Search for ultra high energy gamma-rays from various sources

The hypothesis that there exists an excess of showers from the Galactic plane on the level 1 to 2% at energies just above 10 to the 16th power eV is explored. The excess shower from the Galactic plane seems to be very similar in properties to excess showers from the point sources/flat spectrum, deficit of low energy muons. Those facts suggest that the excess from the Galactic plane are probably due to summing up of the contribution from individual point sources. That in turn suggest that those sources are rather numerous

Political and scientific support for the establishment of the Veterinary School in Lwów

Establishment of the veterinary university in Lwów would not be possible without the political support of Galician authorities, i.a. A. Potocki and S. Zamoyski, Galician and Viennese MPs, and professors A. Biesiadecki, P. Seifmann, H. Kadyi, and J. Szpilman, who performed repeated and uninterrupted activities of both official and unofficial character. Their contribution, postulates, commitment, and work undertaken, had overcame the resistance of central governmental powers. Creation of the Lwów veterinary academic school enabled training not only Polish veterinarians in their mother tongue, but was also an opportunity for students from other Slavic states. The aim of the work is to show the role of political and administrative supporters of the illustrious idea of the Veterinary School, and then lead to its elevation to the Academy

A Critical Evaluation of the Sustainable Sites Initiative\u27s Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009 as Applied to the Design and Development of the Orem, Utah Intermodal Center

In 2006 the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the United States Botanical Garden, and additional stakeholders joined together to form the Sustainable Sites InitiativeTM (SITESTM), an organization dedicated to the promotion of sustainable land development and management practices. As part of this effort SITES recently released its Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009, a document which provides a voluntary guideline and rating system for the development, operation, and maintenance of sustainable landscapes. This guideline and rating system is currently being tested through the Sustainable Sites Initiative pilot program, in which a select group of approximately 150 projects are participating in an initial trial of the SITES certification process. In an effort to provide SITES with in-depth feedback from one of its pilot program participants, the following study involved an interview of a group of key informants who were responsible for development of the SITES pilot application for the Orem Intermodal Center. Through inductive analysis of the data collected from the interviews, this study evaluated the effectiveness of the SITES Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009 as applied to the design and development of the Orem Intermodal Center project. The results and implications of this evaluation are discussed within the study. The study’s findings have also been forwarded to SITES, with the expectation that this information will help inform refinement of the Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks prior to the widespread release of SITES in 2013

Pfsec13 is an unusual chromatin-associated nucleoporin of plasmodium falciparum that is essential for parasite proliferation in human erythrocytes

In Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest form of human malaria, the nuclear periphery has drawn much attention due to its role as a subnuclear compartment involved in virulence gene expression. Recent data have implicated components of the nuclear envelope in regulating gene expression in several eukaryotes. Special attention has been given to nucleoporins that compose the nuclear pore complex (NPC). However, very little is known about components of the nuclear envelope in Plasmodium parasites. Here we characterize PfSec13, an unusual nucleoporin of P. falciparum, which shows unique structural similarities suggesting that it is a fusion between Sec13 and Nup145C of yeast. Using super resolution fluorescence microscopy (3D-SIM) and in vivo imaging, we show that the dynamiclocalization of PfSec13 during parasites' intra-erythrocytic development corresponds with that of the NPCs and that these dynamics are associated with microtubules rather than with F-actin. In addition, PfSec13 does not co-localize with the heterochormatin markers HP1 and H3K9me3, suggesting euchromatic location of the NPCs. The proteins associated with PfSec13 indicate that this unusual Nup is involved in several cellular processes. Indeed, ultrastructural and chromatin immunoprecipitation analyses revealed that, in addition to the NPCs, PfSec13 is found in the nucleoplasm where it is associated with chromatin. Finally, we used peptide nucleic acids (PNA) to downregulate PfSec13 and show that it is essential for parasite proliferation in human erythrocytes. © 2013. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd

Structural Periodic Vector Autoregressions

While seasonality inherent to raw macroeconomic data is commonly removed by seasonal adjustment techniques before it is used for structural inference, this approach might distort valuable information contained in the data. As an alternative method to commonly used structural vector autoregressions (SVAR) for seasonally adjusted macroeconomic data, this paper offers an approach in which the periodicity of not seasonally adjusted raw data is modeled directly by structural periodic vector autoregressions (SPVAR) that are based on periodic vector autoregressions (PVAR) as the reduced form model. In comparison to a VAR, the PVAR does allow not only for periodically time-varying intercepts, but also for periodic autoregressive parameters and innovations variances, respectively. As this larger flexibility leads also to an increased number of parameters, we propose linearly constrained estimation techniques. Overall, SPVARs allow to capture seasonal effects and enable a direct and more refined analysis of seasonal patterns in macroeconomic data, which can provide useful insights into their dynamics. Moreover, based on such SPVARs, we propose a general concept for structural impulse response analyses that takes seasonal patterns directly into account. We provide asymptotic theory for estimators of periodic reduced form parameters and structural impulse responses under flexible linear restrictions. Further, for the construction of confidence intervals, we propose residual-based (seasonal) bootstrap methods that allow for general forms of seasonalities in the data and prove its bootstrap consistency. A real data application on industrial production, inflation and federal funds rate is presented, showing that useful information about the data structure can be lost when using common seasonal adjustment methods

Botulinum toxin (BoNT) in the correction of mimic wrinkles - the most common complications

Introduction and purpose Botulinum toxin (BoNT) products are commonly used to treat muscle spasms such as cervical dystonia as well as to treat expression lines. Serotype A of botulinum toxin is the strongest and is used in aesthetic medicine procedures. It provides predictable results while having few side effects. Nevertheless, complications may occur, such as: ptosis of the upper eyelid, drooping eyebrows, ectropia, double vision, xerophthalmia, falling corners of the mouth, dysphagia, hoarseness, local swelling, erythema, bruising, pain at the injection site, asymmetry. The aim of the study is to discuss the most common complications after injection of the botulin toxin in the correction of mimic wrinkles. Description of the state of knowledge BoNT is a neurotoxin that acts on the neuromuscular junctions, inhibits the release of acetylcholine, consequently causing temporary chemical denervation. Muscle function begins to return approximately 3 months after injection and fully returns after 6 months. Comparison of clinical trials of botulinum toxin type A in aesthetic allowed for the quantification of the frequency of adverse effects:drooping eyelids (2.5%), drooping eyebrows (3.1%), disturbed eye sensation (3%) and lip asymmetry (6.9%). Complications after cosmetic botulinum toxin injections are rare, and those that do occur are usually mild and transient. These complications are technique dependent; the incidence decreases as the injection ability improves. Summary Side effects are rare, nevertheless, thorough knowledge of the patient's anatomy, medical history, possible complications related to the specific product and site of administration, and close monitoring are essential for safe, effective treatment and the achievement of satisfactory results

Mutually Exclusive Expression of Virulence Genes by Malaria Parasites Is Regulated Independently of Antigen Production

The primary virulence determinant of Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite–infected cells is a family of heterogeneous surface receptors collectively referred to as PfEMP1. These proteins are encoded by a large, polymorphic gene family called var. The family contains approximately 60 individual genes, which are subject to strict, mutually exclusive expression, with the single expressed var gene determining the antigenic, cytoadherent, and virulence phenotype of the infected cell. The mutually exclusive expression pattern of var genes is imperative for the parasite's ability to evade the host's immune response and is similar to the process of “allelic exclusion” described for mammalian Ig and odorant receptor genes. In mammalian systems, mutually exclusive expression is ensured by negative feedback inhibition mediated by production of a functional protein. To investigate how expression of the var gene family is regulated, we have created transgenic lines of parasites in which expression of individual var loci can be manipulated. Here we show that no such negative feedback system exists in P. falciparum and that this process is dependent solely on the transcriptional regulatory elements immediately adjacent to each gene. Transgenic parasites that are selected to express a var gene in which the PfEMP1 coding region has been replaced by a drug-selectable marker silence all other var genes in the genome, thus effectively knocking out all PfEMP1 expression and indicating that the modified gene is still recognized as a member of the var gene family. Mutually exclusive expression in P. falciparum is therefore regulated exclusively at the level of transcription, and a functional PfEMP1 protein is not necessary for viability or for proper gene regulation in cultured parasites

On recovering the second-order convergence of the lattice Boltzmann method with reaction-type source terms

This study derives a method to consistently recover the second-order convergence of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), which is frequently degraded by the improper discretisation of required source terms. The work focuses on advection-diffusion models in which the source terms are dependent on the intensity of transported fields. The main findings are applicable to a wide range of formulations within the LBM framework. All considered source terms are interpreted as contributions to the zeroth-moment of the distribution function. These account for sources in a scalar field, such as density, concentration or temperature. In addition to this, certain immersed boundary methods can be interpreted as a source term in their formulation, highlighting a further application for this work. This paper makes three primary contributions to the current state-of-the-art. Firstly, it identifies the differences observed between the ways source terms are included in the LBM schemes present in the literature. The algebraic manipulations are explicitly presented in this paper to clarify the differences observed, and identify their origin. Secondly, it derives in full detail, the implicit relation between the value of the transported macroscopic field, and the sum of the LBM densities. Moreover, this relation is valid for any source term discretization scheme, and three equivalent forms of the second-order accurate collision operator are presented. Finally, closed-form solutions of this implicit relation are shown for a variety of common models. The second-order convergence of the proposed LBM schemes is verified on both linear and non-linear source terms. Commonly used diffusive and acoustic scalings are discussed, and their pitfalls are identified. Moreover, for a simplified case, the competing errors are shown visually with isolines of error in the space of spatial and temporal resolutions

En France la police n’y est pas si exacte que parmy les Romains... – odpowiedzialność z tytułu rękojmi za ukryte wady fizyczne zwierząt w prawie francuskim do końca XIX wieku

Sources of law concerning liability for physical defects of animals in pre-revolutionary and 19th French law – including local customary laws, droit commun, and subsequent normative acts – as well as the literature in the field of veterinary sciences were analyzed and interpreted. It was ascertained that the local customary laws which pertained to the warranty for major defects of selected animal species (primarily horses as well as other equidae, cattle, sheep) had existed throughout France and had also been included in the so-called pays de droit écrit. Buyers’ rights were disproportionately limited, primarily by the existence of a closed catalogue of defects, short deadlines, exclusion of the possibility of price reduction, and the limitation of redhibition. Only a few latent defects were distinguished whose numerous names and scope, as well as the temporal rules, were irrational, anachronistic, and incompatible with the veterinary knowledge. These regulations were applied (contra legem) in judicial practice after the Napoleonic Code came into force, and they were subsequently adopted, virtually unchanged, by later legislation.Analizie i interpretacji poddane zostały źródła prawa dotyczące odpowiedzialności za wady fizyczne zwierząt w prawie francuskim przedrewolucyjnym i XIX-wiecznym – w tym lokalne prawa zwyczajowe, droit commun oraz późniejsze akty normatywne – jak również piśmiennictwo z zakresu nauk weterynaryjnych. Wykazano, że lokalne prawa zwyczajowe dotyczące rękojmi za wady główne wybranych gatunków zwierząt (przede wszystkim koni, a także innych zwierząt koniowatych, bydła, owiec) istniały na obszarze całej Francji i były uwzględniane też w ramach tzw. pays de droit écrit. Uprawnienia kupujących były nieproporcjonalnie ograniczone, przede wszystkim przez istnienie katalogu wad, krótkich terminów, wyłączenie możliwości obniżenia ceny i limitowanie redhibicji. Wyróżniano jedynie kilka wad ukrytych, których nazwy i zakres, a także reguły temporalne były nieracjonalne, anachroniczne i niezgodne ze stanem wiedzy lekarsko-weterynaryjnej. Regulacje te były stosowane (contra legem) w praktyce sądowniczej po wejściu w życie kodeksu Napoleona, a następnie zostały – niemalże bez zmiany – przejęte przez późniejsze ustawodawstwo

Role of industrial linkages in stimulating innovation activity of medium-high and high technology enterprises in Poland

Prezentowane badanie dotyczy innowacji wśród przedsiębiorstw średniowysokiej i wysokiej techniki, charakteryzuje innowacje na poziomie firmy i uwzględnia dyfuzję do poziomu „nowość dla firmy”. Działania innowacyjne podzielono na trzy grupy, obejmujące: (1) nakłady na badania i rozwój oraz inwestycje w dotychczas niestosowane środki trwałe, w tym: a) budynki, lokale i grunty, b) maszyny i urządzenia techniczne, c) oprogramowanie komputerowe; (2) implementacje nowych wyrobów i procesów technologicznych oraz (3) współpracę innowacyjną. Badanie obejmuje 1 355 przedsiębiorstw przemysłowych. Część metodyczna analiz wykorzystuje modelowanie probitowe, dzięki któremu można określić szansę zajścia wybranego działania innowacyjnego w zależności od rodzaju i liczby tworzonych powiązań przemysłowych oraz przynależności do łańcucha dostaw.The paper presents the results of a study undertaken to determine the effect of the number of industrial vertical linkages and their participation in the supply chain on the innovation activity of medium-high and high technology industries in Poland. The main research hypothesis is that innovation processes in the group of enterprises representing both MHT and HT industries are strongly determined by the intensity and nature of the linkages and being part of the supply chain. The scope of the survey covers innovation in medium-high and high-technology sectors, concerns innovation at the firm level, and takes into account the diffusion of the “new to the company” category. Innovative activities are divided into three general groups including: (1) expenditure on research and development, and investments in fixed assets not used so far, such as a) buildings, premises and land, b) machinery and equipment, c) computer software; (2) implementation of new products and processes, and (3) innovative collaboration. The survey covers 1,355 industrial enterprises. The methodological part of the study uses probit modeling that enables the author to identify the probability of occurrence of innovation activity.Uniwersytet Zielonogórski, Wydział Ekonomii i ZarządzaniaAhuja G., Collaboration networks, structural holes, and innovation: a longitudinal study, “Administrative Science Quarterly” 2000, No. 45.Baum J. A. C., Calabrese T., Silverman B. S., Don’t go it alone: alliance network composition and startups’ performance in Canadian biotechnology, “Strategic Management Journal” 2000, No. 21.Chang S. et al., Supplier involvement and manufacturing flexibility, “Technovation” 2006, No. 26.Christensen C. M., Bower J. L., Customer power, strategic investment, and the failure of leading firms, “Strategic Management Journal” 1996, No. 17.Cooper M. C., Douglas M. L., Pagh J. D., Supply Chain Management: More Than a New Name for Logistics, “The International Joumal of Logistics Management” 1997, Vol. 8, No. 1Granovetter, M. S., The strength of weak ties, “American Journal Sociology” 1973, Vol. 78 (6).Granovetter M. S., The strength of weak ties: a network theory revisited, “Sociological Theory” 1983, Vol. 1.Hippel E. von, The Sources of Innovation, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1988.Maddala G. S., Ekonometria, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa 2006.McEvily B., Zaheer A., Bridging ties: a source of firm heterogeneity in competitive capabilities, “Strategic Management Journal” 1999, No. 20.Owen-Smith J., Powell W. W., Knowledge networks as channels and conduits: the effects of spillovers in the Boston biotechnology community, “Organization Science” 2004, No. 15.Stanisz A., Przystępny kurs statystki, t. 2, Statsoft, Kraków 2007.Świadek A., Determinanty aktywności innowacyjnej w regionalnych systemach przemysłowych w Polsce, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego, Szczecin 2008.Welfe A., Ekonometria, PWE, Warszawa 1998.Wspomaganie procesów decyzyjnych. Ekonometria, M. Lipiec-Zajchowska (red.), Wydawnictwo C.H. Beck, Warszawa 2003.Wynstra J. Y. F., Purchasing involvement in product development. Doctoral Thesis, Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven 1998.15817