The FePt films with various thicknesses of 5 to 50 nm are deposited on Si(100) substrate without any underlayer by in-situ annealing at substrate temperature (Ts) of 620°C. A strong (001) texture of L10 FePt film is obtained and presents high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy as the film thickness increases to 30 nm. Further increasing the thickness to above 30 nm, the (111) orientation of L10 FePt is enhanced greatly, indicating that the quality of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy degrades when the FePt film is thicker than 30 nm. The single-layered FePt film with thickness of 30 nm by in-situ depositing at 620°C shows good perpendicular magnetic properties (perpendicular coercivity of 14.0 kOe, saturation magnetization of 473 emu/cm3 and perpendicular squareness of 0.96, respectively), which reveal its significant potential as perpendicular magnetic recording media for high-density recording.


This paper aims to analyze the Algerian energy consumption from 1965 to 2013; And to highlight the change in the structure of sources toward a sustainable development. We have relied on World Bank data, and local data that have been published by specialized institutions. It became clear that within the stability of the current production and the increase in the domestic demand in order to ensure a sustainable path of development, this situation affects, the exportations as well as the increase in energy intensity. Therefore it saliently shows the need to reconcile between supply and demand and maintain the share from natural resources for the future generations, through a persisting requirement to accelerate the process of embracing the different policies and strategies to control the use of energy.


Native or local chicken breeds play an important role in the rural sector and small households in developing countries, as well as provide a reservoir of potentially useful genetics for commercial strains. Standardisation and classification of the available native chicken populations based on morphological appearance, coupled with genetic diversity are necessary to conserve them for genetic improvement strategies. Most of the studies conducted on Saudi native chickens to evaluate their productive performance usually ignore the genetic origin and purity of the breed. Despite most native chickens having poor productivity, people in Saudi Arabia traditionally raise these chickens for their preferred eggs and ornamented appearance. The majority of such native chickens are maintained in rural communities and household poultry farms however, some native chickens with genes such as naked neck (Na), frizzle (F) and crest (Cr) are kept by poultry fanciers in small populations. These genotypes exhibit better performance under hot environmental conditions, a trait that may be useful in commercial strains. Six Saudi native chicken populations have been recognised and characterised. Their morphological characteristics, plumage appearance and productive performance have extensively been studied and documented in the current review.


The Dispute Settlement Board of WTO aims to solve the disputes of WTO members regarding international trade. Dispute settlement process involves the parties and third parties to a case, and it operates through the DSB panels, the Appellate Body, the WTO Secretariat, arbitrators, independent experts and several specialized institutions. Although the dispute settlement mechanism provides opportunities to the developing countries to seek remedies if they are aggrieved by any other country, yet there are certain challenges for the developing countries to participate effectively in DSM. The study finds out the challenges that caused the role of developing countries less significant in the WTO dispute settlement process. Moreover, several recommendations have also been made for making the role of developing countries more effective. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijssm.v1i2.10103 Int. J. Soc. Sci. Manage. Vol-1, issue-2: 60-63


Competition policy prescriptions have historically been based on beliefs about the most effective and socially acceptable forms of economic organisation. Despite many theoretical developments, there is little agreement between economists over which theoy ensures effective competition in the public interest.

This thesis presents a new perspective for analysing competitive markets by making the consumers' interests the prime focus for policy decisions rather than the firms' behaviour. In this approach, consumers determine the level of 'acceptable' competition and identify areas in which competition could be improved, as opposed to policy makers who theoretically determin how to promote 'effective' competition within markets. This view is developed into a new model for Competitive Market Environment Analysis, the validity of which is verified by a quantitative study of the UK Academic and Professional book market.

An innovative and quantitative approach to the 'Public Interest Criterion' of competition policy is developed through a statistical gap analysis technique which measures the extent to which consumers' desires/needs are met by their competitive market environment. Within the model, the gap analysis technique uses a 'degree of congruence' as the unifying factor between supply and demand, for which a quantitative measure of zero indicates perfect market equilibrium. Both the model and gap analysis measurement technique are tested on the UK Academic and Professional book market and a particular type of market conduct namely, the Net Book agreement. The analysis shows that consumers of Academic and Professional books have experienced little benefit or detriment from the abrogation of the agreement. Areas for improvement of Academic and Professional book supply are identified and further extensions of this research are proposed.

In summary, the thesis offers a new perspective on competition, a new approach to market analysis a new model and methodology for conducting market analysis and a new quantitative measurement technique. The research has significant implications for policy decision, because the focus on consumer welfare within markets, combined with the gap analysis measurement technique, can be used to measure whether forms of market conduct should be viewed as anti-competitive.


This paper presents HotSpot-a modeling methodology for developing compact thermal models based on the popular stacked-layer packaging scheme in modern very large-scale integration systems. In addition to modeling silicon and packaging layers, HotSpot includes a high-level on-chip interconnect self-heating power and thermal model such that the thermal impacts on interconnects can also be considered during early design stages. The HotSpot compact thermal modeling approach is especially well suited for preregister transfer level (RTL) and presynthesis thermal analysis and is able to provide detailed static and transient temperature information across the die and the package, as it is also computationally efficient.


This paper presents a validated measurement model and instrument for assessing enterprise systems success from multiple perspectives. The final validated study model employs 27 measures of the four dimensions: information quality, system quality, individual impact, and organizational impact. The model is empirically tested with survey data gathered from 27 public sector organizations that implemented SAP R/3 in the late 1990s. The study consists of an exploratory inventory survey (model building) to identify the salient success dimensions and measures, followed by a confirmatory weights survey, for testing model validity (model testing). Test results demonstrate the discriminant validity of the four dimensions, as well as their convergence on a single higher-order phenomenon: enterprise systems success (ESS). Criterion validity testing further demonstrates the additivity of the four dimensions of success, and the completeness of the resultant overarching, second-order measure of ESS.


This chapter charts some of the more important developments in European party politics, as well as analysing the contemporary state of party politics. It begins with a discussion of the value of political parties for democracy, after which it describes the origin of party systems in historical social cleavages, how these cleavages relate to the various party families, and the variation in party systems found across European democracies. Subsequently, it examines how parties have changed over time in terms of organization, ideology, and electoral appeal. Highlighting the changing roles political parties performed over time, it focuses on recent changes in European party systems, particularly growing polarization and fragmentation.


We study the long-run evolution of brand preferences, using new data on consumers' life histories and purchases of consumer packaged goods. Variation in where consumers have lived in the past allows us to isolate the causal effect of past experiences on current purchases, holding constant contemporaneous supply-side factors such as availability, prices, and advertising. Heterogeneity in brand preferences explains 40 percent of geographic variation in market shares. These preferences develop endogenously as a function of consumers' life histories and are highly persistent once formed, with experiences 50 years in the past still exerting a significant effect on current consumption. Counterfactuals suggest that brand preferences create large entry barriers and durable advantages for incumbent firms, and can explain persistence of early-mover advantage over long periods. Variation across product categories shows that the persistence of brand preferences is related in an intuitive way to both advertising levels and the social visibility of consumption.


We present Learn OCaml, a Web application that packs a set of learning activities for people who want to learn OCaml. It includes an integrated and reworked version of the venerable Try OCaml, and an exercise environment with automated grading derived from the one developed for the OCaml MOOC. It works entirely in the browser, the server being used for storing static files and synchronizing between different devices. A special effort has been made to make it usable on tablets, and even mobiles. A main public instance will be hosted at OCamlPro, but the project is open-source, and universities can host their own version on site. We will also provide a public repository for teachers to contribute lessons and exercises. A demo is currently hosted at: http://try.ocamlpro.com/learn-ocaml-demo. The source code is available as free software at: https://github.com/ocamlpro/learn-ocaml.


Benign (ganglioneuromas in 6 rats) and malignant (ganglioneuroblastomas--4) tumors and neuroblastomas (7) were induced in 17 animals by a single dose of 80 mg/kg ethylnitrosourea injected on days 18-19 of gestation. The animals were exposed to continuous lighting during gestation and lactation. Tumors of the sympathetic nervous system were at different stages of maturity. Since most tumors were located along the sympathetic trunk of the mediastinum and retroperitoneal cavity and because of their certain morphological features, such neoplasms may be regarded as an adequate model of similar tumors in children.


The final step of biomineralization is a chemical precipitation reaction that occurs spontaneously in supersaturated or metastable salt solutions. Genetic programs direct precursor cells into a mineralization-competent state in physiological bone formation (osteogenesis) and in pathological mineralization (ectopic mineralization or calcification). Therefore, all tissues not meant to mineralize must be actively protected against chance precipitation of mineral. Fetuin-A is a liver-derived blood protein that acts as a potent inhibitor of ectopic mineralization. Monomeric fetuin-A protein binds small clusters of calcium and phosphate. This interaction results in the formation of prenucleation cluster-laden fetuin-A monomers, calciprotein monomers, and considerably larger aggregates of protein and mineral calciprotein particles. Both monomeric and aggregate forms of fetuin-A mineral accrue acidic plasma protein including albumin, thus stabilizing supersaturated and metastable mineral ion solutions as colloids. Hence, fetuin-A is a mineral carrier protein and a systemic inhibitor of pathological mineralization complementing local inhibitors that act in a cell-restricted or tissue-restricted fashion. Fetuin-A deficiency is associated with soft tissue calcification in mice and humans. (Circ Res. 2011;108:1494-1509.)


This paper studied ballistic performance of aluminium blocks subjected to oblique impact of tungsten long-rod projectiles. Penetration experiments of tungsten alloy long rods impacting 25.4mm thick blocks made of aluminium 7075-T651 were conducted at a nominal velocity of 1.25 km/s under NATO 60 degrees obliquity. A witness plate made of steel was placed behind the target with an air gap of 300mm. Flash X-ray radiography was applied to capture images of the projectiles before and after penetration. The test results showed the effect of the thick aluminium block to deflect the long rod projectile from its line of flight. Numerical simulation of the experiment was carried out by using the hydrocode LS-DYNA to explore defeat mechanisms of inclined aluminium blocks against tungsten long-rod projectiles. The inclined aluminium block created the upwards mushrooming and bending of the projectile's nose during the whole process of penetration. The effect of trajectory deviation was insignificant during and immediate after the penetration; however, it became significant after some time of the penetration, resulting in a noticeable increase of the pitch angle of the residual projectile. Consequently, the residual projectile ricocheted from the surface of the witness plate with limited penetration.


In many biological reactors' bicarbonate ions are the major species determining pH buffering capacity, or alkalinity. In anaerobic digesters the bicarbonate levels should be within 10 to 50mM to ensure stable operation. Bicarbonate concentration in wastewater treatment processes is routinely measured off-line by titration with standard acid to a set pH value. However along with the bicarbonate/carbonate system, the phosphate, ammonia, sulphides and volatile fatty acids systems are present in anaerobic process. These systems can exert a significant influence on the accuracy of bicarbonate titration's to a set pH. An overload of 4.7 to 13.6 kgCODm^d" 1 administered to a 5m3 pilot scale anaerobic filter reactor showed that bicarbonate alkalinity, measured off-line by titration responded rapidly to the organic overload, decreasing by 10% after only 1 hour of the overload initiation. The propionic acid concentration (often regarded as the best indicator of instability in anaerobic digestion) increased from 170ppm to 190 ppm in the same period, which corresponds to an increase of 12%. At present the use of anaerobic digestion as a waste treatment method is partly limited because of the lack of reliable control procedures. This thesis introduces a simple on-line instrument for direct determination of bicarbonate concentration especially for automatic control of anaerobic digesters. The proposed method is based on a continuous flow rate measurement of carbon dioxide evolved from a continuous stream of sampled (<15cm3min" 1 ) solution after saturation with gaseous CC>2 and subsequent acidification with excess acid. Measurement of bicarbonate in this way eliminates the interferences of the phosphate, ammonia, sulphides and volatile fatty acids systems and removes the need for a pH probe which are subject to fouling.


A free-ranging juvenile female red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) that was unable to fly was admitted to a rehabilitation center and died 1 day later. Hematology and serum chemistry abnormalities included moderate regenerative anemia, elevated creatine kinase, and hyperphosphatemia. Necropsy revealed a generalized steatitis, and histology showed a necrotizing and granulomatous pansteatitis with intralesional pigment compatible with ceroid. There was also moderate diffuse myodegeneration, mild multifocal cardiomyopathy, and mild multifocal hepatic necrosis. These changes and lesions resemble those caused by vitamin E deficiency in mammals and fisheating birds.


Carisoprodol is a frequently prescribed muscle relaxant. In recent years, this drug has been increasingly abused. The effects of carisoprodol have been attributed to its metabolite, meprobamate, a controlled substance that produces sedation via GABAA receptors (GABAARs). Given the structural similarities between carisoprodol and meprobamate, we used electrophysiological and behavioral approaches to investigate whether carisoprodol directly affects GABAAR function. In whole-cell patch-clamp studies, carisoprodol allosterically modulated and directly activated human α1β2γ2 GABAAR function in a barbiturate-like manner. At millimolar concentrations, inhibitory effects were apparent. Similar allosteric effects were not observed for homomeric ρ1 GABA or glycine α1 receptors. In the absence of GABA, carisoprodol produced picrotoxin-sensitive, inward currents that were significantly larger than those produced by meprobamate, suggesting carisoprodol may directly produce GABAergic effects in vivo. When administered to mice via intraperitoneal or oral routes, carisoprodol elicited locomotor depression within 8 to 12 min after injection. Intraperitoneal administration of meprobamate depressed locomotor activity in the same time frame. In drug discrimination studies with carisoprodol-trained rats, the GABAergic ligands pentobarbital, chlordiazepoxide, and meprobamate each substituted for carisoprodol in a dose-dependent manner. In accordance with findings in vitro, the discriminative stimulus effects of carisoprodol were antagonized by a barbiturate antagonist, bemegride, but not by the benzodiazepine site antagonist, flumazenil. The results of our studies in vivo and in vitro collectively suggest the barbiturate-like effects of carisoprodol may not be due solely to its metabolite, meprobamate. Furthermore, the functional traits we have identified probably contribute to the abuse potential of carisoprodol.


Heart diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide. Despite the development of a broad array of treatment options, current therapies only delay progression of the disease and failed to prevent myocardial scar formation and replace the lost cardiomyocytes (cardiac muscle cells). Over the past decade the use of adult stem cells, particularly bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells, to safely facilitate recovery of cardiac function after myocardial infarction has received a lot of interest. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which are adherent stromal cells of a non-hematopoietic origin, have great differentiation potential and under appropriate in vitro culture conditions can trans-differentiate into cardiomyocyte cells. This study investigated the characterization of rat bone marrow derived-mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) and in vitro differentiation potential of them into cardiomyocyte-like cells by two DNA-demethylating agents, 5-azacytidine and zebularine. MSCs were isolated from Sprague Dawley's bone marrow and cultured in complete Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM). Morphological characteristics of MSCs were analyzed by phase contrast microscopy. Selected surface antigens CD44, CD117, known MSCs markers, and CD34, a hematopoietic marker (negative marker), were analyzed by immunocytochemistry. In addition, CD45, known hematopoietic marker (negative marker) and CD44 were analyzed by flow cytometry for the MSC cell population count. Passage 1 (P1) cultured MSCs were then treated in separate culture flasks for 24 hours with a 3μM optimized concentration of 5-azacytidine and zebularine. After 20 days, treated cells were analyzed for the expression of rat cardiac specific genes; namely, alpha-myosin heavy chain (CAMHC), cardiac troponin-T (cTnT), and cardiac transcription factor (GATA-4) by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The endogenous housekeeping gene, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was used as an internal standard gene for normalization of mRNA. The isolation of MSCs from rat bone marrow was successfully completed. Isolated MSCs exhibited spindle-shaped morphology with adherence ability to the surface of flasks and proliferated in the culture medium. Immunocytochemistry results showed that cell surface antigen expression was observed to be positive for CD44 and CD117. However, MSCs were negative for CD34 (hematopoietic marker); hence, confirming the absence of hematopoietic cells. Furthermore, CD44 was found to be >85% positive, while CD45 was more than 60% negative in MSCs after flow cytometry cell population analysis. Upon induction with 5-azacytidine and zebularine, the morphology of the MSCs changed and the cells showed extended cytoplasmic processes with ball-like appearance. After 20 days, they were connected with adjoining cells forming myotube-like structures. The mRNAs of CAMHC, cTnT and GATA-4 were detected in both treated and untreated cells. However, RT-PCR analysis for the expression of cardiac specific genes showed that treated MSC cells expressed cTnT, CAMHC and GATA-4 significantly higher compared to untreated cells. While there were no significant differences between 5-azacytdine and zebularine treated cells, zebularine could be a good replacement for 5-azacytidine as it is more stable and less toxic to biological system. These results showed that bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) could differentiate in vitro towards a cardiomyogenic lineage.


Let $K$ be the K3 manifold. In this note, we discuss two methods to prove that certain generalized Miller--Morita--Mumford classes for smooth bundles with fiber $K$ are non-zero. As a consequence, we fill a gap in a paper of the first author, and prove that the homomorphism $Diff(K)\to \pi_0 Diff(K)$ does not split. One of the two methods of proof uses a result of Franke on the stable cohomology of arithmetic groups that strengthens work of Borel, and may be of independent interest.


Abstract : This research is based on the Air Force and AFIT balancing mission requirements of personnel needed for duty and training airmen in advanced studies. Currently, over 50% of AFIT students do not meet AFIT entrance requirements. The purpose of this research was to examine criteria to determine its predictability of graduate success, as measured by graduate GPA, as well as determine whether performance is different for students who require criteria to be waived. Current AFIT eligibility criteria include undergraduate GPA, GRE test scores, or GMAT test scores. Other variables examined in this study include: GRE-Analytical test scores; rank/grade; prior enlistment; AFSC; gender; and number of members in household. This research found GMAT scores were a better predictor of success than GRE scores for management students. GRE-Q scores were good predictors for all students, while GRE-V scores were moderately good predictors for management students only. GRE-A scores should be added as a requirement with an appropriate standard. Undergraduate GPAs should be used as a guideline, not eligibility criteria into AFIT. Waivers should not be given for multiple deficiencies when possible, though there was little difference in the performance of students who met the criteria and those who did not. There was also little difference in the performance of students depending upon the type of waiver given.


DNA methylation (DNAm) patterns over time at 1146 CpGs on coronavirus-related genes were assessed to understand whether the varying differences in susceptibility, symptoms, and the outcomes of the SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and young adults could be explained through epigenetic alterations in a host cell's transcriptional apparatus to coronaviruses. DNAm data from the Isle of Wight birth cohort (IOWBC) at birth, 10, 18, and 26 years of age were included. Linear mixed models with repeated measurements stratified by sex were used to examine temporal patterns, and cluster analysis was performed to identify CpGs following similar patterns. CpGs on autosomes and sex chromosomes were analyzed separately. The association of identified CpGs and expression of their genes were evaluated. Pathway enrichment analyses of the genes was conducted at FDR = 0.05. DNAm at 635 of the 1146 CpGs on autosomes showed statistically significant time effects (FDR = 0.05). The 635 CpGs were classified into five clusters with each representing a unique temporal pattern of DNAm. Of the 29 CpGs on sex chromosomes, DNAm at seven CpGs in males and eight CpGs in females showed time effects (FDR = 0.05). Sex-specific and non-specific associations of DNAm with gene expression were found at 24 and 93 CpGs, respectively. Genes which mapped the 643 CpGs represent 460 biological processes. We suggest that the observed variability in DNAm with advancing age may partially explain differing susceptibility, disease severity, and mortality of coronavirus infections among different age groups.


Magnesium (Mg) is a widely used material in industrial applications due its low weight, ductility and good mechanical properties. For clinical applications such as non-permanent implants Mg is considered as a good option because it is biodegradable and its degradation products are not harmful for the human body. Moreover, Mg is essential element in the biology of mammals. However, Mg is chemically reactive and hydrogen gas is released as part of the oxidation i.e. degradation. Pockets of hydrogen gas may develop at implant sites and cause unwanted tissue necrosis. Fortunately, the degradation rate can be altered by physico-chemical modification of the material and may alleviate adverse biological responses. A successful procedure is plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) technique, which generates as a surface layer of MgO/Mg(OH)2 in a controlled way. Thus the degradation rate of the Mg can be carefully tuned and reduced. An additional advantage of PEO is that properly designed topographical surfaces can be produced that improve adhesion and function of e.g. therapeutic stem cells. The aims of this work was firstly to use PEO to modify the surface of c.p Mg (chemically pure Mg) in order to improve its degradation considering using this support to deliver therapeutic cells that augment healing of vascular lesions. A second major aim was to set off the development of therapeutic devices that synchronize the degradation of the material with the progress of the tissue healing in particular after balloon catheterization of atherosclerotic arteries and placing magnesium-based stents. This thesis contains in the different chapters a complete study of modified magnesium from both a material and a biological perspective. This work started with the production, optimization and characterization of the material. After that, a biological validation was performed based on in vitro and ex vivo assays, performed under static and dynamic conditions with different cell types related to blood vessels (arteries) including endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, macrophages and fibroblasts. Additionally, cell-material interaction and therapeutically effect of adipose tissue-derived stromal/stem cells cultured on the surfaces was studied. This work yielded prototype coatings that reduce the degradation rate of the material, while improving biocompatibility, in particular under hemodynamic conditions. The complexity to develop the idea to a final product is large and requires further investment in time and investigation to achieve the final goal of a biofunctional, biodegradable cardiovascular stent, for which we made the first pioneering steps. We conclude that modification c.p Mg implants by PEO technique is promising for cardiovascular devices that support the healing of the vascular lesion by delivering of stem cells.


Objective: We aimed to determine the association of thyroid functions with the components of metabolic syndrome (MS) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in pediatric obese patients. Methods: The study included 109 obese children (aged 9-15 years) and a control group of 44 healthy age and gender-matched children of normal weight. NAFLD was diagnosed by conventional ultrasound examination. We assessed the anthropometric data and serum biochemical parameters including lipid profile, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), fasting glucose and insulin levels and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (fT4) and free triiodothyronine (fT3) levels. The homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was calculated as a measure of IR. Results: The mean age and gender distributions in the groups were similar (p=0.23). The mean body mass index (BMI) z-scores of obese children with grade 2-3 NAFLD were significantly higher than those of the obese children without hepatic steatosis (p<0.001). Mean ALT, triglyceride (TG) and LDL cholesterol increased and HDL-cholesterol significantly decreased as the hepatic steatosis increased (p<0.05). HOMA-IR levels in obese subjects with grade 2-3 NAFLD were significantly higher than those in both obese children without NAFLD and grade 1 NADFL (p=0.05 and 0.001, respectively). In the obese subjects, TSH levels were increased significantly as the degree of steatosis increased (p=0.04) but fT3 and fT4 levels were not different. In correlation analysis, TSH was significantly correlated with ALT, BMI SDS and the degree of steatosis. Conclusions: Obese children demonstrate an increase in TSH levels as the degree of steatosis increased.


Spark gaps are likely the source of plasma in active black hole (BH) magnetospheres. In this paper, we present results of 1D general relativistic particle-in-cell simulations of a starved BH magnetosphere with a realistic treatment of inverse-Compton scattering and pair production, for a broad range of conditions, run times longer than in previous studies, and different setups. We find that following the initial discharge, the system undergoes gradual evolution over prolonged time until either restoring the vacuum state or reaching a state of quasiperiodic oscillations, depending on the spectral shape and luminosity of the ambient radiation field. The oscillations occur near the null charge surface in cases where the global magnetospheric current is in the direction defined by the product of the asymptotic Goldreich–Julian charge density and the radial velocity, while they occur near the boundary of the simulation box when it is the opposite direction (return current). Their amplitude and the resultant luminosity of TeV photons emitted from the gap depend sensitively on the conditions; for the cases studied here the ratio of TeV luminosity to the Blandford–Znajek power ranges from 10−5 to 10−2, suggesting that strong flares may be generated by moderate changes in disk emission. We also examined the dependence of the solution on the initial number of particles per cell (PPC) and found convergence for PPC of about 50 for the cases examined. At lower PPC values the pair multiplicity is found to be artificially high, affecting the solution considerably.


Background: Non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) is the major histological subtype of cancer cases. In the present study, we investigated the association between Matrine, an active component of Chinese medicine, and circFUT8 in NSCLC cells. Methods: The proliferation ability of NSCLC cells was assessed by MTT and colony-forming assays. Flow cytometry assay was performed to show the apoptosis and cell cycle distribution in NSCLC cells. The protein expression levels of Bcl-2, Cleaved Caspase-3 (C-Caspase3), and YES proto-oncogene 1 (YES1) were measured by Western blot assay. Migration and invasion of NSCLC cells were determined by transwell assay. The expression levels of circFUT8, miR-944 and YES1 were quantified by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assay. The interaction relationship between miR-944 and circFUT8 or YES1 was confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter assay. The anti-tumor role of Matrine in vivo was explored by a xenograft experiment. Results: Matrine functioned as a carcinoma inhibitor by repressing proliferation, cell cycle process, migration, and invasion while inducing apoptosis in NSCLC cells. Importantly, overexpression of circFUT8 counteracted Matrine-induced effects on NSCLC cells. MiR-944, interacted with YES1, was a target of circFUT8. Under Matrine condition, overexpression of circFUT8 increased proliferation, migration, and invasion while inhibited apoptosis, which was abolished by the upregulation of miR-944. Whereas the silencing of YES1 counteracted miR-944 inhibitor-induced effects on NSCLC cells. Eventually, we also confirmed that Matrine impeded NSCLC tumor growth in vivo. Conclusion: Matrine regulated proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle, migration, and invasion of NSCLC cells through the circFUT8/miR-944/YES1 axis, which provided novel informa-tion for Matrine in NSCLC.


Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis for 20 species of Phalaenopsis was conducted to determine their genetic distances and relationships. Among 20 different primers used for RAPD analysis, 10 primers showed polymorphism, and according to the primer type, 26 to 54 DNA fragments were amplified. A total of 414 polymorphic fragments were generated by 10 primers and used for correlation group analysis. The highest value of Similarity index was 0.28 between Ph. violacea malaysia and Ph. violacea witte. The dendrogram resulting from UPGMA (Unweighted Pair Group Method using Arithmetic average) hierarchical cluster analysis separated the original species into three groups: The first group had five species of Ph. violacea blue, Ph. belina, Ph. violacea malaysia, Ph. violacea witte, and Ph. gigantea; the second group included Ph. lamelligera, Ph. amabilis, Ph. parishii, Ph. labbi nepal, Ph. speciosa, Ph. lobbi yellow, Ph. venosa, Ph. hieroglyphica, and Ph. maculata; the third group consisted of Ph. minho princess, Ph. leopard prince, Ph. mannii, Ph. modesta, Ph. cornucervi and Ph. pantherina. RAPD markers can thus be successfully applied in this economically important group of orchids for the study of molecular characterization and relationships. The data acquired from this study could be used for identification and classification of other orchid genera and oriental Phalaenopsis.


Out of the many forms of therapy for sudden deafness, some require hospitalization and present significant risks. AIM: This prospective study analyzes etiology and evolution in cases of sudden deafness (SD) where outpatient oral treatment was used. STUDY DESIGN: clinical with transversal cohort. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Forty cases of sudden hearing loss were followed for at least one year. All were submitted to initial clinical evaluation, auditory tests, routine blood analysis, and magnetic resonance imaging. All received initial treatment with pentoxifylline and prednisone. RESULTS: 45% (n=18) presented normal auditory thresholds, 40% (n=16) showed some improvement in hearing, 15% (n=6) maintained initial hearing level. Nine cases (22.5%) presented clinical conditions possibly implicated in hearing loss (viral infection, immunomediated hearing loss, vascular disorders, and so on); three (7.5%) had cerebellopontine tumors. Evolution of hearing in these 12 cases with presumed etiology presented no differences from hearing in the 28 cases without any known etiological factor. Clinical treatment within the first seven days was the only statistically significantly different condition in patients who improved hearing. CONCLUSIONS: An objective search for etiological bases should be conducted in any case of acute sensorineural hearing loss. The presence of cerebellopontine tumors in 7.5% of cases of SD, among other treated causes, justifies a thorough clinical investigation in these patients. Overall good evolution of hearing was observed in 67.5% of cases of SD, regardless of its etiology. Therapy within the first seven days of SD was significantly related to better outcomes in hearing.


Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) can promote evolutionary adaptation by transforming a species' relationship to the environment. In most well-understood cases of HGT, acquired and donor functions appear to remain closely related. Thus, the degree to which HGT can lead to evolutionary novelties remains unclear. Mucorales fungi sense gravity through the sedimentation of vacuolar protein crystals. Here, we identify the octahedral crystal matrix protein (OCTIN). Phylogenetic analysis strongly supports acquisition of octin by HGT from bacteria. A bacterial OCTIN forms high-order periplasmic oligomers, and inter-molecular disulphide bonds are formed by both fungal and bacterial OCTINs, suggesting that they share elements of a conserved assembly mechanism. However, estimated sedimentation velocities preclude a gravity-sensing function for the bacterial structures. Together, our data suggest that HGT from bacteria into the Mucorales allowed a dramatic increase in assembly scale and emergence of the gravity-sensing function. We conclude that HGT can lead to evolutionary novelties that emerge depending on the physiological and cellular context of protein assembly.


This paper explores the methods used widely in China and western world interpreting the ultimate capacity of driven piles based on axial static load tests. A database consisting of 57 prestressed high- compression-capacity concrete pipe piles, which are widely used in soft soil ground conditions for building and transportation projects in China, is built. Two methods widely used in China and western world to interpret the ultimate capacity of driven piles based on axial static load testing data, S-lg(t) curve and Davisson Offset Limit, are applied to the database. Findings indicate that both methods work well and reach almost the same estimation. Conclusions suggest that both academia and industry of China and western world should take the advantages of the methods and apply them to engineering practice.


Based on the analysis of seepage mechanism of fracturing wells in low permeability reservoir, this paper establishes the capacity model of the vertical fractured well production under the factors of Start-up pressure gradient, pressure sensitive effect and the artificial fracture length. The numerical simulation is compiled and software calculates the capacity model by using numerical simulation. This simulation technique verifies the validity of the model and numerical method. On this basis, we study the influence of the included angle of artificial fracture and well array direction, artificial fracture length, start-up pressure gradient and production pressure difference to the capacity of the oil well.


Background: There has been global concern regarding HIV/AIDS epidemic particularly in developing countries. The magnitude of the epidemic result not only in the loss of human life but enormous financial burden to health care system and loss of productivity to the country. It has created unparalleled social and medical challenge.

Aims & Objective: This study assesses the knowledge, attitude and risky sexual practices on HIV/AIDS among commercial motorcyclist in Osogbo, Osun States.
Material and Methods: A cross- sectional survey of two local government areas in Osogbo town, Osun States, Nigeria was conducted in November, 2007. Study participants were selected using multi-stage sampling technique. A total of 298 participants were surveyed using a semi-structured, pre-tested interviewer administered questionnaire over a two weeks period. Data entry and analysis were carried out using SPSS version 11.

Results: Over 90% of the participants were aware of HIV/AIDS and a larger proportion (94%) believed in its existence, while comprehensive knowledge on its causative agent, mode of prevention and transmission are inadequate. Many of the respondents have poor attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS (61.7%). High-risk behaviours that can predispose to HIV/AIDS are still predominant as 52.5% takes alcohol, 18.0 % smokes and 55.0% indulge in extramarital affairs.

Conclusion: The findings in this study showed a high level of general awareness about the existence of HIV/AIDS but comprehensive knowledge remains low. Many of the respondents have poor attitudes towards People Living With Aids and also engage in high-risky behaviours that can predispose to HIV/AIDs. There is need for multi-pronged approach in the dissemination of information on the prevention and control of HIV/AIDs.


A family of Fahr's disease with autosomal dominant inheritance was reported 5 cases in 3 generations were affected in this family. The first patient was admitted for operation because of intracranial hematoma. No specific abnormality was found in the patients except intellectual impairment CT, however, revealed high density lesions in basal ganglion cerebellum, and cerebral white matter.


Abstract : Qualitative Process theory provides a formal representation for human-like models of continuous processes. Prior research mapped qualitative process elements onto English language constructions, but did not connect the representations to existing frame semantic resources. Here we identify and classify QP language constituents through their instantiation in Frame Net frames to provide a unified semantics for linguistic and non-linguistic representations of processes. We demonstrate that all core QP relations can map to FN, though larger QP evoking phrasal constructions do exist outside of this mapping. We conclude with a corpus analysis showing that these frames occur in natural text involving a variety of continuous processes.


From the release of Damien Parer's Kokoda Frontline in 1942, there have been several high quality documentary films and many popular and scholarly histories on the battles on the Kokoda Track, but until Alister Grierson's Kokoda of 2006 there was no feature film. Initially well received by an Australian public, Kokoda raises several important questions for historians. Makers of films on historical events properly draw on contemporary images: they are evocative of a time and place, guides to all that detail of dress, manners and possessions that take a crew so long to get right and that the pedantic delight in criticising, and they provide templates for shot composition. But the images in films are not subjected to the same scrutiny that historians apply to written sources. In Grierson's Kokoda, images are drawn from somewhere on the Track and relocated and, in one case, taken from another battle and another place. Film critics were concerned with placing Kokoda within the history of war films and evaluating it against other war films. When film critics considered whether Kokoda was 'real' or 'convincing', they were judging whether the behaviour of soldiers in battle moved and engaged an audience. Almost no film critics considered the film's accuracy as history, and it does repeat many popular errors about the Kokoda battles. Finally, it is interesting to consider what has been omitted and whether this has been the inevitable consequence of reducing an event spread over 100 kilometres of Track and several months to 92 minutes of film time, and whether the choices have diminished the end product as film or as history. More historians need to make themselves familiar with film and engage more readily in the public evaluation of those films claimed to be based on 'true' stories and illuminating what have come to be accepted as determining events in national histories.


The interest in bioaerosols has traditionally been linked to health hazards for humans, animals and plants. However, several components of bioaerosols exhibit physical properties of great significance for cloud processes, such as ice nucleation and cloud condensation. To gain a better understanding of their influence on climate, it is therefore 5 important to determine the composition, concentration, seasonal fluctuation, regional diversity and evolution of bioaerosols. In this paper, we will review briefly the existing techniques for detection, quantification, physical and chemical analysis of biological particles, attempting to bridge physical, chemical and biological methods for analysis of biological particles and integrate them with aerosol sampling techniques. We 10 will also explore some emerging spectroscopy techniques for bulk and single-particle analysis that have potential for in-situ physical and chemical analysis. Lastly, we will outline open questions and further desired capabilities (e.g., in-situ, sensitive, both broad and selective, on-line, time-resolved, rapid, versatile, cost-effective techniques) required prior to comprehensive understanding of chemical and physical characteriza-15 tion of bioaerosols.


Despite little scholarly attention, Middle Eastern Christian Churches are a well-established element of the European religious landscape. Based on collaborative research, this article examines how three mutual field visits facilitated a deeper understanding of the complexity that characterises church establishment and activities among Iraqi, Assyrian/Syriac and Coptic Orthodox Christians in the UK , Sweden and Denmark. Exploring analytical dimensions of space, diversity, size, and minority position we identify three positions of Middle Eastern Christians: in London as the epitome of super-diversity, in Copenhagen as a silenced minority within a minority, and in Sodertalje as a visible majority within a minority.


Open, online environments like social media are now a mainstay of life-long informal learning. Social media like Twitter help people gather information, share resources, and discuss with other participant-learners with similar interests. This paper seeks to test and validate the 'learning in the wild' coding schema in the context of discussions on Twitter, an approach first developed for studying learning communities on Reddit. The schema considers how participant-learners are leveraging social media to facilitate self-directed informal learning practices, exploratory dialogue, and communicative exchanges. We apply the coding schema on a sample of tweets (n=594) from the History Twittersphere community (#Twitterstorians) to provide a more nuanced understanding of the different kinds of discursive practices, resource exchanges, and ideas being shared and communicated outside traditional classroom settings.


Two major bus safety reports have recently been completed at ICE. Firstly the "Assessment of Passenger Safety in Local Service PSVs", for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), assesses the impact of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DIPTAC) regulations on bus travel. Secondly, "Real World Bus and Coach Accident Data from Eight European Countries", for Task 1.1 of the Enhanced Bus and Coach Occupant Safety project (European Commission 5th Framework Project no. 1999-RD.11130), is a collation of European data that identifies the important issues in bus and coach occupant safety. It has become evident during these projects that non-collision incidents are an important part in the injury experience of bus casualties, especially for elderly occupants. By consideration of both national statistics and in-depth cases a picture has been formed of the bus and coach casualty population and the types of incidents in which these people are injured. These statistics have been presented, along with possible reasons for such a high proportion of casualties occurring in non-collision incidents and recommendations have been made that would lessen the risk of these injuries occurring, through better design and operational changes. These injuries occur due to a combination of factors. Occupants can fall due to slipping or tripping on poorly designed floor surfaces or in wet weather conditions. Or falls can occur due to acceleration forces as the bus brakes or pulls away. When these falls occur the design of the interior can present an injury risk. In recent years bus design has changed as a result of new regulations to allow a wider population to use buses, especially with the introduction of low floor access. These features promote easier boarding and alighting and allow less mobile members of the population to make use of bus travel. Unfortunately this may also increase the likelihood of these more vulnerable people receiving injuries on the vehicle. Many of the issues addressed are particularly relevant to elderly people, small children and their caretakers.


In this paper, we present a case study of the economic prospects of having renewable integration with storage in the district of Temburong in Brunei. Temburong has a microgrid consisting of diesel generators (DGs) with a peak demand in excess of 6 MW. It is forecasted that the peak load will be more than 10 MW by 2020. The inherent advantages of renewable energy motivates us to study the use of available renewable energy resources to meet the 2020 load demand. We present the economic viability of having different combinations of renewables along with storage in such a setting. We show that the cost of energy (COE) is lower when we have only renewables. However, for higher operating reserves, it is preferable to have an extra DG at the cost of marginal increase in the COE.


RetirementGuard, a brokerage firm contracting with Cornell University and other Ivy league institutions, provides consultative advice about long-term care insurance to benefits-eligible employees and their family members. Through their Private Exchange they provide a selection of competitive individual long-term care insurance policies. The premiums are discounted due to the Cornell affinity. If you want to learn more about RetirementGuard and the companies they quote please visit www.myltcexchange.com/cornell or call them directly at 1-888-793-6111.


Background Linseed oil has been investigated as a rich source of n-3 series polyunsaturated fatty acids, which mainly produce a non-atherogenic lipid profile. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of linseed oil supplementation associated with nutritional guidelines on the lipid profiles of older adults, according to the intake of saturated fatty acids (SFA). Methods We conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial with 110 older adults randomized in two groups: placebo and linseed oil. The linseed oil group received supplementation with 3 g of linseed oil. Both groups received nutritional guidance and were supplemented for 90 days with monthly blood collection for biochemical analysis. The dietary intake of saturated fat was subdivided into low (<7% SFA/day of the total energy value) and high consumption groups (>7% SFA/day of the total energy value). Results Low SFA (<7% SFA/day of total energy value) consumption was associated with lower total cholesterol concentrations. However, we observed that the linseed oil group, including older adults who consumed >7% SFA/day, had a greater reduction in total cholesterol than the placebo group (P=0.020). The same was observed for low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (P<0.050), suggesting an additive effect of linseed oil and diet. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol concentrations were increased significantly in only the linseed group, suggesting that the nutritional intervention alone did not improve HDL cholesterol. Conclusion The results suggest that the nutritional intervention was effective, but linseed oil showed notable effects by increasing the HDL cholesterol concentration. In addition, consumption of <7% SFA/day of the total energy value increased the effect of linseed oil, demonstrating the importance of reducing the consumption of saturated fat.


* What the book covers: Introducing the different iPod models, getting started with your iPod, setting up iTunes and your iPod, shopping at the iTunes store, bringing content into iTunes, playing content in iTunes, sharing content from your iTunes library, managing photos and videos, synchronizing devices with iTunes, burning CDs from iTunes, playing iPod content, getting wired for playback, fine-tuning the sound, choosing an encoding format, going mobile, using your iPod as a hard drive, synchronizing personal info with your iPod, updating and troubleshooting, maintaining battery life, and more.* What's on the DVD:Provides step-by-step instructions for completing the following tasks: Setting Up Your iPod, Getting to Know the Controls, Locating Your Content on Your iPod, Playing Music on Your iPod, Adjusting and Limiting the Volume, Charging and Maintaining Your Battery, Getting to Know iTunes, Playing Your iPod through iTunes, Importing Music into iTunes, Ripping Music from a CD in iTunes, Burning Music to a CD in iTunes, Installing Software Upgrades, Setting Up an Account at the iTunes Store, Buying and Downloading Content from iTunes, Searching for and Sorting Content in iTunes, Retrieving Song Information Online, Editing Content Information in iTunes, Creating Playlists, Cross-Fading Playback on Your iPod, Synchronizing Your iPod with iTunes, and Backing Up Your Music.* Series features: Information presented in the straightforward but fun language that has defined the Dummies series for more than fifteen years.


We reassess the role of vacancies in a Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides style search and matching model. In the absence of free entry long lived vacancies and endogenous separations give rise to a vacancy depletion channel which we identify via joint unemployment and vacancy dynamics. We show conditions for constrained efficiency and discuss important implications of vacancy longevity for modeling and calibration, in particular regarding match cyclicality and wages. When calibrated to the postwar US economy, the model explains not only standard deviations and autocorrelations of labor market variables, but also their dynamic correlations with only one shock.


The bracket-cable is one of the important structures of transmission control system of Heavy Commercial Vehicle. By using the compliance (strain energy) as an object function and the volume as constrain, the topology optimization design for the bracket-cable is performed with Hyperworks10.0, which is made considering the characteristics of structure, constraints and forces etc. To meet the structural strength and stiffness requirements, 34.7% of the mass are decreased after the process. The generalization designing method of the structure of the bracket is also provided. The Structure analysis and the topology optimization based on the finite element method may help us get the best variation of the design during the developing phase. It has also significance to shorten the design process and to improve the product quality.


In order to avoid soil erosion in the areas of Afşin-Elbistan Thermal Power Plant Environmental Excavation Casting Standing so far, pine (Pinus nigra) and black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) planted to the 907 hectares terrain by starting in 1987. In recent years drying out (27%) was observed in these seedlings. This research is aim to determine the cause drying of trees, between the years 2012-2013, physico-chemical structure and temperature–humidity of the soil, air pollution and the impact of factors such as harmful insects were examined. In the soil samples, pH (8,5), the amount of lime (24,5%) were observed. Also, it was found to be lack in point of organic material. Besides, ash-slag mixture containing in the higher levels Ni, Zn, Pb, etc. has been observed. Also, when it compared with control plots, soil temperature 1,5-1,7 °C high, while humudity 5-7% low has been observed. Emissions releasing from power plant chimneys composition contains CO2, NO and SO2. These toxic dust compounds created burns in plant leaves and caused to the drying of the leaves by pouring. Total, 9 harmful insect species belong to 5 Order have been identified in the wooded terrain but their population level that has been found a negligible effect on the seedlings in drying. As a result; drying of seedlings is thought to arise from the ecological factors such as soil chemical composition, the low level relative humidity of soil and air pollution.


This is a follow-up of our previous postprandial study and it focused on the plasma lipidomic responses to 30 days of krill oil (KO) versus fish oil (FO) supplementations in healthy women. Eleven women (aged 18–50 years) consumed KO or FO for 30 days in a randomized, cross-over study, with at least a four-week washout period between supplementations. The daily supplements provided 1.27 g/day of long-chain (LC) omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) from KO (containing 0.76 g eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), 0.42 g docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)) and 1.44 g/day from FO (containing 0.79 g EPA, 0.47 g DHA). Fasting plasma samples at days 0, 15, and 30 were analyzed using gas chromatography and liquid chromatography electrospray ionisation-tandem mass spectrometry. KO resulted in a significantly greater relative area under the curve (relAUC) for plasma EPA after 30 days. Lipidomic analysis showed that 26 of 43 lipid molecular species had a significantly greater relAUC in the KO group, while 17/43 showed a significantly lower relAUC compared with the FO group. More than 38% of the lipids species which increased more following KO contained omega-3 PUFA, while where FO was greater than KO, only 12% contained omega-3 PUFA. These data show that KO and FO do not have equivalent effects on the plasma lipidome.


Tailoring psychological treatments to men's specific needs has long been a concern considering that many men are reluctant to seek or engage with professional help. The present study aimed to seek consensus via an expert panel regarding essential aspects to include in practitioner training programs for those working with men experiencing depression. A 2-round Delphi study was conducted to gain consensus among practitioners, researchers, and educators about the importance of a pool of 30 potential training program components across the following 6 domains: masculinity frameworks; impact of gender on clinical practice; depression in men; assessment and formulation; male-specific adaptations to treatment and; language and communication. The panelists comprised 53 multidisciplinary international experts in the men's mental health. Panelists were asked to rate each item on a 5-point likert scale from should not be included to essential. Consensus was defined as >80% of respondents scoring within 2 points on the Likert scale. After 2 Delphi rounds, consensus was reached for 22 of 30 items, and a further 2 items approached consensus. All items focused on features of depression among men and the impact of masculinities on clinical practice were endorsed. Items related to suicidality and depression diagnosis received the highest consensus, and the language and communication domain received limited support and was removed. This study provides a set of consensus-based recommendations for practitioner training. The recommendations offer actionable, gender-specific adaptations to psychological treatments for depression in men to be developed and trialed in practitioner training programs.


Electricity extraction from water by twin electrodes, mediated by oxygen molecules, that we call Oxhydroelectric Effect, is reported. The extremely simple components of this experimental system are: two platinum (Pt) wire electrodes, a saturated solution of potassium carbonate (K2CO3) in water (H2O) (with pH >10) as electrolyte, and a film of hydrophilic material (Nafion®). A dc power of the order of hundredths of nW was measured for days through a resistor connected to the twin Pt electrodes. The addition of a very small amount of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to the electrolyte (water-potassium carbonate solution with only 0.004% H2O2), as a source of oxygen, determines an immediate dc power jump, more than two orders of magnitude high, lasting for days. The Oxhydroelectric Effect opens the way to a completely new paradigm in what concern low-cost electrical energy generating systems, with a tremendously wide range of possible applications.


Abstract Typically, marketers define market segments by their demographic characteristics, assuming that these segments represent consumers with relatively homogeneous buying patterns. A more managerially useful definition, however, groups consumers of similar behavior directly and then seeks to find demographic commonalities among them. This study uses a latent class analysis technique to segment consumers based on their responsiveness to a set of marketing variables, finding that a multiple-segment model provides a better fit to the data, and that these segments differ significantly in their responsiveness. By targeting marketing activities to their most responsive segments, the efficiency of commodity promotion can be dramatically improved.


Due to the immutability of blockchain, many applications are emerging by providing trust to the trustless Internet. However, immutability becomes a weakness in some applications that require modification and deletion, such as personal information and SNS(Social Network Service), and cannot use blockchain technology. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a redactable blockchain scheme that can be used universally regardless of the consensus algorithms and blockchain types. In addition, without using a heavy cryptographic algorithm, and needing to re-mine, the proposed scheme can delete and modify content in the ledger, so it is efficient. Moreover, the proposed scheme can modify and delete at the transaction level. Additionally, the proposed scheme supports encryption for protecting the privacy and there is no need to save the original content after modification or deletion.


The study is a correlational survey research designed to investigate teaching practice students' online usage of E-Learning, impact and problems. The area of the study is Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rivers State, Nigeria. All teaching practice students at Ignatius Ajuru University of Education's Faculty of Education make up the study's population. A sample of 291 students were used for the study. Stratified sampling techniques was used for the study and the instrument used to collect data was a structured questionnaire titled Teaching practice students' online usage of E-learning impact and problems (TPSOUEIP) with 30 items. A reliability co-efficient of o.64 was obtained from the structured questionnaire administered to students. The statistical instrument utilized for the investigation was mean. The study discovered that students can cooperate with their peers online and pick up new teaching techniques that are useful for their profession; seeking out feedback and applying the feedback, keep in regular contact with your students and offer active learning opportunities are the ways E-learning is used in teaching an online classroom. Based on the conclusion, the researchers recommend that Teachers should build engagement and motivation with course content and activities and also schools should initiate interaction and create faculty presence.


This policy brief summarizes the current challenges facing national governments as they undertake decarbonization policies in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. The brief emphasizes three policy themes, including the role of urban climate actions, financing transitions toward decarbonization, and comprehensive metropolitan governance mechanisms. We also present nine policy proposals and consider the implementation of recent policies in Paris.


Abstract This study examines part of the thick palaeoweathering mantle that formed on the northern area of the Spanish Central System. The study of a compound profile indicates that despite weathering processes, the primary structure of the metamorphic rocks is preserved, and is only partially lost in some intervals of the upper part of the compound profile. Macro/micromorphology, mineralogy and geochemical changes within the profiles revealed two weathering paths. In the first path, Fe-chlorite weathered to chlorite-smectite mixed-layer/smectite/kaolinite + iron oxides. In the second path, biotite and/or muscovite weathered to kaolinite + iron oxides. The profiles show a progressive decrease, from base to top, in mica and mixed-layers and an increase in smectite and kaolinite. Thus, the profiles only comprise the lower or intermediate zones of the weathering mantle. The weathering occurred under humid climates; the lower zones of the profiles were poorly drained, whereas the topmost zones were better drained and more oxidizing. The results obtained indicate that detailed mineralogical studies are very useful to reconstruct the characteristics of the weathering mantles, and as palaeogeographic and palaeoclimatic indicators.


THE CERVICAL arteriovenous fistula was first described by Beck, McKhann and Belnap 1 as a means of increasing the blood supply to the brain. We used their procedure in 33 cases of cerebral palsy and have followed the patients for approximately one and a half years. In this series we found that certain immediate and late complications occurred. The immediate postoperative course of the average patient was smooth. However, complications peculiar to this type of surgery did occur. Several patients had a transient edema of the eyelids that disappeared without treatment. One patient suffered from a headache in the left parietal area at the site of previous brain surgery. The pain disappeared immediately when the fistula was occluded temporarily. Hoarseness, which was usually due to laryngeal irritation from the intratracheal tube, cleared up on steam inhalations before the patient left the hospital. If the fistula was made too small, it


We present a robot navigation technique, termed circular navigation guidance (CNG), which solves the challenging problem of intercepting a moving target from a specific angle, using only data from a video camera. The guidance law is not split into path-planning and path-following stages, but is continuously updated based on immediately available information, making it practical even against a manoeuvring target, or where only incomplete information is available to the robot. This is achieved by converting a finite-time navigation problem into one of maintaining a certain geometric condition at all times. Theoretical and experimental results are presented, which support CNG as a practically useful tool for robot navigation.


High altitude cirrus clouds play a significant role in the radiative balance of Earth atmosphere system. Information on cirrus occurrences and their optical properties is essential for climate modeling studies. The influence of high altitude thin cirru s clouds on the climate is important due to their optical and thermodynamic properties. In order to quantify their effect on atmosphere, the vertical structure and optical properties of these thin cirrus clouds are to be characterized. The Lidar technique has become a unique tool for detecting and characterizing cirrus clouds for their optical properties. Ground based LIDAR system offers an excellent way to obtain characteristic values on the cirrus formations, although the microphysical and optical properties of thin cirrus clouds can also obtained on global scale by the observations from Earth-orbiting Satellites .The ground-based lidar observations could provide more intensive measurements on continuous basis, compared to satellite observations. Utilising observations from both, the statistical characteristics, physical and optical properties of thin cirrus clouds can be retrieved more precisely. The present study is based on the ground based lidar measurements using the pulsed monostatic LIDAR system at the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory [NARL], Gadanki (13.5 0 N, 79.2 0 E), Andhra Pradesh, India. The data obtained in the altitude range of 8-20 km are used for this study. Cirrus observations made using CALIPSO and MODIS satellites are compared with the ground based lidar data for systematic statistical study of cirrus climatology. Optically thin cirrus clouds (τ<0.3) observed during 2009 are selected and their microphysical and geometrical properties are studied. The microphysical properties such as optical depth, lidar ratio and depolarisation ratio for cirrus clouds were obtained. It is observed that the variability in optical depth depends on the composition and thickness of the clouds. The relationships between various quantities were also processed. The study shows that the thin cirrus generally was present in higher altitudes and the optical properties show correlation with the height and the temperature.


Biobanks emerged in the early 2000s and now facilitate scientific research through the provision of resources for research that requires a large scale of biospecimens and data. Biobank projects have also become intertwined with complicated socio-economic initiatives to boost economic development or to shape community identity. While legislators continue to debate the ethical and regulatory challenges associated with biobanks, the federal regulation over research involving human subjects, the Common Rule, is based on a traditional research model that fails to address the complex challenges unique to biobanking. Through an examination of the proposed revisions to the Common Rule concerning research using biospecimens and ethical controversies regarding informed consent, privacy, ownership, and benefit-sharing, this article highlights a participatory aspect of biobanking that calls for public engagement with respect to both ethics and norms. Many biobank projects try to appeal to a sense of civic engagement whereby citizens have rights as well as responsibilities with respect to participation in collaborative scientific projects. Domestic and international guidelines describe incorporating public engagement with biobanking as an essential means of protecting research participants and achieving good governance. International experiences with various approaches to public engagement have also proven that involving the general public is feasible. Moreover, the principle of democratic deliberation, which was proposed by the Presidential Commission for the Studies of Bioethical Issues to be a guiding principle for bioethics policy decisions further underscores the criticality of public engagement in biobanking.


This study sought to develop a novel method for the trace analysis of N-nitrosodiethanolamine (NDELA) in shampoos inspired by a Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe (QuEChERS) extraction, followed by an RP-HPLC method with a water-rich mobile phase. To improve the extraction recovery of NDELA and clean-up efficiency of the shampoo matrix, effective parameters of the QuEChERS method including sample amount, sorbent type and amount, solvent type and amount, as well as salt amount were optimized. The obtained results showed that using primary secondary amine and C18 accompanied by silica as a polar sorbent led to a much cleaner chromatogram with a lower baseline drift without significant decrease in the extraction recovery of NDELA. Under optimum conditions, satisfactory extraction recovery of NDELA in shampoo (79 ± 3%) was achieved. The concentration range of the calibration curve was 5–500 ng mL−1 with a regression coefficient of 0.9993. Furthermore, the method's limits of detection (LODm) and quantification (LOQm) were 14 and 42 μg kg−1 respectively. The intra- and inter-day accuracy and precision of the proposed method yielded relative recoveries of 98–101% and a relative standard deviation of less than 5% respectively. Finally, the developed method was applied to determine the occurrence of NDELA in various shampoo samples, and the obtained results were confirmed using liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry.


The ribonucleoprotein telomerase, a specialized cellular reverse transcriptase, synthesizes one strand of the telomeric DNA of eukaryotes. We analyzed telomere maintenance in two immortalized human cell lines: the B-cell line JY616 and the T-cell line Jurkat E6-1, and determined whether known inhibitors of retroviral reverse transcriptases could perturb telomere lengths and growth rates of these cells in culture. Dideoxyguanosine (ddG) caused reproducible, progressive telomere shortening over several weeks of passaging, after which the telomeres stabilized and remained short. However, the prolonged passaging in ddG caused no observable effects on cell population doubling rates or morphology. Azidothymidine (AZT) caused progressive telomere shortening in some but not all T- and B-cell cultures. Telomerase activity was present in both cell lines and was inhibited in vitro by ddGTP and AZT triphosphate. Prolonged passaging in arabinofuranyl-guanosine, dideoxyinosine (ddI), dideoxyadenosine (ddA), didehydrothymidine (d4T), or phosphonoformic acid (foscarnet) did not cause reproducible telomere shortening or decreased cell growth rates or viabilities. Combining AZT, foscarnet, and/or arabinofuranyl-guanosine with ddG did not significantly augment the effects of ddG alone. Strikingly, with or without inhibitors, telomere lengths were often highly unstable in both cell lines and varied between parallel cell cultures. We propose that telomere lengths in these T- and B-cell lines are determined by both telomerase and telomerase-independent mechanisms.


It is a promising way to convert the excess renewable energy into hydrogen energy for storage. A two-layer optimization method considering the uncertainty of generation and load is proposed to determine the optimal placement and sizing of the hydrogen energy storage power station (HESS) in the power system with high penetration of renewable energy. The investment cost of the HESS and the operation cost of the power system with HESS are considered in the upper layer of the proposed method. Meanwhile, the Modified Backtracking Search Algorithm (MBSA) is utilized to determine the optimal placement and sizing of HESS in the upper-layer optimization. Based on the strategy formulated by the upper-layer, there is a goal that minimizes the operation cost of the power system with HESS in the lower-layer optimization. The robust optimization method is utilized to solve the optimal scheduling of the lower-layer optimization considering the uncertainty of systems. Finally, the simulation experiment in the IEEE 39-node system is performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed two-layer optimization method. The simulation results show that the two-layer optimization method can effectively solve the optimal placement and sizing of HESS with consideration of uncertainty.


The general writing competence of students entering university in the Netherlands is seen as barely sufficient. Writing programmes in secondary education in the Netherlands are seen as deficient in many respects. Also, since teachers at secondary schools have so far been free to set their own writing standards, students in the first year of university courses generally display a wide range of proficiency in writing. The present situation is, therefore, far from satisfactory.This article presents the findings of interviews held at the University' of Groningen during September and October 1997 on this subject, comparing these with relevant data from research papers and conference reports. It concludes with suggesting a solution to these problems of transition between secondary and academic education: a faculty-wide, systematic academic writing programme.


The spliceosome is a dynamic macromolecular machine that catalyzes the excision of introns from pre-mRNA. The megadalton-sized spliceosome is composed of four small nuclear RNPs and additional pre-mRNA splicing factors. The formation of an active spliceosome involves a series of regulated steps that requires the assembly and disassembly of large multiprotein/RNA complexes. The dynamic nature of the pre-mRNA splicing reaction has hampered progress in analyzing the structure of spliceosomal complexes. We have used cryo-electron microscopy to produce a 29-Å density map of a stable 37S spliceosomal complex from the genetically tractable fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Containing the U2, U5, and U6 snRNAs, pre-mRNA splicing intermediates, U2 and U5 snRNP proteins, the Nineteen Complex (NTC), and second-step splicing factors, this complex closely resembles in vitro purified mammalian C complex. The density map reveals an asymmetric particle, ≈30 × 20 × 18 nm in size, which is composed of distinct domains that contact each other at the center of the complex.


Abstract Objectives: An earthquake followed by tsunami and liquefaction on September 28, 2018, in Central Sulawesi caused health system disruptions. This study aimed to know health system disruption at the primary health center (PHC) level due to the disaster in 3 districts (Palu, Sigi, Donggala) of Central Sulawesi. Methods: This was a qualitative study conducted in March 2019 involving 36 PHCs. Data were collected through interview of PHC officers using a structured questionnaire. Variables included disruption of management, budget, human resources, drug supply, Early Warning Alert and Response System (EWARS) of epidemic prone disease (EPD), human resource migration, health facility damage, and health facility access. Descriptive analysis was conducted to define disruption for a 1-y projection. Results: Health system disruptions in Palu affected management, budget, human resources, EWARS, health facility damage, and health access; occurred within 1-2 mo; and were projected to become better after 6 mo. Problems in Sigi were management, human resources, drug supply, EPD, and EWARS for 1 mo after disaster and were projected to be better after 2 mo. The problems in Donggala were health services access, management, human resources for 1 mo after the disaster and were projected to be normal after 2 mo. Conclusions: Health system disruptions occurred in Central Sulawesi Province at the PHC level within 1-2 mo and were projected to become better after 3 mo in most PHCs.


Summary
Managed public wild areas have dual mandates to protect biodiversity and provide recreational opportunities for people. These goals could be at odds if recreation, ranging from hiking to legal hunting, disrupts wildlife enough to alter their space use or community structure.
We evaluated the effect of managed hunting and recreation on 12 terrestrial wildlife species by employing a large citizen science camera trapping survey at 1947 sites stratified across different levels of human activities in 32 protected forests in the eastern USA.
Habitat covariates, especially the amount of large continuous forest and local housing density, were more important than recreation for affecting the distribution of most species. The four most hunted species (white-tailed deer, raccoons, eastern grey and fox squirrels) were commonly detected throughout the region, but relatively less so at hunted sites. Recreation was most important for affecting the distribution of coyotes, which used hunted areas more compared with unhunted control areas, and did not avoid areas used by hikers.
Most species did not avoid human-made trails, and many predators positively selected them. Bears and bobcats were more likely to avoid people in hunted areas than unhunted preserves, suggesting that they perceive the risk of humans differently depending on local hunting regulations. However, this effect was not found for the most heavily hunted species, suggesting that human hunters are not broadly creating 'fear' effects to the wildlife community as would be expected for apex predators.
Synthesis and applications. Although we found that hiking and managed hunting have measureable effects on the distribution of some species, these were relatively minor in comparison with the importance of habitat covariates associated with land use and habitat fragmentation. These patterns of wildlife distribution suggest that the present practices for regulating recreation in the region are sustainable and in balance with the goal of protecting wildlife populations and may be facilitated by decades of animal habituation to humans. The citizen science monitoring approach we developed could offer a long-term monitoring protocol for protected areas, which would help managers to detect where and when the balance between recreation and wildlife has tipped.


For achieving proper environmental performance, it is fundamentally important to realize appropriate life cycle design of targeted product systems as a whole, and to perform consistent life cycle management during the usage of products. A method for life cycle design and management planning is proposed, which is based on comprehensive life cycle simulation based on product usage and deterioration modeling. There are many options for conceptual design of life cycle and management, such as long-life-heavy-maintenance, short-life-no-maintenance, rapid-take-backreuse, etc. Product design and operation, and associated maintenance methods and facilities could be very much different under various different environmental circumstances. Appropriate life cycle design and management should be selected and optimized in terms of life cycle performance and environmental conditions. Prediction and evaluation of product or service quality variations during product usage due to deterioration and other usage conditions are the most critical factors for deciding appropriate life cycle. Practical modeling of products and associated life cycle, including maintenance facilities, are investigated. Based on those models, a simulation system is developed for product service quality variations for comparatively evaluating conceptual life cycle design options. Application examples are shown for elevator maintenance design.


Since Jung and Film was first published in 2001, Jungian writing on the moving image in film and television has accelerated. Jung and Film II: The Return provides new contributions from authors across the globe willing to tackle the broader issues of film production and consumption, the audience and the place of film culture in our lives.

As well as chapters dealing with particular film makers such as Maya Derren and films such as Birth, The Piano, The Wrestler and Breaking the Wave, there is also a unique chapter co-written by documentary film-maker Tom Hurvitz and New York Jungian analyst Margaret Klenck. Other areas of discussion include:

 the way in which psychological issues come under scrutiny in many movies
 the various themes that concern Jungian writers on film
 how Jungian ideas on psychological personality types can be applied in fresh ways to analyse a variety of characters.

The book also includes a glossary to help readers with Jungian words and concepts. Jung and Film II is not only a welcome companion to the first volume, it is an important stand- alone work essential for all academics and students of analytical psychology as well as film, media and cultural studies.
Contents

 Hauke and Hockley, Introduction

Part I: Image and Psychotherapy. Klenck and Hurwitz, The Decisive Image in Documentary Film, in Jungian Analysis.
 Hewison, "I Thought He Might Be Better Now": A Clinician's Reading of Individuation in Breaking The Waves.
 Zanardo, Love, Loss, Imagination and The Other in Soderbergh's Solaris.
 Izod and Dovalis, Birth: Eternal Grieving of the Spotless Mind.
 Hauke, Soul and Space in No Country for Old Men.

Part II: Image and Theory. Fredericksen, Jungian Film Studies: The Corruption of Consciousness and the Nurturing of Psychological Life.
 Hauke, "Much Begins Amusingly and Leads into the Dark": Jung's Popular Cinema and the Other.
 Jacobs, Contrasting Interpretations of Film: Freudian and Jungian.
 Izod, Individual Interpretations: A Response to Michael Jacobs.
 Hockley, The Third Image: Depth Psychology and the Cinematic Experience.
 Rowland, The Nature of Adaptation: Myth and the Feminine Gaze in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility.
 Singh, Cinephilia: Or, Looking for Meaningfulness in Encounters with Cinema.
 Miller, Twilight: Discourse Theory and Jung.
 Bassil-Morozow, Individual and Society in the Films of Tim Burton.

Part III: Image, Type and Archetype. Dougherty, The Shadow: Constriction, Transformation and Individuation in Campion's The Piano.
 Lennihan, The Dark Feminine in Aronofsky's The Wrestler.
 Paganopoulos, The Archetype of Transformation in Maya Derren's Film Rituals.
 Palmer, Coppola's The Conversation: Typology and a Caul to the Soul.
 Waddell, Navel Gazing: Introversion/Extraversion and Australian Cinema.
 Beebe, The Wizard of Oz: A Vision of Development in the American Political Psyche.


The haematological abnormalities associated with active pulmonary tuberculosis were known to human beings since decades but Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP) secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis have been reported only in a couple of instances. We report a 27 year-old male patient who was admitted to our hospital with fever, shortness of breath, haematuria, epistaxis and generalized petechiae. The sputum positivity for Acid Fast Bacilli (AFB) and chest X-ray reports were suggestive of active pulmonary tuberculosis in our patient. Clinical and laboratory parameters including bone marrow aspiration cytology diagnosed the case to be ITP. Patient was put on Directly Observed Treatment and Short course (DOTS) category-1 Anti-Tuberculosis Therapy (ATT) and prednisone following which thrombocytopenia was corrected and there was complete recovery of the patient without recurrence of thrombocytopenia.


Food waste occurs along the entire food supply chain and gives rise to great financial losses and waste of natural resources. The retail stage of the supply chain contributes significant masses of waste. Causes of this waste need to be identified before potential waste reduction measures can be designed, tested and evaluated. Therefore this thesis quantified retail food waste and evaluated selected prevention and valorisation measures, in order to determine how the carbon footprint of food can be reduced by decreasing food waste in supermarkets. Food waste was quantified in six supermarkets in the Uppsala-Stockholm region of Sweden. Data were recorded over five years between 2010 and 2014 by the retail company in a daily waste recording procedure. In addition, suppliers contributed data on deliveries and rejections. The main suppliers contributed data on wholesale pack size and shelf-life, which allowed the relationship between these and their effect on waste to be analysed. Life cycle assessment was used to investigate the carbon footprint associated with production and distribution of food and managing the waste. The wasted mass was dominated by fresh fruit and vegetables and rejection on delivery was the main reason for this food being wasted. Expressed in terms of carbon footprint rather than mass, the relative importance of meat waste increased and that of fruit and vegetables decreased. A reduction in storage temperature to prolong shelf-life proved to have the potential to reduce waste in all supermarket departments studied. However, when the temperature reduction was achieved by extended use of the current electricity mix, a net lowering of carbon footprint was only found for the meat department. For food products with a high carbon footprint, e.g. beef, there was much greater potential to lower the carbon footprint by preventing waste through source reduction than by upgrading the waste management option. If food waste cannot be prevented, donation to charity and anaerobic digestion of the waste were found to have the greatest potential to reduce the carbon footprint, depending on the substituted bread value and biogas potential, respectively. This follows the EU waste hierarchy, although there are variations from the trend of more favourable options at higher levels of the hierarchy.


Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is substantially underdiagnosed and under treated. The present review paper discusses the possibilities of early diagnosis by means of spirometry in the setting of Danish general practice. It is concluded that case finding of undiagnosed COPD is feasible by applying opportunistic spirometry in patients with relevant exposures and relevant respiratory symptoms. The potential barriers of this approach and possible solutions are discussed.


We analyze a fast incremental aggregated gradient method for optimizing nonconvex problems of the form minΣifi(x). Specifically, we analyze the SAGA algorithm within an Incremental First-order Oracle framework, and show that it converges to a stationary point provably faster than both gradient descent and stochastic gradient descent. We also discuss a Polyak's special class of nonconvex problems for which SAGA converges at a linear rate to the global optimum. Finally, we analyze the practically valuable regularized and minibatch variants of SAGA. To our knowledge, this paper presents the first analysis of fast convergence for an incremental aggregated gradient method for nonconvex problems.


The Buddhist metaphysical conceptual analysis of the nature of reality has always been founded upon the basis of a rigorous employment of scrupulously coherent conceptual analysis, which is in turn based upon an empirical observation of experience in a manner appropriate to the time, although one major difference between the empirical attitude of Western science and philosophy during the age of science and that of Buddhism was the Buddhist development of rigorous techniques of meditation in order to explore the structure and nature of consciousness. In this paper I will use the Buddhist philosopher Dharmakirti's imaginative deconstruction of reality, in the context of quantum theory, to try to answer the question which seems to be posed by quantum theory: Is 'Reality' really real? In our search for the ultimate nature of reality we have to leave behind the 'seeming' appearances of the everyday world, however persuasive the appearance may be, and break through to a more 'ultimate truth' concerning the nature of reality. We shall discover that Dharmakirti's philosophical analysis, alongside other Buddhist insights, which lead to the 'ultimate' realm of 'empty' Mindnature, prefigures modern quantum discoveries.


Foliar fungal pathogens can substantially reduce plant biomass. This effect can be modulated by environment conditions, such as soil nitrogen availability and air temperature. The ongoing global changes are altering these variables and thus interact with pathogens to influence plant biomass, but experimental test of their interactions is scarce. We conducted a 4‐year field experiment in a Tibetan alpine meadow to examine the interactive effects of nitrogen addition, warming and foliar pathogens (via fungicide application) on plant biomass. We also measured plant functional traits, species richness and abundance to test the possible mechanisms underlying these interactions. Our results showed that foliar fungal pathogens reduced plant community biomass under nitrogen addition, which in turn weakened the positive nitrogen effect on community biomass. Mechanistically, nitrogen addition shifted the plant communities towards fast‐growing traits; this happened predominantly because of changes in within‐species trait values, including an increase in specific leaf area and height. These trait changes resulted in greater suppression of plant biomass by pathogens, likely because of the trade‐offs associated with the allocation of resources to plant growth and defense. Moreover, the reduction in species richness amplified the pathogen effect under nitrogen addition due to the increased density and susceptibility of the most dominant species (i.e. Kobresia capillifolia). Furthermore, warming did not interact with pathogens and nitrogen addition to influence plant community biomass, but their three‐way interaction modified the biomass of K. capillifolia. Specifically, warming enhanced the positive effect of nitrogen addition on the biomass of K. capillifolia in the fungicide, low infection plots, while it weakened the nitrogen effect in the no fungicide, high infection plots. Synthesis. Our results demonstrate how pathogens interact with nitrogen addition and warming to influence the biomass of dominant species and the whole plant community. Our study highlights the importance of considering foliar fungal pathogens when assessing ecosystem responses to multiple global change factors.


University-level classrooms have seen a massive transformation from instructor-led to studentcentered education, with many courses adopting project-based learning as an effective learning approach. As students become key actors in leading their courses, it is necessary to have highlevel intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In the search to enhance student motivation using project-based learning, this article proposes a framework based on self-determination theory, including various indicators of the level of students' motivation for learning. In particular, the framework was applied to explore the effectiveness of employing social media, such as Facebook, to increase student motivation. The results of this study demonstrate the usefulness of employing social media to amplify students' will to learn. This article reports on the results of action research in creative media design courses where students were required to develop an e-portfolio through Facebook. Eleven indicators (autonomy, confidence, eagerness to learn, high performance, independence, enjoyment, self-efficacy, sense of achievement, sense of belonging, sense of engagement, and sympathy) were used to measure motivation. As a result, this study argues for the conditional use of social media in project-based learning classes.


We consider a three-dimensional vector field with a Shilnikov homoclinic orbit that converges to a saddle-focus equilibrium in both forward and backward time. The one-parameter unfolding of this global bifurcation depends on the sign of the saddle quantity. When it is negative, breaking the homoclinic orbit produces a single stable periodic orbit; this is known as the simple Shilnikov bifurcation. However, when the saddle quantity is positive, the mere existence of a Shilnikov homoclinic orbit induces complicated dynamics, and one speaks of the chaotic Shilnikov bifurcation; in particular, one finds suspended horseshoes and countably many periodic orbits of saddle type. These well-known and celebrated results on the Shilnikov homoclinic bifurcation have been obtained by the classical approach of reducing a Poincare return map to a one-dimensional map.

In this paper, we study the implications of the transition through a Shilnikov bifurcation for the overall organization of the three-dimensional phase space of the vector field. To this end, we focus on the role of the two-dimensional global stable manifold of the equilibrium, as well as those of bifurcating saddle periodic orbits. We compute the respective two-dimensional global manifolds, and their intersection curves with a suitable sphere, as families of orbit segments with a two-point boundary-value-problem setup. This allows us to determine how the arrangement of global manifolds changes through the bifurcation and
how this influences the topological organization of phase space. For the simple Shilnikov bifurcation, we show how the stable manifold of the saddle focus forms the basin boundary of the bifurcating stable periodic orbit. For the chaotic Shilnikov bifurcation, we find that the stable manifold of the equilibrium is an accessible set of the stable manifold of a chaotic saddle that contains countably many periodic orbits of saddle type. In intersection with a suitably chosen sphere we find that this stable manifold is an indecomposable continuum consisiting of infinitely many closed curves that are locally a Cantor bundle of arcs.


A new sample of bright fiat radio spectrum sources selected at 8.4 GHz and consisting of objects brighter than V = 17 is discussed. The sample was selected with three purposes in mind: (i) to find low-luminosity BL Lacertae (BL Lac) objects with radio luminosities comparable to those of BL Lacs selected at X-ray frequencies; (ii) to investigate the differences between BL Lacs and other fiat radio spectrum sources; and (iii) to define a sample of nearby radio-loud objects, the host galaxies of which are easy to study. Using information on four observational parameters, radio polarization, optical percentage polarization, break contrast and equivalent width of the strongest emission line, we compare the properties of BL Lacs with those of other types of active galactic nuclei (AGN) found in the sample. We find that most of the objects have weak emission lines although some sources with Seyfert-type spectra were also found. With only a few exceptions, the two types of sources appear well separated in their observational properties. Among the objects studied we report 10 new BL Lacs and BL Lac candidates, and we define a 'complete' sample of bright fiat radio spectrum sources that consists of those objects with redshift ::; 0.1.


Warfarin is an oral anticoagulant that is widely prescribed to prevent thromboembolic events in persons at increased risk. The optimal dose is difficult to establish because it can vary 10-fold among individuals due to clinical and demographic factors. Testing for variants of the vitamin K epoxide reductase complex 1 (VKORC1) and cytochrome P450 2C9 (CYP2C9) genes has been proposed for use in guiding the initial dose of warfarin, thus achieving optimal dosing more quickly and with lower risk of bleeding.