Introduction: Educational counseling is the part of faculties' essential duties. It has so many positive effects on educational process .Therefore, this study was designed to examine the attitude of medical bachelor students toward the faculty's educational counseling duties. Methods: In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, in 1391-92, 280 undergraduate students of Guilan University of Medical Sciences were randomly selected. Information collected through the self-report questionnaire that was designed according the last version of health ministry consultant-regulation. The overall reliability of questionnaire was calculated 0/7 in a pilot study. This questionnaire has 40 attitude statements regarding faculty's educational counseling duties in five areas; Educational - Research – Facilities- Cultural – and other roles. The gathered data was analyzed by SPSS software 16, using t-test and one way ANOVA. Result: The mean age of subjects was 22/1 ±3/4, 220were women (78/6%). Among all tasks of academic counseling, most of students (95%) had agreed and extremely agreed with educational and research duties of faculty members . There was a significant difference between the attitude of subjects regarding faculties' consulting duties (P<0.05). Students had the lowest agreement with the Cultural duties of advisors. Conclusion: Education of counseling content, best manner implementation and emphasis on importance of educational counseling in professional development are recommended.


This thesis examines the proliferation of healthcare services using information and communication technology to overcome spatial and temporal obstacles. These services are given such names as telemedicine and telecare, which are sometimes grouped together as telehealthcare under the umbrella term eHealth. My main argument is that a prevalent and overoptimistic rhetoric of how the possibilities of digitalization are expected to produce a homogenous and ubiquitous healthcare space conceals many of the spatiotemporal complexities involved in introducing telehealthcare and in the overall organizing of healthcare. To counteract such simplifications, I contend that we need a relational understanding of the technical and the geographical as always nested in the social and vice versa. With such an approach, it is arguably possible to begin to tease apart the many spatiotemporal entanglements of these innovations and to trace their political ramifications. This position is developed by integrating perspectives from science and technology studies with insights from human geography. The four constituent papers of this thesis pursue this argument in qualitatively grounded case studies of telehealthcare and its geographies. Paper I looks at various initiatives for fetal tele-ultrasonography, demonstrating that this practice cannot be reduced to a mere transparent relay for the speedy transmission of digital information across space and time. The paper investigates how its introduction could affect medical knowledge production, power hierarchies, and subject positions, for example, the status attributed to the fetal figure. Paper II traces Swedish transformations of telehealthcare. The use of telemedicine to reach those outside medicine's range has arguably been accompanied by efforts to achieve intra-organizational streamlining via telemedicine. This process has continued with the emergence of telecare for personal use directed toward the overlapping groups of the elderly people and patients with chronic conditions. I contend that this shift can be understood through a geographical lens as attempts to save space and time by keeping as many patients as possible out of costly hospitalization and preventing them from engaging scarce specialist resources. Paper III compares four telemedicine projects in Sweden. In detailing how the purpose of practicing telemedicine differed between these projects in relation to, for example, the specifics of distance, care availability, and treated medical conditions, the paper demonstrates the existence of many versions of telemedicine. Whereas this fluidity could further the spread of telemedicine, it could also cause problems. To various actors wanting to use telemedicine in a homogenous and fixed way for national streamlining purposes, this diversity has generated confusion when they wished to align telemedicine in a preferred direction. The paper concludes that technology travels best when it can contain both fluid and fixed relationships. Paper IV argues that, whatever is claimed about creating a space- and time-independent healthcare by means of telehealthcare, the use of telecare to connect the standardized spaces of healthcare with the fluid everyday lives of elderly people and patients with chronic conditions actually works by unfolding new spaces of visibilities and establishing new temporalities as well. By investigating these spatiotemporalities, I demonstrate how these applications draw together discourses on individual freedom with medically derived algorithms and concerns about how to make best use of scarce healthcare resources.


It is realized that infill dividers extensively change the conduct of casings under flat loads. Be that as it may, about this subject, there were insufficient information and experience aggregations contrasted and some different subjects in basic investigation. So as to add to the conduct of infilled outlines, a progression of investigations did under statical loads which were applied in the inclining bearing to the infilled tests having different conjunctions and thicknesses and surrounded with steel profiles. During the trial explore, the lessening in the level unbending nature brought about by the division and sliding between the casing and the infill ought to be thought about. It was known from the past investigates that after the edge isolated and slid, the infill divider works like a pressure bar; the examination results acquired from this examination likewise affirmed this reality. The properties of the "identical pressure bar" that speaks to the infill divider were concentrated to be assigned because of the exploratory information and contrasted and the qualities proposed in the writing. Trial investigates establish the premise of the examination.


Recently the 2μm wavelength region has emerged as an exciting prospect for the next generation of telecommunications. In this paper we experimentally characterise silicon based plasma dispersion effect optical modulation and defect based photodetection in the 2-2.5μm wavelength range. It is shown that the effectiveness of the plasma dispersion effect is dramatically increased in this wavelength window as compared to the traditional telecommunications wavelengths of 1.3μm and 1.55μm. Experimental results from the defect based photodetectors show that detection is achieved in the 2-2.5μm wavelength range, however the responsivity is reduced as the wavelength is increased away from 1.55μm.


This paper describes the extraordinary difficulties met in gauging glacier streams and establishes criteria that have to be fulfilled for a correct determination of glacier run off. Discussion of the hydraulic principles of gauging in tranquil and rapid flow shows why the latter is to be favored for glacier streams.
The concept of the station at Vernagtbach, the original stream bed, considerations of proper dimensioning and characteristics of the construction of the gauging channel are described in detail. A brief history is given of planning, organization and technology involved.
The water level is recorded by two floats and one pneumatic gauge which together provide uninterrupted and trouble-free records. The rating curve was determined with current meters and shows an unambiguous relation between water level and discharge with little scattering of calibration values. Temporary changes of flow conditions up-stream of the station do not have any noticeable effect on the water level in the channel. The discharge records of the summers 1974-1976 are presented and discussed. The maximum mean summer discharge was 1.33 m**3/s in June-September 1975; extreme mean monthly discharge was found in July 1976 with 2.51 m**3/s, the highest daily mean was 4.76 m**3/s and the maximum hourly mean was found at 7.23 m**3/s. The discharge conditions of the summers of 1974 and 1975 are very simiIar, while in the summer of 1976 they differed completely as far as seasonal and mean daily hydrographs are concerned: in 1975, 42 % of summer discharge was recorded in June and July compared to 76 % in 1976. The analysis of the hydrographs gives valuable clues to the mass and heat balances of the glacier.


Democracy is an economic problem of choice constrained by transaction costs and information costs. Society must choose between competing institutional frameworks for the conduct of voting and elections. These decisions over the structure of democracy are constrained by the technologies and institutions available. As a governance technology, blockchain reduces the costs of coordinating information and preferences between dispersed people. Blockchain could be applied to the voting and electoral process to form new institutional possibilities in a cryptodemocracy. This paper analyses the potential of a cryptodemocracy using institutional cryptoeconomics and the Institutional Possibility Frontier (IPF). The central claim is that blockchain lowers the social costs of disorder in the democratic process, mainly by incorporating information about preferences through new structures of democratic decision making. We examine one potential new form of democratic institution, quadratic voting, as an example of a new institutional possibility facilitated by blockchain technology.


Canagliflozin (CNF) and dapagliflozin (DPF) are the first sodiumglucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors to be approved for clinical use. Although available evidence excludes clinically significant inhibition of cytochromes P450, the effects of CNF and DPF on human UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) enzymes are unknown. Here, we report the inhibition of human recombinant UGTs by CNF and DPF, along with the Ki values for selected recombinant and human liver microsomal UGTs. CNF inhibited all UGT1A subfamily enzymes, but the greatest inhibition was observed with UGT1A1, UGT1A9, and UGT1A10 (IC50 values £ 10 mM). DPF similarly inhibited UGT1A1, UGT1A9, and UGT1A10, with IC50 values ranging from 39 to 66 mM. In subsequent kinetic studies, CNF inhibited recombinant and human liver microsomal UGT1A9; Ki values ranged from 1.4 to 3.0 mM, depending on the substrate (propofol/4-methylumbelliferone) enzyme combination. Ki values for CNF inhibition of UGT1A1 were approximately 3-fold higher. Consistent with the activity screening data, DPF was a less potent inhibitor of UGT1A1 and UGT1A9. The Ki for DPF inhibition of UGT1A1 was 81 mM, whereas the Ki values for inhibition of UGT1A9 ranged from 12 to 15 mM. Based on the in vitro Ki values and plasma concentrations reported in the literature, DPF may be excluded as a perpetrator of DDIs arising from inhibition of UGT enzymes, but CNF inhibition of UGT1A1 and UGT1A9 in vivo cannot be discounted. Since the sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors share common structural features, notably a glycoside moiety, investigation of drugs in this class for effects on UGT to identify (or exclude) potential drug-drug interactions is warranted.


An optical parallel array logic system—OPALS—is a new type of optical parallel digital computing system. The OPALS optically implements array logic in parallel using techniques of image coding and 2-D correlation for the coded image with a pointwise function called an operation kernel. The OPALS can execute any logical neighborhood operation for binary images in parallel. In this paper we present a new version of the OPALS that needs no memory elements. To construct this OPALS, we consider two useful techniques, i.e., an optical sequential logic technique and multiplex correlation based on wavelength multiplexing. Use of pipelined processing together with the wavelength multiplexing technique gives the promise of eliminating memory devices from the system. Consequently, the new version of the OPALS can be systematized with simpler architecture compared with that of the OPALS presented in the previous paper. Computer simulation verifies the appropriateness of operations of the new version of the OPALS.


ABSTRACT The facultative intracellular bacterial pathogen Brucella infects a wide range of warm-blooded land and marine vertebrates and causes brucellosis. Currently, there are nine recognized Brucella species based on host preferences and phenotypic differences. The availability of 10 different genomes consisting of two chromosomes and representing six of the species allowed for a detailed comparison among themselves and relatives in the order Rhizobiales. Phylogenomic analysis of ortholog families shows limited divergence but distinct radiations, producing four clades as follows: Brucella abortus-Brucella melitensis, Brucella suis-Brucella canis, Brucella ovis, and Brucella ceti. In addition, Brucella phylogeny does not appear to reflect the phylogeny of Brucella species' preferred hosts. About 4.6% of protein-coding genes seem to be pseudogenes, which is a relatively large fraction. Only B. suis 1330 appears to have an intact β-ketoadipate pathway, responsible for utilization of plant-derived compounds. In contrast, this pathway in the other species is highly pseudogenized and consistent with the "domino theory" of gene death. There are distinct shared anomalous regions (SARs) found in both chromosomes as the result of horizontal gene transfer unique to Brucella and not shared with its closest relative Ochrobactrum, a soil bacterium, suggesting their acquisition occurred in spite of a predominantly intracellular lifestyle. In particular, SAR 2-5 appears to have been acquired by Brucella after it became intracellular. The SARs contain many genes, including those involved in O-polysaccharide synthesis and type IV secretion, which if mutated or absent significantly affect the ability of Brucella to survive intracellularly in the infected host.


In the ACT, the number of people cycling is increasing. At the same time, crash statistics indicate that cyclists represent a disproportionate number of crash casualties. Cycling safety is an important issue for the local community. In 2010, GTA Consultants obtained a research grant from the NRMA-ACT Road Safety Trust and the ACT Government (represented by the Justice and Community Safety Directorate and the Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate) to identify a strategy to promote safer cycling and safer interaction between cyclists and other road and path users throughout the ACT. The aim of the study was to help the Government achieve its goal to reduce road trauma rates. The project involved three stages. In Stage 1, key issues were identified through data analysis and a literature review, and in Stage 2, these issues were further explored via local community and stakeholder engagement. During Stage 3, issue-specific strategies were identified guided by best practice, cost estimates and feasibility analysis, and prioritised via a qualitative assessment led by expert opinion. Short-term initiatives included upgrading bicycle infrastructure at minor intersections, implementing llow speed zonesr on shared paths, and increasing cyclist compliance at traffic lights via induction loop technology.


Heterogeneous catalysis is a large and important field of research, and is especially of interest to the project sponsors Johnson Matthey (JM). This EngD project focused on studying catalytic materials of interest to JM in order to investigate the metal support interaction and determine the effects of various reaction conditions. The key techniques used in this work are synchrotron radiation based, such as X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) as well as combinations of techniques. A variety of catalytic materials have been investigated using synchrotron X-ray techniques and conventional laboratory analytical techniques. Understanding these processes will allow for the tailoring of catalyst design and modification of support materials that will lead to improved and more efficient catalytic materials in the future. Supported platinum group metals were studied during reduction using in situ XAS. The materials were prepared through sequential deposition on an alumina support of first the platinum group metal then a ceria layer; this additional layer of ceria was deposited to cover the metal particles, limiting movement and gas transfer processes. The effect of the MSI on the reduction of Pd nanoparticles supported on a variety of inorganic materials in order to determine the structure of metal particles was also explored using in situ XAS. A combination of the LIII- and K-edge analysis was utilised to provide a better understanding of metal support interaction and the changes in the electronic structure for supported Pd nanoparticles. Other materials investigated include zinc oxide nanoparticles, which are important for a variety of applications due to their semi-conductor properties. Additionally AuCu bimetallic clusters were investigated in situ during reduction, calcination and during the catalytic oxidation of propene. The use of XAS allowed for the probing of the extent of the metal alloying and the effect on the propene catalysis.


The water distribution system conveys water from the water treatment plant (WTP) to the user. A significant amount of the water is lost in the transit. The International Water Supply Association (IWSA) claims that the amount is typically 20-30% of the total water production depending on the overall state of the distribution system (Hunaidi et al., 2000). There is a great variation of the pipe material and the quality of construction of trenches for pipelines. Therefore, some distribution systems may lose as much as 50%. IWSA made a survey, which stated that the major cause of unaccounted for water loss is leakage. VAV wants to investigate options to optimize the efficiency of water used, and of the water demand strategies, to increase the reliability of the service provided. The motivation for this is that future projections for water demand in Oslo resulting from population growth are considered unacceptable. As such, the future goal of VAV is to maintain a stable and constant water production close to 100 mill. m3/year in the coming years regardless of the population growth (Hovedplan vannforsyning 2015-2030, 2015). This can be achieved by reducing specific water consumption and by reducing water leakages in the network from about 30% to less than 20%. In order to achieve these goals, there is a need to promote new thinking and smart innovations for the water services. This master thesis will specifically focus on analysing the specifications of a supervisory control and data aquisition (SCADA) system to be able to retrieve consistent data, in the right format, in order to calibrate hydraulic network simulation models (HNSMs). Among the main results from the thesis is the establishment of a link between a centralized SCADA database and a HNSM. Useful insights in data extraction will be provided together with an example of how the data can be used in model refinement. A pilot system of the water supply in Oslo, called the E3-network, has been used as an example. The HNSM used has been refined by implementing new demand patterns calculated from actual, retrieved data from a data historian. Also, the β-value of the model has been refined in order for the model to be more accurate.


Multicomponent transition metal oxides are among the most successful lithium-ion battery cathode materials, and many previous reports have described the sensitivity of final electrochemical performance of the active materials to the detailed composition and processing. Coprecipitation of a precursor template is a popular, scalable route to synthesize these transition metal oxide cathode materials because of the homogeneous mixing of the transition metals within the particles, and the morphology control provided by the precursors. However, the deviation of the precursor composition from feed conditions is a challenge that has generally not been reported in previous studies. Using a target final material of the high voltage spinel LiMn1.5Ni0.5O4 as an example, we show in this study that the compositional deviation caused by coprecipitation can be significant under certain conditions, impacting the calcined final material structure and electrochemical properties. The study herein provides insights into the role of solution equilibrium and rate of precipitation of the transition metals during precipitate formation on precursor, and thus final active material, composition. Such knowledge is necessary to rationally predict and tune multicomponent battery precursor compositions synthesized via coprecipitation with high levels of accuracy.


In 2000, a major expedition for deepwater archaeology was conducted by the Institute for Exploration in the Black Sea along the northwestern coast of Turkey from the Bosporus to the Turkish seaport of Sinop. A complementary land-based expedition will be reported upon elsewhere. The 2000 underwater expedition had three research objectives: to search for evidence of human habitation prior to major flooding of the Black Sea that researchers predicted occurred some 7,500 years ago; to investigate a deepwater shipping route; and to search for ancient wooden ships in the sea's anoxic bottom waters. Research methods included the use of a phased-array side-scan sonar, a towed imaging sled, and a small remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to collect deep-sea survey data. Three shipwrecks and a probable site reflecting human habitation prior to the proposed flooding event were located at depths around 100 m. One additional shipwreck was found within the anoxic layer at a depth of 324 m. The ship found within the anoxic layer was intact, in a high state of preservation, and dated to the Byzantine period of 450 A.D.


This Symposium Essay explores and analyzes the Sixth Circuit's approach to child pornography sentencing. It critiques the Sixth Circuit's decision to apply heightened scrutiny to below-Guideline sentences for child pornography possession. In addition to presenting a critique of the Sixth Circuit's cases, the Essay also provides guidance for defense attorneys seeking a below-Guidelines sentence. It notes that there are particular strategies those attorneys should follow in order to secure not only a more lenient sentence from a district court judge, but also a sentence that is more likely to be upheld by the Sixth Circuit on appeal.During the course of this discussion, the Essay identifies and criticizes three significant features of the Sixth Circuit's cases in this area. First, it notes that the Sixth Circuit is the only circuit to have adopted heightened appellate review of below-Guideline sentences for child pornography possession. Second, it explains that the Sixth Circuit appears to be developing a common law of sentencing in child pornography cases; such a common law is contrary to the language and the logic of the Supreme Court's Sixth Amendment sentencing cases. Finally, it explains that the Sixth circuit has failed to give appropriate deference to district court decisions to sentence below the Guidelines based on facts and circumstances of particular cases.


Because of the town Antwerp host of the GL9 conference and because of our own former scientific experience we selected the field of bilingualism for a study on the importance of grey literature in social sciences and humanities. The study is meant to be an additional contribution to comparable scientometric analyses on the distribution of types of publications in different scientific domains. Bilingualism, the learning and use of two or more languages, is a linguistic, social, educational and psychological reality for many people and most countries. In the heart of Europe, Belgium, a country with two cultural and linguistic populations, with immigration, international business and institutions, is particularly confronted with this reality. Reaction to and part of its multicultural society, Belgium developed since many years a significant interdisciplinary research activity in the field of bilingualism. The particularity of our study is twofold: First, the research on bilingualism is interdisciplinary, at the crossroad of linguistics, sociology, psychology and educational sciences, each domain presenting its own vectors of publication and communication. Second, while most of the previous studies on the importance of grey literature are citation analyses, our study is based on search results from databases, catalogues, open archives and search engines.


Aquatic sediments have been shown to be a significant reservoir for fecal bacteria and at
concentations two to three orders of magnitude higher than the waters directly above them.
These bacteria represent a potentially serious health threat to humans using these waters. This
study was conducted to determine the abundance of fecal bacteria within tidal creek sediments of
Bradley Creek and determine if their residence or growth may be limited by concentrations of
sediment phosphorus (P), sediment carbon (C), salinity, and water temperature. Sediment fecal
coliforms had a mean of 179 CFU/cm2 (std. dev. = 411, range = 0-3230) for samples collected
monthly at 6 stations over the course of this study. Were the bacteria and sediments to be
suspended through a 100 cm water column this value would be the equivalent of 179 CFU/100ml
which is just below the water quality standard for human contact (200 CFU/100ml). Such
disturbances could easily be produced by natural or human activities. Samples for enterococcus
had a mean of 285 CFU/cm2 (std. dev. = 473, range = 0-1730). If these sediments and bacteria
were similarly suspended they would equate to 285 CFU/100ml and greatly exceede the standard
for human contact in the water column (33 CFU/100ml). Overall, only fecal coliform bacteria
were correlated to sediment C, however, the signal from bioavailable C was probably masked by
the presence of insoluble C from detrital cellulose. Neither bacteria were correlated to sediment
P concentrations which were found to be greater in Bradley Creek sediments than limiting
concentrations for coliforms in sediments concluded by previous research. Sediments were a
significant reservoir of P as concentrations were recorded as high as 4-5 orders of magnitude
greater than in overlying waters. Sediment fecal coliforms were shown to be negatively
correlated with salinity and positively correlated with temperature conforming to patterns
established by previous research. However, fecal enterococcus was not shown to have a significant relationship with either salinity or temperature. Fecal coliforms were positively
correlated to precipitation over the previous 24 hours.
Experimental addition of bioavailable P (potassium phosphate monobasic) and
bioavailable C (dextrose) showed a positive relationship between both fecal bacteria and
bioavailable C. Enterococcus was significantly correlated to P in trials with low initial sediment
P concentrations. Fecal coliform was significantly correlated to P at a = 0.1 where initial P
concentrations were low. A higher a was taken into consideration due to the high variability of
coliform data and relatively low degrees of freedom for individual experimental trials.
It was concluded that while P and C are important to fecal bacterial residence within
sediments, P may no longer be limiting in Bradley Creek due to relatively high background
concentrations. Elevated P and bioavailable C concentrations have been correlated to storm
water runoff. Limitation of sediment fecal bacteria in Bradley Creek by these nutrients may be
alleviated from their introduction via this mechanism.


Luther published De Libertate Christiana in 1520, but it was two years before the impact of the work was felt. When he returned from the Wartburg in early March 1522, he preached the Invocavit Sermons (9-16 March) thus, in effect, humiliating Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt; as a result, the "Wittenberg Movement" was halted. Contrary to charges that he had abandoned his previous platform for worship reforms, Luther's earlier writings – "Sincere admonition ... against insurrection and rebellion" (1521) and "On the freedom of a Christian" (1520) – show that he did not change his position and that he had,. in fact, argued against offending the weak in faith, urging the distinction between stubborn and simple folk. In De Libertate Christiana (1520), Luther's case for interacting with the stubborn and the weak is grounded in Paul, where Luther finds examples for treating both groups. His media via avoids improper motives and attitudes based on a misunderstanding of the Christian liberty one has through the righteousness of faith – a liberty enacted in Christian love.


In this article the authors consider the historical development of victim compensation, the present state of Israeli law, the philosophical and legal issues relating to the adoption of a compensation scheme, and the proper scope and limitations of such a scheme. The operating mechanism and funding for such a scheme are also considered. Comparisons are made as far as possible with the available literature on the existing American schemes. The analysis is restricted to crime victims suffering some form of personal injury, this being the focus of most compensation schemes, as well as of the recent federal legislation. The rationale for this limitation is explained in the article.


Triton's polar caps are modeled as permanent nitrogen deposits hundreds of meters thick. Complex temperature variations on Triton's surface induce reversible transitions between the cubic and hexagonal phases of solid nitrogen, often with two coexisting propagating transition fronts. Subsurface temperature distributions are calculated using a two-dimensional thermal model with phase changes. The phase changes fracture the upper nitrogen layer, increasing its reflectivity and thus offering an explanation for the surprisingly high southern polar cap albedo (approximately 0.8) seen during the Voyager 2 flyby. The model has other implications for the phase transition phenomena on Triton, such as a plausible mechanism for the origin of geyser-like plume vent areas and a mechanism of energy transport toward them.


Russian political history and Russian church history are tied together very tightly. One cannot properly understand the overall history of Russia without considering the role of the Orthodox Church in Russia. Cross and Kremlin uniquely surveys both the history and the contemporary situation of the Russian Orthodox Church. The first chapter gives a concise chronology from the tenth century through the present day. The following chapters highlight several important issues and aspects of Russian Orthodoxy -- church-state relations, theology, ecclesiastical structure, monasticism, spirituality, the relation of Russian Orthodoxy to the West, dissidence as a frequent phenomenon in Russian church history, and more.


Abstract A recent report from a PMTCT implementation study in Mombasa, Kenya, points at an important gap between the efficacy in clinical trial circumstances and the effectiveness of PMTCT programmes when implemented in real life. Hence, the quality and quantity of antenatal HIV counselling in a routine setting were appraised. The counsellors' social and communicative skills, duration and topics covered during pre- and post-test counselling sessions were assessed by means of the VCT assessment tools published by UNAIDS. A total of 14 group educational sessions, 66 pre-test counselling sessions and 50 post-test counselling sessions were observed and assessed. In general, the frequency and duration of the counselling was low. Crucial topics such as window period and partner involvement and follow-up support were covered haphazardly. The counsellor's social and communicative skills were given high marks, yet information was rarely repeated or summarized. The limited time dedicated to women receiving antenatal VCT contrasts with the heavy and comprehensive load of health information and advice they are supposed to receive. Ample pre- and post-test counselling including follow-up should be pursued for optimal effectiveness of PMTCT. We propose a number of health system interventions preceded and guided by ongoing audit.


In alpine ski racing the relationships between skier kinetics and kinematics and their effect on performance and injury-related aspects are not well understood. There is currently no validated system to determine all external forces simultaneously acting on skiers, particularly under race conditions and throughout entire races. To address the problem, this study proposes and assesses a method for determining skier kinetics with a single lightweight differential global navigation satellite system (dGNSS). The dGNSS kinetic method was compared to a reference system for six skiers and two turns each. The pattern differences obtained between the measurement systems (offset ± SD) were −26 ± 152 N for the ground reaction force, 1 ± 96 N for ski friction and −6 ± 6 N for the air drag force. The differences between turn means were small. The error pattern within the dGNSS kinetic method was highly repeatable and precision was therefore good (SD within system: 63 N ground reaction force, 42 N friction force and 7 N air drag force) allowing instantaneous relative comparisons and identification of discriminative meaningful changes. The method is therefore highly valid in assessing relative differences between skiers in the same turn, as well as turn means between different turns. The system is suitable to measure large capture volumes under race conditions. OPEN ACCESS Sensors 2013, 13 9822


Deep neural networks (DNNs) are known for their high prediction performance, especially in perceptual tasks such as object recognition or autonomous driving. Still, DNNs are prone to yield unreliable predictions when encountering completely new situations without indicating their uncertainty. Bayesian variants of DNNs (BDNNs), such as MC dropout BDNNs, do provide uncertainty measures. However, BDNNs are slow during test time because they rely on a sampling approach. Here we present a single shot MC dropout approximation that preserves the advantages of BDNNs without being slower than a DNN. Our approach is to analytically approximate for each layer in a fully connected network the expected value and the variance of the MC dropout signal. We evaluate our approach on different benchmark datasets and a simulated toy example. We demonstrate that our single shot MC dropout approximation resembles the point estimate and the uncertainty estimate of the predictive distribution that is achieved with an MC approach, while being fast enough for real-time deployments of BDNNs.


Viruses pose a threat to humans in a variety of ways — from direct infection to imposing devastating effects on the agriculture industry. Prevention of such infection requires knowledge of the mechanisms of viral infection, both in animaland plant-infecting species. The goal of this project was to identify plant factors that interact with viral proteins in the course of infection leading to disease. Sonchus yellow net virus (SYNV) and Potato yellow dwarf virus (PYDV) were used to test the hypothesis that the viruses utilize different subsets of host factors in order to infect Nicotiana benthamiana, despite both being members of the genus Nucleorhabdovirus. Protein:protein interactions were validated with the use of bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC). In addition, these experiments required the use of transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana plants that express fluorescent markers targeted to histone 2B as an aid to establishing localization of the viral proteins within the host plant cell. Taken together, BiFC experiments conducted in "blue nuclei" transgenic plants that express CFP-H2B significantly improve image quality and information content of the experiments, providing simultaneous localization and interaction data. The utility of novel techniques and the transgenic plants developed in the Goodin lab provided the necessary tools required to fulfill the objectives of a major NSF-funded research project.


Kochia (Kochia scoparia L.) is one of the most problematic weeds in cropland and non-cropland areas of the US Great Plains. This research confirms the first report on glyphosate-resistant (GR) K. scoparia in Montana, and elucidates the mechanisms of glyphosate and ALS-inhibitor resistance, growth and reproductive fitness of GR K. scoparia, and its management. This research also reports the response of K. scoparia demographics to glyphosate timings in GR sugar beet and evaluate herbicide options for managing volunteer GR canola in GR sugar beet. Based on whole-plant dose-response experiments, four GR K. scoparia accessions (JOP01, GIL01, CHES01, CHES02) had 4.6 to 11-fold levels of resistance to glyphosate compared to a glyphosate-susceptible (GS) accession. Confirmed GR K. scoparia accessions (GIL01, JOP01, and CHES01) also exhibited 9.3to 30-fold resistance to sulfonylurea herbicide (ALS inhibitors). Results from PCR, quantitative PCR, and immunoblotting assays indicated that EPSPS gene amplification (~ 4 to 10 copies) and single point mutation at Pro197 in ALS gene conferred resistance to glyphosate and ALSinhibitors, respectively. Inbred lines of GR K. scoparia (CHES01 and JOP01) with 2to 14fold amplification of the EPSPS gene did not confer any growthor fecundity-related fitness cost. From a management standpoint, acetochlor + atrazine, S-metolachlor + atrazine + mesotrione, and sulfentrazone applied PRE and paraquat + atrazine, paraquat + linuron, and paraquat + metribuzin applied POST or in postharvest wheat stubble provided effective (≥ 91%) control of K. scoparia. In GR sugar beet, sequential applications of glyphosate (6-leaf fb 10-leaf stage of sugar beet) reduced survival, biomass and seed production of K. scoparia plants in cohort 1 and 2; however, an additional application of glyphosate at the canopy closure stage of sugar beet was needed to prevent seed production from the late-emerging K. scoparia (cohort 3). Ethofumesate (4,200 g ha) PRE followed by sequential POST triflusulfuron methyl (17.5 g ha) was the most effective treatment for managing volunteer GR canola in GR sugar beet. Overall, this research demonstrates the adaptability of K. scoparia evolving resistance to glyphosate and ALS inhibitors, and suggest the need for adoption of integrated weed management practices.


Abstract The main objective of this research is to improve the comprehension of the hydrological behaviour of natural catchments. This study is based essentially on the observation and the measurement of hydrological processes on the Haute-Mentue experimental research basin. The main originality of this work is to associate different types of measurements in order to obtain a better vision of hydrological processes responsible for streamflow generation. First the hydrological behaviour is studied at the catchment scale by the application of environmental tracing. Then hillslope measurements are conducted so as to identify the form of water flows through the catchment. Before the application of the environmental tracing technique on the Haute-Mentue, an uncertainty analysis of hydrograph separation models is proposed. In order to improve their interpretation in terms of hydrological processes, it is essential to estimate systematically their uncertainty. Two types of uncertainty are distinguished: the model uncertainty, which is affected by model assumptions, and the statistical uncertainty, which is due to the temporal variability of the chemical tracer concentrations of the components. The statistical uncertainty is studied using a Monte Carlo procedure. The model uncertainty is investigated by the comparison of alternative hypotheses concerning the chemical concentration of mixing model components and their spatio-temporal variability. This analysis validates in a way the use of hydrograph separation for the study of catchment hydrological behaviour. In fact it indicates that despite the uncertainty, the flow sources which generate the stream flow are clearly identified. However, the precision and the coherence of hydrograph separations can be improved by taking account of the temporal and spatial variability of component chemical concentrations. After this analysis, hydrographs recorded at the outlets of four Haute-Mentue sub-basins are separated by the application of a three-component mixing model based on the silica and calcium concentrations of water. This model allows the distinction of the following three components: direct precipitation, soil water and groundwater. The analysis of hydrograph separations of these four sub-basins allows the study of the spatial and temporal variability of hydrological responses. Concerning the spatial variability, despite the uncertainty of hydrograph separation, it appears that the hydrological behaviour of each sub-basin is different. The spatial variability of hydrological responses, which is observed essentially at the soil water contribution level, seems mainly due to the catchment morphology and geology. In general, soil contribution decreases with the steepness of the soil and the permeability of geological formation. As for the temporal variability of hydrological responses, it seems essentially to be controlled by the catchment humidity. Soil contribution increases with increasing basin humidity. A statistical analysis based on the development of multiple linear regressions allows the confirmation of the influence of these physico-climatic factors on the spatio-temporal variability of hydrological responses. In order to discover the processes responsible for the important soil water contributions highlighted by the application of environmental tracing, two experiments, one with a TDR system and the other with a rainfall simulator, were conducted within the catchment. On the whole, these two experiments indicate that the water flow processes are spatially quite heterogeneous and depend on very local properties. In fact, a geostatistical analysis of TDR measurements shows that the spatial variability of soil water content is very important at a local scale (1-20 meters). The soil infiltration capacity, determined by the simulation of artificial rainfall, is also spatially quite variable. This variability depends on the physical properties of the soil and geology but also on very local properties as macropores. After these different experiments, all of the observations done at the local scale as well as at the catchment scale are combined in order to get the maximum information about hydrological processes which are at the origin of streamflow. First, the TDR measurements partially confirm the environmental tracing results indicating that the soil water is an important potential source of subsurface flows. In view of the important spatial variability of soil water content and more particularly of the drainage dynamics, it seems that the stream flow generation is essentially controlled by processes at the local scale. The experiment with the rainfall simulator confirms this observation showing that the capacity of soil to transmit a water flow varies strongly in space. According to this experiment it seems, in the particular case of the Haute-Mentue, that soil water flows contributing to the stormflow generation moves essentially through the macropore system. In order to identify the form of subsurface flows and indirectly to confirm the role of macropores, an artificial tracing experiment was conducted. The transit speeds highlighted during this experiment are quick enough to conclude that the water contained in hillslopes contributes to the stromflow generation. Considering the physical and hydrodynamic properties of soils, only preferential flows can explain these transit speeds. In fact, from this experiment, it is not possible to know the nature of these preferential flows, but according to previous results it seems to be macropore flows. Finally, according to the information collected in this study, a conceptual model is proposed in order to explain the hydrological behaviour of the Haute-Mentue. This model, which is based essentially on the extension of contributing areas and on the role of preferential flows, allows to explain in terms of mechanisms the hydrological and chemical responses highlighted by hydrograph decompositions while respecting observations done at the local scale.


This effort explores novel sub-resolution particle center estimation algorithms for Digital Particle Tracking Velocimetry (DPIV). The errors of these new methods were classified through Monte-Carlo simulations. These schemes provide direct measurements of the apparent particle image diameter and the subpixel position. The new methods significantly reduce the bias error due to pixel discretization, thus reducing the total error in the position and sizing measurement compared to the classic three point and least squares Gaussian estimators. In addition, the accuracy of the least-squares fits were essentially independent of the true particle diameter and significantly reduced the particle position error compared with current estimation schemes. The results of the Monte Carlo simulations were validated in a high pressure spray atomization experiment.


Following the maiden voyage of the passenger vessel SS United States in July 1952, on which she easily bettered by four knots the existing transatlantic speed records from Ambrose Light to Bishop Rock and return, the curiosity of the marine world was aroused to know the maximum speed capability of the phenomonal vessel. William Francis Gibbs, the architect of the United States, had other ideas, however, and the top speed performance of the vessel, and the details as to how it was attained, remain today a well kept secret. Since the ship is now retired from the United States Lines, and is no longer viewed as a potential naval auxiliary in case of an emergency, security has been lifted and such information can now be released. This information, although historic, is to some degree timely nonetheless, since it represents a yardstick with which to measure the performance and potential of the large fast cellular-type containerships which are beginning to rival in size and approach in speed that attained in 1952 by the SS United States.


Prior to the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, Arab liberals and international donors interested in promoting democratization encouraged authoritarian states in the MENA region to adopt and strengthen the institution of judicial review. After the Arab Spring, they doubled down on their efforts. If democracy advocates hoped constitutional courts would encourage the region's halting transitions to democracy, they were to be disappointed. After the initial enthusiasm of the Arab Spring, democratization had by 2014 stalled in the Arab Mediterranean. The region's constitutional courts were doing little to restart it; and indeed, in at least one country some accused courts of hindering a messy but real move towards democracy. Liberals and donor states may have been disappointed, but they should perhaps not have been surprised. The assumption that constitutional review is synergistic with democracy is a relatively new development, dating largely from the second half of the twentieth century. The assumption has not gone unchallenged. Over the past decade, legal scholars and social scientists have voiced skepticism about the assumption that politically insulated constitutional courts are likely to embrace and protect quick transitions from authoritarian government to liberal democracy. Recent behavior by constitutional courts in the Arab Mediterranean provides these skeptics with ammunition. Some have proved ineffective at policing government action in a time of political passion, because they lack of popular legitimacy. Other, more powerful courts seem to have worried that rapid democratization will lead to the replacement of a flawed but predictable authoritarian by a tyrannical and unpredictable majority government. Whatever the reason, constitutional courts in the MENA region have not supported rapid democratization in the wake of the Arab Spring. It remains to be seen whether over the longer term they will come to play a productive role as agents of more gradual democratization.


The present study tested whether pet dogs have stress-buffering effects for children during a validated laboratory-based protocol, the Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST-C). Participants were 101 children aged 7-12 years with their primary caregivers and pet dogs. Children were randomly assigned in the TSST-C to a pet present condition or one of two comparison conditions: parent present or no support figure present. Baseline, response, and recovery indices of perceived stress and cortisol levels were computed based on children's self-reported feelings of stress and salivary cortisol. Results indicated that in the alone (no social support) condition, children showed the expected rise for both perceived stress and cortisol response to stress. Pet dog presence significantly buffered the perceived stress response in comparison to children in the alone and parent present conditions. No main condition effect was observed for cortisol; however, for children experiencing the stressor with their pet present, lower cortisol response to stress was associated with more child-initiated petting and less dog proximity-seeking behavior. The results support the notion that pet dogs can provide socio-emotional benefits for children via stress buffering.


In this present paper an attempt has been made to analyze the agricultural land use pattern at micro level in Pulwama district of Kashmir Valley. Study is based on the primary as well as secondary data. Agricultural land use pattern and production is influenced by physical, socio-economic, technological and organizational factors. An effort has been made here to study the changing land use pattern, cropping pattern, pattern of crop diversification, crop combination and ranking of the crops in Pulwama district for the year 2010 2011, which is considered to be a normal year from agricultural point of view. The crop data has been computed with the help of Jasbir Singh's method of crop diversification and weaver's method of crop combination. Seven major crops have been considered for crop diversification and ten major crops have been considered for the crop combination and ranking. The major crops of the area are Rice, Wheat, Maize, Pulses, Mustard, Fodder and Vegetables etc. Copyright © IJEBF, all rights reserved.


In ignoring the facts of the Three Tenors case and the transactions costs of legal rulemaking, Professor Goldberg would unnecessarily complicate antitrust law to the detriment of consumers. Contrary to his assertions, the FTC's opinion does not favor ownership over contract. The parties could have chosen to coordinate Three Tenors products and promote a "brand," but they did not. Indeed, their contract explicitly provided otherwise. For a small class of cases – in which the parties restrain basic forms of competition such as price or advertising without a legitimate claim of consumer benefit – antitrust law avoids the costs of finding market power. In any event, the facts of the Three Tenors case provide a natural experiment revealing that the agreement the Commission proscribed in fact harmed consumers.


We study the supervised learning problem under either of the following two models: (1) Feature vectors ${\boldsymbol x}_i$ are $d$-dimensional Gaussians and responses are $y_i = f_*({\boldsymbol x}_i)$ for $f_*$ an unknown quadratic function; (2) Feature vectors ${\boldsymbol x}_i$ are distributed as a mixture of two $d$-dimensional centered Gaussians, and $y_i$'s are the corresponding class labels. We use two-layers neural networks with quadratic activations, and compare three different learning regimes: the random features (RF) regime in which we only train the second-layer weights; the neural tangent (NT) regime in which we train a linearization of the neural network around its initialization; the fully trained neural network (NN) regime in which we train all the weights in the network. We prove that, even for the simple quadratic model of point (1), there is a potentially unbounded gap between the prediction risk achieved in these three training regimes, when the number of neurons is smaller than the ambient dimension. When the number of neurons is larger than the number of dimensions, the problem is significantly easier and both NT and NN learning achieve zero risk.


Whether international human rights treaties constrain the behavior of governments is a hotly contested issue that has drawn much scholarly attention. The possibility to derogate from some, but not all, of the rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) during declared and officially notified states of emergency provides a hitherto unexplored test case. If governments were increasingly violating non-derogable rights during derogation periods then this provides evidence that the ICCPR has no sufficient constraining effect on state parties. I analyze whether specific individual human rights as well as two aggregate rights measures are systematically more violated during derogation periods in a global sample over the period 1981 to 2008. I find that regime type matters: autocracies step up violation of both non-derogable and derogable rights, anocracies increasingly violate some derogable and some non-derogable rights, whereas democracies see no statistically significant change in their human rights behavior during derogation periods. This result suggests that the main general international human rights treaty fails to achieve its objective of shielding certain rights from derogation where, as in autocracies and anocracies, a constraining effect would be needed most.


The usage of crowdsourcing to recruit numerous participants has been recognized as beneficial in the human-computer interaction (HCI) field, such as for designing user interfaces and validating user performance models.
In this work, we investigate its effectiveness for evaluating an error-rate prediction model in target pointing tasks.
In contrast to models for operational times, a clicking error (i.e., missing a target) occurs by chance at a certain probability, e.g., 5%.
Therefore, in traditional laboratory-based experiments, a lot of repetitions are needed to measure the central tendency of error rates.
We hypothesize that recruiting many workers would enable us to keep the number of repetitions per worker much smaller.
We collected data from 384 workers and found that existing models on operational time and error rate showed good fits (both R^2 > 0.95).
A simulation where we changed the number of participants N_P and the number of repetitions N_repeat showed that the time prediction model was robust against small N_P and N_repeat, although the error-rate model fitness was considerably degraded.
These findings empirically demonstrate a new utility of crowdsourced user experiments for collecting numerous participants, which should be of great use to HCI researchers for their evaluation studies.


Abstract This technical note shows that it is possible and effective to use Monte Carlo variance-reduction methods for the probability of initiation problem. The benefits are threefold. First, the proper use of variance reduction obviates using an arbitrary definition of a "divergent chain." Second, because chains of all lengths are allowed, there is no bias introduced by ignoring some long chains because they meet the divergent chain definition. Third, variance-reduction methods might drastically increase the efficiency of some of these calculations.


This paper proposes a technique for dynamic power reduction of pipelined processors. Pipelined processors frequently insert NOP instruction to the pipe for generating delay or resolving dependency. Our study shows that the percentage of power consumed by NOP instructions in a pipelined processor is significant. This article studies the detail behavior of NOP instruction and proposes a technique for eliminating unnecessary transitions that are generated during execution of NOP instructions. Initial results demonstrate up to 10% reduction in power consumption for some benchmarks at a cost of negligible performance (almost zero) and area overhead (below 0.1%).


This literature review synthesizes the published articles that relate to adolescents and adults with Down syndrome and the benefits of exercise prescription on specific health-related fitness components. Individuals with Down syndrome typically have lower levels of health-related physical fitness in regard to most fitness components. Participating in regular exercise can improve each of these components. Depending on the desired outcome of the exercise regiment administered, variations in type, frequency, duration and intensity of exercise can be adjusted. The results found in the literature are similar to the guidelines provided by the American College of Sports Medicine with a few slight differences. In regard to cardiovascular fitness for individuals with Down syndrome, it appears that lower intensities and frequencies can still be effective. In order to improve muscular strength and endurance a program should have a frequency of two to three days per week and consist of eight to 20 reps and two to four sets. Body composition can be improved in individuals with Down syndrome, however it may take more than 16 weeks to see the resulting changes. HEALTH-RELATED FITNESS AND DOWN SYNDROME 4


The bistable M-center, previously observed in high-energy proton-implanted 4H-SiC, was detected in low-energy electron-irradiated 4H-SiC using deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). Irradiation increased the DLTS signals of the intrinsic defects Z1/2 and EH6/7 and introduced the frequently observed defects EH1 and EH3. After the M-center is annealed out at about 650 K without bias and at about 575 K with bias applied to the sample during the annealing process, a new bistable defect in the low temperature range of the DLTS spectrum, the EB-center, evolves. Since low-energy irradiation affects mainly the carbon atoms in SiC, the M-center and the newly discovered EB-center are most probably carbon-related intrinsic defects.


The geographical strategies of transnational corporations have received extensive attention from economic geographers. A particularly important line of study has focused upon the diverse national institutions that create geographically heterogeneous cultures of work. Yet, none of these studies place questions about how global firms act as cultural entrepreneurs at the centre of their analysis. This article, therefore, uses the case of transnational law firms to extend theoretical debates about the geographies of learning and best practice through new micro-scale consideration of the way managers in TNCs act as cultural entrepreneurs, driving change in institutionalized cultures of work through strategies that alter the cognitive frames of workers. Drawing primarily on data from interviews, the article reveals how the strategies used by influential partners in transnational law firms to drive changes in cultures of work do not lead to forms of global strong convergence in practice, but converging divergences as cultures change in subtle, often unpredicted ways. It is argued that economic geographers need to pay more attention to the mechanisms of such changes in culture, and the processes of change in national business systems more widely, so as not only to contribute to debates about corporate culture but also the varieties of capitalism.


Description: Most books dedicated to the issues of bio–sensing are organized by the well–known scheme of a biosensor. In this book, the authors have deliberately decided to break away from the conventional way of treating biosensing research by uniquely addressing biomolecule immobilization methods on a solid surface, fluidics issues and biosensing–related transduction techniques, rather than focusing simply on the biosensor. The aim is to provide a contemporary snapshot of the biosensing landscape without neglecting the seminal references or products where needed, following the downscaling (from the micro– to the nanoscale) of biosensors and their respective best known applications. To conclude, a brief overview of the most popularized nanodevices applied to biology is given, before comparing biosensor criteria in terms of targeted applications.


What is the current state of sovereign credit risk across the Eurozone? Does the recent fiscal crisis extend to other (non-Eurozone) countries? Is Greece the centre of the problem? How did the current fiscal crisis in the Euro area start? Who is behind it? How can it evolve? How can it be addressed? And, is a fiscally challenged country likely to want to leave the Eurozone? This article addresses these questions, argues that a fiscally weak country is better off in the Eurozone than outside it, and finds that a feasible policy tool can be a bailout associated with tough fiscal conditionality. It also shows that sovereign credit risk adjustment in the Eurozone can happen, using various measures, but not without 'fiscal pain'.


The most common cause of newborn failure to transition at birth is perinatal asphyxia. Asphyxia is a multi-causal condition of simultaneous hypoxia and hypercapnia that leads to acideamia. Severely asphyxiated newborn infants are born bradycardic and apneic and require resuscitation to establish pulmonary gas exchange and restore cardiac function after birth. However, as there is a lack of evidence to support any specific resuscitation regime, there is currently no globally accepted resuscitation strategy for asphyxiated newborns. The evidence-base for current neonatal resuscitation guidelines remains low and data is extrapolated largely from adult or animal resuscitation studies. Most animal studies have been conducted in adult models or newborn animals that were hours or days into postnatal life, which is not reflective of the newborn circulation. This is because the fetal shunts (ductus arterious and foreman ovale) are functionally closed in these models, thus the circulation is more reflective of an adult as opposed to the newborn. Therefore, most of the information from these studies is of limited applicability to neonatal delivery room resuscitation. In my thesis, I have utilised for the first time a relevant animal model where near-term lambs are asphyxiated immediately after delivery. This almost exactly mimics that which occurs in the neonatal intensive care unit, and for the first time examines the pulmonary and cerebral circulatory response to different ventilation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation strategies. Therefore, the global aim of my thesis is to determine the effects of different resuscitation strategies on the cardiorespiratory transition in an appropriate animal model of asphyxia immediately after birth. The outcomes from these studies provide a better understanding of the critical relationship between initial respiratory support in the delivery room and cardiorespiratory haemodynamics in asphyxiated newborns. A cornerstone of neonatal resuscitation teaching describes a rapid vagal-mediated bradycardic response to asphyxia and is one of the first signs of perinatal compromise. As such, heart rate is the primary parameter used to assess the well-being of the newborn. This understanding is based primarily on fetal studies. The first aim of this thesis was to investigate the heart rate response to asphyxia depending upon whether lambs were in utero or ex utero (Chapter 3). Heart rate response to asphyxia was markedly different depending upon whether the lamb was in utero or ex utero. Heart rates in in utero lambs rapidly decreased, while heart rates in ex utero lambs initially increased following cord occlusion before they started to decrease. Mean arterial pressure initially increased then decreased in both groups. This data indicates that our current understanding of the cardiovascular responses that indicate the stage and severity of a perinatal asphyxic event may not be as accurate as previously assumed. International neonatal resuscitation guidelines vaguely state that shorter or longer inflation times to can be used to establish initial lung inflation in apnoeic newborn infants. The second aim of this thesis was to compare three different ventilation strategies immediately after delivery asphyxiated near-term lambs on the cardiovascular and respiratory transition at birth (Chapter 4). Immediately after asphyxia, animals were either resuscitated with i) immediate start of ventilation with inflation times of 0.5 s at a rate of 60 inflations per minute (conventional ventilation) ii) five initial inflations of 3 s duration (European approach) or iii) one long inflation of 30 s duration (experimental approach). A single sustained inflation of 30 s duration improved speed of circulatory recovery and lung compliance in this near-term lamb asphyxia model. However, the restoration in heart rate and blood pressure was so rapid that the resulting increase in cerebral blood flow may induce or enhance brain pathology. Therefore, ventilation with an initial single 30 s SI improves circulatory recovery, but is also associated with a rapid increase in cerebral blood flow, which may exacerbate brain injury suffered by asphyxiated newborns. The use an initial 30 s SI was found to rapidly improve circulatory recovery in asphyxiated lambs Chapter 4. The mechanism of this dramatic response in heart rate is unknown. It is known that aeration of the lungs is associated with a rapid increase in pulmonary blood flow (PBF). The third aim of this thesis was to determine if the entry of gas into the lungs was the major mechanism driving the cardiopulmonary transition in asphyxiated newborns (Chapter 5). It was found that an SI using nitrogen did not increase heart rate or PBF. Therefore, oxygen content during an SI is important in increasing heart rate in asphyxiated lambs. The increase in heart rate is likely driven by the increase in PBF and venous return to the heart. Chest compressions (CC) and adrenaline administration are recommended in asphyxiated newborns that have persistent bradycardia despite effective ventilation. Although this improves circulatory recovery in adults and infants, the effects of CC on cerebral blood flow in newborns at birth, when ductal shunts are patent, is unknown. The final aim of this thesis was to determine the effects of CC, with or without adrenaline administration on the return of spontaneous circulation, carotid blood flow (CBF) and carotid arterial pressure in asphyxiated near-term lambs (Chapter 6). We found that CC with adrenaline administration was required to increase CBF and restore spontaneous circulation in asphyxiated lambs. We also found the presence of a low CBF and retrograde diastolic CBF during CC, which was only abolished when adrenaline was administered, leading to the return in spontaneous circulation. In conclusion, the studies contained in this thesis increase our understanding of the effects of different resuscitation strategies on the cardiovascular transition at birth in an appropriate model of perinatal asphyxia. The knowledge of how these strategies influences cardiovascular and cerebrovascular haemodynamics will benefit the future design of ventilation strategies that aerate the lungs without compromising cardiac output.


Purpose of the paper: This paper seeks to demonstrate an increased understanding of the importance of the creation of sustainable performances through the development of enhanced employee relationships that impact on small business outcomes in Australia . Methodology: A literature review and pilot study led to the development of a comprehensive survey instrument. The data from the survey was analysed and ten constructs identified, all relating to the relationships of recruitment, selection and retention. The final phase of the study focused on the confirmation of four significant constructs which were firstly pilot tested and then validated by semi-structured interviews. Findings: A series of relationships similar to that found in "relationship marketing" were identified as contributing to enhanced sustainable small business outcomes. This in turn has laid the framework for entrepreneurial activities to be improved through ongoing relationship development. Implications for theory: The paper demonstrates that the theory of relationship marketing may be utilised in disciplines other than marketing, notable in this case, in human resource management. Implications for practice: The study demonstrated an approach in which the use of the characteristics of relationship marketing when applied to the recruitment, selection and retention of employees in small entrepreneurial businesses can enhance sustainable performance. Value of the paper: The study will be of interest to academics and the owner managers of small to medium enterprises.; ;


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES
To compare the outcomes of these minimally invasive procedures in this patient population.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The database of our institution has been retrospectively reviewed, and medical records of urolithiasis patients with a solitary kidney who underwent flexible ureteroscopy (F-URS) or extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) between January 2009 and December 2012 were examined. Retreatment rates, complications, changes in estimated glomerular filtration rates (eGFRs), chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages, and stone-free rates were compared between the two groups.

RESULTS
Stones of 48 patients (mean age: 48.8±15.4, range: 14-76) with solitary kidneys were treated with SWL (n=30, 62.5%) or F-URS (n=18, 37.5%). Patient demographics and stone related parameters were similar. The most common stone location was the pelvis in the SWL group (36.6%), whereas it was the pelvis and a calix in the F-URS group (38.8%). Complications and success rates were similar in both groups, however, patients in the SWL group needed more sessions to achieve stone clearance (2.2±0.89 vs 1.06±0.24, p=0.0001). Preoperative and postoperative eGFR and CKD stage changes were also similar.

CONCLUSION
Both SWL and F-URS are effective and safe techniques, which can be used for the treatment of stones in patients with solitary kidneys. However, patients treated with SWL need more sessions to achieve stone clearance.


Optimistic replication provides high data availability in the presence of network outages. Although widely deployed, this relaXed consistency model introduces concurrent updates, whose behavior is poorly understood due to the vast state space. This paper introduces the notion of permuted states to eliminate system states that are redundant and unreachable, which can constitute the majority of states (4069 out of 4096 for four replicas). With the aid of permuted states, we are for the first time able to construct analytical models beyond the two-replica case. By eXamining the analysis for 2 to 4 replicas, we can demystify the process of forming identical conflicts—the most common conflict type at high replication factors. Additionally, we have automated and optimized the generation of permuted states, which allows us to eXplore higher replication factors (up to 10 replicas) using hybrid techniques. It also allows us to validate our results with eXisting simulations based on actual replication mechanisms, which previously were analytically validated with only one pair of replicas. Finally, we have discovered that update locality and bimodal access patterns are the primary factors contributing to the formation of identical conflicts.


A fractured bedrock system was investigated using a combination of hydrogeologic methods to minimize the number and depth of bedrock wells installed during the investigation. These methods were used to determine the vertical and horizontal extent of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in groundwater. Mass-flux analysis proved to be extremely useful in determining the vertical extent of VOC contributions to the groundwater-flow system. The Site is located near a groundwater divide within the wellhead protection areas of two public drinking-water supplies. VOCs (primarily tetrachloroethene, chlorobenzene, dichlorobenzene isomers, trichlorobenzene isomers, and trichloroethene), were released directly to the fractured bedrock through a catch-basin structure installed within the shallow bedrock. No evidence of DNAPLs was found, but a strong downward hydraulic gradient observed in relatively uniformly fractured shallow bedrock in the source area resulted in VOC migration deep into the bedrock system. Downgradient of the source area, groundwater flow direction is strongly influenced by a vertical fractured/weathered zone within the bedrock. A fracture-trace analysis was used to identify potential fracture zones downgradient of the Site to determine potential migration pathways and assist in locating monitoring wells. An electrical resistivity survey was conducted to ground truth results of the fracture-trace analysis. Nested well clusters were then installed to evaluate horizontal and vertical flow patterns. Vertical profiles of hydraulic conductivity and VOC concentrations were developed using packer testing and groundwater sampling of discrete intervals within each borehole. Pumping tests were also conducted to evaluate interconnections within the bedrock and Site-wide hydraulic properties of the bedrock-fracture system. Mass-flux analyses were conducted using the discrete hydraulic conductivity and VOC-concentration data to determine the vertical extent of VOC contributions from the relatively low permeability bedrock encountered with increasing depth at the Site. The mass-flux approach provided a practical and cost-effective alternative to installing and sampling additional deep bedrock wells in relatively low-permeability bedrock. Results of the discrete VOC sampling and packer pressure testing provided hydraulic conductivity values and VOC concentrations of 10-foot test intervals within well boreholes. Mass flux was calculated using the hydraulic conductivity and VOC concentrations to quantify the relative contributions of VOCs from each test interval. Total mass flux for an entire well bore was calculated by adding the individual mass flux values for each interval. The ratio of the mass flux calculation of each test interval to the mass flux calculation of the entire well bore was used to quantify the relative percent of the total mass flux contributed by the corresponding bedrock test interval. Profiles of mass flux calculations for each well bore demonstrated a significant decrease in mass flux with depth. These data were used to limit the number and depth of additional deep bedrock well clusters installed during the investigation.


Learning how to get answers from data is an integral part of modern training in the natural, physical, social, and engineering sciences. One of the most exciting changes in data management and analysis during the last decade has been the growth of open source software. The open source statistics and programming language R has emerged as a critical component of any researcher's toolbox. Indeed, R is rapidly becoming the standard software for analyses, graphical presentations, and programming in the biological sciences. This book provides a functional introduction for biologists new to R. While teaching how to import, explore, graph, and analyse data, it keeps readers focused on their ultimate goals - communicating their data in oral presentations, posters, papers, and reports. It also provides a consistent method (workflow) for using R that is simple, efficient, reliable, accurate, and reproducible. The material in the book reproduces the engaging and sometimes humorous nature of the three-day course on which it is based.


Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) often occurs in patients with active acromegaly and improves after treatment. Less is known about the development of OSA in patients after a longer period of control treated with somatostatin analogues (SSA) and pegvisomant. Methods: Seventy-nine patients (12 females, 17 males; age 49 ± 14 years; body mass index 29.9 ± 5.4 kg/m 2 ; IGF-1 184 ± 73 µg/L; disease duration 13 ± 8 years (mean ± standard deviation)) with well-controlled acromegaly treated with SSA (38%), pegvisomant (38%) or in combination (24%) who underwent ambulatory polygraphy were included in a prospective multicenter cross-sectional study. Results: Fourteen percent had OSA (range of apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) 5 - 15). Patients with OSA (AHI ? 5 vs. < 5) had a longer disease duration (16 ± 1 vs. 12 ± 8 years; P = 0.01) and were older (61 ± 9 vs. 47 ± 13 years; P = 0.037). The AHI of all patients correlated with age (P = 0.01; r = 0.44). No differences were seen in terms of BMI and Epworth sleepiness scale score. Previous transsphenoidal surgery and radiation had no impact of the detection of OSA. The duration of well-controlled acromegaly was 7 ± 3 years. Conclusion: OSA in patients with well-controlled acromegaly treated with SSA, pegvisomant or in combination is less frequent (14%) than previously described. Early treatment to reduce the active disease period should be aimed to prevent OSA. J Endocrinol Metab. 2017;7(5):141-145 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jem455w


This case demonstrates a rare pathology of basilar artery pial arteriovenous shunting presenting with acutely progressive symptoms of brainstem compression, in which we applied a polytetrafluoroethylene-coated embolic device to achieve short-segment upper mid-basilar artery sacrifice. In addition to presenting a rare form of basilar arteriovenous fistula (AVF) (likely related to hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia) and discussing the extreme management challenges, this case demonstrates the unusual but successful application of a novel neurovascular device. Unanswered questions include the mechanism of development of this pathology and the optimum post-embolization anticoagulation plan.

Reports of pial arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) that occur in the posterior fossa are quite rare, occasionally appearing in general pial AVF case series or as individual case reports;1–6 in particular, direct AVFs originating off the basilar artery have not previously been reported. We present the case of a child with a basilar pial AVF with mass effect and progressively accelerating neurological decline and report on its management and outcome.

A 3-year-old child with a history of ocular albinism and normal neurological milestones (walking at 10 months, speaking in full sentences) was noted to have several months of progressive gait instability, bilateral hand tremor, dysarthria, drooling, and intermittent esotropia, with accelerating worsening over the most recent 3 weeks. Her parents and three siblings were all healthy.

On examination she had left eye intorsion and limitation of upgaze. She ambulated with a hyper-plantarflexed gait and became progressively unsteady on her feet, with axial ataxia. She had intention tremors bilaterally in the upper extremities. Over the course of observation of several days she developed swallowing difficulties and, as a result, had her oral intake progressively restricted, and showed progressive loss of motor and speech milestones.

On MRI brain she was found to have an AVF that appeared to originate directly off the upper mid-basilar artery, with …


The aim of the study is to assess the effect of Palestinian flora Artemisia sieberi extract against the formation of β-hematin in-vitro. β-hematin is a synthetic polymer made of ferriprotoporphyrin-IX and is structurally, chemically and spectroscopically identical to purified hemozoin formed during the intra-erythrocytic stage of Plasmodium life cycle. As strains of the malaria parasite Plasmodium emerged gaining resistance to the known drugs used such as chloroquine, amodaquine, artemisinin, the search for new anti-malarial drugs has become a must. Natural compounds were used throughout time as drugs and the history of anti-malarial drugs is linked with the history of herbal medicinal products. As an attempt to find new anti-malarial drugs, the potential inhibitory effect of Artemisia sieberi plant parts were studied using a semi-quantitative method. Leaves, flowers and stems were collected from various areas around Jerusalem, dried at room temperature and separately ground. Extraction was performed by soaking dried plant parts in 35% ethanol or ultrapure water. Extracts were filtered, rotary evaporated at 50°C and then lyophilized to a constant weight. Results of this study showed the alcoholic stem extract was the strongest in preventing the formation of β-Hematin when compared to that of the leaf or flower extracts. However the need to find the active components of this herbal extract requires further studies.


Professor Raimo Väyrynen is currently the Director of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. Earlier he was President of the Academy of Finland (2004–7), Director of the Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies (2002–4), and Professor/Director at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame (19932002), Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki (1990-93), Visiting Professor at Princeton, Harvard and Minnesota Universities; Professor, University of Helsinki (1978-93), and Director of Tampere Peace Research Institute (1972-78). Early this year he was appointed Chairman of the Board of the University of Lapland. He is a widely published author and holds many positions of trust. He is the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Science Foundation and a member of the Board of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo.


There are global calls for research to support health system strengthening in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). To examine the nature and magnitude of gaps in access and quality of inpatient neonatal care provided to a largely poor urban population, we combined multiple epidemiological and health services methodologies. Conducting this work and generating findings was made possible through extensive formal and informal stakeholder engagement linked to flexibility in the research approach while keeping overall goals in mind. We learnt that 45% of sick newborns requiring hospital care in Nairobi probably do not access a suitable facility and that public hospitals provide 70% of care accessed with private sector care either poor quality or very expensive. Direct observations of care and ethnographic work show that critical nursing workforce shortages prevent delivery of high-quality care in high volume, low-cost facilities and likely threaten patient safety and nurses' well-being. In these challenging settings, routines and norms have evolved as collective coping strategies so health professionals maintain some sense of achievement in the face of impossible demands. Thus, the health system sustains a functional veneer that belies the stresses undermining quality, compassionate care. No one intervention will dramatically reduce neonatal mortality in this urban setting. In the short term, a substantial increase in the number of health workers, especially nurses, is required. This must be combined with longer term investment to address coverage gaps through redesign of services around functional tiers with improved information systems that support effective governance of public, private and not-for-profit sectors.


For the past two decades, legal and economic scholarship has tended to assume that the central economic problem addressed by corporation law is getting managers and directors to act as faithful agents for shareholders. There are other important economic problems faced by business firms, however. This article introduces a Symposium that explores one of those alternate economic problems: the problem of "team production". Team production problems can arise whenever three conditions are met: (1) economic production requires the combined inputs of two or more individuals; (2) at least some of these inputs are "team-specific," meaning they have a significantly higher value when used in the team than in their next best use; and (3) the gains resulting from team production are nonseparable, making it difficult to attribute any particular portion to any single team member's contribution. In such situations, it can be difficult or impossible for team members to draft explicit contracts that protect their team-specific investments from other team members' opportunism. Thus the nine articles in the Symposium explore the implications of team production analysis for a wide variety of business organizations, including public corporations, private companies, multinational firms, and venture capital firms.


To control combustion instabilities occurring in LPP gas turbine combustors, several active and passive systems have been developed in recent years. The combustion chamber cooling geometry has the potential to influence instability feedback loops by absorbing acoustical energy inside the combustor. The design of the cooling liner and the geometry of the cooling plenum and the cooling air flow rate have a significant influence on the absorption characteristics of the system. This paper presents the results of a cold flow study which was carried out in the course of a comprehensive study on the influence of the cooling geometry on combustor thermoacoustics. Absorption characteristics of three different cooling liner geometries and non-perforated plates were determined over a frequency range from 50 Hz to 600 Hz for different cooling flow rates and different cooling plenum volumes. The experimental results compared well with results from a low order thermoacoustic network model. The acoustic energy absorption spectrum of a cooling liner with 90°-hole configuration was found to be strongly dependent on cooling flow rate and cooling plenum volume, whereas the absorption spectrum of cooling liners with 25°-holes were found to be strongly dependent on the cooling plenum volume, but less dependent on the cooling air flow rate. All cooling liner setups with perforations were capable of increased acoustic absorption over a broad band of frequencies compared to the case of non-perforated combustor walls. © 2010 by Johannes Schmidt.


We describe a low-frequency-noise laser system conceived for the readout of small mechanical vibrations. The system consists of a Nd:YAG source stabilized to a high-finesse Fabry–Perot cavity and achieves the best performance in the range 1–10 kHz with a minimum residual noise of 4×10-3 Hz/Hz. We perform an extended characterization of the frequency stability by means of an independent optical cavity and we also measure the residual fluctuations after transmission through an optical fiber. Our apparatus is optimized for use in an optical readout for the gravitational wave detector AURIGA, where a laser system with the characteristics reported here will allow an improvement of one order of magnitude in the detector sensitivity.


Abstract The middle Eocene Seeb Formation represents deposition on one of the earliest "modern" style carbonate platforms, i.e., influenced by seagrasses and mangroves, and presents an opportunity to explore controls on the preservation of Cenozoic carbonate lithofacies. In the study area, the Seeb Fm. is dominated by an anomalously thick (approximately 250 m) and uniform package of shallow marine, platform-interior sediments. These nodular, indistinctly bedded shallow-subtidal sediments display no evidence for relative sea-level change (such as subaerial exposure features), and lack the shallowing-upwards cyclothems that have characterized carbonate sediments deposited in platform-interior settings throughout much of the rock record (particularly during greenhouse periods). We conclude that this is a consequence of thorough bio-retexturing of the sediment by burrowing organisms and the roots of marine vegetation, which destroyed primary fabrics, facies diversity, evidence for cyclicity, and "missing time" horizons such as cycle-bounding exposure surfaces. It seems possible that the remarkable thickness of apparently acyclic Seeb Fm. sediment that built up may reflect increased bio-disturbance of the shallow marine environment following the Late Cretaceous expansion of seagrasses and mangroves. A similar lack of peritidal cyclothems may be common to many Cenozoic shallow marine carbonate deposits. "Missing time" horizons in limestones, reflecting erosion or nondeposition, have been identified by some authors to explain discrepancies between low calculated accumulation rates of ancient sediments and higher rates measured in comparable modern environments. However, our studies of the Seeb Fm. suggest that the significance of such "missing time" horizons in ancient sediments may have been overstated, and that apparent differences between modern and ancient accumulation rates are a consequence of the extrapolation of unrepresentative, localized high rates of modern sediment production to large (platform-scale) areas. Our study reinforces the idea that modern sediment production and accumulation rates may be much lower than previously thought because they are typically measured in highly productive areas such as seagrass beds and do not take into account the highly variable nature of carbonate production, storage, erosion, and destruction across platforms. Therefore, far less "missing time" needs to be inferred for ancient sediments to account for any imbalance between modern and ancient sediment accumulation rates.


Accurate wind information is required to support some of the key applications envisioned for future air traffic concepts. A Wind Information Analysis Framework has been developed to assess wind information needs for different applications. The framework is described and then applied in a Four-Dimensional Trajectory Based Operations (4D-TBO) application using simplified versions of the framework's elements to demonstrate its utility. Realistic ranges of wind information accuracy in terms of wind forecast and Flight Management System wind representation errors are studied. Their impacts on 4D-TBO performance in terms of Required Time of Arrival compliance and fuel burn are presented. Interpretations of the findings to give insights on wind information requirements are provided, together with an outline of the planned next phase of the study to further refine the outputs.


Parsing is essential for a wide range of use cases, such as stream processing, bulk loading, and in-situ querying of raw data. Yet, the compute-intense step often constitutes a major bottleneck in the data ingestion pipeline, since parsing of inputs that require more involved parsing rules is challenging to parallelise. This work proposes a massively parallel algorithm for parsing delimiter-separated data formats on GPUs. Other than the state-of-the-art, the proposed approach does not require an initial sequential pass over the input to determine a thread's parsing context. That is, how a thread, beginning somewhere in the middle of the input, should interpret a certain symbol (e.g., whether to interpret a comma as a delimiter or as part of a larger string enclosed in double-quotes). Instead of tailoring the approach to a single format, we are able to perform a massively parallel FSM simulation, which is more flexible and powerful, supporting more expressive parsing rules with general applicability. Achieving a parsing rate of as much as 14.2 GB/s, our experimental evaluation on a GPU with 3584 cores shows that the presented approach is able to scale to thousands of cores and beyond. With an end-to-end streaming approach, we are able to exploit the full-duplex capabilities of the PCIe bus and hide latency from data transfers. Considering the end-to-end performance, the algorithm parses 4.8 GB in as little as 0.44 seconds, including data transfers.


The abilities of the Gent and McWilliams (1990) (GM) and Horizontal Diffusion (HD) eddy- parameterizations to represent the mesoscale effects relevant for primary production are compared and analyzed. Following Levy et al. (1999a), this is done in the case study of the spring bloom that follows the formation of a dense water patch in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. It is shown that, unlike HD, the use of the GM parameterization can capture many aspects of the primary production enhancement associated with the restratifying action of mesoscale eddies. However, predicted primary production, when using the GM parameterization, is sensitive to the GM' s parameter set, and particularly to the maximum value of the lateral mixing coefficient, kmax.


The vaunted Information Revolution is more than Web surfing, Net games, and dotcoms. Indeed, it is the foundation for an economic and social transformation on a scale comparable to the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century. As a culture we have learned from earlier such transformations and it is important to recognize those lessons and chart a path toward intellectual and practical mastery of the emerging world of information.This course will provide the foundational knowledge necessary to begin to address the key issues associated with the Information Revolution. Issues will range from the theoretical (what is information and how do humans construct it?), to the cultural (is life on the screen a qualitatively different phenomenon from experiences with earlier distance-shrinking and knowledge-building technologies such as telephones?), to the practical (what are the basic architectures of computing and networks?). Successful completion of this ""gateway"" course will give you, the student, the conceptual tools necessary to understand the politics, economics, and culture of the Information Age, providing a foundation for later study in Information or any number of more traditional disciplines.


Syntheses and characterization of polymer conjugates of 9-[2-(phosphonomethoxy)ethyl] (PME) derivatives of adenine (PMEA), 2,6-diaminopurine (PMEDAP) and guanine (PMEG) are described. The phosphonate group of these acyclic nucleotide analogues was activated by reaction with triphenylphosphine and di(2-pyridyl) disulfide (TPP–PDS). The activated phosphonate reacted with a random copolymer containing N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide (HPMA) and N-(3-methacrylamidopropanoyl)ethane-1,2-diamine (Ma-AP-ED) units. The phosphonamide bond between the nucleotide and polymer carrier proved to be relatively stable at physiological pH 7.4 while at pH 5.0 (corresponding to endosomal or lysosomal compartments of cells) underwent slow hydrolysis. The rate of hydrolysis (drug release) was shown to depend on the detailed structure of the heterocyclic base. The polymer–drug conjugates described in the paper represent a new family of antiviral and cytostatic drugs with potentially improved pharmacokinetics, sustained drug release and diminished non-specific toxicity.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the limitations of increasing add powers to objective and subjective visual function by evaluating three multifocal soft contact lens (SCL) designs in five add powers. Methods: Ten adults with normal eyes and no refractive astigmatism participated in this study. Visual assessment was evaluated with a single vision control SCL and 3 different center distant power multifocal SCL designs with add powers of +1.00, +2.00, +3.00, +4.00 and +5.00. The multifocal lens designs were categorized as Concentric Aspheric Addition Design (AA), Concentric Linear Addition Design (LA), and Concentric Constant Addition Design (CA). Subjects wore their spectacle correction over the experimental lenses during testing to correct their foveal refractive error. Binocular distant (6m) and near acuities (40cm) were measured in logMAR units at 100% and 10% contrast. Global stereopsis was measured with random dot targets at 40 cm. Participants filled out questionnaires to rate the visual quality and perceived potential success for each of the lens sets. Results: With one exception (CA-2), the majority (>50%) of subjects believed they could be academically successful with any lens design with an add power of +3.00 D or less. All lens designs with either +4.00 or +5.00 D add powers were rated significantly (p Conclusions: Future lens designs will likely be limited to +3.00 D. powers, unless the design is similar to that of Aspheric Add Design. A patient's visual quality ratings and visual acuity performance in these multifocal soft lenses are expected to be comparable to a single vision soft lens.