New Exploration in the Chitral Valley, Pakistan: An Extension of the Gandharan Grave Culture

NoNew survey in the Chitral Valley has doubled the number of recorded Gandharan Grave culture sites in the region and extended their geographical range. The numbers and location of sites indicates that the Gandharan Grave culture was well established in the Chitral valley, suggesting that the valley may have been central to this cultural development, rather than marginal

Comparative Computational Study of Mechanical Behavior in Self-Expanding Femoropopliteal Stents

The use of the stent to treat peripheral artery disease (PAD) is increased and the proportion of failures also increases. The femoropopliteal artery (FPA) experiences a high deformation ratio compared to the cardiovascular artery due to limp flexion and daily activities that could lead to stent failure, as well as increasing the number of observed mortality and morbidity. In the present work, two of the common PAD stent design models represented as STENT I and STENT II were analyzed by using of finite element method (FEM) to simulate the most mechanical loading modes that could occur in FPA, such as axial tension and compression, torsion, three-point bending and radial compression to give a good understanding of deformation that affected stent inside the in-vivo. The gradual force load was used to simulate all modes, the force values are 0.25 N, 0.5 N, 1.5 N, 2.5 N, 3.5 N and 5.5 N until the stent models obtain the yield-point. The comparison of stent models (STENT I, STENT II) was performed in terms of graphs of total deformation, force-stress and stress-strain for all test modes. The similarity ratio of the total deformation in axial tension and the compression mode for STENT I and STENT II was 17% and that may indicate that STENT I obtained a high deformation value instead of STENT II, while, the torsion similarity ratio was 86% which could show a good agreement in this mode, as well as the similarity ratio, was 78% of the total three-point bending deformation and the value of the similarity ratio in the radial compression mode was 23%. Still unclear what is the clinical mode of mechanical deformation that is more important than others with changing the length of the lesion and stent diameter, and the fatigue life test provides a better understanding of the mechanical tests that must be sought

Never let it go: Stopping key mechanisms underlying metastasis to fight pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an extremely aggressive neoplasm, predicted to become the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths before 2030. This dismal trend is mainly due to lack of effective treatments against its metastatic behavior. Therefore, a better understanding of the key mechanisms underlying metastasis should provide new opportunities for therapeutic purposes. Genomic analyses revealed that aberrations that fuel PDAC tumorigenesis and progression, such as SMAD4 loss, are also implicated in metastasis. Recently, microRNAs have been shown to play a regulatory role in the metastatic behavior of many tumors, including PDAC. In particular, miR-10 and miR-21 have appeared as master regulators of the metastatic program, while members of the miR-200 family are involved in the epithelial-to-mesenchymal switch, favoring cell migration and invasiveness. Several studies have also found a close relationship between cancer stem cells (CSCs) and biological features of metastasis, and the CSC markers ALDH1, ABCG2 and c-Met are expressed at high levels in metastatic PDAC cells. Emerging evidence reveals that exosomes are involved in the modulation of the tumor microenvironment and can initiate PDAC pre-metastatic niche formation in the liver and lungs. In this review, we provide an overview of the role of all these pivotal factors in the metastatic behavior of PDAC, and discuss their potential exploitation in the clinic to improve current therapeutics and identify new drug targets

Peforma Burung Puyuh (Coturnix coturnix japonica) Periode Grower yang Diberi Pakan Berbahan Tepung Daun Ubi Kayu

Peforma burung puyuh yang baik membutuhkan pakan dan manajemen pakan yang baik. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui performa burung puyuh periode grower yang diberi pakan berbahan tepung daun ubi kayu meliputi konsumsi ransum, pertambahan bobot badan, konversi ransum dan nilai IOFC (Income over feed cost). Rancangan percobaan yang digunakan adalah Rancangan Acak Lengkap (RAL) dengan 4 Perlakuan (T0 = Ransum tanpa penambahan tepung daun ubi kayu, T1= 3% penambahan tepung daun ubi kayu, T2= 6% penambahan tepung daun ubi kayu dan T3= 9% penambahan tepung daun ubi kayu) dan 4 ulangan. Penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penambahan tepung daun ubi kayu dengan level 0%, 3%, 6% dan 9% berpengaruh nyata (P0,05) terhadap pertambahan bobot badan dan konversi ransum puyuh. Kesimpulan dari penelitian ini adalah penambahan tepung daun ubi kayu hingga level 9% mampu meningkatkan konsumsi ransum, tetapi belum mampu meningkatkan pertambahan bobot badan, nilai IOFC (Income over feed cost) dan menurunkan konversi ransum. Kata kunci: Puyuh, Tepung Daun Ubi Kayu, Perform

Nilai Nutrisi Silase Limbah Sayur Kol dengan Penambahan Dedak Padi dan Lama Fermentasi yang Berbeda

Limbah sayur kol memiliki kadar air yang tinggi sehingga cepat mengalami pembusukan maka salah satu alternatif penggunaannya dengan silase. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui nilai nutrisi yang terkandung dalam silase limbah sayur kol dengan penambahan dedak padi dan lama fermentasi yang berbeda. Penelitian ini menggunakan Rancangan Acak Lengkap (RAL) Pola Faktorial (2x3) yaitu faktor A adalah level penambahan dedak padi 0% dan 35%. Faktor B yaitu lama fermentasi 0 hari, 7 hari dan 14 hari. Parameter yang diukur adalah Bahan Kering (BK), Protein Kasar (PK), Lemak Kasar (LK), Abu dan Bahan Ekstrak Tanpa Nitrogen (BETN). Hasil penelitian menunjukan pemberian substrat dedak padi 35% memberikan pengaruh sangat nyata (P0.05). Lama fermentasi tidak berpengaruh nyata (P<0.05) Terhadap Bahan Kering (BK), Lemak Kasar (LK), Serat Kasar (SK) dan Bahan Ekstrak Tanpa Nitrogen (BETN) dan memberikan pengaruh sangat nyata (P<0.01) terhadap kandungan penurunan Abu. Perlakuan terbaik terdapat pada level penambahan dedak padi 35% dan lama fermentasi 14 hari dilihat dari penurunan kandungan abu sebesar 11,38% Kata kunci: Kualitas nutrisi, silase, limbah sayur kol, fermentas

Partially Annealed Disorder and Collapse of Like-Charged Macroions

Charged systems with partially annealed charge disorder are investigated using field-theoretic and replica methods. Charge disorder is assumed to be confined to macroion surfaces surrounded by a cloud of mobile neutralizing counterions in an aqueous solvent. A general formalism is developed by assuming that the disorder is partially annealed (with purely annealed and purely quenched disorder included as special cases), i.e., we assume in general that the disorder undergoes a slow dynamics relative to fast-relaxing counterions making it possible thus to study the stationary-state properties of the system using methods similar to those available in equilibrium statistical mechanics. By focusing on the specific case of two planar surfaces of equal mean surface charge and disorder variance, it is shown that partial annealing of the quenched disorder leads to renormalization of the mean surface charge density and thus a reduction of the inter-plate repulsion on the mean-field or weak-coupling level. In the strong-coupling limit, charge disorder induces a long-range attraction resulting in a continuous disorder-driven collapse transition for the two surfaces as the disorder variance exceeds a threshold value. Disorder annealing further enhances the attraction and, in the limit of low screening, leads to a global attractive instability in the system.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figure

Screening of some sorghum genotypes for resistance to sorghum midge, Stenodiplosis (= Contarinia) sorghicola Coqillet (diptera: Cecidomyiidae) under gedarif rainfed conditions

Preliminary experiments were conducted at Northern area, Gedarif State during seasons of 2002-03, 2006-07.Where as advanced trials during 2008/2009 to 2012/2013 at northern and Southern areas. The objective was to evaluate selected sorghum genotypes for sorghum midge resistance. A total of 3000 accessions were obtained from Gene Bank Resources. Resistant genotype, DJ 6514 (Resistant Check already released in 2007) was obtained from International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). Result showed that the midge damage rating was significantly different among genotypes. The midge damage rating scores ranged between, 1.3- 8.6; 1.1- 9.2; 1.4- 9.0; 1.1 – 9.4; and 1.2- 9.2 for all seasons (2008/09; 2009/10; 2010/11; 2011/12 and 2012/13). However, the lowest midge damage rating was recorded by DJ 6514 (Resistant check), followed by P₁ 570162 (Hag Abbakar); GBM 30 (Early Feterita); Wad Baco; and Safra (1.4; 1.5; 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7), respectively. Genotypes, P₁ 570162 (Hag Abbakar); GBM 30 (Early Feterita); Wad Baco; Safra and Harerai showed lowest % yield loss and performed similar to the resistant check (14.2; 14.5; 14.5; 17.0 and 17.3%), respectively. The combined analysis showed that a significant difference was observed between genotypes. The genotypes were significantly different in panicle types, compact and semi-compact headed genotypes showed lower % glumes coverage (1.3- 4.5%), while semi-compact headed genotypes ranged between 5.5 – 7.8%. Genotypes, Wad Baco; P₁ 570162 (Hag Abbakar); GBM 30 (Early Feterita); Safra; Wad Ahmed; Harerai and Wad Akar showed the shortest glumes coverage (1.3; 1.3; 1.5; 1.5; 1.6; 1.7 and 1.8 %). Compact headed genotypes recorded lowest midge density (6.5 adults/ 5 heads), while the semi-compact headed genotypes were recorded 15.7 adults/ 5 heads compared with others types of heads

Nonresonant Contributions in B->rho pi Decay

We consider nonresonant contributions in the Dalitz plot analysis of B->rho pi->pi^+ pi^- pi^0 decay and their potential impact on the extraction of the CKM parameter alpha. In particular, we examine the role of the heavy mesons B^* and B_0, via the process B->pi (B^*, B_0)->pi^+ pi^- pi^0, and their interference with resonant contributions in the rho-mass region. We discuss the inherent uncertainties and suggest that the effects may be substantially smaller than previously indicated.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures; minor changes, version to appear in Phys. Rev.