The liming of sandy soils for the growth of various conifers was studied at the Cloquet Forest Experiment Station in northeastern Minnesota. The soil on which the applications were made belonged to the Omega series which is a Brown Podzolic soil developed from red sandy outwash. Applications were made prior to planting the tree seedlings, and careful growth records were kept for the following 18 years. The residual effects of the various treatments upon the pH of the soils were also established. The application rates varying from 4 to 20 tons per acre had no noticeable effect on the rate of growth of the trees. The residual effects of lime upon the pH of the soil varied with the amount applied and the length of time after application. The pH remained higher for longer periods of time in the upper horizons with heavier applications of lime.


Nitrogen in stainless martensitic steels has a beneficial influence on the mechanical as well as on the chemical properties. However the effect of nitrogen is limited due to the rather low solubility of this element. A special alloy development in combination with a pressurized melting technique lead to distinctly higher nitrogen contents. Stainless martensitic steels containing high nitrogen contents are manufactured by VSG today on an industrial scale using the PESR-process (Pressurized Electroslag Remelting). Depending on special applications these steels are available with different chemical analysis under the trademark CRONIDUR. The basic composition of all CRONIDUR-alloys consists of about 15% Chromium, 1% Molybdenum, 0.15 to 0.35% Carbon and 0.20 to 0.40% Nitrogen. The combination of Cr + Mo + N leads to a superior corrosion resistance of these HNS-steels (HNS: High Nitrogen Steels) in comparison to similar carbon based alloys. Focused on applications with a required minimum hardness of 58 HRC, like stainless bearings or screw shafts, the C+N-content is tuned between 0.60 and 0.80% (Brand: CRONIDUR 30). Additions of max. 0.3% Vanadium and 0.1% Niobium qualifies the brand CRONIDUR 20 for enhanced temperature applications like turbine disks or blades.


We use a hybrid approach which executes ant colony algorithm in combination with beam search (ACO-BS) to solve the Simple Assembly Line Balancing Problem (SALBP). The objective is to minimise the number of workstations for a given fixed cycle time, in order to improve the solution quality and speed up the searching process. The results of 269 benchmark instances show that 95.54% of the problems can reach their optimal solutions within 360 CPU time seconds. In addition, we choose order strength and time variability as indicators to measure the complexity of the SALBP instances and then generate 27 instances with a total of 400 tasks (the problem size beingmuch larger than that of the largest benchmark instance) randomly, with the order strength at 0.2, 0.6 and 0.9 three levels and the time variability at 5-15, 65-75, and 135-145 levels. However, the processing times are generated following a unimodal or a bimodal distribution. The comparison results with solutions obtained by priority rule show that ACO-BS makes significant improvements on the quality of the best solutions.


The research reported here is part of our ongoing effort (Kerpedjiev et al. 1997b; 1997a; Green, Carenini, g5 Moore 1998; Green et al. 1998; Kerpedjiev et al. 1998) to design systems that can automatically generate integrated text and information graphics presentations of complex, quantitative data. In this paper, we take the position that certain types of arguments that can be presented visually in information graphics (e.g., bar charts and scatter plots) can be generated from an underlying media-independent representation of a presentation. In support of this claim, first we briefly describe the architecture we are developing for the generation of integrated text and information graphics presentations. In this architecture, mediaindependent communicative acts are transformed into user task specifications which are the basis for the automatic design of the presentation's graphics. Then we present an example showing correspondences between the media-independent representation of an argument and the tasks that would be used to design a graphic expressing the argument.


Venous leg ulcers can be highly exuding and moisture management is often challenging. The emergence of super-absorbent dressings have been marketed as a tool to manage high levels of exudate, in combination with compression therapy, for the management of venous leg ulcers. Compression bandages are designed to give precise amounts of compression which is calculated by considering the circumference of the limb. Super-absorbent dressings contain a form of polymer that swells as it locks in moisture. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of super-absorbent dressings on sub-bandage pressure. A series of controlled tests were performed using four different super-absorbent dressings which were applied to a volunteer's limb beneath compression bandaging. Sub-bandage pressures were recorded as fluid was introduced to the super-absorbent dressing. The results identified that sub-bandage pressure increases and the pressure profile changes following the expansion of the super-absorbent dressing. Further res...


Purpose To compare sequential versus concomitant surgery of glaucoma drainage implant (GDI) and Boston keratoprosthesis type 1 (KPro). Methods Patients who received GDI and KPro in the same eye were divided into 2 groups: GDI placement prior to KPro surgery (sequential group) or GDI placement concomitant with KPro surgery (concomitant group). Main outcome measures were GDI failure, defined as intraocular pressure (IOP) >21 mm Hg, less than a 20% IOP reduction from baseline, or IOP <5 mm Hg on 2 consecutive follow-up visits, any reoperation for glaucoma, or loss of light perception; best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA); and surgical complications. Results Thirty-five eyes were included in the study: 17 in the sequential group and 18 in the concomitant group. The cumulative incidence of failure after 5 years of follow-up was 23.5% in the sequential group and 27.8% in the concomitant group (p = 0.250). Mean BCVA was significantly better in the concomitant group after 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, and at the last follow-up (p<0.05). Both groups had similar rates of complications (p = 1.000). The most frequent complication was GDI erosion, which occurred in 23.5% (n = 4/17) in the sequential group and in 27.8% (n = 5/18) in the concomitant group (p = 1.000). Conclusions Glaucoma drainage implant placement at the time of KPro surgery had similar cumulative incidence of failure, but significantly favorable visual outcomes, compared to sequential surgeries. The most frequent complication was GDI erosion, occurring in approximately one fourth of the patients.


This paper aims to establish whether there is a significant difference in nutritional status of children in male-headed households, de jure female-headed households and de facto  female-headed households. The study uses a sample of 199 children aged 6 to 60 months, of mothers in reproductive age, derived from 499 smallholder households in rural Kenya. The sample was selected using multi-stage stratified sampling technique. Three indices namely; height/length-for-age z-scores (stunting), weight-for-age zscores (underweight) and weight-for-height (wasting) z-scores were examined on children in two regions (Vihiga and Busia) in western Kenya. However, for the purpose of testing hypothesis, stunting is used due to its strength in measuring long term effect of food scarcity as compared to wasting and underweight which may vary depending on the period the data is collected (seasonal variation). Two-way (between groups) Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is used to analyse the height/length–for-age z-scores against household headship. Household headship is stratified according to whether the husband is present and active in decision making (male- headed household), the husband lives away from the household but maintains regular contact with the family including sending remittances ( de facto female-headed household), or the woman is recognized as head of household because she is a widow, divorced or separated ( de jure  female-headed household). Western Kenya is characterized by relatively high levels of undernutrition despite being classified as a region of high agricultural potential. In addition, there is increasing trend of female-headed households in the region hence the need to demonstrate the effect of household headship on nutritional status of the children. The results indicate that household headship has a large and significant effect on stunting of under five children [F (1, 93) = 4.675, p=.0.012]. More boys (37 %) than girls (33%) were stunted and Busia had more children who were stunted (37%) than Vihiga (25%). The study reaffirms the need to enhance women's control over household resource allocation as one way of enhancing child nutrition in western Kenya. Key words: Intrahousehold, Nutrition, under-five, Kenya.


Klebsiella pneumoniae is a nosocomial pathogen in outbreaks of hospital infections. It is one of the major factors for morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients especially those infected with colistin-resistant pathogens. Many plant essential oils have antimicrobial activities and have been investigated as natural sources to combat multiple antibiotic resistances. Moreover, recent advances in phytonanotechnology have created exciting opportunities for the management of many infections.

 This study aims at investigating the antimicrobial and antibiofilm effect of rosemary and ginger essential oil-based nano-sized formulations on colistin resistant K. pneumonia clinical isolates.

 Isolation and identification of 30 K. pneumonia isolates from different human samples were done followed by antibiotic susceptibility testing and detection of biofilm gene (mrkD). Examination of the activity of the tested essential oils and their chitosan nanoparticle formulations against the selected isolates was made by determination of their MICs using broth microdilution method followed by biofilm inhibition test and quantitative real-time PCR for the expression of mrkD gene in the presence of the oils and nanoparticles formulations compared to untreated bacterial isolates.

 Our results showed that the minimum inhibitory concentration of rosemary and ginger oils was 1250 μg/ml, that of nanostructured lipid carrier-rosemary oil and nanostructured lipid carrier-ginger oil was 625 μg/ml and rosemary oil loaded chitosan nanoparticles and ginger oil loaded chitosan nanoparticles possessed minimum inhibitory concentration of 156 μg/ml. Results also revealed complete (100%) inhibition for mrkD gene expression when compared to untreated K. pneumonia.

 Oil loaded chitosan nanoparticles showed the highest antimicrobial and antibiofilm activity.


In the article by Rylski et al1 in this issue of Circulation , the authors investigate the long-term outcomes of repair for type A aortic dissection in patients with Marfan syndrome.

Article see p 1381

Marfan syndrome is one of the genetic syndromes associated with thoracic aortic aneurysms and aortic dissection. The syndrome is the result of fibrillin-1 gene mutation ( FBN-1 ), which is an autosomal-dominant mutation with variable expression. Fibrillin-1 is a large glycoprotein that serves as a structural component of calcium-binding microfibrils. These microfibrils are present in elastic connective tissue such as the medial layer of the ascending aorta and in nonelastic connective tissue throughout the entire body.

The criteria for Marfan syndrome include the presence of clinical findings in the cardiovascular, ocular, and skeletal systems and a positive family history, even though ≈25% of patients have a negative family history and FBN-1 mutations= status.2

Patients with Marfan syndrome are predisposed to have thoracic aortic aneurysms involving the aortic root, ascending aorta, arch, and descending thoracic aorta. The majority of the patients with Marfan syndrome will present with dilation of the aortic root and ascending aorta, and the degree of severity of the disease increases with the extension of the dilation beyond the ascending aorta.

Current guidelines3 recommend surgical repair for an external diameter of 5.0 cm, unless rapid growth, defined as >0.5 cm/y has occurred or in the presence of significant aortic regurgitation …


A simple and precise stability indicating method for the simultaneous estimation of dapagliflozin and saxagliptin in combined tablet dosage form was developed and validated using RP-HPLC. The chromatographic separation of the drugs was achieved with an Xterra C-18 analytical column (150 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., particle size 3.5 μ) using buffer and acetonitrile (53 : 47 v/v) as the mobile phase. The buffer used in mobile phase contained 20 mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate and its pH was adjusted to 5.5 ± 0.02 with orthophosphoric acid. The instrument was set at a flow rate of 1.2 mL min−1 at ambient temperature and the wavelength of the UV-visible detector was 230 nm. The method showed excellent linearity over a range of 2–14 μg mL−1 for all the drugs. The correlation coefficients for dapagliflozin and saxagliptin were noted to be 0.997 and 0.996, respectively. The mean recovery values were found to be 99.16% and 100.58%. The proposed method could be suitable for quantitative determination of these drugs in pharmaceutical preparations and also for quality control in bulk manufacturing. Stress testing, which covered acid, base, peroxide, photolytic and thermal degradation, was performed on each test to prove the specificity of the method and that the degradation was achieved. No interferences were observed from the stress degradation products. The F-test and t-test at 95% confidence level were applied to the data for statistical analysis.


Pneumonia represents a spectrum of diseases that range from community-acquired to health care-associated pneumonia. Despite advances in diagnosis, antimicrobial therapy, and supportive care, pneumonia remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly in elderly patients and in those with significant comorbidities. Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is the leading cause of death from infectious disease in Korea. This article provides a synopsis of recent studies regarding various types of pneumonia, with a focus on CAP.


Recently the mental health field has seen a groundswell of interest in user perspectives as a crucial element of enlightened research, training and service enhancement. Despite a stated commitment to user empowerment and collaboration, due to a range of ethical concerns there has been relatively little research into the phenomenological, micro-momentary experience of those on the receiving end of therapy. We have failed to mine the rich experience of clients, particularly members of social minority groups. This paper aims to address this gap by shedding light on the intricacies of the therapeutic relationship; the alchemy between a particular professional and client that can lead to profound and transformational change. The paper highlights the somaticpsycho-social-spiritual dimensions to such encounters or "turning points", their autobiographical significance and how these dimensions can usefully be encapsulated and explored within the concept of "epiphany".


The most critical factors for a switching valve in a lightweight, portable hydraulic systems are low pressure drop, low power consumption, fast response time, and small size and weight. In this paper, experimentally validated models are proposed for switching energy required by two valve architectures with minimum pressure drop (ball and butterfly valves). The orifice in a hydraulic valve creates a pressure drop across the valve that needs to be minimized especially for low-pressure passive applications. The ideal switching valve for a hydraulic device is one with an opening diameter that is the same as the hose diameter. Several valve architectures with low pressure drop can be motorized to be used as a digital valve. The valve operation mechanism determines the power consumption of the valve. In this paper, the energy to switch state was modeled for two rotary valve types: butterfly and ball. The model was being used to find the best valve configuration for low-pressure digital hydraulics. The model was validated through experiments on a low-pressure ball valve, a high-pressure ball valve, and a low-pressure butterfly valve. The butterfly valve has the lowest switching energy for the same geometry; however, this valve has a small pressure drop due to the presence of the disc in the open position. We conclude that either ball or butterfly valves are suitable for low-pressure, small-scale hydraulic applications.


At a moment in time when Belgium, both as a signifier of a national identity and as a political construction, is more and more in crisis, a generation of young Dutch-speaking theatre artists, including Ruud Gielens, Raven Ruell and Chokri Ben Chikha, has begun to interrogate concepts of Flemish and Belgian identity by confronting these discursive formations with the hybrid and multicultural day-to-day reality in the country. Their works display attempts to revive - or more accurately, to construct - a theatrical repertoire for a country that, on top of its problematic political identity, does not have a theatrical canon. Their performances investigate the darker sides of Flemish and Belgian history, such as the collaboration with the Nazi-occupation during World War II and the subsequent fierce repression of those collaborators, or the colonial enterprise in Congo. These artists thereby embrace a history that has been (consciously or unconsciously) forgotten. Motivated by their urgent desire to understand the political and cultural complexity of present-day Belgium, they radically expose its gaps and less glorious passages. This article will explore Oom Toon (Uncle Toon, 2007), a triptych directed by Rieks Swarte based on particular events from Flemish theatre history, and Singhet ende Weset vro (Sing and Be Merry, 2006) by Ruud Gielens and his company Union Suspecte, a production inspired by a Flemish songbook of the same name. The two productions disclose their distinct, individual ways of negotiating Flemish history and its mythological afterlife. The article will attempt to contextualize both productions within a longer genealogy and unpack the ways in which they relate to and problematize Flemish heritage and nationalist discourses.


The objective of this study was to determine the effects of 2 differing forage to concentrate ratios (F:C) and various levels of corn dry distillers grain with solubles (DDGS) replacing canola meal in precision-fed dairy heifer rations on chewing behavior, rumen pH and fill, and particle size of rumen contents and feces. A split plot design with F:C as whole plot and DDGS inclusion level as subplot was administered in a 4-period 4 × 4 Latin square. Eight rumen-cannulated Holstein heifers (12.5±0.5 mo of age and 344±15 kg of body weight, respectively) housed in individual stalls were allocated to F:C 50:50 (low forage) or 75:25 [high forage (HF); dry matter basis] and to a sequence of DDGS level (0, 7, 14, and 21%; dry matter basis). Forage was a mix of 50% corn silage and 50% grass hay (dry matter basis). Diets were fed once daily and formulated to provide equal amounts of nutrients and body weight gain. No differences were found for rumen pH between dietary treatments. Time spent eating tended to be longer for HF and was not affected by DDGS inclusion rate. Ruminating time did not differ by F:C, but linearly increased as DDGS increased (422 to 450±21 min/d). Total chewing time tended to be longer for HF and to increase linearly as DDGS increased (553 to 579±33 min/d). Wet rumen digesta weight and volume were greater for HF. Geometric mean particle length of rumen contents was greater for HF 2h prefeeding when analyzed with solubles (particles <0.15 mm). Proportion of rumen solubles decreased as DDGS increased 5h postfeeding. Fecal geometric mean particle length and proportion of particles >1.18 mm increased with increasing levels of DDGS and did not change with F:C. Total chewing time increased by the addition of DDGS and higher F:C. Heifers can compensate for lower physically effective neutral detergent fiber by modifying their chewing behavior. Rumen pH was never at a level that could induce acidosis, and lower eating time at lower F:C was somewhat compensated by time spent ruminating per unit of physically effective neutral detergent fiber intake. Dry distillers grains with solubles, when used in dairy heifer rations as a replacement for canola meal, yielded similar rumen digestion traits.


Novel porous bioactive hydroxyapatite (HAP) nanocrystallites were synthesized by auto-combustion technique. The texture properties of the HAP nanopowder were determined through series of characterization techniques. The thermal decomposition behaviour and required sintering temperature of citrate precursor to phase formation of the sample was checked by thermogravimetric analysis (TG-DTA). The hexagonal structure and porous nature of the material were estimated by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron microscopy scanned with different magnifications. Phase formation of HAP was determined by FTIR technique. Transmission electron microscopic (TEM) study indicated the nanostructure of the ceramics, particle size was found to be 30 - 35 nm. These nanoparticles were evaluated for the qualitative and quantitative determination of different elements by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. In vitro MTT assays showed HAP nanopowder have good biocompatibility and promotes cell proliferation. This nanostructured HAP powder with enhanced biocompatibility can be potentially used as a material for bone tissue engineering. Copyright © 2016 VBRI Press.


The ability of many pathogenic microorganisms to cause infection is dependent on their ability to evade attack by the complement system of the host. One mechanism by which microorganisms may avoid complement attack is to bind complement inhibitory molecules present in the host.

This thesis describes studies of the complement inhibitor C4BP and of inter-actions between C4BP and the human pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococci). The first paper describes structural studies of bovine C4BP, while the following three papers deal with the interactions between human C4BP and S. pyogenes.

Contrary to human C4BP, bovine C4BP does not form a complex with protein S, a plasma protein with regulatory function in the coagulation system. Sequence analysis demonstrated a deletion in the putative protein S–binding subunit of bo-vine C4BP, providing an explanation for the lack of C4BP–protein S complex in bovine plasma.

It is well known that most strains of S. pyogenes express one or two surface proteins that are members of the M-protein family. Many strains express a single "M-protein", which is an important virulence factor, by virtue of its ability to pre-vent phagocytosis. For strains that express two members of the family, the bio-logical function of those two "M-like" proteins has been unclear. We have found that the latter type of strains usually bind C4BP, and that this property is due to one of the two molecules in the M-protein family. The bound C4BP was found to be functionally active, suggesting that it contributes to the protection against complement attack.

Structural analysis showed that C4BP binds to a highly variable part of the M-like proteins. Thus, the ability to bind C4BP has been retained in evolution, although the binding region shows very extensive primary sequence variation. This finding indicates that the ability to bind C4BP is important for the strepto-cocci.

To assess the functional role of the two M-like proteins expressed by many S. pyogenes strains, isogenic mutants were derived from a clinical isolate. These mutants were analyzed in phagocytosis assays. The results showed that each of the two M-like proteins of this strain have antiphagocytic function. Thus, this type of strain expresses two antiphagocytic M-proteins. The results indicate that one of these M-proteins, the one that binds C4BP, may be more important than the other for phagocytosis resistance.


1. Shared foundations of Buddhist ethics: sources of guidance to Buddhists Rebirth and karma The four noble truths Philosophy of action 2. Key Buddhist values giving Keeping the lay precepts Monastic values Ethics of inter-personal relationships Loving kindness and compassion Social ethics 3. Mahayana emphases and adaptations: the path of the Bodhisattva The ethics of the Bodhisattva Skilful means and overriding precepts Specific strands of Mahayana thought and practice Mahayana reassessment of monasticism 4. Attitude to and treatment of the natural world Humanity's place in nature Non-harming of animals Positive regard, and help, for animals Plants, trees and forests Conservation and environmentalism 5. Economic ethics Lay economic ethics The monastic economy Buddhism and capitalism: Weber's 'Protestant Ethic' thesis 'Buddhist economics' Buddhism and economics in the modern world 6. War and peace Buddhist analyses of the causes of conflict Solutions to conflict Non-violent reflections on a violent world The position of the soldier Buddhist 'justifications' of and involvement in, violence Buddhist action for peace in the modern world 7. Suicide and euthanasia considerations and arguments against suicide Suicide and the precepts Euthanasia 8. Abortion and contraception Embryonic life Abortion and Buddhist principles Contraception Abortion in Buddhist cultures Anti-abortion but pro-choice?: the relationship between morality and law 9. The status of women: women in early Hinduism the effect of Buddhism The spiritual potential and achievement of women Gender, rebirth and the status of women Views on spiritual statuses unattainable by women Images of wise and wayward women Ascetic wariness of the opposite sex The ordination of women Nuns and other female religious roles in Buddhist cultures Lay women in Buddhist texts Lay women in Buddhist cultures 10. Homosexuality and other forms of 'Queerness' Sex change Hermaphrodites Pandakas Homosexual acts Homosexuality in Buddhist cultures.


The article sought to examine the nature of secondary school dropouts in selected secondary schools in Mongu district. The objectives of the paper were anchored on understanding the causes of secondary school dropouts and to establish the proportion of learners that dropped out for the period 2012-2017 in Mongu district. This article employed a concurrent mixed method design that involved combining qualitative and quantitative research. In qualitative perspectives, interview guides were central while the usage of questionnaires were key in empirical quantitative investigation. Purposive and simple random sampling were used to select interviewees and respondents respectively. The sample size was 232 participants who included; 90 teachers and 122 pupils that responded to the questionnaire, and 6 Head teachers, 3 planners, 1 DEBS and 10 dropouts that were key informant interviewees. Furthermore, qualitative data was analysed according to emerging themes while quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics in which factor analysis was employed. The result of this study established that pregnancy, financial challenges and truancy were the major reasons explaining the nature of school drop outs among pupils in Mongu district. Pregnancy emerged as the single most influential factor accounting for dropping out amongst girls and financial challenges was the major reason for boys. In order to reduce dropout rates and improve opportunities for pupils in the secondary school system, the study recommended that there be an introduction of a form of financial support and intensify sex education among the pupils.


Imposed changes in activity of a joint angle receptor of the locust leg, the metathoracic femoral chordotonal organ, produce variable, phasic reflex responses in a leg extensor motoneurone in untrained animals. After training the locust to maintain a posture in extension beyond a minimum required joint angle, these reflexes are consistently tonic and excitatory. This plasticity of reflex responsiveness permits the locust to couple motoneurone firing to afferent activity when receptor input is behaviourally relevant.


Recent scholarship on 'neo-traditionalism' and colonial governance in Africa has challenged assumptions about the 'invention of tradition' and the ability of the colonial state to create wholly innovative kinds of local authority. This article explores one episode in the development of the authority of Ali el Tom, probably the most famous 'traditional' ruler in Condominium Sudan. It suggests that Ali el Tom's authority was a creole product, which drew on local moral codes and colonial forms of authority, but was not fully part of either. The willingness of his people to accept this sometimes abusive authority relied on a partly illusory sense that it was familiar; but this willingness was not unlimited, and on occasion actions from below set limits to the invention of authority and tradition.


The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which influence of career self-efficacy beliefs on career exploration behaviour of TVET college students. A total 238 TVET college students from the three Wollega Zone were selected using multistage sampling methods. The instrument of data collection was self- report questionnaire were career self-efficacy adapted (Nasta, 2007), and Career Exploration behaviour (Stumpf et al., 1983). Data was analyzed using Pearson correlation for career self-efficacy beliefs and career exploration behaviour, and regression analysis used to predicate influence of career self-efficacy on career exploration behaviour. Result of research indicated that career self-efficacy sources were positive influenced and statistical significantly correlated with career exploration behaviour(r= .408, P<.01). The career self-efficacy has positive and strong statistically significant association with past performances accomplishment of the students (r= .752, P< .01). However, it was statistically significant and has weak relationship with career exploration behaviour (r= .214, P<.05).Verbal persuasion is more significant association (r = .555, P<.01) to career exploration behaviours than other sources. Multiple liner Regressions analysis shows that, approximately 17% of variance in the career exploration behaviour was significant prediction by career self-efficacy beliefs. In conclusion, career self-efficacy a belief is positively influenced career exploration behaviour among TVET college students Keywords : TVET college Behaviour Western Ethiopia Career Exploration


Integrating ideas about intersectionality with life course theories, we explore how trajectories of gender earnings inequality vary across race and education. Past research suggests that gender earnings gaps by race and education are narrower for more disadvantaged groups, yet it remains unknown whether these key differences amplify, decline, or remain constant over the life course. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we estimate growth curve models of annual earnings, examining differences between blacks and whites and by educational attainment in the levels and slopes of men and women's earnings from ages 22 to 47. Findings show that holding multiple forms of gendered, racial, and/or educational advantage has an interactive effect that accumulates across life. Accordingly, the gender gap expands most with age for whites and the college-educated, where the male premium is compounded by racial and/or educational advantages.


Due to the global trend of urbanization, the current transportation networks in cities are often stressed and congested. In the coming years, this problem is going to increase further in most areas. In addition, to congestion of roads and public transportation, sustainability and emissions are becoming large factors when regarding mobility. Today's mobility still relies on the usage of private cars in a large part, however, due to the rise of alternative travel modes and concepts such as Mobility as a Service (MaaS), the traditional mobility market may be disrupted. With the help of MaaS and the right incentives, it may be possible to shift users towards a more sustainable mobility behavior, which also relieve the stressed mobility network in cities, when more alternative mobility offers are employed. With this shift towards multimodal mobility, the complexity of searching and booking these mobility offers also rises. Users are forced to look through are large amount of alternative offers and are required to find a fitting one. In order to make this complexity more manageable, we propose a mobility-agenda planning agent that attends to the mobility needs of the users. The concept of mobility-oriented agenda planning may change how people view mobility and may provide a more holistic method of mobility planning. However, this holistic mobility planning method still has unresolved societal and technological issues that need to be addressed.


Published information on aspects of the epidemiology of paratuberculosis was reviewed to examine the hypothesis that clinical expression of disease may be induced by deficiencies or imbalances of micronutrients. The progression of paratuberculosis and the development of clinical signs, although innately linked with the process of becoming infected with Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis, are mostly controlled by factors other than those predisposing to the acquisition of the organisms. There is strong evidence in the literature reviewed to suggest that soil acidification, excesses of iron and molybdenum, and deficiencies in copper and selenium and possibly other minerals and trace elements have a role in the disease process. The fact that no single nutritional supplement has been consistently found to produce clinical recovery suggests that the causal role of these factors is complex and may vary depending upon the geochemical environment. Altering the nutritional environment by appropriate trace element supplementation and liming, as well as decreasing the reliance on shallow-rooted pastures needing frequent fertiliser applications may assist in controlling the clinical expression of paratuberculosis. Such measures could produce a significant decrease in the incidence of clinical expression across flocks and herds.


Continuous-time linear constrained optimal control problems are in practice often solved using discretization techniques, e.g. in model predictive control (MPC). This requires the discretization of the (linear time-invariant) dynamics and the cost functional leading to discrete-time optimization problems. Although the question of convergence of the sequence of optimal controls, obtained by solving the discretized problems, to the true optimal continuous-time control signal when the discretization parameter (the sampling interval) approaches zero has been addressed in the literature, we provide some new results under less restrictive assumptions for a class of constrained continuous-time linear quadratic (LQ) problems with mixed state-control constraints by exploiting results from mathematical programming extensively. As a byproduct of our analysis, a regularity result regarding the costate trajectory is also presented.


Phenotypic plasticity occurs when a particular genotype assumes different phenotypes depending on its environment. In this article, I focus on phenotypic plasticity in body size and associated life history traits, primarily growth rate and development time, thus taking a trait-centered view. First, I discuss and review phenotypic plasticity in body size in insects in general, centering on its environmental causes and its behavioral and fitness consequences. Plasticity in body size can be caused by a variety of environmental variables, most notably food availability, predators, temperature, season length, photoperiod and humidity, producing recurrent patterns. Food limitation generally results in small body sizes. High temperatures often result in rapid growth but smaller body sizes (Bergmann's and the temperature-size rule). Short growing seasons limit growth and thus final body size, particularly in species with long development (the converse Bergmann rule). This is often proximately mediated by photoperiod. Predators also limit foraging and hence growth and final body size of prey species, and sometimes induce particular morphological adaptations (induced defenses). For an evolutionary ecologist, the central question is whether or not the phenotypic plasticity exhibited is adaptive. This requires demonstration of heritable variation of the trait and the existence of environment-specific fitness trade-offs. Based on these criteria, growth and body size plasticity in response to seasonal constraints and predators can often be shown to be adaptive, while size reductions due to food limitation typically represent merely the 'best of a bad situation'. Whether temperature-mediated size plasticity (i.e., Bergmann's rule) is adaptive remains unclear and contended.
Plasticity in adult body size influences plasticity in adult behavior. Small individuals are forced to use particular strategies in order to overcome their handicap and successfully compete against larger conspecifics to augment their fitness. This is most prominently seen in species with discrete sizedependent alternative foraging or reproductive strategies, but equally necessary when body size variation is continuous. Again, the question is addressed whether small size is merely the 'best of a bad situation,' or whether there are environments in which small individuals can match the fitness of larger conspecifics, in which case small size would be adaptive. Evidence suggests that in most cases it is the former. Behavioral plasticity can be classified according to the proximate mechanism, time scale, frequency of occurrence, and the variance component where variation may be detected. In the second part of this chapter, I present a long-term case study of phenotypic plasticity in body size and associated traits of the yellow dung fly Scathophaga stercoraria (Diptera: Scathophagidae). I discuss various environmental causes and behavioral consequences, and conclude that although the extent of body size plasticity of yellow dung flies may not be untypical, the degree of adaptive plasticity perhaps is unusually high. This may be related to the particular ephemeral larval habitat (cow dung), the occurrence and size of which is variable and unpredictable in space and time. Furthermore, high adult mobility promotes extensive gene flow, preventing local adaptation of populations. Long-term case studies of diverse species well suited for this purpose will elucidate which specific conditions foster the evolution of adaptive plasticities, be they morphological, life history, physiological or behavioral.


Integrin αIIbβ3 is a highly abundant heterodimeric platelet receptor that can transmit information bidirectionally across the plasma membrane, and plays a critical role in hemostasis and thrombosis. Upon platelet activation, inside-out signaling pathways increase the affinity of αIIbβ3 for fibrinogen and other ligands. Ligand binding and integrin clustering subsequently stimulate outside-in signaling, which initiates and amplifies a range of cellular events driving essential platelet processes such as spreading, thrombus consolidation, and clot retraction. Integrin αIIbβ3 has served as an excellent model for the study of integrin biology, and it has become clear that integrin outside-in signaling is highly complex and involves a vast array of enzymes, signaling adaptors, and cytoskeletal components. In this review, we provide a concise but comprehensive overview of αIIbβ3 outside-in signaling, focusing on the key players involved, and how they cooperate to orchestrate this critical aspect of platelet biology. We also discuss gaps in the current understanding of αIIbβ3 outside-in signaling and highlight avenues for future investigation.


Aim. Based on literature regarding service quality measurement, service quality has
been classified into four distinctive levels: the physical environment, the employee, policies
& proficiencies and the overall service quality evaluation. Level 1 includes attributes
regarding physical aspects around and in the store, Level 2 refers to the employee behavior
and the employee‐customer interaction, Level 3 consists of policies and proficiencies and
Level 4 is the combining level for an overall impression of the service quality based on Level
1, 2 and 3. A known phenomenon from psychology is the Halo Effect which states that
individuals do not evaluate single object attributes, but tend to evaluate them as a whole in
order to maintain cognitive consistency. The aim of this study was to approach the question
whether this effect applies in case of mystery shopping evaluations. Therefore hypotheses
regarding the possible effects of Level 1 on other levels, Level 2 on other levels and the
composition of Level 4 have been developed and tested.
Method. In order to test whether the Halo Effect has consequences for the reliability
of mystery shopping, a 2 (Level 1) x 2 (Level 2) experiment was performed in a Dutch
supermarket. Sixty four mystery shoppers were instructed to perform a mystery shopping
visit and were not aware of the fact that their behavior was actually the object of
investigation. Due to the fact that the Levels 1 and 2 have repeatedly been found to be
important dimensions in the evaluation of service quality, they were chosen as variables to
be manipulated.
Results. A SPSS analysis of the data revealed that Level 1 had no significant effect on
any of the other service levels. Level 2 evaluations had a marginally significant effect on
Level 3, while no significant effects on Level 1 could be found. Furthermore it has been
proven that the overall service evaluation is based on the other three service levels, with
Level 2 as strongest predictor.
Discussion. Based on the results, it can be stated that mystery shoppings' reliability
is not undermined by the Halo Effect, due to the fact that mystery shoppers are able to
evaluate Level 1 and Level 2 independently, despite the fact that the Halo Effect suggests
otherwise. Finally some valuable suggestions for further research, focusing on the pressing
questions on the reliability of mystery shopping are made.


This paper considers a cooperative cognitive radio network with two primary users (PUs), and two secondary users (SUs) that enables two-way communications of primary, and secondary systems in conjunction with non-linear energy harvesting based simultaneous wireless information, and power transfer (SWIPT). With the considered network, SUs are able to realize their communications over the licensed spectrum while extending relay assistance to the PUs. The overall bidirectional end-to-end transmission takes place in four phases, which include both energy harvesting (EH), and information transfer. A non-linear energy harvester with a hybrid SWIPT scheme is adopted in which both power-splitting, and time-switching EH techniques are used. The SUs aid in relay cooperation by performing an amplify-and-forward operation, whereas selection combining technique is adopted at the PUs to extract the intended signal from multiple received signals broadcasted by the SUs. Accurate outage probability expressions for the primary, and secondary links are derived under the Nakagami-$m$ fading environment. Further, the system behavior is analyzed with respect to achievable system throughput, and energy efficiency. Since the performance of the considered system is strongly affected by the spectrum sharing factor, and hybrid SWIPT parameters, particle swarm optimization is implemented to optimize the system parameters so as to maximize the system throughput, and energy efficiency. Simulation results are provided to corroborate the performance analysis, and give useful insights into the system behavior concerning various system/channel parameters.


Mx protein is one of the classes of antiviral proteins induced by type I interferons (IFN). A full-length cDNA of mandarinfish (Siniperca chuatsi) Mx gene was obtained using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and RACE (rapid amplification of cDNA ends) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of total RNA extracted from liver of a mandarinfish which was infected with Infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus (ISKNV) (GenBank accession No.AY392097). The result of sequence analysis indicates that the 2.4kb mandarinfish Mx cDNA contains an open reading frame (ORF) of 1881nt encoding a 627 amino acid protein whose deduced protein molecular weight is 71.5kDa. The alignment of the deduced mandarinfish Mx protein amino acid sequence with that of other species shows that the Mx protein of mandarinfish contains a triparitite guanosine-5'-triphosphate (GTP)-binding motif (GXXXSGKS/T, DXXG, T/NKXD), a signature of the dynamin family (LPRGS/ KGIVTR), and a highly conserved leucine zipper motif in the C-terminal region of the protein, which are conserved in all IFN-induced Mx proteins of vertebrates.


ABSTRACT Heated (20 min at 70°C) amphotericin B-desoxycholate (hAMB-DOC) was further characterized, as was another formulation obtained after centrifugation (60 min, 3000 × g), hcAMB-DOC. Conventional AMB-DOC consisted of individual micelles (approximately 4 nm in diameter) and threadlike aggregated micelles, as revealed by cryo-transmission electron microscopy. For both hAMB-DOC and hcAMB-DOC, pleiomorphic cobweb structures were observed with a mean particle size of approximately 300 nm as determined by laser diffraction. The potent antifungal activity of AMB-DOC against Candida albicans is not reduced by heating. Effective killing of C. albicans(>99.9% within 6 h) was obtained at 0.1 mg/liter with each of the AMB formulations. For AMB-DOC, hAMB-DOC, and hcAMB-DOC, cation release (86Rb+) from C. albicans of ≥50% was observed at 0.8, 0.4, and 0.4 mg/liter, respectively. After heating of AMB-DOC, toxicity was reduced 16-fold as determined by red blood cell (RBC) lysis. For AMB-DOC, hAMB-DOC, and hcAMB-DOC, hemolysis of ≥50% was observed at 6.4, 102.4, and 102.4 mg/liter, respectively. In contrast, AMB-DOC and its derivates showed similar toxicities in terms of cation release from RBC. For AMB-DOC, hAMB-DOC, and hcAMB-DOC, cation release (86Rb+) of ≥50% was observed at 1.6, 0.8, and 0.8 mg/liter, respectively. In persistently leukopenic mice with severe invasive candidiasis, higher dosages of both hAMB-DOC and hcAMB-DOC were tolerated than those of conventional AMB-DOC (3 versus 0.8 mg/kg of body weight, respectively), resulting in significantly improved therapeutic efficacy. In conclusion, this new approach of heating AMB-DOC may be of great value for further optimizing the treatment of severe fungal infections.


Traffic safety is a major challenge in most of cities in South Africa particularly on the arterial roads passing through the sub urban areas. The major contributing reasons for the occurrence of traffic accidents emphasized include human related factors, road related factors and vehicle related factors. However, the influence of the urban development related factors such as, land use and urban functions, urban form, urban pattern, accessibility, and density on the occurrence of traffic accidents have been least explored, particularly in the sub urban residential areas of the cities of South Africa. Therefore, this paper pertains to investigate the influence of various urban related factors on the occurrence of vehicular traffic accidents on the sub urban arterial roads of a South African city. The investigation was conducted by considering Bloemfontein City as the study area and by employing survey research methodologies, statistical analyses, development and consequent application of empirical regression models. It was revealed that level of accessibility (number of accessible roads) from residential areas to arterial roads is the major variable, which causes traffic accidents. Road geometry variables like median and road width influence the occurrence of traffic accidents to a certain extent. However, variables belonging to land use and urban functions, urban form, urban pattern, location of important urban functions in convoluted areas, and density of population have relatively lesser impact. Reduction in the number of access roads from the suburban residential areas to the arterial roads, provision of adequate medians in roads with no divided facility along with urban planning interventions, such as, appropriate urban pattern, and avoidance of location of urban functions in convoluted areas will enable reduction in the occurrence of traffic accidents and improve road safety in the cities of South Africa.


The capability of Beauveria bassiana fungus to kill mosquito larvae was challenged with Aedes aegypti and Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus in a study conducted at the entomology laboratory of the Health Ecology Research Centre. Cx. p. quinquefeasciatus was more sensitive compared to Ae. aegypti to the B. bassiana strain from Sukamandi (West Java), which is probably due to the mosquitoes behaviour and conidiospore larvacidal effect. Conidia dust application, with a dosage of 2.2 mglliter, to water surface, within 48 hours was able to kill almost all the Cx. p. quinquefasciatus . However a dosage of 4 mglliter was required to kill all the Ae.aegypti . And a dosage of 1.3 mg conidiospore I liter is able to kill 50% Cx. p. quinquefasciatus. It seems that B. bassiana has greater capability to eradicate Cx. p. quinquefasciatus compared to Ae. aegypti


: Primary spinal epidural diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is rare and often easily misdiagnose. Here, we presented a case of primary spinal epidural DLBCL with paraplegia as the fi rst manifestation. He was misdiagnosed as thoracic disc herniation and thoracic tuberculosis successively. DLBCL was con fi rmed after surgery ultimately. After 6 cycles of chemotherapy with R-CHOPE, the patient went back to normal life without relapse during 2-year follow-up. Primary spinal epidural lymphoma should be suspected in patients with spinal cord compression with imaging showing isointense, homogeneous extradural contiguous level compressive soft-tissue lesion without bony involvement and previous history of cancer.


The paper proposes an FPGA-like approach to on-chip communication and comes up with a design methodology where switches are avoided and where two any IPs are connected if and only if they are communicating. It avoids the problem of costly (time, area, energy) intermediate hop counts of on-chip networks (NOCs) between any two source-destination pairs. The second novelty is that without knowing the overlap/disjointness of communication packets between any two IP blocks, a designer may use unnecessary resources (wasting time, space, energy, resources, etc). So, we look into the temporal aspect of communication and then it is possible that some communication phases don't overlap, thus a designer needs not provision resources for such cases. Based on this methodology, our CAD tool aims at designing NOCs subject to bandwidth, area and energy constraints.


A school-based substance abuse prevention program based on the assumptions of the ASCA National Model® was designed to change adolescent females' drug-using behaviors. The program was designed to reduce substance abuse, increase negative attitudes toward drug use, and reduce negative behaviors while increasing positive behaviors, knowledge of the physical symptoms of drug use, student achievement, and selfesteem. Group sessions were based on solution-focused brief therapy and action learning theory and were supplemented by mentorship from community members and peers. Positive outcomes were found on five dependent variables.


As a natural situation, the Islamic banking industry not only have a chance, but also the various problems such as problem on products giro and saving syariah based on wadi'ah. In wadi'ah saving, bank syariah receive trustful saving from the client and distributing it to use it optimally. Actually, the use of trustful saving (wadi'ah) is forbidden, but what is applied in the banking industry is wadi'ah used to any project of business. From this point of view, this kind of application more relevant to qard contract than wadi'ah. The purpose of Islamic law  (maqasid al-shari'ah) is to ensure the wealth (hifz al-mal) embodied in the product save deposit box. In save deposit box, wealth entrusted in bank, stored in a special place, that are guarded by the bank. At the level of primary (al-daruriyah), safeguarding the wealth is a basic need for Muslim. So that, the sustainability of safeguarding of wealth should be championed.


"The evidence speaks for itself," or so many people say. That would contribute to an image of science as yielding unambiguous certainty. Once observations are made and the data collected, the conclusions unambiguously follow.

But should we accept this common belief, this Sacred Bovine, uncritically? For example, data are inert. They do not "speak." People speak. In addition, people often disagree about the "facts," even when they have observed the same thing. They conflict about how to interpret the evidence. Personal context matters. If science depends on something beyond just the evidence itself, then that exposes an important component of understanding for making any informed decision that relies on scientific claims.

Consider the case of Archibald Garrod and the discovery of inborn errors of metabolism (Gabel & Allchin, 2017). Garrod was a physician working in London in the 1890s. Imagine his surprise when he encountered a patient with red urine! What did that mean? Garrod had a background in chemistry, so he interpreted it as a chemical indicator. Could it help him decipher the nature of the patient's nervous disorder, known as chorea? He identified the pigment as hematoporphyrin. Ultimately, however, he found that it was not related to the disease.

But alert now to the color of urine, his attention was drawn to another patient a few years later whose urine was black . The condition, called alkaptonuria, was already documented—as early as 1822. The black color had been traced biochemically to the presence of homogentisic acid, which oxidizes in air or alkaline solutions and changes color. The compound's presence was apparently the result of a disruption in the breakdown of the familiar amino acid, tyrosine.

Alkaptonuria seemed not to harm the person's health. At the same time, no underlying cause was known. One researcher, during the early years …


Polylactic acid (PLA) is a promising biodegradable candidate to replace synthetic commodity plastics in many applications. However, this polymer shows high brittleness, slow rate and lower degree of crystallization. The addition of plasticizing agents can enhance the toughness, but its effects on the crystallization behavior remain inconclusive. Therefore, this research is aiming to cast light on this area. Using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) at a 2°C/min cooling rate, extruded neat PLA samples showed lower degree of crystallinity and thermal stability. This material shows cold crystallization upon heating and does recrystallize prior melting. These results indicate a clear instability in the crystalline state are confirmed by the crystallographic results by the X-ray diffractions (XRD) pattern and atomic force microscopic imagery. The addition of around 20 wt% of glycerol triacetate (GTA) with 1wt% of banana nanofibers (BNF) almost doubled the crystallinity. This modification is believed to occur through a dilution mechanism in order to increase crystallization rate yielding a more stable crystalline structure as shown by the XRD. However, the dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) showed a 30 to 50% reduction in the room temperature storage modulus (stiffness) is in plasticized samples when compared to neat 100% PLA. Although these results shows the possibility to enhance the crystallization through a combination of plasticizing and nanoreinforcing effects, further studies is still needed to optimize the material formulation in order to find the best ratios to secure both a good crystallization and mechanical properties. This will definitively result in a new material that can be used for current and futuristic applications.


A digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank.


Digitonin solutions of labelled rhodopsin, containing (3)H in the retinyl moiety, were prepared by two related methods. Labelled rhodopsin was also prepared for the first time in cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and purified by column chromatography. It was shown that only certain rhodopsin preparations on denaturation in the dark and the reduction with sodium borohydride gave up to 60% of the radioactivity in a fraction characterized as N-retinylphosphatidylethanolamine. Such preparations also gave a lipid-linked retinyl moiety at the metarhodopsin-I stage, but, as expected, a protein-linked retinyl moiety at the metarhodopsin-II stage. Other preparations however, gave exclusively protein-bound radioactivity at the native-rhodopsin, metarhodopsin-I and metarhodopsin-II stages. It is therefore conceivable that the formation of N-retinylphosphatidylethanolamine is due to a non-enzymic reaction resulting from the transfer of the retinyl moiety from its native site to an amino group of a favourably oriented phospholipid molecule. The only firmly established aspect of the rhodopsin active site remains the demonstration in our previous work that at the metarhodopsin-II stage the retinyl moiety is linked to an in-amino group of lysine. On the basis of chemical reactivity it is argued that the light-induced conversion of rhodopsin into metarhodopsin II involves a profound conformational change resulting in the dislocation of the retinylideneiminium chromophore from a non-polar environment in rhodopsin to a polar environment in metarhodopsin II.


Abstract Canada thistle is a noxious weed that occurs in a wide range of habitats and is difficult to control because of its extensive root system and prolific seed production. Here, we focused on estimating the level of genetic diversity between populations in North Dakota as a first step in examining diversity across North America. Two types of genetic marker, intersimple sequence repeats (ISSRs) and microsatellites were used. Both marker types resulted in polymorphic alleles suitable for assessing diversity. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), molecular diversity analyses, and cluster analysis were conducted. Highly significant variation was detected between populations (P < 0.01). The greatest variance recovered was between individuals within populations. Gene flow among populations in the Northern Great Plains was indicated by the presence of shared alleles between the North Dakota and Minnesota populations and in cluster formation. Multiple introductions and continued gene flow between populations has led to the continued success of Canada thistle as an invasive plant in North America. Nomenclature: Canada thistle, Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop. CIRAR.


Surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators can advantageously operate as passive sensors which can be interrogated through a wireless link. Amongst the practical applications of such devices, structural health monitoring through stress measurement and more generally vibration characteristics of mechanical structures benefit from the ability to bury such sensors within the considered structure (wireless and battery-less). However, measurement bandwidth becomes a significant challenge when measuring wideband vibration characteristics of mechanical structures. A fast SAW resonator measurement scheme is demonstrated here. The measurement bandwidth is limited by the physical settling time of the resonator (Q/π periods), requiring only two probe pulses through a monostatic RADAR-like electronic setup to identify the sensor resonance frequency and hence stress on a resonator acting as a strain gauge. A measurement update rate of 4800 Hz using a high quality factor SAW resonator operating in the 434 MHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical band is experimentally demonstrated.


PURPOSE
To clarify whether structural peculiarities formerly described in extraocular muscle (EOM) spindles of aged persons are already present in EOM spindles of a 2-year-old infant.

METHODS
Distal halves of two EOMs obtained from a 2-year-old multiorgan donor were immersion-fixed and prepared for electron microscopy. The fine structure of 10 muscle spindles and of 1 "false spindle" was investigated.

RESULTS
Extraocular muscle spindles of an infant 2 years of age had 2- to 4-layered outer capsules, 376 microm (range, 217-606 microm) long and 97 microm (range, 55-140 microm) wide. In 10 EOM spindles, 4 to 16 intrafusal muscle fibers (mean, 7.9) were present. From a total of 79 intrafusal fibers, 43 (54%) were nuclear chain fibers, and 8 of the 43 exhibited posttraumatic degenerative changes. Thirty-six (46%) intrafusal fibers indistinguishable from extrafusal fibers were called anomalous fibers. No nuclear bag fibers were found. Each muscle spindle contained a variable number of chain fibers and at least one anomalous fiber. Sensory nerve terminals were restricted to the 35 normal chain fibers but were absent from damaged chain fibers and from anomalous fibers. One "false spindle" without a periaxial space was composed of three anomalous fibers and one chain fiber, all of them devoid of sensory terminals.

CONCLUSIONS
Most structural particularities of human EOM spindles described in aged persons are already found in the infant. They cannot be interpreted as age-related changes, but rather they represent specific features of human EOM spindles.


Abstract The paper's aim is to augment understandings of mobility justice with reference to the sensations of the repetitive routines and rhythms that comprise everyday journeys, subjectivities, and places of powered assisted mobility device users. We build on arguments of mobility justice as access by extending understandings of the sensuous dimensions of repetitive everyday journeys that sustain a sense of self in the world. To do so, we draw on Deleuze and Guattari's notions of refrains of rhythms to advance relational spatial thinking about how mobility injustices arise and become ordered. Our empirical analysis offers two 'portraits' from a qualitative assisted motorised mobility project in the car-dominated city of Sydney, Australia. Through an interpretation of the rhythmic qualities of embodied choreographies of everyday routines, the paper draws on the experiences of two women with disability to map processes of ableist exclusion from public space, and strategies which support inclusion. Implications for mobility justice are drawn from the affective intensities of synchronisation and asynchronisation of moving-together, in proximity with able-bodied pedestrians and drivers.


This paper addresses the development of a modular software architecture for the design/construction/operation of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), based on systems engineering. First, systems engineering and the Vee model are presented with the objective of defining the interactions of the stakeholders with the software architecture development team and establishing the baselines that must be met in each development phase. In the development stage, the definition of the architecture and its connection with the hardware is presented, taking into account the use of the actor model, which represents the high-level software architecture used to solve concurrency problems. Subsequently, the structure of the classes is defined both at high and low levels in the instruments using the object-oriented programming paradigm. Finally, unit tests are developed for each component in the software architecture, quality assessment tests are implemented for system functions fulfillment, and a field sea trial for testing different modules of the vehicle is described. This approach is well suited for the development of complex systems such as marine vehicles and those systems which require scalability and modularity to add functionalities.


Essays on Price Adjustment and Imperfect Information Luminita Stevens Understanding how firms set prices is a key step towards settling classic debates in economics regarding the sources of nominal price rigidities, the mechanisms through which disturbances are transmitted within and across countries, and the effectiveness of monetary policy in dampening business cycle fluctuations. This dissertation examines patterns of price adjustment at the firm level, both empirically and theoretically. The first chapter studies pricing patterns in US grocery store data. Using a novel empirical method, I identify changes in the distribution of product-level prices over time. These changes typically occur every seven months and mark the transition to new pricing regimes. Inside regimes, prices alternate among a small set of prices with high frequency. This evidence motivates a theory of price setting in which firms respond to shocks using multiple-price policies that are simple enough to only specify a small number of prices, and that are updated only on discrete occasions. The second chapter presents a theory of costly information that generates such simple, sticky policies. In order to economize on the costs of acquiring information, the firm designs a pricing policy that is a noisy, coarse representation of market conditions. Moreover, it updates this policy infrequently, based on imprecise signals about the state of the economy. Despite the high volatility of observed prices, the firm responds imperfectly to changes in market conditions. The third chapter, co-authored with Ryan Chahrour, addresses the patterns of adjustment in international relative prices. We develop a two-country model in which retailers have imperfect information and search for producers operating in different regions in the two countries. We demonstrate that frictions at the regional level within countries generate dispersion in international relative prices in the absence of additional frictions at the national border.


In this paper, we analyse the MAI (multiple access interference) characteristics of mixed services (voice, circuit data, and packet data) in UMTS FDD-WCDMA mode. According to the various traffic and the system parameters [ETSI], the combinations of service (voice only, voice/circuit data, voice/packet data, and voice/circuit/packet data) represent different MAI characteristics. Their long-term (average) and short-term (instantaneous) MAI variation show different characteristics as well. In this paper, we compare the MAI of mixed services in relation to the Gaussian random variable. When we use the voice and packet data service, the MAI is not the same as the Gaussian random variable but as the packet users increase, the MAI distribution approaches that of Gaussian. In addition, the voice and packet data service represents a short-term MAI variation. As the UMTS WCDMA is interference limited (Gilhousen, et al. 1991), accurate MAI evaluation for each service becomes a critical factor for the system dimensioning and capacity evaluation.


My dissertation is shaped by literary criticism's renewed attention to the lyric poem in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. While the novel form seems incapable of capturing a world in which the economy accelerates and expands every moment, the temporality of the lyric poem is perfectly suited to the milieu of the Great Recession and its aftermath. Lyric Histories directly addresses the temporal difference between narrative and lyric, tracing the appearance of narrative, in the form of primary historical documents, in poetry throughout the twentieth century. These poems containing history are animated by the foundational generic tension between lyric and narrative. The collision of lyric and history alters the lyric form; how each poet manages the aesthetic reverberations of this generic conflict has clear political corollaries. The nexus of aesthetics and politics available in these poems offers a standpoint from which we might see the history of twentieth-century economics and politics more clearly.


Background In acute myocardial infarction (MI), monocytes are rapidly mobilised from the spleen to peripheral blood, from where they infiltrate injured tissue, with potential to contribute to both injury and repair. The mechanism by which the injured myocardium signals splenic-monocyte mobilisation remains poorly understood. Recent work shows extracellular vesicles (EV, which carry proteins, microRNA/mRNA) are a means of rapid cell-to-cell communication, which, combined with knowledge of their composition and propensity to be taken up by other cells, suggests a possible role in signalling. Here we show that acute MI results in a net increase in circulating endothelial cell (EC)-EV that induce splenic monocyte motility in vivo. Methods MI was induced in mice. EV were isolated by ultra-centrifugation and analysed for size/number by Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis, western blot (EV-markers: Alix, TSG101, CD69, CD9 and Hsp70) and ELISA for EC markers (CD31, ICAM-1, P-selectin, E-selectin and VCAM-1). Primary cardiac mouse-EC (CM-EC) were used to produce EV in-vitro and were labelled fluorescently (PKH67) and transfected with cell-miR39-3p (C.elegans). EV were either tail vein injected into wild-type or CD68GFP+ naïve mice and/or exposed to macrophages (RAW 264.7) in-vitro. Results Acutely (24 hours) after MI there was a significant increase in circulating EV in mice (7.6 ± 1.7x108/ml vs 3.6 ± 1.5 x 108/ml, control,P < 0.01) that later subsided (4.6 ± 1.8 x 108/ml 4th day post-MI). Plasma EV displayed EC-surface markers, suggesting EC origin. Pro-inflammatory TNF-α (3.0 ± 0.1 x 109/ml vs 1.5 ± 0.1x108/ml control, P < 0.01) significantly increased EV production in CM-ECs in-vitro, whereas 'anti-inflammatory' IL-4 (1.3 ± 0.01 x 109/ml) and IL-6 (1.5 ± 0.1 x 109/ml) had no effect. Inflammatory-EC-EV displayed significant enrichment of VCAM-1 (P < 0.05). In-vitro there is a time-dependent accumulation of labelled EV in macrophages. Inflammatory-EC-EV significantly enhanced macrophage chemotaxis to MCP-1 in-vitro (2.2 ± 0.2 AU EV treated vs 1.7 ± 0.2AU untreated, P < 0.01), a response that was abolished by pre-incubating EC-EV with an anti-VCAM-1 antibody (1.8 ± 0.2AU, P < 0.05). Inflammatory EV significantly induced alterations in mRNA of motility genes by reducing PLEXIN-B2 (P < 0.001) and increasing ITGB2 (P < 0.001) expression in macrophages. Injected labelled EC-EV accumulate in the splenic red-pulp and injected inflammatory-EC-EV induced significant splenic monocyte mobilisation and peripheral monocytosis in-vivo in CD68GFP+ naïve mice (P < 0.05). In conclusion (1) In vivo EV are released acutely after MI; (2) Plasma-EV protein composition is consistent with endothelial cell origin. (3) Injected EV localise to the spleen and(4) mobilise splenic monocytes. (5) In culture, EV increase cell motility and (6) regulate genes that are important in motility. These findings are all suggestive of a role for EC-derived EV in monocyte activation after acute MI.


The images that look like a male and a female organ have been discovered around the world and are marked as sacred since the establishment of civilization. What does this image symbolize? Why do Hindus worship it and why is it personified as lord Shiva? The concentration to answer these queries through descriptive analysis of the linga is tried in this article. Lingas are found in various civilizations, including Indus valley, but the perception varies. Its tangible and intangible form and several varieties are its typology. This article is mainly based on symbolism of linga for various societies and for earlier Aryans. Linga, though varies in form, is a phallic symbolism of creation which was not accepted by the Aryans at first due to its nudity and straightforwardness. But after the realization of its core theme that the linga is the composition of prakriti and purush, it made them eager to establish through its reformed reality rather than his anthropomorphic form in honor of their supreme god, the creator and a destroyer, no other than lord Shiva who self-emerged as jyotirlinga. Almost all the typologies including maximum varieties of manmade lingas are found around Kathmandu valley but the choice of Licchavis for the establishement of linga with its specific typology and theme are discussed.


Two new species, Tubulogenerina turonica and Colomia africana , are described from the Turonian of Tanzania, and the genus Colomia is emended. The genus Tubulogenerina was originally thought to have originated in Europe in the early Eocene. Our discovery of T. turonica indicates that the roots of the genus reach back to the middle Cretaceous, and argues against a previous conclusion that it originated in temperate European regions. A tropical/subtropical site of origination would be consistent with the observation that most Tubulogenerina species inhabited warm, shallow-water environments. Tubulogenerina turonica has a relatively simple morphology, suitable as a starting point for morphological trends in the genus during the Cenozoic, thus supporting its status as a plausible ancestral species.

In clay-rich middle Cretaceous sediments from Tanzania, foraminifera are exceptionally well preserved, and assemblages include a number of aragonitic taxa, including Colomia africana. This new species is distinguished from others of the genus by its aperture and toothplate structure and its dominantly biserial test without a well-developed uniserial growth stage. Morphologic similarities, however, indicate the close evolutionary relationship with other species of Colomia , so the genus is emended accordingly. Sufficient numbers of C. africana were found in multiple samples to characterize its stable carbon and oxygen isotope values relative to another aragonitic species ( Epistomina chapmani ) and calcitic species ( Berthelina berthelini ) from the same material. Results show an expected offset between calcitic and aragonitic tests that is partially explained by differential fractionation factors, but suggests vital or microhabitat effects contribute to values measured on C. africana .


Four categories of islands in SE Asia may be identified on the basis of their histories of landbridge connections. Those islands on the shallow, continental Sunda Shelf were joined to the Asian mainland by a broad landbridge during the late Pleistocene; other islands were connected to the Sunda Shelf by a middle Pleistocene landbridge; some were parts of larger oceanic islands; and others remained as isolated oceanic islands. The limits of late Pleistocene islands, defined by the 120 ni bathymetric line, are highly concordant with the limits of faunal regions. Faunal variation among non-volant mammals is high between faunal regions and low within the faunal regions; endcmism of faunal regions characteristically exceeds 70%. Small and geologically young oceanic islands are depauperate; larger and older islands are more species-rich. The number of endemic species is correlated with island area; however, continental shelf islands less than 125000 km2 do not have endemic species, whereas isolated oceanic islands as small as 47 km2 often have endemic species. Geologirally old oceanic islands have many endemic species, whereas young oceanic islands have few endemic species. Colonization across sea channels that were 5-25 km wide during the Pleistocene has been low, with a rate of about 1-2/500000 years. Comparison ofspecies-area curves for mainland areas, late Pleistocene islands, and middle Pleistocene islands indicates that extinction occurs rapidly when landbridge islands are first isolated, with the extent of extinction dependent upon island size; extinction then slows to an average rate of 1-2"/0/10000 years. The great majority of the non-volant Philippine mammals arrived from the Sunda Shelf, the geographically closest of the possible source areas. Speciation within the Philippines has contributed substantially to species richness, perhaps exceeding colonization by a factor of two or more as a contributor to species number. Colonization, extinction and speciation rates differ among taxonomic groups, with murid rodents being most successful and carnivores least successful. In order for any model of island biogeography to be widely applicable to insular faunas, the model must include speciation as a major variable. It is suggested that insular mammalian faunas typically are not in equilibrium, brrause geological and climatic changes can occur as rapidly as colonization and speciation.


Background Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most invasive solid malignancies. Immunotherapy and targeted therapy confirmed an existing certain curative effect in treating PDAC. The aim of this study was to develop an immune-related molecular marker to enhance the ability to predict Stages III and IV PDAC patients. Method In this study, weighted gene co-expression network (WGCNA) analysis and a deconvolution algorithm (CIBERSORT) that evaluated the cellular constituent of immune cells were used to evaluate PDAC expression data from the GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) datasets, and identify modules related to CD4+ T cells. LASSO Cox regression analysis and Kaplan–Meier curve were applied to select and build prognostic multi-gene signature in TCGA Stages III and IV PDAC patients (N = 126). This was followed by independent Stages III and IV validation of the gene signature in the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC, N = 62) and the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center (FUSCC, N = 42) cohort. Inherited germline mutations and tumor immunity exploration were applied to elucidate the molecular mechanisms in PDAC. Univariate and Multivariate Cox regression analyses were applied to verify the independent prognostic factors. Finally, a prognostic nomogram was created according to the TCGA-PDAC dataset. Results A four-gene signature comprising NAPSB, ZNF831, CXCL9 and PYHIN1 was established to predict overall survival of PDAC. This signature also robustly predicted survival in two independent validation cohorts. The four-gene signature could divide patients into high and low-risk groups with disparity overall survival verified by a Log-rank test. Expression of four genes positively correlated with immunosuppression activity (PD-L1 and PD1). Immune-related genes nomogram and corresponding calibration curves showed significant performance for predicting 3-year survival in TCGA-PDAC dataset. Conclusion We constructed a novel four-gene signature to predict the prognosis of Stages III and IV PDAC patients by applying WGCNA and CIBERSORT algorithm scoring to transcriptome data different from traditional methods of filtrating for differential genes in cancer and healthy tissues. The findings may provide reference to predict survival and was beneficial to individualized management for advanced PDAC patients.


Aim: This study aimed to explore the impact of caring for an individual with neurogenic orthostatic hypotension (nOH). Methods: Informal caregivers of individuals with nOH and either Parkinson's disease, multiple system atrophy, pure autonomic failure or dementia with Lewy bodies completed semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis; the identified concepts were used to develop a conceptual model. Results: Twenty informal caregivers were interviewed. Analysis identified several areas of caregiver impact due to nOH including impact on their time, particularly a need to supervise the patient to prevent falls as well as a lack of freedom and negative physical, work and social impacts. Many reported negative emotional impacts, including worry, stress or fear about the patient falling, depression and frustration. The conceptual model shows the relationships between concepts. Conclusion: The results highlight the wide-ranging impact of nOH, and the specific impact of the fear of falls on informal caregivers' lives.


The nature of 'sustainability' as an essentially contested concept suggests that the argument between those who would substitute financial for natural capital, and those who believe that such substitution is impossible and/or dangerous, is unlikely to be resolved. Some of those in the latter group, that is to say some of those who have previously argued for a strong view of sustainability, one that privileges nature or perhaps 'natural capital' as primary and sacrosanct, have despaired of their ability to influence policy rapidly and have now adopted the language of the capitalist hegemony, that is to say 'money'. Our purpose in this paper is to argue that this is a logically inconsistent position and hence to force those who hold it to choose either to abandon their argument for this monetary valuation or else to accept that it entails that they accept the commodification and sale of aspects of the natural world. We also suggest that this debate might be called 'the natural capital controversy', explicitly drawing a parallel between this debate and the so-called 'capital controversy' that took place in some of the leading economics journals in the 1950s to 1970s.


BACKGROUND
 Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is an infectious disease that progressively destroys lung tissue. To date, no longitudinal data on the efficacy of antifungal treatment on health status in CPA patients exist.

METHODS
 Using the standardized St George's Respiratory Questionnaire, the health status of 122 patients with was assessed at baseline and quarterly over 12 months. The score range was 0-100, where higher score indicates worse heath status, and a change of ≥4 was deemed the minimal clinically important difference. Lung function, body mass index, Medical Research Council dyspnea scale, disease severity, and demographic data were reported.

RESULTS
 Mean age of patients was 59 years, and 45% were female. Overall, patients with CPA had substantial health status impairment at baseline. After treatment, 47%-50% gained substantial health improvement with a mean reduction of score of 14 at both 6 and 12 months, whereas 32% deteriorated with a mean rise of score of 11 and 14 after 6 and 12 months of treatment and observation, respectively, and 21% were not much different (stable). Patients gained therapeutic benefit irrespective of their illness severity where >50% of those who had "poor" and "very poor" status at baseline improved with score reduction of ≥4 after 6 months of treatment. Replicating this analysis using a health status category, we found that at least 50% of patients with a "poor/very poor" health status category at baseline improved significantly to "fair" or "good/very good" categories. Side effects burdened health status considerably. In multivariate analysis, dyspnea and disease severity significantly defined health status impairment.

CONCLUSIONS
Antifungal therapy improved health status and prevented CPA progression in most patients.


This paper investigates local invariant features for geographic (overhead) image retrieval. Local features are particularly well suited for the newer generations of aerial and satellite imagery whose increased spatial resolution, often just tens of centimeters per pixel, allows a greater range of objects and spatial patterns to be recognized than ever before. Local invariant features have been successfully applied to a broad range of computer vision problems and, as such, are receiving increased attention from the remote sensing community particularly for challenging tasks such as detection and classification. We perform an extensive evaluation of local invariant features for image retrieval of land-use/land-cover (LULC) classes in high-resolution aerial imagery. We report on the effects of a number of design parameters on a bag-of-visual-words (BOVW) representation including saliency- versus grid-based local feature extraction, the size of the visual codebook, the clustering algorithm used to create the codebook, and the dissimilarity measure used to compare the BOVW representations. We also perform comparisons with standard features such as color and texture. The performance is quantitatively evaluated using a first-of-its-kind LULC ground truth data set which will be made publicly available to other researchers. In addition to reporting on the effects of the core design parameters, we also describe interesting findings such as the performance-efficiency tradeoffs that are possible through the appropriate pairings of different-sized codebooks and dissimilarity measures. While the focus is on image retrieval, we expect our insights to be informative for other applications such as detection and classification.


We present animatable neural radiance fields (animatable NeRF) for detailed human avatar creation from monocular videos. Our approach extends neural radiance fields (NeRF) to the dynamic scenes with human movements via introducing explicit pose-guided deformation while learning the scene representation network. In particular, we estimate the human pose for each frame and learn a constant canonical space for the detailed human template, which enables natural shape deformation from the observation space to the canonical space under the explicit control of the pose parameters. To compensate for inaccurate pose estimation, we introduce the pose refinement strategy that updates the initial pose during the learning process, which not only helps to learn more accurate human reconstruction but also accelerates the convergence. In experiments we show that the proposed approach achieves 1) implicit human geometry and appearance reconstruction with high-quality details, 2) photo-realistic rendering of the human from novel views, and 3) animation of the human with novel poses.


Dear Sir,

Cefepime is a commonly prescribed antibiotic, but the frequency and incidence of its neurotoxicity are unknown [1]. Common symptoms of neurotoxicity include lethargy, confusion, agitation, global aphasia, seizures, coma, and myoclonus [2]. Early discontinuation after the development of neurotoxicity is crucial to recovery and to reducing morbidity and mortality [3]. The pathophysiology of cefepime-induced myoclonus is unknown. Much of the current literature does not describe debilitating jaw myoclonus [1,3-6]. Here, we expand on our two previously-reported cases of cefepime-induced jaw myoclonus [7] and introduce a new case. As in the first two cases, this case had varying degrees of renal and cardiac dysfunction [7] contributing to symptom development. Although other antibiotics were used, the resolution of symptoms after cefepime discontinuation makes it the likely cause.

An 88-year-old man presented to the emergency room with shortness of breath. On admission, his temperature was 99.8 degrees Fahrenheit and his blood pressure was 80/30. The neurological examination was non-focal. His chest radiograph revealed a right apical infiltrate, and he was admitted with presumed pneumonia. He was given 2 grams of cefepime by intravenous (IV) daily. In addition, he was given single doses of 400 mg moxifloxacin, 360 mg gentamicin, and 1,250 mg vancomycin in the emergency room by IV. An IV of 500 mg metronidazole every 8 hours was subsequently added and continued until discharge. His creatinine and blood urea nitrogen at the time of admission were 1.7 mg/dL and 27 mg/dL, respectively and remained stable during his hospitalization. His calculated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was 35 mL/min/1.73 m2 . Echocardiogram demonstrated an ejection fraction of 35 percent. On day three of the admission, he had transient bilateral upper extremity jerking. On day four, he had persistent myoclonus of the entire face, most prominently of his mouth and jaw, extending to the left side of the trapezius, with a frequency greater than 1 hertz. He was awake and communicative but disoriented with regard to place and time. Head CT and EEG were not performed, based on our prior experience from our two previously reported cases [7]. Cefepime was immediately stopped and replaced with ceftriaxone. His jaw myoclonus ceased, and his mental status improved the next day. Cefepime is a fourth-generation cephalosporin, commonly prescribed because of its broad coverage. Its half-life is two hours in patients with normal renal function. Because it is mainly eliminated by glomerular filtration, its serum levels increase with kidney injury. Our case further demonstrates that despite appropriate renal dosing, in the case of kidney injury, myoclonus developed due to cefepime, as illustrated by the resolution of symptoms following its discontinuation. We performed a PUBMED search, focusing on articles in English, using the terms, "cefepime and myoclonus," "cefepime and neurotoxicity," and "cefepime encephalopathy" and identified 22 cases of cefepime-induced myoclonus (Table 1) [1,3-7]. As in our case, all 22 of the previous cases [1,3-7] had varying degrees of renal impairment. Age is also an important risk factor because 18 of 22 reported cases were 65 years of age or older. Taken together, age and underlying kidney disease were highly associated with cefepime-induced myoclonus. Renal mass, renal plasma flow, and GFR all decline with age but may not result in an increase in plasma creatinine because of the loss of muscle mass in the elderly. Decreases in renal function affect the clearance of water-soluble antibiotics, such as cefepime, leading to toxic serum concentrations. In addition, patients with underlying kidney injury have elevated serum urea, which leads to an increased permeability of the blood brain barrier, further predisposing patients to neurotoxicity [2]. Multiple comorbidities, underlying infection, and drug polypharmacy appear to be other contributing factors [1,3-7]. Although physiologic changes contribute to the development of antibiotic-induced myoclonus, cephalosporins may inherently reduce GABAergic activity by inhibiting the binding of GABA to GABA-A receptors, resulting in neuronal hyperexcitation and epileptogenicity [2]. Another proposed mechanism of cephalosporininduced neurotoxicity is its induction of endotoxins and the release of cytokines [2].

Table 1.

Clinical characteristics of previously reported cases of cefepime-induced myoclonus

It is not entirely clear why the jaw in particular was so severely affected because it is not a well-described phenomenon in cases of antibiotic-induced myoclonus. Although, based on the resolution of symptoms after its discontinuation, cefepime is the likely causative agent, it should be noted that the other antibiotics used to treat our patients have potential neurotoxic effects [2]. Prolonged use of metronidazole has been shown to cause T2 MRI changes in the cerebellum and brainstem, manifesting as limb and gait ataxia, dysarthria, dizziness, headache, confusion, and peripheral neuropathy [2]. Although the rapid resolution of symptoms after discontinuation (within three to seven days) is similar to cefepime, the latency to the onset of symptoms is much longer (up to three months after metronidazole initiation) [2]. In our patient, who was on both metronidazole and cefepime, the latency to the onset of symptoms was only 5 days, unlike previously reported cases of metronidazole-induced neurotoxicity [2]. Furthermore, the myoclonus resolved after discontinuing cefepime, despite the continuation of metronidazole treatment, suggesting that cefepime was the culprit.

In patients with impaired renal function, dose adjustment of cefepime must be performed before drug administration, and patients must be closely monitored for any neurological change. When suspecting neurotoxicity, cefepime should be immediately discontinued and cefepime serum concentrations as well as renal function should be monitored. There is evidence of improvement with decreasing serum cefepime concentrations [5]. Our patient did not have his serum cefepime levels measured due to the resolution of his symptoms upon discontinuation. In our opinion, EEG and neuroimaging are generally recommended to assess for possible underlying electrical and structural causes of myoclonus, especially if there is no resolution with the discontinuation of cefepime. Prescription of anti-epileptics, such as valproic acid, levetiracetam, and clonazepam, as well as hemodialysis for nephrotoxicity aid in treatment [2].


We investigate a type of lossless source code called a grammar-based code, which, in response to any input data string x over a fixed finite alphabet, selects a context-free grammar G/sub x/ representing x in the sense that x is the unique string belonging to the language generated by G/sub x/. Lossless compression of x takes place indirectly via compression of the production rules of the grammar G/sub x/. It is shown that, subject to some mild restrictions, a grammar-based code is a universal code with respect to the family of finite-state information sources over the finite alphabet. Redundancy bounds for grammar-based codes are established. Reduction rules for designing grammar-based codes are presented.


Aims: This study aimed at acquiring knowledge of the evolution of anthocyanins from grape to wine and the possibility of deducing the varietal origin of a wine from its anthocyanin profile.Methods and results: The anthocyanin « fingerprint », or profile, of a series of autochthonous Sicilian accessions and their respective young wines was determined by HPLC-DAD in 2008. Data were evaluated by taking into account the evolution of the percentages of side-ring di-oxygenated and tri-oxygenated anthocyanins, the ratio between acetylated and p-coumaroylated derivatives, and the principal component analysis (PCA) results. From grape to the end of alcoholic fermentation, the percentages of 3-glucosides of cyanidin, peonidin, delphinidin and p-coumaroylglucosides decreased, whereas those of malvidin-3-glucoside, acetylated derivatives and, in some cases, petunidin-3-glucoside increased. In many but not all wines, after malolactic fermentation, the percentages of p-coumaroylated derivatives decreased further and those of cyanidin-3-glucoside and acetylated derivatives increased ; less variation was observed in malvidin-3-glucoside values.Conclusions: From grapes to young wines, the anthocyanin profiles varied mainly because of the activity of polyphenol oxidase (PPO), yeasts and lactic acid bacteria. However, they were substantially retained in wines from varieties in which tri-oxygenated side-ring anthocyanins prevailed, but were dramatically different from the respective grapes in wines from varieties rich in di-oxygenated anthocyanins, or in which the di-oxygenated forms prevailed over the tri-oxygenated ones. PCA analysis confirmed these findings.Significance and impact of the study: Only in varieties in which the anthocyanin profile of grapes is characterized by low percentages of di-oxygenated side-ring forms is it possible to gain information about the varietal origin of a young wine by comparing the profiles of both grape and wine. However, great care is required.


The infrared (900-1100 cm(-1)) Faraday rotation and circular dichroism are measured in the normal state of underdoped High T(c) superconductors and used to study the magnetotransport. YBa2Cu3O6+x thin films are investigated in the temperature range 10-300 K in magnetic fields up to 8 T and as a function of oxygen concentration. A dramatic increase of the Hall frequency is observed for underdoped samples, which is not consistent with the approach to a Mott transition but is consistent with a partial gapping of the Fermi surface as predicted in density wave models.


We demonstrate the existence of multipeaked fundamental and vortex solitons in defocusing Kerr media with an imprinted azimuthally modulated Bessel lattice. Multipeaked solitons emanating from the fundamental linear lattice modes are stable in their entire existence domains. The number of soliton peaks is determined by the azimuthal index. Multipeaked vortex solitons with high topological charges in lattices exhibit special amplitude and phase distributions that resemble those of azimuthons. We reveal that the "stability rule" for vortex solitons in defocusing Kerr media is exactly opposite to that in focusing media. Multipeaked vortex solitons we obtained may provide a missing link between the radially symmetric vortices and nonrotating soliton clusters.


Based on the definitions of "category" and "aspect", the article analyzes the similarities and differences between English and Chinese perfect aspect in terms of formation, meaning, and usage. Main findings are that in the first place the perfect aspect in both English and Chinese expresses the same basic meaning, and it can be used to show the accomplishment of an action, the duration of an action as well as the anteriority of an action; secondly, the perfect aspect in English must be realized by grammatical device, but that in Chinese can be realized by means of grammar together with the lexical device; thirdly, there exist differences between English perfect aspect and that in Chinese in some specific usages. The study will be of benefit to have a deeper understanding of aspect as a grammatical category, and a more skillful application of English aspect and Chinese aspect. In the meantime, such analysis will deepen the understanding of differences of grammatical category between languages and the linguistic universality and diversity.