Maize weevil (Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky) is a major maize (Zea mays L.) storage insect pest in the tropics which reduces the quantity and quality of maize hence facilitating establishment of aflatoxin and other mycotoxins. The objective of this study was to evaluate maize weevil resistance on selected inbred lines. Twenty eight inbred lines with 2 checks (MTPO701-reistant and Duma 41-susceptible) were used in this experiment. Thirty unsexed adult insects were introduced into 250 ml glass jars with grains of the lines at room temperature.  Evaluation of weevil damage was done at 10, 60 and 120 days after maize weevil infestation. Each category of storage period was replicated 4 times and experiment was set at the same time. Data was collected on percent weevil damage, grain weight loss and number of live and dead weevils on each inbred line. ANOVA analysis showed significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) on weight loss. The selection of the resistant genotypes was based on percent weight loss after 60 days. Resistant lines selected included KEN2/TZL2.25# and LEPOOL-1/TZL2-2-1. These lines showed resistance to maize weevil damage and hence can be stored up to 4 months. At 120 days there was maximum damage and most lines could not be differentiated on the basis of resistance. KEN2/TZL2-2-5# showed consistency in resistance to maize weevils at all storage periods. High heritability at 60 days showed that selection for weevil resistance in these inbred lines is effective and feasible. Results in this study also revealed high, positive and significant correlation relationship between percent damage, weight loss and live weevils. The maize weevil resistant lines can be used to improve resistance of high yielding varieties in breeding programmes.

 Key words: Inbred lines, maize, post-harvest, resistance, Sitophillus zeamais.


Interactive tabletops do not only offer a large surface for collaborative interaction. They also offer quick access to digital tools directly at the table - where a large number of everyday activities take place. Tabletops with an embedded display are generally less flexible and more fragile than ordinary massive tabletops. Physical objects on the tabletop occlude the digital content. In contrast, top-down-projected interfaces using an overhead camera-projector system allow for augmenting arbitrary tables and the object lying on them. However, detecting pointing input only via a camera image captured from above requires robustly recognizing whether a finger or pen touches the tabletop or whether it hovers slightly above it. In this paper, we present a solution for reliably tracking a pen on arbitrary tabletop surfaces. The pen emits infrared light via a tip made of optical fiber. A camera captures position and shape of the light point on the surface. Our open-source tracking algorithm combines heuristics and a machine learning model to distinguish between drawing and hovering. A pilot study with 7 participants shows that that this system can be reliably used for drawing and writing on tabletops. However, occlusion by users' hands can deteriorate tracking of the pen.


When designing interventions in public health, development, and education, decision makers rely on social network data to target a small number of people, capitalizing on peer effects and social contagion to bring about the most welfare benefits to the population. Developing new methods that are privacy-preserving for network data collection and targeted interventions is critical for designing sustainable public health and development interventions on social networks. In a similar vein, social media platforms rely on network data and information from past diffusions to organize their ad campaign and improve the efficacy of targeted advertising. Ensuring that these network operations do not violate users' privacy is critical to the sustainability of social media platforms and their ad economies. We study privacy guarantees for influence maximization algorithms when the social network is unknown, and the inputs are samples of prior influence cascades that are collected at random. Building on recent results that address seeding with costly network information, our privacy-preserving algorithms introduce randomization in the collected data or the algorithm output, and can bound each node's (or group of nodes') privacy loss in deciding whether or not their data should be included in the algorithm input. We provide theoretical guarantees of the seeding performance with a limited sample size subject to differential privacy budgets in both central and local privacy regimes. Simulations on empirical network datasets reveal the diminishing value of network information with decreasing privacy budget in both regimes, as well as additional nuances of post-processing in the local regime.


Hypercoiling polymers can be suited for application to living systems because they are similar in structure to the protein-based lipid assemblies found at fluid interfaces within the body. This leads to a range of exciting possibilities, not only in membrane transport applications but also in biosensors, drug delivery and mechanistic studies of biological membrane function. This study is focused in the study of the stability and suitability of nanostructures made of a hypercoiling polymer for drug delivery applications. The polymer poly (styrene-maleic acid) (PSMA) was combined with the phospholipid dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) to form amphiphilic nanostructures. The stability and suitability of these polymer-phospholipid nanocarriers for hydrophobic and hydrophilic molecules load and release was analyzed by several techniques. It was found that several of the studied molecules had a substantial effect on the surface charge and stability of the nanocarrier. It was also demonstrated that two types of nanocarriers, chemically modified and unmodified, were able to control the release of the molecules, especially in the case of hydrophobic compounds. In addition, as the hydrophobicity increased the release slowed down. These clear nanocarriers have the potential to behave very favorably at interfaces such as the tear lipid film were transparency is a requirement, giving a new way of controlled drug release in the eye.


Parametric instabilities induced at the plasma edge by lower hybrid wave power externally coupled to tokamak plasmas have, via broadening of the antenna spectrum, strong influence on the power deposition and current drive in the core. For modeling the parametric instabilities at the tokamak plasma edge in lower hybrid current drive experiments, the effect of the collisions has been neglected so far. In the present work, a specific collisional parametric dispersion relation, useful to analyze these nonlinear phenomena near the lower hybrid antenna mouth, is derived for the first time, based on a kinetic model. Numerical solutions show that in such cold plasma regions the collisions prevent the onset of the parametric instabilities. This result is important for present lower hybrid current drive experiments, as well as in fusion reactor scenarios.


Field studies of symbiotic interactions between soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) and Bradyrhizobium japonicum (Kirch.) Jordon are often limited by an inability of specific inocula to compete successfully with indigenous bradyrhizobia for root nodule sites. The objective of this note is to describe and evaluate a transplantation technique for modifying soybean root nodule occupancy under field conditions. Pre-nodulated seedlings were prepared under greenhouse conditions in containers designed for the generation of transplants. The inoculation procedures used ensured that all nodules initiated prior to transplanting contained only selected strains of B. japonicum The seedlings were transplanted to field microplots when approximately 3 wk old and subsequently allowed to develop normally. The transplanted seedlings exhibited high rates of survival and excellent yield potentials. Control of nodule occupancy on tap roots and adjoining portions of major lateral roots was nearly complete for several weeks after transplanting.


Any intrascrotal space-consuming process needs to be investigated without delay. The risk of the lesion being a malignant tumor can be assessed on the basis of the differential diagnoses and investigative procedures described herein. If there is the slightest suspicion that the patient has a testicular malignancy he must be immediately referred to a specialist who will investigate any unclear space-consuming lesion by exposing the testis via an inguinal incision. Immediate treatment of a testiculartumor is of decisive importance forthe patient's prognosis.


Primary dysmenorrhoea is one of the most common medical disorder in young females that
affects their quality of life and it is one of the leading causes of repeated absenteeism. Because
of the high prevalence of dysmenorrhoea in females in our society, this study was taken
up.Ninety age (18-20yrs) and sex matched medical students of same ethnic group and socioeconomic
status were selected. Demographic data were collected through a standard
questionnaire. BMI was calculated from height and weight. The subjects were divided into six
groups depending on their BMI values. Control group consisted of group I (BMI<18.5) and II
(BMI18.5-24.9). The data of overweight subjects (BMI=25-30, Group III) and obese subjects
(BMI>30, Groups IV –VI) were pooled together as obese group. Data were statistically analyzed
by Pearson Chi-square test and Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA). The mean age at which
menarche was attained by the subjects was 12+2 yrs. Many (75%) of the subjects experienced
dysmenorrhea and majority (60%) of the subjects with dysmenorrhoea had normal menstrual
cycles and 85% of them had no physical activity. A significant positive correlation between
dysmenorrhea and physical inactivity was obtained (p<0.05) and there was no significant
correlation between BMI and dysmenorrhea in both the groups (p>0.05).


We have constructed four deletion derivatives of the cloned dnaK gene. Plasmid pDD1, in which the last 10 amino acids of the DnaK protein have been replaced by three different amino acids derived from the pBR322 vector, was as effective as plasmid pKP31, from which it was derived, in restoring the ability of a dnaK null mutant, Escherichia coli BB1553, to plate lambda phage and to grow at high temperatures. The other three mutations, involving much larger deletions of the dnaK gene, did not restore the ability to plate lambda phage or the ability to grow at high temperatures. Plasmid pKUC2, which contains the whole dnaK gene and its promoters, was capable of restoring the ability of E. coli BB1553 to plate lambda phage but, surprisingly, it did not restore the ability to grow at high temperatures, even though it was shown that the DnaK protein was efficiently expressed in these cultures. By transposon mutagenesis and sub-cloning, we have shown the presence of a second gene in plasmid pKP31 which is required for high-temperature growth of E. coli BB1553. This gene, which we call htg A, is presumably also defective in the dnaK null mutant E. coli BB1553. We have also demonstrated that the inability of E. coli K756 to grow above 43.5 degrees C is complemented by sub-clones which contain the htg A gene, but not by plasmid pKUC2.


Objective Women of low socioeconomic status (SES) diagnosed with early stage breast cancer experience decision-making, treatment and outcome disparities. Evidence suggests that decision aids can benefit underserved patients, when tailored to their needs. Our aim was to develop and test the usability, acceptability and accessibility of a pictorial encounter decision aid targeted at women of low SES diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. Design Community-based participatory research (CBPR) using think-aloud protocols (phases 1 and 2) and semistructured interviews (phase 3). Setting Underserved community settings (eg, knitting groups, bingo halls, senior centres) and breast clinics. Participants In phase 1, we recruited a convenience sample of clinicians and academics. In phase 2, we targeted women over 40 years of age, of low SES, regardless of breast cancer history, and in phase 3, women of low SES, recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Intervention The pictorial encounter decision aid was derived from an evidence-based table comparing treatment options for breast cancer (http://www.optiongrid.org). Outcome measures We assessed the usability, acceptability and accessibility of the pictorial decision aid prototypes using the think-aloud protocol and semistructured interviews. Results After initial testing of the first prototype with 18 academics and health professionals, new versions were developed and tested with 53 lay individuals in community settings. Usability was high. In response to feedback indicating that the use of cartoon characters was considered insensitive, a picture-only version was developed and tested with 23 lay people in phase 2, and 10 target users in phase 3. Conclusions and relevance Using CBPR methods and iterative user testing cycles improved usability and accessibility, and led to the development of the Picture Option Grid, entirely guided by multiple stakeholder feedback. All women of low SES recently diagnosed with early stage breast cancer found the Picture Option Grid usable, acceptable and accessible.


Osteoporosis is a generalized skeletal disorder of low bone mass and deterioration in its architecture causing susceptibility to fracture. Multiple etiological factors like physical, hormonal, nutritional and life style contribute to the development of disease. It usually generates along with senile and postmenopausal changes in the body. Morbidity associated with Osteoporotic fracture is on the rise. Currently the disease is increasing in much earlier groups, owing to present lifestyle. So preventive strategies should be adopted much earlier as maintaining a healthy life style itself can protect against fractures in later life. As disease prevention and treatment have improved over last two decades, public awareness of Osteoporosis remains minimal particularly in rural areas. Conventional medications are often effective for symptomatic relief only. However this provides much scope to Ayurveda, which aims at treatment as well as disease prevention. It can be considered as a disease characterized by localization of vitiated Vata in Asthi Dhatu i.e.; 'Asthigata Vata' resulting in Asthi Kshaya. Vata Kopa and Asthikshaya can result in osteoporosis. Condition can be managed in Ayurveda adopting Asthigata Vata Chikitsa, Asthikshaya chikitsa, Bhagna chikitsa and usage of drugs with Brimhana, Rasayana and Vata Hara property.


ABSTRACT  The focus of present study is to quantify the radiation budget of aerosols over Jaipur (Northwestern, India) from 2011 to 2015. The Aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) has been determined for shortwave spectrum (0.3–3.0 µm) individually for the top of the atmosphere (TOA), bottom of the atmosphere (BOA) and within the atmosphere (ATM) over study region. Santa Barbara DISORT Atmospheric Radiative Transfer model (SBDART) is used to simulate the aerosols radiative effect.  The inter-annual monthly average of ARF at TOA during 2011–2015 is found between –11.40 to –5.60 W m–2, while the ARF at BOA is found to be between –32.2 to –22.49 W m–2. Likewise, the ARF within the atmosphere (ATM) comes between 14.04 to 22.47 W m–2 over Jaipur. The SBDART model is run discretely for Dust period (DSP) and non-Dust Period (NDP) during the year 2012 to inspect the change in ARF during extreme events over the Jaipur site. During DSP, the net TOA and BOA forcing are found in the range –20.71 to –16.81 W m–2 and –45.15 to –39.6 W m–2, respectively, and net ATM forcing varies in the range 22.7 to 24.4 W m–2. For the NDP, the corresponding value varies in the range –10.1 to –6.6 W m–2 and –23.6 to –22.3 W m–2. The net ATM forcing during NDP is between 12.2 to 17.05 W m–2. The value of BOA increases more than ~67% during DSP than NDP. The more increase (–ve) in surface forcing represents the cooling of the surface during DSP. The results depict that dust over Jaipur in the vicinity of the Thar Desert is scattering in nature with high value (> 0.95) of SSA. The scattering is mostly high during summer and low in winter.


The dynamic changes in the world have led to transformation from agricultural society to industrial society introducing more advancement in information technology and innovation called as the Economy 4.0 era. Therefore, it is essential for the teachers to keep pace with changes in order to be competitive and this is a new challenge to redefine the new Education 4.0, to determine the creative and innovative teachers.  It is also a challenge for the learner to seek the learning outcome with regard to the learning management by the teacher. Questioning the current supervision system of Turkey, this paper discusses innovative reflective models in teacher supervision posed by Education 4.0 and their utilization within the educational contexts. Inadequate number of supervisors and demands on supervisors posed by the current learner-based innovations both in and out of educational contexts have directed many to doubt about the quality of the supervision, actual time spent for the development of teachers and collaboration for better teaching and better learning. Reflection gives teachers a chance to self-evaluate their teaching practices. Teachers grow professionally if they rethink on their actual teaching practices together with the prospective improvements. The essential goal of reflective teacher supervision is to create an environment for teacher inquiry, a teacher-administrator-driven form of professional growth. With its reconfigured supervision roles and relationship, it mainly reconceptualizes the meaning of supervision, in which schools can try to challenge an embedded traditional 'top-down,' hierarchical paradigm, with the teachers themselves at the bottom as passive recipients of training. This paper also includes a description of how reflective models go about helping teachers use their own thought process to develop both learning and teaching. It also describes the processes of individual reflective practices like teacher portfolios, journals; partner reflective practices including peer coaching, cognitive coaching; small group reflective practices such as action research, study groups, and school-based practices like classroom walk-throughs and instructional rounds. Finally, it concludes with how reflective practices and professional learning communities according to Education 4.0 are promoted.


Peripheral positional vertigo is classified into the posterior semicircular canal type and the horizontal semicircular canal type. In the posterior canal type, rotatory nystagmus occurs on the Dix-Hallpike maneuver. The horizontal canal type demonstrates direction-changing horizontal nystagmus in a supine position with head turn. We classified horizontal canal positional vertigo into 3 types. Eighty-eight patients aged between 22 and 85 years (average age, 56.9 years;65 women and 23 men) were studied. Each had direction-changing horizontal positional nystagmus, without evidence of neurologic disease. Nystagmus patterns were classified into three types:1) apogeotropic type (nystagmus is always persistent, namely nystagmus lasts more than one minute), 2) persistent geotropic type (nystagmus lasts more than one minute), 3) transient geotropic type (nystagmus decays and stops within 30 seconds). Apogeotropic nystagmus was detected in 31 patients with 30 patients exhibiting the persistent geotropic type, and 27 patients the transient geotropic type. The apogeotropic type is explained by heavy debris cupulolithiasis of the horizontal semicircular canal. The pathophysiology of persistent geotropic type is considered a result of light debris cupulolithiasis of the horizontal semicircular canal. Transient geotropic type is explained by canalolithiasis of the horizontal canal.


Current methods for determining wind farm maximum size use conservative voltage stability approach based on maximum wind speed occurring simultaneously with peak loading conditions. Wind patterns at a wind farm site may never allow the wind farm to produce its maximum capacity during the hours of heavy loading conditions. In this paper, a new method is proposed to determine wind farm maximum size which incorporates voltage stability margins and wind patterns at the wind farm site into sizing a wind farm. It provides a method to increase wind farm maximum size with an option of curtailing wind generation under certain conditions based on voltage stability margins. The proposed method is applied to a wind farm in western Kansas power system. Results of applying the new method show that wind farm maximum size can be increased if the system is operated with wind curtailment control to maintain voltage stability.


This paper proposes a method of segmentation that segments lecture videomaterial into subtopics based on speech signals for creation of educational video contents. To represent subtopics of video segments, the text recognized by automatic speech recognition (ASR) from a lecture speech was converted into an index using independent component analysis (ICA) instead of conventional TFIDF. This research attempted a method of segmentation using dynamic programming that minimizes the sum of cosine measures between adjacent indexes. The validity of the proposed method was evaluated using sample lecture videos. Results indicated that subtopic segmentation using automatic speech recognition performed as well as that using transcription text.


The fight for gender equality in Turkey extends as far as the sports sector of the economy. Although Turkey has recently seen a fast rise in the participation of women in sports, female athletes are still being marginalized for many reasons. The alarming levels of discrimination discourage females from entering into professional sports in Turkey and have inhibited the growth of the female sports sector in Turkey. This research aims to examine the different roles women have to take with emphasis on explaining the relationship between sports and politics in modern Turkey. The present study explores Turkish women's specific constraints and challenges in professional Sports. Qualitative data were generated from semi-structured interviews conducted with 142 female athletes (both amateur and professionals) across different cities in Turkey. The findings of the study indicate that family influence (χ= 4.39 of 5), wage inequality (χ = 4.31 of 5), media misrepresentation (χ = 4.16 of 5), inadequate sports facilities for women (χ = 4.12 of 5) and high levels of sexual harassment (χ = 3.89 of 5) are the constraints that must be addressed to improve the climate for female participation in sports significantly. The study highlights how these physical activities and sports programs play essential roles in increasing awareness of their importance and improving the overall perception of women in sports in Turkey.


Energy intakes reported in diet diaries are frequently significantly below the energy requirements for a weight-stable individual. To investigate the impact of low energy reporting on between-group comparisons and within-subject analyses of eating behavior, we examined the baseline 7-d food-intake diaries submitted by 365 male and 564 female free-living normal adult humans. Participants were separated into 5 different groups, based upon their levels of energy reporting relative to their predicted basal metabolic rate: EI:BMR(est) = 0-0.99, 1.0-1.199, 1.2-1.399, 1.3-1.599, and > or =1.6. Between-group analysis revealed significant inverse relations among reporting level and body weight, BMI, cognitive restraint, positive relations with intake, meal size, and meal frequency. On the other hand, within-subject analyses suggested that, regardless of the level of energy reporting, equivalent relations are found among the amounts eaten in meals and the presence of other people, palatability, hunger, satiety, dietary energy density, contents of the stomach, time since the last meal, and time of day and correlations between daily intake and intake on subsequent days. The results suggest that comparing the intakes reported in diet diaries by different groups may be confounded by group differences in reporting levels. In contrast, the results clearly support the conclusion that diet diary data are suitable for assessing the relations between variables assessed within subjects irrespective of the level of reporting of energy intake.


The legalization of marijuana in Canada is expected to have a significant impact on workplaces, requiring the development or updating of company drug-related policies and procedures. To help employment relations stakeholders with this change, recommendations are made based on an analysis of 93 past arbitration/tribunal/court cases involving marijuana-related policy violations, drawn from the Labour Source database. Issues addressed include language and communication of the work rule, reasonableness of drug tests, standard of proof, duty to accommodate, and mitigating factors.
 Based on the study of those 93 court cases, some recommendations can be formulated. First, employers need to clearly state their drug-related policies, taking into consideration safety-sensitivity and any substance abuse culture. This may include prohibition of possession, use, and distribution of drugs at the workplace or working under the influence, and the need to report any medical drug use that requires accommodation. Drug tests should only be done when there is a bona fide occupational requirement or where safety is a concern, such as post-incident or when there is reasonable suspicion of drug impairment. Also, it is important to understand that positive drug test results can only show past drug use but not the level of impairment or whether the drug was used while on a work shift. Therefore, to support an offence violation and discipline, corroborating evidence from multiple witnesses and sources are often necessary.
 Supervisors should be trained to identify the characteristics related to marijuana and drug impairment and the procedures to follow when an incident occurs. Employers must be cognizant of the duty to accommodate medical marijuana users or recreational users who are addicted, under human rights protection for disability. Such accommodation may include work reassignment or a leave of absence. In deciding on a penalty, other than past performance and disciplinary records and personal extenuating circumstances, arbitrators may consider rehabilitation situations to assess the prognosis and viability of the employment relationship.
 Employers and unions are advised to stay abreast of latest developments in the laws, drug test technologies and medical research related to marijuana use.


Abstract
 The Present study was done in the Department of Surgery, J.A. Group of Hospitals and C.H.R.I. Gwalior in 40 Patients with malignant ascites in which 16(40%) were male and 24(60%) were female. Mean age was 54 years (Range 17-75yrs.) Out of 40 patients 20 (50%). patient underwent repeated paracentesis, 10(25%) underwent diuretic therapy and 10 (25%) patient underwent peritoneo-saphenous shunts. The reudction is abdominal girth following treatment by various procedures from pre treatment measurement was statistically significant at 0.1% level (P<0.001). The reduction in number of large volume paracentesis post peritoneo-saphenous shunt till 3 month follow up as compared to pre-peritoneo-saphenous shunt was statistically significant at 0.1 level (P<0.001). Shunt patency was 100% (8 patients ) at 1 month follow-up and 75% (6 patients) at 3 month follow up.
Thus we conclude that peritoneo-saphenous shunt, repeated paracentesis is simple, safe and effective treatment modality. PS Shunt offers the benefits of prosthetic peritoneovenous shunt without the disadvantages and the expense of a prosthesis. shunt patency rate are high and it offers good control of ascites as evidenced by reduction in abdominal girth, reduirement of large volume paracentesis and improvement in subjective criterias (appetite, locomotion etc.) Complications of repeated paracentesis and shunt surgery are few and mostly manageable.


Social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube allow for the development of an online community for individuals to communicate and connect with others throughout the world. For this paper, social media outlets are understood to offer a solution to the ongoing issue of political disengagement found among youth between the ages of 18 and 34. Municipalities commonly experience low voter turnout during elections, causing a shift in candidates' focus from traditional forms of campaigning towards the use of social media. The political disengagement among youth has been attributed to a lack of knowledge on politics and a lack of mobility during elections. As youth are the most active age demographic on social media, the use of these outlets has been understood as a solution to political disengagement. As a result, for this paper I have identified four main categories for analysis; which include, social media accounts used by councillors, municipally operated social media accounts, electoral turnout in municipal elections, and the average age of councillors. This paper uses these points of analysis to investigate the impact social media has on the level of engagement among youth in the functions of municipal governments.


Nowadays, business condition could not rely only on physical assets, yet managing intellectual capital as intangible asset is important to improve financial performance and win the market competition. Due to that reason, this study aims to show the significant effect of the intellectual capital indicators, namely HCE, SCE, RCE, and CEE on the financial performance of companies that are proxy by Net Profit Margin (NPM) and Return on Equity (ROE). The observed subjects in this study are hospitality, restaurant and tourism companies, with the observation period from 2010 until 2014. Secondary data from annual financial statements of sample companies that are published in Indonesia Stock Exchange or company's official website have been chosen as the research data, while the data collection has been done by the method of literature and documentation. After applying the purposive judgement sampling, eleven eligible companies have been selected as samples. This study used descriptive statistics test, classic assumption test and the significance test with panel data regression which were analyzed with the help of Eviews 8.0. The result showed that the indicators of the intellectual capital have a significant influence on NPM and ROE simultaneously. NPM is affected by the HCE and RCE, whereas both ROA and ROE were affected significantly by SCE and CE


Duodenal adenomas, usually considered premalignant, are found in < or = 100% of patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). Endoscopic screening is accepted, but the optimal treatment is unclear. Our objective was to assess endoscopic treatment of the upper gastrointestinal tract in patients with FAP. We reviewed the clinical records of 393 FAP patients in detail. Six patients had ampullary cancers. Sixty-nine had periampullary adenomas, none of whom developed malignancy during follow-up. Several endoscopic approaches were used, leading to various outcomes. (a) Follow-up with ampullary biopsy was the only method in 18 patients, with macroscopic improvement in one, unchanged condition in 11, and enlargement of adenomas in six. (b) Thermal ablation was used in 19 patients, with resolution in 10, improvement in seven unchanged condition in one, and one recurrence. (c) Yearly push enteroscopy, duodenoscopy, and ampullary biopsies were conducted in 11 of the 19 patients treated first with thermal ablation. Positive biopsies resulted in endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), prophylactic sphincterotomy, and ablation with reexamination every 2-6 months. Follow-up of the patients treated with this last and favored strategy showed that five experienced resolution of symptoms, five had macroscopic improvement, and one had macroscopic as well as histologic progression. We conclude that patients with FAP should have periampullary surveillance, including duodenoscopy and biopsies from the time of diagnosis. Periampullary adenomas can be eradicated endoscopically. It is not clear whether ablation of adenomas or periodic biopsy is the ideal treatment.


Zinc is essential for all bacteria, but excess amounts of the metal can have toxic effects. To address this, bacteria have developed tightly regulated zinc uptake systems, such as the ZnuABC zinc transporter which is regulated by the Fur-like zinc uptake regulator (Zur). In Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a Zur protein has yet to be identified experimentally, however, sequence alignment revealed that the zinc-responsive transcriptional regulator Np20, encoded by np20 (PA5499), shares high sequence identity with Zur found in other bacteria. In this study, we set out to determine whether Np20 was functioning as Zur in P. aeruginosa. Using RT-PCR, we determined that np20 (hereafter known as zur) formed a polycistronic operon with znuC and znuB. Mutant strains, lacking the putative znuA, znuB, or znuC genes were found to grow poorly in zinc deplete conditions as compared to wild-type strain PAO1. Intracellular zinc concentrations in strain PAO-Zur (Δzur) were found to be higher than those for strain PAO1, further implicating the zur as the zinc uptake regulator. Reporter gene fusions and real time RT-PCR revealed that transcription of znuA was repressed in a zinc-dependent manner in strain PAO1, however zinc-dependent transcriptional repression was alleviated in strain PAO-Zur, suggesting that the P. aeruginosa Zur homolog (ZurPA) directly regulates expression of znuA. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays also revealed that recombinant ZurPA specifically binds to the promoter region of znuA and does not bind in the presence of the zinc chelator N,N′,N-tetrakis(2-pyridylmethyl) ethylenediamine (TPEN). Taken together, these data support the notion that Np20 is the P. aeruginosa Zur, which regulates the transcription of the genes encoding the high affinity ZnuABC zinc transport system.


Abstract:  Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders defined behaviorally by abnormalities in social, verbal, and nonverbal communication. The etiologies of ASD are unknown, likely to be the result of a variety of numerous genetic, neurological, environmental, and immunological interactions that lead to a general behavioral phenotype defined as ASD. This review will focus on the various immune system anomalies, in particular, autoantibodies, which have been reported in subjects with ASD. In addition, we will discuss recent studies performed by our group concerning the presence of autoantibodies directed against neural antigens, which are observed in patients with ASD.


This paper describes the course on robot design that electronics systems engineers take in their last semester at the Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) in Mexico. In this course, the use of project oriented learning (POL) and collaborative learning are proposed. The paper also describes the design and implementation of a modular, low-cost, three-wheeled autonomous robotic platform, to serve as a base platform from which different applications, educational and research, could be mounted.


ObjectiveTo evaluate the relationship between heroin and non-heroin opioid seizures reported by law enforcement and the number of ER visits due to heroin and non-heroin opioid poisoning in selected counties in Missouri.IntroductionIn 2016, there were approximately 63,000 deaths nationally due to drug overdose. This trend continues to increase with the provisional number of US deaths for 2017 being approximately 72,000 (1). This increase in overdose deaths is fueled largely by the opioid class of drugs. The opioid epidemic began in the 1990s with a steady rise in prescription opioid overdoses. However, after 2010 a rise in heroin overdose deaths also began to occur. In addition to the heroin deaths increasing, there was a sharp rise in overdose deaths due to synthetic opioids including illicitly manufactured fentanyl beginning in 2013 (2). In Missouri, ER visits follow similar trends with heroin overdose visits greatly increasing after 2011. While PDMPs help function as data sources that provide information on the licit drug supply, they cannot give much knowledge on the illicit supply. Because of this, drug seizure data from law enforcement can provide a much-needed tool in understanding the supply of illicit substances and their impact on a county's morbidity.MethodsData sources used in this analysis include the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) drug seizure database thanks to cooperation by the Midwest HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) office and Missouri Highway Patrol. ER Visit Data was retrieved from the Missouri Patient Abstract System, which includes ER visits for non-federal hospitals. Data was aggregated on a quarterly basis from 2014-2016 resulting in 12 observations (n) for every county observed.A subset of counties were selected and reviewed based on both high counts and high rates of ED visits for opioid overdoses (3). The counties reviewed were Franklin, Greene, Jefferson, St. Francois, St. Louis City and St. Louis County. The majority of these counties were located in the greater St. Louis Are with Greene and St. Francois counties being notable exceptions. Greene County contains the city of Springfield and is located in southwest Missouri. St. Francois is the most rural county in our subset and is located south of the St. Louis area. For each county, the number of ER Visits were compared to the number of drug seizures reported by law enforcement facilities in EPIC. Numbers were compared for both heroin and non-heroin opioids. Records were identified as a heroin overdose or non-heroin opioid overdose based on CDC drug poisoning guidance (4). If an ER discharge record contained codes for both heroin and a non-heroin opioid, the record was counted in the heroin column only. This method avoided counting records twice.The Spearman correlation coefficient was calculated in SAS to determine if there was a possible relationship between seizures and ED visits at the county level due to the relatively few data points, the presence of outlier observations in the seizure numbers, as well as violations of statistical normality among the county seizure data. The Spearman Correlation Coefficient is a better alternative in this case to the commonly used Pearson Correlation Coefficient due to its ability to handle skewed data and outliers (5). As with the Pearson Correlation Coefficient, a score of 0 is read as the variables have no discernable relationships, and scores of 1 or -1 denote a perfect linear relationship between the observed variables (positive and negative respectively).ResultsInitial results showed correlational effects between ED visits and seizures to be generally moderate or weak on the county level. The strongest relationships observed were found in St. Louis City for both heroin (R=-0.455) and non-heroin opioids (R=-0.51) as well as Jefferson County for both heroin (R=0.536) and non-heroin (R=0.50). St. Louis County also had a notable relationship for heroin seizures and heroin ED visits with R=-0.55. P values were also calculated to test if correlation values differed significantly from the null hypothesis of R=0 (i.e. no correlation). In all examined cases, there was no p value that was less than the standard cutoff of 0.05 which indicates none of the results are markedly different given the null hypothesis of R=0 is true (6).Of particular interest is the contrast in results between St. Louis City and Jefferson County. St. Louis City had a moderate negative relationship with seizures and ED visits with ED Visits tending to decrease as drug seizures increased. Whereas, Jefferson County had a moderate positive relationship with ED Visits increasing alongside drug seizures. Due to their close geographic proximity, it is likely that both counties influence one another. Further evaluation is required to gauge regional effects.ConclusionsDue to the complexity of the opioid epidemic, the value of having varied data sources cannot be understated. While the correlational effects observed here are not indicative of a strong relationship between ED visits and drug seizures, further evaluation and research of both data sources is highly recommended. As additional data is gathered in the future, stronger analyses than the Spearman Correlation Coefficient may be used to further explore the relationship between drug overdose morbidity and law enforcement seizure data. Other relationships may also be explored such as drug seizures in relation to drug overdose mortality.References1. National Center for Health Statistics. (2018, September 12). Retrieved September 19, 2018, from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm2. Opioid Overdose. (2017, August 30). Retrieved September 19, 2018, from https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html3. Bureau of Health Care Analysis and Data Dissemination, Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. (2018, June 27). ER Visits Due to Opioid Misuse. Retrieved September 19, 2018 from https://health.mo.gov/data/opioids/pdf/opioid-dashboard-slide-16.pdf 4. CDC Prescription Drug Overdose Team. (2013, August 12). GUIDE TO ICD-9-CM AND ICD-10 CODES RELATED TO POISONING AND PAIN. Retrieved September 2018 from https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/pdf/pdo_guide_to_icd-9-cm_and_icd-10_codes-a.pdf5. Mukaka, M. (2012, September). A guide to appropriate use of Correlation coefficient in medical research. Retrieved September 20, 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3576830/ 6. Ronald L. Wasserstein & Nicole A. Lazar (2016) The ASA's Statement on p-Values: Context, Process, and Purpose, The American Statistician, 70:2, 129-133, DOI:10.1080/00031305.2016.1154108 from https://amstat.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00031305.2016.1154108


Modern clinical legal education programs are rich in their diversity and ambition, so much so that it is often difficult to decide if a self-described clinical program meets the description of 'clinic' or is in reality something less than that, seeking to achieve academic acceptance without investing in faculty understanding of clinical pedagogy or the money needed to provide reasonable personnel and physical infrastructure. In most countries, there has been little effort to establish standards for clinical legal education through accreditation bodies. Given the dearth of national direction, most law school deans simply decide to let the description and definition issue remain obscure. They do so for many reasons: because national legal education system bureaucrats imperfectly understand or recognise clinical methods; because students' consistent requests for more experiential legal education are muted and respectful; because traditionally-educated legal academics are wary of bringing practice-related content into their doctrinal classes; because doctrinal content is relatively cheap to teach compared to clinical methods; and finally, because finding a definition for 'clinic' and then acting on it is not required in any international accreditation context and rarely in a national context. Local systems' recognition of clinical method and pedagogy is slowly changing, especially in North America, and the issue of international clinical accreditation will become important in this decade as bodies such as the International Association of Law Schools and the Global Alliance for Justice Education begin to think about comparative standards for law schools and justice education. There is wide geo-political context to the movement towards national standards in legal education that may soon assert pressure for international standards. The frustrated UN effort to improve global living standards in the context of over-population, increasing carbon emissions, declining natural resources and increasing species' extinction rates has certainly focused attention on primary and manufacturing industries' practices, but very few tertiary or service sectors have been called upon so far to make a tangible difference to these mammoth problems. Educational recognition of the scale of the challenges, where it has occurred at all, has been primitive rather than sophisticated, in the sense that the debate about all these issues is output-centred - for example, on reducing emissions - rather than input-aware. Little serious attention has yet been given to the effect education has on the priorities of the professionals who engineer and manage the policies that produce our global danger zones, and the regulators of these sectors are even less concerned with how their lawyers, accountants, financial planners and bankers choose to behave in these contexts. Even the 2008-09 Global Financial Crisis ('GFC'), partially credited to the technical experimentation of a few so-called banking professionals, their lawyers and their attendant lax regulation, has led to output-based re-regulation rather than input-aware red-education. There has been little real pressure on the key finance-related professions or on their respective tertiary education systems to make a 'justice-presence' felt, or to formally harness the effort of either sector in the interests of international contributions to these mammoth resource allocation problems. In the case of law schools, the issues seem rather stark. As a vast but I hope not too facile generalisation, most law schools allocate disproportionally huge resources to graduating more commercial and corporate lawyers with similar priorities to those of the GFC progenitors and global industrial polluters. The notion that law schools ought to nurture justice-artificers as the global legal education priority is seen as too strong; it rings out the fear of socialism among first-world legal professions, but the global need for this type of lawyer will become socially more important nevertheless. In this article an effort is made to explore exactly what law schools could do, if they also thought that there is little time to waste, in adopting and resourcing real justice education priorities within clinics. Curriculum reviews will no doubt raise many other possibilities, but if a dean decides to go down this path with some rigour, then clinics and definitions of clinics have an important and leading role in this task. And if some deans have an eye to longer-term international accreditation, then they might wish to consider if future law curricula should prioritise courses that value wealth distribution rather than mere wealth creation and sustainable development over other understandings of property rights? In that event, clinical program directors will also need to look to achieve quite a lot over the next five years if they are to be ready for internationally credible processes and standards. This article proceeds in six parts. Part II discusses why self-assessment of clinical programs is necessary in the above context. Part III deals with the relationship of pro bono and externship concepts to clinical pedagogy and assessment. Part IV discusses the social capital of the legal profession and its connection to clinical programs. Part V describes the political and economic contexts for clinical program assessment. Part VI enumerates some of the major debates which will arise in relation to the likely criteria for self-assessment of clinical programs; that is, relevant curriculum theory; program 'effectiveness'; supervision standards; student assessment; connection to the whole of legal education; clinician selection, training, monitoring and retention; and finally documentation. Part VII concludes the article by tabulating suggested criteria for self-assessment and assigning a numerical weighting to each criteria. These weightings are intended to provoke a discussion not just as to the usefulness of individual criteria, but also as to the degree to which variations within each criterion might indicate greater or lesser commitment to clinical legal education.


The reliability for each measurement technique depends on the knowledge of it's uncertainty and the sources of errors of the results. Among the different techniques for optical measurement techniques for full field analysis of displacements and strains, digital image correlation (DIC) has been proven to be very flexible, robust and easy to use, covering a wide range of different applications. Nevertheless the measurement results are influenced by statistical and systematical errors. We discuss a 3D digital image correlation system which provides online error information and the propagation of errors through the calculation chain to the resulting contours, displacement and strains. Performance tests for studying the impact of calibration errors on the resulting data are shown for static and dynamic applications.


Kenneth A. Breisch The Los Angeles Central Library: Building an Architectural Icon, 1872–1933 Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2016, 220 pp., 2 maps, 36 color and 125 b/w illus. $45 (cloth), ISBN 9781606064900

Arnold Schwartzman and Stephen Gee Los Angeles Central Library: A History of Its Art and Architecture Los Angeles: Angel City Press, 2016, 240 pp., 150+ illus. $45 (cloth), ISBN 9781626400368; $30 (paper), ISBN 9781626400375

The Los Angeles Central Library opened to the public on 6 July 1926. Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue's acclaimed design features echoes of ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Mayan, and Mediterranean revival architecture, yet, more than a mere expression of eclecticism, it represents a masterful amalgamation of historical sources. Once the object of neglect and threatened with demolition, its architect disregarded, the Central Library is now renowned for its rich decorative programs of sculpture, painting, and mosaic inside and out, and deserves to be considered one of the most significant American buildings of the twentieth century. Two new books mark its ninetieth anniversary. Although they necessarily overlap in their discussion, their subtitles are telling: one, featuring photos by Arnold Schwartzman and text by Stephen Gee, provides a thorough documentary history of the building, including its preservation and restoration, while the other, authored by Kenneth A. Breisch, emphasizes the library's genesis and early development and also provides a penetrating analysis of its sophisticated design. As suggested here, the two books offer effectively complementary considerations that reevaluate a sometimes overlooked architect and his endeavor.

To follow the history of Los Angeles's library is to come to grips with the contentious development of the city itself. Through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a loose coalition of social reformers and business leaders known as Progressives sought to rationalize government's management of society and the economy. In Southern California, Progressives campaigned to end the machine politics they had left "back east" and instead put decision making into the hands of nonpartisan experts, a strategy that resulted in the cumbersome and contentious process marking the Central Library's formation and development. The library building project originated and grew amid competing ambitions and interests among the city's leaders, contests of will and conflicting motivations that played out in a distinctively …


Indigo is one of the brilliant blue dyes, which was used to be extracted from plants, but now synthesized chemically. Indigo is also produced by bacteria. In recent years, Ensley, B. D. (1983) and Mermod, N. (1986) reported a pathway producing indigo of bacteria. We are currently studying indigo formation by bacteria. Using Pseudomonas sp. S13 harboring naphthalene degradation plasmid as donor and E. coli as recipient, conjugates and transformants with the plasmid were obtained. The conjugates and transformants were not only able to grow in medium with naphthalene as the sole carbon and energy source, but also to synthesize indigo in Lennox medium. The conjugates and transformants were grown in Lennox medium at 30 degrees C for 48 hr then resulted in synthesis of indigo. The production of indigo is increased in the presence of tryptophan or indole. Indigo formation was enhanced if the bacteria was grown in a medium supplemented with either 0.1% of naphthalene or 1% of salicylic acid. The present work opens a field for the synthesis of dyes by microbes and it might shed light on the potential use in controlling environmental pollution by engineering bacteria.


Nonlinear ultrasonic techniques are based on the measurement of nonlinear elastic effects in the material, such as the magnitude of second harmonic response, in order to reveal the presence of surface and sub-surface flaws. These methods have shown to be more sensitive to damage-related structural alterations than any other ultrasonic technique, which typically relies on the investigation of linear material parameters such as wave speed, damping and wave scattering. This paper presents a novel nonlinear ultrasonic technique, here named as nonlinear ultrasonic multi-path reciprocal method, for the localization of material damage based on the measurement of nonlinear elastic effects using a spatially distributed array of surface mounted ultrasonic transducers. In the proposed methodology, the reciprocal nonlinear material response is measured between each pair of sensors acting both as transmitter and receiver. The resulting damage location is mapped to tangent circumferences centred at the transmitter location for each pair, and all contributions (multi-path) from all pairs are summed to achieve the final defect location. Both the second order nonlinear parameter and the bispectrum coefficient are used as a nonlinear ultrasonic signature due to signal noise effects hiding the nonlinear harmonic response. The proposed methodology is validated on a damage composite plate. Unlike traditional ultrasonic methods, this technique does not require any knowledge of the mechanical properties and layup, nor any baseline with the undamaged component.


Developed countries around the world are facing crucial challenges regarding health and social care because of the demographic change and current economic context. Innovation in technologies and services for Active and Assisted Living stands out as a promising solution to address these challenges, while profiting from the economic opportunities. For instance, lifelogging technologies may enable and motivate individuals to pervasively capture data about them, their environment and the people with whom they interact, in order to receive a variety of services to increase their health, well-being and independence. In this context, the PAAL project presented in this paper has been conceived, with a manifold aim: to increase the awareness about the ethical, legal, social and privacy issues associated to lifelogging technologies; to propose privacy-aware lifelogging services for older people, evaluating their acceptability issues and barriers to familiarity with technology; to develop specific applications referred to relevant use cases for older and frail people.


Identification of the short transient waveform, called a spike, in the cortical electroencephalogram (EEG) plays an important role during diagnosis of neurological disorders such as epilepsy. It has been suggested that artificial neural networks (ANN) can be employed for spike detection in the EEG, if suitable features are provided as input to an ANN. In this paper, we explore the performance of neural network-based classifiers using features selected by algorithms suggested by four previous investigators. Of these, three algorithms model the spike by mathematical parameters and use them as features for classification while the fourth algorithm uses raw EEG to train the classifier. The objective of this paper is to examine if there is any inherent advantage to any particular set of features, subject to the condition that the same data are used for all feature selection algorithms. Our results suggest that artificial neural networks trained with features selected using any one of the above three algorithms as well as raw EEG directly fed to the ANN will yield similar results.


The projected drying of the extra-tropics under a warmer climate has large implications for natural systems and water security in southern Australia. The downscaling of global climate models can provide insight into regional patterns of rainfall change in the midlatitudes in the typically wetter cool season. The comparison of statistical and dynamical downscaling model outputs reveals regions of consistent potential added value in the climate-change signal over the 21st century that are largely related to finer resolution. These differences include a stronger and more regionalised rainfall decrease on west coasts in response to a shift in westerly circulation and a different response further from the coast where other influences are important. These patterns have a plausible relationship with topography and regional drivers that are not resolved by coarse global models. However, the comparison of statistical and dynamical downscaling reveals where the method and the configuration of each method makes a difference to the projection. This is an important source of uncertainty for regional rainfall projections. In particular, the simulated change in atmospheric circulation over the century is different in the dynamical downscaling compared to the global climate model inputs, related in part to a different response to patterns of surface warming. The dynamical downscaling places the border between regions with rainfall increase and decrease further north in winter and spring compared to the global climate models and therefore has a different rainfall projection for southeast mainland Australia in winter and for Tasmania in spring.


UNLABELLED
Thoracic lymphomas most commonly afflict the lymph nodes of the mediastinum and lung roots. A diagnostic difficulty is due to selectivity of the lesion in different groups of lymph nodes, which may be accompanied by no x-ray changes in the early stages of the process and by a disseminated lesion and polymorphism of its manifestations in the extensive stages of the disease.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Two hundred and thirty-three patients with intrathoracic lymph node lesion were examined in 2003 to 2008. Conventional x-ray was a primary study. Later on multispiral computed tomography (MSCT) was performed, which was, if needed, supplemented by bolus contrast media injection and, in some cases, by magnetic resonance imaging.

RESULTS
Lymph nodes were involved by lymphoma in 154 patients, among which lymphogranulomatosis was in 74 cases, malignant non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 59, and chronic lympholeukemia in 21. Seventy-nine patients had a similar x-ray pattern that required a differential diagnosis with lymphomas (central cancer in 29 cases, sarcoidosis in 16, metastatic lesion in 12, pneumoconiosis in 10, tuberculosis in 7, Castleman's disease in 2, and lymphangioleiomatosis in 1.

CONCLUSION
the application of state-of-the-art radio technologies, primary MSCT, provides the maximal accurate differential diagnosis of intrathoracic lymph node lesion in lymphoma, which is the basis of timely treatment.


Tunable optical parametric generators and amplifiers (OPA), proposed and developed by Akhmanov and his colleagues, have become the working horses in exploration of dynamical processes in physics, chemistry, and biology. In this paper, we demonstrate the possibility of using ultrafast polarisation-sensitive two-colour spectroscopy, performed with a set of two OPAs, to study charge photogeneration and transport in conjugated polymers and their donor-acceptor blends.


Background: Contradictory results exist regarding the importance of early-life exposure to phthalates for development of childhood eczema. Objectives: We evaluated the association between maternal urinary concentrations of phthalate metabolites between the 24th and 28th week of gestation and occurrence of eczema in their sons up to 5 y of age, according to allergic sensitization as assessed by total immunoglobulin E (IgE) in a subsample of individuals. Methods: Data on health outcomes and background factors were collected using five standardized annual questionnaires completed by parents at the children's ages of 1–5 y, and their associations with phthalate metabolite urinary concentrations were assessed in 604 mother–son pairs with adjusted multiple logistic regression and Cox's survival model. Several eczema phenotypes were considered. Atopic status was assessed at 5 y of age in 293 boys through total IgE assessment. Results: At 5 y of age, the prevalence of ever eczema was 30.4%. Metabolites of di-isobutyl phthalate (DiBP) and di-isononyl phthalate (DiNP) were positively associated with early-onset (0–24 mo of age) eczema (15.7%) and late-onset (24–60 mo of age) eczema (14.7%). Applying the Cox's model showed a significant association of occurrence of eczema in the first 5 y of life with DiBP and DiNP metabolites. Among IgE-sensitized boys, metabolites of di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) and DiBP were significantly associated with ever eczema {hazard ratio (HR)=1.67 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.10, 2.54], p=0.01 and HR=1.87 (95% CI: 1.01, 3.48), p=0.04, respectively}. Conclusions: Occurrence of eczema in early childhood may be influenced by prenatal exposure to certain phthalates in boys. Further investigations are needed to confirm this observation. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1829


OBJECTIVE
Abnormal expression of mitogen-activated protein kinase 3 (MAPK3) is related to invasion, metastasis, and drug resistance of multiple tumor cells. MiR-129 expression is associated with gastric cancer. Bioinformatics analysis showed a targeting relation between miR-129 and MAPK3. This study investigated whether miR-129 plays a role in regulating MAPK3 expression, affecting proliferation, apoptosis, and cisplatin (CDDP) resistance of gastric cancer cells.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The dual-luciferase reporter gene assay was used to assess the targeted regulation between miR-129 and MAPK3. The expression of miR-129 and MAPK3 in CDDP-resistant cell line MGC-803/CDDP and the parental MGC-803 cells was measured. MGC-803/CDDP cells were cultured in vitro and divided into miR-NC group and miR-129 mimic group. The expression of MAPK3 and p-MAPK3 protein were detected by Western blot and the effect of CDDP treatment on cell apoptosis and proliferation was detected by flow cytometry.

RESULTS
There was a targeted regulation relation between miR-129 and MAPK3 mRNA. MiR-129 expression in MGC-803/CDDP cells was significantly lower than that in MGC-803 cells and the expression of MAPK3 mRNA and protein was significantly higher than that in MGC-803 cells. Compared with miR-NC group, the expression of MAPK3 and p-MAPK3 in MHC-803/CDDP cells in miR-129 mimic transfection group was significantly decreased, with increased cell apoptosis and reduced cell proliferation.

CONCLUSIONS
The decreased expression of miR-129 and the up-regulation of MAPK3 are associated with CDDP resistance in gastric cancer cells. Overexpression of miR-129 inhibits MAPK3 expression and cell proliferation, it induces cell apoptosis and reduces CDDP resistance.


The measurement of the operators' workload is an important aspect of usage-oriented design of professional systems. In domains such as avionics, air traffic management or mission systems, being able to quantify the operators' workload under stress, and in potentially demanding physical and mental conditions, is mandatory to anticipate overload and prevent human errors. Current approaches to workload estimation rely mainly on experimentation in simulation as an approach that has proven its efficiency for the identification of bad system and/or user interface design. Even if one cannot expect to totally avoid experimenting, given the complexity of the issue of workload computation, a priori estimation of workload might be an interesting tool to pre-validate a design in order to save some time in the experimentation phase and facilitate the analysis of overload situations that appear during experimentation. Various approaches to the a priori measurement of workload have been proposed: performance-based, physiological and subjective measures. Although performance and physiological measures of workload may be more precise, subjective measures are more practical, easier and less costly to use. For these reasons, they have been applied to many complex domains. The experience, the skills and the level of training of the operator have been identified in the literature as being important human factors. Nevertheless, these parameters have not been deeply analyzed in the context of workload estimation. In this paper, we develop a predictive workload model based on the analysis of the tasks assigned to a human operator. We propose to use mental representations of tasks, human actors, human roles, knowledge and abilities. We then propose to estimate the operator's workload with reference to his experience and training, the load over time and the task complexity. Our approach is illustrated on an airborne maritime surveillance use-case, in the context of the French Medusa project.


Discoloration of urine is not uncommonly encountered in clinical practice and may indicate a significant pathology. However, the majority of instances are benign and occur as the result of trauma to the urological system during procedures or ingestions of substances such as medication or food. This phenomenon is known as the purple urine bag syndrome. It is associated with urinary tract infections occurring in catheterised patients, generally elderly females with significant co-morbidities and constipation. The purple discoloration is most often due to the presence of indigo and indirubin pigments which are the metabolites of tryptophan. In this article, we present a case of elderly man with this rare and interesting phenomenon after insertion of an indwelling catheter. The purple urine disappeared after antibiotic therapy.


One of the major pests of nursery seedlings of coffee (Coffea arabica L.) is the green scale, Coccus viridis (Green) (Hemiptera: Coccidae). The main predators of this spe- cies are beetles of the family Coccinellidae, especially Azya luteipes Mulsant. Morphological, behavioral and biological aspects of A. luteipes feeding on C. viridis on coffee plants were examined under laboratory conditions. Tests were conducted in room temperature at 28 ± 2 oC. A. luteipes oviposits on the underside of the scale's body, laying two to four eggs per insect. The eggs have a subelliptical form and a white-clear color, and the incubation period is 8.3 ± 1.2 days. The number of eggs laid per female per day varies between eight and ten. A. luteipes undergoes four larval instars with durations of 2.0 ± 0, 3.2 ± 0.5, 3.6 ± 0.5 and 4.6 ± 0 days for the 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th instars, respectively. The average durations of the prepupal and pupal stages were 2.0 ± 0 and 10.9 ± 1.3 days, respectively. The viability of the larvae during each instar was 91.9, 89.3, 90.2 and 96.4 %, respectively, and the viabilities of prepupae and pupae were 99.1 and 98.2 %. The average duration of the egg-adult cycle was 34.3 ± 2.6 days, and the sex ratio was 0.52 %. Females presented a gray-colored head, while


This study extends research on the importance of market signals in international markets for cultural products by examining not only when market signals are important but also what types of market signals are most important to which audiences. We argue specifically that audience heterogeneity influences the effectiveness of commercial performance and artistic acclaim as market signals in international film markets. Audience heterogeneity refers to the differences in the cultural knowledge and preferences of domestic and foreign consumers (end audiences) and product specialization of domestic and foreign distributors (intermediary audiences). Our empirical setting is the European film industry. We use a large sample of films produced and distributed domestically and internationally in Europe between 2004 and 2009. We find that domestic commercial performance and film festival participation increase international film success but also that their effects depend on the cultural distance between countries and the use of major or independent distribution in the domestic and foreign markets.


Apart from decreased visual acuity, amblyopia may be associated with alteration in color vision, contrast sensitivity and stereopsis. The study was conducted to assess visual functions among amblyopic patients. Cross sectional observational study was done with appropriate examination. Best corrected visual acuity, color vision, contrast sensitivity and stereopsis were done among 31 amblyopic patients of age 5-18 years, visiting Department of Ophthalmology in Kathmandu Medical College from October 2021 to March 2022. Among thirty-one patients, male is to female ratio was 1.81:1. Mean age of participants was 9.45±3.49 years. Among patients with stimulus deprivation amblyopia, visual acuity was <6/60, color vision and contrast sensitivity were decreased in 100% and moderate stereopsis (80-200 seconds of arc) was present. Among patients with strabismic amblyopia, visual acuity was decreased (6/12-6/18), color vision and contrast sensitivity were normal in 100% and good stereopsis (<60 seconds of arc) was seen. Among those with refractive amblyopia, visual acuity was 6/6-6/9 in 34.5%, 6/12-6/18 in 44.8% and 6/24-6/60 in 20.7%. Color vision was decreased in 27.3% in ametropic, 9.1% in meridional and normal in anisometropic type. Contrast sensitivity was decreased in 27.3% each in ametropic and anisometropic, and in 63.6% in meridional amblyopia. Good and poor (>200 seconds of arc) stereopsis was found in 24.1% each and moderate in 51.7% of refractive amblyopia. Contrast sensitivity was seen to be decreased with decrease in vision (40.0%, 42.8%, 50.0% and 100.0% in visual acuity 6/6-6/9, 6/12-6/18, 6/24-6/60 and<6/60 respectively). To conclude, visual functions are affected in different types of amblyopia


Reaction of copper(II) salts with pyromellitic acid (benzene-1,2,4,5-tetracarboxylic acid) and bases using slow vapour and gel diffusion techniques produces a variety of complexes containing copper and pyromellitate ions and solvent molecules, both coordinated (usually as terminal ligands) and uncoordinated. In some cases molecules of base are also coordinated, and organic or alkali metal cations may be present. Most of the complexes are 2- or 3-dimensional polymeric networks as expected, though there are also some discrete molecular complex ions, which are unusual for pyromellitate complexes of metals. Coordination of copper(II) is most often square pyramidal with a long apical bond, but with some examples also of square-planar coordination supplemented by additional secondary interactions with carboxylates or solvent molecules above and below the plane to give distorted octahedral geometry. Pyromellitate is fully deprotonated in all but one product, and usually coordinates to 2, 4 or 6 copper ions, and additionally to 8 alkali metal ions where these are present. Hydrogen bonding plays a significant role in all the structures, its role ranging from formation of discrete clusters of coordinated and uncoordinated water molecules to extensive 3-dimensional networks. The impressive structural variety arises from the combination of rigidity of the benzene ring and individual carboxylate groups with torsional flexibility in the connections of these groups, together with the availability of different coordination geometries for copper(II). The results illustrate the considerable structural versatility of pyromellitate ligands and the unreliability of structural design in benzenepolycarboxylate coordination chemistry.


RATIONALE
The study of natural products by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) is an important strategy for the characterization of the major fragmentation reactions which can then help to determine the composition of complex mixtures. Application of ESI-MS/MS to a series of isopimarane diterpenes from Velloziaceae allowed the rationalization of their fragmentation mechanisms.

METHODS
Velloziaceae diterpenes were isolated by silica gel column chromatography and investigated by ESI-MS/MS analysis. The fragmentation studies were performed on a quadrupole-time-of-flight instrument using N2 as the collision gas. To help rationalize the fragmentation pathways observed, the geometry and sites of reactivity of the diterpenes were obtained by theoretical calculations using the B3LYP/6-31 + G(d,p) model. Fragmentation mechanisms were proposed on the basis of the calculated protonation sites and product ions energies using density functional theory (DFT) methods.

RESULTS
The presence of hydroxyl and carbonyl groups on the terpene core influences the protonation site observed. One compound showed a radical cation as the base peak. MS/MS spectra exhibit water elimination as the major fragmentation pathway (via two ways), either when protonation takes place on the oxygen atom, or through elimination after activation from hydrogen migration. After the elimination of water, the formation of an endocyclic double bond induces a sequential retro-Diels-Alder (RDA) reaction as the major fragmentation step.

CONCLUSIONS
A thorough rational analysis of the fragmentation mechanisms of protonated Velloziaceae diterpenes was used to propose the dissociation mechanisms in ESI-MS/MS. The presence of esters in the side chain also influenced the intensity or occurrence of the observed protonated or cationized molecules in ESI-MS. These results will aid the identification of analogues in sample extracts in future metabolomics studies.


The object of this research is the exploration of the effects of planning
regulations on house form and privacy in low-density single-family dwellings
(villas) in the context of Saudi Arabian cities. The research explores two main
issues: firstly, the importance and the effects of privacy violation between
neighbouring villas through overlooking on their residents' behaviour and use of
house spaces; and secondly, to investigate the residents' preferred house form.
To assess these two issues practically, seven suburbs from three different
cities, representing large (Riyadh), medium (Tabuk) and small (Haqil) urban
centres in Saudi Arabia were selected for carrying out a questionnaire survey. The
selection of these suburbs was intended to represent, as far as possible, the
different social groups in Saudi Arabian society. The population of the survey was
the villa residents in these suburbs, who were asked questions regarding their use
of house yards and windows, and tested on their awareness of planning
regulations, and the effects of these regulations on house form and degree of
privacy. The respondents were also asked about their preferred house form.
The results indicated that privacy is considered an important issue by
residents, and the effects of privacy violation, through neighbours overlooking
each others' houses, were very clearly seen on the residents' reduced use of
overlooked yards, compared to those not overlooked, as well as through the
construction of extra fences to block overlooking from neighbouring houses.
Although the residents showed a high degree of awareness about the effects of the
villa house form on the high degree of overlooking, they showed a far greater
preference for living in villas rather than attached courtyard house forms.
The final conclusion of the research demonstrates the failure of the present
planning regulations to promote an acceptable house form that allows for a
reasonably sufficient degree of privacy protection. While some research and
housing schemes have promoted house forms different from that of the villa, these
have proved to be unacceptable and were rejected by residents. The
recommendation of the current research is that efforts to find a solution to the
problem should instead focus upon means to reduce the effects or degree of
privacy violation between neighbouring houses, while maintaining the popular
house form of the villa.


The amazing integration densities achieved by current submicron technologies pay the price of increasing static power dissipation with the corresponding rise in heat density. Dynamic thermal management (DTM) techniques provide thermal-efficient solutions to balance or equally distribute possible on-chip hot spots. Accurate sensing of on-chip temperature is required by optimally allocating smart temperature sensors in the silicon. In this paper, we introduce an ultra low-power (1.05 - 65.5 nW at 5 samples/s) tiny (10250 mum2) CMOS smart temperature sensor based on the thermal dependency of the leakage current. The proposed sensor outperforms all previous works, as far as area and power consumption are concerned (more than 85% reduction in both cases), while still meeting the accuracy constraints imposed by target application domains. Furthermore, a specific interface based on the use of a logarithmic counter has been implemented to digitalize the temperature sensing. These facts, in conjunction with the full compatibility of the sensor with standard CMOS processes, allow the easy integration of many of these tiny sensors in any VLSI layout, making them specially suitable for modern DTM implementations.


The increasing tractive power of locomotives has led to a significant increase in the longitudinal loading demand on railway tracks. The capacity of longitudinal restraint of existing rail fastening system and its dependency on track parameters can affect the future design of the rail fastening system. This paper investigates the effects of wheel acceleration, elastic modulus of clips, rail to rail pad coefficient of friction (COF), and sleeper spacing on the distribution of longitudinal force in the rail fastening system and on the maximum rail to rail pad friction force. A finite element (FE) model with multiple sleepers and their accompanying fastening systems, along with a moving wheel, is developed and validated using field data. The results of our parametric study indicate that a COF of 0.65 is optional when maximizing the longitudinal resistance per rail seat. Additionally, the maximum rail to rail pad friction force increases exponentially with the spacing of sleepers, and a sleeper spacing of 0.61 m can lead to a desired distribution of longitudinal force.


Abstract: This study contributes to the literature on Asian Indian women who have emigrated from Trinidad and Guyana (Indo-Caribbeans) and who are now residing in the US. Using a qualitative design comprised of four ninety-minute interviews, I explored the experiences of immigration, ways of coping, and feelings regarding empowerment for a group of seven women between the ages of forty and forty-nine. Findings were similar to previous research on Asian Indian women and revealed negative experiences with gender inequality, domestic violence, spousal alcohol abuse, and increased role strain following immigration. The women reported that their relationships with other women were helpful and psychologically supportive and enabled them to cope with various hardships. These findings contrast with research findings that have described women's relationships as primarily competitive and undermining of one another. The findings further suggest that clinicians working with Indo-Caribbean women should explore stresses of immigration, cultural differences between the women's country of origin and the host country, and identifying ways of coping.


ABSTRACT This article examines how the common law tort of negligence can provide a helpful guidance for deconstructing and elucidating some of the disparate analytical issues that are subsumed under the umbrella of positive obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Both frameworks, the common law and ECHR, aim to delimit the circumstances where responsibility for omissions can be found and have similar conceptual basis of protection in that they protect fundamental interests. However, in the context of the common law certain analytical elements are more thoroughly considered and better articulated. These elements are: the distinction between a duty and a breach of duty; the level of foreseeability of harm; the proximity between the state and the person who has suffered harm; the reasonableness of imposing a duty; the causation between the harm and the alleged omission. Two main arguments emerge from the juxtaposition of the ECHR analysis against the common law. First, by failing to explicitly articulate and distinguish certain analytical elements, the ECHR positive obligation judgments offer little general guidance as to the limits of responsibility. Second, the analytical inquiry applied when adjudicating positive obligations is in tension with the idea of the correlativity between rights and obligations.


In the past, academic relationships in real estate were confined within national boundaries. However, the globalization of the real estate markets is increasingly apparent. The number of international real estate transactions is growing and international academic meetings have been established. This iinternationali trend didnit affect solely the real estate industry, it may have affected the journalists reporting on real estate subjects as well. Journalists are nowadays confronted with an increasing public demand for high quality real estate information n both about national and international issues. However, there is no research on real estate journalism until today: We know virtually nothing about the journalists working in this domain, about their demographic data, their employment situation, about their working principles or market interactions. There is no information about real estate coverage in newspapers, magazines and special interest literature. To close the gap in scientific knowledge about real estate journalism the Department of Real Estate at the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel and the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz n both in Germany n are currently conducting a multi-national online survey. The survey, directed by Prof. Dr. Karl-Werner Schulte (Oestrich-Winkel) and Prof. Dr. Hans Mathias Kepplinger (Mainz), started in September 2004 in Germany, Great Britain, France, Spain, Austria and Switzerland. The paper presented will deal with the following topics: (a) the sampling procedure and questionnaire design used in the study; (b) the survey implementation; (c) selected results of the study. // The results will give insight into the differences and similarities of working procedures and market interactions of real estate journalists in Europe. This knowledge helps both real estate markets players and real estate journalists to improve their daily working structures and communication procedures.


: Properties of 187 neurons were studied in the lower bank of that part of cruciate sulcus where electrical stimulation evoked conjugate unidirectional oculomotor saccades. 172 neurons responded to visual stimulation. Neurons in the superficial cortical layers responded to conventional stimuli: light and dark spots or slits stationary or moving with the speed up to 30 degrees/s. These neurons had no orientational selectivity but sometimes showed directional selectivity. In the intermediate layers maximal responses were obtained when a flittering bird was presented to the cat; no responses were observed to conventional stimulation. Main feature of many neurons in the deep layers was selectivity to the motion in the depth in some parts of the visual field. This selectivity was invariant to the direction of contrast between stimulus and background. Visual responses in all layers were seen only in the state of arousal (during desynchronization in EEG) and were absent in the state of quiet wakefulness. All studied neurons showed no responses to acoustic or somatic stimulation. Neurons in the medial wall of the brain under the cruciate sulcus did not respond to visual stimulation but responded in correlation with definite eye movements. It is suggested that in this part of the brain two retinotopically organized areas are present one of which is connected with visual function and another with eye movements.


The times of arrival from southern sources and the rates and directions of migration are now known for many species of forest trees in New England. This information has made possible the reconstruction of generalized vegetation types for the period 14,000 to 9000 yr. B.P., as has been done recently by R. Davis and G. Jacobson for Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The regional pattern, which has been based mainly on studies of fossil pollen from wind-pollinated trees, includes a diverse and biogeographically interesting flora of bryophytes, herbs, and shrubs that only recently is becoming defined through studies of plant macrofossils. The most thoroughly investigated sites, Tom Swamp (Massachu setts), Columbia Bridge (Vermont), and Upper South Branch Pond (Maine) have produced late-glacial floras with numerous calcicoles, some of which are rare or lacking in the present New England flora. Fossils of arctic-alpine species are also present at these sites, which are all at low elevations. A prominent calcicole element exists in the late-glacial fossil record regardless of whether the extant flora near a site contains such plants. This pattern is evident for both seed plants and bryo phytes. For areas with acidic soils, the loss of calcicoles is correlated with the late Pleistocene arrival of spruce (as documented by increases in macrofossils) at 12,800 yr. B.P. in southern New England, and some 2300 radiocarbon years later in north-central Maine. Leaching, humus or litter accumulation, and other aspects of soil genesis may have been responsible for the loss, but what caused the pattern is poorly understood. As viewed on a continental scale and over thousands of years, the elimination of calcicoles has left fragmented ranges and rare occurrences in eastern North America of boreal or northern plants that otherwise are today widespread to the west.


In the annual inspection of the school children of Rochester, a high incidence of dental caries was found. This corresponds roughly to observations elsewhere in the northern states. In order to evaluate the possible etiologic factors, two groups of children were selected for comparison: twenty-five with perfect or nearly perfect teeth and twenty-five with marked dental caries. It seemed probable that the differences would be most striking if extremes were chosen. ROUTINE EMPLOYED In the inspection of the children in the Rochester public schools, the names were recorded of all who had exceptionally good or exceptionally poor teeth. In the first group were those whose teeth were free from caries and had not required dental work or had possibly two or three small fillings, and the enamel appeared smooth, hard and healthy, although not necessarily well cared for. In the second group were those whose teeth showed dental caries involving


Dissolved oxygen (DO) depletion in receiving streams during combined sewer overflows (CSO) is aphenomenon which comprises dry weather processes, including photosynthesis, and wet weather impacts. During a CSO event a distinction between immediate and delayed DO consumption in the stream caused by biodegradation of soluble and particulate organics, respectively, is made. Two DO models have been developed in order to simulate the combined dry weather and wet weather effects. The first one is a simplified model based on the concept of an extended Streeter-Phelps equation and the second one is an advanced model, which is made from two integrated parts a hydro dynamic and a transport-dispersion model. The structure of the two models is described and model results are compared and evaluated.


We report the discovery of a new "changing-look" active galactic nucleus (CLAGN) event, in the quasar SDSS J162829.17+432948.5 at z = 0.2603, identified through repeat spectroscopy from the fifth Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-V). Optical photometry taken during 2020–2021 shows a dramatic dimming of Δg ≈ 1 mag, followed by a rapid recovery on a timescale of several months, with the ≲2 month period of rebrightening captured in new SDSS-V and Las Cumbres Observatory spectroscopy. This is one of the fastest CLAGN transitions observed to date. Archival observations suggest that the object experienced a much more gradual dimming over the period of 2011–2013. Our spectroscopy shows that the photometric changes were accompanied by dramatic variations in the quasar-like continuum and broad-line emission. The excellent agreement between the pre- and postdip photometric and spectroscopic appearances of the source, as well as the fact that the dimmest spectra can be reproduced by applying a single extinction law to the brighter spectral states, favor a variable line-of-sight obscuration as the driver of the observed transitions. Such an interpretation faces several theoretical challenges, and thus an alternative accretion-driven scenario cannot be excluded. The recent events observed in this quasar highlight the importance of spectroscopic monitoring of large active galactic nucleus samples on weeks-to-months timescales, which the SDSS-V is designed to achieve.


Humans benefit from multiple ecosystem services of wetlands, but massive wetland loss has occurred worldwide due to rapid urbanization. To assess the problem, it is necessary to quantify the spatial extent of urbanization‐induced wetland loss. Here, we investigated the amount and pattern of wetland loss in China due to urbanization from 1990 to 2010, based on the China National Land Cover Database (ChinaCover). Our results show that, during these 20 years, China lost 2,883 km2 of wetlands to urban expansion, of which about 2,394 km2 took place in the eastern regions (Northeast China, North China, Southeast China, and South China). The rate of urbanization‐induced wetland loss was 2.8 times higher between 2000 and 2010 (213 km2 year−1) than between 1990 and 2000 (75 km2 yr−1). Of all wetland categories, reservoirs/ponds and marshes suffered the most severe losses. Most of the wetland loss was due to the expansion of urban built‐up areas rather than industrial or transportation lands. Four hotspots of urbanization‐induced wetland loss in China were identified: the Beijing–Tianjin metropolitan region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Jianghan Plain, and the Pearl River Delta. Urbanization and industrialization continue to unfold in China for the next few decades, and the rapid expansion of small‐ and middle‐sized cities and urban traffic networks is expected to encroach on more wetlands. Although great efforts have been made towards wetland conservation in recent years, China must prevent more wetlands from being wiped out by urbanization if the country is to ahieve its sustainable development goals.


ABSTRACT Individual differences in cognitive processes and coping behaviors play a role in the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Given the large numbers of combat-exposed service members returning from the Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and Operation New Dawn (OND) conflicts, exploring individual differences in cognitive-affective processes is important for informing our understanding of PTSD etiology and early intervention in military samples. The present study examined the unique main and interactive effects of negative posttrauma cognitions (i.e., negative beliefs about self [NS], the world [NW], and self-blame [SB]) and coping strategies (i.e., positive behavioral, positive cognitive, avoidant coping, and social and emotional coping) on PTSD diagnosis within 155 (Mage = 30.7, SD = 4.48) OEF/OIF/OND combat trauma-exposed Veterans recruited from an ongoing study examining the effects of combat trauma and stress reactivity. In the final, stepwise logistic regression analysis, avoidant coping, but no other coping strategy, was significantly positively related to PTSD diagnosis in the initial step. Higher levels of NS, but not NW, were significantly associated with having a PTSD diagnosis, whereas SB was associated with decreased likelihood of PTSD, above and beyond coping strategies. A significant interaction effect was found between NS and positive cognitive coping, such that greater positive cognitive coping weakened the relationship between NS and PTSD. Examining and addressing coping behaviors and negative thoughts of self jointly may benefit assessment and intervention approaches in a combat-trauma population.


Ionic     liquid (IL), 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium-3-hydroxy-2-naphthoate (C12mimHNC) was synthesized and coated on the surface of NiTi as solid phase microextractiom fiber coating for determination the octadecylamine in brine. Prior to modification with IL, the NiTi was hydrothermally treated for in-situ growth of titanium and nickel oxide composite nanosheets (TiO2/NiOCNSs). The TiO2/NiOCNSs fibers coating was oriented  around the NiTi  substrate and  presented  double-faced  open  access  sites,  which provided a desired support framework for the further modification with IL. The extraction performance of C12mimHNC-TiO2/NiOCNSs fiber coating was evaluated for       detection of octadecylamine (ODA) coupled to HPLC with UV detection. As a result, the C12mimHNC-TiO2/NiOCNSs fiber coating illustrated excellent adsorption and extraction capability for ODA. The main factors affected extraction efficiency were optimized. Under the optimized  conditions,  good  linearity was  obtained  in  the  range of  1-150  µg/L with correlation  coefficients  (r2)  above  0.985.  Limits of detection (LODs) for  the  developed method was 0.280 µg/L. The proposed method was first applied to extract the ODA in brine samples. Relative recoveries varied from 78.3% to 96.5% at spiking level of 15µg/L and 30 µg/L with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) less than 8.7%.


This paper addresses an experimental system simulating a free-flying space robot, which has been constructed to study autonomous space robots. The experimental system consists of a space robot model, a frictionless table system, a computer system, and a vision sensor system. The robot model is composed of two manipulators and a satellite vehicle, and can move freely on a two-dimensional planar table, without friction, using air-bearings. The robot model has successfully performed the automatic truss structure assembly, including many jobs, e.g., manipulator berthing, component manipulation, arm trajectory control collision avoidance, assembly using force control, etc. Moreover, even if the robot fails in a task planned in advance, the robot re-plans the task by using reinforcement learning, and obtains the task goal for basically kinematic problems. But, for a class of complicated dynamic problems, the computational periods and efforts are infeasible for on-line learning. Some approaches are proposed to accelerate the learning speed, which also give models of cognitive actions and approaches to so-called a frame problem. The experiment demonstrates the possibility of the autonomous construction and the usefulness of space robots.


A thermal model is proposed to analyze the performance of an indirect solar dryer (ISD) with latent heat storage using phase change material (PCM). The estimations are compared with experimental data presented in the scientific literature taken in real conditions. The validated thermal model is used in order to address a comprehensive analysis of the performance of the ISDs under the same operation conditions, the model is able to estimate the temperatures of glass cover, absorber plate, PCM, useful heat, thermal and storage efficiencies, and variables that are difficult to measure experimentally such as liquid fraction, heat losses, and accumulated energy of the ISDs. Three study cases are considered: Case 1 consists of two collectors with and without alternating nocturnal and diurnal operation (benchmarking case). Case 2 and 3 consist in a unique collector operating continuously for 24 h with PCM and without PCM, respectively. It was determined that the use of PCM in ISD increased the night thermal performance and extended the operational time of the system. On the other hand, results indicate that the use of two alternating collectors presents similar discharge behavior to using one collector with PCM operating continuously. Concerning the overall thermal performance, cases 1, 2, and 3 obtained thermal efficiencies of 20%, 28%, and 24%, respectively.


David Cronenberg's "Crash" (1996) attracted controversy when it was first screened in London, and remain banned in 1998 by at least one borough council. The film won a Special Jury Prize at Cannes, only for some members of the jury to dis-associate themselves from it. And yet it is a controlled, formal film, unsensational; more analytic than titilating. It is an expose of modern pathologies. It has almost none of the violence and explicit sexual content of the J.G. Ballard novel from which it is adapted. So, what is the relationship between Cronenberg's film and Ballard's book? And further, what is the relationship between Ballard himself and the character "James Ballard" in Crash? In this book, which includes an interview with Ballard, Iain Sinclair explores the temporal loop which connects film and novel. If Cronenberg "adapted" Crash, he also absorbed it and made it into something new. Yet, the novel controls the film, or uses the film to disguise its subversive intent.