The approximation evaluations
by polynomial splines are well-known. They are obtained by the similarity
principle; in the
case of non-polynomial splines the implementation of this principle is
difficult. Another method for obtaining of the evaluations was discussed
earlier (see [1]) in the case of nonpolynomial splines of Lagrange type. The
aim of this paper is to obtain the evaluations of approximation by
non-polynomial splines of Hermite type. Considering a linearly independent
system of column-vectors, . Let be square matrix. Supposing that and are columns with components from the linear
space such that . Let be vector with components belonging to conjugate space . For an element we consider a linear combination of elements By definition, put . The discussions
are based on the next assertion. The following relation holds: where the second factor on the right-hand side
is the determinant of a block-matrix of order m + 2. Using this assertion, we get the representation of residual
of approximation by minimal splines of Hermite type. Taking into account the
representation, we get evaluations of the residual and calculate relevant
constants. As a result the obtained evaluations are exact ones for components
of generated vector-function .


When the Arabic-Islamic medicine evolved partly as a consequence of the wave of translations from mainly Greek medical books to Arabic in the 9th century the pharmacological works, which were available, were also translated. The books of Dioscurides and Galen on pharmacological matters became the decisive books of pharmacological translated literature and they formed the basis of the pharmacological understanding in the subsequent extensive literature on pharmacognosy and pharmacology written in Arabic. Nevertheless the Arabs united these two disciplines in a regular pharmacy and they evolved it as an independent discipline, which although attached to medicine was regarded as having its own praxis. The physicians and scientists rationalized and systematized their knowledge of medicinal plants and drugs and extended their knowledge by using original observations and research. Many books on medicaments were written, both as materia medica, i.e. records on simple drugs, and dispensatories, i.e. books on compounded drugs. These two kinds of books were always written separately as they were seen by the Arabs themselves as pertaining to two different subdisciplines, which meant that they were separated too in independent chapters or books in general Arabic works on medicine. When the extensive translations of Arabic medical literature to Latin took place in Italy and Spain in the 11th and 12th centuries, the Arabic pharmacological literature was of course also translated, and its decisive influence on later medieval European medical writings is easy to demonstrate. In the 18th century Peter Forsskaal was one of the first Europeans in the modern scientific tradition to collect and make notes on drugs used in Cairo and in Yemen.


The purpose of the study was to study the response of erythrocytes in patients with community-acquired pneumonia and to assess its importance in the pathogenesis of this disease. Materials and methods. Thirty patients with community-acquired pneumonia were examined. The diagnosis was established on the basis of epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, radiological data. Erythrocyte count, hemoglobin concentration, hematocrit number, erythrocyte indexes were determined: mean erythrocyte volume, mean hemoglobin content in erythrocyte, mean hemoglobin concentration in erythrocyte. Results and discussion. It is established that with community-acquired pneumonia in the body there is an increase in the formation of reactive oxygen species at all times of observation. The study of the qualitative and quantitative composition of blood cells in our study found significant shifts in all indicators. Thus, the number of erythrocytes on the 1st day of observation increased by 20.9% relative to the group of healthy individuals, and then decreased and remained by 8 % – 10 % less than in the control on the 5th day. Subsequently, after 10 days there was a sharp (2.2 times) decrease in the number of erythrocytes. However, in general, the concentration of erythrocytes in this observation period remained significantly reduced relative to the group of almost healthy individuals by 20%. Changes in hemoglobin concentration had a similar dynamic. The maximum decrease in erythrocytes count and hemoglobin concentration in the blood over time indicates active hemolysis of erythrocytes during this period. Hematocrit in the examined patients increased sharply on the 1st day of the study, which indicated blood clotting. However, on day 5, hematocrit decreased sharply, amounting to only 57% of the level of the practically healthy individuals' group and practically did not recover to the ascending level on the 10th day. The mean erythrocyte volume did not change significantly during the study. Conclusion. Changes in the number of erythrocytes, hemoglobin and erythrocyte indices in community-acquired pneumonia are due to membrane-destructive processes in erythrocytes, a decrease in their absolute number – due to hemolysis, hematocrit changes – due to redistribution of blood and hypoxia that develops in non-hospital pneumonia. Changes in erythrocytes are oxygen-dependent mechanisms in the pathogenesis of community-acquired pneumonia


We established an in vitro plant regeneration system via somatic embryogenesis of Aster scaber, an important source of various biologically active phytochemicals. We examined the callus induction and embryogenic capacities of three explants, including leaves, petioles, and roots, on 25 different media containing different combinations of α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and 6-benzyladenine (BA). The optimum concentrations of NAA and BA for the production of embryogenic calli were 5.0 μM and 0.05 μM, respectively. Media containing higher concentrations of auxin and cytokinin (such as 25 μM NAA and 25 μM BA) were suitable for shoot regeneration, especially for leaf-derived calli, which are the most readily available calli and are highly competent. For root induction from regenerated shoots, supplemental auxin and/or cytokinin did not improve rooting, but instead caused unwanted callus induction or retarded growth of regenerated plants. Therefore, plant growth regulator-free medium was preferable for root induction. Normal plants were successfully obtained from calli under the optimized conditions described above. This is the first report of the complete process of in vitro plant regeneration of A. scaber via somatic embryogenesis. Graphical Abstract Plant regeneration of A. scaber via somatic embryogenesis


The unique primates of south-eastern Madagascar face threats from growing human populations. The country's extant primates already represent only a subset of the taxonomic and ecological diversity existing a few thousand years ago. To prevent further losses remaining taxa must be subjected to effective monitoring programmes that directly inform conservation efforts. We offer a necessary first step: revision of geographic ranges and quantification of habitat area and population size for diurnal and cathemeral (active during both day and night) lemurs. Recent satellite images are used to develop a forest cover geographical information system, and censuses are used to establish range boundaries and develop estimates of population density and size. These assessments are used to identify regions and taxa at risk, and will be a useful baseline for future monitoring of habitat and populations. Precise estimates are impossible for patchily-distributed taxa (especially Hapalemur aureus, H. simus and Varecia variegata variegata); these taxa require more sophisticated modelling.


Typical Laboratory testing of Polycrystalline Diamond Compact (PDC) bits is performed on relatively rigid setups. Even in hard rock, PDC bits exhibit reasonable life using such testing schemes. Unfortunately, field experience indicates otherwise. In this paper, they show that introducing compliance in testing setups, provides better simulation of actual field conditions. Using such a scheme, they show that chatter can be severe even in softer rock, such as sandstone, and very destructive to the cutters in hard rock, such as sierra white granite.


Although recent articles have stressed the importance of testing for unit roots and cointegration in time-series analysis, practitioners have been left without a straightforward procedure to implement this advice. I propose using the autoregressive distributed lag model and bounds cointegration test as an approach to dealing with some of the most commonly encountered issues in time-series analysis. Through Monte Carlo experiments, I show that this procedure performs better than existing cointegration tests under a variety of situations. I illustrate how to implement this strategy with two step-by-step replication examples. To further aid users, I have designed software programs in order to test and dynamically model the results from this approach.


A 4000 to 7000 m sequence of amphibolite-facies Archean layered gneisses in the Pakwash Lake – Lac Seul area of Northwest Ontario has been examined to determine its origin. The micaceous, relatively fine grained gneisses are concluded to be metasedimentary rocks. They were probably deposited from aqueous suspension as graded beds. The provenance of the detrital material was dacitic volcanics. Apparently there was little chemical alteration prior to metamorphism. An unmetamorphosed analog for these deposits is the volcaniclastic Eocene Ohanapecosh Formation in the Mt. Rainier area of Washington, U.S.A. Seventeen new chemical analyses are used to describe the rocks and decipher their origin.Similar rocks occur for at least 100 km east and west from the area of detailed study, suggesting a major sedimentary basin or series of basins in the area of the present English River Gneiss Belt.


Abstract Reject rate analysis is considered an integral part of a diagnostic radiography quality control (QC) program. A rejected image is a patient radiograph that was not presented to a radiologist for diagnosis and that contributes unnecessary radiation dose to the patient. Reject rates that are either too high or too low may suggest systemic department shortcomings in QC mechanisms. Due to the lack of standardization, reject data often cannot be easily compared between radiography systems from different vendors. The purpose of this report is to provide guidance to help standardize data elements that are required for comprehensive reject analysis and to propose data reporting and workflows to enable an effective and comprehensive reject rate monitoring program. Essential data elements, a proposed schema for classifying reject reasons, and workflow implementation options are recommended in this task group report.


BACKGROUND
Placenta immunomodulatory ferritin (PLIF) cDNA was recently cloned from the human placenta, where it is expressed in syncytiotrophoblast and decidual mononuclear cells. PLIF and its subcloned bioactive domain (C48), expressed in Escherichia coli, are immunosuppressive proteins and induce pronounced IL-10 production in vitro and in vivo.

METHODS AND RESULTS
PLIF serum level, measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, was elevated in pregnant mice throughout gestation and declined towards delivery. Blocking of PLIF activity by vaccination of mice with C48 prior to mating inhibited pregnancy development. Passive transfer of anti-C48 immunoglobulin (Ig) starting at 3.5-12.5 days post coitum (dpc) resulted in high rate of embryo resorption. Furthermore, treatment with anti-C48 Ig resulted in placental and embryonal growth restriction. At gestation day 13.5, growth retardation was especially notable in the placentae, while at 16.5 dpc it was pronounced in the embryos. Histopathological examination revealed that experimental placentae were globally hypoplastic and the labyrinth was strikingly pale and contained less maternal blood compared with control. Immune-activated spleen cells harvested at 13.5 dpc from anti-C48 Ig-treated pregnant mice secreted in vitro increased level of Th1 cytokines (IL-2, TNF-alpha, IL-12) and decreased level of Th2 cytokines (IL-10, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6) as compared with the level of the respective cytokines secreted by spleen cells from control pregnant mice.

CONCLUSION
This study provides the first in vivo evidence that PLIF plays a major role in placentation and embryonic growth.


Objective: The goal of this study is to understand the perforation closure dynamics and to elucidate the factors playing vital role in closure of traumatic tympanic membrane perforation (TMP). Study Design: This was a prospective, sequential allocation, three armed, January 2015–June 2017 (30 months). Setting: This study was conducted at university teaching tertiary hospital. Sample Size: A sample size was 309 (291 patients and 294 ears). Results: The total number of patients included was 291 and the total ears were 294 being bilateral traumatic TMPs in three patients. The mean age of the patients was 27.9 years. Hearing loss and bleeding from ear were the most common presentation. In majority, the hearing loss was conductive. Slap being the most common etiology. Posteroinferior quadrant was the most common site of injury. The overall mean closure time of this study was 13.32 days. Three patients were lost to follow-up. Perforation healing rate in this study was 98.98% at 1 month, and there was a significant difference in healing rate for small and large perforations. We have studied all the three variables together, i.e., the impact of time of initiating treatment after injury, grade of perforation, and their closure time to understand the closure dynamics of traumatic TMPs which is unique and is first of its kind in literature. Conclusion: The carbolic acid to the edge and paper patch with soframycin is a noninvasive, patient-friendly and low-cost office procedure for traumatic TMP's and if performed within 72 h of injury gives 99%–100% closure rate.


A two year experience of DNA diagnosis for NF1 is presented. Twenty-three NF1 families have been analysed using 11 closely linked and intragenic markers. Prenatal testing was undertaken for six families; 11 affected subjects and their partners wished to know if they would be informative for future prenatal testing, seven of whom are so far fully informative. Presymptomatic testing was done for six subjects. Despite the availability of a series of closely linked markers, informativeness could not be achieved in all of the families tested.


This paper presents an analytical model for TCP TAHOE. For this model an algorithm is derived to calculate the utilization and packet drop rate. The accuracy of the model is verified by comparing the calculated results versus simulation results. We calculate TCP utilization and drop rate with mathematical model.


Although educational policies for emergent bilinguals in New York City schools have historically supported the provision of bilingual education, the past decade has borne witness to a dramatic loss of bilingual education programs in city schools. This study examines the factors that determine language education policies adopted by school principals, through qualitative research in 10 city schools that have eliminated their bilingual education programs in recent years and replaced them with English-only programs. Our findings draw a causal link between the pressures of test-based accountability imposed by No Child Left Behind and the adoption of English-only policies in city schools. Testing and accountability are used as the justification for dismantling bilingual education programs and create a disincentive to serve emergent bilingual students, as schools are far more likely to be labeled low performing and risk sanctions such as closure simply for admitting and educating these students.


The growth of Protestantism in Brazil has been associated with changes in mortality and health-related outcomes. Recent research has suggested that affiliation with Protestant churches may positively influence their members' well being by: 1) providing moral directives, 2) creating formal or informal sanctions, and 3) promoting social networks and support. This article uses data from the 1996 and 2006 Brazilian Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) and Cox's proportional hazard models to examine the relationship between infant mortality and mothers' religious involvement. Unadjusted results show that differences in the hazard ratios of infant mortality by mothers' religious involvement are considerable and statistically significant. When one controls demographic and socioeconomic variables in the 1996 DHS, the baseline relationship disappears, supporting the hypothesis of selectivity. Results using the 2006 DHS are somewhat different and suggest that the association between religious involvement and infant mortality was stronger in Brazil in 2006 than in 1996. This research should encourage future studies on religious involvement and health-related outcomes in Brazil. This topic deserves further consideration from Brazilian demographers not simply because this country has undergone enormous changes in its religious landscape over recent decades, but also because religion can affect believers' lifestyles and behaviors, and this can indirectly influence their health and well-being.


Over the past decade, the internet has frequently been used in India for the perpetration of a range of 'cyber crimes' – from extortion to defamation to financial fraud. In a revealing statistic, in 2010 the Mumbai police reportedly "received 771 complaints about internet-related offenses, 319 of which were from women who were the victims of fake profiles, online upload of private photographs and obscene emails." Law enforcement authorities in India have not exactly lagged behind in bringing these new age cyber criminals to book, and have installed special 'Cyber crime cells' in different cities to combat crimes on the internet. As even a casual Google search with the phrase "IP address, police, India" would reveal, police authorities in different cities in India have been quite successful in employing IP Address data obtained from web-services and ISPs to trace culprits. However, along with its utility in the detection of crime, the tracking of persons by their IP addresses is potentially invasive of individuals' privacy. In the absence of a culture of strict adherence to the 'rule of law' by the police apparatus in India, the unbridled ability to track persons through IP addresses has the potential of becoming an extremely oppressive tool of surveillance.In this short note, I review the statutory mechanism regulating the retention and disclosure of IP addresses by internet companies in India.


Autophosphorylation of 3T3 cells, utilizing endogenous membrane protein kinase, can be detected by incubating the cells with μgM32P‐ATP. The phosphorylation activity of growing cells is two to four‐fold greater than quiescent ones. In this study, the increased phosphorylation activity of serum‐stimulated cells was examined. Phosphorylation, measured at times after serum stimulation of quiescent cultures, was found to increase in early G1 and to reach a maximum prior to DNA synthesis. This increase in stimulated cells was dependent on RNA and protein synthesis but not on DNA synthesis. The increased activity decayed quickly (half‐life approximately 2–3 hours) in the presence of cycloheximide, while the basal activity in quiescent cells was relatively unchanged. Insulin, prostaglandin E1 or prostaglandin F2α were also found to bring about the same increase in phosphorylation as serum, although in contrast with serum they caused only a small percentage of the culture to synthesize DNA. The results suggest that enhanced phosphorylation activity is a G1 event. It does not depend on subsequent DNA synthesis. Phosphorylation may be one of the biochemical steps in G1, necessary but not sufficient for cells to move into S phase.


With the advent of social networking on the Internet, the great impacts of social interaction have rapidly migrated into the online world in order to enable multiple users to share opinions, insights, expertise, experiences, and interests with each other and further reduce the barriers to collaboration, skill-development, and discovery. Social networking facilitates social interaction and share of user-generated content in a collaborative environment. It has transferred the Internet into a dynamic platform for the development of innovative ecommerce and e-learning applications. Social networking has already begun to foster an intuitive and immersive virtual environment by converging Web 3D technology for enhancing user motivation and engagement. This paper presents an integrated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) which is designed to incorporate social networking services into conventional VLEs in order to support both informal and formal learning practices required in Higher Education. A Social Virtual World (SVW) is adopted as a visual interface to access the integrated VLE since it enhance social interaction for user-centred active learning by supporting visual communication, mutual awareness and accountability. This paper further discusses and experiments some actual educational practices prototyped in the proposed integrated VLE to evaluate the valued learning experience achievement. KeywordsSocial interaction; e-Learning; Virtual Learning Environments


Date Presented 4/21/2018 Visual concerns of stroke survivors and caregivers in this study were eye movement problems, perceptual issues, and consequences of these problems or issues. Stroke survivors need a thorough vision evaluation to avert a decrease in their independence in everyday activities. Primary Author and Speaker: Theresa Smith Additional Authors and Speakers: Timothy Reistetter Contributing Authors: Monique Pappadis, Shilpa Krishman


The stratigraphy of the Pleistocene sequence in the area of the Vale of St Albans has been investigated and the results used to link the sequences in East Anglia and the Middle Thames region. Lithological units have been characterized using various methods and thirteen formal lithostratigraphical units are proposed. The bulk of the deposits are included in the Anglian glacial stage during which two major ice advances occurred. Both advances dammed the eastward-flowing river in the Vale causing, respectively, a minor and a more extensive proglacial lake. The river was finally diverted and after the ice retreat a westward-flowing river occupied the Vale. Organic remains fill kettle holes resting on the glacial deposits. A new site at London Colney shows a late Anglian to Hoxnian Ho1 pollen sequence. Wolstonian soliflucted gravels overlie the hollow fills. It is probable, since pre-Ipswichian and Ipswichian deposits occur near the present river level, that the modern river valleys were initiated during this stage. Overlying the Ipswichian deposits in river valleys and on interfluves is brown silt, containing a substantial loess component. This is considered to represent early Devensian river aggradation. A period of downcutting then occurred, before the accumulation of valley gravels which contain organic horizons radiocarbon-dated to the Late Devensian. The sequence is extended north to Stevenage and Hitchin and east into Essex. The Middle Thames Terrace sequence is equated with the Vale using relative heights and lithology, showing that the Thames flowed through the Vale until late Anglian times, when it was diverted southwards and took up a course close to that which it follows today.


The long-standing expectation that poleward shifts of the midlatitude jet under global warming will lead to poleward shifts of clouds and a positive radiative feedback on the climate system has been shown to be misguided by several recent studies. On interannual time scales, free-tropospheric clouds are observed to shift along with the jet, but low clouds increase across a broad expanse of the North Pacific Ocean basin, resulting in negligible changes in total cloud fraction and top-of-atmosphere radiation. Here it is shown that this low-cloud response is consistent across eight independent satellite-derived cloud products. Using multiple linear regression, it is demonstrated that the spatial pattern and magnitude of the low-cloud-coverage response is primarily driven by anomalous surface temperature advection. In the eastern North Pacific, anomalous cold advection by anomalous northerly surface winds enhances sensible and latent heat fluxes from the ocean into the boundary layer, resulting in large increases in low-cloud coverage. Local increases in low-level stability make a smaller contribution to this low-cloud increase. Despite closely capturing the observed response of large-scale meteorology to jet shifts, global climate models largely fail to capture the observed response of clouds and radiation to interannual jet shifts because they systematically underestimate how sensitive low clouds are to surface temperature advection, and to a lesser extent, low-level stability. More realistic model simulations of cloud–radiation–jet interactions require that parameterizations more accurately capture the sensitivity of low clouds to surface temperature advection.


This paper presents a study into the key lessons learnt from e-procurement implementation at public sector organisations in Kenya. The literature relating to e-procurement implementation and operation is reviewed, identifying main variables addressed by the current literature: impact on cost; the impact on governance; e-procurement implementation; and broader IT infrastructure issues. The research carried out was intended to explore the perceptions and reflections of both 'early' and 'late' adopters of e-procurement. Key lessons are drawn from the study and presented here. I recommend further research, including the need for research into failed eprocurement projects.


12 patients suffering from sarcoidosis have been studied in addition to clinical and bioptic investigations, they were submitted to intradermal reaction with PPD, Candida Albicans and Kveim's antigen. Lymphocytes from the 12 patients were placed in culture and stimulated with phytohaemagglutinin (PHA), pokeweed mitogen (PWM), concanavalin A (CON-A), PPD, Candidin and Kveim's antigen. Six patients proved positive to Kveim's antigen in vivo, and four of them (66%) in vitro also. No patient was immunodepressed. Of the 6 patients negative to Kveim's antigen both in vivo and in vitro, 4 were clearly immunodepressed, as shown by the reduced mitogen response, the negative response to antigen stimulation, and to the intradermal reaction. The results are discussed in the light of recent findings regarding the role of the immunocompetent system in sarcoidosis.


A product category schema (PCS) may contain complex causal relationships among component attributes. Given this, the present study identifies causally central attributes (CCAs), i.e., attributes that tend to cause other attributes, and causally peripheral attributes (CPAs), i.e., attributes that tend to be caused by other attributes. Results from an experimental study suggest that consumers have more positive responses (i.e., attitudes and purchase intention) to a brand when the brand is positively associated with CCAs as compared to CPAs, primarily because CCAs facilitate consumers' inferences of a brand's missing attributes more than


Adiponectin is an adipokine whose plasma levels are inversely related to degrees of insulin resistance (IR) or obesity. It enhances glucose disposal and mitochondrial substrate oxidation in skeletal muscle and its actions are mediated through binding to receptors, especially adiponectin receptor 1 (AdipoR1). However, the in vivo significance of adiponectin sensitivity and the molecular mechanisms of muscle insulin sensitization by adiponectin have not been fully established. We used in vivo electrotransfer to overexpress AdipoR1 in single muscles of rats, some of which were fed for 6 wk with chow or high-fat diet (HFD) and then subjected to hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp. After 1 wk, the effects on glucose disposal, signaling, and sphingolipid metabolism were investigated in test vs. contralateral control muscles. AdipoR1 overexpression (OE) increased glucose uptake and glycogen accumulation in the basal and insulin-treated rat muscle and also in the HFD-fed rats, locally ameliorating muscle IR. These effects were associated with increased phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate-1, Akt, and glycogen synthase kinase-3β. AdipoR1 OE also caused increased phosphorylation of p70S6 kinase, AMP-activated protein kinase, and acetyl-coA carboxylase as well as increased protein levels of adaptor protein containing pleckstrin homology domain, phosphotyrosine binding domain, and leucine zipper motif-1 and adiponectin, peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α, and uncoupling protein-3, indicative of increased mitochondrial biogenesis. Although neither HFD feeding nor AdipoR1 OE caused generalized changes in sphingolipids, AdipoR1 OE did reduce levels of sphingosine 1-phosphate, ceramide 18:1, ceramide 20:2, and dihydroceramide 20:0, plus mRNA levels of the ceramide synthetic enzymes serine palmitoyl transferase and sphingolipid Δ-4 desaturase, changes that are associated with increased insulin sensitivity. These data demonstrate that enhancement of local adiponectin sensitivity is sufficient to improve skeletal muscle IR.


Long-continued use of levamizole for the control of gastrointestinal roundworms in sheep kept on pasture showed that the discrepancy in the results obtained in experiments and in the terrain is associated with the physiology of host and parasites. In practical use in the terrain, the preparation had an 85% effect in one case; otherwise the average effect was 61.1% and persisted five to six weeks in all flocks including those in which the animals were treated five times a year. Treatment performed later than in October did not destroy larvae in the mucous membrane because they already were in their anabiosis; only the imagoes were positively influenced. The larvae from the mucosa begin to maturate in February and eggs are produced hastily ("spring rise phenomenon"); the use of the drug in April mostly fails to reduce this abundant production of eggs. The roundworms Bunostomum phlebotomum, Oesophagostomum spp., Cooperia spp. and Trichostrongylus spp. almost disappeared from the flock after three-year treatment. Chabertia ovina, Ostertagia spp. and Strongyloides papillosus showed the highest resistance.


Good practices of maintenance optimization in nuclear power field need to be effectively consolidated and inherited,and maintenance optimization can provide technology support to create a long-term reliable and economic operation for nuclear power plants( NPPs) especially for a large number of nuclear powers under construction. Based on the development and application of maintenance template in developed countries,and combining with reliability-centered maintenance( RCM) analysis results and maintenance experience data over the past ten years in domestic NPPs, the development process of maintenance template was presented for Chinese pressurized water reactor( PWR) NPP,and the application of maintenance template to maintenance program development and maintenance optimization combined with cases were demonstrated. A shortcut was provided for improving the efficiency of maintenance optimization in domestic PWR NPP,and help to realize a safe,reliable,and economic operation for domestic NPPs.


Our previous study indicated that the core protein of hepatitis C virus (HCV) can associate with tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR)-related lymphotoxin-beta receptor (LT-betaR) and that this protein-protein interaction plays a modulatory effect on the cytolytic activity of recombinant form LT-betaR ligand (LT-alpha1beta2) but not tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) in certain cell types. Since both TNF-alpha/TNFR and LT-alpha1beta2/LT-betaR are also engaged in transcriptional activator NF-kappaB activation or c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activation, the biological effects of the HCV core protein on these regards were elucidated in this study. As demonstrated by the electrophoretic mobility shift assay, the expression of HCV core protein prolonged or enhanced the TNF-alpha or LT-alpha1beta2-induced NF-kappaB DNA-binding activity in HuH-7 and HeLa cells. The presence of HCV core protein in HeLa or HuH-7 cells with or without cytokine treatment also enhanced the NF-kappaB-dependent reporter plasmid activity, and this effect was more strongly seen with HuH-7 cells than with HeLa cells. Western blot analysis suggested that this modulation of the NF-kappaB activity by the HCV core protein was in part due to elevated or prolonged nuclear retention of p50 or p65 species of NF-kappaB in core protein-producing cells with or without cytokine treatment. Furthermore, the HCV core protein enhanced or prolonged the IkappaB-beta degradation triggering by TNF-alpha or LT-alpha1beta2 both in HeLa and HuH-7 cells. In contrast to that of IkappaB-beta, the increased degradation of IkappaB-alpha occurred only in LT-alpha1beta2-treated core-producing HeLa cells and not in TNF-alpha-treated cells. Therefore, the HCV core protein plays a modulatory effect on NF-kappaB activation triggering by both cytokines, though the mechanism of NF-kappaB activation, in particular the regulation of IkappaB degradation, is rather cell line and cytokine specific. Studies also suggested that the HCV core protein had no effect on TNF-alpha-stimulated JNK activity in both HeLa and HuH-7 cells. These findings, together with our previous study, strongly suggest that among three signaling pathways triggered by the TNF-alpha-related cytokines, the HCV core protein potentiates NF-kappaB activation in most cell types, which in turn may contribute to the chronically activated, persistent state of HCV-infected cells.


Background The time course and relationships of myocardial hemorrhage and edema in patients after acute ST‐segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) are uncertain. Methods and Results Patients with ST‐segment elevation myocardial infarction treated by primary percutaneous coronary intervention underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging on 4 occasions: at 4 to 12 hours, 3 days, 10 days, and 7 months after reperfusion. Myocardial edema (native T2) and hemorrhage (T2*) were measured in regions of interest in remote and injured myocardium. Myocardial hemorrhage was taken to represent a hypointense infarct core with a T2* value <20 ms. Thirty patients with ST‐segment elevation myocardial infarction (mean age 54 years; 25 [83%] male) gave informed consent. Myocardial hemorrhage occurred in 7 (23%), 13 (43%), 11 (33%), and 4 (13%) patients at 4 to 12 hours, 3 days, 10 days, and 7 months, respectively, consistent with a unimodal pattern. The corresponding median amounts of myocardial hemorrhage (percentage of left ventricular mass) during the first 10 days after myocardial infarction were 2.7% (interquartile range [IQR] 0.0–5.6%), 7.0% (IQR 4.9–7.5%), and 4.1% (IQR 2.6–5.5%; P<0.001). Similar unimodal temporal patterns were observed for myocardial edema (percentage of left ventricular mass) in all patients (P=0.001) and for infarct zone edema (T2, in ms: 62.1 [SD 2.9], 64.4 [SD 4.9], 65.9 [SD 5.3]; P<0.001) in patients without myocardial hemorrhage. Alternatively, in patients with myocardial hemorrhage, infarct zone edema was reduced at day 3 (T2, in ms: 51.8 [SD 4.6]; P<0.001), depicting a bimodal pattern. Left ventricular end‐diastolic volume increased from baseline to 7 months in patients with myocardial hemorrhage (P=0.001) but not in patients without hemorrhage (P=0.377). Conclusions The temporal evolutions of myocardial hemorrhage and edema are unimodal, whereas infarct zone edema (T2 value) has a bimodal pattern. Myocardial hemorrhage is prognostically important and represents a target for therapeutic interventions that are designed to preserve vascular integrity following coronary reperfusion. Clinical Trial Registration URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/. Unique identifier: NCT02072850.


We present a full-polymer respiratory monitoring device suited for application in environments with strong magnetic fields (e.g., during an MRI measurement). The sensor is based on the well-known evanescent field method and consists of a 1 mm plastic optical fiber with a bent region where the cladding is removed and the fiber is coated with poly-dimethylacrylamide (PDMAA). The combination of materials allows for a mass-production of the device by spray-coating and enables integration in disposable medical devices like oxygen masks, which we demonstrate here. We also present results of the application of an autocorrelation-based algorithm for respiratory frequency determination that is relevant for real applications of the device.


Three choice-reaction time studies were conducted to investigate whether information processing is exhaustive or self-terminating, serial or parallel, and N-dependent or N-independent. A total of 54 subjects were requited to make key-pressing responses to one, two, or three digits presented in a circular display; one key was pressed if the display contained one or more target digits and another key was pressed if the display contained only nontarget digits. The first two studies utilized within-subjects designs in which the displays were consttucted from only one target and one nontarget item (Study 1) or from three target and seven nontarget items (Study 2). The third study used a between-subjects design in which different groups of subjects responded to one-, two-, or three-element displays. In general, the results indicate that CRTs increased as the total number of display elements increased and decreased as the number of target elements (or the ratio of target to nontarget items) increased for a given display size. When only target elements were presented, CRT was independent of the number of elements displayed, and when only one target was presented, CRT increased as total number of elements increased. These combined results are interpreted as support for the inference that information processing in visual search tasks tends to be self-terminating, serial, and N-dependent (of limited capacity).


The CLIC study is investigating the technical feasibility of an electron-positron collider with high luminosity and a nominal centre-of-mass energy of 3 TeV. The CLIC predamping rings and damping rings (DRs) will produce ultra-low emittance beam with high bunch charge. To avoid beam emittance increase, the DR kicker systems must provide extremely flat, high-voltage, pulses. The specifications for the DR extraction kickers call for 160 ns duration flattop pulses of ±12.5 kV, with a combined ripple and droop of not more than ±0.02 % (±2.5 V). An inductive adder is a very promising approach to meet the specifications. Two five layer, 3.5 kV, prototype inductive adders have been built at CERN, and used to test passive and active analogue modulation methods to compensate droop and ripple of the output pulses. Recently, magnetic core materials and full-scale magnetic cores have been evaluated for the 12.5 kV prototype inductive adders. These results are presented in this paper and conclusions are drawn concerning the design of the full-scale prototypes.


The specific diversity of Chinese cave fauna of the ground beetle tribe Trechini is further enriched. Eight new genera and species of trechine beetles are reported from limestone caves in southern China karsts: Youtrechus zijunae n. gen., n. sp. (Xianning, southeastern Hubei Province), Wumengius fengi n. gen., n. sp. (Liupanshui, western Guizhou Province), Chenotrechus parvulus n. gen., n. sp. (Laibin, central Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Sinaphaenopoides zhaoyiae n. gen., n. sp. (Chenzhou, southern Hunan Province), Ecotrechus ruruiae n. gen., n. sp. Hurites yunxianicus n. gen., n. sp. (Shaoyang, central Hunan Province), Pangaphaenops seraphicus n. gen., n. sp. (Bama, northwestern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region) and Zunotrechus zhaojieyui n. gen., n. sp. (Zunyi, northern Guizhou Province). All the above genera are monospecific. Generic diagnosis of each new genus, with discussions on its possible phylogenetic position within the tribe Trechini, and description of the type species are provided. The following new species of cavernicolous trechines are described: Dongodytes (Dongodytodes) pingjingae sp. n. (Hechi, northern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Dongodytes (s. str.) mingruoae n. sp. (Du'an, Hechi, northern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Deuveaphaenops (Furongius) huangheae n. sp. (Daozhen, Zunyi, northern Guizhou Province), Shilinotrechus zhangfani n. sp. (Mile, Honghe Hani & Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southeastern Yunnan Province), Guizhaphaenops (s. str.) wanghaoi n. sp. (Qinglong, Qianxinan Buyi & Miao Autonomous Prefecture, southwestern Guizhou Province), and Graciliblemus gui n. sp. (Liping, Qiandongnan Miao & Dong Autonomous Prefecture, southeastern Guizhou Province). Further generic characteristics of the genus Graciliblemus Deuve & Tian, 2016 are added. A distribution map for all above new taxa is given.


OBJECTIVE
Assess COVID-19 vaccine uptake among veterinarians and describe unvaccinated veterinarians' perceptions of COVID-19 disease and vaccines.

SAMPLE
2,721 (14%) of 19,654 randomly sampled AVMA members.

PROCEDURES
A survey of AVMA members was conducted between June 8 and June 18, 2021. Information was collected on COVID-19 experience, vaccination intention, and perceptions of COVID-19 disease and vaccines.

RESULTS
A total of 2,721 AVMA members completed the survey. Most respondents reported receiving a COVID-19 vaccine (89% [2,428/2,721]). Most unvaccinated respondents disagreed with concerns about contracting (67% [196/292]) or being harmed by (65% [187/287]) COVID-19 but agreed with concerns about short- (79% [228/290]) and long-term (89% [258/289]) side effects of COVID-19 vaccines. Over 91% (268/292) did not agree that COVID-19 vaccine benefits outweigh the risk. Although 83% (244/293) of unvaccinated respondents reported being unlikely to get a COVID-19 vaccine, 47% (137/291) agreed they would be more likely if they knew people vaccinated without serious side effects. Perceptions of COVID-19 disease severity and susceptibility, beliefs about COVID-19 vaccine benefits, and barriers and facilitators to COVID-19 vaccination varied with vaccination intention.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Results of the AVMA survey suggested that COVID-19 vaccination was widespread among veterinarians in June 2021. Understanding unvaccinated respondents' health beliefs about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines may facilitate veterinarian vaccination participation. Veterinarians who abstained from COVID-19 vaccination cited concerns about the safety, efficacy, and necessity of COVID-19 vaccines. Our results suggested that demonstrating vaccine safety and a favorable risk-to-benefit ratio of vaccination may help reduce vaccine hesitancy and increase uptake of COVID-19 vaccines among veterinarians.


Patent literature first mentions linear induction machines in 1890, only two years after the discovery of the rotary induction principle. Basically the concept of the linear device consists in imagining a rotary machine to be cut along a radial plane and 'unrolled' so that the primary member then consists of a single row of coils in slots in a laminated steel core. The differences between rotary and linear motors are outlined and reasons for the slow application of linear motors are explained. Principal developments in linear machines since the 1950s are described.


Mucosal vaccination has been getting more and more recognition because of its compliance and low risk of spreading infectious disease by contaminated syringes used in subcutaneous immunization. However, most vaccines are unable to induce immune responses when given mucosally, and require the use of strong adjuvant for effective delivery systems. Heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) and Cholera toxin(CT) are powerful mucosal adjuvants when co-administered with soluble antigens. But high toxicity hampers their use in humans. Thanks to the fine knowledge of the structure-function relationship of LT and CT, many nontoxic or low toxic mutants have been generated, part of them retain high adjuvanticity of mucosal immunization. Among these mutants, LTS63K, LTA72R, LTR192G and CTE29H, CTE112K have been widely investigated. LTS63K and CTE112K are fully non toxic, whereas LTA72R and CTE29H are low toxic, and LTR192G is nontoxic in vitro(it remains the same toxicity as wild type LT in vivo). These mutants are extremely active as mucosal adjuvants when co-administrated with a variety of antigens in different animal models. They will be investigated more widely and deeply in the future. Some of them will be tested soon in human bodies.


Thinking is an innate human beings capacity that can be developed through learning process. Therefore there is specific purpose on learning that has to be achieved namely gradually developing thinking skills, specifically critical thinking skills. As one aspect that has to be mastered before High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), critical thinking skills have recently emerged as a new focus in education research. In consequence these skills have to be integrated in the classroom, not least in the foreign language classroom. Classroom research has been conducted in the class Lesen II (Reading II) to enhance student's critical thinking skills using problem-based learning. Reading involves specific thinking process to gain comprehensive understanding. The data were collected through observations, interviews, and document. The findings suggest that the development of critical thinking skills using problem-based learning in the Lesen II classroom can be performed into two stages, i.e a) pointing controversial issues and (ii) active learning through discussion and debate. This study confirms that problem-based learning is an effective alternative to develop university student's critical thinking skills in German as foreign language classroom, in the subject Lesen II.


"A comprehensive state-of-the-art, integrated and cross-sectoral study on sustainable management and development of the Mekong River; for the environment, people, and economy."


OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to characterise the burden of illness of patients with inadequately controlled hereditary periodic fevers (HPFs), during and outside of flares. It was focused on the burden to the patients and also considered the wider impact on their caregivers and families.

METHODS
The target population was patients or caregivers of patients with clinically/genetically confirmed colchicine resistant FMF (crFMF), mevalonate kinase deficiency/hyperimmunoglobinaemia D with periodic fever syndrome (MKD/HIDS) or TRAPS, who were expected to flare at least once in a 6-month period based on patient history. Disease burden was captured during and between flares using an electronic diary (e-diary) with questions on patient functioning, emotional/social well-being and pain, using validated instruments.

RESULTS
HPF-related symptoms such as fever, joint, muscle or bone pain and tiredness and fatigue were reported by patients both during and outside of a flare. The SF-10 Health Survey (SF-10v2) (paediatric patients) and SF-12 Health Survey (SF-12v2) (adult patients) showed that flares negatively impacted patients' psychosocial and physical health. Negative effect of on-flare status on health utility index score assessed by the Short-Form Six-Dimension (SF-6D) was significant only for crFMF patients. Furthermore, the Sheehan Disability Score (SDSv3) showing the on-flare status resulted in significant functional impairment in all 3 disease cohorts through assessment of impact on work/school, social and family life.

CONCLUSIONS
crFMF, MKD/HIDS and TRAPS negatively affected the quality of life (QoL) of adult and paediatric patients, including their physical, mental, psychosocial health, and social functioning. There remains, however, a high number of unmet needs for these patients to reduce their disease burden.


The purpose of this book, according to the editors, is to present particular aspects of the field of child psychiatry by a broad set of contributors so as to obtain a more balanced contribution to a wider literature. The work presents, in essence, a bird's eye view of the problems, issues, and approaches in modem child psychiatry. It is written primarily for medically orientated readers who might have contact with disturbed children, such as pediatricians, family practice physicians, and nurses. However, the book should also be useful to other professionals who work with emotionally disturbed children such as special education teachers, school psychologists and social workers, and all other individuals who might have associations with child psychiatrists but have no real understanding of the field. The book is divided into 13 chapters covering a variety of topics in child psychiatry including: (a) the history of child psychiatry; (b) the distinctions among child psychiatry, general psychiatry, and pediatrics; (c) diagnosis and nomenclature in child psychiatry; (d) children with disorders of the central nervous system, such as mental retardation, hyperkinetic syndrome, minimal brain dysfunction, and epilepsy; (e) treatment in child psychiatry; (f) the child's family; (g) elementary school education; (h) remedial education and vocational adjustment; (i) legal problems; (j) juvenile delinquency; (k) drug abuse; (I) child psychoanalysis; and (m) the community mental health movement. The chapters are generally clearly and simply written. Each chapter begins with a biographical sketch of the contributor and


One of the important challenges in Systems Biology is reasoning and performing hypotheses testing in uncertain conditions, when available knowledge may be incomplete and the experimental data may contain substantial noise.
In this thesis we develop methods of probabilistic reasoning and inference
that operate consistently within an environment of uncertain knowledge and data. Mechanistic mathematical models are used to describe hypotheses about biological systems.
We consider both deductive model based reasoning and model inference from data. The main contributions are a novel modelling approach using continuous time Markov chains that enables deductive derivation of model behaviours and their properties, and the application of Bayesian inferential methods to solve the inverse problem of model inference and comparison, given uncertain knowledge and noisy data.
In the first part of the thesis, we consider both individual and population
based techniques for modelling biochemical pathways using continuous time Markov chains, and demonstrate why the latter is the most appropriate. We illustrate a new approach, based on symbolic intervals of concentrations, with an example portion of the ERK signalling pathway. We demonstrate that the resulting model approximates the same dynamic system as traditionally defined using ordinary differential equations. The advantage of the new approach is quantitative logical analysis; we formulate a number of biologically significant queries in the temporal logic CSL and use probabilistic symbolic model checking to investigate their veracity.
In the second part of the thesis, we consider the inverse problem of model
inference and testing of alternative hypotheses, when models are defined by non-linear ordinary differential equations and the experimental data is noisy and sparse. We compare and evaluate a number of statistical techniques, and implement an effective Bayesian inferential framework for systems biology based on Markov chain Monte Carlo methods and estimation of marginal likelihoods by annealing-melting integration. We illustrate the framework with two case studies, one of which involves an open problem concerning the mediation of ERK phosphorylation in the ERK pathway.


This study evaluates salivary immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) in saliva of children and its correlation to tooth decay severity. Fifty-nine patients were divided into two groups: caries free (A group) and caries active (B group). B group was investigated according to Mount and Monse indices. Mean salivary IgA rate between two groups (A 16.7 ± 4.5 mg/dL vs. B 21.8 ± 12.9 mg/dL) was not significant, while IL-6 rate (A 19.02 ± 5.3 pg/mL vs. B 30.2 ± 11.8 pg/mL) was statistically different. This study revealed that salivary IL-6 levels were significantly higher in children with active caries when compared with the caries-free group, while the s-IgA rate showed no significant differences between the two groups.


MOTIVATION
Measures of protein functional similarity are essential tools for function prediction, evaluation of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and other applications. Several existing methods perform comparisons between proteins based on the semantic similarity of their GO terms; however, these measures are highly sensitive to modifications in the topological structure of GO, tend to be focused on specific analytical tasks and concentrate on the GO terms themselves rather than considering their textual definitions.

RESULTS
We introduce simDEF, an efficient method for measuring semantic similarity of GO terms using their GO definitions, which is based on the Gloss Vector measure commonly used in natural language processing. The simDEF approach builds optimized definition vectors for all relevant GO terms, and expresses the similarity of a pair of proteins as the cosine of the angle between their definition vectors. Relative to existing similarity measures, when validated on a yeast reference database, simDEF improves correlation with sequence homology by up to 50%, shows a correlation improvement >4% with gene expression in the biological process hierarchy of GO and increases PPI predictability by > 2.5% in F1 score for molecular function hierarchy.

AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION
Datasets, results and source code are available at http://kiwi.cs.dal.ca/Software/simDEF CONTACT: firstname.lastname@example.com or email@example.com

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


Excessive alcohol use increases the risk of acute lung injury and pneumonia. Chronic alcohol ingestion causes oxidative stress within the alveolar space, including near depletion of glutathione (GSH), which impairs alveolar epithelial and macrophage function, in experimental animals and human subjects. However, the fundamental mechanism(s) by which alcohol induces such profound lung oxidative stress is unknown. Nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) is a redox-sensitive master transcription factor that regulates activation of the antioxidant response element (ARE). As the alveolar epithelium controls GSH levels within the alveolar space, we hypothesized that alcohol also decreases Nrf2 expression and/or activation within the alveolar epithelium. In this study, we determined that alcohol ingestion in vivo or direct alcohol exposure in vitro down-regulated the Nrf2-ARE pathway in lung epithelial cells, decreased the expression of antioxidant genes, and lowered intracellular GSH levels. RNA silencing of Nrf2 gene expression in alveolar epithelial cells in vitro decreased expression of these same antioxidant genes, and likewise lowered intracellular GSH levels, findings that mirrored the effects of alcohol. In contrast, treating alcohol-exposed alveolar epithelial cells in vitro with the Nrf2 activator, sulforaphane, preserved Nrf2 expression, ARE activation, intracellular GSH levels, and epithelial barrier function. These new experimental findings implicate down-regulation of the Nrf2-ARE signaling pathway as a fundamental mechanism by which alcohol causes profound oxidative stress and alveolar epithelial dysfunction, and suggest that treatments, such as sulforaphane, that activate this pathway could mitigate the pathophysiological consequences of alcohol on the lung and other organs.


The classification of volatiles substances with an e-nose is still a challenging problem, particularly when working under real-time, out-of-the-lab environmental conditions where the chaotic and highly dynamic characteristics of the gas transportation induce an almost permanent transient state in the e-nose readings. In this work, a sequential Bayesian filtering approach is proposed to efficiently integrate information from previous e-nose observations while updating the belief about the gas class on a real-time basis. We validate our proposal with two real olfaction datasets composed of dynamic time-series experiments (gas transitions are considered, but no mixture of gases), showing an improvement in the classification rate when compared to a stand-alone probabilistic classifier.


In this article we review antiarrhythmic treatment for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Two years ago we discussed the role of warfarin or aspirin for the prevention of thromboembolic complications of AF.1 Here we consider the drugs used to restore and maintain sinus rhythm, to prevent paroxysmal episodes and to control the ventricular rate in paroxysmal or persistent AF. We also consider briefly the place of rhythm control using electrical means.


Purpose: To determine patient preoperative anatomical features and the parameters of implantable collamer lenses (ICLs) relevant in explaining vault variability.Setting: Ophthalmology Xi'an Aier Gucheng Eye hospital , Xi'an China.Design: Retrospective case series.Methods:This study comprised 88 eyes of 45 patients implanted with myopic or toric ICLs between May 2021 and August 2021.Pentacam imaging was used for assessing white-to-white (WTW) diameter, central keratometry, anterior chamber depth(ACD), central corneal thickness and vault. Anterior-segment optical coherence tomography(AS-OCT) was used to measure the horizontal anterior chamber angle distance (ATA). Ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) was used to measure horizontal and vertical sulcus to sulcus(vSTS). According to different ACD,we divide ACD into shallow group(2.8 to 3.2 mm),medium group(3.2 to 3.5 mm),and deep group(>3.5mm).Results: Linear regression analysis found significant correlation between WTW diameters and ATA diameters( y= 0.9605x+0.1491,R² = 0.9148),with a coefficient of determinant of 0.9148 (P<0.01). Linear regression analysis found significant correlation between hSTS and vSTS(y=0.9855x-0.0178,R²=0.1979),with a coefficient of determinant of 0.1979 (P<0.01). WTW diameters showed statistically significant difference in shallow and medium ACD (t=-3.28,P<0.01 ), significant difference in shallow and deep ACD (t=-4.69,P<0.01 ),there was no correlation in medium and deep ACD(t=-1.41,P>0.05 ). There was a statistically significant correlation between WTW diameters and hSTS diameters when the ACD was less than 3.5 mm (t=-0.451, P=0.000) (t=1.406, P=0.026),but weak correlation when the ACD was bigger than 3.5 mm(t=1.594, P=0.051). ATA and WTW with a mean difference close to zero(-0.66 mm). Despite the relatively high correlation (intraclass correlation co-efficient =0.689), the range of agreement is quite broad (1.33 mm).Conclusions:ATA measured with AS-OCT can not be used interchangeably with WTW obtained with Pentacam. WTW diameters and hSTS diameters have a statistically significant correlation when the ACD was less than 3.5 mm. WTW, ATA, hSTS and vSTS all should be considered during design the size of lens and regulating the vault after surgery.


In vivo leaf characteristics were examined to describe longitudinal gradients of UV-absorbing screening pigments in barley. Chlorophyll fluorescence properties and in vivo absorption spectra (210-750 nm) of leaves were measured from the base to the tip. Barley leaves showed strong longitudinal gradients of chlorophyll, where chlorophyll concentration increased within the first 5-8 cm from the leaf base, and did not significantly change for the remaining part of the leaf. Fluorescence microscopy was used to localize cell wall bound screening pigments different from flavonoids, since flavonoids lack a blue-green fluorescence emission (Lichtenthaler and Schweiger 1998). Measurements of in vivo chlorophyll fluorescence indicated that the ratio of UV-absorbing screening pigments per leaf area increases from the leaf base to the tip. These gradients were confirmed by in vivo absorption spectra. It is demonstrated that leaves in the early stage of development are less protected against UV-radiation than fully developed mature leaf regions. The experiments show that measurements of in vivo chlorophyll fluorescence are ideally suited as a fast non-invasive tool to estimate the epidermal UV-transmittance in different leaf sections.


– The medical advances and historical fluctuations in the demographics are contributing to the rise of the average age. These changes are increasing the pressure to organize adequate care to a growing number of individuals. As a way to provide efficient and cost-effective care, eHealth systems are gaining importance. However, this trend is creating new ethical concerns. Major issues are privacy and patients' control over their data. To deploy these systems on a large scale, they need to offer strict privacy protection. Even though many research proposals focus on eHealth systems and related ethical requirements, there is an evident lack of practical solutions for protecting users' personal information. The purpose of this study is to explore the ethical considerations related to these systems and extract the privacy requirements. This paper also aims to put forth a system design which ensures appropriate privacy protection. , – This paper investigates the existing work in the area of eHealth systems and the related ethical considerations, which establish privacy as one of the main requirements. It lists the ethical requirements and data protection standards that a system needs to fulfil and uses them as a guideline for creating the proposed design. , – Even though privacy is considered to be a paramount aspect of the eHealth systems, the existing proposals do not tackle this issue from the outset of the design. Consequently, introducing privacy at the final stages of the system deployment imposes significant limitations and the provided data protection is not always to the standards expected by the users. , – This paper motivates the need for addressing ethical concerns in the eHealth domain with special focus on establishing strict privacy protection. It lists the privacy requirements and offers practical solutions for developing a privacy-friendly system and takes the approach of privacy-by-design. Additionally, the proposed design is evaluated against ethical principles as proposed in the existing literature. The aim is to show that technological advances can be used to improve quality and efficiency of care, while the usually raised concerns can be avoided.


All classical models for thickening assume one-dimensional continuity. However, the free-settling domain in continuous thickeners is not one-dimensional. Therefore, a two-dimensional model is investigated. The two-dimensional model gives the same values for thickener area demands as the one-dimensional model, but the relationships between batch and steady-state thickening are not the same. Free-settling Kynch characteristics can arise in the continuous operation that do not arise in batch tests. Therefore, design procedures that rely on Kynch theory, such as that of Talmage and Fitch, are not completely valid.

A method is developed, based on extrapolating the Kynch or free-settling segment of a batch settling, curve, that yields an improved prediction for thickener area demand.


This paper presents an automatic basin model generation system. The data to be inputted are height data on a regular grid which covers the basin and position and height data of channel network. The system produces a basin divide and subdivides the catchment into many small slopes taking streamlines (the steepest ascent lines) as dividing lines. Though in most cell methods developed to date for hydrologic application, the direction of flow is assumed to be parallel with axis, such assumption seems too simplistic in considering water-flow processes on threedimensional catchment. The system presented here attaches importance to direction of water-flow. A quasi-three-dimensional slope runoff model to be coupled with this basin model is also presented.


The efficacy of stage II cervical cancer (CC) treatment was evaluated in two groups: squamous cell carcinoma--151, cervical adenocarcinoma (CAC)--49. All the patients received combined treatment (preoperative large-fraction brachytherapy + surgery + postoperative radiation). A comparison of the results highlighted the role of morphological pattern of tumor as a factor of cure. Five-year survival rates for CAC stage II patients were lower by 12.4% while the incidence of distant lymphogenous metastases and those to organs, responsible for failed therapy, was 2.7 times as high.


A groyne zone formed by installing groynes functions as habitat or shelter for aquatic organisms during a flood. Since flow characteristics over a groyne zone are affected directly by groynes, understanding flow patterns due to shapes and types of groynes is of importance for designing groynes. In order to use groynes as an eco-friendly river structure, the ecological effects should also be considered at the design stage. In Korea, the ecological effects of groynes have rarely been examined or included for the actual design. In this study, a set of experiments were carried out to investigate flow pattern changes depending on different types of groynes. Based on the flow characteristics in the groyne zone, the scales of habitats and shelters by the groyne types were estimated. In addition, to test the applicability of a habitat evaluation model to the ecological design of groynes, River2D was used for a virtual river. For assessment of the groyne's function of ecological habitat, the suitability index of a habitat for pale chub, one of the popular fishes in Korea, was used and the habitat areas by the groyne types were analyzed. The flow changes depending on the groyne types simulated by River2D show the applicability for the simulation of an ecological habitat to the groyne design.


The positive health enhancing effects of exercise, physical activity (PA), and sport for the general population as well as for persons with musculoskeletal diseases like osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis are indisputable. High potential lies in activating biopsychosocial exercise interventions that target long-term changes of physical activity behavior, and thus think beyond short intervention periods with mostly short-term effects on physical functions. Those behavioral interventions are related to the framework of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) of the World Health Organization (WHO) and consider – in addition to the classical target area of restoration of body functions and structures – relevant activities and aspects of participation as well as personal context factors. Based upon recent psychological health behavior change (HBC) theories and using the principles of intervention mapping we identified 28 exercise-related techniques that impact relevant modifiable personal factors of PA. Together with classical exercise components these techniques were integrated into an ICF-based concept of a "Behavioral Exercise Therapy" (BET). This concept serves as a theory-driven "tool box" for designing complex BET programs to promote PA and to build and strengthen individual movement-related health competence. In BET relevant contents and methods are didactically arranged on three intervention levels to enable the development of movement-related health competence: 1) physical exercise and training, 2) learning/education, and 3) experience. Movement-related health competence is composed of the three components movement competence, control competence and self-regulation competence. It is regarded as a personal resource for the movement and mobility demands in daily life, for autonomous health enhancing physical activity and sport, and for coping with or adjustment to health disorders and diseases. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a term given to describe a collection of animal models representing the human disease multiple sclerosis (MS). Although not fully understood, the involvement of cytokines and the immune system in either EAE or human MS is well established. Past efforts have shown that inhibition of proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) or interleukin-1 (IL-1) result in amelioration of acute EAE in Lewis rats. The present study examined this model for the effect of concomitant inhibition of both TNF-alpha and IL-1, which resulted in a modest but significant therapeutic effect that was superior to inhibition of either single agent alone with respect to four of the five variables used to follow the progression of disease in this model, i.e., clinical severity, frequency of disease, loss of body weight, and day of onset. These results are in accordance with the idea that combination treatments are likely to prove superior to single agent therapy in the treatment of autoimmune inflammatory disease.


BackgroundAcute otitis media (AOM) is very common in children. In spite of spontaneously relief, some cases suffer from the recurrence and other complications occurring after AOM. Animal studies have proved that persistence of leukotrienes in the middle ear may play a role in the development of AOM. Based on this statement, treatment with leukotriene modifiers may be effective in the treatment of OM. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of adjunction of montelukast to antibacterial agents in treatment of AOM.Materials and MethodsOne hundred patients aged 2-6 years were randomly divided into two groups. One of the groups (53%) were treated with "amoxicillin alone", 80-90 mg/kg amoxicillin for 10 days, and the other group (47%), received "amoxicillin and montelukast" 5 mg per day orally for 10 days. Patients were evaluated for resolution and complications of AOM at 2 post enrollment visits (days 2-4 and 10-14).ResultsThe patient followed-up for one month and results showed that, treatment with montelukast had beneficial effects on resolution of AOM. In monotherapy (amoxicillin alone) group, 66% of patients and in the montelukast (amoxicillin and montelukast) group, 85.1% were treated.ConclusionIn this study, the montelukast receiving group showed a better response to treatment. Based on this and previous studies, it is recommended to consider the role of inflammatory mediators in AOM. Prescribing montelukast and other leukotriene receptor antagonists may have benefits for the patients.


Major psychiatric disorders are heritable but they are genetically complex. This means that, with certain exceptions, single gene markers will not be helpful for diagnosis. However, we are learning more about the large number of gene variants that, in combination, are associated with risk for disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other psychiatric conditions. The presence of those risk variants may now be combined into a polygenic risk score (PRS). Such a score provides a quantitative index of the genomic burden of risk variants in an individual, which relates to the likelihood that a person has a particular disorder. Currently, such scores are quite useful in research, and they are telling us much about the relationships between different disorders and other indices of brain function. In the future, as the datasets supporting the development of such scores become larger and more diverse and as methodological developments improve predictive capacity, we expect that PRS will have substantial clinical utility in the assessment of risk for disease, subtypes of disease, and even treatment response. Here, we provide an overview of PRS in general terms (including a glossary suitable for informed non-geneticists) and discuss the use of PRS in psychiatry, including their limitations and cautions for interpretation, as well as their applications now and in the future.


Paediatric HIV is a rapidly emerging disease in many resource-poor countries. Survival into adulthood is possible for HIV-infected children provided that they receive effective antiretroviral therapy (ART). Large trials comparing multiple regimens of ART in children of resource-poor countries have not been completed. Design of those trials will need to incorporate both lessons learned from trials completed in developed countries as well as unique aspects of the developing countries in which they are conducted. Trial design will necessarily include close attention to the endpoint, and in children, special consideration will need to be given to growth as a component of the endpoint--whether or not growth should be a component of the composite endpoint, and if so, how.


 Abstract — This paper deals with the evaluation of Discrete Control Systems whose implementation is distributed among Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) and remote Input/Output devices communicating through a Wireless Network. Using wireless communication in these applications, called Wireless Networked Discrete Control System (WNDCS), offers many advantages such as a greater mobility and reduced wiring costs, but also several disadvantages such as transmission delay, jitter phenomena or loss of wireless communication. These features may have a negative impact on the behaviour of the control applications, and especially on the temporal performance and dependability requirements that a control system usually has to face. This paper proposes an algorithm for the management of the IEEE 802.11e priorities with regards to control needs in order to increase the performance of the WNDCS. Efficiency of the proposed algorithm is shown using OPNET simulations of a case study


Background and aim: Demodicosis is a parasitic skin disease caused by D. folliculorum and D. brevis, and is also known as hair follicle mite. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of D. folliculorum and D. brevis in hematologic cancer patients and to investigate their relation with chemotherapy.
Materials and methods: Sixty-six hematologic cancer patients and 60 healthy individuals with similar age and sex were included in the study. Of the patients with hematological cancer, 50 received chemotherapy and 16 did not receive chemotherapy. The demographic characteristics of the patients were noted. Samples were taken from the cheeks, nose, chin and forehead of the participants with standardized skin surface biopsy and examined in light microscopy at 40x and 100x magnifications to determine the mite density in cm2. Demodicosis was assessed as positive if 5 or more Demodex spp. were seen per cm2.
Results: Demodex spp. was positive in 19 (28.78%) of the cancer patients and 3 (5%) of the control group. The prevalence of Demodex spp. was significantly higher in the patient group (p<0.001). The mean mite count (31.31/cm2), in the patient group was also significantly higher than the control group (1.08/cm2), (p<0.001). Demodex spp. density was 38.94/cm2 in patients receiving chemotherapy and 7.50/cm2 in patients not receiving chemotherapy, and the difference between them was statistically significant (p<0.001).
Conclusion: In conclusion, our study showed that patients with hematological cancer were infected with Demodex spp. more than controls and that the density of Demodex spp. was significantly increased in chemotherapy group. It should be kept in mind that Demodex spp. increases with weakening of the immune system and may cause skin lesions in hematologic cancer patients, especially in chemotherapy receiving patients.


Freshly collected blood and/or spleen homogenate from an experimentally infected Florida bobcat (Lynx rufus floridanus), which had died of feline cytauxzoonosis, was inoculated into domestic cats. All inoculated cats had clinical signs of feline cytauxzoonosis and died within 2 weeks after they were inoculated. Similar material collected from an eastern bobcat (Lynx rufus rufus) carrying an experimentally infected Cytauxzoon felis parasitemia was inoculated into domestic cats. All inoculated cats developed a parasitemia, but none developed clinical signs of disease and none died of the disease. Cats subinoculated with parasitemic cat blood also developed parasitemias and they too did not develop clinical signs of infection nor died. After carrying the blood phase of Cytauxzoon felis for various periods, the domestic cats were then challenge exposed with proven lethal Cytauxzoon inoculum of domestic cat origin. All cats died of cytauxzoonosis.


I. Introduction"This is an issue about the future. It is an issue that affects our children . . . it is an issue about the economy [and] security."1 High gasoline prices, high heating bills, and questions about foreign oil dependence have pushed the energy industry to the forefront of the political scene.2 On August 8, 2005 Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005)3 to address these concerns and plan for America's energy future. In the 1,700 pages of EPAct 2005, Congress drastically changed the electric utility regulatory regime, and this new regulatory regime will play a large role in the achievement of the goals of EPAct 2005.4The prior electric utility regulatory regime was established by the 1935 Public Utility Act (1935 Act).5 Through two titles the 1935 Act created parallel tracks of regulation.6 Title I, the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA), directed the securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to simplify, restructure, and regulate electric utility holding companies.7 Title II amended the Federal Power Act (FPA) and gave the Federal Power Commission (now the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission-FERC) the power to oversee interstate wholesale sales of power.8 The SEC and the FERC have regulated on these parallel tracks for the past seventy years.9 EPAct 2005 repeals PUHCA, and creates a unified track of regulation, which will shape the future of the electric utility industry.10The FERC is now the sole electric utility regulatory commission, and its regulatory behavior has the potential either to hinder or advance the mission of EPAct 2005.11 Regulatory commissions develop unique regulatory personalities, and a commission's regulatory personality determines the characteristics of the resulting regulatory environment.12 The 1935 Act, combined with the history and tradition of the respective commissions, influenced the development of two distinct regulatory commissions.13 In administering the 1935 Act, the FERC and the SEC formed two distinct regulatory personalities and produced extremely different regulatory environments.14 The SEC, using a proactive and comprehensive approach to regulation, produced an efficient and stable regulatory environment.15 In contrast, the FERC became a reactive agency characterized by fragmented policies, producing an inefficient and unstable regulatory environment.16 EPAct 2005 anticipates great developments and growth in the energy industry. It will be difficult to achieve these goals without a stable, predictable, and efficient electric utility regulatory environment.17EPAct 2005 imposes significant changes in the electric utility regulatory regime, and these changes provide the FERC with the opportunity to reform its regulatory personality.18 If the FERC looks to the sec as a regulatory role model and adopts a proactive and comprehensive approach to regulation, a stable and efficient regulatory environment will likely result, making the goals of EPAct 2005 readily achievable.19 Recent FERC actions indicate that the FERC is embracing new patterns of regulation, but old habits die hard.20 Although recent actions indicate a change in the FERC's regulatory approach, the next few years will be crucial in determining whether the FERC is embracing its new mission or regressing to familiar patterns.21 It will be difficult to achieve the goals of EPAct 2005 unless the FERC adopts a new regulatory personality.This Note focuses on the interplay between the regulatory personality of a commission and the resulting regulatory environment, specifically the degree to which the FERC's regulatory personality will hinder or advance the goals of EPAct 2005. In Part II, this Note describes the historical background and founding principles of the electric utility regulatory commissions and discusses formation of the sec and the FERC's foundational principles. Part III illustrates how the regulatory personalities of the SEC and the FERC have shaped electricity regulation and discusses the connection between regulatory environments and the achievement of Congressional goals. …


Shoots of Daphne mezereum synthesized daphnetin (7,8-dihydroxycoumarin) more efficiently from [2-14C]umbelliferone (7-hydroxycoumarin) than from [2-14C]p-coumaric acid, and [2-14C]caffeic acid was more poorly utilized still. These findings do not support the idea of derivation of daphnetin via hydroxylation of the caffeic acid ring at the 2 position, followed by lactone ring formation; instead they are consistent with the concept of daphnetin formation by an additional hydroxylation of umbelliferone at C-8. Umbelliferone was recovered with little l4C dilution from emulsin-hydrolysed extracts of shoots fed labelled umbelliferone, and TLC of extracts from untreated shoots revealed two substances yielding umbelliferone on hydrolysis. Evidence is presented from TLC and HP LC analysis that one of these is skimmin (7-O-β-ᴅ -glucosylumbelliferone), not previously reported from Daphne. The tracer experiments further support the theory that umbelliferone is the general precursor of coumarins bearing two or more hydroxyl functions on the aromatic ring.


The Floating Harbour Transhipper (FHT) is a pioneering logistics solution that was designed to meet the growing demands for coastal transhipment in the mining sector as well as commercial port operations. The primary advantage of the FHT system is that it can reduce transhipment delays caused by inclement weather, by reducing relative motions between the FHT and feeder vessel. The feeder is sheltered when inside the FHT well dock when compared to the more exposed location when a feeder is in a traditional side-by-side mooring arrangement.
This paper discusses previously published studies into the relative motions of vessels engaged in side-by-side mooring arrangements and also presents details and results from a series of physical scale model experiments. In these experiments, both side-by-side and aft well dock mooring arrangements are investigated. The results provide strong evidence that the FHT well dock concept can significantly reduce the heave, pitch and roll motions of feeder vessels when transhipping in open seas – this being the cornerstone of any successful open water transhipment operation.


Background Many cancer immunotherapies depend on the ability of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells to recognize neoantigens on MHCI complexes to effectively eliminate tumor cells. However, patient response following immunotherapy is highly variable, with recent work suggesting that neoantigen expression patterns can impair patient response. Specifically, it was observed that the immune response is dampened when neoantigens are expressed only by a subset of tumor cells (heterogeneous expression).1 To study why anti-tumor immunity is reduced in a heterogeneous setting we developed a transplant murine tumor model engineered to express neoantigens in a heterogeneous pattern or homogenously. Methods A curated list of neoantigens with varying predicted MCHI binding affinities was used to established an array of cell lines expressing at one to three neoantigens. The lines were inoculated subcutaneously in immunocompetent mice as mixtures (heterogenous) or as a single line (homogenous) to study the resulting immune response. Tumors were harvested at days 7, 10 and 14 and flow cytometry analysis was used to phenotype infiltrating immune populations, including antigen-specific CD8+ T cells. ELISpot assays were performed using splenocytes from the same timepoints to determine the frequency of antigen-specific T cells in the periphery. Results Compared to neoantigens predicted to bind weakly to MHCI, neoantigens predicted to bind strongly elicited robust expansion of antigen-specific T cells in the periphery and tumors expressing these antigens alone exhibited greater numbers of tumor infiltrating T cells. Homogenous expression of two neoantigens was found to enhance anti-tumor immunity by increasing the frequency of tumor-reactive T cells. Further, homogenous expression of two neoantigens induced protective immunity against antigens, including those that failed to be controlled when expressed alone. Conclusions Using our novel reductionist tumor model, our results suggest that a more robust response against weak antigens could be induced if a response against a strong, highly immunogenic neoantigen is mounted simultaneously. This observation has direct implications for the design of neoantigen vaccines either as mono- or combination immunotherapies, especially in the setting of a heterogeneous neoantigen expression pattern. References McGranahan N, Furness AJ, Rosenthal R, Ramskov S, Lyngaa R, Saini SK, Jamal-Hanjani M, Wilson GA, Birkbak NJ, Hiley CT, Watkins TB, Shafi S, Murugaesu N, Mitter R, Akarca AU, Linares J, Marafioti T, Henry JY, Van Allen EM, Miao D, Schilling B, Schadendorf D, Garraway LA, Makarov V, Rizvi NA, Snyder A, Hellmann MD, Merghoub T, Wolchok JD, Shukla SA, Wu CJ, Peggs KS, Chan TA, Hadrup SR, Quezada SA, Swanton C. Clonal neoantigens elicit T cell immunoreactivity and sensitivity to immune checkpoint blockade. Science 2016 Mar 25;351(6280):1463–9.


In spatial autoregressive models, spatial autocorrelations in the dependent (or omitted) variable are modeled. Dependency is measured under known spatial structures, typically represented as a spatial weight matrix (W). For ordinal spatial autoregressive models, a unique W exists, and the strength of influence of the variable (or autocorrelation) is expressed through this matrix. Elements of W are obtained as a monotonically decreasing function of distance between points within the solution space. Since the coefficients of W are a measure of the autocorrelation, the model is a linear function of the dependency. In actual situations, for example, locational or tax competition, highly complex interdependency may exist. Simultaneously, the model may exhibit negative autocorrelation at short distances, caused by substitution effects, and positive autocorrelation at long distances, caused by complementary effects. In this paper, we discuss realistic models by dividing spatial terms. The resulting nonlinear dependency function is represented through the coefficients of a pair of spatial weight matrices. As an example, we formulate land price models for all prefectures in Japan. From comparisons between the conventional ordinal one-weight-matrix model and the proposed two-weight-matrices model, we established that the latter may produce lower information criterion values. Our results show that division of spatial terms is important for extending the variability of spatial autoregressive models.


Abstract Medical disinformation has interfered with healthcare workers' ability to communicate with the general population in a wide variety of public health contexts globally. This has limited the effectiveness of evidence‐based medicine and healthcare capacity. Disinformation campaigns often try to integrate or co‐opt healthcare workers in their practices which hinders effective health communication. We describe a critical overview of issues health practitioners and communicators have experienced when dealing with medical disinformation online and offline as well as best practices to overcome these issues when disseminating health information. This article lists disinformation techniques that have yet to be used against the medical community but need to be considered in future communication planning as they may be highly effective. We also present broad policy recommendations and considerations designed to mitigate the effectiveness of medical disinformation campaigns.


DiCE is an online dictionary of Spanish collocations, which provides semantic and combinatorial information on lexical units. It makes use of the typology of lexical functions (Mel'čuk et al. 1995), together with natural language glosses to describe the semantic content of collocates. We offer a general presentation of the content of the dictionary, followed by a description of the user's interface and a brief insight into the lexicographer's interface. The main feature of DiCE is that it is conceived as a part of a language-learning environment which combines dictionary, corpus and teaching materials.


Scaphocephaly is the most common type of craniosynostosis. Simple sagittal suturectomy is still the operation of choice for infants under the age of 6 months. We describe a 4-month-old boy who underwent calvarial remodeling for the treatment of scaphocephaly. The patient was operated on in the prone position using a transverse incision halfway between the anterior fontanelle and the occipital prominence. Sagittal strip craniectomy was coupled with bilateral parietal wedge craniectomies and occipital craniotomy. Bone edges of the wedge craniectomies were drawn to each other and the occipital craniotomy flap repositioned following remodeling. The described technique provided an immediate restoration of the cranial shape and the cosmetic outcome, 6 months after the surgery, was pleasing. Although an extensive procedure, calvarial remodeling can be the procedure of choice for a better cosmetic outcome even before 6 months of age.


When vehicles run through curved sections presenting significant twisting irregularities, the wheel load on the front axle on the outer rail may decrease. Concomitant large lateral force in such cases make it easy for the wheel to climb the rail, increasing the risk of derailment. A new type of bogie has therefore been developed to prevent flange climb derailment by controlling the decrease in wheel load. Confirmation was obtained of the satisfactory basic performance of the bogie through a series of experiments. Confirmation was also obtained of the satisfactory performance of the bogie in the operational running speed range through experiments carried out on the RTRI test line.


Exploration for geothermal energy in Uganda has been in progress since 1993. The studies have focused on three major geothermal areas namely Buranga, Katwe and Kibiro. The three areas are in advanced stages of surface exploration and will soon be subjected to exploratory drilling that will pave the way for a feasibility study. The overall objective of the study is to develop geothermal energy to complement hydro and other sources of power to meet the energy demand of rural areas in sound environment. Recent studies in Buranga have used geological, geochemical, hydrological and geophysical methods to elucidate subsurface temperatures and the spatial extent of the geothermal system. The results indicate that the geothermal activity at Buranga is related to the volcanic and tectonic activities of the Rift Valley, which has a higher heat flow than the surrounding Precambrian crust. The geothermal surface manifestations include hot bubbling springs, water pools, gas vents (H2S and CO2 gas), travertine tufas, hydrothermally altered rocks and geothermal grass. The main geological structure is the Bwamba escarpment that forms the western part of the Rwenzori horst mountain massif. This main rift fault is cut by numerous perpendicular and oblique striking faults which together with other faults/fractures contribute to the re-charge and up-flow permeability for the geothermal fluids at Buranga. Subsurface temperatures of 120 150 ̊C have been predicted by geothermometry. The results also indicate that hot springs show isotopic composition compatible with the local meteoric water line, confirming the meteoric origin of the water circulating in the geothermal system. Results from isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen (δDH2O, δ 18OH2O) suggest that the recharge is from high ground in the Rwenzori Mountains. Sulphur isotopes (34SSO4) of hot water samples show magmatic contributions of sulphate, while strontium isotopes of water and rock samples (87/86SrH2O, SrRock) identify the rock type as granitic gneisses, suggesting that the major source of salinity is from water-rock interaction with a magmatic input. Micro-seismic surveys have located a subsurface anomaly within the vicinity of the thermal activity at Buranga, but is yet to be confirmed by additional geophysical surveys and drilling. Recently, TEM and MT surveys have been conducted at Buranga; the results indicate a low resistivity anomaly associated with the geothermal surface manifestations, the main rift escarpment and the faults associated to the main rift escarpment.


Despite the advancements made in the tissue engineering, one of the obstacles in producing thick tissues is the means of oxygen transport to the deep layered cells of the engineered tissue and creating the network of veins inside the tissue. One way to overcome this problem is to create a microfluidic network of channels inside the porous scaffold. These channels can both enhance the oxygenation and produce a mold for the natural vessels created by the angiogenesis cells. In this paper the dissolved oxygen distribution inside a 2D scaffold, which contains bifurcation based microfluidic channels, has been simulated by the means of computational fluid dynamics. To achieve this, the liquid flow and oxygen transport equations have been solved with considerations to the boundary conditions and suitable parameters. The oxygen transport has been found for the static scaffold, and the scaffolds made from the 0 order to third order of bifurcation with a bifurcation angle of 45 degrees. The results have shown that the scaffold with the second order of bifurcation has a better oxygen distribution and also more free area for the cell proliferation, which is consistent with the references. Next, the bifurcation angle was reduced to 35 degrees for the second order scaffold which resulted in an increase in the non-hypoxic area. Generally, by designing optimized angle of bifurcation based channels, a significant area can be oxygenated, while there will be sufficient surface available for cell


New ridge-furrow-ridge rainwater-harvesting (RFRRH) system with mulches has been promoted in agricultural production to improve economic potential for high- value plant production. In this system, plastic mulch covers two ridges and the furrow between them, which serves as the rainwater-harvesting zone. To test this system more effectively, a field study using purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea Moench) as an indicator crop was conducted to determine the effect of the RFRRH system with or without a covering of two different types of polyethylene mulches and with or without supplemental irrigation on soil water content, crop yield, and time dedicated to weed control during the growing seasons of 2007 and 2008. In the non-irrigated plots, the results showed significantly higher soil water content during dry periods at the beginning of plant growth in the mulch-covered RFRRH system in comparison with the control (uncovered ridges). In comparison with the control, the mulch-covered RFRRH system significantly increased yield and reduced time dedicated to weed control. In the event of a rainfall deficiency, the mulch-covered RFRRH system enabled simple supplemental irrigation, using an agricultural vacuum tanker, by flooding the polyethylene mulch- covered furrow with hardly any ridge erosion. However, in only 1 year did supplemental irrigation significantly increase yield.


ABSTRACT This study seeks to answer the following question: What are the organizational attributes that influence organizational responses to institutional complexity? Building on core ideas of organizational imprinting, I argue that organizational response is influenced by the imprint from the dominant logic of organizing during the founding period and from the institutional position an organization possessed at founding. Empirically, I examine the variation in board composition of Chinese state-owned firms listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange market. It is found that state-owned firms founded in the market logic dominant period tend to have more non-state directors on the board in that they were organized around the prescription of the market logic and more responsive to shareholders' demands for legitimacy reasons. Besides, state-owned firms founded by central government agencies tend to have fewer non-state directors because they were born at the center of the socialist system to accomplish strategic goals of the central government and non-state directors may challenge the vested interests. This study contributes to the organizational imprinting and institutional literature and resonates with the contemporary call for a more systematic examination of organizational attributes that influence organizational responses to institutional complexity.


This research was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a concentrated buffered vinegar product (CBV) and a simple buffered vinegar product (BV) for controlling Clostridium perfringens outgrowth during extended cooling times of ready-to-eat roast turkey and roast beef. Whole turkey breasts and beef inside rounds were injected with a typical brine and then ground and mixed with CBV (0.0, 2.01, 2.70, and 3.30% [w/w]) or BV (0.0, 1.75, 2.25, and 3.75% [w/w]) and a three-strain C. perfringens spore cocktail to a detectable level of ca. 2 to 3 log CFU/g. The meat was divided into 10-g portions, vacuum packaged, and stored frozen until tested. The turkey and beef were cooked in a programmable water bath to 71.6°C (160.8°F) in 5 h and to 57.2°C (135°F) in 6 h, respectively. The cooked turkey and beef were then cooled exponentially from 48.9 to 12.8°C (120 and 55°F) in 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 h for the five cooling treatments. The cooling continued until the temperature reached 4.4°C (40°F). C. perfringens counts were determined at 54.4°C (130°F) and 4.4°C. CBV at 2.01% effectively limited C. perfringens growth in turkey to ≤1 log CFU/g with up to a 9-h cooling treatment, and 2.70 and 3.30% solutions were effective with up to the 18-h cooling treatment. BV had an inhibitory effect on C. perfringens outgrowth in beef but did not limit growth to ≤1 log CFU/g at any concentration tested for any of the cooling treatments.