BACKGROUND & AIMS
Chronic psychological stress is an important factor in relapses of intestinal disorders, but it remains unclear if stress can induce primary gut inflammation in a previously healthy host.

METHODS
Mast cell-deficient (Ws/Ws) rats and wild-type control (+/+) rats were submitted to water avoidance stress or sham stress (1 h/day) for 10 consecutive days, as a model of ongoing life stress.

RESULTS
Both rat groups had similar systemic responses to stress, as assessed by changes in weight, corticosterone levels, and defecation. In +/+ rats, chronic stress induced barrier dysfunction in the ileum and colon (increased macromolecular permeability and depletion of mucus) and ultrastructural changes in epithelial cells (enlarged mitochondria and presence of autophagosomes) associated with bacterial adhesion and penetration into enterocytes. Moreover, hyperplasia and activation of mast cells, infiltration of neutrophils and mononuclear cells, and increased myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity were documented in the mucosa. In intestine of Ws/Ws rats, epithelial function and morphology were unchanged by chronic stress, bacterial-epithelial cell interaction was not demonstrated, and there was no evidence of inflammatory cell infiltration.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that chronic psychological stress can be an initiating factor in intestinal inflammation by impairing mucosal defenses against luminal bacteria and highlight the importance of mast cells in this process.


•As a pervasive historical construct that is both foreign and familiar, the USA has a looming presence in Swedish media discourse. Swedish journalists' views of the USA can best be described as ambivalent — critical of a unilateral or too passive US foreign policy, while at the same time being heavily influenced by many aspects of the American economic model and culture. This article presents the results of an analysis of Swedish editorials, debate, commentary and cultural articles about the USA in time periods between 1984 and 2009. During these three decades USA actions are broadly framed against the backdrop of Cold War, globalization and cultural contestation paradigms respectively. The USA is seen as a formidable power, one that should be checked by others on the international stage. Cultural symbols based on historical European narratives about the US are called upon to illustrate reckless unilateralism ('Space Cowboy' Reagan) or the future-oriented entrepreneur as a role model for Sweden (during the Clinton years). The final decade under the cultural contestation paradigm is also ambivalent — the role of religion in the USA appears foreign to Swedish eyes, whereas the USA's cultural misunderstandings with others appear familiar. •


Objectives: The main endeavor of the work is to assess the antiurolithiatic potentials of ethanolic extract of Piper cubeba dried fruits (EEPC). Methods: EEPC was prepared using soxhlation, subjected to phytochemical screening and determined total phenolic and flavonoid content using Folin- Ciocalteu reagent and aluminium chloride colorimetric assay methods. In vitro antioxidant activity was evaluated using methods like 2,2-diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and lipid peroxidation assays using ascorbic acid as standard. Sodium oxalate (70 mg/kg, i.p) was given to rats for 5 days to promote urolithiasis. Cystone (750mg/kg, p. o), EEPC (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg, p.o) was administered to the respective group of rats from 6th to 15th day. On the 15th day, serum and urine were collected from individual animals and biochemical parameters like BUN, creatinine and uric acid in serum and sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium, phosphate, oxalate in urine and calcium, phosphate and oxalate in kidney homogenate have been measured. The kidney sections have been prepared and histopathologically tested to check the stones. Results: Preliminary phytochemical analysis discloses the existence of phenolics, tannins, steroids, terpenoids and flavonoids. The EEPC enriched with phenols and flavonoids which correlates with its antioxidant potentials. Following treatment with cystone and EEPC, concentrations of BUN, creatinine, uric acid in serum and sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium, phosphate, oxalate in urine and calcium, phosphate, oxalate in kidney homogenate (P<0.001 vs. control) were significantly reduced in urolithiasis caused by sodium oxalate in a dose-dependent way. Conclusion: The promising results suggest that EEPC would act as a potential agent in the management of urolithiasis along with its antioxidant properties.


Most recent work on interpretability of complex machine learning models has focused on estimating a posteriori explanations for previously trained models around specific predictions. Self-explaining models where interpretability plays a key role already during learning have received much less attention. We propose three desiderata for explanations in general – explicitness, faithfulness, and stability – and show that existing methods do not satisfy them. In response, we design self-explaining models in stages, progressively generalizing linear classifiers to complex yet architecturally explicit models. Faithfulness and stability are enforced via regularization specifically tailored to such models. Experimental results across various benchmark datasets show that our framework offers a promising direction for reconciling model complexity and interpretability.


The idea for this paper was propelled and came about as a result of the significance of adolescents who constitute the highest population in secondary schools. The developmental level of the learner as an adolescent and his/her role is instrumental to the general growth and development of the society. Delinquency and deviant behaviour among youth is not uncommon as it has extended into institutions of learning especially at the secondary school level. This paper examines the causes, patterns and effects of such behaviours and discover among other things that the causes are numerous and not in any way limited to secondary schools but distributed among other social units such as family, peers etc. Also such behaviour involves both boys and girls which on the whole affect teaching and learning negatively. © 2013 Sjournals. All rights reserved.


Automated meeting scheduling is the task of reaching an agreement on a time slot to schedule a new meeting, taking into account the participants' preferences over various aspects of the problem. Such a negotiation is commonly performed in a non-automated manner, that is, the users decide whether they can reschedule existing individual activities and, in some cases, already scheduled meetings in order to accommodate the new meeting request in a particular time slot, by inspecting their schedules. In this work, we take advantage of SelfPlanner, an automated system that employs greedy stochastic optimization algorithms to schedule individual activities under a rich model of preferences and constraints, and we extend that work to accommodate meetings. For each new meeting request, participants decide whether they can accommodate the meeting in a particular time slot by employing SelfPlanner's underlying algorithms to automatically reschedule existing individual activities. Time slots are prioritized in terms of the number of users that need to reschedule existing activities. An agreement is reached as soon as all agents can schedule the meeting at a particular time slot, without anyone of them experiencing an overall utility loss, that is, taking into account also the utility gain from the meeting. This dynamic multi-agent meeting scheduling approach has been tested on a variety of test problems with very promising results.


The purpose of this model is to explore the effects of technological and social shifts on the behavior of incumbent and startup firms. The model was constructed to provide insight into the choices firms make regarding adoption of new energy technologies. A firm's performance is determined by its location on an NK fitness landscape, and each firm's strategy, or technology portfolio, is modeled as a string of bits which locate the firm on the landscape. Firms move along the landscape by modifying their strategies. The model explores how the performance landscape needs to shift in order for startups to become established and incumbents motivated to search for higher preforming strategies.

The conceptual space representing all possible firm strategies is described in terms of an NK model. Each strategy is represented as a string of N binary decisions, each of which is dependent on K other decisions within that same string. A firm's performance, or value, is represented as an average of the contributions from each decision and its related decisions.

The model is based on two landscapes,old world and new world. To start a number of incumbent firms search for advantageous positions on the old world landscape. The landscape is then shifted and startup firms are added to the new world landscape. The two types of firms then search the new world landscape for advantageous positions.

Firms are instantiated with different levels of aspiration which are used to trigger search behaviour. If a firm's relative performance is above their aspiration level it will not change its strategy, but when the performance drops below that threshold a firm will choose one of two search types: incremental or imitative. Each time period firms that fall below a specified relative performance are removed with a given probability.


Innate immunity recognizes bacterial molecules bearing pathogen-associated molecular patterns to launch inflammatory responses leading to the activation of adaptive immunity. However, the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of the gram-negative bacterium Brucella lacks a marked pathogen-associated molecular pattern, and it has been postulated that this delays the development of immunity, creating a gap that is critical for the bacterium to reach the intracellular replicative niche. We found that a B. abortus mutant in the wadC gene displayed a disrupted LPS core while keeping both the LPS O-polysaccharide and lipid A. In mice, the wadC mutant induced proinflammatory responses and was attenuated. In addition, it was sensitive to killing by non-immune serum and bactericidal peptides and did not multiply in dendritic cells being targeted to lysosomal compartments. In contrast to wild type B. abortus, the wadC mutant induced dendritic cell maturation and secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. All these properties were reproduced by the wadC mutant purified LPS in a TLR4-dependent manner. Moreover, the core-mutated LPS displayed an increased binding to MD-2, the TLR4 co-receptor leading to subsequent increase in intracellular signaling. Here we show that Brucella escapes recognition in early stages of infection by expressing a shield against recognition by innate immunity in its LPS core and identify a novel virulence mechanism in intracellular pathogenic gram-negative bacteria. These results also encourage for an improvement in the generation of novel bacterial vaccines.


Government Documents at WVU including federal and state holdings. View documents in print, microforms, data sets, maps, posters, CD's, DVD's and online and is is open to the public and is available during the service hours.


The purpose of this research is to provide insight into the export competitiveness of meat products of the European Union (EU-27) member states on global markets. The revealed comparative advantage index is used to analyze the levels, compositions, and evolutions in patterns of development in the export competitiveness of meat products and their levels of stability at the product level. Except for some niche meat products, a larger number of the EU-27 member states have experienced comparative disadvantages on global markets over the analysed years of 2000 to 2011. The revealed comparative advantages on the global markets are the most robust for Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, Cyprus and Hungary. The revealed comparative advantage indices and their survival rates differ across the meat product groups. The heterogeneity in export competitiveness of the EU-27 member states suggests the importance of the differentiation of meat products in competitive export specialization on global markets.


BACKGROUND
Gut microbiota is associated with an increased risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) through the metabolites, which can induce atherogenesis. One of these metabolites is trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO). Some studies indicate that statins do not only decrease LDL-cholesterol and thus ASCVD risk, but they also affect gut microbiota. There are only a few studies on humans suggesting that statins might also decrease TMAO, but their results are not unanimous. This meta-analysis aimed to provide an answer as to whether statins do affect decreasing the plasma levels of atherogenic TMAO.

METHODS
A systematic literature search in PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science was performed from inception to January 1st, 2023. To assess the quality of each study included in the meta-analysis, the Cochrane Quality Assessment tool 1 (ROB 1) was used. Comprehensive Meta-Analysis V3 software was used to perform the meta-analysis. The weighted mean difference was also used. A random effects meta-analysis was used to calculate the overall estimate of effect size. In the leave-one-out approach, one study was excluded from each analysis to evaluate the effect of each study on the overall effect size.

RESULTS
Random-effects meta-analysis of 3 studies including 244 patients demonstrated a significant decrease in plasma TMAO levels after statin treatment (WMD: -1.839, 95% CI: -2.391, -1.287, p<0.001; I2 :0). The reduction in TMAO was robust in the leaveone-out sensitivity analysis.

CONCLUSION
Statins might reduce TMAO levels, but there is a need for further evidence from long-term studies taking into account different types and doses of statins.


Regional climate models forecast that the incidence of extreme heat waves will increase in Central Europe, and the associated intensification of urban heat islands causes concerns about human health and biodiversity. We investigated species diversity of terrestrial gastropods across an urban gradient in a metropolitan area. We considered 34 sites of different degrees of urbanization and of different thermal stress classes (TSC) that were derived from a classification of urban heat load based on the physiological equivalent temperature (PET). A total of 31 species were recorded with 0–21 species per site (mean: 4.4 ± 5.2 species per site). Alpha diversity was best explained by TSC, bush cover and perennial vegetation cover, and it decreased with increasing thermal stress. Overall, thermal stress predicted snail and slug species richness better than urban cover (ANOVA(analysis of variance); TSC: F = 10.0, p < 0.001; urbanization: F = 3.9, p = 0.018), and the proportional loss in species richness was higher for native species than for introduced species. The results indicate that climatic stress contributes to the impoverishment of biodiversity in urban areas. We propose that TSC and/or PET are useful indicators for environmental stress levels in biodiversity studies in natural and anthropogenically transformed landscapes.


In this article, we suggest that organizations should not focus on selecting between various project management approaches, tools, or behaviors. Instead, we claim that the real benefit from project management implementations comes from the mere creation of a common frame of reference. Based on four case studies, we identify elements that enhance such a common frame of reference: (1) a common project management model, (2) common project management training, (3) common project management examinations/certifications, and (4) activities for knowledge sharing. Values created, especially when the application of the elements was mandatory, were better communication, better customer satisfaction, and easier knowledge sharing.


The main objective of the present paper is to develop a smart wireless sensor network (WSN) for an agricultural environment. Monitoring agricultural environment for various factors such as temperature and carbon monoxide along with other factors can be of significance. A traditional approach to measure these factors in an agricultural environment meant individuals manually taking measurements and checking them at various times. This paper investigates a remote monitoring system using Zigbee. These nodes send data wirelessly to a central server, which collects the data, stores it and will allow it to be analyzed then displayed as needed and can also be sent to the client mobile.


A cross sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of dirofilariosis in street dogs of Kathmandu valley and Siddharthanagar, Rupandehi from January 2019 to March 2019. .Blood sample from 155 dogs of Kathmandu Valley and 150 from Siddharthanagar municipality were collected and examined by Wet Smear, Modified Knott Technique and Buffy Coat methods. PCV value and biochemical parameters were analyzed. Data were analyzed to determine the Prevalence of Dirofilaria and correlation of infections with age, sex and biochemical parameters. The prevalence in Kathmandu valley was 0% (0/156) while the prevalence in Siddharthanagar was 19.33%., while the prevalence in direct smear, buffy coat and modified Knott technique were found to be 16%, 16% and 19.33% respectively. The prevalence were significantly (p<0.05) higher in old age and higher in 3-5 years of age i.e. 51.70%..Prevalence was higher in female (21.70%) than male (17.3%).AST and ALT were significantly (p<0.05) increased in infected dogs. Total protein, ALP, BUN, Creatinine level were elevated in the infected dogs.


For a long time economic literature focused on the negative environmental effects from production processes. Countering this is the focus of this investigation, namely research into the demand by private households for climate relevant energy. In order to be fair to the complexity of the energy demands of private households, time series data as well as cross sectional data will be used. Furthermore specific data sets will be developed to establish consistent parameters of reaction for the most important factors. The energy demand of private households will also be represented in a model for total consumer demand, in order to capture the feedback effect on demand. The results bring into doubt whether policies which are aimed at reducing the energy demand of private households can solely be based on improvements in technological efficiency.


To study the effects of the regulatory phosphoprotein ICP4 of the Herpes simplex virus, (HSV), a DNA tumor virus, on the induction of gene expression by the epidermal growth factor (EGF), we have constructed a cell line, ELa4-2, which constitutively expresses the a-4 gene product. The ELa4-2 cells are derived from the rat fibroblast EL2, in which EGF induces a marked c-fos and c-myc proto-oncogene transcription. Here we report that in ELa4-2 cells, the gene expression induced by EGF was negatively affected in respect to that obtained stimulating the parental EL2 cells. In particular, we studied the c-fos and c-myc proto-oncogene transcription induced by EGF. We found that in ELa4-2 cells the c-fos induction was dramatically reduced in comparison with the c-fos induction obtained in the parental EL2 cells. On the contrary, the c-myc induction by EGF was not affected by the presence of ICP4. Finally, we compared the HSV infectivity in ELa4-2 versus the EL2 cells. We showed that the virus growth capability was reduced, in the cells expressing ICP4.


Purpose: In order to explore the potential for significantly improving the DQE of megavoltage active matrix flat panel imagers (AMFPIs), two forms of thick, polycrystalline mercuric iodide ( HgI 2 ) photoconductors have been investigated. Method and Materials: Prototype direct‐detection AMFPIs with an effective pitch of 508 μm and a pixel format of 192×192 were coated with two types of HgI 2 : a "PVD" form created through physical vapor deposition and a "PIB" (particle‐in‐binder) form involving screen‐printing. Results were compared to those from a conventional indirect‐detection megavoltage AMFPI employing a phosphor screen. Data were obtained fluoroscopically, using a 6 MV beam at very low doses, equivalent to ∼0.004 to 0.04 cGy. Results: Compared to PVD, the PIB array exhibits much lower dark current, lower dark drift, slightly higher lag and similar non‐uniformity, linearity and DQE. For both PVD and PIB, MTF and DQE results are in a good agreement with theoretical expectations, and the MTF is higher than that from the conventional megavoltage AMFPI. Moreover, the DQE results show input‐quantum‐limited behavior, even at very low doses. Finally, zero‐frequency DQE values are ∼1.4% and 1.2% for PVD and PIB, respectively, matching the theoretical upper limits for the thickness of the converters used. Given the modest photoconductor thickness of these early prototypes, the DQE values compare favorably to values of ∼1% obtained from conventional megavoltage AMFPIs. Conclusion: These initial studies indicate that AMFPIs incorporating polycrystalline HgI 2 have the potential for significant dose reduction in megavoltage imaging. The use of HgI 2 offers the promise of increased quantum efficiencies through the development of substantially thicker converters than have thus far been achieved, without significant degradation of the spatial resolution. In addition, compared to PVD, PIB appears to provide better prospects for such thick coatings, leading to higher DQE. This work is supported by NIH grant R01‐CA51397.


Gaussian class multivariate distributions with single integral representations were recently proposed to obtain correlated fading channels with generalized correlation. In this letter, we focus on correlated generalized Rician fading channels, derived from Gaussian class multivariate distributions. We present a comprehensive investigation on the statistical properties of correlated generalized Rician fading channels. Specifically, closed-form expressions for joint probability density function (PDF), marginal PDF, power correlation, joint moment, and joint characteristic function are elaborated. These statistical characterizations help us have a better understanding of the correlated generalized Rician channels and allow for some new applications in performance analysis of diversity schemes and, particularly, maximal ratio combining over correlated fading channels with generalized correlation.


Background: The underrepresentation of women in corporate boardrooms has been a central corporate governance issue for decades; still, improvement is made at a slow pace and varies by industry sector. On average, the Swedish financial industry displays high levels of female board representation compared to other industry sectors; however, there are large differences between the companies. Therefore, investigating whether certain organizational and/or board characteristics have an impact on female board representation in this industry may provide valuable insights as to whether some factors enhance gender diversity on these boards and, consequently, could serve as tools for further growth of female board representation. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the development of female board representation in Swedish publicly listed financial firms and to investigate whether certain organizational and/or board characteristics have an impact on female board representation. As such, the study answers call for research regarding women on boards in the finance industry, while also contributing to the limited amount of research examining whether certain organizational factors may act as predictors of female board representation. Method: The study is of quantitative nature with a deductive approach and longitudinal design. Data is collected from annual reports and corporate governance reports of Swedish public financial firms listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and NGM Equity between 2011 and 2017. The initial sample contains all 60 listed firms, while the final sample consists of 37 firms. The dependent variable is female board representation and the independent variables are firm size, female employment base, board size, outside directors, multiple directorships, older directors, and female chairman. Control variables for market capitalization segments and year-fixed effects are included. Data is analysed using multiple linear regression, which is in line with prior research. Conclusion: The results of the study show that there is a significant negative relationship between female board representation and board size, while there are significant positive relationships between female board representation and the variables outside directors and female employment base. Significant positive relationships are also found between female board representation and effects related to time and market capitalization segment. The results are both in line with and contradictory to prior research, indicating the need for further research to clarify the relationship – if any – between certain factors and female board representation. Moreover, the results provide indications for policymaking, especially concerning the large inequalities found regarding the position as chairman as well as the relationship between the female employment base and female board representation.


Based on the results of a many-year dynamic follow-up of 151 patients with dyscirculatory encephalopathy (DE), the authors distinguish six variants of its clinical course: stable, slowly progressing without paroxysms or transient disorders of brain circulation (TDBC), slowly progressing with paroxysms, that with TDBC, intermittent, rapidly progressing. The two former variants are referred to the favorable type of DE course, the rest are considered unfavorable. The major risk factors in the patients with the favorable and unfavorable patterns of DE were studied, as well as the contribution of these factors to the development of DE. In male patients the factors conductive to the development of an unfavorable DE course were psychoemotional stress, hypokinesia, alcohol abuse, the presence of two or more concomitant somatic diseases and the absence of regular therapy; in women such factors were psychoemotional stress, excessive body mass, arterial hypertension, the presence of two or more concomitant somatic diseases, and a family history of cardiovascular diseases. A method for predicting the DE course, based on a discriminant analysis of the risk factors, has been developed, that will essentially improve the efficacy of therapeutic and prophylactic measures in such patients.


Abstract:The aim of this article is to introduce the idea of a phenomenology of luxury. The thesis is that luxury cannot be a characteristic of things or of actions, but that it arises through a private aesthetic experience, which can be identified as a functional equivalent to play as it is found in Friedrich Schiller. If an autonomous subject possesses something exaggeratedly, superfluously, or irrationally elaborate, and if that subject further experiences ownership as liberation from the forceful demands of goal-oriented rationality and utilitarian thinking, then that something is luxury.


Aim/objective This study aims at emphasizing the role of Diffusion-weighted MR imaging in characterization of ovarian tumors at reproductive age group. Background Ovarian tumors are relatively common and represent approximately 6% of female malignancies. Although the final diagnosis of an ovarian tumor is based on the histological examination, the accurate characterization of ovarian masses as benign or malignant could avoid unnecessary surgery and allow young females (in reproductive age group) to go for conservative treatment. Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI) depends on Brownian motion phenomenon which describe the random motion of molecules of water and how it is affected by tissue cellularity and microstructures. As a result, malignant ovarian tumors due to its hyper cellular nature show diffusion restriction, unlike most benign tumors. Patients and Methods MRI Unit, Radio diagnosis department, Meet Ghamer oncology center and Banha University hospital. A cross sectional study, included 30 women who presented with suspicious adnexal masses on previous ultrasound examination and referred for further assessment by DW-MRI. Post-menopausal females and females with contraindications to MRI (e.g. cardiac prosthesis, metallic implants and sever claustrophobia) are excluded. Results The study included 30 women ranging in age between 19 and 49 years with mean age 33.03 ± 9.9. Out of 30 cases, 11 had malignant ovarian tumors while 19 had benign tumors. Conclusion Adding DWI to conventional MRI increases the specificity and accuracy of MRI study.


Three kinds of magnetic resonance signals were detected in crystals of the spin-gap magnet TlCuCl3. First, we have observed the microwave absorption due to the excitation of the transitions between the singlet ground state and the excited triplet states. This mode has the linear frequency-field dependence corresponding to the previously known value of the zero-field spin-gap of 156 GHz and to the closing of spin-gap at the magnetic field Hc ≈ 50 kOe. Second, the thermally activated resonance absorption due to the transitions between the spin sublevels of the triplet excitations was found. These sublevels are split by the crystal field and external magnetic field. Finally, we have observed antiferromagnetic resonance absorption in the field-induced antiferromagnetic phase above the critical field Hc. This resonance frequency is strongly anisotropic with respect to the direction of the magnetic field.


Long-term effects of learning are a desirable outcome of any educational program and are far from being an obvious result in education. Furthermore, statistical concepts tend to be ambiguous and "short lasting" in students' reasoning, even among tertiary students. In this longitudinal study, long-term impact of teaching and learning was sought among ninth graders, three years after their participation in a three-year intervention (grades 4-6) of the Connections Program. In a mixed methods study, students from two groups – those who have / have not taken part in the program – were closely followed and compared throughout three extended data inquiry activities and took a statistical knowledge and thinking proficiency test. Results and implications are presented.


The study aimed to identify the characteristics of suicide attempt survivors and their motives from their viewpoint and from the professionals' viewpoint in Hebron Governorate. To achieve this end, the study adopted the descriptive approach design using a 59-item questionnaire, which was appropriate to the exploratory nature of the research. The random purposive method was used which comprised of a sample size of 127 subjects. The findings showed that the participants experienced a high level of emotional and moral characteristics, whereas the economic, social and health characteristics were moderate. In light of the study results, the researchers report that there is a need to identify some of the characteristics and reasons that lead to suicide attempts and the most adopted methods used during the process of committing suicide.


This paper developed a kind of concrete with coal gangue as coarse aggregate in order to solve the environmental pollution problem and meet the requirement of filling material in gob-side entry retaining. Firstly physical properties and chemical properties of coal gangue were analyzed, and then several schemes of mix proportion were designed, according to which new product was trial-produced in the laboratory. The optimal mixing ratio was selected by testing the performance of trial-product. Industrial test indicate that the coal gangue concrete can be used as filling material for the gob-side entry retaining, which not only solve the problem of ecological environment and resource shortage, but also reduce the cost of filling material and increase the economic benefit of coal mine enterprise.


While muscle stretching has been commonly used to alleviate pain, reports of its effectiveness are conflicting. The objective of this review is to investigate the acute and chronic effects of stretching on pain, including delayed onset muscle soreness. The few studies implementing acute stretching protocols have reported small to large magnitude decreases in quadriceps and anterior knee pain as well as reductions in headache pain. Chronic stretching programs have demonstrated more consistent reductions in pain from a wide variety of joints and muscles, which has been ascribed to an increased sensory (pain) tolerance. Other mechanisms underlying acute and chronic pain reduction have been proposed to be related to gate control theory, diffuse noxious inhibitory control, myofascial meridians, and reflex-induced increases in parasympathetic nervous activity. By contrast, the acute effects of stretching on delayed onset muscle soreness are conflicting. Reports of stretch-induced reductions in delayed onset muscle soreness may be attributed to increased pain tolerance or alterations in the muscle's parallel elastic component or extracellular matrix properties providing protection against tissue damage. Further research evaluating the effect of various stretching protocols on different pain modalities is needed to clarify conflicts within the literature.


Macrophages promote the growth of leiomyosarcoma (LMS), a malignant soft-tissue tumor. CD47 on tumor cells binds to the macrophagic receptor signal regulatory protein α (SIRPα) and prevents phagocytosis. We showed that anti-CD47 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) allow macrophages to engulf LMS cells and prevent tumor growth and metastases. Therefore, anti-CD47 mAbs represent a promising targeted immunotherapy for LMS.


We present a time-resolved angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy study of IrTe$_2$, which undergoes two first-order structural and charge-ordered phase transitions on cooling below 270 K and below 180 K. The possibility of inducing a phase transition by photoexcitation with near-infrared femtosecond pulses is investigated in the charge-ordered phases. We observe changes of the spectral function occuring within a few hundreds of femtoseconds and persisting up to several picoseconds, which we interpret as a partial photoinduced phase transition (PIPT). The necessary time for photoinducing these spectral changes increases with increasing photoexcitation density and reaches timescales longer than the rise time of the transient electronic temperature. We conclude that the PIPT is driven by a transient increase of the lattice temperature following the energy transfer from the electrons. However, the photoinduced changes of the spectral function are small, which indicates that the low temperature phase is particularly robust against photoexcitation. We suggest that the system might be trapped in an out-of-equilibrium state, for which only a partial structural transition is achieved.


Abstract

Background: Unani system of medicine originated in ancient Greece, with the teachings of Buqrat (Hippocrates, 460-377 BC); and was introduced in India by the Mughal emperors. In Unani medicine, diseases and drugs are classified on the basis of mizaj (temperament) which is one of the fundamental concepts of Unani medicine. Oral health is given special emphasis in Unani medicine due to the understanding that diseases of the mouth affect eating and nutrition which may affect all systems of the body. Oro-dental diseases are described extensively in Unani literature in a systematic manner and many drugs such as Aqar Qarha (Anacyclus pyrethrum DC.), Kaat safed (Acacia catechu Willd.) etc are described which have shown promising results in recent scientific studies.

Methodology: First, a review of Unani classical books was completed and the drugs to be further researched were selected. Then, a search was made on major scientific search engines regarding scientific evidence of their efficacy and safety.

Conclusion: The Unani drugs mentioned in classical literature have shown promising results as anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, antiseptic, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-ulcerative agents in many oral disorders. Also, most of the drugs have a multi-dimensional action which is both curative and preventive.


The paper gives a short overview of the selection of sources for the first and second editions of the Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, from which the quotations for the dictionary entries are drawn. We will introduce the 2DWB quotation archive, which forms the basis of the lexicographical work on the second edition of the Deutsches Wörterbuch (2DWB) and which today is complemented by digital resources. We will assess a number of freely available digital collections of text according to their suitability for diachronic lexicography. We will look at size, selection of texts, verifiability of search results, quality of full texts and scans, presentation of search results and search functions. It will turn out that none of the resources can (yet) substitute 2DWB archive. We will further suggest that from the point of view of diachronic lexicography in some areas the examples from the "intelligent" quotation archive are superior to automatically retrieved examples from digital corpora.


This document reviews the current state of the industry and the common practices used throughout the value chain, with particular focus on downstream. Chapter 1 describes the current practices along the entire value chain, from exploration and appraisal to field development, production and abandonment. Follows the different types of trading and how vast quantities of oil are being transported and stored around the globe, nowadays, concluding with the downstream topic briefly explored. Chapter 2 focuses on the common refining processes and the complexity of their facilities. It also analyzes the fine balance that refineries aim to achieve between the production of the desired product mix, the access to different types of crude oil and the capital availability. It approaches the objectives and priorities for players in this industry, diving on how refineries may identify growth potential and maintain profitability by protecting margins.


The article is devoted to the history of formation and development of the Central Navy Clinical Hospital (since 2010--3rd branch of Burdenko General Clinical Hospital) for the last 30 years. Nowadays normal bed capacity totals 600 beds, 30 medical and preventive units function in the hospital. Annually 11,000 patients receive treatment in the hospital.


Today it is both time and cost consuming to check the quality of a weld when it is done off-line by an experienced weld operator. Therefor the need for an automatic detection is urgent in order to reduce production costs. There are systems for monitoring the quality of a weld commercially available but there is still some research that has to be done in this area in order to increase the reliability. The method presented in this paper is neural network based and considers short circuiting GMA welding, but there is no obstacle for this solution to work on other types of robotised welding. By presenting the weld voltage to a neural network, the network is able to detect defects in the weld joint. Testresults have shown that the detection rate is 100 percent and false alarms are nonexisting.


Background: The proliferative index (PI) is a powerful prognostic factor in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL); however, its utility is hampered by interobserver variability. The mantle cell international prognostic index (MIPI) has been reported to have prognostic importance. In this study, we determined the prognostic value of the PI as determined by quantitative image analysis in MCL. Patients and methods: Eighty-eight patients with adequate tissue were included in this analysis. Patients were treated with one of two treatment programs: sequential therapy with high-dose therapy consolidation or radioimmunotherapy followed by combination chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone. Patients were divided into four groups based on PI (<10%, 10%–29.9%, 30%–49.9%, and >50%), and outcomes were analyzed. Results: Thirty percent was identified as the optimal cut-off for PI. By univariate analysis, intensive treatment and a low PI were associated with a superior progression-free survival (PFS); only PI was associated with overall survival. By multivariate analysis, both intensive treatment and PI correlated with PFS. The MIPI had no prognostic impact. Conclusions: PI is the most important prognostic factor in MCL. The cut-off of 30% is clinically meaningful and can be used to tailor the intensity of therapy in future clinical trials.


Juvenile king penguins develop adaptive thermogenesis after repeated immersion in cold water. However, the mechanisms of such metabolic adaptation in birds are unknown, as they lack brown adipose tissue and uncoupling protein‐1 (UCP1), which mediate adaptive non‐shivering thermogenesis in mammals. We used three different groups of juvenile king penguins to investigate the mitochondrial basis of avian adaptive thermogenesis in vitro. Skeletal muscle mitochondria isolated from penguins that had never been immersed in cold water showed no superoxide‐stimulated proton conductance, indicating no functional avian UCP. Skeletal muscle mitochondria from penguins that had been either experimentally immersed or naturally adapted to cold water did possess functional avian UCP, demonstrated by a superoxide‐stimulated, GDP‐inhibitable proton conductance across their inner membrane. This was associated with a markedly greater abundance of avian UCP mRNA. In the presence (but not the absence) of fatty acids, these mitochondria also showed a greater adenine nucleotide translocase‐catalysed proton conductance than those from never‐immersed penguins. This was due to an increase in the amount of adenine nucleotide translocase. Therefore, adaptive thermogenesis in juvenile king penguins is linked to two separate mechanisms of uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation in skeletal muscle mitochondria: increased proton transport activity of avian UCP (dependent on superoxide and inhibited by GDP) and increased proton transport activity of the adenine nucleotide translocase (dependent on fatty acids and inhibited by carboxyatractylate).


Previously, we reported that implantation of isolated single bone marrow-derived cells into radiation-injured urinary bladders could restore structure and function. However, injections of isolated single cells had some limitations. Thus, in this study, we produced bone marrow-derived cell sheets in temperature-responsive culture dishes that release the monolayer sheets intact. We then determined whether the produced cell sheets could restore function to irradiated urinary bladders. Twenty female 10-week-old Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were irradiated with 2 gray once a week for 5 weeks. Bone marrow cells harvested from two male 17-week-old green fluorescence protein-transfected SD rats were placed in primary culture for 7 days. Bone marrow cell-derived outgrowths were harvested by enzymatic digestion and transferred into the atelocollagen-coated temperature-responsive culture dishes for 2 days. To harvest the secondarily cultured cells as monolayer sheets, a support membrane was put in each culture dish, and then the temperature was reduced to 20°C. Each released cell sheet was then patched onto the irradiated anterior bladder wall (n=10). As controls, cell-free sheets were similarly patched (n=10). After 4 weeks, transplanted cells were detected on the bladder walls. The cell sheet-transplanted bladders had smooth muscle layers and acetylcholinesterase-positive nerve fibers in proportions that were significantly larger than those of the control bladders. In addition, the cell sheet-transplanted bladders had reduced prolyl 4-hydroxylase beta (P4HB)-positive regions of collagen synthesis and apoptosis within the smooth muscle layers. In cystometric investigations, threshold pressures, voiding interval, micturition volume, and bladder capacity in the cell sheet-transplantation group were significantly higher than those in the control group. Residual volume of the cell sheet-transplantation group was significantly lower compared with the control. There were 24 growth factor mRNAs in the cell sheet-transplanted urinary bladders that were expressed greater than or equal to two-fold over the controls. In conclusion, cell sheet engineering has great potential to restore damaged urinary bladders.


Though all medical physicists appreciate the need for safe high‐quality radiation treatments, most have no formal training in quality management or error proofing. This educational course will explore two quality improvement tools that are considered standard in other industries: incident learning and prospective hazard analysis. The focus will be on practical methods that can be employed across a variety of clinics. With slight variations, these same tools can also be applied to the diagnostic setting. In other areas of medicine the systematic use of such tools has brought about measureable improvements in patient safety and treatment quality, and it is expected that radiation oncology can benefit in a similar fashion. The learning objectives of this educational SAMS course are: understand the benefit of incident learning and the pitfalls associated with it, understand the principles of how to construct an effective incident reporting system, understand the tools available for prospective hazard analysis and how to streamline their use.


To determine the principal causes and effects of syncope in young adults, we prospectively evaluated 197 consecutive patients referred to a Syncope Specialty Clinic, comparing young (age 16–39 years, n = 71), middle‐aged (age 40–65 years, n = 70) and elderly (> age 65 years, n = 56) patients. Psychiatric aetiologies were significantly more common in young patients (39% vs. 20% in middle‐aged, and 3.6% in the elderly; P < 0.001), while cardiac aetiologies were rare in the young (2.8% vs. 12% in the middle‐aged, and 16% in the elderly; P < 0.04). These differences were still significant after controlling for gender. Because psychiatric causes are so common in young patients, we evaluated hyperventilation as a bedside test for syncope patients and found it to have a positive predictive value of 59% for psychiatric causes of syncope. Syncope interfered with daily activities in 62% of young patients, and resulted in anxiety or depression in 70% of the young (no difference when compared with other age groups). Thus syncope in young adults can be a disabling medical condition requiring a unique medical and psychological approach to diagnosis and treatment.


pyridoxine.56 There is one published paper which showed that three out of eight subjects had an abnormal electroencephalogram eight-days after supplementation of pyridoxine 200 mg daily was stopped.7 This study, performed in1964, has been interpreted as showing that symptoms of dependency occur after withdrawal of pyridoxine treatment. These findings have not been reproduced, nor have practitioners with expenence of treating large series of patients with pyridoxine in doses of 20-150 mg encountered symptoms of dependency after cessation oftreatment (M Brush, personal communication). It is unfortunate that tables are modified for publication without the primary sources of reference being verified. This can result in unsubstantiated effects being incorporated into published reports as fact, solely by virtue of repetition. A J SHIPmAN S J PARKER (Miss)


The likelihood of landsliding in the Pittwater LGA has been assessed by the compilation of an inventory of landslide events that have occurred in the area over a period of more than 30 years. This inventory indicated that most events were associated with residential development. An indication of the population of slope modification was provided by a survey of several areas selected as representative of the properties within the designated geotechnical risk zone. Rainfall records for Newport have been used a basis for a review of the relationship between rainfall events and landslide events. The results of this analysis have been combined with the landslide inventory and population survey to provide an assessment of the likelihood of the occurrence of landslides in the Pittwater LGA in the future.


Neural networks are highly effective tools for pose estimation. However, as in other computer vision tasks, robustness to out-of-domain data remains a challenge, especially for small training sets that are common for real-world applications. Here, we probe the generalization ability with three architecture classes (MobileNetV2s, ResNets, and EfficientNets) for pose estimation. We developed a dataset of 30 horses that allowed for both "within-domain" and "out-of-domain" (unseen horse) benchmarking—this is a crucial test for robustness that current human pose estimation benchmarks do not directly address. We show that better ImageNet-performing architectures perform better on both within- and out-of-domain data if they are first pretrained on ImageNet. We additionally show that better ImageNet models generalize better across animal species. Furthermore, we introduce Horse-C, a new benchmark for common corruptions for pose estimation, and confirm that pretraining increases performance in this domain shift context as well. Overall, our results demonstrate that transfer learning is beneficial for out-of-domain robustness.


One of the challenges in teaching practitioner-driven Information Systems (IS) courses is to introduce the students to the latest industry practices. This paper discusses an innovative approach that is employed in teaching an Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) course at an Australian university. ITSM is a customer-centric approach that enables businesses to co-create value using IT services. The ITSM body of knowledge has multiple dimensions and is primarily driven by practitioners. To provide a holistic, current industry view, a knowledge repository has been developed following the Design Science Research (DSR) paradigm. The repository is included in the curricula as a complementary learning resource. An evaluation of the knowledge repository has been conducted using methodological triangulation. This paper discusses the problem, solution design and the results of the evaluation.


This research started with a realization that two organizations in Saudi Arabia were spending large amounts of money, millions of dollars in fact, in acquiring separate sets of geospatial data that had identical basemap components. Both the organizations would be using the data for similar engineering purposes, yet both would be independently outsourcing the data gathering. In all probability, resources are being wasted through two organizations each developing and operating stand-alone geographic information systems and then populating the databases with geospatial data obtained separately. Surely with some cooperation, a shared database could be established, with a diffusion of economic benefits to both organizations. Preliminary discussions with representatives from both the organizations revealed high levels of enthusiasm for the principle of sharing geospatial data, but the discussions also revealed even higher levels of scepticism that such a scheme could be implemented. This dichotomy of views prompted an investigation into the issues, benefits and the barriers involved in data sharing, the relative weight of these issues, and a quest for a workable model. Sharing geospatial data between levels of government, between governmental and private institutions, and within institutions themselves has been attempted on large and small scales in a variety of countries, with varying degrees of accomplishment. Lessons can be learned from these attempts at data sharing, confirming that success is not purely a function of financial and technical benefits, but is also influenced by institutional and cultural aspects. This research is aimed at defining why there is little geospatial data sharing between authorities in Saudi Arabia, and then presenting a workable model as a pilot arrangement. This should take into account issues raised in reference material; issues evidenced through experience in the implementation of systems that were configured as independent structures; issues of culture; and issues apparent in a range of existing data sharing arrangements. The doubts expressed by engineering managers towards using a geospatial database that is shared between institutions in Saudi Arabia have been borne out by the complexity of interrelationships which this research has revealed. Nevertheless, by concentrating on a two party entry level, a model has been presented which shows promise for the implementation of such a scheme. The model was derived empirically and checked against a case study of various other similar ventures, with a consideration of their applicability in the environment of Saudi Arabia. This model follows closely the generic structure of the Singapore Land Hub. The scalability of the model should allow it to be extended to other, multi-lateral data sharing arrangements. An alternative solution could be developed based on a Spatial Data Infrastructure model and this is suggested for ongoing investigation. Major unresolved questions relate to cultural issues, whose depth and intricacy have the potential to influence the realization of successful geospatial data sharing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.


Kasabach–Merritt syndrome involves thrombocytopenia, which is usually severe, in association with haemangiomata. We describe two newborn infants who developed life‐threatening Kasabach–Merritt syndrome but who were successfully treated. Both had failed to respond adequately to corticosteroids and α‐interferon. They subsequently received emergency radiotherapy. Both patients had an improvement in their platelet counts. The first infant's haemangioma gradually faded during the first 3 years of life, whereas the second infant's haemangioma had resolved 2 months after radiotherapy. No significant late effects of the radiotherapy have been noted at the 8 and 5 years follow up respectively. Radiotherapy remains an important treatment method in Kasabach–Merritt syndrome when patients fail to respond to other treatments.


In the political debate on Autonomous Weapon Systems strong views and opinions are voiced, but empirical research to support these opinions is lacking. Insight into which moral values are related to the deployment of Autonomous Weapon Systems is missing. We describe the empirical results of two studies on moral values regarding Autonomous Weapon Systems that aim to understand the perception of people pertaining to the introduction of Autonomous Weapon Systems. One study consists of a sample of military personnel of the Dutch Ministry of Defense and the second study contains a sample of civilians. The results indicate both groups are more anxious about the deployment of Autonomous Weapon Systems than about the deployment of Human Operated drones, and that they perceive Autonomous Weapon Systems to have less respect for the dignity of human life. The concerns for Autonomous Weapon Systems creating new kinds of psychological and moral harm is very present in the public debate, and this is in our opinion one element that deserves to be carefully considered in future debates on the ethics of the design and deployment of Autonomous Weapon Systems. The results of these studies reveal a common ground regarding the moral values of human dignity and anxiety pertaining the introduction of Autonomous Weapon Systems which could further the ethical debate.


MOSFETs with multiple gate structures, such as 3-D FinFETs have seen enormous interest for sub-22 nm applications. The n base devices are excellent in suppressing the short channel effects (SCEs) and have an immense control over the carriers in the channel. According to the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) prediction and previous literatures, the 3-D topologies are here to drive the commercial industries up to 5-nm technology node. The only innovations in lower technology nodes will be in the physical architecture or incorporation of new channel materials that are CMOS compatible. However, few challenges are still there for FinFETs to establish optimum ac and dc performances. Thus, a 3-D TCAD investigation of FinFETs is crucial to determine the best design options according to manufacturability without high-cost.
Hence in this thesis, we start with a unique attempt for detailed investigation of 3-D FinFET on dependency of process variability. The performances in view of analog and RF circuit applications through calibrated TCAD simulation are explored for the 3-D device architecture. The work is further extended for designing the emerging hybrid/Wavy FinFETs, i.e:, combination of ultra-thin-body (UTB), and 3-D FinFET on a single silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. Various attempts are made on the hybrid FinFETs to reduce certain limitations of nanoscale design and to provide a significant contribution in terms of improved performances of the miniaturized devices for the future technology nodes. In the subsequent chapters, further development of the proposed hybrid FinFETs is carried out. Moreover, the impact of various spacer technologies i.e:, symmetric and asymmetric single-k as well as dual-k, in the underlap region of hybrid FinFETs is systematically presented. The double material gate oxide (DMGO) concept i.e:, two different gate oxide materials (partially high-k and low-k), in symmetric dual-k spacer (SDS) hybrid FinFETs is also systematically analyzed with evaluating the zero temperature coe cient (ZTC) or temperature inflection point (TCP).
However, the primary challenge in the fin based devices are getting an ideal rectangular fin shape. Because of the non-ideal fabrication process steps in lithography, and etching result in a wider fin bottom as compared to the fin top. This leads to a non-rectangular shape of the fin channel. Such deviation in fin shape deteriorates the device performance with increasing SCEs, low on-off ratio, large subthreshold slope, and so on. Hence, the impact of fin shape from ideal fin angle (i.e:, Fin=900) to non-ideal n angle (i.e:, Fin=800) on a wide range performance matrix for the SDS hybrid FinFETs is well examined. Similarly, the variation of fin height (HFin) from 30 nm to 70 nm is further investigated. With the variation of HFin, and Fin in 3-D device simulation, the optimum configuration for the hybrid FinFETs is drawn in accordance to digital application perspective.
Finally, the reliability aspects became the primary bottleneck in further development of next generation technology. Advanced trends like use of new materials, sizing of the device, and structural innovations make the device more sensitive towards soft errors. These errors are random in nature (mainly because of external cosmic radiation) and not due to hardware related faults. It is necessary to investigate the impact of heavy ion irradiation in any kind of device from reliability aspect of the device for inclusion in circuit applications. In the last chapter consideration is given to the transient behavior of the proposed devices when they are subjected to heavy ion irradiation. With reference to the outcomes of this thesis work, further scope has been left for the researchers to design optimum and reliable device configurations to meet the demands of low standby power (LSTP) and/or high performance (HP) applications.


We describe a system that permits maintaining the software installed on several heterogeneous computers distributed over a network by taking advantage of the mobile agent paradigm. The applications are installed and updated only on the central server. When a new release of an application is installed on the server, agents are scattered along the network to update the application on the clients.To build a prototype system we use X-KLAIM, a programming language specifically designed to program distributed systems composed of several components interacting through multiple tuple spaces and mobile code.


Central to turn around time for a plane (the time required to successfully land and then to take off) is passenger boarding time. Due to ever increasing plane sizes, effective procedures must be developed to minimize the time required for all passengers to board. Current boarding procedures include back-to-front, reverse pyramid, block style, outside-to-inside, and random. Among these, the most distinct seem to be back-to-front, outside-to-inside, and random procedures. The purpose of this report is to examine whether there is a significant difference on the mean boarding times of three different size planes using these three specific procedures. Our approach is to: • Develop a computer program, henceforth to be referred to as QuickBoard, to effectively simulate the boarding of small, mid-size, and large passenger planes. • Produce 50 data values for each boarding procedure for each size plane using QuickBoard to be used to perform a statistical analysis (Analysis of Variance) to compare the mean boarding times for each boarding procedure per plane. Our analysis supports the hypothesis that for small planes and midsize planes, the random procedure works the most efficiently; whereas, for the large size plane, the outside-in procedure works the most efficiently. This provides evidence that there is a need for a more structured boarding procedure as the plane sizes increase. Keep in mind, however, there is a delicate balance between passenger satisfaction and airline profit; over strenuous procedures can turn customers away from an airline. Based upon the conclusions of this study, we highly recommend fading out the use of the standard back-to-front boarding procedure and suggest the implementation of a less structured boarding procedure.


Defining the relevant population to sample is an important issue in data-based implementation of the likelihood-ratio framework for forensic voice comparison. We present a logical argument that because an investigator or prosecutor only submits suspect and offender recordings for forensic analysis if they sound sufficiently similar to each other, the appropriate defense hypothesis for the forensic scientist to adopt will usually be that the suspect is not the speaker on the offender recording but is a member of a population of speakers who sound sufficiently similar that an investigator or prosecutor would submit recordings of these speakers for forensic analysis. We propose a procedure for selecting background, development, and test databases using a panel of human listeners, and empirically test an automatic procedure inspired by the above. Although the automatic procedure is not entirely consistent with the logical arguments and human-listener procedure, it serves as a proof of concept for the importance of database selection. A forensicvoice-comparison system using the automatic database-selection procedure outperformed systems with random database


We present Mars' electron temperature (Te) and density (ne) altitude profiles derived from the MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) mission deep dip orbits in April 2015, as measured by the Langmuir probe instrument. These orbits had periapsides below 130 km in altitude at low solar zenith angles. The periapsides were above the peak in ne during this period. Using a Chapman function fit, we find that scale height and projected altitude of the ne peak are consistent with models and previous measurements. The peak electron density is slightly higher than earlier works. For the first time, we present in situ measurements of Te altitude profiles in Mars' dayside in the altitude range from ~130 km to 500 km and provide a functional fit. Importantly, Te rises rapidly with altitude from ~180 km to ~300 km. These results and functional fit are important for modeling Mars' ionosphere and understanding atmospheric escape.


Fault-tolerance and, even more, self-repair remain elusive properties in computing systems. In contrast, natural systems are often cited as examples of flexible, self-repairable systems. Such capabilities rely on many different aspects, but our hypothesis is that (adaptive) growth and cellularity are at the heart of these properties lacking so dearly in human artifacts. In this paper, we propose a simple cellular developmental system to backup through experimental results this hypothesis. First, we show that it is possible to evolve such systems to do specific tasks. Second, and more importantly, that these systems exhibit emergent robustness and self-repair capabilities through their own nature rather than specific design or directed evolution.


Objective:   To assess the outcome of external cephalic version for management of breech fetuses at term in terms of: ·  Success rate of ECV.    ·  Feto maternal complications. Design:   Prospective interventional study. Setting:   Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Unit-III, Services Hospital, a tertiary care centre in Lahore, Pakistan. Patients:   From July 19, 2007 to January 14, 2009, the study was conducted involving pregnant women with breech presentation between 37 - 41 weeks. An external cephalic version was carried out. Data was collected for identifying the success or failure of external cephalic version and feto maternal complications. Main Outcome Measures:   Maternal and fetal outcome measures assessed in terms of:  ·  Success rate of external cephalic version.    ·  Maternal and fetal complications. Statistical Data Analysis:   Collected Data was entered into SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 12.0 and analyzed descriptively. Mean and SD was calculated for quantitation variable like gestational age and percentages were calculated for qualitative variables like gravida, complication etc. Results:   Forty women were included in the study. External cephalic version was successful in 60% patients. The majority (70.83%) of this group achieved the vaginal delivery. The rate of caesarean section was 29.16%. The most common indication for caesarean section was fetal distress and failure to progress. There was no foetal or maternal adverse outcome except one in which membranes ruptured during the procedure. The majority of women were satisfied with external cephalic version. Conclusion:   External cephalic version has good success rate. External cephalic version is relatively safe, simple to learn and perform. Well equipped Obstetrics Units should routinely offer the procedure in selective cases. ECV helps to avoid a signi-ficant number of caesarean sections. Properly counseled women are satisfied with the procedure. Keywords:   External Cephalic Version. Breech Presentation. Success Rate. Fetomaternal Complications.


During the 1990s and 2000s, in parallel with new media-relatedinitiatives in the US and the Asia-Pacific region, the EU launched itsown information society policies in an effort to become, "the mostcompetitive knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010." In additionto full members, the task of achieving a "European Information Societyfor all" was also expected from candidate countries. The past decadeshave witnessed a number of key initiatives in the form of internationalevents and summits in which questions related with the globalinformation society were addressed.  In Connecting Europe: InformationSociety in the EU and Turkey , Dr. Miyase Christensen explores theevolution of information society efforts in the EU and  Turkey inrelation to the surrounding policy environment, globalization processes. The book presents a detailed account of crucial developments to datebased upon in-depth interviews with key stakeholders and policyanalysis. As Christensen illustrates, the factors that shape thepolitical economy of the telecommunications and ICT sectors in the EUand Turkey are many and increasingly more complex.


In the present work, low carbon low alloy submicro-steel sheet has been developed successfully by severe warm-rolling (SWR) at 500 °C through a single pass. The result shows submicro-structure can be fabricated by severe rolling. The formation of the submicro-structure is attributed to the grain refinement mechanism induced by the severe plastic deformation (SPD). The refinement involves the cutting and subdividing of the original micro-crystals into ultrafine grains by dense dislocation arrays. To a certain extent, dynamic recrystallization in ferrite during SWR also seems to contribute to the formation of the submicro-structure. The thermal stability of the submicro-steel was investigated by annealing the steel at different temperatures. The investigation indicated that the submicro-steel can be subjected to annealing at 550°C without apparent grain growth. The unusually high thermal stability can be attributed to the pining effect of numerous uniformly distributed nano-precipitates in the steel. The sizes of the nano-precipitates belong to two different orders. The average diameter of the large precipitates is about 30 nm and the smaller one less than 10 nm.


Trend of stock investment in Sharia Stock Market has been rising from 2015-2017. This trend must be followed by a comprehensive understanding of investors in choosing a profitable stock combination by considering a measurable risk and rates of return. This research aims to identify  optimal sharia portfolio theory of Markowitz Model with the lowest preference risk, Markowitz Model with optimal sharpe ratio, and Single Index Model. The analysis then aims to compare expected return and portfolio risk levels formed from the three models, and to provide optimal portfolio recommendations to investors that can be used as consideration of decision making in investing in sharia Jakarta Islamic Index. This research uses reports of daily stock price, dividend, IHSG, and sukuk. The eighteen object in this research were obtained from a purposive sampling method. Based on the calculation, optimal portfolio was obtained using Markowitz model with optimal Sharpe ratio which resulted in the best combination of stock with expected rate of return and risk level of 33,74 percent and 22 percent in a year.


In this article, the development of an autonomous robot trajectory generation system based on a single eye-in-hand webcam, where the workspace map is not known a priori, is described. The system makes use of image processing methods to identify locations of obstacles within the workspace and the Quadtree Decomposition algorithm to generate collision free paths. The shortest path is then automatically chosen as the path to be traversed by the robot end-effector. The method was implemented using MATLAB running on a PC and tested on a two-link SCARA robotic arm. The tests were successful and indicate that the method could be feasibly implemented on many practical applications.


In order to enable high-quality decision making and motion planning of intelligent systems such as robotics and autonomous vehicles, accurate probabilistic predictions for surrounding interactive objects is a crucial prerequisite. Although many research studies have been devoted to making predictions on a single entity, it remains an open challenge to forecast future behaviors for multiple interactive agents simultaneously. In this work, we take advantage of the Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) due to its capability of distribution learning and propose a generic multi-agent probabilistic prediction and tracking framework which takes the interactions among multiple entities into account, in which all the entities are treated as a whole. However, since GAN is very hard to train, we make an empirical research and present the relationship between training performance and hyperparameter values with a numerical case study. The results imply that the proposed model can capture both the mean, variance and multi-modalities of the groundtruth distribution. Moreover, we apply the proposed approach to a real-world task of vehicle behavior prediction to demonstrate its effectiveness and accuracy. The results illustrate that the proposed model trained by adversarial learning can achieve a better prediction performance than other state-of-the-art models trained by traditional supervised learning which maximizes the data likelihood. The well-trained model can also be utilized as an implicit proposal distribution for particle filtered based Bayesian state estimation.


Introduction. The district dealt with in the following pages forms a belt of country about fifteen miles in width. It extends from Roxburgh and Melrose in a south-easterly direction as far as Langholm and Canonbie Moor, and is included in Sheets 25, 17 and 11 of the Geological Survey's one-inch to a mile map of Scotland. It culminates in the elevated moorland watershed, just under 2000 feet in height, and is drained to the north by the Teviot Water System, whilst its southern slopes are segmented by the picturesque upper reaches of the Ewes, Hermitage and Liddel Waters. The most noteworthy features of the area are the steep cone-shaped peaks which stand out in sharp contrast to the rounded and flat-topped Silurian hills, or rise abruptly from the undulating plains near Jedburgh and Ancrum. These are the vents of Calciferous Sandstone volcanoes which have been exposed by great denudation, for not only have their own associated lavas been eroded away, but the removal has been effected also of a considerable thickness of the cementstone group and most of the underlying lavas of the plateaux series 1 which these volcanoes pierced. It was clearly shown by Dr Peach that the Calciferous Sandstone Series had a westward extension of ten miles or more beyond its present boundary. He found fragments of sandstone, fossiliferous limestone, and shale of Calciferous Sandstone age which had fallen into the funnels of these volcanoes, and had thus been preserved at great depths, helping


There are approximately 540,000 people with autism in the UK - 433,000 adults and 107,000 children. The findings in this report reveal that children with autism cost £2.7 billion a year, yet for adults the figure is £25 billion - more than eight times as much.

Funded by the Shirley Foundation and led by Professor Martin Knapp at the London School of Economics and King's College London, the research shows that for adults with autism the highest costs are those generated by health and social care provision (59%), followed by lost employment (36%) and family expenses (5%).


Abstract This study focuses on well-known but commonly overlooked or unreported factors in the preparation of cross-linked enzyme nano-aggregates (nano-CLEAs). The parameters including the ionic strength of the protein solution, protein, precipitant and cross-linker concentrations, pH and addition order of the reagents were fine-tuned for nanoaggregate preparation without the need of non-protein support material, special equipment or sophisticated procedures. For this purpose, precipitation as nano-aggregates and then cross-linking while maintaining submicron size distribution were studied independently. Moreover, nano-aggregate formation from reverse micellar solutions was also investigated to improve the scope of the method to membrane-bound enzymes. Five different precipitation agents together with three different cross-linkers were investigated for immobilization of the Trametes versicolor laccase as cross-linked nano-aggregates. Although complete activity recovery was possible for micro-aggregates, the best activity results for nano-aggregates were 40.5%±5.0. The Km values of the immobilized enzymes were slightly lower than the Km values of the free counterparts which indicate little or no mass transfer limitation due to the nano-immobilization process. However, Vmax values were also lower. The activity loss and Vmax reduction upon immobilization were found to mainly result from the modification of the amine groups instead of excess crosslinking. The thermal stabilities of the crosslinked laccase nano-aggregates were significantly higher (∼10–30 fold at 60 °C) compared to free laccase and the nano-CLEAs retained up to 30% of their initial activities upon 7 consequent usages. The sizes of the obtained immobilized enzyme products were found to be greatly variable depending on the cross-linker type. The smaller particles (∼200 nm radius) were obtained when EDAC was used as the cross-linker. The larger products (∼600 nm radius) were prepared when the cross-linker was dextran poly-aldehyde. The addition order of the reagents was found to be effective on particle size and thermal stability values.


In the land of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, we are "swarming" the campus with a multi-targeted publicity campaign. The Library's newly formed Information Services Marketing Group has launched several dynamic initiatives in 2005 -- all in an effort to raise the profile of the Library, to increase gate count and resource usage, and to expand campus-wide partnership opportunities in a fast-paced urban environment. Shattering the image of the library as a book mausoleum, our new programs include Tuesday Talks, an afternoon speaker series spotlighting exciting campus research, and T-Paper, a hip, student-oriented restroom newsletter. Emerging projects include a stereotype-bursting library entry in the University's Homecoming Parade and posters of "STAR" student-athletes promoting library resources. The Marketing Group is meeting some key challenges facing today's academic science libraries, by fostering campus connections, creating new collaborative opportunities with faculty, and helping to rebrand our Library as a progressive 21st century "apiary." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors oligodendrocyte transcription factor 1 (Olig1) and Olig2 are structurally similar and, to a first approximation, coordinately expressed in the developing CNS and postnatal brain. Notwithstanding these similarities, it was apparent from early on after their discovery that Olig1 and Olig2 have non-overlapping developmental functions in patterning, neuron subtype specification and the formation of oligodendrocytes. Early in development, Olig2 functions as an anti-neural bHLH transcription factor and maintains the pool of proliferating neural progenitor cells. Later on, Olig2 switches to pro-neural functions and is important for the generation of motor neurons and oligodendrocytes. Olig1 is specifically important for the maturation of oligodendrocytes. The unique biological functions of Olig1 and Olig2 reflect their distinct genetic targets, co-regulator proteins and post-translational modifications. We show here that the proliferative function of Olig2 is controlled by developmentally regulated phosphorylation of a conserved triple serine motif within the amino terminal domain. In the phosphorylated state, Olig2 maintains anti-neural (i.e. pro-mitotic) functions that are reflected in human glioma cells and in a genetically defined murine model of primary glioma. Furthermore, the pro-mitogenic functions of phospho-Olig2 reflect, at least in part, an oppositional relationship with p53 functions. We have used genome scale ChIP-seq, RNA-seq and mass spectroscopy proteomic methods to define the molecular mechanisms whereby phosphorylation of Olig2 promotes mitosis and opposes p53-mediated responses to genotoxic damage. We show that target gene binding is not affected by Olig2 phosphorylation. However, Olig2 phosphorylation confers global gene expression changes and association with co-regulator proteins. Towards these ends, phosphorylation regulates intranuclear compartmentalization of Olig2. Finally, Olig2 meets the requirements for a suitable therapeutic target to inhibit brain tumor growth, because it (i) is essential for brain tumor growth, (ii) specific to the central nervous system and (iii) dispensable for mature brain function. Generally speaking, bHLH transcription factors require dimerization to carry out their downstream functions. Here, we describe a set of stabilized alpha-helical (SAH) mimetics that we developed to interfere with Olig2 dimerization, and thus Olig2 function. Hydrocarbon stapling successfully produced a number of alpha-helical peptides mimicking a single helix or the entire HLH domain of Olig2. However, none of the SAH OLIGopeptides specifically and potently disrupted Olig2 dimerization and subsequent DNA binding. We conclude that the HLH domain is required, but perhaps not sufficient for Olig2 dimerization. Our studies indicate that specification and differentiation of oligodendrocytes are completely independent of Olig2's triple serine phosphorylation function in proliferation. The ability to uncouple these functions one from the other suggests an avenue to specifically target tumors within the brain while sparing normal white matter. In the fullness of time, small molecule inhibitors of Olig2 protein may thus have practical applications for glioma medicine.


The keyword spotting and handgun detection tasks have been widely used to manipulate devices and monitor surveillance systems in a more efficient manner. In spite of the advances of deep learning approaches dominating those tasks, the effectiveness of them is mostly tested and evaluated in datasets of exceptional qualities. The aim of this paper is have an study about the performance of these tools when information captured by common devices are used, for example; commercial surveillance systems based on standard resolution cameras or microphones from smartphones. For this we propose to build an audio dataset consisting of Speech commands recorded from mobile devices and different users. In the audio section, we evaluate and compare some state of art keyword spotting techniques with our own model, which outperforms the baselines and reference approaches. in this evaluation obtained an accuracy of 83\% in accuracy. For the handgun detection, we did a fine tuning of YOLOv5 to adapt the model and perform the detection of handguns in images and video. This model was tested on a new dataset that uses labeled images from commercial security cameras.


In this paper, for the first time, we report a large area (1 cm2) SiC GTO with 9 kV blocking voltage fabricated on 100-mm 4H-SiC substrates with much reduced Basal Plane Dislocation (BPD) density. The static and dynamic characteristics are described. A forward drop of 3.7 V at 100 A (100 A/cm2) is measured at 25°C. A slight positive temperature coefficient of the forward drop is present at 300 A/cm2, indicating the possibility of paralleling multiple devices for higher current capability. The device exhibits extremely low leakage currents at high temperatures. The device has shown fast turn-on time of 53.9 nsec, and ~3.5 s of turn-off time, respectively. A stable forward voltage drop after electrical stress for >1000 hours has been achieved.


Transgenic tobacco plants were developed containing a partial PLD clone in antisense orientation. The PLD isoform targeted by the insertion was identified. A PLD clone was isolated from a cDNA library using the partial PLD as a probe: Nt10B1 shares 92% identity with PLDβ1 from tomato but lacks the C2 domain. PCR analysis confirmed insertion of the antisense fragment into the plants: three introns distinguished the endogenous gene from the transgene. PLD activity was assayed in leaf homogenates in PLDβ/g conditions. When phosphatidylcholine was utilized as a substrate, no significant difference in transphosphatidylation activity was observed. However, there was a reduction in NAPE hydrolysis in extracts of two transgenic plants. In one of these, a reduction in elicitor- induced PAL expression was also observed.


markdownabstractObjective
The authors study how partners are relevant to voting.

Background
Previous studies have assessed whether having a partner influences political participation. The authors focus on how having a partner may affect political participation in different ways. The authors theorize and analytically disentangle three mechanisms through which partners relate to voting.

Method
The authors analyze the most recent wave of the European Social Survey and limit the analyses to people in a heterosexual relationship who cohabit with their partner (n = 23,373). In contrast to previous studies, the authors use Diagonal Reference Models, which allow them to disentangle the different ways in which partners affect voting.

Results
The authors find that both the educational level of the respondents and that of their partners positively affect voting. In addition, the relative position of a person in an educationally heterogamous relationship proves to be related to voting: Citizens whose level of education is lower than that of their partner are less likely to vote than people who have the same level of education but who are in an educationally homogamous relationship.

Conclusion
The authors argue that the lowest educated partner in a heterogamous relationship experiences a lower sense of entitlement to participate politically. This study increases the understanding of voting and underlines the political relevance of the family.


We examined the mechanisms underlying relaxations evoked by isoproterenol (Iso) in isolated porcine, bovine, or human tracheal and bronchial tissues (TSM and BSM, respectively). Iso had little effect against contractions evoked by high KCl, indicating that it does not directly suppress voltage-dependent Ca(2+)-influx nor directly inhibit myosin light chain kinase. Furthermore, Iso was equally potent against carbachol (CCh) contractions in the presence versus absence of nifedipine (10(-6) M), establishing that the primary action of Iso is not through membrane hyperpolarization. However, Iso relaxations in porcine/bovine BSM were significantly suppressed by inhibitors of the internal Ca(2+) pump (cyclopiazonic acid; 10(-5) M) or of myosin light chain phosphatase (calyculin; 10(-6) M). Myosin light chain phosphatase activity was assayed directly (using (32)P-labeled myosin) and found to be enhanced in a time- and concentration-dependent fashion by Iso. Iso relaxations in human airway tissues, on the other hand, were not significantly affected by either calyculin or cyclopiazonic acid. Thus, we conclude that Iso acts largely in a voltage-independent fashion: in nonhuman airways, this involves enhanced Ca(2+) pump activity (to decrease [Ca(2+)](i)) and myosin light chain phosphatase activation (to decrease Ca(2+)-sensitivity of the contractile apparatus), whereas in human airways the underlying mechanisms are still unclear.


: In chronic experiments on pregnant and lactating sheeps with large fistula of rumen the dynamics of progesterone transport in a cavity of temporarily isolated reticulo-rumen depending on a physiological condition of animals, composition of solution filling a cavity of organ, and time of incubation, were studied. On three animals, 24 experiments were carried out. It was established that, during pregnancy, in a cavity of reticulo-rumen more progesterone was transported than during lactation (p < 0.05). Addition of lignin and cellulose to the salt solution increased the progesterone transport in the cavity of reticulo-rumen (p < 0.001). During three-hour incubation of salt solution in the cavity of reticulo-rumen, an increase of progesterone transport was observed in cavity of the organ (p < 0.001). The data obtained confirm the assumption that forestomach of ruminants participates in removing of progesterone from internal environment to enteral one and that carbohydrate polymers facilitate this process.


Notable advancements in the field of computer vision have transpired through the application of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). A new GAN variant, the Troika GAN (T-GAN), was recently proposed for data augmentation and was shown to be superior to the Coupled GAN (CoGAN) and the classic techniques of rotation and affine transformation. This paper describes our further investigation on T-GAN, specifically the impact of its subnetworks weight sharing. We decoupled the weight-sharing subnetworks of T-GAN to form three independent GANs, which we refer to collectively as the Decoupled GAN and whose weights are trained separately. We then used T-GAN and the Decoupled GAN to augment a set of words with limited instances from the IAM Handwriting Database. The resulting augmented datasets were applied to train the three types of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) classifiers: Vanilla ANN, Deep ANN, and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Results showed that the best accuracies from each of the 3 classifier types were obtained when these were trained with datasets augmented by a T-GAN. For example, the CNN classifier registered 89.76% as its best performance using T-GAN while recording only 87.47% accuracy from utilizing Decoupled GAN. A paired t-test between the 10-fold cross-validation results of these yielded a statistically significant p-value of 0.0075 in favor of the T-GAN augmentation. This clearly indicates that the sharing of weights is a vital factor in the generation of better synthetic data. With its significant impact on improving handwriting classification networks, T-GAN can be an ideal data augmentation approach to build robust systems where there is a scarcity of training dataset instances.


The Lizard Complex consists of a poorly exposed assemblage of serpentinites, gabbros, amphibolites, basic dykes, metasediments and gneisses. As an alternative approach to conventional mapping of the inland area, the geochemistry of the residual soils of the area are used to identify the underlying lithologies.
Using multi-element geochemical data obtained by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, an identification scheme is established which allows the recognition of over a dozen mappable units with a high rate of success. This scheme evolved from a training set of samples collected during an orientation survey from areas of undisputed geology immediately adjacent to coastal exposure. At approximately 250 sites it has been possible to confirm the geological predictions directly against material obtained from the base of power auger holes.
A non-hierarchical K-means clustering technique is developed and used to recluster data from over 800 samples into gabbroic and ultrabasic groups. The results of this classification produced more sensitive discriminatory parameters which in turn are used on 1500+ samples collected during the project.
The soil identification procedure combines the use of a variety of numerical techniques and the algorithm designed to use them operates in a sequential manner. The most distinct units are identified at an early stage whilst those samples which are less distinct chemically take longer to isolate and as a final stage of treatment are separated using a modified K-means technique.
This approach to mapping has allowed the recognition of units not found outcropping on coastal sections and for an improved geological map of the Lizard Complex to be drawn. In particular the Crousa gabbro is shown to be a smaller body than previously considered and to comprise several different bodies. As a result of this work the evolutionary history of the Complex is revised.


Abstract The paper deals with the role played by the Jesuit in the political formation of the Lithuanian elite during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The author analyzes the influence of the Jesuit school system on the political culture of the nobility through rhetoric, theatre and public examinations. In particular, it shows the elements of continuity, such as the unquestioned value of classical literature and Humanistic formation. These contributed to shape the political ethos of Polish-Lithuanian elites, based on consensus and active participation in public life. The changes introduced as a result of the reform of Jesuit school system did not alter the traditional understanding of education, but rather answered to the need for better qualified civil servants in an age of modernization of the Polish-Lithuanian state.


Introduction: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), adolescence is the period of growth between 10 and 19 years of age. Complications from pregnancy are the second leading cause of death for adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 worldwide.
Objective: In order to reduce the phenomenon of early pregnancy, we set out to study the family determinants of early sexuality and its corollary of pregnancy among adolescent girls in secondary schools in the Douala 3rd district in Cameroon.
Methodology: We conducted an analytical case-control study from November 08, 2018, to June 26 (7months) 2019 in ten secondary establishments in the Douala 3rd district. Included in the study were all adolescent girls, students in one of the secondary schools in the said district who agreed to participate in the study. Data analysis was done using SPSS 20.0 software. The significance threshold was set at p <0.05.
Results: A total of 445 adolescent girls were selected, including 89 cases and 356 controls. In the uni-variate analysis, the family factors associated with the occurrence of teenage pregnancies were: living outside the house and parental guidance (aOR= 1.68; CI=1.03-2.76), having a tutor living with a partner (aOR=2.14; CI=1.10-4.18) and single (aOR=2.89; CI=1.70-4.93), the tuition fees covered by someone other than parents (aOR = 1.73; CI=1.01-2.96), having a mother, sister or both having conceived during adolescence (OR=1.64; CI=1.01 -2.65, aOR=2.01; CI=1.20-3.37, aOR=2.29; IC=1.17-4.49).
Conclusion: The adolescent girl who is not guided or assisted by her parents is highly exposed to early sexuality and its corollary of early pregnancy.


Mitochondria isolated from Neurospora crassa grown with sucrose as the sole source of carbon and energy oxidized citrate and cis-aconitate at high rates, and showed good respiratory control and high ADP/O ratios. The oxidation of both substrates was inhibited strongly by rotenone but only slightly by malonate. In contrast, isocitrate was oxidized slowly, with poor respiratory control. Treatment with detergent showed that both NAD+- and NADP+-isocitrate dehydrogenases were situated within the mitochondrial matrix. It thus appeared that the rate of oxidation of exogenous isocitrate was limited by a slow rate of translocation across the inner mitochondrial membrane.
When N. crassa was grown in an acetate-containing medium, the mitochondrial pellet, prepared by differential centrifugation, catalysed a rapid oxidation of isocitrate and contained a high activity of isocitrate lyase. The oxidation of isocitrate and succinate was strongly inhibited by malonate but only slightly by rotenone. Density-gradient centrifugation revealed that the apparent oxidation of isocitrate by mitochondrial pellets was due to contamination by glyoxysomes. Isocitrate was converted into glyoxylate and succinate in the glyoxysomes, then succinate was translocated across the inner mitochondrial membrane and oxidized by the respiratory chain.


A Study on the isolation and qualitative test  of cellulose producer fungus from waste product soil of Saccharum officinarum in Tabek Patah West Sumatera has been done by using  Czapek Dox Agar (CDA) selective media. The selulolitic ability test of this isolated fungus by giving the congo red solution on the surface of medium that was enriched with Carboxy Methyl Cellulose, the formed of transparent area around the colonies showed that the fungus has the capability to decomposed the cellulose. The hydrolitic enzyme in glucose form was analyed using Fehling solution and Thin Layer Chromatograph. The result from this research showed that the sample consist of two species of decomposed cellulose fungus Aspergillus terreus Thom and Rhizopus sp.


Cooperative spectrum sensing is a promising method for improving spectrum sensing performance in cognitive radio. Although it yields better spectrum sensing performance, it also incurs additional energy consumption that drains more energy from the sensor nodes and hence shortens the lifetime of sensor networks. This paper proposes energy minimization approach to reduce energy consumption due to spectrum sensing and sensed result reporting in a cooperative spectrum sensing. The approach determines optimal number of cooperative sensing nodes using particle swarm optimization. We derived mathematical lower bound and upper bound for the number of cooperative sensing nodes in the network. Then we formulate a constraint optimization problem and used particle swarm optimization to simultaneously optimize the two mathematical bounds to determine the optimal number of sensing nodes. Simulation results indicate viability of the proposed approach and show that significant amount of energy savings can be achieved by employing optimal number of sensing nodes for cooperative spectrum sensing. Performance comparison with conventional approach shows performance improvement of the proposed approach over the conventional method in minimizing spectrum sensing energy consumption without compromising spectrum sensing performance.


The objective of this work was to determine the biological parameters and thermal requirements of Trichogramma pretiosum TM strain reared on Helicoverpa armigera eggs. A card containing 20 eggs of H. armigera was offered for each T. pretiosum female, at temperatures of 18, 20, 22, 25, 28, 30 and 32°C. All life stages of T. pretiosum were observed under the given temperature conditions. The optimum temperature for the parasitism of T. pretiosum was 25°C, and the highest longevity was found at the same temperature. The highest parasitoid emergence rates occurred at temperatures of 22, 25 and 28°C. The highest proportion of T. pretiosum individuals emerged per egg was observed at 18°C. Concerning the sex ratio, the highest proportion of females occurred at 28°C, and the highest percentage of parasitism viability was observed at this same temperature. The lowest thermal threshold for total preimaginal development and thermal requirements of T. pretiosum were 10.82°C and 134.55 degree-days, respectively. The estimated number of generations of T. pretiosum in the average temperatures of municipality of Bom Jesus, state of Piauí, Brazil is four per month.