Recent studies suggest that human neuropeptide Y (NPY) plays a prominent role in management of stress response and emotion, and higher NPY levels observed in combat-exposed veterans may help coping with posttraumatic stress. Neuropeptide F (NPF), the counterpart of NPY in Drosophila melanogaster, also displays parallel activities, including promotion of resilience to diverse stressors and prevention of uncontrolled aggressive behavior. However, it remains unclear how NPY family peptides modulate physical and emotional responses to various stressors. Here we show that NPFR1, a G-protein-coupled NPF receptor, exerts an inhibitory effect on larval aversion to diverse stressful stimuli mediated by different subtypes of fly and mammalian transient receptor potential (TRP) family channels. Imaging analysis in larval sensory neurons and cultured human cells showed that NPFR1 attenuates Ca2+ influx mediated by fly TRPA and rat TRPV1 channels. Our findings suggest that suppression of TRP channel-mediated neural excitation by the conserved NPF/NPFR1 system may be a major mechanism for attaining its broad anti-stress function.


Aim: To estimate the proportion of ADVOs breached and identify factors associated with a breach of a final order. Method: Details of all ADVOs granted between 1 July 2013 and 30 June 2014 (inclusive) were extracted from the NSW COPS database and linked to breach ADVO incidents occurring after 1 July 2013 and before 30 June 2015 using defendant and victim identifying information. Breaches were assigned to a particular order if they occurred after the order issue date and before the order expiry date or before a higher ADVO order was issued. Multivariate analysis was undertaken to examine factors independently associated with the time to first breach of a final ADVO. Results: Overall 23,240 provisional orders, 18,045 interim orders and 24,458 final orders were issued during the observation period. The breach rate was much higher for final orders (20%), which are longer in duration, than for provisional (5%) or interim (9%) orders. When breaches occurred, most often only one incident per order was recorded (88% of provisional order breaches, 73% of interim order breaches and 64% of final order breaches). Of all ADVOs which did record a breach, 34% were breached within one month of being granted, 23% within 1-3 months and 18% within 3-6 months. Male, Indigenous and younger POIs breached their final order sooner than other defendants. Final orders protecting just one victim, non-Indigenous victims or victims aged less than 20 took longer to be breached. Conclusion: Only a minority proportion of ADVOs record a breach whilst the order is in effect. Where a breach does occur it most often happens soon after the order is issued and involves a single incident.


The development of practical motion planning algorithms and obstacle avoidance techniques is considered as one of the most important fields of study in the task of building autonomous or semiautonomous robot systems. The motion planners designed for humanoid robots combine both path planning generation and the ability of executing the resulting path with respect to their characteristics. These planners should consider the specific dynamical constraints and stability problems of the humanoid robots. In this paper, we present a time-efficient hybrid motion planning system for a Fujitsu HOAP-2 humanoid robot in indoor and miniature city environments. The proposed technique is a combination of sampling-based planner and D* Lite search to generate dynamic footstep placements in unknown environments. It generates the search space depending on non-uniform sampling of the free configuration space to direct the computational resources to troubled and difficult regions. D* Lite search is then implemented to find dynamic and low-cost footstep placements within the resulting configuration space. The proposed hybrid algorithm reduces the searching time and produces a smoother path for the humanoid robot with low cost.


Diffusion and trapping of hydrogen in a low alloy steel has been modelled with the distinctive feature of generalised boundary conditions at the charging surface to replace the constant concentration or constant flux boundary conditions commonly adopted. Rates of hydrogen charging, chemical and electrochemical recombination of adsorbed hydrogen atoms, and absorption and desorption are incorporated. The adoption of such boundary conditions allows theoretical demonstration of the effect of specimen thickness on hydrogen permeation flux and sub-surface hydrogen concentration, and an assessment of the extent to which changing the charging current density can alter the balance between diffusion control and surface reaction control of hydrogen diffusion. As expected conceptually, a lower sub-surface hydrogen concentration is predicted for thin specimens compared with thick specimens and the suggestion that data from the former is more relevant to sulphide stress corrosion cracking is questioned. Partial surface reaction control of transport manifests itself in a reduced slope of the permeation flux-time curve relative to the prediction for thick specimens. For testing where the thickness of the specimen is limited, increasing the charging current density would be more likely to establish diffusion control transport.

The steady-state sub-surface hydrogen concentration is shown experimentally for steel to obey a square root dependence on charging current density but to attain a limiting value at higher current density. A theoretical explanation is proposed based on electrochemical recombination becoming the dominant recombination reaction as the applied current increases. There is some indication for controlled cathodic charging experiments that the effect on hydrogen uptake of poisons such as H2S and arsenic may relate to their influence on the electrochemical recombination step rather than the chemical recombination step.


Abstract Context: Chronic liver damage has serious medical consequences. Objective: To investigate the hepatoprotective effect of dry Zingiber officinale (ginger) and its essential (volatile) oil against diethylnitrosamine (DEN) toxicity in rats. Materials and methods: Phenols and flavonoids components were characterized in dry ginger using HPLC-UV instrument while ginger essential oil (E.O.) was investigated via GC-MS technique. Antioxidant activity was determined in vitro. In rat model, ginger was administrated for 2 months. Lipid profile, antioxidant biomarkers, liver functions and histopathology were assessed. Results: Chlorogenic acid (63.85 ppm) and hesperidin (156.91 ppm) are among the major phenolic and flavonoid constituents in dry ginger. Curcumene (15.21%) and linalool (13.47%) represent the main E.O. constituents. In rats treated with ginger E.O., a significant elevation in serum HDL (31.14%) was accompanied by a decrease in LDL (55.14%). A significant decrease in serum ALT and ALP was reported (56.85% and 53.84%, respectively). Serum GSH-Px activity has significantly increased 75.06%. Meanwhile, E.O. showed anticancer potential against HepG2 cell line (IC50 = 40 µg/mL). Liver histopathological examinations confirmed the protective effect against abnormalities. Conclusion: Ginger was able to reduce the severity of DEN-cytotoxicity in rats, which suggests a novel antioxidant role originating from this medicinal plant.


Due to limits in technology scaling, energy efficiency of logic devices is decreasing in successive generations. To provide continued performance improvements without increasing power, regardless of the sequential or parallel nature of the application, microarchitectural energy efficiency must improve. We propose Dynamically Specialized Execution to improve the energy efficiency of general purpose programmable processors. The key insights of this work are the following. First, applications execute in phases and these phases can be determined by creating a path-tree of basic-blocks rooted at the inner-most loop. Second, specialized datapaths corresponding to these path-trees can be constructed by interconnecting a set of heterogeneous computation units with a circuit-switched network, which we refer to as DySER blocks. These blocks can be easily integrated with a conventional processor. A synthesized RTL implementation using an industry 55nm technology library shows a 64-functional-unit DySER block occupies approximately the same area as a 64 KB single-ported SRAM and can execute at 2 GHz. Using the GCC compiler, we identify path-trees and evaluate the PARSEC, SPEC and Parboil benchmarks suites, using our extensions for mapping code to DySER. Our results show that in most cases two DySER blocks can achieve the same performance (within 5%) as having a specialized block for each path-tree. A 64-FU DySER block can cover 12% to 100% of the dynamically executed instruction stream. When integrated with a dual-issue out-of-order processor, two DySER blocks provide geometric mean speedup of 2.1X (1.15X to 10X), and geometric mean energy reduction of 40% (up to 70%), and 60% energy reduction if no performance improvement is required.


Moral assessment implies ascribing a status of morally wrong, good, etc. (target attribute) to an act. Such an assessment is made on the basis of information about other attributes of the act, including its compliance with the norm, consequences, opinions of others about it, etc. These attributes may be morally relevant (those attributes that an individual could, in the case of rational analysis, recognize as a direct basis for moral assessment) and morally irrelevant (those which would not be recognized in such a status). A comprehensive moral assessment of the target attribute is an assessment based on all morally relevant attributes. A heuristic assessment is based only on a part of morally relevant attributes or based on morally irrelevant attributes. This difference between moral heuristics became the basis for dividing them into two types. Heuristics of the first type implies a simplified assessing of the target attribute based on partial information about morally relevant attributes of an act. The heuristic of the second type operates through a process of attribute substitution when irrelevant attributes are used to assess the target attribute.


This research was based on the data obtained from "Values in Mathematics Teaching in Turkey and Germany" [VMTG] project and it has examined whether gender and nationality influence values of mathematics teachers. The methodology used in this research was a descriptive quantitative method. The participants of the study were twenty-seven German and thirty-three Turkish mathematics teachers. Data analysis involved both descriptive and inferential statistics. Effect sizes were also calculated. The findings revealed that: (1) the interaction effect between nationality and gender group was not statistically significant; (2) the main effect for gender did not reach statistical significance; and (3) there was a statistically significant main effect for nationality.


The avian auditory papilla contains two classes of sensory receptor, tall hair cells (THCs) and short hair cells (SHCs), the latter analogous to mammalian outer hair cells with large efferent but sparse afferent innervation. Little is known about the tuning, transduction, or electrical properties of SHCs. To address this problem, we made patch-clamp recordings from hair cells in an isolated chicken basilar papilla preparation at 33°C. We found that SHCs are electrically tuned by a Ca(2+)-activated K(+) current, their resonant frequency varying along the papilla in tandem with that of the THCs, which also exhibit electrical tuning. The tonotopic map for THCs was similar to maps previously described from auditory nerve fiber measurements. SHCs also possess an A-type K(+) current, but electrical tuning was observed only at resting potentials positive to -45 mV, where the A current is inactivated. We predict that the resting potential in vivo is approximately -40 mV, depolarized by a standing inward current through mechanotransducer (MT) channels having a resting open probability of ∼0.26. The resting open probability stems from a low endolymphatic Ca(2+) concentration (0.24 mM) and a high intracellular mobile Ca(2+) buffer concentration, estimated from perforated-patch recordings as equivalent to 0.5 mM BAPTA. The high buffer concentration was confirmed by quantifying parvalbumin-3 and calbindin D-28K with calibrated postembedding immunogold labeling, demonstrating >1 mM calcium-binding sites. Both proteins displayed an apex-to-base gradient matching that in the MT current amplitude, which increased exponentially along the papilla. Stereociliary bundles also labeled heavily with antibodies against the Ca(2+) pump isoform PMCA2a.


The exponential growth of Internet data traffic and progress of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector pushes hard the telecommunication infrastructure for upgrading the transmission data rate. Wavelength division multiplexed passive optical networks (WDM-PONs) can be the next generation solution for nowadays problems which are related to transmission capacity. Next-generation WDM-PON systems based on mixed wavelength transmitters are expected to become more cost-efficient at high per user data rates, e.g., over 10 Gbit/s per channel. Important advan-tage of this technology is to set various channel spacing and use different modulation formats to increase spectral efficiency in the same time and provide different transmission speeds for end user, based on pay-as-you-grow approach. Therefore, several modulation formats like non-return to zero (NRZ) also called 2-level pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM-2), four level PAM or PAM-4 and Duobinary (DB) are investigated to understand their limitations, advantages and disadvantages to be further used in next generation PON systems to increase its capacity and spectral efficiency.


The landscape of nursing education has been transformed by increasing student demand for online programs coupled with strong institutional directives to deliver nursing courses through distributed learning. The authors present a qualitative research design informed by philosophical hermeneutics in which 30 undergraduate and graduate nursing students discuss their experiences of the influence of peer dynamics on online learning. The findings include issues related to time, demands of online participation, experiences of conflict, and the development of skills in the online environment. Theoretical matters of curriculum such as instrumentality and tensionality are examined, generating both optimistic and cautionary possibilities for online learning. Online nursing students could benefit from a period of face-to-face orientation with a focus on building intellectual and social communities, limited class size, and opportunities to connect learners.


MICROBIOLOGY
The bacterial pathogens Burkholderia cepacia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa contribute to the death of cystic fibrosis patients. This association is no accident. P. aeruginosa produces volumes of slimy polysaccharides and lipopeptides that form the structural components of a biofilm and help to shield the bacteria from antibiotics. Biofilm production is regulated by a density-dependent mechanism called quorum sensing, which is mediated by hormone-like N -acyl homoserine lactones. These molecules control the production not only of biofilm matrix material but also of virulence factors such as proteases, flagellae, and fimbriae.

Huber et al. have found that B. cepacia shares the same quorum-sensing molecules as P. aeruginosa ; thus, these organisms potentially enhance each other's virulence. Mutations in the cep quorum-sensing system of B. cepacia resulted in an immature biofilm and an absence of swarming behavior, although the latter deficit could be reversed by adding biosurfactants. — CA

Microbiol ogy 147 , 2517 (2001).


The need for sustainability in both the education and operations of colleges and universities has inspired many to launch sustainability programs on their campuses. As institutions of higher education invest in creating and expanding their campus sustainability programs, there is a need to identify the most effective institutional structure for achieving campus sustainability goals.
This comparative study analyzed the sustainability programs at eight colleges and universities. I selected these institutions to be somewhat similar to my own, The College of William and Mary. Personal interviews and in-depth research were conducted to gather detailed information on the structure of each campus' program. This information was used to score the institutions on a series of twenty variables. These variables were then correlated to a measure of the program's success, adapted from their score on the Sustainable Endowments Institute Green Report Card.
Through quantitative and qualitative analyses, the factors most strongly associated with program success were: the amount of funding it received; the reliability of that funding; the program's size; the physical space allocated to the program; and the source of its initiation. The greatest success correlated to large amounts of reliable funding, a large program size, dedicated space for the program, and a bottom-up initiation.
Based on the results of this research, when colleges and universities decide to take up sustainability goals, they need to make serious investments in their sustainability programs while also fostering strong student support. Both institutional investment and grass-roots student support appear crucial for enacting effective sustainability initiatives.


The possibility of the formation of India perchlorate and mixed ligand complexes has been studied. It is assumed that during the extraction of indium in aqueous solutions of hydrochloric acid at various concentrations and constant ionic strength maintained by the addition of perchloric acid, indium is present in the organic phase in the form of ionic aggregates HClO4 · HInCl4. To study the hydration of Ions, the method of electrical conductivity was carried out in the "In(ClO4)3 - HClO4 - H2O" system. The structure of aqueous solutions of India perchlorates was determined by IR spectroscopy. The structures of trivalent perchlorate India have been established.


This paper studies on the characteristics of strength and deformation of brittle rock under different compression condition by experimental tests. A lot of experimental tests for the Xiangjiaba sandstone are carried out under different compression condition, including uniaxial compression, triaxial compression, uniaxial monocyclic compression and uniaxial loading and unloading. Base on the experimental test results of the Xiangjiaba sandstone, the strength and deformation of brittle rock are analyzed, and some comparative analysis for the mechanics characteristics of brittle rock are carried out. The compute results show that, the peak strength of brittle rock is increased with the confining stress, and close to a linear relationship. Its also show that, the peak strength is not increased under the monocyclic compression, neither for the loading and unloading condition.


Centralized control using system-wide data has been suggested to enhance the dynamic performance of large interconnected power systems. Because of the distance involved in wide-area interconnections, communication delay cannot be ignored. Long time delay may be detrimental to system stability and may degrade system performance. The time delay tolerance of a centralized controller and the associated performance tradeoff is analyzed using a small gain criterion. Special attention is paid to the choice of weighting functions in a robust control design. As expected, it is found that time delay tolerance decreases when the system bandwidth increases, while the nominal system time-domain performance is concomitantly improved. Several approaches which can maintain a good system performance while increasing the time delay tolerance are suggested and compared. A modern controller design technique, like gain scheduling via linear matrix inequalities, is evaluated for the design of the supervisory power system stabilizer accounting for various time delays.


We analyze the unusual slow dynamics that emerges in the bad metal delocalized phase preceding the Many-Body Localization transition by using single-particle Anderson Localization on the Bethe lattice as a toy model of many-body dynamics in Fock space. We probe the dynamical evolution by measuring observables such as the imbalance and equilibrium correlation functions, which display slow dynamics and power-laws strikingly similar to the ones observed in recent simulations and experiments. We relate this unusual behavior to the non-ergodic spectral statistics found on Bethe lattices. We discuss different scenarii, such as a true intermediate phase which persists in the thermodynamic limit versus a glassy regime established on finite but very large time and length-scales only, and their implications for real space dynamical properties. In the latter, slow dynamics and power-laws extend on a very large time-window but are eventually cut-off on a time-scale that diverges at the MBL transition.


The Timed Up and Go (TUG) is a clinical test used widely to measure balance and mobility, e.g. in Parkinson's disease (PD). The test includes a sequence of functional activities, namely: sit-to-stand, 3-meters walk, 180° turn, walk back, another turn and sit on the chair. Meanwhile the stopwatch is used to score the test by measuring the time which the patients with PD need to perform the test. Here, the work presents an instrumented TUG using a wearable inertial sensor unit attached on the lower back of the person. The approach is used to automate the process of assessment compared with the manual evaluation by using visual observation and a stopwatch. The developed algorithm is based on the Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) for multi-dimensional time series and has been applied with the augmented feature for detection and duration assessment of turn state transitions, while a 1-dimensional DTW is used to detect the sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit phases. The feature set is a 3-dimensional vector which consists of the angular velocity, derived angle and features from Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). The algorithm was tested on 10 healthy individuals and 20 patients with PD (10 patients with early and late disease phases respectively). The test demonstrates that the developed technique can successfully extract the time information of the sit-to-stand, both turns and stand-to-sit transitions in the TUG test.


Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the most popular, widely grown and the second most important vegetable crop, after potatoes. Nematodes have been identified as one of the major pests affecting tomato production throughout the world. The most destructive nematodes are the genus Meloidogyne. Most widespread and devastating species of this genus are M. incognita, M. javanica, and M. arenaria. These species can cause complete crop loss under adverse growing conditions. There are several potential methods for management of the root knot nematodes. Although the chemicals are widely used against the phytonematodes, because of hazardous effects of these compounds on non-target organisms and on the environment, there is a need to develop other control strategies. Nowadays, non-chemical measures are widely used to control the plant parasitic nematodes. Biocontrol of phytonematodes is an important method among environment-friendly measures of nematode management. There are some soil-inhabiting fungi that have biocontrol potential on phytonematodes, which can be used in nematode management program. The fungus Metarhizium anisopliae, originally is an entomopathogenic bioagent. Biocontrol potential of this fungus on some phytonematodes has been reported earlier. Recently, use of organic soil amendments as well as the use of bioagents is under special attention in sustainable agriculture. This research aimed to reduce the pesticide use in control of root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne javanica in tomato. The effects of M. anisopliae IMI 330189 and different levels of oak tree debris on M. javanica were determined. The combination effect of the fungus as well as the different rates of soil amendments was determined. Pots were filled with steam pasteurized soil mixture and the six leaf tomato seedlings were inoculated with 3000 second stage larvae of M. javanica/kg of soil. After eight weeks, plant growth parameters and nematode reproduction factors were compared. Based on the results of our experiment, combination of M. anisopliae IMI 330189 and oak debris caused more than 90% reduction in reproduction factor of nematode, at the rates of 100 and 150 g/kg soil (P ≤ 0.05). As compared to control, the reduction in number of galls was 76%. It was 86% for nematode reproduction factor, showing the significance of combined effect of both tested agents. Our results showed that plant debris can increase the biological activity of the tested bioagent. It was also proved that there was no adverse effect of oak debris, which potentially has antimicrobial activity, on antagonistic power of applied bioagent. Keywords—Biological control, nematode management, organic soil, Quercus branti, root knot nematode, soil amendment. Mohammad Abdollahi is with Department of Plant Protection, Yasouj University, Yasouj, Iran (phone: +98-74-31006265; fax: +98-74-31006000; email: abdollahi@ yu.ac.ir; firstname.lastname@example.com).


We have developed a non-contact high speed viscosity sensing technique, laser-induced capillary wave (LiCW) method using pulsed volume heating laser of near-infrared wave length. The main idea of the present work is based on the capillary wave induced by volume heating, which behaves more physically simplified than the one induced by surface heating in decay process and has nanometer-scale amplitude even as relatively-small temperature rise. We have derived the new theory for the wave amplitude z (x, z) captured the physics of volume heating by giving the boundary condition of heat conduction into the depth direction. First, we compared the theoretical damping behavior of capillary wave for toluene by volume heating and surface heating. According to the proposed theory, the capillary wave induced by volume heating is formed by only the effect of the thermal expansion with having the negligible effect on the temperature dependence of surface tension. In addition, maximum temperature rise and wave amplitude of water and toluene, absorption length of them are extremely different from each other, was compared between volume heating with surface heating. As a result, it was confirmed that nanometer-scale capillary wave can be induced with the temperature rise of less than mK order by volume heating, which indicates that near-infrared wave length is more applicable to the thremophysical measurement technique as a heating light source. Finally, to demonstrate the validity of the new theory, we have measured viscosities and surface tensions of Newtonian liquids, which showed good agreement within ± 5 % from the reference values.


: The American Certification Council (formerly Registry) for Medical Rehabilitation Therapists and Specialists has been concerned with the professional recognition and development of rehabilitation therapists and specialists since 1953. Since 1973, the Council has been working to upgrade its registration process to that of certification including the use of an examination. In 1980, the Council obtained Conditional Membership and national recognition in the National Commission of Health Certifying Agencies. During the past year, the Council has begun administering a certification examination and feels that all criteria for Regular Membership in the Commission has been met. The Council and the members still have much to do to improve and refine the certification and recertification programs in the years to come, but the author feels that a positive committment toward the professional growth and development of the various rehabilitation therapy and specialty occupations have already been accomplished.


India is mega diversity center for buffalo breeds among that Mehsana is one of the best milk breeds of buffalo. Diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1) is a microsomal enzyme that catalyzes the final step of triglyceride synthesis. The DGAT1 gene is a strong functional candidate for determining milk fat content. In this work, we used different techniques viz., Polymerase chain reaction – restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCRRFLP), Allele specific PCR (AS PCR), Single extension assay (SNaP Shot) and direct sequencing to screen the nineteen reported single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in DGAT1 gene in 130 unrelated Mehsana buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) reared under field progeny testing programme operated by Dudhsagar Research and Development Association (DURDA) in the Gujarat. SNP g.8259G>A was significantly associated with first lactation yield. However, no SNP was associated with milk fat content in Mehsana buffalo. The result presented here is preliminary and require further investigation on large population.


The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction emphasizes the need to rebuild better after a disaster to ensure that the at-risk communities can withstand a similar or stronger shock in the future. In the present work, the authors analyzed the reconstruction paths through a comparative analysis of the perspective of a community in Japan and another in Chile, and their respective local governments. While both countries are at risk to tsunamis, they follow different reconstruction philosophies. Data was gathered through key informant interviews of community members and local government officials, by adapting and modifying the Building Resilience to Adapt to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) 3As framework to a tsunami scenario. The 3As represent anticipatory, adaptive, and absorptive capacities as well as transformative capacities and respondents were asked to rate this according to their perspectives. It was found that while both communities perceive that much is to be done in recovery, Kirikiri has a more holistic and similar perspective of the recovery with their government officials as compared to Dichato. This shows that community reconstruction and recovery from a disaster requires a holistic participation and understanding.


We consider text-independent speaker verification under ad ditive noise corruption. In the popular mel-frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) front-end, we substitute the convention al Fourier-based spectrum estimation with weighted linear predictive methods, which have earlier shown success in noise-robust speech recognition. We introduce two temporally weighted variants of linear predictive (LP) modeling to speaker verification and compare them to FFT, which is normally used in computing MFCCs, and to conventional LP. We also investigate the effect of speech enhancement (spectral subtraction) on the system performance with each of the four feature representations. Our experiments on the NIST 2002 SRE corpus indicate that the accuracy of the conventional and proposed features are close to each other on clean data. On 0 dB SNR level, baseline FFT and the better of the proposed features give EERs of 17.4 % and 15.6 %, respectively. These accuracies improve to 11.6 % and 11.2 %, respectively, when spectral subtraction is included as a pre-processing method. The new features hold a promise for noise-robust speaker verification.


Objectives: We sought to compare the fetal echocardiographic findings in complex congenital heart disease (CHD) with cardiovascular cast of pathological specimens. Methods: A total of 21 fetuses with complex CHD were studied by fetal echocardiography (FE) in Beijing An Zhen Hospital/Beijing Heart and Lung Institute from May 2016 to August 2016. Diagnosis included: TOF (n=5), DORV (n=6), TGA(n=2), PA(n=4), CoA(n=3), double aortic arches(n=2), right-sided aortic arch(n=3), aberrant subclavian artery(n=1), TAPVC(n=1), PLSVC(n=4), AVSD(n=2), HRHS(n=1), dysphasia of tricuspid valve(n=1). After termination of pregnancy, cardiovascular casts were obtained as a gold standard and compared with FE. Results: There was no significant difference in diagnosis of the complex CHD between FE and cardiovascular casts (FE diagnostic accuracy 21/21 = 100%). However, it was confirmed that there were 46 associated CHDs in this cohort. For the associated CHDs, there were 2 misdiagnoses (2/46, 4.35%, i.e. confirmed absent ductus arteriosus (n= 1) and hepatic venous anomaly (n=1 case)); whereas there were 9 missed diagnoses (9/46, 19.57%, i.e. abnormal ductus arteriosus course (n= 3), abnormal ductus arteriosus morphology (n=2) and abnormal return of the superior vena cava (n=2) and aberrant subclavian artery (n=2). Conclusions: FE provides highly accurate diagnosis of CHD, including complex CHD. Vascular abnormality is the one of the most easily missed diagnoses by FE.


of thesis entitled "Characterizing quality dimensions of local graduates and comparing the rankings of their relative importance among the stakeholders" submitted by Tillotson Pak Chun Li for the degree of Doctor of Education at the Hong Kong Institute of Education in October 2012. Massification of higher education in Hong Kong and elsewhere has trigged concern about the possible fall or already falling in its quality. To gauge higher education quality, a set of quantifiable attributes is needed. The purposes of this study are to construct a quality hierarchy consisting of quality dimensions, quality aspects, and quality attribute items; identify quality dimensions, group quality aspects into the dimensions, and prioritize quality attribute items among stakeholders – employers, academics and college administrators, college graduates, and tertiary students. The study also seeks suggestions from stakeholders how higher education quality can be maintained with a rapid and abrupt increase in the number of students. Definitions of quality education are visited, and suggestions to ensure higher education quality are provided by stakeholders. A questionnaire containing 9 attribute aspects and 46 items was given to potential respondents through an online program and hard-copies. A total of 530 valid responses were used. To triangulate quantitative findings, 15 respondents from the 4 groups were interviewed through email, telephone, or face-to-face. The Hong Kong Institute of Education Library For private study or research only. Not for publication or further reproduction. ii Ordinal Likert scale data were converted into interval-ratio logits using Rasch Winsteps. Two dimensions of the nine attribute aspects were identified using SPSS factor analysis. One dimension consists of Chinese, English, arithmetic, and information technology. Another dimension consists of analytical and problemsolving abilities, work attitude, inter-personal skills, management skills, and technical skills. Multidimensionality for the attributes was found using Rasch factor analysis. Correlations between attribute aspects were also found. The samples collectively have ranked "sense of responsibility and commitment" under "work attitude" quality aspect as the most important. However, when stakeholder groups are examined separately, only Employers have ranked the same item as the most important. Academics and Graduates have ranked "problemsolving ability" under "analytical and problem-solving abilities" aspect as number one important. Students have ranked "expression of ideas in oral English" under "English language proficiency" as top important. At the 0.05 level, SPSS nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test has found stakeholders' views are significantly different for English, Chinese, and numerical competency. Rasch differentiating item functioning ("DIF") has identified 15 DIF items. Two quality dimensions were run separately. Item measures indicate that Employers and Academics groups have wider ranges and larger standard deviations than Graduates and Students. Possible reasons are that employers and academics have more understanding of the attribute items or they in fact have wider views of the attribute items. The Hong Kong Institute of Education Library For private study or research only. Not for publication or further reproduction. iii For the definition of quality education, most people have chosen "quality as fitness for purpose", marginally more than "quality as transformation". Finally, interviewees have provided suggestions to ensure higher education quality in this mass higher education era. The Hong Kong Institute of Education Library For private study or research only. Not for publication or further reproduction.


The initiation and growth of fatigue cracking is mainly due to high stress concentration, heterogeneity and poor quality of weld. The detection and rectification of such weld defects are major concerns of rail network managers to reduce potential risk of rail breaks and derailments. To estimate the fatigue life of welded joints and to analyze the progress of fatigue cracks, a fracture mechanics-based analysis and fatigue models were developed using Finite Element Analysis. The initial flaw is obtained from a sample weld using ultrasonic flaw detecting machine test. Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) approach based on the Paris law was applied to determine critical crack size and the number of cycles to failure using FRANC3D software. The inspection interval of rail welds before fracture (failure) was suggested based on reliability and life cycle analysis that correspond with minimum overall cost and frequency interval. It is recommended that fracture-based models in combination with reliability analyses can be a sustainable infrastructure decision-making algorithm.


Developers of decision support systems (DSS) often fail to present empirical data supporting the claimed merits of their systems. Discussions with developers indicate that they often do not consider or know how to perform the required empirical evaluations. That problem is addressed by reviewing the issues inherent in using experiments, quasi-experiments, and case studies to evaluate DSSs. The discussion revolves around the issues of reliability and four types of validity: internal, construct, statistical conclusion, and external. The discussion is focused upon but not restricted to expert systems. >


Framing Abuse: Media Influence and Public Understanding of Sexual Violence Against Children. Jenny Kitzinger. London and Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press, 2004. 236 pp. $70.00 hbk. $22.95 pbk. Violence in the Media: A Reference Handbook. Nancy Signorielli. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005. 263 pp. $50.00 hbk. Both of these books address one of the difficult social challenges of our time-protecting children. While Signorielli uses the era of dime novels to mark the beginning of concerns about the effect of violent media depictions on children, Kitzinger maintains that the awareness of sexual abuse against children only became part of the public's media agenda in the 1980s. And each author surmises that these threats (media violence, child sexual abuse) are often portrayed by the media as elusive and hard to recognize. Both authors have years of participation in media research to their credit. As an original member of the Cultural Indicators Research Team primarily based at Annenberg, Pennsylvania, and led by George Gerbner, Signorielli has been conducting research related to cultivation theory for thirty years. Jenny Kitzinger began her research work as part of a feminist collective in Cambridge, England, during the 1980s, later joining the Glasgow University Media Group. She is currently at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media, and Cultural Studies and is a proponent of New Media Influence Research, which "breaks from the survey and experimental tradition ... (to use) in-depth qualitative analysis ... and (examine) media representations and everyday ways of knowing about issues." The presumed audiences for each book are different. As noted in the preface, the Reference Handbook is directed at an audience of high school students, undergraduates, parents, teachers, and the lay public. The Kitzinger book is likely more appropriate for advanced scholars of the media and those concerned about the social issue of children and sexual violence. In addition, Kitzinger's book certainly has implications for media professionals, especially journalists and the people that train them. Both books provide historical overviews of dominant theories of media violence, which is expected. Signorielli includes social learning theory; priming, schemas, and scripts; disinhibition; cultivation theory; and catharsis. Kitzinger lists powerful media approaches (hypodermic model, behavioral effects tradition, cultivation, agenda setting, framing) and approaches empowering audiences (two-step flow, uses and gratifications, reception analysis, and audience decoding). Kitzinger includes a historical overview of domestic consumption processes, as well, and Signorielli includes quantitative research findings. The Reference Handbook includes what's currently known about media violence; some of the problems inherent in studying it; and a chronology of legislative acts, hearings, and reports. In addition, there are brief biographical sketches of primary players in the arena of media violence (e.g., researchers, members of Congress, and activists) along with facts and figures from both the National Television Violence Study and the Cultural Indicators research. As a resource book, the Reference Handbook is unsurpassed in providing a wide range of materials and information. Organizations and their Web sites are included, ranging from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the TV-Turnoff Network. Sources for video and film resources for instructional or educational purposes are included (addresses, Web sites, e-mail contacts), as are print resources (government publications, text books, trade books, and research studies) along with their annotated bibliographies. The two books diverge in their primary research methodological approaches. …


Objectives: To determine the prevalence and clinical correlations of catatonia in patients aged over 65 years who are referred to a consultation-liaison service within a regional area of Australia. Additionally, to examine if the use of standardised screening tools is likely to change the rate of diagnosis of catatonia within the consultation-liaison service. Methods: One hundred and eight referrals from general hospital wards were assessed using the Bush-Francis Catatonia Screening Instrument (BFCSI) and associated examination; each consented patient was screened for catatonic symptoms. If two or more signs were present on the BFCSI, then severity was rated using the Bush-Francis Catatonia Rating Scale. These clinical characteristics were compared with their socio-demographic and medical data. Results: Prevalence of catatonia was 5.5%. The most common symptoms appeared to be rigidity, posturing and immobility (67% of cases), and were elicited through routine psychiatric examination. Conclusions: Routine psychiatric history and examination are likely sufficient to elicit catatonic signs in a consultation-liaison setting. Standardised screening examination may be more suited for conducting research or for use when examining for catatonia in psychiatric inpatient settings.


In a previous paper, a new technique was introduced to determine the chemistry of crystallographically well‐defined planar defects (such as straight interfaces, grain boundaries, twins, inversion or antiphase domain boundaries) in the presence of homogeneous solute segregation or selective doping. The technique is based on a linear least‐squares fit using series of analytical (electron energy‐loss or energy‐dispersive X‐ray) spectra acquired in a transmission electron microscope that is operated in nano‐probe mode with the planar defect centred edge‐on. First, additional notes on the use of proper k‐factors and determination of Gibbsian excess segregation are given in this note. Using simulated data sets, it is shown that the linear least‐squares fit improves both the accuracy and the robustness to noise beyond that obtainable by independently repeated measurements. It is then shown how the method originally developed for a stationary nano‐probe mode in transmission electron microscopy can be extended to a focused electron beam that scans a square region in scanning transmission electron microscopy. The necessary modifications to scan geometry and corresponding numerical evaluation are described, and three different practical implementations are proposed.


This paper presents two basic methods for the assessment of failed girth welds of steel hydrocarbon transporting pipelines. One of them is based on the principles of linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) and stress intensity factor conception for planar material discontinuities, and the other can be used for the complex assessment of all kinds of occurring defects. The results of the presented methods are compared to the results of burst test of pipeline sections containing a failed girth weld and cut from a Hungarian gas pipeline.


Almost 150 years after the first autologous blood transfusion was reported, intraoperative blood salvage has become an important method of blood conservation. The primary goal of autologous transfusion is to reduce or avoid allogeneic red blood cell transfusion and the associated risks and costs. Autologous salvaged blood does not result in immunological challenge and its consequences, provides a higher quality red blood cell that has not been subjected to the adverse effects of blood storage, and can be more cost‐effective than allogeneic blood when used for carefully selected surgical patients. Cardiac, orthopaedic and vascular surgery procedures with large anticipated blood loss can clearly benefit from the use of cell salvage. There are safety concerns in cases with gross bacterial contamination. There are theoretical safety concerns in obstetrical and cancer surgery; however, careful cell washing as well as leucoreduction filters makes for a safer autologous transfusion in these circumstances. Further studies are needed to determine whether oncologic outcomes are impacted by transfusing salvaged blood during cancer surgery. In this new era of patient blood management, where multimodal methods of reducing dependence on allogeneic blood are becoming commonplace, autologous blood salvage remains a valuable tool for perioperative blood conservation. Future studies will be needed to best determine how and when cell salvage should be utilized along with newer blood conservation measures.


This article describes the fabrication and characterization of an anode based direct methanol fuel cell using natural phosphate (NP) electrodeposited into a perforated nickel plate.Ac impedance spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltammetry were utilized alongside characterization to determine the influence of the presence of NP on the cell performance. It was found that NP shows a catalytic activity towards methanol oxidation better than massive Ni. The presented fuel cells also show a high peak power density.


New paleomagnetic data invite reassessment of the breakup history of parts of the Pacific margin of Gondwana due to the Mesozoic opening of the southern ocean basins. These data indicate clockwise rotation of the Antarctic Peninsula relative to East Antarctica between ∼175 and ∼155 Ma that would have created as much as 1000 km of pre-anomaly M25 ocean floor in the Weddell Sea basin. The paleomagnetic data also suggest that between ∼155 and ∼130 Ma, the Antarctic Peninsula rotated counterclockwise relative to East Antarctica, rotation that, along with the southward motion of East Antarctica, would have caused subduction of the newly created Weddell Sea ocean floor beneath the southern Antarctic Peninsula. East-vergent folding and thrusting of Jurassic back-arc basin rocks along the southeastern Antarctic Peninsula, known as the Palmer Land event, probably resulted from deformation along this newly created convergent margin. The presence of Jurassic Weddell Sea floor would have isolated eastern Gondwana (East Antarctica, Australia, and India) from the Antarctic Peninsula and western Gondwana (Africa and South America), encouraging increased marine faunal connections between the Pacific and Weddell Sea- Mozambique-Somali ocean basins during the ∼175 to ∼130 Ma interval. After ∼130 Ma, the Antarctic Peninsula would have been connected to East Antarctica via the other West Antarctic terranes, thereby facilitating land migrations between eastern and western Gondwana.


Lactating adenoma is an uncommon breast palpable lesion occurring in pregnancy or lactation. Although it is a benign condition, it often requires core biopsy or even surgery to exclude malignancy. As with other solid lesions in pregnancy and lactation, lactating adenoma needs an accurate evaluation in order to ensure its benign nature. Work-up must include both imaging and histologic findings. Ultrasound evaluation remains the first step in assessing the features of the lesion. Some authors consider magnetic resonance imaging as a useful tool in cases of inconclusive evaluation after ultrasound and histologic exam in an attempt to avoid surgery. Most lactating adenomas resolve spontaneously, whereas others persist or even increase in size and must be removed. The authors present a case of a 35-year-old woman at 6 months postpartum with a lactating adenoma in her right breast. After surgical removal, breastfeeding was perfectly continued within the next 24 hours, which highlights the fact that breast surgery is most often compatible with breastfeeding.


Insulin stimulates autophosphorylation of the insulin receptor on multiple tyrosines in three domains: tyrosines 1316 and 1322 in the C-terminal tail, 1146, 1150 and 1151 in the tyrosine-1150 domain, and possibly 953, 960 or 972 in the juxtamembrane domain. In the present work the sequence of dephosphorylation of the various autophosphorylation sites by particulate and cytosolic preparations of phosphotyrosyl-protein phosphatase from rat liver was studied with autophosphorylated human placental insulin receptor as substrate. Both phosphatase preparations elicited a broadly similar pattern of dephosphorylation. The tyrosine-1150 domain in triphosphorylated form was found to be exquisitely sensitive to dephosphorylation, and was dephosphorylated 3-10-fold faster than the di- and monophosphorylated forms of the tyrosine-1150 domain or phosphorylation sites in other domains. The major route for dephosphorylation of the triphosphorylated tyrosine-1150 domain involved dephosphorylation of one of the phosphotyrosyl pair, 1150/1151, followed by phosphotyrosyl 1146 to generate a species monophosphorylated mainly (greater than 80%) at tyrosine 1150 or 1151. Insulin receptors monophosphorylated in the tyrosine-1150 domain disappeared slowly, and overall the other domains were completely dephosphorylated faster than the tyrosine-1150 domain. Dephosphorylation of the diphosphorylated C-terminal domain yielded insulin receptor in which the domain was singly phosphorylated at tyrosine 1322. Triphosphorylation of the insulin receptor in the tyrosine-1150 domain appears important in activating the receptor tyrosine kinase to phosphorylate other proteins. The extreme sensitivity of the triphosphorylated form of the tyrosine-1150 domain to dephosphorylation may thus be important in terminating or regulating insulin-receptor tyrosine kinase action and insulin signalling.


The aim of the study was to investigate and assess integration and logistic activities in dairy farms operating in the FADN regions of Mazovia and Podlasie. The study used primary data from studies conducted by the author in 2013 on a target group of 100 households. The investigated population of farms was divided in terms of the number of cows in the following groups of up to 10 cows (9 households), 11–20 cows (27 households), 21–30 cows (31 households), 31–40 cows (14 households) and above 40 cows (19 households). The study used the survey method using questionnaire interviews. The research shows that farmers most frequently collaborated on the joint use of equipment and supplies of agricultural inputs. In contrast, farmers in the study frequently sold products to processing companies or intermediaries.


Author(s): Garcia, Jennifer Flores | Advisor(s): Madhani, Hiten D | Abstract: DNA encodes the genetic information required for function and is packed into the nucleus by wrapping DNA around a protein complex comprised of histone proteins. Packing of the DNA into these complexes termed nucleosomes posses problems because DNA that requires expression must be easily accessible, while regions whose expression will be deleterious must remain transcriptionally inactive. To address this problem the DNA is further organized into large functional domains of heterochromatin and euchromatin, where the former is transcriptionally repressed and the latter is transcriptionally active. To achieve this organization the nucleosomes within these domains are differentially post-transcriptionally modified to define chromatin domains. The work of this thesis focuses on two distinct topics in heterochromatin function: how heterochromatin-induced transcriptional silencing is mediated in a sequence independent manner and how transcriptional silencing is maintained within the boundaries of the heterochromatin domain. Chapter two presents work that examines the effect of the heterochromatin machinery on the chromatin structure of domains designated as heterochromatin. We find, through the creation of nucleosome occupancy maps of silencing-defective mutants, that nucleosome-free regions (NFRs), which associate with transcriptional start sites and regulatory regions in heterochromatin, had been eliminated upon the formation of heterochromatin. Additionally, the required heterochromatin machinery needed to eliminate NFRs within heterochromatin differs based on the type of sequence that is encountered. Through this work we propose that sequence independent transcriptional silencing is a result of the silencing factors acting in a sequence specific manner to eliminate NFRs. Chapter 3 explores how the cell maintains and defines the transition between euchromatin and heterochromatin to prevent the encroachment of transcriptional silencing or activation into the neighboring chromatin domain. DNA sequence elements called boundary elements have been defined in many metazoans to be required for this activity. To understand how boundary elements function, we describe the development and potential uses of a genetic reporter gene system that displays boundary activity in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Using this reporter, we show that two parallel mechanisms prevent heterochromatin spread from escaping its chromatin domain. Additionally, we report a novel function for a silencing factor, Swi6, in preventing heterochromatin spread at boundary elements.


This paper illustrates an integrated physical-biological approach to investigate the effects on the coastal environment of the construction of a large embankment along the shore of Monterosso Bay, NW Italy. The embankment protrudes from the natural shoreline for more than 100 meters and has deflected the longshore current toward the offshore, as indicated by grain-size and mineralogical areal distributions of bottom sediments, and by the orientation of bedforms. Consequently, the down current portion of the beach relative to the embankment has become sediment-starved and the site of finer-grained sedimentation, and severe shoreline retreat has occurred, as indicated by sequential analysis of topographic maps and by the comparison of non-parametric photographs. This trend is recorded by the areal distribution of two seagrasses (marine phanerogams) along the bay: Posidonia oceanica - whose slow growth requires stable environmental conditions and a preference for coarse-grained sandy substratum-is present as dense and healthy meadows in the upcurrent portion of the bay whereas Cymodocea nodosa -an opportunistic, pioneer species capable of surviving in stressful environments is present only along the downcurrent (eastern) portion of the bay where it is replacing a progressively retreating Posidonia meadow. This is substantiated by (i) direct underwater observation of the remnants of a dead P.oceanica meadow along the eastern portion of the bay and (ii) interviews with the local population pointing to a more extensive Posidonia meadow along the eastern portion of the bay prior to the construction of the embankment. Thus, biological parameters such as the density and health of marine phanerogams match physical parameters (grain-size distribution patterns) more traditionally employed in coastal studies and can provide significant clues on both natural and anthropogenic medium-term coastal dynamics.


Aim: The Scale of Body Connection (SBC) is a measure aimed at examining body awareness (BA), specifically awareness of inner body sensations, and bodily dissociation (BD), or the sense of separation from the body. The aim of this study was to develop a Portuguese version of the SBC. Method: An online survey was completed by 445 women, with an average age of 30.47 (SD = 9.87), and 464 men, with an average age of 37.54 (SD = 12.34). Ages ranged from 18 to 72 years old. Results: Results showed Cronbach's alpha coefficients of .86 for BA and .73 for BD. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed reasonable goodness-of-fit indices (χ2/df = 9.0; GFI = .84; NFI = .72; CFI = .74; PGFI = .68; PCFI = .66; RMSEA = .09). Conclusion: Positive correlations between the SBC factor scores and the scores of the General Body Dissatisfaction Scale and the Cognitive Distraction Scale confirmed convergent validity. These findings support the reliability and validity of the SBC in a Portuguese sample.


Arsenic and phosphorus are similar in chemical properties and compete with each other for sorption sites in soil. Effect of phosphorus on adsorption of arsenate in yellow-brown soil was evaluated in a batch experiment. Solutions different in P concentration were also used to extract As from the As contaminated soil. The results showed that when P concentration was low, the rise in P concentration might significantly reduce As adsorption but increase As extraction from the soil. When P concentration further increased, the changes in As adsorption and desorption became not so distinct. Sorption of As (V) even in the presence of high concentrations of P may be attributed to presence of sorption sites specific for As (V) and P and other sites that are common for both. Results of this study indicate that application of phosphate-containing fertilizer to As-contaminated soils may increase soil As solubility, phytoavailability and potential of leaching to groundwater.


The three-Dimensional model of 40BZ6-15 centrifugal pump is built by the Solidworks software. This paper employs three-D Navier-Stokes equation and standard equation, and uses MRF and STMPLE algorithm to simulate the internal flowing of the 40BZ6 centrifugal pump. The velocity field and pressure field are gained. Through a further analysis, the rule of the internal flow of the centrifugal pump is unveiled, and then the simulative results are compared with the experimental ones, which can provide the base for the further improvement of the centrifugal pump.


We investigated the changes in microbial and physicochemical characteristics of the raw materials of Saengsk (brown rice, barley, carrot, potato, Angelica utilis Makino and kale) during storage after treatment with slightly acidic electrolyzed water (SAEW). To confirm the antimicrobial effects of the treatment washing solutions as well as the physicochemical changes in chromaticity, we stored the raw materials of Saengsik for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 days at storage temperatures of 4, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30℃ in a shelf-life study. The effects of microbial inhibition were higher in carrot treated with SAEW than in that treated with NaOCl, as indicated by a 1.75 log CFU/g reduction. Moreover, a 1.54 log CFU/g reduction of total coliforms was achieved in brown rice in response to SAEW treatment, which was higher than NaOCl treatment at all storage temperatures and periods. The lightness, redness and yellowness values of the raw materials of Saengsik were not significantly affected by SAEW treatments, except for Angelica utilis Makino and kale, whereas SAEW treatment resulted in decreased chromaticity values when compared to the NaOCl treatment. Overall, there was a significant difference (p<0.05) between the efficacy of the SAEW and NaOCl treatments. These results indicate that washing with SAEW is an effective method to reduce the microorganisms and enhance the shelf-life of raw materials of Saengsik; therefore, it can be effectively used to sanitize ingredients of Saengik without affecting the other properties during storage.


Most economic reports suggest that almost half of the market value unlocked by artificial intelligence (AI) by the next decade (about 9 trillion USD per year) will be in marketing&sales. In particular, AI will allow the optimization of more and more intricate economic settings in which multiple different activities can be automated jointly. A relatively recent example is that one of ad auctions in which similar products or services are displayed together with their price, thus merging advertising and pricing in a unique website. This is the case, e.g., of Google Hotel Ads and TripAdvisor. More precisely, as in a classical ad auction, the ranking of the ads depends on the advertisers' bids, while, differently from classical ad auctions, the price is displayed together with the ad, so as to provide a direct comparison among the prices and thus dramatically affect the behavior of the users. This paper investigates how displaying prices and ads together conditions the properties of the main economic mechanisms such as VCG and GSP. Initially, we focus on the direct-revelation mechanism, showing that prices are chosen by the mechanisms once given the advertisers' reports. We also provide an efficient algorithm to compute the optimal allocation given the private information reported by the advertisers. Then, with both VCG and GSP payments, we show the inefficiency in terms of Price of Anarchy (PoA) and Stability (PoS) over the social welfare and mechanism's revenue when the advertisers choose the prices. The main results show that, with both VCG and GSP, PoS over the revenue may be unbounded even with two slots, while PoA over the social welfare may be as large as the number of slots. Finally, we show that, under some assumptions, simple modifications to VCG and GSP allow us to obtain a better PoS over the revenue.


In the present work Conventional and High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy has been used to examine the structure and types of interfaces between 3C-SiC and 6H-SiC for samples grown by Sublimation Epitaxy. The layers were grown on on-axis 6H-SiC substrates at different temperature gradients. The changed growth conditions influence on the nucleation of 3C-SiC on the 6H-SiC substrates and their competition with nucleation of 6H-SiC islands. Three specific types of 3C/6H-SiC interfaces were observed and the implications of these observations are discussed.


Concentrated solar power (CSP) incorporated with thermal energy storage (TES) is an appealing solar energy generation technology. TES stores heat during the daytime and releases it in the nighttime. As a result, CSP can produce continuously even at night. Storing heat by TES makes CSP a unique technology among various renewable energy sources which often suffer from the intermittency of energy supply (e.g., wind turbines without wind, photovoltaics at night, etc.). The energy conversion efficiency of CSP is directly related to the properties of the TES medium. Binary or ternary mixtures of molten salts (Solar Salt) are commonly used as the TES in CSP due to its high-temperature stability. Enhancing the thermophysical properties of the molten salt medium can significantly improve TES performance. Various studies have reported the anomalous specific heat enhancement of molten salt-based nanofluids. However, the underlying mechanism for this enhancement was yet discovered. In this study, the effect of different synthesis conditions on the resultant specific heat capacity of molten salt-based nanofluids was investigated. Several molten salt nanofluids (NaNO3–KNO3 with SiO nanoparticles at 1 wt. % concentration) were prepared at different thermal cycling conditions and their thermal performance was characterized by a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC).


Maternal cell-mediated immunity (CMI) to fetal (paternal) HLA was studied in both normal and pre-eclamptic pregnancies. Maternal-paternal mixed lymphocyte reactivity (MLR) was assessed using macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), leucocyte migration inhibitory factor (LIF) and blast transformation assays. Primary and secondary responses were differentiated by studying 6 day MLR time courses. Maternal lymphocytes (normal pregnancies) did not show an early, (i.e. secondary), proliferative response, nor did the pattern of LIF release suggest maternal CMI to fetal (paternal) HLA. However, the lymphocyte responses between pre-eclamptic couples, in terms of both proliferation and LIF release, were consistently and significantly different from those of normal couples; a finding which may reflect an abnormal immune response.


A Round Table Discussion was held at the Fourth International Conference on Anticarcinogenesis and Radiation Protection. Scientists from government and academia were brought together to discuss the evidence for the preventive effect of foods, specific nutrients and drugs against cancer, and the most appropriate methods of initiating nutritional cancer prevention activities to improve the health of the public. The panel reviewed the epidemiological evidence of the role of diet and specific micronutrients for the prevention of cancer, the doses of specific micronutrients required for preventive effects and their safety, the evidence for aspirin as a chemopreventive agent, the issue of foods versus specific micronutrients in the prevention of cancer, food safety, and approaches to prevention such as food fortification or dietary supplements. The remarks of the panel members are summarized.


BACKGROUND
Vertigo during suction-cleaning of open mastoid cavities is caused by cold stimulation of the vestibular organ. In clinical and model-experimental measurements we tried to estimate the physical background and the dimension of this temperature drop.

METHODS
Using different techniques like thermo-probes, thermovision, or additional model experiments temperature changes during suction were measured in 5 volunteers with open mastoid cavities. These registrations were carried out with special regard to the moisture of the cavity-walls.

RESULTS
Distinct temperature changes during suction were observed. In moist cavities superficial temperature decrease was much higher than in dry ones. Using additional model experiments, temperature conduction towards e.g. the horizontal semicircular canal could be simulated.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Among other mechanisms like replacement of sucked-off air by colder air, or taking away warm air close to the cavity walls, effects of evaporative cold seem to be very significant. This could be demonstrated by moistening cavity walls in patients as well as in model experiments. The conclusion to keep the cavity walls as dry as possible is already a clinical demand. In this paper, the physical background and the dimensions of thermal effects during suction-cleaning could be elucidated.


Abstract Objective Preheated resins (PR) are considered a cementing agent option for indirect adhesive restorations of composite inlays and onlays. The objective of this in vitro study was to evaluate the marginal sealing, adhesive interface, and microtensile bond strength of indirect adhesive restorations of composites in terms of dentin cemented with PR. Materials and Methods Standardized Class II preparations were performed on 30 extracted human premolars, impressions were taken, and indirect composite restorations were manufactured. In total, 15 restorations were cemented with PR (ENA HRi, SYNCA), and 15 restorations were cemented with self-adhesive resinous cement (RC) (Relyx U200, 3M ESPE), followed by a thermocycling regime. After that, these were segmented sagittally and longitudinally to evaluate the marginal sealing and the adhesive interface with scanning electron microscopy and confocal microscopy. Microtensile bond strength was assessed with a mechanical device (TA. XT Plus C, Stable Micro System). Statistical analysis Statistical analysis was conducted using the two-sample Student's t-test. Results The results showed that there is no statistically significant difference in the degree of microfiltration using PR or RC; however, microtensile bond strength is greater when the restoration is cemented with RC (278.75 N/cm3) than with PR (144.49 N/cm3), and better adjustment and sealing were observed for composite restorations with PR. Conclusion PR comprise an alternative cementing agent for indirect composite restorations in Class II cavities in premolars.


This report draws together research findings that support a comprehensive culture-sensitive European curriculum and quality assessment framework that can inform practice, teacher education and policy. The aim of this integrative report is to inform the development of a comprehensive, culture-sensitive European framework for evaluating and monitoring ECEC quality and child wellbeing. WP 2 specifically focuses on micro- and meso-level characteristics of ECEC that constitute quality in practice and that directly affect children's wellbeing, learning and development. The present integrative report describes effective approaches to curriculum and pedagogy, based on survey in eleven countries, on secondary data analysis from existing datasets from five countries and on video observations of good practice in seven countries. What clearly emerged from the CARE surveys and interviews is an emerging consensus on the importance of combining aims for socio-emotional development with intellectual ones. There was also consensus on the gradual shift as the child matures, with more challenging aims for intellectual development, including 'emerging' academic skills, as the child nears school entry. Yet, there was a lack of clarity (and possibly more differences in views) on the way learning is conceptualized. While there is agreement across countries in Europe that play and learning have to be integrated in ECEC, we found 'tensions' in valuing play, creativity, child-initiated activities, un-structured materials as chances for learning. Thus, despite the broad agreement on the child as a competent learner and the importance of learning in ECEC, and despite the fact that observations were carried out in classrooms with overall high classroom quality, CARE observed challenges when staff tried to facilitate learning across differing types of activity and with differing structural constraints. We argue that a balanced curriculum creates tensions that relate to the aims to combine socio- emotional and intellectual aims, and to nurture the individual child for the 'here and now' while also preparing all children for the future. Finding the right balance in the curriculum means going beyond those tensions to achieve a dynamic and shifting pedagogy where the balance changes in line with children's needs, interests and the aspirations of the community. There is no perfect 'balance'; skilled educators must make informed decisions as needs and priorities shift across the group and across the day. This is the reason that the workforce is the most essential ingredient in ensuring quality. The observational assessment of classroom quality applied to the video observations revealed good level of agreement across countries on what constitutes high quality support for children's emotional and intellectual development (see Video Library). However, educator/teacher discussions of the rich video observations led to suggestions for modifying and extending the current (international) quality assessments to reflect a European focus on the social group in addition to the individual child. Such a focus would include explicit attention to facilitation of group processes, peer collaboration, inter- personal skills and group-belongingness. A strong focus on the 'social child' is in keeping with European curriculum documents and also surveys of parents from many countries in the project on their goals for their children's development. Finally, using secondary data analysis on large datasets from five countries, essential structural, organizational context, and system level features were identified that support classroom process quality across Europe. Taken together, this report identifies key features of high quality practice in ECEC along with the institutional supports that underpin it.


An experimental program has been approved at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility to measure the (ep,e'K+)Y reactions using the CLAS12 setup in Hall B. Data have been obtained using a 7.5 GeV electron beam, impinging upon a liquid hydrogen target in the CLAS12 center. Scattered electrons have been detected in an angle range of 2.5° to 4.5° by the Forward Tagger (FT) and at angles greater than 5° in the CLAS12 Forward Detector, allowing to measure the KY electroproduction differential cross section and to probe the Q2 evolution of the N* resonances electrocouplings in the Q2 range from 0.05 GeV2 to 3 GeV2. The study of the Q2 dependence of the electrocouplings will provide a crucial tool to investigate the possible hybrid nature of the N* resonances. Preliminary results from CLAS12 data are compared with simulated data using a realistic Gent Regge plus resonance event generator


: For approximately 8 million Americans alive today, the words "cancer" and "survival" are no longer mutually exclusive. As advances are made in the early detection and treatment of cancer, the numbers of survivors who are recovering from their illnesses or living longer with cancer as a chronic disease are increasing. With this extended survival comes a new set of responsibilities and standards for follow-up care that include the following: (1) the recognition of chronic or potential problems, (2) the need for life-long surveillance, and (3) continued access to quality health care. Long-term follow-up care for cancer survivors can be a specialty unto itself. The development of clinics or programs that specialize in caring for this expanding population have a history within pediatric oncology. The challenge in the current health care market is to dedicate energy and resources to do the same within the adult oncology community. Nurse practitioners are ideal candidates to create holistic programs that focus on the special needs, both biomedical and psychosocial, of long-term cancer survivors.


Dimeric copper complex, [GuH]4[Cu2II(Cit)2]·2H2O (where GuH = monoprotonated guanidine and Cit = citrate anion) was synthesized solvothermally and characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The Cu atoms are bridged by alkoxide oxygen atoms of the citrate ligand, forming the dimer. The Cu atom adopts a distorted square pyramidal geometry. Two CuO5 units are connected edge-wise to form the dimer, which is capped by the citrate ligand. This molecular dimer is strongly H-bonded with guanidine cation and a water molecule to form a supramolecular structure. The optical band gap energy data exhibit its semiconductor behavior. We have explored this material as a photocatalyst for the degradation of organic dye. The magnetic measurements show that compound 1 behaves like a paramagnet. Detailed theoretical investigations reveal that inter-molecular H-bonding is responsible for the stability of this structure.


The aim of this research is to propose and test a model of the causal relationships among the constructs of perceived service quality, consumption emotions, and satisfaction among users of public hospital services. The conceptual model proposed in this study postulates that: (a) perceived service quality is positively related to positive emotions and negatively related to negative emotions; (b) perceived service quality is positively related to patient satisfaction; and (c) positive emotions are positively related to patient satisfaction and negative emotions are negatively related to patient satisfaction. The model was tested with data from an empirical study in the Canadian public hospital setting. Data were collected from 314 respondents. The relationships between the constructs were tested using structural equation modeling by means of the EQS software. All hypothesized relationships were supported. The results confirm that perceived service quality exerts both direct and indirect effects (through positive and negative emotions) on satisfaction. The study demonstrates that emotions play an important role in determining satisfaction with hospital services.


Thermoacoustic prime movers are energy conversion devices which convert thermal energy into acoustic work. The devices are environmentally friendly because they do not produce any exhaust gases. In addition, they can utilize clean energy such as solar-thermal energy or waste heat from internal combustion engines as the heat sources. The output mechanical work of thermoacoustic prime movers are usually used to drive a thermoacoustic refrigerator or to generate electricity. A thermoacoustic prime mover with low critical temperature difference is desired when we intend to utilize low quality of heat sources such as waste heat and sun light. The critical temperature difference can be significantly influenced by the kinds of working gases inside the resonator and stack's channels of the device. Generally, helium gas is preferred as the working gas due to its high sound speed which together with high mean pressure will yield high acoustic power per unit volume of the device. Moreover, adding a small amount of a heavy gas to helium gas may improve the efficiency of thermoacoustic devices. This paper presents numerical study and estimation of the critical temperature differences of a standing wave thermoacoustic prime mover with various helium-based binary-mixture working gases. It is found that mixing helium (He) gas with other common gases, namely argon (Ar), nitrogen (N2), oxygen (O2), and carbon dioxide (CO2), at appropriate pressures and molar compositions, reduce the critical temperature differences to lower than those of the individual components of the gas mixtures. In addition, the optimum mole fractions of Hegas which give the minimum critical temperature differences are shifted to larger values as the pressure increases, and tends to be constant at around 0.7 when the pressure increases more than 2 MPa. However, the minimum critical temperature differences slightly increase as the pressure increases to higher than 1.5 MPa. Furthermore, we found that the lowest critical temperature difference for He-Armixture gas is around 66 °C which is achieved in pressure range of 1.5 MPa - 2.0 MPa and mole fractions of helium of 0.55 - 0.65. The He-N2 and He-O2 mixture gases demonstrate almost the same performances, both have the lowest critical temperature difference around 59 °C atpressures of 1.0 MPa - 1.5 MPa and helium's mole fractions of 0.35 - 0.55. For all tested gases, the lowest critical temperature difference of around 51 °C is provided by He-CO2 mixture gas at pressures of 0.5 MPa - 1.0 MPa with helium's mole fractions of 0.15 - 0.40.


I consider how a woman is expected to do gender may influence how she is expected todo birth. I ask how mainstream norms of femininity, particularly those that celebratepassivity and weakness, manifest in a woman's particular experience of childbirth.As a counterpoint, I examine how gender norms associated with Amish femininityshape Amish women's experience of birth. I present an ethnographic account of threeaspects of Old Order Amish birth based on the criteria developed by Sarah Jane Brubakerand Heather Dillaway and consider (1) details of the birth setting, (2) issuesof control, and (3) how the use of medical technology (or lack thereof ) may be seen toinfluence a woman's birth experience. I draw on two years of participant-observerdata to show how practices such as midwife-attended unmedicated homebirth come topossess specific social meaning for Amish women, and are tied to how Amish womendo gender. I conclude by suggesting that a discourse of femininity valuing hard work,body confidence, and shared power constructs an environment where the work of laboris equated with accomplishment rather than something distasteful to be avoided, andmay create a social context within which women can do birth differently.


A low-power microcontroller is designed in 0.10/spl mu/m body-tied SOI CMOS technology by reusing existing design resources developed in 0.18/spl mu/m bulk CMOS. Only two new masks are needed for this work. The performance is evaluated by simulations and indicates operation at 400MHz with 183mW dissipation at 0.8V and represents a five-times improvement in power-delay product.


The molecular mechanism for the carcinogenic activity of nickel has been investigated in vitro and in vivo. Formation of stable ternary nickel (II)-DNA-protein complexes occurred in vitro upon incubation of nickel subsulfide (Ni3S2) with DNA and microsomes in 0.05 M tris hydrochloride, pH 7.4. DNA damage in the form of strand breaks and DNA-protein cross-links resulted in vivo following injection of nickel carbonate in rats. Kidney was the preferred tissue for nickel accumulation and DNA damage. A gentle isolation procedure was developed for the isolation of nucleic acids containing bound nickel from tissues of rats injected with nickel carbonate. Higher levels of nickel were bound to kidney nucleic acids as compared with liver nucleic acids. The amount of protein associated with kidney and liver DNA correlated with the amount of nickel bound. Removal of protein associated with kidney DNA and RNA resulted in reduction of the amount of nickel bound. Nickel levels remained constant upon removal of associated protein from liver DNA, but were reduced upon removal of protein from liver RNA. These results are discussed relative to the known carcinogenicity, solubilization and aqueous chemistry of nickel compounds.


Johnson CD. A demonstration of sympathetic cotransmission. Adv Physiol Educ 34: 217–221, 2010; doi:10.1152/advan.00070.2010.— Currently, most undergraduate textbooks that cover the autonomic nervous system retain the concept that autonomic nerves release either acetylcholine or norepinephrine. However, in recent years, a large volume of research has superseded this concept with one in which autonomic nerves normally release at least one cotransmitter along with a dominant transmitter that may or may not be acetylcholine or norepinephrine. Cotransmission involving the simultaneous release of norepinephrine, ATP, and neuropeptide Y can easily be demonstrated in an isometric ring preparation of the rat tail artery, which is described here. The experiment clearly demonstrates the principle of cotransmission but allows more advanced concepts in autonomic cotransmission to be addressed.


High-fidelity kinship face synthesis has many potential applications, such as kinship verification, missing child identification, and social media analysis. However, it is challenging to synthesize high-quality descendant faces with genetic relations due to the lack of large-scale, high-quality annotated kinship data. This paper proposes RFG (Region-level Facial Gene) extraction framework to address this issue. We propose to use IGE (Image-based Gene Encoder), LGE (Latent-based Gene Encoder) and Gene Decoder to learn the RFGs of a given face image, and the relationships between RFGs and the latent space of Style-GAN2. As cycle-like losses are designed to measure the $\mathcal{L}_{2}$ distances between the output of Gene Decoder and image encoder, and that between the output of LGE and IGE, only face images are required to train our framework, i.e. no paired kinship face data is required. Based upon the proposed RFGs, a crossover and mutation module is further designed to inherit the facial parts of parents. A Gene Pool has also been used to introduce the variations into the mutation of RFGs. The diversity of the faces of descendants can thus be significantly increased. Qualitative, quantitative, and subjective experiments on FIW, TSKinFace, and FF-Databases clearly show that the quality and diversity of kinship faces generated by our approach are much better than the existing state-of-the-art methods.


Boosting bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-primed mice with a recombinant adenovirus expressing Mycobacterium tuberculosis Ag 85A by different administration routes has very different effects on protection against aerosol challenge with M. tuberculosis. Mice boosted intradermally make very strong splenic CD4 and CD8 Th1 cytokine responses to Ag 85A, but show no change in lung mycobacterial burden over BCG primed animals. In contrast, intranasally boosted mice show greatly reduced mycobacterial burden and make a much weaker splenic response but a very strong lung CD4 and CD8 response to Ag 85A and an increased response to purified protein derivative. This effect is associated with the presence in the lung of multifunctional T cells, with high median fluorescence intensity and integrated median fluorescence intensity for IFN-γ, IL-2, and TNF. In contrast, mice immunized with BCG alone have few Ag-specific cells in the lung and a low proportion of multifunctional cells, although individual cells have high median fluorescence intensity. Successful immunization regimes appear to induce Ag-specific cells with abundant intracellular cytokine staining.


Child maltreatment is a widespread global phenomenon affecting the lives of millions of children all over the world. As these children grow up to be parents, they are at a higher risk of completing the so-called "cycle of abuse" and become perpetrators themselves. Only very recently, however, the spotlight has been moved from a limited focus on the intergenerational transmission of actual maltreatment on to further maladaptive outcomes in offspring of victims of child maltreatment. Hence, the number of studies investigating the subject is small, and core questions still remain unanswered. In addition, there is a lack of top-down theories enabling researchers to integrate evidence into a broader framework.
Therefore, the aim of this work is to extend theoretical and empirical knowledge on transgenerational sequelae of maternal child abuse and neglect by 1) contributing an overarching model of transgenerational transmission of risk and 2) broaden the empirical data base by reporting results of four studies.
Study 1 investigates the impact of a maternal history of childhood abuse (HoA) on mother-child interaction in a longitudinal case-control design. Results indicate that the period of developing child locomotion represents a critical time window for mothers with a HoA as they show less optimal mother-child interactional quality compared to a healthy control group during that phase. Study 2 examines mother-child interaction in mothers with depression in remission, mothers with a HoA, mothers with both depression in remission and a HoA, and comparison group mothers. Results reveal that depression affects maternal emotional availability even during remission. Furthermore, mothers with depression in remission and additional severe childhood abuse seem to be particularly affected. Study 3 investigates mother-child adrenocortical attunement in a community sample of mothers with a HoA and their five-months-old infants, matched with a healthy comparison group. Results confirm an association between maternal and infant salivary cortisol levels for the complete sample. However, in the comparison group, cortisol attunement was only significant in mother-daughter dyads, whereas in the maltreatment group, cortisol levels were associated only in mother–son dyads. Lastly, Study 4 examines whether children of the sample described in study 2 differ in inhibitory performance while taking into account their mothers reported impulsivity. There are no group differences in children's inhibitory performance, however, maternal impulsivity moderates the association between group membership and child inhibition. Children whose mothers report a history of childhood abuse and high levels of impulsivity show lower levels of inhibition than children whose mothers report a HoA and low levels of impulsivity.


Round - table organizing and administering National Agricultural Research Systems , Round - table organizing and administering National Agricultural Research Systems , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی


In the solar photo voltaic (PV) module, encapsulant material provides the environmental protection, insulation, optical absorption, besides serving as a good adhesive between solar cell and components of PV module for improving the efficiency. It is desired to develop an improved encapsulating material by incorporating the light absorbing inorganic nanofillers in thermoplastic polymers. One such matrix material is poly ethylene-co-vinyl acetate (PEVA), finding its importance in solar materials, such as PV modules and agricultural greenhouse polymer sheets. Inorganic nanofillers have the potential to transmit necessary radiance in the UV spectra, which can improve the PV panel efficiency. In this study, the optimum effect of inorganic fillers such as organically modified montmorillonite clay (OMMT) and titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) anatase in PEVA matrix is observed. The fabricated nanocomposite films were etched from the glass mold. The morphology and miscibility of fabricated nanocomposite films were analyzed and investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction technique (XRD), UV-Vis absorption (UV-Vis), and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The dielectric properties of the fabricated hybrid nanocomposite films were analyzed for its insulation behavior. The thermal behavior was studied using Thermo-gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The hybrid nanocomposite with 5.0 weight percentage (wt.%) OMMT and 5.0 weight percentage (wt.%) of TiO 2 indicates lowest dielectric constant of 2.4 and marginal increase in dissipation factor with respect to frequency. Increased thermal stability, glass transition temperature, high transmittance and optimum UV-shielding efficiency were found with the same wt.% in the proposed work.


Objectives To evaluate the effectiveness of tumour necrosis factor (TNF) blockers in juvenile psoriatic arthritis (JPsA). Methods The study was a prospective ongoing multicentre, observational study of all Dutch juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) patients using biologicals. The response of arthritis was assessed by American College of Rheumatology (ACR) paediatric response and Wallace inactive disease criteria. The response of psoriatic skin lesions was scored by a 5-point scale. Results Eighteen JPsA patients (72% female, median age onset 11.1 (range 3.3–14.6) years, 50% psoriatic skin lesions, 39% nail pitting, 22% dactylitis) were studied. The median follow-up time since starting anti-TNFα was 26 (range 3–62) months. Seventeen patients started on etanercept and one started on adalimumab. After 3 months of treatment 83% of the patients achieved ACR30 response, increasing to 100% after 15 months. Inactive disease reached in 67% after 39 months. There was no discontinuation because of inefficacy. Six patients discontinued treatment after a good clinical response. However, five patients flared and restarted treatment, all with a good response. During treatment four patients (two JPsA and two JIA patients with other subtypes) developed de novo psoriasis. In four of the nine patients the pre-existing psoriatic skin lesions improved. Conclusion Anti-TNFα therapy in JPsA seems effective in treating arthritis. However, in most patients the arthritis flared up after treatment discontinuation, emphasising the need to investigate optimal therapy duration. The psoriatic skin lesions did not respond well and four patients developed de novo psoriasis.


The reproductive phenology of the entire dimber community (96 species of lianas and 40 species of vines) in a semideciduous forest in Southeastern Brazil (22o49'45t'S; 47006'33'W and 670 m altitude) was observed from March 1988 to February 1991. Phenological observations were made weekly by walking along a 10.5 km trail in the interior and at the forest edges of the Santa Genebra Reserve (SGR). The most species-rich families of dimbers were Bignoniaceae (22), Malpighiaceae (17), Sapindaceae (12) and Asteraceae (12). Flowering patterns for woody lianas and herbaceous vines differed. Lianas had two flowering peaks: a minor peak in March in the transition from wet to dry season, and a major peak in October during the transition from dry to wet season. The flowering peak for herbaceous vines was in April. Fruiting of lianas was highly seasonal, with one peak in the late dry season (JulyAugust). Fruiting for vines was less seasonal with a slight peak in March. These differences were consistent with the predominance of wind-dispersed fruits among lianas (72% of species) versus vines (52%). Low rainfall, high leaf fall, and strong winds during the dry season favor wind dispersal. More species of vines (40%) have animal-dispersed seeds than lianas (19%), and most vines fruited during the wet season. Phenological patterns of climbers and trees and treelets at SGR differed. The life form of lianas and their system of reserve economy may allow them to reproduce during periods unfavorable to trees. Displacement of peak flowering periods of trees and climbers pollinated by bees and small generalist insects may decrease competition for pollen vectors among species of these two groups of plants. Whereas the fruiting patterns of wind-dispersed trees and climbers at SGR were similar (most species fruiting during the dry season), animal-dispersed trees and treelets fruited throughout the year while animal-dispersed climbers exhibited a pronounced peak in late wet season. The distinct phenological patterns of climbers, generally complementary to those presented by trees, resulted in constant availability of flowers and fruits throughout the year and enhances the importance of this plant group in Neotropical forests.


Studies relating reproduction to food availability are usually restricted to food quantity, but ignore food quality and the effects of habitat structure on obtaining the food. This is particularly true for insectivorous birds. In this study we relate measures of reproductive success, time of reproduction and nestling size of water pipits (Anthus sp. spinoletta) to biomass, taxonomic composition and nutritional contents of available food, and to vegetation structure and distance to feeding places. Clutch size was correlated positively with the proportion of grass at the feeding places, which facilitates foraging. This suggests that water pipits adapt their clutch size to environmental conditions. Also, pipits started breeding earlier and produced more fledglings when abundant food and a large proportion of grass were available, probably because these conditions allow the birds to gain more energy in less time. The number of fledglings was correlated positively with the energy content of available food. No significant relationships were found between feeding conditions and nestling size or the time that nestlings took to fledge. This suggests that water pipits do not invest more in individual nestlings when food conditions are favourable but rather start breeding earlier and produce more young. Taxonomic composition and nutritional content of prey were not correlated with any of the reproductive parameters, indicating that profitability rather than quality of food affects reproductive success.


We use high-resolution Himages of 130 planetary nebulae (PNe) to investigate whether there is a preferred orientation for PNe within the Galactic Bulge. The orien- tations of the full sample have an uniform distribution. However, at a significance level of 0.01, there is evidence for a non-uniform distribution for those planetary nebulae with evident bipolar morphology. If we assume that the bipolar PNe have an unimodal distribution of the polar axis in Galactic coordinates, the mean Galactic position angle is consistent with 90 ◦ , i.e. along the Galactic plane, and the significance level is better than 0.001 (the equivalent of a 3.7� significance level for a Gaussian distribution). The shapes of PNe are related to angular momentum of the original star or stellar system, where the long axis of the nebula measures the angular momentum vector. In old, low-mass stars, the angular momentum is largely in binary orbital motion. Consequently, the alignment of bipolar nebulae that we have found indicates that the orbital planes of the binary systems are oriented perpendicular to the Galactic plane. We propose that strong magnetic fields aligned along the Galactic plane acted during the original star formation process to slow the contraction of the star forming cloud in the direction perpendicular to the plane. This would have produced a propensity for wider binaries with higher angular momentum with orbital axes parallel to the Galactic plane. Our findings provide the first indication of a strong, organized magnetic field along the Galactic plane that impacted on the angular momentum vectors of the resulting stellar population.


: The usefulness of Biken Agar 2 as a source of heat-stable toxin for the suckling mouse assay was examined. Escherichia coli (E. coli) strains isolated in Bangladesh from patients with gastroenteritis found to produce heat-stable toxin (n = 152), both heat-stable and heat-labile toxin (n = 60) and not to produce heat-stable or heat-labile toxin (n = 25) by standard suckling mice assay using broth culture were tested. Sampling from Biken Agar 2 gave comparable results to those obtained using standard broth cultures. This is the first field survey of evaluation of the Biken test for sampling heat-stable toxin of E. coli. The result further clarifies the applicability of the Biken test for sampling heat-stable toxin, and the usefulness of the Biken test for detections of heat-labile and heat-stable toxin produced by E. coli.