In order to design an advanced human–automation collaboration system for highly automated vehicles, research into the driver's neuromuscular dynamics is needed. In this paper, a dynamic model of drivers' neuromuscular interaction with a steering wheel is first established. The transfer function and the natural frequency of the systems are analyzed. In order to identify the key parameters of the driver–steering–wheel interacting system and investigate the system properties under different situations, experiments with driver-in-the-loop are carried out. For each test subject, two steering tasks, namely the passive and active steering tasks, are instructed to be completed. Furthermore, during the experiments, subjects manipulated the steering wheel with two distinct postures and three different hand positions. Based on the experimental results, key parameters of the transfer function model are identified by using the Gauss–Newton algorithm. Based on the estimated model with identified parameters, investigation of system properties is then carried out. The characteristics of the driver neuromuscular system are discussed and compared with respect to different steering tasks, hand positions, and driver postures. These experimental results with identified system properties provide a good foundation for the development of a haptic take-over control system for automated vehicles.


The Industrial Revolution was a time of great age throughout the world. It represented major change from 1760 to the period 1820-1840. The movement originated in Great Britain and affected everything from industrial manufacturing processes to the daily life of the average citizen. The main industry at the time was the textile industry. It had the most employees, output value, and invested capital. It was the first to take on new modern production methods. The effects caused by the industrial revolution which has mentioned above, can lead to another impact such as the emergence of where the industry must obtain the availability of raw materials, and the next impact is where the result of the raw material processess by the industry will be marketed. For colonialism itself, generally it is the direct and overall domination of one country by another on the basis of state power being in the hands of a foreign power. Spesifically colonialism has two objectives, they are political domination and the second one is to make possible the exploitation of colonized country. This research aims to find out the colonialisms traits of the characters perform in their respective position, and to reveal the impacts of colonialism on characters.


We prove that the Morrey space is contained in the space $CMO^q$ of functions with bounded central mean oscillation, explaining in this way the dependence of $ CMO^q$ on $q$. We also define a natural extension of $CMO^2$, to prove the existence of a continuous bijection with central Carleson measures of order $\lambda$. This connection is further studied to extend and refine duality results involving tent spaces and Hardy spaces associated with Herz-type spaces. Finally, we prove continuity results on these spaces for general non-convolution singular integral operators, including pseudo-differential operators with symbols in the Hormander class $S^m_{\rho,\delta},\rho <1$, and linear commutators.


Energy release rates are extracted from nonlinear finite element analyses of a thin film bonded to a rigid substrate that is shaft-loaded at its free edge. This geometry is of interest because it simulates a probe test that has proven to be useful in characterizing the adhesion of thin, microelectronic coatings bonded to silicon wafers. Preliminary experimental results indicate that out-of-plane rather than in-plane loading dominates failure in the system. This work therefore focuses on out-of-plane film loading. To validate finite element and energy release rate methodologies, energy release rates from finite element analyses of pressurized and shaftloaded blister tests are first correlated to theoretical limit cases. Upon validation, mode I, mode II, and mode III energy release rates are extracted from three-dimensional continuum finite element models of the edgeloaded thin film by a three-dimensional modified crack closure method. Having assumed a circular debond as observed experimentally, energy release rates are determined by a step-wise approach around the circumference. The progression of debond is simulated in multiple analyses by altering the boundary conditions associated with increasing the debond radius. Mechanical loading is supplemented with thermal loading, introducing residual stresses in the non-linear analyses. A sensitivity analysis of energy release rates to residual stress is performed. The results indicate that inclusion of residual stress has an important role in both the magnitude and mode-mixity of energy release rates in the thin film. Increasing the length of debond effectively transitions the film from a shearing mode to a bending mode, thereby significantly impacting each mode of energy release rate differently.


This study shows the impact and results of implementing three cognitive strategies in science teaching in English. The three-month study was carried out with 144 second grade students at a public school of Bogota's Bilingualism program, but only 40 students contributed in the data collection process. Data collected from observations and fieldnotes, surveys, interviews, videotapes, and photographs revealed that the use of the strategies helped children understand not only the content and language, but also the class tasks. Preliminary findings showed that students are the main actors of their learning, and they gain certain autonomy and independence using the cognitive strategies. On the teachers' side, strategies facilitated classroom management and engagement. The author recommends the constant and gradual implementation of learning strategies not only in science classes, but also in the rest of the content classes to integrate language and content easily.


Cook Library is a designated Federal Depository Library. This guide will help you access the vast array of Federal government resources available in our library and online.


The Hwajeol Formation (Upper Cambrian) is well exposed at northern Taebaeg City, Kangweon Province, mid-eastern Korea. The sequence of this formation includes, in ascending order: 1) alternation of thick massive and nodular limestones of Proconodontus and Eoconodontus notchpeakensis zones, 2) thick massive and nodular limestones and quartzite interval of Cambrooistodus minutus Zone, 3) nodular limestone interval of Cordylodus proavus Zone, and 4) interval of shale with sparse calcareous nodules grading up into quartzite bed of Fryxellodontus inornatus-Monocostodus sevierensis-Semiacontiodus lavadamensis Assemblage Zone. The Cordylodus proavus Zone ranges through the uppermost 30.9 m interval of the formation, and Fryxellodontus inornatus first appears at a horizon 23.4 m below the upper boundary. Conodont zones are correlated with equivalent zonal schemes of other parts of the world.


Purpose: The main purpose of the paper is to indicate the structure of a rented apartments during the COVID-19 pandemic in a group of 6 largest cities in Poland. The question was furthermore raised: has there been a change match supply and demand in the rental segment during this period? Design/Methodology/Approach: The research used one of the statistical method. This made it possible to research developing the apartments structure in the rental segment regarding the analysis of the structural series. Findings: The research presented shows that the sanitary and epidemiological restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the structure of rental apartment. During this period, the degree of matching of supply and demand in the rental segment in Poland also changed. Practical implications: Research has shown that the structure of a rented apartments is also affected by factors related to the global COVID-19 pandemic. This broadens the catalogue of factors determining change in this area. It is possible to continue this research in other Polish cities to provide a comprehensive picture of the changes in the structure of rented apartments. Originality/value: This research question complements real estate research by analysing the structure of the apartments stock in the rental segment during the COVID-19 pandemic. These researches are in line with the development trend of research on the rental segment, which in the literature to date, often remains on the margins of economic research.


An administrator plays a vital role in the growth and development of his/her subordinates. Despite this notion, the role of an administrator in the context of training programs and transfer of training is not well studied. Therefore, this study is set to examine the relationship between administrator's role in training programs and training transfer. A survey method was utilized to gather 706 survey questionnaires from employees of local authorities of three cities in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia. The results of SmartPLS path model analysis confirmed that the ability of administrators to properly implement support, communication and assignment in planning and implementing training programs has been an important predictor of training transfer in the studied organization. Further, this study provides discussion, implications and conclusion. Info Artikel Sejarah Artikel: Diterima Januari 2014 Disetujui Februari 2014 Dipublikasikan Maret 2015


The study sought to examine challenges facing older people in accessing health care services in public hospitals. The objectives of the study included; i) To examine the ability of older people living in Dar es salaam in accessing health care services in public hospitals, ii) To find out challenges and constraints limiting older people from accessing free health care services iii) To assess measures employed by public hospital management for easing health services to older people and propose the way forward.
The study employed a case study design and a sample of 80 respondents involving older people, social workers, doctors and nurses were involved. In terms of sampling procedure, purposive and snowball were used. Purposive sampling was adopted to select nurses, social workers and older people who visited public hospitals while snowball was used to get older people living in streets. Data from questionnaire and interviews was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Qualitative data were subjected to content analysis, while quantitative data were extracted, classified and computed using SPSS into frequencies and percentages, and presented in tables and charts.
The study revealed that, 58% of older people do not have ability to access free health care services in public hospitals. Moreover, study findings indicated that 57% of the older people do not use public hospitals when they become sick. Again, findings showed that, majority (85%) of respondent revealed that lack of essential medicine in public hospitals was their major challenge.
Therefore, the study suggested strong measures to be taken in order to rectify and improve the situation. Among these included reviewing older peoples' policy and suggested introduction of comprehensive health insurance scheme for older people.


Primary objective: To study the effects of flavonoid, isolated from aerial parts of Scutellaria baicalensisGeorgi (SSF), on memory impairment, neuronal damage, free radicals and energy metabolite disorders in aged rats. Methods and procedures: Approximately 25-month-old rats were used to establish the ageing model. The cognition of the rats was determined using the Morris water maze, neuronal morphology was observed by light/electron microscope, malondialdehyde (MDA) levels and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and Na+-K+-ATPase were measured by spectrophotometry. Main outcomes and results: In the Morris water maze task, the aged rats always took longer latency to find the hidden platform and spent less time swimming in the target quadrant than those of young control rats. The light/electron microscopic observations found significant neuropathological changes in the aged rats' brain. In addition, the production of MDA and the activity of SOD, LDH and Na+-K+-ATPase in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex of the aged rats showed critical abnormal changes. However, pre-treatment of the aged rats with SSF (35–140 mg kg−1) for 16–21 days dramatically improved cognitive dysfunction, neuropathological changes and biochemical abnormalities. Conclusion: These results indicate that the beneficial effects of SSF on memory impairment and neuronal damage in aged rats may be important for the treatment of senile dementia and for delaying the ageing processes.


PURPOSE
List-mode processing is an efficient way of dealing with the sparse nature of positron emission tomography (PET) data sets and is the processing method of choice for time-of-flight (ToF) PET image reconstruction. However, the massive amount of computation involved in forward projection and backprojection limits the application of list-mode reconstruction in practice, and makes it challenging to incorporate accurate system modeling.

METHODS
The authors present a novel formulation for computing line projection operations on graphics processing units (GPUs) using the compute unified device architecture (CUDA) framework, and apply the formulation to list-mode ordered-subsets expectation maximization (OSEM) image reconstruction. Our method overcomes well-known GPU challenges such as divergence of compute threads, limited bandwidth of global memory, and limited size of shared memory, while exploiting GPU capabilities such as fast access to shared memory and efficient linear interpolation of texture memory. Execution time comparison and image quality analysis of the GPU-CUDA method and the central processing unit (CPU) method are performed on several data sets acquired on a preclinical scanner and a clinical ToF scanner.

RESULTS
When applied to line projection operations for non-ToF list-mode PET, this new GPU-CUDA method is >200 times faster than a single-threaded reference CPU implementation. For ToF reconstruction, we exploit a ToF-specific optimization to improve the efficiency of our parallel processing method, resulting in GPU reconstruction >300 times faster than the CPU counterpart. For a typical whole-body scan with 75 × 75 × 26 image matrix, 40.7 million LORs, 33 subsets, and 3 iterations, the overall processing time is 7.7 s for GPU and 42 min for a single-threaded CPU. Image quality and accuracy are preserved for multiple imaging configurations and reconstruction parameters, with normalized root mean squared (RMS) deviation less than 1% between CPU and GPU-generated images for all cases.

CONCLUSIONS
A list-mode ToF OSEM library was developed on the GPU-CUDA platform. Our studies show that the GPU reformulation is considerably faster than a single-threaded reference CPU method especially for ToF processing, while producing virtually identical images. This new method can be easily adapted to enable more advanced algorithms for high resolution PET reconstruction based on additional information such as depth of interaction (DoI), photon energy, and point spread functions (PSFs).


Abstract The present study was aimed to develop a highly specific and sensitive Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) to measure progesterone in human serum using a heterologous combination of immunogen and enzyme conjugate. The antiserum was raised against Progesterone-3-O-carboxymethyloxime bovine serum albumin (P-3-O-CMO-BSA) in New Zealand white rabbits. The enzyme conjugate was prepared by labeling 17-α-hydroxy-progesterone-3-O-carboxymethyloxime (17-α-OH-P-3-O-CMO) with Horseradish Peroxidase (HRP) to form 17-α-OH-P-3-CMO-HRP. A Checkerboard assay was performed to determine the working dilutions of antiserum and enzyme conjugate. Dose-response studies were carried out by incubating 100µL enzyme conjugate along with 50µL of standards in the primary antibody coated wells for 1 hour. The bound enzyme activity was measured colorimetrically using tetramethyl benzidine/hydrogen peroxide (TMB/H2O2) as substrate. The enzyme substrate reaction was terminated with 100µL of 0.5 M H2SO4 after 20 min and the intensity of the color was measured using Tecan ELISA reader at 450 nm. The assay was validated in terms of sensitivity, specificity, precision and recovery. The lowest detection limit of the assay was 0.2 ng/mL. Cross-reaction with analogous steroids pregnenolone and 17-α-OH-P were found to be 6.8 and 6.1%, respectively. For other analogous steroids, it was less than 0.1%. The intra- and inter-assay coefficient of variation ranges from 4.52–7.39% and 4.65–9.55%, respectively. The developed ELISA correlated well with established RIA, with a correlation coefficient of 0.91 (n = 40).


The aim of the present study was to investigate the epidemiological, clinical, laboratory and radiological features of patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) (with or without pleural involvement) or with pleural TB (in the absence of radiological parenchymal disease). A systematic predetermined form, including 60 items regarding the above-mentioned features, was completed for 5,480 patients. Sputum smear and culture data, radiological findings, and additional extrapulmonary involvement were evaluated in the patients with pulmonary TB (n = 5,094). Epidemiological features, and other clinical and laboratory characteristics were investigated in all patients (n = 5,480). TB was more common among persons aged 20-39 yrs, males, and those living in large urban centres in our region. There were 4,268 newly detected patients (78%), and 1,212 active ex-patients (22%) who had history of previous antituberculosis treatment. Additional extrapulmonary involvement was found in 455 patients (9%). Sputum samples were smear-positive in 3,916 (79%), and culture-positive in 3,748 cases (76%). Most common radiological patterns were parenchymal infiltrate in 5,017 (99%), and cavitation in 3,363 (66%). Unusual radiological patterns were also noted, i.e., lower lung field TB (LLFTB) in 317 cases (6.2%), pneumothorax in 78 cases (1.5%), and miliary pattern in 66 cases (1.3%). In conclusion, because of the more frequent occurrence in the younger age group, it is considered that the prevalence of disease is still high and that the transmission of tubercle bacilli is not decreasing in our region. The highest risk group consisted of male subjects and those living in urban centres. The high percentage of active ex-patients suggests that new control programmes for tuberculosis are required in Turkey.


In general, internal vibrations within the pipelines caused by fluids being passing through a pipeline system can cause. These pipeline system can damage by the sudden amplified vibrations that were not considered at the design of the system, and flow induced vibrations resonate with the pipes natural frequency. Therefore, it is important to predict and identify the pipeline system vibrations during its lifetime. In this study by using MATLAB code as a CFD solver, it studied the forced and free vibrations caused by fluid flows at Reynolds number ranged as 0 < Re < 2500 for laminar flow and ranged as 104 < Re < 105 for turbulent flow. The working fluid has chosen as of (Al2O3, TiO2, SiO2 and water) with different nanoparticle volume fraction of (0 to 2% vol.). These fluids flow in simply supported pipe with different lengths and diameters. The results presented the effect of pipe and fluid parameter upon the fluid critical velocity and fundamental natural frequencies. The results showed that the pipe natural frequency increased with increasing with decreasing the pipe length and diameter. In addition, it showed that the pipe natural frequency decreased when using the different nanoparticle depressed in the water and with increasing the volume fraction.


Quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) is a validated and widely accepted method to investigate changes in arterial dimension over time. Calibration of measurements is enabled by the use of the coronary catheter as a scaling device. The dimensions and laminar composition of coronary catheters, however, have changed significantly over recent years and the suitability of the current generation of coronary catheters for calibration purposes has not been validated. We therefore recorded 57 coronary guiding catheters on cinefilm, and compared their automated quantitative measurements (Cardiovascular Angiography Analysis System, CAAS) with their true values (precision micrometer). We found an overall underestimation of quantitatively derived dimensions, ranging from -8.9 to +4% for water-filled catheters and from -15.5 to -3.9% for contrast-filled catheters. In conclusion, while the current generation of coronary guiding catheters shows a wide variety in radiological quality, it can be clearly detected by the CAAS system, and is suitable for calibration of QCA measurements (with the exception of the DVI atherectomy catheter), provided that calibration is done on contrast-empty catheters.


- From Chip R. Bell, the bestselling author of Customers as Partners, Managers as Mentors, and Managing Knock Your Socks Off Service, partnering with Heather Shea, the former president of The Tom Peters Group's training and consulting company
 - Provides invaluable insights into the changing world of powerful partnering
 - Offers tools, details techniques, and provides activities and resources to help you develop successful partnerships in every enterprise

 Partnerships are fast becoming the primary structure of contemporary business, as organizations partner with vendors, unions, customers, and even competitors to take advantage of short-term market opportunities, leverage intellectual capital, and create more flexible and innovative enterprises. In this important guide, authors Chip Bell and Heather Shea offer an in-depth look at how we can successfully manage partnerships and build them with substance-passion, quality, heart, and soul.

 While many other books have examined the rational, logical, analytical sides of partnership, none has fully explored the irrational, illogical, emotional sides, which are most often what cause partnerships to falter or fail. Dance Lessons is a comprehensive guide to the interpersonal side of partnerships, revealing exactly how the champions choreograph their partnership dances for show-stopping performances. It features:

 - New perspectives to help you decide if partnership is right for you
 - Exciting tools for selecting the right form of partnership important techniques to help you get emotionally prepared to partner
 - Smart ways to accurately pick good partners
 - Engaging activities to help you practice your partnership skills
 - Effective methods for dealing with difficult partners and partnerships
 - Vital cues that let you know when the partnership is ready to end, and helpful tips on how to end it
 - Insights on how to manage external factors that effect partnership success
 - Practical resources to help you continue to learn about effective partnering

 Dance Lessons shows how to develop meaningful, ethical, and soulful partnerships in every interaction throughout your work and your life.


In China, secondary forests occupy a large area of forested lands. However, the relationship of soil water repellency with soil moisture, and the threshold value of soil moisture at which soil water repellency disappears in the forest soils are unknown. In this study, the relationship between soil water repellency and soil moisture was investigated and analyzed by water drop penetration time with soil samples. The soil samples were collected in 10 kinds of stands that were three pure Pinus massoniana stands (PPM [P1 to P3]); three pure Schima superb stands (PSS [S1 to S3]); and four mixed forest stands (PSM [M1 to M4]) with sandy clay, silt clay, and clay soil, respectively, from the state-owned forest farm of Qingshigang, Hunan, China. The obtained relationships could be characterized by nonlinear curves with one peak and a long tail to the right for all the stands. Three nonlinear models, including Gaussian, Lorentzian, and Lognormal models, were applied to fit the data with regression analysis. The results showed that (1) at the beginning, soil water repellency increased with the increasing soil moisture until reaching to its maximum value, then decreased and gradually became zero at which the threshold value of soil moisture was yielded for each of the stands. However, the maximum value of soil water repellency and the threshold value of soil moisture varied depending on the soil types, soil properties, and forest types. (2) The smaller the initial soil moisture contents, the smaller the peak values of the water repellency. (3) The Lorentzian model more accurately modeled the relationship than the Gaussian and Lognormal models and thus could be used to simulate the response of soil water repellency to soil moisture and to predict the maximum water repellency. It is expected that this study can provide useful information and guidelines for improvement of soils and comparison of different repellent soils in the secondary forests. This study can also offer corresponding suggestions for other secondary forests.


The successional dynamics of root-colonizing microbes are hypothesized to be critical to displacing fungal pathogens that can proliferate after the use of some herbicides. Applications of glyphosate in particular, which compromises the plant defense system by interfering with the production of aromatic amino acids, are thought to promote a buildup of root pathogens and can result in a "greenbridge" between weeds or volunteers and crop hosts. By planting 2 to 3 weeks after spraying, growers can avoid most negative impacts of the greenbridge by allowing pathogen populations to decline, but with the added cost of delayed planting dates. However, the specific changes in microbial communities during this period of root death and the microbial taxa likely to be involved in displacing pathogens are poorly characterized. Using high-throughput sequencing, we characterized fungal and oomycete communities in roots after applications of herbicides with different modes of action (glyphosate or clethodim) and tracked their dynamics over 3 weeks in both naturally infested soil and soil inoculated with Rhizoctonia solani AG-8. We found that many unexpected taxa were present at high relative abundance (e.g., Pythium volutum and Myrmecridium species) in live and dying wheat roots and may play an under-recognized role in greenbridge dynamics. Moreover, communities were highly dynamic over time and had herbicide-specific successional patterns, but became relatively stable by 2 weeks after herbicide application. Network analysis of communities over time revealed patterns of interactions among taxa that were both common and unique to each herbicide treatment and identified two primary groups of taxa with many positive associations within-groups but negative associations between-groups, suggesting that these groups are antagonistic to one another in dying roots and may play a role in displacing pathogen populations during greenbridge dynamics.


Introduction: Fire hazards are an extreme risk to occupants of high-rise buildings. Little attention has been paid to emergency and evacuation preparedness among people living in high-rise buildings. This paper reports on emergency fire preparedness among residents of a high-rise building that has experienced multiple fires in the past. Methods: An exploratory qualitative pilot study was conducted using key informant interviews. Six residents participated. Themes on preparedness for fires and emergency evacuation were extracted. Results: Findings indicated varying levels of preparedness for fires and emergency evacuation among residents. Factors influencing residents' emergency preparedness included fire risk perception, owner or renter status, and building-level emergency preparedness. Fire alarms were considered to be an ineffective evacuation cue. Severe cues such as seeing fire or smoke were more likely to prompt evacuation. Participants provided a series of suggestions to keep high-rise residents safe during fire emergencies. Discussion: The study revealed fire preparedness knowledge, decision-making processes, and actual behaviors of residential high-rise occupants who experienced a fire emergency in their building. Main findings of the study are discussed in two themes: influences on fire emergency and evacuation preparedness, and evacuation decision-making and response to fire. Results from this pilot study will be used as the basis for a follow up study involving residents from multiple high-rise buildings. Keywords: disaster, emergency preparedness, evacuation, fire, hazard, high-rise building, pilot study, qualitative research


Homocysteine (Hcy) is an independent risk factor of atherosclerosis through its involvement with the methionine cycle. In this study, we aimed to determine the blood vessel global methylation rate in Hcy-induced atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein-E-deficient (ApoE-/-) mice, and to explore the possible mechanism of this change in endothelial cells. ApoE-/- mice were divided into a hyperlipidemia (HLP) group, a hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) group, and an HHcy + folate + vitamin B12 (HHcy+FA+VB) group. Wild-type C57BL/6J mice were prepared as controls. Total Hcy, lipids, S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), and S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) contents in serum were measured with an automatic biochemistry analyzer and high-performance liquid chromatography. Methylation of B1 repetitive elements in blood vessels was tested using nested methylation-specific-polymerase chain reaction (nMS-PCR). Endothelial cells (ECs) were pretreated with Hcy or by adding FA and VB. Lectin-like oxidized LDL receptor-1 (LOX-1) expressions were determined by quantitative PCR, Western blot, and nMS-PCR. The HHcy group displayed severe HLP and HHcy. SAM and SAH contents were also elevated in the HHcy group compared with other groups. Methylation of B1 repetitive elements was significantly increased in the HHcy group (0.5050 ± 0.0182) compared to the HLP (0.5158 ± 0.0163) and control (0.5589 ± 0.0236) groups. mRNA and protein expressions of LOX-1 increased (0.2877 ± 0.0341, 0.6090 ± 0.0547), whereas methylation expression decreased (0.5527 ± 0.0148) after 100 μM Hcy stimulation in ECs. In conclusion, Hcy-induced atherosclerosis was closely associated with induced hypomethylation status in the blood vessel, and this process was partially mediated by LOX-1 DNA methylation.


with high grain alignment has been successfully fabricated by a modified powder melting process at a temperature of , which is near the eutectic point of the starting materials , and CuO. In terms of the levitation force and grain alignment, the best result was shown in a sample having a molecular ratio of 1:3:5. In the present work, the Cu-surplus eutectic liquid was completely absorbed by use of a substrate, by which the final composition was driven to stoichiometric . The results were comparable to those obtained by the conventional melt-texture-growth process. A new invariant point apparently occurred at owing to an interfacial reaction between matrix and substrate.


This report describes an integrated and modular microsystem providing rapid analyses of trace-level tryptic digests for proteomics applications. This microsystem includes an autosampler, a microfabricated device comprising a large channel (2.4 μl total volume), an array of separation channels, together with a low dead volume enabling the interface to nanoelectrospray mass spectrometry. The large channel of this microfluidic device provides a convenient platform to integrate C18 reverse phase packing or other type of affinity media such as immobilized antibodies or immobilized metal affinity chromatography beads thus enabling affinity selection of target peptides prior to electrophoretic separation and mass spectrometry analyses on a quadrupole/time-of-flight instrument. Sequential injection, preconcentration, and separation of peptide standards and tryptic digests are achieved with a throughput of up to 12 samples/per h and a concentration detection limit of ∼5 nm (25 fmol on chip). Replicate injections of peptide mixtures indicated that reproducibility of migration time was 1.2–1.8%, whereas relative standard deviation ranging from 9.2 to 11.8% are observed on peak heights. The application of this device for trace-level protein identification is demonstrated for two-dimensional gel spots obtained from extracts of human prostatic cancer cells (LNCap) using both peptide mass-fingerprint data base searching and on-line tandem mass spectrometry. Enrichment of target peptides prior to mass spectral analyses is achieved using c-myc-specific antibodies immobilized on protein G-Sepharose beads and facilitates the identification of antigenic peptides spiked at a level of 20 ng/ml in human plasma. Affinity selection is also demonstrated for gel-isolated protein bands where tryptic phosphopeptides are captured on immobilized metal affinity chromatography beads and subsequently separated and characterized on this microfluidic system.


Acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) remains a serious complication following allogeneic stem-cell transplantation (SCT), and is mediated by infiltration of alloreactive donor T cells into recipient tissue. Chemokines and their receptors play a central role in controlling the recruitment of T cells into discrete tissue sites, and determine the clinical features of GVHD in murine models. In this study, we have analyzed the serum concentration of molecules that control leukocyte migration in serial samples from 34 patients following allogeneic SCT. The chemokine CXCL10 (IP-10) was significantly elevated (> 2-fold) in serum at the time of aGVHD. Because the ligand for CXCL10 is CXCR3, the number of CXCR3 T cells was determined in peripheral blood, but was not increased during episodes of GVHD. To investigate the role of chemokines in the recruitment of T cells to the anatomic site of GVHD, skin biopsies were stained for CXCL10 and CXCR3 expression. CXCL10 expression was observed in the basal keratinocytes of the epidermis in patients with GVHD together with positive staining for CXCR3 on cells in dermal infiltrates. These findings indicate that CXCL10 plays a central role in the pathogenesis of skin aGVHD by the recruitment of CXCR3 T cells to the sites of inflammation. (Blood. 2007;110: 3827-3832)


This DePaul University Library guide is designed to help you locate interdisciplinary primary and secondary sources that should be useful in your critical inquiries into American culture.


This is the user interface component of the Speech Transcription Platform developed by the Multilingual Speech Technologies group at North-West University and the project was sponsored by the Department of Arts and Culture of South Africa.
There are two basic software dependencies for this component: 1) Apache2 Web server and 2) PHP (including Apache2 plugins)
Note: The repository contains software developed by third parties under their respective licences. For specific licence conditions please refer to the documentation contained in the relevant sub-directory or source code file.
Files and documentation are available at https://github.com/NWU-MuST/STP-UI


We developed a nonmyeloablative host conditioning regimen in a mouse model of MHC-mismatched bone marrow transplantation that not only reduces radiation toxicity, but also protects against graft-vs-host disease. The regimen of fractionated irradiation directed to the lymphoid tissues and depletive anti-T cell Abs results in a marked change in the residual host T cells, such that NK1.1+ or DX5+asialo-GM1+ T cells become the predominant T cell subset in the lymphoid tissues of C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice, respectively. The latter "natural suppressor" T cells protect hosts from graft-vs-host disease after the infusion of allogeneic bone marrow and peripheral blood cells that ordinarily kill hosts conditioned with sublethal or lethal total body irradiation. Protected hosts become stable mixed chimeras, but fail to show the early expansion and infiltration of donor T cells in the gut, liver, and blood associated with host tissue injury. Cytokine secretion and adoptive transfer studies using wild-type and IL-4−/− mice showed that protection afforded by NK1.1+ and DX5+asialo-GM1+ T cells derived from either donors or hosts conditioned with lymphoid irradiation is dependent on their secretion of high levels of IL-4.


Evidence for significant linkage in complexly inherited disorders usually necessitates independent, replicative studies. This study investigates the implications of including in the replicative studies families already used to suggest linkage in initial linkage analysis. We generated 1,000 unlinked replicates of 100 nuclear families with a complexly inherited disease but with no linkage to the markers analyzed. We then used a standard nonparametric linkage method to analyze these data. From the original 1,000 replicates of the original data set, one set was chosen as it yielded suggestive, but falsely positive, linkage results (LOD score = 3.4). Variable numbers of randomly selected families from this positive replicate (n = 100 families) were used to replace families in replicates of the original (unlinked) data set, and linkage analysis repeated. Overlap of families from the "positive data set" did increase the LOD scores for "unlinked data sets." While a small amount of overlap (replacement) between a positive linkage result and the replication sample is unlikely in practice to alter results, our study suggests that steps should be taken to ensure that overlap is minimized. The implications of this overlapping recruitment on replicative linkage studies are discussed.


investigated by means of x-ray diffraction (XRD) at room temperature and magnetic measurements at low temperature. The alloys were prepared by typical induction melting and the carbonation was performed by solid-solid reaction. The cell volume of ThMn structure and the Curie temperature increase after carbonation, but decrease with Si content. The saturation magnetization and the magnetic moment were determined from parallel magnetic isotherms using the common law of approach to saturation. The experimental average magnetic moment per atom decreases with Si content. The comparison of experimental 3d-magnetic moment with the calculated values from the magnetic valence approximation (MVA) shows a strong ferromagnetism, induced by carbonation. The XRD patterns of magnetically oriented powder show an uniaxial anisotropy for YFe Si TiC. The second and fourth order magnetocrystalline constants, K and K have been determined using an analytical interpretation, based on the statistical model, of perpendicular magnetization isotherms of the magnetically aligned powder samples. The magnetocrystalline constants and anisotropy field have been determined versus temperature and composition. Index Terms—Magnetic anisotropy, magnetic materials, magnetic measurements, yttrium compounds.


ABSTRACT:This study explores the notions of space underlying a famous Hebrew travel account from the twelfth century: Benjamin of Tudela's Sefer masa'ot (Book of travels). Instead of reading it as an eyewitness report documenting the human geography of the medieval world, I seek to understand the "aggregatory" character of a literary work that contains both empirical and imagined information about distant places and lands, some of which it shares with medieval Arabic and vernacular literatures. By means of this knowledge, the Sefer masa'ot reflects on almost the entire geographic trajectory of the then-known world. Highlighting how the book constructs the Mediterranean basin as an interconnected, Jewish space, I furthermore challenge the positivism that still dominates the scholarship on this book. My argument, which is partly based on GIS data, is that its "hodological" representation of geography according to routes does not necessarily reflect Benjamin's own movement in time and space but rather functions as a way of illustrating the connectivity of Jewish diasporas. In order to contextualize its narrative, I also compare Benjamin's Hebrew work to the Arabic Rihla (Journey) by Ibn Jubayr, a contemporaneous Muslim traveler from Granada, as well as other medieval sources. Arguably, both Benjamin and Ibn Jubayr use the (loosely defined) literary genre of the travel account to envision an interconnected and unified Jewish and Muslim oikumene, respectively.


A method combining planning and reactive control for car-like nonholonomic mobile robots is discussed. Firstly, a "bubble" for a car-like mobile robot is defined as the locally reachable space from a given configuration considering the obstacles and using the appropriate metric. Then a flexible feasible trajectory, based on the elastic band concepts, is constructed. This trajectory is smoothed using Bezier curves satisfying a minimum curvature constraint, and a parameterization is proposed which satisfies the robot kinematics constraints.


Earthquake is one of the natural disasters and very important for human life. A lot of people die every year all over the world due to earthquakes. It is very difficult to develop early warning method for earthquakes because of it has 3000 parameters. The earthquake scientists and other people involved are very hard working about this matter. Governments allocate a significant budget for earthquakes. In this study, the earth magnetic field has been researched for early warning. The questions are any tectonic plate movement is effect of the Earth magnetic field lines or changing of the Earth magnetic field lines are effect any tectonic plate. Greater than 7 M earthquakes have been chosen in this study. And 12 years period changing graphics of the earth magnetic field lines where the chosen earthquake locals have been taken.


There is an increasing awareness of the importance of transferable skills. With the internet now allowing almost instant access to information, the recall of factual knowledge no longer has the primacy it has held for centuries. In contrast, transferable skills remain particularly important for medical students because they receive a generic education in preparation for a diverse range of careers. The twelve tips in this article are more relevant for certain skills than others. Transferable skills should be taught in context and students should be made aware of how the skills will play a part in their future. Learning outcomes must be made clear to both staff and students, and without clear assessment of transferable skills students are likely to focus exclusively on knowledge. Students and staff should proactively engage with transferable skills training, rather than taking a purely remedial approach.


Of the various boundary conditions that are relevant for the correct modeling of the extrusion process the realistic representation of the friction in the die is important since it has a significant influence on the profile temperature, the strain and strain rate distribution in the die. In order to investigate the influence of the die geometry, respectively the geometry of the die bearing, a four-hole die with exchangeable inserts was designed. Thereby each of the four inserts was equipped with a thermocouple to record the profile temperature at the die bearing. Through the combination of different die bearing geometries (cylindrical, 0.5° closing, 1° closing, 0.5° opening) in the same die the influence on the extrusion speed and profile temperature could be evaluated with the exact same extrusion conditions. The observed differences in the temperature and speed in respect to the geometry of the die bearing where evaluated and implemented in a FEM simulation in order to validate the underlying friction model.


Kettle holes are found in young moraine landscapes and serve as an important habitat for amphibians. The loss of amphibians has been dramatic in recent decades, mainly because of the increase in land use intensity and deterioration of habitats e.g., kettle holes in agricultural landscapes. We monitored amphibian species on three organically managed farms in north-eastern Germany to get an overview of their occurrence and proof of reproduction to develop effective protection strategies. From 2016 to 2020, we investigated 50 kettle holes in cultivated fields. In 2018, we implemented the nature conservation measure 'cutting back dense wooded belts' in six of these kettle holes. Here, we focused on seven species considering four highly endangered species. We found six to seven species in up to 17 kettle holes in the 44 kettle holes without the measure 'cutting back dense wooded belts'. Bombina bombina occurred at the most kettle holes (57%). The number of kettle holes where amphibians reproduced differed strongly. On average, at least one species reproduced at 58% of the kettle holes. Many kettle holes become overgrown with negative effects for amphibians due to the reduction in solar irradiation and higher water consumption. The nature conservation measure increased the number of species on average from two to four and the number of species with reproduction from one to three. It is one of more than 100 measures in the 'Farming for Biodiversity' project that farmers can choose to receive a nature conservation certificate, which can be used for marketing purposes.


Sewage sludge is a nitrogen-rich organic compound, which can be used to aid development in plants such as Platycyamus regnellii (Fabaceae), in the recovery of degraded areas. This study aimed to assess the bottom-up effects on leaf mass and percentage of ground cover (leaf litter, herbaceous plants, and grasses) in P. regnellii trees fertilized (or not) with dehydrated sewage sludge and arthropod communities over 24 months. Platycyamus regnellii trees fertilized with dehydrated sewage sludge presented significantly more leaves per branch, branches per tree, and a higher percentage of ground cover compared to unfertilized trees. Phenacoccus sp. (Pseudococcidae) was the most abundant phytophagous insect associated with P. regnellii trees. Fertilization did not affect the abundance, diversity, and species richness of Hemiptera phytophagous on P. regnellii trees. However, fertilized trees presented higher abundance and species richness of trophobiont-tending ants compared to unfertilized trees, with Camponotus sp. being the most abundant regardless of the treatment. Fertilized P. regnellii trees also presented higher species richness of natural enemies compared to unfertilized ones, with Aranae and Dolichopodidae being the most abundant. We concluded that fertilization with dehydrated sewage sludge improved P. regnellii trees leaf mass and ground cover and increased the diversity of trophobiont-tending ants and natural enemies. To our knowledge, this is the first study on the arthropods community associated with this tree species. This suggests that upon fertilization, P. renellii trees are useful for ecological restoration in severely disturbed areas.


Protein tyrosine kinase 2 (Pyk2) is required for T cell adhesion to ICAM-1; however, the mechanism by which it regulates adhesion remains unexplored. Pyk2 function in murine CTL clones and activated ex vivo CD8+ T cells was disrupted by pharmacological inhibition, knockdown of expression with small interfering RNA, or expression of the dominant-negative C-terminal domain. We found that Pyk2 is not absolutely required for adhesion of CTL to ICAM-1, but rather delays the initial adhesion. Disruption of Pyk2 function caused cells to display an unusual elongated appearance after 1 h on ICAM-1, consistent with abnormally strong adhesion. Furthermore, the random mobility of CTL on ICAM-1 was severely compromised using all three methods of disrupting Pyk2 function. Live-cell imaging studies revealed that the decreased migration is the result of a defect in the detachment from ICAM-1 at the trailing edge when Pyk2 function is inhibited. Examination of Pyk2 tyrosine phosphorylation in normal polarized cells demonstrated that Pyk2 phosphorylated at Y579 and Y580 preferentially localizes to the leading edge, whereas Y881-phosphorylated Pyk2 is enriched at the trailing edge, suggesting that the tyrosine phosphorylation of Pyk2 is spatially regulated in migrating CTL. Additionally, inhibition of Pyk2 caused cells to form multiple LFA-1–rich tails at the trailing edge, most likely resulting from a defect in LFA-1 release required for forward movement. Our results show that Pyk2 contributes to CTL migration by regulating detachment of CTL at the trailing edge, which could explain why Pyk2 is important for chemotactic and migratory responses.


Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), the agent of Lyme disease, exists in nature through a complex enzootic life cycle that involves both ticks and mammals. As Bb transitions between its two diverse niches, profound adaptive changes occur that are reflected in differential patterns of gene expression, particularly involving lipoprotein genes. Using a mutagenesis approach, we show that Rrp2 (gene BB0763), one of the proteins predicted by the Bb genome (www.tigr.org) to be a response regulator of a two-component sensory transduction system, is a pivotal regulator governing the expression of major membrane lipoproteins such as OspC, DbpA, and Mlp8, as well as many other mammalian infection-associated immunogens of Bb. Sequence analysis additionally suggested that Rrp2 is a bacterial enhancer-binding protein, essential for σ54-dependent gene activation. Mutagenesis of a key amino acid residue within a putative activation domain revealed that Rrp2 controlled lipoprotein expression by governing the expression of the alternative σ-factor σs in a σ54-dependent manner. We therefore propose a signal transduction pathway involving Rrp2, σ54, and σs, which in concert control the expression of key lipoproteins and other infection-associated immunogens in Bb.


Validation of analytical methods ensures the reliability and accuracy of analytical results. To get a reliable result we performed a validation of the method taking into account all factors that may aff ect of the result. In this paper we optimized QuEChERS method for food and feed sample preparation as well as instrumental method using gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and we obtained a method for successful determination of pesticides with calibration through the matrix. In this way, applying calibration through matrix, we satisfi ed the requirements for precision and reproducibility of the method being less than 20%, the accuracy rate in the range of 70-130% and method linearity throughout the range of interest.


During his first year as president, Vladimir Putin has repeatedly declared that the rebuilding of the Russian state is his very highest priority. Indeed, on this score there is now a remarkably widespread political consensus among Russian liberals, nationalists, and former Communists: all agree that the Russian central government must find some means of enforcing its own laws in order to reverse the nation's prolonged decline in the post-Soviet period. Prominent Western analysts and advisors, too, proclaim that successful state-building in the Russian Federation is the prerequisite for sustainable political and economic development--as well as the only means of attaining reliable control over Russia's stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. But on the question of how a future strong Russian state might be built, elite opinion in both Russia and the West remains vague and contradictory. !


Hewage's essay examines the history of emergency rule, which has defined the greater part of Sri Lanka's postcolonial experience. It suggests that we rethink the conventional constitutional provision of emergency's necessity in relation to the broader temporality of necessity, which has conditioned the democratic relationship between the Sri Lankan state and the domain of the social. The article introduces the political rationality that governs this relationship with the moment of its apotheosis, namely the enactment of Sri Lanka's first Republican Constitution and the apogee of welfarism, during the unprecedented emergency of the 1970s. Noting the vintage of certain seemingly exceptional expedients of the social during this era, Hewage claims that they illuminate the distinctive temporality of a postcolonial reason of state. The essay foregrounds postcolonial demands for a republic with a strong executive and comprehensive bill of rights to replace the colonially conferred Soulbury Constitution and its minority safeguard, Section 29. Analyzing this apparently paradoxical pairing of rights and enhanced executive power, ultimately realized in Sri Lanka's Republican Constitutions, the essay situates both within the vision of state instrumentality these demands contemplated. Finally, Hewage highlights a shift within the theorization of leftist political praxis toward revolution through Parliamentary democracy. The recasting of emergency as a problem native to the emergence of democracy in Sri Lanka has consequences for thinking democratic trajectories in other postcolonial contexts, distinctively defined, as Partha Chatterjee has observed, by the early, colonial inception of the social.


Emerging observations link dysregulation of TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) to developmental disorders, inflammatory disease, and cancer. Biochemical mechanisms accounting for direct participation of TBK1 in host defense signaling have been well described. However, the molecular underpinnings of the selective participation of TBK1 in a myriad of additional cell biological systems in normal and pathophysiologic contexts remain poorly understood. To elucidate the context-selective role of TBK1 in cancer cell survival, we employed a combination of broad-scale chemogenomic and interactome discovery strategies to generate data-driven mechanism-of-action hypotheses. This approach uncovered evidence that TBK1 supports AKT/mTORC1 pathway activation and function through direct modulation of multiple pathway components acting both upstream and downstream of the mTOR kinase itself. Furthermore, we identified distinct molecular features in which mesenchymal, Ras-mutant lung cancer is acutely dependent on TBK1-mediated support of AKT/mTORC1 pathway activation for survival. Cancer Res; 77(18); 5077-94. ©2017 AACR.


Nanocrystalline tin oxide (S1) was prepared by using molten boric acid as a flux and was characterized by XRD, TEM, and BET analysis. Its photocatalytic activity under UV excitation was evaluated by the photodegradation of methylene blue in water and compared to that of the well-known P25 (TiO2) and SnO2 powder (S2) synthesized from hydrothermal system without the participation of H3BO3. It has been revealed that S1 exhibits similar photocatalytic activity to that of P25 powder and better than that of S2. The high photocatalytic activity of S1 is most likely to be originated from its small particle size and the boron-doping in the crystal lattice.


Background: There are different therapeutical options for treating early preretinal hemorrhages. Beside surgery and intraocular drug administration some reports have been published using neodymium-YAG laser. Patient: A42-year pld healthy female patient complained of sudden visual loss after vomiting and showed signs of preretinal haemorrhage. On the same day, a treatment with neodymium-YAG-laser was performed. The posterior limiting membrane was opened. Results: During follow-up an outflow of the preretinal haemorrhage into the vitreous was observed. Within four weeks after laser treatment a complete resorption of the haemorrhage was seen. Visual acuity increased to 20/20. Conclusion: In selected cases the opening of the posterior limiting membrane may be considered for treatment of early preretinal haemorrhages.


From the Publisher:
It is now clear that the brain is unlikely to be understood without recourse to computational theories. The theme of An Introduction to Natural Computation is that ideas from diverse areas such as neuroscience, information theory, and optimization theory have recently been extended in ways that make them useful for describing the brains programs. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the computational material that forms the underpinnings of the currently evolving set of brain models. It stresses the broad spectrum of learning models--ranging from neural network learning through reinforcement learning to genetic learning--and situates the various models in their appropriate neural context.
To write about models of the brain before the brain is fully understood is a delicate matter. Very detailed models of the neural circuitry risk losing track of the task the brain is trying to solve. At the other extreme, models that represent cognitive constructs can be so abstract that they lose all relationship to neurobiology. An Introduction to Natural Computation takes the middle ground and stresses the computational task while staying near the neurobiology.


We develop a time‐dependent theoretical numerical model to simulate the density profiles of the ions (i.e., O+(2P), O+(2D), N2+, O+(4S), N+, O2+, and NO+) and free electrons in E and F regions. In this model, the ion photoionization production rates, the photoelectron ionization production effect, and the chemical reactions between the ionized species and the neutral compositions are considered, and the plasma transport processes are not included. The simulation results show that the mean electron density ratios of the model simulations to the AE‐C satellite measurements for the Solar Dynamics Observatory‐Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (SDO‐EVE), EUV flux model for Aeronomic Calculations, and Hinteregger‐Fukui‐Gilson solar irradiance models are, respectively, 0.97, 0.79, and 0.71 in a height range 140–400 km and 0.79, 0.75, and 0.64 in a height range 90–150 km. A comparison shows that the electron densities simulated by the model developed in this study are much more consistent with the in situ measurements made by the AE‐C satellite than those predicted by the International Reference Ionosphere model and simulated by the Thermosphere Ionosphere Electrodynamics General Circulation Model. The model simulations with SDO‐EVE solar irradiance input indicate that the photoelectron impact production process contributes about 20%–30% of the total atomic ion densities throughout the height range 130–400 km around noon. However, the photoelectron production effect on the molecular ion densities is very minor (less than about 7%) above 275 km. Below 250 km, its effect increases with the decrease of height for O2+ and N2+, from about 4% and 10% at 250 km to 13% and 27% at 150 km, respectively.


Agricultural conversion of tropical forests is a major driver of biodiversity loss. Slowing rates of deforestation is a conservation priority, but it is also useful to consider how species diversity is retained across the agricultural matrix. Here we assess how bird diversity varies in relation to land use in the Taita Hills, Kenya. We used point counts to survey birds along a land-use gradient that included primary forest, secondary vegetation, agroforest, timber plantation and cropland. We found that the agricultural matrix supports an abundant and diverse bird community with high levels of species turnover, but that forest specialists are confined predominantly to primary forest, with the matrix dominated by forest visitors. Ordination analyses showed that representation of forest specialists decreases with distance from primary forest. With the exception of forest generalists, bird abundance and diversity are lowest in timber plantations. Contrary to expectation, we found feeding guilds at similar abundances in all land-use types. We conclude that while the agricultural matrix, and agroforest in particular, makes a strong contribution to observed bird diversity at the landscape scale, intact primary forest is essential for maintaining this diversity, especially among species of conservation concern.


We read with great interest the recent publication by Sagar et al , which reported activated lipolysis in adipose tissues induced by exosome-transmitted adrenomedullin (AM) from pancreatic cancer (PC) cells.1 Researchers detected AM expressed in PC-derived exosomes and observed elevated AM expression in both tissue and plasma specimens from patients with PC. Biofunctional analysis showed that both AM and PC-derived exosomes promoted lipolysis and this effect could be abolished by blocking the AM receptor, suggesting PC-induced lipolysis is dependent on exosomal AM. A further mechanistic experiment illustrated that the lipolysis induced by AM is mediated through mitogen-activated protein kinases p38 and ERK1/2. Taken together, the results published by Sagar et al reveal a novel molecular mechanism of adipose tissue loss, providing novel insight into early-onset paraneoplastic effects of PC.

Exosomal AM derived from cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) promotes lipolysis in adipose tissue. Intriguingly, we noticed that in addition to PC cells, stromal cells also stained positively for AM in …


The article presents a theoretical model for assessment of management culture in the process of implementation corporate social responsibility in organizations, and offers a detailed description of the model by providing analysis of its different stages and the role of individual stakeholders in the process of assessment. The model is constructed on the basis of conclusions and insights resulting from analysis of recent theoretical developments in the field and of the logical sequence of coherent stages of the processes.


The role of plant defensive compounds has often been studied within the purview of consumer diet choice. However, consumers are often confronted with foods distributed within depletable patches. To investigate the complication of resource depletion, I merged a consumer-resource model of nutritional relationships between foods with the technique of giving-up densities for measuring foraging behavior in depletable food patches. Theory predicts that foods containing plant defenses that act as digestibility reducers (e.g., lignins and tannins) will be relatively less depleted under higher predation risk than will foods without defenses. In contrast, foods containing defensive toxins (e.g., alkaloids) that affect fitness directly, and not through diminished physiological uptake of energy, will be depleted without bias to predation risk or other foraging costs. I tested the theory using fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) feeding on sunflower seeds that were impregnated with either tannic or oxalic acid. Squirrels had their highest giving-up densities on oxalate-treated seeds and their lowest on water-treated (control) seeds. GUDs were also higher when patches were placed in riskier microhabitats. Moreover, risky microhabitats increased tannin GUDs relative to control GUDs but had no effect on oxalate GUDs. The former observation is consistent with defenses that act as digestibility reducers, and the latter is consistent with defensive toxins. These results indicate that the effects of plant defensive compounds on foraging behavior are complicated and require consideration of not only the potential effects of the compound, but also the environment to which the forager is exposed. Tannins in- fluence squirrel foraging behavior, but the effects may not be seen or realized unless the forager is in a sufficiently risky environment.


Context. Large-scale solar eruptions significantly affect space weather and damage space-based human infrastructures. It is necessary to predict large-scale solar eruptions; it will enable us to protect the vulnerable infrastructures of our modern society.
Aims. We investigate the difference between flaring and nonflaring active regions. We also investigate whether it is possible to forecast a solar flare.
Methods. We used photospheric vector magnetogram data from the Solar Dynamic Observatory's Helioseismic Magnetic Imager to study the time evolution of photospheric magnetic parameters on the solar surface. We built a database of flaring and nonflaring active regions observed on the solar surface from 2010 to 2017. We trained a machine-learning algorithm with the time evolution of these active region parameters. Finally, we estimated the performance obtained from the machine-learning algorithm.
Results. The strength of some magnetic parameters such as the total unsigned magnetic flux, the total unsigned magnetic helicity, the total unsigned vertical current, and the total photospheric magnetic energy density in flaring active regions are much higher than those of the non-flaring regions. These magnetic parameters in a flaring active region evolve fast and are complex. We are able to obtain a good forecasting capability with a relatively high value of true skill statistic. We also find that time evolution of the total unsigned magnetic helicity and the total unsigned magnetic flux provides a very high ability of distinguishing flaring and nonflaring active regions.
Conclusions. We can distinguish a flaring active region from a nonflaring region with good accuracy. We confirm that there is no single common parameter that can distinguish all flaring active regions from the nonflaring regions. However, the time evolution of the top two magnetic parameters, the total unsigned magnetic flux and the total unsigned magnetic helicity, have a very high distinguishing capability.


Multiagent systems is an expanding field that blends classical fields like game theory and decentralized control with modern fields like computer science and machine learning. This monograph provides a concise introduction to the subject, covering the theoretical foundations as well as more recent developments in a coherent and readable manner. The text is centered on the concept of an agent as decision maker. Chapter 1 is a short introduction to the field of multiagent systems. Chapter 2 covers the basic theory of singleagent decision making under uncertainty. Chapter 3 is a brief introduction to game theory, explaining classical concepts like Nash equilibrium. Chapter 4 deals with the fundamental problem of coordinating a team of collaborative agents. Chapter 5 studies the problem of multiagent reasoning and decision making under partial observability. Chapter 6 focuses on the design of protocols that are stable against manipulations by self-interested agents. Chapter 7 provides a short introduction to the rapidly expanding field of multiagent reinforcement learning. The material can be used for teaching a half-semester course on multiagent systems covering, roughly, one chapter per lecture.


While the Anglo-American tradition (Austin and Searle) approaches speech acts mainly through the philosophy of language, Derrida relocates the field of analysis and considers speech acts within the broader context of political philosophy as well as the philosophy of subject. Instead of asking 'how and under which conditions certain speech acts change the state of affairs' (as Austin did), Derrida questions the very nature of social links in order to reveal the 'condition of possibility' of performative acts in particular and of verbal communication in general. He shows that this condition is the primordial trust between interlocutors. The primordial trust is based on two heterogeneous types of experience: experience of relation to the absolute Other and experience of a sacral universal law that ensures stability of society. The speech act as based of the trust is twofold: it is both an event and a reinstatement of an automatic process. This juxtaposition of the event and the mechanical forms of social life links Derrida's political thought to that of Arendt. Their agreement, however, does not continue into the realm of the philosophy of subject. Derrida insists on the importance of the hidden conversion of the speaker who privately addresses the Other, whereas for Arendt the self has no genuine access to itself outside of the public domain of the political.


This study investigates the association between choice of a Big4 audit firm and Cost of Debt compared with non-Big4 in Italian firms. Based on a sample of Italian companies audited by an audit firm in the period 2007-2012, we perform OLS regressions to test the Big4 association with Cost of Debt. Results confirm our expectation that audit firm size is a significant criterion of audit firm choice and we find that Big4 is associated with lower Cost of Debt than non-Big4 in private firms. The choice of Big4 audit firm reduce the specific agency conflict between banks and owner/management in private firms. We also find that private firms benefit from lower Cost of Debt than public companies. This research makes a contribution to the literature by extending previous results (Gul et al., 2013, Cano Rodriguez and Alegria, 2012, Karjalainen, 2011) to private firms and to the setting of Italy. Results may also be useful for companies choosing auditors in private firms and in the mitigation of agency conflict.


The study aimed for addressing the expression of soluble Fas (sFas) and soluble Fas Ligand (sFasL) in human nucleus pulposus (NP) and its attendant relationship with disc degeneration. Human NP samples were collected from patients with disc degeneration and cadavers as degenerate and normal groups, respectively. Sub- sequently, NP cells were cultured in monolayer. ELISA was performed to identify the expression levels of sFas and sFasL in the supernatant of NP cell cultures in vitro. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to detect the expression of sFas and sFasL in human NP cells in mRNA solution. The study comprised 12 degenerate and 8 normal cadaveric NP samples. The concentration value of sFas in the supernatant was significantly higher from degenerate NP than that from normal NP at each time point. In contrast, sFasL was significantly lower at each time point. Moreover, the expression of sFas and sFasL reached the peak at various early stages of cell cultures and decreased thereafter. Furthermore, the mRNA level of Fas in degenerate NP cells was significantly higher than that in normal cells; where - as FasL showed an opposite pattern. The study is the first addressing the expression of sFas and sFasL in human NP cell cultures. Moreover, the expression of sFas and sFasL varies with culture time in vitro with different levels in degenerate and normal settings. These findings indicate that sFas and sFasL might play a role in intervertebral disc degeneration.


When caring for patients, it is essential that nurses are using the current best practice. To determine what this is, nurses must be able to read research critically. But for many qualified and student nurses, the terminology used in research can be difficult to understand, thus making critical reading even more daunting. It is imperative in nursing that care has its foundations in sound research, and it is essential that all nurses have the ability to critically appraise research to identify what is best practice. This article is a step-by-step approach to critiquing quantitative research to help nurses demystify the process and decode the terminology.


Fuel cells are very flexible energy conversion devices and in particular MCFC power generating system are among the most promising for stationary power generation. Potentially, MCFCs can be fed by a great variety of gaseous fuels comprising low calorific values gases like landfill gas. Thanks to fuel processing technologies, like gasification, suitable anode input gases can also be obtained from solid matters. Coal, but also RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel), industrial waste and biomasses are potential fuels for the fuel cell technology after a specific treatment aimed to yield a proper gas for the cell requirements. The gases mentioned above are characterized by low calorific values, presence of inert gases, presence of carbon monoxide and dioxide, presence of various contaminants such as chlorine, sulphur and nitrogen compounds or metals and they can be utilized for power production in high temperature fuel cell units only after a proper clean-up treatment (tars, particulate and sulphur removal). Although interest in alternative fuels for fuel cells has spread in the recent years, most research activity related to fuel treatment has been performed on methane. The biggest drawback deriving from this situation is a general lack of information. When present, moreover, the information is often contradictory. An example of this is given by the acceptable contaminants levels for molten carbonate fuel cells about which there are not values that are based on sufficient experimental evidence. Unfortunately the design of a clean-up system, the choice of the best technology, the optimization of the BOP relies just on these values. In this work a literature research and an analysis of the present knowledge about the effect of impurities in fuel for fuel cells has been preformed. The goal is the definition of concentration levels that can be tolerated by MCFCs and the degradation in performance or the reduction of cell life related to the presence of different pollutants. A second step of the work is the comparison of the levels of impurities tolerated by the cells with those present in the different low calorific value gases in order to define the clean-up requirements. The research priorities in this field have been pointed out. Finally, the project of the fuel cell team of University of Perugia about this topic is briefly described.Copyright © 2003 by ASME


This paper proposes an analysis algorithm that can appropriately distinguish shear failure from bending failure of an RC beam under impact load, by using the SPH method. As structural members, beams generally fail by one of two modes: bending failure caused by excessive bending deformation of the member, and shear failure caused by shear crack growth, leading to rapid destruction at an angle in the web. In this study, to calculate the failure behavior accurately in the local stress field in which shear stress prevails such as when a shear crack occurs, an orthotropic constitutive equation is used. This equation is derived by applying the integrity tensor proposed by Ignacio Carol, Egidio Rizzi and Kasper William, to the usual SPH method. This operation is also extended to the tensile softening characteristic of concrete material. The results confirm that the failure behavior of RC beams under a wide range of conditions can be analyzed accurately by using the proposed algorithm.


In this communication, the anticancer and antioxidant activities of some new 2-aminobenzoic acid (2-oxo-1, 2-dihydro-indol-3-ylidene) hydrazides are presented. The new compounds were prepared by the condensation of indole-2, 3-diones with 2-aminobenzoic acid hydrazide. All the compounds were evaluated for anticancer activity (against HeLa cell lines, IMR-32 cell lines) and antioxidant activ ity. Some of the compounds exhibited moderate anticancer activity against the cell lines employed and promising antioxidant activity.


The period 1860-1900 was, for the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, one of intense activity on the part of Government, culminating in a range of visible achievements in a wide variety of fields: public works, export trading, a reformed judicial system, a modernized administration - incorporating the principles of enlightened, if despotic, rule approved in the abstract by leading theorists and considered applicable to India. India, however, was no tabula rasa. The Crown administration succeeded, in 1858, to an inheritance of precedent in most fields bequeathed to it by the East India Company. The reformed institutions which resulted from the new Government's drive for modernization were, moreover, superimposed on a country as large as Great Britain and more densely populated than any contemporary European state, with old-established complex social forms, thriving political activity, and an agricultural pattern skilfully adapted to the variations in local conditions. The source of wealth was, almost exclusively, the land. The development of agricultural resources inspired by British enterprise and the need for land revenue implied no radical transformation of local farming techniques, but merely the superimposition of large-scale works on land long farmed in small, highly diversified holdings. The result was distortion in traditional patterns, which Government had not the means to relieve. Its action was ruled essentially by its revenue needs. This meant a rigid demand, calculated on the basis of abstract principles, was distributed among the revenue-paying 'proprietors', many of whom meanwhile had suffered a sudden and sizeable curtailment of income on the abrupt cessation of service with the Company and the Nawab of Oudh. The indirect pressures induced by the revenue demand within local society, as the zamindars sought to increase their exactions or compelled by new commitments, exposed the most vulnerable elements. At the same time, the revenue demand, especially its timing, dictated the expansion of local credit systems - which were also stimulated to greater activity by developments in the trading pattern and the rise of an export market. Cultivators' indebtedness remained pernicious condition, deplored by the administrators but accepted as inevitable. Zamindars' indebtedness, however, posed more complicated problems due to the reform of debt and alienation laws which were fundamentally inconsistent with the requirements of political expediency. The administration itself, from its position as overseer, could do little more than observe the situation. Its upper, European and incorruptible strata was poorly co-ordinated with its subordinate establishments, poorly paid and eminently corruptible, whilst the persistent lack of means made inefficiency inevitable. The costs of innovation were headed charges for administrative establishments; they included also, under a wider term of reference, the distortions which had arisen within society in its physical, economic and political environment.


Treatment of BB rats with the plant alkaloid tetrandrine (20 mg·kg−1· day−1), a novel anti-inflammatory compound, from 35 to 120 days of age reduced the cumulative incidence of spontaneous diabetes from 75.5 to 10.9% (P < 0.001). Dose-response studies with 0, 5, 10, and 20 mg·kg−1·day−1 of tetrandrine from 35 to 130 days resulted in spontaneous diabetes in 84.2, 63.1, 31.6, and 5.3% of the rats, respectively. When the start of treatment with 20 mg·kg−1·day−1 tetrandrine was delayed until 70 days of age, there was a significant reduction of the incidence of diabetes from 63.1 to 28.6% (P < 0.01). Histological examination of the pancreases from tetrandrine-treated rats showed a lesser degree of insulitis than controls (P < 0.01). Drug toxicity was not seen in the rats, as assessed by appearance, behavioral change, organ histology, and blood chemistry. These results provide some hope that tetrandrine may be of value in preventing diabetes and treating newly diagnosed diabetic subjects, either by itself or in combination with a more potent immunosuppressive agent.


This article focuses on the assessment of the symmetry or asymmetry of price transmission in selected partial verticals of foodstuffs wheat in the Czech Republic, specifically of smooth flour, white baked goods and consumer bread. The asymmetry of price transmissions is examined in the relationship of agricultural producer price – industrial producer price and industrial producer price – consumer price. The analysis itself is based upon the concept of symmetrical and asymmetrical behavior, where the effect of positive and negative changes in prices on individual levels of the vertical to connecting levels is examined, as well as also symmetry and asymmetry of price transmissions between connecting price levels. For the fulfillment of the objective, adjusted vector error correction models and impulse-response analysis are utilized. The analysis is based upon time series of individual prices containing monthly data within the period of January 1999 – October 2011. The analysis itself showed that some relationships between prices on individual levels of the analyzed product verticals show a symmetrical nature, while other partial relationships are of an asymmetrical nature. However, from a comprehensive standpoint, verticals can be considered to be asymmetrical and the asymmetry can be called "upward asymmetry". Further, the analysis shows a slow reaction of prices to unit price shocks, but even despite the length of the period, a new equilibrium level is reached after deviation from a state of equilibrium.


: In the autumn of 1997, the United States Center for Devices and Radiological Health published a draft guidance document on the use of IEC 60,601 standards in the evaluation of pre-market submissions for electromedical devices. One year later, an important legislative reform act caused this draft to be withdrawn because it allowed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to formally recognize standards covering all types of medical devices and not just those related to electrical products. This article discusses the benefits to manufacturers of this new FDA policy and the associated guidance documents that FDA has made available.


Fluor-hydroxyapatite (FHA) powder was synthesized using polyacrylamide gel method with Ca(NO3)2•4H2O as raw material of calcium, (NH4)2HPO4 as raw material of phosphor, and different amounts of ammonium fluoride (NH4F) acting as fluorine source. XRD and FT-IR results showed that, the F- enter the crystal lattice of hydroxyapatite and substitute for some of the OH-, and result in the change of the symmetry of crystal structure. As the fluorine addition was increased, the a-axis of the apatite decreased gradually while the c-axis does not obviously changed, and the content of the β-TCP decreased gradually. So addition of fluorine ions effectively suppresses the decomposition and enhances the thermal stability of pure HA. The lattice parameter has a good liner relationship with fluorine content: a = -1.29×10-3 x + 0.94063; c = 4.3×10-4 x + 0.68772(R2≥0.95). But addition of F- has no effects on microstructure of HA, and fluorine-substituted hydroxyapatite remains hexagonal morphology.


This paper presents the results of an anthropometrical survey conducted on male and female children aged 3, 4 and 5 years in Turkey. A set of 18 body dimensions was taken from 154 males and 132 females. It is considered that the 18 parameters are necessary for the design of school furniture, fittings and equipment in order to minimize musculoskeletal, visual and circulatory problems resulting from badly designed elements. This study identified significant gender differences in a set of 18 anthropometrical measures in this subject group.


This note establishes that the fully nonparametric classical errors-in-variables model is identifiable from data on the regressor and the dependent variable alone, unless the specification is a member of a very specific parametric family. This family includes the linear specification with normally distributed variables as a special case. This result relies on standard primitive regularity conditions taking the form of smoothness and monotonicity of the regression function and nonvanishing characteristic functions of the disturbances.


Thin and ultrathin Co/Pt multilayered structures have been prepared on glass substrates by electron-beam evaporation at room temperature and by sputtering at various substrate temperatures and sputtering pressures. Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy was found in samples with Co/Pt bilayer thicknesses near 3 A/l0 A and total thicknesses of the layer stack of no greater than 300 A. X-ray diffraction was performed on the samples to determine layer spacing and integrity, and possible crystallinity of films. Crystalline structures in the interface between the Co and Pt layers were found and identified. The effects of sputtering parameters, such as pressure and substrate temperature, on the magneto-optical Kerr effect were studied. The two deposition methods, electron-beam evaporation and sputtering, resulted in different magneto-optical properties in samples with the same nominal layer structures. We have also investigated optical properties (reflectance, index of refraction, and extinction coefficient) of these materials using ellipsometry.


Browsing by overabundant white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) has altered ecological relationships in forest communities across eastern North America. Recent but limited work suggests that deer browsing also selects for particular plant defensive traits. We hypothesized that browsing by deer has imposed selection on defensive traits in an annual native wildflower, orange jewelweed (Impatiens capensis). To test this hypothesis, we collected individuals from 26 natural populations across a 5000 km2 area in New York State, USA. Half of these populations were historically protected from deer and half were exposed to heavy browsing. We planted individuals in common gardens subjected to natural deer browsing or no browsing. Individuals from historically browsed populations exhibited significantly higher tolerance than those from historically protected populations. Herbivory by deer reduced lifetime fruit production by only 20% in historically browsed populations, as opposed to 57% in historically protected populations. Two mechanisms were correlated with this increased tolerance: increased number of flowering days and increased fruits per flowering node. Synthesis. The increased tolerance of historically browsed populations suggests that these populations evolved increased tolerance or that historically protected populations lost tolerance over time. Variation in tolerance traits in native plant species may allow them to persist in the face of rapid ecological change.


Background and aims: Emerging evidence suggests that highly treatment-resistant tumour-initiating cells (TICs) play a central role in the pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer. Tumour necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is considered to be a novel anticancer agent; however, recent studies have shown that many pancreatic cancer cells are resistant to apoptosis induction by TRAIL due to TRAIL-activated nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signalling. Several chemopreventive agents are able to inhibit NF-κB, and favourable results have been obtained—for example, for the broccoli compound sulforaphane—in preventing metastasis in clinical studies. The aim of the study was to identify TICs in pancreatic carcinoma for analysis of resistance mechanisms and for definition of sensitising agents. Methods: TICs were defined by expression patterns of a CD44+/CD24−, CD44+/CD24+ or CD44+/CD133+ phenotype and correlation to growth in immunodeficient mice, differentiation grade, clonogenic growth, sphere formation, aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity and therapy resistance. Results: Mechanistically, specific binding of transcriptionally active cRel-containing NF-κB complexes in TICs was observed. Sulforaphane prevented NF-κB binding, downregulated apoptosis inhibitors and induced apoptosis, together with prevention of clonogenicity. Gemcitabine, the chemopreventive agents resveratrol and wogonin, and the death ligand TRAIL were less effective. In a xenograft model, sulforaphane strongly blocked tumour growth and angiogenesis, while combination with TRAIL had an additive effect without obvious cytotoxicity in normal cells. Freshly isolated patient tumour cells expressing markers for TICs could be sensitised by sulforaphane for TRAIL-induced cytotoxity. Conclusion: The data provide new insights into resistance mechanisms of TICs and suggest the combination of sulforaphane with TRAIL as a promising strategy for targeting of pancreatic TICs.


My research focuses on the creation of shapes capable of changing partially or completely their own configuration. Modular structures are specially suited for this purpose because individual modules can be connected with each other in a variety of ways. After noticing a similarity between the origami technique and certain automatic shape-shifting structures, my research efforts shifted from modular origami to the field of digital manufacturing, specifically 3D modeling and printing. The research methodology and design were developed based on free software, open source production systems, GPL and Creative Commons licenses: Linux, Blender software and 3D printing using open hardware systems such as Arduino.The conceptual and philosophical literature that has informed this research is diverse. Faced with such a diversity of sources, I realized that many of them, if not all, have influenced an intense research process, and that it was no longer possible to define a single research axis. Working and thinking within the territory of creation and the field of Art, based on Spinoza's concept of immanence, the rhizomatic approach of Deleuze and Guattari and also on Simondon's technical objects and metastability, I started to incorporate into my research and dialogue with an immense repertoire of physical possibilities derived from a theoretical framework that pointed precisely to the uncertain and indistinct realm where forms themselves originate.Exploring both an open source approach and a truly rhizomatic approach, in which every element of a system is interconnected, and addressing the contemporary issues of programmable matter and cybermatics, but also strongly influenced by modular structures and biochemical mechanisms of connection and disconnection, the research has produced quite satisfactory results. I have developed a modular system in which individual pieces not only can fit together in various ways but also maintain a certain freedom of movement, allowing them to change their shape. This modular system was a result of an educational project aimed at creating modular model insects. Since September 2020, my research took an unexpected direction with the creation of an articulated doll whose shape can be transformed with the addition of other interconnectable modules. The creation of this articulated doll, in turn, led me to shift my research to the shape-shifting ability itself, with the creation of a system in which any set of connected parts has the property to rotate at their connection points. The system's plastic result materialized the whole research process, which is still ongoing.The project adopts an open source approach and is already published under a General Public License (GPL) that allows it to be accessed and altered as long as the project's open source approach is maintained. In its current form it is already a consistent system for building transformable forms, establishing a connection between the realm of interactive art and the vast universe of ludic techniques, whether educational or just for free play.


We have ubiquitous presence of computers today, ranging from simple controllers in modern appliances to smartphones in our pockets that provide a wide range of everyday services, to powerful supercomputers and large data centers that carry out the most computationally intensive tasks. These computational machines have a few things in common: for example, the information they handle is stored in bits (0 or 1), and the procedure for processing the information is specified by a program. A great deal is known about the limits of what such computational machines can and cannot do efficiently. There are many important computational problems that are believed to be very difficult to solve using even the most powerful computers, where the resource requirement—whether it is the size of the machine or the time it takes to finish the task—increases exponentially as a function of the problem size. It was recognized in the 1980s, first by a group of physicists, that the rules of representing and processing information in modern computers are restricted


In this study, we present a new formulation for the air defense problem of warships in a naval task group and propose a solution method. We define the missile allocation problem (MAP) as the optimal allocation of a set of surface‐to‐air missiles (SAMs) of a naval task group to a set of attacking air targets. MAP is a new treatment of an emerging problem fostered by the rapid increase in the capabilities of anti‐ship missiles (ASMs), the different levels of air defense capabilities of the warships against the ASM threat, and new technology that enables a fully coordinated and collective defense. In addition to allocating SAMs to ASMs, MAP also schedules launching of SAM rounds according to shoot‐look‐shoot engagement policy or its variations, considering multiple SAM systems and ASM types. MAP can be used for air defense planning under a given scenario. As thorough scenario analysis would require repetitive use of MAP, we propose efficient heuristic procedures for solving the problem. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2011


Just how long has the lag been in local acceptance of medical progress? Five major innovations are examined: vaccination, anesthesia, antiseptic and aseptic surgery, x-rays, and antibiotics. Hawaii has not always been in the forefront of medical progress, but generally has been quick to adopt new treatments and technologies.


The rate of water pipe smoking in adolescents and young adults is gradually increasing around the world. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions performed to reduce water pipe smoking behaviors among adolescents. This review was conducted in Science Direct, Ebscohost (CINAHL Complete), OVID LWW, Springer Link, Wiley Interscience without limitation for the years in accordance with the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination 2009 guide developed by York University National Institute of Health Research. As a result of the review, two studies were included in the research. Video game-based interventions and visual campaigns were found to have positive results in reducing water pipe smoking behaviors.


The study was carried out to analyze morphology of biofilm of periodontium and to develop electronic microscopic criteria of differentiated diagnostic of inflammatory diseases of gums. The scanning electronic microscopy was applied to analyze samples of bioflm of periodont from 70 patients. Including ten patients with every nosologic form of groups with chronic catarrhal periodontitis. of light, mean and severe degree, chronic catarrhal gingivitis, Candida-associated paroperiodontitis and 20 healthy persons with intact periodontium. The analysis was implemented using dual-beam scanning electronic microscope Quanta 200 3D (FEI company, USA) and walk-through electronic micJEM 100B (JEOL, Japan). To detect marker DNA of periodont pathogenic bacteria in analyzed samples the kit of reagentsfor polymerase chain reaction "MultiDent-5" ("GenLab", Russia). The scanning electronic microscopy in combination with transmission electronic microscopy and polymerase chain reaction permits analyzing structure, composition and degree of development of biofilm of periodontium and to apply differentiated diagnostic of different nosologic forms of inflammatory diseases of periodontium, including light form of chronic periodontitis and gingivitis. The electronic microscopical indications of diseases ofperiodontium of inflammatory character are established: catarrhal gingivitis, (coccal morphological alternate), chronic periodontitis (bacillary morphological alternate), Candida-associated periodontitis (Candida morphological alternate of biofilm ofperiodontium).


Operations for tuberculosis and BCG lesion of the sternum were performed on 70 children of preschool age. Clinico-epidemiological features, results of complex X-ray investigation and complex treatment were analyzed. It was noted that in the recent years the number of children with the pathology in question became greater, the possibilities of standard roentgenography for the diagnosis are limited, computed tomography is of high diagnostic value as well as the efficiency of radical operations fulfilled against the background of combined antituberculous chemotherapy.


A premature infant with ostensibly normal immunologic function received two exchange blood transfusions for hyperbilirubinemia and several blood and platelet transfusions for pancytopenia. A fatal graft vs host reaction (GvHR) ensued that was diagnosed by skin biopsy one day prior to death at age 40 days. Autopsy revealed characteristic alterations of GvHR in the spleen, lymph nodes, gut, and liver. In addition the thymus was small (3.5 g), lymphoid-depleted, lacked corticomedullary demarcation and Hassall's corpuscles, and demonstrated lymphocyte invasion and injury of epithelial cells. The thymic cytomorphology acquired added meaning when it was discovered that a chest roentgenogram obtained at one day of age demonstrated a normal thymic shadow. It is concluded that the GvHR induced a direct injury to the thymic epithelium, resulting in an acquired form of thymic dysplasia. The theoretical implications of this observation are considered.