Friedreich's ataxia is the most common inherited autosomal recessive ataxia and is characterized by progressive degeneration of the peripheral and central nervous systems and cardiomyopathy. This disease is caused by the silencing of the FXN gene and reduced levels of the encoded protein, frataxin. Frataxin is a mitochondrial protein that functions primarily in iron-sulfur cluster synthesis. This small protein with an α/β sandwich fold undergoes complex processing and imports into the mitochondria, generating isoforms with distinct N-terminal lengths which may underlie different functionalities, also in respect to oligomerization. Missense mutations in the FXN coding region, which compromise protein folding, stability, and function, are found in 4% of FRDA heterozygous patients and are useful to understand how loss of functional frataxin impacts on FRDA physiopathology. In cells, frataxin deficiency leads to pleiotropic phenotypes, including deregulation of iron homeostasis and increased oxidative stress. Increasing amount of data suggest that oxidative stress contributes to neurodegeneration in Friedreich's ataxia.


Listeners rapidly adapt to many forms of degraded speech. What level of information drives this adaptation, however, remains unresolved. The current study exposed listeners to sinewave-vocoded speech in one of three languages, which manipulated the type of information shared between the training languages (German, Mandarin, or English) and the testing language (English) in an audio-visual (AV) or an audio plus still frames modality (A + Stills). Three control groups were included to assess procedural learning effects. After training, listeners' perception of novel sinewave-vocoded English sentences was tested. Listeners exposed to German-AV materials performed equivalently to listeners exposed to English AV or A + Stills materials and significantly better than two control groups. The Mandarin groups and German-A + Stills group showed an intermediate level of performance. These results suggest that full lexical access is not absolutely necessary for adaptation to degraded speech, but providing AV-training in a language that is similar phonetically to the testing language can facilitate adaptation.


Adult rhabdomyoma is rare benign tumor of muscle origin usually occurring in the head and neck region. Only a few cases of this disease have been reported in the literature.We describe a 63-year-old man with an adult rhabdomyoma arising in the floor of the mouth. The patient was found to have a mass occurring in the right side of the floor of the mouth on examination at a dental clinic. When he visited our department on June 16, 1999, a mass measuring 25×35mm was found in the right side of the floor of the mouth. We felt pseudofluctuations on the normal mucosa. CT imaging demonstrated a low-density mass. The Clinical diagnosis was a bengin tumor of the right side of the floor of the mouth. The tumor was surgically removed on July 7, 1999. It was an elastic, reddish brown, encapsulated tumor measuring 50×40×18mm. Histological examination revealed an adult rhabdomyoma.


Background Early support and interventions are suggested to be important for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental problems and their families. Parents are described to have a burdensome life situation where the child's problems have a great impact on the family's well-being. Aim To obtain increased knowledge of parents' experiences of support and interventions 6 years after their child was assessed for ASD. Methods and procedures A semi-structured questionnaire was sent to all parents (n=101) whose preschool children (<4 years of age) had been assessed for ASD about 6 years prior in Gothenburg, Sweden. The open-ended questions were analyzed thematically using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Outcomes and results Parents of 56 children answered 30 questions about their experiences concerning support from society after the neuropsychiatric assessment. From the eight open-ended questions, three themes were identified: parental responsibility, resources and competence among actors in society, and inequality. The parents experienced that they had to take responsibility for meeting the needs of and securing support for their child. They found that the support given was unequal, uncoordinated, and with great variations between both geographical areas and professionals. Parents' own resources were described as impacting the possibility to secure adequate interventions, resulting in unequal treatment of families depending on socioeconomic status. Several parents also expressed experiencing a lack of individualization of services and interventions. All children had received some kind of action from society, but not to the degree they had wished for when the children got their ASD diagnosis. Conclusion and implications The essence of parents' comments was the experience of authorities and societal actors trying to push the responsibility onto someone else. The study indicates a need for continuous longitudinal support for children identified with neurodevelopmental problems before the age of 3 years. This requires collaboration and coordination between different societal bodies.


Background/context Video Debriefing is widely used in simulation, yet evidence has yet to be found proving its use benefits the learning. AT HILS we have noticed a wide variation in its perceived effective use. We decided to use a mandatory training day with 6 scenarios (Foundation Acute Clinical Emergencies Simulation) which occurred 15 times over a 3 month period to study the best way to assist a debriefer with video feedback. Methodology Our video debriefing system uses digital bookmarks to highlight possible areas of interest for replay. We recorded the method in which the debriefer asked the technician to play the bookmark (ie timecode, name of bookmark or number) and the success of that interaction. We asked faculty to fill in pre and post course questionnaires on their video debriefing experience, confidence and perceived usefulness of this method. We also recorded a range of data to help analysis such as which of 4 technicians was supporting, the specific scenario, the specific debriefer, number of bookmarks recorded and used. Results/outcomes (anticipated or recorded to date) Our results showed that naming the bookmark by timecode was the most popular method of communicating as well as the most effective. We were also able to draw conclusions That there was no correlation between the number of bookmarks made and actual used to play back video All faculty showed increases in their confidence and perceived usefulness of video debriefing across the duration of the course. Potential impact Our findings have led to A standardised method of supporting video debriefing The production of an induction session for video debriefers Increased confidence in faculty to perform video debriefing


Building upon the work of Maoz and Russett, Bueno de Mesquita and Lalman, and Morgan and Campbell, the authors evaluate the "democratic peace" phenomenon in an experimental setting. They first introduce the "political incentive" explanation of why democracies don't fight each other in the context of the diversionary theory of war, and then report results based on experiments with three groups of subjects: American students, nonstudent adults, and Israeli students. The results of all three experiments confirm the democratic peace findings and suggest that democracies do not fight each other because their leaders have very few political incentives to do so.


Medical records and radiographs of 450 consecutive patients that had extractions of impacted third molars at a semi urban Nigerian Teaching Hospital were studied to highlight common indications for such extraction. Infections accounted for majority (69.6%) of third molars extracted at the lower jaw, followed by periodontal pocket formation distal to second molars (12.5%). Caries, cysts, jaw fractures and neoplasm were respectively responsible for 5.7%, 0.6%,0.5% and 0.3% of impacted lower third molars extracted. Obscure jaw pain (48.4%) was the most common reason for removing impacted upper third molars. Only 2 (3.2%) upper third molars were extracted because of infections. Since pericoronitis was the most common indication for the extraction of impacted lower third molars, it was suggested that where resources for third molar surgery are limited, it may seem reasonable to prioritise removal of asymptomatic third molar covered by soft tissue alone.


The feasibility of using deep learning techniques in industrial cold forging for fault detection was investigated. In this work, vibration data were collected from an industrial setting to detect machine conditions resulting in defective products (faults). After collecting data from several commonly encountered faults, a Convolutional Neural Network classifier detected fault conditions with 99.02% accuracy and further classified each fault with 92.66% accuracy. A decision tree (DT) model was also used in an attempt to detect and classify faults using time domain features. The model was able to detect faults with 92.5% accuracy but was unable to classify them. In addition, DT feature importance analysis was performed to understand how various faults impacted the machine signal for future refinement of the proposed system. The results suggest that the proposed deep learning method has the potential to detect faults in cold forging, but future work is required to validate the method.


Clean water is a natural resource that is crucial for life but has very little protection. This was exemplified by the Gold King Mine spill on August 7, 2015, in which three million gallons of acidic mine drainage was released into the head waters of the Animas River. The Animas River is the source for five water supply systems, providing drinking water for tens of thousands of people and irrigation water for a myriad of agricultural operations. Incidents such as this happen regularly and create the need for persistent monitoring of the water in rivers, lakes and reservoirs world wide. To this end, this paper presents the development of a network of three autonomous surface vehicles equipped with water monitoring sensors for water quality monitoring and an algorithm validation testbed. These vehicles are sustained by solar power and equipped with 3G wireless communication for real-time data transmission. Here, we detail the vehicles and the networked system, and provide results from field deployments. An additional outcome of this project is the engagement and collaboration with the local community and the robotic community at large. By making the database view-able to the public the local community can be involved in evaluating the quality of their water. By allowing the public to plan paths for the vehicles, multi-robot sampling algorithms and crowd-sourced control techniques can be methodically developed and systematically analyzed.


This paper proposes an implementation of a motion-sensorless control system in wide speed range based on "active flux" observer, and direct torque and flux control with space vector modulation (DTFC-SVM) for the interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM), without signal injection. The concept of "active flux" (or "torque producing flux") turns all the rotor salient-pole ac machines into fully nonsalient-pole ones. A new function for Lq inductance depending on torque is introduced to model the magnetic saturation. Notable simplification in the rotor position and speed estimation is obtained, because the active flux position is identical with the rotor position. Extensive experimental results are presented to verify the principles and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed sensorless control system. With the active flux observer, the IPMSM drive system operates from very low speed of 2 r/min at half full-load up to 1400 r/min. Higher speed is possible, in principle, with flux weakening.


Tumor‐associated carbohydrates have potential not only as diagnostic tools but also as specific therapeutic targets. Their identification, however, has been hampered by the lack of suitable technologies. We used carbohydrate array technology to compare serum antibody (IgG and IgM) levels against 37 different carbohydrates between classical Hodgkin's lymphoma (cHL) patients and age/sex‐matched healthy controls. Serum IgM levels measured by ELISA against 2 of the 5 carbohydrates identified using this technique, L‐α‐arabinose (L‐Araf) and α‐N‐acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc(α)), were higher (F values of 11.30 and 18.27, respectively) in a cohort of cHL patients (n = 16) than either diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma patients (n = 18) or control sera (n = 12). Higher anti‐L‐Araf IgM levels in cHL patients were associated with cytosine arabinoside treatment (p < 0.05). The GalNAc(α) glycotope, Tn, was found to be heterogeneously expressed in the Reed‐Sternberg cells of 9/20 (45%) cHL cases, but not in malignant cells of 25 cases of lymphocyte‐predominant HL or another 21 hematological disorders (291 cases) examined immunohistochemically. Tn was expressed in 41/238 (17%) classical HL cases present on a tissue microarray. Expression was associated with CD79a and LMP1 expression and negatively with p27KIP1 expression (p < 0.05). Kaplan‐Meier survival analysis revealed a trend towards improved relapse‐free survival with Tn expression although this was not statistically significant (p = 0.271). We suggest that this technique could provide a powerful tool for identifying novel carbohydrates in other cancers. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The aim of this work is to extrapolate the IPD Japan Capital Growth index series historically back to the early 1980's. Using existing, long-running, macro-economic and property-related time series as inputs, we will try to set up a statistical model which can extrapolate the existing eight-year track record back for as many years as statistically significant. Our aim is to set up a model which allows us to produce a historical real estate capital growth series going back for 15 to 20 year.


: The aim of this work was to evaluate the influence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia on the neurological outcome of the preterm infant requiring assisted ventilation. Thirty-nine preterm infants requiring ventilation support during 72 hours or more were classified into two groups according to the presence or absence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). In the BPD group (n = 11), only the incidence of mild cognitive deficits was significantly higher (36.4 % vs 0 %). Our results suggest that the neurological outcome of the infants with BPD is more closely associated with other neonatal events (intraventricular hemorrhage, periventricular leukomalacia, neonatal seizures, longer ventilation support, maximum serum bilirubin levels, low Apgar score at 10 minutes and poor intake of amino acids) than with the presence of BPD. The data of this study suggest that indomethacin reduces the risk of neurological deficits.


Ocean acidification (OA) is expected to alter plankton community structure in the future ocean. This, in turn, could change the composition of sinking organic matter and the efficiency of the biological carbon pump. So far, most OA experiments involving entire plankton communities have been conducted in meso- to eutrophic environments. However, recent studies suggest that OA effects may be more pronounced during prolonged periods of nutrient limitation. In this study, we investigated how OA-induced changes in low-nutrient adapted plankton communities of the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean may affect particulate organic matter (POM) standing stocks, POM fluxes, and POM stoichiometry. More specifically, we compared the elemental composition of POM suspended in the water column to the corresponding sinking material collected in sediment traps. Three weeks into the experiment, we simulated a natural upwelling event by adding nutrient-rich deep-water to all mesocosms, which induced a diatom-dominated phytoplankton bloom. Our results show that POM was more efficiently retained in the water column in the highest CO2 treatment levels (>800 μatm pCO2) subsequent to this bloom. We further observed significantly lower C:N and C:P ratios in post-bloom sedimented POM in the highest CO2 treatments, suggesting that degradation processes were less pronounced. This trend is most likely explained by differences in micro- and mesozooplankton abundance during the bloom and post-bloom phase. Overall, this study shows that OA can indirectly alter POM fluxes and stoichiometry in subtropical environments through changes in plankton community structure.


Hybrid structure based on organic and inorganic materials are emerging as most promising materials for photovoltaic applications. We have designed a hybrid structurc based on Alizarin (1, 2 dihydroxy anthraquinone) and a wide band gap zinc oxide. Alizarin acts as donor and zinc oxide acts as an acceptor material. The device having configuration of ITO/Aln:ZnO/Ag was characterized by analyzing its optical and electrical characteristics. It is found that the doping with zinc oxide imparts an accelerated improvement in device performance particularly in terms of its photo response. Impedance analysis of the device was carried out by recording Cole‐Cole plot in between real and imaginary impedance under biasing varying from 0 to 5 V.


Entity typing (ET) is the problem of assigning labels to given entity mentions in a sentence. Existing works for ET require knowledge about the domain and target label set for a given test instance. ET in the absence of such knowledge is a novel problem that we address as ET in the wild. We hypothesize that the solution to this problem is to build supervised models that generalize better on the ET task as a whole, rather than a specific dataset. In this direction, we propose a Collective Learning Framework (CLF), which enables learning from diverse datasets in a unified way. The CLF first creates a unified hierarchical label set (UHLS) and a label mapping by aggregating label information from all available datasets. Then it builds a single neural network classifier using UHLS, label mapping, and a partial loss function. The single classifier predicts the finest possible label across all available domains even though these labels may not be present in any domain-specific dataset. We also propose a set of evaluation schemes and metrics to evaluate the performance of models in this novel problem. Extensive experimentation on seven diverse real-world datasets demonstrates the efficacy of our CLF.


Wine cooperatives were relatively scarce in Europe before the Second World War, but by the 1980s accounted for more than half of all wines made in France, Italy, and Spain, the three major producer countries. Unlike Danish dairy cooperatives, whose success before the First World War was linked to their ability to improve product quality and compete in high-value niche markets, wine cooperatives are often associated with the production of large volumes of low-quality products. This article argues that the initial slow diffusion of wine cooperatives was caused by the difficulties of improving quality due to environmental conditions in European vineyards ('terroir') and measurement problems, rather than institutional shortcomings. Cooperatives only became widespread when the state found them a useful instrument to regulate markets, especially after 1950. The problems associated with poor wine quality were never resolved, and cooperatives have become increasingly uncompetitive in the market place, especially following the major decline in per capita consumption and shift towards premium wines from the 1980s.


A recent experimental literature has documented that people are (sometimes) asymmetric updaters: Good news are over-weighted, relative to bad news. We contribute to this literature with a novel experimental test of a potential mechanism of asymmetric updating, that is, that people recall better the positive than the negative evidence. In our design, this account predicts inflated posteriors regarding some future financial prize. Contrary to that, the average subject (slightly) underestimates the mode of the posterior beliefs about that payoff prospect. Although subjects tend to exhibit self-serving recall (SSR) in that they remember better the positive realizations of a signal in a memory task, this has little effect on their estimates and the extent and direction of the bias. A difficulty to recall accurately, we conclude, is not a sufficient cause for a positivity bias.


Several morphological variations in eyespot complex fine structure were exhibited in some cells of the pale-green mutant strain ac-31 of Chlamydomonas reinhardi. The cells were grown in minimal medium supplemented with 0.2 % sodium acetate and were harvested by centrifugation and prepared for electron-microscopic examination. Microtubules were seen near the flagella, confirming previous observations. Microtubules were also seen near the eyespot complex. Although a direct connexion between the microtubules of the flagellar and eyespot region was never observed, this does not exclude the possibility that it exists and thus provides a structural and functional connexion between the two organelles. Occasionally irregular curved bodies intimately associated with the eyespot complex of some cells appeared to displace the chloroplast and cell membranes. These bodies often appeared to be nearly covered by a limiting membrane and were found near empty 'cavities' in the eyespot plate. Crystalline arrays of dense bodies were observed in some sections. The significance of these bodies is discussed in relation to the functional state of the carotenoid pigments making up the eyespot granules. An hypothesis for the formation of the rod-like structures is presented, based upon the observation of granules which had fused together to form a helix.


In this paper I ask the question: what has literature to offer computer science? Can a bilateral programme of research be started with the aim of discovering the same kind of deep intertwining of ideas between computer science and literature, as already exists between computer science and linguistics? What practical use could such results yield? I begin by studying a classic forum for some of the most unintelligible pieces of prose ever written, the computer manual. Why are these books so hard to understand? Could a richer diet of metaphor and onomatopoeia help me get my laser printer working? I then dig down a little deeper and explore computer programs themselves as literature. Do they exhibit aesthetics, emotion and all the other multifarious aspects of true literature? If so, does this support their purpose and understandability? Finally I explore the link between computer code and the human writer. Rather than write large amounts of code directly, we encourage students to write algorithms as pseudo-code as a first step. Pseudo-code tells a story within a semi-formalised framework of conventions. Is this the intertwining we should be looking for?


Detection of cardiovascular risk factors remains a challenging problem. The inflammatory mechanisms behind atherosclerosis imply active involvement of neutrophils and realization of lipid-releasing ability of leukocytes (LRAL) mediated through the synthesis of proatherogenic proteins with the formation of protein-lipid complexes accumulated around atherosclerotic lesions. Studies of compromised protein-synthesizing function and mechanisms regulating LRAL are currently underway. The aim of the present work was to investigate serum markers of inflammation and LRAL in arterial hypertension (AH) without coronary heart disease (CHD) or AH + angina of effort. One group comprised 20 patients with AH without CHD the other included 20 patients with AH and CHD. Control group consisted of 18 healthy subjects. LRAL was measured in vitro in addition to serum IL-6, IL-8, CRP, and TNF-α. Effect of TNF-α on LRAL was evaluated in vitro in CHD patients. It was shown that mean LRAL in healthy subjects and patients with AH without CHD were not significantly different whereas IL-8 and CRP levels were markedly elevated in AH patients. Patients with AH and CHD had maximum LRAL and IL-6, IL-8, CRP, TNF-α levels. The study showed the possibility of increase in LRAL under effect of proinflammatory cytokines. LRFAL and inflammatory mechanisms contribute to the development of CHD and can be used for diagnostics of CHD in AH patients.


Abstract
 BackgroundSince its outbreak, COVID-19 has continued to spread rapidly more than 3 months, which constituted a public health emergence worldwide.The onset symptoms of patients with COVID-19 are not specific, especially in non-respiratory symptoms, it is easy to be ignored, which can cause widespread infection. For critically ill patients, glucocorticoids are used for anti-inflammatory treatment. However, after the application cycle recommended by the guidelines, the deterioration of the patient's condition and treatment to suppress cytokine storms is more critical.Case presentationA previous patient was admitted to the hospital due to abdominal pain and diarrhea, and accidentally was confirmed with positive SARS-CoV-2. The patient progressed rapidly from mild to severe within 2 days of admission. With timely anti-viral and anti-inflammatory drugs and early ventilator respiratory support, the patient's condition improved temporarily, and subsequently accompanied by a decrease in glucocorticoids, the patient's condition worsened and eventually died. Her family members were also hospitalized due to close contact.ConclusionThis case highlights that even if glucocorticoids are discontinued in accordance with the guidelines, deterioration of the patient's condition is inevitable attribute to the cytokine storms. And related Chinese and western medicines that suppress cytokine storms should be applied in time. In addition, more systematic epidemiological surveillance and stool tests are necessary due to potential lethal risk and route of transmission.


BACKGROUND
Indications, efficacy, and safety of plasma products are highly debated. We compared the concentrations of haemostatic proteins and cytokines in solvent/detergent-treated plasma (SDP) and fresh-frozen plasma (FFP).

METHODS
Concentrations of the following parameters were measured in 25 SDP and FFP samples: fibrinogen (FBG), factor (F) II, F V, F VII, F VIII, F IX, F X, F XIII, von Willebrand factor (vWF), D-Dimers, ADAMTS-13 protease, tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10.

RESULTS
Mean FBG concentrations in SDP and FFP were similar, but in FFP, the range was larger than in SDP (P<0.01). Mean F II, F VII, F VIII, F IX, and F XIII levels did not differ significantly. Higher concentrations of F V (P<0.01), F X (P<0.05), vWF (P<0.01), and ADAMTS-13 (P<0.01) were found in FFP. With the exception of F VIII and F IX, the range of concentrations for all of these factors was smaller (P<0.05) in SDP than in FFP. Concentrations of TNF-α, IL-8, and IL-10 (all P<0.01) were higher in FFP than in SDP, again with a higher variability and thus larger ranges (P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
Coagulation factor content is similar for SDP and FFP, with notable exceptions of less F V, vWF, and ADAMTS-13 in SDP. Cytokine concentrations (TNFα, IL-8, and IL-10) were significantly higher in FFP. The clinical relevance of these findings needs to be established in outcome studies.


The nitrogen vacancy (NV) is a photostable emitter in diamond which is optically accessible at room temperature and a potential candidate for quantum information processing as a spin register. The challenge facing research today is the efficient collection and manipulation of the NV's emissions, such as by enhancing the zero phonon line transitions for a coherent spin-photon interface.Integrating diamond with other photonic materials would allow for resonant coupling of the defect centre to optical devices on large area photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Emitted photons collected by bus waveguides could then be guided elsewhere on chip for entanglement or measurements.This work focuses on integrating ultra-thin diamond membranes with GaN waveguide and resonator devices. Mode simulations (see Fig. 1(a)) show that light can be coupled significantly into and out of the membranes by this method. Membranes of < 200 nm have been fabricated using Ar-Cl2 etch recipes that cumulatively smooth the diamond over time; an r.m.s roughness value of 0.19 nm has been achieved.1 The smooth surface and ultra-low thickness allow a good conformation and strong bonding of the membrane to other materials. This should allow for the integration of diamond membranes with photonic integrated circuits as shown schematically in Fig. (b).Free standing ultra-thin diamond membranes can also be used in tuneable open access cavities – where a low mode volume and high Q factor are desired; 2 or as templates for fabricating diamond optical devices on non-native substrates.3


The license plate recognition has taken more and more attention. In this paper, the status of the license plate recognition has been studying in-depth, using an improved BP neural network to identify the license plate. Experimental results show that this approach can identify license plates more effectively and establish a very good technical base for the future license plate recognition.


Abstract This research examined the skills and abilities required of officers to effectively manage situations where the use of force may be required. The research also considered the nature of training required to facilitate the development of these skills/abilities. Seventy Western Australia Police officers participated in focus groups. Identified skills/abilities fell into seven categories: Aware, Assess, Approach, Act, Automatic, Appraise and Adapt. With regard to developing proficiency in these skills, officers emphasised the importance of relevant, applied and dynamic training, debriefing and the use of scenarios/role plays. The research highlights the need to change the scope of annual refresher training from the appropriate and effective application of force to the effective management of situations in which the use of force may be required, in their entirety. Findings also highlight the need to change the focus of training from performance and assessment to continued skill development (i.e. practice and learning).


Introduction and objectives. Children often consult for fictional or very exaggerated symptoms, grouped together as factitious disorders (TF), disorders due to somatomorphic pain (TDS), disorders due to somatization (TS) and conversion disorders (TC). Patients and method. We studied cases of TF, TDS, TS and TC evaluated by the neuropaediatric department of the Hospital Miguel Servet de Zaragoza between May 1990 and August 2001. Results. There were 134 children identified as having TF-TDS-TS-TC. There were 91 girls (67.9%) and 43 boys (32.1%). They made up 2.47% of the 5,417 children included in the neuropaediatric data-base. The mean age was 10 years and 9 months, ranging between 3 and 16 years with only 9 children aged under 7 years. The commonest syndromes were: paroxystic disorders, headache, other pain, paraesthesia, hypovision, and other visual alterations, paresias, tremors and other disorders of movement, disorders of gait, lack of air, hyperventilation and dysphagia. There was often more than one motive for consultation, with sometimes more than four. The commonest complementary tests done were: EEG, fundus oculi, cranial CAT scan, CPK, EMG/ENG, cranial MR, spinal MR, CSF and osseous gammography. No further studies were made of 12 children (9%). Conclusions. The TF-TDS-TS-TC are a common cause of assessment in neuropaediatric practice. It should be suspected in cases of multiple symptoms in children aged over 6 years, usually in girls. It is often necessary to carry out various complementary tests to rule out organic disorders.


Regulation of feeding behavior has been a crucial step in the interplay between leptin and the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus (ARC). On one hand, the basic mechanisms regulating central and peripheral action of leptin are becoming increasingly clear. On the other hand, knowledge on how brain sensitivity to leptin can be modulated is only beginning to accumulate. This point is of paramount importance if one considers that pathologically obese subjects have high levels of plasmatic leptin. A possible strategy for exploring neural plasticity in the ARC is to act on environmental stimuli. This can be achieved with various protocols, namely, physical exercise, high-fat diet, caloric restriction, and environmental enrichment. Use of these protocols can, in turn, be exploited to isolate key molecules with translational potential. In the present review, we summarize present knowledge about the mechanisms of plasticity induced by the environment in the ARC. In addition, we also address the role of leptin in extrahypothalamic plasticity, in order to propose an integrated view of how a single diffusible factor can regulate diverse brain functions.


Estimation of network proximity among nodes is an important building block in several applications like service selection and composition, multicast tree formation, and overlay construction. Recently, scalable techniques have been proposed to estimate inter-node latencies, including network coordinate systems like GNP and Vivaldi. However, existing mechanisms for querying such information do not scale well to a very large number of nodes, when one wants to accurately find a set of nodes globally closest to a given node. In this paper we are concerned with distributing the position data among a set of infrastructure nodes, and propose ways of partitioning and querying this data. The trade-offs between accuracy and overhead in this distributed infrastructure are explored. We evaluate our solution through simulations with real and synthetic network measurement data.


A bond graph modeling method suitable for transducers and compatible with finite element formulations is developed. This formulation leads to a new definition of the generalized displacements for a continuous system. The newly defined coordinates are easily interpreted physically and easily used in analysis of the system performance. The method is demonstrated for a piezoelectric thickness vibrator. Compared to the Mason equivalent circuit models, the bond graph modeling method presented offers the primary advantage of physical realizability. Compared to circuit models based on standard discrete electrical elements, the main advantage of the bond graph modeling method is a greater physical accuracy (which is the direct result of using multiport energic elements).


Background: Pemphigus is an acquired immunobullous disorder in which antibodies are directed against epidermal cadherins. Despite the commercial availability and less cost of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) to detect antidesmoglein 1 (Dsg1) and anti-Dsg3, immunofluorescence is still widely used for confirmation of diagnosis. Aims: (1) To compare the usefulness of indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) and ELISA tests in the diagnosis of pemphigus. (2) To find the clinical correlation between the tests and severity of the disease. Materials and Methods: Sixty-one patients (27 women and 34 men, age distribution from 20 to 75) were clinically diagnosed as pemphigus (pemphigus foliaceus - 11, pemphigus vulgaris - 50) and were recruited for the study. IIF and Dsg ELISA were performed and the findings were compared with each other and with the pemphigus area activity score. Data were entered in SPSS and were analyzed using Kruskal–Wallis test. Results: There was a moderate positive correlation between the cutaneous score and Dsg1 titer, and mucosal score and Dsg3 titer. The titer of IIF showed statistically significant positive correlation with the cutaneous score but not the mucosal score. Dsg ELISA showed higher sensitivity (90.2%) than IIF (75.4%) in the diagnosis of pemphigus. Conclusions: Dsg ELISA is a more sensitive method than IIF and shows more correlation with the disease severity.


The experimental results for silicon carbide (SiC) wheel with fine grit size grinding of silicon carbide (Si3N4) revealed that the grinding parameters affect not only the ground silicon nitride surface roughness, but also the degree of surface damage. There exists complex non-linear relationship between the grinding parameters and surface quality. Better surface roughness doesn't surely mean less surface damage. A method of prediction of grinding quality based on support vector regression is then presented according to the condition of small samples. The result shows the prediction accuracy based on this method is obviously higher than neural network, which provides an effective way for optimizing the grinding parameters to ensure the grinding quality as well as grinding efficiency while grinding of silicon carbide using conventional abrasive.


Anaerobic digestion (AD) is an established process for integrating waste management with renewable energy and nutrient recovery. Much of the research in this field focuses on the utilisation of new substrates, yet their effects on operational aspects such as fluid behaviour and power requirement for mixing are commonly overlooked, despite their importance for process optimisation. This study analysed rheological characteristics of samples from 21 laboratory-scale continuous stirred-tank biogas reactors (CSTBRs) digesting a range of substrates, in order to evaluate substrate effect on mixing efficiency and power demand through computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The results show that substrate and process parameters, such as solids content and organic loading, all have a significant effect on CSTBR fluid rheology. The correlation levels between rheological and process parameters were different across substrates, while no specific fluid behaviour patterns could be associated with substrate choice. Substrate should thus be considered an equally important rheology effector as process parameters. Additional substrate-related parameters should be identified to explain the differences in correlations between rheological and process parameters across substrate groups. The CFD modelling revealed that the rheology differences among the AD processes have significant implications for mixing efficiency and power demand of the CSTBRs, highlighting the importance of considering the substrate-induced effects on CSTBR rheology before including a new substrate.


Lampreys contribute to the health of aquatic ecosystems and are targeted in both subsistence and commercial fisheries. Despite their ecological and commercial importance, the management and conservation of native lampreys have been largely overlooked. The goal of this study was to close current knowledge gaps of lamprey biology through the examination of Lethenteron spp. in Alaska. This study applied two molecular techniques, DNA metabarcoding and microsatellite genotyping, to (1) characterize the diet of marine-phase Arctic lamprey Lethenteron camtschaticum (N = 250) in the eastern Bering Sea and (2) investigate the population structure of larval lampreys Lethenteron spp. (N = 120) within and among three Yukon River tributaries. A combination of visual observations and DNA metabarcoding revealed the presence of diagnostic structures/tissues (i.e., eggs, fin[s], internal organs, otoliths, and vertebrae) and detected DNA sequences of ten ray-finned fishes in the diets of L. camtschaticum. The most frequent prey taxa were Pacific sand lance Ammodytes hexapterus, Pacific herring Clupeapallasii, gadids, and capelin Mallotus villosus. Five of the ten taxa identified in this study were reported for the first time as prey for L. camtschaticum. To investigate the genetic diversity of larval lampreys, a recognized knowledge gap for populations in Alaska, a total of 81 larval lampreys were successfully genotyped at all loci. Global FST of larvae was 0.074 (95% CI: 0.042 0.110), while pairwise FST values among the three localities examined ranged from 0.066 0.081. Hierarchical model-based Bayesian clustering analyses detected three genetic clusters (K = 3) among all larval lampreys and two genetic clusters (K = 2) among Chena River larvae; no further genetic clustering was identified within the remaining two tributaries. Estimates of contemporary gene flow indicated reciprocal migration among sites. The diet analyses indicated anadromous L. camtschaticum function as flesh-feeding predators that prey upon pelagic fishes


An advanced interface for sports tournament predictions uses direct manipulation to allow users to make nonlinear predictions. Unlike previous interface designs, the interface helps users focus on their prediction tasks by enabling them to first choose a winner and then fill out the rest of the bracket. In real-world tests of the proposed interface (for the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament and 2015/2016 UEFA Champions League), the authors validated the use of direct manipulation as an alternative to widgets. Using visitor interaction logs, they were able to determine the strategies people use to perform predictions and identify potential areas of improvement for further prediction interfaces.


Geological forrnations may exhibit anisotropy in two ways. Firstly, forrnations like clay may be intrinsically anisotropic because of the micro-structure of the forrnation. Secondly, surface electric and electromagnetic methods have a limited resolution of the conductivity structure of the subsurface, and in one-dimensional modeling we shall often have to consider the collection of many thin layers as one composite layer, which will then be macro-anisotropic. In both cases it is most often assumed that the conductivity is the same in all horizontal directions, but different from the vertical conductivity. Neither galvanic nor inductive methods alone can resolve the anisotropy of the ground. However, a joint inversion of galvanic and inductive data requires that anisotropy be taken into account and can also resolve the coefficient of anisotropy and thereby contribute to a more detailed description of the subsurface resistivity structure (Jupp and Vozoff 1977). The deterrnination of electrical anisotropy is desirable as it may serve as an indicative parameter for the presence of otherwise unresolved thin layers. From a hydrogeological point of view these may severely influence the hydraulic flow pattern in the ground. Thin clay layers in an otherwise sandy forrnation will lower the vertical hydraulic conductivity considerably, and the presence of thin sand and gravel layers in an otherwise clayey forrnation may serve as fast hydraulic conduction channels for polluted water. In connection with mapping of raw materials anisotropy indicates that the material under investigation is not homogeneous throughout and may thus be of inferior quality. Through the following analyses it is found that a combined use of geoelectrical and transient soundings can resolve the coefficient of anisotropy of a subsurface layer. It is found that the coefficient of anisotropy is only well resolved for layers which are many times thicker than the overburden.


Research objective. Retrospective study on patients treated with implantation of interspinous distractor. Aim. To present the difficulties and complications that occurred during treatment with an interspinous distractor InsWing and Coflex. Material. 36 patients with various types of complications from group of 160 operated during 2007- 2010 in our Hospital Results. Patients were divided into four main groups: 1) Difficulties during implantation of interspinous distractor occurred in 12 patients, of which - in 5 were related to anatomical abnormalities of spinous process, in 4 to aplasia of spinous process L5, In 3 too small interspinous space. 2) intraoperative complications occurred in 5 patients, of which – in 2 occured fracture of spinous process, In 2 rupture of supraspinous ligemant, in 1 violation of dura mater. 3) Early complication in the form of delayed healing was observed in 4 patients, 4) Late complications were noticed in 15 patients and it was – in 4 patients dislocation of an implant, in 2 rupture of supraspinous ligament, in 3 fracture of spinous process, in 1 spondylolysis, in 5 lack of improovement of the pain after surgery. Conlucions. Surgical treatment of lumbar spine disc disease with interspinous distractor is minimal invasive, safe, effective, charged with low risk of complications. Additionally, in case of failure, it does not close the possibility of treatment with other surgical methods.


Bridging the technology gap is an issue faced by most countries but in developing countries the issue is doubly critical; not only do they lag further behind relative to other countries but they face more stringent resource constraints.
Part one of this report identifies the role played by existing policy in trade, foreign direct investment and intellectual property rights in facilitating International Technology Transfer (ITT). Pertinent analysis of the major implications of the report is given.
The WTO Working Group on Trade and Technology Transfer was established with the aim of encouraging technology transfer to developing countries. Part Two of the report outlines the Group's Findings for increasing flows of technology.
This title provides a thorough overview of the economics of ITT relevant to developing countries and will be invaluable as a reference tool for policy makers, trade officials and trade negotiators.


Paddy soils are important in Guilan province because they are the base of agriculture. So, it is necessary to recognize and analyse paddy soils for understanding of their limitations and optimum using. Sefidrood plateaus and upper terraces, river alluvial plain, lowland and Caspian sea coastal plain physiographic units in a toposequence in Sangar Dam uplands in adjacent of Rasht city to Caspian sea shore were recognized. Five profiles were studied on each physiographic unit, which one of them was selected in order to detail study as reference profile. Physical and chemical characteristics of paddy soils formed on mentioned physiographic units were studied by providing disturbed soil samples from the horizons of described soils. Results showed that soil structure was weak granular in all surface horizons and single grain in the subsurface horizons of the Coastal plain. Soil structure was subangular blocky and angular blocky in the subsurface horizons of other units. Organic matter was high in surface horizons because of accumulation of rice residues. Organic mater was the highest level in lowland due to high ground water table and lower decomposition rate. Cation exchange capacity (CEC) was high in lowland and alluvial plain due to high organic matter and clay content in soils. Clay particles in plateaus lands were lower than other units because of alteration, suitable aeration and occurrence of ferrolysis. Electrical conductivity was high in subsurface horizons of lowlands and coastal plain because of high ground water table. Exchangeable Na+ was high in subsurface horizons of coastal plain and lowlands due to sea water seepage from depth in these soils. Soil reaction was nearly neutral because of natural and artificial submerged effect.


This article addresses pragmatic issues regarding the assessment of puberty in research on adolescent health and development. Because pubertal processes have a major effect on physical, psychological, and social development, we posit that the assessment of pubertal status is at least as important as the specification of age for characterizing adolescent participants in research studies. Yet, a sampling of recent literature shows that the majority of publications addressing health and developmental issues in adolescence lack any measure of puberty. A more comprehensive review of 447 articles reporting to have assessed puberty reveals considerable inconsistencies in methods, definitions, and conceptualizations of puberty and its stages, which highlights the need for better standardization. This article provides an in-depth review of existing methods to assess pubertal status and timing and enumerates the relative merits and shortcomings of several approaches. Conceptual and practical guidelines are provided for selecting specific measures to assess puberty with an emphasis placed on the need for these choices to be driven by the specific goals of the research.


Transmedia products are becoming a usual practice in media, and they incorporate both professional contributions and user-generated contents. From this point of view, we propose a legal, comparative and transnational approach to the legal implications of copyright laws to transmedia products. We focus on news items and informative products. Participative or citizen journalism, fan fictions, which appeared in several media, has developed the so called transmedia narratives, and the law necessarily faces some problems derived from their particularities. Since the international trend of copyright is rather aligned with a strong approach which presumes that authors should be remunerated, or receive any compensation, for the successive exploitations of their works, we explain which is the impact of copyright (and, in general terms, intellectual property) in the distribution of both moral and exploitation rights, and more specifically transformation rights and derivative works. The legal trends towards digital single market in Europe, copyright law reforms in the United States and the particular situation of the United Kingdom in this respect will be considered.


The author undertakes a detailed analysis of the election results and assesses them from the perspective of the German party system. The following issues are discussed: voting system, electoral campaign, election results and their implications. Although elections to the Bundestag of 22 September 2013 brought a success of the CDU CSU, yet due to a marked defeat of the liberal FDP, German Christian Democratic Union was forced to seek a coalition partner on the left side of the political scene. After long negotiations a great coalition government of the CDU CSU-SPD was appointed, with Angela Merkel once again as the head. The election caused extensive changes within the German party system. For the first time in the history of the FRG the liberal FDP did not win any seats in the parliament, whereas the considerable success of the newly created Alternative for Germany showed that a ''single-topic party", can within a short time span rock even such a stable political system as the German one. The elections shook the system formed between 2005-2012 which was made up of five parties and substituted it with a transitional system of 4 2 (four parties in the Bundestag: CDU CSU, SPD, The Left and The Greens; plus two parties just below the electoral threshold: FDP and AfD). Since two parties were just below the electoral threshold, the 18th Bundestag is characterized by relatively low representativity (84.2% of voters). At the same time the 2013 election strengthened the position of the two great Volksparteien. Besides, analysis of the election results showed continued differences in the electoral preferences between the inhabitants of eastern and western Germany, and a traditionally strong attachment of the eldest voters (above 60 years of age) to both Volksparteien. Piotr Kubiak 44


This thesis explores forms of Pop Art on the territory of the former Yugoslavia in the 1960s and 1970s, seeking to identify its local variants. Yugoslavia, a
single party state, built on the legacy of the anti-fascist Partisan struggle, principles of solidarity, egalitarianism, self-management and a strong sense of internationalism due to its founding role in the Non-Aligned Movement, was,
at the same time, a country immersed in what has been termed 'utopian consumerism'. The thesis examines how Yugoslav artists during this period dealt with the burgeoning consumer society and media boom, kitsch and the
Westernization of Yugoslav culture, phenomena which were ideologically at odds with the country's own socialist principles.
Starting from an analysis of the role of the artist in post-war Yugoslav system of self-management, the thesis proposes that Pop in Yugoslavia can be read as a critical site of articulation and negotiation of that role. Yugoslavia's founding principles, formed as a legacy of the People's Liberation Struggle (1941 – 1945), were based upon self-management and the introduction of social
property, with art being a democratizing force with a central emancipatory role in the building of the new socialist state. But socialist modernism gradually
relegated culture to a more illustrative role, as a form of 'soft power' for the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The thesis proposes a reading of
artists' diverse engagements with popular culture and materials as varied expressions of resistance to the severing of links with Yugoslavia's founding
principles. My original contribution to knowledge lies in the identification of two strands of Pop in the country–'Yugoslav Pop Reactions' and 'Yugoslav
Countercultural Pop' which each turned to popular culture and cheap everyday materials as an alternative channel through which to respond to socialist modernism. My claim is that the two positions represent two diametrically
opposed responses to the disenchantment with socialist modernism and artists' roles in society – both using the language of Pop Art but representing two different conceptual positions.

The thesis is structured around three core questions. Firstly it asks whether it is possible to retrospectively apply the category of Pop Art to artworks which
never originally claimed this term. Secondly it examines ways in which Pop tendencies altered the position of Yugoslav female artists, who, marginalised in
a heavily male-dominated environment, looked to Pop as an enabling force, allowing new working methods and'giving licence' to new types of practices.
The third question is concerned with the relationship between power, politics and Pop Art in Yugoslavia, asking to what extent Yugoslav Pop was a form ofpolitical practice, and to what extent is it was a local adaptation of international currents and themes.
This thesis is associated with Tate's multiannual research into 'global pop', which culminated in the exhibition 'The World Goes Pop' (September 2015 –
January 2016, Tate Modern) through a Collaborative Doctoral Award (AHRC). This involved an advisory role in the exhibition research on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, identifying artists and artworks for potential inclusion in the exhibition. The methodology of the thesis was in part shaped by this context, beginning with close studies of artworks, their critical reception, and
the study of their context–the sites of production and exhibition in the country at the time. Whilst both local and international literature on Yugoslav art history, global Pop Art as well as Yugoslav material culture and political
context has been important, the core research involved oral histories, and visits to artists' studios, museum collections, depots and archives in search of
original artworks. The thesis draws on approximately twenty interviews with artists, curators, art historians and other art workers who were active in 1960s
and 1970s, combined with the above-mentioned scholarship.


To maximize fruit yield of tomatoes cultivated in a controlled, closed system such as a greenhouse or a plant factory at a limited cost, it is important to raise the translocation rate of fixed carbon to fruits by tuning the cultivation conditions. Elevation of atmospheric CO2 concentration is a good candidate; however, it is technically difficult to evaluate the effect on fruit growth by comparing different individuals in different CO2 conditions because of large inter-individual variations. In this study, we employed a positron-emitting tracer imaging system (PETIS), which is a live-imaging technology for plant studies, and a short-lived radioisotope 11C to quantitatively analyze immediate responses of carbon fixation and translocation in tomatoes in elevated CO2 conditions. We also developed a closed cultivation system to feed a test plant with CO2 at concentrations of 400, 1,500 and 3,000 ppm and a pulse of CO2. As a result, we obtained serial images of 11C fixation by leaves and subsequent translocation into fruits. Carbon fixation was enhanced steadily by increasing the CO2 concentration, but the amount translocated into fruits saturated at 1,500 ppm on average. The translocation rate had larger inter-individual variation and showed less consistent responses to external CO2 conditions compared with carbon fixation. Our experimental system was demonstrated to be a valuable tool for the optimization of closed cultivation systems because it can trace the responses of carbon translocation in each individual, which are otherwise usually masked by interindividual variation.


Domain adaptation (DA) is a technique that transfers predictive models trained on a labeled source domain to an unlabeled target domain, with the core difficulty of resolving distributional shift between domains. Currently, most popular DA algorithms are based on distributional matching (DM). However in practice, realistic domain shifts (RDS) may violate their basic assumptions and as a result these methods will fail. In this paper, in order to devise robust DA algorithms, we first systematically analyze the limitations of DM based methods, and then build new benchmarks with more realistic domain shifts to evaluate the well-accepted DM methods. We further propose InstaPBM, a novel Instance-based Predictive Behavior Matching method for robust DA. Extensive experiments on both conventional and RDS benchmarks demonstrate both the limitations of DM methods and the efficacy of InstaPBM: Compared with the best baselines, InstaPBM improves the classification accuracy respectively by $4.5\%$, $3.9\%$ on Digits5, VisDA2017, and $2.2\%$, $2.9\%$, $3.6\%$ on DomainNet-LDS, DomainNet-ILDS, ID-TwO. We hope our intuitive yet effective method will serve as a useful new direction and increase the robustness of DA in real scenarios. Code will be available at anonymous link: this https URL.


We use the path integral optimization approach of Caputa, kundu, Miyaji, Takayanagi and Watanabe to find the time slice of geometries dual to vacuum, primary and thermal states in the TT deformed two dimensional CFTs. The obtained optimized geometries actually capture the entire bulk which fits well with the integrability and expected UV-completeness of TT -deformed CFTs. When deformation parameter is positive, these optimized solutions can be reinterpreted as geometries at finite bulk radius, in agreement with a previous proposal by McGough, Mezei and Verlinde. We also calculate the holographic entanglement entropy and quantum state complexity for these solutions. We show that the complexity of formation for the thermofield double state in the deformed theory is UV finite and it depends to the temperature.


Primarily focused on the visual and creative arts, the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) provides a national repository for images, and provides free access at the point of use for learning, teaching and research across the higher education sector. The repository has grown dramatically over the last twelve years, in excess of 120,000 items are now held on behalf of over three hundred collection holders. Usage has also grown significantly, by 600% over the last five years, now 1.75 million images are viewed each month by repository users.

In September 2008, with funding from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), VADS started work on extending the impact and engagement of the repository in three key ways: developing mechanisms to share data with other repositories and online archives; improving the user experience of the collections; and increasing access to and usage of collections. This paper will explore these three areas of work and their impact on usage of the image repository.

The first key objective was to enhance the discoverability of the visual resources held by VADS. This was accomplished by the introduction of an OAI-PMH service, with additional work planned on assessing the potential of OpenSearch and RSS technologies. Although the image repository is widely used, it was felt that its reach could be both broadened and deepened. The second key objective was to establish how the wider academic community currently engaged with the collections and more importantly what tools and services they wanted to see in future. The research method centred on an online questionnaire of academic staff, both users and non-users of the image repository, this was supplemented by the follow up telephone interviews were appropriate. Over 400 responses were received and the outcomes are due for publication in September 2009. The last key objective involved increasing usage, although informed by the research programme this area has focused on services and tools which had been previously identified as essential to the development of the repository, this has included the development of a range of additional user-focused facilities such as user tagging; top level hierarchical subject taxonomy; and enhanced lightbox features.

The project is due for completion in September 2009 and outcomes and impact will be measured as part of the evaluation process, but early indications are positive. The response from the sector has been enthusiastic and the release of the new tools and services are eagerly awaited, and promise to captivate and engage existing and new users.


ABSTRACT The authors examined the efficacy of an 8-week regimen combining repetitive task-specific practice (RTP) with a myoelectric brace (RTP+Myomo) on paretic upper extremity (UE; use in valued activities, perceived recovery, and reaching kinematics) in 12 subjects (4 men; M age = 53.5 years; mean time poststroke = 61.7 months). Seven subjects were administered RTP+Myomo therapy, and 5 were administered RTP only. Both groups participated in individualized, 45-min therapy sessions occurring 3 days/week over an 8-week period. The arm, hand ability, activities of daily living, and perceptions of recovery subscales of the Stroke Impact Scale (SIS), as well as UE reaching kinematics, assessed before and after the intervention. Subjects in the RTP+Myomo group showed greater improvements on all SIS subscales, with the recovery scale reaching statistical significance (p = .03). Subjects in the RTP-only group showed a greater increase in hand velocity in the reach up task (p = .02), but no changes were observed in the range of shoulder flexion or elbow extension during reaching. None of the changes in kinematic outcome measures significantly correlated with any of the changes in SIS subscales. RTP integrating myoelectric bracing may be more beneficial than RTP only in improving self-reported function and perceptions of overall recovery. The authors observed no changes in the range of elbow extension, and no relationship between self-reported improvements and changes in reaching kinematics.


The polymorphism and similarity relationships among 50 mating-type isolates of Ustilago maydis collected from Lorestan Province were determined with random amplified polymorphic DNA(RAPD). These fungal isolates were collected from 4 corn lines. Then DNA was extracted from haploid sporidiums using polymerase chains reaction (PCR) and specific primers, the genome of fungus were examined. Molecular studies of RAPD markers by using 10- primer 10 -nucleotide random primers were used. The highest multiples are established by primer opo1 with 16 bands in isolates and the lowest ones are related to opo 3 primer with 6 bands in isolates. Bands created the primers opo5 a 900 based pair band in 36 isolates and there was a separated model that isolate with other isolates were distinct. The primeres opo9 a 1000 base pairs band into clear 52 isolates as well as a 1000 base pairs band in isolates 52 and 51 can create and cause the rise of large difference between these two isolates with other isolates were. The results of analysis of data obtained by RAPD markers indicate the presence of genetic diversity in different populations of common smut of corn isolates. In this study according of the biggest amplitude slice different isolates of common smut of corn is divided into 8 groups of 52 and 51 each in a distinct cluster. The range of genetic similarity between isolates is from zero to 0.88 percent. The lowest genetic approximate amplitude was 51 with 23, 25, 26 isolates and the highest one was between isolates 33 and 32. Correlation Coefficient value of 0.83 was a good fit, which indicates the data was suitable matching to the dandrogram. Results also showed that the geographical distribution has no effect on genetic diversity.


Abstract Russia's intervention in Georgia in 2008 proved a military and diplomatic overstretch, leading to the suspension of the NATO-Russia Council and a frosty period with the North Atlantic Alliance. Moscow's recent co-operative efforts were rewarded with a 'reset' with the US and renewed strategic dialogue at the NATO Lisbon summit in 2010, but is this really a new Russia? Jakub Kulhanek argues that the much-lauded rapprochement may achieve very little progress while heralding the potential return of distrust and suspicion in NATO-Russian relations.


ABSTRACT To clarify the virulence and phylogenetic implications of antimicrobial agent resistance in Escherichia coli, 100 E. coli isolates from urine samples of Israeli women with acute uncomplicated cystitis were analyzed by molecular phylotyping and virulence genotyping for comparison with resistance phenotypes. The differences between the isolates that were resistant and susceptible to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and ampicillin were minimal. In contrast, ciprofloxacin resistance was associated with greatly reduced inferred virulence and categorical shifts away from the highly virulent phylogenetic group B2, which explained much of the virulence effect. The results of amplification fingerprinting suggested that most ciprofloxacin-resistant isolates represented unique clonal groups and were not derived from clonal groups with more highly virulent susceptible isolates. These findings suggest that virulence and antimicrobial resistance are not mutually exclusive in E. coli clinical isolates. Instead, the relationship between virulence and antimicrobial resistance varies according to the particular resistance phenotype; for ciprofloxacin resistance, the relationship is strongly influenced by phylogenetic background. The basis for the concentration of ciprofloxacin resistance in non-B2 phylogenetic groups remains unknown.


This paper discusses a new approach trialled in a first year core science unit that aims to develop generic skills such as scientific writing, numeracy skills, computer literacy and communication skills. The trial involved integrating online assessable activities to the existing teaching and learning activities. The aim of the online activities was to help students to keep their pace throughout the semester and to facilitate students learning from each other. The online tool used was InterLearn. This is new web-based tool developed at Monash University to support collaborative learning. The tool was designed to simulate classroom interaction where students build knowledge together through discussion. It provides the facility to structure online activities, which students complete within their own workspace. Students can view each other's responses to the activities and can modify them as they learn from each other.


In situ undrained shear strength measurement devices such as the vane shear test, cone penetrometer, and full-flow penetrometers (e.g., T-bar and ball) have been increasingly used as a part of geotechnical site investigations for soft clay deposits. Previous attempts to visualize the shear failure surfaces on these devices included either significant disturbance of the soil sample (permeated with resin and thin-sectioning) or involved methods of shearing along a transparent surface creating boundary effects. This paper described the use of non-invasive testing procedures to determine the failure surface of several in situ shear strength measurement devices in a soft clay surrogate (LAPONITE RD, a trademark of BYK Additives and Instruments). A series of tests were performed using two sizes of rectangular miniature vanes, two types of full flow penetrometer tests (T-bar and ball), and a cone penetrometer in LAPONITE RD samples. Laser planes were used to illuminate particles in the transparent material during shearing. Particle tracking techniques were used to visualize the failure surfaces and flow mechanisms for each device. Experimental results were compared with theoretical and numerical simulations of the failure surfaces and flow characteristics by previous researchers. The present work contributed to the understanding of undrained shear strength testing devices by an in situ assessment of the evolution, geometry, and structure of the failure surfaces and full-flow mechanisms.


Pure and Erbium (Er3+)-doped ZnO (Er3+ = 0.0, 1.0 and 1.5 mol%) nano-structure thin films were prepared by modified sol-gel spin coating technique. The influence of Er doping on the composition, structure, morphology, optical was examined by energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDS), x-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The XRD measurement and selected area electron diffraction pattern (SEDA) confirmed the hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO for all samples and average crystallite size is about 9.7 nm. Moreover, Both XRD and Raman spectroscopy show that the incorporation of Er3+ in ZnO matrix resulted in improved crystallinity. FESEM plane images indicated that the ZnO thin film has interconnected spherical particles with the presence of pore, whilst Er-doped ZnO films have compact and uniform morphology. Analyses of optical data point out that value of band gap of Er doped ZnO have lower values than pure film, consistent with earlier works prepared by different methods. The absorption edge shifts towards lower photon energies with increasing Erbium content.


The Santa Monica Mountains of southern California have undergone moderate urbanization since 1960. Just a few decades ago, many of the riverine systems in the Santa Monica Mountains were intermittent, but they are now perennial. The transition to perennial streams has led many policy makers to conclude that urban runoff from landscape watering accounts for continuous flows during the lengthy dry season. The transition to perennial flows allows expansion of habitat for exotic and harmful species, raising arguments for controls on urban runoff during the dry season. Most communities in the Santa Monica Mountains depend entirely on State Project water imported from northern California. Stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen show that imported water is isotopically distinct from local precipitation, providing a useful tool for tagging source flows in Santa Monica Mountain streams. In this investigation, we perform a detailed analysis of dry weather flows in one of the Santa Monica Mountain9s major streams, Las Virgenes Creek. We also present results of reconnaissance surveys of several other creeks. Las Virgenes Creek accumulates most of its initial flow along an urban part of its stream reach. Chloride and sulfate scatter plots indicate that Las Virgenes Creek is dominantly fed along the urban stream reach by locally sourced, groundwater base flow. Oxygen and deuterium isotopes show that Las Virgenes Creek and other creeks in the Santa Monica Mountains contain small percentages of imported waters (less than 10 percent), indicating little urban runoff during dry weather flows. The data suggest that perennial flow in urban streams results from the removal of riparian vegetation and deepening of channels rather than from urban runoff.


I. INTRODUCTION There has been much attention given of late to the issue of whether the law should require private employers to cover prescription contraceptives under their health care plans. Although the exclusion of prescription contraceptive coverage by plans that offer coverage for other prescription medication was for many years not an issue that received attention, the decision by significant numbers of plans in the mid-1990s to cover Viagra made the failure of plans to cover prescription contraceptives a cause celebre of women's groups, who began to fight for such coverage. (1) As a result, at least twenty states have passed laws of various types requiring mandatory coverage of prescription contraceptives. (2) For most employers, a requirement that contraceptive coverage be provided in plans that otherwise provide coverage for prescription medication is not a serious matter. Although for the most part employers are free to decide what benefits they will or will not provide to their employees, there have been other instances where state insurance law has imposed mandatory requirements on employers. (3) Moreover, unlike some of those other mandates, providing contraceptive coverage does not tend to increase the cost to an employer of providing prescription coverage. To the contrary, there is some evidence that medical costs in some plans that are amended to provide for contraception coverage actually decline due to a reduction in the costs of unintended pregnancies. (4) However, for Catholic organizations, mandatory contraceptive coverage creates an issue of conscience. Because of the Catholic Church's strong moral objection to the use of birth control, (5) forcing organizations affiliated with the Catholic Church to provide prescription contraceptive coverage to their employees is anathema. The same is true of religions organizations affiliated with other religions having moral objections to the use of artificial means of contraception. (6) Recognizing the conscience concern, many of the mandatory contraceptive coverage statutes have some carve-out for religious employers. (7) However, the exclusions in statutes adopted in several major states, such as New York (8) and California, (9) define religious employer very narrowly, with the idea of excluding from the operation of the statute Catholic churches themselves, but not arms of the Catholic Church such as Catholic Charities, or Catholic hospitals, universities or nursing homes. (10) Because the application of mandatory contraception statutes to religious employers creates a major issue of conscience for the affected religious employers, religious groups in both states have challenged the laws as unconstitutional. Although there has not yet been a final ruling by the New York Court of Appeals on the issue, (11) on March 1, 2004, in Catholic Charities of Sacramento, Inc. v. The Superior Court, (12) the California Supreme Court rejected the constitutional claims of Catholic Charities and held that it must provide its employees with prescription contraception coverage in accordance with the statutory mandate. (13) The question of whether the law should so narrowly define what it means to be a religious employer is not a minor one. The number of workers employed by religious employers is extremely large. For example, in California, Catholic Charities of Sacramento has 1600 employees and Catholic hospitals in California employ 52,000 persons. (14) In New York, Catholic affiliated health organizations employ over 50,000 persons and provide health coverage for as many as 500,000. (15) In addition, the Church in New York operates 800 schools, 61 nursing homes and hundreds of social service agencies. (16) Nationwide, Catholic hospitals employ over 620,000 employees. (17) This Article does not analyze the constitutional claims of the religious organizations. The ruling by the California Supreme Court comes as no great surprise given the Supreme Court's most recent statement on the subject of burdens on a religion's free exercise, (18) and one would expect the New York Court of Appeals ultimately to reach the same conclusion. …


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This paper presents a feasibility step in the development of biomimetic microrobotic insects. Advanced engineering technologies available for applications such as the micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technologies are used. A flapping-wing flying MEMS concept and design inspired from insects is first described. Then different kinds of materials used feasibly for flapping-wing microrobotic insect by MEMS technology, such as SU-8, Titanium alloy and Parylene-C, are discussed. And artificial insect wings and thoraxs with different materials by MEMS Technology are fabricated and analyzed. Finally, summarize the paper and propose future research priorities.


Background The pharmaceutical industry, regulators and the rheumatology community have recognised the need for observational studies to monitor safety and real world long-term effectiveness of biotherapies. Physician readiness and motivation to contribute information and data to registries, however, has received little attention. Objectives To examine factors associated with physicians' participation in a clinical registry. Methods The Swiss Clinical Quality Management (SCQM) for rheumatic diseases is a population-based cohort of patients, affected by various rheumatic diseases, that is sponsored by the Swiss Society of Rheumatology. More than 80% of Swiss rheumatologists have registered patient information in the SCQM database without financial compensation of any sort. In order to understand the physicians' motivations to participate, the SCQM queried all Swiss rheumatologists with a series of specific questions. A descriptive analysis was performed on the results of the questionnaire. Results In February of 2010, 480 rheumatologists received the SCQM participation survey. Of these, 164 (33%) answers were received. Twelve percent of participants declared no participation in the registry, while the remaining 88% declared the input of at least one patient in the registry. The most common reasons motivating participation were feedback on patients' disease characteristics or quality management (69%), interest in Swiss rheumatology research (80%) and finally, health insurance aspects (∼36%). In the results of the SCQM survey, interest in research was the same in all types of institutions (hospital, university hospital, private practice), seen at 80%. Furthermore, there was a similar distribution throughout all categories regarding the positive benefits of receiving feedback from the SCQM database, other participating physicians and researchers. Among non-participants, fifty-nine percent stated that lack of time for additional administrative tasks was the reason for not registering patient data in the SCQM database. Conclusions While the importance of clinical registries has greatly increased over the past decades, it is critical to maximise the participation of physicians by addressing their various needs and concerns. The driving forces for participation, as well as the de-motivating factors, may vary by work setting, age groups and other factors. These factors need to be addressed specifically to keep participating physicians involved and to engage rheumatologists who do not currently use clinical registries. Disclosure of Interest None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.5702


Bacterial mechanosensitive (MS) channels represent the most primitive form of MS channels gating solely in response to changes in bilayer tension. The two main families of bacterial MS channels are MscS and MscL. In concert these channels are imperative to obviate the effects of toxic downshocks in external osmolarity. While osmoprotection is the best characterised physiological role for these channels the genetic diversity of this family hints at as yet undiscovered physiological functions.
This thesis explores one such possibility, showing that MscS expression provides a selective advantage in the presence of cell wall attack with knockout E. coli strains of MscS having increased susceptibility to cell wall targeting antibiotics. This thesis also shows, using the Ca2+ sensitive photoprotein aequorin, that on gating these channels become not only a gateway for solute efflux but also a conduit for ion entry. In particular, influx of Ca2+ may represent a physiologically relevant signal but more
importantly this finding may pave the way for a high-throughput screen for novel MS channel activators which would be of potential value as lead compounds for
antibiotics. Furthermore, this thesis demonstrates that in the presence of divalentcations (Ca2+ & Ba2+) MscS exhibits increased anion selectivity, rectification and eight
distinct long-lived subconducting states at hyperpolarising membrane potentials. In an attempt to identify the structural basis of these subconducting states the first
single residue MscS mutants that display altered anion selectivity are reported. This selectivity, in contrast to voltage-gated K+, Na+ and Ca2+ channels, is not determined
by residues in the pore region but rather by charged residues in the cytoplasmic domain and is likely conserved throughout the MscS family.


alpha 1-Antitrypsin (alpha 1AT) deficiency is a hereditary disorder associated with reduced serum alpha 1AT levels and the development of pulmonary emphysema. An alpha 1AT gene is defined as "Null" when no alpha 1AT in serum is attributed to that alpha 1AT gene. Although all alpha 1AT Null genes have identical phenotypic consequences (i.e. no detectable alpha 1AT in the serum), different genotypic mechanisms can cause the Null state. This study defines the molecular basis for the alpha 1AT gene Nullmattawa, identified and cloned from genomic DNA of an individual with the Null-Null phenotype and emphysema resulting from the heterozygous inheritance of the Nullmattawa and Nullbellingham genes. Sequencing of exons Ic-V and all exon-intron junctions of the Nullmattawa gene demonstrated it was identical to the common normal M1(Val213) alpha 1AT gene except for the insertion of a single nucleotide within the coding region of exon V, causing a 3' frameshift with generation of a premature stop signal. Family analysis using oligonucleotide probes specific for the Nullmattawa sequence demonstrated the gene was inherited in an autosomal fashion. Examination of blood monocytes demonstrated that a normal-sized, 1.8-kb alpha 1AT mRNA transcript is associated with the Nullmattawa gene and in vitro translation of mRNA with the Nullmattawa mutation showed it translated at a normal rate but produced a truncated alpha 1AT protein. Additionally, retroviral transfer of the alpha 1AT Nullmattawa cDNA to murine fibroblasts demonstrated no detectable intracellular or secreted alpha 1AT, despite the presence of alpha 1AT Nullmattawa mRNA transcripts. These findings are consistent with the concept that the molecular pathophysiology of Nullmattawa is likely manifested at a posttranslational level. The identification of the Nullmattawa gene supports the concept that Null alpha 1AT alleles represent a heterogenous group in which very different mechanisms cause the identical phenotypic state.


A hydrothermal power generation market is characterized by a strong dependence on water reservoir capacity and fossil fuel sources, which causes differences in generation marginal costs and high variability of the electricity spot price. Therefore, this study proposes an empirical approach to identify the price determinants and their effects on price dynamics. This paper presents two methodologies: a machine learning approach and a quantile regression analysis. The first method is used to validate the price determinants through a prediction process, and the second, the quantile regression, to identify the non-linear effects. The most important factors observed are total market demand, water reservoirs capacity for generation, and fossil fuel consumption. The results offer a new perspective about the market structure and spot price volatility.


The main purpose of this article has been to prove the importance of comparative testing of consumer products as a means of consumer information and consultation, to analyse its methodology and impact on market structures as well as on the behaviour of companies and consumers, and to determine possibilities for the practical application of comparative testing in Lithuania. The key research objectives have been to analyse the framework of Lithuanian consumer organisations and their capabilities to perform product testing. In addition to this, the peculiarities of the consumer market as well as the need for product information, which are both important factors for product testing, have been overviewed. Utilising comparative product testing methodology and research on how test results could be applied, it can be said that the formation of an independent, wellinformed consumer base that is able to make calculated decisions requires planned and concentrated government efforts. Comparative product testing is one of the tools available for consumer education and information, its significance and effectiveness in creating a society such as this cannot be denied. When creating a comparative product testing system in Lithuania we need to take into account the experience of other Western countries in this field, as well as the potentiality of Lithuanian institutions to prepare and conduct testing of certain products. Research shows that at present in Lithuania these are food products which lend themselves most readily to product testing – services fare worst. From a technological and economic viewpoint, cooperation between the Baltic States and any prior specialisation in this area would be useful when conducting product quality comparative testing.


Methionine gamma-lyase, the enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of methionine by an alpha,gamma-elimination reaction and is a member of the gamma-family of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes, is present in high activity in the primitive protozoan parasite Trichomonas vaginalis but is absent from mammals. Two genes, mgl1 and mgl2, encoding methionine gamma-lyase, have now been isolated from T. vaginalis. They are both single copy, encode predicted proteins (MGL1 and MGL2) of 43 kDa, have 69% sequence identity with each other, and show a high degree of sequence identity to methionine gamma-lyase from Pseudomonas putida (44%) and other related pyridoxal 5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes such as human cystathionine gamma-lyase (42%) and Escherichia coli cystathionine beta-lyase (30%). mgl1 and mgl2 have been expressed in E. coli as a fusion with a six-histidine tag and the recombinant proteins (rMGL1 and rMGL2) purified by metal-chelate affinity chromatography. rMGL1 and rMGL2 were found to have high activity toward methionine (10.4 and 0.67 mumol/min/mg of protein, respectively), homocysteine (370 and 128 mumol/min/mg of protein), cysteine (6.02 and 1.06 mumol/min/mg of protein), and O-acetylserine (3.74 and 1.51 mumol/min/mg of protein), but to be inactive toward cystathionine. Site-directed mutagenesis of an active site cysteine (C113G for MGL1 and C116G for MGL2) reduced the activity of the recombinant enzymes toward both methionine and homocysteine by approximately 80% (rMGL1) and 90% (rMGL2). In contrast, the activity of mutated rMGL2 toward cysteine and O-acetylserine was increased (to 214 and 142%, respectively), whereas that of mutated rMGL1 was reduced to 39 and 49%, respectively. These findings demonstrate the importance of this cysteine residue in the alpha,beta-elimination and alpha, gamma-elimination reactions catalyzed by trichomonad methionine gamma-lyase.


The amyloid precursor protein (APP) is the parent molecule from which beta-amyloid protein is cleaved and deposits as amyloid fibrils in the senile plaques of Alzheimer's disease. Its primary structure resembles a receptor; however, no ligand has been identified. In growing hippocampal neurons APP is localized to growth cones. APP immunoreactivity was highly enriched in the axons of mature cultured neurons, where it appears as a specialization of the axonal membrane. Its anterograde translocation occurs via a kinesin-based motor. Following cytosolic acidification, APP colocalizes with late endosomes that get redistributed from the neuronal cell body to the processes. APP colocalizes in cultured hippocampal neurons to clathrin- immunoreactive clusters of vesicular-like structures. The finding lends additional credence to the possibility that APP could function as a receptor.


The product of the Klebsiella pneumoniae gene pulS, which is located downstream from the pullulanase structural gene (pulA), is essential for the cell surface localization and extracellular release of pullulanase in Escherichia coli K-12. pulS is transcribed in the opposite direction to pulA, from which it is separated by a region of 624 nucleotides. Although this latter region contains a new component of the maltose regulon, pulB, which is transcribed from the pulA promoter, it is not required for pullulanase synthesis or secretion. Unlike pulA and all other pullulanase secretion genes characterized so far, the expression of pulS is not induced by growth in the presence of maltose and is unaffected by mutations in the maltose regulator gene malT. The pulS gene product was identified as a ca. 12-kilodalton outer membrane lipoprotein. The characterization of PulS brings to three the number of identified proteins which are known to be required for pullulanase secretion in addition to the components of the signal sequence-dependent general protein export pathway.


Regional surface wave observations offer a powerful tool for determining source properties of large earthquakes, especially rupture velocity. Supershear ruptures, being faster than surface wave phase velocities, create far‐field surface wave Mach cones along which waves from all sections of the fault arrive simultaneously and, over a sufficiently narrow frequency band, in phase. We present the first observation of far‐field Mach waves from the major Kokoxili earthquake (Tibet, 2001/11/14,Mw7.9) and confirm that ground motion amplitudes are indeed enhanced on the Mach cone. Theory predicts that on the Mach cone, bandpassed surface wave seismograms from a large supershear rupture will be identical to those from much smaller events with similar focal mechanisms, with an amplitude ratio equal to the ratio of the seismic moments of the two events. Cross‐correlation of 15–25 s Love waves from the Kokoxili event with those from a much smaller (Mw5) foreshock indicates a high degree of similarity (correlation coefficients ranging from 0.8 to 0.95) in waveforms recorded at stations near the far‐field Mach cone. This similarity vanishes away from the Mach cone. These observations provide further evidence for supershear propagation of the Kokoxili rupture, and demonstrate how this simple waveform correlation procedure can be used to identify supershear ruptures.


In the present study, experiments were conducted to investigate the feasibility of using carbon derived from rice husk and coconut shell for the decontamination of water containing Escherichia coli (E. coli). The effects of silver impregnation on these agro-waste carbons were also investigated. All the carbons showed >99% removal of E coli. Among the four carbons studied, rice husk based carbon (RHC) showed better removal than the other carbons investigated. However, silver impregnated carbons showed only marginal increase in the decontamination experiments. SEM and BET results reveal that the carbons were mesoporous in nature. FTIR shows the presence of functional groups viz. C=O and -OH that might be responsible.for adsorption of E. coli on the carbon.


While MRI has proved itself to be an excellent diagnostic noninvasive modality for imaging of the brain, medulla, and musculoskeletal system due to its high intrinsic con trast resolution and tissue characterisation potential based on the judicious application of specific sequences, this has not been the case in the abdomen and pelvis. The reasons are the long exposure time and the lower spatial resolution, inherent to MRI. However, during recent years considerable process has been achieved in MRI of the abdominal and pelvic organs due to the development of new and more rapid imaging sequences and the routine clinical application of specific magnetic resonance contrast media. Consequently for some anatomical areas such as the female genital organs and the biliary system MRI is already the best performing morphological diagnostic modality. However, the question arises as to wether MRI, given its performance capabilities, should not also be considered a primary diagnostic modality for the study of parenchymal organs like the liver, spleen, and pancreas, and not merely as a complen tary modality to solve residual problems after ultrasonography and computed tomog raphy have been performed. Although the future role of MRI in respect of the gas trointestinal tube itself is still somewhat unclear, some possibilities for routine clinical use are becoming visible even in this abdominal field.


We report paleomagnetic data from samples spanning several grades of enrichment in the Kalahari manganese field, South Africa, in order to assess mineralogical aspects of the ore-forming stages, and also to date these stages through comparison to previously existing, well dated paleomagnetic results from the Kaapvaal-Kalahari craton. Our paleomagnetic study confirms a multistage evolution for the orebodies, with three distinct, ancient remanent directions preserved. An early diagenetic remanence direction (MAM-1), associated with "dusty" hematite inclusions (1–10 μm) that are omnipresent in the microcrystalline matrix of low-grade, Mamatwan-type ore, yields a tilt-corrected paleomagnetic pole (–08.2° N, 111.1° E, dp = 5.6°, dm = 11.1°; n = 6 specimens) that is similar to previous results from the immediately underlying Ongeluk lavas. A late diagenetic or weak metamorphic overprint (MAM-2), carried by recrystallized hematite (20–250 μm), within both Mamatwan- and Wessels-type ore, generates a paleomagnetic pole (present coordinates 12.1° N, 321.8° E, dp = 3.4°, dm = 6.0°; tilt-corrected 16.1° N, 317.8° E, dp = 3.4°, dm = 6.4°; n = 14 specimens) that resembles those from the ca. 1900 Ma Hartley lavas and Mashonaland sills. The MAM-2 overprint may be related to Kheis thrusting at 1750 to 1800 Ma as previously proposed or to magma-driven fluid migration during rifting as the Hartley-Mashonaland igneous event perforated the Kalahari craton. The third magnetic component observed in our sample suite (WESS) is restricted to high-grade Wessels-type ore, rich in high Fe hausmannite and coarser hematite (0.1–1.0 mm), in the immediate vicinity of north-trending normal faults. It yields a pole (54.4° N, 033.7°E, dp = 4.7°, dm = 9.1°; n = 7 specimens) that is similar to both the ca. 1250 and 1100 Ma portions of the Kalahari craton's apparent polar wander path. Either of these ages would be in accordance with previous multigenetic models for the Wessels event and its regional crosscutting relationships. Our WESS paleomagnetic pole, combined with previous paleomagnetic results from the Sishen-Postmasburg region, temporally links Kalahari manganese field hydrothermal upgrading with east vergent thrusting in the Griqualand West foreland, during the early or medial stages of the late Mesoproterozoic Namaqua orogeny.


«Neither God, nor law»: with this formula, in 1934 Marcel Granet described to the Western public the essence of Chinese customs. According to him, in China «Religion is not a differentiate function of the social activity». Therefore, he called on refraining from inserting a chapter on religion in any work dedicated to Chinese thought in order to avoid the risk of "cagingµ the Chinese civilization in patterns typical of other cultures (Granet 1934). However nowadays, more than forty years after the beginning of the legal reforms inaugurated by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, no one could seriously claim that China is «a country without law». The same goes for religion: as many scholars pointed out, only by freeing ourselves from any kind of «Orientalism we can grasp the deepest sense of Chinese religiosity, understanding that it is mainly a cultural expression, rooted in the social and family fabric to the point of being almost indistinguishable from it» (Said 1978; Ruskola 2002). How has the relationship between religion and law been shaped in Mainland China's legal history? To what extent have the ethical principles underlying Chinese civilization had an impact on the Chinese traditional legal system? Have the ancient Chinese ever taken into consideration the existence of «other» forms of justice, aside from the earthly one? And, if so, what do they look like? These are some of the questions to which the present work aims to answer. With all due respect to Granet, we will start from the analysis of the Chinese characters that translate the concepts of religion, crime and punishment, to understand what are the (religious?) principles at the basis of traditional Chinese law, and if and to what extent they still can be found in the current legal system of the People's Republic of China.