Abstract Spiny and slender amaranth are troublesome Amaranthaceae species of direct-seeded rice and other upland crops in many Asian countries. Seed germination and seedling emergence response of these species to various environmental factors was determined in laboratory and screenhouse experiments. Germination in both species was stimulated by 35/25 and 30/20 C fluctuating temperatures and light. Germination of slender amaranth was more sensitive to increasing salt and water stress than spiny amaranth. Spiny amaranth germinated at a NaCl concentration of 100 mM (19%), whereas slender amaranth seeds did not germinate at this concentration. In seed burial trials where the seeds were on the soil surface, emergence was 56 and 68% for spiny amaranth and slender amaranth, respectively. Only 7% of spiny amaranth seedling emerged from a soil depth of 0.5 cm, whereas no emergence was observed for 4 cm or deeper. For slender amaranth, 6 and 0% emergence was observed at 4 and 6 cm, respectively. Seedling emergence of spiny amaranth was affected more by high rates of rice residue than slender amaranth. Greater quantities of residue than those normally found in rice fields were required to significantly reduce weed densities. Nomenclature: Spiny amaranth, Amaranthus spinosus L. AMASP; slender amaranth, A. viridis L. AMAVI; rice, Oryza sativa L.


6 Introduction: Limitations in dental access and challenges associated with service delivery often necessitates the usage of an appointment system in patient care. This research aimed to determine the association between levels of dental anxiety in dental patients and dental treatment appointment at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).Materials and Methods: A descriptive study at a tertiary hospital in Lagos State. A systematic sampling method was used to enlist 149 study patients in four clinical dental departments in LASUTH, whereas sociodemographic, clinical history, and anxiety-related data were collected using a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire. Visual analog scale (VAS) was used to assess inconvenience, whereas the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) was used for anxiety assessment. Data entry and analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20, P value of<0.05 was considered significant. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 25.3 ± 6.8; 53% had never had a dental visit and majority felt inconvenient by the length of dental appointment (62.7%; mean VAS = 5.95 ± 2.72); higher levels of inconvenience was significantly associated with levels of anxiety (MDAS—13.96 ± 4.8; P = 0.010). At baseline, age group 20 years (MDAS—15.21 ± 4.0; P = 0.026), female gender (MDAS—14.44 ± 4.8; P = 0.042), and primary level of education (MDAS—0.029; P = 15.25 ± 4.7) were significantly associated with high levels of anxiety. At baseline, 14.8% had high dental anxiety (MDAS scores of ≥19), and this increased to 18.1% on the treatment appointment day. Conclusion: Dental appointments appear to be associated with impact on anxiety levels. MDAS can be used as a screening tool to identify anxious patients to determine which treatment approach to adopt and possibly give shorter appointments.


The SOAP (Study of Open Access Publishing) project has compiled data on the present offer for open access publishing in online peer-reviewed journals. Starting from the Directory of Open Access Journals, several sources of data are considered, including inspection of journal web site and direct inquiries within the publishing industry. Several results are derived and discussed, together with their correlations: the number of open access journals and articles; their subject area; the starting date of open access journals; the size and business models of open access publishers; the licensing models; the presence of an impact factor; the uptake of hybrid open access.


Photo-induced non-self-sustained discharges are studied in point–plane gaps in air. Point electrodes made of different materials and with different non-metallic coatings (including TiO2 and HfO2) are tested with varying intensity of radiation and voltage. It is found that the quantum yield of photoemission (electrons per photon) changes with time and depends on the radiation intensity and applied voltage. It is assumed that the tunnelling of electrons through the barrier at the metal–dielectric interface and the finite capacitance of the electron reservoir at the dielectric–gas interface limit the current. The results of the model fit with the experimental findings.


We analyze the system limitations of WDM transmission when using various types of optical fiber to manage dispersion and nonlinearities. In our model, from two to eight 10 Gb/s WDM channels are transmitted through a cascade of EDFA's experiencing dispersion, stimulated Raman scattering, and self- and cross-phase modulation. The fiber types modeled include: conventional single-mode fiber, dispersion shifted fiber, and dispersion-compensating fiber. These fibers have different dispersion spectral profiles and are combined to manage dispersion to produce a total zero dispersion for a certain fiber span while eliminating four-wave mixing. We find that a system using dispersion-shifted fiber and conventional single-mode fiber exhibits the best performance, with the combination of dispersion and cross-phase modulation as the dominant effects. Furthermore, conventional single-mode fiber combined with dispersion-compensating fiber system exhibits the worst performance, with the combination of dispersion and self-phase modulation as the dominant effects.


More data on non-income dimensions of poverty are available than at any previous time in history. Alongside this, multidimensional measurement methodologies have advanced considerably in the past fifteen years. These advances together have created new possibilities to measure multidimensional poverty at the local, national and international level. Yet the fact that overall measures can be constructed does not mean that they will necessarily add value. This paper focuses on the question of when, how and why certain multidimensional poverty measures add value, sketches the limits of the contribution, and introduces a set of standing questions. The key value-added of a rigorously implemented multidimensional poverty index is that it conveys additional information not captured in single-dimensional measures (or in a dashboard) on the joint distribution of disadvantage and the composition of poverty. It also provides a consistent account of the overall change in multidimensional poverty across time and space. The paper discusses the joint distribution approach to multidimensional poverty measurement and presents one class of poverty measures within this approach. It then introduces one recently implemented measure within this family: the 104-country Multidimensional Poverty Index 2010 and uses concrete examples to explain its construction further. For example, without weights one can only identify the multidimensionally poor by the union or the intersection approaches; by these approaches the 2010 MPI would have identified an average of 58% or 0% of people across the 104 countries as poor. It also shows how to 'unfold' the MPI by sub-group or dimension, and also by intensity because similar 'intensities' of poverty can conceal different distributions of intensity among the poor. Pointing out the added value of multidimensional poverty indexes is not to suggest that single-dimensional measures be abandoned but rather supplemented. Investing further in multidimensional measures has the potential to generate significant advances in understanding and useful policy tools.


This paper presents a new method to evaluate the quality if distorted images. This method is based on a comparison between the structural information extracted from the distorted image and from the original image. The interest of our method is that it uses reduced references containing perceptual structural information. First, a quick overview of image quality evaluation methods is given. Then the implementation of our human visual system (HVS) model is detailed. At last, results are given for quality evaluation of JPEG and JPEG2000 coded images. They show that our method provides results which are highly correlated with human judgments (mean opinion score). This method has been implemented in an application available on the Internet.


The precessing vortex core (PVC) phenomenon in swirling jets is a helical instability in the flow driven by the coherent precession of the vortex breakdown bubble (VBB) around the flow axis, resulting in the helical rollup of the shear layer. This instability is driven by flow processes in the region upstream of the VBB. Centerbodies, commonly employed in combustor nozzles, create a centerbody wake recirculation zone (CWRZ) that can interfere with VBB precession and hence suppress the PVC. We study this phenomenon in a swirl nozzle with a centerbody whose end face is flush with the nozzle exit plane, using large eddy simulations (LES) and linear hydrodynamic stability analysis for flow Reynolds numbers Re = 48,767 and 82,751, based on nozzle exit diameter and bulk flow velocity. For one of the Re = 82,751 cases, the centerbody end face diameter is halved, resulting in the onset of coherent VBB precession. Linear stability analysis reveals a marginally unstable mode in this case. The same mode is found to be stable in the nominal cases. Structural sensitivity analysis shows that the VBB precession eigenmode is sensitive to changes in the time-averaged flow in the VBB-CWRZ merger region. This suggests that the reduction in CWRZ length due to halving the centerbody end face diameter is the reason for the onset of VBB precession. These results suggest that in general, spatial separation between the CWRZ and VBB can result in the onset of VBB precession and the emergence of PVC oscillations in flows with swirl.


In this paper, I present three original, pre-registered experiments that test the relevance of alternative possibilities for the attribution of moral responsibility. Many philosophers have argued that alternative possibilities are required for an agent's moral responsibility for the consequences of omitting an action. In contrast, it is argued that alternative possibilities are not required for moral responsibility for the consequences of performing an action. Thus, while an agent can be morally responsible for an action she could not have avoided, an agent is never morally responsible for omitting an action she could not have performed. Call this the Action/Omission Asymmetry Thesis. In this paper, I discuss various strategies to challenge the Action/Omission Asymmetry Thesis. I identify the predictions those strategies make about the conditions under which an agent will be held morally responsible for an unavoidable action or omission. These predictions are subsequently tested in three experiments to evaluate their respective plausibility. I demonstrate that whether there is an Action/Omission Asymmetry strongly depends, first, on the type of moral judgment we consider relevant for the Action/Omission Asymmetry Thesis, and, second, the scale we use to test the folk's intuitions.


Dietary PI contributes to PPH in T1D patients. Current recommendations are to increase insulin dose for mixed meals containing ≥ 40 gm of protein, and consider insulin dosing for pure-protein meals containing ≥75 gm of protein. There are no studies to date that investigate this effect specifically in children and in relation to body weight. Our aim was to explore the role of weight and other demographic factors in the relationship between PI and PPH in children with T1D, hypothesizing that the protein amount that causes PPH in children with T1D is weight based. We conducted a self-controlled, prospective study, in children with T1D who were given Whey protein isolate drinks (carbohydrate and fat free) of varying protein amounts (0, 12.5, 25, 37.5, 50, and 62.5 gm) on 6 different nights based on a protocol approved by UHIRB. The glucose levels were monitored with the participants' personal continuous glucose monitors for 5 hours post PI. PPH was defined as glucose elevations ≥ 50 mg/dL above baseline. Thirty-eight subjects were recruited and 11 subjects (6 females, 5 males) completed the intervention. Subjects had a mean (SD) age of 11.6 (3.5) years, diabetes duration of 6.1 (4.7) years, HbA1c of 7.2 (0.8) %. BMI %ile ranged from 8 th to 87 th . PPH was detected at 5 hours post PI in 1/11, 5/11, 6/10, 6/9, 5/9, and 8/9 subjects after receiving 0, 12.5, 25, 37.5, 50, and 62.5 gm, respectively. There were no significant correlations between the rise in glucose and body weight, however for those with BMI %ile > 50% (n=8), BMI %ile was strongly correlated with change in glucose for doses 37.5 (all r s > 0.85, all p s > 0.64, all p s > 0.52). This suggests that the protein amount associated with PPH in children with TID is less than the threshold (75 gm) found in previous studies mainly consisting of adults. Disclosure D. Dalle: None. S.G. Shahmirian: None. M. O9Riordan: None. T.N. Zimmerman: Research Support; Spouse/Partner; Merck & Co., Inc., Novo Nordisk Inc. Speaker9s Bureau; Spouse/Partner; Merck Foundation. J.R. Wood: Research Support; Self; AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Novo Nordisk Inc.


Two formerly monotypic lumbriculid genera, Guestphalinus Michaelsen, 1933 and Kincaidiana Altman, 1936, are reviewed using morphological and molecular data, following the discovery of new northwestern, Nearctic species. Several populations of Kincaidiana hexatheca Altman, 1936 were examined, and both morphology and DNA data suggest a single, variable species in Pacific drainages extending from northern California through Washington, USA. Specimens of Kincaidiana from the Smith River drainage with a single, median atrium and differing genetically from K. hexatheca are assigned to K. smithi sp. nov. The chaetal morphology of North American Guestphalinus populations is variable, and two basic morphotypes are assigned to G. elephantinus sp. nov. and G. exilis sp. nov. This decision is supported by molecular data. The tree topology, based on the mitochondrial 16S rRNA and Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI), and the nuclear 28S rRNA gene sequences, confirmed the close phylogenetic relationships among the Nearctic Guestphalinus , Kincaidiana and Uktena Fend, Rodriguez & Lenat, 2015. Probable synapomorphies associating these genera include a filiform, ringed proboscis, a forward shift of reproductive organs relative to the usual position in the family, and spermathecae in the atrial segment.


Three leptostracan species (Crustacea: Phyllocarida) are reported from mud volcanoes at the Moroccan margin of the Gulf of Cadiz (NE Atlantic). Nebalia strausi Risso, 1826 and N. abyssicola Fage, 1929 were found in experimentally deployed organic substrates in Mercator, Meknes and Darwin mud volcanoes; N. abyssicola was also found among bathymodiolin bivalves and is recorded for the first time in the Atlantic Ocean. The third species was collected from the Gemini mud volcanoes and is described herein as Sarsinebalia ledoyeri sp. nov. The new species is characterised by having the eyes provided with ommatidia and lacking pigment, the ventral margin of the eye is concave along distal half, the antennular scale is more than twice as long as wide, the second article of the mandibular palp bears one seta on lateral surface about 0.5 times as long as the article and one subterminal seta longer than the third article, the distal article of the maxilla II endopod is about 1.8 times as long as the proximal article, the maxilla II exopod is clearly longer than the endopod proximal article, the lateral margin of the pleopod I exopod lacks setae and the posterodorsal border of pleonites VI–VII is provided with rounded to pointed denticles.


This is a brief report on some of the highlights of the research supported by the EC Training Research Network Mathematical Aspects of Quantum Chaos, as described in my lecture at the 2004 European Mathematical Congress. The Network consisted of teams from Bristol (UK), Bologna (Italy), Paris (France), Tel Aviv (Israel), Ulm (Germany) and Uppsala (Sweden). It covered a broad spectrum of interests, from mathematics to theoretical physics. My focus here will be on a personal selection of some of the main mathematical achievements.


Background Viral metagenomics (viromics) is increasingly used to obtain uncultivated viral genomes, evaluate community diversity, and assess ecological hypotheses. While viromic experimental methods are relatively mature and widely accepted by the research community, robust bioinformatics standards remain to be established. Here we used in silico mock viral communities to evaluate the viromic sequence-to-ecological-inference pipeline, including (i) read pre-processing and metagenome assembly, (ii) thresholds applied to estimate viral relative abundances based on read mapping to assembled contigs, and (iii) normalization methods applied to the matrix of viral relative abundances for alpha and beta diversity estimates. Results Tools specifically designed for metagenomes, specifically metaSPAdes, MEGAHIT, and IDBA-UD, were the most effective at assembling viromes. Read pre-processing, such as partitioning, had virtually no impact on assembly output, but may be useful when hardware is limited. Viral populations with 2–5 × coverage typically assembled well, whereas lesser coverage led to fragmented assembly. Strain heterogeneity within populations hampered assembly, especially when strains were closely related (average nucleotide identity, or ANI ≥97%) and when the most abundant strain represented <50% of the population. Viral community composition assessments based on read recruitment were generally accurate when the following thresholds for detection were applied: (i) ≥10 kb contig lengths to define populations, (ii) coverage defined from reads mapping at ≥90% identity, and (iii) ≥75% of contig length with ≥1 × coverage. Finally, although data are limited to the most abundant viruses in a community, alpha and beta diversity patterns were robustly estimated (±10%) when comparing samples of similar sequencing depth, but more divergent (up to 80%) when sequencing depth was uneven across the dataset. In the latter cases, the use of normalization methods specifically developed for metagenomes provided the best estimates. Conclusions These simulations provide benchmarks for selecting analysis cut-offs and establish that an optimized sample-to-ecological-inference viromics pipeline is robust for making ecological inferences from natural viral communities. Continued development to better accessing RNA, rare, and/or diverse viral populations and improved reference viral genome availability will alleviate many of viromics remaining limitations.


Indonesia living area gifted by The God for Indonesian people is a God's mercy and gift that is required to be maintened and its capacity required to be developed in order that become the living sources and supporter for Indonesian people and other creatures for their own survival in good quality.
Development is as an aware efforts in managing and utilizing natural resources to improve society prosperity, both to gain physical prosperity and to meet spiritual satisfaction. Therefore, natural resources utilization must be harmonious, matching, and equal with living area function.
Constitutions' 1945 as the constitutional basic makes the natural resources as the compulsory to be used for fully Indonesian prosperity. Indonesian prosperity must be able to be enjoyed continuously by the present and the future generations.
In Section 1 point 6th Law No. 23 year 1997, it is mentioned that living area is a room unity with all of its things, powers, conditions and creatures, includes human being with their behavior, that affecting living survival dan human being and other creature's prosperity.
Environment education has been taught by the Messenger of God (Rasulullah SAW) to his friends. Abu Darda' ra was ever explained that in a learning room taugh by Rasulullah, it has been taught about the importance of planting and cultivating a plant, and also the importance of an effort to change infertile land into a fertile garden. Those activities will effectual on the side of Allah SWT and working to prosper the earth include pray to Allah SWT.
The purpose of this resarch is to know living area maintenance concept according to Islamic law and policy about living area maintenance concept in Indonesia and also to know its implementation in positive law at Indonesia.
Religious value is a tightly hold value and obeyed by Indonesia. Because majority of Indonesian people is Islam. Hence it has commonly that Islam has exclusive role and position in National Law Development. One of environment Basics is written in Qoran surah Al-Qashash: 77.
In a book of Islam Agama Ramah Lingkungan, Yusuf Qardhawi gives some concept of living are in Islam, that is: firstly, tree planting and reforestation. Secondly, land plow up and fertilizing (refertilizing an infertile land). Thirdly, keep clean. Forthly, keep natural resources. Fifthly, keep human's healthy. Sixthly, to be friendly on environment. Seventhly, keep the environment from destruction. Finnally, keep environment equilibrium.
From some description above, we can see that the constitution is laid on the Islamic law. Where it cares about many problems in concern with environment. Automatically, he also clarify the prohibition to anybody who will contaminate and damage it. Those such principles is grounded by a basic rule of fiqih stated that, "it does not damaging and does not threated by a danger". Hence, any threatening dangers must be removed, whatever its consequence. While, if the danger indication is small enough, hence it can be tolerate as long as it does not threatening.If Islamic concept about a living area as the mentioned above is applied optimally by the government in each of its determined policy and positive law, hence living area safeguarding in Indonesia will be established better.
Keywords: implementation, concept, and living area safeguarding.


In order to assess regional left ventricular wall stress in vivo, endocardial surface (SI) and epicardial surface (S2) have been acquired with commercially available 3D ultrasound equipment. Subsequently, SI and S2 have been divided into 16 overlapping areas of interest (AOI). To each of these 16 AOIs an ellipsoid is fitted and the principle radii of this ellipsoid are used to describe the principle radii of the AOI. Wall thickness for each AOI is found by computing the volume between S1 and S2 at each AOI and dividing this by the computed surface of the AOI. Using this algorithm the principal radii and wall thickness have been assessed for an ellipsoid phantom, which both correlated well with the values found for the ideal, mathematically constructed shape.


The radio-quiet thermally emitting X-ray pulsar RX J0720.4-3125 belongs to a group of seven isolated neutron stars (often referred to as the ``Magnificent Seven"). They share similar properties such as pure thermal radiation (black body emission with broad absorption features in some cases), long pulse periods 3-12 s) and high magnetic field strengths (B~1e+13 Gauss) on their surfaces. These neutron stars are nearby (<500 pc) and up to a few million years old (i.e. relatively young and still hot), thus, most of them have been identified with dim (25-28 mag) blue optical counterparts.
RX J0720.4-3125 is unique among the ``Magnificent Seven" as it shows long term variations in its spectral properties (temperature, size of the emitting area and equivalent width of the broad absorption feature) and irregularities in the pulse period on time scales of years.
The main two theories put forward to explain the behaviour of RX J0720.4-3125 are either free precession or a glitch - a sudden event like a star quake or an impact of a massive object, that released much energy in a short time.
In this work, most recent data from new observations with XMM-Newton and Chandra as well as already existing archival data are analysed (altogether now covering a time span of almost twenty years).
While the spectral changes clearly do not follow a sinusoidal variation if the new observations are included, the phase residuals seem to follow a periodic behaviour. An updated phase coherent timing solution was performed and it was shown that for such investigations a restriction to the hard energy band at 400-1000 eV is most suitable to achieve best agreement between the phase residuals derived from different X-ray instruments. Based on the new data, different theories to explain the behaviour of RX J0720.4-3125 are modelled, reviewed and discussed, as well as physical consequences of the conclusions are presented.
The model of free precession explains well the timing [abridge]


Purpose of review This review aims to summarize the current literature describing vestibular-autonomic interactions and to describe their putative role in various disorders' clinical presentations, including orthostatic dizziness and motion sensitivity. Recent findings The vestibular-autonomic reflexes have long been described as they relate to cardiovascular and respiratory function. Although orthostatic dizziness may be in part related to impaired vestibulo-sympathetic reflex (orthostatic hypotension), there are various conditions that may present similarly. A recent clinical classification aims to improve identification of individuals with hemodynamic orthostatic dizziness so that appropriate recommendations and management can be efficiently addressed. Researchers continue to improve understanding of the underlying vestibular-autonomic reflexes with recent studies noting the insular cortex as a cortical site for vestibular sensation and autonomic integration and modulation. Work has further expanded our understanding of the clinical presentation of abnormal vestibular-autonomic interactions that may occur in various conditions, such as aging, peripheral vestibular hypofunction, traumatic brain injury, and motion sensitivity. Summary The vestibular-autonomic reflexes affect various sympathetic and parasympathetic functions. Understanding these relationships will provide improved identification of underlying etiology and drive improved patient management.


Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) develops from a mutation of enteric feline coronaviruses (FCoVs) and an imbalance of the host immune response. The wide polymorphism of FCoVs is associated with the viral replication rate (Licitra et al. 2013) . Changes in the composition of the gut microbiota may induce quali-quantitative modifications in FCoVs and/or different immune profiles (Weese et al., 2015). Few information is available on feline gut microbiome and the association between microbiota and the predisposition to pathological conditions (Ramadan et al., 2014). The aim of this study is to provide preliminary data about the composition of gut microbiota in healthy cats compared with FCoV infected cats (with and without  FIP), in order to evaluate whether changes of gut microbiota may induce changes in FCoV, in its genetic polymorphism and in the mucosal immunity. Screening analyses have been performed on 22 cats: - Routine hematology and biochemistry on EDTA and serum (included electrophoresis and alpha-1-acid glycoprotein measurement for cats suspected with FIP) - Nested RT-PCR-3'UTR on frozen faeces - Effusion evaluation - FIV/FeLV serology Due to strict inclusion criteria (cats younger than 2.5 years old, indoor and not assuming antibiotics in the previous two months) and based on the results obtained from the complete set of analysis, only 15 cats, specifically 5 cats for each of the following 3 groups: FIP- affected, healthy negative and positive for FCoV, have been recruited to perform the following analyses:  - microbiota analysis through NGS of 16S rRNA gene (V4 region) amplicons followed by bioinformatic analysis  -  evaluation of secretory IgA (ELISA kit) - phylogenetic analysis of FCoVs S gene sequences Innovative results will be provided on the feline gut microbiota composition. These will be correlated with the presence and genetic polymorphisms of FCoV and mucosal defenses to establish significant correlations between the analysed factors.


A thin electrode layer at the interface between two dissimilar linear piezoelectric materials under electromechanical loading is investigated. The complex function theory is employed to obtain the exact solution to a finite thin conductive layer. Special consideration is devoted to the structure of singular stress and electric fields near the tip of the thin electrode between two dissimilar piezoelectric materials. The stress and electric field are found to have an inverse square root singularity. The electric field intensity factor characterizes uniquely the singular fields close to the edge of the conductive line sheet.


Wage disparity that exists between genders, sectors, and geographical regions, can influence household portfolio management. This study examines the impact of wage disparity and inter-occupation differences on Czech household portfolios. The model of portfolio choice was estimated using the Heckman selection model complemented by wage disparity analysis. Results show no significant differences in financial portfolios between blue-collar workers, including farm households and employees in agricultural sector, and white- collar workers. There was high heterogeneity within the group of blue-collar workers, and wage disparity among employment sectors. Employees in the agricultural sector were categorised as having a below average salary and characterised by a lower probability of utilising long-term saving products, loans and making a smaller contribution to short term saving products. Agricultural workers and farm household were a highly heterogeneous group. Finally a significant regional wage disparity in the Czech agriculture sector was observed. The research was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (Grant No. MSM 6046070906).


PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: The monitoring of cccDNA levels can provide a direct indication of HBV activity in the liver of HBV infected patients. The aim of this study was to quantify the cccDNA levels in sera and intrahepatic levels of HBV DNA and cccDNA in liver biopsies of treatment na€ıve patients with chronic hepatitis B. METHOD: Eighty one chronic HBV treatment na€ıve patients were enrolled from January 2009 to June 2011. The levels of intrahepatic HBV DNA and cccDNA were quantified using real time PCR method. SUMMARY OF RESULTS: The mean age of recruited patients was 34 11.5 years. A total of 54 patients (66.7%) were HBeAg negative. Liver biopsy was done in 23 patients (21 HBeAg negative and 2 HBeAg positive). The levels of total intrahepatic HBV DNA ranged from 0.09 to 1508.92 copies/cell. The median intrahepatic HBV cccDNA were 0.31 copies/cell (range 0.14–0.49 copies/cell) and 0.20 copies/cell (range 0.01–1.63 copies/cell) in HBeAg positive and HBeAg negative cases, respectively. The rate of serum HBV cccDNA detection was 85.2% and 48.1% in HBeAg positive and negative patients, respectively. The median level of serum HBV cccDNA was 46,000 copies/ mL in HBeAg positive cases, while it was 26,350 copies/ mL in HBeAg negative disease. The levels of intrahepatic HBV total DNA had a positive correlation with intrahepatic HBV cccDNA (r = 0.533, p = 0.009). A positive correlation was observed between serum cccDNA levels and serum HBV DNA levels (r = 0.871, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: It was concluded that serum HBV DNA and serum cccDNA levels were significantly higher in HBeAg positive patients than HBeAg negative patients.


Water is fundamental to human life and the availability of freshwater is often a constraint on human welfare and economic development. Consequently, the potential effects of global changes on hydrology and water resources are considered among the most severe and vital ones. Water scarcity is one of the main problems in the rural communities of Central America, as a result of an important degradation of catchment areas and the over-exploitation of aquifers. The present Thesis is focused on two critical aspects of global changes over water resources: (1) the potential effects of climate change on water quantity and (2) the impacts of land cover and land use changes on the hydrological processes and water cycle. Costa Rica is among the few developing countries that have recently achieved a land use transition with a net increase in forest cover. Osa Region in South Pacific Costa Rica is an appealing study site to assess water supply management plans and to measure the effects of deforestation, forest transitions and climate change projections reported in the region. Rural Community Water Supply systems (ASADAS) in Osa are dealing with an increasing demand of freshwater due to the growing population and the change in the way of life in the rural livelihoods. Land cover mosaics which have resulted from the above mentioned processes are characterized by the abandonment of marginal farmland with the spread over these former grasslands of high return crops and the expansion of secondary forests due to reforestation initiatives. These land use changes have a significant impact on runoff generation in priority water-supply catchments in the humid tropics, as evidenced by the analysis of the Tinoco Experimental Catchment in the Southern Pacific area of Costa Rica. The monitoring system assesses the effects of the different land uses on the runoff responses and on the general water cycle of the basin. Runoff responses at plot scale are analyzed for secondary forests, oil palm plantations, forest plantations and grasslands. The Oil palm plantation plot presented the highest runoff coefficient (mean RC=32.6%), twice that measured under grasslands (mean RC=15.3%) and 20-fold greater than in secondary forest (mean RC=1.7%). A Thornthwaite-type water balance is proposed to assess the impact of land cover and climate change scenarios over water availability for rural communities in Osa Region. Climate change projections were obtained by the downscaling of BCM2, CNCM3 and ECHAM5 models. Precipitation and temperature were averaged and conveyed by the A1B, A2 and B1 IPCC climate scenario for 2030, 2060 and 2080. Precipitation simulations exhibit a positive increase during the dry season for the three scenarios and a decrease during the rainy season, with the highest magnitude (up to 25%) by the end of the 21st century under scenario B1. Monthly mean temperature simulations increase for the three scenarios throughout the year with a maximum increase during the dry season of 5% under A1B and A2 scenarios and 4% under B1 scenario. The Thornthwaite-type Water Balance model indicates important decreases of water surplus for the three climate scenarios during the rainy season, with a maximum decrease on May, which under A1B scenario drop up to 20%, under A2 up to 40% and under B1 scenario drop up to almost 60%. Land cover scenarios were created taking into account current land cover dynamics of the region. Land cover scenario 1 projects a deforestation situation, with forests decreasing up to 15% due to urbanization of the upper catchment areas; land cover scenario 2 projects a forest recovery situation where forested areas increase due to grassland abandonment on areas with more than 30% of slope. Deforestation scenario projects an annual water surplus decrease of 15% while the reforestation scenario projects a water surplus increase of almost 25%. This water balance analysis indicates that climate scenarios are equal contributors as land cover scenarios to future water resource estimations.


A developmental view of child development with its biological imperatives has been extensively critiqued over the years and found to be wanting from a range of cultural (Rogoff, 2003; Howes, 2010), social (Qvortrup, Corsaro & Honig, 2009) and even health (Bendelow, 2009; Rogoff, 2011) reasons. But what has been missing from these debates has been a theoretically robust presentation of another way of conceptualizing children's development (Hedegaard & Fleer, 2013). In drawing upon cultural-historical theory, this paper argues for a more localised and nuanced conception of human development. Through analyzing how society creates the conditions for children's development (Hedegaard, 2012), this paper presents a view of development that captures both a traditional (historical lived in the present moment) and contemporary (new cultural technologies) view of children's lived experiences.


Abstract. The optimal control strategy is introduced to improve the motion accuracy of planar 3-DOF parallel mechanism. The optimal control of error performance of mechanism is achieved by structuring and quantizing the quadratic form index of the error performance, and taking into account both the system response and energy control in state space, so we study the problem which can be boil down to solve two-point boundary value problem of differential equation. The simulation results show that the actual motion of mechanism keep the better tracking accuracy with the global motion while dynamics parameters is changing, and the controller is ease to accomplishment in the industrial due to the simply structure and the stable change of control energy.


A war veteran poses for the camera at a commemoration. During the seconds preceding this shot, he could be seen re-adjusting his posture and facial expression in a comical manner. In the end, a determined gaze looks directly into the camera, delivering the "manliness" and resolve presumed from him.


Using a unique dataset composed of female employees at a large medical organization, this paper explores the role of social interactions among female co-workers and neighbors in the decision to obtain breast cancer screening exams. In our theoretical framework, the experience of other women is salient because it alters the tolerance for ambiguity about their own vulnerability, via a comparative ignorance effect. We find that the social multiplier ranges from 2 to 3: the equilibrium effect of an exogenous shock that impacts the probability of performing a mammogram is two to three times the shock itself. We perform a number of checks: among other things, these reveal (in agreement with the model and our intuition) that such a social effect is stronger for women whose job (according to the O*NET dictionary of occupations) offers more opportunities for social interaction, and weaker for individuals directly involved in health care, such as doctors and nurses.


This manuscript demonstrates that 2p3d resonant X-ray emission spectroscopy (RXES) yields unique information on the chemically relevant valence electrons of transition metal atoms or ions. Experimental data on cobalt compounds and several theories were used hand-in-hand. In chapter 1 2p3d RXES was situated within the scientific disciplines of chemistry, catalysis and spectroscopy. It was emphasized that the technique measures many-electron effects in great detail and that it allows investigating their role in the chemical bond. Prior to any RXES measurements, a novel, general organometallic route was developed in chapter 2 to obtain CoxNi1-x and CoxFe1-x alloy metal nanoparticles with a fully tunable composition and a size of 4 to 10 nm. A combined ultraviolet-visible (UV/Vis), 2p X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and 2p3d RXES study of 3d-orbitals in cobalt carboxylates was presented in chapter 3. Using cobalt(II) carboxylates, it was shown that 2p3d RXES reveals more and more intense d-d excitations than UV/Vis spectroscopy and that 2p XAS cannot discriminate the compounds. Ligand field multiplet (LFM) theory was applied to explain why the technique is highly sensitivity to the metal ion ligand field. In chapter 4 a total experimental 2p3d RXES resolution better than 100 meV full-width-at-half-maximum was exploited to investigate CoO nanocrystals with an average diameter of 4.2 nm and a CoO single crystal. The RXES data allowed the first X-ray observation of the CoO 4T1g(4F) manifold that occurs within the first 120 meV above the ground state. LFM modeling was performed to assess the tetragonal crystal field splitting, spin-orbit and superexchange parameters. Chapter 5 reports 2p3d RXES measurements on 8.4 and 5.0 nm cobalt and 3.6 nm cobalt-nickel nanoparticles coated with oleate molecules that exhibit low energy resonant Raman features at 0.3 and 0.75 eV. In combination with time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) and LFM calculations these are ascribed to d-d excitations of cobalt ions in two different, but both possible, chemical environments. A consequence of the first discussed model would be that 2p3d RXES is a unique tool for the selective identification of surface metal-adsorbate interactions. In chapter 6 both 2p XAS and 2p3d RXES spectra of cobalt nanoparticle batches with average diameters of 4.0, 4.2, 5.0, 8.4 and 15.2 nm are reported. Most 2p XAS data cannot conclusively distinguish whether the nanoparticles are oxidized or metallic. In contrast, the high-energy resolution 2p3d RXES spectra clearly reveal particle oxidation. Chapters 7a, 7b and 8 are not dealing with RXES measurements, but use XAS and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) in combination with scanning transmission microscopes to demonstrate synergetic possibilities resulting from X-ray and electron spectromicroscopes. Two dimensional and tomographic scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) is shown to be an attractive and complementary imaging tool to probe the interior of colloidal, photonic crystals. High angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) combined with EELS is used to directly visualize and quantify the organic and inorganic components of lipid-coated silica nanoparticles that contain smaller semiconductor quantum dots; particles that are of interest as multimodal medical contrast agents


During the 12 month period from August 2001 to July 2002, observations were carried out on the mosquito breeding that occurred in ground pools and a four types of test water containers – plastic, Aluminium, calabash and bamboo stumps placed in various locations in a rice field and within a village Ajana-Liyebi, Obafemi-Owode Local Government area, Ogun State, Nigeria. Eight mosquito specie were encountered in ground pools within the village and the rice field namely, Anopheles gambiae, n. moucheti, An. nili, An. subpictus, Aedes aegypti, Culex tigripes, Eretmapodites chrysogaster and Coquilledtidia fuscopennata. In the test containers 29 species of mosquitoes were encountered namely: Aedes africanus, Ae. aegypti, Ae. domesticus, Ae. albopictus, Ae. unilineatus, Ae. vittatus, Ae. taylori, Ae. kunmi, Ae. simulans, Ae. uteocephalus, Ae. metallicus Ae. hirsutus, Ae. simpsoni, Ae. longipaipis, ex. p. quiquefasciatus, Cx. dutoni, Cx. tellesila, Cx. tigripes. An. arabiensis, An. funestus, An. macultpennts, An. subpictus, Taeniorhyncus brevipalpis, Eretampodites chrysogaster, E. oedipus, Coquilletidia fuscopennata, Coq. mettalica, Mansonia africana and M. uniformis. In the ground pools, An. gambiae was the most abundant constituting 38.33% of the larvae encountered and appearing in 96.0% of the positive dips. Aedes aegypti was the most abundant in the test containers (29.57%) followed by M africana .10.10%) and Aedes simpsoni (9.45%). Calabash container harboured the highest number of larvae (36.0%) followed by bamboo stumps (24.2%) plastic 'container 123.0%) Aluminium container harboured the least number of larvae (16.8%). No significant difference was observed in the total number of larvae collected in the different sites P > 0.05, however the number of larvae collected from the different containers was significantly different P < 0.05.


The Leu-74 to Val (Leu74Val) mutation in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reverse transcriptase (RT) develops as a consequence of didanosine (ddI) therapy and is associated with a decreased susceptibility to ddI. In this report, we provide evidence that the ddI-associated Leu74Val mutation confers a replication disadvantage to the virus. In a series of experiments, we have shown that (i) a cloned virus with an engineered Leu74Val mutation in RT was attenuated for replication; (ii) a Val-to-Leu revertant of Leu74Val in the pNL4-3 background replicated with an efficiency similar to that of the wild-type virus; (iii) when two isolates from the same patient were compared, a clinical isolate containing mutations Leu74Val and Thr215Tyr was attenuated for replication compared to one in which the Thr215Tyr mutation alone was present; and (iv) the viruses with the Leu74Val mutation showed an 11% loss of fitness in a single passage compared to the wild-type and a mutant virus containing a Lys70Arg mutation. The loss of fitness for viruses grown in drug-free medium could result in an inability to detect a Leu74Val mutant in clinical isolates obtained post-ddI therapy. The decreased replication ability of the Leu74Val mutant virus selected by ddI therapy provides a strong rationale for the lower viral RNA levels observed with ddI therapy compared to zidovudine therapy in clinical trials.


Persistent seizures and failure to regain consciousness following witnessed seizure activity require emergency neurological consultation. Although outcome is largely dependent on underlying cause, early maximal anticonvulsant therapy is critical to reducing morbidity. This review covers important concepts in the clinical and EEG diagnosis of status epilepticus, and discusses treatment algorithms for single and recurrent seizures, emphasizing the need to rationalize therapy depending on the presumed duration of seizure activity. The review takes the perspective of the neurological consultant in the intensive care unit, and considers all pharmacological approaches available to the intensivist as described in the current literature and from clinical experience.


Microbial resistance to existing antibiotics has led to an increase in the use of medicinal plants that show beneficial effects for various infectious diseases. To evaluate the susceptibility of mycobacteria to Nigella sativa extract. In the present study Nigella sativa was extracted with methanol, cholorform and water using Soxhlet extractor. The extracts were than tested against Mycobacterium sp. using mycobacteriophage propagation. The Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of N. sativa seeds were determined against all three mycobacterial strains using Luciferase Reporter Phage (LRP) assay. The TLC profiling of N. sativa seeds was carried out. In this study, the methanolic and water extract of N. sativa seeds showed inhibition against M. tuberculosis H37Rv, All drug Sensitive M. tuberculosis, MDR M. tuberculosis respectively. The methanol extract showed least inhibition at concentration of 50 µg/ml, 250 µg/ml and 100 µg/ml against M. tuberculosis H37Rv, All drug sensitive M. tuberculosis and MDR M. tuberculosis respectively. N. sativa seed is a traditional medicine, which possesses anti-tubercular property. This plant has great potential to develop as a natural drug for the treatment of tuberculosis including drug resistant TB.


In this paper a new application for transmitting image notifications on the FM radio broadcasting infrastructure, dedicated to warn drivers about significant road events and to increase the traffic safety is presented. The paper analyzes different technical solutions suitable for transmitting and receiving real-time image notifications in different scenarios by using the software-defined radio concept. In the first scenario, the image notifications are QPSK modulated and transmitted with 8 kb/s bit-rate by using a mono FM radio channel. In order to increase the speed of data transmission, the second scenario uses the FM subcarrier channels dedicated for broadcasting alternate services. In this case, a stereo FM radio channel is used to transmit data with 40 kb/s, 60 kb/s and 80 kb/s bit-rates, by using QPSK, 8-PSK and 16-PSK modulations, respectively. A new software solution to perform the real-time carrier synchronization for 8-PSK/16-PSK modulation based on a decision-directed PLL and non-linear decision block is also presented. The functionality of the proposed application was demonstrated by simulations for both transmission scenarios. Moreover, the first scenario was tested experimentally by using a professional FM transmitter and a simple RTL-SDR dongle as receiver. The customized baseband modulating signal including audio, data (image notification) and RDS signals was generated by using a device built by the authors. The receiver provides the digital signal through a USB interface to a software program, running on a processing unit, for demodulation. An experimental method for plotting the bit error rate vs. $E_{b}/N_{0}$ ratio, based on signal-to-noise ratio measured with a software spectrum analyzer is also proposed. This method allows the characterization of the data transmissions performed by using an experimental setup and give hints about the QPSK signal power level compared to the other ones (audio and RDS signals).


A new cast-in-situ slab which is filled with novel filled material (EPS-block) consisting of disused expanded polystyrene plastic granule, cement and building cementing powder is invented. EPS-block with perfect centrosymmetric torus shape is very suitable for filling into two-way slabs. It breaks a new path to use disused expanded polystyrene foam, and reduces environment pollution greatly. Through the practical study of the slab with EPS-block, the appropriate construction method is found out, and the dependable construction technique is afforded for further development of the slab with EPS-block.


In this paper, we introduce a new class of index numbers for international price comparisons. We prove the existence and uniqueness of the new price index. We then propose a stochastic approach to the Ikle (1972) and the new system of index numbers. The advantage of the stochastic approach is that we can derive standard errors for the estimates of the purchasing power parities (PPPs). The PPPs and the parameters of the stochastic model are estimated using a weighted maximum likelihood procedure. Finally we estimate PPPs and their standard errors for OECD countries using the proposed methods.


Geography, like the nation, is very much a state of mind. Concepts of place and spatial relationships involve a web of imaginative acts and projections of interests and desires by those who are empowered with the representation of space. Cultural and geographical imaginations draw from and act on both the hard limits imposed by the presence of physical terrain and the past of earlier representations that we often call "tradition." And yet, the power of geographical mapping lies not only in specific natural features, but also in the cultural and political resources of strategic representations.  As such, the imaginative construction and reconstruction of nations and regions are historical projects.  They draw from the events of their time, as well as the constantly changing discursive frameworks that are available to them, in order to present the image of a necessary relationship among contiguous political bodies.  What makes the process especially complicated and fascinating is that often regional mapping, such as the Japanese construction of a modern East Asia in the 20th century, is simultaneously imposed on national mapping, and changing concepts of the region are often interwoven with, and interdependent on, changing definitions of the nation.


Plants and plant resources have become the focus of researchers in the developing countries because of the high cost of imported animal feed ingredients as sources of protein. In this study, the evaluation of the nutritional values and phytochemical composition of Moringa oleifera and Cortinarius species found in a Western State in Nigeria was carried out. Proximate analysis, mineral contents, phytonutrient composition and vitamin contents were carried out according to standard methods. In proximate analysis, protein and crude fat contents were significantly higher in M. oleifera than in the Cortinarius species while the values of moisture content, crude fibre, ash content and carbohydrate were significantly higher in Cortinarius species than in the Moringa oleifera. All values of phytonutrients detected were significantly higher in M. oleifera than in Cortinarius species. There were significantly higher values of calcium, potassium, phosphorus in M. oleifera than in Cortinarius species while the values of iron and zinc vice versa. The study indicates that both Moringa oleifera and Cortinarius species can be used as feed supplements. However, the combination of both Moringa oleifera and Cortinarius species as feed supplement may serve as source of balance diet.


Summary
The use of Carnoy's acetic-alcohol as a fixing agent affords a rapid and certain method of fixing the parasitic amoebae for staining. This agent, consisting of absolute alcohol 6 parts, chloroform 3 parts, and glacial acetic acid 1 part, is used cold and insures quick killing, rapid fixation and fidelity of tissue elements when followed by hematoxylin stains. Fresh smears are completely fixed in ten to fifteen minutes and pieces of tissue in three hours. The fixative is followed by washing in absolute alcohol (one change) following which the tissue or smear is placed in absolute alcohol.


ABSTRACT Beach morphology, wave-current dynamics, or sediment attributes such as grain-size changes and sorting processes intrinsically characterize each other. The extreme cases of the morphological spectrum include reflective beaches which are steep and devoid of inshore topographic expression or surf-zone circulation, and dissipative beaches which are flat and have inshore barred topography with attendant longshore currents and rips. For a study of four beaches in Broken Bay, Australia, representing these morphological extremes, four facts become obvious. First, reflective beaches have rapid variaiton in foreshore grain size alongshore (mean settling velocity changes greater than 0.3 log10 cm/sec/km, grain-size changes greater than 0.2 mm/km) whereas dissipative beaches have weak r variation (mean settling velocity changes approximate 0.1 log10 cm/sec/km, grain-size changes less than 0.1 mm/km). Second, the pattern on reflective foreshores remains fixed over time whereas the pattern on dissipative foreshores varies to the point that size gradients can reverse direction within one year. Third, this temporal variation reflects the directional width of the incoming wave spectra and not changes in the level of wave power. Reflective beaches have waves approaching almost shore-normal because of the nullification of deep-water variation by wave refraction or by the sheltering effects of headlands. Wave approach on dissipative beaches varies daily, and the beach planform and sediment must respond over time to this variation. Fourth, grain size changes fit one of two postulates. The "energy" postulate states that grain size and sorting increase along a foreshore as energy increases. The "drift" postulate states that grain size increases downdrift. The "energy" postulate is more appropriate on reflective beaches whereas the "drift" postulate accounts for the difference in the magnitude of grain-size changes alongshore between reflective and dissipative beaches. On reflective foreshores, coarse material is naturally concentration at the base of the swash zone because of gravity effects or shear sorting in backwash. Larger grains here move faster alongshore than finer ones near the top of the foreshore because longshore currents at the base of the swash are stronger than the zigzag motion of swash drift further up the beach face. This drift sorti g produces strong longshore size gradings on the foreshore. This effect is negated on dissipative beaches by swash bore transport of coarse grains upslope, by dilution with inshore sediment that has undergone preferential movement of fines alongshore in suspension, and by locally reversed longshore currents near rips.


The hippocampus is of critical importance for the organization of selective attention and memory. The activity of its neurons is rhythmically modulated by the direct afferent input from cholinergic and GABAergic neurons of the medial septal nucleus and the nucleus of diagonal band (MS-DB). This modulation is expressed in the hippocampal electroencephalogram as a slow (4-9 Hz) sinusoidal theta rhythm. The paper presents a short review of the authors' data on the properties of MS-DB cells, their interactions in organizing the theta expression in the hippocampus, and the probable functional significance of this rhythm. Extracellular recordings of neural activity of the MS-DB and hippocampus were performed in chronic alert rabbits with transection of various afferent pathways, in brain slices, and in the embryonic tissue grafts developing in the anterior eye chamber and brain. Theta modulation disappeared in all structures deprived of the MS-DB afferent connections, but was retained by MS-DB neurons under isolation conditions. A limited group of MS-DB neurons (6-8%) discharge in regular bursts after complete synaptic blockade in high Mg(2+)-low Ca2+ medium, while other neurons in these conditions exhibited the highly regular single-spike activity. Thus, the MS-DB neurons can be regarded as bursting and regular pacemakers. The frequency of bursts and the number of neurons involved in the rhythmic activity are in parallel increased by afferent stimulation-either natural (sensory stimuli) or imitated by electrical stimulation of ascending reticular formation. An increase in the number of MS-DB neurons secondarily involved in theta bursts with the resulting expression of theta rhythm in EEG can be also obtained by up-regulation of endogenous acetylcholine (by physostigmine), but in this case the frequency of theta is not changed. The MS-DB neurons contain acetylcholine and GABA as neurotransmitters. Analysis of the effects of their agonists and antagonists suggests that the frequency of theta depends on the GABAergic mechanism, while its power is controlled by cholinergic influences. In the control state, input signals triggered in the hippocampal neurons an inhibitory reset followed by synchronous theta modulation, gradually habituating during repeated presentations of the stimulus. Against the background of continuous theta evoked by physostigmine, the responses were blocked or significantly depressed, while after theta suppression by scopolamine the efficacy of the stimuli was increased, and habituation was absent. It is suggested that the theta rhythm operates as a selective filter: it augments and prolongs the input signal by which it was triggered and simultaneously protects it from the interference of extraneous stimuli appearing during its processing and registration. The theta rhythm may be regarded as an important mechanism of selective attention, which is a prerequisite for memory trace formation.


The so-called eighth Stromateus is a series of excerpts on inquiry, demonstration, scepticism, and causal theory, made or adopted by Clement of Alexandria. This book provides a translation and commentary of the text and a study of its origin and purpose.


ABSTRACT Following Cape Verde's independence from Portugal in 1975, young musicians based in the country's capital, Praia, and in Lisbon's metropolitan area created new popular-music aesthetics, reworking expressive genres from the island of Santiago that had been marginalised throughout Portuguese colonial rule. Based on the cultural emphasis of Amílcar Cabral's political thinking and on cosmopolitan musical influences, this creative process challenged the official notions of Cape Verdean creoleness (creolidade), culture and identity fostered by cultural politics at the time of establishing the postcolonial state. This article questions the legacy of Cabral's political thinking in postcolonial Cape Verde, especially its meaning for cultural politics and popular-music production. This strives to show how musicians interpreted Cabral's ideas of 'return to the source' and the 're-Africanization of spirits' to make audible the historical experience of a creolised blackness. While Santiago's expressive genres came to be integrated with the official national culture, cultural hierarchies based on the antinomies inherited from colonial rule (Africa–Europe, low–high, popular–elite), persist in political and popular practices and discourses. I argue that this legacy explains the contingent creoleness assigned to Santiago's population, which discursively slides between an excess and an absence of creole attributes.


We infer dynamical masses in eight multiplanet systems using transit times measured from Kepler's complete data set, including short-cadence data where available. Of the 18 dynamical masses that we infer, 10 pass multiple tests for robustness. These are in systems Kepler-26 (KOI-250), Kepler-29 (KOI-738), Kepler-60 (KOI-2086), Kepler-105 (KOI-115), and Kepler-307 (KOI-1576). Kepler-105 c has a radius of 1.3 R ⊕ and a density consistent with an Earth-like composition. Strong transit timing variation (TTV) signals were detected from additional planets, but their inferred masses were sensitive to outliers or consistent solutions could not be found with independently measured transit times, including planets orbiting Kepler-49 (KOI-248), Kepler-57 (KOI-1270), Kepler-105 (KOI-115), and Kepler-177 (KOI-523). Nonetheless, strong upper limits on the mass of Kepler-177 c imply an extremely low density of ∼0.1 g cm−3. In most cases, individual orbital eccentricities were poorly constrained owing to degeneracies in TTV inversion. For five planet pairs in our sample, strong secular interactions imply a moderate to high likelihood of apsidal alignment over a wide range of possible eccentricities. We also find solutions for the three planets known to orbit Kepler-60 in a Laplace-like resonance chain. However, nonlibrating solutions also match the transit timing data. For six systems, we calculate more precise stellar parameters than previously known, enabling useful constraints on planetary densities where we have secure mass measurements. Placing these exoplanets on the mass–radius diagram, we find that a wide range of densities is observed among sub-Neptune-mass planets and that the range in observed densities is anticorrelated with incident flux.


Building on an idea in Abadie and Gardeazabal (2003), this article investigates the application of synthetic control methods to comparative case studies. We discuss the advantages of these methods and apply them to study the effects of Proposition 99, a large-scale tobacco control program that California implemented in 1988. We demonstrate that, following Proposition 99, tobacco consumption fell markedly in California relative to a comparable synthetic control region. We estimate that by the year 2000 annual per-capita cigarette sales in California were about 26 packs lower than what they would have been in the absence of Proposition 99. Using new inferential methods proposed in this article, we demonstrate the significance of our estimates. Given that many policy interventions and events of interest in social sciences take place at an aggregate level (countries, regions, cities, etc.) and affect a small number of aggregate units, the potential applicability of synthetic control methods to comparative case studies is very large, especially in situations where traditional regression methods are not appropriate.


Photograph of an unidentified conductor directing a choir of unidentified singers during a performance at the 14th annual Christmas/Kwanzaa Concert held by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, Texas.


Heat denaturation of native phages SD suspensions, phage "shadows", and isolated phage DNA solutions were studied by scanning microcalorimetry and viscosimetry. Energetic parameters of cooperative transitions of protein fraction and DNA were measured. DNA melting was shown to be preceded by the destruction of capsid and protein denaturation. The melting curve of isolated DNA and DNA in the presence of protein component is characterized by a fine structure which is completely restored at repeated denaturation only in the presence of the protein component. "Creeping" of DNA out of the capsid in heated suspensions at 50-52 degrees C was shown to proceed with "zero" enthalpy without significant endo- and exo-thermal effects. No change of specific heat capacity of the suspension was also observed. It is emphasized that the mechanism of DNA going out of the capsid can be understood by studying DNA hydration inside the phage and its change in the course of liberation of the phage genome from the protein capsid.


This study aimed to explore the effect of fluoridated toothpastes on biofilm architecture and enamel demineralization in an in vitro biofilm model. Streptococcus mutans was grown on enamel and treated with slurries of commercial toothpastes, containing SnF2 or NaF. Water and chlorhexidine were used as negative and positive controls, respectively. The developed biofilms were imaged and enamel demineralization was measured. SnF2 and NaF toothpaste treatments significantly reduced enamel demineralization, but SnF2 toothpaste was more effective. Only SnF2 toothpaste and chlorhexidine treatments caused reductions on biofilm mass and thickness. In conclusion, this biofilm model was able to differentiate the effects of the SnF2 and NaF toothpastes on biofilm architecture and enamel demineralization.


We present an overview of recent investigations of photopolymerizable nanocomposite photonic materials in which, thanks to their high degree of material selectivity, recorded volume gratings possess high refractive index modulation amplitude and high mechanical/thermal stability at the same time, providing versatile applications in light and neutron optics. We discuss the mechanism of grating formation in holographically exposed nanocomposite materials, based on a model of the photopolymerization-driven mutual diffusion of monomer and nanoparticles. Experimental inspection of the recorded grating's morphology by various physicochemical and optical methods is described. We then outline the holographic recording properties of volume gratings recorded in photopolymerizable nanocomposite materials consisting of inorganic/organic nanoparticles and monomers having various photopolymerization mechanisms. Finally, we show two examples of our holographic applications, holographic digital data storage and slow-neutron beam control.


The research reported here is a retrospective case study of the recent (2010) introduction of the Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL) as a post-graduate level programme of professional development for teachers. It contributes to the debate and research over the past two decades about the impact of post-graduate professional development and appropriate ways of delivering it. The study is located within an extensive body of literature dealing with the importance of the teaching profession with regard to the success of schools and pupils and the impact of professional development on teaching quality and of teaching quality on attainment. A further relevant context is the ongoing tension between the teaching profession and academics on the one hand and government and political actors on the other, in respect of the approaches to professional development and to the control of educational processes. The research questions which inform the study deal with the perspectives of various participants – policy makers, programme directors, coaches and teachers studying for the MTL – on the extent to which the MTL is likely to have an ameliorative effect on teaching and pupil attainment, their experiences of the process of policy development and their experiences as course participants. The study adopts a case study approach which involves elite interviews with those responsible for the development and implementation of the MTL, questionnaires completed by MTL course participants and a comparison group taking a conventional MA and in depth interviews with participants and coaches.
The results revealed tensions and difficulties associated with the development of the MTL including uneasy relationships between HE institutions and government agencies, ideas about 'producer capture', the relevance of the MBA model and concern over the role of coaches. However, while acknowledging various difficulties and some misconceived expectations they viewed its potential to meet its expressed aims positively, given time. Course participants were positive about their experience of the MTL and felt that it had contributed to many aspects of their professional development. Most saw it as a positive experience despite the variable quality of support from their schools, particularly in the form of the school-based coach the concept of which had been heralded as the bellwether of the MTL. It was striking that the responses of the MTL participants were very similar to those of teachers taking a conventional MA. A finding which would repay further investigation is that while the great majority of course participants felt that the MTL (and the MA) had contributed to their becoming more effective teachers they were much less confident that it had contributed to increased pupil attainment.


Figure 3 Rhododendron is a genus belonging to the family Ericaceae and contains over 1000 species commonly known as rhododendrons and azaleas (Dimitri, 1978). Phytophthora multivora is a species that was described in Western Australia in 2008 but before that it was misidentified as P. citricola (Scott et al., 2009). During the early spring of 2011, leaf spot symptoms were observed on rhododendrons in two gardens in Tigre (northern Buenos Aires province) and in containers in a nursery near Buenos Aires city. Leaf spots were dark brown to almost black, visible on both sides near the leaf tips and margins, while tissue death continued down the leaf along the midrib (Fig. 1A). The veins under the diseased area of the leaves presented a reddish tint (Fig. 1B). Some leaves became brown and died, while in others the infection remained as spots on leaves. A Phytophthora species was consistently isolated from symptom-bearing leaf tissues on PARBH medium (Jeffers & Martin, 1986). Hyphal tips reaching the surface of the medium were transferred onto potato dextrose agar (PDA) without inhibitors for purification and identification. Sporangia were produced abundantly in non-sterile soil extract. The majority of them were semi-papillate and ovoid, limoniform, ellipsoid or obpyriform (Fig. 2). Sporangia with two papillae were occasionally formed (Scott et al., 2009). Chlamydospores were not observed. Isolates were homothallic with plerotic oospores, 22.9 ± 1.9 μm and paragynous antheridia (Fig. 3). The optimum growth temperature was 25 ± 1°C on V8A (Scott et al., 2009) and the maximum growth temperature was 32 ± 1°C. The ITS was amplified and sequenced (GenBank Accession No. JQ812127) and showed that it was identical to P. multivora, ex-type CBS 124.094 (FJ237517) by BLAST analysis (Altschul et al., 1997). The isolate (ARod 110) was deposited in the culture collection of the Phytopathology Chair of the Faculty of Agronomy of Buenos Aires (FAUBA). Due to the difficulty of performing pathogenicity tests in the field, detached leaves of Rhododendron spp., Camellia sp. Viburnum tinus and Photinia fraseri were inoculated in the laboratory with the ARod 110 isolate. The tests were performed by inoculating five detached leaves with a 5 mm mycelium plug taken from a seven-day-old PDA culture. Controls were inoculated with PDA discs. Leaves were incubated at 20-22oC under 12h light/12h dark cycle. All the inoculated leaves, except Camellia sp., developed necrotic lesions seven days after inoculation. P. multivora was re-isolated from infected tissue. Symptoms were not detected on the controls. These characteristics conformed to those of Phytophthora multivora Scott & Jung. To our knowledge, this is the first record of P. multivora causing leaf spot on Rhododendron in Argentina and in Latin America, and it may be a potential pathogen for Viburnum tinus and Photinia fraseri.


This paper presents an analysis of the main issues related to the design of battery pack supplying full electric vessels, such as water busses. After an assessment of the energy storage systems technologies available to power marine applications, battery design aspects are investigated. Hence, a probabilistic battery design method is discussed, taking properly into account the battery lifetime and the inherent economical evaluation. The method is based upon accelerated life tests and allows to face with the randomness of the power load in a suitable way. The optimal size of the battery is determined by tailoring an optimization procedure which ensures the desired robustness against the stochastic load parameters. In the last part of the paper, this probabilistic methodology is applied to a case study represented by a water bus for the public transportation service in the canals of the Venetian lagoon. The numerical results allow to confirm the feasibility and the goodness of the probabilistic approach.


It is shown that the momentum density of free electromagnetic field splits into two parts. One has no contribution to the net momentum due to the transversality condition. The other yields all the momentum. The angular momentum that originates from the former part is spin, and the angular momentum that originates from the latter part is orbital angular momentum. Expressions for the spin and orbital angular momentum are given in terms of the electric vector in reciprocal space. The spin and orbital angular momentum defined this way are used to investigate the angular momentum of nonparaxial beams that are described in a recently published paper [Phys. Rev. A 78, 063831 (2008)]. It is found that the orbital angular momentum depends, apart from an l-dependent term, on two global quantities, the polarization represented by a generalized Jones vector and another characteristic represented by a unit vector I, though the spin depends only on the polarization. The polarization dependence of orbital angular momentum through the effect of I is obtained and discussed. Some applications of the result obtained here are also made. The fact that the spin originates from the part of momentum density that has no contribution to the net momentummore » is used to show that there does not exist the paradox on the spin of circularly polarized plane wave. The polarization dependence of both spin and orbital angular momentum is shown to be the origin of conversion from the spin of a paraxial Laguerre-Gaussian beam into the orbital angular momentum of the focused beam through a high numerical aperture.« less


Background/Objectives: This study aimed to verify the structural relationships between hope, emotional intelligence, stress, social support, and self-esteem of 240 elementary school students located in rural areas in S city, T county, and Y county of C province. Methods/Statistical analysis: Data were analyzed using frequency, reliability, correlation analysis, structural equation modeling, and Sobel's test. Findings: First, a significant positive correlation was found among selfesteem, hope, social support, and emotional intelligence, whereas a negative correlation was found between self-esteem and stress. Second, hope in rural elementary school students showed a statistically significant positive effect on social support; self-esteem and emotional intelligence showed a positive effect on social support; social support had a statistically significant positive effect on self-esteem; and stress showed a negative effect on social support and self-esteem. Third, social support had an indirect effect on the relationship between hope and self-esteem, and between stress and self-esteem, so social support was identified as an indirect mediator. Application/ Improvement: This study will be used to increase selfesteem through social; support for children.


OBJECTIVES
To develop "basic principles" on the use of dental cone beam CT by consensus of the membership of the European Academy of Dental and Maxillofacial Radiology.

METHODS
A guideline development panel was formed to develop a set of draft statements using existing European directives and guidelines on radiation protection. These statements were revised after an open debate of attendees at a European Academy of Dental and Maxillofacial Radiology (EADMFR) Congress in June 2008. A modified Delphi procedure was used to present the revised statements to the EADMFR membership, utilising an online survey in October/November 2008.

RESULTS
Of the 339 EADMFR members, 282 had valid e-mail addresses and could be alerted to the online survey. A response rate of 71.3% of those contacted by e-mail was achieved. Consensus of EADMFR members, indicated by high level of agreement for all statements, was achieved without a need for further rounds of the Delphi process.

CONCLUSIONS
A set of 20 basic principles on the use of dental cone beam CT has been devised. They will act as core standards for EADMFR and, it is hoped, will be of value in national standard-setting within Europe.


Additive manufacturing (AM) enables engineers to improve the functionality and performance of their designs by adding complexity at little to no additional cost. However, AM processes also exhibit certain unique limitations, such as the presence of support material. These limitations must be accounted for to ensure that designs can be manufactured feasibly and cost-effectively. Given these unique process characteristics, it is important for an AM-trained workforce to be able to incorporate both opportunistic and restrictive design for AM (DfAM) considerations into the design process. While AM/DfAM educational interventions have been discussed in the literature, few studies have objectively assessed the integration of DfAM in student engineering designers' design outcomes. Furthermore, limited research has explored how the use of DfAM affects the students' AM designs' achievement of design task objectives. This research explores this gap in literature through an experimental study with 301 undergraduate students. Specifically, participants were exposed to either restrictive DfAM or dual DfAM (both opportunistic and restrictive) and then asked to participate in a design challenge. The participants' final designs were evaluated for (1) build time and build material (2) the use of the various DfAM concepts, and (3) the features used to manifest these DfAM concepts. The results show that the use of certain DfAM considerations, such as part complexity, number of parts, support material mass, and build plate contact area (corresponding to warping tendency), correlated with the build material and build time of the AM designs—minimizing both of which were objectives of the design task. The results also show that introducing participants to opportunistic DfAM leads to the generation of designs with higher part complexity and lower build plate contact area but a greater presence of inaccessible support material.


Between 1945 and 1961, an estimated 2.5 million people fled East Germany in search of the political and economic freedom offered by West Germany. To thwart this tide of defections, on the morning of 13 August 1961, hundreds of East German troops began erecting the Berlin Wall-a barrier that would take nearly twenty years to complete and would eventually span 166 kilometres. Postcards from Checkpoint Charlie presents a remarkable collection of images to document the Wall's presence in its 28-year history. The postcards in this fascinating volume trace the development of the Wall-from its beginnings as a simple stretch of barbed wire to the daunting final structure made of interconnecting concrete sections and containing over 300 watchtowers. The images capture scenes of tension and urgency, such as those at Checkpoint Charlie, where we see Allied and Soviet soldiers in a tense standoff. Others document the Wall's ties with international leaders, including John F. Kennedy in 1963 when he declared his solidarity with all Berliners and Ronald Regan when he implored Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Wall. We see Berliners as they respond to the Wall's presence, initially with bewilderment and curiosity in the early days, to acceptance of the reality of the Wall, and finally, to euphoria as the Wall was toppled and thousands of joyful East Germans realized the fulfilment of their personal dreams at the conclusion of the Cold War. An intimate look at one of the most visible manifestations of the postwar divide, Portraits from Checkpoint Charlie presents a key location in twentieth-century history through the eyes of those on the scene.


Expandable modules for use in space and on the Moon or Mars offer a great opportunity for volume and mass savings in future space exploration missions. This type of module can be compressed into a relatively small shape on the ground, allowing them to fit into space vehicles with a smaller cargo/fairing size than a traditional solid, metallic structure based module would allow. In April 2016, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) was berthed to the International Space Station (ISS). BEAM is the first human-rated expandable habitat/module to be deployed and crewed in space. BEAM is a NASA managed ISS payload project in partnership with Bigelow Aerospace. BEAM is intended to stay attached to ISS for an operational period of 2 years to help advance the technology readiness for future expandable modules. BEAM has been instrumented with a suite of space flight certified sensors systems which will help characterize the module's performance for thermal, radiation shielding and impact monitoring against potential Micro Meteoroid/Orbital Debris (MM/OD) providing fundamental information on the BEAM environment for potential health monitoring requirements and capabilities. This paper will provide an overview of how the sensors/instrumentation systems were developed, tested, installed and an overview of the current sensor system operations. It will also discuss how the MM/OD impact detection system referred to as the Distributed Impact Detection System (DIDS) data is being processed and reviewed on the ground by the principle investigators.


PURPOSE
To report a case of bilateral drug (ipilimumab)-induced vitritis, choroiditis, and serous retinal detachments suggestive of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome.

METHODS
This is a single case report.

RESULTS
A 43-year-old woman with metastatic melanoma reported a 1-day history of blurry vision after starting a phase 1 clinical trial of ipilimumab, a cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 blocker, 2 weeks before presentation. Fundus examination of both eyes showed bilateral serous detachments with associated vitritis and choroiditis. Optical coherence tomography confirmed the presence of serous detachments, and fluorescein angiography demonstrated multiple areas of pinpoint leakage at the level of the retinal pigment epithelium. Treatment with high-dose corticosteroids led to a rapid improvement in vision and resolution of her serous detachments. Ten weeks after initial presentation, the patient developed vitiligo and poliosis.

CONCLUSION
Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome is a bilateral granulomatous panuveitis associated with dermatologic, neurologic, and audiologic manifestations of yet an unclear pathogenesis. To our knowledge, we report the first case of ipilimumab treatment resulting in the acute presentation of bilateral vitritis, choroiditis, and serous detachments suggestive of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome, which has particular significance because it may corroborate previous research attempting to elucidate the underlying mechanism of the disease.


1 British Medical Association Board of Science and Education. The medical effects ofnuclear war. Chichester: Wiley, 1983. 2 British Medical Association Board of Science and Education. The long term environmental and medical effects of nuclear war. London: Wiley, 1986. 3 Reuters' report. Guardian 1987;May 2. 4 Savran S. Out of order-Turkish universities and totalitarianism. London: World University Service, 1987.


The present work fits into the exegetical process that brought to light the phenomenon of Parthenopian Futurism, incarnated by Francesco Cangiullo, an isolated manifestation of the first Neapolitan Futurism. Along his avant-garde militancy (1912-1924) Cangiullo was alone, without any local allies, culturally marginalized. As a matter of fact Marinetti didn't manage to get a proselyte. The advent of Futurism showed all the weaknesses of Parthenopian intelligentsia, incapable of a true adversarial. Nevertheless, Marinetti always had words of praise for Naples, for its transgression and its gestures so futuristic.

Cangiullo is the only one who answered to Marinetti's announcement. He performed a delicate role as a link between the futuristic subversion and parthenopian folk, between Avant-garde and Tradition. To the main futurists his engagement serves as a secret weapon against the rhetoric, as a symbol of spontaneity and irrationality against the artifices of Italian culture.

Yet Cangiullo ( leading figure of the Futurism) was always given a critical approval; many studies, but all incoherent and sectoral, never final or monographs. In fact, his huge journalistic production is unknown till today. The choice to devote new critical attention to this field of his activity is an outcome of a relatively poor exegesis.

Cangiullo crossed transversely all the thematic spectrum of Futurism; decided to add to his brilliant artistic career a parallel journalist activity, anticipating in diverse periodicals his creative proposals. The poor performance in publishing ( Marinetti neglected him ) drove Cangiullo to search for some other ways to get himself well known and to produce such a quantity of articles that it oversteps the boundaries of his today's bibliography , many of these writings were entirely forgotten by careless and superficial criticism. It was during his maximum adhesion to Futurism when Cangiullo loosened his grip on Marinetti and started his collaboration with smaller papers, never organic, often traditional. As an example stands a roman paper "Piccolo Giornale d'Italia", with many Cangiullo's appearances' in the decade between 1914 and 1923, but subjected to small bibliographical work; 13 articles reported so far, 49 new never mentioned elsewhere. There are a total of 54 Cangiullo's compositions never notified before, to which should be added not a few of unpublished compositions here found and brought to the attention of the reader.

All Cangiullo's activity must be redefined in the light of the discoveries made in the present work, which aim seems to be to anthologize enormous wealth of articles, but which reveals itself in its truth: to retrace the guidelines of a protean career, largely unknown, which in all its development was always preceded, accompanied and glossed by the testimony of the author assigned to the press.


The aim of this dissertation is to trace the development of Lawrence's thought about the interdependence between language, selfhood and otherness in the period between the composition of Women in Love and the closing years of his literary career. Around the time of Women in Love's inception, Lawrence saw the relationship between self and language in terms of the gap separating the speaker's experience from his utterance. This gap, Lawrence believed, could be bridged through a type of verbal expression that was qualitatively different from the static language of representation on which Western rationalism was predicated. In "Foreword to Women in Love" this authentic mode of expression is referred to as "the new idea" arising out of the individual's "struggle for verbal consciousness" (276). However, the complexity of linguistic signification, revealed on the dramatic plane of the novel itself, proves the one-to-one correspondence between expression and experience impossible to achieve.
Lawrence's exploration of the interdependence between selfhood and language continued with his essays on psychology, which followed chronologically Women in
Love. In both Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious and Fantasia of the Unconscious, Lawrence describes the ego as a rational construct analogous to the static language of representation. This structural homology allows the full verbal representability of the ego whilst rendering un-signifyable all those facets of subjectivity which transcend reason. The argument of Lawrence's psychology essays can therefore be said to introduce an important twist in his earlier views on the interrelation between self and language. If the "Foreword to Women in Love" envisaged at least the possibility for an absolute coincidence between experience and verbal expression, the psychology essays reveal this at-oneness as virtually unattainable. With the hindsight of the late twentieth century developments in psychoanalytic thought, the argument put forth in Psychoanalysis and Fantasia can be said to foreshadow certain aspects of Jacques Lacan's and Julia Kristeva's views on subjectivity.
The completion of the psychology essays left Lawrence undeterred in his quest for a new mode of signification able to reveal the entirety of the human self. Since all his attempts to elicit a solution from within Western ontology proved futile, he turned his attention to a variety of non-European civilisations, which the science of the time believed to share a mode of being different from the one engendered by rationalism. This essentially primitivist image of the non-European other had a profound impact on Lawrence who was fascinated to discover that societies so radically different from his own were predicated on the same state of at-oneness between experience and language which he himself hoped to achieve in the present. It was with these thoughts that Lawrence departed to the United States to familiarise himself with the traditional, non-European culture of the Native Americans and find inspiration therein.
In other words, Lawrence's impulse to travel to the New World was rooted in preconceived ideas which tend to transform the other into a projection issuing from the self. These ideas influenced in varying degrees Lawrence's account of the indigenous people throughout his stay in North America, yet, in time, he began to develop a more authentic sense of their otherness which was reflected in his narrative technique.
The Native American essays included in the collection Mornings in Mexico demonstrate how Lawrence began to, literally, write himself out of his own projections by creating what can be referred to as a self-conscious discourse on alterity. The specificity of this discourse lies in its capacity to foreground its very own cultural bias and thus bracket off, as it were, the truth that it ostensibly affirms. In this sense it prefigures the methodological adjustments that Jacques Derrida prescribed to late twentieth-century science of ethnology.
The signifying logic of Lawrence's discourse on alterity is applied further in some of his later works which examine cultural otherness in terms of a particular mode of expression epitomised by the symbol. The symbol, conceived of as a particular type of language, functions in accordance with the same logic of transcendence that we found in the discourse of the Native American essays in Mornings in Mexico, in the sense that it simultaneously affirms and subverts a particular meaning. However, if the essays' narrative leaves an unbridgeable gap between the European observer and the indigenous people, the symbol creates a signifying space where self and other can genuinely interact. Thus the collection of Places elaborates a social model allowing culturally diverse communities to co-exist without infringing upon each other's difference.
Using Julia Kristeva's theory of inter-subjective relations across a cultural divide, put forth in her work Strangers to Ourselves, I will try to demonstrate that the social model Lawrence develops in Sketches of Etruscan Places is based on a fundamental re-conceptualisation of the correspondence between selfhood and language, conceived as symbolic discourse.
Since the symbol contains its own undoing in the dynamic flux of experience, its meaning is characterised with a semantic surplus, an otherness, that can never be
fully explicated. Symbolic discourse can therefore signify the ever changing and ultimately unknowable dimension of the self, which Lawrence calls variously dynamic consciousness or the unconscious, and which the static language of representation is unable to express. In other words, the symbol can accommodate both the self-sameness of the ego and the otherness of the non-cerebral self.
By positing in language the decentred human subject, never at one with itself, the symbol renders hollow the idea of a homogenous society based on individual selfsameness. Since the subject is always at variance with itself, social cohesion begins to appear possible only if predicated on difference, a difference that all the members of society share. This sameness in difference creates an open and inclusive social framework able to integrate people irrespective of their cultural background.
In this sense, the essays included in Sketches of Etruscan Places create a new balance between the notions of language, selfhood and otherness that is both similar and different from the one we described in Part I of this thesis. The correspondence between self and language, i.e. the speaker and his utterance has been regenerated at the cost of a radical redefinition of the notion of language. This redefinition, in turn, has been made possible by Lawrence's recourse to cultural otherness and has led to the development of a model of self-other interrelation whereby self and other can coexist in difference.


ences (15%) and distant metastases (10%) were observed more frequently than in group of younger ones (9% and3% respectively). Also the 5-years survival rates were poorer in this group 70% vs 87% in younger group p1⁄4 0.0026. The frequency of local reccurences increased with stage from 4% in stage I, 20% in II to 26% in III stage p1⁄4 0,0001. Also the frequency of distant metastases increased from 4% in stage I, 10% in II to 21% in III p1⁄4 0,0003. Both recurrences were observed more often in cases with depth of invasion of myometrium. The rates of 5-year survival decreased accordingly to increasing of stage of disease and made 94% in stageI, 73% in II and 56% in III stage, and also with depth of myometrial invasion from 100% in Ia, 98% in Ib to 93% in Ic p1⁄4 0,000001. Grading worsened the 5-year survival rates from 97% in G1 to 93% in G3 for stage I and from 71% to 18% for stage III p1⁄4 0,0003. The distant metastases were more often in carcinoma clarocellulare (33%) and serous pappilare (13%) than in adenocarcinoma endometrioides (6%). The 5-year survival ratio made 83% for adenocarcinoma endometrioides, 60% for serous pappilare and 0% for carcinoma clarocellulare p1⁄4 0,0062. Both the time of radiotherapy longer than 40 days and treatment time over 60days correlated with a high percentage of recurrences 8% vs 22% and 9% vs 15% and it worsened the prognosis from 86% to 65% and from 86% to 74% respectively p1⁄4 0,0025 Age, stage, grade, histology and time of radiotherapy are prognostic factors.


In this note, instruments for measuring altitude and rate of change of altitude in blind flying and landing of aircraft and their performance are discussed. Of those indicating the altitude above ground level, the sonic altimeter is the most promising. Its present bulk, intermittent operation, and more or less unsatisfactory means of indication are serious drawbacks to its use. The sensitive type aneroid altimeter is also discussed and errors in flying at a pressure level and in landing are discussed in detail.


Juxtarenal/pararenal aortic aneurysms and type IV thoracoabdominal aneurysms pose particular technical challenges for endovascular repair as they involve the visceral segment in addition to insufficient infrarenal neck for the use of standard endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) devices. To overcome these challenges, complex EVAR techniques have been developed to extend the proximal landing zone cephalad with maintaining perfusion to vital aortic branches, thereby broadening the applicability of endografting from the infrarenal to the suprarenal aorta. Complex EVAR can be divided into two broad categories: fenestrated endovascular aneurysm repair (FEVAR) and snorkel EVAR. FEVAR is a valid procedure with the standardized procedure, although it remains as a relatively complex procedure with a learning curve. Given time constraints for the custom fenestrated graft, snorkel EVAR may be an alternative for complex repairs in symptomatic or ruptured patients for whom custom-made endografts may not be immediately available. This article discusses these two most commonly used complex EVAR strategies.


ABSTRACT: Bangalore city generates about 4,500 metric tons of municipal solid waste every day in that 75% is disposed in the landfill. The landfill leachate discharge may lead to serious environmental problems. Leachate may percolate through landfill liners and subsoil causing pollution of ground water and surface waters resources. The aim of this research study is to identify the characteristics of the leachate from landfill in Mavallipura. Landfill leachate contains various pollutants that can be categorized into four groups such as dissolved organic matter, inorganic macrocomponents, heavy metals, and organic compounds. The pH of the leachate is considered as alkaline as the pH is 7.6 in Mavallipura landfill leachate. The results showed that the highest metal concentration that exists in the leachate was Iron which is about of 12 ppm. BOD 3 and COD of the leachate are 1500 mg/L and 10400 mg/L, respectively. The leachate characteristics indicate favourable growth of algae in natural water contaminated with leachate with the alkaline condition and with the presence of magnesium as nutrient, which has been confirmed in the nearby surface pond.