Objective: To report 3 cases of bronchial foreign bodies removed by thoracotomy
Patients and Methods: Retrospective study was conducted from January 1st 2005 to December 31 2011 in the ENT Clinic of NTH of Fann. During this 7-year period, 96 cases of foreign bodies of lower respiratory tract were managed with 63 cases of bronchial location. Bronchoscopic removal was achieved in 60 cases but failed in 3 cases. Removal of bronchial foreign bodies was finally performed through thoracotomy.
Results: In 3% (3/96 cases), thoracotomy was performed. The patients were 5, 8 and 12 years old. The foreign bodies were non organic (nail, pearl, dolphin-like hair styling accessory). Chest X-ray showed one case of radiolucent object. Bronchoscopic removal failed twice or 3 times, in each case. Therefore, external thoracic surgery was done: 2 bronchotomies and 1 right posterior inferior lobectomy. Posterior lateral thoracic incision was used. No complication occurred.
Conclusion: Bronchoscopy remains the gold standard treatment in the management of airway foreign bodies. Because of recent technological improvements in instrumentation, external thoracic surgery is avoided.


Although some Australian acacias are amongst the most notable invaders world-wide, information on the relative role of soil biota, particularly beneficial microbial communities such as rhizobia, in their invasion success remains elusive. We examined the nitrogen fixing bacteria (henceforth NFB, focus on rhizobia) in native and introduced populations across New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia of four weedy Acacia spp. and a sister-taxa Paraserianthes lophantha using 454 sequencing to identify the NFB community composition and diversity in the rhizophere and nodules. We hypothesized that if these acacias are specialists, they will associate with similar NFB subsets in their nodules across the continent and are likely to be constrained in the introduced populations if compatible microorganisms are absent from the rhizosphere. However, if these acacias are generalists, they will successfully form relationships with novel NFB in the introduced range populations and are unlikely to be constrained by the absence of suitable soil mutualists. Results showed that overall the rhizosphere NFB communities were different across the continent (south-east vs south-west), while similar across the ranges (native vs introduced) in the nodules of the host species. The most dominant rhizobial taxa in the rhizosphere and nodules were slow-growing Bradyrhizobium. These results suggest that acacias are specialists that predominantly associate with Bradyrhizobium in their nodules across native and introduced populations. However, this does not translate into an invasion constraint since Bradyrhizobium is common in the soils across the south-eastern and south-western populations of these acacias.


Post-stimulus undershoots, negative responses following cessation of stimulation, are widely observed in functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) data. However, the debate surrounding whether the origin of this response phase is neuronal or vascular, and whether it provides functionally relevant information, that is additional to what is contained in the primary response, means that undershoots are widely overlooked. We simultaneously recorded electroencephalography (EEG), BOLD and cerebral blood-flow (CBF) [obtained from arterial spin labelled (ASL) fMRI] fMRI responses to hemifield checkerboard stimulation to test the potential neural origin of the fMRI post-stimulus undershoot. The poststimulus BOLD and CBF signal amplitudes in both contralateral and ipsilateral visual cortex depended on the post-stimulus power of the occipital 8–13 Hz (alpha) EEG neuronal activity, such that trials with highest EEG power showed largest fMRI undershoots in contralateral visual cortex. This correlation in post-stimulus EEGfMRI responses was not predicted by the primary response amplitude. In the contralateral visual cortex we observed a decrease in both cerebral rate of oxygen metabolism (CMRO2) and CBF during the post-stimulus phase. In addition, the coupling ratio (n) between CMRO2 and CBF was significantly lower during the positive contralateral primary response phase compared with the post-stimulus phase and we propose that this reflects an altered balance of excitatory and inhibitory neuronal activity. Together our data provide strong evidence that the post-stimulus phase of the BOLD response has a neural origin which reflects, at least partially, an uncoupling of the neuronal responses driving the primary and post-stimulus responses, explaining the uncoupling of the signals measured in the two response phases. We suggest our results are consistent with inhibitory processes driving the post-stimulus EEG and fMRI responses. We therefore propose that new methods are required to model the post-stimulus and primary responses independently, enabling separate investigation of response phases in cognitive function and neurological disease.


The 1956 Hungarian revolution had a resonant echo in Western Europe, gaining large attention and media coverage. This article explores how the small, peripheral Atlantic country of Portugal, on the other side of the European continent (Lisbon lies more than 3,000 kilometers from Budapest), which was under the rightwing conservative dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar's New State at the time, became interested in the Hungarian events, allowing them to be written about in the most influential newspapers. The article begins with a discussion of the basic context of the Hungarian revolution of 1956 and of the Portuguese political context in the mid-1950s (the Salazarist regime and the bulk of the oppositional forces) and then offers an analysis of articles found in seven important Portuguese newspapers. Essentially, it presents a survey of the coverage of the Hungarian Revolution in the Portuguese press and explores how those events were interpreted and how they had an impact on the ideological readings and positions of the government, the moderate opposition, and the radical opposition of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP). The 1956 revolution merited extensive coverage in the Portuguese papers, with titles, pictures, and news boxes on the front pages sometimes continuing into the next pages of a given paper or on the last page. The stories were narrated, for most part, in a lively, fluid, sentimental, and apologetic language. The New State in particular, but also moderate publications which were oppositional to Salazar, endorsed the Budapest revolutionaries and criticized and denounced orthodox communism in the form of Soviet repression, either in the name of Christendom, national independence, and the Western European safeguard against communism (in the case of Salazarism), or in the name (and hope) of a democratic surge, which would usher in strident calls for civil liberties (in the case of oppositional voices). With the exception of the press organ which voiced the official position of the Portuguese Communist Party, supporting the Soviet response against the Hungarian insurgents (and thus was in sharp contrast with the larger share of public opinion), there was a rare convergence, despite nuances in the language, in the images, narratives, messages, and general tone of the articles in the various organs of the Portuguese press, which tended to show compassion and support for the insurgents in Budapest because their actions targeted communism and tended to decry the final bloody repression, which exposed the Soviet Union as a murderous regime.


The Zephyr Abstract Syntax Description Language (ASDL) describes the abstract syntax of compiler intermediate representations (IRs) and other tree-like data structures. Just as the lexical and syntactic structures of programming languages are described with regular expressions and context free grammars, ASDL provides a concise notation for describing the abstract syntax of programming languages. Tools can convert ASDL descriptions into the appropriate data-structure definitions and functions to convert the data-structures to or from a standard flattened representation. This makes it easier to build compiler components that interoperate.

Although ASDL lacks subtyping and inheritance, it is able to describe the Stanford University Intermediate Format (SUIF) compiler IR, originally implemented in C++. We have built a tool that converts ASDL into C, C++, Java, and ML data-structure definitions and conversion functions. We have also built a graphical browser-editor of ASDL data structures. ASDL shares features found in many network interface description languages (IDLs), algebraic data types, and languages such as ASN.1 and SGML. Compared to other alternatives ASDL is simple and powerful. This document describes ASDL in detail and presents an initial evaluation of ASDL.


143 Background: Managing physicians (medical oncologist, radiation oncologist, surgeons) have a responsibility to clinically stage patients prior to the initiation of cancer treatment. Clinical staging not only directs the treatment plan, but identifies appropriate clinical trials and estimates prognosis. We sought to determine whether engagement of managing physicians would result in increased clinical staging for various types of cancer.

METHODS
Baseline data on clinical staging for breast, colorectal (colon, rectal, anal, rectosigmoid junction)*, thoracic (lung esophageal)†, genitourinary (prostate, penis, testes)‡, and pancreatic primary cancers were obtained. The data were grouped by disease type and sub-specialty of the managing physicians. Based on that data, several performance improvement initiatives were implemented to provide managing physicians the opportunity to clinically stage the cancer patient prior to the initiation of treatment. The initiatives for completing and documenting staging were: a tutorial on use of Problem List in the electronic medical record (EMR); modification of history & physical and consult notes to include a field for staging; sharing among sub-specialties the smart lists within the template to allow for customization of existing templates; and 1:1 review with physicians who had outliers without clinical staging.

RESULTS
Clinical staging documented prior to the initiation of cancer treatment significantly increased in all five types of cancers studied (p < .01; Table).

CONCLUSIONS
Though collaborative efforts by managing physicians continues to evolve, in many cases, use of the electronic medical record through a variety of performance improvement initiatives has facilitated documentation of clinical staging of cancer patients prior to the initiation of treatment. This engagement changed practice patterns, aligned our institution with best practice guidelines and aided in treatment selection for the best possible patient outcomes. [Table: see text].


We develop a model of crime in which the number of police, the crime rate, the arrest rate, the employment rate and the wage rate are joint outcomes of a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium. The local government chooses the size of its police force and citizens choose among work, home and crime alternatives. We estimate the model using MSA-level data. We use the estimated model to examine the effects on crime of targeted federal transfers to local governments to increase police. We find that knowledge about unobserved MSA-specific attributes is critical for the optimal allocation of police across MSA's.


The accountancy profession is based on standards, rests on their adoption and successful implementation, and is governed by the overarching principle of serving the public interest. These are complex sets of variables made even more difficult with sovereign interests and multiple stakeholders playing out on a global stage. The Evaluation of the status of accountancy education with its components of qualification, education and training in selected countries and Ballcan compared with the requirements of the IES. Nevertheless, the capital markets, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, are demanding a single set of high quality internationally accepted accountancy standards where transparency, comparability and reliability of financial information is paramount. The importance of adoption and implementation of IES and the use of benchmarking in identifying country accomplishments and gaps from these standards. To enhance comparability a distinction is made between the four competency sub-pillars of accountancy education: personal development, professional accountancy education, professional development, and competence requirements for auditors. Together the sub-pillars cover all IES in a comprehensive approach that strengthens the statistical analysis of the results. Country overviews contain information about the adoption and implementation of International Education Standards (IES). The discussion of the regions includes country information, regional characteristics, adoption and implementation of IES, and recognition of qualifications.


Abstract Quality Function Deployment (QFD), one of the major quality systems, has been applied to develop numerous products (Akao, 1990), including software systems, to improve their quality. Target setting is a complicated and important task in product development using Quality Function Deployment (QFD). The targets are extremely important since they directly affect customer satisfaction. We need to develop methods of setting target values of engineering attributes based on their technical trend to achieve the quality goals in terms of satisfaction of customer requirements for a given timeframe so that by the time of completion of a project the values of technical attributes are competitive. Two quantitative approaches for setting target values: benchmarking and primitive linear regression were developed and used in the past, both of which are based on linear regression and not very practical in many applications. In this paper, we present an innovative quantitative approach to set technical targets in QFD to enable assessment of the impact of unachieved target values on customer satisfaction. In addition, both linear and non-linear regression are utilized in our method; hence, we need not be confined to straight-line relationships when an exponential function, a power function, or a polynomial rather than a straight line may better represent the data obtained. We further develop a time-stamped target setting method by incorporating the technical trend and time. By incorporating the market trend and the time of delivery of the product into the target setting process, we can set targets that provide a competitive edge for our product over the competitor's products and a high level of customer satisfaction.


A method for analysing the localization of the Hox-4 gene complex by three-dimensional reconstruction of serial cross-sections is presented. It allows the simultaneous visualization of three Hox expression domains on the same reconstructed embryo and the study of the effect of a graft of chicken polarizing region on the de novo expression of the genes of the HOX-4 complex. The method consists of registering the sections, segmenting the biological patterns and finally displaying the reconstructed embryo. The precise relationships between the transcript domains of the three genes can thus be assessed in either the normal wing bud or upon pattern modification


We study reinforcement learning in non-episodic factored Markov decision processes (FMDPs). We propose two near-optimal and oracle-efficient algorithms for FMDPs. Assuming oracle access to an FMDP planner, they enjoy a Bayesian and a frequentist regret bound respectively, both of which reduce to the near-optimal bound $\widetilde{O}(DS\sqrt{AT})$ for standard non-factored MDPs. We propose a tighter connectivity measure, factored span, for FMDPs and prove a lower bound that depends on the factored span rather than the diameter $D$. In order to decrease the gap between lower and upper bounds, we propose an adaptation of the REGAL.C algorithm whose regret bound depends on the factored span. Our oracle-efficient algorithms outperform previously proposed near-optimal algorithms on computer network administration simulations.


Abstract from article:

The Dutch healthcare system has changed towards a system of regulated competition to contain costs and to improve efficiency and quality of care. This paper provides: (1) a brief as-is overview of the changes for primary care, based on explorative literature reviews; (2) provides noteworthy remarks as for the way primary and secondary healthcare is organised; (3) an example of an E-health portal illustrating implemented processes within the Dutch context and (4) a proposed research agenda on various e-health topics. Noteworthy remarks are: (1) government, insurer, healthcare provider and patient are main actors within the Dutch healthcare system; (2) general practitioners (GP's) are gatekeepers to secondary and other care providers; (3) the illustrated portal with a patient oriented design, provides access to applications implemented at care providers resulting in increased electronic availability and increased patient satisfaction; (4) a variety of fragmented information systems at health care providers exists, which leaves room for standardisation and increased efficiency. We end with suggestions for future research.


The paper tackles the problem of real-time image motion tracking as a baseline function for visual motion estimation. Motion tracking is performed using the principles of 2D area correlation and joint transform correlation. To cope with real-time requirements a compact embedded optical Joint Transform Correlator design is presented, which allows using image motion tracking in mobile applications, such as airborne and spaceborne remote sensing as well as mobile robot and satellite navigation. The paper presents the general principles of motion tracking and gives detailed simulation performance results showing the accuracy and robustness under different operational conditions. Airborne flight test results show the achievable performances for an optical correlator hardware model.


We consider the problem of audio voice separation for binaural applications, such as earphones and hearing aids. While today's neural networks perform remarkably well (separating $4+$ sources with 2 microphones) they assume a known or fixed maximum number of sources, K. Moreover, today's models are trained in a supervised manner, using training data synthesized from generic sources, environments, and human head shapes. This paper intends to relax both these constraints at the expense of a slight alteration in the problem definition. We observe that, when a received mixture contains too many sources, it is still helpful to separate them by region, i.e., isolating signal mixtures from each conical sector around the user's head. This requires learning the fine-grained spatial properties of each region, including the signal distortions imposed by a person's head. We propose a two-stage self-supervised framework in which overheard voices from earphones are pre-processed to extract relatively clean personalized signals, which are then used to train a region-wise separation model. Results show promising performance, underscoring the importance of personalization over a generic supervised approach. (audio samples available at our project website: https://uiuc-earable-computing.github.io/binaural/. We believe this result could help real-world applications in selective hearing, noise cancellation, and audio augmented reality.


The development of a National Food Guide for the United Kingdom is a priority in the action plans of the Nutrition Task Force. Pictorial food guides to translate nutrient recommendations into guidance for food choice have been in use in other parts of the world for many years. However, there has not, until the present time, been a nationally recognized guide in the United Kingdom. Such a tool would enable those involved in nutrition education programmes to address the public with consistent messages through a variety of different channels, thus reducing the potential for misinformation and misunderstanding. This paper describes a brief history of food guides, gives the background to the development of a guide in the United Kingdom and outlines the research and development process including consultation with a wide range of organizations. The development of dietetic and nutritional characteristics of the Guide format preferences and performance study results are described in accompanying papers in this issue on pages 323–334 and 335–351.


Notwithstanding its importance as an internal source of financing, no analysis has examined why nonprofits choose to retain unrestricted net assets. As restricted net assets might not be used as desired by the nonprofit manager, unrestricted net assets are a more accurate definition of available internal resources than total net assets. This article tests several theories that might motivate nonprofit accumulation of unrestricted net assets. Furthermore, the empirical strategy employed allows an analysis of unrestricted net asset accumulation over time and overcomes several significant statistical estimation issues. The results suggest that nonprofits target profits and seek their accumulation over time, although targets may be set at very low levels. Furthermore, the results suggest that the low levels of profits accumulated annually are for the purpose of reducing organizational financial vulnerability. The results also suggest that many nonprofits behave as if leverage and unrestricted net assets are substitutes.


The development of a simulation model has always been a challenging task; it is timeconsuming and requires expertise. Furthermore, most customized simulation models need to be developed from scratch. This paper proposes a more effective, reusable solution. The approach is to develop a Software Product Line (SPL) architecture that explicitly captures the commonality and variability in the family of similar simulation systems. First responders and incident management personnel need better training resources to prepare for possible catastrophic events, including natural disasters and man-made attacks. Live exercises are often very expensive to organize and conduct. With modeling and simulation technology, simulation-based exercise and training models could be developed. These exercise and training models support incident management training and operational activities in a variety of scenarios based on different physical conditions, constraints, available technologies, and capacities of the responder's facilities. Each emergency responder has an objective, scope, and policy to provide emergency-response support for the incidents. Specific simulation-based exercise and training models are useful to serve different training purposes. The SPL technology enables the simulation system to easily adapt to multiple contexts and allows the simulation system to reconfigure quickly. SPL models can be developed at different levels of scope and depth to suit the emergency responder's needs. By reusing the system requirement analysis, software architectures and design, the simulation modelers do not have to re-develop the simulation model from scratch. Thus, the development time is shorter, the development cost is lower, and the quality is easily maintained. This paper focuses on the application of SPL technology to simulation systems of emergency facilities, such as hospital emergency rooms, on-site emergency triage stations, decontamination stations, first-aid stations, or ambulances. The paper also introduces a prototype of the SPL member system – a hospital emergency room simulation system that has been developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The detailed modeling of a family of emergency response facility simulation models is performed based on the Product Line UML-based Software engineering (PLUS) method.


This paper seeks to make a contribution to contemporary debates on multi-level government, transnational constitutionalism, and the emergence of international constitutional ordering. It does so by arguing, contrary to many of the proponents of these theories, that it is mistaken to assume that the concepts of state theory can be easily jettisoned or somehow transcended. In this paper, the key concepts of sovereignty, state and constitution are reworked, and an account of the modern concept of public law provided. This account, it is suggested, provides a frame through which the errors and limitations of proponents of multi-level constitutionalism can be assessed, and the critical issues that such transnational developments raise more accurately identified.


Mycoplasma, the smallest self-replicating microorganism, is one of the most significant problems in the cell-culture field. It belongs to the class of Mollicutes, which are characterized by the absence of a cell wall, making them resistant to commonly used antibiotics, such as streptomycin and penicillin. Because of their small size, Mycoplasmas can pass through the 220-nm pores of filters used to sterilize culture media. Owing to these criteria, contaminated cell-culture with Mycoplasma not easily detected for extended periods of time, since Mycoplasma cannot be visualized by the naked eye or even by light microscopy and do not produce overt turbid growth commonly associated with bacterial and fungal contamination. The three major sources of Mycoplasma contamination in cell-culture are 1) Cross-contamination from infected cultures, 2) contaminated culture reagents (e.g. serum and trypsin), and 3) infected laboratory personnel with M. orale or M. fermentans. Knowing the importance of cell-culture as a significant research tool for a variety of biomedical disciplines, several effective methods and kits were developed to detect Mycoplasma contamination of cell-culture and others to eliminate the contamination using antibiotics. The frequency of Mycoplasma contamination in cell-culture has been extensively discussed in the literature. Previous reports show high incidences of Mycoplasma contamination reaching up to 35% worldwide, with extreme incidences of 65% in Argentina and 80% in Japan. Mycoplasma contamination of cell-culture has diverse and comprehensive consequences, ranging from unsafe biological products, to erroneous experimental results. Due to the lack of amino acid biosynthesis genes, Mycoplasma competes with its' host cell nutrients and biosynthetic precursors, leading to DNA, RNA and protein synthesis alterations. Using microarray platforms, numerous gene-expression studies have shown that Mycoplasma contamination significantly up regulates and down regulates thousands of genes like oncogenes, tumor suppressors, cytokines and growth factors. Therefore, in gene-expression studies, it is critical to ensure that transcriptional changes due to Mycoplasma contamination in cell-culture are eliminated and gene-expression profile is restored to normal level after anti-Mycoplasma treatment, to avoid biased results. For this purpose, first, we developed a survey to investigate the incidence of Mycoplasma contamination in cell-cultures and the techniques frequently used for the detection and elimination of Mycoplasma in research laboratories at Qatar. Based on the output of this survey, SKOV3 ovarian carcinoma cells, LookOut® Mycoplasma PCR Detection Kit from Sigma and BM-Cyclin from Roche were selected as most commonly used cells, detection kit and elimination kit of Mycoplasma, respectively. Second, we used RNA-seq technology, for the first time, to investigate the transcriptional changes of Mycoplasma contamination in cell-culture and the ability of anti-Mycoplasma treatment in reversing these changes. RNA samples extracted from uncontaminated (control), Mycoplasma-contaminated and anti-Mycoplasma treated cultured cell (Skov3) were sequenced on illumine 4000 Hi-seq. Generated data were analyzed by comparing gene expression profiles of these three conditions and summarizing all differentially expressed genes and their associated pathways. Preliminary data demonstrated that mycoplasmas alter the expression of hundreds of genes in cultured Skov3 cells. A variety of pathways are affected, and both up-regulation and down-regulation were seen. Deeper analysis specifying significantly altered pathways are in progress along with analyzing data of the post anti-Mycoplasma treatment.


Forest fires are drivers of spatial patterns and temporal dynamics of vegetation and biodiversity. On the Canary Islands, large areas of pine forest exist, dominated by the endemic Canary Island pine, Pinus canariensis C. Sm. These mostly natural forests experience wildfires frequently. P. canariensis is well-adapted to such impacts and has the ability to re-sprout from both stems and branches. In recent decades, however, anthropogenically caused fires have increased, and climate change further enhances the likelihood of large forest fires. Through its dense, long needles, P. canariensis promotes cloud precipitation, which is an important ecosystem service for the freshwater supply of islands such as La Palma. Thus, it is important to understand the regeneration and vegetation dynamics of these ecosystems after fire. Here, we investigated species diversity patterns in the understory vegetation of P. canariensis forests after the large 2016 fire on the southern slopes of La Palma. We analyzed the effect of fire intensity, derived from Sentinel-2 NDVI differences, and of environmental variables, on species richness (alpha diversity) and compositional dissimilarity (beta diversity). We used redundancy analysis (dbRDA), Bray–Curtis dissimilarity, and variance partitioning for this analysis. Fire intensity accounted for a relatively small proportion of variation in alpha and beta diversity, while elevation was the most important predictor. Our results also reveal the important role of the endemic Lotus campylocladus ssp. hillebrandii (Christ) Sandral & D.D.Sokoloff for understory diversity after fire. Its dominance likely reduces the ability of other species to establish by taking up nutrients and water and by shading the ground. The mid- to long-term effects are unclear since Lotus is an important nitrogen fixer in P. canariensis forests and can reduce post-fire soil erosion on steep slopes.


Importance The idea that abortion leads to adverse psychological outcomes has been the basis for legislation mandating counseling before obtaining an abortion and other policies to restrict access to abortion. Objective To assess women's psychological well-being 5 years after receiving or being denied an abortion. Design, Setting, and Participants This study presents data from the Turnaway Study, a prospective longitudinal study with a quasi-experimental design. Women were recruited from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2010, from 30 abortion facilities in 21 states throughout the United States, interviewed via telephone 1 week after seeking an abortion, and then interviewed semiannually for 5 years, totaling 11 interview waves. Interviews were completed January 31, 2016. We examined the psychological trajectories of women who received abortions just under the facility's gestational limit (near-limit group) and compared them with women who sought but were denied an abortion because they were just beyond the facility gestational limit (turnaway group, which includes the turnaway-birth and turnaway-no-birth groups). We used mixed effects linear and logistic regression analyses to assess whether psychological trajectories differed by study group. Main Outcomes and Measures We included 6 measures of mental health and well-being: 2 measures of depression and 2 measures of anxiety assessed using the Brief Symptom Inventory, as well as self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Results Of the 956 women (mean [SD] age, 24.9 [5.8] years) in the study, at 1 week after seeking an abortion, compared with the near-limit group, women denied an abortion reported more anxiety symptoms (turnaway-births, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.01 to 1.13; turnaway-no-births, 2.29; 95% CI, 1.39 to 3.18), lower self-esteem (turnaway-births, –0.33; 95% CI, –0.56 to –0.09; turnaway-no-births, –0.40; 95% CI, –0.78 to –0.02), lower life satisfaction (turnaway-births, –0.16; 95% CI, –0.38 to 0.06; turnaway-no-births, –0.41; 95% CI, –0.77 to –0.06), and similar levels of depression (turnaway-births, 0.13; 95% CI, –0.46 to 0.72; turnaway-no-births, 0.44; 95% CI, –0.50 to 1.39). Conclusions and Relevance In this study, compared with having an abortion, being denied an abortion may be associated with greater risk of initially experiencing adverse psychological outcomes. Psychological well-being improved over time so that both groups of women eventually converged. These findings do not support policies that restrict women's access to abortion on the basis that abortion harms women's mental health.


In the present and medium term perspective in the future, the mechanical engineering and other industrial branches are facing advanced challenges arising from global changes in the technical, economic and social environment. Submitted article deals with the approach to Product design in automotive sector that is using benefits from the synergic effect of utilizing the innovative methods, techniques and tools, within the integrated model of complex product development. The suggested paradigm is demonstrated on the project of experimental car ICAR 2010 at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia.


Our work highlights the necessity of revising the materials employed in instrumental education, which are systematically based on a progressive development of technical abilities and, though only transversely, without a structured sequence of contents, on issues referring to the interpretation of different periods and styles. In order to elaborate teaching resources systematising the stylistic contents in instrumental education, we propose and justify the use of a research methodology from the social sciences: Grounded Theory. In conjunction, we present a guided demonstration on how to put into practice this methodological system to analyse musical performance based on the concept of Historical Performance of Music and we create related pedagogical resources.


The "Mozart effect" is the reported phenomenon of increased spatial abilities after listening to that composer's music. However, subsequent research suggests that the Mozart effect may be an artifactual consequence of heightened arousal and mood rather than the music of Mozart per se (e.g., Thompson, Schellenberg, & Husain, 2001). The present study considers if performance improvements in a scored computer game are consistent with the mood and arousal hypothesis. Indeed, the use of a computer game as the experimental vehicle makes this work notably the most ecologically valid study of the Mozart effect to date. Specifically, in this work, ratings of musical preference as well as the game performance of individuals listening to different types of music are compared. If arousal and mood are the real "Mozart effect," we hypothesized that the performance level of participants would increase when listening to the selections they most enjoy. Results supported this hypothesis. ********** The Mozart Effect (e.g., Rauscher, Shaw, & Ky, 1993) is the reported phenomenon that listening to Mozart would temporarily increase spatial reasoning ability by the equivalent of 8-9 points on the Stanford-Binet. Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky explain the Mozart Effect by suggesting that exposure to musical compositions that are structurally complex excites certain cortical firing patterns comparable to those activated when completing spatial-temporal tasks. The Mozart Effect has also been seized upon by the media, and even distorted into the claim that simply listening to Mozart would make people smarter. Indeed, the idea that passively listening to Mozart might increase IQ scores has sparked the development of many "educational" books and music products (see McKelvie & Low, 2002). As Nantals and Schellenberg (1999) note, one Governor even budgeted for a compact disc or cassette for each infant born in his state. Despite issues with face validity, the Mozart Effect has been seriously discussed in such prestigious publications as Science and Nature, and still frequents the pages of respected psychology journals. At times, there have been problems replicating the basic effect, but it has been suggested by Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky (1998) that inconsistent results by other researchers can be attributed to methodological differences. However, Nantais and Schellenberg (1999) had no difficulty replicating the basic finding: That is, they found a significant increase in performance on spatial-temporal tasks for subjects that heard a musical piece; but, there was no marked difference between those that heard Mozart or those who heard Schubert. Likewise, other researchers (e.g., Ashby, Isben, & Turken, 1999; Steele, Bass, & Crook, 1999) also observed that changes in mood can have a significant effect on cognitive performance, and that the original experimental conditions (e.g., listening to Mozart, relaxation music, or silence) likely each have an affect on mood and arousal. As such, the argument emerged that observed performance differences may occur due to improvements in mood and arousal rather than from neurophysiological priming. Consistent, Thompson, Schellenberg, and Husain (2001) reported that individuals that listened to Mozart performed better on spatial tasks, but also scored higher on positive mood and arousal ratings. Subjects that scored low on mood and arousal showed no effect of the music. By examining participant's spatial abilities after listening to a Mozart sonata (expected to produce positive mood), and an adagio by Albinoni (a sad piece), they were able to provide additional support for the arousal and mood hypothesis. In summary, the most current explanation for the Mozart Effect would suggest that an individual's mood/preference for a particular piece of music should correlate with any cognitive gains (Steele, 2000). In fact, if arousal and mood produce the "effect," then equally pleasant stimuli other than music should have the same result. …


Automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems in the medical domain that focus on transcribing clinical dictations and doctor-patient conversations often pose many challenges due to the complexity of the domain. ASR output typically undergoes automatic punctuation to enable users to speak naturally, without having to vocalize awkward and explicit punctuation commands, such as "period", "add comma" or "exclamation point", while truecasing enhances user readability and improves the performance of downstream NLP tasks. This paper proposes a conditional joint modeling framework for prediction of punctuation and truecasing using pretrained masked language models such as BERT, BioBERT and RoBERTa. We also present techniques for domain and task specific adaptation by fine-tuning masked language models with medical domain data. Finally, we improve the robustness of the model against common errors made in ASR by performing data augmentation. Experiments performed on dictation and conversational style corpora show that our proposed model achieves 5% absolute improvement on ground truth text and 10% improvement on ASR outputs over baseline models under F1 metric.


Tiger prawn P.monodon) larvae utilize Brachionus a rotifer, as food in the Zoea 3 and mysis stages when they change from an herbivorous to an omnivorous diet. The present work aims to show the effects of furanace on the population growth of Brachionus. Cultures of Brachionus were obtained and fed with Chlorella at a density of 1-2x10 SUP-6 cells/ml. Five liters of the culture water were placed in each of 4 white, circular, 152x304 mm plastic basins. The mean initial densities of the rotifer ranged from 26 . 5 to 38 . 5 individuals/ml. The concentrations of furanace were 0, 1, 2 and 3 mg /l. The cultures were vigorously aerated. Population growth was observed after 3, 6, and 9 hours of exposure. The cultures were thoroughly mixed before samples were taken to ensure an almost equal distribution of the rotifers in the water. To facilitate the counting of the rotifer, one drop of Lugol's solution was added to each sample. This immobilizes the rotifer as well as stops further reproduction. Individuals with only the lorica left or with badly deformed lorica were considered dead. Population counts were done using a Sedgwick-Rafter counting chamber. Among the different durations of exposure, the percentage survival of the populations in the furanace baths were highest after 3 hr. There were slight increases in the control and 2 mg/l and slight decreases in 1 and 3 mg/l. The differences in the mean densities are statistically insignificant at . 01 significance level. After a 6-hr exposure, the control population reached its peak density with a survival of 89%. Populations in furanace baths decreased to 88 . 5% in both 2 and 3 mg /l followed closely by 87% in 1 mg/l. Again, no statistical differences exist among all the levels. The mean percentage survival in 1 and 2 mg/l increased (89% and 91%, respectively) after a 9-hr expsoure, while those in the control and 3 mg/l decreased to 86 . 5% and 88 . 25%, respectively. There were no marked differences in appearance noted among the individuals in furanace baths and those in the control.


The Rorschach Test in the forensic context: a study on parenting conducted on couples in separation and child custody contextfont size  PrintE-mailby Roberto Cicioni, Tommaso Caravelli, Floriana Loggia, Maria Elisa Maiolo This work aims at setting Rorschach Test in a specific forensic context, such as that of the couples involved in separation and in entrustment of minors. Authors' intent is to arrange the foundation for a future calibration of Rorschach Test, specific to the forensic context of couples undergoing separation and child custody. The study was conducted on 150 Rorschach protocols administered to a sample of Italian separated couples and evaluated in the field of child custody; this study also aims at meeting the demand of the Technical Consultant to make use of specific diagnostic elements to the participants that are involved personally in separation and custody. Data collection shows an average profile of the appraised participants different from the profile of those who do not live this deep state of transition and stress: this can be an objective starting point on which to base assessments on parenting.The comparison of the data obtained in this study with those ones of the "national reference sample" shows differences between protocols of those participants that do the test voluntarily, with those gathered in the investigation contexts who often are characterized by low motivation to the test and by fears and anxieties which are intrinsically related to the topic of evaluation. It is definitively important for the forensic Psychodiagnostics to possess specific statistical data on which to base inferences on the parenting ability of participants, reducing the risk of subjective judgments based on common sense or only on theoretical model, not necessarily shared between consultants, which are often the basis of the occurrence of irreconcilable disputes.The sample includes protocols administered in Italy between 2001 and 2009, equally divided between males and females with average age 40 years, collected and signed using the "Scuola Romana Rorschach" method.To ensure objectivity in the marking phase, that is to ensure that every answer given by an appraised subject matches one and only one score, we used a computer program, Siglaror (Parisi &Pes, 2006), a database of more than 23,000 Rorschach interpretations marked on a statistical system and on the degree of agreement achieved by a group of experts at national level.


While a significant body of bioethical literature considers how the placebo effect might introduce a conflict between autonomy and beneficence, the link between justice and the placebo effect has been neglected. Here, we bring together disparate evidence from the field of placebo studies and research on health inequalities related to race and ethnicity, and argue that, collectively, this evidence may provide the basis for an unacknowledged route by which health disparities are exacerbated. This route is constituted by an uneven distribution of placebo effects, resulting from differences in expressions of physician warmth and empathy, as well as support and patient engagement, across racial and ethnic lines. In a discussion of the ethical implications of this connection, we argue that this contribution to health disparities is a source of injustice, consider ways in which these disparities might be ameliorated and suggest that this conclusion is likely to extend to other realms of inequality as well.


The goal of this study is to explore three different models that three selected university choirs chose to accommodate diversity: two choirs with different identities existing independently alongside each other on one campus (model A), one choir, implementing diversity (model B) and one choir with a Eurocentric character (model C). Each university was treated separately, collecting qualitative data to provide historical insight into the choir, to determine profiles of the relevant conductor(s) and choristers and to determine the management body's views regarding the role of the choir(s) within the institution. Information on repertoire indicates preference for musical styles, favouring an African or Western perspective or showing measures of cultural adaptability. Data was collected from choristers, conductors, organisers and university representatives by questionnaires and personal interviews as well as historical data in the form of concert programmes of the selected university choirs. The research findings indicated that the three universities concerned chose to handle their cultural diversities in completely different ways, resulting in creating unique choral identities which are evident in aspects such as repertoire, choristers' experience and the support from the institution.


Colorectal Cancer (CRC) is the third leading cause of cancer death in Ireland yet it is a highly preventable disease through lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise. Vast amounts of research have been conducted supporting the hypothesis that diet helps to prevent or significantly reduce the incidence of CRC. However, very little is known as to whether any health promotion activities are being adopted practice nurses to raisepublic awareness of the primary prevention of CRC. A proposed method will be set out to explore Irish practice nurses knowledge on the primary prevention of CRC. A purposive sample obtained from the Irish Practice Nurses Association (IPNA) will be used in this quantitative study. Questionnaires will be used for data collection. It is anticipated that the knowledge gained from this study will improve practice nurses and other health care professionals understanding, awareness and necessity of increasing the public awareness about the primary prevention of CRC


EMSaov is a new R package that we developed to provide users with an analysis of variance table including the expected mean squares (EMS) for various types of experimental design. It is not easy to find the appropriate test, particularly the denominator for the F statistic that depends on the EMS, when some variables exhibit random effects or when we use a special experimental design such as nested design, repeated measures design, or split-plot design. With EMSaov, a user can easily find the F statistic denominator and can determine how to analyze the data when using a special experimental design. We also develop a web application with a GUI interface using the shiny package in R . We expect that our application can contribute to the efficient and easy analysis of experimental data.


With new technologies, temperature has become a major issue to be considered at system level design. In this paper we propose a temperature aware idle time distribution technique for energy optimization with dynamic voltage scaling (DVS). A temperature analysis approach is also proposed which is accurate and, yet, sufficiently fast to be used inside the optimization loop for idle time distribution and voltage selection.


Frequent and fair elections, open to all, are fundamental elements of a democracy. The United States, through its local, state, and national contests, holds more elections, more often, than any other democracy in the world. But in recent years, there have been troubling signs that our system of campaigns and elections has become much more fragile than we had previously thought. More specifically, in the past twenty years, campaigns have changed profoundly: social media and viral messaging compete with traditional media, races once considered local in nature have become nationalized, Supreme Court decisions on campaign finance law now encourage mega-donors, voters are more polarized, party affiliation has waned, and the middle ideological ground has given way to extremist language and voter rage. Twice in sixteen years we have seen winning presidential candidates gaining fewer popular votes than their opponents. The fundamental right of every citizen to vote has been impeded by state legislatures demanding tighter access, more identification, and accusations of voter fraud. And we have faced the real threat of foreign influence in our national elections. This book offers the most up-to-date examination of campaigns and elections, including the challenges and opportunities they present. It addresses fundamental questions about who votes in American elections, how legislative districts are reapportioned and why it matters, the realities of voter fraud, the pros and cons of reforming the Electoral College, the impact of dark money on campaigns, and the role of political consultants and specialists, among other topics. Given the fragility of our election process, what are the threats to a healthy American democracy? Do the candidates with the most money always win? This is not simply a book on how campaigns are run, but why campaigns and elections are integral components of American democracy and how those fundamental elements may be vulnerable to misuse.


Abstract. The DEEP site sediment sequence obtained during the ICDP SCOPSCO project at Lake Ohrid was dated using tephrostratigraphic information, cyclostratigraphy, and orbital tuning through the marine isotope stages (MIS) 15-1. Although this approach is suitable for the generation of a general chronological framework of the long succession, it is insufficient to resolve more detailed palaeoclimatological questions, such as leads and lags of climate events between marine and terrestrial records or between different regions. Here, we demonstrate how the use of different tie points can affect cyclostratigraphy and orbital tuning for the period between ca. 140 and 70 ka and how the results can be correlated with directly/indirectly radiometrically dated Mediterranean marine and continental proxy records. The alternative age model presented here shows consistent differences with that initially proposed by Francke et al. (2015) for the same interval, in particular at the level of the MIS6-5e transition. According to this new age model, different proxies from the DEEP site sediment record support an increase of temperatures between glacial to interglacial conditions, which is almost synchronous with a rapid increase in sea surface temperature observed in the western Mediterranean. The results show how a detailed study of independent chronological tie points is important to align different records and to highlight asynchronisms of climate events. Moreover, Francke et al. (2016) have incorporated the new chronology proposed for tephra OH-DP-0499 in the final DEEP age model. This has reduced substantially the chronological discrepancies between the DEEP site age model and the model proposed here for the last glacial-interglacial transition.


Economic inequality is rapidly increasing in the majority of countries. The wealth of the world is divided in two: almost half going to the richest one percent; the other half to the remaining 99 percent. The World Economic Forum has identified this as a major risk to human progress. Extreme economic inequality and political capture are too often interdependent. Left unchecked, political institutions become undermined and governments overwhelmingly serve the interests of economic elites to the detriment of ordinary people.


Despite reports suggesting that participation in Second Life for both social and economic activities has been declining, there have also been several recent reports suggesting that while the hype over Second Life such as popular press accounts and appearances on CSI New York has declined, economic activity is continuing to grow (Rosenwald, 2010), and more and more companies are choosing Second Life as a meeting and collaboration platform (Hu 2010). Considering the usefulness of Second Life as a platform to conduct meetings, training, and even education, several HCI-related questions become relevant, especially in the more social aspects of virtual world activity. Companies such as IBM, Cisco (Pattison, 2008), and law firms such as Jones Walker (Hu, 2010) have been using Second Life as an online meeting platform. It may be that the people participating in the meetings know each other in real life; however, meeting participants are likely to be interacting with others that they don't know. In such a situation, what is the process by which an individual makes judgments about the others in the meeting that they don't know? In real life, people make judgments of others' personalities that they come in contact with surprising speed. Absent any other information, first impressions can be made in as few as 100 milliseconds (Willis & Todorov, 2006). While more time observing, more interaction with, and more experience with the target individual can improve the judges' accuracy regarding the qualities of the target individual, the question that drives this research remains, especially in a virtual world context where social presence is lower than in real life: Can individuals make accurate personality judgments of others in a "first impression" encounter in Second Life? Another compelling question arises if, in fact, people are not able to make accurate personality judgments from such a first impression. That is, if individuals are unable to make accurate judgments, do the avatars that individuals use in Second Life provide a consistent "message" to others in world? In other words, do judges make consistent judgments of an avatars personality, regardless of the judgments' accuracy? This research begins to examine how individuals make judgments of others' personalities when presented with the other's avatar in Second Life. This poster presents the preliminary work in this research program. The full study will be composed of three stages, involving collecting target individuals' Big 5 personality profiles, their avatars from Second Life, and recruiting a sample of judges to make judgments of the target individuals' avatars. Potential contributions include understanding the mechanism(s) that influence how people make personality judgments of others in immersive virtual world settings to provide a valuable theoretical foundation for examining how people make judgments in other online settings. A potential contribution to practice is that understanding how judges perceive the personalities of others in virtual worlds can provide guidance for virtual team members, managers, and others who wish to project a particular profile in a virtual world setting. Furthermore, understanding how judges inaccurately perceive others' personalities in virtual world will help judges to adjust their initial judgments of others based on the others' avatars.


This paper offers a rationale for the typefaces chosen for the publication Technologies of Romance: Part II written by Paul O'Kane and celebrated at a symposium held at the Science Museum in November 2018. In setting out this rationale the paper broadens its considerations to reflect on the extent to which typefaces might in themselves usefully be considered as technologies of Romance.

It locates the practice of noting in print the typeface used in a given publication both historically and within contemporary practice. The recording of the decisions informing the making of a book starts to hint at the nature of the book itself as a technology, and allows for some discussion of the values of 'making' books within both past and present contexts of production, including the challenge of digital readers.

Elaboration on the decisions concerning the use of a given typeface for a publication then opens out a discussion of the intention behind selection, and both the functional and emotional ambitions of the typeface choice. The associative aims informing selection of a typeface are explored against an understanding of the associative embedding of meaning within aspects of the terminology of typefaces, as well as the scripts they represent and their designed forms. The paper explores for example the imperial associations embedded in the character shapes of the basic letterforms, as well as the technological implications of the terms such as uppercase and lowercase and the problematic colonial implications of the term 'Latin' to describe the script in question.

In considering the archival possibilities of typefaces as technologies the paper concludes by reflecting on examples of digital typeface design practice, which have actively sought to re-imagine a previous era of letterpress typesetting technology and the possibilities for investigating ongoing Romantic ideals within this very particular and highly specialised design discipline.


From the exciting history of its development in ancient times to the present day, Introduction to Cryptography with Mathematical Foundations and Computer Implementations provides a focused tour of the central concepts of cryptography. Rather than present an encyclopedic treatment of topics in cryptography, it delineates cryptographic concepts in chronological order, developing the mathematics as needed. Written in an engaging yet rigorous style, each chapter introduces important concepts with clear definitions and theorems. Numerous examples explain key points while figures and tables help illustrate more difficult or subtle concepts. Each chapter is punctuated with "Exercises for the Reader;" complete solutions for these are included in an appendix. Carefully crafted exercise sets are also provided at the end of each chapter, and detailed solutions to most odd-numbered exercises can be found in a designated appendix. The computer implementation section at the end of every chapter guides students through the process of writing their own programs. A supporting website provides an extensive set of sample programs as well as downloadable platform-independent applet pages for some core programs and algorithms. As the reliance on cryptography by business, government, and industry continues and new technologies for transferring data become available, cryptography plays a permanent, important role in day-to-day operations. This self-contained sophomore-level text traces the evolution of the field, from its origins through present-day cryptosystems, including public key cryptography and elliptic curve cryptography.


Many people enjoy the symphony, but those without prior training often find it difficult to relate to the music. The authors have developed a system that guides listeners through orchestral performances in real time by presenting time-relevant annotations in a manner similar to that of a personal museum guide. These annotations are authored in partnership with musical experts prior to a performance to provide appropriate contextual information for a given concert program. Using acoustic features of the music, they align the live performance with that of a previously time-stamped recording. The aligned position is transmitted to an application on the users' handheld devices, which present the annotations using an intuitive and unobtrusive interface. To assess its utility, the system underwent a user beta testing stage accompanying orchestra concert broadcasts. It has since been adopted by the Philadelphia Orchestra for use during live concerts in its 2012-2013 subscription season and beyond.


Abstract In light water reactors, particularly the pressurized water reactor (PWR), the severity of a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) would limit how high the reactor power can operate. Although the best-estimate LOCA licensing methodology can provide the greatest margin on the peak cladding temperature (PCT) evaluation during a LOCA, it generally takes much more resources to develop. Instead, implementation of evaluation models required by Appendix K of 10CFR50 on an advanced thermal-hydraulic platform such as RELAP5, TRAC, etc., also can gain significant margin for the PCT calculation. Through compliance evaluation against Appendix K of 10CFR50, all of the required evaluation models have been implemented in RELAP5-3D. To verify and assess the development of the Appendix K version of RELAP5-3D, nine kinds of separate-effects experiments and eight sets of LOCA integral experiments were adopted. Through the assessments against separate-effects experiments, the success of the code modification in accordance with Appendix K of 10CFR50 was demonstrated. Besides, one set of a typical integral large-break LOCA from Loss-of-Fluid Test Facility experiments (L2-5) has also been applied to preliminarily evaluate the integral performance of the Appendix K version of RELAP5-3D. The PCT predicted by the evaluation models is greater than the one from best-estimate calculation in the whole LOCA history with the conservatism of 150 K, and the measured PCTs of L2-5 are also well bounded by the evaluation model calculation. Another seven sets of integral-effect experiments will be further applied in the next step to ensure the reasonable integral conservatism of the newly developed LOCA licensing analysis code (RELAP5-3DK/INER), which can cover all the phases of both large- and small LOCA in one code.


Search-based software testing (SBST) has shown a potential to decrease cost and increase quality of testing- related software development activities. Research in SBST has so far mainly focused on the search for isolated tests that are optimal according to a fitness function that guides the search. In this paper we make the case for fitness functions that measure test fitness in relation to existing or previously found tests; a test is good if it is diverse from other tests. We present a model for test variability and propose the use of a theoretically optimal diversity metric at variation points in the model. We then describe how to apply a practically useful approximation to the theoretically optimal metric. The metric is simple and powerful and can be adapted to a multitude of different test diversity measurement scenarios. We present initial results from an experiment to compare how similar to human subjects, the metric can cluster a set of test cases. To carry out the experiment we have extended an existing framework for test automation in an object-oriented, dynamic programming language.


Multicore Clusters, which have become the most prominent form of High Performance Computing (HPC) systems, challenge the performance of MPI applications with non uniform memory accesses and shared cache hierarchies. Recent advances in MPI collective communications have alleviated the performance issue exposed by deep memory hierarchies by carefully considering the mapping between the collective topology and the core distance, as well as the use of single-copy kernel assisted mechanisms. However, on distributed environments, a single level approach cannot encompass the extreme variations not only in bandwidth and latency capabilities, but also in the aptitude to support duplex communications or operate multiple concurrent copies simultaneously. This calls for a collaborative approach between multiple layers of collective algorithms, dedicating to extracting the maximum degree of parallelism from the collective algorithm by consolidating the intra- and inter-node communications. In this work, we present Hier KNEM a kernel-assisted topology-aware collective framework, and how this framework orchestrates the collaboration between multiple layers of collective algorithms. The resulting scheme enables perfect overlap of intra- and inter-node communications. We demonstrated experimentally, by considering three of the most used collective operations (Broadcast, All gather and Reduction), that 1) this approach is immune to modifications of the underlying process-core binding, 2) it outperforms state-of-art MPI libraries (Open MPI, MPICH2 and MVAPICH2) demonstrating up to a 30x speedup for synthetic benchmarks, and up to a 3x acceleration for a parallel graph application (ASP), 3) it furthermore demonstrates a linear speedup with the increase of the number of cores per node, a paramount requirement for scalability on future many-core hardware.


Minimally invasive procedures rely on medical imaging instead of the surgeon's direct vision. While preoperative images can be used for surgical planning and navigation, once the surgeon arrives at the target site real-time intraoperative imaging is needed. However, acquiring and interpreting these images can be challenging and much of the rich temporal information present in these images is not visible. The goal of this thesis is to improve image guidance for minimally invasive surgery in two main areas. First, by showing how high-quality ultrasound video can be obtained by integrating an ultrasound transducer directly into delivery devices for beating heart valve surgery. Secondly, by extracting hidden temporal information through video processing methods to help the surgeon localize important anatomical structures. Prototypes of delivery tools, with integrated ultrasound imaging, were developed for both transcatheter aortic valve implantation and mitral valve repair. These tools provided an on-site view that shows the tool-tissue interactions during valve repair. Additionally, augmented reality environments were used to add more anatomical context that aids in navigation and in interpreting the on-site video. Other procedures can be improved by extracting hidden temporal information from the intraoperative video. In ultrasound guided epidural injections, dural pulsation provides a cue in finding a clear trajectory to the epidural space. By processing the video using extended Kalman filtering, subtle pulsations were automatically detected and visualized in real-time. A statistical framework for analyzing periodicity was developed based on dynamic linear modelling. In addition to detecting dural pulsation in lumbar spine ultrasound, this approach was used to image tissue perfusion in natural video and generate ventilation maps from free-breathing magnetic resonance imaging. A second statistical method, based on spectral analysis of pixel intensity values, allowed blood flow to be detected directly from high-frequency B-mode ultrasound video. Finally, pulsatile cues in endoscopic video were enhanced through Eulerian video magnification to help localize critical vasculature. This approach shows particular promise in identifying the basilar artery in endoscopic third ventriculostomy and the prostatic artery in nerve-sparing prostatectomy. A real-time implementation was developed which processed full-resolution stereoscopic video on the da Vinci Surgical System.


A laboratory experiment and numerical modeling were used to examine effects of density gradients on hyporheic flow and solute transport under the condition of a solute pulse input to a river with regular bed forms. Relatively low‐density gradients due to an initial salt pulse concentration of 1.55 kg m−3 applied in the experiment were found to modulate significantly the pore‐water flow and solute transport in the riverbed. Such density gradients increased downward flow and solute transport in the riverbed by factors up to 1.6. This resulted in a 12.2% increase in the total salt transfer from the water column to the riverbed over the salt pulse period. As the solute pulse passed, the effect of the density gradients reversed, slowing down the release of the solute back to the river water by a factor of 3.7. Numerical modeling indicated that these density effects intensified as salt concentrations in the water column increased. Simulations further showed that the density gradients might even lead to unstable flow and result in solute fingers in the bed of large bed forms. The slow release of solute from the bed back to the river led to a long tail of solute concentration in the river water. These findings have implications for assessment of impact of pollution events on river systems, in particular, long‐term effects on both the river water and riverbed due to the hyporheic exchange.


South Korea has experienced a surge of foreign immigration since 1990, and one of the major migrant groups is female marriage migrants. Although the South Korean government has implemented a variety of policies to reform its education system in order to accommodate the growing multicultural population, it has been mainly focused on K–12 education for children of migrants. In addition, the issues of access to and quality of higher education for female marriage migrants in South Korea are seldom discussed in academic and public spheres. Although female marriage migrants have a great degree of motivation to pursue higher education, they face multilayered hurdles before, during, and after receiving their higher education in South Korea. Narratives of female marriage migrants in higher education not only challenge the common stereotype of "global hypergamy" and gender stereotypes related to female marriage migrants but also provide chances to reexamine the current status of higher education in South Korea and the notion of global citizenship. Their stories highlight the changes in self-perception, familial relationships, and social engagement and underscore female marriage migrants' process of embracing global citizenship. Their narratives articulate how gender, migration, and higher education intersect in their daily lives, how their lives are connected to the globalizing world, and how these reveal two essential components of the sense of global citizenship—dignity and compassion.


Web-hosting is a well established industry with a wide range of actors with different size and quality of service. One of the challenges for these companies is to setup a system that guarantee uptime around the clock. Web-hosts must be able to assure high reliability to its customer, in order to provide better services than the many competitors that exist on the market. This requires a lot of resources from the companies in form of hardware, software or personnel that monitor the operation 24 hours per day each day of the week. A problem is that small and medium sized companies with up to approximately 10000 customers can't afford these extra costs for personnel and must therefore rely on other monitoring solutions to be competitive. This thesis will show how automatic monitoring tools can replace some of the responsibilities, performed by human personnel. The tools will also be evaluated and compared with similar tools available on the market. An economic model, that can be used to determine if the solution is worth investing in , is also described.


Different designs of the goniometer are available for clinical measurements of joint range of motion (ROM), including: universal goniometers, gravity-dependent goniometers and electrical goniometers. Reliability of the goniometer is essential in clinical practice. Several factors can influence reliability, including: pathology, number of testers, type of motion, joint characteristics and procedure followed. Hence, it is important to understand how reliability can change with these factors. An electronic and manual literature search was conducted into the reliability of different goniometers. A variety of search terms were used with no limits or restrictions. Papers sourced were graded according the Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network guidelines. Normal subjects and patients with variety of pathologies participated in the studies reviewed. The active and passive motion of lower limb joints was studied. Both intratester and intertester reliability was examined. Several studies directly compared between the reliability of different goniometric designs. Variation in methodology and measurement procedures across different studies affected the ability to make comparison between them. The majority of studies concluded that intratester measurements were more reliable than intertester measurements. Reliability of measurements varied across joints involved, with measurements of more complex joints proving less reliable than simple joints. In addition, the reliability of the measurements altered depending on pathology. Moreover, some studies confirmed that measuring active motion was more repeatable than passive motion. Furthermore, some studies suggested that standardising the method of measurement increases reliability. Finally, reliability differed between the different goniometric designs and most studies stated that goniometers should not be used interchangeably. In Conclusion, clinicians should be cautious when: choosing the appropriate type of goniometer and interpreting or comparing measurements taken using different designs. Additional studies of appropriate design should be conducted to provide better understanding of goniometer measurements obtained.


Today's ActionScript-based applications require increasingly sophisticated architectures and code. This book aids intermediate and advanced ActionScript developers in learning how to plan and build applications more effectively. You'll learn how to apply design patterns as solutions to common programming scenarios. Beyond a reference, Advanced ActionScript with Design Patterns is a practical guide complete with sample mini-applications illustrating each design pattern. Table of Contents: Part I - Successful Projects 1. How to Design Applications 2. Programming to Interfaces Part II - Patterns 3. MVC 4. Singleton 5. Factory (Abstract Factory and Factory Method) 6. Proxy 7. Iterator 8. Composite 9. Decorator 10. Command 11. Memento 12. State Part III - Advanced ActionScript Topics 13. Working with Events 14. Sending and Loading Data 15. E4X (XML) 16. Regular Expressions


In this paper, spectrum pool is one of the efficient techniques for spectrum sensing selection. Cognitive radio always preferred for accessing free channels efficiently with minimum handoff delay .The performance of spectrum pool has been implemented and compared with conventional handoff mechanism. Spectrum handoff occurs when primary user appears and the secondary users using this particular licensed channel. This particular spectrum handoff would use channels for the handoff process from the spectrum pool formed by proposed method. Spectrum sensing plays important role in case of cognitive radio. For accessing the spectrum reuse functionality, secondary users used to sense the radio frequency environment. For this propose we proposed two different modules one is spectrum pool and other will be secondary user with multiple antennas.


Nutrition of breeding female birds can influence egg quality and is therefore extremely important for the development of the embryo and the successful hatching of a high quality chick. We investigated the effect of combining different levels of dietary energy and protein, with accompanied amino acid levels, in the diets of female ostriches on the composition of their eggs. Ninety pairs of breeding ostriches were divided randomly into nine groups of 10 pairs per group in a factorial design with three energy and three protein levels. The groups were fed diets with levels of 7.5, 8.5 and 9.5 MJ metabolisable energy/kg, each combined with each one of three protein levels 105, 120 and 135 g/kg respectively. Fresh eggs were collected from each group at the end of the breeding season and the albumen and yolk separated and analysed for protein and lipid content and for amino acid and mineral composition. No significant interaction between energy and protein levels occurred. Despite some differences in egg composition and amino acid concentrations, different dietary energy and protein levels for the most part had little or no effect on the composition of ostrich eggs.


We present 10 years of results from a paediatrician hospital network surveillance in France, set up in 1996 to monitor the trend of pertussis (whooping cough) in children and the impact of the vaccination strategies.
Microbiologists from 43 hospitals that participate in the network on a voluntary basis notify pertussis diagnosis, and paediatricians complete a questionnaire for the infants under 6 months that fulfil the microbiological, clinical or epidemiological case definition. The network covers about 30% of pertussis cases seen in French hospitals.
Around 300 cases of pertussis are notified in France annually. Two peaks occurred in 1997 and 2000. The estimated national incidence rate for the 0-2 months old children is 276/100 000 on average. Since March 1996, the network has described 1688 cases under-6 month. The male-female ratio was 1.0 and 63 % were less than 3 months of age. Most patients (96%) were hospitalised with 17% admitted in intensive care. The case fatality ratio was 2% with 32 deaths. Vaccination status was confirmed through medical records for 83% of children and 78% were not vaccinated. The source of contamination was identified for 53 % of cases and was in majority the parents.
The Renacoq data confirmed the risk for young children, the role of parents as source of infection and the need of a pertussis vaccination in time. Vaccination is now recommended to adults who hope to become parents, and this should help to reduce this burden.


Probiotics are "live microbes which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit to the host" (FAO/WHO joint group). Their potential role in bio-ecological modification of pathological internal milieu of the critically ill is under evaluation. Probiotics are available as single microbial strain (e.g., Bacillus clausii, Lactobacillus) or as a mix of multiple strains of Lactobacillus (acidophilus, sporogenes, lactis, reuteri RC-14, GG, and L. plantarum 299v), Bifidobacterium (bifidum, longum, infantis), Streptococcus (thermophillus, lactis, fecalis), Saccharomyces boulardii etc. Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria are grampositive, anaerobic, lactic acid bacteria. These are normal inhabitant of human gut and colonize the colon better than others. Critical illness and its treatment create hostile environment in the gut and alters the micro flora favoring growth of pathogens. Therapy with probiotics is an effort to reduce or eliminate potential pathogens and toxins, to release nutrients, antioxidants, growth factors and coagulation factors, to stimulate gut motility and to modulate innate and adaptive immune defense mechanisms via the normalization of altered gut flora. Scientific evidence shows that use of probiotics is effective in prevention and therapy of antibiotic associated diarrhea. However, available probiotics strains in currently used doses do not provide much needed early benefits, and need long-term administration to have clinically beneficial effects (viz, a reduction in rate of infection, severe sepsis, ICU stay, ventilation days and mortality) in critically ill surgical and trauma patients. Possibly, available strains do not adhere to intestinal mucosa early, or may require higher dose than what is used. Gap exists in our knowledge regarding mechanisms of action of different probiotics, most effective strainssingle or multiple, cost effectiveness, risk-benefit potential, optimum dose, frequency and duration of treatment etc. More information is needed on safety profile of probiotics in immunocompromised state of the critically ill in view of rare reports of fungemia and sepsis and a trend toward possible increase in nosocomial infection. At present, despite theoretical potential benefits, available evidence is not conclusive to recommend probiotics for routine use in the critically ill. [Indian J Pediatr 2008; 75 (6) : 621-627] E-mail: sunit.singhi@ gmail.com


Aims: The present study is to determine the expression of aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) and ATPbinding cassette superfamily G member 2 (ABCG2) in patients with triple-negative breast cancer, and to understand the relationship of ALDH1 and ABCG2 with triple-negative breast cancer.
Methods: A total of 56 patients who received triple-negative breast cancer resection and axillary lymph node dissection at our hospital between August 2013 and June 2016 were included in the present study. Primary focus tissues, tumor-adjacent tissues and lymph node tissues of the patients were collected. According to pathological examinations, 21 patients had lymph node metastasis (metastasis group), and 35 had no lymph node metastasis (non-metastasis group). Tumor-adjacent tissues were used as control group. MDA-MB-231 cells were transfected with small-interfering RNA to inhibit the expression of ALDH1 and ABCG2. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to determine the expression of mRNA, while Western blotting was carried out to measure protein expression. MTT assay was employed to determine the proliferation of MDA-MB-231 cells.
Results: Expression of ALDH1 and ABCG2 mRNA and protein was elevated in breast cancer tissues and metastatic lymph node. Transfection with the siRNA of ALDH1 and ABCG2 reduced the expression of ALDH1 and ABCG2, respectively. Down-regulation of ALDH1 and ABCG2 expression decreased the proliferation of MDA-MB-231 cells.
Conclusion: The present study demonstrates that the expression of ALDH1 and ABCG2 in primary tumor tissues from patients with triple-negative breast cancer is increased than that in tumor-adjacent tissues, and the expression of ALDH1 and ABCG2 in lymph node in patients with lymph node metastasis is higher than that in patients without lymph node metastasis. ALDH1 and ABCG2 may regulate the invasion and lymph node metastasis, or affect the drug resistance of triple-negative breast cancer.


This thesis describes an experimental investigation into the performance of a radio frequency plasma thruster (RFPT). This type of thruster does not rely on the use of high voltage ion acceleration grids or beam neutralisers which are typically life limiting elements of an electric thruster. The RFPT excites an atomic or molecular gas into a plasma using an external RF antenna. This plasma is contained by a cylindrical dielectric source tube which is open at one end. An axial magnetic field is applied to the plasma using one or more solenoids or a permanent magnet source. The magnetic field is usually applied such that it is constant throughout the length of the source tube, after which the field diverges. The plasma couples with the imposed magnetic field, generating internal field structures, which can be used to regulate both the power coupling and the rate at which the plasma diffuses out of the source tube. In this study, the thruster performance is measured directly, thus providing missions designers with accurate performance data which can be used to assess applicability of the technology to future missions.

A re-configurable lab prototype thruster was constructed and a pendulum type thrust balance was developed in order to make direct measurements of the thrust produced by the Surrey Space Centre (SSC) RFPT. The balance has been developed to allow mounting of the thruster together with the necessary RF and DC electrical feeds as well as the propellant feeds and incorporates sensors which allow measurements to be made in an RF plasma environment.
A low magnetic field mode of RFPT operation was investigated in order to assess whether this mode of operation may be able to provide performance increases at reduced imposed magnetic fields (< 20 mT), which could enable the serious consideration of this technology for future flight opportunities. The lowered magnetic fields used here may reduce the risk of interference with spacecraft subsystems and perturbation to the spacecraft orbit, when compared to many of the proposed plasma thrusters which use fields in excess of 40 mT.

Direct thrust measurements of an RFPT operating in a low field mode are presented as a function of the propellant flow, RF power and for two source tube lengths. The thrust is shown to peak at a field strength, B_0, which is demonstrated to vary with RF power and propellant flow. The peaks are also shown to correspond generally to peaks in the source plasma density, plasma potential and in some cases to exhaust ion beam current. Ion energy distribution function measurements show that strong beams are not present in thruster configurations which use a 170 mm length source tube but are shown to increase in strength when using a shorter 85 mm length tube.

The low field mode is shown to generally provide performance increases over the non-magnetised case by a factor of 4. Low field mode thrust measurements using the shorter 85 mm source tube and matching double saddle antenna revealed enhanced peak performance gains over the 170 mm length case, resulting in an increase of the thrust efficiency by up to a factor of 15.
The performance of the RFPT operating in this configuration is shown to produce enhanced or equivalent performance, when compared to similar state of the art configurations but at generally lower imposed magnetic fields. This particular optimisation may make possible a first flight opportunity for the RFPT as weak magnetic fields may be supplied easily by electromagnets. Electromagnets can be easily deactivated or field reversed to avoid interference with spacecraft subsystems and orbital parameters unlike permanent magnets which may be required to generate higher magnetic fields.
Operation of the RFPT in the low field mode with an 85~mm source has also revealed new low field mode behaviour compared to the 170 mm case, producing sudden, large reductions in the performance of the thruster for imposed fields beyond B_0 which are shown to correspond to drops in source plasma density, plasma resistance and exhaust beam current.


Lipopeptides constitute an important class of microbial secondary metabolites. Some lipopeptides have potent therapeutic activities such as antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antitumor and immunomodulator. Surfactin, iturin, fengycin, lichenysin and bacillomycin D from Bacillus species, daptomycin from Streptomyces roseosporus and rhamnolipids from Pseudomonas aeruginosa are among the most studied lipopeptides. These molecules are good candidates to replace those antibiotics and antifungals with no effect on pathogenic microorganisms. Microbial lipopeptides are produced via fermentation processes by bacteria, yeast and actinomycetes either on water miscible and immiscible substrates. However, the major bottlenecks in lipopeptide production are yield increase and cost reduction. Improving the bioindustrial production processes relies on many issues such as selecting hyperproducing strains and the appropriate extraction techniques; purification and identification by Polymerase Chain Reaction(PCR), High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry(HPLC-MS), Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time of Flight-Mass Spectrometry(MALDI-TOF-MS); the use of cheap raw materials and the optimization of medium-culture conditions. The purpose of this chapter is to orient the reader on the key elements in this field, including the selection of analytical strategies to get a good microbial strain as well as to show some examples of liquid and solid-state low-cost fermentation processes. Last, we introduce endophytic bacteria as lipopeptide-producer candidates.


Beginning from the hypothesis by Bjerknes [1969] that oceanatmosphere interaction was essential to the E1 Nifio-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, the Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere (TOGA) decade has not only confirmed this but has supplied detailed theory for mechanisms setting the underlying period and possible mechanisms responsible for the irregularity of ENSO. Essentials of the theory of ocean dynamical adjustment are reviewed from an ENSO perspective. Approaches to simple atmospheric modeling greatly aided development of theory for ENSO atmospheric feedbacks but are critically reviewed for current stumbling blocks for applications beyond ENSO. ENSO theory has benefitted from an unusually complete hierarchy of coupled models of various levels of complexity. Most of the progress during the ENSO decade came from models of intermediate complexity, which are sufficiently detailed to compare to observations and to use in prediction but are less complex than coupled general circulation models. ENSO theory in simple models lagged behind ENSO simulation in intermediate models but has provided a useful role in uniting seemingly diverse viewpoints. The process of boiling ENSO theory down to a single consensus model of all aspects of the phenomenon is still a rapidly progressing area, and theoretical limits to ENSO predictability are still in debate, but a thorough foundation for the discussion has been established in the TOGA decade.


Recent studies have suggested the presence of keratin in fossils dating back to the Mesozoic. However, ultrastructural studies revealing exposed melanosomes in many fossil keratinous tissues suggest that keratin should rarely, if ever, be preserved. In this study, keratin's stability through diagenesis was tested using microbial decay and maturation experiments on various keratinous structures. The residues were analysed using pyrolysis‐gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry and compared to unpublished feather and hair fossils and published fresh and fossil melanin from squid ink. Results show that highly matured feathers (200–250°C/250 bars/24 h) become a volatile‐rich, thick fluid with semi‐distinct pyrolysis compounds from those observed in less degraded keratins (i.e. fresh, decayed, moderately matured, and decayed and moderately matured) suggesting hydrolysis of peptide bonds and potential degradation of free amino acids. Neither melanization nor keratin (secondary) structure (e.g. ⍺‐ vs β‐keratin) produced different pyrograms; melanin pyrolysates are largely a subset of those from proteins, and proteins have characteristic pyrolysates. Analyses of fossil fur and feather found a lack of amides, succinimide and piperazines (present even in highly matured keratin) and showed pyrolysis compounds more similar to fossil and fresh melanin than to non‐matured or matured keratin. Although the highly matured fluid was not water soluble at room temperature, it readily dissolved at elevated temperatures easily attained during diagenesis, meaning it could leach away from the fossil. Future interpretations of fossils must consider that calcium phosphate and pigments are the only components of keratinous structures known to survive fossilization in mature sediments.


Emerging technologies do not necessarily facilitate or advance learning processes; teaching strategies that are used in the learning process, integration and incorporation methods do. In online instruction, research shows that "effective distance education depends on the provision of pedagogical excellence" (Bernard et al., 2004, p.413). From this perspective, a case study was conducted as a means of preliminary evaluation in a graduate program so that the effectiveness of emerging technologies and their impact on student learning could be understood. The article starts with a description of a case where emerging technologies are integrated throughout the curriculum of an online educational technology master's program. It then discusses concerns related to the integration practices and whether these practices are in line with the foundational pillars of educational technology as described by Spector (2012). Finally, a set of suggestions are proposed for those graduate programs incorporating emerging technologies in online learning on a regular basis. The analysis of this case study would benefit others in two major ways. First, faculty members can conceptualize emerging technology integration using a recent framework. Second, such a conceptualization would set the stage for deeper analysis of learning effectiveness and program evaluation.


Several natural products especially secondary metabolites have formed the basis of medicines, although it's been often difficult to justify the presence of these compounds in the biochemistry of plant; this as posited by Cragg et al., in their presentation on Ethnobotany and the Search for New Drugs, Ciba Foundation Symposium draws a challenge to scientists. It has been suggested that these compounds may have been synthesized by the plants as part of the defense system of the plant; a good example is that plants are known to produce phytoalexins as a response to attack by bacteria and fungi. Cragg and Newmann in Biodiversity: A continuing source or novel drug leads, support this though stating that the compound produced provides an invaluable resource that has been used to find new drug molecules This paper is set to identify the antimicrobial activity of these medicinal plants and their biological effects. The sampled out plant extracts include Thymus vulgaris, Berberis vulgaris and Calluna vulgaris with which inhibition or activation by different chemical catalysts is performed to establish their effects in the tested natural extracts. Experimental design is used where the reagents are determined and chemical reactions performed in the procedures as outlined in the methodology section. The results of the microbial activity based on the level of concentration is then recorded for every crude extracts and the effects of each with different antibiotics against Staphylococcus aureus. This study reflects that berberine showed excellent synergistic activity against Staphylococcus aureus at relatively low concentration and thus can be used against staphylococcus infections.


Abstract Video games are often highlighted as risk factors in relation to physical inactivity and increasing levels of obesity. Now a new type of video game, the exergame, has entered the market. In recent years, several countries have increasingly foregrounded exergames as a possible activity for use in school PE and as perhaps improving young people's knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors in relation to health and physical exercise. The purpose of this study is to explore Swedish PE teachers' perceptions and use of exergames and also the barriers to and reasons for using exergames based on a survey containing closed- and open-ended questions. A total of 493 teachers (10% of all Swedish PE teachers) answered the questionnaire. The responses were coded and entered into SPSS, allowing for both descriptive data and cross-table analyses. The results show that 80 percent are familiar with exergames, 17 percent are recreational exergamers, and a few (3%) have tried using exergames in physical education and health. The reasons for introducing exergames are generally as follows: encouraging physical activity, offering different types of movement, and having fun. The barriers to introducing exergames are mainly: financial, prioritizing other activities, and the teachers' own knowledge. The majority of the PE teachers are generally positive to introducing exergames as a teaching aid into their subject. However, this requires developing the teachers' own knowledge of exergames. The choice of teaching content and the introduction of new activities and teaching tools also involve critically examining the games, and this, in turn, entails didactic reflection.