The Crozet Plateau is situated below typical high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll (HNLC) waters of the southern Indian Ocean. The area to the east of the Crozet Islands experiences high levels of surface productivity during the austral summer due to natural iron enrichment from terrestrial sources and favourable light conditions. The demersal scavenging fauna at two areas of contrasting productivity, to the east and south of the islands, were investigated using two landers equipped with baited cameras and traps. Five species of scavenging fish were observed along with five groups of invertebrates during a single deployment of the RObust BIOdiversity (ROBIO) lander. Further deployments of the Fish RESPirometry (FRESP) video lander yielded no additional scavenging fish species. A modelled arrival and departure curve for the abyssal grenadier Coryphaenoides armatus suggests a region of low food availability compared to other regions worldwide. The ROBIO-derived abundance estimate for C. armatus of 187 ind. km –2 is comparable with published trawl-derived estimates. Significantly more amphipods were collected to the south of the islands, which was subject to lower organic matter supply. Reasons for this are unknown but may be due to differing current direction/velocities, or increased fish predation at the enriched site. The numerically dominant amphipod species present was Paralicella caperesca , followed by Eurythenes gryllus and Orchomenella gerulicorbis . A further five species were observed in low numbers, some occurring only once. One, Paracallisoma sp. nov, was a new species. Keywords: amphipods, Crozet Islands, deep water, marine fish, scavengers African Journal of Marine Science 2013, 35(2): 299–306


When collecting annotations and labeled data from humans, a standard practice is to use inter-rater reliability (IRR) as a measure of data goodness (Hallgren, 2012). Metrics such as Krippendorff's alpha or Cohen's kappa are typically required to be above a threshold of 0.6 (Landis and Koch, 1977). These absolute thresholds are unreasonable for crowdsourced data from annotators with high cultural and training variances, especially on subjective topics. We present a new alternative to interpreting IRR that is more empirical and contextualized. It is based upon benchmarking IRR against baseline measures in a replication, one of which is a novel cross-replication reliability (xRR) measure based on Cohen's (1960) kappa. We call this approach the xRR framework. We opensource a replication dataset of 4 million human judgements of facial expressions and analyze it with the proposed framework. We argue this framework can be used to measure the quality of crowdsourced datasets.


Investigations have been carried out for naturally occurring radionuclides in surface soils in selected regions of the Northern State of Sudan, in response to widely spread rumours of elevated levels of radioactivity causing higher than normal incidence of cancer in that area. Eighty surface soil samples were collected from different regions in the Northern State and their activity concentrations were measured by a high-purity germanium detector gamma spectrometer system. From the data obtained the mean values and standard deviations of the radionuclide activities were calculated. From the activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K radionuclides the external absorbed dose rate in air and the annual effective dose were calculated.The radium equivalent activity and the external hazard index were applied for estimating the radiation hazards of soil used as building material. The mean activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in different regions of the Northern State were found to be 82.6 + 6.8, 26.0 + 2.9 and 726.4 + 72.0 Bq/kg, respectively.The average outdoor gamma absorbed dose rate in air at 1meter above ground was calculated as 84.6 + 7.1 nGy/h. The average annual effective dose equivalent for population in the regions under study was found to be 103.7 + 8.7 Sv/y. The external hazard index was found to be 0.48 + 0.04.


OBJECTIVE
Hormone leptin inhibits appetite. It decreases hypothalamic expression of orexigenic neuropeptides, agouti-related peptide (AgRP), and neuropeptide Y (NPY). Pregnancy and lactation are characterized by hyperphagia. Food intake regulation during pregnancy and lactation is poorly understood. The aim of the work was to estimate hypothalamic expression of NPY and AgRP in pregnant and suckling mice and correlate it with food intake and blood leptin level.

MEASUREMENTS
Daily food intake, and levels of leptin in blood and mRNA of AgRP and NPY in hypothalamus on day 7, 13, 18 of pregnancy, 10, 21 of lactation in C57B1/6J female mice and in age-matched virgin females.

RESULTS
In the course of pregnancy, food intake increased, leptin level decreased on day 7 and increased on day 18, NPY expression was increasing until day 13 and then remained unchanged, AgRP expression increased on day 18 of pregnancy. In suckling females, food intake continued to grow, but levels ofleptin and NPY and AgRP expression decresed and became equal with that in virgin females.

CONCLUSION
In pregnant mice, hyperphagia results from NPY followed by AgRP expression activation, in suckling mice--from other mechanisms which are not connected with changes in expression of these neuropeptides.


Abstract Thermal history is a major factor in determining hydrocarbon prospectivity in the Irish Sea region. Early application of Apatite Fission Track Analysis (AFTA®) to exploration wells revealed early Tertiary palaeotemperatures around 110°C or more. More recent studies in the Irish Sea and adjacent areas, using a combination of AFTA and vitrinite reflectance (VR), have revealed at least three additional palaeo-thermal episodes: pre-Permian (>290 Ma), late Permian to mid-Triassic (260 to 220 Ma) and Early Cretaceous (140 to 110 Ma). Other evidence of early paleo-thermal effects, for which timing is only constrained to the interval 300 to 150 Ma, may reflect these or additional episodes. In some areas, early effects involved extremely high palaeogeothermal gradients. Early Cretaceous gradients are unconstrained due to a lack of wells in which palaeotemperatures reflect this episode. Early Tertiary palaeotemperatures derived from AFTA and VR in wells from the southern part of the East Irish Sea Basin define a consistent linear depth profile with a gradient of only 10°C km−1. Wells from the north of the region also define a broadly consistent profile but with a much higher gradient. The low gradients are thought to reflect flow of hot fluids while the high gradients to the north may be associated with igneous activity in that region. Our preferred interpretation of the early Tertiary palaeo-thermal effects involves a combination of burial by around 1.5 to 2 km of post-Triassic sediment and the thermal effects of hot fluid flow, probably from north to south and associated with igneous activity. This interpretation is consistent with geological evidence and is supported by structural data, sonic velocity data and geochemical observations. Different combinations of these episodes lead to a wide variety of thermal history styles across the region. The southern part of the East Irish Sea Basin, containing major accumulations of oil and gas, is characterized by the most suitable thermal history conditions for generation and preservation of hydrocarbons to the present day. In adjacent regions, thermal histories are more complex, and those identified to date are generally less suitable particularly for preservation of hydrocarbons to the present day. Future exploration in these areas will require a thorough understanding of the thermal history of Carboniferous source rocks in order to define the most prospective regions.


C-peptide, historically considered a biologically inactive peptide, has been shown to exert insulin-independent biological effects on a number of cells proving itself as a bioactive peptide with anti-inflammatory properties. Type 1 diabetes (T1D) patients typically lack physiological levels of insulin and C-peptide and are at increased risk of developing complications affecting the vessels of the eye, the kidneys, and the peripheral nerves. Inflammation is an important factor for the development of diabetes-associated vascular complications, and there is increasing evidence that T1D patients, even at a young age and after short duration of T1D, have circulating activated monocytes and increased plasma levels of inflammatory cytokines. It has been hypothesized that lack of circulating C-peptide might contribute to the development of diabetes-associated vascular complications by reducing the inflammatory response associated with T1D. In this study, we investigated the direct effect of C-peptide on several inflammatory processes of vascular damage, such as endothelial dysfunction and monocyte activation. In an hyperglycaemia-induced model of vascular dysfunction, we found that C-peptide exerted its beneficial effect on a variety of inflammatory events such as cytokines secretions, adhesion molecules expression, oxidative stress generation, and cellular proliferation. Finally, to gain insights on the cell biology of C-peptide, we investigated its process of from the cell surface and its sub-cellular localization in target cells. Our findings indicate that C-peptide internalization from the cell surface within membrane-bound organelles of the endocytic pathway and excluded direct translocation across the plasma membrane. The importance of this finding is that endosomes represent intracellular sites from which C-peptide affects key signaling pathways in target cell. The present evidences favor the view that replacement therapy with C-peptide in T1D patients has a critical public health impact for decreasing diabetic complications. In fact C-peptide therapy replacement offers an approach to retard the development of diabetes-associated vascular complications, for which no causal therapy is available today. Much of the burden of diabetes is due to the development of microvascular complications including retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy. The prevention and treatment of microvascular complications are of critical importance to decrease the associated mortality and morbidity.


Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signalling appears essential for the regulation of limb development, but a full complexity of this regulation remains unclear. Here, we addressed the effect of three different chemical inhibitors of FGF receptor tyrosine kinases (FGFR) on growth and patterning of the chicken wings. The inhibitor PD173074 caused shorter and thinner wing when using lower concentration. Microinjection of higher PD173074 concentrations (25 and 50 mmol/L) into the wing bud at stage 20 resulted in the development of small wing rudiment or the total absence of the wing. Skeletal analysis revealed the absence of the radius but not ulna, deformation of metacarpal bones and/or a reduction of digits. Treatment with PD161570 resembled the effects of PD173074. NF449 induced shortening and deformation of the developing wing with reduced autopodium. These malformed embryos mostly died at the stage HH25–29. PD173074 reduced chondrogenesis also in the limb micromass cultures together with early inhibition of cartilaginous nodule formation, evidenced by lack of sulphated proteoglycan and peanut agglutinin expression. The effect of FGFR inhibition on limb development observed here was unlikely mediated by excessive cell death as none of the inhibitors caused massive apoptosis at low concentrations. More probably, FGFR inhibition decreased both the proliferation and adhesion of mesenchymal chondroprogenitors. We conclude that FGFR signalling contributes to the regulation of the anterior‐posterior patterning of zeugopod during chicken limb development.


The development of petroleum activities in the northern area has brought an increased focus on developing offshore oil spill preparedness. Remoteness and harsh climate dominating large parts of the region pose new challenges compared to the more well established areas further south. The consequences of a major oil spill are high, and to prevent catastrophic environmental damage, sufficient preparedness resources are required. The establishment and operation of a sufficient preparedness regime is expensive, and the need for developing efficient solutions is present. In this thesis, a multistage stochastic programming model is developed, that offers decision support regarding investments related to oil spill preparedness,considering future oil activities. The future activity level in the northern area is highly uncertain, and hence, the activity level is incorporated into the model as stochastic parameters. To the knowledge of the authors, no previous work has modelled the oil spill preparedness problem as a multistage stochastic programming problem that considers future scenarios of oil activity. In addition to strategic investment decisions,the model handles allocation of preparedness systems to bases and standing emergency vessels. A system is defined as a specific combination of oil spill equipment. The allocation of systems is based on predefined requirements for every installation, stating the number of systems that must be present at a spill site within a given number of hours, if an oil spill accident occurs. Offshore response in proximity to the source of the oil spill is the main focus. Several algorithms are developed to preprocess the data, enabling the final optimization model to be a specialised version of the Set Covering Problem. The implemented model is applied to different scenarios of future oil activities in the Barents Sea South and South-East, and the waters around Jan Mayen. In addition to the stochastic model, a deterministic model is executed, to assess the value of the stochastic solution. For the given test case, the stochastic model provides almost no additional value over the deterministic model, which can be explained by the high level of flexibility incorporated into the decision process.


I study how patronage affects the promotion and performance of senior bureaucrats within a global organization: the British Empire. I combine newly digitized personnel and public finance data from the colonial administration 1854-1966 to study the inner workings of a bureaucracy that controlled close to a fifth of the earth's land mass at its peak. Exploiting the ministerial turnover in London as a source of within-governor variation in social connections, I find that governors are more likely to be promoted to higher salaried colonies when connected to their superior during the period of patronage. At the same time, they provide more tax exemptions, generate less revenue, invest less and are less likely to be recognized for their service. The promotion and performance gaps disappear after the abolition of patronage appointments. Exploiting a fixed allocation rule to predict the appointment of connected governors unrelated to colony characteristics, colonies administered for longer periods by connected governors during the period of patronage exhibit lower fiscal capacity today. Exposure to connected governors after the removal of patronage has no long-run impact. JEL codes: O1, M51, D73 ∗I am indebted to Oriana Bandiera and Robin Burgess for their supervision, support and continued guidance. I thank Philippe Aghion, David Atkin, Clare Balboni, Marianne Bertrand, Tim Besley, Michael Best, Michael Burda, Denis Cogneau, Jeremiah Dittmar, Mikhail Drugov, James Fenske, Thiemo Fetzer, Ewout Frankema, Maitreesh Ghatak, Leander Heldring, Anders Jensen, Matt Lowe, Darryl Lundy, Sam Marden, Luis Martinez, Alexander Moradi, Elias Papaioannou, Raul Sanchez de la Sierra, Sandra Sequeira and Daniel Sturm for valuable comments. I thank Huseyin Aydin, Michael Devine, Roisin Hannon, Elena Holtkotte, Jonas Jessen, Mouchen Liu and Bethany Nelson for excellent research assistance. This paper has benefited from comments of seminar participants at the LSE, HU Berlin, RES Sussex, TADC, IGC Growth Week, Verein fuer Socialpolitik Heidelberg, EBE Summer Meeting Munich, EEA-ESEM Geneva, EDP Jamboree UPF, Uppsala, EUDN at ULB, PSE and Warwick. This paper supersedes the earlier version entitled "Social Connections and the Performance of Bureaucrats: Evidence from the British Empire". Financial support from STICERD and the IGC is gratefully acknowledged. All errors remain my own. London School of Economics, Department of Economics and STICERD, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom (e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com)


Pleural, pericardial, and peritoneal effusion specimens present diagnostic challenges and clinical opportunities for cytology. For the patient, these specimens may be the first diagnosis of malignancy or the first sign of disease recurrence. This review aims to provide useful approaches with which to resolve key difficulties in cytologic diagnosis through the use of ancillary studies, focusing on immunohistochemistry. These approaches are suggested in concert with clinical, radiographic, and morphologic findings. The differentiation of reactive mesothelial cells from malignant mesothelioma and adenocarcinoma is a recurring theme, and Wilms tumor 1 (WT1)/AE1/AE3, claudin 4, and BRCA1‐associated protein 1 (BAP1) immunostains are useful new tools in the armamentarium. A targeted workup is suggested for patients with no known primary site or with multiple prior malignancies. Molecular and other biomarker testing can be performed on even modestly cellular fluid specimens and may allow patients to benefit from targeted therapy without the need for additional tissue biopsies. Cancer Cytopathol 2018;000:000‐000. © 2018 American Cancer Society.


Mental toughness has been associated with factors related to psychological wellbeing, but little is known about its relationship with stigma toward mental health and mental health help-seeking. This study investigated the relationship between mental toughness, sport-related wellbeing, and personal stigma toward mental health in a sample of 154 NCAA Division I student-athletes. The moderating effect of mental toughness on the relationship between public stigma and self-stigma toward mental health help-seeking was also explored. Mental toughness was significantly and positively associated with sport-related wellbeing, but not significantly related to personal stigma toward mental health. Moderation analysis indicated that mental toughness was not a significant moderator of the relationship between public stigma and self-stigma, but higher levels of mental toughness were significantly associated with lower levels of stigma toward mental health help-seeking. Building mental toughness may be a way to increase wellbeing and reduce stigma toward help-seeking in student-athletes.


An isopolyoxovanadate catalyst [C(8)H(17)N(CH(3))(3)](3)H(3)V(10)O(28) shows high catalytic activity in oxidation of dibenzothiophene (DBT) to its corresponding sulfone using molecular oxygen as oxidant under mild reaction conditions. This is potentially a promising approach to achieve ultradeep desulfurization of fuels (e.g. diesel) because the sulfones can be more conveniently removed from the fuels by either extraction or selective adsorption.


We selected lactic acid bacteria to reduce cholesterol levels in vitro and in vivo. Among the 140 strains tested, a strain ID9201 was shown to reduce cholesterol in the spent medium over 30% and to increase cholesterol in cell pellet. A strain ID9201 isolated from breast milk-fed Korean infant feces was identified as Enterococcus faecium on the basis of morphological analysis, biochemical analysis (API kit), and 16S rDNA sequence analysis. A freeze-dried powder of the strain was fed to Sprague-Dawley(SD) rats with high cholesterol diet for 6 wk. In the control group fed cholesterol enriched diet without probiotics, the serum cholesterol increased by 1.9 times in comparison with the initial value. Among the test group, ID9201 group showed the lowest cholesterol increase, 1.5 times of initial serum cholesterol, as in the blank group fed normal diet without probiotics. Based on these data, we assumed that ID9201 inhibited intestinal absorption of dietary cholesterol.


Mechanisms of droplet production from bursting bubbles have been extensively studied for single bubbles, but remain sparsely investigated in more complex collective settings. We discuss jet and film drop velocity-size relationships from physics-based mechanisms as a potential means to further differentiate between various mechanisms and correctly de-termine the drops origin. We report dynamical experiments of drop production by bursting bubbles in single and collective setups. In the collective bubbling experiment, subsurface quasimonodisperse bubbles are rising up to the surface where, depending on the surfactant concentration, they can either merge or assemble in rafts of monodisperse bubbles. Drop trajectories are recorded, analyzed, and shown to exhibit uniquely distinctive features for the different production mechanisms: centrifuge film drops are ejected sideways, and jet drops are ejected vertically. Different single-burst scalings are finally compared to the experimental size-velocity relationships, and reveal that drops coming from collective bubble bursting appear slower and more scattered than when coming from single bursting bubbles.


This article focuses on the work of Bible 'advocacy' carried out by the Bible Society of England and Wales. It describes how the Society's first 'Campaign to Culture', held in Nottingham, highlighted the Bible as something that a secular public might recognize as a relevant and important source of ideas and issues, quite apart from its religious significance. As the author suggests, these campaigns can be seen as part of a strategic secularism—the process by which religious actors work to incorporate secular formations into religious agendas.


Field learning is an important aspect of geoscience education to teach or reinforce concepts and skills, and the highly social experience of field work can improve learning outcomes, create networks to support future academic success, and promote a sense of belonging in the geosciences. However, field learning presents significant barriers to participation for students with physical disabilities. The introduction of digital data collection and communication devices into traditional field work settings has created new opportunities to expand access to field learning experiences such as remote collaboration; a method of undertaking field work through collaborative teamwork and the use of digital communication technology.
This mixed-method study examines the factors that influence academic and social engagement when implementing remote collaboration into a residential field learning experience for students with a range of physical abilities. The results of a quantitative video analysis indicate that cumulatively, levels of academic engagement for students using remote collaboration and participating directly in the field were similar, however the results for individual participants were highly variable. An examination of two students who participated in field work with partial direct access and remote access reveal significant differences in how engagement levels varied between the two approaches and highlight the importance of choosing inclusive strategies that are best suited to each student's learning style and unique needs. Survey results indicate that students found the digital environment of remote collaboration conducive to positive social interaction. An analysis of interview and observation data indicates that potential influences on engagement include the academic background of participants, academic inclusion and support from faculty, social inclusion from peers and the development of cohesive team identities and goals, the ways in which technology was utilized, and student agency in making choices regarding the means of participation and level of physical engagement. The results of this evaluation indicate that remote collaboration has the potential to be an engaging means of participation that enables a more physically diverse student population to be active participants in geoscience field learning environments.


Unsatisfactory performance of pile supported structures in liquefiable areas (ranging from tilting/settlement to complete collapse) is still observed after most major earthquakes. As a result, further research is required in this subject. This thesis therefore aims to study the response of pile supported structures during seismic liquefaction. The ground liquefies progressively in a top down fashion when the soil transform from solid material to liquid-like material. This is referred to as transient behaviour (from no-liquefaction to full liquefaction state) and is particularly focused in this work.
In practice, piles are usually analysed as laterally loaded beams using Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation model where earthquake loading is applied in a pseudo-static way. Therefore, this study reviews methods of analysis of laterally loaded pile. Six different field case records were analysed using different approaches and the results were compared.
Large scale shake table experiments were also conducted consisting of four pile models (two single piles and two pile groups of 2×2) placed in a rigid soil container with energy absorbing boundaries. Redhill-110 sand was used and earthquake motions were applied to liquefy the soil. It was observed that the bending moment along the piles changed with the progression of liquefaction and the maximum bending moment occurred in the transient phase. It was also observed that the time taken to reach liquefaction may affect the amplification of the bending moment.
Design of piles requires soil parameters and as a result, a series of multi-stage soil element tests were carried out on four different types of sands; Redhill-110 sand, Japanese silica sand No. 8, Assam sand, and Ganga sand where the sands were first liquefied and then tests were carried out to obtain stress-strain of liquefied sand (post-liquefaction). The results showed that the post liquefaction behaviour of sand depends on the soil relative density. Furthermore, the results from the Redhill-110 sand were used to back analyse the shake table test results. Finally, a method has been proposed to incorporate transient behaviour of pile in liquefiable soils, based on an assessment of the estimated dynamics amplification factors in the shake table tests.

Keywords: Dynamic soil-pile interaction, Liquefaction, Shake table test, multi-stage soil element test, transient dynamics, dynamic amplification factors.


CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access), which resolves contentions over wireless networks in a fully distributed fashion, has recently gained a lot of attentions since it has been proved that appropriate control of CSMA parameters guarantees optimality in terms of system-wide utility. Most algorithms rely on the popular MCMC (Markov Chain Monte Carlo) technique, which enables one to find optimal CSMA parameters through iterative loops of simulation-and-update. However, such a simulation-based approach often becomes a major cause of exponentially slow convergence, being poorly adaptive to flow/topology changes. In this paper, we develop a distributed iterative algorithm which produces approximate solutions with convergence in polynomial time. Our approach is motivated by a scheme in statistical physics, referred to as the Bethe approximation, allowing us to express approximate solutions via a certain non-linear system with polynomial size. We provide numerical results to show that the algorithm produces highly accurate solutions and converges much faster than prior ones.


The influence of an inclined cooling plate utilized as a modification in the compocasting process of aluminum alloy is studied in this paper. Based on the crystal separation theory, molten A356 is poured on the inclined copper plate in order to produce solidification nuclei inside the fluid metal, which is, then, mechanically stirred while reinforcement is added through its surface. Carbon nano fibers (CNF) and particulate SiC were utilized as reinforcement, in quantities varying from 0.5 to 15vol%. Dispersion of the reinforcements was observed by macro and microstructure analysis. For CNF, addition of quantities up to 1vol% resulted in homogeneous dispersion through the matrix, although SEM analysis showed the presence of clusters of up to 50μm in some points of the samples. SiC was properly mixed into matrix until 10vol%. Globular crystals were obtained, but some coarsening occurred, especially for small quantities of reinforcement. Utilization of the inclined cooling plate produced good inclusion and homogenization for two different reinforcements through an A356 matrix. The best results were obtained for a 180mm cooling plate, with inclination of 60o. The pouring temperature utilized was 10oC over the melting point of the alloy, and temperature of the tundish was kept around 598oC during stirring.


In this study, bearing strengths of bolted joints with different clearances are compared. Woven-glass-epoxy prepreg composites are tested under two different bolt-bearing conditions. The geometry of the samples for bolted joints is suitably varied in order to find the limit for width-to-diameter (W/d) and edge distance-to-diameter ratios (E/d), which are necessary to avoid unsafe failure modes. Damage progression is examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM) on specimens with mixed (bearing+net tension) mode for different percentages of their ultimate failure load. It is observed that the clearance between the bolt and hole has an important influence on the failure load of mechanically fastened joints.


An optimal soccer training, among many objectives, should allow both the improvement of VO2max, or the maximum oxygen supply, and of the anthropometric data. The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of intermittent training, interval training and steady state training methodologies on VO2max and BMI of the players. The sample was made up of 30 young amateur players (age, Mean ± standard deviation [SD] = 16 ± 0.74 years old) randomly divided into three 3 groups of 10. Each group performed a different resistance training methodology for 3 months: group 1 performed intermittent training, group 2 interval training and group 3 steady state training. The parameters taken into consideration were BMI and VO2max, obtained from Gacon test. Paired Sample T Test was performed to check the difference between pre and post 12 training weeks of each group regarding VO2max and BMI. A 3x2 mixed ANOVA was used to test for differences in training programs induced changes in maximal strength and functional capacity variables. The independent variables included one between-subjects factor (training intervention) with three levels (IT, HIIT, and SST), and one within-subject factor (time) with two levels (pre- and post-intervention). A significant difference (p0.05) between pre and post all of the three training protocols on VO2max was found, but no significant interaction (p>0.05) between group and time. BMI had no significant improvement (p>0.05). Intermittent, interval and endurance training all were equally effective improving VO2max, but not BMI.


The detection of license plate region is the most important part of a vehicle's license plate recognition process followed by plate segmentation and optical character recognition. Edge detection is commonly used in license plate detection as a preprocessing technique. This paper compares the performance of the image enhancement filters when used in edge detection algorithms combined with connected component analysis to extract license plate region. The experimental comparison of Canny, Kirsch, Rothwell, Sobel, Laplace and SUSAN edge detectors on gray scale images shows that Canny yields high plate detection of 98.2% tested on 45,032 UK images containing license plates at 720×288 resolution captured under various illumination conditions. The average processing time of one image is 56.4 ms.


Background: Elderly are those who have been aged 60 years and above. At this time there are changes in their bodies as a result of the aging process. These changes will affect the elderly needs of energy and nutrients such as protein, calcium, and iron that different from the nutritional needs of younger age groups. Consumption of energy and nutrients that are not in accordance with the recommendation will lead to multiple nutritional problems in the elderly that have an impact on the health status of the elderly.
Method: This study used a cross-sectional approach. Primary data were collected by questionnaire and interview based on 24 hour recall form, while the secondary data were collected by recording. The population in this study was all listed as members of the elderly residents at the time of the study . Samples numbered 45 elderly people taken using consecutive sampling technique of all the elderly who refered to the inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Result: Results showed that the energy and nutrients intake by the elderly were still below the recommended RDI. The result showed that 48,9% of elderly had a moderate energy intake, 40% of the elderly had a good intake of protein 35,6% of elderly had iron intake in the deficit category and 100% of elderly had a deficit of calcium intake. Most elderly in different age groups had a moderate energy intake. Protein intake of elderly in different age groups was in good category. Calcium intake of elderly by age groups had calcium intake deficit. Iron intake of elderly was in poor category, while iron intake of old elderly was deficit.
Conclusion: From these results, it was known that there were elderly that the energy and the other nutrients intake were less than the recommended RDI that required counseling and information provision by health professionals to both the elderly and the clerk about the importance of nutrition for the body, especially the energy, protein, calcium and iron .
Keywords: Energy Intake, Protein Intake, Calcium, Iron Intake, the Elderly.


The paper analyzes various scientific approaches to assessing the effectiveness of enterprise management. The advantages and disadvantages of using the four most common methods of assessing the effectiveness of enterprises are substantiated, such as 1) comprehensive assessment based on the methods of economic analysis; 2) analysis based on experimental estimates; 3) using the scoring method; 4) assessment based on testing. Given the fact that currently there is no single approach to assessing the effectiveness of enterprise management, including agricultural enterprises, the article proposes the author's method of assessing the effectiveness of management in agricultural enterprises. This methodology assumes that the effectiveness of management in agricultural enterprises is determined by integrating three indicators: economic efficiency of management, social efficiency of management, and organizational efficiency of management. The proposed methodology includes the gradual integration of partial 19 indicators in terms of economic, social, and organizational efficiency. Analysis of this phenomenon was conducted based on agricultural enterprises of the Ivano-Frankivsk region aimed at testing the developed methodology for assessing the effectiveness of management. The paper presents the research of the influence of the number of employees on the level of management efficiency in agricultural enterprises, the influence of enterprise size (by land area) on the level of management efficiency in agricultural enterprises, and the influence of average employment per 100 hectares of agricultural land on the level of agricultural management. The research was done using the grouping method. According to the results of the study, it was established that the developed methods for assessing the effectiveness of the management of agricultural enterprises can be used in practice.


An antifungal antibiotic, FR207944, was isolated from the culture broth of a fungal strain Chaetomium sp. no. 217. FR207944 is a triterpene glucoside with antifungal activity against Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida albicans. Specifically, FR207944 exhibits in vitro and in vivo antifungal activity against A. fumigatus. The effects of FR207944 on the morphology of A. fumigatus were shown to be similar to those of FR901379, a known 1,3-glucan synthase inhibitor. The MECs of FR207944 against A. fumigatus FP1305 and C. albicans FP633 in micro-broth dilution test were 0.039 and 1.6 g/ml respectively. FR207944 showed good potency by subcutaneous injection and oral administration against A. fumigatus in a murine systemic infection model, with ED50s of 5.7 and 17mg/kg respectively.


This report was produced by the CSIS Nuclear Consensus Working Group (NCWG) to assist the Obama administration in forging, during its second term, an enduring consensus about the U.S. nuclear posture. The report includes (1) seven individual statements from nuclear thinkers and practitioners across the "broad middle" of the spectrum of opinion on the role and value of U.S. nuclear weapons, the U.S. nuclear posture needed for this defined role, and a political strategy for sustaining the recommended posture; (2) a consensus statement signed by eight members of the NCWG; (3) A description of the process used by the NCWG to forge the signed statement, which includes the lessons learned from the facilitation process; and (4) A case study covering 2008-2012, which provides both a chronology of past attempts to broker consensus about the U.S. nuclear posture and the working group's assessment of the lessons learned.


Data from the SABLES98 experimental campaign (Cuxart et al., 2000) have been used in order to study the relationship of the probability distribution of velocity increments (PDFs) to the scale and the degree of stability. This connection is demonstrated by means of the velocity structure functions and the PDFs of the velocity increments. Using the hypothesis of local similarity, so that the third order structure function scaling exponent is one, the inertial range in the Kolmogorov sense has been identified for different conditions, obtaining the velocity structure function scaling exponents for several orders. The degree of intermittency in the energy cascade is measured through these exponents and compared with the forcing intermittency revealed through the evolution of flatness with scale. The role of non-homogeneity in the turbulence structure is further analysed using Extended Self Similarity (ESS). A criterion to identify the inertial range and to show the scale independence of the relative exponents is described. Finally, using least-squares fits, the values of some parameters have been obtained which are able to characterize intermittency according to different models. Correspondence to: J. M. Vindel (firstname.lastname@example.com)


Ion-specific interactions between two colloidal particles are calculated using a modified Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) equation and Monte Carlo (MC)simulations. PB equations present good results of ionic concentration profiles around a macroion, especially for salt solutions containing monovalent ions. These equations include not only electrostatic interactions, but also dispersion potentials originated from polarizabilities of ions and proteins. This enables us to predict ion-specific properties of colloidal systems. We compared results obtained from the modified PB equation with those from MC simulations and integral equations. Phase diagrams and osmotic second virial coefficients are also presented for different salt solutions at different pH and ionic strengths, in agreement with the experimental results observed Hofmeister effects. In order to include the water structure and hydration effect, we have used an effective interaction obtained from molecular dynamics of each ion and a hydrophobic surface combined with PB equation. The method has been proved to be efficient and suitable for describing phenomena where the water structure close to the interface plays an essential role. Important thermodynamic properties related to protein aggregation, essential in biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, can be obtained from the method shown here.


This paper aims at exploring which factors may promote or inhibit the empowerment of international parliamentary institutions (IPIs). According to the literature (Cutler 2006), an IPI may be defined as an international institution that is a regular forum for multilateral deliberations on an established basis of an either legislative or consultative nature, either attached to an international organization or itself constituting one, in which at least three states or trans-governmental units are represented by parliamentarians, who are either selected by national legislatures in a self-determined manner or popularly elected by electorates of the member states. Their origin dates back to the creation of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in 1889, but they mushroomed after the Second World War, especially after 1989-1991 (new regionalism, also known as open regionalism especially in literature on Latin America), and today their presence is established almost everywhere in the world. However, they display sensibly different features in terms of institutional and organizational patterns, rules and procedures, legal status, membership, resources, functions and powers. In this sense, the study will mainly explore the formal and actual powers of IPIs, in particular consultative, budgetary, oversight and co-legislative, in order to  analyse whether and how they develop over time. The question to be answered, then, is the following: what are the exogenous (structural) and endogenous factors that may account for the development of IPIs' powers? In this paper, some preliminary findings will be presented.


Inert surfaces can be made reactive, and active surfaces inert, by means of a thin coating of polymer. Such surface films are used in paints, plastic fabrication, corrosion resistive coatings, and medical applications. In her Perspective, Balazs discusses new results reported by Fytas et al. in the same issue (p. 2041) in which the collective motions of polymer chains anchored at a surface have been studied by a powerful optical technique: dynamic light scattering. The data provided by this technique can illuminate the link between microscopic polymer behavior and macroscopic properties of polymer coatings.


This book was a good idea. Writing a history of patient care in the early twentieth century from the perspective of technology makes a refreshing read. Howell has combed through the records of the New York and Pennsylvania hospitals for the first quarter of this century and shows convincingly how technology was increasingly, almost insidiously, built into the management of patients' lives. Management is the right word here. Taking his cue from historians who have, rightly, interpreted technology very broadly, Howell devotes a great deal of his initial space to demonstrating how patients were increasingly managed by off-stage technologies. Punched cards and calculating machines transformed the care of the sick just as much as (maybe more than) the use of the electrocardiograph. Howell does not attempt any comprehensive history but confines himself to a number of case studies: the X-ray machine, urinanalysis, blood counts. Howell also takes in surgery, and in one of the most revealing chapters he addresses the staggering rise in the rate of tonsillectomies early in the century, a rise which he catalogues in impressive detail. In 1900 just over 2 per cent of patients discharged from the Pennsylvania Hospital had been diagnosed as having tonsillar disease. By 1925 the figure had risen to over 25 per cent. Howell's picture of surgery as the apotheosis of streamlined, high-tech, quick-fix medicine dovetails neatly with more general images of North American self-perceptions in the twenties. It would have been helpful if Howell had provided more information on the day-to-day running of the technologies described here. It is never quite clear who is doing the tests, where the clinical laboratory was, who was in control of it and so on. Nevertheless, this is a most valuable study, although the press must obviously bear responsibility for some of the less than comprehensible tables (p. 24 for example).


Objective: To examine the Social Self Preservation Theory, which predicts that stressors involving social evaluative threat (SET) characteristically activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The idea that distinct psychosocial factors may underlie specific patterns of neuroendocrine stress responses has been a topic of recurrent debate. Methods: Sixty-one healthy university students (n = 31 females) performed a challenging speech task in one of three conditions that aimed to impose increasing levels of SET: performing the task alone (no social evaluation), with one evaluating observer, or with four evaluating observers. Indices of sympathetic (preejection period) and parasympathetic (heart rate variability) cardiac drive were obtained by impedance- and electrocardiography. Salivary cortisol was used to index HPA activity. Questionnaires assessed affective responses. Results: Affective responses (shame/embarrassment, anxiety, negative affect, and self-esteem), cortisol, heart rate, sympathetic and parasympathetic activation all differentiated evaluative from nonevaluative task conditions (p < .001). The largest effect sizes were observed for cardiac autonomic responses. Physiological reactivity increased in parallel with increasing audience size (p < .001). An increase in cortisol was predicted by sympathetic activation during the task (p < .001), but not by affective responses. Conclusion: It would seem that SET determines the magnitude, rather than the pattern, of physiological activation. This potential to perturb broadly multiple physiological systems may help explain why social stress has been associated with a range of health outcomes. We propose a threshold-activation model as a physiological explanation for why engaging stressors, such as those involving social evaluation or uncontrollability, may seem to induce selectively cortisol release. ECG = electrocardiograph; HPA = hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal; ICG = impedance cardiograph; PEP = preejection period; RMSSD = root mean square of successive differences; SAM = sympathetic-adrenal-medullary; SET = social evaluative threat; TSST = Trier Social Stress Test.


In this paper, a numerical meshless particle method is presented in order to solve the magnetoencephalography forward problem for analyzing the complex activation patterns in the human brain. The forward problem is devoted to compute the scalp potential and magnetic field distribution generated by a set of current sources representing the neural activity, and in this paper, it has been approached by means of the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method suitably handled. The Poisson equation generated by the quasi‐stationary Maxwell's curl equations, by assuming Neumann boundary conditions has been considered, and the current sources have been simulated by current dipoles. The adopted meshless particle model has provided good results in agreement with the analytical ones and by overcoming the drawback of the mesh generation. The numerical model has been validated, at first, in computing the electric potential and the external magnetic field for a dipole plunged near the upper surface of a homogeneous sphere simulating the human brain. Simulation results obtained by simulating two concentric spheres with different conductivities are also reported. Moreover, in order to better assess the validity of the proposed approach, a realistic human brain cortex model has been also simulated and compared with boundary element method results. A satisfactory agreement has been reached. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Kaizen is one of the foundations in the TPS and a key principle of Lean Production. Adopting Kaizen has proved to be not easy, and even harder to sustain in the long-term. Two other similar methods (Kaikaku and Kaizen blitz) are recently becoming more popular. This study employed fuzzy analytic hierarchy process to pairwise-compare these methods. The data are collected from 28 Sino-Japanese joint ventures experts. The results indicated that Personnel (human resource) is the most important factor for Kaizen, whilst Software (essential rules, policies and institutional arrangements) weights second and Hardware (physical, measurable hard facts or resources) weights last.


Transmittance and monostatic reflectivity of different radar absorbing materials at 650 GHz are presented. The reflectivity was measured in plane-wave conditions in a radar cross-section (RCS) range with vertical polarization. The lowest reflectivity level (-70 dB) was achieved with commercial absorbers TK THz RAM and Firam-500 with oblique incidence angles. Floor carpets were also studied, and the reflectivity level of those was found to be sufficiently low (from -50 to -60 dB) for use in antenna test ranges. Results agree with earlier studies and indicate the applicability of the RCS method in reflectivity measurements also at 650 GHz.


Cancer and healthy cells have distinct distributions of molecular properties and thus respond differently to drugs. Cancer drugs ideally kill cancer cells while limiting harm to healthy cells. However, the inherent variance among cells in both cancer and healthy cell populations increases the difficulty of selective drug action. Here we formalize a classification framework based on the idea that an ideal cancer drug should maximally discriminate between cancer and healthy cells. More specifically, this discrimination should be performed on the basis of measurable cell markers. We divide the problem into three parts which we explore with examples. First, molecular markers should discriminate cancer cells from healthy cells at the single-cell level. Second, the effects of drugs should be statistically predicted by these molecular markers. Third, drugs should be optimized for classification performance. We find that expression levels of a handful of genes suffice to discriminate well between individual cells in cancer and healthy tissue. We also find that gene expression predicts the efficacy of some cancer drugs, suggesting that these cancer drugs act as suboptimal classifiers using gene profiles. Finally, we formulate a framework that defines an optimal drug, and predicts drug cocktails that may target cancer more accurately than the individual drugs alone. Conceptualizing cancer drugs as solving a discrimination problem in the high-dimensional space of molecular markers promises to inform the design of new cancer drugs and drug cocktails.


Background Emails securely exchanged between patients and clinicians offer the promise of improved access to care and indirectly improved health outcomes. Yet research to date is mixed on who—among both patients and clinicians—is using secure messaging. Objective Using data from two large nationally representative cross-sectional surveys, this study aimed to compare the prevalence of secure messaging use among patients and their access to the functionality through their physicians, and to explore the clinical practice and physician characteristics and patient sociodemographic characteristics associated with the use of secure messaging. Methods We conducted regression analyses to identity statistical associations between self-reported secure messaging use and access, and the patient, practice, and physician characteristics from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS). The NHIS data collected between 2013 and 2018, with approximately 150,000 adult individuals, were used to evaluate patient characteristics associated with email communication with clinicians. The NAMCS data included 7340 physicians who reported on secure messaging use between 2013 and 2016 and provided context on physician specialty, use of certified health information technology (IT), and practice size and ownership associated with secure messaging access and use. Results By 2016, two-thirds of ambulatory care visits were conducted by a physician who reported using secure messaging, up from 40.70% in 2013. The percentage of US residents who reported sending an email to their clinician, however, only increased from 7.22% to 16.67% between 2013 and 2018. We observed a strong positive association between certified health IT use and secure messaging use (odds ratio [OR] 11.46, 95% CI 7.55-17.39). Individuals who were black, had lower levels of education, had Medicaid or other public payer insurance, or those who were uninsured had reduced odds for using email to communicate with clinicians. No differences were observed in secure messaging use based on physician specialty, but significant differences were observed by practice size (OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.35-0.60 in solo practices vs nonsolo practices) and practice ownership (P<.001 for the different categories). Conclusions This study is the first to use two large nationally representative surveys to produce longitudinal estimates on the access and use of patient-clinician email communication in the United States. The survey findings complement each other: one provides the patient perspective of their use and the other indicates potential patient access to secure messaging based on the use of the functionality by the physicians providing treatment. This study provides nationally representative data on the characteristics of patients and physicians who have access to and are using secure messaging. This information can be used to target interventions to promote adoption and use of secure messaging.


In order to construct and deploy large-scale multi-agent systems, we must address one of the fundamental issues of distributed systems, the possibility of partial failures. This means that fault-tolerance is an inevitable issue for large-scale multi-agent systems. In this paper, we discuss the issues and propose an approach for fault-tolerance of multi-agent systems. The starting idea is the application of replication strategies to agents, the most critical agents being replicated to prevent failures. As criticality of agents may evolve during the course of computation and problem solving, and as resources are bounded, we need to dynamically and automatically adapt the number of replicas of agents, in order to maximize their reliability and availability. We will describe our approach and related mechanisms for evaluating the criticality of a given agent (based on application-level semantic information, e.g. interdependences, and also system-level statistical information, e.g., communication load) and for deciding what strategy to apply (e.g., active replication, passive) how to parameterize it (e.g., number of replicas). We also will report on experiments conducted with our prototype architecture (named DimaX).


The aim of this study was to describe the types of process of experiential function using by men and women in writing opinion www.kompasiana.com . The research was designed with qualitative descriptive method. The source of the data was men and women's text who wrote their opinion in Bahasa Indonesia, which wrote  at www.kompasiana.com . The data were obtained by implementing analysis. The analysis of this research was interactive method by Miles and Hubermen approach. The research finding showed that the dominant type of process in men's text is relational process, while women's text is material process. It was also found that there are five types of process experiential function in men's text, they are relational process, material process, mental process, verbal process, and behavioural process . while women's text found six types of process they are relational process, material process, mental process, verbal process, behavioural process and existential process. Women use more relational process than men, and it also found women use more material process than men. The total number of the process of experiential function using by men and women in writing opinion at www.kompasiana.com is different but it did not show a significant differences. The reason of the different between men and women is the different brain structure. It means, between men and women have different skill to thinking, sensing and giving opinion. Thus, between men and women are different in using types of process in rubric opinion. Keywords: Social Functional Grammar, Experiential Function, Gender , Men and Women differences


Commentaries and translations have traditionally translated the preposition, "'rr" , in 1 Sam 13,7b as either modifying the subject or indicating the "back" of Saul. However, the preposition is better explained as "following and imitating" so that the army trembled like Saul. Since Saul was afraid of the Philistines, his fear infects the army, which scatters from him. Therefore, Saul, according to the Davidic court historian, is an ineffective military leader.


A flow control mechanism, express virtual channels (EVCs), was recently presented to close the gap between packetswitched networks and the ideal interconnection through virtually bypass intermediate routers. Currently, EVCs paths are inserted regularly. This paper proposes a novel methodology to insert EVCs in an application-specific way (AS-EVC) by exploiting communication characteristics of applications, with the main objective to reduce more NoCs power. Additionally, accurate evaluations were performed based on low-level, synthesizable models. The results on a range of synthetic and real workloads show that up to 23.49% router power is saved by AS-EVC, compared to the baseline design. Also, AS-EVC outperforms static EVCs under all traffics, with 57.14% more power is saved on average for tested Minne-SPEC benchmarks.


Epidemiologic research has shown that prone sleeping is a major risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). In a public health review from Sweden, we explored the historical background of the SIDS epidemic, starting with the view of the Catholic Church that sudden infant deaths were infanticides and ending with the slowly disseminated recommendation of a prone sleeping position during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The story of the SIDS epidemic illustrates a pitfall of preventive medicine--the translation of health care routines for patients to general health advice that targets the whole population. False advice, as well as correct advice, may have a profound effect on public health because of the many individuals concerned. Preventive measures must be based on scientific evidence, and systematic supervision and evaluations are necessary to identify the benefits or the harm of the measures. The discovery of the link between prone sleeping and SIDS has been called a success story for epidemiology, but the slow acceptance of the causal relationship between prone sleeping and SIDS illustrates the weak position of epidemiology and public health within the health care system.


Most soils in nature exhibit some degree of layering, while infiltration theory is largely confined to homogeneous profiles. This study was conducted to describe general infiltration features of a two-layer system, including the often-studied crust case as a limit. The general analytic theory for infiltration models leads to several related robust relations for homogeneous soils. The resulting analytic expressions relate infiltrability, f, to infiltrated water, I. This type of expression is uniquely general in describing the decay of f with I for either saturation or flux boundary conditions, and in describing the onset of ponding for flux boundary conditions. This study explores the applicability of this theory when the soil profile is composed of two layers. A numerical solution of Richards' equation is used as an experimental tool, applied to a general set of possible soil changes that may occur at the layer interface. The special case of layers with "absorption matched" infiltrability parameters exhibits complex behavior when the interface is encountered at large I. The behavior of the layered system exhibits the same unifying f(I) response to flux boundary conditions as does a homogeneous profile, which lends unexpected generality to the I-based analytical infiltration model.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of dietary red grape pomace (RGP) on amino acid digestibility (AIAAD), intestinal microflora, and antioxidant activity in the sera and liver. Sixty-six broilers were housed in battery cages. They were allocated to six cages corresponding to two dietary treatments with three replicates of each treatment. The treatments were administered from 10 to 36 days and included a control diet and a diet containing 1.5% RGP dry powder with the other components remaining unchanged, compared to the control. The RGP had a significant (P < 0.05) positive effect on the apparent metabolizable energy. The majority of coefficients of AIAAD were higher in the RGP. The ileal digestibility of threonine, serine, proline, and glycine was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in RGP. RGP had a positive effect (P < 0.05) on the content of Lactobacillus in the lower part of the ileum. The blood sera of broilers fed RGP had significantly (P < 0.05) lower 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and uric acid content. The RGP at a concentration of 15 g/kg in the grower diet did not affect the growth of broilers, and RGP is suitable for broiler diets to improve gastrointestinal tract functionality.


With the growth in the share of variable renewable energy sources, fluctuations in the power generation caused by these types of power plants can diminish the stability and flexibility of the grid. These two can be enhanced by applying frequency containment using hydropower plants as an operational reserve. The frequency containment in hydropower plants is automatically controlled by speed governors within seconds. Disturbances such as fluctuations in the net head and aging may diminish the performance of the controllers of the speed governors. In this study, model reference adaptive control approaches based on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) rule and Lyapunov method were exploited in order to improve the performance of the speed governor for frequency containment control. The active power control with frequency control was enhanced by the aforementioned adaptive control methods. A mathematical model of a hydropower plant with a surge tank and medium penstock was constructed and validated through site measurements of a plant. It was shown that, as they are applicable in real life, both methods perform significantly better compared to conventional proportional-integrator control. Even in first five deviations, the performance of the conventional controller improved by 58.8% using the MIT rule and by 65.9% using the Lyapunov method. When the two adaptive control approaches were compared with each other, the MIT rule outputted better results than the Lyapunov method when the disturbance frequency was higher; however, the latter was more functional for rare disturbances.


Conditional Cash Transfer, known as Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) in Indonesia, is a program that aims to increase maternal and child health. Women benefit directly from the improved obstetrical and reproductive health care and health information that form an integral part of the program. Many studies show the positive impact of conditional cash transfer on improving prenatal visits and birth weight. The objective of the research was to document the impact of Indonesia's conditional cash transfers (PKH) on prenatal visits and birth weight. We carried out a retrospective cohort study to assess the number of prenatal visits and birth weights among PKH beneficiaries. The data were collected through the KIA books belonging to 184 participants who gave birth between 2012−2017. The results indicate that the mean birth weight among PKH beneficiaries was slightly lower (23.7 g) compared to non-beneficiaries. The PKH program improved prenatal visits for women, but both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries mostly had already made 8-9 times prenatal visits during their pregnancy. In other words, women in this community were already aware of the importance of prenatal visits even before the program. Incomplete data was the main obstacle to comparing the 6, 12, and 24-month-old babies' weights. This finding is irrelevant to other conditional cash transfer programs implemented which showed a significant effect of CCT on birth weight.


The ability of bovine oocytes to undergo parthenogenetic activation using either a Ca++-Mg++-H+ ionophore (A23187) or electric shock was investigated, as a prelude to understanding activation potential following nuclear transfer into ooplasm. Oocytes were collected from slaughterhouse ovaries by aspiration of 1-5-mm follicles. The time of placement into maturation medium was noted, and maturational age (time in culture) measured from that point. After exposure to activating conditions eggs were cultured for a further 12-16 hours, fixed, and stained with aceto-orcein. Oocytes that progressed to telophase or pronuclear formation were considered activated. Concentrations of A23187 ranging from 100 pM to 100 microM showed that 1-100 microM levels resulted in 94-100% activation at 30 hours maturation. Frequency of activation differed from controls (no ionophore) at 100 nM (49%; P less than 0.05). With A23187 maximum response occurred between 26 and 30 hours of maturation (77% and 92%, respectively). A short pulse electric shock, capable of causing oocyte membrane fusion, gave similar results relative to maturational age (82% and 90% activation for 26 and 30 hours, respectively). Therefore, maximum response to the two activating stimuli occurred in oocytes at similar maturational ages. Exposure to activating conditions prior to onset of activating ability (18 hours) followed by another exposure at 26 hours showed that the oocytes were still fully able to activate upon reaching maturational activation competence. Because cytochalasin B is present in the medium used for nuclear transfer, oocytes were incubated with cytochalasin B prior to exposure to an activating stimulus. Frequency of activation was similar to the control treatment (61% and 73%). The effect of mechanical stress of cytoplasm removal and replacement by electrofusion on activation was also not significant. Overall, maturational age of the oocyte was the main determinant of activation ability.


Summary Sixty-four growing steers were used in a split-plot experiment, where the whole plot was pasture, and the split-plot was implants. Whole plot treatment was a 4 × 2 factorial with four levels of fescue (High Endophyte, Low Endophyte, Novel, or Endophyte Free) and two levels of legume (Legumes or No Legumes). The split-plot included four implant levels (No Implant, Synovex One Grass, Revalor-G, Ralgro). Data collected were weights, hair coat scores, hair length, rectal temperature (every 28 days), and ultrasound carcass characteristics coming off grass. Steers on High Endophyte had the lowest average daily gain (ADG), longest hair, and highest temperature as compared to steers on all other fescue types. The gain differentiation was observed beginning at day 56 through the end of the study. Overall, ADG was not impacted by the addition of legume nor implant type. Steers that were not implanted had a longer hair length throughout many measurement dates. Steers grazing pastures with legumes tended to have a higher ultrasound-measured marbling score and less muscle depth. This study found that the best management strategy for fescue toxicity is to use non-endophyte or non-toxic varieties of fescue pasture. Contrary to previous research, the addition of implants and legumes for this project showed no improvement in cattle gains.


The immune response against the intracellular bacterium Listeria monocytogenes involves both CD4 (cid:1) and CD8 (cid:1) T cells. We used the MHC class II-presented peptide listeriolysin 189–201 to characterize the organ-specific CD4 (cid:1) T cell response during infection. Systemic listeriosis resulted in a strong peptide-specific CD4 (cid:1) T cell response with frequencies of 1/100 and 1/30 CD4 (cid:1) splenocytes at the peak of primary and secondary response, respectively. This response was not restricted to lymphoid organs, because we detected specific CD4 (cid:1) T cells in all tissues analyzed. However, the tissue distribution of the T cell response was dependent on the route of infection. After i.v. infection, the strongest CD4 (cid:1) T cell response and the highest levels of memory cells were observed in spleen and liver, the major sites of L. monocytogenes replication. After oral infection, we detected a strong response in the liver, the lamina propria, and the intestinal epithelium. These tissues also harbored the highest frequencies of listeriolysin 189–201 -specific CD4 (cid:1) memory T cells 5–8 wk post oral infection. Our results show that kinetics and magnitude of the CD4 (cid:1) T cell response and the accumulation of CD4 (cid:1) memory T cells depend on the route of infection and are regulated in a tissue-specific way. The Journal of Immunology, 2002, 168: 6382–6387.


In the present study, interactions of age and estrogen in the modulation of cerebrovascular function were examined in small arteries <150 μM. The hypothesis tested was that age enhances deleterious effects of exogenous estrogen by augmenting constrictor prostanoid (CP)-potentiated reactivity of the female (F) cerebrovasculature. F Sprague-Dawley rats approximating key stages of "hormonal aging" in humans were studied: perimenopausal (mature multi-gravid, MA, cyclic, 5-6 mo of age) and postmenopausal (reproductively senescent, RS, acyclic 10-12 mo of age). Rats underwent bilateral ovariectomy and were given estrogen replacement therapy (E) or placebo (O) for 14-21 days. Vasopressin reactivity (VP, 10(-12)-10(-7) M) was measured in pressurized middle cerebral artery segments, alone or in the presence of COX-1- (SC560, 1 μM) or COX-2- (NS398, 10 μM) selective inhibitors. VP-stimulated release of prostacyclin (PGI2) and thromboxane (TXA2) were assessed by radioimmunoassay of 6-keto-PGF1α and TXB2 (stable metabolites). VP-induced vasoconstriction was attenuated in ovariectomized + estrogen-replaced, multigravid adult rats (5-6 mo; MAE) but potentiated in older ovariectomized + estrogen-replaced, reproductively senescent rats (12-14 mo; RSE). SC560 and NS398 reduced reactivity similarly in ovariectomized multigravid adult rats (5-6 mo; MAO) and ovariectomized reproductively senescent rat (12-14 mo; RSO). In MAE, reactivity to VP was reduced to a greater extent by SC560 than by NS398; however, in RSE, this effect was reversed. VP-stimulated PGI2 was increased by estrogen, yet reduced by age. VP-stimulated TXA2 was increased by estrogen and age in RSE but did not differ in MAO and RSO. Taken together, these data reveal that the vascular effects of estrogen are distinctly age-dependent in F rats. In younger MA, beneficial and protective effects of estrogen are evident (decreased vasoconstriction, increased dilator prostanoid function). Conversely, in older RS, detrimental effects of estrogen begin to be manifested (enhanced vasoconstriction and CP function). These findings may lead to age-specific estrogen replacement therapies that maximize beneficial and minimize detrimental effects of this hormone on small cerebral arteries that regulate blood flow.


Universal jurisdiction originated centuries ago in order to prosecute pirates operating on the high seas. Subsequently, its scope was expanded to cover multiple other serious criminal acts, regardless of where they were committed. Belgium and Spain in particular have been active forerunners in commencing prosecutions based on absolute universal jurisdiction – absolute in the sense that the only limiting factor is the gravity of the crime. In the past decade, as a political and legal offset to this exercise of broad extra-territorial jurisdiction, many states, including Belgium and Spain, have begun to narrow the applicability of universal jurisdiction. This has led to the emergence of 'conditional' or 'restrictive' universal jurisdiction: not only linking its application to the gravity of the crime, but also to the nationality or residency of the accused or of the victims. In this article, the author questions whether we can still genuinely consider that the principle conforms to 'universal' jurisdiction if its exercise is limited by conditions other than the gravity of the crime. To provide an answer to this question, the limits and challenges to the concept of universal jurisdiction and methods of its application are analyzed, with reflections on the case law and scholarly discourse. The concluding arguments suggest that while the extension of universal jurisdiction to international crimes through the piracy analogy and the gravity argument have been significant in the development of international criminal law, it is no longer the sole – or the popular – form of jurisdiction. State practice in the exercise of absolute universal jurisdiction has waned, and there is no shared, comprehensive opinio juris on the legal nature of that practice.


Worldwide, lack of data on stream temperature has motivated the use of regression-based statistical models to predict stream temperatures based on more widely available data on air temperatures. Such models have been widely applied to project responses of stream temperatures under climate change, but the performance of these models has not been fully evaluated. To address this knowledge gap, we examined the performance of two widely used linear and nonlinear regression models that predict stream temperatures based on air temperatures. We evaluated model performance and temporal stability of model parameters in a suite of regulated and unregulated streams with 11–44 years of stream temperature data. Although such models may have validity when predicting stream temperatures within the span of time that corresponds to the data used to develop them, model predictions did not transfer well to other time periods. Validation of model predictions of most recent stream temperatures, based on air temperature–stream temperature relationships from previous time periods often showed poor performance when compared with observed stream temperatures. Overall, model predictions were less robust in regulated streams and they frequently failed in detecting the coldest and warmest temperatures within all sites. In many cases, the magnitude of errors in these predictions falls within a range that equals or exceeds the magnitude of future projections of climate-related changes in stream temperatures reported for the region we studied (between 0.5 and 3.0 °C by 2080). The limited ability of regression-based statistical models to accurately project stream temperatures over time likely stems from the fact that underlying processes at play, namely the heat budgets of air and water, are distinctive in each medium and vary among localities and through time.


India is urbanizing rapidly and two of the major issues grappling the urban habitats in India today are issues of water and sanitation. These issues affect the development of urban settlements. The assumption is that these are technical problems thereby technical solutions should be able to address the concern. However, water and sanitation issues are embedded in complex social realities. This is more accentuated in urban poor communities where there are resource, access and equity disparities within and also outside. One of the ways of ensuring sustainable and equitable access to water and sanitation is by facilitating social ownership and developing community based socio engineering and environmentally safe models by building peoples' organization and strengthening community governance structures. This paper attempts at sharing the need for community based water management systems to tackle water inequity issues in society by sharing a case study of 2 ongoing projects on Strengthening Community-Centric Governance through Integrated Water and Sanitation Management in urban Cuttack in the state of Orissa and in the periurban town of Delwara in Rajasthan, both in India. Strengthening participatory local self-governance and improving the quality of life of people through integrated water, sanitation and waste management interventions is the key approach to this model and the paper shares the insights and principles generated from the case studies.


Evacuating a large and complex environment, such as a large passenger vessel, either cruise or RoPax, is a safety-critical task that involves thousands of people in motion and a complex decision-making process. Despite the significant enhancement of maritime safety over the years, various hazards still pose threats to passengers and crew. To deal with this reality, the SafePASS project radically redefines the evacuation process by introducing novel technological solutions. In this context, this paper presents, in detail, an enhanced risk model for the ship evacuation process in order to facilitate the understanding of the actual risks of the process in fire and flooding accidents, and to assess various risk control measures and options toward risk mitigation. The risk model covers the entire event sequence in emergency cases on board, until the survival at sea phase, and it is constructed in two levels, following a combination of event tree analysis and Bayesian networks. Results show the risk corresponds to baseline scenarios for each accident case, which are also verified by relevant IMO and EMSA studies, and an example case of risk control option (RCO) is introduced to the model to demonstrate its ability to assess RCO's efficiency in terms of risk reduction.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Ocular growth and development differs between preterm and term-born infants and may cause long-term negative consequences for visual function, but contemporary data on long-term visual outcomes in representative samples of the highest risk extremely low birth weight (ELBW, <1000 g birth weight) or extremely preterm (EP, <28 weeks' gestation) survivors are lacking. Our objective was to compare visual functioning between ELBW/EP and normal birth weight (NBW, >2499 g birth weight) control adolescents. METHODS: Geographically determined cohort study of 228 consecutive ELBW/EP survivors born in the state of Victoria in 1991 and 1992, and 166 randomly selected NBW controls assessed between 14 and 20 years of age. Visual acuity, stereopsis, convergence, color perception, and visual perception were assessed and contrasted between groups. RESULTS: ELBW/EP subjects had significantly worse visual acuity with habitual correction in both the left and right eyes, and for the best eye (P < .001). The ELBW/EP adolescents also exhibited poorer stereopsis, odds ratio (OR) 3.22 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.78 to 5.84), and convergence, OR 2.76 (CI 1.32 to 5.75) than controls, and more problems with visual perception, OR 3.09 (CI 1.67 to 5.71) after habitual correction. CONCLUSIONS: Despite advances in medical care improving the survival rate of high-risk ELBW/EP infants, visual morbidity is still relatively high compared with controls in late adolescence.


This work presents a study on the procedures for evaluating the quality of imaging display devices in radiology, considering the characteristic luminance curve obtained experimentally versus the Just Noticeable Difference (JND) and the lifetime of digital display devices.

 The evaluations were done using image patterns published by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine on Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM) and the Grayscale Standard Display Function (GSDF), viewed in DICOM software, with various shades of gray. A digital luximeter was used as the luminance meter. A correlation with the time of use of the devices was performed to classify the digital devices as primary (suitable for medical diagnosis) or secondary (suitable only for visualization of medical images).

 Among the monitors evaluated, those with a resolution between 2 and 5 megapixels were classified as primary for up to 50, 000 hours of use, and some above that time limit present behavior equivalent to secondary monitors. Monitoring the temporal evolution of the use of devices is important to avoid errors in medical diagnosis.

 The use of a calibrated digital luximeter with an illuminance unit conversion factor in luminance defined by this equipment was shown to be an alternative to replace a photometer when this latter is not available.


We outlined preliminary Newfoundland and Labrador findings of a four-year cross Canada research project investigating regional development in theory and practice as well as considerations for future potentials in advancing regional development in the province and across the country. The larger project has compared the policies and practices of four provinces: British Columbia, NL, Ontario and Quebec and in specific regions in each province.

Two NL regions were investigated. This allowed for exploration of varying and similar approaches and circumstances within the province, in particular, in the Kittiwake Economic Zone/Gander-New-Wes-Valley Rural Secretariat Region. The report contributes to a greater understanding of the ways "new regionalism" has been and can be applied to the Kittiwake regional context, and how this might facilitate more appropriate regional policies and future practices.

We examined five key themes of regional development and new regionalism. We wanted to see if policy makers and practitioners on the front line were re-focusing on place itself as a development starting point. In the Kittiwake region, we found that geographical landscapes, histories and socio-cultural identities have influenced initiatives, plans and programs. This influence exists on a community scale, but there is little evidence of a region-wide identity. The impacts of transient workers on place-based approaches was also raised in the research as a topic for further study, complementary with the new research initiative – On the Move– at Memorial University. There was little evidence of formal place-based sustainability initiatives other than some watershed related initiatives.

Second, we investigated the extent to which power and development decision-making is shared among different groups at all levels: a key ingredient of governance. Throughout the region it was clear that there was a lack of consistency in what governance meant to different actors. Many multiple community collaborations were taking place, however there was a lack of a coherent region-wide strategy. Local actors have become aware of the need for governance, though it is evident that when collaborations exist between multi-levels of government (federal, provincial, local) and non-government organizations, senior government still maintain the majority of decision-making power.

Third, the role knowledge and innovation play in the development process in the Kittiwake region was explored. Memorial University and the Harris Centre were strong actors for the support of knowledge flows and innovation. Barriers to innovation included: limited access to capital, attraction and retention of human resources, aging rural populations and youth out migration. In monitoring current policies and creating new policies and programs most evaluations remain informal in nature, as are the knowledge claims made by interview respondents.

Rural-urban relationship management was another theme of this research. It was found that rural and urban interactions in the region were usually either more informal associative interactions or solely based on market or bureaucratic agendas. The realization of the economic interdependencies within economic networks in the Kittiwake region has recently become more prevalent, as demonstrated by with branding exercises such as 'Buy Local: Keep it in Kittiwake'.

Finally, we wanted to know the extent to which a wide variety of actors, sectors and issues are integrated into regional development practices. Throughout the Kittiwake region there is the acknowledgement of complexities in planning. However, in regards to multi-objective perspectives, planning, regional development and policies are still strongly economic centric, especially at the federal and provincial level. To date, there is no evidence of an all encompassing Kittiwake/Gander-New-Wes-Valley regional plan.

The components of regional development according to the framework of new regionalism are present to various extents throughout the region, making it inappropriate to make an overall statement regarding the applicability of new regionalism in Kittiwake regional development practice. The Department of Industry, Business and Rural Development, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the Kittiwake Economic Development Corporation (KEDC) were found to be strong region-wide actors. KEDC was found to be the leading organization pursuing an explicit regional agenda in economic development. The closure of the REDB is likely to threaten progress in regional economic development approaches.

We provided several recommendations regarding future regional development policies and practices based on the five themes under investigation in the Kittiwake region. We recognize that further analysis is required and that maintaining continued relationships with our research partners and regional stakeholders is critical in furthering knowledge and community mobilization around a regional development agenda.


In the human genome, cytosine is exclusively methylated at CpG sequences to give 5-methylcytosine. The C4-amino group of 5-methylcytosine is susceptible to spontaneous hydrolysis, generating thymine in a G T mismatch. Thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG) detects the mismatch and cleaves the glycosidic bond of thymine. Then apyrimidinic/apurinic endonuclease 1 (APEX1) displaces TDG from the abasic site and cuts the phosphodiester bond 5' to the abasic site in base excision repair. The kinetic parameters, K<i and k2, for TDG acting on thymine and ethenocytosine substrates, were measured. The excision of both substrates was very dependent upon the base 5' to the mismatched guanine. TDG has a strong preference for both thymine and ethenocytosine in a CpG sequence. This is understandable for thymine since G T mismatches arise in this context. However, ethenocytosine is not exclusively formed at CpG sequences. The catalytic step (k2) for CpG-T was six-fold faster than CpG-eC, but was bound, as shown by Kd, approximately 800-fold less tightly by TDG. This large difference in Kd is probably due to the unstable structure of G sC, which allows TDG to easily flip ethenocytosine out of the DNA. Thus, the reaction of TDG with ethenocytosine in vitro is misleading. This, together with the sequence dependence of ethenocytosine excision by TDG, means that TDG cannot be the main ethenocytosine-DNA glycosylase in vivo. The mechanism of TDG displacement by APEX1 was examined by looking at the involvement of the DNA and by looking for protein-protein interactions between TDG and APEX1. Although the DNA is not absolutely required for the displacement of TDG by APEX1, a weak/transient protein-protein interaction was detected between TDG and APEX1 using a pull-down assay. These results suggest that APEX1 transiently interacts with TDG bound to abasic DNA to induce a conformational change in TDG that dissociates it from the abasic site.


This paper surveys the institutional and operational features of the six modern currency boards. The survey is developed around three key aspects: organisation, operations and legal foundation. By laying out the facts, this survey seeks to shed light on how and why modern currency boards in practice are different from the classic definition, and to distil from their features an updated definition and the revised "rules of the game".


This book, the first of its kind, explores the history and memory of the Northern Ireland conflict as this has impacted upon, and generated engaged responses from, the State, culture and society in Britain. It has four main aims: to investigate the history of responses to, engagements with, and memories of the Northern Irish conflict in Britain; to explore absences and weaknesses or silences in this history; to promote a wider academic and public debate in Britain concerning the significance of this history, and the lessons to be learned from the post-conflict efforts to 'deal with the past' in Northern Ireland; and to provoke reflection on the significance of opening up hitherto unexamined histories and memories of the Troubles, and the ways in which ongoing conflicts between competing understandings of the past might be addressed and negotiated. The book consists of twenty-four chapters by authors working on a wide range of related themes from a diverse range of disciplinary perspectives – social, political and cultural history; politics; media, film and cultural studies; law; literature; performing arts; sociology; peace studies – that are more commonly kept separate in discipline-specific debates. Unusually, the book also includes the voices of political activists, writers and artists, as well as individuals personally affected by the Troubles, writing in forms of memoir, testimony, oral history and reflective essay, that enter into dialogue with analytical inquiry.  The chapters are organised in four thematic sections. Part One addresses perspectives associated with the British State (by no means an undifferentiated entity), and explores differences and tensions in outlook and understanding articulated across a range of political and military voices, from Prime Ministers to the families of British soldiers. Part Two investigates anti-State activisms and traces a hidden history of organisations and campaigns – from the Troops Out Movement and Sinn Fein Britain to feminist groupings and the Labour Movement – through the voices and analyses of former activists. Part Three explores cultural representations of the Troubles in Britain, in readings of news reportage, imaginative fiction, and film from the conflict era that analyse their textual construction and contestation of meaning, and reflect on the significance of these texts from vantage points within post-conflict culture. Part Four considers a range of questions relating to memory, peace-building and 'dealing with the past' in Britain, and explores a number of ways in which those affected by the Northern Ireland conflict have worked to transform its painful and divided legacies, whilst reflecting on the difficulties and continuing contestations that are necessarily encountered in any such endeavour.


Inorganic forms of phosphorus in soils are largely tied up by aluminium (P-Al), iron (P-Fe) or calcium (P-Ca). Numerous selective extraction methods are available to evaluate the uptake of phosphorus by plants. However, a large variety of soil properties will affect the results making one single method in a selected area difficult to use and interpret. The aim of this study is to identify the methods most useful for the extraction of phosphorus in rice soils in Mali and assess which physical and chemical factors affect the results and determine the strength of the selected methods. Seven soils cultivated from the two main rice cultivation areas of Mali, i.e. Office Niger in the Niger Inland Delta and Longorola in the southernmost part of Mali are used in the study. The results obtained show that there are large differences between both soils and extraction methods in mobilised phosphorus. Bray I gave statistically identical values for the Danga soil. Bray I and DA-4 methods gave higher extraction rates on alluvial Seno type soil. Bray II gave high values on Danga, Seno aeolian and Longorola backwater soils. Bray II seems to be relatively less dependent on the physical and chemical properties (pH, organic matter).


Our beliefs about the world are generally not formed in isolation: the inherently social nature of human beings means that much of what we believe to know is based, at least in part, on information gained from others. Consequently, human knowledge and its acquisition cannot be understood fully by considering just individuals. In this paper, we examine the belief dynamics in a group of networked participants engaged in a simple, factual estimation task. Specifically, we examine the extent to which participants revise their own judgments in light of others responses, and compare formal models of that process.


We present a new framework for code-division multiple access (CDMA) communication over fast fading mobile wireless channels. The performance of the RAKE receiver, which is at the heart of existing CDMA systems, degrades substantially under fast fading encountered in many mobile scenarios. Due to the time-varying nature of the fast fading channel, we employ joint time-frequency processing, which is a powerful approach to time-varying signal processing. Whereas the RAKE receiver exploits multipath diversity to combat fading, our framework is based on joint multipath-Doppler diversity facilitated by a fundamental time-frequency decomposition of the channel into independent flat fading channels. Diversity processing is achieved by a time-frequency generalization of the RAKE receiver which can be leveraged into several important aspects of system design. Performance analysis shows that CDMA systems based on the time-frequency RAKE receiver, due to their inherently higher level of diversity, can potentially deliver significant performance gains over existing systems.


Surface cracks with different orientations have been recognized as a major cause of potential failures of thin metal structures, which are often under biaxial loading. It has been known that, for cracked ductile metals, plasticity results in an easing of stress intensity at the crack front and ultimately increases the total fracture toughness of the metal. To enable the use of linear elastic fracture mechanics for ductile material failure prediction, the plastic portion of fracture toughness must be excluded. This paper aims to develop a J-integral based method for determining the elastic fracture toughness of ductile metal plates with inclined cracks under biaxial loading. The derived elastic fracture toughness is a function of the plate and crack geometry, strain-hardening coefficient, yield strength, fracture toughness, biaxiality ratio, and inclination angle. It is found that an increase in yield strength or relative crack depth, or a decrease in Mode-I fracture toughness, leads to a larger ratio of elastic fracture toughness to total fracture toughness. It is also found that the effect of biaxiality ratio and inclination angle on elastic fracture toughness is highly dependent on total fracture toughness. It can be concluded that the developed model can accurately predict the fracture failure of ductile thin metal structures with inclined cracks under biaxial loading.


1Department of Psychiatry, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan; 2Faculty of Nursing, School of Medicine, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan Abstract: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized by ageinappropriate and impairing levels of inattention, hyperactivity, or impulsivity, or a combination of these characteristics. It is estimated to affect around 4% of adults worldwide. In the past few decades, prescriptions for ADHD drugs (psychostimulants and nonpsychostimulants) have increased significantly. However, the efficacy and safety of adult ADHD medications remains controversial. Guanfacine extended-release (GXR) is a nonpsychostimulant ADHD drug that is a selective α2A-adrenergic receptor agonist, first approved for treatment of adult ADHD in Japan in June 2019. Our aim was to provide an overview of GXR pharmacology and review the studies on efficacy and safety that have been conducted in adults with ADHD. The beneficial actions of guanfacine are thought to be attributed to the strengthening of prefrontal cortical network connections, which regulate attention, emotion, and behavior via the activity at post-synaptic α2A receptors. Current evidence of GXR efficacy and safety suggests that GXR is an effective monotherapy treatment option for adults with ADHD.


Primary producers, mainly represented in the marine environment by microalgae, synthesize a wide variety of lipid constituents, some of which are recognized as 'biomarkers' that can be used to identify sources of organic matter. Furthermore, as phytoplankton rapidly reflect climate variations, the identification of organic matter in sediments may help to understand present or ancient specific environmental conditions. To highlight differences in some lipid constituents (hydrocarbons, sterols and fatty acids) of different taxa of microalgae, we determined these compounds in the diatom Cylindrotheca closterium and dinoflagellate Scrippsiella trochoidea isolated from the Adriatic Sea and grown in batch cultures. Total lipids were extracted in chloroform-methanol and, after separation, analysed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The only hydrocarbons present in these species were cis-3,6,9,12,15,18-heneicosahexaene (HEH) and squalene. Analysis of sterols in C. closterium revealed that only 4-desmethylsterols were present. Conversely, in S. trochoidea, 2 different groups of sterols (4-desmethylsterols and 4a-methylsterols) were identified. Besides the fatty acid 16:0, which predominated in both species, high percentages of 16:1n-7 and 20:5n-3 were observed in C. closterium, whereas 18:4n-3 and 22:6n-3 were detected in S. trochoidea. Differences in lipid patterns were observed between C. closterium and S. trochoidea. These differences might help understand the Adriatic Sea Basin's paleoclimatic history.