The Cenozoic ice-rafted debris (IRD) history of the central Arctic is reconstructed utilizing the terrigenous coarse sand fraction in IODP 302 cores from 0 to 273 meters composite depth. This Holocene−middle Eocene quantitative record of terrigenous sand accumulation on the Lomonosov Ridge, along with qualitative information on grain texture and composition, confirms the interpretation that ice initiation (sea ice and glacial ice) occurred ∼46 Ma in the Arctic, and provides a long-term pattern of Arctic ice expansion and decay since the middle Eocene. IRD mass accumulation rates range from 0 to 0.13 g/cm2/ka in the middle Eocene and from 0 to 0.36 g/cm2/ka in the Neogene. IRD mass accumulation rate (MAR) maxima in the Miocene and Pliocene cooccur with either glacial initiation or intensification in the sub-Arctic. The 46.25 Ma IRD onset in the central Arctic slightly precedes the earliest evidence of ice in the Antarctic, and compares in timing with a >1000 ppm decrease in atmospheric concentrations of CO2. The decline of pCO2 in the middle Eocene may have driven both poles across the temperature threshold that enabled the nucleation of glaciers on land and partial freezing of the surface Arctic Ocean, especially during times of low insolation.


Breast cancer is the dominant female cancer and the top cause of cancer deaths in women among the world. The susceptible genes are critical risk factors for both hereditary and sporadic breast cancers. The incidence of carcinoma for carriers with mutated relative genes might increase in comparison with that of the normal population. These genes might be applied in breast cancer populated screening and clinical treatment, in order to improve survival of the breast cancer patients. This study concluded some genes involved in various key elementary processes in cell life, including DNA repair, cell cycle regulation, cell-to-cell adhesion and metabolism, in previous research.


A general flow model is developed which is discrete both in time and space. The stirred-tank network model (continuous time compartmental model) is summarized and compared with the discrete flow model. Efficient methods for model fitting are given and demonstrated with numerical examples.


A statistical approach is presented for detecting and localizing a fluorescing tumor obscured underneath millimeters of turbid medium. The method is validated in an experimental study using a mouse tumor and folate-iridocyanine dye.


In fact, such views are mistaken. The programming languages of graphics calculators are often easy to use, and there are substantial mathematical benefits to be had from using them. A further discussion of this view and some examples of short programs for Sharp EL-9300 and TI-82 graphics calculators are given elsewhere (Kissane, 1994a; 1994b; 1995) . However, in this paper, the intention is to illustrate the ease with which programs occupying only a single command line of a graphics calculator can be constructed, and to suggest some kinds of educational and mathematical uses to which this capability might be put. In most cases, what I have come to describe as 'one-line programs' require little knowledge of programming beyond an awareness of how a particular calculator works.


The West has been researching teacher efficacy for almost thirty years. The existing research is based on Rotter's social learning theory, and Bandura's social cognitive theory. Although nearly every study produced compelling findings, the researchers have plagued into some common problems, such as how to clearly define the concept of teacher efficacy; how to enhance the validity and reliability of measurement; what structure best illustrates the concept of teacher efficacy; how to develop and change teacher efficacy; how to illustrate the relationship between teacher individual efficacy and collective efficacy. These unresolved issues indicate the future direction of teacher efficacy research.


The use of sensory, physical, cognitive, and alimentary stimuli are varieties of environmental enrichment used to minimize stress caused by the monotonous captive environment. The objective of this study was to verify the impact of environmental enrichment in escape-related behavioral stereotypies. Thirty birds of the species Psittacara leucophthalmus were observed from March to September 2016, received at the Wild Animal Recovery and Screening Center of the São Paulo State University (UNESP), School of the Veterinary Medicine campus Araçatuba. The methodology used for the behavioral observations was the focal animal with observation through filming were made by 18 hours per bird for three consecutive days, while physical, cognitive, food, and sensory enrichment methods were applied, and the assessment was carried out before, during, and after the application of environmental enrichment. The data were analyzed by the Shapiro-Wilk test for normality and by the Friedman test, which showed no significant difference (p >0.05) before, during, and after environmental enrichment. Despite the statistical analyses, the perception of the bird's welfare improving was visually clear.


We revisit the combustion problem 1 r n d dr (r n dθ dr ) +λexp(θ) =0 for the plane (n = 1), cylinder (n = 2) and sphere (n = 3) vessels. Using polynomial approximations. We show that the problem has two (2) solutions. Journal of the Nigerian Association of Mathematical Physics Vol. 10 2006: pp. 497-498


Americans suffer from an epidemic of loneliness stemming from perceived or actual social isolation (SI). Multi-faceted causes warrant novel public health legal responses to reduce significant impacts of SI on physical and mental health.


Abstract : Initial corrosion testing was done by ARL Materials Directorate in 1991 in a TACOM (Tank/Automotive Command) sponsored study to determine the effects of substituting Zinc or various other coating systems in the place of electroplated Cadmium. In addition to test assemblies utilizing a single coating, mixed assemblies comprised of various coated bolts and Cadmium coated washers/nuts were evaluated. The results were published in a technical report (MTL TR 92-40),1 which contains complete corrosion data and photographic documentation of the corrosion observed throughout the test program for Cd, Zn-Ni, Zn OD (Olive Drab finish), Zn-Co, Sn-Zn, and modified phosphate coatings. This paper will summarize these results, and add data for lVD Al. Three types of lVD Al are compared against the Cadmium and Zn-Ni plating.


Superior tracking performance for fast fading mobile radio channels is obtained by extending channel models used in the adaptive recursive least squares maximum likelihood sequence estimation (RLS-MLSE) derived from the theory of maximum likelihood signal estimation. Conventional adaptive maximum likelihood sequence estimators used the simple Markov model or random walk model to describe fluctuations of the impulse response of a frequency-selective fading channel.

In this paper, a second-order Markov model that incorporates the first-order time derivative of the impulse response is used. This higher-order state variable approach improves the adaptability of the channel estimation algorithm and gives a significant improvement in signal transmission performance. Computer simulations show that the RLS-MLSE based on this higher-order state variable model yields good performance of 40 kbit/s QPSK with the maximum Doppler frequency up to 160 Hz.


An improved approach for the design of chaotic signal generator based on FPGA is proposed.Firstly,using Euler algorithm,the continuous chaotic systems can be converted to discrete chaotic systems.Secondly,according to IEEE-754 standard and module-based design idea,chaotic system is designed by the way of VHDL and logic diagram based on Quartus II software.Finally,chaotic signals are output through FPGA experimental setup and can be observed by the oscillograph.During the design process,several data selectors are used to share float-operating module which occupy lots of logic elements,as result logic elements reduced greatly due to area optimization.Experimental result verify its effectiveness and universlity.


Meeting in the Middle is a collaborative project between Tamar MacLellan and Philippa Wood.
This project was borne from the chance discovery of an 88 mile walk called the Jurassic Way which traces a limestone ridge linking the two historic market towns of Banbury and Stamford – the home towns of MacLellan and Wood respectively.
The collaboration explored not only the physical journey that enabled the two artists to meet in the middle, but investigated the potential of collaborative pedagogy and the impact that this had on individual practice.
Taking a 44 mile section each, MacLellan working from the southern point to the middle, and Wood from the north, they researched the 18 villages that comprised their respective sections. A blog was used to record their findings and communicate ideas.
The eventual project focus became the village's social history, which in turn developed into a study of a particular individual (ordinary people of the past) – to represent each location.
The final artists' book is a series of 36 postcards that are sewn and contained within wooden covers (a reference to the wooden signposting of the Jurassic Way). The book uses found imagery, collage, letterpress, lino, screen-printing, foiling, free stitching and various other techniques to represent each 'portrait'. The story of each person is re-told on the reverse.


We feel very honored to be invited to prepare a paper for this year's Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, especially during this time of heightened uncertainty. After two decades of low inflation and anemic growth, as well as a long struggle to recover from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), policy makers were confronted with an unprecedented health crisis. In response, not only have central banks in major advanced economies (MAEs) re-employed unconventional monetary policies that were used extensively since the GFC, but these policies can now be found in emerging market economies (EMEs) and small open economies (SOEs). The strong rebound in global aggregate demand combined with a more sluggish rebound in aggregate supply, as well as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent rise in energy, food, and shipping costs, have all resulted in high inflation at levels not seen in recent decades.


The Indian agriculture is the back bone of Indian economy. About 75 percent of its population and 66.67 percent of labor force directly or indirectly is dependent on agriculture for livelihood. Large number of important industries like jute, textiles, edible oils, tobacco, sugar etc. receives the raw materials produced by agriculture sectors. India is one of the major oil seeds grower and importer of edible oils. India"s vegetable oil economy is world"s fourth largest after USA, China and Brazil. National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm (NMOOP) launched during 2014-15 envisages increasing production and productivity of oilseeds crops and oil palm through bringing in fallow areas under oilseed crops and diversification of area from low yielding cereals. It aims to achieve the required target by addressing major constraints to crop productivity through International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 8 Number 08 (2019) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com


Introduction: Total War 1. Democracy and dictatorship OVERVIEW: TWO DECADES OF AGGRESSION: 2. Germany prepares for war 3. Blitzkrieg 4. Britain embattled 5. The Home Front in Britain 6. Life under Hitler 7. The Russian Front OVERVIEW: WAR IN THE EAST: 8. Pearl Harbor 9. The Holocaust 10. Bombing OVERVIEW: ALLIED CONFERENCES: 11. D-day 12. Germany collapses 13. The atom bomb 14. Rebuilding Europe 15. A Third World War? Conclusions Attainment target grid Index.


If a dialog system could respond to a user as naturally as a human, the interaction would be smoother. Imitating human prosodic characteristics of utterances is important in computerto-human natural interaction. To develop a cooperative/friendly spoken dialog system, we analyzed the correlation between the fundamental frequency's synchrony tendency, or overlap frequency, and subjective measures of "liveliness", "familiarity", and "informality" in human-to-human dialogs. We also modeled the properties of these features to realize chat-like conversations in our spoken dialog system.


The utility model relates to a solar car skylight allowing temperature to be decreased automatically, and belongs to the technical field of solar energy application. The solar car skylight comprises a skylight board. The solar car skylight is characterized in that the solar car skylight is provided with an exhaust fan, solar cell panels, a control circuit board and a baffle, the exhaust fan, the solar cell panel, the control circuit board and the baffle are arranged on the skylight board which is provided with an air outlet, the exhaust fan is fixedly arranged on the position, on the inner side of the air outlet, of the skylight board, one side of the baffle is hinged to the position, on the outer side of the air outlet, of the skylight board, the position above the baffle is covered with an outer air hood for keeping out the sun, wind and rain, and the control circuit board is respectively electrically connected with the solar cell panels and the exhaust fans. The solar car skylight is further provided with a temperature sensor, and the temperature sensor is arranged on the inner side face of a car roof far away from the solar car skylight and electrically connected with the control circuit board. The solar car skylight is reasonable and simple in structure, easy to manufacture, and convenient to use; by means of the solar car skylight, hot air is blown outside a car on the sun-exposure occasion where the temperature is too high, and the temperature of the car is decreased.


ABSTRACT
The Gulf of Valencia (western Mediterranean) is located in the Iberian Peninsula Continental Margin between 0° 25'E and 0° 18' W, with the latitudinal limits defined by La Nao Cape (38° 45'N) and Sagunto (39° 39' N). The continental shelf of the Gulf of Valencia, with depths up to 140 m, has an average width between 15 and 65 km, at La Nao Cape. This shelf is characterized by a transition zone between the shelf of Ebro's Delta, passive progradational type, due to intense sedimentation, and the shelf of the Betic margin, active type and with a smaller width. Thus the northern Gulf area shows very gentle topographic profiles filled with fine sediments, while in the southern margin manifestation of tectonic influence are more significant, with numerous fault scarps. The main geomorphological features are bars, sand ridges and mud sediments of great extent.
This PhD dissertation presents the results of the geomorphological and seismic analysis of high resolution data, and aims to define a model of evolution of the sedimentary environments, relative to sea level oscillations, during the Quaternary.
The oceanographic cruises to obtain data of this thesis can be divided into direct methods as sediment and rock sampling and indirect methods including acoustic techniques such as echosounder, multibeam and seismic reflection.
During the first oceanographic cruise on board the R/V Isla de Alboran, from 1 to 6 July, 2009, sediment samples were taken with a box-corer sampler and a geophysical survey with mud penetrator (3.5 kHz) was used to characterize the subsurface substrate in the sand ridges field. From 19 to 22 July 2010 several dives were carried out to recollect rock sample with manual hammers in the shallower barrier, in front of the Cullera cape. A high-resolution bathymetry of the seabed were conducted by multibeam Seabeam 1050 D (ELAK NAUTIK) installed aboard the R/V Garcia del Cid from 24 to 30 September 2010, using a frequency of 180 kHz for shallow water, in transects parallel to the coast. Acoustic velocities were calibrated using CTD profiles also acquired during this cruise. Seismic profiles were obtained along the inner and middle shelf by Geopulse 205J, working with a frequency range of 200-2000 Hz, for characterizing and mapping the surface of seafloor. The last oceanographic survey was conducted aboard the R/V Sarmiento de Gamboa from 16 to 18 July, 2011. During this cruise, high-resolution seismic profiles were acquired with TOPAS, operating at two frequencies, 0.75 kHz and 15.5 kHz, resulting in a centimeter vertical resolution of the substrate.
Other data was obtained in collaboration with other Spanish Institutions. Oceanographic data was collected from Puertos del Estado, providing current and wave data to characterize the marine clima in the Gulf of Valencia. The earthquake catalog from 1258 to 2013 was retrieved from the Instituto Geografico Nacional. The Instituto de Ciencias del Mar (CSIC) contributed with seismic profiles from an oceanographic cruise in 1983 that were re-processed and used in this study.
Processing and analysis of all the acquired data was done for a correct interpretation of the results. Sediment samples were prepared for grain size analysis using a Coulter Laser granulometer at the Instituto de Ciencias del Mar (CSIC). Once prepared, rock samples were cut into thin sections for descriptions. Rock samples were analysed for radiocarbon dating at the Beta Analytic (USA), to determine the age of the samples.
Concerning the seismic data, the raw files were converted to SEGY format, defined their navigation coordinates and converted the double time vertical scales to depth in meters. The interpretation of the reflectors was done using the Kingdom Suite ® software, for drawing and scaling of seismic profiles.
The raw data obtained with the multibeam echosounder were processed using CARIS ® software applying correction factors as the speed of sound in water, obtaining a Digital elevation model (DEM) with a grid resolution of about 5 × 5 m. The geomorphological interpretation of the bathymetric data was performed using visualization and generation of 2D and 3D environments, obtaining digital elevation models to deduce the geomorphological characteristics such as slope, aspect, drainage and volume. The integration of geographic data and spatial analysis was carried out on the Arcgis 10 ® geographical information system (GIS) software.
The continental shelf of the Gulf of Valencia during the Quaternary is characterized by the presence of a coastal barrier-lagoon system. The geomorphological map of the offshore from the city of Valencia to La Nao Cape shows the presence of relict deposits with linear outcrops of sand barriers, cut by palaeochannels of rivers that correspond to a Tyrrhenian shoreline, suggesting similar characteristics to the present-day sand barrier in La Albufera.The stratigraphy of the sedimentary sequences shows progradation tract and retrogradation barriers, as response to the sea level oscillations in the Upper Pleistocene.
On the other hand, a total of 27 bedforms were located in front of the La Albufera of Valencia in the central region of the Gulf of Valencia ranging from 60 to 80 m water depth, with a NNE-SSW orientation, oblique to the present-day coastline. These morphologies have maximum height and length of 8.5 m and 3 km respectively, with a slope in the lee faces of 6°. The presence of coarse sediments associated with near-shore environments indicates a lower sea level for the formation of these sand ridges. They could also have been affected by the littoral drift and storms. According to the sedimentary sequences and the relative sea level curve, sand ridges were formed from Younger Dryas (? 12 ky BP). Therefore, they have been classified as Holocene sand ridges associated with coastal sedimentary processes.
Finally, an evolution model of the sedimentary environments was proposed for the continental shelf, reflecting the sea level oscillations of the last 22 ky BP. The alternation of shelf, coastal and continental sedimentary environments, resulting of the combination of eustatic oscillations, regional neotectonics and local subsidence allowed the deduction of a curve of relative sea level changes in the Gulf of Valencia


 Abstract This paper presents an empirical analysis of the relationship between market structure and energy prices in the Hungarian balancing energy market. In Hungary, balancing energy is procured in two phases: firstly a reserve capacity auction is organized to select the generation capacities that are kept in reserve and available to the TSO in a specific day, and then a balancing energy auction is used to determine the dispatch order of reserved capacities in the hours of that day. Under this arrangement the winners of the reserve auctions and thereby the bidders in the balancing energy auctions change significantly form one day to the next. I exploit this variation in the bidding environment in the balancing energy auctions to identify the effect of market structure on prices. My empirical analysis focuses on the downward balancing market where generators submit bids for purchasing energy from the TSO. Consistently with the theoretical results in Fabra, von der Fehr, and Harbord [1], I find that the average purchasing price is positively affected by the number of bidders and the symmetry in capacity share distribution.


A diesel oil compound additive relates to a diesel oil additive. The inventive diesel oil additive is composed of 0.5-99 wt.% of low temperature fluid intensifier, 0.5-99 wt.% of energy-saving catalyst and 0.5-99 wt.% of anti-knocking property promoter. The invention can reduce diesel oil cold filter clogging temperature of 14-16 DEG C, increase the rate of economizing petrol of 2.2%, improves cetane rating of 4-8 units, declines CH discharge of 30%. Meanwhile, the inventive diesel oil doesn't decrease other properties and index of the diesel oil. The compound diesel oil additive doesn't contain aromatic hydrocarbons, nitrogen compound and chlorine compound and will not enhance the benzene in the diesel oil and the contamination in the offgas and not erode iron container. Thus, the invention aims at the disadvantages of the present diesel oil additive, which only improves a specific property, but produces lots of problems.


Perfect light absorption can be realized by many kinds of nanostructures which attributes to various mechanism. In this paper, the reflective property of silicon nanopillar array is studied by simulation. The relation between reflective spectra and the height of silicon naopillar is discussed. A continuous change of the absorption peak is obtained by adjusting nanopillar's height. By adjusting the height of the nanopillar, the wavelength of perfect-absorption can be tuned from 400 nm to 800 nm. We also calculated the color coordinate and RGB values. The simulations exhibit a large color rendering area. Our research will be helpful to realize reflective displays and structural color for metrology.


Abstract Crime, abuse and violence against school children are grave problems in South African schools and are undisputedly on the increase. This article highlights aspects of hostile and violent behaviour in South Africa that contribute to the persistence of school violence. The problem is complex and there are no simple solutions. The article puts forward suggestions that deal with the root causes of aggression, abuse and violence to help schools prevent and deal with this serious issue and become the nurturing learning environments that they should be.


To enable dynamic, extensible, and distributed query processing in super-peer based P2P networks, where standard query operators and user-defined code can be executed nearby the data, we distribute query processing to (super-) peers. Therefore, super-peers provide functionality for the management of the indices, query optimization, and query processing. Additionally, we expect that peers provide query processing capabilities to be full members of the P2P network. To enable this, super-peers have to provide an optimizer for generating efficient query plans from the queries they receive. The distribution process is guided by the routing index which is dynamic and corresponds to the data allocation schema in traditional distributed DBMSs.


We present an analysis of the dynamics of the equifacial pentahedron on the Kapovich-Millson phase space under a volume preserving Hamiltonian. The classical dynamics of polyhedra under such a Hamiltonian may arise from the classical limit of the node volume operators in loop quantum gravity. The pentahedron is the simplest nontrivial polyhedron for which the dynamics may be chaotic. We consider the distribution of polyhedral configurations throughout the space and find indications that the borders between certain configurations act as separatrices. We examine the local stability of trajectories within this phase space and find that locally unstable regions dominate although extended stable regions are present. Canonical and microcanonical estimates of the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy suggest that the pentahedron is a strongly chaotic system. The presence of chaos is further suggested by calculations of intermediate time Lyapunov exponents which saturate to nonzero values.


Device for successively testing the operation of elements of a microstructure placed on a support (1) to allow to control at least one at a time. It comprises a device (2) attack an element, a detector (3) sensitive to the emitted particles or reflected by the element and a device (4) for analyzing the detector output signals (3) on the emission properties and / or mechanical properties of this element. Application to the successive testing of the operating example of micromechanical sensors or as laser diode or a field emission tips, etc., placed on a substrate such as a wafer.


Human Adenoviruses are a diverse family of viruses that can infect a variety of tissues causing acute or persistent infection. Viruses induce numerous cellular alterations as they hijack cellular functions to promote viral progeny. Recent research has shed light on the functions of viral proteins in orchestrating viral production, revealing that many of these functions overlap with oncogenesis or metabolic disruption. Studies of the Adenovirus family (Adenoviridae) have identified oncogenic members, such as Adenovirus (Ad-)2, 5, 9, and 12, and also Ad-36, which is most extensively studied for its ability to induce metabolic alterations. Specifically, Adenoviruses encode a gene product known as early region 4 open reading frame 1 (E4orf1), which has emerged as an oncoprotein and regulator of metabolism depending on the lineage of the infected host cell. This article aims to provide insight into the functions of the viral protein E4orf1 and the overlapping similarities between the oncogenic process and cell metabolism.


Purpose – The main aim of this study is to develop a framework of brand knowledge transfer through sponsorship for sponsors within an insurance industry in South Korea. To this end, this study explores: how pre-event brand knowledge and perceived sponsor–event fit contribute to post-event brand knowledge and if and how consumers' attitudes toward insurance agents play a role as a moderator in the model. Brand knowledge is examined in terms of brand awareness and corporate image. Design/methodology/approach – Using a paper-and-pencil survey method, data were gathered from consumers (n = 330) who participated in a parenting education program in which an insurance company partnered with a baby food manufacturer in South Korea. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Findings – The results confirm the occurrence of brand knowledge transfer for sponsors via sponsorship. Pre-event brand awareness and corporate image affect post-event brand awareness and corporate image, respectively, while pe...


Let me begin with words of praise for the Ottawa Statement and the contributions it makes to the understanding of cluster randomized trials (CRTs). In my published article to which the authors of the present article refer, I wrote, ''The Ottawa authors, as I will call them, have made a significant contribution to the literature on the ethics of CRTs.'' I then went on to suggest that remaining uncertainties exist: ''whether both health care workers and patients should be considered subjects in these trials, whether there is a need to obtain informed consent for research from both groups, and whether equipoise is still necessary.'' In this commentary, I reply to critical comments that McRae, Taljaard and Weijer (hereinafter ''the authors'') make regarding my discussion of ''who is the subject'' and ''when is informed consent necessary.'' As the authors acknowledge, ''the information on clinicaltrials.gov is insufficient to enable a thorough ethical analysis of each example trial.'' I commend the authors for seeking more information about the examples discussed in my article, for which I used only the information available on clinicaltrials.gov. The authors were obviously more resourceful in having contacted researchers who wrote the papers I used as illustrative of the uncertainties I noted. The authors claim that my analysis contains two common misperceptions about randomization: (1) that the use of randomization per se confers status as research and (2) that the use of randomization necessitates obtaining informed consent from study participants. What I actually wrote about randomization was the following: ''if hospital units are assigned randomly either to the new procedure or to the current procedure in order to determine which procedure is more effective, then the activity begins to look like research'' (emphasis added). I agree with the authors' additional condition that would make a randomization procedure constitute research: ''It is the purpose of a study . designed to develop generalizable knowledge that makes the study research.'' It is true, nevertheless, that a study may initially be intended only to answer a question about improving quality in a particular clinic or ward of a hospital, but the rigor of the methodology using randomization may result in a contribution to generalizable knowledge. That is, sometimes the generalizability emerges only after the conclusion of a study despite the initial intention of the researchers. This is stated explicitly in a policy document issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that distinguishes between research and nonresearch activities:


The article by Fox and Freifeld presents a comprehensive history of the rationale for the neutropenic diet, along with important studies of this diet.


The Medical Journal of Australia ISSN: 0025729X 20 July 2009 191 2 51-52 ©The Medical Journal of Australia 2009 www.mja.com.au Editorials than ever before, but we also enjoy a compreh system that has made us "a nation free from financia go with illness and incapacity". But it must be acknowledged that there are smo sions both within medicine and in its relationship w tensions that may well bring about fundamental chan practice. These catalysts for change have been com General practice needs resolute and united medical leadership to ensure its fitness for survival


Abstract Mixed effects logistic models have become a popular method for analyzing clustered binary data. However, methods to assess goodness of fit are not well developed. Recent work conducted for the ordinary logistic regression model provides the basis for a newly computed mean and variance for the Pearson and the unweighted sums of squares statistics for the mixed effects logistic model. A simulation study was conducted to evaluate the performance of these statistics. The factors that were varied were the number of clusters, the number of observations within a cluster, the magnitude of the correlation, and the number and type of covariates included in the model. Reported simulations results show that the unweighted sums of squares and Pearson statistics have adequate Type I error rates and are recommended for use in evaluating goodness of fit in certain settings.


Motivated by [7], we study the advection-hyperdiffusion equation in the whole space in two and three dimensions with the goal of understanding the decay in time of the $H^{-1}$- and $L^2$-norm of the solutions. We view the advection term as a perturbation of the hyperdiffusion equation and employ the Fourier-splitting method first introduced by Schonbek in [8] for scalar parabolic equations and later generalized to a broader class of equations including Navier-Stokes equations and magneto-hydrodynamic systems. This approach consists of decomposing the Fourier space along a sphere with radius decreasing in time. Combining the Fourier-splitting method with classical PDE techniques applied to the hyperdiffusion equation we find a lower bound for the $H^{-1}$-norm by interpolation.


The report summarizes two pilot projects in the Kyrgyz Republic that focused on the feasibility and cost effectiveness of integrating sexually transmitted infection (STI) services into the primary health care system. In Soviet times STI services were a separate vertical system with extensive reliance on inpatient care but the development of a solid primary health care system in the Kyrgyz Republic presented the opportunity to make STI services more accessible as well as more cost-efficient. This report describes two pilot projects that adopted the World Health Organizations syndromic case management approach as the primary model for treatment and prevention of STIs at the primary health care level. Family Group Practice doctors were trained to use this approach for the most common STI syndromes. Results showed that patients sought care from Family Group Practices for the three target syndromes and that the provision of services in primary health care is cost effective. The report also offers recommendations for expansion of the pilots nationwide. (authors)


Abstract Revealing drivers of variation in resource specialization is a long-standing goal in ecological and evolutionary research. As a general prediction, the degree of resource specialization increases towards lower latitudes. Although herbivorous insects are one of the best-studied consumer groups, factors determining the degree of specialization on large spatial scales are poorly understood. Herein, we focused on the fundamental host breadth of 246 herbivorous butterfly species distributed across the Japanese archipelago. Using Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling based on information of pooled geographical occurrence and host use, we show that local butterfly communities tend to become more specialized towards higher latitudes, a pattern that is opposite to predictions from classical hypotheses. We also found that the pattern is mainly driven by factors related to climate, butterfly diversity, and body size in each community. Our results re-emphasize the importance of current climate as a regulating factor for butterfly host breadth and morphology.


Machine learning is an important research area of computer science with rapid development. This is due to the growth in the database industry, the advancement of data analysis, research and the resulting market needs for methods that are capable of extracting valuable knowledge from large data stores. Using the concept of Machine Learning, we have tried to apply it to a strategic game Peg Solitaire. We have used adecisiontree, backtracking and pagoda function after analysis. Patterns are discovered, and further moves are taken in the game. It shows that ML is a perfect approach for a strategic game.


We consider the optimal segmentation problem of an informed insurer, public and private, that faces a continuum of agents when the transaction costs increase with the number of groups. A segmentation policy is defined by the design and the premium of each group but also by their number. Without transaction costs, it is shown that under both systems of insurance, each agent is proposed a full coverage insurance contract (full participation) and the resulting social welfare is identical. With transaction costs, full participation is socially optimal although it cannot be achieved in general. We exhibit an iterative process to choose the public segmentation policy; the riskiest agents are insured although a fraction of agents remain excluded. The private segmentation policy is chosen to maximize the expected profits and the problem is formulated as a mixed-integer programming problem. The riskiest agents are not anymore insured but when transaction cost is higher than a critical threshold, only a private insurance can be implemented. To further analyze the problem, a simpler model is considered. In terms of exclusion and social welfare, it is when the transaction cost is close but below to the critical threshold that system of insurance should be public.


The present study examined the effects of three different control mode interfaces on unmanned aerial system (UAS) pilots' ability to comply with air traffic controller (ATC) traffic clearances. Pilots controlled a simulated UAS with a waypoint-only interface, an auto-pilot interface and a manual, stick and throttle interface. Researchers recorded pilots' 'measured response' at several stages of ATC-pilot interaction, which consisted of verbal response times, initial response times, initial edit times, total edit times, and overall compliance times. Results indicate that pilots are best able to comply with ATC clearances when provided with auto-pilot and manual control inputs. Limitations to the present study and future analyses are discussed.


We report on consonant-f0 interactions in Malayalam. Crosslinguistically, voicing lowers f0 in the following vowel (House and Fairbanks 1953, Hombert 1978, Clements 2002, Moreton 2006). While this lowering has been attributed to physiological and phonetic factors (Stevens 1998, Atkinson 1978, and Honda 2004), Ohde (1984), Svantesson and House (2006), and Keating (1984) have argued that f0 lowering serves to maintain a phonological contrast between voiced and voiceless segments. Voicing in Malayalam is predictable; voiceless stops appear initially, and voiced intervocalically. We report on data from 6 native speakers. 3 repetitions of each word in a frame sentence were recorded. Since Malayalam words only appear with voiceless initial stops, we contrast these with nasals from corresponding places of articulation. We examine time-normalized f0 perturbation due to voicing in Malayalam for all places of articulation for both initial and medial contexts. Our findings lend support to the physiological and phonetic account of f0 lowering. Malayalam exhibits a pattern of f0 lowering following voicing and raising during the production of voiceless segments. In spite of Malayalam voicing being predictable, the f0 perturbation in the following vowel follows the cross-linguistic pattern of lowering following voiced segments. This finding dove-tails with the results from earlier studies that take physiological factors to be responsible for the lowering of f0 following voiced segments.


Three kinds of structures: Blunt protuberances, fine filaments and small granules appeared on the surface of fertilized eggs of Rana amurensis. (Plate Ⅰ, Fig 1, 2 and 3) At the beginning of the cleavage, the blunt protuberances erected in the presumptive furrow (Plate I, Fig. 4). As the furrow infolded deeply, three zones appeared on the furrow wall (Plate Ⅰ, Fig. 5 and 6). On the outer zone, there were radiating folds, blunt protuberances, fine filaments and small granules (Plate Ⅱ, Fig. 5 and 6, o), which were very alike to those on the originally pre-existing surface membrane. It indicates that the cell membrane of the outer zone is the extension of the preexisting membrane. On the middle zone, the furrow wall was smooth due to the rare appearance of the blunt protuberances (Plate Ⅰ, Fig. 5 and 6,m). This is the newly formed membrane. The inner zone was the uncleaved region of the two blastomeres (Plate Ⅰ, Fig. 5 and 6, i). At some places of the margins between outer and inner zones (Plate Ⅱ. Fig. 8) and between middle and inner zones (Plate Ⅱ, Fig. 9), there were heaps of vesicles from which new membrane might formed and extended.In response to cytochalasin B, the cleavage furrow regressed and the ingrownth part of the furrow was left unmodified as an isolated fragment. The isolated fragment had a "Ⅴ" shaped tip in dorsal region(gray crescent region) and "γ" shaped in ventral region (Plate Ⅱ, Fig. 11 and 12) while the tips of the regressed furrow reaching the dorsal and ventral region. This regional difference was less conspicuous and vanished finally as the furrow tips gradually passing the dorsal and ventral regions and reaching the ventral pole of the fertilized eggs.


The Fellows of the Royal Society have a tradition of writing expositions of their work which rapidly attain the status of classics. Newton's Principia, Darwin's Origin of Species, Maxwell's Theory of Electricity and Magnetism, Rutherford's Radioactive Transformations, and Dirac's Quantum Mechanics all served to define a field which their authors had played a major role in establishing, and as a source of knowledge and inspiration for succeeding generations. Rutherford's book went through two metamorphoses before reaching its final form as Radiations from Radioactive Substances by Rutherford, Chadwick and Ellis (hereafter referred to as RCE). During the early 1930s, it was the principal source for all aspiring nuclear physicists, including Fermi's group in Rome and a whole generation in America. It thus, inadvertently, contributed to the erosion of the overwhelming dominance of the Cavendish Laboratory in the subject. It was often referred to as the 'Bible' of nuclear physics, but at least from 1932, 'Old Testament' might have been more appropriate. It is firmly based on the proton-electron model of the nucleus and the 'new mechanics' makes only a tentative appearance. Nevertheless it is a true masterpiece, clearly and elegantly written, full of incisive summaries and insights, and giving a remarkably faithful and complete picture, from an experimental viewpoint, of nuclear physics as it was around 1930.


Summary This paper briefly outlines 11 cases of pupils with special educational needs which have gone to judicial review. These are discussed in the light of recent developments in legislation and the implementation of the 1981 Act. This is an area of growing relevance to EP practice. Some implications for educational psychologists and psychological services are highlighted.


Current individual tree growth models rarely consider the mode of tree competition, which can be size-asymmetric when growth is limited by light or size-symmetric when belowground resources are scarce. Even with the same competition index, growth reactions may vary considerably due to a prevailing resource limitation, as the dominant trees in a stand benefit disproportionately more on light-limited sites. To scrutinize and model the relationship between mode of competition and site conditions, 34 long-term experiments with 120 plots dating back to 1871 were used. The data cover the dominating tree species in central Europe along a broad range of ecological conditions. For Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), and sessile oak (Quercus petrea (Matt.) Liebl.), stronger light competition can be shown on fertile sites compared with sites with poorer conditions. Based on these findings, we constructed an enhanced version of a classic potential modifier growth model. Simulati...


Ever since the application of probe cars and instrumented vehicles for transport planning or driving behavioural studies, data collection in public road networks have become common. With the availability of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and the advancing of Autonomous Vehicle (AV) deployment, more and more sensor-equipped vehicles will be available shortly and due to their dependency on accuracy data source, there can be a serious privacy concern on what data will be gathered and how privacy cannot be violated. An investigation is firstly needed to identify how those data can be used, such as surveillance, misbehaviour reporting and unauthorised large-scale data fusion. In this paper, based on the data collected by an instrumented vehicle, we examine the content of the data that can be collected by ADAS and AVs and compare them to other data collection techniques in public, including CCTV at intersections. This paper will finally propose measures to minimise the risk of privacy violation raised by ADAS and AVs. Keyword: privacy; data exhaust; mobile sensors; ADAS; autonomous vehicles


The present invention discloses a graphite oxide loading the nano metallic silver particle and the preparing method thereof. The graphite oxide is prepared by the following procedures: adding the graphite oxide into the dispersing agent to do ultrasonic dispersion and the mixed liquid forms; adding the silver salt solution to the mixed liquid prepared in the last procedure and stirring; doing stirring at the condition of darkroom condition; centrifugation, washing and vacuum furnace drying the mixed liquid obtained in the last procedure and the graphite oxide loading the nano metallic silver particle is obtained. The present invention fully uses the oxygen group on the surface of the graphite oxide to form the nucleation center, and the more surface area of the graphite oxide piece is used to facilitate that the nano metallic particles can uniformly subsides on the graphite oxide piece thereby reducing the agglomeration property of the particle and increasing the specific surface area of the particle; the composition prepared by the invention is combined with the property of graphite oxide and the metallic elemental silver, has a better application prospect and economic benefit in the fields of biological medicine and catalyzing, etc.


To see any real economic benefit from user engagement, a website has to have a clear strategy in place. The authors' research introduces the concept of the ladder of participation a framework for strategic thinking about using site engagement to improve conversion. The notion of the ladder is based on the idea that, as users become increasingly engaged with a website, they become more willing to pay for its services and the website must take an active approach to engage and interact with its users, guiding them up the ladder. Website managers must understand the current user community, identify how they would like that community to evolve, and select the participatory features they offer and the order of their introduction accordingly. Four key management insights emerged from our research on the ladder of participation and its connection to capturing value from users social engagement: 1. Understand the many faces of user participation. 2. Search for your website's ladder of participation. 3. Let your users climb to conversion. 4. Don't be afraid to encourage users to participate.


Owing to various natural and man-made noise, burst errors occur in one-, two- and three-dimensional telecommunication channels. In the paper, a class of linear cyclic block codes, which can correct all burst errors occurring in these types of channels, is described. The codes devised make use of the statistical description of the channel and the estimates of the possible error patterns which may occur throughout the channel. This is achieved by describing a regular geometrical shape which may contain each of these possible error patterns individually. Several examples of these geometric shapes in one-, two- and three-dimensional channels are given. Once an appropriate shape is found, the codes may be generated with their generator matrix. Because of their ability to correct errors, not only in one-, but also in two- and three-dimensional channels, these codes may be used in applications other than telecommunications, such as pattern and shape recognition in robotics. Experience shows that the codes are highly efficient and have a particularly simple decoding scheme.


Universities are both a source of employable graduates and careers. This paper examines universities as developers and employers of their own graduates from the perspective of employees and recruited positions. Research questions were: what do learning and teaching careers look like at universities, and; what are the occupational patterns, satisfactions and concerns of the staff in those careers? An autoethnographic account of employees' career journeys (all of whom were employed in learning and teaching or closely related areas) from five different universities were shared, compared and contrasted. Two of these universities are profiled as having a large proportion of students from target equity groups and therefore have intentionally recruited learning and teaching staff to widen student participation. A desktop review of six months of university employment vacancies from these two universities was conducted. A consistent theme across the autoethnographic stories was a feeling of being an outsider. The authors' hypothesis is that this is related to haphazard preparation for learning and teaching positions. Of the 322 university vacancies, 84% were for professional staff, 23% of which were in learning and teaching, with the most prevalent role being Coordinator. Fourteen per cent were for academic staff, 64% of which involved learning and teaching, and the most prevalent title was Lecturer/Senior Lecturer. Key takeaways include recommendations for universities to intentionally enhance the employability of graduates who pursue learning and teaching positions within universities, and for prospective university learning and teaching staff to enhance their employability.


Many companies have found that the presumed benefits of organizational change initiatives, such as TQM or team working, have not been forthcoming because managers have failed to support those developments through the simultaneous adaptation of the company's performance evaluation and control systems. This paper reports new research sponsored by the EPSRC which has developed a prototype practitioner methodology to help managers in their role as organizational designers to critically appraise and diagnose current organizational control practices and, where appropriate, intervene.


This article aims to contribute to the extant literature on advertising discourse by investigating the way intertextuality has been combined with two other ubiquitous features, conceptualised by Simpson (2001, 589) as reason and tickle. The former refers to features that 'suggest a motive or reason for purchase', while the latter refers to elements that 'appeal to humour, emotion and mood' (ibid.). Intertextuality, used here to refer to those linguistic features of a text that signal reproductions of pre-existing texts that are incorporated into the current text to construct new meanings (Downing 2003, 70), is by virtue of its indirect nature a tickle strategy. Nevertheless, it can be combined with other tickle and/or reason tactics. The objective of the article is to investigate the way intertextuality has been combined with such tactics, by focusing on product/logo placement as well as rational (reason) versus emotive (tickle) claims in the headline and subtext in a sample of 120 advertisements (ads).


Co-administration of prescribed drug with that of over the counter products may either lead to altered therapeutic effect, adverse effects or depleted efficacy of one or both drugs. One such example is geriatric patients being treated with ayurvedic cardioprotectives formulations for ischemia generally suffer from bowel movement discomfort and tend to consume herbal laxatives simultaneously without physician's consent. The proposed study was undertaken to determine whether any interaction exists when Arjuna, a cardioprotective agent is concomitantly administered orally with Haritaki churna, a laxative agent, in isoproterenol (subcutaneous administration) induced ischemic rats on pharmacodynamic level. Data was statistically evaluated by comparing the effect of combination group with that of isoproterenol control and Arjuna group on electrocardiogram (ECG) patterns, blood serum parameters, gastric motility using ONE WAY ANNOVA, p < 0.05 followed by Tukey's multiple comparison test. Results suggests that there is significant decrease in cardioprotective efficacy of Arjuna when administered together with Haritaki.


In previous investigations, humidification‐dehumidification (HDH) solar‐assisted desalination systems were designed produce the daily fresh water during sun hours which lead to big sizes and unsteady systems. In the present study, integration of solar‐assisted HDH desalination system with heat recovery and thermal energy storage unit is developed to enhance system productivity, reduces auxiliary power consumptions and system size and assure system continuous operation. The mathematical modelling based on energy and mass conservation equations is presented and solved using iterative techniques by C++ and engineering equation solver software. Detailed parametric study of the developed system is conducted for wide ranges of operating conditions and design parameters to study the effects of integrating the HDH system with solar collectors, heat recovery and thermal energy storage units on the system performance. The results revealed that (i) this integration improves system productivity and reduces operating cost, (ii) increasing air to water mass ratio and sea water temperature and decreasing ambient humidity decrease water productivity and gained output ratio (GOR) and increase operating cost parameter (OCP) and (iii) increasing air inlet temperature and sea water flow rates increase GOR and decrease OCP. Comparison with previous systems showed that the proposed system reduces the electric heating power of the system at solar noon by 37% at MR = 0.5 and gives daily fresh water productivity (123.7 kg/h) two times more than previous systems with comparable OCP (0.099 $/kg).


Objective:To observe the Influence of chronic exposure of pregnant mice to arsenic on DNA damage in embryo mice and memory function of young generation and to provide evidences for exploring mechanism of arsenic toxicity to embryo mice.Methods:On the second day of pregnancy,the pregnant mice were divided into 2 experimental groups,e.g.2 ppm As2O3 and 4 ppm As2O3 groups and one controls.As2O3 was administered to pregnant mice ad libitum in water for consecutive till young mouse born,each grouPtakes 10 young mice,female and male is half and half,30 in total.Expression of 8-hydroxy-2'-desoxyguanosine(8-OHdG) as biomarker of DNA damage in brain was observed immediately after embryo mice born by immunohistochemistry.On 48 days after borning,memory function of young generation was examined 3 times everyday for 5 days using the Morris water maze.Results:The escaping potential time in mice was significantly longer in the grouPreceived to 4 ppm As2O3 than that in controls(P0.01)in the observation of the first,third and fifth days,and the escaping potential time was also significantly longer in the former than grouPreceived 2 ppm As2O3 in the third day(P0.05).There is not any significant difference in the escaping potential time between the grouPreceived 2 ppm As2O3 and controls.In brain tissue of mice,8-OHdG presents obvious high expression in the experimental groups.Especially,expression of 8-OHdG in the grouPreceived to 4 ppm As2O3 was significantly higher than those in the other two groups.Conclusions:Chronic arsenic exposure of pregnant mice may induce DNA damage in embryo and affect the memory function of young generation.


Effect of antibrowning agents, calcium chloride, polymeric films, modified atmosphere packaging conditions, and storage temperatures on quality changes of mango slices (cv. Namdokmai) was studied. Ascorbic acid was the most effective browning inhibitor for mango slices, while calcium chloride had no significant effect on flesh firmness. Mango slices dipped in 0.5% ascorbic acid for 30 seconds were packaged in LLDPE, PP, and OPP under air and modified atmosphere packaging with O2 and CO2 ratios of 5:5 and 5:10 and stored at 5 and 10oC. Storage temperature had a pronounced effect on quality of mango slices. Polymeric films with suitable gas permeability combined with optimum modified atmosphere packaging helps maintaining quality and extending shelf-life of mango slices. Mango slices under modified atmosphere packaging with O2:CO2 ratio of 5:10 in OPP film, stored at 5oC had the most acceptable quality over the storage period of 13 days.


The discrete element method (DEM) has been widely employed to model processes in different industries, such as mining, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and food. One of the main lines of research, and in which different authors propose several approaches, is the calibration of parameters. Bulk calibration (BCA) is a common approach used that does not necessarily represent the individual behavior of each particle. On the other hand, direct measurement (DMA) is another approach employed in some cases. This work presents a comparison between calibration of DEM model parameters with non-cohesive spherical and polyhedral particles using a combination of direct measurement and bulk calibration. BCA is employed to calibrate friction parameters and DMA to characterize shape of the particles and coefficient of restitution of the contact between particles. Experimental data from Draw Down Tests are used to calibrate the friction parameters. Numerical optimization of the parameters is conducted by altering the coefficients of friction regarding the objective variables of mass flow, final mass, shear angle, and angle of repose. Quartz, granite, and coal are calibrated, obtaining good agreement with the experimental results. The influence of particle shape is tested, proving that more complex particles obtain better results for the analyzed case.


A combustion promotion apparatus of an internal combustion engine is provided to reduce noises and improve performance and fuel efficiency by absorbing high temperature heat generated during a power stroke of the internal combustion engine and dissipating heat to the circumference. A combustion promotion apparatus of an internal combustion engine includes a spark plug(100), an electrode unit(110), and a combustion promotion derivative(200). The spark plug ignites an air-fuel mixture introduced into a combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine. The electrode unit includes a ground electrode(114) protruded from a top of the spark plug and made of an iridium material, and a center electrode(112) inclined from a center of the spark plug toward the ground electrode such that a predetermined gap is maintained between the ground electrode and the center electrode. The combustion promotion derivative includes a horizontal part(202) arranged at one end of the spark plug and a vertical part(204) bent from the horizontal part and fixed at one end of the spark plug. The combustion promotion derivative is made of a super alloy material having a superior heat resistance and heat conductivity.


We study the Diophantine equation formula here in integers x, y > 1, n > 2 and q [ges ] 2. Without loss of generality, we suppose that q is prime. Saradha and Shorey [SS] considered equation (1·1) with x = z2 and proved that it has no solutions in the cases z > 31 or z ∈ {2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 16, 27}. Notice that the proof for z ∈ {2, 4, 8, 16} is elementary, whereas for z ∈ {3, 9, 27} the proof uses a result of Darmon–Merel [DM] which is a generalization of Wiles' result on Fermat's theorem. The purpose of the present paper is to treat completely the remaining cases and to prove the following result.


The utility model provides an embedded device and a network server which can communicate through network servers, and is connected with the network server and at least one of the other embedded devices through an internet, wherein the device comprises a group-network data requesting device used for sending requests to the network server and used for communicating with the other device, the group-network data requesting device comprises device recognizing numbers of the device and device recognizing numbers of the other device, a device used for receiving responding data from the network server, wherein the responding data comprises the IP address of the other device, and is generated by the network server under the condition that the device recognizing numbers of the device and the device recognizing numbers of the other device are judged to be correct, and a data communication device which is between the device and the other device is started according to the IP address of the other device.


Abalone aquaculture based on artificial feeds and intensive generally land-based systems is increasing in Australia. Intensive systems are vulnerable to diseases of poor environment control. This paper reports several types of bacterial diseases investigated in grow-out stock of Haliotis rubra, H. laevigata and their hybrids over approximately 10 years, their pathology, farm factors precipitating disease outbreaks, and the potential for disease control using antibiotics. Vibrio species infections have been the most common cause of infection, with a variety of species isolated from moribund animals, generally irrespective of the primary insult. Specific disease outbreaks, with differing pathology, have been associated with two species, Vibrio harveyi and V. splendidus I. Specific pathology has also been associated with Flavobacterium-like species. In most cases, stress factors precipitating disease has been identified, and control has been largely directed to eliminating this stress. Antibiotics have also been used, with equivocal results, precipitating preliminary studies of antibiotic absorption and efficacy in these species. The limited potential for antibiotic use, and the requirement for understanding and control of on-farm stress, is discussed.


The invention relates to a production process for producing biomass based natural gas, lignose and microcrystalline cellulose by utilizing bamboo-curing waste, which solves the problem that the bamboo-curing waste is utilized economically and effectively. The production process comprises the following steps: performing steam exploded pretreatment to the bamboo-curing waste, lixiviating and separating the steam exploded materials by water, producing marsh by the anaerobic fermentation of liquid phase materials, obtaining bamboo cellulose filter residue and black liquid by the alkali treatment of solid phase materials, separating the black liquid from the lignose, and obtaining the microcrystalline cellulose by the acid hydrolysis of the bamboo cellulose filter residue. The production process has high transition heat energy and can realize energy regeneration of the marsh; the joint lignose and microcrystalline cellulose realizes the energy regeneration utilization of the waste. The production process belongs to a closed circulating system which has high economic benefit and environment-protection without pollution.


Commercial ethylene–octene linear low-density polyethylenes (LLDPEs) were reactively extruded with low levels of a peroxide [2,5-dimethyl-2,5-di(t-butylperoxy)hexane] to modify polymer molecular structure and processing properties. Peroxide levels were kept low to avoid crosslinking. This article reports the effects of this reactive extrusion on viscoelastic properties. Rheological properties are more sensitive than are molecular structure characteristics to the changes produced by reactions of very low peroxide concentrations. Complex viscosity increases are seen, especially at low frequencies. Shear-thining behavior is also accentuated. The crossover between G′ and G″ moves to lower frequencies. A modified Cole–Cole presentation of these data shows that the elastic component is more predominant for extrusion-reacted materials. Peroxide-modified materials all have higher Bagley end correction values than those of barefoot resins. The former exhibit lower power indices (more shear thinning). All these properties indicate more long-chain branching and higher melt elasticity. However, die swell decreased as a function of peroxide concentration. Peroxide treatment results in an enhancement of elongational viscosity, both under isothermal and cooling conditions, along with a decrease in drawdown ability. The rheological changes parallel those reported earlier in molecular characteristics but are more sensitive and suitable to evaluate the effects of reactive processing. The effectiveness of the reactive extrusion process for improving processability of LLDPEs depends critically on the extrusion conditions. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Freedom of speech on social media is often abused to express inappropriate speech against individuals or groups. One form of social media abuse is misogyny utterance. Misogyny is hatred directed at women. The number of misogyny utterances on social media keeps increasing. Detection of misogyny needs to be done to prevent misogyny utterances. This work examines misogyny on Twitter and proposes a method to detect it. The dataset used comes from tweets on social media Twitter related to women. The experiment in this work was done by comparing the effect of BERT Embedding for Logistic Regression, Convolutional Neural Network, and Long Short-Term Memory. The performance of the methods tested was evaluated based on the resulting accuracy. This work showed that BERT with LSTM surpassed other methods with 86.15% accuracy. The model could outperform other methods because it understands more about the context of the data.


The first allylic alkylation of difluoroenoxysilanes with MBH carbonates catalyzed by triethylenediamine (DABCO) is developed, which allows rapid access to multifunctional α- gem- difluoroketones with up to 97% yields. Moreover, the gram-scale synthesis and the diversifying transformation of products to valuable gem -difluorinated molecules highlighted the practicality of this methodology.


The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of digital marketing and product variety on consumer buying interest at the Moy Stuff Shop in Bengkulu City. The analytical methods used include validity test, homepage linear regression, coefficient of determination, hypothesis testing (t test and f test). This type of research is a quantitative descriptive research, which is a research method in research that examines the status of a human group, an object, a system of thought or a class of humans today. The results of the research show that the regression direction is positive with the equation Y = 11.743 + 0.304X1 + 0.438X2 + e. The coefficient of determination of the value of R square is 0.414. This means that X1 (Digital marketing) and X2 (variety of products), affect buying interest (Y) by 41.40% while the remaining 58.6% is influenced by other variables not examined in this study. The results of the F test show that the significance is 0.000 <0.05. Because the significance level is below 0.05, it shows that X1 (Digital marketing) and X2 (variety of products) have a positive and significant influence together on buying interest (Y). Digital marketing has a positive and significant effect on buying interest, product variety has a positive and significant impact on buying interest because the significant value is less than 0.05.


The growth kinetics of 3C-SiC heteroepitaxial layers on α-SiC substrates by a vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) mechanism in Ge-Si melts was investigated. Various parameters were studied such as temperature, melt composition, crucible inner diameter, propane flux, and substrate nature (polytype, polarity, and misorientation). It was found that the growth rate increases with increasing temperature, propane flux, Si content of the melt, and misorientation of the substrate. The calculated activation energy (from 4.7 to 6.6 kcal/mol depending on the substrate type) is very small suggesting that the limiting process is the diffusion of the dissolved carbon inside the melt. The carbon solubility inside the melt mainly affects the carbon dissolution kinetics from the gas phase. The results also suggest that surface effects are important through the layer polarity, the roughness and the emerging defect density.


This study focuses on the description of soil water dynamics at four sites with different land cover types, namely beech forest, conifer forest, meadow and clipped grass. The analysis was based on soil tensiometer measurements from five consecutive vegetation seasons (comprising both wet and dry years). We investigated both column average pressure heads and also their vertical distribution. The soil water balance was studied by the HYDRUS-1D model. The highest pressure heads were observed at the grassland site, followed by the meadow site. The forested sites were generally reaching lower pressure head values, which was a result of higher evapotranspiration and different soil properties. The differences between the spruce forest (Picea abies (L.)) and beech forest (Fagus sylvatica L.) were evident namely in dry periods, when the beech site was experiencing lower pressure heads. Contrarily, the spruce site was drier (with recorded lower pressure heads) in wet periods and at the beginning of each season. Compared to the conifer forest, lower pressure heads were observed in beech forest, namely at the bottom of the inspected soil column (down to 100 cm). The inspection of the soil water balance revealed different rates of evapotranspiration and drainage at all sites. The evapotranspiration was highest in the beech canopy followed by spruce and both grass covered sites. The differences between spruce and beech forest were based namely on the water consumption efficiency and differences in interception rates, vertical distribution of the roots, and soil hydraulic properties.

This research was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GA CR 20-00788S), SoilWater project (EIG CONCERT-Japan), and by the institutional support of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic (RVO: 67985874).


Direct observations of long‐term variations in solar UV irradiance from satellites, although important for monitoring the energetic forcing of the Earth's atmosphere, is challenging because of the difficulty of accurately tracking instrument response changes. Proxy indexes based on core‐to‐wing ratios of solar Fraunhofer lines, such as the Mg II feature at 280 nm, can minimize the impact of both time‐ and wavelength‐dependent instrument changes to better monitor solar UV activity. Here we present new data sets from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite, which began operations in late 2004. The high quality of OMI irradiance measurements allows us to construct daily indexes for the Mg II, Ca II K (393.4 nm), Ca II H (396.8 nm), and Mg I (285.2 nm) lines. The OMI Ca II K index is well correlated with the Mg II index measured by multiple instruments, as well as the ground‐based National Solar Observatory (NSO) Ca II K 1.0 Å index data derived from Integrated Sunlight Spectrometer measurements. OMI Ca II K data can be used to evaluate anomalous short‐term features in the NSO data set. The OMI solar data products represent a valuable addition to current data sets.


This article discusses how seemingly well-intended policies and interventions to reduce intergroup bias by emphasizing colorblindness through overarching commonalities between groups may, either unintentionally or strategically, inhibit efforts to address group-based inequities. First, we discuss the roots of bias in social categorization process, and how changing the way people think about group memberships from separate groups to members of the same group with shared identity improves intergroup attitudes. Second, we describe the subtle nature of contemporary biases, which can help obscure group-based inequities. Third, we explain how and why majority and minority groups may have different preferences for recategorization and consider the potential consequences of these different perspectives for recognizing and addressing disparity and discrimination. We conclude by considering the policy and structural implications of these processes for achieving more equitable societies, not only in principle but also in practice.


Aim:  This study was conducted to determine the clinical relevance of hepcidin, a recently identified key iron regulatory hormone, in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (C‐HCV).


Transient energy flow method is a new method of power system oscillation analysis, and can be used to locate the oscillation source and evaluate the damping of elements. In this paper, the sub-synchronous oscillation in a system with a steam unit, a VSC-HVDC transmission system and a series capacitor compensation is studied. The transient energy flow method is used to evaluate the damping characteristics of the VSC-HVDC. The results are compared with the damping coefficients of the shaft masses, and the effectiveness of the transient energy flow method is verified. The damping characteristics of VSC-HVDC with different power reference values and controller parameters are studied. The results show that VSC-HVDC is a positive damping element, which can effectively restrain sub-synchronous oscillation.


Ninety‐eight samples from 80 cases of spontaneous abortions after fetal death or hydrops fetalis from 12,000 pregnant women were examined using PCR. DNA was extracted from amniotic fluid, fetal blood, ascitic fluid and fetal biopsies or placenta specimens using QIA amp kits (QIAGEN). A 270‐bp length fragment located within the B19 gene NS1 was amplified using PCR followed by electrophoresis and southern‐blot hybridization assay using a horseradish peroxidase‐labelled probe and chemiluminescence detection. This assay was able to detect 1 to 10 DNA copies in a 10 |gml sample. Parvovirus B19 was identified in 11 cases (14% of fetal hydrops; 1 case for 1,100 pregnancies). Amniotic fluid was the most common and reliable sample to assess the diagnosis. Gestational age ranged from 17 to 28 weeks (mean 23 weeks). IgM antibodies were detected in 3 maternal sera, 2 patients of which reported an exposure to B19 infection during pregnancy. In 2 cases, intrauterine blood transfusions led to the cessation of symptoms and to birth of normal babies. J. Med. Virol. 54:140–144, 1998. © Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Recently, there has been growing interest in the study of Metamaterials both theoretically and experimentally. Metamaterials (MTM) are artificial materials engineered to have properties that may not be found in nature. The invention of metamaterial was started in the late 1960s. In 1967, Victor Georgievich Veselago studied the electrodynamics of substances with simultaneously negative values of dielectric permittivity (ε) and magnetic permeability (μ) [1]. Positive permeability and permittivity are the basic properties of conventional materials available in nature called as Double Positive (DPS) materials. Metamaterials are termed as Double Negative (DNG) materials due to the property of negative ε and μ. V. G. Veselago found that the Poynting vector of the plane wave is antiparallel to the direction of the phase velocity, which is contrary to the conventional case of plane wave propagation in natural media. Although metamaterial does not present in nature, interesting properties were theoretically predicted for these substances, such as the reversal of the Snell Law, Doppler Effects, and Cherenkov radiation etc. Metamaterials are sometimes referred to as Negative Index Materials (NIM) as they exhibit negative index of refraction. A composite medium of conducting, non-magnetic elements can form a Left-Handed frequency band, as the electric field (E), magnetic intensity (H) and propagation vector (k) are related by a left-hand rule [2].


The paper develops an overlapping-generations model that interacts with a labor market characterized by equilibrium unemployment. This structure implies that young individuals can be in two different states, employed or unemployed. Hence, the social security system contains both old-age benefits and unemployment insurance. Including these features, the model seeks to assess growth effects of three different pension systems: one unfunded and two funded, where the distinction is made between actuarial and nonactuarial funding strategies. It is shown that both funded systems generate higher growth than an unfunded system. Moreover, the actuarial system fosters higher growth than the nonactuarial.


This article discusses about the influence of KH. Hasyim Asy'ari regarding his efforts in building and maintaining the integrity of the nation, both in the Islamic and national fields and his role in resolving the Islamic context at the International level (Hijaz). The research method used is literature study by means of descriptive content analysis. The results of this study indicate that KH. Hasyim Asy'ari is a figure who has a great influence in regulating national and Islamic stability both in thought (aqliyah) and movement (amaliyah) so that it stands the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. Besides that, the important role of KH. Hasyim Asy'ari is both as an advisor and a legitimator in an effort to preserve the purity of Islam at the international level, namely the polemic of the sovereigns in the Hijaz land. The influence in the archipelago includes: the da'wah ukhuwah Islamiyah as a form of tolerance, the value of leadership towards the people and nation, intellectual contributions as Muslim scholars, influence and commitment against the invaders while his influence at the international level is to maintain the purity and benefit of the world Islam (Hijaz).


Various electronic keys (tokens, cards, etc.) are also quite common in the quality of identifiers. But it should be noted that in recent years, more and more widespread identification systems that use biometric characteristics of man in solving the problem of access to information systems. Therefore, the task of developing models of behavior of users of computer systems, which take into account both dynamic and static properties of the behavior of users, as well as their possible ones, is urgent. The paper presents a comprehensive approach to the analysis of user behavior in order to identify anomalies in its work. This approach should take into account the dynamic and statistical properties of the behavior, as well as possible changes in behavior that are not associated with anomalies.


Canistel (Pouteria campechiana (HBK.) Baehni) fruit were subjected to cold storage and hot-water immersion treatments known to kill immature Caribbean fruit flies (Anastrepha suspensa (Loew)) in other fruit. Cold storage at 1 or 3C for 17 days did not cause appreciable loss in canistel quality compared with fruit stored at the normal 10C. Unripe canistels immersed in water at 46C for 90 min or at 48C for 65 min, however, developed dark blotches on the peel and a 2- to 3-mm-thick layer under the peel that did not soften. Canistels were infested with Caribbean fruit flies and subjected to 1 or 3C storage for up to 14 days. The resulting lethality data were fitted to three probability density functions (PDF) to estimate the number of days required to achieve quarantine security (99.9968% dead). The normal and Gompertz PDFs gave some reasonable estimates, while the logistic PDF gave low estimates. At 1C, 14 days would be needed to achieve quarantine security, while at 3C a minimum of 15 days would be required. These estimates must be tested to determine if they are valid after a large amount of Caribbean fruit fly immatures is subjected to the treatments.


ABSTRACT Pancreatic cystic lesions are difficult to evaluate amid acute pancreatitis. Without previous pancreatic imaging, it is challenging to discern between pancreatic acute fluid collections and cystic neoplasms. We present a 29-year-old woman with acute pancreatitis and initial cross-sectional imaging suggesting a 2.8-cm cystic lesion in the body/tail of the pancreas. Endoscopic ultrasound completed 5 weeks after index presentation revealed findings worrisome for a cystic neoplasm, but fine-needle aspiration findings suggested lesion to be a pseudocyst (normal carcinoembryonic antigen and cytology, negative mucin stain).


Objective: The primary problem that metabolic engineering should resolve is to restructure the metabolic flux in some pathways or to redirect the flux distributions in different pathways.The target is to trim the primary metabolizability,to introduce the metabolic flux into the flux through endproduct.Method: Pathway analysis for production of L-isoleucine by Brevibacterium flavum was conducted.Result: There were nine basic modes and the theoretical molar yield and flux distribution of L-isoleucine in each mode was determined.Theoretical yield for optimal pathways was 1.The yield of two-stage oxygen supply was 8.2% higher than that of by stable oxygen supply.Conclusion: The yield of endproduct is improved by the alteration of fermentation parameter on the basis of pathway analysis.


The exact nature of the catalyst surface and the various ways of catalyst deactivation are subjects of great scientific interest and enormous economic importance. A brief review like the present one has to be very selective, giving only the underlying principles and representative examples. The focus of this review is on industrial catalysts, in particular, on the most commonly used supported metal and mixed-oxide type catalysts. Here again, only typical examples are chosen and cited to illustrate the specific types of problems involved in catalyst deactivation and how these problems wee diagnosed by a judicious application of the experimental techniques available today. Of the types of catalyst deactivation caused by coking, poisoning, and solid-state transformations, the emphasis in this review is on the last type. Changes in the chemical composition of the catalyst surface, restructuring or reconstruction of the surface, phase transformations, gradual enrichment/depletion of a particular catalyst component on/from the catalyst surface, these are the topics of prominence in this review. Even here, emphasis is on normally unexpected or unsuspected types of deactivation and the catalyst metamorphosis produced by the catalytic reaction itself, as distinct from the purely thermal effects at the reaction temperature. This review is aimed tomore » provide some essential background information and possibly to serve as a reference guide for trouble-shooting when a catalyst is deactivated for rather mysterious reasons. 147 refs.« less


The historical development of statistics in India is outlined. The application of statistics in RBI and the areas where statisticians can contribute significantly are also given [Speech delivered on The Statistics Day and Annual Conference on Financial Statistics].


Two new double resonance signals were observed in H2CS using the 10R4 CO2 laser line. Both radio-frequency transitions have been assigned. Their behavior in a magnetic field up to 10.5 kG has been studied. One signal was pumped by the 9P20 laser line and the other two by the 10R4 laser line. A 10R4 signal observed at 15.8 MHz was assigned to the 113.8 yields 113.9 transition in the v6 ground state of H2CS. The other 10R4 signal, which was observed at 202.8 MHz, was assigned to the 112.9 yields 112.10 transition in the excited state. This transition is the first to be reported in an excited vibrational state of the electronic ground state. The frequency of this transition was found to be strongly influenced by Coriolis coupling between the v4 and v6 states.


Gene Helfman loves fish. He admits to this on the very first page of his new book, Fish Conservation: A Guide to Understanding and Restoring Global Aquatic Biodiversity and Fishery Resources. It is hard to see something you love disappearing, and Helfman has made an extraordinary effort to provide a comprehensive guide to the threats faced by fish species throughout the world and the efforts that are being made to preserve them.


The concept of traffic congestion and traffic management is ambiguous in nature. The traffic and congestion is dependent on a number of factors that might impact the stretch of road or the framework of the traffic management systems. As the evolution of internet in last one decade and its reach to the very last person on this planet, this provides the basket of new opportunity of managing the traffic and its patterns on the basis of live traffic data from the onsite cameras, sensors, and the google maps traffic forecast the situation of traffic congestion would be avoided, which directly helps in reducing the load on environment and saving some valuable time of the commuters, and indirectly having large savings on the countries resources. In this research paper the authors have identified the factors affecting the management, flow, and working of traffic on the toll roads, national highways, and dedicated fright corridors in specific from the literature. The identified factors have been analyzed using quantitative statistical tools such as: relative importance index, Cronbach's alpha, and cluster analysis to know the predictor importance. For this study a total of 192 valid responses were received using structured questionnaire survey. On the basis of data analysis the recommendation have be drawn and shared with the government authorities to be implemented on the highways to facilitate the commuters and all the other stakeholders associated with the traffic and traffic management. The findings of the relative importance index conclude that the most significant attributes of traffic management are No tolling for e-vehicles, use of information boards to avoid any traffic situations, and savings on fuels. Furthermore the findings of the cluster analysis concludes that the most important predictor is no-tolling for e-vehicles, followed by savings on fuels.


Through study on electrostatic precipitation in 300 MW unit,inside hardware and software were improved to equip them with automatically selecting operation mode and to enhance efficiency of 16 high-voltage silicon rectifier control sysytems.At the same time,the systems'existing functions including control,protection,communication were retained.The automatically selecting operation mode enables the rectifier control system adapting modes according to circumstance so as to improve electrostatic precipitation efficiency under reduced output power of high-voltage silicon rectifier control system.


morphological features accuracy T staging images in surgically- proven gallbladder cancers, surgicopathologic Polypoid were in 49 cases (83%). The sizes of tumors were well correlated with surgicopathologic T-stage. With ROC evaluation, the size cutoff to differentiate the ≤ T1 versus ≥ T2 lesions was 2.4 cm. Stones or sludge were found in 25 cases (42%). The positive predictive value, negative predictive value, sen-sitivities, specificities, and accuracy of the ability to differentiate the ≤ T1 versus ≥ T2 lesions were 75%, 86%, 46%, 96%, 85% and those of the ability to differentiate ≤ T2 versus ≥ T3 lesions were 89%, 49%, 45%, 90%, and 61%, respectively. Conclusion: Image analysis showed that polypoid mass and wall thickening were major findings. With this in mind, polypoid mass shows the possibility of gallbladder cancer originating from adenoma, even if the size is larger than 2 or 2.4 cm, the surgicopathologic stage could be low. Moreover, the accuracy of image based T stage on pericholecystic infiltration and wall thickening was low.


Discovering maximum frequent itemsets is a key issue in data mining applications. Most of the previous studies adopt an Apriori-like candidate itemsets generation-and-test approach, however, candidate itemsets generation is costly. In this study, we propose a new algorithm named ML_Pincer for discovering maximum frequent itemsets in multiple-level association rules. ML_Pincer algorithm combines the top-down and the bottom-up directions progressive deepening searching ideas, moreover, it uses two-way pruning tactic: the information which gathered in one direction can prune more candidate itemsets during the search in the other direction. It decreases candidate itemsets greatly and avoids making multiple passes over database, consequently, it reduces CPU time and I/O time remarkably. Experiments prove that ML_Pincer algorithm is more efficient than PMAM algorithm, especially when some maximum frequent itemsets are long.


How might people, whose work often keeps them away from home for extended periods, remain part of key aspects of domestic life whilst travelling for work? This is the driving question behind Family Rituals 2.0, a multidisciplinary research project exploring the evolving nature of family life within the digital age, critically examining support for work-life balance for mobile workers.

Family Rituals 2.0 was developed during an EPSRC Digital-Economy funded 'Creativity Greenhouse' held in July 2012 with the key theme of 'achieving work/life balance in a digitally dependent world'. During the greenhouse process, the research team identified the daily rhythms and behaviours of family life, namely family rituals, as key features of prosaic family experience that may come into conflict with workplace demands. This is especially so, in an emerging era of hyper-mobility and concomitant digital connectivity wherein we are always on-line and contactable at any time. It was felt that in efforts to support work-life balance a deeper understanding of the evolving nature of family rituals and practices, within the digital age was required.


As we know,criminal detention plays an essential role in the criminal compulsory measures.But there are still some ambiguities when the theories are used practically.For example,there exists such questions as taking the particular as the common or taking detention as investigation.Then how to solve them?They all depend on the consummation of legistation and the transition of the investigation model as well.


This monograph comprises the analysis and discussion of some of the more important topics dealt with in the 1994 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Survey (YAFS-II) in the Philippines. Chapter 1 provides a short background to the volume including the major considerations that served as impetus to the YAFS-II as a research and policy interest of the research team. Chapter 2 provides a profile and a short trend in selected social economic and cultural characteristics of the Filipino youth today. In chapter 3 the nature and pattern of dating behavior among adolescents as a precursor event to their sex and other sex-related activities is described. Chapter 4 explores the categories of sexual experience among the unmarried and among the married while they were still single. Chapter 5 deals with the level and intensity of pregnancy and childbearing experiences of the young females and their predisposing factors while chapter 6 delves into the identification and level of reproductive health problems among the youth as well as their responses in terms of seeking medical assistance. Chapter 7 looks into the smoking drinking and drug use risk behaviors among adolescents and chapter 8 describes the levels of HIV/AIDS risk through sexual activity and explores the practice of protected sex. Chapter 9 revisits the broader social demographic context of the youth and the topography of sexual risk-taking among them. Finally chapter 10 highlights some of the findings in the previous chapters particularly those with policy implications.


Abstract By using critical point theory, some new existence results of at least one periodic solution with minimal period pM for fourth-order nonlinear difference equations are obtained. Our approach used in this paper is a variational method.


Background: Extremely preterm born (EP) children are at risk of poor outcomes that may influence their ability to participate in physical activity (PA). Objectives: To compare exercise habits of EP-born children without severe neurodevelopmental disability to term-born (TB) children. To identify predictors for inactivity at school-age among the EP-born children. Methods: A national cohort of children born at gestational age Results: A total of 209 EP born and 57 TB participated in the study. At 11 years of age the EP-born reported fewer exercise events per week (≤1 events/week 28 % vs. 14 %, p=0.03), they were less engaged in team sports, reported lower endurance, reduced skills and were less vigorous during sport compared to TB (p Conclusions: EP-born exercise less than TB children. And abnormal MABC and SDQ score at 5 years predicted reduced skills and physical intensity in PA.


A 61-year-old man with exertional chest pain, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia underwent coronary angiography after a stress echocardiogram showed inferior ischemia. A tandem lesion of the mid right coronary artery was found (Fig. 1a) and direct stenting with a 3.00× 33-mm drug-eluting stent was performed. After postdilation with a noncompliant balloon at a maximal pressure of 18 atm, control angiography indicated a double-lumen image located across the distal tract of the stented segment (Fig. 1b) (Video 1, Supplemental digital content 1, http://links.lww.com/MCA/A8).


The dual flatness for Riemannian metrics in information geometry has been extended to Finsler metrics. The aim of this paper is to study the dual flatness of the so-called (α, β)-metrics in Finsler geometry. By doing some special deformations, we will show that the dual flatness of an (α, β)-metric always arises from that of some Riemannian metric in dimensional n ≥ 3.


Currently,education is approaching the information,the multimedia classroom has become new position of the traditional teaching.Therefore,fully exerting teachers' dynamic role in the whole teaching process is the core idea of the multimedia assisted instruction.The vitality of the multimedia assisted teaching lies on that it can extend the expression ability of teachers and fully exert their influences.Only by choosing the proper intervention time in the process of teaching and applying multimedia timely aid to create the rich situations,it can promote students' abilities of observation,thinking,space imagination and some others,so that it will maximum improve teaching results.


Significance The visible light sensitivity of animal opsins is attributed to a protonated Schiff base linkage to retinal, which is stabilized by a negatively charged counterion. Glu113 and Glu181 serve as the counterion in vertebrate- and invertebrate-type opsins, respectively. Ascidian opsin, the sole invertebrate opsin found in the vertebrate visual opsin group, contains Glu113 and Glu181, which act as synergistic double counterions. Deleting either counterion changes the ascidian opsin's molecular properties to resemble those of either vertebrate- or invertebrate-type opsins. These results strongly suggest that counterion position regulates opsin molecular properties beyond spectral tuning. Moreover, ascidian opsin is an apparent evolutionary intermediate leading to vertebrate visual opsin, which has acquired the high G protein activation efficiency optimized for the vertebrate vision. Ci-opsin1 is a visible light-sensitive opsin present in the larval ocellus of an ascidian, Ciona intestinalis. This invertebrate opsin belongs to the vertebrate visual and nonvisual opsin groups in the opsin phylogenetic tree. Ci-opsin1 contains candidate counterions (glutamic acid residues) at positions 113 and 181; the former is a newly acquired position in the vertebrate visual opsin lineage, whereas the latter is an ancestral position widely conserved among invertebrate opsins. Here, we show that Glu113 and Glu181 in Ci-opsin1 act synergistically as counterions, which imparts molecular properties to Ci-opsin1 intermediate between those of vertebrate- and invertebrate-type opsins. Synergy between the counterions in Ci-opsin1 was demonstrated by E113Q and E181Q mutants that exhibit a pH-dependent spectral shift, whereas only the E113Q mutation in vertebrate rhodopsin yields this spectral shift. On absorbing light, Ci-opsin1 forms an equilibrium between two intermediates with protonated and deprotonated Schiff bases, namely the MI-like and MII-like intermediates, respectively. Adding G protein caused the equilibrium to shift toward the MI-like intermediate, indicating that Ci-opsin1 has a protonated Schiff base in its active state, like invertebrate-type opsins. Ci-opsin1's G protein activation efficiency is between the efficiencies of vertebrate- and invertebrate-type opsins. Interestingly, the E113Y and E181S mutations change the molecular properties of Ci-opsin1 into those resembling invertebrate-type or bistable opsins and vertebrate ancient/vertebrate ancient-long or monostable opsins, respectively. These results strongly suggest that acquisition of counterion Glu113 changed the molecular properties of visual opsin in a vertebrate/tunicate common ancestor as a crucial step in the evolution of vertebrate visual opsins.


Abstract : The following observations were made in late November 1969 and pertain to a six month period as Commanding General, II Field Force Vietnam Artillery from May 21, 1969 to November 20, 1969. It might be useful at the outset to comment briefly on the enemy and friendly situation in the II Field Force area during that period. As a result of FWMAF successes, the main force enemy units have moved into outlying areas. It appears that the enemy's major objectives were to reopen LOC's and to disrupt the FWMAF pacification effort. His tactics were characterized by stand off attacks using mortars and rockets, sapper reconnaissance and selected attacks, and main force attacks in strength along the border. The enemy's ability to avoid contact whenever possible continued to be his greatest asset. On the other hand, his ability to choose the time and place for battle was being attrited. Our successes have enabled us to accelerate Vietnamization of the war. Territorial security forces were being committed to the security of the populated areas and ARVN units were pushing out to interdict enemy movement and to engage him in the outlying areas. FWMAF continued combat and combat support activities with a view towards accelerating pacification, improving the combat effectiveness of RVNAF, and eroding enemy capability in all areas.