Nitrification inhibitors have been claimed to offer a means of achieving better control
of the delivery of applied fertilizer nitrogen to crops. However, considerable
variability in reported usefulness of nitrification inhibitors indicates a need for further
research on their effectiveness under different agricultural conditions.
A series of experiments was conducted to examine effects of the nitrification
inhibitor nitrapyrin [2-chloro 6-(trichloromethyl) pyridine] on soil N availability and
transformation and the influence of certain factors (soil pH, relative mobility,
temperature etc.,) on its effectiveness.
Because urea is rapidly becoming most favoured on a world scale attention
was focussed on this as a form of fertilizer N. After selecting a suitable soil type a
field experiment was set-up to compare the N supplying capacity of urea to that of
other common commercial N fertilizers and to evaluate N utilization efficiency of a test
crop (barley cv. Triumph). Urea compared unfavourably with ammonium nitrate and
calcium nitrate but was better than ammonium sulphate in terms of plant growth and
yield on the acid soil used thus warranting improvement practices viz. the use of lime
as a soil amendment and/or nitrification inhibitor as a fertilizer amendment.
The effect of liming on certain N transformation processes and on the
effectiveness of "nitrapyrin" was studied in the glasshouse and the _laboratory.
Liming promoted urease activity, nitrification and potential denitrification of soil
whereas nitrapyrin significantly reduced nitrification. Liming reduced the
effectiveness of nitrification inhibition probably because of faster recovery of nitrifiers
in limed soil. The importance of considering the total duration of inhibition in
establishing inhibitor effectiveness was underlined. Nitrapyrin also had a marked
effect on production of nitrous oxide by denitrification.
There was no visible phytotoxic effects of nitrapyrin nor was there any
measurable effect on plant height or top dry matter production of barley during 45
days of growth in the glasshouse. However, liming resulted in better plant growth.
The relative mobility of nitrapyrin compared to urea and ammonium-N may be
a critical factor in determining its effectiveness as an inhibitor. In leaching column
experiments, it was found that most of the added urea moved with the wetting front
while the rest was hydrolysed. Added ammonium-N moved more slowly but at a
sufficent speed to effect separation from nitrapyrin. Nitrapyrin scarcely moved at all.
Measured effects of temperature, soil moisture and air flow on persistence of
nitrapyrin indicated that it is likely to persist longer in cool, moist soils exposed to
minimal air flows.
Nitrapyrin application had little or no effect on the growth of barley (cv.
Triumph) in a field experiment in which, amongst other treatments, a single
application of urea plus nitrapyrin was compared with a split application of the same amount of urea without nitrapyrin. Higher yields were obtained with split application
of urea. Liming enhanced vegetative growth but this was not reflected uniformly in
final yield of dry matter or grain.
In conclusion, although control over nitrification was obtained by use of
nitrapyrin under glasshouse/laboratory conditions its use could not be justified under
field conditions experienced during this study. Field management practices such as
liming and the method of nitrapyrin application may affect the performance of the
inhibitor.


This study aims to better understand the impact of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) workload on patient outcomes, so that practitioners and researchers can use such understanding to provide high quality care despite increased hospital crowding. We use data collected from the medical ICU and the surgical ICU of a major teaching hospital. We measure ICU workload in a novel way that takes into account not only the census but also patient acuity. Having categorized the ICU workload at time of patient departure as low census, high-census/low-acuity, and high-census/high-acuity, we find that patients discharged on a day of high-census/high-acuity ICU workload had significantly worse health status than patients discharged from a low-census ICU workload. Moreover, we find patients with poorer health status at the time of ICU discharge experienced worse longer-term outcomes, including longer post-ICU length-of-stay (LOS), higher mortality, and higher total hospital costs. In sum, we find that acuity was critical in accurately characterizing ICU workload, resulting ICU discharge decisions, and ultimately patient outcomes and hospital costs. Our findings suggest that (1) ICUs need to track the changes in patient acuity in addition to census, in order to use such information to prevent reaching high census with high acuity patients and (2) future studies (both empirical and analytical) of ICU workload should take patient acuity into account in ICU workload measures. Lastly, using a simulation study, we show how high-census/high-acuity workload can be prevented by reducing seasonality in the volume and acuity of patient arrivals.


This Roman play is one of ShakespeareOs last tragedies, best known for its political and military themes. Its hero, Coriolanus, is a proud General who does not hesitate to show his arrogant and outspoken contempt of the Roman rabble. The Tribunes banish him and he raises an army to take his revenge on Rome.


Neutrino oscillation experiments discover that (left-handed) neutrinos have masses much less than charged leptons and quarks in the Standard Model. One solution to the light
neutrino mass puzzle is the seesaw model where right-handed neutrinos are introduced with large Majorana masses. The heavy Majorana right-handed (RH) neutrinos lead to lepton
number violation in the early universe. They decay into either leptons or anti-leptons via Yukawa couplings. The CP asymmetries of these decays result in lepton number asymmetry in the universe. The lepton number asymmetry can be converted into baryon number asymmetry via the electroweak sphaleron process. This mechanism explains the
baryon asymmetry of universe problem and is called leptogenesis.

However, one finds that in order to generated enough baryon number in the universe, the reheating temperature, which is required to be of order of the lightest right-handed
neutrino mass, has to be higher than ∼ 10^9 GeV. The high reheating temperature would lead to the over-produced gravitinos in the universe, contrasting with the present observation. We investigate leptogenesis in the Exceptional Supersymmetric Standard Model. We find that the extra Yukawa couplings would enhance the CP asymmetries of the RH neutrino decay drastically. And the evolution of lepton/baryon asymmetries is described by Boltzmann Equations. Numerical calculation of the Boltzmann Equations shows that a correct amount of baryon number in the universe can be achieved when the lightest right-handed neutrino mass is ∼ 10^7 GeV, and then the gravitino-over-production problem is avoided.


In 1992 the Venerable Palden Gyatso was released after thirty-three years of imprisonment by Chinese forces in Tibet. He fled across the Himalayas to India, smuggling with him the instruments of his torture. This powerful text is the story of his life and irrefutable testimony to the appalling suffering of the Tibetan nation at the hands of the Chinese.


Has greater turbulence among firms fueled rising wage instability in the U.S.? Gottschalk and Moffitt ([1994]) find that rising earnings instability was responsible for one third to one half of the rise in wage inequality during the 1980s. These growing transitory fluctuations remain largely unexplained. To help fill this gap, this paper further documents the recent rise in transitory fluctuations in compensation and investigates its linkage to the concurrent rise in volatility of firm performance documented by Comin and Mulani [2005] among others. After examining models that explain the relationship between firm and wage volatility, we investigate the linkage in three complementary panel data sets, each with its own virtues and limitations: the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (detailed information on workers, but no information on employers), COMPUSTAT (detailed firm information, but only average wage and employment levels about workers), and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland's Community Salary Survey (wages and employment for specific occupations for identified firms). We find complementary support for the hypothesis in all three data sets. We can rule out straightforward compositional churning as an explanation for the link to firm performance in high-frequency (over spans of 5 years) wage volatility, although not in more persistent fluctuations (between successive 5-year averages). We conclude that the rise in firm turbulence explains about sixty percent of the recent the rise in the high frequency (5-year) volatility of wages.


Due to the improvement of the functions of humanoid robots, the concept of anthropomorphism is a relevant research topic in the field of human-robot interaction. In order to supplement the concept of 'geekism' – which is defined as the initial likelihood of an individual to intellectually delve into the underlying mechanisms of technological systems, based on a strong intrinsic motivation (Schmettow and Drees, 2014) – we tested the tendency of so-called 'geeks' to anthropomorphize robotic agents.
Implementations about a low tendency were based on the three-factor theory of anthropomorphism, developed by Epley, Waytz, & Cacioppo (2007) and tested by the means of the perceived humanness scale and an adaption of the Stroop priming task. Mixed-effects regression analysis revealed no statistically significant results.
In the scope of this study it could not be indicated that 'so-called' geeks have a tendency toward anthropomorphism that significantly differs from other people. Moreover, explanatory attempts of Epley et al. (2007) about the occurrence of anthropomorphism due to a complex inductive process could not be confirmed. Yet, correlational analysis between personality concepts revealed a moderate positive correlation between computer enthusiasm and need for cognition, supporting the assumption that those two features form the core of 'geekism'. Finally, although it could be shown that individuals with computer enthusiasm have no preference for order, the need for closure does not seem to be related to the concept of geekism.
Due to possible research limitations future studies on the relation between geekism and anthropomorphism should focus on the addition of sociality to the research model, which is one of the three factors within the theory of Epley et al. (2007), the use of a method that is able to detect whether anthropomorphic processing takes place on an automatic level, and an explicit measure of anthropomorphism that includes an affective component.


It is difficult to use lignin in any analytical methodology without reducing its considerable polydispersity by fractionation. An ammonium lignosulphonate sample was fractionated using a method of partial solubility in solutions of isopropanol increasingly diluted with distilled water, effectively fractionating by polarity. Selected fractions were characterised by gravimetric determination of the fractions, and determination of acid insoluble lignin, soluble lignin, and carbohydrate contents. Acid-insoluble lignin content was very low, and soluble lignin provided the majority of the lignin content, as should be expected from sulphonated lignin. Carbohydrate contents were also fairly low, the highest percentage at 14.5 being in Fraction 2, with the bulk lignin and Fraction 3 having 6.5% and 3.2%, respectively. Differences in the composition of each fraction support the efficacy of the fractionation process and permitted selection of fractions for use in subsequent studies.


Based on the feature assembly hypothesis (e.g. Lardiere, 2009), and assuming a universal parser, early stages of second language (L2) acquisition are investigated in this paper. Using a methodology that combines reading time and acceptability judgment data, it is argued that L2 learners' processing relies on a universal parser that allows the selection of uninterpretable features (even those that are not selected in the learners' first language, such as u Gender) based on a universal store. The data also suggest that these features are (re-)assembled, as shown by the asymmetries in the reading time data, which are taken to reflect different computational costs associated with different computations (i.e. feature checking and feature underspecification).


Heterotrophic bacteria play a key role in ecosystem processes, but little is known about the factors that shape bacterial community structure in aquatic biofilms, especially in lakes. We used molecular techniques (16S rRNA) to evaluate resource controls on biofilm bacterial community structure in an oligotrophic subalpine lake. We manipulated nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus; NP) and glucose (G) on inorganic (rock) and organic (wood) substrates under light and dark conditions (i.e. with and without autotrophy, respectively) in a full factorial design using nutrient diffusing substrates in situ for 20 d. Distinct patterns of separation in community structure between treatments with nutrients (NP, NP+G) and without nutrients (control, G-only) indicated that community structure was more strongly influenced by nutrients than organic matter irrespective of substrate type or light availability. Further separation in community structure between treatments with nutrients only (NP) and nutrients with glucose (NP+G) on both organic and inorganic substrates indicated that once nutrient limitation was alleviated, organic matter quality played an important role in shaping community structure. Differences in the relative abundance of 6 phyla, 3 classes, and 19 genera among treatments revealed (1) contrasting taxa-specific resource requirements, (2) the influence of interspecific interactions on composition, and (3) the potential for individual taxa to participate in the decomposition of recalcitrant organic matter. Our findings provide insight into the role that nutrients and organic matter quality play in shaping bacterial community structure, which is a critical step in bridging the knowledge gap between microbial composition and ecosystem function within aquatic environments.


Video games have long been seen as the exclusive territory of young, heterosexual white males. In a media landscape dominated by such gamers, players who do not fit this mold, including women, people of color, and LGBT people, are often brutalized in forums and in public channels in online play. Discussion of representation of such groups in games has frequently been limited and cursory. In contrast, Gaming at the Edge builds on feminist, queer, and postcolonial theories of identity and draws on qualitative audience research methods to make sense of how representation comes to matter. In Gaming at the Edge, Adrienne Shaw argues that video game players experience race, gender, and sexuality concurrently. She asks: How do players identify with characters? How do they separate identification and interactivity? What is the role of fantasy in representation? What is the importance of understanding market logic? In addressing these questions Shaw reveals how representation comes to matter to participants and offers a perceptive consideration of the high stakes in politics of representation debates. Putting forth a framework for talking about representation, difference, and diversity in an era in which user-generated content, individualized media consumption, and the blurring of producer/consumer roles has lessened the utility of traditional models of media representation analysis, Shaw finds new insight on the edge of media consumption with the invisible, marginalized gamers who are surprising in both their numbers and their influence in mainstream gamer culture.


In this paper, I analyze intergenerational mobility of immigrants and natives in Germany. Using the German Socioeconomic Panel (GSOEP), I find intergenerational elasticities that range from 0.19 to 0.26 for natives and from 0.37 to 0.40 for immigrants. These elasticity estimates are lower than typically found for the U.S. and imply higher mobility in Germany than in the U.S. However, as in the U.S., I find greater mobility among German natives than among immigrants. Moreover, I investigate to what extent the lower mobility among immigrants in Germany is due to "ethnic capital" as suggested by Borjas (1992). I find that the impact of father's earnings on son's earnings remains virtually unchanged when including a measure of ethnic capital, suggesting that the higher father-son correlation found among immigrants is not due to omitting ethnic capital. However, I do find a large independent effect of ethnic capital on sons' earnings (the coefficient is 0.81 as opposed to 0.25 found by Borjas (1992)). These results are consistent with estimates from Microcensus data, where the combined effect of parents' and ethnic capital is close to unity. Thus, contrary to the U.S. results which suggest convergence of immigrants' earnings towards natives' earnings, the German results suggest divergence of immigrant earnings.


Academic publishing in South Africa attracts a state research incentive for the universities to which the authors are affiliated. The aim of this study was twofold: (1) to examine the composition of the research value chain and (2) to identify the effects of broken links within the chain. The methodology selected was a lived cultural economy study, which was constructed through incorporating dialogue with editors, authors and researchers in terms of my own experience as a journal editor, read through a political economy framework. The prime effect is to exclude journals, especially independent titles, from directly earning publishing incentives. The behaviour of universities in attracting this variable income is discussed in terms of rent-seeking which occurs when organisations and/or individuals leverage resources from state institutions. Firstly, this process commodifies research and its product, publication. Secondly, the value chain is incomplete as it is the journals that are funding publication rather than – in many cases – the research economy funding the journals. Thirdly, authors are seeking the rewards enabled by the incentive attached to measurement systems, rather than the incentive of impacting the discipline/s which they are addressing. Fourthly, the paper discuses some policy
and institutional matters which impact the above and the relative costs between open access and subscription models. Editors, journals and publishers are the un- or underfunded conduits that enable the transfer of massive research subsidies to universities and authors, and, in the case of journals, editors' voluntary work is the concealed link in the value chain enabling the national research economy.

Significance:

The South African scientific publishing economy is built on a foundation of clay: this economy distorts research impact and encourages universities and academics to commoditise output.


There is a vast amount of literature addressing the remarkable growth of teleworking in the western societies. The literature covers various topics such as people's perception towards teleworking, the impact of teleworking on individuals and traits of successful teleworkers. There are also legal and human resource issues surrounding the implementation of teleworking. In Malaysia, this new work style has yet to penetrate the business environment. Reported research on this topic is still very limited, confined mostly to perceptual and prevalence studies. This study intended to broaden the horizon by focusing on the individual and job-related aspects of teleworking. The sample of the study comprised of employees from four functional departments in a local telecommunication company. The objective was to discover job functions that can be teleworked. In addition , the study wanted to look into the differences and similarities in the personalities of the employees from these departments. As the company had never practised teleworking, it was also deemed necessary to investigate the perception of employees towards this alternative work mode. The main conclusion from this study is that the perception of all the respondents, regardless from which department, did not differ very much. However, certain job functions and personalities have been empirically proven to be different between functional departments. These results can become a guideline in the formulation of a future teleworking program. The management must ensure that employees are willing accept this new work mode. Apart from understanding the needs of the employees and the requirements of the job, the management must also analyse the firm's existing technological abilities and foresee future capital investment in teleworking. The success of a teleworking program equally depends on adequate and reliable technological infrastructure.


Abstract. The end-Permian mass extinction occurred alongside a large swath of environmental changes that are often invoked as extinction mechanisms, even when a direct link is lacking. One way to elucidate the cause(s) of a mass extinction is to investigate extinction selectivity, as it can reveal critical information on organismic traits as key determinants of extinction and survival. Here we show that machine learning algorithms, specifically gradient boosted decision trees, can be used to identify determinants of extinction as well as to predict extinction risk. To understand which factors led to the end-Permian mass extinction during an extreme global warming event, we quantified the ecological selectivity of marine extinctions in the well-studied South China region. We find that extinction selectivity varies between different groups of organisms and that a synergy of multiple environmental stressors best explains the overall end-Permian extinction selectivity pattern. Extinction risk was greater for genera that had a low species richness, narrow bathymetric ranges limited to deep-water habitats, a stationary mode of life, a siliceous skeleton, or, less critically, calcitic skeletons. These selective losses directly link the extinctions to the environmental effects of rapid injections of carbon dioxide into the ocean–atmosphere system, specifically the combined effects of expanded oxygen minimum zones, rapid warming, and potentially ocean acidification.


Abstract Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic multifactorial gastrointestinal condition that substantially affects the quality of life. Research have suggested an increasing trend in cannabis use to alleviate IBS-related psychiatric symptoms. Objectives: We aim to investigate the association of psychiatric comorbidities and cannabis use disorders (CUD) in hospitalized IBS patients. Methods: We analyzed 31,272 IBS hospitalizations in patients (aged 15-54 years) from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS). We utilized logistic regression to evaluate the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of CUD and psychiatric comorbidities. Results: Anxiety (26.3%) and depressive (24.8%) disorders were prevalent and increased the odds for IBS-hospitalization by 2.5 and 1.8 times respectively. Tobacco use disorder was most prevalent (24.5%) followed by CUD (3.7%). After controlling for demographics, psychiatric and medical comorbidities, and other substance use disorders, CUD had higher odds for IBS hospitalizations (aOR 1.407, 95% CI 1.32-1.50). IBS hospitalizations with CUD increased by 32.8% from 2010 to 2014. CUD patients were younger (15-24 years, aOR 5.4, 95% CI 4.27-6.77), males (aOR 1.8, 95% CI 1.59-2.09) and African Americans (aOR 2.8, 95% CI 1.45-2.23) and from low-income families (aOR 1.9, 95% CI 1.58-2.39). Conclusions: We found that patients with CUD have 40.7% higher odds for IBS-hospitalizations with a rising trend of CUD and related psychiatric comorbidities which may further worsen IBS and health quality of life. With limited evidence of efficacy and safety of cannabis in IBS, larger, randomized controlled studies are required to examine its therapeutic efficacy.


This article examines some of the main points of recent library development, building on phenomena or concepts such as particpation, democracy, web 2.0, library 2.0 and convergence cultures. We start with two cases closely related to activities at Blekinge Institute of Technology. The first case is about building a community for national and international cooperation about learning objects in the setting of a search guide. The other case is about a project aming to bring our patrons into the discusson about the library and our future. Finally, we discuss the role of librarians in a world where knowledge processes go from a hierarchical, authoritative perspective to a participative, inclusive mindset.


America, in every way, represents equality of opportunity for all persons. The rich diversity of its citizens and the spirit of unity that binds us all symbolize the principles of freedom and justice upon which this nation was founded. The Department of Housing and Urban Development and City of Delray Beach enforces the Fair Housing Act and the other federal laws that prohibit discrimination and the intimidation of people. Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act), as amended, prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of dwellings, and in other housing-related transactions, based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (including children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregnant women, and people securing custody of children under the age of 18), and handicap (disability). The City currently partners with the Fair Housing Center of the Greater Palm Beaches in an effort to prevent discrimination. For more information: please visit the following link:http://fairhousingflorida.com/.


The word 'real' occurs with significant frequency in Persuasion, indicating a theme which, more than that of 'persuasion', connects most of the main areas of the novel, and all the characters. It associates a series of contrasts between reality and appearance – the genuine and the bogus – which are developed throughout. The contrast is seen in different areas of the novel: respectability, friendship, hospitality, health, understanding, and taste, and between the superficiality of the aristocratic Sir Walter Elliot and the genuineness of the naval fraternity. The gradual recognition by Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth that they share the values identified as real and worthy is what finally brings them together, providing the novel's inner plot.


Chromium (Cr) picolinate (CrPic) is a widely used nutritional supplement for optimal insulin function. A relationship among Cr status, diabetes, and associated pathologies has been established. Virtually all trials using CrPic supplementation for subjects with diabetes have demonstrated beneficial effects. Thirteen of 15 clinical studies (including 11 randomized, controlled studies) involving a total of 1,690 subjects (1,505 in CrPic group) reported significant improvement in at least one outcome of glycemic control. All 15 studies showed salutary effects in at least one parameter of diabetes management, including dyslipidemia. Positive outcomes from CrPic supplementation included reduced blood glucose, insulin, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels and reduced requirements for hypoglycemic medication. The greater bioavailability of CrPic compared with other forms of Cr (e.g., niacin-bound Cr or CrCl(3)) may explain its comparatively superior efficacy in glycemic and lipidemic control. The pooled data from studies using CrPic supplementation for type 2 diabetes mellitus subjects show substantial reductions in hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia, which equate to a reduced risk for disease complications. Collectively, the data support the safety and therapeutic value of CrPic for the management of cholesterolemia and hyperglycemia in subjects with diabetes.


Finite element (FE) modelling of machining provide valuable insights into its deformation mechanics. Evaluating an FE model predicted chip morphology requires characterisation of chip shape, chip curl and chip flow angles. In this study, a chip morphology characterisation methodology is developed using computed tomography (CT), high-speed imaging and Kharkevich model equations enabling evaluation of FE model's chip morphology prediction accuracy. Chip formation process in nose turning of AISI 1045 steel is simulated using a 3D FE model for varying feed rate and depth of cut and evaluated against experimental investigations using the employed methodology. The study shows that the methodology is able to characterise chip morphology in nose turning process accurately and enables evaluation of FE model's chip morphology prediction accuracy. This can enable the finite element model to be deployed in cutting tool design for chip breaker geometry design.


Although there has been rapid recent growth in the volume of research on both whiteness and childhood within geography, these literatures have only infrequently intersected explicitly. In this paper, I argue that a focus on narratives of childhood and child rearing can significantly enrich current understandings of how imaginative geographies of American (non)whiteness are sustained and reproduced. I develop this argument using a case study of recent narratives concerning one well-known program for children living in New York City, the Fresh Air Fund, which arranges for 'inner-city' children (most of whom identify as black or Latino) to spend portions of their summers living with host families (most of whom are white) in rural and suburban areas. The activities of the fund generate regular media coverage in both New York City and many of the destination communities, contributing to a wider public narrative concerning what white families and spaces have to offer 'inner-city' children. Drawing on journalistic accounts produced over the past two decades within one important destination site for the program, the US state of Vermont, I examine the racialized imaginative geographies of city, country, and suburb mobilized and reproduced within these stories of the Fund and its effects. I specifically argue that these accounts (re)script whiteness such that it becomes a solution to, rather than a source of, inequalities.


A wire grid polarizer comprised of chromium oxide is designed for a micro-lithography system using an ArF excimer laser. Optical properties for some material candidates are calculated using a rigorous coupled-wave analysis. The chromium oxide wire grid polarizer with a 90 nm period is fabricated by a double-patterning technique using KrF lithography and dry etching. The extinction ratio of the grating is greater than 20 dB (100:1) at a wavelength of 193 nm. Differences between the calculated and experimental results are discussed.


Abstract : This thesis presents an introduction to Global Project Management in the form of a graduate course for the University of Maryland, A. James Clark School of Engineering - Project Management Program. The course slides and suggested readings provide a general exploration of the nuances of doing projects globally as compared to domestically. The course slides, suggested readings, and assignments are designed to provide practical knowledge for new and seasoned project managers either entering or who are currently employed in the global market place. The topics consist of: Introduction to global projects, initiating global projects, planning global projects, Virtual Project Management (VPM), global project legal considerations, global contracting, negotiating in a global environment and global project risk, funding, control, and close-out. The course is not all inclusive rather it acts as a spring board for students and professionals to do further research on the topics presented.


: Although amniotic fluid embolism is a rare event, but it is a tragic event. This kind of embolism occurs in 1 per 20,000 to 30,000 births with 86% maternal mortality rate in the United States. Amniotic fluid embolism is in charge of near 10-15% of all maternal deaths. This article reflects the experiences of a Nurse Midwife encountered with a maternal and neonatal death due to an amniotic fluid embolism.


Password managers are tools to support users with the secure generation and storage of credentials and logins used in online accounts. Previous work illustrated that building password managers means facing various security and usability challenges. For strong security and good usability, the interaction between password managers and websites needs to be smooth and effortless. However, user reviews for popular password managers suggest interaction problems for some websites. Therefore, to the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to systematically identify these interaction problems and investigate how 15 desktop password managers, including the ten most popular ones, are affected. We use a qualitative analysis approach to identify 39 interaction problems from 2,947 user reviews and 372 GitHub issues for 30 password managers. Next, we implement minimal working examples (MWEs) for all interaction problems we found and evaluate them for all password managers in 585 test cases.Our results illustrate that a) password managers struggle to correctly implement authentication features such as HTTP Basic Authentication and modern standards such as the autocomplete-attribute and b) websites fail to implement clean and well-structured authentication forms. We conclude that some of our findings can be addressed by either PWM providers or web-developers by adhering to already existing standards, recommendations and best practices, while other cases are currently almost impossible to implement securely and require further research.


The dominant contribution to communication complexity in factorizing a matrix using QR with column pivoting is due to column-norm updates that are required to process pivot decisions. We use randomized sampling to approximate this process which dramatically reduces communication in column selection. We also introduce a sample update formula to reduce the cost of sampling trailing matrices. Using our column selection mechanism we observe results that are comparable to those obtained from the QRCP algorithm, but with performance near unpivoted QR. We also demonstrate strong parallel scalability on shared memory multiple core systems using an implementation in Fortran with OpenMP.
This work immediately extends to produce low-rank truncated approximations of large matrices. We propose a truncated QR factorization with column pivoting that avoids trailing matrix updates which are used in current implementations of BLAS-3 QR and QRCP. Provided the truncation rank is small, avoiding trailing matrix updates reduces approximation time by nearly half. By using these techniques and employing a variation on Stewart's QLP algorithm, we develop an approximate truncated SVD that runs nearly as fast as truncated QR.


European countries strive to enhance prescribing efficiency. This includes renin–angiotensin drugs following the availability of generic angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs). Aims: To compare angiotensin receptor blocker utilization and expenditure patterns in Austria and Croatia following prescribing restrictions, as well as with other European countries introducing different supply- and demand-side measures. Lastly, to appraise the impact of generic losartan in Croatia on utilization of patented angiotensin receptor blockers. Method: Observational retrospective study principally between 2001 and 2007, using defined daily doses and €/1000 inhabitants/year. Demand-side measures were based on the four 'E's – education, engineering, economics and enforcement. Results: Greater intensity of follow-up of prescribing restrictions in Croatia enhanced utilization of ACEIs versus Austria. There was high utilization of ACEIs in Scotland following intensive demand-side measures, similar to Austria and Croatia. Demand-side measures in Spain (Catalonia) and Sweden also appeared to moderate angiotensin receptor blockers utilization. The combination of measures helped stabilize expenditure on renin–angiotensin drugs when adjusted for population sizes despite appreciable increases in volumes. The only exception was Portugal, with less intensive measures. Conclusion: Multiple and intensive demand-side measures enhanced prescribing efficiency. The more intense follow-up of ARB prescribing restrictions in Croatia had a greater influence on subsequent utilization patterns than Austria. Both findings confirm earlier studies. Reforms also favorably enhanced the prescribing of generic losartan once available.


The objectives of this research were to investigate the factors impacting the effectiveness of metal salts in reducing the production of volatile organic sulfur compounds (VOSCs) in biosolids, with the goal of developing recommendations for applying metal salt addition in the field for odor reduction. The research examined a number of factors which could impact the effectiveness of metal salt addition which included chemical dosage, types of chemicals, location of the addition point, the shear applied to the solids, and different biosolids sources. The results showed that metal salt addition can reduce VOSC production, but their effectiveness is especially impacted by the shear applied to the biosolids. Greater amounts of shear resulted in greater dosages required to achieve VOSC reduction. Comparison of different metals including, alum, polyaluminum chloride, sodium aluminate, ferric chloride, ferrous chloride, ferric sulfate, ferrous sulfate, zero-valent iron and magnesium chloride showed that all could reduce VOSC production, and some worked slightly better than others, but none were vastly superior to the others. In special cases where a biosolids produced higher quantities of hydrogen sulfide, addition of iron based chemicals generally had lower hydrogen concentrations than aluminum based chemicals, likely due to iron-sulfide precipitation. However, addition of sodium aluminate also reduced hydrogen sulfide, mainly due to the increased pH above which hydrogen sulfide volatilizes. Little differences were found when comparing the chemical addition points during conditioning, either before, with, or after the polymer. Addition directly to the cake was also effective. The addition of metal salts can be applied to reduce the production of odorants, although it is difficult to predict the dosage that will be required without laboratory and possibly pilot testing.

This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series .

ISBN: 9781843392842 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780403540 (eBook)


A large body of experimental research has demonstrated that, on average, people violate the axioms of expected utility theory as well as of discounted utility theory. In particular, aggregate behavior is best characterized by probability distortions and hyperbolic discounting. But is it the same people who are prone to these behaviors? Based on an experiment with salient monetary incentives we demonstrate that there is a strong and significant relationship between greater departures from linear probability weighting and the degree of decreasing discount rates at the level of individual behavior. We argue that this relationship can be rationalized by the uncertainty inherent in any future event, linking discounting behavior directly to risk preferences. Consequently, decreasing discount rates may be generated by people's proneness to probability distortions.


We study the scalar curvature measure for sets belonging to o-minimal structures (e.g. semialgebraic or subanalytic sets) from the viewpoint of metric dierential geometry. Theorem: Let S be a compact connected definable pseudo-manifold with curvature bounded from above, then the singular part of the scalar curvature measure is non-positive. The topo- logical restrictions cannot be removed, as is shown in examples.


Background In Spain, the authorised indications for botulinum toxin type A (BTTA, Botox) are: Neurological diseases: focal spasticity (foot, wrist and hand, ankle), blepharospasm, hemifacial spasm and associated focal dystonias, cervical dystonia and chronic migraine in adults. Bladder disorders: urinary incontinence in adults with neurogenic detrusor overactivity or idiopathic overactive bladder. Skin disorders: Severe primary axillary hyperhidrosis. Purpose To analyse the ambulatory use of BTTA in our hospital for one year. Material and methods A retrospective descriptive analysis of all patients treated with BTTA from May 2013 to April 2014 was carried out. Records from the hospital's electronic prescribing software (Silicon software) were reviewed and the following data were collected: number of patients and prescriptions dispensed, indications and clinical department. Results A total of 431 patients were treated with BTTA, counting 611 prescriptions dispensed. Two patients received 4 doses, 18 patients 3 doses, 138 patients 2 doses and 273 patients one dose. The distribution of administrations by clinical department and indication was: Pain Unit: focal spasticity (5), hemifacial spasm (1), off-label: different pains in back, neck and extremities (5) Maxillofacial Surgery: hemifacial spasm and associated focal dystonias or disorders in the facial nerve (27) Ophthalmology: blepharospasm (2) and off-label: strabismus or esotropia (33) General surgery: off-label: anal fissure (8) Plastic Surgery: hemifacial spasm and associated focal dystonias (12) Dermatology: hyperhidrosis (41) Neurophysiology: off-label: idiopathic peripheral neuropathy (1) and paralysis of vocal cords (3) Neurology: blepharospasm (32), cervical dystonia (48), hemifacial spasm (23), focal spasticity (64), hyperhidrosis (10), migraine (7) Otolaryngology: off-label: sialorrhea (10) and oropharynx malignant neoplasm (2) Urology: urinary incontinence (57) Rehabilitation: cervical dystonia (1), hemifacial spasm (1), focal spasticity (247), off-label: complication of amputation stump (1) Conclusion In our hospital, BTTA is mainly used in authorised conditions. Neurology and Rehabilitation call on BTTA most frequently. General Surgery, Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology respond to off-label conditions in most of their patients. References and/or Acknowledgements No conflict of interest.


To investigate the ability of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), but not GH, to stimulate jejunal growth, we compared indices of IGF-I and insulin receptor expression in jejunal membranes from rats maintained with total parenteral nutrition (TPN) and treated with rhIGF-I and/or rhGH. TPN without growth factor treatment (TPN control) induced jejunal atrophy, reduced serum IGF-I, increased serum insulin concentrations, and increased IGF-I receptor number, IGF-I receptor messenger RNA, and insulin-specific binding to 133% to 170% of the orally fed reference values, P < 0.01. Compared with TPN control, IGF-I or IGF-I + GH stimulated jejunal mucosal hyperplasia; IGF-I treatment increased serum IGF-I by 2- to 3-fold and decreased serum insulin concentrations by 60%, decreased IGF-I receptor number by 50% (P < 0.001), and increased insulin receptor affinity and insulin receptor protein content. Treatment with GH alone increased serum IGF-I concentration, did not alter TPN-induced jejunal atrophy, and decrease...


Reconnaissance soil sampling within the
catchment of streams containing anomalous
levels of copper in drainage samples led to the
discovery of disseminated copper mineralisation
in the Black Stockarton Moor area of
Galloway, Scotland. Analysis of aeromagnetic
data and of a gravity survey of the area,
previously mapped as an irregular complex of
dykes, suggested that the region was underlain
by laminar bodies of granodiorite. Geological
mapping r evealed the presence of a major
Caledonian multiphase subvolcanic complex
intruding LOvler Palaeozoic turbidi tes, to the
west of the Criffe! granodioritic plutonic
complex. An induced polarisation survey
delineated an arcuate anomaly about 6 km long
and the resul t s of a simultaneous geochemical
soil survey showed a zone with anomalous levels
of copper (> 140 ppm to 5500 ppm) in the
southern part of the area to be essentially
paralle l to the IP anomaly but partially
displaced to the east. A series of three deep
angled drill holes and nine shallow holes
sited on geochemical and geophysical anomalies
confirmed the widespread presence of both veinlet
and disseminated pyrite and copper mineralisation
of the porphyry type.
The Black Stockarton Moor subvolcanic
complex is a composite of minor intrusive rocks,
the ear l iest phase of which, comprising
porphyri te dyke swarms, granodiorite sheet
intrusions, small granodiori te stocks, breccia
pipes, vent agglomerates with plugs of basic
rock and a few basic dykes, predates the
adjacent multiphase Crlffel plutonic complex.
The second phase of subvo lcanic activity postdates
the plutonic rocks and comprises intense
en-echelon s igmoidal swarms of porphyrite dykes
sharply discordant to the earliest phase rocks.
A minor third phase consists of linear
porphyrite dykes closely associated with fault -
ing.
Chemical analysis and mineralogical examination
of the borehole material indicates
that regular zonation can be observed in the
style and intensity of both mineralisation
and hydrothermal alteration. This zonation is
regular fr om west to east across the IP and
soil anomalies. A propylitic alteration zone
with the development of chlorite. epidote and
minor sericite in igneous rocks and of calcite ,
quartz, jasperoid, chlorite, amphibole,
epidote and albite in sedimentary rocks occurs
to the wes t . Within this zone hematite
gradually gives way to increasing amounts of
pyrite from west t o east. The propylitic
zone passes into a sericitic alteration zone
where sedimentary rocks are frequently bleached
and igneous rocks pink or orange-coloured
containing secondary quartz, chlorite and
muscovite. Pyrite is most conspicuous within
rocks of the outer sericite zone, the outcrop
of which coincides roughly with the axis of the
IP anomaly. Further east pyrite decreases but
chalcopyrite and bornite with some chalcocite
become relatively conspicuous and copper levels
are the highest attained (in the 400 ppm to
1100 ppm range). save for isolated highly
br·ecciated sections. Chemical zonation shows
relative enrichment in Mn, Zn, As and Pb in
the outer propyli tic zone, Ba in the serid tic
1
zone and Cu in the inner sericitic zone while
As, Sb and Au are markedly concentrated with
Cu and Mo in isolated brecciated sections


The new proposed method of pattern recognition is based on the application of Multiresolution Signal Decomposition (MSD) technique of wavelet transform. This technique has shown interesting properties in capturing the embedded horizontal, vertical and diagonal variations within an image obtained from the PD pattern in a separable form. This feature has been exploited to identify in the PD pattern's MSD, relative at various family of PD sources, some detail images typical of a single discharge phenomenon. The classification of a generic PD phenomenon is feasible through a comparison between its detail images and the detail images typical of a single discharge phenomenon. Tests have been performed on specimens having single defects. The obtained results prove that the proposed improved classification methods is quite efficient and accurate. [ DOI : 10.1685 / CSC06133] About DOI


Background Children who are exposed to anesthesia multiple times may undergo cognitive impairment during development. The underlying mechanism has been revealed as anesthesia-induced cognitive deficiency in young rodents and monkeys. However, the molecular mechanism of sevoflurane-induced neural development toxicity is unclear. Methods By combining RNA sequencing analysis of macaques' prefrontal cortex and human neural differentiation, this study investigates the mechanism of sevoflurane-induced neurotoxicity in primates. Results The level of dual specificity protein phosphatase 4 (Dusp4) was significantly downregulated in non-human primates after sevoflurane treatment. We further uncovered the dynamical expression of Dusp4 during the human neural differentiation of human embryonic stem cells and found that knockdown of Dusp4 could significantly inhibit human neural differentiation. Conclusion This study indicated that Dusp4 is critically involved in the sevoflurane-induced inhibition of neural differentiation in non-human primate and the regulation of human neural differentiation. It also suggested that Dusp4 is a potential therapeutic target for preventing the sevoflurane-induced neurotoxicity in primates.


Starting from this trenchant observation, Dr. Kelly Campbell's ground-breaking research reporting on the work-life balance among successful women leaders in ATS-accredited schools provides an important first step in balancing, and indeed enriching, the leadership in theological education. This research is not only appropriate given the substantial increase in women studying in theological institutions but is particularly timely as well given the present generational retirement of the older and more traditional male leadership. Through analyzing and reporting the experience of the early vanguard of women leaders in theological education, Dr. Campbell hopes to encourage and guide a new generation of women leaders.


In this paper we introduce a new dynamic Bayesian network that separates the speakers and their speaking turns in a multi-person conversation. We protect the speakers' privacy by using only features from which intelligible speech cannot be reconstructed. The model we present combines data from multiple audio streams, segments the streams into speech and silence, separates the different speakers, and detects when other nearby individuals who are not wearing microphones are speaking. No pre-trained speaker specific models are used, so the system can be easily applied in new and different environments. We show promising results in two very different datasets that vary in background noise, microphone placement and quality, and conversational dynamics.


We describe a generative Bayesian model for action understanding in which inverse-forward internal model pairs are considered 'hypotheses' of plausible action goals that are explored in parallel via an approximate inference mechanism based on sequential Monte Carlo methods. The reenactment of internal model pairs can be considered a form of motor simulation, which supports both perceptual prediction and action understanding at the goal level. However, this procedure is generally considered to be computationally inefficient. We present a model that dynamically reallocates computational resources to more accurate internal models depending on both the available prior information and the prediction error of the inverse-forward models, and which leads to successful action recognition. We present experimental results that test the robustness and efficiency of our model in real-world scenarios.


Limited information is available on the bleaching susceptibility of coral species that dominate high latitude reefs along the eastern seaboard of Australia. The main aims of this study were to: (i) monitor coral health and spatial patterns of coral bleaching response at the Solitary Islands Marine Park (SIMP) and Lord Howe Island Marine Park (LHIMP), to determine variability of bleaching susceptibility among coral taxa; (ii) predict coral bleaching thresholds at 30 °S and 31.5 °S, extrapolated from published bleaching threshold data; and (iii) propose a subtropical northern New South Wales coral bleaching model from biological and physical data. Between 2005 and 2007 minor bleaching was observed in dominant coral families including Pocilloporidae, Poritidae and Dendrophylliidae in the SIMP and Pocilloporidae, Poritidae and Acroporidae (Isopora and Montipora spp.) in the LHIMP, with a clear difference in bleaching susceptibility found between sites, both within and between locations. Bleaching susceptibility was highest in Porites spp. at the most offshore island site within the SIMP during summer 2005. Patterns of subtropical family bleaching susceptibility within the SIMP and LHIMP differed to those previously reported for the central Great Barrier Reef (GBR). These differences may be due to a number of factors, including temperature history and/or the coral hosts association with different zooxanthellae clades, which may have lower thermal tolerances. An analysis of published estimates of coral bleaching thresholds from the Caribbean, South Africa, GBR and central and northern Pacific regions suggests that the bleaching threshold at 30–31.5 °S ranges between 26.5–26.8 °C. This predicted threshold was confirmed by an extensive coral bleaching event on the world's southernmost coral reef at Lord Howe Island, during the 2010 austral summer season. These results imply that dominant coral taxa at subtropical reefs along the eastern Australian seaboard are highly susceptible to thermal stress; which, in turn, could lead to a future decline in total live coral cover if predicted rising seawater temperatures lead to more frequent coral bleaching events in future.


Providing IT services to customers with better, guaranteed quality has been the aim of many diverse efforts, undertaken under the common denominator "IT Service Man- agement". Lately, more organizational approaches to this issue have been gaining popularity, especially the guidelines of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) for IT Service Management business processes. But just like with most other business processes, implementing ITIL processes in an efficient way involves building or procuring IT tools that can support them. On this aspect, ITIL itself offers only minimal guidance. This paper addresses basic issues of supporting ITIL with process-oriented tools such as workflow management systems. It discusses the need for workflow management support of service management processes to achieve service level compliance, and presents criteria for determining which IT Service Management processes can and should be supported by workflow management systems. The IT Service Management processes defined by ITIL are evaluated and divided into four basic process classes accord- ing to their suitability for workflow management, thereby laying a foundation to future top-down approaches for comprehensive ITIL tool support.


The magnetized MINOS Near Detector, at a depth of 225 mwe, is used to measure the atmospheric muon charge ratio. The ratio of observed positive to negative atmospheric muon rates, using 301 days of data, is measured to be 1.266±0.001(stat)_(-0.014)^(+0.015)(syst). This measurement is consistent with previous results from other shallow underground detectors and is 0.108±0.019(stat+syst) lower than the measurement at the functionally identical MINOS Far Detector at a depth of 2070 mwe. This increase in charge ratio as a function of depth is consistent with an increase in the fraction of muons arising from kaon decay for increasing muon surface energies


In many African countries and especially in the highlands of Ethiopia—the investigation site of this paper—agricultural land is highly fragmented. Small and scattered parcels impede a necessary increase in agricultural efficiency. Land consolidation is a proper tool to solve inefficiencies in agricultural production, as it enables consolidating plots based on the consent of landholders. Its major benefits are that individual farms get larger, more compact, contiguous parcels, resulting in lower cultivation efforts. This paper investigates the determinants influencing the willingness of landholder farmers to participate in voluntary land consolidation processes. The study was conducted in Gozamin District, Amhara Region, Ethiopia. The study was mainly based on survey data collected from 343 randomly selected landholder farmers. In addition, structured interviews and focus group discussions with farmers were held. The collected data were analyzed quantitatively mainly by using a logistic regression model and qualitatively by using focus group discussions and expert panels. According to the results, landholder farmers are predominantly willing to participate in voluntary land consolidation (66.8%), while a substantive fraction of farmers express unease with voluntary land consolidation. The study highlighted the following four determinants to be significant in influencing the willingness of farmers for voluntary land consolidation: (1) the exchange should preferably happen with parcels of neighbors, (2) land consolidation should lead to better arranged parcels, (3) nearness of plots to the farmstead, and (4) an expected improvement in productivity. Interestingly, the majority of farmers believes that land consolidation could reduce land use conflicts. The study provides evidence that policymakers should consider these socio-economic, legal, cultural, infrastructural, and land-related factors when designing and implementing voluntary land consolidation policies and programs.


This thesis consists of two separate parts. The first part consists of one paper and considers problems concerning spatial point processes and the second part includes three papers in the field of bioinformatics. The first part of the thesis is based on a forestry problem of estimating the number of trees in a region by using the information in an aerial photo, showing the area covered by the trees. The positions of the trees are assumed to follow either a binomial point process or a hard-core Strauss process. Furthermore, discs of equal size are used to represent the tree-crowns. We provide formulas for the expectation and the variance of the relative vacancy for both processes. The formulas are approximate for the hard-core Strauss process. Simulations indicate that the approximations are accurate. The second part of this thesis focuses on pre-processing of microarray data. The microarray technology can be used to measure the expression of thousands of genes simultaneously in a single experiment. The technique is used to identify genes that are differentially expressed between two populations, e.g. diseased versus healthy individuals. This information can be used in several different ways, for example as diagnostic tools and in drug discovery. The microarray technique involves a number of complex experimental steps, where each step introduces variability in the data. Pre-processing aims to reduce this variation and is a crucial part of the data analysis. Paper II gives a review over several pre-processing methods. Spike-in data are used to describe how the different methods affect the sensitivity and bias of the experiment. An important step in pre-processing is dye-normalization. This normalization aims to remove the systematic differences due to the use of different dyes for coloring the samples. In Paper III a novel dye-normalization, the MC-normalization, is proposed. The idea behind this normalization is to let the channels' individual intensities determine the correction, rather than the average intensity which is the case for the commonly used MA-normalization. Spike-in data showed that the MC-normalization reduced the bias for the differentially expressed genes compared to the MA-normalization. The standard method for preserving patient samples for diagnostic purposes is fixation in formalin followed by embedding in paraffin (FFPE). In Paper IV we used tongue-cancer microRNA-microarray data to study the effect of FFPE-storage. We suggest that the microRNAs are not equally affected by the storage time and propose a novel procedure to remove this bias. The procedure improves the ability of the analysis to detect differentially expressed microRNAs.


We provide a practical guide for impact evaluation of Training and Human Capital programs in Science Technology and Innovation (STI). This document addresses specific challenges that arise when evaluating this type of programs, discussing its logic, the advantages and drawbacks of the different sources of information, the strategies which may be appropriate for evaluation, and the suitability of applying the different experimental and quasi-experimental available methods. For each technique, the document highlights the characteristics and assumptions, the strengths and weaknesses, and the practical issues related to their application to programs of human capital training for STI. Also, some specific issues, as for example the time after which the effects and externalities are expected to materialize, are discussed. Discussion is based on specific examples of existing evaluations.


African primates remain an unexplored source of information required to complete the origin and evolution of many human pathogens. Current studies have shown the importance of several receptor human genes implicated in host resistance or susceptibility to tuberculosis. The validation of these genes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection makes them an excellent model system to investigate the mode of selective pressures that may act on pathogen defense genes. To trace the evolutionary history of these genes, the report describes preliminary results for eight receptors human genes having either a significant or a possible association with Tuberculosis (TB). By using a combination of maximum likelihood approaches, evidence of positive selection were detected for four genes. The analysis between species, nevertheless, shows a clear pattern of nucleotide variation mostly compatible with purifying selection.


Timbre has been conceived of as a multidimensional sensory attribute and as a carrier of perceptually useful information about the mechanics of the sound source. To date, research on musical timbre has focused on defining its acoustical correlates, whereas fragmentary evidence is available on the influence of mechanical parameters. We quantified the extent to which mechanical properties of the sound source are associated with structures in the data from published identification and dissimilarity-rating studies. We focus on two macroscopic mechanical properties: the musical instrument family and excitation type. Identification confusions are significantly more frequent for same-family instruments. With dissimilarity ratings, same-family or same-excitation tones are judged more similar and tend to occupy the same region of multidimensional-scaling spaces. As such, significant associations between the perception of musical timbre and the mechanics of the sound source emerge even when not explicitly demanded by the task.


Several studies have found a relationship between corporate social and environmental disclosure and firm value or accounting profitability. Where environmental disclosure has been the focus, though, only single-country studies have been published; and most of the previous research concerns the developed world. This study examines the association between corporate environmental disclosure (CED) and firm value (FV) in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, where CED has been increasing from its previous low base. Findings from a multi-country sample of 500 firm-year observations using a 55-item unweighted environmental disclosure index suggest that CED is significantly and positively related to FV as measured by Tobin's Q (TBQ). The relationship is robust to using a weighted version of the disclosure index, individual countries and environmental disclosure sub-indices. Some evidence of a positive relationship between CED and return on assets (ROA) is also found, but even where statistically significant, the relationship is much weaker than in the case of TBQ. For empirical and theoretical reasons, we recommend that future studies pay greater attention to market-based proxies, if possible, when investigating the value relevance of CED in both developed and developing countries. Our results suggest that both managers and policymakers in GCC countries should take a positive view of expanded CED.


Objective. To determine if the likelihood of preterm delivery is more dependent on the specific organisms present in the vagina than on the presence of bacterial vaginosis. Methods. We evaluated the vaginal fluid of a prospective cohort of women at 23–32 weeks of gestation with signs and symptoms of preterm labor and intact membranes. Forward stepwise logistic regression models were used to evaluate the relationship between preterm delivery and the presence of anaerobic bacteria, Gardnerella, ureaplasmas and mycoplasmas, and sialidase. Results. The cohort included 137 women, and complete delivery information was available for 134 of them. The rate of preterm delivery was 28% (37 of 134). Mycoplasma genitalium independently was associated with spontaneous preterm delivery (OR 3.48; 95% CI 1.41, 8.57). After controlling for this factor, none of the other variables were significantly prognostic for spontaneous preterm delivery (residual overall p = 0.19). Conclusion. The presence of Mycoplasma genitalium in the vagina of pregnant women is an independent risk factor for spontaneous preterm delivery.


Ill health is unevenly distributed across different groups in society, with the disadvantaged groups displaying higher rates of ill health than the more advantaged groups. The aim of the thesis is to study work-related inequalities in health, and to focus on how income, aspects of the physical and psychosocial work environment, and sense of coherence, individually or jointly, generate inequalities in a number of health outcomes in the Swedish working population. The studies are based on survey data and national registers during the period 1990-2003.For cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevalence and mortality, the impact of income was stronger than that of work environment factors. The psychosocial work environment (women and men) and income (men only) were associated with psychological distress. Income (women) and the psychosocial work environment (men) were associated with musculoskeletal pain. Thus, both income and work environment are important in generating health inequalities in the working population.A strong sense of coherence (SOC) moderated the effect of physical demands on musculoskeletal pain in both genders. SOC moderates, yet not consistently, the impact of adverse working conditions on psychological distress and musculoskeletal pain. Hence, the results do not fully support the hypothesis that sense of coherence is a global health-protective factor. However, differential vulnerability in terms of the strength of SOC contributed to work-related inequalities in health.The risk of stroke was higher for women and men in occupations with low job control than for those with high job control. The risk of intracerebral hemorrhage was highest in women in low job-control occupations, while low job control did not significantly increase the risk of brain infarction in women. Job control was related to mortality from stroke in women, but not in men. The effect of job control on stroke mortality in women was consistent in all classes except for upper non-manuals.


This paper describes a novel approach to high-level robot programming based on a highly developed logica] theory of action. The user provides a specification of the robot's basic actions (their preconditions and effects on the environment) as well as of relevant aspects of the environment, in an extended version of the situation calculus. He can then specify robot behaviors in terms of these actions in a programming language that allows references to world conditions (e.g. if 3c(PoP-CAN(c) A ON_TABLE(c)) then PICK_UP(c)). The programs can be executed to drive the robot. The interpreter automatically maintains the world model required to execute programs based on the specification. The theoretical framework includes a solution to the frame problem and is very general -- it handles dynamic and incompletely known worlds, as well as perception actions. Given this kind of domain specification, it is Mso possible to support more sophisticated reasoning, such as task planning at run-time. The specification can also be used to prove the robot control programs correct. A simple mall delivery application is used to present the approach. Ongoing work on implementing the approach and handling outstanding problems, such as modeling noisy sensors, is also described.


We present 33 new focal mechanisms for SE Caribbean earthquakes (1963–1988). We use these mechanisms, in conjunction with 28 previously available mechanisms, to distinguish between two models of plate boundary zone interaction in the SE Caribbean: the trench-trench transform and hinge faulting model, and the right oblique collision model. Shallow (0–70 km) and intermediate (70–200 km) depth earthquakes occur in the study region; we focus on the tectonic causes of these events and the motions they delineate. The shallow earthquakes are in a broad linear zone which trends NE from the Paria Peninsula of Venezuela towards Barbados. Intermediate depth earthquakes cluster beneath and NW of the Peninsula, and deepen to the NW, perpendicular to the NE-trending shallow events. The vertical distribution of the earthquakes suggests a slab with steep NW dip. Shallow, dextral strike slip on E-striking faults is restricted to a 60-km-wide linear zone between the Gulf of Cariaco and the western margin of the Gulf of Paria. Dextral strike slip is active only as far east as the Gulf of Paria, and not within or east of Trinidad. Shallow thrust events with ENE-striking planes, distributed between the Araya Peninsula and the Gulf of Paria, indicate collision at crustal levels between South America and Caribbean, and that folding and thrusting are still active over a 60-km interval south of the Araya-Paria isthmus. Active thrusting in Venezuela corroborates predictions of transpression between Caribbean and South America and discounts transtensional motions between the two plates in the SE Caribbean. The conjunction of shallow thrust, strike slip, and normal earthquakes in the Gulf of Paria at around 62.3° may be the expression of unpartitioned oblique compressive deformation in the plate boundary zone. Intermediate (165 km > h > 70 km) depth thrust and dip slip events within the NW-dipping slab indicate that oceanic lithosphere, probably originally attached to South America, subducts to the NW beneath the Caribbean plate. Shallow normal faulting events E and NE of Trinidad are expressions of plate bending about near-horizontal axes parallel to the Lesser Antilles subduction zone. We conclude that the earthquake mechanisms provide strong support for the right oblique collision model of Caribbean-South American plate interaction.


A tri-rod structure (TRS), which can be seen as a combination of the double-rod structures reported by V. M. Shalaev et al. [Opt. Lett.OPLEDP0146-959230, 3356 (2005)10.1364/OL.30.003356], is proposed to control the polarization state of an electromagnetic (EM) wave in the near-infrared range. When a plane EM wave propagates through the TRS system, two orthogonal hybrid magnetic eigenmodes are established as a result of the strong hybridization effect. Thus, linearly polarized infrared light is shown to change its polarization around the resonance range after passing through an array of TRSs. The wavelength dependence of the polarization state is also calculated, and various polarized waves can be obtained. A metamaterial made of a large number of TRSs could be utilized as a polarization controllable medium with possible applications in optical elements and devices.


Abstract. The phenomena of prebifurcation noise amplification and noise-dependent hysteresis are studied as prospective indicators of bifurcations ("noisy precursor") in nonlinear Geophysical systems. The phenomenon of prebifurcation noise amplification arises due to decreasing of damping coefficients just before bifurcation. A simple method for the estimation of the forced fluctuation variance is suggested which is based on results of linear theory up to the boundary of its validity. The upper level for the fluctuation variance before the onset of the bifurcation is estimated from the condition that the contribution of the non-linear term becomes comparable (in the sense of mean squares) with that of the linear term. The method has proved to be efficient for two simple bifurcation models (period doubling bifurcation and pitchfork bifurcation) and might be helpful in application to geophysics problems. The transition of a nonlinear system through the bifurcation point offers a new opportunity for estimating the internal noise using the magnitude of the noise-dependent hysteretic loop, which occurs when the control parameter is changed in the forward and backward direction.


ABSTRACT This paper concerns preconditions for the well-being of young people with mental ill-health combined with social vulnerabilities, also referred to as youth with complex needs. Research questions are: What barriers to sustainable work practices for young people labelled as having complex needs do professionals encounter? What do professionals identify as possible ways to overcome these barriers? Sustainable work practices are reflected in three themes: empowerment, relationships and collaboration. The findings are based on semi-structured interviews with 24 professionals, 3 men and 21 women, working in psychiatric care and the social services in two Swedish municipalities in 2016 and 2017. Major barriers are lack of continuity and co-ordination in staff and support, and fragmentation of work practices. As a consequence of the increased specialization of human service organizations, young people have to interact with many different professionals which could cause disparate interventions. Possible ways mentioned to overcome these barriers are supported through good interactional skills, using keyworkers as well therapeutic alliances, wrap-around services and case management. Complexity is linked to organizations and work practices rather than to young people. An often dysfunctional service delivery system in organizations with rigid boundaries may also affect professionals' aim for sustainable support.


The optimization with orthogonality has been shown useful in training deep neural networks (DNNs).
 To impose orthogonality on DNNs, both computational efficiency and stability are important.
 However, existing methods utilizing Riemannian optimization or hard constraints can only ensure stability while those using soft constraints can only improve efficiency.
 In this paper, we propose a novel method, named Feedback Gradient Descent (FGD), to our knowledge, the first work showing high efficiency and stability simultaneously.
 FGD induces orthogonality based on the simple yet indispensable Euler discretization of a continuous-time dynamical system on the tangent bundle of the Stiefel manifold.
 In particular, inspired by a numerical integration method on manifolds called Feedback Integrators, we propose to instantiate it on the tangent bundle of the Stiefel manifold for the first time.
 In our extensive image classification experiments, FGD comprehensively outperforms the existing state-of-the-art methods in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and stability.


Abstract Background Meningiomas often invade venous sinuses, but intravenous sinus meningiomas remain within the intracranial cavity. This case report describes an extremely rare case of tentorial meningioma with venous sinus invasion, extending intraluminally into the lower part of the internal jugular vein in a 59-year-old man. Case presentation The patient's initial surgery involved the supratentorial component of a right tentorial meningioma, which invaded the right transverse and sigmoid sinuses. The supratentorial component of the tumour did not enlarge during the 2-month waiting period for the first surgery. The patient received postoperative radiation therapy for the residual tumour in the intravenous sinus. Despite radiation, the residual tumour developed caudally and ultimately extended into the right internal jugular vein. The average regrowth speed of the extracranial mass was 3.6 mm/month. The patient underwent surgery for the recurrent tumour located in the transverse sinus, sigmoid sinus, jugular bulb, and internal jugular vein, 46 months after the initial surgery. The pathological features of both surgeries were the same; WHO grade I meningothelial meningioma. Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, there have been few case reports of benign meningioma with intraluminal extension into the internal jugular vein, and there have been no reports of long-term observation of such cases. Detailed observation of the present case suggests that the difference in growth speed between the intracranial and venous cavity depends on the surrounding environment.


This article studies the history and historiography of Taiwanese World War II veterans (commonly known as Taiji Riben bing or Taiwanese-native Japanese soldiers), who served as Japanese paramilitary fighting the Chinese and Allied forces. Hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese were recruited into the Japanese forces during the war, serving in Taiwan, mainland China, the Pacific islands, and across Southeast Asia. After the war, however, the experiences of the Taiwanese and Chinese fighting each other were largely repressed and ignored in official and scholarly accounts of the war. Consequently, the Taiwanese veterans were absent in postwar discourse of veterans and public memory of the war. This politically imposed amnesia in the public memory served as a form of amnesty for the Taiwanese veterans, allowing the Kuomintang (KMT) government to redeem these former enemies and re-represent them as a force in its anticommunist campaign since 1949. Overall, forgetting the history of Taiwanese-native Japanese soldiers helped to create and maintain national and social unity in postwar Taiwan under the KMT rule.As a result of this amnesia, Taiwanese veterans have been rather insignificant, if not completely absent, in the postwar discussion of war-related issues such as jus post bellum (war crimes, compensation to the civilians and veterans) and commemoration of the war until 1990. In the 1990s, with the publication of oral history projects and autobiographical works, the history of the Taiwanese veterans gradually emerged out of the private domain and began to draw more attention in the public discourse of the Second World War. This article will argue that the emergence of a new discourse of Taiwanese veterans since the 1990s has served as a (long overdue) redemption for the Taiwanese veterans and the beginning of recovering (and reconstructing) the long-neglected general wartime history of Taiwan. At the same time, however, this new discourse of Taiwanese veterans (and recovered memory of the war) challenges the national and social unity created by political amnesia in postwar Taiwan. Issues related to the historiography of the Taiwanese veterans such as the recent controversy over Lee Tang-hui's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine continue to stir debate over the legacy of the Second World War in Taiwan and to generate conflict over the already divisive national identity in Taiwan.


In the age of Internet, multimedia messages and speed information, it is highly important for communicators to design and create more effective messages to reach their targets. This research addressed the issue of message design by investigating the impact the emotional tone of an online multimedia message has on the perception of the source releasing it. It also explored the influence of the emotional tone on the number of people to whom respondents would forward the messages to and the impact on their comprehension and recognition of risk and benefit information. A 2 (source) x 3 (emotional tone) factorial design online experiment was conducted on youth and young adult women. Results showed that the emotional tone of a message influences the way the respondents perceive the credibility of the source releasing it as well as it influences the number of people to whom respondents would forward the message. Also, risk statements were proven to be better recognized than the benefit ones. Furthermore, implications of the findings on future message design as well as future research directions are discussed.


Introduction: Several aspects are known to influence the drug distribution within the low respiratory tract, with particular emphasis on those related to the inhalation device. The aim of this work was to assess the performance of three spacers in the drug release, and also the quantity of active agent deposited inside these devices. Materials and Methods: In order to evaluate the behaviour of particles in suspension delivered through the Ventilan®HFA inhaler coupled to three different spacers (Volumatic®, AeroChamber MAX® and NebuChamber®) the Multistage Liquid Impinger (MSLI) was used, according to the Portuguese Pharmacopoeia. The mass of salbutamol sulphate deposited on the different impinger compartments and inside the spacer was determined by spectrophotometry, with the purpose of determining the percentage of cumulative mass for each spacer, and then the fine particle fraction. The results were compared statistically using a one-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) with a Bonferroni post-hoc test. Results: About 40 to 50% of salbutamol sulphate was found deposited in the body of the three spacers. This deposition was slightly lower for NebuChamber® (average ± standard deviation of 43.8 % ± 11.6 %), in relation to Volumatic® (p=0.351) or AeroChamber MAX® (p=0.115). The fine particle fraction reached values of 28.2 ± 4.1%, 29.6 ± 2.4% and 30.9 ± 6.7% for Volumatic®, AeroChamber MAX® and NebuChamber®, respectively. Conclusion: The spacers showed to have similar efficiencies in the delivery of salbutamol sulphate in the last stages, and there was no relation between the results and the spacers characteristics such as volume, shape and material. Therefore, Volumatic® appears to be perfect for hospital use, since its big volume does not constitute a disadvantage, and its lower cost, when compared to the remaining two spacers, represents an advantage of utmost importance for public hospitals


Accurate control of grip force during object manipulation is necessary to prevent the object from slipping, especially to compensate for the action of gravitational and inertial forces resulting from hand/object motion. The goal of the current study was to assess whether the control of grip force was influenced by visually induced self-motion (i.e., vection), which would normally be accompanied by changes in object load. The main task involved holding a 400-g object between the thumb and the index finger while being seated within a virtual immersive environment that simulated the vertical motion of an elevator across floors. Different visual motions were tested, including oscillatory (0.21 Hz) and constant-speed displacements of the virtual scene. Different arm-loading conditions were also tested: with or without the hand-held object and with or without oscillatory arm motion (0.9 Hz). At the perceptual level, ratings from participants showed that both oscillatory and constant-speed motion of the elevator rapidly induced a long-lasting sensation of self-motion. At the sensorimotor level, vection compellingness altered arm movement control. Spectral analyses revealed that arm motion was entrained by the oscillatory motion of the elevator. However, we found no evidence that grip force used to hold the object was visually affected. Specifically, spectral analyses revealed no component in grip force that would mirror the virtual change in object load associated with the oscillatory motion of the elevator, thereby allowing the grip-to-load force coupling to remain unaffected. Altogether, our findings show that the neural mechanisms underlying vection interfere with arm movement control but do not interfere with the delicate modulation of grip force. More generally, those results provide evidence that the strength of the coupling between the sensorimotor system and the perceptual level can be modulated depending on the effector.


As organizations and individuals have begun to rely more and more heavily on cloud-service providers for critical tasks, cloud-service reliability has become a top priority. It is natural for cloud-service providers to use redundancy to achieve reliability. For example, a provider may replicate critical state in two data centers. If the two data centers use the same power supply, however, then a power outage will cause them to fail simultaneously; replication per se does not, therefore, enable the cloud-service provider to make strong reliability guarantees to its users. Zhai et al.[socc-submission] present a system, which they refer to as a structural-reliability auditor (SRA), that uncovers common dependencies in seemingly disjoint cloud-in\-fra\-struc\-tu\-ral components (such as the power supply in the example above) and quantifies the risks that they pose. In this paper, we focus on the need for structural-reliability auditing to be done in a privacy-preserving manner. We present a privacy-preserving structural-reliability auditor (P-SRA), discuss its privacy properties, and evaluate a prototype implementation built on the Sharemind SecreC platform[SecreC]. P-SRA is an interesting application of secure multi-party computation (SMPC), which has not often been used for graph problems. It can achieve acceptable running times even on large cloud structures by using a novel data-partitioning technique that may be useful in other applications of SMPC.


Recently interest in adsorption cooling systems has increased due to their capability to utilise low grade heat sources and environmentally friendly refrigerants. Currently, most of the commercially available adsorption cooling systems utilise granular packed adsorbent beds. Enhancing the heat transfer process inside the adsorbent bed will improve the overall ef fi ciency of the adsorption system. Using recently developed empirical lumped analytical simulation model for a 450 kW two-bed silica gel/water adsorption chiller, this paper theoretically investigates the effects of various adsorbent bed heat transfer enhancement techniques on the adsorption system cooling capacity. Firstly, coating the fi rst adsorbent layer to the metal part and packing the rest of adsorbent granules to eliminate the thermal contact resistance between heat exchanger metal and granules while keeping the same level of permeability. Secondly, adding metal particles to the adsorbent in order to enhance the granules thermal conductivity. The effective thermal conductivity of adsorbent/metal mixtures were determined and validated by comparing it with published experimental data. Also, the combined effect of using both techniques simultaneously was investigated. All these investigations were carried out at various adsorption bed fi n spacing. Results of the combined techniques showed that the enhancement in the cooling capacity and system coef fi cient of performance (COP) increased with increasing the fi n spacing ratio to reach maximum of 25% and 10% respectively at fi n spacing ratio of 2. an effective tool for the design of adsorption cooling systems A recently constructed and validated empirical lumped analytical simulation model based on the fundamental


The prime aim of our work is to report and comment on the bioaccessible concentrations – i.e., the soluble content of chemical elements in the gastrointestinal environment that is available for absorption – of a number of essential mineral nutrients and potentially harmful elements (PHEs) associated with the deliberate ingestion of African geophagical materials, namely Calabash chalk and Undongo. The pseudo-total concentrations of 13 mineral nutrients/PHEs were quantified following a nitric-perchloric acid digestion of nine different Calabash chalk samples, and bioaccessible contents of eight of these chemical elements were determined in simulated saliva/gastric and intestinal solutions obtained via use of the Fed ORganic Estimation human Simulation Test (FOREhST) in vitro procedure. The Calabash chalk pseudo-total content of the chemical elements is often below what may be regarded as average for soils/shales, and no concentration is excessively high. The in vitro leachate solutions had concentrations that were often lower than those of the blanks used in our experimental procedure, indicative of effective adsorption: lead, a PHE about which concern has been previously raised in connection with the consumption of Calabash chalk, was one such chemical element where this was evident. However, some concentrations in the leachate solutions are suggestive that Calabash chalk can be a source of chemical elements to humans in bioaccessible form, although generally the materials appear to be only a modest supplier: this applies even to iron, a mineral nutrient that has often been linked to the benefits of geophagia in previous academic literature. Our investigations indicate that at the reported rates of ingestion, Calabash chalk on the whole is not an important source of mineral nutrients or PHEs to humans. Similarly, although Undongo contains elevated pseudo-total concentrations of chromium and nickel, this soil is not a significant source to humans for any of the bioaccessible elements investigated.


This thesis studies the effect of the traffic bursts in the queue. Knowledge of the queueing behavior provides opportunity for additional control and improved performance. Most existing work on queueing today is based on Long-Range-Dependence (LRD) and Self-similarity, two well-known properties of network traffic at large scales. However, network traffic shows bursty behavior on small scales which are not captured by traditional self-similar models. We leverage a decomposition of traffic into two components. The alpha component is the bursty part of the traffic consisting of only few high bandwidth connections. The beta component collects the residual traffic and is a Gaussian LRD process. The alpha component is highly non-Gaussian and bursty. We propose two models for the alpha component, a heavy-tailed self-similar process and a high rate ON/OFF source. Our results explain how size and type of bursts affect the queueing behavior.


Viruses contain either DNA or RNA as genomes. DNA viruses replicate within nucleus, while most RNA viruses, especially (+)-sense single-stranded RNA, replicate and are present within cytoplasm. We proposed a new thought that is contrary to the common notion that (+)-sense single-stranded RNA viruses are present only in the cytoplasm. In this study, we question whether the genome of a plant RNA virus (non-retroviral) is present in the nucleus of infected cells? Hibiscus chlorotic ringspot virus (HCRSV) RNA was detected in the nucleus of infected cells, as shown by fluorescent in situ hybridization. Western blot using anti-histone 3 and anti-phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase showed that nuclei were highly purified from mock and HCRSV-infected kenaf (Hibiscus cannabilis L.) leaves, respectively. The p23 and HCRSV coat protein (CP) coding regions were both amplified from total RNA extracted from isolated nuclei. Viral RNA in the nucleus may be used to generate viral microRNAs (vir-miRNAs), as five putative vir-miRNAs were predicted from HCRSV using the vir-miRNAs prediction database. The vir-miRNA (hcrsv-miR-H1-5p) was detected using TaqMan® stem-loop real-time PCR, and by northern blot using DIG-end labeled probe in HCRSV-infected kenaf leaves. Finally, a novel nuclear localization signal (NLS) was discovered in p23 of HCRSV. The NLS interacts with importin α and facilitates viral RNA genome to enter nucleus. We demonstrate the presence of a (+)-sense single-stranded viral RNA within nucleus.


This paper puts forth a novel algorithm, termed \emph{truncated generalized gradient flow} (TGGF), to solve for $\bm{x}\in\mathbb{R}^n/\mathbb{C}^n$ a system of $m$ quadratic equations $y_i=|\langle\bm{a}_i,\bm{x}\rangle|^2$, $i=1,2,\ldots,m$, which even for $\left\{\bm{a}_i\in\mathbb{R}^n/\mathbb{C}^n\right\}_{i=1}^m$ random is known to be \emph{NP-hard} in general. We prove that as soon as the number of equations $m$ is on the order of the number of unknowns $n$, TGGF recovers the solution exactly (up to a global unimodular constant) with high probability and complexity growing linearly with the time required to read the data $\left\{\left(\bm{a}_i;\,y_i\right)\right\}_{i=1}^m$. Specifically, TGGF proceeds in two stages: s1) A novel \emph{orthogonality-promoting} initialization that is obtained with simple power iterations; and, s2) a refinement of the initial estimate by successive updates of scalable \emph{truncated generalized gradient iterations}. The former is in sharp contrast to the existing spectral initializations, while the latter handles the rather challenging nonconvex and nonsmooth \emph{amplitude-based} cost function. Numerical tests demonstrate that: i) The novel orthogonality-promoting initialization method returns more accurate and robust estimates relative to its spectral counterparts; and ii) even with the same initialization, our refinement/truncation outperforms Wirtinger-based alternatives, all corroborating the superior performance of TGGF over state-of-the-art algorithms.


Extracts from the speech of three women with Alzheimer's Disease are analyzed in order to highlight functions of pauses, fillers, placeholders, and formulaic phrases. Although other features of their speech decline, placeholders, fillers and formulaic sequences are still used appropriately and help cement interaction by providing appropriate cues to the conversational partner. The analysis is placed within the context of analyses of pauses in disordered conversations. Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, pauses, fillers, placeholders, formulaicity


Background: Gliomas are neuroepithelial tumours classified by cell type and grade. In adults, low-grade gliomas are comprised mainly of astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas grade II. The aim was to non-invasively characterise suspected low-grade gliomas through use of 11C-methionine-PET and physiological MRI in order to facilitate treatment decisions.Materials and methods: Patients with suspected low-grade glioma were prospectively and consecutively included after referral to the Neurosurgical Department, Uppsala University Hospital, between February 2010 and February 2014. All patients underwent morphological MRI, perfusion MRI, diffusion MRI and 11C-methionine PET. The institutional review board approved the study, and written informed consent was obtained prior to participation from each patient.Results: 11C-methionine PET hot spot regions corresponded spatially with regions of maximum relative cerebral blood volume in dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) perfusion MRI. The skewness of the transfer constantin dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) perfusion MRI, and the standard deviation of relative cerebral blood flow in DSC perfusion MRI could most efficiently discriminate between glioma grades II and III. In diffusion MRI, tumour fractional anisotropy differed between suspected low-grade gliomas of different neuropathological types. Quantitative diffusion tensor tractography was applicable for the evaluation of tract segment infiltration.Conclusion: PET and physiological MRI are able to characterise low-grade gliomas and are promising tools for guiding therapy and clinical decisions before neuropathological diagnosis has been obtained.


Bleaching relaxation in lead salt (PbS) quantum dots (QDs) of various sizes and under different pump intensities has been studied. The observed bleaching relaxation features (particularly, shortening of the bleaching relaxation times with a decrease in the QD size and an increase of the pump-light intensity) are explained in the context of the proposed spectroscopic model. The model takes into account transitions of the excited-charge carriers both within the system of quantum-confined energy levels and the defect states of the QDs. The characteristic times of the direct electron-hole recombination, carriers trapping to the defect states, and their subsequent relaxation from these states as well as the cross sections of the ground-state and excited-state absorption of charge carriers can be evaluated from the experimental data for PbS QDs of different sizes and under different pumping conditions using this model.


Currently, there are two main methodologies for the calculation of the electronic structure and properties of crystalline solids. Known as the Hartree-Fock Method (HF) and the Density Functional Theory (DFT) methods, they are based on two different theories for the numerical solution of the many electron Schrödinger equation. Unfortunately, in highly correlated electron systems like transition metal complexes, both the HF and DFT methods have severe shortcomings. In some cases they fail to provide the correct description of the electronic structure. In general, the HF method overestimates the energy band gap due to the neglect of electron correlation effects and the incorrect description of electron interactions in the unoccupied orbitals. In contrast, even though electron correlation effects are implicitly included in the density functional, DFT often underestimates the band gap due to the improper treatment of the electron self-interaction. To amend these problems, two approaches have been proposed. The deficiency in the HF scheme can be corrected using a hybrid method which adds exchange correlation energy borrowed from DFT to help reduce the band gap energy and bring the predictions in better agreement with experiment. To improve DFT, the LDA+U approach, which uses a model Hubbard-like Hamiltonian including an on-site repulsion parameter U, can be employed. This method is a convenient semi-quantitative way to efficiently calculate the band gap of insulators and semiconductors. In this thesis, the electronic structure of YTiO3 under pressure is investigated using the aforementioned approaches. The performance and reliability of these methods will be examined, compared and discussed.