Author(s): Prashad, Sacha Leandra | Advisor(s): Mikkola, Hanna K.A. | Abstract: Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) are widely applicable for the treatment of blood disorders such as leukemias and anemias. However, only a fraction of patients can find a suitable HSC donor. As attempts to generate HSC from pluripotent cells or expand functional HSC in culture have met with limited success, it will be necessary to define the identity of the self-renewing HSC and key intrinsic and extrinsic factors utilized by the developing embryo for HSC self-renewal such that the conditions necessary for HSC development can be mimicked in vitro. In this work, we first defined an in vitro HSPC (hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell) co-culture system on mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) stroma that sustains human multilineage hematopoietic hierarchy. We found that this culture system maintains undifferentiated, transplantable HSPC that retain a relatively stable HSPC surface phenotype and transcriptome over several weeks. However, we also discovered that dysregulation of PBX governed genetic networks may compromise the function of cultured HSC, providing new insights on how to target the compromised HSC transcriptome to improve HSC expansion in culture. This work also identified a novel surface marker that can be utilized to define the self-renewing HSC during human development. We discovered that the glycophosphatidylinositol-anchored surface protein GPI-80 (Vanin 2), previously implicated in leukocyte adhesion and diapedesis, identifies a functionally distinct subpopulation of human fetal HSPC that possess self-renewal ability. The GPI-80+ HSPC were the only population that maintained proliferative potential and undifferentiated state in MSC stroma co-culture, as well as displayed the ability to engraft in immunodeficient NSG mice. Through defining the identity of the human fetal HSC and characterizing the HSPC transcriptome in the in vivo niche and on mesenchymal stroma, we can determine the factors utilized in HSC self-renewal and identify those that are deficient in culture, which will bring us closer towards generation and expansion of HSC in vitro.


An annotated list of the freshwater fishes of the Limoncocha Lagoon, in the Limoncocha Biological Reserve in the northern Amazon region of Ecuador is presented. Fishes were captured between March and July of 2012, and we combined these results with previous studies to provide a comprehensive list of fishes in the Limoncocha Biological Reserve. Thirty-three species belonging to 14 families distributed in 7 orders were collected. The most representative orders in number of species and specimens were Characiformes, Siluriformes, and Perciformes, respectively, being Characiformes as the most important in terms of richness and abundance of species. Characidae (Characiformes) exhibited the greatest abundance and broadest distribution in our samples. A short morphological description and morphometric measurements of each species are also presented.


Several recent studies focus on the inference of developmental and response trajectories from single cell NA-Seq (scRNA-Seq) data. A number of computational methods, often referred to as pseudo-time ordering, have been developed for this task. Recently, CRISPR has also been used to reconstruct lineage trees by inserting random mutations. However, both approaches suffer from drawbacks that limit their use. Here we develop a method to detect significant, cell type specific, sequence mutations from scRNA-Seq data. We show that only a few mutations are enough for reconstructing good branching models. Integrating these mutations with expression data further improves the accuracy of the reconstructed models. As we show, the majority of mutations we identify are likely RNA editing events indicating that such information can be used to distinguish cell types.


The research was conducted to determine the optimum dose of phytase supplementation of Fusarium verticillioides on Phosphor-deficient rations. This study used 24 broiler chickens (4 weeks). This research used Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with five ration treatments with 4 replications. Ration treatment was supplemented phytase with different doses: R1: 0 U/kg, R2: 250 U/ kg, R3: 500 U/kg, R4: 750 U/kg and R5: 1000 U/kg. Ration was based on iso protein (20%) and iso energy (2882 kcal/kg). The variables measured were retention of phosphor, calcium and nitrogen. The results showed that supplementation of phytase on broiler rations which Phosphor-deficiency was influenced the retention of Phosphor, calcium and nitrogen significantly (P<0.01). The optimum phytase supplementation of Fusarium verticillioides on broiler rations which phosphor-deficient was 750 U/kg ratio, it is seen from retention of phosphor (71.38%), calcium (75.65%) and nitrogen (67.61%).


This paper shows how the Virtual Reality (VR) course can naturally extend and practice a wide range of Computer Graphics (CG) principles and programming techniques. Thanks to real‐time processing requirements, attention is paid to efficient modeling conventions, time‐saving rendering approaches, and user interfaces allowing a smooth navigation in a virtual environment. All these issues play an important role especially when designing virtual worlds targeted to the web, i.e. utilizing VRML/X3D standards. The paper presents a structure and related information of the VR course that has been taught at various universities during the last 6 years. Our experience clearly demonstrates that students appreciate its contents even if they already completed courses on 3D graphics.


Households are considered as a separate sphere of the financial system of Ukraine, which carry out active influence on the development of domestic economy. The basic functions of housekeeping in a market economy are shown.


Objective: To describe the phenomenon of hyperventilation-induced nystagmus (HVN) after stereotactic radiotherapy for vestibular schwannoma. Patients: We present 2 patients with vestibular schwannoma and no pretreatment vestibular symptoms who both received stereotactic radiotherapy. Within 2 months of completing treatment, both patients developed intense vertigo while exerting themselves. Video-oculography demonstrated an intense nystagmus with the fast phase directed toward the side of the schwannoma in both patients. Intervention: Diagnostic. Results: Patients who have undergone surgical resection of their vestibular schwannoma, or have a large tumor, will often demonstrate HVN with the fast phase directed away from the side of the tumor. This is distinct from patients with smaller lesions who have a fast-phase nystagmus toward the tumor's side. This second type of nystagmus is thought to originate from changes in the extracellular calcium concentration secondary to hyperventilation-induced alkalosis. Conclusion: We hypothesize that stereotactic radiotherapy induced greater demyelination of the vestibular nerve leading to the observable sign of HVN. These patients represent the first reported cases of HVN after stereotactic radiation and illustrate the pathophysiology of HVN, which may lead to a greater understanding of the effects of stereotactic radiotherapy.


The major challenge in the development of earthquake early warning (EEW) systems is the achievement of a robust performance at largest possible warning time. We have developed a new method for EEW—called PreSEIS (Pre-SEISmic)—that is as quick as methods that are based on single station observations and, at the same time, shows a higher robustness than most other approaches. At regular timesteps after the triggering of the first EEW sensor, PreSEIS estimates the most likely source parameters of an earthquake using the available information on ground motions at different sensors in a seismic network. The approach is based on two-layer feed-forward neural networks to estimate the earthquake hypocenter location, its moment magnitude, and the expansion of the evolving seismic rupture. When applied to the Istanbul Earthquake Rapid Response and Early Warning System (IERREWS), PreSEIS estimates the moment magnitudes of 280 simulated finite faults scenarios (4.5≤M≤7.5) with errors of less than ±0.8 units after 0.5 sec, ±0.5 units after 7.5 sec, and ±0.3 units after 15.0 sec. In the same time intervals, the mean location errors can be reduced from 10 km over 6 km to less than 5 km, respectively. Our analyses show that the uncertainties of the estimated parameters (and thus of the warnings) decrease with time. This reveals a trade-off between the reliability of the warning on the one hand, and the remaining warning time on the other hand. Moreover, the ongoing update of predictions with time allows PreSEIS to handle complex ruptures, in which the largest fault slips do not occur close to the point of rupture initiation. The estimated expansions of the seismic ruptures lead to a clear enhancement of alert maps, which visualize the level and distribution of likely ground shaking in the affected region seconds before seismic waves will arrive.


Manure storage can be a significant source of ammonia emission that impacts the
environment. Ammonia emission from manure storage can be controlled by using physical, chemical
and/or biological methods. Five treatment agents, including zeolite, liquid Al+Clear (aluminum
sulfate), granular Al+Clear (aluminum sulfate), and granular Ferix-3 (ferric sulfate), and PLT (sodium
hydrogen sulfate) were topically applied to stored fresh layer manure. Each agent was tested at three
application rates, i.e., low, medium and high. Manure was stored in 19-litter Teflon-lined vessels
under a constant ambient temperature of 23 oC with a constant airflow of 3 liter per minute. The
ammonia concentrations and emissions from the vessels were measured and ammonia emission
reductions by the treatment regimens were evaluated as compared to the control. Reduction of
ammonia emission as a result of topical application of the tested manure treatment agents, when
compared to the control, over a 7-day manure storage period was as following: A) 68%, 81% or 96%,
respectively, for zeolite applied at 2.5%, 5% or 10% of the manure weight; B) 63%, 89%, or 94%,
respectively, for liquid Al+Clear applied at 1, 2, or 4 kg m-2 of manure surface area; C) 81%, 93%, or
94%, respectively, for dry granular Al+Clear applied at 0.5, 1.0, or 1.5 kg m-2; D) 82%, 86%, or 87%,
respectively, for Ferix-3 applied at 0.5, 1.0, or 1.5 kg m-2; and E) 74%, 90%, or 92%, respectively, for
PLT applied at 0.5, 1.0, or 1.5 kg m-2.


The full-length putative structural proteins encoded by open reading frame 2 (ORF2) and ORF3 of hepatitis E virus have been cloned and expressed in recombinant baculovirus. Sera obtained from 28 Sudanese pediatric patients with acute hepatitis and 19 pediatric control patients were analyzed for reactivity to hepatitis E virus by using the baculovirus-expressed ORF2 and ORF3 proteins in a Western blot (immunoblot) format. Seventeen of the 18 patients classified as having non-A, non-B hepatitis, without acute antibody markers for hepatitis A, B, or C viruses, Epstein-Barr virus, or cytomegalovirus, were shown to have immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies to the recombinant ORF2 protein, as did two patients with chronic hepatitis B, three of seven patients with acute hepatitis A, and one patient with acute hepatitis B. None of the 19 control patients had IgM antibodies against the ORF2 or ORF3 proteins. The Western blot assay using the baculovirus-expressed ORF3 protein did not appear to be as sensitive as the assay based on the ORF2 protein. Only 10 of the patients classified as having non-A, non-B hepatitis had IgM antibodies to the baculovirus-expressed ORF3 protein. We conclude that a Western blot assay which uses a baculovirus-expressed ORF2 protein is both sensitive and specific for diagnosing acute hepatitis E.


OBJECTIVES
We developed a simulation model to predict the effects of policies aimed at reducing smoking initiation by youths younger than 18 years.

METHODS
The model projected the number of smokers, never smokers, and ex-smokers by age, sex, and racial/ethnic group and the effects of reductions in youth initiation.

RESULTS
The model predicted that even if tobacco policies eliminated youth initiation, the number of smokers would not be halved for more than 30 years. If initiation were halved and some of the initiation were delayed rather than eliminated, substantially smaller reductions would result.

CONCLUSIONS
Policies that increase cessation rates are needed to reduce the number of current smokers and the more near-term health problems.


This paper is based on a comparative study of mentoring systems of newly appointed teachers . The study draws upon a comparative data collected by an international project Supporting Newly Qualified Teachers through Collaborative Mentoring (NQT-COME), funded by Nordplus Horizontal program. The participants of the NQT-COME project represent nationally remarkable institutions for teacher education and educational research as well as some of the municipalities and teacher unions in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Within the network, we have experiences of both the classical one-to-one mentoring and peer group solutions. Theoretically, we examine the issue within a model which views both mentoring and mentor training as examples of the ongoing formalization process of non-formal learning, whereas we may also detect nowadays some other opposite examples of informalisation of formal learning (Tuschling and Engelmann 2006). One of our main challenges is to establish mentoring as an integral part of teachers' professional development. Whatever the model of mentoring is, the mentors also seem to need some education and support. We have consciously swifted our emphasis from defining the characteristics, skills and competencies of mentor candidates into their education. One of the main aims of mentor education is to develop knowledge about teachers' professional development and learning, how to support reflection of beginning teachers (Harrison, Dymoke, Pell 2006; Rippon, Martin 2006). One of our current on going studies is a comparative research of different national and local solutions for mentor education. Basically, mentoring has been regarded as informal learning. Traditionally, mentors have not been trained, just the opposite: mentoring has been regarded as transferring of tacit knowledge through informal discussions and practical guidance by an experienced colleague (Roberts 2000). Mentoring is often based on an interaction between an expert and a novice on a practical level which not necessarily includes theoretical or conceptual perspectives whereas formal education is focused on explicit, conceptual and theoretical knowledge. Lately, mentoring has been more and more formalized as it has become a part of in-service teacher education and a purposeful professional development. The formalization process is culminated in the growing trend of accrediting of the mentor education modules. However, if teachers need to be educated for becoming mentors of new teachers, the original idea of mentoring as an informal learning is being radically changed. The degree of formalisation, however, varies in the participant countries of NQT-COME project. In some counties the mentor education modules have even been accredited in ECTS credits whereas in some other countries we detect minor features of formalisation. In this presentation, we will introduce the national solutions of organizing mentor education in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden. We also reflect the paradoxes and dilemmas which we have met in locating mentoring between the traditional and modern understandings of mentoring. We will concentrate on the following research questions: - We will concentrate on the following research questions - What kind of theoretical thinking the mentor education programmes are based on? -How have the programmes been carried out? -What are the advantages and possible weaknesses of formalizing mentoring and mentor education? -What kind of theoretical thinking the mentor education programmes are based on?


Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) activity is associated with increased cancer cell proliferation. Studies aiming to understand the impact of ERα on cancer-associated phenotypes have largely been limited to its transcriptional activity. Herein, we demonstrate that ERα coordinates its transcriptional output with selective modulation of mRNA translation. Importantly, translational perturbations caused by depletion of ERα largely manifest as "translational offsetting" of the transcriptome, whereby amounts of translated mRNA and protein levels are maintained constant despite changes in mRNA abundance. Transcripts whose levels, but not polysome-association, are reduced following ERα depletion lack features which limit translational efficiency including structured 5'UTRs and miRNA target sites. In contrast, mRNAs induced upon ERα depletion whose polysome-association remains unaltered are enriched in codons requiring U34-modified tRNAs for efficient decoding. Consistently, ERα regulates levels of U34-modification enzymes, whereas altered expression of U34-modification enzymes disrupts ERα dependent translational offsetting. Altogether, we unravel a hitherto unprecedented mechanism of ERα-dependent orchestration of transcriptional and translational programs, and highlight that translational offsetting may be a pervasive mechanism of proteome maintenance in hormone-dependent cancers.


In the Baltic Sea, we tested how short nutrient pulses of different lengths and frequencies affect macroalgae, epiphytes, grazers and their interactions. We hypothesized that even small-scale variations in nutrient supply may have significant impacts by favoring fast-growing epiphytes which can cause large-scale declines of canopy-forming macro- algae. In a factorial field experiment single plants of the canopy-forming macroalga Fucus vesiculosus with and with- out epiphytes were exposed to pulses of elevated nutrients (N and P) over 25 d. Five 1 h pulses given every 5 d had no significant effects. A single 5 h pulse increased the epiphyte load but not F.vesiculosus growth rate. In contrast, increasing epiphyte load caused F. vesiculosus growth rate to decline and attracted higher densities of gastropod grazers. These results indicate that a single nutrient pulse can have rapid direct and indirect effects on macroalgae and their associated epiphytes and grazers. Temporal variability of nutrient supply (five 1 h vs one 5 h pulse) plays a significant role in determin- ing the response of primary producers and consumers to ele- vated nutrients.


ABSTRACT The Bombyx mori homolog of doublesex, Bmdsx, plays an essential role in silkworm sexual development. Exons 3 and 4 of Bmdsx pre-mRNA are specifically excluded in males. To explore how this occurs, we developed a novel in vivo sex-specific splicing assay system using sexually differentiated cultured cells. A series of mutation analyses using a Bmdsx minigene with this in vivo splicing assay system identified three distinct sequences (CE1, CE2, and CE3) positioned in exon 4 as exonic splicing silencers responsible for male-specific splicing. Gel shift analysis showed that CE1 binds to a nuclear protein from male cells but not that from female cells. Mutation of UAA repeats within CE1 inhibited the binding of the nuclear protein to the RNA and caused female-specific splicing in male cells. We have identified BmPSI, a Bombyx homolog of P-element somatic inhibitor (PSI), as the nuclear factor that specifically binds CE1. Down-regulation of endogenous BmPSI by RNA interference significantly increased female-specific splicing in male cells. This is the first report of a PSI homolog implicated in the regulated sex-specific splicing of dsx pre-mRNA.


This case study describes brief psychotherapy with a 67-year-old man who had a severe-toprofound hearing loss. In his words, he began treatment "to get my wife off my back," as his wife wanted him to be evaluated for hearing aids. The therapist used a narrative treatment approach to externalize and personify the hearing loss and also to facilitate "re-membering" conversations concerning the patient's grandfather. Clinical vignettes and theoretical notes are offered.


The aim of this study was to investigate the anti-diabetic effects and biochemical parameters of methanol root extract of Acalypha wilkesiana Mull Arg. (MEAW) in alloxan-induced diabetic rats. The effect of the extract (200 and 400 mg/kg, p.o.) on fasting blood glucose (FBG), total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT) level and liver glycogen content were investigated in alloxan-induced diabetic rats after 14 days. An oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was also performed on the diabetic rats. Dose selection was made on the basis of acute oral toxicity study. Phytochemical analysis of the root extract was carried out following standard procedures. The most significant (p<0.05) reduction of FBG level of 74.06% was observed for 400 mg/kg in alloxan induced diabetic rats. A significant reduction (p<0.05) in serum TC and TG level of 50.43 and 58.05% respectively was also observed for the high dose of the extract. The SGOT and SGPT levels were significantly (p<0.05) reduced. The MEAW also showed improvement of body weight in diabetic rats. The animals showed no mortality at a dose of 5000 mg/kg while results of phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of mainly alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids, saponins, steroids and tannins. These results show that the root of Acalypha wilkesiana possesses antidiabetic, antihyperlipidemic and hepatoprotective effects.


Measurement of wheel/rail contact forces is of importance. Traditional methods for wheel/rail interaction force measurement all need strain gauges on wheel sets and/or rails. Because strain gauges have the performances of zero-drift, poor anti-interference property and instability of test system, they can't meet wheel/rail force test requirements in high-speed and heavy haul railways. A new method based on PVDF piezoelectric sensing technology is presented for the test of vertical and horizontal wheel/rail force in this paper. Firstly, based on the wheel/rail interaction characteristics, the restriction condition of track and strain sensing principle of PVDF films, principle for measuring vertical and lateral wheel/rail interaction forces is proposed. Then a series of tests were carried out to compare the performance of PVDF strain sensors with the one of strain gauges. The results show that the PVDF strain sensor has better reliability in wheel/rail force monitoring. Finally numerical analysis by Finite Element Method has been carried out to verify the feasibility of the method presented in this paper.


Abstract This systematic literature review analyses trends in original research on emoji use in computer-mediated communications (CMC) published between 2011 to 2021. In total, 823 articles were identified that met the search criteria. The mixed-method approach included qualitative coding of articles and frequency analysis by year, impact quartile, research topic and multidisciplinarity, as well as a cluster analysis to examine trends in sociopolitical research. The results show that Computer Science, Communications and Social Sciences disciplines accounted for largest proportion of original research on emojis and CMC in the time period analysed and that the degree of scientific impact increased significantly across the time series. In recent years, sociopolitical research has had higher than average growth and can be clustered into various groups based on two broad objects of study: "culture-identity" and "social exclusion". The study also identified significant knowledge gaps, particularly in relation to emoji standardization and its sociopolitical implications. Overall, multidisciplinary approaches are epistemologically constrained, Spanish-language production is low, and there is an almost complete absence of context appropriate methodologies. The study concludes that there is a need to for more sociopolitical research on emoji use in CMC and multidisciplinary approaches, a shift away from the hegemony of Anglocentrism, and greater questioning of the structural influences of standardization process on questions of cultural, identity and social exclusion.


Blood pressure measurement remains the determining factor in defining hypertension. In daily practice, measurement in the practitioner's office is the reference used for diagnosis and follow-up. According to the classification established in the VIth Report of the NIH Joint National Committee in 1997, the upper normal value is below 139 mmHg for systolic and 89 mmHg for diastolic pressure. Hypertension cannot be confirmed by a single high measurement or at a single consultation. In addition, it should be remembered that: self-measurement should remain under medical control; its upper normal values (135/85) have the advantage of being obtained outside the medical setting; exercise tolerance tests, often using an ergometric bicycle, demonstrate the possibility of cardiovascular adaptation to physical exercise; ambulatory blood pressure measurement affords repeated measurements over 24 h, also with lower reference values (135/85 mmHg), and detects "white coat" hypertension and anomalies of the nycthemeral cycle.


Temporal difference (TD) learning methods (Sutton & Barto 1998) have become popular reinforcement learning techniques in recent years. TD methods, relying on function approximators to generalize learning to novel situations, have had some experimental successes and have been shown to exhibit some desirable properties in theory, but have often been found slow in practice. This paper presents methods for further generalizing across tasks, thereby speeding up learning, via a novel form of behavior transfer. We compare learning on a complex task with three function approximators, a CMAC, a neural network, and an RBF, and demonstrate that behavior transfer works well with all three. Using behavior transfer, agents are able to learn one task and then markedly reduce the time it takes to learn a more complex task. Our algorithms are fully implemented and tested in the RoboCup-soccer keepaway domain.


We introduce a novel fast algorithm for independent component analysis, which can be used for blind source separation and feature extraction. We show how a neural network learning rule can be transformed into a fixedpoint iteration, which provides an algorithm that is very simple, does not depend on any user-defined parameters, and is fast to converge to the most accurate solution allowed by the data. The algorithm finds, one at a time, all nongaussian independent components, regardless of their probability distributions. The computations can be performed in either batch mode or a semiadaptive manner. The convergence of the algorithm is rigorously proved, and the convergence speed is shown to be cubic. Some comparisons to gradient-based algorithms are made, showing that the new algorithm is usually 10 to 100 times faster, sometimes giving the solution in just a few iterations.


As AI becomes an integral part of our lives, the development of explainable AI, embodied in the decision-making process of an AI or robotic agent, becomes imperative. For a robotic teammate, the ability to generate explanations to justify its behavior is one of the key requirements of explainable agency. Prior work on explanation generation has been focused on supporting the rationale behind the robot's decision or behavior. These approaches, however, fail to consider the mental demand for understanding the received explanation. In other words, the human teammate is expected to understand an explanation no matter how much information is presented. In this work, we argue that explanations, especially those of a complex nature, should be made in an online fashion during the execution, which helps spread out the information to be explained and thus reduce the mental workload of humans in highly cognitive demanding tasks. However, a challenge here is that the different parts of an explanation may be dependent on each other, which must be taken into account when generating online explanations. To this end, a general formulation of online explanation generation is presented with three variations satisfying different "online" properties. The new explanation generation methods are based on a model reconciliation setting introduced in our prior work. We evaluated our methods both with human subjects in a simulated rover domain, using NASA Task Load Index (TLX), and synthetically with ten different problems across two standard IPC domains. Results strongly suggest that our methods generate explanations that are perceived as less cognitively demanding and much preferred over the baselines and are computationally efficient.


TO THE EDITOR: Radiolabeled somatostatin agonists are valuable tools for imaging and treating neuroendocrine tumors. Although somatostatin receptors are also expressed in lymphomas, breast cancer, renal cell carcinoma, and small-cell lung cancer, imaging trials showed that somatostatin agonists are not accurate enough for either staging or effectively treating these tumors (1–4). On the other hand, antagonists, such as JR11, may display higher occupancy of somatostatin receptors and higher residence time in tumor tissue. Indeed, a small pilot study in patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumors found that 177LuDOTA-JR11 delivers tumor doses that are approximately 3.5 times higher than those obtained with 177Lu-DOTATATE (5). The recent article by Reubi opens new exciting avenues (6). Using sst2 in vitro autoradiography on tissue sections, Reubi and colleagues found that 125I-JR11 was associated with a significantly higher labeling intensity (sometimes ·10) than the agonist 125I-Tyr3octreotide, not only in classic endocrine tumors, but also in breast cancer, renal cell cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and small cell lung cancer (6). Labeling intensity was, however, highly variable (e.g., from ,1,000 to .10,000 dpm/mg in breast cancer). A high intensity (.4,000 dpm/mg) was found in about one third of samples of breast cancer (5/13), renal cell cancer (5/12), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (5/15) (Tables 1–3 in Reubi et al. (6)). Therefore, selected patients may benefit from peptide receptor radionuclide therapy. A more accurate characterization of the individual tumor samples reported by Reubi and colleagues would have been useful for identifying these patients, notably, whether the sample was obtained at initial diagnosis or from a pretreated patient or from primary or metastatic tumor, and the tumor characteristic (e.g., estrogen receptor status of breast cancer cases, Fuhrman grade of renal cell cancer, subtypes of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases). Moreover, antagonists significantly bind to peritumoral vessels and this might allow for additional targeting during peptide receptor radionuclide therapy. Interestingly, even peritumoral vessels that were unlabeled by the agonist displayed strong labeling with the antagonists (Tables 1 and 2 in Reubi et al. (6)). Do the authors have an explanation for these findings? It would be interesting to know whether sst2a immunohistochemistry was performed on these tumors and how immunostaining correlated with autoradiography intensity. In some tumors (e.g., colon cancer), antagonists did not bind to cancer cells but still bound to sst2 receptors in peritumoral vessels, lymphatic follicles, and mucosa (Supplemental Table 1 in Reubi et al. (6)). Comparing the uptake by healthy and inflammatory tissues with antagonists and agonists is then also important for understanding the relative merits of each class of compounds. This information should be accessible to the authors, who previously analyzed the uptake of agonists (7). Reubi and colleagues pointed out that, in many cases, labeling of the tumoral sample was heterogeneous (6). Heterogeneity in tumor targeting may drive the choice of the radionuclide to be used and may also warrant dual targeting. For example, combining sst2 and CD20 targeting in non-Hodgkin lymphomas might further increase efficacy compared with CD20 targeting alone. Also, whereas small cell lung cancer displayed strong labeling with the somatostatin antagonist (6), the presence of other targets, such as CXCR4 (8), may allow for additional targeting. Finally, gastrin-releasing peptide receptor is highly expressed in estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer (9). Since Reubi and colleagues pleaded for multireceptor targeting in breast cancer (10), we would like to solicit their opinion on the complementary role between sst2 and gastrin-releasing peptide receptor targeting.


INTRODUCTION
Recent implementation of the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) in military primary care has gained significant traction and attention from leadership and policy makers. The study objective was to measure the rate of change in appointment availability before and after primary care clinics were certified as a medical home. Access to care is one core tenet of the medical home and appointment availability is an important indicator of access.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This was a retrospective, longitudinal observational study involving 21 U.S. Navy primary care clinics from 2011 to 2014. Appointment availability, as measured by third next available appointment, was constructed for 21 primary care clinics over a 29-month time period (14 months precertification, certification month, 14 months postcertification). A mixed-effects model with linear splines was applied where third next available appointment was the dependent variable. Main interest independent variables include time (precertification and postcertification). Remaining independent variables include categories pertaining to clinic characteristics, ancillary services, and nonemergent primary care treatable emergency department visits.

RESULTS
Appointment availability improved slightly postcertification. Although there were statistically significant differences in appointment availability pre- and postcertification, the differences were so small that patients may not actually experience noticeable improvements.

CONCLUSION
Although slight improvements in appointment availability following medical home certification exist, adoption of the medical home model in the military setting may not have all the potential outcomes expected on the basis of prior findings in civilian settings. This study demonstrated that improvements in appointment availability following medical home certification exist, but are quite small. Patients, as a result, are unlikely to notice any improvements. Additional research should test other expected benefits of PCMH in military settings. At that point, military policy makers can decide which aspects of PCMH practices merit sustaining.


Bacterial communities encased by self-produced extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs), known as biofilms, have a wide influence on human health and environmental problems. The importance of biofilm research has increased, as biofilms are the preferred bacterial lifestyle in nature. Furthermore, in recent years it has been noted that the contribution of phenotypic heterogeneity within biofilms requires analysis at the single-cell or subpopulation level to understand bacterial life strategies. In Streptococcus mutans, a cariogenic bacterium, extracellular DNA (eDNA) contributes to biofilm formation. However, it remains unclear how and where the cells produce eDNA within the biofilm. We focused on LytF, an autolysin that is induced by extracellular peptide signals. We used single-cell level imaging techniques to analyze lytF expression in the biofilm population. Here, we show that S. mutans generates eDNA by inducing lytF expression near the bottom of the biofilm, thereby enhancing biofilm adhesion and structural stability. ABSTRACT Extracellular DNA (eDNA) is a biofilm component that contributes to the formation and structural stability of biofilms. Streptococcus mutans, a major cariogenic bacterium, induces eDNA-dependent biofilm formation under specific conditions. Since cell death can result in the release and accumulation of DNA, the dead cells in biofilms are a source of eDNA. However, it remains unknown how eDNA is released from dead cells and is localized within S. mutans biofilms. We focused on cell death induced by the extracellular signaling peptide called competence-stimulating peptide (CSP). We demonstrate that nucleic acid release into the extracellular environment occurs in a subpopulation of dead cells. eDNA production induced by CSP was highly dependent on the lytF gene, which encodes an autolysin. Although lytF expression was induced bimodally by CSP, lytF-expressing cells further divided into surviving cells and eDNA-producing dead cells. Moreover, we found that lytF-expressing cells were abundant near the bottom of the biofilm, even when all cells in the biofilm received the CSP signal. Dead cells and eDNA were also abundantly present near the bottom of the biofilm. The number of lytF-expressing cells in biofilms was significantly higher than that in planktonic cultures, which suggests that adhesion to the substratum surface is important for the induction of lytF expression. The deletion of lytF resulted in reduced adherence to a polystyrene surface. These results suggest that lytF expression and eDNA production induced near the bottom of the biofilm contribute to a firmly attached and structurally stable biofilm. IMPORTANCE Bacterial communities encased by self-produced extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs), known as biofilms, have a wide influence on human health and environmental problems. The importance of biofilm research has increased, as biofilms are the preferred bacterial lifestyle in nature. Furthermore, in recent years it has been noted that the contribution of phenotypic heterogeneity within biofilms requires analysis at the single-cell or subpopulation level to understand bacterial life strategies. In Streptococcus mutans, a cariogenic bacterium, extracellular DNA (eDNA) contributes to biofilm formation. However, it remains unclear how and where the cells produce eDNA within the biofilm. We focused on LytF, an autolysin that is induced by extracellular peptide signals. We used single-cell level imaging techniques to analyze lytF expression in the biofilm population. Here, we show that S. mutans generates eDNA by inducing lytF expression near the bottom of the biofilm, thereby enhancing biofilm adhesion and structural stability.


INTRODUCTION
The Burn Model System (BMS) program of research has been funded since 1993 by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). The overarching aim of this program is to improve outcomes and quality of life for people with burns in the areas of health and function; employment; community living and participation. This review reports on BMS contributions that have impacted the lives of individuals with a significant burn injury using case reports to associate BMS contributions with recovery.

METHODS
In December 2019, current BMS grantee researchers assessed peer-reviewed BMS publications from 1994 to 2020 . Using case report methodology, contributions were linked to three individuals treated at one of four Burn Model System institutions.

RESULTS
With over 25 years of NIDILRR funding, unique BMS contributions to patient recovery were identified and categorized into one of several domains: Treatment, Assessment measures, Sequelae, Peer support, Employment, and Long-term functional outcomes. A second review for significant results of BMS research that add to the understanding of burn injury, pathophysiology and recovery research were identified and categorized as Injury and recovery research. The case study participants featured in this review identified select NIDRR/NIDILRR research contributions as having direct, personal benefit to their recovery.

CONCLUSIONS
The knowledge generation and clinical innovation that this research program has contributed to our collective understanding of recovery after burn injury is considerable. Using case study methodology with three adult burn survivors, we highlight the impact and individual significance of program findings and reinforce the recognition that the value of any clinical research must have relevance to the lives of the study population.


The theme of this dissertation is the way in which the process of becoming a father is experienced, constituted, and constructed in Sweden in the 1990's. From the perspective of cultural analysis, I seek to discuss what men who become fathers today see as important in the constitution of themselves as parents and what is important in the eyes of other people; what occasions and actiona are significant, what procedures one can or should gp through, and how they are perceived; and how these men differ from fathers in previous generations and how they view this. On the basis of images of men and fathers in adverising, I discuss ideas about and interpretations of masculinity together with what I call a normative masculinity. One channel through which the prevailing norm is expressed is the literature intended for parents-to-be. With these images of fathers and fatherhood as a background, the focus is then shifted to the father's own experiences. The book deals chronologically with the process of becoming a father, starting with pregnancy followed by childbirth, confirmation, and the organisation of everyday life. Throughout the dissertation I show that a father is not something one IS, but something one BECOMES through training and involvement. Becoming a father is a process which has as its goal a close and intimate relationship to the child, and there is a difference between becoming and being a father (Swedish FAR) and becoming and being a dad (Swedish PAPPA). (Less)


Objectives
Nutrition-sensitive interventions often fail because they lack contextual awareness. Participatory dissemination (PD), the formal sharing of research data with participants, can improve impact by fostering coproduction of knowledge and increasing participant involvement in the project. Here, we demonstrate how PD revealed previously unidentified challenges and solutions to dietary diversity, and strengthened a nutrition-sensitive project in Tanzania.

Methods
Singida Nutrition and Agroecology Project (SNAP-Tz) is a participatory intervention in sustainable agriculture, nutrition, and gender equity. Study staff shared simple graphs of village-level findings, including those about children's diet and nutrition status in May-Jun 2017. Farmers (n = ∼175) from the 10 intervention villages reflected on and interpreted the data in groups of 2-12 (n = 26 groups). Discussions were recorded, transcribed in Swahili, and then translated to English. Thematic analyses and deductive coding were performed using Dedoose.

Results
Three main barriers to dietary diversity surfaced: 1. resource limitation was the main barrier identified (n = 42 mentions; 16 groups). Female-only groups disclosed that 2. gender inequity limits women's control of household resources and priority to food (n = 22; 13). This exacerbates resource limitation, especially when coupled with some men's alcohol consumption. 3. Cultural beliefs discourage the consumption of eggs (n = 7; 6).Two solutions were to: 1. encourage gender equity by including women in financial decisions and involving men in childcare (n = 6, 5 by males; 4), and 2. invest in livestock to become self-reliant for eggs, milk, and meat. Those with livestock noted the desire to use their production more for their families and not only for sale (n = 7; 5).

Conclusions
PD opened up a space for peer-mentorship as participants shared previously unconsidered solutions. Mentor farmers amplified efforts for gender equity and began addressing cultural beliefs with these interpretations. Further, findings suggested avenues for quantitative exploration with survey data. This exercise strengthened the contextual understanding and participant involvement in the project, ensuring the intervention's success.

Funding Sources
McKnight Foundation and Atkinson Center for Sustainable Futures of Cornell University funded this study.


: Rats were continuously exposed to 500 p.p.m. CO for 42 days. Hemoglobin concentration, hematocrit ratio, and erythrocyte count increased rapidly, with initial increases appearing after 4-7 days. Values of these parameters reached a plateau after 25-30 days of exposure 50 percent, 44 percent, and 42 percent above controls, respectively. Reticulocyte count peaked 600 percent above controls 7-10 days after initial exposure. This was reflected in the blood indices, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), and mean corpuscular volume (MCV). MCHC fell 6 percent by the fifth day of exposure, while MCH and MCV increased 11 percent and 16 percent respectively, by the seventh day. MCHC returned to control by the thirteenth day, while MCH and MCV remained elevated until the twenty-fifth day of CO exposure. During "stable" polycythemia both MCHC and MCH were depressed, while MCV was slightly elevated above the controls. Platelet count declined substantially within 20-25 days of exposure. Hb, Hct ratio and RBC count fell to control values in the time interval between 10 and 30 days post exposure. This was accompanied by transient fall in reticulocyte count from 2.5 percent (control value) to 0.1-0,2 percent between the twelfth and twenty-sixth day after exposure. Platelet count returned to the control value when polycythemia had subsided.


The study of the coronary arteries atherogenesis with the use of scanning and transmission electron microscopy was performed on the material of emergency necropsies of 45 patients who suffered the primary cardiovascular pathology. The transformation of macrophages into the foamy cells were studied in vitro with the use of peritoneal mouse macrophages and modified LDL labelled with colloidal gold as well as a method of phase-contrast cinemicrography. Two types of macrophages were distinguished ultrastructurally: scavenger-macrophages participating in the phagocytosis of lipoproteins and transforming into the foamy cells and secreting macrophages determining vascular wall homeostasis and ensuring the T-lymphocyte inclusion into the immune reactions and the contact with target cells. Balanced cell kinetics and cytokine secretion at early stages of atherosclerosis determine whether the lipid spot would regress or would transform into the atherosclerotic plaque.


Mobile disruption-tolerant networks (DTNs), experience frequent and long duration partitions due to the low density of mobile nodes. In these networks, traditional networking models relying on end-to-end communication cease to work. The topological characteristics of mobile DTNs impose unique challenges for the design and validation of routing protocols and applications. We investigate challenges of mobile DTNs from three different viewpoints: the application layer, a routing perspective, and by studying mobility patterns. In the application layer, we have built 7DS (7th Degree of Separation) as a modular platform to develop mobile disruption-tolerant applications. 7DS offers a class of disruption-tolerant applications to exchange data with other mobile users in the mobile DTN or with the global Internet.
In the routing layer, we have designed and implemented PEEP as an interest-aware and energy efficient routing protocol which automatically extracts individual interests of mobile users and estimates the global popularity of data items throughout the network. PEEP considers mobile users' interests and global popularity of data items in its routing decisions to route data toward the community of mobile users who are interested in that data content.
Mobility of mobile users impacts the conditions in which routing protocols for mobile DTNs must operate and types of applications that could be provided for mobile networks in general. The current synthetic mobility models do not reflect real-world mobile users' behavior. Trace-based mobility models, also, are based on traces that either represent a specific population of mobile users or do not have enough granularities in representing mobility of mobile users for example cell tower traces. We use Sense Networks' GPS traces that are being collected by monitoring a broad spectrum of mobile users. Using these traces, we employ a Markovian approach to extract inherent patterns in human mobility. We design and implement a new routing algorithm for mobile DTNs based on our Markovian analysis of the human mobility. We explore how the knowledge of the mobility improves the performance of our Markov based routing algorithm. We show that that our Markov based routing algorithm increases the rate of data delivery to popular destinations with consuming less energy than legacy algorithms.


Homelessness, migration and poverty in Northern Ontario, Canada are serious issues. In order to facilitate development of policy that effectively addresses these problems, a long-term Community-University Research Alliance at Laurentian University, Sudbury, Canada was initiated. The present research was conducted on the data gathered through this initiative with a goal of understanding pathways to homelessness in Northern Ontario. Data gathered in five communities (Sudbury, Timmins, Hearst, Cochrane, Moosonee) between the years 2001 and 2012 were analyzed. It was found that these communities, though located in the same province of Ontario, suffered from pathways to homelessness that were different from one another. These differences result from many factors including concentration of different ethnicities in different localities as well as non-uniform availability of education, employment and health facilities. For example, high rate of unemployment in Moosonee results in migration to larger cities such as Timmins and Sudbury, which sometimes leads to homelessness as these cities themselves do not have proper support structures and resources available to help these migrants. An interesting phenomenon observed during the analysis was that there is a trend of individuals migrating out in search of employment, becoming unsuccessful in securing employment, returning their home town and then becoming homeless. This was seen across the board in all five communities, which points to the scarcity of proper support structure and resources. An index of homelessness was also constructed during this study based on the variables that were seen to have the highest impact on homelessness. For this Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping approach was adopted. It resulted in separate equations for homelessness in the five communities studied and indicated the spatial dependence of pathways to homelessness. The main result that has come out of this study is that different communities in Northern Ontario, even though they are not very far apart from one another, have their unique challenges when it comes to homelessness, migration and poverty and therefore a uniform policy across the whole of Northern Ontario will not be an effective way to address these problems. The framework developed in this study to determine if a particular individual is at-risk of becoming homeless can be beneficial in formulating effective policy and strategy.


Essential tremor (ET) is among the most prevalent neurological diseases, yet its etiology is not well understood. Susceptibility genotypes undoubtedly underlie many ET cases, although no genes have been identified thus far. Environmental factors are also likely to contribute to the etiology of ET. Harmane (1-methyl-9H-pyrido[3,4-β]indole) is a potent, tremor-producing β-carboline alkaloid, and emerging literature has provided initial links between this neurotoxin and ET. In this report, we review this literature. Two studies, both in New York, have demonstrated higher blood harmane levels in ET cases than controls and, in one study, especially high levels in familial ET cases. Replication studies of populations outside of New York and studies of brain harmane levels in ET have yet to be undertaken. A small number of studies have explored several of the biological correlates of exposure to harmane in ET patients. Studies of the mechanisms of this putative elevation of harmane in ET have explored the role of increased dietary consumption, finding weak evidence of increased exogenous intake in male ET cases, and other studies have found initial evidence that the elevated harmane in ET might be due to a hereditarily reduced capacity to metabolize harmane to harmine (7-methoxy-1-methyl-9H-pyrido[3,4-β]-indole). Studies of harmane and its possible association with ET have been intriguing. Additional studies are needed to establish more definitively whether these toxic exposures are associated with ET and are of etiological importance.


A number of major studies have demonstrated that the SVOC (Semi-volatile organic compounds) within engine emissions derive predominantly from unburned fuel and lubricants, and are a major contributor to primary atmospheric aerosol containing thousands of organic compounds. The GC×GC-ToF-MS (2 dimensional Gas Chromatography – Time of Flight – Mass Spectrometry) comprehensive analytical technique was utilized in this study, to resolve the complex mixtures and characterize the SVOC content in eight di ff erent commercial lu- bricants, including 5W30 synthetic and semi-synthetic, mineral and base oil. In order to quantify the aliphatic isomers, which comprise the largest component of the lubricants, a TIC-M.Q./Mass (Total ion current ratio to the molar quantity/mass) method has been developed. The TIC intensity was observed to be proportional to the molar quantity of n-alkanes for carbon number<C 25 , while being linear to the mass response for these aliphatic compounds with carbon number>C 25 . Additionally, the TIC intensity of the alkyl-cyclohexanes under the identical retention indices were found to have an equivalent response to those of the n-alkanes, showing that the quantitative calibrations derived for the n-alkane series could be applied to estimate the concentrations of isomeric aliphatic compounds with similar molecular weight. Furthermore, a mesh method was introduced to group the alkane species (n-alkanes, branched alkanes and cyclic alkanes etc.), combining with the use of a soft EI (electron impact) ionization (14eV) to retain the distinct identity of the isomers with less fragmentation, which allowed the TIC-M.Q./Mass methodology to integrate all the constitutional isomers present in the lubricating oil samples. By utilizing this methodology, compositions from di ff erent samples were comprehensively compared, leading to the following conclusions: 1) the synthetic and semi-synthetic oils contained a larger abundance of HMW (high molecular weight) aliphatic compounds (carbon number C 24 – C 29 ), while those in the LMW (low molecular weight range, carbon number C 18 – C 25 ) were predominant in the mineral and base oil; 2) cycloalkanes were predominant in the synthetic and semi-synthetic oils; whereas the branched alkanes were more prominent in the mineral and base oils; 3) for lubricants used for a short period, a slight increase of LMW compounds was observed, while the HMW compounds underwent a decrease, whereas, there was an overall mass reduction for all the aliphatic compounds detected in the oil samples used for six-months.


The study concerns inclusive language education of young people and adults with a research on the pedagogical function of the Language Biography of the European Language Portfolio. The research study involved students attending a course offered by University of Florence. Among the aims of the course to provide students with practical experiences and metacognitive activities on Language Biography with a view to merging ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) with language learning. The article reports on this experience, using data gathered from student questionnaires, showing the potential of Language Biography as a tool for inclusive teaching and learning and consciously working to foster learning across differences – of languages, cultures, needs, motivations, experiences, skills – that characterize each learner.


Required summer reading lists of Huntsville City and surrounding schools for the 2017-2018 school year. Schools include: Huntsville City, Madison City, Madison County, etc. *Additional school lists not already included will be added when available.*


The activation and conversion of hydrocarbons is one of the most important challenges in chemistry. Transition-metal ions (V, Cr, Fe, Co, etc.) isolated on silica surfaces are known to catalyze such processes. The mechanisms of these processes are currently unknown but are thought to involve C-H activation as the rate-determining step. Here, we synthesize well-defined Co(II) ions on a silica surface using a metal siloxide precursor followed by thermal treatment under vacuum at 500 °C. We show that these isolated Co(II) sites are catalysts for a number of hydrocarbon conversion reactions, such as the dehydrogenation of propane, the hydrogenation of propene, and the trimerization of terminal alkynes. We then investigate the mechanisms of these processes using kinetics, kinetic isotope effects, isotopic labeling experiments, parahydrogen induced polarization (PHIP) NMR, and comparison with a molecular analog. The data are consistent with all of these reactions occurring by a common mechanism, involving heterolytic C-H or H-H activation via a 1,2 addition across a Co-O bond.


Skeletal muscles were subjected to echoscopy in order to detect the heterozygote carriers of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The data were compared to the biochemical test--detection of serum creatine kinase activity. Echoscopy of 15 obligatory carriers and 47 control females yielded the test sensitivity of 53% and specificity of 94%. The use of both techniques is suggested.


Over the last decade, embedded sensing systems have been successfully deployed in a range of application areas, from education and science to military and industry. These systems are becoming more robust, capable, and widely adopted. Yet today, most sensor networks function in isolated patches, each with different mechanisms to deliver data to their users, and often have no formal methods to share data with others. As sensornets become more numerous and their data more valuable, it becomes increasingly important to have common means to share data over the Internet. In addition to simplifying use of a single sensornet, we seek to enable sharing of data across multiple systems, and ultimately slogging (sensornet logging), where a single user may discover, process, and republish data from thousands of independently operated sensors. To meet these goals we propose an architecture to interconnect, share, and search sensor data. This paper describes the building blocks of this architecture: sensor stores, search engines, and publishers, joined by a common sensor data streaming protocol. We then detail the research challenges that must be addressed to meet our goal of enabling sensor access to users from scientists, data analysts, to citizen scientists.


Current CDC guidelines for antiviral treatment of people with influenza like illness (ILI) effectively discourage treatment of people with no underlying medical conditions unless they exhibit severe symptoms, such as evidence of lower respiratory tract infection or clinical deterioration. This guidance is unlike that provided by some other countries, which allow for treatment of most moderately symptomatic individuals. We examine evidence for benefits of antiviral usage for influenza treatment, including its relation to severe outcomes for the current pandemic H1N1 strain. We also discuss some of the potential cons of antiviral usage. In the current situation in the US, with an elevated and evidently growing burden of influenza hospitalizations and mortality, a high percentage of individuals infected with influenza (with almost all of those carrying the H1N1pdm strain) among those who exhibit ILI and get tested for influenza virus, very low levels of antiviral resistance and little time left for antiviral resistance to take off before large quantities of vaccine become available, we think it is worthwhile to consider a revision to the current antiviral usage recommendations, such that physicians would be encouraged to consider prescribing antivirals to individuals with moderate to severe symptoms who present for treatment.Note: Very recently CDC has adopted clarifications for its antiviral usage guidelines: http://www.cdc.gov/H1N1flu/antivirals/facts_clinicians.htm.


We present a geometric framework for the efficient detection of regular repetitions of planar (but not necessarily coplanar) patterns. At the heart of our system, lie the fixed structures of the transformations that describe these regular configurations. The approach detects a number of symmetric configurations that have traditionally been dealt with separately, in that all configurations corresponding to planar homologies are detected. These include important cases such as periodicities, mirror symmetries, and reflections about a point. The approach can handle perspective distortions. It avoids to get trapped in combinatorics; through invariant-based hashing for pattern matching and through Hough transforms for the detection of fixed structures. Additional efficiency and robustness are obtained from the system's ability to "reason" about the consistency of multiple homologies. The performance of the system is demonstrated with several examples.


Abstract Details of the epidermal anatomy of Glyptostrobus europaeus (BRONGN.) UNGER from the Late Oligocene locality Norken in the Westerwald (Rhineland-Palatinate, W-Germany) are documented and described by means of scanning electron microscopy of in situ cuticles. The taxon had a wide distribution over the entire Northern Hemisphere during the Oligocene and it is considered to represent the most common conifer during the Cenozoic of Europe, but cuticles from this taxon are rarely figured in the literature. The cuticles from Norken exhibit cellular patterns and details (e.g. of stomatal complexes) typical for taxodioid Cupressaceae. Anatomical observations are in close agreement with results for this taxon from other Central European localities. The in situ cuticles had already fragmented into very small pieces, and this explains why it was so far impossible to retrieve cuticles from this locality by means of standard cuticular analytic techniques.


Over the past ninety years, cities and states have increasingly shifted control and oversight over government services from elected officials to quasi-private entities, called "public authorities". Today, public authorities perform thousands of services previously provided by state and local governments, such as mass transit, economic development and housing. In executing these services, public authorities borrow more money than all of the cities and states combined, and in some states, such as New York, they issue over 90% of the public debt. While public authorities are authorized to perform public services, they are specifically organized around a private sector model. The most common justification for structuring public authorities around the private sector model is that the model inherently achieves an increase in efficiency and independence in the provision of government services. Despite their rapid growth and increased issuance of debt, public authorities have received little critical analysis. Further, there is no existing standard to establish whether public authorities are meeting "efficiency, expertise and independence." This article sets forth one such standard based on private sector norms. It evaluates public authorities based on: (1) corporate responsibility measures; (2) market forces; and (3) internal monitoring systems. Based on the analysis, the article proposes a restructuring of public services to form regional governments or municipal cooperation, rooted in collaboration and efficiencies lost in the provision of public services through public authorities.


This paper presents an inductorless low-noise amplifier (LNA) design for an ultra-wideband (UWB) receiver frontend. A current-reuse gain-enhanced noise canceling architecture is proposed, and the properties and limitations of the gainenhancement stage are discussed. Capacitive peaking is employed to improve the gain flatness and 3-dB bandwidth, at the cost of absolute gain value. The LNA circuit is fabricated in a 0.18-μm triple-well CMOS technology. Measurement result good matching in the implementations and a small-signal gain of 11 dB and a 3-dB bandwidth of 2–9.6 GHz are obtained. The LNA consumes 19 mW from a low supply voltage of 1.5 V. It is shown that the LNA designed without on-chip inductors achieves comparable performances with inductor-based designs. The silicon area is reduced significantly in the inductorless design, the LNA core occupies only 0.05 mm2, which is among the smallest reported designs.


The crystallization of tartrate salts, mainly potassium hydrogen tartrate (KHT), is a major instability in wines. KHT solubility is largely dependent on the wine composition. Though the incidence of wine components is not fully understood, it is recognized that some of them may inhibit the KHT crystallization by adsorption on the crystal growth faces. The identification of the organic components which precipitate out with KHT is a potential approach to identify crystallization inhibitors. Moreover, it can improve the understanding of the KHT behavior in wine. The present study deals with the identification of organic compounds associated to KHT crystals obtained from the cold stabilization of two white wines. Tartrate esters of phenolic acids and polysaccharides accounted for 0.2% to 0.8% of the crystal dry weight. Among phenolic acids, a specific affinity of 2-S-glutathionylcaftaric toward the KHT crystal surfaces was observed and attributed to its glutathionyl moiety. Polysaccharide distribution in KHT crystals differed largely from that of the starting wines. Rhamnogalacturonan I (RG-I) and rhamnogalacturonan II (RG-II) had a peculiar behavior. RG-I adsorbed preferentially on the crystal surfaces, whereas RG-II was not detected. Arabinogalactans and mannoproteins were also associated with tartrate crystals, and may thus impede crystal growth. Yeast cells accounted for 2% of the dry matter and may act as heterogeneous nucleation germs.


The use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has grown rapidly in recent years. We sought to describe the rate of ECMO use in the United States, regional variation in ECMO use, the hospitals performing ECMO, and the primary payers for ECMO patients. Detailed data were obtained using the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUPnet) summaries of State Inpatient Databases from 34 participating states for the years 2011-2014. The ECMO rates over time were modeled, overall and within subcategories of age group, bed size, hospital ownership, teaching status, and payer type. During the study period, the overall rate of ECMO use increased from 1.06 (1.01, 1.12) to 1.77 (1.72, 1.82) cases per 100,000 persons per year (p = 0.005). The rate of ECMO use varied significantly by region. Most ECMO patients are cared for at large hospitals, and at private, not-for-profit hospitals with teaching designation. The most common payer was private insurance; a minority of patient were uninsured. The use of ECMO increased significantly during the study period, but regional variation in the rate of ECMO use suggests that this technology is not being uniformly applied. Further research is warranted to determine why differences in ECMO use persist and what impact they have on patient outcomes.


By the year 2020, payouts of public pension funds could exceed contributions, and investment income will have to make up the difference. Pension Funds is the first book to explain, in very direct language, the dangers of under funding pension plans by being too preoccupied with perceived investment strategy. Simple and straightforward, this book shows readers how to: improve the changes that pensions will be paid as they fall due by linking liabilities and assets; save money by taking an integrated approach to pension fund management; and meet the financial objectives of a pension plan.


Relations between the United States and Vietnam entered a new era in July 2013 with the conclusion of the U.S.-Vietnam comprehensive partnership agreement announced by President Barack Obama and President Truong Tan Sang. The U.S.-Vietnam comprehensive partnership is an overarching framework for strengthening and deepening cooperation across nine sectors: political and diplomatic relations, trade and economic ties, science and technology, education and training, environment and health, war legacy issues, defence and security, protection and promotion of human rights, and culture, sports and tourism. It has been four years since the U.S.-Vietnam comprehensive partnership was officially launched. It is, therefore, time to assess this comprehensive partnership. The article will begin with a brief literature review which demonstrates the needs to produce a dedicated analysis of U.S.-Vietnam comprehensive partnership before examining the U.S. and Vietnamese concepts of a comprehensive partnership. It also seeks to explore what have motivated Hanoi and Washington to elevate their bilateral relations to a new height. The article goes on to evaluate developments in the U.S.-Vietnam relations from July 2013 up to July 2017 on five main sectors: economic ties, security cooperation, people-to-people ties, cooperation on humanitarian and war legacy issues, cooperation on regional and global challenges. It will demonstrate that the U.S.-Vietnam relationship has achieved important progresses since the announcement of the U.S.Vietnam comprehensive partnership. Last but not least, the article will look at the possible shapes of the United States and Vietnam in the future.


This letter presents a method for improving the efficiency of a power amplifier (PA) under load mismatch by recycling the reflected power. By configuring the PA as a balanced PA, the reflected power will be directed to the isolation port of a 90° hybrid coupler. The reflected power can then by rectified and converted back to dc power to assist in supplying the PA. A prototype system was built to validate the concept and tested under various load phase angles with 2:1 and 4:1 VSWR using a W-CDMA voice signal at 836.5 MHz. Measurement results show that the power recycling technique improves the overall efficiency by as much as 22.1% when the output power level is 25 dBm. Under load conditions and power levels where the rectifier cannot provide sufficient output voltage level to supply the PA, the proposed technique simply maintains the original PA efficiency with no degradation.


Quasi-sequential methods are efficient and flexible strategies for the solution of dynamic optimization problems. At the heart of these strategies lies the time discretization and approximation of dynamic systems for nonlinear optimization problems. To address this question, we employ a time derivative analysis within the quasi-sequential approach and derive a finite element placement strategy. In addition, methods for direct error prediction are applied to this approach and extended with a proposed time derivative analysis. According to the information for current time derivatives, subintervals are introduced that improve accuracy of state profiles. Since this is only done in the simulation layer, the nonlinear programing solver need not be restarted. An efficient gradient computation is also derived for these subintervals; the resulting enhanced accuracy accelerates convergence performance and increases the robustness of the solution to initialization. A beer fermentation process case study is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2011


Lymphocytes isolated from the tumors and draining lymph nodes of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients exhibit the following characteristics of immune activation: (1) stable E rosette formation, (2) natural attachment to various human cells, (3) sensitivity in vitro to the lytic effect of glucocorticoids. Although the NPC T cells attach in vitroto various cells they kill only EBV‐genome‐carrying targets. These findings suggest the occurrence of a local cellular immune response in NPC, possibly directed to EBV‐determined antigens.


The very things that provide firms with advantages in the present may undermine their future viability. This dualism pervades the organizational and strategic management literature and leads to theorization of core organizational constructs as embodying trade-offs between stability and change. For example, the concept of organizational code focuses on how organizations structure information representation to enhance coordination effectiveness and efficiency; yet, efficiency comes at the cost of information loss. Economic-based organizational theories treat the code as an integral, yet inertial part of an organization's invested infrastructure, inseparable from the organization's historical-cognitive context, and understood across the entire organization. By conceptualizing forces for continuity and change as dualities, I show how the organizational code acts as a mechanism by which organizations manage these tensions. In an abductive, longitudinal case study of communication by and within a large, multi-national pharmaceutical company from 1985 to present, I examine firm-specific language and how this language emerges. I find that, when the code is discernable as firm-specific language, it typically has more to do with change than stability. Codified blueprints for practice are an exception to this, but these play a role more akin to proprietary technology or boundary objects than to theoretical conceptualizations of the organizational code. When an organization recognizes some need to change, there is an emergent or deliberate effort to articulate what that change should look like. The emergence of the code happens through these efforts to create a novel conceptual space with unique words, acronyms, phrases, and visuals (WAPVs). This new language, with its firm-specific meaning, has an important effect on how a firm creates value. It becomes meaningful as 'use cases' for it are identified, enabling translation into practice and mindsets. Once an organization generates a use case 'catalogue' for new WAPVs, members better understand why change is needed, what work needs to happen, and how that work gets done. By showing how an organization transforms the 'language we use to get work done' into new practices and ways of thinking that enrich the organizational code, I explain how dualities of continuity and change are managed over time.


: Plant cell walls are classified as primary and secondary walls. The primary wall is necessary for plant morphogenesis and supports cell growth and expansion. Once the growth and expansion ceases, specialized cells form secondary walls in order to give strength and rigidity to the plant. Secondary cell walls are the main constituent of woody biomass. This biomass is raw material for industrial products, food, and biomaterials. Recently, there are an increasing number of studies using biomass for biofuel production and this area has gained importance. However, there are still many unknowns regarding the synthesis and structure of complex polysaccharides forming biomass. Cellulose, being one of the main components of the cell wall, is synthesized at the plasma membrane by cellulose synthase complexes and does not require transportation. On the other hand, pectin and hemicelluloses are synthesized by enzymes located in the Golgi apparatus. Therefore, they need to be transported to the plasma membrane. Even though this transport mechanism is very important, it is one of the least understood parts of the endomembrane system. Xylan is the major hemicellulose in many biomasses and is important for renewable material production. There is limited knowledge about the cellular trafficking of xylan. In this review, we cover the current information and what we know about the vesicular transport of xylan to the cell wall.


The Centre for Fashion Studies was established at Stockholm University in Sweden, in July 2006 through a generous donation from the Erling Persson Family Foundation, connected to clothing manufacturer H&M. Fashion Studies at Stockholm University is an independent, theoretical discipline with an interdisciplinary approach looking at the past, present and future, and it includes different areas of critical discourse within the humanities and social sciences. Stockholm University Library plays a key role in research and education conducted at the university, and the library works in close collaboration with all disciplines to provide adequate support to researchers and students in a rapidly changing information society. In this article I will focus on and describe the process of acquiring fashion literature at Stockholm University Library from 2006–2013.


The PANDA experiment represents the central part of the hadron physics branch of the antiproton program of the new Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at Darmstadt, Germany. It will investigate antiproton annihilations with almost 4π acceptance from two subsequent spectrometers in the momentum range from 1.5 GeV/c to 15 GeV/c. The gluon rich reaction product of antiproton-proton and antiproton-nucleus collisions on one hand and the high intensity and phase space cooled antiproton beam of the HESR on the other hand constitutes an ideal environment to study non-conventional hadronic states. It allows the high precision spectroscopy of the charmonium system and the copious production of hypernuclei.


Statement of the Problem: A mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) apical plug is commonly applied prior to endodontic treatment of open-apex teeth. However, difficult application and condensation of MTA in the apical region is a drawback of this technique. Purpose: This study aimed to compare the microleakage of MTA apical plug applied by the manual technique and indirect use of ultrasonic with different powers. Materials and Method: In this in vitro, experimental study, divergent open apices were created in 48 single-rooted, single-canal teeth using ProFile. The teeth were randomly divided into four experimental groups (n=10). All groups received 5-mm thick MTA apical plug at the apical region using one of the following methods. In group 1, MTA was manually condensed while in groups 2-4, indirect ultrasonic energy with minimum, medium, and maximum power levels was used for MTA plug condensation. After setting of MTA, the apical microleakage of the MTA plug was quantified using the fluid filtration method. Data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests (p< 0.05). Results: Significant differences were noted in microleakage of MTA plug between the manual group and ultrasonic groups with medium (p= 0.043) and maximum (p= 0.029) power levels. No significant difference was noted in microleakage of other groups (p> 0.05). Conclusion: Considering the current results, it seems that application of MTA with indirect ultrasonic energy at medium or high power level would decrease the microleakage of MTA plug in open-apex root canals.


In this paper we shall present some new results obtained from an application of Positive System Theory [1] to the problem of designing combined routing and flow control strategies for data communication networks. This application permits treating the combined routing and flow control problem in the framework of system stabilization and results in a hierarchical control scheme. The overall control effort consists of a distributed computation of a set of routing parameters at the lower level of network nodes and a computation on a slower time-scale of a set of combined parameters by a Supervisor (Network Control Center) at a higher hierarchical level. Specific algorithms are presented for adaptive updating of these parameters in order to realize improved network performance taking into account multiple objectives of end-to-end delay, throughput and nodal buffer management. The combined routing and flow control problem is attaining a great deal of importance in the recent times. This is due to the fact that the routing schemes and the flow control schemes implemented in existing data networks are designed independent of each other, where-as it has recently been determined [2,3] that a high degree of interplay exists between the two forms of control which has to be taken into account for realizing improved network performance. It has also been determined that a hierarchical control structure provides a very useful mechanism for an integration of routing and flow control [4,5].


Purpose: The Gamma Index defines an asymmetric metric between the evaluated image and the reference image. It provides a quantitative comparison that can be used to indicate sample-wised pass/fail on the agreement of the two images. The Gamma passing/failing rate has become an important clinical evaluation tool. However, the presence of noise in the evaluated and/or reference images may change the Gamma Index, hence the passing/failing rate, and further, clinical decisions. In this work, we systematically studied the impact of the image noise on the Gamma Index calculation. Methods: We used both analytic formulation and numerical calculations in our study. The numerical calculations included simulations and clinical images. Three different noise scenarios were studied in simulations: noise in reference images only, in evaluated images only, and in both. Both white and spatially correlated noises of various magnitudes were simulated. For clinical images of various noise levels, the Gamma Index of measurement against calculation, calculation against measurement, and measurement against measurement, were evaluated. Results: Numerical calculations for both the simulation and clinical data agreed with the analytic formulations, and the clinical data agreed with the simulations. For the Gamma Index of measurement against calculation, its distribution has an increased mean and an increased standard deviation as the noise increases. On the contrary, for the Gamma index of calculation against measurement, its distribution has a decreased mean and stabilized standard deviation as the noise increases. White noise has greater impact on the Gamma Index than spatially correlated noise. Conclusions: The noise has significant impact on the Gamma Index calculation and the impact is asymmetric. The Gamma Index should be reported along with the noise levels in both reference and evaluated images. Reporting of the Gamma Index with switched roles of the images as reference and evaluated images or some composite metrics would be a good practice.


This paper describes the different getting learning understanding of systemic organization knowledge conversation of a Pre-Macro-ergonomics intervention process for 'Awakened need of change', based on implementing PDSA Cycles of learning and its 'Meta-reflection' as an interactive research work. The practical applications and implications of the process are drawn from the finding of the framing positive question toward knowing, relating, action, and organizing; 1) what is the successful of this kind of Pre-Macro-ergonomics Intervention right now? (Appreciative), 2) what do we need to change to make a better future? (Imagine), 3) who takes action and with what consequences? (Act)


This anthology brings together the personal stories of patients, physicians, policy makers, and others whose writings humanize discussions and deliberations about health policy. Drawn from the popular "Narrative Matters" column in the journal Health Affairs, the essays epitomize the policy narrative, a new genre of writing that explores health policy through the expression of personal experiences. Forty-six articles focus on such topics as the hard financial realities of medical insurance, AIDS, assisted suicide, marketing drugs, genetic engineering, organ transplants, and ethnic and racial disparities in the health care system. The narratives raise ethical and moral issues that are being studied in many of our nation's medical schools. This compelling collection provides important insight into the human dimensions of health care and health policy.


This work presents a data model for differentiating and sharing assembly design (AsD) information during collaborative design. Joints between parts are an important aspect of assembly models that are often ambiguous when sharing of models takes place. Although various joints may have similar geometries and topologies, their joining methods and process parameters may vary significantly. It is possible to attach notes and annotations to geometric entities within CAD environments in order to distinguish joints; however, such textual information does not readily prepare models for sharing among collaborators or downstream processes such as simulation and analysis. At present, textual information must be examined and interpreted by the human designer and cannot be interpreted or utilized by the computer; thus, making the querying of information potentially cumbersome and time consuming.This work presents an AsD ontology that explicitly represents assembly constraints, including joining constraints, and infers any remaining implicit ones. By relating concepts through ontology technology rather than just defining an arbitrary data structure, assembly and joining concepts can be captured in their entirety or extended as necessary. By using the knowledge captured by the ontology, similar-looking joints can be differentiated and the collaboration and downstream product development processes further automated, as the semantics attached to the assembly model prepares it for use within the Semantic Web.


This paper discusses efficient simulation methods for stochastic chemical kinetics. Based on the tau-leap and midpoint tau-leap methods of Gillespie [D. T. Gillespie, J. Chem. Phys. 115, 1716 (2001)], binomial random variables are used in these leap methods rather than Poisson random variables. The motivation for this approach is to improve the efficiency of the Poisson leap methods by using larger stepsizes. Unlike Poisson random variables whose range of sample values is from zero to infinity, binomial random variables have a finite range of sample values. This probabilistic property has been used to restrict possible reaction numbers and to avoid negative molecular numbers in stochastic simulations when larger stepsize is used. In this approach a binomial random variable is defined for a single reaction channel in order to keep the reaction number of this channel below the numbers of molecules that undergo this reaction channel. A sampling technique is also designed for the total reaction number of a reactant species that undergoes two or more reaction channels. Samples for the total reaction number are not greater than the molecular number of this species. In addition, probability properties of the binomial random variables provide stepsize conditions for restricting reaction numbers in a chosen time interval. These stepsize conditions are important properties of robust leap control strategies. Numerical results indicate that the proposed binomial leap methods can be applied to a wide range of chemical reaction systems with very good accuracy and significant improvement on efficiency over existing approaches.


PURPOSE
There has been great interest to understand the detection mechanism of the growth of infarct region to periinfarct region (Perfusion Weighted Imaging, PWI and Diffusion weighted Imaging, DWI) in the brain of acute ischemic stroke patients using the principles of MR Physics as it would significantly affects the clinical diagnosis. Similarly, aiding resting state functional Magnetic resonance (fMRI) physics and MR spectroscopic (MRS) principles to the above to the diagnostic clinician will help as these mechanisms are more sensitive to the above changes due to the similar metabolic activity of the tissue under risk (periinfarct) and the dead tissue (infarct). This presentation aims to provide an overview of conventional principles (DWI and PWI) and emphasis the importance of resting state fMRI and MRS physics techniques for monitoring of infarct and peri-infarct tissue along with the growth of infarct region.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Organization of Methods and Results: 1: IntroductionInfarct and peri-infarct region activity after the acute stroke.2: Review of the MR physics role of DWI, PWI, resting state fMRI, MRS and their descriptions with specific examples.3: Detailed discussions on advantages and limitations of both conventional MR (DWI& PWI) and resting state fMRI and MRS physics techniques.

CONCLUSION
The physics principles of monitoring resting state fMRI and MRS of the acute stroke patient along with the conventional MRI (PWI and DWI) can potentially help the clinical community in making precise diagnosis for the acute stroke patient.


Abstract Building information modelling (BIM) could support different activities throughout the life cycle of a building and has been widely applied in design and construction phases nowadays. However, BIM has not been widely implemented in the operation and maintenance (O&M) phase. As-is information for the majority of existing buildings is not complete and even outdated or incorrect. Lack of accurate and complete as-is information is still one of the key reasons leading to the low-level efficiency in O&M. BIM performs as an intelligent platform and a database that stores, links, extracts and exchanges information in construction projects. It has shown promising opportunities and advantages in BIM applications for the improvement in O&M. Hence, an effective and convenient approach to record as-is conditions of the existing buildings and create as-is BIM objects would be the essential step for improving efficiency and effectiveness of O&M, and furthermore possibly refurbishment of the building. Many researchers have paid attention to different systems and approaches for automated and real-time object recognition in past decades. This paper summarizes state-of-the-art statistical matching-based object recognition methods and then presents the image-based Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) BIM object creation application, which extracts object information by simply conducting point-and-click operations. Furthermore, the object recognition research system is introduced, including recognizing structure object types and their corresponding materials. This paper combines the multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) with the fuzzy set theory to be Fuzzy-MAUT, since the MAUT allows complex and powerful combinations of various criteria and fuzzy set theory assists improving the performance of this system. With the goal of creating an effective method for as-is IFC BIM objects construction, this image-based object recognition system and its recognition process are further validated and tested. Key challenges and promising opportunities are also addressed.


Many consumers report being concerned about sustainability but they do not necessarily consume in a sustainable manner. Understanding why this occurs is vital to encouraging sustainable consumption practices. Understanding the phenomenon in relation to adolescents is particularly important. In addition to being a significant segment of current consumers, adolescents are learning consumption habits and preferences that they will carry into adulthood. This research contributes to the domain by fulfilling two research objectives. The first objective was to develop and use a scale for measuring adolescents' sustainability concerns (ASC). The second objective was to identify and examine adolescents' reasons for not consuming sustainably. The research used a three-stage multi-method design that included small group interviews and two online surveys with adolescents aged 12 to 17 years. The ASC scale that we produced identifies 14 key sustainability concerns across the dimensions of environment, well-being and society. The reasons for not consuming sustainably varied across these dimensions. For example, the most frequently reported reasons in the environmental dimension included cost and convenience whereas peer pressure and hedonic preferences were the dominant reasons for well-being. More broadly, three groups of reasons for unsustainable consumption emerged. These included (i) limited application of sustainability concerns across consumption; (ii) deviating from concerns due to competing priorities; and (iii) limiting or eliminating personal responsibility. The contributions of this research have theoretical, methodological and practical implications for consumer researchers, social marketers and policy makers.


This book, however, is a welcome exception. Although written by a speech therapist, it attempts to cover the 'overall framework of dyspraxias and movement disorders' and does not focus on speechrelated disturbances alone. Indeed, the section on 'Apraxia of speech' makes up only one tenth of the total contents, leaving ample space for the other dyspraxias including: 'The gestural dyspraxias', 'Constructural dyspraxia', 'Ocular-motor apraxia', 'Dyspraxia-related disturbances', and 'Developmental dyspraxia'. The final chapter deals with 'Therapy' and draws on the author's personal experience. It also concentrates on 'more central needs in rehabilitation which have hitherto been ignored'. This phrase recalls the author's claim that 'a perusal of the major medical and clinical textbooks, even specialist ones on neurology, movement disorders, strokes and head injury, willprobably be rewarded with only a cursory and distorted possibly even inaccurate mention of dyspraxia'.


"This book covers advances in algorithmic developments, theoretical frameworks, andexperimental research findings to assist professionals who want an improved ...


Abstract In this essay, Yousef Munayyer reflects on the politics of contentiousness through the lens of dissent and repression. He singles out Naseer Aruri's "Resistance and Repression: Political Prisoners in Israeli Occupied Territories" (1979) as a JPS "hidden gem" and Gene Sharp's "Intifadah and Nonviolent Struggle" (1989) as a "greatest hit." Aruri's piece, which has not garnered as much visibility as Sharp's, pinpoints the ways in which political imprisonment, torture, and the weaponization of the law, as well as extraterritorial jurisdiction, are wielded by Israel as instruments of political repression. The "greatest hit," by the late contemporary theorist of nonviolence Gene Sharp examines the Palestinian national movement's resistance strategy eighteen months into the First Intifada.


Purpose: Pharmacognostical evaluation of bark of Dalbergia sissoo is done for identification in field and differentiates from other species of Dalbergia. Methods: Drug is studied taxonomically and its macroscopic, microscopic features were studied including powder microscopy of bark with suitable instruments. Results: Macroscopic study reveals on drying bark is flat curved inward with presence of cracks color reddish brown outer surface rough warty while inner surface was tough, longitudinally striated whereas microscopic study reveals outline of transverse section (TS) exposed rhytidome covering the upper part of section. It was continue with cork cells followed wide zone of secondarycortex. Concentric rings of fibres were present throughout the secondary phloem. The detailed TS showed dark coloured rhytodome cells followed by multilayered cork cells. Secretory cells containing tannin was present in secondary cortex zone. Presence of calcium oxalate crystals present in rays cells and parenchyma cells of cortex. Starch grains were present throughout the parenchyma cells. Powder was dark red in colour, bitter .taste , fruity odor. Powder microscopy reveals fragments of cork cells, stone cells, septate fibres, Pitted medullary ray cells, Prismatic crystals of calcium oxalate, simple starch grains and fragments of fibres found present. Conclusion: Finding of this study will falicitate pharmacognostic standardization of plant material and become an aid for identification as well as preparation of herbal monographs for the species and to enjoy the Ayuvedic classical claims.


The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data have confirmed the pulsed emission from all six high-confidence gamma-ray pulsars previously known from the EGRET observations. We report results obtained from the analysis of 13 months of LAT data for three of these pulsars (PSR J1057−5226, PSR J1709−4429, and PSR J1952+3252) each of which had some unique feature among the EGRET pulsars. The excellent sensitivity of LAT allows more detailed analysis of the evolution of the pulse profile with energy and also of the variation of the spectral shape with phase. We measure the cutoff energy of the pulsed emission from these pulsars for the first time and provide a more complete picture of the emission mechanism. The results confirm some, but not all, of the features seen in the EGRET data.