N-Hydroxyarylamides are metabolically activated to nucleic acid-binding species by the action of N,O-acyltransferase (AT). The substrate specificity of these enzymes in rat, guinea pig, monkey, baboon, pig, and human liver has been examined by measuring the AT-mediated nucleic acid binding of the N-formyl, N-acetyl, and N-propionyl derivatives of N-hydroxy-2-aminofluorene. Human and pig enzymes catalyzed binding in the order formyl greater than acetyl greater than propionyl, while for the other species the order was acetyl greater than propionyl greater than formyl. Ammonium sulfate fractionation of the cytosols suggested that the baboon and rat have at least two different AT's: one with a higher specificity for the formyl derivative; the other with a marked preference for acetyl and propionyl compounds. Only one form, with a high formyl group specificity, was detected from human liver. The identity of the in vitro AT-mediated DNA adducts from rat, baboon, and human liver was established. In each instance, one adduct accounted for greater than 75% of the bound 2-aminofluorene (AF) residues. This product had a high-pressure liquid chromatography retention time and pH-dependent partition characteristics identical to those of an adduct synthesized by an acid-dependent (pH 4.6) reaction of N-hydroxy-2-aminofluorene with calf thymus DNA. This synthetic adduct has been identified as N-(deoxyguanosin-8-yl)-2-aminofluorene by nuclear magnetic resonance, mass, and ultraviolet light spectroscopy. Moreover, it was identical to the product obtained from the alkaline (pH 12) hydrolysis of N-(deoxyguanosin-8-yl)-2-acetylaminofluorene. Since an arylaminated (i.e., aminofluorene) residue(s) is the major product found in rat liver DNA following administration of N-hydroxy-N-acetyl-2-aminofluorene, these data suggest that AT may play a major role in the formation of this DNA-carcinogen adduct.


In the early years of transportation planning and highway infrastructure development in the United States the focus was on intercity or long-distance travel, a contrast to the metropolitan travel and state-based models that dominate today. Daily home and work-based travel, which have been the focus of data collection and models since the 1950s, are well-modeled by regional agencies and a limited number of state travel demand models even include some long-distance travel. Nonetheless, long-distance travel demand and factors affecting behavior are not thoroughly considered in transportation planning or behavior research. Only one recent activity-based model of national travel demand has been created and its scope was limited by a severe lack of data. The conceptualization of models to consider intercity long-distance travel has changed little since its inception in the 1970s and 1980s. In order to comprehensively consider transportation system sustainability, there is a critical need for improved nation-wide annual overnight activity data and models of overnight travel (a re-focus and important distinct re-framing of long-distance trips that this white paper suggests). Truly addressing the economic, environmental, and social equity issues required to create a sustainable global transportation system will entail completely updating our existing planning framework to meaningfully include long-distance travel. It is clear that long-distance passenger miles must be accounted for when addressing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other negative environmental externalities. Less well-known are the questions of social justice that loom large when one considers the details of long-distance travel. Travel in our society is becoming increasingly associated with quality of life. Those without intercity access may miss opportunity and social capital. However, without representative long-distance travel data it is impossible to compare the relative participation by different groups and to consider latent demand. It is difficult to measure who comprises the global mobile elite and who lacks sufficient intercity mobility for reasonable social network obligations and personal services. This white paper suggests utilizing a common framework for long-distance data collection and tabulation that re-defines long-distance travel into daily or overnight. The author advocates using overnight as the defining characteristic for data collection, which complements existing daily travel surveys already capturing long day-trips. Within frameworks moving forward it is important to clearly characterize all trip purposes, including mixed purposes and purposeless travel, which comprise an appreciable portion of long-distance travel. Spatial data that distinguish between simple out-and-back trips and spatially complex trips are necessary and mobile devices have now made this measurement of long-distance tours feasible. In order to truly model all travel in the current system, we must move away from the idea that most travel is routine, within region, and home-based. Many people, especially the most frequent travelers, have long-distance routines including multiple home bases. Additionally, our models should not assume that travelers staying at a second home, hotel, or friend's home travel like residents. Efforts to measure and model non-home-based travel or travel at destination are essential to accurately modeling behavior. Daily surveys such as the 2017 National Household Transportation Survey are increasingly doing this. A nation-wide annual activity model of overnight travel must fully incorporate both surface and air travel to allow full consideration of alternative future system scenarios. View the NCST Project Webpage


The lateral diffusion coefficients of various epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor mutants with increasing deletions in their carboxy- terminal cytoplasmic domain were compared. A full size cDNA construct of human EGF receptor and different deletion constructs were expressed in monkey COS cells. The EGF receptor mutants expressed on the cell surface of the COS cells were labeled with rhodamine-EGF, and the lateral diffusion coefficients of the labeled receptors were determined by the fluorescence photo-bleaching recovery method. The lateral mobilities of three deletion mutants, including a mutant that has only nine amino acids in the cytoplasmic domain, are all similar (D approximately equal to 1.5 X 10(-10) cm2/s) to the lateral mobility of the "wild-type" receptor, which possess 542 cytoplasmic domain of EGF receptor, including its intrinsic protein kinase activity and phosphorylation state, are not required for the restriction of its lateral mobility.


A pesantren is a typical component of the Indonesian cultural heritage. Besides being thought of as one of the oldest type of educational institutions in Indonesia, pesantren have played a significant contributing role in the process of nation building in modern Indonesia. Pesantren have many roles in society in education, the economy and in the social and political fields in which pesantren alumni play a role. Currently, pesantren roles are being challenged by modernization and they have to change or transform into modern institutions in order to survive. Nevertheless, traditional pesantren continue to resists change and they insist on preserving their identity in terms of authority and student teacher relationships. This article seeks to analyse the efforts that the traditional Pesantren Cidahu in Banten makes to preserve its identity and to maintain its authority in modern society. By hanging on to modest practices, Pesantren Cidahu manages to continue to exert strong influence over its students and over the society in West Java in general.


Abstract Turbulent convection systems are known to give rise to prominent large-scale circulation. At the same time, the 'background' (or 'small-scale') turbulence is also highly relevant and e.g. carries the majority of the heat transport in the bulk of the flow. Here, we investigate how the small-scale turbulence is interlinked with the large-scale flow organization of Rayleigh–Bénard convection. Our results are based on a numerical simulation at Rayleigh number $Ra = 10^8$ in a large aspect ratio ($\varGamma =32$) cell to ensure a distinct scale separation. We extract local magnitudes and wavenumbers of small-scale turbulence and find significant correlation of large-scale variations in these quantities with the large-scale signal. Most notably, we find stronger temperature fluctuations and increased small-scale transport (by about 10 % of the global Nusselt number $Nu$) in plume impacting regions and opposite trends in the plume emitting counterparts. This concerns wall distances up to $2\delta _\theta$ (thermal boundary layer thickness). Local wavenumbers are generally found to be higher on the plume emitting side compared to the impacting one. A second independent approach by means of conditional averages confirmed these findings and yields additional insight into the large-scale variation of small-scale properties. Our results have implications for the modelling of small-scale turbulence.


Studies of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a current global health problem shown the
initial plasma levels of most pro-inflammatory cytokines increased during the infection, which
leads to patient countless complications. Previous studies also demonstrated that the
metronidazole (MTZ) administration reduced related cytokines and improved treatment in
patients. However, the effect of this drug on cytokines has not been determined. In the present
study, the interaction of MTZ with cytokines was investigated using molecular docking as one of
the principal methods in drug discovery and design. According to the obtained results, the IL12-metronidazole complex is more stable than other cytokines, and an increase in the surface and
volume leads to prevent to bind to receptors. Moreover, ligand-based virtual screening of several
libraries showed metronidazole phosphate, metronidazole benzoate, 1-[1-(2-Hydroxyethyl)-5-
nitroimidazol-2-yl]-N-methylmethanimine oxide, acyclovir, and tetrahydrobiopterin (THB or
BH4) like MTZ by changing the surface and volume prevents binding IL-12 to the receptor.
Finally, the inhibition of the active sites of IL-12 occurred by modifying the position of the
methyl and hydroxyl functional groups in MTZ.


The world witnessed a major historical event in 1947 when subcontinent, which was governed as a one unit from Khyber to Burma since almost last one thousand years, partitioned by the ruling British Empire resulting into two states namely India and Pakistan. The major reason behind partition of the subcontinent was the religious and cultural differences between the Hindus and Muslims. This difference made them hostile towards each other and India having superiority in all aspects, compelled Pakistan to become a security state right after its inception. To expand its superiority over the whole region, the Indian nuclear program started in 1944, even before its independence. India conducted first nuclear tests in 1974 and continued expanding its nuclear program. This forced Pakistan to work seriously on its nuclear program with a fast pace. India announced its formal entry to the nuclear weapons club in May 1998 with 5 nuclear tests at Pokhran, Pakistan, having nuclear capability at that time, replied back in merely two weeks with 6 nuclear tests and became the 7 th nation in the world and first Islamic country to join the nuclear countries club. The lives of over a billion people are at mercy of the two nuclear powers state heads, especially India having an extremist government poses a serious threat to the peace of subcontinent which needs great attention especially from the global community otherwise a nuclear Armageddon could be expected.


In the study, 42 rabbits, 6 to 8 weeks of age, were divided into 6 groups. Groups 2, 3, and 4 were given, by a catheter directly into the stomach, aflatoxin (AF) (78.70% of AF B1, 10.80% of AF B2, 6.80% of AF G1, 3.70% of AF G2) in a dose of 0.4 mg/kg/bw/d in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), while groups 1, 5, and 6 were simultaneously given the same dose of DMSO with no AF. Twenty-four hours after AF was given, N-acetylcysteine (NAC) was administered intramuscularly at a dose of 250 mg/kg/bw/d to groups 3 and 5 and at a dose of 500 mg/kg/bw/d to groups 4 and 6 for 6 d. At the beginning of the trial (day 0) and on days 1, 4, and 7 following the administration of AF, blood was taken into heparinized tubes, and malondialdehyde level and superoxide dismutase and catalase activities were examined. It was found that AF caused oxidative damage and NAC was effective, at least partly, in the prevention of this damage. Consequently, it was obvious that NAC can be used as ameliorative agent in combination with other drugs in order to alleviate the adverse effects of AF action.


Introduction Anecdotal clinical evidence supports the use of carbonated liquids for reducing pharyngeal transit time and the likelihood of aspiration in dysphagic patients compared to non-carbonated liquids.1 However, there is limited literature on the effects of carbonation on the physiology of swallowing behaviour. The aim of this study was thus to examine the effects of carbonated compared to non-carbonated solutions on swallowing behaviour, assessed by a novel reaction time task,2 in healthy participants. Methods Data was collected from 20 adult volunteers (mean age 25.7 years, 12 male). Volunteers swallowed an intrapharyngeal catheter with built-in pressure transducers to measure pharyngeal pressures. Subjects were asked to swallow either carbonated (condition A) or still (condition B) water, while performing 10 normal swallows (normally paced swallows), 10 fast swallows (swallowing as fast as possible) and 10 challenged swallows (swallowing within a limited time window). The conditions were performed twice and allocated in a pseudo-randomised manner. The trigger to swallow was an electrical pulse to the hand. A locally programmed laboratory interface system was used to record swallowing reaction times. Data were analysed with non-parametric Wilcoxon's test in SPSS 14. Results Normal swallows: Despite a greater spread and wider IQR for carbonated water ((ms): still =875, carbonated =873), there was no difference between mean swallowing times between conditions ((ms): still = 1995, carbonated =2027, p= 0.50). Fast swallows: As with normal swallows, the IQR was larger with carbonated compared to still water ((ms): still=463, carbonated=588), however there remained no difference between the two conditions (means (ms): still =886, carbonated=879, p=0.74). Challenged swallows: By contrast to automated swallowing, carbonated water improved the number of correctly timed challenged swallows by ∼29% compared to still (mean (% correct) ±SD: still=31, carbonated=40, p=0.02). Across all swallowing tasks, there were no gender specific effects of carbonation. Conclusion Carbonation appears to alter swallowing behaviour by favouring improvements in complex tasks over automated tasks. This has implications for the use of carbonation as a treatment option for dysphagic patients in preventing aspiration. These findings provide support for carbonation being a useful means of altering swallowing performance, potentially in those at risk of aspiration and lay the foundation for further studies accounting for pH, temperature and taste on swallowing function.


The propagation of excitation has been studied in neocortical guinea pig slices maintained in vitro. Stimuli were given at different distances from the chosen neuron. Comparison of latencies of the evoked impulse reactions indicated a complex structure and configuration of the vertically oriented ensemble of comparatively synchronously activated neurons. It is assumed that such an ensemble has a narrow (less than 300 microns) top layer II, a wide (approximately 600 microns and more) middle part in layer V and a narrowed (approximately 300 microns) basis in layer VI. A heterogeneity of the ensemble (the module) with respect to vertical propagation of excitation is found.


ABSTRACT:  This paper first briefly reviews the concept of intelligibility as it has been employed in both English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and world Englishes (WE) research. It then examines the findings of the Lingua Franca Core (LFC), a list of phonological features that empirical research has shown to be important for safeguarding mutual intelligibility between non-native speakers of English. The main point of the paper is to analyse these findings and demonstrate that many of them can be explained if three perspectives (linguistic, psycholinguistic and historical-variationist) are taken. This demonstration aims to increase the explanatory power of the concept of intelligibility by providing some theoretical background. An implication for ELF research is that at the phonological level, internationally intelligible speakers have a large number of features in common, regardless of whether they are non-native speakers or native speakers. An implication for WE research is that taking a variety-based, rather than a features-based, view of phonological variation and its connection with intelligibility is likely to be unhelpful, as intelligibility depends to some extent on the phonological features of individual speakers, rather than on the varieties per se.


College food insecurity is a known detriment to student success, but little is known about the implementation of campus-based programmes to help address this issue on campus in the United States. The objective of this research study was to determine the types of food insecurity initiatives implemented and assess how such programmes are managed, funded, and evaluated. A cross-sectional, 23-item online survey was administered among individuals involved with campus food insecurity initiatives identified through professional networks. Food pantries were the most common (97.1%) and mobile food sharing applications were the least common (14.7%) food security initiatives. A majority of respondents (69.7%) stated that at least one programme on their campus was evaluated, although the methods varied and uncertainty about the methods used was common. An allocated budget was provided at some institutions (38.9%), but funding mechanisms varied. Student Life Offices were most commonly reported as being responsible for programme management. Most respondents (75.3%) reported there had been programme changes due to COVID-19. This research confirmed that food insecurity programmes are widely available, although the type, funding, and leadership of these programmes vary. A coordinated approach on campus to align programming efforts is needed.


The optical and electrochemical properties are compared for aza-BODIPY dyes that differ by virtue of the substituents at 1,7- and 3,5-positions of the aza-BODIPY backbone. In particular, the impact of highly electron-withdrawing nitro substituents on these properties is of consideration. The aza-BODIPYs studied exhibit a broad absorption band spanning from ca. 600 nm to ca. 700 nm – a spectral region that is highly sought after for biomedical applications – and possess high molar absorption coefficients (e) ranging from 64 000 [M−1 cm−1] to 85 000 [M−1 cm−1] in THF. The compounds studied are weakly emissive as non-radiative decay is the predominant way of the excited state energy dissipation. Exemplarily, the fluorescence quantum yields (Φfl) measured in THF were in the range of 0.03 to 0.06 for the aza-BODIPYs studied. Transient absorption experiments revealed T1 → Tn absorption spanning from ca. 400 nm to ca. 600 nm and allowed determination of the triplet state lifetimes. The estimated triplet lifetimes (τT) in deaerated THF ranged from 77 µs to 130 µs. As estimated by the CV/DPV measurements, all aza-BODIPYs studied exhibited one irreversible oxidation and two quasi-reversible reductions. Estimation of the EHOMO gave a value of ca. −5.8 eV while the ELUMO was found to be located at ca. −4.5 eV. Extremely high photostability and thermal robustness up to approximately 300 °C were found for the nitro-substituted aza-BODIPYs.


Governments have turned to public deliberation as a way to engage citizens in governance with the goal of rebuilding faith in government institutions and authority as well as to provide quality inputs into governance. This article offers a systematic analysis of the literature on the effects of deliberative events on participants' political efficacy and trust. The systematic review contextualizes the results from a 6-day deliberative event. This case study is distinctive in highlighting the long-term impacts on participants' political trust and efficacy as key outcomes of the deliberative process unfold, that is, City Council receives then responds to the participants' recommendations report. Using four-wave panel data spanning 2.5 years and three public opinion polls (control groups), the study demonstrates that participants in deliberative events are more efficacious and trusting prior to and after the deliberative event. Despite the case study's evidence and the systematic review of existing literature, questions remain about whether enhanced opportunities for citizen engagement in governance can ameliorate low levels of political trust and efficacy observed in Western democracies.


A freeze dried embedding procedure is described and used to study the extracellular cartilage matrix of the epiphyseal growth plate. This method provides improved fine structural preservation of the extracellular matrix over conventional fixation and appears comparable to that attained by freeze substitution. The trabecular networks of expanded proteoglycan filaments are illustrated in stereo-images.


In a random survey of 152 Air Force recruits, skin which appeared to be normal on careful clinical inspection, often contained dermatophytic fungi on culture. Sixty-five percent of the isolates from the perineal region and 23% of the isolates from the toe webs were recovered from clinically normal skin. On the other hand, of 94 lesions suspected of being fungous infections, dermatophytes were isolated from only 32%. The overall recovery of dermatophytes did not increase during basic training, nor did the asymptomatic carriers develop clinical disease. Our study demonstrates that good personal hygiene and periodic drying of the skin in healthy, young subjects can control dermatophytosis even in the presence of heat, humidity, local trauma, and communal living.


In order to elucidate the biosynthesis of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in plants we searched for a cDNA encoding a Delta(6)-specific PUFA elongase from Physcomitrella patens, which is known to contain high proportions of arachidonic acid (20:4 Delta(5,8,11,14)). An EST clone from P. patens was identified by its low homology to the yeast gene ELO1, which is required for the elongation of medium-chain fatty acids. We functionally characterized this cDNA by heterologous expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae grown in the presence of several fatty acids. Analysis of the fatty acid profile of the transgenic yeast revealed that the cDNA encodes a protein that leads to the elongation of the C(18) Delta(6)-polyunsaturated fatty acids gamma-linolenic acid (18:3 Delta(6,9,12)) and stearidonic acid (18:4 Delta(6,9,12,15)), which were recovered to 45-51% as their elongation products. In contrast, linoleic and alpha-linolenic acids were hardly elongated and we could not measure any elongation of saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids (including 18:1 Delta(6)), indicating that the elongase is highly specific for the polyunsaturated nature of the fatty acid acting as substrate.