In May 2006 a cross-sectional study was conducted in three Ashaninka communities located in Ene and Tambo rivers, to describe their health status. Health status was defined based on five indicators: prevalence of child malnutrition, acute diarrheal diseases (ADD), acute respiratory infections (ARI), maternal mortality and infant mortality. Parents were interviewed about deaths in children under 1 year, maternal deaths, cases of ADD and ARI. We evaluated the nutritional status by measuring weight and height in children aged 0 to 6 years and noted the status of protection in vaccine immunization cards. Was conducted 53 interviews with parents and 83 children were evaluated in the communities of Samaniato, Tziquireni and Mayapo. There wasn't any maternal death and there wasn't any children death. The global malnutrition reached 43.3% and ranges from 53 to 57% between 12 and 47 months and increased to 58.8% after 48 months. Chronic malnutrition reached 78.3% of children assessed. Parents reported that 53.1% of children had an episode of EDA and 57% of IRA. 98.9% of children older than one year were protected. These results allow an approach to the health situation in Ashaninka communities, which should facilitate the design of intervention programs or activities targeted nutritional support for children of this community.


On April 20, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in TiVo Inc. v. EchoStar Corp. overruled KSM Fastening Systems, Inc. v. H.A. Jones Co. and outlined a new analysis for patent injunction contempt proceedings when an adjudged infringer has modified an infringing product. In doing so, the court balanced two competing policies: protecting patentee's exclusive rights through effective, inexpensive patent injunction enforcement and encouraging adjudged infringers to attempt good-faith design-arounds. This Comment argues that by transforming the KSM "more than colorable differences" standard from a procedural hurdle to a substantive requirement, the Federal Circuit successfully weighed these policies, fulfilling fundamental goals of the U.S. patent system.


Can universities ever become a greenhouse for education in Action Research? Would it be possible to create Ph.D. programs in Action Research that are loyal to the genuine characteristics of Action Research? The hegemony of conventional researcher education has dominated university activities. Action Research has inherent characteristics that break radically with the academic tradition. The core challenge is to assess whether high-level training in Action Research can find a home in universities. Training action researchers in conventional academic institutions will in itself be an action research project. The paper presents three different AR projects, all aimed at training cohorts of students to become professional Action Researchers through obtaining a Ph.D. The first program started in 1989, the second in 1995, and the new program began in May 2003. The main conclusion is that it is a feasible strategy to create action research learning opportunities within a conventional academic context. This is partly due to a change in conceptualization of what constitutes knowledge, adding onto a stronger demand for practical and useful knowledge. At the local design and implementation level, curriculum design — both collective learning processes and theses that were closely connected to real life change activities — were important factors for success.


Business Intelligence or BI can be defined as an umbrella term describing a combination of applications, infrastructures, tools, processes, best practises and methods to gather, prepare, provide and analyse data to support decision making activities in organizations. BI is noted to have ties to preceding research on similar systems, known as MIS, DSS and EIS-systems. BI is noted to have been born after requirement to answer the challenges of data gathering and turning the data into knowledge for decision-making. Early BI-development can be seen to have be affected by the development and lowering in costs of technologies in data gathering, analysis, interactivity and personal computing, as well as the introduction of spreadsheet programs in 1980s. Today, BI is noted to be the top investment-area for IT-organizations. Because of multidimensional nature and several viewpoints, it can be challenging to gain an overall view of the area. It is also noted, that a standardized framework of the different BI-related layers or aspects does not exist. The goal of this thesis is to identify which aspects can be noted central for BI, how the area has developed over time, how technological innovation has affected BI and which industries or aspects are noticed to have influenced the development most. Systematic Mapping Study is used as the main research methodology in this thesis, together with PRISMA, which is used for a more scrutinized review during the selection process. The methods were used to review a large number of studies, gathered from academic databases using a formalized search string. The process provided with two sets of primary studies with total number of 2020 for studying the trends and central aspects in the area of BI and 1414 for studying the industries. From the results, BI is noted to have gained popularity early 2000s, peaking in 2012– 2013, while fading coming to 2016. The results show the central aspects for BI from high-level to be: strategic aspects, data warehousing methods and BI-infrastructure. From more detail, the central aspects are noted to be strategic aspects, data warehousing, BI-design aspects, real-time functionalities, visualization features, decision support, collaborative support, reporting and cloud infrastructure. The major industries influencing BI-development and research is noted to be finance and banking, healthcare, supply chain, e-commerce, manufacturing and education. Today, most notable interest is noticed in Big Data. In future, Big Data, self-service, collaboration features, visualization, user aspects and mobility are predicted as some of the rising topics. BI is noted shifting more into non-profit organizations and extending the usecontext. Major changes in the area are seen to be caused by IT-base innovation, while most changes in BI may be seen to be caused by services-innovation where new industries and methods are found to utilize BI-technology. BI is noted as a very strategic entity, consisting of data warehousing methods, different decision support methods and technologies. In the future, BI-technology will be spread into more widespread use and the lessons learnt might be valuable for the predicted revolution caused by Big Data analytics and extended data collection and analysis.


A fast and continuously changing business environment demands flexible software systems easy to modify and maintain. Due to the extent of interconnection between systems and the internal quality of each system many IT-decision makers find it difficult predicting the effort of making changes to their systems. To aid IT-decision makers in making better decisions regarding what modifications to make to their systems, this paper proposes extended influence diagrams and enterprise architecture models for maintainability analysis. A framework for assessing maintainability using enterprise architecture models is presented and the approach is illustrated by a fictional example decision situation.


This short review focuses on ethanol-induced oxidative stress and hepatocyte apoptosis. Apoptosis is increasingly recognized as a fundamental biological process that impacts on an early development, maturation, and acquisition of disease states of multicellular organisms. Although the occurrence of apoptosis has been identified for many decades, relatively recent acceptance of this principle is evidenced by remarkable increases in special conferences and presentations on this topic as well as its rapidly expanding volume of scientific literature. Oxidative stress is well recognized to be a key step in the pathogenesis of ethanol-associated liver injury. Ethanol administration induces an increase in lipid peroxidation either by enhancing the production of oxygen reactive species and/or by decreasing the level of endogenous antioxidants. Studies in our laboratory using a confocal laser scanning microscopic system strongly suggest that agents which inhibit ethanol-induced oxidative stress effectively attenuate hepatocyte death, i.e., apoptosis and necrosis. In addition, our investigations demonstrated that inhibitors of intracellular antioxidants exaggerate ethanol-associated hepatocyte apoptosis. Although the detailed mechanism still remains unknown, it is conceivable that an oxidant-dependent mechanism is largely involved in the process for ethanol-induced hepatocyte apoptosis.


High-resolution profiles of organic carbon, {delta}{sup 13}C{sub org}, sulfur, {delta}{sup 38}S, and some trace elements in cores from two silled basins, Kau Bay (Indonesia) and the Black Sea, allow division of the sedimentary record into three distinct units, representing a Pleistocene fresh-water-brackish water facies (unit 3), a Holocene transitional facies (unit 2), and a modern fully marine facies (unit 1). The geochemical characteristics of these units are strikingly similar for both basins. The sediments form unit 3 are characterized by the predominance of terrestrial organic matter, Mo and U concentrations at crustal abundance, and positive {delta}{sup 34}S values. The transitional sediments (unit 2) are strongly enriched in marine organic matter and Mo, V, and U and have intermediate {delta} {sup 34}S values. Sediments from the modern marine facies (unit 1) are moderately organic-carbon rich and slightly enriched in Mo and U and have negative {delta}{sup 34}S values. The organic-carbon-rich sediments from unit 2 were formed by increased production during the transition from the Pleistocene isolated fresh-water-brackish water environment to the modern open-marine facies. This temporarily higher productivity was caused by displacement of nutrients from the deep water into the euphotic zone, owing to the gradual infilling by marine waters.


A novel Si-based metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) electrooptic phase modulator including two shunt oxide layer capacitors integrated on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguide is simulated and analyzed. The refractive index near the two gate oxide layers is modified by the free carrier dispersion effect induced by applying a positive bias on the electrodes. The theoretical calculation of free carrier distribution coupled with optical guided mode propagation characteristics has been carried out. The influence of the structure parameters such as the width and the doping level of the active region are analyzed. A half-wave voltage V/sub /spl pi//=4 V is demonstrated with an 8-mm active region length and a 4-/spl mu/m width of an inner rib under an accumulation mode. When decreasing the inner rib width to 1 /spl mu/m, the phase modulation efficiency is even higher, and the rise and fall times reach 50 and 40 ps, respectively, with a 1.0/spl times/10/sup 17/ cm/sup -3/ doping level in the active region.


This article argues that the German photomontage artist John Heartfield was in fact a media projection accomplished by at least two people at all times, and sometimes by many more—writers, newspapers, presses, and the Communist Party. John Heartfield was a name adopted by Helmut Herzfeld (1891-1920) about 1917, when he abandoned his painterly ambitions and took up the medium of political, or dialectical photomontage. The argument is based primarily on the history of Heartfield's reception, which has been dominated by the writing of Helmut's younger brother, Wieland Herzfelde. Through a close critical reading of Herzfelde's texts against other texts of close associates (i.e.George Grosz) and the work itself, it constructs a picture of the Herzfeld brothers working closely together, one primarily with images, the other primarily with texts, enacting the tension in their personal relationship as the political antagonism between the National Socialists and the Communist Party, to which they were both committed.

The article represents a significant new element in the literature on Heartfield, inasmuch as the focus of this literature has been either on the political impact of Heartfield's work or on his distinctive use of photomontage. This study presents the first systematic analysis of the way Heartfield staged political antagonism—as spaces carefully blocked and lit, with implied voices and music, often using the differences between what can be seen or heard to convey the difference between lies and truth. The article also contributes a to a growing literature on artistic collaboration, without supporting an unhelpful tendency to make generalizations about such work and so overlook a crucial resonance between the way such work is made and the way it affects its viewers.


Introduction. Occlusal splint,a well-established form of therapy, has been reported by many authors to have a beneficial effect on caraniomandibular disorders. The articulating paper used to adjust the occlusal appliance is incapable of measuring timing sequebce, occlusal force and pressure. The only way to precisely measure occlusal forces and time is the T-Scan III. Case report. There is presented a case of a pacient with myogenuous craniomandibular disorder. A stabilization splint( full coverage splint) was constructed in the maxilla and the appliance was adjusted according to data provided by the T-Scan III-BioEMG integrated system. Results. Computer guided occlusal adjustments ensure improved force and time dynamics to balance and better adjust the splint occlusal surface, confirmed by improved electromyographic activity and relief of symptoms. Conclusions. (a) The concept of neuromuscular dentistry is one of great topicality. The integrated T-Scan III BioEMG system as part of this approach has been proved useful in monitoring the oral rehabilitation treatment ; (b) The use of these computer-assisted diagnostic systems put the treatment on scientific bases and thus the rehabilitation is an evidence-based one.


Purpose The purpose of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the survival of periodontally hopeless teeth that were intentionally extracted and replanted after a delay and to compare the radiographic characteristics of the survival group with those of the failure group. Methods The clinical and radiographic data from patients who underwent delayed intentional replantation between March 2000 and July 2010 were reviewed. Twenty-seven periodontally hopeless teeth were extracted and preserved in medium supplemented with antibiotics for 10-14 days. The teeth were then repositioned in the partially healed extraction socket and followed for 3 to 21 months. The radiographic parameters were analyzed using a paired t test and the cumulative survival rate was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier analysis. Results Seven replanted teeth failed and the overall cumulative survival rate was 66.4%. In the survival group, the amount of bone loss was reduced from 68.45% to 34.66% three months after replantation. There was radiologic and clinical evidence of ankylosis with 5 teeth. However, no root resorption was found throughout the follow-up period. In the failure group, bone formation occurred from the bottom of the socket. However, a remarkable radiolucent line along the root of a replanted tooth existed. The line lengthened and thickened as time passed. Finally, in each case of failure, the tooth was extracted due to signs of inflammation and increased mobility. Conclusions Delayed intentional replantation has many advantages compared to immediate intentional replantation and could serve as an alternative treatment for periodontally involved hopeless teeth. However, techniques for maintaining the vitality of periodontal structures on the tooth surface should be developed for improved and predictable results. Graphical Abstract


Existing work has shown that rainfall has an effect on link quality. Some authors report a positive effect in moist conditions, whereas others demonstrate a significant decrease in link throughput as a result of rainfall or fog. The precise cause of these variations has not yet been conclusively established. This paper reports on long term (26 day) link quality results from 12 nodes deployed in a forest. We found that rainfall has the effect of decreasing the performance of 28% of good links (classified as those having above 90% packet reception), but simultaneously increasing the performance of 34% of poor links (those having below 50% packet reception). In addition, it was found that variations in link quality persisted for a few days after rainfall. This suggests that link variations are not a result of rain induced fading, but rather due to water sitting on node packaging. We present experimental evidence which demonstrates that changes in link quality (both positive and negative) are indeed due to the presence of water, capacitively loading the antenna, altering its radiation pattern.


The principal theme of this essay is that statutory interpretation is a project that requires advocates and judges to utilize the insights of three discrete disciplines apart from law: communications and linguistics to understand the way that legislative drafters use words to communicate to others, either in text or in extratextual legislative material; political science to describe the way that legislators behave in enacting statutes; and political theory to provide a normative guide for courts interpreting statutes in a constitutional democracy.


Given a finite point set P in the plane, a subset S⊆P is called an island in P if conv(S) ⋂ P = S. We say that S ⊂ P is a visible island if the points in S are pairwise visible and S is an island in P. The famous Big-line Big-clique Conjecture states that for any k ≥ 3 and l ≥ 4, there is an integer n = n(k, l), such that every finite set of at least n points in the plane contains l collinear points or k pairwise visible points. In this paper, we show that this conjecture is false for visible islands, by replacing each point in a Horton set by a triple of collinear points. Hence, there are arbitrarily large finite point sets in the plane with no 4 collinear members and no visible island of size 13.


We present a formal and general specification of lambda lifting and prove its correctness with respect to a call-by-name operational semantics. We use this specification to prove the correctness of a lambda lifting algorithm similar to the one proposed by Johnsson. Lambda lifting is a program transformation that eliminates free variables from functions by introducing additional formal parameters to function definitions and additional actual parameters to function calls. This operation supports the transformation from a lexically-structured functional program into a set of recursive equations. Existing results provide specific algorithms and only limited correctness results. Our work provides a more general specification of lambda lifting (and related operations) that supports flexible translation strategies, which may result in new implementation techniques. Our work also supports a simple framework in which the interaction of lambda lifting and other optimizations can be studied and from which new algorithms might be obtained.


INFORMATION NEEDS AND INFORMATION SOURCES OF PATIENTS DIAGNOSED WITH RARE CANCERS By Dana L. Ladd, Ph.D., MS, SLIS A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2016 Major Director: Robin K. Matsuyama, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Health Behavior and Policy BACKGROUND: Approximately 25% of all cancers diagnosed are considered rare. Patients may face many significant challenges including difficulty obtaining information about their rare conditions. Patients often have high information needs and may seek desired information from a variety of informational sources including healthcare providers, media, print, government and non-profit organizations in order to meet their needs. Accessing reliable consumer-level information can be challenging and often information needs are unmet. Dissatisfaction with health information provision can result in negative health-related outcomes and factors including decreased health-related quality of life. METHOD: This cross-sectional design study used validated measures to assess the information needs, information sources, information satisfaction, and health-related quality of life of patients diagnosed with rare cancers (n=113). Adult patients at the VCU Health Massey Cancer Center who had been diagnosed with a rare cancer in the past 12 months were contacted via mail survey. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize patients' information need and information received levels. Unmet needs were analyzed using a two-sample T-test. Chi-square tests were used to analyze information needs and received by demographics for gender and race and logistic regression analysis was used for age. Descriptive statistics summarized information sources used and preferred. Finally, descriptive statistics were used to summarize information satisfaction. The relationship between information satisfaction and health-related quality of life was assessed using a two-sample T-test. RESULTS: Study participants had high information needs, particularly for information about disease, medical tests, and treatment. Though patients also reported receiving information at high levels, 21 participants (18.9%) reported being unsatisfied with information provision. Unmet needs were found for information about disease and on the item level for information about causes of cancer, whether their cancer was under control, expected benefits of treatment, and financial, insurance, and work-related information. Although participants reported preferring information from their healthcare providers, they most commonly sought information from the Internet more than any other source. CONCLUSION: By identifying patients' information needs and sources, this study fills an important gap in the information needs and sources literature of patients diagnosed with rare cancers. Identification of these needs allows healthcare providers to tailor information provision to more effectively meet patients' information needs.


Based on seismic reflection profiles and multi-beam bathymetric data, a large submarine landslide named Fangliao Slide is mapped for the first time off SW Taiwan. The Fangliao Slide occurred on the continental slope to the west of the Fangliao Canyon at water depths between 420 and 900 m. The seafloor of the Fangliao Slide has a gentle slope angle (~1 2°). The landslide covers an area of ~15 km length and ~10 km width and a volume of ~26 km3. The headwall of the landslide has ~30 m vertical offset at the southern flank of mud diapir MD7-1, and the sidewalls are bounded by fault A in the west and faults C and D in the east. The sliding area is composed of five bathymetric terraces, indicating that the slope failures have occurred several times. The Fangliao Slide can be divided into an upper domain and a lower domain, separated at the water depth of ~600 m where the gas hydrate off SW Taiwan becomes dissociate. The initial slope failure of the Fangliao Slide was probably linked to mud diapirism of MD7-1 and the slope failure in the lower domain was probably augmented by the gas hydrate dissociation. The seafloor morphology in the lower domain is therefore more corrugated than in the upper domain. Article history: Received 10 September 2016 Revised 14 June 2017 Accepted 14 June 2017


Respiration chambers are considered the 'gold standard' technique for measuring in vivo methane (CH4) emissions in live animals. However, the imposed isolation required may alter feeding behaviour and intake, which ultimately impact CH4 emissions. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of isolation within respiration chambers on feed intake and CH4 emissions with two different diets and breeds of beef cattle. In addition, a routine stressor (transport) was used to examine the relationship between individual stress responsiveness and changes in feed intake during isolation. Eighty-four steers (castrated males) (569 ± 5.7 kg bodyweight, BW) were divided into two groups and each group fed with one of two basal diets consisting of (g/kg dry matter, DM) either 50 : 50 (Mixed) or 8 : 92 (Concentrate) forage to concentrate ratios. Within each basal diet there were three supplementation treatments: (1) control, (2) calcium nitrate, and (3) rapeseed cake. The stress biomarkers plasma cortisol, creatine kinase (CK), and free fatty acids (FFA) were determined before (0 h) and after (30 min, 3 h, 6 h and 9 h) a 30-min journey, when steers were transported to the respiration chamber facilities. Methane emissions were measured over a 3-day period using individual respiration chambers. Dry matter intake (DMI) was assessed within the group-housed pens (4 weeks before entry to training pen), in the training pens and the chambers. Cortisol, FFA and CK increased (P < 0.05) after transport confirming a stress response. DMI (g/kg BW) decreased (P < 0.001) during isolation in the training pens (14.7 ± 0.28) and the chambers (14.3 ± 0.26) compared with that of the same animals in the group pens (16.8 ± 0.23). DMI during isolation decreased more in those animals which had an increased (P < 0.05) stress response during transport as measured by cortisol, FFA and CK. With the Mixed diet, the decline in DMI was estimated to result in an increase in CH4 (g/kg DMI) (r = 0.25, P = 0.001), which did not occur with the Concentrate diet. According to the results of this experiment, the stress associated with isolation reduces the DMI resulting in an increase in g CH4/kg DMI in fibrous diets. Habituation to isolation needs refinement in order to reduce the impact of stress on intake and therefore achieve more accurate estimates of CH4 emissions. Alternatively, modelling CH4 estimations according to behavioural and physiological changes associated with isolation stress would improve accuracy of CH4 estimations.


Decisions throughout the life cycle of a building, from design through construction and commissioning to operation and demolition, require the involvement of multiple interested parties (e.g., architects, engineers, owners, occupants and facility managers). The performance of alternative designs and courses of action must be assessed with respect to multiple performance criteria, such as comfort, aesthetics, energy, cost and environmental impact. Several stand-alone computer tools are currently available that address specific performance issues during various stages of a building's life cycle. Some of these tools support collaboration by providing means for synchronous and asynchronous communications, performance simulations, and monitoring of a variety of performance parameters involved in decisions about a building during building operation. However, these tools are not linked in any way, so significant work is required to maintain and distribute information to all parties. In this paper we describe a software model that provides the data management and process control required for collaborative decision making throughout a building's life cycle. The requirements for the model are delineated addressing data and process needs for decision making at different stages of a building's life cycle. The software model meets these requirements and allows addition of any number of processes and support databases over time. What makes the model infinitely expandable is that it is a very generic conceptualization (or abstraction) of processes as relations among data. The software model supports multiple concurrent users, and facilitates discussion and debate leading to decision making. The software allows users to define rules and functions for automating tasks and alerting all participants to issues that need attention. It supports management of simulated as well as real data and continuously generates information useful for improving performance prediction and understanding of the effects of proposed technologies and strategies.


John Rawls's concept of public reason lumps together a selection of political activities (voting, deliberation, decision-making) and a set of political institutions (legislatures, courts), without sufficiently distinguishing between them or identifying the distinct normative considerations that are relevant to each. Moreover, Rawls's concept of public reason is very ambiguous. This over-inclusiveness and ambiguity of the concept has spilled over to much of the lively discussion of Rawls's political liberalism. I elucidate Rawls's concept of public reason by recasting it in terms of two major concepts that are relevant to our understanding of the political: deliberation and justification. I argue that Rawls's public reason should be read as having to do with justification rather than deliberation, and that Jurgen Habermas's position on public reason is superior to that of Rawls in that it is premised on a clear distinction between deliberation and justification. However, some of Habermas's critiques of Rawls are unjustified, and there is a contradiction in Habermas's position. I also argue that Habermas's and Rawls's positions epitomize "the anthropologization of politics" that follows from the substitution of the nation-state paradigm by the multicultural paradigm of the state. The rise of the multicultural paradigm also occasions "the anthropologization of courts": liberal courts intervening in the cultural practices of non-liberal groups need to support their rulings with justifications internal to those groups, including justifications borrowed from the human rights doctrine.


The timing and controls of interhemispheric Holocene climate change have remained poorly understood, primarily because of the absence of well-dated and continuous climatic records in terrestrial environments. Here we report a new probability-based meta-analysis of 1185 14 C dates from fluvial sedimentary sequences in New Zealand and the UK, which provides a robust means of identifying centennial- and multicentennial-length episodes of Holocene river flooding. Statistical analysis shows that prior to large-scale human impact, which began at ca. 1000 cal. yr B.P., the incidence of extreme floods in New Zealand and the UK has been largely asynchronous during the Holocene. Major periods of flooding are controlled by large-scale shifts in atmospheric circulation, which alter the frequency of extreme precipitation events. Our novel synthesis demonstrates that short-term climate change, of sufficient magnitude to modify flooding regimes, was out of phase in the temperate maritime regions of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres during much of the Holocene. This supports recent evidence from both glacial and marine records that Holocene climate changes may have been antiphased between the polar regions and that this could have been related to variation in the strength of deep water formation.


He was that "rara avis" in Australian historiography, the devoted local historian who has a realisation of the broader implications of regional development. So wrote Sydney University Archivist D.S. Macmillan in an obituary notice published in the October 1960 number of the Union Recorder, commemorating the death of Arthur Cousins on Wednesday, 17 August, at his Cremone residence, aged 94 years. Though having known him for only a brief period at the end of a long life, Macmillan had developed a degree of admiration and respect for this elderly gentleman, who, along with G.E. Hall and others, had worked towards the creation of the Sydney University Archives, where Macmillan was appointed first full-time archivist in 1954. However this was only one of many noteworthy achievements, in a long career during which Cousins was a schoolteacher, local historian, parent, and Honorary Archivist of Sydney University. Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Social and Behavioral Sciences Publication Details This book chapter was originally published as Organ, MK, Arthur Cousins: A Biography, in Cousins, A, Illawarra: The Garden of New South Wales, Illawarra Historical Society, November 1994, 360p. This book chapter is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/asdpapers/100


Graphene-based materials (GBMs) have ignited a revolution in material science and technology, with electronic, optical and mechanical properties that are of relevant interest for a wide range of applications. To support the development of these enabling technologies, a global research effort has been invested to assess their hazard and biocompatibility. Different production methods have however generated a diverse collection of GBMs with different physicochemical properties, leading to a variety of biological outcomes that are still not fully understood. To better understand the biological interactions of GBMs with biological systems and allow the design of safer materials, a thorough physicochemical characterisation is therefore highly recommended. The aim of the present work was to produce a blueprint for the synthesis and characterisation of non-pyrogenic graphene oxide (GO) flakes with three different controlled lateral dimensions, which could be further used for either hazard assessment or biomedical proof-of-concept studies. A battery of techniques used to characterise the physicochemical properties of the GO samples included atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier-transformed infra-red spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The combination of these different techniques confirmed that only the lateral dimension varied among the GO materials produced, without significant change in any other of their fundamental physicochemical properties, such as the thickness or surface chemistry. The proposed systematic approach in GO batch production for biology will hopefully contribute to a better understanding of the material properties that govern their interactions with biological systems and offer a blueprint towards standardisation of biologically relevant 2D materials.


The last decade witnessed a wild growth of the Internet traffic, promoted by bandwidthhungry applications such as Youtube, P2P, and VoIP. This explosive increase is expected to proceed with an annual rate of 34% in the near future, which leads to a huge challenge to the Internet infrastructure. One foremost solution to this problem is advancing the optical networking and switching, by which abundant bandwidth can be provided in an energyefficient manner. For instance, with Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology, each fiber can carry a mass of wavelengths with bandwidth up to 100 Gbits/s or higher. To keep up with the traffic explosion, however, simply scaling the number of fibers and/or wavelengths per fiber results in the scalability issue in WDM networks. One major motivation of this dissertation is to address this issue in WDM networks with the idea of waveband switching (WBS). This work includes the author's study on multiple aspects of waveband switching: how to address dynamic user demand, how to accommodate static user demand, and how to achieve a survivable WBS network. When combined together, the proposed approaches form a framework that enables an efficient WBS-based Internet in the near future or the middle term. As a long-term solution for the Internet backbone, the Spectrum Sliced Elastic Optical Path (SLICE) Networks recently attract significant interests. SLICE aims to provide abundant bandwidth by managing the spectrum resources as orthogonal subcarriers, a finer granular than wavelengths of WDM networks. Another important component of this dissertation is the author's timely study on this new frontier: particulary, how to efficiency accommodate the user demand in SLICE networks. We refer to the overall study as the resource management in multi-granular optical networks. In WBS networks, the multigranularity includes the fiber, waveband, and wavelength. While in SLICE networks, the traffic granularity refers to the fiber, and the variety of the demand size (in terms of number of sub-carriers). INDEX WORDS: Waveband Switching, MG-OXC, Multi-granular Optical Switching, SLICE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN SURVIVABLE MULTI-GRANULAR OPTICAL NETWORKS


Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignant diseases worldwide. Although significant progress has been made in the early detection and treatment of GC over the past decades, the prognosis is still not satisfactory and the underlying mechanisms of carcinogenesis remain unknown. Long non-coding RNA MIAT has been established as a key player in the regulation of various biological and pathological processes including chronic lymphocytic leukemias, acute myocardial infarction and neuroendocrine prostate cancer. However, the function of MIAT in GC remains largely unknown. The expressions of lncRNA MIAT, miR-29a-3p and HDAC4 mRNA were analysed using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). RNA interference approach was used to investigate the cellular functions of MIAT and miR-29a-3p. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and flow cytometry assay were performed to detect cell proliferation and apoptosis. Cell migration and invasion abilities were evaluated by Transwell assays. In the present study, we first confirmed the high expression level of MIAT in GC tissues and cell lines. In addition, knockdown of MIAT suppressed the proliferation, migration and invasion of GC cells in vitro. Furthermore, our results demonstrated that MIAT competitively binds to miR-29a-3p and consequently upregulates the expression of HDAC4, which is a downstream target of miR-29a-3p. In conclusion, the present study highlighted the involvement of the MIAT/miR-29a-3p/HDAC4 axis in the development of GC, which provided potential diagnostic and therapeutic targets for GC.


To establish a stability criterion for Yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO)-coated conductors, it is necessary to clarify their transient thermal characteristics. Thermocouple thermometers, resistance thermometers, or the relation between the temperature and resistance of the stabilizer used for the conductors are generally employed for measuring their temperatures. However, these methods can only be employed to observe fixed-point data. Hence, it is difficult to observe the longitudinal and transversal distributions of temperatures in coated conductors. In this study, we adopt a method for the visualization of the temperature distribution of coated conductors by using fluorescent paints whose color changes with temperature. By adopting this method, we can measure the two-dimensional distribution of temperature in magnetic fields and at cryogenic temperatures. Therefore, local heat generation in the YBCO tapes can be observed with a higher spatial resolution and the uniformity in the critical current density of YBCO tapes can be identified. In this paper, we describe the developed thermal visualization system and the preliminary experimental results of the visualization of normal-zone initiation and propagation in YBCO sample strips. Further, we also report a part of the normal-zone initiation and propagation mechanism by electromagnetic field and heat transfer analyses by employing a three-dimensional finite element method (FEM).


BACKGROUND
Conventional chemotherapy is ineffective for high-grade chondrosarcomas, highlighting the need for improved chemotherapies. Various clinical trials have been initiated using antiapoptotic agents and perifosine, and are truly in the experimental phases. Chondrosarcoma is still therefore considered a surgical disease despite its aggressive features of recurring locally and spreading to the lungs. Bisphosphonates inhibit growth of various cell types, including cancer cells and perhaps chondrosarcoma.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The effect of different concentrations of alendronate on cell proliferation, migration, apoptosis and cytoskeleton reorganization as well as on the regulation of intracellular protein expression were analyzed for the high-grade chondrosarcoma cell line CS-1. Mevalonate pathway intermediates were used in some experiments to assess mechanistic aspects.

RESULTS
Alendronate decreased cell viability of CS-1 by inhibiting cell proliferation and cell migration. Alendronate-induced loss of cell viability led to a sequence of events including apoptosis and cytoskeletal rearrangements. Moreover, changes in the expression levels of various proteins involved in cell proliferation, migration, cell cycle, apoptosis and cytoskeleton reorganization were demonstrated.

CONCLUSION
Alendronate exerts antiproliferative effects by perturbing various signaling pathways in CS-1 cells. These findings may lead to new treatment options for high-grade chondrosarcoma.


This paper reports on the progress of a current PhD research study. The research study will evolve through four phases and eventually develop a conceptual framework for effective teaching and learning approaches that influence digital inclusion and exclusion of students from diverse backgrounds. It will also seek to identify differences in learner characteristics and how these characteristics impact on needs, experiences and engagement with technology for learning, specifically within a blended learning programme. The research will move away from traditional definitions of diversity and explore the differing characteristics of a varied learner population. The research adopts a critical realist perspective, using a qualitative multi-phase methodology that will evolve sequentially in the future. The focus of this paper is to outline the research to date. Phase 1 and Phase 2 have been completed and are reported in this paper. Findings suggest that digital exclusion cannot be predicted or dealt with by categorising students into groupings of: gender, age, socio-economic status and educational background. Additionally, the findings indicate that digital exclusion is influenced by organisational factors, such as elements of the course content or navigation of the virtual learning environment rather than intrinsic factors such as individual technological skills.


Heavy EGR required on diesel engines for future emission regulation compliance has posed a big challenge to conventional turbocharger technology for high efficiency and wide operation range. This study, as part of the U.S. Department of Energy sponsored research program, is focused on advanced turbocharger technologies that can improve turbocharger efficiency on customer driving cycles while extending the operation range significantly, compared to a production turbocharger. The production turbocharger for a medium-duty truck application was selected as a donor turbo. Design optimizations were focused on the compressor impeller and turbine wheel. On the compressor side, advanced impeller design with arbitrary surface can improve the efficiency and surge margin at the low end while extending the flow capacity, while a so-called active casing treatment can provide additional operation range extension without compromising compressor efficiency. On the turbine side, mixed flow turbine technology was revisited with renewed interest due to its performance characteristics, i.e., high efficiency at low-speed ratio, relative to the base conventional radial flow turbine, which is relevant to heavy EGR operation for future diesel applications. The engine dynamometer test shows that the advanced turbocharger technology enables over 3% BSFC improvement at part-load as well as full-load condition, in addition to an increase in rated power. The performance improvement demonstrated on an engine dynamometer seems to be more than what would typically be translated from the turbocharger flow bench data, indicating that mixed flow turbine may provide additional performance benefits under pulsed exhaust flow on an internal combustion engine and in the low-speed ratio areas that are typically not covered by steady state flow bench tests.


Chapter 1 Introduction: Waves and Phasors 1-1 Historical Timeline 1-1.1 EM in the Classical Era 1-1.2 EM in the Modern Era 1-2 Dimensions, Units, and Notation 1-3 The Nature of Electromagnetism 1-3.1 The Gravitational Force: A Useful Analogue 1-3.2 Electric Fields 1-3.3 Magnetic Fields 1-3.4 Static and Dynamic Fields 1-4 Traveling Waves 1-4.1 Sinusoidal Waves in a Lossless Medium 1-4.2 Sinusoidal Waves in a Lossy Medium 1-5 The Electromagnetic Spectrum 1-6 Review of Complex Numbers TB1 LED Lighting 1-7 Review of Phasors 1-7.1 Solution Procedure 1-7.2 Traveling Waves in the Phasor Domain TB2 Solar Cells Chapter 2 Transmission Lines 2-1 General Considerations 2-1.1 The Role of Wavelength 2-1.2 Propagation Modes 2-2 Lumped-Element Model 2-3 Transmission-Line Equations 2-4 Wave Propagation on a Transmission Line 2-5 The Lossless Microstrip Line 2-6 The Lossless Transmission Line: General Considerations 2-6.1 Voltage Reflection Coefficient 2-6.2 Standing Waves 2-7 Wave Impedance of the Lossless Line TB3 Microwave Ovens 2-8 Special Cases of the Lossless Line 2-8.1 Short-Circuited Line 2-8.2 Open-Circuited Line 2-8.3 Application of Short-Circuit/ Open-Circuit Technique 2-8.4 Lines of Length l = nlambda/2 2-8.5 Quarter-Wavelength Transformer 2-8.6 Matched Transmission Line: ZL = Z0 2-9 Power Flow on a Lossless Transmission Line 2-9.1 Instantaneous Power 2-9.2 Time-Average Power 2-10 The Smith Chart 2-10.1 Parametric Equations 2-10.2 Wave Impedance 2-10.3 SWR, Voltage Maxima and Minima 2-10.4 Impedance to Admittance Transformations 2-11 Impedance Matching 2-11.1 Lumped-Element Matching 2-11.2 Single-Stub Matching 2-12 Transients on Transmission Lines 2-12.1 Transient Response 2-12.2 Bounce Diagrams TB4 EM Cancer Zappers Chapter 3 Vector Analysis 3-1 Basic Laws of Vector Algebra 3-1.1 Equality of Two Vectors 3-1.2 Vector Addition and Subtraction 3-1.3 Position and Distance Vectors 3-1.4 Vector Multiplication 3-1.5 Scalar and Vector Triple Products 3-2 Orthogonal Coordinate Systems 3-2.1 Cartesian Coordinates 3-2.2 Cylindrical Coordinates 3-2.3 Spherical Coordinates TB5 Global Positioning System 3-3 Transformations between Coordinate Systems 3-3.1 Cartesian to Cylindrical Transformations 3-3.2 Cartesian to Spherical Transformations 3-3.3 Cylindrical to Spherical Transformations 3-3.4 Distance between Two Points 3-4 Gradient of a Scalar Field 3-4.1 Gradient Operator in Cylindrical and Spherical Coordinates 3-4.2 Properties of the Gradient Operator 3-5 Divergence of a Vector Field TB6 X-Ray Computed Tomography 3-6 Curl of a Vector Field 3-6.1 Vector Identities Involving the Curl 3-6.2 Stokes's Theorem 3-7 Laplacian Operator Chapter 4 Electrostatics 4-1 Maxwell's Equations 4-2 Charge and Current Distributions 4-2.1 Charge Densities 4-2.2 Current Density 4-3 Coulomb's Law 4-3.1 Electric Field due to Multiple Point Charges 4-3.2 Electric Field due to a Charge Distribution 4-4 Gauss's Law 4-5 Electric Scalar Potential 4-5.1 Electric Potential as a Function of Electric Field 4-5.2 Electric Potential Due to Point Charges 4-5.3 Electric Potential Due to Continuous Distributions 4-5.4 Electric Field as a Function of Electric Potential 4-5.5 Poisson's Equation 4-6 Conductors 4-6.1 Drift Velocity 4-6.2 Resistance 4-6.3 Joule's Law TB7 Resistive Sensors 4-7 Dielectrics 4-7.1 Polarization Field 4-7.2 Dielectric Breakdown 4-8 Electric Boundary Conditions 4-8.1 Dielectric-Conductor Boundary 4-8.2 Conductor-Conductor Boundary 4-9 Capacitance 4-10 Electrostatic Potential Energy TB8 Supercapacitors as Batteries 4-11 Image Method TB9 Capacitive Sensors Chapter 5 Magnetostatics 5-1 Magnetic Forces and Torques 5-1.1 Magnetic Force on a Current-Carrying Conductor 5-1.2 Magnetic Torque on a Current-Carrying Loop 5-2 The Biot--Savart Law 5-2.1 Magnetic Field due to Surface and Volume Current Distributions 5-2.2 Magnetic Field of a Magnetic Dipole 5-2.3 Magnetic Force Between Two Parallel Conductors 5-3 Maxwell's Magnetostatic Equations 5-3.1 Gauss's Law for Magnetism TB10 Electromagnets 5-3.2 Amp' ere's Law 5-4 Vector Magnetic Potential 5-5 Magnetic Properties of Materials 5-5.1 Electron Orbital and Spin Magnetic Moments 5-5.2 Magnetic Permeability 5-5.3 Magnetic Hysteresis of Ferromagnetic Materials 5-6 Magnetic Boundary Conditions 5-7 Inductance 5-7.1 Magnetic Field in a Solenoid 5-7.2 Self-Inductance 5-7.3 Mutual Inductance 5-8 Magnetic Energy TB11 Inductive Sensors Chapter 6 Maxwell's Equations for Time-Varying Fields 6-1 Faraday's Law 6-2 Stationary Loop in a Time-Varying Magnetic Field 6-3 The Ideal Transformer 6-4 Moving Conductor in a Static Magnetic Field 6-5 The Electromagnetic Generator 6-6 Moving Conductor in a Time-Varying Magnetic Field TB12 EMF Sensors 6-7 Displacement Current 6-8 Boundary Conditions for Electromagnetics 6-9 Charge-Current Continuity Relation 6-10 Free-Charge Dissipation in a Conductor 6-11 Electromagnetic Potentials 6-11.1 Retarded Potentials 6-11.2 Time-Harmonic Potentials Chapter 7 Plane-Wave Propagation 7-1 Time-Harmonic Fields 7-1.1 Complex Permittivity 7-1.2 Wave Equations 7-2 Plane-Wave Propagation in Lossless Media 7-2.1 Uniform Plane Waves 7-2.2 General Relation Between E and H 319 TB13 RFID Systems 7-3 Wave Polarization 7-3.1 Linear Polarization 7-3.2 Circular Polarization 7-3.3 Elliptical Polarization TB14 Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) 7-4 Plane-Wave Propagation in Lossy Media 7-4.1 Low-Loss Dielectric 7-4.2 Good Conductor 7-5 Current Flow in a Good Conductor 7-6 Electromagnetic Power Density 7-6.1 Plane Wave in a Lossless Medium 7-6.2 Plane Wave in a Lossy Medium 7-6.3 Decibel Scale for Power Ratios Chapter 8 Wave Reflection and Transmission 8-1 Wave Reflection and Transmission at Normal Incidence 8-1.1 Boundary between Lossless Media 8-1.2 Transmission-Line Analogue 8-1.3 Power Flow in Lossless Media 8-1.4 Boundary between Lossy Media 8-2 Snell's Laws 8-3 Fiber Optics TB15 Lasers 8-4 Wave Reflection and Transmission at Oblique Incidence 8-4.1 Perpendicular Polarization 8-4.2 Parallel Polarization 8-4.3 Brewster Angle 8-5 Reflectivity and Transmissivity TB16 Bar-Code Readers 8-6 Waveguides 8-7 General Relations for E and H 8-8 TM Modes in Rectangular Waveguide 8-9 TE Modes in Rectangular Waveguide 8-10 Propagation Velocities 8-11 Cavity Resonators 8-11.1 Resonant Frequency 8-11.2 Quality Factor Chapter 9 Radiation and Antennas 9-1 The Hertzian Dipole 9-1.1 Far-Field Approximation 9-1.2 Power Density 9-2 Antenna Radiation Characteristics 9-2.1 Antenna Pattern 9-2.2 Beam Dimensions 9-2.3 Antenna Directivity 9-2.4 Antenna Gain 9-2.5 Radiation Resistance 9-3 Half-Wave Dipole Antenna 9-3.1 Directivity of lambda/2 Dipole 9-3.2 Radiation Resistance of lambda/2 Dipole 9-3.3 Quarter-Wave Monopole Antenna 9-4 Dipole of Arbitrary Length TB17 Health Risks of EM Fields 9-5 Effective Area of a Receiving Antenna 9-6 Friis Transmission Formula 9-7 Radiation by Large-Aperture Antennas 9-8 Rectangular Aperture with Uniform Aperture Distribution 9-8.1 Beamwidth 9-8.2 Directivity and Effective Area 9-9 Antenna Arrays 9-10 N-Element Array with Uniform Phase Distribution 9-11 Electronic Scanning of Arrays 9-11.1 Uniform-Amplitude Excitation 9-11.2 Array Feeding Chapter 10 Satellite Communication Systems and Radar Sensors 10-1 Satellite Communication Systems 10-2 Satellite Transponders 10-3 Communication-Link Power Budget 10-4 Antenna Beams 10-5 Radar Sensors 10-5.1 Basic Operation of a Radar System 10-5.2 Unambiguous Range 10-5.3 Range and Angular Resolutions 10-6 Target Detection 10-7 Doppler Radar 10-8 Monopulse Radar Appendix A Symbols, Quantities, Units, and Abbreviations Appendix B Material Constants of Some Common Materials Appendix C Mathematical Formulas Appendix D Answers to Selected Problems Bibliography Index


Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a multi-drug resistant pathogen, which is responsible for increasing cases of serious diseases, including life-threatening diseases and nosocomial and community-acquired infections. Laboratory identification of MRSA is crucial and essential both for initiation of appropriate antimicrobial therapies and for effective infection control strategies that are designed to limit the spread of MRSA. In spite of the availability of commercial kits for MRSA detection in the market, the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) recommends the use of phenotypic methods, such as the disk diffusion method with oxacillin or with cefoxitin, as well as a serial dilution method with oxacillin. Nevertheless, some studies have shown that results obtained with such phenotypic methods are controversial. The aim of the study described in this paper was to comparatively evaluate the traditional susceptibility testing for MRSA with PCR as the gold standard assay. Analysis of collection (n = 68) isolates of Staphylococcus aureus revealed that the serial dilution method with oxacillin possessed the highest sensitivity (at 100%). In contrast, the disk diffusion methods with oxacillin and cefoxitin showed lower sensitivity (95.83%, 95% CI (78.81%-99.30%)). Furthermore, the borderline value of zone inhibition diameters for cefoxitin might be considered as a risk, and they may give false-susceptible result.


We are writing in regard to a multicenter retrospective cohort study evaluating the oncological outcome of laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) in comparison to open gastrectomy (OG) for clinical stage I gastric cancer treatment, the LOC-1 study (1). Although this study was similar to previous reports comparing LG and OG (2-4), the authors sought to add meaning to their study using propensity score matching (PSM). The value of this study was that authors used strict propensity score estimation based on 30 covariates and presented their detailed matching process.


Multiple antennas can be used for increasing the amount of diversity or the number of degrees of freedom in wireless communication systems. We propose the point of view that both types of gains can be simultaneously obtained for a given multiple-antenna channel, but there is a fundamental tradeoff between how much of each any coding scheme can get. For the richly scattered Rayleigh-fading channel, we give a simple characterization of the optimal tradeoff curve and use it to evaluate the performance of existing multiple antenna schemes.


The framework for virtual integration of laboratories enables co-simulation and joint experiments that include hardware and software resources hosted at geographically distributed laboratories. The underlying concept of such framework is geographically distributed real-time (RT) co-simulation. To this end, digital RT simulators are interfaced over long distances via shared communication network such as the Internet. This study proposes an architecture for a modular framework supporting virtual integration of laboratories that enable flexible integration of digital RT simulators across Europe. In addition, the framework includes an interface that enables access for third parties via a web browser. A co-simulation interface algorithm adopted in this study is based on representation of interface quantities in form of dynamic phasors. Time delay between RT digital simulators is compensated by means of phase shift that enables simulation fidelity for slow transients. The proposed architecture is realised for the integration of laboratories across Europe that are located at RWTH Aachen University in Germany, Politecnico di Torino in Italy and at European Commission Joint Research Centres in Petten, Netherland and in Ispra, Italy. The framework for virtual integration of laboratories presented in this study is applied for co-simulation of transmission and distribution systems.


ABSTRACT Our understanding of the psychology of criminal conduct has progressed markedly in the last 30–40 years. We provide a brief overview of the seminal work of Andrews and Bonta, the Psychology of Criminal Conduct (PCC), and its four key components. As theory evaluation and revision is a crucial task in informing practice we consider some of the strengths and weaknesses of this approach. We then explore issues with the measurement, conceptualization and determination of dynamic risk factors (DRF). We argue that it is important to be open to critiquing such influential works as the PCC, as a deeper understanding of DRF will result in more effective assessment and treatment processes, and greater reductions in recidivism. This does not mean abandoning all we know about risk, it means enhancing our ability to locate the causes of problems and target these in interventions. Suggestions are made about developing models of human behavior that can depict the functions and inter-relationships of DRF across time and how improvements in the conceptualization, and explanatory depth, of DRF, may assist in the development of the PCC. These developments will ensure we provide the best interventions, with the most promising outcomes, that will benefit individuals and their community.


The magnetisation of bulk high temperature superconductors (HTS), such as RE-Ba-Cu-O [(RE)BCO, where RE is a rare earth element or Y], by a practical technique is essential for their application in high field, permanent magnet-like devices. Research to-date into the pulsed field magnetisation (PFM) of these materials, however, has been limited generally to experimental techniques, with relatively little progress in the development of theoretical models. This is because not only is a multi-physics approach needed to take account of the heating of the samples but also the high electric fields generated are well above the regime in which there are reliable experimental results. This paper describes a framework of theoretical simulation using the finite element method (FEM) that is applicable to both single- and multi-pulse magnetisation processes of (RE)BCO bulk superconductors. The model incorporates the heat equation and provides a convenient way of determining the distribution of trapped field, current density and temperature change within a bulk superconductor at each stage of the magnetisation process. An example of the single-pulse magnetisation of a (RE)BCO bulk is described. Potentially, the model may serve as a cost-effective tool for the optimisation of the bulk geometry and the magnetisation profile in multi-pulse magnetisation processes.


Objectives The primary objective of this study was to determine the association between patient weight and first pass success (FPS) during rapid sequence intubation (RSI) in the ED. The secondary objective was to evaluate the association between patient weight and neuromuscular blocking agent (NMBA) dosing. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study conducted in a tertiary care academic ED. Consecutive adult patients who underwent RSI in the ED between January 2014 and June 2016 were included. Data were collected on patient, operator and procedural characteristics. The cohort was categorised into the following weight strata: <80 kg, 80 to <100 kg, 100 to <120 kg and ≥120 kg. The primary outcome of interest was FPS. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the relationship between patient weight category and FPS. NMBA dosing was reported descriptively. Results The sample included 891 patients. FPS for each weight category was as follows: <80 kg (91%), 80 to <100 kg (90%), 100 to <120 kg (91%) and ≥120 kg (76%). After adjusting for potential confounders, the heaviest weight category was associated with decreased odds of FPS (OR 0.2, 95% CI 0.1 to 0.5, p<0.001). Median doses for succinylcholine (based on total body weight) decreased as weight increased: <80 kg (1.5 mg/kg), 80 to <100 kg (1.3 mg/kg), 100 to <120 kg (1.2 mg/kg) and ≥120 kg (1.0 mg/kg). Median doses for rocuronium (based on ideal body weight) were similar across weight categories: <80 kg (1.3 mg/kg), 80 to <100 kg (1.4 mg/kg), 100 to <120 kg (1.3 mg/kg) and ≥120 kg (1.4 mg/kg). Conclusions Very heavy patients (>120 kg) undergoing RSI in the ED had a reduced FPS, and succinylcholine was more commonly underdosed than rocuronium in the heavier weight group.


Glass-fibre-reinforced plastics (GFRP) are commonly used for the construction of pressure vessels and tanks for example in automotive and aerospace industries. Especially for pressure vessels used for the storage of natural gas or hydrogen with operation pressures up to 700 bar, an early material fatigue detection is of great interest. Measuring the distributed strain profile of GFRP structures helps to understand and detect material fatigue. In this article, we demonstrate the great potential of swept wavelength interferometry (SWI) based distributed strain sensing for the monitoring of pressure vessels made from GFRP. A resin transfer molding (RTM) process was used to manufacture GFRP-tube specimens. Commercial optical fibres with polyimid coating were glued to the surface externally in circumferential and axial direction. A cyclic load of up to 150 bar was applied to the samples using a servo-hydraulic test bench. Comparing the loaded and unloaded test conditions, we determined up to 2 % elongation in circumferential direction. We demonstrate reliable distributed strain measurements with sub-centimetre spatial resolution. By monitoring these high-resolution strain profiles, we were able to detect local material degradation that manifested itself as localized strain changes. Crucially, the material Degradation could be detected already after 75 % of dat the fatigue life before a crack appeared that led to leakage.


Markets for craft and medicinal products derived from the bark of three tree species were assessed in rural and urban areas of Zimbabwe. Bark crafts from Adansonia digitata (baobab) are widely sold in these regions. The number of sellers has increased since the 1980s and has remained relatively stable since then. Competition for local purchasers is provided by domestic and imported substitutes. Most baobab craft items are relatively bulky and the export market for them is largely limited to affluent travellers from South Africa. This is a relatively localized market. Seasonality in baobab craft production and sales is pronounced in the rural area. Prices are transparent and arbitrage appears to occur. This is not the case in the markets for the bark of Warburgia salutaris, which is used as a traditional medicine. There are relatively few sellers, prices do not exhibit regionally consistent patterns and this species appears to have become locally extinct. Bark of Berchemia discolor is not highly commercialised in this region; no sales of this bark were observed in the course of the study.


On January 1, 1898, New York City was reborn. No longer did it consist solely of the island of Manhattan; at the stroke of midnight that heralded the New Year, the city incorporated its twin city of Brooklyn, as well as the Bronx, Staten Island, and the Long Island community of Queens. This enlarged metropolis became known as Greater New York. And the political changes were just beginning. That same month, a group of disaffected black Republicans, who felt that the city's Republican organization had been taking black votes for granted, and who had thus voted for the Democratic mayoral candidate the year before, formed the first local Democratic organization run by blacks, an association named the United Colored Democracy. This represented, some thirty years after the end of the Civil War, the beginnings of a political emancipation for blacks in what was now the second largest city in the world. (2) Ironically, it was emancipation from the legacy of the Great Emancipator himself, Abraham Lincoln. During the late nineteenth century, black professional and intellectual elites in most American cities were Republican. After all, Lincoln had been a Republican, and it had been the Republicans who had gotten the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments added to the Constitution, which officially ended slavery, and guaranteed civil rights (including the right to vote) to those who were recently freed. In fact, Republican efforts to encourage black voting and office holding had led to the election of the first blacks in the Senate and House of Representatives. Yet, these developments did not deter New York City's Democratic organization, popularly known as Tammany Hall, from recruiting working-class blacks into its own fold. Since the 1860s, Tammany had become famously successful in forging a political machine by cultivating poor Irish immigrant voters (and equally infamous for the corruption of its boss, William M. Tweed). By 1886 Tammany was enlisting (often forcibly) the services of black saloon keepers and hotel owners as party leaders. (3) In the coming decades Tammany's biggest challenge would be to overcome the growing sentiment among blacks of all classes that to vote against the party of emancipation was racial treason. (4) Not that either party was interested in making blacks full members of their political families. New York Republican county leaders, such as Lemuel Eli Quegg, took black loyalties to the party for granted and rejected blacks seeking appointments as assistant district attorneys or coroners. And when blacks responded to this by forming the United Colored Democracy in 1898, the Democrats segregated the UCD from its mainstream organization. Instead of having local representation from each predominantly black district, (as was the case for other ethnic neighborhoods) the city's black Democrats, wherever they might be throughout the city, were all lumped together under a single designated representative, who was himself subject to the direction of the white Tammany leadership rather than to the will of the voters. This separate and unequal situation was hardly a reward for the courageous blacks who endured scorn from their peers for daring to desert the Republicans. Moreover, as Harlem historian Gilbert Osofsky observes, this arrangement prevented the Democratic Party from organizing at the grassroots level among Manhattan blacks, and taking full advantage of the political opening the Republicans had given them. At the dawn of the new century, blacks tragically found that their subordinate status in so much else of New York society extended to their role in major party politics as well. (5) But that was about to change. Those initial efforts at political independence would have a cumulative effect, as leaders in both parties emerged who would show just how important it was to both cultivate and reward the black vote. The first of these black leaders, perhaps the founder of black political leadership in New York City, was ironically born in Ohio. …


Background There is growing interest in the potential utility of real-time PCR in diagnosing bloodstream infection by detecting pathogen DNA in blood samples within a few hours. SeptiFast is a multipathogen probe-based real-time PCR system targeting ribosomal DNA sequences of bacteria and fungi. It detects and identifies the commonest pathogens causing bloodstream infection and has European regulatory approval. The SeptiFast pathogen panel is suited to identifying healthcare-associated bloodstream infection acquired during complex healthcare, and the authors report here the protocol for the first detailed health-technology assessment of multiplex real-time PCR in this setting. Methods/design A Phase III multicentre double-blinded diagnostic study will determine the clinical validity of SeptiFast for the rapid detection of healthcare-associated bloodstream infection, against the current service standard of microbiological culture, in an adequately sized population of critically ill adult patients. Results from SeptiFast and standard microbiological culture procedures in each patient will be compared at study conclusion and the metrics of clinical diagnostic accuracy of SeptiFast determined in this population setting. In addition, this study aims to assess further the preliminary evidence that the detection of pathogen DNA in the bloodstream using SeptiFast may have value in identifying the presence of infection elsewhere in the body. Furthermore, differences in circulating immune-inflammatory markers in patient groups differentiated by the presence/absence of culturable pathogens and pathogen DNA will help elucidate further the patho-physiology of infection developing in the critically ill. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval has been granted by the North West 6 Research Ethics Committee (09/H1003/109). Based on the results of this first non-commercial study, independent recommendations will be made to The Department of Health (open-access health technology assessment report) as to whether SeptiFast has sufficient clinical diagnostic accuracy to move forward to efficacy testing during the provision of routine clinical care.


Experimental study of diamond nucleation and growth in pyrrhotite-carbon melts was carried out at 6.0–7.1 GPa. The PT -diagram of diamond crystallization was constructed, and we found that the PT boundary conditions of diamond formation are limited by the diamond-graphite equilibrium line and the PT curve of the pyrrhotite-carbon eutectics. The fields of diamond spontaneous nucleation and mass crystallization as well as of diamond-seeded growth were determined. Diamond nucleation density up to 1.8 × 10 5 grains in 1 mm 3 and growth rate within the range of several mm/min to several μm/min were estimated. A possibility for formation of both monocrystalline and polycrystalline diamonds in the molten sulfide solvents was also demonstrated. Experimental data are in agreement with the melt-solution model of diamond formation in sulfide solvents of carbon. The experimental and literature data applied to the model of the mantle-derived diamond genesis demonstrate that sulfide melts with dissolved carbon are capable to form a limited mass of diamonds with specific mineralogical and physical properties.


In stochastic environments, a change in a demographic parameter can influence the population growth rate directly or via a resulting impact on age structure. Stochastic elasticity of the long-run stochastic growth rate λs to a demographic parameter offers a suitable way to measure the overall demographic response because it includes both the direct effect of changing the demographic parameter and its indirect effect through changes in the age structure. From 25 mammalian populations with contrasting life histories, we investigated how pace of life and population growth rate influence the demographic responses (measured as the relative contributions of the direct and indirect components of stochastic elasticity on λs). We found that in short-lived species, the change in population structure resulting from an increase in yearling survival leads to an additional increase in λs, whereas in long-lived species, the same change in population structure leads to a decrease. Short-lived species thus display a boom-bust life history strategy contrary to long-lived species, for which the long lifespan dampens the demographic consequences of changing age structure. Irrespective of the species' life history strategy, the change in population age structure resulting from an increase in adult survival leads to an additional increase in λs due to an increase of the proportion of mature individuals in the population. On the contrary, a change in population age structure resulting from an increase of reproductive performance leads to a decrease in λs that is due to the increase of the proportion of immature individuals in the population. Our comparative analysis of stochastic elasticity patterns in mammals shows the existence of different demographic responses to changes in age structure between short- and long-lived species, which improves our understanding of population dynamics in variable environments in relation to the species-specific pace of life.


Two coupled investigations of TerraSAR-X (TSX) high-resolution data are described in this paper: geometric validation, and estimation of the tropospheric path delay using measurements of corner reflectors (CRs) placed at different altitudes but nearly identical ranges. The CRs were placed within Alpine and valley sites in Switzerland, where terrain diversity provides ideal territory for geometric validation studies. Geometric validation was conducted using slant-range complex products from the spotlight and stripmap (SM) modes in ascending and descending configurations. Based on the delivered product annotations, the CR image positions were predicted, and these predictions were compared to their measured image positions. To isolate path delays caused by the atmosphere, six TSX SM scenes ( ~ 35 x 50 km) were examined containing four identical CRs with the same ranges and an altitude difference of ~ 3000 m. The CR arrangement made it possible to verify the annotated TSX atmospheric path delay by comparing the predicted slant range with the slant range obtained by measuring the reflector image coordinates. Range differences between the high- and low-altitude reflectors helped to quantify small variations in the path delay. Both SM and spotlight TSX products were verified to meet the specified accuracy requirements, even for scenes with extreme terrain variations, in spite of the simplicity of the atmospheric model currently integrated into the processor. Small potential improvements of the geolocation accuracy through the implementation of more comprehensive atmospheric modeling were demonstrated.


With the use of arterial bypass release neutrophil chemotactic factors, saphenous veins were removed from dogs by means of standard surgical technique and were distended to a pressure of 200 mm Hg for 15 minutes with cold (4 degrees C) plasmalyte solution. Veins cannulated in situ and flushed with cold (4 degrees C) plasmalyte solution served as negative controls. Experimental and control flush solutions were assayed for the presence of neutrophil chemotactic factors with the use of modified Boyden chambers. Chemotactic activity from the distended vein grafts was 2.2 to 7.2 times the control value. Biologic chemotactic activity was demonstrated as well. These results suggest a role for the vein graft itself in the recruitment of neutrophils to implanted veins by releasing chemoattractants.


We report the results of a study of neutral B meson decays to the D0π+π- final state, where the D0 is fully reconstructed. The results are obtained from an event sample containing 388×106 BB-meson pairs collected in the Belle experiment at the KEKB e+e- collider. The total branching fraction of the three-body decay B(B0→D0π+π-)=(8.4±0. 4(stat)±0.8(syst))×10-4 has been measured. The intermediate resonant structure of these three-body decays has been studied. From a Dalitz plot analysis we have obtained the product of the branching fractions for D2*+ and D0*+ production: B(B0→D2*+π-) ×B(D2*+→D0π+)=(2.15±0.17(stat)±0.29(syst) ±0.12(mod))×10-4, and B(B0→D0*+π-) ×B(D0*+→D0π+)=(0.60±0.13(stat)±0.15(syst) ±0.22(mod))×10-4. This is the first observation of the B0→D0*+π- decay. The B0→D0ρ0 and D0f2 branching fractions are measured to be: B(B0→D0ρ0)=(3. 19±0.20(stat)±0.24(syst)±0.38(mod))×10-4, and B(B0→D0f2)=(1.20±0.18(stat)±0.21(syst)±0.32(mod) )×10-4. © 2007 The American Physical Society.


Backward error recovery is an integral part of the recovery block scheme that has been advanced as a method for providing tolerance against faults in software; the recovery cache has been proposed as a mechanism for providing this error recovery capability. This correspondence describes a recovery cache that has been built for the PDP-11 family of machines. This recovery cache has been designed to be an "add-on" unit which requires no hardware alterations to the host CPU but which intersects the bus between the CPU and the memory modules. Specially designed hardware enables concurrent operation of the recovery cache and the host system, and aims to minimize the overheads imposed on the host.


Original Article Received: 15 Dec 2017 Accepted: 19 Feb 2018 Introduction: In modern medicine, large amounts of data are produced. However, there is always a gap between their collection and their understanding and interpretation. In this way, minimal data sets are prepared. Thalassemia major is a chronic genetic disorder of the blood and the most common genetic disorder in the world. Thus, the purpose of this study was to define a set for personal health of patients with major thalassemia. Methods: This present applied research was done descriptively in a cross-sectional manner by Delphi method. To determine the dataset, the manual health records of thalassemia major patients were first evaluated based on the standard paper forms of the Ministry of Health, and the data required were collected according to the checklist. The questionnaire was first reviewed by a team of six experts in the field. Its content validity was determined by the team and its reliability by Cronbach's alpha as 96%. Then, a researcher-made questionnaire was prepared and surveyed among 113 experts on blood and oncology specialists around the country (Iran). Results: from the 126 information element data surveyed, 117 IEDs were identified as the main elements with the agreement of more than 75% in the range of high and very high, while nine elements with the agreement of less than 50% in the range of low and very low were excluded from the elements list of personal health records of thalassemia patients. The information element data with the agreement of 50 to 75 in the range of moderate to high was not found in the survey. Finally, the minimum data set of individual health records of patients with thalassemia major was provided in 9 groups of demographic information, health history information, assessment information, laboratory data, drug information, blood transfusion, physical examinations, immunization (vaccination) and dental care. Conclusion: In this study, the data elements were defined for personal health record of thalassemia patients. These data elements are considered as an appropriate data set for inclusion in the manual systems and electronic medical records and based on the patients' needs can be changed to be used as a national document.


This study assesses the cumulative effect of a training curriculum focused on teamwork, which was delivered to technical employees in a multinational organization. Employees were given a 10-item survey prior to the training and four months after the survey. Several aspects of the literature were incorporated into the design of the curriculum and analysis of the results: content was tailored toward the employees' environment, management was asked to promote the training to contribute to a positive climate, and assessment was deferred by four months to maximize the chance that employees might implement the lessons from the training into practice. The results for the 10-item survey show a significant pre- and post-training difference, and implications and findings are discussed and reconciled with the literature.


Biopharmaceuticals (or biologicals) are a new class of drugs produced by the biotechnology field and offer many advantages compared to classical small molecule synthetic drugs. Biopharmaceuticals (BP) are from biological origin and may consist of proteins or peptides, nucleic acids such as RNA and DNA structures or other parts of microorganisms and cells. The main difference between BP and small molecules is the complexity of the structure. BP offer more specificity on a variety of purposes. BPs show high specificity at receptor level or they can have a selective mode of action at gene level. Together this makes it possible to effectively intervene in disease pathways and makes it possible to either avoid or enhance immune activation. Biopharmaceuticals have expanded the range of options available for the treatment of complex diseases and DDS are designed to protect the BP structure and to facilitate barrier crossing. This thesis focuses on the challenges in delivery and imposed by immunogenicity of BPs and how this can be altered by the use of Drug Delivery Systems. Part one of this thesis is focusing on delivery and immunogenicity of BPs for intradermal vaccination. In Chapter 2 a recently developed porous microneedle array is described and this chapter shows the successful induction of antibody responses towards two subunit vaccine antigens of the DTP vaccine. Inducing a Cytotoxic T cell response requires the presence of vaccine antigens in the cytosol of the cell and the use of a DDS could induce this membrane crossing. In Chapter 3 nanoparticles loaded with a model antigen and a TLR agonist adjuvant are delivered using hollow microneedles. Here, a cytotoxic T cell response was induced that was protective against an intracellular bacterium. Further, vaccine efficiency can be increased if the intracellular antigens become more immunogenic, i.e. would be more efficiently processed and presented to the adaptive immune system. Strategies to increase immunogenicity of vaccine antigens are described in Chapter 4 and include introducing activating helper proteins and proteasome-favorable cleavage sites in vaccine formulations. Part two of this thesis focuses on delivery and immunogenicity of BPs for therapeutic use. While effects on the adaptive immune system are difficult to determine, the initial activation of the innate immune system can be assessed in vitro. In chapters 5-7, three different delivery system are developed. In Chapter 6 and 7, two new DDS show full immune compatibility. One DDS is for the delivery of siRNA and one for the delivery of a therapeutic hormone. While in chapter 6 the DDS consisted of peptide-polymer hybrid nanoparticles, in Chapter 5 a lipid-polymer hybrid combination was used for the delivery of siRNA. Combining the lipidoid structures with a polymer-based nanoparticle prevented the lipidoid-mediated activation of the innate immune system. The results of this thesis are summarized and discussed in Chapter 8.


This paper presents an empirical study on the contribution made by middle managers to the development of strategy in an organisation. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews with middle-managers and top-managers in companies large enough to have the middle management layer in the organisational hierarchy. The data was analysed using a qualitative approach. Previous studies in this field were found to be wide and varied. An early study by Mintzberg (1978) found that strategy mainly forms from emergent influences at middle and lower levels of the organisation, as well as from deliberate influences emanating at the top. In the same year Miles and Snow (1978) subsequently declared that not all organisations have the same level of strategic management activity. This research found that the most common role for middle managers is to implement deliberate corporate strategy. The synthesis of information appeared to be the only area where middle managers exerted a restricted upward influence. These findings would appear to conflict somewhat with those of a seminal study by Floyd and Wooldridge (1992) who developed a typology of middle managers roles in strategy. They suggest that middle managers have the potential to exert both upward influence on top managers and downward influence on operational level managers. Porter (1996) argued that managers who operate beneath the top strategic level lack the perspective and the confidence to maintain a strategy. He claims the middle level managers' main role is tactical, not strategic. This would appear to concur with this present study. Other themes that emerged in this research regarding middle managers contribution to an organisation are also evident in the literature. These include middle manager's soft skills, their political astuteness and the ability to use power well. All research participants in this study agreed that the possession of excellent 'soft skills' by middle managers was a hugely important aspect of their role. They felt that these soft skills were essential for the smooth execution of strategic change and implementation. These findings concur with Hardy (1996) who argues that to overcome the shortcomings regarding an organisational strategy, middle managers must be capable of acting politically and using their power. Hardy (1996) declares that power is needed to orchestrate and direct actions that are crucial to the realisation of strategic goals within organisations. Similar declarations were made by participants of this study. One additional interesting interpretation of this study was that it appears desirable that middle managers are 'effective followers' as described by Kelley (1992) mainly because of their position in the organisational hierarchy. The author claims that effective followers and effective leaders are often the same people playing different roles at different parts of the day. It seems that the main contribution by middle managers to strategy development, primarily implementing deliberate strategy, should not be seen as a lesser task than choosing the strategy in the first case. It appears from this study that middle managers can, and do, make a significant contribution to the strategic development of an organisation. However, contrary to declarations in the literature, the findings would appear to conclude that middle managers have little influence on the choice of strategy adopted by their organisation. It may be that not every middle manager should aspire to be top managers because their own role as middle manager is unique in itself and therefore has a very important place within the structure of an organisation. A wise middle manager, acting with integrity and possessing the necessary soft skills can pave the way for a smooth transition of strategic change and implementation which may be crucial to the outcomes of their organisation.


The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part describes the studies on the chemical constituents of Rhazya Striecta. Investigations on the alkalodial contents of the leaves of R.Stricta have led to the isolation and identification of eleven new indole basis. In addition three more established bases have been detected for the first time in this plant. Spectral studies on phanimal, strictamine and strictosamide, were also carried out.

New Indole Alkaloids Isolated From Bhazya Stricta

(i)Aspidospermidose (63) J.Chem.Soc.Perkin Trans.1.1701 (1987)

(ii)Aspidospermidose (64) Planta Medica, submitted for Publication. (iii)Bharhingine (65) Planta Medica, 256 (1987) (iv)Bharhingine (68) Hetereoycles 24. 703 (1986) (v)Bhimerine N-Oxide (73) Z.Naturforech, submitted for Publication. (vi)Lee pacine *74) Z.Naturforech. in press (vii)Bhazimanine (72) Phytochemistry 25, 1971 (1986) (viii)Strictanol (81) Planta Medica, 256 (1987 (ix)Strictibine (85) Planta Medica, submitted for Publication. (x)HR-1 (86) (xi)(HR-87)

Known Alkaloids Isolated For The First Time From Rhazya Stricta

(i) 1-Carbomethoxy-B-carboline (88) Planta Medica submitted for Publication. (ii)Condyloacarpine (89) J.Nat.Prod,49,1138 (1986) (iii)Vincanicine (67) Planta Medica, 256 (1987) Spectral Studies On The Alkaloids Of Rhazya Stricta Rhazimal (47) Planta Medica,230 (1986) Strictamine (46) Planta Medica,230 (1986) Strictamine (96) Z.Naturforsch, in press The second part of the thesis deals with work on some related medicinal plants. These studies have resulted in the isolation and structure elucidation of the following compounds of diverse nature: Cycloxobuxoviricine (97)- A New Steroidal Alkloid from Buxus Papiloea J.Nat.Pred. 49 106 (1986) Buxominel-B (98)- A known Steroidal Alkaloid from Buxus Papilcea J.Nat.Prod. 49, 106, (1986) Alioline (99)-A Novel Alkaloid from Catharanthus Roseus. Tetrahedron Submitted for publication. Nigellimine N-oxide (100)-A new Isoquinoline Alkaloid from Nigella sativa Neterocycles. 23 953 (1985)

Modern spectroscopic techniques including two-dimensional NMB experiments (COSY-45, 2D J-resolved, NOESY and Hetere-COSY) were employed to elucidate the structures of the above mentioned compounds. DEPT and GASPE experiments were carried out to determine the multiplicities of the carbon atoms. The stereochemistry of various asymmetric centers was established by extensive NOE difference measurements.


Background: Hospital Acquired Infection (HAI)-Blood Stream infection (BSI) cause considerable morbidity, mortality and health care costs. This study aimed to assess the HAI-BSI in neonates with birth weight 1000-2000 g in Neonatal Unit Cipto Mangunkusumo National Hospital (RSUPNCM), Jakarta, during 4 months period (Oct 2010-Jan 2011), and to review the possibility of sources and transmission of environment microbes to the presence of HAI-BSI in the unit. Methods: Subjects of this study were neonates (birth weight 1000-2000 g) with clinically sepsis and within 48 hours or more being hospitalized, no clearly focal infection detected, with catheter lines. Two blood specimens from two separate venipunctures, drawn simultaneously, were cultivated. Identification and antimicrobial susceptibility tests were performed for each isolates. Cultures from environment in the unit and other suspected clinical specimens were also examined. Results: From 29 neonates with 39 episodes of sepsis, 5 positive isolates from blood cultures were obtained i.e. Enterobacter asburiae (2), Enterobacter cloacae (1), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (1) and Klebsiella oxytoca (1). The laboratory confirmed HAI-BSI was 12.8%, and HAI-BSI rate was 1.46 per 1000 catheter line days during 4 months period (Oct 2010-Jan 2011). Cultures performed for environment specimens gave yield some species which were as those from clinical specimens. Antibiogram analysis showed those of environment isolates i.e E. asburiae and P. aeruginosa shared similarity to those of neonates' blood isolates. Conclusion: Gram-negative bacteria were responsible to the occurrence of HAI-BSI in the Neonatal Unit RSUPNCM. Despite of low HAI-BSI rate found in this study, analysis of antibiogram profiles of the isolates originated from neonates' blood and environment strongly suggested that cross infection was present in the unit. (Med J Indones 2012;21:32-7) Keywords: Antibiogram, blood stream infection, hospital acquired infection, neonates


ABSTRACT In the field of education, the international trend is to turn to criterion-referenced grading in the hope of achieving accountable and consistent grades. Despite a national criterion-referenced grading system emphasising knowledge as the only base for grading, Swedish physical education (PE) grades have been shown to value non-knowledge factors, such as students' characteristics and behaviour. In 2011, a new national curriculum was implemented which attempts to deal with the problem by prescribing specific knowledge requirements with a clear progression as the only basis for different grades. The aim of the present study is to explore the impact of the new knowledge requirements on what teachers consider important when assigning grades. It is also to discuss what non-knowledge-related aspects (if any) teachers continue to look for and why these seem to remain resilient to the reform. The Repertory Grid technique was employed to interview the teachers before (2009) and after the implementation (2013). During the interviews, the grading of 45 students was discussed, which generated 125 constructs. After the implementation, there was a near doubling of knowledge constructs, half as many motivation constructs and an almost total elimination of constructs based on confidence and social skills. While motivational factors were still considered valuable for the award of a higher grade, clear criteria seemed to be important, but too limited for the teachers' needs. In order to understand the persistence of motivational factors, we discuss the results in relation to Bernstein's interrelated message systems of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. We emphasise the need to discuss how valid grades can be achieved and, at the same time, give value to the regulative discourse in order to realise the overarching national goals of values and norms in education and PE.


Life and forms of living beings began around 4 billion years ago. However, the terms stocks and stores have only developed as scientific concepts over the course of the last two centuries, while the term fund came into use even more recently (Georgescu-Roegen 1971). A fund can be understood as a source of services for one or more species of living beings. While Mainstream Economics does not focus on the origins of life, this is a basic concern of Ecological Economics. To understand life, we need concepts which focus on its temporal structure and are suitable to examine the interaction between the dynamics of coupled systems, made up of natural and economic components. A central concept is that of a stock, hence this concept develops a general theory of stocks, applicable in ecology and economics. Some stocks are used as stores in ecosystems and economic systems. Crucial questions for sustainability are: When do stores become scarce? How can they be replenished or substituted by other stores? To answer these questions, we need a third concept, a fund. Essential for a fund is that it maintains itself, and that it gives services to other living beings. Take an apple tree, for example. Its services are material and immaterial, be they shelter or aesthetic services. Drawing on three other concepts a Teleological Concept of Nature, Thermodynamics and Irreversibility, enables us to operationalize the concept of life. This concept helps us grasp the intertemporal relationships between stocks, stores and living beings. As a practical example we use the three concepts to examine the development of oxygen in the atmosphere and its consequences for life on earth. Related concepts: TELEOLOGICAL CONCEPT OF NATURE; THERMODYNAMICS; IRREVERSIBILITY; EVOLUTION; BASICS OF TIME; ABSOLUTE & RELATIVE SCARCITY; INDIVIDUAL, COMMUNITY & ENTIRETY MINE – ENVIRONMENT Basics of Life


Dry eye syndrome is one of the most commonly reported eye health conditions. Dynamic-area high-speed videokeratoscopy (DA-HSV) represents a promising alternative to the most invasive clinical methods for the assessment of the tear film surface quality (TFSQ), particularly as Placido-disk videokeratoscopy is both relatively inexpensive and widely used for corneal topography assessment. Hence, improving this technique to diagnose dry eye is of clinical significance and the aim of this work. First, a novel ray-tracing model is proposed that simulates the formation of a Placido image. This model shows the relationship between tear film topography changes and the obtained Placido image and serves as a benchmark for the assessment of indicators of the ring's regularity. Further, a novel block-feature TFSQ indicator is proposed for detecting dry eye from a series of DA-HSV measurements. The results of the new indicator evaluated on data from a retrospective clinical study, which contains 22 normal and 12 dry eyes, have shown a substantial improvement of the proposed technique to discriminate dry eye from normal tear film subjects. The best discrimination was obtained under suppressed blinking conditions. In conclusion, this work highlights the potential of the DA-HSV as a clinical tool to diagnose dry eye syndrome.


Abstract Methods. The newly described – multigene analysis test (DiBiCol) identifying 7 inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)-specific genes in colonic mucosal biopsy differentiating between ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) with active inflammation – is a new addition to existing methods with a higher stated sensitivity and specificity. Method biopsy material from 78 patients with a complicated course diagnosed as most probably UC in 38, CD in 18 and inflammatory bowel disease unclassified (IBDU) in 22 were investigated by DiBiCol. Results. DiBiCol showed a pattern consistent with CD in 13 patients with UC and led to change of diagnosis in 3 patients and a strong suggestion of CD in 8 patients. A total of 2 patients remained as UC. DiBiCol showed a pattern of UC in 4 patients of 18 with CD leading to a changing of diagnosis to UC in 3 patients, but the fourth remained as CD. In 22 patients with IBDU DiBiCol showed a pattern consistent with UC in 7 cases and with CD in 13 cases. A new evaluation 1 year after the DiBiCol allowed the assessment of clinical diagnosis in 10 patients confirmed in 9 of 10 patients by DiBiCol. In patients with acute flare of colitis the clinical diagnosis corresponded in 10 of 12 UC and in 5 of 6 CD cases. Summary. Adopting the DiBiCol test led to a change of the primary diagnosis in a significant number of patients with the initial diagnosis of UC and CD and suggested a clinically probable diagnosis in most of the patients with IBDU and in those with an acute flare of colitis.


In the autumn of 1944, around 70,000 people fled Estonia in the face of the Red Army advance. Most of them believed the Soviet occupation would be shortlived and they would soon be able to return home, so many of them hid the most valuable of their belongings they were unable to carry, burying them in 'safe' places. Until Stalin's death in 1953, Estonians continued to bury objects to hide them, now for fear of deportation to Siberia. In Treasured memories, the archaeologist Mats Burstrom tells the stories of some of these hoards: the ones that remain buried, the ones that vanished, and the ones that were recovered and have found a place in new contexts. Their sheer variety brings together all levels of history, from personal memories to high politics, and reflects how events on the world stage can shape the fate of individual families, even across several generations. Yet most of all, as a groundbreaking work of contemporary archaeology, it is concerned with what objects mean to us, and our gift for remembering.


Eric Houlder taught history in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in West Yorkshire. Eric recalls his fascination with history as a boy and his education at secondary modern school. He trained to teach in 1959 in Leeds and went on to teach both history and archaeology (his first love). He recalls the freedom he had in the secondary moderns to design the curriculum and include as much local archaeology as he liked, freely taking classes out to local sites with only a word to the Head beforehand. He developed industrial archaeology as the basis for CSE coursework in the 1970s and made a large collection of slides for use in class. He made early use of filmstrips in the classroom and used casettes for students to record the oral history of aged local residents. He took on the Schools History Project, although has some criticisms of its approach. He retired in 1997. Interviewed by Nicola Sheldon.