The results of the study of some mechanisms of the protective action of Erakond, a phytopreparation intended for use in acute influenza infection are presented. In controlled animal observations Erakond was shown to induce the synthesis of antibodies in infected and immunized mice, the production of lymphokine, endogenic interferon; to increase the phagocytic and adhesive activity of mononuclears. The preparation facilitated the normalization of the process of the peroxide oxidation of lipids in mice and rendered a positive effect on the course of the inflammatory process in the lungs of mice at the final stage of influenza infection.


BLUIsculpt™ is an interactive virtual reality application that permits a user to freely sketch voxels inside a ten foot cube for output as physical objects. It connects the imagination to physical form. Our interface presents the user with real-time feedback in the form of surfaces. We save a file representing the surface in rapid protyping format. Generating a solid-by-rapid prototyping completes the cycle of perception and imagination that starts in the physical world, proceeds through vision, thought, imagination that starts in the physical world, proceeds through vision, thought, imagination and the dance of drawing to finally arrive at tangible sculpture. Our enterprise is based on the premise that symbolic representation, of which drawing is an exemplar, derives from perception, imagination and thought. We hold that these mental activities recruit and employ the same brain machinery that is fundamental to voluntary physical movement. Such is the common wisdom of generations of artists, and is well-supported by a mass of more recent studies in cognitive and evolutionary neuroscience.


The identification of the components involved in translational complexes has relied primarily on in vitro studies. Determining which proteins associate together in these complexes, under what conditions they do so, and how the composition of the complexes change under different conditions have became the key issues of in vivo studies. After a one-step affinity purification, using a novel technique of analytical ultracentrifugation with a fluorescence detection system (AU-FDS) I have identified a 77S monosomal translational complex in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Major components of the 77S complex include the 80S ribosome, mRNA, and components of the closed-loop structure, eIF4E, eIF4G1/eIF4G2 and PAB1. The abundance of 77S complexes decreased with translational defects and following the stresses that cause translational stoppage. By quantitating the abundance of the 77S complex in response to different stress conditions, I observed that the stress of glucose depletion affected translation initiation primarily by operating through a pathway involving eIF4E whereas amino acid deprivation, as previously known, acted through the 43S complex. High salt conditions (1M KC1) and robust heat shock acted at other steps. Subsequently, I have determined the absolute abundance changes of all factors identified in the 77S complex during different steps of the translation process. To address this question thoroughly, I also analyzed six new proteins shown to be present in the 77S complex: SBP1, SLF1, PUB1, SUP35, SUP45 and SSD1. By comparing the ratios of AU-FDS/A230, I found only 56% of monosomal complexes contained eIF4E and only 34% contained eIF4G during translation elongation, implying that not all 77S complexes were in the closed-loop structure. During termination, eRF1 and SBP1 to a lesser extent were found to be enriched, suggesting a role for SBP1 in the termination process, possibly in translational repression. SLF1, SSD1, and SBP1 abundances also changed at initiation, suggesting specific roles for these proteins in this process. This stoichiometric analysis gives us a dynamic view of how the composition of the translational complex changes in vivo. This application of stoichiometric analysis using AU-FDS should prove widely adaptable to the identification of protein complexes in other biological systems.


SIR,-I was interested to read the medical memorandum on two cases of cardiac arrest associated with bone cement, by Dr. J. N. Powell and others (8 August, p. 326). They state that "A fall in blood pressure in association with the use of bone cement is known to occur, but is rare in the elective operation of total hip replacement, where patients are often younger and fitter." In view of this comment I have reviewed the blood pressure charts of 50 patients undergoing the operation of total hip replacement in this unit and the findingq may be of interest. The majority of patients were aged between 60 and 70 years (22 cases) but there were 13 patients aged between 70 and 80. two aged over 80. nine aged between 50 and 60, and one patient of 46. Of the charts inspected 26 showed no obvious blood pressure response to insertion of the cement. In 15 cases a definite transient fall occurred, varying from 10 to 30 mm. Hg, but the remaining nine cases are of particular interest. In these cases the insertion of the cement into the femoral component was followed after approvimately one minute by a precipitous fall in blood pressure to 70 mm. Hg. In all cases recovery was rapid, unassisted by transfusion or vasopressors, and normal levels of blood pressure were regained in five to six minutes. The patients' ages ranged from 59 to 84 vears and there was no obvious correlation between age, preoperative condition, or steroid therapy of those who showed this response, and in all cases there had been adequate reolacement of weighed blood loss. The fall and recovery of blood pressure in these cases was so rapid that the original method of recording blood pressure every five minutes missed this fall, and in all cases blood pressure is now measured at minute intervals immediately following insertion of the cement before introduction of the prosthesis. In vitro experiments reconstituting the C. M. W. Laboratories' cement at room temperature of 23 30 C. have shown that the maximum temperature of the cement occurs some six minutes after mixing the monomer and the powder-a temperature as high as 960 C. was recorded. While the cause of this extreme fall in blood pressure in some patients remains obscure it is of interest that the timing of the fall corresponds with the gaining of a very high temperature by the inserted cement, and the recovery of blood pressure with the commencement of the slowing of the chemical process.-I am, etc., PHILLIDA M. FROST.


Aim: This study evaluated the association between body mass index (BMI) and operated patients due to meniscal injuries of the knee. We also investigated the influence of BMI on meniscal tears with regard to age. Methods: We investigated 104 patients who had surgery for meniscal injuries and 111 patients who had knee magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with no prior history of meniscal surgery. The relationship between BMI and meniscal injuries which required meniscal surgery was evaluated by independent samples T-test. A cutoff BMI value has been tried to find out by receiver operating characteristics (ROC). The odds ratio has been calculated with regard to this cutoff value. Patients were classified into three age groups ≤30, 31–50 and ≥51 years old. Chi-square was used to determine whether age affected the BMI relationship with meniscal injuries which required surgery. Results: BMI values were significantly higher in surgical patients compared to controls (p = 0.005). To compare surgical and non-surgical patients, ROC analysis was used and area under curve (AUC) value was calculated as 0.605. A BMI value of 27.90 had the highest specificity (92.0%) and sensitivity (40.4%), and the odds ratio calculated by Pearson chi-square was 3,08 for this BMI value. The most significant difference in BMI between surgical and non-surgical patients was observed in the 31–50 age group (p = 0.007). There was no significant difference in BMI between surgical and non-surgical patients in the <30 age group (p=0,404). Conclusion: Higher BMI increases the risk of meniscal tears requiring surgery, especially in the 31–50 age groups. Patients might benefit from weight regulation since BMI is thought to be an important modifiable risk factor for meniscal tears.


Main function of the schools is to contribute individuals to internalize the culture in which they live as efficient citizens. Main objective of the social studies courses contained in the curriculum of primary schools is to contribute individuals to become a member of the society in which they live. In order to achieve such a contribution, teachers should definitely have a comprehensive perspective for the curriculum of social studies. In addition, the perceptions of the teachers about the nature of these courses are also important since individuals generally form their behaviors based on their perceptions. In this perspective, the objective of this study is to determine opinions of a classroom teacher instructing in a village school with multi-grade class about the nature of social studies courses, the structure of social studies curriculum, and teaching process regarding social studies. Based on the results of the study, it is seen that the teacher instructing in a village school with multi-grade class significantly pays attention to social studies curriculum and teacher's guidebook and it is emphasized that the social studies curriculum implemented in schools in rural regions should be adapted in accordance with environmental conditions whereas the curriculum should be provided as a framework and it should enable the teacher to have more functional roles in designing the curriculum.


Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) Fe-based alloys often contain 0.5wt% of fine, uniformly dispersed, yttrium oxide particles in a Fe-Cr-Al matrix. They are ideal candidates for high temperature applications such as high temperature heat exchangers or nuclear power plants due to their good combination of creep and oxidation resistance. Numerous studies of annealing phenomena have shown that nucleation and growth of recrystallized grains, as well as the recrystallization texture, strongly depend on the deformed state of a previously cold worked alloy. In the present work, we examined the effect of strain heterogeneity on the development of recrystallized grain structures using bend samples. A bend test introduces a stress gradient and both compressive and tensile deformation. After a further heat treatment at 1380°C for 1 hour in air, the recrystallization behavior was characterized on both the tension and compression sides of the samples at varied levels of strain. Electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD) was used to analyze recrystallization behavior and texture. The results demonstrated that: recrystallized grains only formed in areas of sample subject to plastic compression; maximum grain size increased with increasing severity of bending deformation; there was heterogeneity in the recrystallized grain size, which varied with distance from the bending neutral axis. This indicates that the strain heterogeneity conducive to recrystallization was introduced by the non-uniform plastic strains in the compression region. However, the regions of tensile bending in all samples remained unrecrystallized and strong shear banding was evident.


Commercially pure (99.9%) copper was severe plastically deformed by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) following route-Bc in three different processing regimes in order to obtain ultrafine-grained (UFG) microstructures leading to improved mechanical properties. In regime-1, the billets were processed at room temperature up to eight passes. The billets were processed at 200°C up to eight passes in regime-2. Regime-3 is a hybrid regime by which the billets were deformed at 200°C up to four passes first, and these billets were then processed at room temperature for one, two and four passes. In all regimes, the ECAP processing results in a refinement of the conventionally grained (CG) initial microstructure of copper down to sub-micron level leading to a great improvement in the strength as compared to CG copper. Among the regimes applied, regime-3 was found to be the best regime for improvement in strength along with adequate ductility. The samples showed more than eight times increases in yield strength after processing in regime-3 for 4 + 4 passes, from 47 MPa for CG copper to about 408 MPa for the UFG sample. Such improvement in strength was accompanied by a 16.9% total elongation and 6% uniform elongation. The processing in regime-2 resulted in the best elongation to failure of about 22% after eight passes, but it gave the lowest strength values among others.


Kazydub, N., S. Kuzmina and E. Chernenko, 2017. Adaptability of chickpea collection samples in the southern forest-steppe of Western Siberia. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 23 (5): 743–749 The recognized chickpea varieties do not fully meet the requirements of modern agriculture. This necessitates creation of new highly adapted chickpea varieties of an intensive type, suitable for cultivation both in the regions of traditional chickpea cultivation and in promising, non-traditional areas. This paper contains a comparative assessment of chickpea collection samples in terms of their economically useful characteristics, as well as the ecological plasticity evaluation of 13 chickpea samples developed under the conditions of southern forest-steppe of Western Siberia; the evaluation was done on the basis of the plant grain productivity. The study has revealed the chickpea varieties that can become sources of certain economically valuable characteristics: Line C-82, C4-Deemin, C7-Alexandrite, C14-Alexandrite, C17-C11– reduction of the growing season; ILC10005, Volgogradsky 10, C4-Deemin – reduction of the plant height; C1-Alexandrite, Volgogradsky 10, C2-Krasnokutsky 123 – increase in the number of seeds per plant; C2-Krasnokutsky 123, C-243, ILC-482, C13-Deemin – increase in the weight of seeds per plant. The obtained data show that in the forest-steppe of Western Siberia, weather conditions had the greatest impact on the productivity of chickpea plants (their impact share reaches 92.1%). The calculation of ecological plasticity parameters revealed samples characterized by high ecological plasticity and responsiveness to growing conditions: C-82, C3-5, C1-Alexandrite, C5-Krasnokutsky 123, C15-Volgogradsky 10, C4-Deemin, as well as samples characterized by high yielding stability: C-18, C-80, Krasnokutsky 123, C3-Alexandrite, C6-Alexandrite, C16-Krasnokutsky 123, C11-Yubileiny.


Background and purpose
Exendin-4 (EX4) has the same physiological properties as glucagon-like peptide-1 (7-36)amide (GLP-1). EX4 has 50% identity with GLP-1, with an extra nine amino acids at its C-terminus. The two peptides mediate their functions through coupling to the glucagon like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) with similar affinity and potency. Unlike N-terminally truncated GLP-1, (GLP-1(15-36)amide), the equivalently truncated EX4(9-39) binds GLP-1R without significant loss of affinity; furthermore, GLP-1(15-36) is a partial agonist while EX4(9-39) is an antagonist. Previous binding analysis of either N or C-terminally truncated EX4 at rGLP-1R suggested that the residues responsible for its extra affinity are at its C-terminus, EX4 residues 31-39. Crystal structures supported by mutagenesis showed similar interactions of both GLP-1 and EX4 at the isolated N-terminal domain of human GLP-1R (hGLP-1R-NTD) apart from a subtle hydrogen bond between Ser32 in EX4 and Glu68 in hGLP-1R-NTD.

Experimental approach
The affinities and activities of GLP-1, EX4 and various analogues were measured at human and rat GLP-1R (hGLP-1R and rGLP-1R, respectively) and various receptor variants. Computer models, molecular dynamics coupled with in silico mutagenesis, were used to model and interpret the data.

Key results
The membrane-tethered NTDs of hGLP-1R displayed similar affinity for GLP-1 and EX4 in contrast to previous studies using the soluble isolated domain. The selective high affinity at rGLP-1R and the rGLP-1R-like mutant hGLP-1R-Glu68Asp for EX4(9–39) over EX4(9–30) was due to Ser32 in the ligand. This selectivity was not observed with hGLP-1R and the hGLP-1R-like mutant rGLP-1R-Asp68Glu. Gly16-EX4(9–30) was an agonist for rGLP-1R and hGLP-1R-Glu68Asp but was an antagonist for hGLP-1R and rGLP-1R-Asp68Glu. Glu22-GLP-1(15-36) was a partial agonist for all tested receptors. Insertion of (EEEAVRL) of EX4 instead of their equivalent sequence in GLP-1(15-36) prevented its activity and did not enhance its affinity. Substitution of Ser32 in EX4 by similar hydrogen bond donor amino acids did not enhance EX4 affinity or potency.

Conclusions and implications
GLP-1 and EX4 bind to the NTD of hGLP-1R with similar affinity. A hydrogen bond between Ser32 of EX4 and Asp68 of rGLP-1R is responsible for the improved affinity of EX4 and can play a role in the antagonist/agonist switch of Gly16-EX4(9–30) at the rat receptor. The discovery of the novel antagonist/agonist switch suggests a new mechanism of activation by GLP-1 which does not require its extreme N-terminal residues.


Helichrysum picardii Boiss. & Reuter is a Mediterranean vegetal species from the Asteraceae family. From the methanolic extract of the aerial flowering parts of this plant, a fraction of two pentacyclic triterpenes has been isolated. Gas chromatography revealed that the triterpene isomers ursolic and oleanolic acids comprised 69% and 29% respectively of the composition of this fraction. The triterpene isomeric fraction was tested in two phagocyte cell systems. It inhibited compound 48/80-induced histamine release from rat peritoneal mast cells in an approximately percentage of 45% at 100 microM and myeloperoxidase secretion from A23187-ionophore-stimulated rat peritoneal leukocytes in a significant manner at doses of 50 and 100 miroM. Furthermore, the triterpene isomers very significantly and dose-dependently inhibited generation of the cyclo-oxygenase metabolite prostaglandin E2 (41% inhibition at 50 miroM) and the 5-lipoxygenase metabolite leukotriene B4 (79% inhibition at 50 microM) from activated rat leukocytes. This anti-eicosanoid activity of the triterpene fraction was more potent than that produced by the pure triterpene oleanolic acid used for comparision, indicating a stronger action of the ursolic acid, the major compound of the isolated triterpene fraction. From these data, it can be suggested that the triterpene isomers oleanolic and ursolic acids present in the medicinal plant Helichrysum picardii contribute to the anti-inflammatory profile of this vegetal species.


The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of superficial cooling on physiological responses while training in a warm, humid environment during an international judo training camp. Sixteen judokas (8 women and 8 men) participated in the experiment. Four high-level women and four men were randomly assigned to wear a cooling vest (vest group, VG) during the recovery periods within a training session (i.e. 8 bouts of 5 min fighting with 5 min rest) and up to 10 min after the session, while the remaining athletes in the control group (CG) trained without the use of any cooling aids. No differences between groups were reported in well-being prior to the session or in perceived fatigue following the session. The temperature was increased after the training session (p=0.02) without significant differences between groups; however, CG demonstrated a moderate effect size (ES=0.95, 90% confidence interval [CI] from 0.09 to 1.82; probability of superiority [PS]=74.9%) in contrast to the small effect for VG (ES=0.28, 90% CI from -0.55 to 1.11; PS=57.9%). There were time × group interactions for heart rate variability (HRV; lnRMSSD) (p<0.01; VG vs. CG, PS=79.0%) and the dehydroepiandrosterone-cortisol ratio (DHEA/C ratio) (p=0.04; VG vs. CG, PS=99.9%). VG preserved the cardiac autonomic control (p>0.05; ES=-0.06, 90% CI=-0.88 to 0.76; PS=51.7%) compared to the large decrement of CG (p<0.05; ES=-1.18, 90% CI=-2.07 to -0.29; PS=74.9%). Furthermore, VG showed an increase of DHEA/C (p<0.01) from pre- to post-session based on a moderate decrease of cortisol (p>0.05; ES=-0.67, 90% CI=-1.52 to 0.17; PS=68.2%) with a concomitant small increase of DHEA (p>0.05; ES=0.46, 90%CI=-0.38 to 1.29; PS=62.7%). Conversely, the control group showed a moderate effect for increased DHEA and a small effect for increased cortisol following training. No significant interactions or main effects were shown for isometric handgrip values. Cooling vests diminished the cardiovascular strain and hormonal impact of the judo training session in high-level athletes and may be considered for recovery purposes during exercise in warm/humid environments.


While the big data revolution takes place, large amounts of electronic health records, such as electrocardiograms (ECGs) and vital signs data, have become available. These signals are often recorded as time series of observations and are now easier to obtain. In particular, with the arise of smart devices that can perform ECG, there is the quest for developing novel approaches that allow to monitor these signals efficiently, and quickly detect anomalies. However, since most data generated remains unlabelled, the task of anomaly detection is still very challenging. Unsupervised representation learning using deep generative models (e.g., variational autoencoders) has been used to learn expressive feature representations of sequences that can make downstream tasks, such as anomaly detection, easier to execute and more accurate. We propose an approach for unsupervised representation learning of ECG sequences using a variational autoencoder parameterised by recurrent neural networks, and use the learned representations for anomaly detection using multiple detection strategies. We tested our approach on the ECG5000 electrocardiogram dataset of the UCR time series classification archive. Our results show that the proposed approach is able to learn expressive representations of ECG sequences, and to detect anomalies with scores that outperform other both supervised and unsupervised methods.


We present a new interface for producing high quality web deliverable interactive 3D facial animation. We aim at providing visual artists with established 3D character animation tools and techniques not currently supported by web 3D technology. Such techniques are crucial to the creation of visually appealing web 3D content. We have developed a production tool (the Web Facial Expression Editor-WFEE) which allows: (1) animation of web deliverable facial deformations using optimal animation methodologies such as single and multiple target morphing, reactive animation and custom defined attributes; (2) applicability to most face models developed in most commercial 3D software packages; (3) support of any facial skeletal structure; (4) extensibility to full-body animation. As the platform of choice we have focused on Maya 5.0 and Macromedia Director MX Shockwave Studio. However, due to its simplicity, the interface is easy to implement on different platforms using other programming languages.


Abstract: The role of nitric oxide (NO) as a regulator of cardiac contraction was suggested in the early nineties, but a consensual view of its main functions in cardiac physiology has only recently emerged with the help of experiments using genetic deletion or overexpression of the three nitric oxide synthase (NOS) isoforms in cardiomyocytes. Contrary to the effects of exogenous, pharmacologic NO donors, signaling by endogenous NO is restricted to intracellular effectors co‐localized with NOS in specific subcellular compartments. This both ensures coordinate signaling by the three NOS isoforms on different aspects of the cardiomyocyte function and helps to reconcile previous apparently contradictory observations based on the use of non‐isoform‐specific NOS inhibitors. This review will emphasize the role of NOS on excitation‐contraction coupling in the normal and diseased heart. Endothelial NOS and neuronal NOS contribute to maintain an adequate balance between adrenergic and vagal input to the myocardium and participate in the early and late phases of the Frank‐Starling adaptation of the heart. At the early phases of cardiac diseases, inducible NOS reinforces these effects, which may become maladaptive as disease progresses.


Winemaking produces annually millions of tons of grape marc as a byproduct, which is a revaluable resource having many potential uses, including a nutrient‐rich organic soil amendment. However, its application as untreated raw material can damage crops owing to the release of phytotoxic polyphenols. This agronomic problems can be minimized by vermicomposting, as earthworms can partly digest polyphenols. This chapter reports the results obtained in the processing of grape marc derived from white wine through vermicomposting on an industrial scale to yield both a high quality organic, polyphenol‐free fertilizer and grape seeds as a source of bioactive compounds. Vermicomposting reduced substantially the residue biomass. In a very short‐term, the process yielded a nutrient‐rich, microbiologically active and stabilized peat‐like material that can be easily separated from the seeds by sieving. The isolation of the seeds eliminates the polyphenol‐associated phytotoxicity from the vermicompost and left those seeds prepared to be easily processed to get different bioactive compounds, mainly rich‐polyphenols extracts but also rich‐fatty acids seed oil. The procedure described is effective, simple, environmental‐friendly and economical, and can easily be scaled up for industrial application yielding a variety of added‐value products from the initial grape marc.


Purpose This paper examines the role of liaison and diversion services working in the lower courts (also known as Magistrates' courts) with regard to autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their assessment, in particular the role of pre-sentence and psychiatric reports and interviews. Design Current practice is described in the lower courts in the context of current legislation and procedures. Findings When writing reports there is a need for expertise to offer an opinion on future risk, disposal and what needs to be in place to support people with autism spectrum disorders. No assumptions should be made when reporting on the basis of an ASD diagnosis alone and each case must be assessed on its individual merits while ensuring that individual human rights are protected. Originality There is currently a sparse literature examining ASD in court settings. This paper seeks to clarify current practice.


• Successful glaucoma filtration surgery depends on the incomplete healing of the surgical wound, with formation of a filtration bleb. In most other tissues, however, complete healing is the rule. I have explored the possibility that the high concentration of ascorbic acid normally present in aqueous humor inhibits wound healing after filtration surgery. At the concentration normally present in aqueous humor (1.1 mmol/L), ascorbic acid decreased the plating efficiency of cell suspensions of human Tenon's capsule fibroblasts by a mean (±SD) of 40%±10%. When added to low-density monolayer cultures of fibroblasts, ascorbic acid decreased the cell number by 90%±5%, an effect that was completely prevented by catalase. When added to confluent cultures, the cell number was decreased by only 14%±2%. If ascorbic acid has similar effects on fibroblasts in vivo, it may contribute to the incomplete wound healing that characterizes successful glaucoma surgery.


The scientific community has recognized the necessity for more efficiently selected inputs in artificial neural network models (ANNs) in river flows and has worked on this despite some shortcomings. Moreover, there is none or limited inclusion of ANN inputs coupled with atmospheric circulation under various patterns arising from the need of data downscaling for climate change predictions in hydrology domain. This paper presents the results of a novel multi-stage methodology for selecting input variables used in artificial neural network (ANN) models for river flow forecasting. The proposed methodology makes use of data correlations together with a set of crucial statistical indices for optimizing model performance, both in terms of ANN structure (e.g. neurons, momentum rate, learning rate, activation functions, etc), but also in terms of inputs selection. The latter include various previous time steps of daily areal precipitation and temperature data coupled with atmospheric circulation in the form of circulation patterns, observed river flow data and time expressed via functions of sine and cosine. Additionally, the non-linear behavior between river flow and the respective inputs is investigated by the ANN configuration itself and not only by correlation indices (or other equivalent contingency tools). The proposed methodology revealed the river flow of past four days, the precipitation of past three days and the seasonality as robust input variables. However, the temperature of three past days should be considered as an alternative against the seasonality. The produced models forecasting ability was validated by comparing its one-step ahead flow prediction ability to two other approaches (an auto regressive model and a genetic algorithm (GA)-optimized single input ANN).


It is argued that realism and true randomness are fully compatible. Realistic true random events are acts of pure creation that obey strict laws, but do not necessarily satisfy Kolmogorov's axioms of probabilities. Realistic true randomness is some sort of nondeterministic force, or propensity of physical systems to manifest such and such properties under such and such conditions. Realistic random events reflect preexisting properties, as required by realism, simply the reflection is not deterministic; still, the preexisting properties determine the propensities of the different possible events.
It is argued that deterministic extensions of quantum physics are necessarily incompatible with special relativity. Hence, from today's violations of Bell's inequalities one can conclude that all future physics theories will display true randomness as does quantum physics.
It is argued that accepting true randomness and realism leads to new questions with interesting answers, allowing one 1) to study nonlocality in configurations with many independent sources and 2) to bound how much free will is needed for a proper violation of Bell's inequality.


Characterization of mortars and plasters used in historical structures is crucial before conservation interventions in order to propose proper repair materials and avoid any damage caused by material incompatibility. In the present study, mortars and plasters of a Byzantine Church in the ancient city of Stratonikeia dated back to 5th – 7th centuries were examined in terms of physical/physico-mechanical characteristics and raw materials used by various analytical techniques. Possible use of pozzolanic materials in mortar and plaster samples were investigated by pozzolanic activity tests performed on the aggregates (< 125 µm) and examining the reaction products formed after immersion of these aggregates in a saturated solution of Ca(OH)2. Investigated mortar and plaster samples were found to have relatively low bulk density and high effective porosity. Compressive strength values of mortar samples were found to be in the range of 3.92 – 4.47 MPa. Binder used in the mortar and plaster samples were assessed to be fat lime. Aggregates of the samples smaller than 125 µm were found to have good pozzolanicity. Formation of pozzolanic reaction products by the reaction of the finer aggregates with Ca(OH)2 were confirmed by the results of SEM-EDX and FTIR analyses.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.24.3.18590


Laser shock forming (LSF) is characterized in non-contact load, high pressure and high strain ratio. It has many promising applications in aerospace, automotive, metal and many other industries. However, despite the extensive experimental and modeling study in literature, seldom investigations are about the effect of laser parameters on strain rates. With the variation of strain rates in LSF, the failure mechanism and plastic instability theory are different. Therefore, the variation of strain rates should be considered in the process of establishing LSF theory. Based on this, the article discussed the effect of laser shock parameters on the strain rates. Taken the 3003-H16 aluminum alloy as the specimen, the finite element (FE) analysis for LSF was performed.


Speech coding strategies for cochlear implants commonly use amplitude modulations of constant high rate pulses to differentially stimulate separate frequency channels in the cochlea. Thereby, time domain information in the fine structure of speech sounds, especially on transients, is largely lost. In gerbils with a single electrode cochlear implant was explored, whether upward and downward interval modulation of pulse trains can carry discriminable information. This question was pursued with unit recordings in primary auditory cortex (AI) and with behavioral discrimination training in a shuttle box. Units in AI showed multiple differences in the dynamic responses to the two directions of interval modulation and notably ON-response dominated patterns with increasing intervals and OFF-response dominated patterns with decreasing intervals of stimulation. In accordance with these neuronal correlates gerbils learned to distinguish the directions of interval modulation within 3 days, but only with certain specifications.


: The gene-enzyme relationships of the arom multienzyme complex of Schizosaccharomyces pombe that catalyzes steps two through six in the prechorismate polyaromatic amino acid biosynthetic pathway have been studied. The various mutants were subjected to biochemical analysis by direct enzymic assays. These studies have established that aro-3A, aro-3B, aro-3C, aro-3D, and aro-3E mutants lack, respectively, the enzymic activities 5-dehydroquinate synthase, 5-dehydroquinase, shekimate kinase, 3-enolpyruvylshikimate 5-phosphate synthase, and shikimate: NADP oxidoreductase. In S. pombe lack enzymic activities for the inducible quinate catabolic pathway. The functional significance of the arom aggregate is discussed.


In adult cortical tissue, recruitment of GABAergic inhibition prevents the progression of synchronous population discharges to epileptic activity. However, at early developmental stages, GABA is excitatory and thus unable to fulfill this role. Here, we report that retrograde signaling involving endocannabinoids is responsible for the homeostatic control of synaptic transmission and the resulting network patterns in the immature hippocampus. Blockade of cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptor led to epileptic discharges, whereas overactivation of CB1 reduced network activity in vivo. Endocannabinoid signaling thus is able to keep population discharge patterns within a narrow physiological time window, balancing between epilepsy on one side and sparse activity on the other, which may result in impaired developmental plasticity. Disturbing this delicate balance during pregnancy in either direction, e.g., with marijuana as a CB1 agonist or with an antagonist marketed as an antiobesity drug, can have profound consequences for brain maturation even in human embryos.


Two surveys were conducted to assess consumer and professional chefs' percep- tions of three edible-flower species. Our objectives were to determine opinions, prefer- ences, and uses of Viola tricolor L. 'Helen Mount' (viola), Borago officinalis L. (borage), and Tropaeolum majus L. 'Jewel Mix' (nasturtium). Flowers were grown using certifiable organic methods and chosen to reflect a variety of flower tastes, textures, and appearances. We quantified three attributes (taste, fragrance, and visual appeal) with a total of seven semantic, differential scales adapted from a scaling authority. The attributes were rated as: visual—"appealing", "desirable," and "very interested in tasting"; fragrance—"ap- pealing" and "pleasant"; and taste—"tasty" and "desirable". Garden Day participants were self-selected to evaluate and taste flowers from a consumer perspective. When asked to rate the three species on visual appeal and desire, no less than 76% of consumers awarded all flowers an acceptable rating. We found similar results when consumers answered questions regarding the taste of two of the three species. Results from this study support our hypothesis that customers would rate edible flower attributes highly and would be likely to purchase and serve the three species tested. Members of the Michigan Chefs de Cuisine Association participated in a similar survey. At least 66% of these chefs rated the three visual attributes and two fragrance attributes of viola and nasturtium acceptable. Chefs' ratings of the fragrance of borage as "appealing" and "pleasant" were higher than those of consumers, but the ratings were still low, 21% and 25%, respectively. Unlike consumers, chefs' ratings of the taste of viola as "appealing" and "desirable" were low (29% and 36%, respectively). We found some minor differences in ratings when groups were compared, using demographic variables as a basis for segmentation, indicat- ing a homogenous marketing strategy may be employed.


This work is aimed at optimizing the wind turbine rotor speed setpoint algorithm. Several intelligent adjustment strategies have been investigated in order to improve a reward function that takes into account the power captured from the wind and the turbine speed error. After different approaches including Reinforcement Learning, the best results were obtained using a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)-based wind turbine speed setpoint algorithm. A reward improvement of up to 10.67% has been achieved using PSO compared to a constant approach and 0.48% compared to a conventional approach. We conclude that the pitch angle is the most adequate input variable for the turbine speed setpoint algorithm compared to others such as rotor speed, or rotor angular acceleration.


The stability of aminophylline injection in crystalline amino acid-dextrose solutions containing standard additions of electrolytes, vitamins, and minerals was evaluated. Aminophylline injection was added to three parenteral nutrition (PN) solutions in dosages of 0.25-1.50 mg/ml. All of the samples were prepared in duplicate, stored in sealed volumetric flasks, and allowed to stand under normal lighting at room temperature or under refrigeration for 48 hours. Samples were analyzed for theophylline content by reverse phase high-pressure liquid chromatography at 1, 24, and 48 hours. Mean percent theophylline recovery 24 hours after admixture was 101 +/- 10.9%, 101 +/- 4.3%, and 100 +/- 4.3% in the three PN solutions. Solution pH values were stable for 48 hours. Refrigeration and lower amino acid concentrations did not alter stability. Aminophylline is stable in PN solutions for 24 hours in concentrations up to 1.5 mg/ml.


Fish oils containing omega-3 fatty acids (OM3FA) are widely prescribed in the management of dyslipidemia. An asso-ciation between OM3FA and reduced risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) has been proposed. We examined the impact of OM3FA exposure on the risk of developing AF in patients with cardiovascular disease. Data was obtained from elec-tronic medical records of patients seen by our cardiology service between 2005 and 2007. Patients were excluded if AF developed prior to, or on the day of, OM3FA exposure. A total of 11,360 subjects were eligible for analyses. Subjects exposed to OM3FA were at higher risk for AF. Nearly all AF risk factors were significantly more prevalent in the OM3FA exposed group. As expected, those prescribed OM3FA were also more likely to be prescribed statins, ACE in-hibitors, aspirin, and beta blockers. AF occurred in 8.5% (221/2600) of OM3FA exposed subjects and 23.5% (2054/8760) of those not exposed. After controlling for AF risk factors, OM3FA exposed subjects were 74% less likely to develop AF than those not exposed to OM3FA (odds ratio 0.26, 95%CI 0.22-0.30, p < 0.0001). After controlling for risk factors for AF, OM3FA use is significantly associated with a reduced risk for AF in patients with cardiovascular disease. Potential mechanisms which may explain the ability of OM3FAs to reduce AF include its anti-inflammatory and anti-arrhythmic properties. The optimal dose of OM3FA to prevent AF is unknown and warrants prospective as-sessment in a randomized controlled trial of OM3FAs powered to detect significant differences in AF.


Th e aim of this study was to evaluate the infl uence of climatic parameters, in particular the the precipitation amount and distribution in the vegetation period, then, the type of soil and fertilization on the yield in the fi rst two years of growing Miscanthus x giganteus as a test crop. Th e experiment was performed on two types of soil with limited productive capability Lessivated Cambisol and Stagnosol, on the experimental fi elds of Institute of Soil Science, Belgrade, in Mladenovac and Varna. It was implemented the planting density of 2 rhizomes m-2. Miscanthus fertilization was performed in the second vegetative season, using diff erent quantities and types of the NPK fertilizers (50 kg ha-1 NPK and 100 kg ha-1 NPK – granular fertilizer; 50 kg ha-1 NPK water soluble fertilizer). Unfertilized variant was used as a control. Weather conditions during the monitoring of the experiment were characterized by two extremes: fl oods in the planting year (year 2014) and the long term drought in the second year (year 2015). On Lessivated cambisol, in the variant treated with 50 kg ha-1 of NPK (granular), it was achieved the highest yield of miscanthus, and the lowest by applying 50 kg ha-1 of NPK (water soluble fertilizer). On Stagnosol, the highest yield was recorded in the variant treated with 50 kg ha-1 of NPK water soluble fertilizer, and the lowest by applying 50 kg ha-1 of NPK (granular). Th e yields of miscanthus on both soil types were not signifi cantly diff erent in relation to control. Concluding, results of the two-year research showed that there were no fertilization and agro-ecological impacts on the yield of miscanthus.


Research aim: This study discloses the relationship between governance arrangements and network types (networking) and the effectiveness of follow-up practice.
Design/ Methodology/ Approach: Governance network theory (GNT) was utilised together with the interpretative phenomenological approach. Fifty-five governance actors in the Malaysian public sector that consist of the auditors, auditees, regulators and other relevant actors were divided into four groups. Their stories and experiences collected via interviews constitute the main data for this study.
Research finding: This study noted three phases of follow-up strategies which are pre; during; and post-tabling of the Auditor-General's (AG) report in Parliament. This follow-up practice involves a new way of governing with the involvement of many actors. It is not limited to auditors and auditees. Data from this study evidenced that networking approaches based on three types of network, namely coordinative, cooperative and collaborative, have enhanced follow-up practice as evident in the dissemination of punitive audit issues to the right actors for further action.
Theoretical contribution/ Originality: This research has provided evidence that study of follow-up on performance audit issues in practice encapsulates social behaviour, societal governance, and network perspective and produces stimulating results.
Practitioner/ Policy implication: Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) must find a way to reduce the hierarchical nature of its work by entrenching its strategy, structure and process to ease governance arrangements and networking between various actors outside the SAI organisation in resolving the audit issues raised in the AG report through effective follow-up practice.
Research limitation/ Implication: The researcher did not select performance auditing issues individually per se to see how each issue with punitive elements is addressed through a follow-up process. In order to perform in-depth research, researchers should select punitive issues and execute case study research.
Type of article: Research paper
Keywords: Performance Auditing, Follow-Up Practice, Governance Arrangement, Networking, Governance Network
JEL Classification: M42, M48, H83, H77


In the report "Continent-ocean chemical heterogeneity in the mantle based on seismic tomography" by Alessandro M. Forte et al. (21 Apr., p. 386), note 14 (p. 388) should have included the following sentence at the end. "We note, however, that this classical measure of significance does not take into account the red spectrum of the observed nonhydrostatic geoid, whose harmonic coefficients cannot be properly regarded as a random distribution; therefore, the statistical significance of the measured correlation coefficient is possibly less than 99%.


The expression of genetic material governs brain development, differentiation, and function, and targeted manipulation of gene expression is required to understand contributions of gene function to health and disease states. Although recent improvements in CRISPR/dCas9 interference (CRISPRi) technology have enabled targeted transcriptional repression at selected genomic sites, integrating these techniques for use in non-dividing neuronal systems remains challenging. Previously, we optimized a dual lentivirus expression system to express CRISPR-based activation machinery in post-mitotic neurons. Here we used a similar strategy to adapt an improved dCas9-KRAB-MeCP2 repression system for robust transcriptional inhibition in neurons. We find that lentiviral delivery of a dCas9-KRAB-MeCP2 construct driven by the neuron-selective promoter human synapsin 1 enabled transgene expression in primary rat neurons. Next, we demonstrate transcriptional repression using CRISPR sgRNAs targeting diverse gene promoters, and show superiority of this system in neurons compared to existing RNA interference methods for robust transcript specific manipulation at the complex Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf) gene. Our findings advance this improved CRISPRi technology for use in neuronal systems for the first time, potentially enabling improved ability to manipulate gene expression states in the nervous system.


Summary During an ongoing effort to recover and preserve local germplasm, 14 accessions of indigenous minor grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) cultivars from the Umbria Region, Central Italy, were chosen because they had been neglected and were threatened with extinction. Their phenotypic and genetic characteristics were evaluated through an ampelographic study of their shoots, mature leaves, bunches, and berries and by genomic analysis using an international set of nine microsatellite (simple sequence repeat; SSR) markers (VVS2, VVMD5, VVMD7, VVMD27, VrZAG62, VrZAG79, VVMD25, VVMD28, and VVMD32). Comparisons of the SSR profiles of all 14 accessions with grapevine accessions in several databases permitted the identification of unique genotypes, as well as possible synonyms. Information on these older, neglected cultivars will help to reduce the genetic erosion of grapevine germplasm, improve conservation and possible recovery, and assist in the future production of new, distinctive wines.


The inferior glenohumeral ligament serves as a critical restraint to anteroinferior dislocation. This study utilizes a biomechanical model to determine the strain field in the inferior glenohumeral ligament (IGHL) in a subluxed shoulder. Spherical lead object markers were carefully attached to the IGHL surface in a grid pattern. Two capsular configurations were used for strain field calculations: a "nominal" state and a "strained" state. For the nominal state, the capsule was inflated in neutral rotation with low pressure air. For the strained state, the humerus was externally rotated and anteroinferiorly subluxed. Stereoradiographs were taken of both configurations and markers digitized. Three-dimensional coordinates of object markers were reconstructed and strain fields calculated. Maximum principal strains on the glenoid side of the IGHL were significantly greater than the humeral side, and strain fields were highly variable over the region studied. This study reports an accurate method for measuring planar strains in a three-dimensional membrane.


Abstract. We perform a multi-scale impact assessment of tephra fallout and dispersal from explosive volcanic activity in Iceland. A companion paper (Biass et al., 2014; "A multi-scale risk assessment of tephra fallout and airborne concentration from multiple Icelandic volcanoes – Part I: hazard assessment") introduces a multi-scale probabilistic assessment of tephra hazard based on selected eruptive scenarios at four Icelandic volcanoes (Hekla, Askja, Eyjafjallajokull and Katla) and presents probabilistic hazard maps for tephra accumulation in Iceland and tephra dispersal across Europe. Here, we present the associated vulnerability and impact assessment that describes the importance of single features at national and European levels and considers several vulnerability indicators for tephra dispersal and deposition. At the national scale, we focus on physical, systemic and economic vulnerability of Iceland to tephra fallout, whereas at the European scale we focus on the systemic vulnerability of the air traffic system to tephra dispersal. This is the first vulnerability and impact assessment analysis of this type and, although it does not include all the aspects of physical and systemic vulnerability, it allows for identifying areas on which further specific analysis should be performed. Results include vulnerability maps for Iceland and European airspace and allow for the qualitative identification of the impacts at both scales in the case of an eruption occurring. Maps produced at the national scale show that tephra accumulation associated with all eruptive scenarios considered can disrupt the main electricity network, in particular in relation to an eruption of Askja. Results also show that several power plants would be affected if an eruption occurred at Hekla, Askja or Katla, causing a substantial systemic impact due to their importance for the Icelandic economy. Moreover, the Askja and Katla eruptive scenarios considered could have substantial impacts on agricultural activities (crops and pastures). At the European scale, eruptive scenarios at Askja and Katla are likely to affect European airspace, having substantial impacts, in particular, in the Keflavik and London flight information regions (FIRs), but also at FIRs above France, Germany and Scandinavia. Impacts would be particularly intense in the case of long-lasting activity at Katla. The occurrence of eruptive scenarios at Hekla is likely to produce high impacts at Keflavik FIR and London FIRs, and, in the case of higher magnitude, can also impact France's FIRs. Results could support land use and emergency planning at the national level and risk management strategies of the European air traffic system. Although we focus on Iceland, the proposed methodology could be applied to other active volcanic areas, enhancing the long-term tephra risk management. Moreover, the outcomes of this work pose the basis for quantitative analyses of expected impacts and their integration in a multi-risk framework.


Shared time-division duplexing (STDD) is an attractive candidate for high-quality low-delay multiple access in microcellular systems. STDD provides a considerable increase in capacity over conventional time-division systems with conventional speech activity detection (SAD). By sharing time slots in both directions of transmission, large statistical multiplexing gains are obtained, even with a moderate number of users per carrier. We show by means of theory that STDD is superior to conventional time-division multiple access (TDMA) as well as TDMA/TDD/SAD in terms of capacity. We furthermore demonstrate how a type of mixed cochannel interference particular to STDD can be reduced or almost eliminated by means of directional antennas at the base stations for both reception and transmission, combined with appropriate organization of the time burst. The concept of partially shared TDD (PSTDD) is also introduced, and the tradeoff between capacity gains by means of statistical multiplexing and packets dropped due to interference is studied by means of analysis. To illustrate the introduced concepts and methodology of evaluation, a number of numerical results are given for a frame length of 2 ms. Statistical multiplexing gains of the order of 100% over TDMA are obtained with 40 speech slots per frame and a packet dropping rate of 0.1%.


In a Fast Ignition Realization Experiment (FIREX), measurement of the primary and the secondary neutron yield is one of the key diagnostics. However, gamma-ray background generated by an ultra-short pulse laser irradiation makes it difficult to measure the neutron yield in the fast ignition experiment. We adopted a bubble neutron detector as a promising gamma-insensitive detector to be developed and started to examine the feasibility of the detector using commercially available dosimeters provided from BTI inc. [1].


An experience with over 2,000 Japanese-style double-contrast upper gastrointestinal examinations is presented. Results indicate that, in combination with the conventional single-contrast films, the double-contrast examination of the stomach greatly increased the yield and accuracy of the radiographic procedure. The double-contrast study appears to have particular applicability in detecting lesions which do not greatly elevate or depress the surface of the stomach, such as early carcinomas, shallow ulcers, ulcer scars, small polyps and other similar mucosal abnormalities.


The European Commission is planning a new study aimed at developing better graphic images to warn of the damaging effects of tobacco, in a bid to encourage more European Union countries to put the pictures on cigarette packets.

Haravgi-Nina Papadoulaki, spokeswoman for the EC's commissioner for health and consumer protection, Philippe Brunet, said that, although the commission developed a library of pictorial health warnings in 2005, only three European Union member states have started putting the images on cigarette packets: the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Latvia.

The commission has already asked researchers to submit proposals for the new …


On an April morning in 1789 near the island of Tonga, William Bligh and eighteen surly seamen were expelled from the Bounty and began the greatest open-boat voyage in history, sailing some 4,000 miles to safety in Timor. The mutineers, led by Fletcher Christian, sailed off in the Bounty and were never heard of again. Contains: the full text of Bligh's Narrative of the Mutiny, the minutes of the court proceedings gathered by Edward Christian in an effort to clear his brother's name, and the correspondence between Bligh and Christian, and a selection of later Bounty narratives.


Abstract:This essay explores the politics, poetics, and ethics of metadata in response to two frequent critiques of the digital humanities: the incompatibility between humanistic and computational methods of interpretation; and the continued undertheorization of its practices. By placing metadata in conversation with metanarrative and metafiction, this essay examines, first, the ways metadata markup is often produced with an aim to totalize interpretation for a data set. In this way, metadata's relationship to data is analogous to that between metanarrative and narrative. Unfortunately, this also positions metadata within ethics of fixity, closure, mastery, hegemony, and patriarchy—ethics that may be required for digital computation, but that run counter to the values structuring contemporary American studies. To disrupt this operability, the essay looks to metafiction and self-reflexive poetry. Specifically engaging the poems in Susan Howe's Singularities collection, the essay imagines methods of and possibilities for metadata markup that can resist its operation as metanarrative, in favor of its operation as metafiction. Rather than introduce false or fictitious content, metadata that operate as metafiction provide self-reflexive commentary on their own condition, which, in turn, allows for the ambiguity, historicism, and relativism that describes both humanistic and contemporary American studies values.


The mechanism of a photochemical reaction involves the formation and dissociation of various short-lived species on ultrafast timescales and therefore its characterization requires detailed structural information on the transient species. By making use of a structurally sensitive X-ray probe, time-resolved X-ray liquidography (TRXL) can directly elucidate the structures of reacting molecules in the solution phase and thus determine the comprehensive reaction mechanism with high accuracy. In this work, by performing TRXL measurements at two different wavelengths (400 and 267 nm), the reaction mechanism of I3 (-) photolysis, which changes subtly depending on the excitation wavelength, is elucidated. Upon 400 nm photoexcitation, the I3 (-) ion dissociates into I2 (-) and I. By contrast, upon 267 nm photoexcitation, the I3 (-) ion undergoes both two-body dissociation (I2 (-) +I) and three-body dissociation (I(-) +2I) with 7:3 molar ratio. At both excitation wavelengths, all the transient species ultimately disappear in 80 ns by recombining to form the I3 (-) ion nongeminately. In addition to the reaction dynamics of solute species, the results reveal the transient structure of the solute/solvent cage and the changes in solvent density and temperature as a function of time.


Date palm is one of the important income sources for many farmers in different parts of several countries, including Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, North Africa etc. Inflorescence rot is a serious disease of date palm which limits its yield. The identification of the causal organism is a key step to tackling this disease, and such studies are very scanty. The objective of this present study was to identify the causal agent of inflorescence rot disease occurring on date palms prevailing in Southern Iraq. The diseased date palm trees were observed in Shaat-Al-Arab and Al-Deer regions near Basrah in Iraq. The isolates were identified using morphological and molecular parameters. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS)/5.8S regions were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequenced. The PCR method and phylogenetic relationship successfully identified that the causal organism of date palm inflorescence rot disease in southern part of Iraq is Fusarium proliferatum . Pathogenecity test confirmed the disease-causing ability of the fungus, and sequence comparison for similarity of ITS region. Identification of this new causal agent of inflorescence rot may help the plant pathologists to control this disease. Keywords: Fusarium proliferatum , ITS1, ITS4, pathogenecity, PCR, isolates, phylogeny


The paper briefly discussed the main parts of the Polish tax system underlining its important bad points and problems. After almost 15 years after introduction of main taxes, PIT, CIT, VAT and Excise, there is a need for some kind summary in these fields. The huge scope of subject allows only for general deductions and recommendations, but seems to be a good starting points for further discussions. The paper begins with a brief analysis of public economics theory in the field of taxation. Next it describes historical changes in the Polish tax system and present public finance situation in Poland. It is impossible to put aside a size of public spending when realistic and significant tax changes are analysed. Afterwards, in theoretical and practical context main taxes are described in more detail. The final paragraph presents conclusions and formulates some recommendations for further changes. Even though the significant changes in taxations began in 1992 (introduction of PIT and CIT) the analysis mainly covers years from 1995 to 2005, with some exceptions for 2006 and 2007 when data available. More detailed descriptions concerns last 3 years to embrace most up-to-date problems.


Guide for Dr. Claudia Amadori's ENG 1930: University Honors Seminar in Writing, Rhetoric in Composition for the Fall 2015 class.


The aim with this project was to investigate how research grants in Sweden are distributed inthe selected fields; natural science, medicine and life science. Our client Olink producesdetection kits for biomarkers and our goal with this study was to give an indication of apossible new market area for their products. Three foundations were included in the study;VINNOVA, Vetenskapsradet (Swedish Research Council) and Stiftelsen for strategiskforskning (Swedish foundation for strategic research). Nearly a thousand research grantswere analysed which included a total of 4,92 billion Swedish kronor. Seven selecteduniversities were contacted; Chalmers tekniska hogskola, Karolinska Institutet, Kungligatekniska hogskolan, Linkopings universitet, Lunds universitetet, Sverigeslantbruksuniversitet, Uppsala universitet. The aim was to get an indication if any specificuniversity invested in a research of significant interest. The analysis of the foundationscombined with the analysis of the universities internal funding distribution gave theconclusion that a possible future market area for Olink Bioscience is the field of neurologicaldisorders.


© Cambridge University Press 2011. Introduction Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a neurodegenerative disorder causing parkinsonism, visual dysfunction, and balance impairment, as well as cognitive impairment and psychiatric complications. These problems, together with the emotional and social consequences of having a progressively disabling disease with shortened life expectancy, have an enormous impact on patients' health-related quality of life (HRQoL). PSP was first delineated as a distinct disorder, separate from Parkinson's disease, in 1962. It is sometimes referred to as Steele–Richardson–Olszewski syndrome after the scientists who originally described the condition. It is estimated that the disease has a prevalence of 6 per 100,000, similar to that of motor neuron disease, with the average age of onset being in the seventh decade. Mean survival from the onset of symptoms is approximately 6 years. To date, there has been little validation of any HR-QoL generic instruments in this patient group. In one small-scale study, some limited evidence for the appropriateness of the European Quality of Life Five Dimensions (EQ-5D) in this patient group was found, but less support was found for the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), which some patients indicated did not cover areas of relevance to them. The Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39) has been assessed for its suitability in this patient group, but it was found to lack some aspects of quality of life that are important to patients with PSP.


The American Association of Critical-Care Nurse's (AACN) Thunder Project was conceptualized and developed to provide critical-care nurses with a research protocol ready for institutional review and implementation. Project goals included providing a research package (protocol, educational, and data collection materials) and a topic of clinical significance to critical-care nurses. Site coordinators and research associates were identified at participating institutions to coordinate and implement all study activities. In this article, an evaluation study undertaken to recount perceptions of site coordinators and research associates in relation to project goals and research experience is described. Data demonstrated that study goals were achieved, and research experience was considered professionally enhancing. Written comments described barriers to project implementation at participating sites. Obtaining informed consent and physician approval and/or cooperation were identified as significant barriers to implementation at some sites.


BACKGROUND
The use of fetal DNA in maternal plasma for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis of trisomy 21 (T21) is an actively researched area. We propose a novel method of T21 detection that combines fetal-specific epigenetic and genetic markers.

METHODS
We used combined bisulfite restriction analysis to search for fetal DNA markers on chromosome 21 that were differentially methylated in the placenta and maternal blood cells and confirmed any target locus with bisulfite sequencing. We then used methylation-sensitive restriction endonuclease digestion followed by microfluidics digital PCR analysis to investigate the identified marker. Chromosome-dosage analysis was performed by comparing the dosage of this epigenetic marker with that of the ZFY (zinc finger protein, Y-linked) gene on chromosome Y.

RESULTS
The putative promoter of the HLCS (holocarboxylase synthetase) gene was hypermethylated in the placenta and hypomethylated in maternal blood cells. A chromosome-dosage comparison of the hypermethylated HLCS and ZFY loci could distinguish samples of T21 and euploid placental DNA. Twenty-four maternal plasma samples from euploid pregnancies and 5 maternal plasma samples from T21 pregnancies were analyzed. All but 1 of the euploid samples were correctly classified.

CONCLUSIONS
The epigenetic-genetic chromosome-dosage approach is a new method for noninvasive prenatal detection of T21. The epigenetic part of the analysis can be applied to all pregnancies. Because the genetic part of the analysis uses paternally inherited, fetal-specific genetic markers that are abundant in the genome, broad population coverage should be readily achievable. This approach has the potential to become a generally usable technique for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis.


In this paper, finding the optimal coordination of ramp metering and variable speed limits in a large-scale freeway traffic network is the main subject. The model predictive control is applied to the case study. In this approach as the number of controlled inputs increases, the computational complexities increase exponentially. This could make the real-time implementation unfeasible. The game-theoretic model is employed to solve this problem. The algorithm is scalable to a real large-scale network with high accuracy. The parallel computation nature of the algorithm results in finding the optimal plans over the rolling horizon in a short time. The presented simulations demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method.


This study was carried out to investigate the standing biomass, litter dynamics and selected nutrients in soil, water and plant components in a Bruguiera parviflora dominated naturally growing unmanaged mangrove forest ecosystem in Kuala Selangor Nature Park, Malaysia. This study was initiated during September 2001 and ended on August 2003. The total above and below-ground biomass of B. parviflora seedlings, saplings and trees were 144.47 t/ha and 19.93 t/ha, respectively, and the net primary productivity of this forest was 27.44 t/ha/yr. The annual amount of small litter production and small litter standing crop were 1035 g/m2 and 337.72 g/m2, respectively. Bruguiera parviflora leaf litter showed higher microbial degradation (60% of initial dry mass) in wet month (November 02) than the dry month (20.17% of initial dry mass, July 02), but leaf litter loss due to feeding plus mechanical breakdown did not vary in dry and wet months. Soil parameters (pH, redox potential, air-dry moisture, organic matter, conductivity, salinity and cation exchange capacity) and nutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, C, Cu, Fe and Zn) were measured in intermediate (March), dry (July) and wet (November) seasons and found relatively higher organic matter (12.03-12.56%) and cation exchange capacity (37.31-38.23 m.e/100 g) in the intermediate seasons (March 02 and 03). Higher conductivity (11.25-11.81 mS/cm) and salinity (57.64-59.03 m.e/100 g) were observed during the dry seasons (July 02 and 03). Comparatively higher content of N (3.49-3.50 mg/g), P (0.33-0.34 mg/g), K (6.86-7.06 mg/g), C (63.29-67.63 mg/g) and Fe (11929.44-12866.67 g/g) in soil were observed during the intermediate seasons (March 02 and 03). Higher conductivity (55.83-71.00 mS/cm) was observed in infiltration water followed by river water (18.17-22.17 mS/cm) and relatively higher conductivity of rainwater, canopy drip, river and infiltration water was found during the dry seasons (July 02 and 03). Nutrients (NH4, NO3, PO4, K, Ca, Mg and SO4) in rainwater, canopy drip, stem flow, river and infiltration water fluctuate with the seasons and comparatively higher K, Ca, Mg, SO4, Cu, Fe and Zn were observed in infiltration water followed by river water. Nutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, C, Cu, Fe and Zn) in different components of B. parviflora seedlings, saplings and trees were measured in intermediate (March), dry (July) and wet (November) seasons and reported comparatively higher N, P, K, Ca, Mg and Fe in plant components during the intermediate seasons (March 02 and 03) and relatively higher sulphur was found during the dry seasons (July 02 and 03). Nutrients content in different components of seedlings, saplings and trees of B. parviflora showed positive correlations with the soil nutrients level. The annual uptake range of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Cu, Fe and Zn was 109.34-129.67 kg/ha, 16.70-25.65 kg/ha, 39.69-66.71 kg/ha, 153.84-240.41 kg/ha, 48.30-68.27 kg/ha, 100.93-177.05 kg/ha, 120.61-287.14 g/ha, 7981.31-14697.29 g/ha and 204.49-581.41 g/ha, respectively.


We present two fast-paced augmented reality games. One is a single-player game experienced through a head-worn display. The player manipulates a tracked board to guide a virtual ball through a dynamic maze of obstacles. Combining the 3DOF absolute orientation tracker on the head-worn display with 6DOF optical marker tracking allows the system to always account for the correct direction of gravity. The second game is a networked, two-player, first-person-shooter, in which tracked hand-held UMPCs are used to blast virtual dominoes off a table. Players' virtual locations are warped to keep them from physically interfering with each other.


T his paper addresses the evaluation of several procedures for delimi- ting service areas of urban transport facilities and computing the served population. To this end, detailed data of a local case study and a geographical information system are used. Adopting two different georeferencing methods and two spatial metrics, the tested approaches reveal disparate results and errors, which allow to appreciate the advantages and limitations of each one. It is expected that the conclusions will contri- bute to increase the accuracy of analysis focused to urban public transport planning and decision taking.


The existence of post earnings announcement drift (PEAD) depends strongly on whether stocks' prices are near (far from) their 52-week highs when positive (negative) earnings surprises arrive. We find that the coincidence of these two effects is what generates significant PEAD. Daily returns around current and future earnings announcements follow a similar pattern --- announcement returns are more muted for extreme positive (negative) surprises, the closer (farther) are prices to the 52-week high. In addition, subsequent announcement returns are greater for these firms, consistent with a correction of previous underreaction. This suggests that an important contributing factor to PEAD is investors anchoring their beliefs about fundamental value on the 52-week high, which restrains price reactions to earnings news.


Hansenula polymorpha (syn. Pichia angusta) is able to grow on nitrate as sole nitrogen source. Nitrate reductase (NR) assays, optimized in crude extracts from nitrate-grown cells, revealed that NR preferentially used NADPH, but also used NADH, as electron donor and required FAD for maximum activity. NR activity was present in nitrate-grown and nitrite-grown cells, and was absent in cells grown in ammonium, glutamate and methylamine. Addition of reduced nitrogen compounds to nitrate-grown cells led to loss of NR activity, even if added with nitrate. Under nitrogen starvation, NR activity was not observed; however, following growth on nitrate, NR activity is maintained in the absence of nitrate. Increases but not decreases in NR activity were dependent on protein synthesis. Conditions for chlorate selection were optimized, and Nit- (nitrate-) mutants were isolated. Some of these mutants showed reduced or absent NR activity. Sixty-one NR- mutants revealed the monogenic recessive nature of their lesions and were grouped in 10 complementation classes. These mutants will be used in gene cloning experiments aimed at identifying structural and regulatory elements involved in the first step of nitrate reduction.


Pulse compression is exploited in several measurement procedures where the impulse response of a linear system must be estimated in a noisy environment. In nondestructive testing (NDT), pulse compression based on frequency-modulated chirp signals is applied with sensors of different types. However, the presence of sidelobes in the impulse response retrieved after pulse compression is a major drawback of the method compared to the pulse excitation approach and it degrades the quality of the estimation. To limit this effect, the matched filter is usually shaped by means of windows. In this paper we propose a strategy based on reactance transformation to define a windowing function that outperforms the most used windows in term of near-sidelobes suppression, thus improving the range resolution of the detection system. The paper shows that the proposed filtering technique is particularly suitable for those NDT techniques such as eddy-current and thermography that make use of very broadband excitations. The proposed technique is validated on simulated and experimental test data.


The Chilean endemic genus Conanthera is comprised of five species of herbaceous cormous geophytes. They have ornamental value due to their bell-shaped flowers, which are blue, violet or white. Previous germination studies of Conanthera campanulata and Conanthera trimaculata were carried out at 22 °C, and manual mechanical scarification improved germination. Based on these results, it was suggested that physical dormancy is present in the non-scarified seeds. However, an improvement in germination after scarification is not enough evidence to conclude that the seed is non-permeable to water and thus has physical dormancy. The objective of the present study was to assess the testa water permeability via an imbibition test and to identify the optimum germination temperature in C. campanulata and C. trimaculata. Using 6-mo-old seeds, data from the imbibition tests showed that neither the seeds of C. campanulata nor C. trimaculata have physical dormancy. In the germination experiments, the temperature range for achieving high germination percentages was 10 to 15 °C, where germination reached 90% in less than 28 d. Temperature of 20 °C can be considered supra-optimal, while 5 and 25 °C inhibited germination. Manual mechanical scarification did not affect germination results at the range of 10 to 15 °C. However, at the supra-optimal temperature of 20 °C manual mechanical scarification increased germination, although levels were never higher than 25%.


In the present study, a magnetic adsorbent for diclofenac formed by maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) nanoparticles with high saturation magnetization (19.8 emu g−1) and specific area (79 m2 g−1) was synthesized by a one-pot method through the precipitation of Fe2+ ions with NaOH solution followed by rapid oxidation with hydrogen peroxide. The X-ray diffraction and Mossbauer spectroscopy data confirmed that the adsorbent is formed solely by maghemite. The adsorption equilibrium time for diclofenac (C0 = 500 mg L−1) was reached after 120 min, and the kinetic data were best fitted to the pseudo-first-order model. The adsorption isotherms acquired at five different temperatures showed an increase in the maximum adsorption capacity (261 mg g−1) until 298 K, but at higher temperatures, the maximum adsorption capacity was not increased. The isotherm data were best fitted to the Langmuir and Sips models. Adsorption tests as a function of solution pH showed a decrease in the diclofenac adsorption capacity with increasing solution pH, suggesting that the hydroxyl anions compete with diclofenac molecules for the adsorption sites. Diclofenac adsorption on maghemite was endothermic (67.31 kJ mol−1) and entropically driven (TΔadsS° = 96.33 kJ mol−1). Finally, theoretical calculations and infrared spectroscopy data suggest a physisorption mechanism of diclofenac on the maghemite surface.


Computer games and the accompanying entertainment industry branch has become a major market factor. AI techniques are successfully applied to tasks like path planning or intelligent swarm behavior. On the decision-making level the state of the art are state machines with a xed set of behaviors. The perception of the computer player is perfect. They exactly know where the other players are located, even if they cannot see them. This approach seems to be limited for intelligent decision making. Therefore, we propose another approach. We use a variant of the logic-based action language GOLOG for implementing so-called game bots in the UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004 environment. First results show that we can compete with the omniscience game bots in the Unreal domain.


The optimal performance of the network can be achieved by simultaneous optimization of routing and resource allocation. We use a delayed dynamic model of queue length in each node to describe the data flows in the network. Unlike similar previous works in the literature we assume that delay exists in the queuing model and so we will have dynamic flow model for the routing of data packets across the network. We assume that the capacity of a wireless link is a concave and increasing function of the communications resources allocated to the link, and the communications resources for groups of links are limited. With these assumptions we formulate the simultaneous routing and resource allocation (SRRA) problem as a convex optimization problem over the network flow variables and the communications variables. By our control strategy, an optimal routing performance in the presence of unknown network delays in network modeling and resource limitations is achieved.


The problem of juvenile violence has assumed a serious dimension in the American society. This study therefore examines the problem of juvenile violence and the challenge it poses to both the individuals and the society. It posits that the juvenile violence is both a social and health issues in the country and efforts at addressing the problem demands a holistic approach. In an attempt at examining the problem, the study highlights some of the predisposing factors responsible for the problem of juvenile violence and compares the classical with the postmodernism theories and concludes that from the sociological standpoint which conflict theory represent, they do not provide an adequate general theory of crime. The study notes that the social disorganization theory remains a very strong theory at the present time, and the most important finding is that violence among the youths and indeed crime corresponds to the structure of the neighborhood.


Field margins act as shelters for different arthropod taxa in agricultural fields. Several factors may promote seasonal changes in arthropod communities, especially in regions with marked seasonality, such as Mediterranean areas. Epigeic arthropods were sampled from the margins of fields located in northwestern Portugal during 2 contrasting seasons, spring and autumn. Organisms were identified to family or order level and seasonal variation in arthropod communities was evaluated. Abundance, group richness, and feeding guild parameters were affected by sampling season, with both abundance and richness being higher in spring. Of the groups captured in both seasons, most evidenced either higher abundance in spring or similar abundance between seasons. Ants constituted one of the most abundant trophic guilds in spring but one of the least captured in autumn, while catches of parasitoids and parasites were not affected by sampling season. Results indicate that the higher taxa approach is useful to distinguish seasonally distinct communities.


In literature it was not possible to find a proven valid and reliable scale to measure students' attitudes towards engineering profession and engineering education. The objective of present research is to provide a valid and reliable scale for measuring students' attitudes towards engineering profession and engineering education. The sample group is composed of 650 students for the first application and 113 students for the second. In order to detect the validity of the scale, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, item factor total correlations, corrected correlations and item discriminations were conducted. In order to assess the reliability of the scale, the level of internal consistency and the stability levels were calculated. EEAS a five-point Likert-type scale and includes 17 items with two factors. The analyses provided evidence that EEAS is a valid and reliable scale that can be assuredly used to identify students' attitudes towards engineering profession and education they receive.


Close pre-main-sequence binary stars are expected to clear central holes in their protoplanetary disks, but the extent to which material can flow from the circumbinary disk across the gap onto the individual circumstellar disks has been unclear. In binaries with eccentric orbits, periodic perturbation of the outer disk is predicted to induce mass flow across the gap, resulting in accretion that varies with the binary period. This accretion may manifest itself observationally as periodic changes in luminosity. Here we present a search for such periodic accretion in the pre-main-sequence spectroscopic binary UZ Tau E. We present BVRI photometry spanning 3 years; we find that the brightness of UZ Tau E is clearly periodic, with a best-fit period of 19.16 ± 0.04 days. This is consistent with the spectroscopic binary period of 19.13 days, refined here from analysis of new and existing radial velocity data. The brightness of UZ Tau E shows significant random variability, but the overall periodic pattern is a broad peak in enhanced brightness, spanning more than half the binary orbital period. The variability of the Hα line is not as clearly periodic, but given the sparseness of the data, some periodic component is not ruled out. The photometric variations are in good agreement with predictions from simulations of binaries with orbital parameters similar to those of UZ Tau E, suggesting that periodic accretion does occur from circumbinary disks, replenishing the inner circumstellar disks and possibly extending the timescale over which they might form planets.


Coherent nonlinear spectroscopy is particularly well suited to the study of relaxation in these systems because of the well understood spectroscopic "footprints" that are associated with specific interactions and systems. Experiments are performed on a narrow (42 /spl Aring/) single MBE grown GaAs quantum well with 250-/spl Aring/ Al/sub 0.3/Ga/sub 0.7/As barriers. Based on photoluminescence (PL) and phased-locked epitaxy (PLE) measurements, excitons in this system are localized in potentials corresponding to average monolayer thickness of either 15 or 16 monolayers.


In this paper I make some summarizing comments regarding the papers in this special issue. I argue that we have entered a product-specialization stage in regional science scholarship and that there may now be a need for some broad synthesizing research such as that characteristic of earlier years of the research venture. I contend that studies of regional growth and development constitute the highest form of the regional scientist's art. And I argue for greater consideration to be given to disaggregating our variables by demographics and paying greater attention to geographic units and scales. In that spirit, I present some information about the forthcoming new system of Core-Based Statistical Areas. I use an experimental version of the new system of Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas to illustrate some urban-scale effects evident in recent county-level growth trends.


Introduction: Sleep is indispensable The sleep habits changes with age and is influenced by external factors The nationwide enforcement of complete lockdown lead to home confinement of all the students as classes in colleges were suspended on orders of the Government of India Aim: To find out changes in the sleep pattern and quality in different phases of life of the students namely from school days, to college days and during the period of home confinement during COVID-19 pandemic Materials and Methods: A questionnaire in the form of online form was shared with the students of MBBS first year in four Government medical colleges of Madhya Pradesh during nationwide lockdown on 1st May, 2020 The information about sleep pattern, usual bed time, average duration of sleep, sleep quality and student's perception about adequate sleep during college days and during lockdown period was recorded The statistical analysis was done by Wilcoxon signed rank test, and Chi-square test The satisfaction with sleep quality was recorded on a five point Likert's scale as very dissatisfied, dissatisfied, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, satisfied and very satisfied Results: A total 760 students participated in the present study During usual college days among all participants, majority 373 (49 1%) of them had night owl type of sleep pattern Maximum number of students 358 (47 10%) had morning lark type of sleep pattern during school days The highest percentage of students 271 (35 7%) with no fixed pattern of sleep was observed during the period of home confinement due to lockdown A total of 383 (50 4%) students reported that their average duration of night sleep during usual college days was six to seven hours per day A total of 698 (91 8%) students reported that they are able to take adequate sleep at home during lockdown period A statistically significant association was found between sleep pattern during college days and gender of participants (p-value <0 01) Wilcoxon signed rank test results showed statistically significant (p<0 001) change in number of students whose bed time changed during college days as compared to school days and during lockdown as compared to bed time during college days Conclusion: In majority of the participants, sleep pattern changed to night owl type during college days from morning lark type during school days The home confinement in lockdown period due to global viral pandemic has positively impacted sleep of students in terms of bed time, sleep quality and quantity


The aim of this Workshop is to review and discuss current knowledge of quantitative genetics in terms of its application to the task of bringing about effective genetic improvement in our beef cattle and sheep industries. Many of the important production circumstances of these two industries are similar, as are the basic genetic principles which determine optimum improvement plans. Accordingly it was decided, that as a focus for review and discussion, to structure the session around two invited review papers which transcend both species. The first of these deals with "Data collection, processing and the prediction of breeding values" (Johnson and Garrick, 1990); the second with "Industry breeding structures for effecting and evaluating genetic improvement" (Notter and Hohenboken, 1990). Both papers focus on the opportunities offered by current knowledge and some of its technical limitations, as well as on various other circumstances which affect the application of this knowledge to improvement of productivity in commercial flocks and herds. The dissemination of genetic improvement from seedstock producers to commercial herds and flocks is a major issue which receives particular attention in the second review paper by Notter and Hohenboken (1990), as well as in other contributed papers in the session (e.g. Nicoll, 1990) .


Environmentalists often urge their home countries to take a leading role in reducing global environmental problems like climate change. A pertinent question is: will examples set by leading nations influence others to follow suit, and if so, do the costs of leading matter? For instance, will costly domestic reductions have a stronger effect on followers than purchases of cheap emission permits abroad? To investigate these questions we have conducted two treatments in a public bad experiment in which leaders have different costs of leading. Our findings suggest that higher costs of leading lead to stronger effects of a given leader example. Randomly chosen leaders lead by example and set better examples if it is less costly to do so. Finally, there seems to be a limit to the leader effect and it may decrease over time. JEL classification codes: C92, H41, Q50


Information communication technology has plenty of benefits to society. Social media being the product of information technology have become an essential tool for marketers at a very minimum investment. Social media have a positive impact on companies as well as customers. In today's circumstances, customers judge companies based on their online presence, hence they can innovate and simultaneously create a strong social presence by always catering to their customers' needs and concerns. Social media are used in day to day activities of several companies, including beginners of micro and small enterprises, medium and large sized business organizations. The purpose of this research is to explore and to analyze to what extent social media have an impact on organizational capabilities and business performance using the review of related literature as a method of this research. It was found out from the review of literature that social media increase the capabilities and performances of a business to a large extent.

 Key words: Social media, social networking, business capabilities, business Performance.


Although oft regarded as a class-based system, many potential uses of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system are better supported by a topic-based view. This paper explores automated strategies for identifying equivalence and hierarchical relationships between Relative Index headings, one of the steps required to fully implement a topic-based data model for the DDC. Data used in detecting relationships beyond the small number of relationships already explicitly coded include qualifiers in headings, variant name notes, hyphenated words, acronyms, the structure of Relative Index headings, adjectival modification, equivalence and hierarchical relationships between Library of Congress Subject Headings, and synonymy and hypernymy relationships in WordNet.


Purpose: To determine the diagnostic accuracy and the clinical impact of ultrasound (US) and computed tomography (CT) in diagnosing appendicitis, and to evaluate the impact of laboratory tests on the treatment of acute appendicitis. Material and Methods: All patients who, during 2005, underwent an acute ultrasound or CT investigation due to suspected appendicitis, or were diagnosed and/or surgically treated for appendicitis at Umeå University Hospital, Umeå, were included. The type of radiological investigation, its findings, the choice of treatment, final diagnosis, C-reactive protein (CRP), leukocyte particle count (LPC), body temperature, age, and sex were recorded for each patient. The histological result from surgery was considered the gold standard. Results: The material included 305 cases with an overall appendicitis prevalence of 58%. Fifty-two percent of the patients were female. The mean age was 29 years, with a total range of 2–94 years. Twenty percent (60/305) underwent a CT investigation, 40% (123/305) underwent an US investigation, 5% (14/305) underwent both a CT and an US investigation, and 35% (108/305) of patients did not undergo any radiological investigation at all. The sensitivities and specificities were 91% and 94% for CT, and 83% and 98% for US, respectively. The positive likelihood ratio was 15.1 and 45.5 for CT and US, and the negative likelihood ratio was 0.09 and 0.18 for CT and US, respectively. It was not possible to visualize the appendix in 31% of patients examined with US. The prevalence of appendicitis in this group was the same as the prevalence among patients where it was possible to see the appendix, i.e., 35%. The mean CRP for all patients with appendicitis was 59 (95% CI 10–491) mg/l, and the mean LPC was 11.1 (95% CI 2.6–28.1) ×10−9/l. The mean LPC level was significantly higher for the appendicitis patients. Body temperature could not significantly verify or exclude appendicitis. The overall negative appendectomy rate was 9% (16/176), and it was higher in women, i.e., 11% (9/79). The negative appendectomy rate was slightly higher in the group that was examined by CT and/or US, i.e., 12% (8/69) compared to 7% (8/107) in the group not examined radiologically. Conclusion: Diagnostic accuracy was high for US as well as for CT. US was better for diagnosing positive findings, while CT was better for excluding diagnosis of appendicitis. The diagnostic accuracy of LPC, CRP, and body temperature was low. By combining findings from the radiological examination with the results from the clinical examination and laboratory values, a low negative appendectomy rate can be achieved.


Diatoms are a keystone algal group, with diverse cell morphology and a global distribution. The biogeography of morphological, functional and life-history traits of marine diatoms were investigated in Arctic and Atlantic waters of the Labrador Sea during the spring bloom (2013-2014). In this study, trait-based analysis using community-weighted means showed that low temperatures (<0oC) in Arctic waters correlated positively with diatom species that have traits such as low temperature optimum growth and the ability to produced ice-binding proteins, highlighting their sea-ice origin. High silicate concentrations in Arctic waters, as well as sea-ice cover and shallow bathymetry, favoured diatom species that were heavily silicified, colonial and capable of producing resting spores, suggesting that these are important traits for this community. In Atlantic waters, diatom species with large surface area to volume ratios were dominant in deep mixed layers, whilst low silicate to nitrate ratios correlated positively with weakly silicified species. Sharp cell projections, such as processes or spines, were positively correlated with water-column stratification, indicating that these traits promote positive buoyancy for diatom cells. Our trait-based analysis directly links cell morphology and physiology with diatom species distribution, highlighting allowing new insights on how this method can potentially be applied to explain ecophysiology and shifting biogeographical distributions in a warming climate.


Trends in Electronic Structure and Properties DTU Orbit (31/08/2019) Computational Chemistry of Modified [MFe3S4] and [M2Fe2S4] Clusters: Assessment of Trends in Electronic Structure and Properties The aim of this work is to understand the molecular evolution of iron−sulfur clusters in terms of electronic structure and function. Metal-substituted models of biological [Fe4S4] clusters in oxidation states [MxFe4−xS4]3+/2+/1+ have been studied by density functional theory (M = Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Pd, with x = 1 or 2). Most of these clusters have not been characterized before. For those that have been characterized experimentally, very good agreement is obtained, implying that also the predicted structures and properties of new clusters are accurate. Mean absolute errors are 0.024 Å for bond lengths ([Fe4S4], [NiFe3S4], [CoFe3S4]) and 0.09 V for shifts in reduction potentials relative to the [Fe4S4] cluster. All structures form cuboidal geometries similar to the all-iron clusters, except the Pd-substituted clusters, which instead form highly distorted trigonal and tetragonal local sites in compromised, pseudocuboidal geometries. In contrast to other electron-transfer sites, cytochromes, blue copper proteins, and smaller iron−sulfur clusters, we find that the [Fe4S4] clusters are very insensitive to metal substitution, displaying quite small changes in reorganization energies and reduction potentials upon substitution. Thus, the [Fe4S4] clusters have an evolutionary advantage in being robust to pollution from other metals, still retaining function. We analyze in detail the electronic structure of individual clusters and rationalize spin couplings and redox activity. Often, several configurations are very close in energy, implying possible use as spincrossover systems, and spin states are predicted accurately in all but one case ([CuFe3S4]). The results are anticipated to be helpful in defining new molecular systems with catalytic and magnetic properties.


Sustained release matrix pellets loaded with 5% w/w diclofenac sodium (DS) were prepared using extrusion/spheronization technique. Different polyethylene glycols (PEGs) of different molecular weight, namely PEG 2000, PEG 4000 and PEG 6000, were mixed with avicel PH 101 in different weight ratios to manufacture the pellet formulations and water was used as a binder. Mix torque rheometer was used to characterize the pellets' wet mass. Also, the prepared pellets were characterized for their particle sizes, DS content, shape and morphology as well as the in vitro drug release. The results showed increasing PEG weight ratio resulted in a reduction of wet mass torque as well as binder ratio, especially at PEG high weight ratios (30% and 50%) and the extent of lowering wet mass peak torque was inversely proportional to PEG molecular weight. The manufactured pellets exhibited size range of 993 μm to 1085 μm with small span values. The drug release from pellets was governed by the molecular weight of PEG used, since increasing PEG molecular weight resulted in slowing the drug release rate from pellets, but increasing its level resulted in enhancing release rate. This was attributed to increasing pellet wet mass peak torque by increasing PEG molecular weight and lowering it by increasing PEG level. The prepared pellets showed non-Fickian or anomalous drug release or the coupled diffusion/polymer relaxation.