Teachers today deal with many issues in their classrooms from student behaviour problems to curriculum concerns. Many teachers are searching for fresh and innovative ways to approach these issues. One approach that has been moving through the United States and Canada is the Multiple Intelligences approach to teaching. These strategies are based on the Multiple Intelligences theory developed by Howard Gardner in 1983 that all people have within them many "intelligences" or capabilities. This study, which describes a workshop conducted for the teachers and assistants of Lethbridge School District #51, outlines Multiple Intelligences teaching strategies and is designed to help educators feel more comfortable using these strategies in their classrooms. A pre-workshop questionnaire guided the creation of the workshop and a post-workshop questionnaire indicated most participants gained knowledge and confidence as a result of attending the workshop. Recommendations for changes to future Multiple Intelligences workshops were suggested by the participants as well as an interest in further communication to support teachers who wish to use the strategies in their classrooms.


AIM
The effects of vitamin D3 have been investigated on various tumors, including colorectal cancer (CRC). 25-hydroxyvitamin-D3-24-hydroxylase (CYP24A1), the enzyme that inactivates the active vitamin D3 metabolite 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25-D3), is considered to be the main enzyme determining the biological half-life of 1,25-D3. During colorectal carcinogenesis, the expression and concentration of CYP24A1 increases significantly, suggesting that this phenomenon could be responsible for the proposed efficacy of 1,25-D3 in the treatment of CRC. The aim of this study was to investigate the anti-tumor effects of vitamin D3 on the human CRC cell line Caco-2 after inhibition of the cytochrome P450 component of CYP24A1 activity.

METHODS
We examined the expression of CYP24A1 mRNA and the effects of 1,25-D3 on the cell line Caco-2 after inhibition of CYP24A1. Cell viability and proliferation were determined by means of sulforhodamine-B staining and bromodeoxyuridine incorporation, respectively, while cytotoxicity was estimated via the lactate dehydrogenase content of the cell culture supernatant. CYP24A1 expression was measured by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. A number of tetralone compounds were synthesized to investigate their CP24A1 inhibitory activity.

RESULTS
In response to 1,25-D3, CYP24A1 mRNA expression was enhanced significantly, in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Caco-2 cell viability and proliferation were not influenced by the administration of 1,25-D3 alone, but were markedly reduced by co-administration of 1,25-D3 and KD-35, a CYP24A1-inhibiting tetralone. Our data suggest that the mechanism of action of co-administered KD-35 and 1,25-D3 does not involve a direct cytotoxic effect, but rather the inhibition of cell proliferation.

CONCLUSION
These findings demonstrate that the selective inhibition of CYP24A1 by compounds such as KD-35 may be a new approach for enhancement of the anti-tumor effect of 1,25-D3 on CRC.


Two challenges faced by university instructors in introductory chemistry courses are the need to keep the course material connected with technology that students are using as well as engaging students in a manner that keeps them interested in the subject. A case study is described where students in a general chemistry course were challenged to create and upload a video to the video-sharing Web site YouTube that could be used to learn solubility rules (which ions combine to form insoluble precipitates in dilute aqueous solutions). An assessment of the assignment was done by comparing results on a common exam question for courses with and without the assignment, as well as a follow up question on the final exam, survey questions, and comments. Results suggest that the solubility rules YouTube video assignment improved student learning of the rules and promoted interest in chemistry among a majority of the students involved in the activity.


OBJECTIVES This study aimed to describe trends in health behaviours between 2011 and 2020 and compare the changes in these behaviours between the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and previous periods according to socio-demographic variables. METHODS This study used data from the 2011 to 2020 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Current cigarette smoking, high-risk drinking, and inadequate physical activity levels were used as health behaviour indicators. The age-standardized prevalence, differences in prevalence between the periods, and the annual percentage change (APC) were calculated. RESULTS Current cigarette smoking showed a decreasing trend (APC, -2.6), high-risk drinking remained unchanged, and inadequate physical activity levels increased (APC, 3.5) during 2011-2020. There were significant differences in high-risk drinking (3.1%p; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.3 to 5.9) and inadequate physical activity levels (4.3%p; 95% CI, 0.4 to 8.1) between 2019 and 2020 in men. Among men, increased high-risk drinking was found in those aged 40-49 years, non-single households, urban residents, and the middle and highest income groups between 2019 and 2020. The low educational group and manual workers among men aged 30-59 years also showed an increased proportion of high-risk drinking. Inadequate physical activity levels also increased among men between 2019 and 2020 in those aged 30-39 years, non-single households, urban residents, and the upper-middle-income group. CONCLUSIONS In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Korean men's high-risk drinking and inadequate physical activity levels increased. In addition to social efforts to reduce the spread of infectious diseases, active measures to positively change health behaviour are needed.


Zinc is plant micronutrient which is involved in many physiological functions its inadequate supply will reduce crop yields. Zinc deficiency is the most wide spread micronutrient deficiency problem, almost all crops and calcareous, sandy soils, peat soils, and soils with high phosphorus and silicon are expected to be deficient. Zinc deficiencies can affect plant by stunting its growth, decreasing number of tillers, chlorosis and smaller leaves, increasing crop maturity period, spikelet sterility and inferior quality of harvested products. Beside its role in crop production Zn plays a part in the basic roles of cellular functions in all living organisms and is involved in improving the human immune system, due toits insufficient intake, human body will suffer from hair and memory loss, skin problems and weakness in body muscles.


Soil amendment with beneficial microorganisms is gaining popularity among farmers to alleviate the decline of soil fertility and to increase food production and maintain environmental quality. However, farm management greatly influence soil microbial abundance and function, which overly affects crop growth and development. In this work, greenhouse experiments involving soybeans were conducted to evaluate the effects of bradyrhizobia and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) dual inoculation on nodulation, AMF root colonization, growth and nutrient acquisition under contrasting farming systems. The experimental treatments were AMF and/or bradyrhizobia inoculation and dual inoculation on SC squire soybean variety. The exotic AMF inoculants used were Funneliformis mosseae (BEG 12) and Rhizophagus irregularis (BEG 44) while bacteria were commercial Bradyrhizobium japonicum (USDA110) and native bradyrhizobia isolates. Experiments with soil samples from organic and conventional farms were set out using a completely randomized design with three replicates. The results demonstrated that bradyrhizobia and AMF dual inoculation consistently and significantly enhanced soybean nodule dry weight (NDW), shoot dry weight (SDW) and AMF root colonization compared with individual bradyrhizobia , AMF and non-inoculated control. Moreover, organic soil significantly (p = 0.001) increased soybean SDW, NDW and AMF root colonization compared to conventional soil. Remarkably, shoot nutrients content differed in organic and conventional farming where, shoot nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and organic carbon were higher in organic farming than the latter. Among individual inoculants, Rhizophagus irregularis out-performed Funneliformis mosseae, while commercial Bradyrhizobium japonicum showed higher performance than native bradyrhizobia. Our results demonstrated the importance of organic farming, AMF and bradyrhizobia dual inoculation in enhancing soybean growth and nutrient acquisition. However, field trials should be assessed to determine the good performance of bradyrhizobia and AMF dual inoculation in organic farming before being popularized and adopted by farmers as a sustainable agronomical management strategy to increase soil fertility and food productivity.


Lawyers' knowledge of technology — how to provide counsel with sufficient knowledge to be able to effectively challenge the reliability of those technologies (electronic systems and devices) that produce the most frequently used kinds of evidence, e.g.: electronically produced records; mobile phone tracking evidence; breathalyzer/intoxilyzer devices; and, software programs for discovery's "technology assisted review" stage. More specifically the problem is collectively made up of these individual problems:
(1) lawyers don't know such evidence-producing technology sufficiently well so as to be able to challenge its performance by effective cross-examination and with their own expert witnesses (if Legal Aid will pay for them).
(2) law schools don't teach courses on the necessary interaction between different kinds of technology and the necessary flexibility of rules of procedure as they should be applied in regard to, electronic discovery, disclosure, preliminary inquiries, and admissibility voir dires. See e.g., R. v. Oland 2015 NBQB 245, and, R. v. Oland 2015 NBQB 244, being two pre-trial voir dires on the admissibility of mobile phone tracking evidence for a 2nd degree murder trial.
(3) continuing professional development seminars, conference, (CLE) etc., don't provide such information about technology;
(4) the problem is a moving target, i.e., technology is constantly changing and therefore so will the types of technology that produce the most frequently used kinds of evidence;
(5) the huge access to justice (A2J) — unaffordable legal services problem means an ever-increasing number of persons appearing in courts, particularly criminal courts, without lawyers, thus greatly increasing the probability of wrongful convictions and wrongful guilty pleas — such unrepresented persons can't challenge the complex sources of the evidence used against them; (6) Prosecutors don't know such technology either, and therefore can't inform investigating officers what to watch out for and obtain;
(7) the police aren't trained about such technical sources, such that the prosecutor's duty to disclose, "the fruits of the investigation" that R. v. Stinchcomb 1991 CanLII 45 (SCC, Nov. 7, 1991), requires be disclosed to defence counsel, may be very inadequate, but defence and prosecuting counsel, and their law school professors don't know what they don't know as to technology; (8) because most of the evidence used in both criminal and civil proceedings now comes from the same sources, most of the great complexity of rules that now burden electronic discovery in civil proceedings, should apply to disclosure in criminal proceedings, but so far, they don't;
(9) lawyers and police officers don't know about the National Standards of Canada (or the comparable, U.S., DoD's 5015.2 standard for records management) that establish the required practices and procedures for the proper operation of such technology, such as electronic records managements systems' technology;
(10) at a preliminary inquiry, counsel cannot specify whether "committal for trial is in issue," if the quality of the, manufacturing, use, and maintenance of the technology that produces the prosecution's evidence is not known;
(11) defense counsel needs a constitutional right to a traditional full preliminary inquiry so as to be able to cross-examine witnesses (or demand that witnesses be made available for cross-examination) to learn enough about the technology that produced the evidence to be used by the prosecution at trial;
But instead, Bill C-75, Second Reading, June 11, 2018 (in the Canadian Parliament), proposes to restrict the availability of a preliminary inquiry to offences punishable by life imprisonment, and to strengthen the judge's ability to limit the issues to be explored and the witnesses to be heard, i.e., the proposed amendments would abolish the preliminary inquiry for all but those offences involving a maximum punishment of life imprisonment, which offences range from murder to criminal negligence causing death.
Law societies have to formally recognize a "legal research lawyer specialist" for each major area of law, part of whose stock-in-trade would be knowledge of such frequently used, evidence-producing technologies. Such innovation is now necessary so as to make available to all lawyers such knowledge in aid of preparing competent cross-examinations and arguments with which to challenge the reliability of such frequently used sources of evidence, and to argue how the rules of procedure that control proceedings concerning, discovery, disclosure, and admissibility, must be applied flexibly so as to be compatible with constitutional requirements as to "fair trial," and, "an opportunity to make full answer and defense. But, because few law firms would have sufficient volume of production to be able to employ such highly specialized lawyers, they would have to be made available to other lawyers in support services operating at cost. However, law societies have no history of doing either creating specialist legal research lawyers, or support services.


The coefficients for the expansion of a plane wave in terms of the eigenstates (modes) of a Selfoc® fiber are derived. This result is used as the basis for a suggestion for a new optical fiber whose spectral response could be any one of the functions used extensively in colorimetric instrumentation.


This position paper is based on the CodeX "Autonomous Intelligent Cyber Entity" (AiCE) book project. The AiCE draws on its intelligent and computational law capabilities to promote a safer, more efficient on-line environment. It is a flexible framework that can be configured to serve various purposes in business and individual-user settings. Due to its autonomous, intelligent and broad range functional capabilities, the success of AiCE is dependent on its entity status being formally recognized by law. This paper describes how this status can be granted by building on the same legal principles that endow U.S. corporations with an "entity" status; and while the focus here is purposefully narrowed to U.S. law, the same principles have universal application (a subject dealt with comprehensively in the book). Where the particular intention is to better protect a user's private data, the AiCE can be configured by a user into an "AiCE Veiled Identity Agent" (AVIA). This AiCE configuration shields the user's private information and offers him a "veiled" identity similar to that which corporate shareholders enjoy, all without degrading the flow of information vital to innovation and new value generation. This paper concludes with the introduction of the Uniform AiCE Transactions Act (UATA), an intelligent legal framework designed to govern all AiCE activity, promote trust and widespread adoption of this model. Protecting Privacy: Anonymity & Veiled


The parallel programming community is witnessing two main trends - the growing popularity of task-based programming models and the growing complexity of multicore hardware. In order to see how these two trends fit each other, it is important to characterize the behavior of task-based benchmarks on modern multicore hardware. Besides leading to benchmark design optimizations, such characterization enables making educated tradeoffs in the design of task-handling middleware such as compilers and runtime systems.In this thesis work, we characterize task-based benchmarks from the Barcelona OpenMP Tasks Suite (BOTS) at the task-level. We focus on two aspects: how does the task scheduler fare in handling programmer exposed parallelism, and how does the task decomposition make use of the hardware memory hierarchy. Our characterization considers two diverse multicore architectures - one built for server systems, and the other for embedded systems. With respect to middleware, we consider GCC's implementation of OpenMP tasks. Our contributions are two-fold. First, we complement existing thread and application level characterization of BOTS benchmarks with a finer task and memory hierarchy level characterization. Next, we identify BOTS performance bottlenecks and optimize Sort and FFT benchmarks to reduce their execution time by a factor 2 and 1.65 respectively on the server architecture.


Leniency programs reduce sanctions for law violators that self-report. We focus on their ability to deter cartels and organized crime by increasing incentives to "cheat" on partners. Optimally designed "courageous" leniency programs reward the ...rst party that reports with the ...nes paid by all other parties, and achieve the ...rst best : complete and costless deterrence. "Moderate" leniency programs that only reduce or cancel sanctions may deter organized crime (a) by protecting an agent that defects from ...nes and from other agents' punishment; and (b) by increasing the riskiness of crime/collusion, in the sense of Harsanyi and Selten (1988). JEL Classification: L13, L40, K21, K40


The design number of gyrations, or Ndesign introduced by Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) used in the Superpave mix Design method has been commonly used in flexible pavement design throughout the United States. The Ndesign, also known as the compaction effort used to simulate field compaction during construction has been reported to produce air voids that are unable to reach ultimate pavement density after some period of time. Other states had conducted studies validating the Ndesign for their specific region. This study will focus on the validation of Ndesign in the State of Iowa. Pavement sections constructed in 2011 were randomly selected to determine if 4% target air voids was being achieved four years post-construction. The objective of the study is to determine if the current mix design gyratory levels are creating mixes that will reach target densification under traffic. The quality control and quality assurance (QC/QA) information at construction was matched with four year postconstruction densities from field cores to determine if traffic loading is adequately compacting the surface mix. The compaction effort is critical in design. Over-compaction during design may lead to under-compaction in the field as well as reduce asphalt content and affect overall durability. Findings of the study suggest majority of mixes were not achieving 4% air voids four years post-construction and mixes with lower design gyrations compact more readily post-construction even though traffic levels are lower. Majority of the projects in the highest traffic volume were unable to reach ultimate pavement density with the current design gyrations.


Purpose: Androgen ablation-refractory prostate cancer patients (stage D3) develop painful bone metastases and limited responsiveness to conventional therapies, hence the lack of universally accepted "gold standard" treatment for this poor prognosis clinical setting. We tested the safety and efficacy in stage D3 patients of the combination hormonal therapy, which combines administration of somatostatin analog and dexamethasone with standard androgen ablation monotherapy (luteinizing-hormone releasing-hormone analog or orchiectomy). Experimental Design: Thirty eight patients with stage D3 prostate cancer (mean age 71.8 ± 5.9 years) continued receiving androgen ablation therapy in combination with oral dexamethasone (4 mg daily for the 1st month of treatment, tapered down to 1 mg daily by the 4th month, with 1 mg daily maintenance dose thereafter) and somatostatin analog (20 mg octreotide i.m. injections every 28 days). Results: Twenty-three of 38 patients (60.5%) receiving this combination regimen had partial responses [PR, ≥50% prostate-specific antigen (PSA) decline], 9 (21.1%) had stable disease, and 7 (18.4%) had progressive disease. In 47.7% (18 of 38) of patients, their serum PSA levels decreased with treatment but did not return to their respective baselines until the end of follow-up (or death from non-prostate cancer-related causes). The median time-to-return to baseline PSA was 12 months (95% CI, 7–17 months), median progression-free survival was 7 months (95% CI, 4.5–9.5 months), median overall survival was 14 months (95% CI, 10.7–17.4 months), and median prostate cancer-specific overall survival (defined as time from onset of combination therapy until prostate cancer-related death) was 16.0 months (95% CI, 11.9–20.1 months). All patients reported significant and durable improvement of bone pain and performance status (for a median duration of 14 months; 95% CI, 9–19 months), without major treatment-related side effects. We observed a statistically significant (P < 0.01) reduction in serum insulin-like growth factor-1 levels at response to the combination therapy. T levels remained suppressed within castration levels at baseline and throughout therapy, including relapse. Conclusion: The combination therapy of dexamethasone plus somatostatin analog and standard androgen ablation manipulation produces objective clinical responses and symptomatic improvement in androgen ablation-refractory refractory prostate cancer patients.


End-to-end delay is an important QoS metric in sensor networks as well as any application that involves transferring of small-sized files. In this paper, we address how to minimize the end-to-end delay in a multihop wireless network. End-to-end delay is defined as the total time it takes for a single packet to reach the destination. It is a result of many factors including the length of the routing path and the interference level along the path. In this paper we present a transmission scheduling scheme that minimizes the end-to-end delay along a given route. The link scheduling scheme is based on integer linear programming and involves interference modeling. Using this schedule, there are no conflicting transmissions at any time. Through simulation, we show that the proposed link scheduling scheme can significantly reduce end-to- end latency regardless of the routing algorithm used.


The control objective of three-phase photovoltaic (PV) grid-connected inverter is to generate high quality and stable AC sinusoidal output power with the same phase angle, frequency and amplitude compatible with the grid-connected voltage. To overcome the shortcoming of the normal current PWM control method and traditional PI algorithm, this paper researches a combined control strategy of three phase PV grid-connected inverter based on fuzzy PI controller. The combined control strategy switches different PWM current control method among the hysteretic PWM, SVPWM, hysteretic current SVPWM according to the error between command current and feedback current,and the d-axis command current is output of fuzzy PI controller of DC bus voltage. The simulation model of the combined control strategy for three phase PV grid-connected inverter based on normal PI controller is built with Matlab, simulation results verified the combination control strategy based on fuzzy PI controller has excellent performances.


Background: One emerging cornerstones of family nursing is strengths based nursing (SBN). SBN is both a philosophy and a practical approach to nursing that aims to optimise functioning and wellbeing, promote health and create conditions for healing across the life span.

Purpose: Attendees will develop skills in teaching family nursing and have an opportunity to develop international collaborations in teaching family nursing.
Methods - Educational Focus: In the Bachelor of Nursing program in Tasmania, Australia, a new SBN subject will commence July 2017. This subject will explore principles of strengths-based nursing through a mixed mode of teaching including on-campus workshops and online learning. Students engage with learning material through case based simulations, Twitter (@DrLindsaySmith, #AFSNA_), IFNA YouTube channel and web-based resources to support the development and application of strengths based nursing knowledge and skills in various contexts of nursing.

Results/Evaluation: The teaching and learning strategies combined in the new subject have been implemented and evaluated through a predecessor undergraduate nursing subject. Evaluation results are overwhelmingly positive towards these teaching strategies summarised in the following student comments:
- Online learning provides great balance for work, family etc. Unit Coordinator is engaging, approachable and supportive. I have enjoyed this subject.
- The access provided by Lindsay Smith by way of many different websites, recorded media events (including Twitter and YouTube) and other information was excellent.
Conclusion: Opportunities are available to establish collaborative teaching and learning resources and student learning experiences with an international community of family nursing educators utilising these learning resources and activities. Opportunity to develop collaborative teaching resources and student learning activities will also be offered. It is anticipated that through this presentation collaboration in family nursing education will be promoted.


Research in information systems (IS) is often challenged during the review process with "what's new" and the "so what" questions. While we believe that there is innovation in IS research, constituents in the field do not have a good or at least consistent understanding of what this entails. This creates a problem for editors, authors, and reviewers in assessing how innovative a study is or what aspects of the work are indeed innovative. This paper is a response to this concern that takes on the challenging task of recognizing innovation in IS research. At the most basic level, we offer a structure that examines a variety of ways that innovation may be manifested in our research output. We describe, illustrate, and discuss the challenges of using our categories of innovative research. We hope that such identification can stimulate and expand our capacity to generate innovative research and to recognize (and promote) it when it is forthcoming.


Paclitaxel (Taxol®) is now widely used against breast, ovarian and non-small-cell lung cancer. Anticancer agents generally have narrow therapeutic indices, often with myelosuppression (mainly neutropenia) as dose-limiting side effect. A further complicating factor is that paclitaxel when given as Taxol® has a nonlinear pharmacokinetic (PK) behaviour in plasma. Identifying risk groups more sensitive to chemotherapy due to either a PK or pharmacodynamic (PD) interindividual variability is of importance. The aim of the thesis was to develop predictive mechanism-based PK and PD models applicable for paclitaxel. PK and PK/PD models were developed for patient data from studies with relatively frequent sampling or sparse sampling schedules. Population analyses were performed using the software NONMEM. A pharmacokinetic model describing unbound, total plasma and blood concentrations of paclitaxel from known binding mechanisms was developed and validated. The nonlinear PK in plasma could to a large extent be explained by the micelle forming vehicle Cremophor EL (CrEL) and the unbound drug showed linear PK. Besides a binding component directly proportional to concentrations of CrEL, the model included both linear and nonlinear binding components in plasma and blood. Further, relations between the PK parameters and different demographic factors, including polymorphisms in the cytochrome P450s involved in paclitaxel metabolism, were investigated. A semi-physiological PD model for chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression was developed and applied to different anticancer drugs. The model included a self-renewal for proliferating cells, transit compartments describing the delay in observed myelosuppression and a feedback parameter reflecting the effect on the bone marrow from growth factors that can result in an overshoot in white blood cells. The system-related parameters estimated showed consistency across drugs and the difference in the drug-related parameter reflected the relative bone marrow toxicity of the drugs. Relations between demographic factors and the PD parameters were identified. The developed mechanism-based models promote a better understanding of paclitaxel PK and PD and may be used as tools in dosing individualisation and in development of dosing strategies for new administration forms and new drugs in the same area.


CSOM is a most common ENT disease in our country, among them the atticoantral variety is life threatening if not treated earlier. So treatment plan is still radical surgery to eradicate the disease to save life ignoring the hearing conservation. Henceforth post operative hearing loss remains a problem for the patient. Ensuring total clearance of the disease depending on the ossicular status, tragal cartilage graft was used as easily available material for ossiculoplasty to improve the post operative hearing .The study presents 35 ear operation of varied middle ear pathology using tragal cartilage & perichodrium as a choice graft. We have recorded our observation & result & concluded that tragal cartilage & perichondrium is an ideal graft for ossiculoplaty. The objective of study was to asses the efficacy of tragal cartilage, the functional capacity in restoring hearing acuity, it's mechanical survival, it's extrusion rate & it's functional integrity in ossicular reconstruction. The patients those underwent surgery in Sir Salimullah Medical College Mitford Hospital had significant improvement of hearing with no recurrence of disease. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjo.v19i1.14860 Bangladesh J Otorhinolaryngol 2013; 19(1): 24-28


Multilevel converters offer high power capability, associated with lower output harmonics and lower commutation losses. Their main disadvantage is their complexity, requiring a great number of power devices and passive components, and a rather complex control circuitry. This paper proposes a single-phase seven- level inverter for grid connected PV systems, with a novel pulse width- modulated (PWM) control scheme. Three reference signals that are identical to each other with an offset that is equivalent to the amplitude of the triangular carrier signal were used to generate the PWM signals. The inverter is capable of producing seven levels of output-voltage levels from the dc supply voltage. This paper proposes a new multilevel inverter topology using an H-bridge output stage with two bidirectional auxiliary switches. The new topology produces a significant reduction in the number of power devices and capacitors required to implement a multilevel output using the Asymmetric Cascade configuration.


This paper compares, in a hub and spoke (H&S) setting, the performance of two automated methods in rapid diagnosis of urinary tract infections (UTI). 2335 midstream urine samples obtained from adult patients were considered. In the spoke laboratory, rapid diagnosis of UTI was performed by using bacteria quantification with a Sysmex UF-1000i analyzer. In the hub laboratory, rapid diagnosis of UTI was performed by using Alifax Alfred and HB&L analyzer. Moreover, in the hub laboratory, a quantitative culture was performed in all samples. Using UF-1000i with a cut-off at 175 bacteria/µl, sensitivity was (SE) 0.95, specificity (SP) 0.80, negative predictive value (NPV) 0.98, positive predictive value (PPV) 0.64, and diagnostic accuracy (DA) 0.84. Using Alifax Alfred and HB&L with a cut-off at 30000 bacteria/ml, SE was 0.99, SP 0.99, NPV 0.99, PPV 0.98 and DA 0.98. In an H&S setting, UTI screening with UF-1000i is acceptable for routine applications. In our setting, after implementation of an UF-1000i based UTI screening, the number of bacterial cultures was thought to be reduced to 50%. Therefore, using the Alifax Alfred and HB&L system, with a higher SP, it was assumed that there is need to carry out further urine microbiological tests, allowing to perform reliable samples of about 70%. Another relevant positive aspect may be the availability of the negative results within 9 to 10 h after samples collection.

 Key words: Bacteriuria, rapid diagnosis, urinalysis, urinary tract infection.


This article examines the interplay between photography and universal exhibitions, two modern phenomena which, in different ways, have allowed for the world to be seen and reconfigured in unprecedented ways. It considers world exhibitions not just as sites of movement but also as systems that crucially rely on the circulation of photographic images. Focusing on a specific, and so far unexamined, case study – the Pavilion of Portugal at Brussels Expo 58 –, this work combines historical reconstruction and critical analysis to demonstrate how photography and exhibitions are mutually affected and transformed by the contexts in which they are made available. Particular attention is paid to the way humanism has been photographically integrated into the national discourse, and to the role invisibility plays in both exhibition and propaganda processes. Moreover, it is argued that despite the profusion and impressive scale of the photomurals in the pavilion, photography occupied a significantly subordinate role in the broad exhibition programme. Investigating how photographs functioned at different levels and purposes, before, during and after the exhibition, this article excavates several discourses, networks, and photo-textual interactions, to evidence how the history of photography and the history of exhibitions are often inseparable from one another.


Abstract. This paper presents a Cloud-based open source system for storing and processing data from a 3D survey approach. More specifically, we provide an online service for viewing, storing and analysing BIM. Cloud technologies were used to develop a web interface as a BIM data centre, which can handle large BIM data using a server. The server can be accessed by many users through various electronic devices anytime and anywhere so they can view online 3D models using browsers. Nowadays, the Cloud computing is engaged progressively in facilitating BIM-based collaboration between the multiple stakeholders and disciplinary groups for complicated Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) projects. Besides, the development of Open Source Software (OSS) has been rapidly growing and their use tends to be united. Although BIM and Cloud technologies are extensively known and used, there is a lack of integrated open source Cloud-based platforms able to support all stages of BIM processes. The present research aims to create an open source Cloud-based BIM system that is able to handle geospatial data. In this effort, only open source tools will be used; from the starting point of creating the 3D model with FreeCAD to its online presentation through BIMserver. Python plug-ins will be developed to link the two software which will be distributed and freely available to a large community of professional for their use. The research work will be completed by benchmarking four Cloud-based BIM systems: Autodesk BIM 360, BIMserver, Graphisoft BIMcloud and Onuma System, which present remarkable results.


A novel development on halloysite-polyvinyl alcohol (HNTs-PVA) nanocomposites has been conducted using malonic acid (MA) by crosslinking PVA and HNTs. PVA-MA crosslinking produces smooth surfaces, which play an important role in enhancing the properties of HNTs-PVA nanocomposite. The crystallographic structures of crosslinked HNTs-PVA show almost no change as depicted by the X-ray diffraction (XRD)-2θ-peak, suggesting that MA has no or little influence on the crystallographic structure of the HNTs-PVA. Images taken by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) suggest possible effects of MA on the morphology and internal features of HNTs-PVA by reducing the agglomeration of HNTs, which is considered a decisive step in improving the surface qualities of HNTs. Investigating the samples using the Brunauer–Emmelt–Teller (BET) technique showed that the surface area was increased by about 10 times, reaching the second highest recorded results compared to the HNTs, which could be considered a breakthrough step in enhancing the properties of HNTs-PVA due to MA crosslinking.


The past few decades have witnessed a rapid development in electrochemical chemosensors (ECCSs). The integration of carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) and molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) has endowed ECCSs with high selectivity and sensitivity toward target detection. Due to the integrated merits of MIPs and CNMs, CNM-modified MIPs as ECCSs have been widely reported and have excellent detection applications. This review systematically summarized the general categories, preparation strategies, and applications of ECCSs based on CNM-modified MIPs. The categories include CNM-modified MIPs often hybridized with various materials and CNM-encapsulated or CNM-combined imprinting silica and polymers on working electrodes or other substrates. The preparation strategies include the polymerization of MIPs on CNM-modified substrates, co-polymerization of MIPs and CNMs on substrates, drop-casting of MIPs on CNM-modified substrates, self-assembly of CNMs/MIP complexes on substrates, and so forth. We discussed the in situ polymerization, electro-polymerization, and engineering structures of CNM-modified MIPs. With regard to potential applications, we elaborated the detection mechanisms, signal transducer modes, target types, and electrochemical sensing of targets in real samples. In addition, this review discussed the present status, challenges, and prospects of CNM-modified MIP-based ECCSs. This comprehensive review is desirable for scientists from broad research fields and can promote the further development of MIP-based functional materials, CNM-based hybrid materials, advanced composites, and hybrid materials.


Depression is one of the most common psychological disorders in children and adolescents often presenting as a severe, chronic and recurring condition with a high risk of self-harm and suicide. Normal brain development during adolescence is necessary to put into context when investigating biology of adolescent depression. There is an uneven timeline for development going from 'bottom up' with the subcortical limbic areas developing first, followed by the prefrontal cortical (PFC) areas, which does not reach full functional maturity until the mid-20s. Amygdala and striatum have been reported to be reduced in depressed youth compared to controls. Functional brain changes have been identified in adults but less consistently in adolescent depression.


One of the most important factors in sustainable irrigation is the adaptability of crops to climate. Vegetative vigor or "greenness" of wheat could be considered as an appropriate index to measure water availability and deficiency stress and also plant health, plant density and quality. The index is called Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). In this study MODIS-NDVI values were compared with climatological parameters to assess the relations between vegetative vigor and climatological parameters. The NDVI values for three selected wheat farms in Mashhad area were calculated using MODIS images for 2003 and 2004 growing seasons. The data of four climatological parameters including air temperature, precipitation, relative humidity and sunshine hours were also collected from the nearest weather stations. Then a multi-regression statistical analysis was performed to find the relation between wheat NDVI and climatological parameters in the study area. Pertaining statistical methods including Mixed, and Stepwise (Forward and Backward) were used in the analysis. Scattering matrix was used to determine the data scattering of the models and NDVI values for comparison. The results showed that backward method was more appropriate than the other two methods for predicting NDVI values of the study area. After finalizing this model the results were statistically tested using 20% of the samples for the test purpose and the remaining 80% for running the model. The results showed that there was no significant difference between Backward, Testing Backward and Training Backward models. The results from the latter method showed that the NDVI of the pixels could be estimated for 79% of the cases. It can be stated that the rest of NDVI values could be affected by other environmental parameters such as soil type and characteristics, topographical conditions, agronomical practices, plant diseases and other unknown factors. Finally, some maps were developed showing the potential wheat farming in the area according to the model results.


Grey fabric is one of the woven fabrics types that become the core product in CV. MAEMUNAH MAJALAYA. The inspection activity in this company is still conducted manually by using human vision. Therefore, that existing condition gives a very crucial implication in production flow. The limited numbers of inspection station cannot afford the production volume that increases in every week. Each station is only capable to inspect 30 meters of fabrics in one hour, while there are more than 20.000 meters of fabrics demand in every week. Therefore, automated system through image processing system for conducting the inspection activity can be implemented to optimize the productivity. In order to support the image processing system, this study will conduct design of experiment (DOE) using Taguchi approach to get the required data or information to build the image processing application. The Taguchi approach is utilized different combinations of factors and levels. The chosen factors are 463 lux light intensity, 20 cm camera distance, 8 MP camera resolution, 0.2 threshold, and 47 grayscale with low, medium, and high as the levels for each factors. Therefore, through Taguchi Orthogonal Array there will be 27 of experiments combinations will be discussed in this study Keywords: Design of Experiment, Taguchi Approach, Image Processing System, Woven Fabrics, Fabrics Inspection, Orthogonal Arrays.


In this study oxytocin (OT) receptors have been characterized and localized in the testis of the rat using the radioiodinated OT receptor antagonist 125I-labelled d(CH2)5 [Tyr(Me)2,Thr4,Tyr9-NH2]-vasotocin (OTA). Receptor density and localization have been compared with the rat testis arginine vasopressin (AVP) receptor using the radioiodinated AVP V1a receptor antagonist 125I-labelled d(CH2)5Sar7-AVP and the radioiodinated linear AVP V1a antagonist 125I-labelled [(C6H5-CH2CO)-O-methyl-D-Tyr-Phe-Gln-Asn-Arg-Pro- Arg-Pro-Arg-Tyr-NH2]. 125I-labelled OTA bound with high affinity to membrane fractions of the rat testis (Ka = 13.8 +/- 1.25 litres/nmol), mammary tissue (Ka = 20.3 +/- 4.36 litres/nmol) and uterus (Ka = 27.8 +/- 0.74 litres/nmol). Competition studies with various OT and AVP receptor agonists and antagonists confirmed that the binding was to OT receptors. AVP receptors in the testis were found to be identical to AVP V1a receptors in the liver. The AVP receptor density in the testis was much higher than the OT receptor density (109 +/- 12.3 vs 5.2 +/- 0.79 (mean +/- S.E.M.) fmol/mg protein). Autoradiographical localization showed that both OT and AVP receptors were present in the interstitial spaces in the testis consistent with binding to Leydig cells. AVP receptors were also localized on the epithelial surfaces of the seminiferous tubules and on testicular blood vessels. This study has, for the first time, found OT receptors in the testis of the rat which have similar ligand-binding characteristics to mammary and uterine OT receptors. The receptor localizations are consistent with binding to Leydig cells.


Introduction In-situ simulation is an immersive teaching modality that provides training for healthcare professionals in their own clinical environments, making learning more transferrable to the real world. This provides an integrated approach for developing technical and non-technical skills, that can enhance patient outcomes and additionally promote patient safety through latent error detection 1,2. We have introduced in-situ simulation into our endoscopy unit's nurse training timetable to promote educational development and reduce latent errors; it is estimated 2% of units do this 2. We present a one year evaluation of our simulation programme (2016–17). Method The in-situ programme was created through a collaboration between senior nursing staff, endoscopists and simulation faculty. Structured scenarios are designed around critical incidents, challenging cases and rare events that have occurred in the Endoscopy Unit. Low-fidelity manikins, iSimulate ALSi equipment and role-playing are used to deliver fortnightly sessions. Technical and non-technical learning objectives are explored through participant-led debriefs after each scenario. Faculty consists of a Gastroenterology Simulation Fellow and Senior Practice Development Nurse. Data is collected through questionnaires and free-text responses are thematically analysed. Latent errors are documented using a validated tool. Results In total, we have collated 99 responses from 15 in-situ sessions. Participants include student nurses (4%), Band 2 (24%), Band 3 (13%), Band 5 (46%), Band 6 (9%) and Band 7+ (4%). All participants declared their personal learning needs were met; 97% 'agree' or 'strongly agree' that it was valuable to learn in their work environment. Overall, 95% 'agree' or 'strongly agree' that training will have a role in improving their clinical practice and 92% felt that training did not significantly disrupt clinical duties. Leadership and communication were strong emergent themes, particularly developing skills such as task allocation and effective handover. Many participants identified self-reflective practice and promotion of patient advocacy as important learning points. Latent errors were identified as outlined in Table 1. Table 1 Risk stratification for identified latent errors (Risk score 1–3: Low risk; 4–6: Moderate Risk; 8–12 High Risk; 15–25: Extreme Risk; UCLP Latent Risk Identification Form). Abstract OC-034 Table 1 Conclusion The integration of in-situ simulation into the education programme for endoscopy nurses promotes development of technical and non-technical skills and helps detect latent errors. This programme has now become embedded within nurse training in our unit with further content being developed and delivered. References . Riley W, Lownik E, Parrotta C, Miller K, Davis S (2011) Creating High Reliability Teams in Healthcare through In situ Simulation Training. Adm. Sci. 1(1): 14-31. . Rosen MA, Hunt EA, Pronovost PJ et al (2012) In situ simulation in continuing education for the health care professions: a systematic review. J Contin Educ Health Prof. 32(4):243-54 Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Adsorption behavior of seven different carbon nanotubes (CNTs) towards polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was studied in moderately hard reconstituted water (MHRW) with and without dissolved natural organic matter (NOM). At one concentration, adsorption of phenanthrene towards these CNTs was determined using negligible depletion solid phase micro extraction (nd-SPME) followed by GC-MS analysis. The single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) showed much higher adsorption than all other CNTs. Functionalized multi-walled CNTs showed lower adsorption potential than their non-functionalized (MWCNTs) analogue. The adsorption potential of CNTs is affected by the type and extent of functionalization. Presence of NOM reduced phenanthrene adsorption towards the CNTs from 26-88 % of what was observed in MHRW. NOM decreases the adsorption potential of CNTs according to the type and extent of functionalization. The results suggest that increased diameter of MWCNTs might have supporting effect for the adsorption potential of CNTs for phenanthrene. The study could not find a clear correlation between the adsorption potential of the CNTs and one of the single parameter like specific surface area (SSA), outer diameter (OD), total pore volume (VT) and length of the CNTs. The CNTs characterization results in this study seem to differ from manufacturer?s specifications for these CNTs.


Lantibiotics are lanthionine containing peptide natural products that belong to the class of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs). Recent expansion in the availability of microbial genomic data and in silico analysis tools have accelerated the discovery of these promising alternatives to antibiotics. Following the genome-mining approach, a biosynthetic gene cluster for a putative two-component lantibiotic roseocin was identified in the genome of an Actinomycete, Streptomyces roseosporus NRRL 11379. Post-translationally modified lanthipeptides of this cluster were obtained by heterologous expression of the genes in E. coli, and were in vitro reconstituted to their bioactive form. The two lanthipeptides displayed antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria only synergistically, a property reminiscent of two-component lantibiotics. Structural analysis of the α-component identified a disulfide bridge flanking two of its four thioether bridges and the β-component having six thioether bridges with its C-terminus extended than the previously known two-component lantibiotics.


Modern computers have taken advantage of the instruction-level parallelism (ILP) available in programs with advances in both architecture and compiler design. Unfortunately, large amounts of ILP hardware and aggressive instruction scheduling techniques put great demands on a machine's register resources. With increasing ILP, it becomes difficult to maintain a single monolithic register bank and a high clock rate. To provide support for large amounts of ILP while retaining a high clock rate, registers can be partitioned among several different register banks. Each bank is directly accessible by only a subset of the functional units with explicit inter-bank copies required to move data between banks. Therefore, a compiler must deal not only with achieving maximal parallelism via aggressive scheduling, but also with data placement to limit inter-bank copies. Our approach to code generation for ILP architectures with partitioned register resources provides flexibility by representing machine dependent features as node and edge weights and by remaining independent of scheduling and register allocation methods. Experimentation with our framework has shown a degradation in execution performance of 10% on average when compared to an unrealizable monolithic-register-bank architecture with the same level of ILP.


Research conducted over past decades has investigated selected service encounter behaviors from either a customer or service provider perspective. However, a comprehensive, dual-perspective framework is lacking. Such a framework is needed to organize knowledge of these behaviors, and thereby provide structure, clarity, and parsimony to the field. This paper describes a three-tier framework of service encounter behavior that was developed by applying grounded theory principles to interviews with customers, service employees, and other stakeholders. These informants described many ways in which they behave when executing service exchanges, dealing with service difficulties, and managing themselves in the process. Using an iterative inductive approach, a conceptual framework was developed in which specific (Tier 1) behaviors were placed within broader (Tier 2) categories, and these lower classification levels were, in turn, interpreted within a conceptual space defined by the (Tier 3) dimensions of task, relationship, and self. This framework was then elaborated and refined by reference to the psychology and marketing literature, a set of 157 audio-recorded service interactions, and an expert panel study. The paper includes comparisons between the framework and those previously proposed, propositions regarding service encounter processes and outcomes, and implications for future research and practice.


"Apical Localization of the Alpha Subunit of GTP-Binding Protein Go in Choroidal and Ciliated Ependymocytes," by S. Péraldi, B. Nguyen Than Dao, Ph. Brabet, V. Homburger, B. Rouot, M. Toutant, Ch. Bouillé, I. Assenmacher, J. Bockaert, and J. Gabrion, Journal of Neuroscience 9(3): 806–814. In Figure 1 (p. 808) the correct labeling of the ADP-ribosylated bands should be 41 and 39.


Although self-evaluation is crucial in the practice of medicine, few educators have formally introduced self-assessment into the undergraduate medical curriculum. However, students in the baccalaureate-M.D. degree program at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, must complete a self-evaluation at the close of every medical school course and rotation during the last four years of a six-year curriculum. In this paper, the authors examine the self-ratings of 211 of these students as they progressed through the program in order to discover trends in and correlates of the self-assessments. Although the students' self-evaluations and faculty members' ratings of these students' performances rose year by year, the relationship between the students' and the faculty's ratings decreased through time. Yet, results suggest that self-evaluation has educational merit as a measure of noncognitive abilities associated with clinical performance and as a stimulus to further learning and professional development.


IEEE 802.11, the standard of wireless local area networks (WLANs), allows the coexistence of asynchronous and time-bounded traffic using the distributed coordination function (DCF) and point coordination function (PCF) modes of operations, respectively. In spite of its increasing popularity in real-world applications, the protocol suffers from the lack of any priority and access control policy to cope with various types of multimedia traffic, as well as user mobility. To expand support for applications with quality-of-service (QoS) requirements, the 802.11E task group was formed to enhance the original IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) protocol. However, the problem of choosing the right set of MAC parameters and QoS mechanism to provide predictable QoS in IEEE 802.11 networks remains unsolved. In this paper, we propose a polling with nonpreemptive priority-based access control scheme for the IEEE 802.11 protocol. Under such a scheme, modifying the DCF access method in the contention period supports multiple levels of priorities such that user handoff calls can be supported in wireless LANs. The proposed transmit-permission policy and adaptive bandwidth allocation scheme derive sufficient conditions such that all the time-bounded traffic sources satisfy their time constraints to provide various QoS guarantees in the contention free period, while maintaining efficient bandwidth utilization at the same time. In addition, our proposed scheme is provably optimal for voice traffic in that it gives minimum average waiting time for voice packets. In addition to theoretical analysis, simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme. As it turns out, our design indeed provides a good performance in the IEEE 802.11 WLAN's environment, and can be easily incorporated into the hybrid coordination function (HCF) access scheme in the IEEE 802.11e standard.


To the Editor.— One of the most common hospital procedures is the use of the lowly nasogastric (NG) tube. As all physicians who use NG tubes know, nasal irritation and ulceration are common complications. Sinusitis, serous otitis, and pharyngitis are also commonly seen. I recently intubated a 5-year-old child with a degenerative CNS disease to administer food and medications. The position of the tubes was ascertained by the usual clinical practice of aspirating gastric contents and blowing air through the tube while listening over the stomach. The tube functioned well for two days, but on the third day it became impossible to inject or aspirate through the tube. Initially, on withdrawing the tube, an increased amount of resistance was felt. The withdrawal of the last 6 to 8 cm was difficult and mildly painful to the patient. Cause of the difficulty was immediately apparent (Figure). The patient had a


The relativistic transition amplitude for any two-body reaction involving only particles of nonzero mass but arbitrary spin is decomposed in terms of scalar amplitudes that are regular functions in the space of scalar invariants at points corresponding to regular points of the transition matrix elements in momentum space, on the mass shell. Detailed formulas for the scalar amplitudes in terms of the original scattering matrix elements are given. The development is in the framework of analytic S-matrix theory, and is based on a partial generalization of the Hall-Wightman Theorem. The results hold on the complete (multisheeted) domain of regularity of the scattering amplitude.


A general understanding of the complex phenomenon of protein evolution requires the accurate description of the constraints that define the sub-space of proteins with mutations that do not appreciably reduce the fitness of the organism. Such constraints can have multiple origins, in this work we present a model for constrained evolutionary trajectories represented by a Markovian process throughout a set of protein-like structures artificially constructed to be topological intermediates between the structure of two natural occurring proteins. The number and type of intermediate steps defines how constrained the total evolutionary process is. By using a coarse-grained representation for the protein structures, we derive an analytic formulation of the transition rates between each of the intermediate structures. The results indicate that compact structures with a high number of hydrogen bonds are more probable and have a higher likelihood to arise during evolution. Knowledge of the transition rates allows for the study of complex evolutionary pathways represented by trajectories through a set of intermediate structures.


Inside, you'll discover discussions on pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management of medical emergencies and the most common diseases encountered in hospitalized patients. This visually exciting mini-reference includes hundreds of color illustrations to guide your diagnostic decisions. Learn what every internist must know to meet the challenges of daily practice . Expert authorship by Yale Internal Medicine senior residents and physicians provides the current, accurate information you need to diagnose and treat more than 120 of the most important problems encountered by internists. . Concise, accessible style delivers a succinct overview of internal medicine ideal for students on a time-limited rotation, focusing on high-impact information. . Logical organization presents topics by medical specialty. Chapters are structured in a consistent format, so the facts you need are always at your fingertips.


We describe the encryption and decryption of a two-dimensional (2-D) image by using a sandwich diffuser in the Fourier plane of the first lens of a 4-f imaging system. The diffuser is made with two random phase diffusers, sandwiched together. The encrypted image is holographically recorded in a photorefractive BaTiO3 crystal. Decryption is done by generating a phase conjugate image through the phase conjugation technique. During decryption, if only one of the two random phase diffusers constituting the sandwich diffuser is used, it becomes impossible to retrieve the image. Also no decryption is possible if any of the diffusers constituting the sandwich is shifted in-plane with respect to the other. It is possible to generate the image only if the diffusers are sandwiched together again after matching point to point, and then the sandwich diffuser is kept at the same position and orientation in which it was kept during the encryption. Experimental method has been described to overcome the practical difficulty for the generation of the key in the case of the sandwich diffuser. Simulation and experimental results are presented in support of the proposed idea. To evaluate reliability of the technique, the mean-square-error (MSE) between decrypted and original image has been calculated.


Tuberculosis is one of the world's deadliest diseases that infects one third of the world's population, mostly in developing countries. However, tuberculosis is becoming again very dangerous also for developed countries, due to the increased mobility of the world population, and the appearance of several new bacterial strains that are multi-drug resistant. With the aim to help in finding new therapeutic interventions against tuberculosis, we present the application of a computational modeling infrastructure named UISS (Universal Immune System Simulator) able to simulate the main features and dynamics of the immune system activities. We show a further development of UISS to consider the underlying tuberculosis pathogenesis and its interaction with the host immune system. Even though the model can be further personalized employing immunological parameters and genetic information, based on the available data, we obtained simulation scenarios able to reproduce persistent latent infection or the development of active disease. In particular, UISS is able to simulate those mechanisms in which M. tuberculosis is involved in the early influx of alveolar macrophages and recruited neutrophils until the formation of the tuberculous granuloma, at both cellular and molecular levels.


The paleoclimatic record from Mexico and Central America, or Mesoamerica, documents dramatic swings in hydroclimate over the past few millennia. However, the dynamics underlying these past changes remain obscure. We use proxy indicators of hydroclimate to show that last millennium hydroclimate variability was dominated by opposite‐signed moisture anomalies in northern and southern Mesoamerica. This pattern results from changes in moisture convergence driven by Atlantic‐Pacific interbasin temperature gradients. While this pattern is reproduced by several models and multiple experiments with a single model, models appear to disagree about the underlying dynamics of this interbasin gradient. Moreover, disagreement about the interbasin gradient, and associated hydroclimate pattern, dominates spread in 21st century regional hydroclimate projections. These results emphasize the role of interbasin asymmetries in governing past and future regional climate change. They also demonstrate that paleoclimate studies can elucidate mechanisms directly relevant to projecting future hydroclimate in climate change hot spots like Mesoamerica.


We demonstrate the storage of 1000 holograms in LiNbO3:Fe, recorded at 488 nm and read at 633 nm to reduce decay during read-out. We minimize Bragg mismatch problems of the two-wavelength scheme by using thin crystals, while combining peristrophic and angle multiplexing to counter the poorer angular selectivity of thin crystals. We find the reduction in read-out decay to be significant, but limited by dark conductivity.


A fragment separator at heavy ion accelerator facilities is a versatile instrument to provide wide variety of radioactive isotope (RI) beams. However, more than 99.99% of precious RI‐ions are simply dumped in the slits or elsewhere in the fragment separator. A novel concept to restore such RI‐ions for parasitic slow RI‐beams is proposed. Installation of a laser ionization gas catcher in the vicinity of the first or second focal point of the fragment separator enables to collect dead isotopes in the slits. The design concept and expected performance are discussed.


Support vector machine(SVM) is a new learning machine based on the statistical learning theory. For it not only has solid theory, but also can solve many practical problems in optimizing area, such as small samples, over learning, high dimension and local minima. And has shown attractive potential and promising performance in a wide range of fields and applications. In this paper, the least square support vector machine(LS-SVM), which developed from normal SVM, has been used for predicting and modeling the underwater acoustic performance of sandwich composite plates, which were composed of fiber-reinforced plastics/acoustic rubber/fiber-reinforced plastics. Effective result indicate that LS-SVM is of potential application in sandwich structural composite design and acoustic material research.


State-of-the-art machine learning methods exhibit limited compositional generalization. At the same time, there is a lack of realistic benchmarks that comprehensively measure this ability, which makes it challenging to find and evaluate improvements. We introduce a novel method to systematically construct such benchmarks by maximizing compound divergence while guaranteeing a small atom divergence between train and test sets, and we quantitatively compare this method to other approaches for creating compositional generalization benchmarks. We present a large and realistic natural language question answering dataset that is constructed according to this method, and we use it to analyze the compositional generalization ability of three machine learning architectures. We find that they fail to generalize compositionally and that there is a surprisingly strong negative correlation between compound divergence and accuracy. We also demonstrate how our method can be used to create new compositionality benchmarks on top of the existing SCAN dataset, which confirms these findings.


Recent correlational studies and media reports have suggested that sleep regularity the variation in the amount of sleep one gets across days is a stronger determinant of student success than sleep duration the total amount of sleep one receives. We identify the causal impacts of sleep regularity and sleep duration on student success by leveraging over 165,000 student-classroom observations from a large university in Vietnam where incoming freshmen were randomly assigned into course schedules. These schedules varied significantly: some had the same daily start time across the week, while others experienced extreme shifts. Across a multitude of specifications and samples, we precisely estimate no discernible differences in achievement between students with highly varying start times versus students with consistent schedules. Moreover, we find much smaller gains to delayed school start times compared to previous studies.


A yearly stochastic self-scheduling model for a price-maker hydro producer is presented. In the short term, the producer aims at maximizing profits in the day-ahead market. Residual demand curves model the producer's interaction with his competitors and the load demand. A modification of the residual demand curve is proposed to enable the definition of optimal pumped-hydro bids. Multistage stochastic programming provides hedging against the mid-term uncertainty of inflows, load demand, and competitors' offers. The proposed method models the impact of short-term profit maximization decisions on mid-term scheduling within a compact stochastic mixed integer linear programming (MILP) approach. A test case with a three-stage, 90-scenario stochastic tree and data of the Greek Power System is presented. Results provide insight on both mid-term reservoir management and short-term market-based operation and indicate the feasibility of solving a very large-scale scheduling problem as a unique MILP using a commercial solver. The role of forward contracts in mitigating market power is also analyzed.


Equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) is a viable forming procedure to extrude material by use of specially designed channel dies without a substantial change in geometry and to make an ultrafine grained material by imposing severe plastic deformation. Because the evolution of microstructures and the mechanical properties of the deformed material are directly related to the amount of plastic deformation, the understanding of the phenomenon associated with strain development is very important in the ECAP process. The plastic deformation behaviour during pressing is governed mainly by die geometry (channel sizes, a channel angle and corner angles), material properties (strength and hardening behaviour) and process variables (temperature, lubrication and deformation speed). There is a need for modelling techniques which may permit a wider study of the effects observed for better process control and the understanding of process related phenomena. In this study, we describe a range of our continuum modelling results of the ECAP process in order to illustrate the modelling applicability. Firstly, the finite element results of ECAP modelling for various geometric factors are described. Secondly, the inhomogeneous deformation due to the hardening property of the material is explained. Lastly, modelling the temperature field coupled with stress as a typical process variable in ECAP is presented.


The improvement of the energetic behavior of buildings has turned into a major issue due to the high level of energy consumption. In this context, the building is represented as a dynamical system and a system of data acquisition is developed, which allows the measurement of environmental and energetic parameters, so as to describe the behavior of the building interacting with its direct environment. Research related to energy management can be divided into two categories: predictive control (anticipative) and adaptive control (reactive). A new building energy management system (BEMS) which is the chosen system to validate, treats a long-term anticipative control and introduces a reactive control that adds another level of intelligence to the BEMS. The main goal of this paper is to propose a model using the formalism DEVS to describe and simulate the BEMS. Our motivation is explained by the fact that DEVS is a tool for modeling of discrete event systems and it divides the overall system into subsystems in order to facilitate the achievement which is consistent with the characteristics of multilayer architecture of the chosen system.


A two-dimensional computer model is developed to determine the radiative heat flux distributions within the vapor formed above a metal target irradiated by a laser beam. An axisymmetric cylindrical enclosure containing a radiatively participating medium is considered. Scattering is assumed to be isotropic and allowances are made for variation of the radiative properties of the medium and boundaries. The P-1 and P-3 spherical harmonics approximations are used to solve the integro-differential radiative transfer equation. The resulting equations are then solved for the radial and axial heat fluxes using a finite-difference algorithm. The most significant factors affecting the results obtained from both the P-1 and P-3 approximations were the optical thickness of the medium and the type of laser profile incident upon the medium. Using different wall reflectivities and scattering albedos had a smaller effect. Changing the medium temperature had an insignificant effect as long as medium temperatures were below 20,000 K.


Aim: the Functional and anatomical outcome of displaced intraarticular fractures of calcaneum treated using locking plate fixation. Material and methods: This Prospective open label observational study was done the Department of Orthopaedics, Katihar Medical College, Katihar, India,for two year, A total of 50 patients aged ≥ 18 years, displaced intra articular fractures of calcaneum were included in this study . Post-operative management involved, immobilization using a below the knee slab for a duration of 2-3 weeks to ensure wound healing. Subsequently on the second post operative day non weight bearing mobilization was advised followed by ankle movements on removal of the slab. Complete weight bearing was recommended only after ensuring fracture union on xray. Follow upPatients were followed up at an interval of 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months post surgery and imaging via x-ray,at each visit was done to assess the fracture healing. Results: In our study we included 50 patients, amongst them 5 were female and the rest 45 were male. The mechanism of injury was noted to be road traffic accident in 10 patients and fracture sustained as a result of fall from a height in the rest. The surgery was not performed immediately for all patients, though most presented on the day of the injury and it was delayed until the swelling decreased and wrinkle sign appeared. These patients were followed up at 6 months and the functional outcome was assessed in all patients using AnkleHind foot scale which includes assessment of pain, function, maximum walking distance, gait abnormality, graded difficulty in walking on different surfaces, motion, stability of ankle and alignment of ankle and foot. According to this scale, 34 patients (68%) had good outcome, 13 patients had fair outcome (26%) while 3 patients (6%) had poor outcome. Amongst the 50 patients, alignment of the foot and ankle was restored in all cases and so was the ankle hind foot stability. Conclusion: the anatomic locking plate can be used effectively in the treatment of displaced intraarticular calcaneal fractures using simple reduction techniques with a potentially shortened operating time.


Ongoing urbanization in metropolitan regions creates a wish for large green areas in the urban peripheries for recreational purposes. Agricultural landscapes are being replaced with woods, nature and water to provide citizens with space for outdoor recreation and other activities. Park-like settings and facilities are being mingled with rational agricultural landscape images. These large areas – up to 1500 hectares – are supposed to provide common recreation for adjacent residential areas, but their size justifies higher ambitions. They are meant to perform as an outstanding regional attraction, and, furthermore, to meet other demands such as climate adaption, water management, nature and agricultural production. They should be 'metropolitan parks' at a regional level, which asks for a clear identity and a set of appealing, distinctive facilities. While in the past decades public authorities used to purchase, construct and maintain areas like these, nowadays the involvement of private partners is essential for the realization and subsistence of large green areas. These developments result in new design challenges. Well-known design strategies, concepts, images and programs for urban parks don't suffice and are subject for debate. This paper will present the results of studies and debates initiated by the Dutch Association for Landscape Architecture NVTL in 2010 in order to light up the design of large parks in urban agglomerations. Plans for five large 'metropolitan' parks in the Netherlands will be compared: Park 21 Haarlemmermeer (design by Vista Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning), Landschapspark Buytenland Rotterdam (design by PVLA), Amstelscheg Amsterdam (design by ?), Park Lingezegen Arnhem-Nijmegen (master plan by Feddes Olthof Landscape Architects) and Park Leidsche Rijn Utrecht (design by West 8 landscape architects). The characteristics and challenges of these areas are similar: their hybrid character, being both park and landscape; the multiple recreational purposes from neighbourhood park to regional attraction; the combination of recreational and other land uses; the diversity of stakeholders; the uncertainties by reason of the extended development time. There is the problem of the need for coherence in an area which is way too large and complex to be wrapped up in a few images. Despite the similar problems, the design concepts and strategies are diverse. The question is if the solutions brought up by the designers will ensure attractive future environments and if they offer innovative concepts for intermediate green areas in metropolitan networks.


This study evaluated if elemental concentrations differed in children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) versus normally developing children, at the pre-natal level of development, by means of a sibling-paired design, using deciduous teeth as biomarkers of pre-natal exposure to the elements. A total of 22 families were sampled from the Southern Ontario region (London, Hamilton, Orangeville, Newmarket, Toronto, Kingston and Ottawa) in which the full set of deciduous teeth from all children, where only one child was diagnosed with an ASD, were acquired. An analogous sample was collected from 7 control families. The concentrations of K, Mn, Na, Pb and Sr in the deciduous teeth of children with an ASD were found not to differ from that of their normally developing siblings and the control group (α = 0.01). The concentrations of Mg, Ni, Cu, Fe and Zn were found to be lower in the deciduous teeth of children with an ASD versus their normally developing siblings, while Cr concentrations were found to be elevated (ρ < 0.001). The differences were correlated to a general trend by which the concentrations decreased (or increase, in the case of Cr) in children as the mother conceived more children within the family. This may indicate that the trends and differences observed may be a secondary effect to another underlying condition, presumably at the level of the mother.


ABSTRACT The behavioural ecology of ultrasonic-singing katydids is not well understood, and the general bioacoustics, barely known for a few Neotropical Meconematinae, tends to be overlooked for species from Southeast Asia. These include Asiatic species of Phlugidini, commonly known as crystal predatory katydids. One of its genera, Asiophlugis consists of 16 species for which acoustic signals and stridulum anatomy are broadly unknown. These characters can be used to understand species boundaries. Here, we sampled Asiophlugis from five sites in Malay Peninsula and Borneo Island, recorded the acoustic signals of five species plus one subspecies using ultrasound sensitive equipment, and examined their stridulum anatomy. The calling songs of the taxa involved were documented for the first time. We found that the stridulum anatomy (e.g., tooth distributions, tooth length and tooth density) is distinct between species but less so between subspecies. In contrary, songs of different taxa are different based on acoustic parameters (e.g., pulse duration, peak frequency) and descriptive patterns, even between the subspecies. We also did not observe that song signals are more different in sympatry than in allopatry. Whether this can be generalised requires further sampling, highlighting the need for more research on the ultrasonic acoustic communication in Asiatic katydids.


ABSTRACT Previously we showed that infection of human type II airway epithelial (A549) cells with purified respiratory syncytial virus (pRSV) induced interleukin-8 transcription by a mechanism involving cytokine-inducible cytoplasmic-nuclear translocation of the RelA transcription factor. In unstimulated cells, RelA is tethered in the cytoplasm by association with the IκB inhibitor and can be released only following IκB degradation. In this study, we examined the spectrum of IκB isoform expression and kinetics of proteolysis of the isoforms in A549 cells following pRSV infection. In contrast to the rapid and robust activation of RelA DNA binding that peaked within 15 min of treatment produced by the prototypic activator tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), pRSV produced a weaker increase in RelA binding that began at 3 h and did not peak until 24 h after infection. A549 cells expressed the IκB inhibitory subunits IκBα, IκBβ, and p105; however, following either stimulus, only the IκBα and IκBβ steady-state levels declined in parallel with the increase in RelA DNA-binding activity. The >120-min half-life of IκBα in control cells was shortened to 5 min in TNF-α-stimulated cells and to 90 min in pRSV-infected cells. Although IκBα was resynthesized within 30 min following recombinant human TNFα treatment due to a robust 25-fold increase of IκBα mRNA expression (the RelA:IκBα positive feedback loop), following pRSV infection, there was no reaccumulation of IκBα protein, as infected cells produced only a 3-fold increase in IκBα mRNA at 24 h, indicating the RelA:IκBα positive feedback loop was insufficient to restore control IκBα levels. IκBα proteolysis induced by TNF-α occurred through the 26S proteasome, as both 26S proteasome activity and IκBα proteolysis were blocked by specific inhibitors lactacystin, MG-132, and ZLLF-CHO. Although total proteasome activity in 24-h pRSV-infected lysates increased twofold, its activity was >90% inhibited by the proteasome inhibitors; surprisingly, however, IκBα proteolysis was not. We conclude that RSV infection produces IκBα proteolysis through a mechanism primarily independent of the proteasome pathway.


Aim: To describe the demographic characteristics and academic production of the National Council for the Development of Science and Technology (CNPq) researchers whose areas of expertise focus on dental materials. Methods: Secondary data were obtained from the details of dentistry researchers registered as receiving a CNPq grant for scientific productivity. Variables such as gender, category of scientific productivity grant, time of completion of PhD program, geographical distribution and affiliated institution, scientific production and human resources training were analyzed. Data from 2007-2009 triennium were considered. Mann-Whitney and chisquare tests compared the variables. Results: Researchers in categories 1A + 1B are those who completed their PhD program more than 14 years ago. All (100%) of dental material researchers are dentists and affiliated to universities, being approximately 92% of those affiliated to public institutions. Male gender (62.2%) and category 2 grant (40.5%) are prevalent, and a high concentration of CNPq grantees in the southeastern region (75.7%) was observed. In general, there was a predominance of publications in CAPES Qualis B journals (59.0%), but a predominance of publications by new doctors in CAPES Qualis A2 and B1 journals was found. A higher mean of publications of book chapters (0.97) compared with full publications of books (0.43) per researcher was observed. Annually, researchers supervised more scientific initiation grants (median = 0.45), followed by doctoral (mean = 0.36) and master students (median = 0.30). Conclusions: There is a high concentration of researchers in the southeastern region, predominance of male gender and scholars in grant category 2. Publications are mainly in CAPES Qualis B journals. and researchers in grant categories 1C and 1D and with less time doctoral produce more publications. The publication of books chapters is larger than entire books. The researchers supervised more undergraduate students, followed by PhD and master's degree students annually


Objective: The present study deals with isolation, structure elucidation of ferulic and coumaric acids from Fortunella japonica Swingle leaves and their structure antioxidant activity relationship. Structural analysis was conducted using UV, IR, mass and Nuclear Magentic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Methodology: In particular, completely assigned 1 H and 13 C-NMR data are presented. Also, the present study was extended to investigate the hepa- toprotective activity of isolated compounds against paracetamol-induced toxicity in freshly isolated rat hepatocytes model. Freshly isolated rat hepa- tocytes were exposed to paracetamol (5 mM) along with/without various concentrations of the isolated compounds (40-80µg/ml). Results and Dis- cussion: Exposure of isolated hepatocytes to paracetmol resulted in lipid hydroperoxides formation, depletion in protein thiols, superoxide dismutase (SOD), succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), catalase (CAT), glutathione per- oxidase (GPx) and glutathione reductase (GR) levels as well as elevation of alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), lactate de- hydrogenase (LDH) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). The isolated coumaric and ferulic acids have been found to efficiently inhibit paracetamol-induced biochemical alterations, namely oxidative stress biomarkers and protein oxidation. It also significantly prevented paracetamol-induced loss in the activity of antioxidant enzyme and the important endogenous antioxidant glutathione. Conclusion: The study suggests that coumaric and ferulic ac- ids can act as an antioxidant and hepatoprotective in physiological systems.


Abstract. For about 50 yr, ice cores have provided a wealth of information about past climatic and environmental changes. Ice cores from Greenland, Antarctica and other glacier-covered regions now encompass a variety of time scales. However, the longer time scales (e.g. at least back to the Last Glacial period) are covered by deep ice cores, the number of which is still very limited: seven from Greenland, with only one providing an undisturbed record of a part of the last interglacial period, and a dozen from Antarctica, with the longest record covering the last 800 000 yr. This article aims to summarize this successful adventure initiated by a few pioneers and their teams and to review key scientific results by focusing on climate (in particular water isotopes) and climate-related (e.g. greenhouse gases) reconstructions. Future research is well taken into account by the four projects defined by IPICS. However, it remains a challenge to get an intact record of the Last Interglacial in Greenland and to extend the Antarctic record through the mid-Pleistocene transition, if possible back to 1.5 Ma.


The patient referred to seems to have been unusual. It is thought that activation of fibrinolysis during pregnancy is uncommon. Indeed this is the very reason why the classic disseminated intravascular coagulation syndromes were first recognised in human pregnancy. Could it be that this patient lacked one of the normal fibrinolytic inhibitors that are known to act either locally5 or in the general circulation ? If this is the case then the extrapolation is unjustifiable. I feel that we need clarification of this case or more work by an expert unit before this suggestion is put into widespread practice.


The aim of this study is to prepare mucoadhesive chitosan microspheres for protein drug to deliver to intestine through oral administration. The thiolated Eudragit was synthesized by reaction between L-cysteine hydrochloride and Eudragit® L-100. About 8 mol-% of cysteine was introduced to the Eudragit-cysteine conjugate. The conjugate was used to coat bovine serum albumin (BSA)-loaded chitosan microspheres. The average particle sizes of BSA-loaded thiolated Eudragit-coated chitsoan microspheres (TECMs) were 4.06±0.74 .m and the uniform sizedistribution was shown. The in vitro release of BSA from BSA-loaded TECMs was pH-dependent. Our results indicated that thiolated Eudragit might be a good candidate as a coating material for oral delivery of protein drug owing to mucoadhesive and pH-sensitive properties.


For a decade or more, poor nutrition during gestation, expressed as low weight at birth, was held to be the factor responsible for insulin resistance later in life. Birth weights, however, are rising and insulin resistant states, such as diabetes mellitus, faster still. Alternative explanations are needed to explain insulin resistance in contemporary industrialised populations. EarlyBird is a non-intervention prospective cohort study that asks the question 'Which children develop insulin resistance, and why?' It is unique in taking serial blood samples from a young age with which to monitor the behaviour of insulin resistance and its metabolic correlates. This, the baseline report of the EarlyBird Study, describes the rationale, design and methodology of the study, and the profile of the population at entry. It situates the anthropometric, physical activity and dietary status of the EarlyBird children and provides a detailed metabolic profile of the British 5 year-old in the year 2000.


In this paper,used the kernel weight function, we obtain the parameter estimation of p-norm distribution in semiparametric regression model ,which is effective to decide the distribution of random errors. Under the assumption that the distribution of observations is unimodal and symmetrical, this method can give the estimates of X,S and σ. Finally, two simulated adjustment problems are constructed to explain this method. The new method presented in this paper shows an effective way of solving the problem, the estimated values are nearer to their theoretical ones than those by least squares adjustment.


Intersectionality refers to the potential for multiple axes of identity to overlap and interact within a single individual, whose lived experiences are further affected by structural forms of oppression that are perpetuated within their society. Intersectionality has been adapted by a variety of social science disciplines exploring the negative effects of multiple marginalization and systemic inequality in living populations, but remarkably few intersectional studies of health or pandemics in the past have been produced in bioarchaeology. Bioarchaeologists, specifically, are uniquely positioned to contribute to interdisciplinary discourse by expanding the contextual and temporal purviews of intersectionality scholarship, which currently focuses primarily on living populations from Western, industrialized contexts. The purpose of this review is to encourage and facilitate intersectionality research within bioarchaeology. To accomplish this goal, the article is divided into three sections: the first section provides a general overview of intersectionality, the second section discusses examples of intersectional scholarship from related disciplines that address health disparities and modern pandemics, and the third section considers the ways in which bioarchaeologists might integrate intersectionality in our empirical research on health and disease in the past. Given the potentially daunting task of using bioarchaeological data to investigate intersectionality and health in the past, the third section also highlights three quantitative methodologies that intersectionality scholars have used to investigate the independent, additive effects of individual social identities as well as the multiplicative effects of those same identities as they operate in conjunction with each other to produce patterns of health outcomes in living populations.


Planning for the Skylab reentry, options for influencing the reentry, and a discussion of the Penn State drag modulation scheme are presented. The history of and risks in connection with Skylab reentry, and the NASA and the Penn State schemes for extending Skylab life are discussed. Coordinate systems and equations of motions describing the Skylab attitude motion, aerodynamic damping, and six-degree-of-freedom simulation are considered to derive structural damping models for Skylab, and to determine if stabilization is possible, and if it is, if the TACS (attitude-control) system can retumble the vehicle. It is concluded that at least 12 hours are required to carry out the Penn State drag modulation, and natural stabilization after a period of tumbling is possible but cannot be confirmed due to limitations in the modeling of aerodynamic properties, internal damping, and atmospheric density.


Research on decision‐making and expert performance in operational settings generally considers extensive personal experience and deliberate practice to be decisive for development of expertise. Learning and development of decision‐making abilities therefore tend to be explained in terms of human cognition. This study examines the dominant learning processes in a Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, revealing that personal experience, individual problem‐solving, knowledge accumulation, and collective reflection are the key processes in the individual development of decision‐making abilities. These findings show that both individual and contextual (including organisational) aspects need to be considered if we are to fully understand the development of decision‐making abilities and consequently be better able to explain and analyse decision‐making and expert performance in natural settings.


OBJECTIVE
Depression is often not optimally treated during pregnancy, partially because of conflicting data regarding antidepressant medication risk. This meta-analysis was conducted to determine whether antenatal antidepressant exposure is associated with congenital malformations and to assess the effect of known methodological limitations.

DATA SOURCES
EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and MEDLINE were searched from their start dates to June 2010. Keywords of various combinations were used, including, but not limited to depressive/mood disorder, pregnancy, antidepressant drug/agent, congenital malformation, and cardiac malformation.

STUDY SELECTION
English language studies reporting congenital malformations associated with antidepressants were included. Of 3,074 abstracts reviewed, 735 studies were retrieved and 27 studies were included.

DATA EXTRACTION
Two reviewers working independently assessed article quality. Data on use of any antidepressant, including fluoxetine and paroxetine specifically, were extracted. Outcomes included congenital malformations, major congenital malformations, cardiovascular defects, septal heart defects (ventral septal defects and atrial septal defects), and ventral septal defects only.

RESULTS
Nineteen studies were above quality threshold and make up the primary meta-analyses. Pooled relative risks (RRs) were derived by using random-effects methods. Antidepressant exposure was not associated with congenital malformations (RR = 0.93; 95% CI, 0.85-1.02; P = .113) or major malformations (RR = 1.07; 95% CI, 0.99-1.17; P = .095). However, increased risk for cardiovascular malformations (RR = 1.36; 95% CI, 1.08-1.71; P = .008) and septal heart defects (RR = 1.40; 95% CI, 1.10-1.77; P = .005) were found; the RR for ventral septal defects was similar to septal defects, although not significant (RR = 1.54; 95% CI, 0.71-3.33; P = .274). Pooled effects were significant for paroxetine and cardiovascular malformations (RR = 1.43; 95% CI, 1.08-1.88; P = .012). These results are contrasted with those addressing methodological limitations but are typically consistent.

CONCLUSIONS
Overall, antidepressants do not appear to be associated with an increased risk of congenital malformations, but statistical significance was found for cardiovascular malformations. Results were robust in several sensitivity analyses. Given that the RRs are marginal, they may be the result of uncontrolled confounders. Although the RRs were statistically significant, none reached clinically significant levels.


"I knew about drunk, but did not know anything about living sober. I hadn't really been sober for fifteen years. It wasn't enough that I stopped drinking. I had to learn how to live." The journey from alcoholic insanity to sobriety-and the pivotal role of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) in navigating that transition-is the focus of Last Call. Using powerful first-person narratives like the one above (composites of many anonymous speakers), psychotherapist Jack H. Hedblom provides compelling insights into the minds and hearts of addicted drinkers, from bizarre behavior and denial to the moment of "hitting bottom" and seeking change. Hedblom covers the process of getting sober, from diagnosis to detox to sobriety. He focuses on the challenge of learning to live without drinking-a long-term goal, Hedblom asserts, that is best achieved by regular participation in AA. Hedblom's vivid descriptions reveal AA meetings as gatherings of fellowship, compassion, tears, and laughter. In relating the history of the organization, he describes the role of sponsors, elaborates on the Twelve Steps and the Promises, emphasizes the importance of spiritual development in recovery, and refutes the common misconceptions that equate spirituality with organized religion. Through the stories of people who have escaped the tyranny of alcoholism with the help of AA, Hedblom shows that the road to recovery is a journey of self-discovery, change, and hope.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of different dentin deproteinization treatments on the microtensile bond strength (μTBS) of composite resin to primary dentin affected by hypocalcified amelogenesis imperfecta (AI). Methods: Flat dentin surfaces were obtained from both extracted hypocalcified AI-affected and sound primary molars and then randomly allocated into three groups according to surface treatment (deproteinization with sodium hypochlorite [NaOCl], deproteinization with chlorine dioxide [ClO₂], nontreated controls). μTBS of specimens were measured with a universal testing machine, and data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and Tukey's tests. Results: The μTBS values for all groups with sound primary teeth were significantly higher than those of the comparable groups of hypocalcified AI-affected primary teeth (P<0.05). There were no statistically significant differences between the μTBS values of the control and the NaOCl groups for either the hypocalcified AI-affected or sound primary teeth (P>0.05); however, the μTBS values for the ClO₂ groups were significantly higher than those of both the control and NaOCl groups (P<0.05). Conclusions: Within the limitations of this in vitro study, deproteinization with ClO₂ can be considered effective in enhancing dentin bonding of hypocalcified AI-affected primary teeth.