Learning process varies from student to student. In a related research, it is argued that one of the basic elements for this variation is due to student's distinct learning styles. Planning learning situations based on the knowledge of learners' learning styles can be more effective and efficient. With the learning-teaching process designed in accordance with the learning styles of students, it is possible to develop positive attitudes towards the courses and to increase academic success. Pre-service teachers' awareness of their own learning styles can be effective both for their own development during their pre-service training and for the development of their students during their in-service professional career. The purpose of the current study is to determine the learning styles of the pre-service basic education teachers and to examine the relationships between their learning styles and gender, age, program type, grade level and grade point average. In data collection, the Kolb Learning Style Inventory was used. The current study was conducted on 493 pre-service teachers randomly selected from among the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year students attending the Basic Education Departments of Classroom Teaching and Pre-school Teacher Education in the Education Faculty of Necmettin Erbakan University, in 2017/2018 academic year. In the analysis of the collected data, SPSS 24 program package was used. The pre-service teachers' learning styles are presented through descriptive statistics, frequencies (f) and percentages (%). Whether the pre-service teachers' learning styles vary significantly depending on the variables of gender, age, program type, grade level and grade point average was tested with Chi-Square Test. Of the participating pre-service teachers, 398 (80.7%) are females and 95 (19.3%) are males; 250 (50.7%) are from the department of classroom teaching and 243 (49.3%) are from the department of pre-school teacher education. The results of the current study have revealed that the participating pre-service teachers have adopted the "Diverging" learning style to the greatest extent and the "Converging" learning style to the smallest extent.

 Key words: Basic education, student, learning styles, variables, evaluation.


Iran's relationships with Latin America and the engagement style it has developed have created many controversies, especially in the West. The purpose of this study is to draw a diagram of the relations Iran has established with the continent and to explain the nature of relations in terms of content. Relations that started in the period of Ahmadinejad and soared rapidly experienced a slowdown period later. The main problem for Iran, which is moving to revitalize relations with the continent after 2015, is rather whether it can expand its field of legitimacy or not. In Latin America, which has recently undergone politically a transformation from left politics to right politics, how the political powers will enter into relation with Iran will largely be shaped through (i) Iran's relations with the West and (ii) Tehran's relationship with the continent.


A farm survey was conducted in three representative administrative districts of the Lake Victoria Basin (LVB), Kenya to document farmers' indigenous knowledge and the factors that influence the use of botanicals instead of synthetic insecticides in insect pest management. A total of 65 farm households were randomly sampled using stratified sampling procedure. The maximum likelihood log model was used to determine factors that influence use of botanical and synthetic insect pest control methods (PCM). Results revealed that female gender as household head (HH) and age significantly ( P < .001) increased the likelihood of a household using botanical PCM in the field by 0.15 and 0.021, respectively. In storage, female gender and severity of pest infestation significantly ( P < .001) increased the probability of a household using botanical insecticide by 0.814 and 0.738, respectively. On the contrary, education of HH (0.342) and ownership of title to land (0.512) significantly ( P < .001) reduced the likelihood of using botanical PCM in the field, while traditional rank (0.910) and cash rank (0.744) of the crops reduced the likelihood of using botanical insecticides in the store. With respect to synthetic pesticides, gender (3.407), area cultivated (0.295) and expected yield (5.315) significantly ( P < .001) reduced likelihood of their use in the field, while food rank (3.967) reduced the probability of use in storage. In storage, female gender, crop type, food and traditional rank of crops were also the most important factors determining the use of botanical control methods. In conclusion, the study established that female gender, literacy levels, wealth endowments in form of land and old age are key determinants of botanical insecticides use in small-holder farming systems in the LVB, Kenya. It is recommended that the Government of Kenya enacts policies that empower youth and female gender economically in subsistence farming with the aim of improving their educational levels and farming skills to modernize agriculture among the rural communities.


Rice blast, caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae (anamorph: Pyricularia oryzae ), is a ubiquitous disease that threatens rice production in the USA and worldwide. Growing resistant cultivars is the most economical and effective way to manage this disease. Multiple races exist in the M. oryzae population in the USA. It is necessary to know the resistance spectrum of rice cultivars to the prevalent rice blast races in the areas where they are grown. Twelve isolates of M. oryzae collected from the southern US rice-growing region were used in this study. The genetic diversity of these isolates was evaluated with genetic and molecular methods, and the pathogenicity to different rice blast resistance genes was determined by the disease reaction of two sets of near-isogenic lines containing one blast R gene per line. From 2005 to 2016, about 200 Uniform Regional Rice Nursery (URRN) breeding lines have been tested with 9–12 reference isolates annually, and a total of 2377 breeding lines have been tested. The varieties with good resistance to rice blast disease have been identified. The results could be useful for the management of rice blast disease in the southern US rice production area.


Before farmers can benefit from new improved maize varieties with novel genetic information, new maize varieties have to undergo performance testing, registration and approval. The registration procedures require that new maize varieties must pass the tests for value for cultivation and use (VCU) and standardized tests for distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS). To meet the minimum requirements for variety release, public and private sector maize breeding programs routinely assemble breeding nurseries and evaluate variety performance in National and Regional Performance Trials (NRPT) with the objective of generating important agronomic data to identify the best maize varieties for release. In spite of intensive variety evaluation in regional and national trials, only few maize varieties have been registered and released annually in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) denying farmers access to new improved varieties. The purpose of this study was to identify constraints hampering the registration and release of elite maize germplasm and make recommends on how to quicken the deployment of elite germplasm to smallholders' farmers. A survey was conducted on the varietal testing and release systems in 14 selected countries (Angola, Benin. Ethiopia, Malawi, Ghana. Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia. and Zimbabwe) in SSA. The results from the study show that regulations on variety testing and release procedures in the various countries are overlapping and rigid hindering the deployment and commercialization of new improved maize germplasm. The study also showed that varietal release rates fluctuated between countries with South Africa having the highest number of varietal release rates per year and some countries failing to release a single variety per year.


In this paper, we study virtual full-duplex (FD) buffer-aided relaying to recover the loss of multiplexing gain caused by half-duplex (HD) relaying in a multiple relay network, where each relay is equipped with a buffer and multiple antennas, through joint opportunistic relay selection (RS) and beamforming (BF) design. The main idea behind virtual FD buffer-aided relaying is that the source and one of the relays simultaneously transmit their own information to another relay and the destination, respectively. In such networks, interrelay interference (IRI) is a crucial problem, which has to be resolved like self-interference in the FD relaying. In contrast to previous work that neglected IRI, we propose joint RS and BF schemes taking IRI into consideration by using multiple antennas at the relays. To maximize average end-to-end rate, we propose a weighted sum-rate maximization strategy assuming that adaptive rate transmission is employed in both the source to relay and relay to destination links. Then, we propose several BF schemes cancelling or suppressing IRI in order to maximize the weighted sum-rate. Numerical results show that our proposed optimal, zero-forcing, and minimum mean square error BF-based RS schemes asymptotically approach the ideal FD relaying upper bound when increasing the number of antennas and/or the number of relays.


Economic Incentives, Transaction Costs and Carbon Trading: The Economics of Alberta's Reduced Age to Harvest Protocol. Climate change is a global problem that requires individual countries to take action to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Canada's GHG emissions have increased from 613 megatonnes (Mt) in 1990 to 726Mt in 2013; an 18 percent increase (Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2015). The agriculture sector produces approximately 10 percent of the GHG emissions in Canada and methane and nitrous oxide are the two largest sources of emissions (AAFC, 2015). The main sources of methane emissions are from cattle and sheep production and animal manure. The amount of methane produced during the production process can be reduced by changing the animal's diet, the age at harvest and the addition of various agents and compounds to the feed (AAFC, 2014a). GHG emissions in the province of Alberta increased from 175Mt in 1990 to 267 Mt in 2013 (Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2015). To address this increase in GHG emissions, Alberta introduced a carbon traded system where large emitters of GHG emissions are regulated (Boyle, 2008-09). Regulated firms can satisfied their required reductions by: (1) reducing their GHG emission intensity, (2) purchasing Emission Performance Credits from other regulated firms, (3) purchasing Technical Fund Credits or (4) purchasing Carbon Offset Credits. The province of Alberta has been active in the development of agricultural protocols that can be used to produce Carbon Offset Credits. However, agricultural producers will only undertake these management changes if there are economic incentives to do so. This paper investigates the transaction costs that will be incurred in generating Carbon Offset Credits from the Reduce Age to Harvest protocol and the economic incentives that will be generated for the aggregator and the feedlot operator. The Reduce Age to Harvest (RAH) Protocol was designed to quantify the GHG emissions that result from reducing the age of cattle when harvested. The protocol is designed to measure the GHG emissions per kilogram of carcass weight of beef. The RAH protocol includes the GHG emissions from the pasture, backgrounding, and feedlot operation as well as manure storage and handling. When the age to harvest is decreased the amount of GHG emissions also decreases (AESRD, 2011). A greenhouse gas calculator that was specifically designed for the feedlot industry was used to estimate the impact of decreasing the age of harvest from 19 months to 15 months. The change in management required bringing steer or heifer calves into the feedlot instead of yearling animals. This change in management resulted in a reduction of 2.3 tCO2e per head for steers and 2.49 tCO2e for heifers. The transaction costs of developing Carbon Offset Credits plays an important role in estimating the economic incentives of the RAH protocol. The RAH protocol will require the services of an aggregator who will manage the transaction costs of generating the Carbon Offset Credits from the feedlot operator to selling the Offset Credits on the market. In order to estimate the costs of the aggregation function, a series of semi structured and structured surveys and interviews were undertaken with aggregators who worked with feedlot operators as project developers. The semi-structure survey was an open discussion with one aggregator to define the types of costs that would be associated with developing a project using the RAH protocol. These costs were broken down into three categories. The first category was fixed costs that would be required no-matter the number of credits that would be generated and included: legal costs, accounting costs, office space, project planning, website development, computer software development, computer storage, etc. The second category of costs varied with the number of carbon offset credits that are generated. These included data collecting costs, de-listing costs, registration costs, and insurance costs. The third set of costs was based on the number of projects in the aggregator's portfolio. These included the project listing costs and the verification costs. Once these detailed costs were identified a group of aggregators were surveyed to provide estimates of the various costs. Once these estimates were received, a consensus group of estimates were developed. These were then reviewed by the aggregators to provide an indication of the accuracy of the estimates. Once these costs were deemed acceptable a net present value calculation was undertaken to determine the economic feasibility of providing project development services for a RAH project. This analysis includes a sensitivity analyses on the variables that had an impact on the economic feasibility of being an aggregator. The economic incentive for the feedlot operator was also investigated. This included variations in the carbon price, the share of carbon revenue between the aggregator and the feedlot operator and the change in the cost of production from the change in management. This study estimated the benefits and costs for the aggregator and the feedlot operator of generating Carbon Offset Credits using the RAH protocol in the Alberta Carbon Market. Three carbon price scenarios were investigated and a sensitivity analysis was undertaken on some of the key variables that would impact the results. The analysis indicated that there are economic incentives for aggregators to get involved in the Carbon Offset Market with the RAH protocol. The economic incentives change with the carbon price, quantity of offset credits generated and the share of carbon revenue going to the aggregator. There are also favourable economic incentives for the feedlot operator. These results are sensitive to the carbon offset price, the share of offset revenue received and the change in the cost of production. The analysis indicated that the economics from carbon offset generation is positive, however, the revenue generated is substantially less significant than the revenue from the cattle production.


Passport for Louis Huth including physical description. Signed by Secretary of State William H. Seward on May 17, 1866 in Washington [D. C.].


Four heavy crude petroleums, Boscan, Cerro Negro, Wilmington, and Prudhoe Bay, have been examined by high-performance liquid chromatography in combination with graphite furnace atomic absorption detection (HPLC/GFAA) to provide both a vanadium fingerprint and a molecular weight categorization of the vanadyl porphyrin and non-porphyrin compounds present. We have also attempted to speciate the vanadyl porphyrin and non-porphyrin compounds in these heavy crude oils by comparison of their size exclusion and polar aminocyano separated vanadium histograms to authentic compounds. 35 references, 8 figures, 3 tables.


The robot vision system is the critical component of the soccer robot, in football competition, robot perceive the most of the information from the vision system. Because of the variable illumination conditions, the traditional image segmentation method based on color information is not satisfactory. Based on the color information and shape information of the object, this paper proposes a object recognition algorithm that combine color image segmentation with edge detection. This algorithm implement image segmentation use color information in the HSV color space obtain the pixel of the object, then use this pixel implement edge detection to recognize the object. Experiments show that this algorithm can recognize the object exactly in the different illumination conditions, satisfy the requirement of the competition.


Transversus abdominis plane (TAP) is a fascial plane containing the thoracolumbar nerve branches that innervate the abdominal wall. Limited information is available on the anatomical organization of these nerve branches in the dog, which is of great importance for the success of the TAP block anaesthetic technique. The aim of this study was to describe the origin and conformation of thoracolumbar nerves running through the TAP in 20 hemi‐abdominal walls of 10 adult mongrel dog cadavers with an average body weight of 12.6 kg (range: 9.6‐15.6). The abdominal walls were dissected from superficial to deep direction, the skin and both obliquus externus abdominis and obliquus internus abdominis muscles were dissected and reflected dorsally to expose the transversus abdominis muscle and the thoracolumbar nerve branches located in this plane. The anatomical features of ventral nerve branches were described. The thoracic nerve branches: T7–T12 and costoabdominalis; and the lumbar nerve branches: iliohypogastricus cranialis, iliohypogastricus caudalis, ilioinguinalis and cutaneus femoris lateralis were identified in all the cadavers. Anatomical variations related to the presence or absence within the TAP of the T7, T8 and T9 nerve branches were found. These variations should be taken into account when planning the TAP block technique in dogs.


Today, archaeologists are spending more and more time examining the past with the aid of computers. How does this increased dependence on technology affect the theory and practice of archaeology? Using Computers in Archaeology is a comprehensive review of computer applications in archaeology from the archaeologist's perspective. The book deals with all aspects of the discipline, from survey and excavation, to museums and education. Discussion covers the theoretical aspects of computer applications, with particular reference to GIS and the analysis of data, but technical jargon is kept to a minimum. With numerous illustrations, case-studies and examples, Using Computers in Archaeology is a timely introduction to this increasingly important area of archaeology, catering both for the student and the experienced archaeologist.


Since Marshall and Warren reported the first isolation of Helicobacter pylori basic and clinical research on pathogenesis and epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori infection have been tremendous. Childhood is clearly established as the period of major risk for Helicobacter pylori acquisition. The transmission pathways may be several including the oral-oral, the gastro-oral or the fecal-oral transmission route. The colonization of Helicobacter pylori occurs exclusively in the gastric mucosa or in areas of gastric metaplasia especially in the duodenum. Helicobacter pylori possesses several factors to adhere to the epithelial cells and to cause mucosal damage. The acquisition of Helicobacter pylori always induces a chronic gastritis. The development to clinical manifestations (peptic ulcer or gastric cancer) are further dependent on specific bacterial strain virulence factors as well as on host and environment factors. The mechanisms involved in the inflammatory process have been elucidated in great detail and will further be focused and related to specific associated disease development.


This study was aimed at analyzing the effects of packaging (MAP) and preservation conditions on the packaged fresh walnut kernel quality. The central composite plan was used for evaluating the effect of oxygen (0–10%), carbon dioxide (0-10%), and temperature (4-26 °C) on qualitative characteristics of walnut kernels. Also, the response level technique was used to find the optimal conditions for interactive effects of factors, as well as estimating the best conditions of process using least amount of testing. Measured qualitative parameters were: peroxide index, color, decreased weight, mould and yeast counting test, and sensory evaluation. The results showed that the defined model for peroxide index, color, weight loss, and sensory evaluation is significant (p < 0.001), so that increase of temperature causes the peroxide value, color variation, and weight loss to increase and it reduces the overall acceptability of walnut kernels. An increase in oxygen percentage caused the color variation level and peroxide value to increase and resulted in lower overall acceptability of the walnuts. An increase in CO2 percentage caused the peroxide value to decrease, but did not significantly affect other indices (p ≥ 0.05). Mould and yeast were not found in any samples. Optimal packaging conditions to achieve maximum quality of walnuts include: 1.46% oxygen, 10% carbon dioxide, and temperature of 4 °C. Keywords—Shelled walnut, MAP, quality, storage temperature.


As the regulation and assessment program for safety of passengers become stringent, automakers are required to develop lighter and safer vehicles. In order to fulfill both requirements which conflict with each other, automobile and steel companies have proposed the application of AHSS(Advance High Strength Steel) such as DP, TRIP and martensite steel. ULSAB-AVC model is one of the most remarkable reactions to offer solutions with the use of steel for the challenge to improve simultaneously the fuel efficiency, passenger safety, vehicle performance and affordability. This paper is concerned with the crash analysis of ULSAB-AVC model according to the US-SINCAP in order to compare the effectiveness between the model with AHSS and that with conventional steels. The crashworthiness is investigated by comparing the deformed shape of the cabin room, the energy absorption characteristics and the intrusion velocity of a car.


A crush criterion and a simplified post-crush process for spherical grains are introduced into the traditional distinct element model (DEM). The crush criterion is based on Hertzian contact, and it indicates a negative relation between critical force Fcr and radius R via Fcr∝R−3/2. Effects of grain crush on deformation pattern and statistical features of crush evolution for samples under uniaxial strain load are intensively investigated. Influences of maximum crush times and particle size distribution (PSD) are also discussed. It is found that: (1) Grain crush will blur the localization of deformation. (2) Crush is prone to occur in larger grains, due to force concentration and lower critical force Fcr for larger grains. (3) Grain crush only temporarily reduces contact force, which results in the most rapid increase of the number of grains with maximum crush time.


Objective: To evaluate the effect of resveratrol on an experimentally induced endometriosis rat model. Study design: After endometriotic implants were surgically formed, rats were randomly divided into 2 groups as control group (saline treated, n = 6) and resveratrol group (10 mg/kg/d, n = 6). The inflammatory markers and histopathological changes were assessed at the end of the treatment period. Results Our results showed (1) significant reduction in the implant size (P < .0005); (2) significantly decreased levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the peritoneal fluid and plasma (P < .005); and monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1) in the peritoneal fluid (P < .05), (3) highly significant suppression of VEGF expression in the endometriotic tissue (P < .0005); and (4) considerable histological changes in the endometriotic foci following resveratrol treatment. Conclusion: Resveratrol appears to be effective on the development of endometriosis through its antiangiogenic and anti-inflammatory properties. Future studies with different doses of resveratrol might provide more comprehensive results regarding the treatment of endometriosis.


Genome integrity in eukaryotes depends on licensing mechanisms that prevent loading of the minichromosome maintenance complex (MCM2-7) onto replicated DNA during S phase. Although the principle of licensing appears to be conserved across all eukaryotes, the mechanisms that control it vary, and it is not clear how licensing is regulated in plants. In this work, we demonstrate that subunits of the MCM2-7 complex are coordinately expressed during Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) development and are abundant in proliferating and endocycling tissues, indicative of a role in DNA replication. We show that endogenous MCM5 and MCM7 proteins are localized in the nucleus during G1, S, and G2 phases of the cell cycle and are released into the cytoplasmic compartment during mitosis. We also show that MCM5 and MCM7 are topologically constrained on DNA and that the MCM complex is stable under high-salt conditions. Our results are consistent with a conserved replicative helicase function for the MCM complex in plants but not with the idea that plants resemble budding yeast by actively exporting the MCM complex from the nucleus to prevent unauthorized origin licensing and rereplication during S phase. Instead, our data show that, like other higher eukaryotes, the MCM complex in plants remains in the nucleus throughout most of the cell cycle and is only dispersed in mitotic cells.


Los Angeles--The largest clinical database built on renal cell carcinoma is beginning to yield definitive answers to questions about prognosis and treatment. Analyses of histories of more than 4,000 patients at eight academic medical centers worldwide has already indicated that tumor stage, grade, and performance status have a stronger influence on prognosis than tumor stage alone and that the indications for partial nephrectomy can expand.


In differential cryptanalysis, a differential is more valuable than the single trail belonging to it in general. The traditional way to compute the probability of the differential is to sum the probabilities of all trails within it. The automatic tool for the search of differentials based on Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) has been proposed and realises the task of finding multiple trails of a given differential. The problem is whether it is reliable to evaluate the probability of the differential traditionally. In this paper, we focus on two lightweight block ciphers – LED64 and Midori64 and show the more accurate estimation of differential probability considering the key schedule. Firstly, an automated tool based on Boolean Satisfiability Problem (SAT) is put forward to accomplish the automatic search of differentials for ciphers with S-boxes and is applied to LED64 and Midori64. Secondly, we provide an automatic approach to detect the right pairs following a given differential, which can be exploited to calculate the differential property. Applying this technique to the STEP function of LED64, we discover some differentials with enhanced probability. As a result, the previous attacks relying upon high probability differentials can be improved definitely. Thirdly, we present a method to compute an upper-bound of the weak-key ratio for a given differential, which is utilised to analyse 4-round differentials of Midori64. We detect two differentials whose weak-key ratios are much lower than the expected 50%. More than 78% of the keys will make these two differentials being impossible differentials. The idea of the estimation for an upper-bound of the weak-key ratio can be employed for other ciphers and allows us to launch differential attacks more reliably. Finally, we introduce how to compute the enhanced differential probability and evaluate the size of keys achieving the improved probability. Such a property may incur an efficient weak-key attack. For a 4-round differential of Midori64, we obtain an improved differential property for a portion of keys.


Shiga toxins comprise a family of structurally and functionally related protein toxins expressed by Shigella dysenteriae serotype 1 and multiple serotypes of Escherichia coli. While the capacity of Shiga toxins to inhibit protein synthesis by catalytic inactivation of eukaryotic ribosomes has been well described, it is also apparent that Shiga toxins trigger apoptosis in many cell types. This review presents evidence that Shiga toxins induce apoptosis of epithelial, endothelial, leukocytic, lymphoid and neuronal cells. Apoptotic signaling pathways activated by the toxins are reviewed with an emphasis on signaling mechanisms that are shared among different cell types. Data suggesting that Shiga toxins induce apoptosis through the endoplasmic reticulum stress response and clinical evidence demonstrating apoptosis in humans infected with Shiga toxin-producing bacteria are briefly discussed. The potential for use of Shiga toxins to induce apoptosis in cancer cells is briefly reviewed.


The modernist period ushered forth numerous scientific and philosophical theories that had a notable influence on art, literature, psychology, and philosophy. Discoveries such as Einstein's general theory of relativity inspired theologians, philosophers, and psychologists to focalize new concepts of self, identity, time, reality, and human experience. These shifts in contemporary human understanding developed in concurrence with increased global travel and intellectual exchange between Western and Eastern countries. As a result, writers, philosophers, and artists became more interested in Buddhism and other Eastern philosophical beliefs. Virginia Woolf, while being a self-proclaimed atheist, was deeply influenced by Eastern philosophy and well versed in contemporary scientific theories. Drawing on literary and biographical criticism of Virginia Woolf, I trace the intersections of Eastern philosophical beliefs and Western scientific theories through the stream of consciousness narration of Mrs. Dalloway by analyzing both what and how things are experienced by individual characters. In the novel, the integration of each character's stream of consciousness fabricates a dissonant medium in which singular moments in the present time are experienced through the minds of multiple characters, while they simultaneously navigate past spans of time within their individual narrative consciousness. Through the analysis of narrative form and narrative consciousness in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, it is possible to track the impact of Eastern philosophies and Western scientific theories in the novel's exploration of external and internal perceptions of reality.


The effects of sodium benzoate, ascorbic acid and cystein on the kinetics of oxidation of oxyhemoglobin in the presence of sodium nitrite were studied. It was shown that sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid suppress nitrite methemoglobin formation more intensively than cystein. Both compounds can also inhibit nitrite oxidation of intraerythrocyte hemoglobin. Possible mechanisms underlying the inhibiting effects of sodium benzoate, ascorbic acid and cystein are discussed.


The importance of a form of international accounting standard has been well documented over the past twenty years. In the area of research the predominant
focus has been on the measurement of the degree of harmonisation between countries. This research, whilst qualitative in nature, has, in the main, relied on a
quantitative assessment of accounting practices in the countries being reviewed. In doing this, reliance has been placed on surveys, questionnaires and reviews of
financial statements. Each has its own set of problems. This is all illustrated and highlighted in the literature survey where argument and counter argument is evident over twenty years.

In all this, little has been done to review the foundation from which the data is extracted and it is argued that the very aspect of a qualitative work has been ignored completely in favour of the more high profile quantitative research.

The research sets out to investigate whether, in point of fact, there is a need to undertake a more searching and detailed examination of accounting practices in each country before any attempt is made of a measurement study or a classification study. Clearly the answer is that this must be done as only in so doing can the playing field be levelled and can the very basis for measurement or classification be fully understood in advance.

It was necessary to undertake a full sampling of groups of companies in the three member states and to draw the smaller sample from those final lists. This was to
prevent any aspect of bias being present and to ensure that only random sampling was undertaken in the final selection. The initial response to requests for financial statements and the subsequent follow ups resulted in a staggering response of 77% over the three member states and from these a sample equivalent to approximately 20% was drawn for further analysis. It is to be hoped that with further funding and additional resources, further investigation can be conducted into the remainder of the sample which would be brought up-to-date.

The results of the research indicate positively that the qualitative work must be undertaken first and foremost and that any quantitative work can only be of value if cognisance is taken of the many diverse problems that can, and do arise in accounting practice. These problems are detailed in the research and while not claiming to be exhaustive, they nevertheless provide an imposing array of the multitude of problems that do arise in undertaking either a measurement study or a classification between countries.

This work fills an important gap in the literature and examines an area not covered by previous research. It highlights the underlying problems of quantitative work
and while not attempting to underrate that work, it nevertheless suggests that research of a qualitative nature should not be ignored or undervalued.

The thesis consists of nine chapters together with a number of appendices. The chapters are designed to underpin the base of knowledge of the five accounting practices dealt with in the thesis and to explain the workings of the important bodies who nave played a vital role in accounting harmonisation. Even as the concluding words are written the European Commission is moving ahead with their plan for a more harmonised Europe. They are joined by the International
Accounting Standards Committee who are moving ahead in their plan for a worldwide set of accounting standards.

Chapter 1 introduces the study while Chapter 2 explains why this area of research was undertaken. Chapter 3 examines the literature dealing with both measurement and classification studies. The investigation of the three member states naturally requires an understanding of the workings of the European Union and this is dealt with in Chapter 4 while Chapters 5 and 6 examine the Directives issued and the diversity of accounting practice within the three member states. This is accompanied by a more in-depth discussion on the five accounting practices, which are the subject matter of the work. Chapter 7 takes a deeper look into the accounting practices of France, Germany and the United Kingdom before moving on to Chapter 8 which examines the five topics of deferred taxation, foreign currency translation, goodwill, leases and pensions. This chapter analyses the sample groups of listed companies so as to determine if the original hypothesis was in fact correct. The chapter concludes with a number of lessons to be learnt from each of the five topics. Chapter 9 analyses these lessons and draws a conclusion which is well illustrated by a list of problems that have been deduced from this work.


This report (RE-305) presents the evaluation conducted by the Office of Evaluation and Oversight of the Bank's program with Panama from 1991 to 2003. Its intent is to describe for the Bank's Directors the outcomes of the institution's activity in Panama and extract lessons that can help make future Bank actions more effective. Overall, this evaluation found the Bank's program with Panama in 1991-2003 to be consistent and coherent. Recommendations include that the Bank analyzes the administrative costs of its operations more thoroughly and, with that information, work with the country to find ways of lowering them; and that different kinds of policies and instruments need to be combined to further the key sectors of the Panamanian economy while also fostering the less dynamic sectors, for the ultimate benefit of the population at large.


The Ted Steele case is an important episode in the defense of academic freedom in Australia. In addition, it offers a wealth of evidence on how a dismissal, perceived as an attack on academic freedom and free speech, can boomerang on the administration. Yet the matter is more complex than a simple boomerang: the actions of dissidents and unions can also boomerang. In this paper, I examine academic boomerang dynamics through a close analysis of the Steele case.


The present research work based on ethnobotanical surveys was conducted during the March 2015 to November 2015 in the designated areas of Sarai Alamgir, Gujrat, Pakistan. This study has investigated the traditional knowledge of local societies about the uses of native, medicinally important plants as ethnomedicines. Questionnaire method was used for the indigenous knowledge about native medicinal flora. The local community, knowledgeable persons and (Hakeem's) who are the main users of medicinally valuable plants were collaborated in interviews about native plants. Plant specimens were collected, identified, preserved, mounted and voucher was deposited in the Department of Botany, University of Arid Agriculture Rawalpindi, for future references.


Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has been proposed as an alternative to classical electromagnetic induction techniques for the landmine detection problem. The Wichmann/Niitek system provides a good platform for novel GPR-based antitank mine detection and classification algorithm development due to its extremely high SNR. When the GPR sensor is mounted on a moving vehicle, the target signatures are hyperbolas in a time-domain data record. The goal of this work is to extract useful features that exploit this knowledge in order to improve target detection. The algorithms can be divided into two steps: feature extraction and classification. Preprocessing is also considered to remove both stationary effects and nonstationary drift of the data and to improve the contrast of the desired hyperbolas. The algorithm is evaluated using real data over primarily plastic antitank mines collected with a fielded GPR sensor at a government test site.


Introduction As the business world becomes more global and the level of international competition continues to increase, managers will find themselves facing increasingly complex strategic decisions. Perhaps first and foremost among these decisions are the decisions relating to methods of expanding the firms' international operations. However, as one considers the prospects of international expansion one can not help but be aware of the many and varied risks facing firms in these "strange new lands." Ghoshal (1987) has postulated that managing risks is one of three strategic objectives for managers of multinational firms. Yasai-Ardekani (1986) has suggested that industry environmental characteristics such as risk, influence management perception which, in turn, leads to an influence on the structure of the organization. Carman and Langeard (1980) have stated that service firms face far greater risks in international expansion than do product firms: (1) the inseparability of production and consumption for services eliminates certain entry mode choices, (2) the lack of visibility of services (intangibility) increases the time needed to diffuse service innovation, and (3) service providers may be perceived by host governments as contributing little to the national economy while draining resources, precipitating regulations that favor domestic service providers over foreign providers. Existing research has shown a relationship between risk and international diversification, i.e. how firms can reduce overall financial risk by diversifying into international markets (see Rugman 1979 for a discussion). Risk has also been shown as a motivation for international expansion, e.g. entry into competitor markets as a bargaining tool through the "exchange of threats" (Casson 1987, Graham 1985, Vernon 1985, Vernon 1974). In addition entry mode research has included "risk" as$a key element in many of their studies of entry mode determinants (Root 1987, Anderson and Gatignon 1986, Hennart 1988, Contractor 1990, Buckley and Mathew 1980). Vernon (1985) and Miller (1992) have suggested that the perception of a more comprehensive "international" risk and the strategic choice of entry mode may be related. They suggest that looking at individual international risks, such as exchange rate or political risks, in isolation of the other international risks results in an incorrect analysis of the internalization question and can lead to an incorrect entry mode choice. This study is part of a more expansive research project designed to measure perceived risks in different parts of the world and relate these risk perceptions to the strategic choices made by managers. To focus in on the risk-strategy relationship, we first identify key components of the international risks involved in strategic decisions making and then we explore ways in which management can minimize the impact of these risks on the firm through the strategies, i.e. entry mode selected. Once a theoretical base is formed, we present the results of a pilot study to test the risk-entry mode relationships, using a small sample of international high-tech service firms. Whet is International Risk? Both Miller (1992) and Vernon (1985) refer to international risk, however only Miller provides details of a three part integration of international risk variables. The three parts consist of (1) general environmental, (2) industry, and (3) firm-specific risks. General environmental uncertainty refers to those variables that are consistent across all industries within a given country. Included in this factor are such variables as political risk, government policy uncertainty, economic uncertainty, social uncertainty, and natural uncertainty (uncertainty caused by nature itself, such as floows or typhoons). Miller's second grouping, industry uncertainty, contains the risks associated with differences in industry/product-specific variables. Among these variables are the input market uncertainties associated with production inputs, such as material/labor supply availability, quality, and quantity. …


The purpose of this thesis has been to study how the Estonian print media covered and
reported on the subject of genetically modified organisms (GMO) from 1999-2004 as
well as to examine the construction of public images of GMO related risks. The
manner in which the GMO issue is reported in the media has a big impact on the
public's perception and opinion on the topic. However, the debate within Estonian on
biotechnology related fields is still in its beginning stages because GMOs and the
issues surrounding them are relatively new for Estonia. However, recent
developments in the Estonian Genome Project brought the issue of biotechnology and
its broader implications into the everyday lives of Estonians and then increased public
interest and discussion on the issue. The GMO debate that has emerged in recent years
provides an ample opportunity to investigate the public representation of this area of
biotechnology. In my thesis, I study the public representation of GMOs in Estonia in
relation to another country where there has been extensive debate on the topic as well
as compare the Estonian GMO public debate with Estonian Genome Project debate.
To properly assess and analyze how the Estonian print media shapes public perception
of GMOs, I compared its coverage to the United States' print media coverage of the
same topic. The United States print media was used as a comparison due to its
position at the forefront of biotechnology development as well as its active role in the
GMO debate. Therefore America's exposure, participation and diverse opinions on
the topic would provide a viable comparison to the Estonian print media.
The Estonian print media included in this study were daily newspapers (Postimees
and Eesti Paevaleht) weekly newspapers (Aripaev, Eesti Ekspress, and Maaleht) and
magazines (Eesti Loodus, Loodus, Maamajandus, and Luup). As the Estonian Fund of
Nature's monthly newspaper, Roheline Varav, is distributed within Maaleht and Eesti
Paevaleht, it was also added to the list of examined media. The above media sources
represent a broad spectrum of opinions because they write about GMOs from different
perspectives as well as for different audiences. Moreover, the chosen newspapers and
magazines have established themselves in the Estonian media as respected journalistic
publications and regarded as legitimate, credible, and sources of information by the
public at large.

For the United States, the available resources were extensive and diverse. However,
based on the above Estonian print resources, I decided to only use The Washington
Post. The newspaper is based in the country's capital, well-known for its journalistic
reports, considered one of the most influential newspapers in the United States, and is
often cited or the basis of articles for newspapers in other countries. Furthermore,
upon my examination of American print media, The Washington Post has published a
significant amount of stories on GMOs during 1999-2004 from which to compare to
the Estonian print media and can be considered on the same qualitative level as the
Estonian publications. Therefore, the American newspaper provided the best
comparison to the chosen Estonian sources.
To analyze the collected print media articles, I used both content and critical discourse
analysis. Content analysis was applied to identify authors and opinion sources, risks
and benefits, as well other basic text characteristics like the news format and coverage
frequency. Critical discourse analysis was used to establish the strategies of framing
and the basic arguments applied by different social groups for opposing or adopting
GMOs. In addition, the construction of risks and benefits associated with GMOs were
identified. Special attention in discursive strategies was given to the use of metaphors
and other comparisons as the powerful tools of communication. One part of critical
discourse analysis used to analyze the texts was eco-critical discourse analysis, which
helps to establish if anthropocentrism is present in media texts. Theories used behind
this thesis were Ulrich Beck's risk society theory and Jurgen Habermas' theory of
science and technology as ideology. Finally, for background and informative
purposes, a description of laws, opinion polls, food marks was provided for both
countries.
By applying the above analysis to the collected articles, it was found that there are
differences in several aspects of media coverage in both the Estonian print media and
The Washington Post. The main differences appear in terms of article frequency as
well as the balance and bias presented in the texts. It appears that Estonian print media
rarely reported on the topic until the emergence of Estonian Genome Project debate.
The dominance of the project in the media was one of the reasons why people did not
debate GMOs. However, at the same time, the constant media attention on the project allowed the public to quickly familiarize themselves with GMO issues. Furthermore,
my analysis found that the Estonian print media presented mostly negative attitudes
about GMOs in its articles, while The Washington Post's articles presented a more
neutral position. It also showed that Estonian news stories were more negatively
biased than in The Washington Post, which leaned toward more positive opinions. In
addition to its positive attitudes and bias, The Washington Post also provided more
balanced coverage with a larger diverse pool of sources and opinions that discussed
several aspects of GMOs.
Finally, The Washington Post has covered GMOs for more than half a decade with the
same frequency, with the notable exceptions of StarLink fiasco in 2000 and the
revelation of monarch butterflies deaths by GMO corn. In contrast, the Estonian print
media rarely reported on the topic, until 2003, when several high profile and
influential stories occurred.
In addition to the above print media comparisons, it was found that the most common
metaphors used in public discourse for both countries are Frankenstein related terms,
which include "terminator-seeds" and "mutants." The use of terms attempting to
create parallels with the non-pureness of GMO foods or show the inferiority of mixing
GMOs with non-GMOs were common as well. Furthermore, lots of military
comparisons like "fight" or "battle" are used in media text to refer the GMO related
market conflict between Europe and USA.
The discourse analysis further revealed that main aspects of describing GMOs are not
only economic in both countries, but also political and social. Anthropocentrism was
detected in both countries' media, but more in The Washington Post. The underlying
reasons for this are that the US is more driven to economic wealth and benefits than
Estonia and, therefore, nature is taken more as a commodity. It was also found that
there are also several cultural, traditional, and economic reasons such as past food
scares behind the adopting or rejecting of GMO products. Moreover, public discourse
reveals differences in cultural attitudes toward nature and food. For example, Estonia,
like Europe, applies a precautionary principle in adopting GMOs, while the US
applies substantial equivalence principle. The precautionary principle path is followed because of previous food scares in Europe and it means that countries do not want to
take too much health or other risks adopting new technology. In contrast, the US is
eager to adopt new technologies to acquire quick economic and political benefits,
which is evident in the case of biotechnology. It also can be said that Estonian GMO
public discourse is a part of the broader topic of Estonian position in the post-
communist era and its search of a new identity, which in this case is expressed in its
European Union membership and adoption of European values.


The relatively low specificity of dynamic contrast-enhanced T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MR) imaging of breast cancer has lead several groups to investigate different approaches to data acquisition, one of them being the use of rapid T2*-weighted imaging. Analyses of such data are difficult due to susceptibility artifacts and breathing motion. One-hundred-twenty-seven patients with breast tumors underwent MR examination with rapid, single-slice T2*-weighted imaging of the tumor. Different methods for classifying the image data set using leave-one-out cross validation were tested. Furthermore, a semi-automatic region of interest (ROI) definition tool was presented and compared with manual ROI definitions from a previous study. Finally, pixel-by-pixel analysis was done and compared with ROI analysis. The analyses were done with and without noise reduction. The minimum enhancement parameter was the most robust and accurate of the parameters tested. The semi-automatic ROI definition method was fast and produced similar results as the manually defined ROIs. Noise reduction improved both sensitivity and specificity, but the improvement was not statistically significant. The pixel-based analysis methods used in the present study did not improve classification results. In conclusion, analysis of T2*-weighted breast images can be done in a rapid and robust manner by using semi-automatic ROI definition tools in combination with noise reduction. Minimum enhancement gives an indication of malignancy in T2*-weighted imaging.


In this thesis, we focus on problems on the theory of Backward Stochastic Differential Equations (BSDEs). In particular, BSDEs with an unbounded generator are considered, under various conditions (on the generator). Using more general (or weaker) conditions, the classical results on BSDEs are improved and some associated problems on mathematical finance are resolved. Chapter 1 introduces some of the literature, general setting and ideas in this field and emphasises the motivations which has led to the study of these equations. In addition, some mathematical preliminaries we used throughout this thesis are included in Chapter 2.

In Chapter 3, we consider nonlinear BSDEs with an unbounded generator. Under a Lipschitz-type condition, we show sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of solutions to nonlinear BSDEs, which are weaker than the existing ones. We also give a comparison theorem as a generalisation of Peng's result.

Chapter 4 studies a class of backward stochastic differential equations whose generator satisfies linear growth and continuity conditions, which can also be unbounded. We prove the existence of the solution pair for this class of equations which is more general than the existing ones.

In Chapter 5, we consider the problem of solvability for linear backward stochastic differential equations with unbounded coefficients. New and weaker sufficient conditions for the existence of a unique solution pair are given. It is shown that certain exponential processes have stronger integrability in this case. As applications, we solve the problems of completeness in a market with a possibly unbounded coefficients and optimal investment with power utility in a market with unbounded coefficients.

Chapter 6 studies the classical Stochastic Differential Equations where the drift and diffusion coefficients satisfy Lipschitz-type and linear growth conditions, which can also be unbounded. We give sufficient conditions for the existence of a unique solution to unbounded SDEs. The method of proof is that of Picard iterations and the resulting conditions are new. We also prove a comparison theorem.

Chapter 7 summaries the results in this thesis and outlines possible directions for future works based on current results.


Treatment of pregnant mice with delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) significantly increased the incidence of in utero deaths. SKF-525A pretreatment increased the incidence of THC-induced in utero deaths. THC also significantly reduced the body weight of surviving fetuses. Phenobarbital treatment antagonized THC-induced reduction of fetal body weight, but did not reduce resorption rate. Administration of THC, 50 or 200 mg/kg, did not induce fetal anomalies. However, both SKF-525A and phenobarbital treatment potentiated THC-induced cleft palates. SKF-525A treatment plus THC produced 36% cleft palates. Phenobarbital treatment plus THC produced 77% cleft palates. Pretreatments altered the level of tetrahydrocannabinol plus metabolites found in plasma, placenta, fetus and amnionic fluid. In general, SKF-525A increased levels and phenobarbital decreased levels. Two chemically reactive metabolites of THC are proposed, 9,10-epoxyhexahydrocannabinol and an 11-oxo derivative. SKF-525A pretreatment increased the concentration of both of these metabolites. Phenobarbital treatment increased the levels of the proposed 9,10-epoxyhexahydrocannabinol. Possible covalent binding of THC was observed. An active metabolite theory may apply to the teratogenic properties of THC.


Abstract The ability to inhibit responses is central for situational behavior. However, the mechanisms how sensory information is used to inform inhibitory control processes are incompletely understood. In the current study, we examined neurophysiological processes of perception–action integration in response inhibition using the theory of event coding as a conceptual framework. Based on theoretical considerations, we focused on theta and alpha band activity in close connection to the functional neuroanatomical level using EEG beamforming. Moreover, we performed a network-based analysis of theta and alpha band activity. We show a seesaw-like relationship between medial and superior frontal cortex theta band activity and frontoparietal cortex alpha band activity during perception–action integration in response inhibition, depending on the necessity to reconfigure perception–action associations. When perception–action integration was more demanding, because perception–action associations (bindings) have to be reconfigured, there was an increase of theta and a decrease of alpha band activity. Vice versa, when there was no need to reconfigure perception–action bindings, theta band activity was low and alpha band activity was high. However, theta band processes seem to be most important for perception–action integration in response inhibition, because only the sensor-level network organization of theta band activity showed variations depending on the necessity to reconfigure perception–action associations. When no reconfiguration was necessary, the network architecture was more small-world-like, likely enabling efficient processing. When reconfigurations were necessary, the network organization becomes more random. These differences were particularly strong for fractions of the neurophysiological signal supposed to reflect response selection processes.


PURPOSE
This study aimed to determine the ability of a set of physical fitness tests to discriminate presence or absence of fibromyalgia in women.

METHODS
The sample comprised 487 women with fibromyalgia (52.1 ± 8 yr) and 250 control women (49.3 ± 9 yr). We assessed physical fitness using the arm curl, 30-s chair stand, handgrip strength, 8-ft up and go, 6-min walk, chair sit and reach, and the back scratch tests. The revised fibromyalgia impact questionnaire was used to assess fibromyalgia severity and symptomatology.

RESULTS
Patients with fibromyalgia performed worse than control women in all the fitness tests studied (all, P < 0.001). The receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that all the fitness tests were able to discriminate between presence and absence of fibromyalgia (all, P < 0.001). The area under the curve ranged from 0.708 to 0.910 (all, P < 0.001). Among the fitness tests studied, the arm curl test, followed by the 30-s chair-stand and handgrip strength tests, showed the highest capacity discriminating between the presence and absence of fibromyalgia. An arm curl test score of <20 repetitions was associated with increased odds of having fibromyalgia (odds ratio (OR), 35.6; 95% confidence interval, 12.6-101) in women age 35-44 yr. An arm curl test score of <16 repetitions was associated with increased odds of having fibromyalgia (OR, 23.7; 95% confidence interval, 10.3-54.0) in women age 35-44 yr. In the group of women age 55-65 yr, the highest OR was observed for the handgrip strength test and the odds of having fibromyalgia was 17 times greater than that in patients who performed less than 19 kg.

CONCLUSIONS
The arm curl, 30-s chair stand, and handgrip strength tests powerfully discriminated women with fibromyalgia from healthy women. Identification of women who fail to meet the suggested standards can help to easily, quickly, and cheaply rule out the presence of the disease, especially in primary care settings.


Trimetaphan (Arfonad), which acts as a histamine-releasing agent in dogs, was observed to increase the shunt of blood through the lungs. Although external examination of the lungs showed no appreciable collapse, more detailed examination of lungs fixed by perfusion showed that the shunt could be explained on the basis of alveolar collapse and there was no need to postulate the opening of anatomical shunts. Histamine-releasing agents or histamine produced rapid, shallow breathing, which persisted after inflation of the lungs sufficient to restore the elastic and non-elastic resistance of the lungs to normal. It seems possible that the rapid, shallow breathing is due to sensitization of vagal nerve endings by the histamine or by some other substance released from the mast cells.


We report on a 46-year old female patient with a 2-year history of ulceration over the dorsum of her right foot associated with a congenital arteriovenous fistula. About 12 years ago she had an ulcer at the same site. Despite an insufficient occlusion of the arteriovenous fistula after coil-embolization complete healing of the ulcer was achieved for a period of 10 years. At present hyperpigmentation could be seen surrounding the ulcer as a clinical sign for a venous insufficiency. The ulcer healed completely under a conservative therapy of the venous component of the arteriovenous fistula. The pathogenesis and therapy of ulcers associated with arteriovenous fistula within a Stewart-Bluefarb syndrome are discussed in this case report.


Phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase is a heterodimeric enzyme of 85-kDa (p85) and 110-kDa (p110) subunits implicated in mitogenic signal transduction by virtue of its activation in cells transformed by diverse viral oncoproteins and treated with various growth factors. We have identified a domain in p110 that mediates association with p85 in vitro and in intact cells. A glutathione S-transferase fusion protein containing the N-terminal 171 amino-acids of p110 beta bound to free p85 in cell lysates. This fusion protein also bound directly to p85 immobilized on nitrocellulose filters. An epitope-tagged fragment containing amino acids 31 to 150 of p110 beta associated with p85 upon expression in intact cells. Expression of either an N-terminal fragment of p110 beta or the p85 inter-SH2 domain, which mediates association with p110, reduced the association of endogenous PI 3-kinase activity with the activated platelet-derived growth factor receptor in intact cells. Hence, these defined regions of p85 and p110 mediate the interaction between the two subunits of PI 3-kinase.


SummarySaliva specimens were collected from 163 Manx and 994 Cumbrian individuals and tested for secretor group. The findings confirm the pattern of variability in non-secretor frequencies reported in populations of the British Isles. A possible explanation for this distribution of secretor groups is suggested. The Cumbrian sample is also examined for intra-regional heterogeneity.


Alpha-arylated carbonyl compounds are commonly occurring motifs in biologically interesting molecules and are therefore of high interest to the pharmaceutical industry. Conventional procedures for their synthesis often result in complications in scale-up, such as the use of stoichiometric amounts of toxic reagents and harsh reaction conditions. Over the last decade, significant efforts have been directed towards the development of metal-catalyzed alpha-arylations of carbonyl compounds as an alternative synthetic approach that operates under milder conditions. This Review summarizes the developments in this area to date, with a focus on how the substrate scope has been expanded through selection of the most appropriate synthetic method, such as the careful choice of ligands, precatalysts, bases, and reaction conditions.


The so-called safe course of acute myocardial infarction was shown to be associated with reduced left ventricular stroke output, changed phasic pattern of the systole, and peripheral arterial constriction. In infarction-related acute left-ventricular failure, a clear dissociation can be seen between the pumping function of the right and left ventricles. These changes are further aggravated by increased circulating blood volume and pulmonary blood quantity, and lowered arterial and venous flow rate. Paravascular edema adds to generalized vasoconstriction. Hypertension in the pulmonary artery network implies additional effort for right ventricular myocardium and thus prevents blood overflow to lesser circulation veins and left compartments of the heart.


Purpose: Laparoscopic radical prostatectomy is an alternative to open prostatectomy in the surgical management of prostate cancer. The introduction of surgical robot to assist laparoscopic surgery served as a mechanical device to enhance the laparoscopic skills and improve surgical maneuverability with enhanced visual systems and the multi-axis articulating instruments. This review will introduce the evolution of surgical technique and current status of robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy. Materials and Methods: A review of literatures is conducted with the homepage of Korean Urologic Association and PubMed, a search tool of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, including the MEDLINE database. Results: After its approval by the United States FDA in 2000, the robotic technology has revolutionized the treatment of surgical management of prostate cancer. Robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy offers benefits of minimally invasive surgery with comparable oncological functional outcomes compared to standard surgical options. Conclusions: This technique is expected to evolve into one of the standard of care in treatment of localized prostate cancer. (Korean J Urol 2009; 50:97-104) 󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏󰠏


Deciphering the manner in which women have been, and continue to be, represented in society is an integral element of a feminist critique. This article explores male representations of university women as presented in the student press of the University of Liverpool between 1944 and 1979. It is suggested that university women were represented as 'other' and stereotyped in a negative manner in the years 1944 to 1959. Furthermore, they were presented as unattractive, unwelcome, and in most cases at university to find a husband. The years 1960 to 1979 signified a shift with regard to the representation of university women; however, continuity with the earlier period was retained in the visual imagery of female students and the way in which 'careers' were presented as distinctly male. University women remained part of the 'male gaze' and were, ultimately judged on the basis of their sexual attractiveness to the derision of their intellectual abilities.


CONTEXT
Lumbar disk disease (LDD) is one of the most common musculoskeletal diseases, with a prevalence of about 5%. A tryptophan (Trp) allele (Trp2) was recently discovered in the COL9A2 gene that is associated with dominantly inherited LDD but is only present in about 4% of Finnish patients with LDD.

OBJECTIVE
To determine if other collagen IX gene sequence variations play a role in the pathogenesis of LDD.

DESIGN AND SETTING
Case-control study conducted from February 1997 to May 1998 at university hospitals in Finland.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 171 individuals with LDD (evaluated clinically and by magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography) and 321 controls without LDD (186 healthy individuals, 83 patients with primary osteoarthritis, 31 with rheumatoid arthritis, and 21 with chondrodysplasias).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Frequencies of sequence variations covering the entire coding sequences and exon boundaries of the collagen IX genes, COL9A1, COL9A2, and COL9A3, which code for the alpha1, alpha2, and alpha3 chains of the protein, detected by conformation-sensitive gel electrophoresis and confirmed by sequencing, compared between individuals with and without LDD.

RESULTS
Mutation analysis of all 3 collagen IX genes resulted in identification of an Arg103-->Trp (arginine-->tryptophan) substitution in the alpha3 chain (Trp3 allele). The frequency of the Trp3 allele was 12.2% in LDD cases, excluding 7 individuals who were carriers of the previously identified Gln326-->Trp (glutamine-->tryptophan) substitution in the alpha2 chain (Trp2 allele), and was 4.7% among controls. The difference in the frequency was statistically significant (P =.000013). Presence of at least 1 Trp3 allele increases risk of LDD about 3-fold.

CONCLUSION
This study led to the identification of a novel common genetic risk factor for LDD, confirming that genetic risk factors likely play a significant role in LDD.


Abstract This article deals with the concept of market information. In particular, it argues that references to the so-called conduit metaphor, which represents markets as a series of information flows, hide the localized, historically contingent and materially mediated practices of the economy. Following the tradition of the performative theory of social institutions, this article argues that the specific meaning of 'market information' and its concrete manifestations (e.g. prices) depend on the sociotechnical character of the calculative practices through which market participants orient their economic actions. The point is illustrated through a historical reconstruction of the introduction of price and quote dissemination technologies in the London Stock Exchange between 1955 and 1990. By highlighting the historical and technological contingency of prices, the case of the London Stock Exchange shows that it is impossible to provide a universally and temporally invariant definition of market information.


Privacy concerns on sharing sensitive data across institutions are particularly paramount for the medical domain, which hinders the research and development of many applications, such as cohort construction for cross-institution observational studies and disease surveillance. Not only that, the large volume and heterogeneity of the patient data pose great challenges for retrieval and analysis. To address these challenges, in this paper, we propose a Federated Patient Hashing (FPH) framework, which collaboratively trains a retrieval model stored in a shared memory while keeping all the patient-level information in local institutions. Specifically, the objective function is constructed by minimization of a similarity preserving loss and a heterogeneity digging loss, which preserves both inter-data and intra-data relationships. Then, by leveraging the concept of Bregman divergence, we implement optimization in a federated manner in both centralized and decentralized learning settings, without accessing the raw training data across institutions. In addition to this, we also analyze the convergence rate of the FPH framework. Extensive experiments on real-world clinical data set from critical care are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method on similar patient matching across institutions.


The role of small business in the Mexican economy suggests that an understanding of why enterprises fail is important to the stability of the Mexican economy. The purpose of this research is to determinate the factors causes of small business failure in Quintana Roo, MA©xico. The result indicates the most important factor is strategic planning.


YOU ARE PART OF THIS POEM,
AS YOU READ THE POEM,
THIS POEM READS YOU,
IT SPEAKS TO YOU,
IT NEEDS TO BE CARESSED,
IT NEEDS LIGHT,
YOU NEED TO SPEAK TO IT,
YOU ARE ITS INK, ITS COLOUR, ITS SURFACE,
PLAY WITH IT.

Transient Self-Portrait is an interactive piece based on two pivotal sonnets from Spanish literature, Soneto 23: 'En tanto que de rosa y azucena' (1522) by Garcilaso de La Vega and Mientras por competir con tu cabello by Luis de Gongora (1582). It consists of three stages: the first one based on Garcilaso's sonnet, makes reference to the passing of time; the second one connected to Gongora's notion of the unavoidable death, makes the text disintegrate into the final stage where the portrait becomes programming data, and alludes to the transient nature of the digital/data-self.

The participant is invited to explore the work to reveal a fluid portrait -grabbed by the webcam- encapsulated inside the screen, as a medium of textual, generative and sound surfaces. Text and sound are activated by mouse-over actions in stage one, the voice of the reader - by reading aloud - triggers the text in stage two, and mouse click and drag helps to manipulate the image and activate the sound in the third stage.

The piece questions many of the notions just highlighted in the essay; the experience of reading; the use of digital grammars (interacting and engaging with the work); while exploring concepts evoked in the sonnets through coding for interactive aesthetics and poetics.


BACKGROUND
We aimed to establish whether knowledge of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels on day 1, as well as the change in these levels in the first three days, could be of clinical benefit in the diagnosis and/or prediction of severity of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and transient tachypnea of the newborn (TTN).

METHODS
A retrospective study was conducted on 275 term infants (35 with RDS and 240 with TTN) admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit from January 2014 to June 2019. LDH levels were measured on admission and after three days.

RESULTS
Both RDS and TTN groups had elevated LDH levels during admission. LDH levels were significantly higher in the RDS group than in the TTN group on both days. LDH levels in both groups significantly correlated with both the duration of respiratory support required, as well as the number of hospital days. We used these outcomes as a measure of severity of these conditions.

CONCLUSIONS
In patients with respiratory distress, it may not be clinically useful to use LDH levels on day 1 to differentiate between RDS and TTN, despite the statistically significant differences, because of the overlapping values. However, LDH levels on day 1 and day 3 may predict the degree and duration of the required respiratory support for both RDS and TTN groups.


Abstract A survey of 6th-12th grade students was conducted to measure their science-related attitudes and interests. Significant gender differences were found among these students. Females reported more anxiety about science as well as less motivation in and enjoyment of science than males. In spite of their unfavorable attitudes toward science, a large percentage of females expected to pursue a college major and subsequent career in the health sciences. We discuss reasons for the disconnect between female students' attitudes and their choice of college major and career. Keywords: science attitudes, gender differences, middle school, high school Introduction Leaders in STEM education, business, and industry have expressed concern that interest in science and sciencerelated careers among U.S. students is failing to keep pace with the expected demand for a scientifically-literate workforce (National Academy of Sciences, 2007). Several explanations have been suggested for this lack of interest in science, among them the development of negative attitudes toward science that originate during the elementary school years (Haladyna & Shaughnessy, 1982) and persist through the secondary and postsecondary years (Desy, Peterson, & Brockman, 2009; George, 2006; Hofstein & Welch, 1984; Simpson & Oliver, 1985). Although a number of variables may affect students' attitudes toward science, the two most influential appear to be gender and the quality of science instruction students experience early in their academic lives (Ebenezer & Zoller, 1993; Osborne, Simon, & Collins, 2003; Schibeci & Riley, 1986). Past studies (American Association of University Women [AAUW], 1991; George, 2006; Haladyna & Shaughnessy, 1982; Weinburgh, 1995) have shown that girls tend to exhibit more negative attitudes towards science classes and a career in science than do boys. In addition, girls' interest in science steadily declines from middle school to the high school years (AAUW, 1991; Hofstein & Welch, 1984). The lack of interest in science among female high school students does not appear to be explained by low ability or achievement (Miller, Blessing, & Schwartz, 2006; Weinburgh, 1995). In fact, girls are earning high school math and science credits at the same rate as boys and are earning slightly higher grades in these classes (U.S. Department of Education, 2007). Several researchers (Gogolin & Swartz, 1992; Weinburgh, 1995) have suggested that positive attitudes are essential precursors for students to develop an interest in science. Farenga and Joyce (1998) found that positive feelings and perceptions of science among elementary-aged girls in particular led to their greater interest in science classes. Consequently, positive attitudes in science have been heavily promoted by science educators for the past two decades in a concerted effort to encourage more students to take STEM courses and consider careers in STEM fields (National Science Foundation, 2003). The purpose of this study was to measure attitudes and interests in science among middle school and high school students from rural, southwest Minnesota. Our primary goals were to: 1) compare the science-related attitudes of middle school and high school students; 2) determine whether gender differences in science-related attitudes exist for these students and what factors may be responsible for any observed differences; and 3) examine the types of college majors and careers that current 6th- 12th grade rural students are considering. Method Participants. The participants in this study consisted of 1299 students in middle school (grades 6-8) and high school (grades 9-12) taking science classes at six different school districts in southwest Minnesota during the spring semester of 2007. The middle school sample consisted of 316 males, 307 females, and 3 students who did not report their genders. …


Abstract. The aerosol optical depth (AOD) trend between 2001 and 2010 is estimated globally and regionally from observations and results from simulations with the EMAC (ECHAM5/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry) model. Although interannual variability is applied only to anthropogenic and biomass-burning emissions, the model is able to quantitatively reproduce the AOD trends as observed by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellite sensor, while some discrepancies are found when compared to MISR (Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer) and SeaWIFS (Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor) observations. Thanks to an additional simulation without any change in emissions, it is shown that decreasing AOD trends over the US and Europe are due to the decrease in the emissions, while over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East region, the meteorological changes play a major role. Over Southeast Asia, both meteorology and emissions changes are equally important in defining AOD trends. Additionally, decomposing the regional AOD trends into individual aerosol components reveals that the soluble components are the most dominant contributors to the total AOD, as their influence on the total AOD is enhanced by the aerosol water content.


Improving Primary Mathematics Teaching and Learning

Endorsements…
"In this book, Mary McAteer brings together contributors with a wealth of experience in research and practice. The way in which practical and theoretical perspectives are brought together with case studies and examples make it a highly readable text and every chapter adds new insights into children's mathematics learning"
Dr Julia Anghileri, University of Cambridge (retired)

This book stems from the authors' shared passion for teaching mathematics in primary schools and offers an exploration of contemporary issues in primary mathematics. Drawing on case studies from practice, it explores a wide range of ideas that support professional reflection and personal development to improve teaching and learning in primary mathematics. Topics covered include:

• Using children's mathematical misconceptions to support teaching and learning
• The role of talk in developing mathematical understanding
• Evidence-based teaching and learning
• Making mathematics real and purposeful beyond the classroom
• The role of games in teaching and learning mathematics
• ICT and mathematics

The book illustrates the ways in which professional development that is rooted in practitioner inquiry and research enables teachers to advance their practice, resulting in improved outcomes for their pupils.

Improving Primary Mathematics Teaching and Learning is appropriate for trainee teachers, teachers in their professional development (e.g. MaST) and will be helpful reading for local authority and independent consultants, INSET and CPD providers.

Mary McAteer is Director for the Mathematics Specialist Teacher (MaST) programme at Edge Hill University, UK, having previously worked for 21 years a school teacher, primary maths, science and technology consultant.

Contributors: Mike Askew, Sue Bailey, Elizabeth Carruthers, Vicki Grinyer, Alice Hansen, Effie Maclellan, Lynne McClure, Suzie Nelson, Carol Rushworth-Little, Steve Sherer, Ian Thompson, Vivien Townsend, Maulfry Worthington.


The JPMorgan Chase Institute set out to better understand out-of-pocket healthcare spending among US households. Building off a sample of 2.3 million de-identified core Chase customers aged 18 to 64 between 2013 and 2016, we assembled the JPMorgan Chase Institute Healthcare Out-of-pocket Spending Panel (JPMCI HOSP) data asset in order to explore the levels, concentration, and growth of out-of-pocket healthcare spending and the implications for household financial health. The JPMCI HOSP provides a first-ever look into out-of-pocket healthcare spending for households on a month-to-month basis, at the state, metro, and county level, and as recent as 2016. In this report, we describe the creation of, and initial insights gleaned from, this new data asset. We highlight six key findings. First, out-of-pocket healthcare spending grew between 2013 and 2016, but remained a relatively constant share of take-home income. Second, the financial burden of out-of-pocket healthcare spending was highest for older, lower-income, and female account holders and increased in 2016 for low-income account holders. Third, doctor, dental, and hospital payments accounted for more than half of observed healthcare spending; dental and hospital payments were less common but larger in magnitude. Fourth, out-of-pocket healthcare spending was highly concentrated among a few families—often the same families year over year. The top 10 percent of families spent roughly 9 percent of their take-home income on healthcare expenses. Fifth, families made larger healthcare payments in the months and the years when they had a higher ability to pay. Elevated dental and hospital payments primarily contributed to high healthcare spending. Finally, there was dramatic variation in out-of-pocket healthcare spending between and within the 23 states where Chase has a retail footprint. Families in Colorado spent the most on healthcare, while families in Louisiana spent the highest fraction of their gross income on healthcare.


Abstract In this study, the antioxidant enzyme activities such as (SOD, GSH, and CAT) and malondialdehyde (MDA) level which is the end product of lipid peroxidation, were determined from the serum samples taken from patients diagnosed with prostate cancer Van Yuzuncu Yıl University Medical Faculty of Educational Research and Training Hospital and İstanbul Bagcilar Education Research Hospital. The SOD, GSH, and CAT activity of patient groups was found significantly lower than the healthy control group in patients with prostate cancer (p < .05). Serum MDA level is found significantly high when compared to control groups. MDA levels increased in patients that suffer prostate cancer disorder. Whereas, firstly antioxidant enzymes activity of SOD, GSH and CAT have been decreased in control groups. Thus, we concluded that the cause of development of prostate cancer may be the result of an imbalance between the antioxidants and oxidative stress. As a result, SOD, CAT, GSH, and MDA may play an important role in the etiopathogenesis of prostate cancer.


The effect of soybean phospholipid (SP), given at the rate of 100/g/kg diet for 2-3 weeks, on the chemical composition of serum lipoprotein in rats was examined. Soybean oil (SO) containing almost comparable amounts of linoleic acid was used as a control diet. SP significantly decreased the concentration of serum cholesterol and apolipoprotein A-I (apo A-I) and increased apolipoprotein B (apo B). There was no significant change in the concentration of serum apolipoprotein E (apo E) and the other lipids. The reduction of cholesterol levels in all the lipoprotein fractions was observed. The reduction of the serum apo A-I was brought about by the addition of SP at the level of 1% while that of the cholesterol at the level of 4%. The subunit composition of apo A-I, but not apolipoprotein C, in high density lipoprotein (HDL) was also altered by SP. The high molecular weight of apo B was responsible for the increment of apoproteins in the low density lipoprotein (LDL). The triglyceride, but not the cholesterol ester, also increased in LDL. there was no significant difference between the groups in the fatty acid compositions of serum triglyceride and phospholipid. In the liver, SP significantly increased the concentration of cholesterol ester and decreased triglyceride. These results are discussed in the context of the role of the lipoprotein and apoprotein in the regulation of serum cholesterol concentration.


Minute quantities of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) were suspended in 500-, 1,000- and 2,000-ml volumes of virus growth medium and inoculated into primary bovine kidney cell cultures grown as monolayers in 5-liter Povitsky bottles. After 48 hr of incubation, the low concentrations of FMDV, containing from 10-3 to 10-1.7 plaque-forming units (PFU) per milliliter of inoculum, multiplied to approximately 106 PFU per milliliter of fluid. The presence of extracellular virus after multiplication was verified by assaying the fluid in 4-oz prescription-bottle cultures. Minimal quantities of FMDV were able to infect the cells and replicate despite the large volume of the suspending fluid. This technique may be applicable for the detection of trace amounts of FMDV in clinical samples and vaccines. Skin samples of unknown infectivity in limited tests gave identical positive or negative results in both steers and Povitsky cultures, but were consistently negative when tested in suckling mice and in prescription-bottle tissue cultures.


: Although sulfonamide therapy has reduced the case fatality rate in infection due to Nocardia asteroides from nearly 100% to 25% to 45% there remains a need for a still more effective chemotherapeutic regimen. We describe three cases of serious infection due to N asteroides treated successfully with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) and review an additional 15 cases from the world literature. Trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole exhibit a synergistic interaction in vitro against N asteroides, and the agent reaches antibacterial concentrations in blood, lung, and the central nervous system. Clinical results have been satisfactory in the limited number of patients treated to date.


This paper derives a gravity equation for commuter flows from a simple spatial labor market model based on the classic model developed by Anderson and Van Wincoop in the context of international trade. The approach shows the importance of taking into account the effect of the economic structure of neighboring regions when explaining the size of the commuter flow between two locations, the omission of which would be a significant source of omitted variable bias. As an application, we use this model to identify the effect of regional borders and language borders on commuting using Belgian data on intermunicipality-level commuting between all pairs of municipalities. To handle observations with zero commuters, we estimate the model by means of a negative binomial regression. We went at length to control for relevant variables such as the driving time between two municipalities, but also the travel time by public transport. The theoretical model is used to calculate the relevant controls for economic size of the municipalities and their surroundings. We find that regional borders exert a sizable residual deterrent effect on commuting. This border-effect differs significantly between regions and depends on the direction in which the border is crossed, with commuting flows going from French-speaking areas to Dutch-speaking areas experiencing a stronger deterrent effect from the border; which probably reflects the fact that knowledge of French is relatively more wide-spread in the Dutch-speaking areas compared to the other way around. We consider two extensions of the model. In a first one, we estimate the elasticity of substation for labour from different locations. With an estimated value of 1.3, it seems workers from different localities are hardly substitutable. In the second extension, we use the regional wage-equilibrium condition from our theoretical framework to estimate how the counter-factual removal of a regional border would change regional wages. As it turns out, the estimated effect is quite large, with an upsurge in wages of about 50 percent in the entire south of the country, and with an effect which dies only slowly with distance. As this prediction seems unrealistic, we re-estimated the effects while imposing a higher elasticity of substitution of 2.3. Using this value still gives a rise of about 50 percent, but only for a selection of municipalities in the South of Belgium, with very high unemployment rates, and located closely to high labour demand in the North (in Flanders and Brussels). The effect on municipalities about 20-30 kms from the language border becomes negligible.


The cellular slime moulds or dictyostelids, are a major group of edaphic (soil-dwelling) unicellular eukaryotic micro-organisms which feed on bacteria in the humus layer of tropical and temperate soils. The extraordinary behaviour of dictyostelids where solitary, predatory amoebae become social, forming a multi-cellular spore-producing 'organism' when their food supply becomes limited has fascinated generations of researchers. Since their discovery the taxonomy of the cellular slime moulds has been largely based on morphological features, revised many times, but still remains unresolved and controversial. One focus of discussion is the controversial relationship between the two principal genera of Dictyostelium and Polysphondylium, which by virtue of a common amoeba type are placed in the same family - Dictyosteliaceae. Despite the current distinction between Dictyostelium and Polysphondylium it is impossible to definitively resolve these genera, or indeed the broader classification of cellular slime moulds, using only morphological features. Given that dictyostelids are both of major ecological importance and often used as a model eukaryotic system, it has become imperative to resolve these taxonomic uncertainties and to finally establish the validity of one or two genera.
This study used two PCR based techniques: (1) direct sequencing of the ITS 1 and ITS 2 regions of the rDNA complex together with (2) ISSR-PCR, a standard molecular technique but rarely applied to the dictyostelids. The latter requiring the development of a working protocol before it could be implemented. The sequence data from 51 different dictyostelid species and isolates was aligned with CLUSTAL and analysed via PAUP. This study clearly demonstrates that molecular markers cannot distinguish Dictyostelium (sensu stricto) from Polysphondylium (sensu stricto): indeed it presents evidence to support the existence of a single genus. The implications of these results are unequivocal: the current systematics of cellular slime moulds, based on morphological characters, must be revised.


Police patrol aims to fulfill two main objectives namely to project presence and to respond to incidents in a timely manner. Incidents happen dynamically and can disrupt the initially-planned patrol schedules. The key decisions to be made will be which patrol agent to be dispatched to respond to an incident and subsequently how to adapt the patrol schedules in response to such dynamically-occurring incidents whilst still fulfilling both objectives; which sometimes can be conflicting. In this paper, we define this real-world problem as a Dynamic Bi-Objective Police Patrol Dispatching and Rescheduling Problem and propose a solution approach that combines Deep Reinforcement Learning (specifically neural networks-based Temporal-Difference learning with experience replay) to approximate the value function and a rescheduling heuristic based on ejection chains to learn both dispatching and rescheduling policies jointly. To address the dual objectives, we propose a reward function that implicitly tries to maximize the rate of successfully responding to an incident within a response time target while minimizing the reduction in patrol presence without the need to explicitly set predetermined weights for each objective. The proposed approach is able to compute both dispatching and rescheduling decisions almost instantaneously. Our work serves as the first work in the literature that takes into account these dual patrol objectives and real-world operational consideration where incident response may disrupt existing patrol schedules.


Financial regulatory reform remains high on global and national political agendas. Some proposals call for the consolidation of regulatory structures by merging or eliminating existing regulatory agencies. Financial supervisory consolidation has occurred in a number of developed countries over the past two and a half decades. This paper seeks to explain why a substantial number of developed countries have opted to reform their financial regulatory structures from a sector-based to a consolidated model. Based on an ordered logistic regression analysis of a newly created cross-national financial dataset, this paper argues against the prevailing literature in globalization that has discounted the influence of multinational firms on domestic politics. It moreover disputes the assumptions of realist-based and policy diffusion perspectives that prioritize hegemonic market power. This paper demonstrates how the internationalization of finance, through the spread of global financial services firms ("conglomerates"), has driven supervisory consolidation in developed countries. These global firms prefer reduced compliance costs through the elimination of duplicative regulation. Motivated by competitiveness concerns, politicians and regulators in highly internationalized countries are pressured to consolidate financial supervision, lest they cause global firms to move elsewhere because of unfavorably duplicative regulation. A consolidated supervisor offers lower compliance costs compared to a system of sector-based supervisors by eliminating duplicative regulation. In sum, the higher the level of financial internationalization in a country, the greater the level of supervisory consolidation. This paper revises the undergraduate thesis, "And Then There Was One: Conglomeration, Internationalization, and the Formation of Consolidated Financial Supervisors": (http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1368797).


The well documented source for adult multipotent stem cells is spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) of mammalian testis. It is foundation of spermatogenesis in the testis throughout adult life by balancing self-renewal and differentiation. SSCs isolation from mammalian testis is difficult because of their scarcity and the lack of well characterized cell surface markers. Thus, the isolation of SSCs is of great interest for exploration of spermatogonial physiology and therapeutic approaches for fertility preservation. CD9 is a surface marker expressed in mouse and rat male germline stem cells. In this study, CD9 positive SSCs were successfully isolated from the goat testis using enzymatic digestion followed by three step purification: Differential plating, Percoll discontinuous density gradient followed by Magnetic activated cell sorting (MACS). Percoll discontinuous density gradient showed significant differences in the percentage of CD9+ SSCs across individual fraction. The fraction 36% and 40% gave the highest percentage of CD9+ SSCs i.e. 82% ± 1.2 and 9.2% ± 1.3 respectively. Magnetic activated cell sorting of CD9+ cells in the magnetic fraction of goat testes was in the range of 15% - 18% which is upto threefolds. CD9+ SSCs were further recovered with appreciable efficiency after immunomagnetic isolation by using various bead: cells ratio in which 4:1 ratio gave the highest yield of 69.06 × 105 with 18% of CD9+ SSCs. Magnetic activated cell sorting using anti-CD9 antibodies provides an efficient and fast approach as compared to conventional approaches such as differential plating and percoll discontinuous density gradient for enrichment strategy for spermatogonial stem cells from goat testes for undertaking research on basic and applied reproductive biology.


Light wood-frame structure, as not only has good seismic performance, but also can give full play to its ligneous advantages such as light mass, high tenacity, energy saving and environment protection, is widely applied to low-rise buildings and villas. The rigidity and ductility of shear wall structured by wood-frame are closely related to its sheathing material and the nail layout. In order to give full play to the carrying capacity of the nailed connection nodes, the article adopts the finite element model to compare the stress distributions of sheathings with different nail spacing, and the carrying capacity of the connection at the point of the sheathing is destructed, and also to provide the reasonable value of nail layout and a reference for the actual structural design.


Canta, Canta, Llanerito: Latin-American Dance No. 3, by Carlos Bonnet, arranged by Lucien Cailliet. [New York: Southern Music Publishing Co., Inc. Standard band, $2.50; Symphonic Band, $4.50; Conductor's condensed score 35c; other parts, 20c ea.] Fine arrangement. Not difficult, and lays well for all instruments. Interesting and melodious. Students enjoy this number and it is one of the better Latin-Americans for band. Can be played effectively by any good Class C band but is equally effective, due to the excellent arrangement, for A and B bands.