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This paper tests the hypothesis that microfinance reduces poverty at macro level using the cross-country data in 2007. The results of econometric estimation for poverty head count ratio show, taking account of the endogeneity associated with loans from microfinance institutions (MFIs), that microfinance loans significantly reduce poverty. Thus, a country with higher MFI's gross loan portfolio tends to have lower poverty incidence after controlling the other factors influencing poverty. We also found that poverty reducing effect tends to be larger in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) as suggested by the negative and significant coefficient estimate of the SSA dummy and gross loan portfolio. From a policy perspective, our results would justify increase in investment from development finance institutions and governments of developing countries into microfinance loans as a means of poverty reduction.

This study explores the effects of Vietnam's transition on the welfare of different ethnic groups in rural Vietnam. It draws on three rounds of household surveys, VHLSS 2002, 2004 and 2006. It is first observed that the pace of poverty reduction for minorities surpassed the majority over the period 2002 to 2006, although poor people were still concentrated in the minority groups. Secondly, the disparity of living standards has been widening. In particular, inequality in both the majority and minority increased over the periods. Thirdly, the study shows that the pure effect of economic growth on poverty is estimated to have been greater if inequality remained constant. It is noted that the impacts of economic growth vary depending on which ethnic group a household belongs to. Finally, it is also confirmed from regression decompositions of within inequality that the main driver of inequality is not identical among different ethnic groups. Given the diversity across ethnic groups, we can conclude that the governmental policy aiming at equal access to infrastructure and more equal distribution of assets, such as land, for ethnic minority groups would lead to more equal distribution of consumption and poverty reduction of those groups. Also, consideration of local needs of each ethnic minority group would be necessary in designing and implementing public policies given the heterogeneous socio-economic circumstances surrounding each ethnic minority group.

This paper empirically investigates the determinants of fertility drawing upon large household data sets in India, namely NSS and NFHS over the period 1992-2006. Broadly similar and consistent results are found for the two surveys for different years. We have found a negative and significant association between the number of children and mother' s education. Both direct and indirect effects are observed for mother's education which not just directly reduces fertility but also increases mother's potential wages or opportunity costs which would deter her from having a baby. Father's education became increasingly important in reducing fertility in the last two rounds.

The objective of the present study is to examine whether household access to microfinance reduces poverty. Using national household data from India, treatment effects model is employed to estimate the poverty-reducing effects of MFIs loans for productive purposes, such as investment in agriculture or non-farm businesses on household poverty levels. These models take into account the endogenous binary treatment effects and sample selection bias associated with access to MFIs. Despite some limitations, such as those arising from potential unobservable important determinants of access to MFIs, significant positive effect of MFI productive loans on multidimensional welfare indicator has been confirmed. The significance of treatment "effects" coefficients have been verified by both Tobit and Propensity Score Matching models. In addition, we found that loans for productive purposes were more important for poverty reduction in rural than in urban areas. However in urban areas, simple access to MFIs has larger average poverty-reducing effects than the access to loans from MFIs for productive purposes. This leads to exploring service delivery opportunities that provide an additional avenue to monitor the usage of loans to enhance the outreach.

We have developed a novel direct conversion detector for digital radiography by using a fullerene (C 60 )-doped polymer layer added on a thick amorphous selenium (a-Se) layer coupled to an amorphous silicon thin-film transistor (a-Si TFT) array. This detector exhibits considerable improvement in the lag characteristics and durability in high ambient temperatures. The C 60 -doped polymer layer, which is directly and uniformly solution cast on the a-Se layer and followed by an inorganic electron-transporting layer, smoothly changes the electronic junction between the a-Se layer and the inorganic layer. It lubricates the emission of photocurrents from the a-Se photo-conversion layer and leads to the improved lag characteristics. Another merit of using a C 60 -doped polymer is that it is stabile in high-temperature ambient conditions and is not degraded by humidity or a large amount of X-ray exposure. The polymer layer prevents the crystallization of a-Se, which otherwise occurs on exposure of a-Se to high temperature not only during the deposition of the inorganic layer or the metal electrode layer in the manufacturing process but also in actual use. A prototype detector, with a size of 17 in × 17 in and a pixel pitch of 150 μm, exhibited a good resolution; its DQE is approximately 48% at 1 cy/mm in 258 μC/kg (RQA5). This new development can simplify cooling apparatus and detector modules and also make a wide range of operational environments available. In addition, the improved lag characteristics make it possible to reduce the exposure intervals for static imaging, tomosynthesis, and other various exposure techniques.

This paper investigates the effect of the devolution of power to the village level government on the household-level allocation of poverty alleviation programmes, drawing upon National Sample Survey data and the Election Commission’s election data. First, greater inequality in land-holdings and less competition between the two major political parties generally lead to less provision of the poverty alleviation programmes. Second, the disadvantaged groups were not necessarily likely to be the primary beneficiaries of the poverty alleviation programmes. Third, our results based on the natural experiment approach suggest that decentralisation did not lead to wider household access to poverty alleviation programmes during the 1990s. Our results imply the possibility that the power and resources were captured by the local elite after decentralisation, that is, decentralisation did not necessarily contribute to the improvement of the welfare of the socially disadvantaged groups.

Film condensation of R-113 on staggered bundles of horizontal finned tubes with vertical vapor downflow was experimentally investigated. Two tubes with flat-sided annular fins and four tubes with three-dimensional fins were tested. The condensate flow and heat transfer characteristics were compared with the previous results for in-line bundles of the same test tubes and a staggered bundle of smooth tubes. The decrease in heat transfer characteristics were compared with the previous results for in-line bundles of the same test tubes and a staggered bundle of smooth tubes. The decrease in heat transfer due to condensate inundation was most significant for the in-line bundles of the three-dimensional fin tubes, whereas the decrease was very slow for both the staggered and in-line bundles of the flat-sided fin tubes. The predictions of the previous theoretical model for a bundle of flat-sided fin tubes agreed fairly well with the measured data at a low vapor velocity. The highest heat transfer performance was provided by the staggered bundle of flat-sided fin tubes with fin dimensions close to the theoretically determined optimum values.

This paper is concerned with an experimental investigation on the transverse variation of the velocity and bed shear stress in hydraulic jumps in a rectangular open channel. The velocity is measured by means of a Pitot tube and small propeller-type flowmeter, while the bed shear stress is determined by the Preston's method. The experimental parameter is the supercritical Froude number $$Fr = U_0 /\sqrt {gz_0 }$$ , whereU 0 is the supercritical velocity,g the acceleration due to the gravity andz 0 the supercritical water depth. It is found that hydraulic jumps can be divided into two groups broadly at the supercritical Froude number Fr≊2.5. In case of the first group, no surface roller is formed and only a little amount of air is entrained into the jump. A series of swelling-depression sequences are formed on the surface along the channel axis, and thus the bed shear stress experiences a sinusoidal variation. On the other hand, in case of the second group a definite roller is formed in the jump region and a considerable amount of air is entrained into the roller. The surface height increases rapidly from the toe line to end line. As the result, the bed shear stress decreases rapidly with increasing the distance from the toe line, but the decay rate is decreased with increasing the supercritical Froude number. It is concluded that in hydraulic jumps the surface height, velocity and bed shear stress are dependent on all of the three spatial coordinates. For example, the bed shear stress is greatly decreased with increasing the transverse distance from the channel axis.

A quasi in situ observation of Si lateral solid phase epitaxy (L-SPE) has been carried out by an anneal-and-observe technique using a transmission electron microscope (TEM). For this observation, 3 mm O Si discs, which were thinned physically and chemically, were cut from a non-heated sample which had been prepared by depositing an amorphous Si (a-Si) film on the patterned amorphous insulator substrate. For the L-SPE growth, the thin specimens were heated in a furnace. The same areas of the same sample were repeatedly observed after an additional heating process at each interval. The direct origin of the (111) facet formation during the L-SPE growth has been precisely revealed by this method. Polygrains due to the random nucleation from the a-Si/a-insulator interface have been found to obstruct further L-SPE growth, while the L-SPE growth continued in the adjacent polygrain-free regions. As a result of this non-uniform growth rate, the (111) facets which nucleated at the polygrains grew into V-shaped valleys and finally caused a zig-zag growth front.

A total of 141 Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates from patients with community-acquired pneumonia were collected from May 2003 through October 2004. The strains were tested for antimicrobial agent susceptibility, serotype and genotype by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and the presence of the pilus rlrA islet. MLST analysis identified 49 sequence types (STs), of which 19 were novel. eBURST analysis using the MLST database (3773 STs) grouped the isolates into 27 clonal complexes and three singletons. A total of 92 (65.2%) isolates were related to ten of the 43 international Pneumococcal Molecular Epidemiology Network (PMEN) clones; major clones found were multidrug-resistant Netherlands3-31 [clonal complex (CC) 180], Taiwan19F-14 (CC271), Taiwan23F-15 (CC242), and Colombia23F-26 (CC138) (the latter new to Asia). We adopted univariate and multiple logistic regression models to identify factors associated with PMEN CCs. Multivariate analysis showed that multidrug resistance (OR 6.3; 95% CI 2.0–22.9), carriage serogroups (OR 7.2; 95% CI 2.5–23.7), prevalence of rlrA (OR 12.6; 95% CI 3.6–59.7) and central nervous system-related disorders (OR 7.7; 95% CI 1.8–48.4) were independently associated with PMEN CCs. Our data indicate that multidrug-resistant PMEN clones are highly prevalent, contributing to the high frequency of resistance to antimicrobial agents in Japan, and suggest that certain predisposing factors in patients contribute to the high frequency of these clones.

Ascidians belong to the subphylum Urochordata or Tunicata, which is the sister group of the vertebrates. The simple architecture of the ascidian larva represents the basic chordate body plan. Recent analyses have shown many instances of developmental mechanisms conserved during evolution, while these studies have also revealed a much larger number of instances of divergence. However, to precisely determine the degree of conservation and divergence, that is, how many ways are used to make tadpole-like larvae, we need a systems-level understanding of development. Because animal development is organized by the genome and the minimal functional unit of development is a cell, comprehensiveness and single-cell resolution are necessary for a systems-biological understanding of the development. In the ascidian Ciona intestinalis, gene-regulatory networks responsible for the embryonic development have been studied on a genome-wide scale and at single-cell resolution. The simplicity and compactness of the genome facilitates genome-wide studies. In the Ciona genome, only approximately 670 transcription factor genes are encoded, and their expression profiles during the embryonic development have been analyzed. Gene-knockdown analyses of the transcription factor genes expressed during the embryonic development have been performed. The simplicity of the embryo permits these analyses to be done at single-cell resolution. Actually, these simple embryos are now being modeled in the computer, which allows us to understand the gene-regulatory networks very precisely in three dimensions.

A novel mammography detector with dual amorphous-Selenium (α-Se) layer has been developed that employs photoinduced discharge in its readout procedure. The detector consists of a bias electrode, a thick α-Se layer for x-ray-to-electron conversion, an electron-trapping layer (ETL), a thin α-Se layer for the photoinduced discharge, alternately arranged transparent and opaque stripe electrodes, and a linear optical source for readout. The detector directly converts x-rays into electrons to accumulate the electrons in ETL. When photoinduced discharge arises on the transparent electrodes through readout light irradiation, an accumulated electron image is transferred to the transparent electrodes and detected as signals at charge amplifiers, which we call 'Photoconductive Switching' readout. Readout efficiency and image readout speed have been improved enough to be used as a practical level by the adoption of the alternatelyarranged stripe electrodes. Furthermore, such a simple stripe-electrode structure accomplishes low electrical-noise readout and easy fabrication of fine-pitch pixels. A prototype 50 im pixel-pitch detector with the 18×24 cm imaging area has been prepared, which shows high DQE performances more than 64, 48, and 28% at 1, 4, and 7 lp/mm, respectively, not only in the usual dose range of around 100 μGy but at the low dose of 32 μGy. The 'Photoconductive Switching' readout mechanism makes it possible to realize the high DQE and the finest resolution of 50 μm in the direct-conversion detectors for full-field digital mammography.

Consistent with the theory of real options, it is argued that the value of the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) in the Indian state of Maharashtra and its impact on workers' behaviour do not depend so much on its income supplementation as on enlargement of opportunities in an uncertain environment of the local labour market. The choice between the EGS and other activities in rural areas is modelled in a dynamic optimisation framework that takes into account a fixed wage rate and certainty of employment under the former and a stochastic wage rate in the latter. Besides, entry and exit costs of various employment options are taken into account. Finally, allowance is made for volatility of regular labour market activities (e.g. agricultural wage earnings). The predictions of this model are validated with the help of a panel household survey in a semi-arid region of south India. If this analysis has any validity, the incentive case for rural public works schemes such as the EGS in terms of screening and deterrent arguments, premised on a fixed wage rate differential, needs to be reformulated.

This paper studies the impact of taxation on poverty and ex ante vulnerability of households in rural China based on national household survey data in 1988, 1995 and 2002. It has been confirmed that (i) poverty and vulnerability have reduced significantly with a great deal of geographical disparity; (ii) education, land, and access to infrastructure and irrigation facilities are the key factors to reduce vulnerability; and (iii) the highly regressive tax system increased farmers' poverty and vulnerability. The abolishment of rural tax since 2006 would thus have a significant negative impact on both poverty and vulnerability of rural households. © 2010 The Chinese Economic Association - UK.

Rising food prices played an important role in the acceleration of inflation across Asia and the Pacific region during 2007 and the early months of 2008. Not only is food price inflation the most regressive of all taxes, it also leads to lower growth and accentuation of income inequality. Although the index of domestic food prices in Asia has exhibited an upward trend, it is not as pronounced as that of the global index. Yet the looming food crisis has the potential of slowing down the momentum of growth and poverty reduction in this region in the short and medium run. The surge in prices of foodgrains cannot be satisfactorily explained in terms of the fundamentals of supply and demand alone. Analysis suggests that a large part of the surge is attributable to speculation. Further, many countries resorted to protective measures without realising that such measures would force more drastic adjustments and higher prices in global markets. While global foodgrain supply shrank through export restrictions and prices rose faster, food importers escalated demand by bidding aggressively for larger imports to dampen domestic inflation. A vicious circle of spiralling food prices was thus sustained by policies designed to protect domestic consumers, but likely to deepen the food crisis. Even if this bout of food price inflation persists for some time, it would be pessimistic to conclude that the threat to the poor and vulnerable sections is inevitable. Much will depend on what the government and development agencies do – especially to strengthen support to smallholders. Given market imperfections, it is imperative that the benefits of more remunerative producer prices accrue in equal measure to smallholders. Expansion of marketable surplus may thus dampen foodgrain price inflation, as well as help to reduce rural poverty.

This study estimates ex ante poverty and vulnerability of households in Bangladesh using Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) data in 2005. Our results show that poverty is not same as vulnerability as a substantial share of those currently above the poverty line is highly vulnerable to poverty in the future. The study finds that those without education or agricultural households are likely to be the most vulnerable. The geographical diversity of vulnerability is considerable, for example, vulnerability in coastal division, i.e., Chittagoan Division is almost double to that of Dhaka and almost four times higher than Khulna Division. It is suggested that ex ante measures to prevent households from becoming poor as well as ex post measures to alleviate those already in poverty should be combined in evaluating poverty. For the chronic poor who lack economic assets, priority should be given to reduction of consumption fluctuations and building up assets through a combination of protective and promotional programmes. Access to financial services, for example, though micro credit programmes, might help poor households build up assets as it smoothes income and consumption, enables the purchase of inputs and productive assets, and provides protection against crises.

Our analysis, based on the ICRISAT panel survey of villages in the semi-arid region of south India, confirms the income stabilizing effect of the Employment Guarantee Scheme in India. Variability of household income is measured by an unconditional variance of residuals of an income equation. A (variant) of Heckman's sample selection model is employed to allow for the endogeneity of EGS participation and to assess its income stabilizing role. The (instrumented) EGS participation reduces the residual variance of household income, implying consequent income stabilization.

This paper analyses the effects of access to Rural Public Works (RPW) and the Public Distribution System (PDS), a public food subsidy programme, on consumption poverty, vulnerability and undernutrition in India drawing, on the large household datasets constructed with National Sample Survey (NSS) data, 50th round in 1993-1994 and 61st round in 2004-2005. The treatment effects model and propensity score matching (PSM) model are used to take account of the sample selection bias in evaluating the effects of RPW or PDS on poverty. We found significant and negative effects of household participation in RPW and food for work programmes on poverty, undernutrition (e.g. protein) and vulnerability in 1993 and 2004. Indeed, poverty and undernutrition were significantly higher for households with access to PDS than for those without, although PDS had significant effects in terms of reducing vulnerability of households in 1993 and 2004. We also applied the pseudo panel model, which confirmed that PDS decreased vulnerability based on 80 percent of the poverty threshold. However, state-wise results of the treatment effects model show considerable diversity of policy effects among different states.

Despite accelerated growth there is pervasive hunger, child undernutrition and mortality in India. Our analysis focuses on their determinants. Raising living standards alone will not reduce hunger and undernutrition. Reduction of rural/urban disparities, income inequality, consumer price stabilization, and mothers’ literacy all have roles of varying importance in different nutrition indicators. Somewhat surprisingly, public distribution system (PDS) do not have a significant effect on any of them. Generally, child undernutrition and mortality rise with poverty. Our analysis confirms that media exposure triggers public action, and helps avert child undernutrition and mortality. Drastic reduction of economic inequality is in fact key to averting child mortality, conditional upon a drastic reordering of social and economic arrangements.

The structure of the nucleosome has been under intense investigation using neutron crystallography, x-ray crystallography, and neutron solution scattering. However the dimension of the histone octamer inside the nucleosome is still a subject of controversy. The radius of gyration (Rg) of the octamer obtained from solution neutron scattering of core particles at 63% 2H2O, 37% 1H2O is 33 A, and x-ray crystallography study of isolated histone octamer gives a Rg of 32.5 A, while the reported values using x-ray crystallography of core particles from two individual studies are 29.7 and 30.4 A, respectively. We report here studies of isolated histone octamer and trypsin-limited digested octamer using both neutron solution scattering and small angle x-ray scattering. The Rg of the octamer obtained is 33 A, whereas that of the trimmed octamer is 29.8 A, similar to the structure obtained from the crystals of the core particles. The N-terminal domains of the core histones in the octamer have been shown by high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (Schroth, G.P., Yau, P., Imai, B.S., Gatewood, J.M., and Bradbury, E.M. (1990) FEBS Lett. 268, 117-120) to be mobile and flexible; it is likely that these regions are disordered and "not seen" by x-ray crystallography.

To examine the hemodynamic effects of benazepril, an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, in left ventricular failure, its active metabolite benazeprilat was administered during acute ischemic left ventricular failure in anesthetized open chest dog induced by repeated injections of plastic microspheres into the left coronary artery. The coronary embolization with microspheres resulted in a moderate and stable left ventricular pump failure characterized by increased left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) and decreased cardiac output (CO). Benazeprilat (30 micrograms/kg) administered intravenously after a stabilization period lowered LVEDP and maintained CO. The total peripheral resistance was reduced with benazeprilat. The oxygen consumption and the coronary blood flow were reduced with benazeprilat because of a decrease in wall tension and afterload. These results suggest that benazeprilat (benazepril) has beneficial effects for the treatment of acute left ventricular failure.

The susceptibility of thymocytes from STS/A to radiation-induced cell death was compared with that of thymocytes from BALB/cHeA. After in vitro exposure to 12 Gy X-ray, thymocytes were incubated at 37 degrees C for 8 h and then cell mortality was assessed by 0.02% erythrosin B exclusion. Cell death took place from 2 h in the incubation period, reaching a maximum at 6 h for both strains. The dose-effect on cell death at 4 h of incubation was examined after 1-24 Gy of X-irradiation. An increase in cell death was detectable even at 1 Gy in both strains. The number of dead cells in BALB/cHeA gradually increased with doses of more than 1 Gy, finally to a maximum (approximately 60%) in the dose range of 8-12 Gy, whereas the maximum cell death in STS/A was approximately 40%. The difference between the strains at maximum cell death was significant (P less than 0.005). The difference in the radiosensitivity of thymocytes between the two strains could not be attributed to a difference in the composition of their subpopulations because flow cytometric analysis based on the expression of CD4 and CD8 showed no intrinsic difference in the thymocyte subpopulations of BALB/cHeA and STS/A.

A case of subarachnoid hematoma following spinal anesthesia for cesarean section in a patient with HELLP syndrome is reported. A 39-year-old woman underwent cesarean section under spinal anesthesia for worsening preeclampsia with HELLP syndrome. Despite full recovery from the spinal anesthetic, on the second postoperative day she felt numbness on the posterior aspect of her right leg, noticed she was insensitive to bladder fullness and had mild flaccid paraparesis. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a spinal subarachnoid hematoma with cauda equina compression. With conservative management she made an almost complete recovery within three months. Serial magnetic resonance imaging showed spontaneous regression of the hematoma. The risk of spinal subarachnoid hematoma following obstetric regional anesthesia is exceedingly small even in a patient with coagulopathy and, to our knowledge, this is only the second reported case following obstetric regional anesthesia. Anesthesia for HELLP syndrome in patients with an adequate platelet count but without disseminated intravascular coagulation is controversial. It is therefore important for clinicians to recognize the symptoms and signs of spinal subarachnoid hematoma to avoid delay in treatment that might result in severe neurological deficit.

Eels wiggle their long and thin body in swimming. This form is called ldquoAnguilhform swimmingrdquo. Their body is not only a thrust mechanism but also a helm. The method of Anguilhform swimming has features that can accelerate easily and stop instantaneously, compared to method using a screw propeller. And this method has also advantage to be able to whirl around immediately. We think that this advantage will be of much help to swim in a narrow space. We developed an Eel-like swimming robot that swims by Anguilhform swimming. And we assume that Eel-like swimming robot swim in a narrow space, investigated that swimming performance in a narrow water way.

We have developed a printed circuit board (PCB) technology with coaxial wiring structures. The coaxial PCB was designed for a prototype model in order to verify the high frequency and high-speed signal transmission characteristics of the coaxial wiring, where high frequency low loss dielectric material was used as insulation layer. It was fabricated by buildup PCB process, additionally using NC end mill router to make a vertical shielding wall electrode. The high frequency measurement of the fabricated coaxial PCB was carried out by the time domain reflectometry (TDR) measurement and the time domain transmission (TDT) measurements. The characteristic impedances of the coaxial wiring lines were evaluated using a TDR waveform analyzer. The average characteristic impedance was controlled within 54 Omega plusmn 3.7 %. The S-parameters were calculated from TDR/TDT measurement results. The insertion loss was measured to be less than 2.3 dB/cm at 10 GHz. Coaxial via structure was investigated for future multilayer coaxial PCB.

Polyethylene (PE) is widely used as an insulating material for power cable. The simultaneous observation system for electroluminescence (EL) and dissipation current waveform of polymeric film has been developed by authors. By using this system, the simultaneous observations in low-density polyethylene (LDPE) film were carried out at 50, 100 and 200 Hz, respectively. The frequency dependence of the inception level of EL and the 3rd harmonic components, which has been estimated from the results of the electric field dependences of EL and the dissipation current, was relatively small. On the other hand, the estimated relaxation time from the results of the time dependences of EL and the dissipation current, which has been carried out just after the electric field dependence at each frequency, seems to be in inverse proportion to the applied frequency. It seems to be considered that the duration time of EL at each frequency will depend on the number of polarity reversal under AC high field.

TEPCO has been operating the islanding protection system based on synchronized phasor measurements since 1984. In its long operational history, the system detected the system islanding without fail in 1999 and 2006. Through the two operational experiences, TEPCO has learned effectiveness of the islanding detection based on phase angle difference obtained from synchronized phasor measurements.

Ascidians, or sea squirts, are tunicates that diverged from the vertebrate lineage early in the chordate evolution. The compact and simple organization of the ascidian genome makes this organism an ideal model system for analyzing gene regulatory networks in embryonic development. Embryos contain relatively few cells and gene activities by individual cells have been determined. Here we review and discuss advances in our understanding of the ascidian embryogenesis emerging from genomic expression studies and analyses at the single cell level.

Protein transduction domains (PTDs), such as Tat, antennapedia homeoprotein (Antp), Rev and VP22, have been extensively utilized for intracellular delivery of biologically active macromolecules in vitro and in vivo. There is little known, however, about the relative transduction efficacy, cytotoxicity and internalization mechanism of individual PTDs.We examined the cargo delivery efficacies of four major PTDs (Tat, Antp, Rev and VP22) and evaluated their toxicities and cell internalizing pathways in various cell lines.The relative order of the transduction efficacy of these PTDs conjugated to fluorescein was RevAntpTatVP22, independent of cell type (HeLa, HaCaT, A431, Jurkat, MOLT-4 and HL60 cells). Antp produced significant toxicity in HeLa and Jurkat cells, and Rev produced significant toxicity in Jurkat cells. Flow cytometric analysis demonstrated that the uptake of PTD-fluorescein conjugate was dose-dependently inhibited by methyl-beta-cyclodextrin, cytochalasin D and amiloride, indicating that all four PTDs were internalized by the macropinocytotic pathway. Accordingly, in cells co-treated with 'Tat-fused' endosome-disruptive HA2 peptides (HA2-Tat) and independent PTD-fluorescent protein conjugates, fluorescence spread throughout the cytosol, indicating that all four PTDs were internalized into the same vesicles as Tat.These findings suggest that macropinocytosis-dependent internalization is a crucial step in PTD-mediated molecular transduction. From the viewpoint of developing effective and safe protein transduction technology, although Tat was the most versatile carrier among the peptides studied, PTDs should be selected based on their individual characteristics.

This paper examines the extent to which changes in global agricultural commodity price are transmitted to domestic prices in India and China. The focus is on short and medium-run adjustment processes using an error correction specification. In particular, we show that the extent of adjustment in the short and medium- run (from 0 to 3 years) is generally larger in China than in India. Second, the adjustment is larger for wheat, maize and rice than for fruits and vegetables in both India and China. In fact, the adjustment is the weakest for vegetables in both countries. Third, while most of the domestic commodity prices co-move with global prices, the transmission is incomplete presumably because of distortionary government interventions (e.g. subsidies for agricultural commodities) and failure to exploit spatial arbitrage. So potential benefits to farmers of higher food prices -especially in India-may be restricted, as also the supply response.

This paper analyses the effects of access to Rural Public Works (RPW) and Public Distribution System (PDS), a public food subsidy programme, on consumption poverty, vulnerability and undernutrition in India drawing upon the large household data sets constructed by National Sample Survey (NSS) data, 50th round in 1993-1994 and 61st round in 2004-2005. Treatment-effects model and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) model are used to take account of the sample selection bias in evaluating the effects of RPW or PDS on poverty. We have found significant and negative effects of the household participation in RPW and Food for Work Programmes on poverty, undernutrition (e.g. protein) and vulnerability in 1993 and 2004. On the contrary, poverty and undernutrition are significantly higher for the households with access to PDS than those without, whilst PDS has significant effects on reducing vulnerability of households in 1993 and 2004. We also applied the pseudo panel model which confirms that PDS decreased the vulnerability based on 80% of the poverty threshold. However, state-wise results of treatment effects model show considerable diversity of policy effects among different states.

This paper empirically investigates the determinants of fertility, drawing upon large nationwide household data sets in India constructed by the National Sample Surveys (NSS) and National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) over the period 1992-2006. First, we find a negative and significant association between the number of children and mother's education even if the latter is instrumented by (the proxy for) the pre-generation access to primary school at village level, or if parental wage equations are incorporated into the fertility equation. Both direct and indirect effects are observed for mother's education which directly reduces not just fertility but also increases mother's potential wages or opportunity costs which would deter her from having a baby. Second, father's education becomes increasingly important in reducing fertility in the last two rounds. Third, the negative effect of expenditure on fertility is found when it is treated as exogenous, but not once instrumented. Fourth, pseudo panel models for three rounds of NSS and NFHS are estimated to confirm the negative effects of parental education. Finally, state-wise regression results show that fertility determinants are different in different states. Our results suggest that national and state governments should improve social infrastructure, such as school at various levels, promote both male and female education, and facilitate female labour market participation to slow down population growth. These policies would be particularly important in backward states or for socially disadvantaged groups (e.g., scheduled castes) which still have higher fertility as well as poverty rates.

Much of recent work has raised the issue that the surge in prices of foodgrains in the last two years cannot be explained satisfactorily in terms of the fundamentals of supply and demand. It has also been suggested that the part that cannot be explained in this way is due largely to speculation. Speculation influences food prices in two distinct ways: one is the huge influx of capital from commodity index funds, hedge funds and pension funds in commodity futures markets or options. Some evidence suggests that expiry prices in commodity futures markets are considerably higher than cash or spot prices, implying that futures markets are not facilitating price discovery. The second form is purchase or hoarding of commodities on the presumption that their prices will continue to rise. The present analysis, based on a rational distributed lag model of global stocks of wheat, maize and rice and their prices over the period 1986-2008, confirms a positive long-run effect of rising prices on stocks. In the case of rice, this effect is considerably stronger. If this finding has any validity, although the need for correcting demand-supply imbalances remains a top priority, careful attention must also be given to limiting speculation. Various suggestions include the imperative of a 'virtual grain reserve' to be established to help calm markets through the futures market. But, above all, there is a strong case for a better functioning trading system-in particular, for trade liberalization in agriculture and to build trust in global food markets and stock management.

An enzyme catalyzing the formation of an unusual C-P bond that is involved in the biosynthesis of the antibiotic bialaphos (BA) was isolated from the cell extract of a mutant (NP71) of Streptomyces hygroscopicus SF1293. This enzyme, carboxyphosphonoenolpyruvate (CPEP) phosphonomutase, was first identified as a protein lacking in a mutant (NP213) defective in one of the steps in the pathway to BA. The first 30 residues of the amino terminus of this protein were identical to those predicted by the nucleotide sequence of the gene that restored BA production to NP213. The substrate of the enzyme, a P-carboxylated derivative of phosphoenolpyruvate named CPEP, was also isolated from the broth filtrate of NP213 as a new biosynthetic intermediate of BA. CPEP phosphonomutase catalyzes the rearrangement of the carboxyphosphono group of CPEP to form the C-P bond of phosphinopyruvate.

A cross feeding trial of barley alone or barley straw alone, using six fistulated cattle, was conducted to survey the effects of diet on the composition of the rumen ciliate protozoal population and to evaluate the contribution of cellulolytic protozoa to the digestion of plant materials. The average value for total ciliates ml−1 of rumen contents was much higher in cattle fed barley straw (4.6 × 104) than in those fed barley (8.5 × 103). The average number of genera appearing per host was 5.4 in cattle fed straw and 2.2 in cattle fed on barley. In both feeding regimes, Entodinium was always predominant. Other than Polyplastron, cellulolytic protozoa such as Eremoplastron, Diploplastron, Ostracodinum, and Diplodinium were not detected when animals were fed barley. Our experimental observations of the ingestion of straw fragments by cellulolytic protozoa and the vicissitudes of cellulolytic protozoal populations are likely to be indicative of diet-dependent metabolic differences in rumen function and of the contribution of protozoa in the digestion of plant materials, and suggest that protozoa may play an important role.

The authors propose a technique for designing IIR (infinite impulse response) digital filters to have an arbitrary log magnitude frequency response. The technique is based on an iterative weighted least-squares (WLS) approach in the frequency domain. A weight updating procedure is introduced to obtain a nearly optimal approximation to the given log magnitude function in the least-squares sense. The weighting function is updated using the results of the previous iteration in such a way that the weighted error approximates the log magnitude error. Filter coefficients at each iteration are efficiently computed using a fast recursive algorithm for a set of linear equations derived from the WLS problem. Several design examples demonstrate the rapid convergence of the design algorithm. The algorithm is extended to equiripple approximation by means of a minor modification of the weight updating procedure. >

This article is motivated by a concern for the cost-effectiveness of anti-poverty outlays; much of its focus is on the targeting of Rural Public Works (RPW) and the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) over the period 1987‐93. It is argued that benefits to the rural poor of larger outlays on these two major anti-poverty programmes are likely to be limited, given their mistargeting. Large sections of the rural poor were not covered in 1987. Worse, the non-poor were in a majority among the participants. Although the evidence is mixed, there was a worsening of the targeting of both RPW and IRDP, with RPW maintaining a slight superiority, over the period 1987‐93. Yet IRDP was more cost-effective in both years, using a somewhat limited measure of cost-effectiveness. Large unspent balances due largely to slow disbursal of allocations and bunching of expenditure in a few months are linked to changes in cost-effectiveness. Wastage and diversion of funds are unavoidable, in a context of corrupt bureaucracy and capture of locally elected bodies such as Panchayats by a few influential persons. Short of drastic changes in the design and implementation of RPW and IRDP, substantially larger outlays may thus accomplish little in terms of poverty alleviation.

In this paper, a synchronous high-speed logic standard cells using bootstrapped technology for low temperature poly silicon thin film transistor -liquid crystal display (LTPS TFT-LCD) panel is proposed. The proposed TFT standard cells operate at high frequency region owing to the deep non-saturation operation by using the bootstrapped technology (BST). The proposed TFT standard cells can be reduced the pattern size by using the TFT capacitors for the bootstrapped capacitors. To confirm some characteristics of the proposed TFT standard cells, a full adder (FA) are simulated. As a result, the power delay products obtain about 1/5-9/10 times less value than that of the conventional standard cells using LTPS TFT.

Recent movement pursuing economic efficiency & global environmental protection such as more installation of wind generations in electric power industries has caused increase in power exchange between regions and has made power system operation more challenging due to less operational margins. Generally, rapid cascading tripping of parallel transmission lines or transformers in the early stages of the major blackouts could not be stopped or limited by operator's manual based operation. TEPCO (The Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc.) has applied automatic controllers or system integrity protection schemes (SIPS) to avoid power system instability and to limit the impacts caused by system disturbances for many years. Those controllers and SIPS utilize microprocessor-based technology to realize sophisticated control and protection functions since 80s and have facilitated operators focusing on the system restoration during major incidents. This panel presentation will highlight TEPCO's experiences and challenges on the design and operation of automatic controller sand SIPS.

Polyethylene (PE) is widely used as an insulating material for power cable. Recently, the simultaneous observation system for electroluminescence (EL) and dissipation current waveform has been developed by authors. By using this system, the simultaneous observation in low-density polyethylene (LDPE) film was carried out at 50, 100 and 200 Hz, respectively. From the results of experiments, the relation between the time and spatial distributions of EL and the dissipation current waveforms were carefully examined. At the 1st 50 Hz electric field application, the plenty number of EL pulses have occurred. Also, at the consecutive experiments at 100 and 200 Hz, the number of EL pulses shows the positive frequency dependence. However, at the 2nd 50 Hz electric field application just after that at 200 Hz, the number of EL pulses extremely decreased compared with 1st application. On the other hand, the nonlinearity of dissipation current at the 1st 50 Hz application seems to small compare with that at the 2nd application. The fundamental component itself at 1st one is smaller than that at 2nd one. The EL images showed that EL occurred at the multiple weak points within the circular observation area. The spatial distributions of EL are almost same for all frequencies. It is considered that a lot of recombination center in material will exist in initial. But the long period ac high field application makes the number of recombination center decrease. This decrement due to occupation by carrier leads the carrier density increase and it may cause the nonlinearity of dissipation current waveform.

Drawing upon the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS) data that cover the whole of Vietnam in 2002 and 2004, ex ante measures of vulnerability are constructed. These are then compared with static indicators of poverty (i.e. the headcount ratio in a particular year). Detailed analyses of the panel data show that (i) in general, vulnerability in 2002 translates into poverty in 2004; (ii) vulnerability of the poor tends to perpetuate their poverty and (iii) sections of the nonpoor but vulnerable slip into poverty. Durable reduction in poverty is conditional on (i) accurate identification of the vulnerable, (ii) their sources of vulnerability and (iii) design of social safety nets that would enable the vulnerable to reduce risks and cope better with rapid integration of markets with the larger global economy.

In modern microprocessors, the access time of register file becomes a critical part in total delay. Instruction level or thread level parallelism improves instructions per cycle (IPC) by executing multiple instructions in one cycle. Such multiple instructions need to read or write data from/to register files simultaneously. To satisfy that, register file with sufficient ports should be designed. However, the area and access time of register file with large ports will increase sharply. Duplicated register file (DupRF) architecture can reduce access time by distributing read ports. In this paper, we propose a new kind of DupRF architecture for embedded simultaneous multithreading (SMT) microprocessor and estimate the effect with respect to the area and access time. Especially, we measure the product of area and access time as computation cost. For a SMT microprocessor with 6 threads, 64-bit data-width and 6 function units, 3-duplicate register file architecture can reduce access time by 12.61% with a slight increase of computation cost by 3.35% compared with the central register file architecture

Plasma metabolite concentrations and activities of enzymes related to energy metabolism in plasma, peripheral leukocytes and liver of pregnant Romney ewes with restricted feeding were measured to assess those metabolites and enzymes as indicators for evaluating metabolic conditions in the ewes. The body weights and plasma lactate concentrations of the low-feeding ewes (about 1.0 times maintenance) were significantly lower than those of the high-feeding ewes (about 1.5 times maintenance). There were no significant differences in plasma protein, glucose, triglyceride, cholesterol, pyruvate and immunoreactive insulin concentrations and plasma and leukocyte enzyme activities between both groups. Hepatic malate dehydrogenase activities were significantly higher and hexokinase activities were significantly lower in the low-feeding ewes than in the high-feeding ewes. Restricted feeding could maintain pregnancy and some plasma metabolites and peripheral leukocyte enzymes may be useful indicators for evaluating metabolic changes in ewes.

On July 23, 1987, the metropolitan Tokyo area experienced a massive blackout caused by voltage instability. In the blackout, more than 8 GW of load was lost for about 3.35 hours at most, which affected 2.8 million households. Lessons learned from the blackout have formed the foundation of voltage and reactive power control, currently adopted in the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) network

To analyze the load on the lumbar spine and the motion pattern of a body during a backhand stroke when playing tennis, kinematic and kinetic data of eleven amateur tennis players were collected. Each subject performed one-handed and double-handed strokes at low, medium, and high racket speeds. The three-dimensional motion of the strokes was optically measured by tracking markers attached to their body segments. Floor reaction forces were measured for the right and left feet separately. Using the body motion and the floor reaction force data, the lower lumbar spine moment was calculated based on a segment-link model. Peak and plateau values of the joint moment before and after ball impact were analyzed statistically using a factorial ANOVA (stroke, racket speed). Similarly, the axial rotation angle of the pelvis against the feet and that of the shoulder against the pelvis were analyzed. In all the moments except the lateral bending moment before ball impact and all the rotation angles, there were significant main effects of racket speed. The one-handed strokes showed significantly smaller extension moment before ball impact as well as smaller lateral bending and axial rotation moments after ball impact than the double-handed strokes. The one-handed strokes also showed a significantly smaller axial rotation angle of the shoulder against the pelvis and that of the pelvis against the feet. These results indicate that during one-handed strokes the shoulder and elbow joints share the rotational motion necessary for backhand strokes and consequently reduce the maximal moments imposed on the spinal joints.