In this paper, we present a broad overview of recent worm activity. Virus information repositories, such as the Network Associates' Virus Information Library, contain over 4500 different entries (through the first quarter of 2003). While many of these entries are interesting, a great number of them are now simply historical and a large percentage of them are completely derivative in nature. However, these virus information repositories are the best source of material on the breadth of malicious code, including worms.This paper is meant to provide worm researchers with a high-level roadmap to the vast body of virus and worm information. After sifting through hundreds of entries, we present only those that we considered breakthrough or novel, primarily from a technical perspective. As a result, we found ourselves omitting some of the most notorious worms simply because they lacked any original aspects. It is our hope that others in the community who need to get up to speed in the worm literature can benefit from this survey. While this study does not contain any original research, it provides an overview of worms using a truly breadth-first approach, which has been lacking in the existing worm literature.From this raw data, we have also extracted a number of broad quantitative and qualitative trends that we have found to be interesting. We believe that a workshop discussion of these, and other thoughts, will be engaging and informative.


This research critically analyses English Language lecturers' classroom interaction practices at Syiah Kuala University in Aceh, Indonesia.
Communication breakdowns and unanticipated language difficulty in the classroom are more complex than an initiation-response-follow-up pattern (Cullen, 1998) and require in-depth analysis for language learning.
In order to examine the English language lecturers' classroom interaction practices, the following research question is posed:
How do English language lecturers use communication strategies in their English teaching context at Syiah Kuala University, Aceh - Indonesia?
The major question is guided by three following sub-questions:
a. What is the nature of English language lecturers' communication strategies (CSs) as observed in university English classrooms?
b. What are the English language lecturers' beliefs underpinning the use of those communication strategies to facilitate learning?
c. How do English language learners perceive the language learning in their English classrooms in relation to lecturer communication strategies?
English language lecturers' communication strategies, which are drawn from a synthesis between 'the role of language user' and 'the role of language analyst' (Edge, 1988 as cited in Andrews, 2007, p. 185), are analysed in multi-faceted ways in consideration of lecturers' communicative language ability and language awareness respectively. This study explores the essential role of language awareness as part of a semiotic process in which awareness can stimulate a communication strategy to solve communication breakdown and promote learning simultaneously.
The study incorporates Vygotsky's sociocultural theory in that engagement of a lecturer in a socio-cultural context (micro genetic level) may affect his/her language development which impacts on all aspects of language teaching/learning (Cross, 2010) such as instructional practice. This practice may be perceived contradictorily by a lecturer and his/her university students.
This study is a descriptive case study with three data sources (classroom observation, stimulated recall, and focus group) and the participants were 2 lecturers and 40 university students at Syiah Kuala University, Aceh Province. The three main foci in the study are the lecturers' communication strategies, the lecturers' underlying beliefs about the strategies, and the learners' perceptions about classroom communication strategies.
It is evident from the data that the lecturers' communication strategies were predominantly used to promote accuracy and message comprehensibility. The lecturers' beliefs about the strategies emanate from their personal set of experiential knowledge and other impacting factors such as learners' positive and negative perceptions towards the lecturers' communication strategies as well as apparent varieties of traits in classroom culture.
This study has revealed factors leading to a missing interface between language awareness and communication strategies. The lecturers' experiential knowledge…


The main contribution of this paper is a practical application of generalised neural networks for a dextrous hand moved by Shape Memory Alloys (SMA). Since SMA have highly non-linear characteristics and their parameters depend on the environment (mainly on temperature) so the robot hand is controlled by a generalised neural network, which can learn the actual non-linear characteristics of the robot hand. The experimental setup consists of a 20 degree of freedom hand moved by SMA string used as artificial muscle. A video camera is used to detect the position of joints. The position is then sent to the visual display computer via the Internet, which displays the hand in 3D using OpenGl.


With the growing interest in time-interleaved (TI) structures, the conversion rates of ADCs have greatly improved, which has inevitably increased power consumption. Despite the advantages of TI structures, power consumption is increased due to the stricter matching requirements between channels; in some cases, >50% of total power is for calibration purposes. Thus, to realize high-speed and high-resolution ADCs with TI structures, it is important to alleviate the calibration burden by choosing a suitable number of power-efficient high-speed single channels. Previously reported CDAC-based 2b/cycle structures made contributions in realizing high-speed single-channel ADCs with high resolution by using additional capacitive DACs and modified switching logic. The power overhead and the complexity of the additional logic and DACs for 2b/cycle implementations have been of trivial concern for low resolution ADCs. However, as resolution increases, the complexity of such circuits becomes considerable, with power taking up a big share of the total. In this paper, a multi-step hardware-retirement (MSHR) technique, which disables low-accuracy hardware blocks of scaled sizes with the requirement relaxations from redundancies in an advancement to the reconfiguration scheme in the work of Kong et al. (2013), is reported to alleviate the overhead of additional logic and DACs for ADCs, requiring high resolutions. A low-power 2.6b/cycle-based SAR ADC architecture is presented as a proof of concept.


Abstract Procalcitonin is an inflammatory marker that had shown marked potential as an antimicrobial stewardship tool for administering antibiotics when needed in patients with pneumonia as it raises concurrently with other inflammatory markers, yet no systematic review has assessed its potential in COVID-19 patients. This systematic review aimed to assess the potential appropriateness of procalcitonin as an antimicrobial stewardship tool in COVID-19 patients with superimposed bacterial and non-bacterial infections. All study designs published after 2019 were included in this systematic review. We included all studies that had reported procalcitonin levels in COVID-19 patients with suspected superimposed secondary infection(s). We searched MEDLINE, Scopus, and the Directory for Open Access Journal from April 2022 to May 2022 and retrieved all related articles for screening with no restrictions on language. We conducted risk of bias assessment according to the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) criteria for cohort and case–control studies. Results were presented according to procalcitonin cut-off values, gold standard test used to confirm infection, and overall study conclusion(s), among other variables. This systematic review included 18 articles with 7196 patients in 8 countries. Despite different cut-off values of procalcitonin used, thirteen studies had indicated the appropriateness of using procalcitonin as antimicrobial stewardship tool in COVID-19 patients. We urge physicians to take this into account when treating COVID-19 patients suspected of superimposed infections and we look forward to further studies with standardized procalcitonin cut-off values that may provide appropriate quantitative data that can contribute to clinical guidelines. Registration (PROSPERO) CRD42022315013.


Victims' experiences of learner challenging behaviour in South African primary schools are an ongoing problem that is cause for concern, where additionally, the parents of the perpetrators are unapologetic, and defending their wrongdoing. In this scenario, there is little teachers can do to address ill-disciplined learners. In effect, teacher helplessness has further intensified the problem in primary schools. To establish the way in which the victims experience challenging behaviour, face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of six learners ( N = 6). Results indicate that the victims continuously suffer at the hands, and indeed the feet, of violent learners. Furthermore, as their cries go unheard, the problem remains persistent. Since schools have been failing to respond effectively to learner challenging behaviour, this article recommends immediate intervention by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to offer a more constructive solution to this problem, one that will effect change and offer relief and protection to the victims. The article concludes that victims continue to suffer, with little or no safeguarding from teachers. Future research ought to include the role of teachers in safeguarding learners against learner victimisation and challenging behaviour in primary schools. Keywords: behaviour; experiences; fear; impact; learner wellbeing; primary schools; victims


New fieldwork at Ur has begun to investigate urban scale, city organization, and the environment of the city's hinterland. Analysis of new sources of declassified aerial and satellite imagery from the 1950s and 1960s, recent unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photos, and a systematic surface collection show that Ur may have expanded to between 120–500 hectares in size during its later periods of habitation, far larger than the sixty hectare maximum size previously estimated. Traces of buried architecture visible in the UAV photos and topographic models generated from UAV photos allow for the generation of hypotheses about the city plan of Ur during the Late Larsa/Old Babylonian and Neo Babylonian periods. Relict watercourses mapped in the vicinity of the main mound indicate how the city might have been supplied with water in some periods. Alongside this site-based work, historical aerial and satellite imagery provide an updated picture of ancient hydrology, environment, and settlement patterns around Ur.


Artifact elimination has become an inseparable part while processing electroencephalogram (EEG) in most brain computer interface (BCI) applications. Scientists have tried to introduce effective and efficient methods which can remove artifacts and also reserve desire information pertaining to brain activity. Blind source separation (BSS) methods have been receiving a great deal of attention in recent decades since they are considered routine and standard signal processing tools and are commonly used to eliminate artifacts and noise. Most studies, mainly EEG-related ones, apply BSS methods in preprocessing sections to achieve better results. On the other hand, BSS methods should be followed by a classifier in order to identify artifactual sources and remove them in next steps. Therefore, artifact identification is always a challenging problem while employing BSS methods. Additionally, removing all detected artifactual components leads to loss of information since some desire information related to neural activity leaks to these sources. So, an approach should be employed to suppress the artifacts and reserve neural activity. In this study, a new hybrid method is proposed to automatically separate and identify electroencephalogram (EEG) sources with the aim of classifying and removing artifacts. Automated source identification is still a challenge. Researchers have always made efforts to propose precise, fast and automated source verification methods. Reliable source identification has always been of great importance. This paper addresses blind source separation based on second order blind identification (SOBI) as it is reportedly one of the most effective methods in EEG source separation problems. Then a new method for source verification is introduced which takes advantage of components phase spaces and their dynamics. A new state space called angle space (AS) is introduced and features are extracted based on the angle plot (AP) and Poincare planes. Identified artifactual sources are eliminated using stationary wavelet transform (SWT). Simulated, semi-simulated and real EEG signals are employed to evaluate the proposed method. Different simulations are performed and performance indices are reported. Results show that the proposed method outperforms most recent studies in this subject.


Research has examined the effects of managerial share ownership on business diversification, typically from the incentive alignment perspective. Yet, share ownership also shifts risk to managers (the efficient managerial contracting perspective). Furthermore, the effects of managerial ownership on international diversification are unexplored. We examine how managerial ownership influences both international and business diversification in light of the trade-off between incentive alignment and risk bearing. Based on the differing risk profiles of the two types of diversification, we argue that incentive contracts with higher levels of managerial ownership will be inefficient, i.e., counter to shareholder interests—reducing international diversification and increasing business diversification. Our findings support our arguments for international diversification. We find no significant effect for business diversification after accounting for endogeneity and serial correlation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Green software has become an important research objective. And virtualization technique is the main implement method now. In this paper, we introduce four concepts describing virtualization as virtualization process, virtualization process capability, virtualization efficiency and virtualization process maturity to measure the mature extent of implementing virtualization, and further present the related reference model for green software to evaluate the software virtualization degree. Here four levels in this model are defined. Each level describes the degree of green characteristics for software. And the model framework and the model structure are presented. Thus the technique and management methods of every level are described in detail.


In this paper, we first introduce the notion of Reynolds operators on
 Hom-Leibniz algebras and give some constructions. Furthermore, we define the
 cohomology of Reynolds operators, and use this cohomology to study
 deformations of Reynolds operators. As applications, we introduce and study
 NS-Hom-Leibniz algebras as the underlying structure of Reynolds operators.


We consider a resource-constrained project scheduling problem originating in particle therapy for cancer treatment, in which the scheduling has to be done in high resolution. Traditional mixed integer linear programming techniques such as time-indexed formulations or discrete-event formulations are known to have severe limitations in such cases, that is, growing too fast or having weak linear programming relaxations. We suggest a relaxation based on partitioning time into so-called time-buckets. This relaxation is iteratively solved and serves as basis for deriving feasible solutions using heuristics. Based on these primal and dual solutions and bounds, the time-buckets are successively refined. Combining these parts, we obtain an algorithm that provides good approximate solutions soon and eventually converges to an optimal solution. Diverse strategies for performing the time-bucket refinement are investigated. The approach shows excellent performance in comparison to the traditional formulations and a metaheuristic.


Phototransformations of digitonin extracts of rhodopsin and suspensions of outer segments of frog rods at minus 22 degrees C under the effect of light with lambda 579 and 435 nm are studied. It is shown that the results are not dependent on the presence of digitonin and glycerine, but are characteristic of frog rhodopsin. Phototransformations of bovine rhodopsin under the same conditions differ from those of frog rhodopsin.


A study was carried out to evaluate the application of Activated Effective Microorganisms (AEM) solution and EM Mudballs (mixture of soil, rice bran, and EM) to wastewater generated from wool and cotton dyeing unit at Kumbeshwar Technical School (Lalitpur, Bagmati Province, Nepal). Furthermore, the AEM treated wastewater was treated through a Biosand filter as a final treatment and polishing step before discharge in a nearby sewerage system. The wastewater samples collected for 27 days were analyzed for the wastewater quality parameters such as pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Total Solids (TS), and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) using the standard methods. The average values of pH, conductivity, COD, and TS after the EM combined with Biosand (final) treatment were observed to be 7.49±1.15, 1.39±0.25 mS/cm, 1,669.4 ±858.14 mg/L, and 264±25.29 mg/L, respectively. TS and COD removal were observed to be 43.97±22.3% and 15.26±10.06%, respectively. The results show that the dye wastewater is difficult to remove by a simple biological process like the addition of EM. Combined EM and biosand filters can be an inexpensive way of treating industrial effluents. However, the existing treatment system needs to be optimized by the integration with the proper EM: water: molasses ratio, optimal feeding time and design, hydraulic retention time, solids retention time, organic loading rates in EM reactor, and COD/BOD ratio in wastewater among other important components to meet the national effluent discharge requirements.


In dexterous manipulation, an object must be reconfigured while maintaining a stable grasp. This may require that the object be re-grasped in order to avoid finger workspace limits. We present a set of closed-loop controllers designed to achieve force-related objectives such as wrench closure, and show how they may be concurrently combined. Furthermore, we show that dexterous manipulation behavior may be generated by sequencing concurrent combinations of these controllers. We show that dexterous manipulation can be viewed as a task that is accomplished in the context of a wrench closure constraint. We hypothesize this approach can generalize to any task that must be accomplished while maintaining a set of constraints.


Summary The recently described electrolysis of molten basalt (Oppenheim, 1968) gave indefinite results with regard to the behaviour of iron. Repeating the experiments in an inert atmosphere has shown that ferric iron moves towards the anode, and ferrous iron to the cathode. All metallic ions of valency three and more are now seen to be concentrated towards the anode, with relative enrichments in decreasing order: Fe3+, P, Ti, Si, and Al; and oxygen gas is released at the anode. Metals of valency one and two are concentrated towards the cathode with relative enrichments in decreasing order: Na, Fe2+, K, Ca, Mn, and Mg. The series expected to be differentiated within a magma consequent upon its electrolysis is redefined. The absence of natural analogues suggests either the non-operation of suitable electric currents within magmas, or the destruction of their effects by convection, fractional crystallization, or both. An electrolytic process is feasible at the mantle-core boundary, leading mainly to deposition of iron on the core and release of oxygen upwards.


Most DSP synthesis tools perform limited architectural transformations to optimize hardware and power, Multiplications are often implemented with shift and-add operations for hardware efficiency, In this paper, we propose an optimization that combines a numerical transformation called number-splitting with a shift-and-add decomposition scheme. The numerical transformation "globally" changes the constant multipliers and the data flow-graph of the system under design, enabling implementations with fewer shifts and adds. The decomposition of multiplications into shifts and adds is such that as much intermediate computation results (partial products) can be reused as possible. The total number of operations can be reduced to 30% for two's complement encoding, yielding significant power and hardware saving.


In this paper, we show that the scheduling of tests on the test access mechanism (TAM) is equivalent to independent job scheduling on identical machines and we make use of all existing preemptive scheduling algorithm to produce an optimal solution in linear time. We extend the algorithm to handle (1) test conflicts elite to interconnection tests and (2) cases when a test limits all optimal usage of the TAM by using reconfigurable core test wrappers. Our extensions preserve the production of all optimal solution in respect to test time and minimizes the number of wrapper configurations as well as the TAM usage at each core. which implicitly minimizes the TAM routing. Experiments with our implementation shows its efficiency in comparison with previous approaches.


Phyllanthus fraternus Webster is a medicinally very useful plant species used by tribal of Gujarat, India to cure certain diseases like asthama, cough, diarrohea and scabies. Methanolic and ethanolic leaf extracts of the plant leaf were evaluated against eleven clinically important bacterial strains such as E. coli, B. megaterium, B. cereus, B. subtilis, C. glutamicum, S. aureus, S. typhi, S. typhi A, S. typhi B, P. aeruginosa and P. vulgaris and one fungal strain namely A. niger by disc diffusion method. Result showed maximum antibacterial activities against C. glutamicum with zone of inhibition of 40 mm and minimum against S. typhi A with zone of inhibition of 15 mm in methanol extract. In ethanol extract maximum antibacterial activities were reported in Bacillus cereus with zone of inhibition of 21 mm and minimum against Salmonella typhi A (10 mm). The maximum antifungal activity was noted against A. niger (40 mm). Our preliminary phytochemical analysis of leaf extract using Methanol as solvent confirmed the presence of alkaloids, tannin, saponin, terpenoid and steroids. This indicates that antimicrobial activities may be due to presence of secondary metabolites. Hence, the plant can be used to discover bioactive natural products that may serve as leads in the development of new pharmaceuticals research activities.


We present the dynamics of overdamped Brownian self-propelled particles moving on the surface of a sphere. The effect of self-propulsion on the diffusion of these particles is elucidated by determining their angular (azimuthal and polar) mean-square displacement. Short- and long-times analytical expressions for their angular mean-square displacement are offered. Finally, the particles' steady marginal angular probability density functions are also elucidated.


Methods of measuring the amplitude and delay of echoes (multipath propagation) on line-of-sight microwave links are discussed, and the reasons for choosing the frequency-sweep method are given. The equipment used for measurements over a 55km (34 mile) path is described, and a Fourier method is evolved for deriving the multipath components from frequency-sweep records. Recordings were made continuously during the summer and autumn of 1963, and, although there was frequent evidence at night of an indirect propagation path of very short time delay, arising possibly from reflection at or near the ground, substantial multipath propagation of any appreciable delay was observed on only one occasion, again during the night, and this persisted for several hours. This appeared to coincide with an abnormal lapse of atmospheric refractive index at the appropriate height above ground.


With autonomous robotic systems increasingly being used for various tasks including research projects, their ability to operate away from their ideal laboratory environment comes into question. Whilst long term autonomous robotic platforms do exist, few are based on vehicles that provide all terrain maneuverability, and certainly none combine this with skidsteering mechanisms. Inspired by the robotic requirements of the Rees Scan project in New Zealand, this dissertation aims to show the development of an all terrain robotic platform based on an ARGO 6x6 Amphibious Petrol Powered Skid-Steer Vehicle. The design and development of a control system, including software and hardware, is discussed. Further, a simplistic simulation environment is developed in an attempt to model the performance of the robotic platform on different surfaces. It is shown that the control of such a vehicle is possible with a reasonably high level of precision with relatively low cost components, suggesting that with more expensive hardware or different techniques, high-precision control would be possible. Further, it is shown that based on the various characteristics of the robotic platform such as the throttle values, wheel rotations and turn rates it is possible to classify, with some level of accuracy, the varying surfaces allowing for future work towards adaptive control systems able to adjust their performance as the robot moves from one unknown environment to another.


The introduction of mass public education posed unfamiliar problems for the governments of modern states, and the ways in which governments worked through those problems can reveal much about the culture and values of a state. This paper focuses on central Government officials and the Ministers they advised, with particular attention to the pivotal period 1960-1976. Trends identified include: the shift from post-War optimism to the more pessimistic view of schooling since the late 1960s; the dynamics of professional development amid over-rapid expansion and contraction; relationships between training institutions and schools; and policy-makers' changing perceptions of teachers as professionals. Four themes are considered in detail: the imperatives of numbers; status concerns as a driver of change; linkages among the 'partners' in the schooling enterprise; and accountability. Some questions are posed about the sustainability of the schooling enterprise in England and Wales.


One of the most important dynamic problems that decision makers face in today's maritime ports is where and how to upgrade the existing port capacity for rising port demands due to continuous growth in containerized trade and the tendency for bigger ships to visit ports. Academia and corporate interests in capacity planning and capacity management have risen considerably in recent years. To establish the field further, the purposes of this paper are three fold. It (1) identifies consequences of capacity shortage at seaports and corresponding supply chains; (2) offers a conceptual framework to summarize the research in the field concerned with the factors influencing seaport capacity using a holistic approach after reviewing academic and industry-related papers; (3) and finally, concludes by suggesting promising research tracks on factors affecting capacity. In Particular, we explore the specific roles of deterministic simulation and stochastic simulation as future research directions in this rapidly changing and challenging maritime domain. This study is significant as there is limited literature on this subject concerning factors affecting capacity and studies carried out so far on capacity improvement mechanisms are constrained principally by the lack of integrated points of view.


Comparison calibration designs are rank insufficient to permit a purely batch estimation of parameters, and require the input of some a priori knowledge. The estimator commonly used, which is based on Restrained Least Squares, is shown to be inappropriate because of its inability to take account of uncertainty in the a priori knowledge. A model in which the parameters represent the state of a dynamic stochastic system is proposed together with the appropriate recursive estimator, namely the Kalman filter-predictor. This estimator is less affected than Restrained Least Squares by errors in the a priori knowledge. Its application in mass comparisons in conjunction with a fully recursive approach, i.e. with use of all the available a priori knowledge, is discussed.


Public transit systems are faced with a dual challenge in today's security-conscious operating environment. They must continue to monitor and respond to the needs of their riders by offering easy accessibility, on-time service, and adherence to the highest of safety standards. At the same time, public transit authorities must maintain a secure environment for passengers, their workforce, equipment and facilities. This presents a formidable challenge, especially for smaller transit entities with limited resources.

A method for determining rider perceptions of the safety and security policies of their transit provider is presented. This provides a method for the transit provider to determine rider perceptions and identify opportunities for enhancing rider awareness. The suggested process also provides transit personnel with a means for identifying gaps in their existing safety and security procedures, leading to the ability to improve their safety and security posture.


Leaders play vital roles in hospitality. However, former studies made on leaders of domestic hospitality mainly verified the leadership theories developed by western scholars, without considering the potential problems possibly brought about by cultural differences. In view of this point, our study utilizes the paternalistic leadership, an indigenous leadership style in Chinese societies. This study explored the relationship between leadership behavior and member's effectiveness, and use organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) as criteria variable. The "loyalty" was adopted as a mediator variable to inspect its mediating effect between leadership behavior and leadership effectiveness. Therefore, this study had taken 110 leaders and 220 subordinates of hospitality as the research object, finding that (1) the benevolent and moral leadership in paternalistic leadership had positive impact on subordinate's organizational citizenship behavior while authoritarian leadership had a negative impact; (2) the relationship between moral/authoritarian leadership and OCB would be mediated by loyalty. Finally, it discusses the research limitations, future direction in research and the connotation in leadership theory and management practices.

 Key words: Hospitality, paternalistic leadership, loyalty, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB).


. This article discusses the technology of building sensor networks. On the basis of the article there is an example of the service-simulating test for the informational interaction of the Internet of things. The probabilistic-and-time characteristic of the informational interaction of the Internet of things is evaluated. This factor enhances the quality of computer network service. The article also considers a number of tasks, allowing us to build optimal modes of sensor networks functioning. A probabilistic model that allows us to evaluate absolute and probabilistic characteristics of informational interaction is built.


Declining lipid content in corals has been suggested as a measurement of the amount of stress the coral is subjected to. It has been hypothesized that decreased sunlight could be a stress that would be reflected in the decreased amount of lipid in the coral tissue. In this experiment this hypothesis was tested on the Hawaiian corals Montipora verrucosa and Porites compressa. Three colonies of each species were cut in half, and one half put under ambient light and the other under 50% light reduction for seven days. Colonies were tested both in outdoor tanks and on the reef flat. Shading had a significant effect on Porites compressa in the tank as it showed an increase in lipid content in the shaded pan. The trend was similar in the reef flat colony of P. compressa and in the colonies of Montipora verrucosa, but not significantly different. This suggests that shading might serve as a relief in corals living in high radiation environments. Analyses also showed great variability in lipid content both within colonies, and between colonies for both specres. Introduction Coral reefs are subjected to different environmental stress such as run-off and siltation from land, sewage and agriculture (Hourigan et al., 1988; Jokiel and Coles, 1974) as well as other contaminants that can affect the reef-building scleractinian corals and the biota around these reefs. Stress on coral is defined as to halt or restrict its growth and reproduction ( Hourigan et al., 1988), but the amount of stress the coral is subjected to might be difficult to measure as pollution on coral reefs can occur in constant chronic levels over long periods of time. In response to this, Dr. E.S. Reese (1995) at University of Hawai'i at Manoa has developed a method to use butterflyfishes of the family Chaetodontidae as indicators to detect change on coral reefs. The technique is designed to work as an early warning of stress on the reef by detecting low-level and sub-lethal changes in the habitat (Crosby and Reese, 1996). The chaetodontids (Perciforms) are a circumtropical family which includes 114 species, with 90 of these in the genus Chaetodon (Motta, 1988). Twenty species in the family occur in Hawaii, and these are planktivores, corallivores or benthic omnivores. In Hawaii, the studies have focused on two species in the coral-feeding guild: Chaetodon. multicinctus and C. omatissimus. Other species of corallivores have been studied at Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands, and on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. These two species of corallivores are generalists, common inhabitants on the reef, territorial and permanent inhabitants of their home reefs (Reese, 1993). These characteristics make them valuable indicators of the health of the corals on the reef, as they may respond to declines in coral quality or abundance by spatial and behavioral adjustments that can be measured (Mendez, 1990). Since shallow water corals contain relatively large amounts of lipid throughout their tissues (Stimson, 1987), it is likely that the coral feeding butterflyfish utilize the lipids, as lipid content has been shown to affect prey choice of the butterflyfish (Hourigan et al., 1988, Tricas, 1989). The high lipid content in the coral is suggested as an energy reserve for the coral used in reproduction as well as for daily losses of lipid in the form of mucus. The lipid is transferred from the zooxanthellae that fixate the carbon (Kellog and Patton, 1983), to the coral. Research strongly suggests that lipid production, being dependent on the photosynthesis of the zooxanthellae (Crossland et al., 1980), is thereby dependent on the amount of light in the water. Several studies (Stimson, 1987; Harriott, 1993; Ward, 1995) have suggested that decreased amounts of lipid in coral tissue could be an indication of stress, and decreased light could account as a stress. Davies (1991) proposes that shallow water corals have to use stored lipids for metabolism on cloudy days. Experiments conducted by Stimson (1987) and Harland et al. (1992) show that shaded corals had lower lipid levels than unshaded corals. This study was designed to test, if indeed, the lipid values decreased with a decrease in sunlight as would be the case with low level run-off or pollution. If that was the case, the next study would then be to confirm that the coral feeding Chaetodontidaes did modify their feeding behavior to make up for the decrease in nutritional value (lipids). Material and Methods The experiment was conducted at Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB), Coconut Island in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii. Three coral colonies each of M. verrucosa and P. compressa were collected on the reef flat of Coconut Island on the morning of July 2, 1997. Coral colonies were immediately put into buckets of seawater after collection. Each colony was then cut into two similar halves using an electric rock saw, and then returned to seawater. Two colonies of each species were put into an outside tank with constant flow of seawater. The tank measured .5 m in depth and 3.5 m in length. Half of the tank (1.75 m) was covered with a shading cloth blocking 50% of ambient light and half of each colony was put in this end of the tank, whereas the other half was put in the non-shaded part. Corals were left there for seven days (July 2-July 9). The third colony of each species was put back on the reef flat under similar conditions as in the tank. Two cages were constructed from chicken wire with two open ends (Fig. 1). One cage was wrapped in the same kind of shading cloth used for the tank, and the other had


Background Low-level private health facilities (LLPHFs) handle a considerable magnitude of sick children in low-resource countries. We assessed capacity of LLPHFs to manage malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea, and, possible severe bacterial infections (PSBIs) in under-five-year-olds. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional survey in 110 LLPHFs and 129 health workers in Mbarara District, Uganda between May and December 2019. Structured questionnaires and observation forms were used to collect data on availability of treatment guidelines, vital medicines, diagnostics, and equipment; health worker qualifications; and knowledge of management of common childhood infections. Results Amoxicillin was available in 97%, parental ampicillin and gentamicin in 77%, zinc tablets and oral rehydration salts in >90% while artemether-lumefantrine was available in 96% of LLPHF. About 66% of facilities stocked loperamide, a drug contraindicated in the management of diarrhoea in children. Malaria rapid diagnostic tests and microscopes were available in 86% of the facilities, timers/clocks in 57% but only 19% of the facilities had weighing scales and 6% stocked oxygen. Only 4% of the LLPHF had integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI) booklets and algorithm charts for management of common childhood illnesses. Of the 129 health workers, 52% were certificate nurses/midwives and (26% diploma nurses/clinical officers; 57% scored averagely for knowledge on management of common childhood illnesses. More than a quarter (38%) of nursing assistants had low knowledge scores. No notable significant differences existed between rural and urban LLPHFs in most parameters assessed. Conclusion Vital first-line medicines for treatment of common childhood illnesses were available in most of the LLPHFs but majority lacked clinical guidelines and very few had oxygen. Majority of health workers had low to average knowledge on management of the common childhood illnesses. There is need for innovative knowledge raising interventions in LLPHFs including refresher trainings, peer support supervision and provision of job aides.


The design, operation and performance of a precision photoelectric pyrometer, which operates automatically under computer control, are described. Methods of determining the spectral characteristics, the size-of-source effect, the degree of polarization and the nonlinearity are described and results given. A table of uncertainties shows that the pyrometer has the capability of realizing the International Practical Temperature Scale of 1968 with uncertainties of 0.015 °C at 1064 °C and 0.210 °C at 2241 °C. However with the limitation caused by tungsten strip lamps these uncertainties become 0.025 °C at 1064 °C and 0.75 °C at 2241 °C.


The development of instrumental methods of conservation in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world, where historic sites are seen as the exclusive responsibility of conservationists, has been detrimental to the historical and cultural continuity of the built environment. Much of our built heritage has been reduced to little more than museum pieces, emptied of contextual relationships or hermeneutical traces. Our capacity to interpret the past depends largely on the opportunities, presented to us through architecture, to participate in its legacy. This investigation, which takes a historical view of the relationship between architectural conservation and practice, argues that only the creative architect can rescue these precious sites from ossification.


Background: Tonsillectomy is one of the commonest surgical procedure carried out by ENT surgeon. In the post-operative period, rate of life-threatening post-operative bleeding varies between 0 and 20 % of the patients. The use of magnifying devices like microscopes or magnifying glasses is still in the focus of clinical investigation as it is hypothesized that precise vision of vessels during surgery allows precise coagulation and therefore reduces post-operative bleeding. Furthermore, precise coagulation should reduce post-operative pain too. The study aims to compare the surgical outcome between microscopic assisted tonsillectomy and traditional cold dissection tonsillectomy.
Methods: This prospective study was conducted on 32 patients who had undergone tonsillectomy from March 2020 to December 2021. The patients included in the study underwent cold dissection tonsillectomy where one tonsil was removed with Microscopic assistance and other with traditional cold dissection method with unsupported vision. Intraoperative blood loss was calculated. Post-operative pain score was measured with Wong- Baker FACES® Pain rating scale till 7th post-operative day. Post-operative complications if present were noted.
Results: Total of 32 patients were enrolled in the study with age ranging from 16-42 years. There were total 18 male (56.3%) and 14 females (43.8%) in the study. Intraoperative time for Microscopic assisted cold dissection (16.44 ± 3.46 minutes) was longer than Conventional dissection technique (13.94 ± 2.86 minutes) (p=0.04). Amount of blood loss during MCD technique was 16.47 ± 4.58 ml whereas in CD group it was 18.22 ± 4.54 ml (p=0.02). Pain score in both methods were higher during early post-operative period and gradually decreased with time. During rest, there was no statistically significant difference in pain between the two methods during first three post-operative days, after which pain was significantly reduced in MCD through day 4-7 (p <0.05). None of the patient had post- operative hemorrhage requiring intervention in operation room.
Conclusions: Microscopic assisted cold dissection showed statistically significant results for reduced intraoperative blood loss and post-operative pain score than Conventional dissection method.


We derive the master equation that completely determines the time evolution of the density matrix of the Unruh-DeWitt detector in an arbitrary background geometry. We apply the equation to reveal a nonequilibrium thermodynamic character of de Sitter space. This generalizes an earlier study on the thermodynamic property of the Bunch-Davies vacuum that an Unruh-DeWitt detector staying in the Poincare patch and interacting with a scalar field in the Bunch-Davies vacuum behaves as if it is in a thermal bath of finite temperature. In this paper, instead of the Bunch- Davies vacuum, we consider a class of initial states of scalar field, for which the detector behaves as if it is in a medium that is not in thermodynamic equilibrium and that undergoes a relaxation to the equilibrium corresponding to the Bunch-Davies vacuum. We give a prescription for calculating the relaxation times of the nonequilibrium processes. We particularly show that, when the initial state of the scalar field is the instantaneous ground state at a finite past, the relaxation time is always given by a universal value of half the curvature radius of de Sitter space. We expect that the relaxation time gives a nonequilibrium thermodynamic quantity intrinsic to de Sitter space.


In a design-research project on problem-solving, theory-based and practiceoriented materials were developed with the goal of fostering systematical development of students' problem-solving competence in a targeted manner by learning heuristics. Special attention was given to working backward strategy, which has been shown difficult for students to learn and use. In the study, 14 Grade 5 students participated in explicit heuristic training. The results show that even though the students intuitively reversed their thought processes before the explicit training, they experienced difficulties when solving complex reversing tasks, which improved considerably after explicit heuristic training. Thus, the study results showed that the developed materials using design-based research-approach promoted the development of students' flexibility of thought when problemsolving by working backward. At the end of the paper, the results are discussed with regard to their theoretical and practical implications.


Purpose: To present the IOMP recommendations on the roles and responsibilities of medical physicists and the corresponding basic requirements for education and training (E&T). Special focus will be given to the development of E&T efforts in Asian‐Pacific countries and Europe.Methods: In line with its mission, IOMP is publishing new Policy Statements on "Role and Responsibilities of the Medical Physicist" and "Basic Requirements for Education and Training of Medical Physicists". IOMP is also proposing a new Model Curriculum that is already available on‐line at http://emerald2.eu/mep_11.html. This e‐book includes 39 papers, various e‐Learning and Open source materials, International Education/Training projects and University courses from 27 countries. This first volume is including a strong participation of Asian‐Pacific countries, represented at AFOMP. Also AFOMP developed "Policy Statement No. 3: recommendations for the education and training of medical physicists in AFOMP countries" in 2011. At the European level we must refer the Medical Physics Expert European Project. The main objectives of the European Commission project 'Guidelines on Medical Physics Expert' are to provide for improved implementation of the provisions relating to the Medical Physics Expert (MPE) as it was defined in the Council Directive 97/43/EURATOM, known as the Medical Exposures Directive, (MED) and the recently proposed recast Basic Safety Standards (BSS) Directive. This includes harmonization of the mission statement, education and training of the MPE among the Member States of the European Union. Results: In all of these initiatives the expected results point to the identification of gaps in education contents, identification of minimum education and training requirements and definitions of required knowledge, skills and competences in Medical Physics.Conclusions: It is certainly a role of IOMP to contribute to the guidance on the harmonization of the different educational pathways and approaches all over the world.


Aging has been recognized to be a highly complex biological health problem with a high risk of chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, chronic bronchitis or emphysema, cancer and Alzheimer's disease. Particularly, age-related turnover in adipose tissue is a major contributor to metabolic syndromes and shortened lifespan. Adipocytes undergo senescence in early stage, which results in adipose tissue metabolic dysfunction, redistribution, and inflammation. The well-established association between DNA methylation (DNAm) and aging has been observed in the past few decades. Indeed, age-related alteration in DNAm is highly tissue-specific. This review intends to summarize the advancements how DNAm changes coupled with aging process in adipose tissue, by which DNAm regulates cellular senescence, metabolic function, adipokine secretion and beiging process in adipocytes. Elucidation of the effect of DNAm on adipose aging would have great potential to the development of epigenetic therapeutic strategies against aging-related diseases in clinical settings.


In mutual fund, an investment adviser gives advice to clients about investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or exchange traded funds. Some investment advisers manage portfolios of securities. In this paper, we analyze advisor portfolio for each advisor so as to recognize the pattern in each adviser's portfolio. Such analysis helps the sales people to sell the fund company products to the suitable advisors desirable to the nature of the product they want to sell. This is done by analyzing the kind of products advisors have been interested in which will help to boost the sales of the products as sales people will be reaching the appropriate advisors.


Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the design and implementation of enterprise risk management (ERM) in three large Chinese state-owned enterprises and to develop propositions on integrating ERM, budgetary control system and cash flow stability approach.

Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a field study approach to analyze the risk assessment and risk-return matching of ERM. A field study was carried out over three years from 2008 to 2011 in three Chinese state-owned enterprises. These companies were chosen because less attention has been given to the implementation of ERM in such firms.

Findings
First, the authors find that all three companies use budgetary control to identify risks, analyze each risk to determine the potential consequences, determine the acceptable levels of risk, develop a risk mitigation plan and monitor the activities in all business processes that may change the levels of risks continuously. Second, the companies focus on cash flow risks through budgetary control to ensure the stability of cash flows. Finally, the degree of intensity of using budgetary control institutionalization to design and implement ERM has a positive impact on the level of risk acceptance and risk assessment culture.

Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study, however, should be interpreted with caution because this study was conducted in three Chinese state-owned enterprises. To increase the generalizability of the findings, future research is encouraged to replicate this study in different industries, as well as in different countries. Furthermore, future research might also examine the authors' propositions using a large-scale survey across other regions of the world.

Practical implications
Companies can minimize resistance to change by using budgetary control institutionalization when implementing the ERM. State-owned enterprises can initiate and implement a new risk management system by identifying the potential risks and by developing a risk mitigation plan.

Social implications
The results of this study will help companies, particularly state-owned enterprises, to improve their performance and become more competitive, which in turn will benefit the society as a whole by performing their risk driver identification, risk driver impact assessment, risk management actions and risk management optimization more effectively.

Originality/value
The authors investigate how the firms use a legitimate system, namely, budgetary control, that is widely accepted and used in China to foster the acceptance and use of ERM. The authors also develop testable propositions of ERM implementation and cash flow stability that will provide useful guidelines for future research.


Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate liver fibrosis using non-invasive Real-time Tissue Elastography® (RTE) and transient elastography (FibroScan®) methods. Methods: RTE, FibroScan and percutaneous liver biopsy were all performed on patients with chronic liver disease, particularly hepatitis C, to investigate liver fibrosis. Results: FibroScan and RTE were compared for fibrous liver staging (F stage), which was pathologically classified using liver biopsy. In FibroScan, significant differences were observed between F1/F3 and F2/F4, but no such differences were observed between F1/F2, F2/F3 and F3/F4. In RTE, significant differences were observed between F1/F2, F2/F3 and F2/F4. But for F3/F4, no significant differences were observed. Conclusion: FibroScan and RTE correlated well with F staging of the liver. In particular RTE was more successful than FibroScan in diagnosing the degree of liver fibrosis.


Introduction Severe acute pancreatitis (AP) carries a 30–50% mortality.1Current scoring systems fall short in predictive accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and availability.2Metabolomics aims to decipher molecular signatures that will distinguish disease from controls, ultimately leading to novel targets for diagnosis, staging and treatment. Initial studies are discovery-based, hypothesis-generating and typically aim to establish a snapshot of the metabolism of an individual by metabolite profile. The aim of this study was to determine the urinary and serum metabolomic profiles of AP in comparison to healthy controls and establish if metabolomic profiling can distinguish severity or aetiology of disease in order to identify potential novel bio-markers. Method Urine and serum samples from 72 patients with AP, were compared with 62 healthy controls (HC). Two analytical platforms, UHPLC-MS and GC-TOF-MS, were used in this study in order to minimise false negatives and identify a quantitative compliment of all metabolites across a wide molecular weight range. GC-TOF-MS can identify VLMW polar metabolites (<350 Da), where-as reverse phase UHPLC-MS is useful in detecting non-polar metabolites. Metabolite identification was subject to univariate and multivariate analysis (p < 0.05). Results After univariate analysis, a total of 964 serum metabolites and 1263 urinary metabolites were identified as significantly different in comparison to HC. Multivariate analysis showed good discrimination, based on metabolite profiles, between severity of AP when classified by MODS but not by APACHE II score. There was no separation by metabolite profiles correlating to aetiology of AP.Abstract PWE-199 Figure 1 DFA plots of metabolic profile and correlation with MODS severity rating of AP_SERUM Conclusion In this novel study, metabolite profiling can distinguish patients with AP from controls and appears to differentiate severity by MODS criteria. Fatty acids, glycerophoshocholines, eicosanoids, TCA cycle intermediates and melatonin levels were altered in AP in comparison to controls. These metabolites offer insights into pathogenesis and may represent future putative biomarkers. Disclosure of interest None Declared. References Mofidi R, et al. 2006. Association between early systemic inflammatory response, severity of multiorgan dysfunction and death in acute pancreatitis. Br. J. Surg. 93(6), pp. 738-744. Papachristou GI, et al. Predictors of severity and necrosis in acute pancreatitis. Gastroenterology clinics of North America, 33(4):871–890.


Following the rail reform in 2004, rail industry in Korea has separated into two parts: one is the infrastructure manager and the other is train operator. Amongst many aspects, track access charging system is one of the imminent aspects to be studied closely to make the rail reform successful. In this study, track access charging systems of European countries are closely investigated and compared one another and lessons learnt from their experiences are derived. Finally, policy directions regarding the track access charging system to be adopted in Korea are suggested.


"This paper is an attempt to examine the socio-economic-demographic characteristics and health status of the aged (60 years and above) in rural Bangladesh.... About 87 percent of males are currently married as against only half of the females. On the contrary, a large proportion (50 percent) of females are widowed while only 12 percent are widowers. The educational status of males is much better than that of females.... About half of the females are found unemployed as against only one-third of males. As regards the annual income, the condition of Hindus is better than that of Muslims. The majority of the older people are living in large households of more than five members."


Background: The prevalence of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL) has been reported as 1.8% to 37.9% in different provinces of Iran. However, enough knowledge about epidemiological aspects of CL disease is needed to launch a proper program to plan control and preventive strategies about the disease. Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the epidemiological aspect of CL in Iran during the first 6 months of 2014. Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all cases of CL reported to centers for disease control and prevention (CDC) by state health departments from March 2014 to September 2014 were included. Descriptive statistics including frequency tables, measures of central value, and measures of dispersion to describe the study variables were used to analyze data. Area maps were created using ArcView GIS v. 3.3. Results: Most of the CL cases were observed in eastern, central, and southern provinces. Two thousand thirty-one cases (55.13%) were male and 2,306 (62.6%) were living in urban areas. The mean age of the patients was 27 ± 18 years old. More than 31% of them were under 14 years of age. Also, 3570 individuals (96.91%) were new cases. more wounds were seen so that 62.75% of the wounds were on the hands, 24.8% in the head and neck, and 2.7% in the body. Conclusions: According to the epidemiological features of CL in Iran, Providing a uniform mechanism for control and prevention of this disease is not possible. Thus, initial actions such as staff training, screening in endemic areas, and treatment of patients with urban leishmaniasis as a reservoir for the disease can be useful, according to the geographical position and carrier.


Radially fractured domes are large, tectonic and topographic features discovered on the surface of Venus by the Magellan spacecraft. They are thought to be due to uplift over mantle diapirism, and to date are known to occur only on Venus. Since Venus and the Earth are grossly similar in size, composition and structure, we seek to understand why these features have not been seen on the Earth. We model the uplift and fracturing over a mantle diapir as functions of lithospheric thickness and diapir size and depth. We find that lithospheres of the same thickness on the Earth and Venus should respond similarly to the same sized diapir, and that radially fractured domes should form most readily in thin oceanic lithospheres on Earth if diapiric activity is similar on the two planets. However, our current knowledge of the Earth's oceanic floors is insufficient to confirm or deny the presence of radially fractured domes. We compute the expected dimensions for these features on the Earth and suggest a search for them to determine whether mantle diapirism operates similarly on the Earth and Venus.


BACKGROUND
Opportunistic infections are responsible for significant morbidity and mortality in patients with malignancy developing granulocytopenia as a result of therapy. A case of Stomatococcus mucilaginosus meningitis is reported.

CASE REPORT
A 2 year-old boy was admitted because he had developed fever and neutropenia during chemotherapy given for neuroectodermal tumor. He was previously treated for a Stomatococcus mucilaginosus septicemia with vancomycin given for 15 days through an intravenous catheter which has subsequently been left in place. At admission, fever was associated with severe degree of aplasia (70 WBC/mm3). The patient was given IV ceftazidime plus amikacin. Two days later, the boy developed acute meningitis due to Stomatococcus mucilaginosus; he was then given IV vancomycin (40 mg/kg/d) and imipenem (100 mg/kg/d). Persistence of abnormal clinical and bacteriological findings required subsequent intrathecal administration of vancomycin (1.5 mg/d) for 5 days. CSF cultures were negative 2 days later, leading to stop IV antibiotics after 3 weeks. The catheter was removed 1 week later.

CONCLUSION
This patient represents the third reported case of Stomatococcus mucilaginosus meningitis. Combined intrathecal and systemic administration of vancomycin seems to have been useful in our case.


Abstract The DISSTRESS system for remote measurements of the surface wind stress over the ocean from ships and buoys is described. It is fully digital, utilizing the inertial dissipation technique. Parallel processing allows anemometer data to be filtered in natural frequency space; that is, the fitter cutoffs shift linearly with the mean wind speed of the data to be filtered. The construction of the digital Butterworth bandpass filters is presented in detail. The performance of the system is evaluated by analyzing the results from 28 days of operation during FASINEX. The mean wind speed is checked, the anemometer response function is established, and drag coefficients are compared to previous studies. The capability of the system is demonstrated by continuous time series of the friction velocity computed every 20 min. The conclusion is that the surface wind stress can be measured more reliably and accurately (20%) with this system than from anemometer wind speeds and a bulk formula.


The effect of a combination of aspirin and fish oil on eicosanoids was studied. Four subjects were given 37.5 mg aspirin orally, and 6 weeks later they received a natural, stable fish oil daily for 1 week before taking the same single dose of aspirin. Blood samples for determination of whole blood production of eicosanoids were taken before and after each experimental period. Serum thromboxane A(2)was decreased by 40% (P<0.05) after aspirin alone, but by 62% (P<0.01) after fish oil + aspirin. Serum prostacyclin (measured as 6-keto PGF(1a)) was decreased by aspirin in both cases. The sum of 6-keto PGF(1a)and its equipotent fish oil-derived analogue Delta(17)-6-keto PGF(1a)was reduced after aspirin intake (55%, NS), but after fish oil + aspirin the reduction was smaller (33%, NS). Leukotriene B(4)was increased by 19% (P<0.05) after aspirin, and decreased by 69% (P<0.05) after fish oil + aspirin. A combination of stable fish oil and aspirin thus improves the eicosanoid pattern more than aspirin alone.


KatG Ser3 15Thr mutation is one of the main reasons of resistance to isoniazid in Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates. The frequency rate of the above mutation among isoniazid-resistant isolates made 94% in Novosibirsk Region and 93% in Kemerovo Region. The use of PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) can be regarded as an adequate method for rapid screening of isoniazid resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated in the West-Siberian Region.


BACKGROUND
Enzymatic catalyzed grafting of oligosaccharides with polyphenols is a safe and environmental friendly approach to simultaneously enhance the bioactivity of oligosaccharides and the solubility of polyphenols. In this study, chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) was grafted with three different flavonols including myricetin (MYR), quercetin (QUE) and kaempferol (KAE) by horseradish peroxidase (HRP) catalysis. The structures, antioxidant activity and edible coating application of COS-flavonol conjugates were investigated.

RESULTS
The total phenol content of COS-MYR, COS-QUE and COS-KAE conjugates was 59.89, 68.37 and 53.77 mg gallic acid equivalents g-1 , respectively. Thin layer chromatography showed the conjugates did not contain un-grafted flavonols. COS-flavonol conjugates showed UV absorption peak at about 294 nm, corresponding to the A-ring of flavonols. Fourier-transform infrared spectra of conjugates confirmed the formation of Schiff-base and Michael-addition products. The proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum of COS-KAE conjugate exhibited phenyl proton signals of KAE. X-ray diffraction patterns of conjugates showed some diffraction peaks of flavonols. COS-flavonol conjugates presented rough and porous morphologies with sheet-like and/or blocky structures. The conjugates showed higher water solubility, free radical scavenging activity and reducing power than flavonols. Moreover, fish gelatin/COS-flavonol conjugate coatings effectively prolonged the shelf life of refrigerated large mouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) fillets from 5 days to 7-8 days.

CONCLUSION
COS-flavonol conjugates prepared by HRP catalysis have great potentials as novel antioxidant agents. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


We analysed aquatic insect distribution and their circadian variation in tropical fish ponds in a piscicultural farm used for Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) culture near Natiokobadara locality in the Northern Côte d'Ivoire. Among ponds of this farm, three were selected: a pond (D4) without fish, a pond (A3) stocking with 7500 fingerlings and pond (T12) of reproducers containing 680 parents. In each pond, aquatic insect samplings were undertaken every 04 hours during 24 hours in the three selected fish ponds during two cycles. Besides, ordinary samplings were done during the sampling period (July-August 2001). Overall, 25 taxa belonging to 15 families and seven orders were recorded. The pond without fish (D4) contained the higher aquatic insect richness. Heteropterans and dipterans were the mostly abundant and diverse groups. Their predominance was due to respectively Anisops sardea and Chaoborus anomalus. According the circadian variation of these two main taxa, it is likely that assemblages of these two main taxa are rather shaped by biotic factors such competition. The circadian variation of all aquatic insects collected showed that the maximum of insects was registered in daytime in the pond without fish (D4) whereas in the two others ponds (A3, T12) containing fishes the highest abundance of insects was obtained during night. The risk-of-predation hypothesis implies aquatic insects in ponds containing fish exhibit predominately during night. *Corresponding Author: Edia Oi Edia  firstname.lastname@example.com International Journal of Biosciences | IJB | ISSN: 2220-6655 (Print) 2222-5234 (Online) http://www.innspub.net Vol. 3, No. 8, p. 22-30, 2013


This thesis aims to establish the place of keyboard arrangements from Lully
within the French harpsichord repertoire in matters relating to style, detail of techniques,
and performance practice. Chapter One provides the background fo.r the 'practice of making
arrangements by reviewing contemporary and secondary documents. I, underline the fact
that the making of arrangements (since Attaingnant 1531) contributed to an enlargement of
the keyboard repertoire, and that the concurrent rise of Luny and the harpsichord, both
associated with the aristocratic world, inevitably led to the practice of making arrangements
from Luny. '
Chapter Two examines the keyboard sources in detail in order to determine
the relationship of Luny arrangements to the original harpsichord repertoire. Gustafson's
catalogue provides most of the sources relevant to this study. My contribution involves the
study of performance media, scribal habits, notation, and all matters which shed light on
the background of these sources. As a rule, arrangements may appear in sources in one of
the three main contexts, indicating their use: (1) in anthologies consisting exclusively of
arrangements; (2) in self-contained orchestral-type suites; and (3) in composite suites
containing works of more than one composer. .
Chapter Three analyzes the techniques employed by arrangers to solve the
problem of representing orchestral textures10n the keyboard. It also aims to establish the
status of individual arrangers and to determine how the making of arrangements from
orchestral music widens the range of effects available to keyboard players. Such an analysis
shows that, while some of the techniques obviously belong to part of the common
vocabulary of contemporary keyboard language, others appear to have been developed
specifically from the pra<?tice of making arrangements.
Chapter Four focuses on two main aspects of French performance practice
in the light of both contemporary theoretical sources and the evidence in the notation itself:
(1) the mesure; and (2) ornamentation. An examination of notational details between parallel
settings of arrangements alongside orchestral versions sheds light on crucial performance
matters in which treatises and ornament tables remain silent, such as the contentious issue
of the pre-beat and on-the-beat interpretation of ornaments (e.g. the port de voix and the
coule,).
Chapter Five sets out to estimate in terms of original harpsichord pieces
written in the post-Lully era (1699-1730) the nature and extent of Lullian influence in the
development of French harpsichord repertoire. Lullian influence is manifested in two main
ways: (1) the addition of new orchestral genres; and (2) the transfer of orchestral style to
the keyboard. It is most strongly felt in the overture and orchestral dances, notably the
chaconne and passacaille.
As a general conclusion I draw attention to the fact that arrangements from
Lully are as important as original pieces in shaping the development of French harpsichord
music. In particular, I point up the usefulness of these arrangements in furthering our
knowledge of performance matters with regard to different notations of the same effect and
different implications of the same notation.


Investigations are performed on the opto-electronic realization of a previously published low-frequency feedback technique of the authors. In this paper the opto-electronic adaptation of the theory is studied, while also measurement and simulation data are shown and analyzed to prove the pertinence of the original approach for phase noise suppression.


. Randomized linear solvers leverage randomization to structure-blindly compress and solve a linear system to produce an inexpensive solution. While such a property is highly desirable, randomized linear solvers often suffer when it comes to performance as either (1) problem structure is not being exploited, and (2) hardware is inefficiently used. Thus, randomized adaptive solvers are starting to appear that use the benefits of randomness while attempting to still exploit problem structure and reduce hardware inefficiencies. Unfortunately, such randomized adaptive solvers are likely to be without a theoretical foundation to show that they will work (i.e., find a solution). Accordingly, here, we distill three general criteria for randomized block adaptive solvers, which, as we show, will guarantee convergence of the randomized adaptive solver and supply a worst-case rate of convergence. We will demonstrate that these results apply to existing randomized block adaptive solvers, and to several that we devise for demonstrative purposes.


In deep water, multipath time delays or frequency-domain interference periods of the acoustic intensity combined with multipath arrival angles are typically used for source localization. However, depth estimate is hard to achieve for a narrowband source at a remote part of the direct arrival zone as the required bandwidth increases with the source range. In this paper, a passive source localization method with a vertical line array, suitable for both broadband and narrowband sources, is proposed. Based on the variation trends of multipath angles with source range and depth, source localization is achieved by only matching the measured angles of the direct path and surface-reflected path with model-based values of a predefined grid of potential source locations. Considering the angle resolution limited by the array aperture and the presence of coherent multipath, sparse Bayesian learning is used and compared with the conventional beamforming and the minimum-variance distortionless-response beamforming to resolve and estimate the multipath angles. Simulations and experimental data of explosive sources collected by a vertical line array in the South China Sea are carried out to illustrate the method and demonstrate the performance.


[35S)-labelled HDL was prepared from the chyle of rats after feeding [35S)methionine/cysteine. It was added to the perfusate of isolated rat spleens, pre-labelled with [3H)cholesterol and perfused simultaneously with a rat liver. This system allowed the complete process of reverse cholesterol transport to take place while the uptake of individual HDL apolipoproteins and cholesterol by the liver was studied. In 3 h, uptake of apo C, A-IV and E was 24-59% whereas the uptake of apo A-I was negligible. 42% of the [3H)cholesterol entering the perfusate was taken up by the liver with 16% of the HDL cholesteryl ester mass. The results indicate that hepatic uptake of HDL cholesterol and cholesteryl ester is accompanied by some apolipoprotein uptake but not apo A-I. The apo A-I containing HDL particle is released back into the perfusate where it can return to extrahepatic tissues to take up more cholesterol. Further experiments in whole rats showed that human apo A-I (60 mg), when administered to rats i.v. with the [35S)HDL, displaced [35S) into the d > 1.250 density fraction of plasma. This trebled the apparent uptake of unassociated apo A-I into the kidney supporting the hypothesis that the kidney is the organ of destruction of apo A-I.


This book celebrates the seventieth anniversary of Jung's 1939 lecture entitled "The Symbolic Life" to the Guild of Pastoral Psychology in London and considers if and how Jung's path into living a symbolic life is still viable today. Murray Stein, the president of the International School of Analytical Psychology in Zurich (ISAPZURICH) serves as the guest editor of this volume, and the contributors are all analysts or students affiliated with ISAPZURICH. This issue also features an interview by Rob Henderson with Sonu Shamdasani, the editor of Jung's famous "The Red Book", only recently published and made available to scholars and the public for the first time. "The Red Book" is a product of Jung's own confrontation with the unconscious between 1914 and 1930, and is where he developed his principle theories of the archetypes, the collective unconscious, and the process of individuation.


The electrocardiogram (ECG) is the main biomedical signal used to diagnose and monitor cardiac pathologies. A typical ECG is composed of quasi-periodic activations (the QRS complexes, and the P and T waves) and periods of inactivity, plus noise and interferences. The sparse nature of the ECG has lead to the development of many compressed sensing (CS) and sparsity-aware ECG signal processing algorithms. In order to attain a good performance, these methods require appropriate dictionaries, and several on-line dictionary construction approaches have been devised. However, all of them require a substantial computational cost and the derived dictionaries are composed of atoms which may not be representative of real-world signals. In this work, we describe an efficient method for off-line construction of an overcomplete and multi-scale dictionary using a clustering-based approach. The resulting dictionary, whose atoms are the most representative waveforms from the training set, is then used to obtain a sparse representation of the ECG signal. Simulations on real-world records from Physionet's PTB database show the good performance of the proposed approach.


The article contains a review of the unique Ukrainian experience of launched and implemented projects in the conditions of a global risk, i. e. the war. It is highlighted that the large-scale invasion of the Russian Federation on the Ukrainian territory caused global threats and risks for public and business organizations and the Ukrainian society as a whole. The emphasis is made on top innovative projects of Ukraine launched and implemented (or being rapidly developed) due to the intensive use of digitalized processes. The authors presented a review of global reforms in the areas of strategic importance for Ukraine: development of road infrastructures in Ukraine, modernization of heath protection sector, reduction of Ukraine's dependence on energy imports (especially on Russia), development of digitalized processes, improvement of the education quality and bringing the domestic education system in conformity with European standards. These reforms involved the development of megaprojects that could be successfully implemented several years before the beginning of the war and continue to be extensively used in daily activities of Ukrainian citizens. The issue of big data implementation as a useful ground for the successful accomplishment of projects in the conditions of war and the future postwar period is elaborated on.


SUMMARY
The responses of normal (al+/al+) and albino mutant (aljal) seedlings of Plantago insularis to light and thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) were studied by transmission electron microscopy.

Plastids in seedlings of normal and albino genotypes grown in darkness had the structure of etioplasts with a thylakoid plexus (prolamellar body) from which extend thylakoids. Some of the thylakoids were often associated into parallel or concentric sheets. In the mutant, the thylakoid sheets were generally shorter, and some were vesiculated. Exposure of normal plants to light resulted in the transformation of the etioplasts to chloroplasts, with the loss of the thylakoid plexus and the formation of typical grana and an intergranal thylakoid system, plus a few globules in the stroma. Exposure of the albino mutant to light caused the loss of the thylakoid plexus and the formation of highly ordered, concentrically associated thylakoid sheet systems, but no grana. After 24 h of illumination, the plastids of the albino mutant showed evidence of thylakoid degeneration and accumulation of globules and starch. These changes are interpreted as a consequence of very low TPP in the mutant and as evidence for the role of TPP in the degradation of glucose through the Krebs cycle in the normal genotype.

The application of TPP to the albino mutant resulted in the formation of essentially normal chloroplasts. The ultrastructural observations support the view that TPP deficiency does not handicap the mutant in protein synthesis until after exposure to light. TPP and light are essential for the formation of normal grana and TPP is in some way involved in the pathways for pigment and protein synthesis in chloroplasts.


Reach guidance when the spatial location of the viewed target and hand movement are incongruent (i.e., decoupled) necessitates use of explicit cognitive rules (strategic control) or implicit recalibration of gaze and limb position (sensorimotor recalibration). In a patient with optic ataxia (OA) and bilateral superior parietal lobule damage, we recently demonstrated an increased reliance on strategic control when the patient performed a decoupled reach (Granek JA, Pisella L, Stemberger J, Vighetto A, Rossetti Y, Sergio LE. PLoS One 8: e86138, 2013). To more generally understand the fundamental mechanisms of decoupled visuomotor control and to more specifically test whether we could distinguish these two modes of movement control, we tested healthy participants in a cognitively demanding dual task. Participants continuously counted backward while simultaneously reaching toward horizontal (left or right) or diagonal (equivalent to top-left or top-right) targets with either veridical or rotated (90°) cursor feedback. By increasing the overall neural load and selectively compromising potentially overlapping neural circuits responsible for strategic control, the complex dual task served as a noninvasive means to disrupt the integration of a cognitive rule into a motor action. Complementary to our previous results observed in patients with optic ataxia, here our dual task led to greater performance deficits during movements that required an explicit rule, implying a selective disruption of strategic control in decoupled reaching. Our results suggest that distinct neural processing is required to control these different types of reaching because in considering the current results and previous patient results together, the two classes of movement could be differentiated depending on the type of interference.


This research examined the direct and indirect impact of taxation on the Nigerian economic growth. This research centered on two major objectives by focusing on the trend of direct and indirect tax and the impact of the Nigerian tax system on the growth of the economy. The research adopted the descriptive research design. The secondary source of data was also engaged as this data was from CBN statistical bulletin and the annual reports from 1994-2013. The research also used the ordinary least square regression technique. With the use of E-views 7.1 to analyze the data, the first objective was achieved by using graphical analysis while the second objective used ordinary least square regression analysis. The results reveal that the direct and indirect tax have a positive impact on the economy of Nigeria. Therefore, it is recommended that government should take advantage of taxation and promote tax system in Nigeria.


The axisymmetric distortion in girth-welded pipes is studied in this paper. A model is developed based on the fact that only a small part of the pipe near the welding arc undergoes high temperature changes, and thus behaves thermo-elastic-plastically, while the rest of the structure is elastic in nature and may, at most, have some thermo-elastic effects. The model is shown to match Finite Element Method in predicting the overall approximated axisymmetric shrinkage in girth-welded pipes. A qualitative agreement with published analytical and experimental results is achieved as well.


States of emergency are often declared due to underlying problems of minority group accommodation, and the extraordinary limitation of rights arising from them tends to have a particularly striking effect on such groups. This was true, for instance, with the emergency measures adopted by the British authorities in the context of the 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland. The same appears true in respect of the Turkish state of emergency in the aftermath of the failed military coup of 15 July 2016 vis-a-vis the position of Turkey's Kurds. In spite of the fact that the declaration of the state of emergency constituted a response to an attempted coup which was, allegedly, orchestrated by the Gulen Movement, it is clear that the resulting derogating measures have also targeted 'other individuals and organizations', mainly those allegedly connected to the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), and thus extended to Turkey's Kurdish periphery. This chapter seeks to map the impact of the Turkish post-coup derogation measures on Turkey's Kurds and to test them against the non-discrimination principle, minority rights, and the right of self-determination.


The proportion and distribution of local inhibitory neurons (interneurons) in the thalamus varies widely across mammals. This is reflected in the structure of thalamic local circuits, which is more complex in primates compared to smaller-brained mammals like rodents. An increase in the number of thalamic interneurons could arise from addition of novel interneuron types or from elaboration of a plesiomorphic ontogenetic program, common to all mammals. The former has been proposed for the human brain, with migration of interneurons from the ventral telencephalon into higher order thalamus as one of its unique features (Letinic and Rakic, 2001). Here, we identify a larger than expected complexity and distribution of interneurons across the mouse thalamus. All thalamic interneurons can be traced back to two developmental programs: one specified in the midbrain and the other in the forebrain. Interneurons migrate to functionally distinct thalamic nuclei, where the midbrain-derived cells populate the sensory thalamus, and forebrain-generated interneurons only the higher order regions. The latter interneuron type may be homologous to the one previously considered to be human-specific, while we also observe that markers for the midbrain-born class are abundantly expressed in the primate thalamus. These data therefore point to a shared ontogenetic organization of thalamic interneurons across mammals.


New window technologies have increased energy benefits and comfort, and have provided more practical options for consumers. This selection guide will help homeowners, architects, and builders take advantage of the expanding window market. The guide contains three sections: an explanation of energy-related window characteristics, a discussion of window energy performance ratings, and a convenient checklist for window selection.


Abstract We investigated whether 2 stream sampling protocols collected different diatom assemblages within sampling reaches and, consequently, influenced the outcome of bioassessment. We analyzed data collected at 71 sites by both reach-scale (Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program [EMAP]) and targeted-habitat (US Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] Science to Achieve Results [STAR]) sampling protocols as part of the US EPA EMAP survey. Overall, diatom assemblages generated by the 2 protocols were similar. Median Bray–Curtis (BC) similarity between EMAP and STAR diatom counts was 70% (range 19–91%). Taxon richness (r2 = 0.7), autecological metrics (e.g., siltation index: r2 = 0.9, trophic diatom index: r2 = 0.8), and morphological metrics (e.g., % erect taxa: r2 = 0.7, % prostrate taxa: r2 = 0.8) were comparable between the 2 protocols. Relationships between diatom assemblages (summarized as nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination axes) and environmental variables were similar between the 2 protocols, with diatom assemblages relating more to instream water-quality variables (e.g., total P, conductivity) than to physical-habitat or watershed characteristics. Diatom assemblages generated by the 2 protocols did diverge under a specific set of environmental conditions. Sites with the lowest BC similarities between EMAP and STAR counts tended to be larger and less shaded and to have higher values of water-quality variables affected by human disturbance (e.g., conductivity, total P, % fine sediment) than sites with higher values of BC similarity between protocols. We conclude that EMAP and STAR sampling protocols, in general, collect similar diatom assemblages. However, researchers should exercise caution when combining diatom data sets collected with different sampling protocols, particularly in large streams, where the potential for sampling of multiple habitats is increased.


This paper helps district nurses to understand how and why existing quality measurement tools can be used as part of everyday practice to demonstrate clinical effectiveness. We consider how productivity has historically been used to crudely indicate district nurses' clinical effectiveness and why this is now being balanced alongside a range of more robust clinical effectiveness measurement tools. Evaluating clinical effectiveness and improving future care involves examining a number of indicators alongside each other. These include patient safety indicators, patient satisfaction, productivity measurement tools, and how effective clinicians are in supporting people to achieve their best clinical outcomes.


This study summarizes a joint research project aiming to further enhance the safety of booster-seated children (aged 4-12) in the rear seat of passenger cars. The focus is real-world aspects of child safety, comprising the whole context of the vehicle and child restraints, and a variety of crash situations, including pre-crash events. Real children sit in a variety of sitting postures in cars. On-road driving studies show that children take different postures due to comfort, visibility or activities. The results from three studies 18 children in a variety of restraints, showed that for only a portion of the time, they are sitting upright with contact to the seatback, i.e. similar to the standardized crash test dummy position. When using a booster with protruding head side supports the children sit forward leaning more than without, and in a large share of the time, the head is in front of the head side supports. Approximately 40% of the crashes are preceded by evasive maneuvers. When exposing child volunteers to evasive braking they will move forward by up to 0.2m, when shoulder belt remains over the shoulder. Thirty four child volunteers were exposed to evasive braking and steering events, using different types of boosters. Depending of the size of the child and the booster used, they might slide out of the shoulder belt in steering events. In addition, existing child crash test dummies were tested and compared to the volunteer data. The volunteer data was also used to validate an active child Human Body Model, as a first step to develop a tool that can be used for evasive maneuvers. The booster is essential for the child enabling good interaction to the seatbelt. In addition, the vehicle protection systems play an important role for the child protection. Hence, for enhancing real-world safety it is essential to replicate in-vehicle situations. Unfortunately, this is not how child restraints are certified today. This study shows that child crash test dummies benefit from side airbags and advanced seatbelt technologies, and are responsive to changes in sitting postures and crash modes. In addition to the in-crash protective systems evaluated in this study, pioneering maneuver and run-off-road tests with crash test dummies were run to evaluate the effect of an electrical reversible seatbelt retractor (pre-pretensioner) to help keep the occupant in the belt during such an event. International multidisciplinary workshops were held and concluded that future advancements need to be data driven and incorporate multiple disciplines. Engineering advancements should strive towards less complex solutions and the shared responsibility between the child restraint and the vehicle was highlighted. The results from this project contribute to identification and quantification of important real-world needs, as well as evaluation and development of countermeasures. It is concluded, that from a real-world perspective, the vehicle and child restraint should be designed together targeting a range of acceptable common user positions; sitting postures preferably guided by comfort and positive means. Such designs will ensure robust function of the protection systems for these young occupants, and advance the development of countermeasures that protect children in real- world crashes, also including dynamic events prior to a crash.


This article describes a simplified logarithmic integrator circuit as well as a synthesis technique for designing this circuit for a specific application. Comparisons are drawn between the circuit proposed herein and the Cooke-Yarborough log integrator circuit and Lichtenstein log integrator circuit.


Infectious diseases often spread as spatial epidemic outbreak waves. A number of model studies have shown that such spatial pattern formation can have important consequences for the evolution of pathogens. Here, we show that such spatial patterns can cause cyclic evolutionary dynamics in selection for the length of the infectious period. The necessary reversal in the direction of selection is enabled by a qualitative change in the spatial pattern from epidemic waves to irregular local outbreaks. The spatial patterns are an emergent property of the epidemic system, and they are robust against changes in specific model assumptions. Our results indicate that emergent spatial patterns can act as a rich source for complexity in pathogen evolution.


A list sphere detector (LSD) is a soft-output enhancement of a sphere detector (SD) that can be used to approximate the optimal MAP detector in the detection of the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) signals. The LSDs are based on tree search algorithms and they can be divided into three categories: the breadth-first (BF) search, the depth-first search (DF), and the metric-first (MF) search algorithms. A fair comparison of the feasibility of different search algorithms for MIMO detection requires efficient architecture designs and hardware implementations of the algorithms. In this paper, we compare and analyze the error rate performance, ASIC implementation complexity and detection rate of LSDs based on all three types of search strategies for 4 × 4 MIMO-OFDM systems with 16- and 64-QAM.


Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is defined as an investment involving a long-term relationship and reflecting a lasting interest and control by a resident entity in one economy in an enterprise resident in an economy other than that of the foreign direct investor. FDI net inflow share the value of inward direct investment made by non-resident investors in the reporting economy, including reinvested earnings and intra-company loans, net of repatriation of capital and repayment of loans. FDI net outflow share the value of outward direct investment made by the residents of the reporting economy to external economies, including reinvested earnings and intra-company loans, net of receipts from the repatriation of capital and repayment of loans.


Abstract Daily sums of the downward solar radiation, i.e., the global radiation, have been computed from imaging data of reflected solar and emitted infrared radiation which were measured from the geostationary satellites METEOSAT I and II during the periods 1-30 June 1979 and 1-30 April 1982, respectively, over Europe and northern Africa. The method assumes basically that clouds perturb the "clear sky" radiance fields. Thus, the satellite data of reflected solar radiation are used as indicators for the presence of clouds and of their transparency for radiation scattered upward from underneath. Radiative transfer calculations have been employed to determine clouds and atmospheric transmittance for solar radiation at different zenith angles. A comparison with simultaneous measurements of the European network of pyranometers yields rms differences of 0.25 kWh m−2 (June 1979) and 0.28 kWh m−2 (April 1982), respectively, for monthly averages of daily sums. This uncertainty corresponds to ∼5–6% of the availabl...


Competitive adsorption of prototype molecules such as (12)CO, (13)CO and CO2 at the two typical fivefold coordinated Ti5c(4+) cation sites of reduced rutile TiO2(110) surfaces was studied in a newly designed UHV-FTIR system. The measured binding energies of (12)CO, (13)CO or CO2 adsorbed at two kinds of Ti5c(4+) sites are different. The molecular occupying probability at these sites depends on the binding energy of the adsorbed molecules; while, the molecular exchanging probability at these sites depends on their binding energy difference due to the presence of competitive adsorption. A simple thermodynamic equilibrium model was proposed to qualitatively interpret the adsorption and competitive adsorption mechanisms. These results will contribute to the elucidation of the (photo)catalytic process on TiO2(110) surfaces.


The Eizai hyperbilirubinemic rat (EHBR) is a Sprague‐Dawley mutant rat with conjugated hyperbilirubinemia. Eizai hyperbilirubinemic rats have impaired canalicular excretory transport of organic anions, bile acid glucuronide and sulfate. Eizai hyperbilirubinemic rats, with and without a 68% partial hepatectomy, were treated by an intraportal injection of 1×107 wild‐type Sprague‐Dawley mutant rat hepatocytes. Serum bilirubin concentrations decreased significantly after hepatectomy and intraportal injection. Biliary excretion was demonstrated by biliary transport of indocyanine and sulfobromophthalein into the bile. These results indicate that hepatic transport of bile acid conjugates in Eizai hyperbilirubinemic rats can be restored by hepatocyte transplantation in conjunction with the recipient's excretory biliary system. (Hepatology 1994;20:220‐224.)


Background With an increase in ageing population, cognitive decline represents a major reason of concern. Alcohol has been shown to have a differential impact on cognitive decline according to the level of consumption, but less is known on the longitudinal effects. Objective To examine the influence of alcohol consumption at age 36 and 43 years on cognitive decline between 43 and 53 years. Design Birth cohort study. Setting UK. Participants 735 men and 778 women from the Medical Research Council (MRC) National Survey of Health and Development, followed up since their birth in March 1946. Main outcome measures Decline in verbal memory and visual search speed. Methods Alcohol data was obtained over 7 days using 5 days diet diary and 2 days interview recall at age 36 and 43. The confounding variables included were father's social class, childhood cognition, education, adult social class and depression. Statistical methods Cognition at 53 years was regressed on cognition at 43 years, alcohol consumption, and confounders, separately for men and women. Results Long-term effects: Alcohol consumption at age 36 was associated with decline in verbal memory performance in men. Light drinkers (0-3 units/day) and moderate drinkers (2-5 units/day) had 1.80 (95% CI: 0.73 to 2.88) and respectively 1.72 (0.57- 2.86) slower decline than non-drinkers, while heavy drinkers (3-8 units/day) showed a more rapid decline with 1.28 (0.11-2.45). These associations become non-significant after controlling for the confounders (in particular when controlling for education). No associations were found in women. There was non-significant association between alcohol at age 36 and decline in visual search performance. Short-term effects: Alcohol at age 43 had a stronger impact on verbal memory decline in men, which was maintained after adjusting for all the confounders. The regression coefficients for light, moderate and heavy drinkers were 1.18, 1.34, and 1.32 (0.21-2.15; 0.24-2.44; 0.25-2.40) in reference to non-drinkers, highlighting a protection for moderate drinkers. No associations were found for verbal memory decline in women. For the visual search speed test no associations were found in men. However, for women, was a significant association between alcohol behaviour at 43 and decline in visual search performance. Conclusion The short-term effect of alcohol consumption on cognitive decline is stronger than the long-term effect, which was explained by educational attainment at age 26. Future policies on drinking behaviour should not only highlight the debilitating effects of different levels of drinking, but also take into account the beneficial influence of education.