Search

Behavioural toxicity is a very applicable area in the vast field of ecotoxicology where, assessment of the alteration of behaviour is an effective tool to evaluate neural activity in an organism. In our present study, we have shown that arsenic trioxide exposure can stimulate repetitive grooming activity in a freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium lamarrei; however, over time the organism can modulate the grooming performances to less. We predict that repetition in the grooming behaviour is a case of neurotoxicity by arsenic and induction of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) within a short period of exposure time.

Listening in an acoustically cluttered scene remains a difficult task for both machines and hearing-impaired listeners. Normal-hearing listeners accomplish this task with relative ease by segregating the scene into its constituent sound sources, then selecting and attending to a target source. An assistive listening device that mimics the biological mechanisms underlying this behavior may provide an effective solution for those with difficulty listening in acoustically cluttered environments (e.g., a cocktail party). Here, we present a binaural sound segregation algorithm based on a hierarchical network model of the auditory system. In the algorithm, binaural sound inputs first drive populations of neurons tuned to specific spatial locations and frequencies. Lateral inhibition then sharpens the spatial response of the neurons. Finally, the spiking response of neurons in the output layer are then reconstructed into audible waveforms via a novel reconstruction method. We evaluate the performance of the algorithm with psychoacoustic measures of normal-hearing listeners. This two-microphone algorithm is shown to provide listeners with perceptual benefit similar to that of a 16-microphone acoustic beamformer in a difficult listening task. Unlike deep-learning approaches, the proposed algorithm is biologically interpretable and does not need to be trained on large datasets. This study presents a biologically based algorithm for sound source segregation as well as a method to reconstruct highly intelligible audio signals from spiking models.Author SummaryAnimal and humans can navigate complex auditory environments with relative ease, attending to certain sounds while suppressing others. Normally, various sounds originate from various spatial locations. This paper presents an algorithmic model to perform sound segregation based on how animals make use of this spatial information at various stages of the auditory pathway. We showed that the performance of this two-microphone algorithm provides as much benefit to normal-hearing listeners a multi-microphone algorithm. Unlike mathematical and machine-learning approaches, our model is fully interpretable and does not require training with large datasets. Such an approach may benefit the design of machine hearing algorithms. To interpret the spike-trains generated in the model, we designed a method to recover sounds from model spikes with high intelligibility. This method can be applied to spiking neural networks for audio-related applications, or to interpret each node within a spiking model of the auditory cortex.

To avoid the scarcity of water which is a tough situation, borewells are dug all over the world. But the careless management and improper completion of such wells lead to a situation where such wells become an artefact of death rather than life. The number of reported cases of a child falling in borewells is increasing day by day. Even with the advancement in science and technology, a proper and risk-free rescue method for such a scenario is not yet made. Existing robots are also not efficient enough to do a successful rescue. This is the reason why we came up with this paper. Pangolin, also called anteater is a mammal whose method of catching its prey used in our paper. A pangolin extends its tongue to burrow and catches the prey once it is stuck onto the tongue. Similarly, we also have a mechanical based extension system for the extending of the robot. Like pangolin sticky tongue, using animatronic hand we can ensure the safety of the victim by holding safely and tightly. In addition to this hand, support from the bottom also is there so that the total pulling force is evenly spread to the child's body. After successful gripping of the child, he/she is pulled up using a mechanical chain system. The child's condition is monitored throughout using various sensors. A high-resolution camera is also used for perfect gripping of the animatronics-based hands.

The statistical complexity measure defined by Lopez-Ruiz, Mancini, and Calbet is reported for a single particle under q-deformed quantum harmonic oscillator. It is found that q-deformation leads to typically a different behavior in complexity. An interesting variation appears in the exponential Shannon information entropy and disequilibrium. The product of these, which defines the statistical complexity are reported and discussed. It is shown that the deformation parameter q can be used to tune the statistical complexity of the quantum harmonic oscillator. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Understanding the natural diet of species may provide useful information that can contribute to successful captive maintenance. A common problem experienced with captive foregut-fermenting primate (colobine) diets is that they are deficient in fiber and therefore highly digestible. This may contribute to gastrointestinal disorders often observed in zoos. An approach to obtain information relevant for the improvement of diets is to compare the nutrient composition of feces from free-ranging and captive individuals. In theory, fecal material can be considered a proxy for diet intake integrated over a certain period of time. We collected fecal samples from eight free-ranging proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus, a highly endangered colobine species) groups from a secondary forest along the Kinabatangan River and four from a mixed mangrove-riverine forest along the Garama River, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia. We also collected fecal samples from 12 individual captive adult/sub-adult proboscis monkeys from three different zoos. We confirmed that feces from free-ranging monkeys contained more fiber and less metabolic fecal nitrogen than those from captive specimens, indicating a less digestible diet in the wild. Modifying the diets of captive colobines to include more fiber, comparable to those of free-ranging ones, may contribute to their health and survival., Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 4, ISSN:2297-1769

The exact solutions of Schr��dinger's equation with the deformed Hulth��n potential $V_q(x)=-{��\, e^{-��\,x }}/({1-q\,e^{-��\,x}}),~ ��,��, q>0$ are given, along with a closed--form formula for the normalization constants of the eigenfunctions for arbitrary $q>0$. The Crum-Darboux transformation is then used to derive the corresponding exact solutions for the extended Hulth��n potentials $V(x)= -{��\, e^{-��\,x }}/({1-q\,e^{-��\,x}})+ {q\,j(j+1)\, e^{-��\,x }}/({1-q\,e^{-��\,x}})^2, j=0,1,2,\dots.$ A general formula for the new normalization condition is also provided., 14 pages, two figures

Understanding the natural diet of species may provide useful information that can contribute to successful captive maintenance. A common problem experienced with captive foregut-fermenting primate (colobine) diets is that they are deficient in fiber and therefore highly digestible. This may contribute to gastrointestinal disorders often observed in zoos. An approach to obtain information relevant for the improvement of diets is to compare the nutrient composition of feces from free-ranging and captive individuals. In theory, fecal material can be considered a proxy for diet intake integrated over a certain period of time. We collected fecal samples from eight free-ranging proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus, a highly endangered colobine species) groups from a secondary forest along the Kinabatangan River and four from a mixed mangrove-riverine forest along the Garama River, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia. We also collected fecal samples from 12 individual captive adult/sub-adult proboscis monkeys from three different zoos. We confirmed that feces from free-ranging monkeys contained more fiber and less metabolic fecal nitrogen than those from captive specimens, indicating a less digestible diet in the wild. Modifying the diets of captive colobines to include more fiber, comparable to those of free-ranging ones, may contribute to their health and survival.

$\mathrm{La_{1.85}Sr_{0.15}CuO_4}$/$\mathrm{La_2CuO_4}$ (LSCO15/LCO) bilayers with a precisely controlled thickness of N unit cells (UCs) of the former and M UCs of the latter ([LSCO15\_N/LCO\_M]) were grown on (001)-oriented {\slao} (SLAO) substrates with pulsed laser deposition (PLD). X-ray diffraction and reciprocal space map (RSM) studies confirmed the epitaxial growth of the bilayers and showed that a [LSCO15\_2/LCO\_2] bilayer is fully strained, whereas a [LSCO15\_2/LCO\_7] bilayer is already partially relaxed. The \textit{in situ} monitoring of the growth with reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) revealed that the gas environment during deposition has a surprisingly strong effect on the growth mode and thus on the amount of disorder in the first UC of LSCO15 (or the first two monolayers of LSCO15 containing one $\mathrm{CuO_2}$ plane each). For samples grown in pure $\mathrm{N_2O}$ gas (growth type-B), the first LSCO15 UC next to the SLAO substrate is strongly disordered. This disorder is strongly reduced if the growth is performed in a mixture of $\mathrm{N_2O}$ and $\mathrm{O_2}$ gas (growth type-A). Electric transport measurements confirmed that the first UC of LSCO15 next to the SLAO substrate is highly resistive and shows no sign of superconductivity for growth type-B, whereas it is superconducting for growth type-A. Furthermore, we found, rather surprisingly, that the conductivity of the LSCO15 UC next to the LCO capping layer strongly depends on the thickness of the latter. A LCO capping layer with 7~UCs leads to a strong localization of the charge carriers in the adjacent LSCO15 UC and suppresses superconductivity. The magneto-transport data suggest a similarity with the case of weakly hole doped LSCO single crystals that are in a so-called {"{cluster-spin-glass state}"}

We present a detailed synchrotron x-ray scattering study of the charge-density-wave (CDW) order in simple tetragonal HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+��}$ (Hg1201). Resonant soft x-ray scattering measurements reveal that short-range order appears at a temperature that is distinctly lower than the pseudogap temperature and in excellent agreement with a prior transient reflectivity result. Despite considerable structural differences between Hg1201 and YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+��}$, the CDW correlations exhibit similar doping dependencies, and we demonstrate a universal relationship between the CDW wave vector and the size of the reconstructed Fermi pocket observed in quantum oscillation experiments. The CDW correlations in Hg1201 vanish already below optimal doping, once the correlation length is comparable to the CDW modulation period, and they appear to be limited by the disorder potential from unit cells hosting two interstitial oxygen atoms. A complementary hard x-ray diffraction measurement, performed on an underdoped Hg1201 sample in magnetic fields along the crystallographic $c$ axis of up to 16 T, provides information about the form factor of the CDW order. As expected from the single-CuO$_2$-layer structure of Hg1201, the CDW correlations vanish at half-integer values of $L$ and appear to be peaked at integer $L$. We conclude that the atomic displacements associated with the short-range CDW order are mainly planar, within the CuO$_2$ layers.

With infrared (IR) ellipsometry and DC resistance measurements we investigated the photo-doping at the (001) and (110) surfaces of SrTiO$_3$ (STO) single crystals and at the corresponding interfaces of LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ (LAO/STO) heterostructures. In the bare STO crystals we find that the photo-generated charge carriers, which accumulate near the (001) surface, have a similar depth profile and sheet carrier concentration as the confined electrons that were previously observed in LAO/STO (001) heterostructures. A large fraction of these photo-generated charge carriers persist at low temperature at the STO (001) surface even after the UV light has been switched off again. These persistent charge carriers seem to originate from oxygen vacancies that are trapped at the structural domain boundaries which develop below the so-called antiferrodistortive transition at T* = 105 K. This is most evident from a corresponding photo-doping study of the DC transport in STO (110) crystals for which the concentration of these domain boundaries can be modified by applying a weak uniaxial stress. The oxygen vacancies and their trapping by defects are also the source of the electrons that are confined to the interface of LAO/STO (110) heterostructures which likely do not have a polar discontinuity as in LAO/STO (001). In the former, the trapping and clustering of the oxygen vacancies also has a strong influence on the anisotropy of the charge carrier mobility. We show that this anisotropy can be readily varied and even inverted by various means, such as a gentle thermal treatment, UV irradiation, or even a weak uniaxial stress. Our experiments suggest that extended defects, which develop over long time periods (of weeks to months), can strongly influence the response of the confined charge carriers at the LAO/STO (110) interface., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables

Introduction In recent years, intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) with parenchymal involvement has been diagnosed more often in full-term neonates due to improved neuroimaging techniques. The aim of this study is to describe clinical and neuroimaging data in the neonatal period and relate imaging findings to outcome in a hospital-based population admitted to a level 3 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Methods From our neuroimaging database, we retrospectively retrieved records and images of 53 term infants (1991–2008) in whom an imaging diagnosis of ICH with parenchymal involvement was made. Clinical data, including mode of delivery, clinical manifestations, neurological symptoms, extent and site of hemorrhage, neurosurgical intervention, and neurodevelopmental outcomes, were recorded. Results Seventeen of the 53 term infants had infratentorial ICH, 20 had supratentorial ICH, and 16 had a combination of the two. Seizures were the most common presenting symptom (71.7%), another ten infants (18.9%) presented with apneic seizures, and five infants had no clinical signs but were admitted to our NICU because of perinatal asphyxia (n = 2), respiratory distress (n = 2), and development of posthemorrhagic ventricular dilatation (n = 1). Continuous amplitude-integrated electroencephalography recordings were performed in all infants. Clinical or subclinical seizures were seen in 48/53 (90.6%) infants; all received anti-epileptic drugs. Thirteen of all 53 (24.5%) infants died. The lowest mortality rate was seen in infants with supratentorial ICH (10%). Three infants with a midline shift required craniotomy, six infants needed a subcutaneous reservoir due to outflow obstruction, and three subsequently required a ventriculoperitoneal shunt. The group with poor outcome (death or developmental quotient (DQ)

We examine the e¢ cacy of a popular anti-poverty programme namely, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) of the Government of India. We argue that a chronic friction of wage payment delay in this agship programme could adversely a⁄ect the welfare of the poor through two channels. First, it causes deferred consumption. Second, it turns labour into a credit good which makes the indebted household work harder to clear o⁄ his existing debt. The loss of welfare persists even when the worker has an outside employment option. If a programme of nancial inclusion increases the indebtedness of the poor, a wage payment delay in the NREGA programme could escalate this welfare loss although the o¢ cial indicator of success (i.,e. participation) may not reveal this friction.

Objective Twenty-four-hour urinary free cortisol (UFC) sampling is commonly used to evaluate Cushing's syndrome. Because there are few data on UFC variability in patients with active Cushing's disease, we analysed baseline UFC in a large patient cohort with moderate-to-severe Cushing's disease and assessed whether variability correlates with hypercortisolism severity. These data will help clinicians establish the minimum number of UFC samples required to obtain reliable data. Design Observational study (enrolment phase of Phase III study). Methods Patients (n = 152) with persistent/recurrent or de novo Cushing's disease and mean UFC (mUFC) ≥1·5×ULN (normal: 30-145 nmol/24 h) were included. Mean UFC level was calculated from four 24-h urine samples collected over 2 weeks. Results Over 600 24-h UFC samples were analysed. The mUFC levels of samples 1 and 2 and samples 3 and 4 were 1000 nmol/24 h (SD 1872) and 940 nmol/24 h (SD 2148), respectively; intrapatient coefficient of variation (CV) was 38% for mUFC. The intrapatient CV using all four samples was 52% (95% CI: 48-56). The intrapatient CV was 51% (95% CI: 44-58) for samples 1 and 2, 49% (95% CI: 43-56) for samples 3 and 4 and 54% (95% CI: 49-59) for samples 1, 2 and 3. Variability in mUFC increased as UFC levels increased. There were no correlations between UFC and clinical features of hypercortisolism. Conclusions There is intrapatient variability of approximately 50% in 24-h UFC measurements, which is relevant to targets set to estimate any treatment effect. Analysing more than two 24-h collection periods in individual patients does not result in a relevant decrease in variability. Interestingly, UFC levels did not correlate with hypercortisolism severity.

With x-ray absorption spectroscopy we investigated the orbital reconstruction and the induced ferromagnetic moment of the interfacial Cu atoms in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7}$/La$_{2/3}$Ca$_{1/3}$MnO$_3$ (YBCO/LCMO) and La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_4$/La$_{2/3}$Ca$_{1/3}$MnO$_3$ (LSCO/LCMO) multilayers. We demonstrate that these electronic and magnetic proximity effects are coupled and are common to these cuprate/manganite multilayers. Moreover, we show that they are closely linked to a specific interface termination with a direct Cu-O-Mn bond. We furthermore show that the intrinsic hole doping of the cuprate layers and the local strain due to the lattice mismatch between the cuprate and manganite layers are not of primary importance. These findings underline the central role of the covalent bonding at the cuprate/manganite interface in defining the spin-electronic properties., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures

In this study, we obtained the position-momentum uncertainties and some uncertainty relations for the P��schl-Teller-type potential for any $\ell$. The radial expectation values of $r^{-2}$, $r^{2}$ and $p^{2}$ are obtained from which the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle holds for the potential model under consideration. The Fisher information is then obtained and it is observed that the Fisher-information-based uncertainty relation and the Cramer-Rao inequality hold for this even power potential. Some numerical and graphical results are displayed.

In this study, the information-theoretic measures in both the position and momentum spaces for the pseudoharmonic potential using Fisher information, Shannon entropy, Renyi entropy, Tsallis entropy and Onicescu information energy are investigated analytically and numerically. The results obtained are applied to some diatomic molecules. The Renyi and Tsallis entropies are analytically obtained in position space using Srivastava-Niukkanen linearization formula in terms of the Lauricella hypergeometric function. Also they are obtained in the momentum space in terms of the multivariate Bell polynomials of Combinatorics. We observed that the Fisher information increases with $n$ in both the position and momentum spaces, but decreases with $\ell$ for all the diatomic molecules considered. The Shannon entropy also increases with increasing $n$ in the position space and decreases with increasing $\ell$. The variations of the Renyi and Tsallis entropies with $\ell$ are also discussed. The exact and numerical values of the Onicescu information energy are also obtained, after which the ratio of information-theoretic impetuses to lengths for Fisher, Shannon and Renyi are obtained.

In patients with myelomeningocele (MMC) and coexistent scoliosis, a spinal cord transection (SC-transection) is sometimes performed before scoliosis correction to prevent traction on the myelum after stretching the spinal column. Performing a SC-transection may have positive effects on bladder function, especially in case of refractory detrusor-sphincter dyssynergia. This study investigates the effects of SC-transection on lower and upper urinary tract outcomes.All children with MMC who underwent scoliosis correction (1989-2009) were retrospectively reviewed. Cases were defined as those who underwent a SC-transection before scoliosis correction, whereas the control group comprised children who had a scoliosis correction alone. Urodynamic and clinical outcomes were examined.A total of 7 cases and 13 controls were identified. Postoperatively, compared to the control group, cases had relatively more often improvement of compliance (improvement in 6/7 vs. 9/13) and bladder capacity (improvement in 6/7 vs. 8/13). No effect of SC-transection was found on incontinence severity, clean intermittent catheterization frequency, use of antimuscarinic drugs, or signs of renal damage on ultrasound.SC-transection before scoliosis correction in children with MMC without lower extremity function, may improve bladder function with respect to bladder compliance and bladder capacity. Changes in symptoms or renal ultrasound were not found. No harmful effects of SC-transection were found, indicating that this procedure can be performed safely with respect to bladder function in these patients. Whether or not SC-transection should be recommended during scoliosis correction in patients with MMC to improve bladder function requires further study.

Using polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR) we have investigated a YBa2Cu3O7(10nm)/La2/3Ca1/3MnO3(9nm)]10 (YBCO/LCMO) superlattice grown by pulsed laser deposition on a La0.3Sr0.7Al0.65Ta0.35O3 (LSAT) substrate. Due to the high structural quality of the superlattice and the substrate, the specular reflectivity signal extends with a high signal-to-background ratio beyond the fourth order superlattice Bragg peak. This allows us to obtain more detailed and reliable information about the magnetic depth profile than in previous PNR studies on similar superlattices that were partially impeded by problems related to the low temperature structural transitions of the SrTiO3 substrates. In agreement with the previous reports, our PNR data reveal a strong magnetic proximity effect showing that the depth profile of the magnetic potential differs significantly from the one of the nuclear potential that is given by the YBCO and LCMO layer thickness. We present fits of the PNR data using different simple block-like models for which either a ferromagnetic moment is induced on the YBCO side of the interfaces or the ferromagnetic order is suppressed on the LCMO side. We show that a good agreement with the PNR data and with the average magnetization as obtained from dc magnetization data can only be obtained with the latter model where a so-called depleted layer with a strongly suppressed ferromagnetic moment develops on the LCMO side of the interfaces. The models with an induced ferromagnetic moment on the YBCO side fail to reproduce the details of the higher order superlattice Bragg peaks and yield a wrong magnitude of the average magnetization. We also show that the PNR data are still consistent with the small, ferromagnetic Cu moment of 0.25muB that was previously identified with x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and x-ray resonant magnetic reflectometry measurements on the same superlattice., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures

Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) on finite traces has proven to be a good basis for the analysis and enactment of flexible constraint-based business processes. The Declare language and system benefit from this basis. Moreover, LTL-based languages like Declare can also be used for runtime verification. As there are often many interacting constraints, it is important to keep track of individual constraints and combinations of potentially conflicting constraints . In this paper, we operationalize the notion of conflicting constraints and demonstrate how innovative automata-based techniques can be applied to monitor running process instances. Conflicting constraints are detected immediately and our toolset (realized using Declare and ProM) provides meaningful diagnostics.

We consider the analytical properties of the eigenspectrum generated by a class of central potentials given by V(r) = -a/r + br^2, b>0. In particular, scaling, monotonicity, and energy bounds are discussed. The potential $V(r)$ is considered both in all space, and under the condition of spherical confinement inside an impenetrable spherical boundary of radius R. With the aid of the asymptotic iteration method, several exact analytic results are obtained which exhibit the parametric dependence of energy on a, b, and R, under certain constraints. More general spectral characteristics are identified by use of a combination of analytical properties and accurate numerical calculations of the energies, obtained by both the generalized pseudo-spectral method, and the asymptotic iteration method. The experimental significance of the results for both the free and confined potential V(r) cases are discussed., 16 pages, 4 figures

The generalized pseudospectral Legendre method is used to carry out accurate calculations of eigenvalues of the spherically confined isotropic harmonic oscillator with impenetrable boundaries. The energy of the confined state is found to be equal to that of the unconfined state when the radius of confinement is suitably chosen as the location of the radial nodes in the unconfined state. This incidental degeneracy condition is numerically shown to be valid in general. Further, the full set of pairs of confined states defined by the quantum numbers [(n+1, \ell) ; (n, \ell+2)], n = 1,2,.., and with the radius of confinement {(2 \ell +3)/2}^{1/2} a.u., which represents the single node in the unconfined (1, \ell) state, is found to display a constant energy level separation exactly given by twice the oscillator frequency. The results of similar numerical studies on the confined Davidson oscillator with impenetrable boundary as well as the confined isotropic harmonic oscillator with finite potential barrier are also reported .The significance of the numerical results are discussed., Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures

"Losses of forest cover, biodiversity, agricultural productivity, and ecosystem services in the Himalayan mountain region are interlinked problems and threats to the sustainable livelihoods of 115 x 106 mountain people as well as the inhabitants of the adjoining Indo-gangetic plains. Until the 1970s, environmental conservation, food security, and rural economic development were treated as independent sectors. The poor outcomes of sector-oriented approaches catalyzed efforts to address environmental and socioeconomic problems concurrently. The identification of "key" natural resource management interventions is an important dimension of integrated management. Projects to rehabilitate the degraded lands that cover 40% of the Indian Himalaya could be key interventions provided that they address both socioeconomic and environmental concerns across spatial and temporal scales. However, projects of this type, e.g., investments in conifer plantations on degraded forest lands, have failed because their designs did not take into account the needs of local residents. This study illustrates a case of land rehabilitation in a small isolated village close to the alpine zone. Vital elements of this project strategy included identifying local perceptions and knowledge and involving the local people in the selection and implementation of the interventions needed to restore the land. Communities were found to be more concerned with the immediate economic benefits from bamboo and medicinal species than the long-term benefits of tree planting. The villagers eventually reached a consensus to plant broadleaved multipurpose trees in association with bamboo and medicinal species. Despite assurances that all the economic benefits from rehabilitation would go to the community, the people would not agree to voluntary labor, although they did absorb significant costs by providing social fencing, farmyard manure, and propagules from community forests. Households shared costs and benefits according to traditional norms. The economic benefits to the local people exceeded the rehabilitation cost over the 7-yr life of the project. There were significant on-site environmental benefits in terms of improvements in soil fertility, biodiversity, protective cover, and carbon sequestration, and off-site benefits from more productive use of labor, reduced pressure on protected areas, and the introduction of rare and threatened medicinal species onto private farmland. "

Imidine1 (dImd), a structural isomer of thymidine, was designed as a potential anti-HIV agent based on the rationale that the lack of fidelity of HIV reverse transcriptase (HIV-RT) may result in misincorporation of the analogue into viral DNA leading to increased unrepaired mispairing and inhibition of viral replication.

This paper describes the results of the measurement of the Marine Boundary Layer (MBL) height from spectral analysis of the u and v components of the wind and from CLASS/radiosonde temperature profiles. The data were collected on ORV Sagar Kanya during the pre-INDOEX (27 December 1996 through 31 January 1997) and FFP-98 (18 February to 31 March 1998) over the latitude range 15 degrees N to 14 degrees S and 15 degrees N to 20 degrees S respectively. During the pre-INDOEX, the MBL heights gradually decrease from 2.5 km at 13 degrees N to around 500 to 600 m at 10 degrees S, Similar results are observed in the return track. The MBL heights (0.5 to 1 km) obtained during FFP-98 are less compared to those obtained during pre-INDOEX. The MBL heights during FFP-98 are less compared to the pre-INDOEX and are believed to be due to the presence of stratus, stratocumulus and cumulus clouds during the cruise period, compared to a relatively cloud free pre-INDOEX cruise.

So it has been decided on the basis of an intensive review of the literature in relation to the problems of lodging, assess the progress made towards solving the problem. The whole has been divided into four main sections: (1) variety (2) plant characters (3) environmental factors (4) disease. Not much space has been devoted to the section on "variety" as much of the information concerning varietal differences can be more conveniently treated in other sections. The section on ’’plant characters", since the writers' studies have repeatedly emphasised that lodged plants vary from normal plants, has been devoted to a fairly detailed consideration of what are considered to be the most important plant characters in lodging. The section on "environmental factors" has been devoted to cultural and climatic conditions and how they influence the lodging behaviour of cereals. The section on "disease" has been devoted to the eyespot disease causing lodging.

Exchange Force of two-level Systems such as LiH and H3

Background and the purpose of the study Diclofenac sodium is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent with a short biological half-life (1–2 hr) and requires multiple dosing. This research was carried out to develop and optimize diclofenac sodium loaded alginate-PVP K 30 microbeads to eliminate the need for multiple dosing and adverse effects. Methods Diclofenac sodium loaded alginate-PVP K 30 microbeads were prepared by ionotropic gelation. Particle size, drug release, swelling, FTIR and SEM analyses were performed. Results Optimized microbeads showed particle size of 0.589±0.054 to 0.620±0.067 mm, and drug entrapment efficiency of 97.88±2.86 to 98.60±3.55%. The in vitro drug release from microbeads was sustained over 10 hrs and followed controlled-release pattern. FTIR analysis indicated the possibility of intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions, i.e., –OH…O=C in microbeads. Conclusion Microbeads for oral controlled delivery of diclofenac sodium were successfully developed by ionotropic gelation.

BACKGROUND: In a single-center phase 1-2a study, the anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy tisagenlecleucel produced high rates of complete remission and was associated with serious but mainly reversible toxic effects in children and young adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). METHODS: We conducted a phase 2, single-cohort, 25-center, global study of tisagenlecleucel in pediatric and young adult patients with CD19+ relapsed or refractory B-cell ALL. The primary end point was the overall remission rate (the rate of complete remission or complete remission with incomplete hematologic recovery) within 3 months. RESULTS: For this planned analysis, 75 patients received an infusion of tisagenlecleucel and could be evaluated for efficacy. The overall remission rate within 3 months was 81%, with all patients who had a response to treatment found to be negative for minimal residual disease, as assessed by means of flow cytometry. The rates of event-free survival and overall survival were 73% (95% confidence interval [CI], 60 to 82) and 90% (95% CI, 81 to 95), respectively, at 6 months and 50% (95% CI, 35 to 64) and 76% (95% CI, 63 to 86) at 12 months. The median duration of remission was not reached. Persistence of tisagenlecleucel in the blood was observed for as long as 20 months. Grade 3 or 4 adverse events that were suspected to be related to tisagenlecleucel occurred in 73% of patients. The cytokine release syndrome occurred in 77% of patients, 48% of whom received tocilizumab. Neurologic events occurred in 40% of patients and were managed with supportive care, and no cerebral edema was reported. CONCLUSIONS: In this global study of CAR T-cell therapy, a single infusion of tisagenlecleucel provided durable remission with long-term persistence in pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell ALL, with transient high-grade toxic effects. (Funded by Novartis Pharmaceuticals; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02435849 .).

In the popular sector of international media, especially visual media such as television, China is represented as embracing capitalism at a phenomenal speed, swept along by consumerism, market liberalism, globalization and technological convergence. Stories ranging from the conspicuous consumption of the "new rich," the emergence of the middle-class, the "explosive" growth of Internet users, mobile phone owners or car buyers for that matter - usually complete with figures and statistics intended to show staggering increase - to the triumphant arrival of Rupert Murdoch's News Corps, fall comfortably into this narrative framework.