1. INTRODUCTION With the dramatic development of information technology, the Internet has become a major source for the dissemination of intellectual property. In recent years, the development of digital technology has greatly enhanced the development of the electronic database industry. (1) More and more database producers (or information service providers) have started to run businesses and directly benefit from the commercial exploitations of the databases they have developed. (2) Ever-improving technology enables users to efficiently access and sort through vast quantities of data by selecting proper databases and search parameters, (3) but it also facilitates data piracy. (4) Database producers often face the risk of unauthorized parties gaining access to, misappropriating and/or disseminating the contents of their databases without financial compensation. (5) Furthermore, current intellectual property law and other relevant legislation may not adequately protect the commercial needs of database producers. (6) Thus, there is pressure on legislatures worldwide to enact new legislation to create sui generis rights to protect the contents of valuable databases. (7) In Europe, the EU Database Directive has established a sui generis protection for database contents. (8) However, in the United States, debates in Congress still continue on numerous sui generis database protection bills that have been proposed. (9) At the international level, a draft database treaty proposal was submitted to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) diplomatic conference in Geneva in December, 1996. (10) Although the proposal was circulated for discussion, it was not debated. The WIPO is most likely waiting for the United States's position on the proposed treaty's details. (11) This article will first examine database protection provisions in traditional copyright law at both the international and domestic levels (especially focusing on U.S. copyright law). It will identify the impact of digital technology on database industries, the limits of current copyright law, and explain why sui generis legal protection of databases is necessary. Then, the article will examine the development of sui generis database protection legislation in the world, focusing, in particular, on the legislation in the EU and the United States. After that, the article will explore some specific problems of current sui generis database protection legislation in both the EU Database Directive and the U.S. bills, and make some specific legal suggestions for each. Finally, going beyond making suggestions for solving the specific legal problems, the author will provide some suggestions for the United States and other nations at the strategic level. This article argues that the interest of a nation is only best served by tailoring its intellectual property regimes to its particular economic and social circumstances. It also argues for establishing a new rationale for international digital legislation: the leadership of digital legislation should always belong to the country that makes the best law rather than the country that made the law first. 2. TRADITIONAL COPYRIGHT LAW ON DATABASE PROTECTION & NEEDS FOR SUI GENERIS DATABASE LEGISLATION 2.1. Database Protection in the Existing International Intellectual Property/Copyright Treaties Databases have been of concern in the international arena for many years. Major international treaties relating to copyright protection have included provisions for protecting databases, such as the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works ("Berne Convention"), the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT). But the protections under these treaties seem very narrow and far from perfect; none of them has provided enough protection to unoriginal databases. (In the terminology of copyright, a database is often referred to as a "collection" or "compilation. …


Starting with his 1970 doctoral dissertation and continuing to today, Robert C. Merton has revolutionized the theory and practice of finance. In 1997, Merton shared a Nobel Prize in Economics "for a new method to determine the value of derivatives." His contributions to the science of finance, however, go far beyond that. In this article I describe Merton's main contributions. They include the following: 1.  The introduction of continuous-time stochastic models (the Ito calculus) to the theory of household consumption and investment decisions. Merton's technique of dynamic hedging in continuous time provided a bridge between the theoretical complete-markets equilibrium model of Kenneth Arrow and the real world of personal financial planning and management. 2.  The derivation of the multifactor Intertemporal Capital Asset Pricing Model (ICAPM). The ICAPM generalizes the single-factor CAPM and explains why that model might fail to properly account for observed market excess returns. It also provides a theory to identify potential forward-looking risk premia for use in factor-based investment strategies. It is therefore both a positive and normative theory. 3.  The invention of Contingent Claims Analysis (CCA) as a generalization of option pricing theory. CCA applies the technique of dynamic replication to the valuation and risk management of a wide range of corporate and government liabilities. Merton's CCA model for the valuation and analysis of risky debt is known among scholars and practitioners alike as the Merton Model. 4.  The development of financial engineering, which employs CCA to design and produce new financial products. Merton was the first to apply CCA to analyze government guaranty programs such as deposit insurance, and to suggest improvements in the way those programs are managed. He and his students have applied his insights at both the micro and macro policy levels. 5.  And finally, the development of a theory of financial intermediation that explains and predicts how financial systems differ across countries and change over time. Merton has applied that theory, called functional and structural finance, to guide the design and regulation of financial systems at the levels of the firm, the industry, and the nation. He has also used it to propose reforms in pensions, sovereign wealth funds, and macrostabilization policy. This article is one of a pair of articles published in this volume about Robert C. Merton's contributions to the science of financial economics. This article was originally published in Volume 11 of the Annual Review of Financial Economics. The other article in this pair is " Robert C. Merton: The First Financial Engineer " by Andrew W. Lo.


This thesis presents a study of the electrical properties and gas sensitivity of thin films of four different organic materials. These are: (i) Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of tetrabutylammonium Ni(dmit)(_2) complex (Bu(_4)-Ni(dmit)(_2) complex) mixed with tricosanoic acid (TA); (ii) thin films of polypyrrole (PPy) mixed with palmitic acid (PA) obtained using the LB technique followed by two solid state reactions; (iii) cast films of polycyanopropylmethylsiloxane (PCMS); and (iv) LB films of a co-ordination polymer?5,5' methylenebis (N-hexadecylsalicydeneamine) (MBSH) (poly(CuMBSH)). LB films of (Bu(_4)-Ni(dmit)(_2) complex)/TA were characterised by electrical measurements?(AC in the frequency range 10(^2)-10(^6) Hz) at room temperature. For the other three types of films, characterisation of the structure and electrical behaviour (DC and AC in the frequency range 10(^2)-10(^6) Hz) on varying the temperature (in the range 90 - 298 K) and during the exposure to benzene, ethanol, acetonitrile and water (concentrations in the range 10(^2) -10(^5) ppm) was undertaken. During exposure to vapours, reversible changes in the electrical properties of the films were observed. The electrical behaviour and the changes during exposure to vapours were interpreted in terms of models in the literature, assuming a bulk dissolution of the vapours in the organic films. In all cases an 'anomalous' response to water was observed. For poly(CuMBSH), this effect was interpreted in terras of a Low Frequency Dispersion. The device characteristics for gas sensing applications are also discussed. Estimated minimum detectable concentrations were between 1-100 ppm for the three organic solvent vapours. Moreover, it is shown that the fi-equency behaviour for the admittance changes of the PCMS and poly(CuMBSH) devices could be exploited for the improvement of the sensitivity of a single device. The unique response of all the films to water vapour could be useful for its discrimination.


With increasing regularity archaeological humans with 87Sr/86Sr >0.714 are being excavated in Britain and are difficult to explain or identify possible places of origin. The main aim of this thesis was to identify any geological or anthropological reasons for their high 87Sr/86Sr values. Therefore, plant 87Sr/86Sr data has been obtained from several Precambrian lithologies and igneous intrusions in Britain with the aim of identifying values >0.714. Only 20 of the 151 samples measured recorded values >0.714. It was found that biosphere 87Sr/86Sr values >0.714 represented only 10% of all known British Sr-isotope biosphere data and only ~2.8% of the area of Britain. They are thus numerically and spatially rare and can also be considered agriculturally marginal for archaeological populations.

Unexpectedly, plant samples collected from ancient woodlands were found to have elevated values by +0.002 compared to plant samples collected from unforested land on the sedimentary Triassic bedrock of central England. Further work is needed to replicate this result and to establish if the same trend is found on other bedrock lithologies. This finding could have major implications for how biosphere and human 87Sr/86Sr data are interpreted in archaeological migration and mobility studies, particularly in recently de-forested regions.

Three British quern or millstone rock types (Millstone Grit, Pennant Sandstone and granite) were investigated to establish if they could contribute bioaccessible high 87Sr/86Sr directly in the human stomach from rock grit accidentally ingested via grinding grain, or deliberately through pica or geophagy, using the Unified Bioaccessiblity Method (UBM: Hamilton et al., 2015). The results showed that Sr in ingested rock grit is bioaccessible to humans. However, unrealistic quantities of rock grit needs to be consumed to significantly alter skeletal 87Sr/86Sr (e.g. to change the value by ±0.001 or greater). The study thus provides reassurance that non-local or unusually high 87Sr/86Sr values cannot be explained by the direct ingestion of rock grit, clays or soils.


Mass spectrometric detection of neutral surface particles released by ion bombardment has become an important method for surface and depth profile analysis . Its fundamental difference to secondary ion mass spectrometry SIMS is the separation of the formation of the analyzed particles and their ionization. Hence , matrix and selectivity effects influencing SIMS signals in a mostly unknown manner via the ionization process in secondary ion emission are avoided in general. The different techniques being presently employed for the necessary postionization of the sputtered neutrals are reviewed and discussed with respect to their potentialities . Secondary Neutral Mass Spectrometry (SNMS) using efficient postionization by the electron component of a special tow pressure high frequency plasma is the presently most elaborated technique . The quantifiability of SNMS signals is discussed and illustrated by various examples. Depth resolution in the subnanometer range is shown to be obtained with the direct bombardment mode of SNMS in which the sample is bombarded with noble gas ions from the SNMS-plasma at energie s in the order of only 102 eV.


Zoonotic pathogens that cause leprosy (Mycobacterium leprae) and tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, MTBC) continue to impact modern human populations. Therefore, methods able to survey mycobacterial infection in potential animal hosts are necessary for proper evaluation of human exposure threats. Here we tested for mycobacterial-specific single- and multi-copy loci using qPCR. In a trial study in which armadillos were artificially infected with M. leprae, these techniques were specific and sensitive to pathogen detection, while more traditional ELISAs were only specific. These assays were then employed in a case study to detect M. leprae as well as MTBC in wild marmosets. All marmosets were negative for M. leprae DNA, but 14 were positive for the mycobacterial rpoB gene assay. Targeted capture and sequencing of rpoB and other MTBC genes validated the presence of mycobacterial DNA in these samples and revealed that qPCR is useful for identifying mycobacterial-infected animal hosts.


The goals of this research are: 1) to substantiate the conceptual content and introduce into the terminological circulation of the philosophy of culture the concepts of "nihitology of culture" and "nihitogenesis"; 2) to substantiate the intensification of ontologization of the negative in the second half of the XX century and the present. Data were achieved using observation and description of the behaviour of modern man in virtual and real cultures; hermeneutic analysis of observation results, as well as a description of the results of virtualization and simulation of modern culture. The article extrapolates the ontological method to the aesthetic and social spheres. Research results are as follows: 1) the following metamorphoses of non-being in the space of culture being have been discovered: anthropologization of the negative; semiotization and aesthetization of non-being; "hollow" attitudes of everyday worldview and individual experience of inner devastation; production and consumption of simulacra; virtualization of cultural reality; 2) the processes of diminishing or even loss of reality are associated by the author with various factors, such as: the transition from the individual's solid identity to its "fluid" form, and ultimately to the loss or destruction of identity; the ongoing destruction of the integrity of "ego"of a modern subject. This is expressed in the fall of stable norms, including ethical ones, in the absence of a single anthropological ideal and in highlighting visibility in the form of "flickering of countless guises", "masks"; an increase in the volume of simulacra in the spheres of media, art, morality, religiosity, and in everyday life as well; active interest in negative entities manifested by postmodern art; loss by a person of a sense of spiritual security, compensation for this loss by hedonism, unlimited consumption of material goods; communication virtualization, etc.


Cognitive mechanisms underlying auditory hallucinations (AH) in schizophrenia have been related to working memory (WM), although the formative mechanism is unknown. The phonological loop refers to subvocal rehearsals of information held online for supporting WM. As WM deficiency is frequent in schizophrenia, we hypothesized that AH and WM deficit share a common dysfunction in phonological loop operation, especially when it is taxed by ambiguous auditory and verbal associations. We developed an active phonological priming (APP) paradigm in which participants generated arbitrary verbal associations to pseudowords with ambiguous meaning. They were later asked to rate their familiarity to each pseudoword, a task that required subvocal evaluation of ambiguous auditory-verbal information. Factor and mediation analyses were used to test the hypothesis that WM, AH, and APP induced phonological bias toward perceiving ambiguous contents as familiar may share a common underlying mechanism. In 32 patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and 20 healthy controls (HC), SZ rated ambiguous pseudowords as significantly more familiar compared with HC (p = .006), indicating a proneness to APP-induced bias. This increased subjective bias to perceive ambiguous contents as familiar after APP significantly correlated with AH severity (p = .001) and mediated the relationship between WM and AH. Factor analysis demonstrated a common latent factor among WM, AH, and the bias induced by active priming to ambiguous contents. A heightened phonological loop priming to ambiguous contents appears to be mechanistically linked to WM deficits and AH in schizophrenia. These findings emphasize the importance of jointly addressing WM deficits and AH in clinical practice and research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).


A unique process of chemical oxidation polymerization of aniline using manganese dioxide (MnO2) as the oxidizing agent in an aqueous medium is described. The reaction between aniline and MnO2 follows a mechanism by which the organic monomer is oxidized while the metal oxide undergoes reductive dissolution. The effects of the amount of oxidizing agent and aniline, pH and temperature of the reactive system, type of acid on the yield and conductivity of polyaniline are discussed. The resulting polyaniline was characterized by IR and UV-Vis spectrometry. Polyaniline with a conductivity of 12.5 S/cm was obtained using 0.033 mol of aniline oxidized by 0.023 mol MnO2 in the presence of 100 mL of 2.7 mol/L HCl at 25℃ for 4 h.


Data-driven clock gating is reducing the total power consumption of VLSI chips. There, flip-flops are merged and share a common clock signal. Finding the optimal clusters is the key for maximizing the power savings. To reduce the hardware overhead involved, flip-flops (FFs) are merged so that they share a common clock enabling signal. Power optimization system to decrease clock power by using Multibit flips flop. Clock gating one can save power by reducing redundant clock activities confidential the clock modules. In this technique to reduce power saving by merging flip flops and integrated clock gating circuit (ICG). Our data-driven clock gating is unified into an Electronic Design Automation (EDA) profitable backend design flow, succeeding total power reduction for various types of important modern industrial and academic designs in 40 and 65 nanometer process technologies. These savings are achieved on top of the savings obtained by clock gating synthesis performed by profitable EDA tools, and gating physically inserted into the register transfer level design.


ABSTRACT Morphological descriptions of the 4 instars of the ghost-ant Tapinoma melanocephalum Fabricius are presented along with illustrations and comparisons with other species of the same genus. Instars were similar, differing only in body length. The analyzed larvae presented many characteristics in common with other Tapinoma Förster larvae, such as: dolichoderoid body and mandibles, 9 pairs of spiracles, the presence of a terminal boss, and scarce body and head setae, all simple and short. We observed the following differences from other previous descriptions: the presence of a subapical mandibular tooth, setaceous sensilla on the medial anterior surface of the labrum, and fewer sensilla on maxillary and labial palps.


Pectin methylesterases (PMEs) catalyse the demethylation of pectin within plant cell walls, releasing methanol (MeOH) in the process. Thus far, PMEs have been found to be involved in diverse processes such as plant growth and development and defence responses against pathogens. Herbivore attack increases PME expression and activity and MeOH emissions in several plant species. To gain further insights into the role of PMEs in defence responses against herbivores, the expression of a Manduca sexta oral secretion (OS)-inducible PME in Nicotiana attenuata (NaPME1) was silenced by RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated gene silencing. Silenced lines (ir-pme) showed 50% reduced PME activity in leaves and 70% reduced MeOH emissions after OS elicitation compared with the wild type (WT), demonstrating that the herbivore-induced MeOH emissions originate from the demethylation of pectin by PME. In the initial phase of the OS-induced jasmonic acid (JA) burst (first 30 min), ir-pme lines produced WT levels of this hormone and of jasmonyl-isoleucine (JA-Ile); however, these levels were significantly reduced in the later phase (60–120 min) of the burst. Similarly, suppressed levels of the salicylic acid (SA) burst induced by OS elicitation were observed in ir-pme lines even though wounded ir-pme leaves contained slightly increased amounts of SA. This genotype also presented reduced levels of OS-induced trypsin proteinase inhibitor activity in leaves and consistently increased M. sexta larvae performance compared with WT plants. These latter responses could not be recovered by application of exogenous MeOH. Together, these results indicated that PME contributes, probably indirectly by affecting cell wall properties, to the induction of anti-herbivore responses.


The difference in the reactivity of two monomers, aniline (ANI) and 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole (DMcT), was employed to design nanoparticles with completely different nanostructures. The monomers were simultaneously polymerized by tandem oxidative polymerization occurring in the miniemulsion droplets. DMcT is also a corrosion inhibitor and its polymer can be depolymerized by reduction, which avoids the unwanted release of the payload DMcT when the capsules are not activated. The redox-responsive release profile of DMcT from the composite particles is controlled by the morphology of the particles and it was investigated for monolithic, multi-hollow, and yolk–shell structures. These PANI/PDMcT composite particles may find potential application in Li–S batteries or in the self-healing systems for corrosion protection.


Step-by-step procedures to administer anesthesia for cardiac surgery, obstetric surgery, minimally invasive procedures, chronic pain management, and more ASA guidelines for patient care and safety included Robust appendices include formulas, Atlas of Electrocardiography, Pacemaker and ICD Protocols, American Heart Association resuscitation protocols, ASA Standards and Guidelines, difficult airway algorithms, malignant hyperthermia protocol, and herbal medications A clear, consistent writing style that makes critical material easy to locate and comprehend


Paraquat is an herbicide whose use is associated with Parkinson's disease (PD), a neurodegenerative disorder marked by neuron loss in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). We recently observed that the murine homologue to the human H63D variant of the homeostatic iron regulator (HFE) may decrease paraquat-associated nigral neurotoxicity in mice. The present study examined the potential influence of H63D on paraquat-associated neurotoxicity in humans. Twenty-eight paraquat-exposed workers were identified from exposure histories and compared to 41 unexposed controls. HFE genotypes, and serum iron and transferrin were measured from blood samples. MRI was used to assess the SNc transverse relaxation rate (R2*), a marker for iron, and diffusion tensor imaging scalars of fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity, markers of microstructural integrity. Twenty-seven subjects (9 exposed and 18 controls) were H63D heterozygous. After adjusting for age and use of other PD-associated pesticides and solvents, serum iron and transferrin were higher in exposed H63D carriers than in unexposed carriers and HFE wildtypes. SNc R2* was lower in exposed H63D carriers than in unexposed carriers, whereas SNc FA was lower in exposed HFE wildtypes than in either unexposed HFE wildtypes or exposed H63D carriers. Serum iron and SNc FA measures correlated positively among exposed, but not unexposed, subjects. These data suggest that H63D heterozygosity is associated with lower neurotoxicity presumptively linked to paraquat. Future studies with larger cohorts are warranted to replicate these findings and examine potential underlying mechanisms, especially given the high prevalence of the H63D allele in humans.


Context: Definitive information is what makes enterprises in the contemporary world continuously move up the ladder in today's world. Hence they need to be always up to date with the latest advancements. A key point in the enterprise structure is Backup and Disaster Recovery, DR system and this has very high scope for development since it can be integrated with a lot of our daily requirements. On account of this, it has a lot of applicability in future for development of technology. Due to this, we have chosen a Fast Moving Consumer Goods Company, FMCG to conduct experimentation on their Backup and DR system.Objectives: In every organization, Backup and DR plays a crucial role in Business Continuity Planning. This work relates to associate backup and recovery plan with an organizational view. And thereby work on its association with Recovery Time Objective, Recovery Point Objective, time taken for backup, time take for recovery and Total Cost of Ownership.Methods: Literature study is the first step to understand present scenario of trending technologies. Hence our understanding led us to conduct an experimental setup where we compared data that was collected in a case study and evaluated its performance of Backup and DR problems that are faced in today's technology dominated world.Results: In our research, we took various parameters into consideration, which affect performance of an enterprise Backup and DR system. This drove us to assess disk-based and cloud-based Backup and DR plans in the FMCG environment.Conclusions: In conclusion, we summate that even though there have been a lot of theories and research on how Backup and DR is vital, we still lag behind in research work on which the organizations can rely upon to shift towards advanced technologies without risking their competence. With sufficient research on the entrepreneurial environment, we can improve performance enterprises and improve our present knowledge about cloud Backup and DR thereby improving its conventional usage in the present world.


ABSTRACT Notions of family life and romantic partnership, like notions of disability, have been culturally constructed and socially produced over historical time, and our understandings of these notions are being continually challenged and re-negotiated across time and space. Policies, institutions, and cultural practices across the globe have brought about changes to the construction of the family and to the rights and inclusion of disabled people in private and public life. This special issue brings together a collection of studies from different countries and time periods to explore the interplay between disability, romantic partnerships, and family life across the individual lifetime and between generations. With this interdisciplinary collection, we seek to merge disability research and research on family and partnerships through a life course lens. This offers unique insights and opportunities to interconnect historical and cultural location and changing social institutions with individual and family experiences. This introduction presents the eight studies in the collection and discusses them within a life course frame that views disabled people's roles as partners, spouses, and members of a family. In so doing, it engages in an analysis of (dis)similarities concerning how family dynamics, romantic relationships, and disability have developed over time and in different spaces.


The stock market displays regime switching between upturns and downturns. This paper provides a Bayesian framework for making portfolio decisions that takes this regime switching into account, together with asset pricing model uncertainty and parameter uncertainty. The findings reveal that the economic value of accounting for regimes is substantially independent of whether or not model and parameter uncertainties are incorporated: the certainty-equivalent losses associated with ignoring regime switching are generally above 2% per year and can be as high as 10%. These results suggest that the more realistic regime switching model is fundamentally different from the commonly used single-state model, and hence should be employed instead in portfolio decisions irrespective of concerns about model or parameter uncertainty.


The thesis describes an investigation of the use of insulated monopole sensor as a new technique for the determination of moisture content in hevea rubber latex at
microwave frequencies from 100 MHz to 5 GHz. The technique is investigated from the viewpoint of assessing its suitability as a simple, quick, non-destructive and
flexible approach to determination of moisture content with comparable accuracy to the standard oven drying method. The analytical King's model was used to calculate approximately the variation in the reflection coefficients of the monopole sensor with frequency for various lengths of antenna, aspect ratios and type of insulated material. Extensive measurement results are provided in the thesis. The measured and calculated magnitude of the reflection coefficient using King's model were found to be in good agreement at 1 GHz for all samples of various percentages of moisture content but extendable to 3 GHz for moisture content less than 54.15%. However,lowest error between measured and calculated phase was found in the frequency
range from 2 GHz to 3 GHz coinciding with the profile of the variation in loss factor with frequency. Regression analyses were carried out to relate moisture content to
 magnitude, phase shift, conductance, susceptance, frequency shift of G-B peaks at different frequencies. These empirical equations were tested on 37 new samples by
comparing the predicted moisture content with the actual moisture content obtained from oven drying method. It has been found that all the three empirical equations with good accuracy based on magnitude, phase shift and conductance shared similar operating frequency 0.52 GHz. The phase shift technique was found be to be most accurate in the determination of moisture content within 1.37% when compared to actual moisture content obtained using standard oven drying method.


E DITOR —Congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG) are a heterogeneous group of autosomal recessive multisystemic conditions causing severe central nervous system and multivisceral disorders resulting from impairment of the glycosylation pathway. 1–3 Two disease causing mechanisms have been identified so far. CDG I is caused by a defect in the assembly of the dolicholpyrophosphate oligosaccharide precursor of N-glycans and its transfer to the peptide chain, while CDG II results from a defect in the processing of N-glycans. 3 CDG I and II have distinct patterns of abnormal glycosylation depending on the reduction of the glycan chain number or its structure. CDG I, the most frequent form, is the result of di V erent enzyme deficiencies: phosphomannomutase (CDG Ia), phosphomannose iso- merase (CDG Ib), and glucosyltransferase (CDG Ic). 3–6 CDG IIa is characterised by a defect in N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase II and only two cases have been reported previously. 7–11 Here, we report a new case of CDG IIa sharing a number of clinical features with the two previously reported cases and emphasising the clinical dif-ferences from CDG I. A boy was at birth weight 3050 g, length 48 cm, and cm. hypotonia, and diarrhoea A milk of mutation carriers in families with autosomal dominant hereditary mutation carriers have a risk of 56-87% of developing breast cancer and of 10-60% for ovarian cancer. 3 The options are either frequent surveillance or prophylactic surgery. For male mutation carriers, cancer risks are only slightly increased. The o V spring of mutation carriers have a 50% chance of inheriting the gene mutation. The possibility of prenatal genetic diagnosis for "late onset diseases", such as hereditary breast/ovarian cancer, raises complex ethical questions. 4 5 The present study This study is part of a larger study on psychosocial implications of the presymptomatic DNA test for HBOC, which Cancer Society.


A huge volume of user-generated content is daily produced on social media. To facilitate automatic language understanding, we study keyphrase prediction, distilling salient information from massive posts. While most existing methods extract words from source posts to form keyphrases, we propose a sequence-to-sequence (seq2seq) based neural keyphrase generation framework, enabling absent keyphrases to be created. Moreover, our model, being topic-aware, allows joint modeling of corpus-level latent topic representations, which helps alleviate data sparsity widely exhibited in social media language. Experiments on three datasets collected from English and Chinese social media platforms show that our model significantly outperforms both extraction and generation models without exploiting latent topics. Further discussions show that our model learns meaningful topics, which interprets its superiority in social media keyphrase generation.


Data for 94 patients clinically suspected of having extrahepatic biliary obstruction who were referred for radiologic investigations were studied to compare the value of various imaging modalities used to detect this condition. Computed tomography emerged as the best indirect, noninvasive technique and percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography as the best direct technique. A standard approach to investigating suspected extrahepatic biliary obstruction is suggested that takes into consideration the interventional radiologic techniques currently used to treat this condition.


Purpose : Inflammation has been recognized as a key factor in the development of age-related degenerative diseases including cancer. Among important pro-inflammatory factors, bioactive lipids derived from cyclooxygenase (COX) or lipoxygenase (LOX) enzymes have been implicated as key targets for treatment and prevention of cancers. Here we report the effect of a multi-herb product "Prostate 5LX" on metabolism of inflammatory mediators in human prostate cancer and rat macrophage cells and their association with anti-proliferative activity. Methods : The effect of Prostate 5LX and its individual components on eicosanoid metabolism in human prostate cancer PC3, LNCaP, rat leukemia RBL-1 and macrophage RAW267.4 cells were examined using a validated LC/MS/MS analytical method. The effect of this natural product on the expression of inflammation associated genes in RAW267.4 cells was measured using TaqMan inflammation array kits and RT-PCR. Protein expression of relevant enzymes was evaluated by Western blot using appropriate antibodies. Results : When PC3 cells were treated with as little as 50 μg (0.1μl) Prostate 5LX/ml, the relative formation of 5-LOX products, LTB4 and 5-HETE was reduced by 69.2% and 36.7%, respectively. Similarly, Prostate 5LX at this concentration almost totally blocked the formation of LTB4 and 5-HETE in RBL-1 cells which are known to have relatively higher levels of 5-LOX and are a good model for evaluation of 5-LOX activity. The effect of Prostate 5LX on inhibition of 5-LOX activity was concentration-dependent. Unexpectedly, the level of 12-HETE, a 12-LOX metabolite, in PC3 or RBL-1 cells treated with Prostate 5LX was also significantly reduced in a concentration-dependent manner compared to untreated controls. To further our understanding of the role of individual botanical extracts in contributing to these unique biological activities, the effect of individual extracts on 5-LOX and 12-LOX metabolism was evaluated against the parent product in RBL-1 cells. While Saw Palmetto (80 μg/ml), green tea (50 μg/ml) and rosemary (10 μg/ml) significantly inhibited formation of 5-HETE by 67.1±11.2%, 45.3±8.3% and 68.5± 12.1%, respectively, stinging nettle (50 μg/ml) extract inhibited production of 12-HETE by 46.1% in RBL-1 cells. Intriguingly, the inhibitory effect of Prostate 5LX in the concentration comparable to that used for those individual botanical extracts, was much more stronger than any of the individual components evidenced by a 97.1% reduced formation of 5-HETE. The expression of both 5-LOX and 12-LOX proteins was reduced by Prostate 5LX in PC3, LNCaP and RBL-1 cells. Furthermore, the expression of LTA4 hydrolyase and leukotriene receptors were also markedly reduced by Prostate 5LX in Raw 267.4 cells. Interestingly, the growth of prostate cancer PC3 and LNCaP cells were significantly inhibited by Prostate 5LX (250 μg/ml) and these inhibitory effects appeared to be mediated through inhibition of 5-LOX and 12-LOX pathways in LNCaP and PC3 cells, respectively. Conclusions : Taken together, these preliminary data suggest that Prostate 5LX is capable of inhibiting the proliferation of prostate cancer cells mediated by alteration of lipoxygenase pathways, especially 5- and 12-LOX pathways. Given that inflammation plays an important role in prostate cancer initiation and development, these data may provide new insight on how this natural product affects prostate health, particularly prevents the development of prostate cancer. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2011;4(10 Suppl):B81.


The structure of hematopoietic malignances in post-Chernobyl period among pediatric patients in Kyiv city and 24 regions of Ukraine especially those born in 1986 and 1987 and the infants at the age below 1 year is reviewed taking into account the data of the Reference Laboratory obtained in 1993-2003 and based on the modern diagnostic technologies in the accordance with FAB, WHO, EGIL, ICD-10 and ICD-O-2 classifications.


In the horizontal cold chamber die casting process, shot sleeves experience alternate heating and cooling as well as intensification pressure at the biscuit end all of which influence the shot sleeve service life. Since the shot sleeve failure is expensive in terms of cost and downtime, it is important to understand the effects of design parameters and process conditions on shot sleeve failures. Due to the difficulties of measuring shot sleeve temperature and distortion in the actual manufacturing process, computer simulation is not only a useful method to understand and predict failures in shot sleeves, but also a tool to guide shot sleeve design. The 2-D plane strain computer models were developed at the beginning of the work. The simulation results from the 2-D models were compared with the existed experimental data, and the best model was identified. Based on the experimental data, accurate heat transfer coefficients between the shot sleeve and molten metal were determined. To model the shot sleeve radial distortion at biscuit end, the plane strain model was extended to 3 dimensions in order to properly apply boundary conditions. Based on the available commercial shot sleeve geometry and process data, the radial distortions of large shot sleeve with thin/thick wall thickness were studied. Based on the computer simulated strain range results from the same 3-D model, a thermal fatigue life prediction method (Universal Slope Method) was then developed for service life prediction. Compare the predicted thermal fatigue life with commercial sleeve fatigue data, the predicted thermal fatigue life is well matched with the actual operation shot sleeve thermal fatigue life. Combining the small ID and large ID shot sleeve simulation results, it can be concluded that control of the "out of roundness" of the ID dimensional changes is the key factor for large ID shot sleeve clearance design between its ID and plunger tip.


Proper nutrition contributes to declines under-five mortality rates and improves the productivity of adults. Addressing nutritional problems requires adequate information on the diets of individuals and populations. African leafy vegetables (ALVs) are widely consumed and often harvested at different stages after planting with the help of different communities. Four ALVs namely Vigna unguiculata, Amaranthus hybridus, Cleome gynandra and Solanum scabrum are commonly grown vegetables in western Kenya, their potentials have not been evaluated to supply the nutrients. However, nutritional values may vary depending on the species, harvesting stage and location of production. The effects of species, harvesting stages and location of production on the nutritional value of selected ALVs were evaluated. The trials were laid out in a randomized complete block design in three replicates in Busia, Kisumu, and Lela. Leaves were sampled at different harvesting stages and analyzed for N, P, K, Na, Ca, Mg, Mn, Fe, and Zn levels. Amaranthus hybridus had significantly (P≤0.05) higher levels of P, Ca, Zn, Mn, and Na. The N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Zn and Fe levels significantly (P≤0.05) increased then decreased with harvesting stage. The levels of nutrients significantly (P≤0.05) varied with location of production except for Na. The ALVs from Kisumu site had significantly (P≤0.05) higher levels of N, P, K, Ca, Mg and Zn, ALVs from Lela site had higher levels of Mn and Na while ALVs from Busia site had higher levels of Fe. Amaranthus hybridus is a better contributor of-of P, Ca, Zn, Mn, and Na. The Fe, Mg and Zn levels were above the Recommended Dietary Allowance and may be used to alleviate deficiencies associated with such nutrients. Harvesting the ALVs at the stage the nutrients attain their optimum levels is recommended. There is a need for the development of regional food composition tables for all ALVs in Kenya.


We report on a comprehensive analysis of the renormalization of noncommutative phi(4) scalar field theories on the Groenewold-Moyal plane. These scalar field theories are twisted Poincare invariant. Our main results are that these scalar field theories are renormalizable, free of UV/IR mixing, possess the same fixed points and beta-functions for the couplings as their commutative counterparts. We also argue that similar results hold true for any generic noncommutative field theory with polynomial interactions and involving only pure matter fields. A secondary aim of this work is to provide a comprehensive review of different approaches for the computation of the noncommutative S-matrix: noncommutative interaction picture and noncommutative Lehmann-Symanzik-Zimmermann formalism. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.87.064014


OBJECTIVE
To determine the risk of motor vehicle occupant deaths per unit of travel for Hispanic, non-Hispanic black, and non-Hispanic white children (aged 5-12 years) and teenagers (aged 13-19 years).

DESIGN
Comparison of 1989 to 1993 motor vehicle occupant death rates of children and teenagers by race, ethnicity, and sex by using data on mortality from the National Center for Health Statistics, travel data from the 1990 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey, and 1990 US census data.

RESULTS
Among children 5 to 12 years old, race/ ethnicity differences per 100000 persons were unremarkable, but per billion vehicle-miles of travel, the rates were 14 for non-Hispanic blacks, 8 for Hispanics, and 5 for non-Hispanic whites. Among teenagers aged 13 to 19, the rates per 100000 persons were highest for non-Hispanic whites; however, the rates per billion vehicle-miles were 45 for Hispanics, 34 for non-Hispanic blacks, and 30 for non-Hispanic whites. Black and Hispanic male teenagers had substantially higher death rates per billion vehicle-miles of travel than either white male teenagers or female teenagers in any racial/ethnic group.

CONCLUSIONS
Black and Hispanic children and teenagers are at higher risk of dying in motor vehicle crashes when they travel. Greater public health attention is needed to address these increased risks.


Traditionally and historically masculine attributes are attached to the concept of "Security." Therefore, security itself and the issues related to it are dominated by male members of a society. Such a situation leads to the absence of gender perspective from security policy-making in most of the countries in the world. Women's perspective is absent from macro to micro level. Keeping in view the fact that women comprise almost 50 per cent of the world's population, it is pertinent to give them their space in security policy-making. Women are the prime victims of conflicts, wars and poor security. Moreover, according to various researches, they view conflict differently and in a more holistic manner than males. This research study, while highlighting the significance of women's role in the society, explores the situation of female participation in security policy-making in Pakistan against the backdrop of social, political, religious and gender perspectives. Finally, it offers recommendations for the way forward.


Because of the rising incidence of clinical mycobacterial infections and the difficulty in identification and characterization of mycobacteria at the subspecies and serovar levels, a technique for differentiation that could be performed quickly and with relatively little equipment and expense was developed. Lysis and fractionation of mycobacteria by matrix solid-phase dispersion followed by thin-layer chromatography were used to produce chemotype profiles of the lipid and glycolipid components of each isolate. Organisms tested included Mycobacterium scrofulaceum, Mycobacterium phlei, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Mycobacterium flavescens, Mycobacterium kansasii, Mycobacterium bovis, 11 isolates of Mycobacterium gordonae, 10 serovars of Mycobacterium avium, and four strains of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis. A relative retention (Rx) value was established for each visible band on the chromatographs by comparison with a band common to all organisms tested. The chemotype profiles produced were different for every separate species and serovar sampled. These findings suggest that matrix solid-phase dispersion and subsequent thin-layer chromatography may have the sensitivity and flexibility to characterize and identify mycobacteria at the species and subspecies levels and potentially to identify clinical isolates of mycobacteria that have been difficult to identify by standard means. The technique has certain advantages over current biochemical, immunologic, and genetic methods because it is relatively simple to perform, is inexpensive, and requires a small amount of bacterial sample.


Conditions of chronic stress are associated with genetic instability in many organisms, but the roles of stress responses in mutagenesis have so far been elucidated only in bacteria. Here, we present data demonstrating that the environmental stress response (ESR) in yeast functions in mutagenesis induced by proteotoxic stress. We show that the drug canavanine causes proteotoxic stress, activates the ESR, and induces mutagenesis at several loci in an ESR-dependent manner. Canavanine-induced mutagenesis also involves translesion DNA polymerases Rev1 and Polζ and non-homologous end joining factor Ku. Furthermore, under conditions of chronic sub-lethal canavanine stress, deletions of Rev1, Polζ, and Ku-encoding genes exhibit genetic interactions with ESR mutants indicative of ESR regulating these mutagenic DNA repair processes. Analyses of mutagenesis induced by several different stresses showed that the ESR specifically modulates mutagenesis induced by proteotoxic stress. Together, these results document the first known example of an involvement of a eukaryotic stress response pathway in mutagenesis and have important implications for mechanisms of evolution, carcinogenesis, and emergence of drug-resistant pathogens and chemotherapy-resistant tumors.


We have built a 12DOF, passive-compliant legged, tailed biped actuated by four brushless DC motors. We anticipate that this machine will achieve varied modes of quasistatic and dynamic balance, enabling a broad range of locomotion tasks including sitting, standing, walking, hopping, running, turning, leaping, and more. Achieving this diversity of behavior with a single under-actuated body, requires a correspondingly diverse array of controllers, motivating our interest in compositional techniques that promote mixing and reuse of a relatively few base constituents to achieve a combinatorially growing array of available choices. Here we report on the development of one important example of such a behavioral programming method, the construction of a novel monopedal sagittal plane hopping gait through parallel composition of four decoupled 1DOF base controllers.
For this example behavior, the legs are locked in phase and the body is fastened to a boom to restrict motion to the sagittal plane. The platform's locomotion is powered by the hip motor that adjusts leg touchdown angle in flight and balance in stance, along with a tail motor that adjusts body shape in flight and drives energy into the passive leg shank spring during stance. The motor control signals arise from the application in parallel of four simple, completely decoupled 1DOF feedback laws that provably stabilize in isolation four corresponding 1DOF abstract reference plants. Each of these abstract 1DOF closed loop dynamics represents some simple but crucial specific component of the locomotion task at hand. We present a partial proof of correctness for this parallel composition of template reference systems along with data from the physical platform suggesting these templates are anchored as evidenced by the correspondence of their characteristic motions with a suitably transformed image of traces from the physical platform.


C larifying cell culture broth is the first downstream unit operation in an elaborate sequence of steps required to purify a biological therapeutic. A combination of centrifugation, depth filtration, or tangential-f low filtration (TFF) is used for that operation. The availability of largescale, single-use, depth filtration technology in the recent years, however, has given process developers the capability to improve and simplify downstream processes.


A new method has been developed to detect RNA-DNA hybrids in situ by fluorescence microscopy. This overcomes some of the disadvantages of autoradiographical detection of in situ hybridization, notably the low resolution and long exposure times needed. A procedure to label RNA at its 3'-terminus with a fluorochrome molecule has been developed. The optimal conditions for the cytochemical hybridisation reaction of this fluorochrome-labeled RNA were investigated using a model consisting of Sepharose beads to which nucleic acids has been bound. With RNA labeled both with 3H and rhodamine the hybridization reaction could be studied both biochemically by scintillation counting and cytochemically by microfluorometry. The fluorochrome-RNA bond was found to be unstable at higher temperatures. Therefore, the hybridization reaction had to be performed at room temperature in formamide-containing buffers. With fluorochrome-labeled complementary RNA kinetoplast DNA in Crithidia luciliae, adenovirus-5 DNA in infected KB cells and 5S rRNA, tRNA and cloned histone genes in polytene chromosomes of Drosophila could be localised. An immunocytochemical amplification method was developed that increased the sensitivity of the direct method. Several recently developed hybridocytochemical methods based on a combination of a hybridisation reaction in the first layer followed by immunocytochemical second layers, are described. The prospects of the application of the hybridocytochemical techniques in biomedical research, such as gene localisation and virus diagnosis, are discussed.


This study aims to determine how the process of implementing a business program to increase the income of a prosperous family in the city of Padang Panjang, identify the obstacles encountered and determine the efforts taken to overcome the obstacles in implementing the program. This research is motivated by not all people from the poor who are included, efforts are not carried out collectively, the lack of participation from the III plus prosperous family group to want to act as a foster father, the amount of capital provided by the government is insufficient in carrying out UPPKS activities and frequent capital. in the wrong use for consumptive purposes.
The method used in the research is qualitative using descriptive methods because the research provides a description of the situation as it should be. The selection of informants was carried out by purposive sampling. The types of data are primary data and secondary data which are collected through observation, interview and documentation study. The validity test was carried out through source triangulation. Then the data analysis techniques used can be grouped into 3 stages, namely data reduction, presentation and drawing conclusions.
The findings of the study indicate that the implementation of the UPPKS program is in accordance with existing procedures but has not been fully able to improve the welfare of its members and has not been optimal. This can be seen from the fact that constraints are still found in implementation, the obstacles faced in implementing the UPPKS program in the City of Padang Panjang can be categorized into two forms, namely internal constraints and external constraints. Internal constraints include weak supervision of the program, lack of capital sourced from the government, uneven coaching. And external obstacles include the use of aid funds that have not been maximized, the lack of creativity and innovation of several groups in finding and utilizing sources of funds, delays in repaying loans. To overcome obstacles in the process of implementing the UPPKS program, efforts were made, including prosperous families III as foster fathers in groups, providing guidance, and obstacles originating from program participants, such as guidance regarding the real goals of the UPPKS program, implementing a ball pick-up system. against members who are stuck in payment.


CHLORPROMAZINE ( 10-[γ-dimethylaminoprophyl] - 2 - chlorophenothiazine hydrochloride) is a phenothiazine derivative which has been reported to be effective in the treatment of a wide variety of clinical conditions.* Preliminary observations have indicated that it is useful in neuroses and psychoses,† nausea and vomiting,‡ shock, 11 and as an agent to augment the effect of anesthetics and opiates. 12 The purpose of the present report is to present a summary of results obtained when chlorpromazine was used for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders, for nausea and vomiting of diverse causation, and for intractable hiccoughs. In these studies each patient served as his own control. The results reported for the neuropsychiatric patients should be considered qualitative rather than quantitative observations. The primary purpose of this aspect of the study was an attempt to estimate therapeutic applicability in varied neuropsychiatric disorders. In addition, attempts were made to establish the maximum, as well as the most


The peculiar properties of quantum mechanics enable possibilities not allowed by classical physics. In particular, two parties can generate a random, secret key at a distance, even though an eavesdropper can do anything permitted by the laws of physics. Measuring the quantum properties of the signals generating the key, would ultimately change them, and thus reveal the eavesdropper's presence. This exchange of a random, secret key is known as quantum cryptography. Quantum cryptography can be, and has been proven unconditionally secure using perfect devices. However, when quantum cryptography is implemented, one must use components available with current technology. These are usually imperfect. Although the security of quantum cryptography has been proven for components with certain imperfections, the question remains: can quantum cryptography be implemented in a provable, unconditionally secure way, using components available with current technology? This thesis contains both a theoretical, and an experimental contribution to the answer of this question. On the experimental side, components used in, and complete quantum cryptography systems have been carefully examined for security loopholes. In particular, it turned out that two commercial quantum cryptography systems contained loopholes, which would allow an eavesdropper to capture the full secret key, without exposing her presence. Furthermore, this detector control attack could be implemented with current technology. The attack is applicable against a variety of quantum cryptography implementations and protocols. The theoretical contribution consists of security proofs for quantum cryptography in a very general setting. Precisely, the security is proven with arbitrary individual imperfections in the source and detectors. These proofs should make it possible to use a wide array of imperfect devices in implementations of quantum cryptography. Finally, a secure detection scheme is proposed, immune to the detector control attack and compatible with those security proofs. Therefore, if this scheme is implemented correctly, it offers provable security.


We analyzed individual-level data on pandemic influenza A/H1N1pdm hospitalizations from the enhanced surveillance system of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, AZ, USA from April 1st, 2009 to March 31st, 2010. We also assessed the the risk of death among A/H1N1 hospitalizations using multivariate logistic regression. Hospitalization rates were significantly higher among Native Americans (risk ratio (RR) = 6.2; 95% CI: 6.15, 6.21), non-Hispanic Black (RR = 3.84; 95% CI: 3.8, 3.9), and Hispanics (RR = 2.0; 95% CI: 2.0, 2.01) compared to non-Hispanic Whites. Throughout the spring, 59.2% of hospitalized patients received antiviral treatment; the proportion of patients treated increased significantly during the fall to 74.4% (Chi-square test, P < 0.0001). In our best-fit logistic model, the adjusted risk of death among A/H1N1 inpatients was significantly higher during the fall wave (August 16, 2009 to March 31, 2010, OR = 3.94; 95% CI: 1.72, 9.03) compared to the spring wave (April 1, 2009 to August 15, 2009). Moreover, chronic lung disease (OR = 3.5; 95% CI: 1.7, 7.4), cancer within the last 12 months (OR = 4.3; 95%CI: 1.3, 14.8), immuno-suppression (OR = 4.0; 95% CI: 1.84, 8.9), and admission delays (OR = 4.6; 95% CI: 2.2, 9.5) were significantly associated with an increased the risk of death among A/H1N1 inpatients.


High-etendue Fourier transform imaging spectrometers can be useful tools for acquiring airborne hyperspectral images, since they do not need moving parts and, as Fourier transform spectrometers, they benefit from the Felgett advantage. The Sagnac interferometer and the Michelson interferometer with dihedrons can be used in such an instrument. These two interferometers act very similarly on the entering beam, and in particular they both work with fringes of equal inclination. This property enables them to benefit from the Jacquinot advantage, too. Nevertheless, to fully benefit from this advantage, it is necessary to maximize the geometrical etendue accepted by the interferometer. From this point of view, the Michelson interferometer with dihedrons appears to be much more interesting than the Sagnac interferometer. Indeed, calculation shows that, in the optimal symmetric configuration, and for the same beamsplitter diameter, the etendue accepted without vignetting by the Michelson interferometer is more than five times greater than the etendue accepted by the Sagnac interferometer. Even if, in a real instrument, the optical scheme cannot be exactly this optimal configuration, this result is a strong argument in support of the Michelson interfero-meter with dihedrons


This paper presents a time domain approach for the analysis of the coupling between an electrostatic discharge (ESD) current and the internal region of a shielded enclosure with a slot. The application of the equivalence principle allows us to obtain an integro-differential equation for the unknown distribution of the aperture electric field. The numerical solution is obtained by an iterative procedure developed by the method of moments (MoM) in the time domain. The approach is also applied at the case of a transient incident field of a plane wave impinging on the enclosure. The use of proper impulse responses for the space and cavity regions make the model efficient from a computational point of view, without loss in accuracy. Theoretical results are validated by measurements.


The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of Apis mellifera propolis collected from two regions of Brazil on caries development in desalivated rats. Ethanolic extracts of propolis (EEP) were prepared from crude propolis samples collected in Minas Gerais state (MG), southeastern Brazil, and Rio Grande do Sul state (RS), southern Brazil. The flavonoid composition of EEP was analyzed by high–performance thin–layer chromatography (HPTLC) and reversed–phase high–performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). For the animal study, 30 specific pathogen–free Wistar rats were infected with Streptococcus sobrinus 6715 and surgically desalivated. The rats were randomly divided into three groups which were treated with 80% ethanol (control), EEP from MG and EEP from RS. The animals were placed in a König–Höfer programmed feeder and received 17 meals of diet 2000 daily at hourly intervals. The solutions were applied on the rat molars (25 μl on molars of each quadrant) twice a day, by using graduate syringes. After 3 weeks, the animals were killed by CO2 asphyxiation. For microbial assessment, the left jaw was removed and sonicated in 154 mM NaCl solution. Dental caries was evaluated according to Larson's modification of Keyes' system. The HPTLC patterns and HPLC profiles demonstrated that both quality and quantity of flavonoid aglycones of EEP from MG were different compared to EEP from RS. In general, it is apparent that EEP from RS contained the highest concentrations of pinocembrin, chrysin, acacetin and galangin. The group of animals treated with EEP from RS showed the lowest smooth–surface and sulcal caries scores as well as less caries severity in smooth–surface and sulcal lesions, and these data were statistically different when compared with the control group. The group treated with EEP from MG only demonstrated a significant difference in the severity of sulcal lesions when compared to the control group. The percentage of S. sobrinus was lower in the groups treated with EEP, but did not differ statistically from the control group. The results showed that the cariostatic effect of propolis depends on its composition, and consequently the region of collection of propolis samples.


Scheimpflug photography gives increased depth of field, enabling a sharp optical section through the whole anterior segment of the eye to be obtained without leaving any structures out of focus. With the Topcon SL-45 the Scheimpflug optical section can be reproduced exactly. It is the method of choice for observing lens opacities. In addition, Scheimpflug photography offers an improved method of monitoring natural courses and/or the effects of treatment in, e.g., keratoconus, lenticonus, aphakia and pseudophakia.


The spermiogenesis of Pagumogonimus skrjabini was observed on the ultrastructural level by transmission electron microscopy. The development and the morphological characteristics of spermatids and sperm were studied. The Golgi comples was located near the anterior region of the spermatid nucleus and developed into an acrosomal cap of the sperm. Accordingly, an acrosomal structure of P. skrjabini was recognized in this study. The mature sperm of P.s. was composed of head and tail. The head part was filled with dense nucleus and the nucleoplasma extended into the anterior end of the median part of the sperm tail. A conjunction part was seen between the head and the tail. The tail was composed of a median part and a terminal part. At the beginning of median part of the tail, two axial filaments were found on each side. Each axial filament was composed of two central filaments and nine pairs of cuter filaments. The two central filaments were surrounded by fibrous sheath, both of which were connected with spoke-like structures. Mitochondria were arranged in a line in the ventral portion of the central filaments. At the terminal part of the tail, two axial filaments lay closely together.


A congenital diverticulum of the ventricle is a very rare cardiac lesion which is almost always associated with additional cardiovascular anomalies. In the majority of cases a diverticulum of the heart has been diagnosed during cardiac catheterization for evaluation of additional cardiovascular anomalies. We report noninvasive echocardiographic diagnosis of a congenital cardiac diverticulum in two patients. Noninvasive imaging of the diverticulum facilities planning of cardiac catheterization, angiographic imaging and surgical treatment of this rare anomaly.


cells and asthmatic bronchial epithelial cells from Lonza. We used GE microarray and NGS to analyze the expression profiles of mRNAs and microRNAs, respectively. We used miRmap to predict putative targets of microRNAs, and the DAVID database to analyze potential biological function of the differentially expressed genes. We selected a representative microarray (accession number, GSE43696) from the GEO database to validate the dysregulated genes identified from cells study. Results: From the analysis of expression profiles of mRNAs and microRNAs in normal and asthmatic bronchial epithelial cells, we identified 9 genes with potential microRNAs-mRNA interactions. Of these 9 dysregulated genes, downregulation of MEF2C and MDGA1 were validated in the representative microarray (GSE43696) from GEO database. Our findings suggested that upregulated mir-203a might repress MEF2C, a transcription factor, leading to decreased cellular proliferation. In addition, upregulated mir-3065-3p may repress MDGA1, a cell membrane anchor protein, resulting suppression of cell-cell adhesion. We also found that KCNJ2, a potassium channel, was downregulated in severe asthma and may promote epithelial cell apoptosis. Conclusion: Our study shows that aberrant regulations of mir-203a to MEF2C and mir-3065-3p to MDGA1, as well as downregulation of KCNJ2, play important roles in airway epithelial homeostasis in asthma. These findings provide new perspectives on the development of diagnostic or therapeutic strategies targeting bronchial epithelium for asthma. The approach in this study also provides a new aspect of studying the pathogenesis of asthma.


OBJECTIVE
Discuss anticipated patterns of cognitive and emotional dysfunction, prognostic indicators, and treatment considerations based on review of (a) neuroinvasive properties of prior human coronaviruses and (b) extensively researched disorders which share similar neurological mechanisms.

METHOD
A web-based comprehensive search of peer-reviewed journals was conducted based on a variety of key terms (and variants of) including coronavirus, neuroinvasion, cognitive dysfunction, viral pandemics, respiratory illness, critical illness, and metabolic disease. Articles were chosen based on relevance to the current topic and ability to provide unique thematic information. Historical articles were included if these added scientific merit to recent literature. Review of information in widely disseminated news articles was followed-up with direct review of cited scientific literature. Databases searched included Google Scholar, PubMed, and Ovid Medline.

RESULTS
Based on neuroinvasive properties of prior coronaviruses and existing research on similar neurophysiological conditions with detrimental cognitive effects, COVID-19-especially those with severe symptoms-are at risk for cognitive decline and significant psychiatric/behavioral sequela.

CONCLUSIONS
There are few studies examining cognitive outcomes in COVID-19. This review argues that neuropsychological sequelae are to be expected in patients with COVID-19. Considerations for clinicians working with this unique population are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).


From February of 1987 through February of 1991, 25 patients with rheumatic mitral disease underwent cusp-level shortening of the chordae of the anterior mitral leaflet as part of the valvular reconstruction procedure at our institutions. All patients had moderate or severe mitral regurgitation, with prolapse of the anterior mitral leaflet. Seventeen patients also had mitral stenosis. Postoperative echocardiograms, both transthoracic and transesophageal, showed correction of leaflet prolapse and mitral regurgitation. This preliminary report suggests that the technique satisfactorily corrects mitral regurgitation in patients with elongated and thickened chordae characteristic of rheumatic mitral disease.


Abstract. Many factors affect tall buildings under the influence of earthquake forces. According to the conducted studies, more tensions have been observed in the end wings of shear walls. The end shear wall is used to reduce tensions and to improve the performance of shear walls in tall buildings. In this study, 10-story, 30-story and 50-story concrete buildings with square plans were modeled and two cases of the momentresisting frame with shear wall and moment-resisting frame with end shear wall, which were under the influence of earthquake and linear static analysis have been investigated. In this analysis, the buildings were torsioned and the results of the analysis showed that the values of the drifts, roof displacement and first period in the structure with the end wall are about 50 % percent less than of that of the building without the end wall, also, On the other hand, with the presence of the end wall in structure the ratio (∆max/∆avg) is more than 1.2, so, the use of the end wall led to a more appropriate behavior of warping in comparison to concrete square frames with no end walls.


This article has been written by way of follow-up to an article entitled 'The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Competition Policy in the Australian Banking Sector' (2009) 3 Law and Financial Markets Review 449. As discussed in that article, responses to the global financial crisis included government bailouts of institutions (largely but not limited to those in the banking and financial sector); the provision of cash injections into financial systems to keep credit flowing; the encouragement of mergers in the financial sector resulting in the creation of "mega banks"; requiring competition authorities to "relax" enforcement of competition rules in the interest of financial stability. This meant that political pressure became increasingly influential for the implementation of competition law and policy. For example, the European Commission was essentially forced to shift its policy on the application of state aid rules in relation to financial institutions in response to rescue measures taken by European governments to support their financial sectors. Australia was luckier than most countries, in that the strength of its domestic economy and banking sector helped it to withstand the severity of the impact of the crisis. However, Australian markets were also affected. This article now examines how Australia and other key jurisdictions (notably the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom) have responded to the global financial crisis, and focuses particularly on competition law responses to the crisis.


We have examined what the sensitivity is of geostatistical modeling parameters on reservoir flow behavior, which is characterized by net present value (NPV) and water break through time (WBTT). This can be regarded as a first step to examine the possibility of finding a reduced-order parameter set with geological meaning that can be used to calculate the control action that maximizes an objective function, as done in closed-loop reservoir management. A variogram-based method is used to generate realizations of permeability distributions based on 6 parameters (nugget, sill, two ranges, angle and mean permeability). For each parameter a minimum, mean and maximum number is chosen. Due to the assumed high variability of realizations with identical parameters 30 permeability distributions are generated for each parameter set. Experimental design is applied to reduce the number of reservoir models. The models with different permeability distributions are simulated using a black-oil reservoir simulator and NPV and WBTT are calculated. The results are analyzed using Analysis of Variance and response surfaces. WBTT is mainly sensitive to angle, sill and mean permeability, and NPV to angle and sill. The sensitivity of the interaction between parameters, which affect isotropy and heterogeneity, is also quantified.


(1) Background: Norepinephrine (NE) is the first-line vasoactive agent used in septic shock patients; however, the effect of norepinephrine on dialysis-required septic acute kidney injury (AKI-D) patients is uncertain. (2) Methods: To evaluate the impact of NE on 90-day mortality and renal recovery in septic AKI-D patients, we enrolled patients in intensive care units from 30 hospitals in Taiwan. (3) Results: 372 patients were enrolled and were divided into norepinephrine users and non-users. After adjustment by Inverse probability of treatment weighted (IPTW), there was no significant difference of baseline comorbidities between the two groups. NE users had significantly higher 90-day mortality rate and using NE is a strong predictor of 90-day mortality in the multivariate Cox regression (HR = 1.497, p = 0.027) after adjustment. The generalized additive model disclosed norepinephrine alone exerted a dose–dependent effect on 90-day mortality, while other vasoactive agents were not. (4) Conclusion: Using norepinephrine in septic AKI-D patients is associated with higher 90-day mortality and the effect is dose-dependent. Further study to explore the potential mechanism is needed.


This paper introduces a novel architecture for next-generation adaptive computing systems, which we term 3D-SoftChip. The 3D-SoftChip is a 3-dimensional (3D) vertically integrated adaptive computing system combining state-of-the-art processing and 3D interconnection technology. It comprises the vertical integration of two chips (a configurable array processor and an intelligent configurable switch) through an indium bump interconnection array (IBIA). The configurable array processor (CAP) is an array of heterogeneous processing elements (PEs), while the intelligent configurable switch (ICS) comprises a switch block, 32-bit dedicated RISC processor for control, on-chip program/data memory, data frame buffer, along with a direct memory access (DMA) controller. This paper introduces the novel 3D-SoftChip architecture for real-time communication and multimedia signal processing as a next-generation computing system. The paper further describes the advanced HW/SW codesign and verification methodology, including high-level system modeling of the 3D-SoftChip using SystemC, being used to determine the optimum hardware specification in the early design stage.


A generally accepted theory of liquid flow in rigid systems has been used in soil science for more than 50 years. Liquid flow in systems that change volume with liquid content is not so well described and remains a major challenge to soil scientists, although its application in chemical and mining engineering and soil mechanics is increasingly accepted. Theory of water flow in swelling soils must satisfy material continuity. It must also account for changes in the gravitational potential energy of the system during swelling and for anisotropic stresses that constrain the soil laterally but permit vertical movement. A macroscopic and phenomenological analysis based on material balance and Darcy's law is the most useful first approach to water flow and volume change in such soils. Use of a material coordinate based on the solid distribution results in a flow equation analogous to that L. A. Richards enunciated for non-swelling soils. This framework is strain-independent and solutions to the flow equation exist for a wide range of practically important conditions. The approach has been well tested in clay suspensions and saturated systems such as mine tailings and sediments. It is also applied in soil mechanics. This paper reviews central elements in application of the analysis to swelling soils. It argues that, as with use of the Richards' equation in rigid soils, complexities are evident, but the approach remains the most coherent and profitable to support current need and future research. The use of material coordinates, to ensure material balance is assessed correctly, is simple.


The objectives of this study were to determine how dietary supplementation of N-carbamylglutamate (NCG) and rumen-protected L-arginine (RP-Arg) in nutrient-restricted pregnant Hu sheep would affect (1) maternal endocrine status; (2) maternal, fetal, and placental antioxidation capability; and (3) placental development. From day 35 to day 110 of gestation, 32 Hu ewes carrying twin fetuses were allocated randomly into four groups: 100% of NRC-recommended nutrient requirements, 50% of NRC recommendations, 50% of NRC recommendations supplemented with 20g/day RP-Arg, and 50% of NRC recommendations supplemented with 5g/day NCG product. The results showed that in maternal and fetal plasma and placentomes, the activities of total antioxidant capacity and superoxide dismutase were increased (P<0.05); however, the activity of glutathione peroxidase and the concentration of maleic dialdehyde were decreased (P<0.05) in both NCG- and RP-Arg-treated underfed ewes. The mRNA expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and Fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 was increased (P<0.05) in 50% NRC ewes than in 100% NRC ewes, and had no effect (P>0.05) in both NCG- and RP-Arg-treated underfed ewes. A supplement of RP-Arg and NCG reduced (P<0.05) the concentrations of progesterone, cortisol, and estradiol-17β; had no effect on T4/T3; and improved (P<0.05) the concentrations of leptin, insulin-like growth factor 1, tri-iodothyronine (T3), and thyroxine (T4) in serum from underfed ewes. These results indicate that dietary supplementation of NCG and RP-Arg in underfed ewes could influence maternal endocrine status, improve the maternal-fetal-placental antioxidation capability, and promote fetal and placental development during early-to-late gestation.


This paper describes a portion of a three-part case study designed to research the instructional patterns that occur within role-playing games (RPGs). It presents a set of nine heuristics for learning in RPGs and analyzes how and where those heuristics occur within the game Diablo III. The findings from the study include an overview of a cyclical learning pattern that occurs with RPGs, as well as theoretical and practical implication for both industry and academic contexts.


Internet of Things (IoT) network is dominating both the research and industry. There are numerous emerging IoT connectivity Technologies such as Sigfox, LoRa, NB-IoT, LTEM. However, these IoT connectivity technologies have different protocols and packet/message formatting. Thus, IoT devices are usually not able to interact with one another, causing interoper-ability challenges. This is creating the so-called network island or silos. Interoperability between different IoT networks needs to be achieved to fully exploit IoT potential. This is required at each level of the network. Different solutions have been proposed to tackle the interoperability problem at different levels reducing the difficulty in defining a solution breaching the vertical silos barrier. In this article, we focus on addressing network-level interoperability. We provide a network format translator in a virtualized environment as a flexible and lightweight deployment. As a proof of concept, a testbed is developed implementing the proposed translator using NS3. Using the testbed, we can communicate with different IoT technologies sending packets between each device in each type of IoT network. For example, sending a LoRaWAN packet to Wi-Fi and 6LoWPAN and visa-versa. Finally, we have measured the latency introduced by the translator.


There is growing support for the hypothesis that obesity is an inflammatory condition leading to chronic activation of the innate immune system, which ultimately causes progressive impairment of glucose tolerance. Experimental studies in animals and evidence from prospective and longitudinal studies in humans are consistent with an etiologic role of subclinical inflammation in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes, primarily as a mediator of obesity-induced insulin resistance. However, the exact chain of molecular events linking overnutrition, activation of the innate immune system, and impairment of insulin signaling in peripheral tissues remains incompletely understood. Notwithstanding this limitation, treating the underlying subclinical inflammation may constitute a novel approach to prevention and/or treatment of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes 54:917–927, 2005


Supercomputers and clouds both strive to make a large number of computing cores available for computation. More recently, similar objectives such as low-power, manageability at scale, and low cost of ownership are driving a more converged hardware and software. Challenges remain, however, of which one is that current cloud infrastructure does not yield the performance sought by many scientific applications. A source of the performance loss comes from virtualization and virtualization of the network in particular. This paper provides an introduction and analysis of a hybrid supercomputer software infrastructure, which allows direct hardware access to the communication hardware for the necessary components while providing the standard elastic cloud infrastructure for other components.


In the modern military's highly interconnected and technology-reliant operational environment, cybersecurity is rapidly growing in importance. Moreover, as a number of highly publicized attacks have occurred against complex cyberphysical systems such as automobiles and airplanes, cybersecurity is no longer limited to traditional computer systems and IT networks. While architectural analysis approaches are critical to improving cybersecurity, these approaches are often poorly understood and applied in ad hoc fashion. This work addresses these gaps by answering the questions: 1. "What is cybersecurity architectural analysis?" and 2. "How can architectural analysis be used to more effectively support cybersecurity decision making for complex cyber-physical systems?" First, a readily understandable description of key architectural concepts and definitions is provided which culminates in a working definition of "cybersecurity architectural analysis," since none is available in the literature. Next, we survey several architectural analysis approaches to provide the reader with an understanding of the various approaches being used across government and industry. Based on our proposed definition, the previously introduced key concepts, and our survey results, we establish desirable characteristics for evaluating cybersecurity architectural analysis approaches. Lastly, each of the surveyed approaches is assessed against the characteristics and areas of future work are identified.


A novel method, termed Reduced Dimensionality Cluster Identification, RDCI, is presented, for the identification and quantitative description of clusters formed by N objects in three dimensional space. The method consists of finding a path, as short as possible, connecting the objects, and then tracking down the size s, of a subgroup i-n, i-n+1, ..., i+n, of 2n+1 < N particles for i varying from n+1 to N-n. Clusters are located where local minima of s(i) occur whereas local maxima serve as delimiters partitioning the path in subsets containing the clusters. Minimal post-processing allows for the removal of outliers on the basis of user-defined criteria and the identification of clearly defined clusters. The advantage of the method is that it requires no predetermined input or criteria of "clusterness" such as number of objects or size of aggregates. Among the numerous possible applications of the method, results are herein reported, from Molecular Dynamics simulations of a binary mixture of Lennard-Jones fluids and of a model polymeric system with a gas-like substance dispersed in it. The method is shown to allow the extraction of meaningful quantitative information regarding the tendency of molecules to cluster or de-cluster and the dynamics of the clustering processes.


AIM
To investigate the effect of aspirin on the metastasis-associated gene expression in 3AO ovarian cancer cells.

METHODS
3AO cells were treated with aspirin at the concentration of 1.2 mmol/L for 16 and 48 h, respectively. The total RNA was extracted with Trizol reagents and reverse transcribed with Superscript II and hybridized with cDNA microarray (containing oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, signal transduction pathway molecules, adhesive molecules, growth factors and ESTs) fabricated in our lab. After normalization, the ratio of gene expression of aspirin treated to untreated 3AO cells being either 2 fold up higher or 0.5 fold down (lower) were defined as differential expression. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR was used to validate the microarray results.

RESULTS
Among the 447 metastasis-associated genes, 4 genes were up-regulated and 14 genes were down-regulated in 3AO cells treated with aspirin for 16 h compared with untreated cells. While 24 genes were up-regulated and 10 genes were down-regulated in cells treated with aspirin for 48 h. Several up or down-regulated gene expression changes continued from 16 h to 48 h.

CONCLUSION
Aspirin might exert its anti-metastasis effects on ovarian cancer by affecting metastasis-associated gene expression.


To satisfy the increasing demand for safer critical systems, engineers have integrated higher levels of automation. In the context of airplane autopilot, time saved by automation, which should normally be used to plan the flight, might instead be filled by task-unrelated thoughts, or mind wandering (MW). We observed the impact of automation on MW in an operational environment. Participants were required to either avoid incoming obstacles by controlling the movements of an aircraft on a 2D radar screen or monitor an automated system performing the same task. Participants' propensity to mind wander increased with the time spent doing the task. Moreover, the time spent MW increased with automation in a significant manner. The NASA TLX, a measure of perceived workload, highlighted the influence of automation over perceived workload. Moreover, TLX scores were not correlated with MW propensity. This study shows a significant influence of automation over MW, which was not due to workload effects or task interactions.


The light-dependent reactivation of photosystem II in Chlorella pyrenoidosa Chick, CALU-175 cells, inactivated with supraoptimal temperatures (40-43 degrees C) in the dark or during heterotrophic growth was studied. It was shown that the inactivation of photosystem II after incubation in the dark at 41-42 degrees C, which showed up in the suppression of relative yield of variable chlorophyll fluorescence Fv due to an increase in yield F0 could be completely reversed by light. The inactivation of photosystem II at 43 degrees C in the dark could not be reversed by subsequent irradiation. In this case, the suppression of Fv/Fm was related not only to the growth of F0 but also with the decrease in Fm. The light dependences of the rate and extent of reactivation of yield Fv after heterotrophic growth or incubation of chlorella at 41 degrees C in the dark completely coincided. The full light-induced reactivation of photosystem II took place as the rate of photoinduced electron transport reached the rate of nonphotochemical reduction of plastoquinone in the dark. These results suggest that the light-reversed inactivation of photosystem II after heterotrophic growth or incubation at 41 degrees C in the dark is due to the redox-interaction of the primary quinone acceptor with plastoquinone reduced by the electron flux from the substrates of chlororespiration.


Using IAP (plasma analyzer) and ISL (Langmuir probe) experiments onboard DEMETER (Detection of Electromagnetic Emissions Transmitted from Earthquake Regions) satellite and GPS (Global Positioning System) measurements, we have statistically analyzed the variations of the electron and ion densities to search for disturbances in the vicinity of four large earthquakes prior to events. The indicesDst andKp were used to distinguish pre-earthquake anomalies from the other anomalies related to the geomagnetic activities. For each studied case, a very good agreement was found between the different parameters estimated by DEMETER and GPS data in the detection of pre-seismic anomalies. Our statistics results show that the anomalous deviations prior to earthquakes have different sign from case to case, and that their amplitude depends on the magnitude of the earthquake. It has also been found that the electron density measured by the ISL experiment at night detects anomalous variations significantly before the earthquakes. The appearance of positive and negative anomalies in both of DEMETER and TEC (Total Electron Content) data during 1 to 5 days before all studied earthquakes during quiet geomagnetic conditions indicates that these anomalous behaviors are highly regarded as seismo-ionospheric precursors.


Background Sex differences in post-stroke cognitive decline have not been systematically evaluated in a nationally representative cohort. We use a quasi-experimental design to investigate sex differences in rate of post-stroke cognitive decline. Methods Utilizing the event study design, we use the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data (1996–2016) to evaluate the differences (percentage points [95% Confidence interval]) in the rate of change in cognitive function, measured using the modified version of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS-m) score, before and after incident stroke, and among patients with and without incident stroke. We estimated this event study model for the overall study population and separately fit the same model for male and female participants. Results Of 25,872 HRS participants included in our study, 14,459 (55.9%) were females with an overall mean age (SD) of 61.2 (9.3) years. Overall, 2,911 (11.3%) participants reported experiencing incident stroke. Participants with incident stroke (vs. no stroke) had lower baseline TICS-m score (15.6 vs. 16.1). Among participants with incident stroke, the mean pre-stroke TICS-m score was higher than the mean post-stroke TICS-m score (14.9 vs. 12.7). Event study revealed a significant short-term acceleration of cognitive decline for the overall population (4.2 [1.7–6.6] percentage points, p value = 0.001) and among female participants (5.0 [1.7–8.3] percentage points, p value = 0.003). We, however, found no evidence of long-term acceleration of cognitive decline after stroke. Moreover, among males, incident stroke was not associated with significant changes in rate of post-stroke cognitive decline. Conclusion Females, in contrast to males, experience post-stroke cognitive deficits, particularly during early post-stroke period. Identifying the sex-specific stroke characteristics contributing to differences in post stroke cognitive decline may inform future strategies for reducing the burden of post-stroke cognitive impairment and dementia.


The design of the novel rope-free passenger transportation system (PTS) differs from that of conventional traction lifts. The new propulsion, realized through a linear motor, requires lightweight constructions and thus shapes the design of the PTS. Additionally the possibility of horizontal travel has great influence on the difference between the design of conventional traction lifts and the PTS. Despite the different design, the aim for the rope-free PTS is to achieve at least the same ride quality as modern traction lifts. One important point in achieving the required ride quality is to reduce the vibrations felt by the passengers inside the cabin. In general, the damping concepts of conventional lifts cannot be readily applied to the new design of the PTS. Therefore, a damping concept for the rope-free PTS has to be developed. This paper will present the possibilities of active vibration damping for the PTS and a possible actuator position. The paper will focus on the modelling of the active damping components and the control of actuators deployed in the system. The performance of the damping actuators will be evaluated using a simulation with a Multi-Body System (MBS) of the PTS. The primary disturbance of the PTS for this paper will be the vibrations induced by the guidance.


The paper systematizes the data of the literature on ultrastructural changes in the central nervous system (CNS) of experimental animals infected with arboviruses of the Togaviridae family. The main site of virus reproduction in the CNS was found to be nerve cells in which the ultrastructural lesions typical for this group of viruses developed. The main features of these lesions consist in degeneration of rough membranes, ribosomes, and polysomes of the cell, hyperplasia and hypertrophy of smooth membranes, formation of various vacuoles and vesicles in the cell hyaloplasm. Mature virions accumulate in cisterns and cavities of the endoplasmic reticulum, lamellar complex, in vacuoles and vesicles. Each of arboviruses produces in the cells not strictly specific but typical ultrastructural lesions. In the CNS the viruses spread hematogenically, in intercellular and perivascular spaces and dendrites of the nerve cells.


SUMMARY Farmers in the Lake Alaotra region of Madagascar are currently evaluating a range of conservation agriculture (CA) cropping systems. Most of the expected agroecological functions of CA (weed control, erosion control and water retention) are related to the degree of soil cover. Under farmers' conditions, the grain and biomass productivity of these systems is highly variable and the biomass is used for several purposes. In this study, we measured biomass production of cover crops and crops in farmers' fields. Further, we derived relationships to predict the soil cover that can be generated for a particular quantity of mulch. We used these relationships to explore the variability of soil cover that can be generated in farmers' fields, and to estimate how much of the biomass can be removed for use as livestock feed, while retaining sufficient soil cover. Three different kinds of cropping systems were investigated in 91 farmers' fields. The first two cropping sequences were on the hillsides: (i) maize + pulse (Vigna unguiculata or Dolichos lablab) in year 1, followed by upland rice in year 2; (ii) the second crop sequence included several years of Stylosanthes guianensis followed by upland rice; (iii) the third crop sequence was in lowland paddy fields: Vicia villosa or D. lablab, which was followed by rice within the same year and repeated every year. The biomass available prior to rice sowing varied from 3.6 t ha−1 with S. guianensis to 7.3 t ha−1 with V. villosa. The relationship between the mulch quantity (M) and soil cover (C) was measured using digital imaging and was well described by the following equation: C = 1 − exp(−Am × M), where Am is an area-to-mass ratio with R2 > 0.99 in all cases. The calculated average soil cover varied from 56 to 97% for maize + V. unguiculata and V. villosa, respectively. In order to maintain 90% soil cover at rice sowing, the average amount of biomass of V. villosa that could be removed was at least 3 t ha−1 for three quarters of the fields. This quantity was less for other annual or biennial cropping systems. On average the V. villosa aboveground biomass contained 236 kg N ha−1. The study showed that for the conditions of farmers of Malagasy, the production and conservation of biomass is not always sufficient to fulfil all the above-cited agroecological functions of mulch. Inventory of the soil cover capacity for different types of mulch may help farmers to decide how much biomass they can remove from the field.


We are currently witnessing a duality in management pedagogy: an objective approach represented by the professional education model, and an interpretative approach represented by action learning. Professional education emphasizes theory, academic assessment, breadth of subject matter, and technical problemsolving. Action learning values practice, managerial assessment, depth of subject matter, and problem finding. The author suggests a reformulation of graduate management education that goes beyond a synthesis of the two extant approaches.


Rose apple (Syzygium jambos) is a popular fruit native to Southeast Asia. The blossoms contain hundreds of stamens and the fruits are crisp, juicy with distinct rose scent. The fruits are palatable with a moderate sweet taste. Rose apple contains low fibre level, appreciable level of vitamin C, some level of acid, protein and ash content. In-situ characterization and preliminary evaluation are performed following Biodiversity International Tropical Fruit Descriptor. Total 6 numbers of accessions were taken under the study, the tree age varied from 18yrs to above 20yrs. Height and trunk girth varied from 8m to above 12m and 124.00 cm to 205.00 cm in studied accessions. Leaf characters in rose apple reveals lanceolate leaf blade shape, narrowly acuminate leaf apex, cuneate leaf base, opposite leaf orientation and arcuate leaf venation. Length of the leaf blade ranges from 19.21 cm to 25.04 cm and breadth varies from 4.08 cm to 6.54 cm. Maximum fruit weight (27.36 g), seed weight (12.11 g) in ACC-3 and maximum number of seeds (2.4) in ACC-4 and ACC-3 were recorded. TSS ranged from 5.08° Brix (ACC-4) to 6.08° Brix (ACC-2). Average linkage technique clustering when applied on squared Euclidean distance matrix a total of 4 clusters were formed for plant physical parameters, fruit physical parameters and for fruit biochemical parameters. K e y w o r d s