A reductive analysis of factors limiting growth of plants subjected to Cd treatment is made in this review. The non-specific character of Cd phytotoxicity and its negative effects on the basic growth components: RGR, NAR, LAR, SLA, etc. are presented. An attempt to connect the changes in plant growth with some effects of Cd on water relations, dark respiration, and photosynthesis was made. It w...

International collaboration is important in healthcare quality evaluation; however, few international comparisons of general surgery outcomes have been accomplished. Furthermore, predictive model application for risk stratification has not been internationally evaluated. The National Clinical Database (NCD) in Japan was developed in collaboration with the American College of Surgeons National S...

PURPOSE Locally advanced rectal cancer may require an intraoperative decision regarding curative multivisceral resection (MVR) of adjacent organs. In bulky tumor cases, ensuring sufficient distal resection margin (DRM) for achievement of oncologic safety is very difficult. This study is designed to evaluate the adequate length of DRM in multiviscerally resected rectal cancer. METHODS A total ...

The purpose of this study was to compare the kinematics in terms of the locations and loci of instantaneous axes of rotation (IARs) at levels T11-T12 and T12-L1 of thoracolumbar junction (TLJ). The LAR is one of the kinematics characteristics of a functional spinal unit (FSU) in a plane under load. There is little information about loci of IARs in the TLJ. Validated finite element (FE) models o...

Fish eyes and brain are highly susceptible to environmental Hg exposure but this issue is still scarcely investigated, mainly regarding methylmercury (MeHg) accumulation. Yet, Hg levels in fish lens have not been previously examined under field conditions. Total Hg (tHg), MeHg and inorganic Hg (iHg) levels were assessed in the brain, eye wall and lens of the golden grey mullet (Liza aurata) fro...

For least squares regression, Efron et al. (2004) proposed an efficient solution path algorithm, the least angle regression (LAR). They showed that a slight modification of the LAR leads to the whole LASSO solution path. Both the LAR and LASSO solution paths are piecewise linear. Recently Wu (2011) extended the LAR to generalized linear models and the quasi-likelihood method. In this work we ex...

The Mobile Ad hoc Network is the self configuring type of network in which no central controller is present. The vehicular Ad hoc network is the type of Ad hoc network in which vehicles move freely and communicate with each other. In vehicular ad hoc networks two type of communication is possible, that is; vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure communication. As vehicle nodes have hig...

This paper describes the results of a study on the general lines, main construction criteria, crucial points, parameters and required preliminary R&D activities for the construction of a LAr (liquid argon) imaging detector with active mass in the 10-100 kTon range. Such detectors are crucial for supernova detection, proton decay, LBL neutrino physics and other astroparticle physics applications.

Lianas differ from trees in many life history characteristics, and we predicted that they are phenotypically more responsive to environmental variation than trees. We analyzed responsiveness to light and nutrient availability of five Bauhinia species (three lianas and two trees). Seedlings were grown in a shade house in two light regimes (5 and 25% of full sunlight) and two nutrient supply regi...

In this paper we give a concise description of a liquid argon time projection chamber (LAr TPC) developed at Yale, and present results from its first calibration run with cosmic rays.