During Reconstruction the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments were added to the Constitution. The circumstances under which the Reconstruction amendments were proposed and ratified were extremely unusual, and at the time serious objections were raised to the legality of the proceedings. Although for practical purposes that controversy is long over, the amendments' lawfulness remains a nagging problem. There are two important lines of objection to the amendments' adoption. One is that some or all of the southern state governments that participated in ratifying them were not legally competent o do so because of the irregular fashion in which those governments had been created. The other objection is that some or all of the southern ratifications were extorted from the states through unlawful federal threats. This Article reviews the relevant history and discusses legal rationales under which the constitutional amendments were valid even if there were serious illegalities in the creation of the southern state governments. According to one such rationale, southern ratifications were unnecessary because the ex-Confederate states were excluded from the denominator on which the Article V supermajority is calculated. The Article concludes that this thesis is plausible but ultimately unpersuasive. Another theory is that the identification of a state's lawful government is a political question to be decided by the political branches of the national government and ultimately by Congress, and that Congress endorsed the ratifying southern governments, thereby binding all other actors to treat those governments as lawful. The Article reviews the arguments for and against his version of the political question doctrine and regards the issue as an open one. Finally, the southern ratifications may have been effective, despite legal defects in the ratifying governments, because those governments had de facto authority and hence were able to bind their states. The legal authority of de facto governments is a familiar principle of international aw that has been followed in American constitutional practice, and the Article endorses it in this context. Either the political question or the de facto government thesis must confront the argument hat southern ratifications were invalid because extorted through unlawful federal threats. The Article maintains that it is doubtful whether the ratifications were so extorted, and claims that in any event Article V of the Constitution does not implicitly invalidate ratifications made in the face of illegal threats. The conclusion argues that this result, under which constitutional amendments can be validly ratified even when principles of state autonomy are violated, is nevertheless consistent with the purpose of Article V and the constitutional system in general. Certainty as to the text of the Constitution is more fundamental than more substantive consideration&


We reviewed the operative and hospital records of 447 patients in order to determine the rates of perioperative complications associated with an anterior procedure on the thoracic, thoracolumbar, or lumbar spine. The anterior procedures were performed to treat spinal deformity or for débridement or decompression of the spinal canal. The diagnostic groups that we studied included idiopathic scoliosis in adolescents or young adults (100 patients), scoliosis in mature adults (sixty-three patients), kyphosis (sixty-one patients), neuromuscular scoliosis (sixty patients), fracture (forty-seven patients), a revision procedure (thirty-nine patients), congenital scoliosis (thirty-six patients), tumor (nineteen patients), vertebral osteomyelitis or discitis (eight patients), and miscellaneous (fourteen patients). Complications occurred in 140 (31 per cent) of the 447 patients and were classified as major or minor. Forty-seven patients (11 per cent) had at least one major complication and 109 (24 per cent) had at least one minor complication. Two patients died, both from pulmonary complications after the operation. The most common type of major complication was pulmonary; the most common type of minor complication was genito-urinary. The adolescent or young adult patients who had idiopathic scoliosis had the lowest rate of complications, and the patients who had neuromuscular scoliosis had the highest. An age of more than sixty years at the time of the operation was associated with a higher risk of complications. The duration of the procedures involving a thoracic approach was shorter than that of those involving a thoracolumbar or lumbar approach; however, the rate of complications was not significantly different among the three approaches. Vertebrectomies took longer to perform and were associated with a greater estimated blood loss than discectomies; however, there was no significant difference in the rate of complications between the two types of procedures. The patients who had a fracture or a tumor lost more blood than those from the other diagnostic groups. Blood loss increased as the duration of the operation increased for all procedures. Combined anterior and posterior procedures performed during the same anesthesia session were associated with a higher rate of major complications than were procedures that were staged. A logistical regression analysis showed that the variables that increased the risk of a major complication were an estimated blood loss of more than 520 milliliters and an anterior and posterior procedure performed sequentially under the same anesthesia session. This analysis also demonstrated that the diagnosis of idiopathic scoliosis in adolescents or young adults was associated with a reduced risk of major complications. Compared with other major operations, an anterior procedure on the thoracic, thoracolumbar, or lumbar spine performed for the indications mentioned in this study is relatively safe.


A transformation of the energy sector towards a low-emission power generation is needed to mitigate global warming and fight the current climate crisis. In recent years, tidal energy technology has matured and shows potential to balance Europe's future power grid. While reviews of the tidal energy resource exist for a number of European countries, the potential of tidal energy along the German North Sea coast is overlooked so far. This review closes this gap and provides a first analysis of the German tidal energy resource. Germany's North Sea coast is characterised by comparatively low current velocities and shallow waters. Using available data from the EasyGSH-DB North Sea Model, Germany's practical tidal energy resource is estimated at 66.6 GWHy−1, under strong restrictions, excluding the most energetic sites in the estuaries of Elbe, Weser, and Ems. Based on the results, future work for a more detailed analysis is suggested.


This paper reports that Zn ion implantation to a dose of 1 × 1017 ions/cm2 was performed on highly c-axis-orientated ZnO thin films deposited on Si (100) substrates by the sol-gel technique. After ion implantation, the as-implanted ZnO films were annealed in argon ambient at different temperatures from 300−500 oC. The effects of ion implantation and post-implantation annealing on the structural and luminescent properties of the ZnO films were investigated by x-ray diffraction, photoluminescence (PL). Results show that the intensities of (002) peak and photoluminescence (PL) were evidently decreased by Zn ion implantation. The recovery of (002) peak and photoluminescence occurs at ~300oC.


The erosion/incision patterns of radiometrically well-constrained volcanic rocks provide excellent markers for revealing the landscape evolution. The Central Anatolian High Plateau represents an uplifted area that reaches up to 1500 m above sea level and includes the Cappadocian Volcanic Province (CVP). The CVP is composed of horizontally emplaced Neogene-Quaternary ignimbrites intercalated with lava flows and epiclastic continental sediments. River incision rates have been calculated using the morphological/paleoaltimetric features of radiometrically well-constrained volcanic units in the area. Starting from 10 Ma until 5 Ma, there was no major erosion or incision. The morphology, uplift rate, and incision rates of the CVP reveal that the onset of uplift is post 8 Ma and incision started after 5 Ma. Between 5 and 2.5 Ma, the incision rate is computed as 0.12 mm/year, whereas, in the last 2.5 Ma, the incision rate slowed down to 0.04 mm/year.


Na+,K+-ATPase is an ubiquitous membrane enzyme that allows the extrusion of three sodium ions from the cell and two potassium ions from the extracellular fluid. Its activity is decreased in many tissues of streptozotocin-induced diabetic animals. This impairment could be at least partly responsible for the development of diabetic complications. Na+,K+-ATPase activity is decreased in the red blood cell membranes of type 1 diabetic individuals, irrespective of the degree of diabetic control. It is less impaired or even normal in those of type 2 diabetic patients. The authors have shown that in the red blood cells of type 2 diabetic patients, Na+,K+-ATPase activity was strongly related to blood C-peptide levels in non–insulin-treated patients (in whom C-peptide concentration reflects that of insulin) as well as in insulin-treated patients. Furthermore, a gene-environment relationship has been observed. The alpha-1 isoform of the enzyme predominant in red blood cells and nerve tissue is encoded by the ATP1A1 gene.Apolymorphism in the intron 1 of this gene is associated with lower enzyme activity in patients with C-peptide deficiency either with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, but not in normal individuals. There are several lines of evidence for a low C-peptide level being responsible for low Na+,K+-ATPase activity in the red blood cells. Short-term C-peptide infusion to type 1 diabetic patients restores normal Na+,K+-ATPase activity. Islet transplantation, which restores endogenous C-peptide secretion, enhances Na+,K+-ATPase activity proportionally to the rise in C-peptide. This C-peptide effect is not indirect. In fact, incubation of diabetic red blood cells with C-peptide at physiological concentration leads to an increase of Na+,K+-ATPase activity. In isolated proximal tubules of rats or in the medullary thick ascending limb of the kidney, C-peptide stimulates in a dose-dependent manner Na+,K+-ATPase activity. This impairment in Na+,K+-ATPase activity, mainly secondary to the lack of C-peptide, plays probably a role in the development of diabetic complications. Arguments have been developed showing that the diabetesinduced decrease in Na+,K+-ATPase activity compromises microvascular blood flow by two mechanisms: by affecting microvascular regulation and by decreasing red blood cell deformability, which leads to an increase in blood viscosity. C-peptide infusion restores red blood cell deformability and microvascular blood flow concomitantly with Na+,K+-ATPase activity. The defect in ATPase is strongly related to diabetic neuropathy. Patients with neuropathy have lower ATPase activity than those without. The diabetes-induced impairment in Na+,K+-ATPase activity is identical in red blood cells and neural tissue. Red blood cell ATPase activity is related to nerve conduction velocity in the peroneal and the tibial nerve of diabetic patients. C-peptide infusion to diabetic rats increases endoneural ATPase activity in rat. Because the defect in Na+,K+-ATPase activity is also probably involved in the development of diabetic nephropathy and cardiomyopathy, physiological C-peptide infusion could be beneficial for the prevention of diabetic complications.


In the ongoing discussion on the societal engagement of modern literature, a bad name was given to a specific group of modernist writers (chapter two). Among them is the Dutch writer that goes by the name of Willem Frederik Hermans. The critique was aimed specifically at the proclaimed 'unrealistic' and 'amoral', 'disengaged' and 'autonomous' poetics of the so-called exclusive modernists like him. Unlike writers of other modernist movements, such as the writers of the Historical Avant-garde, the prototypical 'exclusive modernist' (one can think of writers such as Kafka, Joyce, Woolf and Mann) hesitates to occupy the 'moral high ground' in order to act like a diagnostician of a universal reality of man and society, and refuses to take a stance in societal and ethical debates. This book questions the antisocial image of the modernist writer. It takes a closer look at Hermans' poetics of the personal mythology (chapter three) and came to the conclusion that his literary endeavor should be considered far from unethical and disengaged. Of course, Hermans always refused to make any critical statements about (unmediated, true) reality, and rejected those who made claims about reality outside the borders of human subjectivity. Nonetheless, he considered it to be the task of the modern writer to criticize and write about the subjective reality where we are declined to live in: the symbolic play, constructed by language games: constitutive fictions that cover up the chaos of the real, thereby making a society possible. To be an engaged writer, he figured, is to be engaged with the ongoing construction and deconstruction of the symbolic game that we cannot escape from and is called society. This thesis argues that Hermans is not so much a nihilist who turns his back to the societal world, but a literary equal of philosophers such as Umberto Eco and Jacques Lacan, who took symbolic reality completely serious and valued the gravity of the game we play, and tried to make an ethical distinction between destructive ('imaginary') games and ('symbolic) productive games. The literature of Hermans (like the famous short story 'The House of Refuge' and the novel Beyond Sleep) shows the same critical philosophy and can also be thought of as an aesthetic medium which counters dangerous play-forms.


The Collaborative Cohort Model (CCM) of higher degrees supervision is gaining increasing popularity internationally and, in some contexts, replacing the conventional Apprentice Master Model (AMM). Among the motivations advanced for this shift is that the CCM improves completion rates and enhances the quality of research supervision. This exploratory paper interrogates these claims through the eyes of students, by documenting and analysing their experiences of the CCM currently used by the Faculty of Education, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), South Africa. This form of supervision integrates the traditional master-apprentice supervision with cohort seminar sessions. The traditional supervision involves students working one-to-one with what is referred to, in this instance, as the appointed supervisor/s while the cohort seminars draw on the expertise of a team of experienced and novice supervisors referred to, in this instance, as the cohort supervisors. In addition, students benefit from contributions offered by peers within the cohort as they are guided through the various phases in the research process. This paper engages with the experiences of a small sample of students, appraising the key principles of collaboration and collegiality which are integral to the success of the cohort model. The study reveals abundant evidence of successful collaboration and collegiality among students and between the cohort and appointed supervisors. However, there are also instances of students in the cohort working in isolation and supervisors working counter to each other. Through engaging with student experiences of the cohort model, this study offers critical new insights into the strengths, limitations and challenges of using the model to address the unsatisfactory PhD productivity rate in South Africa.


Natural products have an important role in the discovery of analgesic drugs along with the determining of the complex mechanisms involved in pain transmission and pain relief. Lately, several substances with antinociceptive actions have been purified from natural sources and further identified, resulting in novel structural classes and more understanding of the underlying pharmacological mechanisms of actions. Yet, natural products still hold great potential for the discovery of novel agents for treatment of pain disorders and potentially drug addictions with exciting pharmacological profiles (i.e. no side effects, no addictive potential). The aim of this chapter is to highlight some active compounds derived from natural sources that possess analgesic properties. Additionally, the identification of new compounds derived from natural sources could lead to great understanding of the underlying pharmacological mechanisms of action, which will be addressed in this chapter as well.


Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, with high levels of malnutrition and little domestic mycotoxin regulation. Domestically grown maize is the largest single source of calories in the country and a large contributor to the economy. This research uses Regional Climate Models (RCMs) to determine the climatic conditions in the three regions of Malawi (Northern, Central and Southern) in 2035 (2020–2049) and 2055 (2040–2069) as compared to the baseline climate of 1971–2000. This climatic data is then used as inputs to the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) AquaCrop model to assess the impact on the growth cycle of two maize varieties grown in each region and sown at three different times during the planting season. Finally, AFLA-maize, a mechanistic model, is applied to determine the impact of these projected changes on the aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) contamination risk. We find that Malawi's climate is projected to get warmer (by 1–2.5°C) and drier (reduction of 0–4% in annual rainfall levels) in all regions, although some uncertainty remains around the changes in precipitation levels. These climatic changes are expected to shorten the growing season for maize, bringing the harvest date forward by between 10 and 25 days for the short-development variety and between 25 and 65 days for the long-development variety. These changes are also projected to make the pre-harvest conditions for Malawian maize more favorable for AFB1 contamination and risk maps for the studied conditions were drawn. Exceedances of EU safety thresholds are expected to be possible in all regions, with the risk of contamination moving northwards in a warming climate.


We present a novel physical-statistical, generative model for the land mobile satellite (LMS), dual polarized, multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) channel along tree-sided roads. Said model is parameterized by means of a physical model based on the multiple scattering theory (MST) which accounts for the signal attenuation and scattering by trees. Moreover, finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) electromagnetic computations were performed to characterize the scattering pattern of an isolated tree, and to calculate the MIMO shadowing correlation matrix required by the model, and not provided by MST. This modeling framework also encompasses the single-input-multiple-output (SIMO)/space diversity case. To illustrate the capabilities of the developed model, time series were generated and used in system performance calculations. The obtained results give an insight into the advantages of dual polarized MIMO and SIMO/space diversity techniques in these very frequent scenarios and may help service providers in evaluating the technical feasibility of such systems.


Introduction: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a disease characterized by dysfunctional glucose regulation resulting from issues with insulin production and/or regulation. If not controlled, GDM can have significant impacts on fetal development and may lead to complications in pregnant women. GDM is often treated with regular glycemic monitoring, dietary and lifestyle changes, and in most cases insulin injections. As a result of the number of interventions, managing GDM can add further stress to a pregnancy. In this study, we aim to investigate the effects of mobile health (mHealth) solutions on the outcomes of pregnant women experiencing GDM, and their babies. Methods: The sample population of pregnant women with GDM will be split into two groups: the control group will receive usual care for glycemic control as outlined by their endocrinologists and/or gynecologists, while the experimental group will receive care for glycemic control using mHealth interventions. Patients will be monitored on a bi-weekly basis from the time they were diagnosed with GDM to the time of the delivery of their babies. Compliance, blood glucose levels, pregnancy and neonatal outcomes, and weight gain will be monitored. A two-sample proportion test and 95% confidence interval will be generated to compare the variables between each category. Results: We anticipate that the experimental group will have higher compliance, with less emergency outpatient visits, reduced weight gain, and higher satisfaction with their intervention method. We also anticipate the same blood glucose measurements in both preand post-prandial states. The same maternal and neonatal post-delivery outcomes are also expected. Discussion: This study evaluates the effectiveness of mHealth interventions on glycemic control. Future research may investigate the maternal effects of stress in conjunction with diabetes, as well as evaluating existing mHealth solutions for factors such as accessibility, and available features. Conclusion: We anticipate that mHealth interventions, used alongside traditional glycemic monitoring methods, will improve the outcomes of pregnant women with GDM by reducing stress and empowering them to take control of their own


This paper builds upon earlier work of the authors in formulating the one-bit compressed sensing (OBCS) problem as a problem in probably approximately correct (PAC) learning theory. It is shown that the solution to the OBCS problem consists of two parts. The first part is to determine the statistical complexity of OBCS by determining the Vapnik-Chervonenkis (VC-) dimension of the set of half-spaces generated by sparse vectors. The second is to determine the algorithmic complexity of the problem by developing a "consistent" algorithm. In this paper, we generalize the earlier results of the authors by deriving both upper and lower bounds on the VC-dimension of half-spaces generated by sparse vectors, even when the separating hyperplane need not pass through the origin. As with earlier bounds, these bounds grow linearly with respect to with the sparsity dimension and logarithmically with the vector dimension.


The Tin–Spodumene Belt (TSB) along the border of North and South Carolina, southeastern USA, is composed of hundreds of en echelon dikes intruded into amphibolite-facies mica schist and amphibolite. The spodumene pegmatites are unzoned and consist of medium- to very coarse-grained spodumene, plagioclase, K-feldspar, quartz, muscovite, and accessory amounts of beryl, manganoan fluorapatite, triphylite, and cassiterite. The pegmatitic fabric is replaced by a fine-grained saccharoidal albite– quartz fabric that also heals fractures in spodumene and feldspar. Plagioclase (Ab95–96) in the pegmatite is only slightly less sodic than that (Ab98–99) in the replacement albite–quartz assemblage. Rare, nonperthitic K-feldspar is slightly sodic (Or95–99). Spodumene typically contains about 1% iron oxide, giving the mineral a light green color. Muscovite contains 1–2 wt% FeO and a trace of sodium (0.2–0.6 wt% Na2O). A Mn-bearing fluorapatite (altered to low-F and low-Mn apatite) and triphylite (altered to fairfieldite) occur within the pegmatite fabric and appear to be primary phosphate minerals. Secondary phosphate minerals, including several species first described from the TSB, are associated with fracture fillings in sheared pegmatite. Pre-tectonic plagioclase – quartz – muscovite – garnet (Alm71Sps26Prp3) pegmatites are folded and sheared. Muscovite and Mn-bearing fluorapatite compositions are similar to equivalent phases in the spodumene pegmatites. The spodumene pegmatites are sheared, especially in proximity to regional shear-zones, but are not folded. Post-tectonic plagioclase – quartz – K-feldspar – muscovite – biotite pegmatites have Mn-poor fluorapatite, unlike the spodumene pegmatites. The pre-tectonic pegmatites may represent a precursor to the spodumene pegmatites.


The different approaches to the definition of "tool-using" and "tool" are discussed. The definitions of tool-using are given, the hypotheses of the tool-using origin in phylogenesis of primates: emotional, social tradition, playing, accumulations' objects are adduced. The modern data on tool-using for catching ants and termites, for cracking palm-nuts by wild chimpanzees under natural inhabitation, population and sex differences in tool-using are given. A conclusion has been made that tool-using in apes is qualitatively new form of behaviour arising in phylogenesis of primates and demonstrating us prerequisity of tool-using of early hominids.


SINCE THE ADVENT of independence in Solomon Islands on 7 July 1978 and Vanuatu on 30 July 1980, customary law has been given official recognition as part of the law of the land by virtue of provisions contained in the respective Constitutions of the two countries. Post-independence there has been a somewhat sporadic series of cases where the courts have had to grapple with the two related problems of determining (1) what is the proper place of customary law in the 'league table' of sources of law and (2) how to resolve, as far as possible, conflicts between customary law and the law from outside sources, commonly and in this article referred to as 'received law'.


To test some of the implications of the life cycle-permanent income hypothesis we exploit differences in expected retirement replacement rates between lowly and highly educated households. We examine education-specific age-wealth profiles at the household level. Our sample is an unbalanced panel of 17 years (1994-2010) and approximately 2000 households of Dutch data (DNB Household Survey). We find that, even after controlling for permanent income, highly educated households accumulate more wealth during working life than lowly educated households. A possible explanation is the lower retirement replacement rate of the former group. Furthermore, only highly educatedhouseholds seem to decumulate wealth after retirement.


Much debate has ensued regarding the challenge to scientific realism provided by consideration of certain problematic episodes of theory change in the history of science. This paper contends that there is an interesting case which has been overlooked in this debate, namely the prediction of the positron by Dirac from his 'hole' theory, and its subsequent replacement by a theory which failed to contain a central, and essential, theoretical posit: the 'Dirac sea' of negative energy electrons. Accounting for this case with the 'divide and conquer' strategy of contemporary scientific realism proves particularly troublesome, even for the structural realist.


This study sets out to join a discussion which tests a number of assumptions current in the study of conceptual history. These assumptions are: Conceptual history can only be studied within a given language; concepts are articulated in abstract words, and other forms such as metaphors only serve to explain, but have no standing of their own; the sources for conceptual history are core texts with great authority often written by authors of great intellectual consequence; concepts are part of an environment of other concepts, but their reality fit and their institutional connection (promotion, ban) are not part of conceptual history. The test case is the use of the Chinese term melon-division, guafen , for the partition of a state. The study traces the early uses of guafen as a term for "partition;" its stabilization in this function; its negative valuation through association with the partition of Poland, and its systemic use in international law. It then follows the history of the new guafen notion in China since the 1830s as a concept and a historical prospect. None of the narratives of China's guafen ever gained discursive hegemony, in part because the country's partition did not materialize. Unwilling to let go of the powerful guafen narrative, however, the reformers, who used the term according to their changing local agendas, adjusted their story: division did not materialize even in 1900 when China's standing was lowest and foreign troops had occupied the capital. Instead, an invisible partition into zones of influence was taking place. The reformers used new media, including the cartoon, to "translate" the Western image of a Chinese cake being divided into a literal rendering of a melon being cut up, although the image was now badly suited. The poor fit notwithstanding, guafen was also taken up by the early Communists. It eventually became the PRC master narrative of China's relations with the Powers (Russia, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States), a narrative only occasionally and indirectly challenged by artists such as Zeng Fanzhi. The result is that none of the traditional assumptions about conceptual history can stand the test. The study provides evidence advancing the notion that concepts in the form of words, metaphors, and images cross cultural and language borders through "translation." The result is the formation of a transcultural and translingual vernacular for words, metaphors, and images that is largely invisible on the surface but retains strong links over time among the connected items.


Purpose: To evaluate cortical activity using pattern visual evoked potentials (PVEPs) in patients with mild and moderate amblyopia (esotropic and anisometropic). Methods: PVEP was recorded in 43 unilateral amblyopic patients, including 15 esotropic (ET) and 28 anisometropic (AM) patients, selected from three different medical centers in the city of Shiraz, Iran and compared to that obtained from 15 age and sex matched normal subjects who served as controls. Visual acuity (VA) in amblyopic eyes was equal to or less than 0.7 LogMAR. The latency of P100 was recorded monocularly using two check sizes of 15 and 60 min of arcs at two different levels of contrasts (30% and 100%). Results: P100 latency in amblyopic eyes was significantly increased compared to the normal group (P < 0.001). There was a significant difference (P < 0.001) in P100 latency in anisometropic and esotropic amblyopic eyes as compared to normal subjects, using high spatial frequency and with both levels of contrast. A significant difference was observed with large check sizes and high contrast between anisometropic amblyopic and normal eyes (P = 0.03). However, there was no significant difference between these two groups and the control group with other stimuli. Conclusion: The neural response based on p100 latency in PVEP was different between amblyopic groups and normal subjects. PVEP may be valuable for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of amblyopia.


In order to investigate the effects of grain orientation on the high cycle fatigue properties of 7050-T7452 aerospace grade aluminum, rotating-bending fatigue tests were performed on longitudinal (LG) and short transverse (ST) specimens taken from two sample sets (Method A and Method B) of open die forged 7050 aluminum. The fatigue specimens were machined to a 0.2" gage diameter and 4" length and subsequently hand polished to a mirror finish to minimize potential crack initiation sites. The tests were conducted on a Fatigue Dynamics RBF-300 HT tester in the fully reversed loading condition, with stress levels varying from 20 ksi 45 ksi in 5 ksi increments, except the 25 ksi stress level. The applied stress amplitude and number of cycles to failure for each specimen were plotted to generate S-N curves comparing both Method A and B. The fatigue life was comparable between Method A samples and Method B sets and the fatigue life of longitudinal samples was greater than the fatigue life of short transverse samples. Runout tests were stopped at 10 cycles and set as 20 ksi for both orientations. There was no significant statistical difference between Method A and Method B on fatigue life of 7050-T7452 aluminum. There was a significant statistical difference between LG and ST specimen orientations on fatigue life due to the precipitate alignment and grain flow from forging.


A new ultra low band gap (LBG) α,β-unsubstituted BODIPY-based conjugated polymer has been synthesized by conventional cross coupling polymerization techniques (Stille cross coupling) for the first time. The polymer exhibits a panchromatic absorption spectrum ranging from 300 nm to 1100 nm and an optical band gap (Eoptg) of 1.15 eV, suitable for near infrared (NIR) organic photovoltaic applications as electron donor. Preliminary power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.1% in polymer : [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) 1 : 3 weight ratio bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells has been achieved, demonstrating very interesting and promising photovoltaic characteristics, such as good fill factor (FF) and open circuit voltage (Voc). These results showing that by the proper chemical design, new α,β-unsubstituted BODIPY-based NIR copolymers can be developed in the future with suitable energy levels matching those of PC71BM towards more efficient NIR organic photovoltaics (OPVs).


The low recruitment and high attrition rate of women in engineering is well documented. Women account for only twenty percent of the entering class cohort, and drop out at a rate ten percent higher than their male counterparts. Although in the past twenty years women have made inroads into many fields that were male-dominated, women have made little or no progress in engineering. This paper has three goals. First, this paper will review existing literature that identifies current and alternative theories about why engineering programs do not retain female students. Second, this paper will synthesize motivational psychology research into a best-practice model for engineering programs. Last, we hypothesize that photovoltaic engineering programs are uniquely positioned to incorporate these recommendations. This material is based upon work primarily supported by the Engineering Research Center Program of the National Science Foundation and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the Department of Energy under NSF Cooperative Agreement No. EEC‐1041895. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Science Foundation or Department of Energy.


This paper analyzes how firms' investment incentives are affected by yardstick competition in a situation in which the regulator is unable to commit himself to the regulatory contract before firms invest. Despite its rent-extracting property, yardstick competition does not necessarily reduce efficiency-improving investment. Considering firm-specific investment, yardstick competition is shown to increase investment incentives over individual regulation affirms. In this case, therefore, yardstick competition both reduces the regulator's informational problem ex post and strengthens the firms' investment incentives ex ante. If instead investment is industry-specific, incentives to invest are lowered by yardstick competition. Copyright (c) 1998 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


The suggestion that ethylene plays a role in the transition from vegetative growth to flowering started with the observation of the promoting effect of fire smoke on flowering of pineapples. That idea was rapidly confirmed for the bromeliads with the use of ethylene analogs, precursor, inhibitors of biosynthesis and measurements of ethylene release. In the long-day rosette plant spinach, we found in the 1980s that there was a burst of ethylene release when plants were induced to flower by long days, but not when they were induced by gibberellin application (7, 8). The identification in Arabidopsis in recent years of several independent genetic pathways promoting flowering, together with the discovery that gene ACS10 related to ethylene biosynthesis is specifically up-regulated by activation of the long-day promotion pathway, have shed a new light on our physiological observations in spinach. In addition, recent work with Arabidopsis mutants of the ethylene transduction pathway demonstrated that ethylene sensitivity is required in wild-type plants for a normal flowering time. New doors are by the same occasion opened for the understanding of ethylene cross-talkings with other regulators (auxin, polyamines, jasmonate) and nutritional metabolites (glucose, sucrose) involved in the control of flowering.


The aim of this experimental study is to investigate the impact of wetting characteristics on multiphase flow, sweep efficiency, and residual fluid distribution in unconsolidated porous media. A sequence of oil and water injections was performed on bead packs with uniform porosity and permeability, but different wettability characteristics. Uniform and mixed-wet bead packs with varying degree of wettability were fabricated to analyze how the residual saturation profiles and the distribution of fluid phases at the pore scale respond to changes in wettability. X-ray microtomography was used to visualize and analyze the fluid distribution in each bead pack at the end of oil and brine injection. It was found that sweep efficiency was high for the uniform, strongly wetting glass bead pack. For the intermediate-wet plastic bead pack, we observed evidence of viscous fingering resulting in degenerating sweep efficiency after water injection. In media with mixed wetting surfaces, the spatial distribution of wettability influenced the topology of the saturation profiles and resulted in larger quantities of disconnected fluid blobs. Results also showed that the average blob size was independent of the average residual saturation. In addition, the difference in saturation conditions preceding each injection affected sweep efficiency. The residual saturation after the 1st displacement was higher than the residual saturation after the 2nd displacement.


This paper offers an initial assessment of the use of local content requirements (LCR) in renewable energy policy. It observes that in spite of free trade concerns, many countries with different levels of economic development attach LCR to their support schemes and procurement tenders. The legality and potential effectiveness of LCR are a pressing issue. Because of the financial crisis, public financing for low carbon policies and investments is more limited, especially in austerity-driven jurisdictions. At the same time, such policies and investments are needed to limit and counter climate change. The importance of analyzing opportunity costs, performing rigourous scientific research and discussing the use of LCR is thus self-evident.This paper finds that local content requirements for renewable energy are used frequently, either as a precondition to the receipt of financial support or as part of eligibility requirements in public tenders. They are often attached to mostly expensive public financial support programs to gain some local benefits from increased renewable energy deployment. Most countries using them base their policy choices on political motivations, rather than on economic and empirical analyses, which remain largely absent in the case of LCR. However, it is found that under certain conditions content requirements may be able to facilitate the development of a global innovator that is able to compete on the international market and push down technology costs. These conditions are many, country- and technology-specific and complex. While it is found that LCR will cause short-term costs to the industry and will likely inflate retail power prices alike, a medium-term benefit of increasing competition and innovation on the international market may offset those costs. It is of great importance to note that this is a theoretical possibility. To date, these potential positive spill-over effects have not been demonstrated.On the legal side, it is concluded that LCR for renewable energy are generally prohibited under WTO law. While financial support schemes with LCR attached will likely be ruled illegal, public procurement tenders are hardly disciplined by WTO law and may be permissible. From the scarse empirical literature on local content requirements, it is found that there are a number of initial basic conditions that determine the feasibility of creating domestic industries and, perhaps, subsequently innovators. In addition to a stable and sizeable market, the financial support (to which LCR are often linked) for the renewable energy sector needs to be sufficiently large not to scare off potential investors. The local content rate can also not be too restrictive, and needs to be coupled to learning benefits. Certain knowledge of the current technology increases effectiveness. Finally, when technologies are still in their infancy, the potential of LCR to create global competitors that reduce costs by learning-by-doing is higher. Many countries using LCR, however, do not explicitly target the creation of global innovators. The given basic conditions are broad and necessary, though not necessarily sufficient in the creation of innovative capacity. This paper analyzes the wind LCR in China, and gives descriptive analyses for LCR in Ontario, Quebec, Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Croatia, the US, India, Brazil, South Africa and Turkey.


While the involvement of actin polymerization in membrane protrusion is well-established, we have a more limited understanding of the role of transmembrane water flow in cell motility. Here we investigate the role of water influx in neutrophil migration. These cells undergo directed movement to sites of injury and infection. Chemoattractant exposure increases cell volume and potentiates neutrophil migration, but the causal link between these processes is not known. Using a genome-wide CRISPR screen, we identify the regulators of the chemoattractant-induced neutrophil swelling, including NHE1, AE2, PI3K-gamma, and CA2. Through NHE1 inhibition in primary human neutrophils, we show that cell swelling is both necessary and sufficient for rapid migration following chemoattractant stimulation. Our data demonstrate that cell swelling complements cytoskeletal inputs for chemoattractant-induced potentiation of migration.


Obesity is an increasing condition spreading out in all of the world, independently by race, sex and age. Obesity in pregnancy represent a risk condition for both mother and her offspring. All of the studies are observational and show intervention strategies on weight gain improvement during gestational period, a current topic, but still controversial. Our study is based on nutritional dynamic monitoring during pregnancy in order to improve health and wellbeing status of both mother and her offspring, through an early and efficacy prevention.


Rail is the one of the most important materials to support and guide railway vehicles safely and smoothly. Since rail sufferes from various interacting forces and environmental atmosphere, wear and fatigue pose large problems with wheel and rail. Hence, wear and fatigue of wheel and rail have been studied so far to keep running safety and some level of riding comfort of vehicle taking into account track maintenance cost. In this review, rolling contact fatigue (RCF) of rail which is one of typical fatigue phenomenon for steel wheel - on-rail system is focused on and the history of RCF defects and the maintenance experience of their mitigation measures in railways are described. The concept of mitigation strategy is balance between wear and RCF. Controlling wear amount is a key word to mitigate RCF defects based on selecting rail material suitable for vehicle/track interaction together with grinding and lubrication. Furthermore, the purpose of Japanese bainitic steel rail is to obtain the suitable amount of wear to prevent the initiation of RCF crack.


A 7-month-old boy with a history of severe atopic dermatitis and asthma was brought for evaluation of a generalized rash, fever, and irritability of 2 days' duration. He had no respiratory symptoms. His medical history was significant for anorexia, without vomiting or diarrhea. He had a strong family history of allergy.


ABSRACT Motor vehicles are the prime source of transportation where vehicles with A/C play a major part. This paper designs an embedded system for a vehicle cabin, which senses the gases like carbon-monoxide and oxygen and displayed at each and every second. If the level of the CO increases than the normal level (30ppm) or the level of the oxygen decreases than the normal level (19%) then an alarm is generated automatically and also ventilation is provided immediately. A warning message is sent to the authorized user via GSM. The advantage of this system is proper detection and faster response time leading to faster diffusion of the situation, compared with the manual methods.


Abstract Crystals of different members of the (Ba,Sr)HAsO4·H2O solid solution have been synthesized, and the first structural studies indicate that they crystallize in the same space group, Pbca, with Z = 8. The unit-cell parameters are a = 7.436(2), b = 8.481(1), c = 14.348(6) Å, and a = 7.752(1), b = 8.759(1), c = 14.668(3) Å for the strontium and barium end-members, respectively. Both end-members have a layered structure with slices parallel to (001) linked by hydrogen bonds from the water molecules. These features are consistent with both the perfect cleavage on {001} and the morphological importance of this form in the crystals obtained. However, the two end-members are not isostructural and show differences in both the anionic hydrogen positions and number of hydrogen bonds. Complementary powder-diffraction measurements indicate that the cell parameters increase in a non-linear way with the barium content indicating that the solid solution is complete but could be non-ideal. Preliminary data suggest that barium partitions preferentially into the solid phase when crystallizing this solid solution from aqueous solutions.


Dr. Lyster is Professor of Second Language Education, Department of Integrated Studies in Education, at McGill University. His research interests include second language acquisition in classroom settings in general, with a specific focus on immersion and content-based classrooms, more specifically, teacher-student interaction, form-focused instruction, and corrective feedback. He came to Michigan State University to give a talk at Second Language Research Forum . The interview was conducted by Seongmee Ahn on November 1, 2009. For more information about Dr. Lyster, please visit his faculty page: http://people.mcgill.ca/roy.lyster/.


InIn the human brain, the inferior temporal cortex contains areas that seem to respond selectively to particular types of visual stimuli, such as faces or animals. One such region—the parahippocampal place area, or PPA—responds most strongly to images of places instead of faces, but how this higher-order selectivity is achieved remains unclear. In a new study in PLoS Biology, Rajimehr et al. identify a specific response property of the PPA that might underlie its selectivity for place images. The PPA, the authors show, responds preferentially to images with high spatial frequencies—that is, with a high number of contrasting elements within a given space on the retina—corresponding to the type of details one might see in natural scenes.

The spatial layout of a scene can be characterized by edges and borders, which tend to have higher spatial frequencies.

The authors used functional MRI to investigate how images of simple three-dimensional shapes evoked activity in different parts of the visual cortex in humans. Unexpectedly, they found that the PPA responded much more strongly to a cube than a sphere, despite the fact that neither represented a "place" of any kind. The two images were carefully matched for many visual properties, but one property that differed was the presence of the edges and corners in the image of the cube. Images can be characterized by whether they contain mainly low, medium, or high spatial frequencies; the cube image contains more high spatial frequencies than the sphere.

To investigate whether the presence of high spatial frequencies was indeed responsible for the difference in the way the PPA responded to the cube and the sphere, the authors used even simpler visual stimuli—flickering checkerboard patterns—and found that these also caused selective activation of the PPA—but only when they contained high spatial frequencies. Next, the authors used spatial filters to alter standard images of faces and places so that they contained only low, medium, or high spatial frequencies, and tested the ability of these filtered images to activate the PPA.

The results showed that the PPA responded strongly to images containing high spatial frequencies, whether they showed faces or places. Notably, even though faces do not normally activate the PPA, images of faces from which low and medium spatial frequencies had been removed (leaving only high spatial frequencies) activated the PPA as strongly as did place images.

It is worth noting that the PPA is defined not anatomically, but functionally, by comparing responses to natural images of faces and places in the inferior temporal cortex. Using their new data, Rajimehr et al. show that the topography of the PPA localized in this traditional way was mirrored by the area that showed a bias for high spatial frequencies.

Next, the authors carried out similar studies in macaque monkeys. Although the inferior temporal cortex of macaques shares many functional features with that of humans, a place-selective homolog of the PPA has not been discovered in the macaque brain. Rajimehr et al. used the same stimuli that they used in the human studies to show that macaque inferior temporal cortex does contain a place-selective area homologous to the human PPA. This region also showed the same selectivity for high spatial frequencies as the human PPA, revealing an important parallel between the organization of the human and monkey cortex.

Images of places or natural scenes typically contain spatial discontinuities and high spatial frequencies, often in the form of the edges of buildings or tree trunks. Thus it follows that the PPA's preference for high spatial frequencies might contribute to its robust response to place images. The authors point out that further research would benefit from quantitative comparisons between responses to place images and those to images containing different spatial frequency distributions, in addition to the qualitative comparisons carried out in this study. However, such experiments will require researchers to develop a way to quantify the "placeness" of an image. Future research will likely take advantage of the demonstration that macaque brains contain a PPA homolog by carrying out electrophysiological studies that would be impossible in humans. Such studies may help identify the neural mechanisms underlying place selectivity in the human brain and perhaps even shed light on the precursors of place recognition in our primate cousins.

Rajimehr R, Devaney KJ, Bilenko NY, Young JC, Tootell RBH (2011) The "Parahippocampal Place Area" Responds Preferentially to High Spatial Frequencies in Humans and Monkeys. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000608


Recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors offer promise for gene therapy of alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency. A toxicology study in mice evaluated intramuscular injection of an rAAV vector expressing human AAT (rAAV-CB-hAAT) produced using a herpes simplex virus (HSV) complementation system or a plasmid transfection (TFX) method at doses of 3 × 10(11) vg (1.2 × 10(13) vg/kg) for both vectors and 2 × 10(12) vg (8 × 10(13) vg/kg) for the HSV-produced vector. The HSV-produced vector had favorable in vitro characteristics in terms of purity, efficiency of transduction, and hAAT expression. There were no significant differences in clinical findings or hematology and clinical chemistry values between test article and control groups and no gross pathology findings. Histopathological examination demonstrated minimal to mild changes in skeletal muscle at the injection site, consisting of focal chronic interstitial inflammation and muscle degeneration, regeneration, and vacuolization, in vector-injected animals. At the 3 × 10(11) vg dose, serum hAAT levels were higher with the HSV-produced vector than with the TFX-produced vector. With the higher dose of HSV-produced vector, the increase in serum hAAT levels was dose-proportional in females and greater than dose-proportional in males. Vector copy numbers in blood were highest 24 hr after dosing and declined thereafter, with no detectable copies present 90 days after dosing. Antibodies to hAAT were detected in almost all vector-treated animals, and antibodies to HSV were detected in most animals that received the highest vector dose. These results support continued development of rAAV-CB-hAAT for treatment of AAT deficiency.


The recently developed ribosome profiling technique (Ribo-Seq) allows mapping of the locations of translating ribosomes on mRNAs with subcodon precision. When ribosome protected fragments (RPFs) are aligned to mRNA, a characteristic triplet periodicity pattern is revealed. We utilized the triplet periodicity of RPFs to develop a computational method for detecting transitions between reading frames that occur during programmed ribosomal frameshifting or in dual coding regions where the same nucleotide sequence codes for multiple proteins in different reading frames. Application of this method to ribosome profiling data obtained for human cells allowed us to detect several human genes where the same genomic segment is translated in more than one reading frame (from different transcripts as well as from the same mRNA) and revealed the translation of hitherto unpredicted coding open reading frames.


Objectve Although inflammatory changes in the gastric mucosa are commonly observed in Japanese patients with functional dyspepsia (FD), detailed data regarding the relationship between the genetic regulatory factors of inflammation and FD are not available. Superoxide has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Helicobacter pylrori-related diseases through inflammation. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase, a major source of superoxide generation plays a critical role in H. pylori-related gastric inflammation. We aimed to clarify the association between C242T polymorphism of p22PHOX, an essential component of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase and FD in a Japanese population. Methods Eighty-nine FD according to Rome III criteria and 95 asymptomatic participants enrolled in this study. The p22PHOX C242T polymorphism was determined by polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism. H. pylori infection status was examined by histology or antibody against H. pylori. Results Nonsignificant correlation was found between p22PHOX polymorphism and FD. In H. pylori positives, however, C242T carriers significantly associated lower risk of FD (25.9 vs. 6.2%; C/C vs. T carriers; odds ratio=0.19, 95% confidence interval=0.05–0.71, P=0.009). This significant association remained after logistic regression analysis with adjustment for sex and age (odds ratio=0.20, 95% confidence interval=0.05–0.73). No significant correlation was found between p22PHOX polymorphism and a different subgroup of FD. Conclusion Our data suggest that C242T carriers status is inversely related to the risk of FD in H. pylori-infected patients.


The subject is introduced in Chapter I. Chapter II contains an account of the techniques of study used in the laboratory investigations. Chapter III considers the antigenic characters of the influenza viruses. All the evidence points to the belief that antigenically new varieties of influenza A viruses are continually emerging to replace older varieties. This statement prompts a digression into the recently reported isolations of strains of virus identical to strains recovered 10-20 years earlier; it is shown that the evidence that these strains represent genuine isolations is far from complete and that the possibility of laboratory contaminations in the cases investigated cannot reasonably be excluded. An account is given of the antigenic characters of older and more recent influenza A viruses, the latter received as part of the World Health Organisation's programme on influenza. The influenza B and C viruses are discussed briefly. Chapter IV describes the so-called P-Q variation in influenza viruses. The natural occurrence and laboratory induction of these variants are discussed and an attempt is made to estimate the epidemiological significance of the phenomenon. Evidence is presented for the theory that P-Q variation represents an alteration in the arrangement of the antigenic components within the virus particle. In Chapter V some conclusions are drawn about the epidemiology of influenza from these results. An attempt is made to relate the characteristic epidemiological behaviour of influenza A, B and C viruses to their different degrees of antigenic variability The importance of the antigenic variability of the virus and the past experience of a population to infection with antigenically related viruses is illustrated by an account of an influenza epidemic in Ocean Island. The evidence for transcontinental spread of virus is presented and the origin of Influenza epidemic discussed. Chapter VI is concerned with the prevention of influenza. The successes and failures of parenteral vaccination are considered and methods for improving its efficiency are described. Finally, laboratory evidence is adduced that nasal vaccination with live attenuated virus has a sound theoretical basis and deserves further experiments in man.


For noise-robust speech recognition, we incorporated a top-down attention mechanism into a hidden Markov model classifier with Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient features. The attention filter was introduced at the outputs of the Mel-scale filterbank and adjusted to maximize the log-likelihood of the attended features with the attended class. A low-complexity constraint was proposed to prevent the attention filter from over-fitting, and a confidence measure was introduced on the attention. A classification was made to the class with the maximum confidence measure, and demonstrated 54% and 68% reduction of the false recognition rate with 15- and 20-dB signal-to-noise ratio, respectively.


Retinal neovascularization is a severe complication of proliferative diabetic retinopathy. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are master regulators of gene expression that play important roles in retinal neovascularization. Here, we investigated the retinal miRNA expression profile in a rat model of oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) through miRNA-Seq. We found that miR-143-3p, miR-126-3p, miR-150-5p and miR-145-5p were significantly down-regulated in the retina of OIR rats, and directly involved in the development of retinal neovascularization. Of these identified miRNAs, miR-143 is enriched in retina and was first reported being associated with pathological retinal angiogenesis. Our RNA-Seq data further suggested that miR-143 alleviates retinal neovascularization by mediating the inflammation/stress pathways via Fos. Moreover, the computational analysis indicated that Transforming Growth Factor-beta Activated Kinase 1 (TAK1) is involved in several key pathways associated with the dysregulated miRNAs. The pharmacological inhibition of TAK1 suppressed angiogenesis in vitro and retinal neovascularization in vivo. Our data highlight the utility of next-generation sequencing in the development of therapeutics for ocular neovascularization and further suggest that therapeutic targeting the dysregulated miRNAs or TAK1 may be a feasible adjunct therapeutic approach in patients with retinal neovascularization.


Little is currently known about how teachers in New Zealand Montessori early childhood centres reflect on Montessori philosophy and practice individually and collaboratively within teaching teams. The purpose of this research was to discover the current views about reflection on Montessori philosophy, the barriers teachers faced in reflecting and opportunities they identified for reflection. The impact that requirements for self review and teacher reflection have had on the approach taken to reflection, inquiry and professional learning by teachers in Montessori early childhood centres was also investigated. This research study used a mixed method case study and data was collected from teachers working in Montessori early childhood centres through semistructured interviews with three groups and an online survey of individual teachers.  Participants placed high importance on reflection. However some participants were reluctant to critique Montessori philosophy; either because they viewed it as 'valid' or because they were concerned about being regarded as 'heretical' by other teachers. Participants felt safe raising questions within their teaching teams, but were more wary of debating and questioning philosophical issues with teachers in the wider Montessori community. Others regarded reflection as an opportunity to develop a shared understanding of Montessori philosophy and practice in their early childhood centre. Despite the participants' perception that their team spent time reflecting on Montessori philosophy and relating this to daily teaching practice, it was still a challenge to make these reflective activities a priority in limited centre team meeting times. In addition, it appears that more support is needed to improve skills and knowledge about how the cyclical process of review or inquiry can engage with Montessori philosophy, inform centre philosophy, drive centre practice and improve outcomes for children. This study suggests that teachers would benefit from the creation of 'safe spaces' where they can engage with colleagues from their own or other Montessori early childhood centres in debate and discussion so that teaching practice becomes based on critical engagement with the underlying theoretical or philosophical principles of Montessori education.


This review outlines innovative methods for garlic breeding improvement and discusses the techniques used to increase variation like mutagenesis and in vitro techniques, as well as the current developments in florogenesis, sexual hybridization, genetic transformation and mass propagation. Sexual sterility of garlic reduces its potential for improvement of desired traits. Restoring fertility in this crop, which has been vegetatively propagated for millenia, provides new genetic possibilities for breeding purposes and/or genetic studies. In this context the recent developments on the manipulation of garlic florogenesis are discussed and it is shown that specific environmental conditions might allow for fertility restoration and seed production in bolting garlic. Furthermore the introduction of Agrobacteriummediated and biolistic gene transfer systems in garlic, a species known for its recalcitrant behaviour in in vitro culture, are reviewed. Attention is paid to the development of a high quality callus year-round production method for transformation. Also the first garlic transgenics resistant to beet armyworm (Spodoptera exigua) and herbicides will be introduced. Garlic friable embryogenic calluses are of pivotal importance for the establishment of cell suspension cultures needed for rapid multiplication of elite garlic genotypes. The development of these suspension cultures are discussed in this review. It is shown that a large number of somatic embryos (potentially 8 x 10 9 to 10 11 ) can be produced annually, from a single clove, for each current variety and that the conversion into plantlets amounts approximately 50%.


Initially hailed as a miracle crop for biofuel production, Jatropha has recently attracted criticism for competing with food production, causing adverse biodiversity impacts, and jeopardizing land access by rural populations in tropical countries. This article analyzes the contested development of Jatropha biofuel sector in Tanzania by anchoring two new concepts of "organizational models" and "institutional arrangements" to the sectoral systems of innovation perspective. The notion of "organizational models" brings into relief the heterogeneity of actors in an innovation system and the ways in which the actors form networks, within and across national borders, to organize innovative activities. The concept of "institutional arrangements" refers to the ensemble of formal and informal institutions assembled during Tanzania's colonial and postcolonial eras, which directly govern innovative activities in specific organizational models. Based on a location-specific and historically grounded institutional analysis within the innovation system framework, implications are drawn for the future development of Tanzania's Jatropha sector including its links with European markets and for the regulation of "next-generation" biofuels.


Assign to each site of the integer lattice Zd a real score, sampled according to the same distribution F , independently of the choices made at all other sites. A lattice animal is a finite connected set of sites, with its weight being the sum of the scores at its sites. Let Nn be the maximal weight of those lattice animals of size n that contain the origin. Denote by N the almost sure finite constant limit of n−1Nn, which exists under a mild condition on the positive tail of F . We study certain geometrical aspects of the lattice animal with maximal weight among those contained in an n-box where n is large, both in the supercritical phase where N > 0, and in the critical case where N = 0.


Distance is a key idea in contemporary literatures on geography and the government of risk, and it is central to the work presented in this paper, which focuses on Western media representations of an innovative 'first-generation' non-contraceptive microbicide, Carraguard. A preventive technology that has been developed under the auspices of the US Population Council and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Carraguard is represented in the media in ways that produce certain noteworthy cultural geographies of HIV/AIDS. Via an analysis of a selection of such media representations of Carraguard, and focusing on sexual citizenship, political subjectivity and three socio-spatial orderings of risk (displacement, replacement and reorientation), we posit that Carraguard has effected a feminization of the government of risk at a distance. Specifically, we contend that HIV/AIDS has been displaced from the marginalized spaces of metropolitan centres of the West and replaced at the world's under-developed margins, being reoriented from dangerousness/deviance and the masculine to risk and the feminine in that process. In this work, we have taken up Dean's (1999) call to use an analytics of government to highlight the effects of certain ways of thinking and acting, and have also sought to respond to observations by Craddock (2000) that the silences in geography about HIV/AIDS and the regional coordinates of risk and vulnerability need to be addressed. In the final analysis, it appears that media representations of Carraguard reproduce and intensify much older geopolitical and socio-spatial orderings and relations of power that give effect to conceptions and practices of political obligation and sexual citizenship.


Purpose of review Commercial availability of virtual reality headsets and software has exponentially grown over the last decade as it has become more sophisticated, less expensive, and portable. Although primarily used by the general public for entertainment, virtual reality has been adopted by periprocedural clinicians to improve patient experiences and treatments. The purpose of this review is to explore recently reported evidence for virtual reality effectiveness for pediatric periprocedural care and discuss considerations for clinical implementation. Recent findings In the preprocedure setting, practitioners use virtual reality to introduce children to periprocedural environments, distract attention from preprocedural vascular access, and increase cooperation with anesthesia induction. Intraprocedure, virtual reality decreases sedation requirements, and in some instances, eliminates anesthesia for minor procedures. Virtual reality also augments pain reduction therapies in the acute and extended rehabilitation periods, resulting in faster recovery and improved outcomes. Virtual reality seems to be well treated for pediatric use, given close clinical care and carefully curated content. Summary Given the multiple clinical applications of virtual reality to supplement pediatric periprocedural care, practitioners should consider developing clinical programs that reliably provide access to virtual reality. Future research should focus on identification of patient characteristics and types of software that yield optimal patient outcomes.


Synesthesia is a phenomenon in which stimulation in one sensory modality triggers involuntary experiences typically not associated with that stimulation. Inducing stimuli (inducers) and synesthetic experiences (concurrents) may occur within the same modality (e.g., seeing colors while reading achromatic text) or span across different modalities (e.g., tasting flavors while listening to music). Although there has been considerable progress over the last decade in understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms of synesthesia, the focus of current neurocognitive models of synesthesia does not encompass many crucial psychophysical characteristics documented in behavioral research. Prominent theories of the neurophysiological basis of synesthesia construe it as a perceptual phenomenon and hence focus primarily on the modality-specific brain regions for perception. Many behavioral studies, however, suggest an essential role for conceptual-level information in synesthesia. For example, there is evidence that synesthetic experience arises subsequent to identification of an inducing stimulus, differs substantially from real perceptual events, can be akin to perceptual memory, and is susceptible to lexical/semantic contexts. These data suggest that neural mechanisms lying beyond the realm of the perceptual cortex (especially the visual system), such as regions subserving conceptual knowledge, may play pivotal roles in the neural architecture of synesthesia. Here we discuss the significance of non-perceptual mechanisms that call for a re-evaluation of the emphasis on synesthesia as a perceptual phenomenon. We also review recent studies which hint that some aspects of synesthesia resemble our general conceptual knowledge for object attributes, at both psychophysical and neural levels. We then present a conceptual-mediation model of synesthesia in which the inducer and concurrent are linked within a conceptual-level representation. This "inducer-to-concurrent" nexus is maintained within a supramodal "hub," while the subjective (bodily) experience of its resultant concurrent (e.g., a color) may then require activation of "spokes" in the perception-related cortices. This hypothesized "hub-and-spoke" structure would engage a distributed network of cortical regions and may account for the full breadth of this intriguing phenomenon.


In this paper, we address a recent article by Beck et al. (2001, Bioscience 51:633-641), in which it was proposed that the value of a juvenile fish habitat could be most efficiently measured as the production of adults from each juvenile habitat on a per area basis. Based upon retrospective microchemical analysis of otoliths, we calculated this metric (nursery value) for tidal freshwater and brackish littoral habitats of an estuarine fish, white perch Morone americana, in the Patuxent River estuary, Maryland (USA). In dominant year-classes of the population, brackish habitats had the high- est nursery value, whereas in all other year-classes, freshwater habitats had the highest nursery value. This result highlights the importance of inter-annual variability in habitat use, and conse- quently presents a challenging trade-off for applying the nursery-role hypothesis to facilitate habitat conservation and management. Despite this limitation, the nursery-role hypothesis provides an enriched and much needed perspective on population connectivity.


The dissolution behaviour in sulphate solutions of so-called non-porous anodic alumina films and films formed in dry oxygen and i n a moist oxygen atmosphere on chemically polished aluminium has "been investigated. Evidence is presented which indicates that the non-porous anodic films, formed at 7-30 volts, consisted of two regions, a thin, less soluble region adjacent to the metal and a thicker, more soluble outer region into which hydroxyl ions were incorporated. The structure might be related to the initial method of surface preparation adopted. It is suggested that films formed in dry oxygen at 500 C consist of crystalline Y-alumina, whilst those formed in the moist oxygen atmosphere a t 500 C possibly consist of amorphous alumina with someadsorbed water and are less faulted than the crystalline oxide. Again, there is some indication that the structure of these filmsis strongly influenced by the initial method of surface preparation used. The dissolution behaviour of the anodic films and films formed in dry oxygen at 500 C can be understood in terms of the extent of sulphate ion adsorption, apparently greater under the same conditions for the former type, and its effect on rate of transfer of protons, hydroxyl ions and water across the oxide/solution interface. A reaction scheme, proposed earlier to account for the behaviour during dissolution of the barrier layer of porous films formed anodically in sulphuric acid, appears adequate to explain the dissolution behaviour observed in the present studies. However, the type of behaviour, although rather similar for both' anodic non-porous and films formed in dry oxygen at 500 C, was quite different from the barrier layer of porous films formed anodically in sulphuric acid.


Abstract Objectives To investigate mechanisms of in utero death in normally formed fetuses by measuring amniotic fluid (AF) biomarkers for hypoxia (erythropoietin [EPO]), myocardial damage (cardiac troponin I [cTnI]) and brain injury (glial fibrillary acidic protein [GFAP]), correlated with risk factors for fetal death and placental histopathology. Methods This retrospective, observational cohort study included intrauterine deaths with transabdominal amniocentesis prior to induction of labor. Women with a normal pregnancy and an indicated amniocentesis at term were randomly selected as controls. AF was assayed for EPO, cTnI and GFAP using commercial immunoassays. Placental histopathology was reviewed, and CD15-immunohistochemistry was used. Analyte concentrations >90th centile for controls were considered "raised". Raised AF EPO, AF cTnI and AF GFAP concentrations were considered evidence of hypoxia, myocardial and brain injury, respectively. Results There were 60 cases and 60 controls. Hypoxia was present in 88% (53/60), myocardial damage in 70% (42/60) and brain injury in 45% (27/60) of fetal deaths. Hypoxic fetuses had evidence of myocardial injury, brain injury or both in 77% (41/53), 49% (26/53) and 13% (7/53) of cases, respectively. Histopathological evidence for placental dysfunction was found in 74% (43/58) of these cases. Conclusion Hypoxia, secondary to placental dysfunction, was found to be the mechanism of death in the majority of fetal deaths among structurally normal fetuses. Ninety-one percent of hypoxic fetal deaths sustained brain, myocardial or both brain and myocardial injuries in utero. Hypoxic myocardial injury was an attributable mechanism of death in 70% of the cases. Non-hypoxic cases may be caused by cardiac arrhythmia secondary to a cardiac conduction defect.


Software process improvements are required to increase the productivity of software companies. Generally, it is the aim to increase the quality of the produced software and to keep budget and time. Quality models for software process improvements were developed in context of large organisations and multi-national companies. In this study I investigated how software process improvements are done in a small software company. Ethnography was used as research method. It was the aim of this study to build up an understanding of how software process improvements are done and enabled in a small organisation. Fieldnotes were taken and later analysed using template analysis. Ethnography as the chosen research strategy proved to be applicable and feasible in software engineering research. The qualitative research strategy resulted in a detailed description of how one software company did software process improvements from a bottom-up perspective. Despite the learning potential of "how real world contingencies and possibilities interact and shape software process improvement efforts", such descriptions are rare in software engineering literature. Based on the field experiences and the analysed fieldnotes, the following results were identified: In the studied small software organisation, software process improvement efforts were pushed by the initiative of single employees. The studied company did not have enough resources to implement a complete quality model. In addition, management was heavily involved in daily work and therefore had not enough time to initiate and lead software process improvement efforts. For small software companies in a similar situation, the following guidelines can be given: First, a bottom-up approach with delegating responsibility from management to selected employees is needed. Second, management must ensure to be available if decisions must be taken. Third, improvements must be visible and feedback must be provided contemporary to gain momentum in the whole improvement effort. In some cases it might be important to create awareness of possible improvements. Here, employees should create internal lobbies by involving and convincing other employees of the improvement's importance. A joined effort will help to create enough pressure for change, so that improvement efforts get started.


Survival analysis is commonly conducted in medical and public health research to assess the association of an exposure or intervention with a hard end outcome such as mortality. The Cox (proportional hazards) regression model is probably the most popular statistical tool used in this context. However, when the exposure includes compositional covariables (that is, variables representing a relative makeup such as a nutritional or physical activity behaviour composition), some basic assumptions of the Cox regression model and associated significance tests are violated. Compositional variables involve an intrinsic interplay between one another which precludes results and conclusions based on considering them in isolation as is ordinarily done. In this work, we introduce a formulation of the Cox regression model in terms of log-ratio coordinates which suitably deals with the constraints of compositional covariates, facilitates the use of common statistical inference methods, and allows for scientifically meaningful interpretations. We illustrate its practical application to a public health problem: the estimation of the mortality hazard associated with the composition of daily activity behaviour (physical activity, sitting time and sleep) using data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).


For the purpose of controlling reverberation time in the low‐frequency range in a room, the variable system of sound absorption power by the chairs in the low‐frequency range by the experiments in a scale model was examined. As the results of scale model experiments (1/10 scale) in the reverberation room, the absorption power was controlled in the low‐frequency range by the opening and closing of holes of the resonator. Because of the achievement of the variable system of sound absorption of the actual chairs, an experiment on sound absorption power characteristics was made in the reverberation room of the chair with resonators given a variable with the quantity and the diameter of holes, a neck's length, and a cavity volume of the seat. The result was obtained that variable characteristics of the sound absorption power of the chairs with the resonator (four holes, 30 mm diameter of the hole, and neck length 10 mm) is 0.2 m2 each for 125 or 250 Hz by changing the cavity volume of the seat in the experimen...


Both the concentration and the fine-scale plume structure of host odours influence the upwind flight of female mosquitoes Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae) in a wind tunnel. The attractive effects of carbon dioxide, human skin odour and l-(+)-lactic acid were tested in homogeneous, turbulent and filamentous odour plumes. With carbon dioxide, the percentage of upwind-flying mosquitoes increased with the increasing fluctuations in concentration that occur in turbulent and filamentous plumes. In homogeneous plumes, an initial activation effect was observed, but sustained upwind flights were less frequent than in the other plumes. The opposite was found with plumes of human skin odour: the highest number of mosquitoes flew upwind in the homogeneous plume, whereas in turbulent or filamentous plumes their numbers were significantly lower. Regardless of plume type, the percentage of upwind-flying mosquitoes increased with increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide and of skin odour. With l-(+)-lactic acid, the dose-response characteristics were not consistent, and the relative effects of different plume types upon upwind flights differed within different ranges of concentration. Even maximum reactions to this compound were modest compared with those to carbon dioxide or to skin odour. Our findings demonstrate (1) that mosquitoes are able to orient upwind under continuous odour stimulation and (2) that upwind flight is dependent upon plume structure in different ways for different host odour components.


: A simple border movement recorder, which can be constructed from easily available materials, is described. A plotter pen attached to the handle of a lower impression tray is used to make a tracing of mandibular opening and closing and border movements on a piece of paper attached to a hinged plate mounted on a pair of spectacles, gravity holding the paper against the pen. The low cost and ease of use of the device may justify its use in cases where temporomandibular joint dysfunction is suspected.


cis-Diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (cis-DDP or cisplatin) is a powerful cytotoxin and anticancer therapeutic, used most effectively in the treatment of testicular and ovarian cancers. By contrast, the geometric isomer of cisplatin, transDDP, is comparatively non-toxic and fails to show significant antitumor activity. Cisplatin is believed to derive its cytotoxic effects from processes triggered by its reaction with DNA. The formation of cisplatin adducts can elicit many cellular responses, including inhibition of both DNA replication and transcription. Cisplatin DNA adducts are also specifically recognized by various proteins within the cell, and such cisplatin-damage recognition proteins have been previously suggested to play a role in the clinical efficacy of the drug. To date, however, the precise mechanism by which cisplatin lesions mediate the cytotoxic and antitumor activities of cisplatin remains elusive. The work in this dissertation evaluated two possible mechanisms by which cisplatin might exert its cytotoxic effects that had been heretofore largely unexplored. The first aspect of this work evaluated a model wherein the differential cytotoxic and antitumor activities of cisplatin and trans-DDP may result from a greater ability of cisplatin DNA damage to inhibit RNA transcription. A nonreplicating plasmid harboring the 0-galactosidase (f-gal) reporter gene was modified in vitro with either of the two platinum compounds and transfected into human or hamster cell lines. The use of cell lines both proficient and deficient in nucleotide excision repair allowed the examination of transcriptional bypass independent of excision repair for each platinum compound. A two to three fold higher level of transcription was observed in both cell lines from plasmids containing trans-DDP adducts as compared to plasmids modified by cis-DDP. This difference in transcriptional activity was not decreased in human and rodent nucleotide excision repair deficient cell lines, indicating that more efficient excision repair of the transDDP adducts was not the cause of its lower ability to block transcription. The possibility that trans-DDP lesions are preferentially bypassed by RNA polymerase was examined by monitoring the elongation of 3-gal mRNA on damaged templates in vivo. Nascent 1-gal mRNA transcripts were recovered from nucleotide excision repair deficient xeroderma pigmentosum A cells transfected with platinated plasmids, and the extent of RNA synthesis was measured by using ribonuclease protection. The results showed that four-fold more trans-DDP than cis-DDP adducts were required to inhibit transcription elongation by 63 %. RNA polymerase II translocated past a single, representative DNA adduct of cisplatin and trans-DDP in vivo with an efficiency of 016% and 60-76%, respectively. These data support the view that inhibition of transcription may contribute to the greater cytotoxicity of cis-DDP compared with its trans isomer. The second aspect of this work evaluated a possible novel role of the human mismatch repair protein, hMSH2, as a cisplatin-damage recognition protein. The interaction of purified recombinant hMSH2 with DNA containing adducts of cisplatin and various cisplatin analogs was examined in vitro by using an electrophoretic gel mobility shift assay. The results showed that hMSH2 recognizes and binds specifically to DNA adducts of cisplatin. This protein displayed affinity for DNA modified by therapeutically effective platinum complexes, but not for that modified by clinically inactive platinum compounds such as trans-DDP. Recognition by hMSH2 was dictated, in part, by the major intrastrand DNA adduct formed by cisplatin. The results also show that hMSH2 is overexpressed in testicular and ovarian tissue, tissues in which tumors are best treated by cisplatin. These results complement a growing body of literature correlating mismatch repair activity with cisplatin toxicity in Escherichia coli and mammalian cells. Viewed together, these observations are consistent with a model whereby mismatch repair plays an active role in potentiating cisplatin DNA lesion toxicity. Further, these results may provide insight into a previously undiscovered mechanism by which tumor cells may acquire resistance to cisplatin. Thesis supervisor: Professor John M. Essigmann Title: Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology


Background— Intracranial aneurysm (IA) is a common vascular disorder that frequently leads to fatal vascular rupture. Although various acquired risk factors associated with IA have been identified, the hereditary basis of IA remains poorly understood. As a result, genetically modified animals accurately modeling IA and related pathogenesis have been lacking, and subsequent drug development has been delayed. Methods and Results— The transcription factor Sox17 is robustly expressed in endothelial cells of normal intracerebral arteries. The combination of Sox17 deficiency and angiotensin II infusion in mice induces vascular abnormalities closely resembling the cardinal features of IA such as luminal dilation, wall thinning, tortuosity, and subarachnoid hemorrhages. This combination impairs junctional assembly, cell-matrix adhesion, regeneration capacity, and paracrine secretion in endothelial cells of intracerebral arteries, highlighting key endothelial dysfunctions that lead to IA pathogenesis. Moreover, human IA samples showed reduced Sox17 expression and impaired endothelial integrity, further strengthening the applicability of this animal model to clinical settings. Conclusions— Our findings demonstrate that Sox17 deficiency in mouse can induce IA under hypertensive conditions, suggesting Sox17 deficiency as a potential genetic factor for IA formation. The Sox17-deficient mouse model provides a novel platform to develop therapeutics for incurable IA.


Extracted from text ... GUEST EDITORIAL 7:1
South African Psychiatry Review - August 2004 1
War, journalists and psychological health
terminology, some of these findings will be applicable to themselves
as well.4 For example, higher levels of dopamine courtesy
of lower monoamine oxidase inhibitor levels has been linked
to risk taking. This biochemical profile is found more often in
young males who have eschewed marriage or a commitment to
a long term relationship. In the war journalist study, almost 80
percent of the sample were male, the average age was less than
40 years and most were single or divorced, a profile fundamentally ..


This paper functions as an attempt to explain the prominence of the heroines in the texts of the five canonical Greek Novels of Chariton, Xenophon of Ephesos, Achilles Tatius, Longos and Heliodoros. This paper utilises the anthropological notion of 'woman as sign' to postulate the use of the heroines as symbols of the cultural integrity and superiority of the Greek elites under the Roman Empire. Comparanda such as early Christian texts are introduced to establish the novelistic heroines' conventionality, and the manner in which they act to confirm male subjectivity. Their interactions with figures such as the barbarian male demonstrate their countercultural tendencies as they appropriate eloquence, the defining characteristic of Hellenic male culture, in order to preserve their chastity. Their asymmetrical relationship with the deliberately more passive heroes acts to destabilise the image of marriage as symbol of political stability; an image routinely deployed in Imperial iconography. Rather than prudery, their behaviour is better coded as the subliminally provocative response of the Greek elites to Roman 'domination'.


This essay looks at the ways in which Aristotle signals his confidence in observation claims in his biological works. Widely seen as an astute observer of the natural world, Aristotle in fact makes surprisingly few explicit claims to personal observation, even if circumstantial and other evidence often provides strong hints of his own involvement. At the same time, because of the incredible variety (and often the localization) of biological species, Aristotle also necessarily relies heavily on the testimony of others. This essay shows how Aristotle employs careful rhetorical strategies to signal or qualify his certainty both in his own observations and in the reports of others, on a case-by-case basis, for his reader.


DNA derived from Mycobacterium leprae (grown in armadillos) was isolated, purified, and analyzed spectrophotometrically. The genome size and guanine-plus-cytosine content of M. leprae were 1.3 X 10(9) and 55.8%, respectively. Among selected strains of mycobacterial, nocardial and corynebacterial species, Corynebacterium sp. 2628 LB, isolated from a human leprosy patient, showed the highest DNA homology with M. leprae. Of the DNAs derived from mycobacteria, those of M. tuberculosis and M. scrofulaceum showed a comparatively high reassociation with the DNA of M. leprae.


Signaling schemes for the Gaussian channel based on finite-dimensional lattices are considered. The signal constellation consists of all lattice points within a region R, and the shape of this region determines the average signal power. Spherical signal constellations minimize average signal power, and in the limit as N to infinity , the shape gain of the N-sphere over the N-cube approaches pi e/6 approximately=1.53 dB. A nonequiprobable signaling scheme is described that approaches this full asymptotic shape gain in any fixed dimension. A signal constellation, Omega is partitioned into T subconstellations Omega /sub 0/, . . ., Omega /sub tau -1/ of equal size by scaling a basic region R. Signal points in the same subconstellation are used equiprobably, and a shaping code selects the subconstellation Omega /sub i/ with frequency f/sub i/. Shaping codes make it possible to achieve any desired fractional bit rate. The schemes presented are compared with equiprobable signaling schemes based on Voronoi regions of multidimensional lattices. For comparable shape gain and constellation expansion ratio, the peak to average power ratio of the schemes presented is superior. Furthermore, a simple table lookup is all that is required to address points in the constellations. It is also shown that it is possible to integrate coding and nonequiprobable signaling within a common multilevel framework. >


Peptide-based therapeutic agents represent a significant category in the pharmaceutical market. Problems associated with their poor stability and oral availability, however, necessitates the use of chemical engineering to design and synthesise novel peptidomimetics possessing improved physicochemical properties. Our interest in homogeneous catalysis led to the development of a toolbox of generic strategies for the construction of structurally enhanced peptides (Chapter 2). These strategies were ultimately used to create dicarba analogues of cystine-containing peptide targets, including complex examples that possess multiple disulfide bridges (Chapters 3 and 4).

Peptide aggregation can hamper the synthesis of cyclic dicarba peptides via on-resin ring closing metathesis (RCM). Chapter 2 investigated the use of microwave-based heating to disrupt undesirable secondary structures, and was successfully used to generate a library of cystino-dicarba hybrids of the α-conotoxin family. For the construction of medium to large rings, the combined utility of microwave-irradiation and pseudoproline insertion was found to deliver a high yielding synthesis through localisation of reacting termini. This strategy was used to generate a cyclic human growth hormone fragment. A novel route to stable pseudoproline residues was also investigated in this chapter. Towards this end, a tandem metathesis-cyclisation strategy was used to deliver a high yielding and enantioselective synthesis of 5,5-dimethylproline dipeptides for direct incorporation into peptide sequences. At the close of Chapter 2, regioselective construction of multiple dicarba bridges was investigated via a tandem metathesis-hydrogenation approach. Here, microwave-accelerated RCM provided an expedient synthesis of bis-dicarba analogues belonging to the α-conotoxin family. Metathesis was also used to achieve macrolactamisation, N→C (head-to-tail) cyclisation, through the use of metathesis-labile tethers.

Chapter 3 applied some of the preceding strategies to construct intrachain dicarba analogues of insulin superfamily molecules via on-resin, microwave-accelerated RCM. Cyclisation of the relaxin-3 A-chain peptide gave moderate conversion (50%) to the carbocyclic product without the inclusion of a turn-inducing residue. The primary sequence of INSL3, however, was modified to include a pseudoproline residue, and cyclised in higher yield (70%). Biological evaluation of the dicarba relaxin-3 and INSL3 analogues demonstrated equipotent binding and activity profiles, and conclusively showed, for the first time, that the intrachain bridge in these two peptide targets plays a structural role in maintaining a biologically active conformation. Significantly, both geometric isomers of each peptide were equipotent, which suggests that the relaxin-3 and INSL3 receptors are able to accommodate structural changes in this bridge region.


The atheroprotective potential of the lipid-lowering and invasive strategies remains disputable. The aim of the study was to estimate racial disparities in these studies. This hypothesis-generating pooled analysis comparatively evaluates baseline characteristics of the coronary anatomy and patterns of the regression of atherosclerosis in Caucasian and East Asian populations (EAP) of the different Y chromosome DNA (Y-DNA) haplogroups in 38 intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging studies (N=9,146). The analysis has revealed 7 so called classic (51.1% of the total analyzed population) studies (conducted by the group of Nicholls/Nissen) with mostly Caucasian population (R1b, Q3, C4 and K4 Y-DNA dominant haplogroups), 18 clinical studies (31.7%) with White/Caucasian population (mostly Europeans of R1 haplogroup), and 13 trials (17.2%) with EAP [11 Japanese studies, 2 South Korean (SK), and 1 Chinese with O and D Y-DNA dominant haplogroups]. The classic trials perform superior with lower mean risk of bias (10.96%) if compare with the rest of Caucasian (21.62%) or EAP (28.88%) studies. The regression of atherosclerosis was documented in 18 of 38 studies. A –1.67%±5.99% means absolute reduction of plaque burden (PB) reported in all 38 studies with a –18.46%±20.35% decrease of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. The Glagovian threshold of a 40% PB with a baseline percent atheroma volume (PAV) above 40% was achieved in one study, a NANOM-FIM trial. The rule "the higher baseline PB the less atheroprotective effect" has been trending with a baseline PB 65.50% (P=0.39). A pooled linear regression analysis revealed moderate association between LDL-C and PB (r=0.3314, P=0.008) with a LDL-C threshold of 106 mg/dL. The EAP studies substantially differ from Caucasian trials by the smaller size of both lesions and vessels. A baseline total atheroma volume (TAV) in EAP achieved 114.25±80.44 mm3 with a mean total vessel volume (TVV) of 216.31±150.15 mm3 if compare with 185.64±21.75 mm3 (P=0.007) TAV, and a 489.40±48.76 mm3 (P<0.0001) TVV in classic Caucasian trials. Unlike the modest 0.14%±0.94% (P=0.89) progression of atherosclerosis in classic studies (P=0.11) LDL-C reduction, the EAP demonstrate a –1.99%±3.57% (P=0.19) atheroregression amid a mean –31.29%±15.66% (P<0.0001) decrease of LDL-C. So, the relatively tiny size of coronary arteries and high baseline PB in East Asian studies drive the gains in these populations. Regretfully, unlike the invasive strategy, lipid-lowering therapy was not successful enough for regression of atherosclerosis despite substantial reduction of LDL-C. A race with a genetic haplogroup and a level of the per cent atheroma volume must be reckoned for the stages of study preparation and then analysis of the results.