MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that function as negative regulators of gene expression. Recent evidences suggested that host cells miRNAs are involved in the progression of infectious diseases, but its role in amoebiasis remains largely unknown. Here, we reported an unexplored role for miRNAs of human epithelial colon cells during the apoptosis induced by Entamoeba histolytica. We demonstrated for the first time that SW-480 colon cells change their miRNAs profile in response to parasite exposure. Our data showed that virulent E. histolytica trophozoites induced apoptosis of SW-480 colon cells after 45 min interaction, which was associated to caspases-3 and -9 activation. Comprehensive profiling of 667 miRNAs using Taqman Low-Density Arrays showed that 6 and 15 miRNAs were significantly (FC > 1.5; p < 0.05) modulated in SW-480 cells after 45 and 75 min interaction with parasites, respectively. Remarkably, no significant regulation of the 6-miRNAs signature (miR-526b-5p, miR-150, miR-643, miR-615-5p, miR-525, and miR-409-3p) was found when SW-480 cells were exposed to non-virulent Entamoeba dispar. Moreover, we confirmed that miR-150, miR-643, miR-615-5p, and miR-525 exhibited similar regulation in SW-480 and Caco2 colon cells after 45 min interaction with trophozoites. Exhaustive bioinformatic analysis of the six-miRNAs signature revealed intricate miRNAs-mRNAs co-regulation networks in which the anti-apoptotic XIAP, API5, BCL2, and AKT1 genes were the major targets of the set of six-miRNAs. Of these, we focused in the study of functional relationships between miR-643, upregulated at 45 min interaction, and its predicted target X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP). Interestingly, interplay of amoeba with SW-480 cells resulted in downregulation of XIAP consistent with apoptosis activation. More importantly, loss of function studies using antagomiRs showed that forced inhibition of miR-643 leads to restoration of XIAP levels and suppression of both apoptosis and caspases-3 and -9 activation. Congruently, mechanistic studies using luciferase reporter assays confirmed that miR-643 exerts a postranscripcional negative regulation of XIAP by targeting its 3′-UTR indicating that it's a downstream effector. In summary, we provide novel lines of evidence suggesting that early-branched eukaryote E. histolytica may promote apoptosis of human colon cells by modulating, in part, the host microRNome which highlight an unexpected role for miRNA-643/XIAP axis in the host cellular response to parasites infection.


This article presents a study conducted at two different leisure time centers (LTCs) in Sweden. LTC is a voluntary after-school setting that according to the national curriculum should support for example development of values and children's social skills. The analysis is a part of a larger action research project comprising various research issues relating to LTCs. The present article focuses on the democratic objective of LTCs. The Swedish educational system, of which LTCs form a part, is considered to be rights-based with reference to the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child. The national curriculum stresses citizenship education, and both schools and LTCs are considered venues where children should have the opportunity and ability to practice democracy in their everyday activities. The point of departure in the theoretical framework is children's participation and agency. This article focuses on data gathered through 'drawing and talking with children' that reveals children's perspectives as to their own participation at LTCs. A total of 19 children participated in the study and were asked to draw a map of their LTC and describe their experiences of participation at the LTC. The results show that children clearly favored activities that, at least to some extent, could be carried out with less adult supervision, such as free, unstructured play. Opportunities to participate were described in terms of formal proceedings such as voting or writing suggestions and depositing them in the suggestion box. The children also described their participation in terms of opportunities to make individual choices in accordance with their preferences. When asked to name obstacles to participation, the children mentioned rules that were decided on by adults, and fixed routines that structured the children's afternoon hours in terms of both time and space.


The need for defect reporting is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore at handover of new residential buildings. A general review in defect studies has consistently shown that newly built properties can be found to have a significant number of defects. Very often the responsibility for rectifying these common defects is borne by the new homeowner even though house developers are liable. In the current study, survey data is obtained from 216 recent home purchasers/owners across New Zealand urban cities. The intent of the investigation is to show that opportunities exist for defect reporting that will act as a mechanism to measure performance and thus improve the quality of finished construction products in New Zealand. The study found that a significant number (81%) of the participants were involved in the construction of their homes and could influence quality performance if they were proactive enough. The results show that (64.7%) did not engage the service of independent building inspectors for defect reporting on their new homes. Seventy-four percent now agree that independent building inspection was important in hindsight. The study findings are in line with literature on defects and the poor use of defect reporting in new residential buildings. The current challenge for defect rectification by house developers after handover is real and this could increase the confidence that new home owners can have in their developers. Defect reporting could confer benefits to new residential building quality in New Zealand and should be embraced as part of a wider best practice.


Since the early 2000s, Studentification has been a topic of public discourse amongst academics, the local media and people within university towns and cities. Local people's attitudes within Preston have been accessed through the use of questionnaires, in an attempt to establish the process of studentification- particularly within residential areas of the city where students were living within houses in multiple occupation (HMO) in close proximity to local residents. Through primary and secondary research, it was revealed that a large proportion of the local people studied, had predominantly negative experiences with students living in their neighbourhood. Local student's attitudes were also assessed through the use of questionnaires in order to gain a balanced understanding of the impacts of studentification in Preston. This revealed that students within the city felt that they provided opportunities for regeneration and brought a general buzz to the city, in addition to providing an educated work force. Local businesses and service providers are regularly required to maintain and develop the needs of having a student population in Preston and thus generating revenue for all involved. Both residents and students when questioned felt that there was an evident social divide. This study would benefit from addition research over an extended period of time in order to assess potentially changing attitudes towards students, once the current construction of two new purpose built student accommodation sites have been completed.


Gorj County is lying on a surface of 5, 602 km2 (about 2, 5% of the Romanian territory), on the banks of Jiu river (the middle reaches of the Jiu river), in the South-West region of Romania country and the North-West of the Oltenia land. Gorj County was founded in 1998 and is included in Oltenia South-West Restructuring Region, alongside of other four counties (Dolj, Vâlcea, Olt, Mehedinţi), one of the eight regions under restructuring process at the national level and which, from the territorial point of view, correspond to some territorial units, the so-called NUTS-II (The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics), according to EUROSTAT (European Distributors of Statistical Software) classification. Taking into account the relatively unstable structure and dimension, of the geographical space affected by the most significant human intervention into the national territory, the impact of diminished economic activities is extremely important. It is being noticed at regional and local levels, but also national one.


Gomez-Lopez-Hernandez syndrome is a rare form of cerebellotrigeminal dermal dysplasia, first documented by Gómez and reported by López-Hernández. It comprises mainly neurological, dysmorphic and cutaneous symptoms. The genetic basis of this sporadic disorder GLH is not yet clear. De novo chromosomal arrangements or spontaneous dominant mutations may represent possible explanations. Identification of this syndrome is possible after birth, in view of rhomboencephalosynapsis, alopecia and trigeminal anaesthesia. Rhombencephalosynapsis (RES), a rare hindbrain malformation, manifesting as a fusion of the cerebellar hemispheres, the dentate nuclei and the superior cerebellar peduncles, is associated with agenesis/ hypogenesis of the vermis. RES may occur in isolation or in conjunction with VACTER-L or as part of Gomez-Lopez-Hernandez syndrome. Anaesthesia considerations include dealing with intellectual, psychiatric and behavioural problems such as hyperactivity, depression, self-injurious behaviour and bipolar disorder. Different degrees of trigeminal anaesthesia leading to recurrent corneal and facial scarring have been described. Parietal or parieto-occipital alopecia is usually bilateral, may be hidden by surrounding scalp hair. These findings are best evaluated and documented prior to initiation of anaesthesia care.


List of contributors Preface Chapter 1 Introduction Dale Walters 1.1 The importance of plant disease 1.2 Problems associated with controlling plant disease 1.3 Conclusions 1.4 Acknowledgements 1.5 References Chapter 2 Managing crop disease through cultural practices Dale Walters 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Reducing the amount of pathogen inoculum 2.3 Reducing pathogen spread within the crop 2.4 Soil amendments and mulching 2.5 Suppressive soils 2.6 Intercropping 2.7 Conclusions 2.8 Acknowledgements 2.9 References Chapter 3 Biological control agents in plant disease control John M. Whipps and Mark P. McQuilken 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Modes of action 3.3 Production, formulation and application 3.4 Commercial products available and uses 3.5 Factors affecting variable efficacy and constraints on commercial developments 3.6 Future research directions and conclusions 3.7 References Chapter 4 Induced resistance for plant disease control Tony Reglinski and Dale Walters 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Induced resistance in practice 4.3 Costs associated with induced resistance 4.4 Trade-offs associated with induced resistance 4.5 Future prospects 4.6 Acknowledgements 4.7 References Chapter 5 The use of composts and compost extracts in plant disease control Audrey Litterick and Martin Wood 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Definitions of composts, composting, compost extracts and compost teas 5.3 Production of composts and compost extracts/teas 5.4 History of the use of composts and compost extracts in crop production 5.5 Current use of composts and compost extracts/teas in crop production 5.6 Crop and soil health 5.7 Effects of composts on plant disease 5.8 Effects of compost extracts/teas on plant disease 5.9 Mechanisms involved in the suppression/control of plant disease using composts and compost extracts/teas 5.10 Conclusions and future work 5.11 References Chapter 6 The use of host plant resistance in disease control Hugh Wallwork 6.1 Introduction and benefits of resistance 6.2 Types of resistance 6.3 Sources of resistance 6.4 Breeding methodology and selection strategies for inbreeding crops 6.5 Deployment of resistance 6.6 Conclusion 6.7 References Chapter 7 Crop tolerance of foliar pathogens: possible mechanisms and potential for exploitation Ian Bingham and Adrian Newton 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Concepts and definitions - a historical perspective 7.3 Yield formation 7.4 How can tolerance be quantified? 7.5 Potential crop traits conferring tolerance 7.6 Is there a physiological or ecological cost to tolerance? 7.7 Role of modelling 7.8 Strategy for improving tolerance 7.9 Acknowledgements 7.10 References Chapter 8 Plant disease control through the use of variety mixtures Adrian Newton 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Trial demonstrations of mixtures 8.3 Mixtures used in practice 8.4 Conclusion 8.5 References Chapter 9 Biofumigation for plant disease control - from the fundamentals to the farming system John Kirkegaard 9.1 Introduction 9.2 The glucosinolate-myrosinase system 9.3 Modes of utilization 9.4 Separating GSL-related suppression from other effects of biofumigants 9.5 Maximizing biofumigation potential 9.6 Release efficiency, fate and activity of hydrolysis products in soil 9.7 Ecological considerations 9.8 Field implementation 9.9 Summary 9.10 References Chapter 10 Control of plant disease through soil solarization Abraham Gamliel and Jaacov Katan 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Principles of soil solarization 10.3 Pathogen and weed control 10.4 Mechanisms of control and plant-growth improvement 10.5 Integrated management 10.6 Modelling of soil solarization and decision-making tools 10.7 Improvements by intensifying soil heating 10.8 Implementation and application 10.9 Special uses of solarization 10.10 Solarization and the MB crisis 10.11 Concluding remarks 10.12 References Chapter 11 Plant disease control by nutrient management: sulphur Silvia Haneklaus, Elke Bloem and Ewald Schnug 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Sulphur-induced resistance - agronomic, physiological and molecular aspects 11.3 Perspectives in research 11.4 References Chapter 12 Control of plant disease by disguising the leaf surface Dale Walters 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Controlling disease using film-forming polymers 12.3 Particle films as agents for control of plant diseases 12.4 Disrupting spore adhesion to the leaf surface 12.5 Conclusions 12.6 Acknowledgements 12.7 References Chapter 13 Bacteriophages as agents for the control of plant pathogenic bacteria Botond Balogh, Timur Momol, Aleksa Obradovic and Jeffrey Jones 13.1 Introduction - disease control for bacterial diseases 13.2 Biological control 13.3 Early use of bacteriophages in agriculture 13.4 Recent approaches for using phages in plant pathology 13.5 Challenges in using phages for disease control 13.6 Phages as part of an integrated management strategy 13.7 Summary 13.8 References Chapter 14 Controlling plant disease using biological and environmentally friendly approaches: making it work in practice Dale Walters 14.1 Introduction 14.2 How might biologically based disease control be used in crop protection practice? 14.3 Biologically based disease control: barriers to implementation 14.4 Conclusions 14.5 Acknowledgements 14.6 References Index


The Complex Dispute Resolution series collects essays on the development of foundational dispute resolution theory and practice and its application to increasingly more complex settings of conflicts in the world, including multi-party and multi-issue decision making, negotiations in political policy formation and governance, and international conflict resolution. Each volume contains an original introduction by the editor, which explores the key issues in the field. All three volumes feature essays which span an interdisciplinary range of fields, law, political science, game theory, decision science, economics, social and cognitive psychology, sociology and anthropology and consider issues in the uses of informal and private processes, as well as more formal and public processes. The essays question whether the development of universal theoretical insights about conflict resolution is possible with variable numbers of parties and issues and in multi-cultural and multi-jural settings. Each volume also presents a coda, summarizing key issues in the field and suggesting further avenues for research.The third volume (and the introductory essay here) applies foundational dispute resolution theories and practices to a wide variety of transnational, international and transcultural dispute settings. The essays explore the uses of formal diplomacy, political negotiation processes, formal international adjudication in a variety of tribunals, public and private arbitration, mediation processes, and a new set of hybrid processes. The introductory essay and chapters here also describe and interrogate new forms of international conflict handling, if not "resolution," in modern forms of transitional and restorative justice, truth and reconciliation commissions, as well as hybrid tribunals. Some of the essays critique the tensions between the need for formal prosecution, punishment and adjudication of grievous wrongs, as in genocides and human rights violations and the needs and desires of societies and individuals to "move on" or create ways of re-integrating or restoring peace, as well as justice, in post-conflict situations. The question of whether "alternative" forms of justice and process are consistent with efforts to create international "rule of law" regimes is also queried. The Coda and other essays also explore whether there are necessarily cultural variations in conflict resolution, restorative and retributive or punitive justice. As with volumes I and II in this series, some of the classic works in the field of international dispute resolution are presented, while the idea of whether there are "universal" theories and practices of dispute resolution, across cultures and contexts is examined by the series editor and a number of authors.


Coupling of a single photon source into photonic structures is highly demanded for implementation of numerous applications in quantum information processing and quantum dot (QD)-based solid-state platforms. In this work, we present a simple strategy for coupling a single semiconductor colloidal nanocrystal (NC) into polymer-based photonic structures. By utilizing low one-photon absorption (LOPA) direct laser writing (DLW) technique, we demonstrate the precise patterning of 2D SU-8 microstructures containing an individual core/shell CdSe/CdS NC. Various shapes of desired structures are fabricated with a single embedded NC while keeping its photon antibunching property as a single photon source. These results open a wide range of perspectives in term of quantum information, tunable emission, and efficient light harvesting by using polymer-based photonic crystal.


Many studies of global e-commerce have treated cultures as monolithic entities and resorted to evaluating websites against the five cultural dimensions proposed by Hofstede. In this study we rely on recent research, which suggests that websites should instead be decoded as cultural resources. By deconstructing culture and studying some constituting elements of Arab culture we propose to build best practices for content generation and visual design of e-commerce websites targeted at users in Arab countries. Our first study involved examining a sample of 50 Arabic language websites with emphasis on look and feel and language use and subsequently evaluating the cultural markers on these sites. We conclude that these sites do not predominantly reflect characteristics of a high context culture considered to be representative of Arab nationalities and are rather poor imitations of their Western counterparts. In this continuing research, we first investigate figurative language use in Arabic language websites. We created two textual corpora by crawling 3022 Arabic language e-commerce websites. We then annotated one corpus for figurative language use. Initial results from analyzing the annotated corpus and cross verification with the raw textual corpus confirm a rich source of ecommerce-related figurative language use contradicting our original hypothesis. Our further efforts are focused on first building a community of Arabic language researchers, who we believe will find both the raw and annotated corpus a useful source for linguistic research and subsequently promoting the construction of an effective ontological framework for B2C Arab e-commerce. Consistent with the multimodal research methodology that forms the basis of our study, we next considered the visual modes of expression in Arabic ecommerce websites. We first studied 530 randomly selected bilingual ecommerce websites for visual metaphor usage. Of 40% of the sites which had an Arabic version of visual metaphors, none appeared to have been localized to embrace Arabic culture. Our second study involved applying attention analysis, a method that predicts areas of interest to a user, on the sample of Arabic language websites from our original study. We concluded that site designs do not seem to have given significant importance to cultural cues from the perspective of visual salience. The third study involved eye-tracking a purposively built travel site with multiple tour packages on offer. The participants, who were students of Arab and other nationalities, were required to choose from two tour options that were displayed in symmetrically placed boxes on the webpage. Analyzing the resulting scan patterns of saccades and fixations provided insights into the interplay between language and design. Regardless of language or layout orientation both Arab and non-Arab participants seem to have the same expectations related to interaction flow, indicating a cognitive dissonance between textual orientation and visual design of Arabic language e-commerce websites. Given the significant growth of e-commerce in this region we expect the results of our multi-modal study to be of interest not only to linguistic researchers but also global businesses interested in doing business in this region. This research work was supported by NPRP 5-1393-6-044 from QNRF.


Research is being conducted to develop technical information needed to formulate effective natural gas fuel tender crashworthiness standards. This research is being performed for the Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA's) Office of Research, Development, and Technology, and intended to facilitate industry efforts to use natural gas as a locomotive fuel. Strategies to assure crashworthiness during moderate accidents, such as train-to-train collisions at speeds up to 40 mph, are being evaluated. This research applies the approach FRA has used to develop technical information on locomotive, hazmat tank car, and diesel fuel tank crashworthiness. There are four primary tasks: 1. Definition of collision scenarios 2. Evaluation of traditional designs 3. Evaluation of alternative designs 4. Recommendation of effective crashworthiness strategies The tender scenarios have been drafted from reviews of freight train accidents and of scenarios developed for locomotives, hazmat tank cars, and fuel tanks. From these reviews, five scenarios were selected. These scenarios are intended to bound the range of collisions that a tender may experience, are being used to evaluate the crashworthiness of traditional tender designs, and will be used to evaluate alternative design tenders. The five candidate scenarios are: 1. Train-to-train collision 2. Grade-crossing accident 3. Tender derailment and rollover 4. Impact into tender tank shell during derailment 5. Impact into tender tank head during derailment As part of previous research on locomotives and passenger equipment, a range of crashworthiness analysis techniques were developed. These include simplified techniques, which can be performed rapidly and provide essential results, and detailed computer simulations which provide a wealth of information. The crashworthiness performance of a hypothetical tender design has been evaluated using simplified techniques. Simplified techniques include quasi-static crush analysis of structural elements and lumped-parameter analysis of train dynamics. The results suggest that efforts to enhance crashworthiness should principally be directed toward the trainto-train scenario. Work is ongoing to develop strategies for improving tender crashworthiness. This research is being conducted cooperatively with the Association of American Railroads (AAR). The research results are being shared with the AAR's Natural Gas Fuel Tender Technical Advisory Group (NGFT TAG). The NGFT TAG is developing industry standards, including crashworthiness requirements, for revenue-service natural gas fuel tenders. There is a companion paper which describes crashworthiness research sponsored by AAR, including detailed computer simulations of tender crashworthiness. This paper describes development of scenarios and simplified analyses of tender crashworthiness.


Traditionally, earthquake engineering has focused on protecting the lives of building occupants by utilizing inelasticity in structural members and connections to dissipate seismic energy and provide protection against collapse. This design concept is partially based on the equal displacement concept, which states that peak drifts for an inelastic system will be approximately equal to the peak drifts of an elastic system with the same initial stiffness for a given dynamic loading. This is a concept that has been shown to work for structures with natural period greater than about 1.0 seconds, but does not hold true for shorter period structures. An additional consequence of this design methodology is that conventional seismic systems do not explicitly limit the amount of structural damage, or offer a repair method that allows continued use of a structure after an earthquake. In fact, the structural damage distributed throughout a building and permanent residual drifts can make a conventional structure difficult if not financially unreasonable to repair after a large earthquake. These are both concerns facing the seismic design community that are investigated as a part of this thesis. First, a computational study was conducted on short period structural systems to investigate the relationship between initial structural period and collapse potential. The investigation utilizes a statistically based analysis methodology to investigate a study of single degree of freedom (SDOF) systems with periods between 0.1 seconds and 1.0 seconds. The SDOF models were developed using an elastic-linear hardening model with post-yield stiffness ranging between -10% and +10% of the initial stiffness. This part of the study was done to gain a general understanding of the influence of natural period and post-yield behavior on the collapse performance of structural systems and appropriate response modification factors. Next, a study of multi-degree of freedom (MDOF) masonry structures with short periods was conducted to examine how the SDOF trends iii translated to realistic MDOF structures. Based on these two studies, recommendations were made for how current U.S. building codes could be modified to account for the behavior of short period structures. Next, a new self-centering system that builds on the concepts of previous self-centering systems is developed. The self-centering truss moment frame (SC-TMF) was developed with the goal of providing self-centering capability while concentrating inelastic deformation in replaceable structural fuses. These goals are accomplished while mitigating a number of issues seen in other self-centering systems, such as deformation incompatibility with gravity framing, limited deformation capacity, and unusual field construction techniques. The development of the SC-TMF includes a set of preliminary monotonic pushover analyses and nonlinear time history analyses to confirm the expected behavior of the system. Next, a mechanics investigation was undertaken where static pushover analyses (monotonic and cyclic) were used to help derive equations to predict system behavior, such as strength and stiffness. Finally, a parametric study was conducted to gain a better understanding of how various design decisions influence structural behavior. It was shown that the SC-TMF was a viable seismic system for controlling residual drifts and concentrating inelasticity in replaceable fuse elements while mitigating the issues seen in other conventional self-centering systems.


Profound deafness in early childhood has major consequences for the child, its family, and society. Critical periods exist for speech and language development during which the developing nervous system is particularly responsive to auditory stimulation. Inadequate sensory input during these periods leads to lifelong linguistic and communicative deficits.1 Fortunately, if identified early enough, most hearing losses can be satisfactorily managed by hearing aids and rehabilitation. Until the advent of cochlear implantation, however, the outlook for children who were too deaf to hear speech through a hearing aid was less promising and they often failed to develop intelligible spoken language.

Conrad found that the median reading age of profoundly deaf 16year olds was that of normal hearing 9year olds and that no fewer than half these children could not read.2 As a consequence, their educational and employment opportunities were restricted. In the United Kingdom about 220children are born each year with hearing losses in excess of 95dB and a further 80lose their hearing, mainly through bacterial meningitis.3

In profoundly deaf patients auditory nerve …


The way in which states of a topological insulator (TI) transform from monolayer to bulk is an important issue for applications in spintronics. However, unlike graphite, most layered materials are difficult to exfoliate. Using first-principles calculations, we predict that thallium selenide (TlSe) will be a layered TI with rather weak interlayer coupling and thus it should be exfoliated easily. The evolution of the topological states can also be driven by doping with indium (In) atoms or applying lateral strains. A comparison of TlSe and β-InSe shows that the influences of structural and chemical components on the electronic structures determine the topological phase. Effects of van der Waals interactions in this TlSe material are also addressed.


With the help of critical discourse analysis (CDA), this book approaches Turkish politics from an interdisciplinary perspective in order to deepen our understanding of political power and discourse. This study re-conceptualizes discursive strategies as hegemonic projects and thirteen governmental speeches are analyzed accordingly. It also provides readers with a theoretical discussion on the nature of political discourse through references to deliberative, agonistic and critical realistic approaches.


A major challenge for crop research in the 21st century is how to predict crop performance as a function of genetic architecture. Advances in "next generation" DNA sequencing have greatly improved genotyping efficiency and reduced genotyping costs. Methods for characterizing plant traits (phenotypes), however, have much progressed more slowly over the past 30 years, and constraints in phenotyping capability limit our ability to dissect the genetics of quantitative traits, especially those related to harvestable yield and stress tolerance. As a case in point, mapping populations for major crops may consist of 20 or more families, each represented by as many as 200 lines, necessitating field trials with over 20,000 plots at a single location. Investing in the resources and labor needed to quantify even a few agronomic traits for linkage with genetic markers in such massive populations is currently impractical for most breeding programs. Herein, we define key criteria, experimental approaches, equipment and data analysis tools required for robust, high-throughput field-based phenotyping (FBP). The focus is on simultaneous proximal sensing for spectral reflectance, canopy temperature, and plant architecture where a vehicle carrying replicated sets of sensors records data on multiple plots, with the potential to record data throughout the crop life cycle. The potential to assess traits, such as adaptations to water deficits or acute heat stress, several times during a single diurnal cycle is especially valuable for quantifying stress recovery. Simulation modeling and related tools can help estimate physiological traits such as canopy conductance and rooting capacity. Many of the underlying techniques and requisite instruments are available and in use for precision crop management. Further innovations are required to better integrate the functions of multiple instruments and to ensure efficient, robust analysis of the large volumes of data that are anticipated. A complement to the core proximal sensing is high-throughput phenotyping of specific traits such as nutrient status, seed composition, and other biochemical characteristics, as well as underground root architecture. The ability to "ground truth" results with conventional measurements is also necessary. The development of new sensors and imaging systems undoubtedly will continue to improve our ability to phenotype very large experiments or breeding nurseries, with the core FBP abilities achievable through strong interdisciplinary efforts that assemble and adapt existing technologies in novel ways. Published by Elsevier B.V.


Your process may be agile, but are you building agility directly into the code base? This book teaches .NET programmers how to give code the flexibility to adapt to changing requirements and customer demands by applying cutting-edge techniques, including SOLID principles, design patterns, and other industry best practices. Understand why composition is preferable to inheritance and how flexible the interface really can be Gain deep knowledge of key design patterns and anti-patterns, when to apply them, and how to give their code agility Bridge the gap between the theory behind SOLID principles, design patterns, and industry best practices by pragmatically solving real-world problems Get code samples written in upcoming version of Microsoft Visual C# Topics include: Agile with Scrum process; dependencies and layering; the interface; patterns and anti-patterns; introduction to SOLID principles, including open/closed and dependency interjection; and using application templates


Lymphocytes from patients receiving in vivo interleukin (IL)-2 therapy possess enhanced in vitro proliferative and cytotoxic responses to IL-2. The cells from these patients that respond to exogenous IL-2 are CD56+ natural killer cells expressing intermediate-affinity IL-2 receptor betagamma(c) complexes. Because IL-15 activates cells via these same betagamma(c) receptors, we hypothesized that IL-15 would also activate lymphocytes from patients treated with in vivo IL-2 therapy and therefore that IL-15 might potentially be useful as an immunotherapeutic agent alone or in combination with IL-2. We report here that peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients receiving in vivo IL-2 therapy do proliferate in response to IL-15. However, a greater dose of IL-15 is needed to reach the same level of proliferation stimulated by IL-2. The EC50 for IL-2 is 0.21 +/- 0.04 nM (mean +/- SE; n = 18), whereas the EC50 for IL-15-stimulated proliferation is 1.16 +/- 0.16 nM (n = 18). In contrast to the proliferative response, equivalent doses of IL-2 and IL-15 stimulate patient PBMCs to mediate similar levels of cytotoxicity against Daudi, K562, and LA-N-5 tumor targets. Notably, low concentrations of IL-15 that do not stimulate a substantial proliferative response (e.g., 1.0 ng/ml) do boost PBMCs to mediate cytotoxicity against these tumor targets. These distinct dose-response curves for proliferation compared to cytotoxicity suggest that IL-15 should be evaluated for its potential as an immunotherapeutic agent to treat cancer, particularly in regimens providing doses that might minimize the proliferative response (associated with cytokine release and toxic side effects) while maintaining the cytolytic antitumor response.


The Constraint Cellular Automata (CCA) land use model has found many applications in research and planning practices. A CCA model (the RUHUNUPURA model) was set up for the Ruhunupura area of Sri Lanka using the METRONAMICA® software. Preliminary model simulations revealed that the model is not capable of capturing the proper dynamics of the 'chena' land use class, which is a particular practice of shifting cultivation. Essentially, the 'short memory' of the model can neither account for the gradual decrease in soil fertility after an area of forest has been cleared for cultivation, nor can it capture the process of regen eration once the plot is fallowed. Chena is a common land use class (15% of the model area in 2001) and by its nature highly dynamic. Therefore, we extended the CCA model with a component that modifies land suitability as a function of the time since the last land use transition. The RUHUNUPURA model was set up with eleven land use classes out of which seven are dynamic (chena, build-up area, homestead, forest, paddy, other crops, and shrub and other uncultivated area), and four are static (inland fresh water, brackish water, un-modelled land, and sea) over the simulation period. In this model, the transition potential of a cell from one state to another is determined by five factors; neighbourhood interaction, zoning, accessibility, suitability and age, the latter being the newly introduced component. The direct effect of age is set to apply only for the land use classes chena and shrub and other uncultivated area. On one hand 'age' acts to linearly decrease the potential of chena lands to remain chena over time and keeps the effect constant once a chena is 6 years old. On the other hand 'age' linearly increases the potential of shrub and other uncultivated areas to change into chena over time, and becomes constant when the shrub and other uncultivated area reaches 5 years. The extended RUHUNUPURA model was calibrated for the period 1985 to 2001 and the results were assessed in terms of location-to-location overlap as well as structural similarity at multiple scales. These results give confidence in the representation of land use dynamics for all the main land use classes (shrub and other uncultivated area, homesteads, chena, forest, and paddy) except for the class other crops. The class build-up area, which is expected to become more important in future developments, did not expand much over the calibration period and therefore remains untested. A scenario was formulated to examine the model's ability to capture chena dynamics, and transformed in to a model simulation from 2001 to 2030. The simulation results show that the model adapts to produce shortening fallow periods and long cultivation periods of chena, as a result of increasing pressure on land. We conclude that the model extension is crucial for a model area which includes shifting cultivation. The extension affects not only the land use class chena, but through spatio-temporal interactions that are already present in the original CCA model the whole land use system is better represented. Category/Keywords: Natural Resource Management / Land use model, Cellular Automata, Shifting cultivation, Sri Lanka .


This study proposes a new sorbent for the removal of inorganic arsenic from aqueous solutions. Monodispersed nano zero-valent iron (nZVI) particles were nucleated at the surface of electrospun chitosan fibers (average fiber diameter of 195 ± 50 nm) by liquid phase reduction of FeCl3 using NaBH4. The material was characterized using SEM, TGA, XPS, XRD, and FTIR. The diameter of iron nanoparticles was found to vary between 75–100 nm. A set of batch experiments were carried out to elucidate the efficiency of the composite sorbent toward fixation of arsenite and arsenate ions. The ion concentrations in the supernatant solutions were determined using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results revealed that the chitosan fiber supported nZVI particles is an excellent sorbent material for inorganic arsenic uptake at concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 5.00 mg L−1 over a wide range of pH values. Based on XPS analysis, As(III) was found to undergo oxidation to As(V) upon sorption, while As(V) retained its oxidation state. By virtue of the successful combination of the electrospun fibers' mechanical integrity and the large reactivity of dispersed nZVI particles, the applicability of the resulting sorbent material in arsenic sorption holds broad promise.


Meiosis in male spiders is distinguished by the multiple. sex
chromosome mechanism whereby usually two or three X chromosomes move
jointly to one pole at the first division in the absence of any y
chromosome. The mechanism of segregation is, thus, fundamentally
different from that usual in XY and XnY systems where co-orientation
and segregation occur as a consequence of pairing, usually by chiasma
formation between the X and Y chromosomes.
The existence of this multiple system has been recorded by a
number of authors but little attempt was made to explain the behaviour
of the sex chromosomes until Revell (1947) reported a condition of
"continuous polarisation" in Tegenaria. life ascribed the regular
X-segregation to a persistence of polar attraction after oachytene which
leads to the bivalents and sex chromosomes being distributed in two
groups about the centrosomes when these have separated. Subsequently
on the formation of the spindle, the bivalents successively move
into the equatorial plane as their centromeres co-orientate, the Ps
occupying a position nearer to the pole to which they will move together
at anaphase. Although a similar condition of continuous polarisation has
been illustrated in Trochosa ruricola (Hackman, 1948) and is evidently
present in other species (ibid.; Wallace, 1909), it does not occur
universally in the spermatogenesis of spiders. For example, Atau
(1948) found that polarisation lapses at pachytene in Iranea reaumuri
in the usual manner. The normality of the meiotic cycle in Pranea
suggests that continuous polarisation in not the primary cause of
joint x-segregation but, rather, is a secondary adaptation in Some
species.


Objective: To address posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) predictors with research focused on the coping styles of traumatized individuals. Method: A total of 86 crime victims (mean age 46.1, standard deviation 17.6) were assessed at 5 and 11 months post-crime. Disclosure of trauma, social acknowledgement, dysfunctional posttraumatic cognitions, and PTSD symptom severity were assessed by self-reports. Results: Dysfunctional posttraumatic cognitions, disclosure attitudes, and social disapproval correlated positively with PTSD severity. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed the particular value of disclosure attitudes and perceived social disapproval in predicting PTSD symptom severity at 11 months post-crime. Conclusions: In addition to known predictors of PTSD, disclosure attitudes and social acknowledgement should also be considered. Future research should focus on broader concepts such as the victim's perception of, and interaction with, their social environment, and on the objective factors of social interaction, in addition to intrapersonal processes of posttraumatic recovery.


A 2017 literature review by researcher Lars V. Kessing and Per K. Andersen in the journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica reports that the greater a patient's number of previous episodes of bipolar disorder, the more likely that patient is to have a more difficult course of illness and poorer outcomes. The number of episodes was associated with more rapid recurrences, duration and severity of episodes, more automatic episodes (i.e. not triggered by stress), risk of dementia, treatment resistance, lack of recovery between episodes, and brain volume losses. In an article in the journal Bipolar Disorders in 2016, BNN Editor-in-Chief Robert M. Post described the value of preventive treatment in reducing episodes and protecting the brain from the damage that accompanies them. Given that episodes, stressors, and bouts of substance abuse can affect the way genes are transcribed via a phenomenon known as epigenetics, preventing these occurrences could lead to an easier course of illness and improved outcomes. Patients should provide their physicians with feedback about their response to prior medications and any side effects they experience over time so that their medication regime can be adjusted until it is maximally effective. Patients with severe illness and multiple previous episodes may need a complex medication regimen that includes multiple types of medications that target different systems of neurotransmitters. This philosophy of treatment is presented in several publications, including the 2008 book Treatment of Bipolar Illness: A Casebook for Clinicians and Patients by Post and Gabrielle Leverich, and more recently in the article "Treatment of Bipolar Depression: Evolving Recommendations" in the journal Psychiatric Clinics of North America. An open access article by Post, "New Perspectives on the Course and Treatment of Bipolar Disorders," published in the journal Edizioni Minerva Medica S.p.A. in 2017, describes the need for early and sometimes complex combination therapy, including the non-intuitive idea that more medications (carefully prescribed) can actually produce fewer side effects than large doses of a single medication. Another good resource for patients is a daily personal calendar that can be used to track ongoing symptoms, side effects, and response to medications. We offer several types of these calendars free on our website, bipolarnews. org. Click on the 'Mood Charting' tab. My Mood Monitor, or What's My M3, is a validated screening instrument that can detect depression, anxiety disorders, and mania in response to weekly self-reports. It is available online and as an app, and can be used to track illness course and response to treatment.


To understand how water uptake locally affects and is affected by the soil water distribution, three‐dimensional soil–root models need to be developed. Nowadays, fully coupled three‐dimensional soil–root flow models at the plant scale are available that simulate water flow along water potential gradients in the soil–root continuum, but the problems that arise by the coupling of soil and root have not been investigated thoroughly. In a previous work, we introduced and numerically validated a microscopic model to be used on a coarse numerical soil grid, describing the hydraulic conductivity drop between the bulk soil and the soil–root interface within a voxel of a three‐dimensional soil–root model. In this study, the impact of the local hydraulic conductivity drop on denser root architectures and in drier soil regions was assessed. When a coarse discretization of the soil grid is used, the local hydraulic conductivity drop has a significant effect on the water potential distribution at the soil–root interface and in the xylem, especially under conditions near plant stress where the local soil conductivity is lower than the radial root conductivity regulating root water uptake. As a consequence, plant stress conditions will be reached earlier than if the local conductivity drop within a soil voxel is neglected. In comparison with a fine soil discretization, the soil water potential gradient calculated by including the local conductivity drop at a coarser discretization does not fit the soil water potential gradient resulting from the fine soil discretization. Estimation of accurate water potential gradients throughout the soil requires a fine soil discretization.


Nurses are health care's backbone, spending the most time with patients, and working with teams of caregivers in institutions and serving as advanced practice nurses in primary care settings. Short-term shortages wax and wane, but concerns about a shortage are more serious now because the next decade may see more older nurses retiring than new ones entering the workforce. Education needs to be augmented and improved, but no precise estimation method can show how many nurses society should produce. Policy should focus more on nurses' scopes of practice and aligning how they are treated and paid with the value they add to patient care.


These essays challenge both theorists and citizens to confront grave injustices committed by their country. That calls on Americans to take a fresh look at their nation's beginnings, including the colonists' early adoption of race-based slavery even though it was unlawful and why those who rebelled against English oppression were responsible for greater injustices against their Native American neighbors. Confronting injustice requires Americans to consider how delegates to the 1787 constitutional convention readily embraced increased protections for chattel slavery, why the federal government later abandoned Reconstruction, and why the nation allowed former slave owners to establish a new system of racial oppression called Jim Crow. It requires Americans to ask why America's official rejection of white supremacy is combined with an unwillingness to address continuing racial stratification. Confronting injustice calls upon political theorists to test their views in the crucible of social history. It challenges those who debate abstractly the idea of an obligation to obey the law to consider the implications of grievous injustices. It calls upon those who assume that their society is now "reasonably just" to ask when that transformation occurred, despite the fact that children who are black or poor lack and are denied equal opportunity.


The Remote Didactic Laboratory Laboratorio Didattico Remoto -LA.DI.RE. "G. Savastano" is an e-learning measurement laboratory supported by the Italian Ministry of Education and University. It provides the students of electric and electronic measurement courses with access to remote measurement laboratories, delivering different didactic activities related to measurement experiments. The core of the software architecture is the integration of the Learning Management System (LMS) with the remotely accessible measurement laboratories through web services and thin client paradigm, providing a new approach to remote experiments on measurement instrumentation. The overview of this paper is on the different solutions concerning the thin client technology, and the solution implemented is described. This solution takes into account the delivered services to students and teachers and permits optimization of the communication performances. The results of the comparison among the performances of different implementations of the thin client paradigm highlight the advantages of the adopted solution. As a consequence, the description of the thin client protocol implemented, together with the presentation of the LMS and delivered services given in a previous paper, makes an exhaustive analysis of the software architecture of the LA.DI.RE. "G. Savastano."


Utility regulators frequently focus as much or more on the distributional impact of electric rate structures as on their efficiency. The goal of protecting low-income consumers has become more central with recent increases in wholesale power costs and anticipation of significant costs of greenhouse gas emissions in the near future. These concerns have led to the widespread use of increasing-block pricing (IBP), under which the marginal price to the household increases as its daily or monthly usage rises. There is no cost basis for differentiating marginal price of electricity by consumption level, so perhaps nowhere is the conflict between efficiency and distributional goals greater than in the use of IBP. California has adopted some of the most steeply increasing-block tariffs in electric utility history. Combining household-level utility billing data with census data on income distribution by area, I derive estimates of the income redistribution effected by these increasing-block electricity tariffs. I find that the rate structure does redistribute income to lower-income groups, cutting the bills of households in the lowest income bracket by about 12% (about $5 per month). The effect would be about twice as large if not for the presence of another program that offers a different and lower rate structure to qualified low-income households. I find that the deadweight loss associated with IBP is likely to be large relative to the transfers. In contrast, I find that the means-tested program transfers income with much less economic inefficiency. A much larger share of the revenue redistributed by the IBP tariff, however, comes from the wealthiest quintile of households, so IBP may be a more progressive structure of redistribution. In carrying out the analysis, I also show that a common approach to studying (or controlling for) income distribution effects by using median household income within a census block group may substantially understate the potential effects.


Women's studies arose out of the movement of second-wave feminism in the 1960s. Its passion drew on activism, its research questions emerged out of that activist engagement, and many of its practitioners saw women's studies as the academic arm of the women's movement. As a participant in the founding of women's studies who now runs the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, I am struck by parallels between the work of first-wave feminists at HullHouse, an internationally famous settlement house founded in 1889 in Chicago, and second-wave feminists in women's studies. Key principles for both efforts involved lessening the distance (and power difference) between the researcher and the researched, creating new knowledge out of one's own experiences and observations, and linking theory and practice in the application of new knowledge to promote social change. Jane Addams (1860-1935) and Ellen Gates Starr (1859-1940) founded Hull-House on the near west side of Chicago, a neighborhood teeming with new immigrants and all the concomitant urban problems: congestion, crowded and unsafe tenement housing, poverty, infectious disease and malnutrition, and exploitative labor conditions. Under Addams's leadership, Hull-House attracted many talented women, some of whom went on to national and international fame.' For example, Alice Hamilton (1869-1970), a pioneer in the field of industrial toxicology, became the first female professor at Harvard University with an appointment at the Harvard Medical School. Julia Lathrop (1858-1932), who as a Hull-House resident assessed the effectiveness of local charitable institutions, went on to head the Children's Bureau in Washington. Hull-House residents supported striking workers; created the first Chicago public playground and public baths; started Chicago's first women's basketball team; offered classes in citizenship, English, music, drama, art, and literature; provided information on birth control and venereal disease; challenged the local ward boss; and counseled immigrants with legal problems.2 How did they go about this work? They sought in some ways to minimize differences between themselves and their neighbors. According to the settlement house philosophy, those wishing to help solve the neighborhood's problems were to settle-reside-in the neighborhood and share its congestion, bad odors, and exposure to disease. Upwards of seventy "residents" lived and worked in what grew to be the thirteen-building complex of Hull-House; others, nonresidents, also offered programs. Addams was adamant that Hull-House activities were not philanthropy, with the word's connotations of the rich conveying goodies to the poor, but rather "the duties of good citizenship" (Addams, "Objective Value" 45). Hull-House residents paid room and board for the privilege of living at Hull-House and initiating and running programs. Some, like Addams herself, had an inheritance. Others earned a living elsewhere and administered Hull-House activities in their spare time. Enella Benedict (1858-1942), for example, taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the morning and ran the HullHouse art program in the afternoon. Florence Kelley's (1859-1932) employment in the early 1890s as a special agent to the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics gave her close contact with garment workers and enabled her to observe exploitative industrial working conditions.3 Jane Addams articulated a notion of the reciprocity of individuals across social classes. In Twenty Years at Hull-House, she notes that the settlement "was soberly opened on the theory that the dependence of classes on each other is reciprocal; and that as the social expression is essentially a reciprocal relation, it gives a form of expression that has peculiar value" (80). Moreover, she saw herself and young women like her-first-generation female college graduates-as rescued from stifled lives by the opportunity to live and work at the settlement, to engage their talents and intellects in meaningful activity. …


Healthy diets and physical activity are recommended to prevent early onset of chronic diseases. However, little is known about the lifestyle characteristics associated with longevity particularly in low and middle-income countries. We examined dietary and lifestyle characteristics of men (n=18) and women (n=16) aged 90 to 109 years old living in the "Blue Zone" of the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. All participantswere visited at their home for anthropometric measurements and data collection using validated lifestyle and food frequency questionnaires.(6) Most participants (89% of men and 69% of women), reported being physically active throughout theirlife. There were very few overweight or obese individuals (9% and 3%, respectively); whereas 75% of women and 44% of men were classified as having abdominal obesity, and 56% of women and 44% of men as being underweight. Over 65% reported intake of fruits and vegetables, black beans, corn tortillas, white rice, "gallo pinto", dairy products, and "fresco" 1-3 times per day. None of the participants reported daily intake of red meat, sweets or salty snacks. In addition, 65% reported intake of red meat 2-6 times per week compared to 82% and 56% who reported intake of chicken and fish, respectively. Thus, the long-lived inhabitants of the "Blue Zone" of the Peninsula de Nicoya in Costa Rica are characterized by a diet and lifestyle that is consistent with evidence-based recommendations to promote long and healthy lives.


Introduction: Intertrochanteric fractures in the elderly are common fractures with high morbidity and mortality. Moreover, its surgical stabilization with early rehabilitation remains a persistent challenge. These patients have poor bone quality and conventional osteosynthetic procedures frequently lead to nonunion and metal failure. The primary goals of treatment are stable fixation and early rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the functional outcome, complications of intertrochanteric fractures treated with trochanteric fixation nail (TFN). Materials and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted on the total of 50 patients with fracture intertrochanteric femur and treated with TFN from July 2011 to August 2016. The patients evaluated at 6 months, 1–4 years postoperatively and assessed using the Modified Harris hip score. Results: The mean age of patients was 59.78 ± 16.58 years. There were 37 males and 13 females. The mean duration of surgery was 40.40 ± 20.86 min. The mean union time was 2.20 ± 0.50 months. One (2%) patient developed deep venous thrombosis, whereas 1 (2%) patient had back out of stabilizing screw and 1 (2%) patient had implant failure. The Harris hip score at 1-year and 4-year follow-up was 92.12 and 97.92, respectively, which is slightly better than scores from other implants used for similar fracture. Conclusion: For intertrochanteric fracture fixation, trochanteric femur nail offers good functional outcome with early ambulation and weight bearing with a high rate of union and minimal complications.


In the upstream production systems, the external corrosion management typically does not affect the definition of the whole gathering network system design. However, its role is crucial for the integrity of any steel structure.
 The external corrosion is generally managed with external coatings or cathodic protection systems designed to provide a durable protection against corrosive environments (either onshore or offshore). Typical external coating materials are polypropylene, polyethylene (in case of polyolefin coating), fusion bounded epoxy (FBE) or, in specific applications, thermal sprayed aluminium (TSA).
 In High Pressure and High Temperature (HP/HT) reservoir applications, usually located in deepwaters offshore where the ambient temperatures are low (i.e. high temperature gradient between inside the pipelines and external environment), the selection of a specific external coating material might have significant impact on the design specification of the installed hardware, with special focus on the pipelines. In fact, depending on different physical properties of the external coating technologies, those may introduce stronger or weaker insulating capabilities and will modify the pipelines U Value, which describes the capacity of the pipelines to exchange heat with the external environment (and consequently the design specification of the production network).
 A Case Study is here presented where impacts on the pipeline design specifications based on the selection of different external coating technologies have been described. In particular, it is here shown how the application of coating materials with lower insulating performance, e.g FBE coating, can increase the heat exchange between the hot production fluid and the cold external environment, leading to faster cooldown of production fluid.
 In this case, reduction in operating fluid temperature has been used to prevent internal corrosion issues (generally linked to top of the line corrosion), however it may also be used as mitigation of HP/HT related issues, e.g. lateral buckling. Main pros and cons of FBE applied as a standalone external anticorrosion coating have been described in this paper.


Existing methods for dissolving poorly crytalline Fe oxides (primarily ferrihydrite) in soils and mineral mixtures are simple and rapid but often lack selectivity. In this work, we tested a more selective, alternative ascorbate-based extractant. Ascorbate combined with citrate was found to be highly effective in dissolving poorly crystalline Fe oxides while dissolving little goethite and hematite. Citrate-ascorbate and oxalate extracted similar amounts of Fe from most of the soils and Fe-rich materials studied. However, citrate-ascorbate was more selective than oxalate, since it dissolved only negligible amounts of allophane or imogolite and magnetite. The recommended citrate-ascorbate extraction procedure (0.2 M sodium citrate-0.05 M sodium ascorbate, pH 6, 16 h) is simple to implement and relatively inexpensive, and uses nontoxic chemicals. Thus, it can be used on a routine basis for estimating poorly crystalline Fe oxides in soils. By subtracting citrate-extractable Fe and Al from citrate-ascorbate-extractable Fe and Al values, respectively, one can estimate Fe and Al contained in poorly crystalline Fe oxides. The citrate-ascorbate extraction, combined with others (oxalate, Tiron, hydroxylamine) can help detect and quantify other soil components such as allophane and magnetite.


Abstract. Geomagnetic excursions, i.e. short periods in time with much weaker geomagnetic fields and substantial changes in the position of the geomagnetic pole, occurred repeatedly in the Earth's history, e.g. the Laschamp event about 41 kyr ago. Although the next such excursion is certain to come, little is known about the timing and possible consequences for the state of the atmosphere and the ecosystems. Here we use the global chemistry climate model SOCOL-MPIOM to simulate the effects of geomagnetic excursions on atmospheric ionization, chemistry and dynamics. Our simulations show significantly increased concentrations of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the entire stratosphere, especially over Antarctica (+15%), due to enhanced ionization by galactic cosmic rays. Hydrogen oxides (HOx) are also produced in greater amounts (up to +40%) in the tropical and subtropical lower stratosphere, while their destruction by reactions with enhanced NOx prevails over the poles and in high altitudes (by −5%). Stratospheric ozone concentrations decrease globally above 20 km by 1–2% and at the northern hemispheric tropopause by up to 5% owing to the accelerated NOx-induced destruction. A 5% increase is found in the southern lower stratosphere and troposphere. In response to these changes in ozone and the concomitant changes in atmospheric heating rates, the Arctic vortex intensifies in boreal winter, while the Antarctic vortex weakens in austral winter and spring. Surface wind anomalies show significant intensification of the southern westerlies at their poleward edge during austral winter and a pronounced northward shift in spring. Major impacts on the global climate seem unlikely.


Many water utilities that provide water, drainage and sanitation services in Mexico encounter several problems performing these duties. They face insufficient funds, frequent changes of administrative and qualified technical personnel, as well as distribution-network aging. This situation, along with high water losses in transmission pipelines and distribution networks, illegal service connections, and intermittent water supply have led to a large portion of the water utilities having to deal with a low willingness from the users to pay for the service provided. Pumping and water treatment make up most of the high electricity costs generated from the provision of water supply services. This paper presents the results of an energy efficiency study, using a hydraulic simulation model as a starting point in which various energy-consumption optimization scenarios were considered. Priority was placed on existing infrastructure use, the assessment of alternatives for pumping equipment operation, the addition of complimentary equipment with its corresponding capital and running costs as well as its repercussions on the service provided to end-users and finally their impact on the total running costs for the water utility. To carry out an adequate interpretation of the hydraulic model, it was necessary to perform a detailed analysis of existing pumping equipment, primarily its electromechanical parameters in such a way that upon integrating them into the model, the proposed alternatives carry the certainty of success. In general form, the analyzed sources of supply produce an average of 437 L/s, with an energy consumption of 920 kW/h. Based on the hydraulic simulation, it is possible to take 5 pumping sites out of operation from the Pump Stations G.O. 1 and 2 which implies a reduction of 121.7 kW/h and as such, considering the rate at the moment of this study which is $1.025 kW/h, yields an annual savings of $55,000.00 USD, representing a 24% decrease in the total energy consumed by the distribution network.


This paper quantifies the extent of heterogeneity in consumption responses to changes in real interest rates and house prices in the four largest economies in the euro area: France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. We first calibrate a life-cycle incomplete-markets model with a financial asset and housing to match the large heterogeneity of households asset portfolios, observed in the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) for these countries. We then show that the heterogeneity in household finances implies that responses of consumption to changes in the real interest rate and in house prices differ substantially across countries, and within countries by household characteristics such as age, housing tenure, and asset positions. The different consumption responses quantified in this paper point towards important heterogeneity in monetary-policy transmission in the euro area.


True You Magazine was created because of the turmoil and conflict that today's media creates for young girls between the ages of 10 years old and 14 years old. Girls of this age are highly susceptible to influences of any media form, including magazines, television shows, and movies. In the magazine industry, there are many women's and teen fashion and health magazines. Unfortunately, the majority of these publications lack healthy representation of female bodies. Some of these magazines also discuss and advise on topics, like sex or dieting, that girls in this young age range should not be reading. Knowing the personal effects of some of these pressures, and the damage that these pressures can ultimately cause, specifically eating disorders, a magazine needed to be created that gave young girls a different perspective on what a fun and interesting magazine could be. According to MediaFamily.org, "over 45 percent [of girls] indicated that those images [in magazines] motivated them to lose weight." A study done by the Social Research Centre showed that "81 percent of ten-year-old girls had already dieted at least once." These pressures combined with the normal stages of going through puberty can create an environment that does not help girls to grow in a secure and comfortable perspective. Every magazine possesses a mission statement. True You Magazine takes its reader to a place where smart meets fun and informative. True You wants readers to successfully navigate the pressures of outside media and to learn something new, but still have fun. This magazine is a place where we won't alter photographs. True You believes that the best way to live, to read, and to learn is through being honest with yourself, and only allowing positive outside forces to lead you to be the best that you can be. With this idea in mind, True You Magazine serves as a medium to allow easily influenced girls at this age to read a magazine that their mothers would purchase or subscribe to. True You serves as a fun and informative place where girls can read and learn without feeling as though they are bogged down in academic or boring writing. By keeping the balance in the magazine with both text and large images, readers should not feel as though they are forced into reading lengthy pieces about topics that have little or no interest in their lives. Being able to produce a magazine that caters to young girls will help to break the cycle that media creates with insecurity among young easily influenced girls. When girls are already intelligent it only forwards the mission of many who want to end this problem that the media creates. As much as some would want to believe that the media does not have such a great influence, there are many people who do not have the selfesteem and security to know that some content in magazines is doctored to make women look thinner, and more "perfect."


We have systematically studied the flux pinning behavior of MgB2 bulks synthesized by direct diffusion of Mg into pressed pellets of high purity crystalline B powder, with and without mixing with C and SiC nanoparticles, at a reaction temperature of 850degC for 10 hrs. All of the samples showed very high purity and high density, but their microstructure and flux pinning behavior showed significant differences. It was found that the pure MgB2 agrees with the deltaTc pinning model, nano-C doped MgB2 agrees with the deltal pinning model, while the SiC+MgB2 composite agrees with the deltaepsiv pinning model (stress/strain field pinning), since the dominant micro-defects that influence the flux pinning in these three samples are different.


Each music tradition has its own characteristics in terms of melodic, rhythmic and timbral properties as well as semantic understandings. To analyse, discover and explore these culture-specific characteristics, we need music collections which are representative of the studied aspects of the music tradition. For Turkish makam music, there are various resources available such as audio recordings, music scores, lyrics and editorial metadata. However, most of these resources are not typically suited for computational analysis, are hard to access, do not have sufficient quality or do not include adequate descriptive information. In this paper we present a corpus of Turkish makam music created within the scope of the CompMusic project. The corpus is intended for computational research and the primary considerations during the creation of the corpus reflect some criteria, namely, purpose, coverage, completeness, quality and re-usability. So far, we have gathered approximately 6000 audio recordings, 2200 music scores with lyrics and 27000 instances of editorial metadata related to Turkish makam music. The metadata include information about makams, recordings, scores, compositions, artists etc. as well as the interrelations between them. In this paper, we also present several test datasets of Turkish makam music. Test datasets contain manual annotations by experts and they provide ground truth for specific computational tasks to test, calibrate and improve the research tools. We hope that this research corpus and the test datasets will facilitate academic studies in several fields such as music information retrieval and computational musicology.


Survey data collection costs have risen to a point where many survey researchers and polling companies are abandoning large, expensive probability-based samples in favor of less expensive nonprobability samples. The empirical literature suggests this strategy may be suboptimal for multiple reasons, among them that probability samples tend to outperform nonprobability samples on accuracy when assessed against population benchmarks. However, nonprobability samples are often preferred due to convenience and costs. Instead of forgoing probability sampling entirely, we propose a method of combining both probability and nonprobability samples in a way that exploits their strengths to overcome their weaknesses within a Bayesian inferential framework. By using simulated data, we evaluate supplementing inferences based on small probability samples with prior distributions derived from nonprobability data. We demonstrate that informative priors based on nonprobability data can lead to reductions in variances and mean squared errors for linear model coefficients. The method is also illustrated with actual probability and nonprobability survey data. A discussion of these findings, their implications for survey practice, and possible research extensions are provided in conclusion.


Over the past decade, voters and legislatures have moved to legalize the possession of marijuana under state law. Some have limited these reforms to the medicinal use of marijuana, while others have not. Despite these reforms marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Although the Justice Department has not sought to preempt or displace state-level reforms, the federal prohibition casts a long shadow across state-level legalization efforts. This federal-state conflict presents multiple important and challenging policy questions that often get overlooked in policy debates over whether to legalize marijuana for medical or recreational purposes. Yet in a "compound republic" like the United States, this federal-state conflict is particularly important if one wishes to understand marijuana law and policy today. This brief essay is the introductory chapter to Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane (Jonathan H. Adler ed., Brookings Institution Press, 2020), an edited volume that explores the legal and policy issues presented by the federal-state conflict in marijuana law. It provides an overview of the relevant issues and a survey of the remaining chapters in the volume.


OBJECTIVE
To review the current literature on the treatment of itching, or pruritus, in people with burn wounds.

METHOD
A literature search using the databases PubMed, MEDLINE and Google Scholar was undertaken. Studies were included in the review if they discussed or evaluated different treatment options for pruritus in patients with burn wounds.

RESULTS
A variety of treatments are available for the relief of pruritus in patients with burns wounds, ranging from antihistamines and topical emollients to psychological therapies, massage and dermatological treatments. Oral antihistamines are used most commonly, yet research indicates that these are not always effective. Few studies are methodologically robust. In recent years, there has been an attempt to design and implement treatment strategies and algorithms, however, there is currently no agreed and consistent management plan for the treatment of pruritus due to burn injury.

CONCLUSION
Simple single therapies should be the first line therapy for the treatment of pruritus due to burns, however, if these are unsuccessful, combination therapy should be introduced early to try to reduce the onset of chronic itch. Current algorithms and treatment plans based on the stage of healing show promise but need further modification and testing before they can be recommended for common use.


The purpose of the ASIL Studies in International Legal Theory series is to clarify and improve the theoretical foundations of international law. Too often the progressive development and implementation of international law has foundered on confusion about first principles. This series raises the level of public and scholarly discussion about the structure and purposes of the world legal order and how best to achieve global justice through law. This series grows out of the International Legal Theory project of the American Society of International Law. The ASIL Studies in International Legal Theory series deepens this conversation by publishing scholarly monographs and edited volumes of essays considering subjects in international legal theory.


Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) is the most important member of the PARP family which has been shown to have a direct involvement in the development of cancer. A strategy to rationalize the structure based drug discovery of PARP1 inhibitors has been discussed. So far studies regarding varied scaffold PARP1 inhibitors have been done, however the current study focus on how the available data from potent PARP1 inhibitors could be combined and utilized for developing a robust model for the development of novel inhibitors. Through detailed analyses of PARP1-inhibitor binding, a pharmacophore model has been developed followed by a virtual screen of potential inhibitors. The resulting high-affinity binding hits following the defined pharmacophore model and making the critical interactions were selected as final potential leads. Hence, using the approaches of pharmacophore design, docking based virtual screening and conformation alignment, we have identified important leads which satisfy all parameters of the screening process. The developed pharmacophore model as well as the strategy is very straightforward for screening novel inhibitors and could thus be used as a prototype for PARP1 structure based drug discovery.


The DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) was identified as an activity and as its three component polypeptides 25 and 15 years ago, respectively. It has been exhaustively characterized as being absolutely dependent on free double stranded DNA ends (to which it is directed by its regulatory subunit, Ku) for its activation as a robust nuclear serine/threonine protein kinase. Here, we report the unexpected finding of robust DNA-PKcs activation by N-terminal constraint, independent of either DNA or its regulatory subunit Ku. These data suggest that an N-terminal conformational change (likely induced by DNA binding) induces enzymatic activation.


In present days, a search is going on for new antimicrobial agents due to the negative effects of existing antibiotics and the constant development of bacterial resistance. This study assessed the phyto chemical screening and antibacterial activities of methanol extract from the leaves of Wedilia trilobata. Methanol extract from the leaves of Wedilia trilobata has an antimicrobialactivities against 5 bacteria K. pneumoniae, E. coli, E. faecalis, S. aureus and P. Aeruginosa and it was investigated using a disc diffusion and minimum inhibitory concentration assay (MIC). Both disc diffusion and (MIC) of the extracts ranged from 5 to 20 μg/m. Results of phyto chemical screening of methanol extracts of W. trilobata showed the presence of tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloid, poly phenols, saponins and cardiac glycosides absent. The total content of flavonoids and poly phenols in the www.ijcrt.org © 2021 IJCRT | Volume 9, Issue 6 June 2021 | ISSN: 2320-2882 IJCRT2106639 International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) www.ijcrt.org f416 methanol extracts of the studied species positively correlated with their antioxidant properties .The study findings indicate that bioactive natural products from these plants may be isolated for further testing as leads in the development of new pharmaceuticals in food preservation as well as natural plant-based medicine.


Mental Health Professionals' Attitude and Perception of Their Role in Tackling Substance Abuse and Related Disorders in Nigeria by Olubusayo Akinola MPH, University of East London, Stratford, 2010 BPharm, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, 2005 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Public Health Walden University May 2015 Abstract Mental health professionals (MHPs) play a pivotal role in enhancing treatment outcomes for drug-using populations and minimizing their harm to the public. In response to a gap in the literature, this study sought to (a) assess MHPs' attitudes about the use and abuse of substances and their perception of their role in tackling substance abuse and related disorders in Nigeria, (b) identify predictors of perception, and (c) explore regionalMental health professionals (MHPs) play a pivotal role in enhancing treatment outcomes for drug-using populations and minimizing their harm to the public. In response to a gap in the literature, this study sought to (a) assess MHPs' attitudes about the use and abuse of substances and their perception of their role in tackling substance abuse and related disorders in Nigeria, (b) identify predictors of perception, and (c) explore regional variations in attitude. Based on the validated drug and drug users' problems perception questionnaire and the substance abuse attitude survey, a cross-sectional survey was conducted in a randomized sample of 292 MHPs practicing in neuropsychiatric hospitals and in the mental health departments of teaching hospitals from 4 geopolitical zones of Nigeria. A response rate of 81.1% was achieved. MHPs' attitude about substance use tended towards the non-permissive, stereotypical, and moralistic spectrum, and its role perception was distinctly defined. Educational attainment (O.R = 0.50, p = 0.030), workmotivation (O.R = 0.55, p < 0.0001), and role-support (O.R = 1.48, p < 0.0001) significantly predicted MHPs' role perception. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed that there were significant regional variations in the attitudes of multidisciplinary MHPs, H (3) 18.727, p < 0.0001. Step-down follow up analysis revealed that the distribution of attitude total score vary significantly between the south-southern and southwestern region (p< 0.001), the northeastern and southeastern region of the country (p < 0.028). To foster the rehabilitation of this population and its reintegration into mainstream society, a holistic approach toward the standardization of drug treatment is needed. It should take into account the cultural, religious, and ethnic differences predominating in different


BACKGROUND:Increased pulse pressure (PP) is an important independent predictor of cardiovascular outcome and acute kidney injury (AKI) after cardiac surgery. The objective of this study was to determine whether elevated baseline PP is associated with postoperative AKI and 30-day mortality after noncardiac surgery. METHODS:We evaluated 9125 adult patients who underwent noncardiac surgery at Duke University Medical Center between January 2006 and December 2009. Baseline arterial blood pressure was defined as the mean of the first 5 measurements recorded by the automated record keeping system before inducing anesthesia. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to determine whether baseline PP adjusted for other perioperative risk factors was independently associated with postoperative AKI and 30-day mortality. RESULTS:Of the 9125 patients, the baseline PP was <40 mm Hg in 1426 (15.6%), 40–80 mm Hg in 6926 (75.9%), and >80 mm Hg in 773 (8.5%) patients. The incidence of AKI was 19.8%, which included 8.4% (151 patients) and 4.2% (76 patients) who experienced stage II and III AKI, respectively. In the risk-adjusted model for postoperative AKI, elevated baseline PP was associated with higher odds for postoperative AKI (adjusted odds ratio [OR] for every 20 mm Hg increase in PP, 1.17; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10–1.25; P < .0001). Also elevated baseline preoperative PP was significantly associated with mild (stage I; OR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.11–1.27; P < .0001), but not with more advanced stages of postoperative AKI or with an incremental risk for 30-day mortality. CONCLUSIONS:We found a significant association between elevated baseline PP and postoperative AKI in patients who underwent noncardiac surgery. However, elevated PP was not significantly associated with more advanced stages of postoperative AKI or 30-day mortality in these patients.


" 'To you, I'm an atheist. To God, I'm the loyal opposition.' … Allen comes out of the Jewish tradition which, from its scriptural roots, has poked and prodded the powerful. He turns this protest against a powerful God, saying 'Thou hast a good job. Don't blow it." '


In September 2016, regulators charged Wells Fargo with opening millions of unauthorized accounts on behalf of its customers. When some of those customers filed class actions against Wells, the bank initially responded by moving to compel arbitration on the ground that the consumers had agreed to arbitrate disputes and waive their class action rights. Because most customers with claims in small amounts would probably have foregone filing an arbitration claim, the effect would have been to leave their damages uncompensated except for the refunding of fees, which Wells agreed to in the consent order it entered into with regulators. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed a regulation which, if it had been in effect at the relevant time, would have enabled the injured Wells customers to obtain class action relief. But the proposed rule is encountering objections in Congress, based partly on free-market economic theory. This Article argues that free-market economics is not sufficient to protect consumers from the type of problem present in the Wells Fargo case for two reasons. First, free-market economics assumes that consumers have complete information while empirical evidence shows that consumers do not understand arbitration clauses, much less that consumers realize that such clauses would bar class actions as to fraudulent accounts that the consumers did not know about. Second, the number of primary checking accounts at Wells consistently increased as the fraud became public, suggesting that the free market did not discipline Wells for its misconduct until regulators intervened, and did so only modestly at that point. It is even possible that by enforcing arbitration clauses as written, free-market economics prolonged the Wells fraud, thus enabling more consumers to be injured. In short, some device beyond the free market is necessary to prevent financial institutions from cheating many consumers out of small amounts. Class actions are one such device, but arbitration clauses as currently enforced enable financial institutions to prevent their use, thus reducing their incentive to comply with the law.


PURPOSE
In the Noise Outcomes in Servicemembers Epidemiology Study, Veterans recently separated from the military undergo comprehensive assessments to initiate long-term monitoring of their auditory function. We developed the Tinnitus Screener, a four-item algorithmic instrument that determines whether tinnitus is present and, if so, whether it is constant or intermittent, or whether only temporary tinnitus has been experienced. Predictive validity data are presented for the first 100 Noise Outcomes in Servicemembers Epidemiology Study participants.

METHOD
The Tinnitus Screener was administered to participants by telephone. In lieu of a gold standard for determining tinnitus presence, the predictive validity of the tinnitus category assigned to participants on the basis of the Screener results was assessed when the participants attended audiologic testing.

RESULTS
Of the 100 participants, 67 screened positive for intermittent or constant tinnitus. Three were categorized as "temporary" tinnitus only, and 30 were categorized as "no tinnitus." Tinnitus categorization was predictively valid with 96 of the 100 participants.

CONCLUSIONS
These results provide preliminary evidence that the Screener may be suitable for quickly determining essential parameters of reported tinnitus. We have since revised the instrument to differentiate acute from chronic tinnitus and to identify occasional tinnitus. We are also obtaining measures that will enable assessment of its test-retest reliability.


In this article, we describe an efficient beam search algorithm for statistical machine translation based on dynamic programming (DP). The search algorithm uses the translation model presented in Brown et al. (1993). Starting from a DP-based solution to the traveling-salesman problem, we present a novel technique to restrict the possible word reorderings between source and target language in order to achieve an efficient search algorithm. Word reordering restrictions especially useful for the translation direction German to English are presented. The restrictions are generalized, and a set of four parameters to control the word reordering is introduced, which then can easily be adopted to new translation directions. The beam search procedure has been successfully tested on the Verbmobil task (German to English, 8,000-word vocabulary) and on the Canadian Hansards task (French to English, 100,000-word vocabulary). For the medium-sized Verbmobil task, a sentence can be translated in a few seconds, only a small number of search errors occur, and there is no performance degradation as measured by the word error criterion used in this article.


Recent trends in the paving industry have resulted in increased contractor involvement in the design, acceptance, and performance of hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements. As a result, questions have arisen about whether contractor process control tests, alternatively known as quality control (QC), should be incorporated into the acceptance and pay factor processes that state highway agencies currently use. To examine this issue, various statistical tests were used including F and t-tests to compare QC data to agency-obtained quality assurance (QA) results. The percentage of projects that exhibited statistically significant differences in mean values and variances was calculated and assessed. For projects that had statistically similar QC and QA results, the average difference between the two testing programs was calculated. The results of the statistical analysis were analyzed from both a statistical and engineering perspective. This report contains data from four state DOTs—California, Minnesota, Texas, and Washington. These states also provided the funding for the study.


Background Reactivation of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a well-recognised complication in patients with chronic HBV infection who receive cytotoxic or immunosuppressant treatment. Patients undergoing rituximab treatment should be checked routinely for HBV serologic markers and serum HBV DNA levels and this is not a fully established practice. Purpose To assess whether prophylaxis to prevent HBV reactivation in patients treated with rituximab is being initiated in line with the recommendations of reference guides. Material and methods Patients treated with rituximab from January 2013 to May 2014 were selected, the HBV serology reviewed, and whether they received prophylaxis with antivirals. Results 94 patients received rituximab, 9 patients were excluded due to death. Serology requested at baseline was HBs Ag and anti-HBc. 72/83 (87%) patients were seronegative. 11/83 (13%) were positive for HBsAg and anti-HBc. 6/11 (54%) had been given prophylaxis, two with lamivudine 100 mg/day, two with entecavir 0.5 mg/day, one with Tenofovir 245 mg/day and the last with tenofovir/emtricitabine. In two of the cases treatment began after rituximab had been started. 5/11 received no prophylaxis. In one HBV reactivation occurred within three months of the start of rituximab with blood tests becoming positive, significant increase in serology and DNA but without clinical involvement. This patient received entecavir 0.5 mg/day following reactivation. Conclusion Every patient undergoing rituximab treatment should be checked for HBsAg and total anti-HBc before the initiation of treatment. It is very important to identify patients who have a serological risk of developing fulminant hepatitis with associated HBV reactivation. These are patients with HBs Ag− with anti-HBc+. Prophylaxis should begin one week before and continue for up to 6–12 months after the end of rituximab treatment. Reference Guidelines: Journal of Hepatology No conflict of interest.


The Triple Aim—enhancing patient experience, improving population health, and reducing costs—is widely accepted as a compass to optimize health system performance. Yet physicians and other members of the health care workforce report widespread burnout and dissatisfaction. Burnout is associated with lower patient satisfaction, reduced health outcomes, and it may increase costs. Burnout thus imperils the Triple Aim. This article recommends that the Triple Aim be expanded to a Quadruple Aim, adding the goal of improving the work life of health care providers, including clinicians and staff.


Completely revised, this new edition includes the latest material on oil analysis, the energy conservation aspects of lube oil application and selection and bearing protector seals. Information on synthesized hydrocarbons and oil mist lubrication is thoroughly revised. It addresses the full scope of industrial lubricants, including general purpose oils, hydraulic fluids, food-grade and environmentally friendly lubricants, synthetic lubricants, greases, pastes, waxes and tribosystems. Detailed coverage is provided on lubrication strategies for electric motor bearings, gear lubrication, compressors and gas engines, and steam and gas turbines. Other topics include proper lubricant handling and storage, as well as effective industrial plant oil analysis practices.


The problem of planning in the presence of sensing has been addressed in recent years as a nondeterministic search problem in belief space. In this work, we use ideas advanced recently for compiling conformant problems into classical ones for introducing a different approach where contingent problems P are mapped into non-deterministic problems X(P) in state space. We also identify a contingent width parameter, and show that for problems P with bounded contingent width, the translation is sound, polynomial, and complete. We then solve X(P) by using a relaxation X+(P) that is a classical planning problem. The formulation is tested experimentally over contingent benchmarks where it is shown to yield a planner that scales up better than existing contingent planners.


Surgical complications during kidney transplantation can seriously affect renal outcomes. We assess occurrence, risk factors, and results of all urological complications in a series of renal transplants in a single center. Children who underwent renal transplant between January 2008 and December 2014 were retrospectively evaluated. Postoperative urological complications were reviewed. Demographic details, cause of ESRD, donor type, and surgical procedures at transplant were analyzed. For statistical analysis, the chi‐square test or Fisher's exact test were used as appropriate. One hundred and twenty‐one kidney transplants were performed in 117 children (median age 12 yr). Sixty‐two of 121 (53%) had an underlying urological malformation. At a median follow‐up of three yr, 28 urological complications were recorded (23%): 12 lymphocele (10%), 10 ureteral obstruction (8%), three urinary leakage (2.5%), two symptomatic VUR (1.7%), and one hydropyonephrosis. When lymphocele was excluded, the complication incidence rate dropped to 13%. Ureteral obstruction mostly occurred late after transplant (more than six months). Presence of urological malformation was the only factor related to increased occurrence of urological complication (p = 0.007) and, in particular, ureteral obstruction (p = 0.018). Children with urological malformations presented a statistically significant risk of developing urological complications after kidney transplantation, ureteral obstruction being the most common complication.


Interactive computer environments may be a good way to make motor practice more fun and motivating for children with sensorimotor disorders. However, appropriate computer environments that could be used for this purpose need to be systematically tested in rehabilitation settings in order to evaluate their impact on motor aspects as well as on motivation and activity levels. This abstract describes pilot data from an ongoing intervention study involving children diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The interactive environment used is the Sony¿s EyeToy system for PlayStation2. The intervention is evaluated through interviews as well as with activity monitoring and motor assessments, including 3D motion analysis. Here we will report pilot data based on the interviews.