Nursing shift lengths are widely debated, and the implications on both nurse and patient safety are quite large. This work seeks to present a current review of literature describing the current work schedules of nurses in comparison to the Institute of Medicine's 2004 recommendations and both the positive and negative effects that these schedules have on nurses and their patients. Eleven studies from the past five years (2004-2009) are included, with particular emphasis on those studies that address the dispute between continuity of care and nursing fatigue. Results show that nurses are regularly working longer than is recommended, and this overtime is having a negative effect on the quality of patient care. However, longer shift lengths also bring increased continuity of care, which improves quality outcomes. Very few studies sought to determine whether continuity of care or decreased fatigue was the most important. Further research specifically addressing this contention is needed in order for health agencies to make an evidence based decision on nursing shift length.


'Although he feared death, he could not stop. 'If I stopped now, after coming all this way - well, they'd call me an idiot!' A pair of short stories about greed, charity, life and death from one of Russia's most influential writers and thinkers. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). Tolstoy's works available in Penguin Classics are Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Childhood, Boyhood, Youth,The Cossacks and Other Stories, The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories, What is art[unk], Resurrection, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories, Master and Man and Other Stories, How Much Land Does A Man Need[unk] & Other Stories, A Confession and Other Religious Writings and Last steps: The Late Writings of Leo Tolstoy.


"A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of the most remarkable plays of our time. It created an immortal woman in the character of Blanche DuBois, the haggard and fragile southern beauty whose pathetic last grasp at happiness is cruelly destroyed. It shot Marlon Brando to fame in the role of Stanley Kowalski, a sweat-shirted barbarian, the crudely sensual brother-in-law who precipitated Blanche's tragedy. Produced across the world, translated into many languages, and recreated as a prize-winning film, "A Streetcar Named Desire" has attracted one of the widest audiences in contemporary literature.


Abstract Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) together with urinary incontinence is extremely common. About 11% of women will receive surgery for these conditions and a third of them will receive a second operation within two years. The general practitioner should be on the lookout for POP as patients may not reveal it. Parous patients with bladder symptoms, a fullness or pressure in the pelvis, or rectal symptoms (mainly obstructive defaecation) are candidates for POP, particularly in those with a previous hysterectomy. Patients in need for surgery (referral) are those with stage 3 and 4 prolapse (in or outside the introitus), or stage 2 prolapse with severe symptoms. Surgery for POP has undergone a transformation in recent years with the introduction of new surgical methods and the use of mesh to reinforce weakened pelvic support systems. However, conservative measures such as physiotherapy and medication still play a role for lesser degree of prolapse or urinary symptoms. A vaginal pessary can be used for uterine prolapse in extremely elderly women.


Aims. We present one-dimensional aperture synthesis imaging of the red supergiant Betelgeuse (α Ori) with VLTI/AMBER. We reconstructed for the first time one-dimensional images in the individual CO first overtone lines. Our aim is to probe the dynamics of the inhomogeneous atmosphere and its time variation. Methods. Betelgeuse was observed between 2.28 and 2.31 μm with VLTI/AMBER using the 16-32-48 m telescope configuration with a spectral resolution up to 12000 and an angular resolution of 9.8 mas. The good nearly one-dimensional uv coverage allows us to reconstruct one-dimensional projection images (i.e., one-dimensional projections of the object's two-dimensional intensity distributions). Results. The reconstructed one-dimensional projection images reveal that the star appears differently in the blue wing, line center, and red wing of the individual CO lines. The one-dimensional projection images in the blue wing and line center show a pronounced, asymmetrically extended component up to ~1.3 R * , while those in the red wing do not show such a component. The observed one-dimensional projection images in the lines can be reasonably explained by a model in which the CO gas within a region more than half as large as the stellar size is moving slightly outward with 0-5 km s -1 , while the gas in the remaining region is infalling fast with 20-30 km s -1 . A comparison between the CO line AMBER data taken in 2008 and 2009 shows a significant time variation in the dynamics of the CO line-forming region in the photosphere and the outer atmosphere. In contrast to the line data, the reconstructed one-dimensional projection images in the continuum show only a slight deviation from a uniform disk or limb-darkened disk. We derive a uniform-disk diameter of 42.05 ± 0.05 mas and a power-law-type limb-darkened disk diameter of 42.49 ± 0.06 mas and a limb-darkening parameter of (9.7 ± 0.5) x 10 -2 . This latter angular diameter leads to an effective temperature of 3690 ± 54 K for the continuum-forming layer. These diameters confirm that the near-IR size of Betelgeuse was nearly constant over the last 18 years, in marked contrast to the recently reported noticeable decrease in the mid-IR size. The continuum data taken in 2008 and 2009 reveal no or only marginal time variations, much smaller than the maximum variation predicted by the current three-dimensional convection simulations. Conclusions. Our two-epoch AMBER observations show that the outer atmosphere extending to ~1.3-1.4 R * is asymmetric and its dynamics is dominated by vigorous, inhomogeneous large-scale motions, whose overall nature changes drastically within one year. This is likely linked to the wind-driving mechanism in red supergiants.


This article supplements Lawlor's Consumption and Literature by demonstrating the complex relationships between disease and literature. Lawlor shows how the consumptive American poetesses, sisters Margaret and Lucretia Davidson, became famous for their consumptive condition and early deaths on both sides of the Atlantic, and were feted as such by prominent (mostly male) literary figures like British Poet Laureate Robert Southey and the Americans Washington Irving and Samuel Finley Breeze Morse. Edgar Allan Poe took the opportunity to convert the issue of American critics fawning over Southey's praise from the literary motherland of Britain, into a critical space for distinctively American criticism, as dictated by himself. Poe observed that the actual quality of the Davidson sisters' poetry was poor and that critics both British and American were seduced by the image (highly popular at the time) of consumptive femininity, poetic or not. Poe, perhaps unusually for the period, argued that a distinction should be made between text and biographical context. Lawlor suggests that the literary disease consumption became a lever for Poe to intervene in the national politics of literary criticism at a time when America was attempting to establish a distinctive national and literary-critical identity for itself.


Abstract Lake-calving Yakutat Glacier in southeast Alaska, USA, is undergoing rapid thinning and terminus retreat. We use a simplified glacier model to evaluate its future mass loss. In a first step we compute glacier-wide mass change with a surface mass-balance model, and add a mass loss component due to ice flux through the calving front. We then use an empirical elevation change curve to adjust for surface elevation change of the glacier and finally use a flotation criterion to account for terminus retreat due to frontal ablation. Surface mass balance is computed on a daily timescale; elevation change and retreat is adjusted on a decadal scale. We use two scenarios to simulate future mass change: (1) keeping the current (2000–10) climate and (2) forcing the model with a projected warming climate. We find that the glacier will disappear in the decade before 2110 or 2070 under constant or warming climates, respectively. For the first few decades, the glacier can maintain its current thinning rates by retreating and associated loss of high-ablating, low-elevation areas. However, once higher elevations have thinned substantially, the glacier can no longer counteract accelerated thinning by retreat and mass loss accelerates, even under constant climate conditions. We find that it would take a substantial cooling of 1.5°C to reverse the ongoing retreat. It is therefore likely that Yakutat Glacier will continue its retreat at an accelerating rate and disappear entirely.


The optical properties of mols. in complex environments were studied within hybrid time-dependent d. functional theory / mol. mechanics (TDDFT/MM) simulation studies. The potential energy surface in the excited state is described within time-dependent d. functional theory (TDDFT). The solvent is described through a mol. mechanics approach and the effects due to the inhomogeneities of the elec. field of the solvent mols. are fully included. The results for different systems including both n -> p* and p -> p* transitions are discussed. The authors apply this TDDFT/MM technique to the study of the properties of the ground state and of the first excited singlet state of two different systems: acetone in water and aminocoumarins in water and acetonitrile. Approach yields quant. information on the solvent-induced shifts, both batho- and hypsochromic, of the electronic absorption spectra, and on the effect of a protic and an aprotic solvent on the spectral shift. [on SciFinder (R)]


In our work, a NiCo2O4/nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide/ionic liquid (NiCo2O4/N-rGO/IL) nanocomposite was prepared using hydrothermal treatment and calcination followed by a facile reaction with stirring. The composite material was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), FTIR spectra and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The biosensing properties of NiCo2O4/N-rGO/IL, NiCo2O4/N-rGO and NiCo2O4 towards glucose were studied based on a glassy carbon electrode. The NiCo2O4/N-rGO/IL nanocomposite exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity towards glucose, with a sensitivity of 3.76 mA mM−1 cm−2 and a good linear response from 0.001 mM to 4.555 mM at a potential of +0.5 V. The limit of detection can reach 0.18 μM. It also shows significant electrochemical sensitivity, reproducibility and long-term stability. The good electrocatalytic activity is attributed to the synergistic effect of the metal oxides, graphene oxide and the IL. The N-doping of rGO accelerates the electron transfer of the IL further and enhances its electrochemical properties. In addition, the sensor is effectively applied to the determination of glucose in a human blood serum sample.


Recently, there has been a renewed interest in optical code-division multiple access (OCDMA) due to its potential for offering increased levels of security at ultrahigh data rates as well as for simplifying key networking functions, such as replacing (active) wavelength translation with cascaded passive all-optical code translation (CT). Much of the research done in this area has focused on homogeneous OCDMA networking, where it is assumed that the fiber bandwidth is used only for OCDMA signals. In contrast to other proposed OCDMA systems, we have developed a novel narrowband (NB) spectrally phase-encoded (SPE) OCDMA that is compatible with existing transparent reconfigurable dense-WDM (DWDM) networks and has high spectral efficiency. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate, for the first time, the feasibility of multistage CT in the proposed WDM-compatible SPE OCDMA system, and we also describe how cascaded CTs can play a central role in ring- and star-network architectures. Specifically, we describe a star-network architecture in which both unicast and multicast interconnections among ends are passively "routed" by means of such cascaded CTs, a ring-network architecture in which CT and fast optical switching enable a code-based equivalent to add/drop wavelength multiplexing, and a shared code-scrambling application for increased signal obscurity.


Despite high levels of stress and burnout [1] and the recently reported, 'compassionate care' crisis [2], professional resilience as a strand of resilience research has received relatively little attention. Staff well-being is an antecedent to patient care [3] and this paper will explore the feasibility of a professional resilience intervention, to 'buffer' the effect of work related stress [4]. Resilience research has begun to apply resilience-focused concepts to supporting professionals in various fields including education [5, 6], social work [4, 7], nursing and midwifery [8, 9, 10, 11 & 12]. However, much of this work is not sufficiently grounded in ecological theories of resilience, as described by Ungar [13]. Adamson, Beddoe and Davys [14] offer a conceptual framework of resilience in social work that is ecologically based, but this does not extend to an intervention, nor has it been applied to other professional groups. This paper will present work in progress of a doctorate study, which links with the resilience work (http://www.boingboing.org.uk/) and the Health and Social Inequalities research programme, co-ordinated by Professor Angie Hart and collaborators. The aim of the thesis is to answer the question, 'What are the best approaches to support professional resilience?' This paper will draw on the resilience literature across different professional groups, to define the construct of professional resilience, the nature of adversity and to propose an ecologically based intervention to grow professional resilience, otherwise termed as the, 'Growing Resilience Intervention Tool' (GRIT).


Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) concentrations in the Hudson estuary were found to be greater than the atmospheric solubility equilibrium concentration, demonstrating that the entire reach is contaminated with CFCs from local wastewater discharge. Samples have been collected along the axis of the lower Hudson estuary over a 5-month period to assess temporal and spatial variability of their wastewater sources. The highest CFC concentrations were found in water collected near Manhattan. In this region, CFC-11 (CCl3F) and CFC-12 (CCl2F2) were 3 to 5 and 10 to 20 times saturation, respectively. There appears to be a continuous CFC source in the New York City area, although the magnitude of this source declined during summer months. Other large CFC sources were found near Albany, and in Haverstraw Bay (60 km north of Manhattan).


Today, any enterprise has to consider marketing as important as production. Production and marketing are two complementary activities in enterprises. The increase in marketing effectiveness is achieved through measuring the activity outcomes that can be described as marketing performance. Because marketing is a social science and, therefore, determining the marketing performance system concretely, examining it and determining its principles may not be possible, a need for a new model was felt to represent the real system, and, consequently, a multi dimensional purpose-system model was developed. This model was applied in the eighty-nine state forest enterprises in Turkey which are branches of the General Directorate of Forestry and which are run on the principles of business enterprise. This study covers a limited period of time (1999 - 2003), and 41 variables were developed in order to measure the marketing performances of these enterprises. As a result of the statistical analyses, the total production area (TPA), total production costs (TPC), total number of the personnel working in the management unit (TNPWM), total growing stock (TGS), total investment amount (TIA), number of the assistant personnel separated from the management unit (NAPSM), distance to city center (DCC), total marketing/sale expenditure (TME), total management unit area (TMUA), total sales (TS), total forest area (TFA), total personnel expenditures (TPE), total production amount (TPAM) and total market priced product income (TMPPI) were found to be the most important marketing variables in the state forest enterprises. It was also found that the marketing performance could be explained 77.328% with the 14 variables that were used in this model.


This paper describes ongoing and planned work on incremental language processing coupled to inference of expected robot actions. Utterances are processed word-by-word, simultaneously with inference of expected robot actions, thus enabling the robot to prepare and act proactively to human utterances. We believe that such a model results in more natural human-robot communication since proactive behavior is a feature of human-human communication.


Despite the rise of voluntary civility codes and calls for professionalism, incivility persists in the legal profession. The practice of law is a privilege, not a right, and attorneys must be held to a higher standard of conduct as a lawyer is a representative of clients, an officer of the legal system and a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice. The time for mandatory civility has long come, and all state bars should follow the lead of the few jurisdictions that have made civility mandatory.This article examines what civility is, its importance, and the problem of incivility. The article also discusses the legal profession's response to incivility thus far, and why this response in most instances falls short. The article also examines the manner in which mandatory civility can be enforced and provides suggestions on the specific rules necessary to enforce it. This article also discusses the arguments against mandatory civility and provides responses to each.This article argues that civility should be mandatory for attorneys, because when a lawyer fails to act with civility by failing to treat others in the legal process, including the opposing party and its counsel, the court, and clients, with dignity, respect and courtesy, then the public's confidence in the legal system suffers and legal costs rise, including the costs of litigation. As the former United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said, "More civility and greater professionalism can only enhance the pleasure lawyers find in practice, increase the effectiveness of our system of justice, and improve the public's perception of lawyers."


The patterns of polymorphisms in genomes are imprints of the evolutionary forces at play in nature. In particular, polymorphisms have been extensively used to infer the fitness effects of mutations and their dynamics of fixation. However, the role and contribution of molecular biophysics to these observations remain unclear. Here, we couple robust findings from protein biophysics, enzymatic flux theory, the selection against the cytotoxic effects of protein misfolding, and explicit population dynamics simulations in the polyclonal regime. First, we recapitulate results on the dynamics of clonal interference and on the shape of the DFE, thus providing them with a molecular and mechanistic foundation. Second, we predict that if evolution is indeed under the dynamic equilibrium of mutation–selection balance, the fraction of stabilizing and destabilizing mutations is almost equal among single-nucleotide polymorphisms segregating at high allele frequencies. This prediction is proven true for polymorphisms in the human coding region. Overall, our results show how selection for protein folding stability predominantly shapes the patterns of polymorphisms in coding regions.


In an era of corporate surveillance, artificial intelligence, deep fakes, genetic modification, automation, and more, law often seems to take a back seat to rampant technological change. To listen to Silicon Valley barons, there's nothing any of us can do about it. In this riveting work, Joshua Fairfield calls their bluff. He provides a fresh look at law, at what it actually is, how it works, and how we can create the kind of laws that help humans thrive in the face of technological change. He shows that law can keep up with technology because law is a kind of technology—a social technology built by humans out of cooperative fictions like firms, nations, and money. However, to secure the benefits of changing technology for all of us, we need a new kind of law, one that reflects our evolving understanding of how humans use language to cooperate.


This thesis investigates the Australian distribution, invasion biology and genetics of the European earwig, Forficula auricularia, its predation of woolly apple aphid (WAA) and intraguild compatibility with the parasitoid Aphelinus mali in apple orchards, the impact earwigs have upon sweet cherry production and the chemical ecology of F. auricularia with special reference to the isolation of its aggregation pheromone.
F. auricularia was found to be spread across all of southern Australia with records indicating it probably invaded Australia, in Tasmania, over 170 years ago. The mtDNA analysis of Australian and New Zealand F. auricularia populations indicated only one of the two known European earwig subspecies is found in these regions and that there are two differing clades of this subspecies within Australia but only one in Tasmania and New Zealand. Comparing these results to samples collected throughout Europe indicates that the genetic diversity of the mainland Australian population is only half that of Europe and the diversity in Tasmania and New Zealand is half that again. Possible European sources for only one of the two Australian clades were found. These results indicate that multiple invasion events are likely to have occurred on the Australian mainland, but this seems less probable within Tasmania or New Zealand.
The investigation into the intraguild compatibility of earwigs and A. mali in apple orchards was determined by weekly monitoring of arthropod communities (including WAA, earwigs, A .mali) within 5 orchards over two entire apple production seasons. Earwig trap catches were observed to rapidly decline after the imaginal moult at all sites and during both seasons. The thesis shows that trees which possess large earwig trap catches (> 22 earwigs/tree/week) within the first 7 weeks after blossom contain little to no WAA at the end of the season. Trees that contained fewer earwigs had larger WAA infestations unless the first generation of A. mali numbers exceeded 0.5 wasps per sticky trap per week. If these beneficial insect targets were not met, extreme WAA infestations occurred, despite other predators being observed feeding on WAA colonies.
Cherry fruit and cherry stem damage assessments were conducted on four commercial cherry varieties; Ron"s Seedling, Lewis, Sweet Georgia and Lapin. Assessments of the spatial distribution of earwigs within cherry canopies and the cherry bunch characteristics including bunch size and position, and the level of cherry fruit or cherry stem damage that may have ensued were determined. Significant differences in the type and frequency of earwig damage were observed between varieties with damage varying between 5-60%. Earwigs were found to be strongly aggregated within large cherry bunches. The greatest damage was observed within these large bunches in all varieties except Ron"s Seedling where stem damage occurred irrelevant of bunch size. No predictive relationship between the level of cherry damage and earwig numbers in trunk traps at harvest or those found within the tree canopies at harvest could be found.
Chemical ecology experiments demonstrated earwigs were attracted to substrates pre-exposed to earwigs in both laboratory and field bioassays. The thesis newly identifies numerous headspace volatiles and cuticular hydrocarbons (HC) isolated from aggregating male, female and juvenile earwigs. Some promising synthetic blends consisting of unsaturated HCs demonstrated earwig attraction twice that of controls in the field. However, attraction to these blends was inconsistent across the earwig life cycle and field season. To investigate whether the observed decline in earwig trap catches and the inconsistent attraction to the synthetic pheromone blends was due to pheromone plasticity, sequential sampling of earwig populations while simultaneously sampling the cuticular HCs from the same field populations was undertaken. Results demonstrated that the production of cuticular HCs in F. auricularia decline soon after the imaginal moult and that this decline correlates with a decline in earwig trap catches. Although promising aggregating compounds have now been identified, further work, especially on the consistency of their bioactivity is needed.


The variation in elevation profile has significant influence on the Hydrology of any catchment. With the advent of technology the elevation data is captured from the satellites like ASTER, CARTOSAT P5, and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). The products of these satellites stored in the form of a raster grid known as a Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The DEM pixel values indicate the height of the pixel above the defined vertical datum. Although the DEM itself describes just the elevation of the land surface, it can be used to derive many interesting and useful data products. These derivatives are used in hydrological, visibility, ecologyand morphological analyses. The present study includes the collection, analysis, evaluation, and interpretation of geographic information on the natural and manmade features of the terrain, combined with other relevant factors, to predict the effect of the terrain on regional hydrology. Terrain analysis of Malaprabha basin, Belagavi district of Karnataka was carried out to understand the variation in hydrological processes. The study indicated that there is a wide variation in runoffcharacteristics and groundwater recharge in various sections of the catchment which is due to change in catchment characteristics, land use/land cover, slope, aspect, convergence index, wetness index and LS factors. The study also showed that the modification of catchment due to population pressure agriculture practices is the prime reasons for such changes in Malaprabha catchment.


Many Nuclear Safeguards applications can benefit from interactive design and simulation tools to be used by planners and inspectors at headquarters. Virtual Reality technologies provide the capability to create accurate, realistic and immersive environments, as well as create "objects" – representing equipment, measurement devices and radiation sources, with specific properties and behaviours. To be adapted to Safeguards, applications need to reflect the equipment, functions (including the laws of Physics) and procedures that are ultimately used in the field. The paper presents the development of a virtual reality based prototype aimed at simulating the selection, installation, configuration and usage of Safeguards equipment. Examples include surveillance cameras and radiation detection equipment. Design and simulation are achieved by using these devices in realistic environments, including the presence of virtual radioactive sources. Application scenarios include: (a) the design of a Safeguards approach for a given installation; (b) the determination of the most appropriate location to install equipment (e.g., surveillance cameras); (c) the interactive evaluation of equipment"s effectiveness for specific applications and scenarios; (d) training on the use of specific equipment – e.g., using radiation detection equipment. The paper details an application involving the simulation of surveillance cameras for spent fuel storage areas. The system enables the interactive selection of the location (i.e., position and orientation) of cameras as well as their optical setup – lens selection. In a second phase, radiation detectors are implemented. The user is presented with an interface replicating the real instrument. The user can then train his/her detection skills when using the detection equipment, as well as follow the best practices related to the task.


A commercial vineyard of White Riesling was used to study the influence of 0, 56, 112, and 224 kg N/ha on bud cold hardiness and carbohydrate reserves of bud and cane tissues over a three-year period. High N had significant effects on cold hardiness of buds, levels of soluble sugars and starches extracted from one-year-old bud or cane samples, only on a limited number of dates during the three years of the study. There was a positive relationship between bud hardiness and soluble sugars from bud or cane samples that was highly significant. Regression analysis of yearly data indicated there was no relationship between nitrogen level and either soluble sugars or starch in buds or canes. There was a positive relationship between air temperature and bud low temperature exotherms during the sampling period of each year, and an inverse relationship between air temperature and soluble sugar levels in both buds and canes. These data show the predominant role of air temperature on bud and presumably vine cold hardiness and the attendant changes in carbohydrate reserves. This study further demonstrates that under otherwise good management practices of pruning, cropload, irrigation, and rootstock selection, there should be little concern regarding a detrimental influence of nitrogen applied before harvest on cold hardiness or carbohydrate reserves of grapevines.


Recent research and practice in the fields of architecture, art, and philosophy suggest the increasing influence of geology with the design disciplines, visual arts, and theoretical humanities. The symposium A Geologic Turn: Architecture's New Alliance, curated by Etienne Turpin, Ph.D., as part of the Sanders Research Fellowship at the Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Michigan, bring together researchers, scholars, and practitioners whose work is at the center of this fecund transdisciplinary trajectory. The objectives of the symposium are to encourage new productive connections among current scholarship and practice, and to expose this new transdisciplanary research to Taubman College for discussion and debate.


Between November 2013 and August 2014, nine cases of verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O117:H7 VT1 were confirmed in adult men. Further investigation using semi-structured interviews revealed that eight cases were United Kingdom (UK)-born men who have sex with men (MSM) who had sexually acquired infection in the UK. Most were HIV-positive with high numbers of sexual partners. This behavioural profile resembles that associated with the recent rapid increase in other sexually acquired infections in MSM.


A new clue comes from scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Their research indicates that early life sun exposure, from birth to 20 years old, may specifically increase the risk of melanomas with BRAF gene mutations. A different mutation, on the NRAS gene, was found in patients who had sun exposure later in life (between ages 50 to 60 years old). The results indicate that different subtypes of melanoma are associated with different risk factors. "The findings suggest that melanoma subtypes have different causes. This is important for learning more about how to prevent and treat skin cancer," said Dr. Nancy Thomas, associate professor of dermatology in the UNC School of Medicine, a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and lead author of the study. This finding is expected to strengthen current recommendations to protect children from sun exposure in order to prevent melanoma, Thomas said. The study, published in the May 2007 edition of the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, presents some of the first data to link early life sunlight exposure to a specific mutation in melanomas. Researchers interviewed 214 melanoma patients in North Carolina about their risk factors for melanoma and about the various places they had lived. Each patient's UV sun exposure was estimated from their residential history and satellite-base measurements. DNA from the patients' melanomas was then analyzed for mutations. Patients with melanomas that contained the BRAF mutation, found in about half of all melanomas, were more likely to report high levels of sun exposure before age 20. People with the NRAS mutation were more likely to have had high exposure between the ages of 50 and 60. About 15 percent of melanomas contain the NRAS mutation. The findings come from the initial phase of an ongoing study that will ultimately include more than 1,000 patients from the U.S. and Australia. The research was funded by the Dermatology Foundation, the National Cancer Institute and the UNC Lineberger Cancer Center. Other UNC authors of the study are: Dr. Kathleen Conway, assistant professor of epidemiology; Dr. Robert C. Millikan, professor of epidemiology; research specialist Sharon Edmiston; research specialist Audrey Alexander; clinical research coordinator Dianne Mattingly; applications specialist Chiu Kit Tse; and research technician Dr. Dawn Tolbert, all of the department of epidemiology; of the department of dermatology, Dr. Pamela Groban, professor of dermatology and pathology, and research specialist Honglin Hao; of the department of surgery, Dr. David Olilla, associate professor of surgery. All are affiliated with the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Marianne Berwick of the University of New Mexico was also a co-author. Other co-authors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York were Dr. Klaus Busam, Dr. Colin B. Begg and Amanda Hummer. Dr. Julia Lee-Taylor from the National Center for Atmospheric Research also was a co-author. For more information contact: Nancy Thomas; Tel.:919.966.0785; Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


Written simply yet comprehensively, Molnar's anlaysis of the history of philosophy and false mysticism leads him to conclude that a return to a moderate realism will save the philosophical enterprise from a series of epistemological and societal absolutes that are embodied in contemporary rationalism and mysticism alike. Issues that have been systematically excluded from discourse will have to be reintroduced into the discussion of person and providence. Molnar divided the philosophical systems into two groups according to their vision of God, and consequently of reality. One group removes God from the human scope, therefore rendering the world unreal, unknowable, and meaningless. The second group holds that God is immanent in the human soul, thereby emphasizing the human attainment of divine status, and reducing the extra-mental world to a condition of utter imperfection. Either way, the result is a pseudo-mysticism, a denial of the creaturely status of human beings. What is most needed, Molnar claims, is a theory of knowledge whose ideal is not fusion but distinction--between God and Man, subject and object, the self and the society. By thus raising the question of philosophy over against magic Molnar seeks to awaken the reader from neo-dogmatic assumptions and restore speculative thought to its traditional place. Upon publication, Dale Vree in The Review of Politic DEGREES, said that "this book will go a long way in establishing Professor Molnar as one of the distinguished conservative philosophers of our time."


Today, daylight is considered to be the ultimate light source for performance lighting, ambiance creation, and healing environments. More and more architects design interior spaces using daylight not only to provide us with lighting to be able to see, but to connect us with the outside world and create beautiful daylight patterns inside. The light distribution in an interior space resulting from daylight is strongly connected with the architecture of the daylight opening and the sky type. Being able to understand the perceptual relation between architectural choices and the attractive qualities of daylight provides valuable insights for maximizing the daylight impression of a room. In a visual perception experiment, we measured the effect of skylight configuration and sky type on the daylight impression in a room. This was done based on renderings of a room. A room with different skylight configurations (5x) was built in Sketch-up, and Indigo renderer was used to render the lighting effects in the room using HDR sky images (overcast, partly clouded with/without visible sun, clear sky). In a paired comparison set-up (70 comparisons), the participants had to indicate which picture (left or right) had the strongest daylight impression. The comparisons were shown to the participants in a randomized order. After the experiment, participants had to fill out a short questionnaire. The statistical analysis showed a significant main effect of skylight configuration and sky type. In general, people preferred the larger rectangular skylights over the squared skylights in terms of daylight impression. The clear sky and partly clouded (sun visible) sky types resulted in a better daylight impression than the partly clouded (sun not visible). The daylight impression of an overcast sky was very low in general. The results of the questionnaire afterwards showed that the decision on daylight impression was mainly determined by 1) skylights (layout and view) and 2) daylight patterns (edge Eco-Architecture IV 53 www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) WIT Transactions on Ecology and The Environment, Vol 165, © 201 WIT Press 2 doi:10.2495/ARC120051 sharpness and color temperature). No interaction effects between skylight configuration and sky type were found.


In this paper we describe a new mobile architecture, MobileNetV2, that improves the state of the art performance of mobile models on multiple tasks and benchmarks as well as across a spectrum of different model sizes. We also describe efficient ways of applying these mobile models to object detection in a novel framework we call SSDLite. Additionally, we demonstrate how to build mobile semantic segmentation models through a reduced form of DeepLabv3 which we call Mobile DeepLabv3. is based on an inverted residual structure where the shortcut connections are between the thin bottleneck layers. The intermediate expansion layer uses lightweight depthwise convolutions to filter features as a source of non-linearity. Additionally, we find that it is important to remove non-linearities in the narrow layers in order to maintain representational power. We demonstrate that this improves performance and provide an intuition that led to this design. Finally, our approach allows decoupling of the input/output domains from the expressiveness of the transformation, which provides a convenient framework for further analysis. We measure our performance on ImageNet [1] classification, COCO object detection [2], VOC image segmentation [3]. We evaluate the trade-offs between accuracy, and number of operations measured by multiply-adds (MAdd), as well as actual latency, and the number of parameters.


Energy preservation is one of the most important research challenges in Wireless Senor Networks (WSNs). In recent research, topologies and architectures have investigated that allow energy efficiency in WSNs. Clustering is one of the most famous energy efficient techniques. In clustering, the selection of cluster head (CH) and short distance multi-hop energy efficient communication between CH and base station (BS) plays a vital role in order to achieve the desired energy efficiency in the sensor network. In this energy saving solution, we purpose and combine the idea of fuzzy logic based CH selection and multihop short distance communication between CH and base station in order to prolong the stable period and life span of network. Our proposed routing protocol, Fuzzy Logic based Multihop Energy Efficient Routing Protocol (FMEEP) for Heterogeneous WSN, which uses fuzzy logic inference system (FIS) in order to select a qualified CH in the cluster formation process and minimizes the overall energy dissipation in the sensor network. The simulation results have shown that purposed routing scheme outperforms in terms of stability period and network lifetime as compared to previous routing protocols.


Newnes Passive and Discrete Circuits Pocket Book is aimed at all engineers, technicians, students and experimenters who can build a design directly from a circuit diagram. In a highly concise form Ray Marston presents a huge compendium of circuits that can be built as they appear, adapted or used as building blocks. The devices used have been carefully chosen for their ease of availability and reasonable price. The selection of devices has been thoroughly updated for the second edition, which has also been expanded to cover the latest ICs.The three sections of the book cover:

 Modern passive components: relays, meters, motors, sensors and transducers
 Design of attenuators, filters and bridge circuits
 Discrete semiconductor devices: JFET, MOSFET, CMOS, VMOS, UJT, SCR, TRIAC, and various optoelectronic devices
 The subjects are treated in an easy-to-read, highly practical manner with a minimum of mathematics.


This study is concerned with radio listening habits and their effects in the economic, cultural and political spheres in Northern Thailand. The three villages under study are situated in different geographical settings and achieved different levels of modernization. Radio influences all aspects of life. By diffusion of new ideas it prepares listeners for acceptance of innovations. Radio also helps villagers more directly with advice and special educational programmes to adopt new techniques at home and new agricultural methods. It makes education more generally available and this in turn affects traditional elites, who used to have the monopoly of education. To keep their position and remain the best informed, they must listen to the radio even more regularly than other villagers. Though people listen to radio more in the most traditional and isolated village, they find it difficult to make full use of the new ideas. The most modernized community nearest to the town has many other diversions and other means of gaining information, so that radio is less important there. The effect of radio is most significant in the middle community, still traditional, but with reasonable communications with the outside world. Not all the effects of radio listening are positive. Advertisements arouse desires for goods which the people cannot afford and in the absence of any consumer movement there is no impartial advice available on the quality of the goods advertised. Nevertheless radio has great potential and the Government could use it more intensively, and in preference to the usual administrative channels, when introducing new development projects.


Chemotherapeutic regimens for the treatment of colorectal cancer generally include oxaliplatin, although inherent and acquired resistance is common. One potential mediator of oxaliplatin sensitivity is the nonreceptor protein tyrosine kinase, Src, the activity of which correlates with disease stage and patient survival. Therefore, we investigated the effects of Src inhibition using the tyrosine kinase inhibitor dasatinib on oxaliplatin sensitivity. We show that oxaliplatin acutely activates Src and that combination treatment with dasatinib is synergistic in a cell-line dependent manner, with the level of Src activation correlating with extent of synergy in a panel of six cell lines. Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated after oxaliplatin treatment, and ROS potently activates Src. Pretreatment with antioxidants inhibits oxaliplatin-induced Src activation. In oxaliplatin-resistant cell lines, Src activity is constitutively increased. In a mouse model of colorectal liver metastases, treatment with oxaliplatin also results in chronic Src activation. The combination of dasatinib and oxaliplatin results in significantly smaller tumors compared with single-agent treatment, corresponding with reduced proliferation and angiogenesis. Therefore, we conclude that oxaliplatin activates Src through a ROS-dependent mechanism. Src inhibition increases oxaliplatin activity both in vitro and in vivo. These results suggest that Src inhibitors combined with oxaliplatin may have efficacy in metastatic colon cancer and may provide the first indication of a molecular phenotype that might be susceptible to such combinations.


Relative motion between the brain and skull may explain many types of brain injury such as intracerebral hematomas due to bridging veins rupture and cerebral contusions. However, no experimental methods have been developed to measure the magnitude of this motion. Consequently, relative motion between the brain and skull predicted by analytical tools has never been validated. In this study, radio opaque markers were placed in the skull and neutral density markers were placed in the brain in two vertical columns in the occipitoparietal and temporoparietal regions. A bi-planar high-speed x-ray system was used to track the motion of these markers. Due to limitations in current technology to record the x-ray image on high-speed video cameras, only low speed (<4m/s) impact data were available. A previously developed finite element model of the brain simulating blunt head impact was used to study the feasibility of using this model to obtain relative displacement of the same magnitude as that obtained experimentally. The model simulated the scalp, three-layered skull, dura, falx, tentorium, pia, cerebral spinal fluid (CSF), venous sinuses, ventricles, cerebrum (gray and white matter), cerebellum, brain stem, and parasagittal bridging veins. No sliding was allowed between any component structures of the model, and a layer of solid elements with low shear modulus was used to model the CSF. However, this approach was not able to predict relative motions over 1 mm between the brain and skull. In this study, the model was modified. Although the CSF remained as a layer of material with a low shear modulus, a sliding interface was introduced to simulate the interaction between the CSF and pia matter. With this change in place, the model predictions corresponded with brain displacement data obtained from cadaveric experiments. The relative skull/brain displacement-time histories predicted by the new model agreed well with those obtained experimentally. The model was also run at higher impact speeds to obtain intracranial pressure as well as displacement histories. The computed coup/contrecoup pressures and contact forces predicted by the model compared favorably with the experimental data published by Nahum et al. Simulation results reproduced the translational acceleration injury mechanism (coup/contrecoup) proposed by Gurdjian and Lissner.


ABSTRACT This systematic review aimed to collect, evaluate, and synthesize the research on muscle dysmorphia (MD) post official recognition as a specifier for body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) in the DSM-5, and provide recommendations for future research. Literature searches were conducted in four databases to see if inclusion criteria were met. Results revealed 33 studies meeting inclusion criteria, none of which utilized DSM-5 criteria for MD or acknowledged the criterion in their research. Few studies acknowledged the association between MD and BDD, and the methodological quality of recent MD research was considered low due to a lack of clinical samples, measurements not using validated cutoff scores, and the research designs. In conclusion, future MD research is encouraged to utilize DSM-5 diagnostic criteria to better inform clinical practice and significantly improve the methodological quality. As such, more effective treatment options may be developed, reducing the risk of health-harming consequences in these individuals.


This work deals with geopolymers based on local Jordanian resources, namely, kaolin and zeoltitic (phillipsite) tuff. The geopolymers were prepared from these two materials by a reaction with an alkali solution at 80oC. The research group of the present work has demonstrated in previous work that addition of zeolitic tuff to kaolin based-geopolymers increases the adsorption capacity toward Cu(II) metal ion compared to zeolite-free geopolymers, while retaining high mechanical strength. The aim of the present work is to extend our work and to study the effect of changing geopolymers components (zeolitic tuff and kaolin) on their adsorption properties toward Cu(II), Ni(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and Pb(II) metal ions. Both isothermal and kinetic studies revealed that increasing the zeolitic tuff: kaolin ratio improves the adsorption capacity of geopolymer toward metal ions. The adsorption capacity of the geopolymers of 150: 50 zeolites: kaolin content was found to be higher than that of the raw materials themselves. The rate of adsorption of geopolymers was found to be lower than that of raw materials due to kinetic limitations imposed by the formation of geopolymerization network. The selectivity of geopolymers toward adsorption of  metal ions was found to be distinct from raw zeolite and kaolin where the adsorption onto geopolymers was found to be more preferential for small size metal ions (Cu(II), Ni(II), Zn(II)) than for large size metal ions (Pb(II), Cd(II)). The adsorption of Cu(II) and Pb(II) onto geopolymers did not decrease with competition with other metal ions, which indicates cooperative adsorption. The adsorption process of metal ions onto geopolymers was found to be reversible that indicates that metal ions are bound by physical cation exchange to the exchangeable sites of unreacted phillipsite and new amorphous geopolymer sites. Leaching of metal ions from raw kaolin was much more effective than geopolymers and zeolite because of compact structure of geopolymers.


Proliferation of the Internet usage is rapidly increasing, and it is necessary to support the performance requirements for multimedia applications, including lower latency, improved security, faster content retrieval, and adjustability to the traffic load. Nevertheless, because the current Internet architecture is a host-oriented one, it often fails to support the necessary demands such as fast content delivery. A promising networking paradigm called Information-Centric Networking (ICN) focuses on the name of the content itself rather than the location of that content. A distinguished alternative to this ICN concept is Content-Centric Networking (CCN) that exploits more of the performance requirements by using in-network caching and outperforms the current Internet in terms of content transfer time, traffic load control, mobility support, and efficient network management. In this paper, instead of using the saturated method of validating a theory by simulation, we present a testbed-based performance evaluation of the ICN network. We used several new functions of the proposed testbed to improve the performance of the basic CCN. In this paper, we also show that the proposed testbed architecture performs better in terms of content delivery time compared to the basic CCN architecture through graphical results.


This paper aims to explore specific cross-asset market correlations over the past fifteenyearperiodfrom January 04, 1999 till April 01, 2015, and within four sub-phases covering both the crisis and the non-crisis periods. On the basis of multivariate statistical methods, we focus on investigating relations between selected well-known market indicesU.S. treasury bond yieldsthe 30-year treasury yield index (TYX) and the 10-year treasury yield (TNX); commodity futuresthe TR/J CRB; and implied volatility of S&P 500 indexthe VIX. We estimate relative logarithmic returns by using monthly close prices adjusted for dividends and splits and run normality and correlation analyses. This paper indicates that the TR/J CRB can be adequately modeled by a normal distribution, whereas the rest of benchmarks do not come from a normal distribution. This paper, inter alia, points out some evidence of a statistically significant negative relationship between bond yields and the VIX in the past fifteen years and a statistically significant negative linkage between the TR/J CRB and the VIX since 2009. In rather general terms, this paper thereafter supports the a priori ideafinancial markets are interconnected. Such knowledge can be beneficial for building and testing accurate financial market models, and particularly for the understanding and recognizing market cycles.


This paper examines to what extent non-random sorting of spouses affects earnings inequality while explicitly disentangling effects from increasing assortativeness in couple formation from changing patterns of couples' labor supply behavior. Using German micro data, earnings distributions of observed and randomly matched couples are compared to each other. Earnings of hypothetical couples are adjusted for changes in hours worked given the differences in the household context using predictions based on a structural model of labor supply. The main finding is that the impact of marital sorting on earnings inequality has been underestimated in previous approaches. Predicting hours worked for hypothetical couples reveals a strong disequalizing impact of nonrandom sorting on inequality which is stable since the 1980s. Taking labor supply choices as given would suggest a smaller effect. This suggests that increasing earnings correlation among couples is to a considerable extent driven by changing patterns of labor market behavior rather than changes in the assortativeness in couple formation.


This thesis reviews the existing manufacturing control techniques and identifies their practical drawbacks when applied in a high variety, low and medium volume environment. It advocates that the significant drawbacks inherent in such systems, could impair their applications under such manufacturing environment. The key weaknesses identified in the system were: capacity insensitive nature of Material Requirements Planning (MRP); the centralised approach to planning and control applied in Manufacturing Resources Planning (MRP IT); the fact that Kanban can only be used in repetitive environments; Optimised Productivity Techniques's (OPT) inability to deal with transient bottlenecks, etc. On the other hand, cellular systems offer advantages in simplifying the control problems of manufacturing and the thesis reviews systems designed for cellular manufacturing including Distributed Manufacturing Resources Planning (DMRP) and Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) controllers. It advocates that a newly developed cellular manufacturing control methodology, which is fully automatic, capacity sensitive and responsive, has the potential to resolve the core manufacturing control problems discussed above. It's development is envisaged within the framework of a DMRP environment, in which each cell is provided with its own MRP II system and decision making capability. It is a cellular based closed loop control system, which revolves on single level Bill-Of-Materials (BOM) structure and hence provides better linkage between shop level scheduling activities and relevant entries in the MPS. This provides a better prospect of undertaking rapid response to changes in the status of manufacturing resources and incoming enquiries. Moreover, it also permits automatic evaluation of capacity and due date constraints and hence facilitates the automation of MPS within such system. A prototype cellular manufacturing control model, was developed to demonstrate the underlying principles and operational logic of the cellular manufacturing control methodology, based on the above concept. This was shown to offer significant advantages from the prospective of operational planning and control. Results of relevant tests proved that the model is capable of producing reasonable due date and undertake automation of MPS. The overall performance of the model proved satisfactory and acceptable.


Various Leishmania species can cause human infection with a spectrum of clinical
manifestations. The current treatments are unsatisfactory; and in absence of a vaccine there is an urgent
need for effective drugs to replace those currently in use. In the present study, the effect of direct current
electricity in combination with selenium and silver nanoparticles on the healing of leishmanial lesions
has been investigated.
Materials & Methods: In this experimental study, 24 Balb/c mice were divided into four groups and
infected experimentally with L.major. Then silver nanoparticles with a concentration of 250 mg/kg and
selenium nanoparticle with a concentration of 125 mg/kg were injected inter-lesion, and simultaneously
0.5 mA DC induction was applied directly into the wound. Finally, the lesion size and mice body weight
changes were measured during five weeks.
Results: The lesions were found to be smaller in the group treated with DC and silver nanoparticles than
the group treated with DC and selenium nanoparticles (P < 0.05). Two treated groups showed significant
differences with both negative control group and the group treated with Glucantime (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: The results showed that selenium and silver nanoparticles with direct current electricity
promotes wound healing in mice


Detecting bubble in two-phase flow has been a basic issue in two-phase flow systems. A new method for measuring the frequency of bubble formation is presented in this paper. For this purpose, an electronic device was designed and constructed which works based on a change in intensity of laser beam. For this purpose, continues light beam is embedded just above the needle, which is received by a phototransistor. When bubbles go through this light beam, make a deviation on that and change the intensity of light. So, the electrical resistance between two bases of phototransistor changes and this variation sensed by an electronic board. According to the number of interruption and duration time, the frequency of bubble formation can be calculated. Liquid and gas phases of present work are water and air respectively. Tests are performed in constant liquid height (60 mm above the needle), constant needle diameter (1.6 mm), and gas flow rates between 50 to 1200 ml/hr. Also, three other methods utilized for measuring bubble frequency: image processing (IP), numerical modeling, and theoretical model. Results show that with increasing flow rate of the gas phase frequency of formation increases approximately in a linear manner. Validation of methods with IP method shows that the new device has very good accuracy for measuring bubble formation frequency. So because of the simplicity of using and low cost, it can be a superseded method of image processing.


The Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus is a valuable fishing resource, but local populations may be limited by availability of crevice shelter on juvenile (seagrass) habitats. This has prompted research into the potential density enhancement of juvenile lobsters with 'casitas', large (1.1 m 2 surface area) but low-lying (3.8 cm entrance height) artificial shelters that exclude large predators. Moray eels (Muraenidae), however, fit into casitas and could therefore pose a threat to lob- ster enhancement. In a shelter-poor reef lagoon, we examined potential interactions between juve- nile lobsters and the locally dominant morays Gymnothorax vicinus and G. moringa in the absence (four 1 ha control sites) and presence of casitas (five 1 ha 'casita sites', each with 10 casitas), before (6 surveys) and after (22 surveys) deployment. Morays and lobsters did not interact as predator-prey, as morays neither consumed nor intimidated co-occurring lobsters. Rather, the 2 taxa appeared to compete for limited shelter on the reef lagoon, as suggested by a significant increase in density and mean size of both taxa on casita sites after deployment. Casitas significantly increased cohabitation of morays and lobsters, yet they tended to co-occur less often than expected by chance, but this result likely reflects behavioral differences between the highly gregarious, more numerous lobsters and the typically solitary, cannibalistic morays. Our study exemplifies the influence of habitat complexity on the nature of interspecific interactions and shows that G. vicinus and G. moringa would not pose a threat to lobster enhancement with casitas.


To establish causation, a tort plaintiff must show that it is "more probable than not" that the harm would not have occurred if the defendant had followed the relevant standard of care. Statistical evidence, based on aggregate data, is sometimes introduced to show that the defendant's conduct created a statistically significant increase in the likelihood that the harm would occur. But there is a serious problem with the use of such evidence: It does not establish that in the particular case, the injury was more likely than not to have occurred because the defendant behaved negligently. Under existing doctrine, a plaintiff should not be able to establish liability on the basis of a showing of a statistically significant increase in risk. This point has general implications for the use of statistical evidence in tort cases. It also raises complex issues about the relationship between individual cases and general deterrence: Optimal deterrence might be obtained by imposing liability on defendants who engage in certain behavior, even though a failure to engage in such behavior cannot be connected with the plaintiff's harm by reference to the ordinary standards of causation.


System calls provide an interface to the services made available by an operating system. As a result, any functionality provided by a software application eventually reduces to a set of fixed system calls. Since system calls have been used in literature, to analyze program behavior we made an assumption that analyzing the patterns in calls made by a mobile application would provide us insight into its behavior. In this paper, we present our preliminary study conducted with 534 mobile applications and the system calls made by them. Due to a rising trend of mobile applications providing multiple functionalities, our study concluded, mapping system calls to functional behavior of a mobile application was not straightforward. We use Weka tool with manually annotated application behavior classes and system call features in our experiments, to show that using such features achieves mediocre F1-measure at best. Thus leading to the conclusion that system calls were not sufficient features for mobile application behavior classification.


Abstract Despite the general importance of nest site choice in reproductive success in taxa with little or no parental care, little is known for reptiles other than turtles. Here we report on the nesting ecology of the Yellow-Spotted Monitor, Varanus panoptes, a large tropical lizard that utilizes warrens (concentrated groups of burrows) in northern Australia. We used radio-telemetry, remote photography, and the complete excavation of a warren to test the hypotheses that 1) warrens are used by multiple individual V. panoptes; and if so, 2) they are used for communal nesting; or alternatively 3) they are used for communal estivation during the dry season. At least six individual V. panoptes utilized the warren system including four females and two males, and burrows were excavated by both sexes. Excavation of the warren revealed no estivating lizards at a time when four radio-telemetered V. panoptes had begun estivation. However, we found two nests in the warren, indicative of either communal nesting or multiple clutches of the same female. Nests were deeper than that recorded for any other reptile and were structurally complex. We discuss the implications of the depth and structure of the nesting burrow for the thermal and hydric environment of the eggs and for hatchling emergence. The warren's usage by multiple individuals raises the possibility that the severe declines in V. panoptes caused by invasive Cane Toads (Bufo marinus) may have important implications for the V. panoptes social structure.


Abstract. This study investigates the role of soil moisture on the threshold runoff response in a small headwater catchment in the Italian Alps that is characterised by steep hillslopes and a distinct riparian zone. This study focuses on: (i) the threshold soil moisture-runoff relationship and the influence of catchment topography on this relation; (ii) the temporal dynamics of soil moisture, streamflow and groundwater that characterize the catchment's response to rainfall during dry and wet periods; and (iii) the combined effect of antecedent wetness conditions and rainfall amount on hillslope and riparian runoff. Our results highlight the strong control exerted by soil moisture on runoff in this catchment: a sharp threshold exists in the relationship between soil water content and runoff coefficient, streamflow, and hillslope-averaged depth to water table. Low runoff ratios were likely related to the response of the riparian zone, which was almost always close to saturation. High runoff ratios occurred during wet antecedent conditions, when the soil moisture threshold was exceeded. In these cases, subsurface flow was activated on hillslopes, which became a major contributor to runoff. Antecedent wetness conditions also controlled the catchment's response time: during dry periods, streamflow reacted and peaked prior to hillslope soil moisture whereas during wet conditions the opposite occurred. This difference resulted in a hysteretic behaviour in the soil moisture-streamflow relationship. Finally, the influence of antecedent moisture conditions on runoff was also evident in the relation between cumulative rainfall and total stormflow. Small storms during dry conditions produced low stormflow amounts, likely mainly from overland flow from the near saturated riparian zone. Conversely, for rainfall events during wet conditions, higher stormflow values were observed and hillslopes must have contributed to streamflow.


Neocarzinostatin chromophore (NCS-C) was the first isolated member of the enediyne family, one of the most potent family of anticancer agents ever discovered. Neocarzinostatin (NCS or holo-NCS) is a 1 : 1 non-covalent complex of a very reactive nine-membered ring epoxydiyne chromophore (NCS-C) tightly bound to a protein, apo-NCS. Total syntheses of Myers and Hirama, and the work of Magnus and Caddick have shown the challenges involved in the synthesis of the Neocarzinostatin chromophore, and in particular its bicyclic epoxydiyne ring. This project thesis concerns evaluation of alternative approaches towards the synthesis of strained medium size rings, such as those in the Neocarzinostatin chromophore, using McMurry coupling and acyl radical chemistry. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the field including a discussion of the mode of action of Neocarzinostatin and a detailed evaluation of previous approaches to the Neocarzinostatin chromophore. McMurry coupling and acyl radical chemistry are also reviewed, particularly with reference to their use in strained medium ring synthesis. Chapter 2 describes studies into aerobic hydroacylations of vinyl sulfonates in view of its application to the synthesis of NCS-C core. A broader range of aldehydes can now be used for the synthesis of β-ketosulfonates. Pentafluorophenol has been shown to have an inhibitory effect on hydroacylations of vinyl sulfonates and new conditions were developed to minimise this inhibitory effect. Preliminary mechanistic studies suggest that addition of acyl radicals to vinyl sulfonates is reversible. Chapter 3 includes studies on different approaches to key epoxydiyne synthon of Neocarzinostatin chromophore. Whilst zinc mediated coupling to give the key epoxydiyne synthon was capricious, sulphur ylide approach gave access to disubstituted propargylic epoxides in good yields. Proof of principle for the synthesis of the key epoxydiyne via this method is also described.


A North American epidemic of mountain pine beetle (MPB) has disturbed over 5 million ha of forest containing headwater catchments crucial to water resources. However, there are limited observations of MPB effects on partitioning of precipitation between vapor loss and streamflow, and to our knowledge these fluxes have not been observed simultaneously following disturbance. We combined eddy covariance vapor loss (V), catchment streamflow (Q), and stable isotope indicators of evaporation (E) to quantify hydrologic partitioning over 3 years in MPB‐impacted and control sites. Annual control V was conservative, varying only from 573 to 623 mm, while MPB site V varied more widely from 570 to 700 mm. During wet periods, MPB site V was greater than control V in spite of similar above‐canopy potential evapotranspiration (PET). During a wet year, annual MPB V was greater and annual Q was lower as compared to an average year, while in a dry year, essentially all water was partitioned to V. Ratios of 2H and 18O in stream and soil water showed no kinetic evaporation at the control site, while MPB isotope ratios fell below the local meteoric water line, indicating greater E and snowpack sublimation (Ss) counteracted reductions in transpiration (T) and sublimation of canopy‐intercepted snow (Sc). Increased E was possibly driven by reduced canopy shading of shortwave radiation, which averaged 21 W m−2 during summer under control forest as compared to 66 W m−2 under MPB forest. These results show that abiotic vapor losses may limit widely expected streamflow increases.


A method that predicts the next notes is described for assisting musical novices to play improvisations. Melody prediction is one of the most difficult problems in musical information retrieval because composers and players may or may not create melodies that conform to our expectation. The development of a melody expectation method is thus important for building a system that supports musical novices because melody expectation is one of the most basic skills for a musician. Unlike most previous prediction methods, which use statistical learning, our method evaluates the appropriateness of each candidate note from the view point of musical theory. In particular, it uses the concept of melody stability based on the generative theory of tonal music (GTTM) and the tonal pitch space (TPS) to evaluate the appropriateness of the melody. It can thus predict the candidate next notes not only from the surface structure of the melody but also from the deeper structure of the melody acquired by GTTM and TPS analysis. Experimental results showed that the method can evaluate the appropriateness of the melody sufficiently well.


List of Contributors, vii Preface to the Fifth Edition, x Preface to the Fourth Edition, xi Chapter 1 Structure of a scientific paper, 1 George M. Hall Chapter 2 Introduction, 6 Richard Smith Chapter 3 Methods, 16 Gordon B. Drummond Chapter 4 Results, 22 Charles W. Hogue Chapter 5 Discussion, 29 George M. Hall Chapter 6 Titles, abstracts and authors, 33 Kevin W. Eva Chapter 7 Who should be an author?, 42 Richard Horton Chapter 8 References, 47 Simon Howell and Liz Neilly Chapter 9 Electronic submissions, 57 Michael Willis Chapter 10 Open access, 64 Mark Ware Chapter 11 How to write a letter, 71 Michael Doherty Chapter 12 How to prepare an abstract for a scientific meeting, 78 Robert N. Allan Chapter 13 How to write a case report, 83 Martin Neil Rossor Chapter 14 How to write a review, 89 Paul Glasziou Chapter 15 How to write a book review, 98 Mark W. Davies and Luke A. Jardine Chapter 16 The role of the manuscript assessor, 102 Domhnall MacAuley Chapter 17 The role of the editor, 115 Jennifer M. Hunter Chapter 18 What a publisher does, 124 Gavin Sharrock and Elizabeth Whelan Chapter 19 Style: what it is and why it matters, 133 Sharon Leng Chapter 20 Ethics of publication, 141 Chris Graf and Elissa Wilson Index, 151


TAILORING THE GEOMETRY OF MICRON SCALE RESONATORS TO OVERCOME VISCOUS DAMPING MARGARITA VILLA Improving the quality factor of the mechanical oscillations of micron scale beams in a viscous fluid, such as water, is an open challenge of direct relevance to the development of future technologies. We study the stochastic dynamics of doubly-clamped micron scale beams in a viscous fluid driven by Brownian motion. We use a thermodynamic approach to compute the equilibrium fluctuations in beam displacement that requires only deterministic calculations. From calculations of the autocorrelations and noise spectra we quantify the beam dynamics by the quality factor and resonant frequency of the fundamental flexural mode over a range of experimentally accessible geometries. We carefully study the effects of the grid resolution, domain size, linear response, and time-step for the numerical simulations. We consider beams with uniform rectangular cross-section and explore the increased quality factor and resonant frequency as a baseline geometry is varied by increasing the width, increasing the thickness, and decreasing the length. The quality factor is nearly doubled by tripling either the width or the height of the beam. Much larger improvements are found by decreasing the beam length, however this is limited by the appearance of additional modes of dissipation. Overall, the stochastic dynamics of the wider and thicker beams are well predicted by a two-dimensional approximate theory beyond what may be expected based upon the underlying assumptions, whereas the shorter beams require a more detailed analysis.


We consider the stochastic dynamics of escape in an excitable system, the FitzHugh-Nagumo (FHN) neuronal model, for different classes of excitability. We discuss, first, the threshold structure of the FHN model as an example of a system without a saddle state. We then develop a nonlinear (nonlocal) stability approach based on the theory of large fluctuations, including a finite-noise correction, to describe noise-induced escape in the excitable regime. We show that the threshold structure is revealed via patterns of most probable (optimal) fluctuational paths. The approach allows us to estimate the escape rate and the exit location distribution. We compare the responses of a monostable resonator and monostable integrator to stochastic input signals and to a mixture of periodic and stochastic stimuli. Unlike the commonly used local analysis of the stable state, our nonlocal approach based on optimal paths yields results that are in good agreement with direct numerical simulations of the Langevin equation.


Pressure-gain combustion in wave rotors offer the opportunity for substantial improvement in gas turbine efficiency and power, while controlling emissions with fuel flexibility, if provided rapid and reliable ignition of lean mixtures. In addition, tightening emission regulations and increasing availability of gas fuels for internal-combustion engines require more reliable ignition for ultra-lean operation to avoid high peak combustion temperature. Turbulent jet ignition (TJI) is able to address the ignition challenges of lean premixed combustion. Especially, the turbulent hot jet results in faster ignition penetration for wave rotor pressure-gain combustors that have high-frequency operation and fast-burn requirements. Controllability of TJI needs better understanding of the chemistry and fluid mechanics in the jet mixing region, particularly the estimation of ignition delay time and identifying the location of the ignition onset. In the present work, numerical and analytical methods are employed to develop models capable of estimating the ignition characteristics that the turbulent hot jet exhibits as it is issued to a cold stoichiometric CH4-H2-Air mixture with varied fuel reactivity blends. Numerical models of the starting turbulent jet are developed by Reynolds-averaged and large-eddy simulation of Navier-Stokes and scalar transport equations in a high-resolution computational domain, with major focus on ignition of high-reactivity fuel blends in the jet near-field due to computational resource limitations. The chemical reactions are modeled using detailed chemistry by well-stirred and partially stirred reactor approaches. Numerical models describe the temporal evolution of jet mixture fraction, scalar dissipation rate, flow strain rate, and thermochemical quantities of the flow.For faster estimation of ignition characteristics, analytical methods are developed to explicitly solve governing equations for the transient evolution of the near field and the leading vortex of the starting hot jet. First, the transient radial evolution of the turbulent shear-layer of a round transient jet is analytically investigated in the near-field of the nozzle, where the momentum potential core exists. The methods approximate the mixing and chemical processes in the jet shear and mixing layer. The momentum equation is integrated analytically, with a mixing-length turbulence model to represent the variation of effective viscosity due to the velocity gradients. The analytic predictions of the velocity field and mass entrainment rate of the jet are compared with numerical predictions and experimental findings. In addition, the transport equation of conserved scalars in the jet near-field is solved analytically for the history of the jet mixture fraction. This analytic solution for temperature and species is used, together with available models for instantaneous chemical induction time, to create an analytic ignition model that provides the time and radial location of the ignition onset.Lastly, the ignition mechanism within the vortex ring, which leads the starting turbulent jet, is modeled using prior understanding about the mixing characteristics of the vortex. This mechanism is more relevant to low-reactivity fuel blends. Due to the presence of strong mixing at the large-scale, the vortex ring is treated as a homogeneous batch-reactor, which contains certain levels of the jet mixture fraction. This assumption provides the initial composition and temperature of the reactor in which ignition ensues. This article-dissertation is developed as a collection of 4 articles published in peer-reviewed journals, one submitted article, and additional unpublished work. The study is laid out in 6 chapters with the following contributions:Chapter 1: This chapter numerically investigates the three-dimensional behavior of a transient hot jet as modeled using the Reynolds-averaged turbulence flow. The study aims at providing an insight towards the role of mixing in the ignition progress and how the operating conditions such as fuel mixture and pre-chamber pressure ratio can influence the ignition success. An ignition prediction criterion is developed in this chapter, which helps to predict the ignition success under a broad range of operating conditions.Chapter 2: In this chapter, the large-eddy simulation (LES) of hot jet ignition is reported in conjunction with detailed kinetics mechanism and adaptive-mesh refinement. The correlation between local values of mixture fraction gradient and ignition is discussed. Furthermore, the role of methane-hydrogen ratio on the heat release pattern is studied for two specific mixtures.Chapter 3: The LES of CH4-H2-Air ignition is extended in this chapter to account for multivariable evaluation of ignition. Joint probability assessment of ignition explains the role of important scalars on the formation and growth of ignition. Also, the effect of CH4-H2 ratio on the spatial distribution of ignition is assessed and discussed.Chapter 4: In this chapter, the rate of mass entrainment into the jet in the near-field region is studied. Characterization of the mass entrainment illuminates the understanding of mixing behavior of the starting turbulent jets. Through an exact solution of the momentum equation, this chapter includes a model of the diffusive transport in a round transient jet at high Reynolds numbers.Chapter 5: This chapter proposes a method to evaluate the mass/heat exchange between a transient-turbulent jet and a quiescent environment. To analyze the transport phenomena in the jet near-field, the transient diffusion equation in cylindrical coordinates is explicitly solved and its solution is compared with the empirical findings. The transport solution then enables an ignition model to describe the spatiotemporal characteristics of ignition in the near-field.Chapter 6: The development of ignition within the vortex ring of the transient jet is investigated in this chapter. The initiation, growth, and departure of the vortex ring are studied using the available empirical correlations and the LES. Using a perfectly-stirred, zero-dimensional representation of the vortex, chemical kinetic calculations provide estimates of ignition delay for various fuel mixtures.


From illicit drugs to human smuggling to prostitution, legislators may actually be perfecting the very criminal markets they seek to destroy. Criminal laws often create new dangers and new criminal opportunities. Criminalizing drugs creates the opportunity to sell fake drugs. Raising the penalties for illegal immigration increases the risk that smugglers will rely on dangerous methods that can injure or kill their human cargo. Banning prostitution increases the underground spread of sexually transmitted disease. Lawmakers traditionally respond to these "second order" problems in predictable fashion — with a new wave of criminalization that imposes additional penalties on fake drug dealers, dangerous human smugglers, and HIV-positive prostitutes.But what lawmakers fail to recognize is that the criminalization of these second order activities also improves the criminal markets that gave them birth. Criminalizing the sale of fake cocaine improves the market for genuine drugs by reducing users' risk that they will be sold "bad product." Those contemplating illegal immigration, less fearful of being injured or killed, will be willing to pay more for assistance across the border. The total quantity of prostitution will rise when the law makes sex for hire safer. In sum, efforts to criminalize and punish second order crimes may, inadvertently, bolster the very criminal markets that legislatures originally sought to eradicate.This article suggests that the perfection of criminal markets is not just a quirky economic irony. The dynamic relationship between first and second order crimes is relevant to the formation of sound criminal justice policy and it can help explain the rapid expansion of the criminal code and the growing complexity of federal and state sentencing guidelines. Recognizing that criminalization can actually improve black markets may change how people think about criminal law in relation to other forms of regulation and may de-stigmatize policy alternatives that improve public welfare by making illegal activity safer.


Inferring the pose and shape of vehicles in 3D from a movable platform still remains a challenging task due to the projective sensing principle of cameras, difficult surface properties e.g. reflections or transparency, and illumination changes between images. In this paper, we propose to use 3D shape and motion priors to regularize the estimation of the trajectory and the shape of vehicles in sequences of stereo images. We represent shapes by 3D signed distance functions and embed them in a low-dimensional manifold. Our optimization method allows for imposing a common shape across all image observations along an object track. We employ a motion model to regularize the trajectory to plausible object motions. We evaluate our method on the KITTI dataset and show state-of-the-art results in terms of shape reconstruction and pose estimation accuracy.


The brightest mind meets the darkest killer... 1887. When James Murray, a young Scottish doctor fascinated by the workings of the criminal mind, travels to the vibrant city of Turin, it is to study with Cesare Lombroso, the world-renowned criminologist. But just hours after his introduction to Lombroso, the discovery of a horrifically mutilated body in the nearby Piazza Statuto, and a note that appears to implicate the celebrated criminologist himself, changes everything. With the help of his fellow apprentice, a local investigator and Lombroso's beautiful but enigmatic housekeeper, Murray must put his learning to the test and endeavour to understand the mind of a serial killer if he is to stop the rapidly escalating bloodbath and clear the name of his mentor. Meet the world's first criminologist in this compelling, fast-paced historical thriller.


We study the determinants of redistribution at the municipal level in the context of public childcare in Italy. Within a substantially homogeneous legislative framework, different municipalities autonomously define how participation fees vary with a compound indicator of income and wealth (ISEE), thus redistributing resources across households using the service. The nearly one hundred municipalities we take into account exhibit wide heterogeneity in redistributive attitudes. We find statistically significant correlations of these with a number of individual characteristics of policy-makers and municipalities, but not with those of the ex-ante distribution of income, which should be central according to both normative and positive theory. Since the price of public childcare is subsidized, resources are also redistributed from tax-payers to users. The evidence that we find is consistent with the hypothesis that this type of redistribution is a public good.


Studies were undertaken to investigate the deinking behaviour of different shaped deinking cells of the same volume. For comparative purposes, most oprational variables were kept constant, and the same injector was used throughout the study. The position of the injector, however, was varied in some cases to go along with the particular cell shape being studied. Three types of cell shapes were studied, (1) cylindrical with tangential air injection, (2) rectanular with vertical injection, and (3) rectangular with horizontal injection. Eucalyptus/toner slurries and news/mag wastepaper slurries were deinked. Flow patterns in the cells and the corresponding deinking efficiencies were measured. It was found that strong and excessive re-circulatory flows within the cells could under certain conditions be a major factor in reducing brightness lift. Vertical injection into a rectangular cell gave stable flow patterns, non-wavy froth removal and sustained brightness lift for a wide range of feed and airflow rates. Horizontal injection into a similar rectangular shaped cell exhibited quite different characteristics. High brightness lift was possible for certain conditions and not for others. Wavy froth and excessive recirculation flow patterns varied with feed and airflow. The cylindrical cell with tangential injection gave stable circulatory flow and stable froth removal at low flow rates but was unable to deink at high flows.


Increased transcription of the ribosomal genes (rDNA) by RNA Polymerase I (Pol I) is a common feature of human cancer1. Inhibition of Pol I transcription causes nucleolar stress that leads to the release of ribosomal proteins from the nucleolus into the nucleoplasm where they can sequester the p53 inhibitory protein MDM2, causing activation of p53 and induction of apoptosis2. We have developed a potent and selective small molecule inhibitor of Pol I transcription (CX-5461) that is non-genotoxic3. When evaluated for anti-proliferative activity against genetically diverse cancer cell lines, CX-5461 exhibited its greatest potency against wild-type (wt) p53 cells derived from hematological malignancies (median IC50 = 12 nM), while the median IC50s in cells derived from p53 mutated hematological, p53wt and p53 mutated solid tumors and normal cells were less sensitive to CX-5461 (median IC50s = 94 nM, 164 nM, 265 nM and 5 mM respectively), indicating CX-5461 selectively kills p53-wild type malignant hematopoietic cells. Consistent with the nucleolar stress model, p53 wt human leukemia cell lines exhibited robust activation of p53 signaling and apoptotic death in response to low nanomolar doses of CX-5461. To explore the therapeutic potential of Pol I transcription inhibition in vivo in hematological malignancies wt for p53 that are refractory to cytotoxic therapies we tested CX-5461 in mouse models of human acute myeloid leukemia (AML) expressing MLL fusion proteins4. Mice transplanted with 5×106 leukemia cells expressing MLL/ENL or MLL/AF9 together with oncogenic NRAS linked to GFP and luciferase biomarkers by virtue of bicistronic retroviral vectors, rapidly developed aggressive leukemia characterized by anemia, leukocytosis, hepatosplenomegaly and within 7–10 days (Mac1+, Gr-1) leukemic cell counts in peripheral blood. Treatment of recipient mice harboring MLL/ENL+NRAS leukemia with CX-5461 (40mg/kg Q3D) significantly increased median survival (17 days for vehicle vs 36 days for drug, P <0.0001), and reduced leukemic burden, as determined by leukemic cell luminescence imaging, peripheral white blood cell counts (20.77×103cells/ml±2.25 for vehicle vs 6.2×103cells/ml±0.68 for drug, P <0.0001) at sacrifice and FACS analysis of the peripheral blood (24.36% GFP leukemic cells±1.84 for vehicle vs 6.30% leukemic cells±0.5 for drug, P <0.0001) after 3 doses of treatment. The reduction in tumour burden was associated with in vivo activation of p53 signaling and apoptosis. In marked contrast, treatment of MLL/ENL+NRAS leukemic mice with a combination regimen of cytarabine (50 mg/kg 5XQD IP) and doxorubicin (1.5 mg/kg 3XQD IP) at the combined MTD dose failed to provide a significant survival advantage. Treatment of recipient mice harboring the highly aggressive MLL/AF9 + NRAS leukemia with CX-5461 (40mg/kg Q3D) was also able to increased overall survival (15 days for vehicle vs 23 days for drug, P 0.0009), with this delay accompanied by a significant decrease in leukemic burden as determined by peripheral white blood cell counts (114×103cells/ml±12.24 for vehicle vs 4.68×103cells/ml±0.7 for drug) and FACS analysis of the peripheral blood (65% GFP leukemic cells±4.9 for vehicle vs 0.26% leukemic cells±0.05 for drug) after 2 respectively 3 doses of treatment. Critically, in murine xenograft of human AML MV 4;11 that carries the MLL/AF4 fusion, treatment with CX-5461 (125 mg/kg Q7D IP) inhibited tumour growth by 93% and extended time to sacrifice from 21 to 36 days. Together this work demonstrates that CX-5461, which selectively inhibits Pol I transcription and non-genotoxically activates p53, may be used to therapeutically treat aggressive p53-wild type AMLs that are highly refractory to standard cytotoxic therapies. The fact that mutations or deletions of the p53 gene are relatively rare in AML, coupled with our data that p53-wt AML cancer cells are particularly sensitive to CX-5461, provides a compelling rationale for evaluating CX-5461 in this patient population.


Solitary metastatic metastasis from colorectal neoplasms is rare. Only 41 cases have been reported in the English literature until 2007. Most patients are asymptomatic, and the diagnosis is usually done by imaging studies or CEA (carcinoembrionic antigen) blood increases, which are required in the postoperative follow-up period. Case report: A 54-year-old man underwent an extended left colectomy for sigmoid colon cancer. The tumor was staged as T3N0M0. During ten months of the follow-up period, the patient remained asymptomatic with normal levels of laboratory tests, including CEA measurement. Then, there was a significant elevation of CEA, and the abdomen computed tomography revealed a mass in the spleen considered as an isolated metastasis. The patient underwent splenectomy. Histological diagnosis confirmed a metastatic adenocarcinoma with no lymph nodes invasion. The patient has been symptom-free during the 14 months of follow-up with normal blood CEA levels and negative radiological studies. CONCLUSION: Solitary spleen metastasis from colon carcinoma is rare, and splenectomy provides an expressive improvement in the survival.


: Climatic changes have potential effects on human health, specifically effects related to the respiratory and the cardiac systems. The enthalpy can be an auxiliary to identify medical care in short time. This parameter can be used for management decisions and take preventive measurements in time, as hospital logistics. This study aimed to use the enthalpy as environmental parameter to evaluate the effect of seasonality on respiratory and cardiac symptoms in Botucatu, a Brazilian city with a tropical altitude climate. Results show that the air enthalpy profile through the year is situated within estimated thermal comfort levels, and reported hospitalizations have been more frequent during the cold season months. Through simple correlation analysis it was possible to identify that symptoms occur when the air enthalpy variation is smaller. Being a preliminary study, a deeper analysis is needed, taking other factors into consideration, such as thermal sensation indexes and hospitalization


ABSTRACT The co-design of a mobile health (mHealth) application for family caregivers of people with dementia to address functional disability care needs is presented. Participants included family caregivers of people with dementia, aged care nurses, physicians, occupational therapists, and information technology (IT) experts. The co-design process involved two phases: (1) needs assessment phase (an online survey and in-depth interviews with family caregivers and expert consultation); and (2) development of an mHealth application (content and prototype development). Data triangulation from phase one informed the content of the application. Data triangulation resulted in three content modules: "an overview of dementia and care," "management of daily living activities," and "caregivers' health and well-being." The content was based on contemporary literature, and care guidelines with input from family caregivers and dementia care experts. IT engineers developed the mHealth application. In this study, an Android-based mHealth application was designed to address the functional care needs of family caregivers and the co-design process ensured the incorporation of end-users' real-world experiences and the opinions and expertise of key stakeholders in the development of the application prototype.It is to be noted that before releasing the application into the app store, testing its feasibility and effectiveness is essential.


[1] Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) data collected in 1999 at 11 stations along the western margin of Baja California indicate that the oxygen-minimum zone (OMZ) of the area is ventilated from the far North Pacific on decadal timescales. The new data are combined with existing CFC data to constrain a one-dimensional advection-diffusion model that simulates changes in water column properties on the sQ = 26.80 density surface along the path of ventilation. The results show that the penetration of CFCs into the OMZ off Baja California can be explained by slow advection and rapid isopycnal mixing from the southern margin of the Alaskan Gyre. The deficit in dissolved oxygen along the same path relative to conservative behavior is modeled with a consumption term that is the product of a single rate constant and the dissolved oxygen concentration. The model is used to show that very different oceanographic conditions must have prevailed in the North Pacific between 15 and 13 kyr ago, when water containing less than 5 mmol kg � 1 oxygen impinged on a portion of the western margin of North America that was considerably expanded compared to today. To match the distribution of oxygen from the presence of laminations in a series of sediment cores, the least extreme scenario combines a 2.5-fold decrease in advection and diffusion along the current flow path, a 2.5-fold reduction in the oxygen content of ventilated waters of the central North Pacific, and a 2.5-fold increase in the rate constant for oxygen consumption rate, presumably linked to a proportional increase in surface productivity.


Alternaria alternata is one of the most important fungi causing brown spot on tangerine. Samples of A. alternata were collected from different cultivars of tangerine affected by brown spot in orchards in Jahrom region, Iran. Samples were cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) media and purified using the single-spore method. Pathogenicity tests were done based on Koch's postulates on healthy and scratched leaves of different tangerine cultivars. All isolates were pathogenic on both healthy and scratched leaves. Ponkan and Mahalli (local isolates) showed the greatest growth, while Fortune and Kinnow isolates had the least growth on PDA media. The rDNA ITS1 region of Clementine, Mahalli, Ponkan, Lee, Fortune, Kinnow, Page, and Osceola isolates was sequenced. One PCR product (360 bp) was recovered from all mycelia multiplications. Sequences of all isolates were deposited in GenBank. BLAST searches of the NCBI database showed that the closest matches were A. alternata. The morphological tests were supported by molecular experiments. The phylogenetic tree of the sequences was mapped based on neighbour-joining procedures. Grouping of all isolate sequences placed them in two main clusters. Mahalli isolates in cluster 2 were in a different group from the other isolates. In general, the results showed intra-species genetic differences in rDNA ITS1 sequences among A. alternata isolates collected from tangerine cultivars. In this study, A. alternata was identified as the cause of Alternaria brown spot of tangerine cultivars in southern Iran.