A 'Relational, Self-Similar' cosmological model based on a contextual relation between local and non-local space-time dimensions was reported by the author in 2000. That model was based on a radially expanding 'Minkowski-space' geometry for general space-time, superficially similar to E.A. Milne's 'toy' model of the 1930's (Milne, 1948), in that its geometry is based on Special Relativity and the Hubble expansion alone, irrespective of general gravitation. Cosmologists have recently noted a "surprising" agreement with Milne's mass-less model and evidence for expansion at or slightly above the critical universe mass density (Omega = 1). An explanation for this agreement can be found in the self-similar, dynamically expanding geometry of the relational cosmological model discussed here, which unlike Milne's model, treats space-time expansion as an intrinsic scale change resulting from relationship between local and non-local realities; rather than a 'kinematic' movement through pre-existing space as Milne imagined. The internal geometry of this cosmology is a complex, self similar relation between a non-local domain represented by dimensions in an imaginary number domain, and locally measurable space-time,  as a real number domain. The effect of general mass-density (gravitation and the General Theory of Relativity) was not resolved in the earlier model, but is now interpreted as a scale change under which the basic self-similar geometry remains invariant with respect to any evenly distributed mass-density, because the general gravitational effect is itself a self-similar scale change that alters local space-time measurements. The effect is thus detectable only in mass density anomalies, the general gravitation being non-detectible by local measure. These results suggest an interpretation of space-time in which the effective roles of 'special' and 'general' relativity are exchanged, such that Special Relativity holds for the universal geometry and General Relativity holds locally, governing the dynamics of local mass density anomalies. This view eliminates the need for 'dark energy' to correct the standard models, but adds the implication of dual time reference frames - intrinsic and observational - and the idea of an intrinsic formal domain ontology existing outside of measurable space-time coordinates. This geometry is self-determining in the imaginary space-time dimensions (modeled by the imaginary numerical domain), Applying the model with empirical confirmation of Omega ~ 1 suggests that the universe itself is geometrically similar to the inside of a black hole (with the stable outer limit of 'flat' expansion corresponding to a Schwarzschild radius). Some theories claim that the zero-point ('quantum vacuum') energy (ZPE) is indeed sufficiently great to classify protons as ZPE black holes. Given the model's geometrical treatment of gravitation, the next question centers on the origin and fate of matter, which can no longer be seen as being propelled through space as a result of a giant cosmological explosion (big bang), but rather must originate and be conserved in local space-time that already has the relativistic properties of expansion. The model thus becomes open to a suitable 'steady-state' theory of generation and annihilation of matter in local space, perhaps in terms of quantum vacuum dynamics; while, owing to the model's dual time reference, all the observational (relativistic) properties of a 'big bang' universe are also preserved. Finally, as originally intended, the model is suitable for describing space-time at any scale, thus providing a means for linking quantum and relativistic phenomena, or, with additional non-local linkages, applying it as a model for proposed "orchestrated space-time selections" in the explanation of consciousness and perception.


Gas hydrates are a recurring problem in the oil industry where they plug production and transmission lines resulting into flow impairment. In order to avoid costly losses due to the formation of these hydrates, several methods which include thermodynamic modelling and empirical correlations can be employed to predict the conditions for hydrate formation. This study employed Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) to develop a new correlation for predicting the hydrate-formation temperatures for both pure and mixture of hydrocarbon systems using gravity method. The method correlates the hydrate-formation temperature against specific gravity, pressure and water-vapour pressure. The correlation has been developed based on 252 datasets obtained from review of literature, validated with some data not included in the optimisation and compared with some existing ones. The results show correlation coefficient (R² = 0.995), Pearson's correlation coefficient (r = 0.997), average absolute percentage relative error (AAPRE = 1.5°F) and an average absolute temperature deviation (AAD = 0.73°F). [Received: June 26, 2008; Accepted: November 7, 2008]


On request from the Norwegian Environment Agency, a survey of atmospheric deposition of heavy metals around industrial enterprises in Norway has been carried out. The participation was voluntary and 22 industries located at 17 different sites financed their own participation. The survey is based on analysis of samples of naturally growing moss collected around the enterprises during the summer of 2015 and includes 57 different elements. For a majority of the sites this survey is a followup of corresponding surveys carried out in 2000, 2005, and 2010. In general the results show that deposition of heavy metals close to the industries depends closely on the industrial processes used as well as the local topographic and meteorological conditions. The results are evaluated relative to corresponding background levels in moss in parts of Norway with low impact of air pollution. Like in previous surveys, the generally most polluted industrial location is Mo i Rana, followed by Odda. At most sites only minor general improvement is observed since the previous survey in 2010.


The critical potential of the concept of sustainability may depend on its ability to provide a space for a meaningful dialogue about the possible appropriate relationships between technology, nature and society. However, the contemporary interpretation of sustainable building reflects a process in which a global, consensual and technocratic vision of environmental change has tended to dominate the debate. The example of natural ventilation serves to highlight this process. Whilst potentially providing an opportunity for a wider questioning of the nature and extent of technological intervention, natural ventilation has become predominantly and narrowly associated with resource efficiency. This paper suggests an alternative understanding and re-presents natural ventilation as a social expression of contrasting and often contradictory environmental values. Through an analysis of competing discourses around natural ventilation, the paper emphasises the interplay of distinct design logics and the contested nature of environmental innovation. In doing so, the paper illustrates the possible diversity of technological pathways towards sustainable architecture.


Investments in process control systems will claim a large percentage of capital investments in modern manufacturing facilities. In order to maximize return on these investments, automation concepts must be developed at the early stages of the project and detailed in parallel with the process, equipment, and facility components as the engineering work progresses. However, it is difficult to illustrate control strategies for complex batch operations on PFDs and P&IDs, therefore the control system Functional Specification must come to life early and be used more effectively as a living document which is developed together with the process design. This paper presents a case study on the application of S88.01 in the design of a multi-product biotech manufacturing facility, where flexibility, modularity, and CGMP compliance were major objectives. It shows how the models presented in the standard can be applied to develop automation concepts, which are defined in a Functional Specification that supports effective review and input by all members of the project team. This approach ensures that the automation strategy meets the project objectives, and that important concepts are not lost or mistranslated in the transition from concept through detailed design and final implementation.


A total of 1,235 nursery pigs (PIC 359 × 1050; initially 26.9 lb BW) were used in a 28-d study evaluating the effects of crystalline amino acid concentrations with or without formaldehyde treatment of diets on nursery pig growth performance, feed bacteria concentration, lysine content, and fecal microbial diversity. Sal CURB (Kemin Industries Inc., Des Moines, IA) is a commercial formaldehyde product that is commonly utilized in the poultry industry for Salmonella control in feed but has also been shown to reduce PEDV infectivity in swine diets. Pigs were weaned at approximately 21 d, fed a common starter diet for 10 d, and allotted to pens based on BW in a completely randomized design. Experimental diets were fed in 2 phases (phase 1, d 0 to 12; and phase 2, 12 to 28 post-weaning) in meal form. Experimental treatments were arranged as a 2 × 2 + 1 factorial with main effects of formaldehyde (none vs. 0.30% in all phases) and crystalline AA concentration (low vs. high) plus a positive control. The positive control represented this current production system's formulated Lys requirement needed to maximize performance, whereas treatment diets were formulated at 80% of the positive control's lysine concentration. Feed bacterial concentration was determined by performing aerobic plate, Enterobacteriaceae, and total coliform counts on composited feed samples collected from each batch of feed manufactured at the feed mill and directly from feeders at the farm. Total, available, and free Lys analyses were conducted on composited feed samples collected from each phase of the study to determine Lys content. A composite fecal sample was collected from 3 randomly selected pigs per pen on d 28 for each treatment, DNA isolated, and each sample assessed for bacterial community analysis. Overall, a significant crystalline AA × formaldehyde interaction (P < 0.05) was observed for ADFI and F/G. The interaction for ADFI was because added formaldehyde in high crystalline AA diets decreased feed intake; however, in low crystalline AA diets, ADFI was unchanged. For F/G, pigs had improved F/G in low crystalline AA diets without formaldehyde, but no difference was observed in high crystalline AA diets. Despite the interaction for ADFI and F/G, formaldehyde-treated diets reduced (P < 0.05) ADG, ADFI, and resulted in poorer F/G. Crystalline AA concentration did not impact performance. Added formaldehyde reduced or eliminated bacterial concentration of complete feed in phase 1 of the study. Formaldehyde reduced total and available Lys in both low and high crystalline AA diets, with a greater reduction occurring in low crystalline AA diets, but had no effect on free Lys. Added formaldehyde reduced (P = 0.001) Lactobacillaceae bacterial species, but increased (P = 0.001) Clostridiaceae bacterial species in fecal microbial samples. As expected, formaldehyde treatment reduced bacterial microflora of complete feeds. Overall, the level of crystalline AA did not impact performance while the nursery diet formaldehyde addition negatively influenced growth performance, AA utilization, and fecal microbial diversity.


Background: Stress is widely perceived as a detrimental phenomenon
which causes bad effects on individuals. Students are
subjected to periodical examinations which often lead to stress
responses. Overwhelming evidence in the literature suggests that
examination stress is bad. However, Hans Selye had suggested
that there were two types of stress responses, namely, distress
and eustress.
Setting and Study Design: In this study, we analyzed the results
of the Perceived Stress Score (PSS) and the blood pressure
variations among first year medical students.
Materials and Methods: One hundred (50 males and 50 females)
first year medical students, one month before and immediately
after the examinations, were given the PSS sheets. Their blood
pressure was also recorded on both the occasions.
Results: We are reporting here, the increased PSS score in all
the students during the post-examination period (p<0.01). The
number of students in the low stress group was the highest (77)
before the examination and in the moderately stressed group, it
was 20. But in the post examination period, the low stress group
had only 24 students, while the moderately stressed group
showed an increase in the number of students to 65. There was
an increase in the BP also.
Conclusions: From the results, it is evident that there was some
stress during the examinations, which was in agreement with
the previous reports. But we, from the results of this study,
suggest that the examinations which causes mild to moderate
stress that will condition the students and the efficacy of the
General Adaptation Syndrome will be improved in such subjects.
Therefore, we suggest that the examination stress (within limits)
may be considered as eustress.


We examine whether two national newspapers (The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal) provide a realistic representation of sexual harassment in the workplace by comparing media coverage to empirical evidence on sexual harassment drawn from three distinct sources: reports of workplace sexual harassment that emerge from employee self-reporting through a sexual harassment survey of government employees, charges of sexual harassment gathered through Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charge data, and federal district court complaints recorded by the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system. Whether intentional or inadvertent, the national media influences attitudes and subsequent behavior. We find that the national media presents a highly sanitized version, but fairly accurately reflects the demographic characteristics of both accused individuals and individuals who claim sexual harassment in the workplace.


The research study on "Nurses' views on which factors cause nurse absenteeism in a selected hospital, Durban, South Africa", was conducted utilizing a quantitative, non-experimental, simple survey design. The study was conducted at a provincial hospital in Durban. There were sixty nurses, which were involved in the study. The nurse study sample comprised ten Registered Nurses on day duty and ten Registered Nurses on night duty; ten Enrolled Nurses on day duty and ten Enrolled Nurses on night duty; ten Enrolled Nurse Assistants on day duty and ten Enrolled Nurse Assistants on night duty. Nurses consented to be apart of the study, following completion of the study questionnaire, The study was guided by the conceptual framework by Taunton, Hope Woods and Bott. (1995: 218). Independent variables of the nurse, nurse manager, work and organization and their associated characteristics were the main aspects of the study. These were investigated using separate methods of closed-ended and open-ended questions, to determine factors that caused absenteeism. The closed-ended questions consisted of questions to either responses of either an agree or disagree. There were open-ended, simple survey, questions. Statistical methods of A Exact Binomial Test of Significance were used to analyze the quantitative data of the closed-ended data collected. Content analysis, using a coding technique, with descriptive analysis techniques of frequency counts and frequency distributions, were utilized for data analysis for the open-ended data collected. There emerged many reasons for nurse absenteeism, employing two research designs, some of which were unknown until this research was complete and some reasons, which were known but now emphasized. Once the hospital management view upon all reasons for nurse absenteeism, there can possibly an understanding of nurse absenteeism, reducing nurse absenteeism and allowing for a better-managed workforce.


In the last three decades in China, few and declining numbers of women have participated in the main grassroots institutions of rural government, the village committee and the village branch of the Chinese Communist Party. This article examines a project aimed at addressing this problem, initiated in 2003 in Heyang county, Shaanxi, by one of China's largest and most influential women's nongovernmental organizations, West Women, together with the state-affiliated Women's Federation. The article discusses the goals, strategies, and short-term results of the Heyang Project. It then discusses the longer-term potential of the Heyang model for achieving greater gender equity and women's empowerment in rural China. Previous studies have critiqued Chinese approaches to the goal of increasing women's participation in village government, but have not questioned the desirability or need for the goal itself. In this article, the author takes the critique one step further, to provoke questions about the very desirability of increasing women's participation in village government. She concludes that when viewed in light of other recent trends, notably large-scale rural out-migration and tax reforms, increasing women's participation in village government may not have as desirable or significant an impact on gender relations as has previously been assumed.


An active quarry is a constantly changing landscape. Its raw and edgy character express an ongoing conflict between nature on the one hand, and human influence on the other. This inspired the design of a building carved out of the rock by the diamond wire saw, a technique used in the quarrying process. The approach of the project was to make a factory producing building- and paving-stones from waste material provided by the quarry, and to show the characteristics and potential of the available stone in the architecture. The larvikite rock dates back 300 million years. The crossover of architecture and nature in this building therefore pushes the concept of time to the forefront. It raises the question of what the site used to be, what it is now and what it might become in the future.


Sociopaths are "outstanding" members of society in two senses: politically, they draw our attention because of the inordinate amount of crime they commit, and psychologically, they hold our fascination because most ofus cannot fathom the cold, detached way they repeatedly harm and manipulate others. Proximate explanations from behavior genetics, child development, personality theory, learning theory, and social psychology describe a complex interaction of genetic and physiological risk factors with demographic and micro environmental variables that predispose a portion of the population to chronic antisocial behavior. More recent, evolutionary and game theoretic models have tried to present an ultimate explanation of sociopathy as the expression of a frequency-dependent life strategy which is selected, in dynamic equilibrium, in response to certain varying environmental circumstances. This paper tries to integrate the proximate, developmental models with the ultimate, evolutionary ones, suggesting that two developmentally different etiologies of sociopathy emerge from two different evolutionary mechanisms. Social strategies for minimizing the incidence of sociopathic behavior in modern society should consider the two different etiologies and the factors that contribute to them.


Background—With the best prophylactics now available, venous thromboembolism after total knee replacement remains substantial (25% to 27%). Recombinant nematode anticoagulant protein c2 (rNAPc2) is a potent inhibitor of factor VIIa/tissue factor complex that has the potential to reduce this risk. The present study was performed to determine an efficacious and safe dose of rNAPc2 for prevention of venous thromboembolism after elective, unilateral total knee replacement. Methods and Results—This open-label, sequential dose-ranging study was conducted in 11 centers in Canada, Europe, and the United States. Five regimens were tested. Injections were administered subcutaneously on the day of surgery (day 1) and days 3, 5, and optionally, day 7. Primary efficacy outcome was a composite of overall deep vein thrombosis based on mandatory unilateral venography (day 7±2) and confirmed symptomatic venous thromboembolism recorded ≤48 hours after the last dose of rNAPc2. Primary safety outcome was major bleeding ≤72 hours after the last dose. An independent, blinded Central Adjudication Committee assessed all outcome events. Of 293 patients studied, 251 (86%) could be evaluated for primary efficacy analysis. A dosage of 3.0 &mgr;g/kg administered within 1 hour after surgery provided the best observed results, with an overall deep vein thrombosis rate of 12.2%, a proximal deep vein thrombosis rate of 1.3%, and a major bleeding rate of 2.3%. Conclusions—A randomized, double-blind trial that compared rNAPc2 with current best prophylactics is warranted based on encouraging, first-reported clinical results for a factor VIIa/tissue factor inhibitor evaluated for thrombosis prophylaxis.


During the mass formation of aggregates of molecules in a gelatin film dyed with the mixture of chrysophenine and acridine yellow dyes, photo-reorientation, photo-disorientation, and photo-orientation of the molecules are observed. Based on these observations, the photo-induction of granular aniso tropy may be realized.


The objective of the present study was to investigate the body-cognitive relationship through behavioral and electrophysiological measures in an attempt to uncover the underlying mediating neuronal mechanism for movement-induced cognitive change. To this end we examined the effects of Quadrato Motor Training (QMT), a new whole-body training paradigm on cognitive performance, including creativity and reaction time tasks, and electrophysiological change, using a within-subject pre-post design. Creativity was studied by means of the Alternate Uses Task, measuring ideational fluency and ideational flexibility. Electrophysiological effects were measured in terms of alpha power and coherence. In order to determine whether training-induced changes were driven by the cognitive or the motor aspects of the training, we used two control groups: Verbal Training (VT, identical cognitive training with verbal response) and Simple Motor Training (SMT, similar motor training with reduced choice requirements). Twenty-seven participants were randomly assigned to one of the groups. Following QMT, we found enhanced inter-hemispheric and intra-hemispheric alpha coherence, and increased ideational flexibility, which was not the case for either the SMT or VT groups. These findings indicate that it is the combination of the motor and cognitive aspects embedded in the QMT which is important for increasing ideational flexibility and alpha coherence.


Statewide studies conducted throughout the United States during the past 2 decades focusing on community recreation programming for people with disabilities have found these services to be lacking. Confusion regarding programmatic responsibility, and a paucity of available inclusive recreation curricula, were pervasive among recreation agencies in the states studied. In this study, 484 community leisure service agencies were surveyed to determine if recommended professional practices for inclusive recreation programming were being implemented and by whom. This sample included parks and recreation departments, community education departments, YMCAs, YMCA camps, and Jewish Community Centers throughout Minnesota. The purpose of this study was to identify the barriers these agencies encountered and inclusive practices they employed. Analysis revealed no statistically significant differences in the manner with which agencies of different types, city size, or survey form (i.e., mail or telephone) responded to the survey questions. Concerning barriers to successful community recreation inclusion, agencies reported financial constraints (e.g., insufficient funds for hiring disability specialists, securing additional equipment) and staffing constraints (e.g., perceived staff skill deficiencies and participant-to-staff ratio inadequacies) as the two prevalent obstacles preventing the provision of inclusive programming. The most often cited "organizational" practices used to successfully include people with disabilities included collaborative program planning (e.g., agency staff work closely with family members in designing programs) and the use of marketing strategies to reach participants of varying abilities. "Programmatic" practices, which were cited more frequently than organizational practices, most often included the use of adaptations and the conducting of formative evaluations. These findings are then compared to previous statewide studies. Recommendations for future research studies complete the article.


This study explored the realities of including students with disabilities into mainstream physical education classes in post-primary schools in Waterford City from the perspective of the physical education teacher . Data collected was both qualitative and quantitative in nature and was conducted in two phases. Phase one consisted of the administration of questionnaires to all physical education teachers (n=12) and all students with disabilities attending mainstream secondary schools in Waterford City (n=22). In-depth semi-structured interviews were also carried out with a sample of the physical education teachers. Once phase one was completed and the data analysed, phase two was developed. It consisted of observations of students with disabilities participating in physical education classes and based on these observations and information gathered from phase one a workshop intervention was carried out with physical education teachers and special needs assistants.

Results of the study revealed that only 1% of students surveyed who attend mainstream schools in Waterford City had a disability. Results also found that a low number of physical education teachers had received any initial teacher training or the opportunity to gain further training once qualified in the area of special needs and inclusion. Teachers revealed that more emphasis is needed on special needs education both during initial teacher training and in-service. Many barriers to inclusion were highlighted during the study. The most prevalent of those were limited and unsuitable access to facilities, game-dominated physical education and negative attitudes of non-disabled students towards those with a disability.

The study also highlighted that the development of individual education plans and the input of physical education teachers into these plans as an area of neglect and the role and training of special needs assistant to aid in the inclusion of students with disabilities in physical education needs further investigation and development. The results therefore provide evidence that students with disabilities in mainstream physical education face many barriers to their inclusion in and adjustments need to be made in order for future inclusion to be successful.


Many of the types of weathering-induced degradation are not measured in an accurate quantitative manner. The cracking of a coating is a good example of such a parameter. Visual scales are used that can be either a photograph or a representative drawing of the degradation. Visual evaluation of cracking is particularly susceptible to operator bias and may not produce a repeatable or precise result. It is desirable to make a more exact measurement to discriminate more easily between coatings of different performances. It is also desirable to measure quantitatively the initial stages of cracking since these give the ability to shorten test times and develop more effective pass/fail criteria. Technology is now available to measure cracking in a precise and repeatable way using digitized photographs or other images of the coatings and image analysis software techniques. A set of cracked coatings were measured using both image analysis and multiple visual inspectors, and the results were compared. The coatings used exhibited a wide range of colours and different levels and sizes of cracking defects. The specimens were evaluated by a team of professional coatings inspectors and were rated according to several industry standard scales, such as ASTM, and TNO(Toegepast Natuuwetenschappelyk Onderzok) of Delft, Netherlands. Items of interest were precision of measurement, reduction of operator-induced bias, and the speed of repetitive measurement. The data were analyzed statistically and the results presented.


Molecular and Genomic Characterization of Enteric Pathogens Circulation during Hajj Mona Ismail Alsomali Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia is a unique mass gathering event that attracts approximately 3 million pilgrims from around the globe. This diverse pilgrim population coupled with the nature of the performed activities raise major public health concerns in the host country with potential global implications. Although gastroenteritis and diarrhea are common among the pilgrims performing Hajj, the microbial etiologies of these infections are still unknown. We used molecular and antigenic approaches to identify the main pathogens associated with Hajj diarrhea. 544 fecal samples from pilgrims suffering from diarrhea whilst performing Hajj during three consecutive seasons (2011-2013) and 99 control samples from 2011 were screened for 16 pathogens that include bacterial, parasitic and viral etiologies that are commonly associated with diarrheal infections. At least one of the screened pathogens could be detected in 42% (n=228) of the samples from the diarrheal cases. Bacteria were the main agents detected in 83% (n=189) of the positive samples, followed by viral and parasitic agents detected in 6% (n=14) and 5% (n=12) respectively. We have also standardized a 16S-based metagenomic approach to identify the gut microbiome in diarrheal cases and non-diarrheal controls in 76 samples. Also, we have standardized a shotgun metagenomics protocol for the direct characterization (diagnosis) of enteric 5 pathogens without cultivation. This approach was used successfully to identify viral (adenovirus) and bacterial causes of Enterotoxigenic E. coli diarrhea from Hajj samples. The findings in this study fill in clear gaps in our knowledge of the etiologies associated with diarrheal infections during Hajj. Foodborne bacteria were the major contributors to Hajj-diarrheal infections. This was coupled with the increased incidences of antimicrobial resistance loci associated with the identified bacteria. These findings would help the public health policy makers to develop and introduce appropriate public health measures to improve the food safety during Hajj.


The genus Arnica (Asteraceae) was investigated for phylogenetic relationships and sesquiterpene lactone (STL) content with the aims to trace the evolutionary history of the genus and to investigate possible congruencies between DNA sequence data, secondary chemistry, and biological activity. Complex evolutionary patterns in Arnica are evident from phylogenetic analyses of chloroplast regions (the rpl16 and rps16 introns and the psbA–trnH, ycf4–cemA, and trnT–L spacers), nuclear ribosomal regions (the internal and external transcribed spacers) and the nuclear low-copy DNA region coding for the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (RPB2) between exons 17 and 23. Polymorphism was detected in nuclear ribosomal and low-copy regions, likely caused by polyploidy and agamospermy. Lineage sorting and/or hybridization is a possible explanation for incongruencies between topologies of the different DNA regions. None of the five subgenera in Arnica constitute a monophyletic group according to any of our analyses. Sesquiterpene lactone profiles were compared to nuclear ribosomal DNA data using phylogenetic inference and principal component analysis for 33 accessions of 16 species. Clusters supported by both STL chemistry and ribosomal DNA sequence data consist of multiple accessions of the same species (e.g. A montana and A. longifolia), indicating that these species are well defined both genetically and chemically, based on our sampling. Support for subspecies classification of A. chamissonis and A. parryi was found in chemical data. For the first time STLs are reported from subtribe Madiinae, sister to Arniciinae.Anti-inflammatory properties, as measured by inhibition of human neutrophil elastase release from neutrophils and inhibition of the binding of transcription factor NF-κB to DNA, were investigated for extracts of 12 Arnica species. Arnica montana, A. chamissonis and A. longifolia accessions show high inhibitory effects in both bioassays. Generally, species with a more diverse STL chemistry also possess the strongest inhibitory activity in the bioassays.


The clinical microbiology reporting (CMR) for culture and antimicrobial susceptibility test (C and AST) is the most important investigation reported from a microbiology laboratory. However, majority of Indian microbiology laboratories generate a basic level C and AST report comprising of identification of the organism isolated with a list of antimicrobials and their susceptibility results, without any additional comments or messages. This leads to improper communication between the laboratory physicians and clinical physicians. This may further lead to irrational use of antimicrobials, improper specimen collection practices, inappropriate filing of requisition forms and poor infection control practices, which are mainly due to either unawareness or negligence of clinicians. Therefore, it is essential that the laboratory microbiologists of India should uplift themselves to clinical microbiologists and foster their CMR to higher standards by incorporating specific comments, suggestions and advices in the C and AST report, as recommended by the regulatory agencies such as Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute and European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing. The comments may be of several types which include report categories, in-progress reports, requisition form filling, specimen collection, footnotes in the AST table, infection control advices, antimicrobial agent-related suggestions, predicted susceptibility related and intrinsic resistance comments, etc. The use of comments will greatly help the clinicians to rationalise their antimicrobial practice, improvise practices of specimen collection, requisition form filling and finally instituting the appropriate infection control practices. These comments mentioned in this article are only author's recommendations; the end users may incorporate according their local practice and need.


The questionable mechanism initially proposed to explain how 1,5,7-triazabicyclo[4.4.0]dec-5-ene (TBD) allows us to ring-open β-lactones, such as β-butyrolactone (BL), is reinvestigated here. With the use of a trisubstituted β-lactone, i.e. (R,S)-benzylcarbonyl-3,3-dimethyl-2-oxetanone, and the association of techniques such as 1H/DOSY NMR and MALDI/ESI-MS, we demonstrated that BL is effectively polymerized by the TBD in bulk at 60 °C, minorly from the reported N-acyl-α,β-unsaturated TBD species, and majorly from crotonate anions issued from the basic activation of BL. In contrast to what has been reported, the TBD is not covalently linked to the PBL chain but mainly plays the role of a counterion in the –C(O)O−, TBDH+ active site.


When using additive manufacturing processes, the choice of the numerous settings for the process and design parameters significantly influences the build and production time. To reduce the required build time, it is useful to adapt the parameters with the greatest influence. However, since the contribution of the individual parameters is not readily apparent, a sensible choice of process and design parameters can become a challenging task.Thus, the following article presents a method, that enables the product developer to determine the main contributors to the required build time of additively manufactured products. By using this sensitivity analysis method, the contributors of the individual parameters can be analyzed for a given parametrized CAD model with the help of an analysis-based build time estimation approach. The novelty of the contribution can be found in providing a method that allows studying both design and process parameters simultaneously, taking the machine to be used into account. The exemplary application of the presented method to a sample part manufactured by Fused Deposition Modeling demonstrates its benefits and applicability.


Radiotherapy of head and neck cancers often results in collateral damage to adjacent salivary glands associated with clinically significant hyposalivation and xerostomia. Due to the reduced capacity of salivary glands to regenerate, hyposalivation is treated by substitution with artificial saliva, rather than through functional restoration of the glands. During embryogenesis, the ectodysplasin/ectodysplasin receptor (EDA/EDAR) signaling pathway is a critical element in the development and growth of salivary glands. We have assessed the effects of pharmacological activation of this pathway in a mouse model of radiation-induced salivary gland dysfunction. We report that post-irradiation administration of an EDAR-agonist monoclonal antibody (mAbEDAR1) normalizes function of radiation damaged adult salivary glands as determined by stimulated salivary flow rates. In addition, salivary gland structure and homeostasis is restored to pre-irradiation levels. These results suggest that transient activation of pathways involved in salivary gland development could facilitate regeneration and restoration of function following damage.


In this article we consider square permutations, a natural subclass of permutations defined in terms of geometric conditions, that can also be described in terms of pattern avoiding permutations, and convex permutoninoes, a related subclass of polyominoes. While these two classes of objects arised independently in various contexts, they play a natural role in the description of certain random horizontally and vertically convex grid configurations.
We propose a common approach to the enumeration of these two classes of objets that allows us to explain the known common form of their generating functions, and to derive new refined formulas and linear time random generation algorithms for these objects and the associated grid configurations.


The goal of the research described in this paper is to develop an application-independent presentation tool that automatically designs effective graphical presentations (such as bar charts, scatter plots, and connected graphs) of relational information. Two problems are raised by this goal: The codification of graphic design criteria in a form that can be used by the presentation tool, and the generation of a wide variety of designs so that the presentation tool can accommodate a wide variety of information. The approach described in this paper is based on the view that graphical presentations are sentences of graphical languages. The graphic design issues are codified as expressiveness and effectiveness criteria for graphical languages. Expressiveness criteria determine whether a graphical language can express the desired information. Effectiveness criteria determine whether a graphical language exploits the capabilities of the output medium and the human visual system. A wide variety of designs can be systematically generated by using a composition algebra that composes a small set of primitive graphical languages. Artificial intelligence techniques are used to implement a prototype presentation tool called APT (A Presentation Tool), which is based on the composition algebra and the graphic design criteria.


Objective: To assess effects of caffeine on Parkinson disease (PD). Methods: In this multicenter parallel-group controlled trial, patients with PD with 1–8 years disease duration, Hoehn & Yahr stages I–III, on stable symptomatic therapy were randomized to caffeine 200 mg BID vs matching placebo capsules for 6–18 months. The primary research question was whether objective motor scores would differ at 6 months (Movement Disorder Society–sponsored Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale [MDS-UPDRS]–III, Class I evidence). Secondary outcomes included safety and tolerability, motor symptoms (MDS-UPDRS-II), motor fluctuations, sleep, nonmotor symptoms (MDS-UPDRS-I), cognition (Montreal Cognitive Assessment), and quality of life. Results: Sixty patients received caffeine and 61 placebo. Caffeine was well-tolerated with similar prevalence of side effects as placebo. There was no improvement in motor parkinsonism (the primary outcome) with caffeine treatment compared to placebo (difference between groups −0.48 [95% confidence interval −3.21 to 2.25] points on MDS-UPDRS-III). Similarly, on secondary outcomes, there was no change in motor signs or motor symptoms (MDS-UPDRS-II) at any time point, and no difference on quality of life. There was a slight improvement in somnolence over the first 6 months, which attenuated over time. There was a slight increase in dyskinesia with caffeine (MDS-UPDRS-4.1+4.2 = 0.25 points higher), and caffeine was associated with worse cognitive testing scores (average Montreal Cognitive Assessment = 0.66 [0.01, 1.32] worse than placebo). Conclusion: Caffeine did not provide clinically important improvement of motor manifestations of PD (Class I evidence). Epidemiologic links between caffeine and lower PD risk do not appear to be explained by symptomatic effects. Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT01738178. Classification of evidence: This study provides Class I evidence that for patients with PD, caffeine does not significantly improve motor manifestations.


Collision strengths and Maxwellian-averaged rate coefficients have been calculated for 3 160 nonvanishing transitions among 80 fine structure levels, dominated by configurations 3d, 3d4s, and 3d4p in Fe VI. Collision strengths are calculated using the R-matrix method with a 34-term close-coupling target expansion and for electron energies up to 10 Rydbergs. Detailed comparisons of rate coefficients are presented with the relativistic Breit-Pauli calculations using a 19-level expansion corresponding to the first 8 LS terms dominated by the ground configuration 3d. For the low-lying transitions of practical interest there is excellent agreement, better than 10%, among three sets of rate coefficients calculated using the 34-term and 8-term non-relativistic calculations and the 19-level Breit-Pauli calculation, indicating that (i) the relativistic effects are not too significant, and (ii) the numerical uncertainties associated with the resolution of the extensive resonances in the collision strengths are small. Rate coefficients are tabulated in a range of temperatures, 10−10 K, where Fe VI is normally abundant in radiatively photoionized or collisionally ionized plasmas sources. A brief discussion of the calculations and sample results are given. The present rates for Fe VI are expected to find applications in UV spectral diagnostics of hot stellar sources and planetary nebulae.


The convenience of waterborne waste disposal in rural households and the difficulty of providing adequate central sewerage systems for the large populations migrating to urban areas from rural centres led to the widespread use of septic tank systems in North America. It is now estimated that about 50,000,000 America and 4,000,000 Canadians use septic tank systems for household sewage disposal. However, engineers have been too busy with larger treatment works to give attention to the septic system or even to learn what attention is needed. Thus the septic tank systems today are essentially the same in design and construction as they were 40 yr ago. A septic tank performs three main functions: 1. Removes a good portion of the settleable and floatable matter by sludge and scum; 2. effects reduction in settled and floating organic matter, through anaerobic digestion; and 3. acts as storage for the remaining solids till removed. There have been several investigations on the design of septic tanks. The best known studies in the United States were carried out by the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) and by the University of California, 15 yr-10 yr ago. Only a few studies have been carried out on the actual performance of septic tanks. An attempt has been made in this paper to evaluate the efficiency of a rural household septic tank.


This article traces the history of peer review of scientific publications, plotting the development of the process from its inception to its present-day application. We discuss the merits of peer review and its weaknesses, both perceived and real, as well as the practicalities of several major proposed changes to the system. It is our hope that readers will gain a better appreciation of the complexities of the process and, when serving as reviewers themselves, will do so in a manner that will enhance the utility of the exercise. We also propose the development of an international on-line training program for accreditation of potential referees.


This paper analyzes the extensive-margin labor-supply effects of a Swedish earned income tax credit introduced in 2007. The reform was one of the government's flagship reforms to boost employment, but its actual effects have been widely debated. We exploit the fact that the size of the tax credit is a function of the municipality of residence and income if working, which yields two sources of quasi-experimental variation. The identifying variation, however, turns out to be small and potentially endogenous, which means that the question of whether the reform has delivered the hoped-for effects cannot be credibly answered.


This project examined the
acquisition of third person accusative clitics in Spanish by Chinese-speaking
learners. Specifically, it focused on the role of cross-linguistic influence and
patterns of language exposure and use in the acquisition of the syntactic and
semantic properties constraining the production and intuition of overt and null
clitics in Spanish. An elicited production task and an acceptability judgment
task were performed on a total of 83 participants divided into four groups. A
group of Chinese immigrants in Spain (n = 24), a group of classroom learners in
China with study abroad experience (n = 23), and a group of learners without
study abroad experience (n = 19) were compared to a group of native speakers of
Spanish (n=17). The results showed that, while all the experimental groups
showed knowledge of accusative clitics, their knowledge regarding the distribution
of overt and null clitics was generally not related to definiteness or
syntactic island. However, some participants with higher proficiency or more
use of Spanish showed some sensitivity to the syntactic property of null
clitics but not definiteness. Proficiency in Spanish had different effects on
the immigrants and the classroom learners. Use of Spanish also played different
roles between the pure classroom learners and the other two groups with naturalistic
exposure. Finally, the results also showed that, while the three groups all
showed influence from Chinese, the Spanish and Chinese grammars of the
immigrants showed more similarity, compared to the two groups of classroom
learners. Based on a proposed path of
acquisition, the results were discussed in line with second language
acquisition theorizing on feature accessibility and reassembly. Some
implications on classroom instruction are also discussed.


The presented work contributes novel aspects to the understanding of function and co-action of cellular signalling networks in higher plants in the course of acclimation to a changing light environment. The results show that redox signals generated in the photosynthetic electron transport chain have a deeper impact on the cellular signalling network as supposed so far. It was proven that the photosynthetic apparatus acts as an important sensor for changes in the light environment of land plants and that signals originating from the redox state of electron transport components are an own class of plastid signals targeted to the nucleus. From the obtained data, a model is proposed which shows a possible signal transduction derived from the photosynthetic electron transport targeting nuclear gene expression independently of cytosolic photoreceptors. Furthermore a regulatory mechanism for chloroplast gene expression via a phosphorylation cascade starting with the kinase responsible for LHCII phosphorylation is suggested.


Some say it is risky to use the words art and science in one sentence when talking to scientists and engineers. And it must be even more perilous to add the 'contentious' concepts of modelling and simulation to the brew. The immediate objection from many practising professionals in the scientific arena is that modelling and simulation are to be used only when rigour is not needed, or when people are lazy. This article and others in this edition of ScienceScope may bring another perspective to the discussion.


The United States has never been given to particular adoration of foreign observers of its mores, who quite often turn out to be critics rather than admirers. Nevertheless, one of its favorite visitors since his one and only appearance on the scene in 1831-1832 is the 25-year-old magistrate Alexis de Tocqueville, sent by his government to study penal reform in the new republic. Tocqueville and his good friend Gustave de Beaumont, like young adventurers before and since, took the opportunity to extend their stay, and turned their tour of prisons into a journey through the young nation that furnished the raw material for what readers ever since have considered to be the single most insightful study of the United States ever written. Since the publication of Tocqueville's study, titled De la democratie en Amerique, which appeared in English in 1835, the second volume following in 1840, all manner of students of U. S. society have pored over it, studying it, quoting and misquoting it, and claiming it as support for their varied ideas. Both conservatives and liberals have claimed Tocqueville as a founding father of their thought. But as John Lukacs points out, Tocqueville cannot be so simply categorized. Through all of these evaluations, assessments and hagiographies, commentators sometimes lose sight of the fact that Tocqueville was, by training and choice, an attorney, and what is more, a civil law trained attorney, a magistrate, a member of the Legislative Assembly, a drafter of the Constitution of France's Second Republic and a member of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's Cabinet. Ultimately, as one student of his thought points out, it may not matter.As a civilian, Tocqueville was trained in a newly formed legal regime. As an attorney practicing within a code enacted only a year before his birth, he had a vital interest in determining how such new codes could be integrated into existing social, political, and legal environments. His interest in the new republic across the ocean, which was engaged in a similar experiment, was at once philosophical and practical. Thus, what use U. S. judges have made of his words in their own opinions is certainly of interest.


This paper examines the consequences of rapid disinflation for downward wage rigidities in two emerging countries, Brazil and Uruguay, relying on high quality matched employer-employee administrative data. Downward nominal wage rigidities are more important in Uruguay, while wage indexation is dominant in Brazil. Two regime changes are observed during the sample period, 1995-2004: (i) in Uruguay wage indexation declines, while workers' resistance to nominal wage cuts becomes more pronounced; and (ii) in Brazil, the introduction of inflation targeting by the Central Bank in 1999 shifts the focal point of wage negotiations from changes in the minimum wage to expected inflation. These regime changes cast doubts on the notion that wage rigidity is structural in the sense of Lucas (1976).


This paper presents a combined binary pulse position modulation (BPPM)/code-multiplexed transmitted-reference (CM-TR) ultra wideband (UWB) system. The low complexity CM-TR UWB is not energy efficient as one half of the energy is used to transmit reference pulses and, even at low-to-medium data rates, it suffers from strong multi-user interference (MUI) and inter-frame interference (IFI). Keeping the information rate constant, the combined BPPM/CM-TR UWB system utilizes 3 dB less energy per bit as compared to the CM-TR system and achieves relatively longer silent periods between the pulses, which not only mitigate the IFI but also decrease the MUI due to less collisions with other asynchronous users. In the high SNR region, where the effect of IFI and MUI severely degrades the bit-error-rate (BER) performance of the multiuser CM-TR system, simulation results verify that the multiuser BPPM/CM-TR outperforms the multiuser CM-TR system.


1. Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has revolutionised biomonitoring in both marine and freshwater ecosystems. However, for semi-aquatic and terrestrial animals, the application of this technique remains relatively untested.

2. We first assess the efficiency of eDNA metabarcoding in detecting semi-aquatic and terrestrial mammals in natural lotic ecosystems in the UK by comparing sequence data recovered from water and sediment samples to the mammalian communities expected from historical data. Secondly, using occupancy modelling we compared the detection efficiency of eDNA metabarcoding to multiple conventional non-invasive survey methods (latrine surveys and camera trapping).

3. eDNA metabarcoding detected a large proportion of the expected mammalian community within each area. Common species in the areas were detected at the majority of sites. Several key species of conservation concern in the UK were detected by eDNA sampling in areas where authenticated records do not currently exist, but potential false positives were also identified.

4. Water-based eDNA metabarcoding provided comparable results to conventional survey methods in per unit of survey effort for three species (water vole, field vole, and red deer) using occupancy models. The comparison between survey 'effort' to reach a detection probability of ≥0.95 revealed that 3-6 water replicates would be equivalent to 3-5 latrine surveys and 5-30 weeks of single camera deployment, depending on the species.

5. Synthesis and Applications. eDNA metabarcoding can be used to generate an initial 'distribution map' of mammalian diversity at the landscape level. If conducted during times of peak abundance, carefully chosen sampling points along multiple river courses provide a reliable snapshot of the species that are present in a catchment area. In order to fully capture solitary, rare and invasive species, we would currently recommend the use of eDNA metabarcoding alongside other non-invasive surveying methods (i.e. camera traps) to maximize monitoring efforts.


In 1998, Fisher et al. attempted to draw together published and anecdotal information to answer some of the questions raised by the fi ndings of Fisher et al. (1994; 1995), that introduced pastures of African grasses on the eastern plains of Colombia accumulated large amounts of C in the soil. This review synthesises the work in both Colombia and Brazil over the last 7 years that answers some of the questions raised and speculations made by Fisher et al. (1998). The most important studies have shown that the rate at which litter decays at the soil surface has been grossly underestimated in the past. As a consequence, net aerial primary productivity (NAPP) was shown to be 33.3–33.5 t/ha/yr in well managed pastures of introduced grasses without either a legume component or N fertiliser. While data for soil C vary according to the past history and states of the pasture, well managed pastures do accumulate C in the soil to levels above that under the native grassland vegetation. Net primary productivity below ground was only slightly less than NAPP. Defi ciencies of N and P are primarily responsible for the widespread degradation that occurs when introduced pastures are overgrazed and not fertilised. Heavy stocking rates profoundly change the N cycle and lead to N defi ciency and hence degradation in the bulk pasture area by concentrating N recycling from faeces and urine in rest areas and watering points. Here the pasture is so damaged by trampling that it cannot take advantage of the increased fertility.


Children's body posture has been studied more and more by physical therapy, as well as mouth breather children have been studied by speech-language-hearing therapy. This study tries to check, through scientific literature, the relationship between stomatognathic functions and body posture in mouth breather children. This is a review of literature on body posture and the stomatognathic system in obstructive and functional mouth breathers. We searched, in electronic data basis such as MEDLINE, SCIELO and LILACS, and Google Scientific, articles related to these topics, published in the last 10. The selected articles were organized according to authors, title, source, age, and publishing year. When related to the type, the studies were considered: literature review articles; descriptive data analysis; field research. After selecting the texts, we identified four studies that relate posture, stomatognathic system and mouth breathing; two studies that relate stomatognathic system and posture; 13 studies relating to the stomatognathic system and mouth breathing. We may perceive that there is a lack of studies correlating body posture and stomatognathic system in oral breathers. The lack is even higher when we compare obstructive oral breathers and vicious oral breathers relating the body posture to the stomatognathic system.


Hepatitis C (HCV) virus is recognized as the major cause of what was previously referred to as parenterally acquired (blood-mediated) non-A, non-B hepatitis. A study involving 252 transfused and nontransfused Egyptian children was conducted from November 1990 through February 1991 to determine the prevalence of HCV and the role of blood and blood and blood product transfusions in the spread of the virus. Serum specimens were assayed by a second generation enzyme immunoassay and were considered reactive only after supplemental testing using the second generation recombinant immunoblot assay. Prevalence among 84 young study subjects with hematologic disorders was 55% (46 of 84), while no HCV antibodies were detected among the two nonhematologic pediatric populations studied: 84 hospital admissions and 84 acutely ill but otherwise healthy outpatients (seeking treatment for symptoms associated with a new condition less than three weeks old in the absence of any chronic health problem). Ninety-two percent (77 of 84) of the hematology-related cases had medical histories of multiple transfusions. Positive antibody responses (46) were significantly associated with increased duration of illness (P < 0.001) and the volume and number of transfusions (P < 0.01) when compared with negative ones (38). However, prior hospitalization and/or surgery were not related to HCV antibody status. The high prevalence of HCV antibody among multiply transfused infants and children suggests that blood and blood product supplies should be regularly screened for HCV antibody.


This demo is a gesture-based communication framework designed for an immersive joint shopping scenario. It focuses on enhancing the mobile human-to-human interaction between two geographically separated users: an in-house user and an in-store user. By exploring the uses of depth-based tracking techniques and the integration of head-mounted displays and the spherical camera, we (1) construct an immersive virtual shopping environment for the in-house user remaining in a house and (2) offer a novel way for the users to achieve a real-time gestural communication in the physical shopping environment which the in-store user stays in, while (3) the latter gets an augmented reality experience. Through this demo, both users could share a feeling that they go for shopping side by side in the same place.


When women won the vote in the United States in 1920, they were still routinely barred from serving as jurors, but some began vigorous campaigns for a place in the jury box. This book tells the story of how women mobilized in fifteen states to change jury laws so that women could gain this additional right of citizenship. Some campaigns quickly succeeded; others took substantially longer. The book reveals that when women strategically adapted their tactics to the broader political environment, they were able to speed up the pace of jury reform, whereas less strategic movements took longer. A comparison of the more strategic women's jury movements with those that were less strategic shows that the former built coalitions with other women's groups, took advantage of political opportunities, had more past experience in seeking legal reforms, and confronted tensions and even conflict within their ranks in ways that bolstered their action.


A slit-lamp biomicroscope Visionix VX75 has been equipped with a high-resolution digital sensor. A specular reflection technique at an angular magnification of 36 (cid:1) performed by the slit-lamp biomicroscope is used to develop a procedure to (i) measure the thickness of the human cornea by measuring the distance between the two reflections of its anterior and posterior surfaces and (ii) capture suitable images for morphometric analyses of the corneal endothelium ' s cell mosaic. The examples of morphometric analysis of these images are reported. The biases due to the dioptric power of the anterior surface of the cornea, the oblique observation, and the asymmetry of the digital biomicroscope are discussed. These biases can be corrected by a specific calibration.


According to the last World Health Organization report (1), chronic diseases (nowadays called non-communicable diseases, NCD) are responsible for 60% of all global deaths. Most of the countries (92%) have developed at least one policy or strategy to respond to NCD and/or their risk factors. Nevertheless, many of these strategies were not implemented. The WHO report concludes with a list of countermeasures, such as implementation and improvement of policies, including coverage of all risk factors and diseases and evaluation of goals. Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer are among the main chronic diseases included in these statistics.

Shift work has been associated with some NCD as well as with recognized risk factor for them [ie, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use, unbalanced blood glucose, hypertension, and overweight/obesity (1)]. However, the association between shiftwork and chronic diseases is still not clear. The link between shiftwork and disease is questioned (ie, 2–3) thus it is important that the scientific community continues to contribute to the establishment of the main risk factors for NCD, as well as to suggest mitigation strategies. Thus, workplace interventions are excellent strategies to investigate appropriate measures that may support national government policies to prevent NCD, particularly those related to shift worker health.

In the present issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health , Neil and co-workers (4) present the paper "Health-related interventions among night shift workers: a critical review of the literature" where they review interventional designs within four areas in working life to prevent negative health effects among shift workers, namely, controlled light and dark exposure, shift schedule changes, behavioral or lifestyle interventions, and pharmacological aids to promote sleep or alertness. Articles published before August 2012 were systematically searched (the oldest published in 1982) and the systematic review considered >5000 articles. Laboratory or simulated studies were excluded, resulting in 44 "real life" articles. The review included health outcomes such as sleep quantity or quality, markers of circadian disruption, biological markers of chronic disease, and WHO-identified risk factors for chronic disease. Overall, it was not fruitful to draw any major conclusions and to point towards specific health-related recommendations since the variety and directions of the studies differed. Even though most studies included in the review showed positive effects, for example for health promoting bio-markers and sleep, any long-term health effects were not reported or planned in the designs. Furthermore, the authors concluded that very few or no intervention designs use a combination of possible approaches to promote health, a strategy that could show stronger effects. They also suggest to develop the field using modern technology.
One example is the use of smartphones approaching a spectrum of shiftwork-related behaviors in interventions as described by van Drongelen et al's "Evaluation of an mHealth intervention aiming to improve health-related behavior and sleep and reduce fatigue among airline pilots" (5). The authors used a mobile phone app to direct airline pilots to websites offering either tailored advice or general advice only (control group). After six months, the intervention group showed improvements in fatigue, sleep quality, physical activity, and snacking behavior. Although some other health-related aspects were not affected, the authors conclude that tailored advice through an intervention is an effective mean to support employees coping with irregular flight schedules and circadian disruption.

Viewed together, these articles show the difficulties of performing interventions in real life to promote long-lasting effects on shift workers' health. Field studies are difficult to run in general, but the realization of an intervention for the prevention of chronic diseases is much more complex. Firstly, all countries face chronic diseases, it thus seems the causes of these diseases remain the same regardless of socioeconomic level and gender (1, 6). Secondly, in case of working life, there is a need to take into account that modifiable risk factors for chronic diseases such as unhealthy diet, tobacco use, and physical inactivity may be developed or aggravated by factors such as work organization, (ie, shift work schedules). This means shift work interventions should also include actions related to work organization. Alertness and cognition aids to avoid problems due to circadian misalignment and inverted sleep-wake cycle could be included in these actions to influence the worker's lifestyle. In other words, chronic diseases are also affected by political, cultural, environmental, and social determinants. Thirdly, lasting effects of an intervention on health require longer follow-ups and information from representative samples of workers. To ensure that data is representative, there is often a strong dependence of the participation of workers at multiple time points. In future, we might have to seek methods to increase compliance. As outlined here, new technology could be an alternative but also other methods such as material incentives to support compliance with a study protocol (7) might be necessary.

While many interventions are a first step in the prevention of NCD they also address other negative health aspects such as safety at work and absenteeism, necessitating medical care with high costs for society. Interventions addressing these problems are another important step towards improving shift worker health. Some of these areas are clearly related to shift work and not touched upon in the referred articles but are of growing importance, such as mental health problems (8), neuropsychological performance impairments (9), and problems related to the ageing shift worker (10).

In short, the present issue of the Journal includes a useful overview of the effectiveness of shift work interventions to improve health. The issue also presents an example of how to include a broad variety of health-promoting strategies, individually systematized through use of modern technology. In the future, it is clear we need further interventions that include a broad spectrum of actions, but also consider a long-term perspective in order to demonstrate hopefully long-lasting effects.

Although use of modern technology permits a tailored approach adapted to the individual, the authors of both mentioned articles argue there is still limited evidence that such methods have proven to be successful. The study by van Drongelen and co-workers (5) was presented at the 21 st Symposium on Shift Work and Working Time in Salvador, Brazil. Readers who wish to follow the line of research of shift work interventions more closely are hereby invited to the 22 nd Symposium to be held in Elsinore 40 km north of Copenhagen, Denmark, on 8–12 June 2015. The overall theme of the conference is "Challenges and Solutions for Healthy Working Hours" (www.shiftwork2015.net/).


Bangladesh is losing huge food production from the Teesta catchment area due to a lack of availability of irrigation water in the dry and lean period because of unilateral water withdrawal in the upstream country, India. The area, which is directly dependent on the irrigation water of the Teesta river, is the study area for this paper. The study reveals that rice production in Dalia, Nilphamari, Sayedpur and Rangpur regions is badly affected by the irrigation water scarcity. It appears that production is particularly severely affected in Rangpur, making it a relatively more food insecure area in the Teesta basin. The major finding of this study is that more than 4.45 million metric tons of rice production have been missed from the Teesta catchment area since 2006–07, triggered by the massive irrigation failure of the Teesta Barrage Irrigation Project (TBIP) due to reduced water flow in the Teesta river. The total rice production missed in the north-western region since 2006–07 is more than the country9s total rice import during 2008/09–2013/14 fiscal years and nearly one quarter of the total boro production in the 2012/13 fiscal year. This reduced food production renders the north-western part of the country a food insecure region from its own production.


This study evaluated the single and interactive effects of age and training status on selected collagen parameters in two rodent locomotor skeletal muscles contrasting in fiber type composition. Gastrocnemius (GAST) and soleus (SOL) muscles from both trained (10 wk of daily treadmill running) and sedentary young adult (5-mo-old), middle-aged (15-mo-old), and old (23-mo-old) female Fischer 344 rats were evaluated for concentrations of collagen (measured by hydroxyproline concentration ([OH-Pro])) and of the predominant nonreducible lysine aldehyde-derived collagen cross-link hydroxylysylpyridinoline ([HP]). Maximal aerobic capacity was significantly elevated in all three trained groups compared with sedentary age-matched control groups. Slow-twitch SOL had a significantly higher [OH-Pro] than fast-twitch GAST (P < 0.05). Although aging had no effect on [OH-Pro] in GAST, in SOL a significant increase with age was seen (P < 0.02). In sedentary rats both GAST and SOL [HP] increased with age, with this increase being more pronounced for SOL. Additionally, although training had no effect on the aging-associated increase in GAST [HP], it prevented the rise seen in SOL. The observed training-induced reduction in SOL [HP] presumably reflects exercise recruitment and subsequent stimulation of collagen synthesis and degradation rates in this muscle. We conclude that both aging and training affect the extracellular matrix in rodent limb skeletal muscle.


Aims. High temporal and spatial resolution observations from the Rapid Oscillations in the Solar Atmosphere (ROSA) multiwavelength imager on the Dunn Solar Telescope are used to study the velocities of small-scale Hα jets in an emerging solar active region. Methods. The dataset comprises of simultaneous imaging in the Hα core, Ca II K, and G band, together with photospheric line-of-sight magnetograms. Time-distance techniques are employed to determine projected plane-of-sky velocities. Results. The Hα images are highly dynamic in nature, with estimated jet velocities as high as 45 km s−1. These jets are one-directional, with their origin seemingly linked to underlying Ca II K brightenings and G-band magnetic bright points. Conclusions. It is suggested that the siphon flow model of cool coronal loops is suitable for the interpretation of our observations. The jets are associated with small-scale explosive events, and may provide a mass outflow from the photosphere to the corona.


This cumulative dissertation is dedicated to the study of universal behavior in one-dimensional driven diffusive systems far from equilibrium. To capture essential aspects of such systems we will make
use of modified versions of the paradigmatic totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP).

Universality is a well-established central concept of equilibrium physics. Over the last years
indications for its relevance in nonequilibrium systems were found, while a deeper understanding of mechanisms leading to universality is still lacking. Besides, only a few classes
of universal behavior have been identified so far. The two most prominent examples are the diffusive class with dynamical exponent $z=2$ and the superdiffusive Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) class with
$z=3/2$. Very recently for systems exhibiting several conservation laws, e.g., anharmonic chains, a new class with exponent $z=5/3$ appeared.
Using Nonlinear Fluctuating Hydrodynamics and Mode Coupling Theory, we show that these nonequilibrium universality classes are only part of an infinite discrete family. Remarkably, their exponents
$z_\alpha$ are given by quotients of neighboring Fibonacci numbers, starting with either $z_1=2$ (if a diffusion mode exists) or $z_1=3/2$ (if a KPZ mode is present and no diffusion mode exists). If
neither a diffusion nor a KPZ mode are present, all modes have the golden mean $\varphi=(1+\sqrt{5})$ as their dynamical exponent $z_\alpha=\varphi$. The universal scaling functions of these
Fibonacci modes are
asymmetric Levy distributions, while the dynamical exponents and scaling functions are completely fixed by the macroscopic stationary current-density relation and the compressibility matrix.
Using dynamical Monte Carlo simulations we establish these exponents for a multi-species
TASEP, consisting of coupled single-lane TASEPs. In particular, we show the appearance of
superdiffusive modes with exponents $z_\alpha=3/2$ (but different from the KPZ class),
$z_\alpha=5/3$, $z_\alpha=8/5$ and $z_\alpha=(1+\sqrt{5})/2$. This phenomenon is believed
to be generic for short-ranged driven diffusive systems with more than one conserved
density.

Furthermore, we reconsider the long-standing question of the critical defect hopping rate $r_c$ in the TASEP with a slow bond (defect). For $r<r_c$ the system reacts globally and a defect-induced
phase
transition is observed due to queuing at the defect site. On the other hand, the defect for $r\geq r_c$ has only local effects on the stationary state.
Mean-field theory predicts a global influence already for arbitrarily small defect strength, $r_c=1$.
Up to now it was not possible to verify this prediction using computer simulations. Indeed, a recent numerical study indicated that a small defect strength would not have a global influence and
further
$r_c=0.80(2)$ was suggested.
Studying density profiles of parallel evolving systems we improve the numerics to show that $r_c>0.99$ and give strong evidence for $r_c=1$ as predicted by the mean-field theory and anticipated by
recent theoretical findings.


Alvarez and Jermann (2000) show that the constrained efficient allocations of endowment economies with imperfect risk sharing due to limited commitment can be decentralized as competitive equilibria with endogenous debt constraints that are not too tight. These are the loosest possible borrowing limits that do not allow for default in equilibrium. However, such a decentralization is not possible in the presence of capital accumulation, since changes in the aggregate capital also affect the incentives to default. In a model with endogenous production, aggregate risk, and competitive intermediaries, we show that a decentralization with endogenous debt constraints is possible if one also imposes an upper limit on the intermediaries' capital holdings.


Previous studies have demonstrated an association between air pollution and asthma exacerbation. Less understood is the effect of elemental carbon (EC), and the interaction of EC with temperature, on increases in pediatric asthma emergency department visits and how these relationships change across the seasons in a metropolitan area with several industries and relatively low air pollution. Measurements of EC, ozone (O3), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and total oxides of nitrogen (NOx) were available from the St. Louis EPA Supersite for June 1, 2001 to May 31, 2003. We obtained ICD-9 information on 281,763 pediatric ED visits from 27 hospitals in the St. Louis, MO metropolitan area. The relationship between EC and pediatric asthma ED visits, controlling for season, weekend exposure, allergens, and other pollutants known to exacerbate asthma, was assessed using Poisson generalized estimating equations using a 1-day lag between exposure and ED visit. We evaluated the interaction of EC and temperature and EC and weekend vs. weekday exposure. An interaction effect existed between EC and temperature for 11–17-year-olds during the summer and winter seasons. During the summer, a 0.10 μg/m3 increase in EC resulted in a 9.45% increase in asthma ED visits among 11–17-year-olds (95%CI = 1.02,1.17) at the median seasonal temperature (86.5°F). This risk increased with increasing temperature. During the winter, a 0.10 μg/m3 increase in EC resulted in 2.80% increase in asthma ED visits among 11–17-year-olds (95%CI = 1.01,1.05) at the median seasonal temperature (43.3°F). This risk increased with decreasing temperature. Among 11–17-year-olds, daily number of asthma ED visits is associated with increased levels of EC at higher temperatures in the summer and lower temperatures in the winter.


Fractal scaling of the exponential type is used to establish the cumulative volume (V) distribution applied through agricultural spray nozzles in size x droplets, smaller than the characteristic size X. From exponent d, we deduced the fractal dimension (Df) which measures the degree of irregularity of the medium. This property is known as 'self-similarity'. Assuming that the droplet set from a spray nozzle is self-similar, the objectives of this study were to develop a methodology for calculating a Df factor associated with a given nozzle and to determine regression coefficients in order to predict droplet spectra factors from a nozzle, taking into account its own Df and pressure operating. Based on the iterated function system, we developed an algorithm to relate nozzle types to a particular value of Df. Four nozzles and five operating pressure droplet size characteristics were measured using a Phase Doppler Particle Analyser (PDPA). The data input consisted of droplet size spectra factors derived from these measurements. Estimated Df values showed dependence on nozzle type and independence of operating pressure. We developed an exponential model based on the Df to enable us to predict droplet size spectra factors. Significant coefficients of determination were found for the fitted model. This model could prove useful as a means of comparing the behavior of nozzles which only differ in not measurable geometric parameters and it can predict droplet spectra factors of a nozzle operating under different pressures from data measured only in extreme work pressures.


Women in the MENA region are economically and socially disempowered. High youth unemployment rates together with discriminatory social norms drive them to limit their investment in human capital. We evaluate a large-scale intervention attempting to relax human capital constraints for women by offering vocational, business and life skills training in 30 villages in rural Egypt. Relative to women in the control villages, the intervention increased the likelihood of treated women engaging in income-generating activities, driven by an increase in self-employment. Treated women also became more likely to have future business aspirations. However, their intra-household decision-making and gender equality attitudes were not affected by the intervention. We show that these results mask heterogeneous effects in terms of background characteristics and initial levels of social empowerment. We find no evidence of positive spillover effects for the program within treated villages and, more importantly, no evidence of different pre-trends in employment between the treated and control groups prior to the intervention.


Our goal is to extract meaningful transformations from raw images, such as varying the thickness of lines in handwriting or the lighting in a portrait. We propose an unsupervised approach to learn such transformations by attempting to reconstruct an image from a linear combination of transformations of its nearest neighbors. On handwritten digits and celebrity portraits, we show that even with linear transformations, our method generates visually high-quality modified images. Moreover, since our method is semiparametric and does not model the data distribution, the learned transformations extrapolate off the training data and can be applied to new types of images.


Problem statement: It has been observed that there are a limited number of studies on the resilience of primary and secondary school students in Turkey. However, it is acknowledged that secondary school students with difficult conditions of life also have to cope with rapid physical, psychological and social changes brought about by adolescence. For this reason, conducting research on the resilience characteristics of students within this age range would be an opportunity to enable them to acquire the abilities that will increase their resilience level. Moreover, the findings obtained from this research would contribute to the acknowledgement of protective factors, especially crisis response studies in the fields ofpsychological counseling and guidance services. Purpose of the Study: The general purpose of this research is to analyze perceived social support, depression and life satisfaction as predictors of the resilience of secondary school students of low socioeconomic levels. The examination of students' levels of resilience was based on gender, who they lived with, and whether their parents were together/separated and were alive/not alive. Method: The study group of the research consists of 386secondary school students. Of the students in the sample, 202 (52%) are girls, and 184 (48%) are boys. Of these students, 130 (34%) attend sixth-grade, 138 (36%) attend seventh-grade, and 118 (30%) attend eighth-grade. In this research used the relational screening method. To obtain the data for the Resilience Scale for Secondary School Students, The Brief Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS), Social Support Appraisal Scale for Children and Adolescents and Depression Scale for Children were used. A t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and multi-standard linear regression analysis were used for data analysis in the research. Findings and Results : The results obtained from the research indicate that perceived social support and life satisfaction significantly predict resilience, whereas depression is not a significant predictor of resilience. Moreover, the resilience of students does not express a significant difference based on gender. The resilience levels of students who live with their parents and whose parents are together was found to be higher when compared to other students. Conclusions and Recommendation: First of all, in order to increase their resilience abilities, psychological training can be provided through counseling in schools for students who live with only one of their parents or their relatives. Within the scope of student personality services, various social support resources can be allocated for secondary school students whose parents have separated and the father/mother is/are not alive. Since social support and life satisfaction are important variables inregard to resilience, an appropriate education-teaching environment can be provided for such studies to be conducted at schools. In considering schools as important social support elements, increasing school services that meet the needs of the students and transforming the school into an important living area that encouragesstudents to love school can be useful. This can be achieved throughsports activities, functional clubs, and creating environments where students can comfortably express themselves. In order to increase resilience levels, psycho-training programstargeting risk groups can be developed, and these programs can be experimentally tested. The most important restriction of this study is that the sample group consisted of students living in Burdur, a small city that does not receive many immigrants. Keywords: Well-being, gender, stressful life events, adolescents


The working relationship between individuals and organizations has been based on the perspective of organizational justice due to the need for approaches that go beyond the formal-legal dimension that regulates such relationship. This study aimed to describe the role of employees' trust in the organization according to the relationship between organizational justice and predisposition to retaliatory attitudes. To accomplish that, a survey was carried out, with 188 employees, chosen by convenience. Data analysis was performed using a confirmatory factor, regression, mediation and moderation in order to test the relationship between organizational justice with the other theoretical model constructs. The hypothesis of the negative effect of justice on the retaliation was confirmed (H1). The indirect mediating effect of organizational trust on justice and predisposition to employees' retaliatory attitude (H2) and the moderating effect of trust on the relationship between justice and employees' retaliatory attitude (H3) were also confirmed. The results suggested that employees' trust in the organization has a mediating and moderator effect on the relationship between justice and employees' retaliatory attitude. These findings contribute to a better understanding about the effects of justice on the relationship between employees and organizations, indicating objective managerial implications to mitigate the effects of retaliation in these organizations.


Introduction In cystic fibrosis, exacerbations impair lung function and health-related quality of life, increase healthcare costs and reduce survival. Delayed reporting of worsening symptoms can result in more severe exacerbations and worse clinical outcomes; therefore there is a need for a novel approach to facilitate the early identification and treatment of exacerbations in this population. This study investigated the usability of a smartphone application to report symptoms in adults with cystic fibrosis, and the observer agreement in clinical decision-making between senior clinicians interpreting smartphone application responses. Methods Adults with cystic fibrosis used the smartphone application weekly for four weeks. The application comprised 10 yes/no questions regarding respiratory symptoms and two regarding emotional well-being. Usability was measured with the System Usability Scale; Observer agreement was tested by providing a cystic fibrosis physician and a nurse practitioner with 45 clinical scenarios. For each scenario the clinicians, who were blinded to each other's responses, were asked to indicate whether or not they would: (i) initiate telephone contact, and/or (ii) request a clinic visit for the individual. Results Ten participants (five female), aged mean (SD) 33 (11) years, FEV1 49 (27)% predicted completed the study. The mean (SD) System Usability Scale score was 94 (6). There was perfect agreement between clinicians for initiating contact with the participant (κ = 1.0, p < 0.001), and near-perfect for requesting a clinic visit (κ = 0.86, p < 0.001). Discussion The use of a smartphone application for reporting symptoms in adults with cystic fibrosis has excellent usability and near-perfect agreement between senior clinicians when interpreting the application responses.


Abstract The issue of developing simple Black–Scholes (BS)-type approximations for pricing European options with large discrete dividends was popular since the early 2000s with a few different approaches reported during the last 10 years. Moreover, it has been claimed that at least some of the resulting expressions represent high-quality approximations which closely match the results obtained by the use of numerics. In this article we review, on the one hand, these previously suggested BS-type approximations and, on the other hand, different versions of the corresponding Crank–Nicolson (CN) numerical schemes with a primary focus on their boundary condition variations. Unexpectedly we often observe substantial deviations between the analytical and numerical results which may be especially pronounced for European puts. Moreover, our analysis demonstrates that any BS-type approximation which adjusts put parameters identically to call parameters has an inherent problem of failing to detect a little known put–call parity violation phenomenon. To address this issue, we derive a new analytic pricing approximation which is in better agreement with the corresponding numerical results in comparison with any of the previously known analytic approaches for European calls and puts with large discrete dividends.


The frequency of a power system can be compared to the heartbeats of a human. However, unlike for the human heart rate, it is vital that the frequency is kept stable at all time. Frequency deviations occur when the frequency is not kept stable. The deviations are used to measure frequency quality, which is an indication of the quality of power supply. The frequency quality has decreased the last ten years. This thesis identifies challenges of providing a sufficient frequency quality, and discusses economic solutions that Statnett as the TSO can implement to meet these challenges. The first part of the thesis presents the energy system. Based on this discussion we identify that rapid load changes, light system operation and wind power production represent important challenges in providing a sufficient frequency quality. We further discuss various solutions to deal with these challenges, focusing on economic based solutions of market design and incentives, rather than new technical solutions. As the energy system is interlinked and complex, the thesis takes a broad perspective. Thus, the thesis identifies and discusses several possible measures that we argue will benefit the future frequency quality of the system: changing the time of trading units and interconnector ramping rules, strengthening the intraday market, introducing wind power brokers, introducing new products in the option market for manual reserves, and facilitate for flexible consumption.


This thesis examines the political career of Abdallah bin al-Husayn from 1908 until the creation of the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921. The central aim here is to explain how Abdallah was transformed from a Hijazi notable to a major force in the post-war politics of the Fertile Crescent and the founder of the Emirate of Transjordan. Abdallah's political career until 1921 is studied in the context of his family's evolving political ambitions and Anglo-Hashimite and Hashimite-Arab nationalist relations. Abdallah's early political career illuminates the changing character of Arab political leadership in the Arab East between 1914 and 1921. This thesis examines the shaping of Abdallah's political ambitions, the strategies Abdallah, his family and partisans adopted to realize those ambitions and the obstacles Abdallah faced in trying to establish his authority and the legitimacy of his rule, first, in Iraq and, later, in Transjordan. Examining these issues in the context of Anglo-Hashimite and Hashimite-Arab nationalist relations makes it possible to assess Abdallah's contribution to the emergence of new forms of Arab political leadership in the post-war Fertile Crescent, particularly in Transjordan and Iraq, and to the development of Arab nationalism. Chapters one to four analyze the shaping of Abdallah's political ambitions in the wider context of evolving Hashimite ambitions during World Var I. Chapters five to eight treat two closely related subjects: Abdallah's failure to realize his ambition to rule post-war Iraq and his role in the creation of the Emirate of Transjordan.


Abstract
Background: Even though Ethiopia has achieved the Millennium Development Goal targets for child health set for 2015 by the international community, it has failed to do so with regard to maternal health. Maternal deaths are still high, with an estimated maternal mortality ratio of 412 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2016.The causes of maternal death and individual, environmental and health systems related gaps contributing to maternal death in Ethiopia remain unclear.
Objectives: The main aim of this study was to document the causes of maternal deaths and risk factors contributing to deaths aggravated by pregnancy and its management in Ethiopia over the period 1990 to 2016, using a systematic review with meta-analysis.
Methods: Manuscripts were reviewed on causes of maternal death that were published in scientific journals and grey literature, including the compendium of abstracts presented in the series of annual conferences of the Ethiopian Public Health Association, masters' theses in public health from different public universities in Ethiopia, and periodic reports of the Federal Ministry of Health of Ethiopia. A comprehensive and reproducible literature search was used, employing the Cochrane systematic literature review technique. Medical subject heading terms – including maternal deaths, maternal mortality, causes of maternal mortality/death, maternal mortality/death in Ethiopia and etiology of maternal mortality/death in Ethiopia – were used to search the required articles. A total of 146 articles (134 from online sources and 12 hard copies) were identified on the basis of their titles and abstracts. Of these, 24 were found to be suitable for further analysis by applying the review criteria, which were then synthesized to identify the main causes of maternal death, as well as the risk factors affecting the patterns of deaths.
Results: The main direct causes of maternal death in Ethiopia include obstetric complications such as hemorrhage (29.9%; 95% CI: 20.28%-39.56%), obstructed labor/ruptured uterus (22.34%; 95% CI: 15.26%-29.42%), pregnancy-induced hypertension (16.9%; 95% CI:11.2%-22.6%), puerperal sepsis (14.68%; 95% CI: 10.56%-18.8%), and unsafe abortion (8.6%; 95% CI: 5.0%-12.18%). In recent years, hemorrhage has been the leading cause of mortality, followed by hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and sepsis, while the contributions of obstructed labor and abortion have decreased over the period. The most reported indirect causes of maternal death were anemia (10.39%; 95% CI: 4.79%-15.98%) and malaria (3.55%; 95% CI: 1.50%-3.30%).
Conclusions: The nationwide registration of causes of maternal death should be strengthened to understand the causes in detail, their attributes, as well as the patterns of causes of death. The health sector should sustain its current effort to tackle the diverse causes of maternal death in Ethiopia.  [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2018;32(4):225-242]
Key words: maternal mortality, systematic review, causes of maternal death, Ethiopia


The Handbook of Plant Virology is a comprehensive guide to the terms and expressions commonly used in the study of plant virology, complete with descriptions of plant virus families down to the generic level. Rather than simply listing terms in alphabetical order, this unique book links each term to related terms within a theme and adds commentary from authors whose specific expertise adds additional dimensions to the topics. The result is an invaluable resource for research workers, educators, and students working in plant virology and pathology, crop protection, molecular biology, and plant breeding.


The effect of the neuromuscular blocker alcuronium on the binding of N-[3H]-methylscopolamine [( 3H]NMS) and l-[3H]quinuclidinylbenzilate ([3H]QNB) to muscarinic binding sites in rat heart atria, longitudinal smooth muscle of the ileum, cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and submaxillary glands was measured using filtration techniques. In the presence of 10(-5) M alcuronium, the binding of [3H]NMS (which was present at a subsaturating concentration of 2 x 10(-10) M) was increased 5.3-fold in the atria and smooth muscle and 3-fold in the cerebellum; no increase was observed in the brain cortex and salivary glands. The binding of [3H]NMS was inhibited at 10(-3) M and higher concentrations of alcuronium. The rates of [3H]NMS association to and dissociation from muscarinic binding sites in the atria were diminished by 10(-5) M alcuronium. Scatchard plots of [3H]NMS binding data obtained with and without 10(-5) M alcuronium indicated that the maximum number of binding sites was not altered by the drug, whereas the apparent Kd for [3H]NMS was diminished. In contrast to [3H] NMS, the effects of alcuronium on the binding of [3H]QNB were only inhibitory. The concentration of alcuronium required to diminish the binding of [3H]QNB by 50% (IC50) was 4-7 microM in the atria, ileal smooth muscle, and the cerebellum, 140 microM in the brain cortex, and 1200 microM in the parotid gland. The results suggest that the binding of low concentrations of alcuronium to muscarinic receptors in the heart, ileal smooth muscle, and cerebellum allosterically increases the affinity of muscarinic receptors towards [3H]NMS, although not [3H]QNB. At high concentrations, alcuronium inhibits the binding of muscarinic ligands, presumably by competition for the classical muscarinic binding site. Positive cooperativity induced by alcuronium appears to be specific for the m2 (cardiac) subtype of muscarinic receptors.