Recent cases of bird flu infecting humans in southeast Asia have raised fears about the possibility of a new strain of human flu that could spark a pandemic. The new outbreaks of the influenza virus (strain H5N1) in poultry in Asia were linked by sporadic reporting of human cases of infection with this virus in Vietnam and Thailand last year. By the end of last month, there had been 54 cases of...

More than 50 heads of state gathered late last month to look at ways of policing the extraordinary 'land grab' that has seen richer countries buy up at least 20 million hectares of farmland in Africa in the last two years. The United Nations is drawing up a 'code of conduct' in an effort to slow what has been described as a new scramble for Africa, while agricultural experts are calling for a n...

Os sinos são instrumentos de percussão, da famı́lia dos idiófonos. São dispositivos de produção de som apenas aparentemente simples. O seu corpo é constitúıdo de uma liga metálica chamada bronze, que é uma combinação de cobre e estanho em proporções que podem sofrer ligeiras variações. No interior do sino encontra-se o badalo um pêndulo que, quando oscila, atinge o corpo fazendo com que o sino s...

A mplification of sensory input is a common theme for almost all sensory modalities. Once a sensory signal is received, be it a photon or a molecule of saccharin, the receptor cell will append an amplifying second-messenger cascade onto the initial transduction event. Amplification of sound by hair cells within the cochlea also follows this rule, but with an important caveat: the hair cells pro...

This work explores novel mechanisms for aerial acoustic machine-machine communications. It builds on previous work by some of the authors [1], as well as others [2]. In this paper we describe aerial acoustic communication systems that sound like musical instruments. The sound primitives come from simple models for the sound of the piano, the clarinet, and the bells. The messages are coded by co...

PURPOSE To validate the 8th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer/Union for International Cancer Control (AJCC/UICC) TNM staging system for human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) and investigate whether a modified classification better reflects the prognosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS Medical records of patients diagnosed with non-metastatic H...

Just how different—or the same—are objects and agents? Some developers consider agents to be objects, except with more bells and whistles. Then, there are those who see agents and objects as different even though they share many things in common. Both approaches, however, envision using objects and agents together in the development of software systems. In other words, objects and agents are tw...

BACKGROUND Surgery is the mainstay of treatment for early ovarian cancer both as therapeutic and comprehensive staging. Only the latter allows appropriate tailoring of systemic treatment. However, the compliance with guidelines for comprehensive staging has been reported to be only moderate and, therefore, re-staging procedures are commonly indicated to avoid undertreatment. The purpose of our ...

Just how different are objects and agents? Some developers consider agents to be objects, but with more bells and whistles. This approach tends to define agents beginning with the phrase, "An agent is an object that ..."—where the definers add their favorite discriminating features. Then, there are those who see agents and objects as different even though they share many things in common. Both ...