BACKGROUND
VTE is a common cause of preventable death in surgical patients.

METHODS
We developed recommendations for thromboprophylaxis in nonorthopedic surgical patients by using systematic methods as described in Methodology for the Development of Antithrombotic Therapy and Prevention of Thrombosis Guidelines. Antithrombotic Therapy and Prevention of Thrombosis, 9th ed: American College of Chest Physicians Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines in this supplement.

RESULTS
We describe several alternatives for stratifying the risk of VTE in general and abdominal-pelvic surgical patients. When the risk for VTE is very low (< 0.5%), we recommend that no specific pharmacologic (Grade 1B) or mechanical (Grade 2C) prophylaxis be used other than early ambulation. For patients at low risk for VTE (∼1.5%), we suggest mechanical prophylaxis, preferably with intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC), over no prophylaxis (Grade 2C). For patients at moderate risk for VTE (∼3%) who are not at high risk for major bleeding complications, we suggest low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) (Grade 2B), low-dose unfractionated heparin (Grade 2B), or mechanical prophylaxis with IPC (Grade 2C) over no prophylaxis. For patients at high risk for VTE (∼6%) who are not at high risk for major bleeding complications, we recommend pharmacologic prophylaxis with LMWH (Grade 1B) or low-dose unfractionated heparin (Grade 1B) over no prophylaxis. In these patients, we suggest adding mechanical prophylaxis with elastic stockings or IPC to pharmacologic prophylaxis (Grade 2C). For patients at high risk for VTE undergoing abdominal or pelvic surgery for cancer, we recommend extended-duration, postoperative, pharmacologic prophylaxis (4 weeks) with LMWH over limited-duration prophylaxis (Grade 1B). For patients at moderate to high risk for VTE who are at high risk for major bleeding complications or those in whom the consequences of bleeding are believed to be particularly severe, we suggest use of mechanical prophylaxis, preferably with IPC, over no prophylaxis until the risk of bleeding diminishes and pharmacologic prophylaxis may be initiated (Grade 2C). For patients in all risk groups, we suggest that an inferior vena cava filter not be used for primary VTE prevention (Grade 2C) and that surveillance with venous compression ultrasonography should not be performed (Grade 2C). We developed similar recommendations for other nonorthopedic surgical populations.

CONCLUSIONS
Optimal thromboprophylaxis in nonorthopedic surgical patients will consider the risks of VTE and bleeding complications as well as the values and preferences of individual patients.


It has been a recent trend to leverage the power of supervised learning (SL) towards more effective reinforcement learning (RL) methods. We propose a novel phasic approach by alternating online RL and offline SL for tackling sparse-reward goal-conditioned problems. In the online phase, we perform RL training and collect rollout data while in the offline phase, we perform SL on those successful trajectories from the dataset. To further improve sample efficiency, we adopt additional techniques in the online phase including task reduction to generate more feasible trajectories and a value-difference-based intrinsic reward to alleviate the sparse-reward issue. We call this overall algorithm, PhAsic self-Imitative Reduction (PAIR). PAIR substantially outperforms both non-phasic RL and phasic SL baselines on sparse-reward goal-conditioned robotic control problems, including a challenging stacking task. PAIR is the first RL method that learns to stack 6 cubes with only 0/1 success rewards from scratch.


For how many years was a farmer responsible for running a farm in Sweden's old peasant society'? This is the question that underpins my research into life in Ramkvilla parish in the province of Smaland for two hundred years (1623–1819). By conducting a detailed study of farm practice at the individual level, I have been able to analyse a complex theme that touches upon the issues of responsibility for work and taxes, relationships between the generations and sexes, and the crises of agrarian society. A peasant farmer in Ramkvilla was responsible for a farm for an average of twelve to thirteen years in both the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and on into the early nineteenth. This mean value is the first indication that the traditional idea that a peasant community consisted of farmers firmly established on their holdings has to be seriously questioned. Instead, we see a much more dynamic society, with such a rapid rotation in farm occupancy that many farmers were on a given farm for only five years or less, although, at the same time, there was also a relatively large group who were more established. It was a society where farms could be put together and broken up within a matter of a few years, but could also continue for several centuries. It is probable, however, that the farmers of a particular farm were related; all the farm transfers occurred in a society where most farms were transmitted through families. The reasons for the only brief periods of responsibility many experienced varied throughout the period studied. The endless wars, extreme levels of taxation, and Ramkvilla's limited economic possibilities emerge as key factors in the explanation of both the numerous, short periods of farm responsibility, and the low overall average, during Sweden's Age of Greatness. The increase in population is one important explanation - if not the most important - of why the average period of farm responsibility was so low in Ramkvilla during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and why many periods were so very short. At the same time, there were many farmers who spent more than twenty years on the same holding, even though this was actually less common during the eighteenth century than it had been during the seventeenth. The parish officials still made up the group of farmers firmly established on their farms. The best chances of finding a steady situation were enjoyed by those married farmers, who, together with their wives, ran medium or large farms during the more peaceful 1680s and 1690s. The significant factors for a farmer hoping for some sort of stability can be discerned more clearly for the eighteenth century: they were to own one's own farm or to be crown tenant, and to be the sole heir to the parental farm. Married farmers still had the best chances of farming the same land for a longer period, although many of the farm transfers were between married farmers. Generally, the results of my research point to the fact that not even married farmers can be seen as a group with firm ties to one farm in particular. (Less)


Menopause normally occurs between 45-55 years of age, marks the end of a woman's reproductive lifespan, and is accompanied by a reduction in estrogen that has substantial physiological effects. The standard medical view is that these changes underlie high postmenopausal disease rates, defining menopause as an estrogen deficiency condition needing treatment. This view stems from the idea that extended postmenopausal longevity is a consequence of recent technological developments, such that women now outlive their evolutionarily-programmed physiological functional lifespan. Increasingly, however, researchers employing an evolutionary medicine framework have used data from comparative demography, comparative biology, and human behavioral ecology to challenge the mainstream medical view. Instead, these data suggest that a two-decade human postmenopausal lifespan is an evolved, species-typical trait that distinguishes humans from other primates, and has deep roots in our evolutionary past. This view rejects the inevitability of high rates of postmenopausal disease and the concept of menopause as pathology. Rather, high postmenopausal disease risk likely stems from specific lifestyle differences between industrialized societies and foraging societies of the type that dominated human evolutionary history. Women in industrialized societies tend to have higher estrogen levels during premenopausal life, and experience a greater reduction in estrogen across menopause than do women living in foraging societies, with potentially important physiological consequences. The anthropological approach to understanding postmenopausal disease risk reframes the postmenopausal lifespan as an integral period in the human lifecycle, and offers alternative avenues for disease prevention by highlighting the importance of lifestyle effects on health.


A major challenge facing the developers of intelligent decision-support systems is how to present pertinent information to physicians in such a way that it will be effective in influencing their behavior. The successful integration of medical decision-support systems into clinical environments has been a widely reported problem ever since such systems began to appear. While recognizing these systems' potential for improving the quality of patient care and for controlling costs, physicians have tended to reject new technologies which they see as intrusive, time-consuming, or a challenge to their judgment or autonomy as clinical decision-makers [1]. At the same time, the information processing demands on physicians have been increasing dramatically. Utilizing available clinical data to make appropriate decisions about patient care can be challenging to physicians, who are susceptible to information overload which can lead to biases in data acquisition and processing [8]. To counteract the limitations of human information processing, computer-based decision-support systems have been developed to monitor clinical data as they become available and make physicians aware of pertinent events by means of reminders [4] or alerts [2]. Other systems follow the critiquing approach, providing a more extensive off-line discussion of the risks and benefits of alternative management plans [5, 9].


Color displays show a vivid colorful image by combination of three or above primary colors on every individual pixel. Brightness of color displays, however, strongly restricts the color gamut of displays. From the color mixing theory, the area of color gamut on the color coordination would shrink smaller when brightness grows up. At the maximal brightness, displays can show one system white point only. The difficulties how to obtain the maximal brightness under an assigned color point or color gamut have been a key issue for display manufacturers. The paper proposes a theory to analyze the relation between brightness and color gamut based on the multi-primary color display. Simulations estimate the boundary of color gamut of multi-primary color displays under required brightness which had been proved by experimental results of tri-primary color display. The theory can be applied on the color temperature (CT) design which experimental results show the fact that a display apparatus with higher color temperature could sacrifice brightness less compared to one with lower color temperature when color temperature of the display image needs to change. The theory provides a design guideline for optimization between color gamut, color temperature and brightness on multi-primary color displays


Access to capital is an on-going challenge for small firms. Capital is required to address a broad range of needs: to cover start-up costs, to provide working capital, to secure facilities or equipment, and to hire employees. Most small firms are at a relative disadvantage, because they are too small to access the public debt and equity markets. Similarly, they are typically too small to show up on the radar screens of venture capitalists on patrol for the next potential hot IPO. Alternatively, very small firms are heavily reliant on bank loans, trade credit, and informal sources of capital including loans from family and friends. Entrepreneurial finance literature typically segments small firms into two types. "Entrepreneurial firms" are those that start out small but have the objectives of growth, profitability, and eventually, perhaps, an IPO. "Lifestyle firms", on the other hand, are firms that are small and intend to remain small. The point of this distinction is that firms of different size might be expected to have different types of objectives. Correspondingly, one might expect different attitudes toward and use of various sources of capital. This paper will use data from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances (NSSBF) to examine the financing strategies of very small firms, a largely understudied segment of the small business market. Specifically, it will examine the types of debt capital used by the smallest small firms and compare their usage to that of somewhat larger small firms. Further this article will attempt to determine the variables that predict the use of debt capital and externally acquired debt capital by small firms and larger firms. Finally, it will explore the extent to which smaller and larger firms apply for external debt capital and the extent to which they are approved for loans.


We present a comprehensive analysis of inclusive W(-> ev) + n-jet (n >= 1, 2, 3, 4) production in proton-antiproton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV at the Tevatron collider using a 3.7 fb(-1) data set collected by the D0 detector. Differential cross sections are presented as a function of the jet rapidities (y), lepton transverse momentum (P-T) and pseudorapidity (eta), the scalar sum of the transverse energies of the W boson and all jets (H-T), leading dijet P-T and invariant mass, dijet rapidity separations for a variety of jet pairings for P-T-ordered and angular-ordered jets, dijet opening angle, dijet azimuthal angular separations for P-T-ordered and angular-ordered jets, and W boson transverse momentum. The mean number of jets in an event containing a W boson is measured as a function of H-T, and as a function of the rapidity separations between the two highest-P-T jets and between the most widely separated jets in rapidity. Finally, the probability for third-jet emission in events containing a W boson and at least two jets is studied by measuring the fraction of events in the inclusive W + 2-jet sample that contain a third jet over a P-T threshold. The analysis employs a regularized singular value decomposition technique to accurately correct for detector effects and for the presence of backgrounds. The corrected data are compared to particle level next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions, predictions from all-order resummation approaches, and a variety of leading-order and matrix element plus parton shower event generators. Regions of the phase space where there is agreement or disagreement with the data are discussed for the different models tested.


Cladribine (CdA)-based polymer prodrug nanoparticles were obtained by "drug-initiated" RAFT polymerization of squalenyl methacrylate (SqMA) from two different CdA-bearing chain transfer agents (CTAs) to evaluate the influence of the nature of the linkage (a single linear ester or a linear ester linked to a diglycolate linker) between CdA and the CTA, and the bulkiness of the polymer, on the drug release and the biological performance. The different conjugates exhibited the expected structures and were well-controlled as shown by 1H NMR and SEC (Đ = 1.12–1.27). The resulting nanoparticles obtained after nanoprecipitation in aqueous solution were narrowly dispersed with average diameters ranging from 69 to 112 nm and strongly negative surface charges (ζ = −51 to −61 mV). By varying the Mn, drug loadings ranged from 6.4 to 10.5 wt%, leading to significant cytotoxicity in vitro on mouse lymphocytic leukemia (L1210) cells. These results were combined with the already published literature to extract a preliminary structure–cytotoxicity relationship for CdA-based polymer prodrug nanoparticles, involving the nature of the linkage between CdA and the polymer, the nature of the polymer and the Mn.


Compared to starburst galaxies, normal star-forming galaxies have been shown to display a much larger dispersion of the dust attenuation at fixed reddening through studies of the IRX–β diagram (the IR/UV ratio "IRX" versus the UV color "β"). To investigate the causes of this larger dispersion and attempt to isolate second parameters, we have used GALEX UV, ground-based optical, and Spitzer infrared imaging of eight nearby galaxies, and examined the properties of individual UV and 24 μm selected star-forming regions. We concentrated on star-forming regions, in order to isolate simpler star formation histories than those that characterize whole galaxies. We find that (1) the dispersion is not correlated with the mean age of the stellar populations; (2) a range of dust geometries and dust extinction curves are the most likely causes for the observed dispersion in the IRX–β diagram, (3) together with some potential dilution of the most recent star-forming population by older unrelated bursts, at least in the case of star-forming regions within galaxies; and (4) we also recover some general characteristics of the regions, including a tight positive correlation between the amount of dust attenuation and the metal content. Although generalizing our results to whole galaxies may not be immediate, the possibility of a range of dust extinction laws and geometries should be accounted for in the latter systems as well.


This letter systematically reviews and synthesizes scientific and gray literature publications (n = 420) to identify and characterize the nature of climate change vulnerability in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region of the western Canadian Arctic and identify gaps in understanding. The literature documents widespread evidence of climate change, with implications for human and biophysical systems. Adaptations are being employed to manage changing conditions and are indicative of a high adaptive capacity. However, barriers to adaptation are evident and are expected to constrain adaptive capacity to future climate change. Continued climate change is predicted for the region, with differential exposure sensitivity for communities, groups and sectors: a function of social–economic–biophysical characteristics and projected future climatic conditions. Existing climate risks are expected to increase in magnitude and frequency, although the interaction between projected changes and socio-economic–demographic trends has not been assessed. The capacity for adapting to future climate change has also not been studied. The review identifies the importance of targeted vulnerability research that works closely with community members and other stakeholders to address research needs. Importantly, the fully categorized list of reviewed references accompanying this letter will be a valuable resource for those working or planning to work in the region, capturing climate change research published since 1990. At a broader level, the systematic review methodology offers a promising tool for climate/environmental change studies in general where there is a large and emerging body of research but limited understanding of research gaps and needs.


In modern society, we rely on safely working software systems. This is the final report in a masters degree project to reveal key issues in the science field of computer software architecture and design of safety-critical software systems. A pre-study of a navigation system implied that functionality related problems and safety-critical problems do not stack one to one, but rather is a case of solving these aspects in different layers. This means that changes in software systems functionality do not necessary mean that change in safety-critical modules has to be done as well, and visa versa. To further support the findings in the pre-study, an experiment was created to investigate these matters. A group of twenty-three computer science students from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) participated as subjects in the experiment. They were asked to make two functional additions and two safety-critical additions to a software robot emulator. A dynamic web tool was created to present information to the subjects, and they could here answer surveys and upload their task solutions. The results of the experiment shows that there were not found any evidence that the quality attributes got affected by the design approaches. This means that the findings of this study suggest that there is difficult to create safety-critical versions of software architectural design patterns, because all design patterns have a set of additions and concequences to a system, and all sides of the implications of the design pattern should be discussed by the system architects before used in a safety-critical system.


Class labels have been empirically shown useful in improving the sample quality of generative adversarial nets (GANs). In this paper, we mathematically study the properties of the current variants of GANs that make use of class label information. With class aware gradient and cross-entropy decomposition, we reveal how class labels and associated losses influence GAN's training. Based on that, we propose Activation Maximization Generative Adversarial Networks (AM-GAN) as an advanced solution. Comprehensive experiments have been conducted to validate our analysis and evaluate the effectiveness of our solution, where AM-GAN outperforms other strong baselines and achieves state-of-the-art Inception Score (8.91) on CIFAR-10. In addition, we demonstrate that, with the Inception ImageNet classifier, Inception Score mainly tracks the diversity of the generator, and there is, however, no reliable evidence that it can reflect the true sample quality. We thus propose a new metric, called AM Score, to provide a more accurate estimation of the sample quality. Our proposed model also outperforms the baseline methods in the new metric.


Satisfying consumers' needs and wants has always been a primary goal of marketing. These are fulfilled when consumers make the right choices of products to purchase. The driving force behind such purchasing decisions is generally regarded as motivation and this varies between consumers, with each one having their own reasons for their respective choices. For the convenience of consumers, women's clothing is displayed in stores according to the body sizes of the garments, as reflected on each of their labels. However, this practice can be confusing to consumers because manufacturers use differing sizing systems. The resultant sizing and fit problems in women's clothing have been documented in many studies around the world. The aim of this study is to explore the emotional effects of sizing and fit on purchasing behaviour in women's clothing. It looks at current literature regarding emotions in purchasing, consumer decision making and sizing and fit and focuses on sizing and fit problems encountered when women try on clothing in a store. Their emotions whilst going through this process are identified and the subsequent effects of these emotions on their purchasing behaviour are examined. The study firstly reveals that emotions are felt, in varying degrees, by women consumers arising from sizing and fit problems when trying on clothing in stores. The results show that positive emotions are not felt strongly. Secondly, the study identifies the influences which emotions have on purchasing behaviour. The results indicate that positive emotions have a significant influence on purchasing, whilst negative emotions have a lesser effect. Thirdly, the study reveals that in the relationship between satisfaction and the demographic profile, age played a significant role in the scoring of positive emotions when respondents experience inconsistency of sizes between stores.


This paper provides a brief introduction to the recent history of, as well as the legal and policy framework for, local government in South Africa. It discusses the transformation of local government from a racially configured, illegitimate arm of the apartheid government into a system designed to produce developmentally oriented municipalities. The progress made by South African municipalities towards realising the vision of developmental local government is remarkable and unprecedented. Over the last 13 years, municipalities have embarked on the extension of infrastructure and development, whilst absorbing fundamental changes to their internal governance and management arrangements, financial management systems and intergovernmental responsibilities. The new local government system offers great potential for the realisation of a better life for all citizens, facilitated by a new generation of municipalities. However, the challenges remain huge and some of these can be attributed to institutional fault lines. These include challenges that come with large, inclusive municipalities, new executive systems and the political appointment of senior officials. The paper also identifies the downside of overzealous institutionalisation of community participation. With regard to intergovernmental relations, the paper highlights the need for a clearer definition of local government mandates and a greater recognition of the role of big cities. The current insistence on comprehensive intergovernmental alignment of policies and budgets is questioned, and suggestions are made to substitute this with an approach of selective alignment around key national priorities.


The statistical accuracy of constraint-based three-dimensional (3D) models created using reverse engineering software to post process scan data collected by an Advanced Topometric Sensor (ATOS) system is currently unpublished information useful to the end-user. Throughout the process of scanning an object and converting the scanned data into a constraint-based 3D model, error can be introduced into the final model. The error introduced into the constraint-based 3D model is difficult to calculate due to a large number of variables and factors. The current study sought to characterize the accuracy of this process based on different measurement volumes and object sizes.
Optical 3D metrology techniques have become an accepted method in the field of reverse engineering. The popularity of optical 3D metrology is due in large part to the non-contact approach, which can quickly produce a dense point cloud. Using post-processing software, these point clouds can be converted into a constraint-based 3D model and used in much the same manners as 3D models created using CAD software.
To simulate a variety of measurement conditions, four measurement volumes and three object sizes were selected generating a total of 36-point clouds. The 36-point clouds were converted into constraint-based 3D models. Four measurements were collected from each 3D model. To analyze the data collected, hypothesis testing was conducted to compare the data and inferential statistics were applied. The statistical tests include one-sample t-tests, two-sample t-tests, a General Linear Model (GLM), and multiple 1-way ANOVA. The statistical test found that a difference existed between the measured values and the actual values for both the object size and measurement volume.


This paper shows simulated and measured results of ultra-low cost metal mesh filters on electrically thick substrates for millimeter-wave and THz bands. It provides a broad overview of metal mesh filters currently available and suggest why it is worth moving to an electrically thick substrate for ultra-low cost applications. We demonstrate scalable traditional metal mesh filters on 525 μm thick fused silica substrates. In addition, trapped-mode excitation is exploited to improve out-of-band rejection at higher frequencies. The measured results prove that these filters are scalable in the THz range using cost-effective micromachining manufacturing. This work opens up the possibility of using electrically thick metal mesh filters for ultra-low cost applications.


A study of the temperature dependence on an absorption coefficient is presented. We describe the absorption spectrum measurement of the laser material Yb:YAG that was performed over a wide temperature range. As the temperature increases from 23°C to 300°C, the central wavelength of the Yb:YAG absorption spectrum at 940 nm varies slightly from 941.2 nmto941.1 nm, and the maximal absorption cross section drops dramatically from 7.89×10−21 cm2 to 4.23×10−21 cm2. According to our experimental results, we have presented an analytic description of temperature distribution with the numerical iterative method and have investigated the pumping optimization and laser oscillator performance, taking into account that the absorption coefficient is strongly influenced by temperature. Our analyses also include the effect of pump absorption saturation and the temperature dependence of Boltzmann population fractions, stimulated emission cross section, and thermal conductivity. We have shown that the predicted laser output power exceeds the actual value if the temperature dependence of Yb:YAG's absorption coefficient is neglected.


This research aimed at determining the effect of processing on the nutritional and anti-nutritional values of "food tree" [Adenanthera pavonina L. (Fabaceae)] seeds, a highly nutritional and underutilized legume. The seeds were separated into three groups namely, boiled, roasted and raw. Quantitative analysis was carried out to measure their proximate, minerals, vitamins and anti-nutrients compositions. Analysis of variance was used to analyze the treatment groups and Duncan's multiple range tests to determine significant difference at P  0.05. The results show that processing significantly affected the nutritional and anti-nutritional constituents. The values for proximate composition in the raw, roasted and boiled seeds were: proteins (15.79±0.04, 18.86±0.02 and 23.25±0.02, respectively), carbohydrates (56.60±0.02, 54.89±0.02 and 52.05±0.02 respectively), fat (9.78±0.02, 11.70±0.02 and 11.40±0.02, respectively), crude fibre (9.80±0.04, 9.70±0.04 and 5.85±0.02, respectively), moisture (3.88±0.03, 0.10±0.02 and 3.20±0.02, respectively) and ash (4.03±0.01, 4.75±0.02 and 4.25±0.01, respectively). The values for mineral compositions in the raw, roasted and boiled seeds were: calcium (25.61±0.34, 30.34±0.02 and 80.88±0.02, respectively), magnesium (18.97±0.01, 22.76±0.01 and 60.68±0.02, respectively), phosphorus (7.00±0.06, 6.40±0.15 and 5.80±0.10, respectively), potassium (3.31±0.00, 2.43±0.02 and 4.23±0.02, respectively) and iron (0.41±0.02, 0.41±0.01 and 1.23±0.01, respectively). The values for vitamin compositions in the raw, roasted and boiled seeds were: β carotene (1458.33±0.01, 416.67±1.20 and 416.67±0.08, respectively) and vitamin E (22.50±0.02, 9.24±0.02 and 12.69±0.01, respectively). The mean values for anti-nutrient compositions in the raw, roasted and boiled seeds were: tannin (1.21±0.00, 0.049±0.00 and 0.15±0.00, respectively), phytate (5.16±0.02, 3.50±0.01 and 1.50±0.02, respectively), oxalate (0.34±0.00, 0.13±0.00 and 0.11±0.00, respectively), cyanide (1.17±0.00, 0.95±0.00 and 0.32±0.00, respectively) and trypsin inhibitor (0.92±0.01, 0.36±0.01 and 0.90±0.01, respectively). The results show that processing changed the nutritional constituents and reduced the anti-nutrients in the seeds of A. pavonina and boiling proven to be the best processing method.

 Key words: Processing, techniques, nutritional, anti-nutritive, Adenanthera pavonina, seeds.


Accelerating urban growth places increasing pressure not only on the efficiency of infrastructure and service provision, but also on the natural environment. City managers are delegated the task of identifying problem areas that arise from this phenomenon and planning the strategies with which to alleviate them. It is with this in mind that the research investigates the implementation of an urban growth model, SLEUTH, as a support tool in the planning and decision making process. These investigations are carried out on historical urban data for the region falling under the control of the Cape Metropolitan Authority. The primary aim of the research was to simulate future urban expansion of Cape Town based on past growth patterns by making use of cellular automata methodology in the SLEUTH modeling platform. The following objectives were explored, namely to: a) determine the impact of urbanization on the study area, b) identify strategies for managing urban growth from literature, c) apply cellular automata as a modeling tool and decision-making aid, d) formulate an urban growth policy based on strategies from literature, and e) justify SLEUTH as the desired modeling framework from literature. An extensive data base for the study area was acquired from the product of a joint initiative between the private and public sector, called "Urban Monitoring". The data base included: a) five historical urban extent images (1977, 1988, 1993, 1996 and 1998); b) an official urban buffer zone or 'urban edge', c) a Metropolitan Open Space System (MOSS) database, d) two road networks, and d) a Digital Elevation Model (DEM). Each dataset was converted to raster format in ArcEdit and finally .gif images were created of each data layer for compliance with SLEUTH requirements. SLEUTH processed this historic data to calibrate the growth variables for best fit of observed historic growth. An urban growth forecast was run based on the calibration parameters. Findings suggest SLEUTH can be applied successfully and produce realistic projection of urban expansion. A comparison between modelled and real urban area revealed 76% model accuracy. The research then attempts to mimic urban growth policy in the modeling environment, with mixed results.


Human intravenous immunoglobulin contains specific antitoxin antibodies that protect against necrotizing pneumonia caused by MRSA in a rabbit model. Stemming the tide of MRSA-induced pneumonia Controversies persist about the use of human intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) as an adjunctive treatment for severe Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia because empirical evidence supporting its use is lacking. Diep and colleagues now show that, of the myriad antibodies contained in IVIG, only two specific antibodies that neutralize the toxic effects of α-hemolysin (Hla) and Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) are necessary and sufficient to confer protection against necrotizing pneumonia caused by MRSA in a rabbit model. Preexposure prophylaxis with IVIG, or postexposure treatment with IVIG in combination with either vancomycin or linezolid, improved survival outcomes in this preclinical animal model. New therapeutic approaches are urgently needed to improve survival outcomes for patients with necrotizing pneumonia caused by Staphylococcus aureus. One such approach is adjunctive treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), but clinical practice guidelines offer conflicting recommendations. In a preclinical rabbit model, prophylaxis with IVIG conferred protection against necrotizing pneumonia caused by five different epidemic strains of community-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) as well as a widespread strain of hospital-associated MRSA. Treatment with IVIG, either alone or in combination with vancomycin or linezolid, improved survival outcomes in this rabbit model. Two specific IVIG antibodies that neutralized the toxic effects of α-hemolysin (Hla) and Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) conferred protection against necrotizing pneumonia in the rabbit model. This mechanism of action of IVIG was uncovered by analyzing loss-of-function mutant bacterial strains containing deletions in 17 genes encoding staphylococcal exotoxins, which revealed only Hla and PVL as having an impact on necrotizing pneumonia. These results demonstrate the potential clinical utility of IVIG in the treatment of severe pneumonia induced by S. aureus.


This paper considers cognitive radio networks (CRNs) utilizing multiple time-slotted primary channels in which cognitive users (CUs) are powered by energy harvesters. The CUs are under the consideration that hardware constraints on radio devices only allow them to sense and transmit on one channel at a time. For a scenario where the arrival of harvested energy packets and the battery capacity are finite, we propose a scheme to optimize (i) the channel-sensing schedule (consisting of finding the optimal action (silent or active) and sensing order of channels) and (ii) the optimal transmission energy set corresponding to the channels in the sensing order for the operation of the CU in order to maximize the expected throughput of the CRN over multiple time slots. Frequency-switching delay, energy-switching cost, correlation in spectrum occupancy across time and frequency and errors in spectrum sensing are also considered in this work. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated via simulation. The simulation results show that the throughput of the proposed scheme is greatly improved, in comparison to related schemes in the literature. The collision ratio on the primary channels is also investigated.


Optimal control theory is finding increased application in both theoretical and applied ecology, and it is a central element of adaptive resource management. One of the steps in an adaptive management process is to develop alternative models of system dynamics, models that are all reasonable in light of available data, but that differ substan- tially in their implications for optimal control of the resource. We explored how the form of the recruitment and survival functions in a general population model for ducks affected the patterns in the optimal harvest strategy, using a combination of analytical, numerical, and simulation techniques. We compared three relationships between recruitment and pop- ulation density (linear, exponential, and hyperbolic) and three relationships between survival during the nonharvest season and population density (constant, logistic, and one related to the compensatory harvest mortality hypothesis). We found that the form of the component functions had a dramatic influence on the optimal harvest strategy and the ultimate equi- librium state of the system. For instance, while it is commonly assumed that a compensatory hypothesis leads to higher optimal harvest rates than an additive hypothesis, we found this to depend on the form of the recruitment function, in part because of differences in the optimal steady-state population density. This work has strong direct consequences for those developing alternative models to describe harvested systems, but it is relevant to a larger class of problems applying optimal control at the population level. Often, different func- tional forms will not be statistically distinguishable in the range of the data. Nevertheless, differences between the functions outside the range of the data can have an important impact on the optimal harvest strategy. Thus, development of alternative models by iden- tifying a single functional form, then choosing different parameter combinations from extremes on the likelihood profile may end up producing alternatives that do not differ as importantly as if different functional forms had been used. We recommend that biological knowledge be used to bracket a range of possible functional forms, and robustness of conclusions be checked over this range.


This paper reports on the Hybrid Systems Theorem Proving (HSTP) category in the ARCH-COMP Friendly Competition 2021. The characteristic features of the HSTP cate- gory remain as in the previous editions [MST+18, MST+19, MMJ+20], it focuses on flexi- bility of programming languages as structuring principles for hybrid systems, unambiguity and precision of program semantics, and mathematical rigor of logical reasoning principles. The benchmark set includes nonlinear and parametric continuous and hybrid systems and hybrid games, each in three modes: fully automatic verification, semi-automatic verifica- tion from proof hints, proof checking from scripted tactics. This instance of the competition introduces extensions to the scripting language, a comparison of the influence of arithmetic backend versions on verification performance in KeYmaera X, as well as improvements in the HHL Prover.


Objectives. Part I of this research paper presented a needs and gap analysis for the management of schizophrenia, bipolar mood disorder and major depression for the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. It identified deficits and inequitable distribution of human resources and beds in the province. In this article, Part II, the authors propose a plan for public sector mental health services to address the human resource needs in the poorer eastern regions of the province. The plan focuses on human resource training and development.  Methods. Evidence-based data on staff development in mental health from low-middle income countries were utilised to develop strategies to increase staff capacity to address unmet need. A financing model with a poverty index was developed to sustain a needs-based plan. Databases searched included Pubmed, Medline, Google and Google Scholar. The key words used included: mental health, mental health training, mental health resources, mental health in low-middle-income countries, mental health policy and plans, mental health needs- based planning, primary healthcare, primary mental healthcare, mental health financing. In addition the websites of the World Health Organization and the World Psychiatric Association were searched for similar resources. Conclusions. It is feasible, with careful attention to planning and implementation of evidence-based tools, to improve public mental health service delivery in this province. Sustained political will and professional commitment will ensure successful delivery of mental health services in a resource-limited province.


Although fatigue has been actively investigated for more than 100 years, we have progressed little in either its theoretical or practical understanding. Fatigue has been considered to be both a symptom and an illness. Fatigue is a primary reason for patient visits to the physician's office, but it is difficult to measure and offers doctors little important information for diagnosis. Fatigue as a Window to the Brain gathers experts on a wide variety of disorders to consider what the presence of fatigue tells us about how the brain works -- more specifically, to identify the neural mechanisms potentially responsible for fatigue. The book looks at many of the major conditions in which fatigue is observed, with the hope that patterns may emerge that will suggest paths for future research. It will be of interest to neuroscientists, clinical researchers, and physicians and other clinicians. After discussing the nature of fatigue -- its history and epidemiology and its assessment, measurement, and interpretation -- the book turns to specific conditions associated with fatigue. It considers neurological conditions, including multiple sclerosis and stroke; psychiatric conditions as well as the overall treatment of fatigue in psychiatry; and general medical conditions, including HIV, heart disease, lupus, cancer, and others. The book then offers an overview of treatment approaches. It concludes with a definition of fatigue -- both "primary" and "secondary" -- and suggestions for future study.


Peru's Ministry of Education has partnered with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and LEGO Education to develop a program that helps children improve their ability to solve scientific problems using a set of curriculum materials that is affordable and can be brought to a national scale. Working in teams on problems that capture their interest, students devise solutions, reflect on what they build while solving the problem, and apply what they have learned to new challenges. This brief describes a pilot initiative and its evaluation design and baseline.


The agricultural sector is characterized by higher exposure to a variety of risks compared to the other economic sectors. Agricultural risks include production, market, credit, technological, institutional and human resource risks. Moreover, the agricultural risk environment is changing with high frequency and severity due to climate change and market liberalization. Insecurity about water and food supply has rapidly increased corresponding to the change in agricultural risk environment, and this requires a continuous improvement of risk management instruments for sustainable economic development. If the changeable risks are excluded from the agricultural and rural development analysis, then policy recommendations would be misleading. Additionally, policy decisions about the suggested improvements and intervention measures might be inappropriate. In such a context, a comprehensive and continuous monitoring of how farmers perceive risks in their own ways is paramount for policy makers to develop appropriate risk management strategies. Moreover, it is useful for the developers of risk management programs to have information about the factors that differentiate farmers' attitudes and perceptions. Against this background, it is the objective of the thesis to provide empirical insights into various issues of risk management in Syrian agriculture. Syria is an emerging economy in which agriculture still plays an important role and where at the same time climate change as well as changing agricultural policies, for instance market liberalization, put farmers under severe pressure.
Based on survey data of 103 wheat-cotton and 105 pistachio farms in Syria, this thesis studies survey data relating to farmers' risk attitudes and farmers' perceptions of risk and risk management. Furthermore, it analyzes, using multiple regression analysis, whether related socio-economic characteristics and farmers' subjective beliefs relate to these attitudes and perceptions. Results show that wheat-cotton farmers are more likely risk-averse than pistachio farmers who could better be described as risk-neutral farmers. Rainfall shortage and fuel price increase are the most important risk sources that threaten both wheat-cotton and pistachio cultivation. Moreover, risks of 'farm business effectiveness decline' and 'farm insolvency' are highly perceived by wheat-cotton farmers compared with pistachio farmers. Despite their risk-averse nature, wheat-cotton farmers are less desired toward the adoption of management tools which would help to mitigate risk. 'Farming as a secondary occupation' and 'faming forsaking' are acceptable by almost half of interviewed wheat-cotton farmers. On the contrary, pistachio producers seem to be more satisfied with their farm income, thus they do not find the necessity to supplemented it with or replace it by non-farm income. The geographical location, education level and information resources have a considerable exploratory power for wheat-cotton farmers' risk attitude and perceptions of risk and risk management. Socio-economic variables such off-farm work, farm land, availability of family labour and wells ownership had a considerable relationship with such perceptions.
Our findings, also, provide new evidences on the relationships between subjective beliefs and both risk attitudes and perceptions, particularly for wheat-cotton samples. These evidences provide policy makers a wide prospect in order to optimize risk management strategies.


Objectives: Prior studies demonstrate elevated cortical glutamate (Glu) in patients with bipolar disorder (BD). Studies assessing neurochemistry in early stages of bipolar illness before the emergence of manic symptoms are lacking. This study aimed to examine neurochemical correlates measured by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) and a dimensional measure of bipolarity in a sample of depressed adolescents. Methods: Adolescent participants (aged 13-21 years) underwent a semistructured diagnostic interview and clinical assessment, which included the General Behavior Inventory Parent Version (P-GBI), a 73-item, parent-rated assessment of symptoms and behaviors. 1H-MRS scans of a left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (L-DLPFC) voxel (8 cm3) were collected using a two-dimensional J-averaged sequence to assess N-acetylaspartate (NAA), Glu, Glx (glutamate + glutamine), and NAA/Glx concentrations. We used generalized linear models to assess the relationships between P-GBI scores and metabolite levels in L-DLPFC. Results: Thirty-six participants (17 healthy controls, 19 depressed) underwent 1H-MRS scans and clinical evaluation with the P-GBI. There was a significant negative relationship between P-GBI score and L-DLPFC NAA/Glx in the whole sample. However, the magnitude of the effect was small and statistical significance was lost after correcting for multiple comparisons. Conclusions: These preliminary results suggest that NAA/Glx may have utility as a marker of bipolar traits in healthy and depressed adolescents. If replicated, 1H-MRS measures of glutamatergic metabolism anomalies might have a role in identifying depressed adolescents at risk for mixed symptom presentations or BD. Identifying bipolarity in the early stages of the disease would have a significant impact on treatment planning and prognosis. Further longitudinal studies should examine neurochemical correlates of mood state during the developmental emergence of BD.


Communication is vital in any workplace. However, as workers become less tied to their desktops and computers, the need to provide them with a flexible, easy to use, mobile method of communication becomes more necessary. This is particularly true in "non-traditional" workplaces like factories or hospitals. Cell phones, PDA's, and walkie-talkies provide the mobility and most are easy to use, however, they are not designed specifically with the workplace in mind and as a result, they do not adapt to a worker's changing environment. The Simphony communication system is a mobile, voice-controlled, voice communication system built on the iPaq (or any similar PDA) designed specifically for distributed workgroups. It uses the 802.11b network to transmit either synchronous or asynchronous voice data depending on the worker's environment or preference. The system allows for one-to-one or one-to-many communication with voice instant messages or synchronous audio. Simphony transitions between different communication styles as the communication becomes more frequent. When at least 3 voice instant messages are exchanged between two individuals or between an individual and a group, the system automatically transitions them into a synchronous audio chat. The Simphony interface looks much like an instant messaging client but is accessible by voice commands or by button presses on the PDA screen. Simphony allows users to define groups of individuals with whom they can communicate with simultaneously. When a group that a user is a member of becomes active, the user receives notification of the activity by hearing approximately 10 seconds of the audio from that group. If the user is currently in another conversation, she can decide to remain in her present conversation or switch to the newly active group. This thesis describes the design and implementation of the Simphony system and its various applications in different areas. Thesis Supervisor: Christopher Schmandt Title: Principal Research Scientist, MIT Media Laboratory


This paper discusses three basic issues related to the design of finite difference schemes forunsteadyviscous incompressible flows using vorticity formulations: the boundary condition for vorticity, an efficient time-stepping procedure, and the relation between these schemes and the ones based on velocity?pressure formulation. We show that many of the newly developed global vorticity boundary conditions can actually be written as some local formulas derived earlier. We also show that if we couple a standard centered difference scheme with third- or fourth-order explicit Runge?Kutta methods, the resulting schemes havenocell Reynolds number constraints. For high Reynolds number flows, these schemes are stable under the CFL condition given by the convective terms. Finally, we show that the classical MAC scheme is the same as Thom's formula coupled with second-order centered differences in the interior, in the sense that one can define discrete vorticity in a natural way for the MAC scheme and get the same values as the ones computed from Thom's formula. We use this to derive an efficient fourth-order Runge?Kutta time discretization for the MAC scheme from the one for Thom's formula. We present numerical results for driven cavity flow at high Reynolds number (105).


Of more than 1,000,000 survivors of poliomyelitis living in the United States, about 80% experience symptoms associated with post-polio syndrome (PPS). New weakness, fatigue, and pain are the most common symptoms that may appear years after acute polio. PPS is reported to be the most prevalent progressive neuromuscular disease in North America. The physical symptoms of PPS can be severe enough to decrease an individual's quality of life, significantly alter work function, and impose lifestyle changes. The psychological implications of battling once again with a disease that had stabilized decades ago can be devastating. Rehabilitation physicians and counselors knowledgeable of post-polio syndrome and its possible impact on employment can have a positive influence on persons with PPS.


Abstract. The mission of the European Space Agency's Sentinel-3 satellite is to provide data for land and ocean monitoring purposes. Sentinel- 3's Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) data are being used largely for monitoring offshore and coastal waters but can also be used for inland waters including lakes. It has a spatial resolution of 300 meters, a temporal resolution of 2–3 days and contains 21 spectral bands. Laguna de Bay, with a surface area of around 930 km2, suffers from periodic algal blooms resulting from excessive nutrient inputs from surrounding watersheds. This study aims to assess the applicability of Sentinel-3 OLCI for estimating chlorophylla (chl-a) concentration in Laguna Lake. Several chl-a estimation algorithms (i.e., band ratios and indices) were tested for Sentinel 3 OLCI images and compared with in-situ data obtained using a chl-a sensor. A regression model comprising of individual spectral bands, band ratios, and band indices for chl-a estimation as independent variables was developed, yielding an adjusted R2 of 0.759 and RMSE of 1.19 ug/L. The model consists of R620, R674/R708, and RED/NIR. A map was produced showing the spatial distribution of chl-a in Laguna Lake, with most of the portion of the lake having a concentration ranging from 7.5 ug/L to 15 ug/L. This shows that Sentinel 3 OLCI images can be utilized for accurately estimating chl-a in Laguna Lake.


The influence of the excited state of the animal on various motor neurone discharges and accompanying muscle action potentials was studied in the eyestalk of the crab, Carcinus maenas.
In most cases large increases in firing frequency could be obtained during such states. An exception is the tonic eye-withdrawal system in which an inhibitory effect is caused.
A pronounced difference in habituation to constant stimuli between spring and summer was found for the position fibres; in spring it was slow and in summer much quicker.


How to sustain cooperation is a key challenge for any society. Different social organizations have evolved in the course of history to cope with this challenge by relying on different combinations of external (formal and informal) enforcement institutions and intrinsic motivation. Some societies rely more on informal enforcement and moral obligations within their constituting groups. Others rely more on formal enforcement and general moral obligations towards society at large. How do culture and institutions interact in generating different evolutionary trajectories of societal organizations? Do contemporary attitudes, institutions and behavior reflect distinct pre-modern trajectories?


In an economy with multiple sources of risk, the short-term interest rate does not capture all the information that determines the conditional distribution of bond yields. This is also true for path-dependent term structure models. In either case, the current short rate level is not a sufficient statistic for the conditional density of future short rates. This paper studies the empirical relevance of both issues from a time-series nonparametric perspective. The analysis is formulated as a test for the dependence of the short rate drift and diffusion on variables other than the short rate, and exploits Ait-Sahalia, Bickel, and Stocker (2001) dimension reduction method. The paper explores the finite sample performance of the method and applies the test to US interest rate data. Results reject a single-factor Markovian model, although conclusions are sensitive to the choice of additional conditioning variables.


Following the implementation of the government's fuel poverty strategy in 2001, Warm Front is expected to make a substantial contribution to reducing the number of fuel poor households – those unable to afford to heat their homes adequately. This report focuses on the targeting of the scheme in England and how this might be modified to help achieve the government's target of eliminating fuel poverty among vulnerable households by 2010, based largely on the recommendations in a recent National Audit Office report on Warm Front, which highlighted the relatively small overlap between eligibility for the scheme and fuel poverty. This is a forward-looking piece of research and, as such, is not intended to be critical of the way the scheme has operated to date. Warm Front, like its predecessor the Home Energy Efficiency Scheme, was not originally designed to alleviate fuel poverty but to improve the energy efficiency of homes occupied by vulnerable households – those containing pensioners, children, and/or someone with a long-standing illness or disability. By this yardstick, the scheme has been a success - up to February 2004, approximately 770,000 vulnerable households had received a Warm Front grant, worth an average of £445 (in 2002) and saving each of these households up to £150 a year on their fuel bills. Whilst it would be unfair to evaluate the past performance of this scheme against an objective that it was not set up to achieve, it is reasonable to ask how far the current scheme is likely to contribute towards meeting a new or modified objective in future (i.e. the reduction of fuel poverty) and what changes could be made to increase this impact. The report examines the characteristics of Warm Front recipients; estimates the impact of the current scheme on fuel poverty, as officially defined; models the likely effectiveness of various options for redesigning Warm Front in terms of their impact on fuel poverty; and explores the extent of and implications of 'churn'.


I use the term workweek flexibility to describe the ease of changing output by altering the number of hours per worker. Despite the fact that workweek flexibility is potentially important for understanding the cyclical behavior of marginal cost and prices, as well as cyclical movements in hours and output, it has received little attention. Using insights from a simple model of employment and the workweek, I use mean workweek levels to identify the effect of workweek flexibility and then show that it is an important determinant of firms' marginal cost schedules and the variance of industry workweeks and hours. I use the same identification scheme with panel data to see if an increase in workweek flexibility has been behind the rise in hours per worker over the past 30 years and find that it has not.


In human body almost 53% of magnesium (Mg) is involved in the development and maintenance of bone and other calcified tissues, 27 % in muscle, 19 % in the soft tissues and the remain 1% in the serum. Mg is a nutrient involved in protein synthesis, muscle and nerve functions, blood glucose control and blood pressure regulation. In addition, Mg deficiency is uncommon in humans because of the kidney limit urinary excretion of this nutrient. However, there are some group of people at risk of Mg inadequacy, people with gastrointestinal diseases, type 2 diabetes, chronic alcoholism. Mg biofortification is a strategy that promotes nutrient enhancement in food crops and can increase nutrient uptake and accumulation in the human body. This study aims to develop a technical itinerary for Mg biofortification of two tomato varieties (H1534 and H9205) during the 2018 production cycle. As such, the study was carried out in a test area with 15 x 66 m, in Beja region, Portugal. In this framework, leaf fertilization of plants was promoted after planting and throughout the respective production cycle. Six leaf applications were carried out with four different treatments of magnesium sulfate. At harvest were studied the interactions between Mg accumulation and with others chemical elements present in the tomato tissues. The average of Mg biofortification index in variety H1534 was 16.2% and the opposite was verified in variety H1534, by atomic absorption. However, it was found, performing the mapping at tissue level using a μ-EDXRF M4 Tornado ™ system, that the content of Mg increased 90% and 78.8%, respectively, in H1534 and in H9205. Using scanning electron microscopy, with X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), it was possible to identify in which area of the tomato tissue the Mg predominates.


Jamie Morgan's commentary (Morgan, 2016) on my paper 'The Labour Theory of Property and Marginal Productivity Theory' (Ellerman, 2016) and Ted Burczak's later comments (Burczak, 2016) raise a number of issues that surely will occur to other readers and that need to be addressed. I take the occasion to expand upon the arguments and to explore some related issues. In the narrative that unfolds, Frank H. Knight plays the role of the sophisticated defender of the system of renting, hiring and employing human beings. He was quite clear that the social role of economics is to develop an idealised model, the competitive free enterprise model, and then to frame the normative discussion in terms of that model. Knight would agree with the whole thread of heterodox 'criticism' that the actual economy falls far short of the ideal – which is why I largely eschewed the descriptive shortcomings of ideal model as a purported model of the actual economy. Instead my paper focused on developing a critique of the key part of the idealised model, the marginal productivity theory of distribution under competitive conditions. That critique is based on the usual juridical principle of imputing legal responsibility in accordance with factual responsibility – the principle whose property-theoretic application is the modern treatment of the labour theory of property. Historically, heterodox economics faced a fork in the road in the 19th century: whether to criticise 'the system' by developing the inchoate 'labour theory' as a theory of value or a theory of property. Marx and much of left-wing economics took the labour-theory-of-value road, whereas my paper is part of a modern attempt – Thomas Hodgskin (1832) being an earlier attempt – to take the labour-theory-of-property road. As we will see, much of the debate still revolves around these two roads. Read David Ellerman's original paper "The Labour Theory of Property and Marginal Productivity Theory" › Read Jamie Morgan's commentary on David Ellerman's paper ›


We present a new model for the genesis of low-δ18O rhyolites of the Yellowstone caldera based on analyses of zircons and individual quartz phenocrysts. Low-δ18O rhyolites were erupted soon after the massive caldera-forming Lava Creek Tuff eruption (602 ka, ∼1000 km3) and contain xenocrysts of quartz and zircon inherited from precaldera rhyolites. These zircons are isotopically zoned and out of equilibrium with their host low-δ18O melts and quartz. Diffusion modeling predicts that magmatic disequilibria of oxygen isotopes persists for as much as tens of thousands of years following nearly total remelting of the hydrothermally altered igneous roots of the depressed cauldron, in which the alteration-resistant quartz and zircon initially retained their δ18O values. These results link melting to caldera collapse, rule out rapid or catastrophic magma–meteoric water interaction, and indicate wholesale melting rather than assimilation or partial melting.


Agricultural discharge of herbicides to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) poses significant threat to the marine ecosystem. This study evaluates the performance of a hybrid treatment system consists of a membrane bioreactor (MBR), UV disinfection unit and a granular activated carbon (GAC) column in treating ametryn which is one of the major herbicides in agricultural discharges. While the MBR alone removes only 40% of ametryn at a hydraulic retention time of 7.8 h, the hybrid system removed ametryn to below detection levels.


This study investigated the construction of thoughts by KH. Ahmad Masrur and al-Qodir Islamic Boarding School to accomodate folk art; to reveal the relationship among KH. Ahmad Masrur, al-Qodir Islamic Boarding School, and folk art communities in Wukirsari village; and to find out the approaches of accommodation implemented in the folk art Village. The findings of this study led to some conclusions. First, on the one hand, Mr. Masrur (an Islamic expert) wanted to send the goodness and the beauty of Islam not only to be achieved by Moslems but also by other religious community. On the other hand, the folk art community wanted to maintain their existence in the diverse society. Therefore, those two intentions are linked to each other in order to accomplish those goals. Second, the relationship among Mr. Masrur, al-Qodir Islamic Boarding School, and Wukirsari village folk art community; in terms of historical context, it was the repetition of the relationship pattern in the past time that occured during the Islamisation process in Java. It was carried out by placing the locality as the basis of Islam. Mr. Masrur, al-Qodir Islamic Boarding School put themselves as the exponents of folk art; Mr. Masrur had the role as the patron and the community folk art had the role as the clients, and the overall relationship was accomplished based on mutually beneficial relationship. Third, the forms of accommodation proposed by Mr. Masrur towards folk art in Wukirsari village were through compromise and tolerance. The form of the compromise was visible through the willingness of both parties to feel and understand the circumstances of one to each other party. As for the form of tolerance, it was implemented by Mr. Masrur and al-Qodir Islamic Boarding School deliberately to avoid various disputes and conflicts.


Field and satellite optical methods for estimation of chlorophyll content were applied in three study sites of the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest. Those sites represent a wide range of land use disturbance in secondary and pristine lowland rainforest. The first field method is based on transmittance from the SPAD-502 chlorophyll meter index, the second field method is based on reflectance measurements collected by a spectroradi- ometer, and the third method estimates chlorophyll content from the PROSPECT radiative transfer model. For the first method, seven models that account for a wide range of vegetation species showed similar average leaf chlorophyll contents until 80 units of SPAD-502. An average of the results of these models was computed and used as ground truth from where a generalized second-order polynomial model was created. For the second method, five chlorophyll indices based on reflectance measurements provided similar chlorophyll content estimations for all SPAD range (15–95 units). The third method estimates chlorophyll content based on the inversion process of the PROSPECT model. The satellite methods estimate vegetation indices sensitive to chlorophyll content from space. All methods have shown to be an alternative approach to detect forest degradation at local and regional levels caused by forest disturbances and land use changes.


Cathodoluminescent growth zones were observed in gangue dolomite associated with sphalerite mineralization in the Mascot-Jefferson City district. A total of six major zones were recognized which luminesce from very bright to very dark red. A nearly perfect microstratigraphic correlation of the gangue dolomite Cathodoluminescent zones throughout the district was observed. A single period of sphalerite mineralization occurred during the development of three consecutive zones throughout the district. Three other districts were studied and all exhibited, to some degree, cathodoluminescent zonations. The cathodoluminescent microstratigraphy reveals that both the sphalerite and gangue dolomite were time correlative through the Mascot-Jefferson City and possibly the Copper Ridge districts.Preliminary studies suggest that Cathodoluminescent petrography has possible exploration applications in East Tennessee and other Mississippi Valley-type deposits. It may be possible to differentiate between brecciated and dolomitized areas adjacent to an orebody and similar breccias which are not mineralized.


The aim of this study was to contribute to the growing body of knowledge concerning small hospitality businesses (SHBs) through an analysis of selected aspects of SHBs in an urban setting, namely Akcakoca, Turkey. Particular attention was given to the characteristics of businesses, finance, marketing, human resource management, involvement of residents in the industry, and management of SHBs. A sample of 72 businesses in Akcakoca was examined and their role in tourism was evaluated. The findings of this study reveal that SHBs carry significant deficiencies and inadequacies and face a common set of problems.


Reconstructing the genome and transcriptome for a new or extant species are essential steps in expanding our understanding of the organism's active RNA landscape and gene regulatory dynamics, as well as for developing therapeutic targets to fight disease. The advancement of sequencing technologies has paved the way to generate high-quality draft transcriptomes. With many possible approaches available to accomplish this task, there is a need for a closer investigation of the factors that influence the quality of the results. We carried out an extensive survey of variety of elements that are important in transcriptome assembly. We utilized the human RNA-Seq data from the Sequencing Quality Control Consortium (SEQC) as a well-characterized and comprehensive resource with an available, well-studied human reference genome. Our results indicate that the quality of the library construction significantly impacts the quality of the assembly. Higher coverage of the genome is not as important as the quality of the input RNA-Seq data. Thus, once a certain coverage is attained, the quality of the assembly is mainly dependent on the base-calling accuracy of the input sequencing reads; and it is important to avoid saturating the assembler with extra coverage.


Volume phase holograms are formed by a standard process in commercially available photographic emulsion. The material is characterized before recording, and initial experimental results are presented for reconstruction under index-matched conditions. An initial comparison is made using two-wave coupled-wave theory and a technique of curve fitting with experimental measurements of transmission and diffraction efficiency. The model works well close to the Bragg condition, but several differences are noted between theory and experiment away from the Bragg condition. An anomalous absorptive effect is noted in transmission. An improved model is then formulated, again using coupled-wave theory, and capable of analytic solution, taking into account phase and absorption modulation, a second harmonic in the grating profile and the appearance of some higher diffraction orders. Using this model, all the initial experimental results are satisfactorily explained, and the effect of spurious gratings in the hologram response is noted. The model is then used with an extensive set of experimental results to deduce the major characteristics of the material, including saturation of the modulation with exposure. The formulation of a mixed grating and possible dispersion of the modulation are also investigated. Suggestions are made for the design of more complicated components using this material and for material improvement.


Keep an eye out for MAKE Volume 14, which has a special section on optics. You'll learn how to make an inexpensive but powerful digital microscope that allows you to display bacteria colonies on a video monitor, a vintage-looking opaque projector that can display artwork from books onto a wall, a model of a crazy-angled room that makes things appear to change size, and a cool kaleidoscope. Also in the issue, we'll show you how to build a mesmerizing taffy pulling machine, a remote control dune buggy with a built-in video camera, a smoke ring cannon, a dollar-store parabolic microphone, and many more fun and fascinating projects.


Performance of two types of differential interference contrast objectives, i.e., the XOR pattern and the zone-plate doublet, is quantitatively characterized and compared using modulation transfer function. Effects of partial coherence, finite absorption and phase in a complex object, as well as bias retardation are also examined.


Africa faces an unanticipated 'second chance' at the start of the second decade of the 21st century: how many 'developmental' versus 'fragile' states by 2020? The interrelated prospects for both BRICs & the continent are being transformed by the current global financial crisis: as the South expands & the North contracts, what S‐N relations in future? The EU of 27 now includes the PIIGS: a disincentive to African regions to sign EPAs unlike the Caribbean? African political economies are now located in second, third & fourth worlds: will they identify with the G20 and/or the G192 (G193 once Southern Sudan independent at start 2011?). Half the dozen fastest growing countries identified in the Economist's World in 2011 are African (Economist 2010a): from Ghana to Liberia; the CGD in DC now suggests that 17 African countries are 'leading the way' & the BCG has identified 40 African corporations as global 'challengers'. To maximize its development & security, Africa would need to advance 'network' or 'public' rather than traditional 'club' diplomacy, involving civil society & private companies as well as states & intergovernmental agencies. But climate change may yet emerge as the spoiler, hence the importance of COP17 in Durban before the end of 2011! This paper has four parts which stake out paths to a brighter future for the continent, including its myriad diasporas. First: post‐Washington Consensus, ODA from the OECD is of declining importance or attraction. Rather, a range of 'innovative sources of finance' are appearing, encouraged by the 'Leading Group': global solidarity fund, currency transaction tax, carbon taxes/trading, climate change funds, controls on money laundering & remittance taxes etc. Plus emerging donors like the BRICs & Gulf states, some with SWFs; FBOs; & new private foundation like Gates, Clinton & Ibrahim leading to GAVI etc.Second, Africa has generated an innovative range of 'new regionalisms' involving non‐state actors: from Maputo Corridor & Kgalagadi trans‐frontier peace‐park to Nile Basin Initiative/Dialogue; and from International Conference on the GLR to corporate supply chains.Third, 'new multilateralisms' or 'transnational governance' with African dimensions, from ICBL & Ottawa Process & PAC/GW & Kimberley Process & now DDI to EITI, FCS & MCS to IANSA & ATT; yet coalitions over SALW & children/women's security are stalled due to US vetoes. And finally, fourth, what implications of this trio of novel directions & players for our analyses & policies, state & non‐state: who are the 'drivers', innovators & animators? How to transit from dependency & neoliberalism towards a Beijing Consensus? Where ACBF & its partners in 2030/2040/2050?


This report analyzes the effects of grain market reform and food subsidy elimination in Eastern and Southern Africa on access to food for low-income consumers. The report also assesses the potential to use "self-targeted commodities" to improve vulnerable groups access to food though market development strategies and food aid programs. While much research has been devoted to understanding how producers and traders would respond to reform of staple food markets, relatively little is known about the potential or actual responses by consumers. The report presents recent findings from six household-level surveys in urban areas of Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia, and Mozambique between 1991 and 1994. Secondary data from South Africa and Malawi are also presented where available. The report highlights seven conclusions: (1) Consumers subsidies on refined maize meal in Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa have not necessarily promoted food security, because they have entrenched a relatively high-cost marketing system and impeded the development of lower-cost channels from developing. (2) The conventional wisdom of rigid urban preferences for refined maize meal was greatly exaggerated by policy restrictions under the controlled marketing systems and subsidies on refined maize meal. (3) Since the removal of refined meal subsidies and controls on maize movement, retail prices of hammer-milled whole meal have ranged from 55% to 80% those of refined meal manufactured by large-scale millers. (4) In all countries surveyed, there is an inverse relationship between whole meal consumption and household income, and a positive relationship between refined meal consumption and household income. (5) New investment in hammer milling has increased rapidly since market reform. (6) Small-scale mills have a higher labor-to-investment cost ratio and labor-to-output ratio than large-scale milling. (7) Yellow maize, which is typically available at a price discount relative to white maize, also appears to be a "self-targeted" food.


Few topics in transportation are of greater significance, now and in the future, than making today's roads safe for those who use them. This study aims to assist the formulation of policy by examining the empirical evidence currently available on the ability of several forms of communication efforts and activities to increase knowledge about and affect attitudes and behavior toward highway safety practices. The objective of this effort is to provide a comparative synthesis of what works and what does not in highway safety campaigns across a large number of topical areas that have a mass media component. This was accomplished by conducting an extensive literature review to determine the current state of knowledge concerning what works and what has significant potential for wide use in future highway safety campaigns. An analytic framework for investigating highway safety campaigns was created. The framework includes (1) the types of media components, (2) the types of collaborations, (3) the context in which the campaign is intended to have impact, (4) the structure or procedural steps into which campaigns are organized, (5) the principles for what works in a campaign, and (6) the desired impact of a campaign on its target audience. The report reveals 25 characteristics of successful communication campaigns, strategies that stand a chance of achieving changes in knowledge, attitude, and behavior. The actual impact of mass communication remains unproven because of a perceived lag in the development of adequate evaluation techniques. Education by itself has not generally resulted in significant changes in the behaviors targeted, but education of the public and advocacy groups has often helped enact necessary legislation, transmit knowledge about the provisions and penalties of laws in ways that increase their deterrent effect, and generate public support for law enforcement programs. Even in such cases, however, when enforcement is inconsistent, public compliance frequently decreases with time. Approaches to traffic safety that emphasize the need for long-term individual- and community-based measures are found to be especially crucial for addressing complex problems like drinking and driving that are determined by a myriad of lifestyle and psychosocial factors.


Linear particle depolarization ratio is presented for three case studies from the NASA Langley airborne High Spectral Resolution Lidar-2 (HSRL-2). Particle depolarization ratio from lidar is an indicator of non-spherical particles and is sensitive to the fraction of non-spherical particles and their size. The HSRL-2 instrument measures depolarization at three wavelengths: 355, 532, and 1064 nm. The three measurement cases presented here include two cases of dust-dominated aerosol and one case of smoke aerosol. These cases have partial analogs in earlier HSRL-1 depolarization measurements at 532 and 1064 nm and in literature, but the availability of three wavelengths gives additional insight into different scenarios for non-spherical particles in the atmosphere. A case of transported Saharan dust has a spectral dependence with a peak of 0.30 at 532 nm with smaller particle depolarization ratios of 0.27 and 0.25 at 1064 and 355 nm, respectively. A case of aerosol containing locally generated wind-blown North American dust has a maximum of 0.38 at 1064 nm, decreasing to 0.37 and 0.24 at 532 and 355 nm, respectively. The cause of the maximum at 1064 nm is inferred to be very large particles that have not settled out of the dust layer. The smoke layer has the opposite spectral dependence, with the peak of 0.24 at 355 nm, decreasing to 0.09 and 0.02 at 532 and 1064 nm, respectively. The depolarization in the smoke case may be explained by the presence of coated soot aggregates. We note that in these specific case studies, the linear particle depolarization ratio for smoke and dust-dominated aerosol are more similar at 355 nm than at 532 nm, having possible implications for using the particle depolarization ratio at a single wavelength for aerosol typing.


INTRODUCTION
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the leading causes of blindness in Nepal.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the demographic characteristics and awareness of diabetic retinopathy among new cases of diabetes mellitus (DM) attending the vitreo-retinal service of a tertiary eye care centre in Nepal.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A hospital-based, cross-sectional study including all consecutive new cases of DM was carried out. Detailed demographics of the subjects and their awareness of potential ocular problems from diabetes mellitus were noted.

RESULTS
A total of 210 patients with a mean age of 57 +/- 10.4 years were included. Brahmins (34.8 %) and Newars (34.3 %) were the predominant ethnic groups. Housewives (38.6 %) and office workers (18.6 %) were the major groups affected. Two-fifths (37 %) of the cases were unaware of DR and its potential for blindness. Awareness was significantly higher among literate patients (P = 0.006). Fundus evaluation was done for the first time in 48.6 %, although almost four-fifths had a duration of diabetes of five years or more. DR was found in 78 % of the cases, with 16.7 % already at the proliferative stage and about 40 % exhibiting clinically significant diabetic macular edema.

CONCLUSION
A lack of awareness of DR coupled with a high proportion of cases already at a sight-threatening stage of retinopathy at their first presentation reflects the need for improved awareness programs to reduce the burden of blindness from DR in Nepal.


July-September 1994 During the July-September quarter, the dollar consolidated within increasingly narrow ranges. It rose 0.6 percent against the Japanese yen and 0.1 percent against the Mexican peso, but declined 2.3 percent against the German mark, 2.9 percent against the Canadian dollar, and 1.9 percent on a trade-weighted basis.(1) Much of the period was characterized by thin summer markets and the predominance of interbank dealers and short-term speculative traders-conditions that occasionally resulted in abrupt but temporary movements in exchange rates. U.S. monetary authorities did not conduct any intervention operations during the quarter. THE DOLLAR TRADES TO ITS LOWS OF THE PERIOD BUT SOON RETURNS TO ITS OPENING LEVELS At the end of the prior period, with the dollar trading at DM 1.5869 and Y98.50, many market participants perceived a risk of a further decline in the dollar, given the prospect of stronger growth in Europe and concern about the continued trade imbalances of the United States and Japan. There was some market anticipation in advance of the Naples Summit that the Group of Seven (G-7) might launch a coordinated "dollar support package." When no formal dollar support package was announced, the dollar resumed its decline. On Monday, July 11, the dollar dropped sharply as some market participants liquidated remaining long-dollar positions and others established sizable short-dollar positions. The dollar fell further the next day, briefly reaching a twenty-month low of DM 1.5165 against the mark and a new postwar low of Y96.60 against the yen. With the dollar perceived as oversold on a technical basis, however, traders soon took profits on their short-dollar positions, and by the end of the week the dollar had recovered almost all of its post-summit losses. The dollar rose further in mid-July when senior U.S. officials articulated a clear preference for a stronger dollar and highlighted its advantages for the U.S. economy. Secretary Bentsen stated on July 14, "We're going to continue to be in accord with the Federal Reserve as far as their objectives to see that we have substantial growth with low inflation and work toward a stronger dollar." On July 20, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, in his semiannual Humphrey-Hawkins testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, said that he was troubled by the dollar's decline and noted that "any evidences of weakness in [the dollar] are neither good for the international financial system nor good for the American economy." The next day, Undersecretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers, in his semiannual report to Congress on international economic and exchange rate policy, stated: The Administration believes that a strengthening of the dollar against the yen and the mark would have important economic benefits for the United States. It would restore the confidence in financial markets that is important to sustaining recovery. It would boost the attractiveness of U.S. assets and the incentive for longer-term investment in the economy, and help to keep inflation low. In addition we believe--and this view is shared by other G-7 countries--that a renewed decline of the dollar would be counterproductive to global recovery. Market participants reacted positively to these remarks. Earlier worries that U.S. officials were unconcerned about the dollar began to dissipate, and by the end of July the dollar had moved back to DM 1.5830 and Y99.85. THE DOLLAR TRADES CAUTIOUSLY HIGHER AGAINST THE YEN The dollar continued to rise gradually against the yen in late July and early August, reaching its period high of Y101.75 on August 8. At the time, the release of positive Japanese economic statistics, notably June industrial production data and new machinery orders, fostered a market perception that Japan's economy was improving and that increased imports would help reduce its trade surplus. Moreover, foreign investors turned into net sellers of Japanese bonds and equities in July, selling the equivalent of $5. …


This paper focuses on agent-based approach to study the relationship between the individual behavior of participants and the overall development of a virtual community, to help people to better understand the interactive process, forecast and manage the community development. In this paper, we first analyze the strengths of agent-based approach and the features of virtual communities. We argue that agent-based modeling and simulation approach is well suited to study virtual communities. We then build an agent-based model for virtual learning communities (VLCs). Each participant in VLCs is modeled as an agent with cognitive and social characteristics. The interactive activities are decomposed into four modules: registration module, activation module, action module, and adaptation module. A discussion of general observations of the community behaviors and managerial implications is presented based on series of comparative simulations.


In this paper, we study the throughput-optimal control in the multi-radio multi-channel (MR-MC) wireless networks, which is particularly challenging due to the coupled link scheduling and channel/radio assignment. This paper has threefold contributions: 1) We develop a new model by transforming a network node into multiple node-radio-channel (NRC) tuples. Such modeling facilitates the development of a tuple-based back pressure algorithm, the solution of which can jointly solve the link scheduling, routing and channel/radio assignment in the MRMC network. 2) The tuple-based model enables the extensions of some well-known algorithms, e.g., greedy maximal scheduling and maximal scheduling, to MR-MC networks with guaranteed performance. We provide stability and capacity efficiency ratio analysis to the tuple-based scheduling algorithms. 3) The tuple-based framework facilitates a decomposable cross-layer formulation that enhances the delay performance of throughput-optimal control by integrating the link-layer scheduling with the network-layer path selection, where both hop-count and queuing delay are considered. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the capacity region and delay performance of the proposed methodology, with comparison to the existing approach [3].


With the advent of next-generation sequencing technologies, tremendous progress has been made in the understanding of the genomic landscape of several tumor types. Clinicopathologically bladder carcinoma is classified into non-muscle invasive bladder cancer and muscle invasive bladder cancer. Patients are often diagnosed with bladder carcinoma at an advanced stage, owing to a lack of early clinical symptoms and effective biomarkers for early detection. Failure of chemoradiotherapy at an advanced stage usually results in a poor outcome. Currently, there are limited targeted therapies available for bladder carcinoma. Thus, there is an immediate need to identify alternative strategies and novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of bladder carcinoma. The genomic underpinnings of bladder carcinoma may lead to the better understanding of this disease and improved targeted therapy. A large number of genomic alterations including somatic mutations, copy number alterations and fusion genes were identified to be involved in the pathogenesis of bladder carcinoma. A high mutational burden was observed in bladder carcinoma as compared to other tumors. Recurrent somatic mutations in genes such as TP53, KMT2D, RB1, FGFR3, KDM6A, STAG2 and PIK3CA were identified. Multiple signaling pathways such as the cell cycle pathway, DNA repair pathway, chromatin remodeling and histone modifications were found to be altered. Most likely, targeting mutated genes of these altered pathways could provide opportunities for personalization of bladder carcinoma therapy. This review discusses the molecular alterations, altered identified genes and the molecular pathways involved in bladder carcinoma.


The formation of haustoria is one of the hallmarks of the interaction of obligate biotrophic fungi with their host plants. In addition to their role in nutrient uptake, it is hypothesized that haustoria are actively involved in establishing and maintaining the biotrophic relationship. We have identified a 24.3-kDa protein that exhibited a very unusual allocation. Rust transferred protein 1 from Uromyces fabae (Uf-RTP1p) was not only detected in the host parasite interface, the extrahaustorial matrix, but also inside infected plant cells by immunofluorescence and electron microscopy. Uf-RTP1p does not exhibit any similarity to sequences currently listed in the public databases. However, we identified a homolog of Uf-RTP1p in the related rust fungus Uromyces striatus (Us-RTP1p). The localization of Uf-RTP1p and Us-RTP1p inside infected plant cells was confirmed, using four independently raised polyclonal antibodies. Depending on the developmental stage of haustoria, Uf-RTP1p was found in increasing amounts in host cells, including the host nucleus. Putative nuclear localization signals (NLS) were found in the predicted RTP1p sequences. However, functional efficiency could only be verified for the Uf-RTP1p NLS by means of green fluorescent protein fusions in transformed tobacco protoplasts. Western blot analysis indicated that Uf-RTP1p and Us-RTP1p most likely enter the host cell as N-glycosylated proteins. However, the mechanism by which they cross the extrahaustorial membrane and accumulate in the host cytoplasm is unknown. The localization of RTP1p suggests that it might play an important role in the maintenance of the biotrophic interaction.


Have you ever dreamed about losing control over your own body? With the Involuntary Dance Machine you get the chance. A special dance suit containing medical electrodes is strapped to your body. By stimulating muscles in the arms and legs with electricity that is sent in impulses, the Dance Machine makes you move involuntary. Connected to a sound source, the spasms and twitches of your body occur to the beat of the music/sound. You become an electrical puppet, an automaton, a vessel for the current. You will dance to the rhythm whether you want it or not.


Jonathan Haidt (2001) advances the 'Social Intuitionist' account of moral judgment, which he presents as an alternative to rationalist accounts of moral judgment, hitherto dominant in psychology. Here I consider Haidt's anti-rationalism and the debate that it has provoked in moral psychology, as well as some anti-rationalist philosophical claims that Haidt and others have grounded in the empirical work of Haidt and his collaborators. I will argue that although the case for anti-rationalism in moral psychology based on the work of Haidt and his collaborators is plausible, a decisive case has yet to be made. It will require further experimental evidence before a decisive case could be made. My assessment of anti-rationalist philosophical arguments that are grounded in the empirical work of Haidt and his collaborators is much more negative than this. I will argue that this body of empirical work is a very unpromising basis for such arguments.


Numerous studies, across many countries, have evaluated the outcomes of changes in prevailing speed limits. Fatalities and injuries have fallen when speed limits have been lowered and have increased when speed limits have been raised. Models of speed changes allow a prediction of the safety benefits of a speed limit reduction. This paper studies the relationship between changes in the posted speed limits and crash history for a section of the Great Western Highway in rural NSW, where the speed limit was reduced from 110 km/h to 100 km/h. This study showed that travel speeds are reduced following a speed limit reduction, with clear safety benefits (26.7 per cent reduction in casualty crashes) consistent with power model. Use of modelling in crash prediction depends, however, on a reasonably accurate estimate of the speed reduction expected.


Antisera prepared against a 210,000 mol wt microtubule-associated protein (210k MAP) isolated from the human cell line, HeLa, were used to survey a variety of cells and tissues for the presence of immunologically related proteins. The antisera were employed to test extracts of the cells and tissues, using a sensitive indirect immunofluorescence technique applied to polyacrylamide gels. Cross- reactive material of 210,000 mol wt was found in 10 kinds of cells and tissues derived from humans and four lines of cells from monkeys. Indirect immunofluorescent staining was also carried out on fixed cells and showed that the cross-reactive material was localized to interphase and mitotic microtubules as assayed in nine human and seven monkey cell lines. No protein that cross-reacted with 210k MAP antisera was detected in cells and tissues derived from two rodents, an ungulate, a marsupial, or a chicken. Therefore, the 210k MAP isolated from HeLa cells is present in a wide variety of cells and tissues of humans and other primates but is antigenically distinct from MAPs present in lower organisms.


There is a sizable "poor quality and safety" problem in health care, not only in terms of suffering to patients but also in economic terms. Few studies have assigned costs to the problems. Decisions about whether to take action and which actions to take would be assisted by economic evidence. The article presents research which shows subjects and services where there is evidence both of poor quality and of effective interventions The article shows ways systematically to incorporate economic considerations into decisions about improvement and practical methods for estimating the costs of a quality problem and possible savings. A simple method is presented which would allow a purchaser or provider to make a comprehensive overview of a range of healthcare problems to help decide where to invest resources to save costs. Economic criteria and estimates, however, should not be the only criteria for selecting improvement subjects. Understanding of the costs of both the problem and the solution would encourage more effective quality and safety improvement and provide one way of measuring the progress of an action to solve the problem.