Rationale: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive solid tumor, with extremely low survival rates. Identifying key signaling pathways driving PDAC progression is crucial for the development of therapies to improve patient response rates. Kindlin-2, a multi-functional protein, is involved in numerous biological processes including cell proliferation, apoptosis and migration. However, little is known about the functions of Kindlin-2 in pancreatic cancer progression in vivo. Methods: In this study, we employ an in vivo PDAC mouse model to directly investigate the role of Kindlin-2 in PDAC progression. Then, we utilized RNA-sequencing, the molecular and cellular assays to determine the molecular mechanisms by which Kindlin-2 promotes PDAC progression. Results: We show that loss of Kindlin-2 markedly inhibits KrasG12D-driven pancreatic cancer progression in vivo as well as in vitro. Furthermore, we provide new mechanistic insight into how Kindlin-2 functions in this process, A fraction of Kindlin-2 was localized to the endoplasmic reticulum and associated with the RNA helicase DDX3X, a key regulator of mRNA translation. Loss of Kindlin-2 blocked DDX3X from binding to the 5'-untranslated region of c-Myc and inhibited DDX3X-mediated c-Myc translation, leading to reduced c-Myc-mediated glucose metabolism and tumor growth. Importantly, restoration of the expression of either the full-length Kindlin-2 or c-Myc, but not that of a DDX3X-binding-defective mutant of Kindlin-2, in Kindlin-2 deficient PDAC cells, reversed the inhibition of glycolysis and pancreatic cancer progression induced by the loss of Kindlin-2. Conclusion: Our studies reveal a novel Kindlin-2-DDX3X-c-Myc signaling axis in PDAC progression and suggest that inhibition of this signaling axis may provide a promising therapeutic approach to alleviate PDAC progression.


Background: Almost all pediatric patients with renal tumors are diagnosed with nephroblastoma (Wilms tumor), clear cell sarcoma, or malignant rhabdoid tumor. The choice of treatment is important for relapsed and refractory patients with nephroblastoma. Furthermore, clear cell sarcoma of the kidney (CCSK) and malignant rhabdoid tumor of the kidney (MRTK) have a poor prognosis compared with nephroblastoma. Thus, stem cell transplantation (SCT) is sometimes selected to treat these tumors. Patients and Methods: The authors targeted a total of 84 patients with nephroblastoma, CCSK, and MRTK who underwent a first autologous SCT between 1992 and 2014, and were registered in the Japanese Transplant Registry Unified Management Program system. The authors retrospectively analyzed the SCT data for survival rate. Results: Five-year overall survival rates for nephroblastoma, CCSK, and MRTK were 72.4%±6.3%, 46.8%±13.8%, and 36.4%±14.5%, respectively. The event-free survival rates at 5 years were 64.9%±6.7%, 35.7%±12.8%, and 27.3%±13.4%, respectively. The relapse rates at 5 years were 25.3%±11.4%, 46.2%±28.4%, and 60.0%±43.1%, respectively. Conclusion: Although the survival rate for nephroblastoma was relatively high, those of CCSK and MRTK were poor.


Abstract Gene delivery offers therapeutic promise for the treatment of neurological diseases and spinal cord injury. Several studies have offered viral vectors as vehicles to deliver therapeutic agents, yet their toxicity and immunogenicity, along with the cost of their large-scale formulation, limits their clinical use. As such, non-viral vectors are attractive in that they offer improved safety profiles compared to viruses. Poly(ethylene imine) (PEI) is one of the most extensively studied non-viral vectors, but its clinical value is limited y its cytotoxicity. Recently, chitosan/DNA complex nanoparticles have een considered as a vector for gene delivery. Here, we demonstrate that DNA nanoparticles made of hyaluronic acid (HA) and chitosan have low cytotoxicity and induce high transgene expression in neural stem cells and organotypic spinal cord slice tissue. Chitosan-TPP/HA nanoparticles were significantly less cytotoxic than PEI at various concentrations. Additionally, chitosan-TPP/HA nanoparticles with pDNA induced higher transgene expression in vitro for a longer duration than PEI in neural stem cells. These results suggest chitosan-TPP/HA nanoparticles may have the potential to serve as an option for gene delivery to the spinal cord.


Societies in developed countries are aging at an unprecedented rate. Considering that aging is the most significant risk factor for many chronic lung diseases (CLDs), understanding this process may facilitate the development of new interventionist approaches. Skeletal muscle dysfunction is a serious problem in older adults with CLDs, reducing their quality of life and survival. In this study, we reviewed the possible links between handgrip strength (HGS)—a simple, noninvasive, low-cost measure of muscle function—and CLDs in the elderly. Different mechanisms appear to be involved in this association, including systemic inflammation, chronic hypoxemia, physical inactivity, malnutrition, and corticosteroid use. Respiratory and peripheral myopathy, associated with muscle atrophy and a shift in muscle fiber type, also seem to be major etiological contributors to CLDs. Moreover, sarcopenic obesity, which occurs in older adults with CLDs, impairs common inflammatory pathways that can potentiate each other and further accelerate the functional decline of HGS. Our findings support the concept that the systemic effects of CLDs may be determined by HGS, and HGS is a relevant measurement that should be considered in the clinical assessment of the elderly with CLDs. These reasons make HGS a useful practical tool for indirectly evaluating functional status in the elderly. At present, early muscle reconditioning and optimal nutrition appear to be the most effective approaches to reduce the impact of CLDs and low muscle strength on the quality of life of these individuals. Nonetheless, larger in-depth studies are needed to evaluate the link between HGS and CLDs.


Results of an analysis of the communication performance as perceived by the application layer in the presence of background load are presented. The analysis was carried out on two distinct protocol suites, TCP/IP and XNS, on a single Ethernet LAN with personal computer workstations. Service times for a reliable transfer and an unreliable transmission as perceived by the application layer were measured. An appropriate model of the reliable transfer process was used to derive service time analytical estimates. Owing to the close relation between measured and estimated values, the model was used to identify the major sources of delay and to evaluate the effects of possible improvements. The most important causes affecting the transport layer performance as background load increases are identified, and different strategies are examined in order to reduce their impact. The improvement margin offered by the implementation of a lightweight transport protocol specifically tailored to the requirements of a bulk data transfer over an Ethernet is addressed. >


In order to investigate the condition of antioxidation in normal pregnancy, the serum levels of antioxidant activity (AOA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, uric acid and vitamin C were measured in 30 cases of normal pregnant women. The results showed that the serum levels of AOA and SOD activity (nitrite unit per mg serum protein) were significantly higher than that of non-pregnant women (P < 0.01 and P < 0.005), and indicated that the serum condition of antioxidation was improved during the normal pregnancy. Besides, serum vitamin C level decreased and uric acid level remained unchanged. The SOD activity unit were also discussed.


Objective: To review the theoretical benefits of airway pressure release ventilation (APRV), summarize the evidence for its use in clinical practice, and discuss different titration strategies. Data Source: Published randomized controlled trials in humans, observational human studies, animal studies, review articles, ventilator textbooks, and editorials. Data Summary: Airway pressure release ventilation optimizes alveolar recruitment, reduces airway pressures, allows for spontaneous breathing, and offers many hemodynamic benefits. Despite these physiologic advantages, there are inconsistent data to support the use of APRV over other modes of ventilation. There is considerable heterogeneity in the application of APRV among providers and a shortage of information describing initiation and titration strategies. To date, no direct comparison studies of APRV strategies have been performed. This review describes 2 common management approaches that bedside providers can use to optimally tailor APRV to their patients. Conclusion: Airway pressure release ventilation remains a form of mechanical ventilation primarily used for refractory hypoxemia. It offers unique physiological advantages over other ventilatory modes, and providers must be familiar with different titration methods. Given its inconsistent outcome data and heterogeneous use in practice, future trials should directly compare APRV strategies to determine the optimal management approach.


Cortical networks exhibit "global oscillations", in which neural spike times are entrained to an underlying oscillatory rhythm, but where individual neurons fire irregularly, on only a fraction of cycles. While the network dynamics underlying global oscillations have been well characterised, their function is debated. Here, we show that such global oscillations are a direct consequence of optimal efficient coding in spiking networks with synaptic delays. To avoid firing unnecessary spikes, neurons need to share information about the network state. Ideally, membrane potentials should be strongly correlated and reflect a "prediction error" while the spikes themselves are uncorrelated and occur rarely. We show that the most efficient representation is achieved when: (i) spike times are entrained to a global Gamma rhythm (implying a consistent representation of the error); but (ii) few neurons fire on each cycle (implying high efficiency), while (iii) excitation and inhibition are tightly balanced. This suggests that cortical networks exhibiting such dynamics are tuned to achieve a maximally efficient population code.


TiO2 thin films supported on transparent conductive glass plates were modified by silver particles (250 nm diameter) deposited by electrochemical double pulse from an aqueous solution of silver nitrate. Selective formation of Ag particles on TiO2 surface could be seen from SEM and AFM images and topography. Rugosity and particle size analyses were performed on the modified surface. Benefits of silver particle modification are discussed based on the enhanced electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide in aqueous solution.


Fibronectins are adhesive glycoproteins that can be found in tissue matrices and circulating in various fluids of the body. The variable composition of fibronectin molecules facilitates a diversity of interactions with cell surface receptors that suggest a role for these proteins beyond the structural considerations of the extracellular matrix. These interactions implicate fibronectin in the regulation of mechanisms that also determine cell behavior and activity. The two major forms, plasma fibronectin (pFn) and cellular fibronectin (cFn), exist as balanced amounts under normal physiological conditions. However, during injury and/or disease, tissue and circulating levels of cFn become disproportionately elevated. The accumulating cFn, in addition to being a consequence of prolonged tissue damage, may in fact stimulate cellular events that promote further damage. In this review, we summarize what is known regarding such interactions between fibronectin and cells that may influence the biological response to injury. We elaborate on the effects of cFn in the liver, specifically under a condition of chronic alcohol-induced injury. Studies have revealed that chronic alcohol consumption stimulates excess production of cFn by sinusoidal endothelial cells and hepatic stellate cells while impairing its clearance by other cell types resulting in the build up of this glycoprotein throughout the liver and its consequent increased availability to influence cellular activity that could promote the development of alcoholic liver disease. We describe recent findings by our laboratory that support a plausible role for cFn in the promotion of liver injury under a condition of chronic alcohol abuse and the implications of cFn stimulation on the pathogenesis of alcoholic liver disease. These findings suggest an effect of cFn in regulating cell behavior in the alcohol-injured liver that is worth further characterizing not only to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the role this reactive glycoprotein plays in the progression of injury but also for the insight further studies could provide towards the development of novel therapies for alcoholic liver disease.


Abstract A Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON; www.gleon.org) has formed to provide a coordinated response to the need for scientific understanding of lake processes, utilising technological advances available from autonomous sensors. The organisation embraces a grassroots approach to engage researchers from varying disciplines, sites spanning geographic and ecological gradients, and novel sensor and cyberinfrastructure to synthesise high-frequency lake data at scales ranging from local to global. The high-frequency data provide a platform to rigorously validate process-based ecological models because model simulation time steps are better aligned with sensor measurements than with lower-frequency, manual samples. Two case studies from Trout Bog, Wisconsin, USA, and Lake Rotoehu, North Island, New Zealand, are presented to demonstrate that in the past, ecological model outputs (e.g., temperature, chlorophyll) have been relatively poorly validated based on a limited number of directly comparable measurements, both in time and space. The case studies demonstrate some of the difficulties of mapping sensor measurements directly to model state variable outputs as well as the opportunities to use deviations between sensor measurements and model simulations to better inform process understanding. Well-validated ecological models provide a mechanism to extrapolate high-frequency sensor data in space and time, thereby potentially creating a fully 3-dimensional simulation of key variables of interest.


The infinitesimal generator of time evolution in the standard equation for exponential (Debye) relaxation is replaced with the infinitesimal generator of composite fractional translations. Composite fractional translations are defined as a combination of translation and the fractional time evolution introduced in [Physica A, 221 (1995) 89]. The fractional differential equation for composite fractional relaxation is solved. The resulting dynamical susceptibility is used to fit broad band dielectric spectroscopy data of glycerol. The composite fractional susceptibility function can exhibit an asymmetric relaxation peak and an excess wing at high frequencies in the imaginary part. Nevertheless it contains only a single stretching exponent. Qualitative and quantitative agreement with dielectric data for glycerol is found that extends into the excess wing. The fits require fewer parameters than traditional fit functions and can extend over up to 13 decades in frequency. 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 77.22.Gm; 61.20.Lc; 02.90+p; 71.55.Jv; 78.30.Ly


Cardiovascular disease (CVD) results in substantial morbidity and mortality in most western countries in the world. The mortality burden of CVD in the UK in 2002 appears to be similar in men and women and CVD accounts for approximately 39.1% of deaths in men and 39.2% in women (http://www.heartstats.org/). Rates for coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality in the UK have been falling since 1970. CHD is a multifactorial disease, but certain major risk factors can account for the vast majority of acute myocardial infarction (MI). A recently published study (INTERHEART) of nearly 30 000 men and women from different communities and ethnic groups worldwide showed that such risk factors are common to all groups and can predict over 90% of the CHD risk. Lifestyle factors, including cigarette smoking, poor diet high in saturated fats and low in fruit and vegetables, physical inactivity, and stress have an important causal role in the incidence of CHD in all populations, while moderate alcohol consumption is protective.1 Genetic and environmental factors are also significant. Metabolic diseases and risk factors, including diabetes mellitus, obesity, dyslipidaemia, hypertension, and insulin resistance, have a substantial impact on the development of CHD. These risk factors contribute to the development of atherosclerosis and thrombotic complications. Reducing these risk factors can slow the progression of CHD and its clinical complications before, and even after, the occurrence of a cardiovascular event.

Loss of ovarian hormones at the menopause has a widespread adverse impact on many of these risk factors. However, recent large clinical trials of essentially one form of hormone therapy (HT) have not shown a benefit on cardiovascular risk and therefore, at the present time, HT is not recommended in postmenopausal women solely for cardioprotection. The failure of the clinical trials to show a benefit may be, in part, due …


22 aortas obtained from people aged 20-55 who died in accidents by early dissections were studied. Adrenergic nerve plexuses of aortal wall were examined by quantitative neurohistochemical method. Focal reduction of indexes of these plexuses density was defined by the age of 30. The process of desympathization runs unevenly with nerve plexuses from zones of aorta cranial to areas of its branching altered to greater extent. This very zones are subjected to atherosclerosis selectively. We tend to consider the process of desympathization for one of atherosclerosis factors developing in vascular wall zones with the loss of adaptive-trophic influence of the vegetative nervous system sympathetic activity.


Abstract The aim of this study was to determine if critical parameters for elite performance could be identified among a population of female shot putters. The performance of seven of the top women shot putters competing at the 2002 USA National Championships was examined. Video data were captured using two Panasonic 60 Hz cameras and the best throws of each athlete were digitized and analyzed using a Peak Motus three‐dimensional motion analysis system. Thirty variables were examined for their effect on the distance of the throw. Correlation analysis indicated that measured distance was positively correlated with release speed (r = 0.97, p < 0.0003) and shoulder‐hip separation (r = 0.72, p < 0.06) and negatively correlated with release angle (r = ‐0.74, p < 0.056), rear knee angle at rear foot touchdown (r = ‐0.93, p < 0.003) and rear knee angle at release (r = ‐0.76, p < 0.047). Greater knee flexion angle at both rear foot touch down and release along with a neutral shoulder‐hip angle at release were identified as the most critical parameters for success among this sample of elite women shot putters. The unique observation about the knee positions at specific events should assist in new training and coaching developments.


Dynamic assessment (DA) which is rooted in Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural theory involves the integration of instruction and assessment in a dialectical way to achieve two main purposes: enhancing learners' development and understanding about their learning potential. However, the feasibility and appropriateness of mediation are two main concerns of DA. The former is concerned with the application of DA for a large number of students, while the latter is concerned with providing test takers with appropriate hints. The purpose of the current study was three-fold: to examine the difference between dynamic and nondynamic tests, to understand about test takers' potential for learning, and to find out how mediation works for high and low ability students. To achieve these aims, computer software was developed. The software is capable of both providing the test takers with graduated hints for each item automatically, and adapting the overall difficulty level of the test to the test takers' proficiency level. To test the efficiency of the software in employing dynamic assessment, 83 Iranian university students participated in the study. The results of the study indicated that the computerized dynamic test made significant contribution both to enhancing students' grammar ability and to obtaining information about their potential for learning. Based on the findings of the study, it can be concluded that the use of dynamic assessment can simultaneously lead to the development of the test takers' ability and provide a more comprehensive picture of learning potential. Accordingly, teachers are recommended to use dynamic assessment to make more informed decisions about their students.


Purpose Adjuvant chemotherapy with cisplatin (CDDP) plus vinorelbine is the standard regimen for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, CDDP elicits severe toxic effects, including emesis, neurotoxicity, and renal damage; carboplatin (CBDCA) may be a feasible alternative for CDDP-unfit patients. CBDCA plus paclitaxel (PTX) adjuvant chemotherapy showed a survival benefit for patients with stage IB tumors >4 cm in size, while CBDCA plus nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)-PTX showed greater efficacy and lower neurotoxicity than CBDCA plus PTX in advanced NSCLC. Here, we investigated the feasibility of using CBDCA plus nab-PTX as adjuvant chemotherapy for NSCLC. Patients and Methods Patients with completely resected stage II or III NSCLC, with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0–1 and adequate kidney function, received four cycles of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy with CBDCA (AUC=5 mg/mL/min, on day 1) and nab-PTX (100 mg/m2, on days 1, 8, and 15) administered every 4 weeks within 8 weeks after surgery. The study was designed as a prospective, single-center, Phase II study. The primary endpoint was the completion rate of chemotherapy; secondary endpoints were two-year relapse-free survival (RFS) and safety. The expected completion rate was 80%, with a 50% lower limit. Results Of 21 enrolled patients, 18 (85.7%) were CDDP-unfit owing to age (≥75 years old [n=11, 52.4%]) or mild renal impairment (n=7, 33.3%). Nineteen of the 21 enrolled patients were assigned to the intervention. The most common grade 3 or 4 adverse events were neutropenia (n=15, 78.9%) and anemia (n=3, 15.8%). The completion rate for the four cycles was 63.2% (95% CI, 38.4–83.7). Two-year RFS was 56.8% (95% CI, 29.7–76.9). Conclusion The completion rate for CBDCA plus nab-PTX as adjuvant chemotherapy for CDDP-unfit NSCLC patients did not reach treatment feasibility. Further dose modifications may be required in future studies.


The role of a marker mutation and other genes in a decrease in viability was studied in the Drosophila melanogaster vg line. In flies of the C-S line, chromosome 2 was substituted by the homologous chromosome of the vg flies. In addition, the flies of the mutant phenotype with mutant genes partially or completely substituted by the wild-type C-S genes were obtained in saturating crosses C-S x vg. In the reciprocal variant of chromosome 2 substitution, the flies of the C-S phenotype with chromosomes 1, 3, and 4 from the vg line were obtained. Chromosome 2 of the vg line, introduced into C-S fly karyotype, proved to substantially reduce the heat resistance and life span of flies. In the case of reciprocal replacement (C-S line chromosome 2 substituted for the homologous chromosome of vg flies), a significant increase in viability was observed, which, however, never reached the level characteristic of the C-S line. As the vg genotype became saturated with C-S genes, the heat resistance and life span of flies increased substantially. However, even the complete saturation of mutant chromosomes with wild-type genes never resulted in the equal viability of vg and C-S flies. These data suggest that the low viability of the vg mutant is largely accounted for by the gene composition of the second chromosome and, primarily, by the presence of the vg gene. Nevertheless, there is evidence that, along with the pleiotropic effect of the marker mutation, other genes not linked to chromosome 2 are responsible for the studied physiological properties of the vg flies.


There is a significant body of scholarly literature on outward-bound mobility programs, which provide participating students with the opportunity to take part of their study abroad (Dall'Alba & Sidhu, 2015) and connects student learning with life outside the classroom. Potential benefits to students are self-awareness, adaptability and resilience, experiences in culture, study and travel. It is suggested that these benefits and the development of intercultural awareness of small groups of students who participate in short-term mobility programs is less than those on semester-long exchange (Dwyer, 2004). Approaches to embed intercultural awareness in short-term programs include pre-departure training, reflective practice in assessment, and debriefing sessions with students (Forsey, Broomhall, & Davis, 2011). There is scant scholarly literature on how peer learning abroad between visiting and host students contribute to their intercultural awareness. This paper examines this topic via a case study that evaluated the reflections of 12 Australian students who participated in a short-term mobility program on tropical biodiversity and sustainable agricultural systems in Sri Lanka using Barnett and Coates (2005) framework (HREC approval H16859). Small groups of three Australian students were paired with a Sri Lankan student throughout the 4-week residential program, who together worked on a project of their choice for presentation to faculty at its conclusion. The Sri Lankan students acted as translators and through conversation they provided the Australian students with a personal insight into the culture that they were immersed and vice-versa, whether through formal study, the associated activities or in their free time. The students described a range of personal insights and attributes that demonstrated enhanced knowing, acting and being, consistent with (Barnett & Coates, 2005). For example, 'Inclusion of the Sri Lankan students in the program facilitated the formation of valuable friendships, which increased the learning experience beyond academia. The informal nature of information shared between friends provided a very personal insight into the culture and society as viewed by people of similar age, undergoing similar personal university experiences. We recommend that providing the opportunity for peer learning abroad that is linked with assessment is one approach to embed intercultural competency in the curriculum.


The energy which is generated from natural resources that are abundantly available in nature is called Nonconventional energy sources. Light energy from sun, current of air, storage of water at hilltop, water movement inside sea, heat inside earth is the example of Non-conventional energy sources, etc. The solar energy is based on the conversion of sun rays into electrical voltage and current and it is the single-stage conversion of radiation into electricity. The photovoltaic (PV) power generation is a phenomenon in which photons from sun rays collide on PN junction of semi-conductor material and generates electrical energy. This solar power system uses the string of solar panels distributed over large areas. Power generated by these strings is affected by shadow initiated from different causes. The effect of these shadows is to reduce the power generated by the photovoltaic system. This paper explains the various effect of shadow on PV system and summarizes the different methods for improving the PV performance under shadow conditions. It also covers a wide review of the trends and state-of-art techniques indicated through research to curb the effects of partial shading.


The purpose of this thesis has been to investigate evidence of economies of scale and
scope in various European banking markets. The thesis has also examined the cost
implications from hypothetical bank mergers both within the French, German, Italian
and Spanish banking markets and cross-border in the EU. The analysis has been
prompted by claims that substantial cost savings could be expected as the result of the
EU's single market programme in the banking area. Economies of scale and scope, a
substantial part of industrial organisations literature, have been widely examined in the
US banking system, although little empirical work to date has been undertaken on
European banking markets. This thesis aimed to rectify this imbalance in the literature
by providing a detailed, in-depth and original analysis of scale and scope economies as
well as investigating the cost implications of hypothetical bank mergers.
Overall, the results suggest noticeable differences in cost characteristics across
European banking markets and strong evidence of economies of scale and scope at the
plant (or branch) level in all but the Spanish market. Cost savings appear to occur
mainly through the increased average size of established banks' branches rather than
through adding new branches. The findings appear to indicate that scale and scope
economies will be important in generating economic gains to EU banking markets under
the Single Market programme.
The evidence from hypothetical mergers within the individual domestic banking markets
appears to be that mergers between large banks can generate substantial cost savings or
increases depending on the particular merger partners. In general, the results indicate
that opportunities for cost saving mergers seem to be greater in Germany and Spain
than in the French and Italian banking markets. The prospects for cost saving big-bank
mergers in Italy, appear to be limited. The selective results for the hypothetical mergers
between the 20 largest banks within domestic banking markets imply that substantial
cost savings can be generated from mergers between top commercial banks in Germany.
For the Italian banking market, the analyses shows that the majority of hypothetical
mergers indicate an increase in predicted total costs. Moreover, the findings from Spain
and France are less clear-cut.
The evidence from our analysis of hypothetical cross-border mergers in the EU
indicates only limited opportunities for costs saving from big bank mergers and that
such mergers are more likely to result in an increase in total costs.


Increasing popularity of the notion of service in the enterprise applications development leads to the new types of inter-organizational collaborations. We can observe a shift in this collaboration from simple exchange of services to the co-creation of transdisciplinary services offering a new and unique value to the involved partners. In this paper we define the notion of transdisciplinary information service and we discuss the main principles, namely communication, collaboration, co-innovation, and agility, to be considered in the transdisciplinary information services co-creation and we identify the existing approaches and techniques that support the implementation of these principles. Finally, we introduce our proposal for the elaboration of a method family supporting the co-creation of transdisciplinary information services. This method family aims to provide a flexible and agile process model based on transdisciplinarity principles and allowing to combine method chunks from different disciplines in order to support collaborative creativity, modeling and development of transdisciplinary services.


The proposed electronic marketplace (EM) is aimed to enhance the procurement process by acting as an intermediary between buyers and suppliers. The proposed EM consists of users (buyers and suppliers), various components and a user interface. As part of the decision engine, a prototype supplier selection system, SupplySelect, is developed and implemented.


Object tracking is one of the most advanced area of research in artificial intelligence and computer science. This Paper describes the design and implementation of object tracking system based on color and shape of the object. The proposed system consists of three stages: preprocessing stage, image processing stage, and tracking stage. in preprocessing stage, we transform the camera output from RBG to HSV. In image processing stage we subtract the object from the background and remove noise plops by erosion. For identifying the shape of the object, the number of points of its contour is counted and connected to a boundary line. After that we used the output to control robot moving to track the object. The proposed algorithm written in python 3.7.3 and run in a PC. The results show that the proposed system is simple, fast and can track the objects in Realtime.


Doped polymer thin films have several applications in electronic, optoelectronic and thermoelectric devices. Often the electrical properties of doped conjugated polymer thin films are affected by their local physical and mechanical characteristics. However, investigations into the effects of doping on local domain properties have not been carried out. Here, we study the physical, mechanical and optical properties of electrochemically doped P3HT thin films at the nanoscale and establish a relation between doping level and the physical properties of P3HT thin films. Bulk crystallinity of both pristine and doped P3HT thin films, characterized using grazing incidence X-ray diffraction, shows a clear loss in crystallinity upon doping. Nanoscale crystalline and amorphous domains in the films are visualized by multimode atomic force microscopy (AFM). It is apparent that the crystalline domains are most affected by doping and have a higher degree of doping compared to amorphous domains. This results in crystalline domains exhibiting superior electrical conductivity at a local level. These results are further supported by Raman mapping and elemental analysis of doped films. A direct relation is established between the physical, mechanical and electrical properties of doped P3HT thin films based on the AFM data. The findings demonstrate that higher dopant concentrations are found in crystalline domains compared to amorphous domains, which has not been shown before to the best of our knowledge. This study can be used to optimize the electronic properties of doped P3HT thin films for use in electronic and optoelectronic device applications.


Child maltreatment (CM) is a public health problem with devastating effects on individuals, families, and communities. Resident physicians have varied formal education in CM, and report feeling inadequately trained in identifying and responding to CM. The purpose of this study is to explore residents' understanding of the impacts of CM, and their perceptions of their role in recognizing and responding to CM to better understand their educational needs. This study analyzed qualitative data obtained from a larger project on family violence education. Twenty-nine resident physicians enrolled in pediatric, family medicine, emergency medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and psychiatry training programs in Alberta, Ontario, and Québec participated in semi-structured interviews to elicit their ideas, experiences, and educational needs relating to CM. Conventional (inductive) content analysis guided the development of codes and categories. Residents had thorough knowledge about the impacts of CM and their duty to recognize CM, but there was less consistency in how residents understood their role in responding to CM. Residents identified the need for more education about recognizing and responding to CM, and the need for educational content to be responsive to training, patient and family factors, and systemic issues. Despite knowledge about the impacts of CM and laws pertaining to mandated reporting, residents reported challenges with responding to concerns of CM. Findings of this study emphasize the need for better training in response to CM. Future educational interventions should consider a multidisciplinary, experiential approach.


Soybean is a well-known crop for its protein, oil, fatty acids, minerals, isoflavones, and other bioactive compounds. The high yielding mutant FM6-847 was developed through ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) mutagenesis. FM6-847 was derived from soybean cultivar Forrest and the yield performance of FM6-847 was not evaluated in North Carolina. The objective of this study was to evaluate the yield performance of the mutant FM6-847 compared to three USDA reference lines LD00-2817, LD06-7620, and LD07-3395 in a field trial in Fayetteville, NC over a period of two years (2016–2017). We compared plant height (PH), pod numbers (Pod#), seed number (Seed#), 100-seed weight (100-SW), and total seed weight (TSW) of the mutant and USDA reference lines. In addition, we investigated the presence of Rhizobia, nitrogen fixing bacteria that help in increasing the yield of legumes through enriching nutrients by nitrogen fixation. The results showed that the mean TSW of mutant line was significantly higher (P<0.05) than all of the USDA reference lines in 2017 trial. The yield parameters of PH, pod#, seed#, and 100-SW were also significantly different between the soybean mutant line with more than one USDA reference lines. The contribution of yield parameters to the TSW was also analyzed and these parameters were significantly contributing to the TSW based on linear fixed model. The first two principal components explained more than 70% phenotypic variation among variables in the dataset based on the results of principal component analysis (PCA). Finally, a total of 13 bacterial strains including nitrogen fixation bacteria Rhizobium giardinii were identified in the soil of the field trial.


After the 1997 financial crisis, the neo-liberal restructuring of the Korean political economy accelerated dramatically. While there is a general consensus that the reform has had negative consequences for Korean society, heated debates continue over the culprits of the 1997 crisis and the changes that followed in its wake. Major opinions have largely coalesced into two opposing camps: one, finding the cause in cronyism and the anachronistic management of the Korean chaebols, advocates market-centred economic reforms; the other, attributing the cause to the 'unproductive' nature of foreign financial capital, suggests that the restoration of statist development model, in which the economy is led by the state-chaebol nexus, is a better way for Korean society.

The main reason for the asymmetry between the 'progressive' critiques and 'conservative' solutions of these two theoretical camps lies in their misunderstanding of the way in which power evolves in capitalist society. Their theories, which are premised on the dichotomy between 'politics' and 'economics,' are blind to the mutual transformation of capital and the state—to the historical changes in the nature of these institutions through the commodification of power.

The central assumption of this dissertation is that it is necessary to understand the mutual transformation of capital and the state and the evolution of the capitalist ruling class in order to grasp the nature of the post-1997 social restructuring. For this purpose, it adopts Nitzan and Bichler's perspective of capital as power. From this perspective, situating our understanding of the 1997 crisis and the post-crisis restructuring in the context of the half-century-long evolution of capitalist power in Korea and the transformation of the regimes of differential capital accumulation, this dissertation makes three interrelated arguments.

It argues, first, that the post-1997 restructuring firmly entrenched capitalization as the creorder of Korean society. Second, it argues that globalization has incorporated Korea's dominant capital into the global structure of absentee owners through the trans-nationalization of ownership and accumulation. Lastly, it argues that the reduction of green-field investment, relative to the pre-1997 period, is to be explained by the shift of the regime of differential accumulation.


CONTEXT
Researchers studying work-life balance have examined policy development and implementation to create a family-friendly work environment from an individualistic perspective rather than from a cohort of employees working under the same supervisor.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate what factors influence work-life balance within the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I clinical setting from the perspective of an athletic training staff.

DESIGN
Qualitative study.

SETTING
Web-based management system.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS
Eight athletic trainers (5 men, 3 women; age = 38 ± 7 years) in the NCAA Division I setting.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Participants responded to a series of questions by journaling their thoughts and experiences. We included data-source triangulation, multiple-analyst triangulation, and peer review to establish data credibility. We analyzed the data via a grounded theory approach.

RESULTS
Three themes emerged from the data. Family-oriented and supportive work environment was described as a workplace that fosters and encourages work-life balance through professionally and personally shared goals. Nonwork outlets included activities, such as exercise and personal hobbies, that provide time away from the role of the athletic trainer. Individualistic strategies reflected that although the athletic training staff must work together and support one another, each staff member must have his or her own personal strategies to manage personal and professional responsibilities.

CONCLUSIONS
The foundation for a successful work environment in the NCAA Division I clinical setting potentially can center on the management style of the supervisor, especially one who promotes teamwork among his or her staff members. Although a family-friendly work environment is necessary for work-life balance, each member of the athletic training staff must have personal strategies in place to fully achieve a balance.


Associations between anthropometric indices of obesity and breast cancer risk may fail to capture the true relationship between excess body fat and risk. We used dual-energy-X-ray-absorptiometry- (DXA-) derived measures of body fat obtained in the Women's Health Initiative to examine the association between body fat and breast cancer risk; we compared these risk estimates with those for conventional anthropometric measurements. The study included 10,960 postmenopausal women aged 50–79 years at recruitment, with baseline DXA measurements and no history of breast cancer. During followup (median: 12.9 years), 503 incident breast cancer cases were diagnosed. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models. All baseline DXA-derived body fat measures showed strong positive associations with breast cancer risk. The multivariable-adjusted HR for the uppermost quintile level (versus lowest) ranged from 1.53 (95% CI 1.14–2.07) for fat mass of the right leg to 2.05 (1.50–2.79) for fat mass of the trunk. Anthropometric indices (categorized by quintiles) of obesity (BMI (1.97, 1.45–2.68), waist circumference (1.97, 1.46–2.65), and waist : hip ratio (1.91, 1.41–2.58)) were all strongly, positively associated with risk and did not differ from DXA-derived measures in prediction of risk.


Portrait of Abner Nash presented to the state of North Carolina in 1909 by the Sons of the Revolution. Image from the North Carolina Museum of History. [4]Abner Nash (ca. 1740-1786) succeeded Richard Caswell [5]to become the second governor of the young state. He was born in present-day Prince Edward (then Amelia) County, Virginia. Of Welsh extraction, he was the son of John Nash and the former Ann Owen. Though little is known of his educational background, he began the practice of law in 1757 and in 1761-1762 represented Prince Edward County in the House of Burgesses. Nash was first married to Justina Davis [6] Dobbs, the widow of Governor Arthur Dobbs [7]. His second marriage was to Mary Whiting Jones of Chowan County [8].


This study reviews and evaluates the current status of management planning and policy in Protected Areas (PAs) in Bangladesh via a case study of two Wildlife Sanctuaries and one National Park. Using a mixed method approach, the research evaluates the perceptions and attitudes of local residents and other stakeholders towards the effectiveness of protected area planning and management, specifically co-management plans for the case study areas. The research was based on semi-structured and in-depth interviews with key informants, focus group discussions, and questionnaire surveys of village residents.

The study revealed a complex socio-economic context characterised by poverty; within this, a diverse range of stakeholders exist whose interests in, and perceptions of, protected area management do not necessarily coincide with those of the Forest Department officials, leading to situations of conflict and difficulty for the Forest Department in enforcing the law over areas of forest in Bangladesh, a situation that has not been helped by the limited availability of manpower and modern equipment. It is concluded that the co-management approach, by taking into account the interests, wishes, and aspirations of the local communities, holds out better prospects of protecting the forest, meeting the objectives of the protected area management plans, and development ambitions of local communities. However, the findings suggest that community participation needs to be improved if effective forms of co-management are to be achieved, in turn improving the chances of conserving the forest for future generations while permitting the present generation to pursue sustainable livelihoods. Based on this study, it is clear that not only is action required to increase the participation of the local community, but human resource development is required to produce parallel institutional capacity building within the Forest Department. Moreover, programmes designed to support the generation of alternative livelihood opportunities are required to reduce dependency on forest resources. All of these lines of development are essential to increase the capacity of the local communities and officials to work together to develop and implement the management objectives of the National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries. However, without genuine political will to act it will be difficult to achieve the aforementioned ambitions/objectives.


Nascent RNA sequencing protocols, such as PRO-seq and NET-seq, are now widely used in the study of eukaryotic transcription, and these experimental techniques have given rise to a variety of statistical and machine-learning methods for data analysis. These computational methods, however, are generally designed to address specialized signal-processing or prediction tasks, rather than directly describing the dynamics of RNA polymerases as they move along the DNA template. Here, I introduce a general probabilistic model that describes the kinetics of transcription initiation, elongation, pause release, and termination, as well as the generation of sequencing read counts. I show that this generative model enables estimation of separate pause-release rates, termination rates, and the initiation/elongation rate ratio up to a proportionality constant. Furthermore, if applied to time-course data in a nonequilibrium setting, the model can be used to estimate elongation rates. This model leads naturally to likelihood ratio tests for differences between genes, conditions, or species in various rates of interest. If read counts are assumed to be Poisson-distributed, convenient, closed-form solutions are available for both parameter estimates and likelihood-ratio-test statistics. Straightforward extensions of the model accommodate variability in the pause site and steric hindrance of initiation by paused polymerases. Additional extensions address Bayesian inference under the Poisson model and a generalized linear model that can be used to discover genomic features associated with rates of elongation. Finally, I address technicalities concerning estimation of library size, normalization and sequencing replicates. Altogether, this modeling framework enables a unified treatment of many common tasks in the analysis of nascent RNA sequencing data.


In this paper I measure first year student Facebook usage as part of a broader PhD study into the influence of social media usage on the success of students in higher education. A total of 906 students were asked to complete 3 surveys on Facebook usage with their peers, for two consecutive years (2011-2012 and 2012-2013). The different purposes for Facebook usage, in addition to whether or not students used (self-created) Facebook-groups, were measured and the relationship between the use of pages compared to the purpose of Facebook usage. This resulted in significant correlations between the purpose of Facebook usage and the use of different pages, as well as correlations between the purpose and use of different pages. This study hereby explores the variances in student Facebook usage and provides valuable insight into the potential value of Facebook for students in an educational setting, without the interference of teachers. It is also the next logical step in revising existing integration and engagement theories that predict student success in higher education in contemporary society. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/HEAd15.2015.395


We hypothesize that soybean hulls (SH) and dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) can be used in lamb diets to increase dietary energy density compared with a traditional grass hay (GH) and soybean meal (SBM) diet without causing adverse effects on nutrient digestibility and rumen function. To test this hypothesis, four ruminally-cannulated wethers were used in a 4x4 Latin square design to determine the effects of replacing GH with SH and replacing SBM with DDGS on nutrient digestibility and rumen fermentation. All diets were formulated to contain 60% roughage and 40% concentrate on DM basis. Dietary roughage source, however, varied from completely GH to completely SH, and SBM was replaced by DDGS. Diets were formulated to contain 13.9% CP and an increasing amount of dietary energy as SH and DDGS replaced GH and SBM. The control diet was composed of 60% GH and 11.6% SBM (GHSBM). Treatment diets were 60% GH and 25.4% DDGS (GH-DDGS); 20% GH, 40% SH, 15.3% DDGS (SH40-DDGS); or no GH, 60% SH, 10% DDGS (SH60-DDGS). The SH, protein concentrate, and mineral portion of the diet was pelleted and mixed with the chopped GH, when GH was included in the diet. The SH60-DDGS diet was a completely pelleted diet. This trial was divided into four periods. Lambs were allowed 14 d to adapt to their respective treatment diet which was offered twice daily. Following adaptation, total feed, fecal, and urine samples were collected and weighed during the 4-d collection period and subsequently composited for nutrient analyses. On the day following collection of fecal and urine samples, rumen fluid was collected at -2, 0, 1, 4, 8, 12 h relative to feeding, for analysis of VFA and ammonia concentrations. Replacing GH with SH improved DM digestibility and the DE content of the diet. Although increasing SH in the diet decreased rumen pH, ADF and NDF digestibility was not affected adversely. Lower rumen pH did favor increased propionate concentrations in the rumen. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that DDGS and SH can be used to increase the energy density of lamb diets compared to a traditional GH and SBM diet without affecting nutrient digestibility and rumen pH adversely.


Viral fusion proteins of classes I and II differ radically in their initial structures but refold toward similar conformations upon activation. Do fusion pathways mediated by alphavirus E1 and influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) that exemplify classes II and I differ to reflect the difference in their initial conformations, or concur to reflect the similarity in the final conformations? Here, we dissected the pathway of low pH–triggered E1-mediated cell–cell fusion by reducing the numbers of activated E1 proteins and by blocking different fusion stages with specific inhibitors. The discovered progression from transient hemifusion to small, and then expanding, fusion pores upon an increase in the number of activated fusion proteins parallels that established for HA-mediated fusion. We conclude that proteins as different as E1 and HA drive fusion through strikingly similar membrane intermediates, with the most energy-intensive stages following rather than preceding hemifusion. We propose that fusion reactions catalyzed by all proteins of both classes follow a similar pathway.


SIR,-I would like to raise a few points in connection with the recent clinicopathological conference (17 March, p 727). The first patient presented with amaurosis fugax, in which it is generally accepted that embolism plays some part. The carotid angiogram showed an irregularity which could have been a source of platelet emboli. It is suggested that the stereotyped nature of the attacks makes embolism less likely, but experimental evidence' has shown that emboli may repeatedly go to the same site, owing perhaps to streaming of blood flow. The report mentions the blood pressure inequality between the arms and raises the possibility of subclavian stenosis and "steal," but this is most unlikely with a pressure difference of only 10 mm Hg and no bruits. Surprise is expressed at the patient's remission while taking only aspirin, but this has well-known antiplatelet effects and is standard treatment for a patient with presumed platelet embolisation. Emboli from an atheromatous plaque may range from microemboli to large pieces and it is possible, in view of the fact that the vertebral arteries were occluded, that one of these caused death by obstructing the blood flow to the brain stem. It would be interesting to have necropsy information about the circle of Willis and associated arteries. This is a situation in which surgery to the carotid bifurcation could have been potentially life saving, as the risk of major embolic complications of such lesions is well known. In addition, since we do not know whether antiplatelet drugs protect against stroke in patients who have had transient ischaemic attacks, it seems sensible to maintain them on these relatively safe drugs until trials have shown whether or not they are of value.


Drug-drug interactions is one of the major determinant in drug development and clinical applications. Individual differences in pharmacokinetics may cause extensive variability in drug efficacy, toxicity and adverse drug reactions, and represent a major concern in drug development. According to world health organization, an estimated 1.2 million patients were diagnosed with HIV/TB coinfection in 2015, and approximately 400,000 coinfected individuals were died in 2016. During treatment of tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfections, a combination of multiple therapeutic drugs is used, which is potential for interactions between coadministered drugs. Drug metabolizing enzymes and transporters plays vital role in the disposition, pharmacokinetics as well as efficacy and toxicity of many antituberculosis (anti-TB) and antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs. The current understanding of drug-drug interactions involving the first-line antituberculosis and antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs are reviewed and summarized in this article emphasizing the role of drug transporters and metabolic enzymes. It is found that several clinical drug-interactions are caused by the phase I and II metabolic enzymes (cytochrome-P-450s, CYPs, UDP-glucuronosyltransferases, UGTs) and uptake/ efflux transporters, particularly permeability glycoprotein, brest cancer resistance protein, multidrug resistance protein and solute carrier transporters). Overall, this study will be helpful to understand the drug-interactions between the ARV or anti-TB drug regimen or with concomitantly used drugs at a glance. By understanding the unique functions and characteristics of enzymes and transporters, it may use in the management of drug interactions in the treatment of HIV and TB.

Keywords: Drug-drug interactions, Metabolic Enzymes, Membrane Transporters, Antiretroviral and antituberculosis drugs


Ammopiptanthus mongolicus is the only evergreen broadleaved shrub endemic species to the Alashan Desert, northwest sand area of China, and can survive at -30℃ or even lower temperature in winter. A modified solid-phase subtraction hybridization technique was developed to isolate and screen cDNAs, whose transcripts increased in cold-treated A. mongolicus seedlings. Sequence analysis of the screened clones indicated that 11 clones had coding regions, with four of them containing complete open reading frame. And nine of the 11 clones shared various degrees of homology with the genes found in the GenBank database and the other two were unidentified sequences. Sequence data further revealed that these accumulated transcripts encode three low molecular weight proteins, a late-embryogenesis protein and two cold acclimation responsive proteins; two photosynthesis-related proteins, photosystem I subunit II precursor (PsaD) and photosystem II oxygen-evolving complex 33kDa subunit (OEC33); a protease inhibitor; an adenosine triphosphatase and a 14-3-3 related protein. Analysis on the function of these proteins indicated that the low molecular weight proteins were associated with water holding ability of cytoplasm; photosynthesis-related proteins participated in the adjustments of photosynthetic apparatus to resist photoinhibition; 14-3-3 related protein could interact with adenosine triphosphatase to enhance ATPase activity and energy metabolism; and protease inhibitor involved in the prevention of unwanted cell death was caused by reactive oxygen species. We suggest that cold acclimation with low light intensity in A. mongolicus is a more complex interaction of low temperature, light, energy and signal than that assumed previously.


Estimated
LBW could be used to determine the contrast material dose and rate during MDCT. The aim
of this study is to test the accuracy of a technique for estimation of lean
body weight (LBW) from a single multi-detector row computed tomographic (MDCT)
abdominal image, using a bioelectrical body composition analyzer scale as the
reference standard. CT images of 21 patients with previously measured LBW
(mLBW) were processed using computer-assisted, vendor-specific software
(Advantage Windows 4.2; GE Healthcare, Inc). For each transverse image, a
fat-fraction was automatically measured as the number of fat pixels (-200 to -50 HU) divided by the
total number of pixels having an attenuation value ≥-200 HU. Estimated LBW (eLBW) of five single
contiguous sections was calculated in each of three abdominal regions (upper
abdomen, mid abdomen and pelvis) by multiplying TBW by (1 – fat-fraction).
Bland-Altman plot with limits of agreement was used to assess agreement between
mLBW and eLBW. The mean mLBW for all patients was 56 kg (range, 39 - 75 kg).
Mean differences and limits of agreement between mLBW and eLBW measurements for
the upper abdomen, mid abdomen and pelvis reported were -8.9 kg (-25.6 kg, +7.5 kg), -10.6 kg (-27.7 kg, +6.4 kg), and
+0.5 kg (-12.8 kg,
+13.8 kg) respectively. eLBW deriving directly from a transverse CT image of
the pelvis can accurately predict mLBW.


In this article, the author brings forth the need for a cultural perspective in examining and handling the problem of transmigration. He concentrates on transmigrants and their settlements, and emphasizes the importance of transmigration settlement planning that accord with the culture of the future transmigrant, along with settlement planning that takes into account its future as a center of social and economic growth and social integration in the area. Drawing from his experience with transmigration in Irian Jaya, the author shows how the transmigrants of the village of Jambal and most of the local ethnic groups show varying, sometimes opposing, characteristics. He points out that transmigrants from Java are oriented toward their urban centers, but are then placed at relatively isolated areas. Thus it should come as no surprise if these transmigrants tend to abandon their new settlement for the city. The author suggests that the transmigration program can be said to be successful if it can be shown that the settlers are in fact faring better in their new area. Here, transmigration settlements cannot be regarded as mere settlement, but as arenas for the improvement of their habitants' prosperity. They must be viewed as part of the region's development and administrative system. The author completes the article with a model of transmigration for Irian Jaya that rests on a pluralistic model of society rather than a model of assimilation.


The design of the LHC and future colliders aims their operation with high intensity beams, with bunch population, $N_p$, of the order of $10^{11}$. This is dictated by a desire to study very rare processes with maximum data sample. HEP colliders are engineering structures of many kilometers in length, whose transverse compactness is achieved by the application of the superconducting technologies and limitations of cost.
However the compactness of the structural elements conceals and potential danger for the stable work of the accelerator. This is because a high intensity beam of positively charged particles (protons, positrons, ions) creates around itself an electric self-field of very high intensity, $10^5 - 10^6$ V/cm. Being located near the conducting surfaces, at the distances of 1-20 mm away from them, the field of such bunches activates the field emission of electrons from the surface. These electrons, in addition to electrons from the ionization of residual gases, secondary electrons and electrons knocked out by synchrotron radiation, contribute to the development of a dense electron cloud in the transport line. The particles of the bunch, being scattered on the dense electron cloud with $N_e\sim N_p$, leaves the beam and may cause noticeable damage. The paper presents an analysis of the conditions, under which the field emission in the LHC collimator system may become a serious problem. The analogous analysis of a prototype of the International Linear Collider (ILC) project, USLC, reveals that a noticeable field emission will accompany positron bunches on their entire path during acceleration.


This paper proposes a generalized framework to build large, complex systems where security guarantees can be given for the overall system's implementation. The work builds on the formally proven correct seL4 microkernel and on its fine-grained access control. This access control mechanism allows large untrusted components to be isolated in a way that prevents them from violating a defined security property, leaving only the trusted components to be formally verified. The first steps of the approach are illustrated by the formalisation of a multilevel secure access device and a proof in Isabelle/HOL that information cannot flow from one back-end network to another.


This paper describes a novel stabilising control strategy for DC power systems with constant power loads. The destabilising element associated with a constant power load is eliminated by reformulating the system dynamic equations in terms of the rate of change of energy, or instantaneous power. A power shaping control strategy is employed to regulate the output voltage, while maintaining large-signal system stability under all operating conditions. The proposed control strategy is simple, and easy to design and implement. Its utility and effectiveness are demonstrated by simulations and experiments.


SDR applications are often stream processing applications that are computationally intensive which results in a low throughput on homogeneous multi-core architectures and thus could benefit significantly from the use of stream processing accelerators.
The integration of stream processing accelerators in an architecture is often facilitated by a NoC. Crossbars or mesh-based NoCs provide guaranteed throughput but tend to have unacceptably high hardware costs.
We propose a low-cost heterogeneous multi-processor architecture for real-time stream processing applications together with dataflow models for real-time analysis. This architecture allows compositional temporal dataflow analysis based on independently characterized components.
The proposed architecture contains a low-cost ring-shaped interconnect which provides all-to-all guaranteed throughput communication while being work-conserving. Furthermore, cost-effective integration of stream processing accelerators is enabled by combining two low-cost rings and using a small shell in each NI, thereby realizing credit-based hardware flow control for accelerators.
To improve the utilization of stream processing accelerators, we propose a sharing approach to multiplex multiple real-time streams of data over accelerators. Data streams between tasks are transferred using our dual-ring interconnect. Software tasks communicate directly using our distributed software FIFO implementation while communication involving stream processing accelerators is handled by our hardware credit-based flow control.
In order to reason about the worst-case behavior of our architecture, temporal dataflow models are constructed to obtain bounds on throughput and latency.
Three case studies have been carried out to evaluate the hardware costs and performance of the proposed architecture. For these case studies, several instances of the proposed architecture have been implemented on a Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA. We show that in our architecture the use of accelerators improves maximum throughput by 366% and sharing accelerators can reduce hardware costs by 63%.
The results from our case studies show that our ring interconnect has a very small hardware cost and performs within the bounds derived by our dataflow analysis models. We conclude that a considerable reduction of hardware costs can be attained by replacing traditional interconnects by our dual communication ring interconnect. We also conclude that cost-effective shared accelerator integration can improve application performance which demonstrates the merit of our approach.


—In this paper, the symbol detection mean squared error (MSE) constrained hybrid analog and digital beamforming is proposed in millimeter wave (mmWave) system, and the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is proposed to assist the mmWave system. The inner majorization-minimization (iMM) method is proposed to obtain analog transmitter, RIS and analog receivers, and the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) method is proposed to obtain digital transmitter. The proposed iMM and ADMM methods are faster than the semidef- inite relaxation (SDR) and interior point methods, respectively. In order to counter against the changing large-scale path loss, the iMM method is helped by channel normalization to reduce the computational complexity, while the ADMM method is helped by the adaptive parameterizations to robust against the changing large-scale path loss. Simulation results show that the computational times of the proposed methods are much faster than other methods, and the proposed methods are robust against the changing large-scale path loss.


For many reasons urban environment cannot affect positively on amphibian fauna, thus the most of amphibian species decrease in their abundance, become endangered or simply extinct in such areas. Scattered, inconsistent, sometimes simply not available data on amphibian fauna in towns do not facilitate action to protect the species. Therefore the collecting and compiling of the studies on amphibian fauna of different towns of Poland is important for the further research to reveal general rules in changes connected with urbanization. In sum, in 9 Polish towns 13 amphibian species plus one natural hybrid – the edible frog Rana kl. esculenta Linnaeus, 1758 were recorded. Eight to thirteen taxa were found in a town and it may be assumed that lack of other species occurring in Poland is connected only with their limited ranges. The current knowledge presented in the collected articles can become the starting point for the further studies on amphibian occurrence in urban environment and for appropriate protective measures in towns.


Background—Experimental data show that the right ventricle (RV) is more resistant to ischemia than the left ventricle. To date, limited data are available in humans because of the difficulty of discriminating reversible from irreversible ischemic damage. We sought to characterize RV ischemic injury in patients with reperfused myocardial infarction using cardiovascular magnetic resonance. Methods and Results—In 3 tertiary centers, 242 consecutive patients with reperfused acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction were studied with cardiovascular magnetic resonance at 1 week and 4 months after myocardial infarction. T2-weighted and postcontrast cardiovascular magnetic resonance scans were used to depict myocardial edema and late gadolinium enhancement, respectively. Early after infarction, RV edema was common (51% of patients), often associated with late gadolinium enhancement (31% of patients). Remarkably, RV edema and late gadolinium enhancement were found in 33% and 12% of anterior left ventricular infarcts, respectively. Baseline regional and global RV functions were inversely related to the presence and extent of RV edema and RV late gadolinium enhancement. At follow-up, a significant decrease in frequency (25/242 patients; 10%) and extent of RV late gadolinium enhancement was observed (P 0.001). With the use of multivariable analysis, the presence of RV edema was an independent predictor of RV global function improvement during follow-up ( -coefficient 0.221, P 0.003). Conclusions—Early postinfarction RV ischemic injury is common and is characterized by the presence of myocardial edema, late gadolinium enhancement, and functional abnormalities. RV injury is not limited to inferior infarcts but is commonly found in anterior infarcts as well. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance findings suggest reversibility of acute RV dysfunction with limited permanent myocardial damage at 4-month follow-up. (Circulation. 2010;122:1405-1412.)


The spin-1/2 Ising-Heisenberg branched chain composed of regularly alternating Ising spins and Heisenberg dimers involving an additional side branching is rigorously solved in a magnetic field by the transfer-matrix approach. The ground-state phase diagram, the magnetization process and the concurrence measuring a degree of bipartite entanglement within the Heisenberg dimers are examined in detail. Three different ground states were found depending on a mutual interplay between the magnetic field and two different coupling constants: the modulated quantum antiferromagnetic phase, the quantum ferrimagnetic phase, and the classical ferromagnetic phase. Two former quantum ground states are manifested in zero-temperature magnetization curves as intermediate plateaus at zero and one-half of the saturation magnetization, whereas the one-half plateau disappears at a triple point induced by a strong-enough ferromagnetic Ising coupling. The ground-state phase diagram and zero-temperature magnetization curves of the analogous spin-1/2 Heisenberg branched chain were investigated using density-matrix renormalization group calculations. The latter fully quantum Heisenberg model involves, besides two gapful phases manifested as zero and one-half magnetization plateaus, gapless quantum spin-liquid phase. The intermediate one-half plateau of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg branched chain vanishes at Kosterlitz-Thouless quantum critical point between gapful and gapless quantum ground states unlike the triple point of the spin-1/2 Ising-Heisenberg branched chain.


Porchet's well test method cannot be used to determine the steady flow from a well for a given amount of drawdown as he expected, but gives instead the rate of flow q (t) supplied by the water table to the well at time t, at which the considered level difference q (t) = Q X (MP/MN) is attained, Q being the discharge pumped from the well (cf. Fig. 2). One can attempt to deduce from the transient water table supply discharge thus obtained 1) the value of this discharge under steady conditions-Le. elements of the drawdown vs. discharge curse- and 2) characteristic coefficients for the aquifer concerned. I. - For this, the first requirement is to assume relationship between supply discharge and water table configuration; it is considered that, providing the water table is recharged, and especially if the amount of drawdown is small, conditions are as for an evenly distributed flow supplied at a rate proportional to the amount of drawdown. II - With the above assumption and the usual approximations required to linearise the problem, the motion of the free-surface of a water table featuring converging stream lines and resting on a horizontal bottom satisfies the general equation (1), which in the case of a point well subjected to pumping at constant discharge, is integrated with the aid of the Laplace transformation. The formula for transient conditions (5 or 5 'bis') and the one for steady conditions (6 or 6 'bis') are thus obtained, and this solution in turn yields the formula (8 or 8 'bis') whereby the transrnissivity and effective porosity of the medium can be determined very simply from Porchet's construction (Fig. 2) by a graphical method. III. - The point well is, however, only a reliable theoretical model where the effect of the water stored in the well can be neglected. Where this is not so, the general case of the non-punctuai well applies, which differs form the point well case by its discharge conditions (11), whereby a non-punctual well form which a constant discharge is being pumped can be considered as a point well from which a variable discharge is being pumped. With this assumption, an approximate solution can be round for the problem, which is based on the experimental observation expressed by relation (12). The results are listed in the table associated with formula (17). Practical application of this is similar to that for the point well; here again, the aquifer characteristics are found by a simple graphical method, and the drawdown vs. discharge curve is given by the same relationship (10). IV. - The theoretical results are applied to the concrete case of a large-diameter well. The final conclusion is that a single Porchet test carried out under particularly simple convenient conditions could supply all the information usually obtained by much lengthier and less straightforward methods.


Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man tells the story of Emmanuel Balestrero, arrested for a crime committed by his physical double. This paper examines the theme of the scapegoat in the film and argues that it portrays in miniature what theorist Rene Girard has described as a mimetic crisis. While the plight of the central character is usually portrayed as a product of blind chance, it is instead due to the mimetic fears, desires, and vanities of the members of society that accuse him. The fate of Balestrero reveals the operation of a specific kind of scapegoat mechanism that has its roots in mimetic desire.


A stratified space is a filtered space with manifolds as its strata. Connolly and Vajiac proved an end theorem for stratified spaces, generalizing earlier results of Siebenmann and Quinn. Their main result states that there is a single K-theoretical obstruction to completing a tame-ended stratified space. A necessary condition to completeness is to find an exhaustion of the stratified space, i.e. an increasing sequence of stratified spaces with bicollared boundaries, whose union is the original space. In this paper we give an example of a stratified space that is not exhaustible. We also prove that the Connolly-Vajiac end obstructions can be realized.


To study the role of the adiponectin (ADIPOQ) gene single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the susceptibility and prognosis for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we recruited 344 patients with NSCLC, of which 141 had undergone surgical resection and post-surgery follow up. For controls, there were 264 healthy volunteers for the control group, matched in age and sex with the NSCLC patients. Genotyping of SNPs in the ADIPOQ gene, namely, rs266729 (11365C>G); rs822395 (4034A>C); rs822396 (3964A>G); rs2241766 (+45T>G) were performed. Of all SNPs in the ADIPOQ gene, only the TT genotype and T allele frequency of the rs2241766 were more prevalent in NSCLC subjects than in controls. The TT genotype of rs2241766 was significantly associated with susceptibility to NSCLC before and after adjustment for age, sex, body mass index, and smoking status. In the survival analyses of subjects receiving surgical resection, only the SNPs of rs2241766 were significantly related to overall survival of NSCLC. Our results suggest that the SNP rs2241766 of the ADIPOQ gene may determine both susceptibility to NSCLC, and the prognosis for those who underwent surgical treatment.


There is increasing demand to store and query data with an inherent graph structure. Examples of such data include those from online social networks, the semantic web and from navigational queries on spatial data such as maps. Unfortunately, traditional relational databases have fallen short where such graph structured data is concerned. This has led to the development of specialised graph databases such as Neo4j. However, traditional databases continue to have a wide usage base and have desirable properties such as the capacity to support a high volume of transactions while offering ACID semantics. In this paper we argue that it is in fact possible to unify different database paradigms together in the case of graph structured data through the use of a common query language and data loader that we have named Crackle (a wordplay on Gra(ph)QL). Crackle provides an expressive and powerful query library in Clojure (a functional LISP dialect for JVMs). It also provides a data loader that is capable of interfacing transparently with various data sources such as PostgreSQL databases and the Redis key-value store. Crackle shields programmers from the backend database by allowing them to write queries in Clojure. Additionally, its graph-focused prefetchers are capable of closing the hitherto large gap between a PostgreSQL database and a specialised graph database such as Neo4j from as much 326 (with a SQL query) to as low as 6 (when using Crackle). We also include a detailed performance analysis that identifies ways to further reduce this gap with Crackle. This brings into question the performance argument for specialised graph databases such as Neo4j by providing comparable performance on supposedly legacy data sources.


In both insects and mammals, spermatids eliminate their bulk cytoplasm as they undergo terminal differentiation. In Drosophila, this process of dramatic cellular remodeling requires apoptotic proteins, including caspases. To gain further insight into the regulation of caspases, we screened a large collection of sterile male flies for mutants that block effector caspase activation at the onset of spermatid individualization. Here, we describe the identification and characterization of a testis-specific, Cullin-3-dependent ubiquitin ligase complex that is required for caspase activation in spermatids. Mutations in either a testis-specific isoform of Cullin-3 (Cul3(Testis)), the small RING protein Roc1b, or a Drosophila orthologue of the mammalian BTB-Kelch protein Klhl10 all reduce or eliminate effector caspase activation in spermatids. Importantly, all three genes encode proteins that can physically interact to form a ubiquitin ligase complex. Roc1b binds to the catalytic core of Cullin-3, and Klhl10 binds specifically to a unique testis-specific N-terminal Cullin-3 (TeNC) domain of Cul3(Testis) that is required for activation of effector caspase in spermatids. Finally, the BIR domain region of the giant inhibitor of apoptosis-like protein dBruce is sufficient to bind to Klhl10, which is consistent with the idea that dBruce is a substrate for the Cullin-3-based E3-ligase complex. These findings reveal a novel role of Cullin-based ubiquitin ligases in caspase regulation.


Soil, silt, and water samples from the Habitant Creek water-shed, Nova Scotia, a tobacco-growing area, have been monitored for organochlorine insecticides. Most samples contain measurable quantities of many persistent pesticides used in farming during the past decade. Sediment levels indicate that residues settle in sluggish parts of the stream. Drainage ditches show highest residual content caused in part by mass transport of soil in runoff. Residue content of water samples is normally one-tenth to one-hundredth that of silt, but is much higher during periods of heavy runoff. Levels vary with the seasons and are highest in the fall, decrease through the spring and summer, and are lowest in the winter. Although samples of well water taken fairly close to the stream showed virtually no residual content, a natural drainage reservior had a pesticide content similar to that in the stream.


This paper addresses the problem of efficient data gathering based on distributed source coding (DSC) in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with a complexity constrained data gathering node (DGN). A particular scenario of interest is a cluster of low complexity sensor nodes among which, one node is selected as the cluster head (CH) or the DGN. Utilizing DSC allows for reducing the required rate of communications by exploiting the dependency between the nodes observations in a distributed manner. We consider a DSC-based rate allocation structure, which takes into account the CH (DGN) memory and computational constraints. Specifically, this is accomplished, respectively, by limiting the number of nodes whose data may be stored at the CH and exploited during decoding, and the number of nodes that can be jointly (de)compressed using DSC. Based on this structure, we investigate two WSN resource optimization problems aiming at: (i) minimizing the total network cost and (ii) maximizing the network lifetime. To these ends, optimal dynamic programming solutions based on a trellis structure are proposed that incur substantially smaller computational complexity in comparison to an exhaustive search. Also, a suboptimal yet high performance solution is presented whose complexity grows in polynomial order with the number of network nodes. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed rate allocation structure and solutions, even with limited complexity, allow for exploiting most of the available dependency and hence the achievable compression gain.


The time required to perform the fluorescent-antibody test for rabies was reduced by eliminating acetone fixation of the brain impressions and by incubating the conjugate-impression reaction at room temperature for only 10 min. Elimination of the preliminary acetone fixation had no effect on the diagnosis of impression smears from 246 mammalian brains by immunofluorescence. Staining at 37 C for 30 min and staining at room temperature for 10 min were found to be equally effective in the examination of impression smears from 161 brain samples. The procedure, as modified, shortens the time required for the diagnosis of rabies by immunofluorescence from about 5.5 hr to approximately 45 min.


Abstract Cross-species transmission of viruses poses a sustained threat to public health. Due to increased contact between humans and other animal species the possibility exists for cross-species transmissions and ensuing disease outbreaks. By using conventional PCR amplification and next generation sequencing, we obtained 130 partial or full genome kobuvirus sequences from humans in a sentinel cohort in Vietnam and various mammalian hosts including bats, rodents, pigs, cats, and civets. The evolution of kobuviruses in different hosts was analysed using Bayesian phylogenetic methods. We estimated and compared time of origin of kobuviruses in different host orders; we also examined the cross-species transmission of kobuviruses within the same host order and between different host orders. Our data provide new knowledge of rodent and bat kobuviruses, which are most closely related to human kobuviruses. The novel bat kobuviruses isolated from bat roosts in Southern Vietnam were genetically distinct from previously described bat kobuviruses, but closely related to kobuviruses found in rodents. We additionally found evidence of frequent cross-species transmissions of kobuviruses within rodents. Overall, our phylogenetic analyses reveal multiple cross-species transmissions both within and among mammalian species, which increases our understanding of kobuviruses genetic diversity and the complexity of their evolutionary history.


Background: Employment status has an impact on health and is a source of health inequalities. But little is known about its impact on the health of people residing in the County of Vasternorrland, Sweden. The recent economic recession affected this region in a way which worsened the already existing unemployment rate. Objective of the study: This study aimed to examine the relationship between employment status, gender and self-reported health in the County of Vasternorrland, Sweden in the year 2010. Setting and Design: The study used data from a cross-sectional "Health on Equal Terms" survey, carried in the County of Vasternorrland in 2010. A total of 6,050 women and men aged 16-65 years were included in the analysis. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses were performed, and results were expressed as odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals. Results: Women and men who were out of work had odds of poor self-reported health of 2.31 (CI 1.942.94) and 2.39 (CI 1.96-2.58), respectively. Controlling for other variables reduced the odds of poor health, but the relationship continued to be statistically significant. Conclusion: Results of this study found that at the pick of the most recent economic crises there were equal odds of poor self-reported health among women and men residing in Gavleborg County. The observed association was to some extent explained by demographic, socioeconomic and health-related variables. Policymakers need to pay attention to the health status of those out of work, particularly during times of economic recession and hardship.


There are a variety of marketing approaches available to hospitals to help maintain and/or increase their influence in the competitive health care system. This article will focus on one important but relatively ignored aspect tha must be an integral part of any successful hospital marketing program. Referring physicians and the network this group forms around a hospital through the different referral patterns is of primary influence on the hospital's future. This article supports the thesis that the hospital's eventual survival or demise is directly linked to this often unconscious referral network.


In this brief communication, we argue for more systematic and self-conscious attention, within the field of system dynamics, to the process of knowledge sharing for the purposes of model construction. After explaining our rationale, we provide a number of examples showing how various groups of people---often those with central roles in the problems being modeled---are marginalized, their voices mute or silent. We recognize the valuable work of a number of SD modelers (e.g., van den Belt (2004), Vennix (1996)), emphasizing their work in western, often corporate, worlds. However, there are special problems that emerge when important members of the would-be client population are comparatively powerless, under-educated or even illiterate, as is the case in many international natural resource contexts---contexts likely to become more important as attempts to cope with climate change increase. We then provide some practical suggestions for addressing such communication problems. We believe that SD can be of great value in the analysis of natural resource conflicts, climate change mitigation and adaptation, the development of improved management systems, and in policy formulation and evaluation. The anthropological perspective may provide insights that will allow for better integration of the views of marginalized peoples into SD models.


The innervation pattern in the buffalo testis was determined by using histochemical and immunohistochemical methods. Nerves were concentrated in the tunica albuginea and septula testis, and did not show an uniform distribution. The tunica albuginea at the lateral and medial sides and at the free border of the testis is most densely innervated than at the epididymal border. At the cranial pole thick nerve bundles were observed between albugineal vessels and muscle bundles. Rare parenchymal nerves were found in perivascular position between seminiferous tubules and their occurrence is confined to lobules at the cranial and caudal testicular poles. An intense NPY immunoreactivity occurred in nerve bundles and in solitary varicose fibres. Nerves were concentrated in the tunica albuginea at the lateral and medial side and at the free border of the testis, and in the lobules at the cranial and caudal testicular poles. Sub P immunoreactivity was occasionally detected in some thicker nerve bundles and solitary fibers, in the tunica albuginea and in the wall of blood vessels, showing a similar distribution but less intensity and density than NPY immunoreactivity. TH immunoreactivity stained nerve fibers in the buffalo testis with a distribution pattern similar to that obtained with general neuronal markers. The histochemical reaction for AchE was negative, so cholinergic fibers cannot be detected in the buffalo testis. The histochemical NADPHd reaction stained rare nitrergic nerve bundles and solitary fibers. The majority of NADPHd activity was confined to the vascular endothelium, and rarely to the interstitial Leydig cells, whereas the Sertoli and germ cells did not show any reaction.


The Sultanate of Oman lies in an arid region where fresh water sources are scarce. Economic and population growth spur the need for more housing, schools, roads, and many other civil works. In the construction of such projects, water is needed as a component in concrete mixing. Contractors in arid regions are sometimes faced with the problem of finding water of acceptable quality for their construction work. However, plenty of production water (oily and brackish water) is produced in the oil fields during oil production. In 2002, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) produced an estimated 130,000 m3/day of crude oil with a corresponding 630,000 m3/day of production water, most of which are disposed of via deep well injection. This research project was initiated as a possible option for the use of production water as part of PDO's policy on sustainable development, materials efficiency, and waste reduction. The main objective of this paper is to present the results obtained on the use of production (oily) and brackish water in concrete mixtures. Water samples were obtained from four PDO asset areas. Nine water samples, including a controlled potable (tap) water, were analysed for pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), chloride, hardness, alkalinity, and sulphates. In addition, cement pastes and mortars and plain concrete mixtures were prepared using 100% substitution of potable water. Nine mixtures were prepared and cured for up to one and a half years. Mixtures were tested for initial setting times, compressive strength and flexural strength. Research results indicate that there was a small decrease in the initial setting times for all cement paste mixtures prepared using production and brackish water in comparison with potable water. However, such values still exceeded the minimum 45 minutes initial setting requirement as set forth in ASTM C150. The use of PDO's production and brackish water did not cause any decrease in the compressive or flexural strength measurements of cement mortars or concrete mixtures in comparison with potable water. In general, there was no strength reversal with longer curing periods. However, for most concrete mixtures the strength tends to level off after three months of curing. Most production water mixtures resulted in higher strength measurements than those prepared using potable water. Further testing is necessary to investigate corrosion potential in reinforced concrete.


OBJECTIVE--Comparison of the first dose responses to low dose constant rate infusions of diacid angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. DESIGN--Double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, parallel group prospective study. SETTING--General hospital inpatient admissions for supervised diuretic withdrawal (24-48 hours) and the introduction of ACE inhibitor treatment. PATIENTS--36 unselected elderly (aged 60-87 years) patients with symptomatic but stable chronic cardiac failure (New York Heart Association grades II-IV). ACE inhibitor started under double blind conditions with blood pressure monitoring. INTERVENTION--Patients were randomly allocated to receive intravenous placebo (saline), enalaprilat (1.5 mg over six hours) or perindoprilat (1 mg over six hours) by constant rate intravenous infusion (5 ml/hour). The protocol allowed for discontinuation of infusion if mean arterial blood pressure fell by 30% from the value before treatment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Blood pressure and heart rate responses, drug concentration, plasma renin, and ACE activities. RESULTS--The three groups had similar age, severity of heart failure, diuretic dose before treatment, plasma renin activity, and serum electrolyte state. All patients remained symptom free throughout the study. Infusions were only ended early with active treatment: 5/12 perindoprilat cases, (mean (SD) dose 0.88 (0.18) mg, and 5/12 enalaprilat cases (mean (SD) dose 1.2 (0.4) mg. Both active treatments lowered mean arterial pressure until discontinuation of infusion. Heart rate was not altered. Two patients (one perindoprilat, one enalaprilat) showed transient and symptom free renal impairment. CONCLUSIONS--Slow intravenous infusion of diacid ACE inhibitors may allow safe initiation of treatment in patients with heart failure and with activated renin angiotensin systems. The similar effects of intravenous perindoprilat and enalaprilat on blood pressure contrast with previously reported differences when perindopril and enalapril were given orally.


The performance of kenaf powder (KP) filled recycled high density polyethylene (rHDPE) /natural rubber (NR) blends with and without a compatibilizer, were investigated. The composites with different filler loading (0 to 40 phr) were prepared with a Haake internal mixer. Increasing the KP loading in rHDPE/NR/KP biocomposites reduced the tensile strength and the elongation at break but increased the stabilization torque and the tensile modulus. The addition of MAPE as a compatibilizer increased the tensile strength, elongation at break, and modulus of the composites. This might be attributed to the enhanced adhesion between the filler and polymer matrix, as evidenced from the morphology, using scanning electron microscopy. The incorporation of compatibilizer also reduced the water absorption of the composites.


Abstract Plasmodium spp. development within mosquito vectors includes invasive ookinete and sporozoites stages, which display gliding movements during invasion of the midgut and salivary glands, respectively. Sporozoite gliding has been well documented, and several proteins released during sporozoite's locomotion have been described. However, proteins on the ookinete gliding trails are poorly described. In the present study, we documented that 2 proteins, Pbs25 and circumsporozoite thrombospondin-related protein (CTRP), are released during Plasmodium berghei ookinete gliding on a solid surface substrate.


A detailed analysis was undertaken of the X-ray photoelectron spectra of the blue variety of pectolite known by the trade name Larimar from the Dominican Republic in an attempt to elucidate the origin of the blue colour. The survey scan confirmed the chemical composition of pectolite. The O 1s showed a complex set of bands associated with Si-O-Si, Si-O-(Na,Ca) and OH in the crystal structure of pectolite. From the possible elements suspected to cause the colour, such as Cu, Fe, Mn, and V, only Cu and Fe were observed above the detection limit of the XPS instrument. For the first time about 0.02 atom% of Pb was observed in one sample, while another sample from the same block showed the presence of 1.05 atom% Sb. The possible presence of [Pb-Pb]3+ pairs can act as a chromophore analogous to that observed in the bluegreen feldspar variety amazonite. This would explain the till now unexplained optical band at 630 nm as well as part of the high hydroxyl concentration. Though other chromophores cannot be excluded, the observation of Pb adds a new possible explanation for the blue colour of Larimar.