G protein alpha subunits mediate activation of signaling pathways through G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) by virtue of GTP-dependent conformational rearrangements. It is known that regions of disorder in crystal structures can be indicative of conformational flexibility within a molecule, and there are several such regions in G protein alpha subunits. The amino-terminal 29 residues of Galpha are alpha-helical only in the heterotrimer, where they contact the side of Gbeta, but little is known about the conformation of this region in the active GTP bound state. To address the role of the Galpha amino-terminus in G-protein activation and to investigate whether this region undergoes activation-dependent conformational changes, a site-directed cysteine mutagenesis study was carried out. Engineered Galpha(i1) proteins were created by first removing six native reactive cysteines to yield a mutant Galpha(i1)-C3S-C66A-C214S-C305S-C325A-C351I that no longer reacts with cysteine-directed labels. Several cysteine substitutions along the amino-terminal region were then introduced. All mutant proteins were shown to be folded properly and functional. An environmentally sensitive probe, Lucifer yellow, linked to these sites showed a fluorescence change upon interaction with Gbetagamma and with activation by AlF(4)(-). Other fluorescent probes of varying charge, size, and hydrophobicity linked to amino-terminal residues also revealed changes upon activation with bulkier probes reporting larger changes. Site-directed spin-labeling studies showed that the N-terminus of the Galpha subunit is dynamically disordered in the GDP bound state, but adopts a structure consistent with an alpha-helix upon interaction with Gbetagamma. Interaction of the resulting spin-labeled Galphabetagamma with photoactivated rhodopsin, followed by rhodopsin-catalyzed GTPgammaS binding, caused the amino-terminal domain of Galpha to revert to a dynamically disordered state similar to that of the GDP-bound form. Together these results suggest conformational changes occur in the amino-termini of Galpha(i) proteins upon subunit dissociation and upon activating conformational changes. These solution studies reveal insights into conformational changes that occur dynamically in solution.


This volume represents a significant update of acclaimed earlier editions of Geriatric Nursing Protocols for Best Practice (1999, 2003) that evolved from care protocols developed in the Nurses Improving Care for Health System Elders program. The third edition builds on this base, introducing 13 new topics and detailing the evidence to support suggested interventions. The first chapter introduces the internationally developed AGREE (Instrument for Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation) review framework and outlines the well-grounded strategy used to identify and assess the evidence underpinning each protocol. Throughout the text, cited references are coded to indicate the strength of their evidence, enabling readers to appreciate the level of support for recommended strategies. The 27 protocol chapters address assessments (eg, cognition, function), specific conditions (eg, urinary incontinence, excessive sleepiness), legal and ethical matters (eg, decision making, advanced directives), safety concerns (eg, iatrogenesis, adverse drug effects, falls, restraints), and site or populationspecific issues (eg, critical care, family care givers). Where content overlaps, authors have avoided repetition by judicious cross-referencing. Reviews of background information, screening tools, and interventions are well developed yet concise. Tables frequently recapitulate the essentials of targeted assessments and summarize important interventions. Useful case studies illustrate how protocols must be tailored to the complex arrays of issues facing older adults. Most chapters conclude with an outline of the protocol, typically including the goal, overview, background, assessment, interventions, evaluation/outcome, and follow-up monitoring. A useful addition to this edition is the list of resources (mostly Internet based) at the end of each chapter. References are comprehensive and, as appropriate, indicate the level of evidence, providing a sound initial bibliography to guide further examination of covered topics. Although most information is relevant to multiple settings, content foregrounds the acute care setting, and there are still significant topics yet to be included, for example, transitions to long-term care and abuse and neglect. Nevertheless, given the quantity and quality of information contained in this single volume, this is a Bmust-have[ reference for clinicians, researchers, and educators, geriatric specialist or not, whose practice involves the nursing care of older adults.


A new wind-blown dust emission module has been fabricated to be used in investigating the development and transport of Asian dust storms. A number of different dust emission models currently used worldwide were critically compared to collect the state-of-the-art schemes for each parameterization step of the wind erosion process. Thorough assessment of the dust models were conducted with an aid of literature review to judge the advantages and drawbacks of each model. The threshold friction velocity for smooth dry surface, the drag partitioning effect by non-erodible surface roughness elements, the soil moisture effect, the positive feedback of the saltating soil particles to the friction velocity, the saltation scheme calculating the horizontal soil flux, and the sandblasting scheme calculating the vertical dust emission flux were considered. A new wind-blown dust emission model was developed using the best components determined based on the analyses of this study. The predictions of the size-resolved wind-blown dust emission by different models were compared for the first time with a field measurement available in the literature. The new model developed in this study showed a reasonably good agreement with the measurement (agreement index of 0.91).


It is widely accepted that the human sentence parsing mechanism is subject to real-time constraints that demand some decisions to be made on-line. One of the areas of research in sentence processing has been to look at how long-distance dependencies where there is a relation between a fronted phrase ('filler') and its canonical position ('gap') are constructed on-line. These dependencies where there is an element that has been displaced are interesting to examine because they provide relevant cues for how sentence interpretation proceeds when the information that can be used to interpret the sentence is not immediately available. Research on the processing of long-distance dependencies has focused on different questions. One of the questions was directed to examine the specific point in time and the position in the sentence at which the parser posits gaps while processing long-distance dependencies. The other was to examine how the fronted phrase is interpreted and if the verb is necessary to interpret the dislocated phrase. This paper focuses on the different approaches that have been suggested to explain how long-distance dependencies are processed and how the fronted phrase gets interpreted. The objective is to look at whether the verb is completely necessary when trying to interpret information on-line. Bearing this in mind, I examine how the different processing theories account for the results of an experiment on clitic pronouns in Spanish. I compare parsing theories that presuppose the existence of gaps, parsing theories that presuppose a direct semantic association and HPSG theories against the Spanish data and conclude that there is pre-verbal information such as clitic pronouns that can be used to interpret displaced elements in sentence processing.


In this chapter, we present a new method capable of recovery of the quantitative phase information of microscopic samples. Essentially, a spatial light modulator (SLM) and digital image processing are the basics to extract the sample's phase distribution. The SLM produces a set of misfocused images of the input sample at the CCD plane by displaying a set of lenses with different power at the SLM device. The recorded images are then numerically processed to retrieve phase information. Computations are based on the wave propagation equation and lead to a complex amplitude image containing information of both amplitude and phase distributions of the input sample diffracted wave front. The proposed configuration becomes a non-interferometric architecture (conventional transmission imaging mode) where no moving elements are included. Experimental results are provided in comparison with conventional digital holographic microscopy.


Optimizing the bandwidth of the communication channel between users and the system is fundamental for designing efficient interactive systems. Apart from the case of speech-based interfaces that rely on users' natural language, this entails designing an efficient language that users can adopt and that the system can understand. My research has been focusing on studying and optimizing the two fol- lowing types of languages: interfaces that allow users to trigger actions through the direct manipulation of on-screen objects, and interactive systems that allow users to invoke commands by performing specific movements. Direct manipulation re- quires encoding most information in the graphical representation, mostly relying on users' ability to recognize visual elements; whereas gesture-based interaction interprets the shape and dynamics of users' movements, mostly relying on users' ability to recall specific movements. This manuscript presents my main research projects about these two types of language, and discusses how we can increase the efficiency of interactive systems that make use of them. When using direct manip- ulation, achieving a high expressive power and a good level of usability depends on the interface's ability to accommodate large graphical scenes while enabling the easy selection and manipulation of objects in the scene. When using gestures, it depends on the number of different gestures in the system's vocabulary, as well as on the simplicity of those gestures, that should remain easy to learn and execute. I conclude with directions for future work around interaction with tangible objects.


Financial time series simulation is a central topic since it extends the limited real data for training and evaluation of trading strategies. It is also challenging because of the complex statistical properties of the real financial data. We introduce two generative adversarial networks (GANs), which utilize the convolutional networks with attention and the transformers, for financial time series simulation. The GANs learn the statistical properties in a data-driven manner and the attention mechanism helps to replicate the long-range dependencies. The proposed GANs are tested on the S&P 500 index and option data, examined by scores based on the stylized facts and are compared with the pure convolutional GAN, i.e. QuantGAN. The attention-based GANs not only reproduce the stylized facts, but also smooth the autocorrelation of returns.


This article is a critical review of the application of toxicokinetic models to the biological monitoring of occupational exposure to industrial chemicals. The experimentally based toxicokinetic models are used to determine the elimination half-lives, the metabolic clearance, the elimination rate constants and the volume of distribution. The physiologically based multicompartmental simulation models, which describe the uptake, distribution and elimination of inhaled or percutaneously adsorbed organic solvents, contributed to the understanding of the transport of the xenobiotics in the body. They are used for describing and predicting the dependence of concentrations of indicators of exposure in biological specimens on the extent of exposure and time (duration of exposure and sampling time), and for depicting the contribution of various biological and exposure factors to differences in biological response to the exposure. In biological monitoring, toxicokinetic models are used for matching biological concentrations and body burden of indicators of exposure with extent of inhalation or dermal exposure, and for predicting half-lives. They lay the grounds for the strategy used in collecting biological specimens and controlling external and internal factors which alter the biological concentrations and possibly increase the health risk from the exposure. Elimination half-lives are used as guidelines in selecting the appropriate indicators of exposure, in designing the procedure for the collection of biological specimens, and in interpreting the measured data. Predictive models are needed for heavy metals, particulates and compounds undergoing binding to constituents of tissues.


We discuss theoretical and phenomenological aspects of two-Higgs-doublet extensions of the Standard Model. In general, these extensions have scalar mediated flavour changing neutral currents which are strongly constrained by experiment. Various strategies are discussed to control these flavour changing scalar currents and their phenomenological consequences are analysed. In particular, scenarios with natural flavour conservation are investigated, including the so-called type I and type II models as well as lepton-specific and inert models. Type III models are then discussed, where scalar flavour changing neutral currents are present at tree level, but are suppressed by either a specific ansatz for the Yukawa couplings or by the introduction of family symmetries leading to a natural suppression mechanism. We also consider the phenomenology of charged scalars in these models. Next we turn to the role of symmetries in the scalar sector. We discuss the six symmetry-constrained scalar potentials and their extension into the fermion sector. The vacuum structure of the scalar potential is analysed, including a study of the vacuum stability conditions on the potential and the renormalization-group improvement of these conditions is also presented. The stability of the tree level minimum of the scalar potential in connection with electric charge conservation and its behaviour under CP is analysed. The question of CP violation is addressed in detail, including the cases of explicit CP violation and spontaneous CP violation. We present a detailed study of weak basis invariants which are odd under CP. These invariants allow for the possibility of studying the CP properties of any two-Higgs-doublet model in an arbitrary Higgs basis. A careful study of spontaneous CP violation is presented, including an analysis of the conditions which have to be satisfied in order for a vacuum to violate CP. We present minimal models of CP violation where the vacuum phase is sufficient to generate a complex CKM matrix, which is at present a requirement for any realistic model of spontaneous CP violation. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


This paper deals with a strip of country lying along the 49th meridian east of Greenwich from the coast to about 80 miles inland, and with a belt 50 miles long running westwards of that meridian between latitudes 11° 00′ and 11° 08′. The political boundary between British and Italian Somaliland coincides with this meridian. I was fortunate in being provided with the topographical map, contoured at 250-foot intervals, which had recently been made by the officers of the Anglo-Italian Boundary Commission. Part of this was enlarged to the scale of 1 inch to a mile, and with it I mapped geologically a considerable area. North-eastern Somaliland has been visited previously by geologists on two occasions. R. A. Farquharson (1924), the Government Geologist of the Protectorate, made a reconnaissance from Las Khorai along the foot of the Al Hills for some 25 miles, and thence to Bunda Ziada, from whence he returned by a more northerly route. Prof. G. Stefanini (1925) journeyed southwards in 1924 from Bosaso on the coast, in Italian territory, and crossed into British Somaliland at Hegligab: thence he passed through Buran to the Nogal Valley. The greater part of the district I mapped had, therefore, been unvisited hitherto. II. Topography. The political boundary crosses four types of surface:― (1) The Nogal Valley and Sorl Haud: drainage east-ward. (2) The Hormo Plain: drainage eastward. (3) The A1 hills: drainage south to south-eastward on one flank, and northward on the other. (4) The coastal region: drainage northward. (1)


BACKGROUND
How microbial infections exacerbate immune complex glomerulonephritis remains speculative. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) may be involved in this phenomenon, because TLRs have potent immunostimulatory functions when exposed to selected pathogen-associated molecules.

METHODS
We addressed this issue by characterizing the expression of TLR1-9 in MRLlpr/lpr mice that spontaneously develop immune complex glomerulonephritis as part of a systemic lupus-like autoimmune syndrome.

RESULTS
Five-week-old healthy MRLlpr/lpr mice expressed TLR3 mRNA in kidneys at comparable levels as in the spleen, while all other TLRs were expressed at low levels in the kidney. In 20-week-old nephritic MRLlpr/lpr mice, renal mRNA levels had increased for TLR1-9. Renal TLR mRNA originated at least in part from glomeruli as evidenced by real-time RT-PCR from laser capture microdissected glomeruli. Immunostaining for TLR3, TLR7 and TLR9 revealed their expression by F4/80-positive infiltrating macrophages in 20-week-old nephritic MRLlpr/lpr mice. In addition, TLR3 localized to glomerular mesangial cells. Cultured mesangial cells expressed TLR1-4 and TLR6, while murine macrophages expressed TLR1-9. TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma induced TLR2, TLR3 and TLR6 mRNA in mesangial cells, while they down-regulated TLR1-9 mRNA in macrophages. Stimulation of both cell types with ligands for TLR1-4, TLR5, TLR7 and TLR9 induced IL-6 production consistent with their respective TLR expression patterns. TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma enhanced ligand-induced IL-6 production in both cell types irrespective of their modulatory effect on respective TLR mRNA levels.

CONCLUSION
Thus, cell-type-specific expression and regulation of TLRs may be involved in infection-associated exacerbation of immune complex glomerulonephritis of MRLlpr/lpr mice.


Increased public awareness regarding the ingredients that make up cosmetic and personal care formulations coupled with the growing concern about the dwindling nonrenewable sources from which most cosmetic ingredients like surfactants and polymers are obtained from has led to a strong need to achieve sustainability within the cosmetic industry. It has become the need of the hour to incorporate sustainability at each and every point of the product life cycle. This review focuses on the sustainable sourcing and formulation design of two key cosmetic ingredients-polymers and surfactants. To be able to completely replace their synthetic counterparts, it is crucial that these green products exhibit an efficacy level at par or greater than that of the products already on the market. Hence, various studies that show the impact of these alternatives on various performance parameters such as film formation and rheology have also been discussed. Being a heavily consumer-driven industry, some of the decisive future trends and challenges that the cosmetic industry needs to address have also been explored in this review.


The effect of iodine-125 incorporated into the DNA of asynchronous, exponentially growing LICH cells as IUdR has been examined with regard to cell survival. A maximum of 33 to 129 disintegrations per nucleus resulted in cell replication failure as determined by clonal survival. Control experiments indicated that neither the chemical toxicity of the halogenated nucleoside nor the x rays due to iodine-125 in the extracellular medium played a role. Iodine- 131-labeled IUdR was much less toxic and mimicked Na $sup 131$I. The extreme toxicity of intranuclear iodine-125 appears to be due to the highly localized damage produced as a result of the Auger cascade. (auth)


Informing of possible or almost impossible risks of operations may reach absurdity as a form of defensive medicine which is not in the patient's interest and can destroy faith in the surgeon. Its prevention is more a matter for lawyers than for doctors without diminishing the ethic of informed consent. True and hypothetical examples are considered.


Cystic fibrosis (CF) is characterized as a single‐gene disorder with a simple, autosomal recessive mode of inheritance. However, translation of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) genotype into CF phenotype is influenced by nucleotide sequence variations at multiple genetic loci, and individuals heterozygous for CFTR mutations are predisposed to a range of CFTR‐related conditions, such as disseminated bronchiectasis. CF disease severity and CFTR‐related conditions are more akin to complex, multifactorial traits, which are increasingly being associated with mutations that perturb gene expression. We have identified a patient with disseminated bronchiectasis, who is heterozygous for a single‐nucleotide substitution in the CFTR 5′ untranslated region (UTR) (c.‐34C>T). The c.‐34C>T mutation creates an upstream AUG codon and upstream open reading frame that overlaps, and is out of frame with, the CFTR protein coding sequence. Using luciferase reporter constructs, we have shown that the c.‐34C>T mutation decreases gene expression by 85–99%, by reducing translation efficiency and mRNA stability. This is the first CFTR regulatory mutation shown to act at a posttranscriptional level that reduces the synthesis of normal CFTR (Class V), and reaffirms the importance of regulatory mutations as a genetic basis of multifactorial phenotypes. ©2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


BACKGROUND

Biological oxidation in biotrickling filters of high H2S loads contained in biogas streams still requires further study to reduce elemental sulfur accumulation due to limited gas–liquid oxygen mass transfer inside biotrickling filter beds. Reduction of elemental sulfur accumulation may be improved by regulating the main manipulated variables related to oxygen mass transfer efficiency during biological hydrogen sulfide removal in biotrickling filters.

RESULTS

Trickling liquid velocity and co-current flow were selected as the most appropriate manipulated variable and flow pattern configuration compared with manipulating the air supply flow rate and a counter-current flow pattern in order to improve gas–liquid oxygen mass transfer in abiotic conditions. The influence of trickling liquid velocity on the performance of a lab-scale biotrickling filter treating high loads of H2S in a biogas mimic and operating in co-current flow at neutral pH and packed with plastic pall rings was investigated.

CONCLUSIONS

The effect of trickling liquid velocity modulation between 4.4 and 18.9 m h−1 in biotrickling filter performance was compared with operation without trickling liquid velocity regulation. Velocity regulation resulted in an improvement of 10% in the elimination capacity and, most importantly, a 9% increase in product selectivity to sulfate at a loading rate of 283.8 g S-H2S m−3 h−1. Concentration profiles along the biotrickling filter height evidenced that trickling liquid velocity regulation progressively led to better dissolved oxygen distribution and, thus, enhanced overall biotrickling filter performance. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry


Abstract Multiple studies have demonstrated the association of red cell distribution width (RDW) with the ultrasound parameters of both systolic and diastolic heart dysfunction. We aimed to further investigate the clinical associations of RDW in the setting of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and to comparatively evaluate its predictive properties regarding systolic and diastolic dysfunction. A total of 89 patients with STEMI were prospectively analyzed. RDW was obtained at the time of STEMI and compared to the parameters of systolic and diastolic dysfunction obtained by transthoracic heart ultrasound on the 5th through 7th day post-STEMI. The median RDW was 13.9%, and among other factors, RDW was significantly associated with older age (P < .001), arterial hypertension (P = .017), hyperlipoproteinemia 2, nonsmoking (P = .027), increased thrombolysis in myocardial infarction score (P = .004), and multivessel disease (P = .007). A higher RDW was observed in patients with parameters that indicated systolic and diastolic dysfunction (ejection fraction of the left ventricle < 50% [P = .009], early/late diastolic filling wave ratio [E/A] < 1 [P = .001], ratio of peak early transmitral velocity and early diastolic annular velocity [E/E′] >10 [P < .001], and combined E/A < 1 and E/E′ > 10 [P < .001]). The best discriminatory properties were observed for combined E/A < 1 and E/E′ > 10. RDW remained significantly associated with the aforementioned parameters in a series of multivariate regression models. Elevated RDW is significantly associated with the parameters of systolic and diastolic dysfunction even after adjusting for several confounding factors in the setting of STEMI and subsequent percutaneous coronary intervention. RDW seems to be better at discriminating patients with diastolic rather than systolic dysfunction.


We propose a discrete-time model for phase noise processes occurring in phase locked loop (PLL) based oscillators. By using linear time-invariant analysis in the phase domain, we arrive at a parallel auto-regressive moving-average phase noise model that captures the major noise sources and corresponding loop transfer functions of the PLL circuitry. The acquired model allows us to derive analytically the distribution of the inter-carrier interference (ICI) power in the receiver, shown to be a sum of correlated gamma random variables with a model-specific covariance matrix. Finally, we utilize the derived ICI distribution and proceed to analyze the effects of phase noise and multipath fading on the performance of OFDM radio links. For example, we evaluate the rate loss without ICI compensation or knowledge at the receiver, and illustrate the trade-off introduced by phase noise between the OFDM symbol length and the overhead caused by the cyclic prefix. Throughout the paper, simulations confirm the accuracy of the analytical expressions.


Transformational leadership has been identified as one of the most critical factors in ERP success. However, few studies have explored how transformational leadership impacts ERP success, especially in the assimilation phase. Drawing from organizational learning and leadership theories, we submit that transformational leadership is positively related to exploitative and exploratory learning, mediated by three types of organizational learning culture. We developed a theoretical model and collected data from top and middle managers of 101 organizations in China that have used ERP systems for at least one year. Our results suggest that (1) transformational leadership is positively related with psychological safety, openness to opinions, and participation in decision making learning culture; (2) the learning culture of psychological safety and participation in decision making partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and exploitative learning of ERP systems; (3) the learning culture of participation in decision making and open to opinions partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and exploratory learning of ERP systems. These results provide guidelines for top managers to exercise specific leadership behaviors and promoteappropriate organizational learning culture, in order to realize the ambidexterity of exploitative and exploratory learning of ERP systems to achieve long term ERP success.


Flows of electrically conducting fluids under the action of external magnetic field present an example of strongly anisotropic turbulence. Such flows are not only important for different engineering applications, but also provide an interesting framework for studies of quasi-two-dimensional turbulence with strongly modified transport properties in easily controllable laboratory experiments. We present theoretical results that advance our understanding of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows with low magnetic Reynolds number by treating this phenomenon within the quasi-normal scale elimination (QNSE) theory. Previous applications of the theory to turbulent flows with stable stratification and solid body rotation have demonstrated that QNSE is a powerful tool for studies of anisotropic turbulent flows. We derive expressions for scale-dependent eddy viscosities and eddy diffusivities in the directions parallel and normal to the external magnetic field and investigate progressive anisotropization of turbulent transport of momentum and passive scalar. The theory yields analytical expressions for anisotropic one-dimensional spectra of MHD turbulence. In particular, the theory sheds light upon the modification of the Kolmogorov k−5/3 spectrum by anisotropic Ohmic (Joule) dissipation.


In this paper, the ventilation efficiencies of an underground sewage disposal plant were investigated for ventilating system without fan, ventilating system with eleven cross flow fans and ventilating system with sixteen cross flow fans by numerical method. It has been found that the air change effectiveness of the system without fan was predicted 0.44. It means that an additional ventilating equipment is needed to maintain good indoor air quality. For the ventilating system with sixteen cross flow fans, the air change effectiveness was predicted 0.55. The air change effectiveness of the ventilating system with eleven cross flow fans was predicted 0.51. It is known that the air change effectiveness above 0.5 is enough to eliminate pollutant and bad smell in the indoor. Therefore, it is recommended to select the ventilating system with eleven cross flow fans for the underground sewage disposal plant in an economic point of view.


The fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina) is an amphibian that since its national classification as an endangered species in 2005 (NT- Near Threatened) has increased in population size and distribution. Today the population in Sweden is considered viable since 2010 (LC- Least Concern) and it is possible that constructed wetlands in Scania have had positive effects on the fire-bellied toad. The importance of constructed wetlands for the populations of fire-bellied toads has however not been evaluated. Moreover it is important to identify the aquatic and terrestrial factors that result in colonization to fire-bellied toads in constructed wetlands.
The study was based on data from 2008-2009 in 14 constructed wetlands/ponds in the area of Baldringe, Scania. The aim was to study the underlying causes for establishment of the fire bellied toad. The method used was GIS (Geographical Information System)-based analysis in which different terrestrial parameters were compared and quantified. More data from various aquatic parameters were also used in order to further expand the analysis. The results from the GIS analysis were summarized using PCA (Principal Component Analysis) and then a t-test compared the characteristics between wetlands that were or were not colonized by fire-bellied toads.
These results showed that the terrestrial environment surrounding the constructed wetlands did not appear to have any influence on the establishment of a population of fire-bellied toad. The parameters of greatest importance were age of the wetland/pond, coverage of submersed vegetation, pH, distance to roads and conductivity. It was more likely to find fire- bellied toads in older wetlands/ponds, if there was a dense coverage of submersed vegetation, had a pH of at least 8,84 and longer distance to roads in general. At the same time conductivity should be lower than 55 mS/m. This study suggest that some constructed wetlands indeed could have positive effects on the fire-bellied toads and that GIS can be a good tool for analyzing these type of questions.


The construction of well characterised sequence-ready physical maps has been central to the generation of high quality genomic sequence by the Human Genome Project. The technological advances that made possible a clone based sequencing approach to large genomes have included the use of large insert bacterial clones and the development of high throughput fingerprinting techniques. The first part of this thesis is devoted to development and application of these improvements in technology. The adaptation of fluorescent technologies and their application to existing fingerprinting methods described in this work has resulted in a fingerprinting technique which improves upon levels of data accuracy, increases throughput and incorporates of increased levels of safety and automation. The initial application of this and other restriction digest fingerprinting methods to the assembly of large insert P1-artificial chromosome clones (PACs) was also evaluated. PACs were used to construct a 1.4 Mb contig across a region of chromosome 13q12 that includes the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA2. These experimental and technical developments were then utilised within a hierarchical mapping strategy to construct a 13 Mb contig of human chromosome 1pcen-1p13. The finished sequence generated by the clone based sequencing strategy provides the basis for the elucidation of genic features and the motifs that influence their regulation within the human genome sequence. Detailed analysis of the finished genomic sequence from 1pcen-1p13 is described. These analyses include the characterisation of base composition and determination of repeat content within the region, as well as identification of known and novel genes by manual annotation. The majority of differences between individuals can be attributed to allelic sequence variation. The characterisation of sequence differences and comprehension of how they may affect the expression and function of genes will be crucial for the study of molecular alterations in human disease. A subset of highly similar genes within 1pcen-1p13, in addition to seven other genes of interest, were investigated by developing and assessing assays to determine sequence variation. The particular challenges of investigating gene families where sequences are nearly identical were explored, and enable better resolution of new and previously available data. The consequences that these sequence changes may have upon gene function is also discussed, and this provides an example of the ways in which knowledge of genomic sequence can be analysed to support new areas of structural and functional research.


The growing number of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients prompted us to seek effective natural resources for the prevention of AD. We focused on the inhibition of β-secretase, which is known to catalyze the production of senile plaque. Sixteen spices used in Asian countries were selected for the screening. Among the extracts tested, hexane extracts obtained from turmeric, cardamom, long pepper, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, betel, white turmeric and aromatic ginger showed potent inhibitory activities. Their active principles were identified as sesquiterpenoids, monoterpenoids, fatty acid derivatives and phenylpropanoids using GC-MS analyses. The chemical structures and IC50 values of the compounds are disclosed. The results suggest that long-term consumption of aromatic compounds from spices could be effective in the prevention of AD.


A green and simple method to prepare metal/semiconductor nanocomposites by selective laser nano-welding metal and semiconductor nanoparticles was presented, in which the sizes, phases, and morphologies of the components can be maintained. Many types of nanocomposites (such as Ag/TiO2, Ag/SnO2, Ag/ZnO2, Pt/TiO2, Pt/SnO2, and Pt/ZnO) can be prepared by this method and their corresponding performances were enhanced.


An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of niacin supplementation on hepatic lipid metabolism in rabbits. Rex Rabbits (90 d, n = 32) were allocated to two equal treatment groups: Fed basal diet (control) or fed basal diet with additional 200 mg/kg niacin supplementation (niacin). The results show that niacin significantly increased the levels of plasma adiponectin, hepatic apoprotein B and hepatic leptin receptors mRNA (p<0.05), but significantly decreased the hepatic fatty acid synthase activity and adiponectin receptor 2, insulin receptor and acetyl-CoA carboxylase mRNA levels (p<0.05). Plasma insulin had a decreasing tendency in the niacin treatment group compared with control (p = 0.067). Plasma very low density lipoproteins, leptin levels and the hepatic adiponectin receptor 1 and carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1 genes expression were not significantly altered with niacin addition to the diet (p>0.05). However, niacin treatment significantly inhibited the hepatocytes lipid accumulation compared with the control group (p<0.05). In conclusion, niacin treatment can decrease hepatic fatty acids synthesis, but does not alter fatty acids oxidation and triacylglycerol export. And this whole process attenuates lipid accumulation in liver. Besides, the hormones of insulin, leptin and adiponectin are associated with the regulation of niacin in hepatic lipid metabolism in rabbits.


Optokinetic responses function to maintain retinal image stabilization by minimizing optic flow that occurs during self-motion. The hovering ability of hummingbirds is an extreme example of this behaviour. Optokinetic responses are mediated by direction-selective neurons with large receptive fields in the accessory optic system (AOS) and pretectum. Recent studies in hummingbirds showed that, compared to other bird species, (i) the pretectal nucleus lentiformis mesencephali (LM) is hypertrophied, (ii) LM has a unique distribution of direction preferences, and (iii) LM neurons are more tightly tuned to stimulus velocity. In this study, we sought to determine if there are concomitant changes in the nucleus of the basal optic root (nBOR) of the AOS. We recorded the visual response properties of nBOR neurons to largefield drifting random dot patterns and sine wave gratings in Anna's hummingbirds and zebra finches and compared these with archival data from pigeons. We found no differences with respect to the distribution of direction preferences: Neurons responsive to upwards, downwards and nasal-to-temporal motion were equally represented in all three species, and neurons responsive to temporal-to-nasal motion were rare or absent (<5%). Compared to zebra finches and pigeons, however, hummingbird nBOR neurons were more tightly tuned to stimulus velocity of random dot stimuli. Moreover, in response to drifting gratings, hummingbird nBOR neurons are more tightly tuned in the spatio-temporal domain. These results, in combination with specialization in LM, supports a hypothesis that hummingbirds have evolved to be "optic flow specialist" to cope with the optomotor demands of sustained hovering flight.


Background : Nosocomial infections are quite common with known complications and its related high mortality and morbidity rate, meanwhile, there exists problems with hand washing with water and soap. Antibacterial gels have recently introduced to our market. The producer factory believes that it can simply substituted the water and soap. Thus, the present study was conducted on skin culture of shaheed Beheshti hospital staff before and after the usage of antibacterial gel in 1380. Materials and methods : For this study 59 staff were included. Sampling was achieved according to the simple randomization. First of all a sample was obtained, then, 5 minutes following the application of antibacterial gel (Darougar Co)another sample was obtained. Samples cultured on BA and EMB media and the frequency of microorganisms and the efficacy of gel were determined. Results : The most frequent pathogens were coagulase-negative staph.(72.9%), coagulase-positive staph. (30.5%), bacillus (22%), klebsiella (10.2%), streptococcous (3.4%), and E Coli. (1.7%). The percentage of organism reduction following the usage of antibacterial gel were 90.7% for coagulase-negative staph (p=0.00) and 66.7% for coagulase-positive staph. (p=0.005). This reduction was 100% for klebsiella and E.Coli, but 50% for Strep. Conclusion : Since skin is a routine source of infections transmission, and with respect to the satisfactory results of antibacterial gel in this regard, we recommend the usage of antibacterial gel for hospital staff before and after touching their patients.


The earlier work on the internal fixation of bone was done with corrosive metals, because suitable noncorrosive metals were not available. For the most part, surgeons emphasized aseptic technic and adequate mechanical fixation as the important factors in determining the success or the failure of an operation. For instance, Groves,1as a result of 100 experiments on animals, concluded that ordinary steel plates were well tolerated by the tissues and that long plates fixed with cotter pins were more efficient than short plates fixed with screws, because the screws soon became loose when subjected to mechanical force and caused the fixation to fail before union occurred. There was, however, some interest in the reaction of tissues to various metals, and von Baeyer,2in 1908, in an extensive monograph described the cellular reaction around pieces of metal which were left buried in the tissues for varying periods. The metallic


Abstract We investigated the effect of recent habitat changes in California's Central Valley on wintering Pacific greater white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons frontalis) by comparing roost-to-feed distances, distributions, population range sizes, and habitat use during 1987–1990 and 1998–2000. These habitat changes included wetland restoration and agricultural land enhancement due to the 1990 implementation of the Central Valley Joint Venture, increased land area used for rice (Oryza sativa) production, and the practice of flooding, rather than burning, rice straw residues for decomposition because of burning restrictions enacted in 1991. Using radiotelemetry, we tracked 192 female geese and recorded 4,516 locations. Geese traveled shorter distances between roosting and feeding sites during 1998–2000 (24.2 ± 2.2 km) than during 1987–1990 (32.5 ± 3.4 km); distance traveled tended to decline throughout winter during both decades and varied among watershed basins. Population range size was smaller during 1998–2000 (3,367 km2) than during 1987–1990 (5,145 km2), despite a 2.2-fold increase in the size of the Pacific Flyway population of white-fronted geese during the same time period. The population range size also tended to increase throughout winter during both decades. Feeding and roosting distributions of geese also differed between decades; geese shifted into basins that had the greatest increases in the amount of area in rice production (i.e., American Basin) and out of other basins (i.e., Delta Basin). The use of rice habitat for roosting (1987–1990: 40%, 1998–2000: 54%) and feeding (1987–1990: 57%, 1998–2000: 72%) increased between decades, whereas use of wetlands declined for roosting (1987–1990: 36%, 1998–2000: 31%) and feeding (1987–1990: 22%, 1998–2000: 12%). Within postharvested rice habitats, geese roosted and fed primarily in burned rice fields during 1987–1990 (roost: 43%, feed: 34%), whereas they used flooded rice fields during 1998–2000 (roost: 78%, feed: 64%). Our results suggest that white-fronted geese have altered their spatial use of California's Central Valley during the past decade in response to changing agricultural practices and the implementation of the Central Valley Joint Venture.


Measurements were made of the sum of cathode fall and anode fall voltages, i.e. electrode fall voltages for , argon and air arcs at a pressure of 0.1 MPa in wide current range from 10 to 20 000 A. For each arc, copper - tungsten, copper, iron and tungsten were used as electrode materials. The arcs proved to have electrode fall voltages of 17.5, 17.5, 17.5 and 13.8 V at the Cu - W, Cu, Fe and W electrodes respectively. The electrode fall voltage of each arc was affected by the electrode material. It was also found that the electrode fall voltage of each arc at a given electrode was independent of current in the above range. Further, the electric field strength at cathode surface and thickness of cathode fall region were estimated on the basis of Temperature-and-Field emission theory.


The height of seawall is determined based on allowable wave overtopping rate or wave runup height for the design of surge and wave prevention facilities. Although a design method based on wave overtopping rate takes into account of wave randomness, a design method based on wave runup height does not consider the wave randomness but uses equations and figures obtained from regular waves. Therefore, a unified prediction formula for random wave overtopping and runup is required for establishing the design scheme of seawalls. This study proposes prediction formula for random wave overtopping discharge including wave runup for seawalls with composite cross section installed near shoreline.


This paper has three purposes. The first one is to explain to a general audience what is involved in retrieving a web page or performing some other complex network transaction, and what can make it slow, and why the problem of slowness is likely to get worse as networked applications become more complex. The second is to describe, to those who program networked applications, certain facts that we have learnt from modelling communication networks, notably the fact of heavy-tailed distributions in traffic, which may allow more efficient applications to be written. The third is to describe to network modellers an interesting class of problems relating to algorithm design for communication networks.


This paper addresses one quite specific part of this broad range of issues -- the distribution of impacts to the state of Nevada and to the nation likely to be associated with the proposed Yucca Mountain repository. As such, it is one of four analyses of the overall equity problems and needs to be read in conjunction with our proposed overall framework for the equity studies and the several other specific analyses. The objective of this report is to consider how an analysis might be made of the distribution of projected outcomes between the state and nation. At the same time, it needs to be clear that no attempt will be made actually to implement the analysis that is proposed. What follows is a conceptual statement that identifies the analytical issues and problems and proposes an approach for overcoming them. Significantly, it must be remembered that this report will not address procedural equity issues between the state and nation for this is the subject of a separate analysis. 10 refs., 2 figs.


This work aimed to reveal the statistically reliable clinical
and laboratory markers, which are associated with fatal outcomes
in patients with hemorrhagic shock of the III degree on the stage
of hospital treatment. It was stated that decrease of body temperature
(till 35,9 °C), pH of venous blood (till 7,19) and content of
ionized calcium (till 0,32 mmole/l) in venous blood and increase
of lactate content (up to 4,1 mmole/l) in venous blood and rise of
activated partial thromboplastin time (up to 59 sec) are connected
with fatal outcomes.


An analysis of the dynamics of groundwater levels in the Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (GDEs), which cover a vast part of the middle Vistula River valley in central Poland was carried out. The study area, typical of large river valleys, was investigated by detailed monitoring of groundwater levels. Based on statistical analysis and the geostatistical modeling of monitoring data for 1999–2013, the range and dynamics of groundwater level fluctuations were determined for the entire interval and for the vegetation periods. The values of retention and infiltration recharge in various periods were compared with average values, indicating intervals of potential groundwater deficiency in GDEs. The amplitude of groundwater fluctuations, retention and infiltration were determined for vegetation periods characterized by the highest water intake by plants and the highest evapotranspiration. Particular attention has been drawn to the analysis of low groundwater levels in the vegetation periods, with water deficiencies potentially threatening the correct functioning of plant communities in GDEs. Moreover, the study has allowed us to indicate areas with insufficient groundwater levels during vegetation periods that may be hazardous to plant communities. The results may be a basis for the elaboration of correct management plans, protection measures and projects, or GDE renaturalization.


The dissociative electron attachment cross sections for the methyl halides vary in an enormous range from the virtually unmeasurable 10-23 cm2 for CH3Cl at room temperature to 10-14 cm2 for CH3I. In this paper we supplement our previous studies by calculations of dissociative electron attachment to CH3Br and compare results for all methyl halides studied so far. The rate as a function of temperature for CH3Cl and CH3Br exhibits an exponential dependence on 1/T (Arrhenius law) with the activation energy lower for CH3Br. CH3I does not obey the Arrhenius law since the crossing point of the neutral and anion potential curves occurs near the lowest vibrational levels. The cross section as a function of electron energy for all of the methyl halides studied here exhibits structure at the vibrational excitation thresholds that is associated with a vibrational Feshbach resonance like that observed recently in CH3I by Schramm et al (Schramm A, Fabrikant I I, Weber J M, Leber E, Ruf M-W and Hotop H 1999 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 32 2153).


In a general circulation model of the tropical Atlantic Ocean, the northwestward flowing Brazilian Coastal Current is fed by the westward South Equatorial Countercurrent and in turn loses water to the eastward Equatorial Undercurrent and the eastward North Equatorial Countercurrent. The transport of the Countercurrent decreases in a downstream direction primarily because of downwelling and then equatorward flow, in the thermocline, into the undercurrent. Some of the Countercurrent water penetrates into the Gulf of Guinea, where it flows into the southern hemisphere. The transport of the Equatorial Undercurrent decreases because upwelling, which is most intense in the western side of the basin, transfers fluid into the surface layers to sustain divergent Ekman drift which is swept westward by the South Equatorial Undercurrent. The model has a northward heat transport across all latitudes in the tropics. Seasonal variations in this transport are modest to the south of 5°S and to the north of 15°N. Across 8°N, however, the transport varies from 1.5 × 1015 W in January and February to −0.1 × 1015 W in August. This result implies that the zonal bands 5°S to 8°N and 8°N to 15°N act as capacitors that are out of phase. In July, August, and September the heat gained from the southern hemisphere is stored in the 5°S to 8°N band where the thermocline deepens. During this period (when the Brazilian Coastal Current turns offshore near 5°N) the thermocline between 8°N and 15°N rises as heat is lost across 15°N. When the Brazilian Coastal Current flows continuously along the coast into the Gulf of Mexico, from December into May, it transports heat from the band 5°S to 8°N to replenish the heat stored between 8°N and 15°N and to sustain the heat flux across 15°N.


The relationships among angina pectoris, stress tests, and arteriography are complex. The majority of patients with angina pectoris can be adequately diagnosed by a careful history. Considerable attention to detail and repeated questioning is often necessary before the pain syndrome can be accurately classified. The resting electrocardiogram is of limited value in the diagnosis despite the fact that there is a high positive correlation between abnormal ST-T changes on the electrogram and significant obstructive lesions on coronary arteriograms. The value of the electrocardiogram is enhanced, and its specifiicity and sensitivity increased, when used in combination with exercise stress. The lowest error percentage is achieved by utilizing rate-standardized exercise tests and multiple leads with loads that produce heart rate responses of 80-90% of the expected maximum. Coronary arteriography gives the most specific anatomic information in patients with ischemic cardiac pain but will not directly disclose the cause of the pain. This fact assumes considerable importance when the pain has atypical features or when the patient is in the age group that has a high prevalence of coronary atherosclerosis. Similarly, the presence of past myocardial infarction is likely to be associated with obstructive disease, regardless of the cause of the patient's current symptoms. The exact role of lipid and other metabolic abnormalities in producing coronary arteriographic changes in the absence of symptoms needs further clarification, although the available data suggest that marked elevations in lipid fractions are frequently associated with atherosclerotic change, regardless of symptoms. Finally, the data imply that the anatomic abnormalities and functional consequences of the coronary atherosclerotic process are more important predictors of the patient's course than any specific symptomatic expression such as angina pectoris.


This paper presents the design and prototype implementation of a reactive system that facilitates the fault detection and fault tolerance of a loosely integrated heterogeneous database system. The fault detection mechanism uses sensors to monitor individual databases and system objects and to detect database or system component failures. The fault tolerance mechanism uses actuators to react to these failures.


The demographic transition is conceptualized as the historic change from high to low fertility and mortality rates in a population. Peru's population was reduced by an estimated 80% as a result of new diseases, destruction of the economy, and the brutal regime of colonial exploitation after the Spanish conquest. From colonial times to the least the 1940s, Peru's principal population problem was the scarcity of manpower. The population grew at an annual rate of about .03% between 1650 and 1800, increasing to about 1.3% between 1876 and 1940. High fertility throughout the 19th century and a stabilization of mortality due to reduced incidence and deadliness of epidemics contributed to the increased growth rate. In the 1940s the process of demographic transition was initiated by abrupt declines in mortality. The crude death rate declined from 27/1000 in 1940 to 16/1000 in 1961 and 9/1000 in 1988, with the rate still declining. Fertility remained high and possibly increased slightly. The crude birth rate was estimated at 45/1000 in 1940 and 45.4/1000 in 1961. Improvements in infant and general mortality rates in developing countries like Peru result from diffusion of technological advances in prevention and control of diseases and improvement in health services rather than from changes in the economic and social structure. The 3rd phase of the demographic transition began with declines in fertility from 45.4/1000 in 1961 to 42.0/1000 in 1972 and 36.0/1000 in 1981. Despite declines, mortality and fertility continue to be elevated in Peru. The theory of demographic transition views the reduction of infant mortality, improvements in health and educational conditions and the condition of women, and more equitable income distribution as essential for a true decline in birth rates. In Peru, however, fertility has declined in a context of deteriorating living conditions and in the absence of effective family planning programs. The process of demographic transition must be accelerated, which will require improvements in education, income, and availability of sanitary services among other changes.


The purpose of this study is to determine whether institutional ownership, Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), current ratio (CR), dividend payout ratio (DPR), and debt to equity ratio (DER) affects the firm value. The population is manufacturing companies which is listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange period 2012-2016. The sample in this study is 14 companies with purposive sampling method. Firm value is proxied by Price to Book Value (PBV), profitability is proxied by Return on Assets  (ROA) and Return on Equity  (ROE), liquidity is proxied by Current ratio (CR), dividend policy is proxied by Dividend Payout Ratio (DPR), and debt policy is proxied by Debt to equity ratio (DER). Methods of data analysis using descriptive statistical analysis and multiple regression analysis by using a eviews 9 program. The result show that th institutional ownership, ROA, and DPR have no effect on firm value, ROE have positive effect on firm value, CR and DER have negative effect on firm value.


We want to build machines that read, and make inferences based on what was read. A long line of the work in the field has focussed on approaches where language is converted (possibly using machine learning) into a symbolic and relational representation. A reasoning algorithm (such as a theorem prover) then derives new knowledge from this representation. This allows for rich knowledge to captured, but generally suffers from two problems: acquiring sufficient symbolic background knowledge and coping with noise and uncertainty in data. Probabilistic logics (such as Markov Logic) offer a solution, but are known to often scale poorly. In recent years a third alternative emerged: latent variable models in which entities and relations are embedded in vector spaces (and represented "distributional"). Such approaches scale well and are robust to noise, but they raise their own set of questions: What type of inferences do they support? What is a proof in embeddings? How can explicit background knowledge be injected into embeddings? In this talk I first present our work on latent variable models for machine reading, using ideas from matrix factorisation as well as both closed and open information extraction. Then I will present recent work we conducted to address the questions of injecting and extracting symbolic knowledge into/from models based on embeddings. In particular, I will show how one can rapidly build accurate relation extractors through combining logic and embeddings.


It has been argued that our social nature represents what makes us human. Social neuroscience aims at exploring biological basis of social cognition, interested in how social behaviour and context can influence short-term and long-term brain functioning and how the brain functioning can foster, create social behaviour, and actively process social context. This paper focuses on the recent progress in social perception and cognition by a neuropsychological point of view, and opens some questions. After a brief introduction on social neuroscience development and on neural correlates that have been associated to social-related functions, we will outline biological motion and joint action topics, highlighting the evolutionary course that links them.


For many patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, metformin plus appropriate treatment for cardiovascular risk factors form the cornerstone of drug therapy.1 However, the progressive impairment of both the secretion and action of insulin in the condition mean that high blood glucose concentrations usually worsen over time, so necessitating escalation of hypoglycaemic therapy.1 Three drugs in two new classes that act on the hormonal regulation of insulin secretion have been launched recently for use as add-in therapies in patients with type 2 diabetes: ▼exenatide (Byetta – Eli Lilly), ▼sitagliptin (Januvia – MSD), and ▼vildagliptin (Galvus – Novartis). Here we consider whether they have a role in the management of such individuals.


Adolescence is very difficult to comprehend. The transition from childhood to adolescence leads to internal conflicts among teenagers. This internal conflict and crisis leads to negative impacts, especially when adolescents are unable to address them in a proper manner. These crisis and conflict-prone adolescents require proper guidance from their parents at a very young age, so they are able to adjust to their social surroundings as they reach that confusing period. The adolescent mind pictures themselves as unique individuals well-prepared to project their identity to society, through self-adjustment or forwarding their viewpoints for acceptance. Therefore, identifying both risk and protective factors for adolescents should be a priority because their face demands from society to explain their identity, role, and meaning of their existence.


Abstract This paper evaluates the macroeconomic and welfare effects of extending the averaging period used to calculate pension benefits in a pay-as-you-go system. It also examines the complementarities between reforms extending the averaging period and those increasing the retirement age under alternative tax policies. The analysis applies a model in the Auerbach-Kotlikoff tradition to the Spanish economy. Extending the averaging period to the entire work life maximizes long-run welfare and limits expenditure pressures at the peak of the demographic shock as much as increasing the retirement age in line with life expectancy. Moreover, during the demographic transition, pension reforms induce intertemporal labor substitution effects that engender aggregate labor cycles.


A risk analysis on the cutting slope of roads near Cheongju area was carried out with the data from geological map, field investigation, and laboratory test and with the Geographic Information System. A risk analysis method on the cutting slope of road using the Geographic Information System was developed with the data from geological map, field investigation and laboratory tests. In the GIS, road factors which are safety factor, class of road, slake index, slope-protection works, and height of slope in the cutting slopes are classified into some ranks, and their weighting factors were taken into account. This method can be applied effectively to a road management.


2-Aminonicotinic acid, C6H6N2O2, crystallized in the centrosymmetric space group P2(1)/c in the zwitterionic form. Intermolecular N--H...O hydrogen bonds with N...O distances of 2.652 (2) and 2.807 (2) A link molecules into two sets of zigzag chains propagating along the b axis. The two sets of chains are crosslinked by C--H...O interactions. The dihedral angle between the planes of adjacent molecules in a chain is 9.77 (7) degrees. An intramolecular N--H...O hydrogen bond is also present.


We present here an evidence-based review of the utility, timing, and indications for laboratory test use in the domains of inflammation, cardiology, hematology, nephrology and co-infection for clinicians managing the care of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Levels of IL-6, CRP, absolute lymphocyte count, neutrophils and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio obtained upon admission may help predict the severity of COVID-19. Elevated LDH, ferritin, AST, and d-dimer are associated with severe illness and mortality. Elevated cardiac troponin at hospital admission can alert clinicians to patients at risk for cardiac complications. Elevated proBNP may help distinguish a cardiac complication from noncardiac etiologies. Evaluation for co-infection is typically unnecessary in nonsevere cases but is essential in severe COVID-19, intensive care unit patients, and immunocompromised patients.


IMPORTANCE
Pain is a common and distressing feature in Parkinson disease (PD). The major indication of subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN DBS) is motor complications in advanced PD; however, pain reduction after STN DBS has been noted.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the long-term effect of STN DBS on pain in PD.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Twenty-four patients who underwent STN DBS at the Movement Disorder Center at Seoul National University Hospital from June 1, 2005, through March 31, 2006, were studied. The assessments of pain were performed preoperatively and 8 years after surgery. Because 13 of the total 24 patients had additional 2-year postoperative data, the serial change between the preoperative and the 2- and 8-year follow-ups after surgery was also evaluated.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Motor symptoms were assessed using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale and the Hoehn and Yahr staging scale. The severity of pain was scored according to an ordinal scale ranging from 0 (absent) to 10 (maximal pain) in 7 parts of the body (head, neck, trunk, and the upper and lower extremities on each side of the body). For each body part, the quality of pain was grouped into 1 of 4 categories: dystonic, musculoskeletal, radiculoneuritic, and central.

RESULTS
Sixteen of the 24 patients (67%) experienced pain at baseline when not taking medication (off-state). All off-state pain at baseline improved or disappeared at 8 years after surgery. The number of body parts with pain was 21 at baseline and decreased to 11 at 8 years after the surgery. The mean (SD) and median scores of the off-state pain were 6.2 (2.5) and 7.0 at baseline and improved to 3.5 (2.2) and 2.5 at 8 years after the surgery, respectively. However, new pain developed in 18 of 24 patients (75%) during the 8-year follow-up period. The number of body parts with newly developed pain was 47, and the mean (SD) and median scores for new pain were 4.4 (3.0) and 3.0, respectively. The types of new pain at 8 years were musculoskeletal in 11 patients, central in 4 patients, radiculoneuritic in 3 patients, and dystonic in 1 patient.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Pain associated with PD is improved by STN DBS, and the beneficial effect persists after a long-term follow-up of 8 years. In addition, new pain, especially the musculoskeletal type, developed in most patients, becoming a long-term distressing problem.


Abstract This paper explores elements in the creative process of the development of a new television format from both practice and research-based perspectives. We compare and integrate findings from an unpublished case study of the popular Finnish lifestyle television program, Strömsö, with the broad research literature on creativity. Through this lens, fourteen elements, which were identified through this case study to be present in the creation of Strömsö, are explored and contextualized with examples from the show's creation. These elements were: 1) idea, 2) analyze, 3) brainstorm, 4) research, 5) benchmark, 6) toss ideas, 7) temporary input, 8) inspiration from an unexpected source, 9) rest, 10) formulate, 11) concretize, 12) pilot, 13) make mistakes, and 14) chaos. Research on multiple subtopics related to creativity is utilized to illustrate how knowledge gained through the academic literature can be integrated with these findings to provide possible guidance for practice. In doing so, we show how diverse epistemological and methodological approaches to examining the same phenomena can bolster insight and understanding for researchers and practitioners alike. Researchers will be able to note how topics that they are familiar with manifested in a practical setting, and non-academic professionals involved in creating content for television and new media will be introduced to theory and research that may aid in their creative endeavors. We intend this manuscript to provide useful information to such professionals and inspire additional research in the academic community.


journal of visual culture [http://vcu.sagepub.com] Copyright © 2007 SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore) Vol 6(3): 343–348 [1470-4129(200712)6:3]10.1177/1470412907084510 The 'future' – in the fullest sense of what the word can evoke – paradoxically belongs more properly to the past than to itself. Or rather, it belongs not to the impersonal 'the' past, but to the highly subjective 'our' past. The future was when our younger selves imagined a horizon beyond which another world beckoned. A better, more exciting, or more dangerous world, but never the same world – a world that can be imagined but not, strictly speaking, recognized. That is why I would not say 'our future'. By definition, it eludes possession. It is the future. As we find ourselves older, or simply old, we imagine the future differently, if at all. Perhaps because rather than imagining it, contemplating the distant horizon, we are too busy trying to realize it, trying to compress the long interval between here and then, to make it happen now. A productive life requires rendering the future predictable. Our tomorrows look very much like our todays. The true future, the future of imagination, is the future of our past, of our younger selves. Let's be clear about this: I am not talking about the middle-aged longing for their youth. I am just as easily referring to those in their 20s. They too have younger selves. My point is that whenever we stop to ponder the future, we find ourselves somehow older (indeed, to pause and ponder such things is the very sign of age). The future never seems as wondrous or full of potential as when – in our distorted recollection – we imagined it when were young.


Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop evidence-based nursing practice guidelines for hemodialysis in the renal failure patients with risk of bleeding and to evaluate the guidelines by applying it to the practice. Method: Referring to the SIGN, the first draft for guidelines was developed based on the advices and recommendations obtained from the procedure of critical literature analysis. Then, the draft was modified by the procedures of the expert group evaluation and pilot application to the practice. The final draft was evaluated by the expert group using AGREE instrument. Result: The first draft of guidelines was developed through 8 stages of process and was evaluated by seven experts in terms of the appropriateness, applicability, and effectiveness using a 9 point scale. The mean score of 11 items was 7.90 or above. The quality of the final draft was evaluated by 5 experts using the AGREE instrument. The mean standard score was 73.0% or above in the 19 items. Conclusion: The clinical guidelines developed by this research can be utilized as systematic and scientific guidelines for hemodialysis in the renal failure patients with risk of bleeding. In addition, the research can contribute to improving care services.


The British Society for Geomorphology (BSG), established as the British Geomorphological Research Group (BGRG) in 1960, is considering how best to represent geomorphology and geomorphologists in the light of recent changes in the nature of communication. These changes provide the BSG and other academic societies with challenges and opportunities. Seven drivers of communication change are outlined: the changing position of geomorphology in higher education, the nature of academic interaction, the means of communication available, a transformation in the nature of geomorphological research, changes in funding support, the government role in resource allocation, and developments in quantifying international research impact. Challenges arising from changing communications are identified as occurring beyond the 'academy', in the nature of publication within the 'academy', and associated with meetings of the 'academy'. Although national societies now have to contemplate significantly different purposes to provide for their members than in the twentieth century, there are opportunities available that cannot be fulfilled by international organizations alone. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Kidney diseases have recently become one of the major global health problems with high incidence and death risk. Extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are released from most cell types and human body fluids, have recently attracted extensive attention as the important carriers of protective cargos such as microRNAs and proteins that may contribute to promoted renal function. Therefore, we conducted this systematic review to investigate the renoprotective potential of EVs. We performed a comprehensive search of Medline (via PubMed), Embase, Cochrane and Proquest on August, 2019 for English papers. Of 2887 articles met the search criteria, 80 included in this systematic review and classified into several groups based on source of EVs. We then evaluated the EV research through screening their isolation method, size, marker, main effector, and potential mechanisms to induce renal protection. Taken together, EVs from various sources including mesenchymal stem cells, human liver stem cells, endothelial progenitor cells, endothelial colony-forming cells, serum and some other sources might have positive impacts on treatment of human kidney diseases in the future.


Community-managed programme implementation is a new concept in the development arena of Bangladesh. Unlike other development agencies, NGO Forum for Drinking Water Supply & Sanitation follows the community-focussed and community-managed approach instead of target group approach. In the Communitymanaged WatSan Programme approach of NGO Forum a Village Development Committee (VDC), formed with the participation of the respective village people, works in the focal point for ensuring the successful implementation and sustainability of WatSan services.


Conventional Fourier analysis can give only limited information about the dynamic characteristics of nonstationary signals. Instead, time-frequency analysis is widely used to investigate the nonstationary signal in detail. Several time-frequency analysis methods are compared for a typical acoustic emission burst generated during the impact between a ferrite ceramic and aluminum plate. This AE burst is inherently nonstationary and random containing many frequency contents, which leads to severe interference between cross terms in bilinear convolution type distributions. The smoothing and reassignment processes can improve the readability and resolution of the results. Spectrogram and scalogram of the AE burst are obtained and compared to get the characteristics information. Renyi entropies are computed for various bilinear time-frequency transforms to evaluate the randomness. These bilinear transforms are reassigned by using the improved algorithm in discrete computation.


Article dwells on comparison data about motor function of the stomach in the three groups of patients: with gastric erosions and biliary tract diseases, duodenal ulcer disease, chronic gastritis. It is shown, that patients with gastric erosions and biliary tract diseases are characterized by slower evacuation function of the stomach, hypotonus of the stomach. Frequency of duodenal reflux in this group of patients is very high (85,9 %).


Privacy-preserving data mining often focuses on data alteration but may bias data patterns interpretation and does not offer different levels of access to patterns according to their use. This paper addresses data mining as a prediction tool and proposes to offer several levels of access to data patterns according to users' trustworthiness. The grounding intuition is that patterns' predictive value depends on their precision that should thus vary according to their use. The following problem is considered: a medical data holder wants to disclose data or data patterns and still control the meaning of the disclosed patterns or of the patterns that may be mined out of the released dataset. To tackle this issue, we propose a framework compliant with existing data mining techniques by modeling trust in terms of data precision and generalising data according to standard medical classifications.


We present an interactive rendering method for isosurfaces in a voxel grid. The underlying trivariate function is represented as a spline wavelet hierarchy, which allows for adaptive (view-dependent) selection of the desired level-of-detail by superimposing appropriately weighted basis functions. Different root finding techniques are compared with respect to their precision and efficiency. Both wavelet reconstruction and root finding are implemented in CUDA to utilize the high computational performance of Nvidia's hardware and to obtain high quality results. We tested our methods with datasets of up to 512 voxels and demonstrate interactive frame rates for a viewport size of up to 1024× 768 pixels.


Title : Using Tea Extract and Vermicompost on Caisim ( Brassica juncea L.) Cultivation. The aim of the research is to know the effect of tea extract and vermicompost on yield and growth of caisim ( Brassica juncea L.). The research was conducted in February-March 2009 in Screen House in Agriculture Faculty Sebelas Maret University at 96 meter above sea level. The research was arranged on factorial design based on Complete Randomize Design. The treatment of the research was tea extract with concentration 0, 10, 20, and 30 g/L and dosage vermicompost 0, 4, 8 and 12 ton/acre (equal 0, 10, 20 and 30 g/crop). Each treatment was repeated 3 times, and each of them restating 2 crop unit. Data was analysized by analysis of variants with test of 0.05, if there was significant continued with test of Duncan 0.05. Research variable were plant height, leaf number, fresh and shoot biomass weight, fresh and biomass root weight, root volume, chlorophyll content, leaf area and root shoot ratio. Result of research show there is interaction between tea extract and vermicompost on shoot root ratio. Shoot root ratio increase by increasing tea extract concentration on caisim without vermicompost and with vermicompost 8 ton/acre. Application tea extract do not give significantly effect on growth and yield of caisim. Dose vermicompost 8 ton/acre gave the highest of average fresh weight and leaf number. Keywords: caisim, tea extract, vermicompost


Abstract Objective Lack of reproducibility in medical studies is a barrier to the generation of a robust knowledge base to support clinical decision-making. In this paper we outline the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC) Code Repository, a centralized code base for generating reproducible studies on an openly available critical care dataset. Materials and Methods Code is provided to load the data into a relational structure, create extractions of the data, and reproduce entire analysis plans including research studies. Results Concepts extracted include severity of illness scores, comorbid status, administrative definitions of sepsis, physiologic criteria for sepsis, organ failure scores, treatment administration, and more. Executable documents are used for tutorials and reproduce published studies end-to-end, providing a template for future researchers to replicate. The repository's issue tracker enables community discussion about the data and concepts, allowing users to collaboratively improve the resource. Discussion The centralized repository provides a platform for users of the data to interact directly with the data generators, facilitating greater understanding of the data. It also provides a location for the community to collaborate on necessary concepts for research progress and share them with a larger audience. Consistent application of the same code for underlying concepts is a key step in ensuring that research studies on the MIMIC database are comparable and reproducible. Conclusion By providing open source code alongside the freely accessible MIMIC-III database, we enable end-to-end reproducible analysis of electronic health records.


For the last few years networks became integral parts of our everyday life. They are used in communication, transportation, marketing, and the list goes on. They are also becoming bigger, and more complex and dynamic networks also start to appear more. In light of this, the problem of finding the most influential node in the network remains of high interest however, it is getting more and more difficult to find these nodes. It is hard to grasp the true meaning of what is really being the most influential node means. There are several approaches to define what the most vital nodes are like having the most edges connected to them or having the shortest paths running through them. They can be also identified by calculating the influence of their neighbors, or evaluating how they contribute to the whole of the network. Over recent years various new centrality measures were proposed to order the importance of the nodes of a network. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of three modern centrality measures, namely Local Fuzzy Information Centrality (LFIC), Local Clustering H-index Centrality (LCH), and Global Structure Model (GSM) on different information models, and compare them with conventional centrality measures. In our experiments, we investigate the similarity between the top-n ranking nodes of the measures, the influential capacity of these nodes as well as the frequency of the nodes with the same centrality value.


▪ Abstract The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) provides a unique way to map the large-scale structure of the universe as traced by massive clusters of galaxies. As a spectral distortion of the cosmic microwave background, the SZE is insensitive to the redshift of the galaxy cluster, making it well-suited for studies of clusters at all redshifts, and especially at reasonably high redshifts (z > 1) where the abundance of clusters is critically dependent on the underlying cosmology. Recent high signal-to-noise detections of the SZE have enabled interesting constraints on the Hubble constant and on the matter density of the universe using small samples of galaxy clusters. Upcoming SZE surveys are expected to find hundreds to thousands of new galaxy clusters, with a mass selection function that is remarkably uniform with redshift. In this review we provide an overview of the SZE and its use for cosmological studies, with emphasis on the cosmology that can, in principle, be extracted from SZE survey yields. We ...


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of our study was to determine which measure of obesity is better at predicting cardiovascular risk in African Americans. We hypothesized that BMI alone would be significantly associated with cardiovascular reactivity. We also hypothesized that waist circumference alone would be significantly associated with cardiovascular reactivity. Lastly, we hypothesized that BMI and waist circumference together would be more associated with cardiovascular reactivity and account for more of the variance than the two measures alone.

DESIGN
BMI and waist circumference were measured in 105 African American college students (21 men and 84 women) aged 18-27. In addition, heart rate, cardiac output, stroke volume, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure were measured as the participants viewed a racially noxious scene on videotape.

RESULTS
BMI and waist circumference analyzed separately were significantly associated with stroke volume, cardiac output, and systolic blood pressure. These positive associations showed that heavier participants had higher systolic blood pressure and their hearts pumped out greater blood volume compared to their thinner counterparts. Body mass index also completely mediated the relationship between waist circumference and cardiovascular activity.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings may be attributed to the premise that the waist circumference standards are different for African Americans than for Whites. Future research should establish waist circumference thresholds that are better predictors of cardiovascular disease in African Americans.


Abstract The SEM and EDS results of porous coatings formed on pure titanium by Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (Micro Arc Oxidation) under DC regime of voltage in the electrolytes containing of 500 g zinc nitrate Zn(NO3)2·6H2O in 1000 mL of concentrated phosphoric acid H3PO4 at three voltages, i.e. 450 V, 550 V, 650 V for 3 minutes, are presented. The PEO coatings with pores, which have different shapes and the diameters, consist mainly of phosphorus, titanium and zinc. The maximum of zinc-to-phosphorus (Zn/P) ratio was found for treatment at 650 V and it equals 0.43 (wt%) | 0.20 (at%), while the minimum of that coefficient was recorded for the voltage of 450 V and equaling 0.26 (wt%) | 0.12 (at%). Performed studies have shown a possible way to form the porous coatings enriched with zinc by Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation in electrolyte containing concentrated phosphoric acid H3PO4 with zinc nitrate Zn(NO3)2·6H2O.


Oliguria in the neonate usually reflects a fall in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) secondary to prerenal disturbances such as hypovolemia, hypotension, hypoxemia and cardiac failure, or to vasoactive drugs such as indomethacin and tolazoline. The action of such drugs on renal function is reviewed, as well as the pharmacological measures that can be tried to prevent or blunt their renal side effects. The efficacy and side effects of dopamine, furosemide and mannitol, frequently used in oliguric states due to either prerenal disturbances or to vasoactive drugs, are discussed. It is concluded that available data in newborn infants do not definitely prove the efficacy of dopamine and furosemide in preventing acute renal insufficiency and that, in neonates with established oliguria, administration of mannitol, dopamine and/or furosemide can be tried, with little hope, however, of markedly improving GFR.


Abstract Many molecules are involved in the regulation of feeding behavior, and they and their receptors are located in the brain hypothalamus and adipocytes. On the basis of evidence suggesting an association between the brain and adipose tissue, we propose the concept of the brain–adipose axis. This model consists of (1) the expression of endogenous molecules and/or their receptors in the hypothalamus and peripheral adipose tissue, (2) the function of these molecules as appetite regulators in the brain, (3) their existence in the general circulation as secreted proteins and (4) the physiological affects of these molecules on fat cell size and number. These molecules can be divided into two anorexigenic and orexigenic classes. In adipose tissue, all orexigenic molecules possess adipogenic activity, and almost all anorexigenic molecules suppress fat cell proliferation. Although the manner, in which they present in the circulating blood connect the brain and peripheral adipocytes, remains to be well-organized, these observations suggest the positive feedback axis affecting molecules in the hypothalamus and adipose tissue. Analysis of the disturbance and dysregulation of this axis might promote the development of new anti-obesity drugs useful in treating the metabolic syndrome.


We provide a method to straighten each billiard trajectory in a flat disk. As an application, we show that for each point on the disk and for almost all directions, the closure of the corresponding billiard trajectory contains a vertex. We generalize Katok-Zemlyakov construction to the flat disks with rational angle data: for each rational flat disk we obtain a translation surface and a projection to the doubling of the disk. We calculate the Euler characteristics of this translation surface.


Opacity testing is formalized and studied. We specify opacity testers as well as tested systems by (timed) process algebras. We model various testers according to how sophisticated observations of tested system they can make and which kind of conclusions they can obtain. We use this technique to define several realistic security properties. The properties are studied and compared with other security concepts.


✓ The central canal of the spinal cord was studied with canal occlusion alone, and in experimental (kaolin) hydrocephalus without and with central canal occlusion. Massive dilatation of the canal occurred with kaolin hydrocephalus. Syrinxes extending into the gray and white matter of the cord and communicating with the central canal developed in both the upper and lower spinal cord. The completely isolated central canal (occlusion at the obex and filum terminale) did not dilate, but remained patent. Canal occlusion at the obex and filum terminale completely protected the spinal cord from central canal dilatation or syrinxes in kaolin hydrocephalus. These findings suggest that the choroid plexus is responsible for producing neural tube dilatation in hydrocephalus. It also supports the concept that syringomyelia results from inadequate drainage of cerebrospinal fluid and increased pressure (or pulse pressure) in the spinal cord central canal.


Rock avalanches are extreme and destructive mass movements in which large volumes of
rock (typically >1 million cubic metres) travel at high speeds covering large distances, the occurrence of
which is highly unpredictable. These avalanches cover a far larger distance horizontally than the initial fall
height thus the distal part of the deposit travels further than would normally be expected for a coherent mass
sliding downslope. In a simple conceptual model, large scale rock avalanches can be considered to have two
key phases that may contribute to the high mobility of the avalanche; a phase that involves the downslope acceleration
of the material from the source and a runout phase. In this model, the transition between the two
phases occurs at the change in topography from the steep mountainside to the near-horizontal valley floor.
These phases are numerically modelled using PFC3D as a high rate of normal compression during the slope
transition and high velocity shear during runout. The roles of normal and shear loading within a rock avalanche
are examined using breakable agglomerates within a matrix of fines. Results suggest that, in spite of
propagating rock avalanches possessing high shear rates, particularly near the base, high strain rate normal
loading is of greater importance to the production of high mobility.


textured vegetable proteins (tofu) using two coagulants namely: lime and calcium sulphide. The textured vegetable proteins were analyzed for their proximate composition and sensory properties. Proximate composition of the texture vegetable proteins revealed a range of 13.67-15.04% moisture, 1.39-3.51% ash, 16.56-21.32% fat, 34.75-48.00% crude protein, 6.64-14.21% crude fibre and 4.34-16.22% carbohydrate. Soymilk curd coagulated with calcium sulphide had higher ash and protein contents while fluted pumpkin seed milk curd coagulated with calcium sulphide had significantly (p<0.05) higher fat and crude fibre contents. There was no significant (p<0.05) difference in the crude protein, moisture, and carbohydrate content of the textured vegetable proteins. Mean sensory scores of the curds showed a range of 4.40-6.70 for colour, 5.05-6.50 for aroma, 3.20-5.20 for taste, 3.95-6.15 for texture, 3.55-6.25 for flavour and 4.18-6.65 for overall acceptability. The sensory result showed that soybean milk coagulated with calcium sulphide was the most preferred sample for all sensory attributes. Fluted pumpkin milk coagulated with calcium sulphide also had sensory attributed comparable with the of soybean milk coagulated with calcium sulphide. Mean sensory scores of fluted pumpkin seed milk and soybean milk curds coagulated with calcium sulphide were more preferred than the samples coagulated with lime juice. The study therefore recommends the use of fluted pumpkin seed milk coagulated with calcium sulphide for the production of tofu with sensory attributes and nutrient content comparable with soybean tofu.


A series of new luminescent emission-tunable phosphors Ca2Al3O6F:Ce3+,Tb3+ have been synthesized by a high temperature solid-state reaction. The UV–vis reflectance, photoluminescence emission and excitation spectra, the lifetime, and the effect of Tb3+ concentration are investigated in detail. The intense green emission is realized in the Ca2Al3O6F:0.08Ce3+,0.05Tb3+ phosphors on the basis of the highly efficient energy transfer from Ce3+ to Tb3+ with an efficiency of over 90%. The energy transfer mechanism from Ce3+ to Tb3+ in the Ca2Al3O6F host was ascribed to the exchange interactions, and the formation of the Ce–Ce clusters and Ce–Tb clusters should be the reason for the high energy transfer efficiency. The critical distance of the energy transfer has also been calculated by the concentration-quenching method. These results indicate that the Ca2Al3O6F:Ce3+,Tb3+ phosphors have potential applications as a near UV-convertible phosphor for white light-emitting diodes because of its broad excitation in the ...


The Brillouin and Raman scattering spectra of fluid and solid hydrogen at high pressures (2–14 GPa) and temperatures (293–520 K) were measured to investigate the intermolecular interaction in the fluid and solid states. A Benedict type of equation of state was determined in P ≤ 15 GPa, T ≤ 550 K for fluid hydrogen with an average deviation of 1.0% from existing experimental data. We examined three types of intermolecular potential, and found that the Hemley–Silvera–Goldman potential gives superior fits to experimental data over a wide temperature range above 5 GPa. It was also found that the effect of intrinsic mode anharmonicity becomes significant at high temperatures for solid hydrogen.


Background and Aims

Recent research has highlighted the importance of the causal attributions and emotional reactions of staff in determining their responses to challenging behaviour. Although it has been suggested that men and women may differ in their emotional reactions and that female clients may receive more intrusive interventions, services remain gender-blind. The aims of this research were to investigate any gender differences in the perceptions and responses of staff with regard to aggressive challenging behaviour and to determine whether the gender of the client had any impact on their responses.

Design and Participants

A between subject factorial design was used where the factors were the gender of the participants and the gender of the vignettes. Sixty-four male participants and sixty-four female participants were recruited from residential homes, day centres and a diploma course. Half of the male and female participants received a male vignette and half received a female vignette.

Measures

The questionnaire consisted of measures of causal attributions, intervention behaviour and emotional reactions to challenging behaviour and a short section on demographic details.

Results

Female participants were more supportive of the behavioural model in comparison to male participants and reported intervening in a more gentle, calming way. When presented with a male vignette, participants appeared to consider the challenging behaviour to be more serious. However, overall very few sugnificant differences were found between the gender of the vignettes, possible reflecting a tendency of participants to be 'gender-blind'.

Implications

Clinical psychologists need to consider the causal attributions and emotional reactions of staff when designing intervention plans and delivering training programs. It is also important to question whether male and female clients receive a different input from services and the extent to which services are gender-blind in relation to challenging behaviour.


Amphibians do not normally ingest water orally. Rather, they obtain water by osmotic flow across their skin (Bentley and Yorio, 1979). Previous studies of the desert toad, Bufo punctatus, showed that dehydrated animals placed on a surface moistened with pure water adopted a particular type of behavior, termed the water absorption response (WR), in which toads splayed their hindlimbs and oscillated their body to maximize the area of skin in contact with the surface (Brekke et al. 1991). If the surface was moistened with a hyperosmotic urea solution, the animals moved over the surface as if to search for osmotically available water and soon jumped off the surface without initiating WR behavior. Since the skin was the only part of the animal in contact with the surface, it was concluded that receptors in the skin enabled the animals to avoid WR behavior on surfaces where water was not osmotically available. Similarly, toads did not initiate WR behavior when NaCl was used as the solute. These observations suggested that toads have either cutaneous receptors for detecting osmolality, per se, or cutaneous receptors for specific solutes.


Reactions of V2O5 or NH4VO3 with periodic acid under basic conditions followed by acidification result in precipitates of general formula M5V4I2O19(OH)·nH2O (M = Na, n = 10; M = K, n = 5; M = Rb, n = 4; M = Cs, n = 3; M = NH4, n = 11). These are amorphous, and attempts at crystallisation failed, but spectroscopic measurements and analysis show similar features and compositions throughout this series of compounds. V and I K-edge extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectra show a polymeric structure containing edge-linked octahedral periodate and square-pyramidal vanadyl groups.


The more people shop online, the more consumer returns e-tailers face. In order to plan the returns management process capacity adequately, it is necessary to forecast the expected amount of returned parcels. Big data analytics provides a vast number of methods to perform such tasks. However, it should be noted that particularly small- and medium-sized e-tailers lack the capabilities and resources to employ such complex techniques. Against this background, this paper analyses the performance of several data analysis methods that differ in application complexitiy using real data from an apparel e-tailer. On the one hand, we find that –as expected– complex methods outperform simple ones. On the other hand, and from a practitioner's perspective probably even more interesting, we also conclude that a binary logistical regression as the simplest analyzed method may already provide satisfactory results. The findings indicate that the use of big data analytics is of great value to effectively and efficiently manage consumer returns – even if not the most sophisticated state-of-the-art method is used.