Culture is central to how individuals perceive and understand health. Thus, the Appalachian culture impacts how Appalachian women perceive and maintain breast health. Using information about the broader Appalachian region and the Southern Appalachian sub-region, specifically, as well as the existing body of literature about cancer, culture, and communication theory, this qualitative study describes breast health from the point of view of women and health information providers in this region in order to better communicate about breast health maintenance practices. Results from this study will allow individuals working with breast cancer patients and prevention to better understand how cultural identity influences perceptions related to breast health, as well as develop more culturally appropriate breast health messages, which may reduce breast cancer mortality in the long term. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 32 women and 4 health information providers in one Southern Appalachian community. The main theme that emerged from the data was: Appalachian Cultural Identity Moderates Perceptions About Breast Health. Four thematic constructs helped support the main theme: (1) The belief that breast health maintenance through recommended practices is important, (2) The belief that personal relationships impact breast health positively, (3) The belief that culture impacts breast health negatively, and (4) The belief that circumstance impacts breast health negatively.


Over the last decade, several hundred seals have been equipped with conductivity‐temperature‐depth sensors in the Southern Ocean for both biological and physical oceanographic studies. A calibrated collection of seal‐derived hydrographic data is now available, consisting of more than 165,000 profiles. The value of these hydrographic data within the existing Southern Ocean observing system is demonstrated herein by conducting two state estimation experiments, differing only in the use or not of seal data to constrain the system. Including seal‐derived data substantially modifies the estimated surface mixed‐layer properties and circulation patterns within and south of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Agreement with independent satellite observations of sea ice concentration is improved, especially along the East Antarctic shelf. Instrumented animals efficiently reduce a critical observational gap, and their contribution to monitoring polar climate variability will continue to grow as data accuracy and spatial coverage increase.


As for most of the topics in the field of solidification, Mert Flemings has always pioneered new ideas. While much of the understanding of hot tearing formation was already known about 30 years ago, he devised with Metz an interesting apparatus for studying the resistance of mushy zones to compression and shearing [1,2]. Part of the results of these tests lead Flemings to become interested in semi-solid processing of metallic alloys, with the success we know today (e.g., production of automobile components by thixocasting). Probably because of that, hot tearing criteria and models have not progressed very much since. However, with the advent of refined stress and solidification models, one sees today renewed interest in hot tearing. The present contribution, after recollecting some of the early work of Flemings in this area, presents recent SEM observations of hot tears in aluminum alloys and in-situ observations of hot tearing formation in organic systems. A recent model of hot tearing, which combines deformation of the mushy zone and interdendritic liquid flow, is also summarized.


The incidence of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury is rapidly increasing around the world and this disease is a major contributor to global morbidity and mortality. It is known that regulation of programmed cell death including apoptosis and autophagy reduces the impact of myocardial IR injury. In this study, the cardioprotective effects and underlying mechanisms of Phellinus linteus (Berk. and Curt.) Teng, Hymenochaetaceae (PL), a type of medicinal mushroom, were examined in rats subjected to myocardial IR injury. The left main coronary artery of rats was ligated for 1 h and reperfused for 3 h. The arrhythmia levels were monitored during the entire process and the infarct size was evaluated after myocardial IR injury. Furthermore, the expression levels of proteins in apoptotic and autophagic pathways were observed. Pretreatment with PL mycelium (PLM) significantly reduced ventricular arrhythmia and mortality due to myocardial IR injury. PLM also significantly decreased myocardial infarct size and plasma lactate dehydrogenase level after myocardial IR injury. Moreover, PLM administration resulted in decreased caspase 3 and caspase 9 activation and increased Bcl-2/Bax ratio. Phosphorylation level of AMPK was elevated while mTOR level was reduced. Becline-1 and p62 levels decreased. These findings suggest that PLM is effective in protecting the myocardium against IR injury. The mechanism involves mediation through suppressed pro-apoptotic signaling and regulation of autophagic signaling, including stimulation of AMPK-dependent pathway and inhibition of beclin-1-dependent pathway, resulting in enhancement of protective autophagy and inhibition of excessive autophagy.


Evidence has shown that liver disease caused by hepatitis viruses can be more aggressive and severe in HIV infected subjects. Therefore, the present cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the seroprevalence of HDV infection among HIV/HBV co-infected clients in Shiraz, southwest Iran. In this study, 178 patients co-infected with HBV and HIV individuals were enrolled. The diagnosis of HIV infection was documented based on serological assays. The demographic and complementary data were collected by a questionnaire. HBsAg and HDV Ab were detected by commercial quantitative enzyme linked immunosorbent assay kits according to the manufacturer's instructions. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were also measured. The mean age of the participants was 37.4±7.4 years (range 22-63). 175 (98.4 %) patients were male and 3 (1.6 %) were female. Among 178 patients co-infected with HIV/HBV, 35 cases (19.7%, 95% CI: 14%-25%) were anti-HDV positive and 143 (80.3%) were negative for anti-HDV. HDV exposure in HIV/HBV co-infected patients was associated with blood transfusion (P=0.002, OR: 14.3) and prison history (P=0.01, OR: 2.31) but not with age, marital status, unsafe sex contact, and injection drug abuse. Our data showed a relatively high prevalence of HDV infection in HIV infected population in Shiraz, Iran. The high frequency of HDV Ab in patients with blood transfusion and prison history reveals that HDV transmission occurs more frequently in the parental route than sexual contacts; therefore, blood screening for HDV diagnosis in the high-risk group is recommended.


Most of what Bertalanffy published in the field of "organismic" biology was written in German and is thus not widely known. In order to understand the development and meaning of his "general system theory" – which might more accurately be called "general systemology" – those early works are essential. In this talk I will therefore focus on key aspects of his "system theory" of life, both on the level of scientific concepts and philosophical considerations. This will also include a note on works that influenced Bertalanffy and motivated him to later establish a new transdisciplinary field. He was influenced by several philosophers as well as by results from experimental research. As a trained philosopher, Bertalanffy was clearly aware that the notion of systems has a long history going back at least to ancient Greek thinkers. As for the influences from science, the focus here will be on Paul A. Weiss and his experiments performed at the Biologische Versuchsanstalt in Vienna. Those two roots will be used to clarify Bertalanffy's unique contributions towards a system approach in biology and beyond, in which the aim was to free the term system from vague or even obscure metaphysical connotations and arrive at a framework that is useful for science.


Objectives: The objectives of this research were to describe the interactions (formal and informal), in which macrocognitive functions occur and their location on a pediatric intensive care unit, to describe challenges and facilitators of macrocognition using space syntax constructs (openness, connectivity, and visibility), and to analyze the healthcare built environment (HCBE) using those constructs to explicate influences on macrocognition. Background: In high reliability, complex industries, macrocognition is an approach to develop new knowledge among interprofessional team members. Although macrocognitive functions have been analyzed in multiple healthcare settings, the effect of the HCBE on those functions has not been directly studied. The theoretical framework, "macrocognition in the healthcare built environment" (mHCBE) addresses this relationship. Method: A focused ethnographic study was conducted including observation and focus groups. Architectural drawing files used to create distance matrices and isovist field view analyses were compared to panoramic photographs and ethnographic data. Results: Neighborhoods comprised of corner configurations with maximized visibility enhanced team interactions as well as observation of patients, offering the greatest opportunity for informal situated macrocognitive interactions (SMIs). Conclusions: Results from this study support the intricate link between macrocognitive interactions and space syntax constructs within the HCBE. These findings help increase understanding of how use of the framework of Macrocognition in the HCBE can improve design and support adaptation of interprofessional team practices, maximizing macrocognitive interaction opportunities for patient, family, and team safety and quality.


Most of the attention on High Speed Ground Transportation systems thus far has been devoted to their technological, financial and construction aspects, and this was understandable since they must be confronted first in any scenario. With the construction of a HSGT system in the foreseeable future, it is appropriate at this point to outline the type of organization that will operate it, and the issues involved in establishing that organization. Being completely new, the organization will have an opportunity to utilize new technology to increase its cost efficiency and labor productivity, fashion bargaining agreements more favorable to the long term financial health of the system, and develop a cost-effective balance between the use of in-house forces and contract services.


Abstract:This article contrasts two visions of trauma: a symbolic imaginary on film where women's violated bodies stand in for philosophical ideas about sex, violence, and politics; and a more complex literary imaginary using what Ann Cvetkovich calls an "archive of trauma." The starting point for discussion is troubling representations of women on film; The Lover (1992, dir. Jean-Jacques Annaud) and Lust, Caution (2007, dir. Ang Lee) both portray their heroines falling in love with their abusers, men whose shame and vulnerability are expressed through a symbolic rape. Rather than dwelling on this dubious aspect of the films, the main discussion returns to the more nuanced view of trauma in the source texts: The Lover (1984) by Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) and "Lust, Caution" (1979) by Eileen Chang (Zhang Ailing) (1920–1995), neither of which include sexual violence in an obvious way. Duras's traumatic portrait of French colonialism and Chang's sinister portrayal of the Japanese occupation of Shanghai refuse symbolic rape as shorthand for conquest. Instead, these stories present an archive of trauma through a series of objects that represent emotional value, and provoke affective responses. Duras and Chang lament what Cvetkovich labels "insidious" or everyday trauma—the impossible histories—carried by women as a result of colonialism and war.


Little is known about consumer productivity in the tropics despite the key feedbacks that animals impose on primary productivity. In the Amazon basin, seasonally flooded and unflooded forests exist side by side, and ants (Formicidae) dominate animal biomass. Although flooding has a direct negative effect on soil-dwelling ants, it is less clear whether flooding has indirect effects on arboreal ants via associated changes in tree communities. To test whether seasonal inundation by whitewater affects arboreal ants, we investigated ant communities in adjacent flooded and unflooded forests along a major whitewater river in central-western Amazonia. Whitewater-flooded forest exhibits higher primary productivity than unflooded forest. We thus hypothesized that forest type would affect the productivity and the foraging traits of arboreal ants and that these changes would be mediated by increases in plant-derived food for ants in flooded forest. We compared ant and plant communities between flooded- and unflooded-forest transects along the Jurua River in Amazonas, Brazil. We collected, identified, and counted terrestrial and arboreal ants, and we measured ant traits with putative relationships to foraging strategy. We also identified plant stems to characterize the abundance of ant food rewards. Flooding negatively affected the diversity and abundance of terrestrial ants but did not change the diversity of arboreal ants. Arboreal ants were more abundant and exhibited higher biomass in flooded forest than in unflooded forest. Arboreal ant traits also suggested that ants may rely more heavily on plant-derived food in flooded forest than in unflooded forest. These differences were associated with a higher abundance of plant stems predicted to contain ant food rewards in flooded forest than in unflooded forest. Our results indicate that the productivity of arboreal ants is affected by that of the underlying forest. Such effects may be mediated by the predominantly herbivorous foraging strategy of canopy ants, which would link ant populations closely to primary production and stoichiometry. Given ants' important functional roles, these differences in ant productivity between forest types may have consequences for other arthropods and feedbacks to plants throughout the Amazon basin.


In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need to accurately infer the evolutionary and transmission history of the virus to inform real-time outbreak management, public health policies and mitigation strategies. Current phylogenetic and phylodynamic approaches typically use consensus sequences, essentially assuming the presence of a single viral strain per host. Here, we analyze 621 bulk RNA sequencing samples and 7,540 consensus sequences from COVID-19 patients, and identify multiple strains of the virus, SARS-CoV-2, in four major clades that are prevalent within and across hosts. In particular, we find evidence for (i) within-host diversity across phylogenetic clades, (ii) putative cases of recombination, multi-strain and/or superinfections as well as (iii) distinct strain profiles across geographical locations and time. Our findings and algorithms will facilitate more detailed evolutionary analyses and contact tracing that specifically account for within-host viral diversity in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as well as future pandemics.


Maya Angelou's volumes of autobiography are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a black woman she has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration. In the sequel to her best-selling I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou is a young mother in California, unemployed, embarking on brief affairs and transient jobs in shops and night-clubs, turning to prostitution and the world of narcotics.


Central nervous system (CNS) reactions have been well known to occur sporadically with all nonfluorinated and fluorinated quinolone antibacterial agents. Studies using positron emission tomography have shown that fleroxacin is rapidly and equally distributed to the various parts of the brain and that lomefloxacin or ciprofloxacin do not affect cerebral blood flow or oxygen or glucose metabolism. Impaired excretory organ function, resulting in slower elimination of quinolones, may result in increased risks of accumulation of the drugs and subsequent CNS toxicity. Quinolones with a pyrrolidinyl side chain, like tosufloxacin and clinafloxacin, have intermediate binding, and those with alkylated side chains, such as temafloxacin and sparfloxacin, have low affinity. Interaction between ciprofloxacin and methadone has been described in one patient who developed confusion, sedation, and respiratory depression. Although serious reactions, seizures, and mental alterations occur, they are very rare. Risk factors for such reactions are high doses (including overdosing as a result of altered excretion, e.g., due to renal or hepatic failure or advanced age), previous epilepsy, and, probably, interactions with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or theophylline.


The amount of text data has been growing exponentially and with it the demand for improved information extraction (IE) efforts to analyze and query such data. While automatic IE systems have proven useful in controlled experiments, in practice the gap between machine learning extraction and human extraction is still quite large. In this paper, we propose a system that uses crowdsourcing techniques to help close this gap. One of the fundamental issues inherent in using a large-scale human workforce is deciding the optimal questions to pose to the crowd. We demonstrate novel solutions using mutual information and token clustering techniques in the domain of bibliographic citation extraction. Our experiments show promising results in using crowd assistance as a cost-effective way to close up the "last mile" between extraction systems and a human annotator.


Fourier transforms are used by a large number of customers at the Danish Computer Centre for Research and Education (UNI.C) in Lyngby, Denmark. Two excellent FFT Libraries are offered. The NAG Library [11, which is a general purpose numerical library, has powerful FFT subroutines in the chapter C06. The Siemens VP FFT Library [2, 3] has recently been installed for the UNI.C AMDAHL VP 1200 computer. The benchmarks clearly show a significant performance increase (in some cases by a factor of 3) with the new NAG Mark 15 Library as compared to the older NAG Mark 13, although this is offset by some loss of performance in other cases. The Siemens Library is shown to perform fastest for almost all cases studied.


The study area is located in the northwestern part of Anatolia, Southern Marmara. Stations in the study area are characterized mainly with the Marmara transition climate and the Mediterranean rainfall regime. The climate of the sub-section was explained by determining the general climatic characteristics of the stations. In addition, long-term changes and trends in the time series of precipitation and stream-flow stations were investigated in terms of climatic variability by using nonparametric time series analysis methods. The results obtained are summarized as follows: i) According to the Thornthwaite climate classification system, Bayramic, Biga, Can and Bandirma stations have a severe water deficit in summer. The climate of the study area is semi-humid (Bayramic, Biga, Can, Bandirma) and dry-semi-humid (Edremit and Bozcaada) . ii) In the south of Marmara, the stations having the Mediterranean rainfall regime are dominated with decreasing trend in annual precipitation amounts. Decreasing trends in precipitation totals over the study area started in the 1970s and gradually became evident during the 1990s. iii) Topographic features, characteristics of pressure systems and air circulation are the basic factors that determine the climate characteristics of temperature and rainfall distribution in space and time. iv) Series of stream-flows in south of the Marmara have a significant decreasing trend since the 1990s in winter. v) Increasing evapotranspiration in the spring, summer and autumn, high seasonality and year-to-year variability of precipitation totals, and significant increases in air temperatures are the biggest threats to the regional water resources. In addition, increased use of streams for irrigation purposes also caused significant decreasing trend in stream-flows.


Individual or arrayed microlenses offer remarkable opportunities in optics and photonics. However, their usage is currently limited by the lack of manufacturing technologies capable of tailoring the lens geometry to target devices. Here, we demonstrate how laser catapulting (LCP), a recent laser-based additive manufacturing technique, enables the preparation of microlenses with controlled geometry and curvature. LCP exploits single laser pulses to catapult polymeric microdisks into user-selectable positions on a substrate, which are converted into microlenses following a thermal reflow treatment. By shaping the irradiance distribution of the incident laser beam, we obtained arrays of circular, triangular, and cylindrical microlenses with a radius between 50-250 µm and 100% fill-factor. The good quantitative agreement between beam shape and microlens geometry, combined with the in-situ fabrication capabilities and high-throughput of LCP, can help the consolidation of laser additive methods for micro-optics in scientific and industrial applications.


African-American college students' underutilization of mental health services is well-documented and has been found to be related, in part, to stigma (Masuda, Anderson, & Edmonds, 2012). However, literature indicates there may be additional reasons why Black students are disinclined to utilize mental health services on college campuses. Employing a confidential survey, this study of Black college students examined in more detail the exclusive, yet intersecting relationship that race, gender, and other social identity markers may have in determining individual comfort levels when discussing mental illness and receptiveness to accessing mental health services. The study hypothesized that both gender and other identity markers predict the comfort and willingness of African-Americans to utilize campus mental health services.


This study documents the time evolution of air temperature and heat waves occurrences over Northern Africa for the period 1979–2011. A significant warming (1°–3°C), appearing by the mid‐1960s over Sahara and Sahel, is associated with higher/lesser frequency of warm/cold temperatures, as with longer duration and higher occurrences of heat waves. Heat waves episodes of at least 4 day duration have been examined after removing the long‐term evolution. These episodes are associated with specific anomalies: (i) in spring, positive low‐level temperature anomalies over the Sahel and Sahara; low and midlevel cyclonic rotation over Morocco associated with a Rossby wave pattern, lessening the Harmattan; more/less atmospheric moisture westward/eastward to 0°; upward/downward anomalies above the western/eastern regions associated with the Rossby wave pattern; (ii) in summer, a similar but weaker positive low‐level temperature anomaly (up to 3°C); less moisture westward to 10°W, a cyclonic anomaly in central Sahel favoring the monsoon eastward to 0° and a midlevel anticyclonic anomaly over the Western Sahara, increasing southward the flux divergence associated with the African Easterly Jet. In March–May, two to three heat waves propagate eastward. They are preceded by an abnormal warm cell over Libya and southwesterlies over the West Sahara. A large trough stands over North Atlantic while midtropospheric subsidence and anticyclonic rotation reinforce over the continent, then migrates toward the Arabian peninsula in breaking up. These signals are spatially coherent and might suggest the role of short Rossby waves with an eastward group velocity and a baroclinic mode, possibly associated with jet stream deformation.


A longitudinal study of the international behaviour of Swedish suppliers is presented. Three different types of supplier are identified: simple suppliers, advanced suppliers, and own product suppliers. Factors influencing the internationalisation of these suppliers are discussed. It is concluded that the firms' offer and the customers' buying strategies influence the firms' international behaviour. However, these factors do not determine the international strategies completely. Various entrepreneurs will choose various strategies. Three different types of entrepreneurs are identified: the marketing, technical, and structural entrepreneurs. The type of entrepreneur influences the firms' international strategies in different directions.


Lateral variations in membrane composition are postulated to play a central role in many cellular events, but it has been difficult to probe membrane composition and organization on length scales of tens to hundreds of nanometers. We present a high-resolution imaging secondary ion mass spectrometry technique to reveal the lipid distribution within a phase-separated membrane with a lateral resolution of ∼100 nanometers. Quantitative information about the chemical composition within small lipid domains was obtained with the use of isotopic labels to identify each molecular species. Composition variations were detected within some domains.


The aim of this research is to figure out the role Social Media plays as a support tool for business-to-business organizations. The amount of literature dealing with Social Media and business-to-business organizations increases steadily. However, most of the literature covers the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media, including implementation and measurement techniques. Thus lacking concrete business examples and areas of application for Social Media. Therefore, this paper will provide the most important benefits and barriers of Social Media, information about business processes where Social Media is applicable. In addition, it will provide an in-depth investigation of Social Media use in the innovation process and the marketing and sales process. This will be followed by a case study about Siemens' Social Media use in order to give the reader a practical example. The research was conducted by a literature review, for which literature was retrieved from web search on Scopus and Google Scholar.
The research revealed that business-to-business organizations mainly benefit from Social Media by having the possibility to maintain and improve relationships with their customers, as well as facilitating access to customers' needs, suggestions and feedback. Next to customers B2B organizations are also able to observe their competitors and respective markets. Moreover, as Social Media enables two-way communication, the customer can engage themselves in processes and projects as inputs. Additional benefits include brand awareness and cost reductions. Furthermore, the research exposed that Social Media is applicable in almost all business processes in an organization, especially in the innovation as well as in the marketing and sales process. During the innovation process, Social Media can support customer involvement and collaboration with decreased uncertainty and new product failures. In the marketing and sales process, Social Media improves product promotion and the approach to prospective customers and buyers. With these new insights, this research will contribute to existing literature and knowledge.


Insulin resistance of muscle glucose metabolism is a hallmark of NIDDM. The obese Zucker (fa/fa) rat--an animal model of muscle insulin resistance--was used to test whether acute (100 mg/kg body wt for 1 h) and chronic (5-100 mg/kg for 10 days) parenteral treatments with a racemic mixture of the antioxidant alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) could improve glucose metabolism in insulin-resistant skeletal muscle. Glucose transport activity (assessed by net 2-deoxyglucose [2-DG] uptake), net glycogen synthesis, and glucose oxidation were determined in the isolated epitrochlearis muscles in the absence or presence of insulin (13.3 nmol/l). Severe insulin resistance of 2-DG uptake, glycogen synthesis, and glucose oxidation was observed in muscle from the vehicle-treated obese rats compared with muscle from vehicle-treated lean (Fa/-) rats. Acute and chronic treatments (30 mg.kg-1.day-1, a maximally effective dose) with ALA significantly (P < 0.05) improved insulin-mediated 2-DG uptake in epitrochlearis muscles from the obese rats by 62 and 64%, respectively. Chronic ALA treatment increased both insulin-stimulated glucose oxidation (33%) and glycogen synthesis (38%) and was associated with a significantly greater (21%) in vivo muscle glycogen concentration. These adaptive responses after chronic ALA administration were also associated with significantly lower (15-17%) plasma levels of insulin and free fatty acids. No significant effects on glucose transporter (GLUT4) protein level or on the activities of hexokinase and citrate synthase were observed. Collectively, these findings indicate that parenteral administration of the antioxidant ALA significantly enhances the capacity of the insulin-stimulatable glucose transport system and of both oxidative and nonoxidative pathways of glucose metabolism in insulin-resistant rat skeletal muscle.


This paper presents an approach to validate computational models in the design space under uncertainty. The basic idea is to first characterize the model bias; then correct the original model prediction by adding the characterized model bias in the design space. Particularly, a two-step calibration procedure is proposed and the model bias at each design configuration is approximated using the Maximum Entropy Principle (MEP) method. With the characterized model bias at several design configurations, response surface of the model bias is finally constructed to approximate the model bias at any new design configurations. Two examples including a modified vehicle side impact problem and a thermal problem are used to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.


In the field of multi-agent task scheduling, there
are many algorithms that are capable of minimizing objective
functions when the user is able to specify them. However, there is
a need for systems and algorithms that are able to include user
preferences or domain knowledge into the final solution. This will
increase the usability of algorithms that would otherwise not
include some characteristics desired by the end user but are highly
optimal mathematically. We hypothesize that allowing subjects to
iterate over solutions while adding allocation and temporal
constraints would allow them to take advantage of the computational
power to solve the temporal problem while including their
preferences. No statistically significant results were found that
supported that such algorithm is preferred over manually solving
the problem among the participants. However, there are trends that
support the hypothesis. We found statistically significant evidence
(p=0.0027), that subjects reported higher workload when working
with Manual Mode and Modification Mode rather than Iteration Mode
and Feedback Iteration Mode. We propose changes to the system that
can provide guidance for future design of interaction for
scheduling problems.


Rights to do grave wrong arise whenever the law permits conduct that ordinary morality severely reproaches. We examine one good reason, ignored by legal thought, why such rights develop: because their undoubted dangers are mitigated by extra-juridical encumbrances on their irresponsible exercise, establishing a normatively acceptable equilibrium. This complex of rights-cum-restraints amounts to an implicit regulatory strategy, applicable far afield, presenting at once distinct perils to moral order and an efficient solution to certain regulatory predicaments. It should sometimes give pause to extending law's reach into certain corners, at least, of private ordering. To enforce the relevant restraints, our law tacitly relies on social stigmatization, yet does so without clear appreciation of when such reliance becomes problematic. It is especially so where: (i) the legal right to which responsibilities are linked arises from an essential task or position authorizing one to cause grave harm; (ii) the scope of the right would hence be very limited, but for our confidence in assurances that concomitant moral duties will be honored; and (iii) the nonjuridical supports for fulfillment of these duties are uncertain, apparent only via arduous empirical inquiry, or simply defy description in a satisfactory modern idiom.


Background: Long-term care facilities (LTCFs) are particularly vulnerable to nosocomial outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), with high rates of transmission and mortality. Timely epidemiological surveillance is essential to detect and respond to outbreaks, but testing resources are highly limited in the current pandemic context. Methods: We used an individual-based transmission model to simulate COVID-19 spread along inter-individual contact networks in the LTCF setting. A range of surveillance strategies were evaluated for their ability to detect simulated outbreaks, assuming limited availability of standard RT-PCR tests. Various epidemiological scenarios were considered, including COVID-19 importation from patient transfers or staff members infected in the community. Findings: We estimated a median delay of 7 (95% uncertainty interval: 2-15) days from importation of an asymptomatic COVID-19-infected patient to first presentation of COVID-19 symptoms among any patients or staff, at which point an additional 7 (0-25) individuals were infected but did not (yet) show symptoms. Across a range of scenarios, the reference surveillance strategy (testing individuals with COVID-like symptoms with signs of severity) took a median 11-21 days to detect an outbreak. Group testing (pooling specimens from multiple individuals for a single RT-PCR test) patients and staff with any COVID-like symptoms was both the most timely and efficient strategy, detecting outbreaks up to twice as quickly as the reference, and more quickly than other considered strategies while using fewer tests. Maximizing use of available tests via testing cascades was more effective than group testing only when substantial testing resources were available (on the order of 1 test/20 beds/day). Including not merely those with symptoms but also newly admitted patients in group tests and testing cascades reduced delays in outbreak detection for LTCFs actively admitting patients potentially already infected with COVID-19. Interpretation: Improving COVID-19 surveillance can alert healthcare institutions to emerging outbreaks before they escalate, informing a need for urgent public health intervention in settings with ongoing nosocomial transmission.


It is important, for many applications, to have reliable data on the magnitudes of the cross-sections for excitation and ionization of atoms and ions by electrons. In part I the usual approximations (those of Born and of Oppenheimer) which are made to obtain theoretical values are critically examined. It is pointed out that the assumption of separable bound wave functions may often lead to considerable errors. In the case of the Oppenheimer approximation the errors may even be such as to give results violating the principle of detailed balancing. Circumstances in which these errors are likely to be serious are analyzed, and precautions which may be taken to reduce them are proposed. The conditions under which the approximations are likely to fail, even when exact bound wave func- tions are used, appear to be related to the magnitude of certain coupling terms which are ignored in obtaining the approximations. The usefulness of certain conservation theorems which limit the possible size of collision cross-sections is also pointed out. A summary of those general properties of inelastic cross-sections which are reliably given by the theory is included. In part II the available experimental data are compared with the predictions of the Born and Oppenheimer approximations. The collision processes studied include the following: excitation of H, He, Na, Ne and Hg; ionization of H2, He, Ne, Hg, Ni (K) and Ag (K and LUI). The investigation shows that the Born approximation is the one that should generally be used in the treatment of transitions which can take place without electron exchange having to be invoked. For these the approximation achieves a considerable degree of success. As far as can be judged from the comparison data available, the main defects are that the maxima of the predicted cross-section energy curves tend to be too pronounced, and to be located too close to the critical potentials. In the case of transitions involving a reversal of electron spin the Oppenheimer approximation must be used. Unfortunately, it proves to be very unsatisfactory. Thus for non-hydrogenic systems it may give very different results according to whether a prior or a post interaction is adopted. It leads to frequent violations of the conservation theorem and cannot be relied upon even to give the detailed shape of cross-section against energy curves. By generalizing from the evidence collected, an attempt is made to specify the conditions under which the Born and Oppenheimer approximations are most reliable; on this basis, proposals for systemization are made. Attention is drawn to the fact that some (but by no means all) of the observed excitation functions possess an extremely sharp peak just beyond the critical potential. The theory seems unable to reproduce this peculiar feature. It does not appear in the observed ionization functions.


Irina Pavlova – PhD (Economy), Senior Lecturer of the Department of Economics, Researcher, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, Russian Federation. Email: email@example.com
Evgeny Monastyrny – Dr. (Economy), Professor of the Department of Economics, leading researcher, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, Russian Federation. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Ilya Gumennikov – Postgraduate Student of the Department of Economics, Research Assistant, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, Russian Federation. Email: email@example.com
Galina Barysheva – Dr. (Economy), Head of the Department of Economics, Head of the Wellbeing Lab, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, Russian Federation. Email: email@example.com
Nowadays, composite indices are often used to provide a comprehensive approach in assessing multifaceted phenomena. This can allow us to monitor the performance of the institutional environment and specific organizations. This article addresses two major issues: (a) whether the available open-source data from federal statistics authorities in Russia can be developed into an instrument that can measure the elderly generation's well-being at the national level and the level of Russian regions and (b) whether the above instrument can be applied for multi-level analysis of well-being as a complex socioeconomic and psycho-physiological phenomenon. We use systemic and institutional approaches for the methodological justification of the proposed index, as well as a complex multilevel modeling method, to identify the main processes of the well-being as a phenomenon. The main data source is the official statistics of the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), including data retrieved online from the section 'The Older Generation' (official Rosstat's website), the Comprehensive monitoring of living conditions (2014) and the Selective federal statistical observation on the use of ICT. The main result of the study is the development of a composite index – the Russian Elderly Well-Being Index (REWI) – calculated across all Russian regions. The paper discusses the feasibility of selecting relevant data from the pool of the official statistics indicators for assessing the elderly generation well-being in all 85 regions of the Russian Federation across four index domains (economic, social, health and regional environment dimensions). These domains can also serve as independent subindices for monitoring and evaluating relevant processes in the regions. We formulate limitations for the use of this assessment tool around two points: (1) the methodology specifics of composite indices, (2) the absence or lack of data on regions, e.g. on the processes of emotional well-being.


A number of numerical and experimental studies, performed in the field of technical
flow duct acoustics, are presented in this thesis. The analyses have been implemented on the automotive mufflers, and the fluid-dynamic aspects have been taken into account too.
The noise attenuation characteristics of a three pass perforated muffler with final end resonator have been investigated. Acoustic performances have been quantified by the Transmission Loss (TL) parameter, and different numerical methods have been adopted. Firstly, a non-linear one-dimensional (1D) time domain approach is utilized to predict the TL profile in a low frequency range. Secondly, a linear three dimensional (3D) boundary element method (BEM), in the frequency domain, has been utilized to obtain more accurate results at higher frequencies. The effects on muffler performance of different mean flow velocities and gas temperatures have been investigated too.
Advantages and disadvantages of the above mentioned numerical approaches have been highlighted by analyzing a two-tube cross-flow commercial muffler. Besides the obvious differences due to the non linear/linear and 1D/3D formulations, the 1D method has been successfully used in simulations where a mean flow was present. On the other hand, after importing the results of a previously modal analysis, a complex BEM fluid-structure interaction analysis has been performed. Interesting results about the structure excitation, at certain frequencies, have been carried out. Moreover, the radiated noise has been assessed, once imposed a certain excitation at inlet.
An experimental campaign has been carried out in the acoustic laboratory of Tallinn University of Technologies (TTU), Estonia, aimed to validate the above numerical results. Testes have put in evidence the strong effects, on muffler performances, of the constructive features related to the manufacturing process, such as the coupling of adjacent surfaces and the actual shape of components. Hence, although numerical analyses are usually performed on ideal geometries (perfectly matched and shaped), when the behaviour of a real muffler must be simulated, a more detailed schematization must be used. To this aim, a number of tricks are suggested.
A brand new acoustic optimization procedure, based on a 1D non-linear solver coupled to a genetic algorithm through a number of external routines, has been developed, aimed to maximize the acoustical attenuation or to find the best tradeoff between acoustical and fluid-dynamic performances. The proposed approach constitutes a valid instrument to improve the muffler design process, providing a consistent enhancement of TL and a contemporary reduction of back pressure for the examined case.


This thesis proposes a robust, hybrid, deep-syntatic dependency-based parsing architecture and presents its implementation and evaluation. The architecture and the implementation are carefully designed to keep search-spaces small without compromising much on the linguistic performance or adequacy. The resulting parser is deep-syntactic like a formal grammar-based parser but at the same time mostly context-free and fast enough for large-scale application to unrestricted texts. It combines a number of successful current approaches into a hybrid, comparatively simple, modular and open model.

This thesis reports three results:

We suggest, implement, and evaluate a parsing architecture that is fast, robust and efficient enough to allow users to do broad-coverage parsing of unrestricted texts from varied domains.

We present a probability model and a combination between a rule-based competence grammar and a statistical lexicalized performance disambiguation model.

We show that inherently complex linguistic problems can be broken down and approximated sufficiently well by less complex methods. In particular (1) on the level of long-distance dependencies, the majority of them can be approximated by using a labelled DG, context-free finite-state based patterns, and post-processing, (2) on the level of long-distance dependencies, a slightly extended DG allows us to use mildly context-sensitive operations known from Tree-Adjoining Grammar (TAG), (3) on the base phrase level, parsing can successfully be approximated by the more shallow approaches of chunking and tagging. We conclude that labelled DG is sufficiently expressive for linguistically adequate parsing.

We argue that our parser covers the middle ground between statistical parsing and formal grammar-based parsing. The parser has competitive performance and has been applied widely.


This monograph aims to contribute to the broader debate on integration. In an attempt to enhance the AU conflict prevention strategies, it set out to interrogate regional integration in Central Africa as a policy response to human security problems in the region. Anchored in analytic narrative, the monograph argued that integration in the region is a two-level game that is invariably influenced by perceived potential costs and benefits. Accordingly, domestic political security needs to be understood, as such an understanding is required for comprehension of the dismal state of integration at the next, the regional, level. The paper has showed that the poor human security is a function of a skewed political process that prioritises the state, and regime and state security over human security. In ensuring their relevance, influence and political survival, politicians in the region discount the future as they placate a few powerful political constituencies. Within this context corruption, patrimonialism and prebendalism within the framework of presidential systems, have been characteristic of politics in the region. This is epitomised by the fact that despite its enormous wealth, the region is faring badly on all counts of human security.


Higher plants maintain continuous development throughout their life by closely regulating the process of cell differentiation (Clark, 2001; Sablowski, 2007). In plants, the balance between undifferentiated and differentiated cell fate is managed within a stem cell niche termed the meristem. Cell differentiation in the meristem is in part controlled by genetic mechanisms. For example, mutations in CLAVATA (CLV) genes increase the number of undifferentiated cells within shoot and floral meristems leading to supernumerary organs (Clark, 2001). In contrast, mutations in genes of the homeodomain transcription factors WUSCHEL (WUS) and SHOOT-MERISTEMLESS (STM) lead to the absence of the shoot or floral meristem or its early termination through differentiation (Laux et al., 1996; Long et al., 1996).

Cell differentiation in the meristem is also controlled by hormonal cues, which interfaces with gene function. For example, cytokinin treatment leads to phenotypes resembling clv mutants (Lindsay et al., 2006). Furthermore, exogenous cytokinin treatment has been shown to rescue the stm mutant phenotype and WUS protein has been shown to repress transcription of genes that act in the negative feedback pathway of cytokinin signaling (Leibfried et al., 2005; Yanai et al., 2005). The plant hormone auxin also plays a role in regulating differentiation. Auxin is thought to stimulate the initiation, development and differentiation of cells specified into organs (Teale et al., 2006). Disruption of auxin transport leads to a reduction in organ initiation and differentiation (Okada et al., 1991).

In this thesis we investigate spatially regulated signaling and action of auxin and cytokinin which regulate patterning of gene expression and cell differentiation. To this end, we employed two model systems of shoot meristem initiation and development in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana: shoot and floral meristem development and de novo shoot meristem initiation from tissue culture. Based on characterization of hormone signaling and patterning of gene expression during de novo shoot meristem initiation from tissue culture we propose a novel Turing-like model by which auxin and cytokinin interact to regulate patterning of cell differentiation. In this model, the activity of auxin, the activator of cell differentiation, is regulated by cytokinin, an inhibitor of cell differentiation. Computational models of these interactions lead to self organizing patterning of hormone response and cell differentiation as observed in experiments.

In our second investigation, we show that cytokinin signaling regulates the spatial patterning of the homeodomain transcription factor WUS within the shoot meristem. We demonstrate that WUS misregulation after cytokinin treatment is mediated by both CLAVATA-dependent and independent mechanisms leading to multiple feedback loops. We reveal the presence of a cytokinin perception and signaling gradient within the shoot meristem, which spatially influences size and position of the WUS domain.

Finally, we have begun to identify the molecular components required for cytokinin activation of WUS expression. Of the three characterized cytokinin receptors, only Arabidopsis Histidine Kinase 2 (AHK2) is required for WUS induction in the presence of cytokinin. In contrast, the AHK3 receptor is required for negative feedback on cytokinin signaling and thus WUS. These data reveal an unappreciated specificity in cytokinin signaling in regulating downstream targets which may be important for eliciting different cell behaviors depending on the threshold of signaling and the ratio of the three cytokinin receptors within a given cell.


Background: Annually, there are approximately 25 million unsafe abortions, and this remains a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality. In settings where abortion is restricted, women are increasingly able to self-manage abortions by purchasing abortion medications such as misoprostol and mifepristone (RU-486) from pharmacies or other drug sellers. Better availability of these drugs has been shown to be associated with reductions in complications from unsafe abortions. In Bangladesh, abortion is restricted; however, menstrual regulation (MR) was introduced in the 1970s as an interim method of preventing pregnancy. Pharmacy provision of medications for MR is widespread, but customers purchasing these drugs from pharmacies often do not have access to quality information on dosage and potential complications. Objective: This study aimed to describe a call center intervention in Bangladesh, and assess call center use over time and how this changed when a new MR product (combined mifepristone-misoprostol) was introduced into the market. Methods: In 2010, Marie Stopes Bangladesh established a care provider–assisted call center to reduce potential harm from self-administration of MR medications. The call center number was advertised widely in pharmacies and on MR product packaging. We conducted a secondary analysis of routine data collected by call center workers between July 2012 and August 2016. We investigated the reported types of callers, the reason for call, and reported usage of MR products before and after November 2014. We used an interrupted time series (ITS) analysis to formally assess levels of change in caller characteristics and reasons for calling. Results: Over the 4-year period, 287,095 calls about MR were received and the number of users steadily increased over time. The most common callers (of 287,042 callers) were MR users (67,438, 23.49%), their husbands (65,999, 22.99%), pharmacy workers (65,828, 22.93%), and village doctors (56,036, 19.52%). Most MR calls were about misoprostol, but after November 2014, a growing proportion of calls were about the mifepristone-misoprostol regimen. The most common reasons (of 287,042 reasons) for calling were to obtain information about the regimen (208,605, 72.66%), to obtain information about side effects (208,267, 72.54%), or to report side effects (49,930, 17.39%). The ITS analyses showed that after November 2014, an increasing number of calls were from MR users who had taken the complete regimen (P=.02 and who were calling to discuss reported side effects (P=.01) and pain medication (P=.01), and there were fewer calls asking about dosages (P<.001). Conclusions: The high call volume suggests that this call center intervention addressed an unmet demand for information about MR medications from both MR users and health care providers. Call center interventions may improve the quality of information available by providing information directly to MR users and drug sellers, and thus reducing the potential harm from self-management of MR medications. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2019 | vol. 5 | iss. 3 | e12233 | p.1 http://publichealth.jmir.org/2019/3/e12233/ (page number not for citation purposes) Keenan et al JMIR PUBLIC HEALTH AND SURVEILLANCE


Embedded and real-time software is often constrained by several temporal requirements. Therefore, it is important to design embedded software that meets the required performance goal. The inception of embedded graphics processing units (GPUs) brings fresh hope in developing high-performance embedded software which were previously not suitable for embedded platforms. Whereas GPUs use massive parallelism to obtain high throughput, the overall performance of an application running on embedded GPUs is often limited by memory performance. Therefore, a crucial problem lies in automatically detecting the inefficiency of such software developed for embedded GPUs. In this paper, we propose GUPT, a novel test generation framework that systematically explores and detects poor memory performance of applications running on embedded GPUs. In particular, we systematically combine static analysis with dynamic test generation to expose likely execution scenarios with poor memory performance. Each test case in our generated test suite reports a potential memory-performance issue, along with the detailed information to reproduce the same. We have implemented our test generation framework using GPGPU-Sim, a cycle-accurate simulator and the LLVM compiler infrastructure. We have evaluated our framework for several open-source programs. Our experiments suggest the efficacy of our framework by exposing numerous memory-performance issues in a reasonable time. We also show the usage of our framework in improving the performance of programs for embedded GPUs.


Motivation The Hi-C technology has become an efficient tool to measure the spatial organization of the genome. With the recent advance of 1Kb resolution Hi-C experiment, some of the essential regulatory features have been uncovered. However, most available Hi-C datasets are in coarse-resolution due to the extremely high cost for generating high-resolution data. Therefore, a computational method to maximum the usage of the current available Hi-C data is urgently desired. Results Inspired by the super-resolution image technique, we develop a computational approach to impute the high-resolution Hi-C data from low-resolution Hi-C data using the deep convolutional neural network. We hypothesize that the Hi-C interaction heatmap contains the repeating features, and develop an end-to-end framework to map these features from low-resolution Hi-C heatmap to high-resolution Hi-C heatmap at the feature level. Our approach successfully reconstructs the high-resolution Hi-C interaction map from the low-resolution counterpart, which also proves that the Hi-C interaction matrix is a combination of the regional features. Besides, our approach is highly expandable, and we can also increase prediction accuracy by incorporating ChIA-PET data. Availability Source code is publicly available at https://github.com/zhangyan32/HiCPlus Contact email@example.com, email@example.com


BACKGROUND
The complex interaction that exists between biological and cognitive factors determines the reaction of panic-disorder patients to stressors. The current study was conducted to systematically assess the behavioral effects of a real, life-threatening event on panic-disorder patients.

METHOD
Sixty-five panic-disorder patients completed structured telephone interviews during the first 4 weeks of the Persian Gulf War. Evaluation included frequency of panic attacks, anxiety levels, and function levels both during and between air raid alarms.

RESULTS
The findings indicate that panic-disorder patients, despite high levels of anxiety, did not demonstrate an increased frequency of panic attacks during the Persian Gulf War. In addition, the majority of patients reported good-to-high levels of functioning during the crisis in both everyday and alarm-related functioning. Grouping of subjects according to proximity to risk or current antipanic treatment did not produce significant differences in the frequency of panic attacks or levels of anxiety.

CONCLUSION
The findings suggest that vulnerability of patients with panic disorder to a "panic-stricken" response does not increase during real-life stressors. The lack of increased frequency of panic attacks observed under these circumstances provides additional support for the opinion that panic and fear are two distinct entities.


ABSTRACT A method for automation of imago quantifying and fecundity assessment in Drosophila with the use of mobile devices running Android operating system is proposed. The traditional manual method of counting the progeny takes a long time and limits the opportunity of making large-scale experiments. Thus, the development of computerized methods that would allow us to automatically make a quantitative estimate of Drosophila melanogaster fecundity is an urgent requirement. We offer a modification of the mobile application SeedCounter that analyzes images of objects placed on a standard sheet of paper for an automatic calculation of D. melanogaster offspring or quantification of adult flies in any other kind of experiment. The relative average error in estimates of the number of flies by mobile app is about 2% in comparison with the manual counting and the processing time is six times shorter. Study of the effects of imaging conditions on accuracy of flies counting showed that lighting conditions do not significantly affect this parameter, and higher accuracy can be achieved using high-resolution smartphone cameras (8 Mpx and more). These results indicate the high accuracy and efficiency of the method suggested. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper. Summary: We offer a highly accurate and efficient method for an automatic calculation of Drosophila melanogaster imagoes with the use of the SeedCounter application for mobile devices running Android operating system.


Platoon dispersion (PD) is the foundation of traffic signal coordination in an urban traffic network. PD describes the phenomenon by which vehicles depart from an upstream intersection as a platoon and begin to disperse before they arrive at the downstream intersection. Recently, advance warning flashers (AWFs) have been applied in many high-speed corridors. There is a need to update the traditional PD model to include the effect of AWFs. This paper examines the traffic flow dispersion patterns when an AWF is present and tests the hypothesis that the AWF will affect PD on a coordinated signal corridor. Platoon vehicles, which are not affected by the operation of the AWF, are used for comparison. Results show that when the AWF effect is included in the PD model, the smoothing factor F of the Robertson's PD model ranges from 0.11 to 0.13. This range is smaller than the smoothing factor without the AWF effect. The platoon arrival time coefficient β ranges from 0.777 to 0.819 with the AWF effect. This is approximately the same as the default value of 0.8 in the TRANSYT simulation model. The PD coefficient α increases from an average of 0.11 with the AWF effect to an average of 0.24 without the AWF effect, which indicates an increase in roadway friction. It was concluded that AWFs increase the dispersion of the platoons, which might affect signal coordination.


With increasing amount of data in deep web sources (hidden from general search engines behind web forms), accessing this data has gained more attention. In the algorithms applied for this purpose, it is the knowledge of a data source size that enables the algorithms to make accurate decisions in stopping crawling or sampling processes which can be so costly in some cases [4]. The tendency to know the sizes of data sources is increased by the competition among businesses on the Web in which the data coverage is critical. In the context of quality assessment of search engines [2], search engine selection in the federated search engines, and in the resource/collection selection in the distributed search field [6], this information is also helpful. In addition, it can give an insight over some useful statistics for public sectors like governments. In any of these mentioned scenarios, in case of facing a non-cooperative collection which does not publish its information, the size has to be estimated [5]. In this paper, the approaches in literature are categorized and reviewed. The most recent approaches are implemented and compared in a real environment. Finally, four methods based on the modification of the available techniques are introduced and evaluated. In one of the modifications, the estimations from other approaches could be improved ranging from 35 to 65 percent.


The purpose of this thesis was to study the human complement components C6 and C7, in Newfoundland and to pursue the genetics of these proteins within the limits of the material obtained and the time allowed. -- Approximately 2400 sera from three Newfoundland populations were allotyped by the method of isoelectric focusing in polyacrylamide gel followed by specific hemolytic overlay. The frequencies of the common alleles were calculated for two of these populations. The West Coast community had frequencies of C6*a (0.6321) and C6*B (0.3670) and the Newfoundland families plus random individuals in a group had C6*A (0.6947) and C6*B (0.2980. These frequencies are similar to those found in other populations. The C6 alleles observed in the three populations were inherited in a manner consistent with a single autosomal locus and there was no evidence to suggest selection against the inheritance of the rare alleles. Examination for linkage of C6 with HLA reiterated the negative results of previous studies. An attempt to link the C6 and SOD (superoxide dismutase) loci in a West Coast family having a rare SOD variant was made but the data were uninformative. -- The homozygous C7*1 pattern was by far the most commonly observed, occurring in more than 99% of the samples allotyped. The novel observation and investigation of an artifact associated with prolonged serum storage of the C7*1 protein such that it is modified and mimics the migration of the C7*3 protein during isoelectric focusing is described. Genuine C7*3 alleles were also observed, two in heterozygote form, C7 3-1, and one which was due to either C7*3 homozygosity or C7 3-0. Data suggesting the C7*2 allele is of Chinese origin are presented. -- ADDENDUM -- Since the final writing of this thesis, nine unrelated local Chinese people have been bled and their serum typed for C7. Of the nine, three were heterozygous for C7*2. This supports the suggestion that this allele is of Chinese origin and appears with a frequency of approximately 17%. Further studies are currently in progress to accumulate family data for linkage efforts. -- SECOND ADDENDUM -- Following evaluation of this thesis, it has been pointed out that the term "allele" has been used here, as it sometimes is in published literature on C6 & C7, in an imprecise manner. The DNA sequence coding for a polymorphic polypeptide is, strictly speaking the allele, whilst the polymorphic poly-peptide or protein should be referred to as the gene product. The thesis should be read with this reservation in mind.


Page Order: Leaflet
Available also through the Library of Congress web site in two forms: as facsimile page images and as full text in SGML.
Printed Ephemera Collection; Portfolio 232, Folder 3.


Deficiencies of N during the growth of corn (Zea mays L.) are often diagnosed by using chlorophyll meters that measure chlorophyll content in leaves. The diagnoses are based on the assumption that above-optimal supplies ofN do not significantly influence chlorophyll meter readings (CMRs). The objective of this research was to assess the possibility that above-optimal supplies of N impacted chlorophyll concentration and the effects imposed a limitation on the minimum N deficiencies that can be detected by chlorophyll meters. Our approach was to monitor temporal patterns in CMRs of nonirrigated corn that received various rates of N at various times. The results showed that the time at which N deficiency symptoms first become detectable was closely related to the amounts by which N rates fell short for maximizing grain yield. The measured symptoms of N deficiency changed with time. Temporal patterns in CMRs were affected by N treatments while yields were not greatly affected. In-season N applications made to plants that started to show N deficiencies caused CMRs to converge with those taken on plants that always had adequate N. These observations suggest that above-optimal supplies of N may induce a luxury production of chlorophyll that is analogous to luxury uptake of nutrients. These problems severely limit the value of using chlorophyll meters to guide in-season fertilization in fields having near-optimal supplies of N. The underlying problem is the uncertainty caused by difficulties associated with distinguishing luxury production of chlorophyll from symptoms of N deficiencies.


A deodorizing substance in black cumin (Nigella sativa L.), a spice for curry and vegetable foods in Southwest Asia, was examined. The essential oil prepared from the seeds of this plant exhibited strong deodorizing activity against methyl mercaptan, which is a main factor in oral malodor. After purification with silica gel column chromatography, the active substance in black cumin seed oil was identified as thymoquinone. This monoterpenic quinone functions as the main deodorizing substance in this oil against methyl mercaptan. Metabolite analysis suggested that the deodorizing activity may be generated by the addition of a reactive quinone molecule to methyl mercaptan. In the present study, the menthane-type quinone and phenol derivatives exhibited deodorizing activities via this mechanism.


The main objective of the lateral guidance algorithm is to keep the vehicle on preplanned desired path by controlling the lateral track errors during flight and to keep them as small as possible by generating suitable reference commands. Cross track (lateral) error control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the presence of uncertainties and disturbances with bounded control input (φref ) is a challenging task. The path following guidance law needs to be devised using generalized kinematic model and by explicitly considering the UAV autopilot dynamics. However, the inclusion of these dynamics into guidance design further complicates the problem by increasing the relative degree, and stability, and control boundedness becomes difficult to analyze. To address these challenges, several studies for inclusion of autopilot dynamics into guidance design are presented in this thesis for lateral path following applications. Firstly, the guidance and control framework based on sliding mode theory is presented to solve the two dimensional path-following problem. Limitations of the existing nonlinear sliding surface for lateral guidance are indicated and thus two novel stable nonlinear sliding manifolds are proposed for the guidance problem. The two surfaces are then employed to generate two new nonlinear guidance laws for UAV path following. The proposed guidance schemes rely on First Order Sliding Mode Control (FOSMC) algorithm derived at the kinematic level generating reference bank commands. The autopilot based on super twisting algorithm using linear sliding surface forms the inner control loop for control actuation. The autopilot is involved in the feedback nonlinear sliding mode based guidance law design for path following of UAVs. The major contribution of this work is the dynamics of the autopilot taken into account for guidance law design, along-with saturation constraints on guidance commands for high performance in all scenarios. To solve relative degree two problem, a nonlinear sliding manifold is used with real twisting algorithm for guidance design, the guidance loop generates bank angle commands for executing roll maneuvers. The strategy provides a framework to implement the developed controller on the experimental vehicle without modifying the key structure of the original autopilot controller. viii Moreover, an innovative sliding mode based partially integrated lateral guidance and control scheme for UAVs is proposed. Guidance and control framework based on second order sliding modes is presented to solve the problem of two dimensional path-following. The main contribution of the technique presented here is the partial integration of the two loops i.e., a guidance and control system via series interconnection of two stable sliding manifolds. The proposed guidance scheme relies on a nonlinear switching surface with the real twisting algorithm derived at the kinematic level, generating roll error commands. The autopilot based on the super-twisting algorithm using a linear sliding surface forms the autopilot loop. Finally, a new guidance law for accurate following of flight path to observe tight ground track control is presented. The unique feature is to explicitly account for autopilot constraints by defining a 3-D sliding manifold. The guidance solution described is based on state stabilization of kinematics-dynamics trajectories i.e., the guidance law is evolved based on the knowledge of dynamical characteristics of the UAV. A robust FOSMC guidance algorithm is derived using the nonlinear 3-D sliding manifold to develop the guidance law. For the proposed schemes, proof of existence of sliding mode, actuation boundedness and performance of the path-following closed-loop system is analyzed. Flight results validate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed framework for guidance and control design.


The degree of students' involvement and participation in non-examinatory parts of courses at higher level, such as lectures, is often significantly lower than in the examinatory parts. This can especially be seen in project based courses, where the main examination form is done through the application of theory into a practical project, rather than through a written examination. More specific, this paper focuses on two such courses, from the area of software engineering. The courses are given on the second, respectively third year, of the Bachelor Programme in Software Development, at Kristianstad University. These are also part of the academic loop1 of the programmes. Here, the lectures were replaced by seminars based teaching, with the purpose of raising the students' degree of active - involvement and participation into the courses, ensuring a better learning quality, enabling more interaction between the groups of students, and finally facilitating a higher application of the theory into the practical project. Through concrete examples, the paper will show case the changes that were made in these two courses, with regard to the learning outcomes, the academic loop, and formative examination forms, such as seminars, with the purpose of increasing the qual-ity of teaching and learning. Finally, the immediate positive effects of these changes show we need to look further on how we can find more innovative ways of teaching and learning, especially in the project based courses, in order to increase student's degree of involvement and participation.


Objective: To examine the occurrence and clinical and demographic correlates of REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) in a community-based cohort over 8 years. Methods: 231 patients with PD were included in a population-based prevalence study in 1993. Patients were then followed prospectively and reexamined after 4 and 8 years. Semi-structured interviews for information on clinical and demographic data were applied at all study visits. Standardised rating scales of parkinsonism, depression and cognitive impairment were used. The diagnosis of probable RBD (pRBD) was based on a sleep questionnaire. Proportional-odds ordinal logistic regression models for clustered data were used to study the relationship between pRBD and various demographic and clinical variables. Results: 231 patients were evaluated for RBD in 1993 and, after 4 and 8 years, 142 and 89 patients, respectively, were available for re-evaluation. The frequency of pRBD varied from 14.6% to 27% during the study period. Probable RBD was related to male gender, higher dopaminergic treatment and less severe parkinsonism. Conclusion: We found that the frequency of pRBD varied over time and that it is associated with male gender, less parkinsonism and higher levodopa equivalent dose. Our findings indicate that dopaminergic therapy may contribute to the expression of RBD and that RBD is symptomatic in earlier stages of PD.


Climate variability is one of the limiting factors to increasing per capita income and food production among smallholder farmers in Africa. This study investigated if the adoption of climate smart agriculture (CSA) technologies reduce household vulnerability to poverty by differentiating crop yields and income between adopters and non-adopters. This study used a mixed methods approach; both qualitative and quantitative techniques. A multi-stage stratified random sampling was applied, with 619 respondents interviewed in the districts of Nsanje and Balaka in southern Malawi during 2014-2015 cropping season. There was an increment of 26%, 37%, 9% and 26% in maize yield by farmers who adopted portfolio diversification, soil and water conservation, soil fertility improvement and irrigation and water harvesting technologies respectively. About 42% of the adopters had food throughout the year compared to 26% non-adopters. Adopters had 47%, 42%, 60% and 36% more in their crop revenues from portfolio diversification, soil and water conservation, soil fertility improvement and irrigation & water harvesting respectively, than their non-adopters counterparts. The study confirms the importance of agriculture technology adoption for increased household revenue and the need to take steps to reinforce existing adoption strategies. Keywords :  Climate smart agriculture, effectiveness, smallholder farmers, Malawi.


Stigma is neither new nor an isolated condition for people suffering from mental as well as physical disorders. It is regrettable that scientists, researcher, philosophers, and community leaders have been silent for a long time in recognizing and dealing with it. However, during the past 20–30 years, significant progress has taken place in stigma research, the world over including India. From research done in India, there is clear evidence that: stigma is not merely a social condition. Convergence of social, mental, and physical disorders around stigma has far-reaching consequences on risk and health outcomes. The present paper looks at the position of stigma in mental health from an Indian perspective. The research done on stigma in India is reviewed, and certain recommendation for the management and eradication of stigma are elucidated. Stigma in specific conditions such as schizophrenia, substance abuse, and child sexual abuse are also addressed. The WHO guidelines and Mayo clinic guidelines to eradicate are used as a basis to be applicable to the Indian scenario. We examine how a life of an individual is affected with stigma, how mental health advancement has changed or not changed negative impact of stigma on patients and finally how stigma is measured and minimized, mainly for work done in India.


El Mayor‐Cucapah earthquake occurred on 4 April 2010 in northeastern Baja California just south of the U.S.‐Mexico border. The earthquake ruptured several previously mapped faults, as well as some unidentified ones, including the Pescadores, Borrego, Paso Inferior and Paso Superior faults in the Sierra Cucapah, and the Indiviso fault in the Mexicali Valley and Colorado River Delta. We conducted several Global Positioning System (GPS) campaign surveys of preexisting and newly established benchmarks within 30 km of the earthquake rupture. Most of the benchmarks were occupied within days after the earthquake, allowing us to capture the very early postseismic transient motions. The GPS data show postseismic displacements in the same direction as the coseismic displacements; time series indicate a gradual decay in postseismic velocities with characteristic time scales of 66 ± 9 days and 20 ± 3 days, assuming exponential and logarithmic decay, respectively. We also analyzed interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data from the Envisat and ALOS satellites. The main deformation features seen in the line‐of‐sight displacement maps indicate subsidence concentrated in the southern and northern parts of the main rupture, in particular at the Indiviso fault, at the Laguna Salada basin, and at the Paso Superior fault. We show that the near‐field GPS and InSAR observations over a time period of 5 months after the earthquake can be explained by a combination of afterslip, fault zone contraction, and a possible minor contribution of poroelastic rebound. Far‐field data require an additional mechanism, most likely viscoelastic relaxation in the ductile substrate.


The Centre for Innovative Educational and Communication Technologies (CIECT) at the University of the Western Cape designed and developed a blended learning course for teacher-educators, namely: Designing an Instructional Event. The course is registered with the South African Quality Authority (SAQA) at a National Qualification Framework (NQF), Level 6. Research indicates that, online courses (popularly known as eLearning) can enhance face-to-face interaction. However, there is need for the selection of the relevant eLearning Tools (eTools) and the application of sound ePedagogical Practices. This course aimed at demonstrating how to make use of various eTools to supplement the traditional face-to-face approaches. By the end of the course, the teacher-educators were expected to: (i) explain the current trends in eLearning and how they affect the teaching practice; (ii) understand the educational philosophies that could inform the online teaching/learning/instructional practices; (iii) design an online teaching/instructional event ;(iv) understand the need for good structuring of course content for blended learning; (v) select eTools for use in the instructional event according to their pedagogical values and underpinning; and (vi) understand the roles of an online facilitator and how they affect the learning process. In addition, the 36 teacher-educators across Grades (R to 12) and various disciplines were assessed in relation to the provision of assessment criterion. The facilitators created an awareness of assessment processes and the submission of formal tasks during the face-to-face and online phases. As a follow-up, the participants were expected to plan, design and develop a small online teaching event; and actively participate in various online discussion topics. The researchers aimed to determine the effective use of the presented eTools for application by teachers in their specific disciplines ‐ to enhance teaching-and-learning practices; as well as the effective application of eAssessment tools. This paper will highlight the main themes as derived from the responses within discussion forums; and related to the submission of the formal assessment task, namely, the creation of a prototype - an online environment for their specific discipline. Furthermore, some of the findings highlighted an increase in the innovative teaching methodologies of teachers after the completion. The principles also expressed observable augmented instructional abilities, and that the course would even be of benefit to the school leaders -the principles themselves.


The Cabinet (Museum) of Christian Archaeology, a study cabinet, existed at the University of Tartu Department of Theology Chair of Historical Theology from 1921 to 1940. It emerged from the Collection of Biblical and Christian Articles established in the 1870s. From 1921 to 1940 the Cabinet was led by Olaf Sild, Professor of the Chair of Historical Theology. Siegfried Aaslava, Kristjan Valdmann, Villem Uuspuu worked as assistants in the Cabinet during this period. Until 1926 the Cabinet was situated in the hall of the Theological Seminary on the 3 rd floor of the University main building. In 1926 three rooms were obtained in the building at Lai Street 36. The Cabinet of Christian Archaeology had its own library and compiled collections of old articles from churches and historical sources. The inventory of the Cabinet (models, pictures, manuscripts, photos, photocopies, stereotypes, gravestones, baptismal bowls etc.) was used for illustrating lectures. Practical courses about church history, Christian archaeology, historical Christian art, palaeography, etc. were held. Students received training about registering church monuments and their scientific handling. Archaeological excavations were performed. Students compiled reports and wrote research papers about Estonian church history. The archival materials of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Consistory deposited in the Central State Archive were used as sources. Data about visitation protocols and church chronicles found in parishes were collected. Sild, the Director of the Cabinet, wanted to make a list of all Estonian parochial church archives. His further aim was to collect data about the church history of the whole area of Estonia. During the years 1926–1940 the Cabinet registered church monuments together with the members of the Academic Society of Theologians. Altogether over 30 papers about different Estonian churches were written. Certain instructions were followed for registration. The papers were composed on the basis of corresponding questionnaires. The church archive and inventory lists were checked in the course of registration. The details of exterior and interior design, building materials, time of construction and other important data about church buildings were recorded. Drawings, copies and photos were made. Especial attention was given to the inscriptions on churches, chapels, monuments, gravestones—these were copied. The types of crosses were recorded in the form of drawings. The orientation of churches and chapels in relation to cardinal points was measured. Collecting old church articles to the museum established by Professor Sild, researching and registering church monuments included heritage protection work. Thereby, the cultural value of these articles and buildings was more widely introduced. The Christian Archaeology Cabinet was closed on 31 August 1940 in connection to the liquidation of the Faculty of Theology. The collections of the Cabinet had to be handed over to other institutions of the University. Most of the belongings of the Cabinet of Christian Archaeology were destroyed in the course of the war in 1944. Some materials that were preserved can be found in the Estonian Historical Archives, University of Tartu Library, University of Tartu Art Museum, University of Tartu Museum.


This article uses linked employer–employee data to investigate the relationship between employees' subjective well-being and workplace performance in Britain. The analyses show a clear, positive and statistically significant relationship between the average level of job satisfaction at the workplace and workplace performance. The relationship is present in both cross-sectional and panel analyses and is robust to various estimation methods and model specifications. In contrast, we find no association between levels of job-related affect and workplace performance. Ours is the first study of its kind for Britain to use nationally representative data and it provides novel findings regarding the importance of worker job satisfaction in explaining workplace performance. The findings suggest that there is a prima facie case for employers to maintain and raise levels of job satisfaction among their employees. They also indicate that initiatives to raise aggregate job satisfaction should feature in policy discussions around how to improve levels of productivity and growth.


A pilot experiment was conducted to determine the effects of soil salinity and inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (Glomus fasciculatum) on growth (shoot length, leaf number, internode length, and total dry weight), spore count and root colonisation of grape rootstocks (Salt Creek, St. George, Dogridge and 1613). Analysis of variance results revealed that increasing salinity reduces growth, spore count and root colonisation, with St. George rootstock showing the highest reduction. Although all rootstocks responded positively to mycorrhizal inoculation, the extent of host preference varied significantly. Dogridge was the least preferred, while the 1613 rootstock was the most preferred. The arbuscular fungal symbiosis increased vegetative growth, with 1613 attaining the highest growth under saline conditions. All the inoculated rootstocks exhibited longer internodes, indicating the beneficial role of mycorrhizal inoculation for improving plant growth and salt tolerance. Based on overall growth and total dry matter accumulation, the salt tolerance ranking of the four rootstocks, in decreasing order, was Dogridge, Salt Creek, 1613 and St. George.


One problem in the field of computational geometry is the triangulation of convex layers. The rotating caliper algorithm is an alternative to the constrained Delaunay triangulation method. We present an improved triangulation algorithm, which gives a mesh quality close to that of the Constrained Delaunay but substantially faster. Each layer will be connected to the neighboring layer by edges and from the two vertices constituting an edge the proposed algorithm will select the shortest diagonal to its next neighbors in the polygonal chain on the other side, i.e. from the outer layer to the inner layer or vice versa. We discuss quality issues regarding the rotating caliper method and some improvements to it, as well as how a Constrained Delaunay can be efficiently implemented for convex layers.


[FeFe] hydrogenases catalyze the reduction of protons, and oxidation of hydrogen gas, with remarkable efficiency. The reaction occurs at the H-cluster, which contains an organometallic [2Fe] subsite. The unique nature of the [2Fe] subsite makes it dependent on a specific set of maturation enzymes for its biosynthesis and incorporation into the apo-enzyme. Herein we report on how this can be circumvented, and the apo-enzyme activated in vivo by synthetic active site analogues taken up by the living cell.


The effects of the dopamine (DA) uptake blocking agents, benztropine, cocaine, nomifensine and mazindol, were studied on the amphetamine-induced circling behavior in mice that received a unilateral nigro-striatal lesion with 6-hydroxydopamine. When administered intrastriatally to these animals, none of the DA uptake inhibitors elicited net circling. However, they inhibited circling induced by amphetamine. In contrast, these agents had no effect on the circling produced by apomorphine in mice that received an electrolytic lesion destroying one striatum. In biochemical studies in vitro, all of the DA uptake blocking agents inhibited the stimulatory effects of amphetamine on [3H]DA synthesis and release in mouse striatal slices. In contrast to the DA uptake blocking agents, ethylene glycol bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)N,N'-tetraacetic acid (EGTA), which also inhibited amphetamine-induced circling, only inhibited the amphetamine-stimulated [3H]DA synthesis. EGTA did not inhibit the amphetamine-induced increase in the percentage of newly synthesized DA released into the medium. However, EGTA and the uptake blocking agents reduced the amount of [3H]DA found in the medium in the presence of amphetamine. If the amount of [3H]DA released into the medium in vitro reflects the amount of DA released from nerve terminals in the striatum in vivo then the inhibitory effect of the uptake blocking agents and EGTA on [3H]DA synthesis and/or release induced by amphetamine could account for their inhibitory effects on amphetamine-induced circling.


Patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) after trauma from a fall, motor vehicle collision, or assault frequently develop a mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) also called concussion. There is no specific treatment for concussion, therefore, the focus shifts to managing symptoms. Countless EDs experience overcrowding leading to time and resource constraints, therefore nursing discharge education is brief and may only review symptoms which require immediate medical attention. This ED discharge practice leaves the patient on their own to manage symptoms and if the patient is unaware, they may perform activities that exacerbate their condition. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the impact of an educational program on ED nurses' knowledge of concussion/MTBI and the current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended education for patients and families discharged home. The study took place at a large level I trauma center, using a nonprobability convenience sample of ED nurses. A pre-intervention post-test design was used to measure nurses' knowledge regarding concussion. The intervention consisted of a poster board and informational packet that provided nurses with evidence-based information about concussion and discharge instructions. Fifty-one nurses (28%) completed the pretest with a mean score of 61.96% and total scores ranged from 30% to 90%. Twentyeight nurses (15%) completed the post-test with a mean score of 78.2% and a range of 40% to 100%. There was an overall improvement in the total scores by 16.24%. These findings suggest that an evidence-based educational intervention increases ED nurses' knowledge regarding concussion and appropriate discharge education for concussion patients.


In recent years, the use of manufactured nanoparticles has increased considerably, due to the fact that companies have increased the demand for commercial products for human consumption. This has led us to wonder what are the possible consequences and/or impacts of these nanoparticles on the environment. One of the most used nanoparticles for its optical properties and electrical as well as its antimicrobial properties are the silver nanoparticles.
Despite the many recent studies that have been carried out, there is very little information on how these silver nanoparticles are assimilated in plants or how they are transported and accumulate in the environment. In general, there is very little information on the possible impact or toxicological risk that these nanoparticles may pose.
The main purpose of this work is carry out a study on the interaction of the silver nanoparticles with the plants, specifically with lettuces (Lactuca Sativa), and ascertain if a translocation of the sliver takes place from the roots to the aerial part of the lettuce. To achieve this objective, various studies have been proposed for quantifying the silver in the lettuces by means of ICP-OES and was used SP-ICP-MS for discriminating AgNPs of the different forms of silver. For this, hydroponic crops of lettuces were produced with a Hoagland nutrient solution, and these solutions were spiked with AgNPs. Once grown, before the determinations, these lettuces were digested using two types of digestion methods: complete digestion with a microwave and an enzymatic digestion in order to keep the integrity of the nanoparticle.
The results obtained in this work, it was able to be confirmed that the lettuces assimilate and incorporate the silver from the nutritive solutions through their roots. Furthermore, the silver could be quantified by complete digestion with a microwave and enzymatic digestion methods. On the other hand, it has also been verified that there is a silver translocation from the roots to the aerial part of the lettuce. Although more evidence it should be done, it seems that the roots better assimilate smaller nanoparticles, but the larger size translocate better to the aerial parts. Finally, it has been able check for the presence of nanoparticles and discriminate them from the free silver in different samples of roots and aerial part of the lettuce


High-performance cryptographic libraries often mix code written in a high-level language with code written in assembly. To support formally verifying the correctness and security of such hybrid programs, this paper presents an embedding of a subset of x64 assembly language in F* that allows efficient verification of both assembly and its interoperation with C code generated from F*. The key idea is to use the computational power of a dependent type system's type checker to run a verified verification-condition generator during type checking. This allows the embedding to customize the verification condition sent by the type checker to an SMT solver. By combining our proof-by-reflection style with SMT solving, we demonstrate improved automation for proving the correctness of assembly-language code. This approach has allowed us to complete the first-ever proof of correctness of an optimized implementation of AES-GCM, a cryptographic routine used by 90% of secure Internet traffic.


Abstract. This paper compares the performance of the Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF) with the Physical-Space Statistical Analysis System (PSAS) under a perfect model scenario. PSAS is a 3D-Var assimilation system used operationally in the Goddard Earth Observing System Data Assimilation System (GEOS-4 DAS). The comparison is carried out using simulated winds and geopotential height observations and the finite volume Global Circulation Model with 72 grid points zonally, 46 grid points meridionally and 55 vertical levels. With forty ensemble members, the LETKF obtains analyses and forecasts with significantly lower RMS errors than those from PSAS, especially over the Southern Hemisphere and oceans. This observed advantage of the LETKF over PSAS is due to the ability of the 40-member ensemble LETKF to capture flow-dependent errors and thus create a good estimate of the evolving background uncertainty. An initial decrease of the forecast errors in the Northern Hemisphere observed in the PSAS but not in the LETKF suggests that the LETKF analysis is more balanced.


Scotland has one of the highest rates of imprisonment in Western Europe and the prison population is rising [1]. In the last decade the average daily prison population in Scotland increased by 27% [1]. The burden of physical and mental illness in the prison population is high; disproportionately so when compared to the general population [2]. This has variably been attributed to socioeconomic disadvantage and lifestyle and behavioural factors such as substance misuse, smoking and poor nutrition which are common in the prison population [2,3]. Prisoners suffer from multiple deprivation [2,3]. Many are a product of the care system, have experienced physical, emotional or sexual abuse and have difficulties forming and maintaining relationships. Levels of educational attainment are low and unemployment high. Homelessness is common. Prior to incarceration prisoners rarely engage with health care services in the community; during imprisonment demand for health care services is high [3,6,7]. Traditionally health care services in Scottish prisons were provided by the Scottish Prisons Service (SPS). On 1st November 2011 responsibility for the provision of health care to prisoners was transferred from SPS to the National Health Service (NHS). The aim of the transfer was to ensure that prisoners received the same standard of care and range of services as offered to the general population according to need. The guiding principle is that of 'equivalence' of care. The aim of this Health Needs Assessment (HNA) was to provide a systematic baseline assessment of the health and health care needs of prisoners in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) and to identify gaps in the current service provision to inform service future planning and development. It focuses on the two operational publicly owned prisons within NHSGGC: HMP Barlinnie and HMP Greenock. A third prison, HMP Low Moss, falls under the remit of NHSGGC but it was under renovation at the time of this HNA. Information about the prison population was drawn from published literature and reports provided by staff from the Justice and Communities Directorate of the Scottish Government. Information about the prisons from HMP Inspectorate reports, direct observation and interviews with members of staff in each prison. To fully understand the level and nature of existing services a service mapping was undertaken jointly with nominated staff from the prison health teams using direct observation and extensive staff and prisoner interviews and focus groups. Overall the findings are in line with other national and international studies on prison health. Despite characteristic differences between the prisons within NHSGGC there was a high level of consensus amongst both prisoners and staff groups about health needs and priorities. The report acknowledges the thoughtful contribution of prison staff and the positive approach to improving health services that they expressed. This has impacted on the formation of recommendations that both validate existing approaches and identify opportunities and 10 priorities for health gain. In addition to more fundamental changes they identify opportunities for quick wins that do not require significant financial outlay.


This book responds to the opening up of electricity markets to competition, which has completely changed the nature of power generation. The building of new generation and transmission capacity and the setting of the energy mix between nuclear, gas and renewable resources are mainly left to private initiative and investors.