Two related bet-hedging hypotheses have been proposed to explain the evolution of multiple mating by females. The first examines fitness of females within a single type of environment, and predicts that multiple mating can increase fitness by reducing the probability that all of a female's eggs are fertilized by a poor-quality male. The second examines fitness across environments and predicts that females who mate multiple times reduce the probability that all of their eggs are fertilized by a male that is unsuited to the current environment. We tested whether multiple mating actually provides the fitness benefits predicted by bet-hedging models by comparing the geometric mean fitness across generations of half-sib versus full-sib families of the milkweed bug, Lygaeus kalmii, reared on three different host plants. The variance in mean fitness (egg-to-adult survivorship) was always lower for offspring in half-sib families than for offspring of full-sib families. This translated into an average increase in geometric mean fitness of 4.1% within environments and 1.3% among environments for offspring of multiple-mated versus once-mated parents. These fitness increases are sufficient to produce rapid replacement of a once-mating genotype by a multiple-mating genotype. We conclude that multiple mating by parents reduces variation in offspring fitness and increases geometric mean fitness. We suggest that bet-hedging hypotheses are viable explanations for at least some of the variation in mating frequency observed in insects.


Objective. To evaluate the association between nasal obstruction and (1) demographic factors, (2) medical history, (3) physical tests, and (4) nasal exam findings. Study Design. Case series. Methods. Chart review at a tertiary medical center. Results. Two hundred-forty consecutive patients (52.1 ± 17.5 years old, with a Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) score of 32.0 ± 24.1) were included. Demographic factors and inferior turbinate sizes were not associated with NOSE score or Nasal Obstruction Visual Analog Scale (NO-VAS). A significant association was found between higher NOSE score on univariate analysis and positive history of nasal trauma (p = 0.0136), allergic rhinitis (p < 0.0001), use of nasal steroids (p = 0.0108), higher grade of external nasal deformity (p = 0.0149), higher internal nasal septal deviation grade (p = 0.0024), and narrow internal nasal valve angle (p < 0.0001). Multivariate analysis identified the following as independent predictors of high NOSE score: NO-VAS: ≥50 (Odds Ratio (OR) = 17.6 (95% CI 5.83–61.6), p < 0.0001), external nasal deformity: grades 2–4 (OR = 4.63 (95% CI 1.14–19.9), p = 0.0339), and allergic rhinitis: yes (OR = 5.5 (95% CI 1.77–18.7), p = 0.0041). Conclusion. Allergic rhinitis, NO-VAS score ≥ 50, and external nasal deformity (grades 2–4) were statistically significant independent predictors of high NOSE scores on multivariate analysis. Inferior turbinate size was not associated with NOSE scores or NO-VAS.


Tukad Unda is a volcanic-formed river with areas for drainage and deposition of lava material resulting from volcanic eruptions. The area covers the Karangasem Regency in the upstream and Klungkung Regency in the downstream parts. In the Balinese language, Tukad means river, and Unda means terraced. Hence, Tukad Unda means terraced river. The obvious point is that Tukad Unda flows through a dam with two overlapping terraces. Thus, the flowing water forms a level resembling a mini waterfall. The place is one of a kind for those who enjoy calm and breezy nature. Besides having clear water with schools of small fish, the area is also surrounded by soothing trees. Tourists can either stop by the available restaurants or play in the water. The water barrage of Tukad Unda has become a tourist destination that attracted much attention from visitors in recent years. Its serene, lush natural atmosphere, gurgling water, and a curtain waterfall on the dam wall showcase a relieving experience in downtown Klungkung. Tourists can now comfortably visit the Tukad Unda dam area since the local village has managed the area as a complete tourist destination with various supporting facilities. However, Tukad Unda is a river prone to mud flooding, especially when Mount Agung experiences increased volcanic activity. Thus, the central and local governments focus on developing supporting facilities to strengthen the Tukad Unda utilization. In addition, many studies show the potential of the Tukad Unda, along with its watershed, which, when properly developed and managed, can significantly impact the welfare of the surrounding community.


In this work, we investigate the influence of myopia on the perceived visual acuity (VA) in head-worn virtual reality (VR). Factors such as display resolution or vision capabilities of users influence the VA in VR. We simulated eyesight tests in VR and on a desktop screen and conducted a user study comparing VA measurements of participants with normal sight and participants with myopia. Surprisingly, our results suggest that people with severe myopia can see better in VR than in the real world, while the VA of people with normal or corrected sight or mild myopia is reduced in VR.


This report shows that the deterministic-input noisy-AND (DINA) model is a special case of more general compensatory diagnostic models by means of a reparameterization of the skill space and the design (Q-) matrix of item by skills associations. This reparameterization produces a compensatory model that is equivalent to the (conjunctive) DINA model, and is valid for all types of complex structure Q-matrices, not only for trivial cases. This equivalency uses the GDM as the basis, is not based on recent developments of diagnosis models such as G-DINA or LCDM. Model equivalency is a topic of some relevance as soon as researchers want to draw conclusions derived from any particular model-based estimates. It can be shown that for multidimensional models, there are often multiple ways to specify different sets of latent variables and their relationships to observed variables. This report goes beyond showing that multiple versions of a design matrix lead to the same model-based conditional probability space; it shows that a conjunctive diagnostic classification model can be expressed as a constrained special case of a compensatory diagnostic modeling framework.


Underground mines are typically extensive labyrinths that employ many people working over an area of many square miles; extensive analysis of mine-communications systems has identified specific problem areas, in particular the excessive times required to locate key personnel underground, the inadequacy of existing phone systems in terms of capacity and privacy, and the inability to communicate with men on the move with wireless communications, as is taken for granted on the surface. A review is presented of the existing systems, the problem definition, and the various approaches that have been or are being investigated to solve these problems.


TCM terminologies are the professional medical terms, marked by in Chinese features of simplification and cogency, as well as rich connotations, and thus conciseness should be one of the main principles when it comes to their translation. The concise translation and its application were discussed in this paper through semantic and logic analysis on TCM terms and starting with the English word-building.


The brown planthopper (BPH) impacts both rice yield and quality. The exogenous application of abscisic acid (ABA) and jasmonic acid (JA) has been previously shown to induce rice resistance to BPH; however, the regulation of rice-mediated defense by these plant growth regulators is unclear. We applied exogenous JA and ABA to rice and analyzed molecular responses to BPH infestation. Nine RNA libraries were sequenced, and 6218 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were generated and annotated. After ABA + BPH and JA + BPH treatments, 3491 and 2727 DEGs, respectively, were identified when compared with the control (BPH alone). GO enrichment and KEGG pathway analysis showed that the expression of several JA pathway genes (OsAOS2, encoding allene oxide synthase; OsOPR, 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid reductase; and OsACOX, acy1-CoA oxidase) were significantly up-regulated after ABA + BPH treatment. Furthermore, exogenous JA increased the expression of genes involved in ABA synthesis. Meanwhile, the expression levels of genes encoding WRKY transcription factors, myelocytomatosis protein 2 (MYC2) and basic leucine zippers (bZIPs) were up-regulated significantly, indicating that ABA and JA might function together to increase the expression of transcription factors during the rice defense response. The DEGs identified in this study provide vital insights into the synergism between ABA and JA and further contribute to the mechanistic basis of rice resistance to BPH.


Abstract : This paper reports recent progress in vortex-control applications for alleviating the adverse consequences of three-dimensional separation and vortical interactions on slender body/swept wing configurations. Examples include: helical separation trip to alleviate the side force due to forebody vortex asymmetry; hinged strakes to avoid vortex breakdown effects; compartmentation of swept leading-edge separation to delay the pitch-up instability; under-wing vortex trip and vortex flaps for drag reduction at high lift; and an apex-flap trimmer to fully utilize the lift capability of trailing- edge flaps for take off and landing of delta wings. Experimental results on generic wind-tunnel models are presented to illustrate the vortex-management concepts involved and to indicate their potential for enhancing the subsonic aerodynamics of supersonic-cruise type vehicles.


Sporadic fundic gland polyps (FGP) are the most common type of gastric polyps and their pathogenesis is still unclear, although a β-catenin gene mutation has been described. They are regarded as benign lesions but low-grade dysplasia has been observed, arising more debate on their potential progression to a malignant phenotype. We investigated in FGP the role of factors involved in cell integrity, proliferation, and intercellular adhesion: trefoil peptides (TFF1, TFF2), MIB1, E-cadherin, and β-catenin. We selected randomly 24 patients with FGP, 24 with normal gastric mucosa and 12 with atrophic gastritis with diffuse intestinal metaplasia (IM-gastritis), all Helicobacter pylori negative. The expression of all factors was examined by immunohistochemistry. In polyps and normal mucosa, TFF1 is expressed only in foveolar compartment whereas in IM-gastritis the signal is reduced in all the compartments. TFF2 is expressed in polyps and normal mucosa, in proliferative and basal compartment, whereas in IM-gastritis the expression is reduced or absent. E-cadherin is expressed in the entire zone: with a medium signal in normal mucosa and polyps, and weaker in IM-gastritis. The β-catenin's signal in normal mucosa and polyps is moderate-to–intense in proliferative and basal compartments, whereas in IM-gastritis signal is significantly reduced in all the compartments. MIB1 in normal mucosa and polyps is expressed only in proliferative compartment, whereas its expression is stronger in IM-gastritis and involves also basal compartment. In conclusion all the factors considered were normally expressed in FGP and this, especially considered against the findings in IM-gastritis, supports the benign nature of FGP.


This paper proposes a vector equilibrium correction model of stock returns that exploits the information in the futures market, while allowing for both regime-switching behaviour and international spillovers across stock market indices. Using data for three major stock market indices since 1989, we find that: (i) in sample, our model outperforms several alternative models on the basis of standard statistical criteria; (ii) in out-of-sample forecasting, our model does not produce significant gains in terms of point forecasts relative to more parsimonious alternative specifications, but it does so both in terms of market timing ability and in density forecasting performance. The economic value of the density forecasts is illustrated with an application to a simple risk management exercise. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Study on the distribution and abundance of kob (Kobus kob) in Borgu Sector Kainji Lake National Park was carried out. The studies was undertaken to derive information on the abundance of kob in Kainji Lake National Park and also determine the distribution of kob, in the area. The methodology employed in the study includes the use of direct method of census. Line transects was established using a stratified random sampling procedure. The data collected were analyzed using the formula Total Population Ý = R·Z and the program DISTANCE. The result gathered revealed that each of these habitats contains ample number of kob throughout the year. The total estimated population of kobs censured in all the unit area = 9432 kobs /3970.02 km, while the mean estimated population density is 0.09 ± 0.05 per km, and the mean estimated population was 392 ± 210.11. There is therefore a 95% certainty that the true population size lies between 109.78 and 107.15 confidence limit. There is a high significant different at (P < 0.05) between the habitat types on kob abundance between the various habitat types in KLNP. The distribution of the kobs indicates that they are clumped in distribution, having an average cluster size of 14.617 in wet season and 18.067 in the dry season,. In a nut shell if the kobs herd is maintained in the reserve. Eco-tourism based on kobs watching to yield economic benefit to Kainji Lake National Park, Niger state and the Nation at large will be achieved. Therefore there should be extended mentoring programme to all the sectors of the park. This will go a long way to check illegal activities such as over grazing, poaching and tree logging that is affecting kobs population in Kainji Lake National Park.


The purpose of this research was to prove through a case study, the effect of a training program for arousal control, through breathing techniques and biofeedback, on the athletic performance and self efficacy on the putting of 4 children golfers. A within subject, unique case experimental design was performed in two phases. One base-line phase, where the individual zone of optimal function (IZOF) of each athlete was determined, and a second phase of intervention, consisted in 16 sesions of 20 minutes each one, based on breathing techniques and biofeedback, the athletes were taught to reach and maintain their previously determined IZOF, for the improvement of their performance. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of intervention in the two variables studied, especially in three of the four subjects.


Abstract Hurricane Gilbert of 1988 formed an outer eyewall as it intensified rapidly toward a record minimum pressure of 888 hPa in the western Caribbean. The outer eyewall strengthened and contracted, while the inner eyewall showed some signs of weakening before landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula. Remarkably, both eyewalls survived passage over land, but the storm was much weaker when it entered the Gulf of Mexico. Although the primary cause of weakening was passage over land, the effect of the contracting outer eyewall may have contributed. Later, the outer eyewall completely replaced the inner eyewall. Subsequently, it contracted steadily but slowly as Gilbert maintained nearly constant intensity over the cooler waters of the Gulf before final landfall on the mainland of Mexico.


1. Basic Concepts2. Space3. Extensions from Spatial Meanings4. Radical Categories5. Constructions6. Mental Spaces7. Language Change8. Count and Mass Nouns9. Perfect and Imperfect Use of Verbs10. Causation and Agency11. Cognitive Linguistics and Discourse Analysis12. Constructivist Processes in Discourse13. Creativity and the Nature of Meaning


In this closing essay we take the opportunity to briefly recount our understanding of the history of work at the marketing/accounting interface, and equally briefly to review its current state as evidenced by the various contributions to this collection. While agreeing the importance of focusing increased attention on the customer, the accounting perspective that promises to be of greatest utility in this process is that of managerial accounting. The prospects for any breakthrough via the continued employment of a predominantly financial accounting and reporting emphasis are argued to be limited, whilst the current vogue for its near neighbour, a finance emphasis, seems to us to be in fundamental contradiction of what characterises customers.


Dietary fibre intake has been suggested to reduce blood glucose levels in diabetic patients, particularly when glycosylated Hb (HbA1c) levels are high. In the present study, we used a quantile regression (QR) approach to characterise the possible heterogeneous associations of dietary fibre intake with HbA1c levels in Chinese diabetic patients. A total of 497 diabetic patients participated in the baseline survey in 2006 and in the follow-up survey in 2011, both of which were conducted in Pudong New Area of Shanghai, China. Structured in-person interviews were conducted to collect information on demographic characteristics and lifestyle factors. Dietary intake was assessed using a validated FFQ. Blood samples were collected during the interviews for biochemical assays. QR models were used to examine the heterogeneous associations of dietary factors with HbA1c levels. A significant marginal association of insoluble dietary fibre intake with subsequent HbA1c levels was observed only when the HbA1c level was over 6·8 %. The associations appeared to be greater when the quantile levels of HbA1c were higher. The coefficient estimates were − 0·174 (95 % CI − 0·433, − 0·025) at the quantile of 0·60, − 0·200 (95 % CI − 0·306, − 0·008) at 0·70, − 0·221 (95 % CI − 0·426, − 0·117) at 0·80, and − 0·389 (95 % CI − 0·516, − 0·018) at 0·90. A similar pattern was observed for the associations of dietary glycaemic index (GI) value with HbA1c levels. In conclusion, the present results indicate that the associations of insoluble dietary fibre intake and GI value with subsequent HbA1c levels depend on glycaemic control status in Chinese diabetic patients. More studies are required to confirm our findings.


Lower-hybrid current drive (LHCD) experiments were carried out in the HL-1M hydrogen plasmas. The suppression of sawtooth instabilities by LHCD has been observed in the sawtoothing discharges; an improvement in the global energy confinement time of up to 20% is observed. There is an optimal rf-power range for the complete suppression of the central MHD instabilities. Possible mechanisms for the stabilization of the sawtooth instability are discussed from the measurement of internal inductance and current profile reconstruction using an equilibrium code. A large long-lived snake-like oscillation is newly observed at the end of the sawtooth-stabilization phase of the LHCD operation in the HL-1M tokamak. It is evident that such perturbation is due to a temperature depression caused by impurity accumulation during LHCD.


Abnormal glycan structures are valuable biomarkers for disease states; the development of glycan-specific binders is thereby significantly important. However, the structural homology and weak immunogenicity of glycans pose major hurdles in the evolution of antibodies, while the poor availability of complex glycans also has extremely hindered the selection of anti-glycan aptamers. Herein, we present a new approach to efficiently screen aptamers toward specific glycans with a complex structure, using a glycosylated peptide as a scaffold. In this method, using peptide-imprinted magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) as a versatile platform, a glycopeptide tryptically digested from a native glycoprotein was selectively entrapped for positive selection, while a nonglycosylated analogue with an identical peptide sequence was synthesized for negative selection. Alternating positive and negative selection steps were carried out to guide the directed evolution of glycan-binding aptamers. As proof of the principle, the biantennary digalactosylated disialylated N-glycan A2G2S2, against which there have been no antibodies and lectins so far, was employed as the target. With the glycoprotein transferrin as a source of target glycan, two satisfied anti-A2G2S2 aptamers were selected within seven rounds. Since A2G2S2 is upregulated in cancerous liver cells, carboxyfluorescein (FAM)-labeled aptamers were prepared as fluorescent imaging reagents, and successful differentiation of cancerous liver cells over normal liver cells was achieved, which demonstrated the application feasibility of the selected aptamers. This approach obviated a tedious glycan preparation process and allowed favorable expose of the intrinsic flexible conformation of natural glycans. Therefore, it holds great promise for developing glycan-specific aptamers for challenging applications such as cancer targeting.


We discuss targets in images formed from a pattern of partial occlusions. The targets vary between examples. It is shown that a new scale-space method is substantially more effective than, for example, normalised cross-correlation for distinguishing such a target from background and estimating its position. We believe such targets represent a good model of many objects.


For a cooperative orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system with two transmitters (TXs), and full channel state information (CSI), we obtain the optimal power allocation (PA) policies which maximize the rate region achievable by a recently introduced version of block Markov superposition encoding (BMSE): inter-subchannel cooperative encoding (ISCE) [1]. We provide the optimality conditions that need to be satisfied by the powers associated with the transmitted codewords. We propose two algorithms that yield the optimal power distribution: a subgradient algorithm which achieves an arbitrary rate point on the achievable rate region boundary, and an iterative waterfilling-like algorithm which maximizes the sum rate, and converges much faster. We observe that, utilization of power control to take advantage of the diversity offered by the cooperative OFDMA system, not only leads to a remarkable improvement in achievable rates, but also may help determine how the subchannels have to be instantaneously allocated to various tasks in cooperation.


Dataset Distillation (DD), a newly emerging field, aims at generating much smaller but efficient synthetic training datasets from large ones. Existing DD methods based on gradient matching achieve leading performance; however, they are extremely computationally intensive as they require continuously optimizing a dataset among thousands of randomly initialized models. In this paper, we assume that training the synthetic data with diverse models leads to better generalization performance. Thus we propose two model augmentation techniques, i.e. using early-stage models and parameter perturbation to learn an informative synthetic set with significantly reduced training cost. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our method achieves up to 20× speedup and comparable performance on par with state-of-the-art methods.


ABSTRACT Herbicide resistance has repeatedly developed under intensive herbicidal weed management regimes globally with 255 species having resistant biotypes. In New Zealand, since 1979, resistance was found in 13 taxa, with >25 herbicides in 8 chemical classes showing reduced effectiveness (i.e. HRAC groups A, B, C, D, F, G, H, N and O). Cases included weeds in turf, pastures, orchards, vineyards, forage and arable crops. Surprisingly little is known about the spatial extent or frequency of this problem in New Zealand. We estimate that 14,000 farms have land-use histories like those favouring herbicide resistance historically. Sampling simulations of ≥10% farms provided good estimates of resistance prevalence for most regions and crop types. Acceptable sampling rates varied with target population size, actual resistance prevalence, and detection certainty. Our simulations provide a sobering caution regarding our ability to delimit the problem cheaply or accurately. Detection rates lower than 75% always give imprecise prevalence estimates. Sampling and screening involved 7.4 h labour and 27 km of travel costing $759 NZD per farm. Sampling 10% of farms would cost >$1 million NZD if lower risk farms were excluded, or >$3 million in exhaustive surveys. Regional farm and industry breakdowns could guide cost-sharing arrangements for surveys.


In recent years, there has been a paradigm shift in Internet of Things (IoT) from centralized cloud computing to edge computing (or fog computing). Developments in ICT have resulted in the significant increment of communication and computation capabilities of embedded devices and this will continue to increase in coming years. However, existing paradigms do not utilize low-level devices for any decision-making process. In fact, gateway devices are also utilized mostly for communication interoperability and some low-level processing. In this paper, we have proposed a new computing paradigm, named Edge Mesh, which distributes the decision-making tasks among edge devices within the network instead of sending all the data to a centralized server. All the computation tasks and data are shared using a mesh network of edge devices and routers. Edge Mesh provides many benefits, including distributed processing, low latency, fault tolerance, better scalability, better security, and privacy. These benefits are useful for critical applications, which require higher reliability, real-time processing, mobility support, and context awareness. We first give an overview of existing computing paradigms to establish the motivation behind Edge Mesh. Then, we describe in detail about the Edge Mesh computing paradigm, including the proposed software framework, research challenges, and benefits of Edge Mesh. We have also described the task management framework and done a preliminary study on task allocation problem in Edge Mesh. Different application scenarios, including smart home, intelligent transportation system, and healthcare, are presented to illustrate the significance of Edge Mesh computing paradigm.


Poria weirii produced peroxidase in yields amounting to 35% of those obtained from the same weight of horseradish roots. The three isozymes detected were distinct from those of horseradish.


A collection of over 50,000 functionally annotated drugs, clinical candidates, and endogenous ligands was docked in silico against nine binding sites from seven protein targets, representing diverse function and structure, namely the sulfotransferases SULT1E1 and SULT1A3, the histone methyltransferase EHMT1, the histone acetyltransferase MYST3, and the nuclear hormone receptors ERalpha, PPARgamma, and TRbeta. For 5 of the 9 virtual screens, compounds that docked best to the receptors clearly recapitulated known biological functions of the genes or identified novel biology subsequently validated in a separate experimental study. In two cases, the hit list indicated some relevant but isolated biological functions which would probably have been ignored a priori, and selected compounds were completely unrelated to gene function for the last two virtual screens. This study demonstrates that virtual screening of pharmacologically annotated compound libraries can be used to derive target biology.


Introduction: The clavicle, humerus and acromioclavicular (AC) joint separately are very commonly involved in traumatic injuries around the shoulder. Acromioclavicular joint dislocation with distal clavicle fracture is a well recognized entity in clinical practice. AC joint dislocation with mid shaft clavicle fracture is uncommon and only few cases have been reported in literature. However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report to describe an acromioclavicular dislocation with ipsilateral mid shaft clavicle, mid shaft humerus and coracoid process fracture. Fractures of the humerus and clavicle along with the acromioclavicular joint dislocation were fixed at the same setting. Case Report: A 65-year-old male met with a high velocity road traffic accident. Plain radiographs showed displaced mid third clavicle fracture with acromioclavicular joint dislocation with mid shaft humerus fracture. Surgical fixation was planned for humerus with interlocking nail, clavicle with locking plate and acromioclavicular joint with reconstruction of coracoclavicular ligaments. Intraoperatively, coracoid process was found to have a comminuted fracture. The operative plan had to be changed on table as coracoclavicular fixation was not possible. So acromioclavicular joint fixation was done using tension band wiring and the coracoclavicular ligament was repaired using a 2-0 ethibond. The comminuted coracoid fracture was managed conservatively. K wires were removed at 6 weeks. Early mobilization was started. Conclusion: In acromioclavicular joint injuries, clavicle must be evaluated for any injury. Although it is more commonly associated with distal clavicle fractures, it can be associated with middle third clavicle fractures. As plain radiographs, AP view are most of the times insufficient for viewing integrity of coracoid process, either special views like Stryker notch or CT scan may help in diagnosing such concealed injuries. When associated with fractures of the humerus and clavicle, anatomical restoration of acromioclavicular joint along with anatomical reduction and a rigid fixation of associated fractures is essential. Proper rehabilitation protocol is a must for achieving promising results. In our case, we were able to achieve a stable surgical fixation of both the fractures as well as AC joint, which enabled us to start early joint mobilization and rehabilitation.


Kawasaki disease (KD), an acute febrile childhood vasculitis of unknown etiology, preferentially involves the coronary arteries. Diagnosis typically rests on strict clinical criteria. If untreated, KD may be complicated by coronary arteritis and progress to aneurysm formation, thereby predisposing the child to a small but significant risk of death. We report a case of atypical KD causing death due to rupture of a coronary artery aneurysm with massive cardiac tamponade. The clinical challenge to recognize KD during the acute phase--especially in atypical cases when the diagnostic criteria are incomplete--is critical. Therapeutic intervention with intravenous gamma-globulin (IVIG) and aspirin during the first 10 days of onset is highly effective not only in reducing nearly tenfold such potentially fatal cardiac complications by arresting the immune-mediated necrotizing arteritis, but also in alleviating the acute symptoms related to systemic inflammation.


ABSTRACT Background: Anterior capsular contraction syndrome (ACCS) describes the progressive fibrotic phimosis of the anterior capsular bag that usually occurs a few months after cataract surgery. YAG laser anterior capsulotomy (YAGAC) is the most common treatment option due to the low-risk profile of this intervention. Purpose: In this series, we evaluated the outcomes of an advanced nurse practitioner (ANP) in conducting this laser intervention, comparing the results with those of ophthalmologists. Methodology: Our study represents a single-centre, retrospective, continuous case series of 108 eyes that underwent YAGAC due to ACCS between January 2017 and July 2020 at the Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre, the second largest tertiary referral centre in the United Kingdom. Results: The groups treated by ANPs and ophthalmologists were similar in respect to age, gender, and laterality of the laser procedure. Eyes treated by ophthalmologists had significantly more ocular comorbidities (p < .001), the most common of which was glaucoma. Although the complication rate was higher in the ophthalmologist group, it did not reach statistical significance. However, there was a trend toward significance in the retreatment rate, with 8.6% (7/81) of eyes lasered by ophthalmologists requiring further YAGAC, and no repeat procedure was needed in the ANP group. Conclusions: YAGAC leads to good visual outcomes and a low complication rate in both ophthalmologist and ANP groups. Implications: Advanced nurse practitioners can deliver results that are comparable with those of experienced ophthalmologists.


In this study, the authors propose a new semi-supervised low-rank representation graph for pattern recognition. A collection of samples is jointly coded by the recently developed low-rank representation (LRR), which better captures the global structure of data and implements more robust subspace segmentation from corrupted samples. By using the calculated LRR coefficients of both labelled and unlabelled samples as the graph weights, a low-rank representation graph is established in a parameter-free manner under the framework of semi-supervised learning. Some experiments are taken on the benchmark database to investigate the performance of the proposed method and the results show that it is superior to other related semi-supervised graphs.


From his arrival in Britain in the 1950s and involvement in the New Left, to founding the field of cultural studies and examining race and identity in the 1990s and early 2000s, Stuart Hall has been central to shaping many of the cultural and political debates of our time. Essential Essays—a landmark two-volume set—brings together Stuart Hall's most influential and foundational works. Spanning the whole of his career, these volumes reflect the breadth and depth of his intellectual and political projects while demonstrating their continued vitality and importance.


Contact problem for a large deformed beam with an elastic obstacle is formulated, analyzed, and numerically solved. The beam model is governed by a nonlinear fourth-order differential equation developed by Gao, while the obstacle is considered as the elastic foundation of Winkler's type in some distance under the beam. The problem is static without a friction and modeled either using Signorini conditions or by means of normal compliance contact conditions. The problems are then reformulated as optimal control problems which is useful both for theoretical aspects and for solution methods. Discretization is based on using the mixed finite element method with independent discretization and interpolations for foundation and beam elements. Numerical examples demonstrate usefulness of the presented solution method. Results for the nonlinear Gao beam are compared with results for the classical Euler-Bernoulli beam model.


AIM
The aim was to investigate whether perceptions of electronic nursing documentation and its performance differed because of primary health care management.

BACKGROUND
Success in leading people depends on the manager's personality, the context and the people who are led. Close proximity to clinical work, with manager and personnel sharing the same profession, promotes the authority to carry out changes.

METHODS
This study comprised a postal questionnaire to district nurses and an audit of nursing records from two primary health care organizations, one with a uniprofessional (nursing) organization, and one with multidisciplinary health care centres with general practitioners and/or another profession as managers.

RESULTS
Uniprofessional nurse management increased district nurses' positive perceptions of nursing documentation but did not affect documentation performance, which was inadequate regardless of management type.

CONCLUSIONS
Positive perceptions of nursing documentation are bases for further development to a nursing documentation including a holistic view of the patient.


OH functionalized triarylphosphines were used to assemble zirconocene-based metalloligands with phosphine donor sites in varying positions. These complexes were subsequently treated with different gold precursors to obtain early-late heterometallic compounds in which the metal atoms exhibit different intermetallic distances. All compounds were fully investigated by spectroscopic techniques, photoluminescence measurements and single crystal X-ray diffraction. Quantum chemical calculations were also performed. Some compounds show bright emission even at room temperature with quantum yields of up to 19 % (excitation at 350 nm). Furthermore, the reactivity of dimethyl zirconocene derivatives towards gold complexes was investigated, revealing simultaneous ligand exchange and transmetallation reactions.


A glacial epibenthic δ13C record from 773 m water depth in the SE Nordic seas reveals moderate, but distinct changes in the ventilation ∼65,000−14,000 years ago. The Last Glacial Maximum, the warm interstadials, and the shorter stadials are characterized by high δ13C values indicating well‐ventilated intermediate water masses in the Nordic seas. Decreasing δ13C values during the cold Heinrich events signify a reduction in intermediate water ventilation. We attribute the reduction to the development of a halocline causing a stop in convection and outflow from the Nordic seas. The well‐ventilated outflow water is replaced by warmer Atlantic water, which due to the stratification is isolated from the atmosphere. Its initial high δ13C values are reduced due to 'ageing'. We ascribe the lack of response in the subsurface Atlantic Water during the stadials to the smaller geographical extent of these events as compared to the Heinrich events.


This paper newly proposes and discusses a maximal square moving (MSM) algorithm for tracing the core lines or medial lines of objects in a digitized binary picture, by which structure-descriptive core-line representations are directly obtained. The MSM algorithm could be considered to be an extension of the medial axis transform (MAT) definition to discrete images since maximal squares are sub-stituted for maximal disks, but it is, in essence, distinct from the con-ventional methods since it is based on what is called an input-time tracing principle. The algorithm is fast and requires no image memory, and the connectivity of the core lines so derived is completely guaranteed in a sense of maximal square neighborhood relations. Furthermore, the original objects can be exactly reconstructed from their core lines derived.


Algorithmic systems are often called upon to assist in high-stakes decision making. In light of this, algorithmic recourse, the principle wherein individuals should be able to take action against an undesirable outcome made by an algorithmic system, is receiving growing attention. The bulk of the literature on algorithmic recourse to-date focuses primarily on how to provide recourse to a single individual, overlooking a critical element: the effects of a continuously changing context. Disregarding these effects on recourse is a significant oversight, since, in almost all cases, recourse consists of an individual making a first, unfavorable attempt, and then being given an opportunity to make one or several attempts at a later date — when the context might have changed. This can create false expectations, as initial recourse recommendations may become less reliable over time due to model drift and competition for access to the favorable outcome between individuals. In this work we propose an agent-based simulation framework for studying the effects of a continuously changing environment on algorithmic recourse. In particular, we identify two main effects that can alter the reliability of recourse for individuals represented by the agents: (1) competition with other agents acting upon recourse, and (2) competition with new agents entering the environment. Our findings highlight that only a small set of specific parameterizations result in algorithmic recourse that is reliable for agents over time. Consequently, we argue that substantial additional work is needed to understand recourse reliability over time, and to develop recourse methods that reward agents' effort.


The patient and the author of this case report are the same person. In September 1974 I had a cardiac arrest, and because of anoxia, the arrest resulted in some right-sided brain damage. The brain damage led to some minor physical and perceptual problems, but the most important result was partial loss of past memory and strongly impaired present memory. This report will be concerned with the effects of poor memory on cognition, personality, and interpersonal relationships based on the observations I have made during the period in which my memory was impaired. Of course, the emotional and personality reactions are somewhat related to my past personality, but some may be expected generally when poor memory is present. The effect on cognitive functioning is more likely to be a general finding. I also will describe the course of my rehabilitation over a 2-year-period, and I will make some suggestions about rehabilitation to patients and therapists.


Palladium catalyzed dehydrative etherification of benzyl alcohols in imidazolium ionic liquids (ILs) were studied. Several hydrophobic and hydrophilic imidazolium ionic liquids were employed and as expected, higher yields were obtained when hydrophobic ionic liquids were used as the reaction media. Among the transition metal complexes studied, Pd(CH₃CN)₂ Cl₂ demonstrated the highest catalytic activity. [BMMIm]PF₆([BMMIm]= 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium) was also used to study the possibility of N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-palladium complex formation. A catalytic cycle is proposed that supports the important roles of the ionic liquids and Pd in this reaction, in which ionic liquids stabilize the proposed ionic intermediates. -- Phosphonium ILs were found to catalyze the above-mentioned reactions and an added metal was not needed. Benzyl ethers and alkenes were obtained from primary and secondary benzylic alcohols in good to excellent yields. Commercially available hydrophobic phosphonium ionic liquids containing the trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium cation paired with six different anions were used for the reactions under microwave irradiation. NOESY NMR, in addition to some other NMR techniques, were used to study the interaction of substrates and ILs in order to gain insight into the reaction mechanism. The acidic properties of the phosphonium ionic liquids were also investigated in order to potentially correlate the pH of the ionic liquids and the reaction yield. There was no correlation. -- Trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium ILs were also found to support the formation of Pd(0) nanoparticles without the addition of reducing agents such as NaBH₄. Upon varying the Pd(II) sources and the anions of the phosphonium ILs, crystalline Pd nanoparticles grew as truncated octahedrons, octahedrons and trigonal plates with a narrow size distribution. No nanoparticle formation was observed when phosphonium ionic liquid with chloride anions were used. The presence of chloride anions is proposed to lead to oxidative etching of the particles and this process is reduced in the presence of certain anion partners including bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)phosphinate. Two possible reduction mechanisms based on reactions of the phosphonium cation were suggested for the formation of the Pd(0) species. Different techniques such as TEM, XRD, FT-IR and TGA were employed to characterize the prepared nanocrystals and assess the role of the phosphonium ILs in their synthesis. The in situ prepared Pd nanocrystals in phosphonium ILs were used in a Suzuki coupling reaction and high yields were obtained.


This paper summarises the experience gained by the Ciemat External Dosimetry Service (EDS) in the environmental dosimetry intercomparisons organised by the US Department of Energy. During the three latest intercomparisons. important dosimetry aspects such as energy calibration, energy response, dosimetric quantities and signal stability have been tested by the Ciemat EDS on up to seven different thermoluminescent (TL) materials, including hypersensitive phosphors, and employing several dosimetric systems. In last year's intercomparison, in addition to TL dosemeters the Ciemat EDS sent a set of silicon diode active dosemeters, usually used as personal dosemeters, to be tested in environmental conditions without intervention for more than 3 months. All the results obtained from different dosemeters have undergone an exhaustive analysis process in order to find some conclusions that may help to increase the knowledge of field performance of these devices in real but controlled environmental conditions.


OBJECTIVE. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the upgrade rates of high-risk lesions (HRLs) diagnosed by MRI-guided core biopsy and to assess which clinical and imaging characteristics are predictive of upgrade to malignancy. MATERIALS AND METHODS. A retrospective review was performed of all women who presented to an academic breast radiology center for MRI-guided biopsy between January 1, 2015, and November 30, 2018. Histopathologic results from each biopsy were extracted. HRLs-that is, atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH), lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS), atypical lobular hyperplasia (ALH), radial scar, papilloma, flat epithelial atypia (FEA), benign vascular lesion (BVL), and mucocelelike lesion-were included for analysis. Clinical history, imaging characteristics, surgical outcome, and follow-up data were recorded. Radiologic-pathologic correlation was performed. RESULTS. Of 810 MRI-guided biopsies, 189 cases (23.3%) met the inclusion criteria for HRLs. Of the 189 HRLs, 30 cases were excluded for the following reasons: 15 cases were lost to follow-up, six cases were in patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy after biopsy, two lesions that were not excised had less than 2 years of imaging follow-up, and seven lesions had radiologic-pathologic discordance at retrospective review. Of the 159 HRLs in our study cohort, 13 (8.2%) were upgraded to carcinoma. Surgical upgrade rates were high for ADH (22.5%, 9/40) and FEA (33.3%, 1/3); moderate for LCIS (6.3%, 3/48); and low for ALH (0.0%, 0/11), radial scar (0.0%, 0/28), papilloma (0.0%, 0/26), and BVL (0.0%, 0/3). Of the upgraded lesions, 69.2% (9/13) were upgraded to ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) or well-differentiated carcinoma. ADH lesions were significantly more likely to be upgraded than non-ADH lesions (p = .005). CONCLUSION. ADH diagnosed by MRI-guided core biopsy warrants surgical excision. The other HRLs, however, may be candidates for imaging follow-up rather than excision, especially after meticulous radiologic-pathologic correlation.


Endothelin-1 (ET-1), a powerful vasoconstrictor peptide, is produced by activated hepatic stellate cells (HSC) and promotes cell proliferation, fibrogenesis, and contraction, the latter of which has been thought to be mechanistically linked to portal hypertension in cirrhosis. Interferon-γ (IFNγ), a Th1 cytokine produced by T cells, inhibits stellate cell proliferation, fibrogenesis, and muscle-specific gene expression. Whether IFNγ-induced inhibitory effects are linked to regulation of ET-1 expression in activated stellate cells remains unknown. Here we examined IFNγ's effects on preproET-1 mRNA expression and the signaling pathways underlying this process. We demonstrated that preproET-1 mRNA expression in HSCs was prominently increased during cell culture-induced activation; IFNγ significantly inhibited both preproET-1 mRNA expression and ET-1 peptide production. Similar results were found in an in vivo model of liver injury and intraperitoneal administration of IFNγ. PreproET-1 promoter analysis revealed that IFNγ-induced inhibition of preproET-1 mRNA expression was closely linked to the AP-1 and Smad3 signaling pathways. Furthermore, IFNγ reduced JNK phosphorylation, which tightly was associated with decreased phosphorylation of downstream factors c-Jun and Smad3 and decreased binding activity of c-Jun and Smad3 in the preprpET-1 promoter. Importantly, IFNγ reduced both c-Jun mRNA and protein levels. Given the important role of ET-1 in wound healing, our results suggest a novel negative signaling network by which IFNγ inhibits preproET-1 expression, highlighting one potential molecular mechanism for IFNγ-induced host immunomodulation of liver fibrogenesis.


ABSTRACT Background Individuals recovering from mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) represent a heterogenous population that requires distinct treatment approaches. Identification of recovery trajectories improves our ability to understand the natural history of mild TBI recovery and develop targeted interventions. Objective To utilize group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM) to identify distinct patterns of symptom recovery following mild TBI in the first 6 months after mild TBI. Methods This study is comprised of 253 adults who presented to the emergency department with mild TBI and completed assessments for six-months post-injury. Patients were recruited for the prospective observational cohort study, HeadSMART. The primary outcome measure was the Rivermead Postconcussion Symptom Questionnaire. GBTM was used to identify longitudinal trajectories of recovery following mild TBI using Rivermead scores at baseline, one, three, and six months following diagnosis. Results Findings identified four distinct trajectories of symptom recovery follwing mild TBI including 9% of participants who were categorized with minimal acute symptoms that decreased over time, 45% with mild acute symptoms that decreased over time, 33% with relatively higher acute symptoms that decreased over time, and 13% with relatively higher acute symptoms that increased over time. Conclusions GBTM identified four distinct trajectories of recovery following mild TBI and GBTM may be useful for research interventions that can alter recovery trajectories.


Researchers have rarely addressed the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and physical activity fromthe perspective of youth. To illuminate the factors that youth fromlowand high-SES areas consider important to increase physical activity participation among their peers, 160 youth (12-18 years) participated in small focus group interviews. Guiding questions centered on the general theme, "If you were the one in charge of increasing the physical activity levels of kids your age, what would you do?" Findings show that environmental factors (i.e., proximity, cost, facilities, and safety) are very important for youth living in low-SES areas to ensure participation in physical activity. Results also show that intrapersonal (i.e., perceived skill, competence, time) and social factors (i.e., friends, adult support) must be considered to help improve participation rates among both high- and low-SES youth.


Abstract. The quality of precipitation forecasts is difficult to evaluate objectively because images with disjointed features surrounded by zero intensities cannot easily be compared pixel by pixel: any displacement between observed and predicted fields is punished twice, generally leading to better marks for coarser models. To answer the question of whether a highly resolved model truly delivers an improved representation of precipitation processes, alternative tools are thus needed. Wavelet transformations can be used to summarize high-dimensional data in a few numbers which characterize the field's texture. A comparison of the transformed fields judges models solely based on their ability to predict spatial structures. The fidelity of the forecast's overall pattern is thus investigated separately from potential errors in feature location. This study introduces several new wavelet-based structure scores for the verification of deterministic as well as ensemble predictions. Their properties are rigorously tested in an idealized setting: a recently developed stochastic model for precipitation extremes generates realistic pairs of synthetic observations and forecasts with prespecified spatial correlations. The wavelet scores are found to react sensitively to differences in structural properties, meaning that the objectively best forecast can be determined even in cases where this task is difficult to accomplish by naked eye. Random rain fields prove to be a useful test bed for any verification tool that aims for an assessment of structure.


We discuss the thermodynamics of closed quantum systems driven out of equilibrium by a change in a control parameter and undergoing a unitary process. We compare the work actually done on the system with the one that would be performed along ideal adiabatic and isothermal transformations. The comparison with the latter leads to the introduction of irreversible work, while that with the former leads to the introduction of inner friction. We show that these two quantities can be treated on an equal footing, as both can be linked with the heat exchanged in thermalization processes and both can be expressed as relative entropies. Furthermore, we show that a specific fluctuation relation for the entropy production associated with the inner friction exists, which allows the inner friction to be written in terms of its cumulants.


Naive T cells continuously migrate between the circulatory system and lymphoid organs, where they make dynamic contacts with rare dendritic cells (DCs) that strategically form an extensive dendrite network. In such a scenario, T cells spend most of their time quickly scanning the antigenic content of multiple DCs. These interactions provide the basis for efficient adaptive responses by increasing the probability of encounters between rare antigen-specific T cells and those DCs presenting the respective cognate antigens. In the absence of foreign antigen, however, T cells show different degrees of functional sensitivity toward TCR stimulation. Scanning of MHC/self-peptide complexes by naive T cells in the absence of infection is not without consequences but it increases their subsequent response toward antigenic challenge. This indicates that TCR sensitivity in naive T cells is tuned depending on the MHC/self-peptide signals they integrate from the environment even before T cells encounter cognate antigen. DCs have emerged as key components in providing MHC/self-peptide complexes and increasing the sensitivity of T cells toward subsequent TCR triggering. In the absence of cognate antigen, DCs maintain a tonic TCR signaling and license T cells for immune synapse (IS) maturation resulting in enhanced T cell responses toward a subsequent antigen stimulation. This review discusses recent findings on this subject and highlights the importance of the DC pool size for optimal T cell awareness to foreign antigen.


The hyperpermeability response of microvessels in inflammation involves complex signaling reactions and structural modifications in the endothelium. Our goal was to determine the role of Src-family kinases (Src) in neutrophil-mediated venular hyperpermeability and possible interactions between Src and endothelial barrier components. We found that inhibition of Src abolished the increases in albumin permeability caused by C5a-activated neutrophils in intact, perfused coronary venules, as well as in cultured endothelial monolayers. Activated neutrophils increased Src phosphorylation at Tyr416, which is located in the catalytic domain, and decreased phosphorylation at Tyr527 near the carboxyl terminus, events consistent with reports that phosphorylating and transforming activities of Src are upregulated by Tyr416 phosphorylation and negatively regulated by Tyr527 phosphorylation. Furthermore, neutrophil stimulation resulted in association of Src with the endothelial junction protein beta-catenin and beta-catenin tyrosine phosphorylation. These phenomena were abolished by blockage of Src activity. Taken together, our studies link for the first time neutrophil-induced hyperpermeability to a pathway involving Src kinase activation, Src/beta-catenin association, and beta-catenin tyrosine phosphorylation in the microvascular endothelium.


Four pairs of rhesus monkeys and five pairs of baboons were cross-transfused with large volumes of blood given at intervals varying from 3 weeks to 30 months. Although no acute transfusion reactions were observed, there was a significant reduction in survival rate of the transfused erythrocytes correlated with the level of antibodies in recipient's serum. The immune response of the recipient animal depended on the interval between transfusions and, to some extent, on the number and kind of erythrocyte incompatibilities between the recipient and the donor. These results emphasize the importance of blood group and compatibility testing prior to transfusion.


An efficient finite difference sub-gridding technique has been developed. Based on this new sub-gridding, The discrete equations of transition nodes are constructed, which satisfy Helmholtz equation numerically. Especially for the second sort of transition nodes, their discrete equations can be not straightly relevant to other sorts. Theoretically, their numerical solutions are also 2-order precision. Applying this new method to solve scattering problems, the results show that the accuracy of numerical solutions are improved too much.


This book makes an important contribution to existing knowledge on the processes of reading and comprehension by identifying the various approaches and corresponding theories. The book is organized in various chapters that cumulatively lead to our entry into the three key areas. Chapter One provides important background to reading as a skill, explaining the hidden dynamics that avoid the process and outcome of reading. Chapter Two deals with comprehension and vocabulary, both very important aspects of the reading process, while Chapter Three focuses on the relationship between reading, remembering and perception. Chapters four and five deal with various ways of assessing comprehension and the role of the reader respectively.


OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to evaluate the frequency of late pregnancies in Brazil, the age-specific fertility rate (ASFR) in the regions, the rate of prematurity, and the rate of low birth weight (LBW) and their association with advanced maternal age compared with 20-34-year-old women.

METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study conducted by searching the Information System on Live Births (Sistema de Informações Sobre Nascidos Vivos [SINASC]). Data from 1995 to 2018 were collected, and pregnant women were divided into three categories based on their age range: 35-39, 40-44, and ≥45 years. The study calculated the frequency of deliveries of mothers of advanced age in Brazil, the ASFR, and the rates of prematurity and LBW in each group.

CONCLUSIONS
The frequency of deliveries and ASFR ≥35 years increased between 1995 and 2018. The chances of prematurity and LBW were higher with increased maternal age.


Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a difficult cancer to diagnose in the early stage and to treat by curative resection. The incidence of CCA in the northeast of Thailand is the highest in the world. To make progress in detecting a high risk group and in the prevention and detection of CCA, we have been analyzing the risk factors for CCA. Although liver fluke infection is known to be a risk factor, there are patients who are not infected with the liver fluke and not all people infected with the liver fluke will suffer from the disease. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to analyze the risk factors and the mechanism to prevent the disease and also to detect the disease in its early stage to save patients' lives. Through collaboration among Thai and Japanese researchers, we analyzed the genetic and environmental determinants of risks for CCA. Also, we have been trying to develop methods to detect the disease in a non-invasive way. Without repeating findings reported in various reviews on CCA, we will first discuss the environmental and genetic determinants of the risks for CCA. Second, we will discuss the properties of CCA, including the etiological agents and the mechanism of cholangiocarcinogenesis, and finally, we will discuss future approaches to prevent and cure CCA from the standpoint of evidence-based medicine. We will discuss these points by including the data from our laboratories. We would like to emphasize the importance of the genetic data, especially whole genome approaches, to understand the properties of CCA, to find a high risk population for CCA and to develop effective preventative methods to stop the carcinogenic steps toward CCA in the near future. In addition, it is of the upmost importance to develop a non-invasive, specific and sensitive method to detect CCA in its early stage for the application of modern medical approaches to help patients with CCA.


Branhamella catarrhalis was suggested by the presence of gram-negative intracellular diplococci and confirmed by quantitative culture of the expectorated sputa of 11 patients with clinical evidence of lower respiratory tract infection. In quantitative culture, more than 20 colonies of B. catarrhalis were seen in each of the liquefied expectorated sputa at a dilution of 10(-7). Transtracheal aspirations were then performed on these 11 patients, and B. catarrhalis was isolated from the lower respiratory tract secretions of 10 of the patients. Of the 10 isolates, 5 produced beta-lactamase. None of the isolates grew on modified Thayer-Martin medium. The presence of gram-negative intracellular diplococci and the growth of B. catarrhalis on quantitative culture of expectorated sputum reliably indicates the presence of B. catarrhalis in the lower respiratory tract.


In the past five years, hosts on the Internet have multiplied more than five times, and along with the network's rapid expansion, more and more attention is paid to the challenging task of studying the topology characteristics of Internet infrastructure. Based on the features of Internet topology discovery and practical experience, we present a three-level distributed architecture for Internet router-level routing topology discovering system. We employ an integrated framework for the deployment of the system. We are examining, from a macroscopic point of view, what architecture is appropriate for this-like system, with an emphasis placed on the flexibility in practical work. The architecture enjoys the advantages of a clear train of thought and high modularization. Experiments show that this architecture has an instructive meaning for the development, deployment, and maintenance of Internet topology discovering system.


The incremental collection of data streams has motivated their modeling in attempt to take decisions and optimize operations. Most modeling strategies do not take advantage of data decomposition strategies to separate stochastic from deterministic influences and proceed with their individual analyses. Alternatively, one can model them using the most adequate set of tools: Statistical tools to represent stochastic components, and Dynamical systems to address the deterministic ones. Almost all current decomposition strategies impose biases that make data observations lose their deterministic aspects in the phase space, consequently modifying their basins of attraction and compromising recurrent forecasting. This gap motivated us to propose Spring, an unsupervised approach to decompose time series using spring systems over phase spaces, aiming at preserving the attractor topology. Spring was compared against the state-of-the-art techniques (Fourier, Wavelets, SSA, Lazy, and EMD-RP) using synthetic time series (with and without additive noise), confirming that attractor topologies are preserved. In addition, Spring has shown the best results in our experiments, followed by Lazy. All the other assessed approaches failed in nonlinear scenarios.


This paper presents a two-stage approach to handle fixed-outline floorplanning for mixed size modules, named F-FM. F-FM combines the advantages of the analytical approach and the slicing tree representation. Thus, it is not only suitable for handling fixed-outline floorplanning but also can be extended to handle other important issues in floorplanning such as routability or thermal effect in addition to wirelength. Recently, low power has become big challenges in very large-scale integration designs, which makes voltage-island driven floorplanning more important than ever. Although the problem has been discussed by previous works, no paper considers signal wirelength, powerplanning, and voltage drop at the same time under the fixed-outline constraint. Thus, this paper extends F-FM to handle this problem and consider these issues by properly dividing modules in a voltage domain into several islands. The experimental results show our approach obtains the best results in these problems.


Extended gravity origins for cosmic acceleration can solve some fine tuning issues and have useful characteristics, but generally have little to say regarding the cosmological constant problem. Fab 5 gravity can be ghost free and stable, have attractor solutions in the past and future, and possess self tuning that solves the original cosmological constant problem. Here we show however it does not possess all these qualities at the same time. We also demonstrate that the self tuning is so powerful that it not only cancels the cosmological constant but also all other energy density, and we derive the scalings of its approach to a renormalized de Sitter cosmology. While this strong cancellation is bad for the late universe, it greatly eases early universe inflation.


A capacitive sensor that can detect both vertically and horizontally applied contact forces is proposed. The sensor is built on a flexible material (rubber), in which conductive materials are deposited, forming four separate variable capacitors. The overall result is a thin sensor that consists of four variable capacitors with increased mechanical flexibility and robustness and is characterized by a simple structure and manufacture. The interface electronics, which allows reducing the parasitic capacitance effects of the wires, is also described. The experimental tests performed in the aforementioned setup demonstrate that the three-axis capacitive force sensor and its readout circuit are valid concepts to be applied to several fields, ranging from health to robotics, among others.


The s-languages are those languages recognized by a particular restricted form of deterministic pushdown automaton, called an s-machine. They are uniquely characterized by that subset of the standard-form grammars in which each rule has the form Z → aY1...Yn, n≥0, and for which the pairs (Z, a) are distinct among the rules. It is shown that the s-languages have the prefix property, and that they include the regular sets with end-markers. Finally, their closure properties and decision problems are examined, and it is found that their equivalence problem is solvable. Since the solvability of the equivalence problem is not known for arbitrary deterministic languages, the s-languages are the most general class of languages for which this problem has been shown to be solvable.


Abstract Notobatrachus degiustoi is the most completely known Jurassic frog and has been recorded in many outcrops of the La Matilde Formation of the Deseado Massif area in southern Patagonia. Herein, we erect a new species of the genus based on partially articulated remains collected from the Callovian Las Chacritas Member of the Cañadón Asfalto Formation, about 500 km northwest of the northern limit of the known geographical distribution of N. degiustoi. The new species differs from the latter in having a maxilla with a distinct pterygoid process and lacking teeth at least along the posterior two-thirds of its length, and a complete maxillary arch. We also provide an expanded diagnosis of Notobatrachus. This finding adds to our understanding of the early diversification of frogs.


The arcABC operon of Pseudomonas aeruginosa encodes arginine deiminase, catabolic ornithine carbamoyltransferase and carbamate kinase, respectively. We have determined the nucleotide sequences of the arcA and arcC genes. The arcA open reading frame specifies a polypeptide of 46.3 kDa. The same molecular mass was obtained for the subunit of purified arginine deiminase after electrophoresis under denaturing conditions. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of arginine deiminase was in agreement with the corresponding nucleotide sequence. The native arginine deiminase had an estimated molecular mass of 175-180 kDa, suggesting a tetrametric structure. The enzyme was activated by Mg2+ or Mn2+ and strongly inhibited by Zn2+. The apparent Km for L-arginine was 0.04 mM in the presence of Mg2+ and 0.47 mM without Mg2+. The arcC open reading frame codes for a 33-kDa protein, confirming the molecular mass previously reported for the subunit of carbamate kinase. The translation-initiation site of arcC was determined by deletion mapping. Two regions of dyad symmetry found between arcA and arcC might stabilize the putative arcABC transcript in the upstream (arcA) region; this might contribute to the high level of arcA expression as compared to the moderate level of arcC expression. Carbamate kinase had 37% sequence similarity (and 13.5% identity) with the C-terminal part of carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase (large subunit) from Escherichia coli. Arginine deiminase had no apparent similarity with argininosuccinate lyase. Thus, the arcA and arcC genes do not appear to be closely related to arginine biosynthetic genes, whereas it had previously been shown that the arcB gene has a high degree of identity with the arginine biosynthetic argF genes of P. aeruginosa and E. coli.


We investigate the validity of using the low-dissipation model (LD model) to describe the maximum power regime of the endoreversible model under Newton's law of cooling. We find it valid only when the temperature difference of heat reservoirs (T_{h}-T_{c}, T_{h}>T_{c}) is small. Thus the efficiency at maximum power derived from the LD model is valid to the first order of Carnot efficiency when describing endoreversible heat engines. We conclude that the LD model produces the Curzon-Ahlborn efficiency (η_{CA}=1-sqrt[T_{h}/T_{c}]) in the maximum power regime with no dependence on dissipation ratios.


Background:Performance measures are widely used to profile primary care physicians (PCPs) but their reliability is often limited by small sample sizes. We evaluated the reliability of individual PCP profiles and whether they can be improved by combining measures into composites or by profiling practice groups. Methods:We performed a cross-sectional analysis of electronic health record data for patients with diabetes (DM), congestive heart failure (CHF), ischemic vascular disease (IVD), or eligible for preventive care services seen by a PCP within a large, integrated health care system between April 2009 and May 2010. We evaluated performance on 14 measures of DM care, 9 of CHF, 7 of IVD, and 4 of preventive care. Results:There were 51,771 patients observed by 163 physicians in 17 clinics. Few PCPs (0%–60%) could be profiled with 80% reliability using single process or intermediate-outcome measures. Combining measures into single-disease composites improved reliability for DM and preventive care with 74.5% and 76.7% of PCPs having sufficient panel sizes, but composites remained unreliable for CHF and IVD. A total of 85.3% of PCPs could be reliably profiled using a single overall composite. Aggregating PCPs into practice groups (3 to 21 PCPs per group) did not improve reliability in most cases because of little between-group practice variation. Conclusions:Single measures rarely differentiate between individual PCPs or groups of PCPs reliably. Combining measures into single-disease or multidisease composites can improve reliability for some common conditions, but not all. Assessing PCP practice groups within a single health care system, rather than individual PCPs, did not substantially improve reliability.


A 59−year−old man complaining of anal pain was referred to our division for in− vestigation. His medical history included a total gastrectomy for advanced poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma, which had penetrated the serosa without invasion of adjacent structures or perito− neal dissemination. Colonoscopy revealed that the appendiceal orifice was generally elevated, as if pushed up by a solid appen− diceal mass (Figure 1). In addition, coarse, reddish mucosa was detected at the ap− pendiceal orifice (Figure 2). Histological examination of the biopsy specimens tak− en from the mucosa at the appendiceal or− ifice during colonoscopy revealed poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, consis− tent with metastasis from the gastric car− cinoma that had been surgically resected 1 year previously. Unfortunately, the pa− tient died 1 year after receiving systemic chemotherapy. Metastasis of gastric carcinoma to the ap− pendix is rare, and was first described by Goldfarb and Zuckner in 1951 [1]. None of the reported cases, apart from the pres− ent one, was diagnosed correctly before surgery [2]. Clinically, metastatic carcino− ma of the appendix is asymptomatic, and patients generally present with symp− toms of acute appendicitis, often with perforation. The mechanism of develop− ment is considered to be attachment of metastatic tumor cells primarily to the serosa and their infiltration through all of the layers of the appendiceal wall, which becomes enlarged and circumferentially occludes the lumen of the appendix, final− ly resulting in obstruction and causing secondary inflammation [2]. Unfortu− nately, patients with metastatic appendi− ceal tumors usually have a poor prognosis [1, 3]. Further clinical evaluation of a large number of patients will be necessary in order to clarify whether early detection with endoscopic biopsy and subsequent systemic chemotherapy might improve the survival rate. Endoscopy_UCTN_Code_CCL_1AD_2AB


The recovery of the electrical resistivity of high-purity polycrystalline cobalt and cobalt containing either substitutional impurities or interstitially dissolved carbon is investigated in the temperature range 10-450 K following electron irradiation at 8 K with 3 MeV electrons up to integrated doses of 2.5*1023 m-2. In pure cobalt a strong stage-I recovery (70-78%) is observed centred at 40 K; this recovery is split into a series of substages. No stage-IE recovery has been observed. Stage-II recovery (15-20%) extends from 60 to 220 K and consists of a series of small sub-stages. Stage-III recovery (5-10%) centred at 320 K shifts to lower temperatures with increased dose. The influence of impurities is to suppress partially the stage-I and -III recoveries and to increase that of stage-II.


Earlier results of observational data showed beneficial effects with hormone therapy in women after menopause but the large clinical trials such as the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), Heart and Estrogen/progestin Replacement Study (HERS) failed to demonstrate protective cardiovascular effects. However, re-analysis of WHI results recommended that the adverse outcomes maybe influenced by several factors such as age, time of initiation, dose, route of hormone therapy and pre-existing cardiovascular disease. In recent times, the use of hormone therapy in postmenopausal women is still limited to climacteric symptoms, probably due to insufficient data to support its use in chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease. However, results from The Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study (KEEPS), has been expected to provide a definite answer to reduce cardiovascular disease with hormone therapy in postmenopausal women. Based on the results from recent studies, re-analysis of WHI results, and WHI /HERS reports, this article highlights the cardiovascular effects of hormone replacement therapy with different routes of administration in postmenopausal women.


The corrosion behavior of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) in molten salts is of great relevance for its application as thermal and environmental barrier coating in nuclear and renewable energy. The corrosion behavior of zirconia (ZrO2) and 8 mol% YSZ (8YSZ) in LiF–NaF–KF (FLiNaK) salt at 900 °C for 250 and 500 h was studied. YSZ suffered of a higher weight loss compared to zirconia (for example, 5.84 wt% for 8YSZ compared to 4.04 wt% for ZrO2 at 500 h) and underwent a phase transformation from tetragonal to monoclinic phase due to the loss of yttria, as confirmed by Raman spectroscopy.


The precise measurement of microstructures and other micron-sized materials has garnered considerable interest in recent years. We have developed a measurement system that uses an etched small diameter optical fiber as a stylus to measure microstructures with low contact force. However, when the diameter of the stylus tip is less than a few tens of micrometers, the surface forces between the measured surface and the stylus tip become larger than the gravity of the stylus tip, causing the stylus tip to stick to the measured surface. This adhesion leads to an increase in measurement time and a decrease in measurement accuracy. In this study, we fabricated a high-function stylus with water-repellent and antistatic coatings applied to the stylus tip to reduce the adhesion between the stylus tip and measured surface due to surface forces, and conducted performance evaluation tests. As a result, the average separation distance was 13.8 µm when a fluorinated resin coating with a contact angle of 105° was used, confirming that the influence of liquid bridge forces could be reduced by approximately 78%. Additionally, when static elimination experiments were conducted by scanning the charged surface at a pitch of 0.5 µm using an antistatic coating stylus with a gold on the stylus surface, the average adsorption distance was 3.6 µm, confirming that the effect of electrostatic force could be reduced by 71%.


Summary Leukemic cells from AKR mice with spontaneous leukemia were transplanted into newborn Wistar rats by the intraperitoneal or intravenous route. As a result, between 39 per cent and 48 per cent of the rats developed leukemia after 30–55 days. Multiple mesenchymal tumors of the kidneys, bones, blood vessels, and fat tissue were also found at autopsy in some rats given injections at birth of leukemic AKR-mouse cells. It was assumed that these mesenchymal tumors were caused by the polyoma virus. Tissue culture preparations of polyoma virus were then injected subcutaneously, intraperitoneally, or intravenously into litters of newborn Wistar rats. All rats surviving intraperitoneal or intravenous polyoma virus injections died of multiple mesenchymal tumors between 17 and 51 days after birth. Subcutaneously injected polyoma virus caused death from mesenchymal tumors of 68 per cent of the rats after 47–83 days of age. Polyoma tumors in rats consisted of renal sarcomas, multiple hemangiomas or hemangiosarcomas, osteochondrosarcomas, lipomas or liposarcomas, and occasional fibrosarcomas. Polyoma virus antibodies were detectable in most rats receiving tissue-cultured polyoma virus or heterologous leukemic cells. There was no correlation between the height of the hemagglutination-inhibition titers and the route of injection with polyoma virus.


About 0.7–2 μm diameter poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) foamed particles were prepared via thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) from a PMMA/ethanol mixture and vacuum dried. It was found that ethanol, known to be a poor solvent to PMMA, could dissolve PMMA when the temperature was over 60°C. The solubility of PMMA (Mw = 15,000 and Mw = 120,000) in ethanol was measured and was found to increase as the temperature increased. PMMA particles on the scale of submicron and single micron diameter could be precipitated from the PMMA/ethanol solution by temperature quenching. Then, since the precipitated particles contained a certain amount of ethanol, the precipitated particles could be foamed using the ethanol as a foaming agent in a vacuum drying process. Vacuum drying at temperatures slightly below the glass transition temperature of the polymer could make the particles foam. The effects of foaming temperature and the molecular weight of the polymer on the size of foamed particles were investigated. The experimental results showed that the vapor pressure and the molecular weight of the polymer are key factors determining the expandability of the micro particles. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007


Researchers have been more successful at identifying racial and ethnic disparities than preventing and eliminating these disparities. Meeting the urgent need to increase equity requires a broad interdisciplinary paradigm shift to antiracist research. Antiracist research is an action-oriented paradigm that assumes that racism is maintained within institutions; seeks to dismantle racism using nonracist research methods; and requires that study findings are disseminated to, benefit, and empower the target population. The ultimate goal of antiracist research is to dismantle racism and achieve a just and equitable world. This paper defines antiracist research and explains how it can be used to dismantle the racism embedded in research practices. We offer a conceptual framework, including 10 foundational principles for understanding and practicing antiracist research. We also discuss challenges that antiracist researchers often encounter along the antiracist research lifecycle. We conclude by providing several practical recommendations for principal investigators, members of the research team, funders, and universities to consider as they conceptualize, implement, and evaluate their antiracist research activities. This article has the potential to help reduce inequities and disparities via an urgently needed paradigm shift in research.


The current voltage (IV) characteristics for perpendicular transport through two sequentially coupled wires of finite length are calculated analytically. Due to interwire interactions, the positions of steps in the IV characteristics shift to lower voltages in comparison to noninteracting wires, which reflects the facilitation of current by interactions. The interwire interactions are also found to enhance the thermally activated current.


All aspects of work, and even play, require an allusive entity called supervision. Supervision models vary from loosely organized structures to strict activity overview. The 'instructional supervisory role' may be performed by one or several individuals from within or without the school, all working to assist school personnel improve their performance (for example, employees from the National Inspection System). As in other countries, Turkey has private and state schools. Both are subject to regular inspection by a centralized National Inspection System. However, in order to overcome shortfalls of the National Inspection System, private schools have had to establish internal teacher evaluation programs. The purpose of this paper is to assess current school-based supervision practices in one private school. It is intended to provide a school-based supervision model through which private secondary schools may improve their performance, accountability, and enhance teacher quality.


We propose a parallel and distributed computation of genetic local search with irregular topology in distributed environments. The scheme we propose is implemented with tree network topologies where each computing element carries out genetic local search on its own chromosome set and communicates with its parent when the best solution of each generation is improved. We evaluate the proposed algorithm in a grid simulation environment implemented on a PC-cluster. We test our algorithm on four types topologies: star, line, balanced binary tree and sided binary tree, and find that the topology's depth and the number of independent search nodes influences on the evolution process. Furthermore, we observe in the experiment 'Reset' mechanism of the population after convergence is so useful in grid computing environments.


This article aims at assessing the empirical relevance of New Economic Geography models of tax competition. We rely on a simple model to specify tax reactions functions, which we estimate with a panel covering (up to) 26 OECD countries over the period 1982 to 2006. We provide striking support for the two main predictions regarding the slope and the constant of the reaction function: national governments seem to adjust their corporate tax rate towards the level chosen in countries that are more populated, and they tend to set higher corporate tax rates when their country enjoys a high real market potential. Through the latter effect, trade integration exerts a positive influence on the level of corporate taxation. However, using a theoretically grounded index of bilateral trade integration, we also show that trade liberalization gives rise to significant tax interactions in the setting of effective average tax rates in the case of European countries, thus exerting a downward pressure on corporate tax rates.


The authors attempt to formulate the use of adverbs in English medical papers, giving special attention to various places that the adverbs may occupy in a sentence.


The mesoscopic constitutive behavior of face-centered cubic metals as a function of the system characteristic dimension recently has been investigated experimentally. Strong size effects have been identified in both polycrystalline submicron thin films and single crystal micro pillars. The size effect is manifested as an increase in strength and hardening rate as the system dimensions are decreased. In this article, we provide a mechanistic interpretation for the observed mesoscopic behavior. By performing 3D discrete dislocation dynamics simulations of grains representative of the system microstructure and associated characteristic dimensions, we show that the experimentally observed size effects can be qualitatively described. In these simulations, a constant density of dislocation sources per unit of grain boundary area is modeled by sources randomly distributed at grain boundaries. The source length (strength) is modeled by a Gaussian distribution, in which average and standard deviation is independent of the system characteristic dimension. The simulations reveal that two key concepts are at the root of the observed plasticity size effect. First, the onset of plasticity is governed by a dislocation nucleation-controlled process (sources of various length, i.e., strengths, in our model). Second, the hardening rate is controlled by source exhaustion, i.e., sources are active only once as a result of the limited dislocation mobility arising from size and boundary effects. The model postulated here improves our understanding of why "smaller is stronger" and provides predictive capabilities that should enhance the reliable design of devices in applications such as microelectronics and micro/nano-electro-mechanical systems.


Demand response, defined as the ability of load to respond to short-term variations in electricity prices, plays an increasingly important role in balancing short-term supply and demand, especially during peak periods and in dealing with fluctuations in renewable energy supplies. However, demand response has not been included in standard models for defining the optimal generation technology mix. Three different methodologies are proposed to integrate short-term responsiveness into a generation technology mix optimization model considering operational constraints. Elasticities are included to adjust the demand profile in response to price changes, including cross-price elasticities that account for load shifts among hours. As energy efficiency programs also influence the load profile, interactions of efficiency investments and demand response are also modeled. Comparison of model results for a single year optimization with and without demand response shows peak reduction and valley filling effects, impacting the optimal amounts and mix of generation capacity. Increasing demand elasticity also increases the installed amount of wind capacity, suggesting that demand response yields environmental benefits by facilitating integration of renewable energy.


Abstract This article presents core epidemiological studies that establish the basis for cardiovascular prevention strategies. The results of the classic INTERHEART and INTER-STROKE studies that delineated population-attributed risk for myocardial infarction and stroke are described. Differences in the levels or types of prevention—primordial, primary, and secondary—lead to the concept that risk occurs on a continuum throughout life with great variability, beginning in infancy. Any meaningful and sustained reduction in cardiovascular risk must begin in childhood, as habits formed early in life have an impact for decades. Although it is never too late to improve unhealthy habits, interventions early in life are more likely to be effective in preventing disease from developing, in delaying manifestations, or in reversing pathology through evidence-based therapies that are applied later. There is compelling evidence that coronary atherosclerosis, heart disease related to diabetes, and hypertension begin with endothelial activation. Oxidative stress and reduced nitric oxide availability are also among the earliest of events, from which a self-amplifying web of events proceed. The American Heart Association, even prior to its now-validated and classic definition of risk metrics, developed a strategic plan to improve health habits in the population and at the community level for promoting and monitoring behavior change and patients' self-reported health status. Other initiatives for improving cardiovascular health are in place as well. Despite improvements in treatment of risk factors, there has been minimal, if any, success in reversing the dual epidemics of obesity and diabetes. These 2 factors continue to drive the high burden of cardiovascular risk, and now lead current public health issues. Because treatment alone cannot fully address this tsunami of risk, it has been suggested that all physicians assume an unprecedented and aggressive role as advocates for behavior change to prevail against the foes of obesity and diabetes.


The aim of the paper is methodological. It deals with data collection methods. It focuses on two methods: observation and verbalizations in self-confrontation. In ergonomic psychology, it is often suggested they should be used jointly. In the 1990s it was suggested that their results should be compared to reduce biases from verbalizations in self-confrontation. In the 2000s, researchers interested in studying activities in the service field also suggested using them jointly; this time the verbalizations in self-confrontation were considered as a means of correcting errors coming from behavior analysis.The purpose of this paper is to present their use in an investigation process through a case study. The analysis process used for each method is explained and illustrated. The analysis methods and models borrow from interactionist linguistics and ergonomic psychology. A case study (excerpt of a home sale) was chosen because it refers to a complex work activity: a dynamic activity accomplished through speech acts.The results show empirically how these methods used jointly enable us (i) to enrich knowledge capitalization and (ii) correct some results. Their strengths and limitations are specified. For instance, self-confrontation used alone provides access to the purposes, actions and knowledge verbalized. The knowledge collected in self-confrontation is partial: the professional treats relevant aspects from his/her point of view. Behavior analysis used alone is not always sufficient to identify the professional's purposes and related functional actions. It does not allow access to sales skills and the trade's specialized terminology, but it allows the discovery of skills not accessible in self-confrontation.


Abstract Chronic urticaria (CU) is a mast cell-driven disease characterized by the development of wheals, angioedema, or both for more than 6 weeks. The two major sub-types are chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) and inducible urticaria. In the last decade different pathophysiological mechanisms, potentially responsible for the development of the disease, have been described. It is likely that the activation of mast cells and basophils in CSU can be the results of immune system dysregulation, activation of the inflammatory cascade, and of the extrinsic coagulation pathway. Some of the mediators involved in the pathophysiological mechanisms of CSU have recently been identified as potential biomarkers useful for the diagnosis, follow-up, and management of the disease, even if they are not yet available in clinical practice. Thus, in this review we discuss new insights in the mediators involved in the pathogenesis of CSU, highlighting their potential role as biomarkers in the activity and progression of the disease and response to therapies.


In this paper, a new form of information measure was formulated and was named Φ-entropy which is of the form I(pi) = ∑ piΦ. This information measure needs to be differentiated first with its parameter Φ before limiting it to one to derive the Shannon entropy which makes it different to other information measures that needs only a limiting parameter to derive Shannon entropy. The validity of the Φ-entropy was also tested using the axiomatic conditions and a probability distribution was also derived which leads to systems with non-Schrodinger type Hamiltonians.


Background Previous research has established that physical activity declines during childhood, but we have inadequate information on how these changes differ by ethnic group. Determining if inequalities exist between ethnic groups is vital for understanding whether different intervention strategies are necessary. We aimed to determine how physical activity has changed over time within different UK ethnic groups. Methods We used Understanding Society, a nationally representative UK-based longitudinal survey to track changes in physical activity over time in different ethnic groups. For children aged 10 to 15, we explored the frequency of participating in sports and mode of travel to school. These factors were measured in four of the available six waves (1, 2 4 and 6), between 2009 and 2015. Children were asked how frequently they participate in sports per week. For mode of travel, children reported whether they walked, cycled, used public transport, were driven or used a combination of these. When including children who were followed up, the sample size was too low to stratify by age or gender. We used linear regression to assess if ethnicity was associated with change in sports participation and mode of transport to school. Results At baseline, low sports participation (6%) and inactive commuting (54%) was highest in Pakistani children; differences were significant between ethnic groups for mode of travel to school (p<0.00). Frequency of sports participation declined for all ethnic groups between waves 1 and 2, 1 and 4 and 1 and 6. The majority of children did not increase or decrease the overall activity level of their mode of transport to school between any of the waves. Most groups continued to use an active method, though between waves 1 and 4, 50% of Pakistani children retained an inactive method of commuting to school. Despite some differences, linear regression showed that ethnicity was not significantly associated with change in frequency of sports participation or change in mode of transport between any of the waves. Conclusion Interventions aimed at preventing the decline of physical activity in children from the general population may be appropriate for ethnic minority groups. As active travel to school remains low in some ethnic minorities, targeted interventions to initially change mode of commuting in ethnic minority children is still needed.


This paper investigates the potential for constructed Melaleuca wetlands to provide buffering for sewage spills. The experimental site was a 4.5 m × 32 m surface flow constructed wetland planted with the tree species M. quinquenervia and M. alternifolia . Primary settled sewage was discharged into the wetland at flow rates of 300 and 600 lh−1, and the concentrations of commonly measured sewage pollutants were monitored at the inlet, middle, and outlet. The constructed wetland was an excellent sediment trap, with TSS removals of up to 98%. BOD5 and turbidity had correspondingly high removals of up to 93% and 97% respectively. At both flow rates there were was 100% reduction in faecal coliform. Nitrogen removal was dependent on the flow rate, with removals of 84% and 58% at 300 and 600 lh−1 respectively. Organic P removal was high, however the wetland system was a source of PO4-P. A conceptual model is presented for a constructed Melaleuca wetland designed for tea tree oil production, effluent polishing and emergency buffering for sewage spills.


Abstract Two distinct backscatter regimes are seen on a European remote sensing satellite ERS-1 C-band (5.6 cm) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image of the sea surface during a time of fair synoptic-scale weather conditions. One backscatter regime is mottled. In contrast to that, the second backscatter regime is marbled. The authors hypothesize that the mottled backscatter pattern is a characteristic SAR backscatter pattern linked to the presence of the convective (i.e., statically unstable/convective-eddy containing) marine atmospheric boundary layer (CMABL) and can be used to help determine CMABL structure [convective-eddy type (cellular convection versus longitudinal rolls), eddy wavelength, and CMABL depth (via mixed-layer similarity theory for aspect ratio)]. The hypothesis linking the presence and structure of the CMABL to the mottled backscatter pattern on SAR imagery is validated by analyzing data from a number of sources gathered in the vicinity of the boundary between the mottled and marbled reg...


The results of 124 coronary reoperations performed during a 9-year period are reviewed, with the causes of failure of the initial operations and technical considerations in the reoperation procedures. The reoperative experience provided considerable insight as to why an initial revascularization might be unsuccessful. The three basic mechanisms which appeared to lead to recurrence of symptoms or late infarction following coronary bypass were (1) inadequate initial revascularization, (2) graft failure (occlusion or stenosis), and (3) progression of disease in the native circulation. Means of prevention and surgical techniques are reviewed in detail.