OBJECT Traumatic fractures of the thoracolumbar spine are common injuries, accounting for approximately 90% of all spinal trauma. Lumbar spine trauma in the elderly is a growing public health problem with relatively little evidence to guide clinical management. The authors sought to characterize the complications, morbidity, and mortality associated with surgical and nonsurgical management in elderly patients with traumatic fractures of the lumbar spine. METHODS Using the National Sample Program of the National Trauma Data Bank, the authors performed a retrospective analysis of patients ≥ 55 years of age who had traumatic fracture to the lumbar spine. This group was divided into middle-aged (55-69 years) and elderly (≥ 70 years) cohorts. Cohorts were subdivided into nonoperative, vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty, noninstrumented surgery, and instrumented surgery. Univariate and multivariable analyses were used to characterize and identify predictors of medical and surgical complications, mortality, hospital length of stay, ICU length of stay, number of days on ventilator, and hospital discharge in each subgroup. Adjusted odds ratios, mean differences, and associated 95% CIs were reported. Statistical significance was assessed at p < 0.05, and the Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons was applied for each outcome analysis. RESULTS Between 2003 and 2012, 22,835 people met the inclusion criteria, which represents 94,103 incidents nationally. Analyses revealed a similar medical and surgical complication profile between age groups. The most prevalent medical complications were pneumonia (7.0%), acute respiratory distress syndrome (3.6%), and deep venous thrombosis (3%). Surgical site infections occurred in 6.3% of cases. Instrumented surgery was associated with the highest odds of each complication (p < 0.001). The inpatient mortality rate was 6.8% for all subjects. Multivariable analyses demonstrated that age ≥ 70 years was an independent predictor of mortality (OR 3.16, 95% CI 2.77-3.60), whereas instrumented surgery (multivariable OR 0.38, 95% CI 0.28-0.52) and vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty (OR 0.27, 95% CI 0.17-0.45) were associated with decreased odds of death. In surviving patients, both older age (OR 0.32, 95% CI 0.30-0.34) and instrumented fusion (OR 0.37, 95% CI 0.33-0.41) were associated with decreased odds of discharge to home. CONCLUSIONS The present study confirms that lumbar surgery in the elderly is associated with increased morbidity. In particular, instrumented fusion is associated with periprocedural complications, prolonged hospitalization, and a decreased likelihood of being discharged home. However, fusion surgery is also associated with reduced mortality. Age alone should not be an exclusionary factor in identifying surgical candidates for instrumented lumbar spinal fusion. Future studies are needed to confirm these findings.


Ultrathin MnO2 hollow nanoballoons (UMHNBs) have a large ratio of interfacial to total atoms, corresponding to expected improved performance. However, their synthesis is a challenge due to difficulty in controlling the concentration of the unit cells. Herein, we describe a strategy to synthesize dry intact UMHNBs through a one-step synthesis by inflating MnO2 (reduced from KMnO4) with CO2 (oxidized from single-layer graphene oxide nanosheets) followed by instant freeze-drying. UMHNBs are 30-500 nm in diameter with a shell thickness of 3.7 nm, packing with laminar [MnO6] unit cells in the form of δ-MnO2. UMHNBs show efficient catalytic activity for decomposing the organic dye methylene blue (MB), 15 times the biggest reported value, and have long-term catalytic efficacy and durability. The described strategy in this paper makes use of graphene nanosheets to assemble durable ultrathin hollow nanoballoons.


We studied the effects of hyperosmolality on fetal renal function and the role of arginine vasopressin (AVP) in these responses. NaCl (9%) was injected intravenously into chronically catheterized ewes and their fetuses, followed by a continuous infusion of 9% NaCl into the ewes. The fetuses were either normal, infused with AVP, or infused with an AVP antagonist. In normal fetuses NaCl injection caused fetal and maternal blood osmolalities to be elevated by 10-15 mosmol/kg for 4 h with no change in fetal blood volume; fetal plasma AVP rose 42%. Fetal arterial pressures rose transiently by 2-10 mmHg. Fetal urine flow rose transiently by 73% after NaCl injection and then averaged 27% below control after 1 h, whereas fetal urine osmolality increased from 188 +/- 31 to 282 +/- 33 mosmol/kg. In a second group of fetuses AVP infusion alone caused fetal urine osmolality to increase by 123 +/- 39 mosmol/kg and urine flow to fall 31%, whereas in a third group the antagonist alone had no effect on urine flow or osmolality. After hypertonic injection into fetuses infused with AVP or the antagonist, the transient changes were similar to those in normal fetuses. However, the sustained increase in urine osmolality and decrease in flow after hypertonic injection were abolished in AVP-infused and antagonist-infused fetuses. Thus it appears that the transient changes in fetal renal function after hypertonic injection are not AVP-induced and may be due to transient increases in arterial pressure, whereas the prolonged changes in urine flow and osmolality appear to be mediated by increases in fetal plasma AVP levels.


In the 10 years after the launch of the United Nations Global Compact (GC), there have been very few empirical assessments of the initiative in the academic literature. In this study, drawing from institutional theory and the resource‐based view of the firm, we examine motivations of business participants to adopt the GC principles in the Spanish context. Using survey data from Spain – the country reporting the highest volume of business participants in the GC – we find that external institutional forces as well as internal organisational resources shape motivations for adopting GC principles. In particular, we find that early and late adopters are motivated similarly by the perceived opportunity of achieving image gains, while late adopters are motivated more by economic gains than early adopters. We further find that regardless of the extent of internal intangible resources possessed, firms are similarly motivated by economic gains. The results also show that companies with more intangible resources are motivated more by image gains than those with fewer resources. Our findings indicate that contrary to its earlier days, economic gains have emerged as an important motivator for the adopters of the GC principles with image gains still being an important motivator.


Case Description- A 5-year old male German shepherd weighing 28 kg with the history of falling from the third floor 9 months previous was referred to the Small Animal Hospital.
Clinical Findings- In clinical examination roughness and thickness of the skin of the palmar surface of both forelimbs were felt. The animal was using his palmar plane of both forelimbs to walk without any signs of pain during walking or weight-bearing. Diagnostic radiographs revealed old traumatic carpal luxation in both forelimbs.
Treatment and Outcome- Bilateral pancarpal arthrodesis was performed on both right and left carpal joints in a staged surgery. Under general anesthesia, the carpal joint was reduced and fixation was done at 10 degree extension. A dynamic compressive plate dorsally attached from the distal end of radius to the carpal joint. Arthrodesis was carried out by cancellous bone auto-grafting. Palmar molded splint was applied to support the internal fixation for nine weeks. Survey radiographs during 12 months follow up revealed successful fusion of inflicted joints. Patient exhibited no clinical signs of pain and could normally bear weight on both forelimbs.
Clinical Relevance- Plate applications on the dorsal aspect provide easier approach for panarthrodesis of the carpal joint and use of cancellous grafts and external support after surgery increase healing and stability.


The aim of the study is to provide an empirical example of how an election-related empirical indicator of political knowledge can be constructed. Studies of political knowledge have shown that most citizens fall short of the democratic ideal in terms of their knowledge about politics. But according to critics it is unclear what the reference point for such conclusions has been. The critics say that indicators of political knowledge lack a transparent logic and connection to concrete political behavior. In this study two measures of political knowledge are compared: one is a general measure of political knowledge, the other is based on a specific analytical framework by Kuklinski and Quirk (2001). Both the aggregate distribution and the individual-level determinants of political knowledge are compared. The differences between the two measures turned out to be minor. The findings suggest that although specific and theory-driven measures offer a nuanced view into the public's knowledge levels, general measures of political knowledge also provide a reliable understanding of what the public knows.


The applicable law to a contract in the absence of the parties' choice is governed by Article 4 of the Rome Convention, which has been implemented in the UK by the Contracts (Applicable Law) Act 1990. This rule adopts the closest connection principle as a basic principle to decide the applicable law, but also introduces specific presumptions to simplify the process. The current rule has been criticised for its uncertainty. As a result, a substantive change has been provided in the Rome I Regulation, which aims to modernise the current choice of law rules in contractual obligations and convert the Rome Convention into a Council Regulation. The new Article 4 aims to enhance certainty and to overcome the difficulties of the current rules of the Rome Convention. However, a close scrutiny of the new Article 4 shows that it does not properly achieve its aim. The article aims to critically analyse Article 4 of the Rome I Regulation and to provide suggestions for its interpretation and understanding.


The crisis triggered by the novel COVID-19 coronavirus has rekindled the debate about the protection of personal information at least twice: through population tracking by means of cellular-based data and by way of data disclosure via data sharing within the healthcare network. Such a situation enables us to realistically test – i.e. prove – the reliability of some of our information governance instruments or mechanisms and their level of integration. As a matter of fact, a deficiency of integration between those informational instruments and a lack of consistency can give rise to circumstances where their respective objectives may become conflicting, and which may cause bad decisions (or type 1 errors). This is illustratively the case when a first law is enacted to promote the public good while a second law also designed to foster the public well-being is, to be effective, contingent on the implementation of measures that contravene or breach the first. For instance, let us consider the Privacy Act of Canada (R.S.C., 1985, c. P-21) and the Public Health Act of Quebec (CQLR c. S-2.2). While both of these laws are for the fostering of public good, certain provisions of the Public Health Act of Quebec (CQLR c. S-2.2), to be effective, require that they infringe or encroach on the objectives of the Privacy Act of Canada (R.S.C., 1985, c. P-21). What can be the consequences of such incompatible or contradictory situations?


: Teacher motivation is an integral part of the success of the teaching and learning processes. The purpose of this study was to establish the factors underlying teacher recruitment, motivation and retention within a rural context. A case study design was employed as a methodology for the study. The collected data was analysed by establishing themes and emerging categories. The study established that teachers at rural schools were motivated by crucial work-related factors which were both intrinsic and extrinsic in nature. Employment opportunities, family background, leadership, rural environment and support services were some of the major factors motivating teacher to be recruited and retained with rural school teaching. The study recommended that school leaders should acquire a holistic understanding of the diverse factors motivating teachers, so that they can nurture these factors and motivate teachers appropriately. This will ensure that rural schools remains with motivated teaching personnel for improved performance.


As a French PhD student, my work focuses on democratic deficits in the United States and explores the evolution of the American Left since 2001. Adopting methodological tools provided by ethnography, I am investigating how activist groups are using civil disobedience and non-violent direct action under the current legal, judicial, and police constraints specific to the post-9/11 era. My research is contingent on structural shifts occurring on the macro-political level, such as a changes in the federal government. But as the incident related above demonstrates, my own status as a foreign ethnographer is also a factor, since I can neither escape nor disentangle myself from my identity. The aim of this reflexive article is to discuss how, within a broader context of state repression and surveillance, my "double condition of alienage" (alien as a non-citizen and alien as an insider/outsider researcher amongst activist groups), is affecting not only how I am conducting my fieldwork, but is also shaping my object of study.


Background Down syndrome (DS) is a risk factor for metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. The greater oxidative stress described in DS can increase this risk owing to its potential deleterious effects on insulin sensitivity. We hypothesized that metabolic syndrome or its markers, at rest and during exercise, are more pronounced in young adults with DS. Design The study design is that of a controlled study. Methods Thirteen physically active young adults with DS, after overnight polysomnography, plasma-lipid profile, and insulin-resistance [Homeostasis Model Assessment Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR)] assessments, underwent a sub-maximal progressive treadmill exercise (10 min at 30 and 50%, and 20 min at 75% of Vo2 max), allowing for maximal fat-oxidation rate and blood-oxidative stress determinations. They were compared with 15 healthy control participants (C). Results Vo2 max of DS participants was lower than that of C (60.8 ±2.4 versus 44.4 ± 3.3 ml/kg/min; P < 0.001) but was close to the predicted value (95 ±6%). In DS participants, as expected, oxidative stress was greater than in C (+ 15%; P < 0.001) at rest and all through the exercise protocol. Although a greater fat mass (DS: 19.9 ±1.3%; C: 13.5 ±0.9%; P < 0.001), and a lower insulin sensitivity (HOMA-IR in DS: 1.09±0.16; in C: 0.64±0.13; P < 0.05) was observed for DS participants, a metabolic syndrome could not be shown. Maximal fat-oxidation rate was lower in DS participants (394.2 ±69.9 versus 486.1 ±134.8mg/min in C; P < 0.01), but it was in the normal range. Conclusion Despite greater oxidative stress and lower insulin sensitivity, the DS group involved in our study did not display clear metabolic abnormalities. The young age and lifestyle of this group might, partially, have accounted for this apparently healthy metabolic status.


The emergence of the Internet and WWW has affected all functions of an academic
library, particularly library instruction. This technology has led to the utilisation of new
tools and methods for providing library instruction to the users. This study examined the
used of the web-based library instruction in Malaysian academic libraries. The objective
of the study was to examine the current practices of delivering library instruction in
academic libraries. The findings have presented the overview on the planning, delivery
and content of library instruction programmes in academic libraries. The study aimed to
evaluate the general design, interactivity, presentation mode, tutorial structure, graphical
interface and the technical performance of the academic library websites. The study
further examined the issues relating to web-based library instruction and the strengths and
weaknesses presented on library instruction programmes. The study has revealed the
potential and benefits of web-based library instruction. A total of 40 professional
librarians working in the reference department of seven Malaysian academic libraries
located in the Klang Valley participated in the study. Respondents felt that the web has
contributed positively to library instruction and has enhanced their effectiveness and
efficiency. However, respondents disagreed that the web should completely replace
traditional library instruction programmes. In most of these academic libraries, traditional
library instruction programmes such as guided group tour, video or slide presentation,
and self-guided tour that using printed pamphlets for self-directed or self-guided are still
be conducted. Respondents also felt that professional librarians should possess good
computing and web use skills for providing effective library instruction to the users.


Current multicore computers differ in many hardware characteristics. Software developers thus hand-tune their parallel programs for a specific platform to achieve the best performance; this is tedious and leads to non-portable code. Although the software architecture also requires adaptation to achieve best performance, it is rarely modified because of the additional implementation effort. The Tunable Architectures approach proposed in this paper automates the architecture adaptation of parallel programs and uses an auto-tuner to find the best-performing software architecture for a particular machine. We introduce a new architecture description language based on parallel patterns and a framework to express architecture variants in a generic way. Several case studies demonstrate significant performance improvements due to architecture tuning and show the applicability of our approach to industrial applications. Software developers are exposed to less parallel programming complexity, thus making the approach attractive for experts as well as inexperienced parallel programmers.


AIM: The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in changing of blood coagulation and fibrinolysis markers before and after spinal surgery in adolescent and elderly patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective two-center study enrolled 56 low-risk patients between October 2012 and April 2015. 27 adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) patients (3 boys, 24 girls; mean age 15 years) underwent instrumentation for posterior fusion. 29 lumbar spinal canal stenosis (LSCS) patients (15 men, 14 women; mean age 71 years) underwent laminectomy for posterior decompression. Plasma levels of soluble fibrin monomer complex (SFMC), D-dimer, and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) were measured at 1 day preoperatively and on postoperative days (PODs) 1, 3, and 7. RESULTS: The SFMC level showed significant increases on PODs 1 and 3 in the AIS patients and on POD 1 in the LSCS patients. The D-dimer level showed significant increases on PODs 1, 3, and 7 in both groups. The PAI-1 levels showed significant increases on POD 7 in the AIS patients and on PODs 1, 3, and 7 in the LSCS patients. CONCLUSION: The significantly continuously higher postoperative PAI-1 levels in older patients could be associated with the development and progression of symptomatic VTE.


"Avoiding Common Prehospital Errors", will help you develop the deep understanding of common patient presentations necessary to prevent diagnostic and treatment errors and to improve outcomes. Providing effective emergency care in the field is among the most challenging tasks in medicine. You must be able to make clinically vital decisions quickly, and perform a wide range of procedures, often under volatile conditions. Written specifically for the prehospital emergency team, this essential volume in the "Avoiding Common Errors Series" combines evidence-based practice with well-earned experience and best practices opinion to help you avoid common errors of prehospital care. Look inside and discover: concise descriptions of each error are followed by insightful analysis of the "hows" and "whys" underlying the mistake, and clear descriptions of ways to avoid such errors in the future; "Pearls" highlighted in the text offer quick vital tips on error avoidance based on years of clinical and field experience; and focused content emphasizes "high impact" areas of prehospital medicine, including airway management, cardiac arrest, and respiratory and traumatic emergencies.


Shifting user behavior from private car use to low-carbon mobility routines is a crucial factor in the transition to sustainable cities. A cooperative network of 46 Free Cargo-Bikesharing operators (Freie Lastenräder) with 9,750 registered users has grown rapidly within the last four years in Germany and Austria. However, little is known about the characteristics and usage behavior of these early adopters. Moreover, we still lack even a rough estimate of the ecological impact of cargo-bikesharing. In order to address these questions, we co-created an empirical survey among users (n = 931) in a transdisciplinary cooperation with 30 Free Cargo-Bikesharing operators. Results show that 46 percent of respondents maintain that they would have made the trip by car in the absence of a cargo-bikesharing operator, indicating the high potential of cargo-bikesharing to reduce car usage. We recommend that municipal policymakers support cargo-bikesharing in two ways: 1. by complementing existing bikesharing systems with cargo bikes, and 2. by supporting local initiatives for citizen engagement in cargo-bikesharing.


In 2013, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture supported the creation of a professional development and technical assistance center to promote strong implementation and evaluation of University-led, community-based projects serving low-resource populations.  Within this center, a coaching cadre was established to provide proactive and responsive technical assistance.  Formative evaluation involving coaches and their primary contacts was used for refinement of coaching practices.  Initially, coaches were encouraged to build strong interpersonal rapport.  This set the stage for trusting, reciprocal interactions, but coaches recognized a need for targeted support and more tools for quality programming, evaluation, and sustainability.  Greater emphasis was placed on goal-focused collaboration.  Coaches received training and resources on topics such as goal setting, program quality, reduction of barriers (e.g., participant recruitment), and sustainability strategies.  To assess coaching model enhancements, a survey of projects was expanded to gauge logic model usage, goal setting, strength of coaching relationships, and project implementation and sustainability progress.  Overall, coaching was rated more favorably and effective when contact was consistent, inclusive of face-to-face interaction, met technical needs, and involved collaborative brainstorming and planning.  Findings indicate coaching relationships strengthen over time and demand a collaborative, action-orientation to set goals, reduce barriers, and drive stronger outcomes.


Implementation of a New Breast Tomosynthesis Program: A Clinical Medical Physicist's Experience-W Geiser Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) was approved by the FDA as a screening tool for breast cancer in February 2011. Many systems were preinstalled as 2D systems and are now being upgraded for DBT and there is evidence that DBT is helping reduce recall rates while increasing cancer detection rates. As of February 2013 there were approximately 500 systems certified by the FDA for DBT and it is expected that there will be more than 700 certified systems by the third quarter of 2013. Facilities implementing a breast tomosynthesis program need to be aware that there are many hurdles to be overcome before tomosynthesis studies can be performed. The purpose of this lecture is to provide medical physicists assisting facilities that are upgrading 2D systems or installing new DBT systems, the knowledge to assist with facility design, image storage requirements, choice of PACS, and optimization of diagnostic review. New educational requirements for medical physicists to qualify to perform acceptance testing and continued annual testing of DBT systems will also be reviewed.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Be able to assist with implementation of breast tomosynthesis at their facility. 2. Know the process for accreditation and certification of DBT systems. 3. Understand additional shielding requirements and facility design for a facility installing digital breast tomosynthesis. Breast MR Imaging and Quality Control - D Reeve MR imaging of the breast is an important adjunct to mammography and ultrasound for the detection of breast cancer and for breast biopsy guidance. Diagnostic breast MRI protocols typically include T2-weighted fat saturated images and 3D T1-weighted dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) multiphase images using a Gadolinium-based contrast agent. The DCE images are used to determine the kinetic signature of enhancing tissues in order to differentiate between benign and malignant lesions. MR spectroscopy and diffusion weighted images (DWI) may also be acquired in order to provide additional diagnostic information. The diagnostic value of breast MRI scans can be improved by choosing acquisition parameters that optimize image quality parameters such as SNR, contrast and spatial resolution. As with any MRI protocol, achieving the desired image quality must balance the need for acceptable scan times. The timing and temporal resolution of the DCE series are important considerations. Breast radiofrequency (RF) coils are phased array coils capable of simultaneous bilateral imaging. A comprehensive breast MRI quality control program is important to assess the performance of the MRI system as well as the breast RF coils.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Provide an overview of breast MR imaging and MR-guided biopsy procedures. 2. Describe breast MR image quality criteria and protocol optimization. 3. Discuss the components of a breast MRI quality control program.


"Datajournalism" is widely touted as a key skill for the journalist of the 21st century; presenters talk about it in glowing terms at events entitled "the future of journalism". But is this just hype? It is almost 10 years since various national and local governments pledged to publish data about their activities. Since then trillions of bytes of government data have been published online. Open Data initiatives, often combined with Freedom of Information legislation, give today's journalists unprecedented access to data which is unedited by spin doctors, or polished by statisticians, and potentially tells us more about how our world works. A decade on, we try to assess the true impact of data on the news agenda, and on journalism itself. What happens to Open Data? How does it fit into the wider use of data by journalists? What could journalists do to increase the impact of a movement which has the power to transform the way citizens interact with government?


We present results from an adaptive optics survey conducted with the Palomar and Keck telescopes over 3 years, which measured the frequency of stellar and sub-stellar companions to Sun-like stars. The survey sample contains 266 stars in the 3-10000 million year age range at heliocentric distances between 8 and 200 parsecs and with spectral types between F5-K5. A sub-sample of 101 stars, between 3-500 million years old, were observed in deep exposures with a coronagraph to search for faint sub-stellar companions. A total of 288 candidate companions were discovered around the sample stars, which were re-imaged at subsequent epochs to determine physical association with the candidate host stars by checking for common proper motion. Benefiting from a highly accurate astrometric calibration of the observations, we were able to successfully apply the common proper motion test in the majority of the cases, including stars with proper motions as small as 20 milli-arcseconds/year. The results from the survey include the discovery of three new brown dwarf companions (HD 49197B, HD 203030B, and ScoPMS 214B), 43 new stellar binaries, and a triple system. The physical association of an additional, a priori-suspected, candidate sub-stellar companion to the star HII 1348 is astrometrically confirmed. The newly-discovered and confirmed young brown dwarf companions span a range of spectral types between M5 and T0.5, and will be of prime significance for constraining evolutionary models of young brown dwarfs and extra-solar planets. Based on the 3 new detections of sub-stellar companions in the 101 star sub-sample and following a careful estimate of the survey incompleteness, a Bayesian statistical analysis shows that the frequency of 0.012-0.072 solar-mass brown dwarfs in 30-1600 AU orbits around young solar analogs is 6.8% (-4.9%, +8.3\%; 2-sigma limits). While this is a factor of 3 lower than the frequency of stellar companions to G-dwarfs in the same orbital range, it is significantly higher than the frequency of brown dwarfs in 0-3 AU orbits discovered through precision radial velocity surveys. It is also fully consistent with the observed frequency of 0-3 AU extra-solar planets. Thus, the result demonstrates that the radial-velocity "brown dwarf desert" does not extend to wide separations, contrary to previous belief.


The magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Nepal in April 2015 caused extensive damage to water and sanitation networks, resulting in a high risk of negative health impacts from diarrhoeal diseases. In response to the disaster, the Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO) collaborated with the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST), to develop two training programs to educate volunteers on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) needs. The first training focused on acute response, and the second focused on longer term recovery. Using these programs, ENPHO trained over 470 community volunteers during the acute phase and has since trained another 226 volunteers during the recovery phase. Through training these volunteers, ENPHO has reached many communities, providing services in 11 of 14 earthquake-affected districts. CAWST plans to assess the feasibility of decontextualizing the training and support materials so they can be widely disseminated and used in the emergencies.


Recent research on language production suggests that bilinguals shift from using inhibitory control mechanisms to a language-specific selective mechanism during development (Costa, Santesteban, & Ivanova, 2006). Costa et al. argue that the robustness of the L2 lexical representations may be critical to the functionality of a language-specific selective mechanism. Accordingly, in the present study we measured the lexical robustness of a group of 54 English dominant learners of Spanish using a verbal fluency task and investigated its effect on their performance in a picture-naming task with language switches. The results suggest that L2 lexical robustness predicts the shift to a language-specific selective mechanism during speech production. Moreover, we demonstrate a specific threshold of lexical robustness necessary to engage the mechanism.


Background and purpose: There is an increasing rate of drug resistance against trichomoniasis and current drugs used in treatment of this disease have many side effects, therefore, attempts have been made to explore alternative drugs favorably from natural sources. The present study aimed at evaluating the antiTrichomonas effect of essential oil and that of nano-emulsion of Rosmarinus officinalis on the growth of Trichomonas vaginalis (T. vaginalis) in vitro. Materials and methods: T. vaginalis reference strains were cultured in modified TYM medium. The components of rosemary essential oil were determined by gas chromatography. In addition, cytotoxicity effects of essential oils and nano-emulsions prepared from this plant were evaluated against macrophage cell line (J774.A.1). Serial concentrations of 10, 25, 50, and 100 (μg/mL) were prepared from rosemary essential oil and nano-emulsion. Then growth inhibition rate of the parasites in different concentrations was done in triplicate within 1, 2, and 3 hours. Results: Rosemary essential oil and nano-emulsion had an inhibitory effect on the growth of Trichomonas and concentration of 100 μg/mL showed growth inhibition effect of 96.1% and 100% throughout 1,2 and 3 hours, respectively. Additionally, cytotoxicity assay against macrophage revealed no toxicity on the cells at 100 μg/mL. Conclusion: According to the suitable anti-trichomonas activity of rosemary, this plant could be considered as a good candidate in treatment of Trichomonas infection, after complementary studies on animal model.


Speakers appear to adopt strategies to improve speech intelligibility for interlocutors in adverse acoustic conditions. Generated speech, whether synthetic, recorded or live, may also benefit from context-sensitive modifications in challenging situations. The current study measured the effect on intelligibility of six spectral and temporal modifications operating under global constraints of constant input-output energy and duration. Reallocation of energy from mid-frequency regions with high local SNR produced the largest intelligibility benefits, while other approaches such as pause insertion or maintenance of a constant segmental SNR actually led to a deterioration in intelligibility. Listener scores correlated only moderately well with recent objective intelligibility estimators, suggesting that further development of intelligibility models is required to improve predictions for modified speech. Index Terms: speech intelligibility, objective measures, energy reallocation


Negotiation is a basic mechanism for interaction that allows the members in a Multiagent System to coordinate their actions and to reach a favorable agreement. When agents are collaborative, the negotiation process progresses through a dialogue in which proposals and counter-proposals are exchanged in a common effort to advance towards a mutual agreement. An Interaction Protocol regulates communication and gives structure to the dialog. Most interaction protocols designed to regulate negotiation among agents are abstract models based in some real world negotiation practice (e.g. auctions). Here we propose a deliberative mechanism for negotiation among BDI agents based in Argumentation.


Prostate cancer (PC) is ranked the sixth deadliest cancers among men. If PC is diagnosed at metastasised stages, traditional surgery and radiation therapy have limitations. In the last few decades, antibody therapy has emerged to deliver radioactive drugs to any metastatic PC tumours; thus, improving theranostics results and prolonged patient's survival via effective targeting of prostate specific membrane antigens (PSMA). Full length anti-PSMA antibody, D2B, and its single chain variable fragment, scFvD2B, have been extensively studied as naked or combined with nanoparticles (NPs) in targeted antibody therapy. Such a combination is considered a current hotspot in research as a means to enhance the delivery, binding specificity, and stability of therapeutic or diagnostic agents. In this review, we summarise and compare data from studies published between 1993 & 2021 to highlight the major outputs from in vivo and in vitro applications of D2B and scFvD2B antibodies in PC theranostics. Special focus is set on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as a delivery vehicle given their unique physicochemical and biological properties. Our conclusion supports the use of AuNPs-scFvD2B conjugates in future biomedical approaches.


ABSTRACT Neisseria meningitidis is a commensal of the human nasopharynx but is also a major cause of septicemia and meningitis. The meningococcal factor H binding protein (fHbp) binds human factor H (fH), enabling downregulation of complement activation on the bacterial surface. fHbp is a component of two serogroup B meningococcal vaccines currently in clinical development. Here we characterize 12 fHbp subvariants for their level of surface exposure and ability to bind fH, to mediate serum resistance, and to induce bactericidal antibodies. Flow cytometry and Western analysis revealed that all strains examined expressed fHbp on their surface to different extents and bound fH in an fHbp-dependent manner. However, differences in fH binding did not always correlate with the level of fHbp expression, indicating that this is not the only factor affecting the amount of fH bound. To overcome the issue of strain variability in fHbp expression, the MC58ΔfHbp strain was genetically engineered to express different subvariants from a constitutive heterologous promoter. These recombinant strains were characterized for fH binding, and the data confirmed that each subvariant binds different levels of fH. Surface plasmon resonance revealed differences in the stability of the fHbp-fH complexes that ranged over 2 orders of magnitude, indicating that differences in residues between and within variant groups can influence fH binding. Interestingly, the level of survival in human sera of recombinant MC58 strains expressing diverse subvariants did not correlate with the level of fH binding, suggesting that the interaction of fHbp with fH is not the only function of fHbp that influences serum resistance. Furthermore, cross-reactive bactericidal activity was seen within each variant group, although the degree of activity varied, suggesting that amino acid differences within each variant group influence the bactericidal antibody response.


Trademark bullying has become a persistent problem, with large companies intimidating smaller entities with cease and desist campaigns and achieving anti-competitive results. A number of tactics exist to deal with bullying behavior. One of them is the imposition of judicial sanctions, but the standards in that area are unclear and the defendants often do not have the financial means to engage in litigation at all. Other, extralegal measures such as shaming have shown some success, but also present numerous drawbacks and prove insufficient when used against powerful actors. This symposium contribution proposes a new model that draws on the existing functions of the Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) to stem the indiscriminate sending of cease and desist letters by large trademark holders and incentivizes them to file their claims with the PTO under certain conditions. This solution seeks to guard the interests of legitimate victims of infringement while balancing their rights with the need to protect smaller entities from the threat of ruinous litigation. If the PTO could make preliminary determinations about the validity of infringement claims, trademark owners could record evidence of policing while being discouraged from making frivolous claims.


High-pressure techniques have become increasingly important in the synthesis of ceramic and metallic solids allowing the discovery of new materials with interesting properties. In this research dense solid oxides have been synthesised at high pressures, and structural investigations have been conducted using x-ray and neutron diffraction. The perovskite LaPdO3 has been synthesised at pressures of 6–10 GPa. Neutron diffraction studies have been carried out from 7–260 K to investigate any structural distortions, particularly related to the possibility of charge order at low temperatures. No reduction in symmetry associated with charge ordering has been observed; the material appears to remain metallic with only one unique Pd site down to 7 K. LaPdO3 adopts the GdFeO3-type Pbnm structure. The PdO6 octahedra exhibit a tetragonal distortion throughout the temperature range with a shortening of the apical Pd–O bonds of ∼2.5 % relative to the equatorial bonds. Attempts to prepare analogues of the perovskite containing smaller rare earths have resulted in multi-phase samples, and further RPdO3 perovskites remain inaccessible although there is evidence for a small amount of the perovskite phase in the products of synthesis attempts with neodymium. Three new oxypnictide superconductors, RFeAsO1−xFx (R = Tb, Dy and Ho) have been synthesised at 7–12 GPa. The materials are isostructural with other recently discovered iron arsenide superconductors and have Tc's of 52.8 K, 48.5 K and 36.2 K respectively, demonstrating a downturn in Tc in the series for smaller R. Systematic studies on TbFeAsO0.9F0.1 and HoFeAsO0.9F0.1 show negative values of dTc/dV in contrast to those reported for early R containing materials. Low-temperature neutron diffraction measurements on both materials, and synchrotron studies on HoFeAsO0.9F0.1 reveal no tetragonal to orthorhombic transitions as observed in early R-containing materials with lower doping levels. Magnetic reflections are evident but they are shown to be from R2O3 and RAs impurities with TN's of 5.5 K for Tb2O3, 6.5 K for HoAs and 1.7 K < TN < 4 K for Ho2O3. The implications of these results for superconductivity in the iron arsenides are discussed.


The flexibility offered by mobile agents is quite noticeable in distributed computing environments. But the flexibility comes with a set of new levels of complexity due to their autonomous nature. The mobile agent paradigm introduce additional threats since agents systems are prone to failures originating from bad communication, security attacks, agent server crashes, system resources unavailability, network congestion or even deadlock situations. In such events, mobile agents either get lost or damaged (partially or totally) during execution. In order to gain solid foundation at the heart of today's e-society, the mobile agent technology paradigm must address the issue of reliability. Making mobile agents fault tolerant is a measure taken to increase the dependability and reliability of agent-based application. Mobile agent's fault tolerance is gaining momentum and many approaches have been proposed. Despite these efforts, the field still suffers from set backs in the form of persistent challenges. This study analyzes the existing fault tolerance approaches against a proposed generic fault tolerance framework that consists of a monitoring, planning and recovery process execution phases. Following the analysis, this study brings about the state-of-the-art in mobile agent's fault tolerance approaches and the lingering challenges that affect mobile agent's fault tolerance implementations from being efficiently and fully realized. The study will serve as a guide to future researches and possible solution for a more reliable and transparent fault tolerance in mobile agents.


Together with elderly people, a system for the notification of medication intake and measuring the blood pressure has been developed. This system consists of a hardware part, displaying different visual signals to remind users, and a software part to configure the hardware accordingly. Those visual signals are displayed with the help of a lamp, which can be placed in the living room or at any other desired place. The colors of those signals can be adapted with the help of an application, where the time and medication can be configured to be displayed. The developed software was created following a user centered design process together with four elderly people to get to know their needs and to identify the key requirements for such a system.


Over the last few decades, the Chilean Government has constantly promoted the construction of private highways in order to increase the effectiveness in terms of transportation of goods and people all along the country. In this way, heavy road infrastructures, landscape fragmentation, loss of endangered animals' habitat, loss of visual quality, and a decrease of biodiversity patches have emerged. Despite this, some greenery – native and introduced flora/fauna, natural elements, colors, lines, patterns, among others- can be partly seen in certain areas of Chilean highways. In particular, this paper focuses on the main route connecting Puerto Montt and Pargua cities in Los Lagos region.The objectives of this qualitative research are threefold. Firstly, to measure main Landscape attributes and Visual scale characteristics through a fieldwork by the roadside of Pargua highway (Alto Bonito Area) using a scale of attributes adapted from Tveit et al. (2007). Secondly, to measure the type of vegetation through an environmental inventory (phytosociological analysis). Thirdly, to measure the degree of management of the highway considering its maintenance and human intervention.Wilderness and Naturalness are scarcely observed on the roadside due to a concentrated presence of human interventions such as landfills and overpasses. The visual scale is checked in fieldwork from several scopes. On the southeast side of the road, Las Canchas Area is covered by high trees, houses, and industries which hinder the view of the natural surrounding landscape. On the right side of the road, it presents a clear skyline of Calbuco and Osorno volcanoes. Finally, any management of high quality of the visual scenery of this type of landscape from the route concessionaire is is randomly done. However, the vegetation surface itself has been working out a way to protect the land from erosion and desertification.


A Spectral Radiation Buoy (SRB) was developed to autonomously measure the spectral incident, reflected, and transmitted spectral solar radiation (350-800 nm) above and below sea ice. The SRB was deployed on drifting first-year sea ice near the North Pole in mid-April 2012, together with velocity and ice mass balance buoys. The buoys drifted southward and reached Fram Strait after approximately 7 months, covering a complete melt season. At the SRB site, snowmelt started on 10 June, and had completely disappeared by 14 July. Surface albedo was above 0.85 until snowmelt onset and decreased rapidly with the progression of snowmelt. Albedo was lowest on 14 July, when the observed surface was likely a mixture of bare ice and melt pond(s). The transmitted irradiance measured under the ice was largest in July, with a monthly average of 20 W m(-2), compared to <0.3 W m(-2) premelt. Under-ice irradiance peaked on 19-20 July, with a daily average around 35 W m(-2). From mid-April to mid-September, the solar energy transmitted through the ice into the ocean contributed about two-thirds of the energy required for the observed bottom melt (0.49 m). The energy absorbed by the ice after snowmelt was enough to melt an additional 0.1 m of ice. Solar energy incident on open water and melt ponds provided significant additional heating, indicating solar heating could explain all of the observed bottom melt in this region in summer 2012.


The purpose of an encoding model is to predict brain activity given a stimulus. In this contribution, we attempt at estimating a whole brain encoding model of auditory perception in a naturalistic stimulation setting. We analyze data from an open dataset, in which 16 subjects watched a short movie while their brain activity was being measured using functional MRI. We extracted feature vectors aligned with the timing of the audio from the movie, at different layers of a Deep Neural Network pretrained on the classification of auditory scenes. fMRI data was parcellated using hierarchical clustering on 500 parcels, and encoding models were estimated using a fully connected neural network with one hidden layer, trained to predict the signals for each parcel from the DNN features. Individual encoding models were successfully trained and predicted brain activity on unseen data, in parcels located in the superior temporal lobe, as well as dorsolateral prefrontal regions, which are usually considered as areas involved in auditory and language processing. Taken together, this contribution extends previous attempts on estimating encoding models, by showing the ability to model brain activity using a generic DNN (ie not specifically trained for this purpose) to extract auditory features, suggesting a degree of similarity between internal DNN representations and brain activity in naturalistic settings.


Background: For patients with potentially resectable pancreatic cancer, the poor outcome associated with resection alone and the survival advantage demonstrated for combined-modality therapy have stimulated interest in preoperative chemoradiotherapy. The goal of this study was to analyze the effects of different preoperative chemoradiotherapy schedules, intraoperative radiation therapy, patient factors, and histopathologic variables on survival duration and patterns of treatment failure in patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy for adenocarcinoma of the pancreatic head. Methods: Data on 132 consecutive patients who received preoperative chemoradiation followed by pancreaticoduodenectomy for adenocarcinoma of the pancreatic head between June 1990 and June 1999 were retrieved from a prospective pancreatic tumor database. Patients received either 45.0 or 50.4 Gy radiation at 1.8 Gy per fraction in 28 fractions or 30.0 Gy at 3.0 Gy per fraction in 10 fractions with concomitant infusional chemotherapy (5-fluorouracil, paclitaxel, or gemcitabine). If restaging studies demonstrated no evidence of disease progression, patients underwent pancreati-coduodenectomy. All patients were evaluated with serial postoperative computed tomography scans to document first sites of tumor recurrence. Results: The overall median survival from the time of tissue diagnosis was 21 months (range 19 –26, 95%CI). At last follow-up, 41 patients (31%) were alive with no clinical or radiographic evidence of disease. The survival duration was superior for women (P ϭ .04) and for patients with no evidence of lymph node metastasis (P ϭ .03). There was no difference in survival duration associated with patient age, dose of preoperative radiation therapy, the delivery of intraoperative radiotherapy, tumor grade, tumor size, retroperitoneal margin status, or the histologic grade of chemoradiation treatment effect. Conclusion: This analysis supports prior studies which suggest that the survival duration of patients with potentially resectable pancreatic cancer is maximized by the combination of chemo-radiation and pancreaticoduodenectomy. Furthermore, there was no difference in survival duration between patients who received the less toxic rapid-fractionation chemoradiotherapy schedule (30 Gy, 2 weeks) and those who received standard-fractionation chemoradiotherapy (50.4 Gy, 5.5 weeks). Short-course rapid-fractionation preoperative chemoradiotherapy combined with pancreati-coduodenectomy, when performed on accurately staged patients, maximizes survival duration and is associated with a low incidence of local tumor recurrence.


Centrifuge tests were conducted on driven in-flight fixed-head plumb and battered 3 × 3 pile groups at three-diameter (3D) and five-diameter (5D) spacings. The piles simulated 430-mm-diameter by 13-m-long pipe piles founded in medium loose (Dr = 33%) and medium dense (Dr = 55%) sands. The battered groups were in an A frame arrangement, i.e., each pile in a given row battered the same. Results of the tests showed that fixed-head plumb groups have a 30 to 55% higher lateral resistance than free-headed piles depending on soil density and pile spacing. For the battered 3D-spaced group, the lateral resistance was greater by 20 to 50% than the fixed-head plumb response in the medium dense sand; however, in the medium loose sand, the battered and plumb fixed-head group response was very similar. The latter is attributed to the limited axial tension capacity of the piles in the medium loose sand (Dr = 33%). Increasing the dead load on a battered group to 45% of its axial capacity resulted in a 30% increase in the group's lateral resistance. The lateral resistance of the 5D-spaced battered groups were in all cases greater than their 3D counterparts.


We describe our 9-year experience with lectin-treated T-cell-depleted haplocompatible parental bone marrow transplantation (BMT) for 24 patients with severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID). Nineteen of 21 evaluable patients had T-cell engraftment; 2 of 11 patients tested had B-cell and monocyte engraftment. Fourteen of 24 (58%) patients are alive 7 months to 9.8 years post-BMT. Seventeen of 24 patients received pretransplant conditioning with chemotherapy and/or total body irradiation, and 8 of 24 received more than one transplant. Patients who received conditioning had a survival rate of 61% versus 57% for those who received no conditioning. None received graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis and no patient had acute or chronic GVHD greater than grade I. Kinetics and follow-up of immune recovery were analyzed in 14 patients who are greater than 1 year from transplant. Half of the patients showed evidence of T-cell function by 3 months and normal T-cell function by 4 to 7 months post-BMT. On average, T-cell numbers and subsets became normal 10 to 12 months posttransplant. Recovery of B-cell function was more delayed, although in most patients B-cell numbers and IgM levels were normal by 12 months post-BMT. B-cell function, as determined by isohemagglutinin titers or specific antibodies to pneumococcal polysaccharide, keyhole limpet hemocyanin, or tetanus toxoid, became normal in 10 of 14 patients 2 to 8 years post-BMT. Seven of the 14 are off gammaglobulin therapy. Production of isohemagglutinins tended to predict recovery of antibody response to pneumococcal polysaccharide (P < .064). Based on these results, we believe that haplocompatible BMT is an effective, curative treatment for patients with SCID who lack an HLA-matched related donor.


Transformations of personality behavior are determined by many objectively and subjectively functioning factors: the peculiarities of personality structure, attitudes, the influence of social environment, the tendencies of recognition and following the declared norms and rules, etc. In this country a group of "social deprivation" people has emerged in which the development of personality is under the influence of many additional negative factors which interfere with socialization process. One of additional negative factors is placement of children in different care institutions including the institutions of medium supervision for delinquents. The investigation data have demonstrated that basically from 5-7% to 67-75% of the causes of a minor's placement in the institution might be considered as delinquent ones, but in the majority of cases a "criminal" biography of a ward is the consequence of social policy changes. Though the majority of supervision institutions' wards consider their placement as fair we may only hypothetically foresee their further socialization development after the corrective-educational period in the institution is over. Bearing in mind that in 75-85% of the cases unfavorable minor's conditions of psychological development in the family and negatively influencing social environment have been identified, returning of them into former surroundings most often determines continuity of delinquent behavior and complicated socialization development.


Since the advent of land rights legislation, and then native title laws, Aboriginal people in Australia have grappled with presenting tradition-based claims in light of cultural change to their lifestyles and customary relations with land and waters. While arguments are reasonably made that the legislative requirement to prove continuing customary law places unwarranted burdens on claimants (Strelein 2006; Pearson 2009: 100–32), it is also important to note that commitment to the idea of continuing cultural traditions retains its significance across Indigenous Australia. If Aboriginal associations with land have been 'pushed in a culturalist direction' by essentialist assertions about Indigenous 'consubstantiality' with place (Merlan 2007: 129–36), this has surely arisen from core beliefs among Aboriginal people themselves at least as much as from romanticism across the wider Australian public. The emergence of 'the economic Aborigine' is rightfully recognised as key to contemporary Indigenous life (Langton 2013: 59–80), but a major challenge for the courts and those sectors of Australian society embroiled in the language of land and native title claims is to understand how Indigenous cultural traditions underpinning assertions of rights both continue and change over time.


The structure of cytochrome c bound to anionic lipid membranes composed of dimyristoyl, dipalmitoyl, or dioleoyl phosphatidylglycerols, or of bovine heart cardiolipin, has been investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Only small changes in secondary structure, as registered by the amide I band of cytochrome c, were observed upon binding at temperatures below that of denaturation of the protein, and these were not coupled to the thermotropic phase transitions of the lipid. The denaturation temperature of the protein decreased by approximately 25-300 upon binding, in a progression which correlated with that of the lipid phase transition temperatures, being approximately 70 lower for complexes with dioleoyl than with dipalmitoyl phosphatidylglycerol. Large changes in the amide proton exchange characteristics, as monitored by the spectral shifts in the amide I band of the protein in D20, were observed on binding cytochrome c to the lipid membranes. For the slowly exchanging population, the amide deuteration rates of the free protein were nearly independent of temperature, whereas those of the bound protein increased by up to two orders of magnitude over the temperature range from 10 to 400C. In addition, the extent of exchange differed between the bound and unbound protein. A structural transition in the bound protein was detected as a discontinuous step in Arrhenius plots of the deuterium exchange rates which occurred at a temperature in the region of 22 to 290C, depending on the lipid, far below that of denaturation. The temperature of this transition was determined by the physical state of the lipid, being 70 lower for the lipids in the fluid state than for those in the gel state, and, for complexes with dimyristoyl phosphatidylglycerol, occurred at an intermediate temperature, being controlled by the lipid chain-melting transition at 27-28°C. These results provide evidence for a coupling of the tertiary structure of the membrane-bound protein with the physical state of the membrane lipids.


Convergent adaptation can occur at the genome scale when independently evolving lineages use the same genes to respond to similar selection pressures. These patterns provide insights into the factors that facilitate or constrain the diversity of genetic responses that contribute to adaptive evolution. A first step in studying such factors is to quantify the observed amount of repeatability relative to expectations under a null hypothesis. Here, we formulate a novel metric to quantify the constraints driving the observed amount of repeated adaptation in pairwise contrasts based on the hypergeometric distribution, and then generalize this for simultaneous analysis of multiple lineages. This metric is explicitly based on the probability of observing a given amount of repeatability by chance under an arbitrary null hypothesis, and is readily compared among different species and types of trait. We also formulate a metric to quantify the effective proportion of genes in the genome that have the potential to contribute to adaptation. As an example of how these metrics can be used to draw inferences, we assess the amount of repeatability observed in existing datasets on adaptation to antibiotics in yeast and climate in conifers. This approach provides a method to test a wide range of hypotheses about how different kinds of factors can facilitate or constrain the diversity of genetic responses observed during adaptive evolution.


We tracked the largest volunteer security information sharing community known to date: the COVID-19 Cyber Threat Coalition, with over 4,000 members. This enabled us to address long-standing questions on threat information sharing. First, does collaboration at scale lead to better coverage? And second, does making threat data freely available improve the ability of defenders to act? We found that the CTC mostly aggregated existing industry sources of threat information. User-submitted domains often did not make it to the CTC's blocklist as a result of the high threshold posed by its automated quality assurance using VirusTotal. Although this ensured a low false positive rate, it also caused the focus of the blocklist to drift away from domains related to COVID-19 (1.4%-3.6%) to more generic abuse, such as phishing, for which established mitigation mechanisms already exist. However, in the slice of data that was related to COVID-19, we found promising evidence of the added value of a community like the CTC: just 25.1% of these domains were known to existing abuse detection infrastructures at time of listing, as compared to 58.4% of domains on the overall blocklist. From the unique experiment that the CTC represented, we draw three lessons for future threat data sharing initiatives.


We examine practice theories concerned with knowledge sharing in complex organizations to distinguish common trends and variations in this complex body of work. We suggest that an analytical framework highlighting the relational thinking in practice theories can serve as a tool to sort through the literature on knowledge sharing. First, we delineate a relational framework consisting of seven attributes associated with a practice theory. Second, we use this framework to analyze a narrow set of practice theories represented by three seminal works on communities of practice. Third, we compare and contrast the relational dynamics found in the three seminal works in regard to how they conceptualize knowledge sharing within and across communal boundaries.


OBJECTIVES: To assess the knowledge of a mouth breathing pattern among orthodontists in the city of Recife, Brazil, and to examine their treatment protocols. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, members of the Orthodontics and Facial Orthopedics Association of Pernambuco responded individual structured interviews. A form with 14 questions, validated using the face value method, was used to collect data. The level of significance was set at 5%. RESULTS: Of the 90 participants, 55.6% were women; 78.9% were specialists (the highest educational level); 67.8% worked full-time in private practice, and 38.9% were also professors. The most frequent diagnostic criteria were: Body posture (97.8%), lip competence (96.7%), and dark circles under the eyes (86.7%), with similar results among young and old orthodontists. The use of the Glatzel mirror was infrequent (3.3%). The most frequently mentioned mouth breathing sequelae were craniofacial (94.4%) and body posture (37.8%) changes. According to interviewees, mouth breathing duration (84.4%) was the item most often associated with sequelae. There were no significant associations between time since graduation and any of the factors under analysis. Most respondents, whether working in private clinics or in the public healthcare system, believed that mouth breathers should be treated by a multidisciplinary team. CONCLUSIONS: Most orthodontists, regardless of experience, have knowledge of the mouth breathing syndrome and understand the need of a multidisciplinary treatment.


Poetry in archaic and classical Greece was a practical art that arose from specific social or political circumstances. The interpretation of a poem or dramatic work must therefore be viewed in the context of its performance. In Poetry, Public, and Performance in Ancient Greece, Lowell Edmunds and Robert W. Wallace bring together a distinguished group of contributors to reconstruct the performance context of a wide array of works, including epic, tragedy, lyric, elegy, and proverb. Analyzing the passage in the Odyssey in which a collective delirium comes over the suitors, Giulio Guidorizzi reveals how the poet describes a scene that lies outside the narrative themes and diction of epic. Antonio Aloni offers a reading of Simonides' elegy for the Greeks who fell at Plataea. Lowell Edmunds interprets the so-called seal of Theognis as lying on a borderline between the performed and the textual. Taking up proverbs, maxims, and apothegms, Joseph Russo examines "the performance of wisdom." Charles Segal focuses on the unusual role played by the chorus in Euripides' Bacchae. Reading the plot of Euripides' Ion, Thomas Cole concludes that the task of constructing the meaning of the play is to some extent delegated to the public. Robert Wallace describes the "performance" of the Athenian audience and provides a catalog of good and bad behavior: whistling, shouting, and throwing objects of every kind. Finally, Maria Grazia Bonanno stresses the importance of performance in lyric poetry.


Cancer immunotherapy has experienced a breakthrough by the introduction of checkpoint inhibition with antibodies. Response appears to be correlated with mutation load; the majority of cancer patients are nonresponders, possibly due to absence of immunogenic neoepitopes. We analyze the entire detectable landscape of HLA ligands on tumor samples, consisting of 1000 through 5000 peptides per sample, and find dozens to hundreds of peptides in germline sequence with apparently tumor specific expression, based on the absence of these peptides on adjacent autologous benign tissue and absence on a large number of normal tissue samples from all organs and tissue types available for analysis. We have evidence that non-mutated HLA ligands with tumor specific expression should be efficient as targets for personalized antigen specific immunotherapy, in particular if used with an efficient adjuvant.


[1] Atmospheric particles are a complex mixture of inorganic and organic compounds. This study uses laboratory generated particles to examine the connection between aerosol light extinction, chemical composition, and hygroscopicity for particles composed of internal mixtures of ammonium sulfate and water-soluble organic compounds. The extinction coefficient (σep) at 532 nm was measured for size-selected particles at <10% RH and 80% RH. The ratio of the extinction coefficients at 80% RH to <10% RH is reported as fRHext(80% RH, dry). The fRHext(80% RH, dry) values were similar for particles composed of various water-soluble organic compounds and different functional groups. In addition, fRHext(80% RH, dry) values were relatively insensitive to the composition of the organic fraction for internal mixtures of ammonium sulfate with sugars, dicarboxylic acids and complex mixtures of water-soluble organic compounds. Finally, fRHext(80% RH, dry) was found to vary linearly with the organic/inorganic content, allowing for simple incorporation of organic properties into atmospheric models. We derived a generalization of fRHext(80% RH, dry) = 2.90 – 0.015(wt% organic species) for a particle size distribution with a dry mean optical diameter of 0.35 μm. This parameterization for ammonium sulfate/water-soluble organic aerosol is applicable to the fine particle mode fraction of atmospheric aerosol. Information necessary to incorporate the variation in the size distribution is also included. This work suggests that neglecting the water uptake by the organic fraction of atmospheric particles could lead to significant underestimation of the cooling at the Earth's surface due to light scattering by aerosol.


A new pulse sequence based on intermolecular single-quantum coherences (iSQCs) is proposed to achieve high-resolution two-dimensional (2D) J-resolved spectra in inhomogeneous fields via three-dimensional (3D) acquisition. Since the iSQC evolution period and spin echo evolution period in this sequence are intrinsically insensitive to magnetic field inhomogeneities, high-resolution 2D J-resolved spectra can be recovered from nuclei in inhomogeneous fields by projecting the 3D data onto the 2D plane. Analytical expressions of the resulting signals were derived assuming the secular dipole–dipole interaction. Analyses of a solution sample placed in a deliberately unshimmed magnetic field and of a biological sample with intrinsic field inhomogeneities were performed. The results show that this sequence provides an attractive and efficient way to eliminate the influence of field inhomogeneities on 2D J-resolved spectra, which is potentially useful for characterizing complex chemical materials and studying biological metabolites in inhomogeneous fields.


Background The Italian Law no. 38 of 15 March 2010, has considerably simplified the prescribing and dispensing of medicinal products for the treatment of pain. The law regulates all matters concerning the medical treatment that the Italian state provides to citizens through the National Health Service. National networks are also in place for palliative care and the treatment of pain, which provide guidelines for implementing the Hospital Territory Without Pain project. Purpose To examine whether pharmacy compounding can improve the service offered, optimise the time and resources used for preparation, and whether this will require the allocation of new resources. Materials and Methods Since the beginning of 2011 the San Giovanni Bosco hospital pharmacy has used morphine bags at levels of 2% morphine per 100 ml to prepare elastomeric infusion pumps for analgesic treatment in addition to vials used. The aim was to monitor how the consumption of morphine was changing by comparing the quantities consumed in 2010 and 2011. This was done using data from the controlled drugs register. Results In 2011, the quantity of morphine consumed increased by 4.5%. The amount of morphine waste from broken elastomeric infusion pumps, expired vials and bags, bags left unused due to death of the patient or change of treatment and bags with unused content increased in total by 94%. 35% of morphine destroyed was deemed outside of its validity period while 62% of elastomeric infusion pumps were returned to the pharmacy as faulty. Despite the increase in expired morphine and the increase in morphine purchased there has been a reduction in spending of approximately 28%. Conclusions This analysis allowed us to verify that the use of morphine bags has led to a slight reduction in expenditure. It is also important to emphasise the easier fitting of the infusers by operators which leads to time savings. No conflict of interest.


ABSTRACT Evidence suggests that children struggle to acquire age-appropriate fundamental movement skills (FMS), despite their importance for facilitating physical activity. This has led to calls for routine school-based screening of children's FMS. However, there is limited research exploring schools' capacity to conduct such assessments. This study investigated what factors might affect the adoption and implementation of FMS assessments in primary schools. School staff (n = 853) completed an online questionnaire developed using the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation and Behavior (COM-B) model. A majority reported that knowledge of pupils' FMS ability would be beneficial (65.3%), and 71.8% would assess FMS if support was provided. Barriers included: Capability – few possessed knowledge of FMS (15%); Opportunity – teachers reported 30–60 minutes as acceptable for assessing a class, a substantially shorter period than current assessments require; Motivation – 57.2% stated FMS assessments would increase workload stress. Solutions to these issues are discussed using the COM-B theoretical framework.


This paper reports the details and results of the subjective evaluations conducted at EPFL to evaluate the responses to the Call for Evidence (CfE) for High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Wide Color Gamut (WCG) Video Coding issued by Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). The CfE on HDR/WCG Video Coding aims to explore whether the coding efficiency and/or the functionality of the current version of HEVC standard can be signi_cantly improved for HDR and WCG content. In total, nine submissions, five for Category 1 and four for Category 3a, were compared to the HEVC Main 10 Profile based Anchor. More particularly, five HDR video contents, compressed at four bit rates by each proponent responding to the CfE, were used in the subjective evaluations. Further, the side-by-side presentation methodology was used for the subjective experiment to discriminate small differences between the Anchor and proponents. Subjective results shows that the proposals provide evidence that the coding efficiency can be improved in a statistically noticeable way over MPEG CfE Anchors in terms of perceived quality within the investigated content. The paper further benchmarks the selected objective metrics based on their correlations with the subjective ratings. It is shown that PSNR-DE1000, HDRVDP- 2, and PSNR-Lx can reliably detect visible differences between the proposed encoding solutions and current HEVC standard.


Abstract This work investigated the effects of cellular encapsulation density and differentiation stage on the osteogenic capacity of injectable, dual physically and chemically gelling hydrogels comprised of thermogelling macromers and polyamidoamine crosslinkers. Undifferentiated and osteogenically predifferentiated mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were encapsulated within 20 wt% composite hydrogels with gelatin microparticles at densities of six or 15 million cells/mL. We hypothesized that a high encapsulation density and predifferentiation would promote increased cellular interaction and accelerate osteogenesis, leading to enhanced osteogenic potential in vitro. Hydrogels were able to maintain the viability of the encapsulated cells over a period of 28 days, with the high encapsulation density and predifferentiation group possessing the highest DNA content at all time points. Early alkaline phosphatase activity and mineralization were promoted by encapsulation density, whereas this effect by predifferentiation was only observed in the low seeding density groups. Both parameters only demonstrated short-lived effects when examined independently, but jointly led to greater levels of alkaline phosphatase activity and mineralization. The combined effects suggest that there may be optimal encapsulation densities and differentiation periods that need to be investigated to improve MSCs for biomaterial-based therapeutics in bone tissue engineering.


Short-term debt is commonly used to fund illiquid assets. A conventional view asserts that such arrangements are run-prone in part because redemptions must be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. This sequential service protocol, however, appears absent in the wholesale banking sector---and yet, shadow banks appear vulnerable to runs. We explain how banking arrangements that fund fixed-cost operations using short-term debt can be run-prone even in the absence of sequential service. Interventions designed to eliminate run risk may or may not improve depositor welfare. We describe how optimal policies vary under different conditions and compare these to recent policy interventions by the Security and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve. We conclude that the conventional view concerning the societal benefits of liquidity transformation and its recommendations for prudential policy extend far beyond their application to depository institutions.


The role of marketing within individual Australian museums varies in organisational significance. This paper explores the idea that there has been an evolution from a product to a sales to a market orientation within the museum sector, and that there is a relationship between the location of the marketing function and the museum's marketing management orientation. To illustrate this the six State museums have been placed on a continuum that redefines the terminology found in the business related literature to one that more fits the not for profit museum sector. Two of the six case study museums appear product focussed, and one exhibits a strategic orientation. The other three museums view marketing as a function that does not have a role in the strategic direction of the museum. The conclusion that is suggested is that some museums have not 'evolved', but further research is required to complete the picture and move on to the next stage of investigating orientation and museum performance.


The cool-headed decision of China and Japan in the 1970s to shelve contentious issues such as Japan's wartime record and the question of sovereignty over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands has been overturned. In its place, leaders and publics are indulging in nationalism and an inclination toward irrational or risky behaviour. Both nations have invested much more in their claims to the islands than is justified by their value or the costs of an open conflict over them. Neither the cultural and linguistic affinities between the two countries nor their economic interdependence preclude the possibility that the dispute over the islands could escalate and even lead to war. In this Adelphi William Choong argues that there is a pressing need for China and Japan to work out bilateral arrangements to prevent a further deterioration in relations. To identify such steps, he explores their disputes over historiography and territory, and how these are affected by their military postures, the US-Japanese alliance and the regional security architecture.


We previously wrote about the phenomenon of convictions based on science that is credible at the time of trial, but later comes to be repudiated. Such post-conviction shifts in science were most obvious and reprehensible in the very old cases, the example being a 1986 arson prosecution, whose scientific underpinnings are exposed in a post-conviction motion filed in 2011. Immediately upon completing that article, we came to realize that it told only half the story. We seek in this article to build on that foundational idea of "shifted science" by discussing at length a harder question: the perception, percolation and continued evolution of shifts in science. We address here cases that arise on the cusp of a shift, identify the process of the shift in various forensic science disciplines and analyze how difficult it can be to perceive and address a shift in science, even when it occurs concurrently with, or even some time prior to, trial. Taking a step-by-step, route through the process of significant shifts in several different forensic disciplines, we hope to clarify the many stages involved in these shifts and the important consequences of misperceiving shifts in science as they occur. Finally, we also lay a foundation for a later piece addressing the difficult question of legal avenues for relief in shifted science cases that arise on the cusp of a revolution, such as those we address here.


This study examined the level of digital literacy held by pre-service education majors (N = 101, Male = 30, Female = 71) enrolled in one of three digital instructional technology courses as a western Pennsylvania university. All measurement was done prior to any digital literacy instruction. The study investigated how the participants' levels of the eight multiple intelligence learning styles correlated with their level of digital literacy as determined by the Instant Digital Competence Assessment.
The literature review has identified several methods of implementing the multiple intelligences theory into digital literacy research. Gardner's (1983) theory of multiple intelligences argues that individualized instruction should be paired with individualized assessment. However, recent scholars have argued that a student's learning style can be used to improve and predict their digital literacy (Barbour and Cooze 2004; Gen 2000; McCoog 2007). The literature review has also critiqued several popular digital literacy assessment techniques.
The results revealed that level of verbal-linguistic intelligence significantly correlated (p < .05) with the subjects' level of digital literacy. The other seven multiple intelligence variables did not significantly correlate with the dependent variable. Further statistical analysis demonstrated that each of the eight multiple intelligence variables (including level of verbal-linguistic intelligence) had a weak correlation (r = .188) with level of digital literacy when isolated from the other variables. When the eight independent variables were analyzed as a whole, they were found to be a poor predictor of the pre-service education majors' digital literacy capabilities.
The findings of this study indicated that the eight multiple intelligence variables should not be used as an accurate predictor of pre-service education majors' level of digital literacy. The findings suggest that the participants' digital literacy skills vary greatly. However, the study did not demonstrate that the eight multiple intelligence variables were responsible for this variation. It is suggested that there is a need for more research in areas of educational digital literacy.
The theory of multiple intelligences states that assessment should also match the students' unique learning styles (Gardner 1983). This study used a non-individualized assessment strategy. In order to find more significant correlations, further research should use a unique assessment strategy for each learning style.


The contents of fatty acids and other lipids of Trifolium balansae Boiss, Trifolium stellatum Lin., Trifolium nigrescens Viv. subsp. petrisavi (Clem) Holmboe, Trifolium constantinopolitanum Ser., and Trifolium resupinatum L. var. resupinatum L. (Leguminosae) were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The whole plant hexane extracts of five Trifolium species contained eight fatty acids consisting of linolenic (31.1%) and palmitic (18.9%) acids as the most abundant unsaturated and saturated fatty acids, respectively. The total unsaturation for the oils of five Trifolium species was 30.6–42.2%. In addition to fatty acids, some alkanes and phytol were also obtained. The antioxidant activity and contents of fatty acids and lipids of five Trifolium species T. balansae, T. stellatum, T. nigrescens subsp. petrisavi, T. constantinopolitanum, and T. resupinatum var. resupinatum are presented for the first time in this study.


Object Oriented Analysis (OOA) of requirements has always been the most difficult, critical and an important step in developing applications using object-oriented paradigm. Identification of types of objects from the requirements is the primary goal of every OOA. Most commonly recommended approach to identify objects is to search for nouns directly from the requirements or indirectly from the Use Cases derived from requirements. Experience has shown that both these approaches are inefficient in their own ways. In this paper, we have proposed a new approach of capturing Object Oriented requirements based on analysis of events and actions occurring in the system and then identify all static and dynamic components of the system from it. Our approach captures requirements in the form of Event Patterns that are templates in our Event-oriented approach analogous to Use Cases in the conventional Object-orientation. These templates are used in finding out object oriented components of the system during the process of OOA. We have also proposed an Event Meta-model that forms the basis of our event based class identification process.


This paper uses bo th theore t ica l research and empirical research in analyzing the changing scale and characteristics of spatial-temporal variations of the unauthorized change of the use of the industrial buildings in Chongqing's S District. Through the in-depth exploration of the driving factors and mechanism of China's unauthorized change of the use of the industrial buildings, this paper finally builds scientific and reasonable use change control mechanism for industrial buildings. It has been found through the empirical study that unauthorized use change causes great loss of stateowned land resources and serious impact on commercial real estate and leads to very baneful social consequences. Use change of industrial buildings includes five driving factors: economy, structure of land supply, laws, industry development and system. To avoid such use changes, we must improve the existing laws and regulations and vitalize the industrial building resources; optimize both land supply structure and the spatial arrangement of industrial buildings; explore to develop supervisory control system based on the building certification process and principle of rent-to-grant; construct multisector linked supervision system for the use change of industrial buildings; effectively use economic levers to squeeze the profit brought about by the use change of industrial buildings; and know clearly about the industry direction and settled businesses.


We explore the relative weekly stock market volatility forecasting performance of the linear univariate MIDAS regression model based on squared daily returns vis-a-vis the benchmark model of GARCH(1,1) for a set of four developed and ten emerging market economies. We first estimate the two models for the 2002-2007 period and compare their in-sample properties. Next we estimate the two models using the data on 2002-2005 period and then compare their out-of-sample forecasting performance for the 2006-2007 period, based on the corresponding mean squared prediction errors following the testing procedure suggested by West (2006). Our findings show that the MIDAS squared daily return regression model outperforms the GARCH model significantly in four of the emerging markets. Moreover, the GARCH model fails to outperform the MIDAS regression model in any of the emerging markets significantly. The results are slightly less conclusive for the developed economies. These results may imply superior performance of MIDAS in relatively more volatile environments.


The influence of facial hair on the perception of a job applicant by persons in business was examined in this study. Subjects were 228 persons in management positions who made hiring decisions. Subjects were shown ink sketches of six male job applicants. The sketches varied on three facial hair dimensions-clean shaven, moustached, and bearded. Sketches were evaluated on semantic differential scales. Results indicated consistently more positive perceptions of social/physical attractiveness, personality, competency, and composure for men with facial hair.


LIVES THAT NEVER GROW OLD This unique series - edited by Richard Holmes - recovers the great classical tradition of English biography. Every book is a biographical masterpiece - still thrilling to read and vividly alive. The philosopher William Godwin fell in love with and married the radical feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, only to attend her deathbed (giving birth to their child, the late Mary Shelley). Heartbroken, Godwin immediately shut himself up in his study and wrote this intensely moving biography. True to his philosophical belief in absolute sincerity, Godwin coolly describes Wollstonecraft's previous love affairs, her time in revolutionary Paris, her illegitimate child, and her two suicide attempts. The book almost wrecked both their reputations, but can now be seen as a masterpiece of indiscretion and human honesty.


Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of intermediary platforms, such as Pandora and Spotify, in reducing piracy of digital music. Design/methodology/approach - – The authors modify a predator-prey theoretical framework of copyright piracy to account for the impact of intermediary platforms on the consumption of original works and illegal copies. Findings - – The theory shows that an increase in the number of legal alternative platforms available to consumers of digital music results in an unambiguous increase in the consumption of legitimate music and an unambiguous decrease in the consumption of unauthorized copies. Practical implications - – The results suggest that policies to encourage entrepreneurship by intermediary platforms in the music industry serve as a complement to other policies currently being employed to combat piracy of digital music. Originality/value - – The paper is the first of its kind to analyze the important role of intermediary platforms in reducing piracy of digital music while encouraging innovation by artists. Historically, entrepreneurship in this field has been controversial, given the gray areas surrounding what is and is not copyright infringement in the ever-evolving digital age. This paper highlights that once copyright laws are clearly defined, business growth in this area can be a highly effective solution to the piracy problem.


"The Writing Template Book" is a practical how-to guide for academic writers. Because good writers automatically develop their own internal writing templates that impose clarity and structure on their material, this text provides template examples to help less experienced writers produce the reliable, replicable syntax that is essential to good writing. "The" "Writing Template Book "provides numerous examples and practice exercises on writing summaries, thesis sentences, introductions, conclusions, and the bodies of typical essays and papers. Templates are an effective tool for improving performance on standardized tests like the TOEFL(r) and the SAT(r). Writing templates can enhance students scores on standardized tests by providing them with a structure that conforms to grading criteria. Students who are able to apply even a portion of the template to their essays will perform at a higher level than if they had not used templates."


Lower Paleozoic supermature quartz arenites in Wisconsin and Michigan were derived from several Proterozoic and Archean terranes. Single-grain, detrital zircon populations from the Galesville and St. Peter Sandstones in Wisconsin yield very similar, closely concordant age distributions (Cambrian Galesville Sandstone: 1.1 Ga [n = 4], 1.4 Ga [n = 2], 1.8 Ga [n = 1], and 2.7 Ga [n = 2]; Ordovician St. Peter Sandstone: 1.1 Ga [n = 2], 1.8 Ga [n = 1], and 2.7 Ga [n = 6]). In contrast, most of the nine detrital zircons that were analyzed from the St. Peter Sandstone in the Michigan basin have high U contents (450‐2500 ppm) and are strongly discordant (60%‐90%). Six zircons from the Michigan basin that have ca. 1.0 Ga 207 Pb*/ 206 Pb* ages define a regression line that has an upper intercept of about 1100 Ma and a lower intercept of 15 Ma; one zircon has a 2.7 Ga 207 Pb*/ 206 Pb* age. The zircon data indicate that although a number of different terranes contributed detrital material to the Paleozoic quartz arenites in Wisconsin, 1.1 and 2.7 Ga terranes were the dominant sources, and not the local basement, which primarily consists of the ♢2.7 Ga Marshfield terrane, the 1.8 Ga Penokean orogen, and the 1.4 Ga Wolf River batholith. A terrane that has a 1.1 Ga age is probably the main source for the St. Peter Sandstone in the Michigan basin. Quartz separates were also analyzed for PbPb and Sm-Nd isotope variations, and the data do not indicate significant source differences between the heavy mineral fraction (zircons) and the quartz framework grains. Pb-Pb isochrons and Sm-Nd isotope data for quartz separates reflect mixing of the age groups and approximate relative proportions that are identified from the single zircon results. All isotope data on quartz separates and UPb zircon data indicate that the detrital constituents (zircons and quartz framework grains) that compose the lower Paleozoic quartz arenites in Wisconsin were primarily derived from the 2.7 Ga granite-greenstone terrane of the southern Superior Province and a 1.1 Ga terrane. The latter terrane is either the silicic volcanic rocks associated with the Midcontinent rift system, or, more likely, the voluminous granitic rocks that are associated with the Grenville Province on the eastern margin of North America. The Middle Proterozoic Grenville Province was the most important ultimate source of quartz and zircons to the St. Peter Sandstone in the Michigan basin; lesser amounts of material were contributed from the Archean Superior Province.


ABSTRACT
The present study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of assertiveness group training on social anxiety (SAD) between deaf and hearing impaired adolescents. Forty eight (24 deaf and 24 hearing impaired) people participated in this study. First, participants with SAD, i.e. attaining the scores above 40 for Connor's Social Inventory Scale 2000 (SPIN), were selected according to convenience sampling and randomly assigned to two groups, i.e. intervention and control. Then, assertiveness group training was conducted for intervention group within 10 sessions, and immediately after completion of the training sessions, SPIN was re-administered to the two groups. ANCOVA showed that the effectiveness of assertiveness group training on SAD is different between deaf and hearing impaired participants, i.e. assertiveness group training was effective on improvement of SAD in hearing impaired participants but not deaf ones. Therefore, it is recommended to incorporate assertiveness group training in the educational programs developed for adolescents with ear disorders especially hearing impairment.


Using the Green's function formalism, an ab initio theory for band structures of crystals is derived starting from the Hartree-Fock approximation. It is based on the algebraic diagrammatic construction scheme for the self-energy which is formulated for crystal orbitals (CO-ADC). In this approach, the poles of the Green's function are determined by solving a suitable Hermitian eigenvalue problem. The method is not only applicable to the outer valence and conduction bands, it is also stable for inner valence bands where strong electron correlations are effective. The key to the proposed scheme is to evaluate the self-energy in terms of Wannier orbitals before transforming it to a crystal momentum representation. Exploiting the fact that electron correlations are mainly local, one can truncate the lattice summations by an appropriate configuration selection scheme. This yields a flat configuration space; i.e., its size scales only linearly with the number of atoms per unit cell for large systems and, under certain conditions, the computational effort to determine band structures also scales linearly. As a first application of the new formalism, a lithium fluoride crystal has been chosen. A minimal basis set description is studied, and a satisfactory agreement with previous theoretical and experimental results for the fundamental band gap and the width of the F $2p$ valence band complex is obtained.


Developments in the fields of protein chemistry and pharmaceutical biotechnology have increased the demand for suitable analytical techniques for the characterization of intact proteins. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) has proven to be a powerful tool for this purpose because it combines high separation efficiency with mass selectivity. This article provides an overview of CE-MS method development work in our laboratory for biopharmaceutical analysis applying noncovalent capillary coatings to prevent protein adsorption. Technological aspects with respect to the use of CE-MS interfaces and types of noncovalent capillary coatings applied are treated. Furthermore, some typical examples are highlighted to demonstrate the versatility of CE-MS for the analysis of biopharmaceuticals. These include the analysis of recombinant human growth hormone, recombinant human interferon-β-1a, recombinant human erythropoietin, and protein-drug conjugates. We concluded that there is strong potential for CE-MS systems using noncovalent coated capillaries for purity and stability analysis of biopharmaceuticals.