Micro- and nanoresonator sensors have important applications such as in chemical and biological sensing, environmental control, monitoring of viscosity and magnetic fields, and inertial forces detection. However, most of these resonators are designed as complex structures that complicate the estimation of their resonant frequencies (generally of the bending or torsional mode). In this paper, we present an analytical model to estimate the resonant frequency of the first bending mode of micro- and nanoresonators based on a beam system under different load types. This system is constructed of beams with different cross sections joined through a series-parallel arrangement. The analytical model is derived using the Rayleigh and Macaulay methods, as well as the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. In addition, we determined the deflection function of the beam system, which can be used to establish its bending structural response under several load types. We applied the model to both a silicon microresonator (with a thickness of 5 μ m) for an experimental magnetic field sensor developed in our laboratory and for a polycrystalline silicon nanoresonator (with a thickness of 160 nm) of a mass sensor reported in the literature. The results of our analytical model have a comparable agreement with those obtained from the finite-element models (FEMs) and with the experimental measurements. Our analytical model can be useful in the mechanical design of micro- and nanoresonators with complex structural configurations.


ABSTRACT Xylella fastidiosa is a xylem-limited bacterium that causes various diseases, among them Pierce's disease of grapevine (PD) and almond leaf scorch (ALS). PD and ALS have long been considered to be caused by the same strain of this pathogen, but recent genetic studies have revealed differences among X. fastidiosa isolated from these host plants. We tested the hypothesis that ALS is caused by PD and ALS strains in the field and found that both groups of X. fastidiosa caused ALS and overwintered within almonds after mechanical inoculation. Under greenhouse conditions, all isolates caused ALS and all isolates from grapes caused PD. However, isolates belonging to almond genetic groupings did not cause PD in inoculated grapes but systemically infected grapes with lower frequency and populations than those belonging to grape strains. Isolates able to cause both PD and ALS developed 10-fold-higher concentrations of X. fastidiosa in grapes than in almonds. In the laboratory, isolates from grapes overwintered with higher efficiency in grapes than in almonds and isolates from almonds overwintered better in almonds than in grapes. We assigned strains from almonds into groups I and II on the basis of their genetic characteristics, growth on PD3 solid medium, and bacterial populations within inoculated grapevines. Our results show that genetically distinct strains from grapes and almonds differ in population behavior and pathogenicity in grapes and in the ability to grow on two different media.


The Nederlands Huisartsen Genootschap (NHG), the college of general practitioners in the Netherlands, has begun a national programme of standard setting for the quality of care in general practice. When the standards have been drawn up and assessed they are disseminated via the journal Huisarts en Wetenschap. In a survey, carried out among a randomized sample of 10% of all general practitioners, attitudes towards national standard setting in general and to the first set of standards (diabetes care) were studied. The response was 70% (453 doctors). A majority of the respondents said they were well informed about the national standard setting initiatives instigated by the NHG (71%) and about the content of the first standards (77%). The general practitioners had a positive attitude towards the setting of national standards for quality of care, and this was particularly true for doctors who were members of the NHG. Although a large majority of doctors said they agreed with most of the guidelines in the diabetes standards fewer respondents were actually working to the guidelines and some of the standards are certain to meet with a lot of resistance. A better knowledge of the standards and a more positive attitude to the process of national standard setting correlated with a more positive attitude to the guidelines formulated in the diabetes standards. The results could serve as a starting point for an exchange of views about standard setting in general practice in other countries.


The output power of fiber-based single-frequency amplifiers, e.g. for gravitational wave detectors, is typically limited by nonlinear effects (e.g. stimulated Brillouin scattering). In general, to reduce the impact of nonlinearities, the mode area of the fiber core is enlarged. Chirally-coupled-core (3C®) fibers have been specifically designed to enable single-mode operation with a large mode area core. 3C®-fibers consist of a step-index fiber structure, whose signal core is additionally chirally surrounded by one ore more satellite cores. Because of the phase matching and the helical geometry, the higher order modes are pulled out of the signal core, which enables a high-purity modal content in the core. We present a robust and monolithic fiber amplifier based on an ytterbium-doped 3C®-fiber in combination with commercially available standard fibers. For the realization of such a monolithic system, a mode field adapter (MFA) was designed and installed between a standard polarization-maintaining fiber and an active 3C®-fiber for the first time. The MFA was tested regarding the guided modal content by means of a S2-system. Overall, the fiber amplifier achieves a polarization extinction ratio of 17.6 dB and an optical output power of 100.1W in a linearly polarized TEM00-mode. To our knowledge, the fundamental mode content of 98.9% is the highest TEM00-mode content of fiber amplifiers reported at this power level. This work emphasizes the high potential of fiber amplifiers based on 3C®-fibers as laser sources for the next generation of gravitational wave detectors and demonstrates that compact and robust amplifiers can be realized using 3C®-fibers.


Gentamicin is still widely used in clinical practice in spite of its renal toxicity. The role of nitric oxide (NO) in that process is not completely elucidated. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between plasma level of NO and the histopathological changes of kidney in acute tubular necrosis (ATN) induced by gentamicin in rats. Study was carried out in Albino-Wistar rats, both sexes (n=16), average body weight 200-250 g. divided in two equal groups: control and gentamicin group. The control group was injected with 0.9% NaCl i.p. and gentamicin group was injected with gentamicin in the dose of 80 mg/kg/day i.p. in a period of 5 consecutive days. NO plasma level was determined by the production of nitrates and nitrites using classical colorimetrical Griess reaction. Kidney specimens were stained with hematoxylin-eosin (H-E) and Periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) stain. Semiquantitative histological analysis was used for the evaluation of the level of kidney damage. Both, the plasma NO level and the level of kidney damage were statistically higher in rats with gentamicin-induced ATN in comparison to the control group. In spite of that the correlation between plasma NO level and the level of kidney damage was not found. The rise of plasma level NO in gentamicin induced ATN in rats could possibly indicate on the role of NO in renal damage caused by gentamicin.


The liposomes present great potential for applications in targeted delivery of chemotherapeutics in the treatment of cancer. The use of liposomal drug carriers as vehicles for targeting of chemotherapeutic agents to tumor tissues is based on their advantages over other dosage forms, represented by their low systemic toxicity, their bioavailability, and their possibility to enhance the solubility of different chemotherapeutic agents, due to the ability to encapsulate both hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs. They enhance the therapeutic index of anticancer drugs by increasing the drug concentration in tumor cells through tumor targeting. The available approaches used for tumor targeting using liposomes are passive targeting, active targeting, and triggered drug release. The most advanced targeting strategies proposed for cancer treatment are the development of multifunctional liposomes, having combined targeting mechanism. In this chapter, the tumor-targeting mechanisms are described in detail as well as the possibilities to design the targeted liposomal nanocarrier in order to reach the desired target in the body and minimizing the off-target effects. Moreover, the current status of preclinical and clinical evaluation is highlighted.


The rasterization process of characters from digital outline fonts to bitmaps on displays must include additional information in the form of hints beside the shape of characters in order to produce high quality bitmaps. Hints describe constraints on sizes and shapes inside characters and across the font that should be preserved during rasterization. We describe a novel, fast and fully automatic method for adding those hints to characters. The method is based on identifying hinting situations inside characters. It includes gathering global font information and linking it to characters, defining a set of constraints, sorting them, and converting them to hints in any known hinting technology (PostScript, TrueType or other). Our scheme is general enough to be applied on any language and on complex scripts such as Chinese Japanese and Korean. Although still inferior to expert manual hinting, our method produces high quality bitmaps which approach this goal. The method can also be used as a solid base for further hinting refinements done manually.


The Adventure Bites - Cooking with Kids program enhanced nutrition curriculum by including a Life Skill development focus and a family night - to improve youth nutrition behaviors. The data was collected using the WSU 4-H Life Skills pre-post youth evaluations, staff surveys, a parent retrospective pre-post survey, and comparison data from non-program sites. The results support adding Life Skills and family night events into youth nutrition curricula. There are opportunities to improve evaluation and do further testing, to determine what the individual impact of Life Skill development and/or individual impact of having family nights had on changes in youth behaviors regarding nutrition.


OBJECTIVE
Premature pubarche (PP) is the most frequent sign of nonclassic congenital adrenal hyperplasia (NCCAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency in childhood. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between the CYP21A2 genotype and baseline and ACTH-stimulated 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP) and cortisol serum levels in patients presenting with PP.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
A total of 152 Italian children with PP were studied. Baseline and ACTH-stimulated 17-OHP and cortisol serum levels were measured and CYP21A2 gene was genotyped in all subjects.

RESULTS
Baseline and ACTH-stimulated serum 17-OHP levels were significantly higher in NCCAH patients than in both heterozygotes and children with idiopathic PP (IPP). Of the patient population, four NCCAH patients (7.3%) exhibited baseline 17-OHP values <2 ng/ml (6 nmol/l). An ACTH-stimulated 17-OHP cutoff level of 14 ng/ml (42 nmol/l) identified by the receiver-operating characteristics curves showed the best sensitivity (90.9%) and specificity (100%) in distinguishing NCCAH patients. This value, while correctly identifying all unaffected children, missed 9% of affected individuals. Cortisol response to ACTH stimulation was <18.2 μg/dl (500 nmol/l) in 14 NCCAH patients (28%) and none of the heterozygotes or IPP children. Among the 55 NCCAH patients, 54.5% were homozygous for mild CYP21A2 mutations, 41.8% were compound heterozygotes for one mild and one severe CYP21A2 gene mutations, and 3.6% had two severe CYP21A2 gene mutations.

CONCLUSION
In children with PP, baseline 17-OHP levels are not useful to rule out the diagnosis of NCCAH, which is accomplished by means of ACTH testing only. The different percentages of severe and mild CYP21A2 gene mutations found in PP children compared with adult NCCAH patients is an indirect evidence that the enzyme defect is under-diagnosed in childhood, and it might not lead to the development of hyperandrogenic symptoms in adulthood. Stress-dose glucocorticoids should be considered in patients with suboptimal cortisol response to ACTH stimulation.


This paper analyses recent discussions of the role of illiberal ideologies in Britain and the United States in an attempt to tease out their implications for our understanding of contemporary liberalism. The paper suggests that these accounts present compelling reasons for conceiving of liberalism not as a dominant political culture but rather as an ideology that has often struggled in competition with powerful rivals. The paper further contends, however, that the available accounts of that struggle present an over-polarized account of the dichotomy between liberalism and illiberalism, an account that entails misunderstanding the political positions which liberals have adopted in order to survive in ongoing ideological competition.


: This article presents a case of Crohn's disease in a man who was veracity of 30 years from the onset of the disease. This case demonstrating complexity of diagnostic search, even with the classic version of the disease. And it demonstrates the need for a thorough medical history, differential diagnosis.


High-speed sheet metal stamping is popular because it is economical and quick means of producing intricate, accurate and durable components in large quantities. Scrap jumping up is one problem which usually occurs in high-speed stamping manufacturing processes. In this paper, the relevant factors are analyzed and studied such as the press tool, the shape and size of the stamping pieces, the structure and rigidity of pressing die, the clearance between punch and die, material properties of the blank, etc. Then ten cases are summarized that lead to scrap jumping up. For each case, corresponding solution is presented to avoid the scrap jumping up.


From the Publisher:
Special Edition Using Linux Administration is the complete, comprehensive reference book for the experienced administrator who needs to learn to run a Linux system and successfully manage it. This book has a great appeal to those administrators whose knowledge is limited to Windows or NetWare networks as they integrate Linux into their infrastructure. Current Linux or Unix users wishing to apply their knowledge towards system administration will also find it invaluable. Useful topics include: Linux deployment and installation, user administration, Samba and NT-Linux integration, Linux process management and daemons, Network configuration and TCP/IP, routing with Linux, Linux and firewalls, using Linux as an Intranet server, and Linux database servers.


The relationship between stock market development and economic growth has long been a significant subject of debate. Some argue that a well-functioning stock market can have an accelerating effect on economic growth by channelling more savings to investment and enhancing capital productivity through the efficient allocation of resources. In contrast, others hold that stock market development has little relevance to real economic activity or even that may be harmful to the economy. The majority of empirical studies on this topic focus on advanced markets and developed emerging markets, and no major study exists for markets in petroleum-based economies, such as Saudi Arabia. This research therefore aims to conduct an empirical analysis of the overlooked role of stock market development in the economic growth process in the case of Saudi Arabia; thereby it aims to examine the effect of stock market development on economic growth in Saudi Arabia.
In order to achieve the research aim, a mixed method approach is taken, combining quantitative and qualitative methods to enhance the study's validity and reliability. In the initial empirical chapter, time-series econometric analysis is utilised to measure the nexus between economic growth and stock market. After treating the data for time series features, the OLS regression analysis showed the market capitalisation (LNMC) variable was statistically significant in all of the results presented. In addition, the number of shares traded (LNNST) was found to be significant in all of the results, except in the non-oil PSGDP model. These results indicate that the Saudi economy in general still relies on oil revenues and fiscal policies. As part of the econometric analysis, the results of the Granger causality analysis produced inconclusive results, which revealed that the government plays an active role in the economy and intervenes when the macro-economic performance does not achieve the desired results. These interventions seem to be situational rather than long-term and structural. The causal relationships from the independent variables of the financial markets weakened, when the influence of the oil revenues was removed from the equation, suggesting that the Saudi financial markets still rely heavily on oil revenues. Finally, the results of Error Correction Model or ECM with all the models for GDP showed that there is a bi-directional causality that runs from GDP, NOGDP, NOPSGDP, GFC and NOGFC to MCR, and to NST. The Error Correction Model of ECt-1 shows that the significant results indicate the speed of adjustment to the long-run equilibrium, and reveal the direction of causality.
Secondly, in an attempt to provide qualitative meaning to the results, eighteen interviews were conducted with respondents closely linked to the stock market, in order to elicit their opinions. These interviews complemented the empirical work and added better understanding to the study's findings. The analysis of the interviews shows that the Saudi stock market is an emerging market, which has undergone several stages of development. Some of the interviewees were optimistic, believing that movements of stock market prices over the next five years may be more stable as a result of the strength of the Saudi economy. Those with an optimistic outlook saw more stability, improvement and profits, while those with a more pessimistic outlook foresaw more volatility, fluctuations and losses.


Structuralists and Post-Keynesians share the perspective that in the long run economic growth is shaped by the income elasticity of exports and imports, and that such elasticities are a positive function of the degree of diversification and technological intensity of the pattern of specialization. Since the mid 1970s, New Structuralists began to stress the role of two sets of variables in driving the pattern of specialization: a stable and competitive real exchange rate, and the relative intensity of innovation and diffusion of technology in the center and periphery. In this paper we modify the balance-of-payments-constrained growth model to include these two sets of variables. The model provides a mechanism that ensures the validity of the original Thirlwall perspective, namely that adjustment to the balance-of-payments-constrained equilibrium takes place through changes in the rate of growth of aggregate demand rather than through changes in relative prices. In addition, it shows that a macroeconomic policy aimed at sustaining a competitive real exchange rate is a necessary complement to an active industrial policy for fostering international convergence.


Introduction. The observations recorded in this paper were made at the suggestion of Professor J. W. Gregory, and were merely meant to supplement his work (see these Transactions, vol. xv., page 174) on the Permian and Triassic rocks of Arran by describing sections which, at the time of his research, he was unable to reach. The paper, therefore, does not pretend to be much more than a record of field work. It is almost a literal transcript from field notes, with the addition of a few notes on the petrological character of the rocks. Besides being stratigraphically somewhat indefinite, the boundary between the Upper and Lower Divisions of the Red Rock series is almost always further obscured by igneous intrusion and faulting in sections where the transition might reasonably be expected to occur. The southern half of Arran is riddled by an extraordinary complex of igneous rocks, consisting of "felsite-basalt" composite sills, "gabbro-granophyre" mélanges, teschenites, quartz-porphyries, and quartz-felsites, with multitudes of basalt dykes. The igneous rocks probably occupy almost half the total area of the southern part of the island. It is not strange, therefore, that the exact nature of the junction between the two divisions remains uncertain, although, as shown by Professor Gregory, the petrological contrast between the rocks at the top and bottom of the series is very marked. On the new 1-inch colour-printed geological map of Arran (Geological Survey, 1910) the boundary between the two divisions starts from the sea on the east This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract


Background: Renal urinary concentration is associated with enhanced expression of sodium cotransporter (rBSC1) in thick ascending limb of Henle. Overexpression of rBSC1 was reported recently in hypertrophied nephrons after unilateral nephrectomy (UNX) and in kidney isografts. Since urinary concentration defect and hypertrophy of residual nephrons are major manifestations of chronic renal failure (CRF), we investigated the rBSC1 signals for RNA and protein in a rat model of CRF. Methods: Rats underwent 5/6 nephrectomy and examined 8 weeks after operation. rBSC1 mRNA was examined by competitive PCR and in situ hybridization, and rBSC1 protein signals by western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Rats that underwent sham-operation, UNX, or 5/6 nephrectomy followed by a 3-week recovery period (acute renal failure), were used as control. Water intake was restricted for 24 h in subgroups of control and CRF rats. Results: Microscopic examination showed hypertrophy of residual nephrons in both UNX and CRF rats. Signals for rBSC1 mRNA and protein were enhanced at basal condition only in rats with UNX. Under basal conditions, CRF rats demonstrated low urinary osmolality in spite of high plasma arginine vasopressin levels. Water restriction resulted in increased signals for rBSC1 mRNA and protein and concentration of urine in sham-operated rats, but such increases were absent and urinary concentration was incomplete in CRF rats. Conclusions: Compensatory overexpression and upregulation of rBSC1 expression in response to dehydration are both absent in CRF rats. These limitations are thought to be the underlying mechanisms of urinary concentrating defect seen in CRF.


We have compared the structural polypeptides of an adult T-cell leukaemia (ATL) virus (ATLV) isolate from a Japanese patient with ATL with those of a similar virus derived from a Japanese macaque monkey. Both are distinct but related entities. Their core polypeptides p19 could not be distinguished, but p24, another core polypeptide, and their envelope glycopolypeptides differ. The human virus directs the synthesis of a single intracellular glycopolypeptide, gp68, while the macaque virus specifies two such glycopolypeptides, gp57 and gp50. Furthermore, the glycopolypeptides of both viruses are serologically distinct. Thus, these viruses represent subtypes of the ATLV family and the macaque virus is apparently not involved in human ATL.


Globally, remotely sensed data and, in particular, Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS), are being assessed by the forestry industry for their ability to acquire accurate forest inventories at an individual-tree level. This pilot study compares an inventory derived using the ForestView® biometrics analysis system to traditional cruise measurements and felled tree measurements for 139 Pinus taeda sp. (loblolly pine) trees in eastern Texas. The Individual Tree Detection (ITD) accuracy of ForestView® was 97.1%. In terms of tree height accuracy, ForestView® results had an overall lower mean bias and RMSE than the traditional cruise techniques when both datasets were compared to the felled tree data (LiDAR: mean bias = 1.1 cm, RMSE = 41.2 cm; Cruise: mean bias = 13.8 cm, RMSE = 57.5 cm). No significant difference in mean tree height was observed between the felled tree, cruise, and LiDAR measurements (p-value = 0.58). ForestView-derived DBH exhibited a −2.1 cm bias compared to felled-tree measurements. This study demonstrates the utility of this newly emerging ITD software as an approach to characterize forest structure on similar coniferous forests landscapes.


Unknown or X-values during test applications may originate from uncontrolled sequential cells or macros, from clock or A/D boundaries, or from tristate logic. The exact identification of X-value propagation paths in logic circuits is crucial in logic simulation and fault simulation. In the first case, it enables the proper assessment of expected responses and the effective and efficient handling of X-values during test response compaction. In the second case, it is important for a proper assessment of fault coverage of a given test set and consequently influences the efficiency of test pattern generation. The commonly employed n-valued logic simulation evaluates the propagation of X-values only pessimistically, i.e., the X-propagation paths found by n -valued logic simulation are a superset of the actual propagation paths. This paper presents an efficient method for overcoming this pessimism and for determining accurately the set of signals that carry an X-value for an input pattern. As examples, it investigates the influence of this pessimism on the two applications, X-masking and stuck-at fault coverage assessment. The experimental results on benchmark and industrial circuits assess the pessimism of classic algorithms and show that these algorithms significantly overestimate the signals with X-values. The experiments show that overmasking of test data during test compression can be reduced by an accurate analysis. In stuck-at fault simulation, the coverage of the test set is increased by the proposed algorithm without incurring any overhead.


C-myc oncogene expression has been implicated in the poor prognosis of human renal cell carcinoma (RCC), and these tumor cells are resistant to cytotoxic effector cells. We hypothesized that the resistance of RCC cells to lysis by cytotoxic effector lymphocytes might be regulated by c-myc expression. The present study tested this hypothesis by examining the effect of c-myc antisense oligonucleotide treatment on the susceptibility of RCC to lysis by cytotoxic lymphocytes. The Caki-1 human RCC cell line constitutively expresses c-myc mRNA, and treatment with c-myc antisense oligonucleotide resulted in a significant inhibition of the expression of c-myc mRNA and enhanced susceptibility to lysis by peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL). The enhanced susceptibility to lysis was observed by PBL derived from both normal donors and patients with RCC. The susceptibility of c-myc antisense oligonucleotide-treated Caki-1 cells to lysis by lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells, natural killer (NK) cells, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) was also enhanced. Furthermore, enhanced susceptibility was also seen when freshly isolated autologous tumor cells were used as target cells. The mechanism of the enhanced susceptibility of c-myc antisense oligonucleotide-treated Caki-1 cells to lysis was examined. No effect was observed on the expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I and MHC class II on the tumor cells. However, there was a modest increase in the frequency of effector-target binding. Further, c-myc antisense oligonucleotide-treated Caki-1 cells were more susceptible to lysis by tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). The findings of this study demonstrate that c-myc antisense oligonucleotide directly affects established RCC cells and freshly isolated RCC cells by rendering them more susceptible to lysis by PBL, LAK cells, NK cells, and T lymphocytes. The enhanced susceptibility may be due in part to the enhanced sensitivity to TNF-α and to the augmentation of PBL binding to tumor cells. The possible clinical implications of these findings are discussed.


Insulin‐like growth factor‐2 messenger RNA‐binding protein 3 (IGF2BP3) has been reported to contribute to tumorigenesis in several human cancers. However, the biological functions of IGF2BP3 in bladder cancer are poorly understood. We investigated the relation between IGF2BP3 expression and prognosis of bladder cancer patients. Cell proliferation, cell cycle and cell apoptosis assays were performed to assess IGF2BP3 functions. The results showed that IGF2BP3 was overexpressed in bladder cancer tissues compared with that in normal bladder tissues, and its higher expression was closely correlated with poor prognosis in bladder cancer patients. Overexpression of IGF2BP3 markedly promoted cell proliferation and cell cycle progression and inhibited cell apoptosis, while knockdown of IGF2BP3 notably suppressed the proliferation, promoted cell apoptosis and induced cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase. Mechanistically, we revealed that IGF2BP3 promotes the activation of the JAK/STAT pathway in bladder cancer cells. Moreover, the JAK/STAT inhibitor dramatically blocked the tumour‐promoting activity of IGF2BP3. Tumour growth in vivo was also suppressed by knocking down of IGF2BP3. Hence, IGF2BP3 facilitated bladder cancer cell proliferation by activating the JAK/STAT signalling pathway. These findings suggest that IGF2BP3 exhibits an oncogenic effect in human bladder cancer progression.


Various types of LPG sold, requiring a precise inventory management, especially the facts on the ground are often encountered uncertainties include uncertainty of demand and the performance cycle. The aim of this research  is to develop  decision making system to optimize inventory by the Economic Order Quantity method based on the Bowersox formula by using the combining of variables for demand uncertainty and performance cycle. The system uses the web service media method for easy access and maintenance with centralized data on the server and users only use the existing browser. The method of categorizing goods uses the category ABC by dividing the type of goods into categories A (very important), B (important) and C (not important). The results provide safe inventory value calculations based on variables of  uncertainty and performance cycles. With the optimization resulting from this system, the company can maintain the availability of the goods by making appropriate arrangements, priorities, and the amount so as to minimize the occurrence of the possibility of excess and lack of stock.


Soft lithography offers great potential for the fabrication of 2D and 3D patterned structures using a variety of materials and patterns. It complements and extends conventional fabrication methods. This thesis is particularly focus on microcontact printing (μCP) as a
method to create biological patterns on surfaces and also as a tool used in "in-situ" synthesis.
Microcontact printing has unique features that make this technique very attractive: (i) it is simple to introduce in any laboratory, (ii) it is biocompatible, (iii) it can fabricate features below 100 nm, (iv) it is applicable to broad range of materials, (v) it is efficient and not expensive. The important feature is that stamp which is used for printing is flexible and can seal conformally to
the surface tolerating the nanoscale roughness. In this thesis the focus is on the application of soft lithography in the fabrication of microsystems useful in studying interactions between biomolecules and cells.


ing The journal is covered by relevant abstracting and indexing services including: Abstracts in Anthropology, Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Handicapped Yearbook, Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts, Bibliography of Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, British Education Abstracts, Chicorel Abstracts to Reading and Learning Disabilities, Child Development Abstracts, Communication Abstracts, Current


Objective: The objective of this review was to identify how conversational agents are designed and used in rehabilitation for adults with brain-related neurological conditions. Introduction: Adults with brain-related neurological conditions experience varied cognitive and functional challenges that can persist long term. However, rehabilitation services are time- and resource-limited, and novel rehabilitation approaches are warranted. Conversational agents provide a human–computer interface with which the user can converse. A conversational agent can be designed to meet specific user needs, such as rehabilitation and support. Inclusion criteria: Studies focused on the design and use of conversational agents for rehabilitation for people aged 18 years or older with brain-related neurological conditions were considered for inclusion. Eligible publication types included peer-reviewed publications (quantitative, qualitative, and/or mixed methods study designs; research protocols; peer-reviewed expert opinion papers; clinical studies, including pilot trials; systematic or scoping reviews), full conference papers, and master's or PhD theses. Eligible types of research included prototype development, feasibility testing, and clinical trials. Methods: Online databases, including MEDLINE, Scopus, ProQuest (all databases), Web of Science, and gray literature sources were searched with no date limit. Only English publications were considered due to a lack of resourcing available for translations. Title and abstract screening and full-text review were conducted by two independent reviewers. Data extraction was shared by three independent reviewers. The data extraction instrument was iteratively refined to meet the requirements of all included papers, and covered details for technological aspects and the clinical context. Results are presented narratively and in tabular format, with emphasis on participants, concept and context, and data extraction instrument components. Results: Eleven papers were included in the review, which represented seven distinct conversational agent prototypes. Methodologies included technology description (n = 9) and initial user testing (n = 6). The intended clinical cohorts for the reported conversational agents were people with dementia (n = 5), Parkinson disease (n = 2), stroke (n = 1), traumatic brain injury (n = 1), mixed dementia and mild cognitive impairment (n = 1), and mixed dementia and Parkinson disease (n = 1). Two studies included participants who were healthy or otherwise from the general community. The design of the conversational agents considered technology aspects and clinical purposes. Two conversational agent prototypes incorporated a speaking humanoid avatar as reported in five of the papers. Topics of conversation focused on subjects enjoyable to the user (life history, hobbies, where they lived). The clinical purposes reported in the 11 papers were to increase the amount of conversation the user has each day (n = 4), reminiscence (n = 2), and one study each for anxiety management and education, Parkinson disease education, to obtain and analyze a recording of the user's voice, to monitor well-being, and to build rapport before providing daily task prompts. One study reported clinician oversight of the conversational agent use. The studies had low sample sizes (range: 1–33). No studies undertook effectiveness testing. Outcome measures focused on usability, language detection and production, and technological performance. No health-related outcomes were measured. No adverse events were reported, and only two studies reported safety considerations. Conclusions: Current literature reporting the design and use of conversational agents for rehabilitation for adults with brain-related neurological conditions is heterogeneous and represents early stages of conversational agent development and testing. We recommend, as per our customized data extraction instrument, that studies of conversational agents for this population clearly define technical aspects, methodology for developing the conversation content, recruitment methods, safety issues, and requirements for clinician oversight.


The high concentration of adult Antarctic krill Euphausia superba Dana around South
Georgia, Antarctica, is a product of immigration and not local recruitment. We investigated whether
reproduction and early larval development are the cause of local recruitment failure. It was found
that the majority of adult females were reproductively active in summer and that there was a comparatively
high investment in the ovary, reaching up to 46% of the total wet weight of the krill. The corresponding
egg batches were amongst the largest ever reported for E. superba. A semi-empirical
model predicted that 11% of females completed just 1 spawning episode per year, 60% completed 2,
and 29% completed 3 or more. On average, a South Georgian krill released 12 343 eggs yr–1. The
eggs were unable to complete the descent–ascent developmental cycle on-shelf because the bathymetry
was too shallow but, off-shelf, they were predicted to sink to between 490 and 520 m and
return to the surface either as a metanauplius or 1st calyptopis stage with plenty of energy reserves
remaining. Feeding conditions were adequate for the development of later larval stages once these
reserves were exhausted. Although net surveys found calyptopis and early stage furcilia in the vicinity
of South Georgia, numbers were mostly lower than predicted. Overall, reproduction or early stage
development are successful in this region, leaving predation on larvae and advective export during
winter as the main potential causes of local recruitment failure.


Open Access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. (Peter Suber, "A Very Brief Introduction to Open Access")


ABSTRACT Objective: This study was designed to conduct molecular classification based on IDH1/2, TERT, ATRX, and DAXX changes in pediatric and adult primary glioblastoma (GB) and to analyze the potential interaction of LncRNA MALAT1 in the determined homogeneous subgroups. Methods: We analyzed the expression profiles of ATRX/DAXX and MALAT1 using the qRT-PCR method and IDH and TERT mutation status using DNA sequencing analysis in 85 primary pediatric and adult GB patients. Results: IDH1 mutation was observed in 5 (5.88%) and TERT mutation in 65 (76.47%) primary pediatric and adult GB patients. ATRX and DAXX were detected in 18 (21.18%) and 7 (8.24%) patients. TERT mutation and loss of ATRX/DAXX were associated with short overall survival (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, respectively). Patients carrying especially TERT C228T mutation had worse prognosis (p < 0.001). Six subgroups were obtained from the genetic analysis. Among the subgroups, MALAT1 was highly expressed in group A that had a single TERT mutation as compared to that in groups D and E (p = 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively); further, high MALAT1 expression was associated with worse prognosis in patients with C228T mutation (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our findings highlight that the presence of TERT C228T mutation and expression of MALAT1 can be used as primary targets during the follow-up of primary GB patients and in the development of new treatment strategies.


Background: Many interdisciplinary collaborative research programs in the health sector are adopting the community of practice concept within virtual environments. This study explores the factors that affect the members of a geographically dispersed group of health professionals in their attempt to create an interprofessional Virtual Community of Practice (VCoP) from which to promote clinical education research.Method & Findings: A survey was used to determine participants' degree of computer competency. System logs recorded members' access details and site activity. Member perceptions and beliefs were established using focus groups. While members stated they were enthusiastic about the VCoP, the primary use was viewing. Their online behaviour indicated that on average it took six visits to generate a post. This suggests a stronger focus on viewing (consumption of) information than on contributing (construction of) information.Conclusions: We believe it is crucial for members to contribute during the initial phase of any pre-structured VCoP in order to overcome the consumption-construction dilemma. It is during this initial phase that members will decide on the community's value. If the community cannot offer added value, members who engage are likely to consume for a time and then leave.


Large pre-trained language models (PLMs) have led to great success on various commonsense question answering (QA) tasks in an end-to-end fashion. However, little attention has been paid to what commonsense knowledge is needed to deeply characterize these QA tasks. In this work, we proposed to categorize the semantics needed for these tasks using the SocialIQA as an example. Building upon our labeled social knowledge categories dataset on top of SocialIQA, we further train neural QA models to incorporate such social knowledge categories and relation information from a knowledge base. Unlike previous work, we observe our models with semantic categorizations of social knowledge can achieve comparable performance with a relatively simple model and smaller size compared to other complex approaches.


The use of nanoparticles in electroanalysis is an area of great research interest, which is rapidly growing. There are enormous amount of work carried out on the synthesis, characterization and applications of nanoparticles. This review article summarizes the recent advancement of nanoparticle research in electroanalysis.


The improvement of efficiency of methods to mature equine oocytes in vitro is necessary for the application of biotechnologies in equine reproduction. Two maturation media, TCM-199 and follicular fluid (FF), were compared to mature equine cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) in vitro. Nuclear maturation and mitochondria distribution, and the ability to develop into embryos after transfer to inseminated mares were used as end points. In compact COCs, the percentage of oocytes that resumed meiosis (Metaphase I and II) was significantly higher in FF (77.3%) than in TCM-199 (46.8%). Compact COCs matured in FF reached a significantly (P < 0.05) higher percentage of MetaphaseII oocytes (31.8%) than those matured in TCM-199 (12.8%). Stages of nuclear maturation were associated with different patterns of mitochondrial distribution; 52.6% (40/76) of the oocytes found at germinal vesicle had dense clusters of mitochondria in the cortical area, whereas most oocytes at Metaphase I (63.6%, 42/66) showed either non-polarized or polarized patterns of mitochondria. Similarly, 76.7% (33/43) of Metaphase-II oocytes also had these patterns. After intrafollicular or intra-oviductal transfer to inseminated mares, few oocytes matured in FF (4.4%, 3/68) and developed to embryos in vivo compared to oocytes matured in TCM199 (0/58). In conclusion, pure equine FF was suitable as an in vitro maturation medium, inducing higher rates of nuclear maturation than a semi-defined medium. In addition, distribution of mitochondria changed during maturation from dense clusters of mitochondria in the cortical region in germinal-vesicle oocytes to a more dispersed pattern in Metaphase-I and -II oocytes.


Fertilization involves cell-cell fusion of a sperm with the oocyte. This fusion restores the diploid genome, activates the oocyte, and initiates embryonic development. The identification of proteins mediating the fusion of sperm with oocyte plasma membrane (oolemma) is important to a deeper knowledge of fertilization. Defects in sperm-oocyte fusion may account for some form of human infertility. The hypothesis that sperm plasma membrane and oolemma carry complementary molecules involved in multistep fusion process has been validated by studies of cell adhesion molecules (integrins) in sperm-oocyte interaction in a number of animal models and human in vitro fertilization assays. Integrins or integrin-like molecules and complement proteins present on the surface of mammalian gametes, might be involved in the interaction between oocyte and sperm at fertilization. This review will provide an overview of the interaction of human sperm membrane with the oolemma, the nature of cell adhesion molecules, their expression profiles and their possible involvement in adhesive and fusogenic events in human fertilization. Unraveling the unique molecules involved in human sperm plasma membrane-oolemma fusion will be an important component for the development of a new set of contraceptive vaccines.


: The ECG signal was studied by the method of Simson in 43 patients with the clinical pattern of respiratory failure of different genesis with the aim in view to detect signs of late ventricular potentials (LVP) in the QRS vector and in separate orthogonal leads X, Y and Z. The signal was averaged by 150 complexes. It has been shown that 53% of the patients examined have signs of LVP, their incidence being much higher in critical patients subjected to controlled lung ventilation. Characteristic differences of the LVP signs analysed in leads X, Y and Z have been detected, as compared to the analogous parameters of the control group.


The Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM) provides a monitoring mechanism of corporate governance through tax audits. However, indicators associated with the tax authority monitoring system remain underexplored due to data confidentiality. This study aims to examine the indicators used by the tax authority in performing tax monitoring where the tax return data of firms that claim reinvestment allowance (RA) were employed alongside the historical audit data of corporate taxpayers of both a tax-monitored firm and an unmonitored tax firm. The results of the analysis reported that the tax authority monitoring system is closely associated with fundamental details disclosed in the tax return namely, assessment year, profitability, scale of operation, firm directorship, tax consultancy and industry type. In contrast, the incidents of tax avoidance and incentive utilisation indicators were not prominent in tax authority monitoring. The investigation of firms that experienced tax monitoring provides insight into indicators which interest tax authorities when it comes to a firm's tax audit. This research revealed new evidence on IBRM preferred indicators in conducting tax monitoring.


Previous studies assessing seasonal variation of relapse onset in multiple sclerosis have had conflicting results. Small relapse numbers, differing diagnostic criteria, and single region studies limit the generalizability of prior results. The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a temporal variation in onset of relapses in both hemispheres and to determine whether seasonal peak relapse probability varies with latitude.


Infections due to biochemically typical Yersinia enterocolitica usually present as gastroenteritis, mesenteric lymphadenitis, terminal ileitis, and septicemia often with visceral abscesses. In these instances, the isolates have been biochemically typical and of well-established serotypes, namely 0:3 or 0:9 and, in the United States, 0:5 or 0:8. The recovery, recognition, and significance of biochemically and serologically atypical Y. enterocolitica in human infections has proceeded more slowly. From an analysis of the clinical histories of 20 patients infected with 21 such aberrant Y. enterocolitica, it appears that these strains are of restricted pathogenic potential, producing various clinical entities such as localized skin abscesses, conjunctivitis, self-limiting enteritis, and wound and urinary tract infections in hosts with predisposing factors. Epidemiologically, whereas episodic acquisition of atypical strains by hospitalized patients is indicative of nosocomial transmission, in the present series sporadic isolations over a 4-year period, mainly from ambulatory patients, suggest an occult reservoir in the community serviced by The Mount Sinai Hospital. In contrast to typical Y. enterocolitica, which has become well adapted in animal and human hosts, it appears that environmental strains may be in the evolutionary process of becoming adapted to humans.


The purpose of the study was to infer the Scottish HMI view of what is meant by Numeracy given the concerns that primary children's achievements in Numeracy reflect a lack of flexibility in handling number and an overemphasis on procedures at the expense of understanding (HMI, 1997). Three hundred HMI reports on primary schools in Scotland were randomly selected. Content analysis of the sections on Number, Money and Measurement revealed Numeracy to be conceived of as computational proficiency and as understanding of number. Surprisingly, there were significantly more (p<0.05) references to computational proficiency than there were to understanding of number. The results are discussed in terms of what it means to understand number. It is suggested that there needs to be much clearer delineation of what is required and meant by the idea of understanding number.


This study aims to explore options for pro-poor environmental fiscal reform (EFR) in Abbottabad. it serves as a primary evaluation, investigating ground realities, examining the institutional context and assessing household perceptions. It is hoped that the findings of this report will form the basis for further investigation and lay the groundwork for EFR implementation in the district.


A reduced pressure treatment system is provided that includes a canister that is fluidly connected to a tissue site and is configured to receive fluid drawn from the tissue site under the influence of a reduced pressure. A reduced pressure source provides the reduced pressure and is fluidly connected to the tissue site by a fluid communication path, which may include a source conduit, the canister, and a target conduit. A sensing device communicates with the source conduit and is configured to sense a pressure in the source conduit. A valve communicates with the source conduit and is configured to vent the reduced pressure. A processing unit communicates with the sensing device and the valve and is configured to open the valve for a selected amount of time, determine a decay of reduced pressure, and determine a fill status of the canister based on the decay of reduced pressure.


The first examples of unsymmetric coumarin polycatenar liquid crystals consisting of a coumarin central core with 1,2,3-triazole dendritic wings on both sides were synthesized via click reaction. Their properties were investigated using POM, DSC, XRD, SEM, IR, UV-vis spectra and photoluminescence measurements. Such polycatenars can self-assemble into different columnar liquid crystalline phases ranging from p4mm via p2mm to p6mm in their bulk states and into organogels with nanobelt or porous morphologies in different solvents. These polycatenars can exhibit highly fluorescent emission with large Stokes shifts (90–118 nm) in solution and as films. Most interestingly, the photodimerization in both LC and non-LC phases led to the formation of absolutely hexagonal columnar LC phases, while photodimerization in gel states led to the formation of flowerlike or 3D porous morphologies. Either columnar phases or gels with flowerlike or ordered porous morphologies were first observed in coumarin based derivatives.


The first edition of "Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases" was published in 1852 and is still one of the world's most popular reference books. Peter Mark Roget's original structure has changed little in subsequent editions, even to accommodate the many scientific and technological changed which have taken place. His classification system is the unique feature of the "Thesaurus" and took him nearly 50 years to perfect. Roget's "Thesaurus" was not published until he was 73 years old. Only 1000 copies of the first edition were printed. This facsimile edition, bound in cloth also contains an introduction by Laurence Urdang and gives an insight into Roget's achievement.


Patients with sustained and nonsustained ventricular tachycardia may present the clinician with difficult management problems in the assessment of risk, decision for long-term treatment, and selection of appropriate therapy. Many therapeutic modalities are available, and combinations may be required in a comprehensive treatment program. The development of safer and more effective means for VT control is progressing and is needed. Nonetheless, the results of therapy with many of the treatment programs described are encouraging, as exemplified by the report from Graboys and coworkers. Long-term survival was studied in a group of 123 patients with malignant ventricular arrhythmia treated with antiarrhythmic drugs chosen primarily with noninvasive testing methods. In 98 patients in whom complex ventricular ectopy was controlled, there were 6 sudden deaths, that is, an annual mortality of 2.3 percent. In 25 patients in whom ectopy persisted despite drug therapy, there were 17 sudden deaths. Continued study of the specific mechanisms leading to ventricular tachycardia and sudden death are needed in order to control this increasingly prevalent clinical problem.


This latest annual edition of the leading Italian review of Ethiopian studies includes articles (in Italian, unless otherwise noted) on: Marxist-Leninist terminology in Tigrinya; the biography of Blatengeta Heruy Walde-Selassie; Ethiopian manuscripts in the Medici Library; the Amharic verb in twentieth-century Ethiopian grammars (in French); archaeological excavations in the Aksum region; the Gabra 'Jili Galana' festival; small sculptures and ornaments from Eritrea and Aksum; and the Ethiopian diary of the Russian poet Nikolai Gumilyov in 1913 (in English). There is a review article on recent publications on the history and anthropology of southern Ethiopia, as well as other book reviews.


UNLABELLED
Here, we report that novel epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene fusions comprising the N-terminal of EGFR linked to various fusion partners, most commonly RAD51, are recurrent in lung cancer. We describe five patients with metastatic lung cancer whose tumors harbored EGFR fusions, four of whom were treated with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) with documented antitumor responses. In vitro, EGFR-RAD51 fusions are oncogenic and can be therapeutically targeted with available EGFR TKIs and therapeutic antibodies. These results support the dependence of EGFR-rearranged tumors on EGFR-mediated signaling and suggest several therapeutic strategies for patients whose tumors harbor this novel alteration.

SIGNIFICANCE
We report for the first time the identification and therapeutic targeting of EGFR C-terminal fusions in patients with lung cancer and document responses to the EGFR inhibitor erlotinib in 4 patients whose tumors harbored EGFR fusions. Findings from these studies will be immediately translatable to the clinic, as there are already several approved EGFR inhibitors. Cancer Discov; 6(6); 601-11. ©2016 AACR.See related commentary by Paik, p. 574This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 561.


Jobs generated by a single Poisson source can be routed through N alternative gateways, modelled as parallel M/M/1 queues. The servers are subject to random breakdowns which leave their corresponding queues intact, but may affect the routing of jobs during the subsequent repair periods. The marginal equilibrium queue size distributions are determined by spectral expansion. This can be done, at least in principle, for any number of queues. Several routing strategies are evaluated and compared empirically. Numerical results, including optimal routine are presented and possible generalizations are considered.<<ETX>>


The return signal frequency of an eye-safe ladar system is upconverted from the infrared to the visible through sum-frequency generation by incorporation of periodically poled LiNbO3 into the receiver. A quantitative analysis of the angular acceptance and the quantum efficiency is then presented for a single macroscopic receiver optic and a multiaperture microlens array. Comparing both results, a 6x increase in the receiver field of regard and an 18% increase in beam coupling were realized for the microlens design over the macroscopic system.


The scientific goal of the CBM (Compressed Baryonic Matter) experiment at FAIR (Darmstadt) is to explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter at highest baryon densities. The physics program of the CBM experiment is complimentary to the programs to be realized at MPD and BMN facilities at NICA and will start with beam derived by the SIS100 synchrotron. The 5.15 MJ superconducting dipole magnet will be used in the silicon tracking system of the CBM detector. The magnet will provide a magnetic field integral of 1 Tm which is required to obtain a momentum resolution of 1% for the track reconstruction. The results of the development of dipole magnet of the CBM experiment are presented.


The relaxation complexity rc(X) of the set of integer points X contained in a polyhedron is the minimal number of inequalities needed to formulate a linear optimization problem over X without using auxiliary variables. Besides its relevance in integer programming, this concept has interpretations in aspects of social choice, symmetric cryptanalysis, and machine learning. We employ efficient mixed-integer programming techniques to compute a robust and numerically more practical variant of the relaxation complexity. Our proposed models require row or column generation techniques and can be enhanced by symmetry handling and suitable propagation algorithms. Theoretically, we compare the quality of our models in terms of their LP relaxation values. The performance of those models is investigated on a broad test set and is underlined by their ability to solve challenging instances that could not be solved previously.


Many decades before SKY TV's popular "Football Idol" series Tommy Tynan won a newspaper competition called "Search for a Soccer-Star"; he was just 16 years old. His reward was an apprenticeship at Bill Shankly's famous Liverpool Football Club, and, at the club, he scored in abundance at every level he had a chance to play at. The problem was the squad was so damn strong that Tommy was unable to get a chance in the first-team. Loan moves to Swansea City (where the great John Charles wanted to show off his talent in Italy), and the Dallas Tornado's (he played against such greats as Pele, Bobby Moore and George Best) helped him to become one of the most prolific strikers in an era before the money men moved into the game, and, he never earned more than five-hundred quid a week!At Jack Charlton's "Sheffield Wednesday", he was a hit. At Newport County, playing alongside John Aldridge, they marched into Europe. At Plymouth Argyle, his goals propelled the team to promotion and a place in the semi-finals of the FA Cup. Tommy was a goal-machine wherever he went, and he wasn't afraid of controversy.Today, to many thousands of people, he is a cult-hero. This is his story...Signed for Liverpool by legendary Bill Shankly after winning the "Search for a Soccer-Star" competition, Tommy went on to become a cult figure during his time at Plymouth Argyle and Newport County.


Clinico-laboratory tests of the new Soviet polymer sorbent Regenkur obtained on the basis of rarely cross-linked cellulose ester were conducted on 60 patients with acute purulent diseases of the soft tissues in the surgical clinic, Sechenov Medical Academy. In treatment with sorbent applications the number of microorganisms reduced by several factors on the 3rd-5th day; on the average, the term of wound cleansing was 4.6 days, granulations appeared on day 4.3 and peripheral epithelialization on day 6.5. The duration of hospital stay decreased by one third. Advantages of the new sorbent over those of the well-known foreign analogue Debrizan were revealed.


Thermal Properties of conventional base fluids in heat transfer equipments are poor. By suspending nanometer sized metallic particles in these base fluids, the thermal properties of base fluids can be increased significantly. By using this nanofluids instead of conventional fluids, the heat transfer rate can be increased. An experimental setup was designed and fabricated for the measurement of convective heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids. Experiments were conducted by varying the flow rates and particle volume concentration in turbulent regime. By analyzing the results it was found that the heat transfer coefficient increases with increase in Reynolds number.As the concentration of nanoparticle increases, the convective heat transfer coefficient first increases and then decreases. This may be due to the settling of nanoparticles at higher concentrations. Dittus-Boelter correlation was modified to suit TiO 2-water nanofluids using the experimental data for a Reynolds number range of 4000 to 10,000.


Decoding visual contents from human brain activity is a challenging task with great scientific value. Two main facts that hinder existing methods from producing satisfactory results are 1) typically small paired training data; 2) under-exploitation of the structural information underlying the data. In this paper, we present a novel conditional deep generative neural decoding approach with structured intermediate feature prediction. Specifically, our approach first decodes the brain activity to the multilayer intermediate features of a pretrained convolutional neural network (CNN) with a structured multi-output regression (SMR) model, and then inverts the decoded CNN features to the visual images with an introspective conditional generation (ICG) model. The proposed SMR model can simultaneously leverage the covariance structures underlying the brain activities, the CNN features and the prediction tasks to improve the decoding accuracy and interpretability. Further, our ICG model can 1) leverage abundant unpaired images to augment the training data; 2) self-evaluate the quality of its conditionally generated images; and 3) adversarially improve itself without extra discriminator. Experimental results show that our approach yields state-of-the-art visual reconstructions from brain activities.


The Hunting Fishing and Trapping Co-ordinating Committee (HFTCC), created at the signature of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement has been meeting regularly since 1977. Early in the process, it became clear that the perception of the role and powers of the Committee were not commonly shared by the native and non-native members of the Committee. Nevertheless, the Committee has been used primarily as a consultative body for wildlife related issues. Of all the files on which the Committee worked, Caribou management, (including the development of outfitting and commercial hunting for this species) has been among one of the most discussed subjects during the meetings. An analysis of important decisions taken and of the process that led to them reveal that very rarely was the Committee able to formulate unanimous resolutions to the Governments concerning caribou management. In fact, only a few unanimous resolutions could be traced and many were ignored. This took place during a period of abundance and growth of the caribou herds. As a result, the Committee has gone through the cycle of growth of the George River Herd without a management plan, without a long term outfitting management plan and for the last 8 years, without a population estimate of the herds. This situation did not prevent the Committee from allocating quotas for a commercial hunt, open a winter sport hunt and to give permanent status to outfitting camps that were once established as mobile camps. It was hoped then that increased harvest would help maintain the population at carrying capacity. This short-term reaction however, never evolved into a more elaborate plan. Of course this must be looked at in the context of the HFTCC having a lot more to worry about than the Caribou. Although all members know of the population cycles of caribou, the decision process that must be triggered, should a crisis occur is not in place. This presently results into a polarization of concerned users (fall outfitters vs. winter outfitters, subsistence and sport hunters vs. commercial hunt, Outfitters Associations vs. HFTCC and eventually George River Herd users vs. Leaf River Herd users. The HFTCC may have to make difficult decisions during the coming years but did not gain much constructive experience through its first 25 years of existence. It is unfortunate that the authority of the Committee is binding the governments only in times of crisis when an upper limit of kill needs to be established. Because of the unpredictability of caribou herd numbers, the upper limit of kill should be established on a yearly basis. This would insure that the committee is fed information continuously in order to make informed decisions and would also re-establish the authority of the HFTCC over this resource.


Plantation forestry is making a significant positive contribution to the environment as well as to the livelihoods of millions of people in Asia. This chapter examines some of the major constraints facing commercial acacia and eucalypt plantations in South-east and East Asia and discusses adaptive actions in the face of climate change. Particular emphasis is placed on Vietnam and China but examples are also drawn from other parts of SE Asia where forest plantations are making a significant contribution to forest cover. The area of forest cover in Asia has declined greatly in the past 50 years due to an expanding population, and increasing demand for forest products and land for food and energy crops. For example, based on available documents, in 1943 Vietnam had 14.3 million ha of forests, with 43% forest cover; but by the year 1990 only 9.18 million ha remained, with a forest cover of 27.2%. During the period 1980 to 1990, the average forest lost was more than 100,000 ha each year. However, from 1990 to the present, the forest area has increased gradually, due to afforestation and rehabilitation of natural forest. Based on the official statement in Decision No. 1267/QD/BNN-KL-LN, dated 4 May 2009, as of 31 December 2009, the total national forest area was 13.2 million ha (forest cover of 39.1%), including 2.9 million ha of plantation forest. Recently, China too has also been able to reverse the decline in forest cover due to forest protection and afforestation. According to the 7th national forest resource inventory finished in 2008, there were 195.4 million ha (14.9 billion m3 of standing wood volume) of forest in China, an increase of 20.5 million ha (1.1 billion m3 standing wood volume) over the previous audit 5 years earlier. Of the increased forest area and volume, 3.9 million ha were from natural forests, and 8.4 million ha were from tree plantations.

In the region, logging of natural forests is proceeding at alarming rates in some countries and is tightly controlled in others. In China, the "national natural forest protection program" was started in 2000, and any logging in natural forest is illegal, as is the case in Thailand. Following that the "national reforestation program" was initiated to established tree plantations in bare land for natural protection in north-west China and wood production in southern China. Forests are classified as ecological forests and natural forest reserves which the government will pay about 120 RMB per ha annually to the forest owners, or commercial forests for wood production. Likewise, the Government of Vietnam has given high priority to forest rehabilitation, as Program 327 and the 5 Million Hectare Rehabilitation Program (MHRP). Program 327, which lasted from 1993 until 1998, was effective in increasing afforestation and forest rehabilitation. The 5MHRP (1998 – 2010) had the objective of rehabilitating 5 million ha of forests and protecting existing forests, in order to increase forest cover to 43%. Unlike China and Thailand, Vietnam obtains more than 90% of its timber volume from natural forest.


The ARB process has been carried out up to seven cycles on a commercial purity 1100 aluminum alloy to obtain ultra-fine grains with the average grain size of 500 nm. Microstructural evolution of the ARB processed aluminum alloy was examined by a transmission electron microscopy as a function of accumulated total strain. Mechanical properties including hardness, tensile property, and sliding wear characteristics of the severely deformed Al alloy were also investigated. Grain boundaries of the ARB processed alloy were diffusive and poorly defined after the initial ARB cycles, however they changed to well-defined high angle boundaries with the increase of the accumulated strain. Though hardness and strength of the ARB processed alloy were enhanced significantly, wear resistance of the processed alloy hardly increased. The mechanical properties were discussed in connection with the microstructure.


Purpose:  To compare the IOP lowering effect and post-operative complications of low tension sutures versus tight tension sutures in deep sclerectomy.
Study Design:  Quasi experimental study.
Place and Duration of Study:
Methods:  Twenty seven eyes undergoing deep sclerectomy operation with normal strength sutures (TS) were compared with 21 eyes undergoing a modified technique in which low tension sutureswere tied to only approximate anatomy (LS). Both sets of patients were operated on by the same experienced surgeon with similar technique except for the tensile strength of suture; same antimetabolite in similar concentration was used with identical pre and post-operative care. Outcome measures were post-operative intraocular pressure, number of medications needed and complications.
Results:  IOP decreased significantly in both groups, in TS group by 12.6 mm Hg (p < 0.001) and in the LS groups by 18.9mm Hg (p < 0.001). Greater IOP drop was seen in LS group versus TS group (p = 0.046). In LS group number of eye drops required post operatively were significantly less than TS group (p = 0.007). After follow up only one patient in the loose suture group still required IOP-lowering medication. There were minimal complications in both groups, 1 patient in the LS group and 7 in TS group required a YAG Goniotomy.
Conclusion:  Using low tension sutures in deep sclerectomy increases the IOP lowering effect of the surgery and reduces the number of medications the patient requires post operatively.


A supported dual acidic ionic liquid catalyst was prepared via anchoring 3-sulfobutyl-1-(3-propyltriethoxysilane) imidazolium hydrogen sulfate onto silica gel by covalent bonds. The novel immobilized acidic ionic liquid effectively catalyzed the one-pot synthesis of amidoalkyl naphthols by the multicomponent condensation of aldehydes with 2-naphthol and amides under solvent-free conditions. Moreover, the catalyst could be recycled six-times without a significant loss of catalytic activity.


In Europe, a variety of national policies regulate access to citizenship. This article analyses how citizenship policies affect naturalization rates among immigrants. Our analysis confirms that favourable citizenship policies positively affect naturalization rates, especially among first-generation immigrants with more than 5 but fewer than 20 years of residence. However, most variation is explained by other factors. Immigrants from poor, politically unstable, and non-EU countries are more likely to be a citizen of their European country of residence. Other important predictors of the citizenship status of immigrants are language, years of residence (first generation), and age (second generation). Explanations of naturalization rates in Europe should not only take into account institutional conditions but also include other destination and origin country factors and individual characteristics of immigrants.


The primary objective of this article is to critically examine some aspects of the traditional Ghanaian and Western philosophies of adult education. It is a well-attested fact that many of the pre-colonial and early colonial writers about Africa portrayed Africa as a dark continent devoid of advanced centres of learning worthy of emulation by others. The old West African civilizations of Ghana, Mali and Songhai with advanced centres of learning at Timbuktu and Djenne in the 11th century seemed to have been completely ignored by these writers (Boahen 1967: 20, Davidson 1966b: 50). Even though many other writers including several missionaries, anthropologists and historians, depicted Africa in a rather positive and scientific manner (Davidson 1966b, Goody 1966), much of the negative image created long ago still exists and needs to be examined and corrected. The formal Western system of school education was introduced in Ghana more than a century ago. Despite this, about 60% of the adult population today makes its living as illiterate farmers, workers, apprentices or master craftsmen in the various traditional art and craft production centres. Consequently, traditional adult education continues to play an important role in the social and economic development of the country. Like the Western system of adult education the Ghanaian traditional education has sound philosophical foundations, which have helped to maintain political stability and social cohesion in the country over the years. Much is written about Western and eastern philosophies but there is a dearth of literature on philosophies of adult education from Africa. Given that Africa is the second largest continent on the globe and that adult education proliferates throughout the continent, the authors felt their investigation would make a significant contribution to a global understanding of the field. Additionally, there is an increasing need for African students to appreciate and re-establish confidence in their own culture. This review cannot cover all of Africa so the focus is on Ghana, one country in West Africa.


Digital libraries and e-learning systems are important enabling technologies for the knowledge supply chain in the digital age. Therefore, this paper addresses the meaning of "e-learning", the functionality of the digital library; and finally how e-learning resources are included and organized in the digital library. This paper also aims to examine and discuss the crucial roles libraries play in e-learning; the challenges and opportunities facing the e-learning program and the library's involvement. Then the authors propose a model for implementing e-learning through DLs according to knowledge management process. The proposed model would contribute to the advancement of academic debate in both the areas of DL and E-learning.


This paper analyzes the distracted pedestrians' waiting time before crossing the road in three conditions: 1) not distracted, 2) distracted with a smartphone and 3) distracted with a smartphone in the presence of virtual flashing LED lights on the crosswalk as a safety measure. For the means of data collection, we adapted an in-house developed virtual immersive reality environment (VIRE). A total of 42 volunteers participated in the experiment. Participants' positions and head movements were recorded and used to calculate walking speeds, acceleration and deceleration rates, surrogate safety measures, time spent playing smartphone game, etc. After a descriptive analysis on the data, the effects of these variables on pedestrians' waiting time are analyzed by employing a cox proportional hazard model. Several factors were identified as having impact on waiting time. The results show that an increase in initial walk speed, percentage of time the head was oriented toward smartphone during crossing, bigger minimum missed gaps and unsafe crossings resulted in shorter waiting times. On the other hand, an increase in the percentage of time the head was oriented toward smartphone during waiting time, crossing time and maze solving time, means longer waiting times for participants.


Today, we are seeing an increasing number of software applications that users want to use anywhere, anytime. Such mobile applications often deliver their user interfaces (UIs) to client devices over the World Wide Web. However, Web-based UIs cannot provide the same level of usability as window-based UIs on mobile devices with their small screens and occasional network dropouts. To address this challenge, we present a UI framework that combines the usability of a full-featured UI with the flexibility of a thin presentation logic: We exchange interface specifications and events between the application logic on the server and a generic UI rendering engine on the client device using an instant messaging infrastructure. The paper gives an overview of the framework architecture and the features of the communication protocol, and discusses performance measurements obtained on a public network.


Modern Islamic civilization in the analysis of Islamic scholars is experiencing theological discrepancy between the ideal of Islamic normative teachings and the actual phenomenon of the people. Theological discrepancy between teaching ideals normative Islam with the actual phenomenon of the people, becomes the character of Modern Islam civilization. The ideal of normative teachings of Islam is to realize that Islam is the religion rahmatan lii natural or beneficial for all nature as well with his people, while the actual phenomenon of the people describe a miniature neo-jahiliyah framed multidimensional crises that began with crises intellectual by not wanting to get around scientific progress and development technology, followed by methodological crises that are always late in learning and access information in a fast-paced century and then the economic crisis, crisis social (increasingly alienated, marginalized and uncritical) and ends with a crisis morals are increasingly hedonistic and leave traditional bases primarily religion. The malaise of the people was extended by Western occupation of the socio-political and psychological areas of the people by destroying worldviews people on the level of ontological, epistemological and axiological through westernization his science which is subjectivism-anthropocentric, dualism, mechanistic-deterministic, atomistic-reductionism, instrumentalism, materialism-scientism. Because the worldview of a people is the foundation in building and determine the direction of the development of its civilization in which world-views are built by the epistemology, the above phenomenon is something that must be paid for expensive for Muslims. Through interdisciplinary studies, the future reconstruction of civilization Islam requires the reconstruction of a paradigm of science and a system education by neutralizing both. Naturalization and acculturation paradigm of science and education system with religious values and Islamic culture will produce theistic science and holistic education systems. This is a strategic step for the reconstruction of modern Islamic civilization because, the linkage of science and values is a philosophical element in futuristic studies for those who try to answer future problems.


A nationwide phone survey of attitudes toward urban trees, participation in civic or educational activities, and memories of childhood experiences with gardening and nature was conducted with 2004 adults in large urban areas. We analyzed the infl uence of 11 childhood experiences and fi ve adult demographic characteristics on three items: "Trees in cities help people feel calmer," "Do trees have a particular personal, symbolic, or spiritual meaning to you?" and "During the past year, have you participated in a class or program about gardening?" Growing up next to natural elements such as fl ower beds, visiting parks, taking environmental classes, and gardening during childhood were associated with stronger adult attitudes and more actions. Growing up next to urban elements, such as large buildings, had a small, but opposite, infl uence. Demographics played a role in adult attitudes and actions. While both passive and active interactions with plants during childhood were associated with positive adult values about trees, the strongest infl uence came from active gardening, such as picking fl owers or planting trees. These results indicate that horticultural programs for children raised in urban surroundings with few or no plants can be effective in fostering an appreciation for gardening in adults.


Crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells featuring a high-temperature processed homojunction have dominated the photovoltaic industry for decades, with a global market share of around 93%. Integrating commercially available crystalline silicon solar cells with high-efficiency perovskite solar cells is a viable pathway to increase the power conversion efficiency, and hence achieve low levelized electricity costs for the photovoltaic systems. However, the fabrication process for this type of cell is challenging due to the many, and often conflicting, material processing requirements and limitations. Here, we present an innovative design for a monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell, featuring a mesoscopic perovskite top subcell and a high-temperature tolerant homojunction c-Si bottom subcell. The improved temperature tolerance of the c-Si bottom cell permits significantly increased flexibility in the design and fabrication of the perovskite cell. We demonstrate an efficiency of 22.5% (steady-state) and a Voc of 1.75 V on a 1 cm2 cell. The method developed in this work opens up new possibilities in designing, fabricating and commercialising low-cost high-efficiency perovskite/c-Si tandem solar cells.


The Beartooth Mountains of the northern Wyoming province contain a suite of incompatible-element-enriched amphibolites of andesitic composition that contains both calcalkalic and tholeitic varieties. These amphibolites formed about 2800 Ma and show trace-element and lead isotopic signatures that suggest an origin similar to some modern andesites produced in convergent margin environments. In particular, these rocks show depletions of the high-field-strength elements (e.g., Nb, Ti, Zr) and enriched Pb isotopic compositions indicative of recycling of Pb from a crustal reservoir into the mantle. These data and other geologic considerations suggest that the northern Wyoming province may have been the site of a Late Archean convergent continental margin.


In Kenya, stem borers destroy an estimated 400,000 metric tons, or 13.5%, of farmers' annual maize harvest costing about US$80 millions. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) maize controls stem borers without harming humans, livestock and the environment and was sown to 140m ha -1 globally in 2009. Two public Bt maize lines of cry1Ab::ubi gene (Event 216 and Event 223) were crossed with two non-Bt maize inbred lines, CML144 and CML159. The efficacy in the control of Chilo partellus stem borers in the parents, F 1 and F 2:3 successive generations were studied in a biosafety level 2 greenhouse. The Btgene effectively reduced stem borer damage with lower values for number of exit holes, tunneling length, proportion of stalk tunneled, number of larvae and number of pupae than the non Bt-maize and the check cultivars. The F 1 generations values for all damage parameters studied were comparable to those for the Bt-maize inbred lines as expected. The F 2:3 generations showed a spread of damage parameters from resistant to susceptible. These results suggest that the Cry1A(b) genes in the study was inherited following the Mendelian segregation. Key words: Bt maize, Chilo partellus, Bt -endotoxins, biosafety, greenhouse.


Michael Nyman's notorious appropriations of pre-existing music have been traditionally dismissed as facile and parasitical and thus unworthy of a serious critical investigation. I analyse three instances of Nyman's reuses of Mozart's music arguing that the recognition of their 'plagiaristic' quality should not be the basis for a quick dismissal but the starting point for a discussion of their musical and cultural significance. My focus is on the ideological and expressive needs that Mozart served through the trajectory of Nyman's practice from and beyond the aesthetic limitations of minimalism. In Re Don Giovanni (1977) (based on Il Catalogo e' Questo from Don Giovanni), reveals Nyman's intentional 'confusion' of Mozart's stylistic codes and Apollonian aesthetic markers with minimalist notions of reduction, repetition and simplicity. I argue that this 'confusion' served Nyman to use Mozart as a 'cultural pivot' to efface distinctions between high and mass culture and situate his own music across the Great Divide. In Trysting Fields (1988) (based on K364), I suggest, Nyman uses Mozart as a Mask, to introduce expressivity while at the same time striving to preserve the ideals of impersonality and objectivity proper to the experimental tradition in which he consciously situated himself. Finally, the analysis of I am an Unusual Thing (1991), the last of Nyman's appropriations of Mozart (specifically of quartets K428, i and K465, ii), points towards the construction of a different Mozart, a Dionysian Mozart that both mediates and reflects Nyman's move towards a post-minimalist restoration of the expressive apparatus of tonality.


Temperature and humidity are the two main parameters indicating the comfort level of the building occupants. Although the effect of temperature is taken into account in thermal simulation of buildings, the moisture transfer through the rooms and porous building walls is sometimes neglected. The level of humidity can give different sensations of thermal comfort. It is necessary to take into account both heat and moisture transport in and around buildings to predict the hygrothermal behavior of rooms and building walls so as to calculate the energy demands correctly. In this work some benchmark exercises are worked out to see the performance of the heat and moisture transfer model implemented for rooms and porous walls. Finally, numerical results are compared with the measured data for a room exposed to varying outdoor conditions.


Congenital limb malformations are observed in approximately 1 in 500 people making them one of the most frequent birth defects. Increasing numbers of genes are being identified that when functionally perturbed result in human limb abnormalities. The functions of many of these genes have been investigated in the two main models of limb development – the chick and the mouse. Limb defects are often part of complex syndromes that affect other structures in the body. This reflects the multiple roles that many genes play during embryonic development. Recently, an emerging theme is that the disruption of cis-regulatory enhancers controlling expression of important developmental genes can lead to limb-specific birth defects. Future research focusing on how the human limb develops will increase our understanding of the molecular and genetic basis of congenital defects.

Key Concepts:

Chick and mouse embryology has contributed to our knowledge of limb development and the basis of human limb defects.

Many key patterning genes found in mouse and chick research cause human limb defects when mutated.

Limb defects are often part of complex syndromes.

Defects which affect only the limb are often caused by disruption of cis-regulatory enhancers.

Future work on how the human limb develops will further our understanding of congenital defects.

Keywords:

embryo;
limb development;
congenital limb defect;
human;
hedgehog;
patterning;
signalling;
genetic


This report reviews how to set up a laser Doppler perfusion imaging system intended for visualization of skin blood perfusion, capture images and evaluate the results obtained. A brief summary of related papers published in the literature within the areas of skin irritant and allergy patch testing, microdialysis and skin tumour circulation is presented, as well as early applications within other fields such as diabetology, wound healing and microvascular research.


Roll-to-roll (R2R) gravure printing is considered to be a leading technology for the production of flexible and low-cost printed electronics in the near future. To enable the use of R2R gravure in printed electronics, the limits of overlay printing registration accuracy (OPRA) and the scalability of printed features with respect to the physical parameters of the gravure system, including given plastic substrates and inks, should be characterized. Important parameters of printed lines include surface roughness, thickness, line widening, and line-edge roughness. To date, there are no comprehensive reports regarding the limits of OPRA and the scalability of printed electrodes, including the control of surface roughness, thickness, line widening, and line-edge roughness using R2R gravure printing. In this paper, we examine ways of evaluating the OPRA limit of our gravure system. We find that OPRA is limited in the web moving direction to 40 μm and in the perpendicular direction to 16 μm, showing the importance of web handling on registration. Furthermore, we demonstrate the scalability of printed electrodes formed using a R2R gravure system to line widths of 317 μm, with 440 nm thickness, 30 nm of surface roughness and edge waviness of 4 μm on PET foils, and describe optimization strategies to realize improved surface roughness, thickness, line widening, and line-edge roughness for future printed electronics applications.


This article presents a blocked-off-region procedure to model radiative transfer in irregular geometries using a Cartesian coordinates finite-volume method (FVM). Straight-edged, inclined and curved boundaries can be treated. It is capable of handling participating or transparent media enclosed by black or reflecting walls. With this procedure, irregular geometries can be specified through the problem specification portion of the program. Four test problems are used to show that the procedure is capable of reproducing available results for inclined and curved walls, transparent, nonscattering, and anisotropically scattering media.


In this chapter, the author analyzed binary systems, ethanol + water, methanol + water and benzene + water, and an original mathematical model allowing the determination of the complete adsorption of binary systems on KaA, CaA, CaX, NaA and NaX zeo- lites using the Gibbs adsorption theory is proposed. The Gibbs equation and the Gibbs-Duhem equation have a number of limitations and do not take into account the properties of the investigated zeolites. Therefore, it is necessary to use the equations obtained by the author as a result of laboratory research, for the theoretical calculation and development of dehydration and concentration systems for alcohols.


The resistive properties and activation energy of YBa2Cu3O7-ρ (YBCO) superconducting materials change in magnetic field. It is explained that magnetoresistive behavior in terms of the presence of two-dimensional vortices being pinned effectively when they are perpendicular to the CuO2 planes and an exponential behavior of the activation energy versus the applied field was obtained. The resulting activation energies ranging from 1 to 5 Tesla were attributed to inter-granular flux creep process.


In this work we deal with the Multi-vehicle One-to-one Pickup and Delivery Problem with Split Loads (MPDPSL). This problem is a generalization of the one-to-one Pickup and Delivery Problem (PDP) where each load can be served by multiple stops by the same vehicle. In practice split deliveries is a viable option in many settings such as courier services of third party logistics operators. We propose a branch-and-cut algorithm which employs valid inequalities devised for special cases of the MPDPSL, such as the Dial-a-Ride Problem, PDP and Split Delivery Vehicle Routing Problem. According to our computational experiments with randomly generated test instances, we may claim that the proposed algorithm can be used for small sized instances.


ABSTRACT Insects are considered as a potential substitute for fishmeal (FM) and soybean meal (SBM) in feeding mixtures for poultry diets. The intent of this paper is to appraise the current work relating to the use of insects as alternative protein in poultry feeding and the potential of large production of insects for the poultry feed industry. Certainly insects have a mammoth prospective as a protein source and other active substances (i.e. polyunsaturated fatty acids, antimicrobial peptides) for poultry. On the basis of numerous studies, insects meal belonging to the orders Diptera (black soldier fly, housefly), Coleoptera (mealworms), Megadrilacea (earthworm), Lepidoptera (silkworm and cirina forda) and Orthoptera (grasshoppers, locust and crickets), may be fruitfully used as feed ingredient in poultry diets. Information regarding their nutritional composition and biological evaluation was collected and compared it to SBM and FM.


Muscle incubate was shown to contain factors capable to increase the transmitter release in low-effective synapses and decrease it in high-effective those, dueto activation and inhibition, respectively, of the processes governing formation of available store of the transmitter. Activatiory effect of the low-molecular fraction on the low-effective synapses was correlated with the concentration of histidine-containing substances in this fraction.


Understanding variations in habitat use through time contributes to identification of habitats critical for species survival. Here we used passive acoustic telemetry to examine the residency and site fidelity patterns of the reef manta ray Mobula alfredi at Lady Elliot Island (LEI), a key aggregation site in eastern Australia. Six acoustic receivers were moored around LEI between 2009 and 2012, and 34 acoustic transmitters were deployed on manta rays. All tagged animals returned to this site within their recording period, with some indi viduals visiting the area for up to 23 consecutive days. Using a set of mixed effect models, we analysed the hourly visitation patterns of manta rays in relation to temporal and en vironmental variables. Diel phase and sea temperature showed the strongest effects on the presence of manta rays, with weaker effects detected for wind direction, wind speed and moon illumination. Individuals occupied LEI habitat mostly during daylight hours and in calm weather conditions, which may be linked with behavioural thermoregulation, social inter actions and cleaning activities. Their absence at night may be related to foraging strategies in deeper offshore waters. The effect of sea temperature reflects the greater seasonal occurrence of manta rays at LEI in winter, when temperatures are coolest, potentially in response to regional food availability. The high degree of manta ray site fidelity at aggregation sites underscores the importance of these areas as key daytime habitats for the species. We suggest that conservation measures should prioritise the protection of coastal aggregation habitats from overexploitation and degradation.


Labile P is a well-recognized nonpoint source pollutant in agroecosystems. Predicting the fate and transport of P in watershed systems is critical in protecting water quality. In this case study, we investigated the role of soil nanoparticles in P release in South Carolina agricultural soils. Batch desorption experiments were coupled with scanning and transmission electron microscopy (EM) and x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) to better assess the reactivity of soil nanoparticles. The surface soils contained a total P concentration of 260 to 940 mg kg ―1 , approximately 40 to 60% of which was ammonium oxalate extractable P. The 30-d desorption experiments showed that P desorption was initially rapid, followed by a slow continuous release at pH 5.5 and 7. It was generally not correlated with the release of soil nanoparticles (operationally defined as 10-200 nm). Phosphorus was not readily retained on these nanoparticles at pH 4 to 7. These nanoparticles were rich in Si and S, and coated with Fe and C and trace amounts of P, Ca, Na, Mg, and Al. The EM images of nanoparticle morphology showed C-associated globular formations as well as assembled platelets and spherical nanoparticles. The colloid- and nanoparticle-facilitated P release has often been suggested as one of the important pathways for P transport in the soil-water environment. This study presents a new aspect of nanoparticle reactivity in the soil environment, however: nanoparticles do not always contribute to P transport processes.


The rehydration properties of original whey protein isolate (WPIC) powder and spray-dried WPI prepared from either unheated (WPIUH) or nanoparticulated WPI solutions were investigated. Nanoparticulation of whey proteins was achieved by subjecting reconstituted WPIC solutions (10% protein, w/w, pH 7.0) to heat treatment at 90 °C for 30 s with no added calcium (WPIH) or with 2.5 mM added calcium (WPIHCa). Powder surface nanostructure and elemental composition were investigated using atomic force microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, followed by dynamic visualisation of wetting and dissolution characteristics using environmental scanning electron microscopy. The surface of powder particles for both WPIUH and WPIC samples generally appeared smooth, while WPIH and WPIHCa displayed micro-wrinkles with more significant deposition of nitrogen and calcium elements. WPIH and WPIHCa exhibited lower wettability and solubility performance than WPIUH and WPIC during microscopic observation. This study demonstrated that heat-induced aggregation of whey proteins, in the presence or absence of added calcium, before drying increases aggregate size, alters the powder surface properties, consequently impairing their wetting characteristics. This study also developed a fundamental understanding of WPI powder obtained from nanoparticulated whey proteins, which could be applied for the development of functional whey-based ingredients in food formulations, such as nanospacers to modulate protein–protein interactions in dairy concentrates.