As the result of a study, in 1982 St. Benedict's Hospital, Ogden, UT, reorganized as St. Benedict's Health System. The results of the reorganization were disappointing, however. Within three years, major financial difficulties, the lack of success in diversification on programs and facilities, continuing environmental pressures, and unrest within the organization led St. Benedict's to seek assistance. After contacting a number of Catholic systems, St. Benedict's chose the Holy Cross Health System, South Bend, IN, as the preferred partner. In mid-June 1986 the two systems began negotiations on a possible affiliation. Holy Cross sent an acquisition team to St. Benedict's to obtain a perspective on mission continuity, profitability, market share, and operations. Discussions continued through July, with neither system proposing an affiliation agreement. St. Benedict's was still considering other options, while Holy Cross was concerned about the financial ramifications. On Aug. 20, 1986, the two negotiating teams met face to face for the first time, with a Catholic Health Association representative acting as facilitator. The two teams met again on September 8, and St. Benedict's accepted Holy Cross's terms. While awaiting antitrust review of the affiliation, Holy Cross operated St. Benedict's under a management contract. The consolidation was formally completed on Dec. 1, 1986. Holy Cross took over ownership of St. Benedict's Health System, cosponsored by the Sister of the Holy Cross and the Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict. Holy Cross established tactical objectives aimed at stabilizing and enhancing St. Benedict's Hospital. The new owners and managers report they have achieved the objective which has improved St. Benedict's operations.


Iran's economy has suffered from chronic problems for decades and despite previous governments acknowledged those problems, no serious measurement was taken for economic reform. This remained unsolved until the ninth government, being aware of the basic problems of the economy in the country, designed a basic plan for economic reform a part of which was the comprehensive plan to reform subsidies payment. The project of targeting subsidies, which was the most important programs among the government's economic programs for 2010, dealt with people. The major advantage of targeting subsidies was correcting relative prices which was an important guide to individual consumers for deciding which type of commodities to use. Of other major advantages of this plan were social objectives such as an expected change in the distribution pattern of subsidies. In this paper it is tried to study various viewpoints and models of targeted subsidies in Iran. In this respect, the overall shape of the experimental and scientific models of targeted subsidies studied in Iran will be reviewed.


GaN buffer deep level centers are studied coupling measurements and device physics simulations. The impact of Feand C-doped samples on low frequency device transconductance and noise is presented. The Felevel found at 0.7 eV below the GaN conduction band results in low frequency generation-recombination noise and transconductance dispersion. The agreement with the model shows that the buffer can now be reliably simulated and used to investigate the impact of other deep level traps, such as carbon, that cannot be easily measured due to their deep position in the GaN bandgap.


We used text analysis software to examine the linguistic features of the speech of 21 psychopathic and 45 other offenders during the interview part of a Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R) assessment. Regression analysis was run on the linguistic categories to determine which were the best predictors of psychopathy scores. Relative to the other offenders, psychopaths used more disfluencies ("you know") and personal pronouns, made fewer references to other people (e.g., personal names, family), and were also less emotionally expressive. In particular, a low frequency of anxiety-related words and a more frequent use of personal pronouns were the most significant predictors of PCL-R scores and accounted for 25% of the variance. These findings for the first time afford a unique glimpse into the language produced during the PCL-R assessment interview. In addition to enhancing our understanding of psychopathic speech, these results may provide interviewers additional insights relevant to the assessment and therapeutic process.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
New evidence is provided that the complement system is not only an effective component of the innate immunity, but is also involved in bridging innate and adaptive immune response to control retroviral infections.

RECENT FINDINGS
The complement contributes to the control of retroviral replication by various strategies, such as complement-mediated lysis, triggering of B-cell responses by trapping the virus on follicular dendritic cells in the germinal center or enhancing of antigen presentation and thus the induction of virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes. HIV has evolved mechanisms to escape from complement-meditated neutralization and counteracts these immune responses by escaping from lysis, using follicular dendritic cells as anchor to generate a latent viral reservoir and enhancing the infection of antigen-presenting cells.

SUMMARY
This review will discuss the complex interactions of complement and complement receptors with retroviruses and review the escape mechanisms, which protect this virus family from complement-mediated destruction.


The windflow patterns in a large active blowout in a coastal dune on the southern shore of Lake Michigan were intensively monitored during a two-day period when the predominant winds shifted from onshore (Day 1) to offshore (Day 2). The wind data were used in conjunction with mapped geomorphic features and sedimentologic characteristics to infer the following aspects of blowout evolution: (1) Prevailing winds are transformed considerably once they enter the blowout. Flow separation occurs when offshore winds enter the blowout over the steep back wall. Separated flows may, in turn, induce countercurrent flows within the trough. Flow expansion and deceleration occur when onshore winds enter over gently sloping walls at the front of the blowout. (2) Maximum erosion occurs along the deflationary floor near the entrance to the blowout, and lateral extensional lobes are also expanding the blowout to the east. Sand avalanches down the eastern and western lateral walls toward the deflationary floor where it is moved toward the rear of the blowout and up the ramp at the south end. Sand leaves the blowout as a series of depositional lobes prograding out onto the surface of the host dune along the south and east walls. (3) Vegetation prevents expansion of the blowout in certain directions and impediments to flow, such as slump blocks, alter circulation patterns and sand transport paths. (4) Prevailing onshore winds deflate the floor and promote eastward expansion of lateral erosional lobes, whereas strong flows from the southwest apparently are the main cause of transport up the transportational ramp and over the south wall of the blowout.


State restrictions on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have become increasingly pervasive across the globe. Although this crackdown has been shown to have a negative impact on public funding flows, we know little about how it affects private philanthropy. How does information about crackdown abroad, as well as organizational attributes of nonprofits, affect individual donors' willingness to donate internationally? Using a survey experiment, we find that learning about repressive NGO environments increases generosity in that already-likely donors are willing to donate substantially more to legally besieged nonprofits. This generosity persists when mediated by two organizational-level heuristics: NGO issue areas and main funding sources. We discuss the implications of our results on how nonprofits can use different framing appeals to increase fundraising at a time when traditional public donor funding to such organizations is decreasing.


A new method was proposed to determine the size and location of the internal deficiency of the standing trees using the acoustic velocity of the ultrasonic, and the method was explained in specific on the process of how to put it into practice. Through the comparison of the experiment on defective Dahurian Larch between the ultrasonography and the Resistance Drilling, the results proved that the method was available and concluded the accuracy of this method when testing deficiency. Meanwhile, the average transmission velocity of the ultrasonic in Dahurian Larch was obtained through large amount of experimental data.


Legume-based cropping system and Brachiaria forage system could play a significant role in enhancing food and nutrition security and sustainable intensifications of African agriculture. To reveal this potential, a comprehensive review of literatures and assessment was performed using key indicators in relation to food and nutrition quality, agro-ecological services and socioeconomic benefits. The key indicators for legumes intercropping systems include: Grain yield, soil organic matter, food availability, nutritive values of legumes, maize and millets- based foods, proportion of income from crop sale and percentage of farmers aware and/or adopting intercropping. In the case of Brachiaria system, the forage biomass, milk yield, availability of milk, milk nutrition contents, income from Brachiaria grass and milk sale and people practising the Brachiaria technology were considered key indicators. Both systems showed positive impacts and contribute to a range of the United Nation's sustainable development goals including 1, 2, 3, 12, 13 and 15 and other associated targets. Integrating legume-based cropping systems and Brachiaria forage system will enhance contributions of smallholder farmers to food and nutrition security. The necessary changes needed in technology, institutions and policies to upscale legume-based cropping systems and Brachiaria forage system were suggested.  These changes include improved varieties, quality seeds, improved cultivation practices, market provision, effective extension and advisory services and support to the seed productions and distribution systems, among others. Yet, to fully tap the potentials of legume-based and Brachiaria forage systems sustainably and raise the profile of these climate smart systems, context specific research measures are necessary.

 Key words: Brachiaria forage, climate change, food and nutrition security, legumes-based cropping systems, sustainable intensifications.


Due to changed power consumption patterns, technological advance and deregulation, the appearance of the power grid in the low and medium voltage segment has changed. The spread of heating and cooling with electrical energy and an increase of electric vehicles as well as the broad rollout of photovoltaic systems has a major impact on the peak power demand of modern households and the volatility smart grids have to face. Thus, besides the load impact of the growing population of electric vehicles, modern households are not only consumers of electrical power, but also power producers, so called prosumers. The rising number of prosumers and the limitations of grid capacities lead to an increasingly distributed system of heterogeneous components, which have to be managed and operated with locality and scalability in mind. Virtualisation technologies, particularly known as state of the art in data centre computing, can lead to a paradigm shift needed to meet the growing demands of this evolution. A key issue here is to forward data to the correct data sinks, where data are required in order to keep the grid balanced. This routing process has to be able to react on grid changes in a timely manner, i.e., it must be based on the instantaneous state of the grid. In this paper, we propose a solution based on virtualising the communication infrastructure in the low and medium voltage grid. We evaluate two different approaches. The first approach is based on SDN; an ONOS SDN controller is used to change the behaviour of the communication infrastructure according to information provided by components of the power grid. The second approach uses Coaty and a Mosquitto MQTT broker to deliver messages to the desired endpoint, again based on information from the power grid.


To choose the suitable heat insulating material for refrigerated cargo hold shipboard of fishing vessel, a steady state three-dimensional mathematical model of heat transfer is developed in this paper. The heat-transfer model is simplified reasonably in order to facilitate analyzing and solving. After defining the boundary conditions of the model according to the heat-transfer process of the shipboard, numerical simulations with different heat insulating material are performed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software PHOENICS. The obtained temperature distributions of the model in each case are analyzed. The suitable one is pointed out according to the degree of influence of the heat insulating material on heat-transfer property of the shipboard.


During 1976-1977, hydroclimatological research was undertaken to help assess the potential utility of weather modification in stimulating crop production during droughts of various intensity in the Midwest. A secondary objective was to develop techniques for applying precipitation climatology in assessing the feasibility and potential benefits of cloud seeding during growing season droughts. This research was limited to Illinois which is typical of much of the Midwest in climate, soils and crop production. The results should provide useful input into future decision-making pertaining to the use of weather modification for alleviating agricultural droughts. Findings should be useful in establishing the limitations of weather modification in agricultural applications, and should assist in determing the scope and direction of future research in weather modification.


We report the growth of high-quality GaN epilayers on an ordered nanoporous GaN template by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The nanopores in GaN template were created by inductively coupled plasma etching using anodic aluminum oxide film as an etch mask. The average pore diameter and interpore distance is about 65 and 110nm, respectively. Subsequent overgrowth of GaN first begins at the GaN crystallite surface between the pores, and then air-bridge-mediated lateral overgrowth leads to the formation of the continuous layer. Microphotoluminescence and micro-Raman measurements show improved optical properties and significant strain relaxation in the overgrown layer when compared to GaN layer of same thickness simultaneously grown on sapphire without any template. Similar to conventional epitaxial lateral overgrown GaN, such overgrown GaN on a nanopatterned surface would also serve as a template for the growth of ultraviolet-visible light-emitting III-nitride devices.


Use of the powder metallurgy (PM) in production of various components has been growing in the automotive industry, including production of sintered stainless steels (SSSs). This study aims to improve the functional properties of SSSs by formation of the Cr3C2-NiCr coating by APS method. The next stage involved alloying of the surface of SSSs using the gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). Analysis of microstructures was carried out using microscopy (metallographic microscope and scanning electron microscope). Furthermore, the study presents XRD (X-ray powder diffraction) examinations, mechanical properties and surface roughness measurements. The presented modification improved properties of the surface layers examined in the study and enabled a reduction in the wall thickness of the detail, which is important factor in the automotive and transport industry.


The thalassemias are extremely heterogeneous in terms of their clinical severity, and their underlying pathophysiology relates directly to the extent of accumulation of excess unmatched globin chains: alpha in beta thalassemia and beta in the alpha thalassemias. However, the accumulation of each separate globin chain affects red cell membrane material properties and the state of red cell hydration very differently. These observations presumably account for the varying extent of ineffective erythropoiesis and peripheral blood hemolysis in the major variants of thalassemia. The thalassemias are a worldwide group of inherited disorders of globin-chain synthesis that developed in multiple geographic regions, probably because they provided partial protection against malaria. In normal assembly of adult hemoglobin (HbA-alpha 2 beta 2), alpha and beta globin are synthesized by genes on different chromosomes, whereas heme is synthesized primarily on mitochondria. The synthesis of these chains is very tightly coordinated so that the ratio of alpha globin to beta globin (beta in this case including the beta-like globins delta and gamma) is normally 1 +/- 0.05. Furthermore, specific erythroid proteases are designed to attack and destroy excess alpha or beta globin chains, demonstrating the deleterious impact of the accumulation of excess unmatched globin chains. In beta thalassemia, production of beta globin decreases and excess alpha globin accumulates. In alpha thalassemia, on the other hand, this process occurs in reverse. Perhaps in these disorders more than any others, molecular biologists have documented the deletional and transcriptional events leading to diminished synthesis of specific classes of globin chains.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


This is a research guide designed to assist Gateway students with the library resources and guidelines in early childhood education.


Since the 1990s scholars of party politics have written of the increasing regionalization of Canadian party politics, going as far as to label the current system 'balkanized'. Using three widely established measures of party nationalization (party coverage, uniformity of support, and patterns of electoral competition), and one new measure (analysis of party advertisements), this paper explores the regionalization thesis in the post 1990s political landscape. While there is widespread consensus in the literature that the Canadian party system is highly regionalized, this paper provides evidence to the contrary. Rather than a balkanization of Canadian electoral and party politics we are witnessing a re-nationalization of Canadian party politics. This is especially true for those parties that compete in English Canada. Where regionalization does still exist is in the province of Quebec. Not only does the Bloc Quebecois represent a regionalizing force in itself, but the party's very presence alters the strategies of the other parties that compete in Quebec. As a result of the different dynamics of party competition in Quebec, we are left with two distinct party systems: a regional party system in Quebec and a national party system in the rest of Canada.


The Mandelbrot Set and Julia Sets are fractals that are generated employing the cyclic equation zn+1 = zn2 + C an infinite number of times, where zn and C are complex numbers. For the Mandelbrot set, the value of zn is static and the equation projects points that do not diverge to infinity for all possible values of C derived from coordinates on the complex plane. For Julia Sets, every value of C remains static while every value for zn that does not diverge to infinity is projected. Because the standard, 2D Mandelbrot set assumes the value of zn = 0, there is only one primary depiction of the Mandelbrot Set. For Julia Sets, the value of C is not assumed, and therefore, there are an infinite number of Julia Sets. In this study, the effect of changing the coordinate from which the value of C is derived in the complex plane for the equation zn+1 = zn2 + C on the qualitative characteristics of the coordinate's corresponding, standard 2D Julia Set in relation to the standard, 2D Mandelbrot Set is observed — specifically, Julia Sets derived from points outside the Mandelbrot Set, in the main cardioid of the Mandelbrot Set, in the primary bulbs of the Mandelbrot Set, along the edges of the Mandelbrot set, along the real and imaginary axes.


This article compares the way in which two black British tabloids, The Voice and the New Nation, construct the Afro-Caribbean community and their diasporic identities in the late 1990s, when the second title was launched. The analysis shows that The Voice reflects a more essentialist mode of thinking about Afro-Caribbean identities in Britain, contrary to the New Nation which questions this essentialist identity. While the essentialist mode was necessary for the politics of the early 1980s, when some form of equivalence had to be established between different black groups in the fight against racism, by the mid 1990s at least part of the black community had entered the middle-class mainstream. As a result, the New Nation focused on the achievements of this middle-class portion of the community and wanted to break free from the doom-and-gloom stories reflecting the experience of the 1980s. The starting point of this article is that media representations produce the framework of social cognition regarding black identities. The launch of the New Nation in 1996 signalled a new framework in which the diasporic imagination and the relationships between black and white communities and the relationship between race and class are re-examined.


The study was carried out with the aim to determine optimum sowing date and growing degree-days (GDD) of sweet corn using different sowing dates from April to June during the 2009 and 2010 growing seasons under semi-arid ecological conditions of the Southwestern Anatolia Region. The research included five sowing dates 1 st April, 15 th April, 1 st May, 15 th May and 1 st June. The experiment was set up as Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Lumina F1 hybrid sweet corn cultivar was used as an experimental materials. Sowing dates had a significant effect on harvest period, emergence rate, fresh ear yield and yield characteristics. Compared with the corn, sowing dates from April to June the corn sowed in the earlier had longer total growth period. The maximum fresh ear yields (14648.3 and 14568.3 kg ha -1 , respectively) were obtained from May l and the highest fresh ear number (64976.7 and 64915.7 number ha -1 , respectively) recorded from May l5 sowing date in 2009 and 2010 years. The highest emergence rate (93.3 and 91.7 %, respectively) was determined from June 1 in both years. The highest ear diameter (44.8 and 44.9 mm), ear length (18.7 and 18.3 cm, respectively), number of kernels per ear (566.4 and 551.7 grain, respectively) and ear weight (225.2 and 224.7 g, respectively) were observed from May 1 sowing date in 2009 and 2010 years. Total GDD accumulated as milk stage period of sweet corn in different sowing dates occurred between 578.9-938.8 0 C in 2009 and 646.7-1025.5 0 C in 2010.


Stability of the banking system and macro-prudential regulation are essential for healthy economic growth. In this paper we study the European bank network and its vulnerability to stressing different bank assets. The importance of macro-prudential policy is emphasized by the inherent vulnerability of the financial system, high level of leverage, interconnectivity of system's entities, similar risk exposure of financial institutions, and susceptibility for systemic crisis propagation through the system. Current stress tests conducted by the European Banking Authority do not take in consideration the connectivity of the banks and the potential of one bank vulnerability spilling over to the rest of the system. We create a bipartite network with bank nodes on one hand and asset nodes on the other with weighted links between the two layers based on the level of different countries' sovereign debt holdings by each bank. We propose a model for systemic risk propagation based on common bank exposures to specific asset classes. We introduce the similarity in asset distribution among the banks as a measure of bank closeness. We link the closeness of asset distributions to the likelihood that banks will experience a similar level and type of distress in a given adverse scenario. We analyze the dynamics of tier 1 capital ratio after stressing the bank network and find that while the system is able to withstand shocks for a wide range of parameters, we identify a critical threshold for asset risk beyond which the system transitions from stable to unstable. ∗Corresponding author, Email: email@example.com


Situations exist in which rapid administration of treatment, as well as maintenance of efficient concentrations for the longest possible time, turns out to be essential. In view of the previous treatment, the elaboration of liposomes, PLO (pluronic lecithin organogel), and the mixture of both is described, as well as their characterizations by electronic transmission microscopy, with the aim of finding out precisely the type of structure for both controlled release systems, its composition, size, homogeneity, and integrity. The period of study has been 90 days. Multilaminar and unilaminar vesicles smaller than 1 microm in diameter were seen in the liposomes, PLO, and liposomes-PLO formulations on transmission electron microscopic (TEM) observation. The technique of characterization reveals the progressive aggregation of the liposomas along the period of study. However, all the vesicles of PLO maintain a defined structure and only a light aggregation 60 days after the elaboration. Changes of morphology and aggregation of liposomas decreased after the incorporation of cholesterol (CH) to the liposomal matrix. The best results were obtained with the formulas liposomes-PLO, which maintain their individuality and integrity during the whole period of study. The combined formulation of liposomas and PLO showed an increase of stability of both lipid systems.


Next‐generation sequencing has made it possible to begin asking questions about the process of divergence at the level of the genome. For example, recently, there has been a debate around the role of 'genomic islands of divergence' (i.e. blocks of outlier loci) in facilitating the process of speciation‐with‐gene‐flow. The Swainson's thrush, Catharus ustulatus, is a migratory songbird with two genetically distinct subspecies that differ in a number of traits known to be involved in reproductive isolation in birds (plumage coloration, song and migratory behaviour), despite contemporary gene flow along a secondary contact zone. Here, we use RAD‐PE sequencing to test emerging hypotheses about the process of divergence at the level of the genome and identify genes and gene regions involved in differentiation in this migratory songbird. Our analyses revealed distinct genomic islands on 15 of the 23 chromosomes and an accelerated rate of divergence on the Z chromosome, one of the avian sex chromosomes. Further, an analysis of loci linked to traits known to be involved in reproductive isolation in songbirds showed that genes linked to migration are significantly more differentiated than expected by chance, but that these genes lie primarily outside the genomic islands. Overall, our analysis supports the idea that genes linked to migration play an important role in divergence in migratory songbirds, but we find no compelling evidence that the observed genomic islands are facilitating adaptive divergence in migratory behaviour.


The system of four differential equations governing counterpropagating quasi-phase matching are recast in a Hamiltonian form that leads to immediate insight into the nonlinear mixing process by inspection for all possible boundary conditions. A reduced Hamiltonian is found using conservation relations that are dependent on only two normalized field efficiencies and two aggregate phases. Hamiltonian contours are plotted in a series of phase-space cross sections to provide insight into the generalized behavior. The nonlinear eigenmodes are found, and their stability is examined. Finally, two specific counterpropagating quasi-phase-matching configurations, i.e., mirrored and mirrorless, are analyzed using this general Hamiltonian with the appropriate boundary conditions.


Technology Focus
 A radical digital revolution is happening all around us (or so we are told). This digital domain is moving so rapidly that new acronyms are being added to our lexicon almost weekly (BD, DA, DNN, GAN, and ML, to name but a few). So how will this affect reservoir simulation? Speaking for myself, I really do not know. However, I came across an interesting article from the Harvard Business Review that examined the effect of innovative information technology (IIT) on some large US-based consumer businesses, and, while specific benefits of IIT were clearly stated, the authors opined, "In times of radical technological change, there's a lot of figuring out to do. [We] have to understand what new technologies can do." Applying this to reservoir simulation, we apparently need to understand better when and, more importantly, when not to use such technology—to appreciate its bounds, its limitations, its range of validity, and so on.
 Deep neural networks (DNNs), for example, are excellent at labeling images (cat, dog, axolotl, etc.). However, some futurists have an impression that IIT can solve almost any kind of problem, sometimes leading to extravagant claims about its potential utility.
 Futurists are optimists in nature (the ones I have seen certainly are). However, such buoyant proclamations require some counterbalance through honest questions, healthy discussion, and a reluctance to accept such bold assertions as dogma.
 Without wishing to appear too skeptical, I came across an article from The Royal Society that is well worth quoting directly: "No matter their 'depth' and the sophistication of data-driven methods, in the end, they merely fit curves to existing data. Not only do these methods invariably require far larger quantities of data than anticipated … they can also fail in circumstances beyond the range of the data used to train them because they are not designed to model the structural characteristics of the underlying system." While this article focuses on biology and medicine, the authors apply their keen insight to any multiscale and complex system, which covers our domain of interest. I feel that a tempered, modestly restrained approach to IIT is indeed wise (as applied to reservoir simulation), at least until we have had time to fathom where this digital revolution is leading.
 Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
 SPE 186079 Implicit Modeling for Permeability Enhancement in Carbonate Reservoirs: A Novel Approach To Bridge Data Gaps for Honoring Dynamic Observations by Arthur P.C. Lavenu,
 Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company, et al.
 SPE 187046 Integrated Reservoir-Network Simulation Improves Modeling and Selection of Subsea Boosting Systems for a Deepwater Development by Gaurav Seth, Chevron, et al.
 SPE 187453 Assessing Single EOS Predictability Using PVT Properties of a Wet-Gas Reservoir on a Compositional Simulator by Bander N. Al Ghamdi, Saudi Aramco, et al.


We present a time-dependent variational method to learn the mechanisms of equilibrium reactive processes and efficiently evaluate their rates within a transition path ensemble. This approach builds off of the variational path sampling methodology by approximating the time-dependent commitment probability within a neural network ansatz. The reaction mechanisms inferred through this approach are elucidated by a novel decomposition of the rate in terms of the components of a stochastic path action conditioned on a transition. This decomposition affords an ability to resolve the typical contribution of each reactive mode and their couplings to the rare event. The associated rate evaluation is variational and systematically improvable through the development of a cumulant expansion. We demonstrate this method in both over- and under-damped stochastic equations of motion, in low-dimensional model systems, and in the isomerization of a solvated alanine dipeptide. In all examples, we find that we can obtain quantitatively accurate estimates of the rates of the reactive events with minimal trajectory statistics and gain unique insights into transitions through the analysis of their commitment probability.


Endocrine disruption from environmental contaminants has been linked to a broad spectrum of adverse outcomes. One concern about endocrine-disrupting xenobiotics is the potential for additive or synergistic (i.e., greater-than-additive) effects of mixtures. A short-term dosing model to examine the effects of environmental mixtures on thyroid homeostasis has been developed. Prototypic thyroid-disrupting chemicals (TDCs) such as dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and poly-brominated diphenyl ethers have been shown to alter thyroid hormone homeostasis in this model primarily by up-regulating hepatic catabolism of thyroid hormones via at least two mechanisms. Our present effort tested the hypothesis that a mixture of TDCs will affect serum total thyroxine (T4) concentrations in a dose-additive manner. Young female Long-Evans rats were dosed via gavage with 18 different polyyhalogenated aromatic hydrocarbons [2 dioxins, 4 dibenzofurans, and 12 PCBs, including dioxin-like and non-dioxin-like PCBs] for 4 consecutive days. Serum total T4 was measured via radioimmunoassay in samples collected 24 hr after the last dose. Extensive dose–response functions (based on seven to nine doses per chemical) were determined for individual chemicals. A mixture was custom synthesized with the ratio of chemicals based on environmental concentrations. Serial dilutions of this mixture ranged from approximately background levels to 100-fold greater than background human daily intakes. Six serial dilutions of the mixture were tested in the same 4-day assay. Doses of individual chemicals that were associated with a 30% TH decrease from control (ED30), as well as predicted mixture outcomes were calculated using a flexible single-chemical-required method applicable to chemicals with differing dose thresholds and maximum-effect asymptotes. The single-chemical data were modeled without and with the mixture data to determine, respectively, the expected mixture response (the additivity model) and the experimentally observed mixture response (the empirical model). A likelihood-ratio test revealed statistically significant departure from dose additivity. There was no deviation from additivity at the lowest doses of the mixture, but there was a greater-than-additive effect at the three highest mixtures doses. At high doses the additivity model underpredicted the empirical effects by 2- to 3-fold. These are the first results to suggest dose-dependent additivity and synergism in TDCs that may act via different mechanisms in a complex mixture. The results imply that cumulative risk approaches be considered when assessing the risk of exposure to chemical mixtures that contain TDCs.


Air-borne or liquid-laden solid particle transport is a common phenomenon in various industrial applications. Solid particles transported at severe operating conditions such as high-flow velocity can cause concerns for structural integrity, through wear originating from particle impacts with the structure. To apply Acoustic Emission (AE) in particle-impact monitoring, previous researchers focused primarily on dry particle impacts on dry target plate and/or wet particle impacts on wet or dry target plate. For dry particle impacts on dry target plate, AE events energy - calculated from the recorded free-falling or air-borne particle impact AE signals - was correlated with particle size, concentration, height, target material and thickness. For a given system, once calibrated for a specific particle type and operating condition, this technique might be sufficient to serve the purpose. However, if more than one particle type is present in the system (particularly with similar size, density and impact velocity), calculated AE event energy is not unique for a specific particle type. For wet particle impacts on dry or wet target plate (either submerged or in a flow loop), AE event energy was related to the particle size, concentration, target material, impact velocity and angle between the nozzle and the target plate. In these studies, the experimental arrangements and operating conditions either did not account for any bubble formation in the system or, if they did, did so at least an order of magnitude lower in amplitude than the sand particle impact. In reality, bubble formation can be comparable with particle impacts in terms of AE amplitude in process industries such as sand production during oil and gas transportation away from a reservoir. Current practice is to calibrate an installed AE monitoring system against a range of sand-free flow conditions. In real-time monitoring for a specific calibrated flow, the flow-generated AE amplitude/energy is deducted from the recorded AE amplitude/energy and the difference is attributed to the sand particle impacts. However, if the flow condition changes, which it often does in the process industry, the calibration is no longer valid and AE events from bubbles can be misinterpreted as sand particle impacts, and vice versa. In this thesis, sand particles and glass beads (with similar size, density and impact velocity) have been studied, dropping from 200 mm using a small cylindrical stepped mild steel coupon as a target plate. For signal recording purposes, two identical broadband AE sensors are installed, one at the centre and one 30 mm off-centred, on the opposite side of the impacting surface. Signal analysis has been carried out by evaluating seven standard AE parameters (amplitude, energy, rise time, duration, power spectral density (PSD), peak frequency at PSD, and spectral centroid) in the time and frequency domain, and time-frequency domain analysis has been performed by applying Gabor Wavelet Transformation. The signal interpretation becomes difficult due to reflections, dispersions and mode conversions caused by close proximity of the boundaries. So, a new signal analysis parameter - frequency-band energy ratio - has been proposed. This technique is able to distinguish between the populations of two very similar (in terms of size, mass and energy) groups of sand particles and glass beads impacting on mild steel, based on the coefficient of variation (Cv) of the frequency-band AE energy ratios. To facilitate individual particle impact identification, further analysis has been performed using a Support Vector Machine (SVM)-based classification algorithm with seven standard AE parameters, evaluated in both the time and frequency domain. The available dataset has been segmented into two parts: training set (80%) and test set (20%). The developed model has been applied on the test data for the purpose of model performance evaluation. The overall success rate in individually identifying each category (PLB, Glass bead and Sand particle impacts) at S1 has been found as 86%, and at S2 as 92%. To study wet particle impacts on a wet target surface in the presence of bubbles, the target plate was sealed to a cylindrical perspex tube. Single and multiple sand particles were introduced in the system using a constant-speed blower, to impact the target surface under water-loading. Two sensor locations, the same as those used in the previous sets of experiments, were monitored. From frequency domain analysis, it has been observed that the characteristic frequencies for particle impacts are centred at 300-350 kHz, and the frequencies for bubble formations are centred at 135-150 kHz. Based upon this, two frequency bands - 100-200 kHz (E1) and 300-400 kHz (E3) - and the frequency-band energy ratio (E3/E1) have been identified as optimal for identifying particle impacts for the given system. E3/E1 > 1 has been associated with particle impacts and E3/E1 < 1 has been associated with bubble formations. By applying these frequency-band energy ratios and setting an amplitude threshold, an automatic event identification technique has been developed for identification of sand particle impacts in presence of bubbles. The method developed can be used to optimize the identification of sand particle impacts. The optimal setting of an amplitude threshold is sensitive to the number of particles and the noise levels. For example, a high threshold of 10% will clearly identify sand particle impacts, but for multiparticle tests the same threshold is unlikely to detect about 20% of lower energy particles. On the other hand, a threshold lower than 3% is likely to result in the detection of AE events with poor frequency content and incorrect classification of the weakest events. The optimal setting of the parameters used in the framework - such as thresholds, frequency bands and ratios of AE energy - is therefore likely to make identification of sand particle impacts in a laboratory environment possible within 10%. An additional advantage of this technique is that calibration of the signal levels is not required, once the optimal frequency bands and ratios have been identified.


This Article proposes a rational justification to the Pecking order Hypothesis through relationship with Modigliani Miller Proposition I. The reason to support our justification is 7 (seven) incentives of Pecking order Hypothesis. The 7 (seven) incentives of Pecking order Hypothesis are tax incentive for debt, the bankruptcy costs mitigation incentive, signalling incentive due to information asymmetry, under/ over – investment mitigation incentive due to information asymmetry, asset substitution incentive, managerial risk aversion incentive, and transaction costs incentive. The implications are 5(five) incentives to prefer use debt than equity and 2 (two) Incentives to prefer use equity than debt. Keywords: Incentives of Pecking order Hypothesis, Modigliani Miller Proposition I.


HISTORY AND CLINICAL FINDINGS A 64-year-old woman suffered from severe fatigue. She was admitted to our outpatient unit for a diagnostic evaluation of multiple liver lesions as well as an adrenal gland tumor. Diabetes mellitus was diagnosed 22 years ago. Clinical evaluation revealed a mild obesity and a facial hypertrichosis. INVESTIGATIONS Apart from elevated liver enzymes, serum ferritin and transferrin saturation were increased. Suspected haemochromatosis was verified by genetic analyses. Analyses of a 24 hours urine sample revealed typical constellation of a chronic hepatic porphyria. The liver lesions were diagnosed as multifocal fatty infiltrations using computer tomography. The patient refused a liver biopsy. The tumor of the adrenal gland represented an adenoma without endocrine activity. TREATMENT AND COURSE Repeated phlebotomies were performed for the treatment of haemochromatosis. In the following serum ferritin returned to normal and liver enzymes as well as hyperporphyriuria decreased markedly. Diabetes was better controlled due to decrease of insulin requirements, too. CONCLUSION This case report highlights the association of hereditary haemochromatosis and chronic hepatic porphyria, which presumably cause multifocal nodal fatty infiltration of the liver. Iron overload is likely the underlying cause, which represents the target for treatment options.


Automating the deployment of IoT applications is a complex challenge, especially if multiple heterogeneous sensors, actuators, and business components have to be integrated. This demonstration paper presents a generic, standards-based system that is able to fully automatically deploy IoT applications based on the TOSCA standard, the standardized MQTT messaging protocol, the Mosquitto message broker, and the runtime environment OpenTOSCA. We describe a demonstration scenario and explain in detail how this scenario can be deployed fully automatically using the mentioned technologies.


The energy spectrum for the three dimensional Bose gas in Bose-Einstein Condensation phase is calculated with Modified Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory, which is both conserving and gapless. From Improved $\Phi -$% derivable theory, the diagrams needed to preserve Ward-Takahashi Identity are resummed in a systematic and nonperturbative way. The results show significant discrepancies with Popov theory at finite temperature. It is valid up to the critical temperature where the dispersion relation of the low energy excitation spectrum changes from linear to quadratic. Because of the repulsive interaction, the critical temperature has a positive shift from that of idea gas, which is in accordance with the result from the previous calculations in the uncondensed phase.


Operation of a molecular machine is often thought of as a "far from equilibrium" process in which energy released by some high free energy fuel molecule or by light is used to drive a nonequilibrium "power stroke" to do work on the environment. Here we discuss how a molecular machine can be operated arbitrarily close to chemical equilibrium and still perform significant work at an appreciable rate: micrometer per second velocities against piconewton loads. As a specific example, we focus on a motor based on a three-ring catenane similar to that discussed by Leigh [Leigh DA, Wong JKY, Dehez F, Zerbetto F (2003) Nature 424:174–179]. The machine moves through its working cycle under the influence of external modulation of the energies of the states, where the modulation is carried out slowly enough that the state probabilities obey a Boltzmann equilibrium distribution at every instant. The mechanism can be understood in terms of the geometric phase [Berry MV (1990) Phys Today 43(12):34–40] in which the system moves adiabatically around a closed loop in parameter space, completing, on average, nearly one-half mechanical cycle each time it does so. Because the system is very close to equilibrium at every instant, the efficiency can approach 100%.


Background Signalling through insulin-like growth factor (IGF) 1 receptor is essential for cell survival, but may turn pathogenic in uncontrolled tissue growth in tumours. In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the IGF-1R signalling is activated supporting expansion of the inflamed synovia. The aim of the present study was to understand the place of IGF-1R expression and signalling for development of adaptive immune responses in the setting of prospective RA cohort and in experimental arthritis. Material and methods Clinical associations of IGF1R expression in leukocytes of the peripheral blood were studied in 84 female RA patients with mean disease duration 8 years, all treated with methotrexate at the time of enrolment. Consequences of the IGF1R signalling inhibition for arthritis were studied in mBSA immunised Balb/c mice treated with NT157 compound promoting degradation of IRS-1/2. Results In RA patients, high expression of IGF1R in leukocytes was associated with and systemic inflammation as verified by higher transcription factor NF-kB, serum levels of IL-6 and erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and higher pain perception. Additionally, phosphorylated IGF1R and STAT3 enriched T cells infiltrate in RA synovia. Treatment with NT157 inhibited the phosphorylation of IGF1R and STAT3 in synovia, and alleviated arthritis and erosions in mice. It also reduced expression of IGF1R in spleen T cells and despaired ERK and Akt signalling. This limited the ability of mBSA-specific T cells to produce IL-6, IFNg and IL-17. The reduction of IL-6 and IL-17 levels was associated with changed RoRgt/FoxP3 balance. Conclusion IGF1R signalling contributes to T cell dependent inflammation in arthritis. Inhibition of IGF1R signalling alleviates arthritis by restricting IL-6 dependent formation of Th17 cells and may open for new treatment strategies in RA.


With a paradigm shift from an approval-oriented approach to a lifecycle management approach and increasing demand for expedited approvals and drug safety, the importance of postmarketing studies has been emphasized in drug regulatory and policy environment. This change is reflected in the increasing number of postmarketing studies and the passage of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Amendments Act of 2007 which authorized FDA to require drug sponsors to conduct postmarketing safety studies. On the other hand, some concern that postmarketing studies are getting longer and larger, the cost of postmarketing studies is rising, but those studies might not yield important information on the safety and effectiveness of drugs. Yet, we know little about FDA's use of postmarketing studies and their value. Study One (chapter 1) examines postmarketing studies established between July 2008 and May 2016. Most noteworthy, there have been no increases in postmarketing studies during this period and that the duration and number of subjects involved have not changed. Study Two (chapter 2) assess the value of postmarketing studies with respect to public health impact as measured by changes in drug labeling. I found that withdrawal or discontinuation of a drug resulting from postmarketing studies is rare and a half of fulfilled postmarketing studies resulted in label changes. Study Three (chapter 3) addresses whether and how the availability of postmarketing study options affects the drug approval process by examining qualitative data from FDA drug advisory committee meeting transcripts and interviews. I found a few statements (3.5% of the transcripts) by advisory committee members indicating that the prospect of postmarketing studies made them more likely to support approval of a specific drug. Interviews with FDA reviewers, former and current advisory committee members, and industry revealed quite divergent views about the influence of the availability of postmarketing studies.


The fourth branchial cleft fistula, which can be the origin of a recurrent left neck abscess, is a rare congenital malformation. Its diagnosis can be difficult. A ten-year-old girl presented with a left painful swelling of the neck. At ultrasonography and tomodensitometry, the diagnosis of thyroglossal cyst was suspected. Antibiotics were prescribed before surgical resection. The intervention was successful and the peroperative macroscopic aspect of the lesion suggested a dermoid cyst. Four months later, the same symptoms reappeared with fever. An intravenous antibiotic therapy was started while a magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated a possible aero-digestive tract fistula. Two days later, the patient developed an aero-cutaneous fistula. Oral antibiotics were started. Five months later, the girl came back for a second recurrence. A few days after her admission, she developed again an aero-cutaneous fistula. The diagnosis of surinfected fourth cleft fistula was made. An antibiotic therapy was started until the second intervention. After discussion about embryology, we describe the physiopathology, the differential diagnosis and the management of a fourth branchial cleft fistula causing recurrent left neck abscess.


In order to help the designers estimate the dynamic response of the aircraft hydraulic tubes in the working environment, a design and simulation software is developed based on CATIA and ANSYS using VB as the developing tool. This paper concentrates on the part of auto-modeling and introduces the key technologies to automatically extract the CATIA model data and build the CAE parametric model of aircraft hydraulic tube structure in ANSYS. It provides an approach to transfer a CATIA model into a CAE model conveniently which reduces the time for FE (Finite Element) analysis and makes the designers be free from the repetitious data transmission, modeling and so on.


Economic growth should be supplemented by an efficient payment and settlement system. Many attempts have been made to improve the efficiency of payment and settlement system in India. Especially the effort has been in terms of promoting digital economy. But the stickiness to payments through currency notes by the people has had a moderating effect on these efforts. The policy shift of Government of India towards demonetization of higher denomination currency notes has given thrust to digital payments. The study hypothesizes that post demonetization, the payment and settlement system indicators would show moderate to high deviation from the volume and value that can be forecasted using the historical data. Using Automatic ARIMA Forecasting in EViews, the forecasted values for the indicators for a period from November 2016 to March 2018 were estimated based on the historical data of the indicators from April 2011 to October 2016. The forecasted values of the indicators are then compared with the actual values of the indicators to see if they differ significantly by using paired t-test. The study finds evidence to suggest that the policy of demonetization and resultant reduced supply of currency notes has provided impetus to the Indian public to move towards digital platforms, and the increased supply of currency notes thereafter has not led to complete reversal of this shift in this change in consumer preference. This leads to the conclusion that through effective policy shifts, consumer preferences can be altered, and the Indian economy could become a less cash economy.


When isolated adult oligodendrocytes adhere to a substratum myelinogenesis occurs. Investigation of the mechanism by which this happens indicated that the oligodendrocyte-substratum interaction activated protein kinase C-dependent phosphorylation of myelin basic protein and promoted the synthesis of myelin basic protein. In addition, when agents that activate protein kinase C (second messenger diacylglycerol or a tumor-promoting phorbol ester) were added to nonattached oligodendrocytes, they mimicked the influence of the substratum by inducing phosphorylation of myelin basic protein; and reagents that increase cellular adenosine 3', 5'-monophosphate (cyclic AMP) inhibited phosphorylation of myelin basic protein. Thus, at least in vitro, the interaction between oligodendrocytes and the substratum may mediate myelinogenic events, and phosphorylation of myelin basic protein may be an early requirement in the sequence of steps that ultimately results in myelin formation.


The transfer matrix method (TMM) has been applied to analyze the gain and saturation characteristics of semiconductor laser optical amplifiers. This method approximates the amplifier cavity by dividing it into M discrete subsections, and TMM has been applied to analyze the stepwise longitudinal field distribution at each subsection along the amplifier cavity. By incorporating also the carrier rate equations into the analysis, it has been shown that the approximation can accurately describe the carrier density and longitudinal field distribution along the amplifier cavity if M is sufficiently large (i.e., the size of each subsection is about an order of magnitude of one wavelength of the input signal). By assuming that the amplifier is biased below oscillation threshold such that the contribution of spontaneous emissions to the gain characteristics can be neglected, we have shown that our proposed method yields a fast and efficient algorithm in analyzing the gain and saturation characteristics of laser amplifiers. We have compared the results produced by our method to those analyzed using the average photon density (AVPD) approximation technique, as well as to experimental results on a 1.5-/spl mu/m buried heterostructure semiconductor laser amplifier. >


Brominated flame retardants (BFRs), and to a lesser extent polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), are widely used chemicals that prevent or slow the onset and spreading of fire in order to reduce injuries and death. Unfortunately, many of these compounds pose serious threats for human health and the environment. Previous research identified the nervous system as a sensitive target organ. This thesis therefore describes studies in which the neurotoxic mechanism of action of some selected PCBs and BFRs are (further) unraveled. The obtained data underline the need for safer and less persistent alternative halogen-free flame retardants (HFFRs). Unfortunately, the (neuro)toxic potential of these HFFRs is largely unknown. Therefore, available toxicity data of 13 selected HFFRs was reviewed and subsequently in vitro experiments were performed to identify the in vitro neurotoxic potential of these selected HFFRs. First, cytotoxic effects on the neuronal cell lines PC12 and B35 were investigated. The majority of the tested HFFRs induced negligible cytotoxicity. Next, effects of the compounds on reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was determined which showed that a considerable fraction of the HFFRs affects ROS production. Oxidative stress occurs when ROS levels in the cell dramatically increase, potentially resulting in significant damage to cell structures. Since an increase in intracellular calcium concentrations ([Ca2+]i) is an important trigger for neuronal (dys)function and cell damage, including apoptosis, effects on Ca2+-homeostasis were investigated by using single cell fluorescent microscopy. Some HFFRs were able to disturb basal Ca2+-homeostasis. Since [Ca2+]i is also essential for proper intra- and intercellular signaling, effects on depolarization-evoked increases in [Ca2+]i in PC12 cells were also determined. This proved to be a sensitive endpoint as 7 of 13 tested compounds were able to inhibit depolarization-evoked calcium influx. In the first part of this thesis it is also shown that postsynaptic inhibitory GABAA and excitatory α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine (nACh) receptors are a direct target for PCBs and BFRs. Therefore, effects on the function of nACh-receptors, expressed in Xenopus oocytes, were measured using the two-electrode voltage-clamp technique. The results demonstrate that a few HFFRs can act as nACh-receptor antagonist. Using the obtained in vitro (neuro)toxicity data, the suitability of these HFFRs for replacement of BFRs was assessed using an initial rank ordering. Two HFFRs were classified as having a negligible, six as having a low, one as having a moderate, and four as having high in vitro neurotoxic potency. Since the in vivo (neuro)toxicity of these compounds is unknown, synaptic plasticity in hippocampal slices of mice neonatally exposed to the BFR tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBPA) or the HFFRs aluminium diethylphosphinate (Alpi) or zinc stannate (ZS) was measured. Despite the clear in vitro neurotoxic effects of ZS, no (developmental) neurotoxicity was observed ex vivo following single oral exposure. The negligible neurotoxic potency of Alpi in vitro was confirmed in this study. Although additional data are required for complete (human) risk assessment, the findings described in this thesis demonstrate that several HFFRs could be suitable substitutes for BFRs.


Global combustion characteristics of synthetic diesel fuel, 2,6,10-trimethyldodecane (TMD) has been investigated experimentally by measuring extinction limits of diffusion flames at 1 atm and reflected shock ignition delays at 20 atm. Derived cetane number (DCN) of TMD is measured as 59.1, thus similar global combustion characteristics have been speculated between TMD and the previously studied S-8 POSF 4734 and its surrogate. Identical high temperature reacitivities have been found both in diffusion flame extinction and ignition delay times. However, it has been found that S-8 POSF 4734 surrogate has the faster ignition delay times than TMD at temperatures below 870 K. To elucidate this difference, chemical function group analysis has been performed and it has identified that the methyl to methylene ratio plays important role in the low temperature reactions, particularly for high DCN fuel mixtures. To verify this, a mixture of n-hexadecane and iso-cetane has been also tested by measuring both diffusion flame extinction limits and reflected shock ignition delay times. The result confirms the importance of methy to methylene ratio as a matching condition. The behavior of TMD and the n-hexadecane/iso-cetane mixture for both diffusion flame extinctions and reflected shock ignition delays over the entire temperature conditions considered are identical. Further numerical analysis has been conducted based on ignition delay calculations for the stoichiometric fuel/air mixture at 850 K and 20 atm. The numerical results demonstrate that the ignition delay times of all tested n-alkane/iso-alkane mixtures can be correlated with the methyl to methylene ratio, which controls the initial fuel oxidation pathways in the formation of QOOH and OH radicals. The results in this study suggest that TMD needs more careful assessment of its global reactivity when only the DCN is used. The measured DCN fails to distinguish the unique characteristics of low temperature reaction of the tested fuel when it approaches a numerical value of 60.


Non-ablative laser heating has recently turned out to be an efficient synthesis method for boron nitride (BN) nanotubes, offering flexibility in the control of experimental parameters. Long tubes are obtained as a hairy growth on the target around laser impact. Tubes are mostly assembled in bundles and thin. Selected area diffraction diagrams reveal that zigzag and armchair helicities are dominant, without preference. A field emission gun enabled to resolve the fine modulations in the diffraction diagrams for multi-walled nanotubes (MWNT) and for bundles of MWNT. The interpretation of the diffraction pattern of nanotubes is generalised for such modulations, considering the analytical expression of the diffracted amplitude at each graphite reflection. The fine modulations in the pattern are linked to roll diameters, bundle lattice, and interlayer distances. Experimentally, several roll diameter modulations are observed. Unusual modulations corresponding to an interlayer distance of 2 layers are also observed. They show a two-roll period, with an alternative shift along tube axis, in the piling of the rolls of MWNT.


Abstract Objective The last two decades have seen major advancements in our understanding of some of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in the field of child neurology. However, in the majority of individual patients, it is still not possible to arrive at a molecular diagnosis, due in part to lack of knowledge of molecular causes of these tremendously complex conditions. Common genetic disorders of brain development include septo-optic dysplasia, schizencephaly, holoprosencephaly, lissencephaly and hindbrain malformations. For each of these disorders, a critical step in brain development is disrupted. Specific genetic diagnosis is now possible in some patients with most of these conditions. For the remaining patients, it is possible to apply gene-mapping strategies using newly developed high-density genomic arrays to clone novel genes. This is especially important in countries like Iran where large family size and marriage between relatives makes these strategies tremendously powerful.


State-of-the-art chemical flooding simulators typically use nonpredictive phase behavior and property models to design a surfactant flood. For example, a variation of the black-oil model is often used to represent phase behavior in several commercial simulators. We examine the available methods including more recent physics-based models such as the HLD-NAC equation-of-state and their effects on overall recovery, front speeds, and breakthrough times. We implement the HLD-NAC EoS model in UTCHEM to examine the impact of changing salinity and other variables on the phase behavior and the recovery process. A novel predictive viscosity model is also implemented for the first time in UTCHEM to give a more accurate prediction of viscosity. We isolate the impact of salinity and other gradients on recovery in a one-dimensional homogeneous reservoir.
 Results show that the composition path can enter the Winsor II+ region for certain changes in variable gradients. When the two-phase region is entered, the trailing injected fluid surpasses the chemical slug and contacts the oil bank directly. The microemulsion phase saturation is then decreased to immobile values so that surfactant is now immobile and oil recovery is significantly decreased. We further show that the presence of polymer - both in the buffer and the chemical slug - has little effect on the appearance of the arrested microemulsion and oil bank. Polymer does partially offset the negative effects by providing conformance control immediately after the microemulsion phase is trapped. The salinity gradient should be designed so that the composition path avoids the II+ lobe in its entirety, giving a robust and mobile slug with or without polymer. We propose a limit in injection salinity under which the II+ lobe can be avoided. We also show that the less accurate viscosity model overestimates recovery in a two-dimensional simulation of the chemical flood.


Features of the optical properties of nanostructured samples of cupric oxide CuO prepared by shock wave loading (SWL) and by high pressure torsion (HPT) methods have been investigated by means of spectroscopic ellipsometry in the range of 0.5-5.0 eV. The results for nanostructured samples are discussed in comparison with the measurement data of the CuO single crystal. Dispersion of the components of the complex permittivity in nanostructured CuO samples is significantly different from that for the single crystal. The optical spectral density of the nanostructured CuO is redistributed from the energy region above the fundamental absorption edge to the region below the edge. The shift is unexpected strong for samples prepared by the HPT method. The intensity of the optical spectra is suppressed in the range above the fundamental absorption edge and increases in low-energy one. It has been shown that the energy positions of the main electronic transitions in nanostructured samples on the whole are the same as in the single crystal; at the same time, intensity of the low-energy transitions increases. The possible causes of this increase and resolution of the fine absorption structure of the nanostructured CuO are discussed.


Bovine immunodeficiency virus (BIV) is prevalent in beef and dairy cattle, yet the mode(s) of BIV transmission are undefined. Using polymerase chain reaction, which specifically targeted a 235-bp, highly conserved region of the BIV pol gene, BIV-infected leukocytes were detected in the blood and milk of BIV-seropositive cows. These data confirm the presence of BIV in milk and identify the potential for lactogenic transmission of this virus.


The distribution of β2‐microglobulin in human normal tissues was investigated by the indirect immunofluorescent antibody method. Lymphoid, macrophage and endothelial cells were consistently positive in every organ studied. In addition, only the stratum germinativum of the epidermis, some tracts of the columnar epithelium of the digestive system and some endometrial tubular glands showed a specific fluorescence.


It has been well established that individuals with aphasia tend to have difficulty with nonverbal working memory (Lang & Quitz, 2012; Maher & Murray, 2012; Wright & Fergadiotis, 2012) that can influence linguistic and nonlinguistic processing. The extent to which these working memory deficits impact recovery from aphasia is still under investigation.

From a clinical standpoint, the relationship between nonverbal working memory and response to aphasia treatment may hold prognostic value in predicting those individuals who will respond best to a particular type of treatment. To obtain this clinical goal, it will be necessary to assess the reliability of working memory tasks in individuals with aphasia (Mayer & Murray, 2012) because of high variability in performance across sessions in this population.

The purpose of the study was threefold; (1) to identify the extent to which nonverbal working memory performance, as measured by the spatial span (SS) task (Wechsler, 1997), was reliable across multiple testing sessions in individuals with aphasia, (2) to determine if Cued Picture Naming Treatment (CPNT) impacted performance on the SS task, and (3) to determine the degree to which nonverbal working memory, as measured by the SS task, predicted response to anomia treatment in individuals with chronic aphasia.


Abstract Background As the number of patients increases, there is a growing understanding of the form of pneumonia sustained by the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which has caused an outbreak in China. Up to now, clinical features and treatment of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 have been reported in detail. However, the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and coagulation has been scarcely addressed. Our aim is to investigate the blood coagulation function of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods In our study, 94 patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were admitted in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University. We prospectively collect blood coagulation data in these patients and in 40 healthy controls during the same period. Results Antithrombin values in patients were lower than that in the control group (p < 0.001). The values of D-dimer, fibrin/fibrinogen degradation products (FDP), and fibrinogen (FIB) in all SARS-CoV-2 cases were substantially higher than those in healthy controls. Moreover, D-dimer and FDP values in patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection were higher than those in patients with milder forms. Compared with healthy controls, prothrombin time activity (PT-act) was lower in SARS-CoV-2 patients. Thrombin time in critical SARS-CoV-2 patients was also shorter than that in controls. Conclusions The coagulation function in patients with SARS-CoV-2 is significantly deranged compared with healthy people, but monitoring D-dimer and FDP values may be helpful for the early identification of severe cases.


Using novel and large-scale data at the individual level, we find that an author publishes more articles when a coauthor joins an editorial board, both in the "coauthor's'" journal and in other journals. This effect is larger, the less experienced the author is, and disappears quickly once the coauthor leaves the journal's board. Of the hypotheses that we consider to explain these patterns, the signalling hypothesis is a strong contender. It argues that the temporary increase in status of the coauthor improves the plight of the author as it improves the inference that editorial boards make about the author's underlying quality. Only the favoritism hypothesis can explain that, especially at journals with low board turnover, articles published during a coauthor's stint on the editorial board receive less citations than articles published during other years.


Enhancing system capacity is an important issue in wireless cellular networks. In this paper, we present a new channel sharing scheme to address this problem. Our basic idea is to allow channels to be shared between adjacent cells. We propose a fixed channel assignment scheme to maximize channel reuse efficiency while allowing channel sharing. An important feature of our sharing scheme is that channel management is localized between adjacent cells, and no global coordination or optimization is required thus simplifying implementation. We provide simulation results comparing our scheme with the fixed channel assignment scheme.


Twenty years after the Supreme Court's decision in Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah, uncertainty reigns in the lower courts and among commentators over the issue of constitutionally compelled religious exemptions. Despite the Court's general disavowal of such exemptions in Employment Division v. Smith, Lukumi appeared to breathe life into a potentially significant exception to Smith. Under that exception - which this Article calls the "selective-exemption rule" - the Free Exercise Clause may still require religious exemptions from a law when the government selectively makes available other exemptions from that law. This Article addresses the key unresolved questions about the scope of the selective-exemption rule and challenges the broad interpretation of the rule that leading religious liberty advocates have been pressing in courts around the country. That broad interpretation, which played a prominent role in the recent animal-sacrifice case of Merced v. Kasson and has been further developed in the ongoing Stormans, Inc. v. Selecky litigation over emergency contraception, would go a long way to achieving a de facto reversal of Smith. But while there are credible arguments for reconsidering Smith and its "equal protection" interpretation of the Free Exercise Clause, those arguments should not be advanced through the backdoor of the selective-exemption rule. That rule was adopted as part of the Smith paradigm, and it only makes sense to interpret it within that paradigm. Accordingly, this Article makes the case for a more appropriately tailored reading of the selective-exemption rule - a reading grounded in the rule's origins as a tool to prevent intentional discrimination, and a reading that would enable the government to enforce animal welfare laws that have only an incidental effect of limiting religious animal sacrifice.


Oral fibroblasts as well as keratinocytes are thought to influence host inflammatory responses against Candida albicans. However, little is known about chemokine expressions in oral fibroblasts against C. albicans infection. We therefore examined whether C. albicans induced several chemokines including fractalkine/CX3CL1 (CX3CL1), a unique chemokine that has properties of both chemoattractants and adhesion molecules, in fibroblasts and keratinocytes. The addition of C. albicans live cells to human immortalized oral keratinocytes (RT7) resulted in increases in the mRNA levels of multiple chemokines, but not of CX3CL1. In contrast, live and heat-killed C. albicans caused an increase in CX3CL1 mRNA and protein expression in human immortalized oral fibroblasts (GT1). CX3CL1 mRNA expression in GT1 cells was also enhanced by stimulation with a nonalbicans species of Candida. Further, the CX3CL1 chemokine domain showed antifungal activity against C. albicans. CX3CL1 secreted by oral fibroblasts appears to play an important role in the oral immune response to C. albicans infection.


Embryopathic Activity of Drugs Biological Council Symposium edited by J M Robson MD DSC FRS(Ed), F M Sullivan Bsc and R L Smith PhD BPharm pp xii +305 illustrated 60s London: J& A Churchill 1965 The annual symposia on drug action, organized by a co-ordinating committee drawn from interested societies, are by now well known. The 1965 symposium on embryopathic activity has been edited by Robson, Sullivan and Smith and published by Churchill with commendable rapidity but no evident sign of haste. The symposium dealt with embryological and pharmacological principles, mechanisms of teratogenesis in animals and man, various teratogens, epidemiology of congenital malformations and preventive measures on a community scale. Each section is fascinating in its own way and the whole a reminder of the exceptional difficulties which beset the study of an organism, the foetus, accessible only through a separate organism, the mother, on which it is inescapably dependent. The proceedings of symposia do not always make satisfying reading, especially when the discussion has been reported verbatim, but this one is well done. It combines plenty of up-to-date factual information with the informed comment essential for an outsider to grasp the significance of work in progress; who is not to some extent an outsider when the subject ranges from biochemistry to medical administration? The subject is well covered and the publication is warmly recommended. M WEATHERALL


Seasonal investigation of virus dynamics by flow cytometry was conducted in the Yangtze river estuarine area in April, August, November 2002 and February 2003, and a supplemental investigation in the inner estuary and downstream of the river was conducted in October 2005. The majority of the total viral abundance was bacteriophage and only 5.4% of the total was algal virus. Total viral abundance varied with season and location, ranging from 6.75×105–1.68×107 particles/ml, and the virus:bacterium ratio (VBR) ranged from 1.52 to 72.02 with a mean of 8.7. In the present study, viral abundance peaked in both the summer and the winter, unlike the typical seasonal pattern reported in the literature, in which viral abundance peaks in the summer when bacterial hosts are also at their most abundant. However, the driving forces for the two peaks reported here were totally different, the summer viral abundance peak coupled with the development of bacterial hosts which were controlled largely by temperature year-round and by trophic state occasionally, while the winter one seemed to be multi-factor controlled. The host-phage interaction was no longer predominant in control of the winter viral abundance as bacterial abundance was lowest in this season. The winter low temperature would help maintain a high viral abundance as high temperatures might increase viral inactivation and viral decay; the VBR peak values actually occurred in the winter. More importantly, the high virus-containing freshwater discharge in winter due to a higher proportion of anthropogenic sewage relative to low natural flooding in winter run-off, turned out to be the first factor contributing to the high winter viral abundance and VBR values. In addition, the variation of intrusion of warm and relatively oligotrophic water from oceanic currents played a role alternating the distribution patterns of temperature, salinity and trophic conditions and consequently the distribution patterns of virus and bacteria seasonally and spatially. Dynamics of virus in the Yangtze river estuarine area is thus characterized by distinct seasonal and spatial variations due to natural forcing and by pronounced alternation of the regular patterns due to anthropogenic impacts.


An ideal vaccine for induction of CD4 (cid:1) T cell responses should induce local inflammation, maturation of APC, and peptide loading of MHC class II molecules. Ligation of Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2 provides the first two of these three criteria. We have studied whether targeting of TLR2 results in loading of MHC class II molecules and enhance-ment of CD4 (cid:1) T cell responses. To dissociate MHC class II presentation from APC maturation, we have used an antagonistic, mouse anti-human TLR2 mAb (TL2.1) as ligand and measured proliferation of a mouse C (cid:2) -specific human CD4 (cid:1) T cell clone. TL2.1 mAb was 100-1000 times more efficiently presented by APC compared with isotype-matched control mAb. Moreover, TL2.1 mAb was internalized into endosomes and processed by the conventional MHC class II pathway. This novel function of TLR2 represents a link between innate and adaptive immunity and indicates that TLR2 could be a promising target for vaccines. The Journal of Immunology, 2003, 171: 32–36.


This paper describes the evolution of capital income taxation, including corporate, dividend, interest, capital gains and wealth taxation, in Sweden between 1862 and 2010. To illustrate the evolution, we present annual time-series data on the marginal effective tax rates on capital income (METR) for a marginal investment financed with new share issues, retained earnings or debt. Tax tables covering the period are presented. These data are unique in their consistency, thoroughness and time span covered. The METR is low, is stable and does not exceed five percent until World War I, when it starts to drift somewhat upward and vary depending on the source of finance. The outbreak of World War II starts a period when the magnitude and variation of the METR sharply increases. The METR peaks during the 1970s and 1980s and often exceeds 100 percent. The 1990–1991 tax reform and lower inflation reduce the magnitude and variation of the METR. The METR varies between 15 and 40 percent at the end of the examined period.


ABSTRACT Upper Miocene carbonates, Nijar, Spain have been studied in order to test a model for massive dolomitization of western Mediterranean reefal carbonates invoking evaporite brines formed during the Messinian salinity crisis. Tortonian-Messinian reef-bearing carbonates at Nijar comprise a kilometers-wide shelf fringing the Sierra Alhamilla highland, and dip southward into the evaporite-bearing Nijar Basin. In the Nijar platform, pervasive dolomites are present in greater than 75% of Tortonian-Messinian carbonates. Dolomites transect intra-Miocene sequence boundaries and occur in the youngest Messinian unit at Nijar, the oolitic Terminal Carbonate Complex (TCC). Dolomites do not transect the Miocene-Pliocene unconformity, but do occur as clasts in basal Pliocene lime grainstones. This constrains the dolomitization as syn- or post-TCC and pre-Pliocene in age, and suggests that dolomitization occurred within 600,000 years and possibly in less than 200,000 years. Carbon and oxygen isotopes of Nijar dolomites show marked positive covariation, with most values ranging from +5.4 to -1.2% d18O PDB and +2.5 to -4.3% d13C PDB. The highest d18O values are heavier than reasonable estimates of Messinian normal-salinity seawater dolomites, and therefore imply involvement of evaporative brines. Calculations of covariations of O and C isotopes during water-rock interaction and fluid-fluid mixing argue against recrystallization of Nijar dolomites, an interpretation supported by their Ca richness (49-57 mol %). These mixing calculations show that about 80% of Nijar ata are consistent with dolomitization in mixtures of freshwater and a few tens of percent of seawater-derived evaporative brine, and about 20% are consistent with mixtures of freshwater and normal-salinity seawater. 87Sr/86Sr of pure Nijar dolomites range from Messinian seawater values (0.7089) to high values (0.70928), and show distinct negative covariations with d18O, d13C, and Sr. Calculations of covariations of 87Sr/86Sr with d18O and d13C during water-rock interaction and fluid-fluid mixing argue strongly against recrystallization, and argue for their formation by mixtures of freshwater with a few tens of percent of evaporative brines, with seawater, and with seawater-brine mixtures. Modeling ovariations of 87Sr/86Sr and Sr/Ca ratios during mixing further supports involvement of evaporative brine, and suggests that the freshwaters had low Sr/Ca ratios and relatively high Sr and Ca concentrations. Na, Cl, and SO4 concentrations in Nijar dolomites (200-1700 ppm, 300-600 ppm, and 600-6500 ppm, respectively) argue for involvement of evaporative brines, and of mixtures of freshwater and seawater, when compared with other well-characterized dolomites. The proposed model is that most dolomitization occurred after reef formation, and during and possibly after TCC deposition, during multiple relative sealevel changes. The model invokes TCC deposition on the Nijar shelf during high sealevels, and evaporite deposition in Nijar basin during low sealevels, during which brines in the 5x- to 6x-seawater range were formed. During sealevel rises these brines mixed with seawater or remained as dense basin bottom water. In either case, the brines mixed with freshwater mainly in a groundwater setting, the freshwaters having radiogenic Sr and depleted d18O and d13C derived from a weathered mantle on the Sierra Alhamill . The brines and sea water-brine mixtures were the sources of Mg for the dolomites, and their circulation through platform rocks was driven primarily by buoyant circulation of the mixing zone beneath freshwater lenses. The Nijar model may be applicable to dolomitization in other partially land-locked basins having adjoining highlands (e.g., Sorbas Basin) that acted as freshwater recharge areas. The Mallorcan model, which invokes brines and seawater with no freshwater, may be appropriate for settings open to the deep Mediterranean and distant from highlands (e.g., Santa Pola, Spain; Mellilla, Morocco).


In the present research four different procedures were tested for the Scanning Electron Microscopic identification of Auerbach's myenteric plexus in the distal colon of the rat. The specimens were processed as follows: enzymatic and chemical digestion (trypsin and HCl); fixation with glutaraldehyde; fixation and staining with zinc iodide/osmium tetroxide (ZIO); fixation and staining with zinc iodide/osmium tetroxide (ZIO) followed by maceration in NaOH solution. All the procedures required microdissection to separate the different layers of the colonic wall. Light microscopic controls were prepared with the ZIO technique. Among the methods utilized, fixation and staining with ZIO appeared to be by far the best as regards the preservation of the architectural arrangement of the myenteric plexus as well as of the fine structural details.


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Years before French-American artist Louise Bourgeois underwent psychoanalysis (1952–1985), her work was indebted to memory—those impressionistic threads of narrative chronicling an interior life marked by irresolvable conflicts buried in a roiling unconscious. Bourgeois's papers from the 1940s onward confirm that she welcomed Freud's familiar description of neurotics, hysterics, and artists as suffering from reminiscences—repressed memory traces that are stirred up later in life under the guise of hysterical symptoms, including disorders of language, movement, speech, and shell shock. W. R. D. Fairbairn identified the last of these as war neuroses in 1943, just a few years before Bourgeois debuted her first mature sculptures, talismanic figures that she described as cathartic, defensive, and warlike. Called "personages," these melancholy, wraithlike, abstract pieces evoked traumatic memory as Bourgeois converted destructive feelings ("bad internal objects") into something beautiful and acceptable (the "good" art object). Two papers published by Fairbairn in 1938 extended the inner world of the individual into the field of object relations via the transposition of the symbolically "restored object." In advancing a psychology of aesthetics that takes as fundamental the "schizoid" or split aspects of the modern personality, the Scottish psychoanalyst conceived the radical notion of restitution, the mental process of repairing damage in the artist's inner object world. Fairbairn's principles are deeply resonant with Bourgeois's metier, in which the "art-work" becomes a hard-won tribute—a Hegelian synthesis of libidinal instinct and rational form—ushering in a phenomenal, aesthetic experience that satisfies the unconscious emotional needs of artist and beholder alike.


This paper presents the results from a qualitative study that examines managers' perspectives on open innovation platform (OIP) selection, focusing on their main criteria, requirements and needs. Six managers of a large company were interviewed about their experiences. This paper shows that platform selection is a combination of factors, and the creation of a company culture around OIP is very important in users' minds. Based on the results, we propose a list of selection criteria and dimensions for OIP classification. Selection criteria include ease of access, ease of innovation process, ease of integration and compatibility, as well as cost, fast, secure, differentiation for various user groups and the method of evaluating ideas. These results can be useful to support managers in their decision-making processes when selecting OIPs, in addition to helping platform designers and researchers.


Balb/c mouse embryo lines maintained in culture for over 200 generations under conditions that minimize cell-cell contact do not become tumorigenic. Lines cultivated under conditions where there is extensive cell contact become tumor-producing within 30 generations. The tissue-culture property that correlates best with tumorigenicity is the loss of contact inhibition of cell division.


: Pelvic fractures represent major injuries by themselves, and are especially serious when associated with commonly occurring related clinical injuries. Initial evaluation of the trauma victim must include consideration of this injury and its related complications. Evaluation of the fracture and its related injuries must be well-directed and aimed at minimizing potential morbidity and mortality. A multi-disciplinary approach that includes consultation with the trauma surgeon, urologist, and orthopedic surgeon must be used.


The soil movement on a failed slope had caused substantial failure of sheet pile wall positioned at about 6m from the new laboratory of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). To facilitate investigating causes of the failure, a computer simulation of slope stability using PLAXIS 7.2 is performed to simulate slope conditions before and after construction of the study area. The results of simulation analysis establishes the fact that global soil mass movement started from the elevation of the newly filled water tank to downhill direction toward to installed sheet pile generates a combination of mobilized shear force and lateral pressure larger than the capacity or strength of the sheet pile. The associated stresses also create the occurrence of the up heaving underneath the road pavement adjacent to the new buildings. Furthermore, the simulation analysis deduces that the slope instability becomes greater as moisture or pore-water pressure in the slope increases or decreasing in soil's shear strength


The processes of wound healing and collective cell migration have been studied for decades. Intensive research has been devoted to understanding the mechanisms involved in wound healing, but the role of cell-substrate interactions is still not thoroughly understood. Here we probe the role of cell-substrate interactions by examining in vitro the healing of monolayers of human corneal epithelial (HCE) cells cultured on artificial extracellular matrix (aECM) proteins. We find that the rate of wound healing is dependent on the concentration of fibronectin-derived (RGD) cell-adhesion ligands in the aECM substrate. The wound closure rate varies nearly sixfold on the substrates examined, despite the fact that the rates of migration and proliferation of individual cells show little sensitivity to the RGD concentration (which varies 40-fold). To explain this apparent contradiction, we study collective migration by means of a dynamic Monte Carlo simulation. The cells in the simulation spread, retract, and proliferate with probabilities obtained from a simple phenomenological model. The results indicate that the overall wound closure rate is determined primarily by the rate at which cells cross the boundary between the aECM protein and the matrix deposited under the cell sheet.


In June 2008, the Turkish Constitutional Court annulled amendments to the Constitution regarding the principle of equality and the right to education, which had been enacted by parliament in order to abolish the headscarf ban in universities. In an important and controversial decision, the Constitutional Court ruled that the amendments were unconstitutional because they infringed on the constitutional provision mandating a secular state. In this paper, the authors set forth the historical and legal background to the Turkish Constitutional Court headscarf case, review the facts and decision of the case, and analyze it. The authors accept the Constitutional Court's conclusion that parliament's amendment power is distinct from the original constituent power and therefore limited. However, the authors assert that the Constitutional Court's competence to review constitutional amendments is restricted to a procedural review. Lastly, the authors claim there was no justification for annulling the amendments because they did not infringe on the constitutionally enshrined principle of state's secularism.


Education in 2030 will undergo huge changes with generation Z in the classroom. The "real digital natives" will influence economic structures as well as the educational system due to their online behaviour and increased use of technology. Teachers at the tertiary level have to be prepared for this generation, especially when integrating social media in their instruction. They have to be aware of the main differences between web writing and paper writing when it comes to blogs, wikis, e-portfolios and threaded discussions in online forums. As every single person constitutes a public digital identity in social media, teachers have to know online writing competencies in order to take responsibility for their own online performance and those of their students, especially within the increasing debate of fake news. The ancient principles of truth and ethics in online media are more than ever the reliable basis for collaborative work. The EU funded project within Erasmus+, "Future-proof your classroom – teaching skills 2030", elaborates on these competencies in order to equip teachers with digital reading and writing skills in a blended-learning course.


HYPERCHOLESTEREMIA is a common observation in some well recognized metabolic disorders. The elevated level of cholesterol in the serum may represent a primary defect in the metabolism of this sterol (xanthomatosis ) 1 or may signify a derangement in lipid metabolism secondary to some underlying metabolic disturbance, such as diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism and nephrosis. The present study embraces both types of hypercholesteremia. The first part of the investigation is concerned with the effect of several lipotropic substances on the plasma lipids and the second, which will be reported later, with diets low in cholesterol values. MATERIAL AND METHODS Thirteen patients were studied. The disease in 9 of these was classified as primary (essential) xanthomatosis with hypercholesteremia 2 and in 4 as secondary hypercholesteremia due to various metabolic disorders. The clinical data on these patients are detailed in table I. The following lipotropic materials 3 were used (oral route): ( a ) vitamin E,


This paper looks at the link between human capital and geographical location for the Romanian regions based on the theoretical model developed in Redding and Schott ́s (2003) paper. Using 2013 data on the different educational attainment levels for the 42 Romanian regions, it identifies that the percentage of individuals with medium and high educational levels is affected positively by the regions ́ market access. Doubling market access would increase the percentage of individuals with medium and high educational levels between 22-25%. Moreover the econometric results show that between 45% and 59% of the spatial variation in human capital levels is explained by the market access variable. Some policy implications to overcome the costs remoteness imposes on human capital accumulation in Romania are also drawn.


Effects of intrapancreatic gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP)-containing neurons on secretin-induced pancreatic secretion were investigated in the totally isolated perfused rat pancreas. Electrical field stimulation (EFS) increased secretin (12 pM)-induced pancreatic secretions of fluid and amylase. EFS induced a twofold increase in GRP concentration in portal effluent, which was completely inhibited by tetrodotoxin but not modified by atropine. An anti-GRP antiserum inhibited the EFS-enhanced secretin-induced secretions of fluid and amylase by 12 and 43%, respectively, whereas a simultaneous infusion of the antiserum and atropine completely abolished them. Exogenous GRP dose-dependently increased the secretin-induced pancreatic secretion with an additive effect on fluid secretion and a potentiating effect on amylase secretion, which was not affected by atropine. In conclusion, excitation by EFS of GRPergic neurons in the isolated rat pancreas results in the release of GRP, which exerts an additive effect on fluid secretion and a potentiating effect on amylase secretion stimulated by secretin. The release and action of GRP in the rat pancreas are independent of cholinergic tone.


A scandal that seems certain to occupy headline space during the foreseeable future is the abuse of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, under which state agencies provide medical assistance to the elderly, needy and disabled with largely-federal funding. Medicaid fraud and abuse wastes an estimated three billion dollars of tax money each year. Senate investigators who studied the problem found that "rampant fraud and abuse exists among practitioners participating in the Medicaid program" and among participating medical testing laboratories. The Federal False Claims Act (FCA), a statute more than a century old, provides a potential deterrent to such fraud and abuse. The statute gives the federal government civil remedies not available to the defrauded private purchaser of goods and services. This Note will set out a short statement of the history and purpose of the statute, review the acts that are violative of the law and discuss its civil provisions including the authorization of qui tam actions (private plaintiff suing on behalf of the federal government and sharing in the recovery), the limitations on such actions, and the recovery of "forfeiture" plus double damages.