Dunea, the drinking water company for The Hague and surroundings, has as objective the production of drinking water of impeccable quality, particularly with respect to organic micropollutants. As organic micropollutants are only a minor part of the total natural organic matter, a challenge is posed in targeting the removal of a very small, specific part of the DOC, without removing all of the natural organic matter. In addition, organic micropollutants encompass a broad range of physicochemical properties, which make their removal by a single treatment step impossible. Combining AOP with artificial recharge and recovery, two complementary processes are expected to provide a hybrid system for organic micropollutant removal, according to the Dutch multiple barrier approach. Pilot-scale experiments with O3 and different advanced oxidation processes (UV/H2O2, UV/O3 and O3/H2O2) were carried out in cooperation between Dunea and ITT Wedeco. The pilot installation had a capacity of about 0.5–2.0 m3/h, with a varying LP-UV-dose, ozone dose and peroxide dose. Atrazine, isoproturone, carbamazepine, diclofenac and ibuprofen are well removed by UV/H2O2 as well as by O3/H2O2. In general, O3/H2O2 is a more energy efficient process compared to UV/H2O2. MTBE is best removed by O3/H2O2, Amidotrizoic acid and iohexol are best removed by UV/H2O2.


In order escape from local fitness peaks, a population must navigate across valleys of low fitness. How these transitions occur, and what role they play in adaptation, have been subjects of active interest in evolutionary genetics for almost a century. However, to our knowledge, this problem has never been addressed directly, by considering the evolution of a gene, or group of genes, as a whole, including the complex effects of fitness interactions among multiple loci. Here, we use a precise model of protein fitness to compute the probability P(s, Δt) that an allele, randomly sampled from a population at time t, has crossed a fitness valley of depth s during an interval [t − Δt, t] in the immediate past. We study populations of model genes evolving under equilibrium conditions consistent with those in mammalian mitochondria. From this data, we estimate that genes encoding small protein motifs navigate fitness valleys of depth 2Ns ≳ 30 with probability P ≳ 0.1 on a time scale of human evolution, where N is the (mitochondrial) effective population size. The results are consistent with recent findings for Watson–Crick switching in mammalian mitochondrial tRNA molecules.


We present a multigrid algorithm for the solution of source identification inverse problems constrained by variable-coefficient linear parabolic partial differential equations. We consider problems in which the inversion variable is a function of space only. We consider the case of $L^2$ Tikhonov regularization. The convergence rate of our algorithm is mesh-independent—even in the case of no regularization. This feature makes the method algorithmically robust to the value of the regularization parameter, and thus useful for the cases in which we seek high-fidelity reconstructions. The inverse problem is formulated as a PDE-constrained optimization. We use a reduced-space approach in which we eliminate the state and adjoint variables, and we iterate in the inversion parameter space using conjugate gradients. We precondition the Hessian with a V-cycle multigrid scheme. The multigrid smoother is a two-step stationary iterative solver that inexactly inverts an approximate Hessian by iterating exclusively in the high-frequency subspace (using a high-pass filter). We analyze the performance of the scheme for the constant coefficient case with full observations; we analytically calculate the spectrum of the reduced Hessian and the smoothing factor for the multigrid scheme. The forward and adjoint problems are discretized using a backward-Euler finite-difference scheme. The overall complexity of our inversion algorithm is $\mathcal{O}(N_tN+N\log^2N)$, where $N$ is the number of grid points in space and $N_t$ is the number of time steps. We provide numerical experiments that demonstrate the effectiveness of the method for different diffusion coefficients and values of the regularization parameter. We also provide heuristics, and we conduct numerical experiments for the case with variable coefficients and partial observations. We observe the same complexity as in the constant-coefficient case. Finally, we examine the effectiveness of using the reduced-space solver as a preconditioner for a full-space solver.


This paper studies the impact of "liberalizing " the cost-sharing of links on some basic models of network formation. This is done in a setting where both doubly supported and singly supported links are possible, and which includes the two seminal models of network formation by Jackson and Wolinsky and Bala and Goyal as extreme cases. In this setting, the notion of pairwise stability is extended and it is proved that liberalizing cost-sharing for doubly supported links widens the range of values of the parameters where the efficient networks formed by such type of links are pairwise stable, while the range of values of the parameters where the efficient networks formed by singly supported links are pairwise stable shrinks, but the region where the latter are e¢ cient and pairwise stable remains the same.


Because of the strikingly beneficial results obtained by the use of lactic acid milk in the artificial feeding of infants since its introduction in 1923 by Marriott and Davidson,1the need of a modified milk of similar qualities but of easier preparation and more constant acceptability to the infant has become apparent. The need of an acid milk that does not have to be chilled in the course of its preparation has been felt, especially by those dealing with families too poor to afford ice and with families living, as do those in farming communities, in places too remote.to obtain a regular supply of ice. Even though no one type of artificial feeding can be expected to act as a panacea for all infants, an acid milk of constant acceptability is desirable. It is true that the number of infants who cannot take lactic acid milk because of vomiting


Electrified liquids are well known to be prone to a variety of interfacial instabilities that result in the onset of apparent interfacial singularities and liquid fragmentation. In the case of electrically conducting liquids, one of the basic models describing the equilibrium interfacial configurations and the onset of instability assumes the liquid to be equipotential and interprets those configurations as local minimizers of the energy consisting of the sum of the surface energy and the electrostatic energy. Here we show that, surprisingly, this classical geometric variational model is mathematically ill-posed irrespective of the degree to which the liquid is electrified. Specifically, we demonstrate that an isolated spherical droplet is never a local minimizer, no matter how small is the total charge on the droplet, as the energy can always be lowered by a smooth, arbitrarily small distortion of the droplet's surface. This is in sharp contrast to the experimental observations that a critical amount of charge is needed in order to destabilize a spherical droplet. We discuss several possible regularization mechanisms for the considered free boundary problem and argue that well-posedness can be restored by the inclusion of the entropic effects resulting in finite screening of free charges.


Explaining graph neural networks (GNNs) has become more and more important recently. Higher-order interpretation schemes, such as GNN-LRP (layer-wise relevance propagation for GNN), emerged as powerful tools for unraveling how different features interact thereby contributing to explaining GNNs. GNN-LRP gives a relevance attribution of walks between nodes at each layer, and the subgraph attribution is expressed as a sum over exponentially many such walks. In this work, we demonstrate that such exponential complexity can be avoided. In particular, we propose novel algorithms that enable to attribute subgraphs with GNN-LRP in linear-time (w.r.t. the network depth). Our algorithms are derived via message passing techniques that make use of the distributive property, thereby directly computing quantities for higher-order explanations. We further adapt our efficient algorithms to compute a generalization of subgraph attributions that also takes into account the neighboring graph features. Experimental results show the significant acceler-ation of the proposed algorithms and demonstrate the high usefulness and scalability of our novel generalized subgraph attribution method.


BACKGROUND
An association of selective IgA (immunoglobulin A) deficiency in individuals with autism has been previously described. The objective of this study was to examine the incidence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in children and siblings of selective IgA deficient patients.

OBJECTIVE
to assess the likelihood of parents with the most common type of primary immunodeficiency (selective IgA deficiency) having children with ASD and to investigate the occurrence of ASD in siblings of the immunodeficient patients.

METHODS
A study was conducted in 31 selective IgA deficient patients and 62 age and gender-matched controls. Children and siblings of IgA deficient patients and controls were screened for an ASD (autism spectrum disorder) using a standard questionnaire.

RESULTS
Only one patient in the IgA deficient group had classical autism. Three children in that group (10.3%) had an ASD compared to only one in the control group (1.6%) and this difference was statistically significant. In terms of siblings, there was a higher occurrence of an ASD in the IgA deficient group than in the control group, but the difference was not statistically significant. A high incidence of allergies (71%) was documented in IgA deficient patients. All individuals with allergies had food sensitivities. There was a predominance of the male gender in cases identified with an ASD in all groups.

CONCLUSIONS
A lower prevalence of ASD was observed in the IgA deficient group, as compared to other reports. The study suggests that screening for an ASD seems appropriate for children of IgA deficient patients.


Background: In 2020, the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care redefined palliative care to incorporate the concept of serious health-related suffering. An estimated 21 million children globally live with conditions which would benefit from a palliative approach to relieve suffering. Bangladesh is a lower-middle income country with isolated provision of palliative care. Aim: To synthesise existing evidence describing serious health-related suffering of children with disability and their families living in Bangladesh and the intersection between this suffering, palliative care and rehabilitation. Design: Scoping review methodology. Data sources: A search strategy related to serious health-related suffering and childhood disability was applied to online databases and grey literature. English language studies (1990–2021) were included. Papers pertaining to serious health-related suffering of typically developing children and those over eighteen years were excluded. Data which addressed the three domains of serious health-related suffering (physical, social and emotional/spiritual) were extracted. Palliative care interventions were assessed with a pre-existing checklist. Results: Forty-six studies were included, representing ten different methodologies. Sample sizes ranged from 11 to 2582 participants, with 87% of studies including children with cerebral palsy. Serious health-related suffering was described in 100% of the studies, only 14 of the studies described specific interventions to mitigate suffering. Convergence between palliative care and rehabilitation approaches was evident. Conclusion: Findings document the extensive nature and burden of serious childhood health-related suffering that may be remediated by a palliative approach. They highlight the urgent need to prioritise service development and research in this area.


Even though school rules state that students are not to use their cell phone during class, they still do. A quantitative study was conducted, surveying 54 students to determine the reasons why they use their cell phone during class instead of concentrating on their learning. Participants completed a survey in which they indicated how important a list of 15 possible reasons was to them. Results indicated that students were most likely to use their cell phone during class for social reasons such as to answer an incoming text message. Educational leaders must be aware of student behaviours and attitudes and be prepared to adapt policies as necessary in order to enhance student learning. Future research is suggested as technology advances and new


Background Eltrombopag is a thrombopoietin mimetic indicated in immune thrombocytopenia when corticosteroids or splenectomy are not effective or splenectomy is contraindicated. No direct comparison exists with romiplostim. Purpose To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of eltrombopag since its inclusion in the pharmacotherapeutic guide. Materials and methods Retrospective study of patients treated August 2011 – February 2013. Demographic data, pretreatments, splenectomy, platelet count (PC) at the beginning, at five weeks and at the end of the treatment or study, adverse effects and discontinuation, were collected. Results 8 women and 1 man, median age 63 (24–78). Five were splenectomised, all of them pretreated with corticosteroids, 7 with azathioprine, Danatrol or dapsone and 7 with romiplostim. Before treatment with romiplostim median PC was 4,000/mm3 (3,000–25,000) and after five weeks 75% had ≥50,000. 3 patients discontinued for inefficacy, 1 for partial response with a high dose, 2 for adverse effects and one was changed to eltrombopag for oral route administration. At the start of eltrombopag administration the median PC was 6,000 (2,000–68,000), after five weeks 44% had ≥50,000. At the end of study 6 patients had discontinued treatment, two due to lack of response, one was intolerant, one refused treatment for his liver disease, one was splenectomised and another had a sustained response. 3 patients continued with eltrombopag for a median of 70 weeks (57–78) and at the end of the study median platelet count was 45,000 (34,000–60,000). Thromboembolic complications, cataracts, bone marrow reticulin or liver damage were not reported. Two patients reported irritability and fatigue and another headache. Conclusions Both romiplostim and eltrombopag increased platelet count ≥50,000/mm3 more than placebo. Advantages of eltrombopag are oral versus subcutaneous administration and easier dosing. In an indirect comparison romiplostim achieved a better platelet response after 4 weeks of treatment, like in our study, but we observed more discontinuation with romiplostim due to lack of response or partial response (57% vs. 22%). No conflict of interest.


This study characterized follicular activity and oestrous behaviour from 5 to 9 days post-calving up to the 4th ovulation postpartum (pp) in 16 multiparous (range 2-7 parities) Thai swamp buffalo cows (Bubalus bubalis), aged 4-12 years and weighing from 432 to 676 kg. Ovarian follicular activity was examined by transrectal ultrasonography (TUS) every morning. Oestrous detection was performed twice daily by direct personal observation of behaviour and for presence of clear cervical mucus discharge and indirectly by video camera recording during 21 h/day. A follicular wave-like pattern was present before the 1st ovulation leading to short oestrous cycles. Growth rates and maximum diameters of the ovulatory follicles did not differ between the 1st and 4th ovulations. However, growth rate for non-ovulatory dominant follicles (DF) before the 1st ovulation was lower than for the ovulatory follicle (p<0.05). In addition, the diameter of all ovulatory follicles (14.3 ± 0.46 mm, n=39) was significantly larger (p < 0.01) than those of the preceding last but one non-ovulatory DF (10.8 ± 0.20 mm, n = 5), but similar to the last preceding non-ovulatory DF diameter (12.92 ± 0.96 mm, n = 14). Short oestrous cycles were most common between the 1st and 2nd ovulations (93.75%, 15/16 cows, 10.2 ± 0.38 days) decreasing in prevalence thereafter (50%, 3/6 buffaloes, 12.0 ± 1.53 days). Oestrous signs were relatively vague around the 1st ovulation pp to become more easily detectable thereafter. This study suggests that properly fed swamp buffaloes could be mated successfully within 2 months pp, at their 2nd spontaneous ovulation, provided oestrous detection is at least performed daily at 06:00-08:00 hour.


This study examined developmental trajectories of social justice values (SJV) in a representative sample of Swiss adolescents (N = 1258) at 15 (Time 1), 18 (Time 2), and 21 years of age (Time 3). SJV and friendship quality were measured via self-reports. Sympathy was assessed via self- and mother-reports. Latent class growth analysis revealed three developmental trajectories of SJV: high-stable (80 percent), moderate-decreasing (17 percent), and low-increasing (3 percent). Adolescents with low levels of self- and mother-reported sympathy were more likely to be members of the low-increasing than the high-stable or moderate decreasing trajectory groups. Adolescents who reported low levels of sympathy and friendship quality at 15 years of age were more likely to be members of the moderate-decreasing trajectory group than the high-stable trajectory group. Results are discussed with respect to the potential significance of sympathy and friendship quality for understanding the development of SJV during adolescence.


A common situation occurring when dealing with multimedia traffic is having large data frames fragmented into smaller IP packets, and having these packets sent independently through the network. For real-time multimedia traffic, dropping even few packets of a frame may render the entire frame useless. Such traffic is usually modeled as having inter-packet dependencies. We study the problem of scheduling traffic with such dependencies, where each packet has a deadline by which it should arrive at its destination. Such deadlines are common for real-time multimedia applications, and are derived from stringent delay constraints posed by the application. The figure of merit in such environments is maximizing the system's goodput, namely, the number of frames successfully delivered. We study deterministic online algorithms for the problem of maximizing goodput of delay-bounded traffic with inter-packet dependencies, and use competitive analysis to evaluate performance. We present a competitive algorithm for the problem, as well as matching lower bounds that are tight up to a constant factor. We further present the results of a simulation study which further validates our algorithmic approach and shows that insights arising from our analysis are indeed manifested in practice.


A recent study examined the effects of nitrates on the utilization of glucose and fructose in yeast solutions. The study found that when the nitrate was added to the solution containing fructose, it blocked the effects of ethanol in impeding the utilization of fructose in such a way that the fructose utilization was actually increased in the solution. Our experiment focused on the effect of adding nitrates to a yeast solution. We hypothesized that with the addition of a nitrate to each solution, the solution containing fructose would undergo a higher and more efficient growth rate than the glucose solution (Pretorius, 2004). We began with two control groups, one with glucose, and one with fructose, to set a baseline of growth. From there we were able to compare the normal yeast growth rate to the growth rate of the yeast solution that was supplemented with a nitrate.


The current era of globalisation has witnessed a rising premium paid to skilled workers resulting in increasing wage inequality in most OECD countries. This pattern differs from that observed during the past globalisation period (1880-1913), in which wage inequality decreased in most of the Old World countries. The present debate over wage inequality focuses on the implications of globalisation, technological change, the role of labour market institutions and education. Similar factors were at work in the past globalisation process. In order to disentangle the main factors that contribute to wage inequality, we calibrated a general equilibrium model for the UK economy in the past globalisation period. The results show that a trade shock and a skilledbiased technology shock increased wage inequality. However, education and emigration had a more significant impact and led to a decrease in wage inequality. JEL classification: N30, C68, J31


significantly associated with adverse pregnancy outcome. Fetal growth restriction, pregnancy-induced hypertension, high uterine resistance at 20–23 weeks, previous adverse pregnancy outcome and maternal medical conditions were not associated with an increased prevalence of adverse pregnancy outcome. Logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the relationship between adverse pregnancy outcome and predictive factors identified at univariate analysis. Results are shown in the Table.


We present an investigation of the swelling dynamics of end-grafted hydrogenated polystyrene (h-PS) chains confined between a solid substrate and a deuterated polystyrene (d-PS) melt, based on neutron reflectometry experiments. The segment density profile of the grafted chains was measured for different annealing times. The kinetics of relaxation was quantified by measuring the amount of melt chains that have crossed the initial h-PS/d-PS sharp interface as a function of the annealing time. The dependence of this kinetics versus the molecular weight of the grafted chains, the melt chains, and the grafting density is investigated and compared to a proposed scaling model inspired from the previous work of Milner, McLeish, and O'Connor.1,2 Moreover, the relaxation kinetics is found to highly depend on the polydispersity of the polymer brushes, and we propose a way for taking that parameter into account.


Being able to engage with service users and communicate effectively is a fundamental skill identified by the NMC and required of all mental health nurses. The reality is that building rapport and developing therapeutic relationships does not come instinctively for everyone. The authors have responded to this with a book that explains the different communication theories and models and goes on to show students how they work in the real world. Innovative exercises encourage reflection and enable students to practice their developing communication skills as they progress. Throughout the book the authors are focussed on promoting recovery and have put the service user at the centre of the discussion, ensuring that their voice is heard. Key features: - Covers the communication content of the new NMC Standards and Essential Skills Clusters for pre-registration degree-level nursing education - Focussed on promoting recovery and adopts a person-centred approach - Interactive style using realistic scenarios and case studies making theory easy to apply to practice - Includes a chapter co-authored by a service user offering a unique insight.


The evaluation of mercury impact on humans is currently nonspecific because the body characteristics (homeostasis) of each human being varies. Therefore, in the early diagnosis of mercury toxicity, one of the most important monitoring parameters is the respiratory function examination. In this study, respiratory function was examined with a portable spirometer and correlated with the mercury levels in hair from the noses and heads of subjects. Samples were taken from artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) areas (villages of East Tulabolo and Dunggilata) and control areas (villages of Bongo and Longalo) in Gorontalo Province, Indonesia. A statistical analysis with the Mann–Whitney test (alternative) showed significant differences in lung function between the polluted and control areas (α = 0.03). The analysis of nasal and head hair samples with particle-induced X-ray emissions (PIXE) showed that the mercury levels in the ASGM area were considerably higher than in the more homogeneous control areas. This study confirms that a pulmonary function test is a quick and precise alternative way to monitor the impact of mercury on humans, especially atmospheric mercury, because we detected a negative correlation between pulmonary function and the level of mercury in hair.


According to the pair transformation theory on mechanism derivation, the internal bevel gear meshing pair of nutation drive is replaced by rolling elements. In this manner, gear teeth are eliminated and the problem of manufacturing the interval bevel gear is solved completely. The method to generate new tooth profiles of nutation drive is put forward. Using this method, a novel nutation drive is presented. This system is made with a minimum number of parts, and can remain constant transmission ratio. In this paper, the problems such as tooth profile synthesis and kinematic analysis of the mechanism are studied. The formulae for calculating transmission ratio of the reducer are developed and theoretical profile equations of the stator and the rotor are obtained.


Myocardial ischemia is one of the serious cardiac related disorders. Myocardial ischemia was induced in the rats by isoproterenol administration (20 mg/100 g subcutaneously twice at an interval of 24 hrs.). Inula racemosa has been indicated for its use in cardiac disorders. Hence, extract of roots of the plant Inula racemosa and alantolactone, which has been isolated from the roots of Inula racemosa were subjected for evaluation of their cardio protective activity in myocardial ischemia (100 mg/kg body weight). Lipid peroxides and glutathione contents were estimated. It has been found that the alantolactone effectively reduces the lipid peroxide levels in the ischemic rats and bring the glutathione content to near normal level as compared to the petroleum ether extract.


Poverty as a multi-dimensional phenomenon is determined by a wide range of factors one of which is the non-equity in distribution and scarcity of assets in development opportunities. The eradication of poverty in rural Nigeria remains a hard challenge for the country to overcome despite the various poverty eradication programmes implementation at different levels of government. This study examined the effects of farmers' household livelihood assets on poverty. Primary data were collected using well structured questionnaire from 135 farming households in Egbeda Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria and analyzed using descriptive statistics, Foster Greer Theobecke (FGT) weighted poverty index and Logit regression model. The result shows that poverty line (PL) which is the two-third of the respondents' mean per capita expenditure (PCE) is N1770.40 ($11) with 31.9 percent of the respondents falling below the PL while average PCE equals N2636.12 (about $18). The poverty incidence index was 0.296, poverty depth index is 0.054 and the poverty severity index is 0.015. Socio-economic characteristic like Gender (p<0.1), Human assets such as education (p<0.01), farming experience and health status (p<0.1); Physical assets like land and agricultural machinery ownership (p<0.05); Financial asset like cooperative funding (p<0.05) and Aggregate Social capital (p<0.1) will reduce the poverty status of farming households in Southwestern, Nigeria. Based on the findings of this study, the study recommends that access and use of human capital, financial, physical and social capital assets are important to reduce the poverty status of farming households in Southwestern, Nigeria.


Disorders of accommodation are acknowledged to contribute to the etiopathogenesis of myopia. A new method for treating this condition is proposed: Transconjunctival electroophthalmostimulation (TEOS). It was used in the treatment of 384 patients with progressive myopia. The treatment had a favorable impact on vision acuity and accommodation. The efficacy of treatment was the best in patients with myopia of up to 1.5 diopters; vision acuity in them increased by an average of 0.3 +/- 0.04, the accommodation volume by 2.23 +/- 0.29 diopters, and the relative accommodation reverse by 1.45 +/- 0.44 diopters. In medium and high myopia TEOS effect was less expressed as regards the vision acuity, whereas decreased accommodation virtually normalized; the subjective refraction reliably decreased (by 0.5 diopters) in all groups of examinees. Other parameters of static refraction were virtually unchanged by TEOS. Moreover, the rheographic coefficient increased from 1.59 +/- 0.66 to 2.89 +/- 0.66 and the temperature of the eyeball rose from 34.2 +/- 0.15 to 35.2 +/- 0.05 degrees C, which indicates activation of blood supply and metabolic processes under the effect of TEOS. Five-year follow-up of this cohort of patients showed the progress of myopia in just 15% of cases, versus 25% in the control group treated with drugs and accommodation training. The effect of treatment persists for one year, after which the treatment is to be repeated.


I begin this essay with a short anecdote that describes a gathering of Sorjuanistas, a group of scholars who have devoted their careers in analyzing the life and literary work of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (16848-95). I argue that even though the study of Sor Juana is usually interpreted as an academic endeavor, recent artistic projects have proven otherwise. Sorjuanistas have become scholar-artists who use the narrative of Sor Juana to shed light on the injustices experienced by Latin@ and Chicana@ individuals living in the United States. By creating dramatic works, Sorjuanistas exhibit their devotion towards Sor Juana. The dramatic works also show us how Sor Juana's narrative can help us rethink the way in which we understand history. In particular, I argue that the dramatic works created by Sorjuanistas are embodied performances. With this framework in mind, I look at the embodiment of Sor Juana as heritage performance. Heritage performance is essential in helping us understand the relevance of Sor Juana in the 21 century because it allows us to challenge the way in which history is created. Thus, the performance of bodies is a way of knowing and creating our understanding of Sor Juana and by extension the people who see her as their "patron" or role model.


Thymine DNA Glycosylase (TDG) is an enzyme of the base excision repair mechanism and removes damaged or mispaired bases from DNA via hydrolysis of the glycosidic bond. Specificity is of high importance for such a glycosylase, so as to avoid the damage of intact DNA. Among the substrates reported for TDG are mispaired uracil and thymine but also formyl-cytosine and carboxyl-cytosine. Methyl-cytosine and hydroxylmethyl-cytosine are, in contrast, not processed by the TDG enzyme. We have in this work employed molecular dynamics simulations to explore the conformational dynamics of DNA carrying a formyl-cytosine or carboxyl-cytosine and compared those to DNA with the non-cognate bases methyl-cytosine and hydroxylmethyl-cytosine, as amino and imino tautomers. Whereas for the mispairs a wobble conformation is likely decisive for recognition, all amino tautomers of formyl-cytosine and carboxyl-cytosine exhibit the same Watson–Crick conformation, but all imino tautomers indeed form wobble pairs. The conformational dynamics of the amino tautomers in free DNA do not exhibit differences that could be exploited for recognition, and also complexation to the TDG enzyme does not induce any alteration that would indicate preferable binding to one or the other oxidised methyl-cytosine. The imino tautomers, in contrast, undergo a shift in the equilibrium between a closed and a more open, partially flipped state, towards the more open form upon complexation to the TDG enzyme. This stabilisation of the more open conformation is most pronounced for the non-cognate bases methyl-cytosine and hydroxyl-cytosine and is thus not a likely mode for recognition. Moreover, calculated binding affinities for the different forms indicate the imino forms to be less likely in the complexed DNA. These findings, together with the low probability of imino tautomers in free DNA and the indifference of the complexed amino tautomers, suggest that discrimination of the oxidised methyl-cytosines does not take place in the initial complex formation.


BACKGROUND
Cesare Lombroso supported a common origin of criminality, genius, and epilepsy as caused by factors impairing the embryonic development of the CNS, mainly affecting the hierarchically superior neural centers.

OBJECTIVE
To describe the first observations of cortical dysplasia in patients with epilepsy by Cesare Lombroso and his coworkers in 1896.

RESULTS
To confirm his theories, Lombroso emphasized the need for the direct observation of the patient, using anthropologic, social, neurophysiologic, economic, and pathologic data. With the collaboration of his pupil Luigi Roncoroni, Lombroso described a prevalence of large, giant pyramidal neurons and polymorphous cells through the gray matter of the frontal cortex in 13 patients with epilepsy. Most of the large pyramidal neurons were haphazardly arranged, presenting also an abnormal orientation of their apical dendrites. The number of nervous cells was noticeably reduced, with the presence of abundant gliosis. Moreover, the granular layers were dramatically reduced or absent in most patients, and numerous nervous cells were present in the subcortical white matter. This particular finding was never observed in specimens from criminal and healthy control subjects. Lombroso and Roncoroni explained their finding as evidence of an arrest of CNS development.

CONCLUSIONS
More than one century ago, Cesare Lombroso and collaborators described developmental lesions in the frontal cortex of patients with epilepsy, which correspond to what currently is called Taylor's dysplasia. However, they used their observations to support their scientific misconception on the relationship between criminality, epilepsy, and genius.


A carbon footprint is measured as means to reduce any negative impacts on the environment. The objective of this dissertation was to formulate a framework which universities can adapt in order to identify and measure their greenhouse gas emissions that resulted due business-as-usual activities. The developed framework was then applied to Edith Cowan University to determine their carbon footprint. For comparison carbon footprints form Curtin University, Murdoch University and UWA were calculated and analysed.

Throughout the course of this project, primary information collected from various online resources were assembled using appropriate software tools such as MS Office. Data for the case study was gathered electronically by interviewing key university personal over the phone. A set of questionnaire was prepared to obtain the necessary data for analysis. Field visits were not required.

The dissertation begins by discussing the ideas and motivation behind selecting this project. In the 21st century Earth's survival greatly depends on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, and steeply reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. This is followed by literature reviews which discuss the notion of "climate change" and how it is caused and the devastating impacts it has on human health. A brief analysis of the currents impacts observed is given. The project then focused on the impacts currently recorded across Australia. Next the report goes onto discussing the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. After analysing commonly used international and national standards, a framework for assessing greenhouse gas emissions was developed. The framework was developed in-line with the five guidelines described by the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. The six guidelines of the carbon footprint assessment framework are;

1. Define the scope and institutional boundary.
2. Determine the greenhouse gas emission sources within the selected boundary.
3. Select a base year for reference.
4. Collect activity data.
5. Select method of calculation.
6. Document and archive.
…


A dual-chamber pacemaker was implanted because of symptomatic bradycardia in a 60-year-old patient free from other heart disease. Then, the patient developed acute congestive heart failure due to pacing-induced mitral regurgitation (MR). Under echocardiographic guidance, modification of location of the right ventricular pacing lead led to a significant decrease in MR severity resulting in immediate clinical improvement.


This report describes the author's experience with Mentor Alpha-1 inflatable penile prosthesis cylinder aneurysms. In a series of 93 consecutive cases three implants developed a cylinder aneurysm. Two aneurysms developed intraoperatively and one developed 27 months postoperatively. Literature review suggests that the Mentor Alpha-1 penile prosthesis cylinders are very resistant to aneurysm formation under normal circumstances. However aneurysmal dilatation may occur if the cylinders are subjected to unusual stress.


We present simple algorithms for batched stochastic multi-armed bandit and batched stochastic linear bandit problems. We prove bounds for their expected regrets that improve and extend the best known regret bounds of Gao, Han, Ren, and Zhou (NeurIPS 2019), for any number of batches.
In particular, our algorithms in both settings achieve the optimal expected regrets by using only a logarithmic number of batches.
We also study the batched adversarial multi-armed bandit problem for the first time and provide the optimal regret, up to logarithmic factors, of any algorithm with predetermined batch sizes.


As a professional philosopher that has participated in public philosophy forums for several years, I attempt to determine the character and value of public philosophy. To do this I adopt the perspective of Deweyan pragmatism, which I argue provides an effective theoretical framework for this purpose. Thinking particularly about relatively small, person-to-person philosophical forums, I argue that they share the main assumptions of the pragmatic method: a prevailing contingency with regard to starting points and conclusions, a willingness to entertain evidence from various sources and disciplines, and a commitment to continuing conversation on a variety of issues for the sake of continued growth and expansion of understanding. I believe it is unlikely that these sorts of conversations will deliver any immediate or obvious results in terms of improved democratic processes at the level of an entire community or nation because of the small scale and relatively narrow appeal. However, as a resource for intellectual growth, public philosophical forums provide an invaluable resource for those individuals willing to participate, professional philosophers included.


IN HIS "OPEN LETTER TO MEMBERS," published in the February-March 1957 issue of the Journal, President William B. McBride said in closing: "It is the conviction of your officers and Board of Directors that MENC members should be given the privilege of helping set the stage for the immediate future and the ensuing developments in the field of music education …'For the good of the order,' let us talk it over. With mutual understanding of the needs of the present and the opportunities for the future, we shall be prepared to extend to still greater success what has been gained in the first fifty years…" In this spirit, a members' forum in the Journal was announced. Here is the fourth installment of the symposium.


Japanese pop culture has influenced Italy over the last thirty years. In the '70s anime started to fill the airtime of emerging private TV channels, marking the childhood of those Italians who grew up in those years and until the early '90s, when manga finally appeared in the Italian market. Globalization and the Internet have made other aspects of Japanese pop culture available to Italians and the rest of the world alike. It has resulted in a very active Italian fandom spanning different generations, and in a strong fascination with Japan. This paper aims to provide insights into the way Italian fans perceive Japanese pop culture and Japan; on the kind of bonds with Japan they develop, and how they socialize. It does so by considering the biggest Italian web-community, AnimeClick.it, as a microcosm of the Italian fandom's interactions and emotions. Privileging a qualitative method, it focuses on the people who give life to the website. Their images of Japanese pop culture reveal the recognition of a specific cultural odour perceived as pleasant, which translates into an interest in Japan. Those fans associate Japan with images of fantasy and charming mystery that nevertheless co-exist with perceptions of extreme difference, echoing the notion of Japanese uniqueness, so that Orientalist processes are re-enacted. There are intergenerational differences in the way fans have developed an emotional bond, and look at Japanese pop culture. However, these are mediated and transcended through their socialization and collaboration in the web-community, opening up new perspectives for the future evolution of Japanese pop culture's influence in Italy.


A 65-yr-old male presented to acute rehabilitation following C3–C7 posterior decompressive laminectomy due to severe cervical stenosis. He had previously undergone craniotomy for Arnold–Chiari malformation in 1977 and had a long history of syringomyelia. Since the initial finding of Arnold–Chiari malformation, the patient has had residual right-side weakness and numbness. On physical examination, distal phalangeal contractures and thenar intrinsic atrophy were noted bilaterally. Old burn scars were apparent on the right forearm. Active abduction in the right shoulder was limited to 80 degrees. Cranial nerves II through XII were intact. Sensation at C4–T1 on the left was diminished and virtually absent over the right upper extremity. Proprioception was diminished in the right upper and lower extremities. Decreased deep tendon reflexes were noted throughout. Manual muscle testing revealed 4/5 strength in both upper extremities with the exception of hand intrinsics, which were 2/5 bilaterally, with the right finger flexors being 3/5. The left lowerextremity muscles were of normal strength. The right lower-extremity hip flexors were 4/5; the knee extensors, dorsiflexors, long-toe extensors, and ankle plantar flexors were 2/5 in muscle strength. A few days after admission, the patient was noted to have worsening rhonchi and sputum production. Radiographs of the chest revealed a perihilar infiltrate. In addition, destructive changes in the right shoulder joint and resorption of the humeral head (findings consistent with a neuropathic arthroplasty) were noted. Neuropathic arthropathy (Charcot joint) is a destructive joint disease frequently associated with syringomyelia (Fig. 1). It is thought to be caused by loss of sensation and proprioception and/or unnoticed recurrent trauma. In this case, neuropathic arthropathy of the shoulder was a result of the syringomyelia, which may sometimes be a complication of Arnold–Chiari malformation. The patient was able to recall repeated trauma to the right shoulder and arm but was relatively asymptomatic because of the areas that were insensate. Joints most commonly involved in the patients with syringomyelia are the shoulder and elbow, whereas in diabetics, the ankle and foot predominate. Other causes of neuropathic arthropathy include alcoholism, frequent intra-articular corticosteroid injections, syphilis, and Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease. Painful neuropathic joints develop in 25% of patients with syringomyelia. In this vignette, the patient had a painless right shoulder, which is usually a late feature. Other findings in neuropathic arthropathy include swelling and loss of motion. Neuropathic arthropathy should be considered in unexplained shoulder instability and pain and is easily depicted on standard x-rays. Treatment is usually conservative. NSAIDs may reduce inflammation or swelling. Establishing ways to prevent further joint trauma through the concept of joint protection is key. Continued passive stretching exercises to optimize range of motion of the affected joint should be considered; however, immobilization with hopes of preventing further injury has also been suggested. Surgical intervention is rarely indicated.


Delay aversion (DAv) is thought to be a crucial factor in the manifestation of impulsive behaviors in patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The imposition of delay is predicted to elicit negative emotional reactions in ADHD. The present study offers a multimodal approach to the investigation of DAv. Twelve adult patients with ADHD and 12 matched healthy controls were tested on a new task with several levels of anticipated delays during functional magnet resonance imaging (fMRI). Behavioral measures of delay discounting, DAv, and delay frustration were collected. Skin conductance and finger pulse rate were assessed. Results indicated a group difference in response to changes in delay in the right amygdala: For control participants activity decreased with longer delays, whereas activity tended to increase for ADHD patients. The degree of amygdala increase was correlated with the degree of behavioral DAv within the ADHD group. Patients also exhibited increased emotional arousal on physiological measures. These results support the notion of an exacerbated negative emotional state during the anticipation and processing of delay in ADHD.


The classification of types of thinking is considered. The contradictions regarding the interpretation of such a stage of the creative process as incubation in the coordinate system of various creative tasks solving are analyzed. In particular, the differences that occur in solving problems of divergent thinking and insight problems are compared. Emphasis is placed on the results of the neural network modeling features study, which allow us to successfully predict the probability of creative tasks solving by the parameters of the subjects' brain structures activity, in particular the manifestations of the phenomenon of insight. According to the results of the study of the productivity of thinking in people with different levels of intellectual development, the levels of the perceived object images characteristics are distinguished. The definition of the structurally comparable theory of problem solving by analogy is given. The advantages of the model of productive analogy and the results of its empirical verification are substantiated. Emphasis is placed on the main task of the psyche – to ensure its implementation, which involves the construction of temporary functional organs to overcome information uncertainty. The diagnostic and activating potential of free design tasks is considered. The role of an adequate picture of reality for the successful solution of the subject of the actual problem, in particular, the accuracy of the images built in the process of activity; transformation of images as a result of analogy, combination, reconstruction in accordance with the given conditions of the problem and the transformation of the creative tools of the subject in the direction of acquiring the signs of appropriate system. Peculiarities and tendencies in the dynamics of image transformation in the solution of creative tasks by senior pupils in the conditions of informational complications are established. The stages of the experimental task solving are described. The typology of constructive activity of the studied in the construction of the desired idea is determined. The ratio of the number of developed structures at each stage of the experimental task in relation to the types of structural activity is analyzed. The types of response of the respondents to the introduction of complex information conditions were established: the dominant tendency was to reduce the number of developed ideas, although against the background of a similar number of respondents whose reaction to the introduction of new conditions was indifferent.


The previously published literature contains at least 27 deaths associated with the intentional concentration and inhalation of typewriter correction fluid (TCF). The solvent systems of TCF products include volatile halogenated hydrocarbons such as 1,1,1-trichloroethane and trichloroethylene. This report describes 3 additional deaths resulting from TCF abuse, including 1 case in which the addition of mustard oil to the product failed to deter abuse.


By following the life trajectories and networks of various North African artists principally based in the United Kingdom and in France, it becomes apparent that a common phenomenon amongst migrant musicians is that they can become trapped in a matrix which simultaneously articulates three potentially conflicting dimensions: the artists' own musical pleasure and desires; their professional constraints and opportunities; and the social, historical and personal context of their migration experiences. However, artists have developed strategies which permit them not only to overcome such tensions arising from this matrix, but to use them as a strength. The aim of this paper is to explore a particular aspect of the above-mentioned strategies: the use of local politics to pursue their own cultural, social and political agendas within a multi-scalar perspective (local-national-transnational). Whilst musicians and/or musical promoters are well aware of the ambiguous ways in which local policies often conceive of arts as a means to promote both multiculturalism and community cohesion rather than to support artistic creation per se, some of them have also understood the strategic potential of their involvement in such activities. This will be demonstrated through the activities of a recently-established association (North African Arts W10) based in Ladbroke Grove, London, UK. This case-study is also an attempt to approach transnationalism through its quadruple dimension: mobility, networks, local anchorage, and imagined communities.


Contrary to what has been previously claimed, the birth of the French term prisonnier de guerre dates back to long before the early seventeenth century. The corpus of documents which form the foundation of this article includes some sixty occurrences of the term (in French or Latin) over a period of more than a century, the earliest dating to 1357. In contrast with previous studies on the status of prisoners of war which have tended to rely on a modern conception of the term, this present investigation focuses on contemporary perceptions of those who were designated prisonniers de guerre in the later middle ages. The significance of this discussion is demonstrated in particular through the case of Joan of Arc, who, perhaps surprisingly, was considered a prisonniere de guerre by the English. In her case – which was by no means an exception to the general rule – the status of prisonnier de guerre derived from the property rights which her 'master' (or captor) enjoyed over her. It did not involve any protection of the prisoner her (or him) self. Contemporary debates around the status of prisonniers de guerre, when such questions were raised, were focused on the rights of the master. Perhaps is it more appropriate not to speak of the status prisoner of war but rather the status of the master of the prisoner of war.


The Conserved Domain Database (CDD) is the protein classification component of NCBI's Entrez query and retrieval system. CDD is linked to other Entrez databases such as Proteins, Taxonomy and PubMed®, and can be accessed at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=cdd. CD-Search, which is available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/cdd/wrpsb.cgi, is a fast, interactive tool to identify conserved domains in new protein sequences. CD-Search results for protein sequences in Entrez are pre-computed to provide links between proteins and domain models, and computational annotation visible upon request. Protein–protein queries submitted to NCBI's BLAST search service at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST are scanned for the presence of conserved domains by default. While CDD started out as essentially a mirror of publicly available domain alignment collections, such as SMART, Pfam and COG, we have continued an effort to update, and in some cases replace these models with domain hierarchies curated at the NCBI. Here, we report on the progress of the curation effort and associated improvements in the functionality of the CDD information retrieval system.


This work reviewed existing literature on airport related activities that could worsen surrounding air quality; its aim is to underline the progress coming from recent-year studies, the knowledge emerging from new approaches, the development of semi-empiric analytical methods as well as the questions still needing to be clarified. To estimate pollution levels, spatial and temporal variability, and the sources relative contributions integrated assessment, using both fixed point measurement and model outputs, are needed. The general picture emerging from the studies was a non-negligible and highly spatially variable (within 2-3 km from the fence line) airport contribution; even if it is often not dominant compared to other concomitant pollution sources. Results were highly airport-specific. Traffic volumes, landscape and meteorology were the key variables that drove the impacts. Results were thus hardly exportable to other contexts. Airport related pollutant sources were found to be characterized by unusual emission patterns (particularly ultrafine particles, black carbon and nitrogen oxides during take-off); high time-resolution measurements allow to depict the rapidly changing take-off effect on air quality that could not be adequately observed otherwise. Few studies used high time resolution data in a successful way as statistical models inputs to estimate the aircraft take-off contribution to the observed average levels. These findings should not be neglected when exposure of people living near airports is to be assessed.


The exhibition project The Architecture of Conflict presents an independent research agency Forensic Architecture based at Goldsmiths, University of London. Founded in 2010 by Eyal Weizman, it is an interdisciplinary team consisting of architects, artists, filmmakers, journalist, data analysts, software developers, scientists, lawyers, activists, and an extended network of collaborators from a wide variety of fields and disciplines.

Forensic Architecture (FA) is committed to the development and dissemination of new evidentiary techniques, and undertakes advanced architectural and media investigations on behalf of international prosecutors, human rights and civil society groups, as well as political and environmental justice organisations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN, among others. They have been commissioned to conduct investigations all over the world, including, for example, in Belgrade, Pakistan, Syria, Guatemala, the West Bank and Gaza, examining sites of internment camps, drone strikes, torture centers, environmental degradation, and violence resulting from the ongoing Palestinian occupation.

Tools and techniques developed by FA for analysing and presenting acts of state and corporate violence and human rights violations across the globe gave rise to a new form of investigation based on combination of criminalistics, architectural, archaeological, and other methods. The group uses architecture as a methodological device with which to investigate armed conflicts and environmental destruction, and to cross-reference multiple other evidence sources such as new media, remote sensing, material investigation and witness testimony.

This exhibition at VI PER Gallery introduces the practice of Forensic Architecture through several selected projects: Living Death Camps, a collaborative project – consisting of 'Staro Sajmiste: The Inverted Horizon', and 'Omarska: Memorial in Exile' (both 2013) – that describes the condition of two concentration camps in former Yugoslavia; Nakba Day Killings (2014), a report on the killing of two Palestinian teenagers by Israeli forces in Beitunia, Palestine; Saydnaya: Inside a Syrian Torture Prison (2016), a reconstruction of the architecture of a secret Syrian detention centre; and Al-Jinah Mosque (2017), an investigation into a US-led airstrike in Al-Jinah, Syria.

Through their detailed and critical investigations, Forensic Architecture presents how public truth is produced – technologically, architecturally, and aesthetically – and how it can be used to confront authority and to expose new forms of state-led violence.

Curators: Irena Lehkoživova and Sarah Nankivell

Memorial in Exile was realised by Susan Schuppli & Steffen Kraemer, Forensic Architecture, 2012


In this provocative and persuasive treatise, David W. Smit calls for an end to the hegemony of writing instruction as an academic field. Setting forth an innovative new model for what it means to be a writing teacher in the era of writing across the curriculum, "The End of Composition Studies "urges a reconceptualization of graduate work in rhetoric and composition, systematically critiques the limitations of current pedagogical practices at the postsecondary level, and proposes a reorganization of writing instruction to make it the responsibility of all academic units. "The End of Composition Studies "calls into question two major assumptions of the field: that writing is a universal ability and that college-level writing is in some sense foundational to advanced learning. Instead, Smit upholds, writing involves a wide range of knowledge and skill beyond the sentence level that cannot be solely learned in writing classes but must be acquired by immersion in various discourse communities in and out of academic settings. In other words, students do not learn to write in order to prepare themselves to write in a particular community; they need to be part of the community in order to learn how to write in that community. Smit proposes that the field of composition should recognize the conceptual limits of what instructors may be able to know about how people learn to write by offering writing instruction in academic units most closely associated with the knowledge and genres students want or need to learn. Scholars, he says, should be trained to live in two worlds: one of composition theory and pedagogy and another of the discourse practices of particular communities. Similarly, they should be trained both as writers of the discourses they teach and as social critics of the communities they will help students join. "The End of Composition Studies" also analyzes the limits of six major concepts in the field: what writing is, how writing is learned, how we compose, writing as a social practice, writing as thinking, and writing as the transfer of abilities from one context to another. These concepts, along with other paradigms and models that are used to understand how people write, are already known and widely accepted, making a complete reconceptualization of writing unlikely. As a result, Smit asserts, future research in the field will be what many scholars characterize as postmodern: research will be historicized, contextualized, and contingent, limited in what it may tell about writing and its instruction. In response to these limitations, "The End of Composition Studies "provides a compelling rhetoric and rationale for eliminating the field and reenvisioning the profession as truly interdisciplinary a change that is necessary in order to fulfill the needs and demands of students, instructors, administrators, and our democratic society."


Introduction The Cold War was, after all, about values. That is what people risked and sometimes gave up their lives for. States took values seriously: massive armies faced each other across value-divided lines around the world; behind them nuclear missiles cast a global shadow. The Cold War ended when the political system that suppressed freedom and imposed injustice was replaced by one that made freedom secure and justice possible. Having acquired power to decide their common future, people were free to talk about how to reflect values in their laws and institutions, and to act accordingly. They could form associations and petition the authorities and demonstrate for causes they cared about. They could form or join political parties that expressed their conception of the values that should inform public law and policy. And they could vote into office those who shared those values. The newly-elected legislatures took a number of important decisions affecting public policy on human life. The death penalty was abolished almost everywhere, and even where it remained its scope was narrowed. Nuclear weapons were withdrawn to Russia and reduced in number. Environmental improvement was related explicitly to life-threatening conditions such as unsafe nuclear plants and poisonous industries. And several parliaments and cabinets, spurred by strong public movements, debated whether and how far to extend legal protection to unborn children. Under communism, there had been no authentic public debate about abortion policy. In 1920, by decree, Lenin made the USSR the first country in the world to legalize abortion. It was not a difficult decision for him to make. There is nothing in Marxism that stands in the way of legalized abortion. Marxist values of materialism and atheism offer no reason to pause, and the doctrines of class struggle and building a classless society require the full commitment of all who can work; concern with children and family distracts from these tasks and reflects attachment to bourgeois values that are to be eradicated. Unrestricted abortion facilitates faster progress toward utopia. By keeping wages down (a simple matter in a centrally-directed economy), the Party effectively forced millions of women into full-time work. This underpaid productivity acted as a form of hidden taxation enabling the state to build up capital for economic development and the military establishment. Legalized, state-funded abortion was a way to encourage women to devote their energies to build socialism, not families. The state also discouraged childbirth through its housing policies, under-producing undersized apartments in urban areas, with a typical ten-year wait for a young couple to get a flat barely large enough for two. When abortion came to the countries of Eastern Europe, it came by Party fiat, as it had in the USSR. This is also the way subsequent changes of policy took place during the communist era. As with other policies, public criticism and debate were risky. What, then, have the people of Eastern Europe and Russia done in the post-Communist era about the law as it applies to unborn life? Which groups and institutions have influenced public opinion and legislation? Why has there been substantially more activity in some states than in others? This article focuses mainly on Poland, Hungary, and Russia, with shorter reviews of other countries in the region. There are three reasons for this focus. First, more published material is available on the issue in these countries. Second, Russia is included because until 1990 the Soviet Union set broad policy guidelines on this issue for the countries it dominated, and it is this legacy with which the people of the region must deal. Finally, I have more first-hand knowledge about these countries on the basis of prior field experience or related work in the United States. …


The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of game-based learning activities (GBL) on children's positive learning and prosocial behaviours. Games in this research are referred to a set of games with rules which are adapted or designed by the researcher based on the National Pre-school Standard Curriculum for preschool mathematics education. The games involved the use of cards, game board, and dice. Children played the games in groups. This research used quasi-experimental with non-equivalent control group pre test/post-test research design. The treatment group consisted of 23 preschool children using GBL while the control group consisted of 24 preschool children who use traditional methods of teaching and learning. An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the mean score of children's learning behaviours between treatment and control group. There was a significant difference in the mean scores for treatment group (M = 38.74, SD = 5.5) and control group (M = 23.00, SD = 14.79) conditions; t (45) = -4.795, p = 0.00. Data collected for prosocial behaviour were based on the frequency of occurrence of behaviours that have been identified and presented in the form of graphs. The results showed that the treatment group gained much higher frequency of occurrence in prosocial behaviours compared to the control group. These results suggest that GBL is effective in nurturing children's positive learning and prosocial behaviours. The research can serve as a guideline especially to rural preschool teachers in applying GBL in their classroom.


Stimulated by recent discussions of temporality, this essay is about abrupt transitions. What is happening when such transitions are reinvented in the future? What is happening when a radical break with one kind of past is also recalled as looking forward to a moment when aspects of another kind of past might finally come into their own? The essay revisits a country, Papua New Guinea, where many have seen colonialism come and go in a lifetime. People's aspirations for the future, raising questions about the nature of such breaks and about the horizons being engaged, throw out some challenges as to how anthropologists might envisage the kinds of time involved. The questions lead into diverse fields, both unusual and less so. They include, on the one hand, deliberations about introduced and customary law, and on the other hand, everyday processes of generation and the displacement of generations. They also take us beyond particular circumstances to ponder on what is taken for granted in the ubiquity of change, on ideas of reproduction and creativity, and on whether talk of different ontologies is going to be helpful.


Regeneration of human central nervous system (CNS) neurons is limited due to the inhibitory environment that forms post injury known as the glial scar. Reactive astrocytes within the glial scar produce both inhibitory and permissive extracellular matrix molecules (ECM) into the local environment. Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) are a component of the ECM which have been shown in vitro and in vivo to inhibit neurite regeneration. Physiologically relevant in vitro models of the glial scar are essential in developing new therapeutics and understanding the cellular processes that underpin neural regeneration.
In this study human pluripotent stem cells were differentiated using the highly potent and stable synthetic retinoid EC23. A concentration dependent profile of the action of EC23 on stem cell differentiation was determined, furthermore, the mechanisms for the enhanced biological activity of EC23 were investigated.
This study used the well described small molecule EC23 to form aggregates of neural progenitors which were characterised and used in a two dimension (2D) and three dimension (3D) model of neurite outgrowth.
Next, the neurite outgrowth substrate was manipulated to represent the inhibitory ECM of the glial scar using the CSPG Aggrecan. The presence of Aggrecan inhibited neurite development and was used to assess small molecules that could enhance outgrowth in 2D and 3D. Small molecule modulators of; rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK); retinoic acid receptor β2; glycogen synthase kinase 3β and protein tyrosine phosphatase σ were shown to at least partially enhance neurite outgrowth on Aggrecan in 2D and 3D. Furthermore, the bacterial enzyme Chondroitinase ABC was used to cleave chondroitin sulphate glycosaminoglycan side chains (GAG) from Aggrecan to further aid neurite outgrowth in this model. In addition a 2D and 3D co-culture system was developed using the human astroglioma cell line U118MG and human stem cell-derived neural progenitors described previously. This model demonstrated inhibition of neurite outgrowth by U118MG which could be overcome by ROCK inhibition.
This thesis describes the development of a novel model of neurite outgrowth using human stem cell-derived neurons. The model described was used to investigate Aggrecan induced neurite inhibition and to investigate pathways involved in neural regeneration.


Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors (FGFRs) signal to modulate diverse cellular functions, including epithelial cell morphogenesis. In epithelial cells, E-cadherin plays a key role in cell-cell adhesion, and its function can be regulated through endocytic trafficking. In this study, we investigated the location, trafficking, and function of FGFR1 and E-cadherin and report a novel mechanism, based on endocytic trafficking, for the coregulation of E-cadherin and signaling from FGFR1. FGF induces the internalization of surface FGFR1 and surface E-cadherin, followed by nuclear translocation of FGFR1. The internalization of both proteins is regulated by common endocytic machinery, resulting in cointernalization of FGFR1 and E-cadherin into early endosomes. By blocking endocytosis, we show that this is a requisite, initial step for the nuclear translocation of FGFR1. Overexpression of E-cadherin blocks both the coendocytosis of E-cadherin and FGFR1, the nuclear translocation of FGFR1 and FGF-induced signaling to the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. Furthermore, stabilization of surface adhesive E-cadherin, by overexpressing p120ctn, also blocks internalization and nuclear translocation of FGFR1. These data reveal that conjoint endocytosis and trafficking is a novel mechanism for the coregulation of E-cadherin and FGFR1 during cell signaling and morphogenesis.


The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is an exquisitely sensitive probe of the fundamental parameters of cosmology. Extracting this information is computationally intensive, requiring massively parallel computing and sophisticated numerical algorithms. In this work we present MADbench, a lightweight version of the MADCAP CMB power spectrum estimation code that retains the operational complexity and integrated system requirements. In addition, to quantify communication behavior across a variety of architectural platforms, we introduce the integrated performance monitoring (IPM) package: a portable, lightweight, and scalable tool for effectively extracting MPI message-passing overheads. A performance characterization study is conducted on some of the world's most powerful supercomputers, including the superscalar Seaborg (IBM Power3+) and CC-NUMA Columbia (SGIAltix), as well as the vector-based Earth Simulator (NEC SX-6 enhanced) and Phoenix (Cray XI) systems. In-depth analysis shows that in order to bridge the gap between theoretical and sustained system performance, it is critical to gain a clear understanding of how the distinct parts of large-scale parallel applications interact with the individual subcomponents of HEC platforms.


Software Product Line (SPL) has arisen as an approach for developing a family of software-intensive systems at lower costs, within shorter time, and with higher quality. In particular, SPL is supported by a product line architecture (sometimes also referred to as reference architecture) that captures the architectures of a product family. In another context, a special type of architecture that contains knowledge about a specific domain has been increasingly investigated, resulting in the Reference Architecture research area. In spite of the positive impact of this type of architecture on reuse and productivity, the use of existing domain-specific reference architectures as basis of SPL has not been widely explored. The main contribution of this paper is to present how and when elements contained in existing reference architectures could contribute to the building of SPL artifacts during development of an SPL. We have observed that, in fact, reference architectures could make an important contribution to improving reuse and productivity, which are also important concerns in SPL.


The aim of the present work is to investigate the microstructure of Al-Pb monotectic surface layers generated by a laser surface alloying technique on the surface of an Al-4Cu-1.5Si-0.5Mg alloy. Monotectic alloys are generally used as materials for sliding bearings. Layers of a monotectic alloy generated by laser surface alloying have a potential for superior properties, because the rapid solidification during this process results in fine precipitation structures which can act as solid lubricant. The structure of the Al-Pb monotectic surface layers was observed in the light microscope and the scanning electron microscope. Volume fraction and size distribution of lead particles were determined by quantitative image analysis. Pin-on-disc experiments were carried out to characterize and compare the tribological properties of the Al-Pb monotecitc layers and cast Al-Cu-Si-Mg alloys.


Multiple visual cues are used by the visual system to analyze a scene; achromatic cues include luminance, texture, contrast and motion. Single-cell recordings have shown that the mammalian visual cortex contains neurons that respond similarly to scene structure (e.g., orientation of a boundary), regardless of the cue type conveying this information. This paper shows that cue-invariant response properties of simple- and complex-type cells can be learned from natural image data in an unsupervised manner. In order to do this, we also extend a previous conceptual model of cue invariance so that it can be applied to model simple- and complex-cell responses. Our results relate cue-invariant response properties to natural image statistics, thereby showing how the statistical modeling approach can be used to model processing beyond the elemental response properties visual neurons. This work also demonstrates how to learn, from natural image data, more sophisticated feature detectors than those based on changes in mean luminance, thereby paving the way for new data-driven approaches to image processing and computer vision.


Subpixel rendering technology increases the apparent resolution of an LCD/OLED screen by exploiting the physical property that a pixel is composed of RGB individually addressable subpixels. Due to the intrinsic intercoordination between apparent luminance resolution and color fringing artifact, a common method of subpixel image assessment is subjective evaluation. In this paper, we propose a unified subpixel image quality assessment metric called SubPixel image Assessment (SPA), which syncretizes local subpixel and global pixel features. Specifically, comprehensive subjective studies are conducted to acquire data of user preferences. Accordingly, a collection of lowlevel features is designed under extensive perceptual validation, capturing subpixel and pixel features which reflect local details and global distance from the original image. With the features and their measurements as the basis, SPA is obtained, which leads to a good representation of the subpixel image characteristics. Experimental results justify the effectiveness and superiority of SPA. SPA is also successfully adopted in a variety of applications, including content adaptive sampling and metric-guided image compression.


Pancreatic cancer (PC) represents the 6th cause of cancer death. Although the aetiology of PC is not completely understood, numerous risk factors have been identified in association with this cancer, among them diet. However, little is known about the association between the Mediterranean Diet (MedDiet) and the risk of PC. For this reason, we conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis according to the PRISMA guidelines, searching on three databases (PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and EMBASE). The protocol was registered in PROSPERO. Both fixed and random effect models were performed. The Effect size was reported as a hazard ratio (HR) with a 95% Confidence Interval (CI). A total of eight articles were included. The methodological quality of the included meta-analyses was high. Our results show that a higher adherence to the MedDiet is associated with a lower risk of PC [HR:0.82 (0.76–0.88) p < 0.001, based on 1,301,320 subjects]. The results were also confirmed in sensitivity and subgroups analyses (avoidance of potential overlapping effects, type of tools used to assess dietary intake and the diagnosis of PC, prevalence and incidence of PC risk, country where the studies took place, sex, and cancer site). Promoting a higher adherence to the MedDiet could be an effective approach to reduce the risk of PC.


Tight regulation of the MAP kinase Hog1 is crucial for survival under changing osmotic conditions. Interestingly, we found that Hog1 phosphorylates multiple upstream components, implying feedback regulation within the signaling cascade. Taking advantage of an unexpected link between glucose availability and Hog1 activity, we used quantitative single cell measurements and computational modeling to unravel feedback regulation operating in addition to the well-known adaptation feedback triggered by glycerol accumulation. Indeed, we found that Hog1 phosphorylates its activating kinase Ssk2 on several sites, and cells expressing a non-phosphorylatable Ssk2 mutant are partially defective for feedback regulation and proper control of basal Hog1 activity. Together, our data suggest that Hog1 activity is controlled by intertwined regulatory mechanisms operating with varying kinetics, which together tune the Hog1 response to balance basal Hog1 activity and its steady-state level after adaptation to high osmolarity.


In 72 outpatients with DSM-III major depressive episode, adinazolam was superior to placebo in all measurements. Significantly more adinazolam-treated subjects (N = 36) than placebo subjects (N = 36) completed the study (67% vs. 19%), were rated "much" or "very much" improved (78% vs. 19%), and had a "moderate" or "marked" therapeutic effect of the drug (67% vs. 19%). The total Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression score decreased by 50% or more in 61% of the adinazolam group and in 17% of the placebo group; 72% of the adinazolam group reported that they felt "moderately," "much," or "very much" improved compared with 17% of the placebo group. The adinazolam group reported significantly more drowsiness and lightheadedness, dizziness, or faintness; the severity of these side effects decreased with time. No significant anticholinergic effects were observed.


This paper suggests that the static nature of time-space, a discovery in physics, implies that quantum communication plays a role in memory. The illusion of the flow of time and the nature of quantum entanglement are discussed. Arguments are given for a non-reductionist alternative to the standard model of cognition in which memory is stored in time-space. In this view the neural machinery of the brain receives and interprets information states embedded in time-space.


PURPOSE
In Anguilla, dental nurses are responsible for providing oral healthcare for children until they reach 18 years of age. This study determined the diagnostic conformity and consistency in caries assessment among dental nurses trained to carry out an oral health survey of 6, 12 and 15-year-old schoolchildren.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Following training in caries diagnosis using slides, extracted teeth and visual-tactile examination, three dental nurses were calibrated by a benchmark examiner (BE) using modified WHO criteria. Conformity and consistency were assessed on four different occasions--on extracted teeth (T0) and in three different groups of children (at C0, D1 and D2) for subject (SB), tooth (TH) and surface (SF) using Kappa statistics.

RESULTS
Perfect agreement (kappa score of 1.0) was attained for all sound, decayed and filled lingual and buccal surfaces at D1 and D2 respectively. Levels of conformity (with and without BE) and consistency increased as the survey progressed. Accuracy level ranges for SB, TH and SF were .770-.935(T0), .895-.951(C0), .947-.989(D1) and .985-.993(D2) respectively. Kappa score of 1.0 was obtained by all three examiners for SB, TH and SF at D2. Identical accuracy levels were attained by all examiners for TH (.985) and SF (.993) at D2. Reliability levels for SB, TH and SF ranged from .972-.999(C0), .977-.996(D1) and was 1.0 at D2.

CONCLUSIONS
Substantial and almost perfect inter and intraexaminer agreements were attained at calibration, and maintained throughout the survey. Dental nurses in Anguilla can conduct valid and reliable child oral health surveys when adequate and appropriate training is provided.


ABSTRACT Bulk collagen δ15N analysis is widely used to investigate past diet and trophic positions, but these values average the δ15N values of the constituent amino acids. Compound–specific isotope analysis of amino acids (AAs) can help elucidate the complex metabolic effects underpinning bulk δ15N values. Although trophic level effects on individual AA δ15N values have been investigated in aquatic and terrestrial invertebrate food webs, most archaeological applications involve terrestrial herbivores, hence a greater understanding of these effects between diet and consumer in this food chain is required. The North Wyke Farm Platform provided baseline nitrogen isotope information for cattle grazing on a Lolium perenne-dominated pasture. Bulk dentine δ15N values show a shift expected for a one trophic level increase, but obscure insight into the underlying metabolic processes that cause this change in value. However, determination of AA δ15N values of hydrolysable plant protein and cattle tooth dentine clarifies the trophic effect on consumer AA δ15N values. The observed trophic shift in the studied system is different from previously studied food webs, with a trophic enrichment factor, based on the δ15N values of glutamate and phenylalanine, of 4.0‰ compared to 7.6‰ commonly used in ecological and archaeological studies. This emphasises the need to understand the trophic shifts in the particular food web being investigated in order to apply isotopic investigations in archaeological contexts.


In this theoretical paper, four different circuit configurations are proposed to design 0°-360° wide range, low loss balanced phase shifters. Each configuration utilizes 3 pin diodes. As a consequence of this work, it is straightforward to construct 180° phase shifting cells for multibit phase array antenna systems using 3 pin diodes. Operation of the new circuits is based upon the phase shifting properties of symmetric low/highpass 3-element LC ladders. Assuming the utilization of lossless pin diodes and ideal reactive element, explicit design equations are presented. A numerical method, which includes the diode losses as well as component parasitic, is also described to design practical phase shifters with minimum balanced loss at a given operating frequency. Examples are included to exhibit the use of explicit design formulas and computer simulations are performed to analyze the loss and phase characteristics of the new circuits. It is expected that new configurations will find application in the commercial and especially military large array antenna systems over the EHF band to be implemented as Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuits (MMIC). Key Word: Digital phase shifters.


Cyclophosphamide (CTX) is a major component of the chemotherapy conditioning regimens used in the clinic to prepare cancer patients for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation or adoptive T cell therapy. Previous studies have shown that CTX given at nonmyeloablative doses in mice and patients leads to expansion of myeloid cells within which the monocytic subset exhibits immunosuppressive activity. However, the ontogeny and gene expression signature of these CTX-induced monocytes are not well-defined. Here, we report that the expansion of myeloid cells is a default process intrinsic to hematopoietic recovery after chemotherapy. During this process, the monocytes repopulated in mice acquire immunosuppressive activity, which can persist long after cessation of chemotherapy. Moreover, monocytes acquire a gene signature characteristic of neutrophil precursors, marked by increased proliferative capability and elevated expressions of multiple primary and secondary granules. We provide evidence that CTX-induced myeloid cell expansion is regulated by DNA methyltransferase 1 (Dnmt1) and dependent on chemotherapy-induced microbial translocation. These findings help advance our understanding of the differentiation, heterogeneity, and function of myeloid cells repopulating after chemotherapy.


The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS-II) employs low-temperature Ge and Si detectors to seek Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) via their elastic scattering interactions with nuclei. Simultaneous measurements of both ionization and phonon energy provide discrimination against interactions of background particles. For recoil energies above 10 keV, events due to background photons are rejected with > 99.99% efficiency. Electromagnetic events very near the detector surface can mimic nuclear recoils because of reduced charge collection, but these surface events are rejected with > 96% efficiency by using additional information from the phonon pulse shape. Efficient use of active and passive shielding, combined with the 2090 m.w.e. overburden at the experimental site in the Soudan mine, makes the background from neutrons negligible for this first exposure. All cuts are determined in a blind manner from in situ calibrations with external radioactive sources without any prior knowledge of the event distribution in the signal region. Resulting efficiencies are known to {approx}10%. A single event with a recoil of 64 keV passes all of the cuts and is consistent with the expected misidentification rate of surface-electron recoils. Under the assumptions for a standard dark matter halo, these data exclude previously unexplored parameter space for both spin-independent and spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering. The resulting limit on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic-scattering cross-section has a minimum of 4 x 10{sup -43} cm{sup 2} at a WIMP mass of 60 GeV c{sup -2}. The minimum of the limit for the spin-dependent WIMP-neutron elastic-scattering cross-section is 2 x 10{sup -37} cm{sup 2} at a WIMP mass of 50 GeV c{sup -2}.


Vision-language pre-training methods, e.g., CLIP, demonstrate an impressive zero-shot performance on visual categorizations with the class proxy from the text embedding of the class name. However, the modality gap between the text and vision space can result in a sub-optimal performance. We theoretically show that the gap cannot be reduced sufficiently by minimizing the contrastive loss in CLIP and the optimal proxy for vision tasks may reside only in the vision space. Therefore, given unlabeled target vision data, we propose to learn the vision proxy directly with the help from the text proxy for zero-shot transfer. Moreover, according to our theoretical analysis, strategies are developed to further refine the pseudo label obtained by the text proxy to facilitate the intra-modal proxy learning (InMaP) for vision. Experiments on extensive downstream tasks confirm the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposal. Concretely, InMaP can obtain the vision proxy within one minute on a single GPU while improving the zero-shot accuracy from $77.02\%$ to $80.21\%$ on ImageNet with ViT-L/14@336 pre-trained by CLIP. Code is available at \url{https://github.com/idstcv/InMaP}.


This paper offers an analysis of the book reviews published about the 1973 book Experience with Abortion: A case study of North-East Scotland , a volume edited by Gordon Horobin. The paper sets the scene at the time of publication of Experience with Abortion , and includes abortion as a societal issue, the 1967 Abortion Act and the role of the MRC Medical Sociology Unit in Aberdeen. The reviews were analysed using content analysis. Considering the controversy of abortion in the early 1970s, it is interesting that the book reviews were overwhelmingly positive towards both Experience with Abortion and the need for high quality social science research in this field. Several reviews highlighted the importance of having someone like Sir Dugald Baird in Aberdeen and of the Aberdeen-based Medical Research Council's (MRC) Medical Sociology Unit. Nearly 40 years later, abortion has disappeared off the sociology and social policy agenda, at least in the United Kingdom (UK) and Horobin's legacy in medical sociology appears to be in areas other than abortion or reproductive health more generally.


A study was conducted with the objective of gathering the information through flexural (three-point bending) testing. This research presents the testing results concerning the mechanical properties, modulus of elasticity (MOE) and modulus of rupture (MOR) of natural fiber reinforced composite. Resin were used as a matrix and untreated wood fibres contents 14% by weight as a filler treatment parameters to obtain better compatibility involving wood fibres Sawdust (SW) and Chipwood (CW) and epoxy. The feasibility of processing the composite prepared manually from waste wood and epoxy using open molding was investigated. The tests that have been conducted are in according to ASTM (D790-97) for flexural properties test method. Statistical analysis using ANOVA one way and two way showed that the differences of results obtained from those SW and CW fiber composite samples are significant, which confirm a very firm mechanical performance of the composites through flexural tests. This shows the producing a good quality of SW and CW fibre composite which maybe can use for furniture utilities.


This paper addresses the unresolved debate about the timing of economic disengagement between Australia and Great Britain. During Chifley's administration international economic collaboration between Australia and Britain was close, Australia tending to identify its interests with those of the UK and the sterling area. Yet collaboration never stretched to acceptance by Australia of traditional forms of manufacturer–primary producer complementarity; this played no part in Canberra's postwar planning and priority given to industrialization led to the relative neglect of rural industries, which, together with the rapidly growing demands of its own population, reduced export surpluses and contributed to Australia's poor record as a food supplier. Buoyant export prices, especially for wool, combined with capital inflows from the UK to stimulate import demands. Because of dollar shortages most of these had to be sourced from Britain. From 1948 the UK not only expanded exports dramatically but was a major source of migrants and capital. Yet British industrial capacity in particular proved unequal to the task of meeting Australian needs. Imperial self-insufficiency again stood revealed, encouraging Menzies to look beyond the sterling area to support Australia's rapid development.


Disseminated mycobacteremia resulting from Mycobacterium avium-Mycobacterium intracellulare complex (MAC) infections frequently contribute to the morbidity and mortality seen in AIDS patients. To better understand the immunopathology of MAC disease and to identify molecules that may have potential diagnostic and vaccine utility, an immunoreactive M. intracellulare protein (MI43) and the gene encoding this antigen were characterized. Southern blot hybridizations demonstrated that MI43 gene probes reacted only with genomic DNA from M. intracellulare, M. avium, and Mycobacterium asiaticum and not with DNA isolated from 11 other mycobacterial species. Nucleotide sequence analysis showed that the MI43 gene encodes a 27-kDa protein which contains a consensus bacterial lipoprotein processing sequence. Detergent-phase separations and metabolic labeling with [3H]palmitate also suggested that MI43 is a lipoprotein. Serological assays demonstrated that recombinant MI43 fusion proteins react with sera from M. avium-infected mice, sera from patients with MAC disease, and sera from patients with active tuberculosis. These results further suggest that mycobacterial lipoproteins are important immunogens that should be considered in the development of improved mycobacterial vaccines and diagnostic reagents.


1. The mechanical properties of the longitudinal and circular muscles of the earthworm, Pheretima communissima , were studied in various solutions.

2. In the longitudinal muscle, field stimulation elicited two distinct waves of tension development, i.e. phasic and tonic contractions. But in the circular muscle, these components were not distinguishable.

3. The phasic contraction in the longitudinal muscle increased in sodium-free (tris) solution while the tonic contraction was abolished. Neither the phasic nor the tonic contraction, however, was influenced by tetrodotoxin (3 x 10-6 M), d -tubocurarine (1.4 x 10-5M), or atropine (3.5 x 10-5 M).

4. The contraction in the circular muscle was suppressed in sodium-free solution and also by tetrodotoxin (3 x 10-6 M), but was not affected by d -tubocurarine (1.4 x 10-5 M) or by atropine (3.5 x 10-5M).

5. It is speculated that the phasic contraction of the longitudinal muscle is triggered by a calcium spike, and the contraction in the circular muscle is preceded by a sodium spike in muscle fibres.


: Results of using the curative endoscopy in the early postoperative period in 43 patients following the operation for closure of the perforative opening are described. The authors show high efficiency of the local injection of antiinflammatory drugs and substances stimulating reparation during healing of closed ulcers of the gastroduodenal zone.


ABSTRACT Children who had received MMR as the most recent vaccine had a pooled 35% (95%CI: 12–53%) lower risk for hospitalization due to any infectious disease, compared to children who had received DTaP as the most recent vaccine (three studies, 1,919,192 children). The effect was stronger for respiratory tract infections than for gastrointestinal infections. Two studies investigated MMR alone, compared to concurrent administration of MMR and DTaP vaccines. Here, the pooled estimate for reduction in risk of hospitalization for any infectious disease was smaller and not significant (15%; 95%CI: −9% to 34%). Risk of bias was serious to critical in all studies. Moreover, two of the five studies demonstrated a significantly reduced risk for a control outcome (hospitalization for injuries), strongly indicating healthy vaccinee bias or residual confounding. The available evidence is insufficient to support a change in current vaccination schedules.


In Reply. —We read with interest Dr Miyake's letter addressing our article on X-linked congenital stationary night blindness. We have reviewed our scotopic intensity series and we find no evidence of a positive electroretinogram in the patient he discusses. Further evidence of this, as noted in our Table 2,1is that the b-wave/a-wave amplitude ratio for this patient which was less than 0.4. If case IV-2 is considered by Dr Miyake to be an incomplete type, then the distinction between complete and incomplete does not appear to be a very discrete one.


Nanomaterials play very important role in chemical industries, agrochemical products, pharmaceutical drugs, materials science, engineering and nanotechnology. There is a recent increase in the utilization of nanomaterials for food and nutraceutical materials, energy, biomedical, cosmetics, textiles and health products. Nanotechnology is a potential area that revolutionises almost every sector of life and is predicted to become a major economic force in the near future. Nanomaterials are dispersed or solid particles with a size range of 1-100nm. Toxicity and ecotoxicity of some nanomaterials are well known. Their discharge into the environment pose serious threat to human life and environment. As such, it has become imperative to have a critical evaluation of the current states of knowledge with respect to the exposure and effect nanomaterials on the environment. The present review focused on reducing environmental problems associated with production, utilization and waste products disposal of nanoparticles. Sequel to environmental challenges posed by the use of nanomaterials in nanotechnology, efforts should be geared towards environmental remediation, efficient conversation of biomass, green chemistry, mandatory report of information about nanomaterials, modeling approach specific for NMs as well as standardized guidance describing specific requirements for the testing of fate and effects of Nanomaterials.


Access to affordable energy for basic needs, as well as for national economic development, is a crucial concern for Least Developed Countries. Access to modern and sustainable energy services in rural areas, where the majority of the population is living in poverty, is a particularly urgent challenge, and one which has only recently been recognized as crucial within the global development agenda. The current dominant development model, focused on achieving macroeconomic growth, gives priority to large-scale or centralized energy infrastructures for national growth or for meeting the demands of urban dwellers. Policy processes in most sub-Saharan African countries often fail to prioritize modern and sustainable energy services at the local level as a means to achieving economic growth at the national level. This study examines the case of Ethiopia to investigate the prospects for mainstreaming sustainable energy access into the development planning process and the implications of this for international development financiers, national policy-makers, private actors and local energy planners. In particular, the paper identifies institutional, financial and policy criteria – related both to state and non-state actors – which are required to integrate sustainable energy access and meet implementation challenges in the Ethiopian rural energy sector. Based on this analysis, the paper discusses policy implications for other sub-Saharan African countries as well. MAINSTREAMING SUSTAINABLE ENERGY ACCESS INTO DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF ETHIOPIA SEI-WP-2013-09