Purpose: To optimize performance of a new respiratory gating system with 3D tracking of a surrogate and to evaluate the performance of the system in clinical conditions. Method and Materials: An accuracy of the system was checked by calibrating the system using water parallel surface and then locating a surrogate at different positions on the surface and detecting its position. A clinically representative bending profile of a couch was found. While respecting restrictions resulting from the calibration procedure, three points on the profile that ensure the profile's optimal linear fit were selected. The system was recalibrated by positioning a surrogate into the found positions and the system's performance was checked. The longitudinal speed and the AP position of a surrogate were recorded simultaneously to quantify observed artifacts when the surrogate was moving in the longitudinal direction. Results: The values of the AP position of a surrogate on the leveled plane change less than ±1 mm (SD of a readout is 0.18 mm). The measured bending profiles exhibit non‐linearity and changes in the AP position are up to 8 mm (weight of 60 kg). After the proposed calibration, couch induced changes in the AP position during a CT acquisition are less than ±1 mm. The AP position readout varies linearly with the longitudinal speed of a surrogate (approx. 0.6 mm change at the speed of 10 mm/s). Conclusion: The new system enables an accurate readout of a surrogate's position. However, its accuracy is limited by the presumption that the surrogate's motion induced by a couch happens within a plane. A mean how to bring the model closest to the clinical conditions was proposed. Dependence of the AP position readout on the surrogate's longitudinal speed is an inconvenient property of the system, which has a little impact in clinical conditions though.


Moving military troops, which is critical to tactical success, depends on providing large quantities of fuel. We used simulation to model and analyze the Turkish army's fuel-supply system that consists of sea-going tankers, tank fields, pipelines, and depots. We measured performance of the existing and proposed systems under various scenarios. We developed a simulation optimization model based on a genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize system performance. Based on the results of extensive simulation experiments, we proposed a number of changes. We recommended that the army should open the existing fuel-supply system and that it establish commercial use in peacetime to obtain additional operating revenue. New trigger levels (or fuel-replenishment policies) for wartime allow the fuel-supply system to survive much longer even in the most severe war conditions. These specific recommendations are being considered by the top army officials to obtain benefits worth millions of dollars.


In this article, we propose a new centralized multi-frequency carrier tracking architecture using an adaptive Kalman filter to enhance the loop sensitivity and reliability of individual signal tracking in challenging signal environments. The main task of the centralized dynamics-tracking filter is to effectively blend multiple frequency carrier phase observations in order to estimate the common geometric Doppler frequency of multiple-frequency received signals. Conventionally, multi-frequency signals are tracked independently with a fixed-loop noise bandwidth tracking approach, which is suboptimal in time-varying signal environments. A suitable collaboration in multiple-frequency signal tracking using a centralized dynamics-tracking loop enables robust carrier tracking even if some of the frequency channels are affected by ionospheric scintillation, carrier-phase multipath, or interference. Additionally, computational efficiency of the multiple-frequency tracking improves by using the proposed tracking loop architecture. Performance of the proposed multi-frequency tracking-loop architecture is verified with experiments using live multi-frequency satellite signals collected from GPS Block-IIF satellites under the influence of frequency-selective interference signals.


We examine the topology of the subset of controls taking a given initial state to a given final state in quantum control, where "state" may mean a pure state |ψ⟩, an ensemble density matrix ρ, or a unitary propagator U(0, T). The analysis consists in showing that the endpoint map acting on control space is a Hurewicz fibration for a large class of affine control systems with vector controls. Exploiting the resulting fibration sequence and the long exact sequence of basepoint-preserving homotopy classes of maps, we show that the indicated subset of controls is homotopy equivalent to the loopspace of the state manifold. This not only allows us to understand the connectedness of "dynamical sets" realized as preimages of subsets of the state space through this endpoint map, but also provides a wealth of additional topological information about such subsets of control space.


In this paper, we extend existing work on latent attribute inference by leveraging the principle of homophily: we evaluate the inference accuracy gained by augmenting the user features with features derived from the Twitter profiles and postings of her friends. We consider three attributes which have varying degrees of assortativity: gender, age, and political affiliation. Our approach yields a significant and robust increase in accuracy for both age and political affiliation, indicating that our approach boosts performance for attributes with moderate to high assortativity. Furthermore, different neighborhood subsets yielded optimal performance for different attributes, suggesting that different subsamples of the user's neighborhood characterize different aspects of the user herself. Finally, inferences using only the features of a user's neighbors outperformed those based on the user's features alone. This suggests that the neighborhood context alone carries substantial information about the user.


The fraud on the market class action no longer enjoys substantive academic support. The justifications traditionally advanced by its defenders - compensation for out-of-pocket loss and deterrence of fraud - are thought to have failed due to the action's real world dependence on enterprise liability and issuer funding of settlements. The compensation justification collapses when considered from the point of view of different types of shareholders. Well-diversified shareholders' receipts and payments of damages even out over time and amount to a wash before payment of litigation costs. The shareholders arguably in need of compensation, fundamental value investors who rely on published reports, are undercompensated due to pro rata distribution of settlement proceeds to all class members. The deterrence justification fails when enterprise liability is compared to alternative modes of enforcement. Actions against individual perpetrators would deter fraud more effectively than does enterprise liability. If, as the consensus view now has it, fraud on the market makes no policy sense, then its abolition would seem to be the next logical step. Yet most observers continue to accept it on the same ground cited by the Supreme Court in 1964 when it first implied a private right of action under the 1934 Act in J.I. Case v. Borak - a private enforcement supplement is needed in view of inadequate SEC resources. Restating, even a private enforcement supplement that makes no sense is better than no private enforcement supplement at all. This Article questions this backstop policy conclusion, highlighting the sticking points retarding movement toward fraud on the market's abolition and mapping a plausible route to a superior enforcement outcome. We recommend that private plaintiffs be required to meet an actual reliance standard. We look to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), rather than Congress or the courts, to initiate the change - it is the lawmaking institution most responsible for the unsatisfactory status quo and best equipped to propose a corrective. Because an actual reliance requirement would substantially diminish the flow of private litigation, we also look to a compensating step up in public enforcement capability. More specifically, the SEC enforcement division needs enough funding to redirect its efforts away from the enterprise toward culpable individuals. The Article addresses three barriers standing between here and there. First, there is a new justification of fraud on the market circulating in the wake of the failure of the original justifications - that fraud on the market litigation enhances the operation of the corporate governance system. We show that this line of reasoning, while well-suited to justify the federal mandatory disclosure system, does nothing for the case for fraud on the market, even detracting from it. Second, we turn to politics to explain why fraud on the market retains political legitimacy despite the failure of its policy justifications. Third, we look into the facts supporting the backstop justification - inadequate public enforcement resources. We show that circumstances have changed materially since the Supreme Court first invoked the justification in 1964. The SEC budget has grown 11-fold in real terms in the intervening 47 years, with much of the growth coming in the wake of Enron. The SEC's enforcement resources, like those of the plaintiffs' bar, ultimately are funded with dollars drawn from shareholder pockets, inviting direct comparison between the two. We show that, as between the public and private sector, public enforcement offers the shareholders more value than private enforcement. Private resources are tied to a low-deterrence, enterprise liability framework. Public enforcement even now yields the shareholders comparable damage returns per dollar invested in enforcement. It can be deployed more flexibly, and it can be refocused against individual wrongdoers so as to enhance deterrence. We conclude that stepped up enforcement in public enforcement makes sense for shareholders even if it implies a diminished volume of private litigation. We accordingly propose a political trade-off for the SEC to moot to Congress - double the enforcement budget in exchange for an SEC rule-making replacing fraud on the market with an actual reliance requirement.


Soil Essentials is a practical reference for farmers and land managers covering soil issues commonly encountered at the farm level. Written in a straightforward style, it explains the principles of soil management and the interpretation of soil tests, and how to use this information to address long-term soil and enterprise viability. This book demonstrates how minerals, trace elements, organic matter, soil organisms and fertilisers affect soil, plant and animal health. It shows how to recognise soil decline, and how to repair soils affected by nutrient imbalances, depleted soil microbiology, soil erosion, compaction, structural decline, soil sodicity and salinity. The major problem-soils - sodic soils, light sandy soils, heavy clay soils and acid sulphate soils - are all examined. With this information, farmers and land managers will be able to consider the costs and financial benefits of good soil management.


This report presents a field-based characterization of fractured and faulted crystalline bedrock in the southern portion of the Questa caldera and its margin. The focus is (1) the identification and description of brittle geological structures and (2) speculation on the potential effects and controls that these structures might have on the potential fluxes of paleo to present-day ground water in relation to natural or mining-related metal and acid loads to surface and ground water. The entire study area is pervasively jointed with a few distinctive patterns such as orthogonal, oblique orthogonal, and conjugate joint sets. Joint intensity, the number of joints measured per unit line length, is high to extreme. Three types of fault zones are present that include partially silicified, low- and high-angle faults with well-developed damage zones and clay-rich cores and high-angle, unsilicified open faults. Conceptually, the joint networks can be thought of as providing the background porosity and permeability structure of the bedrock aquifer system. This background is cut by discrete entities such as the faults with clay-rich cores and open faults that may act as important hydrologic heterogeneities. The southern caldera margin runs parallel to the course of the Red River Valley, whose incision has left an extreme topographic gradient at high angles to the river. Many of the faults and fault intersections run parallel to this assumed hydraulic gradient; thus, these structures have great potential to provide paleo and present-day, discrete and anisotropic pathways for solute transport within the otherwise relatively low porosity and permeability bedrock background aquifer system. Although brittle fracture networks and faults are pervasive and complex, simple Darcy calculations are used to estimate the hydraulic conductivity and potential ground-water discharges of the bedrock aquifer, caldera margin, and other faults in order to gain insight into the potential contributions of these features to the ground-water and surface-water flow systems. These calculations show that, because all of these features are found along the Red River in the Cabin Springs―Columbine Park―Goat Hill fan area, their combined effect increases the probability that the bedrock aquifer ground-water flow system provides discharge to the Red River along this reach.


We have extended the Ligand Knowledge Base (LKB) approach to consider a broad range of bidentate ligands, varying donors, substituents and backbones, which gives rise to a diverse set of 224 ligands in a new database, LKB-bid. Using a subset of steric and electronic parameters described previously for bidentate P,P-donor ligands (LKB-PP), here this approach has been applied to a wider set of bidentate ligands, to explore how these modifications affect the properties of organometallic complexes. The resulting database has been processed with Principal Component Analysis (PCA), generating a "map" of ligand space which highlights the contribution of donor atoms and bridge length to the variation in ligand properties. This mapping of bidentate ligand space with DFT-calculated steric and electronic parameters has demonstrated that the properties of ligands with different donor atoms can be captured within a single computational approach, providing both an overview of ligand space and scope for the more detailed investigation and comparison of different ligand classes.


With the increasing energy consumption in Chinese mainline railways amid the worldwide carbon emission concerns, the need for energy-efficient locomotive operation becomes urgent. Locomotive operation is directly linked to speed limits imposed by the train ahead through signaling. In China's mainline railways, speed limits for locomotive operation change frequently because of relatively short headways in a highly congested network. Whenever the speed limit changes, the locomotive operation must be determined again quickly to adapt to the new speed limit. As a result, the energy-efficient locomotive operation is a real-time optimization problem with time-varying constraints, in which the tradeoff between solution optimality and computational time is essential, but it has not been considered adequately in previous studies. This study develops a fuzzy predictive control approach, continuously providing locomotive operation instructions, with respect to the prevailing speed limits, to reduce energy consumption of train movement. The proposed approach is implemented in an onboard decision support system to assist drivers. The system is tested on the Ning'xi line in China. The results indicate that energy consumption on train operations is reduced by 4%, without increasing the runtime between stations, while the computational requirement satisfies the demand of real-time solutions. Extensive simulations show that the proposed approach is able to provide sufficient solution optimality in reasonable computational time under different operation settings.


Central to the purpose of perinatal medicine and neonatal care are three clinical aims: to save the lives of infants with treatable conditions, to minimise needless suffering and indignity, and to maximise the quality of life in survivors. The report of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics on "Critical care decisions in fetal and neonatal medicine"1 and the policy statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) on "Noninitiation or withdrawal of intensive care for high-risk newborns"2 remind us of the difficulties, both ethical and clinical, in trying to achieve these goals for infants born at the threshold of viability. This paper explores the key factors in decision making in this area: Who decides on whether or not to initiate aggressive treatment? Who determines when to stop? What standards, if any, should guide such choices? Whose view prevails when there is a conflict over treatment between the physician and the parents?

Though some such as Michael Tooley3 or Peter Singer4 might argue that newborns lack consciousness and thus have no interests or independent rights, the Nuffield Council's report makes clear its position that neonates are fully human persons and are to be treated the same as any other patient—on the basis of their best interests. The implication is that although parents may (and indeed should) continue to be involved in decision making for their child, they do not have the sole right to demand or to refuse medical interventions for their infant. As the court put it in Re J (A Minor), the power of parents to make decisions is limited to the power to make decisions in the best interests of the baby.5

Use of the term "best interests" itself raises further questions: Who judges these interests? What criteria are used to assess such interests? …


This thesis contains four studies of generally unobservable skills and preferences of relevance to economic behaviour. The first chapter examines the validity of the assumption of equal latent ability among monozygotic twins. An influential literature has employed the schooling decisions of twins to estimate returns to schooling. Using a unique dataset including IQ test scores, income and two measures of schooling for 1780 monozygotic twins, within-pair differences in measured IQ are found to be a significant predictor of both income and schooling differences. In the second chapter, the effect of general cognitive ability on proposer and responder behaviour in the ultimatum game is examined, using a large and representative sample of 895 individuals. No effects are found on proposer behaviour, and only small, but statistically significant, effects are found on responder behaviour. In the third chapter, a sample of almost 30,000 mono- and dizygotic twins is used to study the heritability of financial risk-taking. Investment decisions made by virtually all Swedish adults regarding mandatory pension savings are taken as a field experiment to infer risk preferences. Standard techniques from behaviour genetics are used to partition variation in risk-taking into environmental and genetic components. The results suggest that genetic variation is an important source of individual heterogeneity in financial risk-taking and that the frequently reported parent-child associations in attitudes toward risk are, at least in part, genetically mediated. In the fourth and final chapter, the robustness of recent results indicating a large role for genes in determining variation in the propensity for self-employment is examined empirically using a novel dataset, and a large but imprecisely estimated difference between women and men is found.


The past thirty years have seen a dramatic decline in the rate of income convergence across states and in population flows to high-income places. These changes coincide with a disproportionate increase in housing prices in high-income places, a divergence in the skill-specific returns to moving to high-income places, and a redirection of low-skill migration away from high-income places. We develop a model in which rising housing prices in high-income areas deter low-skill migration and slow income convergence. Using a new panel measure of housing supply regulations, we demonstrate the importance of this channel in the data.


Monitoring the health of an injured brain is essential to forewarn neurological worsening and to gain insight into the pathophysiology of a complex disorder. Clinical examination remains a cornerstone in monitoring patients with brain injury. The Glasgow coma score (GCS) is widely used but lacks information regarding brain stem functions like pupillary reaction and shows moderate inter-observer reliability. However, despite these shortcomings, GCS remains a robust indicator of the need for surgery and prognosis after cardiac arrest, hypoxic brain injury, and posterior circulation stroke. A new scoring system called Full Outline of Unresponsiveness has been proposed and shows excellent inter-observer reliability and includes points concerning brain stem functions.1 The most commonly used monitoring modality is intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring. ICP shows threshold physiology where the outcome of the patients changes after a threshold of 20 to 25 mmHg. Refractory ICP is a good predictor of mortality but not of the functional outcome after traumatic brain injury. Brain injury causes varying degrees of disruption to cerebral blood flow and its autoregulation. Studying autoregulation provides a useful strategy for targeting cerebral perfusion pressure close to the autoregulatory range. Transcranial Doppler and ICMplus (Intensive Care Monitoring) are used to study autoregulation. ICMplus is a software-based tool that studies the correlation between slow changes in mean arterial pressure and ICP to evaluate the state of autoregulation throughout the duration of ICP monitoring.2 Brain tissue oxygen measures the partial pressure of oxygen in the extracellular fluid of the neural tissue. Reduction in brain tissue oxygen is a marker of cellular distress. A phase 2 trial on brain tissue oxygen monitoring demonstrated the safety and feasibility of the protocol-based management of brain tissue oxygenation and ICP, and a trend towards lower mortality and improved functional outcome in patients treated with combined oxygen and ICP protocol.3 Microdialysis is a point of care test that monitors substrate delivery and metabolism at the cellular level. The lactate-pyruvate (LP) ratio is an indicator of the redox state of cells and a high LP ratio is associated with an unfavourable outcome.4 The electroencephalogram (EEG) is used in critical care for monitoring sedation and diagnosis of seizure activity. EEG is a complex signal which requires advanced training and skills for interpretation. Novel EEG-based monitors are aimed at simplifying the signal for straightforward interpretation by bedside medical professionals. Cerebral function monitor (CFM) is a compressed single channel amplitude integrated EEG monitor mainly used for the detection of status epilepticus and burst suppression during thiopentone infusion. A novel technique that uses direct electrodes applied on the cortical surface called Electrocorticogram (ECoG) shows spreading depolarisations on the cortical surface that are caused by loss of ionic homeostasis and substrate delivery.5 These depolarisations are a sensitive indicator of impending neuronal death and may serve as a target for novel mechanistically oriented therapies. Detection, prevention, and monitoring of secondary cerebral insults that alter the prognosis from the injury, remains at the centre stage in neurocritical care. In the future, integrated informatics derived from multimodality monitoring will play a pivotal role in clinical decision algorithms.


For the next generation of radio interferometric telescopes it is of paramount importance to incorporate wide field-of-view (WFOV) considerations in interferometric imaging, otherwise the fidelity of reconstructed images will suffer greatly. We extend compressed sensing techniques for interferometric imaging to a WFOV and recover images in the spherical coordinate space in which they naturally live, eliminating any distorting projection. The effectiveness of the spread spectrum phenomenon, highlighted recently by one of the authors, is enhanced when going to a WFOV, while sparsity is promoted by recovering images directly on the sphere. Both of these properties act to improve the quality of reconstructed interferometric images. We quantify the performance of compressed sensing reconstruction techniques through simulations, highlighting the superior reconstruction quality achieved by recovering interferometric images directly on the sphere rather than the plane.


The current implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) by construction professionals in the Kenyan construction industry is an area of concern. BIM is increasingly being applied worldwide to improve communication between project stakeholders, visualization of design, detect potential clashes, reduced redesign during project implementation, improve design quality, reduce costs, and improve the rate of return for projects. However, the application of BIM in the Kenyan construction industry is still lagging, resulting in poor co-ordination of information among construction project stakeholders. This study determines the current state of BIM application, the benefits of BIM application and the BIM application barriers in Kenya. A quantitative research approach was used and data was collected, using an online questionnaire survey from 310 registered construction professionals selected by stratified sampling. The benefits and barriers factors that influence BIM application in Kenya were rated and set as the independent variables with 'years of experience' and 'total completed projects' as the dependent variables. The data was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to extract the main factors for benefits and barriers of BIM implementation. Chi-square tests were used to determine relationships between independent and dependent variables. Improved communication was ranked as the most important BIM benefit, while the high cost of buying and updating software was ranked as the main barrier to the application of BIM. Based on the results of the study, improved design quality is influenced by the number of years of experience one has in the building construction industry. The number of projects undertaken by a company using BIM in any capacity has an influence on greater productivity, due to easy retrieval of information. It is recommended that BIM training should be undertaken by software vendors in vocational and tertiary institutions as well as in construction firms. In addition, the government should formulate policies and standards to support the use of BIM. This study adds to the body of knowledge about BIM application in Nairobi, Kenya that is beneficial to developers, architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, project managers, contractors, and facility managers. Keywords : Building information modelling (BIM), BIM adoption, Kenyan construction sector


IMPORTANCE
Superior outcomes have been established with the use of an arteriovenous fistula (AVF) at first hemodialysis. However, considering the influence of comorbidities, medical insurance, and specialist care, racial/ethnic differences in the patterns of utilization of AVFs are unknown and deserve evaluation.

OBJECTIVE
To assess national trends in initial hemodialysis access with respect to race/ethnicity stratified by comorbid disease, nephrology care, and medical insurance status within the US Renal Data System.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
A retrospective analysis of all patients with end-stage renal disease in the US Renal Data System who initiated hemodialysis between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2010. Univariable statistics (χ² test and analysis of variance) and logistic regression were used to compare racial/ethnic groups (white vs black vs Hispanic). Multivariable logistic regression and propensity score-matching techniques were used to evaluate hemodialysis access rates between patients of different races/ethnicities with comparable characteristics.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Utilization rates of AVF, arteriovenous graft, and intravascular hemodialysis catheter.

RESULTS
In this cohort of 396,075 patients, more white patients initiated hemodialysis with an AVF than black patients or Hispanic patients (18.3% vs 15.5% and 14.6%, respectively; P < .001). Black patients and Hispanic patients initiated hemodialysis with an AVF less frequently despite being younger and having less coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancer than white patients with an AVF. When stratified by medical insurance status, black patients (odds ratios, 0.90 [95% CI, 0.82-0.98] for uninsured and 0.85 [95% CI, 0.84-0.87] for insured) and Hispanic patients (odds ratios, 0.72 [95% CI, 0.65-0.81] for uninsured and 0.81 [95% CI, 0.79-0.84] for insured) persistently initiated hemodialysis with an AVF less frequently than white patients (P < .05 for all). Arteriovenous fistula utilization at initial hemodialysis was lower among black patients (odds ratio, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.78-0.84]) and Hispanic patients (odds ratio, 0.86 [95% CI, 0.82-0.90]) compared with white patients within the category of patients who had nephrology care for longer than 1 year (P < .001 for all).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Black patients and Hispanic patients tend to initiate hemodialysis with an AVF less frequently than white patients despite being younger and having fewer comorbidities. These disparities persisted independent of factors that drive health access for fistula placement, such as medical insurance status and nephrology care. The sociocultural underpinnings of these disparities deserve investigation and redress to maximize the benefits of initiating hemodialysis via fistula in patients with end-stage renal disease irrespective of race/ethnicity.


Tissue engineering uses various approaches to restore bone loss and heal critical-size defects resulting from trauma, infection, tumor resection or other musculoskeletal diseases. The success of bone tissue engineering strategies critically depends on the extent of blood vessel infiltration into the scaffolds. It has been demonstrated that blood vessel invasion from the host tissue into scaffolds is limited to a depth of several hundred micrometers. Limited vessel perfusion restricts the formation of bone in central regions of the scaffold, leads to loss of cell viability in this region and ultimately does not support healing of the defect. This review addresses the importance of vascularization in bone tissue engineering, discusses the key factors regulating the process of angiogenesis, and provides an overview of current approaches to direct blood vessel formation in biomaterials.


Abstract We examined seasonal patterns of abundance of mussel larvae (glochidia) in stream drift in a diverse, large-stream mussel assemblage in the Sipsey River, Alabama, across 1 y. We used recently developed techniques for glochidial identification combined with information about mussel fecundity and benthic assemblages to evaluate how well observed glochidial abundance corresponded to expected abundance based on glochidial production. Glochidia from short-term brooding species (Amblema plicata, Elliptio arca, Fusconaia cerina, Pleurobema decisum, Obliquaria reflexa, and Quadrula asperata) were abundant from May to August but did not occur in drift between November and the end of April. Long-term brooders (Lampsilis spp., Medionidus acutissimus, Obovaria unicolor, and Villosa spp.) occurred in several short peaks in spring, summer, and autumn, but generally were less abundant than short-term brooders. We estimated that the benthic assemblage at our study site produced >500,000 glochidia/m2 annually and production varied widely among species. Abundance of species in the drift was positively related to benthic abundance but was only weakly related to glochidial production. The poor relationship between glochidial production and abundance in the drift suggests that release and transport of glochidia are influenced by a wide variety of abiotic and biotic factors.


INTRODUCTION
Children with DiGeorge syndrome/chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome might have a variable degree of immunodeficiency, which may limit the use of live vaccines. The aim of this study was to review the adverse effects of live vaccines and possible relation with immune status in patients with DiGeorge Syndrome/partial 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Retrospective study with analysis of the clinical records of children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome and DiGeorge syndrome phenotype, followed in a Primary Immunodeficiency center. Data were collected on: demographic characteristics; medical and vaccination history with live vaccines; T-CD4+ lymphocyte counts and lymphocyte proliferative responses to antigens and mitogens; adverse reactions; vaccine failure.

RESULTS
Twenty three children with DiGeorge syndrome/22q11.2 deletion syndrome were included, 65.2% male, with average age at diagnosis of 11.3 months. Eighteen children (78%) received bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine: all with evidence of thymic activity; three presented moderate T-CD4+ lymphopenia and abnormal lymphocyte proliferative responses; one had abnormal lymphocyte proliferative responses for mitogens, four for purified protein derivative and one for tetanus toxoid. Measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was administered to 15 children, three of them with moderate immunosuppression and abnormal lymphocyte proliferative responses. Live attenuated polio vaccine was administered to 4 children without immunosuppression and the rotavirus vaccine to three children, one with moderate immunosuppression. No significant adverse reactions were reported.

DISCUSSION
These data are in line with the findings of other international studies.

CONCLUSION
In our sample, live vaccines were well-tolerated, even in children with moderate T-CD4+ lymphopenia and abnormal lymphocyte proliferative responses to antigens/mitogens.


Directional data is ubiquitious in science. Due to its circular nature such data cannot be analyzed with commonly used statistical techniques. Despite the rapid development of specialized methods for directional statistics over the last fifty years, there is only little software available that makes such methods easy to use for practioners. Most importantly, one of the most commonly used programming languages in biosciences, MATLAB, is currently not supporting directional statistics. To remedy this situation, we have implemented the CircStat toolbox for MATLAB which provides methods for the descriptive and inferential statistical analysis of directional data. We cover the statistical background of the available methods and describe how to apply them to data. Finally, we analyze a dataset from neurophysiology to demonstrate the capabilities of the CircStat toolbox.


Women's empowerment plays a crucial role in the overall development of any society besides positively impacting the daily lives of women. The winds of radical change in the fields of employment and information technology have brought with them a wide range of opportunities for women in India and across the globe. The primary objective of this study is to find the usage of digitization in rural regions and urban regions by women. The study aims to perceive how basic internet centres and training should be provided for rural women to help them utilize the internet facilities. The "Internet Saathi" projects are identified as projects that impart training to rural women, but in reality, only 1 out of 10 rural women use the internet. Digitization, which is the primary focus of digital literacy, is the most essential skill required for the empowerment of women. The development of mobile technology has brought the world to one's fingertips and has allowed women to update themselves about everyday national and global news. Education not only enables rural women in digitization but also helps them to empower themselves economically. Towards this end, it would be advantageous for rural women to learn to use the internet via smartphones, carry out financial transactions online, and become aware of global trends.


We study the problem of information design in human-in-the-loop systems, where the sender (the system) aims to design an information disclosure policy to influence the receiver (the user) in making decisions. This problem is ubiquitous in systems with humans in the loop, e.g., recommendation systems might choose whether to present others' reviews to encourage users to follow recommendations, online retailers might choose which set of product features to present to persuade buyers to make the purchase. Among the flourish literature on information design, Bayesian persuasion has been one of the most prominent efforts in formalizing this problem and has spurred various research studies in both economics and computer science. While there has been significant progress in characterizing the optimal information disclosure policies and the corresponding computational complexity, one common assumption in this line of research is that the receiver is Bayesian rational, i.e., the receiver processes the information in a Bayesian manner and takes actions to maximize her expected utility. However, as empirically observed in the literature, this assumption might not be true in real-world scenarios. In this work, we relax this common Bayesian rational assumption in information design in the persuasion setting. In particular, we develop an alternative framework for information design based on discrete choice model and probability weighting to account for this relaxation. Moreover, we conduct online behavioral experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk and demonstrate that our framework better explains real-world user behavior and leads to more effective information design policy.


BACKGROUND
Nonheme-iron absorption requires an acidic milieu. Reduced gastric acid output as a consequence of Helicobacter pylori infection could be an important limiting factor for iron absorption.

OBJECTIVE
We measured gastric acid output and iron absorption from a non-water-soluble iron compound (ferrous fumarate) and a water-soluble iron compound (ferrous sulfate) in children with and without H. pylori infection.

DESIGN
Gastric acid output was quantified before (basal acid output, or BAO) and after pentagastrin stimulation (stimulated acid output, or SAO) in 2-5-y-old children with iron deficiency anemia who were (n = 13) or were not (n = 12) infected with H. pylori. Iron absorption was measured by using a double-stable-isotope technique. H. pylori-infected children were studied before and after eradication therapy.

RESULTS
BAO and SAO were significantly lower in the H. pylori-infected children (0.2 +/- 0.2 and 1.6 +/- 0.9 mmol/h, respectively) than in the uninfected children (0.9 +/- 0.7 and 3.1 +/- 0.9 mmol/h, respectively; P = 0.01 and P < 0.005). BAO and SAO improved to 0.8 +/- 1.3 and 3.3 +/- 2.4 mmol/h, respectively, after therapy. Iron absorption from ferrous sulfate was significantly greater than that from ferrous fumarate both before (geometric : 19.7% compared with 5.3%; P < 0.0001) and after (22.5% compared with 6.4%; P < 0.0001) treatment in H. pylori-infected children. Corresponding values for uninfected children were 15.6% and 5.4%, respectively (P < 0.001; n = 12).

CONCLUSIONS
Iron absorption from ferrous fumarate was significantly lower than that from ferrous sulfate in both H. pylori-infected and uninfected Bangladeshi children. Treatment of H. pylori infection improved gastric acid output but did not significantly influence iron absorption. The efficacy of ferrous fumarate in iron fortification programs to prevent iron deficiency in young children should be evaluated.


In this work we described and compared the community organization patterns of Coleoptera in vari- ous sites of the Dadia forest reserve, including different types of vegetation and management practices (grazing, cultivation, afforestation). Sampling was carried out every two months for a year, by means of pitfall traps. For studying diversity and community structure, we used Renyi's parametric index of diversity and fitted the geometric series model on rank/abundance data. In order to study the changes of species composition, we used the Indicator Value method (IndVal), after a tree clustering of our sampling sites. According to our results, although the three management practices increased the diversity of epiedaphic Coleoptera, their effects on the community organization patterns were different. Grazing did not affect the species composition of the communities but altered the community structure. The communities in the ungrazed forests were over-dominated by one species, while those of the grazed sites were hierarchically structured. On the other hand, the main effect of cul- tivation on the coleopteran communities was a profound change in species composition. The cultivated site was domi- nated by characteristic species that were almost absent from all other sites. Afforestation caused intermediate changes in both community structure and composition. Finally, although certain species of Coleoptera seemed to be good indices for assessing human impacts on natural envi- ronment, the study of changes in the community organization patterns is even more appropriate.


Fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) is a clinical syndrome characterized by sudden and severe liver dysfunction. Apoptosis and inflammation are essential for the pathogenesis of FHF. Crocetin, the major component present in saffron, has been reported to possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant functions; however, its role in FHF is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to explore the protective effects of crocetin against lipopolysac§§charide (LPS)/D-galactosamine (D-GalN)-induced FHF and the underlying mechanisms in a rat model. For the in vivo study, rats were assigned to the LPS/D-GalN group or to the crocetin pre-treatment+LPS/D- GalN group. Each group was then further divided according to the different LPS/D-GalN treatment times of 0, 6, 12 or 48 h. The results demonstrated that crocetin pre-treatment efficiently protected against LPS/D-GalN-induced FHF by improving liver tissue morphology, reducing total bilirubin generation and decreasing the activities of alanine transaminase and aspartate aminotransferase. Moreover, crocetin pre-treatment significantly decreased hepatocyte apoptosis, p53 mRNA expression and the expression of proteins in the caspase family and the Bcl-2 pro-apoptotic family following LPS/D-GalN treatment. Furthermore, crocetin also decreased the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the serum and in the liver via suppression of NF-κB activation, and also suppressed hepatic oxidative stress. In conclusion, crocetin protected against LPS/D-GalN-induced FHF and inhibited apoptosis, inflammation and oxidative stress. The underlying mechanisms may be related to the regulation of apoptotic proteins in the caspase family and the Bcl-2 family, as well as the modulation of NF-κB expression. Therefore, crocetin may be used as a novel therapy for preventing FHF.


This document is a compilation of special IPv6 addresses defined in
other RFCs. It can be used as a checklist of invalid routing prefixes
for developing filtering policies for routes and IP packets. It does
not discuss addresses that are assigned to operators and users through
the Regional Internet Registries. This memo provides information for
the Internet community.


The high-frequency rheology of concentrated liquid charge-stabilized dispersions has been measured using a surface-loaded torsional resonator. The high-frequency shear moduli are extracted from the measurement as a function of ionic strength and surface acid content. A theory which enables the determination of the effective surface charge of the concentrated dispersions is presented. At high ionic strengths the theory simplifies to an analytic formula relating the effective surface charge to the high-frequency limiting shear modulus in terms of an effective hard-sphere diameter. The effective hard-sphere diameter is obtained experimentally from the high concentration asymptote of the zero-shear viscosity. The resulting effective surface charge increases with added electrolyte content in agreement with charge renormalization theory. The effective charge also increases with added weak and strong surface acid content. The method, which operates on concentrated dispersions, is found to yield effective charges that agree with dilute measurements of the electrophoretic mobility. Moreover, the effective hard-sphere scaling reduces the high-frequency viscosity to a master curve independent of salt content.


In 2005, journalists faced enormous challenges while covering hurricanes Katrina and Rita along America's Gulf Coast. They struggled to find ways to communicate, move from one place to another, and find reputable information. They witnessed complete chaos, observed human suffering, and were outraged with delayed or ineffective rescue mechanisms. Not only did journalists face these normal problems of crises, since many themselves were among the victims, they were forced to do their jobs under circumstances that seemed impossible. The contributors to Covering Disaster study personal and professional coping mechanisms and lessons that may be learned from media disaster coverage. During Katrina and Rita, journalists responded largely by redefining traditional ideals of fairness, balance, and objectivity and by adopting an emotionally driven and somewhat more subjective reporting style. In this way, they rediscovered and emphasized journalistic purposes and techniques that have long been the hallmarks of greatness. Their work during those months of destruction and pain was applauded by their readers and viewers because it was useful, critical of officials who were not doing their jobs, sought support for those who were suffering, and took a position of public leadership. Now that the winds have died down, flood waters have receded, and rebuilding has begun, the brand of public-oriented journalism found in the midst of the storms must not be forgotten.


A fundamental conflict exists between the understanding of personhood in asylum law and its conception in military law. Asylum law in the United States and the United Kingdom recognizes homosexuality as a fundamental characteristic of personhood, which cannot be concealed. Conversely, "Don't Ask Don't Tell," the statutory ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. Military, demands complete suppression of any indication of homosexuality. This Comment argues that, in light of the framework for examining personhood most recently articulated by the U.K. Supreme Court, the arguments in favor of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" are both specious and destructive. This Comment proceeds first by examining the understanding of personhood in asylum law. It then contrasts this understanding with the demands and restrictions that "Don't Ask Don't Tell" imposes on homosexual military personnel. Finally, this Comment concludes by calling for a uniform application of the view of personhood found in asylum law.


An important part of understanding speech motor control consists of capturing the interaction between speech production and speech perception. This study tests a prediction of theoretical frameworks that have tried to account for these interactions: if speech production targets are specified in auditory terms, individuals with better auditory acuity should have more precise speech targets, evidenced by decreased within-phoneme variability and increased between-phoneme distance. A study was carried out consisting of perception and production tasks in counterbalanced order. Auditory acuity was assessed using an adaptive speech discrimination task, while production variability was determined using a pseudo-word reading task. Analyses of the production data were carried out to quantify average within-phoneme variability as well as average between-phoneme contrasts. Results show that individuals not only vary in their production and perceptual abilities, but that better discriminators have more distinctive vowel production targets – that is, targets with less within-phoneme variability and greater between-phoneme distances – confirming the initial hypothesis. This association between speech production and perception did not depend on local phoneme density in vowel space. This study suggests that better auditory acuity leads to more precise speech production targets, which may be a consequence of auditory feedback affecting speech production over time. This chapter was based on: Franken, M. K., Acheson, D.J., McQueen, J. M., Eisner, F., & Hagoort, P. (2017). Individual variability as a window on production-perception interactions in speech motor control. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 142(4): 2007-2018.


Author(s): Langer, Maximo; Doherty, Joseph W | Abstract: This article analyzes whether managerial judging reforms introduced to expedite procedure at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) achieved their goal. Using survival analysis, the paper tests the hypothesis that the higher the number of reforms a case was subjected to, the shorter the pretrial and trial phase of that case should be. Our six models for pretrial and trial reveal that in all pretrial and trial models the number of reforms is significantly correlated with longer pretrial and trial. The article explains that reforms made process longer rather than shorter because ICTY judges did not use their managerial powers or used them deficiently, and prosecution and defense managed to neutralize the implementation of the reforms. To explain judges' behavior, the paper articulates an unnoticed challenge for managerial judging—the court is likely to have limited information about the case that may lead judges to restrict use of their managerial powers to avoid making inefficient or unfair decisions. In addition, ICTY did not have an implementation plan to encourage judges to change their behavior. The paper also explains the incentives that prosecution and defense had to neutralize the reforms.


Despite being an everyday point of reference in Irish discourse, the extent to which the county serves as a locus of identification has been oddly overlooked in the Irish studies literature. In particular, the persistence of identification with the county of origin post-migration offers new insights on the construction and maintenance of identity within the Irish diaspora. Drawing on my PhD research on discourses of authenticity and identity among the Irish in England, this article investigates the ways in which county identity is invoked both by Irish migrants and those of Irish descent. It illustrates how the county is used as a rhetorical tool to situate the speaker within discourses of belonging and authenticity, but how this may also act as a constraint on the articulation of a collective, diasporic identity. It argues for a greater research focus on translocalism within the context of changing Ireland–diaspora relations.


For 53 years, Clifford K. Berryman was a political cartoonist for The Washington Post and The Washington Evening Star. He drew thousands of cartoons commenting on the congressional and presidential candidates, campaigns, issues, and elections of the first half of the twentieth century. Berryman was a Washington institution, and his decades of daily front-page drawings were internationally renowned. Throughout his extraordinary career, he drew hundreds of members of Congress and every presidential administration from Grover Cleveland to Harry Truman. Unlike many political cartoonists, Berryman aimed his satire and criticism at policies and processes rather than at individuals. He never exaggerated the physical features of his subjects; instead, he created drawings of individuals that were faithful likenesses. The resulting goodwill from his subjects earned him friendships and influence. One of his favorite subjects, President Theodore Roosevelt, once wrote, "My dear Mr. Berryman, you have the real artist's ability to combine great cleverness and keen truthfulness with entire freedom from malice." Berryman's exceptional work earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1944. Many of Berryman's cartoons reflected his view of the repeating cycle of campaigns and elections that he witnessed as a Washingtonian and keen observer of the national political scene. His work captured the seemingly timeless features of the election and cam paign process in national politics. Because members of the House of Representatives are elected every two years, and presidents every four years, Berryman regularly observed and illustrated candidates and campaigns at every point in the election cycle. Some of the details of campaigning have changed since Berryman's political cartoons were published in the daily newspaper, but the process of campaigns and elections has remained remarkably the same. Two Berryman cartoons, featured in this article, illustrate facets of this process--how a candidate gauges and gathers support and the selection of campaign issues. "Summer Schedule" On July 23, 1947, The New York Times published a short article stating that "Senator Robert A. Taft [son of former President William Howard Taft], an undeclared candidate for the 1948 Republican presidential nomination, will make what a spokesman described today as a 'non-political' speaking tour of the West." Taft's western tour would allow him to meet voters and determine if he had enough support for a serious run for the White House. The following day, The Washington Evening Star published a political cartoon drawn by Clifford Berryman depicting Taft with his suitcase, creating his summer schedule, while studying a map of the Western states marked with the electoral college vote count for each state. Berryman clearly believed that Taft would use his tour of the West to accomplish strategic political objectives--not just to deliver speeches. Berryman's cartoon on potential candidate Robert Taft reflected his understanding of the process of how individuals test the political waters. His cartoon is a graphic interpretation of, and direct response to, the story published the previous day in The New York Times. Berryman took issue with the Taft spokesman's characterization of the western tour as "non-political." As a probable candidate for president, Taft's speaking tour was undoubtedly driven by calculations of political advantage--despite his spokesman's attempt to render it more benignly. Berryman's cartoon shows what he believed was truly at stake in Taft's decision to tour the West--the Electoral College vote count of the Western states. Electoral College calculus is a part of every successful presidential candidate's campaign. A candidate aiming for victory has to consider how to deploy his limited resources to the greatest advantage. One way to maximize time and money spent traveling to meet voters is to focus on those states that are most likely to deliver electoral votes to that candidate. …


As data sets keep growing, computational linguists are experiencing more big data problems: challenging demands on storage and processing caused by very large data sets. An example of this is dealing with social media data: including metadata, the messages of the social media site Twitter in 2012 comprise more than 250 terabytes of structured text. Handling data volumes like this requires parallel computing architectures with appropriate software tools. In this paper we present our experiences in working with such a big data set, a collection of two billion Dutch tweets. We show how we collected and stored the data. Next we deal with searching in the data using the Hadoop framework and visualizing search results. In order to determine the usefulness of this tweet analysis resource, we have performed three case studies based on the data: relating word frequency to real-life events, finding words related to a topic, and gathering information about conversations. The three case studies are presented in this paper. Access to this current and expanding tweet data set is offered via the website twiqs.nl.


Transradial approach (TRA) is now considered the standard of care in many centers for elective and primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The use of the radial approach in ST‐segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients has been asso‐ ciated with a significant reduction in major adverse cardiac events. However, it is still unclear if the side of radial access (right vs. left) has impact on safety and effectiveness of TRA in primary PCI. So this chapter was conducted to summarize the benefits of tran ‐ sradial access over transfemoral access based on the most recent studies and to compare between using either right radial or left radial as an access for transradial procedure. the 94% RRA;


In August 2010 Facebook launched Places, a location-based service that allows users to check into points of interest and share their physical whereabouts with friends. The friends who see these events in their News Feed can then respond to these check-ins by liking or commenting on them. These data consisting of the places people go and how their friends react to them are a rich, novel dataset. In this paper we first analyze this dataset to understand the factors that influence where users check in, including previous check-ins, similarity to other places, where their friends check in, time of day, and demographics. We show how these factors can be used to build a predictive model of where users will check in next. Then we analyze how users respond to their friends' check-ins and which factors contribute to users liking or commenting on them. We show how this can be used to improve the ranking of check-in stories, ensuring that users see only the most relevant updates from their friends and ensuring that businesses derive maximum value from check-ins at their establishments. Finally, we construct a model to predict friendship based on check-in count and show that cocheck-ins has a statistically significant effect on friendship.


From a small Iron-Age settlement on the banks of the Tiber, Rome grew to become the centre of an empire that dominated what was then known of the western world. This book recreates the evolution of that city, describing the individuals and events that made Rome a political and cultural conqueror. The book portrays not only the cynosures of the Roman world, but also lesser known figures, reassessing their impact upon both the character of Roman society and the development of the Empire. Rome's artistic achievements, especially in literature, architecture, sculpture and painting, are scrutinized, and the economic and social conditions of life for ordinary people are examined. Finally, the changing relationships between Rome and the peoples of its provinces, and the reasons for the ultimate disintegration, or transformation, of the western empire are closely examined.


Combination strategies are test methods that generate test cases based on input parameter models. This paper suggests a structured modeling method used to translate requirements expressed in a general format into an input parameter model suitable for combination strategies.

This paper also describes results from two initial experiments exploring the efficiency and effectiveness of the modeling method. These results indicate that the resulting models may contain enough information to detect the vast majority of faults in the system under test. Further, results indicate that the modeling method is simple enough to use in practical testing.


In this article we argue that, for educators in design, urbanism and sustainability, the responsibility of connecting emergent design practice and changing societal needs into pedagogical activities demands that attention be given to ecologies of learning that explore the interplay
 between what is and what might be. As such, this futuring imperative brings into play a mix of modes of situated learning experience, communication and tools from design and learning to query the planned and built environment as a given, while offering alternate future visions and critiques.
 In this article, we argue for agile pedagogy that enables students to co-create as citizens in public spaces, through agentive multimodal construction of their identities and modes of transformative representation. Our core research problematic is how to develop, enact and critique design-based
 pedagogies that may allow designer-educator-researchers and students alike to co-create learning ecologies as dynamic engagement in re-making the city. This we take up within the wider context of climate change and pressing societal and environmental needs within which design and urbanism
 education increasingly needs to be oriented. Our inquiry is located within a shared practice of design pedagogy across two continents, and climatic and disciplinary domains between the western cape in South Africa and the far north of Norway. The main finding of this research is that pedagogies
 that are enabling of and attentive to the interplay of an assemblage of relational context-sensitive modalities can be conducive to sustainable and futuring design-based urban engagements.


Abstract The effectiveness or productivity of organizations is positively related to the performance of the organizations' employees. The results of the studies related to the inspection and evaluation process in the Turkish educational system reveal that inspector-focused evaluation systems are not objective, reliable, or functional. Therefore, in order to raise the quality of education in Turkey, there is an urgent need for a teacher evaluation system that is multiple data-driven, participatory, transparent, functional, objective, and reliable. The purpose of the present research was to fulfill this objective. Study was conducted on 261 high school students in downtown Tokat. A teacher performance evaluation scale was developed based on the 360 degree feedback model and the new scale was investigated in terms of validity and reliability. The results show that the Teacher Performance Evaluation Scale was valid and reliable in measuring high school teachers' performances. Key Words Education, Performance Evaluation, Teacher, Scale Development. Performance is defined as all the behaviors and actions that an employee performs in the process of fulfilling his/her duties (Basaran, 1985). The very first studies of employee evaluation have started in the 90's among public institutions in the US. In this context, early studies of employee effectiveness that Taylor has pioneered are considered to be the first in the field (Baransel, 19993). The effectiveness or productivity of organizations is positively related to the performance of the organizations' employees. The evaluation of an organization's employees also indicates the degree to which the organization has reached its targets. In today's world economical and social structures are being changed rapidly and these changes directly affect worker behaviors. Similar to other occupations, it is important and motivating for employees of educational institutions to receive feedback. That is, a teacher needs to know how good of a teacher s/he is or what the strong or weak sides of her/him. One of the most important issues in giving teachers feedback on their teaching performances is measuring their performances in a valid and reliable way. According to Basaran (1995), there is a great need for an encompassing evaluation model that will assess schools, teachers, and school administrators. The evaluation of teachers' performances is different from the workers of other occupations. It is unique to teaching because there is no turning back in this profession. That is, a salesman or a physician can be evaluated by the number of costumers he or she might have; however, there is not such a criterion for teachers in most situations, especially in the public schools. Teachers face different student populations in every academic year. In addition, a more objective way of evaluating employees in any work place depends on a clear description of what is expected of the worker in that field. However, the roles and duties of teachers who are working under the ministry of national education are not clearly defined. Because of this lack of clarity, the evaluation efforts in national education system do not yield the expected results (Taymaz, 1993). In contemporary educational systems, it is now accepted that the evaluation of teacher performances is a great necessity. Nonetheless, the specifics of this evaluation process are not known. For example, who is to conduct the evaluation, what will be the criteria against which teachers evaluated, who will evaluate the teacher, and when to conduct evaluation are some of the common questions. Tomkins (1952) studied the Turkish educational system and indicated that the system is based on superintendent-focused evaluation which does not serve well. He explains that he has asked hundreds of teacher and school administrators whether the evaluation of superintendents was useful at all for their schools or for career. He has never received a positive answer to this question. …


Background. While haemophilia is a disease phenotype in males only, it has an effect on females too. In South Africa, there is no documentation on the views and experiences of haemophilia carrier mothers regarding the disease, or about their response to carrier testing for daughters or other female members of their families. The burden of child care may fall entirely on the mother in some cultures, and having a son with haemophilia may make coping difficult. Knowing their carrier status would allow daughters of carrier mothers to be aware of the chances of themselves having a son with haemophilia. Knowing their own factor levels may also be useful in understanding possible excessive bleeding in themselves. Objectives. To record the experiences of haemophilia carrier mothers in KwaZulu-Natal and their attitudes and opinions on carrier testing for female members of their families.  Methods. Forty mothers of haemophiliac sons were interviewed using a structured questionnaire specifically designed and tested for this study. Results. From this cohort, there were 21 potential carrier daughters and 25 potential carrier sisters who would be eligible for further testing and counselling. All the study participants expressed their desire to have carrier testing available for female family members. They also expressed their concerns regarding raising a son with haemophilia, including some culture-specific issues.  Conclusion. A diagnosis of haemophilia carriership is seen by mothers of haemophiliac sons as important for female members of their families. A protocol for the care of haemophilia carrier women is therefore necessary.


In October-November 2011 we measured trace gas emission factors from seven prescribed fires in South Carolina (SC), US, using two Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) systems and whole air sampling (WAS) into canisters followed by gas-chromatographic analysis. A total of 97 trace gas species were quantified from both air- borne and ground-based sampling platforms, making this one of the most detailed field studies of fire emissions to date. The measurements include the first emission factors for a suite of monoterpenes produced by heating vegetative fu- els during field fires. The first quantitative FTIR observa- tions of limonene in smoke are reported along with an ex- panded suite of monoterpenes measured by WAS includ- ing -pinene, -pinene, limonene, camphene, 4-carene, and myrcene. The known chemistry of the monoterpenes and their measured abundance of 0.4-27.9 % of non-methane or- ganic compounds (NMOCs) and 21 % of organic aerosol (mass basis) suggests that they impacted secondary forma- tion of ozone (O3), aerosols, and small organic trace gases such as methanol and formaldehyde in the sampled plumes in the first few hours after emission. The variability in the initial terpene emissions in the SC fire plumes was high and, in general, the speciation of the initially emitted gas-phase NMOCs was 13-195 % different from that observed in a sim- ilar study in nominally similar pine forests in North Carolina 20 months earlier. It is likely that differences in stand struc- ture and environmental conditions contributed to the high variability observed within and between these studies. Simi- lar factors may explain much of the variability in initial emis- sions in the literature. The 1HCN/1CO emission ratio, how- ever, was found to be fairly consistent with previous airborne fire measurements in other coniferous-dominated ecosys- tems, with the mean for these studies being 0.90± 0.06 %, further confirming the value of HCN as a biomass burning tracer. The SC results also support an earlier finding that C 3- C4 alkynes may be of use as biomass burning indicators on the time-scale of hours to a day. It was possible to measure the downwind chemical evolution of the plume on four of the fires and significant O 3 formation (1O3/1CO from 10- 90 %) occurred in all of these plumes within two hours. The slowest O3 production was observed on a cloudy day with low co-emission of NOx. The fastest O3 production was ob- served on a sunny day when the downwind plume almost certainly incorporated significant additional NO x by pass- ing over the Columbia, SC metropolitan area. Due to rapid plume dilution, it was only possible to acquire high-quality downwind data for two other trace gas species (formaldehyde and methanol) during two of the fires. In all four of these cases, significant increases in formaldehyde and methanol were observed in < 2 h. This is likely the first direct observa- tion of post-emission methanol production in biomass burn- ing plumes. Post-emission production of methanol does not


We present two novel optical methods to achieve a significative improvement in the optical-sectioning capacity of confocal scanning microscopes. The techniques, whose real power is the simplicity with which they can be implemented, consist of a suitable combination of symmetrical defocusing with two different manners of apodizing both parts of the confocal architecture. It is shown that the proposed techniques are useful in both the bright-field and the fluorescence modes and for reflection and transmission geometries.


The Chi-Chi earthquake rupture that mostly follows the mountain front in central Taiwan bends east/northeast into hills in the Tachia River valley. We found no major pre-existing fault systems in this hill area. However, based on river terrace morphology and sequences, the lower Tachia River valley appears to have been uplifted more rapidly than the lower Taan River valley in the past ten thousands of years, which is consistent with the bend of the earthquake rupture. The earthquake rupture (and associated uplift) also coincides with: (I) straight mountain-front escarpment south of the Tachia River valley; (2) two fault/fold-scarps on the Holocene terraces, and abnormal sideward inclination and downstream flattening of these terraces in the Tachia River valley; (3) local development of non-laterized terraces in the Taan River valley; (4) abnormal rise and narrowing of the Taan/Tachia drainage divide. These geomorphic anomalies, however, are either local or diffusive; features (1) to (3) might have been interpreted as of fluvial origin. Also, the link between these features and the movement of the Chelungpu-Sanyi fault, the causative fault of the earthquake, might have been uncertain. We thus argue that the pre-location of this portion of the Chi-Chi earthquake rupture would have been difficult, even though we could have roughly delineated a potential coseismic deformational zone in the region.


ABSTRACT Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is an aggressive form of human brain cancer that is under active study in the field of cancer biology. Its rapid progression and the relative time cost of obtaining molecular data make other readily available forms of data, such as images, an important resource for actionable measures in patients. Our goal is to use information given by medical images taken from GBM patients in statistical settings. To do this, we design a novel statistic—the smooth Euler characteristic transform (SECT)—that quantifies magnetic resonance images of tumors. Due to its well-defined inner product structure, the SECT can be used in a wider range of functional and nonparametric modeling approaches than other previously proposed topological summary statistics. When applied to a cohort of GBM patients, we find that the SECT is a better predictor of clinical outcomes than both existing tumor shape quantifications and common molecular assays. Specifically, we demonstrate that SECT features alone explain more of the variance in GBM patient survival than gene expression, volumetric features, and morphometric features. The main takeaways from our findings are thus 2-fold. First, they suggest that images contain valuable information that can play an important role in clinical prognosis and other medical decisions. Second, they show that the SECT is a viable tool for the broader study of medical imaging informatics. Supplementary materials for this article, including a standardized description of the materials available for reproducing the work, are available as an online supplement.


Sierra Leone was engulfed in a destructive civil war between 1991 and 2002. The civil war was partly caused by the non-accountability of the government, endemic corruption, misrule and the mismanagement of the country's resources. Efforts have been made by the country, with the help of the international community, to embrace a democratic dispensation. To demonstrate its commitment to the democratization agenda, Sierra Leone passed the Right to Access Information (RAI) Act in 2013. The Act guarantees access to government information and also imposes a penalty on failure to make information available. However, Sierra Leone's state institutions are still weak due to mismanagement and lack of transparency and accountability. Freedom of expression and access to information are cornerstones of modern democracies. Public information/records are a means of power that governments and other political institutions use to exercise control over citizens, but are also a means of citizens' empowerment. Through access to government information/records, media can play their watchdog role and people can assess the performance of governments and hold them accountable. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the fact that it is not enough to enact freedom of information laws (FOIs) if there is no political will to make government information accessible, an information management infrastructure to facilitate the creation, capture, management, dissemination, preservation and re-use of government information and investments in civil education to promote an information culture that appreciates information as a resource that underpins accountability and transparency.


This study examined the intensity of work-family conflict experienced by married working women, the gender role orientation of their husbands, and the relationship between husbands' gender role orientation and wives' work-family conflict. Responses from 125 pairs of nurses and their husbands in dual-earner families on measures of work-family conflict and gender role orientations were obtained through self-administered questionnaires and analysed. Results indicated that nurses experienced varying intensities of conflict in trying to meet the demands of work and family roles. Almost a third of the nurses experienced high intensity of conflict while slightly more than a third experienced low intensity of conflict. Husbands' gender role orientation ranged from traditional to egalitarian with about a quarter of them holding traditional gender role orientation and slightly more than a quarter holding egalitarian orientation. Among the three dimensions of
orientation studied, namely, attitude towards gender-based employment, attitude towards gender division of labour and attitude towards gender-based power structure, husbands' orientation was traditional toward power structure or toward women occupying leadership positions. Their orientation toward gender division of labour was neither egalitarian nor traditional while their orientation toward gender-based employment was more egalitarian. Significant negative relationship was found between husbands' gender role orientation and wives' work-family conflict.


Maintaining mitochondrial homeostasis and energy metabolism is essential for normal cardiac function. Adenosine-monophosphate activated protein kinase (AMPK) is an energy sensor in the cell that detects and reacts to fluctuations in intracellular AMP: ATP ratio and it is activated by increased AMP levels. Activated AMPK promotes ATP production by inhibiting anabolic consuming pathways and enhancing catabolic pathways. AMPK has been shown to protect the heart under several cardiac conditions including ischemia and starvation. The cardioprotective effects have been attributed partially to its ability to induce autophagy, a cellular degradation pathway that eliminates protein aggregates and damaged organelles through the lysosome. When mitochondria are targeted for degradation through autophagy, it is termed mitophagy. Both autophagy and mitophagy may occur under the same conditions but they do not always go in the same direction, suggesting that they may be regulated by distinct pathways. Despite its ability to positively regulate autophagy, AMPK has not been shown to directly regulate mitophagy. In the present study, we investigated if AMPK is required for mitophagy in the heart using mice that lack AMPK alpha 2 gene (knockout, KO) and express a novel mitophagy reporter known as mito-Rosella, a dual-emission biosensor composed of a mitochondrial targeting sequence and a RFP-GFP fusion protein. Mitophagy events were seen as red puncta on merged confocal microscopic images. These red puncta represent mitochondrial fragments that are being degraded in lysosomes where the pH sensitive GFP is quenched. To assess mitophagy flux, these mice were also treated with lysosomal protease inhibitors pepstatin A and E64-d, which lead to an accumulation of red puncta in mitolysosomes. To our surprise, AMPK alpha 2 KO mouse hearts had markedly increased amount of red puncta than wild type hearts, the number of which was further increased by the lysosomal protease inhibitors, suggesting an enhanced mitophagy flux in the absence of AMPK alpha 2 gene. Consistently, western blot analysis showed significantly increased autophagy marker protein LC3-II in AMPK alpha 2 KO mouse hearts. These findings were confirmed in H9c2 cardiac myoblast cells treated with siRNAs targeting both AMPK alpha 1 and alpha 2 genes. In addition, the protein expression levels of FUN14 domain containing 1 (FUNDC1), a positive regulator of mitophagy, were up-regulated in the AMPK alpha 2 KO hearts, which may contribute to the enhanced mitophagy. Collectively, these results suggest that AMPK is a negative regulator of mitophagy, contrary to the widely held hypothesis that AMPK signalling is necessary for mitophagy. Future studies are warranted to investigate if AMPK over expression can inhibit mitophagy either at basal level or in response to various cardiac stresses.


Cloud imagery is not currently used in numerical weather prediction (NWP) to extract the type of dynamical information that experienced forecasters have extracted subjectively for many years. For example, rapidly developing mid-latitude cyclones have characteristic signatures in the cloud imagery that are most fully appreciated from a sequence of images rather than from a single image.
The Met Office is currently developing a technique to extract dynamical development information from satellite imagery using their full incremental 4D-Var (four-dimensional variational data assimilation) system. We investigate a simplified form of this technique in a fully nonlinear framework. We convert information on the vertical wind field, w(z), and profiles of temperature, T(z, t), and total water content, qt (z, t), as functions of height, z, and time, t, to a single brightness temperature by defining a 2D (vertical and time) variational assimilation testbed.
The profiles of w, T and qt are updated using a simple vertical advection scheme. We define a basic cloud scheme to obtain the fractional cloud amount and, when combined with the temperature field, we convert this information into a brightness temperature, having developed a simple radiative transfer scheme.
With the exception of some matrix inversion routines, all our code is developed from scratch. Throughout the development process we test all aspects of our 2D assimilation system, and then run identical twin experiments to try and recover information on the vertical velocity, from a sequence of observations of brightness temperature. This thesis contains a comprehensive description of our nonlinear models and assimilation system, and the first experimental results.


This Article reconceptualizes the doctrine of the responsibility to protect (R2P). R2P provides that when a government fails to protect its citizens from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity ("mass atrocities"), that responsibility shifts to the international community acting through the United Nations. The U.N.'s apparent failure to include natural disasters in the catalogue of harms potentially justifying R2P intervention generated considerable controversy following Myanmar's refusal of foreign aid following the devastation wrought by Cyclone Nargis. Those seeking to limit the scope of R2P considered it inapplicable in the case of Myanmar, reading the U.N.'s focus on mass atrocities as a conscious decision to exclude natural disasters as triggers for R2P. By contrast, supporters of R2P looking to rely on the doctrine to compel Myanmar to accept aid have argued that there is no meaningful distinction between the failure to protect following natural disasters and the failure to protect from mass atrocities. This Article shows that the causes of the harm are irrelevant. Developing what it labels a "constructive interpretation" of R2P, the Article demonstrates that R2P applies equally to a state's failure to protect its population from harm caused by its omission to act when that omission constitutes a crime against humanity. This thesis is advanced through the novel application of fundamental criminal law principles to the regime of international human rights, and includes a discussion of the extent to which the concept of crimes against humanity can be deployed where the harm to a civilian population comes about by means of inaction rather than action.


As new technologies are spreading like wildfire, digitizing almost everything related to mankind, it becomes more pertinent to study this phenomenon in the media industry. This research focuses on the transition of adoptability among the photo-journalists from traditional manual still camera to the more advanced digital camera. The study focuses on the issues confronting the users during and after the transition. For that, the study chose the media industry, where the transition is actually happening. An empirical research was performed on photo-journalists in Tamil Nadu, by collecting data with the help of questionnaires, gauging their pre and post-facto opinions on both the manual and digital still cameras. The study analysed the different age and experience group of news photographers in the print media industry in the state. The study was done on aspects such as cost factor, quality, editing, resolution and technical factors of photograph. The study was elaborately discussed in the concepts of before and after Findings of this research helped reach a logical conclusion that the transition from manual to digital was more or less a smooth affair among photo journalists in Tamil Nadu. It also suggests conducting media seminars and digital photography workshop to train the news photographers to equip themselves as better professionals.


ABSTRACT The AML1-CBFβ transcription factor complex is essential for the definitive hematopoiesis of all lineages and is the most frequent target of chromosomal rearrangements in human leukemia. In the t(8;21) translocation associated with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), theAML1(CBFA2/PEBP2αB) gene is juxtaposed to theMTG8(ETO/CDR) gene. We show here that the resultant AML1-MTG8 gene product specifically and strongly interacts with an 85-kDa phosphoprotein. Molecular cloning of cDNA indicated that the AML1-MTG8-binding protein (MTGR1) is highly related to MTG8 and similar to Drosophila Nervy. Comparison of amino acid sequences among MTGR1, MTG8, and Nervy revealed four evolutionarily conserved regions (NHR1 to NHR4). Ectopic expression of AML1-MTG8 in L-G murine myeloid progenitor cells inhibits differentiation to mature neutrophils and induces cell proliferation in response to granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). Analysis with C-terminal deletion mutants of AML1-MTG8 indicated that the region of 51 residues (488 to 538), which contains NHR2, is essential for the induction of G-CSF-dependent cell proliferation. Immunoprecipitation analysis indicates that this region is required for AML1-MTG8 to form a stable complex with MTGR1. Overexpression of MTGR1 stimulates AML1-MTG8 to induce G-CSF-dependent proliferation of L-G cells and to interfere with AML1-dependent transcription. These results suggest that AML1-MTG8 could function as a complex with MTGR1 and that the complex might be important in promoting leukemogenesis.


Mouse thymic virus (TA) is a naturally occurring herpesvirus of laboratory and wild mice, which produces massive thymic necrosis when inoculated into newborn mice. Our histopathological study showed necrosis not only of the thymus but also of the spleen and lymph nodes which was noticeable by day 7 and complete by day 14. Both spleen and lymph nodes regenerated to an almost normal histological pattern by day 70. The results show that TA infects multiple lymphoid tissues causing massive necrosis in all, and is not limited to a single site, the thymus. TA infection was found to be a persistent herpesvirus infection in both the lymph nodes and spleen. During the period of acute infection, as necrosis increased, the response of cell suspensions of lymph nodes to the T cell mitogens concanavalin A and phytohaemagglutinin was virtually non-existent. Activity returned to normal as the histological repair progressed.


Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH)-type neural network algorithms are the heuristic self organization method for the modelling of complex systems. GMDH algorithms are utilized for a variety of purposes, examples include identification of physical laws, the extrapolation of physical fields, pattern recognition, clustering, the approximation of multidimensional processes, forecasting without models, etc. In this study, the R package GMDH is presented to make short term forecasting through GMDH-type neural network algorithms. The GMDH package has options to use different transfer functions (sigmoid, radial basis, polynomial, and tangent functions) simultaneously or separately. Data on cancer death rate of Pennsylvania from 1930 to 2000 are used to illustrate the features of the GMDH package. The results based on ARIMA models and exponential smoothing methods are included for comparison.


With a video-rate third harmonic generation (THG) microscopy system, we imaged the micro-circulation beneath the human skin without labeling. Not only the speed of circulation but also the morpho-hydrodynamics of blood cells can be analyzed. Lacking of nuclei, red blood cells (RBCs) shows typical parachute-like and hollow-core morphology under THG microscopy. Quite different from RBCs, every now and then, round and granule rich blood cells with strong THG contrast appear in circulation. The corresponding volume densities in blood, evaluated from their frequencies of appearance and the velocity of circulation, fall within the physiological range of human white blood cell counts.


Abstract Objective Assessment of 12-month safety of ospemifene 60 mg/day for treatment of postmenopausal women with vulvar and vaginal atrophy (VVA). Methods In this 52-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study, women 40–80 years with VVA and an intact uterus were randomized 6 : 1 to ospemifene 60 mg/day or placebo. The primary objective was 12-month safety, particularly endometrial; 12-week efficacy was assessed. Safety assessments included endometrial histology and thickness, and breast and gynecological examinations. Efficacy evaluations included changes from baseline to week 12 in percentage of superficial and parabasal cells and vaginal pH. Results Of 426 randomized subjects, 81.9% (n = 349) completed the study with adverse events the most common reason for discontinuation (ospemifene 9.5%; placebo 3.9%). Most (88%) treatment-emergent adverse events with ospemifene were considered mild or moderate. Three cases (1.0%) of active proliferation were observed in the ospemifene group. For one, active proliferation was seen at end of study week 52, and diagnosed as simple hyperplasia without atypia on follow-up biopsy 3 months after the last dose. This subsequently resolved with progestogen treatment and dilatation and curettage. In six subjects (five ospemifene (1.4%), one placebo (1.6%)) endometrial polyps were found (histopathology); however, only one (ospemifene) was confirmed as a true polyp during additional expert review. Endometrial histology showed no evidence of carcinoma. Statistically significant improvements were seen for all primary and secondary efficacy measures and were sustained through week 52 with ospemifene vs. placebo. Conclusions The findings of this 52-week study confirm the tolerance and efficacy of oral ospemifene previously reported in short- and long-term studies.


Discrete choice modeling advances abound for scenarios where we can collect data about the behaviors of individuals, and observe their ultimate choice from among the range of possible alternatives. However, particularly in competitive private sector enterprises (e.g. airlines, hotels), it is often difficult and expensive to conduct surveys of users, particularly of the customers of one's competitors. However, there is typically a huge pool of data readily available for virtually no cost about one's own customers: what, how and when they purchase, which alternatives were made available from one's own pool of alternatives, etc. We pose the question: what can we do with this data? Traditional choice based sampling tools have problems with this scenario, as the sampling rate for the choices is typically employed as a divisor, but in this case it is, for some choices, zero. But all is not lost. We propose introducing aggregate measures of demand and market share (available from government statistics and/or competitors corporate disclosures when they are publicly traded companies) to fill in the gaps in the readily available disaggregate data. This works reasonably well when the underlying model is assumed to be MNL. Whether this strategy can still be employed when the underlying model is a more general GEV model is an open question, which we are beginning to explore.


Introduction Sports-related concussion (SRC) can be challenging to diagnose, assess and manage. Much of the SRC research is conducted on adults. The assessment of SRC should aim to identify deficits using a detailed multimodal assessment; however, most studies investigating the effects of SRC use diagnostic tools in isolation. It is likely that a combination of diagnostic tests will improve diagnostic accuracy. In this study, we aim to investigate how concussion affects adolescent rugby players and how a variety of diagnostic tools interact with each other as participants recover from their injury. The study will also determine the logistics of recording an individual's concussion history on a virtual 'Concussion Passport' that would remain with the individual throughout their sporting career to allow monitoring of long-term health. Methods and analysis All rugby players (n=211) from the Senior Cup Teams of five schools in Dublin, Ireland will be invited to participate in the study. Baseline testing will be performed at the Sports Surgery Clinic, Dublin (SSC) before the rugby season commences. Participants will be followed up over the course of the rugby season. At baseline and at each postconcussion visit, participants will complete the following: Questionnaire, Sports Concussion Assessment Tool 3, Balance Error Scoring System, Computerised Neurocognitive Testing, Vestibulo-ocular assessment, King Devick test, Graded exercise test, Blood tests, Neck strength, FitBit. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval was obtained from the Sports Surgery Clinic Research Ethics Committee (Approval number: SSC 0020). On completion of the study, further papers will be written and published to present the results of the various tests. Trial registration number NCT03624634.


The aim of the present study was to compare negative impacts of oral conditions in Oral Heath Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) assessed by the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14) scores in pregnant women receiving or not comprehensive periodontal treatment. This randomized controlled clinical trial included pregnant women aged between 18 and 35 years old. Participants were randomized in a test group with 96 and a control group with 114 women. Patients in the test group received comprehensive periodontal treatment, supra and subgingival scaling and root-planning and periodontal maintenance appointments. The OHIP-14 was applied before and after treatment. The primary outcome was changes in OHIP-14 scores after follow-up period. The impact of having received or not comprehensive periodontal treatment on the change of the OHIP-14 scores was also investigated. Both groups showed significant reduction in OHIP-14 scores and effect size for the test group was 0.60 and 0.36 for the control group. Multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that participants of the control group had 5.9-fold odds (CI 95% 1.88-18.52) of worsening in OHIP-14 scores and their perception of oral conditions in relation to test group. Comprehensive periodontal treatment during pregnancy can reduce the negative impacts in OHRQoL.


The study of the global structure of ultrafilters on the natural numbers with respect to the quasi-orders of Rudin-Keisler and Rudin-Blass reducibility was initiated in the 1970s by Blass, Keisler, Kunen, and Rudin. In a 1973 paper Blass studied the special class of P-points under the quasi-ordering of Rudin-Keisler reducibility. He asked what partially ordered sets can be embedded into the P-points when the P-points are equipped with this ordering. This question is of most interest under some hypothesis that guarantees the existence of many P-points, such as Martin's axiom for $\sigma$-centered posets. In his 1973 paper he showed under this assumption that both ${\omega}_{1}$ and the reals can be embedded. This result was later repeated for the coarser notion of Tukey reducibility. We prove in this paper that Martin's axiom for $\sigma$-centered posets implies that every partial order of size at most continuum can be embedded into the P-points both under Rudin-Keisler and Tukey reducibility.


In 2013, a multidisciplinary research cluster named EtnaPlumeLab (EPL) was established, gathering experts from volcanology and atmospheric science communities. Target of EPL is to advance the understanding of Mt. Etna's gas and aerosol emissions and the related processes, from source to its regional climatic impact in the Mediterranean area. Here, we present the cluster and its three interacting modules: EPL-RADIO (Radioactive Aerosols and other source parameters for better atmospheric Dispersion and Impact estimatiOns), SMED (Sulfur MEditerranean Dispersion) and Med-SuV (MEDiterranean SUpersite Volcanoes) Work Package 5. Preliminary results have for the first time highlighted the relevance of Mt. Etna's plume impact at the Mediterranean regional scale. These results underline that further efforts need to be made to get insight into a synoptic volcanogenic-atmospheric chemistry/climatic understanding of volcanic plumes impact.


Abstract The social enterprise literature is dominated by stories of good practice and heroic achievement. Failure has not been widely researched. The limited policy and practice literature presents failure as the flipside of good practice. Explanations for failure are almost wholly individualistic, and related to poor governance. However, organisational studies literature shows that failure cannot be understood without reference to the wider environment within which organisations operate. This paper is based on a nine year in depth case-study of an organisation previously characterised in the policy and practitioner literature as an example of good practice and heroic achievement. We seek to explain its 'failure' through studying the interaction between the organisation and its wider environment. We show that simple individualistic explanations are not sufficient by which to understand social enterprise failure and outline the implications for academic understanding of social enterprise.