Abstract
1. Nineteen healthy male volunteers participated in a double-blind, six-way, crossover study. With a separation of 1 week between sessions, volunteers received randomly one oral dose of each of the following compounds: 3 or 10 mg of the dopamine (DA2) receptor antagonist and serotonin (5HT1A) agonist DU 29894, 1 mg flesinoxan, 400 mg sulpiride, 3 mg haloperidol or placebo. 2. To assess the dopamine (DA2) antagonistic activity of the different compounds, plasma levels of prolactin were assessed at pre-dose, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 24 h post-dose. To assess the serotonin (5HT1A) agonistic activity, plasma levels of ACTH, cortisol and growth hormone were assessed at the same time-points as well as body temperature; the latter was also assessed 8 h post-dose. Plasma levels of DU 29894 were assessed at pre-dose and 2, 3, 4 and 24 h post-dose. 3. Sulpiride, haloperidol and both doses of 3 mg and 10 mg DU 29894 produced statistically significant increases in prolactin levels. The increase produced by 3 mg was roughly equivalent to that produced by 3 mg haloperidol whereas the increase produced by 10 mg DU 29894 was significantly larger. 4. Only 10 mg DU 29894 and 1 mg flesinoxan produced statistically significant increases in ACTH, cortisol and growth hormone. All compounds either showed a significant attenuation of the normal day time increase of body temperature (3 mg DU 29894, haloperidol and sulpiride) or a true significant decrease in body temperature (10 mg DU 29894 and flesinoxan).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Compared to synthetic aperture radars (SARs), the angular resolution of microwave radiometers is quite poor. Traditionally, it has been limited by the physical size of the antenna. However, the angular resolution can be improved by means of aperture synthesis interferometric techniques. A narrow beam is synthesized during the image formation processing of the cross-correlations measured at zero-lag between pairs of signals collected by an array of antennas. The angular resolution is then determined by the maximum antenna spacing normalized to the wavelength (baseline). The next step in improving the angular resolution is the Doppler-Radiometer, somehow related to the super-synthesis radiometers and the Radiometer-SAR. This paper presents the concept of a three-antenna Doppler-Radiometer for 2D imaging. The performance of this instrument is evaluated in terms of angular/spatial resolution and radiometric sensitivity, and an L-band illustrative example is presented.


A wide variety of secondary metabolites can be found in plant material. These metabolites have antimicrobial properties and are structurally designated as tannins, flavonoids, alkaloids as well as terpenoids. In the search for alternative treatment to bacterial infections, dietary products and healthy lifestyles, the need for validated data has become imperative. Most of these preparations are not regulated and can be purchased off the shelves. For this reason, the public should be educated in order to make informed choices. This review assists the programme in providing a summary of the structures found in many plant extracts. The effectiveness of various compounds would give an overall idea of the screening efforts of each substance, thereby enabling the public as well as practitioners' when considering treatment of a wide range of aliments. Patients' compliance to self-medicating could be effectively controlled when using "over the counter" preparations.


Nanowires don't grow on trees, but they can grow into tree-shaped objects, such as this stunning lead sulfide structure created by chemistry professor Song Jin's group at the University of Wisconsin ( Science , DOI: 10.1126/science.1157131). While most nanowires sprout from catalyst seeds, the "trunks" of Jin's nanotrees form via a new mechanism of nanowire growth that's driven by screwlike dislocations in the PbS crystal. These defects, Jin says, create "self-perpetuating spiral steps for atoms to settle on and cause the crystal lattice to twist." Nanowire "branches" grow off this twisting central rod via the more common catalyst-based mechanism. "When this new mechanism is well understood and well controlled, more elaborate and complex nanostructures can be rationally prepared, many of which could have interesting applications," Jin says. ...


Context. Hot subdwarfs are helium burning objects in late stages of their evolution. These subluminous stars can develop winds driven by light absorption in the lines of heavier elements. The wind strength depends on chemical composition which can significantly vary from star to star.
Aims. We aim to understand the influence of metallicity on the strength of the winds of the hot hydrogen-rich subdwarfs HD 49798 and BD+18° 2647.
Methods. We used high-resolution UV and optical spectra to derive stellar parameters and abundances using the TLUSTY and SYNSPEC codes. For derived stellar parameters, we predicted wind structure (including mass-loss rates and terminal velocities) with our METUJE code.
Results. We derived effective temperature Teff = 45 900 K and mass M = 1.46 M⊙ for HD 49798 and Teff = 73 000 K and M = 0.38 M⊙ for BD+18° 2647. The derived surface abundances can be interpreted as a result of interplay between stellar evolution and diffusion. The subdwarf HD 49798 has a strong wind that does not allow for chemical separation and consequently the star shows solar chemical composition modified by hydrogen burning. On the other hand, we did not find any wind in BD+18° 2647 and its abundances are therefore most likely affected by radiative diffusion. Accurate abundances do not lead to a significant modification of wind mass-loss rate for HD 49798, because the increase of the contribution of iron and nickel to the radiative force is compensated by the decrease of the radiative force due to other elements. The resulting wind mass-loss rate Ṁ = 2.1 × 10−9 M⊙ yr−1 predicts an X-ray light curve during the eclipse which closely agrees with observations. On the other hand, the absence of the wind in BD+18° 2647 for accurate abundances is a result of its peculiar chemical composition.
Conclusions. Wind models with accurate abundances provide more reliable wind parameters, but the influence of abundances on the wind parameters is limited in many cases.


On the basis of the preceding discussion and information, it is our conclusion that: 1. Bovine graft A-V fistuals can be created successfully in 87% of those patients who have had a failure of conventional fistuals. 2. Bovine graft A-V fistuals provide easy needle placement. 3. Bovine graft A-V fistuals give excellent access for effective hemodialysis. 4. Bovine graft A-V fistuals do not cause excessive bleeding at the puncture site. 5. Bovine graft A-V fistuals can be used immediately.


This paper proposes a novel approach for directly-modeling speech at the waveform level using a neural network. This approach uses the neural network-based statistical parametric speech synthesis framework with a specially designed output layer. As acoustic feature extraction is integrated to acoustic model training, it can overcome the limitations of conventional approaches, such as two-step (feature extraction and acoustic modeling) optimization, use of spectra rather than waveforms as targets, use of overlapping and shifting frames as unit, and fixed decision tree structure. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can directly maximize the likelihood defined at the waveform domain.


Polymer composites have generated increased interest in the development of damped structural materials because of their low density, and excellent stiffness and damping characteristics. The objectives of this paper are to study the improvement and optimization of damping in fiber reinforced structural composite materials at the micromechanical level by coating some of the fibers with special polymers which have high damping. Since shear deformation is essential for viscoelastic damping in polymers, and large shear strains are generated near the fiber/matrix interface in composites, the use of special viscoelastic polymer fiber coatings is an effective way to improve damping in such composites. Of particular interest are hybrid composites having a mixture of coated and uncoated fibers, since coating all the fibers would cause unacceptable reductions in other important properties like strength and stiffness.


Large-scale quantum information processing requires the use of quantum error-correcting codes to mitigate the effects of noise in quantum devices. Topological error-correcting codes, such as surface codes, are promising candidates, as they can be implemented using only local interactions in a 2-D array of physical qubits. Procedures, such as defect braiding and lattice surgery, can then be used to realize a fault-tolerant universal set of gates on the logical space of such topological codes. However, error correction also introduces a significant overhead in computation time, the number of physical qubits, and the number of physical gates. While optimizing fault-tolerant circuits to minimize this overhead is critical, the computational complexity of such optimization problems remains unknown. This ambiguity leaves room for doubt surrounding the most effective methods for compiling fault-tolerant circuits for a large-scale quantum computer. In this article, we show that the optimization of a special subset of braided quantum circuits is NP-hard by a polynomial-time reduction of the optimization problem into a specific problem called PlanarRectilinear3SAT.


Quinolinic acid (QA) is an N-methyl-d-aspartate agonist that has been shown to produce neurotoxic effects that mimic certain neurodegenerative diseases when administered to laboratory animals. Intrastriatal injections of QA in rats have been used extensively to produce some of the neuropathological and behavioral deficits that are analogous to Huntington's disease (HD). However, acute intrastriatal injections of QA produce symptoms that are not analogous to the progressive nature of HD. Thus far, models using chronic administration of QA that produce HD-like behavioral and neuroanatomical changes have necessitated the use of a relatively bulky and fragile microdialytic pump apparatus. The present study tested an alternative way of chronically administering QA. Specifically, this study tested whether gradual release of QA from ethylene vinylacetate (EVA) polymers could produce symptoms analogous to HD. Rats received either no implants or bilateral intrastriatal implants of polymers with or without QA. Subsequent tests for spontaneous motor activity (SMA), grip strength, balance, and learning ability in a radial-arm-water-maze task revealed QA-induced impairments in balance and learning ability, but did not affect grip strength or SMA. Histological analysis revealed QA-induced enlargement of lateral ventricles, striatal atrophy, and striatal neuronal loss, with relative sparing of NADPH-diaphorase-positive neurons. These results suggest that QA released from polymers can produce behavioral and neuropathological profiles analogous to early stages of HD and that EVA polymers offer a useful means of chronically delivering QA in rodent models of neurodegeneration.


Direct and indirect effects of exposure to 19 parental alienation strategies in 118 adult children of divorce were examined via a confidential and anonymous computer survey. We investigated the nature and prevalence of alienation strategies to which this sample was exposed as well as associations between exposure and self-esteem and self-sufficiency. In turn, we examined and found associations between self-esteem and higher rates of depression and insecure attachment styles and a trend for an association with alcohol abuse. All effects were found even after controlling for histories of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and psychological maltreatment. These findings add to the growing body of evidence regarding the long-term consequences of experiencing parental alienation and indicate that in general, exposure to more alienation behaviors leads to more negative outcomes in children of divorce, which can be seen across the life span.


This is a review essay of Bruce Ackerman and Ian Ayres' book, "Voting with Dollars: A New Paradigm for Campaign Finance." The book combines two distinct proposals ? Ackerman's for decentralized public funding of political campaigns through "Patriot Dollars" and Ayres' for requiring anonymity in political contributions. Although the authors focus on explaining why political spending should be more like voting, their proposal will also make voting more like spending. This review examines three assumptions about voting and how they shed light on the proposal. First, Ackerman and Ayres characterize voting as anonymous. I suggest that the pedigree and extent of anonymity are complicated in important ways. The secret ballot reflected a change in American politics from a "democracy of partisanship" to a "democracy of information." It is not entirely coincidental that participation declined sharply as voting became more private. More broadly, the secret ballot entrenched existing political parties. Even aside from tainted origins and entrenching effects, secrecy in voting is not an unalloyed good. While secrecy protects free choice, it also can lessen a voter's sense of accountability. It is worth pausing before extending anonymity even further. This should be especially true for Ackerman, given another strand of his current project: the establishment of "Deliberation Day," a national holiday on which citizens will engage in face-to-face discussion and debate. Deliberation Day reflects an equally important "core attribute" of voting: its public dimension. Moreover, as a descriptive matter, while it is difficult to determine how any particular individual has voted, it is not difficult to make informed estimates about group behavior. Thus, if politicians want to know where their financial support is coming from, there are ways for them to find out. The decline in practical anonymity suggests that the authors may be overoptimistic in believing that they can produce an anonymous donation booth. Second, Ackerman and Ayres assume voters are badly informed. They aspire to create a more informed electorate. I suggest some skepticism about whether Patriot dollars will produce the engaged electorate they expect. Moreover, to the extent that the authors are right about the beneficial effects of Patriot dollars, the donation booth becomes more troubling. Third, Ackerman and Ayres recognize that representation today rests on a geographic basis. I show how Voting With Dollars creates a de facto species of cumulative voting for Congress and may create a variant of the national presidential primary. Voters who live in states whose delegate election processes take place late in the nomination process can cast their Patriot "votes" early. At the same time, candidates who want late-state voters to send them Patriot dollars to deploy in early-state primaries may have to devote more attention to voters in late states, thereby requiring them to run a campaign that is not so heavily targeted toward the unrepresentative early electorates. In light of the vast literature and experience with cumulative voting, I suggest some possible modifications of the authors' proposals. Traditional voting is only partially anonymous. In deciding which candidates to support with his Patriot dollars, an engaged citizen can consider information about the likely base of a candidate's traditional electoral support. By contrast, the authors' model statute fails to provide analogous information about the source of a candidate's haul of Patriot dollars. At the very least, Patriot dollars ought to be "tagged" with the same kind of information that accompanies votes ? for example, identification by the donor's voting precinct. Moreover, if Patriot dollars and votes come to be seen as substantially interchangeable, as the authors sometimes suggest, this may have unfortunate citizenship effects. The message sent by a world in which most Americans participate in politics only by writing a check, rather than casting a vote, is an ominous one. The physical act of voting carries significant social meaning. I suggest that a citizen's Patriot account should be replenished after an election only if she actually votes as well. To the extent that this creates an incentive for armchair participants to perform the central civic act of voting, such a requirement might create a powerful citizenship effect of its own.


In this research paper, design and simulation of of 4T-Cascode Amplifier at 45 Nanometer Technology Node has been performed using 45nm technology. DC voltage gain, average power, bandwidth and output resistance have been computed using HSPICE Software. Further, the low voltage Cascode Op Amp has better DC Gain, output resistance and less power dissipation. Thus the simulation studies have revealed that the performance of the low voltage folded cascode Op Amp can be improved optimized at different voltage. DC voltage gain is 35.6 dB, average power is 7.81 uW, bandwidth is 4.08 MHz, Phase Margin 88.3 and Output Resistance 25.16 K-Ohms have been computed using HSPICE Software at 0.9V. DC voltage gain is 13.7 dB, average power is 0.23uW, bandwidth is 110.7 MHz, Phase Margin 95.30 and Output Resistance 9.5 K-Ohms have been computed using HSPICE Software at 1.5V.


The OPASC and the OSPAR are 10″ and 30″ pipelines, respectively, which interconnect the State of Santa Catarina and Parana, crossing the Serra do Mar, in southern Brazil. In 2003, after conducting slope stabilization works on a point of geotechnical activity, vibrating string gauges were installed to monitor the stress in these pipelines, in addition to geotechnical instruments installed to monitor the slope. These gauges were installed in seven sections, with 3 instruments per section, along a span of 180 meters.Although the geotechnical instrumentation has shown no evidence of movement in the slope, the gauges recorded an increase in stress values in some of the sections within three months from the time of installation, however, they remained stable in their values for the next ten years. In 2013, blind hole tests were performed to determine the stresses in these sections and to verify the proper function of the gauges. The combination of these two measurement techniques, vibrating string gauges and blind hole tests, allowed for the determination of the stress state in sections, over time. From there, equivalent stress could be determined and compared with allowable stresses defined in standards.After the completion of the blind hole test and subsequent backfill, stress rose again at the same rate, returning to the level reached after the initial installation of the strain gauges. To reduce the stress level additional excavations have been made to relieve the stress on the pipeline, followed by backfilling performed in a controlled manner in order for the soil to properly compact, which reduced the stress value over the pipes. The graphs depicting variation over time of stress showed a significant reduction in the level of stress after the backfill.The main conclusions are listed as follows: a) the evolution of stress observed by the extensometers was primarily caused by pipeline settling; b) the vibrating string gauges are functioning properly and provide reliable readings even after ten years of service; c) the blind hole testing performed in conjunction with monitoring by vibrating string gauges can provide approximate values of the full stress state; d) after stress relief, backfilling of the trench must be carried out by compacting the soil beneath the pipe in order to reduce bending stresses due to the weight of the soil; e) backfilling of the trench, when not properly performed, can cause compressive stress in bending, reaching 390 mPa over the next few months.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


The European Union recently mandated that audit engagement partners sign their name to the audit opinion. However, there is little evidence demonstrating whether such a mandate had any influence on audit quality. We examine the audit quality effects of a partner signature mandate by comparing multiple measures of audit quality in years after adoption of an audit partner signature mandate in the Netherlands, a country with no tradition of partner signatures, to the audit quality in years prior to adoption, as well as to the United Kingdom, a country with a similar legal and accounting environment, but which did not adopt partner-level signatures at the same time. We detect no substantial change in audit quality using multiple measures and sample selection criteria. Although a null result cannot demonstrate that no effect exists, power tests suggest the lack of an economically significant effect. Our results support the arguments of practitioners who believe that mandatory partner signatures will not influence audit quality.


We show that for a metric space with an even number of points there is a 1-Lipschitz map to a tree-like space with the same matching number. This result gives the first basic version of an unoriented Kantorovich duality. The study of the duality gives a version of global calibrations for 1-chains with coefficients in $\mathbb Z_2$. Finally we extend the results to infinite metric spaces and present a notion of "matching dimension" which arises naturally.


Electrodynamic Bearings (EDBs) are a kind of passive magnetic bearings that exploits the interaction between the induced eddy currents in a conductor and a magnetic field to provide re-storing forces. They have been regarded as an appealing alternative to Active Magnetic Bearings (AMBs), having the ability to provide positive stiffness passively without introducing negative stiff-ness in any direction. Compared to AMBs, EDBs present advantages such as lower cost and higher reliability due to simplicity of configurations. One of the most interesting features of EDBs is the possibility to obtain stable levitation using standard conductive materials at room temperature, requiring no control systems, power electronics or sensors. Thus EDBs could be suitable solutions for high–speed rotating machinery such as flywheels, small size compressors, centrifuges and vac-cum pumps. Despite these promising characteristics of EDBs, applications are still limited because of instability issues. The main problem is that the effect of the rotating damping force in EDBs causes unstable behavior of the rotor. In existing solutions, stabilization is achieved mainly by introducing non-rotating damping to the rotor with passive ways. Although stable levitation is possible, the effectiveness of the existing methods is still limited. A hybrid solution has been proposed in this thesis, where EDBs are combined with active magnetic dampers (AMDs). Using similar magnetic actuators as those used in classical active magnetic bearings (AMBs), non–rotating damping forces are applied on the rotor supported by EDBs to obtain stable operation. This system is designed to exploit the high reliability of EDBs, overcoming the stability problem by means of controllable AMDs. It results in increased global system reliability. In case of AMBs failure, the EDBs are able to guarantee a stable levitation down to a certain speed considered safe for touch–down. During the operation speed range, the AMDs provide non–rotating damping to stabilize the rotor. This non–rotating damping can be easily tuned during rotor operation phase. At low speeds when the EDB forces are not sufficient to support the rotor, the active magnetic actuators work as AMBs to guarantee stable levitation of the rotor in a wide speed range. Besides, the EDB−AMD configuration also allows characterizeing in dynamic condition, which opens the possibility to establish damping strategy that can in perspective be implemented by totally passive means, such as eddy currents, elastomeric mounts. The combination of EDB and AMD forces are studied both analytically and experimentally. An analytical model of the system, as well as a test rig, has been built. Simulations and experi-mental tests validate the model and characterize the system. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is confirmed. The control strategy of AMDs and stabilizing alternatives of EDBs are dis-cussed consequently. The combination of EDB and AMD can be exploited to investigate easily dif-ferent damping strategies.


The experiment used signal detection theory to study the way information encoded in the short-term memory, taking Chinese character and English word as materials. The results of the experiment showed that the subjects could choose different ways of encoding flexibly, according to variable stimulus situations. Acoustic code was found may be the main encoding mode in this experiment. Yet the experiment got another result that the discrimination of Chinese character is higher than that of English, and difference between them is significant, which is likely to be caused by the influence of the subjects' mother tongue.


We have applied three techniques to the study of subunit assembly of the Type IC Restriction–Modification enzyme EcoR124I. This fully functional enzyme EcoR124I consists of a complex of the three subunits HsdR, HsdM and HsdS in a R2M2S1 stoichiometry, but is known to dissociate readily, releasing free HsdR and producing first an R1-complex and then the core, DNA-binding methyltransferase (M2S1) complex. Analysis of the assembly pathway of this enzyme has previously employed gel retardation and Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), but the studies to date have not included the cofactors required for full enzyme activity. In this paper, we have also used atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based molecular volume measurements, and have analysed the effect of the cofactors ATP and AdoMet on enzyme stability and subunit assembly. We compare the data obtained from all three techniques and we show that they all give consistent results, but inherent differences in the methodologies provide additional information useful for the study of subunit assembly.


Background Physical activity (PA) participation is associated with health benefits and/or health risks. Low cardiorespiratory fitness (CVF) and fatness seem to be important health problems. Regarding some of the studies, it has been proven that CVF is related to daily PA and fatness. Objective The purpose of this study was evaluating the relationship between CVF with some of the anthropometric characteristics and PA in children aged 8–12 years. Design A cross-sectional study of 44 children aged (mean±SD) 9.73±1.38 years, height 134.5±11.77 cm and weight 32.04±8.66 kg from Noorabad city volunteered for this study. Before performance of any testing, the enrolled children's parents provided written informed consent and all children filled up an informed consent form. The current health status of the children was checked, CVF was measured by Bruce's treadmill test and the recording paper of daily PA for 2 days of a week (a holiday and a non-holiday) was filled by the children's parents. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated as weight/height squared (kg/m2), and using Jackson's formula the body fat percentage (BF%) was calculated. Pearson bivariate correlation analysis was done. The analysis was performed using SPSS (version 15.0), and the level of significance was set at p=0.5. Results A statistically significant relationship was found between CVF (VO2max) and PA (p=0.0005), BMI (0.034) and BF% (p=0.005). Suggestion Our cross-sectional results suggest that PA may improve children's CVF. In addition, we can estimate by VO2max measuring BMI and BF%.


Climate change introduces substantial uncertainty to water resources planning and raises the key question: when, or under what conditions, should adaptation occur? A number of recent studies aim to identify policies mapping future observations to actions—in other words, framing climate adaptation as an optimal control problem. This paper uses the control paradigm to review and classify recent dynamic planning studies according to their approaches to uncertainty characterization, policy structure, and solution methods. We propose a set of research gaps and opportunities in this area centered on the challenge of characterizing uncertainty, which prevents the unambiguous application of control methods to this problem. These include exogenous uncertainty in forcing, model structure, and parameters propagated through a chain of climate and hydrologic models; endogenous uncertainty in human‐environmental system dynamics across multiple scales; and sampling uncertainty due to the finite length of historical observations and future projections. Recognizing these challenges, several opportunities exist to improve the use of control methods for climate adaptation, namely, how problem context and understanding of climate processes might assist with uncertainty quantification and experimental design, out‐of‐sample validation and robustness of optimized adaptation policies, and monitoring and data assimilation, including trend detection, Bayesian inference, and indicator variable selection. We conclude with a summary of recommendations for dynamic water resources planning under climate change through the lens of optimal control.


BACKGROUND
To assess clinical outcomes among participants undergoing mitral valve replacement with preservation of subvalvular apparatus.

METHODS
Electronic databases, including PubMed, Embase, Science Direct, World of Science, Scopus, Biosis, SciElo and Cochrane library, were probed using an extensive search strategy. Studies that reported at least one clinical outcome, such as morbidity, mortality, early 30-day mortality, myocardial failure, survival, late cerebrovascular events, length of stay, or major operative complications (stroke, prolonged ventilation, and reoperation for bleeding, renal failure, and sternal infection) were considered for inclusion. Data was extracted and pooled into a meta-analysis in RevMan (version 5.3) using a random-effects model.

RESULTS
A total of 21 studies with 5,106 participants (age range: 27.3-69.2 years) were included in this meta-analysis. Preservation of the subvalvular apparatus during MVR significantly reduces the risk of long-term mortality (OR: 0.46; 95% CI: 0.33-0.64), but not early mortality (OR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.12-4.93). No significant difference ejection fraction was observed (SMD: 0.10; 95% CI: -0.44-0.64). Similarly, there was no significant difference in the risk of stroke, renal failure, and pneumonia between C-MVR and in the control group.

CONCLUSION
MVR with the preservation of subvalvular apparatus improves clinical outcomes, such as long-term mortality, hospital length of stay, pneumonia, and bleeding. There is no significant difference in the risk of stroke, renal failure, or ICU length of stay. However, there is very limited data available with respect to bleeding, sepsis, and nosocomial infections.


The purpose of this study is to determine whether differences in protein expression exist between patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), both Crohn's Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and healthy controls (HC). A total of fourteen colonic biopsies (n=14, 8-IBD, 4-IBS, 2-HC) underwent nucleus counts using the nCounter software of the Nanostring GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler (NanoString Technologies, Inc., Seattle, Washington, USA). Three regions of interest were stained according to tryptase, crypt, and connective tissue and visualization markers were attached to fluoresce thirty inflammatory and oncological proteins of interest. After nucleus counts for proteins of interest were plotted in Tableau (2020.4.0), overexpression of AKT, beta-catenin, histone H3, CD44, S6, STAT3 were apparent for both IBD and IBS. The overexpressed proteins endorse mostly positive correlational relationships according to the bivariate correlation conducted in IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 27) predictive analysis software. Establishing validated levels of elevated protein expression offers the clinical opportunity to devise diagnostic biomarkers. Solidifying knowledge of the relationships between the inflammatory proteins provides potential understanding into the similarities of IBS and IBD.


Socialization is an interactive communication process that requires individual development and social influences, thus highlighting personal reception and interpretation of social messages, as well as the intensity and content dynamic of these social influences. In this context, family socialization represents the main model of the of gender interactions, of defining gender identity composition and gender expectations. Gender socialization within the family setting is very important because it internalizes the gender rules and ideologies, assimilating gender content from the two significant figures : Mom and Dad. This content is a fundamental cornerstone for building gender identity. The research aims to identify the views of students from the Veterinary Medicine University of Bucharest regarding the role of family socialization in the construction of gender identity. The research results confirm a trend of perception for most students towards the innovative socializing model, based on equality in the distribution of tasks within the family. However, there are differences between the genders in terms of perception and comprehension of the role of women and men. Thus, it appears that some of the students believe that the woman carries most of the household domestic tasks, while some students assigned the traditional role of financial support for the entire family to the men.


Planning and execution systems have been used in a wide variety of systems to create practical and successful automation. They have been used for everything from performing scientific research on the surface of Mars to controlling enemy characters in video games to performing military air campaign planning. After reviewing past work on these various planning and execution systems, we believe that most lack one or more key components contained in another system. To enable future researchers to build more complete systems, and avoid possible serious system failure, we identify the major technical problems any implementer of such a system would have to face. In addition we cite recent solutions to each of these technical problems. We limit our focus to planning and execution for virtual worlds and the unique problems faced therein.


Abstract Multi-window infrared measurements, together with visual channel observations, enable relatively high-resolution and accurate local, regional, and global retrievals of ocean surface temperatures to be repetitively and routinely obtained from operational environmental satellites. Drifting buoys appear to be the best means to date of validating the satellite estimates. Root mean square differences of about 0.6°C are found between satellite and drifter, whereas with ships-of-opportunity they are 1.8°C. Fixed buoy comparisons fall between these extremes.


Mobile healthcare is an emerging technique for clinical applications. It is usually based on cloud-connected biomedical implants. In this context, a novel solution is presented for the detection of arrhythmia by using electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. The aim is to achieve an effective solution by using real-time compression, efficient signal processing, and data transmission. The system utilizes level-crossing-based ECG signal sampling, adaptive-rate denoising, and wavelet-based sub-band decomposition. Statistical features are extracted from the sub-bands and used for automated arrhythmia classification. The performance of the system was studied by using five classes of arrhythmia, obtained from the MIT-BIH dataset. Experimental results showed a three-fold decrease in the number of collected samples compared to conventional counterparts. This resulted in a significant reduction of the computational cost of the post denoising, features extraction, and classification. Moreover, a seven-fold reduction was achieved in the amount of data that needed to be transmitted to the cloud. This resulted in a notable reduction in the transmitter power consumption, bandwidth usage, and cloud application processing load. Finally, the performance of the system was also assessed in terms of the arrhythmia classification, achieving an accuracy of 97%.


A two-year field experiment was conducted to reclaim a highly saline-sodic soil for growing annual crops in the Ningxia Plain, northwest China. The surface layer of this highly saline-sodic soil (known as "takyric solonetz") had an electrical conductivity (ECe) of 12.3 dS m−1, a sodium (Na) adsorption ratio (SAR) of 44.1 (mmol L−1)0.5, and a saturated soil paste pH (pHs) of 9.3, with a very low saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks < 0.1 mm d−1 [0.004 in day−1]). To increase the soil infiltration rate, very low-flow drip irrigation was used, and the original soil beneath the drip tape was replaced with sand in grooves that were 0.15 m (0.50 ft) wide and 0.15 m deep. The drip lines were placed on beds covered with straw into which oil sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) seeds were planted in 2013 and tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) seedlings in 2014. Five water treatments were based on the soil matric potential (SMP), which was measured with tensiometers installed 0.2 m (0.7 ft) beneath an emitter. The tensiometers triggered an irrigation of 2 mm (0.08 in) at a SMP of −5, −10, −15, −20, or −25 kPa (−0.73, −1.45, −2.18, −2.90, or −3.63 psi). The salinity and SAR of the applied water were 2.03 dS m−1 and 5.89 (mmol L−1)0.5, respectively. Considerable reclamation was achieved in two years. The low-salinity, low-pH, and low-SAR zone that formed under the drip line during the first year enlarged in the following year. The average ECe within the 0 to 40 cm (0 to 16 in) depth in the ridge zone of the bed decreased with increasing SMP, and the final ECe for all five treatments was less than 3.0 dS m−1. The final pHs decreased to approximately 8.2 beneath the drip line, and the low-pH region of the −5 and −10 kPa treatments were larger than those of the −15, −20, and −25 kPa treatments. The final average SAR at the depth of 0 to 30 cm (0 to 12 in) beneath the emitters was in the range 10.2 to 12.8 (mmol L−1)0.5 except for the SMP treatment of −25 kPa, for which the average SAR was 19.5 (mmol L−1)0.5. The maximum yield for both crops occurred when SMP was −10 kPa; however, there were no significant differences among treatments, and the yields were close to those achieved in local farmland. The findings indicated that a sand-filled groove in the soil surface beneath drip emitters could facilitate the reclamation of saline-sodic wasteland with farming annual crops, such as oil sunflower and tomato. Furthermore, a SMP of −10 kPa could be used effectively to trigger drip irrigation in the first two years.


Stilesia globipunctata infections were found in sheep from the area east and south of Bredasdorp in the Overberg region of the southern Cape Province. The prevalence of infection on these farms ranged from 5.1 to 65%. In an abattoir survey 4 of the 6 lots of 4 to 5 year old sheep and only 1 of the 9 lots of sheep under the age of 1 year were infected with S. globipunctata. None of the sheep examined in the Overberg region were infected with Stilesia hepatica. A modified sedimentation technique proved to be the most reliable for the coprological diagnosis of S. globipunctata in sheep.


The end-of-year post exam celebrations for Year 12 secondary school students presents a unique crime prevention proposition in Australia each year. Students of approximately 17 years of age congregate in a variety of locations in large groups known as 'Leavers'. Traditionally a number of 'rite of passage' activities, fuelled by additional factors such as alcohol, drugs and peer pressure, have resulted in an increased risk of crime and anti-social behaviour. This paper examines mitigation strategies aligned with Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) when placed at an event. Using the annual Leavers cohort at Rottnest Island, W.A., a number of 1 and 2 generation CPTED instruments are discussed and evaluated. The additional isolation factor of the island highlights the value of 2 generation social cohesion and its likely impact in reducing a number of crime-related social issues. The paper concludes that increased 2 generation CPTED treatments significantly improve crime reduction and fear of crime in temporary locations when used for mass gatherings at events.


Exposure to tobacco smoke, which contains several harmful and potentially harmful constituents such as acrolein increases cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Although high acrolein levels induce pervasive cardiovascular injury, the effects of low-level exposure remain unknown and sensitive biomarkers of acrolein toxicity have not been identified. Identification of such biomarkers is essential to assess the toxicity of acrolein present at low levels in the ambient air or in new tobacco products such as e-cigarettes. Hence, we examined the systemic effects of chronic (12 weeks) acrolein exposure at concentrations similar to those found in tobacco smoke (0.5 or 1 ppm). Acrolein exposure in mice led to a 2- to 3-fold increase in its urinary metabolite 3-hydroxypropyl mercapturic acid (3-HPMA) with an attendant increase in pulmonary levels of the acrolein-metabolizing enzymes, glutathione S-transferase P and aldose reductase, as well as several Nrf2-regulated antioxidant proteins. Markers of pulmonary endoplasmic reticulum stress and inflammation were unchanged. Exposure to acrolein suppressed circulating levels of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) and specific leukocyte subsets (eg, GR-1+ cells, CD19+ B-cells, CD4+ T-cells; CD11b+ monocytes) whilst other subsets (eg, CD8+ cells, NK1.1+ cells, Ly6C+ monocytes) were unchanged. Chronic acrolein exposure did not affect systemic glucose tolerance, platelet-leukocyte aggregates or microparticles in blood. These findings suggest that circulating levels of EPCs and specific leukocyte populations are sensitive biomarkers of inhaled acrolein injury and that low-level (<0.5 ppm) acrolein exposure (eg, in secondhand smoke, vehicle exhaust, e-cigarettes) could increase CVD risk by diminishing endothelium repair or by suppressing immune cells or both.


Recent literature on robust statistical inference suggests that promising outlier rejection schemes can be based on accounting explicitly for sparse gross errors in the modeling, and then relying on compressed sensing ideas to perform the outlier detection. In this paper, we consider two models for recovering a sparse signal from noisy measurements, possibly also contaminated with outliers. The models considered here are a linear regression model, and its natural one-bit counterpart where measurements are additionally quantized to a single bit. Our contributions can be summarized as follows: We start by providing conditions for identification and the Cramér-Rao Lower Bounds (CRLBs) for these two models. Then, focusing on the one-bit model, we derive conditions for consistency of the associated Maximum Likelihood estimator, and show the performance of relevant ℓ1-based relaxation strategies by comparing against the theoretical CRLB.


This study investigates users' perception and acceptance of mixed reality (MR) technology. Acceptance of new information technologies has been important research area since 1990s. It is important to understand the reasons why people accept information technologies, as this can help to improve design, evaluation and prediction how users will respond to a new technology. MR is one of the potential technologies that has gained attention in recent time, offering a unique environment as it combines real and virtual objects, interactive in real time and registered in three dimensions. This paper discusses a study into users' acceptance of a mixed reality prototype, named Mixed Reality Regenerative Concept (MRRC). MRRC was developed using mixed reality technology to provide Biomedical Science students with exposure to regenerative concepts and tissue engineering processes. MRRC integrates situated learning as the model of instruction, emphasising authentic context and activities. Volunteer sampling was used in this study to obtain 63 participants comprising 2nd, 3rd and 4th year Biomedical Science students in two public universities in Malaysia, who had not previously experienced mixed reality technology. In this study, the constructs used to determine acceptance of mixed reality technology were personal innovativeness (PI), perceived enjoyment (PE), perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), and intention to use (ITU). Results from simple correlation analyses showed positive linear correlations between the constructs. However, findings from regression analysis suggested that perceived usefulness was the most important factor determining users' intention to use this technology in the future. Findings from this study also suggested that tertiary level science students showed a high willingness to use mixed reality technology in the future.


Symmetry is a powerful concept in physics, and its recent application to understand nonequilibrium behavior is providing deep insights and groundbreaking exact results. Here we show how to harness symmetry to control transport and statistics in open quantum systems. Such control is enabled by a first-order-type dynamic phase transition in current statistics and the associated coexistence of different transport channels (or nonequilibrium steady states) classified by symmetry. Microreversibility then ensues, via the Gallavotti-Cohen fluctuation theorem, a twin dynamic phase transition for rare current fluctuations. Interestingly, the symmetry present in the initial state is spontaneously broken at the fluctuating level, where the quantum system selects the symmetry sector that maximally facilitates a given fluctuation. We illustrate these results in a qubit network model motivated by the problem of coherent energy harvesting in photosynthetic complexes, and introduce the concept of a symmetry-controlled quantum thermal switch, suggesting symmetry-based design strategies for quantum devices with controllable transport properties.


The ability of colloidal particles to penetrate fluid interfaces is a crucial factor in the preparation of particle stabilized disperse systems such as foams and emulsions. For hard micron-sized particles the insertion into fluid interfaces requires substantial energy input, but soft particles are known to adsorb spontaneously. Particle hardness, however, may also affect foam and emulsion stability. The high compliance of soft particles may compromise their ability to withstand the lateral compression associated with disproportionation. Hence, particles which can spontaneously adsorb onto fluid interfaces, and yet depict low compliance may be ideal as interfacial stabilizers. In the present work, we prepared core-shell particles comprising a hard, polystyrene core and a soft poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) based shell. We found that such core-shell particles adsorb spontaneously onto various fluid interfaces. The absence of a pronounced energy barrier for interfacial adsorption allowed the facile preparation of particle-stabilized bubbles as well as emulsion droplets. For bubbles, the stability was better than that of bubbles stabilized by entirely soft particles, but disproportionation was not stopped completely. Emulsion droplets, in contrast, showed excellent stability against both coalescence and disproportionation. Lateral compression of core-shell particles due to disproportionation was clearly limited by the presence of the polystyrene core, leading to long-lasting stability. For emulsions, we even observed non-spherical droplets, indicating a negligible Laplace pressure. Our results indicate that core-shell particles comprising a hard core and a soft shell combine the advantageous properties of hard and soft particles, namely spontaneous adsorption and limited compliance, and can therefore be superior materials for the preparation of particle-stabilized dispersions.


This study examines the health status of Pakistani children using two important indicators, morbidity and malnutrition measured by weight-for-age and height-for-age. The demand for medical services has also been determined. The main data source used in this study is the 2000-01 Pakistan Social-Economic Survey (PSES), which provides sufficient information on child health and poverty. Findings of the study show that both exclusive breastfeeding during the first 4-5 months of life and immunisation can help control the occurrence of illness significantly among the young children (0-5 months). These also reinforce the role of mother's education in the production of child health (nutritional status). This role of mother's education is found to be more pronounced in the poor families than in the non-poor families. The rise in poverty since the mid-1990s has adversely influenced the nutritional status of children. The basic issue is about how to reduce the household food insecurity. The benefits of recent high GDP growth may be transferred to the poor through employment generation, which has been slow in the past decade. Real incomes of the poor and the vulnerable segments of the population may also be protected against the rise in prices of essential food items. At present, the health and nutrition sector is getting only 0.7 percent of the GDP. Health care facilities in the country are curative in nature, and are heavily skewed in favour of the diagnostic and treatment side, not preventive healthcare aspects. More resources should be made available for preventive healthcare aspects. Coverage of child immunisation should be enhanced, and the provision of safe drinkingwater may be given high priority in the social sector policies.


Some exometabolites produced by basic representatives of human anaerobic microflora were investigated, detected by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In vitro besides lactic acid Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus generate substantial amounts of phenyllactic and p-hydroxyphenyllactic acids. Clostridium produced 2-hydroxybutyric acid and to a lesser extent lactic and phenyllactic acids. In contrast to C. perfringens, C. sporogenes generates substantial amount of phenylpropionic and p-hydroxyphenylpropionic acids and less p-hydroxyphenyllactic acid. C. perfringens produced minor amounts of 2-hydroxyglutaric acid. Bacteroids are potent producers of succinic and fumaric acids; they also contribute to production of significant portion of lactic acid. E. lentum generate lactic, phenyllactic and succinic acids and form a characteristic only for ones (from studied microorganisms) 2-hydroxyhexanic and 2-hydroxy-3-methylbutyric acids.


This paper estimates forward-looking monetary policy rules for Germany over the 1979-98 period and for the United Kingdom for the periods 1979-90 and 1992-98. The estimation results indicate that there were substantial differences between systematic monetary policy in Germany and in the United Kingdom, as well as shifts in systematic monetary policy in the United Kingdom, over this period. The paper analyses the implications of these estimated policy rules for real exchange rate behaviour in an open economy dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model. The analysis shows that real exchange rate persistence could be attributed to the persistence of real shocks and interest rate smoothing behaviour of central banks. However, the observed cross-country asymmetry in systematic monetary policy behaviour elevates real exchange rate persistence to realistic levels, whereas changes in asymmetric policy behaviour alter the character of real exchange rate persistence.


The marine boundary layer of the northeastern U.S. is studied with focus on wind speed, atmospheric stability, and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), the three most relevant properties in the context of offshore wind power development. Two long‐term observational data sets are analyzed. The first one consists of multilevel meteorological variables measured up to 60 m during 2003–2011 at the offshore Cape Wind tower, located near the center of the Nantucket Sound. The second data set comes from the 2013–2014 IMPOWR campaign (Improving the Modeling and Prediction of Offshore Wind Resources), in which wind and wave data were collected with new instruments on the Cape Wind platform, in addition to meteorological data measured during 19 flight missions offshore of New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. It is found that, in this region: (1) the offshore wind resource is remarkable, with monthly average wind speeds at 60 m exceeding 7 m s−1 all year round, highest winds in winter (10.1 m s−1) and lowest in summer (7.1 m s−1), and a distinct diurnal modulation, especially in summer; (2) the marine boundary layer is predominantly unstable (61% unstable vs. 21% neutral vs. 18% stable), meaning that mixing is strong, heat fluxes are positive, and the wind speed profile is often nonlogarithmic (~40% of the time); and (3) the shape of the wind speed profile (log versus nonlog) is an effective qualitative proxy for atmospheric stability, whereas TKE alone is not.


We have stabilized an external cavity diode laser to a whispering gallery mode resonator formed by a protrusion of a single-crystal magnesium fluoride cylinder. The cylinder's compact dimensions (less than or similar to 1 cm(3)) reduce the sensitivity to vibrations and simplify the stabilization of its temperature in a compact setup. In a comparison to an ultrastable laser used for precision metrology we determine a minimum Allan deviation of 20Hz at an optical wavelength of 972 nm, corresponding to a relative Allan deviation of 6 x 10(-14), at an integration time of 100 ms. This level of instability is compatible with the limits imposed by fundamental fluctuations of the material's refractive index at room temperature.


The current study explored the influence of musical expertise, and specifically training in improvisation on creativity, using the framework of the twofold model, according to which creativity involves a process of idea generation and idea evaluation. Based on the hypothesis that a strict evaluation phase may have an inhibiting effect over the generation phase, we predicted that training in improvisation may have a "releasing effect" on the evaluation system, leading to greater creativity. To examine this hypothesis, we compared performance among three groups - musicians trained in improvisation, musicians not trained in improvisation, and non-musicians - on divergent thinking tasks and on their evaluation of creativity. The improvisation group scored higher on fluency and originality compared to the other two groups. Among the musicians, evaluation of creativity mediated how experience in improvisation was related to originality and fluency scores. It is concluded that deliberate practice of improvisation may have a "releasing effect" on creativity.


The standard design method (classical method) for reinforced concrete rectangular footings is: First, a dimension is proposed and should comply with the allowable stresses; subsequently, the effective depth is obtained from the maximum moment and is checked against the bending shear and the punching shear until, it complies with these conditions and, then, steel reinforcement is obtained, but it is not guarantee that the minimum cost will be obtained. This paper shows an optimal design for reinforced concrete rectangular footings using the new model. A numerical experimentation is presented to show the model capability to estimate the minimum cost design of the materials used for a rectangular footing that supports an axial load and moments in two directions in accordance to the building code requirements for structural concrete and commentary (ACI 318-13). Also, a comparison is made between the optimal design and current design for rectangular footings. The solutions show that the optimal design is more economical and more precise with respect to the current design, because standard design is done by trial and error. Then, the optimal design should be used to obtain the minimum cost design for reinforced concrete rectangular footings.


The structural characteristics of the lignin from jute (Corchorus capsularis ) fibers, which are used for high-quality paper pulp production, were studied. The lignin content (13.3% Klason lignin) was high compared to other nonwoody bast fibers used for pulp production. The lignin structure was characterized by pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS), 2D-NMR, and thioacidolysis. Upon Py-GC/MS, jute fibers released predominantly products from syringylpropanoid units with the S/G ratio being 2.1 and a H/G/S composition of 2:33:65. 2D-NMR of the milled wood lignin (MWL) isolated from jute fibers showed a predominance of beta-O-4' aryl ether linkages (72% of total side chains), followed by beta-beta' resinol-type linkages (16% of total side chains) and lower amounts of beta-5' phenylcoumaran (4%) and beta-1' spirodienone-type (4%) linkages and cinnamyl end groups (4%). The high predominance of the S-lignin units, together with the high proportion of beta-O-4' aryl ether linkages, which are easily cleaved during alkaline cooking, are advantageous for pulping. On the other hand, a small percentage (ca. 4%) of the lignin side chain was found to be acetylated at the gamma-carbon, predominantly over syringyl units. The analysis of desulphurated thioacidolysis dimers provided additional information on the relative abundances of the various carbon-carbon and diaryl ether bonds and the type of units (syringyl or guaiacyl) involved in each of the above linkage types. Interestingly, the major part of the beta-beta' dimers included two syringyl units, indicating that most of the beta-beta' substructures identified in the HSQC spectra were of the syringaresinol type (pinoresinol being absent), as already observed in the lignin of other angiosperms.


In many short video platforms around the world using MCN mode as the main expansion of the video distribution, ranging from the Tik Tok, Youtube to other, "Yitiao" is completely with the PGC mode. The production content, the positioning of the audience as the middle class, the launching of original short videos, and the unique aesthetic content and accurate audience positioning, have revolutionalized the short video industry. With the use of innovative business model, "Yitiao" brings the content and interconnected new media features into the commercial e-commerce field, and combines innovation with offline cultural output. The problems arising from this, such as the lack of strong technical support, and the commercialized and countered core content are not negligible, and they may affect the vitality of monetizing content e-commerce.


The evolution of nuclear disintegration mechanisms with increasing excitation energy, from compound nucleus to multifragmentation, has been studied by using the Statistical Multifragmentation Model (SMM) within a micro-canonical ensemble. We discuss the observable characteristics as functions of excitation energy in multifragmentation, concentrating on the isospin dependence of the model in its decaying mechanism and break-up fragment configuration by comparing the A0 = 200, Z0 = 78 and A0 = 200, Z0 = 100 systems. The calculations indicate that the neutron-rich system (Z0 = 78) translates to a fission-like process from evaporation later than the symmetric nucleus at a lower excitation energy, but gets a larger average multiplicity as the excitation energy increases above 1.0 MeV/u.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether previously reported questionnaire-based differences in self-regulatory behaviors (Eggers, De Nil, & Van den Bergh, 2009, 2010) between children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) would also be reflected in their underlying attentional networks.

METHOD
Participants consisted of 41 CWS (mean age = 6;09; years;months) and 41 CWNS (mean age = 6;09) ranging in age from 4;00 to 9;00. Participants were matched on age and gender. The efficiency of the attentional networks was assessed by using the computerized Attention Network Test (Fan, McCandliss, Sommer, Raz, & Posner, 2002).

RESULTS
Primary results indicated that CWS had a significantly lower efficiency of the orienting network compared with CWNS, whereas no differences were found on the alerting or executive control network.

CONCLUSION
Current findings corroborate previously found differences in self-regulatory behavior and were taken to suggest a possible role for attentional processes in developmental stuttering.


We propose a theory based on investor overconfidence and biased self- attribution to explain several of the securities returns patterns that seem anomalous from the perspective of efficient markets with rational investors. The theory is based on two premises derived from evidence in psychological studies. The first is that individuals are overconfident about their ability to evaluate securities, in the sense that they overestimate the precision of their private information signals. The second is that investors' confidence changes in a biased fashion as a function of their decision outcomes. The first premise implies overreaction to private information arrival and underreaction to public information arrival. This is consistent with (1) post-corporate event and post-earnings announcement stock price 'drift', (2) negative long- lag autocorrelations (long-run 'overreaction'), and (3) excess volatility of asset prices. Adding the second premise leads to (4) positive short-lag autocorrelations ('momentum'), and (5) short-run post-earnings announcement 'drift,' and negative correlation between future stock returns and long-term measures of past accounting performance. The model also offers several untested empirical implications and implications for corporate financial policy.


Over the centuries the term "talent" has changed semantically and slowly transformed itself into a floating signifier or become an accidental designator. The term "talent" no longer has one single meaning and a "referent" in real life, but instead a multiplicity of meaning and references to something beyond real life, something indefinite and indefinable. In other words, today we do not know specifically what the term "talent" in talent management really means or refers to. Indeed, this is problematical, because in late modernity the term "talent" has become a popular and frequently used key term among business consultants and, within the science of human resource management, a cornerstone in the discipline of "talent management", and not knowing what the term really means will turn any talent discussion, talent identification and talent recruitment into a question of subjectivity and belief in talent rather than objectivity and knowledge of talent.


Instruments for making precision measurements of the specular reflectance at essentially normal incidence in the near ultraviolet, visible, and infrared regions of the spectrum are described. The square of the absolute reflectance is measured, with a resultant increase in measuring precision, and the major sources of systematic error in making reflectance measurements have been reduced or eliminated. The difficulty in making precision reflectance measurements in the infrared, where integrating spheres cannot be used, has been overcome by a unique compensating feature in the infrared reflectometer which prevents the image on the detector from changing size or position because of a slight tilt of the sample. The measurements made with these instruments on high reflectance samples are believed to be good to ±0.001.


Prerequisite for structural studies on G protein-coupled receptors is the preparation of highly concentrated, stable, and biologically active receptor samples in milligram amounts of protein. Here, we present an improved protocol for Escherichia coli expression, functional refolding, and reconstitution into bicelles of the human neuropeptide Y receptor type 2 (Y2R) for solution and solid-state NMR experiments. The isotopically labeled receptor is expressed in inclusion bodies and purified using SDS. We studied the details of an improved preparation protocol including the in vitro folding of the receptor, e.g., the native disulfide bridge formation, the exchange of the denaturating detergent SDS, and the functional reconstitution into bicelle environments of varying size. Full pharmacological functionality of the Y2R preparation was shown by a ligand affinity of 4 nM and G-protein activation. Further, simple NMR experiments are used to test sample quality in high micromolar concentration.


This work reports a successful synthesis of two new series of 2-(aryl/heteroaryl)-6-(morpholin-4-yl/pyrrolidin-1-yl)-(4-trifluoromethyl)quinolines via the Buchwald–Hartwig amination, at 60–88% yields, starting from 2-(aryl/heteroaryl)-6-bromo-4-trifluoromethyl-quinolines and heteroarylamines (morpholine and pyrrolidine). The 6-bromoquinoline precursors were obtained from an easy intramolecular cyclization reaction of (Z)-4-((4-bromophenyl)amino)-1,1,1-trifluoro-but-3-en-2-ones, which were previously prepared through the reaction of 4-methoxy-(aryl/heteroaryl)-1,1,1-trifluoroalk-3-en-2-ones with 4-bromoaniline. Photophysical analyses indicated intraligand and charge-transfer type transitions, in agreement with the aromatic structures of the heterocycle moieties. In the case of ct-DNA titrations (via the absorption and emission method), morpholinyl- and pyrrolydinyl-substituted quinolines had strong interactions with ct-DNA, which could be attributed to π-stacking and/or hydrogen-bonding interactions.


Abstract The potential of a mass asteroid impact on Earth to disturb the chemosynthetic communities at global scale is discussed. Special emphasis is made on the potential influence on anammox communities and their implications in the nitrogen biogeochemical cycle. According to our preliminary estimates, anammox communities could be seriously affected as a consequence of global cooling and the large process of acidification usually associated with the occurrence of this kind of event. The scale of affectations could vary in a scenario like the Chicxulub as a function of the amount of soot, depth of the water column and the deposition rate for sulphates assumed in each case. The most severe affectations take place where the amount of soot and sulphates produced during the event is higher and the scale of time of settlements for sulphates is short, of the order of 10 h. In this extreme case, the activity of anammox is considerably reduced, a condition that may persist for several years after the impact. Furthermore, the impact of high levels of other chemical compounds like sulphates and nitrates associated with the occurrence of this kind of event are also discussed.


Economical, fast and sensitive detection of proteins is essential to biomedical research as well as clinical diagnosis. Here, we demonstrated a label-free colorimetric aptasensor that uses PNA/DNA hybrids and a cyanine dye (DiSC2(5)) for highly sensitive and selective detection of proteins in aqueous solution. This protocol, based on the difference in the binding interactions of DiSC2(5) with PNA and the PNA/DNA hybrid causing different colors, can be applied for the detection of proteins. This sensing platform can specifically detect thrombin, our example analyte, with a detection limit of 0.4 nM. Moreover, the assay does not involve any chemical modification and enzyme amplification, and hence it is convenient, fast and low-cost. In principle, this approach can be used to detect proteins with specific aptamers by simply changing the sequences of the probe DNA for specific targets. Furthermore, this sensing platform provides a promising approach for the analysis of target proteins at point-of-care in resource-limited settings.


For the best part of 50 years, advances in algorithms and the increasing computing power have made computational fluid dynamics, CFD, a mature discipline. Which are some remaining frontiers of the discipline? It is common knowledge that one of the challenges in fluid simulation continues to be the need to straddle many scales. New computational methods still need to be developed that are able to adapt to the many scales of a problem. Another frontier recently opened is the development of hardware-aware software. Multi-core computers are on everyone's desktops nowadays, and a growing trend in using graphics cards and other specialized hardware is buzzing. In all of these frontiers, there is great potential for meshfree methods. Particle-type formulations for CFD offer an alternative which is low in numerical diffusion, devoid of numerical dispersion and stability constraints. Also, meshfree methods offer a natural adaptivity in situations where mesh generation is a burden (e.g., moving boundaries). Meshfree methods could be especially well-suited to exploit the new hardware technologies entering the scene. I will present an overview of some aspects of meshfree simulation in fluid dynamics, and recent progress in algorithms and parallel implementations, including novel hardware.


In recent years, after the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease) crisis in Europe, and after the first case of BSE was found in Alberta, both regulation and producers' initiatives have lead to an ever smaller demand for meat meal and animal fat used in animal feed. Meat meal and animal fat were produced in great part from the rendering of carcasses, i.e., animals that died on the farm due to disease or accident. In Quebec, agricultural producers used to sell the carcasses to rendering plants. Now however, demand for meat meal and animal fat has all but disappeared, so producers must instead pay the rendering plants to dispose of the carcasses. The financial burden gives producers an incentive to get rid of the carcasses in less costly ways, not only by legal burial at the farm, but also by illegal disposal at the farm or elsewhere in nature (Deglise, 2003; Radio-Canada, 2003; LariviA¨re, 2003a; Mercier, 2004). This leads to increasing environmental risks, specifically, soil, water and air pollution as well as potential health hazards, that need to be addressed.


The explosion of misinformation spreading in the media ecosystem urges for automated fact-checking. While misinformation spans both geographic and linguistic boundaries, most work in the field has focused on English. Datasets and tools available in other languages, such as Chinese, are limited. In order to bridge this gap, we construct CHEF, the first CHinese Evidence-based Fact-checking dataset of 10K real-world claims. The dataset covers multiple domains, ranging from politics to public health, and provides annotated evidence retrieved from the Internet. Further, we develop established baselines and a novel approach that is able to model the evidence retrieval as a latent variable, allowing jointly training with the veracity prediction model in an end-to-end fashion. Extensive experiments show that CHEF will provide a challenging testbed for the development of fact-checking systems designed to retrieve and reason over non-English claims.


Rapid diagnosis of Haemophilus influenzae type b meningitis is possible using immunological tests for capsular antigen (polyribophosphate, PRP), such as countercurrent immunoelectrophoresis (CIE) and latex particle agglutination (LPA). We compared two tests in monkeys with evolving, serially quantitated H. influenzae type b bacteremia (n = 23) and meningitis (n = 21). In vitro, the LPA test was sensitive to 0.5 ng of PRP/ml of saline, and the CIE test was sensitive to 1.0 ng/ml; in serum, however, CIE detected 5.0 ng of PRP/ml, whereas the sensitivity of LPA was unchanged. LPA detected PRP earlier in the course of bacteremia (mean, 12 h after onset; range, 4 to 36 h) than did CIE (mean, 45 h; range, 4 to 168 h) (P less than 0.01). A positive LPA test required greater than or equal to 100 bacteria per ml of blood, whereas CIE required greater than or equal to 1,000/ml. PRP accumulated with continuing blood stream infection, aiding detection of low-grade bacteremia. LPA detected antigen in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) earlier in the course of meningitis and at a lower bacteria density than did CIE. Both methods detected antigen reliably with greater than or equal to 1,000 bacteria per ml of CSF. A close correlation existed between CSF concentrations of capsular antigen and bacteria (r = 0.90, P less than 0.001). We conclude that the LPA method permits earlier diagnosis of H. influenzae type b infection in part because of its greater sensitivity.


Recent building excavations in the previously landfilled Back Bay section of Boston, Massachusetts, permitted direct observation of the Holocene estuarine stratigraphic sequence. The environmental changes that occurred during this period were a concomitant decreasing submergence rate and an increasing energy level. While the diminishing submergence rate is well-documented in the regional stratigraphy, it is believed that this sequence reflects the growth of tidal resonance in the Gulf of Maine system, resulting in a change from microtidal to mesotidal conditions. Three major estuarine depositional units define the changing conditions at this site. The Lower Unit reflects rapid deepening and low energy depositional conditions; the Middle Unit marks sufficient tidal prism to lead to the formation of tidal channels; while the Upper Unit, with coarser material and tidalities, reflects higher energy during deposition. The 5 m thick estuarine sequence unconformably overlies a weathered surface of the Boston Blue Clay, a glacio-marine meltwater deposit (approximately 14,000 yr BP). The Lower Unit (5,630 to 3,570 yr BP) defines the beginning of the Holocene submergence of Boston Inner Harbor with a sequence grading from intertidal saltmarsh to subtidal laminated muds. Average accumulation rates of 1 mm/yr roughly correspond to the thickness of laminations, suggesting an undisturbed annual deposit. The Middle Unit (3,570 to 3,090 yr BP) is interpreted as channel deposits based on numerous channel-bottom shell-lag layers. Initial average accumulation rates of 11.7 mm/yr diminish to 1.3 mm/yr at the top of the unit. The Upper Unit is a well-mixed sandy silt with occasional interfingered tidalities. Initial accumulation was 3 mm/yr, and diminished to 0.5 mm/yr at the top of the sequence. This is interpreted as a tidal flat environment, corresponding to historical records showing tidal flats and salt marsh in the area. The stratigraphy concurs with archaeological observations at the Boylston Street Fishweir, a 4,400 yr old series of structures built and used over a several-hundred year period. The exposure of the weir is located in the Lower Unit of this sequence. Despite the collection of over 65,000 wooden stakes (parts of the weir) since it was discovered in 1913, no other artifacts have been found associated with it. Since modern fishweirs in New England, which have similar construction, are maintained by foot at low tide, this appeared inconsistent. However, as this was a microtidal setting at that time, the fishweir was probably a subtidal device maintained by canoe rather than on foot, as in the Chesapeake Bay during historic times.


K-Means is a well known algorithms of clusteing. It generates some groups based on degree of similarity. Simplicity of implementation, ease of interpretation, adaptability to sparse data, linear complexity, speed of convergence, and versatile in almost every aspect are noble characteristics of this algorithm. However, this algorithm is very sensitive on defining initial centroids process. Giving a bad initial centroid always produces a bad quality output. Due to this weakness, it is recommended to make some runs with different initial centroids and select the initial centroid that produces cluster with minimum error. However, this procedure is hard to achieve a satisfying result. This paper introduces a new approach to minimize the initial centroid problem of K-Means algorithm. This approach focus on centroid updating stage in K-Means algorithm by applying minimum forest graph to produce better new centroids. Based on gain information and Dunn index values, this approach provided a better result than Forgy method when this approach tested on both well distributed and noisy dataset. Moreover, from the experiments with two dimentional data, the proposed approach produced consisten members of each cluster in every run, where it could not be found in Forgy method. Keyword: K-Means, Minimum Forest Graph, Clustering


In Reply. —We wish to clarify and correct several misunderstandings of our article. Our conclusion that "age and decreased visual acuity account for little of this disability" was based on our findings detailed in the subsections entitled "Glare Tests," "Contrast Sensitivity Tests," and "PSC and Nuclear Opacity Subgroups." In these subsections we described the persistence of the effect of cataract, even after accounting for the effects of age and visual acuity on visual function. We shared Dr Marmor's concern that the glare disability and contrast sensitivity loss affecting cataract patients might be highly correlated with visual acuity loss. That is why we adjusted (but not "corrected") our contrast sensitivity and glare data for acuity differences by using multiple regression techniques, as indicated in the "Data Analysis" section. In other words, even after accounting for the effect of reduced visual acuity, glare and contrast deficits remained. Dr Marmor's statement that a


Most of you here, being Episcopalians, know the United Thank Offering. Now more than a hundred years old, the UTO is a spiritual discipline of women of the Episcopal Church. Small offerings placed in a little blue box symbolize daily blessings; brought together, they result annually in $3 million in grants distributed throughout the Anglican Communion for church buildings, vehicles, schools and projects. With that as background, let me tell you one of my favorite stories from my years at the Episcopal Church Center. Some time ago I found myself in the far reaches of the South Pacific, in the Church of Melanesia, in a small village in the Solomon Islands. I had just been introduced to a member of the parish, an elderly lay reader. On hearing that I came from the Episcopal Church in America, he mused on this information until suddenly a light went on in his head and he said, "Ah, the Episcopal Church in America... Is that part of the UTO?" Although he got the antecedent wrong, our Solomon Island villager knew the Episcopal Church, and knew it had something to do with his parish church-which, indeed, had been built with a UTO grant. The Episcopal Church is integral to the warp and woof of the family of churches around the globe we call the Anglican Communion. It has been so from the beginning of Anglicanism outside England. When I was ordained thirty-two years and two days ago, in the diocese which had Samuel Seabury as its first bishop-no, I'm speaking of Rhode Island, not Connecticut-I began my ministry as curate of St. Paul's Church in North Kingstown, also known as Old Saint Paul's in Narragansett, founded in 1707 by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The SPG was founded specifically to bring the gospel to North America, the first mission field of the Church of England. It is not too much of a stretch to say that with the formation of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the Anglican Communion came into existence-although the term itself, Anglican Communion, did not come into wide usage until a century later. The fledgling new church in America did not wait long before forming itself, as a whole, into a missionary society. This was a fruitful innovation: not to depend on voluntary societies such as the SPG, but to make the whole church, every baptized member, a missionary society. From as early as 1835, the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society sent missioners around the globe: to Liberia, to China and Japan, to the Philippines, to Brazil and Central America and the Caribbean and Mexico. The result of this outreach is that almost a fifth of the self-governing provinces of the Anglican Communion today owe their origins wholly or in part to the Episcopal Church. By the latter part of the nineteenth century, the bishops of the Episcopal Church, meeting here in this same city where we meet tonight, made an original and enduring contribution to the Anglican Communion in formulating what we now know as the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, a foundational document both for ecumenical conversation and for the self-identity of Anglican churches. Stephen Bayne, a bishop of this church, became the first executive officer of the Anglican Communion in the 1960s. Three of the five secretaries-general (as the executive officer is now known) have been clerics of the Episcopal Church, including the incumbent, Canon John Peterson. If you were in Minneapolis for the annual meeting last year of the Historical Society-and of course for the General Convention itself, the effects of which provide the occasion for my remarks tonight-and chanced to visit St. Mark's Cathedral, you would have seen prominent evidence of the international Anglican Congress of 1954, the first such gathering to be held outside of Great Britain, which contributed so significantly to worldwide consciousness of our ecclesiastical family. Finally, owing to the great wealth of our nation, and to the generosity of individual Episcopalians, the Episcopal Church has been the indispensable partner in underwriting the costs of Anglican Communion gatherings, activities, networks and the secretariat in London. …


Residual strain profiles in friction-stir processed (FSP) AZ31B magnesium-alloy plates were measured using neutron diffraction. Two different specimens were prepared to investigate the influences of the tool shoulder and the tool pin on the residual-strain profiles: (Case 1) a plate processed with both the stirring pin and tool shoulder, i.e., a regular FSP plate subjected to both the plastic deformation and frictional heating, and (Case 2) a plate processed only with the tool shoulder, i.e., subjected mainly to the frictional heating. The results show that the strain profiles of both cases are qualitatively quite similar. The longitudinal strain is mainly tensile with its maximum near the bead of the FSP plate. On the other hand, the transverse and normal strains are mildly compressive in both Cases 1 and 2.


Characteristic markings on the cartridge and projectile of a bullet are produced when a gun is fired. Over thirty different features within these markings can be distinguished, which in combination produce a "fingerprint" for identification of a firearm. This paper describes an investigation into the development of an imaging system which can store, analyse, retrieve, and match high resolution digital images of cartridge cases. A computerised imaging system for ballistics identification will produce efficiencies in time and personnel, and permit a more precise audit of firearms within a country. The project has produced good quality high resolution digitised images of cartridge cases. The development of the optical system to optimise image quality has been crucial for the image identification phase. By classifying cartridge image attributes, it is possible to store the unique "signatures" of cartridge cases for identification. Appropriate image processing provides the signatures for the image library. The FIREBALL forensic ballistics interactive database incorporates a graphics user interface (GUI) to obtain precise ballistics metrics of cartridge case class characteristics. This project will significantly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of ballistics records and assist the tracing of firearms used in criminal activities by law enforcement agencies.


The genome of Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) reveals the presence of luxR, encodingLuxR protein, one of a two component cell-to-cell communication system. However, the genome lacks the second component, luxl, that produces acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs), suggesting that CLas has a solo LuxR system. Interestingly, we detected compounds that may act as AHLs in the insect vector (psyllids) that are healthy or infected with CLas, but not in the citrus plants. This finding suggests that the insect is the AHL source. The fact that CLas forms a biofilm on the surface of the insect gut indicates the presence of a cell-cell communication system. Here the system is solo LuxR. Moreover, we have confirmed the activity of CLas-LuxR by its expression in E. coli and detection of LuxR-AHL complex. In order to block the vector transmission of CLas, we produced plants that express LuxR. Insects will acquire CLas and luxR. LuxR will compete with the bacteria for binding to AHL and consequently, CLas will not be able to colonize the insect or form biofilm and fails in the transmission. We aim to provide an environmental friendly solution for the most destructive disease in citrus (Huanglongbing) by producing specific LuxR in citrus to interfere with the vector transmission. As an alternative, we also aim to use synthetic molecules that mimic the specific AHL as an application to disrupt CLas transmission from plant to plant by its vector. More AHL in the insect may confuse the bacteria and induce a strong sticky biofilm that hardly releases cells to plants during insect feeding. Accordingly, the transmission from plant to plant will be diminished or blocked.


This work reports on the fundamental properties of nanostructured catalysts active in the main carbon oxides' conversion processes for sustainable energy supply: methanation and co-methanation of CO2. Transition metals (e.g. Ni, Pd, Pt, Co, Ru, Rh) are active species in both reactions. Ni has been the most studied because of its cheapness. Monometallic and bi-metallic Ni and Ni3Fe catalysts supported on Gadolinia-doped ceria (GDC) have been synthesized, characterized and tested in the temperature range 200–600[Formula: see text]C. In the methanation reaction, the monometallic catalyst showed higher performance with respect to the bi-metallic catalyst. At 400[Formula: see text]C, the CO2 conversion overcomes 90% with CH4 selectivity of 100%. In co-methanation, the highest CO2, CO and H2 conversion values over monometallic Ni/GDC catalyst were obtained at 300[Formula: see text]C; at higher temperatures, conversion decreases. The GDC support plays a pivotal role in both reactions, enhancing the basicity of the catalyst and improving the dissociation of carbon oxide species adsorbed on Ni sites.


ABSTRACT Bloodstream infection is a serious condition associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The outcome of these infections can be positively affected by the early implementation of effective antibiotic therapy based on the identification of the infecting organism and genetic markers associated with antibiotic resistance. In this study, we evaluated the microarray-based Verigene Gram-negative blood culture (BC-GN) assay in the identification of 8 genus or species targets and 6 genetic resistance determinants in positive blood culture broths. A total of 1,847 blood cultures containing Gram-negative organisms were tested using the BC-GN assay. This comprised 729 prospective fresh, 781 prospective or retrospective frozen, and 337 simulated cultures representing 7 types of aerobic culture media. The results were compared to those with standard bacterial culture and biochemical identification with nucleic acid sequence confirmation of the resistance determinants. Among monomicrobial cultures, the positive percent agreement (PPA) of the BC-GN assay with the reference method was as follows; Escherichia coli, 100%; Klebsiella pneumoniae, 92.9%; Klebsiella oxytoca, 95.5%; Enterobacter spp., 99.3%; Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 98.9%; Proteus spp., 100%; Acinetobacter spp., 98.4%; and Citrobacter spp., 100%. All organism identification targets demonstrated >99.5% negative percent agreement (NPA) with the reference method. Of note, 25/26 cultures containing K. pneumoniae that were reported as not detected by the BC-GN assay were subsequently identified as Klebsiella variicola. The PPA for identification of resistance determinants was as follows; bla CTX-M, 98.9%; bla KPC, 100%; bla NDM, 96.2%; bla OXA, 94.3%; bla VIM, 100%; and bla IMP, 100%. All resistance determinant targets demonstrated >99.9% NPA. Among polymicrobial specimens, the BC-GN assay correctly identified at least one organism in 95.4% of the broths and correctly identified all organisms present in 54.5% of the broths. The sample-to-result processing and automated reading of the detection microarray results enables results within 2 h of culture positivity.


In the EC at the moment only cupper and sulphur products are allowed to regulate a multiplicity of diseases
in different vegetable crops. On the other hand it is well know that both have also negative side effects on
beneficial organisms and the soil. Since many years researches are looking for alternatives to reduce and
substitute the use of the mentioned products.
Bicarbonates are substances which were pointes out for many years. They are present in nature and were
used in the past in organic farming. Until now there was no registration for them in the EC as plant protection
materials. There is a palpable possibility that it would change in future, what will open the possibility to apply
for the introduction of potassium bicarbonate in annex 2B of the EC Reg. 2091/92. In South Tyrol in the last
years were carried out field trials which showed an interesting efficacy against scab. Frequent use of potassium
bicarbonate increased the mineral content of potassium in the fruits and increased the number of fruits
with bitter bit during storage.


Input shaping/time delay prefilter are techniques for robust vibration control of slewing flexible structures. These are open-loop schemes and cannot handle uncertain initial conditions and effects of disturbances. In this paper, we develop a technique for the design of closed loop input shapers and illustrate it on a simple benchmark problem. A range of uncertainties over which the system remains stable is determined and is used as a design tool. It should be noted that the structure of the controller is similar to internal mode control (IMC).


Single-sided ventilation rate is difficult to accurately predict because it has a complex relationship with many factors, including the direction of the approaching wind and building envelope features. In addition, the incursion of outdoor pollutants into the interior through a ventilation opening has been recognized as a serious threat to indoor air quality (IAQ). This article presents on-site measurements of the ventilation performance and IAQ in four high-rise residential rooms in Hong Kong. Key parameters including the air changes per hour, respirable suspended particulate matters (PM: PM10 and PM2.5), and total volatile organic compounds were continuously recorded over a specified period. A comparison of cases with floor-extended and window-like openings is made. The results indicate that single-sided ventilation performs well regardless of the orientation of the apartment room and the configuration of the opening. Previous empirical models based on single-room buildings are not reliable in determining the ventilation rate of high-rise buildings. The measurements reported here also identify an important route for the incursion of outdoor pollutants, namely the downward re-entry of aerosol particles from an upper unit to a lower unit in the same building. A combination of gravitational and wind effects means this downward transport route significantly increases the PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations in the lower room.


Amphiphysins 1 and 2 are enriched in the mammalian brain and are proposed to recruit dynamin to sites of endocytosis. Shorter amphiphysin 2 splice variants are also found ubiquitously, with an enrichment in skeletal muscle. At the Drosophila larval neuromuscular junction, amphiphysin is localized postsynaptically and amphiphysin mutants have no major defects in neurotransmission; they are also viable, but flightless. Like mammalian amphiphysin 2 in muscles, Drosophila amphiphysin does not bind clathrin, but can tubulate lipids and is localized on T-tubules. Amphiphysin mutants have a novel phenotype, a severely disorganized T-tubule/sarcoplasmic reticulum system. We therefore propose that muscle amphiphysin is not involved in clathrin-mediated endocytosis, but in the structural organization of the membrane-bound compartments of the excitation-contraction coupling machinery of muscles.


The emergence of mutant virus in drug therapy for HIV-1 infection has steadily risen in the last decade. Inhibition of reverse transcriptase enzyme has emerged as a novel target for the treatment of HIV infection. The aim to decipher the structural features that interact with receptor, we report a quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR) study on a dataset of thirty seven compounds belonging to bisphenylbenzimidazoles (BPBIs) as reverse transcriptase inhibitors using enhanced replacement method (ERM), stepwise multiple linear regression (Stepwise-MLR) and genetic function approximation (GFA) method for selecting a subset of relevant descriptors, developing the best multiple linear regression model and defining the QSAR model applicability domain boundaries. The enhanced replacement method was found to give better results r²=0.8542, Q²(loo) = 0.7917, r²pred = 0.7812) at five variables as compared to stepwise MLR and GFA method, evidenced by internal and external validation parameters. The modified r² (r²m) of the training set, test set and whole data set were calculated and are in agreement with the enhanced replacement method. The results of QSAR study rationalize the structural requirement for optimum binding of ligands. The developed QSAR model shows that hydrophobicity, flexibility, three dimensional surface area, volume and shape of molecule are important parameters to be considered for designing new compounds and to decipher reverse transcriptase enzyme inhibition activity of these compounds at molecular level. The applicability domain was defined to find the similar analogs with better prediction power.


The main object of the proposed theory is not a pseudometric, but a symmetric affine connection on the Minkowski space. The coefficients of this connection have one upper and two lower indices. These coefficiens are symmetric with respect to the permutation of the lower indices. We identify the convolution of the connection coefficients with the vector – potential of the electromagnetic field. Then the gravity is the Lorentz force of this electromagnetic field.


In this world of 'big data', having the right data available at the right time is crucial; and it is an imperative that has moved far beyond the remit of IT alone. The dreamt IT3G (Information Technology Generated Global Governance ) village is facing some of the challenge in the IT enabled corporate e-market (ITeC), realise it for future long term existence with dynamic resistant technology, though it is changing to surpass civilisation from one millennium to another. Is it bane or boon? That is too difficult to predict on this short span of subject and technological form of life in the market as well as environment of business in the world. The world production, investment, capital formation and operation of business through this new technology, salvage itself from the new ghost of cyber crime. Organisations recognise their data as the asset for the future business and operation factor. This accounting and evaluating process is a top – down process, once it is take up into a working principle and culture then business will be somehow riskless for this ITeC. The risk factors are involved with this spawning cyberinsurance itself with some new business cost, huge to both business organisations with data and cyber related matter on this current business scenario. This empirical study is based on the new frame and principle for valuating the cyber asset of the corporate organisation, as a good solution to future insurance disbursement and claim settlement.


The small strain dynamic properties of peat soil are a fundamental parameter related to the mechanical behaviour of a structure constructed on peat ground. These parameters are used in evaluation of the dynamic behaviour and seismic design in geotechnical structures. Determination of dynamic properties of peat soil is often done using laboratory-based tests that risk overestimation and underestimation due to sample disturbance. Since geophysical methods are proven to be able to obtain small strain dynamic properties with similar magnitude as the laboratory tests, it has become popular and is increasingly used in practice. Two geophysical methods known as multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) and seismic refraction were performed in this study to estimate the small strain maximum shear modulus (Gmax) and maximum elastic modulus (Emax). The results showed the value of Gmax and Emax were ranging from 1.01 to 6.83 MPa and from 3.88 to 10.9 MPa respectively. Correlations were also established to assist in estimating Gmax and Emax on peat soil with bulk density. There appears to be a particularly good link between the Gmax, Emax and bulk density. Overall, the small strain dynamic properties determined shows significant increment with depth which could be governed primarily by the effective stress. Other parameters such as water content, bulk density, organic content and degree of decomposition also could significantly influence the dynamic properties of peat soil.