The morphological characters of the male external genitalia of the European hedgehog (Erinaceus Europaeus)

This study was conducted to depict anatomical characteristics of the penis of he­dgehog. Seven sexually mature male European hedgehogs were used. Following anaesthesia, the animals were scarified with chloroform inhalation. Gross penile characteristics such as length and diameter were thoroughly explored and measu­red using digital callipers. Tissue samples stained with haematoxylin and eosin and Masson’s trichrome for microscopic analysis. The penis of the European hedgehog was composed of a pair of corpus cavernosum penis and the glans penis without corpus spongiosum penis. The urethra at the end of penis, protruded as urethral process, on both sides of which two black nail-like structures, could be observed. The lower part was rounded forming a blind sac (sacculus urethralis) with a me­dian split below the urethra. Microscopically, the penile bulb lacked the corpus spongiosum penis, but, corpus spongiosum glans was seen at the beginning of the free part. In the European hedgehog, entirely stratified squamous epithelium of penile urethra, absence of corpus spongiosum penis around the urethra and bilateral urethral glands are basically different compared with other mammals. This information is expected to contribute to comparative penile morphology as well as for testing phylogenic hypotheses and expanding knowledge about reproductive biology in this animal. (Folia Morphol 2018; 77, 2: 293–300

Local community engagement as a practice: an investigation of local community engagement issues and their impact on transport megaprojects' social value

Purpose: Transport megaprojects often struggle to offer social value (SV) that meets local communities' needs. This problem is embedded in how local communities' views are captured and incorporated into SV plans through local community engagement (LCE). By problematising the literature, this article aims to identify LCE issues and their impacts on SV plans at the front-end of transport megaprojects. Design/methodology/approach: The theoretical lens of the study is the practice theory developed by Schatzki (2016, 2005). The authors conceptualised LCE as a practice and conducted 32 semi-structured interviews with UK practitioners. The authors collected data in three steps from three types of practitioners involved in LCE practice and SV planning: project managers, LCE experts and SV experts. Findings: The authors identified 18 LCE issues with thematic analysis and clustered them into five themes. These issues impact LCE with five mechanisms. Findings show that a weak link between LCE and SV plans due to the issues reduces LCE to a tick-box exercise and presents a distorted view of local communities. This reduces SV plans to the bare minimum for project approval instead of offering relevant SV to local communities. Addressing the issues goes beyond changing the approach of project teams to engagement (from instrumental to normative) and requires changing the practices. Originality/value: For the first time, the study uses practice theory to conceptualise LCE as a practice, following the notion of project as practice. The study problematises the literature to address the under-represented link between LCE and SV plans

The gross anatomy of the male reproductive system of the European hedgehog (Erinaceus Europaeus)

Hedgehogs are small spiny-coated insectivores. Due to their low body weight, calm character, and easy maintenance, they are kept as pets. It is therefore worthwhile to care about hedgehogs’ health problems and to provide pet owners with information about their reproduction. Moreover, it is necessary to be familiar with their anatomy so as to satisfy the need to improve nutrition and medical care, even surgery. This study was carried out on five adult male European hedgehogs euthanased in a chloroform chamber. The European hedgehog’s oval testes are invisible in inguinal region because they have no true scrotal sac. The testes are located in the craniocaudal direction with dorsolateral epididymal attachments. The vesicular glands, the European hedgehog’s largest accessory sex glands, are lobulated structures containing dorsomedial and ventrolateral parts on each side. The prostate is an oval gland with right and left lobes. The paired bulbourethral glands are laid on the ischiocavernosus muscle. Histologically the vesicular, prostate gland ducts and ductus deferens as well as urethra separately were discharged in a diverticlum at the level of the pelvic urethra end. A sigmoid flexure exists in the proximal part of shaft body of the penis. There are two retractor penile muscles. In dorsal end of the penile glans, there is a small urethral process with two nail- -like, needle-shaped structures. They are on both sides of the urethral process. Furthermore, there are two intromittent sacs (Sacculus urethralis) in the ventral part of the end of the penis. (Folia Morphol 2018; 77, 1: 36–43)

Occurrence and molecular characterization of a 16SrI-R subgroup phytoplasma associated with Aquilegia vulgaris phyllody disease

During 2016–2017 surveys, carried out for phytoplasma diseases in ornamental plants in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari provinces, Iran, found symptoms of virescence, phyllody, reduced size of leaves and flowers in columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris). Total DNAs extracted from symptomatic and symptomless plants were tested for the presence of phytoplasma using P1/P7 and R16F2n/R16R2 primers in direct and nested PCR producing amplicons of about 1.8 and 1.2 kb, respectively, from all symptomatic A. vulgaris plants, but not from symptomless ones. The consensus sequence of the detected phytoplasma named Aquilegia phyllody (APh) was 100% identical with strains clustering to phytoplasmas enclosed in the 16SrI group as also confirmed by phylogenetic analyses. Both real and virtual restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of R16F2n/R16R2 amplicons showed profiles that were identical to each other and indicated the affiliation of the APh phytoplasma to the 16SrI-R subgroup. This is the first report of a 16SrI-R phytoplasma associated with this A. vulgaris phyllody disease

Magnetic-field dependence of the critical currents in a periodic coplanar array of narrow superconducting strip

We calculate the magnetic-field dependence of the critical current due to both geometrical edge barriers and bulk pinning in a periodic coplanar array of narrow superconducting strips. We find that in zero or low applied magnetic fields the critical current can be considerably enhanced by the edge barriers, but in modest applied magnetic fields the critical current reduces to that due to bulk pinning alone.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figure

What is wrong with the front-end of infrastructure megaprojects and how to fix it: A systematic literature review

The Front-End process plays an essential role in deriving infrastructure megaprojects' performance. However, Front-End issues often negatively impact the process, hindering the value of infrastructure for society. This paper aims to systemise knowledge and understanding of the Front-End of infrastructure megaprojects, the main Front-End issues, and remedies for managing them. The paper leverages a Systematic Literature Review to address four research questions: What definition can appropriately describe the Front-End of infrastructure megaprojects? What are the issues at the Front-End of infrastructure megaprojects? What are the remedies for managing the issues at the Front-End of infrastructure megaprojects? What are the connections between Front-End issues and the remedies for managing them? Following thematic analysis, iterative coding and group discussions, the paper develops a definition for the Front-End of infrastructure megaprojects based on five characteristics, identifies 44 Front-End issues, and connects these issues to six remedies through 17 links

Hysteretic characteristics of a double stripline in the critical state

Analytical investigations of the critical state are carried out for a superconducting stripline consisting of two individual coplanar strips with an arbitrary distance between them. Two different cases are considered: a stripline with transport current and strips exposed to a perpendicular magnetic field. In the second case, the obtained solutions correspond to "fieldlike" (for unclosed strips) and "currentlike" (for a long rectangular superconducting loop) states in an isolated strip to which both a transport current and a magnetic field are applied with constant ratio.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. accepted by SS

Human health risk assessment due to ambient PM10 and SO2 by an air quality modeling technique

Exposure to air pollutants may be an important environmental risk factor for human health. The main objective of this study was to assess the health impacts of exposure to particulate matter of aerodynamic diameter <= 10 mu g (PM10) and to sulfur dioxide (SO2) using the AirQ2.2.3 software developed by the WHO European Center for Environment and Health. Daily concentrations of PM10 and SO2 were used to assess the health effects. With regard to the mortality, the results showed that 3.9 (95 CI: 3.3-4.5) of total, 4.2 (95 CI: 2.7-9.05) of cardiovascular, and 6.2 (95 CI: 4.2-16.9) of respiratory mortality were related to PM10 concentrations above 10 mu g/m(3), respectively. In addition, 1.7 (95 CI: 1.3-2.06) of total, 3.4 (95 CI: 0.78-5.0) of cardiovascular, and 2 (95 CI: 2.5-5.7) of respiratory death were attributed to SO2 levels higher than 10 mu g/m(3), respectively. Given these findings, urgent policy decisions are needed to reduce the death caused by air pollution, and better quantification studies are recommended. (C) 2017 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Superconducting thin rings with finite penetration depth

Recently Babaei Brojeny and Clem [Phys. Rev. B 68, 174514 (2003)] considered superconducting thin-film rings in perpendicular magnetic fields in the ideal Meissner state with negligibly small magnetic penetration depth and presented useful analytical limiting expressions and numerical results for the magnetic-field and sheet-current profiles, trapped magnetic flux, self-inductance, magnetic moment, and focusing of magnetic flux into the hole when no net current flows in the ring. The present paper generalizes all these results to rings with arbitrary values of the two-dimensional effective penetration depth \Lambda = \lambda^2 /d (\lambda is the London depth and d < \lambda/2 the film thickness) using a straightforward matrix inversion method. We also present results for the energy of a superconducting ring as a function of the applied magnetic induction B_a and the quantum number N defining the size of the fluxoid N \phi_0 trapped in the hole.Comment: with 19 figures, gives 11.5 page