The notion that Japanese managers are more long-term oriented than Western managers has received a great deal of attention. For example, Vogel (1979) argued that Japanese managers are willing to defer maximizing immediate profits to increase market share. Campbell (1994) suggested that Japan's top managers have generally been focused on the long-term success of the company, rather than the short-term wealth of the shareholders. According to Abbeglen and Stalk (1985), Japanese companies are much less focused on short-term profitability than US companies. Instead, Japanese companies focus on growth through aggressive financial policies and an emphasis on marketing and product development. By focusing on market share and building customer relationships, long-term financial success becomes more likely. In this paper, we examine individual characteristics of Japanese and United States managers, with a focus on managerial time horizons. Time horizon is defined as the predisposition toward a future focus of an individual decision maker. The future focus can vary from a short period to a long period in time. The issue of managerial time horizons is especially important because the time horizons of US managers are widely believed to be short relative to their foreign competitors (Mannix/Loewenstein 1994). As well, for managers involved in cross-cultural negotiations and interactions, understanding managerial behavior is critical. While other studies have examined time horizon at the firm level, as far as we could determine, this is the first attempt to empirically explore the conventional wisdom that Japanese managers are more long-term oriented than their US counterparts. Conceptual Background Over the last two decades, US firms have lost their global dominance in many industries. This decline has often been attributed to the short time horizones of US managers. This issue has been widely discussed and documented in the business press (e.g., Business Week 1984, Dobrzynski et al. 1986, Drucker 1986, Hector 1988, Lohr 1992, Faltermayer 1990). The alleged short time horizons of US managers has caused such concern that the US. Congress held hearings on the subject.(2) The Council on Competitiveness and Harvard Business School sponsored a research report on a similar theme.(3) Evidence has been marshaled on both sides. US managers have been criticized for their "short-termism" (Banks/Wheelwright 1979, Choate/Linger 1986, Hayes/Abernathy 1980, Onkvisit/Shaw 1991), with declining global market shares of US companies used as evidence. Because aggregate spending on industrial R&D expenses (a future oriented expense) has not significantly changed, other researchers have argued that US management is not characterized by "short-termism" (Bruce/Taylor 1991, Geber 1988, Logue 1985). The short-term behavior of US managers is often attributed to capital market demands (Loescher 1984). If stockholders in US firms are primarily interested in quarterly earnings, these stockholders may liquidate their stockholdings when managers make long-term investments that depress current quarter earnings. Thus, managers with an eye on the stock price would forgo making investments that only pay off in the long run. One could argue that in a free market economy, taking a short-term view of investments for the future should not matter. In a strict Darwinian sense, the myopic firms would be eliminated by the market (if the market valued long-term decision making) and the long-term oriented firms would be rewarded. However, it is not clear how certain structural factors such as national culture affect resource allocation decisions in corporations. Hill (1995), for example, discussed how institutional structures in certain countries help in minimizing transaction costs. Along similar lines, agency costs may be a function of culture. Researchers studying the time horizon issue (e.g., Hall 1991, Poterba/Summers 1991) have focused their attention on corporate level behavior like research and development expenditures or capital expenditures of the firm. …


Ambient Assisted Living systems aim at providing automated support to humans with special needs. Smart Homes equipped with Internet of Things infrastructure supporting the development of Ambient Intelligence which can look after humans is being widely investigated worldwide. As any IT based system, these have strengths and also weaknesses. One dimension of these systems developers want to strengthen is security, eliminating or at least reducing as much as possible potential threats. The motivation is clear, as these systems gather sensitive information about the health of an individual there is potential for harm if that information is accessed and used by the wrong person. This chapter starts by providing an analysis of stakeholders in this area. Then explains the IoT infrastructure used as a testbed for the main security analysis methods and tools. Finally it explains a process to assess the likelihood of certain vulnerabilities in the system. This process is mainly focused on the design stage of a system. It can be iteratively combined with development to inform a developing team which system architectures may be safer and worth given development priority.


Abstract This paper examines a class of explicit finite-difference advection schemes derived along the method of lines. An important application field is large-scale atmospheric transport. The paper therefore focuses on the demand of positivity. For the spatial discretization, attention is confined to conservative schemes using five points per direction. The fourth-order central scheme and the family of κ-schemes, comprising the second-order central, the second-order upwind, and the third-order upwind biased, are studied. Positivity is enforced through flux limiting. It is concluded that the limited third-order upwind discretization is the best candidate from the four examined. For the time integration attention is confined to a number of explicit Runge-Kutta methods of orders two up to four. With regard to the demand of positivity, these integration methods turn out to behave almost equally and no best method could be identified.


Citric acid mediated green synthetic route has been demonstrated for the regioselective synthesis of N-alkylated indazoles in good to excellent isolated yields ( ~ 78-96%) from readily available starting materials 2-methylanilines (1), NaNO2 (2) and ethyl chloroacetate (3) via diazotization, intra molecular cyclization and followed by N-alkylation in the presence of 1:1 ratio of ethanol and water in one-pot. Notably, if the substrate (1) contains – NO2 group and is reduced to – NH2 in the presence of Fe, CaCl2 in the same pot at 60-65°C for 30-40 min. The remarkable advantages of this method include cleaner reaction profile, easy to perform, high yields of products and simple work-up procedure. Besides, the reaction is step-and atom-economic and is carried out in green catalytic medium.


The Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS) replicates data to ensure data availability in case of a failure caused by events such as data node crash, disk failure, switch/rack failure or corruption in the data block. The evolution of big data leads to large population of data stored and managed in the clusters of cloud. The degree of replication is directly proportional to availability of data with an increase in the replication cost and update cost of data blocks in cloud. The applications executed on the data nodes demand various QoS needs while a block of its data is replicated such as disk access latency, constant bandwidth, delay, jitter etc. Existing replication algorithms replicates data based on the replication factor and the specified QoS needs of application. At a given point of time we expect the types of replication request from different applications varies largely and there is a need to allocate replica based on the request type and the replication factor to achieve a balanced replication cost and availability of data with the available block spaces in the entire cluster. We propose a multi attribute QoS replica allocation algorithm to replicate data considering the different types of replica request, replication factor and the total available space to achieve a balanced replica allocation. The proposed algorithm satisfies different QoS needs of applications and reduces the number of QoS violated replicas when the request consists of different QoS types. We measure the performance of the proposed algorithm in allocating replica and the reduction in number of QoS violated replica count over the existing algorithms such as random replication. The simulation result shows a better performance over the existing algorithms with a slight increase in the computational time.


Abstract Background: Positive pressure ventilation with large tidal volumes has been shown to cause lung injury via the serine/threonine kinase-protein kinase B (Akt) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)-pathways. However, the effects of high tidal volume (VT) ventilation on the heart are unclear. Objectives: Evaluate the effect of VT ventilation on the cardiac vascular permeability and intracellular Akt and eNOS signaling pathway. Methods: C57BL/6 and Akt knock-out (heterozygotes, +/−) mice were exposed to high VT (30 mL/kg) mechanical ventilation with room air for one and/or five hours. Results: High VT ventilation increased cardiac microvascular permeability and eNOS phosphorylation in a timedependent manner. Serum cardiac troponin I was increased after one hour of high VT ventilation. Cardiac Akt phosphorylation was accentuated after one hour and attenuated after five hours of high VT ventilation. Pharmacological inhibition of Akt with LY294002 and high VT ventilation of Akt+/− mice attenuated cardiac Akt phosphorylation, but not eNOS phosphorylation. Conclusion: High VT ventilation increased cardiac myocardial injury, microvascular permeability, and eNOS phosphorylation. Involvement of cardiac Akt in high VT ventilation was transient.


Abstract Between 2015 and 2016, 16 adult Solomon Island leaf frogs (Ceratobatrachus guentheri) were evaluated at a zoological institution for proliferative epidermal lesions on the head, and occasionally the dorsum and limbs. In most cases, the lesions were severe enough that they could not be surgically resected. Five frogs were diagnosed histologically with proliferative epidermal lesions consistent with squamous cell carcinoma. Polymerase chain reaction for herpesvirus, papillomavirus, and chytridiomycosis yielded negative results. Transmission electron microscopy and virus isolation of two masses did not identify a virus. Although no specific etiology could be identified, based on the clinical presentation, the number of animals affected, and the negative test results for viral agents, an environmental, husbandry, or genetic component were considered as possible etiologies.


This survey study investigated the attitude of librarians towards library users with learning disabilities in Nigeria. The study applied descriptive survey method and was guided by three research questions and hypotheses respectively. The sampled population for the study stood at 451 drawn among certified librarians working in various libraries in the country through proportionate stratified random sampling technique based on gender and years of experience. The major instrument used in collecting data for the study is the questionnaire titled 'Librarians' Attitude Towards Library Users with Learning Disability Questionnaire (LATLULDQ) and validated by professionals in psychology and Educational evaluation and Measurement. To establish the reliability of the instrument, Cronbach Alpha Statistical technique was used and a reliability coefficient of 0.82 as a measure of internal consistency was established. In answering the research questions, percentage, mean and standard deviation were used while chi-square, independent t-test and one way Analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. The outcome of the study shows that librarians with positive attitude towards library users with learning disabilities are at the high side than those librarians with negative attitude. The result of attitude based on gender, reveals that librarians attitude towards library users with learning disabilities based on gender differ significantly as the outcome shows that male librarians tend to exhibit positive attitude to these users than their female counterparts, whereas there was no significant difference in attitude of librarians based on their years of experience. It was based on the findings of this study that recommendations were made which include that female librarians should apply their nature endowed motherly care and passion while discharging their duties as librarians more so when attending to users with learning disabilities.


Ferrites are a well-known class of ferrimagnetic materials. In the form of nanoparticles (NPs), they exhibit novel and fascinating properties, leading to an extremely wide variety of applications in electronics, biomedical and environmental fields. These applications result from nanoscale effects on physical properties, particularly magnetic properties. For applications in electronic devices, however, a high-density, consolidated body, with very fine grains is needed, in order to retain the nanoscale properties. To our knowledge, spark plasma sintering (SPS) is the only method permitting a full densification with final grain size in the nanometer range. In this review, we examine the SPS method as applied to ferrites and, in particular, the effects of SPS parameters on the final nanostructures obtained. Due to their technological impact, we also discuss the SPS fabrication of hybrid multiferroic nanostructures composed of a ferrite and a ferroelectric phase.


We report the discovery of a candidate stellar-mass black hole in the Milky Way globular cluster M62. We detected the black hole candidate, which we call M62-VLA1, in the core of the cluster using deep radio continuum imaging from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. M62-VLA1 is a faint source with a flux density of 18.7 ± 1.9 μJy at 6.2 GHz and a flat radio spectrum (α = −0.24 ± 0.42, for Sν = να). M62 is the second Milky Way cluster with a candidate stellar-mass black hole; unlike the two candidate black holes previously found in the cluster M22, M62-VLA1 is associated with a Chandra X-ray source, supporting its identification as a black hole X-ray binary. Measurements of its radio and X-ray luminosity, while not simultaneous, place M62-VLA1 squarely on the well-established radio–X-ray correlation for stellar-mass black holes. In archival Hubble Space Telescope imaging, M62-VLA1 is coincident with a star near the lower red giant branch. This possible optical counterpart shows a blue excess, Hα emission, and optical variability. The radio, X-ray, and optical properties of M62-VLA1 are very similar to those for V404 Cyg, one of the best-studied quiescent stellar-mass black holes. We cannot yet rule out alternative scenarios for the radio source, such as a flaring neutron star or background galaxy; future observations are necessary to determine whether M62-VLA1 is indeed an accreting stellar-mass black hole.


This report describes the effects of urbanization on physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of stream ecosystems in 28 watersheds along a gradient of urbanization in the Willamette River basin and surrounding area, Oregon and Washington, from 2003 through 2005. The study that generated the report is one of several urban-effects studies completed nationally by the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment Program. Watersheds were selected to minimize natural variability caused by factors such as geology, elevation, and climate, and to maximize coverage of different stages of urban development among watersheds. Because land use or population density alone often are not a complete measure of urbanization, a combination of land use, land cover, infrastructure, and socioeconomic variables were integrated into a multimetric urban intensity index (UII) to represent the degree of urban development in each watershed. Physical characteristics studied include stream hydrology, stream temperature, and habitat; chemical characteristics studied include sulfate, chloride, nutrients, pesticides, dissolved and particulate organic and inorganic carbon, and suspended sediment; and biological characteristics studied include algal, macroinvertebrate, and fish assemblages. Semipermeable membrane devices, passive samplers that concentrate trace levels of hydrophobic organic contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls, also were used. The objectives of the study were to (1) examine physical, chemical, and biological responses along the gradient of urbanization and (2) determine the major physical, chemical, and landscape variables affecting the structure of aquatic communities. Common effects documented in the literature of urbanization on instream physical, chemical, and biological characteristics, such as increased contaminants, increased streamflow flashiness, increased concentrations of chemicals, and changes in aquatic community structure toward a more tolerant community associated with organically enriched conditions, generally were observed in this study. The strongest correlations to the UII and to many of the algal, macroinvertebrate, and fish assemblage metrics and community ordination involved water-chemistry metrics including the total pesticide concentration, toxic equivalents (extract assay from semipermeable membrane devices), and dissolved oxygen. Hydrologic variability metrics, such as flashiness, that normally are considered to be one of the main processes of urban disturbance had a strong association to the algal and fish assemblages in this study; however, the hydrologic variables for macroinvertebrates were secondary to the water-chemistry metrics mentioned above. Generally, the high urban intensity sites had high abundances of eutrophic and lower dissolved oxygen-indicating diatoms, high abundances of noninsects and tolerant insects, and high abundances of nonnative fish species. On the other hand, the low urban intensity sites had higher abundances of pollution sensitive diatoms, larger numbers of the sensitive macroinvertebrate EPT taxa (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera Orders), and fish assemblages with higher abundances of sensitive salmonids. The percent salmonid and macroinvertebrate EPT richness metrics plotted against the UII indicated a possible threshold response at about 25 on the UII, which is equivalent to an impervious surface value of about 5 percent. However, due to the added agricultural land use at sites within the 25 to 60 UII range, this possible threshold probably is not solely due to urbanization, but a combination of urban and agricultural land use. The effects of agricultural and urban land use could not be distinguished from each other, yet combined they provide a good assessment of overall watershed disturbance. 2 Effects of Urbanization on Stream Ecosystems in the Willamette River Basin and Surrounding Area, Oregon and Washington


The Green Living and Sustainability guide provides access to materials and resources that will allow citizens and consumers to shrink their footprint on the planet.


The aim of the study was to develop a scale to determine number sense of middle grade students and through the developed scale to introduce a structure of number sense and make a definition reflecting its structural characteristics. Therefore, a draft scale was prepared based on the six dimensions identified by Yang (1995). The scale was applied to 584 middle grade students from four different schools located in the districts of Cankaya and Golbasi in Ankara. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was found to be .86 for the scale with seventeen items. The result of the exploratory factor analysis showed that the scale consists of three dimensions. Eight items clustered in the first dimension, four items clustered in the second dimension and finally, five items clustered in the last dimension were defined as flexibility in calculation, conceptual thinking in fraction and using benchmark (reference points), respectively.


Background Hypertension is a key modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease – the leading cause of death in the UK. Good blood pressure (BP) control reduces mortality. However, health inequities may lead to variability in hypertension monitoring and control. Aim To investigate health inequities related to ethnicity, sex, age, and socioeconomic status in the monitoring, treatment, and control of BP in a large cohort of adult patients with hypertension. Design and setting A cross-sectional cohort study of adults with hypertension registered with general practices in North East London on 1 April 2019. Method Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate associations of demographics and treatment intensity for the following hypertension management indicators: a) BP recording in past 12 months; b) BP on age- adjusted target; and c) BP on age-adjusted target and BP recorded in past 12 months. Results In total, 156 296 adults were included. The Black ethnicity group was less likely to have controlled BP than the White ethnicity group (odds ratio [OR] 0.87, 95% [confidence interval] CI = 0.84 to 0.91). The Asian ethnicity group was more likely to have controlled BP (OR 1.28, 95% CI = 1.23 to 1.32). Ethnicity differences in control could not be explained by the likelihood of having a recent BP recording, nor by treatment intensity differences. Older adults (aged ≥50 years) were more likely to have controlled hypertension than younger patients. Conclusion Individuals of Black ethnicity and younger people are less likely to have controlled hypertension and may warrant targeted interventions. Possible explanations for these findings are presented but further research is needed about reasons for ethnic differences.


The aim of the study was to highlight nurses' experiences of caring for patients in palliative care at midlife, and describe their coping strategies. This study used a qualitative methodology with an inductive and an abductive approach. The analysis started with systematic text condensation. Later in the analysis, an abductive profile inspired by the concepts of a "tentative coping model for nurses in cancer care" was used. Fourteen participants, from 3 specialized palliative home care teams, were interviewed in 3 focus groups. Three themes and 9 codes represented the participants' experiences and coping strategies: experiences of significances: participants felt admiration for the patients, they became invigorated by their encounters with their patients, and they got confirmation that they did well; stress: participants described how they were affected by external influences, psychological stress, and stress-related symptoms; and coping: participants described the various individual-, group-, and organizational-level coping strategies they used in their daily work and the formal and informal support they received. Based on their descriptions, palliative care nursing was stressful for the nurses. They had various coping strategies and significances that helped them care for the families in the most difficult situations. The study also revealed how important formal support was to the nurses.


During the pandemic of COVID-19 in April 2020 the Ministry of Health in Bulgaria began the administration of the Virusafe contact tracking application. With the Law on Emergency Measures and Actions, declared by a decision of the National Assembly of 13th March 2020 amendments to the Electronic Communications Act were adopted. The purpose of the legislative amendments was to provide access of the competent authorities to the localization data from the public electronic communication networks of the individuals, who have refused or do not fulfill the obligatory isolation or treatment under art. 61 of the Health Act. This publication aims to analyze the main features of mobile applications for tracking the contacts of infected persons, as well as the adopted legislative changes, comparing them with the standards of personal data protection provided in the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 and Directive 2002/58/EC on the right to privacy and electronic communications.


Musculoskeletal pain is a common cause of pain in adolescence and can be an important predictor of future pain. The prevalence of hip or groin pain that could potentially affect different adolescent populations has not yet been systematically reviewed. This systematic review aimed to determine the prevalence of hip or groin pain in this population. Five electronic databases were searched until January 2019 for eligible studies that included males and females 13 to 19 years of age. Study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessments were completed by 2 independent researchers. Based on inclusion criteria, 8 population‐based, 8 clinical, and 4 sports populations were included. Studies were conducted in Europe, North America, and Australia. The prevalence was dichotomized into "0 to 3 months" and "3 months and above." Meta‐analyses were performed to estimate the prevalence from 0 to 3 months, and individual estimates were reported for studies of 3 months and above. The overall prevalence of hip or groin pain in all adolescents from 0 to 3 months was 12% (95% confidence interval [CI] 6%, 23%) based on 10 studies, and was 7% (95% CI 6%, 10%) based on 7 population studies. Caution should be applied to these estimates due to substantial study heterogeneity. The pain prevalence in cerebral palsy from 0 to 3 months based on 4 studies was 13% (95% CI 10%, 15%). Individual prevalence estimates were 6% and 31% in obese and 4% in hypermobility populations, respectively, and ranged from 6% to 100% in 4 sports studies. The validity of these estimates is compromised by poor methodological quality.


Hydrogenation is one of the most common chemical transformations encountered in several synthetic industrial processes. It is often accomplished with the aid of a catalyst which can either be homogeneous (catalyst and reactants in the same phase) or heterogeneous (catalyst and reactant in different phases). Heterogeneous catalysis usually involves reactants in the gaseous phase reacting on a catalyst in the solid phase. Selecting the best catalyst and optimal conditions for a particular hydrogenation process requires proper understanding of the catalytic material, the reacting species, and the reaction itself. This understanding has oftentimes been provided by surface scientists via fundamental studies of these hydrogenation reactions on single metal surfaces in an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) chamber where the conditions (temperature and pressure) can be properly controlled. However, most industrial catalysis involve solid catalysts with more complex morphologies than single-crystal metal surfaces and the operating conditions, especially pressure, are vastly different from UHV conditions. Thus the results from surface science studies are often difficult to correlate with industrial catalytic processes. These differences are sometimes referred to as the material and pressure gaps.

In this thesis, using tools such as reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), temperature-programmed reaction spectroscopy (TPRS), and low energy electron diffraction (LEED), some of the results acquired from efforts to bridge these gaps are presented. The thesis begins with a presentation of the results obtained from the growth and ambient pressure hydrogenation of p(2×2)–N layer on Pt(111). Thereafter, the results from the adsorption and hydrogenation of acrolein on Ru(001) and the surface chemistry of its hydrogenation products – 2-propenol, propanal, and 1-propanaol – on Ru(001) are discussed in detail. The preparation and characterization of pseudomorphic platinum layers on Ru(001) using a homemade evaporator are fully discussed while the results obtained from the adsorption and selective hydrogenation of acrolein on the resulting Pt/Ru(001) bimetallic surfaces are also presented. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the surface-enhanced infrared response observed on isolated platinum nanostructures grown on single layer graphene on Ru(001).


On-chip sample processing is integral to the continued development of lab-on-a-chip devices for various applications. An active microfluidic mixer prototype is proposed using ionic electroactive polymer actuators (IEAPAs) as artificial cilia. A proof-of-concept experiment was performed in which the actuators were shown to produce localized flow pattern disruptions in the laminar flow regime. Suggestions for further engineering and optimization of a scaled-down, complete device are provided. While the device in its current state of development necessitates further engineering, the use of IEAPAs addresses issues currently associated with the use of electromechanical actuators as active microfluidic mixers and may prove to be a useful alternative to other similar materials.


The discovery of nonclassical actions, other than mineral homeostasis, of 1α,25- dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D3) has expanded its applications. Among these, its anti-inflammation activity has drawn more and more attention of researchers to investigate its role in regulating the progression of inflammatory diseases. The expression of many inflammation-related genes is regulated by 1,25D3 through vitamin D receptor (VDR) in a large variety of cells including immune cells such as, but not limited to, macrophages, dendritic cells, T helper cells, and B cells. Studies of 1,25D3 in these immune cells have shown both direct and indirect immunomodulatory activities affecting innate and adaptive immune responses. Moreover, 1,25D3 can also exert its anti-inflammation effects through regulating the biosynthesis of pro-inflammatory molecules in the prostaglandin pathway or through nuclear factor kappa light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NFκB) by affecting cytokine production and inflammatory responses. These actions of 1,25D3 may explain the associations between vitamin D levels and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, asthma, type 1 diabetes, and systemic lupus erythematosus. Although several analogs of 1,25D3 have shown potent immunomodulatory or anti-inflammatory activity on immune cell cultures or in animal models, no vitamin D analog has been used in clinical research to treat inflammatory diseases. Here, we review the relationship between vitamin D analogs and inflammation based on observations of immune cells, prostaglandin and NFκB pathways, as well as common inflammatory diseases.


Formerly known as 'Nile gods', fecundity figures personifications of aspects of non-sexual fertility have a significant role in the sophisticated iconography of ancient Egypt. In his pioneering study, first published in 1985, John Baines introduces new approaches to Egyptian art and symbolic classification through a study of this distinctive genre.Part 1 analyses the definition of Egyptian personifications, whose role has parallels in many cultures. The focus is on 'formal' personifications abstractions in language that are names of deities, such as 'Order' or 'Food'. Emblematic personifications are their visual counterparts, signs in the script for concepts like 'Life' that become actors with added human limbs. Part 2 investigates fecundity figures. Their form and its meaning are analysed, as well as the range of their names. the two principal scene types in which they occur, bringing offerings and the heraldic 'uniting of the Two Lands', are reviewed separately. An excursus studies the principle of artistic decorum through the distribution and compatibility of scene and figure types including emblematic personifications. This concept has been very influential in Egyptology since it was introduced in Fecundity figures. The concluding chapter reviews abnormal contexts for fecundity figures, bringing together and extending the findings of the two parts. An appendix presents and analyses the patterning of colour on fecundity figures in the context of cross-cultural issues in colour classification.


Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are increasingly popular,
 but less often implemented in core laboratory courses due to the strict learning
 objectives necessary for follow-on courses. A curricular core intermediate- level
 experimental biosciences laboratory course was implemented, which paired
 competency-based assignments with client-serving research projects to develop the
 prerequisite skills for upper-level courses in the context of authentic research. This
 CURE led to more favorable student outcomes and more positive perceptions than the
 previous course design. This approach was piloted at a private, research-intensive
 university in fall 2015 and scaled to full implementation the following year. Several
 considerations and the necessary resources for such a scaling are discussed.


Over past years, the philosophy for designing the artificial intelligence algorithms has significantly shifted towards automatically extracting the composable systems from massive data volumes. This paradigm shift has been expedited by the big data booming which enables us to easily access and analyze the highly large data sets. The most well-known class of big data analysis techniques is called deep learning. These models require significant computation power and extremely high memory accesses which necessitate the design of novel approaches to reduce the memory access and improve power efficiency while taking into account the development of domain-specific hardware accelerators to support the current and future data sizes and model structures.The current trends for designing application-specific integrated circuits barely consider the essential requirement for maintaining the complex neural network computation to be resilient in the presence of soft errors. The soft errors might strike either memory storage or combinational logic in the hardware accelerator that can affect the architectural behavior such that the precision of the results fall behind the minimum allowable correctness. In this study, we demonstrate that the impact of soft errors on a customized deep learning algorithm called Binarized Neural Network might cause drastic image misclassification. Our experimental results show that the accuracy of image classifier can drastically drop by 76.70% and 19.25% in lfcW1A1 and cnvW1A1 networks,respectively across CIFAR-10 and MNIST datasets during the fault injection for the worst-case scenarios


The north-east Greenland ice stream (NEGIS) was discovered as a large fast-flow feature of the Greenland ice sheet by synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaginary of the ERS-1 satellite. In this study, the NEGIS is implemented in the dynamic/thermodynamic, large-scale ice-sheet model SICOPOLIS (Simulation Code for POLythermal Ice Sheets). In the first step, we simulate the evolution of the ice sheet on a 10-km grid for the period from 250 ka ago until today, driven by a climatology reconstructed from a combination of present-day observations and GCM results for the past. We assume that the NEGIS area is characterized by enhanced basal sliding compared to the "normal", slowly-flowing areas of the ice sheet, and find that the misfit between simulated and observed ice thicknesses and surface velocities is minimized for a sliding enhancement by the factor three. In the second step, the consequences of the NEGIS, and also of surface-meltwater-induced acceleration of basal sliding, for the possible decay of the Greenland ice sheet in future warming climates are investigated. It is demonstrated that the ice sheet is generally very susceptible to global warming on time-scales of centuries and that surface-meltwater-induced acceleration of basal sliding can speed up the decay significantly, whereas the NEGIS is not likely to dynamically destabilize the ice sheet as a whole.


The problem of cache sharing for supporting data access in mobile ad hoc networks is studied in this paper. The key to this problem is to discover a requested data item in an efficient manner. In the paper, we propose two caching protocols, IXP and DPIP, which distinguish themselves from the existing ones in that they fully exploit in-zone broadcasts to facilitate cache sharing operation. In particular, the DPIP protocol offers an implicit index push property, which is highly useful for enhancing cache hit ratio in the neighborhood of a data requester node. Moreover, our protocols also exploit the broadcasts to facilitate the design of a simple but efficient count-based cache replacement scheme. Performance study shows that the proposed protocols can significantly improve the performance of data access in a mobile ad hoc network.


During the first season, E. regnans develops a fairly strong tap-root, and later commences to produce a system of laterals. Seedling shoot growth is slow at first but increases rapidly. In the sapling stage, sinker roots develop from the laterals which extend far beyond the crown. Growth in height of the tree is very fast. During the pole stage, the conical crown is well developed, sinker roots become branched and the tap-root dies back. In the spar stage, the crown approaches maximum height and expands greatly. The sinker and lateral roots become very well developed. During the long mature stage, the fully elevated crowns become open and commence to die back. Buttresses are prominent and a complex system of sinker roots is present. Overmaturity is marked by a very large trunk epicormic growth and progressive die-back of the central area of both crown and roots. On warmer and drier aspects the root systems of seedlings and pole stage trees appear to be less well developed than on the cooler and moister aspects. On steep slopes, the root systems of pole stage trees may develop asymetrically. Layering of prostrate trees may occur on southerly slopes and root fusion between trees is relatively common. In swamps, vertical roots are short and trees are very unstable. Pornaderris aspera, one of the more common understorey species, develops a shallower and less spreading root system than E. regnans. In the early stages the lateral roots of both species are shallow and occupy the same soil zones; competition for moisture and nutrients is therefore likely to be very intense.


The category Ds U of unstable modules over the Steenrod algebra equipped with a compatible module structure over the Dickson algebra Ds is studied at the prime 2, with applications to the Singer functor Rs , considered as a functor from unstable modules U to Ds U. An explicit copresentation of RsM is given using Lannes' T ‐ functor when M is a reduced unstable module; applying Lannes' functor Fixs , this is used to show that Rs gives a fully-faithful embedding of U in Ds U. In addition, the right adjoint Zs to Rs is introduced and is related to the indecomposables functor and the functor Fixs . 55S10; 18E10


This paper introduces CustomPrograms, a rapid programming system for mobile service robots. With CustomPrograms, roboticists can quickly create new behaviors and try unexplored use cases for commercialization. In our system, the robot has a set of primitive capabilities, such as navigating to a location or interacting with users on a touch screen. Users can then compose these primitives with general-purpose programming language constructs like variables, loops, conditionals, and functions. The programming language is wrapped in a graphical interface. This allows inexperienced or novice programmers to benefit from the system as well. We describe the design and implementation of CustomPrograms on a Savioke Relay robot in detail. Based on interviews conducted with Savioke roboticists, designers, and business people, we learned of several potential new use cases for the robot. We characterize our system's ability to fulfill these use cases. Additionally, we conducted a user study of the interface with Savioke employees and outside programmers. We found that experienced programmers could learn to use the interface and create 3 real-world programs during the 90 minute study. Inexperienced programmers were less likely to create complex programs correctly. We provide an analysis of the errors made during the study, and highlight the most common pieces of feedback we received. Two case studies show how the system was used internally at Savioke and at a major trade show.


State, Society & Governance in Melanesia ips.cap.anu.edu.au/ssgm In 1989, the massive Panguna copper mine, which was at the centre of a decade-long conflict in Bougainville, was forced to close. Twenty-five years on, Bougainville is readying for a deferred referendum on independence — one of the central pillars of the Bougainville Peace Agreement — to be held sometime between 2015 and 2020. As the territory contemplates its political future, and how it will generate the revenue needed to support either meaningful autonomy or an independent state, the possibility of reopening the Panguna mine is prominent on the political agenda. Three of the options being considered are: 1) The mine never opens again; 2) The mine opens again under Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL); 3) The mine opens again under control of some other company. This In Brief focuses on one of these possibilities: reopening the mine under BCL. In particular, it discusses a variety of local expectations in relation to material and symbolic reparations that face BCL, operator of the closed mine, if it were to resume operations in Bougainville.


Gene therapy holds great promise for the treatment of diverse diseases, but widespread implementation is hindered by difficulties in assessing the success of transfection. The development of noninvasive reporter techniques based on appropriate molecules and imaging modalities may help to assay gene expression. Fluorophenyl-beta-d-galactopyranosides provide a novel class of NMR active molecules, which are highly responsive to the action of beta-galactosidase (beta-gal), the product of the lacZ gene. The reporter molecules are stable in solution and with respect to wild-type cells, but the enzyme causes liberation of the aglycon, a fluorophenol, accompanied by distinct color formation and a (19)F NMR chemical shift of 5-10 ppm, depending on pH. Synthetic strategy, experimental methods, and molecular and (19)F NMR characteristics are reported for a series of molecules in solution, blood, and tumor cells. This class of molecules presents a new strategy for assaying gene expression with a highly versatile molecular structural platform.


Cosmological shock waves are essential to understanding the formation of cosmological structures. To study them, scientists run computationally expensive high-resolution 3D hydrodynamic simulations. Interpreting the simulation results is challenging because the resulting data sets are enormous, and the shock wave surfaces are hard to separate and classify due to their complex morphologies and multiple shock fronts intersecting. We introduce a novel pipeline, Virgo, combining physical motivation, scalability, and probabilistic robustness to tackle this unsolved unsupervised classification problem. To this end, we employ kernel principal component analysis with low-rank matrix approximations to denoise data sets of shocked particles and create labeled subsets. We perform supervised classification to recover full data resolution with stochastic variational deep kernel learning. We evaluate on three state-of-the-art data sets with varying complexity and achieve good results. The proposed pipeline runs automatically, has only a few hyperparameters, and performs well on all tested data sets. Our results are promising for large-scale applications, and we highlight now enabled future scientific work.


Abstract Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the world. It is a disease of insidious progression and high lethality. The present study was to investigate the diagnostic value of high-filed magnetic resonance (MR) perfusion imaging in pancreatic cancer. Thirty-three patients with suspected pancreatic cancer were recruited in our study and underwent routine MR imaging. When compared with para-tumoral and normal tissue, the pancreatic lesions showed significant lower slope, peak enhancement (PE), and signal enhancement ratio (SER) as well as higher time to peak (TTP). Para-tumoral tissue was found to have significantly lower slope and PE, slightly higher TTP than normal tissue. MR perfusion imaging displays hemodynamic alterations in both pancreatic cancer and surrounding pancreatic tissue, and provides indirect assessment of tumor vascularity. In conclusion, high field MR perfusion imaging has important clinical significance in early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.


The role that the carboxyl-terminal amino acids of Escherichia coli DNA topoisomerase I (Topo I) and III (Topo III) play in catalysis was examined by comparing the properties of Topo III with those of a truncated enzyme lacking the generalized DNA binding domain of Topo III, Topo I, and a hybrid topoisomerase polypeptide containing the amino-terminal 605 amino acids of Topo III and the putative generalized DNA binding domain of Topo I. The deletion of the carboxyl-terminal 49 amino acids of Topo III decreases the affinity of the enzyme for its substrate, single-stranded DNA, by approximately 2 orders of magnitude and reduces Topo III-catalyzed relaxation of supercoiled DNA and Topo III-catalyzed resolution of DNA replication intermediates to a similar extent. Fusion of the carboxyl-terminal 312 amino acid residues of Topo I onto the truncated molecule stimulates topoisomerase-catalyzed relaxation 15-20-fold, to a level comparable with that of full-length Topo III. However, topoisomerase-catalyzed resolution of DNA replication intermediates was only stimulated 2-3-fold. Therefore, the carboxyl-terminal amino acids of these topoisomerases constitute a distinct and separable domain, and this domain is intimately involved in determining the catalytic properties of these polypeptides.


Introduction Current treatment regimens for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) are long, poorly tolerated and have poor outcomes. Furthermore, the costs of treating MDR-TB are much greater than those for treating drug-susceptible TB, both for health service and patient-incurred costs. Urgent action is needed to identify short, effective, tolerable and cheaper treatments for people with both quinolone-susceptible and quinolone-resistant MDR-TB. We present the protocol for an economic evaluation (PRACTECAL-EE substudy) alongside an ongoing clinical trial (TB-PRACTECAL) aiming to assess the costs to patients and providers of new regimens, as well as their cost-effectiveness and impact on participant poverty levels. This substudy is based on data from the three countries participating in the main trial. Methods and analysis Primary cost data will be collected from the provider and patient perspectives, following economic best practice. We will estimate the probability that new MDR-TB regimens containing bedaquiline, pretomanid and linezolid are cost-effective from a societal perspective as compared with the standard of care for MDR-TB patients in Uzbekistan, South Africa and Belarus. Analysis uses a Markov model populated with primary cost and outcome data collected at each study site. We will also estimate the impact of new regimens on prevalence of catastrophic patient costs due to TB. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval has been obtained from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Médecins Sans Frontières. Local ethical approval will be sought in each study site. The results of the economic evaluation will be shared with the country health authorities and published in a peer-reviewed journal. Trial registration number ClinicalTrials.gov Registry (NCT04207112); Pre-results.


Abstract As family group decision-making (FGDM) is a relatively new child welfare intervention, research has not adequately explored its implementation in multiple contexts or the degree to which implementation matches the previously defined goals, principles, and structures of the model. This article outlines the key components of FGDM and discusses the findings from a two county study of FGDM. Data collected from multiple sources participating in California's Waiver Demonstration Project provide a multidimensional look at model fidelity. Using bivariate analysis and comparing results from multiple sources suggested that although basic FGDM elements were followed, certain philosophies, including community representation and mobilization of supports, were not consistently implemented. In addition, although everyone shared favorable impressions of the conferences themselves, conference participants were more positive than child welfare workers and caregivers about the conference's effectiveness for helping the child. Even if FGDM is implemented as intended, these findings suggest this intervention may not adequately engage family and community members to sustain long-term action which would impact the intended child welfare outcomes. Given the rise in the number of communities utilizing FGDM, measuring intervention fidelity and ultimately linking fidelity to outcomes are important for implementation on a larger scale.


The utilization of block RAMs (BRAMs) is a critical performance factor for multiported memory designs on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Not only does the excessive demand on BRAMs block the usage of BRAMs from other parts of a design, but the complex routing between BRAMs and logic also limits the operating frequency. This paper first introduces a brand new perspective and a more efficient way of using a conventional two reads one write (2R1W) memory as a 2R1W/4R memory. By exploiting the 2R1W/4R as the building block, this paper introduces a hierarchical design of 4R1W memory that requires 25% fewer BRAMs than the previous approach of duplicating the 2R1W module. Memories with more read/write ports can be extended from the proposed 2R1W/4R memory and the hierarchical 4R1W memory. Compared with previous xor-based and live value table-based approaches, the proposed designs can, respectively, reduce up to 53% and 69% of BRAM usage for 4R2W memory designs with 8K-depth. For complex multiported designs, the proposed BRAM-efficient approaches can achieve higher clock frequencies by alleviating the complex routing in an FPGA. For 4R3W memory with 8K-depth, the proposed design can save 53% of BRAMs and enhance the operating frequency by 20%.


INTRODUCTION: The vertebrae fixation system using pedicular screws is one of the most efficient methods to treat vertebral spine pathologies. When the screw is submitted to pullout strength, it causes internal tension near the medullar canal and this situation can be analyzed by using the photoelasticity technique. OBJECTIVE: Were analyzed those internal tensions near the medullar canal of photoelastic vertebra models using different sizes of screws of the vertebral fixation system submitted to pullout strength. METHODS: A lumbar vertebral model made of photoelastic material with three different USS1-type pedicular screw sizes (5, 6, and 7mm) was used. The internal tensions around the screw were tested in 12 predetermined points by a plain transmission polaroscope. RESULTS: The areas of greater tension concentration were between the medullar canal and the curves of the transverse process. Comparing the maximum average pulling tension, statistical differences were observed between screws 5 and 7, and 6 and 7. On the other hand, for screws 5 and 6, there were no significant differences. CONCLUSION: The study evidenced that the internal tensions are greater in irregular areas, next to the medullar canal, showing that this is a critical region.


Series of short baseline neutrino oscillation experiments provided unexpected results, and now they are called short baseline anomalies, and all indicates an existence of sterile neutrinos with a mass scale around 1 eV. The signals of short baseline anomalies are reported from 4 different classes of experiments. However, at this moment, there is no convincing theoretical model to explain such sterile neutrinos, and a single experiment to confirm 1 eV sterile neutrinos may be challenging. In this short note, we describe classes of short baseline neutrino oscillation experiments and their goals.


Phytochromes (phy) are a family of photoreceptors that control various aspects of light-dependent plant development. Phytochrome A (phyA) is responsible for the very low fluence response (VLFR) under inductive light conditions and for the high irradiance response (HIR) under continuous far-red light. We have recently shown that nuclear import of rice phyA:GFP is regulated by VLFR in transgenic tobacco. The import is preceded by very fast, light-induced formation of sequestered areas of phyA:GFP in the cytosol. Here we report that expression of the Arabidopsis phyA:GFP fusion protein in phyA-deficient Arabidopsis plants complements the mutant phenotype. In these transgenic Arabidopsis lines, both light-dependent cytosolic formation of sequestered areas of the phyA:GFP as well as VLFR or HIR-mediated nuclear import of the fusion protein was observed. By contrast, light-dependent nuclear import of the same fusion protein was induced only by continuous far-red light (HIR) but not by pulses of far-red light (VLFR) in transgenic tobacco. These results demonstrate that photoregulation of intracellular partitioning of the Arabidopsis phyA:GFP differs significantly in different genetic backgrounds.


BACKGROUND
We developed a tailored education program using a touch-screen computer for changing management behavior with asthmatic children and their caregivers. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the tailored education program.

METHODS
Caregivers including children with asthma were recruited during visits to a national children's hospital and those whose month-long asthma condition on the JPAC (Japanese Pediatric Asthma Program) score was 14 and below were included. Caregivers were randomized to the tailored education (intervention group) or non-tailored education (control group). The intervention group underwent a patient education program using a touch-screen computer, and they received tailored messages generated by a computer program. A research nurse and clinical psychologist used a computer-based resource to tailor the education messages and provided counseling using motivational interviewing for the caregivers including children with asthma. The control group received only a booklet on asthma.

RESULTS
Forty-seven subjects aged 1 to 6 years were enrolled. Forty-seven caregivers were randomized to the tailored education (n=22) or non-tailored education (n=25) group. The results of two-way ANOVA showed that interactions between groups were observed in the score of JPAC and asthma knowledge for preschool children whose asthma onset was within one year and a half. The main effects of time were observed in the total and subscale score of QOL (Quality of Life) and the total score of P-CASES (Parental Childhood Asthma's Self-efficacy Scale).

CONCLUSION
These findings indicate the benefit of a tailored education program to control symptoms in such caregivers.


IF steel was homogeneously cold rolled between 30-95% reduction in thickness. The global cold rolling textures showed a gradual strengthening of both stable α and γ components with increasing reduction until ~80% after which γ remained effectively unchanged but α components intensified until 95% reduction of thickness. Deformation Banded (DB) and also fragmented microstructures were found exclusively in γ grains up until about 85% reduction after which DB was unexpectedly detected in α grains, becoming significant after 95% reduction. This is in sharp contrast with the rather undifferentiated microstructures found in α grains at low to medium levels of deformation. At lower reductions the annealing texture was a weak α, but the γ component increased with rolling strain and became dominant at ~80% rolling deformation. A peak type γ recrystallisation texture with orientations ranging from {554}<225> to {111}<123> was found in the 95% rolled sample. In addition to this a {411}<148> component began to intensify, reading 5R at 95% reduction. Microstructural analysis showed that DB provided the lattice curvature for nucleation in the α fibre.


(See the article by Schepens et al, on pages 1692–701.)

Antibodies are key effector molecules for protection against viral infections. The protection afforded by immunization with licensed antiviral vaccines is mediated by vaccine-induced antibody in most cases. Passively administered antibodies have been shown to be effective against diseases caused by a wide variety of RNA and DNA viruses, and polyclonal immunoglobulin products have been licensed for clinical use for cytomegalovirus, hepatitis A and B viruses, measles virus, poliovirus, rabies virus, respiratory syncytial virus, and varicella zoster virus. Thus, it is surprising that of the 29 licensed monoclonal antibody (mAb) products developed over the last 25 years, only 1 is for use against a microbial pathogen, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The rest are for autoimmune diseases, malignancy, asthma, or angioedema.

Palivizumab is a humanized immunoglobin G1 (IgG1) mAb derived from the original murine mAb 1129 [1], and is licensed for the prophylactic treatment of premature infants to prevent severe disease from RSV [2]. Palivizumab and its higher-affinity derivative, motavizumab, recognize an epitope in the RSV fusion (F) glycoprotein (antigenic site II) and the atomic structure of the interaction has been characterized [3]. In this issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, Schepens et al. have reported the development of Nanobodies (Ablynx) specific for the palivizumab epitope and have evaluated their potency in vivo in a murine model [4]. Nanobodies are proteins representing the variable domain of the heavy chain from antibodies produced by members of the family Camelidae (camels, llamas, and alpacas). Cartilaginous fish (eg, sharks, skates, and rays) and camelids have uniquely developed heavy-chain-only immunoglobulin molecules that recognize and bind antigenic sites with just the single variable domain at the tip of the heavy chain. The basis for this adaptation is unknown, but there is evidence of convergent evolution [5]. The variable domains tend to have relatively long antigen-binding loops and because the light chain present in human antibodies is not in the way, they are ideally suited for reaching epitopes residing in clefts or pockets. For example, llama-derived heavy-chain variable domains (VHH) have been discovered that can reach into the CD4 binding pocket of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) gp120, resulting in broad neutralizing activity [6]. Heavy-chain-only antibodies tend to have more charged and polar residues in the framework 2 region of the variable domain, which in classic human immunoglobulins, has highly conserved hydrophobic sequences that are adjacent to the light chain. The VHH also has a relatively high frequency of cysteine residues that allow intradomain disulfide bonds, and together with the polar interactions between loops help to stabilize the antigen-binding sites, perhaps to compensate for the lost stabilizing effect of a light chain [5, 6].

The investigators immunized llamas with a trimeric transmembrane-deleted form of the F glycoprotein, and then cloned VHH sequences into a phagemid vector. The resulting phage library was screened for binding to F, and sequences were identified that competed for binding with palivizumab. Microneutralization assays against the RSV Long strain (a prototypic subtype A laboratory-adapted isolate) showed that the monovalent VHH-designated RSV-D3 is about 3-fold more potent than the palivizumab antigen-binding fragment (Fab). Interestingly, a bivalent version of RSV-D3 made with Gly-Ser linkers is about 40-fold more potent than the bivalent palivizumab mAb. One of the important characteristics of palivizumab is that it is equally potent against subtype B RSV strains. Surprisingly, the bivalent RSV-D3 was about 600-fold less potent against the RSV B1 strain than it was against the subtype A virus [7]. The reason for the difference in cross-reactivity is intriguing because neutralization escape mutations for palivizumab also escape RSV-D3, suggesting similar contact residues. It may be related to the size of the interaction area, or it is possible that the VHH is a relatively rigid, preorganized structure that gives it higher affinity, but makes it less flexible for adjusting to minor variations in epitope structure. Defining the crystal structure of the interaction may be informative for understanding cross-neutralization and other fundamental aspects of viral neutralization. It may also provide insight as to why the structurally conserved, scaffolded palivizumab epitope can elicit antibodies that bind F, but do not neutralize RSV [8].

The RSV-D3 bivalent Nanobody neutralizes by inhibiting fusion and not by blocking attachment. This is also true for palivizumab and motavizumab, so it is not surprising. The epitope appears to be present throughout the fusion process, based on modeling of the prefusion F trimer and structure of the postfusion trimer [9]. The assumption based on structural analysis is that palivizumab and motavizumab inhibit fusion by binding a prehairpin fusion intermediate structure, thereby interfering with formation of the final 6-helix bundle that pulls the virus and target cell membranes together [9]. While the motavizumab Fab appears to clash with the adjacent oligomer in the prefusion trimer model [3], the small size of the VHH may provide an advantage of Nanobodies over mAb because of the potential for binding F in the prefusion state. This would be another reason to evaluate the crystal structure of the RSV-D3 bound to F or to the palivizumab epitope.

Size matters, not just for accessing cryptic epitopes but also for biodistribution and pharmacokinetics. Schepens and colleagues treated mice with RSV-D3 Nanobodies both before and after RSV challenge. Nasal administration was chosen because there is relatively rapid renal clearance of the monovalent (15 kilodaltons [Kda]) and bivalent (30 Kda) VHHs when given parenterally. They showed there is bioactive VHH in lung homogenates up to 72 hours after intranasal delivery. When anesthetized mice received 100 μg in 50 μL intranasally 4 or 24 hours prior to RSV challenge, bivalent VHH-treated mice had a similar outcome as palivizumab-treated mice, with no detectable virus in lung at 3 and 5 days postchallenge and no weight loss. Delivered at 4 hours prechallenge, a dose of 12 μg partially suppressed virus titer. As in vitro, bivalent VHHs were more potent in vivo than monovalent VHHs. Therefore, size matters, but so does avidity, dose, delivery route, and timing. For passively administered antibodies or Nanobodies, it is important to determine the tissue-specific half-life and what factors may affect the persistence of active product when given by a particular route. For example, if given topically, what is the susceptibility of Nanobodies to proteases found in mucosal secretions?

Using antibodies to treat viral infections has historically been less successful than using antibodies prophylactically. For example, treatment of RSV-infected patients with RSV immune globulin or palivizumab has not shown clinical benefit. Nevertheless, there are examples of success, including the finding that treatment of patients infected with the Junin arenavirus (Argentine hemorrhagic fever) with immune serum reduces mortality when given up to 8 days after the onset of symptoms [10]. Also, patients with antibody deficiencies who are infected with enteroviruses have been shown to benefit from immunoglobulin treatment [11]. In the current study, Schepens et al. treated mice 4 hours, 24 hours, or 48 hours postchallenge and then evaluated RSV titers and RNA in lung homogenates at day 5. While inflammatory cell counts in BAL and RSV titers appear to be partially reduced, there was little reduction in viral RNA, and some of the plaque reduction may be confounded by in vitro neutralization from residual RSV-D3 in lung. The requirements for antibody-mediated functions to effectively treat a virus infection may extend beyond those needed to prevent infection. Activities such as antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, antibody-dependent cell-mediated virus inhibition, or antibody-mediated complement-dependent cytolysis may be useful for clearing virus-infected cells, but require fragment crystallizable region (Fc region)–mediated interactions with cellular effectors. Nanobodies do not support these functions, and appear to neutralize primarily by having strong binding affinity to antigenic sites that can interfere with viral entry. Another challenge for treatment of self-limited virus infections in general is that it is difficult to recognize clinical manifestations and diagnose infection soon enough for antiviral therapy to make a difference.


We presented the first three-dimensional (3D) ab initio intermolecular potential energy surface (PES) for the H3O+-Ar complex. The electronic structure computations were carried out at the explicitly correlated coupled cluster theory-F12 with an augmented correlation-consistent triple zeta basis set. Analytic 3D PES was obtained by least-squares fitting the multi-dimensional Morse/Long-Range (mdMLR) potential model to interaction energies, where the mdMLR function form was applied to the nonlinear ion-atom case for the first time. The 3D PES fitting to 1708 points has root-mean-square deviations of 0.19 cm-1 with only 108 parameters for interaction energies less than 500 cm-1. With the 3D PES of the H3O+-Ar complex, we employed the combined radial discrete variable representation/angular finite basis representation method and Lanczos algorithm to calculate rovibrational energy levels. The rotational profiles of the O-H anti-stretching vibrational bands of v3 +(S)←0+ and v3 -(A)←0- for the H3O+-Ar complex were predicted and were in good agreement with the experimental results.


The papers in this volume analyse recent changes in the world's major fixed income markets. The introduction of the euro, structural changes in governments' fiscal positions, traumatic events such as the global financial market crisis of 1998, and advances in the technology of trading platforms are reshaping fixed income markets in Europe, Japan and the United States. The first paper provides a broad overview of the changes under way, and the following four papers elaborate on some of the issues that emerge. These papers complement a report published by the Committee on the Global Financial System in March 2001 on the use of collateral in wholesale financial markets. Taken together, the papers in this volume highlight the growing importance of private sector debt instruments. Falling supply and shifts in the mix of investors holding government securities are draining liquidity from some government securities markets, in particular the US Treasury and UK gilt markets. In contrast, non-government markets have seen issuance volumes soar, a greater diversity of instruments made available, and liquidity conditions improve at least for the largest bond issues. The paper by Mastroeni describes the development of one of the fastest growing segments of non-government securities market: Pfandbrief-style products in the euro market. Investors have accommodated changes in the relative borrowing patterns of the government and non-government sectors by moving towards more diversified portfolios. A key challenge faced by portfolio managers is pricing and managing the credit risk that they thereby take on. The paper by Hattori, Koyama and Yonetani examines the pricing of credit risk in the yen corporate bond market. They find that default risk, the stability of the financial system and the level of new corporate bond issuance relative to government bond issuance are the most important determinants of credit spreads in Japan. Demand for fixed income instruments in recent years has also been affected by changes in hedging and arbitrage activity. The 1998 crisis led to a reassessment of risk management practices, one outcome of which was a switch away from the exclusive use of government bonds as hedging vehicles in favour of a wider array of instruments. Other traumatic events, such as squeezes in German government bond futures contracts, reinforced this search for alternative hedging vehicles. Schulte and Violi examine interactions between cash and derivatives markets in the euro area, and assess ways to alleviate the risk of a shortage in the cheapest bond to deliver into a futures contract. Each market participant who switches to using non-government instruments as hedges subtracts liquidity from the government market and adds it to other markets, in the process raising the incentive for other market participants to follow suit. As non-government instruments gain liquidity, they are increasingly being used to price and hedge other securities and perform other functions for which government securities tended to be used in the past. The paper by Cooper and Scholtes concludes that declining supplies of government paper have helped to depress US Treasury and UK gilt yields below risk-free interest rates and so diminished their usefulness as benchmarks. They then demonstrate that interest rate swaps appear to have become the de facto benchmark for pricing high-quality bonds.


Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) is the only member of type II IFN and is vital in the regulation of immune and inflammatory responses. Herein we report the cloning, expression, and sequence analysis of IFN-gamma from the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). The open reading frame of this gene is 501 base pair in length and encodes a polypeptide consisting of 166 amino acids. All conserved N-linked glycosylation sites and cysteine residues among carnivores were found in the predicted amino acid sequence of the giant panda. Recombinant giant panda IFN-gamma with a V5 epitope and polyhistidine tag was expressed in HEK293 host cells and confirmed by Western blotting. Phylogenetic analysis of mammalian IFN-gamma-coding sequences indicated that the giant panda IFN-gamma was closest to that of carnivores, then to ungulates and dolphin, and shared a distant relationship with mouse and human. These results represent a first step into the study of IFN-gamma in giant panda.


A traversing microerosion meter (MEM) was used to measure the rates of surface weathering of limestones in southeastern Australia. There were two groups of MEM sites installed in 1978/9. The aim of the experimental design for the first type, the 13 sites at Cooleman Plain and Yarrangobilly Caves, was to obtain erosion rates for limestones of similar lithology exposed under comparable climate conditions. The sites were positioned to measure erosion over a range of microsolutional forms and with exposure to differing forms of erosion, i.e. subaerial, subsoil and instream. The second set, at Ginninderra close to Canberra, consists of nine limestone slabs of differing lithology, collected from different locations but exposed under identical climatic conditions. The number of individual measurement points at each MEM site varied from 24 to 68.

There were major differences in erosion rates between subaerial bedrock and instream sites at Yarrangobilly and Cooleman Plain, but no evidence of differential erosion across the micro-forms. There were differences in the weathering rate for bedrock sites, due to climatic differences, and between the limestone lithologies exposed at Ginninderra. The average rate of erosion for the subaerial bedrock sites at Cooleman Plain and Yarrangobilly over the 13 years was 0·013 mm a−1 and at Ginninderra 0·006 mm a−1. At some of the sites microflora (lichens and mosses) caused problems for field measurement. The weathering processes that contribute to the surface lowering are discussed in the accompanying paper by Moses et al.


Chinas birthrate increased from 18 births/1000 population in 1985 to 21/1000 in 1986 after a decade of steady decline. In 1971 to avoid a projected population of 2.4 billion by 2050 Chinese leaders launched the "later-longer-fewer" campaign. Men and women were encouraged to postpone marriage until their mid- to late-20s to allow 4 years between pregnancies and to limit their families to 2 children. The standards were slightly more lenient in the rural areas. Together the campaign was responsible for a reduction in the total fertility rate from 5.9 births/woman in 1970 to 2.7 births in 1979. Yet due to the age structure of the population with 39% of Chinese under age 15 even replacement-level fertility was bound to generate growth for decades. Consequently in 1979 the post-Mao leadership inaugurated the "1-child" policy a program designed to limit the Chinese population to 1.2 billion by 2000. Family planning has become a state sanctioned and monitored activity. The policy is implemented via public education persuasion peer pressure and a series of incentives and penalties. In this context the question arises as to what caused Chinas birthrate to rise. A major factor is the effect of the countrys youth-dominated age structure. Following the Great Leap Forward (1958-60) and the prolonged accompanying famine the birthrate increased markedly as couples conceived the children they had postponed. These baby boomers born from 1962-64 now are having their own babies. About 1/3 of the 1986 increase in births may be accounted for by the ripple effect of this relatively large cohort finally reaching reproductive age. Further the age of 1st reproduction has declined recently in response to the Marriage Law of 1980 which lowers the legal marriage age. Another influence has been a gradual yet significant relaxation in some of the basic tenets of the 1-child policy. In 1984 the government reaffirmed the critical importance of family planning but increased the number of exceptions to the 1-child rule.


A waveguide array is presented that behaves as an oscillator, showing periodic image reconstruction, focusing, and transverse wave-packet oscillation. The oscillator has a finite width, which removes the need for premature truncation. The array waveguide oscillator shows properties analogous to those of a pedagogically important one-dimensional quantum harmonic oscillator, which are fundamentally different from previously demonstrated oscillations in Wannier-Stark waveguide arrays. Calculations of the entire array waveguide oscillator are presented that quantify higher-order corrections to the coupled-mode approach. These results can be extended to waveguide oscillators in other systems, such as electrons in superlattices.


New sufficient conditions are derived for stability robustness of linear time-invariant state-space systems with constant real parameter uncertainty. These bounds are obtained by applying a guardian map to the uncertain system matrices. Since this approach is only valid for constant real parameter uncertainty, these bounds do not imply quadratic stability, which guarantees robust stability with respect to time-varying uncertainty but is often conservative with respect to constant real parameter uncertainty. Numerical results are given to compare the new bounds with bounds obtained previously by means of Lyapunov methods. >


In this study, we examine the effect of financial statement comparability on audit hours, which we use as a proxy for audit efficiency. We examine the hours worked by auditors in completing 2322 audits in Korea between 2006 and 2010. Audit efficiency can be determined by the total audit effort required to achieve a successful audit. Using a sample consisting of firms maintaining a certain level of audit quality, we investigate whether financial statement comparability reduces audit hours. We find that comparability is negatively associated with audit hours. In addition, we find that the effect of comparability on audit hours is attenuated for firms that are 'highly followed' by financial analysts. This study contributes to the literature by proposing a possible way to improve audit efficiency from a unique perspective. While prior studies show that a client's inherent risk and control risk lower audit efficiency, the results of this study show that comparability between financial statements facilitates audit efficiency. Improvements in audit efficiency reduce the opportunity costs associated with audit effort and thereby enable auditors to spend more time and effort focusing on high-risk engagements. Comparability is one of four qualitative characteristics of accounting information included in accounting conceptual frameworks. Despite the importance of comparability, there is very little research on its benefits. This study makes a unique contribution by measuring audit effort using a large database of audit hours worked by auditors in Korean firms.


The glycosidic fraction from the dried roots of Panax notoginseng (Burk.) F.H. Chen was found to show protective effect on liver injury induced by D-galactosamine and lipopolysaccharide. From the glycosidic fraction with hepatoprotective effect, nine new dammarane-type triterpene oligoglycosides, notoginsenosides-A, -B, -C, -D, -E, -G, -H, -I, and -J and an acetylenic fatty acid glycoside, notoginsenic acid beta-sophoroside, were isolated together with fourteen known dammarane-type triterpene oligoglycosides. The structures of notoginsenosides-A, -B, -C and -D were determined on the basis of chemical and physicochemical evidence, which included the chemical correlation with ginsenoside-Rb1 using photosensitized oxygenation, as follows: notoginsenoside A; 3-O-[beta-D-glucopyranosyl (1-->2)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl]-20-O-[beta-D-glucopyranosyl (1-->6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl] 3 beta, 12 beta,20(S),25-tetrahydroxydammar -23-ene; B; 3-O-[beta-D-glucopyranosyl (1-->2)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl]-20-O-[beta-D-glucopyranosyl (1-->6)-beta-D- glucopyranosyl] 3 beta, 12 beta,20(S)-trihydroxydammar-25-en-24-one, C; 3-O-[beta-D-glucopyranosyl (1-->2)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl]-20-O-[beta-D -glucopyranosyl (1-->6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl] 3 beta,12 beta,20(S)- trihydroxy-24 zeta-hydroperoxydammar-25-ene, and D; 3-O-[beta-D-xylopyranosyl (1-->2)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl (1-->2)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl]-20-O-[beta-D-xylopyranosyl (1-->6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl (1-->6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl]20(S)-protopanaxadiol, respectively.


Due to the new advances in wireless technology, more and more consumers are using wireless devices in daily life. Though wireless devices are easy to carry and convenient to use, the users might experience bad quality of service due to interference and noise. The major source of the interference and noise are other wireless equipments within close physical proximity using the same or different wireless technology. For example, a laptop using Wi-Fi can interfere with a cell phone using the Bluetooth if they are located close to one another. In this research project, we used the Sun's Small Programmable Object and wireless laptops and conducted a wide range of experiments. By changing the power level, data rate, distance, communication channels, and other parameters, we studied how the IEEE 802.15.4 and the IEEE 802.11b technologies interfere with each other. Based on the experiment result, we proposed solutions for reducing the interference between these two technologies.


Abstract. In this study, we examine the diurnal cycle of rainfall over New Guinea using a series of convection-permitting numerical simulations with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. We focus our simulations on a period of suppressed regional-scale conditions (February 2010) during which local diurnal forcings are maximised. Additionally, we focus our study on the occurrence and dynamics of offshore-propagating convective systems that contribute to the observed early-morning rainfall maximum north-east of New Guinea. In general, modelled diurnal precipitation shows good agreement with satellite-observed rainfall, albeit with some timing and intensity differences. The simulations also reproduce the occurrence and variability of overnight convection that propagate offshore as organised squall lines north-east of New Guinea. The occurrence of these offshore systems is largely controlled by background conditions. Days with offshore-propagating convection have more middle tropospheric moisture, larger convective available potential energy, and greater low-level moisture convergence. Convection has similar characteristics over the terrain on days with and without offshore propagation. The offshore-propagating convection manifests via a multi-stage evolutionary process. First, scattered convection over land, which is remnant of the daytime maximum, moves towards the coast and becomes reorganised near the region of coastal convergence associated with the land breeze. The convection then moves offshore in the form of a squall line at  ∼ 5 m s−1. In addition, cool anomalies associated with gravity waves generated by precipitating land convection propagate offshore at a dry hydrostatic gravity wave speed (of  ∼ 15 m s−1) and act to destabilise the coastal/offshore environment prior to the arrival of the squall line. Although the gravity wave does not appear to initiate the convection or control its propagation, it should contribute to its longevity and maintenance. The results highlight the importance of terrain and coastal effects along with gravity waves in contributing to the diurnal cycle over the Maritime Continent, especially the offshore precipitation maxima adjacent to quasi-linear coastlines.


This casebook emphasizes the essential cases and materials at the heart of copyright law. The result is a streamlined and well-organized casebook of manageable length that keeps the central themes of copyright front and center. It also provides access to a companion Web site containing an extensive library of additional modules, topics, edited cases, notes, problems, and audio-visual materials. Together these materials, along with a companion teacher's manual, allow teachers to easily customize the copyright law course to suit their specific goals. The authors have written extensively about copyright, the arts, and the impact of new technology.


The heat sealing process of Al/PE film mechanism based on diffusion theory is investigated in this paper. Parallel horizontal sealing mechanism is designed and heat sealing strength test is conducted. Considering the sealing performance of Al/PE film as the objective function, establish ternary quadratic mathematical sealing strength model about the heat sealing temperature, dwell time and film thickness three factors. Through analyzing the impact of heat sealing process parameters on sealing performance, the optimization heat sealing process parameters are determined. All the work provides a practical guidance and theoretical basis for heat sealing packaging machine design and parameters determination.


Stating and analyzing the two existing microminiature manufacturing technology, an integrated innovation technology is proposed, based precision cutting technology and thin films technology, with other advanced technology such as precise measurement. The precise and miniaturized parts with three-dimensional complex structure can be manufactured by this technology. The technology not only improves the manufacturing accuracy and surface quality, but also implements batch production. The feasibility of new method is verified by the dimensional chain theory, and the challenge and development prospect is simply summarized.


The shear failure behaviors of U71Mn are investigated by quasi-static and dynamic compression tests utilizing two different hat-shaped specimens S1 which combines shear and compressive stress states and S2 which combines shear and tensile stress states. A split Hopkinson pressure bar is used to acquire shear stress-strain curves at various initial temperatures and shear strain rates, and it is found that a lower shear strain rate is observed in hat-shaped specimen S1 than that in hat-shaped specimen S2 under the same impact pressure. Scanning electron microscopy is employed for observing the microstructures of specimens. The results indicate that the hat-shaped specimen S1 is difficult to form voids and dimples. Moreover, as far as the hat-shaped specimen S2 is concerned, the number of voids reduces with the rising shear strain rate, and no voids appear on the fracture surface at the shear strain rate of 36000 s−1. Furthermore, the creation of voids is aided by a rise in initial temperature. The factors affecting the formation of adiabatic shear bands are explored based on the numerical simulation, which suggests that the magnitude of the temperature gradient plays a crucial role in the generation of adiabatic shear bands.


Some recent technological advances in line with the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) are rapidly transforming the industrial sector. This work explores the pros-pect of robotic and additive manufacturing solutions for mass production in the rail industry. It proposes a dual arm, 12-axis welding robot with advance sensors, camera, and algorithm as well as intelligent control system. The computer-aided design (CAD) of the robotic system was done in the Solidworks 2017 environment and simulated using the adaptive neuro-fuzzy interference system (ANFIS) in order to determine the kinematic motion of the robotic arm and the angles of joint. The simulation results showed the smooth motion of the robot and its suitability to carry out the welding operations for mass production of components during rail car manufacturing. In addition, the ability to fabricate several physical models directly from digital data through additive manufacturing (AM) is a key factor to ensuring rapid product development cycle. Given that AM is embedded in a digitally connected environment, flow of information as well as data processing and transmission in real time will be useful for massive turnout during mass production.


Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are of major importance today as they are contributing to economic and societal development of civil society. Due to the pressure to demonstrate social impact, an increasing amount of competition and a lack of funding, marketing is a viable strategy to increase performance and fundraising effectiveness. However, the marketing concept is in development for NGOs. The Service-Dominant (S-D) logic provides opportunities to align value proposition(s) to stakeholders. This however has only been studied in regard to for-profit organisations. By means of a multiple case study with different units of analysis, five NGOs have been selected based on theoretical sampling. These NGOs have been studied to answer the question whether the S- D logic is the dominant logic for NGOs in regard to value propositions. Subsequently, a framework has been derived from a cross-case analysis for NGOs to align value propositions to the motives and values of donating stakeholders. This will increase fundraising effectiveness and thus increases impact on civil society. The main aim of this paper was by means of contributing to the existing literature and ongoing discussion to create a framework for NGOs to apply the S-D logic to value propositions consequently increasing performance, fundraising effectiveness and impact on civil society.


1. The pH-dependence of the pepsin-catalysed hydrolysis of three peptide substrates was studied by using a method for the continuous monitoring of the formation of ninhydrin-positive products. 2. Two peptide acid substrates, N-acetyl-l-phenylalanyl-l-phenylalanine and N-acetyl-l-phenylalanyl-l-phenylalanyl-glycine, show apparent pK(a) values of 1.1 and 3.5 in the plots of k(0)/K(m) versus pH. By contrast a neutral substrate, N-acetyl-l-phenylalanyl-l-phenylalanine amide, shows apparent pK(a) values of 1.0 and 4.7. 3. Together with the data of the preceding paper (Knowles, Sharp & Greenwell, 1969), these results are taken to indicate that the rate of pepsin-catalysed hydrolysis is controlled by the ionization of two groups, which on the free enzyme have apparent pK(a) values of 1.0 and 4.7. It is apparent that the anions of peptide acid substrates are not perceptibly bound to the enzyme, resulting in apparent pK(a) values of 3.5 for the dependence of k(0)/K(m) for these materials.


Reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerisation provides a highly controlled means to assemble copolymers of different architectures for a variety of applications, including drug delivery. Polymers consisting of a butyl methacrylate-co-methacrylic acid p(BMA-co-MAA) hydrophobic block and a poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate p(PEGMA-475) hydrophilic block were synthesised via RAFT polymerisation and self-assembled into micelles. A range of micelle particles of different sizes were obtained by varying the composition of the block copolymers. The micelles were crosslinked to form nanoparticles and fluorescently labelled to study cellular internalisation. The prepared nanoparticles were extensively taken up by primary murine macrophages and a promising candidate was identified. To demonstrate effective delivery of a cell impenetrable cargo a fluorescent dye, 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI), was encapsulated inside the nanoparticles and successfully delivered to macrophages. The nanoparticles' stability at increased temperatures and at low concentrations, the tunability of their synthesis and their extensive internalisation by macrophages and performance makes them highly promising delivery vehicles for a range of therapeutics and imaging agents.


Background: A variety of measures have been developed to calculate refill adherence from administrative data such as pharmacy claims databases. These measures have focused on improving the accuracy of adherence measures or clarifying the evaluation time frame. As a result, there are many measures used to assess adherence that may or may not be comparable or accurate. Objective: To compare available refill adherence measures. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted to identify current or recently used measures of calculating adherence from administrative data. A MEDLINE search (January 1990–March 2006) was undertaken using the search terms adherence or compliance in the title combined with administrative, pharmacy, or records in any field, including subheadings medical, nursing, and hospital records. Non-English articles were excluded. Seven hundred fifteen articles were available for review. Review articles and letters were excluded from measure selection, but were included in the search terms and used to identify additional research articles. Adherence measures were excluded if they were incompletely described, produced non-numeric values, or were duplicates. Eleven refill adherence measures were identified and compared using data from the LOSE Weight (Long-term Outcomes of Sibutramine Effectiveness on Weight) study. Measures compared include Continuous Measure of Medication Acquisition (CMA); Continuous Multiple Interval Measure of Oversupply (CMOS); Medication Possession Ratio (MPR); Medication Refill Adherence (MRA); Continuous Measure of Medication Gaps (CMG); Continuous, Single Interval Measure of Medication Aquisition (CSA); Proportion of Days Covered (PDC); Refill Compliance Rate (RCR); Medication Possession Ratio, modified (MPRm); Dates Between Fills Adherence Rate (DBR); and Compliance Rate (CR). Results: The results suggest that the CMA, CMOS, MPR, and MRA are identical in terms of measuring adherence to prescription refills throughout the study period, each with a value of 63.5%; CMG and PDC are slightly lower (63.0%) and are equivalent to MRA when oversupply is truncated. CR, MPRm, RCR, and CSA result in higher adherence values of 84.4%, 86.6%, 104.8%, and 109.7%, respectively. Conclusions: Five measures produce equivalent results for measuring prescription refill adherence over the evaluation period. Of these, MRA has the fewest calculations, is easily truncated if one desires to exclude surplus medication issues, and requires the least amount of data. MRA is therefore recommended as the preferred measure of adherence using administrative data.


Use of oral contraceptives is a recognised but infrequent cause of chorea. This type of chorea has usually been considered a reactivation of Sydenham's chorea by an unknown mechanism. A patient developed a chorea triggered by the use of oral contraceptives with no definite evidence of previous Sydenham's chorea or recent streptoccocal infections. However, the patient had positive anti-basal ganglia antibodies, which supports an immunological basis for the pathophysiology of this chorea.


We are concerned with methods for the absorption of unwanted electromagnetic energy, which is commonly referred to as electromagnetic interference or EMI. High permeability magnetic metals used for the control of EMI have high conductivities and hence support eddy currents, which act to reflect the incident wave before it can be absorbed. Eddy currents can be reduced by fabricating the film in a multilayer design, with the magnetic layers separated by electrically insulating dielectric layers, and also by sectioning the film into electrically isolated regions. However magnetic properties are significantly affected by sample shape. In order to find high performance EMI absorbers, we examine the low frequency BH loop, magnetic flux density B versus applied magnetic field H, and complex permeability spectra of multilayer permalloy films laser processed to define stripes geometries upon the samples. The stripes are defined parallel to the as-deposited magnetic hard axis (perpendicular to the direction of magnetization). We begin by examining different laser energy densities for groove definition in films of different thicknesses. We find the sample geometry can compensate for the inherent anisotropy field of the as-deposited film, resulting in fabrication of films with precisely controlled permeabilities. We find that for multilayer thin films the demagnetizing field, which is a function of groove depth, is able to reorient the easy and hard axes from the initial orientation. At the point of re-orientation, the samples become isotropic with large permeabilities. As the groove becomes more clearly defined the hard axis permeability increases, while the easy axis permeability decreases. The role of stripe width and ambient processing atmosphere have been investigated and are reported.


The fight between a human host and a bacterial pathogen is highly complicated; each party tries to outshine the other in the race for survival. In humans, the innate immune system--in particular the complement system--functions as the first line of defence against invading pathogens. During the course of evolution, however, pathogens, in order to survive and perpetuate within a host, developed multiple strategies to counteract the host complement system and to colonize. One such pathogen is Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus), a gram-positive bacterial pathogen often commensal in the human respiratory tract. Depending on the host's susceptibility, pneumococci can transform into an infectious agent, disseminating within the human host and causing mild to life-threatening diseases. This transition from commensal to infectious agent is a highly complex process, and understanding of this mechanism is essential in controlling the pathogenicity of pneumococci. Using its intricate arsenal of weapons, such as surface-presenting adhesins as well as recruitment of host factor, pneumococci successfully colonize the host, a prerequisite for establishing infection. This review describes C1q, the first subunit of the classical complement pathway, and its role in pneumococcus-host interactions, whereby pneumococci exploit C1q as a molecular bridge facilitating host cellular adherence and invasion, a function not akin to the role of C1q in the defence mechanism.


Early events in the formation of the thalamocortical tract remain poorly understood. Recent work has suggested that thalamocortical axons follow a path pioneered by transient thalamic afferents originating from the medial part of the ventral telencephalon. We studied the development of these transient afferents and the thalamocortical tract in mutant mice lacking transcription factors normally expressed in the dorsal thalamus or ventral telencephalon. Pax6 is expressed in the dorsal thalamus, but not in the medial part of the ventral telencephalon, and the thalamocortical tract fails to form inPax6−/− embryos. We found that transient thalamic afferents from the ventral telencephalon do not form in Pax6−/− embryos; this may contribute to the failure of their thalamocortical development. The distribution ofPax6−/− cells inPax6−/− ↔Pax6+/+ chimeras supports conclusions drawn from forebrain marker gene expression that Pax6 is not required for the normal development of the medial part of the ventral telencephalon but is required in the dorsal thalamus. Failure of the transient afferent pathway to develop is therefore likely a cell nonautonomous defect reflecting primary defects in the thalamus. We then examined the formation of thalamic afferents and efferents inFoxg1−/− embryos, which lack recognizable ventral telencephalic structures. In these embryos thalamic efferents navigate correctly through the thalamus but fail to turn laterally into the telencephalon, whereas other axons are able to cross the diencephalic/telencephalic boundary. Our results support a role for the ventral telencephalon in guiding the early development of the thalamocortical tract and identify a new role for the transcription factor Pax6 in regulating the ability of the thalamus to attract ventral telencephalic afferents.


Efficacy of the cognitive deficiency prophylaxis was studied in patients, suffering stenotic affection of carotid arteries. Application of intraoperative neuroprotection, using neoton, have permitted to reduce the reperfusion syndrome signs rate from 35.6 to 3.4%, аnd the cognitive deficiency level as well, causing the general occurrence risk of intraoperative or early morbidity lowering. It is expedient to apply the multidisciplinary approach for guaranteeing of adequate quality of clinical monitoring for cognitive functions.