Ovine coenurosis is a disease condition characterized by nervous manifestations that is associated with severe economic losses for sheep farm owners. This study was conducted to investigate the expression of myelin basic protein (MBP) gene in various regions of the brain in affected animals at different ages. We also studied the prevalence of coenurosis in Dakhlia governorate with parasitological and electron microscopic examinations to evaluate the severity of infestation. Ourresults revealed that MBP expression was down regulated in all brain regions at different ages. A hundred-fold reduction in MBP expression wasobserved in the cerebral cortex and a 500-fold decrease was observed in sheep older than one year. However, no differences were observed in MBP expression at different ages or different brain regions. Moreover, the highest prevalence of ovine coenurosis in Dakhlia governorate was in Belqas city in sheep aged more than 12 months with the highest incidence in the cerebral cortex. Electron microscopic examination revealed demyelination in nerve tracts with the existence of gitter cells indicating the severity of coenurosis. From these results, we concluded that MBP is down-regulated in sheep affected with coenurosis and could serve as a novel marker for ovine coenurosis and other demyelinating diseases in sheep.


Introduction Because of the web's rapid growth and lack of central organization, Internet search engines play a vital role in assisting the users of the Web in retrieving relevant information out of the tens of billions of documents available. With millions of dollars of potential revenue at stake, commercial Web sites compete fiercely to be placed prominently within the first page returned by a search engine. As a result, search engine optimizers (SEOs) developed various forms of search engine spamming (or spamdexing) techniques to artificially inflate the rankings of Web pages. Link-based ranking algorithms, such as Google's PageRank, have been largely effective against most conventional spamming techniques. However, PageRank has three fundamental flaws that, when exploited aggressively, can be proven to be its Achilles' heel: First, PageRank gives a minimum guaranteed score to every page on the Web; second, it rewards all incoming links as valid endorsements; and third, it imposes no penalty for making links to low-quality pages. SEOs can take advantage of these shortcomings to the extreme by employing an Artificial Web, a collection of an extremely large number of computer-generated Web pages containing many links to only a few target pages. Each page of the Artificial Web collects the minimum PageRank and feeds it back to the target pages. Although the individual endorsements are small, the flaws of PageRank make it possible for an Artificial Web to accumulate sizable PageRank values for the target pages. The SEOs can even download a substantial portion of the real Web and modify only the destinations of the hyperlinks, thus circumventing any detection algorithms based on the quality or the size of pages. As the size of an Artificial Web can be comparable to that of the real Web, SEOs can seriously compromise the objectivity of the results that PageRank provides. Although some statistical measures can be employed to identify specific attributes associated with an Artificial Web and filter them out of search results, it is far more desirable to develop a new ranking model that is free of such exploits to begin with.


We analyze the possibilities for the study of inclusive diffraction offered by future electron-proton/nucleus colliders in the tera-electron-volt regime, the Large Hadron-electron Collider (LHeC) as an upgrade of the HL-LHC, and the Future Circular Collider in electron-hadron mode. Compared to ep collisions at HERA, we find an extension of the available kinematic range in x by a factor of order 20 and of the maximum Q2 by a factor of order 100 for LHeC, while the Future Circular Collider (FCC) version would extend the coverage by a further order of magnitude both in x and Q2. This translates into a range of the available momentum fraction of the diffractive exchange with respect to the hadron (ζ), down to 10-4-10-5 for a wide range of the momentum fraction of the parton with respect to the diffractive exchange (β). Using the same framework and methodology employed in previous studies at HERA, considering only the experimental uncertainties and not those stemming from the functional form of the initial conditions or other ones of theoretical origin, and under very conservative assumptions for the luminosities and systematic errors, we find an improvement in the extraction of diffractive parton densities from fits to reduced cross sections for inclusive coherent diffraction in ep by about an order of magnitude. For eA, we also perform the simulations for the Electron Ion Collider. We find that an extraction of the currently unmeasured nuclear diffractive parton densities is possible with accuracy similar to that in ep.


We review the precision measurement of the mass and couplings of the W Boson at LEP. The total and differential W+W- cross section is used to extract the WWZ and WWgamma couplings. We discuss the techniques used by the four LEP experiments to determine the W mass in different decay channels, and present the details of methods used to evaluate the sources of systematic uncertainty.


Neuronal activity triggers endocytosis at synaptic terminals to retrieve efficiently the exocytosed vesicle membrane, ensuring the membrane homeostasis of active zones and the continuous supply of releasable vesicles. The kinetics of endocytosis depends on Ca2+ and calmodulin which, as a versatile signal pathway, can activate a broad spectrum of downstream targets, including myosin light chain kinase (MLCK). MLCK is known to regulate vesicle trafficking and synaptic transmission, but whether this kinase regulates vesicle endocytosis at synapses remains elusive. We investigated this issue at the rat calyx of Held synapse, where previous studies using whole-cell membrane capacitance measurement have characterized two common forms of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent endocytosis, i.e., slow clathrin-dependent endocytosis and rapid endocytosis. Acute inhibition of MLCK with pharmacological agents was found to slow down the kinetics of both slow and rapid forms of endocytosis at calyces. Similar impairment of endocytosis occurred when blocking myosin II, a motor protein that can be phosphorylated upon MLCK activation. The inhibition of endocytosis was not accompanied by a change in Ca2+ channel current. Combined inhibition of MLCK and calmodulin did not induce synergistic inhibition of endocytosis. Together, our results suggest that activation of MLCK accelerates both slow and rapid forms of vesicle endocytosis at nerve terminals, likely by functioning downstream of Ca2+/calmodulin.


Sarawak Kanan River is one of the tidal rivers frequently affected by flood
in Sarawak, Malaysia. Over the years, physical development has been concentrated
in the middle valley town of Bau, where the center of administration
and commerce for the district is located. The town of Bau and surrounding
areas is a well known flood-prone area, for being geographically located
in the floodplain of Sarawak Kanan River. Major floods of February 2003
and January 2004 had Bau and surrounding areas flood-stricken. The area
has little hydrological information to ponder with, thus indicating a need
of a flood visualization model to have a better explanation of the flooding
scenarios in the floodplain areas. For this purpose, the flooding of Sarawak
Kanan River was modeled using the InfoWorks RS one-dimensional hydrodynamic
model. The inputs consist of observed discharge hydrographs of
upstream Buan Bidi sub-catchment and lumped synthetic discharge hydrographs
of ungauged sub-basins. Observed stage hydrographs measured at
Siniawan were used as downstream input. This article outlined the methodology
for flood mapping and visualization to enable flood risk assessment and
decision support modeling for future development in floodplain protection
and control. The model was capable of providing an acceptable estimate of
flood depths with a correlation coefficient of 0.83.


Learning discriminative representations of unlabelled data is a challenging task. Contrastive self-supervised learning provides a framework to learn meaningful representations using learned notions of similarity measures from simple pretext tasks. In this work, we propose a simple and efficient framework for self-supervised image segmentation using contrastive learning on image patches, without using explicit pretext tasks or any further labeled fine-tuning. A fully convolutional neural network (FCNN) is trained in a self-supervised manner to discern features in the input images and obtain confidence maps which capture the network's belief about the objects belonging to the same class. Positive- and negative- patches are sampled based on the average entropy in the confidence maps for contrastive learning. Convergence is assumed when the information separation between the positive patches is small, and the positive-negative pairs is large. The proposed model only consists of a simple FCNN with 10.8k parameters and requires about 5 minutes to converge on the high resolution microscopy datasets, which is orders of magnitude smaller than the relevant self-supervised methods to attain similar performance. We evaluate the proposed method for the task of segmenting nuclei from two histopathology datasets, and show comparable performance with relevant self-supervised and supervised methods.


In this review, we address the role of stress as one of the principal causes for a cell or tissue to change its pre-existing somatic program, reprogramming itself to express the embryogenic pathway. The focus of this paper is the effect of different stress conditions on the induction phase of plant somatic embryogenesis, as well as the development of embryogenic competence as a result of the applied stresses. We also present a variety of data that link plant somatic embryogenesis, DNA methylation and oxidative stress response.


[1] Water mass characteristics and volume transports of abyssal water flowing northward into Wake Island Passage in the North Pacific Ocean were examined by carrying out high-quality hydrographic surveys in May 2003, October 2004, and December 2005 along with mooring observations from May 2003 to December 2005. Close linear relationships between potential temperature (θ) and salinity, dissolved oxygen, and silicate were seen below θ ≈ 1.1°C (≈4000 m). The relationships above θ ≈ 1.1°C were scattered and were separated into relatively salty, oxygen-rich, silicate-poor water to the south, and water with the opposite properties to the north. The results suggested that there was a boundary between water masses at θ ≈ 1.1°C in the deep passage. In addition to the three hydrographic sections, two hydrographic sections previously surveyed in the deep passage in 1975 and 1999 were reexamined for transport estimates. Geostrophic calculations relative to the θ = 1.1°C surface indicated northward transports of the abyssal water from 0.5 to 2.2 Sv (1 Sv = 106 m3 s−1) below this surface. When 1-year mean estimated velocities at θ = 1.1°C surface were used for reference, mean transport from the five estimates increased from 1.4 to about 4 Sv. The temperature of abyssal water colder than 1.1°C was found to have increased by an average of 0.012°C between 1975 and 2005. This warming is greater than double the standard deviation from the temporal mean temperature profile obtained from mooring observations.


We describe a new Severity of Illness Index which predicts patient resource use within DRGs and within broad diagnostic categories. Resource use is defined by total charges, length of stay, laboratory charges, radiology charges, and routine charges. Within broad diagnostic categories, the Index explains much more variation in resource utilization than do other case mix grouping methods such as DRGs, generalized patient management paths, and staging groups. Within DRGs, the Index also predicts much of the variation in resource use. We discuss use of the Index to price cases and predict resource use in a hospital


The primary objective of this study was to investigate the promotional policies and their impact on the performance of High School Teachers (HSTs) of public secondary schools of district Badin. To conduct this research both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Primary data were collected through interviews and a self-administered questionnaire survey. 206 HSTs talked about their, experiences, ideas, they provided valuable comments and feedback to accomplish this study. Moreover, secondary data were collected from official documents such as official promotion policy papers. Simple random and purposive sampling techniques were used. The quantitative data were analyzed through SPSS-version 20, whereas; qualitative data were analyzed through the Miles & Huberman Model of qualitative data analysis. Findings indicate that HSTs lack basic information about promotion policies as a result they do not get promotions on time. Besides, there are frequent changes in the promotion eligibility criteria at the policymakers' end. However, it was noticed that promotions are being done on a merit basis (but are delayed promotions) following necessary (fair) procedures in the district. The causes of delayed promotions are negligence of accountable officials, poor government policies regarding promotions, bribes demand by clerical staff, and also the inattentiveness of teachers in submitting their documents. The bottom line is HSTs are completely not aware of the exact promotion policies, they lack information that when their promotions are due. Therefore, HSTs of district Badin must be properly educated about the promotion criteria, procedure and policies. Training on promotions and policies must be given to them so that every individual teacher could be aware of the promotions and policies.


Nanoparticles are defined as particles with size less than 100 nm and include natural, incidental and engineered nanoparticles. It is recognized that nanoparticles produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) inside and outside the cell and are the key factor in toxicological effects. Extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF EMF) occur primarily from 50 and 60 Hz electric power lines and from electric devices and installations in buildings. In medicine MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, radio waves, and field gradients to form images of the body. Majority of research shows no genotoxic, or otherwise harmful, effects caused by any part of MRI . Gadodiamide is a gadolinium-based MRI contrast agent, used in MR imaging procedures to assist in the visualization of blood vessels. It is commonly marketed under the trade name Omniscan. Plant immature gametic cells were used as model cells in the research as very vulnerable to environmental influence. ROS production as a result of oxidative stress in plant cells has great influence on cell self fluorescence that could be detected by flow cytometry. Flow cytometry (FCM) is widely used method for investigation of different cell parameters, including cell oxidative stress determination on base of educed peroxidase intensity. The aim of this study was to determine by FCM the combined effects of Gd nanoparticles (GdNPs) on intracellular concentration of ROS in plant immature gametic cells in presence of  both 50 Hz ELF EMF and strong MF. A significant difference of fluorescence was observed between control cultures of gametic cells and gametic cells after 1 hour incubation with suspension of GdNPs in all used densities of ELF EMF. The most effective influence on cells were observed using ELF EMF with density 200 μT. The experiment with MR showed that GdNPs the MR dramatically decreased the cell fluorescence. The cells incubated in presence of GdNPs had considerable extent of relative fluorescence (RF) after influence of MR in comparison to cells cultivated without GdNPs.


Pairings permit several protocol simplications and original scheme creation, for example Identity Based Cryptography protocols. Initially, the use of pairings did not involve any secret entry, consequently, side channel attacks were not a threat for pairing based cryptography. On the contrary, in an Identity Based Cryptographic protocol, one of the two entries to the pairing is secret. Side Channel Attacks can be therefore applied to nd this secret. We realize a Differential Power Analysis(DPA) against the Miller algorithm, the central step to compute the Weil, Tate and Ate pairing. Keywords: Pairing, Miller Algorithm, Pairing Based Cryptography, SCA, DPA.


Light field rendering (LFR) is an active research area in computer vision and computer graphics. LFR plays a crucial role in free viewpoint video systems (FVV). Several rendering algorithms have been suggested for LFR. However, comparative evaluation of these methods is often limited to subjective assessment of the output. To overcome this problem, this paper presents a geometric measurement, Effective Sampling Density of the scene, referred to as effective sampling for brevity, for objective comparison and evaluation of LFR algorithms. We have derived the effective sampling for the well-known LFR methods. Both theoretical study and numerical simulation have shown that the proposed effective sampling is an effective indicator of the performance for LFR methods.


Properly established streamside manage- ment zones (SMZs) reduce impacts of timber harvesting on stream sediment fluxes. However, effects of partial harvesting within SMZs on water quality are not well documented. The objectives of this study are to characterize hydrology and sediment export in undisturbed first-order streams to provide baseline data for a long-term paired watershed study. The study design includes two control (no harvest) and two eventual treatment watersheds (all are between 26 - 48 hectares in size). The entire treatment watersheds will be harvested except for SMZs, which will be divided into upper and lower sections. The upper section will have an intact SMZ, while the lower section will receive partial harvesting according to Georgia best management practices (BMP) guidelines. Flow and sediment concentrations will be monitored at the outlet of each treatment and control watershed for two years prior to harvest and for several years following harvest. Eighteen months of pretreatment flow and sediment data from the four study watersheds are available for analysis. These data reveal significant differences in hydrologic behavior among four adjacent watersheds with similar soils and nearly identical forest cover.


PURPOSE
Dynamic MRI is an attractive tool for internal organ motion monitoring but its speed is yet to be improved for real time 3D imaging. The purpose of the study is to accelerate the imaging acquisition using a hybrid compressed-sensing and low rank decomposition method (k-t SLR) exploiting data sparsity in the spatial-temporal domain.

METHODS
Six retrospective lung cancer patients were included in the study. For each subject, 120 continuously dynamic 2D MR images were acquired using a fast steady state precession imaging sequence. To test the feasibility of accelerated MR acquisition, fully sampled k-space data were down-sampled by 5-20 folds before reconstruction. The under-sampled low rank spatial-temporal matrix was recovered by a k-t SLR method computing the matrix of minimum nuclear norm that fits the data. The k-t SLR results were compared against conventional total variation (TV) reconstruction of individual dynamic MR frames.

RESULTS
High imaging fidelity and low noise levels were achieved with the k-t SLR method even at the most aggressive down-sampling ratio while TV reconstruction showed substantial loss of details and subsequently greater tracking errors. The k-t SLR method resulted in an average normalized mean square error less than 0.05 as opposed to 0.23 by using the TV reconstruction on individual frames. In addition to the high correlation coefficients (>0.90) in the tumor trajectories automatically tracked from the original images and the k-t SLR reconstructed images, less than 6% points showed tracking errors greater than 1 mm with 20 fold down-sampling, as opposed to the lower correlation coefficient (0.87) and 15% tracking error from using TV alone with 10 fold data down-sampling.

CONCLUSION
We have demonstrated the potential to significantly reduce the amount data samples required for lung MR image reconstruction in the radiotherapy context where long imaging acquisition of a repetitive anatomic process is performed. The study is supported in part by NIH 1R21CA144063 and R21CA161670.


In order to promote and support development of the wave energy industry, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has developed a Wave Energy Development Roadmap. The Wave Energy Development Roadmap outlines the pathway from initial design to commercialization for Wave Energy Converter (WEC) technologies. Commercialization of a wave energy technology is embodied in the deployment of an array of WEC's, a WEC Farm. The development process is related to the commonly used metric of Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). The roadmap incorporates modeling and experimental expectations at corresponding TRLs which provide a guide for the industry to pursue successful design optimizations, prototype deployments, and utility scale commercialization. The roadmap serves the additional purpose of pinpointing research gaps in the development process.


Parthenium hysterophorus has widely reported traditional uses which include its use for stimulation and purification of platelets as well as body defense. Experiments were carried out to assess the impact of Parthenium hysterophorus leaf extract on hematological parameters of wistar rats. The results revealed that the extract (10–100 mg/kg p.o.) produced no significant change in the packed cell volume, haemoglobin, red blood cell count, total leucocyte count, monocyte, basophil, eosinophil, bleeding time and clotting time. The dose of 100 mg/kg p.o. produced a significant (P<0.05) increase in neutrophil and decrease in lymphocyte. Platelet count was significantly (P<0.05) increased at the dose of 100 mg/kg p.o. The results did not support the traditional use of the plant leaf for stimulation of blood production. It however showed improvement of non-specific immune responses involving phagocytosis and inflammation.


Can transparency enhance the legitimacy of international institutions? As transparency has become a widely applied procedural standard in international politics, a range of institutions have implemented transparency reforms under the presumption that increased transparency can elicit support among relevant audiences. This article evaluates whether increased transparency in the UN Security Council leads to enhanced legitimacy perceptions among UN member-states. The article first traces the history of Security Council reform since 1990 and draws on interviews with diplomats and observers to describe a transparency reform the Council enacted in 2006. Next, the article uses longitudinal content analysis to empirically probe the legitimation effects of that transparency reform. The empirical analysis is based on an original dataset of 4,303 legitimacy statements made by UN member-states in annual UN General Assembly debates over the periods 1990–2006 and 2006–18. The findings cast doubt over the potential of transparency reform to improve the Council's legitimacy; instead they suggest that increasing the direct participation of the wider UN membership may be a more viable legitimation strategy. This article contributes to existing international legitimacy literature by providing empirical evidence on the relationship between transparency and legitimacy, and by demonstrating which institutional features that affect the perceived legitimacy of the Security Council.


The purpose of the present study was to describe the relationships among service quality, customer trust and customer religious commitment on customer satisfaction and loyalty of Islamic banks in East Java. Respondents were Islamic banks' customers domiciled in East Java. A predetermined number of samples were taken by the use of a simple random sampling technique. Analysis was performed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results indicated that service quality and customer trust of Islamic banks jointly had significant effects on customer satisfaction. Service quality and customer trust had direct and indirect effects on customer loyalty mediated by satisfaction of Islamic banks' customer in East Java. Religious commitment had no direct and indirect effect on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. DOI:  10.15408/aiq.v7i2.1681


In powder handling operations, such as mixing, conveying, sieving and milling, particles frequently make contact with each other and the walls of the processing equipment. During these interactions, the electrification of particles takes place, commonly known as tribocharging. This paper focuses on investigating the tribocharging characteristics of bulk powders under shear deformation. In particular, the effect of shear strain and shear rate on the charge generation is analysed. An annular shear cell, modified for electrostatic charging, is used for applying a shear strain to a bed of pharmaceutical powders.
α-lactose monohydrate particles, widely used as an excipient for pharmaceutical formulations, is used as a model system. It is shown that the charge on the particles increases with the applied shear strain.


The Variable Buoyancy System (VBS) is a critical device in the operation of underwater gliders that should be properly sized to achieve the required vehicle propulsion; safety within the operating range; and adequate efficiency at the nominal depth rating. The VBS budget volume depends mainly on the glider hydrodynamics and the main operating states of the vehicle. A method is proposed with analytical equations to analyze the performance of underwater gliders and to estimate the resultant velocities of the vehicle as a function of the buoyancy change and the glider angle. The method is validated to analyze the glider performance of underwater gliders and is essential to get the main design requirement for the propulsion system: the VBS budget volume. The paper presents the application of the method to obtain the VBS sizing for an academic glider; a comparison with the historical hydrodynamic data of the Slocum glider; the results of the glider performance study; and the development of the characteristic charts necessary to evaluate the performance of the vehicle and its flight parameters.


Media literacy has become a key concept for understanding how different citizens develop the capacity to participate in the mediatized society. One key question here is how media literacy education can support people of diverse backgrounds to have equal chances of benefiting from the media. Furthermore, as many schools are characterized by superdiversity, especially in bigger cities (Crul et al., 2013), there is also a need for research on media education and diversity. This article presents the findings of the research project INCLUDED, a participatory action research about media education in a secondary school in Germany. The project aims to analyse the everyday media use of young people with diverse cultural backgrounds living in a socio-economically disadvantaged neighbourhood and co-develop teaching modules on media literacy education integrating an intercultural perspective. The fieldwork of the project (January 2020–April 2021) included participatory observations (online and offline), teacher interviews, and focus groups with the students (13–15 years). The article will particularly focus on one teaching module that focused on TikTok and Instagram influencers. The students' presentations in the classroom demonstrated how the diverse cultural backgrounds of the students also shaped the content that they consumed on social media. Analysing this teaching module as an example, this article discusses the benefits and challenges of designing a more inclusive and participatory approach to media education in the context of culturally diverse schools as an alternative to culture-blindness and over-emphasis of cultural differences.


The jeremiad is a rhetorical strategy found in countless fields—including the speeches of Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr.—which laments a society's current situation and calls for a return to the essentially good principles upon which it was founded. Some scholars have argued that the rhetoric of Malcolm X employs this strategy; however, through an analysis of his speech The Ballot or the Bullet, I argue that it in fact does the opposite: he uses the anti-jeremiad, a rhetorical pattern that fundamentally renounces the dominant ideals of, in this case, the twentieth-century United States. I reach this conclusion from an analysis of his ironic treatment of the notion of victimhood, specifically exploring the implications of his use of the word "chump" and examining how this assigns a peculiar responsibility, and thus agency, to his audience, reinforcing his anti-jeremiad call for intentional separation and Black Nationalism. I later consider studies of such selfand group-labeling and label reclamation, which have found that, for example, the reclamation of victimhood actually diminishes the stigma attached to that label and greatly increases a community's perception of its own power.


ABSTRACT An exploratory survey has been made on the magnetic fabric of a variety of sediments from Legs I-VI of the Deep Sea Drilling Project. Pelagic clays and calcareous and siliceous fossil oozes have generally proved to have no significant magnetic fabric. In the majority of the remaining sediments, primary style fabrics are rare, probably as a result mainly of deformation during drilling. Sufficient undisturbed specimens have been measured, principally from the coarser silts, to indicate that useful fabric information can be obtained from the cores by this method. Measurements from Hole 1 tend to confirm the view that chevron folding in some cores is due to ponecontemporaneous mass movement of near-surface material. Results from Holes 26, 35 and 60 indicate that drilling disturbance is comparatively slight. The influence of palaecurrents is seen; their directions might be determined in oriented cores.


On 2008, July, the Cassini/VIMS spectrometer detected spokes on the Saturn's B ring for the first time. These are the first measurements of the complete reflectance spectrum of the spokes in a wide spectral range (0.35–0.51 μm). Here we will focus on a single broad‐shaped spoke, imaged by VIMS on July, 9. Radiative transfer modeling supports a pure water ice composition for the spoke's grains, but their size distribution is found to be wider than previously thought: preliminary results yields a modal value of about 1.90 μm (reff = 3.5 μm, veff = 0.3) and a number density of about 0.01–0.1 grains/cm3. The unexpected abundance of micron‐sized grains in the spoke may have implications for the formation models since the energy requirement increases by at least one order of magnitude. These kind of observations may also constrain the size selection effects thought to be produced by the forces governing the spokes' evolution.


To understand the very first steps of atmospheric particle formation and growth processes, information on the size where the atmospheric nucleation and cluster activation occurs, is crucially needed. The current understanding of the concentrations and dynamics of charged and neutral clusters and particles is based on theoretical predictions and experimental observations. This paper gives a standard operation procedure (SOP) for Neutral cluster and Air Ion Spectrometer (NAIS) measurements and data processing. With the NAIS data, we have improved the scientific understanding by (1) direct detection of freshly formed atmospheric clusters and particles, (2) linking experimental observations and theoretical framework to understand the formation and growth mechanisms of aerosol particles, and (3) parameterizing formation and growth mechanisms for atmospheric models. The SOP provides tools to harmonize the world-wide measurements of small clusters and nucleation mode particles and to verify consistent results measured by the NAIS users. The work is based on discussions and interactions between the NAIS users and the NAIS manufacturer.


With deregulation of the power generation sector, the necessity for an enhanced and open communication infrastructure to support an increasing variety of ancillary services is apparent. A duplex and distributed communication system seems to be the most suitable solution to meet and ensure good quality of these services. Parameters needed and additional limits introduced by this new communication topology must be investigated and defined. This paper focuses on the communication network requirements for a third party load frequency control service. Data communication models are proposed based on queuing theory. Simulation is performed to model the effects of certain types of signal delays on this ancillary service.


This study investigated the effects of supervision on autonomous wheelchairs, which are considered to be a means of future transportation. A rider using an automated wheelchair needs to be vigilant about the failure modes of the system. This study focused on the effects of human factors on an automated system. Several experiments were conducted in public areas to investigate the influence of human factors including acceptability, capability, and usability on the supervision of an automated system by using questionnaires. The average reaction time from the occurrence of system failure until the emergency switch is activated was found to be similar in all the experiments for all test tracks. Regarding the positions of the subject's hand, several patterns for pushing the emergency switch were observed. The method of supervision for pushing the emergency switch was the same among all subjects, even though they had different attitudes. Most subjects had favourable opinions on the automated wheelchair, whereas some found the supervision bothersome. The results reveal the conditions under which future users would prefer to use the automated wheelchair, given the expected cost and functions. The real-world experimental data are valuable for developing automated wheelchairs and effective human–machine interfaces on automated systems.


Morocco has recently taken a series of measures to curb extremist voices and blunt the growing power of political Islam. One such measure is the training of female religious guides. The deployment of women into the religious field implies a redefinition of Islamic authority and the restructuring of religious spaces, such as mosques and religious councils, which have long been male-dominated centers of Islamic authority. Although one may question whether the reforms empower women or confirm misogynistic tendencies through their voices, these women are making progress toward social agency and are redefining the relationship between the public and private spheres.


More than half of all Arizonans live in Phoenix, the center of one of the most urbanized states in the nation. This history of the Sunbelt metropolis traces its growth from its founding in 1867 to its present status as one of the ten largest cities in the United States. Drawing on a wide variety of archival materials, oral accounts, promotional literature, and urban historical studies, Bradford Luckingham presents an urban biography of a thriving city that for more than a century has been an oasis of civilization in the desert Southwest. First homesteaded by pioneers bent on seeing a new agricultural empire rise phoenix-like from ancient Hohokam Indian irrigation ditches and farming settlements, Phoenix became an agricultural oasis in the desert during the late 1800s. With the coming of the railroads and the transfer of the territorial capital to Phoenix, local boosters were already proclaiming it the new commercial center of Arizona. As the city also came to be recognized as a health and tourist mecca, thanks to its favorable climate, the concept of "the good life" became the centerpiece of the city's promotional efforts. Luckingham follows these trends through rapid expansion, the Depression, and the postwar boom years, and shows how economic growth and quality of life have come into conflict in recent times.


The pattern of breathing was studied in 8 patients with acute severe asthma on admission to hospital and during recovery to determine how chest wall motion varied with the degree of air-flow obstruction (AO), the relationship between degree of AO and respiratory timing and ventilation, and whether the pattern suggested respiratory muscle fatigue when asthma was most severe. Pattern was assessed by simultaneous measurement of respired volumes (pneumotachygraph) and anteroposterior (AP) motion of lower rib cage and abdomen (magnetometers). There was a phase lag of AP rib cage relative to AP abdominal motion that was greatest in those with lowest FEV1 and progressively decreased during recovery. Fractional inspiratory time was decreased in severe asthma. Mean inspiratory flow was increased in moderately severe asthma but decreased when FEV1 was less than 25% predicted. Breathing pattern was no more variable during severe asthma than during recovery. We conclude that during severe AO the magnitude of phase lag of AP rib cage relative to AP abdominal motion reflects severity of asthma; respiratory drive is increased but is not associated with increased ventilation below an FEV1 of 25% predicted, and analysis of the breathing pattern provides no clear evidence of respiratory muscle fatigue.


Pork represents a core food in the diet which provides key nutrients such as protein, thiamin and selenium. Analysis of a large, nationally representative dietary survey of Australian children identified that half of the children reported consuming pork, but this was generally in the form of processed pork such as ham and bacon. Fresh pork was not commonly included in their diets [1]. To identify barriers to fresh pork consumption in children, six semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted with 31 parents or carers of children aged 2 16 years who consumed meat (mean age of parents was 42.5 y (range = 27-57 y), and mean age of their children was 8.4 years). A number of key themes emerged from the focus groups in relation to fresh pork intake, namely: a lack of confidence and knowledge relating to the preparation and cooking of fresh pork; poor acceptability of fresh pork by some children due to taste and texture; influence of family and cultural traditions on pork consumption; low visibility and perceived availability of pork in comparison to other meats; and a perceived high cost of value-added pork products. Parents reported that pork was an acceptable meat to include in children's meals and there was an overall perception that fresh pork was a healthy meat, because of its leanness. In contrast, several participants discussed concerns relating to the high sodium and/or fat content of processed pork products including ham, bacon and cured pork products. Despite these nutrition-related concerns, processed pork products were seen as easy and convenient foods that were well accepted by children. Disciplines Medicine and Health Sciences | Social and Behavioral Sciences Publication Details Nolan-Clark, D., Neale, E. & Charlton, K. (2014). Exploring barriers to fresh and total pork consumption among children: parental perspectives: 3B-108 Report prepared for the Co-operative Research Centre for High Integrity Australian Pork. Australia: Pork CRC. This report is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/smhpapers/1945


Epitaxial nitride thin films and heterostructures are one of the most celebrated class of materials not only due to their utility in fundamental materials science and device physics studies, but also for their numerous industrial applications from hard coating technology to solid-state lighting. Transition metal nitrides such as TiN and others have been utilized for decades in hard coating and tribology applications. The last two decades have also seen the emergence and dominance of GaN for solid-state lighting and power electronic applications. Though TiN, and other wurtzite III-nitride semiconductor such as GaN remain the most important nitride coating materials for a range of applications, several other rocksalt nitride thin film and superlattice heterostructures such as ScN, CrN, and TiN/(Al,Sc)N metal/semiconductor superlattices have attracted significant interests in recent years for applications in thermoelectricity, plasmonics, solar energy conversion, and in high temperature electronic, optoelectronic, and plasmonic devices. In this chapter, we present an up-to-date summary of rocksalt nitride thin film and heterostructure coat- ing materials for their applications in energy transport and conversion research fields. The suitability and usefulness of such nitride coating materials in the most recent scientific and engineering advances related to the energy transport and conversion research fields are highlighted.


The development of knowledge of sarcoma of the breast has been handicapped by confusion in classification, a state still prevalent to some extent. This has been due chiefly to the striking variability of the manifestations of sarcoma of the breast (in contrast to the uniformity exhibited by sarcoma in other regions) and to the infrequency of its occurrence—factors all too apparent in any review of the subject in which there is an attempt to place the various forms in well defined groups. The older literature contains numerous examples of so-called breast sarcoma classified with little regard to histogenesis and subsequent course but largely on gross or microscopic appearance. The prevailing tendency was to name the neoplasms according to the morphologic characteristics of the component elements; the result was the development of a multitude of terms, most of which convey little information as to the tissue of origin. Therefore, although one


Traditional reservoir management relies on irregular information gathering operations such as surface sampling and production logging followed by one or several treatment operations. The availability of both diagnosis and the prescribed remedial operations can cause severe delays in the reservoir management cycle, increasing unplanned down-time and impacting cash flow. These effects can be exacerbated in remote and offshore fields where well intervention is time-intensive.
 A new, innovative, all-electric, flow control valve (FCV) is now a reality for smart completions. This can support any well penetration scenario including multiple zones per lateral in maximum reservoir contact wells and multi-trip completion in extended reach wells. Each zone is equipped with a permanent intelligent flow control valve, allowing real-time reservoir management and providing high-resolution reservoir control. Valve actuation is semi-instantaneous and field data has shown that the frequency of updating such valves is at least 50 times compared to conventional valves, enabling near continuous closed-loop reservoir management. However, such a high frequency optimization demands computational efficiency as it challenges existing optimization applications, particularly when multiple realizations are considered to account for reservoir uncertainty.
 In this paper, we present a framework to support field-wide implementation of smart FCVs and hence maintaining a fast closed-loop reservoir management. The framework consists of history matching using Ensemble Kalman Filters (EnKF) where smart FCV data is assimilated to condition a suite of representative reservoir models at a relatively high frequency. Thereafter, a reactive optimizer utilizing a non-linear programming method is applied with the objectives of maximizing instantaneous revenue by determining the optimal positions of the downhole valves under user defined rate, pressure drop, drawdown and setting constraints. This optimization offers production control planning suggestions with the intent of immediate to short-term gain in oil production based upon the downhole measurement and the performance of the near wellbore model. At the same time, a proactive optimizer can be used to determine valve-control settings for longer term objectives such as delaying water/gas breakthrough. The objective of this optimization is equalization of the water/gas front arrival times based upon generation of streamlines and time-of-flight (TOF) analysis. Both modes of optimization are performed efficiently such that a single optimization run is sufficient per geological realization. We use the OLYMPUS reference model, a water flooding case, to demonstrate the workflow. The reactive optimization shows an increase of 25% in the net present value through minimizing water production and increasing injection efficiency, while proactive optimization delays water breakthrough time by 2-4 years. The paper showcases the effectiveness of complementary workflows where high frequency reactive and proactive optimizations support a near continuous closed-loop reservoir management.


Worrying is the fact that there is a deficit for educational information on health and the role of physical activity for improvining it. Scientists have long found that one of the most risk factors for human health is the lack of physical activity. The development of modern technologies is a growing process in our society and further contributes for the prematurely damaging of the musculoskeletal system. Swimming, as a type of physical activity, gives opportunity for reducing the harmful effects of this process and is a good option for preventing a number of health problems associated with the improper posture while sitting in front of the computer or other smart device. Based on our research's results were made conclusions focusing on prevention, health support and improving quality of life, by introducing a programme for rising the awareness of the harm and consequences of prolonged sitting in front of computers, as well as avoiding developing dependence on the use of modern technologies and counteracting it through the means of swimming.


We introduce an acoustic microfluidic device architecture that locally augments the pressure field for separation and enrichment of targeted microparticles in a longitudinal acoustic trap. Pairs of pillar arrays comprise "pseudo walls" that are oriented perpendicular to the inflow direction. Though sample flow is unimpeded, pillar arrays support half-wave resonances that correspond to the array gap width. Positive acoustic contrast particles of supracritical diameter focus to nodal locations of the acoustic field and are held against drag from the bulk fluid motion. Thus, the longitudinal standing bulk acoustic wave (LSBAW) device achieves size-selective and material-specific separation and enrichment of microparticles from a continuous sample flow. A finite element analysis model is used to predict eigenfrequencies of LSBAW architectures with two pillar geometries, slanted and lamellar. Corresponding pressure fields are used to identify longitudinal resonances that are suitable for microparticle enrichment. Optimal operating conditions exhibit maxima in the ratio of acoustic energy density in the LSBAW trap to that in inlet and outlet regions of the microchannel. Model results guide fabrication and experimental evaluation of realized LSBAW assemblies regarding enrichment capability. We demonstrate separation and isolation of 20 μm polystyrene and ∼10 μm antibody-decorated glass beads within both pillar geometries. The results also establish several practical attributes of our approach. The LSBAW device is inherently scalable and enables continuous enrichment at a prescribed location. These features benefit separations applications while also allowing concurrent observation and analysis of trap contents.


UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: INTRODUCTION Barry Eichengreen University of California at Berkeley The evolution of modern labor markets currently may be the single most popular research topic among economic historians, almost certainly in North America, quite probably in other parts of the world. And unemployment is, of course, the single most controversial aspect of labor market behavior. The problems involved are fundamentally historical. Labor market outcomes depend on institutions and conventions which have evolved in a fundamentally historical way. The emergence of implicit contracts and internal labor markets was a response to new industrial technologies and organizational forms which attached a growing premium to firm-specific skills and long-term employment relationships (Jacoby, 1985). Together with the rise of organized labor in the final decades of the 19th century, these arrangements transformed the manner in which labor markets responded to disturbances (Eichengreen, 1987a; Friedman, 1988). The realization that the modern labor market produced by these innovations did not function perfectly and could give rise to various problems, not the least of which was involuntary unemployment, prompted public intervention. The new institutional arrangements that resulted — poor relief, unemployment insurance, and minimum wages prominent among them — further altered the operation of the market. Consequently, the structure and performance of labor markets can only be understood historically. They are the product of imperatives and events in the distant past. Equally, the effects of a specific set of labor market structures can only be identified historically. To isolate the impact of a particular labor market arrangement, one must compare the market in which it is embedded with another in which that function is absent or organized differently. The obvious way of doing so is by comparing labor markets over time. Thus, the study of unemployment and labor market dynamics is a fundamentally historical enterprise. Recent research has revolved around three topics: the changing structure of labor markets, the incidence and effects of unemployment, and the policy response. I consider them in turn, focusing largely but not exclusively on contributions to this volume.


Squalene synthase catalyzes the condensation of two molecules of farnesyl  diphosphate  (FPP) to give presqualene diphosphate (PSPP) and the subsequent reductive rearrangement of PSPP to squalene. Previous studies of the mechanism of addition of FPP to the enzyme have led to conflicting interpretations of initial velocity measurements (Beytia, E., Qureshi, A. A., and Porter, J. W. (1973) J. Biol. Chern. 248,1856-1867; Agnew, W. S., and Popjak, G. (1978) J. Biol. Chern. 253,45664573). Initial velocities for synthesis of PSPP and squalene were measured over a wider range of FPP and NADPH concentrations  than  previously  reported, using a soluble form of recombinant enzyme. In the absence of NADPH, PSPP formation was activated by FPP at concentrations above "0.5 p ~ . At fixed levels of NADPH, the dependence of initial rates of PSPP and squalene synthesis on FPP concentrations indicated that the c,, substrate added by a sequential mechanism. In addition, NADPH stimulated synthesis of PSPP by 40-fold at saturating levels of the cofactor. This stimulation is, at least in part, by reduction of PSPP to squalene.


. In this study, a Mobile Olive Oil Processing Unit (TEM Oliomio 500-2GV, Italy) was designed and used to manufacture cold press extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) under the optimum conditions. The local olive varieties Beylik, Tavşan Yüreği, Uslu, and Saurani in the Turkish provinces Antalya, Manisa, and Hatay have been investigated. EVOO was stored before and after paper filtration. Generally, no significant change was observed in the fatty acid composition during 60 days of storing. The filtration had no detectable effect, and there was significant difference among the EVOOs obtained from different cultivars. The results of this study have shown that the fatty acid profile of EVOOs is a good method to classify Turkish olive oils. Beylik and Tavşan Yüreği had a higher oleic acid content than other cultivars. The Saurani EVOO had the highest content of palmitic and stearic acids. The highest amount of linoleic acid was detected in the EVOO Uslu (Manisa), with the range 12.06–12.09%. The maximum amount of linolenic acid (0.85%) was detected in Saurani (Hatay), and the lowest concentration (0.49%) of linolenic acid was found in Tavşan Yüreği (Antalya). Beylik (Antalya) extra virgin olive had 0.5% of it, and this amount increased after filtration (0.59%). Uslu (Manisa) had 0.7% of linolenic acid. The olive oil samples were classified as EVOO according to the International Olive Council (IOC) regulations. The linolenic acid levels in the Turkish virgin olive oil samples were below the maximum value (0.9%) provided for by the Turkish Food Codex. Predictably, oleic acid (C18:1) was the most abundant fatty acid (70.56–68.64%), followed by palmitic acid (C16:0) and linoleic acid (C18:1). The results have shown that Beylik and Tavşan Yüreği extra virgin olive oil have a unique fatty acid profile due to high oleic acid content. Turkish virgin olive oils are low in linoleic and palmitic acids, and high in oleic acid.


This paper presents an accuracy enhancement solution to mobilepsilas location and tracking systems in indoor wireless local area network (WLAN) environments. The enhancement method consists of the Kalman filtering application to an artificial neural network (ANN) based fingerprinting location technique. The application of Kalman filtering has the advantage of using information about the mobilepsilas motion to reduce location errors (caused by the WLAN received signal strength- RSS variations) and to avoid trajectory discontinuities (caused by the static estimation of the ANN-based fingerprinting technique). To process the RSS-based fingeprinting location technique, two ANN-based pattern-matching algorithms have been examined: the generalized regression neural network (GRNN) and the multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and they have been compared to the classic K-nearest neighbors (KNN) method. Experimental results, conducted in a specific in-building environment, showed that the GRNN algorithm performs better than the MLP and KNN algorithms. The application of Kalman filtering to the considered GRNN-based fingerprinting location technique improved the location accuracy of about 22.4 % in terms of location mean error.


Ultrasound is a promising diagnostic method when it comes to assessing the involvement of major salivary glands in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). A matter of debate is whether ultrasound of the major salivary glands (SGUS) can replace a salivary gland biopsy in the diagnosis or classification of pSS. The intra- and inter-observer reliability of SGUS was found to be good, especially when focusing on hypoechogenic areas and homogeneity, and comparable to the reliability of histopathologic characteristics of salivary gland biopsies of pSS patients. However, replacing salivary gland biopsy by SGUS led to substantial decrease of the accuracy of the 2016 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) classification criteria with clinical diagnosis as the gold standard. When SGUS was added as an additional item to the criteria, the accuracy of the criteria remained high, offering at the same time the clinicians a wider array of tools to assess patients. Combination of SGUS and anti-SSA antibodies was shown to be highly predictive of the classification of a patient suspected of pSS, making routine salivary gland biopsy debatable.


Vilnius University Curriculum is a plan to foster a student's academic development and to enhance an integration of various kinds of knowledge. The paper offers theoretical approaches to reexamining curricula of Japan Studies along the lines of area studies, cultural studies, language training, and interdisciplinarity. The problem of putting theory into practice is discussed on the basis of the Comparative Asian Studies programme at Vilnius University. This programme was designed to facilitate the goal of training individuals who combine thorough disciplinary and area specialization.


Three cationic [Ln4 ] squares (Ln=lanthanide) were isolated as single crystals and their structures solved as [Dy4 (μ4 -OH)(HL)(H2 L)3 (H2 O)4 ]Cl2 ⋅(CH3 OH)4 ⋅(H2 O)8 (1), [Tb4 (μ4 -OH)(HL)(H2 L)3 (MeOH)4 ]Cl2 ⋅(CH3 OH)4 ⋅(H2 O)4 (2) and [Gd4 (μ4 -OH)(HL)(H2 L)3 (H2 O)2 (MeOH)2 ]Br2 ⋅(CH3 OH)4 ⋅(H2 O)3 (3). The structures are described as hydroxo-centered squares of lanthanide ions, with each edge of the square bridged by a doubly deprotonated H2 L(2-) ligand. Alternating current magnetic susceptibility measurements show frequency-dependent out-of-phase signals with two different thermally assisted relaxation processes for 1, whereas no maxima in χM " appears above 2.0 K for complex 2. For 1, the estimated effective energy barrier for these two relaxation processes is 29 and 100 K. Detailed ab initio studies reveal that complex 1 possesses a toroidal magnetic moment. The ab initio calculated anisotropies of the metal ions in complex 1 were employed to simulate the magnetic susceptibility by using the Lines model (POLY_ANISO) and this procedure yields J1 =+0.01 and J2 =-0.01 cm(-1) for 1 as the two distinct exchange interactions between the Dy(III) ions. Similar parameters are also obtained for complex 1 (and 2) from specific heat measurements. A very weak antiferromagnetic super-exchange interaction (J1 =-0.043 cm(-1) and g=1.99) is observed between the metal centers in 3. The magnetocaloric effect (MCE) was estimated by using field-dependent magnetization and temperature-dependent heat-capacity measurements. An excellent agreement is found for the -ΔSm values extracted from these two measurements for all three complexes. As expected, 3 shows the largest -ΔSm variation (23 J Kg(-1)  K(-1) ) among the three complexes. The negligible magnetic anisotropy of Gd indeed ensures near degeneracy in the (2S+1) ground state microstates, and the weak super-exchange interaction facilitates dense population of low-lying excited states, all of which are likely to contribute to the MCE, making complex 3 an attractive candidate for cryogenic refrigeration.


Creating career pathways to facilitate current dental and other healthcare providers becoming dental therapists can be an efficient means to expand the dental workforce and reduce barriers to access to oral health services. Career pathways are proposed to facilitate dental providers building on previously learned skills to broaden their scope of practice and become even more versatile and productive providers of oral health services. Creation of a unified and integrated curriculum will enable research to document the effectiveness of this new dental provider who will work as part of dental teams and with supervision by dentists. The goal of augmenting the current dental team and reducing barriers to access to dental services for underserved populations can be enhanced by offering alternative pathways to achieve the competencies required of dental therapists.


In 1882, Thomas Edison and his Edison Electric Light Company unveiled the first large-scale electrical system in the world to light a stretch of offices in a city. This was a monumental achievement, but it was not the beginning of the electrical age. The first electric generators were built in the 1830s, the earliest commercial lighting systems before 1860, and the first commercial application of generator-powered lights (in lighthouses) in the early 1860s. In Power Struggles, Michael Brian Schiffer examines some of these earlier efforts, both successful and unsuccessful, that paved the way for Edison. After laying out a unified theoretical framework for understanding technological change, Schiffer presents a series of fascinating case studies of pre-Edison electrical technologies, including Volta's electrochemical battery, the blacksmith's electric motor, the first mechanical generators, Morse's telegraph, the Atlantic cable, and the lighting of the Capitol dome. Schiffer discusses claims of "practicality" and "impracticality" (sometimes hotly contested) made for these technologies, and examines the central role of the scientific authority--in particular, the activities of Joseph Henry, mid-nineteenth-century America's foremost scientist--in determining the fate of particular technologies. These emerging electrical technologies formed the foundation of the modern industrial world. Schiffer shows how and why they became commercial products in the context of an evolving corporate capitalism in which conflicting judgments of practicality sometimes turned into power struggles.


Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites have higher specific strength and specific stiffness than conventional metallic materials. The CFRP structures, however, are easily damaged by impact loading. It is quite difficult to detect damage of the impact loading by visual inspection. In the present paper, self-sensing Time–Frequency–Domain Reflectometry (TFDR) is proposed as a damage detection method for large CFRP structures. The TFDR uses a set of high-frequency burst signals. From the time span between the input signal and the reflected signal, the location of the damage is identified. By using the several signals of different frequencies, other information can be measured. This is the advantage of the frequency domain Reflectometry. TFDR uses both methods to locate the damage and dimension of the damage. The effect of micro structure of CFRP is investigated for the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) analysis. Microstructures of CFRP of fiber direction and transverse direction are modeled and FDTD analyses are performed to check the limitation of the orthotropic homogeneous approximation of CFRP. As a result, CFRP may be considered as an orthotropic homogenous conductor when the electromagnetic wavelength is longer than 25 times of averaged CFRP microstructure. The electrical analyses showed that the TFDR was applicable to detect damage location and size of CFRP structures.


Arthur Kaledin's groundbreaking book on Alexis de Tocqueville offers an original combination of biography, character study, and wide-ranging analysis of Tocqueville's Democracy in America, bringing new light to that classic work. The author examines the relation between Tocqueville's complicated inner life, his self-imagination, and his moral thought, and the meaning of his enduring writings, leading to a new understanding of Tocqueville's view of democratic culture and democratic politics. With particular emphasis on Tocqueville's prescient anticipation of various threats to liberty, social unity, and truly democratic politics in America posed by aspects of democratic culture, Kaledin underscores the continuing pertinence of Tocqueville's thought in our own changing world of the twenty-first century.


This research work presents two methods of preserving and improving the quality of locust beans namely: salting and drying. 80g of non-salted sample of locust beans and the same quantity of the sample with 5g of salt and 10g salt were subjected to direct sunlight drying for 5 days. Proximate analysis showed that dried salted sample contains 67.65% of protein while dried non-salted sample has 66.82% of protein. The non-salted sample has a microbial load of 1.02×107cfu/g while the salted sample has 1.42×105cfu/g at the end of the fifth day of drying. The non-salted has the greatest drying rate while the 10g salted sample has the least drying rate.


In the information contagion context, agents choose sequentially between two competing products, basing their decisions upon information obtained from a sample of previous adopters. The market shares that each product obtains depend upon the ture difference in performance between the products, but also on the number of previous adopters each agent samples and the way in which agents use the sample information to guide their product choice. We highlight some surprising features of these dependencies. First, it is not socially optimal for agents to be Bayesian optimizers. In fact, we show that a simple rule-of-thumb always leads to an asymptotic market share of 100% for the better product, while Bayesian optimization can result in substantial market share for the inferior product. Second, we show that giving agents access to more information can lead to smaller market share for the superior product. Third, we show that the ability to predict limiting market shares for the two products, even given knowledge of how the products actually perform and how agents process information, depends upon features of agent psychology and their decision rules.


Control in multi-zone atomic beam splitters needs for the practical realization of nanoscale lithography by coherent scattering of the atoms. We propose an effective atomic beam splitter based on the interaction of three-level atom with the field of the standing optical waves having relative spatial shifts. It is shown, that using of several interaction zones of the standing waves having the different spatial shift it make possible to reach the splitting 2n/spl planck/k (where n is the number of zone) in each of lower three-level /spl Lambda/-atom state.


The Paris Agreement achieved in December 2015 established that the signatory countries should pursue to hold the increase in global average temperature to below 2 °C relative to the preindustrial period and to strive to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C below the preindustrial period. The potential changes in tropical cyclones over the basin making landfall over southern Africa under the key global temperature goals have not been thoroughly investigated. Using the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment-Africa regional climate models, we downscale six global climate models of the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 5 to high resolution. This serves towards studying changes in tropical cyclone tracks over the South West Indian Ocean under different extents of global warming (1.5 °C, 2 °C and 3 °C of warming with respect to pre-industrial conditions). It is projected that the number of tropical cyclones making landfalls over southern Africa under global warming will decrease, with 2 °C being a critical threshold, after which the rate of cyclone frequency with further temperature increases no longer has a diminishing effect. Fewer cyclones may bring benefits and reduce damage to the southern African region. Although a decrease in damages associated with flood events is desirable, general decreases in tropical cyclone and tropical lows may also be associated with decreased rainfall over the Limpopo River basin and southern, central and northern Mozambique (with negative impacts on dryland agriculture).


Recognition of road surface should always be the at the forefront of intelligent transportation systems (ITSs) for the enhancement of transportation safety and efficiency. When roads are covered by ice or snow, accident rate would increase due to the reduction of road surface roughness and also friction between tire and road. High-resolution recognition of natural and manmade surfaces has been proved to be achievable by employing radars operating at low-terahertz (low-THz) frequencies. In this work, we present theoretical investigations on surface recognition of an icy road by employing low-THz frequencies. A theoretical model combining integral equation method (IEM), radiative transfer equation (RTE) and Rayleigh scattering theory is developed. Good agreement between the calculation results and measured data confirms the applicability of low-THz frequencies for the evaluation of icy road surface in winter. The influence of carrier frequency, ambient temperature, impurities inside the ice layer and frozen soil surface conditions on the efficiency of this method is presented and discussed.


Heterotaxy syndrome is a rare congenital disorder that appears in 2 different types: right isomerism (asplenia syndrome) and left isomerism (polysplenia syndrome). It occurs in approximately 0.8% of patients with congenital heart disease. Characteristics of the disease are an incomplete or inappropriate lateralisation of atria, thoracic organs and abdominal viscera; an associated hydrops can be found. We report a case of a 34-year-old gravida 2, para 1 with sonographic signs of fetal heterotaxy syndrome at the second trimester scan. Ultrasound examination revealed left isomerism with a complex heart anomaly including a ventricular septal defect and atrioventricular block, a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a continuing vena azygos and an interrupted inferior vena cava. The fetal liver was located in a central position. The prognosis was even worse due to a generalized hydrops. Because of the diagnosis the woman decided not to continue with the pregnancy. Labor was induced at 24 weeks of gestation after fetocide by intraamniotic instillation of 0.8 mg Digoxin. Postpartal autopsy verified the prenatal diagnosis of ventricular septal defect, left isomerism of the lungs and atrias. It also showed a venoatrial disconnection on the right side with pulmonary venous drainage into the superior vena cava and into the right atrium. In the abdomen an absent retrohepatic vena cava, pancreas in a central position, non-rotation of the intestines and eleven 4 mm-sized spleens on the left side of the body confirmed the prenatal diagnosis of left isomerism. With high resolution ultrasound it is possible to diagnose left isomerism antenatally. Paidopathologic examination is recommended to confirm the diagnosis of this complex congenital anomaly in detail.


Apparel sector in particular has a great opportunity with alignment of Indian economy to globalize markets. The foray of private labels in apparel retail is very pronounced making market to have the second highest percentage of organized retail. Apparel retailers have popularized their private labels which have attracted shoppers and thus have increased the loyalty to a store rather than any particular garment brand. Private label brands have become an important contributor to retail differentiation and basis for building store patronage. The decision to patronize a particular store usually starts with a set of characteristics or attributes that consumers consider important. Consumers then use these attributes to make decisions regarding what store or stores can cater to their particular needs. Past retail and marketing studies have identified several consumer-oriented store attributes such as price, quality, variety, discounts and store reputation but the relation with store patronage and loyalty and store image has not been studied. This paper tries to focus on how private label brands are inducing store patronage among the customers.


A polygalacturonase (PG) was extracted and purified from decayed tissue of 'Anjou' pear fruit inoculated with Penicillium expansum. Ammonium sulfate precipitation, gel filtration, and cation exchange chromatography were used to purify the enzyme. Both chromatographic methods revealed a single peak corresponding to PG activity. PG enzyme activity from healthy and wounded pear tissue was undetectable, which supports the claim that the purified PG is of fungal origin. The purified enzyme had a molecular mass of 41 kDa and a pI of 7.8. Activity of the PG was not associated with a glycosylated protein. The enzyme was active over a broad pH range from 3 to 6, with optimal activity at 4.5 in sodium citrate and sodium acetate buffers. The optimal temperature for activity was 37 degrees C but the enzyme was also active at 0, 5, 10, 20, and 50 degrees C. Thin-layer chromatographic analysis of PG hydrolysis products showed that the enzyme exhibits endo- and exo-activity. The purified enzyme macerated tissue in vitro causing approximately 30% reduction in mass of pear plugs compared with approximately 17% reduction for apple. Additionally, it produced 1.5-fold more soluble polyuronides on pear than apple tissue. This work shows for the first time the production of a PG by P. expansum during postharvest decay of pear fruit is different from the previously described PG produced in decayed apple fruit by the same pathogen.


JEWS HAVE SIX SENSES Touch, taste, sight, smell, hearing ... memory. While Gentiles experience and process the world through the traditional senses, and use memory only as a secondorder means of interpreting events, for Jews memory is no less primary than the prick of a pin, or its silver glimmer, or the taste of the blood it pulls from the finger. The Jew is pricked by a pin and remembers other pins. It is only by tracing the pinprick back to other pinpricks – when his mother tried to fix his sleeve while his arm was still in it, when his grandfather's fingers fell asleep from stroking his great-grandfather's damp forehead, when Abraham tested the knife point to be sure Isaac would feel no pain – that the Jew is able to know why it hurts. When a Jew encounters a pin, he asks: What does it remember like? (Foer, ch. 18) Memory took the place of terror. In their efforts to remember what it was they were trying so hard to remember, they could finally think over the fear of war. (Foer, ch. 24)


We propose four efficient feature extractors based on convolutional neural networks for stereo matching cost computation. Two of them generate multiscale features with diverse receptive field sizes. These multiscale features are used to compute the corresponding multiscale matching costs. We then determine an optimal cost by combining the multiscale costs using edge information. On the other hand, the other two feature extractors produce uni-scale features by combining multiscale features directly through fully connected layers. Finally, after obtaining matching costs using one of the four extractors, we determine optimal disparities based on the cross-based cost aggregation and the semiglobal matching. Extensive experiments on the Middlebury stereo data sets demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm. Specifically, the proposed algorithm provides competitive matching performance with the state of the arts, while demanding lower computational complexity.


Anaerobic membrane systems have been frequently applied for the removal of pollutants from wastewater. Membrane fouling is a challenging issue that decreases membrane life-span and increases costs. Anaerobic fluidized membrane bioreactor (AFMBR) is an emerging technology and many studies have shown its outstanding treatment efficiency and fouling mitigation performance. In this paper, wastewater treatment and fouling mitigation performances of AFMBRs are reviewed in detail. Furthermore, different AFMBR configurations and fouling mitigation strategies are discussed. The information presented indicates that the use of fluidized solid materials is improving organic removal efficiency and fouling mitigation. Activated carbon and other solid fluidized particles have revealed promising results, but membrane damage and loss of energy in the form of dissolved methane are particular concerns for sustainable AFMBR operation. However, future studies should focus on the large-scale application of AFMBR with the feed of diverse wastewater and technologies for the recovery of dissolved methane. Finally, this study comprises highly useful data for the researchers who will conduct future AFMBR studies.


! The prevalence of patients with severe COPD and chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure (CHRF) receiving non-invasive home ventilation has greatly increased. With regard to disease severity, a multidimensional assessment seems indicated. Base excess (BE), in particular, reflects the long-term metabolic response to chronic hypercapnia and thus constitutes a promising, easily accessible, integrative marker of CHRF. Infact, BE as well as nutritional status and lung hyperinflation have been identified as independent predictors of long-term survival. In addition and in a review with the literature, a broad panel of indices including frequent comorbidities are helpful for assessment and monitoring purposes of patients with CHRF. Accordingly, in view of the patients ' individual risk profile, the decision about the initiation of NIV should probably not rely solely on symptoms and chronic persistent hypercapnia but include a spectrum of factors that specifically reflect disease severity. Owing to the physiologically positive effects of NIV and according to retrospective data, patients with COPD and recurrent hypercapnic respiratory decompensation and patients with prolonged mechanical ventilation and/or difficult weaning could also be considered for long-term non-invasive ventilation. This, however, has to be corroborated in future prospective trials.


Since the mid-2000s, everal indexing techniques have been proposed to efficiently answer top-k spatial-textual queries. However, all of these approaches focus on answering one query at a time. In contrast, how to design efficient algorithms that can exploit similarities between incoming queries to improve performance has received little attention. In this article, we study a series of efficient approaches to batch process multiple top-k spatial-textual queries concurrently. We carefully design a variety of indexing structures for the problem space by exploring the effect of prioritizing spatial and textual properties on system performance. Specifically, we present an efficient traversal method, SF-Sep, over an existing space-prioritized index structure. Then, we propose a new space-prioritized index structure, the MIR-Tree to support a filter-and-refine based technique, SF-Grp. To support the processing of text-intensive data, we propose an augmented, inverted indexing structure that can easily be added into existing text search engine architectures and a novel traversal method for batch processing of the queries. In all of these approaches, the goal is to improve the overall performance by sharing the I/O costs of similar queries. Finally, we demonstrate significant I/O savings in our algorithms over traditional approaches by extensive experiments on three real datasets and compare how properties of different datasets affect the performance. Many applications in streaming, micro-batching of continuous queries, and privacy-aware search can benefit from this line of work.


Nowadays the use of light weight materials increases rapidly. Owing to growing requirements regarding material properties and corresponding production costs new material designs and novel production concepts are needed. The low density of aluminium and its alloys is accompanied by lower Young's modules and lower strengths compared to steel. These disadvantages regarding to stiffness and strength can be overcome by using a composite material consisting of aluminium and embedded endless reinforcing elements. In this work a novel technology based on the thermal spraying process to manufacture endless reinforcing elements for extrusion molding of Al-profiles will be discussed. A specific handling system for arc-spraying Al-alloys onto steel wires has been developed. The influence of the coatings materials and coating parameters on the subsequent extrusion moulding process has been studied.


. Our main result marks progress on an old conjecture of Vitushkin. We show that a compact set in the plane with plenty of big projections (PBP) has positive analytic capacity, along with a quantitative lower bound. A higher dimensional counterpart is also proved for capacities related to the Riesz kernel, including the Lipschitz harmonic capacity. The proof uses a construction of a doubling Frostman measure on a lower content regular set, which may be of independent interest. Our second main result is the Analyst's Traveling Salesman Theorem for sets with plenty of big projections. As a corollary, we obtain a lower bound for the Hausdorff dimension of uniformly wiggly sets with PBP. The second corollary is an estimate for the capacities of subsets of sets with PBP, in the spirit of the quantitative solution to Denjoy's conjecture. 42B20 (secondary).


Gender refers to the widely shared set of expectations and norms linked to how women and men, and girls and boys, should behave. Unlike 'sex' which refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women, gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that are assigned to men and women in any given society. These expectations are are not fixed but are continually being constructed and reinforced through social relationships and economic and political power dynamics.


One in three people in the world is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis , and 10% of infected individuals will develop the disease at any time in their lifetime. Today, despite the advances in diagnosis and treatment, tuberculosis (TB) remains as one of the biggest challenges in global public health, and low and middle-income countries are the most affected. The risk for developing the disease depends on endogenous, exogenous, and environmental factors. Among the most relevant conditions that could precipitate TB development are those that affect the host-immune response. HIV infection increase about 20 times the risk of TB, and other more common conditions, such as diabetes mel - litus, malnutrition, and smoking, also contribute in a big way to the TB pandemic. Global TB control programs in order to achieve the disease control objectives must integrate strategies that have a direct impact on risk factors, not only at an individual level but also on a public health policy level. Here, we review some of the most important risk factors for the development of TB, as one of the most relevant ways for TB control.


Objective: It was aimed to evaluate the relation between the presence of pneumonia and clinical, demographic and biochemical data of patients with a diagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) during exacerbation in case-control groups. Methods: The present study, which was designed as a prospective study, included COPD cases with or without pneumonia diagnosis, hospitalized between 2007 and 2008 in a tertiary chest diseases clinic for acute exacerbation. Patients that were diagnosed with pneumonia based on clinical and radiological findings at the time of hospitalization were assigned to the pneumonic exacerbation (PE) group and the cases without significant infiltration were assigned to the non-pneumonic exacerbation (n-PE) group. All patients were investigated in terms of demographic and biochemical data, as well as pulmonary function tests and time to exacerbation. Data were compared using chi-square test for categorical variables and student t-test for parametric variables, and a p <0.05 was considered significant. Relation between variables was analysed by Pearson correlation test. Results: The study included 30 patients (23 males and 7 females; mean age±SD:69±7 years) with signs of exacerbation without pneumonia and 30 COPD patients (23 males and 7 females; mean age±SD:69±9 years) with a diagnosis of pneumonia. No difference was determined between the groups in terms of age, gender, presence of diabetes, number of annual exacerbations, and previous antibiotic use. The amount of cigarette smoking (59±36 pack.year versus 38±37 pack.year; p<0.05) was higher and disease duration (COPD) (15±11 years versus 7.7±8 years; p<0.05) was longer in the exacerbation group without pneumonia. Among laboratory findings, whilst there was no difference between the groups in terms of C-reactive protein (CRP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and leukocyte counts, it was observed that forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV 1 ) (33.5±10% versus 55±19%; p<0.05 ) was lower in the exacerbation group without pneumonia. Conclusion: It is concluded that COPD patients who were more serious cigarette addicts, had a lower forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV 1 ) and a longer disease duration are more prone to exacerbations without pneumonia.


Characteristic-mode analysis (CMA) enables a systematic approach to antenna design and antenna placement. The approach is based on insight in the fundamental resonance characteristics of antenna geometries and of the structures on which they are mounted. This insight aids in choosing the locations of excitations on an antenna and of the antennas on a platform. Furthermore, knowledge of the coupling between excitations and modes enables a design engineer to synthesize the desired antenna pattern by exciting a linear combination of modal patterns. This is a deterministic approach, which is based on insight in physics. It contrasts with an approach in which an optimization routine is used to explore a large many-dimensional design space with few constraints. This paper offers a refresher on the theory of characteristic modes and presents practical examples that all use CMA in the design process and in the interpretation of results.


In this study, we integrate a schedule design and fleet assignment model and a demand model into an optimization problem to maximize the revenue of an airline. The model considers spill and recapture effects to cope with capacity restrictions. For the demand modeling, fares, fare classes, departure times and number of stops are modeled by linear and nonlinear specifications. A heuristic method is proposed to deal with the high complexity of the resulting mixed integer nonlinear problem.


In order to confirm the cause of the outbreak of aseptic meningitis in Zhejiang Province in 2002-2004, trace the pathogen and analyze the molecular characteristics, 271 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and faeces specimens were collected from suspected patients. The virus strains from the specimens were isolated with RD and Hep-2 cell lines. The VP1 and VP4/VP2 genes of the isolated viruses were sequenced, and their phylogenetic and homology trees were also constructed. Of the total 271 samples, 78 Echovirus type 30 (E30) strains were isolated. All of the complete VP1 genes in 31 sequenced virus isolates of E30 were composed of 876 nt without any insertion or deletion, encoding 292 amino acids (aa). The identity of nucleotide and amino acid in VP1 gene were 84.7%-86.3% and 92.1%-94.2% between the 31 Zhejiang strains and the prototype strain Bastianni of E30, and 87.1%-99.4% and 96.2%-100% among the 31 Zhejiang strains, respectively. The Zhejiang strains of E30 in the phylogenetic tree of the VP1 gene were attributed into two branches of the G and H genotype, respectively. In G genotype, the Shangdong and Jiangsu E30 strains in 2003 among domestic strains and Ukraine E30 strain in 1999 among overseas strains had maximum similarity with the Zhejiang strains, while H genotype had maximum similarity with the Korea E30 strains in 2008. The phylogenetic tree of the VP4/VP2 genes was similar to that of VP1 gene. The results indicated that the outbreak of aseptic meningitis in Zhejiang Provinec in 2002-2004 was caused by the G and H genotypes of E30 strains existing simultaneously. The H genotype was a new variant strain, which was first isolated in Zhejiang Province in 2002.


The Pittsburgh Mining Research Division of the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted underground evaluations in an attempt to quantify respirable rock dust generation when using untreated rock dust and rock dust treated with an anticaking additive. Using personal dust monitors, these evaluations measured respirable rock dust levels arising from a flinger-type application of rock dust on rib and roof surfaces. Rock dust with a majority of the respirable component removed was also applied in NIOSH's Bruceton Experimental Mine using a bantam duster. The respirable dust measurements obtained downwind from both of these tests are presented and discussed. This testing did not measure miners' exposure to respirable coal mine dust under acceptable mining practices, but indicates the need for effective continuous administrative controls to be exercised when rock dusting to minimize the measured amount of rock dust in the sampling device.


Objectives The closure integrity and process validation of closed system transfer devices (CSTDs) should be confirmed before implementation in clinical settings. We aimed to investigate the closure integrity and validate the aseptic procedure of two types of CSTDs by using a combination of the dye ingress test and a media fill test. Methods The dye ingress test with methylene blue was used for both CSTDs with 10 samples of drug vials of three brands. A media fill test was performed with both CSTDs (300 samples per CSTD, 150 carried out in a safety cabinet and 150 under non-classified environmental conditions). Results In all samples of both CSTDs, methylene blue was absent after visual inspection and spectrophotometric analysis. The nutrient media of one sample with CSTD A and none of the CSTD B samples were contaminated when reconstituted in a GMP grade A environment. Under non-classified environmental conditions, one sample of CSTD A and two samples of CSTD B were contaminated. Conclusions Both CSTDs connected to the drug vials met the terms of closure integrity by using the dye ingress test. The aseptic procedure of CSTD B was validated with the media fill test when reconstituted in a GMP grade A environment, but failed for CSTD A. Both CSTDs failed the media fill test when reconstituted under non-classified environmental conditions.


Environmental stress activates the MAP kinase pathway to regulate transcription and cell division. In this pathway, a MAP kinase kinase kinases (MAPKKK) activates the MAP kinase kinase (MAPKK) which in turn phosphorylates the MAP kinase (MAPK) simultaneously at a serine or threonine residue and a tyrosine residue in close vicinity. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the dual specific MAPKK Wis1 phosphorylates the MAPK Sty1/Spc1 at threonine 171 and tyrosine 173. Active Sty1 phosphorylates and activates the transcription factor Atf1. Sty1 is closely related to Hog1 in the budding yeast S.cerevisiae and p38 in human cells.
This thesis reveals a novel regulation of Sty1 by the alternative translation product of the DNA damage checkpoint protein Rad9. Alternative translation from the internal AUG codon at position 50 produces an N-terminally truncated protein variant (Rad9-M50), expression of which is restricted to dividing cells. The basal level of this variant is low and increases in the response to heat stress and DNA alkylation by the DNA damaging drug methyl-methanesulfonate (MMS).
The key finding reported here is the ability of Rad9 variant to shield Sty1 from dual specific kinases other than Wis1. Loss of Wis1 eliminates the phosphorylation of Sty1 at T171 and Y173. However, removal of the Rad9 variant (rad9-M50A) restores Sty1 phosphorylation in the absence of Wis1 at high temperature and in the presence of oxidative stress. This aberrant stimulation enables Sty1 to phosphorylate Atf1. A model is presented in which Rad9 variant shields Sty1 from an alternative dual-specific kinase, possibly Wee1, Hhp1 (CK1) or Mps1/TTK.
The thesis also reports the requirement of the DEAD-box RNA helicase Ded1 for the expression of Rad9 variant and presents genetic evidence linking Rad9 variant with the phosphatase Ptc1 in the response to heat stress and MMS induced DNA damage.


Conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) is a major cause of concern in switch-mode power supplies (SMPS) which commonly use standard pulsewidth modulation (PWM). In this paper, sigma-delta (/spl Sigma//spl Delta/) modulation is proposed as an alternative switching technique to reduce conducted EMI from SMPS. The result of using /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulation is a spread in the spectrum of the conducted emissions so that large concentrations of power at discrete frequencies are avoided. Experimental time-domain waveforms and spectra of the switching function of first-order and second-order /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulators are presented to prove the viability of the scheme for EMI mitigation. These modulators are then applied to a DC-DC power converter in an off-the-shelf computer power supply and experimental results show a reduction of roughly 5-10 dB/spl mu/V in EMI emissions over standard PWM modulators.


Distributed mesh sensor networks provide cost-effective communications for deployment in various smart grid domains, such as home area networks (HAN), neighborhood area networks (NAN), and substation/plant-generation local area networks. This paper introduces a dynamically updating key distribution strategy to enhance mesh network security against cyber attack. The scheme has been applied to two security protocols known as simultaneous authentication of equals (SAE) and efficient mesh security association (EMSA). Since both protocols utilize 4-way handshaking, we propose a Merkle-tree based handshaking scheme, which is capable of improving the resiliency of the network in a situation where an intruder carries a denial of service attack. Finally, by developing a denial of service attack model, we can then evaluate the security of the proposed schemes against cyber attack, as well as network performance in terms of delay and overhead.


The triarchic model of psychopathy (Patrick, Fowles, & Krueger, 2009) comprises 3 phenotypic domains: Meanness, Disinhibition, and Boldness. Ongoing controversy surrounds the relevance of Boldness in the conceptualization and assessment of psychopathy. In the current study, undergraduate students (N = 439) completed the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (Patrick, 2010) to examine the association between Boldness and a host of theoretically relevant external criteria. Boldness was generally unrelated to either prosocial or harmful criteria. Boldness rarely provided incremental value above or interacted with Meanness and Disinhibition with respect to external criteria. Curvilinear effects of Boldness rarely emerged. The findings suggest that Boldness might not be a central construct in the definition of psychopathic personality disorder. Implications for the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) psychopathic specifier are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record


The influence of indometacine (7 x 10(-8)M) on the tonic contractile activity of the isolated rat portal vein (PV) under the action of adrenaline (1 x 10(-5)M) and noradrenaline (5 x 10(-6)M) was studied. Indometacine decreased the amplitude of noradrenaline-induced tonic constriction of PV with intact endothelium and produced no effect on constriction of vessels with denuded endothelial layer. The results suggest that these reactions are mediated by endothelial prostanoids. Inhibition of adrenaline-induced constriction of PV preparations with intact and denuded endothelium suggests that the contractile reactions are mediated by prostanoides derived from both endothelial and smooth muscle cells.


We uncover a method of calculation that proceeds at every step without fixing the gauge or specifying details of the regularisation scheme. Results are obtained by iterated use of integration by parts and gauge invariance identities. Calculations can be performed almost entirely diagrammatically. The method is formulated within the framework of an exact renormalisation group for QED. We demonstrate the technique with a calculation of the one-loop beta function, achieving a manifestly universal result, and without gauge fixing.


A transient data structure is a package of an ephemeral data structure, a persistent data structure, and fast conversions between them. We describe the specification and proof of a transient stack and its iterators. This data structure is a scaled-down version of the general-purpose transient sequence data structure implemented in the OCaml library Sek. Internally, it relies on fixed-capacity arrays, or chunks, which can be shared between several ephemeral and persistent stacks. Dynamic tests are used to determine whether a chunk can be updated in place or must be copied: a chunk can be updated if it is uniquely owned or if the update is monotonic. Using CFML, which implements Separation Logic with Time Credits inside Coq, we verify the functional correctness and the amortized time complexity of this data structure. Our verification effort covers iterators, which involve direct pointers to internal chunks. The specification of iterators describes what the operations on iterators do, how much they cost, and under what circumstances an iterator is invalidated.


A method for measurement of radioactive hemin formation has been applied to the in vitro system for culture of human erythroblasts previously described. The results of these measurements have been shown to correlate with a morphologic parameter of maturation, the increase of orthochromic cells, in the same in vitro cell culture system.

The significance of these findings as well as the differences in the times of formation of heme and the increase of orthochromic cells has been discussed.

It is proposed that both the formation of radioactive hemin and the increase of orthochromic cells may be useful in the measurement of different aspects of the effects of various plasmas on the maturation of normal and abnormal human erythroblasts.


The widespread abuse of Nyaope, a novel psychoactive substance (NPS) commonly used in South Africa, has become a major health and socio-economic challenge. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Nyaope use affects male sexual function. A cross sectional quantitative design was used to collect data from fifty adult men who use Nyaope to explore the impact of Nyaope on the sexual function of male users. The International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) scale was used to assess sexual function and blood tests were conducted to assess gonadal function and hormonal levels. The duration of use of Nyaope ranged from 4 to 26 years, with a mean of 11.86. Ninety-two percent (n=46) of the participants reported some degree of erectile dysfunction. The mean score on the IIEF-5 scale was 13.52, which indicates mild to moderate erectile dysfunction. The use of Nyaope has a negative clinical and biochemical effect on male sexual function.