This paper reports the relationship between the heat treatments of the CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB/Ta-based magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) and the chemical bonding state using angle-resolved hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The redox reaction for B 1s during postannealing was verified for the MTJ without a capping layer by oxidizing the metallic B 1s in CoFeB and reducing the oxidized Fe 2p and Co 2p near the surface. For the MTJ with a capping layer, regardless of the heat treatments, MgO was found to be in a peroxidized state, and the diffusion of O 1s and B 1s exerted by the heat treatments is considered to be controlled by the degree of crystallization of MgO. The composition at the MgO/CoFeB interface changes on account of the heat treatments since the ratio of CoFeB and TaB at the bottom changes as a result of boron diffusion through the grain boundaries in MgO. By postannealing at 400 °C, the peak binding energy of Mg 1s at the surface was found to shift slightly to lower energy toward the stoichiometric MgO. However, the release of the excess oxygen in MgO is suppressed by the crystallization. Since the crystallization of MgO is enhanced by the in situ IR heating, the internal oxygen is more constrained in MgO. An improvement of the tunneling magnetoresistance deterioration observed with an ultrathin MgO is considered to be achieved under the peroxidized state controlled by the crystallinity of MgO.This paper reports the relationship between the heat treatments of the CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB/Ta-based magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) and the chemical bonding state using angle-resolved hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The redox reaction for B 1s during postannealing was verified for the MTJ without a capping layer by oxidizing the metallic B 1s in CoFeB and reducing the oxidized Fe 2p and Co 2p near the surface. For the MTJ with a capping layer, regardless of the heat treatments, MgO was found to be in a peroxidized state, and the diffusion of O 1s and B 1s exerted by the heat treatments is considered to be controlled by the degree of crystallization of MgO. The composition at the MgO/CoFeB interface changes on account of the heat treatments since the ratio of CoFeB and TaB at the bottom changes as a result of boron diffusion through the grain boundaries in MgO. By postannealing at 400 °C, the peak binding energy of Mg 1s at the surface was found to shift slightly to lower energy toward the stoichiometric...


Microstructures of Ti-29Nb-13Ta-4.6Zr (TNTZ) aged at temperatures between 573 and 723 K after solution treatment at 1063 K have super fine omega phase, or both super fine alpha and omega phases, respectively in beta phase with an average grain diameter of 20 µm. Plain fatigue strength of TNTZ aged after solution treatment is much greater than that of as-solutionized TNTZ in both low cycle fatigue and high cycle fatigue life regions. This is due to the improvement of the balance of strength and ductility by the precipitation of alpha phase. Fretting fatigue strength of TNTZ conducted with various heat treatments decreases dramatically as compared with their plain fatigue strength in both low cycle fatigue and high cycle fatigue life regions. In this case, the decreasing ratio of fretting fatigue life increases with increasing the small crack propagation area where both the tangential force and frictional force at the contact plane of pad exist. In fretting fatigue in air, the ratio of fretting damage (Pf/Ff), where Pf and Ff stand for plain fatigue limit and fretting fatigue limit, respectively, increases with increasing elastic modulus. In fretting fatigue in Ringer's solution, the passive film on specimen surface is broken by fretting action in TNTZ, which have excellent corrosion resistance, and, as a result, corrosion pits that lead to decreasing fretting fatigue strength especially in high cycle fatigue life region, are formed on its surface.


The trajectories and deposition efficiency of aerosol particles on a single rectangular fiber are studied in this paper. It is assumed that the particles are electrically charged and an external electric field is applied. A conductive, infinitely long fiber can be rotated by some angle with respect to the air flow. A single aerosol particle moves under the influence of the inertial, air drag, and electrical forces. The air-flow distribution is determined by solving the Navier-Stokes equation assuming laminar flow. The vorticity-stream function approximation is used and solved by means of the finite-element method. Results of numerical simulation for the particle trajectories and deposition efficiency are shown for different Reynolds, Stokes, and Coulomb numbers.


The radiation patterns of a 404-MHz phased-array-radar antenna were measured relative to a reference dipole antenna, using 406-MHz repeaters on polar-orbiting satellites and associated ground-station equipment. More than 6000 measurements were collected from the three radar-antenna beams over a five-month period in 1995. The patterns were compared with those derived from measurements of the complex current distributions on the coaxial collinear radiating elements of the antenna. In addition to verifying the antenna specifications for gain, beamwidth, pointing direction, and sidelobe levels, the far-field satellite repeater measurements validated the convenient and inexpensive current measurement and model technique, developed for antenna testing and maintenance.


Layered perovskites have attracted considerable attention in optoelectronic applications due to their excellent electronic properties and stability. In this work, the quasi-2D aurivillius halide perovskites are investigated using density functional theory. The single-layer aurivillius perovskite Ba2PbI6 is predicted to have a direct bandgap of 1.89 eV, which is close to that of the Ruddlesden–Popper perovskite Cs2PbI4. The electronic structures near the Fermi level are mainly governed by the [PbX6] octahedra, which leads to similar electronic properties to that of Cs2PbI4. Decomposition energies reveal that these aurivillius perovskites exhibit thermal instability. Increasing the number of [PbX6] octahedra layer can enhance the stability and reduce the bandgap. Bi- and In-based aurivillius perovskites are also calculated to evaluate the Pb-free alternatives. These calculations can serve as a theoretical support in exploring novel layered perovskites.


In several biomes, including croplands, wooded savannas, and tropical forests, many small fires occur each year that are well below the detection limit of the current generation of global burned area products derived from moderate resolution surface reflectance imagery. Although these fires often generate thermal anomalies that can be detected by satellites, their contributions to burned area and carbon fluxes have not been systematically quantified across different regions and continents. Here we developed a preliminary method for combining 1-km thermal anomalies (active fires) and 500 m burned area observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to estimate the influence of these fires. In our approach, we calculated the number of active fires inside and outside of 500 m burn scars derived from reflectance data. We estimated small fire burned area by computing the difference normalized burn ratio (dNBR) for these two sets of active fires and then combining these observations with other information. In a final step, we used the Global Fire Emissions Database version 3 (GFED3) biogeochemical model to estimate the impact of these fires on biomass burning emissions. We found that the spatial distribution of active fires and 500 m burned areas were in close agreement in ecosystems that experience large fires, including savannas across southern Africa and Australia and boreal forests in North America and Eurasia. In other areas, however, we observed many active fires outside of burned area perimeters. Fire radiative power was lower for this class of active fires. Small fires substantially increased burned area in several continental-scale regions, including Equatorial Asia (157%), Central America (143%), and Southeast Asia (90%) during 2001–2010. Globally, accounting for small fires increased total burned area by approximately by 35%, from 345 Mha/yr to 464 Mha/yr. A formal quantification of uncertainties was not possible, but sensitivity analyses of key model parameters caused estimates of global burned area increases from small fires to vary between 24% and 54%. Biomass burning carbon emissions increased by 35% at a global scale when small fires were included in GFED3, from 1.9 Pg C/yr to 2.5 Pg C/yr. The contribution of tropical forest fires to year-to-year variability in carbon fluxes increased because small fires amplified emissions from Central America, South America and Southeast Asia—regions where drought stress and burned area varied considerably from year to year in response to El Nino-Southern Oscillation and other climate modes.


Based on a comprehensive analysis of the influencing factors and special features of cement concrete pavement overlaying technology, a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model is constructed for the comparison and selection of overlaying schemes. At first, the numerical weight for each criterion of the hierarchy is derived and tested. Then the feature matrices of all the schemes are constructed based on experts' evaluation. The optimal scheme is chosen according to the numerical priorities of each scheme yielded by fuzzy calculation.


This article aims to explore the nature of the recent transition of labour relations and the labour movement in China, by looking particularly at foreign-invested private enterprises. We will first of all look into the early formation of capitalist labour relations in China and identify the nature of the fast growth of China's export sector based on the unity between liberalised
global capital and unregulated labour practices. Following closely the articulation and reproduction of shop floor industrial relations in enterprises producing garments, footwear, and toys, the second part of our article will try to grasp the nature of the transition of labour relations. The main finding of our studies on the labour management of East Asian original
equipment manufacturing (OEM) capital in Guangdong province will show that institutionalised labour relations between capital and collective labour are absent in these sectors. Worse still, traditional forms of protection and representation by the state and trade union attached to the state apparatus do not exist for the workers in this growing private sector. Lacking both protection by the state and institutional arrangements through which
workers can protect themselves, the largely unorganised young and predominantly female migrant workers in foreign-invested private enterprises are vulnerable to management's desire to take maximum advantage of cheap labour. The third part of this article will review the conditions on the basis of which various attempts to improve labour conditions in these sectors can develop further. In particular, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement will be subject to our critical investigation. Initiated by transnational corporations (TNC) in reaction to the consumer campaigns in the west in the 1990s, this movement claims that 'progress of change' on shop floor labour conditions has been made. However, according to our experiences from engagement with increasingly popularised CSR initiatives in China, these 'changes' are highly fragile if not false, because the 'ethical' practices driven by the western buyers did not lead to the development of collective labour relations between capital and organised labour at the supplier level. The possibility of new labour activism on the basis of the space opened by the CSR initiative is also subject to the contesting social relations between the state, official trade unions, and the 'new working class' in China. Our conclusion will suggest that an effective challenge to the transition at the expense of millions of Chinese workers will be made possible only when different attempts actually contribute to empowering workers and negotiating for space for worker-organising at the workplace.


In REBa2Cu3Oy (RE123, RE=rare earth element) coated conductors, the coexistence of a- and b-axes domains related to a twin structure is one of the origins of the complicated critical current density property and its strain dependence. Hence, control of the twin structure is a very important issue. In the case of Y123 single crystals, detwinning is widely carried out by oxygen annealing under uniaxial stress along the a/b axis. In this study, commercial RE123 superconducting tapes were oxygen-annealed under external strains, similar to the detwinning process of Y123 single crystals. We found that the volume fraction ratio of the a- and b-axis domains changes with the applied external strains during annealing, indicating a change of twin structure. In addition, the residual strains, which are strains induced from the thermal contraction difference between RE123 and the substrate, increase with compression annealing and decrease with tension annealing for RE123 tapes with [100]/[010] orientation along the tape axis. However, those phenomena by strain annealing are not obtained for the [110] oriented RE123 tapes. The strain annealing method that we propose here is very useful to control the internal residual strain and twin structures in an RE123 tape with a [100]/[010] orientation along the tape axis.


We study dc-transport and magnetization dynamics in a junction of arbitrary transparency consisting of two spin-singlet superconducting leads connected via a single classical spin precessing at the frequency Ω. The presence of the spin in the junction provides different transmission amplitudes for spin-up and spin-down quasiparticles as well as a time-dependent spin-flip transmission term. For a phase-biased junction, we show that a steady-state superconducting charge current flows through the junction and that an out-of-equilibrium circularly polarized spin current, of frequency Ω, is emitted in the leads. Detailed understanding of the charge and spin currents is obtained in the entire parameter range. In the adiabatic regime, ℏΩ⪡2Δ, where Δ is the superconducting gap, and for high transparencies of the junction, a strong suppression of the current takes place around φ≈0 due to an abrupt change in the occupation of the Andreev bound states. At higher values of the phase and/or precession frequency, extended (quasiparticlelike) states compete with the bound states in order to carry the current. Well below the superconducting transition, these results are shown to be weakly affected by the backaction of the spin current on the dynamics of the precessing spin. Indeed, we show that the Gilbert damping due to the quasiparticle spin current is strongly suppressed at low temperatures, which goes along with a shift of the precession frequency due to the condensate. The results obtained may be of interest for ongoing experiments in the field of molecular spintronics.


In order to get the coarse aggregate particle gradation of cement treated base course core sample dilled form the pavement, an image acquisition system is designed. The system mainly contains an Aviiva ® M2 CL line scan camera, a core sample rotation platform and a LED light source. The software are designed and implemented by using the Matrox Mil controls in the Visual Studio VB.NET. Test results show that when the camera exposure time is set to 800μs, good quality image of core sample can be obtained. In the study, the original core sample images of cement treated aggregate were improved by rescaling of each pixel, then were binarized by using adaptive threshold method. After getting the binary image, morphological operations were carried out to deal with the conglutinations of the particles. Next, characteristics of each particle, such as area, perimeter, fitting ellipse and minFeret were extracted to calculate the area passing rate of aggregate with different size. Results shows that, in this way, the gradation of coarse aggregate (>2.36mm) can be got and the method helps to get the coarse aggregate particle distribution of cement treated aggregate core sample quickly.


Abstract The aim of the present study was to compare three different collecting methods, namely, baited traps, active capture with hand net, and Malaise traps, to establish which method is more appropriate for sampling different Calyptratae guilds inhabiting temperate forests of South America. Specifically, it was analyzed which technique or combination of techniques is more adequate for obtaining sarcosaprophagous Calyptratae, which are of great interest from a veterinary and medical viewpoint. Taxa were classified into guilds according to their biology. Active capture was the technique that registered the highest diversity of guilds. When analyzing sarcosaprophagous species, it was observed that their percentage of captures, diversity, and abundance showed clear differences in guild composition between the trapping techniques studied. From these analyses it can be concluded that baited traps and active trapping are complementary methods for capturing sarcosaprophagous Calyptratae species. From the perspective of the biodiversity of this group, the combination of both methodologies allows obtaining a more complete inventory of sarcosaprophagous species of austral temperate forests of South America.


For a variety of conceptual, historical, and political reasons, contemporary international law distinguishes between 'natural' land forms, cultural monuments, movable cultural property, the performing arts, and scientific knowledge. Indigenous peoples do not make these distinctions. Rather, they tend to regard landscapes as inherently cultural products in which artworks, literature, performances, and scientific-knowledge systems are inextricably embedded. Scientific knowledge must periodically be rehearsed within the landscape in recitations and performances that remember the historical process by which people and their nonhuman kinfolk constructed the landscape. Detaching specific cultural or scientific 'objects' from the landscape and commodifying them, as is contemplated by most current proposals for protecting indigenous peoples' rights, will undermine the indigenous institutions and procedures necessary for perpetuating the quality and validity of local knowledge.


Spigelian hernia (SH) is a rare ventral interstitial hernia occurring through a defect in the transversus abdominis aponeurosis (Spigelian fascia). Spigelian fascia is found between the lateral border of the rectus abdominis muscle and the semilunar line, which extends from the costal cartilage to the pubic tubercle. In other words, Spigelian line is where the transversus abdominis muscle ends in an aponeurosis characterized by a congenital or acquired defect in the Spigelian aponeurosis. Pediatric cases of SH are either congenital or acquired due to trauma, previous surgery or increased intra-abdominal pressure. SH in combination with ipsilateral cryptorchidism may constitute a new syndrome, as such cases are extremely rare in the literature is new syndrome is characterized by the following congenital, ipsilateral disturbances: SH, absence of inguinal canal and gubernaculum and the homolateral testis found within the Spigelian hernia sac (a hernia sac containing undescended testis). The aim of this study is to emphasize some typical findings of this specific entity, and, hence, the necessity for a thorough investigation of the origin of the SH.


Dynamic optimization systems store optimized or translated code in a software-managed code cache in order to maximize reuse of transformed code. Code caches store superblocks that are not fixed in size, contain links to other superblocks, and carry a high replacement overhead. These additional constraints reduce the effectiveness of conventional hardware-based cache management policies. In this paper, we explore code cache management policies that evict large blocks of code from the code cache, thus avoiding the bookkeeping overhead of managing single cache blocks. Through a combined simulation and analytical study of cache management overheads, we show that employing a medium-grained FIFO eviction policy results in an effective balance of cache management complexity and cache miss rates. Under high cache pressure the choice of medium granularity translates into a significant reduction in overall execution time versus both coarse and fine granularities.


This article explores morality and contradictions in Swedish political discussions between 1899 and 1939 concerning lotteries in general and the state lottery in particular. The seemingly narrow debates on lotteries reflected general dilemmas of the emerging modern consumer and welfare society. In order to balance economic value against the perceived lack of moral and social values, politicians were forced to define and redefine the concept of lottery. They also tried to handle the contradictions it presented. This article first argues that a paradoxical change occurred in the understanding of lottery in relation to modernity. Politicians redefined lottery as a modern consumer practice during this period. Lottery is then investigated as a means of envisaging the future. In the practice of playing the lottery, the community's planning for the future and the individual's dreams about his or her own future had come into conflict. A proposed solution to this was to let the lottery finance the general pension insurance. The contradictions between backwardness and progress, individualism and collectivism or hedonistic dreaming and rational calculations were not solved, but this article suggests that these notions may not have been as incompatible in practice as in theory.


Mytilus edulis suffered reductions in trans-membrane sodium concentration gradient during dilute salinity acclimation. Nevertheless the nerves of this osmoconformer had a conventional basis for their excitability, irrespective of the salinity to which they were adapted, and could produce full-sized spikes after acclimation to 25% media.

2. The connectives showed rapid and predictable responses to sodium and to potassium ions, and the time-courses of these effects were unrelated to the presence or absence of the neural sheath at either of the acclimation salinities tested. Neural adaptation was therefore not a consequence of restricted access after acclimation to dilute media.

3. Classic pharmacological agents (tetrodotoxin, tetra-ethyl ammonium ions, 2,4-dinitrophenol and ouabain) elicited the expected responses, but invariably required rather high concentrations and long exposures for full effect.

4. Acute exposures of the connectives to hyposmotic or isosmotic dilutions resulted in changes in polarization accompanying the decline of the action potential. These were attributed to losses of potassium and of chloride from the axons, with a net loss of anion (and hence depolarization) during naturally occurring hyposmotic stress.

5. Mytilus connectives exhibited a critical salinity, with hyposmotic exposure below this level producing irreversible impairment of function. This salinity occurred at 20% s.w. for 100%-adapted tissues, and at 3.25% s.w. (i.e. 15% initial concentration) for 25%-adapted nerves. Gross isosmotic dilutions produced no permanent decrements in axonal function.

6. The observed patterns of response to chronic and acute osmotic stress in Mytilus are contrasted with those reported in annelid and crustacean conformers, and possible adaptations which might underlie these responses are discussed.


Synopsis The origin of granitic rocks has been the subject of intense debate. It is broadly accepted that granites are generated in the continental crust. However, the composition of the source rocks and the processes controlling melting reactions remain controversial. Fluid-absent melting is a plausible mechanism for granite generation but is not supported by experimental data. Fluid-present melting is favoured by experiments but the presence of a free water phase is very unlikely in the deep crust. Isotopic ratios are also paradoxical because Nd isotopes indicate a crustal (recycled) source but the low 87Sr/86Sr ratios displayed by many granite batholiths require a substantial mantle contribution. Furthermore, mantle–crust hybridization mechanisms are difficult to apply in terms of magma mixing and assimilation according to models of the physical/rheological behaviour of silicic magmas. Here I present a new, source-based, genetic approach for granitic rocks in which all these paradoxes are satisfactorily explained. The model is supported by new constraints from laboratory experiments and observations of field relationships in the Lewisian complex of northern Scotland. The process starts with the invasion of crustal regions by water and K-rich monzodiorite (andesite) magmas derived from hybridized regions of the subduction-modified mantle wedge. These intermediate magmas supply the water and potassium necessary for crustal melting and granite batholith generation.


Using a longitudinal design, we investigated the relation of childhood personality type to volunteering during adolescence. We hypothesized that participants with more adaptive personality functioning during childhood would be more likely to volunteer during adolescence and that membership in social organizations would mediate the relation of personality to volunteering during adolescence. Participants from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) with complete data measures for the four time periods of study were categorized into one of three personality types during early childhood. Children assigned to the resilient personality type were more likely than children characterized by the overcontrolled and undercontrolled personality types to volunteer 8 and 10 years later in adolescence. Analyses demonstrated that the association of childhood personality to adolescent volunteering is not mediated by late-childhood membership in social institutions that may facilitate entry into volunteering. The findings are interpreted in terms of their implications for understanding personality and prosocial behavior.


AIMS
In cancer therapy, research has focused on the development of nanocarriers that can aid diagnosis, deliver therapeutic agents and monitor treatment progress. This study introduces high-resolution synchrotron x-ray fluorescence microscopy (SR-XFM) to investigate intracellular localization of novel lanthanide-coated nanoparticles in human cells and their genotoxicity screening after internalization.

MATERIALS & METHODS
Noble metal nanoparticles coated with cerium and luminescent europium complexes have been developed as platforms for bioimaging and potential biodelivery applications. The intracellular distribution after internalization has been analyzed by ultrasensitive SR-XFM and genotoxicity evaluated using γ-H2AX DNA damage foci phosphorylation assay.

RESULTS
We demonstrate the unprecedented capability of SR-XFM for extremely sensitive nanoimaging and intracellular elemental distribution analysis of noble metal nanoparticles in cells. Furthermore, we show that, depending on the charge of the coating complex and the presence of the DNA cargo, the internalization of functionalized nanoparticles by human fibroblasts can cause elevated levels of DNA damage detected by histone H2AX phosphorylation.

CONCLUSION
The variable genotoxic impact of newly designed nanovectors emphasizes the need for careful and comprehensive testing of biological responses of all new nanoconstructs intended for future clinical applications. This can be greatly facilitated by SR-XFM nanoimaging of nanoparticles in cells at very low concentrations.


An analysis of the errors present in the Lohmann hologram of a random phase image is undertaken. A Lohmann hologram in which the magnitude information and the phase information are modulated across the same direction is derived. This structure is used for detailed 1-D computer simulations of image reconstruction for Lohmann-type holograms. Qualitative and quantitative observations are made about the mean square error across the reconstructed image. These observations are then shown to compare well with theoretical predictions from a statistical error model.


Introduction: Consequences related to drugs exposure during fetal life have been extensively studied. The present work explores the Chilean situation about this matter, characterizing growth of infants previously exposed to drugs during fetal life. Objectives: Compare anthropometric measurements between neonates exposed to drugs due to maternal consumption during pregnancy and an unexposed control group from 0 -6 months of life. Methodology: Anthropometric data from 74 control infants from a Health Center in Valparaiso, Chile, and 61 infants exposed to drugs during gestation from the Corporation for Infant Nutrition (CONIN, Valparaiso, Chile) were obtained. Data obtained from both groups were subjected to a T-Student statistical analysis by group. Results: According to gestational age there were more pre-term infants in CONIN-exposed group, reaching more than 25 % prevalence. On the contrary, prevalence in unexposed control infants was less than 11 %. In addition, CONIN group showed a higher number of small for gestational age infants of both sex (37% CONIN vs 6% Control), evaluated according to the Chilean intrauterine growth curves. Length and weight showed statistical significant differences between both groups from birth to 6 months of life. Female infants showed significant differences in cephalic circumference until one month of life, while in male infants this difference is maintained until 6 month of life. Z score for indicators such as weight/ length, weight/age and length/age during first 6 months of life, leads to conclude that CONIN group is at risk of undernutrition while control group should be considered as normal. Conclusions: Maternal drugs consumption during pregnancy results in marked deficient anthropometric characteristics of newborn and until 6 month of life. This fact may have metabolic long term consequences associated to development of chronic non-communicable diseases during adulthood.


Introduction The intestinal microbiota drive inflammation associated with Crohn's disease.1 The composition of the intestinal microbiota can be influenced by prebiotic's such as fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS). Preliminary data suggest that FOS can increase colonic bifidobacteria and induce immunoregulatory dendritic cell (DC) epithelial responses.2 Methods To assess the impact of a diet supplemented with FOS in patients with active Crohn's disease using an appropriately powered randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Patients with active Crohn's disease (CDAI ≥ 220, plus one marker of inflammation) were randomised to receive 15 g/day FOS or placebo for 4 weeks. The primary endpoint was clinical response at week 4 (change in CDAI of −70 in the intention-to-treat (ITT) population). Multiple pre-specified secondary endpoints were analysed, including intracellular cytokine staining assessed by flow cytometry (n=27). Results In total, 103 patients were randomised to receive FOS (n=54) or placebo (n=49). The mean (SD) baseline CDAI was 283 (61.1) and 286 (61.5) in the FOS and placebo groups, respectively (p=0.79). Significantly more patients receiving FOS (n=14.26%) than placebo (n=4.8%) withdrew before the 4-week endpoint (p=0.018). There was no significant clinical benefit of FOS compared to placebo (Abstract 003). Patients receiving FOS, but not placebo, had a reduced proportion of IL-6+ intestinal DC, and increased DC staining of IL-10 (both p<0.05). No effect on DC IL-12 was seen. Throughout the intervention patients receiving FOS had a significantly greater severity of flatulence (FOS mean 10.8, SD 5.7 vs placebo 7.3, 3.6, p=0.004) and rumbling gut (mean 8.3, SD 5.0 vs 6.1, 4.1, p=0.029) compared with placebo. Conclusion An adequately powered trial of a diet supplemented with FOS in a well defined population of patients with active Crohn's disease showed no clinical benefit despite impacting on DC immunology. Patient withdrawal was greater in patients receiving FOS. Abstract OC-003 Clinical results FOS Placebo p Value Response, n (%) intention-to-treat 12 (22) 19 (39) 0.067 Per protocol, n (%) 12 (30) 19 (42) 0.243 Remission, n (%) intention-to-treat 6 (11) 10 (20) 0.193 Per protocol, n (%) 6 (15) 10 (22) 0.395 Change in calprotectin, mean (SD) 62 (301) 296 (494) 0.092


ABSTRACT We investigate some of the connections between continued fractions and continued logarithms. We study the binary continued logarithms as introduced by Bill Gosper and explore two generalizations of the continued logarithm to base b. We show convergence for them using equivalent forms of their corresponding continued fractions. Through numerical experimentation, we discover that, for one such formulation, the exponent terms have finite arithmetic means for almost all real numbers. This set of means, which we call the logarithmic Khintchine numbers, has a pleasing relationship with the geometric means of the corresponding continued fraction terms. While the classical Khintchine's constant is believed not to be related to any naturally occurring number, we find surprisingly that the logarithmic Khintchine numbers are elementary.


This study examined the biogeography of land snail in Kinabalu Park (emphasised on
Mt. Kinabalu) from the aspects of space (environmental factors) and time (historical
factors). Sampling (land snails and environmental parameter) were done in 142 plots
along the elevation gradient of Mt. Kinabalu and Mt. Tambuyokon. Both mountains
support more than one-third (126 species) of the total number land snail species that
were recorded in Sabah. The assemblage of land snails exhibited zonation along the
elevation belts (500 - 1500 m; 1500 - 2600 m; 2600 - 3500 m; and 3500 - 4000
m). Each zone support its unique fauna and most of the Mt. Kinabalu's endemic were
found at the zone above 2600 m. The species richness, diversity, evenness and
shell's size decreased with increasing elevation. The species-area relationship
between log number of species and log area of elevation zone was described by the
z-value (0.193). The distribution ranges (elevation range) for the land snail of Mt.
Kinabalu and Mt. Tambuyokon were not complied with the Rapoport's rule. The high
elevation with relative younger age (of the area), smaller area and harsher
environment than the lower elevation caused the low diversity, richness and
evenness of the land snail at the top of the mountains. The small snails were better
adapted to high elevation habitat than the large snails. For the ecogeography
analysis, land snail from genus Everettia; and slugs were used to explore the
relationships between environmental parameter with their distribution. From all the
parameters that had been examined, elevation was the main factor that determined
the distribution of the snail and slug. Also, vegetation was related to the slug
distribution. However, the environment was not the sole factor that was determining
their distribution. Thus, phylogeny of Everettia (snail) and Meghimatium (slug) were
constructed by using the 16S mt DNA. Both genus' phylogenetic trees were
compatible, where the highland (above 2600 m) endemics (Everettia corrugata and
Meghimatium uniforme) diverged from first from their middle and lower elevation
congeners during the first upward move of Kinabalu batholith during the late Pliocene
(ca. 1.5 mya). The Everettia spi and Meghimatium striatum that are endemic to Mt.
Kinabalu (2000 - 2500 m) were split from the lowland congeners at middle
Pleistocene (1 mya) during intrusion of ultrabasic rocks which caused by the second
intensive upward movement of Kinabalu batholith. The glaciation and deglaciation
during the middle to late Pleistocene also separated the population with the ice-flow
(i. e. Meghimatium uniforme uniforme and Meghimatium uniforme 'kotal'). Besides,
the boundaries between species were clear, which have been maintained by the
isolating mechanisms that lie in the genitalia differences (i. e. Meghimatium spp. ) and
possible environment (elevation = climates). Results from this study suggested that
the biogeographical patterns of land snail of the Mt. Kinabalu and Tambuyokon had
resulted from the geology activities during the middle Miocene - Holocene, and have
been maintained by the present-day environment (climates, vegetation and etc.).
Therefore, the whole elevation ranges of the mountains need to be protected for
their remarkable diversity and evolutionary process of land snails


Cultivated crops are expected to be less stress tolerant than their wild relatives, leading to efforts to mine wild relatives for traits to increase crop tolerance. However, empirical tests of this expectation often confound tolerance with plant vigor. We assessed whether wild and cultivated Helianthus annuus L. differed for salinity tolerance with 0 and 150 mM NaCl treatments. Salinity tolerance was assessed as the proportional reduction in biomass and as the deviation from expected performance based on vigor. Cultivated accessions had a greater proportional decline in biomass than wild accessions, but proportional decline was positively associated with vigor in both. Thus, wild and cultivated H. annuus did not differ for tolerance when variation in vigor was corrected for statistically. For traits potentially related to tolerance mechanisms, wild and cultivated accessions differed for elemental content and allocation of N, P, K, Mg, Ca, S, Na, Fe, Mn, B, Cu, and Zn for some tissues, biomass allocation, specific leaf area, and leaf succulence. However, these traits were generally unrelated to tolerance corrected for vigor. Osmotic adjustment was associated with tolerance corrected for vigor only in wild accessions where more osmotic adjustment was associated with greater tolerance. Our results for H. annuus suggest that efforts to use wild relatives to enhance crop abiotic stress tolerance will benefit from greater knowledge of traits related to plant growth responses decoupled from vigor, in order to get beyond potential growth-tolerance trade-offs.


Various micro/nanostructures can be prepared directly on the metal surface by using a femtosecond laser. These structures provide the metal surface with good wettability, for example, hydrophilic or hydrophobic function. Based on these functional characteristics, they find important applications in fields such as aerospace, architecture, medicine, and solar energy. In this paper, we use the femtosecond laser pulse on the stainless-steel surface and scan with a pitch smaller than the size of the focused beam size. After homogeneous laser irradiation on the surface, columnar two-scale micro/nanocomposite structures have been prepared. The results of this paper show that the contact angle of the micro /nano-structured surface can reach up to 148.6 after silanization. This discovery is of significant importance for the selection of the base materials for the preparation of metal wettability surface by micro/nanostructures.


Spectral energy transfer in a turbulent channel flow is investigated at Reynolds number $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}\simeq 1700$ , based on the wall shear velocity and channel half-height, with a particular emphasis on full visualization of triadic wave interactions involved in turbulent transport. As in previous studies, turbulent production is found to be almost uniform, especially over the logarithmic region, and the related spanwise integral length scale is approximately proportional to the distance from the wall. In the logarithmic and outer regions, the energy balance at the integral length scales is mainly formed between production and nonlinear turbulent transport, the latter of which plays the central role in the energy cascade down to the Kolmogorov microscale. While confirming the classical role of the turbulent transport, the triadic wave interaction analysis unveils two new types of scale interaction processes, highly active in the near-wall and the lower logarithmic regions. First, for relatively small energy-containing motions, part of the energy transfer mechanisms from the integral to the adjacent small length scale in the energy cascade is found to be provided by the interactions between larger energy-containing motions. It is subsequently shown that this is related to involvement of large energy-containing motions in skin-friction generation. Second, there exists a non-negligible amount of energy transfer from small to large integral scales in the process of downward energy transfer to the near-wall region. This type of scale interaction is predominant only for the streamwise and spanwise velocity components, and it plays a central role in the formation of the wall-reaching inactive part of large energy-containing motions. A further analysis reveals that this type of scale interaction leads the wall-reaching inactive part to scale in the inner units, consistent with the recent observation. Finally, it is proposed that turbulence production and pressure–strain spectra support the existence of the self-sustaining process as the main turnover dynamics of all the energy-containing motions.


CVD-diamond microgrinding wheels can be used in the microsystems technology, e.g. to produce microarrays consisting of glass. These novel tools have the same advantages as CVD-diamond microgrinding pins, but they can even be used with higher cutting velocities and higher material removal rates. Furthermore, micro cracks and chipping could be minimized and better surface qualities could be achieved. The tool body consists of cemented carbide. After designing a suitable geometry for these novel micro grinding tools, they had to be produced with cup wheels. The design, which has already been tested, is a grinding wheel of the type "1A1". The CVD-diamond microgrinding wheels were analyzed with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) due to their topography and crystallite size. The microgrinding wheels were tested with regard to their grinding behavior. During the investigations, cutting forces were measured and afterwards analyzed. In addition, surface roughnesses were measured, so that the materials could be compared with regard to their grindability. The tool wear was evaluated by means of SEM-pictures. They showed the wear resisting behavior of the CVD-diamond microgrinding wheels. Even after grinding a high material removal rate in the hard ceramic aluminum nitride, only a small clogging of the microgrinding wheel was monitored. The slight increase of the cutting force is another indicator for the clogging. It can be summarized that novel grinding tools could be successfully developed and tested with hard and brittle materials. During these tests, the cutting forces and surface roughnesses as well as wear behavior and end of tool life were determined and will be shown in this publication.


Endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) has gained popularity and has become the treatment of choice for certain pediatric and adult hydrocephalic conditions. The authors report their experience with 36 adult patients and evaluate the long-term outcome and safety of ETV. They discuss several improvements to the surgical techniques that they have developed based on their experience, including the use of intraoperative Doppler imaging before fenestration to trace the location of vessels underlying the floor of the third ventricle. They also report the use of a Rickham reservoir and endoventricular stent in selected cases and discuss the indications for their use. In cases of obstructive hydrocephalus due to congenital or acquired aqueductal stenosis in adults, the success rate of ETV in avoidance of shunt placement is 72%. Twenty-two percent of the patients in this series in whom ETV was initially successful later experienced closure of the fenestration and recurrent symptoms at a mean interval of 3.75 years. Thus, in patients who undergo this treatment, long-term periodic follow-up review should be performed.


Cryotherapy was utilized in 5 eyes of 4 patients with recurrent toxoplasmosis retinochoroiditis. Each patient showed slow gradual improvement in vision over several months following cryotreatment where previous medical management had failed. No recurrences have been noted during the follow-up period of 3 months to 3 years.


Purpose
While the current knowledge in the field of educational leadership and management (EDLM) has been primarily based on research produced in English-speaking Western societies, there have been significant efforts by other societies to contribute to the knowledge production, especially during the past decade. The purpose of this paper is to identify the contribution of Turkey to the international EDLM literature by investigating the topical focus, conceptual frameworks and research designs of papers published by EDLM scholars from Turkey.

Design/methodology/approach
Descriptive content analysis method was employed to examine 315 empirical, review, conceptual and commentary papers published by Turkish scholars in core educational administration and Web of Science journals. The time period of the review left open-ended. However, in practical terms, it begins in the year 1994 when the first article from Turkey was published in any of the selected sources and ends at the end of 2018. Information relevant to the research was extracted from each article and was coded to facilitate quantitative analysis. Using Excel software, descriptive statistics including frequencies and percentages were provided for each research question.

Findings
Results show that Turkish EDLM scholars mostly rely on survey based quantitative research approach, employing advanced statistical techniques in the analysis of the data. However, mixed method and qualitative studies are relatively less common. Organizational behavior, school leadership and emotions stand out as most frequently used topics, while Turkish scholars are not interested in analyzing the educational outcomes such as student achievement and school improvement. Consistent with the findings related to topical foci, a large number of those who were interested in correlational studies examined the relationship between leadership roles and organizational behaviors.

Research limitations/implications
The data set only included journal articles and excluded conference proceedings, books and theses/dissertations. Nevertheless, the authors believe this review adds significantly to previous reviews of local EDLM journals conducted by Turkish scholars. The authors concluded that the Turkish scholars should direct their future research to exploring and better understanding the practices of Turkish principals in schools by: diversifying their research topics; incorporating more qualitative and mixed-method designs; and taking into account specific features of the culture and educational system in Turkey.

Practical implications
Based on the current higher education context, reducing scholars' teaching load, diversifying research funding opportunities, and modifying access to tenure tracks seem necessary interventions to support EDLM research with strong ties to practice and to the sociocultural context. In addition, policy changes aiming professionalization of administrative positions and establishing some forms of formal training for school principalship are needed. Such changes can help transfer the knowledge produced by the Turkish EDLM researchers to the practice and provide solutions to problems related to school administration.

Originality/value
This paper will add to recent effort to identify how a developing nation outside Western perspective approaches the field, and contributes to the global knowledge base.


Controls on coastal hypsometries of modern continents and oceanic islands may be used to estimate palaeo-continental area-elevation distributions. The most important controls on coastal hypsometry are landmass area and coastal gradient, increases in which result in steeper area-elevation distributions. Thus, any change in sea level will flood or expose a smaller fractional area of continents which are large or have steep coastal gradients than of those which are small or have gentle coastal gradients. Coastal gradients are dictated primarily by the tectonic setting and age of continental margins. While active and transform margins generally have steep coasts, mean coastal gradients for passive margins decrease exponentially with increasing margin age. Consequently, continents comprised mostly of mature passive margins are generally more 'floodable'. These observations are applicable to a variety of palaeo-eustatic problems. Hypsometries corrected for changes in landmass area reduce variance in flooding records between different Palaeozoic continents by more than 50%. Assuming minimum-variance superimposition of flooding curves for different Palaeozoic continents permits identification of possible hypsometric anomalies. Calculated Palaeozoic sea level maxima are between +200m and +400m with respect to present sea level, substantially lower than previous estimates to +600 m. Modelling evolution of coastal hypsometries due to changes in length and age of passive margins suggests that hypsometry varies cyclically in response to continental rifting and collision. Coastal hypsometries are steepest during rifting events and decrease by a factor of two to three as passive margins age. Coastal hypsometries in a 'sutured' world are steeper than those of a 'rifted' world due to increased continent size and decreased passive margin length. Thus, sea level highstands associated with times of continent dispersal may result in part from the enhanced 'floodability' of rifted continents.


Abstract. Paansri P, Siri S, Ponpithuk Y, Suksavate W, Safoowong M, Nuipakdee W, Duengkae P. 2019. Sexual dimorphism of Hill Blue Flycatcher (Cyornis banyumas) in Hill Evergreen Forest, Mae Sa-Kog Ma Biosphere Reserve, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. Biodiversitas 20: 1544-1548. A sample consisting of 60 males and 39 females Cyornis banyumas captured in the Mae Sa-Kog Ma Biosphere Reserve was examined using 42 morphometric characters to assess sexual dimorphism. The results of the univariate analysis showed that there were ten morphometric traits (Ltail, TLF, C-middle, HB, C-outer, T-inner, C-digit, T-middle, DUTET and LG) that could be used for discrimination of sexual differences. The morphological data based on significant differences revealed that males were larger than females. The results of discriminant analysis based on the significant differences of nine raw morphometric data can be used to construct a sexual discrimination equation (D) where D = -22.051 + 0.368 (Ltail). The sexual discrimination equation can be directly used to identify both sexes with 79.6% of cross-validated grouped cases correctly classified, since positive D scores indicated males and negative D scores indicated females, with 81.4% of the males and 74.4% of the females being correctly assigned with a cutoff value between sexes = 0.


With the rapid development of mobile technology, the mobile phones has gradually become an indispensable part in everybody's life, and it is replacing the computer's position step by step. The iPhone is a smart phone made of Apple Company, which opens a new era of software for mobile devices. At the same time, iOS(iPhone's operating system) has become one of most competitive mobile communications operating systems. The Apple's protection for security makes the iPhone owners hardly control their phone through the root (highest authority). It is so difficult to manage the information effetely with iPhone, such as contacts' information or SMS. The paper introduced two approaches to get the contacts' information in iPhone and restore them with vCard. At last, we managed the output file on MAC.


Glucose homeostasis is a real challenge for extremely preterm infants (EPIs) who have both limited substrate availability and immature glucose metabolism regulation. In the first days of life, EPIs frequently develop transient glucose intolerance, which has a complex pathophysiology that associates unregulated gluconeogenesis, immature insulin secretion, and peripheral insulin resistance. In this population, glucocorticoid therapy is frequently administrated to prevent severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia. During this treatment, glucose intolerance classically increases and may lead to hyperglycemia. We report a case of neonatal hypoglycemia that was concomitant to a glucocorticoids administration, and that led to a congenital hyperinsulinism diagnosis in an EPI with a heterozygous ABCC8 variant. The variant was inherited from his mother, who had developed monogenic onset diabetes of the youth (MODY) at the age of 23. ABCC8 encodes a beta-cell potassium channel unit and causes congenital hyperinsulinism or MODY depending on the mutation location. Moreover, some mutations have been observed in the same patient to cause both hyperinsulinism in infancy and MODY in adulthood. In our case, the baby showed repeated and severe hypoglycemias, which were undoubtedly time-associated with the betamethasone intravenous administration. This hyperinsulinism was transient, and the infant has not yet developed diabetes at three years of age. We take the opportunity presented by this unusual clinical presentation to provide a review of the literature, suggesting new insights regarding the pathophysiology of the beta-pancreatic cells' insulin secretion: glucocorticoids may potentiate basal insulin secretion in patients with ABCC8 mutation.


The study of the effect of ultrasonic device against the dengue mosquito, Aedes aegypti adults was done in Peet Grady chamber. Three replications of tests were performed based on 24 hours expositions. 50 female mosquitoes on each replication were introduced by ultrasonic device (type ICE) in Peet Grady Chamber, and the other 50 females were put in other Peet Grady Chamber without the device. Observation and counts on knock down mosquitos (mortality rate) were done every one hour to six hours, then 24 hour after exposure. The result showed that during the first hour observation, 2.67% of mosquitoes were knockdown (died) by ultrasonic device (ICE type). In the long run (one to six hours) observation, 3.33 to 10% of the mosquitoes were died, however, after 24 hours exposure 74% of the mosquitoes died. On the control groups, all of the mosquitoes (100%) were still alive on the six hour observations, and after 24 hour observations only 7.33% mosquitoes died. Based on the observation, the ultrasonic device (ICE type) affected the mosquitoes after 24 hours observations by giving them knock down efect and finally died (74%). KEY WORD: Aedes aegypti, knockdown effect, mosquito, ultrasonic.


Ducklings reared by a hen swim with dry plumage a day or two after hatching, while incubator-hatched ducklings of the same age may sink and even drown when placed in water. The common interpretation is that wild-reared chicks receive preen oil from the parent, and this oil makes them more waterproof. Using mallard ducklings Anas platyrhynchos we tested the effect of preen and other oils, as well as hydrophilic or surfactant contaminants, on the water resistance of down. We found that the true cause for the difference between incubator and hen-reared ducklings is the presence of hydrophilic hatching fluid residues in the down of incubator-hatched ducklings. Once well rinsed and dried, incubator-hatched ducklings can swim for over an hour with essentially dry down. Other tests showed that clean down is quite water resistant, and that water resistance was not improved by preen or other oils. Small amounts of preen or other oils had no effect on water repellency or wetting during surface swimming. However, oil decreased the hydraulic pressure needed to penetrate down. Down lacks the stabilizing interlocking structure of adult contour feathers, and small amounts of oil apparently cause barbules to stick together and reduce the effective number of down fibers. Detergent decreases water repellency and increases water retention, and has a more severe effect on oiled down or when applied in combination with oil. The penetration pressure of a clean down coat, 866±154 Pa, could allow static immersion to ca. 8cm before water would saturate the down and increase thermal conductance. Thus, clean ducklings have a 2×–3× safety margin for surface swimming. Saturation increases the thermal conductance of the down coat from 14.3±1.38 W/m2-°C to 193±25 W/m2-°C. Thus, water pollution or down contamination causing wetting can significantly increase energy use and the frequency of hypothermia.


This work deals with the theoretical study on the m olecular structure and vibrational spectra of two well known narcotics- Codeine and Morphine. The spectra were interpreted with the aid of normal mode analysis following full structure optim ization based on the density functional theory and 6-311G + (d, p) basis set combination. A detailed interpretation of the infrared spectra of Morphine and codeine are reported in the present work. The similarities and differences between the vibrational analysis of the two molecules studied have been highlighted. The scaled theoretical wave numbers are in perfect agreement with the experimental values. The thermodynamic calculations related to the title com pounds were also performed at B3LYP/6311G + (d, p) level of theory. The FT-Raman and FTI R spectra of Morphine have been taken from the literature.


This paper presents an accelerated iterative Landweber method for nonlinear ultrasonic tomographic imaging in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) configuration under a sparsity constraint on the image. The proposed method introduces the emerging MIMO signal processing techniques and target sparseness constraints in the traditional computational imaging field, thus significantly improves the speed of image reconstruction compared with the conventional imaging method while producing high quality images. Using numerical examples, we demonstrate that incorporating prior knowledge about the imaging field such as target sparseness accelerates significantly the convergence of the iterative imaging method, which provides considerable benefits to real-time tomographic imaging applications.


Engine performances and emission characteristics of Karanja oil methyl ester blended with diesel were carried out on a variable compression diesel engine. In order to search for the optimal process response through a limited number of experiment runs, application of Taguchi method in combination with grey relational analysis had been applied for solving a multiple response optimization problem. Using grey relational grade and signal-to-noise ratio as a performance index, a particular combination of input parameters was predicted so as to achieve optimum response characteristics. It was observed that a blend of fifty percent was most suitable for use in a diesel engine without significantly affecting the engine performance and emissions characteristics.


THE LEFT coronary artery arising from the pulmonary artery represents a rare anomaly which until 1933 was not diagnosed clinically. 1 Abrikosoff 2 reported the first case in 1911. In 1946 Kaunitz 3 found 27 cases in the literature and added 2 of his own. In 1949 Gasul and Loeffler 4 collected 22 cases in the literature and reported 4 additional cases. Since then four more cases have been described. 5 Patients with this anomaly usually do not survive the first year of life, although a few have lived to adulthood. In infancy a distinctive picture may be recognized. It is characterized by progressive dyspnea, apparent pain and symptoms of shock after feeding, and progressive cardiac enlargement and failure. Cyanosis, clubbing, cardiac murmurs, and thrills are absent. The electrocardiogram shows inversion of T waves, usually in all three limb leads, and low voltage. Roentgenograms and fluoroscopy reveal conspicuous cardiac enlargement,


This paper engages with debates on enterprise culture and one of its key subjects—the entrepreneur. Enlisting the work of Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Žižek, we attempt to explain the continuing failure of entrepreneurship discourse to assign the character of the entrepreneur a positive identity. Shifting away from stable categories such as 'the entrepreneur', we describe entrepreneurship in terms of Lacan's concept of the Real and Žižek's concept of the sublime object. This allows us to critically scrutinize the operation of the phantasmic category of the entrepreneur. In addition to indicating some prospects for the future of psychoanalytic cultural criticism in organization studies, we make a case for a continual questioning of the subject, a questioning that is today being foreclosed by those critics who were first to call the subject into question.


For conventional reinforced soil, the reinforcements are put horizontally in the soil. A new concept of soil reinforced with three-dimensional elements was proposed. In 3D reinforced soil, besides conventional horizontal reinforcements, some vertical and 3D reinforcements can also be laid in the soil. The triaxial tests on sand reinforced with 3D reinforcement were carried out. From the experimental results, the differences of stress-strain relationship and shear strength between horizontal reinforced sand and 3D reinforced one were analyzed. The experimental results show that 3D reinforcement not only increases its cohesion, the angle of internal friction has been increased greatly, especially with 3D elements on both sides. Based on experimental results, a retaining structure reinforced with 3D reinforcements was analyzed by the finite element method. The stress distribution and interaction between 3D elements and soil were studied. The plastic zone and stability analysis of the retaining structure reinforced with 3D reinforcements were investigated by finite element method by shear strength reduction technique.


As Africa emerges, rises, and begins to forge a more positive outlook ahead, scholars, business executives, community leaders, and policymakers are increasingly calling for concerted efforts to rethink the future and come up with big ideas for the 21st century. Recognizing this, in 2013, African heads of state and government launched the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063. This agenda is an ambitious vision and action plan intended to drive Africa's change, development, and transformation for the next 50 years. The purpose of this Insights Article is threefold. First, we present an overview of Agenda 2063, including a summary of the vision and action plans. Second, we discuss opportunities and challenges for the effective implementation of Agenda 2063 for Africa's sustaining development and transformation. Finally, we propose specific areas for future management research related to Agenda 2063.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
The prognostic significance of histopathologic (sub)classes in the current classification of lupus nephritis (LN) is controversial. We analyzed clinical and histopathologic predictors of renal outcome in LN outside the framework of the classification.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
Variables (50 histopathologic and ten clinical) were tested in mixed, linear, and Cox regression models for their association with renal flare, ESRD, and eGFR during follow-up (1, 5, and 10 years) in 105 patients with LN who underwent biopsy from 1987 to 2011. The Cockcroft-Gault (normalized to a body surface area of 1.73 m2) and Schwartz formulas were used to calculate eGFR for adults and children, respectively.

RESULTS
During median follow-up of 9.9 years (25th-75th percentile, 5.9-13.8), 47 patients experienced a renal flare and 21 progressed to ESRD. Renal flare was predicted by fibrinoid necrosis (hazard ratio [HR], 1.04 per %; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.00 to 1.07) and nonwhite race (HR, 2.23; 95% CI, 1.23 to 4.04). ESRD was predicted by fibrinoid necrosis (HR, 1.08 per %; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.13), fibrous crescents (HR, 1.09 per %; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.17), interstitial fibrosis/tubular atrophy (IF/TA) ≥25% (HR, 3.89; 95% CI, 1.25 to 12.14), eGFR at baseline (HR, 0.98 per ml/min per 1.73 m2; 95% CI, 0.97 to 1.00), and nonwhite race (HR, 7.16; 95% CI, 2.34 to 21.91). A higher mean eGFR during follow-up was associated with normal glomeruli (+0.2 ml/min per 1.73 m2 per %; 95% CI, 0.1 to 0.4). Like ESRD, a lower eGFR during follow-up was associated with fibrous crescents, IF/TA≥25%, and nonwhite race, as well as with cellular/fibrocellular crescents (-0.4 ml/min per 1.73 m2 per %; 95% CI, -0.6 to -0.2) and age (-0.8 ml/min per 1.73 m2 per year; 95% CI, -1.2 to -0.4).

CONCLUSION
The LN classification should include an index of evidence-based prognosticators. Awaiting validation of a formal index, we suggest that at least fibrinoid necrosis, fibrous crescents, and IF/TA warrant explicit independent scoring to assess the risk of progressive renal dysfunction in conjunction with clinical findings.


The spatial resolution of fluorescence microscopes is limited by diffraction to about half of the light wavelength, hampering the observation of many important intracellular processes. Recent emerging techniques have overcome that diffraction barrier using the temporal discrimination of close objects that are otherwise unresolved or blurred within the spatial resolution of the microscope. The key of these techniques is to switch the signal of fluorescence markers on and off exploiting their distinct molecular states, and detect and localize these markers at the single‐molecule level. This underlying principle highlights the critical role of the photophysical properties of the probes, and the importance of finding adequate switching mechanisms. Here, we present strategies to achieve fluorescence modulation based on novel molecular assemblies containing a [1,3]oxazine as the two states, building block responsible for the transformation. Two different triggering events, based on the photochromic and halochromic properties of the oxazine, induce a large absorption and emission bathochromic shift of a pendant fluorophore, as the ultimate fluorescence switching event. The implementation of these approaches to achieve spatial resolution beyond the diffraction limit is also discussed.


The aim of my research is to study the impact of an Integrated Financial System (ERP System) implementation on accountant profiles in a Swiss public administration. ERP Systems are widely researched by authors and are described like a change driver. Conversely, the kind of changes and, more specifically, the consequences on accountants' profiles are not studied and are, therefore, the core of my research. This research was conducted in two phases. The first phase was an exploratory research and used a qualitative method through a detailed case study. Furthermore, an ethnographic approach was applied. This particular methodology aimed to study perceptions of changes in accountants' profiles of various staff members (from among different functions and departments) involved in the ERP project in order to produce new hypothesis. The collection of perceptions from a diverse sample of government employees and the very open-ended questionnaire (with a wide freedom given to the respondents during the interviews) was what I called an ethnographic approach. This approach is well suited for situations facing deep structural changes such as the transformation of a profession. This case study mainly focused on the changes of the accounting profiles due to an ERP implementation but organizational issues were also studied. The main finding of the case study concerned accountants' educational backgrounds. In the public administration that I studied, accountants tended overall to lack the specialized knowledge necessary to work with the complex tools in an Integrated Financial System. I also confirmed other authors' findings, that the necessary skill sets change when an Integrated Financial System is implemented. Actually, I found that job descriptions were not updated after the implementation as much as we expected they would be. Thus, the case study pointed out practical implications. Public administrations must carefully determine the skills necessary for the accounting staff to work within an Integrated Financial System. Job descriptions must be adapted and prospective new hires should have higher qualifications as well as better accounting and ERP knowledge. Concerning organizational changes, research findings and analyses indicate that the reporting lines are maintained within each administration department and not centralized under the finance department. Due to this organization issue the full potential of the ERP is not exploited at all and this phenomenon has negatively impacted the necessary standardization imposed by an ERP system implementation. However, the financial statements can now comply with international standards such as International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) and I clearly pointed out a professionalization and modernization of financial statements establishment in the public administration under review. Consequently, the case study shows that an ERP implementation project in the public sector is impacted by organizational issues and management styles.


We studied the effect of thrombin on albumin permeability across the endothelial monolayer in vitro. Bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells were grown on micropore membranes. Morphologic analysis confirmed the presence of a confluent monolayer with interendothelial junctions. Albumin permeability was measured by the clearance of 125l‐albumin across the endothelial monolayer. The control 125l‐albumin clearance was 0.273 ± 0.02 μl/min. The native enzyme, α‐thrombin (10−6 to 10−10 M), added to the luminal side of the endothelium produced concentration‐dependent increases in albumin clearance (maximum clearance of 0.586 ± 0.08 μl/min at 10−6 M). Gamma (γ) thrombin (10−6 M and 10−8 M), which lacks the fibrinogen recognition site, also produced a concentration‐dependent increase in albumin clearance similar to that observed with α‐thrombin. Moreover, the two proteolytically inactive forms of the native enzyme, i‐Pr2 P‐α‐thrombin and D‐Phe‐Pro‐Arg‐CH2‐α‐thrombin, increased the 125l‐albumin clearance (0.610 ± 0.09 μl/min and 0.609 ± 0.02 μl/min for iPr2 P‐α‐thrombin and D‐Phe‐Pro‐Arg‐CH2‐α‐thrombin at 10−6 M, respectively). Since the modified forms of thrombin lack the fibrinogen recognition and active serine protease sites, the results indicate that neither site is required for increased albumin permeability. The increase in albumin clearance with α‐thrombin was not secondary to endothelial cell lysis because lactate dehydrogenase concentration in the medium following thrombin was not significantly different from baseline values. There was also no morphological evidence of cell lysis. Moreover, the increase in 125l‐albumin clearance induced by α‐thrombin was reversible by washing thrombin from the endothelium. The basis for the increased albumin permeability following the addition of α‐thrombin appears to be a reversible change in endothelial cell shape with formation of intercellular gaps.


Background: Sanfilippo B syndrome, or mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIB (MPS IIIB), is a rare lysosomal storage disorder resulting from mutations in NAGLU, which encodes for the enzyme α-Nacetylglucosaminidase (NAGLU). Patients afflicted with this disease experience mild somatic disease symptoms, but severe and ultimately lethal neurodegeneration. Patients often succumb to their symptoms in the first two decades of life. Sanfilippo B syndrome is a molecular heterogeneous disorder, in which nonsense and missense mutations frequently result in a genetic compound genotype, leading to the disease phenotype. Case Report: We report a novel compound heterozygous genotype (p.Y140C/p.R297X) in a Sanfilippo B patient. The level of NAGLU activity assayed from cultured skin fibroblasts was 0.6% of normal, confirming the biochemical diagnosis of Sanfilippo B syndrome. Immunoblot analysis using an antiNAGLU antibody showed that the amount of NAGLU protein present was about 50% of normal. DOI: 10.26502/acbr.50170021 Arch Clin Biomed Res 2017; 1 (4): 200-208 201 Conclusion: We have identified a novel genotype p.Y140C/p.R297X in a patient with Sanfilippo B syndrome that results in near zero NAGLU enzyme activity. We postulate that the nonsense mutation p.R297X produces either an unstable mRNA transcript or truncated protein that is rapidly degraded, whereas the missense mutation p.Y140C results in a stable but catalytically defective enzyme with near zero residual NAGLU activity. We conclude that the p.Y140C/p.R297X genotype is likely to result in a poor prognosis due to a detrimental biochemical phenotype.


We examined the necessity of alpha-gustducin, a G protein alpha-subunit expressed in taste cells, to taste-mediated licking responses of mice to sapid stimuli. To this end, we measured licking responses of alpha-gustducin knock-out (Gus-/-) mice and heterozygotic littermate controls (Gus+/-) to a variety of 'bitter', 'umami', 'sweet', 'salty' and 'sour' taste stimuli. All previous studies of how Gus-/- mice ingest taste stimuli have used long-term (i.e. 48 h) preference tests, which may be confounded by post-ingestive and/or experiential effects of the taste stimuli. We minimized these confounds by using a brief-access taste test, which quantifies immediate lick responses to extremely small volumes of sapid solutions. We found that deleting alpha-gustducin (i) dramatically reduced the aversiveness of a diverse range of 'bitter' taste stimuli; (ii) moderately decreased appetitive licking to low and intermediate concentrations of an 'umami' taste stimulus (monosodium glutamate in the presence of 100 microM amiloride), but virtually eliminated the normal aversion to high concentrations of the same taste stimulus; (iii) slightly decreased appetitive licking to 'sweet' taste stimuli; and (iv) modestly reduced the aversiveness of high, but not low or intermediate, concentrations of NaCl. There was no significant effect of deleting alpha-gustducin on licking responses to NH4Cl or HCl.


Cancer is characterized by high mortality and low curability. Recent studies have shown that the mechanism of tumor resistance involves not only endogenous changes to tumor cells, but also to the tumor microenvironment (TME), which provides the necessary conditions for the growth, invasion, and metastasis of cancer cells, akin to Stephen Paget's hypothesis of "seed and soil." Hence, the TME is a significant target for cancer therapy via nanoparticles, which can carry different kinds of drugs targeting different types or stages of tumors. The key step of nanotherapy is the achievement of accurate active or passive targeting to trigger drugs precisely at tumor cells, with less toxicity and fewer side effects. With deepened understanding of the tumor microenvironment and rapid development of the nanomaterial industry, the mechanisms of nanotherapy could be individualized according to the specific TME characteristics, including low pH, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), and increased expression of metalloproteinase. However, some abnormal features of the TME limit drugs from reaching all tumor cells in lethal concentrations, and the characteristics of tumors vary in numerous ways, resulting in great challenges for the clinical application of nanotherapy. In this review, we discuss the essential role of the tumor microenvironment in the genesis and development of tumors, as well as the measures required to improve the therapeutic effects of tumor microenvironment-targeting nanoparticles and ways to reduce damage to normal tissue.


In this study, the effects of water current on nutrient components of trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were investigated. One year old fish averaging 550±0.06 g were used in the experiment which lasted for 3 months. In the experiment, the fish were reared in two tank of 1800 l each in the first tank (group A), water current was 1.5-2 fish length (25 cm)/sn while in the second tank (group B) there was no water current. In group A while the fillets contained 68.89±1.47 % dry matter, 19.71±0.66 % protein, 9.91±1.81 % lipit, the fillet of group B had 69.32±1.15 % dry matter, 19.37±0.58 protein and 9.84±1.32 % lipit. There was significant difference betwen Groups in term of protein (P0.05).


Spacecraft observations of the solar wind have been confined to regions near the ecliptic plane until the Ulysses spacecraft has recently made a pass over both solar poles at a heliocentric distance of 2 to 4 AU (1) and encountered continuous fast wind at high latitudes, generally in a range of 700 to 800 km/s (2). On the other hand, there has been no direct measurement at solar distances inside 70 R⊙ where the solar wind is significantly accelerated. The interplanetary scintillation (IPS) method is a unique and useful means to measure global structure of the solar wind in regions near the Sun and at high latitudes where in situ measurements are difficult. Since the IPS measurements, however, are biased by line-of-sight integration effects, a computer assisted tomography method has been developed to deconvolve the line-of-sight integration. We introduce several results from the IPS tomography analysis on latitudinal velocity structure up to 90°, radial distance dependence of fast wind speed, origin of ver...


We challenge recent assertions that discourse studies cannot de facto address materiality. We demonstrate how a Foucauldian theorization of discourse provides a way to analyse the co-constitutive nature of discursive and material processes, as well as explore the power relations implicated in these relationships. To illustrate our argument, we identify exemplary studies that have effectively combined a study of discourse and different aspects of materiality – bodies, objects, spaces, and practices. In doing so, we show how discourse scholars are able to study both materiality and power relations.


Abstract. In order to provide high precision stable carbon isotope ratios (δ13CO2 or δ13C of CO2) from small bubbly, partially and fully clathrated ice core samples we developed a new method based on sublimation coupled to gas chromatography-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-IRMS). In a first step the trapped air is quantitatively released from ~30 g of ice and CO2 together with N2O are separated from the bulk air components and stored in a miniature glass tube. In an off-line step, the extracted sample is introduced into a helium carrier flow using a minimised tube cracker device. Prior to measurement, N2O and organic sample contaminants are gas chromatographically separated from CO2. Pulses of a CO2/N2O mixture are admitted to the tube cracker and follow the path of the sample through the system. This allows an identical treatment and comparison of sample and standard peaks. The ability of the method to reproduce δ13C from bubble and clathrate ice is verified on different ice cores. We achieve reproducibilities for bubble ice between 0.05 ‰ and 0.07 ‰ and for clathrate ice between 0.05 ‰ and 0.09 ‰ (dependent on the ice core used). A comparison of our data with measurements on bubble ice from the same ice core but using a mechanical extraction device shows no significant systematic offset. In addition to δ13C, the CO2 and N2O mixing ratios can be volumetrically derived with a precision of 2 ppmv and 8 ppbv, respectively.


One goal of immunization is to generate memory CD8 T cells of sufficient quality and quantity to confer protection against infection. It has been shown that memory CD8 T cell differentiation in vivo is controlled, at least in part, by the amount and duration of infection, Ag, and inflammatory cytokines present early after the initiation of the response. In this study, we used models of anti-vectorial immunity to investigate the impact of pre-existing immunity on the development and differentiation of vector-induced primary CD8 T cell responses. We showed that existing CD8 T cell memory influences the magnitude of naive CD8 T cell responses. However, the differentiation of newly recruited (either TCR-transgenic or endogenous) primary CD8 T cells into populations with the phenotype (CD62Lhi, CD27hi, KLRG-1low) and function (tissue distribution, Ag-driven proliferation, cytokine production) of long-term memory was facilitated when they were primed in the presence of vector-specific memory CD8 T cells of the same or unrelated specificity. Therefore, these data suggested that the presence of anti-vectorial immunity impacts the rate of differentiation of vector-induced naive CD8 T cells, a notion with important implications for the design of future vaccination strategies.


If unstructured meshes are refined to locally represent eddy dynamics in ocean circulation models, a practical question arises on how to vary the resolution and where to deploy the refinement. We propose to use the observed sea surface height variability as the refinement criterion. We explore the utility of this method (i) in a suite of idealized experiments simulating a wind‐driven double gyre flow in a stratified circular basin and (ii) in simulations of global ocean circulation performed with FESOM. Two practical approaches of mesh refinement are compared. In the first approach the uniform refinement is confined within the areas where the observed variability exceeds a given threshold. In the second one the refinement varies linearly following the observed variability. The resolution is fixed in time. For the double gyre case it is shown that the variability obtained in a high‐resolution reference run can be well captured on variable‐resolution meshes if they are refined where the variability is high and additionally upstream the jet separation point. The second approach of mesh refinement proves to be more beneficial in terms of improvement downstream the midlatitude jet. Similarly, in global ocean simulations the mesh refinement based on the observed variability helps the model to simulate high variability at correct locations. The refinement also leads to a reduced bias in the upper‐ocean temperature.


Abstract This paper presents a method for deriving the snowline altitude using a combined analysis of terrain elevation and multispectral Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) data from the RESOURCESAT-1 satellite, launched by India on 17 October 2003. AWiFS is a unique instrument capable of acquiring imagery of the world repeatedly every 5 days with very high radiometric resolution. It provides a wide swath width, which is very useful for snow-cover mapping. Snowline altitude is a good indicator of snow coverage. Snowline altitude for the period from October 2004 to June 2005, and from October 2006 to June 2007, is determined for the Baspa Basin, which is located in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh, India. It is observed that snowline altitude is generally higher during the year 2006/07 than during 2004/05, except in December 2006 and March 2007. The results obtained with the analysis presented here are validated using available meteorological data and are found to be satisfactory. This thus establishes a method that can be applied to other terrains and over longer periods of time within the coverage of the AWiFS sensor data.


Introduction: The coronavirus pandemic has restricted access to health-care services for kidney transplant patients because of concerns of COVID-19 infection. This single-center prospective study was done to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of telemedicine services for regular follow-up of kidney transplant patients as well as for triaging patients for admission. Methods: The study was undertaken during the lockdown period in India from March 23, 2020 to June 30, 2020. A formatted message seeking all relevant information was sent before teleconsultation. WhatsApp/email using smartphones and Electronic Medical Records system were used to provide telemedicine services. At the end of the e-consult, the patient was asked to rate his experience on a scale of 0–10. Results: A total of 296 consults for 122 patients were given. Of these, 239 (80.7%) consults (96 patients) were for domestic patients and 57 (19.3%) consults (26 patients) were for international patients. The mean age of the patients was 43 ± 15 years. The mean patient satisfaction score for e-consults was 9.5 ± 0.7. Four (3.3%) patients were seen for the first time after transplant via teleconsultation. Nine (7.4%) patients were advised admission and the rest were advised follow-up teleconsultation. Among those admitted, 6 (4.9%) were COVID positive and 1 (0.8%) patient died of COVID-19 pneumonia. Conclusions: Telemedicine offers a viable modality for health-care delivery when access to health care is restricted for transplant patients. Our model of telemedicine can be replicated easily without the burden of high cost for infrastructure.


This thesis consists of three substantive studies about the Vietnam stock market. In particular, I study the asymmetric information, corporate governance (CG) practices, and foreign investment of publicly listed companies in Vietnam, presented in Chapters 2, 3, and 4, respectively.  In Chapter 2, I investigate the effectiveness of a market surveillance system (MSS) on improving the market quality of the Vietnam stock market, as measured by liquidity and informed trading level. I find that market liquidity decreased after the introduction of the MSS, and that the effect is more pronounced for small firms. Although informed trading, on average, does not change significantly after the MSS, subsample analysis indicates a significant decrease in informed trading among large and liquid firms.  In Chapter 3, I investigate the relationship between firms' CG practices and informed trading. I find a negative relationship between the two variables. Firms with better CG practices have a lower level of informed stock trading. Moreover, a natural experiment on a shock of firms' CG practices generated by the CG policies shows that the negative relationship between CG practices and informed trading is a causal one, in which a change in the former causes a change in the latter. In another analysis around the implementation of the MSS, I find that the implementation of the surveillance system affects the relationship between the two variables, and this effect is driven by large and liquid firms.  In Chapter 4, I investigate whether foreign investors in the Vietnam stock market are informed about firms' performance. Using the residuals of foreign investor ownership as a measure of the abnormal foreign investor holding, I find that the abnormal foreign investor holding is positively correlated with firm performance in the following one year. I also find a positive correlation between abnormal foreign investor holding and the stock returns in the next three quarters. These findings indicate that foreign investors are informed about the firms up to a one-year period.


Cancer cells often depend on microenvironment signals from molecules such as cytokines for proliferation and metabolic adaptations. PRL‐3, a cytokine‐induced oncogenic phosphatase, is highly expressed in multiple myeloma cells and associated with poor outcome in this cancer. We studied whether PRL‐3 influences metabolism. Cells transduced to express PRL‐3 had higher aerobic glycolytic rate, oxidative phosphorylation, and ATP production than the control cells. PRL‐3 promoted glucose uptake and lactate excretion, enhanced the levels of proteins regulating glycolysis and enzymes in the serine/glycine synthesis pathway, a side branch of glycolysis. Moreover, mRNAs for these proteins correlated with PRL‐3 expression in primary patient myeloma cells. Glycine decarboxylase (GLDC) was the most significantly induced metabolism gene. Forced GLDC downregulation partly counteracted PRL‐3‐induced aerobic glycolysis, indicating GLDC involvement in a PRL‐3‐driven Warburg effect. AMPK, HIF‐1α, and c‐Myc, important metabolic regulators in cancer cells, were not mediators of PRL‐3's metabolic effects. A phosphatase‐dead PRL‐3 mutant, C104S, promoted many of the metabolic changes induced by wild‐type PRL‐3, arguing that important metabolic effects of PRL‐3 are independent of its phosphatase activity. Through this study, PRL‐3 emerges as one of the key mediators of metabolic adaptations in multiple myeloma.


The study aimed to identify and analyze the nationwide Health Information Systems (SIS) operating in Brazil from 2010 to 2018 and to understand the management and support structure for Information Technology (IT) in these systems in the Ministry of Health. This was a descriptive study based on document analysis, seeking to consolidate the data on nationwide SIS based on selection criteria referenced on the concept of SIS. The documents yielded incomplete and mutually disparate data, evidencing different interpretations of the concepts of systems and health information systems in the Ministry of Health. The survey found 54 nationwide Health Information Systems functioning from 2010 to 2018 and collected information on seven decentralized IT centers in Ministry of Health departments, which work autonomously from the Brazilian Health Informatics Department (DATASUS). The analysis of the logics of their functioning identified four groups of SIS pertaining to the following: monitoring relevant events for public health, greater control and monitoring of health programs in the Ministry of Health, registration of physical and legal persons, and a "new generation" of SIS that are developed and maintained by the Federal Government but differ from its verticalized programmatic logic, focused on administrative rationalization and improving the quality of services provided by the SUS at the local and regional levels.


In Finland, the Emergency Response Center (ERC) is responsible for the pan-European 112 emergency number service. The service is produced by tax revenues and the call to the emergency number is free of charge all to the citizen. There are six ERC´s in Finland with their own areas and each year they receive more than 3 million emergency calls. Calls include, in addition to emergency treatment, rescue service and police tasks, but also tasks which relating to social emergencies. This article opens the perspective of the general characteristics of the social emergencies of Finnish modern society through the ERC`s. The study examined how many social tasks were created in the ERC´s during the years 2011 – 2015 and what was the quality of those tasks. The material was collected in tabular format and was analyzed by simplest methods for the percentage and frequency distribution. The main customer groups of the social tasks in the ERC´s were the children and young people, as well as the elderly, and the tasks were mainly related to the review of the urgent nurture and care. The number of social tasks seemed to grow yearly. The role of the ERC´s as a recipient of social emergencies in Finnish society was considered a phenomenon. They have been given a permanent foothold as the first receiving authority for urgent social tasks, assistance and security and serving the first authority link via the 112-emergency number.


The so-called Species Sensitivity Distribution (SSD) uses causal relationships between exposure level and effect level of individual species. By using exposure-effect data of multiple types of animals and plants, the sensitivity distribution of these species can be used to assess the risk of human interference more quantitatively. Although the SSD was originally developed to assess the ecological risk of toxicants, it also appeared to be applicable for non-toxic stressors. SSDs for assessing the risk of suspended clay-particles and sedimentation, for instance, have been developed specifically for the environmental impact analysis of offshore oil and gas drilling activities. One advantage of having SSDs for non-toxic stressors is that they can be easily combined with those of toxic stressors, resulting in a single impact indicator, although such combinations remain to be fully validated.


The Threat Simulation Theory (TST) postulates that dreaming evolved as a mental simulation for the rehearsal of the neurocognitive mechanisms essential for threat recognition and avoidance behaviors. In the present study, we tested the predictions of the TST that dreams are specialized in the frequent simulation of realistic and severe threatening events targeted against the dream self, and that the dream self is likely to take appropriate defensive actions against the threat. The subjects were 50 Swedish university students who kept home-based dream diaries for a period of two or four weeks. The dreams were analyzed with a content analysis method specifically designed for identifying and classifying threatening events in dreams, the Dream Threat Scale. Our results show that in the dreams of ordinary young adults threatening events are frequent, severe, realistic and targeted against the self and significant others. Appropriate defensive actions are frequently undertaken when the situation allows active participation. The present study replicates earlier findings but in an independent sample, collected in a different country and language area, and analyzed by judges different from the original study. Our findings thus offer further support for the predictions of the TST


The chemotherapeutic agent 6-mercaptopurine was previously shown to inhibit the binding of 7r,8t-dihydroxy-9,10t-oxy-7,8,9,10-tetrahydro-benzo(a) pyrene (BPDE-I) to DNA in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Two compounds related to 6-mercaptopurine, 2,6-dithiopurine (DTP) and thiopurinol (TP), have been tested for inhibition of the binding of BPDE-I to epidermal DNA in mouse skin. Doses of test compound (0.2-20 mumol) or solvent control were applied to the shaved backs of female SENCAR mice. Fifteen min later, 200 nmol [3H]BPDE-I were applied to the same area and 3 h later the mice were sacrificed and epidermal DNA was purified and adduct formation was quantitated radiometrically. At the highest doses studied, DTP and TP inhibited DNA binding by 90 and greater than 80%, respectively. The dose necessary to inhibit DNA binding by 50% was about 0.8 mumol for DTP and about 2 mumol for TP. To test whether this protective effect was long-lasting, the time between application of purinethiol and [3H]BPDE-I was systematically increased. Although the level of protection was decreased by increasing the time between applications, both compounds inhibited binding 50-60% even after 24-48 h. A radioactive compound tentatively identified as a TP-BPDE-I adduct could be recovered from epidermal homogenates following topical application of TP and BPDE-I. We used a standard two-stage initiation-promotion protocol to test the effects of these compounds on mouse skin carcinogenesis. Mice were treated with 0, 1, or 10 mumol of either TP or DTP, and 15 min later were treated with an initiating dose of BPDE-I (200 nmol). Twice weekly promotion with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate was begun 2 weeks later and continued for 23 weeks. A dose-dependent inhibition of tumor incidence and multiplicity was noted with both compounds. Treatment of skin with 10 mumol of DTP prior to initiation lowered the number of papillomas per mouse by greater than 90% compared to solvent controls; a 10-fold lower dose resulted in about 50% inhibition. The 10-mumol dose of TP resulted in about 50% inhibition. Mice were examined for 50 weeks for the presence of squamous cell carcinomas. Compared to the positive control group, 10 mumol DTP inhibited carcinoma incidence and lowered the total number of carcinomas by 90-95%. Treatment with 10 mumol TP had no significant effect on carcinoma incidence, and only slightly lowered the total number of carcinomas.


Soil acidity is one of the major soil chemical constraints which limit agricultural productivity in the mid and highlands of Ethiopia. The study was conducted to evaluate the influence of lime on yield and yield attributes of soybean in acid soil at Metu south western Ethiopia during  2010 to 2013 cropping season. The crop was evaluated in terms of yield and yield components. In this line, splitting into two and applying in two consecutive years as well as splitting of lime into three and applying in three consecutive years gave similar yield with full rate application of lime for soybean. Splitting into four was even gave similar grain yield with splitting lime into two and three.. Result of this experiment revealed that splitting the required amount of lime into 25%, 33%and 50% is possible if  to be grown on this soil. Split application and full rate application gave almost similar soybean yield. However, resource of poor farmer who cannot afford the price of full dose lime can split in to two, three and four and apply every year without significant yield loss for both  compared to one time application of full dose. Soybean grain yield was significantly (P<0.05) affected by the interaction of lime and year at Metu (Hurumu) . The highest grain yield observed on first and third year (2010&2012)  at full dose application of lime.Even though lime level at 1.5* E.A (5.652t) and phosphorus at 46% shows good yield and had consistency across the year, Saied to be the best combination of Lime and P. Maintaining soil healthy is possible for the area because simultaneous and minimum use of lime and Phosphorus fertilizer give similar seed yield with maximum use of lime and Phosphorus on the study area. Phosphorus fixation, which is responsible for low availability of P, is one of the major problems of crop growth in acidic soils such as Nitsols of Metu area. Keywords: Nitosols, Soybean, Lime, soil pH, exchangeable acidity


Oblate drops of water illuminated perpendicular to their symmetry axis generate a hyperbolic-umbilic diffraction catastrophe near the primary rainbow [P. L. Marston and E. H. Trinh, Nature London 312, 529-531 (1984)]. Observations were made of this diffraction catastrophe generated by white-light illumination of acoustically levitated drops of water in air. The observations suggest what generalized rainbows would look like if they were produced in nature when sunlight illuminates large raindrops. Unlike the usual rainbow arc, the transverse cusp of the unfolded catastrophe is not distinctly colored. The hyperbolic-umbilic focal section is distinctly colored as is another diffraction catastrophe generated in the rainbow region when the drop is highly oblate.