The coefficients of the apparent digestibility for dry matter, crude protein, crude lipid and gross energy in cooked and raw green plantain meal (GPM), cassava root meal (CRM), and peach palm meal (PPM) were determined for juveniles of black pacu (60.8 ± 6.4 g) and red pacu (76.3 ± 5.0 g). The ADC of each alternative ingredient was determined by comparison of the digestibility (based on recovery of 1% chromic oxide as an inert marker) of a reference diet (consisting of 70% of test diet and 30% of the feedstuff) against with a test diet (24.5% of crude protein). Fish were bred in a recirculation system including 42, 110-L glass aquaria (21 tanks per species) at a density of five fish per tank, and fed their respective diets to apparent satiety, twice a day. Feces were collected after 10 days in plexiglass fecal collectors. Apparent digestibility coefficients of crude protein, crude lipid and gross energy from raw and cooked GPM and CRM were low compared to values to other common vegetal ingredients like corn and wheat. Conversely, ADC values for raw and cooked PPM were, in most cases, higher than those reported in raw or cooked GPM and CRM. In comparison with other traditional feedstuffs, apparent utilization of PPM was similar to corn and higher than reported for soybean meal and wheat bran in these fish species. Peach palm meal appears to have good potential as a feed ingredient in low-cost diets for pacu species.


An "infinite recycling" method for enhancing the durable applications of a ZnS nano-photocatalyst is shown. Based on the finding of thermodynamic stable nanophase of ZnS, we designed a strategy in which the deactivated ZnS nano-photocatalyst could be recovered into its original state. This ZnS photocatalyst can be used repeatedly without being released into environment as nano-waste. The strategy uses material highly efficiently and is environmentally friendly.


Universally modeling all typical information extraction tasks (UIE) with one generative language model (GLM) has revealed great potential by the latest study, where various IE predictions are unified into a linearized hierarchical expression under a GLM. Syntactic structure information, a type of effective feature which has been extensively utilized in IE community, should also be beneficial to UIE. In this work, we propose a novel structure-aware GLM, fully unleashing the power of syntactic knowledge for UIE. A heterogeneous structure inductor is explored to unsupervisedly induce rich heterogeneous structural representations by post-training an existing GLM. In particular, a structural broadcaster is devised to compact various latent trees into explicit high-order forests, helping to guide a better generation during decoding. We finally introduce a task-oriented structure fine-tuning mechanism, further adjusting the learned structures to most coincide with the end-task's need. Over 12 IE benchmarks across 7 tasks our system shows significant improvements over the baseline UIE system. Further in-depth analyses show that our GLM learns rich task-adaptive structural bias that greatly resolves the UIE crux, the long-range dependence issue and boundary identifying. Source codes are open at https://github.com/ChocoWu/LasUIE.


Canadian officials in mid-January publicized another case of mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). This report came on the heels of an announcement by the Bush administration that importing Canadian beef would soon be allowed, reversing an earlier ban put in place when the first case of mad cow disease in Canada was announced in May 2003. The news is frightening to many, since eating the contaminated meat can cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a human form of the brain wasting sickness. Fueling this fear is a report that under certain conditions, prions – which are rogue molecules responsible for causing these diseases – can replicate in organs thought to be prion-free and safe to eat. In the report, published in the January 20 online issue of Science (1), Adriano Aguzzi and colleagues found prions in the liver, kidney, and pancreas of mice infected with a form of prion disease. It was thought that prions only inhabited an animal's brain, spinal cord, and immune system, organs that are removed from the animals before the meat is imported. The new study blurs the line between risky and safe organs and reinforces the need for beefing up inspection of animals in the food chain. Speaking to the JCI, Aguzzi warned that "BSE surveillance in the US is rudimentary." Fortunately, the results are no cause for alarm, since the chances of contracting prion disease, only seen once in the US, are so low that a major epidemic of the human form of mad cow is very unlikely.


We propose a novel concept of game, which allows players to experience tangible interaction with the virtual world of
digital games by mixing motorized scenery (object support) with dynamically generated spatial augmented reality.
A specific hardware, which includes a turntable platform, on where players can setup customized polygonal shaped
scenery to play the game projected onto its surfaces, and a single, or a pair, of focus free laser pico-projectors pointed
toward the platform is proposed as a game console able to run this experiment. The turntable platform orientation is
synchronized with the game play in a way the physical object rotates aligned with the projected virtual reality in relation
to the player's fixed perspective. By designing 3-dimensional animations, which are rendered and projected in
accordance with the surface orientations, we were able to enhance the illusion of depth toward these planar structures
during the game play.
The use of spatial augmented reality is justified by exploiting the characteristics of projected 2-dimensional light onto 3-
dimensional objects in order to extend the game possibilities. As an example, the number and orientation of polygons
found on the support can be directly associated with the complexity of the game universe, affecting the game difficulty,
scale and game play. In this paper we discuss about spatial actions, which are actions players can perform at object
support creases. When synchronized with motor movements, these actions extend the sense of volume in relation to the
game avatars providing a tangible connection between players and digital content.


Learning Arabic language in Malaysia involved various levels of education such as in schools, higher education institutions and the public. Arabic learners have a specific goal in learning the language which is related closely to Islam. Nowadays, the Arabic language learning also involves non-Muslim in various levels of education including higher education institutions. Thus, this article will discuss the perception of non-Muslims towards learning the Arabic language. The objective of this study is to explore their perceptions of learning Arabic language in order to ensure that the content of Arabic learning in line with the purpose of learning the language. This study is a qualitative study involving interviews with seven non-Muslim students studying Arabic at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA). The findings showed that all respondents gave a positive response in learning the Arabic language. The responses given involve the teaching methods practiced in order to master the Arabic language and to gain motivation in learning the language. All these responses indicate that the perception of non-Muslims towards learning Arabic language is positive if the learning process can be carried out properly and effectively. Some of the suggestions which are related to teaching Arabic language for non-Muslim students are also discussed in this article as an input that can be used by teachers of the Arabic language


In the modern era, the immense value which data holds goes into a waste as much of this information is not prominently visible to the common user, which the internet hosts. One of such areas is Renting/Buying houses in India. Today many people are still relying on brokers who are dishonest for buying/renting their homes. Even though many websites host good amount of information for the same purpose, many go unnoticed. This project aims to simplify the process of collecting and understanding the hosing data to use it effectively. The first module of the project deals with web scraping which allows the users to collect any number of data which internet hosts on different websites in any format and converting the same into a structured data set. The data extraction happens by extracting the HTML code which is embedded to the website and using a scraping tool to break the content on the website into useful data we require. This structured data set is available in the form of an excel sheet (.xlsx format or .csv format). Following it, the second module aims at querying the user and applying reverse indexing to the structured data to find relevant results based on the query raised by the user, to find the results.


This outstanding global survey brings together the dazzling talent of 50 leading illustrators from over 20 countries, among them Julia Rothman, Whitney Sherman and Mike Perry, and also provides them with the opportunity to indulge in a brilliant, creative experiment. The book is curated into two interleaved strands: in the first, each illustrator showcases their own work and is interviewed by the author to shine a light onto what inspires and motivates them. The second strand is a collaborative project with illustrators working in pairs to create original work to one of 25 briefs from the author based on themes ranging from beauty to beast and speed to excess. Each of the outstanding collaborations is accompanied by a joint interview with the two illustrators. As a result, half the work featured has never been seen before and has been created exclusively for this book.


Climate change has been the burning issue in agriculture sector. The research world is focused on developing appropriate technology, innovations and concept to cope up this change. The Climate Smart Agriculture [CSA] has been adapted globally for cultivation and crop management in changing context without compromising yield and productivity. The CSA involves wide range altered techniques and innovations like using resilient varieties, water management, zero tillage, legumes incorporation, cover cropping, site specific fertilizer management, variation in planting date etc. Grounding on the similar practices and principles of CSA, the research in maize was conducted in 2014 in farmers' field of Eastern Nepal. Three progressive farmers with 1 hector of land were selected and Maize was cultivated using Zero tillage seed cum fertilizer driller tractor. This field experiment considers farmers as replication with six different treatments. All treatments differ to each other based on nutrient management, water management, residue management, tillage practice, crop establishment, and inclusion of legumes in the cropping system. Six treatments are coded as follows: Current Irrigated (CI), Improved Irrigated Low (IIL), Improved Irrigated High (IIH), Climate Smart Agriculture-Low (CSA-L), Climate Smart Agriculture-Medium (CSA-M), and Climate Smart Agriculture-High (CSA-H). Significant impact of intervention was observed in yield and yield attributes in the trial with climate smart agriculture practices than in conventional practices of farmers. Plant density, ear number, filled grains per cob and grain yield was substantially higher in climate smart practices revealing CSA to be the appropriate technology to minimize potential loss of climate change.


A wide bandwidth /spl Sigma/-/spl Delta/ modulation based analog built-in self-test (BIST) system that can diagnose the prototype is presented. It consists of a low-cost design-for-testability (DJT) switched-capacitor filter as the circuit under test (CUT) and a wide bandwidth analog response extractor (ARE) to digitize the analog responses for final DSP analysis. The first stage of the DJT CUT is reconfigured to accept a repetitive /spl Sigma/-/spl Delta/ modulated bit-steam as its stimulus. This DJT technique reuses every original component and thus provides the advantages of lowering the testing cost, increasing the fault coverage as well as the accuracy, and being able to perform the at-speed tests. The ARE is a cascaded 2-1-1-I fifth-order /spl Sigma/-/spl Delta/ modulator equipped with single-bit quantizers to extend the testing bandwidth while retaining moderate tolerance of circuit imperfections. Our measurement results show that this ARE is able to provide a -95 dB spurious free dynamic range over 1 MHz bandwidth when operates at 30 MHz- A multi-tone test is performed to manifest the wide bandwidth and high accuracy of our BIST system. Based on the BIST results, a method of diagnosing the prototype to speed up the time-to-market is also proposed and demonstrated by our BIST system.


Presents a sociolinguistic approach to the Spanish spoken in the U.S: the different varieties of Spanish the consequences of interlanguage contact ; relevant historical, social, cultural, and political factors.


A well-represented description of convection in weather and climate models is essential since convective clouds strongly influence the climate system. Convective processes interact with radiation, redistribute sensible and latent heat and momentum, and impact hydrological processes through precipitation. Depending on the models' horizontal resolution, the representation of convection may look very different. However, the convective scales not resolved by the model are traditionally parameterized by an ensemble of non-interacting convective plumes within some area of uniform forcing, representing the "large scale". A bulk representation of the mass-flux associated with the individual plumes in the defined area provide the statistical effect of moist convection on the atmosphere. Studying the characteristics of the ECMWF ensemble prediction system it is found that the control forecast of the ensemble system is not variable enough in order to yield a sufficient spread using an initial perturbation technique alone. Such insufficient variability may be addressed in the parameterizations of, for instance, cumulus convection where the sub-grid variability in space and time is traditionally neglected. Furthermore, horizontal transport due to gravity waves can act to organize deep convection into larger scale structures which can contribute to an upscale energy cascade. However, horizontal advection and numerical diffusion are the only ways through which adjacent model grid-boxes interact in the models. The impact of flow dependent horizontal diffusion on resolved deep convection is studied, and the organization of convective clusters is found very sensitive to the method of imposing horizontal diffusion. However, using numerical diffusion in order to represent lateral effects is undesirable. To address the above issues, a scheme using cellular automata in order to introduce lateral communication, memory and a stochastic representation of the statistical effects of cumulus convection is implemented in two numerical weather models. The behaviour of the scheme is studied in cases of organized convective squall-lines, and initial model runs show promising improvements.


ABSTRACT Recent changes to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines for breast cancer screening have contributed to increased patient uncertainty regarding the timing and appropriateness of screening behaviors. To gain insight into the lay epistemology of women regarding breast cancer screening practices, we conducted in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 24 adult women living in a medically underserved Appalachian region. We found that women were unaware of breast cancer screening guidelines (i.e., start age, frequency, stop age). Qualitative analysis revealed two lay epistemological narratives establishing (a) uncertain knowledge and ambiguity about breast cancer screening guidelines but certain knowledge of other women's experiences with breast cancer diagnoses, and (b) feelings of knowing one's own body best and seeing the value in "overscreening" to save even one life. Our findings have theoretical and practical implications for scholars and practitioners seeking to improve knowledge or behavior regarding adherence to breast cancer screening recommendations.


Since 2000, Malaysian-manufactured exports performance has been declining. The downturn of the global electronic industry and the rise of China's economy are the two major causes of this decline. To improve export performance, Malaysia participates in multilateral, regional, and bilateral trade liberalization. The competitiveness of Malaysian manufactured exports can be improved by examining the pattern of revealed comparative advantage (RCA). Within the non-resource-based manufactured exports, Malaysia still has comparative advantage for electrical and electronic goods and machinery (its largest export item), even though it has been on a decline. Malaysia's export strength has also gradually shifted from non-resource-based to resource-based manufactured exports. The RCA estimates also suggest that trade liberalization must not only lower or eliminate tariffs on final products, but also reduce import duties if exports were to increase their competitiveness.


Objective. The human orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is involved in automatic response inhibition and conflict processing, but the mechanism of frequency-specific power changes that control these functions is unknown. Theta and gamma activity have been independently observed in the OFC during conflict processing, while theta–gamma interactions in other brain areas have been noted primarily in studies of memory. Within the OFC, it is possible that theta–gamma phase amplitude coupling (PAC) drives conflict processing. This study aims to characterize the coupled relationship between theta and gamma frequency bands in the OFC during conflict processing using a modified Stroop task. Approach. Eight epilepsy patients implanted with OFC stereotactic electroencephalography electrodes participated in a color-word modified Stroop task. PAC between theta phase and gamma amplitude was assessed to determine the timing and magnitude of neural oscillatory changes. Group analysis was conducted using a non-parametric cluster-permutation t-test on coherence values. Main results. Theta-low gamma (LG) PAC significantly increased in five out of eight patients during successful trials of the incongruent condition compared with the congruent condition. Significant increases in theta-LG PAC were most prominent during cue processing 200–800 ms after cue presentation. On group analysis, trial-averaged mean theta-LG PAC was statistically significantly greater in the incongruent condition compared to the congruent condition (p < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.51). Significance. For the first time, we report that OFC theta phase and LG amplitude coupling increases during conflict resolution. Given the delayed onset after cue presentation, OFC theta-LG PAC may contribute to conflict processing after conflict detection and before motor response. This explanation follows the hypothesis that global theta waves modulate local gamma signals. Understanding this relationship within the OFC will help further elucidate the neural mechanisms of human conflict resolution.


The Moral Injury Symptom Scale-Military Version (MISS-M) is a 45-item measure of moral injury (MI) symptoms designed to use in Veterans and Active Duty Military with PTSD. This paper reviews the psychometric properties of the MISS-M identified in a previous report, discusses the rationale for the development of the scale, and explores its possible clinical and research applications. The MISS-M consists of 10 theoretically grounded subscales that assess the psychological and spiritual/religious symptoms of MI: guilt, shame, betrayal, moral concerns, loss of meaning/purpose, difficulty forgiving, loss of trust, self-condemnation, spiritual/religious struggles, and loss of religious faith/hope. The scale has high internal reliability, high test-retest reliability, and a factor structure that can be replicated. The MISS-M correlates strongly with PTSD severity, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms, indicating convergent validity, and is relatively weakly correlated with social, spiritual, and physical health constructs, suggesting discriminant validity. The MISS-M is the first multidimensional scale that measures both the psychological and spiritual/religious symptoms of MI and is a reliable and valid measure for assessing symptom severity in clinical practice and in conducting research that examines the efficacy of treatments for MI in Veterans and Active Duty Military personnel.


Deals with the estimation of mortality for a rural community of about 20 thousand persons in the rain forest area of southwest Ghana. Specifically infant child and adult mortality estimates have been obtained by the application of a wide range of direct and indirect methods of measuring mortality from the different statistics collected by a longitudinal mortality and fertility project conducted during 1974-7. It was noted that infant and childhood mortality rates obtained from death registrations were consistent with those rates yielded by pregnancy histories and child survival statistics. However the adult mortality estimates derived from orphanhood statistics tended to be lower than those suggested by death registrations. The analysis revealed an infant mortality rate of 100 for boys and 84 for girls equal childhood mortality rate for boys and girls (85-6) a lower expectation of life at birth for men (45.8 years) than for women (52.8) and a much more severe incidence of mortality among men aged over 40 than for women at the corresponding ages. (authors)


Most metazoan parasites that invade vertebrate hosts belong to three phyla: Platyhelminthes, Nematoda and Acanthocephala. Many of the parasitic members of these phyla are collectively known as helminths and are causative agents of many debilitating, deforming and lethal diseases of humans and animals. The North-East India Helminth Parasite Information Database (NEIHPID) project aimed to document and characterise the spectrum of helminth parasites in the north-eastern region of India, providing host, geographical distribution, diagnostic characters and image data. The morphology-based taxonomic data are supplemented with information on DNA sequences of nuclear, ribosomal and mitochondrial gene marker regions that aid in parasite identification. In addition, the database contains raw next generation sequencing (NGS) data for 3 foodborne trematode parasites, with more to follow. The database will also provide study material for students interested in parasite biology. Users can search the database at various taxonomic levels (phylum, class, order, superfamily, family, genus, and species), or by host, habitat and geographical location. Specimen collection locations are noted as co-ordinates in a MySQL database and can be viewed on Google maps, using Google Maps JavaScript API v3. The NEIHPID database has been made freely available at http://nepiac.nehu.ac.in/index.php


Odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) are thought to transport volatile compounds from air to their receptors through the sensillary lymph. In this protein family, the subgroup of pheromone-binding proteins (PBPs) is specifically tuned to the perception of the sexual pheromone. To date, the description of OBPs has been restricted to Endopterygota and Paraneoptera. Their expression in Orthopteroid has been hypothesized, but no evidence of OBP has been produced in this assemblage to date. In the present study, we describe the first OBP from a Dictyopteran insect that belongs to the cockroach Leucophaea maderae. The PBP of L. maderae (PBPLma) shares all the hallmarks of the OBP family and is expressed specifically in the female adult antennae, the sex that perceives the sexual pheromone. The affinity of the recombinant PBPLma produced in the Escherichia coli periplasm for the pheromonal compounds has been tested by displacement of a fluorophore, 8-anilino-1-naphtalenesulphonic acid (ANS). Our results suggest that two chemically close compounds of the pheromonal blend (3-hydroxy-butan-2-one and butane-2,3-diol) are capable of displacing ANS, whereas two other pheromone components (E-2-octenoic acid and senecioic acid) and other alkyl volatile compounds are not capable of displacing ANS, indicating a certain filtering of binding, which can be correlated with the putative function.


The Northern Adriatic Sea is characterized by a gentle marine shelf that led this area and the surroundings coastal plains to be very sensitive even to limited variations of sea level during the Late Quaternary. These changes affected directly and indirectly the ancient human communities. In particular, around 19 ka cal BP, the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) triggered a rapid marine transgression which drowned a large sector of the alluvial plain formerly existing on the present seabed. This dramatic transformation was accompanied by significant changes in the hydrographic network and in the channel morphology of the major rivers. Around 5500 BC the Adriatic coast was already rather comparable to the present one and the rate of sea-level rise considerably lowered. Since that time the paleogeographic changes occurred along the coast were mainly constrained by the complex interplay between eustatic variations, fluvial inputs and subsidence. In the last centuries the anthropogenic activity has strongly increased its influence on the coastal dynamics and the effects of the ongoing global warming are exposing to significant risk of submersion the low-lying coasts of north-western Adriatic.


The aim of this research is to establish students' perceptions of the international hospitality industry and, specifically, to establish the likelihood of the student seeking employment in the industry after graduating, the region/country where the student intends seeking employment, the functional area/sector which is most attractive to the student and the position which the student expects to hold five and ten years after graduating. The research is based on a questionnaire administered at two universities offering hospitality management degrees, one in the UK, the other in The Netherlands. The main findings are that students have a distinct preference for certain hotel departments, hotel chains and sectors of the industry. Most expect to be general manager/corporate manager ten years after graduating. As the degree progresses, the students' perception of the industry deteriorates. The paper concludes by examining issues relating to the image of the industry and the development of hospitality curricula.


ABSTRACT Introduction Different single-tablet regimens (STRs), containing one or two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) plus an anchor drug, are available for the use in naïve, HIV-infected patients. Despite some restrictions in the use of particular regimens in certain situations (e.g., HBV coinfection), International guidelines do not provide indications to prefer any regimen over others concerning the tolerability profile. We aimed to assess advantages and disadvantages of the most prescribed STRs. Areas covered An extensive review of articles published in English language was conducted on PubMed, looking for evidence about STRs in naïve, HIV-infected population. Safety outcomes of registrational trials were assessed, giving priority to studies directly comparing STRs included in our research (abacavir/lamivudine/dolutegravir, tenofovir alafenamide/emtricitabine/bictegravir, lamivudine/dolutegravir, tenofovir alafenamide/emtricitabine/darunavir/cobicistat, tenovofir disoproxil fumarate/lamivudine/doravirine). Data from cohort studies and meta-analyses were also assessed, extrapolating the main evidence about the combinations of interest. Expert opinion Integrase inhibitors (InsTIs)-based regimens have few interruptions for adverse events and few drug-related adverse events, with tenofovir alafenamide/emtricitabine/dolutegravir and lamivudine/dolutegravir being the most tolerable ones. However, neuropsychiatric adverse events and metabolic issues could prompt the alternative use of darunavir or doravirine-based combinations, even if a superior safety profile of these combinations over InSTIs has yet to be demonstrated.


The business case for a sustainable firm, in particular the business case for new entrepreneurial initiatives responding to environmental demands, is increasingly receiving attention from practitioners and scholars. This article contributes to existing literature on business models, sustainable development and entrepreneurship, by applying components of business models to the practices of entrepreneurs that have a goal of environmental sustainability and a focus on the mass market (i.e. ecopreneurs). We define the ecopreneurial business model and specify four varieties of this business model, which consist of different combinations of environmental scope and a focus on the mass market and profitability. The distinguishing factor of the ecopreneurial business model is that it transforms disvalue into value, thereby creating greater customer value for environmentally concerned consumers. The results are based on a substantial set of interviews among ecopreneurs in the organic food and beverage industry in the Netherlands. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment


England's health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has said that he will look into whether more clinicians are needed to staff the urgent care service NHS 111, after a report into the death of 1 year old William Mead from septicaemia in December 2014 found that four opportunities for preventing his death were missed.

The family's general practice in Cornwall and the NHS 111 telephone helpline failed to diagnose and act on the septicaemia that was responsible for his death and the pneumonia that led to it, says the report, seen by The BMJ . Although the review panel concluded that "these did not constitute serious failings by the individuals involved," had different courses of action been taken, even those at a late stage, William would probably have survived.

In particular, the report concluded that GPs and parents need more information on the key signs of septicaemia and that NHS 111 call advisers should get more training in what questions to ask and when to escalate cases.

Hunt has made a public apology to William's parents and pledged that lessons would be learnt from the incident. Responding to an MP's question about the death in the House of Commons on 26 January, …


Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a genetic disorder with multi-system manifestations and a high burden of disease. In 2013, an international panel of TSC experts revised the guidelines for the diagnosis, surveillance and treatment of the disorder. In South Africa (SA), a local multidisciplinary group of healthcare professionals and TSC researchers reviewed the international guidelines to generate an SA consensus clinical update on the identification, diagnosis, treatment and lifelong monitoring of individuals who live with TSC. We strongly endorse dissemination and use of the international guidelines for the assessment, monitoring and treatment of TSC. In addition, we strongly support access to genetic testing and to mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) inhibitors to treat subependymal giant cell astrocytomas not amenable to surgery and renal angiomyolipomas larger than 3 cm, and as adjunctive treatment for refractory focal seizures. We await with interest results from mTOR inhibitor trials of skin and TSC-associated neuropsychiatric disorders (TAND). With regard to training, we recommend the inclusion of TSC in undergraduate and postgraduate medical and health sciences curricula, and the promotion of other continuing professional development events to raise awareness about TSC. We also support the development of a TSC user/carer/parent organisation to provide an informal support network for families across SA. We acknowledge that some progress has been made in recent years in SA, but much remains to be done. We hope that this SA consensus clinical update based on the international guidelines will make a positive contribution to increase knowledge and improve clinical care for all patients who live with TSC in SA, and their families.


The primate visual system contains myriad feedback projections from higher- to lower-order cortical areas, an architecture that has been implicated in the top-down modulation of early visual areas during working memory and attention. Here we tested the hypothesis that these feedback projections also modulate early visual cortical activity during the planning of visually guided actions. We show, across three separate human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies involving object-directed movements, that information related to the motor effector to be used (i.e., limb, eye) and action goal to be performed (i.e., grasp, reach) can be selectively decoded-prior to movement-from the retinotopic representation of the target object(s) in early visual cortex. We also find that during the planning of sequential actions involving objects in two different spatial locations, that motor-related information can be decoded from both locations in retinotopic cortex. Together, these findings indicate that movement planning selectively modulates early visual cortical activity patterns in an effector-specific, target-centric, and task-dependent manner. These findings offer a neural account of how motor-relevant target features are enhanced during action planning and suggest a possible role for early visual cortex in instituting a sensorimotor estimate of the visual consequences of movement.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of forage cactus pear (nopal) cladodes in diets for growing-finishing lambs on dry-matter intake (DMI), total and daily live-weight gain (LWG and DLG), feed conversion (FC), and profitability (P). Fifty-four male lambs (Corriedale x Criollo) with an average live weight of 20.2 ±3.2 kg were used. Triads of lambs were formed with similar live weights and housed in a pen (experimental unit), which were randomly allotted to the following treatments: T0% no nopal (Control), lambs were fed with a regular growing-finishing diet; T15% Nopal, cactus pear cladodes at 15% (DM basis) of the ration; T30% nopal, cactus pear cladodes at 30% (DM basis) of the ration arranged as a completely randomized design with three treatments and six replicates. The diets were formulated in order to fulfill the nutritional requirements for growing-finishing lambs according to NRC (1985). The cladodes were chopped (approximately 2.5 cm 2 and mixed by hand with the diet in the feedbunker at each feeding. Lambs were fed twice a day, at 08:00 h and 16:00 h. The experiment lasted 71 days (adaptation: 14 days; experimental period: 56 days). Inclusion of cactus pear represented 55% and 75% of as-fed basis for T15% and T30%, respectively. Results showed that initial live weights were similar (P>0.01) among treatments, as well as the LWG between T0% (34.54 kg) and T15% (33.95 kg), but T30% (30.71 kg) was lower (P 0.01) between T0% (0.928 kg) and T15% (0.993 kg) and higher (P 0.01) between T0% (5.14) and T15% (5.09), but higher (P<0.01) than T30% (3.44). Lambs fed with a high ratio of cactus pear (T30%) were more efficient in converting feed to LWG. The inclusion of cactus pear reduced feed cost approximately 48% and 65% for T15% and T30%, respectively, relative to T0%. Thus, LWG cost was reduced about 29.1% and 64.3% in T15% and T30%, respectively, relative to T0%. The inclusion of cactus pear between 15% and 30% may represent an important alternative to feeding growing-finishing lambs without affecting animal performance while reducing production costs.


We apply a previously developed asymptotic model (J. Fluid. Mech. 915, A133 (2021)) to study instabilities of free surface films of nanometric thickness on thermally conductive substrates in two and three spatial dimensions. While the specific focus is on metal films exposed to laser heating, the model itself applies to any setup involving films on the nanoscale whose material parameters are temperature-dependent. For the particular case of metal films heated from above, an important aspect is that the considered heating is volumetric, since the absorption length of the applied laser pulse is comparable to the film thickness. In such a setup, absorption of thermal energy and film evolution are closely correlated and must be considered self-consistently. The asymptotic model allows for a significant simplification, which is crucial from both modeling and computational points of view, since it allows for asymptotically correct averaging of the temperature over the film thickness. We find that the properties of the thermally conductive substrate – in particular its thickness and rate of heat loss – play a critical role in controlling the film temperature and dynamics. The film evolution is simulated using efficient GPU-based simulations which, when combined with the developed asymptotic model, allow for fully nonlinear time-dependent simulations in large threedimensional computational domains. In addition to uncovering the role of the substrate and its properties in determining the film evolution, one important finding is that, at least for the considered range of material parameters, strong in-plane thermal diffusion in the film results in negligible spatial variations of temperature, and the film evolution is predominantly influenced by temporal variation of film viscosity and surface tension (dictated by average film temperature), as well as thermal conductivity of the substrate.


Illinois bundleflower [Desmanthus illinoensis (Michx.) MacMillan] is a native herbaceous warm-season perennial legume that has potential as a forage and grain crop. Many research objectives with the species depend on knowledge of available genetic resources, but the diversity in northern accessions of Illinois bundleflower is unknown. Our objective was to test the hypothesis that genetic variation for selected characters exists within and among a set of northern accessions of Illinois bundleflower. From this, we could determine the distribution of variation among the accessions and examine the phenotypic correlations among characters. We evaluated 20 accessions at Becker and St. Paul, MN, and 18 accessions at Sioux Center, IA. Within-accession diversity was determined by a progeny test at Rosemount and St. Paul, MN. Every measured character was influenced by accession (P < 0.05) in at least one location. Therefore, the accessions evaluated can provide much of the genetic diversity needed to develop cultivars adapted to the northern USA. Much of the variation can be explained by latitude of origin. Southern accessions had the greatest forage and seed yield potential, were later maturing, but lacked persistence in Minnesota. Variation (P < 0.05) for characters including seed yield and survival was also found within accessions. Within year and location, average seed crude protein (CP) concentration and seed weight were correlated (average r = 0.71, P < 0.05). Within location in August, forage neutral detergent fiber (NDF) was negatively correlated with leaf fraction (average r = -0.89, P < 0.001), and leaf and pod fraction were negatively correlated (average r = -0.80, P < 0.01).


EHG (electrohysterogram) is the recording of uterine electromyogram with external electrodes located on the abdomen of pregnant woman. Derived from the electrical activity generated at the muscle fiber lever, it provides complementary information from the muscle, and appears to be a very promising technique for clinical or physiologic investigation of uterine activity, compared with current monitoring which can't give us complementary phase information of uterine activity. In this article we have shown the disadvantages of the conventional electrodes for EHG data-acquisition system and put forward a new type of electrode that is called active Laplacian electrode. It integrates concentric rings electrode with a bioelectricity preamplifier and is capable of acquiring localized information. We can localise the EHG signals source more easily by using this new electrode.


Over the last decade a new data interface for CAM/CNC integration has been established to replace ISO 6983. The new standard, ISO 14649 (STEP-NC), provides a comprehensive data model that describes both geometrical and technological information in an object-oriented way. In order to bridge the gap between such rich-information programs and the legacy CNC systems, this paper presents a framework for manipulating the manufacturing data in STEP-NC part programs. The proposed system provides a basic platform for STEP-NC program interpretation, geometry visualization, micro-process planning and program re-generation. Major issues relating to the realization of manufacturing information extraction and shop-floor-level process planning are addressed in particular, and a prototype for STEP-NC turning process is implemented to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach.


Abstract Gaillard, S., Pusset, D., de Toledo, S. M., Fromm, M. and Azzam, E. I. Propagation Distance of the α-Particle-Induced Bystander Effect: The Role of Nuclear Traversal and Gap Junction Communication. Radiat. Res. 171, 513–520 (2009). When cell populations are exposed to low-dose α-particle radiation, a significant fraction of the cells will not be traversed by a radiation track. However, stressful effects occur in both irradiated and bystander cells in the population. Characterizing these effects, and investigating their underlying mechanism(s), is critical to understanding human health risks associated with exposure to α particles. To this end, confluent normal human fibroblast cultures were grown on polyethylene terephthalate foil grafted to an ultrathin solid-state nuclear track detector and exposed under non-perturbing conditions to low-fluence α particles from a broadbeam irradiator. Irradiated and affected bystander cells were localized with micrometer precision. The stress-responsive protein p21Waf1 (also known as CDKN1A) was induced in bystander cells within a 100-μm radius from an irradiated cell. The mean propagation distance ranged from 20 to 40 μm around the intranuclear α-particle impact point, which corresponds to a set of ∼30 cells. Nuclear traversal, induced DNA damage, and gap junction communication were critical contributors to propagation of this stressful effect. The strategy described here may be ideal to investigate the size of radiation-affected target and the relative contribution of different cellular organelles to bystander effects induced by energetic particles, which is relevant to radioprotection and cancer radiotherapy.


Public Service Motivation (PSM) is still a new concept in public administration theory. As a nascent theory, it needs to be proved with any contexts and cases of many countries around the world, especially developing countries that might have different contexts related to cultures, beliefs, views on the importance of financial rewards, etc. So far, most PSM research focuses more on comparisons between public and private employees in the Western and developed countries. There is almost no study about the PSM in developing countries. In addition, most of PSM theories tended to generalize the assumptions of the PSM among employees and often ignore cultural dimensions in their analysis. There is an impression that PSM theories are cross-culturally viable. This study examined the application of the PSM theories in Indonesia as a developing country, especially in Padang West Sumatera. Rational choice theories and the other PSM theories had been used in analyzing the finding of this study. Using t-test on responses by 417 respondents of public and 201 of private sector employees, this study tested the difference of PSM levels between the two sector employees. The findings of this study indicated that there is a significant difference in the level of PSM between public and private sector employees in Padang West Sumatera. The level of PSM of public employees tends to be lower than that of private sector. The results of this study imply that PSM theory is not cross-culturally viable.


BACKGROUND
Mindfulness skills training is a core component of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) that has proven to be an effective stand-alone treatment for the general symptoms commonly present in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). The aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness-based DBT skills training (DBT-M) to interpersonal effectiveness-based DBT skills training (DBT-IE) in reducing BPD symptoms. We also evaluated the specific mechanism of action of these therapies through two proposed mediators: decentering and emotion dysregulation.

METHOD
A total of 102 participants diagnosed with BPD were included in the study. Multivariate repeated-measures ANOVAs were performed followed by a multiple mediation analysis.

RESULTS
The analyses showed that DBT-M was more effective than DBT-IE in reducing BPD symptoms, although both interventions were effective in reducing emotion dysregulation. We identified a serial mediation model in which DBT-M reduced BPD symptoms by increasing decentering ability, which in turn reduced emotion dysregulation. This mediation effect showed that changes in decentering preceded improvements in emotion dysregulation.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings underscore the key role of decentering as a primary mechanism of action in DBT-M, suggesting that this skill is a main component for BPD treatment.


Trade balances and unit values in Hungarian and Slovenian bilateral agri-food trade with Austria, Germany and Italy, respectively, to distinguish types of the one-way and the two-way trade flows, categories of price competition and categories of quality competition in the twoway trade flows, their dynamics and stability over time are analyzed. The two-way matched trade flows prevail among trade types. In the matched two-way bilateral agri-food trade there is prevalence of categories of price competition over categories of non-price competition, but varies across trading partners. In Hungarian agri-food trade the first category of successful price competition and the third category of successful non-price or quality competition prevail, suggesting comparative advantages for Hungarian agri-food products vis-a-vis bilateral trading partners. In Slovenian agri-food trade the prevalence is on the second category of non-successful price competition and on the fourth category of non-successful quality competition suggesting comparative trade disadvantages vis-a-vis bilateral trading partners. Looking dynamically, we did not find comparative catch up as for Hungary both successful price and successful non-price competition increased only with Austria, but deteriorate with Germany and Italy. For Slovenia, successful price and successful non-price competition remains at similar level with Austria, but similar as for Hungary, they declined with Germany and Italy. The probability of remaining the one-way trade is greater than the probability to stay within the same competition category in the two-way matched trade. While there are differences across countries, products, and over individual years, the mobility indices indicate the decline in mobility in trade flows. If these patterns continue, then more stable trade patterns are expected.


As one of the most popular generative models, Variational Autoencoder (VAE) approximates the posterior of latent variables based on amortized variational inference. However, when the decoder network is sufficiently expressive, VAE may lead to posterior collapse; that is, uninformative latent representations may be learned. To this end, in this paper, we propose an alternative model, DU-VAE, for learning a more Diverse and less Uncertain latent space, and thus the representation can be learned in a meaningful and compact manner. Specifically, we first theoretically demonstrate that it will result in better latent space with high diversity and low uncertainty awareness by controlling the distribution of posterior's parameters across the whole data accordingly. Then, without the introduction of new loss terms or modifying training strategies, we propose to exploit Dropout on the variances and Batch-Normalization on the means simultaneously to regularize their distributions implicitly. Furthermore, to evaluate the generalization effect, we also exploit DU-VAE for inverse autoregressive flow based-VAE (VAE-IAF) empirically. Finally, extensive experiments on three benchmark datasets clearly show that our approach can outperform state-of-the-art baselines on both likelihood estimation and underlying classification tasks.


It was shown that the highly purified monoaldehyde derivative of ADP obtained by partial reduction of the dialdehyde derivative of ADP causes strong irreversible inhibition of the Ca-ATPase activity of myosin subfragment I, the inhibiting effect being of the affinity modification type. The addition to the reaction medium of Mg2+ (but not Ca2+) during the subfragment I interaction with the inhibitor fully prevents the inhibiting effect at all substrates used (Ca-, Mg- or K, EDTA-ATPases). Contrariwise, the subfragment I modified in the absence of Mg2+ exhibits the same degree of inhibition for all the three types of the ATPase activity. An unexpected result that was previously unobserved for other affinity modifiers of myosin ATPase is the maintenance of activity in 50% of active centers, when "two-head" forms of the enzyme (the myosin proper and heavy meromyosin, HMM) are modified. Noteworthy that the affinity modification reaction is characterized by the same values of inhibition constants as in the case of myosin subfragment I (Ki = 3.3-3.5 X 10(-4) M; ki = 0.03-0.04 min-1). This finding provides additional evidence in favour of functional asymmetry of myosin heads in the myosin molecule which seems to be due to the screening of the active center of one head by the other one.


The activity of cobalt-activated acylase was determined in the serum of mice with transplantable leukemia (P 388, L 1210 standard, L 1210/ara-C, L 1210/CH3-G, plasmocytoma ADJPC-5, lymphoma AKSL-4 and natural leukemia in mice NZB). A statistically significant increase in enzyme activity in all leukemias except lymphatic leukemia has been demonstrated. The results suggest possibility of using the enzymatic measurement as a marker of transplantable leukemia in mice.


The time-lapse imaging problem is addressed using least-squares shot-profile migration. The procedure for designing forward (de-migration) and adjoint (migration) operators of shot-profile wave-equation migration algorithm is explained. The least-squares optimization of the problem is achieved using conjugate gradients. Two main approaches for least-squares shot-profile migration of time-lapse data namely, inversion of difference data and joint inversion, are discussed. Some practical considerations for performance of least-squares shot-profile migration are investigated using synthetic data examples. Also, a synthetic data examples is provided for examining the time-lapse shot-profile migration of difference data.


In the past two decades, nanotechnology has made great progress in generating novel materials with superior properties. Quantum dots (QDs) are an example of such materials. With unique optical properties, they have proven to be useful in a wide range of applications in life sciences, especially as a better alternative to overcome the shortcomings of conventional fluorophores. Current progress in the synthesis of biocompatible QDs allows for the possibility of producing a large variety of semiconductor nanocrystals in terms of size, surface functionality, bioconjugation, and targeting facilities. Strategies to enhance the water-dispersibility and biocompatibility of these nanoparticles have been developed, involving various encapsulation techniques and surface functionalization. The major obstacle in the clinical use of QDs remains their toxicity, and the systematic investigation on harmful effects of QDs both to humans and to the environment has become critical. Many examples of the experimental use of QDs prove their far-reaching potential for the study of intracellular processes at the molecular level, high resolution cellular imaging, and in vivo observation of cell trafficking. Biosensing methods based on QD bioconjugates proved to be successful in rapid detection of pathogens, and significant improvements are expected in early cancer diagnostic, non-conventional therapy of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.


Electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structures active in the 90–110 GHz region widely used by security imaging radar were created using different ceramics by a rapid prototyping method informed by finite difference time domain modeling. This solid free-forming method uses a high volatility solvent-based ceramic paste extruded through fine nozzles allowing ceramic powders to be assembled on a multiaxis building platform avoiding machining, etching, or the alignment of loose rods and created to designs downloaded directly from a computer file. Lattices were made from two high dielectric constant ceramics: La(Mg0.5, Ti0.5)O3 and (Zr0.8, Sn0.2)TiO4 and compared with those of Al2O3 demonstrating three EBG structures with different dimensions and dielectric constants but with the same bandgap. The effects of manufacturing tolerances on bandgap frequency are investigated by simulation


This work describes a series of experiments performed to make an accurate determination of the differential momentum spectrum of cosmic ray muons at ground level in the momentum range 0.3<p<10 GeV/c. The results of measurements on 192,090 single particles passing through the Durham Cosmic Ray Spectrograph are given. The bias resulting from rejection of multiple events has been investigated from 5988 such events recorded and a corrected spectrum derived. The spectrum is used to derive information about nuclear processes at high energy. In particular, an accurate determination is made of the generation spectrum of cosmic ray pions in the atmosphere. It is found that the intensity of pions, I(pπ), of momentum Pπ. may be represented by an equation of the form:- l(pπ)dpπ = A pπ - ɤ dpπ. Where ɤ .2.64, and A is constant for pπ above 4 GeV/c, and is given by the expression. A = 1.82.10(^-4)(pπ/4)0.712 for pπ less than 4 GeV/c. The ratio of positive to negative muons is used to examine the multiplicity of generation of charged pions. The sea-level spectrum has also been used to derive the expected underground depth-intensity relation - this is found to be in good agreement with that directly measured, indicating that the assumed form of energy loss of muons is correct.


This paper presents the design and fabrication of a single-layer out-of-plane thermal actuator. The step-bridge structure design enables bending and then buckling of the actuator in the out-of-plane direction by Joule heating. Moreover, the moving direction of the actuator can be specified by the step structure. In summary, the step-bridge actuator design has the following five merits: (1) The load-deflection relation is easily tuned; (2) the bistable buckling behavior is prevented; (3) the unwanted vibration modes can be suppressed; (4) the delamination problem is prevented; and (5) the bridge structure is stiffer and more stable. The actuator and its application on a lens positioning stage have been implemented using p++ Si layer by bulk micromachining. It demonstrates that a typical actuator would move upward with an amplitude near 13 mum when driven at 54 mW.


Analysis of the propagation of measurement error into a computed quantity such as building aerial emissions provides insight into which measurements are most critical and which would have the most impact on the computed quantity if improved. An analysis of different instrument measurements, sampling periods, and sites together comprise an objective means of determining optimal sampling strategies for measurements used to compute aerial emissions from livestock facilities. This article describes the uncertainty analysis for a measurement system used in emissions research, and how it can lead to improvements in measurement system design and implementation to obtain estimates of uncertainty in emissions. The system analyzed was used in a broiler house emission monitoring project that was part of the U.S. EPA Air Consent Agreement. The project required U.S. EPA category I Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) Data Quality Objectives (DQO), which were developed from this uncertainty analysis. Results of the uncertainty analysis suggest that the combined standard uncertainty in ammonia emission from broiler houses in the study was typically less than 6%; it increased with uncertainty in ventilation rate, but decreased as ventilation rate and number of fans running increased. The combined standard uncertainty was quantified for normal measurement conditions (Case 1) and for conditions in which the instrumentation was at the calibration threshold (Case 2). A key conclusion was that, for the measurement system employed in this project, uncertainty in the measurements associated with ventilation rate are the major contributors to emissions rate uncertainty (ranging from 78% to 98.9% of combined standard emission uncertainty).


Anorexia is one of the most common symptoms of patients with advanced cancer and it presents as loss of appetite due to satiety. On the other hand, cachexia is described in those patients with unwanted weight loss. Cancerous processes produce an energy unbalance by decreased food intake and increased catabolism, resulting in a clearly negative balance. Several factors determining cachexia are observed, from metabolic unbalances produced by tumoral products and endocrine impairments or the inflammatory response produced by cytokines, all of them leading to higher lipolysis, loss of muscle protein, and anorexia. Besides, causes of anorexia are multiple, from chemotherapy agents, radiotherapy, or immunotherapy, which may produce different degrees of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and also leading to impairments of taste and smell, to obstruction of the digestive tract, pain, depression, constipation, etc. From the knowledge of the different mechanisms producing the anorexia-cachexia syndrome, hypercaloric diets for artificial nutrition have been studied with varying success, and different drugs with a positive effect on appetite gain such as progestogens, steroids, and with lesser clinical evidence cannabinoids, cyproheptadine, mirtazapine (antidepressant), and olanzapine (antipsychotic). Other drugs have been studied because of their anti-inflammatory properties, anti-cytokine, such as melatonin, polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, pentoxifylline, and thalidomide; with the exception of the latter, clinical data are still scant for daily usage. Similarly happens with testosterone-derived anabolic drugs or with metabolism inhibitors such as hydrazine sulfate. With no doubt, progestogens, especially megestrol, and corticosteroids will be first-line therapies for anorexia-cachexia syndrome to stimulate the appetite and increase weight (megestrol), and have an effect on quality of life improvement and comfort in patients with advanced cancer.


In vivo dose localization in light ion tumour therapy can be performed by measuring the range distributions of beta+ active ions in tissue employing positron emission tomographic techniques. For this purpose a multiplicative iteration scheme for reconstructing three-dimensional images from shift-variant, limited-angle data is presented. In the iterative correction steps the algorithm uses the geometric means of quotients calculated from the three-dimensional Radon transforms of the backprojected measured and approximated source distributions. When sources measured with poor statistics are reconstructed, an effective noise suppression is achieved.


This paper investigates the effect of tax harmonisation on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Findings of a first attempt to investigate the linkage between taxation (tax rates and policy) and FDI (in all 15 countries), using an eclectic panel data modeling approach from 1990-2010 are presented. A new value added tax (VAT) harmonisation variable is introduced (in addition to a corporate income tax (CIT) harmonisation variable) via a tax policy harmonisation measure (TPHM) in the panel empirical investigation, complemented by a sensitivity analysis (using the extreme-bound analysis (EBA) technique) on the impact of taxation on FDI inflows to the SADC. The investigation shows that when errors in the regressors (for instance contemporaneous correlation, heteroskedasticity, cross-sectional dependence, endogeneity) are controlled for, tax harmonisation (amongst other contributing factors) does indeed have a significant causal relationship with FDI in the SADC. The study generally provides empirical evidence to support the argument for effectively using taxation towards higher FDI inflows in the region. Policy considerations towards improved tax harmonisation emanating from the paper include the need for individual SADC governments to promote national tax policies aimed at supporting regional tax harmonisation objectives, through strengthening existing tax agreements and treaties. This is necessary to reduce disparity in tax rates (including the definition of tax bases), improve existing level of tax co-movement, mitigate tax leakages and promote FDI inflows.


In December 2005 the first national guideline for palliative sedation in the Netherlands was published. This guideline was developed by a committee of the Royal Dutch Medical Association, at the request of the Dutch government. The guideline defines palliative sedation as 'the intentional lowering of consciousness of a patient in the last phase of his or her life'. According to the guideline the objective of palliative sedation is to relieve suffering, and lowering consciousness is a means to achieve this. It is very important that palliative sedation is given for the right indication, proportionally, and adequately. It is the degree of symptom control, not the level to which consciousness is lowered, which determines the dose and combinations of the sedatives used and duration of treatment. The assessment and decision-making processes must focus on adequate relief of the patient's suffering, so that a peaceful and acceptable situation is created. Palliative sedation is given in the last phase of life, in the imminently dying patient. Palliative sedation raises several legal questions. In this article we describe the structure and contents of the guideline, with special attention for the main legal issues involved, like the distinction between palliative sedation and euthanasia and the process of informed consent.


The idea that hunter–gatherer societies experience more frequent famine than societies with other modes of subsistence is pervasive in the literature on human evolution. This idea underpins, for example, the 'thrifty genotype hypothesis'. This hypothesis proposes that our hunter–gatherer ancestors were adapted to frequent famines, and that these once adaptive 'thrifty genotypes' are now responsible for the current obesity epidemic. The suggestion that hunter–gatherers are more prone to famine also underlies the widespread assumption that these societies live in marginal habitats. Despite the ubiquity of references to 'feast and famine' in the literature describing our hunter–gatherer ancestors, it has rarely been tested whether hunter–gatherers suffer from more famine than other societies. Here, we analyse famine frequency and severity in a large cross-cultural database, in order to explore relationships between subsistence and famine risk. This is the first study to report that, if we control for habitat quality, hunter–gatherers actually had significantly less—not more—famine than other subsistence modes. This finding challenges some of the assumptions underlying for models of the evolution of the human diet, as well as our understanding of the recent epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus.


The counterfactual method, which can be used to assess the effects of an actual or a hypothetical event, has always played an important role in EU competition law. It has recently gained further traction as the Commission endeavors to adopt an effects-based approach under Articles 101 and 102 TFEU. Counterfactuals are discussed in various Article 101 guidelines and in the Article 102 Guidance Paper. In June 2013 the Commission published a Communication and a Practical Guide on quantifying antitrust damages, which contain a detailed analysis of various counterfactuals. In this paper, we examine the use of the counterfactual method in EU merger control. The goal of EU merger control is to prevent transactions that would significantly impede effective competition. As pointed out in the Horizontal Merger Guidelines, in order to evaluate the effects of the transaction the Commission conducts a counterfactual analysis by "compar[ing] the competitive conditions that would result from the notified merger with the conditions that would have prevailed without the merger". The term "counterfactual" refers to the hypothetical scenario in which the merger would not take place. If the Commission finds the counterfactual to be significantly more pro-competitive than the merger scenario ("the factual"), it would oppose the transaction unless the parties offer adequate remedies.Because EU merger control normally takes place prior to the implementation of the merger, the counterfactual in merger cases is usually the status quo ante, i.e., the situation that exists at the time when the Commission reviews the merger. However, in certain circumstances the Commission has adopted a more dynamic interpretation of the counterfactual. This dynamic approach was initially developed in the context of the "failing firm" defense and was later expanded to certain other scenarios.In the next section, we discuss static and dynamic counterfactuals and demonstrate that the dynamic counterfactual is a manifestation of the prospective analysis of mergers. In subsequent sections, we discuss two main categories of dynamic counterfactuals:• Market exit counterfactual: this comprises scenarios in which in the absence of the transaction the target would go bankrupt (failing firm defense) or would be acquired by another operator. In these scenarios, the Commission seeks to determine whether in the absence of the transaction competition would deteriorate even more than in the event of the transaction.• Market entry counterfactual: in this scenario, the Commission seeks to determine whether in the absence of the transaction competition would improve because one of the parties would enter the relevant market on its own.We conclude that the Commission's approach to the "market exit" counterfactual is generally satisfactory. Recent cases such as JCI/Fiamm demonstrate that the Commission is capable of conducting a sophisticated analysis of the non-merger scenario in which the target exits the market. Conversely, we believe that the Commission's analysis in cases involving potential market entry is too static and should evolve in the direction suggested by the EDF/Segebel case.


"["A Commentary on Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness"] represents, I believe, a very important beginning of a deservingly serious effort to make the whole of "Being and Nothingness" more readily understandable and readable. . . . In his systematic interpretations of Sartre's book, [Catalano] demonstrates a determination to confront many of the most demanding issues and concepts of "Being and Nothingness." He does not shrink-as do so many interpreters of Sartre-from such issues as the varied meanings of 'being, ' the meaning of 'internal negation' and 'absolute event, ' the idiosyncratic senses of transcendence, the meaning of the 'upsurge' in its different contexts, what it means to say that we 'exist our body, ' the connotation of such concepts as quality, quantity, potentiality, and instrumentality (in respect to Sartre's world of 'things'), or the origin of negation. . . . Catalano offers what is doubtless one of the most probing, original, and illuminating interpretations of Sartre's crucial concept of nothingness to appear in the Sartrean literature."-Ronald E. Santoni, "International Philosophical Quarterly"


It is well acknowledged that molecular oxygen (O2) constricts vascular tissue under physiological conditions. In hypoxia, the decrease in partial pressure of O2 (pO2) within the tissue may be due to either a reduction in O2 supply or an increased O2 demand. The pulmonary circulation responds to a decrease in O2 by inducing vasoconstriction, whereas the systemic circulation induces vasorelaxation. Systemic vasorelaxation in hypoxia occurs by one of two presumed mechanisms, direct, in which smooth muscle cells can no longer sustain adequate contraction, or indirect, in which vasodilatory molecules are produced. Since the early 1990's, several laboratories worldwide hypothesised that the vasodilatory molecules released under hypoxic conditions originated from the red blood cell (RBC). Several mechanisms have been proposed to date, including nitrite (NO2-) reduction by haemoglobin (Hb) to nitric oxide (NO), S-nitrosation of Hb to S-nitrosohaemoglobin (HbSNO) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) binding to P2Y receptors on the vascular endothelium. Although there has been extensive research within this field, a clear mechanism by which vasorelaxation occurs is yet to be fully elucidated. Therefore, the aims of this thesis were to determine the vasodilatory specie(s) released from RBCs and the mechanism by which vasorelaxation occurs.
Myography experiments were conducted using dissected rabbit thoracic aortae. Rings were equilibrated at various O2 concentrations, directly influencing tissue pO2. Bolus administration of oxygenated RBCs, isolated Hb or Krebs-Henseleit (KH) buffer to pre-constricted hypoxic rings induced a transient relaxation which was immediately followed by a post-constriction of equivalent magnitude. Interestingly, oxygenated KH buffer alone could induce relaxation of aortic rings in a similar manner to RBCs and Hb, demonstrating that O2 itself relaxes hypoxic vascular tissue. In addition, the extent of vasorelaxation was inversely related to the tissue pO2.
Oxygenated KH buffer alone induced vasorelaxation in hypoxic pre-constricted rings pre-incubated with NOS inhibitor, L-NMMA, indicating an endothelium-independent mechanism. Subsequent experiments investigated the role of soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) in the context of these findings. A number of studies have shown that sGC does not bind O2. However, the results present herein demonstrate that O2 can stimulate an enhanced activity of soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), increasing the production of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). Importantly, this could occur in the absence of NO but was found to be dependent upon the presence of haem.
In order to compare O2-induced vasorelaxation in a vessel with an alternative function, the left anterior descending (LAD) artery was dissected from porcine hearts. Hypoxic pre-constricted LAD rings relaxed 20% more to a bolus of oxygenated RBCs or KH buffer compared to rabbit aortic rings and this was not due to an increased expression of sGC within the smooth muscle. Further experiments aimed to show whether vessel size had an effect upon the magnitude of O2-induced vasorelaxation in hypoxia. O2 induced a greater vasorelaxation in rings of smaller inner diameter. In conclusion, the results within this thesis show a direct relaxant effect of O2 that is mediated via the sGC-cGMP pathway and suggest a role for O2 in response of vascular smooth muscle in acute hypoxia.


This study investigates the characteristic of rice straw/high density polyethylene injection grade at various rice straw compositions. Rice straw is produced as by product of rice cultivation and is unique relative to other cereal straws in being high lignin and high in silica. A lignocellulosic material rice straw was used as the fiber in the biocomposites and high density polyethylene (HDPE) injection grade as the matrix. Rice straw was oven dried at 70°C for 24 hours, grinded and sieved to obtain the 250um in particle size. A counter rotating twin shaft high speed mixer was utilized to mix the rice straw and HDPE. The blends were then compounded on corotating and intermeshing twin screw extruder. Various formulations were prepared 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% of fiber contents. The compounded biocomposite were injection mold into test specimens to analyse their process ability after analyzing the compound for its melt flow index (MFI). Chemical structure of the biocomposite was analyzed on FTIR whereas the thermal characteristic on the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry analysis (TGA). The water absorption characteristic was also determined. MH indicates that up to 50% rice straw loading, the biocomposite is able to be injected and within the injection grade specification. The higher the rice straw content, the lest thermally stable th biocomposite becomes and the lower is the melting point. Thermal behaviour also indicated that the suitability of processing HDPE/rice straw biocomposite is below 200°C depending on the rice straw composite.


We describe the clinical and MRI findings in a 22‐year‐old male patient with absence of the cerebellum, an extremely rare anomaly. Clinical features included ataxia of limbs, gait and stance, cerebellar oculomotor signs. MRI evaluation showed minute remnants of cerebellar tissue corresponding to the anterior quadrangular lobules. Nine previous cases of total or subtotal cerebellar agenesis have been reported, including Combettes's first report in 1831. We report an additional case and provide MRI of this unusual anomaly detected during life. Diagnosis in this case was made on the basis of MR findings. To our knowledge, this is the fifth report of this disorder being diagnosed in a living patient.


The ligament of Mya arenaria allows the valves to open normally and permits a rocking movement of the valves about a dorso-ventral axis to take place. This movement, which makes burrowing possible, is also associated with the divarication of the posterior end of the shell to allow the withdrawal of the siphon.

A method of determining the resistance of various marine soils, ranging from clean sand to offshore mud, to the opening of the valves of M. arenaria is described. Even in the offshore mud, which is much less resistant than the sand, the opening moment of the ligament is approximately 6 times too small to cause the valves to gape.

Records have been made of the opening of the valves of M. arenaria when loaded experimentally to varying degrees. A closing pattern of activity was observed with loads applied not exceeding the opening moment of the ligament, and with greater loads an opening pattern. The opening of the valves, in the latter instance, is found to be associated with a sudden increase in the water pressure in the mantle cavity. The increase in pressure is shown to be of the correct order of magnitude to open the valves of Mya in muddy sand by the application of a steady force. The liquefaction of the sand surrounding the lamellibranch, possibly by the expulsion of water through the pedal opening, would greatly facilitate the opening of the valves.


We present a detailed examination of the variational principle for metric general relativity as applied to a "quasilocal" spacetime region M (that is, a region that is both spatially and temporally bounded). Our analysis relies on the Hamiltonian formulation of general relativity, and thereby assumes a foliation of M into spacelike hypersurfaces Σ. We allow for near complete generality in the choice of foliation. Using a field–theoretic generalization of Hamilton–Jacobi theory, we define the quasilocal stress-energy-momentum of the gravitational field by varying the action with respect to the metric on the boundary ∂M. The gravitational stress-energy-momentum is defined for a two–surface B spanned by a spacelike hypersurface in spacetime. We examine the behavior of the gravitational stress-energy-momentum under boosts of the spanning hypersurface. The boost relations are derived from the geometrical and invariance properties of the gravitational action and Hamiltonian. Finally, we present several new examples of quasilocal energy–momentum, including a novel discussion of quasilocal energy–momentum in the large-sphere limit towards spatial infinity. Chapel Hill and Raleigh, October 2001


Modern superscalar processors often suffer long stalls because of load misses in on-chip L2 caches. To address this problem, we propose hiding L2 misses with Checkpoint-Assisted VAlue prediction (CAVA). On an L2 cache miss, a predicted value is returned to the processor. When the missing load finally reaches the head of the ROB, the processor checkpoints its state, retires the load, and speculatively uses the predicted value and continues execution. When the value in memory arrives at the L2 cache, it is compared to the predicted value. If the prediction was correct, speculation has succeeded and execution continues; otherwise, execution is rolled back and restarted from the checkpoint. CAVA uses fast checkpointing, speculative buffering, and a modest-sized value prediction structure that has about 50% accuracy. Compared to an aggressive superscalar processor, CAVA speeds up execution by up to 1.45 for SPECint applications and 1.58 for SPECfp applications, with a geometric mean of 1.14 for SPECint and 1.34 for SPECfp applications. We also evaluate an implementation of Runahead execution---a previously proposed scheme that does not perform value prediction and discards all work done between checkpoint and data reception from memory. Runahead execution speeds up execution by a geometric mean of 1.07 for SPECint and 1.18 for SPECfp applications, compared to the same baseline.


This article examines issues of assessment and management of seismic risk in Bulgaria in recent years. It presents the views of the authors also from their positions in the leadership of the former Expert Council on Assessment and Management of Seismic Risk (AMSR) of the Scientific Coordinating Council (SCC) serving the Government Commission for Population Protection against Disasters, Accidents and Catastrophes (GCPPDAC). Some basic knowledge on earthquake sources, seismicity and seismic zoning of the Bulgarian territory is given. Effects of seismic excitations on different types of structure are presented. The report is illustrated with original photographs of the destruction and damage caused by the impact of earthquakes in our country and adjacent lands over the past three decades. Considering the high level of seismicity and vulnerability of the Bulgarian territory some conclusions and recommendations on seismic risk mitigation of structures are made.


Abstract As a result of the scientific concerns of the Doctoral School of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics at Valahia Târgovişte University in the field of robotics dedicated to security and surveillance, the scientific work "Intelligent Cyber- Mixmechatronic Micro-System for Monitoring and Controlling the Security and Surveillance Robots" is in the testing and experimentation phase, within the doctoral (industrial) thesis "Studies, research and contributions regarding the realization of a smart mecatronic robot for security and surveillance applications". The scientific work results in a highly efficient cybermixmecatronic system, unique in Romania, which will be used to control the mechatronic security and surveillance robot, respectively the propulsion and control of its displacement. The robot is controlled through Artificial Intelligence, using the Internet of Things (IoT), which is why the Intelligent Motion Control system must be optimized both in terms of response speeds and energy. At the same time, due to the varied and possibly unstable conditions of the displacement field, the system must meet stringent criteria of reliability, resilience, weather, stability and redundant solutions for on-site repair of potential failures during missions. The cybermixmecatronic system designed to move the robot must carry it safely at the mission site so that it can then return it back to the Command and Control Center. In the paper will be presented the original solution, applicable with minimum of specific modifications (according to the chassis used), to any type of robot requiring both operator-controlled or autoguid control. Thus, a complex project will be realized combining into a unitary Mechatronics, Integronics, Cyber-Mixmechatronics, Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology.


The authors present a general argument for the political representation of non-humans that sits under the broad umbrella of ecocentrism but that does not rely on one specific non-anthropocentric ethical theory. As such, they hope to help move the debate towards a consensus on the need for such political representation. The argument itself has two main prongs. The first is an empirical one: It has the potential to give more effective representation of non-human interests than the alternative of simply having those interests accounted for through internalization within human needs and wishes. The second combines empirical and normative elements: It can add to the development of Earth jurisprudence by envisioning political decision-making processes that are broadly inclusive, so that the protection of non-human interests does not rely solely on legal protection in terms of, for example, tools employed during court hearings on a case-by-case basis. Two illustrative examples are presented, and the work of the the Global Ecocentric Network for Implementing Ecodemocracy (GENIE) is introduced.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/


Amyloid-beta (Abeta) protofibrils are known intermediates of the in vitro Abeta aggregation process and the protofibrillogenic Arctic mutation (APPE693G) provides clinical support for a pathogenic role of Abeta protofibrils in Alzheimer's disease (AD). To verify their in vivo relevance and to establish a quantitative Abeta protofibril immunoassay, Abeta conformation dependent monoclonal antibodies were generated. One of these antibodies, mAb158 (IgG2a), was used in a sandwich ELISA to specifically detect picomolar concentrations of Abeta protofibrils without interference from Abeta monomers or the amyloid precursor protein (APP). The specificity and biological significance of this ELISA was demonstrated using cell cultures and transgenic mouse models expressing human APP containing the Swedish mutation (APPKN670/671ML), or the Swedish and Arctic mutation in combination. The mAb158 sandwich ELISA analysis revealed presence of Abeta protofibrils in both cell and animal models, proving that Abeta protofibrils are formed not only in vitro, but also in vivo. Furthermore, elevated Abeta protofibril levels in the Arctic-Swedish samples emphasize the usefulness of the Arctic mutation as a model of enhanced protofibril formation. This assay provides a novel tool for investigating the role of Abeta protofibrils in AD and has the potential of becoming an important diagnostic assay.


Analyses 68 unique titles of Baba translated works published between 1889 and 1950. The titles are held in the libraries of the University of Malaya (UM), Science University Malaysia (USM), National University of Malaysia (UKM), the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), National University of Singapore (NUS), National Library of Singapore (NLS) and the British Library (BL). The results reveal three periods of active publication of Baba translated works. A total of 18 works were translated before World War I, followed by 10 just after the war, 39 titles were published before the break of the World War II and 1 was identified in 1950. There were 103 persons involved in the 68 translated works, some of whom are responsible for more than one title. The most prominent translators were Chan Kim Boon, Wan Boon Seng, Seow Chin San and Lee Seng Poh. Some of the translators were also be editors, illustrators or editors. There were 31 publishers and 21 printing presses involved, all were located in Singapore. The most active publishers were Wan Boon Seng, Kim Seck Chy Press and Nanyang Romanised Malay Book Co. The translated works mainly cover historical classical Chinese stories, chivalrous stories, romances, folklore and legends. The titles were priced between 10 cents to 2 dollars in Straits currency. The University of Malaya Library held the largest number of unique title (62) out of which 15 were unique titles.


The aerodynamic characteristics of the source of voicing during phonation were investigated using a larynx model. An experimental setup consisting of a uniform cylindrical tube partitioned by a flexible wall with an opening, which was made geometrically similar to the human glottis, was built. Two pushrods mechanically forced the opening to close and open with a cycle approximating that of human folds during voicing. A regulated air supply connected to a flexible hose filled with mineral wool simulated the action of the lungs, pressurizing the subglottal tube. Flow velocities within the jet formed at the orifice discharge and in the subglottal tube were measured using hot‐wire anemometry. Dynamic subglottal and supraglottal pressure, glottal area, and mean flowrate were also measured. The results show how the dynamic flow resistance of the glottal opening, defined as the ratio of the instantaneous pressure drop across the opening and the instantaneous flowrate, compares with the steady‐state resistance of...


In May 2005, the Scottish Centre for Language Teaching and Research (SCILT) undertook a government-funded nationwide survey of approximately 1500 pupils in the S3 cohort of Scottish secondary schools. Pupils in 47 randomly selected Scottish secondary schools completed a questionnaire that explored their career aspirations and how these related to their views on language learning. The responses of S3 pupils are significant because the government's educational policy A Curriculum for Excellence is proposing to give pupils in this year group the opportunity to have a greater say in their subject choices. The findings provide useful indicators for government officials, head teachers, careers advisers and language teachers in Scottish secondary schools.


The article focuses on Karl Marx's notion of alienation and its application to questions of ecology. By contrasting this notion with its existential critique made by Paul Tillich, as well as to Rob Nixon's concept of slow violence, I demonstrate how the notion of alienation can be applied to non-human species as well. I will first describe the structure of alienation by examining the theory that Marx provided originally in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844; by relating alienation to slow violence, I will then show how alienation can be applied to various environmental and non-human spheres. Reflecting on this through Paul Tillich's critique of Marx's theory of alienation will enable me to consider the possibility of using theology to traverse teleology. By using Tillich's nonteleological conception of theology, I will reconsider the idea of alienation from a standpoint which takes the existential condition of both humanity and non-humanity into deliberation. Finally, I will briefly bring Tillich and Marx into dialogue with contemporary thinkers, who have recently examined similar questions. This shows how the application of the theory of alienation allows us to re-examine various current dilemmas of inter-species encounters.


Yogurt is traditionally consumed throughout the world among populations who are seemingly unable to digest lactose. This review provides a historical overview of the studies that show lactose digestion and tolerance from yogurt by lactose-intolerant people. The lactose in yogurt is digested more efficiently than other dairy sources of lactose because the bacteria inherent in yogurt assist with its digestion. The bacterial lactase survives the acidic conditions of the stomach, apparently being physically protected within the bacterial cells and facilitated by the buffering capacity of yogurt. The increasing pH as the yogurt enters the small intestine and a slower gastrointestinal transit time allow the bacterial lactase to be active, digesting lactose from yogurt sufficiently to prevent symptoms in lactose-intolerant people. There is little difference in the lactase capability of different commercial yogurts, because they apparently contain Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus in sufficient quantities (10(8) bacteria/mL). However, Lactobacillus acidophilus appears to require cell membrane disruption to physically release the lactase. Compared with unflavored yogurts, flavored yogurts appear to exhibit somewhat reduced lactase activity but are still well tolerated.


Infrared emissivity of capacitive frequency-selective surfaces is affected by many factors, such as metal area, emissivity of medium part, surface roughness, metal oxidation, and surface cleanness, etc. In this paper, the influence of metal area and emissivity of medium part on the emissivity of CFSSs were depicted in detail. Furthermore, a kind of radar and IR compatible stealth sandwich structures, radar absorbing properties of which were calculated by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, were designed and prepared. We conclude that emissivity of CFSSs will be below 0.3 while metal area is above 80% and radar reflectivity of fabricated sandwich structure will be below -10dB in 8-18GHz.


ABSTRACT Sutherland, T.F.; Sterling, A.M.; Shaw, K.L.; Blasco, N.N.J., and Bradford, M.J., 2019. Detecting indicator taxa associated with benthic organic enrichment using different video camera orientations. Journal of Coastal Research, 35(2), 467–479. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Two video cameras mounted on a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) were used to generate paired forward-facing (FF) and downward-facing (DF) observations of benthic epifauna along 10 single transects at eight marine finfish aquaculture sites in British Columbia, Canada. The abundance of mat-forming primary indicators of organic enrichment, such as sulphide-oxidizing bacteria and opportunistic polychaete complexes (OPC), were quantified through percentage coverage estimates. Coverage estimates for sulphide-oxidizing bacteria were strongly correlated between the FF and DF orientations across all substrate types. The occurrence of OPC was limited to a single mixed-substrate site, which provided the strongest FF vs. DF relationship within this study. In contrast to sulphide-oxidizing bacteria, epifaunal abundance (count data) revealed strong relationships between camera orientations for fine sediments and mixed sediments and a weaker relationship observed for vertical rock wall environments. Similar observations occurred for estimates of both sessile (dominated by plumose anemones) and motile taxa guilds comprising the total epifaunal community. Weaker relationships associated with the rock wall substrate are likely due to alternating blackout periods experienced by each camera orientation as the ROV passes vertical or ledge habitat zones. Overall, a combination of FF and DF video orientations may provide more robust abundance estimates for settings that are characterized by various substrate grades and structural and/or mat-forming taxa.


We revisit the assembly block storage location assignment problem (ABSLAP) at a shipyard, in order to compensate for the deficiency in performance verification of the heuristic ABSLAP algorithm developed by the previous study. In this article, we formulate a mathematical programming model of the ABSLAP, refine elaborately the heuristic ABSLAP algorithm and show the performance of the developed mathematical programming model and the revised heuristic ABSLAP algorithm. In addition, we explain simulation experiments conducted using the revised heuristic ABSLAP algorithm to investigate the influences of block stockyard layouts and production schedule instability on the block stockyard operations.


WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is the IEEE 802.16 standards-based wireless technology, provides Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) for Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN). The Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) mechanism in WiMAX uses a feedback channel for the confirmation of error-free packet delivery or for packet retransmission request. This method can increase network throughput when radio channel condition is worse. In this paper attempt has been made to study the effect of implementation of ARQ on the performance of WiMAX network through simulation. Simulation study has been carried out for WiMAX network with and without enabling ARQ. The performance is been compared by considering the performance metrics like throughput, delay and jitter.


Multipactor in WR-284-like geometries is measured utilizing local and global detection techniques. To emulate conditions one may find in a waveguide filter structure while maintaining the fundamental microwave mode, a standard rectangular waveguide geometry with the reduced waveguide height set to 2.1 or 5.5 mm was adopted. Two high power RF sources were used to investigate a large range of input power (few kWs to MWs): a solid state source using GaN HEMTs allowing for larger pulse widths than standard magnetrons (100  μ s as opposed to ∼4  μ s) and a MW level S-band coaxial magnetron for the high power end. Particular interest was taken in capturing the lower and upper limits of multipactor threshold. Lower multipactor thresholds for finite pulse duration are governed by the appearance of one or more electrons in the multipactor gap during the applied pulse as well as a minimum power (electric field) level that affects a secondary electron emission yield above unity. As shown, such initial electrons(s) may easily be seeded via an external UV source illuminating the gap. However, wall collisions of excited metastable molecules may be another source of electrons, an observation based on the experiment and prior research. A multipactor upper threshold was non-existent in the experiment, even at powers over 200 kW within a 2.1 mm test gap, which numerically yielded a gap transit time significantly shorter than one half-period of the GHz wave. This is attributed to the electric field distribution within the waveguide structure, which results in the multipactor's spatial position moving to more favorable locations within the test gap.


and Implications Three dairy open houses as part of June Dairy Month events were conducted to provide the public the opportunity to experience and learn first-hand about the efforts made daily on modern dairies to achieve cow care, cow comfort and health, hygienic milking procedures, local cropping systems that provide quality feed for the dairy herd, manure management and land stewardship, respect for family and non-family workers, and overall quality and safety of milk and dairy products. These events were a product of industry partnerships. The three events reached 4200+ participants. Surveys performed at one event showed that many participants had trust in dairy farmers and the dairy industry prior to the event, but post tour surveys showed enhancement in their knowledge of modern dairy practices that assure animal health and comfort, product quality and safety, and environmental stewardship and preservation.


Many counterinsurgent tribal militias emerged during the second civil war in Southern Sudan. Existing studies give the impression that formation of these groups was largely a top-down process. Focusing on the rise of the Fertit militia and relying on a series of in-depth interviews with tribal leaders, this article challenges that assumption. The article shows that the emergence of the Fertit militia was principally a grassroots phenomenon stemming from local tensions and conflicts. The article discusses the wider applicability of these insights and, generally, proposes a more nuanced approach to the study of counterinsurgent militia formation. The approach suggests simultaneous attention to state interventions and local interactions.


Recently, it was demonstrated that 3,5-diiodo-L-thyronine (T2) stimulates the resting metabolic rate (RMR), and reduces body-weight gain of rats receiving a high-fat diet. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of chronic T2 administration on basal metabolic rate and body weight in humans. Two euthyroid subjects volunteered to undergo T2 administration. Body weight, body mass index, blood pressure, heart rate, electrocardiogram, thyroid and liver ultrasonography, glycemia, total cholesterol, triglycerides, free T3 (FT3), free T4 (FT4), T2, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and RMR were evaluated at baseline and at the end of treatment. RMR increased significantly in each subject. After continuing the T2 treatment for a further 3 weeks (at 300 mcg/day), body weight was reduced significantly (p<0.05) (about 4 percent), while the serum levels of FT3, FT4 and TSH, were unchanged. No side effects were observed at the cardiac level in either subject. No significant change was observed in the same subjects taking placebo.