Pavement foundations for major roads in the UK were historically designed on an empirical
basis, related to a single design chart, restricting the incorporation of superior performing
materials or materials for which the empirical data sets were not available. The adoption of
performance based specifications was promoted as they are perceived to 'open up' the use of
alternative materials (including 'local' sources of primary materials) or techniques, and allow for
the incorporation of superior performance into the overall pavement design. Parallel
developments to the performance based design of pavement foundations (allowing for superior
performance) and in situ testing required the support of laboratory based performance tests.
These laboratory based tests were required to determine material performance parameters
(elastic modulus and resistance to permanent deformation) for both unbound and hydraulically
bound pavement foundation materials. A review of the available laboratory apparatus indicated
that they were either; unrealistic (and hence unable to provide the required material
performance parameters), or overly complex and more suited to fundamental research.
Therefore, the requirement for developmental research work was identified. The research
reported herein details the development, manufacture and initial evaluation of simplified
laboratory apparatus (the Springbox for unbound materials and static stiffness test for
hydraulically bound mixtures) designed to produce the performance parameters of elastic
modulus and relative resistance to permanent deformation for pavement foundation materials.
The equipment and test procedure evaluation was undertaken across a range of materials,
giving initial guidance on likely in situ performance.
The innovative laboratory apparatus and materials guidance (including the potential to use
recycled and secondary aggregates) was incorporated into key Highways Agency specification
and guidance documents, which in turn influence construction practice outside of motorways
and major trunk roads. This research concludes by outlining a number of recommendations for
continued development and evaluation, including feeding back data sets from long term in situ
performance testing for subsequent refinement of assumptions.


Sport scholars have connected heteronormativity and heterosexism to the creation of privilege for the dominant group. They also contend that the coverage and framing of female athletes and coaches promote heteronormativity across print, broadcast, and new media. To date, research examining heteronormativity and heterosexism on university-sponsored athletics Web sites is scarce. Using framing theory, online biographies of NCAA intercollegiate head coaches of 12 conferences (N = 1,902) were examined for textual representations of heteronormativity and heterosexism. Biographies were coded based on the presence or absence of personal text—and the presence or absence of family narratives. The data demonstrate a near absence of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered coaches, suggesting that digital content of intercollegiate athletic department Web sites reproduces dominant gender ideologies and is plagued by homophobia in overt and subtle ways.


Larvae and postlarvae production of the green-white sea urchin Lytechinus variegatus ( Echinodermata: Echinoidea) in culture conditions. We evaluated the biological feasibility of massive larvae and postlarvae production of the Caribbean green-white urchin Lytechinus variegatus . Experiments were designed to choose the initial larval density and microalgae diets under culture, to study metamorphosis, postlarval and juvenile growth. Massive production of competent larvae 650 μm long at 12-13 days is possible using larval densities of 0.25 to 1 larva/ml. The microalgae Rhodomonas sp. was suitable for the optimization of larval growth and survival. Metamorphosis of 100% of the larvae can be induced with films of bentic diatoms ( Navicula sp. and Amphora sp.), after 96 h; however, diatoms are not adequate for postlarval development and a food supply of Ulva lactuta is necessary for proper growth. For juveniles, a diet of macroalgae ( U. lactuta ) and/or commercial marine shrimp culture pellet food is enough for growth, but the best results were obtained with shrimp or U. lactuta used alone (85-86%, against 46% with the mixed diet). We recommend future experiments on nutritional requirements to optimize growth of these and subsequent stages. Rev. Biol. Trop. 53(Suppl. 3): 319-328. Epub 2006 Jan 30.


Internet has transformed our lives and the way we communicate, how we learn, how we work and spend free time, in essence – it has more or less changed every aspect of human society one can think of. This paper deals with the influence of Internet and information technology on work and human resource management. It observes main novelties and (inevitably coming) changes in areas of staffing, motivating and leading and discusses possible adaptations of organization and business. To discover the mentioned changes and consequences, firstly we try to broadly assert present condition in the field, both globally and in Slovenia, and outline promising future trends. Finally, combining that with elements of humanresource management we try to predict basic consequences that IT will have on the way employees are rewarded and the way new employees are acquired.


The discovery of giant viruses with large genomes has transformed our understanding of the limits of viral complexity in the biosphere, and subsequent research in model virus-host systems has advanced our knowledge of intricate mechanisms used by these viruses to take over host cells during infection. The extent of the metabolic diversity encoded by these viruses in the environment is less well-understood, however, and their potential impact on global biogeochemical cycles remains unclear. To address this, we generated 501 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) of NCLDVs from diverse environments around the globe and analyzed their encoded functional diversity and potential for reprogramming host physiology. We found that 476 (95%) of the MAGs belonged to the Mimiviridae and Phycodnaviridae families, and of these we recovered 96% from aquatic environments, highlighting the diversity of these viral families in global freshwater and marine systems. MAGs encoded diverse genes predicted to be involved in nutrient uptake and processing, light harvesting, central nitrogen metabolism, and the manipulation of cell death, underscoring the complex interplay between these viruses and their hosts. Surprisingly, numerous genomes encoded genes involved in glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, and the TCA cycle, including one genome with a 70%-complete glycolytic pathway, suggesting that many of these viruses can even reprogram fundamental aspects of their host's central carbon metabolism. Phylogenetic trees of NCLDV metabolic genes together with their cellular homologs revealed distinct clustering of viral sequences into divergent clades, indicating these metabolic genes are virus-specific and were acquired in the distant past. Our findings reveal that diverse NCLDV genomes encode complex, cell-like metabolic capabilities with evolutionary histories that are largely independent of cellular life, strongly implicating them as distinct drivers of biogeochemical cycles in their own right.


sRNA were extracted from postmitochondrial fraction of rat sceletal muscles by the phenol method. Their yield, physico-chemical properties and acceptor activity during postmortal destruction were studied. Within 2 days after the death yield of sRNA was decreased by 18-20% with maintenance of the physico-chemical properties studied. At the same time the acceptor activity (towards 4 amino acids) was distinctly decreased. For various amino acids correlation between a decrease in the acceptor activity and the time of autolysis was different. Three peaks of radioactivity were observed when 14C-phenyl-alanine-sRNA was fractionated on DEAE-Sephadex A-25; two of them were distinctly decreased after 24 hrs autolysis but the third one was maintained almost without alterations. The data obtained suggest that separate types of sRNA are degraded selectively at early steps of postmortal autolysis.


Despite of the recent progress in agents that learn through interaction, there are several challenges in terms of sample efficiency and generalization across unseen behaviors during training. To mitigate these problems, we propose and apply a first-order Meta-Learning algorithm called Bottom-Up Meta-Policy Search (BUMPS), which works with two-phase optimization procedure: firstly, in a meta-training phase, it distills few expert policies to create a meta-policy capable of generalizing knowledge to unseen tasks during training; secondly, it applies a fast adaptation strategy named Policy Filtering, which evaluates few policies sampled from the meta-policy distribution and selects which best solves the task. We conducted all experiments in the RoboCup 3D Soccer Simulation domain, in the context of kick motion learning. We show that, given our experimental setup, BUMPS works in scenarios where simple multi-task Reinforcement Learning does not. Finally, we performed experiments in a way to evaluate each component of the algorithm.


Cell-type specific epigenetic modifications are critical for brain development and neuropsychiatric diseases. Here we elucidate evolutionary origins of neuron- and oligodendrocyte-specific DNA methylation in human prefrontal cortex, and demonstrate dynamic and distinctive changes of CG and CH methylation. We show that the human brain has experienced pronounced reduction of CG methylation during evolution, which significantly contributed to cell-type specific active regulatory regions. On the other hand, a substantial increase of CH methylation occurred during human brain evolution, associated with fine-tuning expression in development and neuronal subtypes. The majority of differential CG methylation between neurons and oligodendrocytes originated before the divergence of hominoids and catarrhine monkeys, and carries strong signal for genetic risk for schizophrenia. Remarkably, a substantial portion of differential CG methylation between neurons and oligodendrocytes emerged in the human lineage and harbors additional genetic risk for schizophrenia, implicating epigenetic evolution of human cortex in increased vulnerability to neuropsychiatric diseases.


Laboratory users might find themselves going crazy looking for electronic parts commingled together. The hardest part is to locate the particular part that was thrown somewhere in the container with the commingled electronic components. There are certain limitations with machines which rely much on sensors to run operations such as processes and applications. This poses limitations not only to new product development for engineers,as well as evaluation and implementation of new products. It is time consuming for engineers to perform so after everything has been completed with the aid of machine vision technology. The project consists mainly of three subsystems namely the process flow control of components, component analysis and detection as well as material sorting and handling. For the process flow of components, conveyor belt system is being implemented
and applied. As for material sorting and handling, it is done by making use of the Arduino Uno as the devices to control the movement of the elevator. Right after the analysis andrecognition process is completed, the component will be allocated into its right drawer by a four axes elevator in a multi-drawer cabinet. The integration of computer control produces is a powerful tool for applications that require components recognising followed by specific allocations with the minimal level of programming involved. The innovation of thismaterial sorting and handling machine involves the consideration of priorities in terms of reliability, cost, and ease of use and simplicity. It would be a magnificent achievement in system concept in order to create commercial gadgets and as an add-onto the advancement of our technologies.


The potential of spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for monitoring tropical forest areas is assessed, using three ERS images from the Tapajos region of Amazonia gathered in 1992 and a single JERS-1 image of the same area acquired in 1993. The multitemporal ERS-1 data indicate that primary forest areas display a very stable radar backscattering coefficient (/spl sigma//sup 0/), while in some cases, disturbed areas (nonforest and regenerating forest) exhibit changes that appear to be associated with soil moisture variations. To counteract /spl sigma//sup 0/ distortions caused by topography, change detection based on ratios of intensity images (or differences of log images) provides a more useful discrimination approach than /spl sigma//sup 0/ variations in single images. Change detection techniques are compared, and their ability to classify primary and disturbed forest is quantitatively assessed, assuming that a land cover map inferred from a 1992 Landsat thematic mapper (TM) image is correct. Even in the best case, less than 50% of the disturbed forest region is detected in the ERS-1 images. This figure may be improved by more frequent image acquisition, but there are fundamental limitations in using C-band data since the effects of soil moisture changes on /spl sigma//sup 0/ are masked once even comparatively low levels of standing biomass are present. At the longer wavelength of JERS-1, much better discrimination is possible, but the correction of topographic distortions is likely to present problems.


The potential health risks of the radiofrequency electromagnetic fields emitted by cellular phones are of considerable public interest. This study assessed the effect of short-term exposure to electromagnetic fields emitted by cellular phones on the ECG and HRV of young health females. A cross-sectional comparative study was carried out among first year female medical students at King Saud bin Abdulaziz university, from October 2019 to January 2020. A total of 43 young, healthy female, with a BMI of 18-25 were included. ECG and HRV were recorded before and during exposure to a cellular phone on silent mode and active call mode. Powerlab acquisition system was used for recording and LabChart and JMP software were used for analysis. Descriptive statistics were used for the participants' demographic characteristics and the parameters of ECG and HRV. Inferential statistics (paired T-test, level of confidence =99%, p<0.05) were used to compare between the ECG and HRV parameters before and after short-term exposure to a cellular phone. 43 healthy female, aged 20 ± 1 and had BMI of 21.63±3 were enrolled. On ECG, a significant increase in the values of P duration, PR and ST height (p<0.05) was noticed. On HRV, no significant changes on any index were found (p>0.05). The effect of short-term exposure to cellular phones on the ECG and HRV components are minimal and within the physiological range. Short-term exposure to electromagnetic fields emitted by cellular phones does not result in abnormalities in the ECG or HRV parameters.


The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between age, physical activity patterns, estrogen levels, estrogen supplement and central circulatory responses of postmenopausal women to acute submaximal exercise. In addition, the relative influence of these four variables on central circulatory responses to acute submaximal exercise in postmenopausal women was investigated. Nineteen postmenopausal women, ages 44-63 years, participated in the study. Four subjects were taking estrogen supplement. A physical activity questionnaire was administered to survey past and present occupational and spare-time physical activities. Subjects completed a bicycle ergometer stress test to maximal exertion and on a subsequent day, a 30-minute submaximal bicycle ergometer test at 55% of their maximal aerobic capacity. Blood was drawn from the antecubital vein prior to and immediately after submaximal exercise and analyzed for hematocrit and total estrogen (radioimmunoassay). Cardiovascular responses were recorded at intervals during rest, exercise, and recovery. Stroke volume, cardiac output, and myocardial contractility were estimated from impedance data obtained using the Minnesota Impedance Cardiograph.


To enhance the high-temperature stability of zirconate pyrochlore structures, one has to focus on their transformation to the disordered state, fluorite. An atomistic simulation calculation is presented in this paper to predict the propensity of rare earth zirconate pyrochlores to transform to fluorite at high temperature. By detailed calculation of defect formation energy of cation antisites and Frenkel pair, as well as their interactions, the mechanisms of disorder transformation are ascertained. The results show that the tendency of cation disorder is less than the anion's and disorder transformation will accelerate in advanced stage. The calculation of defect energy in pyrozirconates with different cation on the A site have proved helpful in unraveling their different order-disorder transformation tendency.


It was Thomas Laqueur who stated that women have commandeered 'gender', whereas masculinity was seen to exist in a 'cultural tradition where no such history was necessary' (1990. 22). Thought to dominate literary and cultural discussion, masculinity became less studied as critics sought to give voice to the female character and experience. Recently however masculinity is coming to the fore of literary and historical criticism, the focus being on understanding masculinity beyond the 'standard', looking at the complexities and contradictions in masculine identity.
Yet despite this recent attention on masculinity there remains a male character type that is overlooked in literary criticism: the whoremonger. Seducers are a regular trope in eighteenth-century literature and have been the subject of extensive study. The notorious Lovelace in Richardson's Clarissa; Lothario in The Fair Penitent by Nicholas Rowe; and Mr. B, another of Richardson's constructs in Pamela are all recognised characters that feature in the genre of the seduction narrative. They are recognised characters and yet little work has been done on the whoremonger as a trope; they are largely looked at within the confines of their text. I however have examined the whoremonger as an archetypal character type.
Through the portrayal of the whoremonger in mid eighteenth-century literature, I have attempted to understand how illicit sexual conduct conformed to or contradicted contemporary ideals of masculinity. In particular, I have focused on how whoremongering was reconciled with the traditionally acceptable facets of masculine identity including work, sociability and marriage, looking at the tension between refined, sociable qualities of male identity and the base, sordid aspect that is sexuality. I have argued that despite cultural discourses that counselled to the contrary, whoremongering was a regular pursuit of the eighteenth-century gentleman. Furthermore, sexuality constructed masculinity and remained on the eighteenth century peripheral conscience as an accepted aspect of male conduct. I have done so through close analysis of three eighteenth-century texts that imitate memoir form; Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748); Boswell's London Journal (1762-3); and the anonymously authored The Histories of Some of the Penitents of the Magdalen House (1760).


In wood pellet production, knowledge is needed about the raw material properties that affect the energy requirements for pelletizing and pellet quality. This study presents novel methods for this purpose, including analyses of influence of the raw material properties on the energy requirements in the sequence of subprocesses (compression, flow, and friction components) that constitute the pelletizing process, and the strength of the pellets. The methods were used to analyze the importance of pelletizing temperature and MC and the differences between sawdust of European beech ( Fagus sylvatica L) and Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris L). Results showed that increasing temperature and MC decreased the energy requirements for all components of the pelletizing process and that beech required more energy than pine in all components. Beech produced the stronger pellets; increasing temperature resulted in stronger pellets, whereas increasing MC caused weaker pellets. Also, a method to quantify the energy requirements for the combined pelletizing process is presented. The methods can be used to analyze the allocation of the energy requirements of pelletizing in the die and can be useful tools for analyzing the pelletizing properties of wood and other biomass residues.


In its zealous effort to protect the lives and health of unborn children, the law frequently views the expecting mother with suspicion. In its most extreme form, the law regards the potential mother as a potential murderess. This perspective does not reflect the nature of pregnancy, it undermines the autonomy of loving mothers, and it is detrimental to children. Regardless of whether there is any conflict between mother and fetus, the State presumes the mother to be a threat to her fetus and subjugates her rights as a result. The State interferes with the mother's autonomy, bodily integrity, parental rights, and physical freedom. This overreach of authority has disastrous consequences for mothers, children, and families. This article proposes a reconceptualization of pregnancy that reflects maternal and scientific understandings of pregnancy. Further, it offers a path toward recognition of the pregnant woman as an expecting mother.


Worldwide, prostate cancer (PC) is the second-most-frequently diagnosed male cancer and the fifth-most-common cause of all cancer-related deaths. Suspicion of PC in a patient is largely based upon clinical signs and the use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. Although PSA levels have been criticised for a lack of specificity, leading to PC over-diagnosis, it is still the most commonly used biomarker in PC management. Unfortunately, PC is extremely heterogeneous, and it can be difficult to stratify patients whose tumours are unlikely to progress from those that are aggressive and require treatment intensification. Although PC-specific biomarker research has previously focused on disease diagnosis, there is an unmet clinical need for novel prognostic, predictive and treatment response biomarkers that can be used to provide a precision medicine approach to PC management. In particular, the identification of biomarkers at the time of screening/diagnosis that can provide an indication of disease aggressiveness is perhaps the greatest current unmet clinical need in PC management. Largely through advances in genomic and proteomic techniques, exciting pre-clinical and clinical research is continuing to identify potential tissue, blood and urine-based PC-specific biomarkers that may in the future supplement or replace current standard practices. In this review, we describe how PC-specific biomarker research is progressing, including the evolution of PSA-based tests and those novel assays that have gained clinical approval. We also describe alternative diagnostic biomarkers to PSA, in addition to biomarkers that can predict PC aggressiveness and biomarkers that can predict response to certain therapies. We believe that novel biomarker research has the potential to make significant improvements to the clinical management of this disease in the near future.


Fish introductions, particularly in areas of high biological diversity and endemism, represent a major threat for biodiversity. In the Balkan Peninsula, 60 fish species have been introduced to date, of which 36 have become naturalized in inland waters. Since the Balkans are one of the world's 35 biodiversity hot spots, this large presence of alien fish species poses a serious threat for the stability of freshwater ecosystems and the survival of the native ichthyofauna and of aquatic biodiversity in general. The motivation for the introductions, and the historical timeline, varies among the Balkan states. Despite recent attempts to implement and align legislation aimed at preventing the introduction of potentially invasive species, and the implementation of rigorous controls of introductions and increased protection of open waters, the majority of current introductions remain intentional, primarily via aquaculture. This review article provides a historical overview of freshwater fish introductions, the motivation behind them and the current distribution of alien freshwater fishes in the Balkans. The ecological implications and future perspectives concerning alien fish species in the region are also discussed.


With the development of cloud computing, an increasing number of applications in different fields have been deployed to the cloud. In this process, the real-time scheduling of multiple workflows composed of tasks from these different applications must consider various influencing factors which strongly affect scheduling performance. This paper proposes a real-time multiple-workflow scheduling (RMWS) scheme to schedule workflows dynamically with minimum cost under different deadline constraints. Due to the uncertainty of workflow arrival time and specification, RMWS dynamically allocates tasks and divides the scheduling process into three stages. First, when a new workflow arrives, the latest start time and the latest finish time of each task are calculated according to the deadline, and the subdeadline of each task is obtained by probabilistic upward ranking. Then, each ready task is allocated according to its subdeadline and the increased cost of the virtual machine (VM). Meanwhile, only one waiting task can be assigned to each VM to reduce delay fluctuations. Finally, when the task is completed on the assigned VM, all the parameters of the relevant tasks are updated before allocating them to appropriate VMs. The experimental results based on four real-world workflow traces show that the proposed algorithm is superior to two state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of total rental cost, resource utilization, success rate and deadline deviation under different conditions.


Simultaneous switching noise (SSN) caused by transient currents degrades the signal integrity (SI) and electromagnetic interference (EMI) performance of high-speed digital circuits (HSDC). In order to analyze these effects, an accurate full-wave modeling approach, which includes active devices and passive interconnects (including power and ground planes), is required. We link the equivalent circuit of an active IC into an FDTD algorithm by the equivalent current-source method (ECSM). The radiation behavior of the switched IC on PCB circuits can thus be investigated. It is found that two mechanisms dominate for the radiations of the switched IC. One is the GBN (ground bounce noise) radiation and the other is the signal trace radiation. The interaction between them and an elimination method is discussed.


This cross-sectional exploratory quantitative study examined trust and communication patterns among adults practicing consensual non-monogamy (CNM). Previous relationship research in this area has primarily examined couples in demographically homogenous relationships (heterosexual, white, and married). A review of the literature suggested that adults engaging in consensual non-monogamy are more diverse. Our recruitment strategies and study design was successful in recruiting a more diverse group of participants. Twenty-eight adults in long-term CNM relationships completed a 56-item online questionnaire. Responses were examined to explore the relationship between communication patterns and relationship tenure. The relationship tenure of couples and the gender preference of participants were allowed to vary in an effort to explore the possibility that relationship tenure is associated with positive selfreports on trust and communication dimensions. The findings were more thematically relevant than statistically significant; however emotional jealousy was found to have decreased as length of relationship increased. The potential benefits of this research to the field of social work and society at large are engaging in ongoing investigation of and contribution to social science knowledge by gaining more understanding about the nature of trust, jealousy, and communication in intimate interpersonal relationships.


With the availability of diverse printed, electronic literature and web sites on medical and health related information, it is impossible for the medical professional to get the information he seeks in the shortest possible time. For all these problems information literacy is the only solution. Thus, information literacy is recognized as an important aspect of medical education. In the present study, an attempt has been made to know the information literacy skills of the faculty and students at medical colleges of Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh. The scope of the study was confined to the 12 selected medical colleges of three States (Haryana, Punjab, and Chandigarh). The findings of the study were based on the data collected through 1018 questionnaires filled by the respondents of the medical colleges. It was found that Online Medical Websites (such as WebMD, eMedicine and Mayo Clinic etc.) were frequently used by 63.43% of the respondents of Chandigarh which is slightly more than Haryana (61%) and Punjab (55.65%). As well, 30.86% of the respondents of Chandigarh, 27.41% of Haryana and 27.05% of Punjab were familiar with the controlled vocabulary tool; 25.14% respondents of Chandigarh, 23.80% of Punjab, 23.17% of Haryana were familiar with the Boolean operators; 33.05% of the respondents of Punjab, 28.19% of Haryana and 25.14% of Chandigarh were familiar with the use and importance of the keywords while searching an electronic database; and 51.43% of the respondents of Chandigarh, 44.52% of Punjab and 36.29% of Haryana were able to make effective use of the retrieved information. For accessing information in electronic format, 47.74% of the respondents rated their skills high, while the majority of respondents (76.13%) were unfamiliar with the basic search technique i.e. Boolean operator used for searching information in an online database. On the basis of the findings, it was suggested that a comprehensive training program based on medical professionals information needs should be organized frequently. Furthermore, it was also suggested that information literacy may be included as a subject in the health science curriculum so as to make the medical professionals information literate and independent lifelong learners. Keywords—Information, information literacy, medical colleges, medical professionals.


ABSTRACT In this work, tungsten trioxide (WO3) film was prepared on FTO-coated glass substrates using a facile hydrothermal method. Detailed studies revealed that a variety of WO3 nanostructures-including nanosheets, nanoflakes, nanocuboids and 3D nanowire flowers could be obtained by tuning the composition of the precursor solution, where the additive ((NH4)2C2O4 and CO(NH2)2-(NH4)2C2O4)) content and solvent composition played important roles in controlling the shape and size of the WO3. These nanostructure films exhibited good electrochromic performance. The transmittance spectra showed that WO3 film displayed 50% and 70% in the range of visible light at the colored and bleached states (S2) and a potential of ±1.0 V. There is no significant degradation of the electrochromic properties after 1000 continuous coloration/bleaching cycles, making it attractive for practical applications.


In the combination of 5-fluorophenyl-1, 3, 7, 9-tetra methyl pyrido [2, 3, d, d, 5, 6 di pyrimidine -2, 4, 6, and 8 tetron, there are 4 rings, respectively, ring that is attached to the halogen ring A and, respectively, a ring The lower and the right to the left of the ring A are called C, B, and D. Calculations and studies show that the amount of aromatics in halogenring A in all cases has the highest amount. In the B and D loop, the predicted aromaticity level is low and close to zero, and there is a reduction in aromatics in the C loop than the A ring. In another stage of the study, with the replacement of the halogen ring A from F to I, the following trend was observed. In ring A, when halogens were changed, the increase in aromaticity in halogenated compounds was as follows: F> Cl> Br> I.


The transcriptional coactivator PPARγ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) has been characterized as a broad regulator of cellular energy metabolism. Although PGC-1α functions through many transcription factors, the PGC-1α partners identified to date are unlikely to account for all of its biologic actions. The orphan nuclear receptor estrogen-related receptor α (ERRα) was identified in a yeast two-hybrid screen of a cardiac cDNA library as a novel PGC-1α-binding protein. ERRα was implicated previously in regulating the gene encoding medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (MCAD), which catalyzes the initial step in mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation. The cardiac perinatal expression pattern of ERRα paralleled that of PGC-1α and MCAD. Adenoviral-mediated ERRα overexpression in primary neonatal cardiac mycoytes induced endogenous MCAD expression. Furthermore, PGC-1α enhanced the transactivation of reporter plasmids containing an estrogen response element or the MCAD gene promoter by ERRα and the related isoform ERRγ. In vitro binding experiments demonstrated that ERRα interacts with PGC-1α via its activation function-2 homology region. Mutagenesis studies revealed that the LXXLL motif at amino acid position 142–146 of PGC-1α (L2), necessary for PGC-1α interactions with other nuclear receptors, is not required for the PGC-1α·ERRα interaction. Rather, ERRα binds PGC-1α primarily through a Leu-rich motif at amino acids 209–213 (Leu-3) and utilizes additional LXXLL-containing domains as accessory binding sites. Thus, the PGC-1α·ERRα interaction is distinct from that of other nuclear receptor PGC-1α partners, including PPARα, hepatocyte nuclear factor-4α, and estrogen receptor α. These results identify ERRα and ERRγ as novel PGC-1α interacting proteins, implicate ERR isoforms in the regulation of mitochondrial energy metabolism, and suggest a potential mechanism whereby PGC-1α selectively binds transcription factor partners.


FPGA prototyping of recent large Systems on Chip (SoCs) is very challenging due to the resource limitation of a single FPGA. Moreover, having external access to SoCs for verification and debug purposes is essential. In this paper, we suggest to partition a network-on-chip (NoC) based system into smaller sub-systems each with their own NoC, and each of which is implemented on a separate FPGA board. Multiple SoC ASICs can be bridged in the same way. The scheme that interconnects the sub-systems should offer the application connections the required quality of service (QoS). In this paper, we investigate bridging schemes at different levels of the NoC protocol stack. Comparing the distinct design criteria for the proposed schemes, a bridge is designed. The bridge experiments show that it provides QoS in terms of bandwith and latency.


Existing conversational systems tend to generate generic responses. Recently, Background Based Conversation (BBCs) have been introduced to address this issue. Here, the generated responses are grounded in some background information. The proposed methods for BBCs are able to generate more informative responses, however, they either cannot generate natural responses or have difficulties in locating the right background information. In this paper, we propose a Reference-aware Network (RefNet) to address both issues. Unlike existing methods that generate responses token by token, RefNet incorporates a novel reference decoder that provides an alternative way to learn to directly select a semantic unit (e.g., a span containing complete semantic information) from the background. Experimental results show that RefNet significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods in terms of both automatic and human evaluations, indicating that RefNet can generate more appropriate and human-like responses.


We a distributed storage system where parts of the stored packets in storage nodes are subject to being lost. In a process, termed as the partial repair, the lost packets in a faulty node are recovered by the transmitted packets from other storage nodes and the available packets in the faulty node. To improve reliability of the stored data, and reduce the transmission costs, we propose a scheme that implements two-layer coding for storing files in the system. We study the minimum possible partial-repair bandwidth, and the codes that achieve the optimal bound.


Abstract Management in last decades has seen knowledge sharing become a key tool for the success of a variety of institutions. Many international companies and other organizations have developed knowledge management programs as key to their future development strategies. There are number of international organizations that have identified knowledge sharing as one of their core management tools. Yet despite its growing popularity, knowledge sharing remains a complex and challenging task. This article discusses what cultural barriers can impede knowledge sharing processes


Intuition might suggest that motion and dynamic information are key to video-based action recognition. In contrast, there is evidence that state-of-the-art deep-learning video understanding architectures are biased toward static information available in single frames. Presently, a methodology and corresponding dataset to isolate the effects of dynamic information in video are missing. Their absence makes it difficult to understand how well contemporary architectures capitalize on dynamic vs. static information. We respond with a novel Appearance Free Dataset (AFD) for action recognition. AFD is devoid of static information relevant to action recognition in a single frame. Modeling of the dynamics is necessary for solving the task, as the action is only apparent through consideration of the temporal dimension. We evaluated 11 contemporary action recognition architectures on AFD as well as its related RGB video. Our results show a notable decrease in performance for all architectures on AFD compared to RGB. We also conducted a complimentary study with humans that shows their recognition accuracy on AFD and RGB is very similar and much better than the evaluated architectures on AFD. Our results motivate a novel architecture that revives explicit recovery of optical flow, within a contemporary design for best performance on AFD and RGB.


The Turaev genus of a link can be thought of as a way of measuring how non-alternating a link is. A link is Turaev genus zero if and only if it is alternating, and in this viewpoint, links with large Turaev genus are very non-alternating. In this paper, we study Turaev genus one links, a class of links which includes almost alternating links. We prove that the Khovanov homology of a Turaev genus one link is isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}$ in at least one of its extremal quantum gradings. As an application, we compute or nearly compute the maximal Thurston Bennequin number of a Turaev genus one link.


In this article, the optimal control strategy for organism is investigated by using the adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) method under the architecture of nonzero-sum games (NZSGs). First, a tumor model is established to formulate the interaction relationships among normal cells, tumor cells, endothelial cells, and the concentrations of drugs. Then, the ADP-based method of single-critic network architecture is proposed to approximate the coupled Hamilton-Jacobi equations (HJEs) under the medicine dosage regulation mechanism (MDRM). According to the game theory, the approximate MDRM-based optimal strategy can be derived, which is of great practical significance. Owing to the proposed mechanism, the dosages of the chemotherapy and anti-angiogenic drugs can be regulated timely and necessarily. Furthermore, the stability of the closed-loop system with the obtained strategy is analyzed via the Lyapunov theory. Finally, a simulation experiment is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.


In this paper, we assess the cyclicality of mark-ups and profit margins within the United Kingdom, at both the aggregate and industry level. We find that the private sector labour share moves countercyclically, suggesting that the aggregate mark-up moves procyclically. This result survives when we consider more sophisticated measures of the mark-up. And this result is also supported by industry-level data. We find that the aggregate market sector profit share moves procyclically and that the cyclical behaviour of profit margins is largely homogenous across industries. Nevertheless, there is some evidence that margins moved against the cycle in the late 1990s, starting to fall in 1997, whereas GDP growth did not peak until 2000. In tandem with these cyclical movements, we also find that the market sector profit share has trended upwards since 1970, in contrast to the aggregate mark-up, which fell over the same period.


Hahnemann's ?Theory of Chronic Disease' is a pioneer to the key of ideal cure of myriad chronic diseases. Hahnemann discovered that the non-venereal chronic sicknesses originate from a morbid condition or disposition to disease transferring from generation to generation for thousands of years. Therefore, any external treatment to get rid of the skin manifestation is harmful to the patient and may be avoided. Some eminent dermatologist's perspicacious observation reveals that suppression of some sorts of skin diseases end in virulent internal disorder. He named the morbid condition as Psora behaving because the fostering soil for pretty much all doable sickness. In keeping with Hahnemann Psora developed from suppression of itch sickness by external application in earlier period. Hahnemann thought of the peculiar body covering eruption was the outward manifestation of internal itch sickness, the Psora. it's once more even by another instance that underneath correct homoeopathic treatment of a chronic sickness having history of suppressed skin manifestation within the past, the recent eruption undoubtedly appear satisfying Dr. Hering's law of cure. So to bring cure to any sickness particularly chronic sickness, one ought to focus one's attention towards the patient [host] to search out the basic cause while not ignoring the sickness agents and therefore the environmental factors acting as exciting or maintaining cause. Health is that the results of the dynamic equilibrium among the sickness agent, human host and therefore the atmosphere. Human host possessing hereditary factors have Associate in nursing large role within the production of huge variety of diseases. Till and unless, Miasm [the basic explanation for all natural diseases] is completed away with by agency of antimiasmatic treatment, the permanent cure of chronic sickness isn't doable.


The Supreme Court's decision in Lochner v. New York (1905), invalidating an act limiting working hours for bakers as a violation of contractual freedom, has come to symbolize an era in constitutional law. The period covers the years from the end of the Gilded Age through the Progressive Era. Its chief characteristic, according to its critics, is the judiciary's hostility to progressive labor legislation. Statutes intended to protect vulnerable classes from the ravages of industrialization were routinely defeated in the courts. Progressives pioneered an interpretation in which Lochner became a leading "anticanonical" case, wrongly deploying the doctrine of substantive due process to shield inherited distributions of wealth and power. The time is long past when scholars characterized the era as a product of judges' reactionary commitments to laissez-faire or, worse, to Social Darwinism, following Justice Holmes's quip, dissenting in Lochner, that "the Fourteenth Amendment does not enact Mr. Herbert Spencer's Social Statics." Contemporary scholars have reconstructed the period's jurisprudence, finding in it a principled commitment to a conception of justice grounded in the Founding. The most widely accepted explanation, developed by Gillman's influential study, is that substantive due process embodied a principle of neutrality requiring courts to distinguish the authentic public aims of legislation from illegitimate attempts to advantage some classes at others' expense. An alternative explanation is that judges, drawing on the theory of natural rights, developed the doctrine of substantive due process to limit government's discretion to encumber prepolitical rights to private property and liberty of contract.


Nowadays municipalities manifest an increasing difficulty in finding out free areas available for the introduction of public standard services along with private real estate developments. To overcome this difficulty and when private developers canit comply the rule, the City Hall of Turin requests a levy to compensate the missing allocation of public standard services. This solution implies for the City an assessment of the payable quantum. Time after time, as rules changed, the Municipality introduced consecutive proceedings and appraisal tools useful to define the compensative cost. In particular, the Turin City Plan foresees an equivalence between the value of areas bound to public standard services and the expropriation ones. Nevertheless, in 2007, a national act introduced the full market assessment for the expropriation value, causing an excessive charge for private developers, already hit by the economic and financial recession. As a consequence, during the last few years, the City Hall attempted more reasonable solutions, in order to expedite the urban transformation processes, otherwise blocked. This necessity has led to the definition of a icase by casei approach under the supportive activity of the Polytechnic of Turin, by means of a multi annual convention. A first solution chosen by the Turin City was to assess the compensative cost value by means of a DCF-Discounted Cash Flow. The DCF used to considerate all the overcharging cost inputs, specific of each intervention (drainage, demolitions, outside works, other public works, etc). Obviously, this assessment activity revealed trough time its own limits, in terms of time, cost, and process governance. This paper presents the early results of the forthcoming evolution in the compensative costsi evaluation process, aimed at the definition of a range of homogeneous values, depending on the different urban locations. Finally, this standardization activity, useful to guarantee a more transparent criterion as well as a simplification in the valuation process, could help to reach an agreement between the private and public subjects involved in the urban transformations processes. From an operative and methodological point of view the research activity of the Polytechnic of Turin has brought to the analysis of 3.861 census cells of the City. The analysis has attributed, by means of ArchGis software, punctual values to each cell. The distribution of the cell values has been studied to define the perimeter of homogeneous urban zones (nearly 90 sub-areas in total). For each sub-area the study has developed a dynamic Cash-Flow simulation of an hypothetic real estate intervention to calculate the relative value of the buildable area, considered as the compensative cost to be paid by private operators. The results emerged, beyond the operative implications, show, in a methodological perspective, the usefulness of the chosen method, in the mid-long term, to monitor the urban transformation impacts on the real estate values.


Author(s): Balakrishnan, Karthik Ratna | Advisor(s): Sohn, Lydia L | Abstract: Resistive-pulse sensing is a technique that allows for measurements of particles in a solution. The underlying principle relies on measuring the electrical resistance across a small pore connecting two reservoirs filled with fluid. As an insulating particle enters the pore, the particle displaces the conducting fluid, leading to an increase in the resistance measured. Pulse magnitude and width reveal information about the particle in transit. The size of the pulse magnitude corresponds to the size of the particle, while the width of the pulse represents the length of time the particle takes to transit the pore. We show that resistive pulse sensing can be used in combination with protein functionalization to achieve surface marker screening of small sample sizes. We analyze single satellite cells from muscle fibers of mice. We also present unique channel geometries that offer advancements to traditional resistive-pulse sensing. This new technique, node-pore sensing, provides unique signal detection benefits and essentially provides particle tracking, allowing us to determine specifically when a particle transits a specific region of a pore. Ultimately, node-pore sensing provides unprecedented sensitivity, which we show can be used to detect human immunodeficiency virus in human plasma. The particle tracking aspect of this technique affords us the capability of probing particle interactions in different regions of the pore, ultimately allowing us to perform single-cell screening of multiple biomarkers in a single device. We demonstrate multi-marker screening on cultured leukemia cells and bone marrow from leukemia patients. These studies showcase the promise of our platform for broad screening and diagnostic applications.


It is poorly understood why a particular plant species is resistant to the vast majority of potential pathogens that infect other plant species, a phenomenon referred to as "nonhost" resistance. Here, we show that Arabidopsis NHO1, encoding a glycerol kinase, is required for resistance to and induced by Pseudomonas syringae isolates from bean and tobacco. NHO1 is also required for resistance to the fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea, indicating that NHO1 is not limited to bacterial resistance. Strikingly, P. s. pv. tomato DC3000, an isolate fully virulent on Arabidopsis, actively suppressed the NHO1 expression. This suppression is abolished in coi1 plants, indicating that DC3000 required an intact jasmonic acid signaling pathway in the plant to suppress NHO1 expression. Constitutive overexpression of NHO1 led to enhanced resistance to this otherwise virulent bacterium. The presence of avrB in DC3000, which activates a cultivar-specific "gene-for-gene" resistance in Arabidopsis, restored the induction of NHO1 expression. Thus, NHO1 is deployed for both general and specific resistance in Arabidopsis and targeted by the bacterium for parasitism.


A key goal of engineering education is to ensure students are adequately prepared to enter professional practice. Unfortunately, students have been found to bring to university significant misconceptions about the types of work engineers perform, which can have an adverse impact on their readiness to fully appreciate and benefit from course activities. This paper presents a case study of how iSee, a collaborative online platform that allows for video conferencing within a three-dimensional immersive virtual world, was used to host a careers fair event in which students learned about the engineering profession and about the various engineering majors available to them by networking and interacting with alumni and faculty. The planning and execution of the event are described, along with the pedagogical, technological, and logistical considerations and design decisions that were made. Preliminary results suggest the activity, despite being low cost, was effective at generating productive dialogue between participants that focused on what students could expect upon graduating in terms of employment prospects, as well as the academic pathways and other learning opportunities they needed to pursue to realize their goals.


In this paper, we present an automated technique for creating a chatbot interface to databases. To the best of our knowledge, our technique is the first one for bootstrapping chatbots for question answering on relational databases. Our method leverages the natural language classifiers present in industrial chatbot platforms for natural language to structure query translation. We use our framework to create usable chatbots starting from the databases in a short time. We instantiated several chatbots in different domains and demonstrate the usefulness of it.


Automated prediction of new patients' disease diagnosis based on data mining analysis on historical data is proven to be an extremely useful tool in the medical innovation. There are several studies focusing on this particular aspect. The objective of this study is two-fold. First, we look into three different classifiers, which are the Naive Bayes, Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and Decision Tree J48 to predict the diagnosis results. Next, we investigate the effects of feature selection in such experiments. We also compare the experimental results with the study of Comparative Disease Profile (CDP) using the same dataset. Results have shown that the Naive Bayes provides the best result in terms of accuracy in our experiments and in comparison with CDP. However, we suggest using Multilayer Perceptron since the variables used in our experiments are inter-dependent among each other. In addition, MLP has shown better accuracy than CDP.


Previous research, regarding the prospect of zakat policy as a tax credit, was conducted using the Analytic Network Process (ANP) method, using expert respondents. To obtain findings from respondents with different backgrounds, to make it more comprehensive, this research was continued by using the SEM (Structural Equation Model) method, by filling in a questionnaire, as many as 235 respondents from all over Indonesia were random. The research objective is to determine the variables that affect the preferences and participation of muzaki and taxpayers, willing to pay taxes and zakat, increase public finances, which can be used as a solution to the sharp decline in aggregate economic supply and expenditure in Indonesia, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed that the regulatory variables, zakat incentives as tax credits, technology-based services, socialization and promotion have a significant effect on the preferences of muzaki and taxpayers. Meanwhile, regulatory variables, zakat incentives as tax credits, socialization and promotion have a significant effect on muzaki and taxpayer participation. Meanwhile, technology services and preferences in this study do not have a significant effect on the participation of muzaki and taxpayers. When all sectors of the commercial economy experience a decline or stagnate, the government must be able to move the philanthropic sector, so that the economy continues to run, aggregate demand and supply continues to run, and people's purchasing power is maintained, especially for low-income people.


Quality uncertainty is of considerable interest to the grain industry. In this paper, uncertainty is incorporated in a model of grain blending decisions. A mixed-integer, nonlinear optimization problem is developed. Simulations illustrate the effect of crop quality on blending decisions, and the effect of blending activities on the distribution of protein within a wheat marketing channel.


This paper gives a precise characterization of the fundamental limits of adaptive sensing for diverse estimation and testing problems concerning sparse signals. We consider in particular the setting introduced in Haupt, Castro and Nowak (2011) and show necessary conditions on the minimum signal magnitude for both detection and estimation: if $x\in\R^n$ is a sparse vector with $s$ non-zero components then it can be reliably detected in noise provided the magnitude of the non-zero components exceeds $\sqrt{2/s}$. Furthermore, the signal support can be exactly identified provided the minimum magnitude exceeds $\sqrt{2\log s}$. Notably there is no dependence on $n$, the extrinsic signal dimension. These results show that the adaptive sensing methodologies proposed previously in the literature are essentially optimal, and cannot be substantially improved. In addition these results provide further insights on the limits of adaptive compressive sensing.


The long-term rate of racemization for amino acids preserved in fossil ostracode shells was determined by using independently dated sediment cores from five deep lakes. The racemization rates for aspartic and glutamic acids in the common ostracode genus Candona were calibrated for the past 100 k.y., providing the basis for an age equation with a realistic age uncertainty of ∼±20%. The new age equation can be applied to other hypolimnic settings because the temperature below the thermocline of deep lakes from middle- and high-latitude regions can reasonably be assumed to remain close to 4 °C. The sample size required for analysis is an order of magnitude less than for 14C dating and presents new opportunities to date deposits that are organic-matter poor or those with large 14C reservoir effects.


Annually Norway sends a report to the OECD – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The report "International Migration 2013-2014 – IMO report for Norway" is a contribution to the reporting system on migration for the OECD countries.
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Author(s): Kotyk, Christopher Matthew | Advisor(s): Evans, William J | Abstract: This dissertation describes the synthesis, characterization, and reactivity of organometallic complexes of yttrium and the lanthanides in an effort to more completely understand the nature of a recently-discovered class of +2 ions of these rare earth metals. The reactivity of complexes of a new set of Ln2+ ions (Ln = rare earth metal) with unprecedented 4fn5d1 electron configurations has been explored to expand the unique chemistry possible with the rare earth elements. The isolation of unexpected reaction products is described as well as the discovery of a new divalent lanthanide system and the utilization of solvent-free mechanochemical synthesis for established rare earth organometallic species. In Chapter 1, the reactivity of the highly-reducing, air-, moisture-, and temperature-sensitive divalent lanthanide complexes [K(2.2.2-cryptand)][Cp'3Ln] (Ln = Y, La, Ce, Dy) is characterized by examining reactions with aromatic organic substrates of known reduction potential. Complexes of the 4fn5d1 Ln2+ ions reduce naphthalene and biphenyl within minutes to form a new class of reduced aromatic complexes, [K(2.2.2-cryptand)][Cp'2Ln(η4-C10H8)] (Ln = Y, La, Ce, Dy) and [K(2.2.2-cryptand)][Cp'2Y(η6-C6H5Ph)], respectively. The naphthalene reactions also produced the previously unobserved ligand redistribution products [K(2.2.2-cryptand)][Cp'4Ln] (Ln = Y, La), which show the effect of the lanthanide contraction on structure as the lanthanum complex has four η5-Cp' rings while yttrium has three η5-Cp' rings and one η1-Cp' ring. Chapter 2 describes the synthesis and characterization of a new class of 4fn5d1 Ln2+ complexes in which a reduced benzene dianion bridges two metal centers: [K(2.2.2-cryptand)]2[(Cp'2Ln)2(μ-η6:η6-C6H6)] (Ln = La, Ce). In these complexes, the (C6H6)2− dianion formally takes the place of a (Cp')1− anion in the [K(2.2.2-cryptand)][Cp'3Ln] complexes above and suggests a pattern that three anionic carbocyclic rings can stabilize the new Ln2+ ions. In accordance with the presence of two metal centers of 4fn5d1 electron configurations and (C6H6)2− dianions, these complexes react as four electron reductants to reduce two equiv of naphthalene to two equiv of [K(2.2.2-cryptand)][Cp'2Ln(η4-C10H8)] (Ln = La, Ce). This constitutes a better synthesis of these complexes than the one above since no (Cp'4Ln)1− byproducts are formed. Chapter 3 describes the solvent-free synthesis of the previously established complexes (C5Me5)3Y, Cp'3Y, [Cp'2Y(μ-Cl)]2, Y[N(SiMe3)2]3, and U[N(SiMe3)2]3 by mechanochemical ball milling. Not only do these reactions show the feasibility of ball milling as an alternative method to synthesizing organometallic rare earth complexes, but these preliminary results also show promising routes that shorten reaction times and limit the generation of organic solvent waste. This new method of solid-state synthesis is especially important for the isolation of (C5Me5)3Y as the established synthetic route must avoid aromatic hydrocarbons. Chapter 4 describes a study of the reactivity of organometallic rare earth non-classical carbocation complexes (C5Me5)2Ln[(OC)2C5Me5-κ2-O,O'] (Ln = La, Sm) obtained from sterically crowded (C5Me5)3Ln and carbon monoxide. Investigation of the reactivity is consistent with DFT analysis that suggests the LUMO of the La complex is the 5dz2 orbital of the metal center rather than an orbital centered on the carbocation. Also described in this dissertation are the synthesis and structural and spectroscopic characterization of two previously unreported rare earth amide complexes, Y(NCy2)3(THF) and Y(NPh2)3(THF)2 (Chapter 5), the insertion of CO2 into a Y–C bond for the first time with the Cp' ligand to form [Cp'2Y{μ-O2C[3-(Me3Si)C5H4]-κ2O,O'}]2 (Appendix A), the synthesis and structural characterization Cp'2Ln metallocene complexes of unsubstituted phenyl ligands, Cp'2LnPh(THF) (Ln = Y, Dy) (Appendix B), and the attempted synthesis of a bimetallic bridging monoanionic benzene rare earth complexes with the aim of developing a new class of single molecule magnets (Appendix C).


Since its founding in the nineteenth century, social anthropology has been seen as the study of exotic peoples in faraway places. But today more and more anthropologists are dedicating themselves not just to observing but to understanding and helping solve social problems wherever they occur - in international aid organizations, British TV studios, American hospitals, or racist enclaves in Eastern Europe, for example. In Exotic No More, an initiative of the Royal Anthropological Institute, some of today's most respected anthropologists demonstrate, in clear, unpretentious prose, the tremendous contributions that anthropology can make to contemporary society. They cover issues ranging from fundamentalism to forced migration, child labor to crack dealing, human rights to hunger, ethnicity to environmentalism, intellectual property rights to international capitalisms. But Exotic No More is more than a litany of gloom and doom; the essays also explore topics usually associated with leisure or "high" culture, including the media, visual arts, tourism, and music. The authors use specific examples from their fieldwork to illustrate their discussions, and 62 photographs enliven the text. Throughout the book, the contributors highlight anthropology's commitment to taking people seriously on their own terms, paying close attention to what they are saying and doing, and trying to understand how they see the world and why. Sometimes this bottom-up perspective makes the strange familiar, but it can also make the familiar strange, exposing the cultural basis of seemingly "natural" behaviors and challenging us to rethink some of our most cherished ideas - about gender, "free" markets, "race," and "refugees," among many others.


Abstract
The acute abdomen due to a vascular catastrophe affecting the major splanchnic vessels is often a life-threatening condition that can be very difficult to diagnose. In this article the pathological and physiological changes found in large- and small-intestinal ischaemia are related to the clinical features of the illness. Radiological, biochemical, and haematological aids to diagnosis are discussed. The treatment of large- and small-bowel ischaemia and of their specific complications, such as malabsorption and gastric hypersecretion, is outlined.


ABSTRACT Felsic dykes from the Dalat zone (southern Vietnam) are commonly NE–SW oriented and penetrate early cretaceous volcanic-plutonic rocks. These felsic dykes consist of predominant porphyritic granite, minor granitic aplite and aplite. The primary rock-forming minerals are plagioclase, K-feldspar, quartz and subordinate biotite, and the main secondary mineral is epidote. Geochemically, these felsic dykes are characterized by I-type affinity and high SiO2 content (>71 Wt%), low to moderate Al2O3, and variable total alkali (Na2O+K2O). Trace and rare-earth elements show the enrichment of LILEs such as Rb, U, Th, and K and the depletion of HFSEs such as Nb and Ti and a strongly negative Eu anomaly, indicating fractional crystallization of K-feldspar, plagioclase and titanite. Zircons obtained from the felsic dykes are prismatic and exhibit oscillatory zoning with Th/U ratio > 0.1 typical for magmatic origin. In situ zircon LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb dating yielded a weighted mean 206Pb/238U age of 91 Ma, temporally coeval with Early Cretaceous magmatism, which has been widely reported to originate from Paleo-Pacific subduction. Their (87Sr/86Sr)i ratio (0.709917 to 0.715288), whole-rock εNd(t) values (−1.3 to +0.9), zircon εHf(t) values (+3.1 to +9.5), and whole-rock Nd and zircon Hf model ages (TDM2) (999–552 Ma) of the studied felsic dykes indicate that they might derive from partial melting of neoproterozoic crustal materials with a input of mantle-derived melt during magma formation and differentiation. The obtained geochemical and isotopic characteristics suggest that these felsic dykes are genetically related to I-type granite and might have formed during the late stage of the Late Mesozoic Paleo-Pacific subduction beneath Indochina or shortly prior to the subsequent extensional regime due to slab retreat. Graphical abstract


Theorists argue that emphasizing changes to the policies, systems, and environments in which individuals live has more economical and sustainable impact on human health than interventions targeted directly to individuals (Kegler et al., 2015). We believe, however, that the ecology of the family remains an essential context for influencing individual behavior and contend it crucial that family life educators acknowledge the impact of family-level health-improvement initiatives. As such, we propose a behavior-change model for the family context that reflects the impact of interconnected family rules (policy), family relationships (systems), and the home (environment) on individual behavior, and acknowledge the underlying philosophical values that influence decisions about development, well-being, and health (see Figure 1; Bates & Yelland, 2018). Although the four framework concepts are interrelated, each can be conceptualized and operationalized uniquely. Future research will delineate techniques for evaluating how changes to family rules, family relationships, and the home impact human health.


Infectious diseases remain a major cause of morbidity in Australia. A wealth of data exists in administrative datasets, which are linked through established data-linkage infrastructure in most Australian states and territories. These linkages can support robust studies to investigate the burden of disease, the relative contribution of various aetiological agents to disease, and the effectiveness of population-based prevention policies - research that is critical to the success of current and future vaccination programs. At a recent symposium in Perth, epidemiologists, clinicians and policy makers in the infectious diseases field discussed the various benefits of, and barriers to, data-linkage research, with a focus on respiratory infection research. A number of issues and recommendations emerged. The demand for data-linkage projects is starting to outweigh the capabilities of exisiting data-linkage infrastructure. There is a need to further streamline processes relating to data access, increase data sharing and conduct nationally collaborative projects. Concerns about data security and sharing across jurisdictional borders can be addressed through multiple safe data solutions. Researchers need to do more to ensure that the benefits of linking datasets to answer policy-relevant questions are being realised for the benefit of community groups, government authorities, funding bodies and policy makers. Increased collaboration and engagement across all sectors can optimise the use of linked data to help reduce the burden of infectious diseases.


The purpose of this work is to locate the fundamental coordinates that frame the Freudian perspective of the analytic efficacy in the investigation, still under way, on "Freud and the efficacy of the analysis", give reasons of the importance of this coordinates in the Freudian texts in light of the present problems of the psychoanalysis, and present some preliminary conclusions. The problem of the efficacy is up-to-date in our society and interests directly al psychoanalysis that does not remain excepted of requests of measurement and evaluation to realize its results. The work locates the antecedents of the problem and distinguishes two present positions inside the psychoanalysis to respond to the requests of the science: a position that seeks to validate the psychoanalysis with empirical investigations according to the model of the positive sciences, another position that rescues the impor tance to maintain the specificity of the psychoanalysis. From this the interest of the revision of the Freudian position is supported and some preliminary conclusions are anticipated.


Flow fields produced by physically based simulations are subsets of multivariate spatiotemporal data, and have been in interest of many researchers for visualization, since the data complexity makes it difficult to extract representative views for the interpretation of fluid behavior. In this thesis, we utilize Information Theory to find entropy maps for vector flow fields, and use entropy maps to aid visualization and analysis of the flow fields. Our major contribution is to use Principal Component Analyses (PCA) to find a projection that has the maximal directional variation in polar coordinates for each sampling window in order to generate histograms according to the projected 3D vector field, producing results with fewer artifacts than the traditional methods. Entropy guided visualization of different data sets are presented to evaluate proposed method for the generation of entropy maps. High entropy regions and coherent directional components of the flow fields are visible without cluttering to reveal fluid behavior in rendered images. In addition to using data sets those are available for research purposes, we have developed a fluid simulation framework using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) to produce flow fields. SPH is a widely used method for fluid simulations, and used to generate data sets that are difficult to interpret with direct visualization techniques. A moderate improvement for the performance and stability of SPH implementations is also proposed with the use of fractional derivatives, which are known to be useful for approximating particle behavior immersed in fluids.


The etiology of the early onset of stunting is diverse among populations of varying biological, environmental and cultural circumstances. This is exemplified within the Nutrition CRSP project, which took place in three different populations and ecological conditions. Within each study area a different mix and varying proportions of causative factors were identified. At least in Kenya, and probably in Mexico, the problem has its antecedents in prepregnancy and pregnancy. Powerful determinants of the infants' size at birth and during the first 6 months of life are maternal size upon entry into pregnancy, and weight and fat gain during pregnancy and lactation. In all three countries a low pregnancy weight gain was observed. Notably in Kenya, where the energy intake of the mother decreases progressively throughout pregnancy, not only do mothers gain only half as much as European or North American women, but they even lose weight and fat in the last month of pregnancy, and some mothers gain no weight or lose weight during the whole of pregnancy. Mothers in Kenya start lactation with relatively poor fat stores. Although their energy intake increases somewhat during lactation, preliminary estimates suggest that these increases may be insufficient to maintain their bodily integrity, to carry out their normal tasks of daily living, and to produce a sufficient amount of milk for optimal infant growth. In addition to an energy deficit, diet quality is a problem, particularly in Kenya and Mexico and less so in Egypt. Intakes of animal products and animal protein are very low. Zinc and iron intakes are not only low, but the bioavailability of these nutrients is poor because of the high phytate, fiber and tea content of the diet. Also vitamin B12 intake is extremely low, and at least mild-to-moderate iodine deficiency (IDD) is present in Kenya. The above micronutrients have been demonstrated to affect the linear growth of the Kenyan children, even after confounding factors have been controlled. The early use of supplemental feeding in Kenya is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, there is a slight increase in febrile illness and possible displacement of breast milk intake in the supplemented infants, although mothers do not decrease breast feeding frequency and duration. On the other hand, even the modest amounts of available zinc and B12 in supplemental foods appear to have a positive effect on linear growth.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


The reactions reflecting adaptation may assume pathological traits under certain conditions. It is necessary to have reliable predictors that characterize adaptive processes. As this criterion, it is expedient to use the most important marker of free radical oxidation, such as xanthine oxidase (XO) activity. On the basis of the authors' findings, it can be said that it is advisable to apply this test to the screening of the course of adaptation within the first days after birth and to the detection of neonatal infants who require more scrupulous attention.


Objectives The aim of this study is to determine if there is a relationship between medical bed occupancy, performance against the 4 hour standard and hospital mortality rates. Background The problem of crowding in EDs is recognised by professional bodies around the world as a patient safety issue and, in 2014, this was the principle campaign of the UK Royal College of Emergency Medicine. Past research has focused on the outcome of ED patients, but less is known about the effect of access block, capacity and performance for the wider group of patients in a hospital. In June 2013, as a result of increasing workload pressures, Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust introduced a 90% medicine bed occupancy target. A number of interventions were undertaken across the patient journey to facilitate this. These included daily Consultant ward rounds on medical wards, CCG-commissioning of additional community beds and planned utilisation of traditional surgical bed base for medical patients. This permitted a natural experiment to see the effect of this reduction in bed occupancy on 4HTP and mortality. Methods This before-and-after study was undertaken in a large UK District General Hospital over a 32 month period. A range of interventions were undertaken to reduce medical bed occupancy within the Trust. 4HTP and hospital mortality (HSMR, SHMI and Crude Mortality) were compared before, and after, intervention. Daily data on medical bed occupancy and 4HTP was collected from hospital records. Segmented regression analysis of interrupted time-series method was used to estimate the changes in levels and trends in average medical bed occupancy, monthly 95% 4HTP and monthly mortality measures (HSMR, SHMI and crude mortality) that followed the intervention. Results Mean medical bed occupancy decreased significantly from 93.7% to 90.2% (p=0.02). The trend change in 4HTP, when comparing pre- and post-intervention, revealed a significant improvement in performance (p=0.019). The intervention resulted in a mean reduction in all markers of mortality (range 4.5%–4.8%). SHMI (p=0.02) and Crude Mortality (p=0.018) showed significant trend changes after intervention. Conclusion Whole system transformation can create lower average medical bed occupancy, reduce mortality and improve performance against the four hour target.


Preeclampsia is a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy characterized by maternal endothelial dysfunction and end-organ damage. The antiangiogenic factor, sFlt-1 (soluble FMS-like tyrosine kinase-1) has been strongly implicated in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia. sFlt-1 is secreted into the maternal circulation where it antagonizes VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) and ultimately disrupts vascular homeostasis. However, the upstream mechanisms regulating release of sFlt-1 are poorly characterized. We investigated the roles of key prosurvival pathways, EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) signaling, and the mitochondria, in regulating sFlt-1 production. We initially found that the mRNA and protein of EGFR and downstream adaptor molecules were significantly increased in preeclamptic placental tissue relative to normotensive controls. Inhibiting the EGFR signaling cascade using siRNA (small interfering ribonucleic acid) or small molecule inhibitors significantly reduced sFlt-1 release from primary cytotrophoblast (placental cells). Additionally, inhibiting the mitochondrial electron transport chain or activating downstream energy-sensing molecules (AMPK [AMP-activated kinase], SIRT1 [sirtuin 1 ], and PGC1&agr; [PPAR-&ggr; co-activator 1]) also significantly reduced sFlt-1 secretion from cytotrophoblast cells, without affecting EGFR signaling. In vivo, treating pregnant mice with gefitinib (an EGFR inhibitor) or resveratrol (perturbs mitochondrial function) significantly reduced circulating murine sFlt-1 compared with vehicle control. Furthermore, treating primary cytotrophoblasts with therapeutics which have been previously found to reduce sFlt-1 secretion, either reduced EGFR signaling (esomeprazole and statins) or perturbed mitochondrial function (esomeprazole, resveratrol, and metformin). Additionally, targeting both pathways simultaneously produced additive reductions in sFlt-1 secretion. Thus, we have identified 2 key survival pathways that seem to be overactive in preeclampsia and involved in the regulation of placental sFlt-1 secretion.


Prisoner's dilemma game is the most commonly used model of spatial evolutionary game which is considered as a paradigm to portray competition among selfish individuals. In recent years, Win-Stay-Lose-Learn, a strategy updating rule base on aspiration, has been proved to be an effective model to promote cooperation in spatial prisoner's dilemma game, which leads aspiration to receive lots of attention. In this paper, according to Expected Value Theory and Achievement Motivation Theory, we propose a dynamic aspiration model based on Win-Stay-Lose-Learn rule in which individual's aspiration is inspired by its payoff. It is found that dynamic aspiration has a significant impact on the evolution process, and different initial aspirations lead to different results, which are called Stable Coexistence under Low Aspiration, Dependent Coexistence under Moderate aspiration and Defection Explosion under High Aspiration respectively. Furthermore, a deep analysis is performed on the local structures which cause defectors' re-expansion, the concept of END- and EXP-periods are used to justify the mechanism of network reciprocity in view of time-evolution, typical feature nodes for defectors' re-expansion called Infectors, Infected nodes and High-risk cooperators respectively are found. Compared to fixed aspiration model, dynamic aspiration introduces a more satisfactory explanation on population evolution laws and can promote deeper comprehension for the principle of prisoner's dilemma.


Shales normally constitute more than 80% of sediments and sedimentary rocks in siliciclastic environments. Shales are important both in controlling the overburden seismic wave propagation as well as the reflectivity contrast between cap rocks and reservoir rocks in prestack seismic data. Therefore, during AVO analysis it is crucial to understand the seismic properties of shales as a function of mineralogy and compaction. In this study, we derive the local shale trend for a North Sea gas-and-oil field by integrating rock physics modeling with well-log and seismic data analysis.


A total of 100 chronic mental patients with schizophrenia, epilepsy and oligophrenia who had stayed in a rural hospital for a long time, were treated with restorative therapy including the complex of influences: psychopharmacological drugs, differential regimens of treatment and supervision, psychotherapy, treatment by employment and entertainment, exercise therapy and occupational therapy. The use of this complex demonstrate the improvement of the mental state in 82 patients, 30 patients could be discharged from the hospital. The role of the psycho-social influences for the mollification of pathological symptomatics characteristics of the chronic contingents of patients is discussed.


We study optimal risk adjustment in imperfectly competitive health insurance markets when high-risk consumers are less likely to switch insurer than low-risk consumers. First, we find that insurers still have an incentive to select even if risk adjustment perfectly corrects for cost differences among consumers. Consequently, the outcome is not efficient even if cost differences are fully compensated. To achieve first best, risk adjustment should overcompensate for serving high-risk agents to take into account the difference in mark-ups among the two types. Second, the difference in switching behavior creates a trade off between efficiency and consumer welfare. Reducing the difference in risk adjustment subsidies to high and low types increases consumer welfare by leveraging competition from the elastic low-risk market to the less elastic high-risk market. Finally, mandatory pooling can increase consumer surplus even further, at the cost of efficiency.


Background Decision Support requires the ability to classify individuals into subpopulations that differ in their susceptibility to diseases or their response to a specific treatment. Preventive or therapeutic interventions can then be focused on those who will benefit, sparing expense and side effects for those who will not. Thus, it is the tailoring of medical treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient and their susceptibility to various chronic diseases. Objectives Big Data analytics will empower physicians at the point of care to diagnose early arthritis stages, choose treatment approaches, decide when to refer to a subspecialist, and mitigate co-morbidities. Co-morbidity refers to co-occurrence of more than one disease in a person at a time. Examples include Diabetes, Cardiovascular diseases, renal diseases, Arthritis, etc. These diseases can occur by chance or there can be complex pathological associations. These indirect causal factors are only partially understood. It has been observed that the number of hospital admissions, as well as the mortality rate of comorbid patients, is significantly high. Hence, there is a need for early detection of these diseases. The aim of this project is to develop a clinical decision support system to study the clinical and genomic factors responsible for causing these diseases. Based on these findings, educate clinicians about how certain clinical and genomic factors are responsible for causing these diseases. Methods Most genetic variations among people is a result of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are differences in a single nucleotide within a stretch of DNA. SNPs can result in the production of different RNA molecules and proteins, thus altering the body's metabolism and physiology. With approximately 10 million SNPs in the human genome, "big data" analytical methods are the most efficient means for discovering which SNPs are associated with a particular disease. Candidate gene studies and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) serve a similar purpose on a much smaller scale, but are infeasible for analyzing large amounts of data. Results Design and Methodology: a. From a large EMR database extract records of persons with arthritis.b. Obtain information about SNP known to be risk causing from SNPedia, dbSNP.c. Integrate clinical and genomic data to obtain a universal feature vector.d. Perform feature extraction to extract relevant attributes.e. Run data mining algorithms like simple k-means to obtain clusters of patients and study similarity between them. The application systems interconnection logic is depicted in the diagram. Conclusions The proposed framework will enable a decision support tool for precision medicine in treatment of persons with arthritis. Acknowledgements This research has been sponsored by the U.S. Arthritis Foundation. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Acquired brain injury (ABI) is defined as any sudden damage to the brain occurring during a person's lifetime and not as a consequence of birth trauma. Between stroke and traumatic brain injury alone, it is estimated that between 17,000 and 19,000 people in Ireland will suffer an acquired brain injury each year, many of whom will require specialist neurorehabilitation (SNR). A growing demand for SNR in the absence of the development of specialist services has resulted in a considerable waiting list for admission to rehabilitation. A retrospective database analysis was conducted on 421 patients admitted to inpatients specialist neuro-rehabilitation over a two-year period from January 2015 to December 2016. Patients were categorised into three groups according to the length of time waiting for admission; 0-59 days, 60-119 days and ≥120 days. The groups were assessed for differences between admission and discharge and differences between groups for the following outcomes measures: UK FIM+FAM, Barthel Index (BI), Disability Rating Scale (DRS) and discharge destination. All patients showed a statistically significant improvement in functional ability between admission and discharge. No significant differences were found between the three groups for FIM+FAM or BI. A statistically significant difference was found between groups for the DRS and for discharge destination. There are a number of possible reasons for the non-statistical difference in outcomes between groups with different waiting times. These include the type and application of outcome measures, the statistical analysis used and the apparent pattern of admissions which identified 'a 'profile' of patients within each group.


The current period of social development is characterized by important processes that take place in the student environment. Under the influence of various social and political factors, new forms of thinking appear, specific values and value orientations are formed. The formation of value orientations among schoolchildren becomes particularly acute in modern society, which today is characterized by social instability, a crisis of spirituality, morality, and neglect of legal norms. Such a situation brings to the fore the problems of forming a new person, their consciousness and self-awareness, life values, spiritual forces, opportunities and abilities. In pedagogical science, the concept is interpreted as a system of views, which is significantly different from its theory or methodology due to the fact that the concept cannot be a finally verified constructor. It needs constant refinement, its theses can be debatable and require verification by facts, require the formulation of trends and regularities. The article analyzes the leading regulatory and legal documents containing relevant provisions on the foundations of the value-forming concept of personality education: State national program "Education" ("Ukraine of the 21st century"), The Law of Ukraine "On Education", the National Strategy for the Development of Education of Ukraine for the period until 2021, Concept of national education of student youth, Program of Ukrainian patriotic education of children and student youth, The concept of the New Ukrainian School, the regional targeted social program of national-patriotic education of children and youth for 2021-2025, approved by the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Council. We also highlighted the relevance of building and implementing the concept of raising children and youth, highlighted the purpose of the concept of raising children and youth, and characterized the main principles of building the concept.
Keywords: concept, values, education, schoolchildren, value-forming concept.


Abstract In this effort, blend membrane of polycarbonate (PC) and polypropylene-graft-maleic anhydride (PPMA) was fabricated via phase inversion technique. The nano-zeolite (NZ) was employed as nanofiller. Morphology of PC/PPMA/NZ membrane revealed unique inter-connected branched microstructure. Tensile strength and Young's Modulus of PC/PPMA/NZ 0.1-5 were in the range of 59.9-74.5 MPa and 111.4-155.2 MPa respectively. The nano-zeolite filler was also effective in enhancing the permselectivity αCO2/N2 (23.5 to 38.5) relative to blend membrane (20.3). The permeability PCO2 of PC/PPMA/NZ 5 membrane was found as 106.2 Barrer. Filler loading enhanced gas diffusivity, however filler content did not significantly influence CO2 and N2 solubility.


The purpose of this study is to determine whether chronic removal of atrial appendages alters renal response to volume expansion in the conscious monkey. Chronic bilateral atrial appendectomy (ATX) was performed in six animals. Six additional animals served as sham-operated controls. Monkeys were studied 1-2 wk after chronic surgery. The protocol consisted of three consecutive 10-min urine collections followed by 20% ischemic blood volume expansion (VE) and 120 min of post-VE measurements. In sham animals, VE caused an increase in plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) levels (48 +/- 7 pg/ml to a peak of 108 +/- 34 pg/ml). Urine flow increased from 0.43 +/- 0.07 to 1.07 +/- 0.24 ml/min, sodium excretion increased from 17.9 +/- 2.6 to 74.9 +/- 12.0 mu eq/min, and fractional sodium excretion increased from 0.67 +/- 0.10 to 2.43 +/- 0.28%. ATX attenuated the increase in ANP (34 +/- 8 pg/ml to a peak of 38 +/- 9 pg/ml) in four of six animals. In these animals, renal response to VE was significantly attenuated. Urine flow increased from 0.21 +/- 0.05 to 0.30 +/- 0.01 ml/min, sodium excretion increased from 19.3 +/- 6.02 to 37.8 +/- 5.05 mu eq/min, and fractional sodium excretion increased from 0.79 +/- 0.08 to 1.43 +/- 0.17%. Renal response of two ATX animals with normal increases in atrial natriuretic factor was similar to the sham group. Effect of volume expansion on mean arterial pressure, central venous pressure, and renal hemodynamics was not altered by ATX. These findings demonstrate that bilateral atrial appendectomy in the monkey attenuates the increase in ANP and reduces renal response to VE.


The ability to control the nanoscale shape of carbon nanostructures during wide-scale synthesis process is an essential goal in research for Nanotechnology applications. This paper reports a significant progress toward that goal. Variant CVD has been used for the synthesis of the samples studied. Curvature, hybridization and contamination are analyzed using Electron Microscopies and XANES spectroscopy. The investigations of the results show that four types of samples are obtained. They are carbon nanotubes (CNTs), carbon nanofibers (CNFs), carbon nanowalls (CNWs) and carbon nanoparticles (CNPs). Almost all of them have catalyst nanoparticles (metal) on top in top growth model or on base in base growth model and encapsulated or adsorbed in sidewalls. The orientation of tubular carbon nanomaterials depends on operating parameters. They are classified in three groups: the poorly oriented, the medium oriented and the highly oriented. Their contamination (radicals, atoms and molecules) and hybridization are intrinsically related to the curvature of their graphene layers. XANES spectroscopy allows quantitative characterization of nanomaterials.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether the concentration of lead in bone constitutes a biological marker that is more sensitive for chronic toxicity than blood lead levels.

DESIGN
Survey.

SETTING
A construction trade union with members who engage in carpentry, demolition, and other construction activities.

PARTICIPANTS
Members of the construction trade union.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
We measured blood pressure, serum creatinine, hematocrit, and hemoglobin. We measured blood lead by anodic stripping voltametry and used a cadmium 109 K x-ray fluorescence instrument to make in vivo measurements of lead in the tibia (a heavily cortical bone) and the patella (a heavily trabecular bone). Information was also collected on medical history, smoking, and alcohol ingestion.

RESULTS
Bone lead levels in the patella were found to be significantly correlated with a decrease in hemoglobin and hematocrit, even after adjusting for age, blood lead, body mass index, cigarette smoking, and alcohol ingestion and removing outliers. Blood lead levels were low (mean = 0.40 mumol/L [8.3 micrograms/dL]) and were not correlated with either hemoglobin or hematocrit. In the final multivariate regression model that corrected for measurement error, an increase in patella bone lead level from the lowest to highest quintile in this study population (37 micrograms/g) was associated with a decrease in hemoglobin and hematocrit of 11 g/L (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.7 to 19.3 g/L) and 0.03 (95% CI, 0.01 to 0.05), respectively.

CONCLUSION
We conclude that patella bone lead levels are associated with decreased hematocrit and hemoglobin levels despite the presence of low blood lead levels. This conclusion may reflect a subclinical effect of bone lead stores on hematopoiesis and is the first epidemiological evidence that bone lead may be an important biological marker of ongoing chronic toxicity.


White mice are infested ocularly with 5 newly hatched larvae of Cuterebra fontinella Clark. Two days later, female mice are weighed and treated orally with candidate insecticides usually formulated in Tween 20; male mice have a plastic collar placed around their necks to prevent grooming, and their bodies are dipped into 80-200 ml of an emulsion of the candidate insecticide usually formulated as an EC in xylene (66 parts), Triton X-100 (10 parts), and AI (25 parts). Highest dosages are 100 mg/kg orally and 1% dentially. Four days later, mice are killed and their bodies examined carefully for encapsulated larvae usually found in the inguinal region. Effectiveness is determined by comparing numbers of larvae in treated mice with numbers in untreated mice. Probit analysis is conducted with corrected percent-kill data.


The physician-patient relationship rests on a bedrock of trust. Without trust, patients--and for that matter, physicians--are less willing to divulge information critical to providing accurate medical diagnoses and treatments. The state of Florida seemingly ignored this when its legislature, with support from the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun advocates, enacted the Firearm Owners Privacy Act (FOPA), a statute that restricts physicians from questioning their patients about firearm ownership. In Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that FOPA did not regulate physician speech but, instead, regulated physician conduct. As such, the law was exempted from First Amendment scrutiny. But almost one year to the day after publishing its first Wollschlaeger opinion, the Eleventh Circuit sua sponte vacated its original opinion and substituted in its place a brand new opinion--one holding that FOPA was subject to First Amendment scrutiny, but nonetheless passed constitutional muster. This Note uses the diverging Wollschlaeger opinions as a vehicle to analyze the First Amendment's coverage and protection of physician speech. Specifically, it argues that an uninhibited line of communication is required to protect the trust necessary for an effective physician-patient relationship. This logical underpinning leads to the conclusion that the First Amendment presumptively covers physician speech and, furthermore, that physician speech should be subject to intermediate scrutiny--a level of scrutiny that FOPA cannot meet.


AIMS
Coronary collateral arteries (CCA) reduce cardiovascular events. We tested the hypothesis that new microvessels that proliferate in early atherosclerosis may be associated with myocardial protection during acute subtotal coronary artery obstruction (CAO).

METHODS AND RESULTS
Acute left anterior descending CAO was induced by a balloon catheter in pigs after 12 weeks of high-cholesterol (HC) diet, renovascular hypertension (HTN), or normal control. Cardiac structure, myocardial perfusion, and functional response to iv adenosine and CAO were studied in vivo using electron beam computed tomography (CT). The intra-myocardial microvessels were subsequently evaluated ex vivo using micro-CT, and myocardial expression of growth factors using immunoblotting. Basal myocardial perfusion and microvascular permeability were similar among the groups, whereas their responses to adenosine were attenuated in HC and HTN. A significant decline in myocardial perfusion in normal pigs during acute CAO was attenuated in HC and abolished in HTN. CAO also elicited an increase in normal anterior wall microvascular permeability (+202 +/- 59%, P < 0.05), which was attenuated in HC and HTN (+55 +/- 9 and +31 +/- 8%, respectively, P < 0.05 vs. normal). Microvascular (<200 microm) spatial density was significantly elevated in HC and HTN, accompanied by increased myocardial growth factor expression.

CONCLUSION
This study demonstrates that early exposure to the cardiovascular risk factors HC and HTN protects the heart from decreases in myocardial perfusion during acute subtotal CAO. This protective effect is associated with and potentially mediated by pre-emptive development of intra-myocardial microvessels that might serve as recruitable CCA.