Groundwater beneath the former Nebraska Ordnance Plant (NOP) is contaminated with the explosive hexahydro‐1,3,5‐trinitro‐1,3,5‐triazine (RDX). The current pump and treat facility is preventing offsite migration but does not offer a short‐term solution. Our objective was to quantify the effectiveness of permanganate to degrade RDX in situ. This was accomplished by performing laboratory treatability experiments, aquifer characterization, and a pilot‐scale in situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) demonstration. Treatability experiments confirmed that permanganate could mineralize RDX in the presence of NOP aquifer solids. The pilot‐scale ISCO demonstration was performed using an extraction‐injection well configuration to create a curtain of permanganate between two injection wells. RDX destruction was then quantified as the RDX‐permanganate plume migrated downgradient through a monitoring well field. Electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) was used to identify the subsurface distribution of permanganate after injection. Results showed that RDX concentrations temporally decreased in wells closest to the injection wells by 70% to 80%. Observed degradation rates (0.12 and 0.087/d) were lower than those observed under laboratory batch conditions at 11.5 °C (0.20/d) and resulted from lower than projected permanganate concentrations. Both ERI and spatial electrical conductivity measurements verified that permanganate distribution was not uniform throughout the 6.1‐m (20 feet) well screens and that groundwater sampling captured both treated and nontreated groundwater during pumping. Although heterogeneous flow paths precluded a uniform permanganate distribution, pilot‐scale results provided proof‐of‐concept that permanganate can degrade RDX in situ and support permanganate as a possible remedial treatment for RDX‐contaminated groundwater.


Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has been proposed to exert pro- as well as anti-inflammatory effects in various models of critical illness. In this study, we compared bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced changes in inflammatory mediator production, indices of multiple organ injury and survival in wild-type (WT) mice and in mice with reduced expression of one of the three H2S-producing enzymes, cystathionine-γ-lyase (CSE), cystathionine-β-synthase (CBS) or 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase (3MST). Mice were injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) with LPS (10 mg/kg). After 6 h, the animals were sacrificed, blood and organs were collected and the following parameters were evaluated: blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels in blood, myeloperoxidase (MPO) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in the lung, cytokine levels in plasma and the expression of the three H2S-producing enzymes (CBS, CSE and 3MST) in the spleen, lung, liver and kidney. LPS induced a tissue-dependent upregulation of some of the H2S-producing enzymes in WT mice (upregulation of CBS in the spleen, upregulation of 3MST in the liver and upregulation of CBS, CSE and 3MST in the lung). Moreover, LPS impaired glomerular function, as evidenced by increased BUN levels. Renal impairment was comparable in the CSE−/− and Δ3MST mice after LPS challenge; however, it was attenuated in the CBS+/− mice. MPO levels (an index of neutrophil infiltration) and MDA levels (an index of oxidative stress) in lung homogenates were significantly increased in response to LPS; these effects were similar in the WT, CBS+/−, CSE−/− and Δ3MST mice; however, the MDA levels tended to be lower in the CBS+/− and CSE−/− mice. LPS induced significant increases in the plasma levels of multiple cytokines [tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12 and interferon (IFN)γ] in plasma; TNFα, IL-10 and IL-12 levels tended to be lower in all three groups of animals expressing lower levels of H2S-producing enzymes. The survival rates after the LPS challenge did not show any significant differences between the four animal groups tested. Thus, the findings of this study indicate that a deficiency in 3MST does not significantly affect endotoxemia, while a deficiency in CBS or CSE slightly ameliorates the outcome of LPS-induced endotoxemia in vivo.


A simple and reliable method for electrochemical determination of nitrite based on Gd doped nano titanium dioxide (Gd-nano-TiO2) modified gold electrode was well developed in this paper. Using cyclic voltammetry, the modified electrode shows electrocatalytic activity for oxidation of nitrite in 0.10 mol×L-1 sulfuric acid solution (pH=0.70). The catalytic peak current was found to be linear with nitrite concentration in the range of 2.0´10-6 ~ 2.0´10-4 mol×L-1, with a detection limit of 1.1´10-6 mol×L-1 (S/N=3). Compared with spectrophotometry, the Gd-nano-TiO2 modified Au electrode could be used for the determination of nitrate in the ham sausage samples with a satisfactory recovery of 95.9 ~ 103.2%, showing its promising application in safety evaluation for food.


Background: Blood transfusion is an important part of modern health services. When used properly, transfusion can save patient's life and improve health. Blood transfusion has risk of transmitted infectious diseases through blood transfusion (TTI) especially HIV / AIDS, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B, and Syphilis, and Malaria, Dengue Fever (DHF) can only be done in endemic areas, as well as other transfusions which can be life threatening.Method: This was descriptive study with cross sectional approach and sampling techniques using secondary data with total population method. From the sample of 23,875 samples (12,305 (2017) and 11,573 (2018)), it was seen which results of TTI reactive from donor data to be included in finding research objects. Results: In 2017 HbSAg reactive TTI parameters 1.7%, Anti HCV 0.5%, HIV Ag / Ab 0.7%, and Treponema 4% and TTI reactive results in donors in 2018 HbSAg parameters 1.3%, Anti HCV 0.3%, HIV Ag / Ab 0.25% and Treponema 2.2%. Comparison of donor TTI screening results in Blood Center of North Aceh-Indonesia in the period 2017-2018 changes in the ratio of TTI reactive numbers in the HbSAg parameter of 0.4%, Anti HCV 0.2%, HIV Ag / Ab 0.45% and Treponema 1.8% in period 2018.Conclusion: Although the reactive rate in 2017 is relatively high, in 2018 the reactive TTI level shows a decline. This condition can be caused by two factors. ; (1) Implementation of donor selection was good with good data collection and documentation system. (2) The inspection method carried out affects the results of the existing inspection.


The catalytic performance and characterization of Ln1.85A0.15CuO4–δ and Ln1.85A0.15CuO4–δXσ (Ln=La, Nd; A=Sr, Ce; X=F, Cl) for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane (ODE) to ethene have been investigated. The hole-doped catalysts performed better than the electron-doped ones. Under the reaction conditions of temperature, 660°C; C2H6/O2/N2 molar ratio, 2/1/3.7; and contact time, 1.67×10−4 h g mL−1; La1.85Sr0.15CuO3.930Cl0.053 showed 82.8% C2H6 conversion, 73.2% C2H4 selectivity, and 60.6% C2H4 yield; Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO3.981F0.092 showed 72.1% C2H6 conversion, 61.8.0% C2H4 selectivity, and 44.6% C2H4 yield. The sustainable performance during a period of 60 h on-stream reaction at 660°C demonstrated that the F- and Cl-doped catalysts are durable. The results of X-ray powder diffraction indicated that the Sr-substituted cuprates were of T structure whereas the Ce-doped cuprates were of T′ structure. The results of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) studies revealed that there were Cu2+ and Cu3+ in the Sr-doped cuprate catalysts and Cu+ and Cu2+ in the Ce-doped cuprate catalysts. The results of the XPS, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and 18O2-pulsing studies demonstrated that the incorporation of halide ions into the Ln1.85A0.15CuO4–δ lattice promoted the activity of lattice oxygen. By comparing the results of XPS, TGA, and O2 temperature-programmed desorption with the catalytic performance of the catalysts, we conclude that (i) lattice O2− species at the surface are active for the selective oxidation of ethane; (ii) in excessive amount, O− species accommodated in oxygen vacancies are prone to induce the total oxidation of ethane; and (iii) a suitable Cu3+ or Cu+ concentration and/or oxygen nonstoichiometry in Ln1.85A0.15CuO4–δXσ are required for the best catalytic performance of the catalysts.


This paper reports on an investigation of hypothetical bias and approaches to identifying and mitigating the bias. The split sample design includes an actual donation treatment, a contingent donation treatment with a follow-up certainty question and a contingent donation treatment with cheap talk. Studies comparing contingent values to actual payments consistently find that respondents report higher willingness to pay in a hypothetical payment situation relative to an actual payment situation. While the existence of hypothetical bias has been confirmed in such studies, less attention has been focused on the nature and causes of hypothetical bias. Previous research (Champ et al. 1997, Champ and Bishop 2001) suggests that a small and potentially identifiable group of respondents to a contingent valuation survey may be responsible for the hypothetical bias. The goal of this research is to use data from a carefully designed field study to identify the hypothetical bias associated with a contingent donation survey and identify the respondents responsible for the bias. Identification of the survey respondents responsible for the hypothetical bias allows us to examine the attitudes and socio-demographic characteristics associated with hypothetical bias. The data are based on a field study administered via a mail survey with three treatments. One treatment involves asking a group of study participants to actually make a donation. This treatment serves as the "benchmark" for identifying hypothetical bias associated with the two other treatments. The second treatment involves a contingent donation (CD) question with a follow-up question that asks respondents how certain they are about their response to the CD question. This information can be used to identify the respondents responsible for the hypothetical bias (Champ et al. 1997, Champ and Bishop 2001). While the second treatment can be considered an "ex-post" approach, the third treatment is an "ex-ante" approach in that before the contingent donation question a script is included in the survey that explains the nature of hypothetical bias and encourages respondents to answer the contingent donation question as they would for an actual donation solicitation. The script was developed to be similar to the cheap talk scripts used in contingent valuation surveys administered via the mail by Lusk (2003) and Aadland and Capland (2003). Previous studies that have employed a cheap talk script have found that inclusion of the cheap talk script diminishes hypothetical bias. However, we do not know if the respondents to responding positively to a CD question after a cheap talk script are similar to the respondents who respond positively to an actual donation solicitation. This study allows for such an investigation. The study involved development of a mail survey with three main sections: (1) The description of the good. A program through the International Crane foundation to purchase radio transmitters to help scientists track a newly established flock of whooping cranes was described in detail. (2) The willingness to donate question. In all three treatments, the question was single bound dichotomous-choice question. Five offer amounts were selected based on the results of an open-ended pretest. In the actual payment treatment, an actual donation was solicited and respondents who chose to donate were asked to send a donation check back with the survey. (3) The last section of the survey included questions about previous knowledge of and experience with whooping cranes, attitudes toward reintroduction of whooping cranes and environmental programs in general and socio-demographic questions. The survey instrument has been pretested and modified based on the results of the pretest. The final survey will be administered in mid-January. Preliminary results will be available in spring 2004.


Superelastic NiTi polycrystalline tubes, when subjected to quasi-static stretching, transform from an initial austenite phase to a high-strain martensite phase by the formation and growth of a macroscopic self-organized helical domain as deformation progresses. This paper performed an experimental study on the effects of the externally applied stretching and tube geometry (length L, wall-thickness h and tube radius R) on the martensitic helical domains in the tubes under very slow (isothermal) stretching. The evolution of the helical domains with the applied strain in different tube geometries are quantified by in-situ optical measurement. We demonstrate that the shape of the self-organized helical domain and its evolution are governed by the competition between bending strain energy and domain front energy in minimizing the total energy of the tube system. The former favors a long slim helical domain, while the latter favors a short fat helical domain. The experimental results provide a strong support to the recently developed theoretical relationship.


Parental involvement in marriage matchmaking may distort the optimal spouse choice because parents are willing to substitute love for money. The rationale is that the joint income of married children can be shared among extended family members more easily than mutual attraction felt by the couple themselves, and as a result, the best spouse candidate in the parents' eyes can differ from what is optimal to the individual, even though parents are altruistic and care dearly about their children's welfare. We find supporting evidence for this prediction using a unique sample of urban couples in China in the early 1990s.


This paper investigates the use of adaptive repetitive and resonant control approaches for the control of a single-phase hybrid cascaded multilevel converter designed to interface with power grids of highly distorted voltage waveform. The proposed repetitive/resonant control (RPC/RSC) is used for the extraction of clean phase angle, frequency, and magnitude information of the fundamental grid voltage together with the control of the converter current and mitigation of current harmonics under distorted grid voltage and variable frequency. The RPC time period and the RSC resonant frequency are updated adaptively using the estimated grid frequency while interpolation is used to preserve the RPC rejection capability under noninteger number of time steps per period. Detailed modeling and experimental investigation of the proposed control scheme are carried out.


In the recent years, a wealth of genetic, biochemical and structural data focusing on various steps of bacterial trans-translation was reported. The early events, from stalled ribosome recognition, pre-accommodation to translocation have been recently investigated in great details. In comparison, the later events including 'elongation-termination' onto tmRNA reading frame and ribosome recycling are much less known. What follows is a summary of those data together with our personal view of the dynamics of trans-translation, with emphasis to the pivotal and leading roles that the SmpB protein has, being the essential conductor during the whole process.


Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) coated with poly-4-vinylpyridine (PVP) and metal organic framework HKUST-1 are investigated and compared for humidity sensing. Drop casting method is employed to coat the PVP and HKUST-1 solutions onto the surface of a quartz crystal microbalance. The resonance frequencies of these sensors with varying relative humidity (RH) from 22% RH to 69% RH are measured using impedance analysis method. The sensitivity, humidity hysteresis, response, and recovery times of these sensors are studied. The sensitivities of uncoated, PVP, and HKUST-1 coated QCM sensors are 7 Hz, 48 Hz, and 720 Hz, respectively, in the range of 22% RH–69% RH. The extraction of desorption rate and adsorption energy associated with the adsorption and desorption of water molecules on these surfaces reveals that HKUST-1 has better sensing properties than PVP and uncoated QCM sensors. In this work, the HKUST-1 coated QCM is shown to be a promising material for moisture detection.


The article analyzes the current state of providing the forensic units of the National Police of Ukraine with technical and forensic means of protecting places of investigation. First of all, we are talking about the inspection of the scene of the incident and the use of mobile screens and tents. Their use allows to protect the scene of the incident and the objects located there both from the negative effects of a natural character (sun, rain, snow), and from free access by outsiders, as well as the curious eyes of interested people. Attention is drawn to the regulatory framework governing the use of data of forensic means of protection. The author analyzes the opinions of well-known domestic and foreign forensic scientists and proposes his own vision of resolving this issue, based on the regulatory framework in Ukraine.

The author reasonably comes to the conclusion that the main condition for the use of mobile protective equipment (tents and screens) of the places of investigation is strict observance of the rules and norms of international and domestic legislation that regulates activities in the field of criminal procedure.

Also the article speaks about the possibility of using improvised means and objects for protection against various influences of physical evidence at the scene, but it is stated that it is much more convenient to have such means prepared in advance in a patrol car.

It is analyzed the domestic and foreign market of such portable means of protection of accident sites (protective screens and tents), special attention is paid to the study of the materials, from which they are made and design features. It is noted that these devices should be light and allow one person to control them. On the basis of research, the author came to the conclusion that all sets of mobile protective structures (tent, screen) should be made of durable, non-transparent, impermeable, but easily breathable material. The design should allow easy connection of individual elements in order to increase the area of protection, both around the perimeter and in height.

All of the above allows us to conclude that the improvement and updating of the arsenal of special technical tools used by police officers to preserve the situation at the scene of incident are the necessary realities of today.

Key words: scientific and technical means, event protection, technical and forensic equipment.


This paper reports the modeling, identification, and control of harmonic drives in a novel configuration where all its shafts are allowed to move. This makes possible to solve a control problem where one applies two actuators in order to carry out simultaneous position and torque control on two different axes of the harmonic drive. Physical parameters used during the MIMO controller synthesis partially come from a 3D CAD model (inertial parameters) and others (frictional parameters) are obtained by an identification procedure using measurement data recorded on a rapid prototyping test bench


In Pakistan, mango nurseries are currently located in the traditional way, in the soil under trees in mango orchards. This method is responsible for the young plants being contaminated with many of the diseases present on mature trees. To produce clean and healthy plants, Pakistani mango nurseries must change their practices to isolate the nurseries from orchards and use clean potting media. In this study, a range of ingredients with fine and coarse texture were combined into 12 different media and tested for plant survival (%), plant height (cm), stem diameter (cm) and the physical and chemical properties of each potting medium. The potting medium that achieved maximum seedling survival (94%) contained bagasse (70%), silt (25%) and coconut fiber (5%) (by volume). This medium also achieved maximum plant height (60 cm) and maximum stem girth (1.2 cm) of seedlings after 1 year. The physical and chemical properties of this leading potting medium were 38% water-holding capacity (WHC), 13% air-filled porosity (AFP), 1300 µS cm-1 electrical conductivity (EC) and pH 7.8 after 4 months of seed germination. When farmyard manure (FYM) was used at any level (20 to 50%) with any other potting medium component, it caused seedling death within 3-4 months of seed germination. This research was conducted under the ACIAR-funded Pakistan-Australia Agriculture Sector Linkages Program (ASLP). The result of this research has led to the first recommendation of an evaluated potting medium for use in the mango nursery sector in Pakistan.


In an 1886 issue of the Athenaeum, the Victorian writer and political activist Augusta Webster wrote a tepid review of Lewis Morris's poetic drama Gycia, tactfully evading outright condemnation by ruminating on the genre more broadly. Webster, a writer of poetic dramas as well as a critic of them, penned this review a year before the publication of the last of her four verse dramas, and, therefore, her words speak to her own mature approach to dramatic writing. What Webster's critical consideration of Gycia makes clear is that poetic drama sets its sight on a rare--but important--kind of reader who revels in creating the world alongside the author, who possesses "the faculty of inward sight and hearing," and who seeks to inhabit the world of the literature he or she reads. Since the reader of drama desires "a sensation of the action" above and beyond "passive absorption" of novel reading, it is imperative, explains Webster, that such a work "need not, indeed should not, be written with any modifications of dramatic treatment to differentiate it from acting plays" and that authors of this genre remember that "the plays that act best read best." (1) Her lackluster response to Morris's instantiation of this genre results from his subordination of the dramatic element of the piece to the poetic and, therefore, his failure to see the reader as one who desires to experience the physicality of the world of the play and to participate viscerally in its creation. Webster's four full-length plays reflect her desire to blend stage drama and closet drama, and as Patricia Rigg has noted Webster drops abstract themes typical of closet drama for the sake of conventional dramatic structure and stage directions. (2) However, Webster's works enact this hybridity with more than just a stage-worthy plotline; they also continually invoke the embodied nature of theatrical performance in the confines of the printed page both through references to Victorian stage practice and through uses of, what the linguist J. L. Austin terms the "performative" functions of language. I argue that Webster, in her dramas, plays with the physical potential of language to remind readers of the embodiment implicit in the printed page and to encourage them to see the process of reading as an active, physical engagement with the text. By doing so, Webster redefines literature as inherently performative--the book is like a stage; its characters, the actors; its writer, the director; and the reader, its audience--and that, as a result, it is an enterprise of body as well as mind. Yet Webster's plays never advocate the superiority of the stage to the printed page; these literary dramas harness the visceral realities of performance to remind readers of their role as active consumers in print's seemingly unidirectional transaction and of literature's contributions to their embodied reality. Webster's conception of literary drama that allows audiences to see the play "acted to them only in the theatre of their minds" alludes to but also provides a feminist reworking of the closet drama form conceived of by male Romantic writers such as Byron and Coleridge, who envisioned this genre as a safe retreat from the anti-intellectual stage. Webster invokes and challenges Byron's aesthetic choice to exchange the theatrical stage for "the mental theatre of the reader" (3) and Coleridge's belief that Shakespeare's greatness lies in the fact that he wrote not for any stage so much as "the universal mind." (4) Byron's and Coleridge's words envision the reader's mind as a sufficient substitute for the stage (the mind, for both of them, is already a theater) and assume that there is a universal mental landscape, invariable across time and peoples. In contrast, Webster's characterization charges her readers to visualize that stage and re-create its spatial and temporal realities anew in each of their own minds. In an 1887 letter that Webster wrote to William Michael Rossetti, responding to his critique that the action in her final drama, The Sentence, is not obvious enough, she reiterates that her "stage is in the reader's head. …


Many cold-water corals act as bioengineers, forming complex, three-dimensional habitats that are beneficial for other species. Whether the cold-water coral biocenonsis in the Patagonian fjord region has a comparable ecological importance is yet not clear. Tethocyathus endesa (Cairns et al., 2005) is a recently discovered solitary scleractinian and besides Desmophyllum dianthus and Caryophyllia huinayensis one of the most frequent cold-water coral species thriving in the Chilean fjord region. In two Chilean fjords, year-round temperature measurements and a frame based census have been carried out to describe the temperature environment and to quantify abundance in relation to water depth and substrate inclination. T. endesa thrives in water temperatures between 9.61°C and 15.30°C and can reach maximum abundancies up to 1,161 individuals per m². It settles at substrates with an inclination between 71° and 145°. This study aims for a better understanding of the reaction of this cold-water coral in a changing ocean. Besides ocean warming, especially ongoing ocean acidification may have extensive impacts on all calcifying organisms. The fjord Comau exhibits horizontal and vertical pH-gradients, which resemble the values that are forecasted by the recent IPCC-report for the end of the next century. These conditions allow experiments along the natural horizontal pH-gradient that can provide estimations on the influence of changing water parameters on T. endesa. Two parameters, which can be used to predict the influence of these environmental changes, are growth and respiration rates. The long-term study (12 months) revealed an in situ-growth rate of 10.34 ± 4.34% yr-1 (0.03 ± 0.01% d-1), which is comparable to other cold-water coral species of this region. In the present in situ experiment, T. endesa specimens have been cross transplanted between a location with high pH of 7.87 ± 0.06 and a Total Alkalinity (TA) of 2.219 ± 0.020mmol/l and a location with a low pH of 7.66 ± 0.04 and a TA of 2.241 ± 0.031mmol/l, respectively. Corals moved to low pH-conditions showed mass increases of 10.51 ± 1.14% yr-1 (0.03 ± 0.00% d-1), which is comparable to the control group under high pH conditions with 9.82 ± 4.38% yr-1 (0.03 ± 0.01% d-1). This may indicate physiological adaptations of T. endesa, enabling this species to up-regulate internal pH in tissues where biologically induced calcification takes place. Specimens from the cross-transplantation experiment, which have been transplanted from high to low pH conditions showed no statistical difference in respiration rates (9.88 ± 4.52μmol O2 × cm2 × d-1) compared to their control group (8.05 ± 2.93μmol O2 × cm2 ×d-1). As shown by the present study, the scleractinian cold-water coral T. endesa has the ability to thrive in conditions with future acidified sea water. Although cold-water corals reveal the potential of calcification under decreased sea water pH, the underlying balancing mechanisms are suggested to be accompanied by energetic effort, leading to a reduction of energy for other physiological important processes.


This essay expands on the previous discussion, "Positioning Ethos" (Baumlin and Meyer 2018), which outlined a theory of ethos for the 21st century. There, my coauthor and I observed the dialectic between ethics and ethotics, grounding subjectivity within a sociology of rhetoric: Contemporary ethos, thus, explores the physical embodiment (with its "markers of identity"), positionality, and "cultural dress" of speakers. There as here, we looked to Heidegger for an expanded definition, one reaching beyond a speaker's self-image to bring all aspects of our lifeworld—cultural, technological, biological, planetary—into a dynamic unity. And, there as here, we observed the dialectic between speaker and audience: Within this transactional model, ethos marks the "space between" speaker and audience—a socially- and linguistically-constructed meeting ground (or, perhaps better, playground) where meanings can be negotiated. Crucial to this transactional model is the skeptron, as described by Bourdieu: To possess the skeptron is to claim the cultural authority, expertise, trust, and means to speak and to be heard—indeed, to be seen—in one's speaking. To our previous essay's ethics and ethotics, this present essay adds the dialectic arising between bios and technê. We "dwell" in memory, in language, in history, in culture: All speakers in all cultural moments can claim as much. But, writing in an age of postmodernism, we acknowledge the heightened roles of technology, "expert systems," and urbanization in our lifeworld today. What we had described as the cultural "habitus" of ethos is here supplemented by an ethos of scientific technoculture; similarly, what we had described as the existentialist "embodied self" is here supplemented by the postmodern—indeed, posthuman—ethos of the cyborg, a biotechnic "assemblage" part cybernetic machine and part living organism, simultaneously personal and collective in identity. This posthuman con/fusion of bios and technê is not a transcendence of (human) nature; rather, it acknowledges our immersion within an interspecies biology while expanding our habitus from the polis to the planet. It's these aspects of our lifeworld—insterspecies biology, bodily health as self-identity, postmodern technology, and urban lifestyle—that COVID-19 pressures and threatens today. In the current struggle between science-based medicine and conservative politics, the skeptron assumes life-and-death importance: Who speaks on behalf of medical science, the coronavirus victim, and community health?


Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are well-known optimization approaches to deal with nonlinear and complex problems. However, these population-based algorithms are computationally expensive due to the slow nature of the evolutionary process. This paper presents a novel algorithm to accelerate the differential evolution (DE). The proposed opposition-based DE (ODE) employs opposition-based learning (OBL) for population initialization and also for generation jumping. In this work, opposite numbers have been utilized to improve the convergence rate of DE. A comprehensive set of 58 complex benchmark functions including a wide range of dimensions is employed for experimental verification. The influence of dimensionality, population size, jumping rate, and various mutation strategies are also investigated. Additionally, the contribution of opposite numbers is empirically verified. We also provide a comparison of ODE to fuzzy adaptive DE (FADE). Experimental results confirm that the ODE outperforms the original DE and FADE in terms of convergence speed and solution accuracy.


This paper reviews research on the relationship between infant temperament and maternal caregiving, and discusses conflicting findings. After emphasizing the central importance of independent measures in tests of interactions between temperament and caregiving, the paper reports two studies designed to clarify the relationship. In Study One, 48 mothers and infants participated in an investigation of the extent to which maternal sensitivity at the end of the infant's first year could be predicted from prenatal maternal attitudes, infant irritability during the neonatal period, or an interaction between both. Findings were consistent with the view that the impact of infant temperament on caregiving depends on caregiver characteristics, such as developmental history, personality, e xperience, and stress. An association between infant irritability and maternal insensitivity appeared to evolve over time. In Study Two, conducted from infants' 3rd to 24th month, 40 mothers and their infants participated in an investigation of the antecedents of angry and punitive maternal behavior and the predictors of child anger, noncompliance, low confidence, and social withdrawal. Findings suggested that the origins of anger, noncompliance, and low confidence in children cannot be attributed solely to patterns of maternal care. Concluding discussion explores implications of the findings for studies of attacluent and recommends directions for future research. (RH) *********************************************************************** * ReproCzctions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ***********************************************************************


Enhanced agricultural productivity is the key issue being presently discussed by agricultural stakeholders as being imperative to the attainment of food security, reducing the present high rate of unemployment and the diversification of Nigeria's economy from being oil dependent. This study therefore attempts to isolate factors that drive agricultural crop productivity in Nigeria. The study made use of panel data from 36 states and Federal Capital territory between 1995 and 2006. Livestock, Fisheries and forestry data were not readily available and therefore not analyzed in this report. The econometric model used in this paper is a panel data model that takes into consideration OLS random and fixed effects as well as GLS with fixed state effect models. The results indicate that increase in agricultural crop production in Nigeria is based on land expansion. The share of the female labour is positively associated with productivity suggesting higher productivity of the female labour. The results confirm the important role that female farmers play in food production and ensuring food security. Fertilizer use was positively associated with productivity but the association was not significant. The non-significant impact of fertilizer on crop productivity might be due to inadequate use of fertilizer, while the positive association is an indication that it is a yield enhancing technology.The results of the models with year dummies show that crop area has a slightly negative and significant association with value of production. The finding of this paper makes it imperative to suggest the need for adoption of technologies that will bring about productivity gains in crop production through less of land expansion practices. It is also recommended that farmers' capacity in terms of right quantity use of fertilizer should be enhanced, while female farmers' participation in crop production should be encouraged.


Transcription factor activity is regulated by interactions with cofactors, such that a given transcription factor may have both activator and repressor activities, depending on the cofactors present. Ostendorff et al. show that the repressive cofactor for the LIM homeodomain transcription factor (LIMTF), RING finger LIM domain-binding protein (RLIM), exhibits E3 ligase activity in vitro, resulting in the conjugation of ubiquitin to itself and two other LIMTF cofactors, CLIM and LMO, both of which serve to activate transcription. Overexpression of RLIM promoted CLIM and LMO degradation, and inhibition of RLIM (through transfection of dominant-negative mutants or RNA interference-mediated gene repression) resulted in enhanced CLIM immunofluorescence, suggesting increased protein abundance. Expression of RLIM inhibited reporter gene expression through both a CLIM-dependent and a CLIM-independent mechanism. The CLIM-dependent mechanism required an intact RING finger domain, whereas the CLIM-independent mechanism, which most likely involved recruitment of the histone deacetylase Sin3A, did not require the RING finger domain and most likely was not dependent on the E3 activity of RLIM. The last experiments in the paper attempted to determine DNA binding of the various cofactors and LIMTF and how RLIM affected these interactions. DNA binding of LIMTF and CLIM were inhibited in the presence of RLIM and an E2 ubiquitin conjugation enzyme, suggesting that RLIM can promote the ubiquitination and dissociation of the LIMTF-CLIM complex. Thus, ubiquitination by RLIM may represent one mechanism for promoting the exchange of cofactors on LIMTF. H. P. Ostandorff, R. I. Peirano, M. A. Peters, A. Schlüter, M. Bossenz, M. Scheffner, I. Bach, Ubiquitination-dependent cofactor exchange on LIM homeodomain transcription factors. Nature 416, 99-103 (2002). [Online Journal]


Purpose: To assess the in vitro antimicrobial activity of a new commercial ophthalmic solution containing povidone-iodine 0.6% (IODIM , Medivis, Catania, Italy). Methods: Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 4330, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, four ocular bacterial isolates (1 S. epidermidis, 1 S. aureus, 2 P. aeruginosa) and five Candida species were used. The bacterial and fungal isolates were sub-cultured onto Columbia blood agar base and Sabouraud-dextrose agar plates, respectively, and incubated overnight at 37°C. Bacterial and fungal suspensions were prepared to an optical density equal to 0.5 McFarland standard (approximately 1,000,000,000 CFU/mL). Suspensions of the different isolates were made in IODIM solution to obtain a final concentration of 10,000,000 CFU/mL. The suspensions were then distributed in 96well plates in a final volume of 200 lL and incubated at 37°C. After 24 hours, 10 lL of each suspension was removed, seeded on Columbia blood agar base and Sabouraud-dextrose agar plates and then incubated for 24 hours at 37°C. Positive and negative controls were included in all experiments. Each experiment was performed in duplicate and repeated three times. Results: After 24 hours' incubation, there was no microbial growth on any plate. Conclusions: IODIM ophthalmic solution showed in vitro antimicrobial activity against S. epidermidis, S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, and Candida species. Results suggests that IODIM ophthalmic solution may be a potential candidate as an adjuvant for the treatment of ocular surface infections.


This study introduces Expectancy-value motivation theory to explain the paths of influences from perceptions of test design and uses to test preparation as a special case of washback on learning. Based on this theory, two conceptual models were proposed and tested via Structural Equation Modeling. Data collection involved over 870 test takers of College English Test Band 4 in China. A perception of assessment questionnaire was given at the beginning of a 10-week preparation period; a test preparation questionnaire was given eight weeks later. Test takers who endorsed high-stakes, instrumental test uses as the primary purpose for taking the test tended to value test taking; test takers who perceived test design positively tended to attach high importance to test taking and appeared more confident. Furthermore, higher endorsed task value and higher expectation of test success jointly contributed to greater engagement in test preparation. Knowledge of the test was also related to increased self-regulation in test preparation and more practice of test-taking skills.


Changes in the adhesion of Candida cells to the mucous membrane of the oral cavity were studied in vitro in experiments with epithelial cells from 12 normal women at various stages of the menstrual cycle. Fungal cells more actively adhered to the epithelial cells obtained at the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle than to those obtained at its luteal phase. At the follicular phase, both the average level of adhesion and the population of epithelial cells with most pronounced adhesive properties increased. The range of variations in adhesion levels was different in individual subjects and varied from 8% to 37% of the individual mean of the whole cycle. The results of this study indicate the existence of the hormonal control of the adhesion of Candida cells to human epithelial cells.


To base urbanization on nature, inspiring ecologies are necessary. The concept of nature-based solutions (NBS) could be helpful in achieving this goal. State of the art urban planning starts from the aim to realize a (part of) a city, not to improve natural quality or increase biodiversity. The aim of this article is to introduce a planning approach that puts the ecological landscape first, before embedding urban development. This ambition is explored using three NBS frameworks as the input for a series of design workshops, which conceived a regional plan for the Western Sydney Parklands in Australia. From these frameworks, elements were derived at three abstraction levels as the input for the design process: envisioning a long-term future (scanning the opportunities), evaluating the benefits and disadvantages, and identifying a common direction for the design (determining directions), and implementing concrete spatial cross-cutting solutions (creating inspiring ecologies), ultimately resulting in a regional landscape-based plan. The findings of this research demonstrate that, at every abstraction, a specific outcome is found: a mapped ecological landscape showing the options for urbanization, formulating a food-forest strategy as the commonly found direction for the design, and a regional plan that builds from the landscape ecologies adding layers of productive ecologies and urban synergies. By using NBS-frameworks, the potentials of putting the ecological landscape first in the planning process is illuminated, and urbanization can become resilient and nature-inclusive. Future research should emphasize the balance that should be established between the NBS-frameworks and the design approach, as an overly technocratic and all-encompassing framework prevents the freedom of thought that is needed to come to fruitful design propositions.


The largest irruptive migration of the Great Gray Owl (Strix nebulosa Forster, 1772) recorded since 1831 occurred in Minnesota, USA, during the winter of 2004–2005. We tested the hypothesis that morphometric indicators of nutritional stress covary with stable isotope signatures in a sample of 265 owls killed by vehicle collisions. The ratio of carbon to nitrogen in muscle (C/Nmuscle) was shown to be a reliable proxy of nutritional stress. d13C values for liver and muscle were significantly higher in owls in poor condition, reflecting the depletion of lipid reserves in fasting individuals. On the other hand, d15N values for liver and muscle were marginally lower or unchanged in owls in poor condition. Stomachs of emaciated owls were less likely to contain prey, implying that many nutritionally stressed individuals were too weak to hunt and were near the tipping point of irreversible fasts. In a broader context, sexual differences in the correlative relationships between stable isotope signatures, C/N, and body condition suggest that the consequences of reversed sexual size dimorphism extend to physiological processes during the nonbreeding season.


This research explores the perceptions of facilitators in asynchronous online discussion to improve practice and student engagement in Higher Education. Traditional didactic delivery of learning content may fail the expectations of student and academic stakeholders. The pressure to teach within constrained resources presents challenges, but also provides stimulating opportunities for optimising use of educational technology. Fostering student engagement requires rethinking traditional classroom and online delivery. The study explores the challenges and benefits experienced, resulting in the identification of key themes from which implications for practice are discussed. In doing so, it broadens conceptual understandings, while offering recommendations for university teachers, administrators and leaders. The impact of facilitated online discussion boards on student engagement and participation was investigated from the experiences and perceptions of facilitators of online discussion boards in a Health Science subject at the University of Tasmania. After the semester was completed, all facilitators were invited to participate in one-to-one, semi-structured interviews. Interview questions were grouped to produce both descriptive and reflective responses about roles as a facilitator, and about preparation, training and support. Findings suggest that, with appropriately trained and prepared facilitators, online discussion can improve student engagement, enhance learning outcomes and satisfy stakeholder expectations.


Abstract Myasthenia Gravis (MG) is caused by auto-antibodies to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR). Rapid progress has been made recently in the study of both the disease and the AChR. A significant part of this progress can be attributed to monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) raised against the AChR. These antibodies have been used to identify, purify and study the structure, function and biosynthesis of AChR from electric organs, muscles and neurons. In MG, these mAbs have been used as model auto-antibodies in in vivo and in vitro studies. They have also been used as tools for the structural and functional analysis of the patients' antibodies. A region on a small segment of the AChR alpha-subunit (main immunogenic region) dominates the immunogenicity and probably the pathogenicity of the molecule.


In this paper, a peak-to-average-ratio (PAPR) reduction scheme based on a weighted orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) signal is presented to reduce the PAPR without distortion in removing the weight at the receiver side. In the proposed scheme, a weight is imposed on each discrete OFDM signal via certain kind of a band limited signal, and an OFDM signal formed with the weighted discrete data is then considered before a high power amplifier (HPA), whereas the original signal can be recovered completely at the receiver side. Meanwhile, the time duration needed to transmit the weighted OFDM signal is the same as the time duration for the original OFDM signal. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is evaluated with computer simulations. According to numerical results, the PAPR of the weighted OFDM signal is smaller than that of the clipping and filtering (C&F) method. Here, the proposed method is simpler than the C&F method.


Paleoclimate![Figure][1]

A fossil Globigerinoides ruber , used to reconstruct past precipitation changes

PHOTO: LIU ET AL.

The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) causes heavy rains to fall in a seasonally migrating band around the globe near the equator. Because it delivers so much precipitation to so many regions, it is a vital component of climate that affects many ecosystems and human populations, so any possible changes in its position could have major implications for them. Liu et al. show that, for the past 280,000 years at least, the average position of the ITCZ in the western Pacific has been controlled by a combination of solar obliquity and precession. The dependence that they see on the thermal state of the atmosphere may provide insights into possible effects on the ITCZ from anthropogenic global warming.

Nat. Commun. 10.1038/ncomms10018 (2015).

 [1]: pending:yes


Over the last decade, we have sampled various rivers across Trinidad using multiple techniques including seining and cast netting. This allowed us to compile a large database which includes the distribution of Trinidad's freshwater fish species. The following report summarizes our findings for the changed distribution for nine species of fish native to Trinidad. Our findings also indicate a new fish species ( Trichogaster trichopterus ) record for Trinidad. Key words: Ancistrus, Awaous, Callichthys callichthys, Dormitator maculatus, Eleotris pisonis, Erythrinus erythrinus, Gasteropelecus sternicla, Gymnotus carapo, Triportheus elongatus, Trichogaster trichopterus, distribution, Trinidad.


Laboratory studies have shown that plant water potential affects a number of key processes involved in growth, but there has been almost no information on what levels of water potential occur under irrigated conditions in the field. Before assessing the practical implication of laboratory results on soil and crop management, this type of information must be available. Consequently, plant water potential in irrigated crops of Zea mays, Triticum aestivum, Hordeum vulgaris, Phaseolus vulgaris, Pisum sativum, Solarium tuberosum, Beta vulgaris, and Medicago sativa, L. was measured throughout the growing season in southern Idaho. Soil moisture conditions and potential evapotranspiration were monitored. Daily changes in plant water potential varied from less than 5 bars to more than 20 bars, while random sampling of supposedly homogeneous sets of plants showed an average variation of about 2 bars. Changes due to differences in soil moisture were also detected, even though the soil moisture potential was kept high enough for near-optimum crop production. Though the crops differed widely in their response to changes in environment, the plant water potential was strongly affected by microclimatic conditions. Day-to-day changes in plant water potential generally correlated more closely with changes hi potential evapotranspiration than with changes in soil moisture content. Many of the daily changes observed in the plants remain unexplained, however. In general, the average water potential levels of all the field-grown plants were lower than levels reported from growth chamber studies. Potentials seldom rose above −8 bars and were never observed above −5 bars.


This article examines social attitudes towards social rights in Portugal. It utilizes original survey data from 2013 to study the distribution of welfare attitudes in a context of economic austerity and welfare retrenchment. The main argument is that there are at least two sources of preference-formation regarding public social provision: one is universalistic (or needsbased), the other is contributory. These two logics frame choices concerning the future of the welfare state in Portugal. We explore the determinants of this choice through three hypotheses: dualization between insiders and outsiders (H1); the type of welfare regime (H2), and social rights consciousness (H3). Our findings suggest that choice between universalistic and contributory models is not impervious to macro-institutional factors and labour market performance. The paper's main contribution, however, is to empirically demonstrate that this choice is significantly shaped by pre-existing understandings of social rights in Portugal, namely its politically contested character.


Reducing the particle size of drug materials down to submicron is an important matter in pharmaceutical industry. Cryogenic milling technology is one of the mechanical milling processes, which is mostly utilized in refining grain size of metal and ceramics at extremely low temperature environment. This technique has not been readily studied in application to medical and biotechnology. This paper, therefore, describes the application of cryogenic milling process to reduce particle size of Ibuprofen. The shape and size of the Ibuprofen particle before and after the cryogenic ball milling process were analyzed. XRD analysis was performed to examine a change in crystallinity of Ibuprofen by the cryogenic ball milling process. The results showed that the size of Ibuprofen particles was reduced to 1/10 or less of its initial size. The results also showed that the degree of crystallinity of Ibuprofen was slightly reduced after cryogenic ball milling with nitrogen.


To supplement several case-control studies questioning whether use of reserpine is associated with occurrence of breast cancer, we conducted a longitudinal study of nearly 2,000 hypertensive women residing in Rochester, Minn. Exposure to antihypertensive agents and subsequent incidence of breast cancer were ascertained. Expected numbers of cases, derived from local population data and from the Connecticut Tumor Registry, were compared with the numbers of cases observed in exposure groups of interest. No evidence was found of any association of reserpine use, thiazide use, or untreated hypertension with subsequent occurrence of breast cancer in these hypertensive women. In addition, several issues were investigated that warrant consideration in evaluating reports published to date, especially before conclusions are drawn as to the questionable contention that reserpine has caused breast cancer in women. ( JAMA 243:2304-2310, 1980)


The authors present an approximate performance study of the DQDB (distributed queue dual bus) medium access protocol, which is an emerging IEEE 802.6 standard for local and metropolitan area networks. They investigate the influence of general traffic process characteristics on the protocol performance. Due to the consideration of general arrival and service processes, the analysis is derived in the discrete-time domain. The algorithm is based on a decomposition approach of the medium access delay, using the technique of embedded G/G/1 models. Using the analysis method, the whole distribution of delays such as medium access delay and other system characteristics can be properly calculated. Validations with simulation results show that the approximation technique developed is appropriate for a wide range of protocol parameters.<<ETX>>


The RealityEngine graphics system is the first of a new generation of systems designed primarily to render texture mapped, antialiased polygons. This paper describes the architecture of the RealityEngine graphics system, then justifies some of the decisions made during its design. The implementation is near-massively parallel, employing 353 independent processors in its fullest configuration, resulting in a measured fill rate of over 240 million antialiased, texture mapped pixels per second. Rendering performance exceeds 1 million antialiased, texture mapped triangles per second. In addition to supporting the functions required of a general purpose, high-end graphics workstation, the system enables realtime, "outthe-window" image generation and interactive image processing. CR


Background Less is known about HIV prevalence and incidence among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Saint Petersburg, Russia than in other large European cities, but it is clear that in that city the public health impact of HIV on drug injectors and their sex partners is remarkably high. We estimated the public health impact Methods Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) yielded behavioural and HIV testing data and specimens for HIV antibody testing from 201 MSM who did not report injecting drugs and 691 drug injectors who did not report male-male sex. We estimated the potential for sexual HIV transmission from MSM and injectors unaware of their HIV infection, comparing unsafe encounters. Results One quarter of people who inject drugs and 5% of MSM were HIV infected and unaware of their infection. Based on our prior estimate that there were 83,100 drug injectors living in Saint Petersburg; about 20,000 injectors are unaware of their HIV infection. If 1% of the general population are MSM, we estimate that there are about 3,000 MSM with undiagnosed HIV infection in Saint Petersburg. The 169 injectors with undiagnosed infection reported unprotected sex with 37 partners who themselves injected drugs, and that the proportion of injectors who were uninfected was 56%. Injectors with undiagnosed infection reported unprotected sex with 26 partners who did not inject drugs; the uninfected proportion of non-injecting partners of drug injectors was 83%. Therefore, undiagnosed, HIV+ injectors exposed an estimated mean 0.25 uninfected partners in six months time. Those injectors expose 5,821 (95% CI 3,092–11,095) uninfected sex partners during a six-month period, whereas the 3,000 MSM with undiagnosed HIV infection in Saint Petersburg expose 4,800 (95% CI 4,320–12,000). Conclusion New sexual infections eminating from MSM may become comparable to those from drug injectors.


Examining contemporary poetry by way of ethnicity and gender, Kenneth Lincoln tracks the Renaissance invention of the Wild Man and the recurrent Adamic myth of the lost Garden. He discusses the first anthology of American Indian verse, "The Path on the Rainbow" (1918), which opened Jorge Luis Borges' university surveys of American literature, to thirty-five contemporary Indian poets who speak to, with, and against American mainstream bards. From Whitman's free verse, through the Greenwich Village Renaissance (sandwiched between the world wars) and the post-apocalyptic Beat incantations, to transglobal questions of tribe and verse at the century's close, Lincoln shows where we mine the mother lode of New World voices, what distinguishes American verse, which tales our poets sing and what inflections we hear in the rhythms, pitches, and parsings of native lines. Lincoln presents the Lakota concept of 'singing with the heart of a bear' as poetry which moves through an artist. He argues for a fusion of estranged cultures, tribal and emigre, margin and mainstream, in detailing the ethnopoetics of Native American translation and the growing modernist concern for a 'native' sense of the 'makings' of American verse. This fascinating work represents a major new effort in understanding American and Native American literature, spirituality, and culture.


BACKGROUND
Biopsy specimens are often obtained in the evaluation of hematogenous vertebral osteomyelitis. The effect of prebiopsy antibiotic exposure on pathogen recovery is unknown.

METHODS
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of adult inpatients with hematogenous vertebral osteomyelitis at a tertiary care hospital from 1 January 2003 through 31 July 2007. Antibiotic exposure within 14 days before biopsy was evaluated.

RESULTS
Of 150 patients with hematogenous vertebral osteomyelitis, 92 (61%) underwent a biopsy (60 [65%] needle and 32 [35%] open biopsies). The median time from admission to biopsy was 3 days (range, 0-69 days). Patients who underwent biopsy were more likely to have weakness (53 [58%] biopsy vs 15 [26%] no biopsy; P<.001) and sensory loss (27 [29%] vs 6 [10%]; P=.006), but were less likely to have a positive blood culture result (28 [30%] vs 30 [52%]; P=.01). Pathogens were recovered in 61 patients (66%). Open biopsy had a higher yield than needle biopsy (29 [91%] of 32 vs 32 [53%] of 60; P<.001). Sixty patients (65%) who had biopsies performed received antibiotics ≤14 days before the procedure (median duration, 4 days; range, 1-37 days). Open biopsy predicted positive biopsy culture results (adjusted odds ratio, 8.4; 95% confidence interval, 2.2-31.8), but there was no association of prebiopsy antibiotics with culture results (adjusted odds ratio, 2.3; 95% confidence interval, 0.8-6.2).

CONCLUSIONS
A pathogen was recovered from 61 (66%) of 92 patients who had biopsies performed in this cohort of hematogenous vertebral osteomyelitis. Open biopsies had a higher microbiological yield than did needle biopsies. Antibiotic exposure before biopsy did not negatively impact pathogen recovery and should not be the sole reason for foregoing biopsies.


Purpose – The evolving roles of BIM and smart building technologies in the design and management of construction projects often present unexpected events and variabilities, which tend to erode professionals' prior knowledge authority. The purpose of this paper is to explore how construction organisations can deploy knowledge and adapt to the requisite skills in order to make fitting responses to the ever evolving technological and organizational transformations to address the prevailing construction challenges. Design/methodology/approach – The paper opted for abductive research approach which ensures back-and-forth iterative dialogue between the empirical data and an amalgam of the theoretical proposition towards new understanding of the phenomenon under investigation. Multiple case study method was adopted to collate the empirical data from three separate construction organisations as they transitioned into BIM compliant work processes. Findings – The study has described new processes that not only mediate existing practices, but focuses on consistently resolving known tensions and contradictions between prior knowledge and the requirement of the changing work situation. The study also illustrates the cognitive synchronisation of the learning approaches within contemporary work organisations that align well with the merits and utilities entrenched within their niche technological choices. Research limitations/implications – Due to the chosen research methodology, it is acknowledged that future comparative studies using a much larger quantitative data sample to further elucidate the findings of this paper would be an interesting further step. Originality/value – The study contributes to construction management literature by providing new insights into expansive learning environments capable of addressing cognitive contradictions and ambiguities inherent in the changing contemporary work patterns in the construction context as a consequence of BIM deployment.


Native harvest statistics are counts, or estimates, of the number of animals by category taken by a specific group of native people during a specific time period. These statistics are significant for basic research in the social and biological sciences, for public policy and for the resolution of environmental conflicts in the North. This paper reviews and assesses two common sources of native harvest data - administrative and monitoring records, and special-purpose studies - and provides an extensive bibliography for the latter. Native harvest data are normally obtained by recall survey rather than direct observation. The existing data base is therefore evaluated in terms of the methodological norms of social surveys, with particular attention to precision and uniformity of survey parameters and interview terminology, sampling procedures, non-response bias and response bias. Despite some lack of methodological rigour, especially regarding parameters, terminology and projection from reported harvests, it is concluded that the existing body of information may be used to recreate an historical statistical series of substantial breadth and depth, useful for both socio-economic and biological research purposes.


There are two major nationwide birth cohort studies in Japan, namely, the Longitudinal Survey of Newborns in the 21st Century conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) and the Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS) conducted by the Ministry of Environment. The former was a longitudinal questionnaire survey focusing on environmental and socioeconomic factors for descriptive epidemiology conducted every year since 2001 by mail. The latter was based on 15 unit centers nationwide with environmental measurements and collection of biological samples for environmental risk evaluation. Both are prospective birth cohort studies whose findings will be expected as the basis for establishing health policies. The data obtained in the former study can be used for research with permission from MHLW. To date, there have been more than ten published studies using those data. We have reviewed these studies and introduced our preliminary findings on factors affecting infant growth. Employment before delivery, educational background of parents, household income, and smoking habit of both parents have been suggested to affect infant growth. We will analyze the associations between socioeconomic factors and infant growth trajectory to elucidate the most adequate intervention for children.


Purpose: Physical activity could help prevent or slow deficits in cognition as an individual age; however, little is known about this relationship in females ages 55 to 64. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between physical activity levels and cognitive decline in females ages 55 to 64.
Methods: This cross sectional analysis used 2015 data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for females ages 55 to 64 in Connecticut, Montana, and Oregon. Logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between physical activity levels and cognitive decline while controlling for health and demographic factors.
Results: Across states, few participants reported cognitive decline (10-14%), and only one-fifth reported being inactive (18-29%), while twice as many reported being highly active (34-48%). Adjusted results indicated that cognitive decline was not found to be significantly related to physical activity levels in any state, but cognitive decline was significantly related to number of health conditions, mental health, and substance use (all with moderate to large effect sizes) in two or three of three states.
Conclusion: Across states, cognitive decline was not related to physical activity levels in females ages 55 to 64. The measurement for cognitive decline provided a limited scope of the condition and this study was unable to control for menopause and hormone replacement therapy, which may affect the outcome. Primary providers should not screen for physical activity levels related to cognitive decline in this population, but should screen for cognitive decline, multiple health conditions, current mental health issues, and substance use, if symptoms present for any of these in this target population.
Providers should educate patients about the overall benefits of physical activity, but should focus on concurrently managing health conditions and discontinuing tobacco use as related to cognitive decline in females ages 55 to 64.


The role of the regional hospital consists not only of adequate diagnosis and treatment of trauma patients, but also of stabilization and preparation for transport of those who need more specialized help such as neuroand cardiac surgery. A practical analysis is made for the H Hartkliniek-Eeklo, which is a medium-size (214 beds) regional hospital situated in the north of Flanders (Belgium). Seven fire brigades protect a rather rural population of 150,000 people. They provide support in three private and four public ambulances. During 1991, 2,422 trauma patients were brought to the emergency service of the hospital with a maximum during autumn. The geographical origin and temporary distribution of these patients and also the dedication of the private ambulance services are described. A scheme is given for the hospital disaster plan. The relationship between the hospital disaster plan and work of fire-brigades, Red Cross, Government, Army, Police, and other emergency services, and their impact on its activation are also described.


Understanding the attitude and perception of business professionals towards ethics, in an era of dynamic globalisation is important for investors to make strategic decisions. We explore this manifestation of business ethics across cultures in terms of ethical perceptions, moral philosophies and ethical judgments, by focusing upon the attitudes of professionals towards ethics, in two culturally and institutionally different countries: Jordan and the UK. We base our theorisation on Hofstede's Theory of International Cultures, selected business philosophies and incorporate individual and situational factors influencing ethical perception to develop our hypotheses, which were then tested by applying ATBEQ and EPQ. Our findings show significant differences in between in professionals' views to Social Darwinism and ethical relativism in Jordan and UK. This difference was detected in based on variations between Muslims in UK and Jordan in their views to business ethics. Collectively our study shows that but the culture and societal factors have the higher effect when compared to religion. Moreover, weighing the views toward Ethical Relativism by using of Attitudes Toward Business Ethics Questionnaire (ATBEQ) and Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) is inconsistent in the current research, which can be an opportunity to develop a new measures for attitude toward business ethics.


Risk assessment can potentially provide an objective framework to synthesise and prioritise climate change risks to inform adaptation policy. However, there are significant challenges in the application of comparative risk assessment procedures to climate change, particularly for the natural environment. These challenges are evaluated with particular reference to the first statutory Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) and evidence review procedures used to guide policy for the UK government. More progress was achieved on risk identification, screening and prioritisation compared to risk quantification. This was due to the inherent complexity and interdependence of ecological risks and their interaction with socio-economic drivers as well as a climate change. Robust strategies to manage risk were identified as those that coordinate organisational resources to enhance ecosystem resilience, and to accommodate inevitable change, rather than to meet specific species or habitats targets. The assessment also highlighted subjective and contextual components of risk appraisal including ethical issues regarding the level of human intervention in the natural environment and the proposed outcomes of any intervention. This suggests that goals for risk assessment need to be more clearly explicated and assumptions on tolerable risk declared as a primer for further dialogue on expectations for managed outcomes. Ecosystem-based adaptation may mean that traditional habitats and species conservation goals and existing regulatory frameworks no longer provide the best guide for long-term risk management thereby challenging the viability of some existing practices.


As COVID-19 crisis emerged in the USA, anti-Asian racism and xenophobic rhetoric, as well as reports of hate incidents against Asian Americans, began to rise Understanding how such a rapid increase in racist and xenophobic incidences may affect Asian Americans' physical, mental and social health is important, as racism and xenophobia are fundamental causes of inequalities in health in general and for Asian Americans in particular Furthermore, this understanding is critical for reducing and eliminating the barriers for Asian Americans seeking medical help during the coronavirus pandemic, which is important not only for Asian Americans' health, but for the total US population Thus far, research on the health implications of the social, cultural and political dimensions of the coronavirus pandemic on Asian Americans are limited, due to the conceptual and methodological challenges in studying health and health disparities among Asian Americans Drawing from histories of structural racism against Asian Americans through exclusionary immigration policies, and post-1965 racial policies that contributed to the emergence of Asian American stereotypes as a 'model minority' and perpetual foreigners, this chapter discusses the sociohistorical contexts in which Asian Americans have been invisible in sociology of health research It discusses the importance of examining the roles of racism and xenophobia on Asian American's health in a broader contexts of the parallel pandemics of COVID-19 and racism;and provides suggestions for future research and policy advocacy © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Deborah Lupton and Karen Willis


This time-lag study examined if there has been any changes in body esteem over a 10-year period for 10-year old children in Gothenburg, Sweden. Two cohorts of children, one in year 2000 and one in 2010, answered the same questionnaire about body esteem. A total of 960 children, 515 girls and 445 boys, participated in the first wave in 2000 and a total of 342 children, 171 girls and 171 boys participated in the second wave in 2010. The results showed a general stability in levels of body esteem for both girls and boys over the past 10 years. The gender differences, with boys being more satisfied with their appearance and weight compared to girls also seems to be stable over the years. In addition, the results also showed a somewhat positive development among the overweight girls with enhanced body esteem for the overweight girls compared to the non-overweight girls during the ten years studied. Unfortunately, the same pattern was not found for overweight boys. For them the discrepancy in body esteem compared to non-overweight boys, with the overweight boys being more dissatisfied, found in 2000 remained in 2010.


"This paper examines the options for liberalizing tariff-rate quotas when a marketing board controls domestic production and international prices are stochastic. Lowering over-quota tariff and increasing import quota volumes are not equivalent. The trade-offs between the two types of trade reforms are examined through numerical simulations for the Canadian chicken industry. Introducing world price variability results in a distribution of welfare impacts for the different groups in the industry. Consumers and processors gain more with tariff liberalization than with increased import quotas. The difference in producer surplus between liberalization regimes is truncated so that producers only see down-side risk under the tariff liberalization regime." Copyright 2006 Canadian Agricultural Economics Society.


Traditional Chinese Medicine can be viewed as a health promotion and healing system that has been practice, based on both philosophy and practical experience, for thousands of years. Although this medicine is crucial in the information of integrative medicine, lack of methodology and experience sharing mechanisms has impeded the development of this specific branch of medicine. This study adopts a systematic approach to describe service flows in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Following a literature review, specialist meetings and field observations are conducted to gather opinions from different perspectives. A conceptual framework was created to describe entities involved in service flows for Tradition Chinese Medicine and their inter-relationships. The framework can be used to clarify the abstract knowledge of this medicine which can contribute to the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine.


The study is a questionnaire based purposive sampling of 100 respondents in Oman. The Arab world is a patriarchal society with unwritten rules and the objective of the study is to uncover the opportunities available to Omani women and the obstacles which they face as an entrepreneur as well as in the process of becoming an entrepreneur. The study also looks into the basic differences in the perception of women who are entrepreneurs and women who would like to become entrepreneurs in the future. Analysis of variance is used for hypothesis testing. Factor analysis is used to explore the motivational factors, obstacles faced and success factors of women entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs in Oman.


Purpose: G3139 is an antisense bcl-2 phosphorothioate oligodeoxyribonucleotide that is currently being evaluated in Phase III clinical trials in several human cancers. The aim of the present work was to further identify the apparent non-bcl-2-dependent mechanism of this action of this compound in PC3 prostate cancer cells. Experimental Design: We performed Affymetrix U95A oligonucleotide microarray studies on mRNA isolated from cells treated with G3139 and related oligonucleotides. Results: Hierarchical clustering revealed the presence of a set of genes of which the expression was elevated on both 1 and 3 days after oligonucleotide treatment. Significantly, the persistence of expression of the up-regulation of these genes, many of which are members of the IFN cascade, was greater for G3139 than for any other oligomer evaluated. Furthermore, many of the genes with the greatest up-regulation of expression are also those of which the expression is up-regulated after treatment of cells with IFNs. Treatment of PC3 cells with either IFN-β or -γ recapitulated some of the aspects of the molecular and phenotypic changes observed after treatment with a G3139/Lipofectin complex. These include down-regulation of bcl-2 protein expression itself, down-regulation of protein kinase C α protein expression (but not that of other protein kinase C isoforms), alteration in p21/Waf1/Cip1 protein expression, up-regulation of MHC-I cell surface expression, and profound suppression of cell growth in the absence of a notable increase in cellular apoptosis. However, G3139 (when complexed with Lipofectin) did not induce the up-regulation of expression of either type I or type II IFNs, nor could IFNs be found in conditioned media from treated cells. Conclusions: Oligonucleotide microarray experiments demonstrated that G3139 could induce elements of the IFN cascade in PC3 cells in vitro. In addition, the cellular phenotype obtained after treatment with exogenous IFN could, at least in part, recapitulate that obtained after G3139 treatment. Nevertheless, the oligonucleotide microarray experiments we performed also demonstrated that there are extremely large qualitative and quantitative differences between the two treatments.


We investigate implicit corrections in the form of contrastive discourse in childadult interaction, which have been argued to contribute to language learning. In contrast to previous work in psycholinguistics, we adopt a data-driven methodology, using comparably large amounts of data and leveraging computational methods. We conduct a corpus study on the use of parental corrective feedback and show that its presence in child directed speech is associated with a reduction of child subject omission errors in English.


Isotopic and geochemical studies conducted on the Voisey's Bay deposit, Labrador, Canada, suggest crustal contamination of the primary magma as a trigger for sulfur saturation and formation of the deposit. The use of multiple S isotopes has allowed for the identification of a bacterial sulfate reduction biosignature in the Tasiuyak gneiss in the footwall to the Voisey's Bay deposit. This putative biosignature is preserved in the deposit even at high silicate magma/sulfide melt ratios (R-factor) and links the S present in the Voisey's Bay deposit to the Tasiuyak gneiss. Iron isotopes in the Voisey's Bay deposit have been reset to magmatic values at R-factors > ≈100, but S isotope data can be used to model higher R-factors. A contamination model results in calculated R-factors of 433 ± 177. The multiple S isotope data are a new proxy to directly link S from the deposit to crustal S sources even in deposits with high R-factors where the equilibration with large amounts of silicate magma can make interpreting a link between the deposit and the sulfur source difficult


Diabetes develops as a result of both genetic and environmental influences; however, low concordance rates of type 1 diabetes between monozygotic twins and increased penetrance of type 2 diabetes during aging suggests an, as yet, poorly understood epigenetic role in diabetes development and progression. The epigenetic code, of which lysine acetylation (Kac) is a major histone post-translational modification, regulates the structure and dynamics of chromatin leading to epigenetically-controlled changes in gene accessibility toward transcription factors. Histone acetylation is regulated by histone acetyltransferases and deacetylases which write and erase sites of histone acetylation, respectively. SIRT1 is a key protein deacetylase in the control of glucose homeostasis. Decreased SIRT1 can lead to impaired insulin signaling, therefore drugs that enhance either SIRT1 expression or enzymatic activity may treat insulin resistance. Bromodomains are epigenetic readers that interpret the complex pattern of histone acetylation by binding Kac residues on histones and other nuclear proteins. Of particular interest are the bromodomain and extraterminal domain (BET) family of bromodomain-containing proteins, which have recently emerged as a potential target to treat or prevent diabetes. Interestingly, we recently found that treatment of β-cells with BET bromodomain inhibitors leads to increased SIRT1 expression levels, although the underlying mechanism was unclear. Here, we use an insulinoma β-cell line (INS832/13) and primary rat islets to determine the mechanism through which BET proteins suppress SIRT1 expression. To modulate SIRT1 and BET protein levels and activity, we used a combination of small molecules that either inhibit or degrade BET proteins, in conjunction with CRISPR/Cas9 knockout β-cell lines of both SIRT1 and the individual BET proteins. In summary, BET inhibitors may provide an indirect means to increase SIRT1 activity in β-cells and improve β-cell function in the context of diabetes. Disclosure R.A. Jones Lipinski: None. S. Wynia-Smith: None. J. Nord: None. B.C. Smith: None. Funding American Diabetes Association (1-18-IBS-068 to B.C.S.); National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK119359)


At a certain stage of its history, Hungarian seems to have gone through Jespersen's Cycle, having substituted the original PU negative auxiliary with the negative particle nem, originally an indefinite pronoun. Opinions diverge concerning the details of this process, as the negative indefinite pronouns marked with nē- /nēm- in the Northern Ob-Ugric dialects may imply that certain phases of the emergence of the negative function of the indefinite pronoun can be traced back to Proto-Ugric. Even though this seems to be the most economical reconstruction, the present paper argues that data from the Ob-Ugric languages and from Old Hungarian both question the validity of this reconstruction. Negative indefinites marked with nē- /nēm- are more likely to be innovations of the Northern Ob-Ugric dialects, and indefinites marked with ne- do not seem to occur at all in negative sentences in Old Hungarian (where as quite a few other indefinites do). Therefore, this paper claims that the negative function of the particle nem developed independently in Hungarian, and also that it may have grammaticalized straight from the indefinite pronoun nemi 'some(thing)', without acquiring the negative meaning 'nothing' prior to this process.


Elimination of Bacillus anthracis spores from the environment is a difficult and costly process due in part to the toxicity of current sporicidal agents. For this reason we investigated the ability of the spore germinants L-alanine (100 mM) and inosine (5 mM) to reduce the concentration of peracetic acid (PAA) required to inactivate B. anthracis spores. While L-alanine significantly enhanced (p = 0.0085) the bactericidal activity of 500 ppm PAA the same was not true for inosine suggesting some form of negative interaction. In contrast the germinant combination proved most effective at 100 ppm PAA (p = 0.0009). To determine if we could achieve similar results in soil we treated soil collected from the burial site of an anthrax infected animal which had been supplemented with spores of the Sterne strain of B. anthracis to increase the level of contamination to 104 spores/g. Treatment with germinants followed 1 h later by 5000 ppm PAA eliminated all of the spores. In contrast direct treatment of the animal burial site using this approach delivered using a back pack sprayer had no detectable effect on the level of B. anthracis contamination or on total culturable bacterial numbers over the course of the experiment. It did trigger a significant, but temporary, reduction (p < 0.0001) in the total spore count suggesting that germination had been triggered under real world conditions. In conclusion, we have shown that the application of germinants increase the sensitivity of bacterial spores to PAA. While the results of the single field trial were inconclusive, the study highlighted the potential of this approach and the challenges faced when attempting to perform real world studies on B. anthracis spores contaminated sites.


Following on the introduction of fingerprint biometrics, iris authentication for handheld imaging devices has become a hot research topic. However widespread adoption of this technology faces a significant challenge as personal iris data for a significant proportion of the population can be extracted from high-quality images and the growth in image sharing and the creation of online personal photographic albums creates a significant security risk. In this paper we present an overview of the problem and a potential solution - iris obfuscation when images are acquired. Challenges to implementing a practical obfuscation technology are discussed and approaches to overcome these are explored.


The modern global humanitarian system takes the form it does because it is underpinned by
 liberal world order. Now the viability of global liberal institutions is increasingly in doubt,
 a backlash against humanitarianism (and human rights) has gained momentum. I will argue that
 without liberal world order, global humanitarianism as we currently understand it is
 impossible, confronting humanitarians with an existential choice: how might they function in a
 world which doesn't have liberal institutions at its core? The version of global
 humanitarianism with which we are familiar might not survive this transition, but maybe other
 forms of humanitarian action will emerge. What comes next might not meet the hopes of
 today's humanitarians, however. The humanitarian alliance with liberalism is no
 accident, and if the world is less liberal, its version of humanitarian action is likely to be
 less liberal too. Nevertheless, humanitarianism will fare better than its humanist twin, human
 rights, in this new world.


Title: A hosting service for software development projects that use the Git revision control system. To learn using tools to make software development more effective should be self-evident at a high level institution as the competitive industry races on. The absence of directives for programming students in Sweden to use source code management (SCM) was the basis for this report. The report describing the developing of a hosting service for software development to use SCM of Git, which includes a web application, storage, API and authentication of students. The project resulted in a hosting service and a smaller survey of how the today Swedish students using habits of SCM during their studies.


In this paper, we present a low-cost wireless sensor network platform, called wireless ad hoc system for positioning (WASP), that has been developed for high-accuracy localization and tracking. This platform uses the time of arrival (TOA) of beacon signals periodically transmitted by the nodes at known times for localization. The system was designed to have a unique tradeoff between hardware complexity and processing complexity to provide high accuracy at minimal cost in complex radio propagation environments. To enable the system to perform well in realistic environments, it was also necessary to develop novel extensions to existing algorithms for the measurement of TOA, localization, and tracking. In this paper, we describe the architecture, hardware, and algorithms of WASP and present results based on field trials conducted in different radio propagation environments. The results show that WASP achieves a ranging accuracy of 0.15 m outdoors and 0.5 m indoors when around 12 anchor nodes are used. These accuracies are achieved with operating range of up to 200 m outdoors and 30 m indoors. This compares favorably to other published results for systems operating in realistic environments.


The exponential growth of converged telecommunication services and the increasing demands for video rich multimedia applications have triggered the vast development of optical access technology to resolve the capacity bottleneck at metropolitan-access aggregations. To further enhance overall performance, next generation optical access networks will require highly efficient wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology beyond the capability of current standard time division multiplexed (TDM) systems. The successful implementation of future-proof WDM access networks depends on advancements in high performance transmission schemes as well as economical and practical electronic/photonic devices. This thesis focuses on an investigation of the use of optical frequency comb sources, and spectrally efficient modulation formats, in high capacity WDM based optical access networks. A novel injected gain switched comb generation technique which deliver simplicity, reliability, and cost effectiveness has been proposed and verified through experimental work. In addition, a detailed characterization of the optical comb source has been undertaken with special attention on the phase noise property of the comb lines. The potential of the injected gain switched comb source is then demonstrated in a digital coherent receiver based long reach WDM access scenario, which intends to facilitate 10 - 40 Gbit/s data delivery per channel . Furthermore, an optical scalar transmission scheme enabling the direct detection of higher order modulation format signals has been proposed and experimentally investigated.


The genetic structure of a two hectare stand of eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) was studied by relating foliar allozyme composition of individual trees to tree location and age. Using starch gel electrophoresis, the trees were found to have variants for six of the seven enzymes analyzed. Trees of similar age and with common allozymes were found in clusters, suggesting that genetic structure existed in the stand. The genetic structure may have originated during establishment of several seedlings from common parents when openings were created in the canopy. Knowing that a genetic structure, such as that observed in this study, may exist in "natural" forests is important to foresters who are concerned with maintaining current levels of genetic variability in those forests. Evaluation of sampling strategies revealed that at least 50 randomly sampled trees would be required to correctly estimate allele frequencies, the number of alleles per locus, and heterozygosity in this stand. Smaller samples were likely to yield incorrect estimates by chance. To estimate polymorphism, between 100 and 250 trees would be needed. Reliable detection of deviations from allelic frequencies expected under the HardyWeinberg equilibrium required 25 to 425 randomly chosen trees, depending on allozyme frequencies for the enzyme in question. Differences in estimates for larger samples compared to smaller ones were due mainly to detection of additional low frequency alleles in the larger samples. These results indicate that cost and labor can be saved by selecting approximately ten percent of trees in a stand such as the one used in this study to obtain estimates for the first three measures, but more extensive and costly samples must be taken when estimating polymorphism and testing for deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium.


Seasonality is an important dimension for relevance in e-commerce search. For example, a query jacket has a different set of relevant documents in winter than summer. For an optimal user experience, the e-commerce search engines should incorporate seasonality in product search. In this paper, we formally introduce the concept of seasonal relevance, define it and quantify using data from a major e-commerce store. In our analyses, we find 39% queries are highly seasonally relevant to the time of search and would benefit from handling seasonality in ranking. We propose LogSR and VelSR features to capture product seasonality using state-of-the-art neural models based on self-attention. Comprehensive offline and online experiments over large datasets show the efficacy of our methods to model seasonal relevance. The online A/B test on 784 MM queries shows the treatment with seasonal relevance features results in 2.20% higher purchases and better customer experience overall.


To optimize the conditions of modification and understand the absorption mechanism of activated carbon, the orthogonal test was used to select the best conditions of ammonia-modified activated carbon. The changes of activated carbon's specific surface area, pore volume and surface acidic oxygen-containing functional groups were determined before and after modification by ammonia, and the equilibrium adsorption model for phenol was also explored. The results show that under the conditions of ammonia concentration of 10%, soaking time of 2h, activation time of 2.5h and activation temperature of 500°C, the best removal rate could be obtained. The specific surface area and pore volume of modified activated carbon were increased, whereas the acidic oxygen-containing groups of its surface were significantly reduced by 57.88% after modification. It means the surface polarity of carbon was decreased, and which was conducive to the adsorption of phenol, since phenol was a weakly polar substance. Both Freundlich and Langmuir model could reflect the adsorption behavior of modified activated carbon for phenol, while the Freundlich model was more properly, but for the unmodified activated carbon, Freundlich model was more suited to describe the adsorption behavior of phenol than Langmuir model.


Abstract. Three years after the earthquake that struck central Italy, a number of pressing points need to be addressed as part of a far-ranging discussion that seeks to identify the steps to be taken in response, including: the widespread agreement on the need for reconstruction efforts which ensure a high level of security; the importance of preserving the urban fabric of 'minimal' population centres that are unquestionably intertwined with their surrounding landscapes; the need to acknowledge the most valuable features of historic downtown areas, including their undeniable fact of their intrinsic fragility in the face of seismic events, even though construction techniques developed and refined over time have provided them with a certain resilience. While use is made of a frankly contemporary idiom, when needed to remedy shortcomings, a reconstruction grounded in a critical understanding of the 'sense of place' must guarantee that the identifying features of historic downtown areas remain in place (at least in terms of the lay of the land and spatial relations) while, at the same time, ensuring that the constantly evolving memories which render such areas unique are also preserved, so as to allow the past to play its rightful role in the planning of the future.


Nmyc is a potent regulator of cell cycle in cerebellar granular neuron precursors (CGNPs) and has been proposed to be the main effector of Shh (Sonic hedgehog) proliferative activity. Nmyc ectopic expression is sufficient to promote cell autonomous proliferation and can lead to tumorigenesis. Bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) antagonizes Shh proliferative effect by promoting cell cycle exit and differentiation in CGNPs. Here we report that BMP2 opposes Shh mitogenic activity by blocking Nmyc expression. We have identified TIEG-1 (KLF10) as the intermediary factor that blocks Nmyc expression through the occupancy of the Sp1 sites present in its promoter. We also demonstrate that TIEG-1 ectopic expression in CGNPs induces cell cycle arrest that can lead to apoptosis but fails to promote differentiation. Moreover, TIEG-1 synergizes with BMP2 activity to terminally differentiate CGNPs and independent differentiator signals such as dibutyryl cAMP and prevents apoptosis in TIEG-1 arrested cells. All together, these data strongly suggest that the BMP2 pathway triggers cell cycle exit and differentiation as two separated but coordinated processes, where TIEG-1 acts as a mediator of the cell cycle arrest.


What explains U.S. family law? To answer this question, this Article undertakes a conceptual analysis of the legal practices that govern families. This analysis has yet to be done, and its absence hamstrings constructive thought on our family law. The Article develops a typology that conceptualizes U.S. family law and exposes its underlying principles: First, it identifies the significant elements, or rules, of family law. Second, it demonstrates that these rules reflect or embody four important concepts - conjugality, privacy (familial as well as individual), contract, and parens patriae. Finally, it shows that the concepts of family law in turn embody two distinct underlying principles - Biblical naturalism and liberal individualism. From these powerful principles, we can derive modern U.S. family law: they explain what our family law is. With this deepened understanding of its structure, the Article next evaluates family law as the expression of it principles. It concludes that each principle is individually flawed; and, taken together, they are too often in unproductive tension. They thus doom U.S. family law to incoherence and must be revised. At a minimum, this Article seeks to launch a much-needed debate in family law on whether our current foundational principles are desirable, or even defensible. More ambitiously, the Article aims to ground a new jurisprudence of family law that better reflects the social goals and needs of contemporary U.S. society.


Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder with a very complex symptomatology. There is evidence that oxidative stress is increased in fibromyalgia, although it is not known whether this increase is involved as a causative factor in the development of the disease, or whether it is secondary to the patients' unfit condition. Ozone therapy is thought to act by exerting a mild, transient, and controlled oxidative stress that promotes an up regulation of the antioxidant system and a modulation of the immune system. The objective of the present study was to get a preliminary evaluation of the potential effectiveness of ozone therapy in the management of fibromyalgia. At our knowledge, this is the largest study of patients with fibromyalgia treated with ozone therapy reported in the literature and it demonstrates that the ozone therapy is an effective treatment for fibromyalgia patients without significant side effects.