This Essay takes as its starting point the idea that U.S. environmental policy should operate in accordance with five major components of rationality. First, cost-benefit analysis provides a tractable means of weighing the tradeoffs involved in setting environmental policy between environmental goals and other social values. Improving environmental quality is not a cost-free enterprise, and decisionmakers should aim to maximize the net benefits — benefits minus costs — delivered by a policy. Second, cost minimization requires choosing the cheapest way to attain a given environmental objective. Even if policy goals are not chosen to maximize net benefits, a cost-minimizing approach would nonetheless lead to the cheapest way to meet that goal. Third, flexible market-based instruments, such as marketable permit schemes, are one important mechanism for achieving cost minimization, by providing economic incentives to take advantage of the cheapest cost-abatement opportunities. Such schemes also provide desirable incentives for technological innovation and economic growth. Fourth, in order to avoid excessively broad exemptions for existing sources from the pollution standards applicable to new sources, as has been common in the history of U.S. environmental regulation, placing appropriate constraints on grandfathering should be regarded as an important element of a rational environmental policy. This goal has become particularly pressing more than four decades after 1970, when sources, some of which were already obsolete at the time, were initially grandfathered. Fifth, an important feature of our environmental policy concerns the allocation of decision-making authority between the federal government and the states. In this context, the control of interstate externalities provides the most compelling argument for federal regulation. Providing the right incentives on this issue should be regarded as a critically important design element.The Essay shows that this past Term, the Supreme Court of the United States decided two significant cases, both interpreting the Clean Air Act, which together should be seen as producing a significant move toward rationality in environmental policy. And it did so with the full support of six members — Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan — and the partial support of Justice Scalia.


Although the research area of motivation and anxiety in language learning has experienced a surge in the last two decades, the relationship between teacher use of motivational strategies and behaviours, and student motivation and anxiety from the perspective of both teachers and students is under-researched. This longitudinal study, with two interventions four months apart, investigated the influence of teaching strategies and behaviours in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom on student motivation and anxiety in senior high schools in Limassol (Cyprus). It aimed to establish (1) which teaching strategies and behaviours students find motivating (2) which teaching strategies and behaviours positively influence student motivation and (3) which teaching strategies and behaviours negatively affect FL classroom anxiety.

Using a case-study approach with both qualitative and quantitative data and a range of analytical and interpretative methods, this study primarily utilised tailor-made questionnaires and bottom-up interpretive methods of qualitative data. Quantitative data from questionnaires were analysed using the statistical software programme SPSS 21 to produce both descriptive and inferential statistics. Thematic analysis was used to analyse further qualitative data from focus groups and interviews. Consulting both learners and teachers using a mixed methods approach, permitted triangulation of data from different perspectives, which together worked to enhance the integrity and credibility of the results.

Results showed that respect, support, awareness of students' needs and validation of progress and achievement were associated with increased motivation throughout the year. Unclear instructions and negative feedback were among factors associated with foreign language anxiety (FLA). The findings provide important resources for teachers and researchers in the field to build on in their own educational settings, and have relevance for other foreign language classrooms in similar cultural settings.


Eco-friendly high-yield pulps (HYP) are becoming increasingly used to product high value-added fine paper that is traditionally produced exclusively with chemical pulps. However, due to the presence of a large quantity of photosensitive lignin in the HYP pulp to more effectively utilize woods resources, there is a concern on the long term brightness stability of HYP containing paper. In this research, various TiO2 was added to coating colors to improve the light fastness properties of HYP containing coated paper. The effect on the stability of optical properties of coated paper including brightness, opacity, color difference and the degree of brightness reversion before and after accelerated aging were studied. It was shown that the brightness stability of the HYP containing coated paper increased with increased addition of TiO2. Rutile TiO2 was especially more effective than other types of TiO2 on yellowing inhibition of coated paper. At a dosage of 3 parts of rutile TiO2, the brightness stability of coated paper containing 20% of HYP was found to be even better than paper made of 100% chemical pulp coated with conventional coating color.


Abstract This paper examines sell‐side analysts' perceptions of 'earnings quality'. Prior research suggests that analysts' stock recommendations, price targets, earnings forecasts and written reports are relevant to share price formation. One of the main inputs in analysts' forecasting and valuation models is earnings, and analysts' perceptions of earnings quality are therefore important. There is, however, little direct evidence in the literature on what these perceptions are and on what role they have in decision‐making. This paper seeks first to understand earnings quality as interpreted by analysts, and it then tests this interpretation against its actual usage in analysts' research reports. An inductive approach is used that combines interview data with content analysis, and the findings are interpreted in the light of findings from market‐based and other research. We find that the concept of earnings quality is both accounting‐based (relating to notions of core or sustainable earnings, cash and accrual components of earnings, and accounting policies) and non‐accounting‐based (relating to information drawn from outside the financial statements). We find more non‐accounting than accounting references to earnings quality, and that (relatively subjective) non‐accounting references are especially widely used where analysts express positive or negative opinions about earnings quality. It is relatively unusual for an analyst's opinion to be both negative and accounting‐ based. If, however, an analyst does express negative, accounting‐based views on earnings quality, then he or she is highly unlikely to be positive in other respects. We interpret this evidence to be consistent with analysts' economic incentives to generate trading volume yet to be favourably biased towards companies, while seeking to use value‐relevant information relating to earnings. We also conclude that the importance of accounting‐based information relating to earnings quality is more important than it might seem, and that it exerts a significant influence on the analysis and recommendations in analysts' reports.


Fifty-six goats died approximately 44 hours after been medicated with disophenol. Two animals were necropsied. Brown spots of approximately 2cm were observed in the capsule and cut surface of the liver. The cut surface of the kidneys presented clear areas mixed with dark areas. The urinary bladder was replete with urine and sediment. The abdominal, toracic and pericardic cavities had accumulation of yellow fluid. Edema was found in the trachea and lung. Metabolization of the coronary and mesenteric fat was also observed. Histologic lesions were characterized by centrilobular or diffuse necrosis of the liver; necrosis of the epitelial tubules, with presence of cilinders and congestion in the kidneys; and edema of the lung. Four goats were inoculated subcutaneously with 10, 10.5, 19.04 and 29.43mg per kg body weight of disophenol. The animal treated with 10.5mg/kg was mantained during 18 hours at room with temperature of 28oC. The goat that recieved 29.43 mg/kg died. The macroscopic and histologic findings were similar to those observed in the spontaneous case.


Beach fill instances on the Atlantic coast of the U.S.A. generally have a life expectancy of less than five years. Although beach nourishment is viewed as viable and is often preferred to hard structures, the geomorphologic life of the fill is an important variable in evaluating the success of the venture. Two adjacent, nourished beaches on the diffed south coast of Portugal are examined to determine their morphologies following the fill and the variables that condition their temporal and spatial responses. The differential exposure to the ambient wave conditions and the nearshore circulation system differences caused by stacks and a very long jetty help to explain the contrasting history of beach fill in the two areas. Shoreline changes, surface morphologies, and sediment redistributions are traced through aerial photos, ground surveys, and a large collection of postcard views of the growing tourist area. The interpretation of this heterogeneous data set is that Praia da Rocha is regarded to be losing sediment very slowly, 2-5% per year, whereas the adjacent Praia dos Tres Castelos is losing its emplaced sediment at a rate of about 15-20% per year. Within a distance of a few hundred meters, one nourishment episode is an unqualified success because much of the beach remains after two separate periods of filling (1970 and 1983), whereas the other beach has returned to its pre-fill (1983) narrow condition within 5 years.


STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education has been gaining increasing nationwide attention. While the STEM movement has ambitious goals for k-12 education, a lack of shared understanding exists of what STEM is as well as how to implement STEM in the elementary classroom. This study investigates how seven elementary teachers in three STEM academy schools conceptualize and implement STEM in their classrooms. Teacher interviews were conducted. The findings reveal that the majority of teachers believe that STEM education involves integrating STEM subject areas. STEM activities consisted of student-led research and reading activities on STEM topics. Two teachers described STEM as involving "hands-on" science activities. Teachers at each STEM academy school conceptualized and implemented STEM differently. How STEM was implemented at each school was based on how teachers interpreted STEM and the resources they had access to. The STEM coaches played a central role in supporting the elementary teachers to plan and implement lessons. Teachers relied on them for ideas to plan and teach STEM lessons. The results of this study indicate that as more schools embrace the STEM movement, a unified understanding and resources are needed to support teachers.


This paper presents a new semiautomated soft classification method that is a hybrid between supervised and unsupervised classification algorithms for the classification of remote sensing data. Continuous iterative guided spectral class rejection (IGSCR) (CIGSCR) is based on the IGSCR classification method, a crisp classification method that automatically locates spectral classes within information class training data using clustering. This paper outlines the model and algorithm changes necessary to convert IGSCR to use soft clustering to produce soft classification in CIGSCR. This new algorithm addresses specific challenges presented by remote sensing data including large data sets (millions of samples), relatively small training data sets, and difficulty in identifying spectral classes. CIGSCR has many advantages over IGSCR, such as the ability to produce soft classification, less sensitivity to certain input parameters, potential to correctly classify regions that are not amply represented in training data, and a better ability to locate clusters associated with all classes. Furthermore, evidence is presented that the semisupervised clustering in CIGSCR produces more accurate classifications than classification based on clustering without supervision.


In this work, the new concepts, normal product of two set-valued mappings, s-weakly compatible, s-common fixed point and the (EAs) property for two pairs of setvalued mappings are introduced, and the s-common fixed point existence theorems for two pairs of set-valued noncompatible mappings under strict contractive condition are proved, without appeal to continuity of any map involved therein and completeness of underlying space. The results presented in this paper generalize, improve, and unify some recent results in this field.


Ability of a synthetic Aluminium-Magnesium Silicate [AMS] to inhibit activities of canine parvovirus [CPV] was investigated in vitro and in vivo. Five samples of CPV isolated in Nigeria, were each incubated with equal amount of a synthetic AMS on a volume to weight [v/w] basis, for one hour and then centrifuged. Viral titres of the supernatants were tested by the haemagglutination [HA] test and their mean titre compared with mean titre of portions of same viral samples, not incubated with the AMS. Also, five puppies and five adult dogs infected with the parvovirus isolates were treated by dosing each with 400 mg/kg of a drug formulation that has 12% AMS per os for seven days. As control, five puppies and five adult dogs from same class as the experimental dogs were similarly infected but were not treated. Incubating parvovirus with AMS reduced its load from mean HA titre 825.6 ± 261.1 to mean HA, 270.8 ± 132.1 [p < 0.05]. Also treating parvovirus infected dogs with a 12% AMS drug formulation reduced mortality due to the virus from 100% to zero [p < 0.01].


Coupled mode resonators provide an access route for the realization of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) analogues in the terahertz spectral region. On page 541, C. Lee and co-workers experimentally realize a microelectromechanical system (MEMS)-based metamaterial to provide both active modulation of EIT intensity and spectral tuning of the EIT peak. This is achieved through selective reconfiguration of bright and dark mode resonators, respectively. An order of magnitude change in delay-bandwidth product is achieved.


Overfishing is not an exclusive topic of big fishing industry. Overfishing by small-scale fishers is also happening. The Territorial Use of Rights – TURFs was implemented in Chile to protect the Chilean abalone from overfishing. Through the implementation of the TURFs Chilean abalone are no longer threatened by overfishing. The challenge to protect the resource thus seems to be solved. However, while some problems are solved others persist or new ones arise.The thesis explores the discourses of the Chilean social actors in regard to the development and challenges of the TURFs. The empirical data is formed by a group of interviews, where social issues such as TURFs accomplishments, resource availability, diversification, tenure issues, access to the coast, lack of infrastructure, competition for the space and future expectations, are milestones arising from the empirical material. These issues are analysed through the lens of fishers and stakeholder"s perception.The paper confirms what other studies such as Cereceda and Czischke 2001, Gallardo 2008, Gallardo and Friman 2012, Gonzalez et al. 2006, and Meltzoff et al. 2002 have found. Fishers organised nationally through confederations, regional federations and local associations have become active social actors in the artisanal fisheries arena. Similarly, it is also corroborated that through good leadership some fishing organisations are diversifying related and no-related fishing activities to secure better living conditions, thus, constantly evolving, encapsulating more and more benthic fishers" social and economic needs. The study concludes that the fishers, even though the difficulties and challenges encountered (heterogeneity of the richness of the seabed and different land issues) during the co-management of some TURFs and due to the fact that they are working in the same designated and exclusive place, they have developed a collective sense of permanent attachment and sense of "property" or tenure to the water body where the TURFs are located. Due to their development, the TURFs seem to be more than temporary, raising the question of the land tenure and associated infrastructure development where fishers place their activities, especially in rural areas where settlements do not exist.


Pure aluminum ingot (99.8 wt%) was melted to prepared chilled samples in this study. These samples were then removed to polish their surfaces and put in an ultrasonic cleaner filled with tap water. The polished surface would gradually show foggy marks after being subjected to a period of treating time. Oxide films, if entrapped, would crack, erode and detach from the chilled sample forming foggy marks on the polished surface. The sample then removed to measure oxygen and aluminum concentrations varied along the transition layer between the oxide film and aluminum matrix. Part of chilled samples was melted in a muffle furnace and subjected to different holding time. As the holding time increased, the transition layer between the oxide film and the matrix was increased and composed of different constituents varying from the Al matrix to the oxide film (mainly γ-Al2O3). This transition layer also showed different hardness measured by a nano-hardness tester. The morphologies of cracked oxide film and the eroded oxide particles were affected by the holding time after melted, and small amounts of silicon in the pure aluminum.


We present a coflowing integral plume model for the transition from an eruption column to an umbrella cloud. This transition occurs above the level of neutral buoyancy where the rising plume is surrounded by a descending annulus. We model this transition by extending the coflowing integral plume model of Bloomfield and Kerr (2000, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JB015841), which was originally developed for Boussinesq fountains, to volcanic plumes. In addition to the transition region, the new model includes the part of the eruption column below the level of neutral buoyancy. The eruption column and the transition to an umbrella cloud are treated as a continuous process from the vent upward. Equations for the variation with height of the mass, momentum, enthalpy, and moisture fluxes are presented for both the upward and downward plumes. The interaction between the upward and downward plumes is accounted for by two entrainment relations: from the upward to the downward plume and vice versa; entrainment from the environment into the downward plume (or the upward plume in the absence of a downward plume) is also accounted for. The model is applied to the two eruptions considered by Costa et al. (2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2016.01.017) for the volcanic‐plume intercomparison study. Profiles of the mass and momentum fluxes are compared with those from an equivalent large‐eddy simulation. The new model captures the order of magnitude of the fluxes, the relative magnitudes of the upward and downward fluxes and aspects of the profiles' shape. In particular, the upward plume reaches a maximum before decreasing toward the top of the plume consistent with the large‐eddy simulation plume.


This study investigates the punching shear strength of concrete bridge decks strengthened with various fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials, carbon fiber sheet (CFS), glass fiber sheet (GFS) and carbon fiber grid (CFG). This study performed fatigue loading tests on the strengthened bridge decks with different fatigue loading levels. Based on the experimental results, a damage index was determined considering the damage mechanics and was applied to the plastic punching shear strength model for the evaluation of the punching shear strength with respect to the number of fatigue loading cycles. The developed model seems to successfully estimate the punching shear strength of damaged bridge decks with sufficient reliability. It is anticipated, therefore, that the developed model may help improving the design of strengthening of damaged bridge deck panels.


Using all loans granted to firms recorded in the Italian credit register, we estimate correlations between risk-transfer and default probabilities to gauge the severity of informational asymmetries in the loan securitization market. First, the analysis confirms the presence of information frictions in the SME loan securitisation market. Second, the unconditional quality of securitized loans remains significantly better than that of non-securitized ones, in line with the notion that markets anticipate the presence of information frictions and lead to a selection of loans which offsets the detrimental effects of asymmetric information. Third, using data for firms that maintain multiple bank relationships, we obtain indications of the relative importance played by two forms of information friction, adverse selection and moral hazard. While the former is widespread, the latter is present in weak relationships only, in line with the notion that such loans are characterised by a limited commitment to exert costly monitoring by the bank.


Context. Stars form by the gravitational collapse of cold and dense molecular cloud cores. Constraining the temperature and density structure of such cores is fundamental for understanding the initial conditions of star formation. We use Herschel observations of the thermal far-infrared (FIR) dust emission from nearby and isolated molecular cloud cores and combine them with ground-based submillimeter continuum data to derive observational constraints on their temperature and density structure.
Aims: The aim of this study is to verify the validity of a ray-tracing inversion technique developed to derive the dust temperature and density structure of nearby and isolated starless cores directly from the dust emission maps and to test if the resulting temperature and density profiles are consistent with physical models.
Methods: We have developed a ray-tracing inversion technique that can be used to derive the temperature and density structure of starless cores directly from the observed dust emission maps without the need to make assumptions about the physical conditions. Using this ray-tracing inversion technique, we derive the dust temperature and density structure of six isolated starless molecular cloud cores from dust emission maps in the wavelengths range 100 μm-1.2 mm. We then employ self-consistent radiative transfer modeling to the density profiles derived with the ray-tracing inversion method. In this model, the interstellar radiation field (ISRF) is the only heating source. The local strength of the ISRF as well as the total extinction provided by the outer envelope are treated as semi-free parameters which we scale within defined limits. The best-fit values of both parameters are derived by comparing the self-consistently calculated temperature profiles with those derived by the ray-tracing method.
Results: We confirm earlier results and show that all starless cores are significantly colder inside than outside, with central core temperatures in the range 7.5-11.9 K and envelope temperatures that are 2.4 - 9.6 K higher. The core temperatures show a strong negative correlation with peak column density which suggests that the thermal structure of the cores is dominated by external heating from the ISRF and shielding by dusty envelopes. We find that temperature profiles derived with the ray-tracing inversion method can be well-reproduced with self-consistent radiative transfer models if the cores have geometry that is not too complex and good data coverage with spatially resolved maps at five or more wavelengths in range between 100 μm and 1.2 mm. We also confirm results from earlier studies that found that the usually adopted canonical value of the total strength of the ISRF in the solar neighbourhood is incompatible with the most widely used dust opacity models for dense cores. However, with the data available for this study, we cannot uniquely resolve the degeneracy between dust opacity law and strength of the ISRF.


Experimental study on the behavior of Single Adobe, Rammed Earth Wall, Single modified adobe block, modified adobe wall and Reinforcement of Bamboo Rammed-earth Wall is put forward in this paper. The experiments include compression, shear and bending test of single adobe, and uniaxial lateral loading test of rammed earth and modified adobe wall and reinforcement of bamboo rammed-earth wall. The mechanical properties of the specimens are obtained through test. The test and research will offer a technological support for the Chinese Government started the Rural House Earthquake Safety Project(RHESP)and formulation of the code for seismic design of rural buildings.


The author examines the legal discipline of religious freedom as a test of democracy, both in domestic policy, from Westfalia to the European Union, and in foreign policy, by focusing upon the "EU Guidelines" and the "International Religious Freedom Act". So he points out the negative effects of this kind of policy, because on the one hand USA and EU exempt themselves from the scrutiny and on the other hand behave as the guardians of the global respect of the human rights (legal paternalism): a responsibility, the latter, own of the UNO


To characterize the rhythm of stresses in a line of Russian iambic tetrameter, a frequency profile is often used, i. e., a diagram of the occurrence of real stresses on all feet (ictuses) of the verse line. This article discusses in detail one of the mechanisms that enables the speech factor to influence the formation of the stress profile. It is shown that in Russian iambic tetrameter of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the high frequency of stresses of the second ictus is explained by the fact that the beginning of the line more often than not coincides with the beginning of a sentence or clause, and the Russian syntagma is more frequently stressed in the middle. And vice versa, wherever the frequency of enjambments increases, the second ictus is less frequently stressed, because the beginning of the syntagma moves to the middle of the line. Considering the above, the author attempts to characterize the peculiarity of the rhythmic structure of Russian iambic tetrameter in synchronic and diachronic aspects and reveal some major large-scale trends such as the growth of the rhythmic diversity of poetic texts.


This paper provides an overview of possibility for reduction tractor's fuel consumption and slippage of driving wheels in real operating conditions. Analysis of tractor slippage and fuel consumption reduction methods and tools were done during ploughing operation. A soil physical and mechanical property varies much, therefore value of driving wheels slippage and fuel consumption tractor has to be determined experimentally. Accredited, that dependence of driving wheel slippage must be taken in account for evaluation its influence on tractor aggregate fuel consumption at any work condition. Driving wheel slippage and fuel consumption investigation results during ploughing operation applications were carried out using a tractor "FORD 8340" and plough "KONGSKILDE VARIANT VP – S". During investigation the extra 27 weights (from 0 to 520 kg) at the front of the tractor and air pressure (from 2,5 to 1,5 bar) in the tyres driving wheels was changed. During investigation tractor ran turned on and off with the front drive axle in 3Hth gear and at 1610 20 min-1 engine speed Tractor work parameter, tyre air pressure in driving wheels and extra weights of front tractor dependence analysis results was presented. Experimentally reasoned optimal values of front tractor extra weight and tyre air pressure of driving wheels, which has an influence to suitable 7-15% slippage of driving wheels and minimum fuel consumption during the ploughing operation application. Article is in lithuanian language


Context. Many if not most planetary nebulae (PNe) are now thought to be the outcome of binary evolutionary scenarios. However, only a few percent of the PNe in the Milky Way are known to host binary systems. The high-precision repeated observing and long time baseline of Gaia make it well suited for detecting new close binaries through photometric variability.
Aims. We aim to find new close binary central stars of PNe (CSPNe) using data from the Gaia mission, building towards a statistically significant sample of post-common envelope, close binary CSPNe.
Methods. As the vast majority of Gaia sources do not have published epoch photometry, we used the uncertainty in the mean photometry as a proxy for determining the variability of our CSPN sample in the second Gaia data release. We derived a quantity that expresses the significance of the variability, and considered what is necessary to build a clean sample of genuine variable sources.
Results. Our selection recovers a large fraction of the known close binary CSPN population, while other CSPNe lying in the same region of the parameter space represent a promising set of targets for ground-based confirmatory follow-up observations. Gaia epoch photometry for four of the newly identified variable sources confirms that the variability is genuine and consistent with binarity.


: Wireless devices' many applications are changing the way nurses work. Read how to select wireless solutions that enhance your performance.


Philosophy of education deals with study and processes of the aims and nature of the programs and the results of education. Although education and cultivation are two different terms and have two different concepts, they are inseparable in practice. In this study, education was studied from view of two scientists, Ghazali and Plato. Ghazali viewed childhood as being very important and believed that this period should be used as opportunities to teach because what child learns at this time much influence his future. By scientific illumination and as a great coach of Islamic training, Ghazali caused great change through the religious orientation in education and establishing principles, goals and educational methods. One of the great philosophers is Plato, the father of the philosophy of the West. The results indicated that Plato considered educational objectives to include physical goals, talentrelated goals as well as moral, intellectual and social goals. Platonic curriculum include habituating children to play, physical education, teaching reading and writing, training, and teaching philosophy and dialectics and literature. According to Plato, the best teaching method is one that focuses on conversation.


The amount of digital data surrounding us has exploded within the past years. In industry, data are gathered from different production phases with the intent to use the data to improve the overall manufacturing process. However, management and utilization of these huge data sets is not straightforward. Thus, a computer-driven approach called data mining has become an attractive research area. Using data mining methods, new and useful information can be extracted from enormous data sets. In this thesis, diverse industrial problems are approached using data mining methods based on similarity. Similarity information is shown to give an additional advantage in different phases of manufacturing. Similarity information is utilized with smaller-scale problems, but also in a broader perspective when aiming to improve the whole manufacturing process. Different ways of utilizing similarity are also introduced. Methods are chosen to emphasize the similarity aspect; some of the methods rely entirely on similarity information, while other methods just preserve similarity information as a result. The actual problems covered in this thesis are from quality control, process monitoring, improvement of manufacturing efficiency and model maintenance. They are real-world problems from two different application areas: spot welding and steel manufacturing. Thus, this thesis clearly shows how the industry can benefit from the presented data mining methods.


In cancer, epithelial cell de-differentiation is a feature of rapidly dividing cells under non-controlled growth and it often reflects a change in the gene expression pattern; however, the relationship between proliferation and alterations in cellular differentiation has not yet been identified. This work examined how changes in the characteristics of cells that discriminate their differentiated and proliferative states can be used to improve on current pancreatic cancer chemotherapeutic strategies. PepT1, a high substrate-capacity and low-affinity transporter system, has been suggested as an attractive drug delivery target for pancreatic cancer. Through a combination of immunological assays, PepT1 normally restricted to the apical surfaces in polarised intestinal epithelial cells, was shown to distribute at the cell membrane of non-polarised cancerous ductal cells. Anti-inflammatory or anti-cancer agents, like ibuprofen or gemcitabine, were conjugated to selected amino acids to enhance their uptake via PepT1. Studies with these conjugates demonstrated enhanced uptake into pancreatic cancer cells, AsPc-1 and HPAFII. Subsequent studies investigated how cell polarity that is typically disrupted in cancer can be modulated to affect the balance of epithelial differentiation versus proliferation. Pharmacological attenuation of YAP (c-Yes associated protein) using a β adrenergic agonist, dobutamine, increased functional tight junction (TJ) structures and diminished proliferation rates of two pancreatic cancer cells, AsPc-1 and HPAFII. Dobutamine also primed an apoptotic cell response. When given in combination with gemcitabine, dobutamine further reduced cell proliferation. Overall, these studies have provided support for using PepT1 as a method to target pancreatic cancer cells for the delivery of anti-cancer agents. Additionally, dobutamine was identified as a potential pharmacological agent to suppress the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells by altering increasing cell programming that drives epithelial cell differentiation.


OBJECTIVE: Placenta has the highest expression of epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor of all tissues, a cell signaling pathway promoting survival and growth. Therefore, EGF receptor inhibition could potentially treat ectopic pregnancy. We undertook preclinical studies to examine whether gefitinib (orally available EGF receptor inhibitor) with or without methotrexate inhibits placental cell growth. METHODS: Gefitinib and methotrexate were added to placental cells and their ability inhibit cell growth, block EGF receptor signaling, and induce apoptosis (programmed cell death) was examined. They were also administered to two animal mouse models to examine their effects on placental tissue in vivo. Results: Epidermal growth factor receptor was highly expressed in placental tissue from ectopic pregnancies. Combining gefitinib with methotrexate potently inhibited growth of placental cells, including placental cell lines (JEG3, BeWo cells) and cells isolated from first-trimester placenta. These drugs were additive in blocking EGF receptor signaling and inducing apoptosis. Gefitinib and methotrexate administered together were more potent in decreasing the volume of human placental cells xenografted subcutaneously onto mice compared with either alone. By day 19 after xenografting, mean (±standard error of the mean), xenograft volumes were: 821 (±68) mm3 after gefitinib treatment, 901 (±204) mm3 after methotrexate treatment, and 345 (±137) mm3 after both drugs were given (P<.01 for both comparisons of single therapy compared with combination therapy). Combining these agents doubled rates of fetal resorption in pregnant mice compared with each drug alone. CONCLUSION: Combining gefitinib with methotrexate potently inhibits placental cell growth in vitro and in mouse models. The combination may have potential in treating ectopic pregnancies.


BACKGROUND
The standard management for patients with blunt aortic injury is surgery; however, a small number of patients have been medically managed. The outcome of these nonoperatively managed patients is unknown.

METHODS
Seven patients diagnosed as blunt aortic injury were managed without aortic surgery between January 1993 and April 2002, and their outcomes were retrospectively investigated.

RESULTS
There were three men and four women, with a mean age of 48.7+/-22.7 years and Injury Severity Score of 37.7+/-16.9. The reason for nonoperative management was refusal of surgery (2), do-not-resuscitate order (1), diffuse brain injury (2), small intimal tear (1), and technical difficulty (1). Two patients died resulting from associated injuries. Five patients are alive, and in three patients complete resolution of aortic injury was observed.

CONCLUSIONS
In selected patients with multiple associated injuries or severe comorbidity, nonoperative management after blunt aortic injury can be a treatment of choice.


There is no consensus on a valid and reliable method of measuring turnout. However, there is a building awareness that such measures need to exist. Total turnout is the sum of hip rotation, tibial torsion, and contributions from the foot. To our knowledge, there has been no research that directly measures and then sums each individual component of turnout to verify a total turnout value. Furthermore, the tibial torsion component has not previously been confirmed by an imaging study. The purpose of this study was to test the validity and reliability of a single total passive turnout (TPT) test taken with a goniometer by comparing it with the sum of the individual components. Fourteen female dancers were recruited as participants. Measurements of the subjects' right and left legs were gathered for the components of turn-out. Tibial torsion was measured using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Retro-reflective marker assisted measurements were used to calculate the static components of TPT. Hip external rotation, TPT, and total active turnout (TAT) were measured by goniometer. Additional standing turnout values were collected on rotational disks. Tibial torsion and hip rotation were summed and compared with three whole-leg turnout values using Two-Tailed T-Tests and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients. Tibial torsion measurements in dancers were found to demonstrate substantial variation between subjects and between legs in the same subject. The range on the right leg was 16° to 60°, and the range on the left leg was 16° to 52°. Retro-reflective markers and biomechanical theory demonstrated that when the knee is extended and locked, "screwed home," it will not factor into a whole-leg turnout value. TAT and turnout on the disks were not statistically significant when compared with the summed total. Statistical significance was achieved in four of the eight measurement series comparing TPT with the summed value of tibial torsion and hip rotation. The advantages of a standard, valid, and reliable method of measuring turnout are many, and the risks are few. Some advantages include improved training techniques, mastery of the use of turnout at an earlier age, better dancer and teacher compliance with suggested turnout rates, understanding the use of parallel position, understanding the etiology of many dance-related injuries, and possible development of preventative measures.


There is a clear dominance of English in the most cited research journals, as well as in English as lingua franca communication contexts in academia. This does not mean, however, that high quality university education does not continue to exist and flourish in other languages, including contexts with German, French or Spanish as lingua franca.
The academic context selected for analysis in this paper is an internationally accredited German MBA programme in Romania, where the dominant medium of tuition is German, with only a few courses taught in English. Academic writing is, thus, mainly in German, and the Master dissertations have to be written in German. The main aims of this small scale study are to explore the features of this multilingual environment, in terms of both challenges and opportunities involved. We will look at the benefits of encouraging an internationalised quality agenda, which promotes the observance of academic requirements characteristic of anglophone and German Higher Education. Where do they meet? Are they always in harmony? What are the challenges for students (whose mother tongue is neither English nor German) of reading most of their research literature in English and writing their master dissertation in German?
To answer these questions we have resorted to text based and corpus driven research, complemented by focus group discussions and interviews with students and teachers. The findings are meant to inform future curriculum developments, the 'research writing' module, and interdisciplinary cooperation with and among subject teachers, with a focus on enhancing the quality of student dissertation writing and their academic competences, in general.


Within the field of bioengineering, simulated body fluid (SBF) has been widely implemented as a technique to screen for the bioactivity of materials. Furthermore, SBF can be used in the biological industry to promote the adhesion of apatite coatings to assist with making materials more biomimetic. This paper details the use of CO2 and KrF excimer lasers for the surface treatment of nylon 6,6 to modulate apatite formation following immersion in SBF for 14 days. Following CO2 laser surface treatment, using white light interferometry, the surface roughness increased to a maximum of Ra and Sa of 1.3 and 4.4 μm, respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showed a maximum increase in surface oxygen content of 5.6 %at. CO2 laser-induced surface modifications gave rise to a modulation in the wettability characteristics such that the contact angle, θ, decreased for the whole area processed samples, as expected, and increased for the patterned samples. For the KrF excimer laser processed samples, it was found that Sa increased by up to 1.5 μm when compared to the as-received sample. After 14 days of immersion in SBF each sample was analysed using SEM and EDX to ascertain the presence of apatite crystals formed on the as-received and laser treated nylon 6,6 surfaces. It was seen for all samples that calcium phosphate formed on each surface following 14 days. An increase in mass for the laser processed samples indicated that these modified surfaces gave rise to an accelerated formation of apatite when compared to the as-received sample. This, along with strong correlations between θ, the surface energy parameters and the calcium phosphate formation, for whole area processed samples, highlights the potential for this surface treatment technique for predicting and enhancing the bone forming ability of laser processed materials.


The study of mixture models constitutes a large domain of research in statistics. In the first part of this work, we present phi-divergences and the existing methods which produce robust estimators. We are more particularly interested in the so-called dual formula of phi-divergences. We build a new robust estimator based on this formula. We study its asymptotic properties and give a numerical comparison with existing methods on simulated data. We also introduce a proximal-point algorithm whose aim is to calculate divergence-based estimators. We give some of the convergence properties of this algorithm and illustrate them on theoretical and simulated examples. In the second part of this thesis, we build a new structure for two-component mixture models where one component is unknown. The new approach permits to incorporate a prior linear information about the unknown component such as moment-type and L-moments constraints. We study the asymptotic properties of the proposed estimators. Several experimental results on simulated data are illustrated showing the advantage of the novel approach and the gain from using the prior information in comparison to existing methods which do not incorporate any prior information except for a symmetry assumption over the unknown component.


Background Protecting infants against serogroup B meningococcal disease is a long-standing public health need. An investigational multicomponent vaccine (4CMenB) containing three recombinant proteins identified using whole-genome sequencing and outer membrane vesicles from the New Zealand outbreak strain was evaluated in healthy infants. Methods Healthy infants were randomised to receive routine infant vaccines alone, with one of three 4CMenB lots, or with serogroup C conjugate vaccine at 2, 4, 6 months of age. In an open-label cohort, 4CMenB was assessed via serum bactericidal assay using human complement (hSBA) against serogroup B test strains. Noninferiority criteria for seroresponse to routine vaccines were predefined. In open-label and observer-blind cohorts, prespecified solicited injection site and systemic reactions within 7 days of vaccination were evaluated. Adverse events were monitored. Results Overall 3630 infants enrolled. All lots of 4CMenB had consistent immunogenicity, and 100% of 4CMenB recipients had protective titers to at least two heterologous serogroup B strains. Responses to 4CMenB and routine vaccines were consistent with protection; no evidence of interference with co-administration of 4CMenB was noted for any antigen except Polio 2. Participants receiving 4CMenB and the routine vaccines showed evidence of increased reactogenicity compared with those receiving routine vaccines only or those receiving MenC and routine vaccines. Parents of infants in the observer-blind cohort were more likely to seek medical attention for fever than were those in the open-label cohort. Conclusion In this study, 4CMenB showed a very promising immunogenicity profile and acceptable reactogenicity in infants.


Background: Genetic linkage studies have identified two susceptibility loci for essential tremor (ET) on chromosomes 3q13 (ETM1) and 2p24.1 (ETM2). Linkage disequilibrium studies in separate population samples from the United States and Singapore suggest an association between ET and loci at ETM2. Methods: Fine mapping studies were conducted on multiplex and singleton US families linked to ETM2 using newly detected loci within the candidate interval to establish the minimal critical region (MCR) harboring an ET gene. The genes and transcripts within this interval were systematically analyzed by single-strand conformational polymorphism analysis and DNA sequencing. Results: A 464-kb region between loci D2S2150 and etm1231 was defined as the MCR. The coding regions and flanking intronic splice sites of two genes and seven transcripts in this interval were evaluated for mutations. A missense mutation (828C→G) in the transcript FLJ14249 (HS1-BP3) was identified in one US family. This mutation was found in another apparently unrelated US family with ET and was absent in 150 control samples (300 chromosomes). The 828C→G mutation causes a substitution of a glycine for an alanine residue in the HS1-BP3 protein. The HS1-BP3 protein binds to proteins that are highly expressed in motor neurons and Purkinje cells and regulate the Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase activation of tyrosine and tryptophan hydroxylase. Conclusions: A rare variant in the HS1-BP3 gene that is associated with essential tremor (ET) in two families is reported. This finding will facilitate research on the functional role of this gene and related genes in the pathogenesis of ET.


MCQs for ENT: Specialist Revision Guide for the FRCS is a key resource for candidates preparing to sit the FRCS (ORL-HNS). It contains over 300 single best answer questions and over 70 extended matching questions to help candidates prepare for all aspects of ENT they may face in this challenging exam. Written by expert consultants who have succeeded in the exam, this resource provides comprehensive coverage of theory and practice, including new questions on challenging topics such as electroneurography and voice clinic procedures, and questions on rare topics such as oropharyngeal cancers. All answers have full explanations, providing candidates with high-quality self-assessment in order to maximize exam success. Providing a thorough assessment of the reader's ENT knowledge, this is an essential revision book for any candidate facing the FRCS ORL-HNS exam.


type="main"> In urban planning, inclusion is not necessarily achieved by increasing opportunities for deliberation between planners and residents, as power and exclusion reside in the process of deliberation, especially in the rigid spaces of formal planning hearings. Planners' professional jargon may remain inaccessible to residents, who grasp their living environment in terms of the flow of sensory and social interactions. So the framework of instrumental rationality may exclude softer, yet meaningful, local stories. What is needed in urban planning is a sensitivity for the plurality of these stories. In this article we propose that applied drama methods could provide a novel model for deliberative planning, in order to surpass the silo thinking of instrumental rationality, and ingrained, taken-for-granted concepts and identities, by artistic and affective means of argumentation. Furthermore, it seems that residents gain access to the embodied understanding of different trajectories of meaning making by playing the roles of other residents. Drama may provide a channel of expression that helps people move beyond the antagonistic posturing between stakeholders, as well as an empowering way to express the plurality of stories in neighbourhood spaces.


SiR,-We must apologize for our delay in replying to the letter from Dr. Frances Taylor (13 January, p. 113) regarding her findings on the use of nitrazepam. As she mentioned, the drug may in certain cases give the patient vivid and painful nightmares, which disappear after a certain time. We were very pleased to hear her explanation on the lines of the good old Freudian theory of dreams and the psychotherapeutic effect of dreaming. Nitrazepam might thus be regarded as a catalyst, favouring the natural process of restoring psychic equilibrium. This hypothetical statement should not be greeted with surprise when we consider that nitrazepam belongs to the chemical class of the benzodiazepines, which are known to have the property of weakening the inhibiting power of the superego (please allow us to go on using the Freudian way of thinking and talking). But let us go further along the path that Dr. Taylor has opened up. It is generally accepted that most cases of insomnia are of psychic or psychopathological origin. This means that insomniacs are prone to a certain psychic tension, which may be attributed to the subconscious persistence of unhealed psychic traumata or unresolved psychic conflicts. The reason for this persistence could be sought in the presence of an overdeveloped superego, which acts as such a strong repressive factor that inner traumata and conflicts cannot even reach the level of near-consciousness that we call dreaming. If nitrazepam does allow distressing subconscious processes to enter into the field of dreams, it may enable patients to overcome their subconscious troubles. Consequently nitrazepam would act as a curative and not only as a symptomatic drug. Nitrazepam should thus liberate insomniacs from their insomria for good. Hence the following simple practical suggestion to Dr. Taylor and to everyone who is interested in this matter: continue your nitrazepam treatment until excessive dreaming (whether reaching the painful intensity of nightmares or not) has disappeared and then stop it. If the Freudian theory of dreams and our ideas about nitrazepam are right, you might observe that in some cases there is no further need for any sleeping pill.-We are, etc.,


The static differentiated product demand model when applied to products with rapid product turnover and declining prices, yields implausible results. One response is to explicitly model the inter-temporal choices of consumers but computational demands require restrictive assumptions on consumer heterogeneity and limits on the characteristics included in the model. We propose, instead, to supplement the static model with a control for the age that each product has been in the market. This approach is applied to the US digital camera market and we find we obtain more plausible estimates. Our results are consistent with inter-temporal price discrimination by firms. Furthermore, our results suggest that ignoring the effects of product ageing may result in substantially overestimated price elasticities and technological progress and underestimated price-cost markups.


Listeria monocytogenes is rarely reported as a cause of septicemia in foals. In this case, the foal had diarrhea 2 weeks prior to the onset of signs of lethargy, high rectal temperature, and leukopenia with a left shift. Listeria monocytogenes was isolated from the blood culture. The most commonly isolated organism causing septicemia in foals is Escherichia coli. Without the blood cultures, a definitive diagnosis would not have been possible.


Objective To assess what is known about the relationship between patient experience measures and incentives designed to improve care, and to identify how public policy and medical practices can promote patient‐valued outcomes in health systems with strong financial incentives. Data Sources/Study Setting Existing literature (gray and peer‐reviewed) on measuring patient experience and patient‐reported outcomes, identified from Medline and Cochrane databases; evaluations of pay‐for‐performance programs in the United States, Europe, and the Commonwealth countries. Study Design/Data Collection We analyzed (1) studies of pay‐for‐performance, to identify those including metrics for patient experience, and (2) studies of patient experience and of patient‐reported outcomes to identify evidence of influence on clinical practice, whether through public reporting or private reporting to clinicians. Principal Findings First, we identify four forms of "patient‐reported information" (PRI), each with distinctive roles shaping clinical practice: (1) patient‐reported outcomes measuring self‐assessed physical and mental well‐being, (2) surveys of patient experience with clinicians and staff, (3) narrative accounts describing encounters with clinicians in patients' own words, and (4) complaints/grievances signaling patients' distress when treatment or outcomes fall short of expectations. Because these forms vary in crucial ways, each must be distinctively measured, deployed, and linked with financial incentives. Second, although the literature linking incentives to patients experience is limited, implementing pay‐for‐performance systems appears to threaten certain patient‐valued aspects of health care. But incentives can be made compatible with the outcomes patients value if: (a) a sufficient portion of incentives is tied to patient‐reported outcomes and experiences, (b) incentivized forms of PRI are complemented by other forms of patient feedback, and (c) health care organizations assist clinicians to interpret and respond to PRI. Finally, we identify roles for the public and private sectors in financing PRI and orchestrating an appropriate balance among its four forms. Conclusions Unless public policies are attentive to patients' perspectives, stronger financial incentives for clinicians can threaten aspects of care that patients most value. Certain policy parameters are already clear, but additional research is required to clarify how best to collect patient narratives in varied settings, how to report narratives to consumers in conjunction with quantified metrics, and how to promote a "culture of learning" at the practice level that incorporates patient feedback.


Stantec is a Canadian engineering consulting firm with more than 15 000 employees working in over 250 offices mainly located in North America. Over 35 acoustics professionals regularly share their knowledge and innovations in Canada and the United States, allowing us to offer customers innovative and economically viable solutions. For over 20 years, Stantec (previously Dessau) has offered acoustics services in Quebec.


Abstract High-dose methotrexate (HDMTX) is defined as methotrexate dose of ≥500 mg/m2. It is used in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, osteosarcoma, and primary central nervous system lymphoma. Administration mandates adequate hydration; urine alkalinization; leucovorin rescue, monitoring of urine output, serum creatinine, and methotrexate levels. Delayed methotrexate clearance is managed by increasing hydration and leucovorin dose. Glucarpidase is the antidote for patients with renal toxicity. Studies from India have shown that HDMTX can be administered without monitoring of methotrexate levels with strict monitoring of urine pH, urine output, and serum creatinine and extended hydration and leucovorin doses.


Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) Contaminants are toxic substances mainly released into the environment as a result of human activities (eg, industrial production, agro-animal husbandry practices, waste production/disposal). They are equipped with a high intrinsic stability that allows them to remain unchanged in the environment for a long time, undergoing a wide geographical spread between environmental compartments (air, water, soil and biota) and accumulating in living organisms to harmful levels for both human health and ecosystem (www.epa.gov/pbt).
Population exposure to these PBT contaminants mainly takes place through food (Pazefall, 2002), therefore their monitoring is fundamental for Public Health.
The research described in this doctoral thesis mainly concerned the identification of some of these contaminants in meals, as well as actually consumed by the population. The main objective of the research activity was the development of a method to determine the real contribution of the daily diet to the toxic and persistent contaminants exposure for people living in different geographical areas of Italy.
In particular, the interest has been directed to the categories of substances in the families of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins and furans (PCDDs, PCDFs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs).
Our attention was focused on Total diet studies (TDS) and Duplicate diet studies (DDS), through the analysis of canteens and restaurants meals from Italian adults and children and the analysis of double portions of all meals (24h) prepared at home by some adults respectively.
Sampling was carried out through the selection of six different types of meals, depending on the following different dietary habits: consumption of baby food by toddlers aged 9-12 months (Baby food, BF); consumption of meals in school canteens for children attending nursery and primary school (age 4-9 years), and canteens for adults (aged 18-64 years); consumption of fast food meals by adults (Fast Foods, FF); consumption of food prepared at home by adults (Duplicate diet, DD); consumption of meals by adults that observe a vegetarian lifestyle (Vegetarian diet, V); consumption of "Sundays meals " at the restaurant by adults (Restaurant meals, RM). In particular, canteen meals were collected in collaboration with four Italian primary schools (Ferrara, Perugia, Genoa-1, Genoa-2), a nursery school (Portici, NA) and an office canteen (Brescia). All the composites were analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (HRGC-HRMS for PCDD/F and PCB and by HRGC-LRMS for PBDE).
Analysis of the obtained data revealed no exposure beyond the legal limits for the examined population, the estimates were lower even than those of the rest of the European population. Only for some restaurant meals RM higher values compared to the general trend were obtained, probably caused by the additional presence, in the above menu, of meat based dressing re-fill in the first courses (i.e.tagliatelle alla bolognese and agnolotti) and of dessert prepared with milk and dairy products. Foods of animal origin, in fact, generally show higher levels of bioaccumulative pollutants compared to foods of plant origin (EFSA 2011a, 2012b EFSA). This explanation is supported by the lower levels of contaminants found in the vegetarian meal (V).
For all three categories of PBT contaminants (dioxins, furans, PCBs and PBDEs) a higher value was obtained babies and children meals, in line with the general view which explains that they should be more exposed than the adults because of greater consumption of food relative to their body weight (EFSA 2012A).
Due to the complexity and expensiveness of conducting long-term studies, such as TDS, the analysis of composites as result of pooled meals may represent a first cost-effective screening useful to assess persistent organic pollutants intake through food as actually consumed.
In order to refine the dietary exposure assessment it may be useful to perform such screening on regular basis thus reducing possible uncertainties related to the meals representativeness also on seasonal basis.


: The authors describe the mass incidence of haemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS) in five children from one community. They draw attention to the importance of collaboration with communal hygienists and food hygienists in epidemiological investigations of haemolytic-uraemic syndrome. In view of the necessity of early collection of biological material, specimens and examination of contacts, the authors draw attention to the importance of adhering to compulsory notification of HUS.


Interfacing with land and sea, estuaries support a mosaic of habitats that underpin the production of many coastal fisheries. These ecosystems are threatened by multiple stressors, including habitat loss and climate change, but the relative importance of estuarine habitat types for different fish species remains poorly understood since direct habitat comparisons are rare. This knowledge gap is exemplified in temperate estuaries by salmon — ecologically and commercially important species that use estuaries during their migrations to and from the ocean. Here, we tested for species-specific habitat use by sampling fishes in 3 interconnected estuarine habitats (brackish marsh, eelgrass, and sand flat), across seasons and temperature regimes. We quantified fish species richness, community distinctness, and catches (of Chinook and chum salmon, other migratory fishes, and resident fishes) in the Pacific Northwest's heavily urbanized Fraser River estuary, the terminus of what was once the world's most productive salmon basin. Overall, eelgrass habitat supported the greatest fish species richness (n = 37) and catches (37402 fish), exceeding that of both the marsh (19 species, 7154 fish) and sand flat (22 species, 6697 fish). However, the majority of salmon were caught in the marsh (61%). These differences, coupled with our finding that at least one unique fish species inhabited each habitat (eelgrass = 15, marsh = 8, sand flat = 1), demonstrate species-specific habitat use and underscore the importance of connected seascapes for biodiversity conservation.


In our hospital, disposable polyvinyl chloride bronchial tubes have recently been introduced as an alternative to red-rubber double lumen tubes on the basis of longer shelf-life. cost effectiveness and ease of bronchial placement. A manufacturing error of labelling was recently found on a 35-FG left disposable bronchial tube (Mallinckrodt Critical Care Bronchocath). Both pilot balloons were identically labelled 'bronchial'. We wish to draw attention to this possible hazard which could be overlooked during routine pre-operative cuff checks, unless specific reference is made to the labelling.


Pathophysiology of mesenteric ischemia/reperfusion: a review During ischemia, the cell structures are progressively damaged, but restoration of the blood flow, paradoxically, intensifies the lesions caused by the ischemia. The mechanisms of ischemia injury and reperfusion (I/R) have not been completely defined and many studies have been realized in an attempt to find an ideal therapy for mesenteric I/R. The occlusion and reperfusion of the splanchnic arteries provokes local and systemic alterations principally derived from the release of cytotoxic substances and the interaction between neutrophils and endothelial cells. Substances involved in the process are discussed in the present review, like oxygen-derived free radicals, nitric oxide, transcription factors, complement system, serotonin and pancreatic proteases. The mechanisms of apoptosis, alterations in other organs, therapeutic and evaluation methods are also discussed.


A self-organizing neural network model is proposed for pattern classification for any given data sets without a priori information about the number of clusters or cluster centers. This system is based on extensions of Kohonen's self-organizing feature map model. It adjusts weights between the input layer and the distance layer until it is stabilized by utilizing feedback information for specific neurons. Then it classifies each input according to the distance between the weights and the normalized input using J.C. Bezdek's (1981) membership value equation. The final weights between the input layer and the distance layer become the coordinates of the cluster centers. Some experimental studies are presented for a sample data set and a color image.<<ETX>>


Farmer bankruptcies often are viewed as an important measure of rural economic well-being and of the success or failure of various Federal agricultural and rural policies. But the level of farmer bankruptcies is not a good indicator of rural financial health. Bankruptcies are only a subset of all farm business exits and a lagging indicator of economic stress. They do not reflect overall economic conditions in most rural areas because farming is a relatively small part of rural economic activity.


Since the term "Fog Computing" has been coined by Cisco Systems in 2012, security and privacy issues of this promising paradigm are still open challenges. Among various security challenges, Access Control is a crucial concern for all cloud computing-like systems (e.g. Fog computing, Mobile edge computing) in the IoT era. Therefore, assigning the precise level of access in such an inherently scalable, heterogeneous and dynamic environment is not easy to perform. This work defines the uncertainty challenge for authentication phase of the access control in fog computing because on one hand fog has a number of characteristics that amplify uncertainty in authentication and on the other hand applying traditional access control models does not result in a flexible and resilient solution. Therefore, we have proposed a novel prediction model based on the extension of Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) model. Our data-driven model is able to handle uncertainty in authentication. It is also able to consider the mobility of mobile edge devices in order to handle authentication. In doing so, we have built our model using and comparing four supervised classification algorithms namely as Decision Tree, Naïve Bayes, Logistic Regression and Support Vector Machine. Our model can achieve authentication performance with 88.14% accuracy using Logistic Regression.


Stochastic methods have been used extensively to quantify effects due to uncertainty in system parameters (e.g. material, geometrical, and electrical constants) and/or excitation on observables pertinent to electromagnetic compatibility and interference (EMC/EMI) analysis (e.g. voltages across mission-critical circuit elements) [1]. In recent years, stochastic collocation (SC) methods, especially those leveraging generalized polynomial chaos (gPC) expansions, have received significant attention [2, 3]. SC-gPC methods probe surrogate models (i.e. compact polynomial input-output representations) to statistically characterize observables. They are nonintrusive, that is they use existing deterministic simulators, and often cost only a fraction of direct Monte-Carlo (MC) methods. Unfortunately, SC-gPC-generated surrogate models often lack accuracy (i) when the number of uncertain/random system variables is large and/or (ii) when the observables exhibit rapid variations.


Abstract The healthcare sector has experienced significant challenges stemming from market demands, competition, and regulation, which pressures hospitals to change their operations and decision-making. In contrast to mainstream business enterprises, decisions to change accounting systems or to improve hospital governance occur in a complex institutional environment with multiple stakeholders. The hospital setting thus provides both opportunities and challenges for researchers. This overview paper uses recent studies in the field to illustrate how hospital choices are driven by the institutional environment in which hospitals operate. Incorporating the richness of this institutional environment into research may help researchers to make better predictions about: 1) why certain accounting systems or types of governance models are implemented or maintained; and 2) why certain intended outcomes are not always realised. The paper also sets out a research agenda that further capitalises on the impact of multiple institutional stakeholders within hospital decision-making structures. This area of research is relevant to academics, policy-makers, and the healthcare profession at large. It can offer valuable insights on the types of governance structures and accounting systems that are likely to be more effective and can help shape healthcare policy.


A photoregulated phosphoramidite iterative process is studied for the synthesis of non-natural, digitally encoded oligo(phosphodiester)s. The oligomers are prepared using two reactive phosphoramidite monomers containing a 2-(2-nitrophenyl)propoxycarbonyl (NPPOC) protected OH group. The stepwise synthesis is performed on an OH-functional soluble polystyrene support, which allows recycling by precipitation in a nonsolvent. Repeating cycles involving phosphoramidite coupling, oxidation of phosphite to phosphate, and NPPOC deprotection by light irradiation at λ = 365 nm are performed in order to prepare oligomers with different lengths and sequences. Synthesis is conducted on a micromolar scale and good recycling yields are obtained in all cases. The use of a soluble polymer support allows an in-depth characterization of the NPPOC photo-deprotection step by 1 H NMR, UV spectroscopy, and size exclusion chromatography, and thus identification of optimal synthesis conditions. After cleavage from the support, the oligo(phosphodiester)s are characterized by tandem mass spectrometry, which confirms preparation of uniform sequence-coded oligomers.


A laboratory investigation of exchange flows near the two-layer hydraulic limit is used to examine the generation of shear instability at the interface dividing the two layers. The present experiments differ from many previous investigations into shear instability, in that the instabilities are an active part of a quasi-steady flow regime rather than the product of a controlled initial state. Regimes characterized by either Kelvin–Helmholtz or Holmboe's instability are found to be separated by a well-defined transition. Observations of the transition from Kelvin–Helmholtz to Holmboe's instability are compared to predictions from scaling arguments that draw on elements of both two-layer hydraulic theory and linear stability theory. The characteristics of unstable modes near the transition, and the structure of both classes of instability are examined in detail.


The differentiation and maturation of erythroid cells from equine peripheral blood in a two-phase liquid culture system were researched based on morphological, hemoglobin and antigenic aspects. 1) By this culture system, the blastic cells arose sequentially basophilic erythroblasts, polychromatic erythroblasts, orthochromatic erythroblasts and denucleated erythroid cells. Orthochromatic erythroblasts were observed on day 3 of the 1st phase, and reached 33% of the total cells on day 5 of the 1st phase, followed by the appearance of denucleated erythroid cells. On day 7 of the 2nd phase, approximately 70% of cells were denucleated erythroid cells. 2) Hemoglobin containing cells were observed on day 1 of the 1st phase and exceeded 92% of the total cells on day 3 of the 2nd phase. 3) Blood group antigens were firstly observed on day 3 of the 1st phase. On day 7 of the 2nd phase, the rates of Aa, Ca, Dk, Dl, Qa, Qb and Qc positive cells were 92, 78, 52, 51, 77, 77 and 75%, respectively. These results suggest that Aa Ca, Qa, Qb and Qc antigens are expressed on orthochromatic erythroblasts, but that Dk and Dl antigens are expressed on denucleated erythroid cells.


Abstract A gene expression data set, containing 3051 genes and 38 tumor mRNA training samples, from a leukemia microarray study, was used for differentiation between ALL and AML groups of leukemia. In this paper, single and combined discriminant methods were applied on the basis of the selected few most discriminative variables according to Wilks' lambda or the leave-one-out error of first nearest neighbor classifier. For the linear, quadratic, regularized, uncorrelated discrimination, kernel, nearest neighbor and naive Bayesian classifiers, two-dimensional graphs of the boundaries and discriminant functions for diagnostics are presented. Cross-validation and leave-one-out errors were used as measures of classifier performance to support diagnosis coming from this genomic data set. A small number of best discriminating genes, from two to ten, was sufficient to build discriminant methods of good performance. Especially useful were nearest neighbor methods. The results presented herein were comparable with outcomes obtained by other authors for larger numbers of applied genes. The linear, quadratic, uncorrelated Bayesian and regularized discrimination methods were subjected to bagging or boosting in order to assess the accuracy of the fusion. A conclusion drawn from the analysis was that resampling ensembles were not beneficial for two-dimensional discrimination.


Numerous fatal encounters with large crevasses concealed by bridges of drifted snow have occurred on the Greenland icecap and elsewhere. In response to an urgent need for rapid and reliable means of crevasse detection, a promising geophysical method has now been developed for the Department of Defense. This method is analogous to the four-electrode method of measuring earth resistivities. It is different in that an alternating dielectric displacement-current field is employed rather than a field of conduction current since the ice medium is essentially a nonconductor. As a result, basic differences in technique are necessary. The systems tested in Greenland and Antarctica, to date, which employ this method, continuously indicate or record the capacitive transfer reactance between pairs of electrode sleds or vehicles. Systems have been operated successfully while in motion at surface speeds up to 20 miles per hour. Pronounced and distinctive electrical anomalies have been obtained at every crevasse tested to date. Typical crevasse-detector recordings and details of the equipment and techniques used are presented. Some potential applications of the mutual-capacitance method in mineral prospecting and other fields are suggested.


This article is concerned with the construction of
interpersonal relations in a relatively neglected genre of
political discourse - opening addresses delivered by
Directors-General of UNESCO at international conferences and
meetings - arguing that the genre-specific distribution of
interpersonal cues in addresses enhances the perception of
coherence. While exploring the communicative purpose and the
rhetorical structure of addresses, the analysis relates the
rhetorical moves of the genre to communicative functions of
language conveying interpersonal meanings and considers their
contribution to the perception of discourse coherence. The
findings of the analysis show that owing to the ritualistic
character of addresses, interpersonal meanings contributing to
the perception of coherence convey a continuous appeal to the
audience related to claiming common ground and shared ideology,
and a consistent subjective evaluation of social actors, their
actions and relations by the speaker.


Objective / Purpose: Bacteria causes one of the most common types of chronic mastitis. The most common causative organisms of mastitis include: Staphylococci, Streptococci and coliforms. The scope of this work was to research the antibacterial effects of Piper nigrum extracts against mastitis pathogens, and its antioxidant capacity. Materials and Methods: In our study, 2 Staphylococcus aureus and 5 Coagulase Negative Staphylococcus were used for experiments. Additionally, Piper nigrum were collected from Mugla herbalists in Turkey. The plant extracts were tested by disc diffusion assay for antibacterial activity. The antioxidant activities of plant extracts were also determined by ABTS [2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)] method. Results: The methanol extract of plant showed maximum inhibition zone against 2 bacteria. MIC values of extracts are 6500 μg/mL. The value found in ABTS method is highly effective (75.7%). Discussion/Conclusion: As a result, the in vitro studies indicate that the extracts of Piper nigrum have significant antibacterial and antioxidant activities. In addition to, the plant extracts could be used in treating mastitis caused by the test bacteria.


A multivariable laboratory process is presented together with its use in a graduate control course. The process is called the quadruple-tank process and demonstrates a multivariable level control problem. The multivariable zero dynamics of the system can be made both minimum phase and nonminimum phase by simply changing a valve. This makes the quadruple-tank process suitable for illustrating many concepts in linear and nonlinear multivariable control. In the paper some of these are described together with the basic setup of the process. Two computer exercises and one laboratory exercise have been developed as part of a course in multivariable and nonlinear control. These are detailed and some experience from the course is presented.


The ability to obtain colour images invariant to changes of illumination is called colour
constancy. An algorithm for colour constancy takes sensor responses - digital images
- as input, estimates the ambient light and returns a corrected image in which the illuminant
influence over the colours has been removed. In this thesis we investigate the
step of illuminant estimation for colour constancy and aim to extend the state of the art
in this field.
We first revisit the Minkowski Family Norm framework for illuminant estimation.
Because, of all the simple statistical approaches, it is the most general formulation and,
crucially, delivers the best results. This thesis makes four technical contributions. First,
we reformulate the Minkowski approach to provide better estimation when a constraint
on illumination is employed. Second, we show how the method can (by orders of
magnitude) be implemented to run much faster than previous algorithms. Third, we
show how a simple edge based variant delivers improved estimation compared with the
state of the art across many datasets. In contradistinction to the prior state of the art our
definition of edges is fixed (a simple combination of first and second derivatives) i.e.
we do not tune our algorithm to particular image datasets. This performance is further
improved by incorporating a gamut constraint on surface colour -our 4th contribution.
The thesis finishes by considering our approach in the context of a recent OSA
competition run to benchmark computational algorithms operating on physiologically
relevant cone based input data. Here we find that Constrained Minkowski Norms operi
ii
ating on spectrally sharpened cone sensors (linear combinations of the cones that behave
more like camera sensors) supports competition leading illuminant estimation.


The C2H2 zinc finger (ZF) transcription factors (TF) form the largest family of DNA binding proteins in eukaryotes. TFs are key proteins involved in gene regulation that bind to specific DNA sites. A major obstacle towards understanding the molecular basis of transcriptional regulation is the lack of a recognition code for protein-DNA interactions. We aim to understand molecular mechanisms of DNA recognition and to quantitatively estimate recognition rules for TF-DNA interactions. We identified key residues playing an important role in ZF-DNA interactions and found that they are prealigned to conformations observed in the bound state prior to binding. A binding site for Cl- ions corresponding to the pocket where DNA phosphates are found most buried in the complex of ZFs is identified. Bound ions constrain conformations of important residues consistent with observations of increased binding affinity with increased ionic strength in protein-DNA interactions. These results suggest a general mechanism where ZFs, through their key residues, rapidly form encounter complexes amenable for a fast readout of the DNA. We developed a novel experimentally-based approach using crystal structures and binding data on the C2H2 ZFs and decoded ten fundamental specific interactions for protein-DNA recognition. These are: Five hydrogen bonds, three desolvation penalties, a non-polar energy, and a novel water accessibility factor. The code is applied to three data sets with a total of 89 ZF mutants on three ZFs of EGR. Guided by simulations of individual ZFs, we mapped the interactions into homology models with all feasible intra- and inter- molecular bonds and selected the structure with the lowest free energy for each ZF. The interactions reproduce changes in affinity of 35 mutants of finger I (FI) (R2 = 0.99), 23 mutants of FII (R2 = 0.97) and 31 human ZFs on FIIII (R2 = 0.95). The method predicts bound ZF-DNA complexes for all mutants, decoding molecular basis of ZF-DNA specificity. These findings reveal recognition rules that depend on DNA sequence/structure, molecular water at the interface and induced fit of the C2H2 TFs. In summary, our method provides the first robust framework to decode the molecular basis of TFs binding to DNA.


The rise of antibiotic resistance is a threat to global health. Rapid and comprehensive analysis of infectious strains is critical to reducing the global use of antibiotics, as informed antibiotic use could slow down the emergence of resistant strains worldwide. Multiple platforms for antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) have been developed with the use of microfluidic solutions. Here we describe microfluidic systems that have been proposed to aid AST. We identify the key contributions in overcoming outstanding challenges associated with the required degree of multiplexing, reduction of detection time, scalability, ease of use, and capacity for commercialization. We introduce the reader to microfluidics in general, and we analyze the challenges and opportunities related to the field of microfluidic AST.


Epinephelus coioides and E. malabaricus are closely related species of serranid fishes. They are similar in appearance, occupy the same habitats and are represented in estuaries of northeastern tropical Australia almost entirely by juveniles. Fish traps were used to sample these 2 species from 3 estuaries on the northeast coast of tropical Australia over a 2 yr period. Patterns of distribution, abundance and size structure were compared. Despite the similarities between the 2 species, they showed quite different patterns of distribution and abundance, both within and between estuaries. In seaward parts of the estuaries the numbers of E. coioides were similar to or greater than those of E. malabaricus. However, in upstream areas E. malabaricus became much more abundant than E. coioides. The reasons for this change in dominance are unknown. However, upstream areas of the estuaries exhibited extreme levels of salinity (either hypersaline or hyposaline) and catches of the 2 species correlated with the maximum deviation in salinity. This suggests that if salinity, or some correlated variable, does influence the abundance of the 2 species, it is through long-term effects rather than short-term changes. Regardless of the reason, these spatial differences in abundance suggest that E. malabaricus is better equipped to deal with the challenges of estuary life than is E. coioides.


In this investigation, we determine the dynamic buckling load of an imperfect finite column resting on a mixed quadratic-cubic nonlinear elastic foundation trapped by an explicitly time dependent sinusoidally slowly varying dynamic load .The resultant coefficients are dynamically slowly varying and the formulation contains two small but Mathematically unrelated parameters upon which regular perturbation procedure are used in asymptotic expansions of the variables. The imperfection is assumed in the shape of the m th term in the Fourier sine series expansion with small (in absolute value) Fourier coefficients. A generalization of Lindsted-Poincare procedure is used and the structure under investigation is, on the main, a nonlinear oscillatory system with small perturbations. The results obtained are strictly asymptotic and are valid for small absolute values of the perturbation parameters. Journal of the Nigerian Association of Mathematical Physics Vol. 9 2005: pp. 199-214


ABSTRACT The Ebola virus glycoprotein mucin-like domain (MLD) is implicated in Ebola virus cell entry and immune evasion. Using cryo-electron tomography of Ebola virus-like particles, we determined a three-dimensional structure for the full-length glycoprotein in a near-native state and compared it to that of a glycoprotein lacking the MLD. Our results, which show that the MLD is located at the apex and the sides of each glycoprotein monomer, provide a structural template for analysis of MLD function.


Experimentation is a significant innovation process activity and its design is
fundamental to the learning and knowledge build-up process. Front-loaded
experimentation is known as a strategy seeking to improve innovation process
performance; by exploiting early information to spot and solve problems as upstream as
possible, costly overruns in subsequent product development are avoided. Although the
value of search through front-loaded experimentation in complex and novel
environments is recognized, the phenomenon has not been studied in the highly relevant
pharmaceutical R&D context, where typically lots of drug candidates get killed very
late in the innovation process when potential problems are insufficiently anticipated upfront.
In pharmaceutical research the initial problem is to discover a "drug-like"
complex biological or chemical system that has the potential to affect a biological target
on a disease pathway. My case study evidence found that the discovery process is
managed through a front-loaded experimentation strategy. The research team gradually
builds a mental model of the drug's action in which the solution of critical design
problems can be initiated at various moments in the innovation process.
The purpose of this research was to evaluate the predictive performance of frontloaded
experimentation strategies in the discovery process. Because predictive
performance necessitates conditional probability thinking, a Bayesian methodology is
proposed and a rationale is given to develop research propositions using Monte Carlo
simulation. An adaptive system paradigm, then, is the basis for designing the simulation model used for top-down theory development.
My simulation results indicate that front-loaded strategies in a pharmaceutical
discovery context outperform other strategies on positive predictive performance. Frontloaded
strategies therefore increase the odds for compounds succeeding subsequent
development testing, provided they were found positive in discovery. Also, increasing
the number of parallel concept explorations in discovery influences significantly the
negative predictive performance of experimentation strategies, reducing the probability
of missed opportunities in development. These results are shown to be robust for
varying degrees of predictability of the discovery process.
The counterintuitive business implication of my research findings is that the key
to further reduce spend and overruns in pharmaceutical development is to be found in
discovery, where efforts to better understand drug candidates lead to higher success rates later in the innovation process.


This study investigates Clark H. Pinnock's shift in his doctrine of biblical authority and reliability. A brief introduction, delineating the objectives, method, and delimitations of the study, is followed by an historical survey of developments inregard to biblical authority and reliability from the sixteenth century onwards. There were few doubts regarding scriptural authority and veracity until the rise of English Deism, biblical criticism, and religious liberalism. The resulting demolition of the traditional view of Scripture was protested by Fundamentalism, then by evangelicalism. Contemporary evangelicals, however, reveal little uniformity in regard to the doctrine of Scripture. Pinnock's own role in the Southern Baptist inerrancy debates can be viewed as representative of that diversity. Chapter 2 provides an overview of Pinnock's major concerns, shaping influences, and shifts of opinion regarding apologetics, soteriology, theology proper, political theology, and Pentecostalism. His desire that evangelical theology be both conservative and contemporary is revealed in his development in all these themes. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on Pinnock's early and later thinking concerning biblical authority/reliability. The early Pinnock considered that Scripture explicitly taught the inerrancy of the original autographs. He qualified the inerrancy category by reference to the "intention" of the text, regarded biblical difficulties as "apparent," and argued from biblical reliability to authority. The later Pinnock attempts to move conservatives toward acceptance of Scripture's human form. He rejects his earlier view as inadequate from the standpoint of biblical teaching and the role of the Spirit. A strict view of inerrancy is now considered incompatible with anything less than a deterministic doctrine of God. The final chapter evaluates the strengths, weaknesses, and consistency of Pinnock's two views and suggests the reason/s for his shift. While the early Pinnock stresses the divine role in inscripturation, the later seems to emphasize the human. His conclusions in each of these periods reflect his presuppositions. Pinnock's change of perspective is probably the consequence of a Calvinism to Arminianism paradigm shift which began with his soteriology, moved to his doctrine of God, and filtered into his view of Scripture. He may need to make adjustments to his system to maintain a high view of biblical authority and reliability.


The phylogenetic relationship of chemoautotrophic, sulfur-oxidizing, ectosymbiotic bacteria growing on a marine nematode, a Laxus sp. (formerly a Catanema sp.), to known endosymbionts and free-living bacteria was determined. Comparative 16S rRNA sequencing was used to investigate the unculturable nematode epibionts, and rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide hybridization probes were used to identify the ectosymbionts in situ. Both analyses revealed a remarkably specific and stable symbiosis. Unique hybridization of a specific probe to the ectosymbionts indicated that only one species of bacteria was present and growing on the cuticle of the nematode. Distance and parsimony methods used to infer phylogenetic trees both placed the nematode ectosymbionts at the base of a branch containing chemoautotrophic, sulfur-oxidizing endosymbionts of three bivalve families and of the tube worm Riftia pachyptila. The most closely related free-living bacteria were chemoautotrophic sulfur oxidizers belonging to the genus Thiomicrospira. Furthermore, our results suggested that a second, only distantly related group of thioautotrophic endosymbionts has as its deepest branch surface-colonizing bacteria belonging to the genus Thiothrix, some of which are capable of sulfur-oxidizing chemoautotrophic growth.


Considering international assignments as part of an individual's career, beyond the traditional expatriate assignment as employed and sent out by a company, this paper focuses on international itinerants. The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of individuals with multiple international work experiences, crossing the boundaries of a single employer, their experiences, identifications and identity construction. In the study an identity construction perspective is applied on four in-depth interviews with Swedish international itinerants. Categories of narratives are identified where the itinerants experience ambiguities and paradoxes in their identity construction, what they identify with and implications are discussed.


Carminomycin is an original antitumor antibiotic from the anthracycline group isolated at the Institute of New Antibiotics (USSR) in 1973. Pharmacological investigation of carminomycin revealed its satisfactory absorption from the gastrointestinal tract which proved to be a distinguishing property of the antibiotic as compared to other anthracyclines such as adriamycin and rubomycin. The clinical trials of carminomycin showed that it was mainly active against soft tissue sarcoma and breast cancer, lymphosarcoma, neuroblastoma, Wilms' tumor and Ewing's sarcoma in children, as well as acute leukemia. Various regimens for the antibiotic administration were applied: short-term, single and long-term. Suppression of hemopoiesis was considered as a limiting toxic effect. By the data available carminomycin had lower cardiotoxicity as compared with rubomycin and adriamycin. Development of oral carminomycin is believed promising.


Learn how to use databases like PubMed and ClinicalKey to find guidelines, or find links to guidelines through society websites..


Two types of gauge transformations of noncommutative pure gauge theory are discussed. It is shown that Yang-Mills theory with the so called twisted gauge symmetry is consistent provided it also enjoys the standard noncommutative *-gauge symmetry.


This paper presents upper bounds on the bit-error rate (BER) of optimum combining in wireless systems with multiple cochannel interferers in a Rayleigh fading environment. We present closed-form expressions for the upper bound on the bit-error rate with optimum combining, for any number of antennas and interferers, with coherent detection of BPSK and QAM signals, and differential detection of DPSK. We also present bounds on the performance gain of optimum combining over maximal ratio combining. These bounds are asymptotically tight with decreasing BER, and results show that the asymptotic gain is within 2 dB of the gain as determined by computer simulation for a variety of cases at a 10/sup -3/ BER. The closed-form expressions for the bound permit rapid calculation of the improvement with optimum combining for any number of interferers and antennas, as compared with the CPU hours previously required by Monte Carlo simulation. Thus these bounds allow calculation of the performance of optimum combining under a variety of conditions where it was not possible previously, including analysis of the outage probability with shadow fading and the combined effect of adaptive arrays and dynamic channel assignment in mobile radio systems.


Biotin is an essential micronutrient, and is a cofactor for several carboxylases that are involved in the metabolism of glucose, fatty acids, and amino acids. Because plant cells can synthesize their own biotin, a wide variety of plant-based foods contains significant amounts of biotin; however, the influence of environmental conditions on the biotin content in plants remains largely unclear. In the present study, we investigated the effects of different cultivation conditions on the biotin content and biotin synthesis in pea sprouts (Pisum sativum). In the experiment, the pea sprouts were removed from their cotyledons and cultivated by hydroponics under five different lighting and temperature conditions (control [25ºC, 12-h light/12-h dark cycle], low light [25ºC, 4-h light/20-h dark cycle], dark [25ºC, 24 h dark], low temperature [12ºC, 12-h light/12-h dark cycle], and cold [6ºC, 12-h light/12-h dark cycle]) for 10 d. Compared to the biotin content of pea sprouts under the control conditions, the biotin contents of pea sprouts under the low-light, dark, and cold conditions had significantly decreased. The dark group showed the lowest biotin content among the groups. Expression of the biotin synthase gene (bio2) was also significantly decreased under the dark and cold conditions compared to the control condition, in a manner similar to that observed for the biotin content. No significant differences in the adenosine triphosphate content were observed among the groups. These results indicate that environmental conditions such as light and temperature modulate the biotin content of pea plant tissues by regulating the expression of biotin synthase.