The seriously modulated radiation sound waves, as a kind of special nonstationary signal in the engineering, can be considered as cyclostationary. The modulating feature can not be understood clearly via the reconstructed sound field by conventional nearfield acoustic holography (NAH). A cyclostationary NAH (CYNAH) technique based on wave superposition algorithm (WSA) is suggested for reconstructing the cyclostationary sound field, which can be applied to the cyclostationary acoustic sources with complicated profiles. The information of modulating wave can be understood by the reconstructed hologram of cyclic spectrum density (CSD), in which the distribution of modulating wave is visualized and the location of modulating wave can be determined. The simulation and the experiment verified that the modulating characteristic can be understood by CYNAH based on WSA. The main advantages of WSA, including the high calculation accuracy and calculation efficiency due to the exclusion of uniqueness and singularity problems inherent in the boundary element method, are retained in the presented CYNAH procedure.


This article identifies and operationalizes the newly defined construct of attachment injury. An attachment injury occurs when one partner violates the expectation that the other will offer comfort and caring in times of danger or distress. This incident becomes a clinically recurring theme and creates an impasse that blocks relationship repair in couples therapy. An attachment injury is characterized by an abandonment or by a betrayal of trust during a critical moment of need. The injurious incident defines the relationship as insecure and maintains relationship distress because it is continually used as a standard for the dependability of the offending partner. The concept of an attachment injury is defined here in the context of emotionally focused therapy, an empirically validated, short-term approach to modifying distress in couples. The broad theoretical underpinnings of this concept may be found in attachment theory as applied to adult romantic relationships. Through the delineation of attachment injury events and the ongoing development of a detailed model of resolution, couples therapists will be better able to identify, describe, and effectively treat such injuries and address the therapeutic impasses that are associated with them.


This study explored the roles of individual factors (age, gender, locus of control, self-esteem, and loneliness), parenting style, and academic achievement in discriminating students involved in bullying (as bullies, victims, and bully/victims) from those not involved. Participants comprised 742 middle school students (393 females, 349 males). The results of multinomial logistic regression analysis indicated that a higher locus of control, lower strictness/supervision scores, increased age, and being male increased the likelihood of being a bully; a higher locus of control, higher loneliness score, and a lower acceptance/involvement score increased the likelihood of being a victim; and higher loneliness and psychological autonomy scores and lower acceptance/involvement, strictness/supervision, and academic achievement scores increased the likelihood of being a bully/victim. Although parental style variables play an important role in involvement in bullying, the individual factor loneliness is a more powerful predictor than other predictors in discriminating victims and bully/victims from uninvolved students. Age and gender are stronger predictors than other predictors in discriminating bullies from uninvolved students.


Reliable projections of future changes in tropical cyclone (TC) characteristics are highly dependent on the ability of global climate models (GCMs) to simulate the observed characteristics of TCs (i.e., their frequency, genesis locations, movement, and intensity). Here, we investigate the performance of a suite of GCMs from the U.S. CLIVAR Working Group on Hurricanes in simulating observed climatological features of TCs in the Southern Hemisphere. A subset of these GCMs is also explored under three idealized warming scenarios. Two types of simulated TC tracks are evaluated on the basis of a commonly applied cluster analysis: 1) explicitly simulated tracks, and 2) downscaled tracks, derived from a statistical–dynamical technique that depends on the models' large-scale environmental fields. Climatological TC properties such as genesis locations, annual frequency, lifetime maximum intensity (LMI), and seasonality are evaluated for both track types. Future changes to annual frequency, LMI, and the latitude of LMI are evaluated using the downscaled tracks where large sample sizes allow for statistically robust results. An ensemble approach is used to assess future changes of explicit tracks owing to their small number of realizations. We show that the downscaled tracks generally outperform the explicit tracks in relation to many of the climatological features of Southern Hemisphere TCs, despite a few notable biases. Future changes to the frequency and intensity of TCs in the downscaled simulations are found to be highly dependent on the warming scenario and model, with the most robust result being an increase in the LMI under a uniform 2°C surface warming.


Reduction of noise in the transmission path is a very important environmental problem. The standard method to reduce this noise level is the use of acoustic barriers. In this paper, an acoustic metamaterial based on sound transmission through subwavelength slits, is tailored to be used as an acoustic barrier. This system consists of two rows of periodic repetition of vertical rigid pickets separated by a slit of subwavelength width, embedded in air. Here, both the experimental and the numerical analyses are presented. These analyses have facilitated the identification of the parameters that affect the insertion loss performance. The results demonstrated that the proposed barrier can be tuned to mitigate a band noise in a mechanical plant for buildings where openings for air flow are required as well as industrial noise, without excessive barrier thickness.


The literature data about eukaryotic cytoplasmic ribosomal RNA (rRNA) are cited in this review. Ribosomal gene regulatory elements (promoters, enhancers, terminators) and protein factors of RNA polymerase I transcription are considered. A separate chapter is dedicated to Protista rRNA transcription.


One of the barriers to successful sustainable design practices is the lack of an appropriate value-fit attributed to sustainable building materials by the users of the built environment or by the designers who create those spaces. While there have been significant advances in the various types of sustainable building products and the number of choices available, a new approach to furthering their desirability in hopes of increasing the use of sustainable materials is explored in this study. To start, an analysis of a new aesthetic theory is made, adapting the principles of a cognitive aesthetic experience to influence aesthetic appreciation of wall surface materials through evaluation beyond the traditional emphasis on beauty and intuition. Primarily, the theories of John Dewey, Martin Seel, Benedetto Croce, and others, are synthesized to formulate a method of promoting an aesthetic experience through the addition of knowledge. Using the principles of a cognitive aesthetic experience, a questionnaire was developed to test the hypothesis that aesthetic appreciation can be influenced by the addition of information. Specifically, that aesthetic value is higher for materials with greater sustainable quality than for materials of low sustainable quality when knowledge regarding the sustainability is provided. The same six item Likert scale questionnaire was used to gauge nine wall surface materials which consisted of three materials each of natural, somewhat natural, and not natural looking materials which crossed three levels of sustainability from low to high. The 127 participants from interior and architectural design and non-design fields were provided with either one of two types of information or no information regarding the sustainability quality of each material. Based on the analysis of the aesthetic response data, it was determined that in general, information did positively influence the aesthetic value of the more sustainable materials, and did negatively influence the value of the less sustainable materials. However, contrary to the extended hypothesis and aesthetic theorists, the paragraph form of information provided was not as influential as the fact chart information format, which resulted in a more accurate value-fit of the materials. Upon further analysis, it was also determined that the relationship of information level and sustainability ratings based on aesthetic responses was only statistically significant when in interaction with participant field and material look, or participant field and experience level. These analyses showed that the accuracy of the sustainable material to aesthetic value was significantly lower for designers based on material look, where natural looking materials always rated higher and not natural looking materials always rated lower, regardless of sustainability rating. Also, while experience level was not significant for designers, for non-designers with the most years of experience, sustainability qualities as provided in the information did not affect aesthetic rating. These results suggest that designers are still easily swayed by visual cues, and that those who are more likely to have less sustainable knowledge and awareness, such as the more experienced non-designers, do not count sustainability as a factor of aesthetic appreciation or desirability. Overall, this study provides evidence that a more appropriate value-fit of sustainable materials can be achieved by presenting information to the viewers, with the potential to influence the demand and thus the supply of sustainable building materials.


It is argue that the study of TM is related to the DCs view in which TM can be explained through DCs lens. The reason why discussion of TM from DCs lens is critical because DCs is designed to explains the source of sustainable competitive advantage in which TM is lacking of. Moreover, under rapidly technological change managing technology will be much difficult in which DCs is providing the guides on how managing the technology can be done under the rapid changes. At the same time, it is well informed that there are many perspectives and school of thought between the two because of their nature of multi-disciplinary and multidimensional. Thus, there are similarities and also dissimilarities between them. However, this paper will only focus on the similarities of the two as this can helps to explains how TM can be seen as one form of DCs. It is argue that the similarities between TM and DCs can be discussed under concepts, processes, and lifecycles. It is stressed that the discussion of TM through DCs lens is at exploratory stage. Therefore, the contribution of the paper is to promote the study of TM from DCs perspectives that may open for relevant topics for TM to address current situations.


Many surface treatment techniques are used to improve the mechanical behavior of metal matrix composites (MMC) under dynamic loading. Mill machining, shot-peening, hammering, and cold-rolling are the four techniques commonly used. In this paper, we study the effect of the surface treatment with the cold-rolled technique on the residual stresses in an aluminum alloy 7075 reinforced with 27% vol fraction SiC whiskers. The techniques used to measure the residual stresses are X-ray and neutron diffraction methods. Neutron diffraction is a nondestructive technique that allows one to evaluate the residual stresses in both the Al matrix and the SiC whiskers. The X-ray technique was used to evaluate the residual stresses at the surface of the composite material. The results show us that the cold-rolled treatment induced a steep stress gradient near the surface. The comparison of using the two different measuring techniques will be discussed.


There have been numerous works on controlling task delays in discrete event systems such as automated manufacturing systems. Since the systems are often modelled by timed event graphs, the task delays correspond to token delays in the models. We characterize the token delays based on imbalance between the circuit ratios. We prove that the token delays can be eliminated by balancing the circuit ratios. We propose strategies for balancing circuit ratios or workloads for timed event graphs and apply them to eliminating wafer delays in a cluster tool. We demonstrate that token delay analysis based on circuit ratio imbalance and circuit ratio balancing are effective for identifying and eliminating wafer delays in a cluster tool. We discuss how circuit ratio and circuit ratio balancing can be considered as generalizations of conventional workload and workload balancing for flow lines


There is wide agreement that the integration of social care and health is the way forward with past and present government initiatives such as the creation of Care Delivery Groups (CDGs), the Better Care Fund and move to Integrated Care Systems enabling social care and health to work collaboratively together to prevent individuals being admitted to hospital so that they can be better cared for in their own homes.
As we await the forthcoming green paper on Social Care in England, we continue to know little about whether and how adult social work contributes (the means) to the effectiveness (the end) of integrated services with health, particularly for those aged 65 and over. This gap in knowledge and importantly evidence of what works, has led to funding initiatives such as the Better Care Fund being short lived. In order to be confident that the investment of public funds will deliver best value we need a more systematic approach that teases out the benefits and drawbacks of integration in a way that more easily allows comparison between different ways of delivering integrated care.
The Care Act (2014) continues to provide the legislative framework for adult social care in England and the social work role in relation to assessment and delivery of personalised care. Social workers by virtue of their value base are less risk averse than healthcare colleagues, enabling people to have more control of their decision making through personalised care approaches. In comparison with other areas of social work for example with children and families or in mental health services integration of adult social work with older people has received comparatively less attention. This needs to change if we are to realise the ambitions as articulated by Simon Stevens Chief Executive of NHS England – "to identify cohorts of people in our population, who need a pro-active, person centred response to their needs and risks, who need to be put in as much control of their lives, care and treatment as possible".
This synthesis aims to examine the evidence that is available about social work with adults aged 65 and over in integrated teams and services in order to answer three questions:
1. What are the types of research methods are being used to investigate the social work contribution to integrated working with adults and what are the strengths and limitations of these?
2. What if anything can we learn from the studies about how social workers contribute in ways that make a difference; from the perspective of other professionals and from service users and carers?
3. What if anything can we learn about the skills and capabilities that these social work contributions draw on and are these skills and capabilities in any way more 'specialised' in integrated care than perhaps in other social work settings?

In total the synthesis consisted of 35 sources of evidence that reflected a high level of diversity in respect of the methods they employed, their robustness and their focus. The synthesis while useful as an exercise in drawing together these somewhat disparate sources, reveals an overall limitation in terms of research that provides robust evidence of the social work contribution to integrated working with older adults, what this looks like as well as how it is achieved. This testifies to the need for commissioning of further research on the adult social care role in integrated care and the key questions needing answers regarding its effectiveness. Until such time as this evidence is available, social work curricula at qualifying and post qualifying levels will struggle to equip social workers to contribute to service integration effectively and we risk continuing to commission services based on limited understanding of what works.


Short-term accelerated life test activity on high brightness light emitting diodes is reported. Two families of 1-W light-emitting diodes (LEDs) from different manufacturers were submitted to distinct stress conditions: high temperature storage without bias and high dc current test. During aging, degradation mechanisms like light output decay and electrical property worsening were detected. In particular, the degradation in light efficiency induced by thermal storage was found to follow an exponential law, and the activation energy of the process was extrapolated. Aged devices exhibited a modification of the package epoxy color from white to brown. The instability of the package contributes to the overall degradation in terms of optical and spectral properties. In addition, an increase in thermal resistance was detected on one family of LEDs. This increase induces higher junction temperature levels during operative conditions. In order to correlate the degradation mechanisms and kinetics found during thermal stress, a high dc current stress was performed. Results from this comparative analysis showed similar behavior, implying that the degradation process of dc current aged devices is thermal activated due to high temperatures reached by the junction during stress. Finally, the different effects of the stress on two families of LEDs were taken into account in order to identify the impact of aging on device structure.


Modeling of wind power plant (WPP) is a crucial issue in power system steady state (i.e. load flow) studies. In this paper, a new model of WPP is proposed. Similar to the previous T-circuit based models, it is also developed based on equivalent T-circuit of the WPP induction generator.  However, unlike in the previous models, the mathematical formulation of the new model is shorter and less complicated. Moreover, the derivation of the model in the present work is also much simpler. Only minimal mathematical operations are required in the process. Furthermore, the rotor voltage value of the WPP induction generator is readily available as an output of the proposed new model. This rotor voltage value can be used as a basis to calculate the induction generator slip. Validity of the new method is tested on a representative 9-bus electrical power system installed with WPP. Comparative studies between the proposed method (new model) and other method (previous model) are also presented.


We consider abstract social systems of private property, made of n individuals endowed with non-paternalistic interdependent preferences, who interact through exchanges on competitive markets and Pareto-efficient lumpsum transfers. The transfers follow from a distributive liberal social contract defined as a redistribution of initial endowments such that the resulting market equilibrium allocation is, both, Pareto-efficient relative to individual interdependent preferences, and unanimously weakly preferred to the initial market equilibrium. We elicit the global structure of the set of Pareto-efficient allocations: its relative interior is a simply connected smooth manifold of dimension n-1, homeomorphic to the relative interior of the unit-simplex of ℝn . The property obtains under three suitable conditions on the partial preordering of Pareto associated with individual interdependent preferences, which essentially state that: the social utility functions built from weighted sums of individual interdependent utilities, by means of arbitrary positive weights, exhibit a property of differentiable non-satiation and some suitably defined property of inequality aversion; and individuals have diverging views on redistribution, in some suitable sense, at (inclusive) distributive optima. The set of market equilibrium allocations associated with the transfers of the inclusive distributive liberal social contracts consists of the allocations that are unanimously weakly preferred to the initial market equilibrium and that maximize, in the set of attainable allocations, weighted sums of individual interdependent utilities derived from suitable vectors of positive weights of ℝn ++. Its relative interior is a simply connected smooth manifold of dimension n-1 whenever the initial market equilibrium is not Pareto-efficient relative to individual interdependent preferences.


In order to properly suppress the harmonic current in a power system, the harmonic similarity metric is developed in this paper and used to establish an efficient strategy for harmonic filter placement. To validate the strategy, an industrial distribution system is analyzed under two harmonic current injection scenarios. It is demonstrated that the proposed strategy has a robust ability to successfully determine the most efficient and effective location for placing a harmonic filter bank based upon the desired objectives. The two harmonic current injection scenarios serve to validate the proposed strategy regardless of the power distribution level at which harmonic current is injected.


We examine decentralized learning and access algorithms for opportunistic spectrum access with multiple users. Several distributed algorithms have been proposed for this problem, mainly as an application of corresponding algorithms for the multiarmed bandit problem, which are provably order optimal in terms of regret. However, none of them pays particular attention to reducing collisions among users caused by lack of message exchanges. The effect of such collisions becomes more observable as the number of users increases, causing a considerable amount of added regret, despite retaining the optimal order. Focusing on time division fair sharing schemes based on the idea of orthogonal offsets, we propose a simple algorithm for detecting offset collisions and trying to resolve them as quickly as possible, inspired from persistent distributed schemes for multiple access. We demonstrate the improved performance achieved by our algorithm by means of simulations.


Comparative transcriptome analysis of E. pisi-infected pea (Pisum sativum) genotypes JI-2480 (resistant) and Arkel (susceptible) at 72 hours post inoculation (hpi) was carried to detect molecular components involved in compatible and incompatible interactions. Differential gene expression was observed in Arkel and JI-2480 genotype at 72 hpi with E. pisi isolate (Ep01) using EdgeR software. Out of 32 217 transcripts, 2755 transcripts showed significantly altered gene expression in case of plants while 530 were related to E. pisi (P < 0.05). High transcript number of differentially expressed genes demonstrated peak activity of pathogenicity genes in planta at 72 hpi. Glycolysis was observed to be the major pathway for energy source during fungal growth. Differential gene expression of plant transcripts revealed significant expression of putative receptor and regulatory sequences involved in defense in the resistant, JI-2480 compared to susceptible, Arkel genotype. Expression of genes involved in defense and hormonal signaling, genes related to hypersensitive response, reactive oxygen species and phenylpropanoid pathway in JI-2480 indicated their crucial role in disease resistance against E. pisi. Down-regulation of transcription factors like-WRKY-28 and up-regulation of several putative pattern recognition receptors in JI-2480 compared to Arkel also suggested activation of host-mediated defense responses against E. pisi in pea.


Satellite sensor images usually contain many complex factors and mixed pixels, so a high classification accuracy is not easy to attain. Especially, for a nonhomogeneous region, gray values of satellite sensor images vary greatly and thus, direct statistic gray values fail to do the categorization task correctly. The goal of this paper is to develop a cascaded architecture of neural fuzzy networks with feature mapping (CNFM) to help the clustering of satellite sensor images. In the CNFM, a Kohonen's self-organizing feature map (SOFM) is used as a preprocessing layer for the reduction of feature domain, which combines original multi-spectral gray values, structural measurements from co-occurrence matrices, and spectrum features from wavelet decomposition. In addition to the benefit of dimensional reduction of feature space, Kohonen's SOFM can remove some noisy areas and prevent the following training process from being overoriented to the training patterns. The condensed measurements are then forwarded into a neural fuzzy network, which performs supervised learning for pattern classification. The proposed cascaded approach is an appropriate technique for handling the classification problem in areas that exhibit large spatial variation and interclass heterogeneity (e.g., urban-rural infringing areas). The CNFM is a general and useful structure that can give us favorable results in terms of classification accuracy and learning speed. Experimental results indicate that our structure can retain high accuracy of classification (90% in average), while the training time is substantially reduced if our system is compared to the commonly used backpropagation network.


This paper is concerned with an experimental study into the degradation processes that occur when voids in solid dielectric materials experience high applied electric fields. A method has been developed for manufacturing 2mm thick samples of silicone resin that contain a single void of 1mm diameter . Five Samples are simultaneously electrically stressed under an applied ac sinusoidal voltage of 12kV for 6 hours that is then increased to 15kV until a sample fails. During the stressing period, PD data is regularly acquired [1]. The remaining 4 samples are then inspected for signs of degradation. A typical result of a degraded sample is shown in Figure 1. The experiment is repeatable and the obtained degraded samples have been analysed using Raman spectroscopy to identify the chemical content of the degraded areas at the void /silicone rubber interface. Initial results indicate that the degradation is a pre-cursor to the development of a bow-tie electrical tree [2] , although further research is required to confirm this.


The reduction in government funding and increased competition within the sector has led to ‗marketisation' of higher education. Universities, especially those which operate at the international level, are increasingly aware of the need to understand the various needs and wants of their students in order to enhance the overall educational experience which consequently allow them to remain competitive in the global market. Perceived value is one of the key marketing concepts which the importance is widely acknowledged by both researchers and practitioners. Within the commercial sectors, customers' perception of value has been suggested to be the primary source for competitive advantage. Numerous studies have proven perceived value to be the precursor for customers' behaviours and attitude such as intention and decision to purchase, satisfaction, loyalty and willingness to recommend a particular offering. Nevertheless, only a handful of studies have explored the concept of perceived value within the higher education context and a majority of them were conducted using quantitative approaches. Furthermore, none of the existing studies had explored how this perception of value changes at different stages of consumption and whether this perception is affected by national cultures.
This study is an attempt to fill the above gaps in existing body of knowledge. Given its global reputation and authoritative credential in business and management education, the Masters of Business Administration (MBA) was chosen for this investigation. Specifically, the main aim of this study is to understand how graduates from the UK, India and China perceived the value of their MBA. To achieve this aim, two frameworks were developed. The first framework conceptualised perceived value as a construct consisting of two high level components; perceived benefits (or ‗gets') and perceived sacrifices (or ‗gives'). Both components were further broken into a number of sub-dimensions. Monetary and non-monetary sacrifices are the two sub-dimensions for the perceived sacrifices. Meanwhile the perceived benefits were divided into functional (i.e. usefulness of the degree and quality of the programme), social, emotional and epistemic benefits. The second framework conceptualised the dynamic nature of this perception. The MBA in this study was framed as an experiential service consisting of three stages of consumption. At the pre-MBA stage (i.e. prior to enrolment), perception of value is conceptualised as the antecedent for decision to purchase (i.e. enrolment). Meanwhile, perception of value during the programme is conceptualised as the antecedent for students' satisfaction with their educational experience. Finally, at the post-MBA stage this perception is conceptualised as the antecedent for students' satisfaction with their educational outcomes. Data for the present study was collected through in-depth interviews with twenty-eight participants who graduated from the Leeds University Business School's (LUBS) full-time MBA programme between the years 2000 to 2010. The British, Chinese and Indians were chosen for this investigation due to the fact that these are the three biggest pools of students for the UK full-time MBA programmes. Retrospective interview approach was adopted to explore the graduates' perception of the MBA's value at each stage of consumption. Data from the interviews were analyzed using template analysis approach.
Findings from the study show that ascertaining the value of the MBA is a continuous evaluation process. In particular, perceived value of the MBA took different meanings at each phase of the ‗consumption' experience with different components dominating the perception. At the pre-MBA stage, the functional and epistemic benefits were found to be the main motivations for prospective students' intention to pursue the programme. The former relates to the ability to utilise the degree for attaining career agenda. Meanwhile the latter refers to the desire to learn and gain new knowledge and skills for personal development. The choice of MBA programme was dominated by the need to balance between the price or tuition fee (i.e. monetary sacrifices), quality and usefulness of the degree for career attainment (i.e. functional benefits). During the MBA programme, students mainly evaluate the value of the programme through its quality (i.e. functional benefit), especially the teaching and learning experience as well as the career support which relates closely to the epistemic and functional benefits. In addition, they also gain broader benefits in the form of broadened circle of friends and professional networks (i.e. social benefits) as well as better sense of self (i.e. emotional benefits). These benefits are compared against the sacrifices involved to determine their level of satisfaction with the programme. At the post-MBA stage, graduates initially based their evaluation of value mainly on the impacts of the programme on their career advancement (i.e. functional benefits). As they move on with their career, they continue to reflect on the sacrifices and begin to realise the broader benefits of the programme. This caused them to re-evaluate their initial perception. In addition to the above findings, the study also found that the perception of value in the higher education context is affected by nationality (i.e. culture), age and gender.
This study contributed to the understanding of perceived value concept, especially in the context of higher education. The two frameworks developed for the study specify the components of perceived value concept and explains their inter-relationships at different stages of consumption. Data from the interviews provide empirical evidence for the i) personal and idiosyncratic, ii) situational or contextual, iii) comparative and iv) dynamic or temporal nature of the concept which previously have been discussed mainly at theoretical level. The findings also have some practical implications for the business school to improve their MBA programme and remain competitive in the global MBA market.


The report contains brief historical information as well as structural description of the building. Results of the detailed inspection and structural state assessment of external and internal walls, floors and roof frame are given. These results were assumed as the basis for rehabilitation works to secure further safe operation of the building. The authors give their technical solution for strengthening of external brick walls and attic space with the help of micro-cement and epoxy injections. A repair option is described to strengthen the brickwork near the roof tension bars with low-viscosity epoxy injections and subsequent application of cement-based repair mortar and gluing carbon-fiber sheets. They also introduce their design of roof and attic load-distribution system consisting of cross-beams and steel tension bars as well as propose their solutions for strengthening brick vaults and columns in the basement with CFRP materials.


Benzodiazepines (BZ) discovered by chance by the American chemist Sternbach have been indispensable drugs not only in treatment of psychic disorders but also as antiepileptics and myorelaxants. Their heterocyclic structure is essential for the spectrum of activities. Pharmacokinetic studies have unveiled that many BZ are prodrugs of active metabolites. Nearly all BZ are lipophilic amides which are rapidly and efficiently resorbed after oral administration. Some BZ are subjected to a first-pass effect. Protein binding varies from 80-90%. Distribution is rapid but plasmatic levels are often not well correlated with biologic action. Hepatic metabolism is important whereby oxidative pathways prevail. BZ act through amplification of the effects of the neurotransmitter y-aminobutyric acid (GABA). The extent of action is thus limited within narrow margins. Subtypes of BZ-receptors found experimentally might indicate that certain actions i.e. anxiolysis arise via subtype specific binding. The development of more selective drugs, free of side effects, could therefore become possible. Newly developed BZ-antagonists counteract most BZ-effects efficiently. A practical classification of BZ uses plasmatic elimination-halflife (t 1/2): 1. Long-acting substances (t 1/2: up to 100 hrs): Diazepam, Nitrazepam, Flurazepam, Bromazepam (most with active metabolites) 2. Substances of intermediate action (t 1/2: up to 30 hrs): Oxazepam, Lorazepam, Flunitrazepam, Temazepam (few active metabolites) 3. Short-acting substances (t 1/2 up to 8 hrs): Triazolam, Nidazolam (few active metabolites)


The article discusses the formation of the painting decoration of Greek pottery the geometric period considerwd from the perspective of the potential sources of inspiration from which its creators could draw. Similarity between numerouthat the iconographic motifs appearing on Greek vessels and the presentations know from the Oriental art suggests that the latter could influence the artistic awareness of the ancient Greeks. This direction of influence is also suggested by other premises resulting from the charekter of the general activity of Greeks in the 8 th century B.C. and their reations with the external world. However, in many cases, pinpointing such dependencies is considerably hindered. On the one hand, there are diverse sources of influence, among which the tradition of the Minoan nd Mycenaean art which certainly overlapped with other impulses coming, from the East plays an impotrant role. On the other hand, the character of the artistic language of the Greek geometric art is so spmplified in pottery painting that it might lose important details that indicate exemplary sources of inspiration. Thus, in many examples of geometric pottery presentations we have no such certainty or we completely do not see links between the Greek geometric art and the atr of the East. However, it does not rule out its influence on the shape of other iconoraphic motifs and compositional schemas used for decorating geomatric vessels. among the compositions of Greek vessel decoration from the geometric period in which one can notice eastern aesthetic impulses that show the world of Greek funeral rituals ( prothesi s and iekphora scenes) and depictions defined as "battle scenes'. In bouth categories, the iconographic similarities to the Oriental art are so perceptible that one can venture a statement that a Greek potter could use the already existing patterns which were created in the East.


The lack of a standard experimental procedure to determine thermal conductivity of fluids is noticeable in heat transfer processes from practical and fundamental perspectives. Since a wide variety of techniques have been used, reported literature data have huge discrepancies. A common practice is using manufactured thermal conductivity meters for nanofluids, which can standardize the measurements but are also somewhat inaccurate. In this study, a new methodology to perform reliable measurements with a recent commercial transient hot-wire device is introduced. Accordingly, some extensively studied fluids in the literature (water, ethylene glycol, ethylene glycol:water mixture 50:50 vol%, propylene glycol, and n-tetradecane) covering the range 0.100 to 0.700 W m−1 K−1 were used to check the device in the temperature range 283.15 to 333.15 K. Deviations between the collected data and the theoretical model, and repeatabilities and deviations between reported and literature values, were analyzed. Systematic deviations in raw data were found, and a correction factor depending on the mean thermal conductivity was proposed to operate with nanofluids. Considering all tested effects, the expanded (k = 2) uncertainty of the device was set as 5%. This proposed methodology was also checked with n-hexadecane and magnesium-oxide-based n-tetradecane nanofluids.


This paper introduces the concept of intangible assets in a property rights model of sequential supply chains. Firms transmit knowledge to their suppliers to facilitate input customization. Yet, to avoid knowledge dissipation, they must protect the transmitted intangibles, the cost of which depends on the knowledge intensity of inputs and the quality of institutions protecting intellectual property rights (IPR) in supplier locations. When input knowledge intensity increases (decreases) downstream and suppliers' investments are complements, the probability of integrating a randomly selected input is decreasing (increasing) in IPR quality and increasing (decreasing) in the relative knowledge intensity of downstream inputs. Opposite but weaker predictions hold when suppliers' investments are substitutes. Comprehensive trade and FDI data on Slovenian firms' value chains provide evidence in support of our model's predictions. They also suggest that, in line with our model, better institutions may have very different effects on firm organization depending on whether they improve the protection of tangible or intangible assets.


We present here a fast code for creating a synthetic survey of the Milky Way. Given one or more color–magnitude bounds, a survey size, and geometry, the code returns a catalog of stars in accordance with a given model of the Milky Way. The model can be specified by a set of density distributions or as an N-body realization. We provide fast and efficient algorithms for sampling both types of models. As compared to earlier sampling schemes which generate stars at specified locations along a line of sight, our scheme can generate a continuous and smooth distribution of stars over any given volume. The code is quite general and flexible and can accept input in the form of a star formation rate, age–metallicity relation, age–velocity-dispersion relation, and analytic density distribution functions. Theoretical isochrones are then used to generate a catalog of stars, and support is available for a wide range of photometric bands. As a concrete example, we implement the Besançon Milky Way model for the disk. For the stellar halo we employ the simulated stellar halo N-body models of Bullock & Johnston. In order to sample N-body models, we present a scheme that disperses the stars spawned by an N-body particle, in such a way that the phase-space density of the spawned stars is consistent with that of the N-body particles. The code is ideally suited to generating synthetic data sets that mimic near future wide area surveys such as GAIA, LSST, and HERMES. As an application we study the prospect of identifying structures in the stellar halo with a simulated GAIA survey. We plan to make the code publicly available.


Purpose: Effective primary healthcare services may prevent unnecessary admissions to emergency care which help efficient operation in the emergency care units. The aim of this study is to evaluate the association between primary healthcare services and number of emergency service admission per person in public hospitals in 2013 in Turkey. Methods: This ecological study analysed data which data of 81 administrative regions. The data were obtained from Public Hospital Associations-2014 and Ministry of Health Annual Statistics 2013 Reports. Results: The number of emergency service admission has a negative weak correlation with the number of individuals registered for each primary care physician (r=-0.228, p=0.040). There was a negative weak significant correlation for the regions with large population (r=-0.311, p=0.048). When the populations of the cities were divided into two according to their size, no significant relationship was identified between the number of people per family physician and emergency service admission per person in both small and big cities (p>0.05). There was no significant correlation between the number of primary care examinations per person and the number of emergency service admission per person in all cities and small ones (p>0.05). Conclusion: In contrary to expectations, primary care services in Turkey is far from decreasing emergency service admissions. Reinforcement of primary care and implementation of an efficient referral system should be considered for better use of health care resources.


Barium titanate (BaTiO3, BT) - potassium niobate (KNbO3, KN) solid solution system (0.5BT-0.5KN) ceramics with various microstructures were prepared by conventional sintering method and two-step sintering method using BT and KN nanoparticles. Their microstructures were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and it was confirmed that two ferroelectric phases, i.e., BT-rich tetragonal and KN-rich orthorhombic phases, always coexisted for all ceramics, which suggested that 0.5BT-0.5KN ceramics had "pseudo-morphotropic phase boundary (MPB)" structure. Thus, the control of the interface area between two phases was important to enhance piezoelectric property. Finally, their piezoelectric property was measured, and the apparent piezoelectric constant d33* increased with increasing interface area.


Context. Several quality standards have been developed over the years in order to define quality metrics for an organization's product and even processes. One of the famous standards among them is the ISO 9000 standards which started several years ago. Since its beginning, ISO standards have seen several upgrades. Currently ISO 9001:2008 is in use which is being upgraded to ISO 9001: 2015. Companies have to migrate to the new scheme within three years of the prescribed time in order to retain certification to the ISO 9001 standards. The present thesis is targeted at finding the expected changes and the work improvements in the context of software engineering.Objectives. The main aim of the study is to find the expected changes and work improvements needed to migrate to the new version. This is done by fulfilling the following objectives, they are: analyze the expected changes and motivations for the changes in the new ISO 9001 version. Understand the required work and improvements needed for a software organization to successfully upgrade their certification to the new ISO 9001:2015 version. Predict the estimated cost/time /effort that could be incurred for organization to get certified to the forthcoming ISO version.Methods. In order to meet the objectives, a literature review was done and the changes incorporated in the new scheme are identified. A survey was conducted in order to predict the impact of cost, time and effort on the new changes in moving to ISO 9001:2008 to ISO 9001:2015. The survey was sent only to software organizations as the context of this study is only restricted to quality in software engineering. The collected data was analyzed using bi-variate analysis and Friedman test on SPSS tool.Results. From the literature review, the changes brought about in the new scheme were identified. These changes made were used in the survey questionnaire designed. The survey questionnaire was designed to investigate the expectations of the organizations on the time taken, cost incurred and the effort needed to implement these changes. A total of 63 responses were recorded from the survey.Conclusions. From the analysis it was found that several key changes were identified in the new scheme when compared to the old one. From the survey responses, the cost needed for implementing the changes is expected to be moderate, the time needed is predicted as less than 1 year and the effort needed for implementing the changes was estimated to be more. Along with this, the document also holds clear results about clause by clause expected time, cost and effort estimates and the reasons for these assumptions.


This research is a study on Ibsen's Hedda Gabler based on the Radical
Feminism approach. There are two objectives of the study. The first objective is to
investigate the kinds of struggle committed by Hedda Gabler in fighting over
patriarchal ideology as reflected in the play. The second objective is to investigate
the kinds of obstacle faced by Hedda Gabler in fighting over the ideology.
This research is qualitative study with content analysis method. The object
of the study is the struggle of radical feminism ideology to fight patriarchal
ideology in Ibsen's play Hedda Gabler. The data of the study are words, sentences
and dialogues found in the play. The data analysis was conducted using radical
feminism approach and other information which have close relationship to the
issue of the objectives of this study. In order to get credibility and validity of the
findings, the researcher applied triangulation and discussion technique. Further, in
order to gain transferability, the researcher provided descriptive data as clear and
efficient as possible within the form of data table. The researcher also reread the
play to get dependability and consulted her research findings to his thesis
consultants to achieve the conformability.
There are two major important points as the results of the analysis. The
first result is there are three kinds of struggle committed by Hedda as a female
character here. They are (1) being an androgynous person, (2) freely
experimenting with her own sexuality, and (3) rejecting biological motherhood.
Meanwhile, the second result is there are three major obstacles faced by Hedda
here, which unfortunately comes from the patriarchal ideology itself. The three
obstacles are (1) gender discrimination, (2) sexual oppression, and (3) biological
motherhood. In sum, although the strength of male's world and its ideology of
patriarchy seems stronger than any other enemy for every woman, it is undeniable
duty for women to give their best struggle to fight it. The results of the struggle
are not the main points, what is more important is the struggle itself.


The author explains how 'virtual' came into the everyday computing lexicon. The term virtual was borrowed from optics in the 1980s and has become a major term in computing today. In its broadest sense, virtual machine refers to the universality of the computer: with sufficient memory, any computer can simulate any other if we simply load it with software simulating the other computer.


This article is an attempt to capture the reality of young TV viewers and the complexity of their participation in audiovisual media culture during the political transformation in Poland after 1989. Qualitative research (interviews and spoken stories) conducted on a group of thirty-year-old men whose period of early adolescence occurred in the nineties is the base for these deliberations. Respondents asked about their participation in the audiovisual media culture in the first half of the nineties talked about their first experiences with VHS cassettes, cinema and the so-called culture fansite. The aim is to identify what impact the aesthetics of the nineties – as well as an attempt to "catch up with the world" after 1989 –  had on the daily lives of the subjects.


This article analyzes the entanglement between the contemporary discourse of empathy and the neoliberal imaginary, arguing that it threatens the (already strained) relationship between empathy and justice. Joining current scholarly debates about the pro-social effects of empathy, the article focuses on a specific case study: the 2009 criminal trial of Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, two Wall Street executives charged with conspiracy and fraud after their hedge fund collapsed. Their criminal trial, which was one of the first prosecutions originating from the credit crunch, ended with a surprising acquittal. In this study, I analyze how the defense made skillful use of the discourse of empathy in order to affect the jury's final decision. Their strategies, I argue, drew power from the broader cultural context of the neoliberal embrace of empathy – and the underlying beliefs, expectations, and confusions that accompany this embrace. Particularly, I show how the defense mobilized the neoliberal ethos of hard work, optimism and globalism in order to encourage the jurors to step into the shoes of the defendants. The counsels' call to empathy involved a blurring between self-oriented perspective-taking and other-oriented perspective-taking, so that an imaginative stepping-into-the-shoes of the defendants was confused with a deep understanding of Cioffi and Tannin's actual experience and genuine intentions. This distorted pseudo-empathy, I argue, played a decisive role in the final outcome of the trial – and perhaps helped contribute to the crises of empathy that we are currently undergoing.


We have investigated the use of an adapter that permits the use of a Leksell coordinate frame with a linear accelerator stereotactic radiosurgery system based on the Brown–Robert–Wells (BRW) design. This device is useful when lesions that are planned for treatment on a Leksell Gamma Knife system are found to be inaccessible to the Gamma Knife. We have found that with this device objects within a head phantom can be targeted by the linear accelerator within an accuracy of approximately 1 mm.


Solid silicon nanowires and their luminescent properties have been widely studied, but lesser is known about the optical properties of mesoporous silicon nanowires (mp-SiNWs). In this work, we present a facile method to generate greenish-blue photoluminescence (GB-PL) by fast scanning a focused green laser beam (wavelength of 532 nm) on a close-packed array of mp-SiNWs to carry out photo-induced chemical modification. The threshold of laser power is 5 mW to excite the GB-PL, whose intensity increases with laser power in the range of 5–105 mW. The quenching of GB-PL comes to occur beyond 105 mW. The in-vacuum annealing effectively excites the GB-PL in the pristine mp-SiNWs and enhances the GB-PL of the laser-modified mp-SiNWs. A complex model of the laser-induced surface modification is proposed to account for the laser-power and post-annealing effect. Moreover, the fast scanning of focused laser beam enables us to locally tailor mp-SiNWs en route to a wide variety of micropatterns with different optical functionality, and we demonstrate the feasibility in the application of creating hidden images.


ABSTRACT Nonspecific immunoglobulin E (IgE) production is an event characteristically observed in parasitic helminth infections, but its mechanisms are still unclear. To define these mechanisms, we prepared a recombinant Dirofilaria immitis protein (rDiAg) and assessed its effect on nonspecific IgE production. rDiAg preferentially induced nonspecific IgE production, without eliciting specific IgE production, as well as a Th2-type cytokine profile (high interleukin-4 [IL-4] and IL-10 production but low gamma interferon production) in BALB/c mice. rDiAg significantly elicited the proliferative response of naive B cells. This response was not abolished by polymyxin B, an inhibitor of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and rDiAg normally expanded splenic B cells from LPS nonresponder C3H/HeJ mice. Thus, the mitogenic effect of rDiAg was not due to LPS contamination. rDiAg also enhanced levels of CD23 expression on splenic B cells. Splenic B cells produced marked levels of IgE when cultured with the combination of rDiAg and IL-4 (rDiAg-IL-4), whereas peritoneal B cells produced negligible levels of IgE. rDiAg-IL-4-induced IgE production by splenic B cells was synergistically increased by coculture with peritoneal B cells. rDiAg-driven IL-10 secretion was higher in peritoneal B cells than in splenic B cells. IgE production by splenic B cells cocultured with peritoneal B cells was decreased to a level comparable to that by splenic B cells in the presence of a neutralizing anti-IL-10 monoclonal antibody. Collectively, these results suggest that rDiAg-induced polyclonal expansion and IgE class switching of splenic B cells contribute to nonspecific IgE production and that these responses are enhanced by peritoneal B-cell-derived IL-10.


We study markets of indivisible items in which price-based (Walrasian) equilibria often do not exist due to the discrete non-convex setting. Instead we consider Nash equilibria of the market viewed as a game, where players bid for items, and where the highest bidder on an item wins it and pays his bid. We first observe that pure Nash-equilibria of this game excatly correspond to price-based equilibiria (and thus need not exist), but that mixed-Nash equilibria always do exist, and we analyze their structure in several simple cases where no price-based equilibrium exists. We also undertake an analysis of the welfare properties of these equilibria showing that while pure equilibria are always perfectly efficient ("first welfare theorem"), mixed equilibria need not be, and we provide upper and lower bounds on their amount of inefficiency.


Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies among women worldwide. GWASs have found several potential breast cancer associated SNPs in some populations. Among them, rs13281615, rs889312, rs10941679 and rs3803662 have been found to have strong relationship with breast cancer risk in different populations. Rs3803662 were statisti¬cally significantly associated with breast cancer risk in Asian population, while three others SNPs were showed to have stronger association with breast cancer in American, European and Australian than Asian. In this study, focusing on Vietnamese people only, four these SNPs were investigated to understand more about the association between these variations with breast cancer disease. An optimized genotyping method was used to genotype 600 samples including 300 controls and 300 cases. The result showed that rs13281615, rs889312, and rs10941679 were not associated with Vietnamese breast cancer patients (P>0.05). However, rs3803662 has strong association with breast cancer risk in Vietnamese population (P = 0.00122, OR = 1.454, 95%CI = 1.159-1.826). Allele A plays the role of increasing the risk of breast cancer and the genotype AA shows strongly affecting to increase breast cancer risk. Rs3803662 may involve in the list of markers using for diagnosis breast cancer in Vietnamese people in the future. A further study on larger sample size is certainly required to increase the reliability of the study. We also suggest doing more association studies for other SNPs and analyzing the haplotype to identify multiple breast cancer risk prediction markers for Vietnamese population


Poly-Si thin-film transistors (TFTs) with an asymmetric dual-gate, which reduces the kink current considerably, have been proposed and fabricated without any additional mask. Asymmetric dual-gate TFTs consist of a long gate and a short gate, which are located near the source and the drain, respectively. In the saturation regime, the short gate would induce the pinchoff near the drain, while the long gate may operate in the linear mode so that the kink effect only occurs at the channel under short gate. We have successfully fabricated asymmetric dual-gate TFTs and experimental results show that the kink current is successfully reduced. We also performed numerical simulation of electrical potential at the floated n+ region in order to verify the experimental result.


Acoustic-resolution photoacoustic imaging enables unique high-resolution visualization of chromophores in deep tissue. However, most current systems are bulky and use complex optical components for illumination. In this study, we developed a compact acoustic-resolution photoacoustic imaging system with simple fiber-based illumination. Around the ultrasound sensor attached to an acoustic lens, four optical fibers were placed in four directions 90° apart, and the sensor plane was covered with an optically and acoustically transparent plastic spacer. The imaging head is compact (diameter, 32 mm; height, 27 mm) and lightweight (32 g) and is alignment-free, thus being suitable for in vivo applications. We assessed the uniformity and symmetry of photoacoustic excitation both by Monte Carlo simulation and experiments. A phantom study showed lateral and axial resolutions of the system to be 148 and 66 µm, respectively. With the system, high-contrast visualization of blood vessels in rat skin was demonstrated in vivo.


Abstract A downward extension of a Dutch version of Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC) was tested in a Flemish sample of 880 1st to 3rd graders (M age = 7.18 years, SD = 0.80). In 2nd and 3rd graders, 5 SPPC factors were identified; in 1st graders only 4 were identified. Support was found for the equivalence of structure and measurement for 2nd and 3rd grades and for boys and girls. Most scales possessed reasonable to good internal consistency for these groups. The results support the multidimensionality of self-concept responses for young children and the improving of the distinctiveness of SPPC factors with age. Young children seem to have an ability to verbalize concepts of their global self-worth that can be tapped by self-report measures.


Field and greenhouse studies examined the fruit detachment force (FDF) and fruit and pedicel characteristics of two lines of tabasco pepper (Capsicum frutescens L.) at several stages of maturity. The detachment force of red-mature 'McIlhenny Select' fruit at the calyx-fruit detachment area was lower than that of less mature fruit stages. The force required to detach red-mature Hard Pick (HP) tabasco fruit was higher than that of red-mature 'McIlhenny Select' fruit in the field and greenhouse. The fruit detachment force of red field-grown HP fruit was higher, and in the greenhouse was lower, than that of green or breaker fruit. HP fruit of all maturity stages, except red-mature, separated similarly to 'McIlhenny Select' fruit with little or no fruit tissue attached to the calyx. Fruit detachment force was not correlated with any fruit or pedicel characteristics studied.


Localization of the mRNA for this receptor has identified many regions of the rat brain in which the gene for this receptor is active. Several of these regions are consistent with the cannabinoid- or marijuana-induced effects that occur in both laboratory animals and humans. However, other labeled regions are not easily associated with well-known effects of marijuana (Matsuda et al., submitted for publication). Although great progress has been achieved in elucidating the mechanism of action of cannabis in recent years (Howlett et al. 1990), much remains to be discovered about the expression of cannabinoid receptors in the brain and exactly how this receptor influences numerous brain functions.


Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally, as estimated by the World Health Organization, where in 2016, 15.2 million deaths were attributed to ischemic heart disease and stroke. It is therefore essential to try to reduce the incidence of Cardiovascular disease by controlling modifiable risk factors. One such major modifiable risk factor is cholesterol, which influences the pathogenesis and progression of atherosclerosis. Statins are often prescribed to lower blood levels of low density lipoprotein cholesterol, thereby reducing the risk of Cardiovascular disease by approximately 25-35%. However, there is an increasing number of patients (in particular those with intolerance to statin therapy and those with familial hypercholesterolemia) for whom statin therapy alone is not enough to control low density lipoprotein cholesterol. In this review, the regulation of cholesterol metabolism will be discussed with an emphasis on novel cholesterol lowering drugs used in clinical trials. These second-generation drugs, monoclonal antibodies against the low density lipoprotein receptor gene known as proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 inhibitors, are expected to be prescribed to patients who are intolerant to statins, as well as in conjunction with statins. Future perspectives of the clinical use of these drugs is also discussed.


In this thesis, we present an abstract meta-model for model driven development of web applications targeting multiple platforms. We review the existing technologies and the related work in order to obtain a list of requirements for such an abstract model. The abstract model is built by extending an existing UML-based model for web applications. We demonstrate that it is possible to map this abstract model to more than one specific development platform by providing transformations for these mappings. We also lay out the general outline of a model-driven process based on the proposed abstract model. The abstract model and the model-driven process are supported by a set of tools, case studies and a visual modeling notation.
Model-driven techniques have been used in the area of web development to a great extent. Most of the existing approaches are tuned toward specific platforms or develop only certain parts of web applications. These approaches generally use meta-models adapted to their targeted platforms. In order to flexibly target multiple platforms, the level of abstraction of the meta-model must be raised. Such a meta-model must allow the description of relevant features of web applications independently from the specificities of specific platforms. Additionally, transformations mapping from abstract to specific web descriptions must be expressible in a flexible way. In this thesis, we propose such an abstract meta-model. Mappings that transform abstract models to specific platforms are also presented.
Different benefits can be foreseen from this approach. By relieving developers from low-level platform-specific related design, the approach has the potential to shift the development task to issues related to business needs. Another benefit is shortened development time. This could help web developers to overcome the problem of schedule delays, which is recognized as one of the top five most-cited problems with large-scale web systems. The approach is specifically suitable for information-intensive web-based systems. These applications typically involve large data stores accessed through a web interface. A distinctive aspect of this approach is its use of a specification of the data mapping as part of its high-level input. More importantly, the common features required to process data and communicate data objects between different layers and components are targeted.


Corruption is a central cause of economic, financial, and political risk and instability; depreciated social capital and trust; democratic deficit; and violence and terrorism. It is thus no surprise that as regionalization and the integration of global markets has intensified, the fight against corruption has become an important part of the global policy agenda. This thesis investigates Italy's new Anti-Corruption Law (Legge n. 190/2012)—a law that was passed by Mario Monti's technocratic government in 2012, as part of a series of structural reforms designed to stabilize the Italian economy.
This thesis looks at the Anti-Corruption Law from a regional lens. By speaking to Italian academics, jurists, politically-engaged citizens, regional anti-corruption officials, and Transparency International Italia, this thesis evaluates the implementation of the Anti-Corruption Law in two regions and identifies factors that affect its implementation at the regional level.


The resistance coefficients through which gas flow permeable refractory are important properties and have great effect on the gas blowing parameters and gas-liquid two phase flowing characteristics in the metallurgy furnace such as ladles, tundish. In this paper, the resistance coefficients were measured according to the Forchheimer's law. The results show when the gas flow rate is fixed, the viscosity resistance coefficient and inertia resistance coefficient decrease as the apparent porosity and average pore diameter increase. The viscous resistance coefficient is more lager than the inertial resistance coefficient. The resistance coefficients were analyzed by dimensional analysis and the statistical correlations between the resistance coefficients and parameters of porous permeable refractory were got based on the experimental data. In order to get high strength at low resistance coefficients, the raw materials particle degree were adjusted.


Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) has many unique properties such as lightweight and high chemical resistance. Unfortunately, it burns rapidly when it is exposed to a flame which limits its applications especially when flame resistance is to be considered. Different percentages of magnesium hydroxide and decabromide diphenyl ether (3.0, 5.0, 7.0, and 9.0 wt.%) were mixed with LDPE using a two-roll mill machine at 1600C for 2 minutes. Then, the tensile and flame retardancy tests samples were prepared by an injection molding process using an industrial plastic machine at 1600C. Flammability, rheological, tensile and thermal properties of the produced samples were tested using a flammability test apparatus, a melt flow index machine, a universal testing machine, and a differential scanning calorimeter, respectively. It was observed that the flame resistance of LDPE was improved with the addition of both flame retardants up to 7.0 wt.%, then it was reduced when 9.0 wt.% of flame retardants were used. This may be attributed to the poor mixing due to the increase in the polymer melt viscosity as observed from the melt flow index results. An increase in elastic modulus and a reduction in ductility of LDPE were observed with the increasing of flame-retardant contents while the ultimate tensile strength of LDPE was increased from 5.7 to 7.6 and 7.5 MPa when 9.0 wt.% and 7.0wt.% decabromide diphenyl ether and magnesium hydroxide were added. This is due to the fact that the additives act as a load carried and/or their effects on the degree of crystallinity of LDPE.


OBJECTIVE
This study was conducted to evaluate the potent immunomodulatory effects of Lactobacilli and their possible anti-allergic effects.

METHODS
Lactobacillus plantarum LP45 (LP45), Lactobacillus acidophilus La28 (La28), Lactobacillus acidophilus 6091 (6091), Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) were orally administrated to male BALB/C mice, respectively for 28 d. The immune organ index, serum Th1 cytokines [interferon-γ (IFN-γ), interleukin-12 (IL-12)] and Th2 cytokines IL-6 of the tested mice were analyzed with ELISA after intervention. Furthermore, La28, 6901 were also orally fed to ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized male BALB/C. The serum total IgE of the tested mice was analyzed with ELISA after intervention.

RESULTS
No statistical difference was found in immune organ index among the tested four strains. La28 significantly decreased serum IL-6 of the tested mice after 14 d and 28 d compared to those in control (P < 0.05). After 28 d, 6091 also significantly reduced serum IL-6 of the tested mice (P < 0.05). La28 significantly suppressed the increase of serum total IgE of the tested mice (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
The present study indicates that the immunomodulatory effects of Lactobacilli might be strain-dependent. Among the tested strains of Lactobacilli, La28 and 6091 may have possibility to influence the Th2 immunity of host animal. La28 may also posse potent ability to alter IgE mediated allergy by the way to affect Th1/Th2 balance of host animal.


The traditional organization of the hog-pork subsector, characterized by independent hog production and open market coordination, is being challenged as never before. Rapid growth of large, industrialized production firms with close ties to processors in non-traditional areas such as North Carolina and Colorado indicate the need for change in traditional systems in the Midwest if these producers and communities are to continue to participate in the hog- pork subsector. Given that few, if any, traditional producers have the capital to attain minimum cost size for a complete production system that fully uses new more efficient technology, some means to coordinate production and marketing of a number of producers will be required. Cooperative coordination of the production and marketing of independent producers is one alternative to achieve and capture for producers the additional returns from a coordinated system. This discussion describes and evaluates alternative models of cooperative coordination in the hog-pork chain. These models were obtained by interviewing executives from selected cooperatives and other leaders who are involved in the hog-pork industry in Europe and the U.S.


Basement membranes (BMs) are complex macromolecular networks underlying all continuous layers of cells. Essential components include collagen IV and laminins, which are affected by human genetic variants leading to a range of debilitating conditions including kidney, muscle, and cerebrovascular phenotypes. We investigated the dynamics of BM assembly in human pluripotent stem cell-derived kidney organoids. We resolved their global BM composition and discovered a conserved temporal sequence in BM assembly that paralleled mammalian fetal kidneys. We identified the emergence of key BM isoforms, which were altered by a pathogenic variant in COL4A5. Integrating organoid, fetal, and adult kidney proteomes, we found dynamic regulation of BM composition through development to adulthood, and with single-cell transcriptomic analysis we mapped the cellular origins of BM components. Overall, we define the complex and dynamic nature of kidney organoid BM assembly and provide a platform for understanding its wider relevance in human development and disease.


Introduction Little is known about the use of rotationally grazed pastures by wild bird species, particularly in Midwestern landscapes. What is known is that continuously grazed pastures tend to have low bird production and use due to the lack of sufficient vegetative structure and to trampling of ground nests by cattle. Long-term rotational grazing (where livestock are shifted between several pastures every few days or weeks, as opposed to intensive rotational grazing where they are shifted every day) has the potential to produce high-quality cattle grazing and grasslands for wildlife. Early in the grazing season, farmers could use cool-season grass and forb (CSG) pastures for rotational grazing, leaving warm-season grass and forb (WSG) pastures to produce wildlife, especially birds. At the end of June or early July, cattle could be shifted to the WSG pastures for rotational grazing. Not only does this allow the WSG to grow to excellent grazing height, it also allows ground-nesting birds to potentially complete a nesting cycle. Further, as CSG are left to grow (although slowly) until fall, latenesting birds and re-nesters may utilize the CSG, as well. Depending on the length of time between rotations, early nesters may also use the CSG early in the nesting season.


– Expedited research on Obesity has confirmed that, adipose tissue is highly active in secreting a variety of proteins, one among them is visfatin. It was originally identified as Pre B cell Colony Enhancing Factor (PBEF), to be secreted by the lymphocytes and can act as a cytokine with immune regulatory action. Besides, it acts as Nicotinamide phosphoribosyl transferase (Nampt), an enzyme involved in the NAD+ salvage pathway. It has been shown to help in the regulation of glucose homeostasis, but whether it binds to insulin receptor and exerts insulin mimetic activity is still a controversy. Visfatin has antiapoptotic activity and has a regulatory role in inflammation. Several studies have identified changes in the circulatory levels of visfatin in diseases. Notable among them are obesity, diabetes mellitus, kidney diseases and bone disorders. It is a molecule of clinical relevance and could be a promising biomarker with diagnostic and prognostic significance.


To achieve organizational goals, the use of effective project management is increasingly growing in the modern world. Efficiency of project management is an identical topic among top executive managers in the technology management industry. In this study it is focused on the competences of the Project Managers who leads the project, and the aim to blend the perspective of both academic and the project management expertise knowledge within a research frame work to discover how the organizational project management can be effective through team management, and how Project Manager's competence and their leadership can help to achieve productivity in projects. It considers project management to be a vital unit of the case company and that it brings awareness how to improve project control and Project Managers' competences to standard managerial methods. In the first part of this thesis a continual description of Project Managers' characteristics, team organizing and leadership and the project management success factors which affect the project to be successful is described. The final part of this thesis provides empirical evidence with depth analysis of Project Manager' skills, team management and leadership, as well as various success factors which are related to potential project outcome.


The syntheses of a series of new ketohydrazone dyes and pigment lakes with a unique structural motif derived from 4-morpholino-2-naphthol are described. The morpholine substituent is responsible for the hypsochromically shifted absorption maxima with significantly enhanced molar extinction coefficients of the new dyes; this conclusion is supported by time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) simulations. The location of the morpholine substituent at a sterically demanding site in the pigment lake obstructs further coordination of the bridging sulfonate groups in the solid state and prevents the formation of a 1-dimensional polymeric system, which is common for other pigment lakes.


High doses of fenfluramine (FEN) are known to deplete central serotonin (5-HT) in animals, but functional impairments associated with such 5-HT depletion have been difficult to identify. In the present work, we examined neuroendocrine responsiveness in rats exposed to repeated high-dose FEN treatment. Male rats fitted with indwelling catheters received FEN (20 mg/kg, subcutaneously, twice a day) or saline for 4 days. At 1 and 2 weeks after treatment, rats were challenged with intravenous FEN (1.5 & 3 mg/kg) or saline. Repeated blood samples were drawn, and plasma was assayed for prolactin and corticosterone by radioimmunoassay. Acute FEN challenge caused dose-dependent elevations of plasma prolactin and corticosterone in all rats. However, the FEN-induced hormone responses were significantly blunted (p < 0.01) in rats previously exposed to FEN. The repeated FEN dosing regimen dramatically reduced (> 50%) postmortem 5-HT levels in the mediobasal hypothalamus, basolateral amygdala, and hippocampus, while the lateral hypothalamus was unaffected. These data suggest that high-dose FEN causes alterations in central 5-HT systems involved with pituitary hormone secretion. The relevance of the present data to the clinical use of FEN is unclear. Because the neuroendocrine challenge paradigm is able to identify functional 5-HT deficits in rats, we propose that similar experiments should be performed in humans. Neuroendocrine challenge tests represent a reliable method to test the existence of FEN-induced neurotoxicity in human patients undergoing long-term FEN treatment.


AbstractLittle is known about the organizational and environmental factors associated with the employment of nurses in substance abuse treatment programs. Using data collected from the administrators of 250 publicly funded substance abuse treatment programs, this study examined the organizational and environmental correlates of nurse employment in these settings. Negative binomial regression models indicated that the number of nurses employed by treatment programs was positively associated with government ownership, location within a healthcare setting, and the availability of detoxification services. Outpatient-only programs employed fewer nurses than programs with inpatient/residential services. Two environmental factors were associated with nurse employment. Programs that more strongly endorsed a scale of financial barriers employed significantly fewer nurses, whereas programs indicating that funding from state contracts could be used to pay for healthcare providers employed significantly more nurses. These findings suggest that organizational decisions about employing nurses may reflect both the characteristics of the program and the funding environment. Future research should continue to examine the employment of nurses in substance abuse treatment settings, particularly given the shifting environment due to the implementation of healthcare reform.


To reduce the average file delivery time under limited backhaul bandwidth and cache storage, we propose a fractional dynamic caching scheme, that coordinates the utilization of the backhaul and the cache storage. In the proposed scheme, only part of each file is pre-fetched and stored in the static storage segment of small base stations (SBSs), while remaining part of the file will be fetched into the dynamic storage segment when requested by users. We aim to minimize the average file delivery time by investigating the optimal prefetching policy, i.e., the size of the pre-fetched part of each file and the size of the dynamic storage. We formulate the file delivery time minimization problem as a convex optimization formulation. We compute the closed-form of the optimal pre-fetching policy when the wireless rate is constant. Then, a heuristic pre-fetching policy is derived, using the conditional average wireless rate. To overcome the issue that file popularity may be unknown or time-varying, we further provide an approximation of the heuristic pre-fetching policy which is irrelevant to the file popularity. We also discuss on the potential application of the proposed caching scheme in scenarios with heterogeneous file sizes. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme can substantially improve the backhaul utilization efficiency, and reduce the average file delivery time. The heuristic pre-fetching policy has similar performance with the optimal pre-fetching policy yet with much lower complexity.


Abstract We evaluated two enzyme immunoassays (EIA) for detection of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) which became recently available and which were designed for application on a fully automated system; (i) the EIA-ANA screen kit from Sigma Diagnostics (St. Louis, MO, USA) applied on APTUS™, an automated EIA analyser from Sigma Diagnostics and (ii) the Cobas® Core Hep-2 EIA-ANA assay applied on the fully automated Cobas Core immunochemistry analyzer from Roche Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland). The evaluation was done by an analytic comparison of the automated systems to an established indirect immunofluorescence (IF) method performed on SSA transfected human epitheloid cell substrate slides. Three hundred and thirty six samples were tested with the Sigma EIA-ANA assay and 603 samples with the Cobas® Core Hep-2 EIA-ANA assay. For both EIA systems, there was a trend of generally increasing signal from the assay system with increasing IF-ANA titers. With an IF-ANA reference range of < 1:160, concordance between Sigma® EIA-ANA and IFANA was 86% and concordance between Roche® EIA-ANA and IF-ANA was 85%. When compared to IF-ANA with a reference range of < 1:160, sensitivity and specificity of the EIA-ANA screen was 0.65 and 0.92, respectively, for Sigma® EIA-ANA and 0.61 and 0.91, respectively, for the Cobas® Core assay. The low sensitivity observed with both methods is a major concern. Sigma EIA-ANA screen revealed the presence of autoantibodies in 23 of the 29 samples containing antibodies to extractable nuclear antigens (ENA) and/or double stranded DNA and the Cobas® Core Hep-2 EIA-ANA assay revealed the presence of autoantibodies in 40 of the 43 samples containing antibodies to ENA and/or double stranded DNA.


Abstract Gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) induce complex galls on oaks, roses, and other plants, but the mechanism of gall induction is still unknown. Here, we take a comparative genomic approach to revealing the genetic basis of gall induction. We focus on Synergus itoensis, a species that induces galls inside oak acorns. Previous studies suggested that this species evolved the ability to initiate gall formation recently, as it is deeply nested within the genus Synergus, whose members are mostly inquilines that develop inside the galls of other species. We compared the genome of S. itoensis with that of three related Synergus inquilines to identify genomic changes associated with the origin of gall induction. We used a novel Bayesian selection analysis, which accounts for branch-specific and gene-specific selection effects, to search for signatures of selection in 7,600 single-copy orthologous genes shared by the four Synergus species. We found that the terminal branch leading to S. itoensis had more genes with a significantly elevated dN/dS ratio (positive signature genes) than the other terminal branches in the tree; the S. itoensis branch also had more genes with a significantly decreased dN/dS ratio. Gene set enrichment analysis showed that the positive signature gene set of S. itoensis, unlike those of the inquiline species, is enriched in several biological process Gene Ontology terms, the most prominent of which is "Ovarian Follicle Cell Development." Our results indicate that the origin of gall induction is associated with distinct genomic changes, and provide a good starting point for further characterization of the genes involved.


Worldwide, resistance to antibiotics is a major health problem. Nowadays, multiples lines of evidence confirmed that food, in particular poultry products, may acts as reservoir of antibiotic-resistant bacteria or genetic elements encoding antibiotic resistance. Commensal Escherichia coli colonizing animals designated to human consummation (poultry, bovine, pork) often harbors mobile genetic elements that can be transferred in vivo to infectious pathogens. In addition, antibiotic resistant E. coli can be easily transferred to human via food chain. The objective of this work was to review the published data on the prevalence of antibiotic resistance and their genetic supports in E. coli of animal origins in Tunisia.


Advanced composite materials are well known for their outstanding potential in weight-related stiffness and strength leading to an ever increasing share in aerospace structural components out of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastics (CFRP). In order to fully exploit the load-carrying capacity of such structures an accurate and reliable simulation is indispensable. Local buckling is not necessarily the load bearing limit for stiffened panels or shells; their full potential can be tapped only by utilizing the postbuckling region. That, however, requires fast tools which are capable of simulating the structural behaviour beyond bifurcation points including material degradation up to collapse. The most critical structural degradation mode is skin stringer separation; delamination, especially within the stringer, is a critical material degradation. A reliable prediction of collapse requires knowledge of degradation due to static as well as low cycle loading in the postbuckling region.
Earlier projects have shown that it needs considerable experience in simulating the postbuckling behaviour. Though a great deal of knowledge about CFRP structural and material degradation is available its influence on collapse is not yet sufficiently investigated. It is the aim of the project COCOMAT (Improved MATerial exploitation at safe design of COmposite airframe structures by accurate simulation of COllapse) to develop means for and gain experience in fast and accurate simulation of the collapse load of stringer stiffened CFRP curved panels taking degradation and cyclic loading as well as geometric nonlinearity into account. COCOMAT is a Specific Targeted Research Project supported by the EU 6th Framework Programme; it started 2004 and runs for 4 years. Main deliverables are:
• test results for buckling and collapse of undamaged and pre-damaged stiffened CFRP panels under static and cyclic loading,
• improved material properties and degradation models,
computational tools for design and certification of stiffened fibre composite panels which take postbuckling behaviour, degradation and collapse into account,
• and finally design guidelines and industrial validation.
The work will lead to an extended experimental data base, relevant degradation models and improved simulation tools for certification as well as for design. These results should allow setting up a future design scenario which exploits the existing reserves in primary fibre composite structures. The paper starts out from results provided by the forerunners of COCOMAT, describes the main objectives of the project, gives a general status of the progress reached so far and presents first results.


Iris is one the important Biometric Identification technique and also Iris is one of unique identifier of Human then it is stable throughout a life of the person's. In this work a new method to recognition of the eye have been proposed. Edge detection is one of the important modules of any image processing technique. In this work we have proposed the edge detection technique based on Region of Interest (ROI) and also Edge Length (EL) to recognize the Human eye. The performance of the proposed system has been verified and validated with existing problem. This technique is a novel technique to identify the Iris and also the proposed technique shows significant results and compared with the other conventional technique. Using this technique we can able to predict the Cholesterol inside the eye through image processing.


Sentinels are a conspicuous feature of some cooperative societies and are often assumed to provide benefits in terms of increased predator detection. Similar to other cooperative behaviours, variation in investment in sentinel behaviour should reflect variation in the benefits of such behaviour. However, evidence for this is inconclusive: to date experiments have manipulated the cost of sentinel behaviour, and considerations of changes in the benefits of sentinel activity on investment patterns are lacking. Here, we experimentally manipulated the benefits of sentinel behaviour in the cooperatively breeding pied babbler (Turdoides bicolor) to assess whether this had any impact on sentinel activity. We simulated the presence of an unseen predator using playbacks of heterospecific alarm calls, and the presence of an actual predator using a model snake. In both cases, the increase in perceived predation risk caused an increase in sentinel activity, demonstrating that investment in sentinel activity increases when the benefits are greater.


Two lentil ( Lens culinaris medic. ) populations, one of them were of large-seeded genotypes and other one were small-seeded genotypes, were tested at one location in 1990 and at two locations in the years of 1991 and 1992 and some stability statistics were estimated for grain yield. The relationship between yield and stability were studied in both populations using the simple correlations among mean yields and six stability parameters. The significant correlations between mean yield and stability statistics (b, r2, s2d, W2, s2) except S2 occurred in large-seeded genotypes, while all stability parameters were not significantly correlated with mean yield in small-seeded genotypes. Correlations between regression coefficient (b) and variance across enviroments (S2) were positive and significant in both populations. It was determined that two parameters, between which highest correlations (1.000** and 0.999**) were obtained, ecovalance (W2) and stability variance (s2) rank genotypes identically for stability. Results from stability and correlation analyses suggested that high yield potential was related with instability in large - seeded genotypes, whereas the possibilities to idendify the desirable genotypes for high yield and stability could be more within small - seeded ones because of no meaningful relationship between mean yield and stability.


Patternmakers are the technical backbone to the clothing manufacturing process and as such require a solid mastery of the technique. This can be ensured with proper training and experience, yet in Kenya little has been done to ascertain the levels of qualification of patternmakers in the fashion industry and whether these have any relationship with actual practices. This study adopted a descriptive research design to assess the relationship between the patternmakers" professional qualifications and pattern making practices within fashion houses in Nairobi. Specific objectives of the study were to: describe the patternmakers" demographic profile, describe the categories of clothes produced in the fashion houses, determine types of pattern making practices, assess patternmakers" professional qualification, and to establish the relationship between patternmakers" professional qualification and patternmaking practices. The study was based on a conceptual framework of education and training with labour market outcomes contextualized within fashion design. The target population was all patternmakers in the fashion houses within Nairobi. Sampling unit was one patternmaker per fashion house using criterion based sampling to reach a total of 44 patternmakers. Structured questionnaires were used to collect the data from each patternmaker. Statistical Package for Social Sciences aided in data analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize variables related to demographic characteristics, categories of clothes, patternmaking practices and levels of professional qualification. Chi-square (χ2) with an alpha level set at 0.05 was used to establish the relationship between professional qualification and the patternmaking practices. The results revealed that the majority of the patternmakers (90.9%) were below 45 years, and had tertiary education and above. Most were female (76%) and more than half of them (69.7%) were earning below 40,000 Kenya shillings per month. All of the fashion houses made dresses; pattern drafting was the most frequently used method of patternmaking, followed by freehand cutting while CADD was the least used. Majority of these patternmakers had at least a diploma or a degree. More than half of the respondents had less than 10 years of experience in patternmaking. There appeared to be a significant relationship between patternmakers" training background and use of pattern drafting method (χ2 (8, n = 33) = 20.573, p < 0.008). Patternmakers with higher levels of training tended to frequently use pattern drafting. Also, there was a statistically significant relationship between patternmakers" years of experience and use of pattern drafting as a method (χ2 (6, n = 33) = 13.265, p = 0.039). Majority of the patternmakers (90.9%) with less than 5 years experience frequently used pattern drafting. It was however clear that besides the training undertaken, experience had contributed more to the improvement of skills. This study therefore recommends that, men should be sensitized to take up pattern making jobs, patternmakers should be versatile enough to make a wide range of clothing, patternmakers should upgrade their knowledge in patternmaking so as to be at par with technological development, curricula developed for fashion design courses should include all pattern making methods and training opportunities should be availed to those already in the job market. For further research, it was recommended that a research should be conducted on those with several years of working experience in order to gain deeper insight into the profession, research should be conducted on patternmakers in the garment industry, the Micro and Small enterprises sector to establish their qualification and methods of patternmaking used and a similar study should be conducted in other towns outside Nairobi to provide better picture of the fashion industry in terms of patternmaking across Kenya.


The anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) is a promising technology for achieving an energy-saving or even energy-positive wastewater treatment process as it produces high effluent quality and renewable energy in the form of methane. Nevertheless, concerns on inflowing organic micropollutants (OMPs) caused by various human and industrial activities into the AnMBR system are proliferating. The extent to which the removal of OMPs in the AnMBR is understood should vary greatly depending upon the removal pathways mainly involved such as sorption into biomass, transformation, or membrane filtration. This review paper describes the fate and removal mechanisms of OMPs in an AnMBR system. Although the overall performance of AnMBR treating various wastewaters has been observed under such reduced conditions, understanding and modeling the removal mechanisms of OMPs in this type of reactor still requires much research. Elucidating the removal mechanisms of OMPs will lead to improvements in the design and operation of an AnMBR system while optimizing the performance and saving energy.


AIM
To explore the method of isolation and biological analysis of tumor stem cells from pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell line PANC-1.

METHODS
The PANC-1 cells were cultured in Dulbecco modified eagle medium F12 (1:1 volume) (DMEM-F12) supplemented with 20% fetal bovine serum (FBS). Subpopulation cells with properties of tumor stem cells were isolated from pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell line PANC-1 according to the cell surface markers CD44 and CD24 by flow cytometry. The proliferative capability of these cells in vitro were estimated by 3-[4,5-dimehyl-2-thiazolyl]-2, 5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) method. And the tumor growth of different subpopulation cells which were injected into the hypodermisof right and left armpit of nude mice was studied, and expression of CD44 and CD24 of the CD44(+)CD24(+) cell-formed nodules and PANC-1 cells were detected by avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex (ABC) immunohistochemical staining.

RESULTS
The 5.1%-17.5% of sorted PANC-1 cells expressed the cell surface marker CD44, 57.8% -70.1% expressed CD24, only 2.1%-3.5% of cells were CD44(+) CD24(+). Compared with CD44(-)CD24(-) cells, CD44(+)CD24(+) cells had a lower growth rate in vitro. Implantation of 10(4) CD44(-)CD24(-) cells in nude mice showed no evident tumor growth at wk 12. In contrast, large tumors were found in nude mice implanted with 10(3) CD44(+)CD24(+) cells at wk 4 (2/8), a 20-fold increase in tumorigenic potential (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). There was no obvious histological difference between the cells of the CD44(+)CD24(+) cell-formed nodules and PANC-1 cells.

CONCLUSION
CD44 and CD24 may be used as the cell surface markers for isolation of pancreatic cancer stem cells from pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell line PANC-1. Subpopulation cells CD44(+)CD24(+) have properties of tumor stem cells. Because cancer stem cells are thought to be responsible for tumor initiation and its recurrence after an initial response to chemotherapy, it may be a very promising target for new drug development.