An evaluation of the geology of Hylton Northwest field in southeastern Nolan County, Texas, indicates that the pre-Pennsylvanian tectonics associated with this field may have affected the producing zone of Suggs Ellenburger field 6 mi (9 km) west. Both fields are located along the Fort Chadbourne fault system of the Eastern shelf of the Midland basin. The study of the depositional environment of the Suggs Ellenburger field reveals some interesting aspects of the tectonostratigraphic terrane that appears to have in part influenced the development of the reservoir rock. The tectonics of the Cambrian-Ordovician (Ellenburger) period in Hylton Northwest field created a southwest-trending fault system with associated fractures. The fractures allowed percolating surface waters to leach carbonate rocks in the area, creating vuggy secondary porosity in the intercrystalline rock fabric. The faults were modified to a karst topography by periods of subaerial erosion of the Cambrian-Ordovician depositional plain. Sea level fluctuations that occurred in the area were associated with the alternating uplift and subsidence of the Hylton Northwest field's tectonic feature. As a result, environmental zones of porosity with varying vertical subaerial erosion formed within the overall Cambrian-Ordovician (Ellenburger) interval. The producing zone of the Suggs Ellenburger field occurs at approximatelymore » 6,400 ft (1,951 m).« less


The capacity of various blood-borne cells, whether normal or malignant, to extravasate was found to correlate with heparanase-mediated degradation of HS in subendothelial ECM. This degradation was stimulated by proteases or plasminogen and inhibited by native heparin and by various modified nonanticoagulant species of heparin. These heparins also induced a marked reduction in tumor cell metastasis and autoimmune diseases in experimental animals. Heparanase-mediated degradation of HS in ECM also released EC growth factors that are stored in ECM, most likely by high affinity binding to HS. Such growth factors were extracted from subendothelial ECM synthesized in vitro and from basement membranes of the cornea in vivo, and are structurally and functionally related to bFGF;bFGF binds to ECM and is readily released by incubation with either HS, heparin or low MW heparin fragments as well as by various normal and malignant cells and by heparanase-mediated degradation of ECM HS. In contrast, there was little or no release of growth-promoting activity upon incubation of ECM with hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate or chondroitinase ABC. A model is proposed suggesting that regulation of capillary growth and neovascular response may result from displacement of an angiogenic protein (bFGF) from its storage sites within basement membranes.


In the contemporary 'envisioned' environment, Internet webcams, low- and high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles and satellites are the new vantage points from which to construct the image of the city. Armed with hi-resolution digital optical technologies, these vantage points effectively constitute a ubiquitous visioning apparatus serving either the politics of promotion or surveillance. Given the political dimensions of this apparatus, it is important to note that this digital imaging of public urban space refers to the human visual system model. In order to mimic human vision, a set of algorithm patterns are used to direct numerous 'soft' and 'hard' technologies. Mimicry thus has a cost because this insistence on the human visual system model necessitates multiple transformative moments in the production and transmission pipeline. If each transformative moment opens a potential vulnerability within the visioning apparatus, then every glitch testifies to the artificiality of the image. Moreover, every glitch potentially interrupts the political narratives be communicated in contemporary image production and transmission. Paradoxically, the current use of scripting to create glitch-like images has reimagined glitches as a discrete aesthetic category. This article counters this aestheticisation by asserting glitching as a disruption in communication. The argument will rely on scaled tests produced by one of the authors who show how duplicating the digital algorithmic patterns used within the digital imaging pipeline on any exterior building surface glitches the visual data captured within that image. Referencing image-based techniques drawn from the Baroque and contemporary modes of camouflage, it will be argued that the visual aberrations created by these algorithm-based patterned facades can modify strategically the 'emission signature' of selected parts of the urban fabric. In this way, the glitch becomes a way to intercede in the digital portrayal of city.


Purpose of review Bacterial meningitis is a medical emergency and is associated with a high disease burden. We reviewed recent progress in the management of patients with community-acquired bacterial meningitis. Recent findings The worldwide burden of disease of bacterial meningitis remains high, despite the decreasing incidence following introduction of routine vaccination campaigns. Delay in diagnosis and treatment remain major concerns in the management of acute bacterial meningitis. European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases guidelines strive for a door-to-antibiotic-time less than 1 h. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has emerged as an important diagnostic tool to identify the causative organism. Point-of-care tests using fast multiplex PCR have been developed, but additional value has not been proven. Although anecdotal observations advocate pressure-based management, a randomized controlled trial will need to be performed first to determine efficacy and safety of such an aggressive treatment approach. Adjunctive dexamethasone remains the only adjunctive therapy with proven efficacy. Summary The incidence of bacterial meningitis has been decreasing after the implementation of effective vaccines. Treatment should be administered as soon as possible and time to treatment should not exceed 1 h.


Software development risk always influence the success of software project,even determine a enterprise surviving or perishment. Consequently, there are some significant meaning for software company and software engineering field to measure effectively the risk. Whereas, the measurement is very difficult because software is a sort of logic product. There are many methods to measure the risk at the present time, but lack of quantificational measurement methods, and these measurements are all localization and they cannot consider well the risk factors and the effect. In this paper,we bring forward a quantificational approach to measuring the software development risk based on information entropy. It involves both the probabilities of the risk factors and the bloss, it is a effective synthesis method to measuring software development risk in practice.


A gene bank of Staphylococcus aureus strain Cowan I was established using an E. coli HB101/pBR327 host-vector system. Recombinants expressing staphylococcal protein A (SPA) were detected using an IgG-binding assay. A 3.2 Kb DNA fragment directing the synthesis of SPA in E. coli was identified. SPA produced by E. coli was characterised in minicells and by Western blotting and double diffusion experiments.


Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC) is an acute, stress-induced cardiomyopathy with an increased prevalence in post-menopausal women. The syndrome is most frequently precipitated by an acute emotional or physical stressor and mimics acute myocardial infarction with symptoms, electrocardiogram (ECG) changes and cardiac troponin elevation that are indistinguishable from those caused by plaque rupture or coronary thrombosis. Diagnosis of TTC is made when coronary angiography reveals no obstructive coronary artery disease and the left ventricle demonstrates apical ballooning and basal hypercontractility. Other ventricular patterns have also been described. An abnormal myocardial response to the catecholamine surge from an emotional or a physical stressor is implicated in the pathophysiology, but the reasons for the high prevalence of TTC presentations in post-menopausal women are unknown. Several mechanisms including multi-vessel coronary vasospasm, endothelial and coronary microvascular dysfunction and direct catecholamine toxicity have been proposed. No specific guidelines for treatment of TTC have been established, but treatment is based on the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology guidelines for acute coronary syndrome/acute myocardial infarction and heart failure guidelines. In this review article, we discuss the characteristic clinical presentation of TTC and the commonly proposed mechanisms.


Microbial biofilms occur naturally in many environmental niches and can be a significant reservoir of infectious microbes in zoonotically transmitted diseases such as that caused by Campylobacter jejuni, the leading cause of acute human bacterial gastroenteritis world-wide. The greatest challenge in reducing the disease caused by this organism is reducing transmission of C. jejuni to humans from poultry via the food chain. Biofilms enhance the stress tolerance and antimicrobial resistance of the microorganisms they harbor and are considered to play a crucial role for Campylobacter spp. survival and transmission to humans. Unconventional approaches to control biofilms and to improve the efficacy of currently used antibiotics are urgently needed. This review summarizes the use plant- and microorganism-derived antimicrobial and antibiofilm compounds such as essential oils, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), polyphenolic extracts, algae extracts, probiotic-derived factors, d-amino acids (DAs) and glycolipid biosurfactants with potential to control biofilms formed by Campylobacter, and the suggested mechanisms of their action. Further investigation and use of such natural compounds could improve preventative and remedial strategies aimed to limit the transmission of campylobacters and other human pathogens via the food chain.


Transition-metal-catalyzed electrophilic amination has been developed into a powerful tool for C-N bond construction. So far, O-benzoylhydroxylamines are the most widely used electrophilic aminating reagents. Herein, we summarize the recent advances of O-benzoylhydroxylamines involved in electrophilic amination catalyzed by transition metals. Several pioneering studies and some of the relevant mechanisms are discussed in this review.


Introduction: Regular and rapid large-scale screening for pathogens is crucial for controlling pandemics like Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this study, we present the development of a digital point-of-care testing (POCT) system utilizing microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs) for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 gene fragments. The system incorporates temperature tuning and fluorescent detection components, along with intelligent and autonomous image acquisition and self-recognition programs. Methods: The developed POCT system is based on the nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT), a well-established molecular biology technique for detecting and amplifying nucleic acids. We successfully detected artificially synthesized SARS-CoV-2 gene fragments, namely ORF1ab gene, N gene, and E gene, with minimal reagent consumption of only 2.2 μL per readout, representing a mere 11% of the requirements of conventional in-tube methods. The power dissipation of the system was low, at 6.4 W. Results: Our testing results demonstrated that the proposed approach achieved a limit of detection of 1000 copies/mL, which is equivalent to detecting 1 copy or a single RNA template per reaction. By employing standard curve analysis, the quantity of the target templates can be accurately determined. Conclusion: The developed digital POCT system shows great promise for rapid and reliable detection of SARS-CoV-2 gene fragments, offering a cost-effective and efficient solution for controlling pandemics. Its compatibility with other diagnostic techniques and low reagent consumption make it a viable option to enhance healthcare in resource-limited areas.


Measured cracked particle distributions were used in conjunction with a closure-based life prediction package (FASTRAN 3.8 [1]) to predict fatigue life distributions under a spectrum load (FALSTAFF — Fighter Aircraft Loading STAndard For Fatigue [2]) in 2024-T3 aluminum. A single crack model was assumed and no threshold stress intensity factor was used. Simulations were done at maximum stress levels of 175, 205, and 275 MPa. The resulting fatigue life distributions were compared at different levels of probability of failure. At all levels, predicted fatigue lives were within a factor of two or better of experimental fatigue lives. This indicates both that the single-flaw model can be a reasonable approximation for life prediction and that it is not necessary to truncate initial flaw size distributions at some threshold level.


This article reassesses the poetics of homophonic translation in order to come to terms with its (culture-)political effects. In a close reading of poems by Ernst Jandl and Oskar Pastior, Dembeck shows that these authors' homophonic translations are by no means homogenous in the methods they apply, but rather make use of various, complex strategies of linguistic transformation simultaneously. This constant shifting between strategies enables these poets to make their texts the medium for (culture-)political movements that are, in very different ways, opposed to the presuppositions of monolingualism. Homophonic translation thus proves to be more than just a mere language game without semantic and political impact.


The publication concentrates on economic policy experiences of the major political regimes of Amin (1971-1979), Obote II (1980-1985), and Museveni I (1986-1995) in Uganda. After the content list is a"guide through the text". The first chapter looks at the current structure of the Uganda economy and the second addresses modelling, the used system estimation technique, and some theoretical issues of macroeconomic goals or objectives and policies – orthodox and heterodox. Chapter three gives the policy experiences (1970-1996) but starting with the earlier period of relative political stability since political independence (1962-1971) followed by the economic war pronouncements and other developments of the 1970s then exchange rate policies, Bank/Fund programmes, institutional and structural reforms and lastly the role of donors of the time. The empirical chapter four includes materials and methods, the test results, their discussion, and conclusions. Then the author index and the appendix [data sources, mode of data adjustments, and the data set (1970-1996) annual series for the analytical variables] end. The text is handy to students, policy makers and the general public worldwide.


This paper proposes a reconciliation of two different theories of information. The first, originally proposed in a lesser-known work by Claude Shannon (some five years after the publication of his celebrated quantitative theory of communication), describes how the information content of channels can be described qualitatively, but still abstractly, in terms of information elements, where information elements can be viewed as equivalence relations over the data source domain. Shannon showed that these elements have a partial ordering, expressing when one information element is more informative than another, and that these partially ordered information elements form a complete lattice. In the context of security and information flow this structure has been independently rediscovered several times, and used as a foundation for understanding and reasoning about information flow. The second theory of information is Dana Scott's domain theory, a mathematical framework for giving meaning to programs as continuous functions over a particular topology. Scott's partial ordering also represents when one element is more informative than another, but in the sense of computational progress – i.e. when one element is a more defined or evolved version of another. To give a satisfactory account of information flow in computer programs it is necessary to consider both theories together, in order to understand not only what information is conveyed by a program (viewed as a channel, à la Shannon) but also how the precision with which that information can be observed is determined by the definedness of its encoding (à la Scott). To this end we show how these theories can be fruitfully combined, by defining the Lattice of Computable Information (LoCI), a lattice of preorders rather than equivalence relations. LoCI retains the rich lattice structure of Shannon's theory, filters out elements that do not make computational sense, and refines the remaining information elements to reflect how Scott's ordering captures possible varieties in the way that information is presented. We show how the new theory facilitates the first general definition of termination-insensitive information flow properties, a weakened form of information flow property commonly targeted by static program analyses.


Abstract Laboratory assays of the toxicity of seven vegetable seed oils (artichoke, bitter melon, castor, flaxseed, mustard, peach kernel, and rosehip) to eggs and nymphs of the pear psylla, Cacopsylla pyricola (Foerster), were conducted as well as the oviposition-deterrent potential of the oils to female winterform and summerform morphotypes. Despite low to moderate toxicity to the eggs, the oils caused high levels of nymph mortality (up to 99%) with mortality levels depending on the type of oils and the concentrations tested. Exposure to flaxseed, mustard, artichoke, and bitter melon oils resulted in the highest nymphal mortality. Overall, the deterrence of oviposition by the oils was higher against winterform females than summerform females. In choice tests, all oils except flaxseed oil at 1% and rosehip oil at 1%, 1.5%, and 2% deterred oviposition by winterform females. Female summerform oviposition was deterred in choice tests by peach kernel oil at 1% and mustard oil and bitter melon oil at 2%. In no-choice tests, significantly fewer eggs were produced by winterform females following treatment with mustard, bitter melon, artichoke, and flaxseed oils, and over 83% deterrence of summerform oviposition was observed in flaxseed and mustard oil treatments. Severe phytotoxic effects were observed with only a high concentration (2%) of artichoke and bitter melon oils. Based on these results, mustard, flaxseed, bitter melon, and artichoke oils appear to be candidates for development of control agents against eggs and nymphs of the winterform morphotype C. pyricola.


SIRS, I read with interest the meta-analysis by Dr Huang and Professor Hunt. They conclude that `clarithromycin 500 mg b.d. should be used in combination with a proton pump inhibitor and1⁄4metronidazole1⁄4to achieve the best ®rst treatment results'. Their results, however, show that clarithromycin 250 mg b.d. was as effective as clarithromycin 500 mg b.d. for Helicobacter pylori eradication, both in the overall analysis (ITT 87.4% and 88.9%, respectively) and in the four head to head comparative studies. In view of this, I am somewhat surprised that the authors recommend using a double dose of clarithromycin (and double the cost) along with a proton pump inhibitor and metronidazole for eradication of H. pylori.


IMMUNOLOGY Correction for "Inflammatory monocytes and Fcγ receptor IV on osteoclasts are critical for bone destruction during inflammatory arthritis in mice," by Michaela Seeling, Ulrike Hillenhoff, Jean Pierre David, Georg Schett, Jan Tuckermann, Anja Lux, and Falk Nimmerjahn, which appeared in issue 26, June 25, 2013, of Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (110:10729–10734; first published June 10, 2013; 10.1073/pnas.1301001110). PNAS notes that a conflict of interest statement was omitted during publication. PNAS declares that "The editor, Jeffrey Ravetch, is a recent coauthor with an author (F.N.) of this publication, having last published a paper with him in 2010."


Space Physics
Dissociation of water in Earth's atmosphere produces hydrogen atoms, which escape into space through a combination of thermal and nonthermal processes. These hydrogen atoms resonantly scatter light from the Sun, producing an ultraviolet glow around Earth called the geocorona. Baliukin et al. analyzed ultraviolet observations taken by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft. They found that the geocoronal emission extends to at least 100 Earth radii, almost twice the distance to the Moon. This greater-than-expected extent of the geocorona indicates that nonthermal processes are launching hydrogen atoms from Earth's upper atmosphere at high speeds.

J. Geophys. Res. Space Phys. 10.1029/2018JA026136 (2019).


Angle resolved the photoemission spectroscopy excited with synchrotron radiation was employed to investigate the electronic properties of the alpha -Sn/CdTe(111) heterostructure during the initial stages of epitaxial growth. After deposition of 10 AA Sn an abrupt shift ( approximately 1.1 eV) of the valence band edge of the alpha -Sn/CdTe interface towards the Fermi level (EF) was observed, the emission at EF being considerably stronger than that of the metallic beta -Sn film.


Ewing's sarcoma, a primitive neuroectodermal tumour is a rare entity belonging to a family of neoplasms of neuroectodermal origin. These highly aggressive neoplasms primarily affect older children and young adults. They primarily involve the bones or soft tissues. A quarter of Ewing's sarcomas occur principally in the soft tissues with primary involvement of the kidney being exceptionally rare. We hereby, present a case of 6 years old girl child with primary Ewing's sarcoma of the kidney who presented with abdominal mass and posed much diagnostic challenge. The patient underwent complete surgical excision of tumour, and is being treated with aggressive adjuvant chemotherapy.


SUMMARY The adaptation of the ruminal flora of sheep to the hydrolysis of biuret has been successfully demonstrated. Bi-weekly measurements of biuretolytic activity of ruminal ingesta were made before, during and after the supplementation of biuret to poor, medium and high-quality rations. Generally no activity was found prior to biuret feeding, but an almost immediate response to biuret feeding occurred which increased progressively with the number of days the animals were fed biuret. The time required to reach maximum activity on very low, medium and somewhat higher protein diets were found to be 15, 30 and 70 days approximately. The supplementation with starch in addition to biuret was found to increase biuretolytic activity. Since neither protein nor starch was found to have any direct effect on biuretolytic activity in vitro, a change in numbers of biuretolytic organisms in the ingesta is discussed as a likely mechanism for the adaptation and de-adaptation of the ruminal flora. A stoichiometric conversion of biuret-N to NH3-N by active ingesta was demonstrated in vitro but was not reflected by the nitrogen levels in vivo. The activity of the ingesta was greatly reduced by straining.


The architects of the European Union as a transnational project never dreamed that a seemingly trivial regulation of online gambling would turn out to be such a significant problem. Today, this topic is the focus of a ferce legal battle in all European institutions, especially the European Parliament. However, the solution in the form of a comprehensive regulation is not yet in sight. Regardless of the fact that Article 56 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) points out that freedom of a Member State citizen established in a Member State other than that of the person for whom the services are intended shall not be restrected39, this provision is practically never applied, at least not in this fled of economic activity. There is an enormous resistance on the part of the majority of Member States to unify the EU market in the segment of online gambling and the priority is given to national legislation. Such attitude often results in disputes in front of European courts initiated by companies involved in operation of online gambling against states that refuse to apply the provision on the common market. In order to avoid such situations, many discussions have been held in the European Parliament, but besides the Green Paper and the subsequent Online Gambling Resolution of the European Parliament and, finally, recently passed Communication of the European Commission on the comprehensive framework for online gambling, there have been no significant advances. Nevertheless, such acts do deserve to be analyzed and it must be stressed that the Green Paper is the platform of the European Commission on which a comprehensive legislation on the level of the entire European Union in this fled is planned to be built. Also, it should be mentioned that the association of the European Lottery has passed the resolution on its regulatory principles that guarantees the secure future for the lotteries in the European Union, within which the issues of online gambling operation are also regulated.


The Fagus Factory at Alfeld on the Leine in Germany, which was built in 1911 and 1914, is a well-known and very important object in the history of modern architecture. Alan Colquhoun mentioned that it is `prophetic of the 'objective' (sachlich) Modern Movement of the 1920s`. Vittrio M. Lampugnani evaluated it as `a Pioneer building of the architectural Realism`. Most of historian of architecture explain that these achievements were accomplished mainly by the master architect Walter Gropius and sometimes by his co-worker Adolf Meyer.Through investigating the background in the planning stage and the process of design it is to try to find out what is truly happened during the project time. Furthermore, historical meanings of the building in the modern architecture is reinterpreted in the following aspects; who or which elements have influence on the Fagus Factory? and what kind of problems can be caused by the digested architectural history?


Summary Cyclic 3′,5′-nucleotide monophosphate phosphodiesterase activity was determined for seven hepatomas of different growth rates and host livers. Activity was measured in the soluble fraction of the cell (78,000 × g ) in the presence and absence of 40 mm imidazole. Phosphodiesterase activity in all hepatomas studied was decreased to levels of 60% or less of control livers of non-tumor-bearing rats. Corresponding decreases in the imidazole-stimulated phosphodiesterase activity were observed for hepatomas. Conversely, phosphodiesterase activity of 24-hr regenerating liver was elevated slightly above those for sham-operated controls. Reduced phosphodiesterase activity was observed only in host livers of animals bearing hepatomas 7800 and 7777. In the presence of imidazole, phosphodiesterase activity in all tissues was stimulated 110 to 135% of basal levels. Differences in the pH-activity profiles were observed between phosphodiesterase from normal and neoplastic liver. Phosphodiesterase of normal liver had a well-defined pH optimum at 7.4, whereas the activity from hepatoma had a broader optimum ranging from 6.2 to 7.4. Kinetic plots of the hydrolysis of cyclic adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate exhibited anomolous behavior suggesting that both normal and neoplastic tissue contain at least two different phosphodiesterase activities. Apparent Michaelis constants for the high- and low-affinity enzymes ranged from 2.5 to 7.6 µm and from 39 to 54 µm, respectively.


In this master thesis we have studied how idea work unfolds in early product development.
 We have done this by examining the idea work in a company called Alfa Laval that is
 specialized in developing separation solutions for industrial companies. Furthermore, we have
 developed a series of recommendations on how idea work can be staged to make it of high
 quality. In addition, we have developed a number of tools, which Alfa Laval can use to
 improve their idea work. By examining the early product development through the term of
 idea work, we wish to bring focus to the product developers' practical work with ideas in the
 early product development.
 The point of departure for this thesis was a realization that Alfa Laval had problems doing
 radical innovation. We therefore decided to explore their innovation process to gain insight in
 how to harness the company's innovation potential. This decision triggered an examination of
 the existing innovation literature. Through this examination we noticed an amount of
 literature about the early innovation process called the Fuzzy Front End (FFE).
 We found this part of the innovation process interesting because it seemed to be a place for
 improvement of the overall innovation process. We therefore conducted a review of some of
 the exsisting FFE litterataur to gain further insight in this. We found, that the FFE literature
 seems to be focused on organizational perspectives of innovation and FFE management. We
 thereby found it to be lacking a focus on the people that actually creates innovations e.g.
 product developers. We therefore saw a potential of improving the FFE literature by obtaining
 insight into this practical dimension of innovation. Therefore we decided to investigate the
 work of the product developers at Alfa Laval with the focus on idea work.
 As a foundation for our study of the idea work, we used empirical data obtained through
 interviews with primarily product developers. Through this we analyzed the idea work at Alfa
 Laval from three perspectives; an individual perspective, a social perspective and a process
 perspective. Within each perspective, we found interesting aspects of the idea-work, which
 led us to a comprehensive understanding of how idea work unfolds as a whole. We hereby
 found that idea-work unfolds as a social and individual process where the idea continuously is
 being framed and reframed by the individuals who engage in the idea work. The social
 processes take place through the intersection of object worlds. This intersection is made
 possible through the use boundary objects that can transforma the individuals' knowledge.
 These boundary objects are created through the individual processes. The goal of the idea
 work is to make the idea interesting to as many object worlds as possible. Hereby the idea can
 gain support, at first internally and later externally whereby innovative success ca be
 achieved.
 We also found, that idea work is influenced by the context it occurs in. This context consists
 of both organizational and market conditions. The context influences the idea work indirectly
 because the individuals that engage in the idea work make sense of the context and enact in
 the idea work according to this. Thus the context affects the idea work through the individuals
 engaging in it.
 To simplify the understanding we have gained of idea work, we have developed the Idea-
 Framing model. This model should be understood as our contribution to the existing FFE
 literature. We believe the Idea-Framing Model to be an important contribution to the literature
 because it presents an understanding of how the work with ideas is actually performed, which
 does not seem to be of focus in the FFE.
 In addition to the model, we have developed a number of recommendations on how idea work
 can be staged to improve its quality. We have therefore made general recommendations but
 also specific recommendations for Alfa Laval. We have also developed a number of tools that
 can assist Alfa Laval in the staging process. These tools consist of two groups,
 communication tools and innovation tools. The communication tools should be used to
 communicate our understanding of idea work to the employees at Alfa Laval and the
 innovation tools should be used when performing idea work. This means, that the
 communication tools develop a shared syntax for the employees to be able to communicate
 about idea work and thus deliberately stage it. The innovation tools are designed to be used in
 meetings between individuals and thus in the staging of each meeting to take advantage of the
 potential that exists between the different object worlds. All tools are built as boundary
 objects that can transform knowledge when used. It is our hope that the recommendation and
 tools can help Alfa Laval to harness their innovation potential through deliberate staging of
 idea work.


High-performance fibroin fibres are ideal candidates for the manufacture of scaffolds with applications in tissue engineering due to the excellent mechanical properties and optimal biocompatibility of this protein. In this work, the manufacture of high-strength fibres made from the silk glands of Samia cynthia ricini is explored. The glands were subjected to soaking in aqueous dissolutions of acetic acid and stretched to manufacture the fibres. The materials produced were widely characterized, in terms of morphology, mechanical properties, crystallinity and content of secondary structures, comparing them with those produced by the standard procedure published for Bombyx mori. In addition, mechanical properties and biocompatibility of a braided scaffold produced from these fibres was evaluated. The results obtained show that the fibres from B. mori present a higher degree of crystallinity than those from S. c. ricini, which is reflected in higher values of elastic modulus and lower values of strain at break. Moreover, a decrease in the elongation values of the fibres from S. c. ricini was observed as the concentration of acetic acid was increased during the manufacture. On the other hand, the study of the braided scaffolds showed higher values of tensile strength and strain at break in the case of S. c. ricini materials and similar values of elastic modulus, compared to those of B. mori, displaying both scaffolds optimal biocompatibility using a fibroblast cell line.


It is pointed out that techniques adapted from artificial intelligence have already started to become commercially available. Researchers see software becoming more `trainable', able to access quantities of data that are orders of magnitude greater than today's and able to `intuit' some of the user's needs. The software will perform some of these tasks automatically while it monitors other functions of the PC in the background. These strides in functionality will be made by multitasking operating systems. Multitasking may be used mostly for background tasks-monitoring a modem, for instance-and for the `desk accessory' functions now performed by RAM-resident programs. It is predicted that software in the future will allow users to define how to use a program's functions. For example, a program might construct a profile of an individual user and `remember' command sequences frequently used by that user. The software could then `guess' what the user might request next and offer that option as a prompt.


ABSTRACT 1. Gelatin prepared from calf bones (GCB) is a novel source of high-quality protein and phosphorus. Its inclusion in broiler chicken diets may improve bone strength, plasma and digestive alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP), phosphorus digestibility and performance of broilers. Therefore, di-calcium phosphate in a corn-soy control diet was replaced with 12, 24, and 36 g/kg of GCB in a completely randomised design with four treatments of six replicates and 10 chicks in each pen. The trial lasted from 1 to 42 d of age. 2. Body weight and feed intake were measured weekly. Plasma calcium and phosphorus concentration along with plasma and digestive ALP were assayed throughout the trial. Trypsin, α-amylase, lipase and total protease activity were assayed at 14 and 28 d of age. Tibia ash, calcium and phosphorus content and breaking strength were measured at 14, 28 and 42 d of age. Phosphorus digestibility was measured at 36 d of age. 3. Body weight and feed intake showed no significant differences between controls and diets containing 12 and 36 g/kg GCB. Tibia ash and tibia length were increased by supplementation of GCB (P ≤ 0.001). Tibia calcium and phosphorus content were increased by GCB inclusion at 14 d of age (P ≤ 0.001). Digestive alkaline phosphatase activity was increased and trypsin activity was reduced by inclusion of GCB (P ≤ 0.001; P ≤ 0.004). α-amylase activity decreased by inclusion of 12 and 24 g/kg GCB, whereas an increase in α-amylase activity was observed by inclusion of 36 g/kg GCB (P ≤ 0.001). Supplementation of diets with GCB increased phosphorus digestibility (P ≤ 0.01) and suppressed ileum growth during the experimental period. 4. Results of the current study showed that phosphorus from gelatin can greatly improve broiler bone characteristics and phosphorus digestibility and complete elimination of inorganic phosphate sources from broiler diets is feasible with inclusion of 36 g/kg high phosphorus gelatin.


Tabloid reporting about the removal of crosses from hospital chapels and the banning of Bibles on wards highlights a perception that English cultural identity is under threat by concessions made to minority groups, often characterized as 'political correctness gone mad'. A claim frequently made is that Britain is 'a Christian country', and this article argues that this idea, and its corollary that it is natural and right for Christian symbolism to have precedence in the sacred/spiritual spaces of healthcare institutions, acts as what Lacan and Žižek term a 'master-signifier'. As such, I argue that the marginalization of cultural representation—the symbolizing of cultural/religious values that legitimates the presence of minority religions/cultures—is an important factor contributing to the inequality of access to healthcare in general and palliative care in particular.


BACKGROUND/AIM
The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of fecal carriage of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing bacteria, enzyme types, and risk factors affecting colonization.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 576 stool samples from outpatients were examined between October 2012 and May 2013. Screening was done with selective EMB plates. ESBL were detected by double-disk synergy and confirmed agar strip gradient methods. Enzyme types were determined by PCR.

RESULTS
The prevalence of fecal carriage was found as 30% (173 of 576). Recent use of antibiotics, hospitalization and surgical operation, diabetes, crowded household populations, and old age were associated with higher carriage rates. Of the ESBL-producing bacteria, 87.5% were positive for blaCTX-M genes. Of the blaCTX-M gene-positive isolates, 95.2% were positive for blaCTX-M-1 genes; among these, 82.2% were positive for blaCTX-M-3 and 67.7% were positive for blaCTX-M-15 genes while 62.5% isolates were positive for both blaCTX-M-3 and blaCTX-M-15 genes Conclusions: A high rate (30%) of fecal carriage of ESBL bacteria was found in an adult population. The predominant beta-lactamase enzyme types were CTX-M-3 and CTX-M-15.


Scrubbing of hydrocarbon-based gases such as natural gas or biogas is essential prior to its use. These gas mixtures when contaminated with hydrogen sulfide cause safety, environmental, and corrosion problems in pipelines. There are several methods of reducing the content of hydrogen sulfide in sour gases, but few of these are selective as well. Selectivity is important to avoid unnecessary chemical usage. Chemisorption in sodium hydroxide solution by applying a special spray technique appears to be an efficient and selective method for hydrogen sulfide removal. This study aims to determine the characteristic of system and thereby facilitating the design of gas-cleaning parameters. The studied parameters include the contact time, concentration of sodium hydroxide, absorbent volumetric flow rate, and gas composition. Model gas mixtures of hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen were used for experiments. To define the optimal experiment setup, the Box–Behnken design (BBD) method was applied. Based on the method, the number and the condition of necessary absorption experiments were constructed. To rank the operating parameters of the absorption process from the point of view of which effect is more significant on the scrubbing performance, statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA) was done. The analysis shows contact time and concentration of sodium hydroxide as the two most influential factors in the absorption process. Carbon dioxide content of sour gas as influencing factor was examined for efficiency and order of priority parameters of process. An extended model has been created to support the optimization of operating conditions in the investigated removal system.


ABSTRACT Recent studies have shown that casein kinase I ε (CKIε) is an essential regulator of the mammalian circadian clock. However, the detailed mechanisms by which CKIε regulates each component of the circadian negative-feedback loop have not been fully defined. We show here that mPer proteins, negative limbs of the autoregulatory loop, are specific substrates for CKIε and CKIδ. The CKI phosphorylation of mPer1 and mPer3 proteins results in their rapid degradation, which is dependent on the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. Moreover, CKIε and CKIδ are able to induce nuclear translocation of mPer3, which requires its nuclear localization signal. The mutation in potential phosphorylation sites on mPer3 decreased the extent of both nuclear translocation and degradation of mPer3 that are stimulated by CKIε. CKIε and CKIδ affected the inhibitory effect of mPer proteins on the transcriptional activity of BMAL1-CLOCK, but the inhibitory effect of mCry proteins on the activity of BMAL1-CLOCK was unaffected. These results suggest that CKIε and CKIδ regulate the mammalian circadian autoregulatory loop by controlling both protein turnover and subcellular localization of mPer proteins.


Background: Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an established preventative measure for HIV transmission, however not enough providers are prescribing PrEP for their patients. Reasons for inadequate PrEP coverage include discomfort among providers addressing sexual health and lack of adequate sexual health training among medical trainees.Objective: Our aim was to determine if volunteer experience in a free PrEP clinic improved medical student knowledge and comfort level addressing sexual health and PrEP with patients.Methods: An online survey was conducted to determine knowledge and comfort of PrEP, general sexual and LGBTQIA+ health knowledge among medical students who had and had not volunteered at our free PrEP clinic. Results: 269 students across all four years of medical school were surveyed. Demographics among the two groups were similar. Across the 10 primary survey questions assessing comfort with sexual health and PrEP, those who had volunteered reported significantly more comfort than students who had not. Responses between the two groups differed in the proportion of respondents who reported "extremely" or "very" comfortable with these sexual health topics. There were several affirming narratives provided by students regarding the importance of the PrEP clinic in their medical education. There was no difference between the groups in terms of general sexual health knowledge. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that volunteering at a PrEP clinic correlated with higher reported comfort with sexual health, including discussions surrounding PrEP. Given the importance of addressing sexual health topic with patients, we conclude that medical students would benefit from more in-person opportunities to learn about sexual health. This study illustrates the importance of exposure in generating comfort for trainees on sensitive topics which could lead to better sexual health care for patients.


A 35-year-old man was admitted to Korea University Anam Hospital for evaluation of intermittent chest pain. Computed tomography of the chest showed enlargement of a previously identified anterior mediastinal mass and also a well-defined, circumscribed mass in the subcarinal area, surrounded by the roof of the left atrium, right pulmonary artery, and the carina. Complete resection of the intrapericardial tumor was performed through median sternotomy without cardiopulmonary bypass. Pathologic examination identified the tumor as schwannoma, of an ancient type, diffusely positive for the S-100 antigen. Unlike other reported cases, grossly, the tumor did not seem to be involved with any nerve.


A variation of L.G. Valiant's 'PAC' model of learnability (Commun. ACM, vol.27, no.11, p.1134-42, 1984; Proc. 9th Int. Joint Conf. Artif. Intell., Aug. 1985) is used to investigate the learning power of artificial neural nets with threshold nodes. It is shown that there are cases where simple nets require an exponential number of training examples for reliably determining their sets of parameters. Polynomially many training examples may not be enough to determine the set of parameters even for a net of three threshold nodes, if it has to perform reliably in two different environments.<<ETX>>


The importance of earthworms for soils has evolved over time. Our study was conducted in the forest of Ouled yagoub (North East Algerian). Sampling at three different altitudes resulted in a total of forty-nine individuals (49) and only three species were identified: Octodrilus complanatus , Allolobophora molleri and Aporrectodea rosea . Spread over two ecological categories. The specific richness is higher in the site of 1400 m of altitude. The Simpson index (Is) varies between 0.44 and 0.49 for the three study sites. The Shannon index fluctuates between 0.41 and 0.74. The values of the Hill index vary between 1 and 1.5 in the three Sites. Keywords: Abundance, earthworm, species richness, biodiversity


Significant gas reserves at depths ranging from 19,800 to 20,400 ft (6,035 to 6,218 m) have been established in Tuscaloosa sandstones at False River and Judge Digby fields (Chevron U.S.A. Inc. discoveries) located within the deep Tuscaloosa gas trend. The sandstones are within an Upper Cretaceous clastic wedge that thickens in front of, and to the south of, a Lower Cretaceous carbonate shelf. Reservoirs at Judge Digby field are part of a thick clastic section comprised of gray shales and medium to coarse-grained sandstones, in part conglomeratic. Paleontology, textural grading, bed contacts, and sequential arrangement of sedimentary structures suggest fluvial and deltaic environments. Reservoirs at False River field are stratigraphically younger and are interpreted as part of a barrier bar sequence. These sandstones are fine to medium-grained and occur at the top of upward-coarsening gradational sequences. In both fields, the reservoirs commonly have maximum porosities above 25% and permeabilities in excess of 100 md. Although these reservoirs are presently geopressured, petrographic evidence and density of the associated shales indicate that the sandstones are not underco pacted. A study of the sandstone framework suggests that burial diagenesis dramatically reduced the primary pore system, eliminating significant permeability. Leaching of the grain framework created an important contribution to effective secondary porosity and reestablished lost permeability. The secondary pores are easily identified by relic rims of authigenic, grain-coating chlorite cement which persisted after selective grain removal by dissolution. Commercial End_Page 993------------------------------ Figure production from these deeply buried Tuscaloosa sandstones is dependent upon secondary enhancement of a reduced primary pore system and its subsequent maintenance by geopressure. End_of_Article - Last_Page 994------------


This essay examines the theme of conformity in Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre. It highlights in particular the protagonist's conflict with conformity as criticism of social inequality in terms of gender. The analysis builds on the patriarchal concept of the angel of the house, as described by Lois Tyson and Alastair Henry and Catharine Walker Bergström, which is a definition of the governing codes of behavior women of the nineteenth century were expected to follow within both the domestic and professional sphere. Specifically, these spheres are organized through significant Victorian institutions such as the household, the education and employment of women and the marriage. The behavior of Jane is discussed in relation to these institutions as a means to support the argument of the protagonist distancing herself from contemporary gender norms. The conclusion of the essay shows that Jane's circumstances within these institutions leads to her deviation from behavioral norms as a deliberate action.


It has been demonstrated that symbiotic N2 fixation enhances soil fertility and productivity as well as increases carbon sequestration and nutrient conservation. Green house experiments were conducted to ascertain the effect of garlic extract on the nodulation of cowpea and groundnut plants. Different concentrations of the extract (20, 40, 60 and 80%), were applied to the plant at 2 weeks after planting. Both legumes were adversely affected by the garlic extract, but the effect was more pronounced on the groundnut plants. Before application of the garlic extract to the soil, the soil pH was 6.5, phosphorus 8.3 mol/kg, calcium 2.51 mol/kg, potassium 0.45 mol/kg, and nitrogen 0.295 mol/kg, and these make the soil fertile enough for nodulation. However, after garlic extract application, there was reduced nodulation in the roots and a marked drop in plant height, leaf area and root development in comparison to the control. This adverse effect was more with increasing concentration of the extract.  It is recommended, that land for cowpea or groundnut product remains free of garlic and members of the families Allium and Cyperus plants. They should not be left in the soil or turned over in it, during land clearing and should be grown in inter-crop.  This is because their exudates during decomposition or growth could have inhibitory effects on the growth and nodulation of legumes.

 Keywords: Garlic extract, nodulation, legumes, nitrogen fixation.


This paper provides an overview and details concerning a new and fundamentally based solution concept to support "real" real-time Fab analysis, fast new-product ramp and inherent knowledge discovery. Basic use cases and business drivers will be highlighted, and some insight will be given into a new and mathematically grounded system and methodology. Influences of database technologies will be discussed, and the research system of TU Dresden database group will be introduced. This is followed by a rough comparison with prior art systems, which highlights advantages of the new concept. This approach substantiates some core concepts of "Industrie 4.0".


We present a new family of biorthogonal wavelet transforms and a related library of biorthogonal symmetric wavelets. For the construction we use the interpolatory discrete splines which enable us to design perfect reconstruction filter banks related to the Butterworth filters. The construction is performed in a "lifting" manner. The proposed scheme is based on interpolation and, as such, it involves only samples of signals and it does not require any use of quadrature formulas. These filters have linear phase property. The filters yield perfect frequency resolution.


MiniCLEAN-360 utilizes 360 kg of liquid argon to detect the nuclear recoil from WIMP dark matter with a projected cross-section sensitivity of 10−45 cm2. To reach this planned sensitivity, a unique modular design is being developed with a spherical geometry to maximize light collection using PMTs. Pulse shape discrimination techniques separate nuclear recoil signal from the electron recoil backgrounds resulting from the beta decay of 39Ar and Compton scattering of gamma rays. The design allows for the replacement of the target material with liquid neon to examine any signal and backgrounds with a different sensitivity. It also provides research and development for a larger scale low energy solar neutrino experiment using neon (CLEAN: Cryogenic Low Energy Astrophysics with Noble gases) that plans to measure the pp-solar neutrino flux to 1%. Particular attention is being paid to mitigating the background from contamination of surfaces by radon daughters during assembly. The engineering design, radon mitigation plan, and various testing setups are presented. MiniCLEAN-360 anticipates the start of data collection in mid-2009 at SNOLAB in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.


Background: Chromosome translocation is one of the most common chromosomal causes to T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). Ku70 is one of the key factors of error-prone DNA repair that may end in translocation. So far, the direct correlation between Ku70 and translocation has not been assessed. Our study aimed to investigate the association of Ku70 and translocation in human lymphocytes after radiation and T-ALL. Methods: Peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) from volunteers and human lymphocyte cell line AHH-1were irradiated with X-rays to form chromosome translocations. The frequency of translocation was detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), meanwhile, the expression of Ku70 was also detected by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and western blot. Furthermore, Ku70 interference, overexpression and chemical inhibition were used in AHH-1 cell lines to confirm the correlation. Finally, we detected the expression of Ku70 in T-ALL samples with or without translocation. Results: Expression of Ku70 and frequencies of translocation were both significantly increased in PBLs after irradiated by X-rays, and a positive correlation between the expression (both mRNA and protein level) of Ku70 and the frequency of translocation was detected (r = 0.4877, P = 0.004; r = 0.3038, P = 0.0358 respectively). Moreover, Ku70 interference decreased the frequency of translocations while the frequency of translocations was not significantly affected after Ku70 overexpression. The expression of Ku70 and frequencies of translocation were both significantly increased in cells after irradiated combined with chemical inhibition (P <0.01). The protein level and mRNA level of Ku70 in T-ALL with translocation were significantly higher than T-ALL with normal karyotype (P = 0.009, P = 0.049 respectively). Conclusions: Ku70 is closely associated with the frequency of chromosome translocation in human lymphocytes after radiation and T-ALL. Ku70 might be a radiation damage biomarker and a potential tumor therapy target.


Effects of changed gravity on the function of insulin-producing beta-cells and glucagon-producing alpha-cells in pancreas of rats after the 14-day missions of Cosmos-1887, -2044, and those pre- and postnatal development of which till day 60 proceeded at 2 G in a permanently rotating ground centrifuge were studied with the use of morphological techniques. The comparison of beta- and alpha-cells from pancreas of rats flown in space and subjected to relatively reduced gravity after transition from 2 G to 1 G in the laboratory experiment allow to deduce that the postflight reduced production of insulin by beta-cells and glucagon by alpha-cells has been caused by microgravity, whereas the hindered secretion of hormones is associated with the gravity stress within the first hours after recovery.


Background: Pleural effusion has varied aetiological factors. It constitutes one of the major causes of morbidity in India as well in other parts of world. Because of the various aetiologies that can cause pleural effusion, itoften present a diagnostic problem, even after extensive investigations.
Objective: In this study, authors aimed to identify the common aetiologies causing pleural effusion and their clinical profile in a tertiary care hospital.
Materials and Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study is conducted over a period of one year in tertiary care hospital in West Bengal. 150 patients of pleural effusion above 10 yrs of age were studied. Clinico-pathological, radiological, hematological and biochemical parameters were documented.
Results: The most common cause pleural effusion in this study was tuberculosis (64.67%), followed by malignancy (14.67%), parapneumonic effusion (7.33%), cardiac failure (5.33%) and other minor causes. It was commonly seen in male (70%). The occurrence of tubercular pleural effusion was maximum in the age group 31-40 years. Right-sided effusions were more common. Pleural fluid cytology and adenosine deaminase played a pivotal role in the diagnosis of tubercular pleural effusion.
Conclusion: The present study highlights tuberculosis as the common causative factor for pleural effusion, labels lung carcinoma as the most common cause of malignant pleural effusion, and defines the clinico-pathological, biochemical and imaging characteristics of different aetiologies of pleural effusion.


Aims
Changing biodiversity can affect ecosystem functioning. However, the role of genetic diversity within species, relative to the one of species diversity, has hardly been addressed.
Methods
To address the effects of both genetic diversity and species diversity during the important stage of early tree life, we used eight seed families (SF) taken from each of 12 evergreen and deciduous tree species of subtropical forest to perform a factorial experiment. We established 264 communities of 16 trees each. Each community had a species diversity of either one or four species and a genetic diversity of either one, two or four SF per species. We measured plant survival, growth rate, final biomass and herbivory 20 months after sowing.
Important Findings
Species differed from each other in biomass, growth rate, herbivory and survival (P < 0.001). Deciduous species tended to have much higher biomass (P < 0.1) and experienced higher herbivory (P < 0.05) than evergreen species. Species diversity affected the performance of different species differently (species diversity by species interaction, P <0.001 for all variables but survival). Biomass differed between SF and increasing genetic diversity from one to two, and from two to four, SF per species increased biomass for some species and decreased it for others (P < 0.001). Our study showed pronounced species–specific responses of early tree performance to species diversity and less pronounced responses to genetic diversity. These species–specific responses suggest feedbacks of species diversity and genetic diversity on future species composition.


I appreciate the privilege of speaking to the House, and I do so on behalf of the staff. I am grateful for the assistance I have received from staff in the preparation of this report. I count this presentation as an opportunity to review, for the benefit of this responsible body, our activities as an association. I understand and appreciate the complexity of the duties of the House, and the difficulties involved in discharging those duties. I recall my service as a member of the House of Delegates from 1944 until 1949, before I was elected to the Board of Trustees. Members of the House, who regularly meet only twice a year, do a remarkable job of digesting and evaluating Association programs and problems. It is not easy. Keeping pace with developments in the AMA, even by the most interested physician, is as difficult as keeping abreast of the mushrooming


40 Abstract—Communication specialists around the world are facing the same problem: shifting from circuit switching to packet switching. In 2006, the Pentagon adopted a new plan for the next 15 years entitled Joint Vision 2020. The plan announced a DISN (Defense Information System Network) paradigm shift: the transition from SS7 signaling to IP protocol. It is assumed that the IP protocol will be the only means of communication between the transport layer and applications. The article is devoted to the discussion of the telecommunications service evolution. We will provide examples to illustrate the difficulties that complicate the transition from CS to PS, to web-oriented services. A sort of birthmarks on the DISN remain the "Red Phone" network (Defense Red Switched Network) based on ISDN technology, as well as databases of AIN (Advanced Intelligent Network) and SCE (Service Creation Environment) for AIN services.


This paper includes two studies on understanding of physical properties of air, both conducted in Turkish middle schools. In the first study, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in public and private schools were compared on their understanding of Boyle's Law and the Bernoulli Principle as well as the following: that air occupies space, has weight, exerts pressure, and rises when heated. No difference was found between the schools. The purpose of the second study was to investigate the effects of an intervention on private middle school students' conceptions of the same properties of air. The intervention consisted of three 40-minute sessions with discrepant event demonstrations and hands-on activities. The private school students completed a questionnaire both before and after the sessions. The preand post-test data, analyzed by three grade levels (a 2 x 3 ANOVA), indicated that at all grades the students significantly increased their understanding of properties of air. A time x grade level interaction indicated that the 8th graders improved more than the other students. Implications are discussed.


This text (published in Portuguese) deals with quantitative information (QI) as a historiographical instrument: its individual characteristics and those it displays in sets, its capacity to describe historical phenomena and its uses by historians. It examines in especial the meaning and the limits of quantitative precision in historiographical practice. It also discusses the object of QIs, the process of its generation and the standards employed. The concept of a historian's focus is introduced, combining temporal, spacial and conceptual axes and scales. The consequences of homogeneity and heterogeneity in time series and synchronic QI are discussed. Published in Locus-Revista de Historia, Juiz de Fora-MG, Brazil v14n1


Adherence to antiretroviral therapy is a major predictor of the survival of individuals living with HIV/AIDS. Appropriate use of antiretroviral (ARV's) has improved the health of many human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive individuals. The effectiveness of HIV treatment depends on sustenance of high levels of adherence to ARV; however, ARV regimens are often complicated and can be affected by varying dosing schedules, failing to have proper dietary requirements and patients developing adverse effects. The objective of this study was to determine therapy and health system related factors influencing adherence to Anti-retroviral drugs among adult HIV/ AIDS patients in Embu County Teaching and Referral Hospital Comprehensive Care Clinic. The study applied cross sectional descriptive design with stratified random sampling used to obtain relative proportion of male and female adult respondents in the sample population. 332 HIV positive patients were chosen from a total of 1694 patients who were active in ART for more than one year. A semi-structured interview schedules was used to obtain patients view on various dimension or ART services at the facility. ART adherence was at 48.2%. There was significant association between adherence to ART treatment and the type of drug a respondent was in with AZT, ddl, NFV having the highest proportion of sub-optimal adherence to treatment while respondents on D4T, 3TC, NVP had the lowest proportion of sub-optimal adherence to treatment. Convenience of the facilities for people with chronic ailments and waiting time at the facilities were reported to be good (73.0%) and excellent (75.3%) respectively.


One hundred and seven consecutive patients with hematemesis and/or melena and a diagnosis of duodenal, gastric, or esophageal ulcers were interviewed immediately before or after endoscopy about the use of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and symptoms before the hemorrhage. If the patients admitted no symptoms of abdominal pain or discomfort, nausea, vomiting, or heartburn, they were classified as having no ulcer symptoms before the hemorrhage. Patients who had not taken NSAIDs during the last 48 h before the hemorrhage were classified as not having taken NSAIDs. Significantly fewer patients had ulcer symptoms in the group that had used NSAIDs than in the other group (p less than 0.01). This may be interpreted as a possible masking effect by NSAIDs on ulcer symptoms. Physicians and patients should be aware of this possible effect of NSAIDs.


We have performed quantum-based multiscale simulations to study the initial chemical processes of condensed-phase octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX) under shock wave loading. A self-consistent charge density-functional tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) method was employed. The results show that the initial decomposition of shocked HMX is triggered by the N-NO(2) bond breaking under the low velocity impact (8 km/s). As the shock velocity increases (11 km/s), the homolytic cleavage of the N-NO(2) bond is suppressed under high pressure, the C-H bond dissociation becomes the primary pathway for HMX decomposition in its early stages. It is accompanied by a five-membered ring formation and hydrogen transfer from the CH(2) group to the -NO(2) group. Our simulations suggest that the initial chemical processes of shocked HMX are dependent on the impact velocity, which gain new insights into the initial decomposition mechanism of HMX upon shock loading at the atomistic level, and have important implications for understanding and development of energetic materials.


ackground: Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous or folk medicine) comprises medical knowledge systems that developed over generations within various societies before the era of modern medicine. The (WHO) defines traditional medicine as:"the health practices, approaches, knowledge and beliefs incorporating plant, animal and mineral-based medicines, spiritual therapies, manual techniques and exercises, applied singularly or in combination to treat, diagnose and prevent illnesses or maintain wellbeing. Objectives: To evaluate the attitude of mothers toward using herbal medicine for the treatment of their children in comparison with modern treatment with trade known drugs and its relation to the educational level. Method: The study included 145 women with age average (34)yrs ,divided in to 4 groups according to teaching level and estimate their attitude toward traditional treatment regarding modern treatment with trade known drugs ,causes for using herbal medicine ,what they prefer ,which cases they treat ,if there is any obvious side effect observed after administration of these herbs ,source of information about usage , after data collection it undergoes analysis .The study conducted between 2009-2010 Results: The study revealed high attitude of mothers towards herbal treatment in comparison with trade drugs for the treatment of their children and also revealed increase their attitude with decrease educational level. Conclusion: There was a clear and obvious desire for mothers regarding the use of herbal therapy either as replacement or adjuncts for the treatment of mild illness (such as flu, constipation ,diarrhea , napkin rash ,nasal congestion, etc).The study showed that the major cause for using herbs was its low cost in comparison with modern drugs and seem to be free of side effect as its natural ,it also revealed that the important source of information about herbal therapy was TV ,and there was no obvious side effect noted during administration .


The exponential growth of the Web in terms of Web sites and their users during the past decade has generated huge amount of data related to the user's interactions with the Web sites. This data is recorded in the Web access log files of Web servers and usually referred as Web Usage Data (WUD). Knowledge Discovery from Web Usage Data (KDWUD) is that area of Web mining which deals with the application of data mining techniques to extract interesting knowledge from the WUD. As Web sites continue to grow in size and complexity, the results of KDWUD have become very critical for efficient and effective management of the activities related to e- business, e-education, e-commerce, personalization, Web site design and management, network traffic analysis, the cache, the proxies, great diversity of Web pages in a site, search engine's complexity, and to predict user's actions. Nevertheless, understanding the needs of their users is vital for the owners of the Web sites in order to serve them better. This book covers three main stages of knowledge discovery – Preprocessing of raw WUD, Pattern Discovery and Pattern Analysis.


Macromolecule protein in protein hydrolysate was deposited by using 10% trichloroacetic acid. After centrifugal-ization and filtration, biuret reagent was added to the clear solution. The OD value was mensurated under 540nm. Then thecontent of peptides of the sample was obtained through contrasted on the standard curve of Gly-Gly-Tyr-Arg tetrapeptide.


Background: The National Comprehensive Cancer Network guideline on Genetic/Familial High Risk: Breast, Ovarian and Pancreatic Cancer (NCCN) recommends offering increased screening and risk-reduction options to women with a pathogenic/likely pathogenic variant (PV/LPV) in 8 clinically-actionable hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) genes: ATM, BRCA1, BRCA2, CDH1, CHEK2, PALB2, PTEN, and TP53. These options range from biannual clinical breast exams and annual breast MRI screening to risk-reducing mastectomy (RRM) and salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO). Yet health insurance company policies addressing the medical necessity of genetic testing for these genes vary widely. While some payers have adopted the NCCN testing criteria verbatim, others have made specific changes or have developed their own criteria. We sought to quantify the potential impact of this variability on access to enhanced medical management for carriers of PV/LPV in these 8 HBOC genes in a large cohort of patients undergoing genetic testing at a single commercial laboratory. Methods: We reviewed clinical and family histories for patients undergoing multigene panel testing that included testing for the 8 genes of interest and identified 107,344 patients who met NCCN testing criteria (excluding prostate cancer criteria, which were not assessed in this study) for HBOC (v.2.2021). We then compared the histories of these patients to testing criteria for 3 different payer groups: Aetna, Blue Shield of California/Federal Blue Cross-Blue Shield, and eviCore (used by over 30 payers including AmeriHealth, Highmark and Horizon). These are the largest payer groups in our cohort and together represent 19% of patients tested. For each patient we determined whether they met testing criteria for the 3 payer groups. For individuals found to have a PV/LPV we determined the potential missed management opportunities for those who would not have been tested under each payer's criteria. In addition, we sought to estimate the maximal impact of this missed management for patients with BRCA PV/LPV (not accounting for patient age or medical history). Results: Among patients meeting NCCN testing criteria for HBOC, 10,10,477 (9.8%) were found to have PVs/LPVs in one of the 8 genes. Under the three payer policies 2% to 10.3% of all patients, and up to 4.0% (n=423) of PV/LPV carriers, would not have been eligible for genetic testing. Based on NCCN management guidelines, up to 423 eligible patients would not have been offered annual breast MRI, 208 patients would not have been offered RRM, and 163 eligible patients would not have been offered RRSO. This lack of testing access due to misaligned medical policies also represents missed opportunities for offering potentially life-saving screening and risk reduction measures to these patients as well. Assuming lifetime cancer risks of 85% for breast cancer and 40% for ovarian cancer, and risk-reduction of 95% with RRM and 80% with RRSO. Had all policies matched NCCN testing criteria, up to 132 breast cancers could have potentially been detected earlier or prevented and 52 ovarian cancers could potentially have been prevented in our cohort. Conclusions: In addition to complicating clinical practice, varying testing guidelines have broader implications. Our data show that a significant number of mutation carriers are being missed by payer policies that deviate from NCCN testing criteria. In turn, this represents missed opportunities to offer proactive screening and risk-reduction options that could potentially save lives for those at risk for hereditary cancer. Based on findings from other studies, these actions would likely reduce health insurer costs as well.
 Citation Format: Robert T Pilarski, Stephanie Noble, Lily Hoang, Randy Hew, Stephanie Gandomi, Holly LaDuca, Jill Dolinsky. Inequitable access to genetic testing leads to missed screening and prevention opportunities for individuals at risk for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2021 Dec 7-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-09-19.


The new macropore anion exchange resin was synthesized by polycondensation of epichlorohydrin oligomer and 4-vinylpyridine, the static exchange capacity (SEC) of which is equal to 6.75 mg-equiv g-1 in 0.1 M HCI solution and the sorption of vanadium (V) and chromium (VI) ions were studied. The influence of the concentration and pH of the model solutions of ammonium metavanadate and potassium dichromate, contact time on the sorption activity of new anion exchangers ECHO-VP to vanadium (V) and chromium (VI) ions were investigated. Structure of the surface anion exchanger was studied by electronic microscopy method.


In reply We thank Dr Abramson and Ms Servodidio for their interest in our article.1We had several reasons for describing this patient with a history of cutaneous melanoma that was excised 7 years prior to the development of a choroidal melanoma. The main reason was to analyze the difficulties that arise in the differential diagnosis between 2 primary tumors vs metastatic disease. We discussed the fact that the ocular tumor was seen as a single choroidal nodule 7 years after the cutaneous melanoma had been removed. In addition to the absence of systemic disease, this strongly suggests that this patient had 2 primary tumors. We also discussed the value of immunohistochemical markers, particularly S100-β, as a possible tool to aid in the histopathological differential diagnosis between primary and metastatic choroidal melanomas. Abramson and coworkers2described a 51 -year-old man who had dysplastic nevus syndrome or B-K mole


India has been experiencing rising food prices during the last five years. In this paper we explore how inflationary food prices impact India's consumer welfare and poverty ratios, by calculating the compensating variation as a welfare measure. We account for changes in consumption patterns, i.e. substitution effects among food items, by including own and cross price elasticities obtained through the estimation of a demand system, i.e. QUAIDS. Our results show that consumers substitute high value commodities, e.g. milk, livestock products and fruits in case of rising prices. Moreover, a 10 per cent price increase on average causes a welfare loss of 5 to 6 per cent of monthly income in rural areas and 3 to 4 per cent welfare loss in urban areas. As a result, there is a drop below the poverty line of an additional 4.69 per cent and 2.19 per cent of households in rural and urban regions respectively.


A Search engine System displays the results of a multiple category Search according to levels of relevance of the categories to a user's Search query. A query Server receives a Search query from a user and identifies, within each of multiple item categories, a set of items that Satisfy the query. The Sets of items are used to generate, for each of the multiple categories, a Score that reflects a level Significance or relevance of the category to the Search. The Scores may be based, for example, on the number of hits within each category relative to the total number of items in that cat egory, the popularity levels of items that Satisfy the query, a personal profile of the user, or a combination thereof. The categories are then presented to the user, together with the most relevant items within each category, in the order of highest to lowest category relevance.


This work enhances the knowledge and skills of health care students and registered practitioners in public health approaches to preventative health care. It embraces practices within both the hospital and community settings and examines the development of partnership working.


Climate change and ecosystem degradation threaten human health and exacerbate pre‐existing social determinants of health. The prescription drug sector accounts for a significant portion of health care system contributions to greenhouse gas and waste production. Pharmacists are therefore well‐positioned to transform health care toward environmentally sustainable models; however, additional pharmacist education on climate mitigation and sustainable practice is needed. A team of practicing pharmacists and pharmacy students from the United States and Australia aimed to define pharmacists' roles in environmental stewardship by evaluating pre‐existing pharmacy‐led efforts in reducing waste, greenhouse gas emissions, and other health care‐associated environmental impacts. We also describe opportunities for education in pharmacist training as a means to enhance the profession's capacity for environmentally sustainable health care practice and leadership. Information on specific drugs' ecological footprints is increasingly available; pharmacists, as drug information experts, can incorporate sustainability considerations into their drug procurement and prescribing recommendations. Pharmacists also play a critical role in public education about environmentally responsible drug disposal. Finally, we suggest collaborative steps that U.S. organizations involved in pharmacy education could take to ensure that future "practice readiness" includes competence in sustainable health care practices.


The first results of a high-profile effort to replicate dozens of influential papers in cancer biology are roiling the biomedical community. Of the five studies the project has tackled so far, some involving experimental treatments already in clinical trials, only two could be repeated; one could not, and technical problems stymied the remaining two replication efforts. Some scientists say these early findings from the Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology, which appear this week in eLife , bolster concerns that too many basic biomedical studies don't hold up in other labs. But others say the results simply show that good studies can be hard to precisely reproduce, because biological systems are so variable.


Objectives The consequences of inflammatory arthritis can include depression, anxiety and low mood, reducing patients' quality of life and increasing pressure on the healthcare system. Treatment guidelines recommend psychological support, but data are lacking on the provision available. Methods A postal survey concerning psychological support provision was sent to rheumatology units in 143 acute trusts across England. Nurses from 73 rheumatology units (51%) responded. Results Overall, 73% rated their unit's psychological support provision as 'inadequate' and only 4% rated it as 'good'. Few units believed that psychological support did not fall within their remit (12%), yet only 8% had a psychologist in the team. Most units (68%) did not routinely screen patients to identify psychological difficulties. Referral to other service providers was reported in 42% of units, with 3% very satisfied with this provision. Within units, services containing elements of psychological support ranged from occupational therapy (81%) to psychology/counselling (14%). Psychological approaches used by team members ranged from shared decision making (77%) to cognitive–behavioural approaches (26%). The current barriers to providing psychological support were lack of clinical time and available training (86% and 74%, respectively), and delivery costs (74%). Future facilitators included management support (74%) and availability of skills training (74%). Conclusions Rheumatology units viewed psychological support provision as part of their remit but rated their overall provision as inadequate, despite some team members using psychological skills. To improve provision, clinicians' training needs must be addressed and organizational support generated, and further research needs to define adequate psychological support provision from the patient perspective. © 2014 The Authors. Musculoskeletal Care published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.


A closer look at nature has recently brought more interest in exploring and utilizing intra-body communication networks composed of cells as intrinsic, perfectly biocompatible infrastructures to deliver therapeutics. Naturally occurring cell-to-cell communication systems are being manipulated to release, navigate, and take-up soluble cell-derived messengers that are either therapeutic by nature or carry therapeutic molecular cargo. One example of such structures is extracellular vesicles (EVs) which have been recently proven to have pharmacokinetic properties, opening new avenues for developing the next generation biotherapeutics. In this paper, we study theoretical aspects of the EV transfer within heart tissue as a case study by utilizing an information and communication technology-like approach in analyzing molecular communication systems. Our modeling implies the abstraction of the EV releasing cells as transmitters, the extracellular matrix as the channel, and the EV receiving cells as receivers. Our results, derived from the developed analytical models, indicate that the release can be modulated using external forces such as electrical signals, and the transfer and reception can be affected by the extracellular matrix and plasma membrane properties, respectively.The presented modeling provides initial results for the EV biodistributions and contribute to avoiding unplanned administration, often resulting in side- and adverse effects.


T. vaginalis is one of the most common occurring sexually transmitted infections in the world. It accounts for 170 million new cases of treatable STIs that occur every year world wide. This infection has been associated with increased rates of HIV transmission and can be used as a surrogate marker for recent risky sexual behaviour.The aims of this study were to evaluate the distribution of T. vaginalis among women living in Kisumu in relation to sexual hotspots. The geographical coordinates of the participants' household and sexual hotspots were collected using GPS units. Demographic data and STI test results were obtained from the ARTIS database. Analysis of this data showed that the prevalence rate of T. vaginalis among women in Kisumu aged between 15-49 years was 15.5%. When compared to the other age groups that were included in the analysis, women between the ages of 15-19 years were found to have the highest infection rate. Mapping of the infection showed that Township and West Kolwa locations had the highest numbers of infected participants compared to the other locations in the district. The locations with the highest numbers of sexual hotspots were Township, Kondele and West Kolwa. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed there was no association between distance to hotspots and T. vaginalis infection. However marital status (O.R 1.66 P-value 0.01 95% CI 1.12-2.48) and age group (O.R 0.48 P-value 0.02 95% CI 0.26 0.87) was associated with T. vaginalis infection.. Therefore interventions that are formulated need to target married women and women between the ages of 15-19 as they have the highest risk of infection.


In the initial sizing of complex vessels, where recourse to type ship design can be overly restrictive, one crucial set of design features has traditionally been poorly addressed. This is the estimation of the weight and space demands of the various Distributed Ship Services Systems (DS3), which include different types of commodity services beyond those primarily associated with the ship propulsion system. In general, naval vessels are typified by extensive and densely engineered DS3, with the modern naval submarine being at the extreme of dense outfitting. Despite this, the ability for the concept designer to consider the impact of different configurations for the DS3 arrangements has not been readily addressed in concept design. This paper describes ongoing work at University College London (UCL) to develop a novel DS3 synthesis approach utilising computer tools, such as Paramarine™, MATLAB®, and CPLEX®, which provide the concept designer with a quantitative network-based evaluation to enable DS3 space and weight inputs early in the design process. The results of applying the approach to a conventional submarine case study indicate quantitative insights into early DS3 sizing can be obtained. The paper concludes with likely developments in concluding the research study.


Characteristics of PTFE ablation due to SF6 arc exposure were studied to predict the ablated mass of PTFE nozzle in high‐voltage circuit breaker. From the measurement of the ablated mass, the predominant factor of the PTFE ablation was revealed as a radiation power of SF6 arc. Subsequently, the radiation power absorbed in PTFE was formulated on the basis of the radiation transfer property and the arc physics. The formulation for the prediction of the PTFE ablated mass was established with the formulated radiation power and the measured masses. Finally, the validity of the PTFE ablated mass prediction was shown from the results of the error verification with the measured masses.


The key elements of seismic probabilistic risk assessment studies are the fragility curves which express the probabilities of failure of structures conditional to a seismic intensity measure. A multitude of procedures is currently available to estimate these curves. For modeling-based approaches which may involve complex and expensive numerical models, the main challenge is to optimize the calls to the numerical codes to reduce the estimation costs. Adaptive techniques can be used for this purpose, but in doing so, taking into account the uncertainties of the estimates (via confidence intervals or ellipsoids related to the size of the samples used) is an arduous task because the samples are no longer independent and possibly not identically distributed. The main contribution of this work is to deal with this question in a mathematical and rigorous way. To this end, we propose and implement an active learning methodology based on adaptive importance sampling for parametric estimations of fragility curves. We prove some theoretical properties (consistency and asymptotic normality) for the estimator of interest. Moreover, we give a convergence criterion in order to use asymptotic confidence ellipsoids. Finally, the performances of the methodology are evaluated on analytical and industrial test cases of increasing complexity.


The knowledge of the gravitational vertical is fundamental for the autonomous control of humanoids and other free-moving robotic systems such as rovers and drones. This letter deals with the hypothesis that the so-called "head stabilization strategy" observed in humans and animals facilitates the estimation of the true vertical from inertial sensing only. This problem is difficult because inertial measurements respond to a combination of gravity and fictitious forces that are hard to disentangle. From simulations and experiments, we found that the angular stabilization of a platform bearing inertial sensors enables the application of the separation principle. This principle, which permits one to design estimators and controllers independently from each other, typically applies to linear systems, but rarely to nonlinear systems. We found empirically that, given inertial measurements, the angular regulation of a platform results in a system that is stable and robust and which provides true vertical estimates as a byproduct of the feedback. We conclude that angularly stabilized inertial measurement platforms could liberate robots from ground-based measurements for postural control, locomotion, and other functions, leading to a true idiothetic sensing modality, that is, not based on any external reference but the gravity field.


Dust storms are commonly occurring phenomena in Tajikistan. The known aridity of the region is a major factor in promoting numerous dust storms. They have many diverse impacts on the environment and the climate of the region. The classification of dust storms and synoptic conditions related to their formation in Central Asia are discussed in the content of their diverse impact. We address dust optical properties that are representative of the region. Dust storms significantly reduce visibly and pose a human health threads. They also cause a significant impact on the radiative regime. As a result, dust storms may cause a decrease in temperature during daytime of up to 16 о С and an increase in temperature during night time from up to 7 о С compared to a clear day.


Nanoengineered materials offer tremendous promise for developing the next generation of therapeutics. We are transitioning from simple research questions, such as "can this particle eradicate cancer cells?" to more sophisticated ones like "can we design a particle to preferentially deliver cargo to a specific cancer cell type?" These developments are poised to usher in a new era of nanoengineered drug delivery systems. We primarily work with templating methods for engineering polymer particles and investigate their biological interactions. Templates are scaffolds that facilitate the formation of particles with well-controlled size, shape, structure, stiffness, stability, and surface chemistry. In the past decade, breakthroughs in engineering new templates, combined with advances in coating techniques, including layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly, surface polymerization, and metal-phenolic network (MPN) coordination chemistry, have enabled particles with specific physicochemical properties to be engineered. While materials science offers an ever-growing number of new synthesis techniques, a central challenge of therapeutic delivery has become understanding how nanoengineered materials interact with biological systems. Increased collaboration between chemists, biologists, and clinicians has resulted in a vast research output on bio-nano interactions. Our understanding of cell-particle interactions has grown considerably, but conventional in vitro experimentation provides limited information, and understanding how to bridge the in vitro/in vivo gap is a continuing challenge. As has been demonstrated in other fields, there is now a growing interest in applying computational approaches to advance this area. A considerable knowledge base is now emerging, and with it comes new and exciting opportunities that are already being capitalized on through the translation of materials into the clinic. In this Account, we outline our perspectives gained from a decade of work at the interface between polymer particle engineering and bio-nano interactions. We divide our research into three areas: (i) biotrafficking, including cellular association, intracellular transport, and biodistribution; (ii) biodegradation and how to achieve controlled, responsive release of therapeutics; and (iii) applications, including drug delivery, controlling immunostimulatory responses, biosensing, and microreactors. There are common challenges in these areas for groups developing nanoengineered therapeutics. A key "lesson-learned" has been the considerable challenge of staying informed about the developments relevant to this field. There are a number of reasons for this, most notably the interdisciplinary nature of the work, the large numbers of researchers and research outputs, and the limited standardization in technique nomenclature. Additionally, a large body of work is being generated with limited central archiving, other than vast general databases. To help address these points, we have created a web-based tool to organize our past, present, and future work [Bio-nano research knowledgebase, http://bionano.eng.unimelb.edu.au/knowledge_base/ (accessed May 2, 2016)]. This tool is intended to serve as a first step toward organizing results in this large, complex area. We hope that this will inspire researchers, both in generating new ideas and also in collecting, collating, and sharing their experiences to guide future research.


Oral health is considered important during pregnancy, however many pregnant women, especially socially disadvantaged women such as immigrants, working poor and homeless have difficulty accessing oral healthcare.

OBJECTIVE
To explore the perceptions of a sample of socially disadvantaged women on oral healthcare provision during pregnancy.

BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN
Qualitative study via focus group discussions with seventeen pregnant women or new mothers receiving care at a local maternity clinic that serves a culturally diverse population facing social challenges.

PARTICIPANTS
Women who met at least one of the following criteria: low socio-economic status, new immigrant or refugee, homeless or at risk of homelessness, history of incarceration or substance abuse or at risk of abuse. Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically using the NVivo 11© software programme for coding and thematic analysis.

RESULTS
All participants reported unmet oral healthcare needs. The analysis revealed three main themes: knowledge of the importance and value of oral health during pregnancy, experiences with oral healthcare and provision of oral health services to socially disadvantaged pregnant women. Participants favoured inclusion of preventive oral healthcare provided by either dental or prenatal healthcare professionals in routine prenatal care.

DISCUSSION
Socially disadvantaged pregnant women did not access the oral healthcare they needed due to cost, dental fear and anxiety; some faced stigma and discrimination. They were disposed to receiving community-based, primary preventive dental services as part of prenatal care from either dental or prenatal allied healthcare professionals.


We examined spatial relationships among species in the subnival zone of the central Caucasus. The species composition of 300 vegetation patches was analysed. 144 of them contained only one species, whereas the other 156 con- tained 2.36 + 1.31 species, with species numbers distributed as follows: 59 patches with two species, 41 with three, 39 with four and 17 with five species. In the multi-species patches, the 22 most frequent species were examined and 46 statistically significant species associa- tions, 36 positive and 10 negative, were found. Ten of these 22 species were typical subnival plants very rarely occurring at lower altitudes. The other 12 species are 'invaders' as they have broader altitudinal ranges of occurrence and are common in alpine and even in subalpine belts. Contrary to the typical subnival species the invaders were found exclusively in the patches with more than one species. Invader species were significantly more associated with subnival species while they were significantly less associated with other species than expected by chance. Our interpretation is that typical subnival species nurse plants from lower altitudes and facilitate their invasion to more adverse subnival environments.


The environmental problems of climate change and species decline can feel overwhelming. Individuals are often at a loss, questioning what impact they can actually have. Through chART Projects, we have witnessed the dramatic effect of community-engaged art as a direct path to environmental action and impact on local ecosystems. During the 27thInternational Ornithological Congress, bird enthusiasts from around the world focused their attention on Vancouver, Canada. This article is a reflection on how chART took advantage of this assembly, creating an ambitious venture aiming for a sustainable effect on the public's relationship to urban birds. As the Crow Flies was a public art project bringing creative connections to urban birds directly into the hands of the public. Works included sited-sculpture, community-engaged interventions, projections, workshops, performances, and 6,000 ceramic crows.

chART's founder, Cameron Cartiere has been working with an interdisciplinary team to address the loss of pollinators through Border Free Bees. That research project used environment-based art to engage communities to take positive action in order to improve conditions for pollinators, with tremendous success. As the Crow Flies took a similar approach to highlight the loss of bird species and actions individuals could take to improve the odds for their feathered neighbours.


As the conduct of health economic evaluations to inform health budget decision-making becomes more common, the special challenges of measuring costs and health consequences in children, from neonate to adolescent, have become increasingly evident. This book considers these challenges.


The Trigger and Data Acquisition (TDAQ) system of the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN is composed of a large number of distributed hardware and software components (about 3000 computers and more than 25000 applications) which, in a coordinated manner, provide the data-taking functionality of the overall system. During data taking runs, a huge flow of operational data is produced in order to constantly monitor the system and allow proper detection of anomalies or misbehaviours. In the ATLAS trigger and data acquisition system, operational data are archived and made available to applications by the P-BEAST (Persistent Back-End for the Atlas Information System of TDAQ) service, implementing a custom time-series database. The possibility to efficiently visualize both realtime and historical operational data is a great asset facilitating both online identification of problems and post-mortem analysis. This paper will present a web-based solution developed to achieve such a goal: the solution leverages the flexibility of the P-BEAST archiver to retrieve data, and exploits the versatility of the Grafana dashboard builder to offer a very rich user experience. Additionally, particular attention will be given to the way some technical challenges (like the efficient visualization of a huge amount of data and the integration of the P-BEAST data source in Grafana) have been faced and solved.