The biologically inspired hierarchical model for object recognition, Hierarchical Model and X (HMAX), has attracted considerable attention in recent years. HMAX is robust (i.e. shift- and scale-invariant), but its use of random-patch-selection makes it sensitive to rotational deformation, which heavily limits its performance in object recognition. The main reason is that numerous randomly chosen patches are often orientation selective, thereby leading to mismatch. To address this issue, the authors propose a novel patch selection method for HMAX called saliency and keypoint-based patch selection (SKPS), which is based on a saliency (attention) mechanism and multi-scale keypoints. In contrast to the conventional random-patch-selection-based HMAX model that involves huge amounts of redundant information in feature extraction, the SKPS-based HMAX model (S-HMAX) extracts a very few features while offering promising distinctiveness. To show the effectiveness of S-HMAX, the authors apply it to object categorisation and conduct experiments on the CalTech101, TU Darmstadt, ImageNet and GRAZ01 databases. The experimental results demonstrate that S-HMAX outperforms conventional HMAX and is very comparable with existing architectures that have a similar framework.


Mooring systems exhibit high failure rates. This is especially problematic for offshore renewable energy systems, like wave and floating wind, where the mooring system can be an active component and the redundancy in the design must be kept low. Here we investigate how uncertainty in input parameters propagates through the mooring system and affects the design and dynamic response of mooring and floaters. The method used is a nonintrusive surrogate based uncertainty quantification (UQ) approach based on generalized Polynomial Chaos (gPC). We investigate the importance of the added mass, tangential drag, and normal drag coefficient of a catenary mooring cable on the peak tension in the cable. It is found that the normal drag coefficient has the greatest influence. However, the uncertainty in the coefficients plays a minor role for snap loads. Using the same methodology we analyze how deviations in anchor placement impact the dynamics of a floating axi-symmetric point-absorber. It is shown that heave and pitch are largely unaffected but surge and cable tension can be significantly altered. Our results are important towards streamlining the analysis and design of floating structures. Improving the analysis to take into account uncertainties is especially relevant for offshore renewable energy systems where the mooring system is a considerable portion of the investment.


PURPOSE
Combining heat with antineoplastic drugs has produced evidence of antitumor synergism. An increasing number of trials are investigating whole body hyperthermia (WBH) in combination with chemotherapy in patients with advanced malignancies. Here we investigated whether the hyperdynamic state of the circulation as a consequence of WBH may stimulate dissemination of malignant cells.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
WBH in combination with chemotherapy was administered by a radiant heat device to 20 consecutive patients with advanced epithelial malignancies. One WBH session lasted for approximately 4 h (90 min heating time, 60 min plateau at 41.8 degrees C, and 60-80 min cooling). Peripheral blood was drawn before WBH treatment (baseline), at the end of the plateau (1 h), and 24 h and 48 h thereafter. After removal of leukocytes using anti-CD45 magnetic beads, circulating tumor cells were detected immunocytochemically using the monoclonal antibody A45-B/B3, which binds to a common epitope present on various cytokeratins.

RESULTS
The method used to detect tumor cells in the peripheral blood proved to be specific and very sensitive (detection limit 1 tumor cell per 1.7 x 10(5) peripheral blood mononuclear cell). Before WBH, 6 of 20 patients had cyto-keratin-positive cells in their blood. A treatment-induced increase in the number of circulating tumor cells became statistically significant at 24 h after WBH (P = 0.043) and was detected in a total of 9 patients, 5 of whom had no detectable malignant cells at baseline. There was no evidence of a correlation between an increase in the number of circulating tumor cells and increased metastasis frequency.

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that WBH might induce a temporary release of tumor cells into the circulation, but this spread appears to be clinically not significant in patients with advanced malignancies.


In recent years, people have looked more and more to the business world to take their share of responsibility for the fast-deteriorating state of the Earth. But exactly how businesses should go about this task has remained something of a puzzle. Now, with In Earth's Company, well-known business and environment writer Carl Frankel deftly gathers the pieces of the puzzle together into a single, comprehensive volume. Frankel describes the history and meaning of the term 'sustainable development' as the effective balancing of economic growth, environmental protection, and social equity, and outlines key contributors to the concept - such as the Green consumer movement, the Brundtland Report, and the Earth Summit. He goes on to analyse how corporations have attempted to integrate environmental concerns into their operations through public environmental reporting, ISO 14000, and Total Quality Management, as well as current corporate trends such as zero waste, and multi-stakeholder partnerships. Critical of current techniques for measuring environmental performance, Frankel then discusses emerging corporate strategies for improving the business record on the environment, as well as strategies for making the entire industrial system more sustainable, such as 'Factor 10,' industrial ecology, The Natural Step, and environmental accounting. Concluding that the business record to date regarding sustainability is at best uneven, Frankel calls for greater emphasis on collaboration, process and quality in all dimensions of business practice, as well as a 'new humanism' requiring corporations to be more sensitive to the full range of human concerns and to include social equity into the calculation of the 'bottom line.' Lucid and authoritative, In Earth's Company offers provocative guidance and an intriguing glimpse into an area of key importance for the future. It will be of equal interest to business executives, environmentalists, and to ordinary citizens concerned about the state of the Earth.


Background Radiation recall (RR) is a fairly uncommon and unpredictable phenomenon caused by an acute inflammatory reaction in a previously irradiated area. Several antineoplastic drugs have been previously associated with RR reactions including anthracyclines and taxanes like docetaxel, paclitaxel or antimetabolites. Case presentation Here we report for the first time a case of a recall reaction to Eribulin mesylate, a novel chemotherapeutic compound that affects microtubule polymerisation, approved for the treatment of metastatic or locally advanced breast cancers (BCs). We present the case of a 61-year-old female BC patient originally diagnosed with bilateral BC with metastatic disease that went through several lines of chemotherapy and radiation therapy (RT); RR reaction was observed following Eribulin treatment and sequential palliative RT. Conclusion This case report raises awareness about these fairly rare phenomena when prescribing Eribulin, or any new chemotherapeutic after RT to prevent and treat as early as possible to avoid further patient complications.


A new chromium(III)-imprinted azodicarbonamide-functionalized attapulgite sorbent was synthesized by a surface imprinting technique and was employed as a selective solid-phase extraction material for speciation analysis of chromium(III) in environmental water samples prior to its determination by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The experimental conditions for the effective adsorption of Cr(III) were optimized with respect to different experimental parameters using static and dynamic procedures in detail. Compared with non-imprinted sorbent particles, the ion-imprinted sorbents had higher selectivity and adsorption capacity for Cr(III). The maximum static adsorption capacity of the ion-imprinted and non-imprinted sorbents for Cr(III) was 69.75 and 21.06 mg g−1, respectively. The relative selectivity factor values (αr) of Cr(III)/Pb(II), Cr(III)/Cu(II), Cr(III)/Ni(II), Cr(III)/Sb(III), Cr(III)/As(III) and Cr(III)/Fe(III) were 55.46, 49.52, 44.53, 49.24, 41.77, and 26.63 respectively, which were greater than 1. The imprinted attapulgite sorbent offered fast kinetics for the adsorption and desorption of Cr(III). Under the optimized conditions (pH – 5.0, mass – 30 mg, shaking time – 20 min), a detection limit of 0.25 ng mL−1 with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 2.4% for Cr(III) was obtained. The method has been validated by analyzing certified reference materials and successfully applied to the determination of trace Cr(III) in environmental samples.


Osteosarcomas are the most prevalent primary bone tumors found in pediatric patients. To understand their molecular etiology, cell culture models are used to define disease mechanisms under controlled conditions. Many osteosarcoma cell lines (e.g., SAOS‐2, U2OS, MG63) are derived from Caucasian patients. However, patients exhibit individual and ethnic differences in their responsiveness to irradiation and chemotherapy. This motivated the establishment of osteosarcoma cell lines (OS1, OS2, OS3) from three ethnically Chinese patients. OS1 cells, derived from a pre‐chemotherapeutic tumor in the femur of a 6‐year‐old female, were examined for molecular markers characteristic for osteoblasts, stem cells, and cell cycle control by immunohistochemistry, reverse transcriptase‐PCR, Western blotting and flow cytometry. OS1 have aberrant G‐banded karyotypes, possibly reflecting chromosomal abnormalities related to p53 deficiency. OS1 had ossification profiles similar to human fetal osteoblasts rather than SAOS‐2 which ossifies ab initio (P < 0.05). Absence of p53 correlates with increased Runx2 expression, while the slow proliferation of OS1 cells is perhaps attenuated by pRB retention. OS1 express mesenchymal stem cell markers (CD44, CD105) and differ in relative expression of CD29, CD63, and CD71 to SAOS‐2. (P < 0.05). Cell cycle synchronization with nocodazole did not affect Runx2 and CDK1 levels but decreased cyclin‐E and increased cyclin‐A (P < 0.05). Xenotransplantion of OS1 in SCID mice yields spontaneous tumors that were larger and grew faster than SAOS‐2 transplants. Hence, OS1 is a new osteosarcoma cell culture model derived from a pre‐chemotherapeutic ethnic Chinese patient, for mechanistic studies and development of therapeutic strategies to counteract metastasis and deregulation of mesenchymal development. J. Cell. Physiol. 221: 778–788, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


BACKGROUND Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a pathological condition caused by the reflux of stomach contents into the esophagus. GERD is a multifactorial disorder with an increase in prevalence worldwide. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a proinflammatory cytokine that is commonly found in the esophageal mucosa of GERD patients and associated with esophageal motor disorders. Acupoint-catgut embedment has long been known as adjunctive therapy for GERD. This study was aimed to establish the effect of acupoint-catgut embedment combined with medication on the IL-6 serum levels of patients with GERD.
METHODS This single-blind randomized controlled trial involved 40 GERD patients from the Gastroenterology Outpatient Clinic of Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital that were randomly allocated to either catgut-embedding therapy plus medication or sham acupuncture with medication. Catgut-embedding therapy was given two times at CV12 (Zhongwan), ST36 (Zusanli), and BL21 (Weishu) every 15 days. Serum levels of IL-6 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay as research output.
RESULTS There were no significant differences in the baseline levels of proinflammatory (IL-6) mediators between the groups. After 1-month treatment, the median levels of IL-6 were statistically insignificant decreased in catgut-embedding therapy plus medication versus sham acupuncture with medication (0.15 versus -0.16 pg/ml, respectively; p = 0.14).
CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that catgut-embedding therapy has not been proven to statistically influence the levels of IL-6 in patients with GERD.


A new book by the economic anthropologist Stephen Gudeman presents the analysis of the balance between self-interest and mutuality in economic relations. It is based on the extensive ethnographic data collected by the author and his colleagues during 20th century. As a theoretical schema Gudeman offers a model of the five institutional spheres: house, community, commerce, finance and meta-finance, in which the combination of the last three characterizes the state of modern capitalism. These spheres, on the one hand, represent a historical sequence that reflects changes in the speed, quantity and level of abstraction in economic transactions. On the other hand, the economic spheres are interdependent and exist simultaneously in close cooperation and conflict. Collaboration works through various linking mechanisms such as rent, barter, money, etc., and conflicts manifest themselves when two sides of the economic life - empathy and competition - confront each other. According to Gudeman, the feature of modern market capitalism is the unrestrained growth of rents. Rents give the banks, manufacturers, sellers of goods and services non-competitive benefits, which are covered by the rhetoric of competition and displace empathy as an important part of economic life. This imbalance creates inequality for household and community as the least protected participants in economic relations. A field anthropologist, Gudeman demonstrates the commitment to disciplinary traditions to advocate and represent the groups under study. For him, these groups are not ethnic, religious or subcultural, but all people living in the mundane rules of the first two economic spheres. Although the measures that Gudeman proposes to restore the balance of self-interest and mutuality can hardly be discussed and certainly won't be implemented by governments, the book represents an important contribution to the anthropological critique of modern capitalism.


Realizations of gauge theories in setups of quantum synthetic matter open up the possibility of probing salient exotic phenomena in condensed matter and high-energy physics, along with potential applications in quantum information and science technologies. In light of the impressive ongoing efforts to achieve such realizations, a fundamental question regarding quantum link model regularizations of lattice gauge theories is how faithfully they capture the quantum field theory limit of gauge theories. Recent work \cite{zache2021achieving} has shown through analytic derivations, exact diagonalization, and infinite matrix product state calculations that the low-energy physics of 1+1D U(1) quantum link models approaches the quantum field theory limit already at small link spin length S. Here, we show that the approach to this limit also lends itself to the far-from-equilibrium quench dynamics of lattice gauge theories, as demonstrated by our numerical simulations of the Loschmidt return rate and the chiral condensate in infinite matrix product states, which work directly in the thermodynamic limit. Similar to our findings in equilibrium that show a distinct behavior between half-integer and integer link spin lengths, we find that criticality emerging in the Loschmidt return rate is fundamentally different between half-integer and integer spin quantum link models in the regime of strong electric-field coupling. Our results further affirm that state-of-the-art finite-size ultracold-atom and NISQ-device implementations of quantum link lattice gauge theories have the real potential to simulate their quantum field theory limit even in the far-from-equilibrium regime.


Forest and land is a natural resource that is very potential to be used for national development. Nevertheless to forests and land are common threats and harassment that impede conservation efforts. One form of threats and harassment by the forest fires and land (karhutla). Land and forest fires in Indonesia is a problem that occurs regularly every year, especially during the dry season. Conventionally information delivery system is done by monitoring directly in the field, use a map and compass as well as the use of the gong in the villages as a tool to inform the public about the possibility of fire. Today, with the help of modern technology such as computers, telecommunications devices and the Internet many developing fire information system that provides information to map the locations of fire (hotspot). However, often the fire information display only hotspot in an area, featuring a fire-prone area served is not clear, and is not based on processing methods methodologically inconsistent, which tend to be subjective and dependent on the processing of data. Hotspot which appeared hundreds or even thousands, to minimize the danger of fire should be immediately sought a solution would have been to put it out, but by the number of hotspots that much is certainly not an easy thing to do. One determines the hotspot to be extinguished in advance will result in a more dangerous and greater losses. Planning activities for fire prevention and suppression requires accurate information, actual and easily understood by decision makers. Therefore, by utilizing advances in technology, it takes a Decision Support System (Decision Support System) to help determine hotspots land and forest fires are a top priority to extinguish based on the criteria that have been set. The proper method for application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Weighted Product (WP).


A data redirection system for redirecting user's data based on a stored rule set. The redirection of data is performed by a redirection server, which receives the redirection rule sets for each user from an authentication and accounting server, and a database. Prior to using the system, users authenticate with the authentication and accounting server, and receive a network address. The authentication and accounting server retrieves the proper rule set for the user, and communicates the rule set and the user's address to the redirection server. The redirection server then implements the redirection rule set for the user's address. Rule sets are removed from the redirection server either when the user disconnects, or based on some predetermined event. New rule sets are added to the redirection server either when a user connects, or based on some predetermined event.


: The distribution of the intertidal rock pool prawn Palaemon elegans Rathke, on a rocky shore of the Isle of Cumbrae in west Scotland, was investigated. Prawns of all sizes were abundant in the mid- to high-shore pools throughout the summer until September when the largest individuals began to dissappear from the shore. Small and large P. elegans were found to be distributed on the shore in different ways. The small prawns found on the shore during the winter exhibited a much altered behaviour. In the laboratory, the effect of temperature change on oxygen consumption was assessed as was the role of temperature acclimation in determining the rate of oxygen consumption. Oxygen consumption calculated as a weight specific rate (Mo2) could be negatively correlated with body weight. This relationship between body weight and oxygen consumption was different in prawns acclimated to 10 and 23 degrees C and is considered to be an acclimatory response. The acute response, of prawns acclimated to a given temperature, to changes in temperature was similar in different sized prawns. After an acclimatory period of between 1 and 2 weeks small prawns exhibited positive acclimation of oxygen consumption whereas the larger prawns appeared to be unable to acclimate. This variable size dependent, response is discussed as a determinant of distribution and behaviour.


Current techniques to analyze insulin, although efficient and accurate, usually require advanced scientific knowledge, chemical labeling, expensive equipment and/or are destructive. Ultrasonic spectroscopy is a viable alternative since it is simple to use, does not involve any sample preparation, and is non-destructive. Microfluidic ultrasonic spectroscopy detects particles through measuring the amount of acoustic energy transmitted at different frequencies. We have successfully performed acoustic spectroscopy to analyze insulin on the micro-scale, where the main advantage is that only 50 μL (vs. 1 mL) is required for sample analysis. To prove the efficacy of our device, we first measured fresh Sanofi U400 Insuman insulin over a range of frequencies. We then artificially aged insulin for six hours to compare the acoustic signature before and after protein aging. Next, to probe the dynamic range and sensitivity of our new method, we chose three frequencies and measured the progressive deterioration of insulin as it aged over time. Finally, we validated the performance of MIDAS against three benchmark tests: HPLC, ThT fluorescence assay and DLS. Specifically, we show that certain frequencies produce different spectra within 1 hour of accelerated aging. MIDAS compares well with benchmark tests of HPLC, ThT fluorescence assay and DLS. Such a device can be a complementary tool to help determine the stability of insulin in a cost-effective manner.


OBJECTIVE
Exercise training has been known to cause structural and functional alterations in the heart called athletes heart. We aimed to investigate the effects of incremental endurance exercise training (IEET) on the left ventricular (LV) mechanics in healthy subjects.

METHODS
This prospective observational study included 34 healthy young men who participated in competitive sports. The participants were subjected to a six-month IEET program. The LV mechanics measured using two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography was recorded while the participants were in an inactive state before and at the end of the six months. To compare continuous variables before and after IEET, Wilcoxon or paired-t test were used.

RESULTS
Baseline and post training echocardiographic measurements showed that there was no significant change in LV ejection fraction (%) (p=0.64) and there were an increase in end-systolic and end-diastolic diameters, posterior and septal wall thickness, relative wall thickness and LV mass index (p<0.05, for all). LV mechanical parameters such as global strain (S) (19.8±1.33% vs. 20.4±1.26%, p=0.001), apical four -chamber S (19.4±1.96% vs. 20.1±1.86%, p=0.01), apical two- chamber S (19.9±1.75% vs. 20.7±1.75%, p=0.003), apical (23.0±3.1% vs. 23.6±3.2%, p=0.03), and basal circumferential S (21.1±2.2 % vs. 21.6±2.5%, p=0.03), and apical rotation (degree) (7.9±0.95 vs. 8.4±0.74, p=0.001) values were significantly increased by IEET.

CONCLUSION
We demonstrated that IEET has led to exercise related cardiac structural and functional changes such as LV dilatation and LV hypertrophy, accompanied by a significant increase in LV systolic S and LV twist measurements.


We present a case of tricuspid atresia and the treatment that was used in a child now aged 12. The malformation was corrected at the age of five through intracardiac Fontan circulation. Later, the child developed a right-to-left shunt due to dehiscence in the intra-atrial conduit, causing significant desaturation. This was treated by transcatheter closure with a 10 mm Amplatzer device at 8 years of age. Currently the child is asymptomatic with no residual shunts, and the position of the device is normal. The percutaneous closure of Fontan fenestrations using the Amplatzer device is a therapeutic approach that provides good results. It results in normal oxygen saturation and has low morbidity. The technique is simple, available to most cardiac catheterization laboratories, safe, and offers a reasonable cost-benefit ratio. In addition, the design of the device is suitable for this type of defect.


In the context of Development of the West Regions, by using the annual data from 1999 to 2009 in whole China and 12 provinces of the western regions, we analyze the achievements of socio-economic development of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from 1999 to 2009 as follows: the economic aggregate has increased prominently and the growth rate is increasing ceaselessly; the primary industry, secondary industry and tertiary industry develop evenly, and the industrial structure is incessantly optimized; the quality of economic growth is promoted increasingly and the living standard of people is improved greatly; the primary industry, secondary industry and tertiary industry stride in tandem, and the momentum of growth is strong. We conduct horizontal comparison on me main economic indicators of Xinjiang, 12 provinces of the western regions and whole China. which include GDP and its growth rate. investment of fixed assets. structure of the primary industry. Secondary industry and tertiary industry, the industrial added value, GDP per capita, gross retail sales of social consumption, export and import trade, net income per capita of peasants and herdsmen, and general budget revenue. The result shows that although the implementation of the strategy of Development of the West Regions and the economic development of Xinjiang have achieved some remarkable results, there is a conspicuous gap in comparison with the expected effect. The problems existing in the operation of Xinjiang's economy are analyzed as follows: the industrial level is low, and the economic growth mode is yet to be transformed; the disposable income per capita of urban residents grows slowly, and the increasing gap between the urban areas and rural areas has no trend of dwindling; the investment aggregate is very low, and the momentum of economic growth is short. In order to make the central government and 19 provinces and cities offer pointed aid for Xinjiang ,promote the implementation of new strategic development of Western China, and promote the better economic development of Xinjiang in the period of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, we put forward some feasible suggestions as follows: Xinjiang should grasp favorable opportunities and quicken the pace of industrial structural adjustment: continue to open up to the outside world unswervingly, and improve investment environment ceaselessly; strive to maintain the continuous' and rapid development of economy, and improve the living standard of people.


Google has been in the wars for the past year or so. Its status as a new kind of beneficent company has increasingly been questioned, and it has faced more and more criticism in Europe and elsewhere. Critics have been active on two principal fronts – privacy and market power. As the months pass, the latter issue has taken higher salience, with the launch of an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission in the US in June 2011 and an investigation begun in November 2010 by the key European competition authority, the European Commission, of complaints made by three companies. In Europe this is in addition to actions instituted within individual member states, such as France.The goal of this paper is to consider Google"s interactions to date with European competition law, particularly the Merger Regulations, and to discuss possible bases in the future for impugning Google"s conduct under that law. In some ways this is premature, as competition investigations advance at best at a slow and steady pace. For example, the Microsoft case in Europe, which is often cited as a point of comparison with any action against Google, took nearly a decade from start to finish, even if it did ultimately involve fines on the company of the order of €1 billion. Nonetheless the Google investigation does raise some extremely interesting issues which may help to illuminate the future regulation of search and other high tech activities, whatever the outcome of the current complaints.The paper is organised as follows. Section 1 gives a very brief outline of the relevant European law, while section 2 discusses some aspects of search and related activities. Section 3 discusses the treatment of two mergers and acquisitions involving Google in Europe, and section 4 seeks to set the current investigation within the framework of competition law. Section 5 notes the results of a completed inquiry in France, and Section 6 gives some brief and tentative conclusions.


of a needle pick it out. It is the simplest of procedures: the mite clings to the point of the needle, it can be placed on a slide, and its lively antics watched with great amusement under the microscope. This technique takes no more than a few minutes to master and yet I rarely see it practised. It is most impressive to teacher, student, nurse, and patient, and serves good purpose. The problem is quite different for the management of that very rare variety called Norwegian, or crusted, scabies of course.I am, etc., Leighton Buzzard, JOHN T. INGRAM. Bedfordshire.


Aspergillus flavus is an important saprophytic fungus that produces aflatoxins (AF), which threaten food and feed safety. MAPK signaling pathways are essential for fungal adaptation to diverse environments. ABSTRACT The Fus3-MAP kinase module is a conserved phosphorylation signal system in eukaryotes that responds to environmental stress and transduction of external signals from the outer membrane to the nucleus. Aspergillus flavus can produce aflatoxins (AF), which seriously threaten human and animal health. In this study, we determined the functions of Fus3, confirmed Ste50-Ste11-Ste7-Fus3 protein interactions and phosphorylation, and explored the possible phosphorylation motifs and potential targets of Fus3. The regulatory mechanism of Fus3 on the biosynthesis of AF was partly revealed in this study. AF production was downregulated in Δfus3, but the transcriptional expression of most AF cluster genes was upregulated. It is notable that the levels of acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA, the substrates of AF, were significantly decreased in fus3 defective strains. Genes involved in acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA biosynthesis were significantly downregulated at transcriptional or phosphorylation levels. Specifically, AccA might be a direct target of Fus3, which led to acetyl-CoA carboxylase activities were decreased in null-deletion and site mutagenesis strains. The results concluded that Fus3 could regulate the expression of acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA biosynthetic genes directly or indirectly, and then affect the AF production that relies on the regulation of AF substrate rather than the modulation of AF cluster genes. IMPORTANCE Aspergillus flavus is an important saprophytic fungus that produces aflatoxins (AF), which threaten food and feed safety. MAP (mitogen-activated protein) kanases are essential for fungal adaptation to diverse environments. Fus3, as the terminal kinase of a MAPK cascade, interacts with other MAPK modules and phosphorylates downstream targets. We provide evidence that Fus3 could affect AF biosynthesis by regulating the production of acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA, but this does not depend on the regulation of AF biosynthetic genes. Our results partly reveal the regulatory mechanism of Fus3 on AF biosynthesis and provide a novel AF modulation pattern, which may contribute to the discovery of new strategies in controlling A. flavus and AF contamination.


Seaweeds are a source of natural antioxidants having potential application in oxidative stress and associated diseases. In this work, anti-atherogenic properties associated with the antioxidant activity from the hydrophilic extracts of Halimeda incrassata were studied. The phenolic content assessed in the aqueous extract and fraction phenolic acids (FPA) was 0.13 ± 0.05 and 0.47 ± 0.09 mg of gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/g dry seaweed, respectively. In DPPH•, radical scavenging assay fractions exhibited a dependent concentration. The seaweeds extract inhibited the desoxirribose oxidation in the presence or absence of EDTA (IC50 = 1.91± 0.09 mg/mL) (IC50 = 2.95 ± 0.01 mg/mL). In vivo antioxidant properties of FPA-H.incrassata were investigated in rats with a CCl4-induced liver injury. Pre-treatment with H. incrassata led to approximately 50% reductions in liver TBARS levels.  The treatment with H. incrassata FPA also increased the activity of the CAT enzyme, which in turn resulted in an enhanced antioxidant defense. The expression of Catalase by PCR-RT technique demonstrated a higher gene expression when compared with that which was observed in the CCl4-treated group. Antiatherogenic properties were studied in the inhibition of lipoprotein oxidation mediated by Cu2+ or HRP/H2O2, free radical scavenging, and metal ion chelation, and it was dose dependent with a higher concentration needed for the aqueous extract than for the FPA fraction. Antioxidant activity was also improved in macrophages as evaluated in the cell supernatant (by TBARS formation); and by luminol enhanced chemiluminescence after cell activation with zymosan; and a degree of cell lipoperoxidation was decreased by the Halimeda incrassata extract. The results of this work add to the antioxidant potential of the seaweed for its application in oxidative stress associated conditions.

 Key words: Antiatherogenic properties, antioxidant activity, seaweeds, Halimeda incrassate.


Sleep disturbances are found in the course of most dementing syndromes. We report a longitudinal polysomnographic and 18FDG-PET study in a 38-year-old male with FTDP17 carrying the Tau gene mutation G389R. All-night sleep EEG and wake cerebral glucose metabolism at rest (eyes/ears covered) of the preceding day were studied twice, eight months (Night 1; PET 1) and sixteen months (Night 2; PET 2) after the initial neurological evaluation. The Night 1 study showed sleep fragmentation associated to a short REM latency and a severe reduction of slow wave sleep, with relatively preserved NREM-REM sleep cycles; daytime PET 1 revealed severe cerebral glucose metabolic reductions in frontal and temporal areas, with relative preservation of remaining cortical regions and subcortical structures. On Night 2, the total sleep time was less than 5 hours, delta sleep and REM latency remained shortened and only two sleep cycles could be identified; daytime PET 2 exam revealed a greater cortical metabolic impairment and an involvement of subcortical brain regions as compared to PET 1. Post-mortem neuropathological data showed severe neuronal loss, spongiosis and gliosis that were mostly marked in cortical layers I, II, V and VI. In vivo, neurometabolic and post-mortem neuropathological data are consistent with and indicative of a severe dysfunction of intra- and trans-hemispheric regional connectivity and of cortico-thalamic circuits. These findings suggest that the decreased cortical and subcortical connectivity may have been the main pathophysiological mechanism responsible for delta sleep reduction and the cognitive decline.


An implantable drug delivery device with an inflatable/deflatable reservoir, a release rate controlling micro-channel, a syringe attachable inlet, a unidirectional channel preventing drug substances from flowing back into the inlet, and a magnetic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) outlet capable of on-demand drug release was designed and fabricated to realize effective drug therapy. The reservoir is refillable through the inlet. Therefore, the device is reusable. The device does not employ photolithography patterning. Vapor coating, a precise cutting plotter, a vinyl adhesive material, and oxygen plasma treatment were employed to fabricate the device. Drug release rate was controlled by the micro-channel attached to the reservoir. Micro-channels with widths 300μm, 400μm, 500μm and depth 95μm were tested. Drug release is executed by deflecting the magnetic membrane outlet by an external electromagnetic field generating source: a permanent magnet or a planar copper coil.


Using a physically grounded measure of dust and dust-to-gas ratio is of fundamental astrophysical importance. The gas-to-dust ratio of reddened stars in the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds (and of galaxies in general) is commonly expressed as a linear relation between the hydrogen column density, N (H), and the reddening, E(B-V) (or more recently A(V), the extinction at V band). However, because extinction curves to individual stars vary, there is no reason why (except by chance) either E(B-V) or A(V) would be the best measure of dust as opposed to extinction at some other wavelength. We have utilized for the first time full extinction curves in the MW, and have found that UV extinction around 2900 A is better correlated with gas, and that the relation is linear. Scatter and nonlinearity increase for A(V) and for E(B-V), and are especially poor for near-IR extinction. We also find that the very large discrepancy between MW and SMC gas-to-dust ratios of 1.2 dex in N (H)/E(B-V) is reduced to  ̃0.7 dex for far-UV extinction at A(1500), which matches the difference in cosmic abundances of carbon.


Transport operators have a range of intervention options available to improve or enhance their networks. Such interventions are often made in the absence of sound evidence on resulting outcomes. Cycling superhighways were promoted as a sustainable and healthy travel mode, one of the aims of which was to reduce traffic congestion. Estimating the impacts that cycle superhighways have on congestion is complicated due to the non-random assignment of such intervention over the transport network. In this paper, we analyse the causal effect of cycle superhighways utilising pre-intervention and post-intervention information on traffic and road characteristics along with socio-economic factors. We propose a modeling framework based on the propensity score and outcome regression model. The method is also extended to the doubly robust set-up. Simulation results show the superiority of the performance of the proposed method over existing competitors. The method is applied to analyse a real dataset on the London transport network. The methodology proposed can assist in effective decision making to improve network performance.


This paper presents the XML-based formats ALTO, TEI, METS used for digital libraries and their interest for data representation in a document image analysis and recognition (DIAR) process. In the first part we briefly present these formats with focus on their adequacy for structural representation and modeling of DIAR data. The second part shows how these formats can be used in a reverse engineering process. Their implementation as a data representation framework will be shown.


In this article we summarise the recent economic literature on the relationship between inflation and growth, to assess what inflation target might be most consistent with the fastest pace of sustainable economic growth. One conclusion is that the relationship between inflation and growth seems to be different at different rates of inflation. At very low rates of inflation, including the 0 - 3 per cent range, the growth rate seems to be independent of the inflation rate. But at higher rates of inflation, there is evidence that inflation does significant damage to growth. There is some theoretical literature which cautions central banks against deflation, and therefore against including zero in an inflation target range. As yet there is little data available with which to test this presumption. Based on the theoretical arguments, we conclude that the risks of New Zealand being caught in a deflationary trap are low. Overall, we conclude that average rates of inflation in New Zealand have been within the `optimal inflation range' suggested by the literature. Interested readers may wish to consult a longer and more comprehensive version of this paper, contained in the Bank's publication on PTA related issues.


Purpose of the article: is to reveal appropriability mechanisms the Czech product-oriented small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs).
Methods: of the research were based on on-line questionnaires distributed to a sample of 208 mainly manufacturing, innovative firms during 2011–2012.
Scientific aim: was to explore how Czech firms value their IP and intangible assets, as juxtaposed to tangible assets. Additional aims were to investigate how firms protect their innovations with various statutory and nonstatutory mechanisms and what are their motivations to patenting.
Findings: We found that good reputation of a firm, loyalty, qualifications and high motivation of the employees along with a stimulating internal environment are the assets that firms consider as being most instrumental in its further development. Regardless the size of the firms, the continuous innovation is far the most frequently used protective measure. SMEs also commonly rely on lead time advantages, secrecy, complementary manufacturing or marketing capabilities and utility models. Large firms, on the other hand, use more frequently various statutory means including patents, utility models and trademarks followed by secrecy. Patents, however, are widely applied in a few industries only that include nanotechnology, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry, "green energy" sector and, less frequently, electro-technical and automotive sector. Firms operating in these specific industries commonly combine patents with other protective means in advanced IP strategies. The firms patent for reasons that often extend beyond simply profiting from a patented innovation. In addition to the prevention of copying, the most prominent reasoning for patenting include various strategic motives, like using patents to improve the position in negotiating, the prevention of rivals from patenting related inventions (i.e. "patent blocking") and the prevention of suits.
Conclusions: Our findings raise serious questions regarding the functioning of the existing system of intellectual property rights when key national policy goals include innovation by and growth of small and medium-sized firms.


ABSTRACT There are inequities in HIV outcomes among Black gay, bisexual, and other sexual minority men who have sex with men (GBMSM) compared to GBMSM overall, including access to transportation to HIV care. It is unclear if the relationship between transportation and clinical outcomes extends to viral load. We assessed the relationship between transportation dependence to an HIV provider and undetectable viral load among Black and White GBMSM in Atlanta. We collected transportation and viral load information from GBMSM with HIV from 2016–2017 (n = 345). More Black than White GBMSM had a detectable viral load (25% vs. 15%) and took dependent (e.g. public) transportation (37% vs. 18%). Independent (e.g. car) transportation was associated with undetectable viral load for White GBMSM (cOR 3.61, 95% CI 1.45, 8.97) but was attenuated by income (aOR. 2.29, 95% CI 0.78, 6.71), and not associated for Black GBMSM (cOR 1.18, 95% CI 0.58, 2.24). One possible explanation for no association for Black GBMSM is that there are more competing barriers to HIV care for Black GBMSM than White GBMSM. Further investigation is needed to confirm whether 1) transportation is unimportant for Black GBMSM or 2) transportation interacts with additional factors not considered in this analysis.


In order to monitor dynamic physiological events in near-real time, a variety of photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) systems have been developed that can rapidly acquire data. Previously reported studies of dynamic PACT have employed conventional static methods to reconstruct a temporally ordered sequence of images on a frame-by-frame basis. Frame-by-frame image reconstruction (FBFIR) methods fail to exploit correlations between data frames and are known to be statistically and computationally suboptimal. In this study, a low-rank matrix estimation-based spatio-temporal image reconstruction (LRME-STIR) method is investigated for dynamic PACT applications. The LRME-STIR method is based on the observation that, in many PACT applications, the number of frames is much greater than the rank of the ideal noiseless data matrix. Using computer-simulated photoacoustic data, the performance of the LRME-STIR method is compared with that of conventional FBFIR method. The results demonstrate that LRME-STIR method is not only computationally more efficient but also produces more accurate dynamic PACT images than a conventional FBFIR method.


: This article discusses the covert surveillance of post and telecommunications as a coercive measure in Swiss criminal proceedings. Since such surveillance interferes with a number of fundamental rights and freedoms, it should meet the requirements of human rights limitations. Firstly, the offence must constitute a so-called "catalogue offence" under Art. 269 para. 2 of the Swiss Code of Criminal Procedure. Further, there must be a strong evidence to suspect that such a catalogue offence has been committed in reality. In addition, the seriousness of the offence must justify the surveillance. Finally, previously undertaken investigative activities must have proven to be unsuccessful, or there are grounds to suspect that in absence of such surveillance the investigation will not succeed or will likely become disproportionately more complicated. Against this background, the authors analyze the latest amendments to the Federal Statute on the Surveillance of Post and Telecommunications (the BÜPF) and their impact on the conduct of criminal proceedings. Abstract This article discusses the covert surveillance of post and telecommunications as a coercive measure in Swiss criminal proceedings. Since such surveillance interferes with a number of fundamental rights and freedoms, it should meet the requirements of human rights limitations. Firstly, the offence must constitute a so-called "catalogue offence" under Art. 269 para. 2 of the Swiss Code of Criminal Procedure. Further, there must be a strong evidence to suspect that such a catalogue offence has been committed in reality. In addition, the seriousness of the offence must justify the surveillance. Finally, previously undertaken investigative activities must have proven to be unsuccessful, or there are grounds to suspect that in absence of such surveillance the investigation will not succeed or will likely become disproportionately more complicated. Against this background, the authors analyze the latest amendments to the Federal Statute on the Surveillance of Post and Telecommunications (the BÜPF) and their impact on the conduct of criminal proceedings.


In this research, the hydraulic behavior of two kinds of envelopes including synthetic envelope, PP450 and gravel envelope with USBR standard in two soil tank models with silty loam texture was investigated. Three water heads including 55, 75 and 105 cm (water logging) from drain level were used. The discharge of pipe drain in the steady state condition for gravel envelope and at 55, 75 and 105 cm water heads was 188.9, 172.0 and 897.0% more than those in PP450, respectively. Envelope hydraulic conductivity rates at gravel envelope for 55, 75 and 105 cm water heads were 24.6, 14.0 and 21.2 times higher than those in PP450, respectively, and gradient ratios in these water heads for gravel envelope were 14.5%, 2.8% and 14.2% lower than those for synthetic envelope. There were also different behaviors in the two kinds of envelopes for hydraulic conductivity and entrance resistance of pipe and envelope in 55 and 75 cm water heads relative to 105 cm. In general, according to the measured parameters in this research, gravel envelope showed a better performance.


Murine models of disease are a powerful tool for researchers to gain insight into disease formation, progression, and therapies. The biomechanical indicators of diseased tissue provide a unique insight into some of these murine models, since the biomechanical properties in scenarios such as aneurysm and Marfan syndrome can dictate tissue failure and mortality. Understanding the properties of the tissue on the macroscopic scale has been shown to be important, as one can then understand the tissue's ability to withstand the high stresses seen in the cardiac pulsatile cycle. Alterations in the biomechanical response can foreshadow prospective mechanical failure of the tissue. These alterations are often seen on the microstructural level, and obtaining detailed information on such changes can offer a better understanding of the phenomena seen on the macroscopic level. Unfortunately, mouse models present problems due to the size and delicate features in the mechanical testing of such tissues. In addition, some smaller arteries in large-animal studies (e.g., coronary and cerebral arteries) can present the same issues, and are sometimes unsuitable for planar biaxial testing. The purpose of this paper is to present a robust method for the investigation of the mechanical properties of small arteries and the classification of the microstructural orientation and degree of fiber alignment. This occurs through the cost-efficient modification of a planar biaxial tester that works in conjunction with a two-photon nonlinear microscope. This system provides a means to further investigate how microstructure and mechanical properties are modified in diseased transgenic animals where the tissue is in small tube form. Several other hard-to-test tubular specimens such as cerebral aneurysm arteries and atherosclerotic coronary arteries can also be tested using the described modular device.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate an experiment in social interaction, physical exercise and use of leisure time of 50 to 75-year old women using a health centre.

DESIGN
An observational and descriptive study of a qualitative nature.

SETTING
A Health District in the city of Jaén.

PARTICIPANTS
40 women between 50 and 75 chosen by their G.P. because they suffered conditions which could be improved by physical exercise, had adverse social conditioning factors and/or non-specific symptoms which were probably psychosomatic.

INTERVENTION
The programme developed between October '94 and June '95 included three activities. Two groups of 20 women were formed. 100% completed the programme.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
94% of the participants thought that their health had improved; 89%, their family life; and 97%, their social and personal life. On completing the programme, 71% considered their health "good or very good". 83% attended the physical exercise sessions with less than three absences; all of them stayed on for the 95-96 course. Their reasons for beginning the course corresponded fully with the benefits perceived on completing it.

CONCLUSIONS
In line with the opinions of the participants in a programme of intersector activity (community social services and the health service), group physical exercise, with socializing and amusement components, has positive effects on health and social and family well-being.


Background: Patients with schizophrenia exhibit impairment in their ability to accurately recognize facial emotions in others, and the severity of this emotion perception deficit has been associated with poorer functioning. However, the mechanisms underlying facial emotion perception deficits are poorly understood. There is evidence to suggest that patients, particularly those with certain positive symptoms, may misinterpret other people's facial expressions as having an overly negative valence. The present study examined the degree to which attribution biases in facial emotion perception are associated with psychiatric symptomatology and social and occupational impairments. Sampling and Methods: The error profiles from a facial emotion perception test were analyzed and compared for 67 schizophrenic state hospital inpatients and 21 nonpsychiatric controls. Attribution bias scores were separately computed for each of six types of emotion. Results: The error profiles were remarkably similar for patients as a group and controls. Within the patient group, severity of positive symptoms was associated with more 'fear' misperceptions. Patients with relatively high levels of 'anger' misperceptions tended to have more severe disorganization and negative symptoms and more pronounced functional impairments. Interestingly, patients who erroneously reported seeing relatively high levels of 'shame' and 'happiness' showed better functioning and less severe symptoms. Conclusions: Attribution biases appear to play a role in contributing to functional impairments in patients with schizophrenia. The lack of an isomorphic attribution bias across patients highlights the importance of considering schizophrenia heterogeneity when attempting to understand and treat social cognitive deficits.


Chronic renal allograft rejection is often associated with the presence of fibrin thrombi in the microcirculation. Our purpose was to evaluate the influence of chronic rejection on fibrinolytic regulators in plasma of renal allograft recipients. We evaluated the concentration and activities of tPA, uPA and PAI-I in plasma from kidney allograft recipients. We studied 64 patients who underwent kidney transplantation from cadaveric allograft donors. At the time of the study 38 patients had stable graft function for at least 6 months proceeding the study, and 26 recipients had biopsy-proven chronic rejection of the kidney transplant. Control group included 30 healthy blood donors. In kidney transplant recipients we found significantly higher plasma tPA activity (median: 0.99 IU/ml; range: 0-3.8 IU/ml) in comparison to healthy controls (median: 0.15 IU/ml; range: 0-2.8 IU/ml) (p = 0.002) as well as significantly lower plasma PAI-I activity (median: 7.06 U/ml; range: 0-33.2 U/ml) in comparison to healthy controls (median: 21.8 U/ml; range: 0-36.7 U/ml), (p = 0.0001). Among transplant recipients, PAI-I plasma activity in recipients with chronic graft rejection (median: 10.16 U/ml; range: 0-33.2 U/ml) was significantly higher than in patients with stable graft function (median: 4.83 U/ml; range: 0-22.9 U/ml), (p = 0.01). In transplant recipients with stable graft function and poorly controlled hypertension we found significantly higher PAI-I plasma activity in comparison to recipients with normal blood pressure (p = 0.006). In kidney transplant recipients there was a positive correlation between the dose of prednisone and PAI-I activity in plasma (p = 0.01) and an association between BMI value and plasma PAI-I activity (p = 0.008), as well as an association between BMI value and plasma tPA-Ant concentration (p = 0.006). Among transplant recipients, patients treated with ACE inhibitors had significantly lower uPA plasma activity than the rest of the group (p = 0.003). In recipients with stable graft function we found a correlation between CsA concentration and tPA activity (p = 0.04), as well as an association between the dose of CsA and uPA-Ant concentration in plasma (p = 0.049). In patients with chronic graft rejection we found a negative correlation between the dose of prednisone and uPA-Ant plasma level (p = 0.004). Renal allograft recipients have higher tPA and lower PAI-I activities in plasma in comparison to healthy individuals. Chronic allograft rejection, is as well as poorly controlled hypertension, seem to be associated with an increase PAI-I plasma activity. In kidney graft recipients there is a relation between the value of BMI and the activity and concentration of tPA-Ant as well as the value of BMI and the PAI-I activity in plasma. Poorly controlled hypertension is associated with an increase in PAI-I plasma activity. The results of our study suggest a stimulatory effect of CsA on tPA and PAI-I plasma activities as well as on uPA-Ant concentration, while prednisone in turn seems to enhance PAI-I activity in plasma and decrease uPA expression. In renal allograft recipients ACE inhibitors seem to reduce uPA plasma activity.


Four field isolates of Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV) from different geographical origin were adapted in 9–10 day-old embryonated chicken eggs (ECE). The isolates India/627/AD/02, India/744/AD/04, India/764/AD/04 and India/16/V/AD/07 were subjected to different passage levels to appreciate the characteristic lesions of IBV. The embryos appeared curled with deformed feet and compressed over the head. The amnion was thickened, yolk sac shrunken and membranes were fragile with increased volume of clear allantoic fluid indicating the growth of virus in eggs. Urate deposition in eggs infected with isolates India/764/AD/04 and India/16/V/AD/07 was noticed. The titration of four IBV isolates in ECE revealed that, all the virus isolates grew moderate to high titres in eggs. The EID50 titre of four IBV isolates viz. India/627/AD/02, India/744/AD/04, India/764/AD/04 and India/16/V/AD/07 ranged from 105.3 to 106.4 EID50. The EID50 titre of India/627/AD/02 isolate was higher than other isolates used in the present study indicating, the EID50 titre increases when the isolates were egg adapted after ten passages. The HA activity in allantoic fluid collected after 10th passage in all the isolates yielded HA titre ranging 1:16 to 1:64. Further the virus was confirmed by performing HI test using the isolated virus as the antigen with known IBV positive serum. The serum neutralization test which was performed in 9-day-old ECE with the antiserum raised against the standard vaccine strain Massachusetts M41 revealed the neutralization index (NI) ranged from 2.1 to 5.7 and the isolate India/744/AD/04 having the NI of 2.1 with a conclusion of evidence for antigenic variation among the various Indian isolates.


Traditional menu designs are not well-suited for command selection on distant displays. We describe a n.ew interaction technique called the "roll-and-pinch menu" (rapMenu), and investigate the design space of remote menu selection using freehand gestural input. The rapMenu maps intuitive hand postures and gestures to a radial menu layout at two levels of granularity: the user rolls her hand to alter the wrist orientation, which makes a group of menu items selectable; then she touches her thumb to a particular finger (forming & pinch gesture) to select a specific item in that group. We present the visual design and behavior of the rapMenu, consider related design issues, examine design variations, and discuss the strengths and limitations of our approach.


There is a great deal of literature exploring the merits of active management. With few exceptions, the consensus has been (not surprisingly) that after fees, most active managers do not outperform an appropriately selected passive strategy. These studies generally include the entire population of mutual funds, despite the fact that many of the funds have little or no appeal to investors. This article explores a subset of active managers, Vanguard's actively managed mutual funds, to determine if "good guy" active managers, i.e., active managers with positive attributes like low expenses and low turnover, do in fact generate alpha. While the results vary across individual funds, when aggregated, all tests yield positive alphas, many of which are statistically significant, suggesting that the good guys can (and do) win.


A galunamide derivative consisting of a fluorophore with benzoxazole and a cyano unit was designed and synthesized to realize a dual response to acid vapor and mechanical force. Photophysical properties and self-assembly were investigated. The dilute solution could respond to the acid stimulus, and the emission peak at 472 nm shifted to 535 nm with the addition of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA). Moreover, the derivative could self-assemble into thin nanofibers in its gel phase, and the fluorescence of the xerogel film is sensitive to TFA vapor. The emission color gradually changed from yellow to orange red upon exposure to acid vapor, and the detection limit is as low as 70 ppb for TFA. The solid exhibited a reversible fluorescence color change under the stimuli of mechanical force and solvent annealing. The UV-vis absorption and IR spectra indicate that the fluorescence color conversion can be attributed to the destruction of intermolecular hydrogen bonds and pristine π–π interaction induced by mechanical force.


After several reforms in Nigerian banking sub-sector, the regulatory and supervisory framework policy of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has not adequately improved performance of Microfinance banks (MFBs). In view of this, this paper assessed the impact of government regulations on MFBs performance between 2007- 2016. The paper used secondary source of data by assessing the financial statements of MFBs. A pooled Ordinary Least Square (OLS) technique was used for the analysis of data. The result showed that coefficient values of capitalization (4.64) and reserve (7.21) were positive and consistently associated with higher MFBs performance, while investment in Treasury bill (-4.30) was negative but statistically significant in driving MFBs performance at (P<0.01). The study concluded that regulatory frameworks via strong capitalization and reserves influenced and improved MFBs financial performance.


Abstract
The increasingly frequent demands for standards of quality of care have prompted a variety of systems for classifying the acceptability of various clinical methods for particular health problems. However, these systems have employed terms which characterize clinical methods along multiple, frequently orthogonal dimensions; unfortunately, the distinctiveness of these dimensions is often obscured. To aid in evaluating these terms and evaluations, three types of judgements are identified: basic science rationales, judgements of the breadth of clinical use, and the experimental status of particular clinical intervention strategies. Each type or classification of evaluation is sub-divided into two or more descriptors. Several examples of the application and limitations of these classification schemes are provided.


1. Dietary specialization in insect herbivores has long been hypothesized to predict tolerance of plant defences, with more specialized herbivores being highly tolerant of and sometimes sequestering plant secondary compounds. Plant variation in secondary compounds should thus play an important and predictable role in shaping the performance and distribution of insect communities. 2. We compared the performance of four naturally co-occurring aphid species on twenty genotypes of the common milkweed Asclepias syriaca. Genotypes of milkweed consistently differed in functional traits, including concentrations of toxic cardenolides, while the diet breadths of the four aphids ranged from broadly generalized to monophagous. 3. The two more generalized species had the highest population growth rate overall, while growth rates decreased with increasing specialization. In contrast, honeydew exudation as a measure of phloem consumption increased with specialization; thus, resource-use efficiency was lower in specialist aphids. The two more generalized aphids grew best on genotypes with the highest plant growth rate (as an approximation for resource availability), while specialist aphids were not affected by plant growth. 4. All four species contained apolar cardenolides in their bodies and excreted polar cardenolides, but only the most specialized aphid Myzocallis asclepiadis was negatively affected by increasing cardenolide concentrations of the host plant. Sequestration of cardenolides increased with diet specialization, with M. asclepiadis accumulating twice as much as any other species, perhaps explaining its susceptibility to plant cardenolides. 5. Heritable plant traits differentially impacted co-occurring insect herbivores within the same guild. Generalist aphids were susceptible to variation in plant vigour but not defensive compounds. Increased host specialization resulted in lower resource-use efficiency, increased phloem throughput and ultimately higher cardenolide sequestration. Variation in these traits is thus likely to determine the relative distribution of generalist and specialist herbivores on plants in natural communities.


With the rapid development of computer media and network technology, Network Multimedia Teaching has become the most popular and advanced teaching method among various teaching models at present. The development of Network Multimedia Teaching not only promotes studentsÂ' learning interest and quality, but also brings a qualitative leap on educational business. WhatÂ's more, the integrated teaching approach which combined Network Multimedia Teaching with Art Design Teaching has aroused wide concern within educational circles. However, due to the characteristics of Network Multimedia technology and Art Design themselves, and the immature development of Network Multimedia Technology, the Art Design Teaching resource is in short supply. Thus, it is particularly important to judge whether the design of the Network Multimedia Courseware of the Art Design Teaching is reasonable and with high quality. This Paper discusses the basic principles of designing the Network Multimedia Courseware of the Art Design Teaching, so as to research the methods of designing Network Multimedia Courseware of Art Design Teaching.


To investigate the relation between cognitive and affective social understanding, Japanese 4- to 8-year-olds received tasks of first- and second-order false beliefs and prosocial and self-presentational display rules. From 6 to 8 years, children comprehended display rules, as well as second-order false belief, using social pressures justifications decreasingly and motivational justifications with embedded perspectives increasingly with age. Although not related to either type of display across ages, second-order tasks were associated with both types of display tasks only at 8 years when examined in each age group. Results suggest that children base their second-order theory of mind and display rules understanding on distinct reasoning until middle childhood, during which time the originally distinct aspects of social understanding are integrated.


The aromatic nucleophilic substitution reaction in the Clayden rearrangement reaction has an abnormal Hammett linear free energy relationship1. Inspired by the concertedstepwise variation of the aromatic nucleophilic substitution reaction in 20182, we determined the mechanism of Clayden rearrangement reaction under several conditions by DFT calculation then explained the mechanism diversity. We also found that there is a significant dynamic effect in the system due to the emergence of dynamic intermediates, which may be one of the reasons for the Hammett linear free energy relationship.


Africa has more countries than any other continent, and hence the largest number of potential monetary and exchange rate arrangements. This paper looks at whether the existing highly fractured monetary arrangements in Sub-Saharan Africa correspond to what might be expected from the theory of optimum currency areas. This is done by analyzing both the size and correlation of real disturbances across countries and the level of intraregional trade. The results indicate little evidence that Sub-Saharan African countries would benefit in the near future from larger currency unions. JEL Classification Numbers:


Maps are an increasingly important tool in our daily lives, yet their rich semantic content still largely depends on manual input. Motivated by the broad availability of geo-tagged street-view images, we propose a new task aiming to make the map update process more proactive. We focus on automatically detecting changes of Points of Interest (POIs), specifically stores or shops of any kind, based on visual input. Faced with the lack of an appropriate benchmark, we build and release a large dataset, captured in two large shopping centers, that comprises 33K geo-localized images and 578 POIs. We then design a generic approach that compares two image sets captured in the same venue at different times and outputs POI changes as a ranked list of map locations. In contrast to logo or franchise recognition approaches, our system does not depend on an external franchise database. It is instead inspired by recent deep metric learning approaches that learn a similarity function fit to the task at hand. We compare various loss functions to learn a metric aligned with the POI change detection goal, and report promising results.


This dissertation includes three research papers, two of which are empirical studies and one of which illustrates a mechanism through a theoretical model. The first paper focuses on the effect of stock market liquidity on corporate cash holdings. This paper provides empirical evidence that stock market liquidity has a positive impact on cash holdings. The two main competing hypotheses are cascade hypothesis and financial constraints hypothesis. Subrahmanyam and Titman (2001) study the cascade mechanism through which stock prices affect cash flows. In this paper, the cascade hypothesis states that firms with more liquid stocks need more cash holdings to avoid negative cascades or to stimulate positive cascades, whereas the financial constraints hypothesis states that firms with more liquid stocks need less cash holdings because more liquid stocks indicate less cost of external financing and then less financial constraints. The empirical findings support the cascade hypothesis. Causality is carefully tested through a decimalization test, which is designed based on the tick decimalization in stock markets in 2001. Furthermore, a test by a system of simultaneous equations suggests that there is a two-way causality between stock market liquidity and cash holdings. The second paper studies the causal impact of stock short sales on corporate cash holdings. Short sellers benefit from the drop of stock prices, which provides strong incentive to dig on the dark side of firms. For example, short sellers actively investigate target firms and aggressively spread negative research reports among stakeholders (e.g. capital providers, customers, suppliers, and employees). Short sales facilitate the incorporation of negative information into stock prices. Attacks of short sellers isolate firms from stakeholders, increase the cost of external financing, and decrease operational cash flow. Firms should be wary of short selling activities in financial markets. Precautionary motive drives the firms hold cash as the ammunition for the battle with short sellers and as unconditional liquidity support during negative events. This paper provides empirical evidence that short-selling pressure has a positive impact on cash holdings. The results are robust after controlling for relevant firm characteristics, heterogeneity of belief, investors' holding horizons, institutional monitoring incentives, and other information channels (such as financial analysts). A test by a system of simultaneous equations supports the causal impact of short sales on cash holdings and excludes the reverse causality. This paper also sheds light on a better understanding of the determinants of short-selling activities in financial markets. The third paper proposes a theoretical model to demonstrate a mechanism by which financial markets affect corporate policies when managers do not learn from financial markets. The existing research on the real effect of financial markets on corporate policies depends on the assumption that corporate managers learn from prices in financial markets when making corporate policies (Chen, Goldstein and Jiang, 2007; Bond, Goldstein and Prescott, 2010; Edmans, Goldstein, and Jiang, 2012; Fresard, 2012). The manager-learning argument is reasonable and intuitive. However, given the fact that managers naturally have an informational advantage with regard to the firms they operate, will financial markets affect corporate policies if managers do not need to learn from financial markets? This paper suggests a channel based on the interaction between managers and other stakeholders. This paper extends the idea in Subruhmanyam and Titman (2001) by considering financial constraints of the new investment and adding a firm manager in the model structure. The manager has private information and does not need to learn from financial market. However, other stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, capital providers, may learn from security prices, and their actions affect corporate cash flows and may generate new investment opportunities. Therefore, even if managers do not need to learn from financial markets, they still can not ignore financial markets when making corporate policies.


It has been suggested that some classes of luminous supernovae (SNe) and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are driven by newborn magnetars. Fast-rotating proto-neutron stars have also been of interest as potential sources of gravitational waves (GWs). We show that for a range of rotation periods and magnetic fields, hard X-rays and GeV gamma rays provide us with a promising probe of pulsar-aided SNe. It is observationally known that young pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) in the Milky Way are very efficient lepton accelerators. We argue that, if embryonic PWNe satisfy similar conditions at early stages of SNe (in ∼1–10 months after the explosion), external inverse-Compton emission via upscatterings of SN photons is naturally expected in the GeV range as well as broadband synchrotron emission. To fully take into account the Klein–Nishina effect and two-photon annihilation process that are important at early times, we perform detailed calculations including electromagnetic cascades. Our results suggest that hard X-ray telescopes such as NuSTAR can observe such early PWN emission by follow-up observations in months to years. GeV gamma-rays may also be detected by Fermi for nearby SNe, which serve as counterparts of these GW sources. Detecting the signals will give us an interesting probe of particle acceleration at early times of PWNe, as well as clues to driving mechanisms of luminous SNe and GRBs. Since the Bethe–Heitler cross section is lower than the Thomson cross section, gamma rays would allow us to study subphotospheric dissipation. We encourage searches for high-energy emission from nearby SNe, especially SNe Ibc including super-luminous objects.


Background In 2007, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified "shift work leading to a disruption of circadian rhythm" as probably carcinogenic to humans raising a great interest in understanding the role of night/shift work in hormone-related cancers. An association with breast cancer has been suggested while the association with prostate cancer is still controversial and less investigated. In this context, we examined the role of night/shift work in prostate cancer risk based on data from the EPICAP study. Methods EPICAP is a population-based case-control study conducted in the department of Hérault in France including 819 prostate cancer cases newly diagnosed in 2012–2013 in men <75 years old and 879 controls who were of the same age as the cases. Participants have been face-to-face interviewed by research clinical nurses through a standardised questionnaire on their socio-demographic characteristics, personal and family medical history, lifestyle, leisure activities and complete lifetime occupational history with details on work schedules (permanent or rotating night work) for each job held for more than 6 months. Permanent night work was defined as at least 270 hours/year or 3 nights/month during 1 year or more. Results The prevalence of night work was 32% and 34% among cases and controls, respectively (OR = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.67–1.09). Neither duration of night work, nor the number of nights worked (total and average/week), nor the type of night work (early morning start, late evening end or working overnight) were associated with prostate cancer risk. Similarly, we did not find any association with prostate cancer aggressiveness according to Gleason score. Conclusion Currently, our results did not support any association between permanent night work and prostate cancer risk. However, analyses on the association with rotating night work are still in progress.


Abstract According to assurance views of testimonial justification, in virtue of the act of testifying a speaker provides an assurance of the truth of what she asserts to the addressee. This assurance provides a special justificatory force and a distinctive normative status to the addressee. It is thought to explain certain asymmetries between addressees and other unintended hearers (bystanders and eavesdroppers), such as the phenomenon that the addressee has a right to blame the speaker for conveying a falsehood but unintended hearers do not, and the phenomenon that the addressee may deflect challenges to his testimonial belief to the speaker but unintended hearers may not. Here I argue that we can do a better job explaining the normative statuses associated with testimony by reference to epistemic norms of assertion and privacy norms. Following Sanford Goldberg, I argue that epistemic norms of assertion, according to which sincere assertion is appropriate only when the asserter possesses certain epistemic goods, can be 'put to work' to explain the normative statuses associated with testimony. When these norms are violated, they give hearers the right to blame the speaker, and they also explain why the speaker takes responsibility for the justification of the statement asserted. Norms of privacy, on the other hand, directly exclude eavesdroppers and bystanders from an informational exchange, implying that they have no standing to do many of the things, such as issue challenges or questions to the speaker, that would be normal for conversational participants. This explains asymmetries of normative status associated with testimony in a way logically independent of speaker assurance.


The research into the spacial categories is enjoying a lot of attention in contemporary literary theory as well as in interdisciplinary research. In the introduction the author of the paper offers an overview of certain theoretical and practical approaches to the phenomenon of town in Central Europe. Then he deals with the autobiographical works of prose written by Ján Rozner (1922 – 2006), especially the books Noc po fronte (The Night after the Front, 2010) and Výlet na Devín (The Trip to the Devín Castle, 2011). The attention is mainly paid to the analysis of the relationships between: 1.) the literary representation of the urban space 2.) the autobiographical genre and 3.) the writer´s personality. He arrives at the conclusion that in case of J. Rozner´s prosaic work the three theoretical issues are inseparably connected. "Rozner´s" Bratislava is not only the background in his works of prose, the space effectively contributes to the way the writer artistically captures the basic subject, which is the relationship between the Central European intellectual and the complicated cultural and political history of the region in the 20th century. J. Rozner uses retrospective narration in order to come to terms with his own problematic past and the literary representation of Bratislava serves as part of the process of intellectual "reanimation" of the writer in contemporary Slovak culture.


The phosphorylation of proteins catalyzed by the protein kinases is one of the most important post-translational modifications found in the living cells and is involved in the control, either directly or indirectly, of all processes occurring in the cell. A major challenge in the signal transduction field is to define sequence, structural and mechanistic features responsible for the substrate selectivity, regulation and cellular function of individual protein kinases. We took part in this challenge and studied the family of Testis Specific Serine-threonine Kinases (TSSK) that comprises four members up to date. These kinases are expressed exclusively in testis during spermatogenesis and therefore they are the potential candidates that could be critical for fertilization. The main aim of this thesis was to give more insight into the biochemical properties and possible function(s) of TSSK3. Chapter 2 describes the analysis of biochemical properties, substrate specificity and in vitro activation of one of TSSK family members, TSSK3. In vitro TSSK3 exhibited the ability to autophosphorylate and to phosphorylate test substrates providing the evidence that TSSK3 is a genuine kinase. Sequence comparison indicated the existence within the TSSK3 catalytic domain of a so-called 'T-loop' a structure present in the AGC-family of protein kinases. To test if this T-loop is engaged in TSSK3 regulation, we mutated the critical threonine within the T-loop to alanine (T168A) and this resulted in an inactive TSSK3 kinase. Furthermore in vitro Thr-168 is phosphorylated by the T-loop kinase phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase-1 (PDK1) and phosphorylation by PDK1 increased in vitro TSSK3 kinase activity, suggesting that TSSK3 can be regulated in the same way as AGC-kinase family members. Furthermore, analysis of a range of peptide sequences defines the peptide sequence, RRSSSY, as an efficient and specific substrate for TSSK3. In Chapter 3, we searched for TSSK3 potential regulatory interacting proteins by a yeast two-hybrid approach. We identified, a novel, widely expressed protein, RUSC2 and we showed that it binds to but is not a substrate for TSSK3. We also observed it to be phosphorylated by Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK). Next, we demonstrated that RUSC2 transiently interacts with JNK kinases after oxidative stress treatment and that TSSK3 appears in this stress-induced complex as well. Furthermore we showed that this interaction is abolished by inhibitory mutant of MKK4. In this chapter we pointed out the possible connection between RUSC2, TSSK3 and oxidative stress induced JNK signaling pathway. Chapter 4 describes our search for mutations in two other genes of the TSSK family, TSSK1 and 2, in patients with infertility. We found, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the TSSK2 gene, which changed threonine residue, located in the C-terminal regulatory domain of TSSK2, to methionine (T280M) that may be correlated with spermatogenic failure. Thus, TSSK2 might be a candidate gene for molecular marker for genetic diagnosis of male infertility. In Chapter 5, a model for RUSC2 assembly with TSSK3, JNK and H-Ras is proposed and the possible directions of future studies on TSSK family and their role in signal transduction are discussed


Eyjafjallajökull is the type locality for ankaramite in Iceland. This is an ultrabasic, porphyritic melanocratic basanite rock with abundant phenocrysts of clinopyroxene and olivine and plagioclase rich groundmass which also contains a considerable amount of oxides. Rock samples used in this study are from the ankaramitic outcrops in Hamragarðaheiði, Hvammsnúpur, Brattaskjól and Arnarhóll in Eyjafjöll. Hand specimens were briefly examined and plagioclase in thin sections were analysed by polarization microscope and SEM-EDS. Groundmass mineral assemblage according to CIPW norm calculation from average groundmass compositions showed Arnarhóll containing 60.5% plagioclase, 11% pyroxene, 24.9% olivine and 5.8% oxides, Hamragarðaheiði 54.5% plagioclase, 35.1% pyroxene, 3.3% olivine and 5.3% oxides. Brattaskjól contains 50.5% plagioclase, 33.3% pyroxene, 13.3% olivine and 4.1% oxides while Hvammsnúpur contains 57.5% plagioclase, 28.4% pyroxene, 8.6% olivine and 4.4% oxides. All samples were porphyritic. Arnarhóll and Hamragarðaheiði rock samples are rich in plagioclase phenocrysts, Hvammsnúpur samples have plagioclase phenocrysts in much less quantities and Brattaskjól sample had none. According to plagioclase chemical analysis in this study, anorthite content for plagioclase in the groundmass of the Brattaskjól samples is An73-77. Arnarhóll and Hvammsnúpur groundmass contain similar ranges, An58-72 and An41-70 respectively while the range is An51-60 in Hamragarðaheiði. Anorthite content range for plagioclase phenocrysts in Arnarhóll, Hamragarðaheiði and Hvammsnúpur samples is An79-90, An79-82 and An87-94 respectively. Olivine phenocryst chemical analysis was made for Brattaskjól and compared to olivine phenocryst data from Kristjánsson (2015) for Hamragarðaheiði and Hvammsnúpur. These three samples contained forsterite content range of Fo85-89, Fo67-78 and Fo70-70 respectively.


Phenotypic plasticity can play an important role in colonization and survival of plants in an environmentally fluctuating habitat. The primary aim of this study was to determine the influence of level of abiotic (soil moisture and nutrient availability) and biotic (density and herbivory) factors on phenotypic plasticity in the number and proportional mass allocation to the heteromorphic dehiscent upper (high dispersal, low dormancy) and indehiscent lower (low dispersal, high dormancy) siliques of individuals of the cold desert winter annual/spring ephemeral Diptychocarpus strictus derived from different seed morphs. Plants produced from seeds sown in an experimental garden were subjected to different levels of soil moisture, nutrient supply, density and simulated herbivory. Mass allocated to vegetative and reproductive components was measured and number of upper and lower siliques counted. Except for number ratio of upper: lower siliques under nutrient supply, levels of the four treatments resulted in significant variation in total plant mass, reproductive mass, number of siliques (upper and lower), number and mass of each silique morph, individual seed mass, upper/lower silique ratio and mass allocation to each organ in an individual. In favorable environments, the upper/lower silique ratio was relatively high, while in unfavorable environments it was relatively low. The relative allocation to upper and lower siliques was significantly negatively correlated, suggesting that allocation to upper siliques in good growth conditions occurred at the expense of allocation to lower siliques. This appears to be the first report on the effect of herbivory on diaspore morph ratio in heterocarpic plants and one of only a very few on the effect of density on morph ratio in this group. In D. strictus, stressful vs nonstressful growth conditions caused a shift in the ratio of heteromorphic diaspores, which themselves are assumed to be bet-hedging.


A model for retrieving non-solicited information is presented. The model is based on the guided exploration of information spaces. It works by monitoring user actions and formulating a hypothesis of her information needs. This hypothesis is used to locate documents similar to those which the information seeker has found to be interesting. The manipulation of these documents by the user is then used to update the hypothesis of information needs and retrieve a new cluster of documents that the system estimates as being relevant to the user's information needs. We present a general model for guided information exploration, discuss the functional requirements of the main components of the model, and propose an architecture for implementing it.


Summer report of birds and locations contributed by Peter C. Petersen. This item was used as supporting documentation for the Iowa Ornithologists' Union Quarterly field report of summer 1993.


This paper proposes an improved automotive target tracking scheme using FMCW radar which is necessary for the advanced collision warning systems. Since there exist strong nonlinear relationships between the FMCW radar measurements and the target state, the target tracking and data association in dense road clutters have been r ecognized as a quite challenging problem. It is obvious that the use of accurate range rate measurement might be an excellent choice to improve both target tracking and clutter suppression performances. This motivates us to develop a novel linear recursive automotive target tracking filter based on the measurement conversion in the predicted line-of-sight (LOS) Cartesian coordinate sy stem (PLCCS). Since the x axis of the PLCCS is set by the predicted LOS vector from the host to the target, if the LOS prediction error is imperceptible, the range rate can be approximated to the x component of the relative target velocity in PLCCS. Employing the PLCCS drastically reduces the complexity of the problem and allows us to solve it within the framework of linear recursive Kalman filtering . Through the simulations, the superiority of the proposed method is compared to the existing nonlinear automotive target tracking filter s.


Cancer cells exhibit characteristic damage of DNA and its expression. The expression of the tumor suppressors E-cadherin and p27(Kip1) has been tested on 57 head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) of Indonesian subjects. HNSCC tumor samples including both primary and (unrelated) nodal cases were obtained from the archives of Indonesian hospitals, in accordance with acknowledged ethical requirements. Only modest correlation was found between reduced expression of E-cadherin or p27(Kip1) with increased malignancy of primary and nodal growth. The observed strong correlation regardless of malignancy between the expressed levels of E-cadherin and p27(Kip1) suggests that also in combination these would not help to better predict the outcome of HNSCC.


4,4′-Diamino-[3,3′-bi(1,2,5-oxadiazole)]-5,5′-dioxide and 4,4′-diamino-[3,3′-bi(1,2,5-oxadiazole)]-2,2′-dioxide were nitrated in 100% HNO3 at −10 °C to give 4,4′-dinitramino-[3,3′-bi(1,2,5-oxadiazole)]-5,5′-dioxide (3) and 4,4′-diamino-[3,3′-bi(1,2,5-oxadiazole)]-2,2′-dioxide (4). Nine nitrogen-rich salts were prepared and were characterized by infrared and multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray single crystal diffraction in some cases. Their detonation properties were evaluated by EXPLO 5 code using the measured density and calculated heat of formation. The sensitivities were determined by standard BAM methods. Several of the new molecules exhibit detonation and other properties which compete with or exceed those of HMX.


Electron crystallography has evolved as a powerful method for structural characterization of a wide range of materials. It has two significant advantages over other methods for structure determination, e.g. X-ray diffraction. Electrons interact much more strongly with matter compared to X-rays and they can be focused by electromagnetic lenses to form images with atomic resolution. These advantages make electron crystallography a unique tool for characterization of crystalline materials suffering from small crystal size and complex or disordered structures. Zeolites are a class of microporous materials with significance in several applications. They often possess complex and disordered structures, which demand large efforts in the structure determination. Over the last years, two new electron crystallographic methods have been developed; the rotation electron diffraction (RED) and the structure projection reconstruction from a through-focus series of high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images. In this thesis, they will be applied for structure determination of four new zeolite structures, including EMM-25 and EMM-23 with two ordered structures, and ITQ-39 and ITQ-38 with disordered structures. Each of the structure solutions have different challenges to overcome. The high silica borosilicate EMM-25 was solved by the RED method. The aluminosilicate EMM-23 was solved by a combination of HRTEM and RED. The structure solution of two materials with disordered structures, ITQ-39 and ITQ-38, will be described. For materials containing disorders, structure projection images are of utmost importance. Furthermore, the mesoporosity inside hierarchically porous ZSM-5 crystals was studied by a combination of focused ion beam (FIB) and HRTEM imaging. The last part of this thesis explores STEM imaging for use in structure determination from 3D reconstruction.


Acylphosphatase has been purified from porcine testis and its properties were compared with those of porcine skeletal muscle acylphosphatase. The molecular weight of the testis enzyme was found to be 10,600, similar to that of porcine skeletal muscle acylphosphatase, on sedimentation equilibrium analysis. The specific activity of the testis enzyme was 10,800 mumol/min/mg at 25 degrees C with benzoyl phosphate as substrate, i.e., higher than that of the muscle enzyme, 7,200 mumol/min/mg, under the same conditions. The pI of the testis enzyme was 8.3, i.e., lower than that of the muscle enzyme, 10.6. There were marked differences in the amino acid compositions of the two enzymes. In particular two histidine residues were present in the testis enzyme but none were present in the muscle enzyme, and no cysteine residue was present in the testis enzyme but one was present in the muscle enzyme. The carboxyl terminal amino acid of the testis enzyme seemed to be lysine, while that of the muscle enzyme is tyrosine. The peptide maps of the testis and muscle enzymes indicated considerable differences in the amino acid sequences of the two enzymes. Differences in the antigenic structures of the two enzymes were demonstrated on enzyme linked immunoassaying and double immunodiffusion. These results indicate that the porcine testis acylphosphatase is an isozyme different from the porcine skeletal muscle acylphosphatase.


Humphrey Kay, who edited the Journal of Clinical Pathology from 1972 until 1980, has died at the age of 86. He succeeded the founding editor, Gordon Signy, and during his tenure consolidated the format of the Journal which largely holds to this day. Under his control and encouragement it became a monthly publication which attracted papers from all branches of pathology and stressed the clinical aspects rather than mere laboratory aspects of disease. He was concerned with the concept of clinical pathology at a time when pressures from individual disciplines seemed to be dividing pathology into independent and rather self-centred domains. This concern reflected his training at St Thomas' Hospital and he initiated a series of reviews which crossed specialty disciplines, stressing the essential unity of clinical pathology. He recognised that managing laboratories was an important function of pathologists, to ensure the delivery of highest quality services to patients, when many gave little thought to this and used the Journal to propagate messages concerning health and safety in laboratories and the cost effectiveness of pathology services before it was a gleam in the eye of politicians.

He …


Management's origins are conventionally traced to F.W Taylor's Scientific Management - an efficiency driven worldview now superseded by a concern for sustainability. We argue the opposite: it was a concern for sustainability that made Scientific Management. Regarding this as the origin and underlying purpose of management studies could spark significant innovation.


Summary
Proper scale development and validation provide the necessary foundation to facilitate future quantitative research in the organizational sciences. Using the framework provided by the Researcher's Notebook, the purpose of this study is twofold. First, we present a modern summary of best practice procedures for scale development, reliability analysis, and validity analysis. Second, we explain and illustrate these best practice procedures by describing each procedure in the context of developing and psychometrically analyzing a new Character Strength Inventory (CSI). Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper describes the use of a mixture of abduction and induction for the temporal modeling of the effects of toxins in metabolic networks. Background knowledge is used which describes network topology and functional classes of enzymes. This background knowledge, which represents the present state of understanding, is incomplete. In order to overcome this incompleteness hypotheses are considered which consist of a mixture of specific inhibitions of enzymes (ground facts) together with general (non-ground) rules which predict classes of enzymes likely to be inhibited by the toxin. The foreground examples were derived from in vivo experiments involving NMR analysis of time-varying metabolite concentrations in rat urine following injections of toxin. Hypotheses about inhibition are built using the inductive logic programming system Progol5.0 and predictive accuracy is assessed for both the ground and the non-ground cases.


The levels of cAMP and cGMP in serum of 100 patients with myasthenia gravis have been measured by 125I-RIA. The results showed that cAMP and cGMP were higher in the patients than in the controls significantly (P < 0.001). In 33 cases of these patients after using anticholinesterase drugs and prednisone, the levels of cAMP and cGMP reduced significantly. According to our study, we presumed that there would be cyclic nucleotide acid metabolic disturbances in patients with MG and cAMP might play a regulatory role in morbidity of MG.


A unique rapid flip-flop of the naturally occurring negatively charged phospholipid phosphatidylethanol in sonicated phosphatidylcholine vesicles was studied using 13C NMR and phosphatidylethanol 13C-labeled at the CH2 ethyl moiety. The transbilayer diffusion of phosphatidylethanol was observed in response to the formation of Nernst potential (t 1/2 < 7 min), indicating that phosphatidylethanol transfer occurs in the anionic form. The application of the fluorescent potential-sensitive dye di-4-ANEPPS showed that the phosphatidylethanol movement across the membrane was accompanied by a decrease in the Nernst potential. In biological membranes, a facile spontaneous diffusion of phosphatidylethanol implies the lack of high asymmetry of its distribution, even if phosphatidylethanol is synthesized exclusively on one side of the membrane.


Socio-cultural diversity is one of the important features of Nepalese society. Its people are categorized into a number of caste groups as well as ethnic communities. They possess different types of cultural traditions and assume different levels of economic standing. In view of these diversities public debates in Nepal have raised the issue that these different types of social categories share the opportunities and privileges available in this society differentially. Given this this report aims to: highlight the existing forms and patterns of social discrimination experienced by people of Nepal as they occur on the grounds of their caste ethnicity gender and religion-based identities draw attention to the difference types of social discrimination experienced by people of the aforementioned social categories and discover the variations of social discrimination among people as they occur in terms of their class-based position within these social categories. (excerpt)