We investigate electromagnetic scattering of normally irradiated gyrotropic, magneto-optical core-shell cylinders using Lorenz-Mie theory. A general expression for time-averaged electromagnetic energy inside a coated gyroelectric and gyromagnetic scatterer is derived. Using realistic material parameters for a silica core and InSb shell, we calculate the stored electromagnetic energy and the scattering anisotropy. We show that the application of an external magnetic field along the cylinder axis induces a drastic decrease in electromagnetic absorption in a frequency range in the terahertz, where absorption is maximal in the absence of the magnetic field. We demonstrate not only that the scattering anisotropy can be externally tuned by applying a magnetic field, but also that it reaches negative values in the terahertz range even in the dipolar regime. We also show that this preferential backscattering response results in an anomalous regime of multiple light scattering from a collection of magneto-optical core-shell cylinders, in which the extinction mean free path is longer than the transport mean free path. By additionally calculating the energy-transport velocity and diffusion coefficient, we demonstrate an unprecedented degree of external control of multiple light scattering, which can be achieved by either applying an external magnetic field or varying the temperature.


Human Enhancement Technology ranges from the commonplace, such as education, to the futuristic, with possible future developments including genetic modification or direct computer-brain interfaces. Public policies governing the supply of these technologies have the potential to greatly increase or mitigate economic inequality. Due to this potential harm, many have suggested prohibition of further developments of enhancement technologies. However, prohibition would in ineffective at preventing this harm and also would also prevent many positive aspects of enhancement technologies. On the other hand, due to the expected benefits, many have suggested allowing access and development within a free-market system. However, this has the potential to increase inequality beyond acceptable levels. Consequently, Government policies must provide appropriate funding and regulation in order for these technologies to be distributed fairly to provide the most benefits and prevent the worst outcomes.


Abstract Two crystals of Mg, Al-disordered quintinite-2H (Q1 and Q2), [Mg4Al2(OH)12](CO3)(H2O)3, from the Kovdor alkaline massif, Kola peninsula, Russia, have been characterized chemically and structurally. Both crystals have hexagonal symmetry, P63/mcm, a = 3.0455(10)/3.0446(9), c = 15.125(7)/15.178(5) Å, V = 121.49(8)/121.84(6) Å3. The structures of the two crystals have been solved by direct methods and refined to R1 = 0.046 and 0.035 on the basis of 76 and 82 unique observed reflections for Q1 and Q2, respectively. Diffraction patterns obtained using an image-plate area detector showed the almost complete absence of superstructure reflections which would be indicative of the Mg-Al ordering in metal hydroxide layers, as has been observed recently for other quintinite polytypes. The crystal structures are based on double hydroxide layers [M(OH)2] with an average disordered distribution of Mg2+ and Al3+ cations. Average  bond lengths for the metal site are 2.017 and 2.020 Å for Q1 and Q2, respectively, and are consistent with a highly Mg-Al disordered, average occupancy. The layer stacking sequence can be expressed as ...=AC=CA=..., corresponding to a Mg-Al-disordered 2H polytype of quintinite. The observed disorder is probably the result of a relatively high temperature of formation for the Q1 and Q2 crystals compared to ordered polytypes. This suggestion is in general agreement with the previous observations which demonstrated, for the Mg-Al system, a higher-temperature regime of formation of the hexagonal (or pseudo-hexagonal in the case of quintinite-2H-3c) 2H polytype in comparison to the rhombohedral (or pseudo-rhombohedral in the case of quintinite-1M) 3R polytype.


This thesis examines the relationships between mothers and daughters against the background of education in early nineteenth-century France. This era was the first time that a large population of French girls was separated from their mothers. Because of their attendance at school, girls created an identity separate from that of the one that their mothers had helped them to create. By using George Sand's autobiography Histoire de ma vie and Marceline Desbordes-Valmore's poem "Ondine a l'ecole," the process of distinguishing the daughter from the mother has been analyzed from both the mother's perspective and the daughter's perspective. For Sand, who writes from the daughter's perspective, her maternal figures (mother and grandmother) push her away from them so that she could get an education. As a result of being pushed away, she is 'forced' to create her own identity. For Marceline DesbordesValmore, the opposite occurs. Writing from the mother's perspective, she becomes very protective of her daughter and seems threatened by Ondine's success at school through which she creates a distinct identity away from Desbordes-Valmore. By studying these two works together, one can learn about the mother-daughter dynamics at work and the emotional hardships suffered by both mothers and daughters, as girls began school during this era. Both mother and daughter experienced a feeling of loss, and relationships were permanently changed as daughters created unique identities for themselves.


This article aims to reconstruct agrarian land use for a rural community in the Roman frontier zone in the Netherlands. The Dutch River Area was characterised by a dynamic landscape. Rivers regularly flooded the surrounding low-lying land. Only the higher streamridges provided suitable places for habitation and arable agriculture. The limitations of the landscape dictated to a large extent both the types and quantities of crops and animals that could be produced. An interactive map of the micro-region of Tiel-Passewaaij shows how the land was used for agrarian production and sourced for other products. These symbols link to short texts that discuss the archaeological evidence for aspects such as growing cereals, raising livestock and the exploitation of wood and wild animals. The complex and dynamic geological situation of the Dutch River Area is also explained, and the consequences for agriculture discussed. We address three main research questions. How were the different elements of the riverine landscape used by rural inhabitants? How were arable agriculture and animal husbandry organised spatially, both within the settlement and in its immediate surroundings? Which natural resources were used and managed? Our research is mainly based on one large and well-excavated settlement complex (Tiel-Passewaaij), but we will use complementary data from several other settlements in the region. Our results show that the river landscape offered plenty of opportunities for agriculture. The interaction between arable and pastoral farming was essential, with livestock providing manure and agricultural labour, and the fields offering fodder and additional grazing (after harvest or during fallow years). The location of large enclosure ditches suggest that even minor differences in height, caused by older streamridges, may have made arable farming possible in the flood basin.


Three new species of Eburiini are described: Beraba hovorei sp. nov. from Ecuador, Eburella migueli sp. nov from Colombia and Susuacanga marcelae sp. nov. from Mexico. A new combination, Quiacaua vespertina (Monne & Martins, 1973) comb. nov., and the transfer of Eburia (Eburia) stroheckeri Knull, 1949 to Eburia (Eleutho) Thomson, 1864 are proposed. A key to species of Beraba Martins, 1997, Eburella Monne & Martins, 1973 and Quiacaua Martins, 1997 is provided. Moreover, the geographical distribution for 15 species of Eburiini is expanded. A lectotype and a paralectotype for Volxemia dianella Lameere, 1884 are designated.


OBJECTIVES
We evaluated the association of household-level stressors with depressive symptoms among low-wage nursing home employees.

METHODS
Data were collected in 2006 and 2007 from 452 multiethnic primary and nonprimary wage earners in 4 facilities in Massachusetts. We used logistic regression to estimate the association of depressive symptoms with household financial strain, food insufficiency, and work-family spillover (preoccupation with work-related concerns while at home and vice versa).

RESULTS
Depressive symptoms were significantly associated with household financial strain (odds ratio [OR] = 1.82; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.03, 3.21) and food insufficiency (OR = 2.10; 95% CI = 1.10, 4.18). Among primary earners, stratified analyses showed that food insufficiency was associated with depressive symptoms (OR = 3.60; 95% CI = 1.42, 9.11) but financial strain was not. Among nonprimary wage earners, depressive symptoms correlated with financial strain (OR = 3.65; 95% CI = 1.48, 9.01) and work-family spillover (OR = 3.22; 95% CI = 1.11, 9.35).

CONCLUSIONS
Household financial strain, food insufficiency, and work-family spillover are pervasive problems for working populations, but associations vary by primary wage earner status. The prevalence of food insufficiency among full-time employees was striking and might have a detrimental influence on depressive symptoms and the health of working-class families.


Aim/Purpose The present work focuses on French PhD students' well-being: an understudied working population thus far, which impedes the development of evidence-based policies on this issue in France. Background Research studies from several countries have shown that carrying out a PhD can be a difficult experience resulting in high attrition rates with significant financial and human costs. Methodology The two studies presented in this article focus on biology PhD students from University Lyon 1, a very large French university (~40,000 students). A first study aimed at measuring the mental health and well-being of PhD students using generalist and PhD-specific tools. In a second study, we carried out and assessed a positive psychology intervention (PPI) aimed at improving PhD students' wellbeing. French PhD Student Well-being 110 Contribution Our work is one of the first characterizations of French PhD students' mental health and well-being. As with other recent studies conducted in Western countries, we found a high level of mental distress among PhD students. Our work also underlines the importance of taking many dimensions of the PhD (not only supervisor behaviour) in order to understand PhD student well-being. Cultural specificities are highlighted and can help inform the design of interventions adapted to each situation. The PPI showed pre-to-post positive changes on PhD students' well-being. Further research is needed on a larger sample size in order to detect more subtle effects. However, these results are promising in terms of interventions that help reduce PhD student distress. Findings Study 1 involved 136 participants and showed that a large fraction of the PhD students experiences abnormal levels of stress, depression, and anxiety. We found that career training and prospects, research experience, and the impact of carrying out a thesis on health and private life have more impact on PhD students' mental health than the supervisors' behaviour. French PhD students' well-being is specifically affected by career uncertainty, perceived lack of progress in the PhD, and perceived lack of competence compared to UK PhD students well-being, which suggests cultural differences about the PhD experience in France compared to other countries. In study 2, the scores of the test and control groups (N = 10 and N = 13, respectively) showed a clear effect of the intervention on reducing anxiety. Impact on Society The high levels of mental health issues and reduced well-being in French PhD students reported in this study underline the importance of developing interventions in this field. Improving the supervisor-student relationship is one possibility but is not the only one. Interventions aimed at learning how to cope with the research experience and with the uncertainty with career pathways, and a good balance between PhD work and personal life present other promising possibilities.


Magnetic nanoparticles are of considerable interest owing to their potential applications in biotechnology and the magnetic recording industry. Iron oxides have received much attention owing to their oxidative stability and biocompatibility; however, other transition metals and their alloys are also under investigation. Cobalt has one of the largest magnetic susceptibilities of these materials, but it readily oxidizes upon exposure to air resulting in antiferromagnetic oxide. Hence, coating cobalt nanoparticles with an oxygen-impermeable sheath would confer numerous benefits. Cobalt nanoparticles were prepared by the thermolysis of dicobalt octacarbonyl in two block copolymer micellar systems, wherein the copolymers were precursors to graphite or silica. Subsequent heat treatment of the samples at 600-700C was conducted to condense the polymer coating around the cobalt nanoparticles and form oxygen impervious graphite or silica sheaths. Magnetic and structural characterization of these novel materials afforded pertinent information about their physical properties. Magnetic susceptometry indicated that the graphite coated cobalt nanoparticles resisted oxidation for over one year. The silica coated cobalt nanoparticles had high saturated specific magnetic moments, but the coatings were brittle and grinding the particles resulted in oxidation over time. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) and energy-filtered TEM (EFTEM) were employed to study particle size and structural differences of the cobalt nanoparticles before and after heat treatment. The mean particle size and size distribution increased for the graphite coated cobalt particles, due to particle sintering at 700C. In the silica coated cobalt nanoparticle system, the mean particle size increased when the sample was heat-treated at 600C leading to a bimodal distribution. This bimodal distribution was explained by a fraction of the particles sintering, while others remained discrete. When the silica system was heat treated at 700C, the particle size and size distribution remained similar to those of the pre-heat-treated sample, indicating that no sintering had taken place. The rapid pyrolysis of the polymer at 700C may serve to lock the cobalt nanoparticles into a silica matrix, thus preventing them from coming into contact with one another and sintering. Several diffraction techniques (selected area electron diffraction (SAD), nano-beam electron diffraction (NBD) and x-ray diffraction (XRD)) were used to probe the crystal structure of graphite and silica coated cobalt nanoparticles, which was determined to be predominantly face-centered cubic. Anisotropic magnetic nanoparticles (nanorods) have an increased magnetophoretic mobility over spherical magnetic nanoparticles with the same equatorial radius. This property makes them attractive candidates for in vivo biological applications. Anisotropic mixed ferrite nanoparticles were coated with a biocompatible hydrophilic block copolymer to render them dispersible in aqueous media. Polymer coated mixed ferrite particles exhibited magnetic properties similar to that of pure magnetite, as the total level of other transition metals in the nanoparticulate system was less than 5%. Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and (EFTEM) confirmed that the dominant elements in the mixed ferrite nanoparticles were iron and oxygen. Furthermore, HRTEM, SAD and XRD analyses indicated that the crystal structure for the mixed ferrite nanoparticles was inverse spinel. X-ray diffraction peaks at low angles for the coated mixed ferrite rods corresponded to poly(ethylene oxide) peaks, suggesting that the block copolymer employed as a dispersant was associated with the particles.


Sexual health is a major health need and concern for patients recovering from major diseases and disorders. Adequate understanding of patient's sexuality can contribute to the period of time a patient spends on admission. Therefore, it is very important that health professionals especially nurses understands individual patient's needs of sexuality to be able to give holistic care. Sexuality is therefore, a central component of all human functions that need to be fulfilled. The World Health Organization defined sexual health as "a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being in relation to sexuality; it is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity" (WHO, 2012). In order words, sexuality is a part of who you are as a person. It is how you feel about your body, whether you feel masculine or feminine or somewhere in between, the way you dress, how you move, how you speak, the way you act and feel about other people, who you are attracted to and fall in love with, and so much more. According to WHO, 2012, the way people experience and express sexuality is different for each individual and can be influenced by biologic, psychological, social, cultural, and religious factors. When a patient is ill and on admission, the sexuality of the patient is altered especially, with patients that the illness affects their reproductive organs and damage or removal of a part of their body. However, nurses who are part of the health team and relate with patients more on the ward must be well knowledgeable and sensitive to determining the level of alteration in sexuality of the patient or clients they are treating. However, not all the nurses have adequate knowledge of sexuality and the nurses that have the understanding of sexuality do not put it to practice due to one reason or the other. The word sexuality have therefore been reviewed in order to broaden the knowledge of nurses on sexuality, assessment of sexuality, importance of assessing, challenges of assessment of sexuality and way forward in nursing profession.


From a Relational-Historical theoretical framework applied to clinical psychological practice, this study examines the data set underlying the personality attributes of different groups of children with behavior problems as demonstrated on the Rorschach Inkblot Test. To define the groups, categories were established from parents' descriptions of their own children. This procedure allowed for the formation of three major psychological profiles: hyperkinetic, oppositional defiant, and antisocial (Saraiva & Ferreira, 2016). The major goal of this study is data exploration in a clinical setting, in order to investigate whether and in what ways groups of hyperkinetic, oppositional defiant, and antisocial children differ. These profile characteristics are important issues embraced by both psychodiagnosis and psychotherapy. The participants for this study were 39 Portuguese children, who were private clinic clients; there were 24 boys and 15 girls between the ages of 6 and 14. Their personality attributes were measured using the Rorschach Inkblot Test (Rorschach, 1994), and the Comprehensive System developed by Exner (1991, 1993, 2000) was applied, with the support of the clinical interpretation provided by Quintino-Aires (1999; 2009; 2012; 2014). Comparison of the three profiles showed four common aspects of personality structure: a deficit in cognitive perceptual skills, lack of self-control, limited relational skills, and low self-esteem. Differences in the three profiles revealed factors related to the functional characteristics of specific behavior patterns. Children with the hyperkinetic psychological profile show factors of difficulty in controlling their activity, impulsivity, and overlapping emotions about conscious action. Those with the oppositional defiant profile revealed factors of low self-confidence, low trust in others, high pessimism, loneliness, and structural stress. Finally, those with the antisocial profile had factors of a deficit in coping skills, lack of verbalization of affects and emotions, and egotism.


In this research, we address the query clustering problem which involves determining globally optimal execution strategies for a set of queries. The need to process a set of queries together often arises in deductive database systems, scientific database systems, large bibliographic retrieval systems and several other database applications. We address the optimization problem from the perspective of overlaps in data requirements, and model the batched operations using a set-partitioning approach. In this model, we first consider the case of m queries each involving a two-way join operation. We develop a recursive methodology to determine all the processing strategies in this case. Next, we establish certain dominance properties among the strategies, and develop exact as well as heuristic algorithms for selecting an appropriate strategy. We extend this analysis to a clustering approach, and outline a framework for optimizing multiway joins. The results show that the proposed approach is viable and efficient, and can easily be incorporated into the query processing component of most database systems.


This article brings attention to the political geography of settler colonialism and the ways in which the Palestinian built environment materializes in space, consolidating uneven and racialized landscapes. It argues that settler-colonial space is intimately related to the building of infrastructures structured by development and humanitarian practices. More specifically, the discussion explores how roadscapes are materially and symbolically constructed; it also examines the ways in which development, rather than constituting a tool of empowerment, becomes a mechanism to manage the short-term "humanitarian" needs of Palestinians that arise from the imperatives of settler colonialism. Problematizing road infrastructure allows us to explore the relationship between Palestinian and donor agendas, and concomitant discourses on economic development and state building; in other words, how settler infrastructures are normalized through their association with tropes of modernity, progress, humanitarianism, and development.


"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics." (1) Just as Benjamin Disraeli noted, statistics yield results that one can skew in a variety of ways. If Disraeli was around to observe American society in the second half of the twentieth century, he might have included another category in his list of lies: advertising. Advertising, like statistics, is recognized commonly as a medium where facts can be interpreted, twisted, and emphasized according to the advertiser's needs. When business judgment and professional ethics fail to enforce reasonable standards, the courts may have to decide if advertisers have twisted the facts too far. This Note examines how courts determine what constitutes misleading advertising and applauds the shift toward a more consistent judicial doctrine signaled by the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Mead Johnson & Co. v. Abbott Laboratories. (2) Advertising plays a significant role in today's economy and its presence in both print and electronic formats is likely to continue. (3) Buoyed by a strong market in 1999, advertisers increased their media expenditures by 10.3 percent over 1998 spending levels up to $87.5 billion from $79.3 billion. (4) With that kind of money in question, advertisers understandably want to get the highest possible return from their investment. Advertisers want to make their products look as good as possible to as many consumers as possible. In today's market, they frequently attempt the task not just by saying "our product is good," but by saying "our product is better than the other guys'"--which is the basic concept behind comparative advertising. (5) The effectiveness of comparative advertising is shown not only by consumer studies, but by its continuing use by advertisers. Approximately one-third of all advertising in the United States is comparative. (6) A 1994 study of 5000 commercials by Research Systems Corporation (RSC) found that twenty-one percent of comparative ads had "superior" persuasion scores whereas only eighteen percent of the commercials that did not compare the competition received superior scores. (7) Comparative advertisements also lead to greater consumer attention and message recall than noncomparative advertisements. (8) American consumers typically can recognize when advertisers make thinly veiled attempts to create an artificial advantage. (9) In these instances, exaggerated advertising or boasting upon which no reasonable consumer would rely is not grounds for legal action. (10) The term for this type of representation and manipulation of advertising statistics is "puffing." (11) The advertiser's object in puffing is simple: given a choice of data, pick those that make you look best; if there is no good choice, change the criteria to make the data support your product. (12) One of the more intriguing examples of puffing occurred in the computer industry's market-share calculations. The research firm PC Data tallied each color of Apple's popular iMac computer as a different model, thus ensuring that only the competing Windows/Intel models attained best-seller status. (13) The effectiveness of an advertisement claiming that a given product is better than its competitors increases when the ad cites a scientific study or test to "establish" the claim. (14) The modern consumer often grants a position of "mystic infallibility" to information labeled as "scientifically proven." (15) Given the effectiveness of claims with scientific support, advertisers will, perhaps understandably, tout the smallest nuances of established superiority to gain a perceived competitive advantage. When advertisers' claims cross the line from puffing to actual falsity, enforcement of the laws of unfair competition is available to injured parties. (16) There are a variety of legal options, (17) but the predominant legislation for addressing charges of false advertising --and the legal focus of this Note--is Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act. …


Written by 40 of the most notable Jungian psychoanalysts -- spanning 11 countries, and boasting decades of study and expertise -- Jungian Psychoanalysis represents the pinnacle of Jungian thought. This handbook brings up to date the perspectives in the field of clinically applied analytical psychology, centering on five areas of interest: the fundamental goals of Jungian psychoanalysis, the methods of treatment used in pursuit of these goals, reflections on the analytic process, the training of future analysts, and special issues, such as working with trauma victims, handicapped patients, or children and adolescents, and emergent religious and spiritual issues. Discussing not only the history of Jungian analysis but its present and future applications, this book marks a major contribution to the worldwide study of psychoanalysis.


Caribou are the most abundant large terrestrial mammals in Arctic Alaska, providing important cultural and subsistence resource values for local communities. As oil and gas development expands across the Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska, understanding the potential impacts on caribou and improving associated mitigation measures are a crucial focus of applied research. One consistently observed impact in northern Alaska is displacement of maternal caribou within 2 – 5 km of active oilfield roads and gravel pads for a period of 2 – 3 weeks during and immediately after calving. A potential mitigation measure to address calving displacement is convoying of traffic to reduce traffic frequency and vehicle-related disturbance on roads in calving areas. We conducted frequent road and aerial surveys of caribou near two oilfield roads, one with convoying and one without, over a 3-year period during the precalving, calving, and postcalving periods to evaluate the effectiveness of traffic convoying. Road surveys indicated that caribou closer to the roads and groups with calves exhibited more frequent and stronger behavioural reactions in response to traffic, and that moderate or strong reactions to traffic, such as standing up and walking or running away, were more frequent near the road with convoying than near the road with unlimited traffic. Aerial survey results indicated some avoidance of areas up to at least 2 km from the road with convoying and 4 km from the road without convoying by caribou groups with calves. This relationship was present even after adjusting for other factors affecting distribution. This avoidance of roads by maternal caribou was limited to the calving period and was not evident during the precalving or postcalving periods. In addition, an inactive elevated terrestrial drilling platform was present on the calving grounds during one year, but we found no evidence of caribou avoidance of that structure during calving at our scale of analysis.


Transformation (i.e., DNase-sensitive genetic transfer) of strains of Streptococcus mutans representing serotypes c and e was accomplished by using chromosomal DNA from a Rifr Strr Spcr isolate of strain GS5 (UAB525) and a chimeric plasmid, pYA629. Shuttle plasmid pYA629 comprises the S. mutans plasmid pVA318, an inducible erythromycin resistance determinant originally isolated from a group A streptococcal strain, the tetracycline resistance gene and replication region of the Escherichia coli plasmid pBR322, and the promoter region of the S. mutans gene for aspartate beta-semialdehyde dehydrogenase. The strains examined for recipient ability included those known to lack a cryptic plasmid (GS5, UA130, UA159, and MT8148) and those known to contain a widely disseminated 5.8-kilobase cryptic plasmid (LM7, V318, UA101, UA174, and 3098791). The transformation frequencies in GS5 for GS5 chromosomal antibiotic resistance markers were comparable to those reported by others, but UA101, UA130, UA159 and UA174 were transformed with both chromosomal and plasmid markers at much higher efficiencies. In a larger strain survey, strains containing the 5.8-kilobase cryptic plasmid were more frequently transformable with both chromosomal and pYA629 DNAs than were strains lacking this cryptic plasmid. All plasmid-containing strains except LM7 lost their resident cryptic plasmids when transformed with pYA629. LM7 transformed with pYA629 retained pLM7. There are therefore at least two incompatibility groups among S. mutans cryptic plasmids. yPA629 DNA isolated from either E. coli or S. mutans transformed S. mutans with equal efficiency. pYA629 DNA isolated from S. mutans transformed both restriction-deficient and restriction-proficient E. coli recipients. Therefore, the strains of S. mutans used lack a restriction-modification system for pYA629 DNA sequences. S. mutans strains that are readily transformable, display maximal cariogenicity in gnotobiotic rats, and give high scores for in vitro measures of important virulence attributes have been identified to facilitate studies on the genetic basis and control of virulence.


RATIONALE
Intensive care unit (ICU) treatment costs pose special challenges in developing countries.

OBJECTIVES
To determine the prognostic value of the "utility" score and evaluate the relationship of willingness to pay assessment to utility score during ICU admission.

METHODS
We performed a prospective study spanning 12 months in a 24-bed medical ICU in India. Treatment cost was estimated by direct measurement. Global utility score was assessed daily by healthcare providers on a Likert scale (0-1 in increments of 0.1, with 0 indicating death/severe disability and 1 indicating cure/perfect health). The sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios of utility in predicting ICU mortality was calculated. Receiver operating characteristic curves were generated to compare Day 2 utility with APACHE II. The caregiver's willingness to pay for treatment was assessed on alternate days using the bidding method by presenting a cost bid. Based on the response ("yes" or "no"), bids were increased or decreased in a prespecified manner until a final bid value was reached. Simultaneously, treating doctors were asked how much institutional funds they would be willing to spend for treatment.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Primary diagnosis in 499 patients included infection (26%) and poisoning (21%). The mean (SD) APACHE II score was 13.9 (5.8); 86% were ventilated. ICU stay was 7.8 (5.5) days. ICU mortality was 23.9% (95% confidence interval, 20.3-27.8). Survival without disability was 8.3% (2/24) for Day 2 utility score ≤0.3 and 95.8% (53/56) for Day 5 score >0.8 (P < 0.001). The likelihood ratio to predict mortality increased as utility values decreased and was highest (5.85) for utility 0.2. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curves for utility and APACHE II were similar. Willingness to pay by the caregiver was 53% of treatment cost and was not influenced by utility. Willingness to pay by ICU doctors showed an inverted U-shaped relationship with utility.

CONCLUSIONS
Utility scores help prognosticate, with Day 2 score ≤0.3 associated with poor outcome and ≥0.8 Day 5 score with survival. The caregiver's willingness to pay was inadequate to meet treatment cost. ICU doctors were willing to spend more for moderate utility scores than for very high or low utility values. Further prospective studies are needed to optimize the utilization of scarce ICU resources by identifying patients for appropriate step-down care using utility and willingness to pay.


Natural scene understanding is a challenging task, particularly when encountering images of multiple objects that are partially occluded. This obstacle is given rise by varying object ordering and positioning. Existing scene understanding paradigms are able to parse only the visible parts, resulting in incomplete and unstructured scene interpretation. In this paper, we investigate the problem of scene de-occlusion, which aims to recover the underlying occlusion ordering and complete the invisible parts of occluded objects. We make the first attempt to address the problem through a novel and unified framework that recovers hidden scene structures without ordering and amodal annotations as supervisions. This is achieved via Partial Completion Network (PCNet)-mask (M) and -content (C), that learn to recover fractions of object masks and contents, respectively, in a self-supervised manner. Based on PCNet-M and PCNet-C, we devise a novel inference scheme to accomplish scene de-occlusion, via progressive ordering recovery, amodal completion and content completion. Extensive experiments on real-world scenes demonstrate the superior performance of our approach to other alternatives. Remarkably, our approach that is trained in a self-supervised manner achieves comparable results to fully-supervised methods. The proposed scene de-occlusion framework benefits many applications, including high-quality and controllable image manipulation and scene recomposition (see Fig. 1), as well as the conversion of existing modal mask annotations to amodal mask annotations.


Abstract. High throughput sequencing (HTS) has emerged as a valuable tool for the rapid isolation of genetic markers for population genetics and pedigree analysis. HTS-based SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) genotyping protocols like RAD (Restriction-site associated DNA) sequencing or hybrid capture allow for the isolation of thousands of markers from any non-model organism. However, these protocols are relatively laborious and expensive and the resulting high marker density is not always necessary. Since HTS technology has also greatly simplified the process of microsatellite marker isolation and genotyping, we develop microsatellite markers as a cost-efficient and simple alternative to SNP genotyping. We present low coverage genome sequencing data from seven distantly related spider species (Argiope bruennichi (Scopoli, 1772), Larinia jeskovi Marusik, 1987, Oedothorax retusus (Westring, 1851), Pisaura mirabilis (Clerck, 1757), Australomisidia ergandros (Evans, 1995), Cheiracanthium punctorium (Villers, 1789), Theridion grallator Simon,1900) and show the utility of HTS for microsatellite isolation. We also present a simple Illumina amplicon sequencing protocol to genotype microsatellites from multiplex PCR amplicons in the Hawaiian happy face spider T. grallator. We discuss advantages and drawbacks of the use of microsatellites for a range of research questions, and highlight an unexpectedly fast decay and gain of repeat loci for T. grallator.


Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Early 1950s focuses on wearable, collectible vintage clothing and accessories. The Sears catalogs provide the basis for a comprehensive evaluation of the fashions of this period. There is no guessing as to the dates of the clothing, and the descriptions are unsurpassed in terms of detail and accuracy. Vintage clothing from the early 1950s is extremely desirable to collectors, but it is increasingly difficult to find. Fashion designers look to the elegant styles of the period for inspiration. Collectors love the beautiful crafted handbags and the carefully tailored suits, jackets, and coats. Shoes have become very interesting to collectors in recent years, perhaps due to their comfortable styling and beautiful craftsmanship. This survey encompasses all aspects of the era's fashions, including: gowns, dresses, shirts, skirts, sportswear, accessories, nightware, underwear, coats, suits, and jackets. Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Early 1950s includes introductory remarks, helpful hints for collectors, descriptions from the catalog, and current values placed next to the original Sears' prices.


When movements are perturbed in adaptation tasks, humans and other animals show incomplete compensation, tolerating small but sustained residual errors that persist despite repeated trials. State-space models explain this residual asymptotic error as interplay between learning from error and reversion to baseline, a form of forgetting. Previous work using zero-error-clamp trials has shown that reversion to baseline is not obligatory and can be overcome by manipulating feedback. We posited that novel error-clamp trials, in which feedback is constrained but has nonzero error and variance, might serve as a contextual cue for recruitment of other learning mechanisms that would then close the residual error. When error clamps were nonzero and had zero variance, human subjects changed their learning policy, using exploration in response to the residual error, despite their willingness to sustain such an error during the training block. In contrast, when the distribution of feedback in clamp trials was naturalistic, with persistent mean error but also with variance, a state-space model accounted for behavior in clamps, even in the absence of task success. Therefore, when the distribution of errors matched those during training, state-space models captured behavior during both adaptation and error-clamp trials because error-based learning dominated; when the distribution of feedback was altered, other forms of learning were triggered that did not follow the state-space model dynamics exhibited during training. The residual error during adaptation appears attributable to an error-dependent learning process that has the property of reversion toward baseline and that can suppress other forms of learning.


Objective A high-quality multi-centre randomised controlled trial (RCT) with the following objectives: Primary objective ▶ To determine if intrauterine vesico-amniotic shunting for fetal bladder outflow obstruction, compared to conservative, non-interventional care improves pre-natal and perinatal mortality and renal function. Secondary objectives ▶ To determine if shunting for fetal bladder outflow obstruction improves perinatal morbidity. ▶ To determine the safety and long-term efficacy of shunting. Methods All pregnancies where there was a singleton, male fetus with ultrasound evidence of lower urinary tract obstruction and no other major congenital or structural anomalies were eligible. Following an initial ultrasound diagnosis of fetal bladder outflow obstruction, eligibility and baseline characteristics were confirmed including standard assessments of renal function, a detailed ultrasound examination to exclude other co-existing anomalies (and ideally fetal karyotyping). Following consent the fetus was randomized to receive either a fetal vesico-amniotic shunt or continue with conservative management without a shunt. The primary outcome measures were perinatal mortality and serum creatinine at 6 weeks of age. Long-term follow-up of continence and assessment of childhood development and quality of life is planned at 5 years. Results 31 women have been randomised, 43 registered and 68 have had a termination of pregnancy. Completion of follow-up and analysis of primary outcome data will be complete by May 2011 and presented. These data will be compared with previously published data from systematic review and meta-analysis. PLUTO is an international RCT funded by Wellbeing of Women and the HTA.


We present a new room-temperature bonding technique using a submicron-thick PDMS as an intermediate adhesive bonding layer for fabrication of micron and submicron-scale channels. The ultrathin bonding layers were created with spin-coating of PDMS dissolved in toluene at various weight ratios from 1:4 to 1:18 (PDMS:toluene) to obtain layer thicknesses from 1.65 μm to 0.10 μm, respectively. Bonding of discrete parts of microchannel was formed under pressure with a clamping vise at room-temperature. Tensile bonding strength test on this new technique showed excellent bonding strength. We have achieved 310 kPa for a 0.1 μm-thick layer with the aid of oxygen plasma treatment. To demonstrate its utility in micron and submicron channel fabrication, we created channels (970 μm × 60 μm × 0.97 μm) and performed leakage tests. The bonding showed no leakage at pressures up to 210 kPa.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


Hungarian agriculture is expected to experience greater risks due to more variability in crop productivity due to increasing yearly average temperatures and extreme precipitation patterns. This study investigates the effect of changing climatic conditions on productivity, using a Hungarian sample of crop producers for a 12-year time period. Our empirical analysis employs True Fixed Effects frontier models of Farm Accountancy Data Network data that are merged with specific meteorological data representatively maintained for seeding, vegetative, and generative periods for cereals, oil seed and protein crops, along with soil quality and usage-related data. Estimations indicate that climate variables have significant impacts on technical efficiency. In addition, calculation suggest that an increase in temperature during seeding and vegetative periods, combined with higher precipitation levels in May and June, will reduce crop farmers' production frontier. Estimations explain the variance, while the technical efficiency (TE) scores emphasize the impact of the difference in soil quality and its water absorption capacity.


The position of the first minimum or stationary value which appears in the irradiance beyond the end of the geometrical image in the image plane of an objective with a narrow annular aperture when a line element of uniform radiance lies in the object plane is examined for its relation to the length of the line element. The line element is assumed to be self-radiant or its equivalent by scattering. A table of the relation between line length and the position of the first minimum or stationary value is presented for lengths 2K in the range 0≦2K≦5.728 Airy units. Line elements as short as 0.4 Airy unit appear measurable by this method.


Leafy spurge is an exotic, noxious, perennial weed which is widely established in the north central United States and is an especially serious problem in the northern Great Plains (Bangsund et al. 1999). In 1997, the Agriculture Research Service and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, initiated a major Integrated Pest Management (IPM) research and demonstration project to develop and demonstrate ecologically based IPM strategies that can produce effective, affordable leafy spurge control. In 1998 and 1999, a survey of ranchers and public land managers was conducted to evaluate managerial, institutional, and social factors that might affect the rate and extent of implementation of various control strategies. In 2001, a second survey of the same ranchers and public land managers was conducted to (1) assess any changes in land managers' perceptions of weed problems, control alternatives, and related issues, and (2) evaluate the impact of the TEAM Leafy Spurge project on the respondent's weed control practices. The impacts of noxious weeds on grazing operations, specifically leafy spurge, are not abating, and ranchers seem more aware than ever of the severity of the problem. A slightly larger percentage of respondents in 2001 view leafy spurge as a major problem and the most serious problem for grazing operations than in 1998 and 1999. Heightened awareness among landowners may also be linked to TEAM Leafy Spurge's efforts to inform landowners of the problem and offer affordable, effective weed management techniques. While the use of biological control methods, specifically flea beetles, has grown, herbicides continue to be the control practice of choice. While slightly fewer respondents reported using herbicides in 2001 than in 1998 and 1999, the vast majority of landowners plan to continue to use herbicides. Over 50 percent of respondents are using biological control and over 76 percent of respondents indicated flea beetles were either somewhat or very effective in controlling leafy spurge. Nearly half of the respondents had heard of TEAM Leafy Spurge, and all TEAM Leafy Spurge demonstration sites, events, and publications were favorably rated. A large majority of the respondents agreed that the program had been effective in demonstrating and communicating leafy spurge treatment and control options. Based on the results of the 2001 survey, it would appear that the program has indeed made progress in communicating the type of information landowners need to address what continues to be a significant issue for grazing operations in the Midwest.


"In response to Emily Carr's travels to remote locations and the ceramic objects she produced for the tourist market, Vancouver-based artist Gareth Moore travelled through Europe, North America and Asia to investigate sites-some dating to prehistoric eras and others inhabited more recently-in which stone has a notable significance. During his travels, Moore produced stone carvings for exchange or sale to fellow travellers, as well as plein-air drawings incorporating found materials from the sites he visited. In Dialogue with Carr: Gareth Moore features a new work by Moore that includes objects and materials gathered during his journeys, as well as a selection of Emily Carr's ceramics, presented in relation to the specific physical structure of the gallery space. " -- Vancouver Art Gallery website


Mutations in the breast cancer susceptibility gene 1 (BRCA1) are associated with an increased risk of developing epithelial ovarian cancer. However, beyond the role of BRCA1 in DNA repair, little is known about other mechanisms by which BRCA1 impairment promotes carcinogenesis. Given that altered metabolism is now recognized as important in the initiation and progression of cancer, we asked whether the loss of BRCA1 changes metabolism in the cells of origin of ovarian cancer. The findings show that silencing BRCA1 in ovarian surface epithelial and fallopian tube cells increased glycolysis. Furthermore, when these cells were transfected with plasmids carrying deleterious BRCA1 mutations (5382insC or the P1749R), there was an increase in hexokinase-2 (HK2), a key glycolytic enzyme. This effect was mediated by MYC and the STAT3. To target the metabolic phenotype induced by loss of BRCA1, a drug-repurposing approach was used and aspirin was identified as an agent that counteracted the increase in HK2 and the increase in glycolysis induced by BRCA1 impairment. Evidence from this study indicates that the tumor suppressor functions of BRCA1 extend beyond DNA repair to include metabolic endpoints and identifies aspirin as an ovarian cancer chemopreventive agent capable of reversing the metabolic derangements caused by loss of BRCA1. Cancer Prev Res; 10(4); 255–66. ©2017 AACR.


This study was a novel exploration of psycho-social and neuroendocrine factors that may contribute to mental health in LGB youth and young adults. Research suggests that, compared to their heterosexual peers, LGB youth and young adults report alarmingly elevated rates of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and attempts, and lower self-esteem in concert with a much higher incidence of victimization from family and peer-groups. Homophobic societal attitudes compounded with discrimination, marginalization, stigma, and victimization experienced by LGB individuals are thought to contribute to the development of internalized homonegativity (IH) and psychological distress. Research also suggests that victimization and social stressors can dysregulate cortisol activity, leading to increased risk for mood disorders. The main goal of the present study was to investigate the interplay of bio-psycho-social factors that are thought to contribute to positive and negative indices of mental health in a community sample of 63 LGB young adults in Montreal, Canada. Dysregulated diurnal cortisol activity and internalized homonegativity were postulated to function either as mediators or as moderators of the links between parental support, social support and LGB-related stress on the one hand, and depression, anxiety, suicidality and self esteem on the other. LGB young adults experiencing more LGB-related stress had more depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem. Interaction effects with parental and social support were also found. IH and cortisol were both positively correlated with LGB-related stress. IH and cortisol slope jointly predicted depression, but each uniquely predicted the other measures of mental health. LGB young adults experiencing varying levels of IH benefited from different social relationships. Cortisol slope also moderated the relations between support, victimization and mental health. These results are particularly striking given the overall high-level of mental-health of this particular sample. The findings of this study were in accord with diathesis-stress models of mental health. Implications for understanding the bio-psycho-social basis of mental health and promoting the well-being of LGB young adults were considered, as were limitations imposed by the sample and methodology.


The neurological conditions can cause the disability of upper limb and the rehabilitation therapy can help the patients to restore their upper limb motion. However, the current method for upper limb rehabilitation assessment is very basic. The aim of this work is to develop a system and visualize the information to support the doctors and clinicians in the assessment of upper limb motion of patients who are undertaken neurological rehabilitation. Movement tracking including position and orientation have been tracked and data analysis have been done in both time domain and frequency domain. Furthermore, movement smoothness analysis has been done to obtain more information from patients' movement recovery. The created information visualization can provide objective measurements of patients' motion recovery and insightful information and for doctors and clinicians including the frequency analysis and movement smoothness analysis. The findings showed the system is able to provide accurate position within 0.1 cm and orientation tracking within 1 degree and meaningful insights for the assessment of upper limb motion functions in daily rehabilitation assessment by providing doctors and clinicians with visualizations of the objective measurements. Keywords—upper limb rehabilitation, inertial sensing, information visualization, wearable sensors


The Arctic is rapidly transitioning toward a seasonal sea ice‐free state, perhaps one of the most apparent examples of climate change in the world. This dramatic change has numerous consequences, including a large increase in air temperatures, which in turn may affect terrestrial methane emissions. Nonetheless, terrestrial and marine environments are seldom jointly analyzed. By comparing satellite observations of Arctic sea ice concentrations to methane emissions simulated by three process‐based biogeochemical models, this study shows that rising wetland methane emissions are associated with sea ice retreat. Our analyses indicate that simulated high‐latitude emissions for 2005–2010 were, on average, 1.7 Tg CH4 yr−1 higher compared to 1981–1990 due to a sea ice‐induced, autumn‐focused, warming. Since these results suggest a continued rise in methane emissions with future sea ice decline, observation programs need to include measurements during the autumn to further investigate the impact of this spatial connection on terrestrial methane emissions.


Far from monolithic, the seven Central American countries—Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama—each have unique cultural traditions and historical trajectories. Their different geographies, while not deterministic in any facile manner, influenced their development in ways that continue to shape their national characteristics. The cataclysmic 16th-century Spanish Conquest introduced new peoples and cultural traditions to the region. African slaves, primarily from the sub-Saharan region, accompanied the first Spanish ventures, and, later, as the colonies consolidated and grew, peoples of African descent, both enslaved and free, became a part of the area's economic and cultural landscape. Starting in the late 18th century, African peoples from the Caribbean—whether forcefully exiled or as a result of searching for economic opportunities—traveled to Central America. Despite a contemporary collective historical amnesia that imagines Africans isolated in specific regions, namely the Caribbean coast, peoples of African descent can be found throughout the Central American nations.
 Rather than addressing each country, a thematic approach that focuses on the Spanish Conquest, slavery, emancipation, the ethnogenesis of African connected cultures, the historical erasure of Africans, and the contributions of peoples of African descent helps to understand the complex ways that peoples of African descent have impacted the history of modern Central America. For far from isolated to small populations along the Caribbean, the African presence can be discerned throughout the region, even in places often perceived as entirely devoid of its influence.


In a panoramic and pioneering reappraisal, Pieter Judson shows why the Habsburg Empire mattered so much, for so long, to millions of Central Europeans. Across divides of language, religion, region, and history, ordinary women and men felt a common attachment to their empire, while bureaucrats, soldiers, politicians, and academics devised inventive solutions to the challenges of governing Europe s second largest state. In the decades before and after its dissolution, some observers belittled the Habsburg Empire as a dysfunctional patchwork of hostile ethnic groups and an anachronistic imperial relic. Judson examines their motives and explains just how wrong these rearguard critics were.Rejecting fragmented histories of nations in the making, this bold revision surveys the shared institutions that bridged difference and distance to bring stability and meaning to the far-flung empire. By supporting new schools, law courts, and railroads, along with scientific and artistic advances, the Habsburg monarchs sought to anchor their authority in the cultures and economies of Central Europe. A rising standard of living throughout the empire deepened the legitimacy of Habsburg rule, as citizens learned to use the empire s administrative machinery to their local advantage. Nationalists developed distinctive ideas about cultural difference in the context of imperial institutions, yet all of them claimed the Habsburg state as their empire.The empire s creative solutions to governing its many lands and peoples as well as the intractable problems it could not solve left an enduring imprint on its successor states in Central Europe. Its lessons remain no less important today."


Staphylococcus aureus is a versatile opportunistic pathogen causing a wide spectrum of diseases in both humans and animals. My research focused on characterization of the immune responses of monocyte derived dendritic cells (DC) to S. aureus. We initially evaluated the potential of circulating monocytes to serve as precursors for DC during S. aureus infection. The CD14 + monocytes, when stimulated with irradiated (ISA) or live S. aureus (LSA), differentiated into CD11c high CD11b high DC (MonoDC) in an autocrine fashion. This was associated with the upregulation of granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GMCSF) and tumor necrosis factor-α; (TNF-α;) gene transcription. We continued our studies to identify the role of TNF-α; in the LSA induced differentiation of monocyte to MonoDC. Blocking TNF-α; reduced the expression of CD11c and increased the expression of CD14 on LSA stimulated monocyte derived MonoDC. Stimulated monocytes were able to secrete monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), a chemokine that recruits monocytes to the site of infection/injury and induces the expression of β2 integrins on DC. Characterization of the response of DC derived from monocytes using GMCSF and IL-4 revealed that, intact S. aureus rather than its purified structural components were efficient in DC activation. In response to ISA or LSA stimulation, DC induced proliferation of T cells collected from the peripheral circulation of cows with a history of S. aureus mastitis. Subsequent characterization of the proliferating T cells identified the presence of memory T cells. Finally we identified a unique population of DEC205 + CD8 α+


A wide variety of NLP applications, such as machine translation, summarization, and dialog, involve text generation. One major challenge for these applications is how to evaluate whether such generated texts are actually fluent, accurate, or effective. In this work, we conceptualize the evaluation of generated text as a text generation problem, modeled using pre-trained sequence-to-sequence models. The general idea is that models trained to convert the generated text to/from a reference output or the source text will achieve higher scores when the generated text is better. We operationalize this idea using BART, an encoder-decoder based pre-trained model, and propose a metric BARTScore with a number of variants that can be flexibly applied in an unsupervised fashion to evaluation of text from different perspectives (e.g. informativeness, fluency, or factuality). BARTScore is conceptually simple and empirically effective. It can outperform existing top-scoring metrics in 16 of 22 test settings, covering evaluation of 16 datasets (e.g., machine translation, text summarization) and 7 different perspectives (e.g., informativeness, factuality). Code to calculate BARTScore is available at https://github.com/neulab/BARTScore, and we have released an interactive leaderboard for meta-evaluation at http://explainaboard.nlpedia.ai/leaderboard/task-meval/ on the ExplainaBoard platform, which allows us to interactively understand the strengths, weaknesses, and complementarity of each metric.


The formation of a self-sustaining autocatalytic chemical network is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the origin of life. The question of whether such a network could form "by chance" within a sufficiently complex suite of molecules and reactions is one that we have investigated for a simple chemical reaction model based on polymer ligation and cleavage. In this paper, we extend this work in several further directions. In particular, we investigate in more detail the levels of catalysis required for a self-sustaining autocatalytic network to form. We study the size of chemical networks within which we might expect to find such an autocatalytic subset, and we extend the theoretical and computational analyses to models in which catalysis requires template matching.


Summary This study was carried out by the Turkish Republic Ministry of Health to determine the prevalence of consanguineous marriage and its correlates with socio-demographic and obstetric risk factors in women in Turkey. The cross-sectional, national-level study was carried out from October to December 2013. The study population was composed of women between the ages of 15 and 65 years living in Turkey. The sample size was calculated as 9290 houses within Turkey's 81 provinces so as to improve the Turkish rural–urban expectations by means of systematic stack sampling according to the Turkish Statistical Institute's address-based vital statistics system. The target sample size was 6364, but only eligible 4913 women, who had been married, were included in the study. The consanguineous marriage frequency in the sample was found to be 18.5%, and of these 57.8% were first cousin marriages. Women living in an extended family and whose education level and first marriage ages were low, and whose perceived economic status was poor, had higher frequencies of consanguineous marriage (p<0.001). Consanguineous marriage frequencies were higher (p<0.001) for women who had spontaneous abortions and stillbirths or who had given birth to infants with a congenital abnormality. In this context, it is important to develop national policies and strategies to prevent consanguineous marriages in Turkey.


The blood consists of a suspension of special cells in a liquid called plasma. In an adult man, the blood is about 1/12th of the body weight and this corresponds to 5-6 litres. Blood consists of 55 % plasma, and 45 % by cells called formed elements. The blood performs a lot of important functions. By means of the hemoglobin contained in the erythrocytes, it carries oxygen to the tissues and collects the carbon dioxide (CO2). It also conveys nutritive substances (e.g. amino acids, sugars, mineral salts) and gathers the excreted material which will be eliminated through the renal filter. The blood also carries hormones, enzymes and vitamins. It performs the defense of the organism by mean of the phagocitic activity of the leukocytes, the bactericidal power of the serum and the immune response of which the lymphocytes are the protagonists.


On the basis of the literature and my own examination of living and/or dead but fresh owls of 16 species, bilateral asymmetry of external ears in owls is surveyed and ear structure briefly described. Consideration of the probability of origin of various structural similarities and dissimilarities in the ear leads to the conclusion that ear asymmetry has evolved independently in at least five lines, represented by the respective genera (1) Tyto , (2) Phodilus , (3) Bubo , Ciccaba , Strix , (4) Rhinoptynx , Asio , Pseudoscops , and (5) Aegolius . Bubo , Ciccaba , and Strix probably represent more than one line of origin of ear asymmetry. Available evidence suggests that bilateral ear asymmetry in owls serves to make the vertical directional sensitivity patterns different between the two ears for high frequencies, thus making possible vertical localization based on binaural comparison of intensity and spectral composition of sound. When an owl localizes prey by hearing, the direction of the source usually forms a shallow angle with the ground. Therefore, a certain angle of error usually converts into a longer distance along the ground for a vertical error than for a horizontal error. This is a crucial factor that calls for good vertical localization ability of owls which rely on hearing for localization of food. Selection pressure for improvement of the ability of vertical localization of sound is believed to lie behind the evolution of all types of bilateral ear asymmetry in owls. On the basis of comparative ear structure the current subdivision of family Strigidae into subfamily Buboninae and Striginae is rejected. The external ears of Rhinoptynx and Pseudoscops are described for the first time and shown to be very similar to those of Asio otus , demonstrating affinity between these three genera.


Automated diagnostic assistants in healthcare necessitate accurate AI models that can be trained with limited labeled data, can cope with severe class imbalances and can support simultaneous prediction of multiple disease conditions. To this end, we present a deep learning framework that utilizes a number of key components to enable robust modeling in such challenging scenarios. Using an important use-case in chest X-ray classification, we provide several key insights on the effective use of data augmentation, self-training via distillation and confidence tempering for small data learning in medical imaging. Our results show that using 85% lesser labeled data, we can build predictive models that match the performance of classifiers trained in a large-scale data setting.


Abstract Weber NJ, Brown ML. 2012. Diel and temporal habitat use of four juvenile fishes in a complex glacial lake. Lake Reserv Manage. 28:120-129. Juvenile fishes may use multiple habitats during early life stages, and habitat use may change based on diel period, temporally, or ontogenetically, with patterns of habitat use being species specific. To better understand habitat use of juvenile fishes, we evaluated relative abundance of juvenile black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus), bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), yellow perch (Perca flavescens), and common carp (Cyprinus carpio) among nearshore open water, emergent vegetation, submergent vegetation, flooded timber, and open water offshore habitats in a glacial lake. In August, catch rates of common carp were highest in emergent vegetation, yellow perch and black crappie catch rates were highest in submergent vegetation, and bluegill catch rates were highest in nearshore open water, submergent vegetation, and flooded timber. In September, submergent vegetation was no longer available due to senescence, and catch rates of all species did not differ among habitats, except for common carp where catch rates were highest in emergent vegetation and flooded timber. Within a species, fishes were generally of similar size among habitats. Abundance of invertebrate prey was highly variable and was generally similar among habitats. Our results provide information about the habitat use of juvenile fishes that can be useful to the management of these species and aquatic habitat conservation.


The present transformation of European corporate governance regulation mirrors the challenges that have been facing the EU's continuously evolving polity, marked by tensions between centralised integration programmes, on the one hand, and Member State's embedded capitalisms, path-dependencies and rent-seeking, on the other. As longstanding concerns with remaining obstacles to more mobility for workers, services, business entities and capital in recent years are aligned with post-Lisbon commitments to creating the world's leading competitive market, European corporate governance regula- tion (ECGR) has become exposed to and implicated in a set of highly dynamic regulatory experiments. In this context, 'New Governance' offers itself as both a tentative label and immodest proposal for a more responsive and innovative approach to European law making. The following article assesses the recently emerging regulatory forms in ECGR as illustrations of far-reaching transformations in market governance. The arguable parallels between the EU's regulatory transformation in response to growing legitimacy concerns and the recurring question about whose interests a business corporation is intended to serve, provide the framework for an exploration of current regulatory trajec- tories in European corporate law that can most adequately be understood as a telling example of transnational legal pluralism.


An appropriate definition and efficient computation of similarity (or distance) measures between two stochastic models are of theoretical and practical interest. In this work, a similarity measure, that is, a modified "generalized probability product kernel," of Gaussian hidden Markov models is introduced. Two efficient schemes for computing this similarity measure are presented. The first scheme adopts a forward procedure analogous to the approach commonly used in probability evaluation of observation sequences on HMMs. The second scheme is based on the specially defined similarity transition matrix of two Gaussian hidden Markov models. Two scaling procedures are also proposed to solve the out-of-precision problem in the implementation. The effectiveness of the proposed methods has been evaluated on simulated observations with predefined model parameters, and on natural texture images. Promising experimental results have been observed.


The emergence of a vibrant imperial culture in British society from the 1890s both fascinated and appalled contemporaries. It has also consistently provoked controversy among historians. This book offers a ground-breaking perspective on how imperial culture was disseminated. It identifies the important synergies that grew between a new civic culture and the wider imperial project. Beaven shows that the ebb and flow of imperial enthusiasm was shaped through a fusion of local patriotism and a broader imperial identity. Imperial culture was neither generic nor unimportant but was instead multi-layered and recast to capture the concerns of a locality. The book draws on a rich seam of primary sources from three representative English cities. These case studies are considered against an extensive analysis of seminal and current historiography. This renders the book invaluable to those interested in the fields of imperialism, social and cultural history, popular culture, historical geography and urban history.


The geometric parameters of manufactured compressor blades do not exactly comply with the design intention. These deviations result from the abrasion of the forging and milling machines as well as variations of the material properties or the blank part geometries. Using probabilistic methods, the geometric deviations can be considered within the design process. This paper presents the results of a probabilistic High-Cycle-Fatigue investigation under consideration of the geometric parameter scatter of the entire compressor blade. Based on a previous paper of the authors, the geometric parametrization as well as the process chain to apply the geometric scatter to an existing FE-mesh was supplemented by the radii and the geometric dimensions of the compressor blade root. Thus, the impact of all geometric parameter scatter on the High-Cycle-Fatigue strength, the eigenfrequencies and the mode shapes can be evaluated.© 2010 ASME


Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) has gained significant policy momentum as an international mechanism for global climate change mitigation. The mobilization of funding, technical activity and institutional engagement for REDD has been relatively quick and widespread. The policy and technical lessons learned over the evolution of REDD are not yet widely understood, nor have they been widely integrated into efforts aimed at enabling and incentivizing agricultural mitigation. Within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, there are opportunities to include agricultural mitigation through the ad hoc working groups and technical work programs. To create the policy space and operational feasibility necessary for an international mechanism for agricultural mitigation, parallel advancement is needed on developing a shared vision, tackling high-priority analysis, coordinating efforts among stakeholders and getting money to flow from donor governments, foundations and industry.


This study uses quarterly macroeconomic data over the period of 1984-2003 along with a seven-variable structural vector autoregression model to investigate the nominal exchange rate neutrality hypothesis for the case of Australia. Impulse response functions and variance decompositions are generated for four different variations of the model for empirically testing the hypothesis. Empirical evidence presented in this paper support the nominal exchange rate neutrality. In addition, we find that the neutrality is invariant to the choice of the nominal exchange rate or the measure of monetary aggregates used in the estimation.


Loosening and fatigue failure of bolted joints are the two most important problems for vehicles that are subjected to vibration loading. Although many fatigue tests have been performed under axial vibration, there have been few tests under transverse vibration. In this study, loosening-fatigue tests under small transvers vibrations have been performed to understand bolt behavior for the long life region. Results show that if a bolt has loosened within 102-103 vibration cycles, damage such as crack nucleation at the root of the first thread is not observed. However if loosening does not occur until approximately 104-106 cycles, then a crack is observed at the root of the first thread in all experiments. Loosening occurs due to loss of axial stiffness caused by crack propagation which then leads to bolt rotation. The results also show that the loosening-fatigue life does not depend on the initial clamping force although the loosening-fatigue life significantly depends on the transverse vibration force.


Bang Theory One of my favorite scenes in The Big Bang Theory involves the two main characters, Leonard and Sheldon, trying to move a large, flat box up two flights of stairs. Faced with no equipment and little upperbody strength, Leonard declares, "We are physicists! The intellectual descendents of Archimedes!" He proceeds to work the problem, tilting the box against the stairs, explaining (for the benefit of the studio audience) the mathematics of how that reduces the force required to lift the box. I think of that scene whenever I hear a member of the physics community griping about the show and how it reinforces negative stereotypes of scientists. The premise is quite simple: Two nerdy physicists befriend the pretty blonde waitress who moves in next door, and wackiness ensues from the cultural clash. It's the show about physics that physicists love to hate: "How dare network television call us nerds for fun and profit!" But chances are the person griping hasn't even seen the show. And that's too bad, because The Big Bang Theory is actually a very smart, savvy series. More importantly, the science is right on target–a rare accomplishment for a TV sitcom. Much of that is due to the efforts of UCLA physicist David Saltzberg, who serves as the show's technical consultant, painstakingly fleshing out the physics jargon in the dialogue and making sure the equations on the white boards lurking in the set's background are accurate. When was the last time you were watching TV and the characters brought up the formula for determining the force required to push an object up a slope...and then used it to solve a practical problem? There are more obscure in-jokes, too: When Leonard spends the night with a brilliant female physicist, she "fixes" Sheldon's equationin-progress by changing the sign, prompting Sheldon to gripe that now he'd have to share his Nobel Prize with her. Only PhD physicists familiar with QCD theory are likely to get that joke, yet there it is, on network television. So it's not the science that physicists are likely to find problematic. It's the way the main characters are portrayed. Sheldon is a genius physicist with a serious case of Asperger's syndrome who needs cue cards to alert him to sarcasm in casual conversation, and arranges his breakfast cereals numerically according to fiber content. His other regularly appearing friends are no better. Leonard emerges as the sweet-natured counterfoil to his geeky compatriots, and much of the show's premise rests on whether he has a chance with the waitress Penny. Will she recognize Leonard's true romantic worth? It's understandable that watching a shy, awkward physicist drooling over the stereotypical "dumb blonde" might annoy some folks in the physics community. Why can't television portray scientists "accurately" instead of falling back on unfair stereotypes? That's the familiar refrain, but women could make the same complaint about Penny–who isn't nearly as stupid in later episodes as she is initially made out to be. The characters are evolving as the show develops, moving beyond the initial caricatures. The humor is evolving, too. It's more in the vein of goodnatured teasing than outright ridicule, and it stems from a genuine fondness for geek culture. After all, Penny genuinely likes the geeky physicists next door. Perhaps the humor raises some hackles because–like all good comedy–it contains an element of truth. We have all encountered physicists who fail to pick up on common social cues; who make inappropriate comments to attractive women; and who engage in animated, technical arguments on the difference between centrifugal and centripetal force, to the bemusement of any non-scientists who happen to be present. In another scene, the guys argue at length about the scientific inaccuracies contained in the first Superman movie. There are entire Web sites devoted to bad movie physics, and scientists are notorious for griping at length about minor technical inaccuracies in film and television. Comedy is a funhouse mirror: It's an exaggerated reflection, to be sure, but it is still a reflection. If we don't like what the funhouse mirror shows us, maybe we need to change the reality. Only then will we see a change in the reflection. Or maybe we could just relax a little and learn to chuckle good-naturedly at our own human foibles. The physicists in The Big Bang Theory are likeable, even endearing. How can that be bad for physics? Ultimately, the primary objective of any TV show is to entertain, not to teach. But humor is infectious. People can still come away with a tiny bit of physics insight, and a better appreciation for its relevance to our lives.


Xenarthra is a monophyletic group, characterized by a particular skeletal architecture, different to other placental mammals. Its current distribution is exclusively Neotropical; however, the fossil record indicates a greater distribution. The aim of this paper is to provide an updated list of the Xenarthra of the lower to middle Pleistocene (Ensenadan Stage) of the Pampean Region (Argentina). The most conspicuous anatomical features that allowed the taxonomic identification of fossil remains, especially those of particular biostratigraphic interest, are also briefly described and figured here. We studied more than 700 fossil remains mostly housed in palaeontological collections of Argentina. The study of these specimens (from the Pampean Region), revealed that during the Pleistocene there were marked variations in the composition and distribution of the faunas in general and particularly in xenarthrans. This situation was closely related to the Great American Biotic Interchange and climatic oscillations occurring in the Pleistocene. Thus, the Ensenadan fossil record of xenarthrans consists on exclusive taxa and numerous cases of first and last records. Finally, we expect that this contribution provide a starting point for future contributions in respect of the Pleistocene fauna, not only from the Pampean Region, but also from the rest of Argentina and South America.


This article considers some ideological, political, religious and cultural aspects of the image of Russia in the French newspaper Moniteur universel , mostly in the period between 1789 and 1793. A comparative analysis of the information contained in the 'Politics' section of the newspaper gives an idea of the attitudes and opinions of the editors and contributors vis-a -vis Russia and other countries, which were shaped by the pressure of the diverse and rapidly changing circumstances in French political life during the period in question. The author also proposes a classification scale of news related to Russia ranged in accordance with their content, subjects, importance and regularity. The table in the Annex contains a calculation of the references to different states for the years 1790, 1793 and 1796 produced by the author in order to correct the data presented in nineteenth-century Indices.


Currently accepted ore genesis models for orogenic and Carlin style gold deposits consider that the concentration of gold is a one stage
process. Gold is commonly assumed to be sourced from deep below the deposits, in the lower crust or mantle, and transported
upwards, along major crustal fractures or shear zones, during metamorphism and deformation, to become concentrated in second
order structures during the peak, or post-peak, of metamorphism. However, recent evidence, based on the textural and chemical
association of both gold and arsenic in pyrite in certain sedimentary rock facies, supports a two-stage process of gold ore genesis for
some gold provinces.
The first stage involves pre-concentration of gold and arsenic in black mudstone facies and/or banded iron formation facies of
continental margin sedimentary basins. In the sediments, the gold is present as either, invisible gold trapped in diagenetic arsenian
pyrite or, micro-nuggets (< 5 microns) of free gold associated with fine-grained clays and organic matter. These gold-bearing
sediments are also enriched in a characteristic suite of elements, particularly V, As, Mo, Se (Te), Ni, Ag and Zn, giving rise to the
term VAMSNAZ sediments. Gold contents of the VAMSNAZ sediments commonly range from 5 to 100 ppb, arsenic from 10 to 100
ppm, and organic carbon from 0.2 to 2 wt %.
The second stage, of the two-stage process, occurs during late diagenesis and metamorphism of the sediments, associated with
deformation, basin inversion and/or granite intrusion. Gold and arsenic are released from the arsenian pyrite and from clay-organic
matter intergrowths, associated with diagenetic and low grade metamorphic reactions in the VAMSNAZ sediments. Conversion of
gold-bearing diagenetic arsenian pyrite to pyrrhotite at higher grades of metamorphism (lower greenschist to upper greenschist
facies) is a particularly effective way of releasing gold to the metamorphic fluid. The H2S-CO2-CH4-bearing metamorphic fluid
(probably a mixture of seawater, meteoric water and diagenetic fluid trapped in the sediments), transports the gold and arsenic,
through the permeable silt and sand facies sedimentary rocks, to become concentrated in zones of intense fluid flow and related
pressure release, such as anticlinal fold axes, shear zones or dilatant quartz-vein reefs or stock-work zones.
This two-stage model is the first to account for the ubiquitous association of gold and arsenic in sediment-hosted orogenic and
Carlin style deposits.
Keywords: Orogenic gold, pyrite, invisible gold, VAMSNAZ, black shales


Abstract Low public acceptance of evolution among Americans in general, and conservative Protestants specifically, has recently received increased attention among scholars of both religion and the public understanding of science. At the same time, members of another major religious tradition, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), reject evolution at rates similar to evangelical Christians, yet there remains a dearth of studies examining the lack of acceptance of evolution among Mormons. Using a nationally representative survey of Americans that contains an adequate number of LDS respondents for advanced statistical analyses, this study examines patterns of evolution acceptance or rejection among Mormons. Findings reveal a moderating relationship between political identity and education, such that educational attainment has a positive relationship with evolution acceptance among political moderates and liberals, but a negative association among political conservatives. These findings highlight the central role played by the politicization of evolution in low rates of evolution acceptance among American Mormons and emphasize the need to—where possible—examine relations between 'science and religion' within and across specific religious traditions.


The diversity of yeasts and filamentous fungi in muds from hypersaline alkaline lakes of Wadi ElNatrun and fresh water of the Nile River and Ibrahimia Canal was evaluated. The mean pH of saline water mud was 9.21, but fresh water mud registered 8.07. A total of 193 species (two varieties were distinguished in two of them) belonging to 67 genera were recovered from both muds investigated on DRBC (55 genera, 164 species), DG18 (36 genera, 117 species) and MY50G (23 genera, 76 species) media. From these, 17 species assigned to 12 genera were yeasts and 176 species and 2 varieties assigned to 55 genera were filamentous fungi. The highest numbers of fungal propagules were recovered on DRBC from freshwater mud, while the lowest on MY50G from saline water mud. Yeasts constituted a small proportion of all propagules from the two mud types on all three media, whereas filamentous fungi were the major component. However, freshwater mud samples yielded higher numbers of yeast genera and species using all three media. Candida was common in freshwater mud and rare in saline water mud, while Meyerozyma and Rhodotorula were infrequent in both muds. The remaining yeast species were recovered from freshwater mud only. Aspergillus (46 species) was the most common genus of filamentous fungi encountered in all samples, ranging in frequency from 39.82% to 96.62%; A. terreus, A. flavipes and A. niger dominated in both types of mud. Cladosporium (9 species), Fusarium (8 species), Penicillium (18 species) and Scopulariopsis (7 species) were encountered in both types of mud. Notably, 47 filamentous species were isolated only on the media with lower water activity (DG18, MY50G).


Grid computing was used only in scientific laboratories for many years. Only during the last few years, it is evolving into a business-innovating technology that is driving commercial adoption. In this paper, a Grid-based multimedia application for the distributed tailoring and streaming of media files is proposed. An innovative multimedia data dissemination strategy, based on the Fibonacci series, is used. To respond to the quality-of-service (QoS) requirements, soft real-time applications, a new architecture is presented. Such architecture is able to manage the Grid resource allocation effectively. Technical and practical problems encountered during the development are discussed, and a thorough performance evaluation of the developed prototype is presented. The developed application is found to be better than the existing architectures.


Recent work on embedding object languages into Haskell use "phantom types" (i.e., parameterized types whose parameter does not occur on the right-hand side of the type definition) to ensure that the embedded object-language terms are simply typed. But is it a safe assumption that only simply-typed terms can be represented in Haskell using phantom types? And conversely, can all simply-typed terms be represented in Haskell under the restrictions imposed by phantom types? In this article we investigate the conditions under which these assumptions are true: We show that these questions can be answered affirmatively for an idealized Haskell-like language and discuss to which extent Haskell can be used as a meta-language.


ABSTRACT:AIDS at Home: Art and Everyday Activism, presented at the Museum of the City of New York from May to October 2017, aimed to complement and complicate popular narratives about the history of HIV/AIDS by examining how HIV/AIDS played out in the everyday lives of diverse communities in New York. The exhibition placed works of art alongside documentary photography, film, and archival materials in unique ways to ask visitors to rethink what counts as activism and to reconsider home as a crucial political space. This paper reflects on the ways the curator sought to activate the domestic archive—the everyday ephemera and affects of illness, caretaking, and family life.


This article seeks to analyze the optimal conditions for for future economic growth in various periods of time for the Indonesian economiy - it presents a brief overview of the archipelago's economic history from its occupation by the Dutch VOC to the Suharto regime and his New Order, and uses economic data and analysis to construct normative predictive views on future growth. The author has found that Indonesia's recent economic history has been marked by exceedingly severe levels of price volatility, namely, the hyperinflation of the 60s, and the resulting cautious and prudent nature of fiscal and monetary policy. These factors, as well as other economic variables contributing to economic growth, lead the author to believe that within the short and medium terms, three main variables determine the state of growth in the economy – foreign direct investment, domestic consumption, and export industry – particularly palm oil and minerals. In the long term, however, continued economic growth will rely on the extent of the government multiplier after large infrastructure projects have been completed – determining the existence and/or extent of the government deficit and hard-won macroeconomic stability. In addition, increased freedom and convenience of access to factor inputs will be large determinents of discovery and development of dynamic competitive advantage, another factor believed to be significant in long-term economic growth.


As the popularity of video games has grown over the past decade, so has interest in their capacity to serve as tools for education. The technology behind modern laparoscopic surgery draws strong parallels to modern video games, and as such has inspired initial research into the potential relationship between video game play and surgical performance. To date, a number of researchers have conducted studies on this relationship; however, no structured, statistical review of accessible data has taken place. Thus, the goal of this analysis was to examine the available literature and report the significance of the cumulative findings. Through my process, a total of 21 studies involving 1220 participants were gathered through multi-step review, and organized into one of three experimental domains game training, VR training, and gaming history. Effect size analysis using Hedge's G and Fisher's Z yielded statistically significant results in all three domains, thus supporting the consensus belief that video game play has a positive effect on laparoscopic surgical training and performance. Given the particularly strong effect of virtual reality training on surgical performance, it would be valuable to investigate the differential effects of virtual reality, and how these effects might be further developed into more effective educational instruments.


These days, universities all over the world offer lecture capturing to provide recorded lectures as a supplement tool for their on-campus students or as a substitute for live lectures for distant students. In this study, through quantitative research and by undertaking the uses and gratification theory, we examine students' perceptions about recorded lectures in the context of two multi-campus courses offered in the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in the Fall semester 2018. Data for this research was collected by using an online questionnaire sent to students through the Learning Management System (LMS). Our results show that students mainly used recorded lectures to make up for missed classes, for understand the live lectures better and for reviewing the course content before the exam. Students' use of recorded lectures seems to vary in terms of amount, time and reason for watching based on the course content and their location. Also, the results show that the course setting can influence the way students use recorded lectures. We conclude that recorded lectures are useful for both main and remote campus students and that watching recorded lectures can decrease their level of anxiety about the course and exam.


The effects of alpha-1-adrenoceptor antagonists on the concentration-response curves (CRC) to phenylephrine and oxymetazoline have been studied in prostatic urethra and trigone of male adult rabbits (28 wk old). WB4101 and phentolamine, at low concentrations which should preferentially antagonize the alpha-1A-adrenoceptor subtype, did not modify the oxymetazoline-induced contraction of both prostatic urethra and trigone, suggesting that alpha-1A-adrenoceptors are not activated under these conditions. In urethra, pretreatment with 50 microM chloroethylclonidine (CEC), significantly reduced the maximal contraction to both agonists to 60 and 70% of control, respectively. In trigone, CEC decreased the maximum contraction to phenylephrine, but not to oxymetazoline, by 50%. In addition, CEC shifted to the right the CRC to both agonists. These results suggest the presence of an alpha-1B-adrenoceptor in both rabbit urethra and trigone. Exposure to prazosin (0.01-1 microM) significantly shifted to the right the CRC to phenylephrine (pA2 or affinity values without CEC treatment: 7.77 and 7.96 in urethra and trigone respectively; with CEC pretreatment: 7.49 and 7.42, respectively). When oxymetazoline was used as an agonist and in the presence of CEC, prazosin was unexpectedly weak in urethra with an affinity value of 6.70, although the antagonist potency was not modified in trigone (affinity 7.38). These values suggest that alpha-1-adrenoceptor agonists contract rabbit urethra and trigone through activation of alpha-1-adrenoceptors displaying low affinity for prazosin. Whether this receptor coincides with the alpha-1L- or alpha-1N-subtype remains to be clarified.


We introduce a notion of integration defined from filters over families of finite sets.  This procedure corresponds to determining the average value of functions whose range lies in any algebraic structure in which finite averages make sense.  The most relevant scenario involves algebraic structures that extend the field of rational numbers; hence, it is possible to associate to the filter integral an upper and lower standard part, which can be interpreted as upper and lower bounds on the average value of the function that one expects to observe empirically.  We discuss the main properties of the filter integral and we show that it is expressive enough to represent every real integral.  As an application, we define a geometric measure on an infinite-dimensional vector space that overcomes some of the known limitations of real-valued measures.  We also discuss how the filter integral can be applied to the problem of non-Archimedean integration, and we develop the iteration theory for these integrals.


Summary Livestock production has become a common trend in urban communities whereby a number of people reared farm animals such as sheep and goats for social and economic reasons. Notwithstanding the associated advantages of livestock production, eff ective urban production of the small ruminants is greatly challenged by a number of factors. Based on this, the study was conducted with a view to identifying factors that challenged eff ective sheep and goat production in selected urban communities of Abeokuta, Ogun State. From the selected 12 urban communities where sheep and goats were reared, a total of 217 rearers were non-randomly selected using snow balling sampling method. A reliable and validated interview guide was used alongside fi eld observation to obtain information on challenges to sheep and goats production in the urban areas. Th e results showed that the challenges were feed, health/disease, environmental, marketing and routine management related. All the respondents (100%) experienced challenges such as high cost of feeding, theft of the farm animals, problem of off -season feeding and problem of sourcing feed variety for the animals. Th e chi-square test showed that a signifi cant relationship exists between the respondents' socioeconomic characteristics (sex: χ 2 = 21.06, df =4; age: χ 2 = 43.26, df = 16; education: χ2 = 78.09, df = 12; occupation: χ2 = 62.57, df = 16; income: χ2 = 56.35, df =16) and the encountered challenges (p < 0.05). Based on this, it was concluded that the identifi ed challenges to urban sheep and goat production remained serious issues in the study area. It was thus recommended that conscious eff orts should be put up by rearers of the small ruminants to ensure safety of their animals and good feeding routine for increased productivity and benefi cial returns.


Objectives: To determine the sensitivity, specificity, and interobserver and intraobserver reliabilities of intraoperative fluoroscopy and postoperative plain radiographs (XR) in the assessment of articular congruency after open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) of ankle fractures involving the tibial plafond. Design: Retrospective cohort. Setting: Academic level 1 trauma center. Patients/Participants: One hundred five patients treated surgically for rotational ankle fractures. Intervention: ORIF. Main Outcome Measurements: Sensitivity, specificity, and interobserver and intraobserver reliabilities of fluoroscopy and plain radiographs when compared with computed tomography imaging. Results: The sensitivities of fluoroscopy and XR were 21% and 36%, respectively. Specificities were 95% (fluoroscopy) and 89% (XR). Fluoroscopy interobserver reliability was &kgr; = 0.15, and mean intraobserver reliability was &kgr; = 0.32. XR interobserver and mean intraobserver reliabilities were &kgr; = 0.30 and &kgr; = 0.59. Conclusions: Although results show acceptable specificity, the reliability and sensitivity of both intraoperative fluoroscopy and postoperative XR in the assessment of ankle articular congruency are low. This calls into question available literature correlating clinical results with articular reduction. During ORIF of an intra-articular ankle fracture, surgeons should be highly critical of fluoroscopic imaging that seems adequately reduced and direct visualization of the articular surface should be used as a reduction aid if possible. Furthermore, in the postoperative period, axial imaging may be warranted in patients who have poor clinical outcomes despite apparent anatomic articular reduction to evaluate for occult joint incongruence.