the overall performance of group discussion.


How do we find important neurons and understand how their dynamics control behavior? Both of these are challenging and general problems in neuroscience. In this dissertation supervised by Sharad Ramanathan, I developed a framework to efficiently search for essential neurons and verify them individually using precise perturbations and measurements. I applied this framework to the small nervous system of the nematode C. elegans and uncovered neurons that control speed. Working with Dr. Ching-Han Shen, Dr. Josselin Milloz, and Tim Hallacy I screened through 41 transgenic lines that covered more than 82% of the nematode nervous system and uncovered a sparse set of three neurons which affect speed when inhibited. To measure their dynamics in freely moving animals, I worked with Dr. Askin Kocabas and Abdullah Yonar to develop a real-time image stabilization microscope that enabled me to stimulate individual neurons and probe their dynamics on the order of an hour which previously was not possible. I also developed a frequency division multiplexing imaging system which can read out pixel information faster than traditional CCD cameras. Using these tools, I showed that the dynamics in the sparse uncovered neurons were correlated with speed and also observed novel slow dynamics on the scale of tens of minutes in several other neurons. In summary, this study provides a framework to identify and study circuits essential for controlling behaviors in small nervous systems.


Distal humeral physeal injury is a rare entity in newborns. Lack of ossific nuclei of the distal humerus in neonates results in a diagnostic dilemma as the injury is radiologically not visible and is often mistaken as elbow dislocation. Ultrasonography and Magnetic resonance imaging help to clinch diagnosis in the early period where plain radiographs fail to detect this entity. This condition warrants high index of suspicion along with good clinical acumen for early diagnosis and immediate management with closed reduction and immobilization to avoid long term complications. We present a case of delayed diagnosis of distal humeral physeal separation in a neonate which was managed conservatively at our neonatal intensive care unit with a good outcome without functional deformity.


Satellite imaging is being the most attractive source of information for the governmental agencies and the commercial companies in last decade. The quality of the images is very important especially for the military or the police forces to pick the valuable information from the details. Satellite images may have unwanted signals called as noise in addition to useful information for several reasons such as heat generated electrons, bad sensor, wrong ISO settings, vibration and clouds. There are several image enhancement algorithms to reduce the effects of noise over the image to see the details and gather meaningful information. Many of these algorithms accept several parameters from the user to reach the best results. In the process of denoising, there is always a competition between the noise reduction and the fine preservation. If there is a competition between the objectives then an evolutionary multi objective optimization (EMO) is needed. In this work, the parameters of the image denoising algorithms have been optimized to minimize the trade-off by using improved Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm (SPEA2). SPEA2 differs from the other EMO algorithms with the fitness assignment, the density estimation and the archive truncation processes. There is no single optimal solution in a multi objective problems instead there is a set of solutions called as Pareto efficient. Four objective functions, namely Mean Square Error (MSE), Entropy, Structural SIMilarity (SSIM) and Second Derivative of the image, have been used in this work. MSE is calculated by taking the square of difference between the noise free image and the deniosed image. Entropy is a measure of randomness of the content of difference image. The lower entropy is the better. The second derivate of an image can be achieved by convolving the image with the Laplacian Mask. SSIM algorithm is based on the similarities of the structures on the noise free image and the structures of the denoised image. For the image enhancement algorithms, Insight Segmentation and Registration Toolkit (ITK) is selected. ITK is an open source project and it is being developed in C++ to provide developers with a rich set of applications for image analysis. It includes tens of image filters for the registration and segmentation purposes. In this work, Bilateral Image Filter is evaluated in the field of satellite imaging for the noise removal process. The evaluated filter receives two parameters from the user side within their predefined ranges. Here, SPEA2 algorithm takes the responsibility to optimize these parameters to reach the best noise free image results. SPEA2 algorithm was implemented in Matlab and executable files of image filter were called in Matlab environment. The results of the work were represented graphically to show the effectiveness of selected method.


This study investigates the marginal values consumers place on apple quality traits as part of a larger SCRI project whose goal is to increase the long-term economic sustainability of Rosacea crops by increasing the U.S. per-capita consumption of fruits. Information on consumers' preferences and the value they place on fruit quality is important and may help breeders better establish trait priorities and make the breeding process more efficient. We conducted sensory tasting tests and experimental auctions in order to study consumer preferences for apple quality traits. We find that consumers value more some quality traits depending on the information they have to make their decision. Size and color are important when consumers have information based on appearance, and sweetness and crispness are important when consumers have information based on sensory tasting tests.


This paper explores infrastructure projects that present a conscious merging between urban transformation, community development, culture, and technology through sustainable design. When urban projects successfully and meaningfully include all these dimensions, we refer to them as "blended infrastructure" projects, since they offer much more than just infrastructure. A literature review pertaining to the rejuvenation and renewal of cities reveals that infrastructure projects have the potential to be at once, smart and ecological as well as cultural and deeply integrated urban interventions. We, therefore, propose that 'blended infrastructure' projects are those that profoundly integrate anthropological and technological dimensions. These two poles are the basis of our analysis method. Our methodology, which includes a mapping tool, is used to cartograph a series of design projects. We select two sets of projects for analysis. First, we select "light infrastructure" projects that are not yet built, still in an imaginary phase, which have a common underlying positive intention of bringing sustainability to the city. Second, we select heavier, already built, infrastructure projects, those subjected to real-world constraints, i.e., economic, political, etc. These polarities (light and imagined vs. heavy and realized) will help test the applicability of this mapping approach on different types of infrastructures. By studying projects on either side of a spatial design spectrum, we aim to understand which types of projects have a potential to be "blended infrastructure" projects—and therefore, deeply integrated sustainable urban interventions, as key contributions to the future of our cities


Roegneria C. Koch is a relatively large polyploid perennial genus with 130 species in the Triticeae, and consisting of the St and Y genomes. There are different opinions about whether Roegneria is an independent genus, or whether it should be included in the genus Elymus L. For many species of Roegneria, their genome constitution and phylogenetic relationship are still unknown. More research about the maternal genome donor of the Roegneria species is needed. To investigate the phylogenetic relationships and maternal genome donor of Roegneria and its affinitive genera, phylogenetic analyses of two chloroplast regions ndhF and trnH–psbA sequences were carried out in this study. The results showed that: (i) Campeiostachys Drobow (StYH) and all Roegneria (StY, StStY) species were scattered with Pseudoroegneria Á. Löve (St) species; (ii) R. sinica Keng, R. schugnanica (Nevski) Nevski, R. seriotina Keng, and Elymus calcicolus (Keng) Á. Löve containing the St genome; (iii) there was differentiation among species of Pseudoroegneria; and (iv) the St genome in diploid, tetraploid, and hexaploid species are divergent. Thus, it is suggested that: (i) Pseudoroegneria served as the maternal genome donor of Roegneria, including four species with unknown genomic constitutions (R. sinica, R. schugnanica, R. seriotina, and E. calcicolus); (ii) species of Roegneria or Pseudoroegneria might serve as the maternal genome donor of Campeiostachys; and (iii) the St genome has undergone differentiation during polyploidization in diploid, tetraploid, and hexaploid species.


e-Infrastructures, and in particular Data Repositories and Open Access Data Infrastructures, are essential platforms for e-Science and e-Research and are being built since several years both in Europe and the rest of the world to support diverse multi/inter-disciplinary Virtual Research Communities. So far, however, it is difficult for scientists to correlate papers to datasets used to produce them and to discover data and documents in an easy way. In this paper, the CHAINREDS project's Knowledge Base and its Semantic Search Engine are presented, which attempt to address those drawbacks and contribute to the reproducibility of science.


The genus Miridiba Reitter, 1902, of phytophagous chafers from Asia, is revised based on external morphological and genital (male and female) characters. In this study, a total fifty-eight species of Miridiba were examined, and the genus is redescribed. Male genital characters of Miridiba, especially the morphology of parameres and endophallus, are studied in depth herein. The female genitalia of Miridiba are studied and described in detail for the first time. According to genital characters, nine genital morphotypes, including fifty-four species, are established under the genus Miridiba. Sixty-seven type specimens are studied. Miridiba gressitti (Frey, 1970) comb. nov., Miridiba borneensis (Moser, 1918) comb. nov., Miridiba coxalis (Arrow, 1944) comb. nov., Miridiba rugaticollis (Moser, 1913) comb. nov., Miridiba nigrescens (Moser, 1916) comb. nov., Miridiba scutata (Reitter, 1902) comb. nov., Miridiba ciliatipennis (Moser, 1903) comb. nov. and Miridiba brunneipennis (Moser, 1916) comb. nov. are transferred from Holotrichia. Holotrichia dalatensis Frey, 1970 is transferred to Miridiba as a synonym of Miridiba sinensis (Hope, 1842). Four junior subjective synonyms are proposed: Miridiba pilosella (Moser, 1908) (= Holotrichia formosana Moser, 1909), Miridiba sinensis (= Holotrichia dalatensis Frey, 1970), Miridiba scutata (= Holotrichia scutulata Dalla Torre, 1912 and Miridiba lassallei Keith, 2010). Miridiba frontalis (Fairmaire, 1886) is resurrected as a valid species. A key to 51 of the 58 valid species of Miridiba is presented.


This study conducted to analyze and compare the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of hydrogen fluoride exposed patients based on major burn criteria for the appropriate emergency department (ED) response to a mass casualty chemical spill. This retrospective cross-sectional study included the records of patients (n = 199) who visited the ED of Gumi City University Hospital from September 27, 2012, to October 20, 2012. Subjects were included in the major burn group (MBG) if they presented with wounds that required referral to a burn center according to the American Burn Association guidelines or in the non-major burn group (NMBG) if not. Males were predominant in both the MBG (n = 55, 48 males) and NMBG (n = 144, 84 males; p < 0.05). The most prevalent timeline for visiting the ED was the phase which included 9-32 hours post-leak of HF, including 45 patients (81.8%) in the MBG and 122 patients (84.7%) in the NMBG (p < 0.001). The respiratory tract was the site of greatest damage in patients in both the MBG and NMBG (n=47, 85.5% versus n=142, 98.6%, p < 0.001). Regarding dispositions, all patients in the NMBG were discharged (n=144, 100%); however, 8 patients (14.5%) in the MBG underwent other dispositions (discharge againt medical advice, 5 patients; admission, 1; death, 2, p < 0.05). Patient outcomes after major chemical contamination events should be characterized in future studies to maximize the quality of patient care.


In this work, the mechanism of void and microcrack formation along the adiabatic shear bands (ASB) was studied for processing dual phase steel by cold heading. Experimental investigation along with finite element simulation has confirmed that this mechanism depends on two types of instabilities, namely geometrical and thermal instabilities. The geometric instability occurs in the presence of second phase particles (inclusions) and in relation to the material flow orientation, whilst the thermal softening arises due to the localized plastic deformation inside the ASB. Progressive deformation was observed to cause the elongation of voids in the direction of shearing that formed microcracks in the ASB of the cold headed specimen. In addition, transformed bands were observed in the highly deformed zones as a result of the temperature in the ASB exceeding the Ac3 transformation temperature 847°C. The superposition of the location of the ASB region containing the voids and micro-cracks with the phase transformation zone indicates that the development of optimized processing conditions is particularly critical for preventing fracture during cold heading of dual phase steels.


Nowadays a growing number of sources is producing complex digital images; the need for object detection arises also in the automotive world. In particular driver's assistance systems aim at a continuous analysis of the road looking for obstacles, lane marks and traffic signs.

In this research the aim is to automatically detect the traffic signs along the road based on their shape, irrespective of brightness, position, size, orientation. To this end theoretical tools from Image Analysis, Mathematical Morphology, Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning are linked together to form a modular detection framework.

Images are first decomposed by looking at connected components of constant intensity and the Max-Tree is set up; the Max-Tree is interpreted as a tree of nested peak components from which the shape features are extracted by means of image moments.

The moments are collected and used to train supervised classifiers as CCM, kNN and LVQ. In order to have a useful training data set a labeling step turns out to be necessary; the labeling is performed by using a self-made application realized during a precedent stage.

The labeling stage led to the construction of a labeled data set (ground truth); during this phase the limits of a naive reference-based filtering became apparent and the usefulness of contrast-based filtering emerges very clearly.

Later also a preprocessing step turned out to be necessary; this because of the huge number of peak components deriving from each of the gray images. Preprocessing revealed difficulties in the data set reduction by considering the peak component area and the moment similarity to ideal traffic sign and results in sampling as viable solution. The use of different Minkowsky metric looks marginal as well.

Training the classifiers on the sampled data set led to other insights. First the problem seems to be learnable by kNN and LVQ but not by CCM; this confirms preprocessing difficulties and indicates the distribution of the classes are not hyperspherical and well separated. The performances of kNN reveal the added value of considering higher order moments. The LVQ classifier obtains good performances after a key statistical data reshaping and reveals limits deriving from the skewed distribution of the traffic sign examples. One-class classification aspects implied by the background patterns emerge as well; also the use of several prototypes hits cross-validation limits given by this dataset.

A proof-of-concept application is realized demonstrating real-time detection of traffic signs in digital images of urban roads.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Antidrug antibody (ADA) development is known to occur with adalimumab treatment and impacts adalimumab exposure. Here, we compare the impact of immunogenicity on pharmacokinetics (PK) across two randomized PK studies of GP2017, an approved biosimilar adalimumab, in healthy subjects. Methods: Healthy male subjects (N= 107 in study GP17-104; N= 90 in study GP17-103) received a single 40 mg subcutaneous injection of the same GP2017 drug product batch. Cross-study PK comparison was performed for log-transformed Cmax, AUC0–360h, AUC0–last, and AUC0–inf, using an ANCOVA model. Results: The proportion of ADA-positive subjects was higher in GP17-103 (in total 71.1%) vs. GP17-104 (57.9%). Comparison of GP2017 PK between studies showed that the exposure was lower in GP17-103 vs GP17-104, with 90% confidence intervals (CIs) for geometric mean ratios of AUC0–last and AUC0–inf being outside the range of 0.80–1.25. A subgroup analysis showed that in ADA-negative subjects 90% CIs for all PK parameters were within range, with geometric mean ratios close to 1.00. Conclusion: The differences in GP2017 PK between the two groups are not considered to be product-related, but may be due to currently unknown factors related to differences between the two study populations.


Sand is a granular material, and therefore it consists of individual grains arranged in a packing. The pores in-between the grains are usually filled with a fluid, in this case air. Now, is this interstitial air able to influence the behavior of the sand bed as a whole? When a ball impacts on fine, very loose sand, the interstitial air causes a pronounced change. If the bed is loose enough the ball is able to penetrate the sand and surprisingly, the final depth decreases if there is less air present in-between the grains. While the ball penetrates the bed, sand around the ball is compactified and the air in this region is compressed. Since air needs a finite amount of time to flow away it is temporarily trapped and will locally increase the pressure. If an object moves through the bed very slowly, air has ample time to move out of this compactified region and this quasi-static situation should be similar to that without air. The drag force experienced by the object for very low penetration velocities is indeed equal to the measured force at reduced ambient pressure, and much larger than the force needed to push the ball at higher velocities. The pressurized trapped air around the ball effectively reduces the drag of the sand.


This investigation into local government and politics surrounding the liquor question significantly unveils the turmoil within a community over an issue of intense interest, It illustrates how a gap in legislation enabled subversion of incorporation laws and violation of the majority will by a small but determined group. The pressures and tactics used by both opposing interests in this crisis reveal misuse of the law, possible pay-offs, secret meetings of public bodies, and other illicit occurrences. More importantly, it demonstrates the respect well-meaning citizens have for established law and order. Both sides fought hard for their interests and beliefs, but when appeals had been made to the highest authority, and the ultimate decision had been rendered, then all adherents accepted the reality of the situation, and co-exist on increasingly friendly terms.


When the glucose supply is high, despite the presence of oxygen, Saccharomyces cerevisiae uses fermentation as its main metabolic pathway and switches to oxidative metabolism only when this carbon source is limited. There are similarities between glucose-induced repression of oxidative metabolism of yeast and metabolic reprogramming of tumor cells. The glucose-induced repression of oxidative metabolism is regulated by oncogene homologues in yeast, such as RAS and Sch9p, the yeast homologue of Akt. Yeast also undergoes an apoptosis-like programmed cell death process sharing several features with mammalian apoptosis, including oxidative stress and a major role played by mitochondria. Evasion of apoptosis and sustained proliferative signaling are hallmarks of cancer. This, together with the possibility of heterologous expression of human genes in yeast, has allowed new insights to be obtained into the function of mammalian oncogenes/oncosuppressors. Here, we elaborate on the similarities between tumor and yeast cells underpinning the use of this model organism in cancer research. We also review the achievements obtained through heterologous expression in yeast of p53, BRCA1, and BRCA2, which are among the best-known cancer-susceptibility genes, with the aim of understanding their role in tumorigenesis. Yeast-cell-based functional assays for cancer genetic testing will also be dealt with.


The Fourteenth Annual Meeting was held, by the kind invitation of Professor H. K. A. Visser, at the Sophia Kinderziekenhuis in Rotterdam on Thursday, 24 October, Friday, 25 October, and Saturday, 26 October. This was the first occasion on which the Society had met on the Continent. The President of the meeting was Dr. C. B. F. Daamen, and the chair at the scientific sessions was taken by Professors H. K. A. Visser and J. M. Lauweryns, and Drs. J. Huber, H. Kohler, and W. Aherne. On Thursday, Dr. Daamen and Dr. and Mrs. Huber welcomed members and guests at a reception at the Sophia Kinderziekenhuis, and on Friday Professors H. E. Schornagel and J. M. de Vries held a sherry party at the Academisch Ziekenhuis Dijkzigt. On Friday evening the annual dinner was held at the Atlanta Hotel. The social events concluded with a tour of Rotterdam on Saturday afternoon. Twenty-eight papers were given, and there were 13 demonstrations. Some 40 members and 50 guests attended the scientific programme. The next meeting of the Society will be held in Newcastle on Tyne on 24 and 25 October 1969, under the presidency of Dr. W. Aherne.


During the last years communications researchers have made great progress in all aspects of communications. Breakthroughs in optical communications, enhancements of the Internet architecture and novel data exploitation technologies, have enabled the high-capacity converged networks supporting highly diverse services. These advances have caused profound changes in the life of human beings worldwide. The perspectives for the future are of even more disruptive changes improving the quality of life our society.

As we are approaching the end of this decade, the fifth generation mobile network (5G) technology, providing mobile communication services of unprecedented quality, is on the path to become a commercial reality. This recent progress towards 5G has been enabled by a clear focus of research organizations, governmental research programs and the communications industry at large on this target. This is the critical time when researchers are starting to think about the next big steps in communications. How will people and machines communicate in the future? What kind of new communication services and data usage will impact our lives towards the end of the next decade? What will be the directions and challenges in communications and networking after 5G? What disruptive transmission technologies, network architectures, management and control schemes will allow us to take communications yet another step further?


Apoptosis is essential for correct development and tissue homeostasis of multi-cellular organisms as well as providing a critical safety mechanism to remove unwanted and damaged cells throughout life. Apoptosis is also relevant to human pathologies: many cancers acquire lesions in apoptotic pathways whilst inappropriate activation of apoptosis occurs in degenerative disease. This thesis studies the regulation and function of a key regulator of apoptosis and mitochondrial dysfunction, the Bcl-2 family member, Bax. Bax is shown to be a cytoplasmic protein that, upon activation, rapidly translocates into mitochondrially-associated foci. The timing and possible causes of Bax activation have been studied. Live cell video microscopy reveals that this is a rapid and co-ordinated process and is accompanied by loss of the mitochondrial membrane potential. Two viral proteins, El B 19k from Adenovirus and BHRF1 from Epstein Bar Virus, are shown to block Bax activation at different steps. Using these proteins it is shown that changes in mitochondrial ultrastructure occur prior to Bax activation. In the second part of this thesis, a structure / function analysis of the Bax protein leads to the identification of a novel mutation that promotes its activation. Subsequently, this mutation is used, in combination with El B 19k, in a proteomic strategy to isolate and identify candidate Bax interacting proteins at a critical step in the protein's activation. The results of this, and a similar screen with another Bcl-2 family protein, Bcl-XL, are reported. The data set contains known interacting proteins and proteins previously implicated in apoptosis control. In addition a range of metabolic and transport proteins not previously implicated in the control of Bcl-2 family proteins are identified and their relevance discussed.


The collective dynamics in liquid water is an active research topic experimentally, theoretically and via simulations. Here, ab initio molecular dynamics simulations are reported in heavy and ordinary water at temperature 323.15 K, or 50oC. The simulations in heavy water were performed both with and without dispersion corrections. We found that the dispersion correction (DFT-D3) changes the relaxation of density-density time correlation functions from a slow, typical of a supercooled state, to exponential decay behaviour of regular liquids. This implies an essential reduction of the melting point of ice in simulations with DFT-D3. Analysis of longitudinal (L) and transverse (T) current spectral functions allowed us to estimate the dispersions of acoustic and optic collective excitations and to observe the L-T mixing effect. The dispersion correction shifts the L and T optic (O) modes to lower frequencies and provides by almost thirty per cent smaller gap between the longest-wavelength LO and TO excitations, which can be a consequence of a larger effective high-frequency dielectric permittivity in simulations with dispersion corrections. Simulation in ordinary water with the dispersion correction results in frequencies of optic excitations higher than in D2O, and in a long-wavelength LO-TO gap of 24 ps-1 (127 cm-1).


It has been suggested that amplitudes for quantum higher-spin massive particles exchanging gravitons lead, via a classical limit, to results for scattering of spinning black holes in general relativity, when the massive particles are in a certain way minimally coupled to gravity. Such limits of such amplitudes suggest, at least at lower orders in spin, up to second order in the gravitational constant $G$, that the classical aligned-spin scattering function for an arbitrary-mass-ratio two-spinning-black-hole system can be obtained by a simple kinematical mapping from that for a spinning test black hole scattering off a stationary background Kerr black hole. Here we test these suggestions, at orders beyond the reach of the post-Newtonian and post-Minkowskian results used in their initial partial verifications, by confronting them with results from general-relativistic "self-force" calculations of the linear perturbations of a Kerr spacetime sourced by a small orbiting body, here considering only results for circular orbits in the equatorial plane. We translate between scattering and circular-orbit results by assuming the existence of a local-in-time canonical Hamiltonian governing the conservative dynamics of generic (bound and unbound) aligned-spin orbits, while employing the associated first law of spinning binary mechanics. We confirm, through linear order in the mass ratio, some previous conjectures which would begin to fill in the spin-dependent parts of the conservative dynamics for arbitrary-mass-ratio aligned-spin binary black holes at the fourth-and-a-half and fifth post-Newtonian orders.


Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are short-living and highly reactive molecules formed by
incomplete one-electron reduction of oxygen. Mitochondria produce low levels of ROS as an
inevitable consequence of oxidative metabolism. Low levels of ROS are normally reduced by nonenzymatic
and enzymatic oxidizing agents, such as glutathione, thioredoxin, superoxide dismutase
(SOD), catalase and peroxidases. Oxidative stress results from exposure to high levels of ROS,
which are not detoxified by cellular antioxidizing agents, and produces cellular damage due to the
oxidation of cellular constituents. ROS, however play not only a damaging role: recent studies have
demonstrated that they also actively participate in a diverse array of biological processes, including
normal cell growth, induction and maintenance of the transformed state, and cellular senescence.
Moreover, ROS can also provide a signaling function, by acting as an intracellular messenger
involved in the transduction of the signaling of cytokines such as TNF-α and IL-1β. We focused
our attention on the effect of ROS in the activities of two proteins: PKCζ and p66Shc. On the one
hand, PKCζ is a serine-threonine kinase belonging to the atypical subfamily of PKC proteins. We
showed that in an in vitro model redox stress induces PKCζ translocation from the cytosol, where it
is located in resting conditions, to the nucleus. Nuclear PKCζ protects cells from apoptotic stimuli
such as H2O2 or ceramide and this protective effect is reverted by the selective inhibition of the
nuclear pool of the protein. The protective effect of nuclear PKCζ is involved in the
chemoresistance of tumor cells to chemotherapic drugs, as demonstrated by the fact that the
selective inhibitor of nuclear PKCζ can revert the chemoresistance, suggesting nuclear PKCζ as a
suitable target in anticancer therapies. On the other hand p66Shc is a Shc protein involved in stress
responses, in particular it is activated by redox stress and it produces ROS itself. Our purpose is to
investigate a possible involvement of p66Shc in two different phenomena: autophagy and adipogenic
transdifferentiation of skeletal muscle cells by comparing wt mice with p66Shc KO mice.
Autophagy is a general term referring to pathways for the degradation of cellular constituents
(cytosol and organelles) by the autophagolysosome; it is activated mainly by nutrient starvation and
it plays a dual role: it is primarly a surviving mechanism, but it also leads to cell death (called type
II cell death) thus possibly acting as an alternative to apoptosis. Starting from this notion, and from
the fact that p66Shc KO cells are protected from apoptosis, we investigated a possible role of p66shc
as a key element in the switch from apoptosis to autophagy. We observed that, while in wt cells
redox stress induces apoptosis, cells lacking p66Shc in the same condition activate the autophagic
pathway. We are now trying to investigate the biological effect of these observation. The second
aspect of our work is the investigation of a putative role of p66Shc in the adipogenic
transdifferentiation of skeletal muscle precursor cells. To this purpose we used an in vivo model and
we observed that mice lacking p66Shc exposed to muscle damage (e.g. freeze injury or redox stress)
show lower adipocyte accumulation than wt mice, thus suggesting a role of p66 in the activation of
adipogenic differentiation pathway. The key purpose of this work is the evaluation of many
different effects of ROS production, looking for possible molecular targets to fight pathological
processes such as chemoresistance and adipogenic degeneration of skeletal muscle.


Programming languages have traditionally had more data types than database systems. The flexibility of abstract types could make a database system more useful in supporting application development. Abstract types allow users to think about and manipulate data in terms and structures that they are familiar with. This paper proposes that databases have a type system interface and describes a representation of a type system in terms of relations. The type system model supports a variety of programming language constructs, such as user-defined parameterized data types and user-defined generic operations. The efficiency of the type system is compared to the access time of the database system.


Flash and click evoked potentials were recorded from the same electrode in the midbrain reticular formation of hooded rats. Animals were given i.p. injections of saline, 0.25, 0.5, 1.0 or 2.0 g ethanol/kg body wt. on separate days. The click data demonstrated both a biphasic effect of ethanol and an enhanced sensitivity relative to the flash data. It is suggested that differing evoking stimuli may sample the activity of functionally different populations of neurons within the reticular formation.


In this paper a steganalysis method is proposed for pixel value differencing method. This steganographic method, which has been immune against conventional attacks, performs the embedding in the difference of the values of pixel pairs. Therefore, the histogram of the differences of an embedded image is different as compared with a cover image. A number of characteristics are identified in the difference histogram that show meaningful alterations when an image is embedded. Five distinct multilayer perceptrons neural networks are trained to detect different levels of embedding. Every image is fed in to all networks and a voting system categorizes the image as stego or cover. The implementation results indicate an 88.6% success in correct categorization of the test images.


The aims of this research are to determine earthquake-safe housing development criterion in Padang City and find the relationships level of these criterions with customer requirements. The data of consumer perceptions on which is safe houses in prone areas to earthquake and tsunami was collected by questionnaires. The questionnaires used in this research were divided into two phases. In the first phase, the questionnaires were distributed to 30 consumers for the purpose of validation. In the second phase, the questionnaires were disseminated to 109 residents (consumers who buy housing on "Tsunami Yellow Zone" and developers who develop housing on the same area) and the results were processed using QFD (Quality Function Deployment) and AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process). AHP showed the priority level of each indicator within the criteria. The results of this research, It can be seen that criteria for earthquake-safe housing development in the city of Padang can be sorted as follows: Implement technical factors in building earthquake-safe homes, Taking into account the legal and environmental aspects, Providing service facilities around the housing, Housing facilities and infrastructure, Marketing factor friendly, Low Cost and Pay attention to the aesthetics surrounding factors of housing. This research focused on housing developers and consumers in a disaster-prone area such as Padang City. The value of this research is to know the consumer requirements and its relationships with developer's technical characteristics. In the end, these developers will consider the criteria that required by the consumer and make the developed safer housing for consumers at the disaster-prone area.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the weight of the empty body and non-integrant components of Holstein calves carcass, kept in confinement system or pasture, slaughtered at different weights. We used 43 Holstein calves, entire, age and initial body weight of approximately 58 days and 57 kg, distributed entirely at random in confinement or cultivated pasture. In feeding systems, it was pre-stipulated four slaughter weights (SW - 140, 180, 220 and 260 kg of live weight). In confinement, were provided corn silage and concentrate based on corn meal and soybean meal, in the ratio 40:60. The other animals in ryegrass pasture, followed by pearl millet, were fed based in supplementation of corn bran and soybean meal to 1% of live weight. The EBW showed linear growth with increasing slaughter weight (SW), as well as income from hot and cold carcass and there was no effect in relation EBW/ SW. The leather, the scraps, the head, the legs, as well as the sum of external components showed growth in its absolute weight as the weight increased at the slaughter of animals. In relative terms, the hot and cold carcass yields were inversely correlated with the relative weights, as well as external components (- 0.68 and - 0.81), the heart (- 0.35 and -0, 38) lungs (- 0.53 and - 0.53), the sum of the gastrointestinal tract (-0.75 and - 0.77), the sum of vital organs (- 0.71 to - 0.75) respectively in feedlot and pasture. This is due to the different ages that the animals were slaughtered (200; 237; 251 and 263 days of age), due to pre-stipulate weights. The absolute weights of heart, kidney, lungs, liver, spleen, gall bladder, reproductive tract and gastrointestinal tract accompanied the increase in weight at animal's slaughter. However, when grouped, showed no difference related to the increase in weight at slaughter. The differences presented by the liver, trachea and spleen were sufficient to alter the absolute and relative weights of the set of internal components, where the animals finished on pasture had higher weight. The animals finished on pasture had higher absolute weights (0.48 against 1.18 kg) and relatives (0.31 and 0.79%).