Sphaerotheca fuliginea is the most commonly recorded fungus that cause powdery mildew of cucurbits. The outbreak of this disease occurred in Pakistan in Neelam valley. Current study was conducted to minimize significant economic losses by using different combinations of fungicides and nutritional amendments. Fungicides Bravo (Chlorothalonil) and Score (Difenoconazol) and nutrient solutions of Agsil (Potassium silicate) and Peak (mono potassium phosphate) were applied alone and in combination to manage the disease. Bravo and Score were applied @ 1.5ml/L and 2.5ml/, respectively while 0.1% solutions of both Agsila and Peak was used. Nutritional amendments were used before the onset of disease and fungicides were applied after the appearance of disease. All the treatments were randomized in three replications. The findings described the combination of fungicides was most efficient in decreasing disease incidence as it reduced the powdery mildew incidence upto 60%. In individual fungicidal applications, Bravo treated plants showed less disease incidence (36%) than Score (40%). However to avoid from the environmental hazards nutritional amendments is the safest option which gave 50% reduction in disease incidence. Agsil was more effective than Peak in individual applications and it showed 47% disease incidence that was 49% in case of Peak.


The reflectivity and transmissivity of Sb, Te, and Ti films have been measured in the range from 1600 to 450 A in order to compare the frequency at which the films change from a reflecting to a transmitting medium with the plasma frequency predicted by Bohm and Pines and also with electron energy characteristic losses in metals observed by Marton et al. and by Powell.


Single‐column models (SCMs) are widely employed to evaluate boundary‐layer parametrizations under well‐controlled conditions. To compare SCM results to observations, these models must be driven by realistic forcings of the three‐dimensional (3D) atmospheric state. However, these forcings are inherently uncertain. The central research question is therefore: can observations be used to distinguish between different parametrization schemes in SCM simulations or is the spread due to uncertainties in the forcings too large? This study investigates this question for the nocturnal low‐level jet (LLJ) at Cabauw. First, we analyse a single LLJ case that has been used for the third GEWEX Atmospheric Boundary Layer Studies (GABLS3) intercomparison study. To estimate the forcings, for this case a blend of local observations and 3D model output has been used. A sensitivity study to both the forcings and the turbulence formulation is performed by using the SCM version of the ECMWF model. The sensitivity to the turbulence parametrization is largest in the bulk of the stable boundary layer (SBL). The influence of the forcings manifests itself mainly in the upper part of the SBL and above. Second, an ensemble of eight comparable LLJ cases is considered. Using forcings derived from 3D model integrations, SCM results of the separate cases show significant deviations from the observations. However, the mean of the SCM simulations agrees well with the mean of the observations. Based on the eight selected LLJ cases, a composite SCM case is defined from the mean forcings of the 3D model. This improves the signal‐to‐noise ratio, which enables a better judgement of the quality of boundary‐layer parametrizations in a comparison with the observations. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society


Pretrained Transformer-based language models (LMs) display remarkable natural language generation capabilities. With their immense potential, controlling text generation of such LMs is getting attention. While there are studies that seek to control high-level attributes (such as sentiment and topic) of generated text, there is still a lack of more precise control over its content at the word- and phrase-level. Here, we propose Content-Conditioner (CoCon) to control an LM's output text with a target content, at a fine-grained level. In our self-supervised approach, the CoCon block learns to help the LM complete a partially-observed text sequence by conditioning with content inputs that are withheld from the LM. Through experiments, we show that CoCon can naturally incorporate target content into generated texts and control high-level text attributes in a zero-shot manner.


We apply a global high-resolution methane flux inversion model based on a Lagrangian-Eulerian coupled tracer transport model to estimate methane emissions in West Siberia using atmospheric methane data collected at the Siberian station network JR-STATION and data by the global in-situ network. We use a Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART to estimate the observation footprints at a 0.1º spatial resolution. FLEXPART is coupled to a global atmospheric tracer transport model (NIES-TM). An adjoint of the coupled transport model is used in an iterative optimization procedure. Biweekly flux corrections to prior flux fields are estimated for period of 2009 to 2015. High-resolution prior fluxes were prepared for anthropogenic emissions (EDGAR), biomass burning (GFAS), and wetlands (VISIT). High resolution wetland emission dataset was constructed using monthly emission data simulated by VISIT model and high resolution wetland area fraction by Global Lake and Wetlands Database (GLWD). Inverse model optimizes corrections to two categories of fluxes: anthropogenic and natural (wetlands). Based on fitting the model simulations to the observations, inverse model provides upward corrections to West Siberian anthropogenic emissions in winter and wetland emissions in the southern part in summer. The use of the high-resolution atmospheric transport in flux inversion, when compared to low resolution transport modeling, enables better fit to the observations, especially in winter, when anthropogenic emissions dominate variability of the near surface methane concentration.


We present a method to infer 3D pose and shape of vehicles from a single image. To tackle this ill-posed problem, we optimize two-scale projection consistency between the generated 3D hypotheses and their 2D pseudo-measurements. Specifically, we use a morphable wireframe model to generate a fine-scaled representation of vehicle shape and pose. To reduce its sensitivity to 2D landmarks, we jointly model the 3D bounding box as a coarse representation which improves robustness. We also integrate three task priors, including unsupervised monocular depth, a ground plane constraint as well as vehicle shape priors, with forward projection errors into an overall energy function.


Recent years have witnessed a rapidly growing interest in the use and construction of 'qualitative' indicators of labour standards. Qualitative indicators, while generally having numerical values, are based on such methods as grading by experts, the coding of legislation, and the coding of other textual sources addressing violations of a more de facto nature. Measuring compliance with labour standards is an undertaking intrinsically fraught with difficulty. For there are a number of possible sources of measurement error, both random and non-random, that are unique to such indicators, on top of those that affect qualitative and quantitative indicators alike. The growing use of qualitative indicators of labour standards thus raises a number of questions about comparative methods of construction as well as the appropriateness of particular methods for particular applications. This volume results from a seminar that was organized by the International Labour Office (ILO) to address these and related questions, bringing together experts from the ILO, universities and NGOs.


Antibiotic therapy has assumed an increasingly important role in the management of intra-abdominal infections because of the replacement of surgical extirpation of inflamed and infected tissue by minimally invasive or percutaneous drainage procedures. This review describes the key findings of clinical trials performed to date and then describes settings in which antimicrobial agents may be the preferred antimicrobials. The organisms encountered in intra-abdominal infections are listed. Four quinolones have been examined in clinical trials for intra-abdominal infections: ciprofloxacin, trovafloxacin, clinafloxacin, and pefloxacin. These agents have considerable activity against the gram-negative facultative and aerobic organisms commonly encountered in intra-abdominal infections. The use of gentamicin as the sole agent with activity against aerobic gram-negative bacteria, however, may be probematic in intra-abdominal infections because anaerobic conditions may reduce its activity. Ciprofloxacin has little activity against Bacteroides fragilis and needs to be combined with an antianaerobic agent for empirical treatment of intra-abdominal infections. This study was designed to examine the efficacy of i.v. therapy and to explore conversion of therapeutic regimens to oral administration. The failure rates observed in general and with piperacillin-tazobactam (PIP/TAZO) in particular are markedly different from the other studies done with quinolones and the even larger number done with PIP/TAZO. The safety and efficacy of quinolone-based regimens in intra-abdominal infections has been clearly documented in clinical trials and is supported by the pharmacodynamics of these agents.


Delivery of proteins and nucleic acids into cells is a major challenge to the
development of biological therapeutics. Cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) and
cationic liposomes have been shown to internalise short interfering RNA (siRNA) to
achieve gene silencing, but no standard reagent exists which can safely deliver
macromolecules both in vitro and in vivo. Small Molecule Carriers (SMoCs) are
amphipathic α-helix mimetics displaying guanidine groups in order to mimic the
structure of the CPP penetratin. Previously, SMoCs were shown to effectively
deliver active proteins into cells. It is hypothesized that SMoCs may also be applied
to the delivery of siRNA into cells in order to knockdown target genes. In addition,
since cell surface binding is thought to be a crucial step in CPP internalisation, a new
SMoC which optimises binding to proteoglycans may be more efficiently taken up.
The aims of this thesis are to optimise the synthesis of the SMoCs in order to
increase the quantity of product; to demonstrate that SMoCs may be used as siRNA
delivery agents; and to design and synthesize a new SMoC which maximises siRNA
uptake. The synthesis of SMoCs has been significantly enhanced, with the
development of new reagents to improve the yields and cost of production. The
electrostatic interactions of SMoCs with siRNA have been characterised, using NMR
to examine a π-cation interaction which may contribute to anion binding, as well as
determination of binding affinities using ITC and gel shift assays. Initial
experiments using SMoC-siRNA complexes show significant mRNA knowdown
which demonstrates the potential of SMoCs as siRNA delivery vectors. Finally, a
new SMoC has been designed and synthesized which represents the first in a new
class of dendritic SMoCs which are designed to maximise binding to the cell surface.
This SMoC is also capable of delivering siRNA into cells, and may also be expanded
by the addition of targeting peptides.


Herein is reported development and testing of a life cycle analysis (LCA) procedure for assessing the environmental impact of induction motors. The operating conditions of a given industrial application are defined by the mechanical power required, operating hours and service life of the three-phase induction motor involved. Based on manufacturer's data mainly, different three-phase induction motors for various sets of operating conditions, including oversizing, have been selected. To quantify the environmental impact of each motor, the Methodology for the Ecodesign of Energy Using Products (MEEUP) was applied, according to the quantity of each of the motor's main constituent materials used in the production phase, and to the two operating variables that directly influence the LCA results: output power and efficiency. The procedure was applied to different three-phase induction motors representing two efficiency categories (IE1 and IE2) and considering different oversizing possibilities. The total environmental impact of each motor was determined based on the production, service life and end-of-life phases. The best motor option was identified for different operating conditions. Given the potential for energy savings in electric motors, LCA-based environmental impact assessment should be performed when different motors are being evaluated for a given industrial application.


Violent conflict in sub-Saharan Africa has been responsible for the direct and indirect deaths of millions of civilians and has contributed significantly to the low levels of human security in the region. The countries of sub-Saharan Africa that have been embroiled in violent conflict are characterised by abject poverty, inadequate service provision, political instability, retarded economic growth and other challenges to overall development that deter the enhancement of human security. The successful and sustainable resolution of these conflicts represents an enormous barrier to future prosperity in the region. Moreover, the post-conflict reconstruction of these countries, and those around them, symbolises perhaps the greatest challenge for sub-Saharan Africa. To design and develop successful policy responses and to learn from previous initiatives, it is thus necessary to fully comprehend the concept of conflict and its context.


Brain regions activated with complex sequential finger movements were localized by measuring regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) with positron emission tomography. Whereas the total number and frequency of finger movements were kept constant, the complexity of auditory cued sequential finger movements of the right hand varied, with sequence length as the independent variable. In four conditions of differing complexity, the bilateral primary sensorimotor area, left ventral premotor cortex, posterior supplementary motor area, right superior part of the cerebellum, and left putamen were consistently and equally activated. This finding suggests an executive role in running sequences, regardless of their length. The right dorsal premotor cortex (Brodmann area 6) and the right precuneus (Brodmann area 7) showed a linear increase of rCBF as sequence complexity increased. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that these areas function in the storage of motor sequences in spatial working memory and the production of ongoing sequential movement with reference to that of buffered memory. A similar increase in the cerebellar vermis and the left thalamus likewise suggests a role of these subcortical structures in complexity of sequential finger movements. Conversely, the left inferior parietal lobule showed a decrease of rCBF as complexity increased. Because short-term phonological storage is localized to this area, we suggest that the visuospatial working memory system may suppress other systems not in use. Our findings suggest that complex sequential finger movements recruit a discrete set of brain areas, in addition to areas underlying the execution of simple movement sequences.


Abstract In the current study the in vitro outcome of a degradable magnesium alloy (AZ91D) and standard titanium modified by nanostructured-hydroxyapatite (n-HA) coatings concerning cell adhesion and osteogenic differentiation was investigated by direct cell culture. The n-HA modification was prepared via radio-frequency magnetron sputtering deposition and proven by field emission scanning electron microscopy and X-ray powder diffraction patterns revealing a homogenous surface coating. Human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSCs) adhesion was examined after one and 14 days displaying an enhanced initial cell adhesion on the n-HA modified samples. The osteogenic lineage commitment of the cells was determined by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) quantification. On day one n-HA coated AZ91D exhibited a comparable ALP expression to standard tissue culture polystyrene samples. However, after 14 days solely little DNA and ALP amounts were measurable on n-HA coated AZ91D due to the lack of adherent cells. Titanium displayed excellent cell adhesion properties and ALP was detectable after 14 days. An increased pH of the culture was measured for AZ91D as well as for n-HA coated AZ91D. We conclude that n-HA modification improves initial cell attachment on AZ91D within the first 24 h. However, the effect does not persist for 14 days in in vitro conditions.


Like the first reader, this collection examines the grounds which are accepted for inclusion or exclusion of students, and looks at how appropriate support can be guaranteed for people who experience difficulties in learning, who are disabled or who experience social or other kinds of disability. This volume explores national and international contexts for educational practice and research and discusses practical, ethical and political issues which are relevant to undertaking that research. Part one covers issues facing local government and the consumers of educational services in the UK. Part two compares policy and practice in eleven different countries and part 3 discusses research which explores the issues of equality and diversity in education. This volume and her sister, Equality and Diversity in Education 1: Learning, Teaching and Managing in Schools are reraders for the Open University course, "Developing Inclusive Curricula: Equality and Diversity in Education" (E829). The two books in the series will appeal to teachers, non-teaching assistants and other school-based staff,parents,disabled people and those who have experienced difficulties in learning,social and health workers, and those working for voluntary organisations.


Philosophy has always turned to literature, but its engagement with Shakespeare in
particular has been problematic. Stanley Cavell and Jacques Derrida do better than most
other philosophical readers to meet the three criteria for worthwhile philosophical
engagement with Shakespeare recently outlined by Martha Nussbaum: namely, that it
should actually do philosophy, that it should illuminate the world of the plays, and that
it should account for why literature can do something for philosophy that philosophy
cannot do for itself. Cavell's and Derrida's acts of reading Shakespeare are, however,
marked by a seemingly unphilosophical aural sensitivity. This thesis argues that we will
only begin to grasp their singular and radical understanding of the relationship between
literature and philosophy once we get to the bottom of these auricular preoccupations.
The first part will show that in Cavell's readings of Shakespeare the figure of the ear
and actual process of listening not only mark "separateness," but are also instrumental
in helping us to "acknowledge." Although Derrida does not listen for separateness but
differance, the second part argues that for him too the ear both actually and figurally
inaugurates an act of reading which not only blurs the borders between the
philosophical and the literary, but also fundamentally changes the way we relate the one
to the other. The way Derrida and Cavell listen to Shakespeare, therefore, suggests three
criteria to be added to Nussbaum's. First, the philosopher's act of reading must resonate
beyond the conventional boundaries of philosophy and literature. Second, a
philosopher's account needs to be based on a textual model describing how the very
encounter between text and reader can become part of the philosophical endeavour.
Third, this realisation must be internalised in the very way philosophy is written.


If you are a researcher or student with experience in multiple linear regression and want to learn about logistic regression, Paul Allison's Logistic Regression Using SAS: Theory and Application, Second Edition, is for you! Informal and nontechnical, this book both explains the theory behind logistic regression, and looks at all the practical details involved in its implementation using SAS. Several real-world examples are included in full detail. This book also explains the differences and similarities among the many generalizations of the logistic regression model. The following topics are covered: binary logistic regression, logit analysis of contingency tables, multinomial logit analysis, ordered logit analysis, discrete-choice analysis, and Poisson regression. Other highlights include discussions on how to use the GENMOD procedure to do loglinear analysis and GEE estimation for longitudinal binary data. Only basic knowledge of the SAS DATA step is assumed. The second edition describes many new features of PROC LOGISTIC, including conditional logistic regression, exact logistic regression, generalized logit models, ROC curves, the ODDSRATIO statement (for analyzing interactions), and the EFFECTPLOT statement (for graphing non-linear effects). Also new is coverage of PROC SURVEYLOGISTIC (for complex samples), PROC GLIMMIX (for generalized linear mixed models), PROC QLIM (for selection models and heterogeneous logit models), and PROC MDC (for advanced discrete choice models).


A near-surface velocity map is derived, using data from active shots, acquired in the frame of a surface microseismic survey, targeting the Fayetteville shale formation. This near-surface velocity map shows strong velocity variations with velocities ranging from a few hundreds of metres per second to approximately 1500 m/s. The visibility of the S-wave expression on the vertical component of surface geophones was investigated. It was found that only one-third of the events showed a visible S-wave arrival, and this arrival was below the level of noise for the other two-thirds of the events. When the S-wave is observed, it is seen preferentially in areas where near-surface velocities are larger and attenuation is lower. The use of only P-waves appears to be widespread in surface microseismic processing. This study suggests, through the derivation of a near-surface velocity map, that near-surface attenuation could be one factor justifying this approach.


In conjunction with eddy covariance measurements of CO2 fluxes at the 39.5-m height over a 21.5-m-tall boreal aspen stand in northern Saskatchewan, CO2 concentration was measured at eight heights in order to calculate net ecosystem exchange. During both leafless and full-leaf periods, daytime vertical CO2 concentration gradients above 9 m were weak (<0.2 μmol mol−1 m−1), but were strong below this height. Little change in CO2 storage in the air column below 39.5 m occurred during much of the daytime, while around sunrise and sunset CO2 storage changed mainly below 9 m. For the rest of the night, over 85% of the increase in CO2 storage occurred above 9 m. On some calm nights during the growing season, CO2 also accumulated below 9 m resulting in a sudden upward CO2 flux at 39.5 m following the resumption of mixing 2–3 hours after sunrise. A 10-day experiment was conducted to determine the spatial variability of CO2 flux in the trunk space. Two eddy covariance systems were mounted just above the understory about two tree heights apart. The correlation between CO2 fluxes were poor even under unstable (daytime) conditions, suggesting a relatively heterogeneous understory and soil. In contrast, the correlation between water vapor fluxes was high (r2 = 0.70) in unstable conditions. However, average daytime and nighttime CO2 fluxes over the 10 days agreed to within 5%. This suggests that partitioning net ecosystem exchange between overstory and understory on an hourly basis using a single-understory eddy covariance system is inadvisable; however, partitioning probably can be done quite reliably using 5-day average fluxes.


Background. Low possession of the Road-to-Health card (RTHC) by parents, as well as inadequate use of the RTHC by health professionals, have reduced its efficacy.  Objectives. To describe the level of possession of the RTHC by a sample of patients admitted to the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital (RCWMCH), and to determine the extent and accuracy of doctors' transfer of clinical information between the RTHC and hospital records.  Methods. A cross-sectional analytical study conducted in four general paediatric wards over six weeks, during which data were extracted from participants' RTHC and hospital record. The presence or absence of selected items of information on the RTHC and the hospital record was recorded; the primary outcome was the transfer of the specified items of information between records.  Results. A total of 133 (81%) eligible caregivers had the RTHC on their person. Variables including perinatal information, immunisation record and weight-for-age chart were well-documented on the RTHC prior to hospital admission, and mostly well-transferred to the hospital record. In general, new information in the hospital record was poorly transferred to the RTHC on discharge; for example, weight (31%), diagnosis (63%) and treatment (48%).  Conclusions. The possession rate of RTHCs within the study sample was within an acceptable range. Although doctors generally made use of the RTHC as a reference source, their recording of new clinical information on the RTHC was poor, missing the opportunity to use it as a communication tool for continuity of care.


The adoption of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) is permeating Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). Timing reliability of MAS is a daring challenge. The study of local task execution and negotiation of workloads are catalyzing considerable interest. By adopting techniques typical of Real-Times Systems (RTS), MAS's ability to comply with strict timing constraints has been proven. However, a complete formalization is still missing, and some of the existing mathematical models introduce considerable pessimism in the performance analysis. Therefore, the need for tools supporting the study of the behavior of agent-based systems is rising. Particularly, the capability of systematic assessment and comparison of their performance. This paper presents a system to generate task-sets and operating scenarios, to support the study of timing reliability, behavior, and performance of MAS. The parameters required for such a generation are characterized by randomly extracted values (e.g., the number of agents, single agent utilization factors, and single task utilization factor). For each parameter, it is possible to select a given statistical distribution to be applied to user-defined ranges. In particular, logic, constraints, and dependencies characterizing the generation algorithm are detailed and framed in a functional work-flow. Moreover, such a system integrates a MAS simulator powered by both general-purpose and real-time algorithms, named MAXIMGPRT. Hence, the presented tool is also able to show the logs of the tested scenarios equipped with graphs to enable the performance analysis.


The Earth's largest geoid anomalies occur at the lowest spherical harmonic
degrees, or longest wavelengths, and are primarily the result of mantle convection.
Thermal density contrasts due to convection are partially compensated by boundary
deformations due to viscous flow whose effects must be included in order to obtain a
dynamically consistent model for the geoid. These deformations occur rapidly with
respect to the timescale for convection, and we have analytically calculated geoid
response kernels for steady-state, viscous, incompressible, self-gravitating, layered Earth
models which include the deformation of boundaries due to internal loads. Both
the sign and magnitude of geoid anomalies depend strongly upon the viscosity structure
of the mantle as well as the possible presence of chemical layering. Correlations of various global geophysical data sets with the observed geoid can
be used to construct theoretical geoid models which constrain the dynamics of mantle
convection. Surface features such as topography and plate velocities are not obviously
related to the low-degree geoid, with the exception of subduction zones which are
characterized by geoid highs (degrees 4-9). Recent models for seismic heterogeneity in
the mantle provide additional constraints, and much of the low-degree (2-3) geoid can
be attributed to seismically inferred density anomalies in the lower mantle. The
Earth's largest geoid highs are underlain by low density material in the lower mantle,
thus requiring compensating deformations of the Earth's surface. A dynamical model
for whole mantle convection with a low viscosity upper mantle can explain these
observations and successfully predicts more than 80% of the observed geoid variance. Temperature variations associated with density anomalies in the man tie cause
lateral viscosity variations whose effects are not included in the analytical models.
However, perturbation theory and numerical tests show that broad-scale lateral
viscosity variations are much less important than radial variations; in this respect,
geoid models, which depend upon steady-state surface deformations, may provide
more reliable constraints on mantle structure than inferences from transient
phenomena such as postglacial rebound. Stronger, smaller-scale viscosity variations
associated with mantle plumes and subducting slabs may be more important. On the
basis of numerical modelling of low viscosity plumes, we conclude that the global
association of geoid highs (after slab effects are removed) with hotspots and, perhaps,
mantle plumes, is the result of hot, upwelling material in the lower mantle; this conclusion
does not depend strongly upon plume rheology. The global distribution of
hotspots and the dominant, low-degree geoid highs may correspond to a dominant
mode of convection stabilized by the ancient Pangean continental assemblage.


PURPOSE
The pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, efficacy, safety, dosage and administration, and place in therapy of clevidipine are reviewed.

SUMMARY
Clevidipine is a new lipophilic, short-acting, third-generation dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker (CCB) approved for use in the management of acute hypertension when oral agents are not feasible. It exerts its hemodynamic effects through selective arterial vasodilation without effects on the venous circulation. Clevidipine has a half-life of approximately two minutes after i.v. administration, resulting in very rapid onset and offset of antihypertensive action. Unlike many current i.v. antihypertensive agents that are metabolized by the kidneys or liver, clevidipine is metabolized in the blood and tissues and does not accumulate in the body. Clevidipine does not appear to inhibit or induce cytochrome P-450 isoenzymes. Several Phase III clinical trials have reported the clinical efficacy and safety of clevidipine in patients with severe hypertension and in cardiac surgical patients with perioperative hypertension. The most frequent adverse events reported in clinical trials of clevidipine were headache, nausea, and vomiting. Risk of rebound hypertension, especially in patients not transitioned from clevidipine to oral antihypertensive therapy after prolonged infusions, should be monitored for at least eight hours after the drug is discontinued.

CONCLUSION
Clevidipine, a novel third-generation dihydropyridine CCB, has demonstrated efficacy and safety in patients with acute hypertension and preoperative, perioperative, and postoperative hypertension. While its short duration of action and short half-life are appropriate for use in acute settings, more information on its safety is needed to assess its appropriate use in therapy.


The on-line condition monitoring of rotating machines is given paramount importance, particularly in Oils and Gas industries where the financial implications of machine shutdown is very high. This project work was directed towards the on-line condition monitoring of high voltage rotating machines by detection of partial discharges (PD) which are indicative of stator insulation degradation. Partial discharge manifests itself in various forms which can be detected using various electrical and non-electrical techniques. The electrical method of detecting small current pulses generated by PD using a Rogowski coil as a sensor has been investigated in this work. Dowding & Mills, who are commercially involved in the condition monitoring of rotating machines, currently use a system called StatorMonotor® for PD detection. The research is intended to develop a new partial discharge detection system that will replace the existing system which is getting obsolete. A three phase partial discharge detection unit was specified, designed and developed that is capable of filtering, amplifying and digitising the discharge signals. The associated data acquisition software was developed using LabVIEW software that was capable of acquiring, displaying and storing the discharge signals. Additional software programs were devised to investigate the removal of external noise. A data compression algorithm was developed to store the discharge data in an efficient manner; also ensuring the backward compatibility to the existing analysis software. Tests were performed in laboratory and on machines on-site and the results are presented. Finally, the data acquisition (DAQ) cards that used the PCMCIA bus was replaced with new USB based DAQ cards with the software modified accordingly. The three phase data acquisition unit developed as a result of this project has produced encouraging results and will be implemented in an industrial environment to evaluate and benchmark its performance with the existing system. Most importantly, a hardware data acquisition platform for the detection of PD pulses has been established within the company which is easily maintainable and expandable to suit any future requirements.


Investigations of fouling alleviation and permeability decline in membrane bioreactors (MBR) were carried out at two pilot plants. On the one hand, the minimization of membrane fouling via adding abrasive granulates into activated sludge (submerged operated membrane) was tested. On the other hand, the impact of truly soluble compounds released into the liquid phase of activated sludge on fouling behavior was investigated. The first research into the impact of mechanical cleaning via adding granulates showed the unwanted formation of fouling layers was reduced as a result of abrasion processes. With this method continuous sustainable operation was achieved, without chemical cleaning and, at the same time, reaching very high flux levels up to 40 L/(m 2 ·h) over more than 500 days (>16 months). The investigation of the effect of truly soluble compounds on membrane fouling showed that the permeability decline during 145 days of operation resulted predominantly from wastewater or activated sludge matter larger than 0.04 μm.


1. Arterial and venous whole blood and plasma histamine concentrations and eosinophil and basophil counts were determined in five patients with acute severe asthma who had not previously received steroid therapy, in five who had been maintained on steroid therapy and in a control group of nine patients with acute non-respiratory illnesses. 2. No significant arteriovenous differences were observed for any of these measurements in any of the groups of patients. Significant net loss of arterial histamine does not therefore occur peripherally in acute asthma. 3. When compared with the values for the controls, statistically significant increases were observed, in the group not receiving steroids, for arterial and venous whole blood histamine concentrations, eosinophil counts and basophil counts, and, in those receiving steroids, for the venous basophil counts. 4. When compared with the venous plasma histamine concentration of normal subjects, that of the asthmatic subjects not receiving steroids was significantly raised. 5. The venous plasma histamine concentration of the control group was also significantly higher than that of normal subjects, but less so than in the asthmatic subjects, suggesting that acute illness per se produces an increased plasma histamine concentration. 6. Both groups of asthmatic patients were treated similarly with hydrocortisone and bronchodilators. There was a striking fall in whole blood histamine concentration and in eosinophil and basophil counts, but plasma histamine fell more slowly, especially in those who had not previously received steroids. 7. The mean histamine content of the basophil cell is 0·01 pmol and significant differences in this value did not occur within the various groups or as a result of treatment. The approximate number of molecules of histamine per basophil cell is 6·0 × 10 9 .


The Internet has greatly changed how library users search and use library resources. Many of them prefer resources available in electronic format over traditional print materials. While many documents are now born digital, many more are only accessible in print and need to be digitized. This paper focuses on how the Colorado State University Libraries creates and optimizes text-based and digitized PDF documents for easy access, downloading, and printing.


Prior to the 1970s, rehabilitation of aphonia following a total laryngectomy was accomplished using esophageal speech or through the use of mechanical or electrical devices. First described in 1980 by Singer and Blom, tracheoesophageal puncture (TEP) with prosthesis placement affords the clarity of esophageal speech without the volitional need to ingest and expel air. Deciding between a primary or secondary tracheoesophageal puncture (TEP) can depend on multiple factors. Pou describes that a primary TEP is absolutely contraindicated if the party wall between the trachea and esophagus have been separated, either as a consequence of surgeon technique or secondary to the degree of oncologic resection. Relative contraindications include conditions precluding adequate use of the prosthesis such as poor pulmonary function, poor manual dexterity, or bilateral hearing loss. Pou notes that preoperative or the need for postoperative radiation are not contraindications to primary TEP When comparing primary TEP to secondary TEP, the literature shows no significant difference in outcomes initially or at later follow-up, with success rates in the 75-90% range after 2 years.


We study the operators in the large $N$ tensor models, focusing mostly on the fermionic quantum mechanics with $O(N)^3$ symmetry which may be either global or gauged. In the model with global symmetry we study the spectra of bilinear operators, which are in either the symmetric traceless or the antisymmetric representation of one of the $O(N)$ groups. In the symmetric traceless case, the spectrum of scaling dimensions is the same as in the SYK model with real fermions; it includes the $h=2$ zero-mode. For the operators anti-symmetric in the two indices, the scaling dimensions are the same as in the additional sector found in the complex tensor and SYK models; the lowest $h=0$ eigenvalue corresponds to the conserved $O(N)$ charges. A class of singlet operators may be constructed from contracted combinations of $m$ symmetric traceless or antisymmetric two-particle operators. Their two-point functions receive contributions from $m$ melonic ladders. Such multiple ladders are a new phenomenon in the tensor model, which does not seem to be present in the SYK model. The more typical $2k$-particle operators do not receive any ladder corrections and have quantized large $N$ scaling dimensions $k/2$. We construct pictorial representations of various singlet operators with low $k$. For larger $k$ we use available techniques to count the operators and show that their number grows as $2^k k!$. As a consequence, the theory has a Hagedorn phase transition at the temperature which approaches zero in the large $N$ limit. We also study the large $N$ spectrum of low-lying operators in the Gurau-Witten model, which has $O(N)^6$ symmetry. We argue that it corresponds to one of the generalized SYK models constructed by Gross and Rosenhaus. Our paper also includes studies of the invariants in large $N$ tensor integrals with various symmetries.


A new type of pellet binder was prepared with oxalic acid as sodium silicate chemical modification agent in this paper, the compressive strength of which improved obviously. It improved from 0.6 KN/a to 2.4 KN/a, when the amount of oxalic acid is 8%. Meanwhile, carboxyl introduced at 390°C started carbonization decomposition, and pelletizing properties wouldn't be affected without new pellet impurity. The analysis shows that adding oxalic acid introduces carboxyl only in the binder, but doesn't generate new functional groups; Polymer layer formed by carboxyl adsorption on sodium silicate gel particle surface limits colloidal particle growing up, and plays roles of refining colloidal particle and improving the bonding strength.


This qualitative study aimed to study the process of disclosure by examining adolescents from the general population who had experienced child sexual abuse (CSA). Twenty-six sexually victimized adolescents (23 girls, 3 boys; age: 15-18 years) participated in a qualitative face-to-face in-depth interview on different aspects of disclosure. A qualitative content analysis was conducted following Mayring and using the qualitative data analysis program Atlas.ti. In addition, quantitative correlation analyses were calculated to identify factors associated with disclosure. Less than one third of participants immediately disclosed CSA to another person. In most cases, recipients of both immediate and delayed disclosure were peers. More than one third of participants had never disclosed the abuse to a parent. Main motives for nondisclosure to parents were lack of trust or not wanting to burden the parents. Factors that correlated positively with disclosure were extrafamilial CSA, single CSA, age of victim at CSA, and having parents who were still living together. Negative associations with disclosure were found for feelings of guilt and shame and the perpetrator's age. Many adolescent survivors of CSA have serious concerns about disclosure to their parents and consider friends as more reliable confidants. These findings have two main implications for prevention: (1) In order to facilitate disclosure to parents, the strengthening of the child–parent relationship should be given specific attention in prevention programs, and (2) prevention programs should aim at teaching adolescents how they can help a victim if they become a recipient of disclosure.


The constant increase in single core frequency reached a plateau during recent years since the produced heat inside the chip cannot be cooled down by existing technologies anymore. An alternative to harvest more computational power per die is to fabricate more number of cores into a single chip. Therefore manycore chips with more than thousand cores are expected by the end of the decade. These environments provide a high level of parallel processing power while their energy consumption is considerably lower than their multi-chip counterparts. Although shared-memory programming is the classical paradigm to program these environments, there are numerous claims that taking into account the full life cycle of software, the message-passing programming model have numerous advantages. The direct architectural consequence of applying a message-passing programming model is to support message passing between the processing entities directly in the hardware. Therefore manycore architectures with hardware support for message passing are becoming more and more visible. These platforms can be seen in two ways: (i) as a High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster programmed by highly trained scientists using Message Passing Interface (MPI) libraries; or (ii) as a mainstream computing platform requiring a global operating system to abstract away the architectural complexities from the ordinary programmer. In the first view, performance of communication primitives is an important bottleneck for MPI applications. In the second view, kernel data structures have been shown to be a limiting factor. In this thesis (i) we overview existing state-of-the-art techniques to circumvent the mentioned bottlenecks; and (ii) we study high-performance broadcast communication primitive and map data structure on modern manycore architectures, with message-passing support in hardware, in two different chapters respectively. In one chapter, we study how to make use of the hardware features to implement an efficient broadcast primitive. We consider the Intel Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC) as our target platform which offers the ability to move data between on-chip Message Passing Buffers (MPB) using Remote Memory Access (RMA). We propose OC-Bcast (On-Chip Broadcast), a pipelined k-ary tree algorithm tailored to exploit the parallelism provided by on-chip RMA. Experimental results show that OC-Bcast attains considerably better performance in terms of latency and throughput compared to state-of-the-art solutions. This performance improvement highlights the benefits of exploiting hardware features of the target platform: Our broadcast algorithm takes direct advantage of RMA, unlike the other broadcast solutions which are based on a higher-level send/receive interface. In the other chapter, we study the implementation of high-throughput concurrent maps in message-passing manycores. Partitioning and replication are the two approaches to achieve high throughput in a message-passing system. This chapter presents and compares different strongly-consistent map algorithms based on partitioning and replication. To assess the performance of these algorithms independently of architecture-specific features, we propose a communication model of message-passing manycores to express the throughput of each algorithm. The model is validated through experiments on a 36-core TILE-Gx8036 processor. Evaluations show that replication outperforms partitioning only in a narrow domain.


As immigration reform initiatives driven by established advocacy organizations in Washington, D.C. were successively defeated in the mid-to-late 2000s, movement-centered organizations and newly created formations of undocumented youth mobilized against the federal-local immigration enforcement regime of the Bush and Obama administrations. This mobilization included a mix of community organizing, litigation, policy and media advocacy, and direct action tactics. Lawyers supported movement-centered social change campaigns as counsel to existing organizations and to the undocumented youth groups that grew, evolved, and multiplied during this period. Drawing on media, scholarly, and first person accounts, this Article describes the campaigns that constituted the anti-enforcement mobilization between 2009 and 2012, with particular focus on the range of roles played by lawyers and the implications of that repertoire in theorizing about resistance to legality and the place of law and lawyering in social movement activism.


MAjrAshi, A., B. Bin BAkAr, M. MoneruzzAMAn khAndAker, A. nAsrulhAq Boyce and s. V. MuniAndy, 2013. Fractal analysis of rhizome growth patterns of Scirpus grossus l. on peat and paddy soils. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 19: 1319-1326 This study describes the use of fractal analysis to describe root system in rhizomatous plant, Scirpus grossus l. root network spread and filling factor of rhizomatous roots are compared with fertilizer applications under different soil types. Fractal analysis allows the structural complexity of such associations to be compared between plant communities, with regard to their potentials for soil resource acquisition and utilization. The nPk fertilizer application at 100:30:30 ha-1 resulted in more robust aerial plant growth with ca. 253.5 ramets m-2 (mean dry aerial bio mass of 23.2 g plant-1) compared with 235.6 ramets m-2 (16.3 g plant-1) in unfertilized peat soils 24 weeks after planting of the mother plant. The parallel figures for plants growing on paddy soils of the Jawa series were ca. 97.08 ramets m-1 (12.19 g plant-1) (fertilized paddy soils) and 83.67 ramets m-1 (10.89 g plant-1) (unfertilized paddy soils) 24 weeks after planting of the mother plant. Mean ramets mortality was significantly higher in unfertilized paddy soils at 121.3 ramets m-2, while in the fertilized paddy soils this was only 34.7 ramets m-2, resulting respective net populations of ca. 218.8 ramets m -2 and 114.3 ramets m -2 in fertilized and unfertilized plots. in paddy soils mean ramets mortality in unfertilized paddy soils was ca. 8.58 ramets m-2, while this was only ca. 5.67 ramets m-2, leading to the respective resultant net populations of 91.41m-2 and 75.09 ramets m-2. Flowering set in earlier among ramets in fertilized peat soils with 103.2 ramets m-2vis-a-vis 77.5 ramets m-2, 24 weeks after transplanting of the mother plant in unfertilized soil. This method allows the structural complexity of such associations to be compared between plant communities, with regard to their potentials for soil resource acquisition and utilization. in peat soil, distinct and partly not significant differences are found (fractal dimension between 1.52 ± 0.53 and 1.50 ± 0.59) in unfertilized and fertilized plots and in paddy soil, fractal dimension between 1.53 ± 0.55 and 1.52 ± 0.49) in unfertilized and fertilized plots. We found distinct and partly not significant differences be compared between plant in peat and paddy soils when analysing many small units of a complex root system association. in larger plant communities, a broad variety of below-ground structures is recorded in its entirety, integrating the specific features of single sub-structures. In that way, extreme fractal dimensions are lost and the diversity decreases. Therefore, the analysis of larger units of root system associations provides a general knowledge of the complexity of root system structures for heterogeneous plant communities.


is a web logging and visualization system that helps web design teams run usability tests (both local and remote) and analyze the collected data. Logging is done through a proxy, overcoming many of the problems with server-side and client-side logging. Captured usage traces can be aggregated and visualized in a zooming interface that shows the web pages people viewed. The visualization also shows the most common paths taken through the website for a given task, as well as the optimal path for that task as designated by the designer. This paper discusses the architecture of WebQuilt and also describes how it can be extended for new kinds of analyses and visualizations.


: In a presentation to the Southern Growth Policy Board's 1997 Conference on the Future of the South, argues that partnership, including Public Private Partnerships, for the 21st century needs to be about winning combinations. Describes the change in resources that generate, prosperity, jobs and meaningful futures from natural endowments and geographic location to advanced technologies based on knowledge-based investments, highly skilled personnel and abundant financial assets. Describes breakthrough partnering between the public and private sector as the key to developing technology that will generate wealth, prosperity and newer, higher paying jobs in the future. Describes four freedoms necessary to achieve breakthrough partnering: exchange of ideas, access, trade and enterprise. Argues that bold, innovative leadership is required to reshape and restructure institutions to fit the new economy.


Abstract It has been conjectured, motivated in part by old results of Dixmier and Day on bounded Hilbertian representations of amenable groups, that every norm-closed amenable subalgebra of ℬ(ℋ) is automatically similar to an amenable C*-algebra. Results of Curtis and Loy (1995), Gifford (2006), and Marcoux (2008) give some evidence to support this conjecture, but it remains open even for commutative subalgebras. We present more evidence to support this conjecture, by showing that a closed, commutative, operator amenable subalgebra of a finite von Neumann algebra ℳ must be similar to a selfadjoint-subalgebra. Technical results used include an approximation argument based on Grothendieck's inequality and the Pietsch Domination Theorem, together with an adaptation of a theorem of Gifford to the setting of unbounded operators affiliated to ℳ.


We provide an analysis of nonlinear time series prediction schemes, from a common recurrent neural network (RNN) to the pipelined recurrent neural network (PRNN), which consists of a number of nested small-scale RNNs. All these schemes are shown to be suitable for nonlinear autoregressive moving average (NARMA) prediction. The time management policy of such prediction schemes is addressed and classified in terms of a priori and a posteriori mode of operation. Moreover, it is shown that the basic a priori PRNN structure exhibits certain a posteriori features. In search for an optimal PRNN based predictor, some inherent features of the PRNN, such as nesting and the choice of cost function are addressed. It is shown that nesting in essence is an a posteriori technique which does not diverge. Simulations undertaken on a speech signal support the algorithms derived, and outperform linear least mean square and recursive least squared predictors.


This study proposes a vehicle-following control system for personal electric vehicles (EV). Recently, projects aimed at using personal vehicles to solve vehicle transportation problems associated with overcrowding in cities and depopulation in mountain villages have been under way in several regions in Japan. This study was conducted to contribute to improving mobility in depopulated regions by applying vehicle-following control technology to personal vehicles. In this paper, the issues associated with introducing personal vehicles in depopulated regions are summarized by explaining the background of personal vehicles and that of depopulated regions in Japan. Related studies that we have conducted to address these issues are summarized. The details of vehicle-following control technology that is targeted at controlling vehicle-to-vehicle time using wireless communication are explained. Evaluation experiments conducted using small EVs are described. The results of the evaluation experiments confirm the efficient following performance achieved with the proposed vehicle-following control system.


The large acceptance TPCs of the NA49 spectrometer allow for a systematic multidimensional study of two-particle correlations in different part of phase space. Results from Bertsch-Pratt and Yano-Koonin-Podgoretskii parametrizations are presented differentially in transverse pair momentum and pair rapidity. These studies give an insight into the dynamical space-time evolution of relativistic Pb+Pb collisions, which is dominated by longitudinal expansion.


This paper exploits enlargement of the European Union as a natural experiment to provide evidence for cluttering of the trade mark register in Europe. Enlargement increased regulatory uncertainty for pharmaceutical firms because the number of medical regulators that had to approve invented names for pharmaceutical products increased sharply at the time. The effects of this regulatory shock on pharmaceutical firms' trade mark application strategies are studied using Difference-in-Differences and bias adjusted matching estimators. It is shown that enlargement had a significant and quantitatively important effect on pharmaceutical firms' incentives to clutter trade mark registers with trade marks they are unlikely to use.


Loved by students like you for its visual and flexible approach to building computer skills, the ILLUSTRATED COURSE GUIDE: MICROSOFT OFFICE 365 & WORD 2016: ADVANCED is the ideal resource for mastering complex and advanced Microsoft Word 2016, regardless of your experience level. Each two-page spread focuses on a single skill, ensuring that information is easy to follow and absorb. The ILLUSTRATED COURSE GUIDE divides important Microsoft Word 2016 concepts and skills into three manageable levels -- Introductory, Intermediate, and Advanced -- making it perfect for mastering the skills you need in any learning environment.


Children with congenital heart disease account for one in every 145 live births in the UK. Survival has improved dramatically over the past half century; in the 1950s only 20% of such patients could expect to reach adulthood, but now the number is closer to 80%. However, it is a maxim among congenital specialists that a significant proportion of their patients are "fixed, not cured". There are currently at least 150 000 adults in the UK with congenital heart disease and this number is expected to rise by 25% by 2010. A smaller subset—roughly 12 000 patients—have complex forms of congenital heart disease and numbers are projected to rise by 50% over the same time period.w1

A vital component to the multidisciplinary management of the congenital heart disease patient is adequate imaging of the heart and circulation. However, simple anatomical delineation alone is not sufficient. Techniques are required which can measure function, flow and pressure as well as resolve anatomical structures with a high degree of detail. Such methods should be directed by a physician with both knowledge and interest in congenital heart disease.

The major disadvantage of echocardiography has traditionally been its relatively limited field of view. Assessment of an entire congenital repair, which may include extra anatomic bypasses or systemic shunts, is often suboptimal. While central pulmonary arteries are visible there is no opportunity to evaluate the peripheral pulmonary arterial or venous structures. Similarly the tracheobronchial structures and lung parenchyma remain quite occult by this technique.

Cardiac catheterisation remained for many years the reference standard for the investigation of congenital heart disease patients. Radiation dose to this population of children and young adults is a vital consideration, however, given the non-threshold risk of subsequent cancer induction. The European Heart Survey of congenital heart disease, which included over 4000 patients …


A crisis in its sociological sense, connotes a perception of the existence of a real threat to the values that one holds. This perception may be vague or it may be clear. People search for explanations for those events that are transforming their lives and which they perceive to lie effectively outside their control. They demand perspectives and frameworks within which they can locate events as they unfold and in terms of which they can define their meanings. Is the social science community in the Philippines intellectually and culturally equipped to respond to such urgent needs? There are a number of factors that prevent the Philippine social science community from being able to meaningfully relate itself to these emergent concerns of a society in crisis. The first consideration is that in normal times, social scientists in particular are enlisted by various Establishment agencies to do "developmental social science." The second consideration is what others have called the alienation of the intellectual in general, or of the social science in particular, from the masses. Unless Filipino social scientists as a community consciously confront these conditions and collectively in this critical moment of their people's history.


The Composite Wheel (CW) is an invention by a Swedish engineer which was tested by VTI in a first version in 1989. The CW is a tire/wheel construction with a rubber tread mounted on a belt supported by a self-supporting structure (plate and "spokes") made of composite materials. This early design was found to give 10 dB lower noise than an "average" conventional tire. However, durability was insufficient. In a recent North-European cooperative project led by VTI, new versions of the CW were developed and tested. The first series of new prototypes failed, partly because spokes in the wheel construction created noise emission at the spoke impact frequencies which dominated the noise emission, partly because of insufficient adhesion strength between spokes and belt. In a second series of prototypes, the spoke-related noise was reduced to acceptable levels and lower noise emissions than for any pneumatic tire were measured. Rolling resistance was extremely low, and vehicle handling was reasonably good for being a prototype. There are still some durability problems although much less than before. It is concluded that the CW has very promising features in terms of low noise emission and rolling resistance. The paper presents the latest results measured for this tire/wheel construction.


Many consider the Battle of Midway to have turned the tide of the Pacific War. It is without question one of the most famous battles in history. Now, for the first time since Gordon W. Prange's bestselling Miracle at Midway, Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully offer a new interpretation of this great naval engagement. Unlike previous accounts, Shattered Sword makes extensive use of Japanese primary sources. It also corrects the many errors of Mitsuo Fuchida's Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan, an uncritical reliance upon which has tainted every previous Western account. It thus forces a major, potentially controversial reevaluation of the great battle. The authors examine the battle in detail and effortlessly place it within the context of the Imperial Navy's doctrine and technology. With a foreword by leading WWII naval historian John Lundstrom, Shattered Sword will become an indispensable part of any military buff's library. Winner of the 2005 John Lyman Book Award for the"Best Book in U.S. Naval History" and cited by Proceedings as one of its "Notable Naval Books" for 2005.


The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most significant causative agent in the development of cervical cancer. Despite its presence in almost all cervical cancers, HPV by itself is unable to transform a normal cell to a cancerous one. Instead, additional cellular mutations are required to supplement the HPV oncoproteins E6 and E7. Activation of the Notch1 signaling pathway has been proposed as one of the cellular changes that cooperate with the E6 and E7 proteins to cause cervical cancers. This proposition is based on: (a) the detection of active Notch1 in high-grade cervical lesions and cancers; (b) the synergism between Notch1 and E6 and E7 to transform immortalized cells; and (c) the obliteration of neoplastic properties of a cervical cancer cell line when Notch1 expression was inhibited. However, this view was put in doubt by a recent report that showed Notch1 expression is markedly reduced in cervical cancer cells, and this was attributed to the ability of Notch1 to repress the expression of the HPV E6 and E7 proteins. Here we report that although exaggerated levels of Notch1 can, indeed, adversely affect HPV E6 and E7 expression, and cellular proliferation in general, moderate levels of Notch1, together with active phosphoinositide 3 kinase, can, instead, exhibit oncogenic properties that transform primary cells containing HPV16 E6 and E7 proteins. In addition, we show that activated Notch1 is readily detected in all cervical cancer cell lines tested. Together, these results show that not only do cervical cancer cells express Notch1, but also that Notch1 signaling, in synergy with other cellular changes, can participate in the transformation of primary cells expressing E6 and E7 proteins.


For the first time, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago participated in administering the Kansas City Fed's low- and moderate-income survey to respondents in the Seventh District. The survey is administered on line twice a year to measure "economic conditions of low- and moderate-income (LMI) populations and the organizations that serve them."1 A key motivation for the survey is that compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) entails banking institutions subject to CRA to provide credit, investment, and services, consistent with safe and sound banking practices, to LMI populations in their service areas. As a point of reference, LMI is the incomes of individuals below 80 percent of "median income" of an area, as defined by HUD. Median income, which varies by household size, is defined as "metropolitan median income for urban residents and state median income for rural residents."2


RACV and TAC jointly produced a video series to help parents use their child restraints correctly. The aim was to assist parents in understanding the importance of properly fitting and adjusting rearward and forward facing child restraints, and booster seats. The series is designed to encourage and motivate parents to be aware of common mistakes and how to make regular checks. Since November 2013, they have received over 7,000 views. After developing the series in English, it was identified that there was a need to provide these videos to CALD communities. Previous research showed a need for the development of clear and specific messages regarding child restraints for new arrivals and it was found that people from less motorised societies were more likely to have poorer compliance with child restraint laws. Furthermore, a brief survey of new migrants revealed approximately 26% of respondents reported they did not always use a child restraint for a child under 7 years of age. Based on this need, the video series was translated in to Arabic, Cambodian, Dari, Karen, Persian and Somali for new migrants with young children. The videos are available on DVD and online, and have been widely promoted to early learning centres including family day care, primary schools, multicultural centres and stakeholders.


Background: Right ventricular (RV) has a vital role in maintaining optimal tissue perfusion. Assessment of portal venous flow characteristics can be alternative and emerging technique to assess RV function. Aims: To investigate if portal venous pulsatility fraction (PF) could serve as effective and complementary tool in identifying RV dysfunction. Materials and Methods: Thirty adult patients aged 18-65 years undergoing cardiac surgery under general anesthesia were enrolled in study. Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiographic examination was performed. Tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE), RV fractional area change (FAC), RV ejection fraction (EF), and portal vein flow pulsatility were assessed. Portal vein PF was used to quantify degree of pulsatility. Results: Portal vein was demonstrated in 27 patients (90%). 27 values of portal vein PF, RV EF, FAC, and TAPSE were analyzed. Portal vein PF demonstrated significant linear correlation with TAPSE (r = −0.55, P = 0.003), RV FAC (r = −0.44, P = 0.02), and RV EF (r = −0.53, P = 0.004). ROC curve was constructed to calculate sensitivity and specificity of portal vein PF for assessing RV function. Portal vein PF value of ≥45% indicated RV dysfunction with sensitivity of 92.3%, specificity of 71.4%, positive predictive value of 75%, and negative predictive value of 90.9%. Area under ROC curve was 0.819 (95% confidence interval = 0.624 – 0.939, P = 0.0006). Conclusion: Portal vein PF is simple and feasible method for assessment of RV function. It complements the existing echocardiographic measures to diagnose RV dysfunction.


Lignin has great potential for the production of aromatics currently derived from petroleum, since it is the most abundant source of aromatics in nature. At present, Kraft lignin is used as fuel within the pulping process but, alternatively, it could be converted to high-value chemicals using thermochemical processes such as pyrolysis. Kraft lignin, however, is a very cohesive and thermally sensitive powder with foaming and agglomerating tendency under reaction conditions. Therefore, new reactor designs are necessary to efficiently process this raw material.
Consequently, a novel reactor design, designated as Mechanically Fluidized Reactor (MFR) has been developed to successfully process Kraft lignin. To select the optimal stirrer geometry for fast pyrolysis of biomass, its mixing characteristics have been investigated with a technique developed to monitor the aeration resulting from the formation of gases and vapours during pyrolysis. The performance of different stirrers has been compared in terms of time for complete pyrolysis and the best performance, i.e. shortest time, was achieved with a design incorporating a vertical blades stirrer. The mixing provided by this type of stirrer was also simulated by Discrete Element Method model.
In this work, Kraft lignin has been successfully pyrolyzed in the MFR. However, during the reaction, the bed material becomes cohesive and it is not possible to observe the bed aeration generated by the pyrolysis gas and vapours. Different bed materials were tested with the purpose of improving the Kraft lignin behaviour. All the materials capable of improving the processability, resulted in a watery bio-oil, most likely due to the catalytic enhancement of cracking reactions. Kraft lignin was also mixed with birch wood in different proportions. The liquid yield decreased linearly with Kraft lignin content in the initial feed, whereas phenolic compounds in the liquid product were found to increase linearly with increasing Kraft lignin content. The liquid product was analyzed in terms of alkyl phenols, guaiacols, catechols and syringols by GCxGC-TOFMS.
Hydrolysis lignin residues from bioethanol production were much easier to pyrolyze, as the bed material did not become cohesive. The high ash content of these feedstocks, when compared to Kraft lignin, reduced the liquid yield.


Lake Eğirdir is the second largest lake in Turkey and its fish fauna in 1950's was consisted of Barbatula mediterraneus, Cobitis turcica, Capoeta pestai, Cyprinus carpio, Hemigrammocapoeta kemali, Pseudophoxinus egridiri, Pseudophoxinus handlirschi,Vimba vimba and Aphanius anatoliae. Sander lucioperca were introduced to the lake and a considerable amount of pikeperch fishery become possible during the 1970s. However, during the 1980's, most of the native fish species in the lake disappeared due to predatory effects of the pikeperch. Cannibalism rate of pikeperch increased (96%) and their size in the catch decreased because of unsufficient prey fish and overfishing. Moreover, with the collapse of crayfish stock because of a fungal infection, the lake fishery became deteriorated. In the followed years, Gambusia affinis, Knipowitschia caucasica, Tinca tinca, Carassius gibelio, Alburnus chalcoides, Seminemacheilus ispartensis, Atherina boyeri and Pseudorasbora parva were introduced to the lake and cannibalism rate in pikeperch population decreased to 96%. Annual catch in the lake decreased to 38-450 tons in the last five years from 2000 tons in the years of 1970s. At the time of this research 13 fish species was present in the lake and 7 of these were native while 6 were alien species. Consequently, the alien fish species introduced to Lake Eğirdir have caused a change in the lake's native fish fauna, destroyed its endemic species as well as giving damage to both the food-chain structure of the lake's ecosystem and the socioeconomic structure of the region.


The cell cycle regulatory gene cyclin D1 is a candidate oncogene in breast cancer. It is overexpressed in 30-50% of invasive primary breast cancers and plays a key role in mediating mitogenic responses to steroids and growth factors in breast cancer cells in vitro. Because the role of cyclin D1 in the proliferative and early noninvasive stages of breast cancer is largely unknown, we examined normal breast epithelium (NBE), proliferative disease (PD), ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), and invasive carcinoma (IC) to evaluate the timing and possible importance of cyclin D1 expression in the development of breast cancer. Using immunohistochemistry, we examined cyclin D1 protein expression in 471 breast tissue samples. A quantitative scoring system for immunohistochemistry based on percentage of positive cells was developed that correlated with Western blot analysis of antigen concentration in paired samples (r2 = 0.91, P = 0.003). A sample was considered positive if >5% of relevant epithelial cells demonstrated nuclear staining. Cyclin D1 positivity was observed in 11.7% (7 of 60) samples of NBE, 25% (11 of 44) of PD without atypia, 39.4% (13 of 33) of atypical ductal hyperplasia, 43.6% (17 of 39) of low-grade DCIS, 47.9% (23 of 48) of high-grade DCIS, and 48.3% (99 of 205) of IC. Cyclin D1 expression was significantly higher in PD than NBE (P = 0.006) and in DCIS than PD (P = 0.038). There was no significant increase from DCIS to IC (P = 0.52). The increase in cyclin D1 expression in the overall progression from NBE to IC was also highly significant (P = 0.0001). Therefore, cyclin D1 expression was detected at levels significantly greater than in NBE in the earliest proliferative epithelial lesions of the breast with a further significant increase accompanying the progression to any form of cancer. This suggests that overexpression of cyclin D1 protein is important at the earliest stages of breast oncogenesis and continues to have a crucial role throughout the development of malignancy.


Deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) has demonstrated to be useful for a wide variety of robotics applications. To address sample efficiency and safety during training, it is common to train Deep RL policies in a simulator and then deploy to the real world, a process called Sim2Real transfer. For robotics applications, the deployment heterogeneities and runtime compute stochasticity results in variable timing characteristics of sensor sampling rates and end-to-end delays from sensing to actuation. Prior works have used the technique of domain randomization to enable the successful transfer of policies across domains having different state transition delays. We show that variation in sampling rates and policy execution time leads to degradation in Deep RL policy performance, and that domain randomization is insufficient to overcome this limitation. We propose the Time-inState RL (TSRL) approach, which includes delays and sampling rate as additional agent observations at training time to improve the robustness of Deep RL policies. We demonstrate the efficacy of TSRL on HalfCheetah, Ant, and car robot in simulation and on a real robot using a 1/18th scale car.


Coherence and polarization properties of the field generated by a partially polarized incoherent source are examined in terms of the 2x2 cross-spectral density matrix, with a view to deriving an electromagnetic counterpart of the van Cittert-Zernike theorem. Emphasis is placed on the polarization properties of the field. As some consequences of the extended theorem, we found that the spectral degree of polarization of the resultant field is generally different from that of the source and that both are the same in a special case. A different somewhat unconventional view of the extended theorem is also discussed in brief.


We have shown that the interaction of interleukin (IL)-5 with the receptor activates Lyn tyrosine kinase within 1 min and Jak2 tyrosine kinase within 1-3 min. IL-5 also stimulates GTP binding to p21ras. The signal is subsequently propagated through the activation of Raf-1, MEK, and MAP kinases as shown by their increased autophosphorylation in vitro and phosphorylation in situ. Jak2 kinase has been shown to phosphorylate STAT nuclear proteins. The activation of STAT nuclear factors was studied by electrophoretic mobility shift assay using a gamma activation site (GAS) probe. We found that IL-5 induces two GAS-binding proteins in eosinophils, one of which is STAT1. We conclude that IL-5 induced signals are propagated through two distinct pathways: (1) Lyn-->Ras-->Raf-1-->MEK-->MAP kinase and (2) Jak2-->STAT1.


Proposed geoengineering interventions, like other high-stakes and potentially disruptive technologies, present both a compelling case for expanded research to inform future decisions, and significant concerns about societal harms that may follow from this research, directly or indirectly. In response, there have been widespread calls to both expand research and govern this research with greater care and scrutiny than typical of the normal processes that govern all research areas. We propose that for geoengineering and similarly controversial issues, governance of research must fulfill three broad functions. First, processes are needed that enable reliable research, by providing the authorization, resources, and management necessary for research to proceed, together with the strategic planning and quality controls to ensure that research results are useful and relevant to inform societal choices. Second, processes are needed to assess potential harms or risks from research activities and ensure that these are appropriately managed. These potential harms may include both direct physical risks, and indirect risks mediated by social, economic, or political processes. Finally, processes are needed to support the legitimacy of the research program, by ensuring that the topics, methods, and conduct are compatible with relevant legal, political, and moral principles and are broadly acceptable to affected citizens. These requirements may interact closely with the processes that serve the first two functions, by requiring that research priorities, aims, conduct, participants, and results are transparently and promptly disclosed, that relevant citizen and stakeholder groups are consulted, and that broader implications of proposed research are acknowledged and addressed. Drawing on the concerns expressed in the current geoengineering debate, and on experience conducting and governing research in other areas, we discuss alternative concrete ways to provide these functions for geoengineering research. This paper was prepared as input to a workshop of senior state officials considering the implications of potential geoengineering research for California.


This book helps people prepare for the ITIL 2011 Edition Foundation qualification exam. It contains direct links to all syllabus and specifies the terms and definitions required. In addition, it gives sample questions for practice both within the text and also a number of the official exams questions in the back. The content of this book is based on the ITIL 2011 Edition core guidance and APMG s ITIL Foundation Certificate syllabus edition 2011. Written by globally experienced trainers and reviewed by other professionals, this unique work provides clear and concise guidance for all those seeking to achieve success at the ITIL Foundation Level. Covering: A clear and concise explanation of the exam structure; Key text for the exams; Sample exam questions and sample answers and Hints and Tips and practical examples this book will highlight for readers the key items they need for the ITIL Foundation Exam that will increase chances of success.


Objectives: To find out the effect of mild heat shock on osteoblast proliferation and mineralisation following treatment with bisphosphonates. Materials and Methods: Cell culture of MC3T3 cells was performed in alpha minimum essential medium supplemented with 10% Foetal Calf Serum (FCS), 2 mmol L-glutamine and 100U/ml each of penicillin/streptomycin and were incubated at 37°C in humidified 5% CO2. The selected bisphosphonate drugs were administered, following which heat therapy was given by placing the flasks in a temperature-regulated water bath. The proliferation of osteoblast progenitors was measured using the methylene blue staining technique. Results: The results showed that mild heat-shock for 2 min at 42°C can stimulate proliferation of osteoblast progenitors, as well as bone nodule formation. In addition, mild heat-shock can reverse the action of bisphosphonate by stimulation of osteoblast proliferation and mineralisation. Conclusion: Mild heat-shock enhances cell differentiation and osteoblasts mineralisation following bisphosphonate treatment. Key words: Bisphosphonates, Heat-shock, Osteoblast, Osteoclast.


This article describes three statistical models for natural language parsing. The models extend methods from probabilistic context-free grammars to lexicalized grammars, leading to approaches in which a parse tree is represented as the sequence of decisions corresponding to a head-centered, top-down derivation of the tree. Independence assumptions then lead to parameters that encode the X-bar schema, subcategorization, ordering of complements, placement of adjuncts, bigram lexical dependencies, wh-movement, and preferences for close attachment. All of these preferences are expressed by probabilities conditioned on lexical heads. The models are evaluated on the Penn Wall Street Journal Treebank, showing that their accuracy is competitive with other models in the literature. To gain a better understanding of the models, we also give results on different constituent types, as well as a breakdown of precision/recall results in recovering various types of dependencies. We analyze various characteristics of the models through experiments on parsing accuracy, by collecting frequencies of various structures in the treebank, and through linguistically motivated examples. Finally, we compare the models to others that have been applied to parsing the treebank, aiming to give some explanation of the difference in performance of the various models.


This is a psychoanalytic reading of K.S. Maniam's play "The Sandpit: Womensis" through Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze. The findings point to the fact that 'woman' on stage has most often been constructed by men, to be viewed by other men and other women as an object, not a subject. The female character Santha may be seen as taking up the position of the masculine protagonist in expressing her fetishisation of another female character Sumathi as an object of sexual desire. While Santha is represented as older, traditional and asexual, Sumathi's behaviour and appearance are coded as sexually confident and provocative. In this play the female characters enter a discourse in the male subject position and they occupy this constructed space
'docilely'. Thus, the women are able to expose the oppressive representation of the female body as ideological, but are unable to affirm a more adequate one. As a consequence the women are still constructed by male hegemony, lacking a speaking voice. This psychoanalytic reading provides us with a sophisticated understanding of women's present cultural condition. However, it also seems to confine women forever to the status of one who is seen, spoken about, and analysed.


Muscles are vital for the process of movement, mating and escape of predators in amphibians. During evolution, the morphological and genetic characteristics as well as the size of muscles in species will change to adapt different environments. Theory predicts that low male-male competition in high-altitude/latitude selects for small limb muscles. Here, we used the Andrew's toad ( Bufo andrewsi ) as a model animal to test this prediction by analyzing geographical variation in the mass of limb muscles across nine populations from the Hengduan Mountains in China. Inconsistent with the prediction, we found that latitude and altitude did not affect the relative mass of total combined limb muscles and mass of combined hindlimb muscles among populations. Meanwhile, the relative mass of combined forelimb muscles, the two forelimb muscles (flexor carpi radialis and extensor carpi radialis) and the four hindlimb muscles (e.g. biceps femoris, semimebranous, semitendinosus and peroneus) was lowest in middle latitude and largest in low latitude whereas gracilis minor was largest in high latitudes. However, we did not find any correlations between the two forelimb muscles and the four hindlimb muscles and altitude. Our findings suggest that combined forelimb muscles, flexor carpi radialis, extensor carpi radialis, biceps femoris, semimebranous, semitendinosus and peroneus are largest in low latitudes due to pressures of mate competition.


High-throughput DNA sequencing data is accumulating in public repositories, and efficient approaches for storing and indexing such data are in high demand. In recent research, several graph data structures have been proposed to represent large sets of sequencing data and allow for efficient query of sequences. In particular, the concept of colored de Bruijn graphs has been explored by several groups. While there has been good progress towards representing the sequence graph in small space, methods for storing a set of labels on top of such graphs are still not sufficiently explored. It is also currently not clear how characteristics of the input data, such as the sparsity and correlations of labels, can help to inform the choice of method to compress the labels. In this work, we present a systematic analysis of five different state-of-the-art annotation compression schemes that evaluates key metrics on both artificial and real-world data and discusses how different data characteristics influence the compression performance. In addition, we present a new approach, Multi-BRWT, that shows an up to 50% improvement in compression performance over the current state-of-the-art and is adaptive to different kinds of input data. Using our comprehensive test datasets, we show that this improvement can be robustly reproduced for different representative real-world datasets.


Bruce Bennett and Anne Pender, From a Distant Shore: Australian Writers in Britain, 1820-2012 (Monash University Publishing, 2013)Australian literary expatriatism is a cultural phenomenon that is widely accepted and often alluded to. The idea that Australian writers have laboured with or against a common desire to travel back to the site of British Australia's cultural beginnings resonates with many, especially those who are able to bring to mind their own overseas pilgrimages. The more negative aspect of this is the idea that the Australian literary scene and infrastructure were too poorly developed to foster literary imaginations and thus practitioners were forced to leave in search of sustenance in the cultural metropolises of the old world (such as London and Paris). This feature of expatriatism is often bemoaned but seldom questioned, at least in reference to the first 160 years of European settlement. Indeed, a significant number of literary people did make the journey to try their luck at the centre of the publishing world, and thus there are plenty of subjects for Bruce Bennett and Anne Pender's study: From a Distant Shore, Australian Writers in Britain, 1820-2012.Interrogating the phenomenon of literary expatriatism is difficult because of the uneven and at times contradictory nature of the content already available. There is a lack of consensus in the field about the peak timing of the exodus. The result is inconsistent coverage of the alleged trend throughout Australia's European history. Steven Alomes' When London Calls focuses on the decades following the Second World War in response to what he sees as a 'rising wave of postwar movement to Britain' .1 For Peter Morton, author of Lusting for London: Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 the 'haemorrhage of [Australia's] literary brainpower' took place in the 1890s and the early decades of the twentieth century .2 Others have located the trend in the years following the Great War, or even have it persisting until the twenty-first century. Bennett and Pender's depiction decidedly avoids this issue with sheer breadth of coverage: nearly two hundred years from 1820 to 2012. Beginning with the earliest literary expatriate on record (W. C. Wentworth who made the trip to England in 1817), the study includes writers overseas up until the present day.The next stumbling-block for the aspiring chronicler of Australian literary expatriatism is the problem of inclusion. Who qualifies as Australian? What is an expatriate? Which kinds of writers should be included? For Bennett and Pender an Australian expatriate is 'someone who was born in Australia and who spent substantial or formative periods of their writing careers in Britain' (8). They extend this formula so it includes three writers who were brought to Australia as small children: Martin Boyd, Patrick White and M. J. Hyland. Of the qualifying people who also had a piece of creative writing published in the appropriate time period, Bennett and Pender narrow the field to include those 'for whom the expatriate years made a difference, and in some way inspired or enabled their literary careers' (8). There is no clear attempt to define what is meant by 'creative' writing.It is necessary to fix upon some kind of parameter for inclusion, and Bennett and Pender's criterion of Australian birth is certainly a firm one. Their professed aim to deal with individualistic and eclectic stories seems at odds with their decision, however, as individual stories soon reveal that national allegiance is more complicated than mere birth. Are we to accept that a person not born in Australia is not Australian? Besides the potential issues of discrimination this standpoint raises more generally, it is possible to have lived in an adopted country long enough to tip one's internal culture balance in the favour of the new country. A second issue raised by Bennett and Pender's parameters is one of unconscious selection. …


Henry Spearman, the balding economics professor with a knack for solving crimes, returns in The Mystery of the Invisible Hand—a clever whodunit of campus intrigue, stolen art, and murder. Having just won the Nobel Prize, Spearman accepts an invitation to lecture at Monte Vista University. He arrives in the wake of a puzzling art heist with plans to teach a course on art and economics—only to be faced with the alleged suicide of womanizing artist-in-residence Tristan Wheeler. When it becomes clear that Wheeler had serious enemies and a murderer is in their midst, Henry Spearman is on the case. Was Wheeler killed by a jilted lover, a cuckolded husband, or a beleaguered assistant? Could there have been a connection between Wheeler's marketability and his death? From the Monte Vista campus in San Antonio to the halls of Sotheby's in New York, Spearman traces the connections between economics and the art world, finding his clues in monopolies and the Coase conjecture, auction theory, and the work of Adam Smith. What are the parallels between a firm's capital and an art museum's collection? What does the market say about art's authenticity versus its availability? And what is the mysterious "death effect" that lies at the heart of the case? Spearman must rely on his savviest economic insights to clear up this artful mystery and pin down a killer.


This paper is an investigation of the mathematics necessary to understand the Kronecker-Weber Theorem. Following an article by Greenberg, published in The American Mathematical Monthly in 1974, the presented proof does not use class field theory, as the most traditional treatments of the theorem do, but rather returns to more basic mathematics, like the original proofs of the theorem [3]. This paper seeks to present the necessary mathematical background to understand the proof for a reader with a solid undergraduate background in abstract algebra. Its goal is to make what is usually an advanced topic in the study of algebraic number theory more accessible to advanced undergraduates and early graduate students, with a minimal amount of higher level number theory required. It also seeks to develop an appreciation for the power and elegance of this theorem and its role in mathematics, since it combines understanding in many branches – classical Galois theory, geometry, complex numbers, abelian groups, and number theory.


The paper offers an analysis of the degree to which two different external policy
frameworks of the European Union (EU) have institutionalised and operationalised the
EU's commitment to women's rights and gender equality. It compares the EU's
relations with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries with the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP), using Senegal and Morocco as case studies.
Although the comparison shows some resemblances between the two cases, as a
whole women's rights seem more deeply embedded in the institutional framework of
EU-ACP relations than that of Euro-Mediterranean relations, and this together with
the EU's approach towards implementation has enabled its women's rights policy to
be slightly more influential on the ground in Senegal than in Morocco. However, both
EU-ACP and EMP frameworks have their limits, reflecting the more general problem
of inconsistency between the EU's declaratory objectives and its actual promotion of
human rights.


Stands of relict vegetation, soil horizons, and sedimentary deposits along with archaeological evidence suggest that during certain time spans within the past twenty millennia, Jordan was endowed with moister and more vegetated landscapes than the ones we see today. In this detailed volume, Carlos E. Cordova synthesizes diverse information on multiple topics to provide a comprehensive view of the changes in the Jordanian landscape and the many ways it has been affected by human habitation and the forces of nature. Cordova focuses on geoarchaeological and cultural ecological aspects of research, presenting data from physical, chemical, and biological sources. He examines the changing influence of climate, vegetation, and hunting opportunities on cultural exploitation tactics, as well as the effects of the growing population and agriculture on the environment. Cordova argues that an interdisciplinary approach to studying the area is crucial to achieving a true understanding of Jordan's changing landscape. Chapter topics include approaches to the study of ancient Jordanian landscapes in the Near Eastern context; the physical scene; endowed landscapes of the woodlands; the encroaching drylands; the current and future state of the paleoecological and geoarchaeological record; patterns of millennial landscape change; and the process of interpreting millennial landscape change. The text is abundantly illustrated with photos, line illustrations, tables, and maps, providing a valuable assessment of archaeological developments over the prehistory and history of what today is the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. This volume will be especially welcomed by scholars interested in the archaeology, history, and geography of Jordan, the Levant, and the Near East and by field-school students working on archaeological projects in Jordan.


It is well known that Interferon- γ (IFN- γ ) not only plays a critical role in antigen-dependent but in antigen-independent tissue injury, but it is not clear how tolerance induction affects the actions of IFN- γ in the transplant setting. To address this question, we compared the effects of IFN- γ on porcine recipients of syngeneic, rejecting and tolerant heart transplants. IFN- γ was perfused continuously into the left anterior descending artery of hearts transplanted into three groups of MHC inbred miniature swine, each treated with a 12-day course of CyA. Group 1 recipients received a class I disparate heart, Group 2 recipients received a near syngeneic heart and Group 3 recipients were cotransplanted with a class I disparate heart and kidney, which uniformly induces tolerance to both grafts. An additional, group of animals were not transplanted but received intracoronary IFN- γ infusion into their native hearts. IFN- perfusion not only accelerated the acute rejection of class I disparate hearts (mean survival time = 19±7.21 vs. 38±8.19, p=0.025) but caused near syngeneic, heart transplants, which otherwise survive indefinitely, to reject within 35 days (n=3). In contrast, IFN- γ perfusion had no demonstrable effects on either interstitial rejection, the development of vascular lesions or graft survival in tolerant heart plus kidney allograft recipients (n=4) or in autologous hearts (n=2). These results suggest that tolerance induction mitigates the damaging effects of IFN- γ itself and that the beneficial effects of tolerance induction on acute and chronic rejection may extend to antigen-independent factors like ischemia/reperfusion injury.


Introduction Pleural empyema is a collection of pus between the lungs and the chest wall. It is a cause of significant morbidity and mortality despite appropriate antibiotic therapy and various options for drainage. Purpose The purpose of this report is to present the case of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive and injection drug user male who presented with a unilateral apical sterile pleural empyema. Case Report A 36-year-old male, HIV-positive and chronic injection drug user, was admitted to our institution due to a left upper lobe lung mass seen by chest x-ray and chest pain. Left chest pain has been of 3 months of evolution, pressure-like, aggravated by deep inspiration and coughing. Patient was hospitalized 3 months before in the same institution due to a left leg cellulitis. Upon physical examination, patient is febrile with painful palpation in lower posterior left lung, decreased breath sounds throughout left lung field (worst in base), and dull percussion in upper and middle posterior left lung field. Infectious foci and nosocomial infections were considered and he was treated intravenously with ceftriaxone and vancomycin. A soft tissue density in apical region of the left hemithorax suggestive of pleural or extrapleural origin, with increased opacification of the left upper lung parenchyma was seen during his previous hospitalization. A thorax computerized tomographic (CT) scan without contrast, performed during this hospitalization, showed a left-sided homogenously round structure with thick margins starting at the apicoposterior portion of the left upper lobe of lung. A CT-guided aspiration was performed, with almost complete resolution of the empyema. Pleural fluid was of exudative nature, with leukocytosis, no organism growth, no fungi, and no acid-fast bacilli. Two weeks after aspiration, the empyema was reaccumulating. A bronchoalveolar lavage was negative for malignancy, acid-fast stain, and Grocott stain, without evidence of Actinomyces. Conclusion The fact that the empyema was sterile may be explained by the long-term antibiotic therapy the patient received before samples were obtained. Pulmonary complications of HIV have been studied, mainly caused by opportunistic infections due to their impaired immune function. Injection drug users are predisposed to a wide range of infectious processes. The pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of this clinical presentation will be presented.