BACKGROUND
Primary ciliary dyskinesia is characterized by a congenital alteration of the ciliary ultrastructure and function. As a consequence, their respiratory tract sweeping action is lost and recurrent respiratory infections ensue.

AIM
To analyze a clinical series of patients with primary ciliary dyskinesia, their clinical and laboratory features.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
A retrospective review of patients with primary ciliary dyskinesia seen a University Hospital, between 1994 and 1998. Bronchial biopsies were obtained with 3.6 mm diameter Olympus fibrobronchoscope, using a cayman type forceps. Ultrastructural alterations of respiratory tract ciliated cells were recorded.

RESULTS
Six patients (four male) aged 9 months to 13 years old were reviewed. Three patients had situs inversus. All had repeated bouts of obstructive bronchitis and pneumonia, five had sinusitis, four atelectasis, three recurrent otitis and three had bronchiectasis. Cystic fibrosis and immunological alterations were ruled out in five children. Ultrastructural analysis revealed absence of dynein arms in three cases, absence of the internal dynein arm in one, additional peripheral microtubules and absence of dynein arms in one case.

CONCLUSIONS
Primary ciliary dyskinesia must be considered in the differential diagnosis of recurrent respiratory infections. Ultrastructural analysis of ciliary structure can be done in bronchial biopsies obtained through bronchoscopy.


Background Critical care units (ICU) have been designed to provide highly skilled, lifesaving care for patients with acute illnesses or injuries. The mortality rate in the ICU still remains as a high rate comparing to the general word (Steinhauser et al., 2002). Having a good quality of end of life care (EOLC) is a common wish for patients who dying in the ICU. Quality of EOLC is the most popular measure to evaluate the quality of care provided to critically ill patients in the critical care units. Aim This paper aimed to systematically review original studies of quality of EOLC and appraise their quality. Method Only the original Studies that concerned on the quality of EOLC were included. Words like quality of EOLC, quality of dying and death were used to search in Midline and Ovid online data bases. Result Forty-nine studies met the selection criteria. These 31 quantitative, 16 qualitative and 2 mixed method studies identified different level of satisfaction to the quality of EOLC. Discussion The quality of EOLC still need to improve and barriers such as communication, lack of education and experiences, pain management, high expectations of families and environmental circumstances stile hindered the quality of EOLC. Conclusion different studies were conducted using different measures and methods to understand the quality of EOLC; however, further studies to identify the best strategies to improve EOLC are needed.


Objectives: Loneliness is an important influence on quality of life in old age and has been conceptualised as consisting of two dimensions, social and emotional. This article describes analyses that sought to produce models of social and emotional loneliness in older people, using demographic, psychological and health, and social variables.Method: Older people (aged 65+, n = 1255) from the Barnsley metropolitan area of the United Kingdom were recruited randomly from within a stratified sampling frame and received a questionnaire-based interview (response rate: 68.1%). The questionnaire contained items and scales on demographic, psychological and health, and social characteristics, and a validated measure of loneliness that assesses both social and emotional loneliness.Results: Of the respondents, 7.7% were found to be severely or very severely lonely, while another 38.3% were moderately lonely. Social and emotional loneliness shared 19.36% variance. Being male, being widowed, low well-being, low self-esteem, low-income comfort, low contact with family, low contact with friends, low activity, low perceived community integration, and receipt of community care were significant predictors of social loneliness (R = 0.50, R2 = 0.25, F(18, 979) = 18.17, p < 0.001). Being widowed, low well-being, low self-esteem, high activity restriction, low-income comfort, and non-receipt of informal care were significant predictors of emotional loneliness (R = 0.55, R2 = 0.30, F (18, 973) = 23.00, p < 0.001).Conclusion: This study provides further empirical support for the conceptual separation of emotional and social loneliness. Consequently, policy on loneliness in older people should be directed to developing a range of divergent intervention strategies if both emotional and social loneliness are to be reduced.


The "Palestine refugees" have been exceptionally indulged by the international community for seventy long years. This ranged from their very recognition as refugees though most of them to satisfy the basic criteria for such status, to the unprecedented benefit of a relief agency created exclusively for their welfare (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA), to the unique privilege of passing on the "refugee" status to future generations.
Rather than help resolve the Palestinian predicament, these unique benefits have served to confirm the permanency and growth in the "refugee" problem (what started as 600,000 is now over 5 million). And no organization has contributed more to this perpetuation than UNRWA, which, instead of ending direct relief within months, as stipulated by its mandate, has kept them as passive welfare recipients for decades under false humanitarian pretense, thus allowing the decades-long manipulation of their cause by successive Palestinian leaderships and the Arab regimes.
One can only hope that as UNRWA nears its seventieth anniversary, the agency's main donors, first and foremost the United States and the European Union, which bankroll nearly half of its budget, will find the necessary courage and integrity to acknowledge the urgency of deep reform and condition future contributions on UNRWA's reversion to the original mandate: that is, its gradual transfer of responsibility for the Palestinian "refugees" to the Palestinian Authority and the host Arab governments, thus ending their eternal "refugeedom" and facilitating their integration in their respective societies as equal and productive citizens. This will be seventy years later than originally conceived, but better late than never.


Recent investigations into the roles of early regulatory genes, especially those resulting from mesoderm induction or first expressed in the gastrula, reveal a need to elucidate the developmental history of the cells in which their transcripts are expressed. Although fates both of the early blastomeres and of regions of the gastrula have been mapped, the relationship between the two sets of fate maps is not clear and the clonal origin of the regions of the stage 10 embryo are not known. We mapped the positions of each blastomere clone during several late blastula and early gastrula stages to show where and when these clones move. We found that the dorsal animal clone (A1) begins to move away from the animal pole at stage 8, and the dorsal animal marginal clone (B1) leaves the animal cap by stage 9. The ventral animal clones (A4 and B4) spread into the dorsal animal cap region as the dorsal clones recede. At stage 10, the ventral animal clones extend across the entire dorsal animal cap. These changes in the blastomere constituents of the animal cap during epiboly may contribute to the changing capacity of the cap to respond to inductive growth factors. Pregastrulation movements of clones also result in the B1 clone occupying the vegetal marginal zone to become the primary progenitor of the dorsal lip of the blastopore (Spemann's Organizer). This report provides the fundamental descriptions of clone locations during the important periods of axis formation, mesoderm induction and neural induction. These will be useful for the correct targeting of genetic manipulations of early regulatory events.


Just after noon on September 16, 1920, as hundreds of workers poured onto Wall Street for their lunchtime break, a horse-drawn cart packed with dynamite exploded in a spray of metal and fire, turning the busiest corner of the financial center into a war zone. Thirty-nine people died and hundreds more lay wounded, making the Wall Street explosion the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history until the Oklahoma City bombing. In The Day Wall Street Exploded, Beverly Gage tells the story of that once infamous but now largely forgotten event. Based on thousands of pages of Bureau of Investigation reports, this historical detective saga traces the four-year hunt for the perpetrators, a worldwide effort that spread as far as Italy and the new Soviet nation. It also gives readers the decades-long but little-known history of homegrown terrorism that helped to shape American society a century ago. The book delves into the lives of victims, suspects, and investigators: world banking power J.P. Morgan, Jr.; labor radical "Big Bill" Haywood; anarchist firebrands Emma Goldman and Luigi Galleani; "America's Sherlock Holmes," William J. Burns; even a young J. Edgar Hoover. It grapples as well with some of the most controversial events of its day, including the rise of the Bureau of Investigation, the federal campaign against immigrant "terrorists," the grassroots effort to define and protect civil liberties, and the establishment of anti-communism as the sine qua non of American politics. Many Americans saw the destruction of the World Trade Center as the first major terrorist attack on American soil, an act of evil without precedent. The Day Wall Street Exploded reminds us that terror, too, has a history. Praise for the hardcover: "Outstanding." --New York Times Book Review "Ms. Gage is a storyteller...she leaves it to her readers to draw their own connections as they digest her engaging narrative." --The New York Times "Brisk, suspenseful and richly documented" --The Chicago Tribune "An uncommonly intelligent, witty and vibrant account. She has performed a real service in presenting such a complicated case in such a fair and balanced way." --San Francisco Chronicle


When prescribing, doctors usually only consider the 'active' component of any drug's formulation ignoring the majority of the agents which make up the bulk of the tablet or capsule, collectively known as excipients. Many urological drugs contain the excipient gelatin which is, universally, of animal origin; this may conflict with the dietetic ideals of patients. A questionnaire-based study, undertaken between January and June 2010 in a mixed ethnicity inner-city population presenting with urological symptoms, asked which patients preferred not to ingest animal-based products, who would ask about the content of their prescribed treatment and who would refuse to take that medication if alternatives were available. Ultimately, the authors sought to find out how many patients had been inadvertently prescribed gelatin-containing oral medications and to suggest ways in which prescriptions might be more congruous with an individual patient's dietetic wishes. This study demonstrated that 43.2% of the study population would prefer not to take animal product-containing medication even if no alternative were available. 51% of men with lower urinary tract symptoms were also found to have inadvertently been prescribed gelatin-containing products against their preferred dietary restriction. Education of healthcare professionals about excipients and getting them to ask about a patient's dietetic preferences may help avoid inadvertent prescription of the excipient gelatin in oral medications. Substitution of gelatin with vegetable-based alternatives and clearer labelling on drug packaging are alternative strategies to help minimise the risks of inadvertently contravening a patient's dietetic beliefs when prescribing oral medication.


In this paper we present a novel method of simulating cellular intelligence, the Artificial Reaction Network (ARN). The ARN can be described as a modular S-System, with some properties in common with other Systems Biology and AI techniques, including Random Boolean Networks, Petri Nets, Artificial Biochemical Networks and Artificial Neural Networks. We validate the ARN against standard biological data, and successfully apply it to simulate cellular intelligence associated with the well-characterized cell signaling network of Escherichia coli chemotaxis. Finally, we explore the adaptability of the ARN, as a means to develop novel AI techniques, by successfully applying the simulated E. coli chemotaxis to a general optimization problem.


Location-based services comprise the fastest growing sector in web technology business [1, p. 9]. These services, be they location-based social networks, satellite navigation devices in cars, or augmented reality browsers as applications on mobile phones, have opened questions about their mediating effects on the awareness of location and engagement with location for users. McCulloch [2] argues that location-based services are a channel for specialized information, in that the information reaching users is now about where they are, rather than decontextualized information with no relevance to the location of the user. Analyses of the impact of location-based services have been myriad in consideration [3], but some major areas of research have emerged. Wilken [3] identifies the major themes as research directed towards analyzing how locative technologies mediate the relationship between technology use and physical or digital spaces [4]-[12], discussions of power and politics in location-based services [13], and assessments and discussions on the nature of the representation of space that emerge through locative media [14], [15]. In addition, the area of privacy has been a major area of interest [16]-[19].


In this paper, we outline an online survey-based study seeking to understand academic attitudes towards social media research ethics (SMRE). As the exploratory phase of a wider research project, findings are discussed in relation to the responses of 30 participants, spanning multiple faculties and locations at one international university. The paper presents an empirical measure of attitudes towards social media research ethics, reflecting core issues outlined throughout the nascent Internet-mediated research (IMR) literature, in addition to survey questions relating to familiarity with SMRE guidance, and experience of reviewing SMRE proposals from students and/or as part of the university's research ethics committees (RECs). Findings indicate notable variance in academic attitudes towards the ethical challenges of social media research, reflecting the complexity of decision-making within this context and further emphasising the need to understand influencing factors. Future directions are discussed in relation to the tentative findings presented by the current study.


Abstract We present a consistent synthesis of palaeothermal (apatite fission track analysis (AFTA) and vitrinite reflectance) data from UK Southern North Sea wells with the regional pattern of exhumation defined from sonic velocity data. Cenozoic exhumation across most of the region began in the Paleocene between 63 and 59 Ma. Amounts of removed section are around 1 km across the offshore platform, increasing to 2 km or more on the Sole Pit axis. Neogene exhumation within this area began between 22 and 15 Ma, and led to removal of up to 1 km of section. Along the eastern flank of the Sole Pit axis, sonic data define a pre-Chalk event, and AFTA data from these wells show that exhumation began between 120 and 93 Ma. This timing correlates with events defined from AFTA data in the Sorgenfrei–Tornquist Zone, further east, presumably reflecting a response to regional tectonic stresses. East of the Sole Pit axis, AFTA and sonic velocities suggest that Neogene exhumation dominates, while further east towards the central parts of the North Sea Mesozoic sediments appear to be at maximum burial today except for local effects related to salt movement. The multiple episodes of exhumation and burial defined here have important implications for exploration.


Channel initiation, which is a key factor in the evolution of landforms, is caused by a combination of various hydrogeomorphic processes. This study supplies quantitative data about the size of channel heads driven mostly by groundwater seepage in lowland areas. The chief aims of the present paper is to examine the geometry and morphometry of channel heads in NW Poland and identify the nature of the erosional effect of groundwater outflows. Detailed topographic studies were conducted in selected 24 channel heads (in the form of headwater alcoves) judged to be representative in hydrogeomorphological terms in the southern part of the Parsęta catchment (NW Poland). Morphometric surveying of headwater zones made it possible to identify morphological effects of groundwater seepage erosion in a postglacial landscape. Headwater alcoves of various forms are often distinctive features of the postglacial relief of the Parsęta catchment. Those predominating in the study area are compact landforms, semicircular and narrowing, or paraboloidal, elongated in outline, as evidenced by the low values of the indices of form Cf and circularity Ck as well as the elongation index Cw. A small proportion of headwater alcoves located in scarps are complex, composed of several alcoves combined by a common outflow. The elongation is primarily due to backward erosion along the long axis of an alcove, but in favourable morphological conditions it may have been predetermined by the shape of the initial forms. The scarps closing alcove heads can reach heights of more than ten metres. The transition of alcove slopes into a flat bottom takes place via a clearly marked segment of a concave slope. The diversity of channel head morphology is related to the areal extent of the contributing area, structural or lithological variability which locally increases hydraulic conductivity, and the character and discharge of groundwater outflows.


Design and develop WS-BPEL executable business processes using Oracle SOA Suite 12c About This BookDevelop BPEL and SOA composite solutions with Oracle SOA 12c Suite and JDeveloper 12cUnderstand Human interaction in BPEL and learn how to add human tasks to a BPEL processesAutomate business processes with WS-BPEL 2.0Implement and develop compensation and compensation handlers in BPEL processesWho This Book Is ForIf you are a software architect, a designer, a software developer, an SOA and BPM architect, a project manager, or a business process analyst who is responsible for the design and development of business processes, composite applications, and BPM/SOA solutions, then this book is for you. You should have a clear grasp of general SOA concepts including business processes and web services, but no prior knowledge of the BPEL language is required. In Detail Business Process Execution Language (BPEL, also known as WS-BPEL) has become the de facto standard for orchestrating services in SOA composite applications. It enables the automation of business processes, reduces the gap between business requirements and applications, and allows better alignment between business processes and the underlying IT architecture. BPEL is an open specification and one of the most important pieces of SOA.This book provides a fast-paced practical introduction to WS-BPEL, one of the centerpieces of SOA. It covers the most important features of BPEL 2.0 and provides several real-world examples to underline its concepts.


Building on behavioural theory with dynamic capabilities, I have studied how firms create competitive
advantage through innovation over time after multiple mergers and acquisitions. This research is
focused on the acquirer's ability towards obtaining performance from product integration and set
within the context of highly acquisitive software-houses, those organisations involved in the sales and
manufacture of business software products.

Within high technology industries, resources are at the heart of the firm and constitute the largest
cost. Dynamic capabilities are a more recently extended RBV of the firm to incorporate dynamic
markets, I,e, firms in situations of rapid change. In these markets, where the competitive landscape is
shifting, the dynamic capabilities by which firm managers integrate, build, and reconfigure internal
and external competencies to address rapidly changing environments. To this end, I test the dynamic
capabilities theory in the high tech software industry in times of change.

In 2012, software firms completed over $66 billion of mergers and acquisitions (Berkery Noyes, 2013).
However research suggests that synergies are often left unrealised (Barkema and Schijven, 2008;
Leger and Quach, 2009). In addition, the software industry is maturing and the mergers and
acquisition activity in the industry has intensified (Leger and Quach, 2009). The highly acquisitive
company - seeking rapid growth and using acquisitions as the means to achieve this, is using a
recognised route to growth (Damodaran, 2004). In a report from PwC (2014) Rob Fisher, the PwC US
technology industry leader notes that

With software embedded in virtually everything, software and Internet sector [mergers
and acquisitions] deal activity continues to flourish, offsetting declines in other subsectors."
(PWC, 2013):

In this longitudinal research I describe, explain and account for the impacts of mergers and
acquisitions on innovation, expressed through product integration; - the reconfiguring and
combination of the product portfolios within software firms. Concerning the acquiring firm's
endogenous growth (the creation of value through internal resource capability), I explain the
relationship between organisation capabilities and the innovation outcome as well as the innovation
effect on revenue.

I find that the dynamic capabilities framework is a suitable for complex empirical study. In addition I
find that while the measures including the measured capabilities directly effect product integration
and revenues. By using mediation techniques, I also find that revenues are indirectly affected by
product integration. Interestingly product integration, negatively impacts the financial performance of
the firm. These findings are important for managerial decision making and imply a high level of
orchestration requirement.

According to the Business Software Alliance, BSA (2008), the software sector has enjoyed meteoric
growth. In 2007, the software and related services sector experienced a real annual growth rate of
14%, while the business sector was considerably less. This is reflected by the business, SunGard (2009)
who grew endogenously by only 1%. In light of the business problem, I concentrate on highly
acquisitive software firms, i.e. those firms seeking growth through acquisition.

I conceptualise product integration innovation as a second stage process of organisation integration. I
have tested my theory using panel data of highly acquisitive firms, which have undertaken in excess of
900 events over a ten-year period.


A chronology for the Last Glacial Maximum based on cosmogenic exposure dating in the Pangnirtung Fjord area, eastern Baffin Island, Arctic Canada, is at odds with many decades of land-based, glacial stratigraphic research. Most previous chronologies focused primarily on relative weathering criteria and suggested that ice extent was restricted during the late Wisconsinan (ca. 24–8 ka). In contrast, by directly dating glacial features, we conclude that late Wisconsinan ice was far more extensive than previously believed. There are 36 gneissic boulders and 8 samples of ice-molded gneissic bedrock that yield late Wisconsinan 10Be and 26Al exposure ages for the last glaciation of Pangnirtung Fjord. The prominent Duval moraines, which were previously interpreted to represent a significant early Wisconsinan (100–60 ka) ice advance on southern Cumberland Peninsula, were actually deposited between 24 and 9 ka. Two boulders from a raised glaciomarine delta, stratigraphically related to the Duval moraines, date to about 10 ka. Two recessional moraines and striated bedrock along Pangnirtung Fjord, as well as erratics on the floor of the Kolik River valley, a tributary to Pangnirtung Fjord, indicate that deglaciation began between 12 and 9 ka. In situ produced 10Be and 26Al abundances indicate that ice filled Pangnirtung Fjord for about 15 k.y. (either continuously or intermittently) prior to 10 ka, which is compatible with 14C chronologies for adjacent Cumberland Sound. Thus, our data support other recent studies that suggest the northern and southern margins of the Laurentide ice sheet were generally in phase during the latest Wisconsinan, contrary to earlier interpretations.


The structural and electronic properties of five known triarylamine derived sensitizers (A1, A1-F, C218, D2 and Y123) and their associated hypothetical dyes (C218-F, D2-F, Y123-F, Y1234 and Y1234-F) have been studied using density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory. The sensitizers primarily comprise of a triphenylamine, a 4,4′-dihexylcyclopenta[2,1-b:3,4-b]dithiophene and a cyanoacrylic acid as the electron donating, π-spacer and accepting units, respectively. The π-system is extended by incorporation of either a benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazol-4,7-diyl unit or an ortho-fluorophenyl unit or both. To gain insight into the effect of elongation of the π-system on the electronic properties of dye sensitized TiO2 interfaces, first-principles calculations have been carried out on sensitizer molecules co-adsorbed on the (101) surface of the anatase TiO2. The theoretical results revealed that elongating the π-system of the sensitizers with both the benzothiadiazole and ortho-fluorophenyl units increases the molecular extinction coefficient, the excited state lifetime and the light harvesting efficiency but decreases the band gap and the reorganization energy relative to the structurally comparable reference dye Y123. The calculated short circuit current density and level alignment quality showed that the π-system in the triarylamine sensitizers elongated with both benzothiadiazole and ortho-fluorophenyl units broadens their potential use in DSSCs due to the enhanced values as compared to the reference dye. The results obtained in this study will provide a valuable reference for the strategy of inserting various π-spacers in triarylamine sensitizers for dye sensitized solar cell applications.


We study the time-resolved reflectivity spectrum of a switched planar GaAs-AlAs microcavity. Between 5 and 40 ps after the switching (pump) pulse, we observe a strong excess probe reflectivity and a change of the frequency of light trapped in the cavity up to 5 linewidths away from the cavity resonance. This frequency change does not adiabatically follow the fast-changing cavity resonance. The frequency change is attributed to an accumulated phase change due to the time-dependent refractive index. An analytical model predicts dynamics in qualitative agreement with the experiments, and points to crucial parameters that control future applications.


A comprehensive and novel system of automatic control has been
designed and constructed using distributed intelligence techniques
to control a complex item of equipment for the measurement of linear
thermal expansion over the temperature range 1.5K - 300K. The system
is designed to perform its own self-calibration automatically before
the experiment commences.
The low temperature dllatometer developed for this research project
incorporates the most sensitive length change sensor available; a
three-terminal capacitance transducer. This transducer technique has been refined to resolve length changes of 10-5A and more importantly,
measure length against temperature profiles to better than 10-2A.
The period of time required to collect a full set of data
measurements on any particular specimen was in excess of 100 hours.
Forming the heart of the automated control system is an assembly of
Intel MCS-Sl single chip microcontrollers connected together on a
serial link consisting of a simple pair of wires. The approach has
been to divide the system automation into a number of specific
control tasks and to allocate a different task to each controller.
The Instrument has been used as a diagnostic tool to investigate the
properties of lead glasses, and in particular to study the
possibility of negative thermal expansion existing at low
temperatures. Thermal expansion measurements were also performed to
observe the phase change within single crystals of polydiacetylene
and to research into low temperature phenomena occurlng within the
crystal.


Historically, pastoral people were able to more freely use the services their semi-arid and arid ecosystems provide, and they adapted to changes in ways that improved their well-being. More recently, their ability to adapt has been constrained due to changes from within and from outside their communities. To compare possible responses by pastoral communities, we modeled ecosystem services and tied those services to decisions that people make at the household level. We created an agent-based household model called DECUMA, joined that model with the ecosystem model SAVANNA, and applied the linked models to southeastern Kajiado District, Kenya. The structure of the new agent-based model and linkages between the models are described, and then we demonstrate the model results using a scenario that shows changes in Maasai well-being in response to drought. We then explore two additional but related scenarios, quantifying household well-being if access to a grazing reserve is lost and if access is lost but those most affected are compensated. In the second scenario, households in group ranches abutting the grazing reserve that lost access had large declines in livestock populations, less food energy from animal sources, increased livestock sales and grain purchases, and increased need for supplemental foods. Households in more distant areas showed no changes or had increases in livestock populations because their herds had fewer animals with which to compete for forage. When households neighboring the grazing reserve were compensated for the lease of the lands they had used, they prospered. We describe some benefits and limitations of the agent-based approach.


In Kenya the phenomenon of street children is a major human developmental problem. Government institutions such as the directorate of children's services in the ministry of gender and social services have been involved with programs targeting the street children. Undugu society, a Non governmental organization established by Arnold in 1973 is arguably the most well established institution that Endeavors to address the plight of street children through non formal education and training. In Nanyuki municipality the children's department in the ministry of gender and social services, the social services department of the municipal council, Non governmental organizations, faith based organizations and individuals have all been involved in running programs either separately or collaboratively with the objective of reducing the number of street children and street families from the streets. However the increasing number of these children in urban areas of major towns of Kenya including Nanyuki is an indication that implementations of these interventions face some serious challenges. This study aimed at gaining an in-depth understanding of factors affecting effective implementation of street children projects in Nanyuki Municipality Kenya. Specifically the study sought to determine the effect of community participation on street children projects implementation; establish the effect of government monitoring of individuals and organizations involved in street children rehabilitation projects; determine the extent to which adequate training of street children caretakers affect street children projects implementation and assess the effects of financing on street children's projects implementation. This study employed a descriptive survey design. The target population consisted of all individuals dealing with children welfare activities within Nanyuki municipality. This includes members of the District Advisory Council, administrators and staff of the five charitable institutions within the municipality. A census was carried out in all the above institutions so as to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. The research instruments were questionnaires. The data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics. The research revealed that community participation was not adequate at all levels of project implementation. The level of training on project management skills among the project staff was also inadequate and this affected the quality of performance especially in monitoring and evaluation. The government input in monitoring and evaluation was found to be inadequate as well as the level of financing. Recommendations and suggestions for further study have been outlined in chapter five.


Background: Recently, material surface advancements have been promoted to improve spinal implant osseointegration. While rough and porous titanium implants have gained traction due to their osteoconductive properties, polyetheretherketone (PEEK) devices have remained popular due to their radiographic properties and similar modulus of elasticity to bone. However, traditional smooth PEEK devices elicit fibrous tissue responses leading to poor implant osseointegration. Recently, PEEK implants have been developed with surface porosity allowing for direct bone in-growth. Despite preclinical data suggesting implant osseointegration with porous PEEK implants, comparative clinical results between implants with and without porous surface architecture are heretofore reported. The objective of this single-site retrospective study was to comparatively evaluate early clinical efficacy in patients undergoing ACDF treated with porous PEEK interbody implants to patients treated with structural allograft or traditional smooth PEEK implants. Methods: 167 consecutive patients presenting with cervical degenerative disc disease and radiculopathy underwent ACDF using one of three implants (porous PEEK (Cohere®, NuVasive Inc., San Diego, CA), structural allograft, or smooth PEEK). After preop evaluation and surgery, patients were followed per standard of care 0.5, 1.5, 3, 6, and 12 months post-op. At each time, patient outcomes were measured by disability (Neck Disability Index) and pain (visual analogue score (VAS) neck/arm pain). Results: Patients treated with porous PEEK implants achieved significantly greater NDI and neck pain improvement by 6 weeks post-op when compared to patients receiving structural allograft or smooth PEEK devices. These significantly greater NDI and neck pain improvements for patients treated with porous PEEK devices compared to structural allograft and smooth PEEK were sustained through 12 months post-op. Conclusion: 12 month follow-up data in patients with degenerative disc disease and radiculopathy demonstrates a clear benefit of porous PEEK in promoting improved early outcomes over structural allograft and smooth PEEK in ACDF procedures.


While an increasing number of trust studies examine technological artifacts as trust recipients, we still lack a basic understanding of how technology trust "fits" into the broader nomological net espoused by trust theories. This paper adopts a measure of technology trust comprised of IT-specific dimensions. We then articulate a research model that separates technology trust from interpersonal trust (i.e., trust in humans). Our empirical study provides evidence that even in a context where technology fully replaces human interaction, technology trust does not substitute for interpersonal trust. Rather, our findings suggest that technology trust complements interpersonal trust as a predictor of intention and behavior.


In an article [A. Aguado and P. A. Madden, J. Chem. Phys. 119, 7471 (2003)] published in this journal, Ewald summation expressions were derived for the energy, interatomic forces, pressure tensor, electrostatic field, and electrostatic field gradients in simulation system composed of molecules with charges, induced dipoles, and quadrupoles. In this letter we propose an alternative formulation of the reciprocal space terms generalized to higher multipoles, providing, at the same time, a few important corrections for previously published derivations. The present expressions, more compact than the ones proposed in the original work, provide a straightforward approach to implement an Ewald summation scheme for multipole interactions in codes where a standard Ewald summation is already available. A major result of the present derivation is an increase in the computational efficiency compared to the previous implementation of the several different electrostatic terms.


Under the right conditions, TGF-β activates Smad1 and Smad5 to stimulate cell migration. Transforming growth factor–β (TGF-β) signaling in normal mammary epithelial cells inhibits tumor cell formation. As breast cancer becomes established, however, TGF-β promotes cellular proliferation and migration, an alteration in signaling outcomes whose cause is unclear. TGF-β signals through a heterodimeric receptor consisting of the type I receptor kinase ALK5 and the type II receptor kinase, TβRII. In canonical TGF-β signaling, activation of the receptor triggers the recruitment of Smad2 and Smad3 proteins to ALK5 (mediated by its L45 loop), their phosphorylation (and activation), and their translocation to the nucleus to mediate target gene transcription. Liu et al. found that, in addition to activating Smad3, TGF-β also activated Smad1 and Smad5 in tumorigenic mouse mammary epithelial (4T1) cells. These proteins are thought of as canonical targets of TGF-β–related bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), which activate type I receptors (other than ALK5) with L45 loops specific for these Smads. The authors also showed that TGF-β stimulated the migration of 4T1 cells, and experiments with short hairpin RNAs demonstrated that ALK5 was required for TGF-β–mediated activation of Smad1 and Smad5 and that both Smads contributed substantially to migration. Expression of mutant ALK5 proteins showed that its L45 loop was required for TGF-β–mediated migration, and ALK5 phosphorylated Smad1 and Smad5 in vitro. TGF-β stimulated the phosphorylation of Smad1 and Smad5 in a range of tumorigenic cell lines but not in immortalized cell lines. In addition, TGF-β–mediated activation of these Smads was stronger in cells expressing the HER2 oncogene than in control cells. This study suggests that TGF-β–stimulated activation of Smad1 and Smad5 rather than of its canonical Smads may contribute to the switch to a migratory phenotype seen in tumorigenic cells. I. M. Liu, S. H. Schilling, K. A. Knouse, L. Choy, R. Derynck, X.-F. Wang, TGFβ-stimulated Smad1/5 phosphorylation requires the ALK5 L45 loop and mediates the pro-migratory TGFβ switch. EMBO J. 28, 88–98 (2009). [PubMed]


Letter from John McBurney to Sterling Houston. He informs Mr. Houston that Tootie Finnell does not have a grave marker, and he would like his input to put on a drag show as a fundraising activity. He suggests the Jump-Start Theatre as a possible location. The letter has been written on a typed report. McBurney has included his business card as a make-up artist.


In developing the biologically motivated approach proposed earlier to the implementation of logico-linguistic modeling by the method of Fourier holography, it was shown to be possible to implement logic with exclusions as a particular case of nonmonotonic logic. It was proposed to use one implication operator for both the premise and the exclusion by constructing linguistic scales for the premise and the exclusion with mutually inverse dependences of the value of the logical conclusion on the value of the input variable. Results are given for the numerical modelling of an example of the formation of a logical conclusion.


"Context" plays an important role in any discourse about trauma. Not only does it serve as a precondition for the manifestation of trauma in the first place, but also determines the way in which trauma is received, interpreted and represented. The sensitivity of the reception context towards the represented traumatic events also determines whether only knowledge about the events are mediated or whether the uncanny nature of trauma is transmitted. If the latter occurs, a secondary trauma manifests itself as result. In the Dutch novel Tralievader (translated as Nightfather) by Carl Friedman the transmission of the Holocaust trauma within a particular family is represented. This transmission can be seen as the result of the impact of one context on another— that of the parent on that of the child. With the complex issue of the transmission of trauma kept in mind, specific dangers in the interpretation and transmission of trauma in a collective sense are identified. Suggestions are also made on how to deal with trauma in a productive way. Keywords: contextuality, Holocaust, mediation of trauma, narrative.


A procedure to isolate and investigate the watershed influence on storm runoff is presented. It offers an opportunity to study also the change in influence of particular watershed characteristics by changing the input or soil moisture state of each catchment. Weighted lake area, area of bare rocks, main stream gradient, drainage density and basin area are found to be the most significant characteristics in affecting peak runoff and time of rise on storm hydrographs in small Norwegian rivers. The intercorrelation structure of the watershed properties is examined.


OBJECTIVE
To determine prevalence of systolic hypertension and associated risk factors in cats with chronic renal failure evaluated in first-opinion practice.

DESIGN
Prospective study.

ANIMALS
103 cats with chronic renal failure.

PROCEDURE
Systolic arterial blood pressure (SABP) was measured with a noninvasive Doppler technique, and cats that had SABP > 175 mm Hg on 2 occasions or that had SABP > 175 mm Hg and compatible ocular lesions were classified as hypertensive. Information from the history (previous treatment for hyperthyroidism, age), physical examination (sex, body weight), routine plasma biochemical analyses (creatinine, cholesterol, potassium, sodium, chloride, and calcium concentrations), and thyroid status were evaluated as potential risk factors for systolic hypertension. Variables associated with systolic hypertension were evaluated by use of logistic regression.

RESULTS
20 (19.4%; 95% confidence interval, 13 to 28%) cats had systolic hypertension. Plasma potassium concentration was significantly and inversely associated with systolic hypertension.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Prevalence of systolic hypertension, although clinically important, was lower than that reported previously. The cause of the inverse association between systolic hypertension and plasma potassium concentration is not yet known.


Positive psychology as a field has made substantial advances when it comes to understanding positive experiences and positive traits, yet there is a deficiency in theory, research, and application of how to build and enable positive institutions. This paper argues that positive psychologists and practitioners need to focus on how positive psychology can support and contribute to macro level community wellbeing, specifically focused and concerned with justice. At the origins of this nation's history is dehumanization and oppression of certain populations, denying citizens full participation in our democracy. This paper asks, what allows people to be psychologically ready to participate and what is society's responsibility in cultivating conditions that lead to participation? Defining a positive citizenship describes where there is potential to cultivate positive citizenship and highlights the current conditions that threaten the concept of citizenship as fundamental to wellbeing. Positive citizenship embodies Freire's belief that one cannot experience being fully human, or true emancipation, without the ability to impact and transform themselves and the world.


Looking at Swiss administrative law from a Quebec perspective, this paper outlines some aspects of the Swiss system that provide useful models or references for the discussion and resolution of current issues in Canadian and Quebec administrative law. These issues are identified as (1) the proliferation of independent administrative agencies, and the means to control or at least systematize the growth of such structures ; (2) the desirability and feasibility of enacting general standards of procedure for administrative action ; (3) the simplification of remedies in the field of judicial review of administrative action ; (4) the desirability and feasibility of allocating judicial review powers to a specialized court, either within or outside the Superior Court ; and (5) the desirability and form of a procedure allowing for political intervention in the decision-making process of independent agencies. In the light of these issues, the paper describes the allocation of review functions between administrative and judicial bodies in Swiss federal law. The structure and activity of the Swiss Federal Court (Tribunal federal), and especially of the division of the Court that deals with most administrative law cases, are outlined in some more detail. A short historical sketch leads to a discussion of the corresponding features of the law in some of the cantons, and to consideration of the special position given to social security matters in the general scheme of administrative law. The paper then focusses on administrative action itself, commenting on the most significant provisions in the Federal Administrative Procedure Act (Loi federale sur la procedure administrative) of 1968. Special attention is paid to the process of review within the administration, up to the level of the federal cabinet (Conseil federal). Corresponding provisions in the law of some of the cantons are also briefly discussed. The description of the federal review process is then completed by an outline of the procedure for judicial review of administrative action by the Federal Court (Recours de droit administrative). Finally, notice is again taken of the special position of social security as regards administrative procedure. The paper draws attention, in its concluding part, to the most interesting insights provided by Swiss law into the current problems of Canadian and Quebec administrative law. The growth of administrative tribunals has been brought under control by structural arrangements, especially in the field of social security. The introduction of general standards of procedure has brought greater uniformity and clarity, has emphasized the unity of administrative process including the review phase before administrative or judicial authorities, and has strenghtened the rule of law over government action. The existence of a single procedure to invoke judicial review eases access to the court. While in many cases review by the court is excluded, these exclusions have to be specific, and leave full opportunity for review within the administration, with adequate safeguards provided by the Administrative Procedure Act. Specialization occurs within the Federal Court, and does not involve a rigid separation between judges applying administrative law and judges applying other branches of the law, as in France or Germany. Finally, ultimate political control over certain types of decisions is admitted as a part of life in Swiss federal law, but is at the same time subjected to a quasi-judicial procedure which makes it an acknowledged source of administrative justice.


The climate change issue has been widely studied. To add to this literature, this paper focuses on the role of environmental non-governmental organisations in the Netherlands in raising public awareness. Besides, their role in relation to the Dutch government's climate policies is researched as well. The findings of this research indicate that, with respect to the climate change issue, environmental NGOs in the Netherlands may not always be active and systematic, as it is generally perceived, in raising public awareness and putting pressure on the Dutch government for implementing the targeted measures at the national level.


This case study presents the context, application and enforcement of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) in Switzerland. It begins with an introduction to the Swiss legal framework by presenting the requirements for accounting, reporting, and auditing. It then examines the application and enforcement of IFRS in Switzerland, particularly for listed companies. It concludes with a summary and an overview of expected amendments to the legal framework. The study notes that the regulatory framework for financial reporting in Switzerland is oriented towards the protection of creditors. International exposure and a need to raise external capital motivated Swiss entities to implement International Accounting Standards (IAS) on a voluntary basis and provide consolidated financial statements. The study shows that, between 2001 and 2007, the number of number of entities listed on the Swiss Exchange that prepare their annual reports on the basis of IFRS grew from 155 to 191. In 2007, out of a total of 262 companies listed on the Swiss Exchange, about 73 per cent prepared their financial statements in accordance with IFRS. For 2007, the key areas of focus for enforcement of IFRS for the Swiss Exchange relate to: financial instruments disclosure; accounting policies; income taxes; related party disclosures; and intangible assets from business combinations.


Detrital white micas from a restricted region of the Norwegian Sea have been analysed by the 40Ar/39Ar laserprobe. Examining the ages of individual white mica grains from offshore Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous sandstones reveals a narrow range of detrital white mica ages (369–424 Ma). Moreover, there is an inverse relationship between sediment age and detrital white mica age, with the Triassic sands containing a larger proportion of younger white micas, and the Cretaceous sands containing the oldest white micas. In addition, residence times of the detritus, which is the age of the sediment subtracted from the age of the detrital white mica, range from c. 150 to c. 300 Ma (for the Triassic and Cretaceous sands respectively). The inverse age relationships combined with the large residence times for these stratigraphic levels can best be explained by an erosion-deposition model involving at least two stages. Taking into account previous provenance studies in the Lofoten region of the Norwegian Sea, these new data suggest that detritus shed initially from the exhuming Caledonian nappes of NW Norway in late Silurian-early Devonian times was deposited in intramontane basins that were themselves, subsequently unroofed and re-eroded from Permo-Triassic times. This caused the recycling of the Caledonian detritus from the Devono-Carboniferous basins and led to the inverted detrital age distribution ovserved in the Triassic-Cretaceous sediments examined in this study. While sedimentary recycling is not a surprising feature for Mesozoic basins in the North and Norwegian Seas, this study documents a previously untapped method, 40Ar/39Ar laserprobe provenance studies, by which to identify its effect and extent.


A counterexample to uniqueness of global minimizers of semilinear optimal control problems is given. The lack of uniqueness occurs for a special choice of the state-target in the cost functional. Our arguments show also that, for some state-targets, there exist local minimizers, which are not global. When this occurs, gradient-type algorithms may be trapped by the local minimizers, thus missing the global ones. Furthermore, the issue of convexity of quadratic functional in optimal control is analyzed in an abstract setting. As a Corollary of the nonuniqueness of the minimizers, a nonuniqueness result for a coupled elliptic system is deduced. Numerical simulations have been performed illustrating the theoretical results. We also discuss the possible impact of the multiplicity of minimizers on the turnpike property in long time horizons.


Date of Award 2015 Degree Type Thesis Degree Name Honors Thesis Department Strategic Communication: Public Relations and Advertising First Advisor Kristin Swenson Abstract Since the inception of comic books, superheroes have populated American households. These heroes, such as Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man, instill various values in youth. These values include honor, strength, and justice. Comic books have become a staple of America and have recently regained interest through film adaptations. These films reinforce the hegemonic masculinity and limited opportunities of women. While the comic books themselves also impose these themes, they also have begun to introduce LGBT themes into story lines and characters. However, these LGBT themes continuously get removed as the stories transform from comic book to film. The purpose of this thesis is to illustrate how traditional themes of hyper heterosexuality become fortified and queer themes of LGBT characters are eradicated. Recommended Citation Imholte, Makenna E., "Hollywood's Hindering of Homosexuality for Heroes: Sexuality in Comic Books and Their Movies" (2015). Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection. 262. https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/ugtheses/262  Download


OBJECTIVE A study of the prevalence of hypertension in the patient population was conducted at the University of Mississippi, School of Dentistry. METHOD AND MATERIALS The 3,665 records reviewed represented patients treated by undergraduate dental students from 1993 through 1997. Inclusion criteria were diagnosis of hypertension by a physician or presentation with a systolic reading of greater than 140 mm Hg or a diastolic reading of greater than 90 mm Hg. RESULTS Of the 1,021 subjects who met the criteria, 609 were previously diagnosed with hypertension and 412 exhibited elevated blood pressure. The prevalence of diagnosed hypertension in the study population was 16.6%. When the 412 subjects who exhibited elevated blood pressure were included, the prevalence of hypertension was 27.9%. At the initial screening, 32.2% of diagnosed adults and 27.0% of undiagnosed adults exhibited a systolic reading of 160 mm Hg or greater or a diastolic reading of 100 mm Hg or greater. For all age groups, there were no statistically significant differences in race, sex, educational level, or occupation between the diagnosed and undiagnosed groups. CONCLUSION The prevalence of hypertension, often undiagnosed or uncontrolled, justifies routine blood pressure screening of dental patients.


A sample of 299 U.S. economics professors responded to our 2010 survey. This paper reports on their views on 17 policy issues. We relate attitude toward liberalization to political-party voting. Abortion and occupational licensing are among the questions novel to the survey. We also look at gender, favorite economists, the frequent lack of consensus on issues, and the percent of economics professors who firmly support the principles of free enterprise. The instrument, dataset, and all analyses are provided online (link).


Natural language can be a useful modality for creating and interacting with visualizations but users often have unrealistic expectations about the intelligence of natural language systems. The gulf between user expectations and system capabilities may lead to a disappointing user experience. So — if we want to engineer a natural language system, what are the requirements around system intelligence? This work takes a retrospective look at how we answered this question in the design of Ask Data, a natural language interaction feature for Tableau. We examine two factors contributing to perceived system intelligence: the system's ability to understand the analytic intent behind an input utterance and the ability to interpret an utterance contextually (i.e. taking into account the current visualization state and recent actions). Our aim was to understand the ways in which a system would need to support these two aspects of intelligence to enable a positive user experience. We first describe a pre-design Wizard of Oz study that offered insight into this question and narrowed the space of designs under consideration. We then reflect on the impact of this study on system development, examining how design implications from the study played out in practice. Our work contributes insights for the design of natural language interaction in visual analytics as well as a reflection on the value of pre-design empirical studies in the development of visual analytic systems.


Ensemble methods are able to improve the predictive performance of many base classifiers. In this paper, we consider two ensemble learning techniques, bagging and random forests, and apply them to Binary SVM Decision Tree (SVM-BDT). Binary SVM Decision Tree is a tree based architecture that utilizes support vector machines for solving multiclass problems. It takes advantage of both the efficient computation of the decision tree architecture and the high classification accuracy of SVMs. In this paper we empirically investigate the performance of ensembles of SVM-BDTs. Our most important conclusions are: (1) ensembles of SVM-BDTs yield noticeable better predictive performance than the base classifier (SVM-BDT), and (2) the random forests ensemble technique is more suitable than bagging for SVM- BDT.


In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the addition of Disease X, a hypothetical infectious threat, to its blueprint list of priority diseases. In the construction of discourse that circulated following this announcement, conceptions of Disease X intersected with representations of Africa. In our article, we share a broad strokes analysis of internet narratives about Disease X and Africa in the six months before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (July–December 2019) and during its first six months (January–June 2020). Our analysis focuses on how the scientific concept of Disease X was applied by 'non-experts' to make meaning from risk, uncertainty, and response. These non-experts drew in parallel upon more general representations of power, fear, and danger. This research is particularly relevant at the time of writing, as online narratives about COVID-19 vaccination are shaping vaccine anxiety throughout the world by drawing upon similar conceptions of agency and inequality. Because Disease X in Africa still looms as a perceived future threat, considering the narratives presented in this paper can provide insight into how people create meaning when faced with a scientific concept, a global health crisis, and the idea that there are other crises yet to come.


Knowledge Distillation (KD) is a popular area of research for reducing the size of large models while still maintaining good performance. The outputs of larger teacher models are used to guide the training of smaller student models. Given the repetitive nature of acoustic events, we propose to leverage this information to regulate the KD training for Audio Tagging. This novel KD method, "Intra-Utterance Similarity Preserving KD" (IUSP), shows promising results for the audio tagging task. It is motivated by the previously published KD method: "Similarity Preserving KD" (SP). However, instead of preserving the pairwise similarities between inputs within a mini-batch, our method preserves the pairwise similarities between the frames of a single input utterance. Our proposed KD method, IUSP, shows consistent improvements over SP across student models of different sizes on the DCASE 2019 Task 5 dataset for audio tagging. There is a 27.1% to 122.4% percent increase in improvement of micro AUPRC over the baseline relative to SP's improvement of over the baseline.


A laboratory based microcosm study utilising intact non-sterile sediment cores was undertaken to determine the survival of the faecal indicator organisms Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecium and somatic coliphage in both recreational coastal water and sediment. Overlying water was inoculated with the test organisms and incubated at 10°C, 20°C or 30°C. E. coli, enterococcus and coliphage were enumerated from the water column and sediment by the membrane filtration method, Enterolert (IDEXX Laboratories) and the double-agar overlay methods respectively on days 0, 1, 2, 7, 14 and 28 following inoculation. It was demonstrated that for all organisms, greater decay (k; d -1 ) occurred in the water column compared to sediment. Sediment characteristics were found to influence decay, with lowest decay rates observed in sediment consisting of high organic carbon content and small particle size. Decay of E. coli was significantly greater in both the water column and sediment compared with enterococcus and coliphage under all conditions. Decay of enterococcus was found to closely resemble that of coliphage decay. Survival of all organisms was inversely related to temperature, with greatest decay at 30°C. However, increased temperature had a less significant impact on survival of enterococcus and coliphage compared with E coli. The importance of this study for estimating risk from recreational exposure is great if some pathogenic microorganisms behave similarly to the organisms tested in this study. In particular if survival rates of pathogens are similar to enterococcus and coliphage, then their ability to accumulate in coastal sediment may lead to an increased risk of exposure if these organisms are resuspended into the water column due to natural turbulence or human recreational activity.


Abstract Trilobites of this suborder from Europe and North America have not been studied in detail, in contrast to the attention given to relationships within the orders Agnostida and Ptychopariina. The basis of the Corynexochina is the type species of Corynexochus from the middle Cambrian of Sweden. The type material redescribed here is only the cranidium, and is inadequate for diagnosis of the genus. A species attributed to this genus occurring in the Cambrian of southern France is represented by entire dorsal exoskeletons and is urgently in need of redescription. Similar material is recorded in northern Spain. Both complete exoskeletons and growth stages of Corynexochina have been described from Cambrian strata in Russia, Australia, Morocco and China, showing the wide geographical range and varied morphology of the Suborder. The type species of two genera from boulders of middle Cambrian age found in Quebec, Canada, are redescribed from exceptionally well preserved, though small, specimens. They appear to represent a distinct group related to some of the Zacanthoididae. Families of Corynexochina are inadequately discriminated one from another, so that a family name can only be used with question. Until this is remedied, diagnosis of a new group is not possible.


Exercise training promotes a beneficial endothelial cell (EC) phenotype and results in conduit vessel adaptation. The specific underlying mechanisms have been proposed (shear stress, circumferential stress, hypoxia, metabolic) but are yet to be fully elucidated. This thesis investigated the predominant stimuli responsible for conduit vessel adaptation with training. Further, it developed a method of in situ EC extraction to allow for determination of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underpinning these adaptations. The methodology utilised two-dimensional (2D) Doppler ultrasound, strain gauge plethysmography, immunocytochemistry and RT-qPCR to provide insight in to vascular characteristics, predominantly of the brachial artery and peripheral EC. Long-term repeated isometric forearm muscle contractions as performed by well-trained rock climbers promoted greater resting, peak (in response to 5 min ischaemia) and maximal (in response to ischaemic exercise) brachial artery diameters compared with controls. This structural response is dependent upon confounders associated with exercise additional to shear stress as evidenced by the lack of brachial artery remodelling in response to 8 weeks of ischaemic preconditioning (IPC). A transient increase in flow-mediated dilation (FMD)% was observed following 6 weeks exposure to IPC, which became significant when controlled for baseline artery diameter, despite an absence of augmentation following long-term (≥ 8 weeks) exposure to a shear stimulus. This is in line with the suggested timeline of conduit vessel adaptation to exercise training of a transient increase in function at 2-4 weeks. Underpinning molecular mechanisms responsible were not determined but may be further investigated given that the endovascular biopsy technique was developed and improved in this thesis. The endovascular biopsy successfully yields approximately 2100 ± 1700 EC per sample, providing sufficient material for determination of expression of both mRNA (RT-qPCR) and protein (immunocytochemistry). Specifically, type 2 diabetics (T2DM) with symptomatic cardiac abnormalities exhibited augmented eNOS mRNA and protein in brachial artery EC as compared with non-diabetic controls with symptomatic cardiac abnormalities. In conclusion, this thesis demonstrates that although shear stress promotes a transient trend for enhancement in function of the peripheral conduit arteries, additional factors are required for long-term structural adaptations. Further, the endovascular biopsy technique offers a novel method of extracting and analysing EC for genes and proteins of interest to vascular health. The use of this technique to decipher the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in vascular adaptations with exercise requires further investigation.


We report the fabrication of zinc oxide (ZnO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) and simple integrated circuits by spray pyrolysis, and examine the role of beryllium (Be) as the chemical dopant. Doping is achieved through addition of Be-acetylacetonate into the parent Zn-acetate precursor solution followed by film deposition through spray pyrolysis. The microstructural properties of as-grown Be-ZnO films with different dopant concentrations are investigated using a combination of atomic force microscopy and x-ray diffraction techniques, which show the formation of polycrystalline films. Introduction of Be is found to impact the degree of crystallinity of ZnO films where a dramatic decrease in the average grain size is observed with increasing Be concentration. To assess the effects of Be-doping on the electrical properties of ZnO films we have fabricated Be-ZnO based TFTs using different doping concentrations. The average electron mobility calculated from these transistors is on the order of ~ 2 cm2·V-1·s-1 with the threshold voltage (VTH) exhibiting a strong dependence on Be concentration. The ability to control VTH through the introduction of Be has been exploited for the fabrication of unipolar inverters with symmetric trip-voltages and good noise margins.


Watson and Crick's postulation in 1953, exactly 50 years ago, of a double helical structure for DNA, heralded a revolution in our understanding of biology at the molecular level. The fact that it immediately suggested a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material aroused the maximum interest, but the structure itself (often referred to as the B-DNA structure, by association with the corresponding X-ray fibre pattern) has also attained an almost iconic status. It was for a long time regarded as being the only biologically relevant structure, even though Watson and Crick had themselves pointed out that the structure could readily undergo changes, depending on the environment. Subsequent studies on synthetic poly-nucleotides as well as naturally occurring DNA sequences with certain repeat patterns, have established that the DNA molecule could have intrinsic, as well as environment-induced, structural polymorphism. Some of the structures show only minor differences, from the canonical structure, while a few are completely different, even in their essential features, such as handedness, base-pairing scheme or number of strands. The various DNA structures have been characterized as A, B, C, etc. and there is a DNA structure associated with 18 other letters of the English alphabet. Only the letters F, Q, U, V and Y are left to choose from, to describe any new forms of DNA structure that may appear in future! Apart from these structures, with a one-letter 'name', there are several other generic descriptions of DNA structure and many such structures have been characterized in recent years. It is reasonable to expect that the 3 billion base pairs in the human genome (leading to a 2 m long molecule which is packaged in a microscopic size nucleus) will exhibit a variety of polymorphic forms, which could be important for the biological packaging as well as function of DNA. It is also clear that the ideal and canonical Watson–Crick DNA structure is indeed just that – an ideal and aesthetic representation of the DNA molecule, which actually possesses a chameleon like property of adapting itself to its environment and function by twisting, turning and stretching. Some of these structures are discussed here as also the lacunae in our current understanding of the dynamics of DNA structure.


Historian, novelist, and masterful teacher Richard Marius struggled with religious belief throughout his life. His very devout mother taught him to memorize the Bible from a very early age and influenced him to make a commitment to enter the ministry when he was a senior in high school. However, during his first year at the University of Tennessee, his faith was shaken by a reading assignment in freshman English-an essay in which the author argues that the universe is purposeless and meaningless. After receiving a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Marius attended graduate school at Yale University to study Renaissance and Reformation history, receiving a PhD in history with adissertation on Sir Thomas More. During his years as a student, he occasionally held the position of supply pastor, but, after graduation from Yale, he decided to enter the academic world as a history professor. And he continued to preach when the opportunity arose. Wrestling with God is a collection of twenty-three sermons or meditations, delivered in a variety of settings, and spanning Richard Marius's adult life from the late 1950s until a few months before his death. Many of them were delivered at Morning Prayers, a daily service in the Appleton Chapel of the Memorial Church at Harvard University. In these selections, he explores the questions of faith and doubt, belief and unbelief, good and evil. His explications are informed by an eclectic knowledge of the Bible, art and architecture, music, literature, history, philosophy and theology, politics and current events, travel, and languages. A skeptical humanist, Marius nevertheless was infused with his own kind of religious feeling, and his struggle to find meaning and purpose in his life will resonate with all readers who struggle with the ultimate questions of existence.


The informational aspects of optical design have attracted increasing attention in the last few years [see for example A. Blanc-Lapierre (1953), D. Gabor (1952)]. The closely related topic of the Fourier treatment of optical imaging has been discussed by P.-M. Dufflieux (1946) and by Elias, Grey, and Robinson (1952) among others. The present paper gives an account of analytical techniques which provide a basis for a discussion of the problem of maximizing the information content in images formed by high-quality optical systems, by means of aberration balancing under prescribed constraints on the design. A derivation is given of the principal results needed for this purpose.


During the last years a lot of projects and lines of research have emerged from different proposals trying to find the best way to reach data integration. Two powerful techniques have appeared separately - ontology and contextual information - in order to help solve semantic heterogeneity problems. In our proposal we combine both techniques exploiting the advantages of each of them. We propose a new approach, in which three main components work together in order to achieve a consistent integration. Each component contains some type of semantic information modeled by ontologies and contexts. Our approach helps the building of each of the components and address other types of heterogeneity such as ontological heterogeneity.


Six 30wt.%Cr-containing alloys reinforced by chromiumcarbides, two ones based on cobalt, two ones based on nickel and two other ones based on iron, were elaborated by foundry way and studied in thermal expansion between 100°C and 1200°C, for two microstructure orientations favoured by special cutting. The heating parts, isothermal parts and cooling parts were quantitatively analysed. The main global differences of thermal expansion were obtained between the alloys based on Co or Ni (high expansion) and the ferritic Fe-based alloys (low expansion). A higher amount of carbon or carbides generally led to slower dilatations and to enhance attenuation of expansion due to crystallographic changes of matrix. This also leads to a compressive deformation of matrix at the highest temperatures, due to the differential expansion between the two phases from room temperature and these high temperatures. Negative permanent deformations were thus obtained for the alloys.


Outside the Walls provides descriptions of a broad array of prisoner reentry activity across the country, as well as briefing papers that discuss what is known about reentry as it pertains to employment, health, housing, family, faith, and public safety. The Urban Institute produced this report in collaboration with Outreach Extensions as part of the National Media Outreach Campaign, a new effort to encourage discussion and decision-making about solution-based prisoner reentry programs among local community and faith-based organizations. The Urban Institute conducted a national scan of reentry programs that are addressing the needs and risks facing returning prisoners, their families, and communities. The report benefited significantly from the input of national experts who nominated programs that are implementing innovative approaches to easing the reentry process in their local communities.


CONTEXT
Roller massagers are used as a recovery and rehabilitative tool to initiate muscle relaxation and improve range of motion (ROM) and muscular performance. However, research demonstrating such effects is lacking.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the effects of applying a roller massager for 20 and 60 seconds on knee-joint ROM and dynamic muscular performance.

DESIGN
Randomized controlled clinical trial.

SETTING
University laboratory.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS
Ten recreationally active men (age = 26.6 ± 5.2 years, height = 175.3 ± 4.3 cm, mass = 84.4 ± 8.8 kg).

INTERVENTION(S)
Participants performed 3 randomized experimental conditions separated by 24 to 48 hours. In condition 1 (5 repetitions of 20 seconds) and condition 2 (5 repetitions of 60 seconds), they applied a roller massager to the quadriceps muscles. Condition 3 served as a control condition in which participants sat quietly.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)
Visual analog pain scale, electromyography (EMG) of the vastus lateralis (VL) and biceps femoris during roller massage and lunge, and knee-joint ROM.

RESULTS
We found no differences in pain between the 20-second and 60-second roller-massager conditions. During 60 seconds of roller massage, pain was 13.5% (5.7 ± 0.70) and 20.6% (6.2 ± 0.70) greater at 40 seconds and 60 seconds, respectively, than at 20 seconds (P < .05). During roller massage, VL and biceps femoris root mean square (RMS) EMG was 8% and 7%, respectively, of RMS EMG recorded during maximal voluntary isometric contraction. Knee-joint ROM was 10% and 16% greater in the 20-second and 60-second roller-massager conditions, respectively, than the control condition (P < .05). Finally, average lunge VL RMS EMG decreased as roller-massage time increased (P < .05).

CONCLUSIONS
Roller massage was painful and induced muscle activity, but it increased knee-joint ROM and neuromuscular efficiency during a lunge.


Dynamic and active pixel vision sensors (DAVISs) are a new type of sensor that combine a frame-based intensity readout with an event-based temporal contrast readout. This paper demonstrates that these sensors inherently perform high-speed, video compression in each pixel by describing the first decompression algorithm for this data. The algorithm performs an online optimization of the event decoding in real time. Example scenes were recorded by the 240×180 pixel sensor at sub-Hz frame rates and successfully decompressed yielding an equivalent frame rate of 2kHz. A quantitative analysis of the compression quality resulted in an average pixel error of 0.5DN intensity resolution for non-saturating stimuli. The system exhibits an adaptive compression ratio which depends on the activity in a scene; for stationary scenes it can go up to 1862. The low data rate and power consumption of the proposed video compression system make it suitable for distributed sensor networks.


This article situates Park Chan-wook's Oldboy (2003) in the wake of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) crisis in South Korea and argues that the film's particular emphasis on forgetting signals a turn away both from traditional, Freudian theorizations of trauma and from the deployment of these models as a primary means of conceptualizing modern Korean history. The article reads the film's protagonist, O Dae-su, as an embodiment of the anxieties and vexations of the salary men working for the chaebôls at a time of economic collapse. The salary man is a pivotal figure not only because he figures financial hardship but also, and more importantly, because he indexes a profound ideological crisis in which the sustaining fictions of the chaebôl, often referred to as "Confucian capitalism," reveal themselves as always already unraveled. Because of the nationalist orientation of South Korean corporate enterprise, this unraveling has broader consequences for the national imaginary. The article thus draws a parallel between the film's residual selves and Derridean ghosts as discussed in the Specters of Marx (1994), which are less the expressions of a repressed past returning and more the disembodied embodiments of a failed inheritance and disjointed temporality. The discontinuity between traditional past and modernized present was once obscured by the fantasy of corporate paternalism; and when this discontinuity is exposed, a disconcerting vacuum opens up, leaving the present troubling and illegible.


Cold-formed steel (CFS) combined with wood sheathing, such as oriented strand board (OSB), forms shear walls that can provide lateral resistance to seismic forces. The ability to accurately predict building deformations in damaged states under seismic excitations is a must for modern performance-based seismic design. However, few static or dynamic tests have been conducted on the non-linear behavior of CFS shear walls. Thus, the purpose of this research work is to provide and demonstrate a fastenerbased computational model of CFS wall models that incorporates essential nonlinearities that may eventually lead to improvement of the current seismic design requirements. The approach is based on the understanding that complex interaction of the fasteners with the sheathing is an important factor in the non-linear behavior of the shear wall. The computational model consists of beam-column elements for the CFS framing and a rigid diaphragm for the sheathing. The framing and sheathing are connected with nonlinear zero-length fastener elements to capture the OSB sheathing damage surrounding the fastener area. Employing computational programs such as OpenSees and MATLAB, 4 ft. x 9 ft., 8 ft. x 9 ft. and 12 ft. x 9 ft. shear wall models are created, and monotonic lateral forces are applied to the computer models. The output data are then compared and analyzed with the available results of physical testing. The results indicate that the OpenSees model can accurately capture the initial stiffness, strength and non-linear behavior of the shear walls.


Alfante, N. P. and T. A. Patindol. 2005.Physical and chemical characteristics of two wetlands in Lake Danao Natural Park, Ormoc City. Ann. Trop. Res. 27 (2):53-68 The study was conducted to characterize the wetlands located at Sitio Quinto Limbo and Tasakan in Lake Danao Natural Park, Ormoc City based on some physicochemical parameters. The two wetlands are generally shallow. Salinity ranged from 0.3 to 0.5 ppt which is characteristic of an oligohaline wetland. Sediment and water were slightly acidic. Concentrations of ammonium ions were lower than the normal value. Levels of nitrate and phosphate ions exceeded the normal value of 1mg/L and 0.025 mg/L, respectively. Lead ion concentrations were generally within the normal range (10-100 mg/kg). Mean cadmium ion concentration was normal (0.01-1.0 mg/kg) although in some sites concentrations beyond the normal range were observed. Based on the findings, it is recommended that conservation program be urgently implemented in the study area to ensure the conservation of the wetlands and their resources.


Insulin resistance is characterised by an impaired ability of insulin to stimulate glucose
uptake, especially into skeletal muscle. Insulin has hemodynamic actions, stimulating total
blood flow as well as increasing microvascular perfusion. This stimulation of microvascular
perfusion may account for up to half of insulin-mediated skeletal muscle glucose uptake and
is impaired in insulin resistant states. Adiponectin exhibits a number of actions similar to
insulin, including stimulation of glucose uptake in incubated muscle, and reduction of
glucose release from hepatocytes. Recent studies have shown that adiponectin is also able to
increase nitric oxide (NO) production by the endothelium and relax pre-constricted isolated
aortic rings, suggesting that adiponectin may act as a vasodilator. It was hypothesised that
adiponectin may have hemodynamic effects similar to insulin, which may be an important
aspect of its insulin-sensitising ability by regulating access of insulin and glucose to
myocytes. Therefore, there were three major aims of this thesis: i) to examine the acute
vascular actions of adiponectin in a simplified but intact vascular system, the pump-perfused
rat hindlimb; ii) to investigate whether acute adiponectin infusion alters hemodynamics or
glucose homeostasis in the presence and absence of insulin in anaesthetised rats; and iii) to
determine whether the vascular actions of adiponectin are altered in insulin resistance.
The initial aim of the present study was to produce high purity, physiologically active
recombinant adiponectin in sufficient quantity for use in perfused hindlimb and in vivo
experiments. Full-length murine adiponectin was expressed in E. coli and purified by affinity
chromatography. The adiponectin product was found to be present primarily as a trimer,
similar to that reported in previous studies.
The constant-flow pump-perfused rat hindlimb was used to evaluate the direct effects of
adiponectin on the skeletal muscle vasculature. A physiological concentration of adiponectin
(6.5μg.mL-1) alone had no observable vascular activity in this largely dilated system.
Adiponectin pre-treatment and co-infusion inhibited the increase in perfusion pressure and
associated metabolic stimulation caused by low-dose (1nM) endothelin-1 (ET-1), but not
vasoconstriction caused by either high-dose (20nM) ET-1 or 50nM norepinephrine. This
action of adiponectin was apparently independent of NO, suggesting a potential novel
mechanism of adiponectin action.
A high-fat fed rat model was used to determine whether the vascular actions of adiponectin
are retained in insulin resistance. The ability of adiponectin to inhibit ET-1-mediated
vasoconstriction was not apparent in animals fed a high-fat diet. However, the
vasoconstrictor response to ET-1 (1 or 3nM) itself was found to be reduced following highfat
feeding. The vasoconstrictor response was restored in the presence of the NO synthase
(NOS) inhibitor NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester, indicating increased NO bioavailability
during hindlimb perfusion in the insulin resistant rats. Use of a specific inhibitor of the
inducible NOS (iNOS) isoform demonstrated that this increased NO was derived from
induction of iNOS.
Systemic vascular and metabolic actions of adiponectin were then examined in anaesthetised
rats, alone and during a hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp. No differences were observed
between vehicle and adiponectin (24 or 96μg.min-1.kg-1) treated rats in macrovascular
parameters, microvascular perfusion or glucose metabolism. This finding was consistent
whether the rats were fed normal chow or a high-fat diet to induce insulin resistance.
This study has identified a novel vascular action of adiponectin to specifically oppose ET-1-
mediated vasoconstriction. This effect was not apparent in insulin resistance, possibly implicating loss of adiponectin activity in disease development. Additionally, the response to
exogenous ET-1 was reduced in high-fat fed rats, due to upregulation of iNOS. The altered
state of balance between ET-1 and NO in insulin resistance may have important implications
for endothelial dysfunction. Meanwhile, no effect of acute adiponectin infusion, either
hemodynamic or metabolic, was apparent in vivo. Whilst chronic hemodynamic actions of
adiponectin may play a role in insulin sensitivity, they do not appear to be a major aspect of
acute adiponectin action in vivo.


We conducted a randomized controlled trial among African-American patients attending a primary-care provider visit to compare efficacy of a computer-delivered tailored intervention to increase colorectal cancer (CRC) screening (n = 273) with non-tailored print material-an American Cancer Society brochure on CRC screening (n = 283). Health Belief Model constructs were used to develop tailored messages and examined as outcomes. Analysis of covariance models were used to compare changes between CRC knowledge and health belief scores at baseline and 1 week post-intervention. At 1 week, patients who received the computer-delivered tailored intervention had greater changes in CRC knowledge scores (P < 0.001), perceived CRC risk scores (P = 0.005), FOBT barriers scores (P = 0.034) and colonoscopy benefit scores (P < 0.001). Findings show that computer-delivered tailored interventions are an effective adjunct to the clinical encounter that can improve knowledge and health beliefs about CRC screening, necessary precursors to behavior change.


We report results of the CASE 2022 Shared Task 1 on Multilingual Protest Event Detection. This task is a continuation of CASE 2021 that consists of four subtasks that are i) document classification, ii) sentence classification, iii) event sentence coreference identification, and iv) event extraction. The CASE 2022 extension consists of expanding the test data with more data in previously available languages, namely, English, Hindi, Portuguese, and Spanish, and adding new test data in Mandarin, Turkish, and Urdu for Sub-task 1, document classification. The training data from CASE 2021 in English, Portuguese and Spanish were utilized. Therefore, predicting document labels in Hindi, Mandarin, Turkish, and Urdu occurs in a zero-shot setting. The CASE 2022 workshop accepts reports on systems developed for predicting test data of CASE 2021 as well. We observe that the best systems submitted by CASE 2022 participants achieve between 79.71 and 84.06 F1-macro for new languages in a zero-shot setting. The winning approaches are mainly ensembling models and merging data in multiple languages. The best two submissions on CASE 2021 data outperform submissions from last year for Subtask 1 and Subtask 2 in all languages. Only the following scenarios were not outperformed by new submissions on CASE 2021: Subtask 3 Portuguese {& Subtask 4 English.


Sinatra! The Song Is You is the first full-length work to document the musical life of Frank Sinatra. Drawing upon recent interviews with Sinatra collaborators, arrangers, and musicians - as well as previously unpublished conversations with "The Voice" himself - author Will Friedwald chronicles this five-decade career, tracing the evolution of his vocal style from such early influences as Harry James (the bandleader who in the late thirties "discovered" Sinatra in New Jersey's Rustic Cabin), Tommy Dorsey, and Axel Stordahl, with whom Sinatra recorded his first string of solo hits. With the orchestrations of Nelson Riddle in the fifties came a more hard-swinging, uptempo Sinatra; the creation of his own label, Reprise Records, in the sixties gave him the venue to experiment with such unexpected forms as soft rock and psychedelia. Friedwald argues that Sinatra's recordings in the two decades following his 1971 to 1973 retirement weren't as prolific or as consistent as his earlier work, despite a startling comeback that culminated in the 1990s with the platinum-selling Duets discs.


The artificial floating island (AFI) is an artificial wetland located on the surface of water, and nowadays applied to various water environments. In this study, we newly developed AFI combining micro-bubble and photocatalytic technologies applied to contaminated stagnant water. In this study site, Hanryucheon, is a small urban stream used for drainage of rainwater in Ilsan newcity in Republic of Korea. We respectively monitored three points (inside of AFI, outside of AFI, no AFI) for water quality and biological parameters (i.e. phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthic invertebrate, fish, and terrestrial insect) of Hanryucheon. According to this results, biological parameters showed significant different depend on existence of AFI or not. Especially, we found that AFI highly contributes to the habitat for small and juvenile fish. But, water quality improvement effect was not clear because installed AFI was only pilot test size. Nevertheless, positive biological effect of AFI was a meaningful result in that addition of meiofauna habitat around of AFI. For future studies, change of biological parameters should monitor for long-term period, and more AFI installation will need to be carefully reviewed.


U.S. allies that are fighting al-Qaida-linked insurgencies often suffer illegitimate regimes, civil-military tension manifested by fears of a coup, economic backwardness, and discriminatory societies. These problems, coupled with allies' divergent interests, serve to weaken allied military and security forces tactically, operationally, and strategically. The ability of the United States to change its allies' behavior is limited, despite the tremendous difficulties these problems create, because relying on allied forces is a key component of U.S. strategy in the war on terrorism and the U.S. goal of handing off security to Iraqi military forces. To reduce the effects of allies' weaknesses, the United States should try to increase its intelligence on allied security forces and at times act more like a third party to a conflict. In addition, Washington must have realistic expectations of what training and other efforts can accomplish.


The widespread use of smartphones today, and the hardware available in these smartphones should make it possible to use these devices as a foundation for digital guides at, for example, tourist attractions with a historical connection. This report examines whether it is possible to create an Android application for smartphones that functions as a digital guide. Furthermore an attempt to delete sensitive data, in this case location data from the volatile memory on a smartphone running Android, is done. It turns out that a smartphone can be used as a foundation for a digital guide as long as the area that is to be covered by the guide is located in an area that is covered by the mobile networks and that it is possible to communicate with the GPS system. Deleting all the sensitive data from the volatile memory however, is more or less impossible.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To test a model of family caregiving derived from the interactionist approach to role theory that hypothesized that three caregiving role implementation variables (caregiving demand, mutuality between caregivers and patients, and preparedness for caregiving) would predict multiple caregiving-specific and generic outcomes with different patterns of association across outcomes.

DESIGN
Descriptive, correlational.

SETTING
Surgical, radiation, and medical oncology settings.

SAMPLE
87 family caregivers of adults receiving treatment for solid tumors or lymphoma.

METHODS
Caregivers completed the Demand and Difficulty subscales of the Caregiving Burden Scale; the Mutuality, Preparedness, and Global Strain scales of the Family Care Inventory; and the 30-item short form of the Profile of Mood States. Data were analyzed with simultaneous multiple regression.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Caregiving demand, mutuality, preparedness, caregiving difficulty, global caregiver strain, tension, depression, anger, fatigue, vigor, confusion, and total mood disturbance.

FINDINGS
The model explained statistically significant proportions of variance in each outcome, with different patterns of association across outcomes. Demand was associated most strongly with caregiving difficulty and global strain. Mutuality was associated most strongly with caregiver anger. Unexpectedly, preparedness was associated more strongly with mood disturbance outcomes than with the caregiving-specific variables of difficulty and strain.

CONCLUSIONS
Further research should explore models that address implementation of the caregiving role to better elucidate how family caregivers learn and carry out the important role.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Clinical assessment should include caregiving demand, the quality of the relationship between caregiver and patient, and preparedness for caregiving. Interventions could be tailored to meet caregiver needs in each area.


Background Critical care patients with delirium are at an increased risk of functional decline and mortality long term. Objective To determine the relationship between delirium severity in the intensive care unit and mortality and acute health care utilization within 2 years after hospital discharge. Methods A secondary data analysis of the Pharmacological Management of Delirium and Deprescribe randomized controlled trials. Patients were assessed twice daily for delirium or coma using the Richmond AgitationSedation Scale and the Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU). Delirium severity was measured using the CAM-ICU-7. Mean delirium severity (from time of randomization to discharge) was categorized as rapidly resolving, mild to moderate, or severe. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to model time to death, first emergency department visit, and rehospitalization. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, race, Charlson Comorbidity Index, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score, discharge location, diagnosis, and intensive care unit type. Results Of 434 patients, those with severe delirium had higher mortality risk than those with rapidly resolving delirium (hazard ratio 2.21; 95% CI, 1.35-3.61). Those with 5 or more days of delirium or coma had higher mortality risk than those with less than 5 days (hazard ratio 1.52; 95% CI, 1.07-2.17). Delirium severity and number of days of delirium or coma were not associated with time to emergency department visits and rehospitalizations. Conclusion Increased delirium severity and days of delirium or coma are associated with higher mortality risk 2 years after discharge. (American Journal of Critical Care. 2020;29:311-317) 1.0 Hour C E


The simultaneous availability of experimental and observational data to estimate a treatment effect is both an opportunity and a statistical challenge: Combining the information gathered from both data is a promising avenue to build upon the internal validity of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and a greater external validity of observational data, but it raises methodological issues, especially due to different sampling designs inducing distributional shifts. We focus on the aim of transporting a causal effect estimated on an RCT onto a target population described by a set of covariates. Available methods such as inverse propensity weighting are not designed to handle missing values, which are however common in both data. In addition to coupling the assumptions for causal identifiability and for the missing values mechanism and to defining appropriate strategies, one has to consider the specific structure of the data with two sources and treatment and outcome only available in the RCT. We study different approaches and their underlying assumptions on the data generating processes and distribution of missing values and suggest several adapted methods, in particular multiple imputation strategies. These methods are assessed in an extensive simulation study and practical guidelines are provided for different scenarios. This work is motivated by the analysis of a large registry of over 20,000 major trauma patients and a multi-centered RCT studying the effect of tranexamic acid administration on mortality. The analysis illustrates how the missing values handling can impact the conclusion about the effect transported from the RCT to the target population.