Soil erosion by water and wind processes are carried out widely. So one of the best ways to estimate soil loss and land degradation is regional erodibility model. The aim of this research is codification regional erodibility model by statistical methods, the relation survey in Khoor and Biabanak between physical properties of soils and remote sensing indices. Sampling Method field was linear transect method and picked up 33 soil samples from depths of 0 to 50 cm. By transferring the samples to the laboratory, were calculated the elements of sand, clay, silt, organic matter and carbon, and then measurement erodibility values using the K-factor and SEI index. Then, was taken OLI sensor image accordance time sampling from USGS website. And were extracted the indices by enforcing functions the amount of Clay, NDVI, GOSAVI, SAVI, TSAVI, NDSI, SCI and GSAVI. Finally, were calculated using Pearson correlation between physical elements and soil erodibility with Remote sensing indices. At the end of for modeling SEI and K, through simple and multiple regression attempts to gauge the relationship between these parameters and selected best models from among with higher preference value. The results of modeling SEI represents the maximum linear correlation with the indices SAVI, NDVI and TSAVI respectively, with coefficient of 0.69, 0.66 and 0.63, and K factor linear correlation with the indices NDSI, SAVI and SCI, respectively, with a coefficient of determination 0.63 0.61 and 0.58 is at level 99%. Multiple regression analysis also showed a high correlation with group consensus SEI, K and Remote Sensing indices, respectively, with a coefficient of determination 0.517 and 0.564 and estimated error 0.0031144 and 0.0092369 at level 99%. Therefore, can estimate the amount of soil erodibility by remote sensing indices and univariate and multivariate statistical models. Which enables fast and precise estimation of SEI and K values in the Khoor and Biabanak region.


In the past three decades, kangaroo mother care (KMC) has been established as a safe and effective method of infant care, with the potential for improving the survival of low-birth-weight newborns, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Despite many implementation, education and training efforts, some countries are finding it difficult to increase their coverage of KMC, and individual institutions still struggle to get KMC institutionalised in a sustainable way. In the past decade a better understanding has emerged on the health system pathways followed in the implementation of KMC.
The initiative reported in this paper started out with a review of education and training practices in the implementation of KMC across the world. This was discussed at an international workshop and further inputs were derived from individuals' experience, unpublished literature provided by colleagues, and published material. This report gives an overview of some of the key implementation and training issues identified by the group and recommendations emanating from the collaborative process.
A triangular change process that includes change agents and the choice of implementation and educational models is proposed. The different functions for change agents as drivers, trainers and implementers are discussed. The grassroots, policy and academic dimensions are presented as different pathways for initiating KMC. Educational models are developed locally and are determined by the context.
Education and training in KMC should be underpinned by the same basic understanding of the concept and should be accompanied by the creation of awareness, committed 'champions', multidisciplinary teamwork and continuous support from senior management. It should be based on the evidence produced by research, conducted according to current best practice in education, and locally appropriate and applicable.


OBJECTIVES
To verify and quantify previously reported risk factors for development of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in the fellow eye of patients with 1 eye affected with CNV secondary to age-related macular degeneration, to examine the value of characteristics of the pericentral macula in the quantification of risk for developing CNV, and to explore whether the presence of occult CNV in the first eye affects the development of CNV in the fellow eye.

DESIGN, PATIENTS, AND SETTING
Follow-up study of fellow eyes of 670 patients enrolled in multicenter, randomized clinical trials of laser photocoagulation of juxtafoveal or subfoveal CNV.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Development of CNV.

RESULTS
Three characteristics of the central macula of the fellow eye and 1 systemic factor were associated independently with an increased risk of developing CNV: the presence of 5 or more drusen (relative risk, 2.1; 95% confidence interval, 1.3-3.5), focal hyperpigmentation (relative risk, 2.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.4-2.9), 1 or more large drusen (relative risk, 1.5; 95% confidence interval 1.0-2.2), and definite systemic hypertension (relative risk, 1.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.2-2.4). Estimated 5-year incidence rates ranged from 7% for the subgroup with no risk factors to 87% for the subgroup with all 4 risk factors. Characteristics of the pericentral macula were not strongly associated with the development of CNV. The presence of occult CNV in the first eye affected had no influence on the development of CNV or on the type of CNV in the fellow eye.

CONCLUSIONS
The prognosis of the fellow eye is affected strongly by characteristics of its central macula and by systemic hypertension. These factors should be considered when counseling patients with unilateral neovascular age-related macular degeneration and when targeting patients for preventive interventions.


The Robot World Cup Soccer Games and Conferences (RoboCup) are a series of competitions and events designed to promote the full integration of AI and robotics research. Following the first RoboCup, held in Nagoya, Japan, in 1997, RoboCup-98 was held in Paris from 2-9 July, overlapping with the real World Cup soccer competition. RoboCup-98 included competitions in three leagues: (1) the simulation league, (2) the real robot small-size league, and (3) the real robot middle-size league. Champion teams were cmunited-98 in both the simulation and the real robot small-size leagues and cs-freiburg (Freiburg, Germany) in the real robot middle-size league. RoboCup-98 also included a Scientific Challenge Award, which was given to three research groups for their simultaneous development of fully automatic commentator systems for the RoboCup simulator league. Over 15,000 spectators watched the games, and 120 international media provided worldwide coverage of the competition.


Why BBS? Rushton invites commentary on his speculations by a wide spectrum of academics, yet he seems to pay no attention whatsoever to previous objections to sociobiology in the pages of this journal or elsewhere. Vaulting Ambition , by Kitcher (1985), the subject of peer commentary in BBS (1987), provided an incisive critique of Wilsonian sociobiology, and most of his points apply directly to Rushton's article. Yet Rushton proceeds as though those words had never been written. His article is presented as a development within a narrowly conceived sociobiology, and he cites the works of like-minded colleagues whom he considers authorities on everything from marriage and child abuse to patriotism and war.


Ophiolites crop out discontinuously in the Northern Calabrian Arc (Southern Italy). They consist of high pressure/low temperature metamorphic ophiolitic sequences of Late Jurassic-?Early Cretaceous age, in which a metabasic and metaultramafic association is the base of a complex metasedimentary cover ranging from pelagic to flyschoid type sediments. These ophiolitic sequences, interpreted as slices of oceanic lithosphere belonging to the Jurassic Tethys realm, occupy an intermediate position in the northern Calabrian Arc nappe pile, between the overlying Hercynian continental lithosphere (Calabride nappe) and the underlying Apenninic carbonate units.In the literature, these ophiolitic sequences are subdivided into several tectonometamorphic units; some authors distinguished between an upper slightly metamorphic ophiolitic unit and a lower HP-metamorphic ophiolitic unit. This subdivision contrasts with new petrological data and geothermobarometric modelling. In fact, the overall P-T evolution for several ophiolitic sequences from the northern Calabrian arc describes comparable paths, characterized by a HP-LT metamorphism followed by retrogression under greenschist facies conditions. The metamorphic climax is calculated at pressures ranging between 0,9 and 1,1 GPa and a temperature around 380°C.Moreover, structural analysis of rocks characterized by HP syn-metamorphic ductile deformation suggests that tectonic evolution is quite homogeneous and similar, although different degrees of deformation can be observed. The high-pressure mineral assemblage defines a pervasive foliation developed during a compressive tectonic event (D1) that transposed the earlier structures. A second tectonic event (D2) which occurred during decompression at 0,4 GPa, produced millimetre to decametre scale asymmetric folds. Later extensional brittle structures are responsible for final exhumation of the HP rocks.The tectonometamorphic evolution of the ophiolitic sequences of Northern Calabrian Arc is well explained in a context in which the oceanic-derived rocks underwent subduction and exhumation as tectonic slices inside an accretionary wedge.


This paper describes and establishes a new method that examines the sequence of two crossing strokes in different colors in a questioned document. In order to identify the writing sequence, an empirical method is usually used to find out some physical evidence by human eyes with a microscope. However, owing to the phenomenon of mixed inks in the intersection, there is still some drawbacks with the conventional approaches. Hence, in addition to the empirical method, a new method using Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope (LSCM) is adopted. Unlike the conventional light source, the LSCM system uses a krypton argon laser source to emit a laser beam of three different wavelengths. The beam goes through a scanning control unit to act as the function of light scanning, and passes through the objective lens of microscope to the surface of crossing strokes. Reflected light goes the same pathway back to the scanning control unit and is collected by a photomultiplier where the image is reconstructed from a series of signals derived from the photomultiplier output, and saved onto a personal computer. It is necessary to scan the point probe over the field of view and capture sectional images in various depths. By overlaping every sectional image followed by computerized reconstruction, we can observe the evidence to help identify the writing sequence in the questioned document by means of a stereo spectacles. Experimental results show that with the help of the LSCM, together with the method we developed, more accurate judgments are achieved.


Cinema has been for many diasporic communities the privileged site of self-representation and sometimes of idealistic (re)construction of homeland. Over the past thirty years, Palestinian cinema has constituted a site for negotiation and circulation of values and behaviors that have contributed to the creation and perpetuation of Palestinian cultural and national identity against the systematic denial of such an identity by the Israeli occupier.I argue that the formation of a Palestinian identity has been and remains a continuous vital process rather than a final preshaped construct. However, the performative act of cultural identification has been more successful than the building of a national Palestinian state. Photography as well as cinema–fiction and documentary–has succeeded in establishing a recognizable cultural identity of the Palestinian people, while other discourses (political, ethnic, and religious) seem to have failed to achieve this goal. Diaspora becomes in this perspective a vehicle of change and a territory from which other forms of resistance emerge, including resistance to and critical dissociation from self-indulgent archaic value systems associated with ethnic, social, and historical identifications.I analyze in this essay Palestinian-Belgian filmmaker Michel Khleifi's documentary and feature films as sites of a diasporic reconstruction of identity. I then focus on iconic representations of the face (the portrait and the close-up) and the landscape (the panoramic establishing shots), arguing that photographers and filmmakers alike have made extensive use of the face and the landscape in order to authenticate the Palestinian reality and fetishize–through remembrance and material replacements–the lost land of Palestine.


In a number of surveys (both national and international) it has been highlighted
that companies from the construction industry have difficulties with evaluating IT
investments (Andresen 1999;CICA and CIRIA 1995). The reasons for this are many
but one of the major ones is the poor adoption of IT evaluation methods. This paper
focuses on how companies can choose between the many available IT evaluation
methods by presenting a framework for how to choose a matching method. The
primary objective of the paper is to present the findings of a completed Ph.D.
project, but also importantly to discuss why this topic is relevant for companies in
the construction industry by highlighting the benefits of increased knowledge of the
value of companies' IT investments.
The framework has been developed on the basis of both theoretical and empirical
data collection and analysis of the available methods, a questionnaire survey and
five case studies. Firstly, 82 IT evaluation methods have been identified in a
literature review (and the list is not complete), from which a number of
characteristics have been derived, and this has enabled a categorisation of the
identified methods. Secondly, a national survey was completed investigating the
sophistication of the Danish companies' IT evaluation practice. This was done in
order to establish an overview of current IT evaluation practice. Thirdly, five case
studies were completed in which four different methods were tested according to
their usefulness in real-life IT evaluations.
The presented framework consists of (a) 21 parameters (which can be used to
describe the characteristics of different IT evaluation scenarios), (b) a weighting
system (allowing putting a higher emphasis on certain parameters) and (c) a set of
procedures for identifying a matching IT evaluation method. The framework's
output has been validated by comparing these with the experience gained in the
case studies.


Nanofluidic diodes based on nanochannels have been studied theoretically and experimentally for applications such as biosensors and logic gates. However, when analyzing attoliter-scale samples or enabling high-density integration of lab-on-a-chip devices, it is beneficial to miniaturize the size of a nanofluidic channel. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate conductance of nanopores in bilayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). Remarkably, we found that triangular nanopores possess excellent rectifications of ionic currents while hexagonal ones do not. It is worth highlighting that the pore length is only about 0.7 nm, which is about the atomic limit for a bipolar diode. We determined scaling relations between ionic currents I and pore sizes L for small nanopores, that are I ∼ L1 in a forward biasing voltage and I ∼ L2 in a reverse biasing voltage. Simulation results qualitatively agree with analytical ones derived from the one-dimensional Poisson-Nerst-Planck equations.


Modern on-line collaborative learning environments need to be continuously adapted, adjusted, and personalized to each specific target learning group. Moreover, these environments are to enable and scale the involvement of an increasing large number of single/group participants who can geographically be widely distributed, and who need transparently share a huge variety of both software and hardware distributed resources. As a result, collaborative learning applications need to be designed in a way that overcome important non-functional requirements arisen in distributed contexts, such as scalability, availability, interoperability, and integration of different, heterogeneous, and legacy collaborative learning systems. In this paper, an innovative distributed-based approach is presented for increasing the overall performance of collaborative learning systems that contributes to the effectiveness of the collaborative activities, such as online discussions. The experimental results show an outstanding effect on the learning processes and outcomes by enhancing and improving the learning experience a great deal.


*Corresponding author A detailed airborne magnetic and gamma-ray spectrometric as well as ground gravity survey in the south-western part of the Moldanubian Zone (Bohemian Massif) provided detailed geophysical characteristics of the principal geological units and large-scale tectonic features. The Knižeci Stolec durbachitic pluton with high contents of natural radioactive elements (Th, U and K) represents a body with no magnetically anomalous response but a pronounced positive gravity anomaly. The Křisťanov granulite massif, which is a host rock of the Knižeci Stolec pluton, exhibits low concentrations of Th and U, high abundances of K, slight magnetic and a negative gravity anomalies. The Plechý composite pluton is characterized by strikingly low gravity and an extremely monotonous magnetic field. One of its petrographic varieties (the Třistolicnik granite) is enriched in natural radioactive elements, especially in Th and U. Metamorphic complexes of the Monotonous and Varied groups contain multiple magnetic anomalies mostly related to the intercalated metabasic rocks; they also cause positive gravity anomalies. The Linsser density boundaries at a depth of 0.5 km clearly delimit the Plechý composite pluton and the Lhenice zone and indicate several structurally and/or lithologically different domains within the Křisťanov granulite massif and in the Knižeci Stolec pluton. The 2.5D gravity model indicates an asymmetric shape of the Knižeci Stolec pluton, which is deepest in its SE part (at least 4 km). The joint interpretation of the geophysical and structural data revealed that the maximum depth of the pluton is c. 4.5 km, with gently to moderately dipping intrusive contacts in the north and subvertical orientation in the south. The asymmetric shape of the pluton is consistent with its inferred syn-tectonic emplacement coeval with the regional subvertical contraction and development of regional flat-lying fabric. The gravity model combined with structural analyses also implies a considerable depth of the south Bohemian granulite massifs. This indicates their steep exhumation path and is at variance with the model of the Moldanubian Zone as a sequence of flat-lying nappes. The south-western part of the studied area is reworked by the NE-directed compression, referred to as the 'Bavarian' deformation phase.


It is not just a watch. It is a masterpiece of intellectual property (IP) rights. It is not just a revolutionary product. It is the next chapter in Apple Inc.'s story.Apple believes in technology designed for the wrist (such as a smartwatch), but also in a strong design patent protection strategy. To protect this wearable, as a result of their investment, Apple applied for and received several design patents. Every detail is protected: the drawer where the watches are shown, the bracelet, the "slide-in" interchangeable strap system mechanism, the digital crown, the display, the charger, the retail box, etc. Future innovations will however continue to copy this kind of consumer products and challenge the Courts.In this context, developing and/or acquiring intellectual property rights may create a solid foundation for growth and success. Indeed, a winning exploitation of IP assets, including but not limited to know-how, patents, trademarks, aligned with your passion for innovation and your business strategy, may contribute to increase protection and enforcement measures against infringers and competitors.This Note examines how a maker of wearable devices, such as Apple, can use different forms of intellectual property rights in Europe, China, and the United States, as well as other intangible assets, to protect a business product.


Homoeopathic medicine has been one of the world′s most widely practiced alternative therapies. However, that the potency of a homoeopathic medicine increases with dilution followed by succussion (together termed as potentization) has thrown challenges to the scientific community at large. A recent hypothesis, advanced by us and others, is that due to the process of potentization, the size of the constituent particles decreases and eventually reaches nanodimension. This decrease in size with increase in potency has been verified by scanning electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering studies. The increase in potency is manifested in its increased effect on membrane fluidity. The change in potency also leaves its signature on Ultraviolet-Visible spectra, Fourier transform infrared radiation spectra and Raman spectra. We have taken one step further to carry this nano-dimensional property of homoeopathic medicine and put it into several technical applications. And in so doing, we have connected the important, old, un-quantifiable effects with the latest quantifiable technology and opened up an era of applications with more possibilities.


The passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001 sparked widespread controversy over the federal government's proper role in public education. Opponents criticized the legislation as an unprecedented federal intrusion on state and local governments' policymaking authority. Whereas previous incarnations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) required local schools and districts to comply with detailed rules about how to spend categorical funds, federal moneys were never before made contingent on a rigorous testing and accountability regime. By requiring annual testing and tying federal funding to student outcomes, the new legislation signaled a shift in the federal government's role vis a vis subnational governing bodies. This shift in authority led some to question whether state and local governments' structural protections from federal overreaching are dead — at least in the field of public education. In The Political Safeguards of Federalism, Herbert Wechsler argued that because states' rights are preserved through the legislative process, the Supreme Court need not intervene to protect states from federal regulatory intervention. The legislative process shelters state autonomy, Wechsler argued, by ensuring that federal legislation must gain the approval of the Senate, which is responsive to state interests, the House, whose congressional districts are dictated by state legislatures, and the President, who depends on states through the electoral college system. According to critics, congressional acquiescence in President George W. Bush's drive for top-down standards-based reform (SBR) demonstrates the failure of these traditional safeguards. Beginning in the 1990s the Supreme Court stopped deferring to federal regulatory authority and began striking down legislation it deemed overly intrusive. According to the Court, national political institutions had failed to protect state interests, thus necessitating a more robust role for the judiciary in preserving the delicate balance between state and federal interests. Because federal legislators are under pressure to solve pressing national problems but are not responsible for implementation, they will inevitably pass the buck to state representatives by voting for coercive, unfunded mandates. Bipartisan support for NCLB, which brought together the likes of Representative Tom DeLay, a fierce opponent of federal intervention who once sought to eliminate the Department of Education, and liberal Democrats such as Senator Edward Kennedy, lends support to the Supreme Court's more aggressive stance. It could be argued that federal representatives arrived at a legislative compromise without seriously considering NCLB's impact on a broad spectrum of state and local constituents. In response to mounting criticism of Wechsler's theory, Dean Larry Kramer has developed an alternative version of the political safeguards framework. He posits that the political party system itself protects states from federal intrusion because each party has representatives operating at multiple layers of government, all of whom are mutually dependent. According to this theory, representatives at the national level must respond to local and state concerns in exchange for political support, thus producing a natural check on federal encroachment. Dean Kramer further characterizes the proliferation of bureaucratic agencies beginning with the New Deal as an additional political safeguard of federalism. Like national political parties, regulatory agencies link federal, state, and local administrators together because the federal government relies on administrators at lower levels of government to implement policy. Dean Kramer's revived political safeguards theory has interesting implications for the education field because of the unique role that politics and bureaucracy have played in the promulgation and implementation of federal education legislation. In this paper, I will apply Kramer's political safeguards thesis to four educational reform movements: a New Deal Youth Program, administrative progressivism, the ESEA, and the modern standards-based reform (SBR) movement culminating in NCLB. Specifically, I will draw on educational reforms of these four periods to explore the extent to which bureaucracy and the party system can successfully mediate disputes over the division of power between local, state, and federal government. I will begin by comparing the role of bureaucracy in furthering or frustrating federalist aims in education governance under President Roosevelt's New Deal and President Johnson's Great Society. Then, I will consider the role of party politics in federal education reform, from progressives' attempt to depoliticize the field to the political consensus embodied in NCLB.


In data mining and knowledge discovery, pattern discovery extracts previously unknown regularities in the data and is a useful tool for categorical data analysis. However, the number of patterns discovered is often overwhelming. It is difficult and time-consuming to 1) interpret the discovered patterns and 2) use them to further analyze the data set. To overcome these problems, this paper proposes a new method that clusters patterns and their associated data simultaneously. When patterns are clustered, the data containing the patterns are also clustered; and the relation between patterns and data is made explicit. Such an explicit relation allows the user on the one hand to further analyze each pattern cluster via its associated data cluster, and on the other hand to interpret why a data cluster is formed via its corresponding pattern cluster. Since the effectiveness of clustering mainly depends on the distance measure, several distance measures between patterns and their associated data are proposed. Their relationships to the existing common ones are discussed. Once pattern clusters and their associated data clusters are obtained, each of them can be further analyzed individually. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, experimental results on synthetic and real data are reported.


We perform an experimental study of the dynamics of Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) in learning deep neural networks for several real and synthetic classification tasks. We show that in the initial epochs, almost all of the performance improvement of the classifier obtained by SGD can be explained by a linear classifier. More generally, we give evidence for the hypothesis that, as iterations progress, SGD learns functions of increasing complexity. This hypothesis can be helpful in explaining why SGD-learned classifiers tend to generalize well even in the over-parameterized regime. We also show that the linear classifier learned in the initial stages is "retained" throughout the execution even if training is continued to the point of zero training error, and complement this with a theoretical result in a simplified model. Key to our work is a new measure of how well one classifier explains the performance of another, based on conditional mutual information.


A strong collision between the Eurasian and Philippine Sea Plates causes high seismicity in the Taiwan region. A substantial number of cities and large towns exist on thick sediments in western Taiwan. Larger-magnitude inland earthquakes, for example the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake, can cause serious damage in urban areas. Consequently, urban seismology is of great interest to the local seismological community. The Taipei Metropolitan Area (TMA) is the political, economic, and cultural center of Taiwan. It is situated over a region where the Philippine Sea plate subducts the Eurasian plate. Although seismicity in the TMA is lower than other areas of Taiwan, earthquakes still occur. Seismic risk mitigation is of grave concern in the TMA because of its high population, number of tall buildings, mass rapid transit system, and two nearby nuclear power plants. In this article, procedures for seismic risk mitigation, previous studies, core issues for future research and related topics are described and reviewed.


This chapter describes an experimental investigation into the dynamic mechanical properties of coir and coconut husk particulate reinforced polymer composites which were prepared by the hot press method. The composite was immersed in a strongly acidic environment of pH 2.2 for a period of 14 and 28 days (14P and 28P). Values of storage modulus at different vibrational frequencies recorded for the polymers at low temperatures where the molecules are still tightly compressed and the region of first solid state transitions are: Control sample (CS ) —913.18, 984.18 and 979.94 MPa; 14P—505.54, 492.47 and 473.60 MPa and 28P—282.25, 298.70 and 285.36 MPa at 2, 5 and 10 Hz, respectively. While values of loss modulus at different vibrational frequencies are: CS—113.32, 109.43 and 107.62 MPa, 14P—92.92, 92.92 and 101.93 MPa and 28P—46.08, 45.61 and 45.18 MPa at 2, 5 and 10 Hz, respectively. Degradation of the mechanical properties was ascribed to the penetration and absorption that occurred between the acid solution and the composite constituents (matrix, filler, and fiber). It was found that frequency variation influenced the dynamic mechanical properties of the polymer composite at the points of measurement.


In 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law. This paper explores the implications of these new healthcare policies in the United States, given that a universal healthcare system has already being put in place. More specifically, it explores the question "Does the new 'universal healthcare' system bring with it obligations for citizens participating within the system to be more conscientious about their health and lifestyle choices? And if so, on what grounds?". I argue that individuals have strong social and moral obligations within a universal healthcare system to take the minimal provisions required for staying healthy (eating healthy, exercising, getting vaccinations, smoking cessation, and attending routine "check-ups") in order to not burden others with easily avoidable healthcare costs. These new obligations are grounded in the duty of fair play stemming from the fact that health insurance is a cooperative scheme. Furthermore this paper will show that when a universal healthcare scheme is in place, the healthcare resources become a 'common good' which is susceptible to a collective action problem known as 'the tragedy of the commons', and thus also give recommendations for its solution. The solutions that I endorse, although designed to address the free-rider problem recognized David Winkler, shows that Winkler's solution goes too far by indiscriminately punishing every unhealthy individual within a universal healthcare system.


Kaman is the extension of Kerberos protocol; with the use of Kaman nodes in the ad hoc network are authenticated by the secure server. This posed the remedial venture to large number of attacks like replay attack, fabrication, eavesdropping etc Kaman provides secure solution to the problem of secure channel establishment, secure exchange of session keys and prevention of nodes identity forgery. In this paper, we reviewed the Kaman; Kerberos assisted Authentication in Mobile Ad hoc Network. We have also emphasized the problem of black hole that aroused when Kaman protocol is embedded into large network.AODV, ondemand routing protocol had been used to select secure shortest path, when node interacts with an authenticated server for mutual authentication.


Context. The transiting exoplanetary system WASP-174 was reported to be composed by a main-sequence F star (V = 11.8 mag) and a giant planet, WASP-174b (orbital period Porb = 4.23 days). However only an upper limit was placed on the planet mass (<1.3 MJup), and a highly uncertain planetary radius (0.7−1.7 RJup) was determined.
Aims. We aim to better characterise both the star and the planet and precisely measure their orbital and physical parameters.
Methods. In order to constrain the mass of the planet, we obtained new measurements of the radial velocity of the star and joined them with those from the discovery paper. Photometric data from the HATSouth survey and new multi-band, high-quality (precision reached up to 0.37 mmag) photometric follow-up observations of transit events were acquired and analysed for getting accurate photometric parameters. We fit the model to all the observations, including data from the TESS space telescope, in two different modes: incorporating the stellar isochrones into the fit, and using an empirical method to get the stellar parameters. The two modes resulted to be consistent with each other to within 2σ.
Results. We confirm the grazing nature of the WASP-174b transits with a confidence level greater than 5σ, which is also corroborated by simultaneously observing the transit through four optical bands and noting how the transit depth changes due to the limb-darkening effect. We estimate that ≈76% of the disk of the planet actually eclipses the parent star at mid-transit of its transit events. We find that WASP-174b is a highly-inflated hot giant planet with a mass of Mp = 0.330 ± 0.091 MJup and a radius of Rp = 1.435 ± 0.050 RJup, and is therefore a good target for transmission-spectroscopy observations. With a density of ρp = 0.135 ± 0.042 g cm−3, it is amongst the lowest-density planets ever discovered with precisely measured mass and radius.


The basis for fixation of condylar fractures is strongly determined by surgical decision using available technology. Recent developments of technology include the retrograde distal femoral nail (DFN), with condylar "bolts" (T2 SCN), and along with the dynamic condylar screw (DCS) and various combinations of additional screws and wire, these devices form the primary elements available for fracture fixation. This paper looks at the relative structural performance of these constructs under the action of an idealised loading condition -- axial load through the femoral head in line with the mechanical (c.f. anatomical) axis of the femur. The finite element method is used. The geometric models have been created using available published information, and meshing generated using tetrahedral elements. Some reasonable assumptions about the properties of cortical and cancellous bone have been made. The effect of good quality and poor quality cancellous bone has been considered.

The results show the displacements of each device and some of the key stressed regions using each construct principle. The use of condylar bolts produces significant levels of stress within the bone before any patient-load is applied, but provides a stiffer construct for subsequent loading.

Surgeons will make their own decisions about the appropriate construct for each patient, but this evaluation is intended to help with that decision making.


Non-capsulate strains of Haemophilus influenzae were genotyped by analysis of variable DNA segments obtained by amplification of genomic DNA with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR fingerprinting). Discrete fragments of 100-2000 bp were obtained. The reproducibility of the procedure was assessed by comparing: (i) the fingerprints of 16 colonies of a single H. influenzae strain; (ii) isolates obtained from individual sputum samples (a total of 57 H. influenzae isolates from three cystic fibrosis patients); and (iii) 17 isolates collected during an outbreak of H. influenzae infection in a local pulmonary rehabilitation centre. The discriminatory power of the method was demonstrated by showing that the PCR fingerprints of eight unrelated H. influenzae strains from sputum samples of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 32 strains from cystic fibrosis patients were all different. These 40 isolates also differed with respect to their restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) and major outer-membrane protein (MOMP) composition. Twelve MOMP antigenic strain variants from sputum samples of five COPD patients had identical PCR fingerprints and RFLPs. It was concluded that PCR fingerprinting is a reliable and reproducible method for genotyping non-capsulate strains of H. influenzae. The discriminatory power of PCR fingerprinting was similar to that of RFLP analysis, but the results of PCR fingerprinting were easier to interpret.


Empirical research provides evidence of strong interaction between cognitive and affective processes in the human mind. Education research proposes a model of constructive learning that relates cognitive and affective processes in an evolving cycle of affective states. Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) are capable of providing comprehensive cognitive support. Affective support in ITSs, however, is lagging behind; the in-depth exploration of cognitive and affective processes in ITSs is yet to be seen. Our research focuses on the integration of affective support in an ITS enhanced with an affective pedagogical agent. In our work we adopt the dimensional (versus categorical) view of emotions for modelling affective states of the agent and the ITSs users. In two stages we develop and evaluate an affective pedagogical agent. The affective response of the first agent version is based on the appraisal of the interaction state; this agent's affective response is displayed as affective facial expressions. The pilot study at the end of the first stage of the project confirms the viability of our approach which combines the dimensional view of emotions with the appraisal of interaction state. In the second stage of the project we develop a facial feature tracking application for real-time emotion recognition in a video-stream. Affective awareness of the second version of the agent is based on the output from the facial feature tracking application and the appraisal of the interaction state. This agent's response takes the form of affectoriented messages designed to interrupt the state of negative flow. The evaluation of the affect-aware agent against an unemotional affect-unaware agent provides positive results, thus confirming the superiority of the affect-aware agent. Although the uptake of the agent was not unanimous, the agent established and maintained good rapport with the users in a role of a caring tutor. The results of the pilot study and the final evaluation validate our choices in the design of affective interaction. In both experiments, the participants appreciated the addition of audible feedback messages, describing it as an enhancement which helped them save time and maintain their focus. Finally, we offer directions for future research on affective support which can be conducted within the framework developed in the course of this project.


Livestock waste presents an important potential source of renewable energy. A variety of factors make the production of renewable energy from livestock waste particularly appealing. Rising energy prices, rising fertilizer prices, and incentives for renewable energy production have increased the value of outputs from livestock waste-to-energy systems. Additionally, confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have come under increasing regulatory scrutiny regarding waste treatment. Biogas production generally results in improved treatment of agricultural wastes thereby reducing the environmental impacts associated with CAFOs. The challenges to the development of the industry include the site specific nature of biogas production. In particular, the best sites for biogas production, large livestock operations, may not be located in areas with favorable markets for the energy produced from the system. Likewise, a variety of technologies for production are required because each potential site often has different characteristics, making a one-style fits all solution unlikely to be successful. Policy solutions aimed at market development are likely to be of great benefit to industry development


Abstract The aim of our study was to identify and problematise messages and value principles visible in children's stories about team selection in sport. To achieve this, we adopted a discourse analysis approach. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 24 children aged 10–11 years who participated in four team sports in 12 different Swedish sports clubs. Based on the children's stories, the findings reveal two discourses of team selection: one participation/inclusion-oriented and one performance/exclusion-oriented discourse in which four different forms of team selection work. The participation/inclusion-oriented discourse constructs sport as a fun game that involves all participating children. The performance/exclusion-oriented discourse shows that coaches select the best children in the team to obtain the best chance of winning games. Some of the coaches have given conflicting messages that align with both discourses, which are revealed by both the girls' and the boys' voices in varying degrees. The findings also demonstrate that children's reasons for playing sport are in harmony with the participation/inclusive-oriented discourse. This discourse represents a child's perspective, promoting every child's right to participate under the same conditions. However, the selection procedure in both discourses exhibits strong classification, since coaches are the ones who possess the power to select.


The development of biological therapeutics has advanced medicine dramatically in the 20th century. Protein-based drugs are now commonly used in treatment of disease. Technologies to improve the pharmacokinetic properties of these drugs are at the cutting edge of research within the pharmaceutical industry. I have evaluated a novel thiol-selective specific linker (PermaLinkTM,, Glythera Ltd) for the attachment of chemical groups such as polyethylene glycol (PEG) to cysteine via a stable thio-ether bond. Proteins are often PEGylated to improve their serum half-life, reduce their immunogenicity and prevent renal clearance by increasing their overall size. The linkers which attach these PEG molecules to a protein are an essential part of this modification as these affect where the molecule is attached and consequently whether the protein stays biologically active. In this study, I have compared PermaLinkTM-PEG with commercially available maleimide-PEG for the attachment of PEG groups to proteins. Initially I established a protocol to reduce the test protein prior to reaction with PermaLinkTM-PEG or maleimide-PEG. Agarose resin-linked Tris(2-carboxyethyl) phosphine (TCEP) was used to reduce cysteines prior to the addition of thiol-reactive compounds. Using this reduction approach, I observed that PermaLinkTM-PEG demonstrated an increased apparent cystiene selectively compared to maleimide-PEG. PermaLinkTM-PEG attached the predicted number of PEG molecules based on the number of available cysteines while non-specific multi-pegylation was observed with maleimide-PEG. Based on my results I propose that PermaLinkTM-PEG selectively targets cysteine thiol groups compared to maleimide-PEG. Overall I propose that PermaLinkTM technology could be used to develop new therapeutic proteins with reduced non-specific PEGylation.


The aim of this study was to determine the significace of measuring total creatine kinase and creatine kinase-MB levels in the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction.A strategy for diagnosing acute myocardial infarction was evaluated by studying 500 suspected patients aged 30-65 years. The control group,which included 200 subjects,was randomly selected from the casualty department. Investigations were carried out at Prince Rashid Bin Al-Hassan Military Hospital in the north region of jordan over one year period in 2009-2010
Total creatine kinase and creatin kinase-MB were measured in serum applying the creatine kinase,creatine kinase-MB NAC activated methods (Boehringer Mannheim's) using the Hitashi -912 autoanalyzer.
In acute myocardial infarction patients,the mean value of total creatine kinase was greater than that of normal range. Results of 25-900U/L for creatin kinase((for both sexes) were obtained at admission. Also the mean value of creatine kinase-MB(8-40U/L)and % cratine kinase-MB were geater than that of the normal range in both sexes. The maximum peak was found after 8-12 hours from the time of admission of myocardial infarction patients,both males and females.
This study demonstrated that measurement of total creatine kinase and creatine kinase-MB is currently the test of choice to confirm the diagnosis of an acute myocardial infarction.Measurement of total creatine kinase and creatine kinase-MB every 8-12 hours is an adequate and costeffective method for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. It was found that measurements of total creatin kinase and creatine kinase-MB are useful parameters for identifying people at high risk for acute myocardial infarction.


We present findings from one survey and five experiments carried out in the USA, Nigeria and the Middle East showing that judgements about the use of deadly intergroup violence are strikingly insensitive to quantitative indicators of success, or to perceptions of their efficacy. By demonstrating that judgements about the use of war are bounded by rules of deontological reasoning and parochial commitment, these findings may have implications for understanding the trajectory of violent political conflicts. Further, these findings are compatible with theorizing that links the evolution of within-group altruism to intergroup violence.


Scotchmer showed how a sex difference in risk taking can cause promotional patterns to differ across sexes, even if discrimination is absent and ability is identically distributed ex ante. In her model, (1) winner-take-all promotions favor risk-taking males, but (2) promoted females enjoy greater ability and (3) see this advantage depreciate with repeated play. I find persistent evidence for the first two implications in how the sex composition of national legislatures differs across electoral mechanisms (winner-take-all chambers employ a greater proportion of males) and in how reelection prospects for U.S. representatives differ by sex (females enjoy longer expected service in a winner-take-all chamber). Finally, while the data convey less information about the third implication, the results are difficult to rationalize in alternative models and can have important implications not only for affirmative action doctrines but also for corporate fiduciary duties.


At the end of the Spanish-American War of 1898, America gained control of three new territories—Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The political fate of these islands generated a bitter debate in the United States as many wondered how a country whose identity had been forged in the crucible of colonialism could, only a century after gaining its independence, administer an empire of its own. Despite the enormous political and public attention paid to the issue of American expansion, it was the Supreme Court—in a series of decisions collectively known as the Insular Cases—that interceded to settle the protracted political feud. What is most striking about this episode in constitutional history is that the Court's intervention brought closure to a volatile national debate implicating international affairs and foreign treaties—matters in which courts were expected not to meddle—without provoking significant public backlash or damaging the Court's institutional credibility. And the Insular Cases themselves have remained good law ever since. This Article seeks to understand why. Specifically, this piece aims to understand the process by which divisive, politically charged issues were transformed into questions fit for judicial review, how that process ratified the decisions themselves, and what role the political branches can play in validating otherwise questionable judicial action. It concludes first that there is considerable evidence, as a descriptive matter, that before the Supreme Court decided the Insular Cases, political actors took a series of steps that authorized and facilitated judicial consideration of questions that were political in nature. Second, the Article contends, as a normative matter, that the Insular Cases illustrate how the political branches can properly validate the Court's decisions by consenting in advance to the judiciary's involvement and certifying certain questions to the courts. Although the precise features of this process defy easy classification, it is possible to discern evidence of five elements that laid the groundwork for legitimate judicial review. By (1) disavowing their own authority to settle the dispute, (2) publicly inviting the Court to mediate the controversy, (3) endorsing the validity of judicial resolution, (4) casting the political issue in legal and constitutional terms, and (5) proposing nonlegal factors that could compensate for the absence of traditional standards, the popular branches helped transform arguably political questions into justiciable ones. It is this "consent and certify" process that at once explains and justifies the Supreme Court's intervention in the Insular Cases. More broadly, the Article suggests that the largely forgotten historical context of the Insular Cases reveals an important, unexplored potential source of judicial legitimacy: the political branches of government.


The Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research encourages discussions and debates on the philosophical traditions of India and contemporary philosophy in India while simultaneously continuing its dialogue with the vast wealth of mainstream and alternative Anglo-American and Continental philosophies. Yet, the special place it reserves for philosophical expatiations emanating from the subcontinent happens to be its particular area of interest. Research and interpretations pertaining to pre-modern and modern Indian textual sources across the spectrum, viewed through an innovative lens, are highly welcome. The journal is committed to dissemination of valuable knowledge to discerning readership across the world.    JICPR uncompromisingly emphasises originality of thought and research in the varied philosophical traditions. It also welcomes interdisciplinary engagements with quintessential philosophical questions. From close examination of singular philosophical texts and philosophers through furnishing detailed annotated translations and/or re-readings of extant philosophical conundrums, the journal underscores comprehensiveness of argument and ingenuity of scholarship.


For income tax purposes it is often vital that a taxpayer conducts a trade. Although it is not the case that only amounts arising from trading activities that are taxable (Definition of "taxable income in s 1 of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962 ("the act")), generally expenditure is only deductible if the taxpayer conducted a trade (s 11(a)). Where expenditure is partly incurred for the purposes of trade and partly for non-trading purposes, a deduction is only allowed to the extent that the expenditure was incurred for the purposes of trade (s 23(g)). In addition, a company may only carry forward an assessed loss if it conducted a trade in the subsequent year of assessment (s 20(2A)). Special rules are also applicable to certain specific trades: see, for example, s 26, which provides for the determination of taxable income of any person carrying on pastoral, agricultural or any other farming operations.


Pablo Escobar died in 1993 but his figure is still present in today's artistic environment. This article studied the 'character Escobar' as he appears in the Columbian fiction, and more precisely in six novels published between 1993 and 2017 by writers such as Restrepo, Vallejo, Franco, Vásquez, Forero Quintero and Mesa. By analysing the allusions to the capo, his (dis)appearences, different names, descriptions…, this study examines how these authors deal with the heroic or monstrous facets of the so-called Patrón del Mal, and his mythical and sacred dimension, raising the question of an eventual responsibility of the writers in the mythification process of Escobar.


Socially responsible investment (SRI) is becoming increasingly popular and can be potentially rewarding to all parties concerned. This book discusses the opportunities, challenges, and practices of SRI in a global financial environment in a consistent and integrated framework of risk management. It also covers a wide variety of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) issues related to various participants, such as values-based retail, institutional investors, corporations, banks, supranational agencies, and non-governmental organizations.


INTRODUCTION Small business owners typically rely on traditional means to advertise their businesses and services. These means typically include direct mail, local newspapers, fliers, radio, signage, and trade shows. With the age of the Internet we have seen the addition of websites and email marketing added to the weapons the small business owner may use. For example, Fishbowl Marketing is a promotion-based email firm in the restaurant industry. It combines restaurant and email expertise to develop email promotion programs for independent restaurant owners. Small business owners who are members of Chambers of Commerce or industry trade association such as the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau (NOMCVB) may advertise their businesses on the organization website or send mass emailing to fellow members. Currently if a small business owner wanted to develop business relationships he or she could go to a networking session or business card exchange conducted by a local business trade association such as a Chamber of Commerce. A new way of networking has arrived. Social media or network services such as Facebook, Twitter, and other websites have impacted how millions of Americans especially those under 35 interact or network with one another, shop and view brands (Swartz, August 28, 2009). Businesses are spending money in social media at a faster rate than any other form of online marketing. Studies by Forrester Research show that spending on social networking will increase from $455 million in 2008 to $3.1 billion in 2014, a 335 percent increase. In contrast, spending on email marketing will grow from $1.2 billion in 2009 to 2.1 billion in 2014 (Horovitz, July 24, 2009). In addition, some 25 percent of small businesses surveyed by Adology Research said they would spend more on social networking in 2009 (Horovitz, July 24, 2009). Interest in and the use of social networking by businesses large and small reflects the growing importance of the use of this medium. This paper illustrates how small business owners can use social networking to market their businesses. Advantages and disadvantages of two social networking tools, Facebook and LinkedIn are discussed. Guidelines for using these tools are presented. SOCIAL NETWORKING Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighborhood subdivision. Although social networking is possible in person, especially in the workplace, universities and high schools, it is most popular online. This is because like most high schools, colleges, or workplaces, the Internet is filled with millions of individuals who are looking to meet other people, to gather and share first-hand information and experiences about any number of topics from golfing and gardening to developing friendships and professional alliances (whatissocialnetworking.com, 2009). Social networking online started as a way for friends within a school to stay connected with each other online as opposed to using a telephone or in person. The individual can decorate his or her own personal page with virtual trinkets and photos, thus expressing one's own identity or personality. Within this virtual world, they can share information, experiences, pictures, videos, and purchasing preferences including recommendations of a vendor's products or services. These recommendations have led the business community to take notice of online social networking and the power that virtual word-of-mouth advertising has on the sale of their products and services. Two sites in particular, Facebook and LinkedIn, have become particularly important in the exposure of small businesses and the wares they offer. Facebook was founded in February 2004 and is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people's real-world social connections (Facebook's company website, 2009). …


Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a genetic bone pathology with prenatal onset, characterized by brittle bones in response to abnormal collagen composition. There is presently no cure for OI. We previously showed that human first trimester fetal blood mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) transplanted into a murine OI model (oim mice) improved the phenotype. However, the clinical use of fetal MSC is constrained by their limited number and low availability. In contrast, human fetal early chorionic stem cells (e-CSC) can be used without ethical restrictions and isolated in high numbers from the placenta during ongoing pregnancy. Here, we show that intraperitoneal injection of e-CSC in oim neonates reduced fractures, increased bone ductility and bone volume (BV), increased the numbers of hypertrophic chondrocytes, and upregulated endogenous genes involved in endochondral and intramembranous ossification. Exogenous cells preferentially homed to long bone epiphyses, expressed osteoblast genes, and produced collagen COL1A2. Together, our data suggest that exogenous cells decrease bone brittleness and BV by directly differentiating to osteoblasts and indirectly stimulating host chondrogenesis and osteogenesis. In conclusion, the placenta is a practical source of stem cells for the treatment of OI.


This article uses examples of multimodal metaphors from three different genres in order to develop a new understanding of the nature of creativity in metaphor. I argue that multimodality provides distinctive opportunities for metaphor creativity by exploiting the unique affordances of the different semiotic modes and the possibility of combining them in unexpected ways. Such innovation at the level of representation may encourage novel thought patterns, I suggest, even in such cases where the underlying metaphorical mappings are relatively conventional. The notion of "cross-modal resonances" is introduced to emphasize the role of unconscious, preverbal, intuitive understanding and the emotions in producing and interpreting creative multimodal metaphors.


Fast responding headwater river basins and small streams pose a significant threat to life and property throughout the eastern United States. This paper presents the results from the application of the real-time distributed model KINematic runoff and EROSion model (KINEROS2) to the complex terrain of the Binghamton County Warning Area. In operations, KINEROS2 uses the highest resolution radar data available, in both space and time, with the intent to improve flash flood warning lead time. KINEROS2 was originally developed for use in urban and semi-arid climates. This study demonstrates a proof of concept for applying KINEROS2 to a more humid regime. Key model parameters needed for manual calibration of peak flow generated by KINEROS2 in humid climates were identified. Saturated hydrologic conductivity of hillslopes had the greatest influence on the peak flow rate and channel length on the timing of the peak flow rate. It was found that optimal parameter values varied significantly between storms with respect to both basin average rainfall and maximum basin average rainfall intensity. This uncertainty in parameter estimation is addressed by running KINEROS2 with parameter sets that reflect the range obtained by calibration. An additional source of uncertainty is the selection of an appropriate Z-R relationship. KINEROS2 can be run for ungaged watersheds assuming some information can be collected on the timing and magnitude of several flow events. Running a distributed model on the small basin scale provides information on the magnitude and timing of a flash flood event which is not currently available using current NOAA/NWS flash flood forecasting methodologies. _______________________


Brownian dynamics simulations of isolated 18‐carbon chains have been performed, both for saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons. The effect of one or several (nonconjugated) double bonds on the properties of the chains is discussed in terms of both equilibrium and dynamic properties. The introduction of a cis double bond increases the relaxation rates of the unsaturated chain with respect to the saturated alkane. On the other hand, coupling effects in the torsional transitions around a trans double bond make the dynamics of this unsaturated chain very similar to the saturated one. Based on these results, the parameters and moves of a dynamic Monte Carlo algorithm are tuned to reproduce the observed behavior, providing an efficient method for the study of more complicated systems.


Activating TLR2 decreases intestinal injury by stabilizing the intestinal epithelial cell barrier and promoting communication through gap junctions. Disruption of the intestinal epithelial cell barrier leads to inflammatory bowel disease. Connexin43 (Cx43) is a member of a family of proteins that form protein pores called gap junctions that connect cells and coordinate cellular behavior through the passage of small molecules in a process called gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC). Alterations in Cx43 can disrupt the intestinal epithelial cell barrier and contribute to inflammatory bowel disease. Toll-like receptors (TLRs), which recognize products of pathogenic and commensal microbes, also regulate intestinal inflammation. Pam3CysSK4 (PCSK), an agonist of Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2), is known to stabilize the intestinal epithelial cell barrier and reduce inflammation associated with colitis in a mouse model. In addition to the previously reported mechanisms involving stabilization of tight junctions, Ey et al. show that TLR2 activity also enhances GJIC in wounded epithelial cell lines, reduces inflammation in mouse colon through a Cx43-mediated mechanism, and contributes to three-dimensional organization of explanted human colonic tissue. Treatment of the human intestinal epithelial cell line Caco-2 with PCSK increased the transcription, abundance, and membrane association of Cx43. In IEC-6 cells, another intestinal epithelial cell line, PCSK in the presence of cell wounding, but not in the absence, increased the extent and duration of GJIC. Transfection of a TLR2 mutant (TLR2-R753Q) that is associated with human colitis into the Caco-2 cells increased the mRNA for Cx43 but decreased the abundance of the protein, and these cells failed to show GJIC in response to wounding. Treatment of these cells with a proteasome inhibitor restored Cx43 and GJIC and the enhancement of GJIC by PCSK. In TLR2-deficient mice, instead of forming typical gap junctional plaques, Cx43 formed large, sheetlike patches, and Cx43 abundance was diminished in the colons of TLR2-deficient mice exposed to the intestinal irritant dextran sodium sulfate (DSS). In contrast to control DSS-exposed mice, when Cx43 was locally knocked down in the colons of DSS-exposed mice, PCSK failed to reduce inflammation. In a mouse model of chronic colitis, phosphorylation of Cx43 on Ser368, which is associated with inhibition of GJIC, was increased and the localization of Cx43 was aberrant. Treatment with PCSK decreased the Cx43 Ser368 phosphorylation and delayed disease onset. When human colonic punch biopsies were cultured in three-dimensional Matrigel supplemented with PCSK, the cells formed a cuboid three-dimensional geometry. Together, these data suggest that TLR2 signaling plays an important role in promoting gap junction communication and thereby in cell polarization and organization. B. Ey, A. Eyking, G. Gerken, D. K. Podolsky, E. Cario, TLR2 mediates gap junctional intercellular communication through Connexin-43 in intestinal epithelial barrier injury. J. Biol. Chem. 284, 22332–22343 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The generation and transport of mineral dust is strongly related to climate on seasonal, year-to-year, and glacialinterglacial timescales. The modern dust cycle is influenced by soil moisture, which is partly a function of drought duration and severity. The production and transport of dust can therefore be amplified by global and regional droughts, thereby moderating ecosystem vulnerability to disturbance through the influence of dust on nutrient delivery to ecosystems. In this work, we use strontium and neodymium isotopes in combination with trace element concentrations in modern dust samples collected in 2015 to quantify the role of regionally versus globally supplied dust in nutrient delivery to a montane ecosystem. The study sites lie along an elevational transect in the southern Sierra Nevada, USA, with samples spanning the dry seasons of 2014 (Aciego et al., 2017) and 2015 (this study), when the region was experiencing a historic drought. The goal of our research was to quantify the spatial and temporal variability and sensitivity of the dust cycle to short term changes at nutrientlimited sites. We find that, during the dry season of 2015, Asian sources contributed between 10 and 40% of dust to sites located along this elevational transect, and importantly increased in importance during the summer growing season compared to regional dust sources. These changes are likely related to the prolonged drought in Asia in 2015, highlighting both the sensitivity of dust production and transport to drought and the teleconnections of dust transport in terrestrial ecosystems.


Geography, History, and Economic Performance: The Emergence and Evolution of Agrarian Institutions in Ecuador Raúl Alberto Aldaz Peña, M.S.Eco. Committee Chairperson: Charles M. North, Ph.D. A familiar proposition from the literature on geography, institutions, and economic performance is that certain natural resources like mineral deposits or cash crops can create a "resource curse." In Ecuador, cash crops production did not create this effect. Instead, the agrarian institutions in provinces with cash crops production allowed more wealth accumulation than the institutions of the provinces where these products were not available. This paper argues that sixteenth-century population differences across Ecuadorian regions led to distinct agrarian institutions, and that the evolution of these institutions perpetuated specific economic outcomes. In particular, the Ecuadorian highlands had more extractive agricultural institutions than the coast. This institutional variation might explain why the coastal provinces rely less on agriculture today despite producing cash crops. Statistical analysis suggests that institutional differences might explain why the Ecuadorian coast has a higher per capita income and less extreme poverty than the provinces in the highlands.


Abstract— Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the response of human skeletal muscle myoblasts to therapeutic doses of X-irradiation.
Methods: Myoblasts was established via skeletal muscle biopsies which irradiated in vitro by x-ray at doses 3, 5 and 7 Gy. Two effects of radiation were measured (acute effect after 24h and long term effect after 72h). Acute effect was monitored by interleukin-6 release, while long term effect was monitored by measuring the proliferation capacity and cell death.
Results: When comparing the non-irradiated control and cells processed with inhibitor of cell proliferation Ara C, myoblast proliferation reduced in 72h post-radiation, this change was significant with increasing doses. Post-irradiation myoblast survival determined by measurement of released LDH enzyme activity showed increased activity after exposure to x-rays. The acute reaction of myoblasts to lower doses of irradiation (3 and 5 Gy.) was reduced secretion of constitutive interleukin-6.
Conclusion: The current study approved that there was positive response of human skeletal muscle myoblasts to therapeutic doses of X-irradiation..


Background SQZ-PBMC-HPV is a therapeutic cancer vaccine created with Cell Squeeze®, a proprietary cell-engineering system. SQZ-PBMC-HPV is a novel cancer vaccine generated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) squeezed with HPV16 E6 and E7 antigens, resulting in delivery into the cytosol. The resulting antigen presenting cells (APCs) provide enhanced antigen presentation on MHC-I to potentially elicit robust, antigen-specific CD8+ T cell responses. Importantly, SQZ-PBMC-HPV are neither genetically modified nor immune effector cells.Studies in MHC-I knockout mice demonstrated that activation of antigen specific CD8+ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) was a direct effect of cytosolic antigen delivery to PBMCs. In the murine TC-1 tumor model, tumor regression correlated with an influx of HPV16-specific CD8+ TILs. In vitro studies with human volunteer PBMCs demonstrated that each subset is capable of inducing CD8+ T cell responses. The Phase 1 study includes a significant biomarker program to investigate whether pharmacodynamic effects observed in non-clinical studies correlate with potential clinical benefit. Immunogenic and pharmacodynamic endpoints include Elispot assays to measure frequency of interferon gamma secreting cells, as well as quantification and characterization of TILs and tumor microenvironment. In addition, various cytokine responses and circulating cell-free HPV16 DNA levels in plasma are measured. Methods SQZ-PBMC-HPV-101 (NCT04084951) is open for enrollment to HLA A*02+ patients with HPV16+ recurrent, locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors and includes escalation cohorts for monotherapy and in combination with atezolizumab. After initial demonstration of safety, the study assesses dose effect by testing different cell dose levels, the effect of prolonged antigen priming in Cycle 1 [APC administration on Day 1 only compared to Days 1 and 2 (double priming)] and the impact of treatment duration to identify the optimal dose regimen. The cycle length is 3 weeks, and patients will receive SQZ-PBMC-HPV for up to 1 year or until available autologous drug product is exhausted. Atezolizumab will be administered for up to 1 year. Eligible patients including but not limited to anal, cervical and head and neck tumors will undergo a single leukapheresis at the study site. The manufacturing process includes a maturation step and takes less than 24 hours. The vein-to-vein time for the 1st administration is approximately one week. Patients must have a lesion that can be biopsied with acceptable clinical risk and agree to have a fresh biopsy at Screening and on study. A Study Safety Committee is in place. No formal statistical hypothesis testing will be performed. Results N/A Conclusions N/A Trial Registration NCT04084951 Ethics Approval The study is registered on clinicaltrials.gov was approved by the Ethics Board of all institution listed as recruiting.


A retrospective case‐control hospital study of 785 Caucasian breast cancer patients and 2,231 age‐stratified controls was conducted in New York City from 1969–1975. Patients were grouped by pre‐ peri‐ and postmenopausal status at diagnosis for the analysis to make a distinctive separation for variables showing a pre‐ and postmenopausal differential. Demographic characteristics were similar for cases and controls. Previously recorded hormone‐related risk variables for this disease were largely confirmed for pre‐ and perimenopausal women, i.e., late age at first birth (>25), premenstrual symptoms of breast swelling and premenopausal chills and flushes. Mother's history of breast cancer was also found to be a risk variable. Nulliparity was a risk factor only perimenopausally. No risk was found for absolute height, weight or for obesity (Quetelet Index), prior breast diseases or previous usage of exogenous hormones of any type and no "protective" effect was found for multiparous women and for nursing. Perimenopausally diagnosed patients (menopause to 10 years after) were similar to premenopausally diagnosed women on most risk factors. Risk variables determined by this and other case‐control studies cannot account for the magnitude of differences in the international incidence of breast cancer.


Abstract John Ackrill argued that Aristotelian bodies are conceptually promiscuous, since they fail to exemplify the modal relations that are expected to hold between their matter and their form. Although "potentially alive", organic bodies are bound to be ensouled, on pain of lacking the required potential; but to the extent that they are ensouled, they are already actually alive. It seems odd to claim that a body may lack (qua "potential") what it cannot help having (as necessarily enjoying life). This paper claims that the standard solution (which distinguishes an essentially ensouled body from its underlying inanimate substrate) falls short of the strong unity living beings display, given that nothing in them can be accidentally alive (De Anima 415b13). An alternative proposal is advanced, based on two distinctions Aristotle draws in his philosophical lexicon: (i) both matter and form have a claim to being called "nature"; (ii) formal nature may be found in its subject either (ii.a) in actuality or (ii.b) in potentiality (Met. 1015a18). It is argued that the characterization of organic bodies as "potentially alive" conforms to (ii.b), a pattern that helps explain the specific way in which bodies share in the organisms' life. Two possible instances of (ii.b) are finally considered by way of illustration.


Do Twitter and Facebook Matter? Examining the Economic Impact of Social Media Marketing in Tourism Websites of Atlantic Canada
This paper quantifies the economic impacts of introducing social media as marketing tools in the tourism websites of the provinces of Atlantic Canada: New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The authors build on prior marketing research of tourism website design in Atlantic Canada and focus on eight forms of social media: e-newsletters, Facebook, Twitter, RSS, YouTube, Flickr, Travel Blog, and Share. They used panel techniques for data across the four provinces and the months in 2005-2010 to estimate models of tourism-related economic activity (hotel rooms available and rented, hotel occupancy, number of domestic and US visitors, etc.). As independent variables, they used measures that are standard in economic models (unemployment rates, retail sales, exchange rates, interest rates, temperatures and seasonal dummies, etc.) and various measures of the timing of the introduction of social media into provincial tourism websites. Their results highlight the strong seasonal patterns in tourism data in Atlantic Canada, the role of domestic and international economic data in predicting various measures of tourism, and provide preliminary evidence that adopting social media as marketing tools may have contributed substantially to tourism. Finally, the research seeks to highlight the role in tourism promotion of ongoing innovations in marketing, such as using social media, and the importance of tourism as an economic driver in the region.


Abstract. The availability of light in the ocean is an important parameter for the determination of phytoplankton photosynthesis processes and primary production from satellite data. It is also a useful parameter for other applications, e.g. the determination of heat fluxes. In this study, a method was developed utilising the vibrational Raman scattering (VRS) effect of water molecules to determine the number of photons available in the ocean water, which is expressed by the depth integrated scalar irradiance E 0. Radiative transfer simulations with the SCIATRAN fully coupled ocean–atmosphere radiative transfer model (RTM) show clearly the relationship of E 0 with the strength of the VRS signal measured at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). Taking advantage of VRS structures in hyper-spectral satellite measurements, a retrieval technique to derive E 0 in the wavelength region from 390 to 444.5 nm was developed. This approach uses the weighting function differential optical absorption spectroscopy (WF-DOAS) technique, applied to TOA radiances, measured by the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY). Based on the approach of Vountas et al. (2007), where the DOAS method was used to fit modelled spectra of VRS, the method was improved by using the weighting function of VRS (VRS-WF) in the DOAS fit. This was combined with a look-up table (LUT) technique, where the E 0 value was obtained for each VRS satellite fit directly. The VRS-WF and the LUT were derived from calculations with the SCIATRAN RTM (Rozanov et al., 2014). RTM simulations for different chlorophyll a concentrations and illumination conditions clearly show that low fit factors of VRS retrieval results correspond to low amounts of light in the water column and vice versa. Exemplarily, 1 month of SCIAMACHY data were processed and a global map of the depth integrated scalar irradiance E 0 was retrieved. Spectral structures of VRS were clearly identified in the radiance measurements of SCIAMACHY. The fitting approach led to consistent results and the WF-DOAS algorithm results of VRS correlated clearly with the chlorophyll concentration in case-I water. Comparisons of the diffuse attenuation coefficient, extracted by VRS fit results, with the established GlobColour Kd(490) product show consistent results.


Deep generative models are increasingly becoming integral parts of the in silico molecule design pipeline and have dual goals of learning the chemical and structural features that render candidate molecules viable while also being flexible enough to generate novel designs. Specifically, Variational Auto Encoders (VAEs) are generative models in which encoder-decoder network pairs are trained to reconstruct training data distributions in such a way that the latent space of the encoder network is smooth. Therefore, novel candidates can be found by sampling from this latent space. However, the scope of architectures and hyperparameters is vast and choosing the best combination for in silico discovery has important implications for downstream success. Therefore, it is important to develop a principled methodology for distinguishing how well a given generative model is able to learn salient molecular features. In this work, we propose a method for measuring how well the latent space of deep generative models is able to encode structural and chemical features of molecular datasets by correlating latent space metrics with metrics from the field of topological data analysis (TDA). We apply our evaluation methodology to a VAE trained on SMILES strings and show that 3D topology information is consistently encoded throughout the latent space of the model.


Robotic process automation (RPA) is a new breed of software robots designed to automate services through processing structured data by following rules. The research examines how RPA is being deployed at Royal DSM, the Dutch multinational company, in its global financial shared services organization. Here, like many other companies, DSM adopted RPA as the next transformation lever beyond centralization, standardization, and relocation to a lower cost region. DSM's first phase of automation "robotized" its financial close processes for three of its global business groups. Phase I happened quickly – within a few months. Phase II scaled the RPA adoption by migrating another six business groups on to the RPA platform. This article details the multi-faceted business results DSM achieved, the crucial role of a suitable software provider, and eight key lessons from the DSM experience that other companies can learn from.


Consumption of food that surpasses the metabolic necessity of the body leads to an epidemic condition termed obesity, which causes several metabolic disorders including oxidative damage. Dietary intervention can enlighten the mechanisms and therapeutics associated with these metabolic disorders. The reported studies related to diet include fat of different kinds and from different sources, however they lack dose response aspects. Our study highlighted the importance of dietary fat modification in modulating oxidative stress-induced glucose intolerance. Animals were maintained on a diet with a varied content of fat (30%/45%/60%) for 12 weeks and the 'withdrawal' group was fed a standard diet for another 10 weeks. The diet containing 60 energy% of fat displayed glucose intolerance, high ALT, low GSH levels and tissue-specific modulation of the prooxidant/antioxidant enzymatic activities in the liver/muscles. Prolonged sustenance of the 60 energy% fat containing diet-fed rats on standard diet led to the alteration of antioxidant activities, reversing the oxidative damage. Notably, the 'withdrawal' group displayed an organ-specific response towards dietary modification where the recovery of the antioxidant activities was observed to be much more pronounced in the liver as compared to the muscle. Further, we identified the differential expression of liver/muscle-specific genes associated with oxidative stress and mitochondrial biogenesis in response to the differing fat content. These genes can serve as markers for HFD-induced metabolic complications involving the liver/muscle. Altogether, our study has highlighted the novel area where obesity-induced oxidative stress linked alterations expressed diet and organ specific responses that are recovered by altering the dietary regimen. Future investigation of dietary modulation will open nascent avenues for developing therapeutic modalities addressing obesity-related metabolic complications.


Several issues in machine learning and inverse problems require to generate discrete data, as if sampled from a model probability distribution. A common way to do so relies on the construction of a uniform probability distribution over a set of $N$ points which minimizes the Wasserstein distance to the model distribution. This minimization problem, where the unknowns are the positions of the atoms, is non-convex. Yet, in most cases, a suitably adjusted version of Lloyd's algorithm -- in which Voronoi cells are replaced by Power cells -- leads to configurations with small Wasserstein error. This is surprising because, again, of the non-convex nature of the problem, as well as the existence of spurious critical points. We provide explicit upper bounds for the convergence speed of this Lloyd-type algorithm, starting from a cloud of points sufficiently far from each other. This already works after one step of the iteration procedure, and similar bounds can be deduced, for the corresponding gradient descent. These bounds naturally lead to a modified Poliak-Lojasiewicz inequality for the Wasserstein distance cost, with an error term depending on the distances between Dirac masses in the discrete distribution.


The purpose of these acoustical patent reviews is to provide enough information for a Journal reader to decide whether to seek more information from the patent itself. Any opinions expressed here are those of the reviewers as individuals and are not legal opinions. Printed copies of United States Patents may be ordered at $3.00 each from the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, Washington, DC 20231. Patents are available via the Internet at http://www.uspto.gov.


This chapter looks at the number of ways that secure compliance with international environmental law can be employed. The more traditional approach to this subject is the familiar one of interstate claims for breach of international obligations, employing the variety of forms of dispute settlement machinery contemplated in Article 33 of the UN Charter. There are a number of disadvantages to enforcing international environmental law in this manner, particularly if it involves compulsory resort to judicial institutions. The chapter outlines these disadvantages which include the adverse effect on relations between the relevant states; the complexity, length, and expense of international litigation; the technical character of environmental problems, and the difficulties of proof which legal proceedings may entail, and uncertainty concerning jurisdiction and applicable law in legally complex disputes.


Robert and Mary Schindler appeal the guardianship courts order denying their motion for relief from a judgment that ordered their daughter's guardian to with draw life-prolonging procedures. We have carefully reviewed all aspects of the record on appeal. We conclude that the guardianship court complied with the instructions provided by this court in its last opinion. The guardianship court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion for relief from judgment. Its ruling is supported by competent, substantial evidence and accords with the law of this state. Accordingly we affirm the order on appeal.1I.This is the fourth time that this court has reviewed an order from the guardianship court in this controversy. Schindler v. Schiavo (In re Guardianship of Schiavo), 780 So. 2d 176 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001) (Schiavo I); Schindler v. Schiavo (In re Guardianship of Schiavo), 792 So. 2d 551 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001) (Schiavo II); Schindler v. Schiavo (In re Guardianship of Schiavo), 800 So. 2d 640 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001) (Schiavo III). This case has a long and difficult history, which we will not detail in this opinion. As we explained in our last opinion, Schiavo III:In Schiavo I, we affirmed the trial court's decision ordering Mrs. Schiavo's guardian to withdraw life-prolonging procedures. Schiavo 1, 780 So. 2d 176 (Fla. 2d DCA), cert. denied, 789 So. 2d 348 (Fla. 2001) (table). In so doing, we affirmed the trial court's rulings that (1) Mrs. Schiavo's medical condition was the type of end-stage condition that permits the withdrawal of life-prolonging procedures, (2) she did not have a reasonable medical probability of recovering capacity so that she could make her own decision to maintain or withdraw life-prolonging procedures, (3) the trial court had the authority to make such a decision when a conflict within the family prevented a qualified person from effectively exercising the responsibilities of a proxy, and (4) clear and convincing evidence at the time of trial supported a determination that Mrs. Schiavo would have chosen in February 2000 to withdraw the life-prolonging procedures.800 So. 2d at 642 (footnotes omitted).Schiavo III involved a motion filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540 seeking relief from the original judgment after it had been affirmed in Schiavo I. In Schiavo III, we held that the guardianship court must conduct an evidentiary hearing on the motion, limited to the fourth issue. We stated:Of the four issues resolved in the original trial . . ., we conclude that the motion establishes a colorable entitlement only as to the fourth issue. As to that issue - whether there was clear and convincing evidence to support the determination that Mrs. Schiavo would choose to withdraw the life-prolonging procedures - the motion for relief from judgment alleges evidence of a new treatment that could dramatically improve Mrs. Schiavo's condition and allow her to have cognitive function to the level of speech. In our last opinion we stated that the Schindlers had "presented no medical evidence suggesting that any new treatment could restore to Mrs. Schiavo a level of function within the cerebral cortex that would allow her to understand her perceptions of sight and sound or to communicate or respond cognitively to those perceptions." Schiavo II, 792 So. 2d at 560. Although we have expressed some lay skepticism about the new affidavits, the Schindlers now have presented some evidence, in the form of the affidavit of Dr. [Fred] Webber, of such a potential new treatment.Schiavo III, 800 So. 2d at 645.On remand, we permitted the parents to present evidence to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the judgment was no longer equitable. We specifically held:To meet this burden, they must establish that new treatment offers sufficient promise of increased cognitive function in Mrs. Schiavo's cerebral cortex - significantly improving the quality of Mrs. …


The formation of planets depends on the underlying protoplanetary disc structure, which in turn influences both the accretion and migration rates of embedded planets. The disc itself evolves on time scales of several Myr, during which both temperature and density profiles change as matter accretes onto the central star. Here we used a detailed model of an evolving disc to determine the growth of planets by pebble accretion and their migration through the disc. Cores that reach their pebble isolation mass accrete gas to finally form giant planets with extensive gas envelopes, while planets that do not reach pebble isolation mass are stranded as ice giants and ice planets containing only minor amounts of gas in their envelopes. Unlike earlier population synthesis models, our model works without any artificial reductions in migration speed and for protoplanetary discs with gas and dust column densities similar to those inferred from observations. We find that in our nominal disc model, the emergence of planetary embryos preferably should occur after approximately 2 Myr in order to not exclusively form gas giants, but also ice giants and smaller planets. The high pebble accretion rates ensure that critical core masses for gas accretion can be reached at all orbital distances. Gas giant planets nevertheless experience significant reduction in semi-major axes by migration. Considering instead planetesimal accretion for planetary growth, we show that formation time scales are too long to compete with the migration time scales and the dissipation time of the protoplanetary disc. All in all, we find that pebble accretion overcomes many of the challenges in the formation of ice and gas giants in evolving protoplanetary discs.


This is on the lighter side, is a little tongue in cheek and perhaps takes a bit of license. So read, enjoy and take it with a pinch of salt. On the other hand, there might be a grain of truth in it after all! First, I will provide some statistics before introducing the eventual question: Afrikaans is the home language of 60% of my dispensary, and 66.6% of my front-shop, staff. So, this morning, they asked me: "What is the Afrikaans word for 'dispensary'?"


This article argues that that during the political upheaval of the 1790s, the discourse of rights was mobilised to discuss the social, legal and political status of animals and humans. Notions of animal rights were just beginning to take shape towards the end of the eighteenth century. Changing beliefs about animal sentience, rationality and feelings, and social and moral concerns about animal cruelty, slowly brought the issue of animal welfare before the public. Historians have been inclined to view animal rights as the logical conclusion of the extension of the 'rights of man' down the social scale. This article contends that in print culture, animals were used as cyphers for their human owners. By giving voices to animals and characterising them as politically active and informed, a variety of literary productions demonstrated the methods of social, legal and political resistance available to their readers.


We report room-temperature electric field noise measurements combined with in-situ surface characterization and cleaning of a microfabricated ion trap. We used a single-ion electric field noise sensor in combination with surface cleaning and analysis tools, to investigate the relationship between electric field noise from metal surfaces in vacuum and the composition of the surface. These experiments were performed in a novel setup that integrates ion trapping capabilities with surface analysis tools. We find that surface cleaning of an aluminum-copper surface significantly reduces the level of electric field noise, but the surface does not need to be atomically clean to show noise levels comparable to those of the best cryogenic traps. The post-cleaning noise levels are low enough to allow fault-tolerant trapped-ion quantum information processing on a microfabricated surface trap.


The inverse data space provides a natural separation of primaries and surface-related multiples, as the surface multiples map onto the area around the origin while the primaries map elsewhere. However, the calculation of the inverse data is far from trivial as theory requires infinite time and offset recording. Furthermore regularization issues arise during inversion. We perform the inversion by minimizing the least-squares norm of the misfit function by constraining the $ell_1$ norm of the solution, being the inverse data space. In this way a sparse inversion approach is obtained. We show results on field data with an application to surface multiple removal.


Background Consultation about travel abroad addresses preventive attitudes before, during and after the trip, which may include immunisations, the prescription of prophylactic medicines and advice on food safety. Advice to travellers is determined by the destination and characteristics of the trip, as well as by the profile and health status of the person who wishes to travel abroad. At the initial consultation about travel abroad recommendations may be made and a travel medicine kit may be prescribed in accordance with the individual needs of the traveller. Purpose To design travel medicine kits including over-the-counter and ethical drugs prescribed during a consultation about travel abroad. Materials and methods A literature review was performed by searching for scientific articles in the PubMed electronic database, intersecting the terms "travellers' health" and "travelling internationally." National and international tropical medicine official websites were also consulted. Results Analysis of the collected data originated 21 different ethical kits according to destination and immunisation status of the traveller. All kits included leaflets with necessary recommendations/preventive measures, bandages, gauze, adhesive bandages, an antiseptic, an antidiarrhoeal, an analgesic and antipyretic, an antihistamine, a sunscreen with UVA and UVB protection as well as an insect repellent. In addition to those products which were common to all the kits, some ethical medicines and leaflets were specific to certain kits. Conclusions The pre-manufactured ethical kits will facilitate better support for those people who travel abroad and will allow for standardisation of information to the user. We believe that this information will prove useful, helping to provide quick and effective solutions to health issues related to travel abroad. No conflict of interest.