An analysis of more than 400 000 hip replacement operations carried out in England and Wales since 2003 has called into question the value of resurfacing after it was found that this type of procedure is more likely to fail within five years than a total hip replacement.

The likelihood of needing a second operation is especially high among women, but revision rates after resurfacing are also raised in those men who have smaller devices fitted, show the findings.1 Resurfacing should be avoided in both these groups of patients, say the authors.

In February a joint investigation by the BMJ and the BBC's Newsnight programme found that metal on metal devices had a failure rate of 11.8% for resurfacing and 13.6% for total hip replacements after seven years, much higher than the 3.3% to 4.9% for hip implants made of other materials.2 The findings, which were based on data from the …


Background Persistent infection with high-risk (HR) human papillomavirus (HPV) types is necessary for cervical cancer development. The risk is much higher for women infected with multiple genotypes of the human papillomavirus (HPV). The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of single and multiple HPV infection in relation to age and results of Pap smear cytology. Methods From January to December 2012, frequency of HR HPV was analysed among 398 women from Vojvodina. In determination of the presence HPV DNA commercial HR HPV Real-TM kit (Sacace Biotechnologies, Italy) were applied. PCR was performed and products were detected using ABI 7500 Real-Time PCR instrument. Results The overall prevalence of HPV infection among studied women was 61.3%. Single HPV genotypes were found in 150 (65.3%) and multiple genotypes in 94 (34.7%) of 244 HPV DNA positive samples. The most frequent genotype was HPV 16, followed by HPV 31, 51.52 and 18. Proportion of multiple HPV infection decreased significantly according to age and severity from 48.9% in women under 30 years of age, 39.7% in women from 30 to 40 years of age, 21.3% in women older than 40. Among all women with normal cytology multiple HPV infections were found in (22.4%), (34.9%) among women with ASCUS cytology, (17.0%) in LSIL cytology and (17.9%) in HSIL cytology. Conclusion In the present study, we observed a very high prevalence of multiple (22.4%) of HPV infection among women with normal cytology and (34.9%) in women with indeterminate Pap test, as ASCUS cytology. Sensitive and specific detection methods, as well as, real-time PCR genotyping HPV are required and helpful for triage of women with ASCUS cytology.


While tetrazole (TZ) has much lower basicity than imidazole and may not be fully protonated in the presence of phosphoric acid (PA), DFT calculations suggest that the basicity of TZ groups can be increased by the introduction of a 2,6-dioxy-phenyl-group in position 5 of TZ. This structure allows hydrogen bonds between TZ protons and ether oxygen atoms, and thereby establishes a resonance stabilised, co-planar structure for tetrazolium ions. Molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) calculations also indicate that tetrazolium ions possess two sites for proton hopping. This makes such materials interesting for use in a high temperature fuel cell (HT PEMFC). Based on these findings, two polymers incorporating the proposed TZ groups were synthesised, formed into membranes, doped with PA and tested for fuel cell relevant properties. At room temperature, TZ-PEEN and commercial meta-PBI showed an equilibrium uptake of 0.5 and 4.7 mol PA per mol heterocycle, respectively, indicating that PBI has higher affinity for PA than TZ-PEEN. The highest achieved PA uptake was ca. 110 wt%, resulting in a proton conductivity of 25 mS cm−1 at 160 °C with a low activation energy of about 35 kJ mol−1. In a first HT PEMFC test at 160 °C, a peak power density of 287 mW cm−2 was achieved.


A recommender system is an application that analyses data and makes recommendations for things that a user might be interested in. For example, the Book Recommender System uses user information to suggest relevant books. However, many of the systems do not include recommendations based on the interests and backgrounds of other readers. Therefore, this study proposes a recommender system model for book recommendations that incorporates the background and interests of other readers. This data was combined with the reader's information to generate a list of books that would be of interest to the reader. Furthermore, the system has a comment section that allows users to provide input on the book, whether they like or detest it. The system's development is split into two parts: a user interest survey and prototype development. The purpose of the survey was to gather information on the background and interests of book readers. This data serves as the initital data for the recommender system. The Waterfall model is used in the construction of the recommender system. The proposed recommender system is critical in assisting readers in finding and selecting books that are relevant to their interests. This will save the reader a significant amount of time when browsing the book's collection. Past readers' comments will provide a general summary of the book. This will aid the reader in deciding whether or not to continue reading. The system was tested on a group of readers who served as the study's respondents. The findings shows that more than 80% of the respondents were generally satisfied (agree and strongly agree) with the system's interface design and content.


A wireless network of consumer electronic (CE) devices in a modern home, is typically running streaming services with heterogeneous bandwidth demands. Satisfying these demands offers the challenge of mapping them efficiently onto scarce wireless channel bandwidth. This mapping is supported by the IEEE 802.11e standard which provides cooperative and competitive distributed control for bandwidth assignment through a set of medium access control (MAC) mechanisms. While these mechanisms leverage priority arbitration for wireless channel usage, they are typically configured without taking the knowledge of streaming services into account thus resulting in suboptimal bandwidth utilization. This paper presents a streaming-aware wireless channel utilization policy. For defining and understanding the policy, a previous analytic model, which focuses mainly on the aspect of obtaining control of the channel, is extended with the aspect of retaining control according to application requirements. The model is simpler than previous works; it is compared with simulations and shown to be accurate. A utilization improvement of up to 18% is observed to be possible showing that such cross-layer optimization improves resource use1.


The use of CNG in bus and private vehicles is growing steadily. Recent fire accidents involving CNG buses have shown that tanks may explode though compliant with current ECE UN R110 regulation. Such a repeated scenario is certainly not acceptable having in mind the tremendous amount of energy released when a compressed tank bursts. Investigation of German and French recent cases detailed in this article highlights potential improvements in current CNG buses fire safety concepts. Among others, it includes to rely on a system-level test and expectations in combination with the current component-level test. Fire safety should not solely rely on tank behaviour when exposed to fire but also to additional and upstream fire safety barriers. Thermal fuses can not be seen any more as an ultimate option to control tank burst in case of fire.


Agricultural work is hazardous, and immigrant workers perform the majority of production tasks, yet there are few data describing agricultural work and use of protective measures by demographic characteristics. We examined cross-sectionally the influence of region of birth (Mexico vs. Central America) and sex on agricultural work and use of protective measures in the MICASA cohort of immigrant Latino farm workers in Mendota, California. Of 445 participants, 293 (65.8%) were born in Mexico (163 men, 130 women) and 152 (34.2%) were born in Central America (80 men, 72 women). Men worked on average 74.4 more days than women (95% CI 62.0, 86.9) and were more likely to perform tasks requiring high levels of training or strength, such as machine operation, pruning, picking, planting, and irrigation; more likely to work in dusty conditions; and more likely to work directly with pesticides. Women predominated in packing. Respondents from Mexico were more likely to work with tomatoes and less likely to work with melon and lettuce. Central America-born respondents were less likely to engage in planting, irrigation, and pesticide use. Use of task-appropriate personal protective measures on at least a half-time basis was rare, with the exception of persons working with pesticides (a group limited to men) and for facial scarves among Central American women. Further work should focus on identifying barriers to use of preventive measures and programs to further their use. Educational models accounting for cultural factors and driving social norm change, employer engagement, and use of community health workers (promotores) may be helpful in promoting use of preventive measures.


Toward Successful Tissue Repair The therapeutic use of growth factors in tissue regeneration has suffered from safety and efficacy issues. Reasoning that the unmet potential may be because of nonphysiological delivery, Martino et al. (p. 885) engineered growth factors to bind strongly to extracellular matrix proteins. These variants were able to induce superior tissue repair, compared to the wild-type proteins. Furthermore, unwanted side effects were decreased: For example, the engineered angiogenic growth factor VEGF showed reduced vascular permeability, a concern that has limited the therapeutic efficacy of wild-type VEGF. A strategy to engineer tissues uses substantially lower growth factor levels without compromising tissue viability. Growth factors (GFs) are critical in tissue repair, but their translation to clinical use has been modest. Physiologically, GF interactions with extracellular matrix (ECM) components facilitate localized and spatially regulated signaling; therefore, we reasoned that the lack of ECM binding in their clinically used forms could underlie the limited translation. We discovered that a domain in placenta growth factor-2 (PlGF-2123-144) binds exceptionally strongly and promiscuously to ECM proteins. By fusing this domain to the GFs vascular endothelial growth factor–A, platelet-derived growth factor–BB, and bone morphogenetic protein–2, we generated engineered GF variants with super-affinity to the ECM. These ECM super-affinity GFs induced repair in rodent models of chronic wounds and bone defects that was greatly enhanced as compared to treatment with the wild-type GFs, demonstrating that this approach may be useful in several regenerative medicine applications.


Predicting and anticipating future outcomes or reasoning about missing information in a sequence are critical skills for agents to be able to make intelligent decisions. This requires strong, temporally coherent generative capabilities. Diffusion models have shown remarkable success in several generative tasks, but have not been extensively explored in the video domain. We present Random-Mask Video Diffusion (RaMViD), which extends image diffusion models to videos using 3D convolutions, and introduces a new conditioning technique during training. By varying the mask we condition on, the model is able to perform video prediction, infilling, and upsampling. Due to our simple conditioning scheme, we can utilize the same architecture as used for unconditional training, which allows us to train the model in a conditional and unconditional fashion at the same time. We evaluate RaMViD on two benchmark datasets for video prediction, on which we achieve state-of-the-art results, and one for video generation. High-resolution videos are provided at https://sites.google.com/view/video-diffusion-prediction.


Reliability assessment and remaining life prediction in the working processes of mechanical products, getting more attention of researchers, can reduce accidents and losses and help improve the preventive maintenance decision-making. This article presents two failure models, linear and exponential, to predict residual life distribution based on the degradation information of mechanical products. Parameters of the models can be estimated using maximum likelihood method. After the real-time monitoring information is acquired, residual life distribution should be updated constantly in order to improve accuracy of the prediction. Experiments were carried out on a double row cylindrical roller bearing to get the vibration information. It proved the validity of the aforementioned method and was applied to compare the two degradation models.


This report documents a project undertaken for the California Urban Water Conservation Council to create a method to calculate water utility avoided costs and assign economic value to the environmental benefits of raw water savings as a result of implementing urban water conservation programs.

It is assumed that water savings associated with implementation of conservation programs can be quantified and represented as a reduction in the demand for water from a particular set of supply sources. This demand reduction may in turn result in a change to the availability of an environmental benefit provided by that source. Environmental valuation, as it is applied here, is relatively new and there are numerous complications, ambiguities, data gaps and differences of opinion in the application of the methodology. For that reason, this report should be considered a pioneering effort to put together all the required elements in a single coherent framework.


There is an increasing incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA) among younger people in the western populations. However, the association between genetic polymorphisms and the age of EA onset is unclear. In this study, 1330 functional/ tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 354 cancer-related genes were genotyped in 335 white EA patients. Twenty important SNPs that have the highest importance scores and lowest classification error rate were identified by the random forest algorithm to be associated with early onset of EA (age ≤ 55 years). Subsequent logistic regression analysis indicated that 10 SNPs(rs2070744 ofNOS3, rs720321 of BCL2, rs17757541 ofBCL2, rs11775256 of TNFRSF10A, rs1035142 of CASP8, rs2236302 of MMP14, rs4740363 of ABL1, rs696217 of GHRL, rs2445762 of CYP19A1, and rs11941492 of VEGFR2/KDR) were significantly associated with early onset of EA (≤55 vs >55 years, all P < .05 after adjusting for covariates and false discovery rate). Among them, five SNPs in the NOS3, BCL2, TNFRSF10A ,a ndCASP8 genes were known to be involved in apoptosis processes. In Kaplan-Meier analyses, rs2070744 of NOS3, rs720321 of BCL2, and rs1035142 of CASP8 were also significantly associated with early onset of EA. Moreover, there was a higher risk of developing EA at a younger age when one had more risk genotypes. In conclusion, polymorphisms in cancer-related genes, especially those in the apoptotic pathway, play an important role in the development of younger-aged EA in a dose-response manner.


School meals are an important component in creating a healthy school environment because students especially those residing in hostels consume a large proportion of their total food and nutrient intake at school. The objectives of this cross-sectional study were to examine the nutritional value of food served in a residential school in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah; to compare the nutrients provided in school meals with the Recommended Nutrient Intakes (RNI); to determine whether the food served adhere to the School canteen Guidelines and, to determine the ability of students to finish the food served. Triplicate samples of all foods served on four weekdays and one weekend were weighed. Mean energy was 2199±246 kcal/day (CV=11.2%) which was adequate for female but not for male students aged 13 to 18 years. Energy from carbohydrate, protein and fat was 59.0%, 16.7% and 24.5% respectively. Food served provided 81.7% of RNI for energy. Provision of protein, vitamin A (calculated as total RE), and vitamin C exceeded the RNI values (145.1%, 371.8%, and 189.8%). Nutrients which did not meet the RNI were zinc (14.6% of RNI), calcium (48.6%), thiamine (77.1%), niacin (80.5%), riboflavin (93.6%), and iron (96.6%). It was observed that the school canteen and cooperative are selling food and beverages which are not encouraged or not permitted to be sold in schools. Subjects (n =163; m=68, f=95) were asked to record food served which was discarded in one day. Vegetable, rice, beef and fish were the most frequently discarded items during lunch and dinner. Over these two meals, 16.9% of subjects discarded vegetables served, 5.8% rice, 5.5% beef and 5.5% fish. These findings showed that there might be a need to review the school menu in order to achieve the RNI values; and food presentation or cooking method to encourage higher consumption levels, particularly of vegetables.


Spontaneous coronary artery dissection is an unusual trigger for acute coronary syndrome or sudden death, occurring more frequently in relatively young people and mainly in the female sex. The underlying mechanism is not completely understood, but predisposing factors may include metabolism and collagen synthesis disorders. The case of a 34-year-old woman who underwent coronary angiography for acute anterolateral myocardial ischemia after cocaine abuse is reported. Dissection of the left main trunk extending to both proximal descending anterior and circumflex arteries was detected and the patient was promptly and successfully managed with tirofiban hydrochloride infusion and urgent coronary artery bypass grafting.


This paper used Taguchi technique to determine the optimal SAW parameters, an effort has been made to study the effect of SAW process parameters (current I , voltage V , speed S ) on the weld bead width ( W) of low carbon steel AISI 1005. S/N ratios are computed to determine the optimum parameters. Statistical model were checked by used multiply regression method; the adequacy and significance of the model were checked by using ANOVA technique. The model employed easily in form of executed program designed by using visual basic 6 software, the objective of designed program is to predict and control weld bead width, which enable to put in the desired weld parameters and select the weld bead width. Main and Interaction effects of the process parameters on bead width presented graphically. The experimental results were analyzed by using Minitab 16 software.


This paper analyzes the thematic and discursive construction of big data by the Argentine digital press. Using text mining techniques — topic modelling and enriched associative networks — together with qualitative and quantitative content analysis — in both discourse and images — over 2,026 articles, we sought to identify the topics wherein big data is treated, the promises and risks it addresses, its definition within the semantic field in which is explicitly expressed, and the pictures that illustrate it. Results herein presented compare how big data is portrayed in news about politics, business, and technological innovations, as well as in focal pieces targeted to a generic and massive audience, and critical reflections about its risks. Although in each of those thematic contexts big data is anchored differently, there is a common idea that associates big data with a socio-technological premise and an epistemic promise: because of the availability of large volumes of data, something new that will allow better decisions can be known. Our exploration contributes to a more detailed knowledge on how the news media social systems make sense of novel phenomena such as big data.


UNLABELLED
Obesity results from an imbalance between energy consumed and energy expenditure generated. Among the factors that regulate the non-homeostatic energy intake is the olfaction, which is an important external signal that induces food intake, humans used to assess the palatability of foods and to select foods in general.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
an electronic search in the databases PubMed and Scielo, where the key words used were: "smell", "energy intake" and "obesity", additionally the following limits are added to restrict the exploration, "animals", "human", "clinical trial" and "meta- analysis".

RESULTS
the individual hunger state modulates olfactory sensitivity, which shows that the sensitivity of smell detection increases compared to fasting state. There are two hormones that allow us to relate olfactory sensitivity to energy intake: orexin, which increased olfactory sensitivity and energy intake and leptin that decreased olfactory sensitivity and energy intake. Obese people with BMI> 45 have low olfactory sensitivity; a situation does not change after bariatric surgery.

CONCLUSIONS
to determine the association between olfactory, energy intake and obesity is fields scarcely studied and deliver new insights for the treatment of diseases where there are eating disorders involved such as obesity. In the future the conduct of clinical trials to determine causality between these two variables and molecular studies to better understand the olfactory signals relating to energy intake are necessary.


ABSTRACT Research has linked various constructs with a shared focus on the future to suicidal behavior. This study examined: (1) whether life expectancy and expectations for future health were associated with reduced odds of suicidal ideation and attempted suicide, and (2) whether the reducing effect of having high levels of future expectations on suicidal ideation was stronger among individuals with lower levels of depression. Study participants were youths from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a multi-wave panel study of how individual, family, peer, and school factors contributes to youth developmental outcomes. Sequential logistic regression models on 14,644 youths (average age = 14.7 years; 51.3% female; 58.7% white) indicated that higher reported levels of life expectancy and expectations for future health were associated with reduced odds of engaging in suicidal ideation and attempted suicide, net of an array of well-established correlates of suicidal behavior. Depression moderated this relationship such that the association between future expectations and suicidal behavior was amplified among youths with lower levels of depression. The findings suggest that interventions that address suicidal thoughts and actions should promote positive thinking about the future.


Challenged networks refer to networks with unconventional difficulties, such as intermittent connectivity, large delay, and others. Their unique communication characteristics create new challenges for the research community and demand novel solutions to achieve efficient routing and maintain existing network services.
In this dissertation, I explore new optimizations to combat these challenges under the unifying theme of achieving situation awareness. In particular, I study four categories of networks that contain a range of disruptions: highly varying mobility, lossy radio links, opportunistic connectivity, and intermittent connectivity.
The first category consists of networks with a varying mobility pattern found in many challenged mobile networks. I propose a model-based approach to capture mobility phase changes in order to maintain efficient routing. When evaluated using a real-world mobility trace, our approach leads to an improvement of up to 120% in packet delivery rate.
The second category consists of networks with lossy links. Since data collection is frequently disrupted by the difficulty of identifying good links, I use supervised learning to maintain accurate link quality information under heavy traffic load when traditional approaches fail. Our approach yields improvements of up to 300% when evaluated on a real-world sensor network testbed.
The third category consists of networks with unpredictable mobility in which data can only be forwarded in a store-and-forward fashion. Existing approaches depend heavily on mobility prediction, which is difficult though, if not impossible. I use erasure coding to forward coded data to more contacts to combat inaccurate predictions. Simulation results show that our approach has a smaller worst case delay compared to other state-of-the-art algorithms.
The fourth category consists of static sensor networks with intermittent connectivity. In such networks, energy saving opportunities arise during network disconnection. I propose a new transport protocol to leverage such opportunities that yields significant idle energy savings compared to existing approaches.
Overall, this dissertation investigates a range of challenged networks and propose a set of techniques to enable situation-awareness in order to achieve high routing performance and energy efficiency. The outcomes reveal high potential for situation-aware techniques and provide new perspectives on optimizations in challenged networks.


ABSTRACT Retroviruses contain two plus-strand genomic RNAs, which are stably but noncovalently joined in their 5′ regions by a dimer linkage structure (DLS). Two models have been put forward to explain the mechanisms by which the RNAs dimerize; each model emphasizes the role of specific molecular determinants. The kissing-loop model implicates interactions between palindromic sequences in the DLS region. The second model proposes that purine-rich stretches in the region form purine quartet structures. Here, we present an examination of the in vitro dimerization of Moloney murine sarcoma virus (MuSV) RNA in the context of these two models. Dimers were found to form spontaneously in a temperature-, time-, concentration-, and salt-dependent manner. In contrast to earlier reports, we found that deletion of neither the palindrome nor the consensus purine motifs (PuGGAPuA) affected the level of dimer formation at low concentrations of RNA. Rather, different purine-rich sequences, i.e., consecutive stretches of guanines, were found to enhance both in vitro RNA dimerization and in vivo viral replication. Biochemical evidence further suggests that these guanine-rich (G-rich) stretches form guanine quartet structures. We also found that the palindromic sequences could support dimerization at significantly higher RNA concentrations. In addition, the G-rich stretches were as important as the palindromic sequence for maintaining efficient viral replication. Overall, our data support a model that entails contributions from both of the previously proposed mechanisms of retroviral RNA dimerization.


BACKGROUND
The use and detailed costs of services provided for people with advanced melanoma (amel) are not well known. We conducted an analysis to determine the use of health care services and the associated costs delineated by relevant attributable costs, which we defined for subjects in the province of Ontario.

METHODS
Through the Ontario Cancer Data Linkage Project, a cohort of amel patients with diagnoses between 31 August 2005 and 2012 (follow-up to 2013) and with valid International Classification of Diseases (9th revision, Clinical Modification) 172 codes and histology codes was identified. A cohort of individuals with amel having a combination of at least 1 palliative, 1 medical oncology, and 1 hospitalization code was generated. The health system services used by this population were clustered into hospitalization, palliation, physician medical visits, medication, homecare, laboratory, diagnostics, and other resources. Overall rates of use and disaggregated costs were determined by phase of care for the entire cohort.

RESULTS
The mean age for the 2748 individuals in the cohort was 67 years. The greater proportion of the patients were men (65.6%) and were more than 65 years of age (>50%). In this advanced cohort, fewer than 45% of patients were alive 3 years after the malignant melanoma diagnosis. The average annual cost per patient over the time horizon was $6,551. At $15,830, year 1 after diagnosis was the most expensive, followed by year 2, at $8,166.

CONCLUSIONS
Our data provide a baseline for the costs associated with amel treatment. Future studies will include newer agents and comparative effectiveness research for personalized therapies.


Purpose A research photon-counting computed tomography (CT) system that consists of an energy-integrating detector (EID) and a photon-counting detector (PCD) was installed in our laboratory. The scanning fields of view of the EID and PCD at the isocenter are 500 and 275 mm, respectively. When objects are larger than the PCD scanning field of view, a data-completion scan (DCS) using the EID subsystem is needed to avoid truncation artifacts in PCD images. The goals of this work were to (1) find the impact of a DCS on noise of PCD images and (2) determine the lowest possible dose for a DCS such that truncation artifacts are negligible in PCD images. Methods First, 2 semianthropomorphic abdomen phantoms were scanned on the PCD subsystem. For each PCD scan, we acquired 1 DCS with the maximum effective mAs and 5 with lower effective mAs values. The PCD image reconstructed using the maximum effective mAs was considered as the reference image, and those using the lower effective mAs as the test images. The PCD image reconstructed without a DCS was considered the baseline image. Each PCD image was assessed in terms of noise and CT number uniformity; the results were compared among the baseline, test, and reference images. Finally, the impact of a DCS on PCD image quality was qualitatively assessed for other body regions using an anthropomorphic torso phantom. Results The DCS had a negligible impact on the noise magnitude in the PCD images. The PCD images with the minimum available dose (CTDIvol < 2 mGy) showed greatly enhanced CT number uniformity compared with the baseline images without noticeable truncation artifacts. Further increasing the effective mAs of a DCS did not yield noticeable improvement in CT number uniformity. Conclusions A DCS using the minimum available dose had negligible effect on image noise and was sufficient to maintain satisfactory CT number uniformity for the PCD scans.


Volume 3, Issue 2, February 2014 Page 199 Abstract Insurers have adopted multiple channels of distribution to sell insurance products during the past decade. Although multiple channel distribution strategies provide tremendous benefits to insurers, but there are many causes which lead to multi-channel conflict. The question of how to identify the factors that cause distribution channel conflicts has received scant attention in the literature and has not been appropriately investigated in prior studies. This study employed methods of Delphi study, TOPSIS, and C.A. to identify the factors that cause distribution channel conflicts in the insurance industry and to assess the frequency of factors that cause insurance distribution channel conflict. According to result of this study the most important three causes leading to multi-channel conflict are "differences in perception of reality used in joint decision making", "using coercive powers", and "incompatibility of goals". Thus, administrators of banks or insurance companies will redesign their organization disciplines or management policies accordingly which can improve the performance of multiple channel strategy.


The effect of stoichiometry on the new formation and subsequent growth of CaCO3 was investigated over a large range of solution stoichiometries (10–4 < raq < 104, where raq = {Ca2+}:{CO32–}) at various, initially constant degrees of supersaturation (30 < Ωcal < 200, where Ωcal = {Ca2+}{CO32–}/Ksp), pH of 10.5 ± 0.27, and ambient temperature and pressure. At raq = 1 and Ωcal < 150, dynamic light scattering (DLS) showed that ion adsorption onto nuclei (1–10 nm) was the dominant mechanism. At higher supersaturation levels, no continuum of particle sizes is observed with time, suggesting aggregation of prenucleation clusters into larger particles as the dominant growth mechanism. At raq ≠ 1 (Ωcal = 100), prenucleation particles remained smaller than 10 nm for up to 15 h. Cross-polarized light in optical light microscopy was used to measure the time needed for new particle formation and growth to at least 20 μm. This precipitation time depends strongly and asymmetrically on raq. Complementary molecular dynamics (MD) simulations confirm that raq affects CaCO3 nanoparticle formation substantially. At raq = 1 and Ωcal ≫ 1000, the largest nanoparticle in the system had a 21–68% larger gyration radius after 20 ns of simulation time than in nonstoichiometric systems. Our results imply that, besides Ωcal, stoichiometry affects particle size, persistence, growth time, and ripening time toward micrometer-sized crystals. Our results may help us to improve the understanding, prediction, and formation of CaCO3 in geological, industrial, and geo-engineering settings.


: In 9 patients with stable angina pectoris of effort the authors studied the relation between the effect of verapamil in single and regular administration and concentration of invariable preparation and its primary metabolites in the blood serum. Antiischemic effect of verapamil was assessed with use of repeated identical and individual loads on treadmill in combination with ECG monitoring before and at the end of treatment. Linear correlation was established between the effect and concentration of verapamil in the blood serum under the conditions of single and regular administration. In long-term use of verapamil the authors noted a significant increase in the action of a single dose caused by verapamil cumulation in the blood serum. During long-term treatment by verapamil a marked effect was recorded in significantly more high concentrations of the preparation in the blood as compared to a single administration. The main primary metabolites of verapamil failed to affect on antianginal effect both in single and regular administration.


The bordeaux mixture is used as a natural agricultural fungicide, and its application in sericulture can benefit the production of silkworm cocoons, Bombyx mori (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae). The aim of this study was to verify whether the bordeaux mixture exerts a protective effect in B. mori against fungal and viral diseases. This experiment was performed during two seasons, autumn and spring, in which 7,500 caterpillars were used at the beginning of the third instar and divided into five groups, with three repetitions of 500 individuals each. In the three groups, the caterpillars were fed leaves of Mulberry ( Morus spp.) that were enriched with an aqueous bordeaux mixture solution at concentrations of 5, 10 and 20%. One group was fed exclusively mulberry leaves (control), and another was fed leaves that were moistened with water. Fungal contamination was evaluated in the integumentary surface of the insect and the mulberry leaves in the bed of creation by checking the number of colony-forming units (CFU). In the analysis of viral contamination, 20 caterpillars from each group at the beginning of the fifth instar were inoculated with 10 ?l of a suspension of Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV). Daily, from the second to the ninth day after inoculation (dai), two caterpillars of each group were anesthetized and formalin-fixed 7% for microscopic processing and viral cytopathology analysis. A completely randomized design was used, and the CFU were compared by Tukey test with 5% significance. The results showed a decrease of 55.1% in CFU present on the mulberry leaves in the fall, when the 5% bordeaux mixture solution was used. There was no significant difference between the groups based on the bordeaux mixture in this period. During the same period, reductions of CFU of 28.5, 74.9 and 74.4% were verified in the integument of B. mori when bordeaux mixture solutions of 5, 10 and 20% were used, respectively, compared with the data that were obtained in the control group. In the spring, no difference was observed between the groups that received bordeaux mixture solution and the control. In the case of BmNPV, the 10% bordeaux mixture solution promoted greater resistance to viral infection, possibly favoring the activation of defense mechanisms of insects. Therefore, we recommend the use of a 10% bordeaux mixture solution in mulberry leaves to control fungal and viral diseases in silkworm rearing.


Proper regulation of evaporator superheat is essential to ensuring safe and efficient operation of vapor compression cooling systems. Typical mechanical control devices may behave poorly under transient disturbances or as operating conditions vary, degrading system performance. Electronic expansion valves partially alleviate these problems by allowing more sophisticated control approaches, but frequent valve adjustments raise concerns about device longevity. A cascaded control approach to superheat regulation has been shown to provide significant improvements in superheat control, utilizing a hybrid of mechanical (passive) and electronic (active) feedback devices. This paper examines the emulation of a semi-active flow control device using a MEMs based actuator with high bandwidth, few moving parts, and no risk of fatigue failure. Experimental evaluation reveals this to be a comparable approach to the hybrid valve design. Moreover, further examination reveals that actuator characteristics are the limiting factor in achieving similar levels of performance using standard electronic valves.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


The brain requires a continuous supply of oxygen and nutrients, and even a short period of reduced oxygen supply can cause severe and lifelong consequences for the affected individual. The unborn baby is fairly robust, but there are of course limits also for these individuals. The most sensitive and most important organ is the brain. When the brain is deprived of oxygen, a process can start that ultimately may lead to the death of brain cells and irreparable brain damage. This process has two phases; one more or less immediate and one delayed. There is a window of time of up to 24 hours where action can be taken to prevent the delayed secondary damage. One recently clinically available technique is to reduce the metabolism and thereby stop the secondary damage in the brain by cooling the baby.
It is important to be able to quickly diagnose hypoxic injuries and to follow the development of the processes in the brain. For this, the electroencephalogram (EEG) is an important tool. The EEG is a voltage signal that originates within the brain and that easily and non-invasively can be recorded at bedside. The signals are, however, highly complex and require special competence to interpret, a competence that typically is not available at the intensive care unit. This thesis addresses the problem of automatic classification of neonatal EEG and proposes methods that would be possible to use in bed-side monitoring equipment for neonatal intensive care units.
The thesis is a compilation of six papers. The first four deal with the segmentation of pathological signals (burst suppression) from post-asphyctic full term newborn babies. These studies investigate the use of various classification techniques, using both supervised and unsupervised learning. In paper V the scope is widened to include both classification of pathological activity versus activity found in healthy babies as well as application of the segmentation methods on the parts of the EEG signal that are found to be of the pathological type. The use of genetic algorithms for feature selection is also investigated. In paper VI the segmentation methods are applied on signals from pre-term babies to investigate the impact of a certain medication on the brain.
The results of this thesis demonstrate ways to improve the monitoring of the brain during intensive care of newborn babies. Hopefully it will someday be implemented in monitoring equipment and help to prevent permanent brain damage in post asphyctic babies.


Tropomyosin (TM) extracted from pig cardiac muscle was spin-labeled with 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-(dichlorotriazin)-aminopiperidine-1-oxyl. The ESR spectra of the product (SL-TM) were of a type of weak immobilization. Effects of three means for the denaturation were observed on the above spectra. The ESR spectrum obtained for SL-TM after enzymatic degradation was found to be analogous to that for the label itself in a dilute solution and thereby the quantity of labels bound in SL-TM estimated. The Arrhenius plots attained through variable temperature measurement for SL-TM's exhibited two inflexion points (the conformational transition temperatures for TM) around 45 degrees C and 74-75 degrees C, the latter temperature having not been reported in literature so far. However, the enzymatic degradation product from SL-TM behaved quite differently from it in the response to microwave power saturation and temperature variation.


Deep neural network (DNN) models typically have many hyperparameters that can be configured to achieve optimal performance on a particular dataset. Practitioners usually tune the hyperparameters of their DNN models by training a number of trial models with different configurations of the hyperparameters, to find the optimal hyperparameter configuration that maximizes the training accuracy or minimizes the training loss. As such hyperparameter tuning usually focuses on the model accuracy or the loss function, it is not clear and remains under-explored how the process impacts other performance properties of DNN models, such as inference latency and model size. On the other hand, standard DNN models are often large in size and computing-intensive, prohibiting them from being directly deployed in resource-bounded environments such as mobile devices and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. To tackle this problem, various model optimization techniques (e.g., pruning or quantization) are proposed to make DNN models smaller and less computing-intensive so that they are better suited for resource-bounded environments. However, it is neither clear how the model optimization techniques impact other performance properties of DNN models such as inference latency and battery consumption, nor how the model optimization techniques impact the effect of hyperparameter tuning (i.e., the compounding effect). Therefore, in this paper, we perform a comprehensive study on four representative and widely-adopted DNN models, i.e., CNN image classification, Resnet-50, CNN text classification, and LSTM sentiment classification, to investigate how different DNN model hyperparameters affect the standard DNN models, as well as how the hyperparameter tuning combined with model optimization affect the optimized DNN models, in terms of various performance properties (e.g., inference latency or battery consumption). Our empirical results indicate that tuning specific hyperparameters has heterogeneous impact on the performance of DNN models across different models and different performance properties. In particular, although the top tuned DNN models usually have very similar accuracy, they may have significantly different performance in terms of other aspects (e.g., inference latency). We also observe that model optimization has a confounding effect on the impact of hyperparameters on DNN model performance. For example, two sets of hyperparameters may result in standard models with similar performance but their performance may become significantly different after they are optimized and deployed on the mobile device. Our findings highlight that practitioners can benefit from paying attention to a variety of performance properties and the confounding effect of model optimization when tuning and optimizing their DNN models.


This dissertation examines the relationship between members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and national political parties by investigating how variation in party organization, in conjunction with the political goals of parties and individuals, affects European legislation and the representation of national interests. I examine the relationship between MEPs and their national parties through the methods and strategies parties use to select and supervise their party members serving in the European Parliament (EP). I identify patterns in candidate selection and supervision and determine how the electoral goals of parties in European elections lead them to make specific strategic choices for candidates and encourage specific behaviors in the EP. I argue that these choices, and the structure of party organization, influence the level of congruence between MEPs and their parties in European legislation. I determine that the single most important influence on both how a party organizes for European elections, and who they choose to represent them in the EP, is the national environment in which the party was founded and within which it was designed to function. The structure of national legislative institutions, and party systems and experience with the European Union (EU) and the Eurozone predict patterns in variation across party organizations with respect to their centralization of selection and supervision of MEPs. Similarly, European electoral goals are the result of domestic factors such as the position of the party in national government, party ideology for Europe, party system stability, and salience of EP elections. These goals determine the types of candidates, experienced in Europe, at the national level, or not all, that parties select to serve in the EP and how these MEPs view their role as a party representative. In addition, both organization and goals influence legislator behavior in a variety of ways. MEPs in policy seeking parties that centralize the selection of MEPs, and also include them in their party leadership provide the most congruent behavior to their parties.


Unlike text on paper, hypertext enables the linking of pieces of text with other texts and multimedia resources, which not only improves the way we read but also lays the foundation for new information systems. Specifically, the proliferation of collaborative sites, blogs, online databases, encyclopedias and many other services on the World Wide Web provides an invaluable source of up-to-date information which can be used to aid reading comprehension. As a result, an approach to the automatic extraction, merging and integration of online information is proposed for the purpose of "enriching" texts. This unprecedented text enrichment process allows users to transform ordinary plain texts into self-explanatory hypertexts containing contextual information and resources selected automatically from the Web. Application of such an enrichment process could help students in their scholarly reading, provide users with related multimedia resources and avoid multiple searches for concepts and entities mentioned in a text, among other purposes.


This paper proposes a novel recognition scheme for semantic labeling of 2D objects present in still images. The principle consists of matching unknown 2D objects with categorized 3D models in order to associate the semantics of the 3D object to the image. We tested our new recognition framework by using the MPEG-7 and Princeton 3D model databases in order to label unknown images randomly selected from the web. Experiments show that such a system can achieve recognition rate up to 70.4%.


The Court's Fourth Amendment jurisprudence contains a tension. On the one hand, the Court has conferred Fourth Amendment standing only upon those whose personal privacy interests have been disturbed. On the other hand, the Court has allowed such persons to invoke the exclusionary rule only in circumstances where, in the Court's view, it would serve as an effective deterrent to future government misconduct. This article traces those two policies to different conceptions of the Fourth Amendment: the first interprets the Amendment as a guarantor of individual rights; the second construes it as an instrument for securing a collective right. The Court, by oscillating between these two conceptions, has eroded Fourth Amendment protections more severely than it could have done under either conception standing alone. The article suggests a way of harmonizing the atomistic and collective views that leads to a new standing analysis designed to protect both aspects of the Court's dualistic conception.


Human-induced causes of forest change occur at multiple scales. Yet, most governance mechanisms are designed at a single level – whether international, national, regional or local – and do not provide effective solutions for the overarching challenge of forest governance. Efforts to "decentralize" governmental arrangements frequently do not recognize the importance of complex, polycentric arrangements and are based on a presumption of a single government at one level taking charge of a policy arena, often ignoring the existence of many vibrant self-governed institutions. Polycentric institutions provide a useful framework for governance, enabling aspects of preferred solutions to be used together in efforts to protect the long-term sustainability of diverse forested social-ecological systems. By considering the interaction between actors at different levels of governance, polycentricity contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the variation in diverse governance outcomes in the management of common-pool resources based on the needs and interests of citizens and the complexity of resources and governance systems at local, regional, national, and global levels. In this paper, we discuss challenges to polycentricity such as the matching of the boundaries of those who benefit, those who contribute with the boundary of the resource. We describe some approaches that have been effectively utilized to address these challenges in forests in various parts of the world. We also provide a brief overview of how the concept of polycentricity helps in the analysis of climate change and the closely related international effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through degradation and deforestation (REDD).


Heavily-doped semiconductor films are very promising for application in mid-infrared plasmonic devices because the real part of their dielectric function is negative and broadly tunable in this wavelength range. In this work we investigate heavily n-type doped germanium epilayers grown on different substrates, in-situ doped in the 10 to 10 cm range, by infrared spectroscopy, first principle calculations, pump-probe spectroscopy and dc transport measurements to determine the relation between plasma edge and carrier density and to quantify mid-infrared plasmon losses. We demonstrate that the unscreened plasma frequency can be tuned in the 400 4800 cm range and that the average electron scattering rate, dominated by scattering with optical phonons and charged impurities, increases almost linearly with frequency. We also found weak dependence of losses and tunability on the crystal defect density, on the inactivated dopant density and on the temperature down to 10 K. In films where the plasma was optically activated by pumping in the near-infrared, we found weak but significant dependence of relaxation times on the static doping level of the film. Our results suggest that plasmon decay times in the several-picosecond range can be obtained in ntype germanium thin films grown on silicon substrates hence allowing for underdamped mid-infrared plasma oscillations at room temperature.


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Resources, techniques, and tools for finding and keeping track of research literature for Biological Sciences thesis, dissertation, and other research projects.


The goal of this research is to understand the image of an attraction from the national tourist point of view and its psychographic profile. The study was made in relation to the Archeological Sanctuary of Pachacamac in Lima, Peru. For this purpose, unstructured data mining––a cutting-edge method––was used. In order to get relevant data, 209 comments from TripAdvisor were collected, while for the Big Five personality analysis, five comments per visitor about different places were processed to determine their psychographic profile (a total of 1045 comments). Through qualitative research method, terms that describe the touristic image of this place were identified, which were then analyzed using the Lexalytics Software to determine the related keywords, their emotional valuation, and frequency. The applied research design was phenomenological, as we sought to know about the visitor experience of the tourist. Results indicated a positive perspective on the image of the Archeological Sanctuary of Pachacamac by visitors due to how close they are to the location––the site's museum, the historical weight that precedes this place, cultural tourism, and the services provided there. Moreover, it was noted that most visitors were men (75.60%) from the X Generation and Baby Boomers and they are basically liberal, artists, organized, hard-working people, contemplative, and kind. This data contributes to better decision-making, generating use full information that could be used by tourism professionals and those in charge of the destination's management.


The display of shaded polygons by line, cross-hatch, and dot patterns on vector devices is a task frequently used in computer graphics and computer cartography. In applications such as the production of shaded maps polygon shading turns out to be critical with respect to time requirements, and the development of efficient algorithms is of importance. Given an arbitrary polygon in the plane without self-crossing edges (simply-connected polygon), the task at hand is to shade this polygon with one or two sets of parallel lines where for each set a shading angle and a line distance are given. The basic concept of this new algorithm is to decompose the polygon into a set of mutually exclusive trapezoids (in special cases triangles) where the parallel edges of the trapezoids are parallel to the desired shading lines. These trapezoids and triangles are then shaded in a fast procedure. In its present form the algorithm handles regions with up to 300 islands. Possible extensions include the construction of dash and cross patterns.


Coastal marine ecosystems can be managed by actions undertaken both on the land and in the ocean. Quantifying and comparing the costs and benefits of actions in both realms is therefore necessary for efficient management. Here, we quantify the link between terrestrial sediment runoff and a downstream coastal marine ecosystem and contrast the cost-effectiveness of marine- and land-based conservation actions. We use a dynamic land- and sea-scape model to determine whether limited funds should be directed to 1 of 4 alternative conservation actions—protection on land, protection in the ocean, restoration on land, or restoration in the ocean—to maximise the extent of light-dependent marine benthic habitats across decadal timescales. We apply the model to a case study for a seagrass meadow in Australia. We find that marine restoration is the most cost-effective action over decadal timescales in this system, based on a conservative estimate of the rate at which seagrass can expand into a new habitat. The optimal decision will vary in different social–ecological contexts, but some basic information can guide optimal investments to counteract land- and ocean-based stressors: (1) marine restoration should be prioritised if the rates of marine ecosystem decline and expansion are similar and low; (2) marine protection should take precedence if the rate of marine ecosystem decline is high or if the adjacent catchment is relatively intact and has a low rate of vegetation decline; (3) land-based actions are optimal when the ratio of marine ecosystem expansion to decline is greater than 1:1.4, with terrestrial restoration typically the most cost-effective action; and (4) land protection should be prioritised if the catchment is relatively intact but the rate of vegetation decline is high. These rules of thumb illustrate how cost-effective conservation outcomes for connected land–ocean systems can proceed without complex modelling.


OBJECTIVE. The role of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in promoting obesity is controversial. Observational data link SSB consumption with excessive weight gain; however, randomized, controlled trials are lacking and necessary to resolve the debate. We conducted a pilot study to examine the effect of decreasing SSB consumption on body weight. METHODS.We randomly assigned 103 adolescents aged 13 to 18 years who regularly consumed SSBs to intervention and control groups. The intervention, 25 weeks in duration, relied largely on home deliveries of noncaloric beverages to displace SSBs and thereby decrease consumption. Change in SSB consumption was the main process measure, and change in body mass index (BMI) was the primary end point. RESULTS.All of the randomly assigned subjects completed the study. Consumption of SSBs decreased by 82% in the intervention group and did not change in the control group. Change in BMI, adjusted for gender and age, was 0.07 0.14 kg/m2 (mean SE) for the intervention group and 0.21 0.15 kg/m2 for the control group. The net difference, 0.14 0.21 kg/m2, was not significant overall. However, baseline BMI was a significant effect modifier. Among the subjects in the upper baseline-BMI tertile, BMI change differed significantly between the intervention ( 0.63 0.23 kg/m2) and control ( 0.12 0.26 kg/m2) groups, a net effect of 0.75 0.34 kg/m2. The interaction between weight change and baseline BMI was not attributable to baseline consumption of SSBs. CONCLUSIONS.A simple environmental intervention almost completely eliminated SSB consumption in a diverse group of adolescents. The beneficial effect on body weight of reducing SSB consumption increased with increasing baseline body weight, offering additional support for American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines to limit SSB consumption. www.pediatrics.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/ peds.2005-0983 doi:10.1542/peds.2005-0983


The text presents the multidirectional infl uence of the ways of exercising power and relations between public authorities and citizens in the context of common values, which are public order and security, against the background of the rules governing access to firearms. The shaping of the government's policy in the field of access to firearms is in many places marked by legal solutions characteristic of the remnants of the authoritarian regime. In terms of access to fi rearms, the authoritarian manner of exercising power was characterized by the pursuit of strict control over gun ownership. The trust of the authoritarian authorities in certain social groups, limited to the minimum, was visible in the discretionary, but also planned and imperative exclusion of firearms from public life and reserving this right for services, organizations, or specific groups favorable to the authorities. The current regulations on the possession of firearms, both in Poland and in the world, show that the liberal policy of administering access to firearms is based on democratic solutions. The policy of prohibiting and introducing restrictions in this area with the use of authoritative methods of state action gives rise to research that exposes the essence of the authorities' fears of a complete opening of access to weapons. The administrators, referring to the principle of trust in the authorities, are approaching the features of an authoritarian approach to maintaining power, which is not to be hampered by the possession of weapons by citizens. Completely free access to firearms is not characteristic to those forms of government in which there is no trust in state's citizens, nor confidence in government's position, susceptible to possible changes. In this regard, the basic rules governing access to firearms were presented, both in substantive law and in the rules of administrative procedure, with particular emphasis on the principle of raising trust in public authorities. It was also important to analyze the origins of the administrative power with an indication of the characteristic elements of the police state and their impact on the visions of access to firearms in the rule of law. Such a structure of the study made it possible to try to define the relationship between the trust of the authorities in their citizens and the trust of those administered to the authorities against the background of broadly understood security in the field of access to firearms.


Background: The Schatzker classification is the most widely accepted system used to classify tibial plateau fractures. The presence of posteromedial fragments in the more severe fracture types is known, but the presence of posteromedial fragmentation in the less severe fracture types is unknown. The ability of the Schatzker classification to predict posteromedial fragmentation was evaluated.
Methods: Two hundred patients were reviewed of which only 67 met the inclusion criteria. The X-rays were reviewed by three independent orthopaedic surgeons and classified according to the Schatzker classification. A radiologist reviewed the CT scans and noted the presence or absence of a posteromedial fragment and if present, the largest diameter of the fragment was measured.
Results: The mean age of the sample was 44.79 (SD: 14.03) years. Seventy-five per cent of the females (n=33) presented with posteromedial fragmentation compared to 65.20% of the males (n=44) (chi²-test, P=0.399). The incidence of posteromedial fragmentation varied between 15.8 and 26.3% for Schatzker 1 and 2 fractures and 73.7 and 84.2% for Schatzker 3 to 6 (chi2-test, p<0.001) based on the three independent assessments. The mean length of the posteromedial fragmentation ranged from 41.87 to 47.77 mm for Schatzker 1 and 2 fractures, and 44.74 to 46.12 mm for Schatzker 3 to 6 for the three assessors (statistically not significant [T-test, P=0.536, P=0.551 and P=0.652]).
Conclusion: The Schatzker classification by itself is not adequate to identify all fractures with posteromedial fragmentation. There is a higher association of posteromedial fragmentation with fracture types 3 to 6. There is a high probability of missing a significantly sized posteromedial fragment in Schatzker type 1 and 2 fractures if a CT scan is not performed which might influence and compromise fracture stability, joint congruency and the ability to rehabilitate optimally.
Level of evidence: Level 4


Semarang is the capital of Central Java Province has the function as the center of government, commerce, industry, transportation, education, tourism and settlement. With these functions, Semarang has the potential to grow into a modern market businesses. The rapid development of modern markets in the Semarang city especially in Banyumanik district, become the reason of conducting this research.The purpose of this research is to analyze the effect of convenience, distance, product diversification, and price for traditional traders' profits as a result of the emergence of modern markets.Variables used include Convenience, Distance, Product Diversification and Price. Analysis used was Double Linier Regression in SPSS program with a sample of 72 respondents, using sampling technique Proportional Random Sampling.The results of analysis show that there are significant differences in the distance and product diversification which will impact on profits for the traditional traders; on the other hand there is no significant difference for the convenience and price to business profits in the traditional market traders in district Banyumanik of Semarang.


Declining land productivity is a major problem facing smallholder farmers in Kenya today. This decline primarily results from a reduction in soil fertility caused by continuous cultivation without adequate addition of external nutrient inputs. Improved fertility management combining organic and mineral fertilizer inputs can enable efficient use of the inputs applied and increase overall syste productivity. Field trials were established at two sites with different soil fertility status in Mucwa with the aim of determining the effects of various organic sources (tithonia, mucuna, calliandra and manure) and their combinations with mineral N fertilizer on maize grain yield and soil chemical properties. Sole tithonia and sole calliandra treatment generally recorded the highest maize grain yields for Mucwa poor and Mucwa good sites, respectively. Generally the maize grain yields were lower in the treatments with fertilizer alone compared to the treatments with organics in the two sites in the seven cropping seasons. There was a general decline in soil chemical properties over the seasons, even with the seasonal input application in both sites. Manure was superior in terms of improving soil chemical properties for instance, it supported an increase in soil pH, magnesium, potassium, calcium and nitrogen.


Most cases of foodborne illness are never reported to public health authorities. But that doesn't mean those afflicted suffer in silence. Many people turn to social media to complain and even identify food purveyors they believe are responsible. To tap into this rich source of information, city public health departments have begun mining the tweets and online reviews of those possibly sickened by food. The City of Chicago Department of Public Health was the first to test the potential of social media in identifying foodborne outbreaks. The department partnered with civicminded local technologists and the Smart Chicago Collaborative, a nonprofit organization that uses technology to improve the lives of Chicagoans,todevelopanapplicationtomonitor Twitter for possible food poisoning references. A similar project is under way in New York, where the New York City Department of HealthandMentalHygieneisworkingwithColumbiaUniversitytechnologistsandthereview websiteYelptocombrestaurantpatrons'comments for signs of a budding outbreak.


Vessel icing resulting from sea spray is a significant risk to maritime operations in the high latitudes. Despite the acknowledged risk that it imposes, there is limited climatological information that can be used for assessment and mitigation purposes. Here we use a parameterization of the icing rate that has been validated against observed cases of vessel icing and the Interim Reanalysis from the ECMWF (ERA‐I) to develop the first climatology of the vessel icing for the wintertime subpolar North Atlantic. Three regions, the Labrador Sea, the Iceland Sea and the Greenland Sea, are examined in further detail. In all three regions, the icing rate and the frequency of occurrence of vessel icing increases towards the ice edge. The Labrador Sea is shown to have the highest risk of icing followed by the Greenland Sea and then the Iceland Sea. In particular, icing rates in excess of 4 cm h−1 are predicted to occur approximately 35%, 20% and 10% of the time during the winter in the Labrador, Greenland and Iceland Seas, respectively. On the monthly mean time scale, the severity of icing in all three regions is determined, to lowest order, by the location and depth of the Icelandic Low and its subsidiary feature, the Lofoten Low. In addition, heavy icing events in all three regions are shown to be associated with the passage of synoptic scale low‐pressure systems that trigger cold air outbreaks.


A possibility of estimation of factors of formation of species richness of the plant communities by H-function as a measures of complexity of the phyto-sociological spectrum of communities is proved. The phyto-sociological spectrum reflects contribution of those various syntaxa to the coenofloras that indicate ecotope character and the successional status of communities. Analysis of a wide set of grassy vegetation of the South Ural region (from synanthropic to natural) revealed a linear positive correlation between H-function values and species richness. Primary factors of formation of species richness of the vegetation investigated are general favorability of the environment, variability of the moistening regime and successional status reflecting processes of vegetation transformation under influence of internal (regenerative succession) and external (cattle pasture) causes.


The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of lidocaine administered via the endotracheal tube in suppressing cough reflex during anesthetic recovery in children. Fifty ASA class I-II children, aged from 1-5 years old undergoing elective abdominal or urogenital surgery were randomly assigned into two groups. 2% lidocaine 1.5 mg/kg (1ml = 20mg) was administered in group B while normal saline (N/S) 0.1 ml/kg was used in group A (control group). Either one of the agents was instilled into the endotracheal tube right before the end of operation. Airway responses and other associated phenomena were recorded during the recovery period. Recovery condition was categorized into a two-grade categories, namely "good", and "poor" to denote the quality of recovery. Recovery conditions differ significantly between the control group and the experimental group. In group A, 3 patients were classified as the "good" grade but 22 patients were categorized in the "poor" grade. Group B (lidocaine 1.5 mg/kg) has a much better recovery condition than the control group, there were 19 in the "good" grade and only 6 in the "poor" grade. The experimental group treated with 2% lidocaine presented a significantly better recovery than the control group. This effective suppression of the cough reflex might be due to the local anesthetic effect exerted by lidocaine. For the sake of safety all patients were closely followed up at the post anesthesia room until the return of consciousness and laryngeal reflexes. In conclusion, we found that 2% lidocaine 1.5 mg/kg given intratracheally via the endotracheal tube could attenuate cough response during recovery in pediatric anesthesia.


The first femaleMBA (fMBA) programme in Oulu University of Applied Sciences was carried out in 2005-2008. The fMBA was a high-level academic, research and development project for women entrepreneurs and women in management and leadership positions in organisations. This article presents the key results of a study which aimed to investigate the role of the fMBA programme to the career progress as well as the development of leadership and management competences for women who completed the programme.

Based on this study, it can be concluded that fMBA programme provides participants with positive career transitions. The majority of the respondents indicated that they had subsequently experienced a career transition. The fMBA graduates also perceived that their management competences had improved to a significantly larger extent than what they had originally expected. The present study also suggests that a diverse group of women is a richer social and psychological recourse than a group where participants represent a single industry or organisation. This study also produced theoretical knowledge by creating a new conceptual model of management competences.


∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗∗ This article examines the relationship between overinvestment in audit services, abnormal nonaudit fees paid to the auditor and market-based measures of firm transparency. Because real estate investment trusts (REITs) must distribute 90% of their earnings as dividends, many are repeat participants in the seasoned equity market. Thus, REITs have unusually strong incentives to strive for security market transparency. We find that the capital markets reward REITs that overinvest in audit services with better liquidity as measured by bid-ask spreads. However, firms with abnormally high nonaudit expenditures appear to be penalized with wider spreads, consistent with the notion that such fees may compromise auditor independence.


The li chain is well characterized as an invariant subunit of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) II in antigen-presenting cells. Matza et al. expand on earlier results to propose a mechanism for how li participates in B cell maturation. Matza et al. transfected human embryonic kidney 293 cells with green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged or epitope-tagged li proteins or protein fragments and showed that the localization of the tag varied depending on whether the tag was fused to the cytosolic NH2-terminus or to the intralumenal COOH-terminus. NH2-tagged proteins showed a cytosolic distribution for the tag, whereas COOH-tagged proteins appeared membrane-bound and associated with the endosomes. All of the fusion proteins had transmembrane domains and could be found in the membrane fraction. Western blot analysis with an antibody against the li cytosolic domain showed that the cytosolic domain was cleaved. This cleavage product was also detectable in primary B lymphocytes. Mutation of a previously identified cleavage site in the transmembrane domain of li prevented cleavage; mutation of a "d box" consensus degradation sequence stabilized the cleaved li fragment. By using an NF-κB reporter construct, expression of the li cleavage product (either as just the fragment predicted to be produced by cleavage or as a transmembrane-containing cleavable fragment) stimulated reporter gene expression; whereas expression of the mutant that could not be cleaved did not stimulate reporter gene expression. Finally, in a B cell maturation model, expression of the cleavable or the cleavable and stabilized (mutated d box) forms of li stimulated B cell maturation; whereas the noncleavable mutant did not stimulate B cell maturation. Thus, B cell maturation appears to involve the intramembrane cleavage of li to produce a fragment capable of stimulating transcription through NF-κB. D. Matza, A. Kerem, H. Medvedovsky, F. Lantner, I. Shachar, Invariant chain-induced B cell differentiation requires intramembrane proteolytic release of the cytosolic domain. Immunity 17, 549-560 (2002). [Online Journal]


In Brazil, the production of bee pollen loads began modestly in the late 1980s, stimulated by consumption of natural products. Demand and consumption have increased, and there has been no increase in scientific studies. This work aims to expand scientific knowledge by identifying the plants used by Apis mellifera L. as sources of pollen loads in the State of Sergipe, Brazil. Twelve samples were collected from January to December 2011, in the municipalities of Barra dos Coqueiros, Brejo Grande, Estância and Pacatuba, all located in the eastern region of Sergipe. For the study of the pollen grains, the bee pollen underwent the usual laboratory processing techniques (acetolysis). For the analysis 500 grains were counted from each sample and, for botanical identification, the specialised literature and the pollen library were used. A total of 46 pollen types, distributed in 19 families, were found. Fabaceae was the family displaying the greatest diversity of pollen types (19), and the genus Mimosa L. was the most diverse (8). The families Asteraceae, Anacardiaceae, Myrtaceae and Rubiaceae were represented by three pollen types each, and Lamiaceae, only two types. The other 13 families presented one pollen type each. Only eight pollen types were classified as very frequent (> 50%); however, only Cocos nucifera occurred in 100% of the samples. It can be concluded that the families Arecaceae and Fabaceae are the major pollen sources for production of bee pollen in the state of Sergipe, followed by Asteraceae, Anacardiaceae, Poaceae and Rubiaceae. Pollen spectra revealed that at least 29 genera of plants contribute to the bee pollen load production in the tropical rainforest zone in northeastern Brazil.


Noble metal nanoantenna could effectively enhance light absorption and increase detection sensitivity. In this paper,we propose a periodic Ag diamond nanoantenna array to increase the absorption of thin-film solar cells and to improve the detection sensitivity via localized surface plasmon resonance. The effect of nanoantenna arrays on the absorption enhancement is theoretically investigated using the finite difference time domain(FDTD) method with manipulating the spectral response by geometrical parameters of nanoantennas. A maximum absorption enhancement factor of 1.51 has been achieved in this study. In addition, the relation between resonant wavelength(intensity reflectivity) and refractive index is discussed in detail. When detecting the environmental index using resonant wavelengths, a maximum detection sensitivity of about 837 nm/RIU(refractive index unit) and a resolution of about 10-3RIU can be achieved. Moreover, when using the reflectivity, the sensitivity can be as high as 0.93 AU/RIU. Furthermore, we also have theoretically studied the effectiveness of nanoantennas in distinguishing chemical reagents, solution concentrations, and solution allocation ratios by detecting refractive index. From the results presented in this paper, we conclude that this work might be useful for biosensor detection and other types of detections.


Motivation is the driving force behind successful learning. It is
especially crucial in a curriculum area such as foreign language
study. This investigation aims to explore the motivational role of
the central teaching and learning resource used in schools - the
coursebook.
The opening Chapter reviews major theories of motivation and learning
from behaviourism to cognitivism with the aim of establishing a
theoretical base.
Chapter Two examines mother tongue acquisition and foreign language
learning. Theories of both are discussed, compared and contrasted
with the emphasis on identifying compatible features. Key aspects of
learning theory and motivational factors related to foreign language
learning are presented. The motivational function of the teacher is
reviewed with particular reference to the planning and management of
learning.
The role and the nature of the foreign language coursebook are
reviewed and reappraised in Chapter Three. The main aim of this study
is identified and, in the light of previous discussion of motivation
and learning, an evaluation instrument for coursebooks is drawn up.
Chapters Four and Five report and discuss surveys of the views of
pupils and teachers on three widely-used coursebooks. Although
reactions are generally positive, clear areas of unfulfilled need
emerge, as do shortcomings in coursebooks' effectiveness in motivating
learners and promoting successful learning. A broad consensus of
views between the two groups is revealed.
The most popular coursebook of the 1980s is used as a case study in
Chapter Six. Application of evaluation criteria established earlier
reveals some commendable features but a rather larger number which fail
to generate motivation or promote effective learning.
The final Chapter sets an agenda for a reappraisal of coursebook
design based both on findings of this study and on the impact of
sweeping change and reform of the education system which will take
effect in the 1990s.


The GTP-binding protein Ras plays a central role in the regulation of various cellular processes, acting as a molecular switch that triggers signaling cascades. Only Ras bound to GTP is able to interact strongly with effector proteins like Raf kinase, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, and RalGDS, whereas in the GDP-bound state, the stability of the complex is strongly decreased, and signaling is interrupted. To determine whether this process is only controlled by the stability of the complex, we used computer-aided protein design to improve the interaction between Ras and effector. We challenged the Ras·Raf complex in this study because Raf among all effectors shows the highest Ras affinity and the fastest association kinetics. The proposed mutations were characterized as to their changes in dynamics and binding strength. We demonstrate that Ras-Raf interaction can only be improved at the cost of a loss in specificity of Ras·GTP versus Ras·GDP. As shown by NMR spectroscopy, the Raf mutation A85K leads to a shift of Ras switch I in the GTP-bound as well as in the GDP-bound state, thereby increasing the complex stability. In a luciferase-based reporter gene assay, Raf A85K is associated with higher signaling activity, which appears to be a mere matter of Ras-Raf affinity.


Laboratory growth experiments were conducted to investigate the oxygen isotope effects associated with bacterial metabolism of phosphatic compounds commonly available in nature. The observed oxygen isotope fractionations suggest complex patterns of exchange between dissolved inorganic phosphate (P i ) and water, and significant circulation of P i between intracellular and extracellular locations with extensive recycling of the dissolved P i pool, even at high concentrations of dissolved P i . Results of these experiments also support current models for bacterial utilization of phosphate. These results have important implications for the use of delta 18 O values of dissolved P i to trace sources of P, and bear on integrity of original oxygen isotope compositions of biogenic and sedimentary apatite minerals that have been subjected to processes of recrystallization and diagenesis. SEM images of laboratory synthesized apatite minerals show that similar textural features may be produced by microbially mediated and abiotic reactions, and that spheroidal structures may be produced by processes of dissolution as well as precipitation. The interpretation of certain mineral structures as microbial in origin solely on the basis of morphological and textural features may be misleading.


Background and Objectives: Atmospheric transport is a key mode of microbial dispersal and the transmission of airborne microbe can have significant impacts on human health. The main objective of this study was to determine the concentrations of airborne bacteria in a children's hospital. Materials and methods: Three sampling points were selected. Airborne bacteria were collected with 6 days interval at each location using Quick take 30® sampler at an sampling rate of 28.3 l min-1 from November 2007 to March 2008. Results: The results showed that the highest indoor density of bacteria was 429 CFU/m3 that founded in oncology ward. Bacteria identified were representative of normal flora of the skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. Conclusion: Our analysis revealed that colony of bacteria in 14% in patient room exceeded available guideline value for indoor air quality. That 11% cases was found in the oncology ward.


This paper examines the proposition that during competence-destroying technological changes, incumbents are incompetent in researching in house a radically new technology. They only retain market leadership if their undestroyed, proprietary complementary assets compensate for their research incompetence. In contrast to prior research, I propose that there is not one but two sets of capabilities necessary to execute research and development (R&D), sets that differ in their market specificity: a technology-specific set (i.e., technological platforms that are non-market specific) and an application-specific set (i.e., knowledge of the application that is therefore market specific). Although all markets require both sets of capabilities to execute R&D, prior research has analyzed cases where the application was not as complex, and therefore application-specific capabilities did not represent strategic factors. Because at the start of a technological discontinuity application-specific capabilities are undestroyed and have accrued only to incumbents, when complex enough, these capabilities can represent a source of competitive advantage for these firms, even in the face of competition from diversifying entrants reusing previously acquired technological platforms. I find evidence consistent with my proposition based on data on outcomes from drug discovery (as estimated through clinical endpoints in phase I trials) for firms competing in the anticancer drug market, one of the most complex markets within pharmaceuticals, as the market transitions into the biotechnology revolution. The proposition in this paper implies that although technological platforms can help firms move across markets, application-specific R&D capabilities can help firms retain leadership within a market across technological discontinuities.


Empirical analysis of financial data such as the daily, weekly or monthly prices of assets such as bonds, stocks, currencies and commodities have shown that asset prices approximately follow a martingale process, but the distribution of asset returns tend to be fat-tailed. This paper examines the extreme daily, weekly and monthly returns on the Australian stock market using order statistics and extreme value theory. Using data from the Australian Stock Exchange for the period 1990 to 2001 (11 years), the extreme returns are found to belong to a range of extremevalued family of distributions. The distribution of the underlying returns generating process is found to be conditional on the blocksizes used. The maximal and minimal returns have differing distributions and are correlated indicating a possible bivariate returns generating process. Further, extreme returns are found to be weakly correlated implicating possible volatility clustering of the extreme returns.


OBJECTIVE. FDG PET/CT of brain tumors is limited by background activity. Dual-phase FDG PET/CT can eliminate this limitation and allow discernment of viable tumors. Our aim was to assess the diagnostic capability of dual-phase FDG PET/CT qualitatively and quantitatively and to determine cutoff values for dual-phase FDG PET/CT in brain tumor imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Retrospectively, 51 malignant brain tumors were evaluated with dual-phase FDG PET/CT in 32 patients. Acquisitions were performed 30 minutes (time 1) and 3 hours (time 2) after administration of 10 mCi (370 MBq) FDG and 6 hours of fasting. Two observers independently and qualitatively evaluated lesions. A weighted Cohen kappa was used to calculate interrater reliability and accuracy. Quantitatively, maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) was measured in the lesions, contralateral white matter (CWM), contralateral caudate nucleus head, and ipsilateral cerebellar cortex (CC). Lesion-to-CWM SUVmax, lesion-to-contralateral caudate nucleus head SUVmax, and lesion-to-ipsilateral CC SUVmax ratios at time 1 and time 2 were calculated. ROC analysis was used to determine optimum cutoff values, and AUC ratios were compared among quantitative parameters. Lesion outcome was determined by pathologic results (available in 15 lesions), lesion stability on serial MRI examinations (representing nonviable tumor), or decreased tumor size on serial MRI examinations after new treatment (representing viable tumor). RESULTS. Thirty-seven viable and 14 nonviable lesions were evaluated. Qualitatively, the diagnostic accuracy (first observer: κ = 0.45 to κ = 0.59; second observer: κ = 0.41 to κ = 0.66) and interrater reliability (at time 1: κ = 0.51; at time 2: κ = 0.83) improved with delayed imaging. AUC and ROC analysis showed comparably high sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy profiles for early and delayed dual-phase FDG PET/CT. Some of the proposed cutoff values were as follows: lesion SUVmax at time 1, 7.20 (sensitivity, 89.2%; specificity, 85.7%); lesion SUVmax at time 2, 7.80 (sensitivity, 97.3%; specificity, 71.4%); lesion-to-CWM SUVmax at time 1, 2.05 (sensitivity, 78.4%; specificity, 92.9%); and lesion-to-CWM SUVmax at time 2, 2.36 (sensitivity, 81.1%; specificity, 85.7%). CONCLUSION. Dual-phase FDG PET/CT improves lesion detection and diagnostic accuracy in malignant brain tumors.


With the enhancement of the modern refrigerator manufacturing capacity, Takt time becomes shorter with the growth of refrigerator production, product configurations become more diverse with the increase of customizing requirements, traditional data acquisition methods and manufacturing resource identification methods cannot meet the need of manufacturing execution system (MES) in job shop scheduling, work in process (WIP) tracking, rapid response of process control and so on. As an automatic identification technology, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) can be applied to bridge the gap between physical flow of product/part and information flow in enterprise application system due to its characteristics such as automatic identification, long-distance reading, and non-line-of sight. Based on this characteristic, this paper design a real-time MES (RT-MES) for refrigerator production and successfully implements this system based on the actual situation of JAC.


Technology specific expert knowledge is often required to analyse security configurations and determine potential vulnerabilities, but it becomes difficult when it is a new technology such as Fog computing. Furthermore, additional knowledge is also required regarding how the security configuration has been constructed in respect to an organisation's security policies. Traditionally, organisations will often manage their access control permissions relative to their employees needs, posing challenges to administrators. This problem is even exacerbated in Fog computing systems where security configurations are implemented on a large amount of devices at the edges of Internet, and the administrators are required to retain adequate knowledge on how to perform complex administrative tasks. In this paper, a novel approach of translating object-based security configurations in to a graph model is presented. A technique is then developed to autonomously identify vulnerabilities and perform security auditing of large systems without the need for expert knowledge. Throughout the paper, access control configuration data is used as a case study, and empirical analysis is performed on synthetically generated access control permissions.


Alexithymia is a subclinical condition traditionally characterized by difficulties identifying and describing one's own emotions. Recent formulations of alexithymia, however, suggest that the condition may result from a generalized impairment in the perception of all bodily signals ("interoception"). Interoceptive accuracy has been associated with a variety of deficits in social cognition, but recently with an improved ability to inhibit the automatic tendency to imitate the actions of others. The current study tested the consequences for social cognition of the hypothesized association between alexithymia and impaired interoception by examining the relationship between alexithymia and the ability to inhibit imitation. If alexithymia is best characterized as a general interoceptive impairment, then one would predict that alexithymia would have the same relationship with the ability to control imitation as does interoceptive accuracy. Forty-three healthy adults completed measures of alexithymia, imitation-inhibition, and as a control, inhibition of nonimitative spatial compatibility. Results revealed the predicted relationship, such that increasing alexithymia was associated with an improved ability to inhibit imitation, and that this relationship was specific to imitation-inhibition. These results support the characterization of alexithymia as a general interoceptive impairment and shed light on the social ability of alexithymic individuals—with implications for the multitude of psychiatric, neurological, and neurodevelopmental disorders associated with high rates of alexithymia.


The effects of nitrogen and indium mole concentration on the intersubband optical absorption for (1–2) transition and the binding energy of the shallow-donor impurities in a Ga1-xInxNyAs1-y/GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As quantum well under the electric field is theoretically calculated within the framework of the effective-mass approximation. Results are obtained for several concentrations of nitrogen and indium, and the applied electric field. The numerical results show that the intersubband transitions and the impurity binding energy strongly depend on the nitrogen and indium concentrations.


Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is commonly known as an integrated business suite for business organization. It integrates the functional wise software into one single application. While integrating ERP and BI tools together, it gives the results better and permits executives to take efficient decisions. It is possible for the presentations of the results with good infographics and visualization for easy understanding. Business Intelligence (BI) is a technology to get the data from internal and external sources of an organization to analyze, process and visualize or present information to the executives for taking good business decisions. Business Intelligence Tools like an Online Analytical Process (OLAP), Digital Dashboards, and Process Visualizations are supporting tools for the retrieve, convert, explore and present data for executives of the organization. These tools are generally read the data from the data warehouses or data mart. ERP and BI tools has its own applications for producing results to take decisions. ERP gives the results mostly without visualization and infographics. BI tools gives supports for any file type like .pdf, .xlsx, .xlx, .pptx, .ppt, .doc, .svc, etc for analyze and presentation. It is also possible to interactive with the source data to modify or predict the future result, then and there.  This conceptual paper discuss the advantages of integrating ERP with BI tools for wise decision making by executives of the business organization.


The objective of this patient-led study was to explore the motivations, experiences, and aspirations of people living with metastatic cancer who volunteer in patient engagement. This qualitative study filled a gap in lived experience research about patient engagement by focusing on an oft ignored population – those living with metastatic cancer. We used a patient-oriented research approach throughout the research cycle from proposal development to data analysis. A Patient Partner helped develop the project proposal. We selected a qualitative descriptive design to best align with our patient-oriented research goals. The first author, a peer researcher with metastatic cancer, conducted semi-structured interviews with seven participants. The interview questions focused on why patients with metastatic cancer volunteered in patient engagement, the experiences and challenges they encountered as volunteers and what they wanted to achieve in their participation. The interviews were transcribed by the interviewer with personal details redacted for confidentiality. Optional member-checking occurred with three participants. After the interviews, two participants joined the research team to participate in data analysis and interpretation of the findings. Thematic analysis was used to identify common themes in the transcribed and redacted participant interviews. The resulting themes were contributing fully, creating a better cancer experience, making meaningful connections, giving back, and struggling with the system. These findings yielded theme-based advice for both patient partners and administrators for creating meaningful patient engagement. Further research led by patient partners could contribute to a more empowered patient engagement program.


We consider the unit-demand envy-free pricing problem, which is a unit-demand auction where each bidder receives an item that maximizes his utility, and the goal is to maximize the auctioneer's profit. This problem is NP-hard and unlikely to be in APX. We present four new MIP formulations for it and experimentally compare them to a previous one due to Shioda, Tun\c{c}el, and Myklebust. We describe three models to generate different random instances for general unit-demand auctions, that we designed for the computational experiments. Each model has a nice economic interpretation. Aiming approximation results, we consider the variant of the problem where the item prices are restricted to be chosen from a geometric series, and prove that an optimal solution for this variant has value that is a fraction (depending on the series used) of the optimal value of the original problem. So this variant is also unlikely to be in APX.


ABSTRACT
My thesis explores accounts of learning about design enabled through visits to
exhibitions at the Design Museum, London, and drawn from purposive samples of
adult visitors and exhibition curators. The research adopts a qualitative, multiple
method case study strategy, which takes the Design Museum as its local context
and consists of a small-scale museum visitor survey, a visitor research group, and
semi-structured interviews with exhibition curators. The literature called upon is
from the fields of museum studies and museum education; design history. design
culture and design studies; visitor studies and learning theory. Through this review
I develop a framework for data analysis which sets out a threefold notion of the
museum concept as Active, Distinctive and Engaging. Framed by a critique of
generic approaches to, and generalising tendencies about, learning in the museum,
my thesis then explores the extent to which learning at the Design Museum is
revealed as distinctive to its local context. These characteristics inform a
conceptualisation of learning which I coin as the Productive Eye. The Productive
Eye has two significant features. It is grounded in the specificity of the discipline
of design and its concomitant history of exhibition design. Furthermore, it reveals a
complementarity between visitor experiences, learning and curatorial practice.
Such findings are atypical within debates concerning intel.Jectual access to the
museum and within large-scale visitor studies, which more often reveal disjunctions
between visitor and curatorial constituencies. Through providing an integrated,
holistic account of theory and practice this study contributes both to professional
practice at the Design Museum and to scholarship in the field of museum
education. In conclusion, I pose the question as to whether there might be
distinctive characteristics to visitor learning in other typologically specific
museums, with commensurate implications for traditional understandings of
museum professionalism in learning and curating.