In this paper the pinning consensus of multi-agent networks with arbitrary topology is investigated. Based on the properties of M-matrix, some criteria of pinning consensus are established for the continuous multi-agent network and the results show that the pinning consensus of the dynamical system depends on the smallest real part of the eigenvalue of the matrix which is composed of the Laplacian matrix of the multi-agent network and the pinning control gains. Meanwhile, the relevant work for the discrete-time system is studied and the corresponding criterion is also obtained. Particularly, the fundamental problem of pinning consensus, that is, what kind of node should be pinned, is investigated and the positive answers to this question are presented. Finally, the correctness of our theoretical findings is demonstrated by some numerical simulated examples.


The role of adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) as a major intracellular energy source is well-established. In addition, ATP and related nucleotides have widespread extracellular actions via the ionotropic P2X receptors (ligand-gated cation channels) and metabotropic P2Y receptors (G protein-coupled receptors). Numerous experimental techniques, including myography, electrophysiology and biochemical measurement of neurotransmitter release, have been used to show that ATP has two major roles as an excitatory cotransmitter from autonomic nerves; 1) It is costored with noradrenaline in synaptic vesicles in postganglionic sympathetic nerves innervating smooth muscle preparations, such as the vas deferens and most arteries. When coreleased with noradrenaline, ATP acts at postjunctional P2X1 receptors to evoke depolarisation, Ca 2+ influx, Ca 2+ sensitisation and contraction. 2) ATP is also coreleased with acetylcholine from postganglionic parasympathetic nerves innervating the urinary bladder and again acts at postjunctional P2X1 receptors, and possibly also a P2X1+4 heteromer, to elicit smooth muscle contraction. In both systems the neurotransmitter actions of ATP are terminated by dephosphorylation by extracellular, membrane-bound enzymes and soluble nucleotidases released from postganglionic nerves. There are indications of an increased contribution of ATP to control of blood pressure in hypertension, but further research is needed to clarify this possibility. More promising is the upregulation of P2X receptors in dysfunctional bladder, including interstitial cystitis, idiopathic detrusor instability and overactive bladder syndrome. Consequently, these roles of ATP are of great therapeutic interest and are increasingly being targeted by pharmaceutical companies.


The study of the production of two forward jets with a large interval of rapidity at hadron colliders was proposed by Mueller and Navelet as a possible test of the high energy dynamics of QCD. We analyze this process within a complete next-to-leading logarithm framework, supplemented by the use of the Brodsky-Lepage-Mackenzie procedure extended to the perturbative Regge dynamics, to find the optimal renormalization scale. This leads to a very good description of the recent CMS data at LHC for the azimuthal correlations of the jets.


ABSTRACT Severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice lack functional lymphocytes and therefore develop Pneumocystis cariniipneumonia. However, when infected SCID mice are immunologically reconstituted with congenic spleen cells, a protective inflammatory cascade is initiated. Proinflammatory cytokines are produced, and lymphocytes and macrophages are recruited specifically to alveolar sites of infection. Importantly, uninfected regions of the lung remain free from inflammatory involvement, suggesting that there are specific mechanisms that limit inflammation in the infected lung. Therefore, to determine whether chemokines are involved in targeting the P. carinii-driven inflammatory response, steady-state mRNA levels of several chemokines were measured in the lungs of both reconstituted and nonreconstituted P. carinii-infected SCID mice. Despite significant organism burdens in the lungs of 8- and 10-week-old SCID mice, there was no evidence of elevated chemokine gene expression, which is consistent with the lack of an inflammatory response in these animals. However, when 8-week-old infected SCID mice were immunologically reconstituted, signs of focal pulmonary inflammation were observed, and levels of RANTES, MCP-1, lymphotactin, MIP-1α, MIP-1β, and MIP-2 mRNAs were all significantly elevated. Chemokine mRNA abundance was elevated at day 10 postreconstitution (PR), was maximal at day 12 PR, and returned to baseline by day 22 PR. In situ hybridization demonstrated that during the peak of inflammation, RANTES gene expression was localized to sites of inflammatory cell infiltration and P. carinii infection. Thus, these observations indicate that chemokines play a role in the focal targeting of inflammatory cell recruitment to sites of P. carinii infection after the passive transfer of lymphocytes to the host.


The aim of the study was to evaluate the potential of autologous bone marrow‐derived nucleated cells to enhance the rate of healing of full‐thickness excisional skin wounds in rabbits. The study was conducted on 20 New Zealand white rabbits of either sex. Two, 2 × 2 cm full‐thickness skin (thoracolumabar region) excisional wounds were created; one on each side of the dorsal midline in each animal. The wounds were randomly assigned to either injection of autologous bone marrow‐derived nucleated cells into the wound margins (BI), or topical application of sterile saline solution (normal saline, NS), which served as control. The wound healing was assessed by evaluation of granulation tissue formation, wound contraction, epithelisation and histopathological and histochemical changes up to 28 days after creation of the wound. Granulation tissue appeared significantly faster in BI‐treated wounds (3.22 ± 0.22 days) than in NS‐treated wounds (4.56 ± 0.47 days). Better epithelisation was seen histologically in BI wounds than in NS‐treated wounds. Wound contraction was significantly more in BI wounds when compared with NS wounds on 21 post‐surgery. Histopathological examination of the healing tissue showed early disappearance of inflammatory reaction, significantly more neovascularisation, and more fibroplasias and early lay down and histological maturation of collagen in BI wounds than in control wounds. It was concluded that injection of autologous bone marrow‐derived nucleated cells in the wound margins induced faster and better quality healing of excisional skin wounds in rabbits when compared with normal saline. The injection of autologous bone marrow‐derived nucleated cells can be used to promote healing of large full‐thickness skin wounds in rabbits.


Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is a population-based constructive meta-heuristic that exploits a form of past performance memory inspired by the foraging behaviour of real ants. The behaviour of the ACO algorithm is highly dependent on the values defined for its parameters. Adaptation and parameter control are recurring themes in the field of bio-inspired algorithms. The present paper explores a new approach to diversity control in ACO. The central idea is to avoid or slow down full convergence through the dynamic variation of certain parameters. The performance of different variants of the ACO algorithm was observed to choose one as the basis for the proposed approach. A convergence fuzzy logic controller with the objective of maintaining diversity at some level to avoid premature convergence was created. Encouraging results have been obtained on its application to the design of fuzzy controllers. In particular, the optimization of membership functions for a unicycle mobile robot trajectory control is presented with the proposed method.


Caridean shrimps display a variety of sexual systems including gonochorism and various forms of protandry but rarely simultaneous hermaphroditism. Protandric simultaneous hermaphroditism (PSH) has thus far only been demonstrated in the genus Lysmata. The first report of simultaneous hermaphroditism in a caridean shrimp was with Exhippolysmata ensirostris. However, this was not confirmed, since this species was also considered to be strictly protandric. Therefore, inconclusive results about this species' true sexual system led us to examine Exhippolysmata oplophoroides. Mating between female phase individuals resulted in successful spawning, embryonic development and hatching of viable larvae. Furthermore, we have confirmed that this species is not capable of self-fertilization. Juveniles reared in the laboratory matured in a similar manner to that of Lysmata. Data were limited due to the loss of all individuals to a Vibrio infection. However, the results obtained in this study conclusively affirm functionally that PSH occurs outside the genus Lysmata, in E. oplophoroides. Theories examining the evolution of PSH within decapods must be re-examined in light of the present data.


Human respiratory infections caused by coronaviruses can range from mild to deadly. Although there are numerous studies on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), few have been published on its Omicron variant. In order to remedy this deficiency, this study undertook a bibliometric analysis of the publishing patterns of studies on the Omicron variant and identified hotspots. Automated transportation, environmental protection, improved healthcare, innovation in banking, and smart homes are just a few areas where machine learning has found use in tackling complicated problems. The sophisticated Scopus database was queried for papers with the term "Omicron" in the title published between January 2020 and June 2022. Microsoft Excel 365, VOSviewer, Bibliometrix, and Biblioshiny from R were used for a statistical analysis of the publications. Over the study period, 1917 relevant publications were found in the Scopus database. Viruses was the most popular in publications for Omicron variant research, with 150 papers published, while Cell was the most cited source. The bibliometric analysis determined the most productive nations, with USA leading the list with the highest number of publications (344) and the highest level of international collaboration on the Omicron variant. This study highlights scientific advances and scholarly collaboration trends and serves as a model for demonstrating global trends in Omicron variant research. It can aid policymakers and medical researchers to fully grasp the current status of research on the Omicron variant. It also provides normative data on the Omicron variant for visualization, study, and application.


Background: In order to understand the changes induced in tumor cells following multi-fraction (MF) radiation therapy, we have previously studied molecular changes using prostate cancer cells and endothelial cells treated in vitro with MF doses of 0.5 Gy/1 Gy x 10 and 2 Gy x 5 and single-dose (SD) of 5 Gy and 10 Gy. The hypothesis being tested is that the response and adaptation to radiation-induced stress will produce a druggable phenotype. This might increase the utility of molecularly targeted therapeutics and also help address tumor cell heterogeneity. The data indicate more genes and pathways are induced by MF compared to SD and that the change in phenotype is more stable following MF. In this report, the focus is on new data from PC-3 cells irradiated in vivo and comparing it to MF and SD in vitro using MF 1 Gy x 10 and SD 10 Gy. Methods: PC-3 prostate cancer cells were implanted subcutaneously into the lateral aspect of rear leg of nude mice. Mice were divided into three groups (n = 3), based on radiation dose/schedule- control, SD, and MF. SD and MF employed similar dose/schedule as used for the in vitro studies, 10 Gy x 1 and 1 Gy x 10 respectively. RNA was isolated 24 h after radiation treatment. mRNA microarray analysis was performed using Agilent Technologies Human Gene Expression 4 × 44 K V2 microarrays. The data was generated and analyzed with GeneSpring® software (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA) and IPA software (IPA, QIAGEN, Redwood City, CA). Results: 6,374 genes were significantly altered by MF, with a cohort of genes, based on the > 250 gene ontology categories, involved in DNA response to stimulus, DNA repair, mitosis, cell cycle, and metabolism. In contrast, only 453 genes were significantly altered by SD, with ontological categories associated with cell morphology, assembly and organization such as actin filament-based process, extracellular matrix organization and biogenesis, fibril organization and biogenesis and collagen catabolism. Further bioinformatics analysis of the gene expression data with IPA, identified multiple pathways with functions correlated with the ontological categories. Significantly altered MF-induced genes are members of pathways which play a central role in DNA replication, recombination, and repair, cell proliferation and metabolism such as HIPPO Signaling, Protein Ubiquitination Pathway, JNK/SAPK Signaling, ERK/MAPK Signaling, G2/M DNA Damage Checkpoint Regulation, ATM Signaling, PI3K/AKT Signaling and Oxidative Phosphorylation. These pathways were uniquely up-regulated by MF treatment, as none of these changes were identified with SD radiation exposure. Conclusion: Our result show the differential expression pattern between SD and MF, with MF inducing changes in "targetable" molecular pathways. Ongoing studies: Currently we are in the process of evaluating radiation-induced targets in ATM signaling, DNA damage and repair, and multiple metabolic targets, and their potential for using radiation to prime cells for molecular-targeted drug therapy. Citation Format: Adeola Y. Makinde, Iris Eke, Molykutty J. Aryankalayil, Mansoor Ahmed, C. Norman Coleman. Radiation-inducible molecular targets in a human prostate cancer mouse model. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2015 Nov 5-9; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2015;14(12 Suppl 2):Abstract nr C146.


The first granulometrical analysis of soil samples from nesting banks of the Malachite Kingfisher Alcedo cristata is reported. In total 56 samples from the Kinshasa area were analysed. Three standardised particle size fractions were determined in all groups of samples (percentage of sand, clay and silt). Mean particle percentage of soil samples from banks occupied by Malachite Kingfishers averaged 10.8±6.1 of silt, 11.6 ± 6.5 of clay and 81.4 ± 11.4 of sand. A significant difference was found in the proportion of clay between banks with and without kingfisher nests. The results of the present study hence suggest that, as has been documented in other burrowing bird species, soil texture determines the selection of nesting sites in the Malachite Kingfisher. Our results indicate that even a slight difference in the proportion of clay can substantially affect the suitability of banks for the establishment of nests. In fact, burrowing birds must find suitable soils whose structure allows for a good compromise between stability and hardness to dig out, which poses an energy challenge just before the breeding season.


Fetal and neonatal hypoadrenalism was induced by treating rat mothers with metyrapone from day 12 of pregnancy to day 7 postnatally. Hypoadrenalism in the neonates was indicated by a slight reduction in body weight, adrenal hyperplasia and a tendency towards reduced adrenal corticosterone concentration. An intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test on the 7-day old neonates did not show any disturbancies of glucose disposal or insulin secretory response to glucose. The data suggest that adrenal corticosteroids are not essential for the perinatal development of the B-cell secretory response to glucose.


BackgroundBacterial cellulose (BC) is a nanofibrillar polysaccharide produced by certain acetic acid bacteria. BC may be used in food, pharma and many other applications. However, detailed studies of the oral toxicology of BC are limited. Controversial data is published regarding this topic, specially when it comes to answering the question on whether cellulose is absorbed at the intestine.MethodsFollowing the European Food Safety Authority guidelines (EFSA), this work presents the results of a 21-day repeated dose oral toxicity of BC in male and female Wistar Han rats (Wistar rats). In parallel, microcrystalline cellulose Avicel LM310 (commercially available as a food additive) was used. Wistar rats were subjected to daily oral gavage of 0.75 mL of an aqueous suspension 1% (m/v) BC or of its counterpart of plant origin, Avicel LM310. Rats not submitted to gavage were included in the experiment as controls. Clinical observations, such as body weight measurements, food consumption and ophthalmologic evaluations were performed during the assay. After occision, serum chemistry, necropsic examination and histopathological analyses of the liver, kidneys, spleen and small and large intestines were performed. The presence of BC fibers along the gastrointestinal tract was assessed histologically using a Green Fluorescence Protein coupled to a Cellulose Carbohydrate Binding Module (GFP-CBM) from Clostridium cellulolyticum.ResultsNo adverse clinical observations related to BC administration were noticed, nor appreciable differences in the toxicological endpoints evaluated were detected. No evidence of BC persorption was found. Particularly, no BC was detected in the Peyer´s patches or in the mesenteric lymphatic nodules. Moreover, the histopathological analyses revealed that the global architecture and morphology of the organs and tissues was preserved, among the different experimental groups, with no significant pathological changes among them. Regarding serum biochemistry, no significant differences were recorded, for both sexes.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate that BC nanofibers can be considered safe and, as the vegetal cellulose, can be used as a food additive.


Policy-based access control is a well-established paradigm for securing layered IT systems. Access control policies, however, often do not focus on dedicated architecture layers, but increasingly employ concepts of multiple layers. Web application servers, for instance, typically support request filtering on the basis of network addresses. The resulting flexibility comes with increased management complexity and the risk of security-relevant misconfiguration when looking at the various policies in isolation. We therefore propose a flexible access control framework able to provide a comprehensive view of the global access control policy implemented in a given system. The focus of this paper is to lay down the theoretical foundations of this framework that allows (i) to describe authorization policies from different architecture layers, (ii) to capture the semantics of dependencies between layers in order to create a composed view of the global policy, and (iii) to decompose the global policy again into a collection of simpler ones by means of algebraic techniques inspired from database normalization theory.


Abstract. We propose a waveform mixture algorithm to detect leads from CryoSat-2 data, which is novel and different from the existing threshold-based lead detection methods. The waveform mixture algorithm adopts the concept of spectral mixture analysis, which is widely used in the field of hyperspectral image analysis. This lead detection method was evaluated with high-resolution (250 m) MODIS images and showed comparable and promising performance in detecting leads when compared to the previous methods. The robustness of the proposed approach also lies in the fact that it does not require the rescaling of parameters (i.e., stack standard deviation, stack skewness, stack kurtosis, pulse peakiness, and backscatter σ0), as it directly uses L1B waveform data, unlike the existing threshold-based methods. Monthly lead fraction maps were produced by the waveform mixture algorithm, which shows interannual variability of recent sea ice cover during 2011–2016, excluding the summer season (i.e., June to September). We also compared the lead fraction maps to other lead fraction maps generated from previously published data sets, resulting in similar spatiotemporal patterns.


Summary

1
The introduction of animals to novel environments has been used as a model system for investigating the factors affecting small populations during their initial period of establishment. Previous studies of introduction success in birds have identified a number of factors associated with successful establishment.

2
We predicted that species with strong non-specific immune responses would have an elevated probability of establishment because they would be better able to cope with parasites in the novel environment. Consistent with this prediction, we found that nestling T-cell mediated immune response, as reflected by the response to a challenge with the mitogenic lectin phytohaemagglutinin, was a reliable estimator of establishment success. In multivariate analyses that took previously identified predictors into account, this was only the case when propagule sizes of introduced birds were large.

3
These findings suggest that host–parasite interactions can be an important component influencing the fate of small populations in novel environments only when severe disease or virulent parasites are more likely to have been introduced as well.


Introduction: Family Planning utilization decreases maternal mortality and morbidity as well as contributes to improvement in infant welfare and community health at large. Long acting and permanent contraceptive methods are the most effective modern contraceptive methods with less than 1% failure rate and cost-effective choices because of the many years of protection. However, they contribute only about 12% of modern contraceptive use in Ethiopia. This study was designed to assess extent of utilization and associated factors of long acting and permanent contraceptive methods among married reproductive age women in Southern Ethiopia.
Methods: Community based cross-sectional study was conducted among married reproductive age women. Multistage sampling was employed to select 622 study participants. Pretested questionnaire was used to interview the participants. The crude and adjusted odds ratios together with their corresponding 95% levels of confidence were computed and interpreted accordingly. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were applied to test predictors by using logistic regression model. The final model fitness was checked by Hosmer and Lemshow's goodness-of-fit statistics. A P-value less than or equal to 0.05 in multivariate analysis was considered to declare a result as statistically significant.
Results: This study had 96.5% response rate. More than half (62%) of married woman in the study district were poorly knowledgeable about long acting and permanent contraceptive methods. Almost all (97.2%) of the participants had at least one pregnancy in their life time. The overall prevalence of long acting and permanent contraceptive methods utilization was 16.3%. Out of this, 82.7% of the women were using implants. Based on the analysis, ages, educational level, knowledge, mass media exposure, having methods choice discussion between partners or health extension workers were found to be important predictors LAPMs utilization.
Conclusion: The overall utilization of long acting and permanent contraceptive methods was low. Efforts to improve LAMPs utilization in the region must strengthen initiatives that promote girls education, train professionals and deploy at grass root level, behavioural change communication, awareness creation among others. It would be good to further study facility related barriers and cultural influences on the use of LAMPs.


In this article I read the narrative of the Gibeonites' deception in Joshua 9 with the help of Giorgio Agamben's logic of sovereignty and the work of other contemporary political theorists.  I argue that the Gibeonites are simultaneously included and excluded from political life, and as such they exemplify the paradox of sovereignty which Agamben describes.  However, they also exhibit the complexities of sovereignty that are highlighted by one of Agamben's critics, William Connolly.  My paper can be read as a literary interpretation of Joshua 9 or as a test case or exemplar for the political theories with which I engage.


This paper discusses whether being smart makes depositors less prone to get involved in a panic bank run. We conduct a series of experiments with undergraduate and graduate students from Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, modelling the a-la Diamond-Dybvig deposit market with liquidity shocks, changing macroeconomic conditions and risk-based investment technologies. Our results suggest that withdrawing on time is profitable, as the average returns of depositor investments are higher, especially if the other depositors in the bank also withdraw on time. Smarter depositors – those having better academic achievements – choose the strategy of avoiding early withdrawals more frequently: each additional grade point (out of ten) adds 9 p.p. to the share of rounds where a depositor withdraws on time. This result adds to the evidence that financial literacy – even measured in a very simple way – may prevent a coordination failure in the deposit market. Our results also suggest that panic withdrawals are more probable in markets with poorer economic conditions (liquidity shocks, less profitable or less liquid investments, costly financial information), but depositors show weak sensitivity to the risks of bank investments. Depositors of medium-sized banks withdraw on time more frequently compared to those in small or large banks


By Kathryn Roth, Social Work
 Advisor: Anjanette Wells
 Presentation ID: AM_A46
 Abstract: There are distinct barriers limiting women with histories of sex trafficking to attain higher education, sufficient housing, and employment having to do with their charges, whether they be misdemeanor or felony and despite Safe Harbor Act laws, victims of trafficking continue to be incarcerated and face these barriers. Sex trafficking has lasting effects on the individual, their families and our communities. Cincinnati, Ohio is no exception; communities everywhere in our country are being affected by this epidemic. Human sex trafficking is recognized as a growing global concern. Safe Harbor Laws have been put into place to help protect women who want to turn their lives around after being sex trafficked. This research is relevant to Social Work because it will give insight to treatment methods and encourage discussion for more legal protections to be put in place for women at risk in the communities in the Greater Cincinnati region. The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study is to understand the population at Off the Streets and to grasp the scope of barriers that victims of sex trafficking face in Cincinnati. The interview findings suggest that there is a gap between the knowledge and the current protective laws that are put in place to help women. The results of this study illustrate why women need a chance to expunge their criminal history during the time while they were victims of sex trafficking in order to open the door for them to reach their ultimate goals of housing, employment, or higher education.


Evaluation of molecular markers in the mammary tissues has prognostic and therapeutic values. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of genistein and daidzein, in combination, on the expression pattern of biomolecular markers such as p53, PCNA, VEGF, iNOS, Bcl-2, and Bax during DMBA induced mammary carcinogenesis in Sprague-Dawley rats. Mammary tissues were routinely processed and paraffin embedded, 2-3µm sections were cut in a rotary microtome and mounted on clean glass slides. Immunohistochemical staining of mammary tissue was performed and each slide was microscopically analyzed and enumerated the percentage of the positively stained cells semi-quantitatively and scoring was made. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed over expression of p53, PCNA, VEGF, iNOS, Bcl-2 and decreased expression of Bax in the mammary tissues of DMBA treated rats. Oral administration of genistein+daidzein (20mg+20mg/kg bw) in combination, to DMBA treated rats significantly down regulated the expression of p53, PCNA, VEGF, iNOS, Bcl-2, and up regulated the expression of Bax proteins. Our results suggest that the pleiotropic and synergistic effects of genistein and daidzein might have reduced cellular proliferation, decreased angiogenesis and induced apoptosis during DMBA induced mammary carcinogenesis in Sprague-Dawley rats.


The religious life of an Igbo man has experienced great changes through the ages. The modern religions have also influenced the people so much that the Igbo of the present generation have questioned the origin of prayers, while others doubted the efficacy of prayer. There are also arguments as to how prayer comes about and whether it started with Christians, or whether the Igbo great grandparents who followed the traditional religion actually prayed. This study is aimed at settling these arguments by exposing the originality of prayer in the life of an Igbo man, as well as significant roles played by prayer in Igbo traditional religion. This study will benefit students, teachers, researchers and the Igbo society as a whole. This study made use of the survey method in finding out the nature and role of prayer in Igbo cosmology, using Mbieri, in Imo state, Nigeria as a case study. Related literatures were reviewed, research questions were formulated and posed to 50 people through oral interview. Data were collected and analyzed critically. The interpretation of the data showed that prayer plays a significant role in Igbo traditional religion, and that the originality of prayer in the life of an Igbo man forms the basis for the implantation of Christian prayer. More so, prayers are efficacious and have existed in Igbo land before the advent of Christianity. In which case, it was not an invention by Christianity; rather Christian prayer found traditional prayer a fertile soil on which it built. The study therefore recommends that there should be cultural involvement Christianization in order to achieve a balanced religion. Christianity should be more deeply planted in Igbo culture so that Ndigbo may ever praise God with their names, their language, their music, and indeed all aspects of their culture. Attention should also be drawn to the fact that imported religion is characterized by proliferation of churches, greed, corruption, embezzlement and a lot of ill practices aimed at tricking the unsuspecting Igbo into believing that miracles abound where they are not, thereby turning the sick and needy into religious prostitutes. Keywords : Igbo cosmology, Originality and efficacy of prayer, Christianity, Traditional religion, Nigeria International Journal of Development and Management Review (INJODEMAR) Vol. 7 June, 2012


Copper nanoclusters (CuNCs) are attractive electrochemiluminescence (ECL) emitters as Cu is comparatively inexpensive, nontoxic, and highly abundant. However, their ECL yield is relatively low. Herein, we report that orderly self-assembly of CuNCs using DNA nanoribbon as the template (DNR/CuNCs) conferred the CuNCs with improved ECL properties compared with individual CuNCs in both annihilation and co-reactant processes. The DNR/CuNCs resulted in a high ECL yield of 46.8% in K2S2O8, which was ~ 68 times higher than that of individual CuNCs. This strategy was successfully extended to other ECL emitters, such as gold nanoclusters and the Ru(bpy)32+/TPrA system. Furthermore, as an application of DNR/CuNCs, a DNR/CuNC-based ECL biosensor with higher sensitivity was constructed for dopamine determination (two orders of magnitude lower than that previously reported), showing that DNR/CuNCs have a potential for application in ECL bioanalysis as a new type of superior luminophore candidate.


Greenhouse tomato production in Colombia has increased at a rate of 250 t
year-1 in the last decade, but yield has remained constant around 106 t ha-1 year-1. The main reasons for this trend is that greenhouses used for tomato cropping are still vulnerable to the high seasonal and intraseasonal climate variability in the Equatorial Zone. To obtain information about the relation between outdoor and indoor environments, we analyzed productive areas with a greenhouse climate model (GCM). The GCM was calibrated, validated and used to simulate the thermal behavior of traditional greenhouses under different climate conditions in Colombia. The input climate variables included global radiation, outside air and soil temperatures, relative humidity and wind velocity recorded at six locations. The locations are situated between 2000 and 3000 m a.s.l. with average temperatures between 10-20°C characterized by unimodal or bimodal rainfall regimes. Automatic weather stations recorded the hourly climate data during tropical wet and dry seasons. The modeled greenhouse was a naturally ventilated plastic one with a floor area of 5670 m2, surface of the cover including side walls of 9610 m2, and maximum roof and side ventilation area of 324 and 370 m2, respectively. The simulations were carried out with the presence of a tomato crop. The simulations showed that traditional structures keep appropriate temperatures for tomato, mainly during the dry season at the six locations. The wind profile for each season explained these results, affecting the efficiency of natural ventilation. The change in the wind profile is due to the meridional migration of the intertropical convergence zone throughout the year. Therefore this atmospheric system is a factor to take into account when designing sidewall and roof ventilation openings. For cold marginal tomato production areas, predictions showed the potential to explore passive heating systems to improve the climate during night hours.


OBJECTIVE
Cost accounting is the branch of managerial accounting that deals with the analysis of the costs of a product or service. This article reviews methods of classifying and allocating costs and relationships among costs, volume, and revenues.

CONCLUSION
Radiology practices need to know the cost of a procedure or service to determine the selling price of a product, bid on contracts, analyze profitability, and facilitate cost control and cost reduction.


We introduce an axiomatic definition of a conditional convex risk mapping and we derive its properties. In particular, we prove a representation theorem for conditional risk mappings in terms of conditional expectations. We also develop dynamic programming relations for multistage optimization problems involving conditional risk mappings.


Introduction: Five to 10% are the mortality rates reported in patients with sarcoidosis worldwide. However, little are known about the factors affecting the survival. Methods: We conducted an observational study to examine factors affecting survival in patients with sarcoidosis. Totally 122 patients with biopsy-proven sarcoidosis enrolled, underwent pulmonary function tests, a 12-lead electrocardiogram, an echocardiogram and a 24-hour Holter monitoring. Cardiac sarcoidosis was detected based on known criteria. All-cause mortality and cardiac death were the primary and secondary endpoints. Results: During a median of 58.89±15.75 months follow-up, ten deaths (8.2%) were reported. The demographic characteristics of the survived patients and those who died are presented in table 1. Five patients (4.1%) died due to cardiac causes. Cardiac involvement was detected in 40 patients (32.8%). The multivariate analysis showed age, standard deviation of RR intervals Conclusion: The thorough evaluation of the results from a full cardiopulmonary monitoring in patients with sarcoidosis may be able to detect factors related with increased risk of mortality.


This paper (which in part summarizes two papers to appear in Acta Orientalia but which presents separate information as well) deals with some issues raised by descriptive and comparative linguistic work in northern Thailand. The putative Austroasiatic languages "Yumbri" and "Mrabri" (more correctly: Mlabri) have been assigned to "Khmuic" within the Mon-Khmer languages, but the relationship between these two idioms has been a controversial issue. On the basis of recent fieldwork all existing data on "Yumbri" and "Mrabri" can be shown to reflect one and the same language Mlabri in spite of wide discrepancies in notation; these do not even reveal major phonological dialect differences whereas there are conspicuously different lexical usages. This has not so far been properly understood because of difficulties in the interpretation of earlier data which were all gathered by amateurs. - As for the tentative genetic classification of Mlabri as Khmuic, the lexical evidence used to substantiate this claim now turns out to be controversial: a large number of the Khmuic words in Mlabri are rather direct reflexes of en early stage of Tin, a language that has been assigned to the Khmuic branch of Mon-Khmer. Thus, it is either the case that Mlabri and Tin are sister-languages (forming a "Tinic" branch of Khmuic) or that Mlabri has early borrowings from Tin.


In the context of asynchronously communicating and deadlock free services, the refinement relation of services has been formalized by the accordance preorder. A service Impl accords with a service Spec if every controller of Spec—that is, every environment that can interact with service Spec without deadlocking—is a controller of Impl . The procedure to decide accordance of two services uses that the set of controllers of a finite-state service has a finite representation, called operating guideline. Recently, it has been shown that the accordance preorder is not a precongruence and thus the decision procedure based on operating guidelines cannot be used. In this paper, we adapt the results on operating guidelines to the precongruence setting : We define an operating guideline that represents all controllers of a service w.r.t. the accordance precongruence and show how this refinement relation of two services can be decided based on their operating guidelines.


After the British veto against a European financial transaction tax, the options of European legislation in this area are quite restricted. This paper deals with the question of whether financial transaction taxes as national solo efforts in the eurozone can be introduced in accordance with European law. The article focuses on the fundamental principle of free capital movement (Articles 63 et seq. Treaty on the Functioning of the EU) and the relevant provisions in European Union (EU) secondary law (Capital Duty Directive, General Agreement on Trade in Services). The author comes to the conclusion that national approaches towards a financial transaction tax would be a breach of European law, primary as well as secondary.


The purpose of this study is to produce a series of Conceptual Ecological Models (CEMs)
that represent sublittoral rock habitats in the UK. CEMs are diagrammatic representations of
the influences and processes that occur within an ecosystem. They can be used to identify
critical aspects of an ecosystem that may be studied further, or serve as the basis for the
selection of indicators for environmental monitoring purposes. The models produced by this
project are control diagrams, representing the unimpacted state of the environment free from
anthropogenic pressures.
It is intended that the models produced by this project will be used to guide indicator
selection for the monitoring of this habitat in UK waters. CEMs may eventually be produced
for a range of habitat types defined under the UK Marine Biodiversity Monitoring R&D
Programme (UKMBMP), which, along with stressor models, are designed to show the
interactions within impacted habitats, would form the basis of a robust method for indicator
selection. This project builds on the work to develop CEMs for shallow sublittoral coarse
sediment habitats (Alexander et al 2014).
The project scope included those habitats defined as 'sublittoral rock'. This definition
includes those habitats that fall into the EUNIS Level 3 classifications A3.1 Atlantic and
Mediterranean high energy infralittoral rock, A3.2 Atlantic and Mediterranean moderate
energy infralittoral rock, A3.3 Atlantic and Mediterranean low energy infralittoral rock, A4.1
Atlantic and Mediterranean high energy circalittoral rock, A4.2 Atlantic and Mediterranean
moderate energy circalittoral rock, and A4.3 Atlantic and Mediterranean low energy
circalittoral rock as well as the constituent Level 4 and 5 biotopes that are relevant to UK
waters. A species list of characterising fauna to be included within the scope of the models
was identified using an iterative process to refine the full list of species found within the
relevant Level 5 biotopes.
A literature review was conducted using a pragmatic and iterative approach to gather
evidence regarding species traits and information that would be used to inform the models
and characterise the interactions that occur within the sublittoral rock habitat. All information
gathered during the literature review was entered into a data logging pro-forma spreadsheet
that accompanies this report. Wherever possible, attempts were made to collect information
from UK-specific peer-reviewed studies, although other sources were used where
necessary. All data gathered was subject to a detailed confidence assessment. Expert
judgement by the project team was utilised to provide information for aspects of the models
for which references could not be sourced within the project timeframe.
A multivariate analysis approach was adopted to assess ecologically similar groups (based
on ecological and life history traits) of fauna from the identified species to form the basis of
the models. A model hierarchy was developed based on these ecological groups. One
general control model was produced that indicated the high-level drivers, inputs, biological
assemblages, ecosystem processes and outputs that occur in sublittoral rock habitats. In
addition to this, seven detailed sub-models were produced, which each focussed on a
particular ecological group of fauna within the habitat: 'macroalgae', 'temporarily or
permanently attached active filter feeders', 'temporarily or permanently attached passive
filter feeders', 'bivalves, brachiopods and other encrusting filter feeders', 'tube building
fauna', 'scavengers and predatory fauna', and 'non-predatory mobile fauna'. Each sub-model
is accompanied by an associated confidence model that presents confidence in the links
between each model component. The models are split into seven levels and take spatial and
temporal scale into account through their design, as well as magnitude and direction of
influence. The seven levels include regional to global drivers, water column processes, local
inputs/processes at the seabed, habitat and biological assemblage, output processes, local
ecosystem functions, and regional to global ecosystem functions.
The models indicate that whilst the high level drivers that affect each ecological group are
largely similar, the output processes performed by the biota and the resulting ecosystem
functions vary both in number and importance between groups. Confidence within the
models as a whole is generally high, reflecting the level of information gathered during the
literature review.
Physical drivers which influence the ecosystem were found to be of high importance for the
sublittoral rock habitat, with factors such as wave exposure, water depth and water currents
noted to be crucial in defining the biological assemblages. Other important factors such as
recruitment/propagule supply, and those which affect primary production, such as
suspended sediments, light attenuation and water chemistry and temperature, were also
noted to be key and act to influence the food sources consumed by the biological
assemblages of the habitat, and the biological assemblages themselves.
Output processes performed by the biological assemblages are variable between ecological
groups depending on the specific flora and fauna present and the role they perform within
the ecosystem. Of particular importance are the outputs performed by the macroalgae
group, which are diverse in nature and exert influence over other ecological groups in the
habitat. Important output processes from the habitat as a whole include primary and
secondary production, bioengineering, biodeposition (in mixed sediment habitats) and the
supply of propagules; these in turn influence ecosystem functions at the local scale such as
nutrient and biogeochemical cycling, supply of food resources, sediment stability (in mixed
sediment habitats), habitat provision and population and algae control. The export of
biodiversity and organic matter, biodiversity enhancement and biotope stability are the
resulting ecosystem functions that occur at the regional to global scale.
Features within the models that are most useful for monitoring habitat status and change
due to natural variation have been identified, as have those that may be useful for monitoring
to identify anthropogenic causes of change within the ecosystem. Biological, physical and
chemical features of the ecosystem have been identified as potential indicators to monitor
natural variation, whereas biological factors and those physical /chemical factors most likely
to affect primary production have predominantly been identified as most likely to indicate
change due to anthropogenic pressures.


This paper uses what has been termed the direct demand approach to obtain elasticity estimates from discrete choice Stated Preference data. The Stated Preference data relates to business travellers' choices between air and rail. The direct demand methodology is outlined and some potential advantages over the conventional disaggregate logit model are discussed. However, further research regarding the relative merits of the two approaches is recommended. The direct demand model is developed to explain variations in the demand for air travel as a function of variations in air headway and cost and in train journey time, frequency, interchange and cost. Relatively little has previously been published about the interaction between rail and air and the elasticities and variation in them which have been estimated are generally plausible. In particular, the results show that large improvements in rail journey times can have a very substantial impact on the demand for air travel and that the rail journey time cross-elasticity depends on satisfying a three hour journey time threshold.


Background Despite anecdotal reports that serotonin reuptake inhibitors may improve depersonalisation, there is no proven efficacious treatment for depersonalisation disorder. Aims To investigate the efficacy of fluoxetine in the treatment of depersonalisation disorder. Method Fifty-four people who met DSM-IV criteria for depersonalisation disorder were recruited through newspaper advertisements, and 50 were randomised to a 10-week, double-blind trial of fluoxetine 10–60 mg/day or placebo. Primary outcome measures were the Dissociative Experiences Scale-epersonalisation Factor, the Depersonalization Severity Scale and the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-1) scale. Results Intention-to-treat analysis revealed that fluoxetine (mean dosage 48 mg/day) was not superior to placebo except for a clinically minimal but statistically significantly greater improvement in CGI-I score in the fluoxetine group prior to covarying for anxiety and depression (2.9 v. 3.6). Depersonalisation was significantly more likely to improve if comorbid anxiety disorder improved. Conclusions Fluoxetine was not efficacious in treating depersonalisation disorder, despite the commonly reported clinical use of serotonin reuptake inhibitors for this condition.


Political instability at many points of the world … rising gasoline prices … limited natural gas and oil reserves. These are just a few of the challenges facing the oil and gas industry as it attempts to keep pace with the energy demands of an increasingly developed world. In this quest to supply the globe, it's no surprise that a growing number of energy companies rely upon technological advances to increase their efficiency and productivity. Nowhere is this more evident than seismic data acquisition and processing capabilities, where 4D seismic and other advanced imaging techniques are giving geophysicists more opportunities to accurately analyze the earth's subsurface to make predictions on where and when to drill.

Complementing these recent developments has been the advent of Linux compute clusters, which give affordable and extremely powerful computing capabilities to handle the demands of these advanced imaging techniques. These clusters have forever changed the high-performance computing landscape but the storage capabilities have not kept up with the cluster's demands for massive data bandwidth. But today, an object-based storage architecture offers a solution in which the storage system's scalability and price-performance can match that of the Linux clusters.

Current network storage systems have been simply incapable of providing the data throughput needed to keep Linux clusters operating efficiently. Each of the two major types is distinguished by its command sets. …


This collection of essays offers a fresh look into Christian-Jewish cultural interactions during the Renaissance and beyond. Christian scholars, it is shown, were deeply immersed in a variety of Hebrew sources, while their Jewish counterparts imbibed the culture of Humanism.


In order to keep the model used for calculation of aircraft reliability closer to aircraft structures, complex girder elements and SP panel elements were used to model three-dimension spatial structures of aircraft. Considering material strength, girder section area, panel thickness and external loads are stochastic variables , a formula has been deduced for nodal displacements to stochastic variables. Stochastic finite elements and structural reliability principle were used to evaluate structure systems for reliability. Software has been developed using Visual Fortran to calculate the wing box structure of an aircraft. The results show that this method is very useful for aircraft structural reliability analysis.


Introduction Muscle wasting occurs early and rapidly in critically ill patients. It results from a decrease in muscle protein synthesis and an increase in its breakdown, with muscle necrosis a common associated finding. The drivers for such atrophy and necrosis remain poorly understood, as do the related regulatory pathways. We hypothesised that systemic and intracellular cytokines play a role in this process. Methods The UK-MUSCLE study prospectively studied the wasting response (change in Rectus Femoris cross sectional area (RFCSA) using serial ultrasound) in critically ill patients admitted to the ICU. Cytokine profiles (high sensitivity cytokine chip array, Randox, Ireland) were analysed in serum samples from 62 of these patients (days 1 and 7) and in contemporaneous Vastus Lateralis biopsies of 35 patients. Tumour Necrosis Factor (TNF)-α, TNF receptor (TNFR) 1 and 2, interleukin (IL)1a, il1b, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, Vascular Endothelial growth Factor (VEGF), Interferon (IFN)-γ, Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1(MCP-1) and Epidermal Growth Factor were assayed. Muscle necrosis was determined by hematoxylin and eosin staining of the Vastus Lateralis biopsies. Results Intramuscular TNFR1 concentrations increased over 7 days (0.83 ± 1.1 µg/L to 2.07 ± 2.65 µg/L; p = 0.042), as did intramuscular interleukin-10 (22.69 ± 26.5 ng/L to 59.8 ± 80.0 ng/L; p = 0.005). Increases in serum IL-1a (0.52 ± 0.26 ng/L to 0.57 ± 0.28 ng/L, p = 0.03), VEGF (166.86 ± 231.7 ng/L to 246.6 ± 236.7 ng/L, p < 0.001) and MCP-1 (886.8 ± 685.0 ng/L to 386.49 ± 469.7 ng/L, p < 0.001) were seen as well as a decrease in IL-6 (322.2 ± 422.7 ng/L to 78.55 ± 184.4 ng/L, p < 0.001), il-10 (22.73 ± 51.1 ng/L to 7.61 ± 15.3 ng/L, p = 0.03), IFN- γ (4.76 ± 11.0 ng/L to 1.28 ± 2.02 ng/L, p = 0.02) and MCP-1 (886.8 ± 685.0 ng/L to 386.49 ± 469.7 ng/L, p < 0.001). Neither myonecrosis nor change in RFCSA was related to that in intramuscular cytokines by linear and logistical-regression analysis, using 10% loss as a cut off. Loss in RFCSA over 10 days was very weakly correlated with serum TNFR1 concentration on days 1 (r2=0.12; p < 0.01) and 7 (r2=0.09; p = 0.02) and with serum IL-10 concentration (r2=0.19; p < 0.01). Myofibre necrosis was unrelated to serum cytokine profile. Discussion Soluble TNFR1 is associated with the degree of muscle wasting in critical illness. This relationship may be causal as TNF1R signalling leads to activation of nuclear factor kappa beta and apoptosis. Whilst no evidence was seen for intramuscular inflammation, increased intramuscular IL-10 may be protective, in its anti-inflammatory role.


Autotaxin (ATX), a lysophospholipase D that generates the growth factor-like mediator lysophosphatidic acid LPA, is up-regulated in metastatic and chemotherapy-resistant carcinomas. Many cancer cells secrete ATX, and it contributes to their invasive properties. The biological functions of ATX are mediated by LPA acting on G protein-coupled receptors (LPAR1-8). Many cancers overexpress multiple subtypes of LPAR and the overexpression of LPAR leads to malignant transformation, metastasis, and resistance to therapy. We have previously shown that knockdown of ATX expression in B16F10 melanoma cells decreased tumor invasion in vitro and lung metastasis in vivo. In our present study, we sought to understand the roles of LPAR both in the tumor cells and stromal cells of the tumor microenvironment. B16F10 melanoma cells predominantly express the LPA5 receptor. We found that these cells do not invade across a matrigel layer in response to LPA. shRNA knockdown of LPA5 receptors in B16F10 attenuates this inhibition, suggesting that the LPA5 receptor acts as an anti-invasive receptor in these tumor cells. Interestingly, we identified a different role for host LPA5 receptor. We found that the incidence of B16F10 lung metastasis was significantly reduced in the LPA5 knockout mice compared to wild type mice. In addition, LPA1 knockout mice also showed diminished B16F10 lung metastasis suggesting that host LPA1 and LPA5 receptors play critical roles in the seeding of metastasis. The decrease in tumor cell residence in the lungs of these knockout animals was apparent at 24 hours after injection. However, deletion of LPA1 or LPA5 did not affect the subcutaneous growth of B16F10 tumors. In summary, our results suggest that LPAR, in particular LPA5 and LPA1 receptors in tumor and stromal cells may play different roles in invasion and the seeding of metastasis. Citation Format: Sue-Chin Lee, Yuko Fujiwara, Jianxiong Liu, Junming Yue, Ryoko Tsukahara, Erzsebet Szabo, Renukadevi Patil, Duane D. Miller, Louisa Balazs, Tamas Oravecz, Gabor J. Tigyi. Autotaxin, LPA1 and LPA5 receptors in the tumor microenvironment determine melanoma invasion and metastasis. [abstract]. In: Abstracts: AACR Special Conference on Cellular Heterogeneity in the Tumor Microenvironment; 2014 Feb 26-Mar 1; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(1 Suppl):Abstract nr B28. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.CHTME14-B28


Background and purpose We noticed that our instruments were often too hot to touch after preparing the femoral head for resurfacing, and questioned whether the heat generated could exceed temperatures known to cause osteonecrosis. Patients and methods Using an infra-red thermal imaging camera, we measured real-time femoral head temperatures during femoral head reaming in 35 patients undergoing resurfacing hip arthroplasty. 7 patients received an ASR, 8 received a Cormet, and 20 received a Birmingham resurfacing arthroplasty. Results The maximum temperature recorded was 89°C. The temperature exceeded 47°C in 28 patients and 70°C in 11. The mean duration of most stages of head preparation was less than 1 min. The mean time exceeded 1 min only on peripheral head reaming of the ASR system. At temperatures lower than 47°C, only 2 femoral heads were exposed long enough to cause osteonecrosis. The highest mean maximum temperatures recorded were 54°C when the proximal femoral head was resected with an oscillating saw and 47°C during peripheral reaming with the crown drill. The modified new Birmingham resurfacing proximal femoral head reamer substantially reduced the maximum temperatures generated. Lavage reduced temperatures to a mean of 18°C. Interpretation 11 patients were subjected to temperatures sufficient to cause osteonecrosis secondary to thermal insult, regardless of the duration of reaming. In 2 cases only, the length of reaming was long enough to induce damage at lower temperatures. Lavage and sharp instruments should reduce the risk of thermal insult during hip resurfacing.


The synthesis of a series of thiol-containing, modified dipeptide inhibitors (8) of human collagenase, which incorporate various carboxylic acid derivatives at the presumed P1 position, beta to the thiol group, is described. The compounds were evaluated, in vitro, for their ability to inhibit the degradation of rat skin type 1 collagen by purified human lung fibroblast collagenase, and structure-activity relationship studies are described. Optimum potency (IC50 values in the nanomolar range) was achieved by incorporating methyl (compounds 43a, 56a, and 57ab) or benzyl esters (44a) at the P1 position. Small amides were also accommodated (e.g. primary amide 47a), but in general, increasing the size of the P1 amide substituent lowered potency. PheNHMe, TrpNHMe, and Tyr(Me)NHMe substituents were found to be approximately equipotent P2'-residues. The results of testing all four diastereoisomers 56a-d of the compound with (S)-TrpNHMe at the P2' position indicated that the S,S,S diastereoisomer 56a possessed highest potency (IC50 2.5 nM) and that the second most potent diastereoisomer was 56d (IC50 12 nM) with the R,R,S configuration. It appeared that the orientation of the P1' and the thiol-bearing centers to each other is a more critical influence on potency than any absolute stereochemical requirements. It is suggested that the high potency of the beta-mercapto carboxylic acid derivatives may be a consequence of bidentate coordination of the thiol and carbonyl groups to the active-site zinc ion in the collagenase enzyme.


Objective— Leukocyte-associated immunoglobulin-like receptor-1 (LAIR-1) is a collagen receptor that belongs to the inhibitory immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibition motif–containing receptor family. It is an inhibitor of signaling via the immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif–containing collagen receptor complex, glycoprotein VI-FcR&ggr;-chain. It is expressed on hematopoietic cells, including immature megakaryocytes, but is not detectable on platelets. Although the inhibitory function of LAIR-1 has been described in leukocytes, its physiological role in megakaryocytes and in particular in platelet formation has not been explored. In this study, we investigate the role of LAIR-1 in megakaryocyte development and platelet production by generating LAIR-1–deficient mice. Approach and Results— Mice lacking LAIR-1 exhibit a significant increase in platelet counts, a prolonged platelet half-life in vivo, and increased proplatelet formation in vitro. Interestingly, platelets from LAIR-1–deficient mice exhibit an enhanced reactivity to collagen and the glycoprotein VI–specific agonist collagen-related peptide despite not expressing LAIR-1, and mice showed enhanced thrombus formation in the carotid artery after ferric chloride injury. Targeted deletion of LAIR-1 in mice results in an increase in signaling downstream of the glycoprotein VI–FcR&ggr;-chain and integrin &agr;IIb&bgr;3 in megakaryocytes because of enhanced Src family kinase activity. Conclusions— Findings from this study demonstrate that ablation of LAIR-1 in megakaryocytes leads to increased Src family kinase activity and downstream signaling in response to collagen that is transmitted to platelets, rendering them hyper-reactive specifically to agonists that signal through Syk tyrosine kinases, but not to G-protein–coupled receptors.


It is shown that the exchange of Li+ ions in LiNbO3 by protons leads to a large decrease of the (group) velocity of surface acoustic waves propagating in the x-direction on Y- and Z-cut samples. Changes up to about 20% were measured at a frequency of 180 MHz. This effect can be used to construct strip waveguides for surface acoustic waves.


This paper problematises some of the assumptions underlying efforts in Governmentality Studies (GS) to theorise the production of subjectivity. By focusing on the GS literature about the role of the 'psy-disciplines' in the contemporary production of subjects, and by engaging in discussion with a heterogeneous series of authors such as Bruno Latour, Isabelle Stengers, Gilles Deleuze and Michel Serres, it is argued that there are methodological, epistemic and ontological assumptions underpinning GS's work that result in: (1) a reduction of the material multiplicity of vectors at work in the production of subjectivity; (2) a reproduction of the subject–object distinction also common in conventional accounts of psychology and psychotherapy; and (3) the conceptualisation of 'governable subjects', who are nothing but epiphenomena of their vectors of production. The problematisation of such assumptions allows for the possibility of rethinking the formation of subjectivity, that is, of encountering recalcitrant subjects who may resist specific forms of subjectification, and also ask new questions, thereby potentially resulting in unexpected, novel forms of subjectivity. Finally, the notion of 'ecology of questions' is offered as an alternative exploration of the production of subjects.


1. High and low dry-matter silages were fed to fattening bullocks on the self-feed system giving daily live-weight increases per head per day of 2·6 lb. and 1·7lb. respectively, over a feeding period of 10 weeks. 2. Chemical data on the composition of a low dry-matter silage and high dry-matter silage are presented. 3. Digestibility studies using sheep were carried out to obtain the starch equivalent values of the two types of silage. The starch equivalent of the high dry-matter silage was 12·4 while that of the low dry-matter silage was 9·9. This difference in starch equivalent explains the extra 0·9 lb. per head per day live-weight increase made by the bullocks on the high dry-matter silage. 4. Mineral balances were carried out. The results show that the low dry-matter silage would supply an inadequate amount of calcium for satisfactory production.


Stabilization of finite dimensional linear, time-invariant, multi-input multi-output plants by stable feedback controllers, known as the strong stabilization problem, is considered for a class of plants with restrictions on the zeros in the right-half complex plane. The plant class under consideration has no restrictions on the poles, or on the zeros in the open left-half complex plane, or on the zeros at the origin or at infinity; but only one finite positive real zero is allowed. A systematic strongly stabilizing controller design procedure is proposed. The freedom available in the design parameters may be used for additional performance objectives although the only goal here is strong stabilization. In the special case of single-input single-output plants within the class considered, the proposed stable controllers have order one less than the order of the plant.


Background: The clinical manifestations of human metapneumovirus (hMPV) infection resemble those of respiratory syncytial virus with the most severe disease occurring in infants, the elderly, chronically ill, and immunocompromised hosts. Observation: We present a case of a 2-year-old girl undergoing intensive chemotherapy for Burkitt lymphoma who developed severe hMPV pneumonia. Rapid and complete recovery was observed after treatment with oral ribavirin and intravenous immunoglobulin. Conclusion: As hMPV can cause severe pneumonia in immunocompromised patients and due to the reports of effective treatment with ribavirin, clinical studies to elucidate the role of ribavirin in treatment of hMPV pneumonia may be needed.


The first step in kidney development is the formation of the pronephros which is derived from mesoderm. Xenopus is an appropriate model to study this process since the pronephros can be efficiently induced in animal cap explants by treatment with activin and retinoic acid (RA). Using this in vitro system, we isolated a Xenopus homologue of SMP-30 (Senescence marker protein-30), which is a Ca 21 -binding protein that is highly conserved in vertebrates. This gene, termed XSMP-30, was found to be selectively expressed in pronephric tubules from the late tadpole stage, by whole mount in situ hybridization. Furthermore XSMP-30 was expressed in animal caps treated with both activin and RA, a condition in which the pronephros is formed in vitro. These data indicate that XSMP-30 is a specific marker for the pronephros. q 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.


Companies display the product information to the consumers in their online presences. As importance of online marketing activities are growing, most of the franchisers also uses the product images on their online sites to provide the vivid visual information of their merchandises. But the previous researches do not provide the rigorous understanding on the nature of how the consumers process the visual information. In this study, we explore the theoretical backgrounds of the visual information processing and set up the research proposition on the orders and directions of the online visitors" attentions. The visit data from experimental online shop for 81 days was analysed with repeated measure ANOVA. We found that the nature of visual information processing in the online environment is different from that of the ordinary text process. At the end of this study, implication and the limitations of the research were discussed.


Bramanti, L. ... et. al.-- 40th CIESM Congress: The largest Forum on Mediterranean and Black Sea Research, 28 October - 1 November 2013, Marseille, France.-- 1 page


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease with more than 50 million people suffer from it. Unfortunately, none of the currently available drugs is able to improve cognitive impairment in AD patients. Urolithin A (UA) is a metabolite obtained from ellagic acid and ellagitannin through the intestinal flora, and it has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Previous reports found that UA had neuroprotective effects in an AD animal model, but the detailed mechanism still needs to be elucidated. In this study, we performed kinase-profiling to show that dual-specific tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A) is the main target of UA. Studies showed that the level of DYRK1A in AD patients' brains was higher than that of healthy people, and it was closely related to the occurrence and progression of AD. Our results revealed that UA significantly reduced the activity of DYRK1A, which led to de-phosphorylation of tau and further stabilized microtubule polymerization. UA also provided neuroprotective effects by inhibiting the production of inflammatory cytokines caused by Aβ. We further showed that UA significantly improved memory impairment in an AD-like mouse model. In summary, our results indicate that UA is a DYRK1A inhibitor that may provide therapeutic advantages for AD patients.


The characteristic cyclic variation in feed intake of rats fed a Zn-deficient diet (Mills et al, Am J Clin Nutr 22: 1240-1249 (1969)) followed a Cosinor curve, as determined by computer analysis (Tamaki et al, Br J Nutr 73: 711-722 (1995)). The values of amplitude for the feed-intake cycle had a positive correlation to their own day-to-day variations and to the correlation value of their own simulated cycles (r2 = 0.764, df = 50, p < 0.001 and r2 = 0.682, df = 50, p < 0.001, respectively). The cyclic variation in feed intake was accompanied by a cyclic variation in body-weight change in rats fed the Zn-deficient diet, and cyclic variation in body-weight change occurred similarly in pair-fed control rats. There were no differences in the mesors of body-weight change cycles of Zn-deficient rats and pair-fed control rats (Zn-deficient rats: 2.5 +/- 1.0 g/d, pair-fed rats: 2.8 +/- 1.0 g/d, mean +/- SD, df = 18, t = -0.674, ND). Rats fed the Zn-deficient diet were given different amounts of Zn supplementation by daily subcutaneous injection. The amplitude of the feed-intake cycle was decreased with increasing Zn supplementation (r2 = 0.919, df = 5, p < 0.001). The concentration of Zn for the appearance of the feed-intake cycle was estimated to be 71.6 +/- 6.6 micrograms/d per rat. The Zn level in the serum showed a significant decrease in the Zn-deficient diet groups, but the supplement of Zn did not vary in the Zn-deficient rats injected with up to 47.3 micrograms/d per rat. From these results, an analysis of the feed-intake cycle allowed us to estimate the quantitative Zn-deficient status of rats.


Spectrum sensing is a fundamental component of cognitive radio (CR). How to promptly sense the presence of primary users (PUs) is a key issue to a CR network. The time requirement is critical in that violating it will cause harmful interference to the PU, leading to a system-wide failure. The motivation of this paper is to provide an effective spectrum sensing method to detect PUs as soon as possible. In the language of streaming-based real-time data processing, short time means small data. In this paper, we propose a cumulative spectrum sensing method dealing with limited sized data. A novel method of covariance matrix estimation is utilized to approximate the true covariance matrix. The theoretical analysis is derived based on McDiarmid's concentration inequalities and random matrix theory to support the claims of detection performance. Comparisons between the proposed method and other traditional approaches, judged by the simulation using a captured digital TV (DTV) signal, show that this proposed method can operate either using smaller data or working under a lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) environment.


Education as an important factor in the development of economy has a major impact on the development of hunting and hunting tourism. In this research, it has conducted a survey of hunters from the territory of Vojvodina Province regarding their attitude and motives for hunting, importance of education, importance of GIS in hunting, poaching as well as their level of hunting ethics. Using SPSS program, it was cross-referenced the individual responses in relation to age category and level of education. The results show that the youngest hunters (18 to 35 years) compared to middle age hunters (35-59 years) and old hunters (over 60) visit hunting events more, they are the most informed about GIS and they are most willing to learn about these technologies. The number of hunters that took part in the poaching is proportional with their level of education, so that most hunters that participate in poaching hold a university degree. However, hunters holding a university degree in the highest percentage believe that GIS can contribute to the development of hunting largely, and are willing to participate in training.


Expectation-based Minimalist Grammars (e-MGs) are simplified versions of the (Conflated) Minimalist Grammars, (C)MGs, formalized by Stabler (Stabler, 2011, 2013, 1997) and Phase-based Minimalist Grammars, PMGs (Chesi, 2005, 2007; Stabler, 2011). The crucial simplification consists of driving structure building only using lexically encoded categorial top-down expectations. The commitment on a top-down procedure (in e-MGs and PMGs, as opposed to (C)MGs, Chomsky, 1995; Stabler, 2011) allows us to define a core derivation that is the same in both parsing and generation (Momma & Phillips, 2018).


. In this manuscrit, we establish some results on the existence and uniqueness of fixed points by using b-multiplicative metric spaces(MMS) endowed with a binary relation. We also find result on the coincidence of points involving a pair of mappings. Finally some examples are presented to illustrate the suitability of our results


Over the years a number of investigators have reported that sheep with haemoglobin A are more resistant to Haemonchus contortus than animals of the same breed with haemoglobin B. The experiment described here was an attempt to ascertain whether a similar association might exist between haemoglobin type and resistance to non-haematophagic parasites. The results indicate that such a relationship might exist, since Scottish Blackface sheep with HbA showed milder biochemical and pathophysiological changes than their HbB counterparts and at the same time harboured smaller numbers of adult worms and more inhibited larvae when necropsied 16 days after a primary infection with 100,000 Ostertagia circumcincta third-stage larvae.


Existing channel-aware decision fusion schemes assume that the local detection probability is known at the fusion center (FC). However, this paradigm ignores the possibility of unknown sensor alarm responses to the occurrence of events. Accordingly, this correspondence examines the binary decision fusion problem under the assumption that the local detection probability is unknown. Treating the communication links between the nodes and the FC as binary symmetric channels and assuming that the sensor nodes transmit simple one-bit reports to the FC, the global fusion rule is formulated initially in terms of the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT). Adopting the assumption of a high SNR regime, an approximate maximum likelihood (ML) estimate is derived for the unknown parameter required to implement the GLRT that is affine in the received data. The GLRT-based formulation is intuitively straightforward, but does not permit a tractable performance analysis. Therefore, motivated by the affine nature of the approximate ML solution, a simple alternative fusion rule is proposed in which the test statistic remains affine in the received data. It is shown that the proposed fusion rule facilitates the analytic characterization of the channel effect on the global detection performance. In addition, given a reasonable range of the local detection probability, it is shown that the global detection probability can be improved by reducing the total link error. Thus, a sensor power allocation scheme is proposed for enhancing the detection performance by improving the link quality. Simulation results show that: 1) the alternative fusion rule outperforms the GLRT; and 2) the detection performance of the fusion rule is further improved when the proposed power loading method is applied.


Nurse education is undergoing major change in 2017, with new nursing associate and nursing degree apprenticeship routes to registration, as well as proposed changes to education standards. On top of this, undergraduate nursing degrees in England will, as of September, rely on a model of tuition fees and student loans, bringing nursing in line with related subjects such as medicine.


The application of a Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) as a suitable generating scheme in a remote or isolated communities is presented in this paper. Remote Area Power Supply (RAPS) system, a dummy load and its controller with Energy Storage System (ESS) are identified as the key components. The dummy load is used to absorb the power associated with over generation. The battery storage system is used as a storage buffer which could absorb or release the power into the RAPS system when required. It is also used as a secondary control for the DC link voltage of the back-back converter of the DFIG. The hybrid operation of the DFIG, dummy load, ESS and main load is discussed in relation to the system voltage,frequency and DC link stability. The entire hybrid model has been developed using the SimPowerSystem tool box in MATLAB.


X-ray diffraction measurements within the region of total external reflection from a thin wetting film of liquid CCl4 on a Si/SiO2 substrate are presented. The in-plane structure of the liquid surface yields a peak in the diffuse scattering at the specular position. Since there is no way to separate specular and off-specular contributions, the data were analysed simultaneously, which leads to a consistent set of interface parameters. Although the obtained power spectral density function of the liquid surface is very similar to that used in the case of free capillary waves, a modified cut-off has to be introduced. The difference results from the constrained thin-film geometry and is therefore caused by the interaction with the underlying substrate.


This paper studies data injection attacks on disturbance measurements, which are forwarded to a feedforward controller. Fundamental limitations to the detectability of such attacks are examined, from which a class of stealthy attacks are characterized in terms of the zero dynamics of the plant and disturbance models. The impact of such attacks to the plant output and state estimates is also examined, in both cases of perfect and imperfect disturbance rejection by the feedforward controller. The analysis shows that, under perfect rejection, the impact of stealthy attacks on the plant output is exponentially decaying, while an exponentially increasing bias is induced on the state estimation error. The results are illustrated through numerical examples.


Toward solving the problems of low data scheduling efficiency and relative delay in rendering when constructing complex urban three-dimensional (3D) scenes, we propose a visualperception-driven strategy based on scene graphs. According to the spatial distribution characteristics of 3D scene data, this strategy uses a scene graph to organize the local 3D scene of a city. It uses a level-of-detail simplification algorithm to simplify the 3D model of the city into four resolution levels. On this basis, a visual-perception-driven strategy based on scene graphs is designed. This strategy utilizes the good relationship attributes between geographical entities provided by scene graphs to construct a visual-perception evaluation model and help constrain the adaptive scheduling of models at different detail levels. Experimental results show that this method can effectively improve the data scheduling efficiency and accelerate the construction of local 3D scenes.


Our experience with a commercially available kit (Radioimmunoassay DIGOXIN, Boehringer, Mannheim) using (125J)-labelled digoxin and antibody-coated tubes is reported. This simplified method requires only two pepetting steps per sample and results can be obtained in 70 min. The intra- and interassay coefficient of variation ranged between 7% and 8%. The specific digoxin antibody gave no clinical relevant cross-reactions with spironolactone or prednisone (less than 0.0007%). Of the digoxin metabolites the aglucone digoxigenin showed 31% cross-reaction while the more important cardioactive metabolites digoxigenin-bis- and mono-digitoxide had the same binding affinity to the antibody as digoxin, beta-methyldigoxin and beta-acetyldigoxin. Cross-reaction with digitoxin was 6.8%. More than double-fold dilution of serum protein concentration showed little influence on the digoxin values measured. The results obtained by this new kit compare closely with those obtained by our tritium-labelled kit (r = 0.94, p less than 0.001). Therefore, the upper therapeutic limit of 1.9 ng/ml can be adopted for this method.


The authors review 13 cases of bone localisation of Hodgkin's disease taken from 120 case-reports, and compare the findings with those reported in the published literature. The frequency of bone lesions in this series was 18%. Initial signs were clinical in one half of the cases and radiological or scintigraphic in the other half. Early diagnosis of bone lesions was more frequently made in this series than late discovery of bone locations; the lesions ware more frequently present in the spine, the pelvis, and the sternum; the usual appearance was osteolytic or mixed, lytic and condensed. Scintigraphy is a reliable early diagnostic procedure, as is medullary biopsy which has become essential for the investigation of extension of the lesions. An inflammatory syndrome is present in most cases. In this series, bone lesions usually were of haematogenic origin and were mainly of the scleronodular histological type. Definite recovery was obtained in more than half of the cases. In the other patients, the bone lesions coincided with a long disease course, were never the reason for great concern, and were never directly responsible for death in the 3 patients that died.


Abstract Background: Duration of oral contraceptive use is an important issue for the development of dyslipidemia among women. Objective: The purpose of the present study was to see the duration of use of OCP and the development of dyslipidemia among the women. Methodology: This case control study was carried out in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Family Planning Department in collaboration with the Biochemistry Department at Sir Salimullah Medical College & Mitford Hospital, Dhaka from June 2009 to May 2010 for a period of one (1) year. Women using low-dose OC pill for more than one year were considered as cases group while women not using low-dose oral contraceptive pill were taken as control group of the study. Lipid profiles were performed in the laboratory in the fasting state from blood. Result: A total of 80 subjects were recruited for this study of which 40 women in case group and the rest 40 women were in control group. Duration of contraceptive use and serum lipids profiles were recorded. Level of serum total cholesterol, serum triglyceride, and serum LDL were significantly higher among the contraceptive users of > 5 years duration than those among 5 or < 5 years duration (p < 0.001). However, serum HDL level was low among both users and non-users (p=0.556). The risk of developing dyslipidaemia in women using low-dose oral contraceptive was more than 3-fold higher than that in non-users. Conclusion: In conclusion the greater the duration of oral contraceptive use the higher is the chance of dyslipidaemia. Journal of Science Foundation 2016;14(2):40-43


Killer‐cell immunoglobulin‐like receptors (KIR) and their human leukocyte antigen (HLA) ligands play a central role in immunity and human health. These molecules are encoded by gene families with copy number variation, extreme levels of sequence diversity and complex expression patterns. The rapid evolution of KIR and HLA genes and their associations with infectious diseases, pregnancy disorders, immunopathologies and outcome of cell transplantation have generated considerable interest from immunologists, geneticists and clinicians. Until recently, however, analyses have been stuck at low‐level resolution, focusing primarily on presence or absence of KIR genes. This is changing with the advent of modern high throughput sequencing, cell phenotyping and bioinformatics. These developments allow high‐resolution analysis and much deeper understanding of KIR evolution and KIR function. The impending deluge of high dimensional data brings inevitably new challenges in analysis, interpretation and communication of results, but the benefits are already tangible. The diversity of KIR across worldwide human populations is being catalogued at the allele level. Structures of KIR molecules and their interactions with HLA–peptide complexes are being determined. How KIR modulate natural killer cell education is being defined. Ligands for activating KIR, elusive for many years, are being discovered. KIR gene complexes and their related receptor gene families are being characterized in animal models and livestock breeds. These advances are helping to generate a more complete picture of the impact of KIR variation in health and disease and offer new opportunities for immunotherapy, as highlighted in a recent meeting (The Tenth KIR Workshop, April 2017 Cambridge, UK).


The purpose of the study was to determine the immediate and possible long-term effects of a mandibular osteotomy upon speech and tongue thrust (where present). To explore this, four subjects who exhibited a Class Ill malocclusion or skeletal underbite, in addition to a lisp, were evaluated before and after undergoing a sagittal osteotomy. The evaluation consisted of identical speech and tongue thrust assessments completed within two weeks of and nine weeks after the scheduled surgery. Both evaluations were completed by a panel of three speech-language pathologists. The speech evaluation required the subject to read ten /s/ and ten /z/ phoneme sentences taken from the McDonald Deep Test of Articulation. Each subject was judged as either exhibiting or not exhibiting a lisp on each sentence read. The tongue thrust evaluation utilized a quantitative tongue thrust baseline measurement in which the subject's tongue position was ranked during the swallowing of food, liquid, and saliva.


Animal genetic resource diversity ensures the continuity of biodiversity and their survival as adaptation to several challenges and agro-ecologies. Animal biodiversity has valuable contribution in animal products variety and to their ecological balance. Currently, animals and their genetic diversity are being under several threats, challenging their sustainability and survival. Infectious diseases are emerged as a potential threat to several animal species and breeds, particularly challenging endangered or at risk animal species/breeds. There are many animal diseases which are contagious, virulent and epizootics inducing dramatic mortality and morbidity in both domestic and wild animal population. Invasive infectious diseases are spreading to susceptible populations unaffected before including to species already being threatened by other factors. Emerged infectious diseases are already been involved in the extinction of some species while threatening exist in most of animal species. Generally, animal epizootics affect about 5% of globally threatened birds (67 species) and 26 species (3%) of threatened mammals are impacted by infectious disease. However, huge impact is observed in amphibians that are particularly affected by disease with 17% (317 species). Different animal diseases possess a significant threat and can wipe out most or entire susceptible animal breed/species or multi-species. Rinderpest, Anthrax, African horse sickness, Avian influenza, Newcastle disease, Rabies, Canine distemper, chytridiomycosis, etc., all these can highly threat susceptible animal species/breed. Rinderpest and rabies with canine distemper has threatened Ethiopian cattle population and the endangered Ethiopian wolf, respectively while anthrax outbreak caused threats in herbivores population's at Mago National Park. Infectious diseases are one of the constraints in the survival and conservation effort of animal genetic resource diversity. Therefore, organized diseases surveillance and control strategies should be employed to safeguard the sustainability of animal biodiversity. Furthermore, advanced studies are required to clarify current distribution and intensity of diseases impact on global animal biodiversity.


Despite the fact that oral traditions have been treated with contempt and intellectual disdain by Eurocentric scholars and writers in the past, evidences available and utilized by African scholars have shown that the use of oral traditions have contributed immensely to the reconstruction and value of African historiography. While some criticisms were obscurantist in their approach, others did not see the African as one that has gone through changes. Yet until very recently, the histories of the continent, its cultural patterns and even the potential of its people have been the subject of monumental distortions, ridicule and amusement among the intellectual community. The purpose of this work is to raise some questions about the authenticity of its use as a vital source and make some suggestions about their collection and use in African historical reconstruction in order to stimulate its better use, adaptation and functionality to contemporary scholars of African historiography. In the study, attempt have been made to put the records straight by towing the line of argument that scholars of African origin has utilized oral traditions in the reconstruction of the histories of several localities not only in Nigeria but in Africa as a whole. While highlighting problems associated with the use of oral traditions, the work has been able to suggest that the most hopeful direction in which oral tradition studies needs to go is to strengthen their interdisciplinary base. Such an interdisciplinary team work within the framework of which oral tradition could be collected would involve anthropologists, archeologist, linguists and scholars of oral literature working cooperatively and carefully with local historians over a long period. The result of such academic exercises would be multi-dimensional and result oriented as a result of the combination of the various faculties to check the limitations that could arise from a single researcher's effort and on the whole make the work more beneficial and valuable to people generally.


The application of transformer-based contextual representations has became a de facto solution for solving complex NLP tasks. Despite their successes, such representations are arguably opaque as their latent dimensions are not directly interpretable. To alleviate this limitation of contextual representations, we devise such an algorithm where the output representation expresses human-interpretable information of each dimension. We achieve this by constructing a transformation matrix based on the semantic content of the embedding space and predefined semantic categories using Hellinger distance. We evaluate our inferred representations on supersense prediction task. Our experiments reveal that the interpretable nature of transformed contextual representations makes it possible to accurately predict the supersense category of a word by simply looking for its transformed coordinate with the largest coefficient. We quantify the effects of our proposed transformation when applied over traditional dense contextual embeddings. We additionally investigate and report consistent improvements for the integration of sparse contextual word representations into our proposed algorithm.


Smart earables offer great opportunities for conducting ubiquitous computing research. This paper shares its reflection on collecting self-reports from runners using the microphone on the smart eSense earbud device. Despite the advantages of the eSense in allowing researchers to collect continuous voice self-reports anytime anywhere, it also captured noise signals from various sources and created challenges in data processing and analysis. The paper presents an initial taxonomy of noise in runners' voice self-reports data via eSense. This is based on a qualitative analysis of voice recordings based on eSense's microphone with 11 runners across 14 in-the-wild running sessions. The paper discusses the details and characteristics of the observed noise, the challenges in achieving good-quality self-reports, and opportunities for extracting useful contextual information. The paper further suggests a noise-categorization API for the eSense or other similar platforms, not only for the purpose of noise-cancellation but also incorporating the mining of contextual information.


Before launching ambitious and expensive development programmes to induce new regional technology corridors and clusters, it is critical to appreciate existing spatial economic patterns in a region. Initial economic conditions drive location decisions of firms and a labour force such that any changes must intercede onto an existing landscape built for current economic conditions. This work adopts a simple regional economic model to integrate and review traditional and modern urban location theories in order to illustrate the power of initial conditions to determine a final result. A simple spatial dynamic simulation model captures many of the pertinent effects of real estate pricing patterns to frame both opportunities and constraints to re-shape an urban landscape. Attention to 'ground up' spatially correlated location patterns revealed in price data that suggests close attention to strategic zoning can have profound impacts on the success or failure of economic development. Relatively modest policy interventions that carefully utilize existing preferences for urban amenities and concurrent real property investments involve fewer policy risks with potentially more powerful stimulative economic consequences than promised in more ambitious programmes.


Stretchable electronics have spurred rapid developments from curvilinear devices to bio-integrated diagnostic and therapeutic devices. The wavy configuration in the device components on a stretchable elastomeric substrate surface plays a prominent role in simultaneously achieving high areal coverage and stretchability without compromising the electric performance, resulting in unique applications in stretchable and flexible light-emitting diodes (LEDs), batteries, supercapacitors, and photovoltaics. In this study, we investigate the buckling behaviors of stiff thin films on the top surface of a biaxially pre-strained elastomeric substrate with square prism micro-patterned structures. Based on energy minimization, a theoretical model is established to study the buckling profiles and the maximum strain for different pre-strain levels along two directions, which agrees reasonably well with those obtained by the finite element analysis (FEA). After revealing the effect of the center-to-center distance in micro-patterned structures and the interfacial contact width between the film and substrate on the buckling behavior, the elastic stretchability of the system is studied.


Chickens were surgically bursectomized at 60 hr of incubation before the bursal anlage appears. Completeness of the bursectomy was confirmed at autopsy at 10 wk of age. These embryonically bursectomized (Bx) chickens are known to produce immunoglobulins of IgM, IgG, and IgA classes, but so far no specific antibodies have been observed even after heavy immunization. Regarding the appearance of surface immunoglobulin positive (s-Ig+) cells, the most striking effect of bursectomy was observed in the frequency of s-IgG+ cells, which were markedly decreased in the spleen, peripheral blood, and thymus of the Bx birds when compared with the age-matched controls. s-IgM+ cells were significantly decreased in the peripheral blood and s-IgA+ cells in the spleen of the Bx birds. In contrast to these findings, s-Ig+ cells of all three classes were present in normal frequency in the bone marrow. Bursectomy had no effect on the total lymphocyte and other white cell counts in the peripheral blood. Likewise, no effect on the frequency of B-L (Ia-like) antigen-positive cells in different organs was observed.


Background Objectives To study if there are differences between the type and frequency of pathologies visited in a surgery of rheumatology hospital before and after the presence of rheumatologist in primary care (PC). Methods Descriptive and retrospective study in the urban medium from Barcelona. We revised the historial clinic from first six months period in 1995 (without rheumatologist in PC) and 2000 (when the rheumatologist goes once per week to the primary care centre). We analysed the variables age, sex and principal diagnosis from all the first visits attended. We assembled the diagnosis in 10 groups: infectious arthritis (1), connective tissue disorders (2), crystal-related arthropathies (3), inflammatories arhropaties (4), osteoarthritis and related disorders (5), regional pain problems and soft tissue (6), muscular diseases (7), tumours and paraneoplastic syndromes in the musculoskeletal system (9) and others pathologies (10). For the statistic test we use the chi-squared test to contrast of proportions and the Fisher´s exact test when the expected effectives were lower than 5. Results In 1995 we have done 779 first visits (with 2.3% of loses the fact is not to have the historial clinic) and from 2000, 411 (11% of loses caused by the same matter). In 1995 the average age was 55 years (3–86), the distribution per sex was: 185 men (24%) and 594 women (76%), and per pathology: group 1, 2(0.2%), group 2, 45 (5.72%), group 3, 18(2.3%), group 4, 23 (2.9%), group 5, 453(58.1%), group 6, 152(19.5%), group 7, 1(0.12%), group 8, 55(7%), group 9, 4(0.5%), group 10, 26(3.3%). In 2000 the average age was 55 years (5–87), the distribution per sex was:126 men (30%) and 285 women (70%), and per pathology: group 1, 1(0.2%), group 2, 38(9.2%), group 3, 14 (3.4%), group 4,21 (5.1%), group 5, 200 (48.6%), group 6 89 (21.6%), group 7, 0, group 8, 31(7.5%), group 9, 3 (0.73%), group 10, 14(3.4%). We found significant difference between both years in the groups 2 (p = 0.025) and 5 (p = 0.0002). Conclusion The total numbers of first visits in the hospital done in 2000 were half less than in 1995 (above all in degeneration pahology), without being geographic and demographic variations. The incorporation of the rheumatologist in PC would improve the quality assistance in the hospital and also allow an early diagnosis from many rheumatic illness that would benefit from it.