My dissertation explores the importance of corporate governance from the perspective of bondholders of samples of US financial and industrial firms. It consists of three related essays which collectively cohere to represent my understanding of the topic. The conflicts of interest between creditors and shareholders and between corporate insiders and outside capital providers are addressed to explain the impact of a comprehensive governance mechanisms on bondholder wealth, which is measured either by the default probability implied by the structure credit model or by Credit Default Swap (CDS) spread. I consider both the non-crisis and crisis periods through different essays, which provide the ideal setting to examine the effectiveness of governance on bondholder wealth for different market conditions. Specifically, I explain how important governance provisions affect a manager's opportunistic behavior, a firm's investment decision and risk-taking behavior, and information environment, which in turn affect bondholder wealth. Such governance provisions include internal governance mechanism, such as the role played by the board of directors and a firm's equity ownership structure, and external governance provisions through the market for corporate control and the trading activities of institutional investors. My dissertation serves to advance the governance literature in several dimensions: a) it re-examines the usefulness of shareholder favorable governance provisions from a different angle through the eye of creditors, and tries to explain why some shareholder governance provisions turn out to be ineffective; b) it compares the riskiness of financial and non-financial firms, and how creditors view governance factors differently for two types of firms; c) it emphasizes the role of institutional investors and tests how their investment horizons and ownership levels affect industrial firms' riskiness, and how such an impact varies across different market conditions. My general results show that governance attributes have a significant impact on a firm's credit risk, and this impact varies across the type of the firm. Ownership structure and takeover vulnerability are more important for non-financial firms than for financial firms. Board structure and accounting transparency have greater impact on financial firms. When I restrict to a sample of banks and use the credit risk model to estimate default risk, the impact of board structure remains. Given the important governance role of equity ownership structure for non-financial firms and the importance of institutional investors in the U.S. capital markets, I specifically look at institutional monitoring on industrial firms' credit risk. My results show that institutional investment horizon, ownership structure, trading behavior and market conditions are all important determinants of industrial firms' credit risk.


We construct a simple environment that combines a limited communication friction and a limited information friction in order to generate a role for money and intermediation. We ask whether there is any reason to expect the emergence of a banking sector (i.e., institutions that combine the business of money creation with the business of intermediation). In our model the unique equilibrium is characterized, in part, by the existence of an agent that: (1) creates money (a debt instrument that circulates as a means of payment); (2) lends it out (swapping it for less liquid forms of debt); (3) is responsible for monitoring those agents in control of the capital backing the illiquid debt; and (4) collects on money loans as they come due. Furthermore, the bank money in our model is a debt instrument that embeds within it important stipulations that are found in actual private money instruments. Thus, our model goes some way in addressing the questions of why private money takes the form that it does, as well as why private money is typically supplied by banks.


Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is undoubtedly the most challenging pandemic in the current century with more than 253,381 deaths worldwide since its emergence in late 2019 (updated May 6th, 2020). COVID-19 is caused by a novel emerged coronavirus named as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Today, the world needs crucially to develop a prophylactic vaccine scheme for such emerged and emerging infectious pathogens. In this study, we have targeted spike (S) glycoprotein, as an important surface antigen of SARS-CoV-2, to identify its immunodominant B- and T-cell epitopes. We have conducted a multi-method B-cell epitope (BCE) prediction approach using different predictor algorithms to discover most potential BCEs. Besides, we sought among a pool of MHC class I and II-associated peptide binders provided by the IEDB server through the strict cut-off values. To design a broad-coverage vaccine, we carried out a population coverage analysis for a set of candidate T-cell epitopes and based on the HLA allele frequency in the top most-affected countries by COVID-19 (update 02 April 2020). The final determined B- and T-cell epitopes were mapped on the S glycoprotein sequence, and three potential hub regions covering the largest number of overlapping epitopes were identified for the vaccine designing (I531–N711; T717–C877; and V883–E973). Here, we have designed two domain-based constructs to be produced and delivered through the recombinant protein- and gene-based approaches, including (i) an adjuvanted domain-based protein vaccine construct (DPVC), and (ii) a self-amplifying mRNA vaccine (SAMV) construct. The safety, stability, and immunogenicity of the DPVC were validated using the integrated sequential (i.e. allergenicity, autoimmunity, and physicochemical features) and structural (i.e. molecular docking between the vaccine and human Toll-like receptors (TLRs) 4 and 5) analysis. The stability of the docked complexes was evaluated using the molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. These rigorous in silico validations supported the potential of the DPVC and SAMV to promote both innate and specific immune responses in the animal studies.


Wildfire is a primary natural disturbance in boreal forests, and post-fire vegetation recovery rate influences carbon, water, and energy exchange between the land and atmosphere in the region. Seed availability and environmental filtering are two important determinants in regulating post-fire vegetation recovery in boreal forests. Quantifying how these determinants change over time is helpful for understanding post-fire forest successional trajectory. Time series of remote sensing data offer considerable potential in monitoring the trajectory of post-fire vegetation recovery dynamics beyond current field surveys about structural attributes, which generally lack a temporal perspective across large burned areas. We used a time series of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and normalized difference shortwave infrared reflectance index (NDSWIR) derived from Landsat images to investigate post-fire dynamics in a Chinese boreal larch forest. An adjacent, unburned patch of a similar forest type and environmental conditions was selected as a control to separate interannual fluctuation in NDVI and NDSWIR caused by climate from changes due to wildfire. Temporal anomalies in NDVI and NDSWIR showed that more than 10 years were needed for ecosystems to recover to a pre-fire state. The boosted regression tree analysis showed that fire severity exerted a persistent, dominant influence on vegetation recovery during the early post-fire successional stage and explained more than 60% of variation in vegetation recovery, whereas distance to the nearest unburned area and environmental conditions exhibited a relatively small influence. This result indicated that the legacy effects of fire disturbance, which control seed availability for tree recruitment, would persist for decades. The influence of environmental filtering could increase with succession and could mitigate the initial heterogeneity in recovery caused by wildfire.


Damages to articular cartilage that are caused by trauma, age-related diseases (arthritis, arthrosis) and/or physical stress pose major medical problems. A possible solution is to introduce a biodegradable sponge-like scaffold containing cartilage-forming cells. In the current work we developed a model for a partially calcified functional biomedical membrane with a gradient of calcium phosphate crystal density to form the interface between bone and a sponge-like cell containing scaffold for cartilage regeneration. The membrane consists of a biocompatible, biodegradable, partially calcified hydrogel, in our case gelatin was used. One part is an organic-inorganic nanocomposite consisting of nanocrystalline calcium phosphate particles, formed in situ within the hydrogel, while the other part is the hydrogel without inorganic crystals. The experimental method used was one-dimensional single diffusion. Gelatin gels containing calcium or phosphate ions, respectively, were exposed from the upper side to a solution of the other constituent ion (i.e. a sodium phosphate solution was allowed to diffuse into a calcium containing gel and vice versa). Scanning electron microscopy (E-SEM), EDX, XRD and ATR-FTIR spectroscopy confirmed the existence within the gel of a density gradient of carbonate apatite crystals, with a dense top layer extending several microns into the gel. Ca/P atomic ratios were in the range characteristic of calcium deficient apatites. The effect of different experimental parameters on the calcification process within the gelatin membranes is discussed.


Nuclear ATM has a well established role in response to DNA damage, however ATM has also been localized outside the nucleus where it has been demonstrated to participate in the insulin signaling pathway by phosphorylating eIF-4E binding protein (4EBP1). 4EBP1 is also phosphorylated by components of the Mammalian target of Rapamycin (mTOR) pathway in response to insulin The Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) proteins, hamartin (TSC1) and tuberin (TSC2), act as a heterodimer to regulate mTOR activity. mTOR exists as two complexes mTORC1 (rapamycin sensitive) and mTORC2 (insensitive to short term rapamycin). These complexes control many cellular functions including protein synthesis, autophagy, lipid metabolism, mitochondrial biogenesis, and cytoskeletal organisation.
Mutations in either the TSC1 or TSC2 genes lead to Tuberous Sclerosis, an autosomal dominant, multisystem disorder of benign tumour growth and neurological abnormalities. Studies in our laboratory have demonstrated for the first time that ATM interacts with both tuberin and hamartin. Evidence of this interaction was obtained by mammalian two-hybrid analysis and confirmed by immunoprecipitation experiments using endogenous levels of proteins. The effects of ATM deficiency on the mTOR pathway will be described.


: Altogether 38 patients (33 men and 5 women) suffering from grave and moderate hemorrhagic fever with nephrotic syndrome (HFNS) were examined. The hemolysate aggregation test and ADP were employed to explore the aggregation ability of platelets in those patients. Besides, measurements were made of the activity of the 3rd platelet factor in the plasma and serotonin content in each platelet. A considerable rise of the aggregation activity of platelets was established to take place in the oligoanuric and polyuric periods of HFNS. At the same time the increase in the blood of the 3rd platelet factor and lowering of serotonin in each platelet were noted. The role of platelet hyperaggregation in the pathogenesis of HFNS is discussed. The conclusion is made that such patients were in a prethrombotic state in the oligoanuric and to a lesser degree in the polyuric periods.


The controversy over criminal law enforcement based on the Criminal Procedure Code is due to law enforcement still struggling in the formalism paradigm, so many cases just evaporate because of limited thinking about the implementation of law enforcement. controversy occurs as long as law enforcement officials do not change the idea that the main purpose of criminal law enforcement is to bring about truth and justice. Controversy is not only on the aspect of criminal law enforcement but also on the policy of drafting the Bill and the Criminal Code Act which is discussed and ratified at the end of the term of office. A series of articles in the Criminal Code Bill invite a lot of controversy from various walks of life in Indonesia including students. Students in various regions in Indonesia held a demonstration in front of the pages of their respective regional DPR offices to demand the cancellation of several points of the Criminal Code Bill that were considered unreasonable and only benefited certain parties. The purpose of this article is to describe how the impact of the controversial policy (RUU KUHP) made by the government on the defense of a student state. From the results of the discussion it was concluded: 1) Government policies should side with the people, because in fact the government of democracy is the people, by the people and for the people. 2) The main objective of law enforcement is to realize truth and justice. As long as law enforcers do not change the idea that the main purpose of criminal law enforcement is to bring about truth and justice, the implementation of the Criminal Procedure Code will continue to cause controversy. 3) The bill discussed and the law passed at the end of the term of office of members of the council caused a controversy, and invited many controversies from various walks of life in Indonesia including the students who, for reasons of defending the country, simultaneously demanded the cancellation of several points of the Criminal Code Bill which were considered unreasonable and benefit certain parties. 4) Rejection of students under the pretext of defending the country by exercising democratic control through demonstrations of the rejection of the controversial policy of the Criminal Code Bill is indicated to be ridden by various interests so that in the future democratic control must truly carry out its functions, not become an economic commodity such as paid demonstrations, with demands being voiced only in the interests individuals and groups of people.


Book synopsis: Wildlife conservation and other environmental protection projects can have tremendous impact on the lives and livelihoods of the often mobile, difficult-to-reach, and marginal peoples who inhabit the same territory. The contributors to this collection of case studies, social scientists as well as natural scientists, are concerned with this human element in biodiversity. They examine the interface between conservation and indigenous communities forced to move or to settle elsewhere in order to accommodate environmental policies and biodiversity concerns. The case studies investigate successful and not so successful community-managed, as well as local participatory, conservation projects in Africa, the Middle East, South and South Eastern Asia, Australia and Latin America. There are lessons to be learned from recent efforts in community managed conservation and this volume significantly contributes to that discussion.


understood way utilising words already available to anyone educated to the literacy of "O"-level English. He calls upon foreign tongues-"angst" and "manque"-when they are not only inappropriate but in any case have perfectly acceptable and more subtle English counterparts. He uses the words "apposite" and "sacerdotal" when he obviously does not understand what they mean. He makes arrogant statements regarding the social and intellectual behaviour of baboons, subjects which have recently been thoroughly and lucidly documented and found to be of a remarkably advanced kind. His references to "mental masturbation" and "corporate selfabuse," while extraordinarily offensive, are also entirely baffling in the context in which he uses them. I can understand his attack only on the assumption that it was written after the author had been gazing into a mirror. Let us hope that the Personal View column will quickly recover from this sorry lapse and return to its established standards of discrimination, scholarship, and interest. PAUL BuISSERET


Most theories of ethnic conflict explain ethnic war by reference to the factors that motivate and enable ethnic groups to rebel. To rebel is to rise up against or challenge government authority; but for war to be the outcome of a challenge the government must attempt to forcefully reassert its authority.In this dissertation I use a signaling model to explain both why ethnic groups challenge government authority, and under what circumstances this leads to war. The model is tested on a new data set covering 653 ethnic groups and 67 challenges to government authority, 1990-1998. The data includes all ethnic groups in the Minorities at Risk data set, plus an additional 370 groups to control for potential sampling bias.The signaling model depicts escalation as a bargaining process. The intuition is that through a process of self-selection less resolute actors tend to drop out earlier in the game, while more resolute actors stay in. The consequences are sometimes counterintuitive.The findings show that smaller ethnic groups are less likely to challenge their governments than are larger groups, but when smaller groups do challenge they are more likely to end up in war. The results also show that groups scoring higher on indicators of discontent are more likely to challenge, but surprisingly these groups are not more likely to end up in war when they challenge. These and similar findings which hold across a range of specifications clearly demonstrate the selection effects implied by the signaling model.


The purpose of research is to know and explain the effect of emotional intelligence on motivation, to know and explain the effect of emotional intelligence on English learning achievement, to know and explain the influence of motivation ability on English learning achievement and to know and explain the influence of emotional intelligence on learning achievement English through motivation. The research method used is survey method. Population in this research is all students of class X of first semester of SMKN 1 Karawang. The sampling technique used is cluster random sampling, the sample is taken randomly according to the class that has been formed. So, the sample in this study as many as 18 people from the total population of 192 people. The research instrument consists of three types of tests, namely the questionnaire of emotional intelligence, motivation questionnaire and English achievement test with the subject of the circle. Analysis of statistical data to test the hypothesis in this study using Path Analysis (Path Analysis). Statistic test is used t test. The results showed: (1) direct influence of emotional intelligence on motivation, (2) direct influence of emotional intelligence on English learning achievement, (3) direct influence of emotional intelligence to English learning Asep Darojatul Romli 198. Buana Ilmu achievement and (4) indirect effect of lateral thinking ability toward English learning achievement through creative thinking ability.


 Abstract — One of the most damaging species in sunflower crops in Brazil is the hairy beggarticks ( Bidens pilosa L.). The large number of seeds, the various vegetative cycles during the year, the staggered germination and the scarcity of selective and effective herbicides to control this weed in sunflower are some of attributes that hinder the effectiveness in controlling hairy beggarticks populations. The experiment was carried out with the objectives of evaluating the control of hairy beggarticks plants in sunflower crops, and to assess sunflower tolerance to residual herbicides. The treatments were as follows: S -metolachlor (1,200 and 2,400 g ai ha -1 ), flumioxazin (60 and 120 g ai ha -1 ), sulfentrazone (150 and 300 g ai ha -1 ) and two controls (weedy and weed-free check). Phytotoxicity on sunflower plants, percentage of control and density of hairy beggarticks plants, sunflower stand and plant height, head diameter, oil content and sunflower yield were evaluated. The herbicides flumioxazin and sulfentrazone were the most efficient in hairy beggarticks control. S -metolachlor provided acceptable control levels. S-metolachlor (1,200 g ha -1 ), flumioxazin (60 g ha -1 ) and sulfentrazone (150 g ha -1 ) were the most selective doses for sunflower crop.


Central actors in the child protection field in Norway argue that children in public care should not only receive care and support, but also love. It is hard to disagree that children need love. However, there is reason to question the situation that may arise if children's need for love is translated into requirements that must be safeguarded and handled by child protection workers in the child protection services. In this article, I analyse this 'requirement of love' both with regard to the increased focus on children's rights in discussions on children's life conditions and to the history of the professionalisation of social work; having the gendered features of social work and its partial professionalisation in mind. Due to the challenges this requirement represents, there may be good reasons to revisit the debates on care and care work among feminists who have theorised care as work within professional contexts. I try to show how the field of social work and child protection may utilise the critical potential in care feminist thinking by connecting it to their own emphasis on emotional awareness and knowledge of self as a prerequisite for professional child protection work.


Ammonium nitrate (AN) is commonly used as an explosive and as a fertilizer. In both roles it is provided as prills or pellets, approximately spherical and a few millimetres in diameter. The microstructures of several commercially-available AN compositions were investigated using environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) and X-ray microtomography. Those intended for explosive use were found to be more porous than those intended for fertilizer use. The pores in explosive prills were also found to form a connected network. The elemental composition of pellets of mixed AN and dolomite was investigated using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX); the dolomite additive was found to take the form of grains roughly 50 μm in size. The compaction behaviour of confined cylindrical beds of these prills and pellets was studied at strain rates between 4 × 10−4 s−1 and 200 s−1. Quasi-static experiments were performed using a screw-driven instrumented press, while higher-rate experiments used a drop weight, instrumented with a line laser and load cell. The resistance of a bed to compaction was found to depend on the microstructure of its prills in most cases. Denser prills offered greater resistance to compaction. The exception to this rule was a pellet, rather than prill, formulation. Beds were also found to offer more resistance to compaction at higher strain rates. The Kawakita compaction model was found to agree well with the experimental data. A commercial fertilizer, not containing any AN, was assessed for use as an inert mock for AN prills and pellets. Prills of a suitable size for this purpose were found using EDX to consist of P2O5, with a coating of unknown composition. They were supplied mixed with smaller K2CO3 and urea prills. The mixture was found to have comparable compaction behaviour to AN compositions, indicating that it was useful as a mock for those compositions. In a plate impact experiment on a single layer of P2O5 prills, very little light was observed. This indicated that these prills were sufficiently inert for these purposes. The light produced by shocked granular ammonium nitrate beds and single prill layers was investigated using high-speed framing photography, photodiodes and gated visible-light spectroscopy. Framing photography of prill layers suggested that reaction in prill beds was dominated by effects internal to prills. This was further supported by the similarity between photodiode recordings of prill beds and beds of inert prills containing a single reactive prills. Framing photography of drop weight experiments searching for a mechanism for initiation of reaction by interaction between prills found nothing. Decay of the light output of the beds suggested that in both granular and prill beds this light output was due to small regions heated to thousands of kelvin, which then cooled. Spectroscopic study confirmed this. These regions were found to reach a peak temperature of 6660± 20 K, well in excess of the approximately 2000 K predicted by a simple chemical model. Investigation of spectral lines observed during this study indicated that the exothermic reaction that led to heating of these emitting regions involved NO.


This paper focuses on post-buckling analysis of functionally graded Timoshenko beam subjected to thermal loading by using the total Lagrangian Timoshenko beam element approximation. Material properties of the beam change in the thickness direction according to a power-law function. The beam is clamped at both ends. The considered highly non-linear problem is solved by using incremental
displacement-based finite element method in conjunction with Newton-Raphson iteration method. As far as the authors know, there is no study on the post-buckling analysis of functionally graded Timoshenko beams under thermal loading considering full geometric non-linearity investigated by using finite element method. The convergence studies are made and the obtained results are compared with the published results. In the study, with the effects of material gradient property and thermal load, the relationships between deflections, end constraint forces, thermal buckling configuration and stress distributions through the thickness of the beams are illustrated in detail in post-buckling case.


Background: Compliance with CPAP therapy is essential in patients with OSA but an adequate control is not always possible. This is of clinical importance as CPAP reverses OSA morbidity and mortality. Alternative and more cost-effective approaches are needed. A telemedicine-based strategy could be of great interest. Methods: One hundred thirty nine patients were randomized in a controlled trial that was performed to compare a telemedicine-based strategy for CPAP follow-up (patients9 support based on a web platform support and videoconferences) with the standard face-to-face control. Main outcomes were CPAP compliance and cost-effectiveness (Bayesian analysis). Secondary outcomes: Quality of life (QoL), satisfaction and secondary effects questionaries. Results: At six months, similar levels of CPAP compliance, improvement in sleepiness, QoL, side effects and degree of satisfaction were found in both groups. Despite observing more extra visits, the telemedicine group was more cost-effective: costs were lower and difference in effectiveness was not relevant. Discussion: A telemedicine-based strategy for the follow-up of OSA patients under CPAP treatment proved to be as effective as the standard hospital-based care in terms of CPAP compliance and improvement. Cost-effectiveness analysis showed that the telemedicine-based strategy presented lower total costs due to savings on transport and indirect costs of productivity losses. Funding: Supported by SEPAR/FIS PI14/00416. Supported in part by grant ECO2013-47092 (MINECO, Spain).


Fifteen highly polymorphic microsatellite loci were characterized in the reed bunting, Emberiza schoeniclus. Eleven loci were autosomal and four linked to the Z chromosome. All loci were characterized and tested in 45 unrelated reed buntings from a Swiss population. Autosomal loci displayed seven to 17 and sex‐linked loci displayed four to 13 alleles with heterozygosities ranging from 0.756 to 0.933 and from 0.478 to 0.957, respectively. These loci will be used in population genetic and mating system studies of reed buntings.


Objectives: To determine the possible associations of polymorphisms in interleukin (IL)-8 (rs4073 T/A), IL-10 (rs1800896 A/G), IL-22 (rs1179251 C/G and rs2227485 C/T), IL-27 (rs17855750 T/G), and transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFß1) (rs1800469 C/T) with colorectal cancer (CRC) susceptibility in Saudi patients. Methods: The case-control study was carried out between July 2019 and January 2020 in King Khaled University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A total of 70 patients with CRC and 70 healthy controls were included in the study. Single nucleotide polymorphisms of promoter regions were determined using TaqMan genotyping assays. Results: A statistically significant reduction in CRC risk was identified for carriers of the IL-10 (rs1800896 A/G) AG genotype, IL-22 (rs1179251 C/G) G allele, IL-27 (rs17855750 T/G) G allele and TGFß1 (rs1800469 C/T) CT and TT genotype. While IL-10 (rs1800896 A/G) AA genotype and TGFß1 (rs1800469 C/T) CC genotype were significantly associated with increased susceptibility to CRC. No significant associations were identified between the cytokine polymorphisms of IL-8 (rs4073 T/A) and IL-22 (rs2227485 C/T), and CRC risk. Conclusion: Our findings indicate a significant impact of IL-10 (rs1800896 A/G), IL-22 (rs1179251 C/G), IL-27 (rs17855750 T/G) and TGF-ß1 (rs1800469 C/T) polymorphisms on risk of CRC; while the IL-8 (rs4073 T/A) and IL-22 (rs2227485 C/T) and polymorphisms were not associated with CRC risk.


The ability of a planner to modify a plan is considered as a valuable tool for improving efficiency of planning by avoiding the repetition of the same planning effort. From a computational complexity point of view, however, it is by no means obvious that modifying a plan is computationally as easy as planning from scratch if the modification has to follow the principle of "conservatism", i.e., to reuse as much of the old plan as possible. Indeed, considering propositional STRIPS planning, it turns out that conservative plan modification is as hard as planning and can sometimes be harder than plan generation. Furthermore, this holds even if we consider modification problems where the old and the new goal specification are similar. We put these results into perspective and discuss the relationship to existing plan modification systems. Although sometimes claimed otherwise, these systems do not address the modification problem, but use a non-conservative form of plan modification as a heuristic technique.


This study examined the in vitro proliferation efficiency of shoot-tip explants from four cultivars of banana ( Musa spp ) and one species of Pelargonium graveolens . The explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with growth regulators. The comparative in vitro proliferation efficiency of banana cultivars was in the following order: Bluggoe > Injagi > FHIA-25 > Kamaramasenge, the comparative ratio was 10:7:4:2. The best number of shoot buds proliferation was observed on MS medium supplemented with 100 μM BAP while the quick buds development was observed on culture media with 10 μM BAP. The ANOVA proved that the genotype of explants of banana, the concentration in BAP and their interaction have high significant influence on their in vitro proliferation rate. Bluggoe, Injagi and FHIA-25 were described as subjects favorable for Rwanda's in vitro propagation program of high-performance plant varieties. P. graveolens required high quantity of hormones and bit complicated disinfection compared to banana. For P. graveolens , the medium MS + 100 mM BAP + 1 mM NAA + 1 mM GA 3 was the best for in vitro regeneration while the addition of 10 and 100 mM Kin favored the rooting. The results of this study contributed a lot to the in vitro regeneration, with minimal explants material of banana ( Musa spp.) and P. graveolens currently carried out in Rwanda by ISAR and IRS, respectively. Key words: Banana cultivars, growth regulators, in vitro proliferation, MS medium, Pelargonium graveolens , ratio, cytokinin/auxin, Rwanda, shoot-tip explants.


Delving into the complicated and often politically fraught process of redrawing electoral district boundaries after each decennial census, this chapter examines whether there is evidence that the purportedly gerrymandered maps played a role in the 2012 election. Using the 2012 U.S. House election, the authors reveal why partisan control of the process should be regarded with suspicion. For the first time since 1970, Illinois did not have divided government in the first session following a census and reapportionment, and thus Democrats were free to draw any maps they liked. • After Illinois lost a House seat due to reapportionment, the Democrat-drawn map ensured that Republican incumbents faced fewer familiar voters than Democrats. The new district map produced fewer competitive seats, most of which lean to the Democrats, providing Democratic U.S. House candidates in Illinois a clear advantage. • Nineteen states, including Illinois, gave complete control to one party or the other in 2011 U.S. House redistricting. Republicans controlled redistricting in 14 states having 164 seats, while Democrats did so in only five states, having a mere 42 seats. • When one party drew the new U.S. House map in a state after the 2010 census, that party did comparatively well in 2012. Parties that gained control of redistricting in 2011, not having had it in 2001, seem to have engineered larger swings in their own favor. The Founders created a separation-of powers system in part to prevent large waves of enthusiasm from being too quickly translated into policy. They feared excessive volatility and valued deliberation. The House Republican majority in Congress will presumably require a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate to negotiate and compromise on policy. We take this argument seriously, and our purpose in this chapter is not to denounce Democratic control of the Illinois U.S. House delegation or Republican control of the U.S. House. But as we emphasized at the outset, it is, in the end, difficult to defend electoral maps that are expressly designed to exaggerate partisan advantages and insulate elected officials from public sentiment. Any electoral system involving single-member districts will have some redistricting effects. However, these can be small when the lines are not driven almost exclusively by partisan considerations.


A work in progress Integrated Development Environment, #Dasher, based on continuous gestures is introduced. The challenges of such a user interface are considered with concept exploration studies and concept demonstrators. The language modelling requirements are considered and some other applications of the technology are discussed. Finally some questions currently being investigated are mentioned.


A series of four Mw>6 earthquakes struck the northern region of Lombok, eastern Indonesia, in a span of three weeks from late July to mid-August 2018. The series was thought to be associated with the Flores thrust, but the exact mechanism causing the unusual earthquake series has remained elusive. Our Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar analysis, combined with insights from seismology, indicates that the events originated at different hypocenter depths with differing fault geometries, which may explain the cascading behavior of the events, and indicates that better imaging of active fault geometry might provide some insight into future rupture behavior on other similar thrust systems. Our static stress change calculations suggest that the earlier events in the sequence played a role in promoting the later events. In addition, the second event brought the most significant impact on a nearby volcano, by causing volumetric expansion at its shallow magma plumbing system and unclamping its magma ascent zone, which may potentially have an impact on its future eruptive activity. However, no volcanic activity has so far occurred after the earthquakes. Finally, our damage proxy maps suggest that the second event caused the greatest damage to buildings.


Removal of impurity elements from hot metal is essential in basic oxygen steelmaking. Oxidation of phosphorus from hot metal has been studied by several authors since the early days of steelmaking. Influence of different parameters on the distribution of phosphorus, seen during the recent work of the authors, differs somewhat from that reported earlier. On the other hand, removal of sulphur during steelmaking has drawn much less attention. This may be due to the magnitude of desulphurisation in oxygen steelmaking being relatively low and desulphurisation during hot metal pre‐treatment or in the ladle furnace offering better commercial viability. Further, it is normally accepted that sulphur is removed to steelmaking slag in the form of sulphide only. However, recent investigations have indicated that a significant amount of sulphur removed during basic oxygen steelmaking can exist in the form of sulphate in the slag under oxidising conditions. The distribution of sulphur during steelmaking becomes more important in the event of carry‐over of sulphur‐rich blast‐furnace slag, which increases sulphur load in the BOF. The chemical nature of sulphur in this slag undergoes a gradual transition from sulphide to sulphate as the oxidative refining progresses.


In many areas, learning involves understanding complex spatial phenomena. For example, engineers must master the construction of machines as a prerequisite for maintenance, and the spatial composition of molecules is an important task in chemistry. Medical students have considerable difficulties in imagining the spatial relations within the human body, which they must learn in anatomy. With interactive 3D computer graphics based on high-resolution geometric models, we can explore these spatial relations. To exploit this potential, we've combined some new dedicated 3D interaction and visualization techniques in a system inspired by a 3D puzzle


The role of inorganic nitrogen assimilation in the production of amino acids is one of the most important biochemical processes in plants. For this reason, a detailed broad-range characterization of the metabolic response of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) leaves to the alteration of nitrate level was performed. Tomato plants were grown hydroponically in liquid culture under three different nitrate regimes: saturated (8 mM NO3-), replete (4 mM NO3-) and deficient (0.4 mM NO3-). All treatments were performed under varied light intensity, with leaf samples being collected after 7, 14, and 21 d. In addition, the short-term response (after 1, 24, 48, and 94 h) to varying nutrient status was evaluated at the higher light intensity. GC-MS analysis of the levels of amino acids, tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates, sugars, sugar alcohols, and representative compounds of secondary metabolism revealed substantial changes under the various growth regimes applied. The data presented here suggest that nitrate nutrition has wide-ranging effects on plant leaf metabolism with nitrate deficiency resulting in decreases in many amino and organic acids and increases in the level of several carbohydrates and phosphoesters, as well as a handful of secondary metabolites. These results are compared with previously reported transcript profiles of altered nitrogen regimes and discussed within the context of current models of carbon nitrogen interaction.


A number of problems in economics, finance, information theory, insurance, and generally in decision making under uncertainty rely on estimates of the covariance between (transformed) random variables, which can for example be losses, risks, incomes, financial returns, etc. Several avenues relying on inequalities for analyzing the covariance are available in the literature, bearing the names of Chebyshev, Gruss, Hoeffding, Kantorovich, and others. In the present paper we sharpen the upper bound of a Gruss-type covariance inequality by incorporating a notion of quadrant dependence between random variables and also utilizing the idea of constraining the means of the random variables.


Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) of alkaline pretreated cogongrass to ethanol was optimized using the commercial cellulase Accellerase 1500 and Ethanol Red dry yeast. Cogongrass was pretreated with 10% (wt) NaOH at room temperature for 24 hours, resulting in an increase in the cellulose percentage from 38.5% to 60.5%. Each SSF of alkali-pretreated cogongrass was carried out with 1 g/L of dry yeast loading at pH 5.0 under 150 rpm shaking. Response surface methodology (RSM) based on a three-level three-factor Box-Behnken design was employed to optimize the key variables within the following ranges: cellulase concentration per unit gram water-insoluble cellulose (WIS) (0.15-0.25 mL/g-WIS), substrate concentration (5-15 % WIS, w/w), and temperature (35-45°C) for the SSF process. The response surface model arrived at the optimum SSF conditions: cellulase concentration of 0.255 ml/g-WIS, temperature at 37.5°C, and substrate concentration of 7.28% WIS for obtaining 80.3 % ethanol yield in 72 h. The optimal conditions were verified experimentally with an average absolute relative deviation of 3.01 %. Also, the SSF was scaled up to a 5-L rotary drum reactor filled with 1 kg of substrate under the optimal conditions, and an ethanol yield of 76.2% was obtained.


Abstract. Several flights have been undertaken with PAMS (Photogrammetric Aerial Mapping System) by Germatics, Germany, which is briefly introduced. This system is based on the SmartPlane fixed-wing UAV and a CANON IXUS camera system. The plane is equipped with GPS and has an infrared sensor system to estimate attitude values. A software has been developed to link the PAMS output to a standard photogrammetric processing chain built on Trimble INPHO. The linking of the image files and image IDs and the handling of different cases with partly corrupted output have to be solved to generate an INPHO project file. Based on this project file the software packages MATCH-AT, MATCH-T DSM, OrthoMaster and OrthoVista for digital aerial triangulation, DTM/DSM generation and finally digital orthomosaik generation are applied. The focus has been on investigations on how to adapt the "usual" parameters for the digital aerial triangulation and other software to the UAV flight conditions, which are showing high overlaps, large kappa angles and a certain image blur in case of turbulences. It was found, that the selected parameter setup shows a quite stable behaviour and can be applied to other flights. Investigations have been performed to improve the image quality estimates by the PAMS software and extend it to whole images. This gives the user a reliable basis when deciding on rejecting images with low quality for the follow-up process. Flights over the same area at different times have been compared to each other. The major objective was first to see, on how far differences occur relative to each other, without having access to ground control data, which would have a potential for applications with low requirements on the absolute accuracy. In a second stage the results are compared to GPS measurements on the ground. The results show, that there are influences of weather and illumination visible. The "unusual" flight pattern, which shows big time differences for neighbouring strips has an influence on the AT and DTM/DSM generation. The results obtained so far do indicate problems in the stability of the camera calibration and a need for some GCPs. It is clearly recommended to use at least a moderate number of GCPs for all projects, independent on the application, as the GPS data of the sensor does not proof to be sufficient.


The requirements on vehicle industry are constantly getting stricter, especially when it comes to emissions. At the same time cars, trucks and buses are needed for our way of living. This have forced companies to be as ecient as possible in their way of using fossil fuels for travelling and transport. To increase the eciency companies investigate all possible fuel savings to decrease their carbon footprint as much as possible. One area of savings that is not that obvious to many people is the alternator. Several percent of the total energy used by a vehicle are needed to operate the alternator. With a typical alternator eciency of 70% considerable savings can be achieved.This thesis that concern alternator eciency was carried out at Scania in Sodertalje, Sweden. The goal of the thesis is to construct a mathematical model of an alternator. The model is supposed to consider all losses in the alternator and together with the output power give an eciency model of the alternator at different speeds and loads. A great part of the project has been dealing with the magnetic losses. The magnetic losses have been modeled as an equivalent circuit with the load angle as a central piece. The equivalent circuit is built up by the fact that the alternator used in the vehicles is a salient pole alternator. The equivalent circuit describes a voltage equation where the voltage drop over the magnetic inductance is described. From that relations between the signals in the alternator and output signals can be written.The alternator model is then used together with data recorded from different buses all over the world, this to be able to investigate how the alternator contributes to the fuel consump- tion depending on the way that the buses are driven.The result of this thesis is a mathematical model that describes the losses in the alternator for different load cases and speeds.


The effect of oestradiol treatment on the acetylation of histones of the immature rat uterus has been studied. A 10,ug dose of oestradiol causes a 70% increase at 5min and a 140% increase at 10min after administration in the labelling of the histone fraction F2+F3. No effect of oestradiol is seen on the labelling ofhistones Ft or acidic non-histone chromatin proteins. The oestradiol stimulation is seen in animals pretreated with either cycloheximide or actinomycin D. The stimulation of labelling caused by oestradiol is completely abolished by pretreatment of the animals with the anti-oestrogen, nafoxidine. The stimulation is given by lower doses ofoestradiol, by stilboestrol and oestriol, but is not given by testosterone. These results suggest that stimulation of histone acetylation in the uterus is the earliest known effect of the hormone on its target tissue.


Trenched and implanted vertical JFETs (TI-VJFETs) with blocking voltages of 700 V were fabricated on commercial 4H-SiC epitaxial wafers. Vertical p+-n junctions were formed by aluminium implantation in sidewalls of strip-like mesa structures. Normally-on 4H-SiC TI-VJFETs had specific on-state resistance (RO-S ) of 8 mW×cm2 measured at room temperature. These devices operated reversibly at a current density of 100 A/cm2 whilst placed on a hot stage at temperature of 500 °C and without any protective atmosphere. The change of RO-S with temperature rising from 20 to 500 °C followed a power law (~ T 2.4) which is close to the temperature dependence of electron mobility in 4H-SiC.


Measurements of electro-optic and dielectric properties in Zirconium (Zr)-doped lithium niobate (LN:Zr) crystals are performed as functions of the dopant concentration in the range 0.0-2.5 mol%. The clamped and unclamped electro-optic coefficients r 222 of Zr-doped LN and the corresponding dielectric permittivity as well, have been experimentally determined and compared with the results obtained in undoped congruent LN crystals. We show that the electro-optic and dielectric properties present a kink around 2 mol% of zirconium which seems to be the " threshold " concentration required to strongly reduce the photorefractive effect. All reported results confirm that the LN:Zr is a very promising candidate for several non linear devices.


The discipline of Critical Thinking is a methodology for the analysis and appraisal of natural language argument, commonly referred to as 'real' argument, a term intended to signify a contrast between the reasoning found in ordinary written or spoken texts, and the specialised constructions tailored by logicians to exemplify validity. There are, accordingly, two perspectives from which to view arguments: the arguer's and the critic's. From the critic's perspective an argument is simply an object of appraisal. From the arguer's perspective, however, an argument is more intimately associated with the act or practice of arguing or, as many commentators prefer to say, an argument is a product of the practice (of argumentation). There is hence an ambiguity between the act and object senses of 'argument', as well as a difference between object-senses themselves, depending on the perspective taken. For the traditional logician, an argument is a set of sentences or propositions, one of which is claimed, supposed, or intended, not necessarily in any active sense, to follow from the other(s). Such a conception facilitates assessment on the criterion of validity. Indeed, an argument can be defined as an object that is either valid or invalid. For the critic of 'real' argument, the object is what is propounded by a speaker or author, typically for persuasive purposes. Arguments from this perspective are not mere sets of arbitrarily designated propositions, but claims and inferences identified by the critic based on the interpretation and classification of actual texts. The aim of the thesis is to integrate these two conceptions of argument by identifying a point of intersection between the two perspectives: that is, to explain how the object of acts of argument can be seen to coincide with the objects of logical appraisal. I argue that the act of propounding an argument is essentially an assertive act, its object a complex proposition. It is more precise, however, to see propounding an argument as two mutually complementary acts, also assertives: 1) premising (or reason-giving) and 2) concluding (inferring). Premising is directly assertive, its objects the premises themselves. Concluding, however, is more than just the assertion of a conclusion. If it were not, the argument would merely be a conjunction. What is asserted, in an act of concluding, is equivalent to a conditional formed from the conjunction of premises, (A), as antecedent, and the conclusion, (C), as consequent. What is asserted, then, in the whole act of propounding an argument, is the conjunctive proposition: (1) A and (if A then C) An assertive utterance of (1) commits the speaker to C by modus ponens. Hence, I propose, the act of argument (i.e., the propounding of an argument) is naturally deductive, and its object a deductive argument accordingly. By the same token its object (i.e., that which is propounded) corresponds with the ordered and indexed set designated by the logician as an object of appraisal. This account, I conclude, has important implications for critical thinking. It provides a theoretical basis, a groundwork, on which to develop a deductivist methodology for appraising natural-language arguments. Whilst I do not go into detail on the practical application of natural-language deductivism (NLD), I take the thesis to be an endorsement, and justification, for its implementation, and for a greater role within critical thinking for logic.


An anti-gibberellin A24/19 single-chain Fv gene was constructed from gamma and kappa genes cloned from a hybridoma cell line producing monoclonal antibody against gibberellin A24/19, biosynthetic precursors of gibberellin A4/1 which are biologically active per se. The single-chain Fv gene was introduced into tobacco plants after the binding activity of the single-chain Fv expressed in Escherichia coli was confirmed. When the single-chain Fv expression is targeted to endoplasmic reticulum, the plants could accumulate the single-chain Fv protein with the antigen binding activity up to 3.6% of the total soluble protein. On the other hand, when the expression is targeted to cytosol, accumulation of the single-chain Fv protein was not detected at all. The dwarf phenotype of the transgenic plants expressing the single-chain Fv protein, together with the preliminary analytical data indicating a decreased level of gibberellin A1 in the dwarf transgenics, suggested that the single-chain Fv decreased the concentration of bioactive gibberellins by trapping and inhibiting the metabolism of gibberellin A24 and/or A19 to gibberellin A4 and/or A1.


Opinions differ widely as to the indications for adenoidectomy in children. These differences range from the routine performance of adenoidectomies on almost all children having recurrent upper respiratory infections to the opposite extreme of never removing the adenoids unless there is complete obstruction of the nasopharynx. Eley 1 stated that an adenoidectomy is indicated when the lymphoid tissue "... offers a hazard to the general health of the patient." Johnston and Watkins, 2 on the basis of 600 questionnaires to parents whose children had had tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies, concluded that seven out of nine children with hearing impairment are benefited. They believe that this type of surgery remains a highly beneficial procedure in selected cases. Morrison 3 stated that "hyperplasia of the adenoids is the chief source of ear infections in children." On the other hand, Brown 4 concluded from a review of selected literature that "adenoids should seldom be removed.


Wireless networking optimizations are typically designed and evaluated independently of one another under the assumption that they can later be applied jointly. These works, however, do not provide sufficient information for future researchers and network administrators to determine which algorithms to combine, what order to combine them in, and how these joint optimizations will perform with one another. In this paper we describe the optimization algorithms and testing system used to address these challenges. The algorithms fall into five categories: channel assignment, association control, beam form selection, transmit power control and rate adaptation. These algorithms have been specifically designed and chosen to make use of the observed inputs from the network. While none of these algorithms has been individually proven to be an optimal or efficient solution, they are representative of many categories of solutions. For example, some algorithms stress load balancing, while other algorithms stress increasing RSS values. Thus, these algorithms should be sufficient for revealing significant themes in the interactions among different channel assignment, association control, beam form selection, transmit power control and rate adaptation algorithms.


We study a generalized framework for structured sparsity. It extends the well known methods of Lasso and Group Lasso by incorporating additional constraints on the variables as part of a convex optimization problem. This framework provides a straightforward way of favouring prescribed sparsity patterns, such as orderings, contiguous regions and overlapping groups, among others. Available optimization methods are limited to specific constraint sets and tend to not scale well with sample size and dimensionality. We propose a first order proximal method, which builds upon results on fixed points and successive approximations. The algorithm can be applied to a general class of conic and norm constraints sets and relies on a proximity operator subproblem which can be computed numerically. Experiments on different regression problems demonstrate state-of-the-art statistical performance, which improves over Lasso, Group Lasso and StructOMP. They also demonstrate the efficiency of the optimization algorithm and its scalability with the size of the problem.


Young women today are anticipating involvement in both career and family. The competing demands of family and work often result in work-family conflict. A survey was administered to 124 female college students exploring the importance they place on work and family roles, the expectations they have for combining these roles, and their attitudes toward planning for multiple roles. Identity theory provides a foundation for understanding the choices women make regarding their anticipated participation in work and family roles. The results suggest that although college women are expecting to have demanding careers and involved family lives, they are not planning realistically in order to facilitate the combining of career and family roles with a minimum of conflict.


Ghana being a leading cocoa producer, depends heavily on pesticides although the crop is strictly entomophilous, primarily pollinated by ceratopogonid midges. This study in Ghana, investigated impact of confidor 200SL (Imidacloprid) and aqueous neem seed extract (ANSE) insecticides on abundance of pollinators and fruit-set in cocoa Three pollinator sampling methods (motorized aspirator, pan and McPhail traps) were used. Results show significantly more abundant midges on ANSE treated farms compared to confidor treated farms, 2 (t = 4.34; df = 69; P < 0.001) and 60 – 120 (t = 1.85; df = 39; P < 0.041) days after spraying insecticides (DASI). Midge population recovered within 30 DASI under both insecticide treatments culminating in comparable abundance over this period. Fruit-sets within 30 DASI were however significantly higher indicating that fruit-set is affected though midge population recovered. Although both insecticides were deleterious to the midges, ANSE was lesser and therefore preferred to confidor. This result show both insecticides did not discriminate against beneficial insects, hence it will be important to consider a more comprehensive approach to the study of managing insect fauna complex within cocoa agroecosystem.


Aim: To elucidate the pattern of
presentation and management of traumatic major joint dislocations as seen in
Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital. Method: A five-year retrospective review of
44 cases in 43 patients. Data were retrieved from the Medical Records Department
of the hospital. Results: Forty-four cases of traumatic
dislocations were reviewed in 43 patients. Male to female ratio was 7.6:1.
Median age was 33 years. The majority of patients were in the 3rd decade
of life. Patients below 40 years accounted for 62.79% of cases. Twenty-four
(55.81%) patients had hip dislocation. Knee dislocations were the least,
accounting for 2.32% of cases. All cases except three resulted from road
traffic accidents (RTAs). None had neurologic deficits. Nineteen (44.23%) patients
had isolated injuries. 76.7% cases presented in less than 6 hours. All shoulder
dislocations were anterior while all elbow dislocations were posterior. All
except 3 cases were managed by closed manipulation under general anaesthesia.
Two patients died from associated head injury. Fourteen patients discharged
against medical advice while recuperating in the ward. Follow-up was however
difficult as a significant number did not turn up. Conclusion: Hip dislocation
is the commonest variety of traumatic dislocation in our setting. A majority of
cases were amenable to closed manipulation and immobilization. Road traffic
accidents accounted for the majority.


The debate concerning the biblical intertexts of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale has revolved around the question of the Bible's role in the latter: as a tool for suppression and as a potential tool for subversion. The present article re-opens this crucial debate, shifting its focus and contributing to it in two interrelated ways. Whilst the explicit link between the theocracy of Atwood's Gilead and its totalitarianism has been elaborated on, a specific analogy between Gilead and Nazi Germany drawn in the text remains underexplored in terms of its correlation with the novel's biblical intertexts. This essay engages with the Gilead-Nazi Germany analogy in these terms, focusing – and this is its second contribution – on the novel's intertextual entanglement with the story of the sacrificial lamb of the Passover, which still remains unexamined today, in 2015, the year that marks the thirtieth anniversary of the novel's publication. Both the Passover sacrifice and Atwood's novel, I will argue, present us with a figurative self-consumption that points to a politics of 'auto-cannibalism', which illuminates the parallel between Gilead and Nazi Germany whilst fleshing out its implications on Atwood's treatment of the tripartite association between politics, sacrifice, and eating.


Modelling robot dynamics accurately is essential for control, motion optimisation and safe human-robot collaboration. Given the complexity of modern robotic systems, dynamics modelling remains non-trivial, mostly in the presence of compliant actuators, mechanical inaccuracies, friction and sensor noise. Recent efforts have focused on utilising datadriven methods such as Gaussian processes and neural networks to overcome these challenges, as they are capable of capturing these dynamics without requiring extensive knowledge beforehand. While Gaussian processes have shown to be an effective method for learning robotic dynamics with the ability to also represent the uncertainty in the learned model through its variance, they come at a cost of cubic time complexity rather than linear, as is the case for deep neural networks. In this work, we leverage the use of deep kernel models, which combine the computational efficiency of deep learning with the nonparametric flexibility of kernel methods (Gaussian processes), with the overarching goal of realising an accurate probabilistic framework for uncertainty quantification. Through using the predicted variance, we adapt the feedback gains as more accurate models are learned, leading to low-gain control without compromising tracking accuracy. Using simulated and real data recorded from a seven degree-of-freedom robotic manipulator, we illustrate how using stochastic variational inference with deep kernel models increases compliance in the computed torque controller, and retains tracking accuracy. We empirically show how our model outperforms current state-of-the-art methods with prediction uncertainty for online inverse dynamics model learning, and solidify its adaptation and generalisation capabilities across different setups.


Domain-specific knowledge guides our attention and thus influences our perception. Prior change-blindness research has shown that expert athletes can spot meaningful scene changes more quickly than novices, but less is known of whether this expertise is modulated differentially between open and closed sporting activities. We presented 81 individuals (20 gymnasts, 19 rock climbers, 22 parkour practitioners, and 20 control participants) with alternating sequences of images that corresponded to the habitual training landscapes of each group (gymnasiums, rock cliffs, and urban environments, respectively). We included contextual and non-contextual scenic changes to evaluate whether athletes were generally aware of their environments, or whether their observation strategies only targeted sport-related environmental elements. Among these three athletic endeavors, we found that gymnasts were faster at detecting changes in their environment, irrespective of whether or not these changes were contextual to the sports involved. Expert rock climbers presented a domain-specific expertise that was improved even further for contextual changes. Parkour practitioners presented the fastest reaction times in the urban environment and some of the best reaction times for all types of changes. These results confirm that an ability to read the environment is an integral aspect of practice in open-skilled sports, while skills of athletes in closed-skilled sports are more closely related to motor skill repetitions in constant environments. Thus, open skill training may benefit athletes' guidance of attention. Our finding that parkour practitioners appeared to have developed the widest perceptual abilities was probably linked to these athletes' extremely wide range of practice environments and with the constant demands of this sport to find solutions in random natural environments that that are not purposely designed for the sport.


Externalization of the visceral yolk sac, after fetectomy, induces the development of extra-embryonal fetal tumors in rodents. These tumors are either benign teratomas that appear 3 to 4 weeks after the displacement of the yolk sac or malignant tumors, i.e. yolk sac carcinomas. The latter appear 4 to 8 months after the surgery. If however, Mouse Sarcoma Virus (MSV) is injected in the placentas at the time of fetectomy (day 12 of pregnancy) the malignant tumors develop much earlier (2 to 3 months after surgery) and some display characteristics of embryonal carcinoma. Whether virus induced or not, the yolk sac carcinomas that develop from the displaced visceral yolk sac possess the same morphological and biological characteristics. They are composed of both parietal and visceral yolk sac structures and sometimes trophoblast. The tumors metastasize, grow in ascites form and kill their host. They are readily transplantable in syngeneic rats and grow in tissue culture as an epithelial-like sheet of cells. On the other hand, the benign teratomas are composed of various well differentiated adult tissues. In these tissues, derivatives of all three germ layers are observed. Numerous experiments prove that the stem cells for these various adult tissues are not germ cells. Instead the stem cells are multipotential cells that arise in the displaced yolk sac by a process of dedifferentiation. These poorly differentiated cells originate from the endoderm of the displaced visceral yolk sac. By redifferentiation they give rise to the various adult tissues characteristic for benign teratomas. The multipotential poorly differentiated cells are also likely to be the target cells for malignant transformation. Malignant transformation of these cells, whether induced by a virus or spontaneously occurring in the displaced yolk sac, leads not only to the development of yolk sac carcinomas and eventually embryonal carcinoma but also, although rarely, to choriocarcinoma. The latter tumor is transplantable in allogeneic hosts. It is hormonally active since it secretes lactogen and progesterone. The extra-embryonal fetal tumors and in particular the rat yolk sac carcinomas and choriocarcinoma proved to be a good source for the detection of oncofetal antigens. At least two different oncofetal endodermal antigens were detected with monoclonal antibodies (mab) made after immunization with yolk sac carcinoma. Another mab, made against choriocarcinoma, was found to react specifically with the cytotrophoblast both in the normal placenta and in the tumor. No other placental cells showed a positive reaction.


This essay claims that the rejection of Lukács's realism is quite problematic, in the sense that his opponents such as Adorno and Althusser symbolically used the name of Lukács and perpetuated the suspicion of Lukács's compromise with Stalinism. The essay argues that Lukács's model of reflection is not couched in Stalin's socialist realism, a theory that assumes the transparency between aesthetic forms and reality, but rather raises the essential problems of the condition of writers in capitalist society. Lukács's realism aims at providing a practical strategy to overcome cultural reification, focusing on the mediation between an author and his material condition. An investigation of Lukács's realism reveals that Lukács's way of understanding realism arises from his emphasis on objectivity rather than subjective reflection such as Kantian philosophy. The essay claims that this is the kernel of Lukácsean reflection theory signified by an aesthetic of realism definitively opposed to Stalin's socialist realism. From this perspective, the essay takes Althusserian Marxism as the occasion to stage a wide consideration of anti-realism. I propose to elucidate the implicit assumptions behind the decline of Lukács's realism, and the reification of cultural fields that gradually came to dominate Western literary apparatuses.


A photochemical [2+2] cycloaddition of alkynyl boronates and maleimides is reported. The developed protocol provided 35-70% yield of maleimide-derived cyclobutenyl boronates and demonstrated wide compatibility with various functional groups. The synthetic utility of the prepared building blocks was demonstrated for a range of transformations, including Suzuki cross-coupling, catalytic or metal-hydride reduction, oxidation, and cycloaddition reactions. With aryl-substituted alkynyl boronates, the products of double [2+2] cycloaddition were obtained predominantly. Using the developed protocol, a cyclobutene-derived analogue of Thalidomide was prepared in one step. Mechanistic studies supported the participation of the triplet-excited state maleimides and ground state alkynyl boronates in the key step of the process.


Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) and L-carnitine are very important biologically active compounds involved in energy metabolism. L-carnitine and coenzyme Q10 disturbances in mitochondrial diseases require the correction. Patients and methods: The levels of coenzyme Q10 and L-carnitine (total carnitine, free carnitine, and acylcarnitines) were determined in children with mitochondrial diseases (25 children and 16 children, respectively). High-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection (chromatograph Shimadzu Nexera LC-30) and chromatography-mass spectrometry (Agilent 6410 QQQ , USA) were used. As an additional parameter of possible coenzyme Q10 and carnitine insufficiency, the coenzyme Q10/cholesterol ratio and acylcarnitines/free carnitine ratio were calculated. Results: A significantly low ratio of coenzyme Q10/cholesterol in children with mitochondrial diseases was revealed—0.10 ± 0.01 vs. 0.19 ± 0.01 in the control group (p < 0.001). A lower absolute level of coenzyme Q10 and tendency toward a more pronounced decrease in the Q10/cholesterol ratio in older patients (6–16 years) were shown. The free carnitine blood level was within the normal range and averaged at 29.8 ± 2.6 μ mol/l; however, the level was lower than that in the control group (44 ± 5.2 μ mol/l, p < 0.05). A pronounced significant increase in the acylcarnitines/free carnitine ratio was determined—1.5 ± 0.05 (the normal range < 0.6).


This paper reports the growth and properties of phosphorous doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (P doped a-SiC:H) thin films deposited at room temperature by a filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) technique using a phosphorous doped solid silicon target as a cathode in the presence of acetylene gas. These films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, dark conductivity, activation energy, optical band gap, secondary ion mass spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, current–voltage, capacitance–voltage and photoconductive measurements. XRD results exhibit predominantly an amorphous phase for the films. The effect of the arc current on the properties of P doped a-SiC:H films have been studied. A P doped a-SiC:H/c-Si heterojunction diode was fabricated which showed a diode ideality factor between 1.5 to 1.7 and the density of states were 9.6 10 to 4.8 10 cm 3 eV . The photo response behaviors of the P doped a-SiC:H films have been tested by measuring the change in the electrical resistance on light illumination with the fast response and recovery time as 7.8 to 9.5 and 6.2 to 12.8 s, respectively. The P doped a-SiC:H film deposited at a 30 A arc current has shown a photo response of 1.6% at an illumination intensity of 100 mW cm .


The Head Space Solid Phase Microextraction Method (HS-SPME), coupled with Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) was optimized to quantify Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's) in a fresh Oaxaca cheese during its shelf life of 22 days. Optimal extraction conditions were ascertained by means of a multiple linear regression analysis and the generation of a response surface. Conditions to reach the equilibrium of VOC's at the headspace were established to be 30 minutes of ultrasonic agitation at 50°C. The conditions for extraction were exposure of the fiber at room temperature for 30 minutes. Optimal extraction of volatile compounds released by the Oaxaca cheese allowed identification of 21 volatile compounds: 8 acids, 1 alcohol, 4 aldehydes, 4 ketones, 1 ester, and 3 lactones. Quantification of VOC's was carried out using the technique of standard addition. The limits of quantification ranged from 0.0033 to 0.0311 ng/μg. Ten compounds were identified with the heaviest concentration and are listed as follows, from heaviest to lightest: propionic acid, acetoin, acetic acid, diacetyl, capric acid, caprylic acid, δ-decalactone, δ-dodecalactone, γ-dodecalactone, butyraldehyde. During storage of the cheese, the most significant changes in the concentration of VOC's took place between day 1 and day 15. Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that the optimization of the SPME makes it possible to isolate and quantify VOC's of fresh cheeses in an efficient and reproducible manner.


A low-power, high-speed SRAM macro is designed in a 65 nm ultra-low-power (ULP) logic technology for mobile applications. The 65 nm strained silicon technology improves transistor performance/leakage tradeoff, which is essential to achieve fast SRAM access speed at substantially low operating voltage and standby leakage. The 1 Mb SRAM macro features a 0.667 mum2 low-leakage memory cell and can operate over a wide range of supply voltages from 1.2 V to 0.5 V. It achieves operating frequency of 1.1 GHz and 250 MHz at 1.2 V and 0.7 V, respectively. The SRAM leakage is reduced to 12 muA/Mb at the data retention voltage of 0.5 V. The measured bitcell leakage from the SRAM array is ~2 pA/bit at retention voltage with integrated leakage reduction schemes.


Advocacy advertising—as well as corporate image advertising in general—has recently been on the upswing. Some trace its origins as far back as the oil crises of the 1970s, but a historical amnesia has largely obscured the extensive earlier history of this so-called modern phenomenon. In fact advocacy advertising emerged early in the twentieth century. In some of the dramatic early campaigns, practitioners of this strategy—often among the giants of the corporate world—confronted many of the same challenges that modern public relations and corporate positioning strategists face. This article provides a historical survey of these advocacy campaigns which reveals both the variety of experiments within this advertising mode and the ways in which earlier practitioners tried to deal with the problems that still beset the genre.


The physical interconnection of ground and surface waters is rarely acknowledged in inter-state and international agreements over surface water. This is especially true in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo basin, where groundwater pumping is at the heart of several disputes and legal cases related to compliance with intergovernmental water agreements. This research considers the Upper and Middle Rio Grande basin to explore how groundwater use and management interact with interstate (i.e. intranational within the US) and international relations (US-Mexico). We consider three distinct geographic regions to address the following questions: how have intergovernmental surface water agreements affected local groundwater management and policies? And, how does groundwater management at local scale influence intergovernmental relations over water? We combine documentary data and interview data collected through extensive fieldwork during 2016 and 2017. The analysis reveals the emergence of both state-driven and community-based groundwater initiatives aimed at reconciling needs and obligations stemming from different geographical and institutional levels. The analysis uncovers strong institutional interplay across water management levels and suggests that compliance with intergovernmental agreements in federal and international contexts both affects and is affected by local groundwater management. Moreover, we observed that while local water managers are sometimes prevented from solving problems locally due to interstate rules, opportunities for innovation in local groundwater governance can also be triggered by compliance obligations at other levels.


The purification procedure for p-hydroxybenzoate hydroxylase has been modified by replacement of the DEAE-cellulose (DE-32) column in the original procedure by a Sephadex - Cibacron-blue affinity column. In this way the yield of enzyme could be improved from 16% to about 40-50x. Preparative gel chromatography indicated that the enzyme does not exist as a monomeric species as earlier believed but mainly as a dimer. Sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis of purified enzyme revealed a minimum relative molecular mass (M,) of 43 000 - 45 000. Analytical gel chromatography, sedimentation equilibrium and sedimentation velocity experiments showed that the enzyme exists in solution mainly as a dimer but also in higher-order quaternary structures (presumably tetramer and hexamer). Temperature dependence of the distribution of the oligomers suggests that the association is of hydrophobic nature. The amino acid composition of the enzyme is also presented. The enzyme contains no disulfide but five sulfhydryl groups. In the native state of the enzyme only one sulfhydryl group is accessible to N-ethylmaleimide or 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid). The iso-electric point of the enzyme was found to be 5.8.


Wireless sensor networks are composed of large numbers of resource-lean sensors that collect low-level inputs from the physical world. The applications present challenges for programmers. On the one hand, lightweight algorithms are required given the limited capacity of the constituent devices. On the other, the algorithms must be scalable to accommodate large networks. In this thesis, we focus on the design and implementation of fast and lean (yet scalable) algorithms for classification, simulation, and target tracking in the context of wireless sensor networks. We briefly consider each of these challenges in turn.
The first challenge is to achieve high precision classification of high-level events in-network using limited computational and energy resources. We present in-network implementations of a Bayesian classifier and a condensed kd-tree classifier for identifying events of interest on resource-lean embedded sensors. The first approach uses preprocessed sensor readings to derive a multi-dimensional Bayesian classifier used to classify sensor data in real-time. The second introduces an innovative condensed kd-tree to represent preprocessed sensor data and uses a fast nearest-neighbor search to determine the likelihood of class membership for incoming samples. Both classifiers consume limited resources and provide high precision classification. To evaluate each approach, two case studies are considered, in the contexts of human movement and vehicle navigation, respectively. The classification accuracy is above 85% for both classifiers across the two case studies.
The second challenge is to achieve high performance parallel simulation of sensor network hardware. This is achieved by reducing the synchronization overhead among distributed simulation processes. Traditional parallel simulation strategies introduce significant synchronization overhead, reducing the simulation speed. We present an optimistic simulation algorithm with support for backtracking and re-execution. The algorithm reduces the number of synchronization cycles to the number of transmissions in the network under test. Concretely, we implement SnapSim, an extension to the popular Avrora simulator, based on this algorithm. The experimental results show that our prototype system improves the performance of Avrora by 2 to 10 times for typical network-centric sensor network applications, and up to three orders of magnitude for applications that use the radio infrequently.
The third challenge is to efficiently track a moving target in a network. The difficulty again lies in the conflict between the limited resource capacity of typical sensors and the significant processing requirements of typical tracking algorithms. We introduce an in-network object tracking framework for tracking mobile objects using resource-lean sensors. The framework is based on a distributed, dynamically scoped tracking algorithm which adaptively scopes the event detection region based on object speed. A leader node records the samples across an event region (without the aid of time synchronization) and estimates the object's location in situ. To minimize the number of radio transmissions, the location snapshotting rate is also adjusted based on the object speed.
In this dissertation, focusing on the above challenges, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of classification, simulation, and tracking contributions.


Among all Brazilian waterways the Paraguay River highlights as one of the most important. It is approximately 1300 kilometers long and links the interior of South America to the deep-water ports in Argentina and Uruguay, enabling the efficient flow of raw material as grain and ore. Nevertheless, the potential of the Paraguay River waterway is not fully explored. One of the main factors contributing to this scenario is the lack of operational methodologies and field surveys. The navigation is performed using only bathymetric data and the expertise of the sailors, which is not consistent with modern, competitive and safe waterways. Therefore, Brazilian government started a project to revitalize the Paraguay waterway, comprising the river and its most important tributaries. This study presents the initial investigation to assess the navigability of the Paraguay River. Initially previous works related to hydrodynamic modeling and operational methodologies used worldwide were analyzed. It was identified that there is a lack of researches on this topic, sparse on specific problems and the methodologies used are often concepts of marine navigation and approach channels. Initial surveys for Paraguay River are described and discussed. Large-scale field measurements are necessary to determine the navigation potential of the river, hence longitudinal bathymetry, velocity profile, sediment sampling, hydrologic parameters of the watershed and vessel characteristics were measured. Given the large extent of the study area the main difficulty was to determine whether the samples were sufficient to characterize the spatial and temporal characteristics of the river and which is the most appropriate hydrodynamic model to be applied. Also, to better evaluate the navigability condition it will be necessary do develop a model that couple the rivers, vessels and flow characteristics to assess the motion of boats on the waterway.


Combustion of chlorinated wastes can lead to the formation of hazardous byproducts. Rates of mixing of fuel and air in combustion systems can have an impact on the composition of the byproducts. Methyl chloride and methane were burned in a turbulent diffusion flame in a combustion wind tunnel with a coflow of air. Reynolds numbers were varied from 3500 to 7200. A water-cooled sampling probe was used to obtain gas samples from within the flame at a number of locations and at various Reynolds numbers. The postflame gases and particulate matter were trapped above the flames with sorbent tubes and filters. The samples were desorbed and analyzed for aromatic species and other trace products of incomplete combustion. Destruction of the methyl chloride was essentially complete for all the Reynolds numbers that were studied. Small amounts of low molecular weight chlorinated compounds were found within the flame and in the postflame gases. The major chlorinated species in the postflame gases was chloronaphthalene. Low Reynolds number flames were found to yield larger amounts of aromatic and chlorinated aromatic species than the high Reynolds number flames. Fluoranthene was present in greater amounts on the soot particles at lower Reynolds numbers, suggesting that the rate of mixing of reactants could have an impact on the toxicity of the combustion byproducts.


Foreground object detection is one of the major important tasks in the field of computer vision which attempt to discover important objects in still image or image sequences or locate related targets from the scene. Foreground objects detection is very important for several approaches like object recognition, surveillance, image annotation, and image retrieval, etc. In this work, a proposed method has been presented for detection and separation foreground object from image or video in both of moving and stable targets. Comparisons with general foreground detectors such as background subtraction techniques our approach are able to detect important target for case the target is moving or not and can separate foreground object with


In real-life production environments it is often the case that the processing of a task on a given machine requires the assistance of a human operator specially skilled to process that task. In this paper, we tackle a scheduling problem involving operators that are skilled to manage only subsets of the whole set of tasks in a given shop floor. This problem was recently proposed motivated by a handicraft company. In order to solve it, we make some contributions. We first propose a general schedule builder and particularize it to generate several complete solution spaces. This schedule builder is then exploited by a genetic algorithm that incorporates a number of problem-specific components, including a coding schema as well as crossover and mutation genetic operators. An experimental study shows substantial improvements over existing methods in the literature and reveals useful insights of practical interest.


In cooperative networks, mobile users do not only have the role of a data source or destination but also act as relays to help transmission from others. However, in a wireless network, there might be tens or even hundreds of mobile users that can play the role of relays for a given transmission. Relay selection strategies are, therefore, paramount to ensure successful deployment of cooperative techniques for next-generation wireless networks. In this article, we present an overview of some advances on the topic of relay selection in amplify-and-forward (AF) cooperative systems. We first consider an AF opportunistic relaying (OR) with fixed-rate transmission to illustrate the advantages of relay selection. Then we consider cross-layer discrete-rate adaptive modulation techniques. We highlight that it is possible to achieve the theoretical capacity scaling and diversity order while providing a given quality of service to users respecting a target average bit error rate (BER) requirement. We also show that by optimally choosing the switching thresholds for the adaptive modulation strategy, it is possible to significantly increase the network spectral efficiency. Finally, since relay selection depends on the channel state information feedback, we present results quantifying the impact of outdated channel information on the performance of vehicular AF OR systems.


This is a touching yet amusing story about a boy's admiration for his dad - and his acceptance of his limitations.T is part of a happy family, and he loves everything about them - especially his clever dad, who drives a taxi and can make anything you like out of wood. When T's teacher arranges for his dad to come into school to talk about what he does for a job, T should be as proud as proud. But there's one problem: his dad doesn't speak English. T worries and worries about what to do - does his teacher realize? Will everyone laugh at him because his dad can only speak Bengali? But T's dad is cleverer than T thinks. When he comes in to school anyway and does an amazing puppet show, T realizes that being the same as other people is not everything. His dad really is a hero!


ABSTRACT Three new genera of soft-bodied, oonopine goblin spiders are established. Two specific names (Oonops tolucanus Gertsch and Davis, Oonops chickeringi Brignoli) are transferred to the new genus Toloonops, characterized by retaining a separate palpal bulb and cymbium, having the cymbial cone near the cymbial margin, and having posteriorly directed projections on the male endites that originate far from the anterior endite margins; five new species are described: T. chiapa, T. jacala, T. veracruz, T. belmo, and T. verapaz. Six similar new species, united by having a stepped male endite profile and a subapical sclerite on the anterior genitalic process of females, are assigned to the new genus Guatemoonops: G. purulha, G. rhino, G. jaba, G. chilasco, G. augustin, and G. zacapa. Oonops mckenziei Gertsch is transferred to the new genus Emboonops, characterized by having a fused palpal bulb and cymbium, a hypertrophied embolus, and often a V-shaped female anterior genitalic process; nine new species are described: E. tuxtlas, E. tamaz, E. catrin, E. nejapa, E. calco, E. palenque, E. bonampak, E. arriaga, and E. hermosa.


Objective. We identified trends in the receipt of preventive health care by adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities by type of residential setting. Methods. We used data from the 2008–2009 collection round of the National Core Indicators (NCI) program. Participating states drew random samples of adults receiving developmental disabilities services. The study was observational, with both self-report and report by proxy. Once the random samples were drawn in each state, data were collected using the NCI Adult Consumer Survey. Trained interviewers administered the survey in person. Results. The likelihood of a person receiving preventive care procedures was related to age, level of intellectual disability, mobility, health status, and state. Type of living arrangement also affected whether a person received these health services, even after controlling for state, level of disability, and other personal characteristics. In general, people living with parents or relatives were consistently the least likely to receive preventive health exams and procedures. Conclusion. With growing numbers of adults being served in the family home, educational and policy-based efforts to ensure access to preventive care are increasingly critical.


Abstract Conventional anastomosis with interrupted sutures can be time-consuming, can cause vessel narrowing, and can lead to thrombosis at the site of repair. The amount of suture material inside the lumen can impair the endothelium of the vessel, triggering thrombosis. In microsurgery, fibrin sealants have the potential beneficial effects of reducing anastomosis time and promoting accurate haemostasis at the anastomotic site. However, there has been a general reluctance to use fibrin glue for microvascular anastomoses because the fibrin polymer is highly thrombogenic and may not provide adequate strength. To overcome these problems, a novel technique was defined for microvascular anastomosis with fibrin glue and a venous cuff. Sixty-four rats in two groups are included in the study. In the experimental group (n = 32), end-to-end arterial anastomosis was performed with two stay sutures, fibrin glue, and a venous cuff. In the control group (n = 32), conventional end-to-end arterial anastomosis was performed. Fibrin glue assisted anastomosis with a venous cuff took less time, caused less bleeding at the anastomotic site, and achieved a patency rate comparable to that provided by the conventional technique. Fibrin sealant assisted microvascular anastomosis with venous cuff is a rapid, easy, and reliable technique compared to the end-to-end arterial anastomosis.


Method of using high-sulfur coal and Low-grade pyrolusite to produce manganese is a new process. This article takes advantages of AHP and proposes a new way to research this system. This paper also builds a model of this system in order to compare with the traditional one. It could make readers understand its advantages easily. Meanwhile, this paper use three-scale method to determine the proportion. It could reduce the factor of human speculation in the whole process. So it lays a good foundation to make a reasonable decision. Use AHP to determine the three-scale weight of each index and analysis the pact of this system in respect of social-economic, resource and environment. Finally, it is confirmed that the new technology is superior to the traditional process of producing electrolytic manganese.


Mechanisms for Taste Sensation of Carbonation David Yarmolinsky Carbonation, or the presence of carbon dioxide (CO2) dissolved in solution, is a commonly encountered feature of beverages in the contemporary human diet. While the popularity of carbonation may be attributed to its distinct sensory qualities, the specific orosensory pathways mediating CO2 detection in mammals have not previously been delineated. This dissertation describes the identification of specific cellular and molecular mechanisms that mediate taste sensation of carbonation, using the mouse as a model system. The mammalian gustatory system is sensitive to CO2, and these responses are sensitive to inhibition of carbonic anhydrases, enzymes that catalyze the interconversion of carbon dioxide with carbonic acid. Through gene expression profiling I discovered that the gene carbonic anhydrase IV (Car4), encoding an extracellular enzyme, is specifically expressed in acid sensing taste receptor cells (TRCs). Genetic ablation of the Car4 locus resulted in a major deficit in gustatory CO2 sensation that is stimulus specific, not affecting responses to acid. Ablation or silencing of acid sensing TRCs likewise produced a profound deficit in taste responses to CO2. These studies identified a primary pathway of the gustatory carbonation response, substantiating acid sensing TRC and the Car4 enzyme as key mediators. A smaller gustatory neural response to carbonation remains even in the absence of sour-sensing TRC and/or Car4. To identify additional carbonation sensing pathways, I applied an in vivo calcium-imaging assay to define the ensemble of primary gustatory neurons activated by CO2. These studies revealed that in addition to robust activation of sour sensing neurons, a secondary gustatory pathway for CO2 detection is mediated by subpopulations of bitter and sweet responsive neurons. I identified carbonic anhydrase VII (Car7) as an intracellular carbonic anhydrase specifically expressed by sweet, bitter and umami sensing TRC. Pharmacological and gene expression data support a role for Car7 in transducing the secondary CO2 sensing pathway. These studies suggested that carbonation acts as a complex gustatory stimulus, stimulating sour, sweet and bitter taste qualities simultaneously. The rules governing peripheral encoding of multi-modal taste stimuli are not well understood. To address this issue, I examined the peripheral gustatory response to binary mixtures of taste qualities. I found that most combinations of taste qualities are represented as a superimposition of the component responses. However, neural responses to attractive stimuli, including natural sugars, artificial sweeteners and umami tastants, are selectively suppressed by simultaneous co-stimulation with a sour (acidic) stimulus. Acid-mediated suppression of sweet is cell autonomous, occurring even in the absence of gustatory acid sensing. Remarkably, carbonation stimulates sour signaling without suppressing sweet taste response. These studies suggest that cross-modal interactions at the periphery modulate the sensory response to complex taste stimuli


1 Jones JS. Saturation biopsy for detecting and characterizing prostate cancer. BJU Int 2007; 99 : 1340–4 2 Mitra AV, EK Bancroft, RA Eeles. A review of targeted screening for prostate cancer: introducing the IMPACT study. BJU Int 2007; 99 : 1350–5 3 Pitts WR. Validation of the Pitts unified theory of prostate cancer, late-onset hypogonadism and carcinoma: the role of steroid 5 α -reductase and steroid aromatase. BJU Int 2007; 100 : 254–7 4 Ramen JD, Schlegel PN. Aromatase inhibitors for male infertility. J Urol 2002; 167 : 624–9 5 Leder BZ, Rohrer JL, Rubin SD, Gallo J, Longcope C. Effects of aromatase inhibition in elderly men with low or borderline-low serum testosterone levels. J Clin Endoc Metab 2004; 89 : 1174– 80


In this study, the wear behavior of a heat-treatable Al-7Si-0.5Mg-0.5Cu alloy fabricated by selective laser melting was investigated systematically. Compared with the commercial homogenized AA2024 alloy, the fine secondary phase of the SLM Al-Cu-Mg-Si alloy leads to a low specific wear rate (1.8 ± 0.11 × 10−4 mm3(Nm)−1) and a low average coefficient of friction (0.40 ± 0.01). After the T6 heat treatment, the SLM Al-Cu-Mg-Si alloy exhibits a lower specific wear rate (1.48 ± 0.02 × 10−4 mm3(Nm)−1), but a similar average coefficient of friction (0.34 ± 0.01) as the heat-treated AA2024 alloy. Altogether, the SLM Al-3.5Cu-1.5Mg-1Si alloy is suitable for the achievement of not only superior mechanical performance, but also improved tribological properties.


Abstract. A NCAR-CCSM3 (National Center for Atmospheric Research – Community Climate System Model version 3) state-of-the-art transient paleoclimate simulation with prescribed freshwater inflows is used to investigate the changes and evolution of the South Atlantic water mass structure from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the present day. Model results show that 21 000 yr ago the water column was substantially stratified due to the presence of a saltier-than-today Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), forming a salinity barrier that prevented dense waters from the Northern Hemisphere from sinking. This salinity barrier started to erode after the termination of the Heinrich event 1, when its associated meltwater was transported southward, freshening the AABW. The removal of the barrier after 14 ka triggered the production of the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), which spread into the deeper layers of the South Atlantic at the onset of the Holocene. At this point, the NADW acquired its modern-day structure, establishing a deeper Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC).