The high summer indoor temperature in agricultural greenhouse is not conducive to crop growth, so it is necessary to cool the greenhouse. In this study, taking the agricultural multi-span greenhouse with strong temperature adjustment ability for example, we make an experimental analysis on the temperature changes inside and outside the greenhouse under nine different equipment combinations (fan, skylight, sunshade, sunshade+fan, cooling pad+fan, skylight+fan, sunshade+skylight, sunshade+fan+cooling pad, sunshade+skylight+fan), respectively, and conduct the overall assessment on the measures to cool the summer agricultural greenhouse, in order to provide a reference for selecting a cost-effective cooling method for greenhouse. Tests show that the three treatment modes of fan, sunshade and sunshade+fan almost have no cooling capacity; skylight, sunshade+skylight have cooling capacity, but the effect is slow; cooling pad+fan, sunshade+skylight+fan can reduce the indoor temperature, but the effect is not very good; skylight and fan have good cooling effect; sunshade+fan+cooling pad has obvious cooling effect, which can well meet the cooling needs in the summer greenhouse.


PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of the experience economy and co-creation concepts on guided tours (GTs) and to analyze the process of the on-site (co-)creation of experience between the service provider and the consumer taking into account the consumer perspective.

Design/methodology/approachThe objective of the study is fulfilled by reviewing the literature on experience economy and co-creation within a cultural heritage context and then using it to design appropriate research tools to collect empirical data through qualitative interviews within the context of a single case study. The Medieval Town of Rhodes (MTR), Greece, serves as the case in this study. In fact, this study analyzes primary data from 25 interviews with participants in GTs in the MTR.

FindingsThe GT participant's views of their GT experience were explored, and it was evaluated whether they fit any of the three generations of experience economy with an emphasis on co-creation of experience. The findings show that, in the MTR-GT services, the characteristics of mainly the first and second generation experience economies are found, while little emphasis is given to the third generation experience economy. Based on the empirical results, the RIF model (R: "Resources," I: "Interactions," F: "Feelings") was created: this proposes that both the process of experience co-creation and optimal GT experiences are realized by providing participants with appropriate resources, multiple types of interactions and opportunities to generate positive and pleasant feelings. This model illustrates the intertwining, multi-dimensional facets of an optimal co-created GT experience that service providers and tour operators should provide to their customers.

Research limitations/implicationsThe present study has several limitations that need to be mentioned. First, this research is a single case study; the MTR serves as the case, focusing on one cultural heritage service, GTs. This fact can put the study's validity in question. Moreover, as the research is conducted by a single person, there is the risk of subjective bias. Another limitation is that this study is not a longitudinal one; the latter could lead to more accurate findings. The number and the nationality of participants constitute the 4th and final limitation of the research. More specifically, the sample is not perceived to be representative of the population nor generalizable, while visitors from more nationalities could have been interviewed. In relation to this, the judgmental sampling method was used because the population of the study could not be defined. This serves as the fifth limitation of the study.

Practical implicationsTour operators and tour guides can exploit the characteristics of GT activities included in the proposed RIF model. By incorporating these elements in GT experiences, the process of experience co-creation could be effectively supported. An optimal GT experience that incorporates intertwining and multi-dimensional facets could be provided. To begin with, the physical setting where the tour takes place must be well preserved, so that it can capture the attention of the participants. The route of the tour should not be exhausting but convenient for all participants and should include various landscapes. On the other hand, tour guides should provide interesting, relevant and cohesive information. Moreover, a tour guide needs to display charismatic behavior to gain the tour group's trust and generate positive feelings impressing and immersing participants in the experience and encouraging in them a sense of togetherness. Within the context of the tour, tangible elements such as brochures and maps should be provided, allowing vistors to tailor the experience according to their needs and preferences. Furthermore, interaction between the guide and the tour group, as well as among the participants themselves, should be encouraged. In relation to this, the tour group could be divided into sub-groups according to common features such as age. The guides could also come up with a topic to be jointly discussed and participatory activities such as games could be organized. Finally, participants should have some freedom during the tour; time to explore the setting on their own or a visit to specific places on request.

Originality/valueThe originality of the paper lies in the development of the RIF model, illustrating the on-site optimal experience within the context of GTs taking place in the MTR, the setting of the research. The construction of the RIF model was based on an investigation into actual GT participant's perspectives on GTs.


Abstract. Small-scale heterogeneity of biogenic carbonate elemental composition can be a significant source of error in the accurate use of element/Ca ratios as geochemical proxies. In this study ion microprobe (SIMS) profiles showed significant small-scale variability of Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca and Mn/Ca ratios in new shell calcite of the marine bivalves Pecten maximus and Mytilus edulis that was precipitated during a constant-temperature culturing experiment. Elevated Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca and Mn/Ca ratios were found to be associated with the deposition of elaborate shell features, i.e. a shell surface stria in P. maximus and surface shell disturbance marks in both species, the latter a common occurrence in bivalve shells. In both species the observed small-scale elemental heterogeneity most likely was not controlled by variable transport of ions to the extra-pallial fluid, but by factors such as the influence of shell organic content and/or crystal size and orientation, the latter reflecting conditions at the shell crystal-solution interface. In the mid and innermost regions of the P. maximus shell the lack of significant small-scale variation of Mg/Ca ratios, which is consistent with growth at constant temperature, suggest a potential application as a palaeotemperature proxy. Cross-growth band element/Ca ratio profiles in the interior of bivalve shells may provide more promising palaeo-environmental tools than sampling from the outer region of bivalve shells.


The high affinity IgE receptor, FcεRI, plays a key role in the antigen-induced mast cell activation. Regulations for FcεRI are not yet well understood. TAFA4 is a molecule derived from neuron tissues, and has immune regulation functions. This study aims to clarify the role of TAFA4 in the regulation of FcεRI expression in mast cells. Nasal secretions were collected from patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) and healthy control (HC) subjects. TAFA4 levels of nasal secretions were evaluated by ELISA. A mouse model AR was developed using ovalbumin as the specific antigen. Negative correlation between TAFA4 and tryptase levels in nasal secretions was observed. TAFA4 could suppress the antigen-related mast cell activation. TAFA4 modulated the transcription of Fcer1g (FcεRI γ gene) in mast cells. Signals from the TAFA4-PTEN-PU.1 axis restricted FcεRI expression in mast cells. Administration of TAFA4 attenuated experimental AR. TAFA4 suppressed the expression of FcεRI in mast cells of airway tissues. TAFA4 can down regulate the expression of FcεRI in mast cells to suppress experimental AR. The data suggest that TAFA4 has translation potential to be developed as an anti-allergy therapy.


WARNING: Don't buy this book if you know you are seriously not interested in programming. It was developed for webmasters and those who want to learn how to develop a website on their own. This handbook contains many selected examples and screen shots- to help you preview your work before trying out the codes. You would certainly get to know all you need to know about HTML just reading this book. This book is a must-read for everyone who want to create a website or learn web design. It is ideal for every reader- young or old, male or female, amateur or experienced. We give you examples in every case and provide you screen shots so you see for yourself, how the code would look on a web browser. So, If you are new to web design, this book is just for you. It has been carefully arranged to meet your needs. Step by step, we teach you everything from html1.0 to html4. I was inspired to write this book after doing online web design training. Many of my blog readers often amazed me with the wonderful comments. I am glad to help you solve your basic challenge- by putting my ideas now into digital and print formats. We have other programming books too on PHP, MySQL and jQuery. We also maintain an online blog where you could ask questions and study tutorials on PHP, MySQL, CSS, XML and jQuery. You can visit this blog or reach me anyday through the contact information inside this book. For now, i wish you a happy reading...


The goal of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) pedagogy that was implemented in two different concrete construction courses. Both courses are a part of an industry focused four-year undergraduate concrete degree program. One of the classes focused on concrete problems, diagnosis, and repair of existing concrete, while the other class focused on handling and management methods of various concrete mixtures. In both courses, a PBL pedagogy was implemented such that students were self-learning and discovering the knowledge through an action-research case study. The action-research case study was specific to the course outcomes relevant to each course, but were assessed similarly. A total of eight different assessment methods were implemented across both courses' multiple times from 2012 – 2019. The results showed that the students are highly benefiting from the PBL pedagogy, which was indicated across all assessment methods. Each assessment technique provided a unique insight into student comprehension or benefits of the PBL pedagogy. The most beneficial assessment techniques were; pre- and post-student assessment, level of understanding and confidence, pre- and post-objective student assessment, and report assessment. These four assessment techniques provide both direct (objective) and indirect (subjective) assessment, while only requiring four total surveys.


Background: Dental caries, an infectious microbiologic disease of dental hard tissues, is a common public health problem worldwide. The distribution of dental caries studied in any population, shows that a few in the population experience a lot of decayed teeth and most do not experience any at all or experience very little. Objective : To assess the extent and severity of dental caries among 5-12 years old children of eastern Nepal using DMFT(Decayed, Missing and Filled teeth) and SiC (Significant Caries) index. Methods : Six hundred and sixteen 5-12 years old school children were examined for decayed, missing and filled teeth using WHO criteria. DMFT, dft (decayed filled teeth) and SiC Indices were calculated. Results : The mean dft and SiC* were 1.84 and 4.60 respectively, whereas mean DMFT and SiC were 0.33 and 0.92 respectively. Conclusion : SiC gives a better picture of the at risk population, hence it should be widely used along with dft/DMFT. Health Renaissance 2014;12(2): pp 74-77


PURPOSE
To evaluate if the use of ultrasound activated Al203 powder improved the fit especially of all-ceramic restorations.

METHODS
21 extracted teeth were prepared for 14 all-ceramic IPS Empress2 (IPS Empress2) restorations (four crowns, four partial crowns, two inlays, four veneers) and seven gold crowns (Degudent H). Each restoration was adjusted with a suspension of Al2O3 of 25 microm and 50 microm grit, respectively. The effect of the fitting adjustments was recorded with the silicone disclosing medium technique and measured at 11 points under the microscope in an interval of 0.4 mm.

RESULTS
A significant (P < 0.001) improvement of the tight fit of all restorations by means of ultrasound activated Al2O3 powder was noticed. The approach of the restoration towards the prepared stump by the sonoerosive fitting correction was in the mean 201 +/- 60 microm in Empress2 restorations and 87 +/- 24 microm in gold crowns within a period of 10 minutes. SEM observation of the Empress2 specimens showed no microdamage after ultrasound machining.


Atrial fibrillation is associated with an increased risk of stroke. Different risk factors may be of importance regarding stroke incidence and mortality in atrial fibrillation. Retrospectively, we studied 786 patients with chronic atrial fibrillation, 229 with rheumatic heart disease and 557 without. In all, 127 patients had stroke (16%). Using Cox's proportional hazard model for failure-time data with age, gender, etiology, degree of heart failure and cardiac enlargement as explanatory (independent) variables, only etiology (rheumatic heart disease) was a significant risk factor for stroke (P less than 0.006). Significant risk factors for death in 653 patients without stroke were age (P = 0.000) and congestive heart failure at the onset of atrial fibrillation (P = 0.000). The need to identify other risk factors for stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation is emphasized, for selecting patients at high risk for prophylactic treatment with anticoagulants or aspirin.


The commercial success of Elinor Glyn's 1927 film It has obscured the fact that, throughout her career until this point, Glyn had promoted a significantly different sexual ideology. In a remarkable array of novels, plays, lectures, interviews, editorials, and advice manuals, Glyn had long promoted an idiosyncratic "philosophy of love." This philosophy celebrated aristocratic manners, enhanced arousal through restricted physical contact, role plays of dominance and submission, and eugenic progress through racial hybridity. She emphasized women's physical and emotional satisfaction and criticized the institution of marriage and the "cheapening" of sexual relations under commodity capitalism. Glyn's works entered the spirited debates on sexual comportment that took place during the 1910s and 1920s alongside the works of progressive activists such as Lois Weber and Marie Stopes. While in Hollywood, she exploited the new possibilities of mass media—films, paperbacks, newspapers, and magazines—to simultaneously promote herself and her sexual agenda. Furthermore, she used her films to eroticize cinematic structures of spectatorship.


An Inaugural Address is a speech made by a speaker when he or she assumes a new position, stating his or her position, views and policies in light of domestic and international political and economic situations. Based on Martin's Appraisal Theory, this paper mainly uses the three subsystems of Appraisal Theory: Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation to explore and analyze the evaluative devices in Kennedy's Inaugural Address and its expression of the speaker's views and attitudes, and to fully reveal the reasons for the enduring popularity of this speech.


The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed a tremendous strain on healthcare providers. Although there is a burgeoning body of literature on how COVID-19 has impacted frontline healthcare workers (i.e., providers treating COVID-19 patients), little attention has been dedicated to second-line workers (i.e., providers treating the mental health of people impacted by COVID-19). In this paper, we present findings from a thematic analysis of open text responses (n = 136) examining how COVID-19 shaped both the wellbeing of second-line workers, specifically mental health providers, as well as their clinical work in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Results indicated that mental health providers were experiencing significant COVID-19-related burnout and poor physical and mental health outcomes. Participants described diminished negative effects on the quality of their clinical care from the burnout and trauma associated with COVID-19. Many also demonstrated resilience, identifying the duality of both negative (e.g., exhaustion) and positive (e.g., pride in helping others) meaning derived from their second-line work experiences. We conclude with recommendations for preventing and addressing burnout among mental health professionals in the era of COVID-19 and subsequent health emergencies.


The concept of this study aims to examine the effect of motivation on the performance of employees of Hotel Sapadia Pematangsiantar, amounting to 42 people with research time in April 2020. The study was conducted with qualitative and quantitative analysis. The results of the validity test show that the calculated r value is greater than critical r with the results of the research variable being declared valid, the reliability test shows that all research variables are declared reliable. Then, the determination coefficient test shows that the R value has a strong and positive relationship with motivation and employee performance and motivation variable is able to explain and measure employee work variable. The results of the normality test explain that the research is normally distributed. The simple equation regression equation shows positive results of motivation on employee performance and the hypothesis test accepts the hypothesis of the study.


The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of the caspase-3 inhibitor z-DEVD-fmk on the apoptosis of the brain tissues of rats with acute cerebral infarction. Middle cerebral artery occlusion was used to establish a rat model of infarction, and the rats were randomly divided into a sham group (n=15), model group (n=15) and treatment group (n=15). z-DEVD-fmk (2.5 µg/kg) was injected into the intracranial artery of rats in the treatment group, while the same volume of phosphate-buffered saline solution was administered to the rats of the sham and model groups. After 48 h, all rats were sacrificed and their brain tissues were removed. The caspase-3 mRNA level, protein level and activity, brain cell apoptosis index and infarction scope of the three groups were analyzed. Neurological impairment was also assessed. At 48 h after model establishment, the caspase-3 mRNA and protein levels in the brain tissues of the model group were significantly higher than those of the sham group, and those in the treatment group were significantly lower than those in the model group (P<0.05); however, they remained significantly higher than those in the sham group. Caspase-3 activity in the model group was significantly higher than that in the sham group, and treatment with the caspase-3 inhibitor significantly reduced caspase-3 activity compared with that in the model group (P<0.05). The apoptosis index and infarction scope in the model and treatment groups were significantly increased compared with those in the sham group, and were significantly lower in the treatment group than in the model group (P<0.05). The neurological impairment of rats in the model and treatment groups was increased significantly compared with that in the sham group, and the treatment group exhibited a significantly lower level of neurological impairment than the model group (P<0.05). In conclusion, the caspase-3 inhibitor z-DEVD-fmk effectively inhibited apoptosis and delayed the necrosis of brain tissue cells in rats with acute cerebral infarction, and had certain protective effects on brain tissue.


Construction is a large sector of the UK economy and official statistics show that construction productivity has flatlined despite adoption of advances in digital technology and increased outsourcing. We examine the evolution of the UK infrastructure construction industry and the scope for its digitization, describing the changing industry structure and the range of digital technologies being adopted. We consider the implications of technological innovation for productivity, both actual and measured. We focus on two possible explanations for this particular piece of the productivity puzzle: time lags and different potential sources of mismeasurement.


We study various improved staggered quark Dirac operators on quenched gluon backgrounds in lattice QCD generated using a Symanzik-improved gluon action. We find a clear separation of the spectrum into would-be zero modes and others. The number of would-be zero modes depends on the topological charge as expected from the index theorem, and their chirality expectation value is large ( approximately 0.7). The remaining modes have low chirality and show clear signs of clustering into quartets and approaching the random matrix theory predictions for all topological charge sectors. We conclude that improvement of the fermionic and gauge actions moves the staggered quarks closer to the continuum limit where they respond correctly to QCD topology.


The Sixth Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Nephrology was held in Dublin from 3 to 7 October 1972 under the Presidency ofProfessor Sheamus Dundon. The Scientific Programme follows. Any interested reader may contact the speaker named through the Secretary of the Society-Professor Harmen A. Tiddens, Wilhelmina Children's Hospital, 137 Nieuwe Gracht, Utrecht, Netherlands. The Seventh Meeting of the Society will be organized by Professor Ferdinand Demant (Children's University Hospital, Moyaesova 9, Kosice, C.S.S.R.) from 10 to 13 September 1973 in the High Tartra, Czechoslovakia.


Ca2+ release-activated Ca2+ (CRAC) channels are activated by direct physical interactions between Orai1, the channel protein, and STIM1, the endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ sensor. A hallmark of CRAC channels is fast Ca2+-dependent inactivation (CDI) which provides negative feedback to limit Ca2+ entry through CRAC channels. Although STIM1 is thought to be essential for mediating CDI, the molecular mechanism of CDI remains largely unknown. Here, we examined a gain-of-function (GOF) human Orai1 disease mutation, L138F, that causes tubular aggregate myopathy (TAM). Through pairwise mutational analysis, we determine that large amino acid substitutions at either L138 or the neighboring T92 locus evoke highly Ca2+-selective currents in the absence of STIM1. We find that the GOF phenotype arises due to steric clash between L138 on TM2 and T92 located on the pore helix. Surprisingly, strongly activating L138 and T92 mutations also show CDI in the absence of STIM1, contradicting prevailing views that STIM1 is required for inactivation. CDI of constitutively open T92W and L138F mutants occurred with similar kinetics as WT Orai1 but showed enhanced intracellular Ca2+ sensitivity, which could be normalized by the addition of STIM1. Truncation of the Orai1 C-terminus reduced T92W CDI consistent with a key role for the Orai1 C-terminus for CDI. Overall, these results elucidate the molecular basis of the human TAM-linked mutation and indicate that CDI of CRAC channels is mediated by an Orai1-intrinsic mechanism with STIM1 tuning the calcium sensitivity of CDI.


The paper presents and discusses different approaches to water management, termed "state centred", "market-based" and "community-based". Each provides different answers to how and by whom limited water resources best could and should be managed. They are based on different development ideologies and advocated by different professions. The article elaborates on the strengths, limitations and compatibility of the three models. These models provide a basis for discussing national water policy and water management reforms in Tanzania as well as the more practical implications of this in one of the main river basins in the country: the Pangani River Basin. Central to the water management problem in this basin are conflicts between communities and the water bureaucracy over what constitutes "proper" management of water. The policy and the activities of the river basin authorities continue to reflect a traditional top-down bureaucratic approach to water management, with colonial roots. The water legislation and the formal water management system seem neither to be set up to facilitate the active participation of local communities in water management, nor to facilitate the development of a water market.


The literature on candidate selection has focussed extensively on the degree of inclusiveness and decentralization of the selectorate, as part of the debate on intra-party democracy. However, much less attention has been paid to the degree of openness of candidacies, or selection criteria within parties. Yet parties have a lot of leeway in how they design selection criteria internally. Which guidelines do parties follow when making the crucial choice on which candidates to select for elections? This paper investigates selection criteria from two perspectives: the formal rules set by parties that restrict the candidate's pool and the (informal) preferences of selectors that shape who gets selected. We aim first at contrasting the degree of party institutionalization and parties' formal rules in candidate selection and so, we shed light on whether parties formalise their candidacy requirements and candidate selection processes to the same extent as other party activities. Second, the paper investigates the role of the selectorates, and how selectorate's characteristics matter for the kind of (informal) selection criteria, be they intended at maximizing offices, votes or policies. Drawing on party statutes coded in the Political Party Database (PPDB) and 23 in-depth interviews with selectors, we study three francophone Belgian parties that differ both in terms of inclusiveness of the selectorate who has the final say on candidate selection and in terms of degree of centralisation, and in terms of party institutionalisation: the green party (Ecolo), the socialist party (PS), and the liberal party (MR). Our comparative analysis of parties, selection criteria provides new insights into the secret garden of politics and highlights in particular the major impact of parties, degree of centralization.


This article summarizes research conducted over the last decade in the field of inhalation injury in thermally injured patients. This includes brief summaries of the findings of the 2006 State of the Science meeting with regard to inhalation injury, and of the subsequent 2007 Inhalation Injury Consensus Conference. The reviewed studies are categorized in to five general areas: diagnosis and grading; mechanical ventilation; systemic and inhalation therapy; mechanistic alterations; and outcomes.


Successful oculofacial procedures require the availability of a reliable surgical and anatomic landmark. This study aimed to determine the usefulness of the lateral canthus as a surface landmark. Seventy‐seven from 42 Korean cadavers were dissected. The horizontal distance from the lateral canthus to the lateral orbital margin and the vertical distances from the zygomaticofrontal suture and the inferior orbital margin to the lateral canthus were measured. The mean horizontal distance from the lateral canthus to the lateral orbital margin was 7.8 mm. Although the horizontal position of the lateral canthus appears to alter with age, the variation was only 2–3 mm. The mean vertical distances from the zygomaticofrontal suture and inferior orbital margin to the lateral canthus were 8.1 and 17.2 mm. The vertical position of the lateral canthus did not vary with age, being located inferiorly within a fingernail width from the zygomaticofrontal suture. The lateral canthus, which is easily accessible and supported by muscular and fibrous lateral orbital attachments, exhibits small anatomic variations. Thus, the lateral canthus could act as a reliable surface landmark for identifying the location of underlying structures and describing a lesion on the face. Clin. Anat. 32:630–634, 2019. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


In situ laser reflectometry has been used to monitor the growth of II-VI semiconductor materials under pyrolytic and photo-assisted conditions. The fit of effective extinction coefficient, , at each peak and trough in the growth interferograms showed that different growth modes are dominant under pyrolytic and photo-assisted conditions. The fit of for several single layers of ZnTe grown under pyrolytic conditions indicated an overall good quality epitaxial growth, with layer quality increasing with layer thickness, whereas for layers grown with photo-assistance, for the same growth temperatures and precursor mixtures, the fit of was anomalously high. In situ monitoring of these layers revealed that they begin to roughen after a maximum of of film deposition. Thus the anomalously high values for would seem to indicate that this fit of is revealing insights into the degradation of film growth for these layers. Through post-growth spectral reflectance analysis of a thin epilayer of ZnSe, where the fringes due to variations in film thickness are clearly visible, an argument for the increase in based on non-linear growth rate across the surface under photo-assisted conditions is presented.


Has been pointed out that this is the aesthetic era for current dentistry. The oral and maxillo facial surgeon plays an important role in this regard emfatizing that the facial aesthetic is part of our field and responsibility in conjunction with the functional goal of most of our treatments.


Nuclei detection is a critical step in cytopathology for pleural cancer diagnosis. Because nuclei provide quantitative information about malignancy of cancer. It is known that Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) provide considerable performance on object detection. We proposed convolutional object detector, YOLOv3, to detect nuclei on pleural effusion (PE) cytopathology images. The experiments were conducted on 80 PE cytopathology images containing 11157 nuclei. The proposed method achieved precision of %94.10, recall of %98.98, and F-measure of %96.48. The most important contribution of the YOLOv3 is that it provides 10x speed up versus the some state-of-the-art published methods, which is very important for real time Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) applications in digital cytopathology.


Osseo integrated implants are the most effective tool in the rehabilitation of totally or partially edentulous patients. However, bone atrophy is an obstacle to the use of such implants. Severe maxillary resorption limits the installation of conventional implants and necessitates alveolar reconstructive procedures that use autogenous bone grafts harvested from the ilium or from intra oral donor sites. Such procedures increase the morbidity and cost of treatment. In 1984, as an alternative to the use of large bone reconstruction, Branemark proposed that the zygoma be used as an anchorage point for long implant-supported prostheses. Such zygomatic implants are now the most effective bone graft option in the rehabilitation of edentulous patients with severely resorbed maxilla. However, among partially edentulous patients, zygomatic implants are only indicated in hemi-maxillectomized patients. The aims of this clinical report were to present the cases of four patients, each of whom was rehabilitated using a single zygomatic implant on one side of the maxilla; evaluate the success of implant stabilization. The present report shows the feasibility of zygomatic implants in the treatment of partial maxillary edentulism. Despite the good results achieved in this report, more case studies involving a larger number of patients.


ABSTRACT: Many criticisms have been leveled at the dominant positivist accounting research paradigm. This paper links this modern research paradigm to the development of double entry bookkeeping, which itself was part of a larger intellectual movement toward quantitative knowledge production, referred to herein as the quantification paradigm shift. Among the items discussed are the socio-economic forces that facilitated this shift, the role played by this movement in the development of accounting techniques, the advent of the concept of profit, and the emergence of positivism in accounting research. These items will be analyzed in the light of historical changes in philosophy and science, critical perspectives on the dominant research paradigm, and calls for alternative research programs.


Optical biomedical imaging and diagnostics is a rapidly growing field that provides both structural and functional information with uses ranging from fundamental to practical clinical applications. Nevertheless, imaging/visualizing fluorescence objects with high spatial resolution in a highly scattering and emissive biological medium continues to be a significant challenge. A fundamental limiting factor for imaging technologies is the signal-to-background ratio (SBR). For a long time to improve the SBR, we tried to improve the brightness of fluorescence probes. Many novel fluorophores with improved brightness (almost reaching the theoretical limit), redshifted emission, highly improved photostability, and biocompatibility greatly helped advance fluorescence detection and imaging. However, autofluorescence, scattering of excitation light, and Raman scattering remain fundamental limiting problems that drastically limit detection sensitivity. Similarly, significant efforts were focused on reducing the background. High-quality sample purification eliminates the majority of autofluorescence background and in a limited confocal volume allows detection to reach the ultimate sensitivity to a single molecule. However, detection and imaging in physiological conditions does not allow for any sample (cells or tissue) purification, forcing us to face a fundamental limitation. A significant improvement in limiting background can be achieved when fluorophores with a long fluorescence lifetime are used, and time-gated detection is applied. However, all long-lived fluorophores present low brightness, limiting the potential improvement. We recently proposed to utilize multipulse excitation (burst of pulses) to enhance the relative signal of long-lived fluorophores and significantly improve the SBR. Herein, we present results obtained with multipulse excitation and compare them with standard single-pulse excitation. Subtraction of images obtained with a single pulse from those obtained with pulse burst (differential image) highly limits background and instrumental noise resulting in more specific/sensitive detection and allows to achieve greater imaging depth in highly scattering media, including skin and tissue.


BACKGROUND
Unrecognized obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with unfavorable perio-perative outcomes among patients undergoing noncardiac surgery (NCS).

METHODS
The study population was chosen from 39,771 patients who underwent internal medicine preoperative assessment between January 2002 and December 2006. Patients undergoing NCS within 3 years of polysomnography (PSG) were considered for the study, whereas those < 18 years of age, with a history of upper airway surgery, or who had had minor surgery under local or regional anesthesia were excluded. Patients with an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ≥ 5 were defined as OSA and those with an AHI < 5 as control subjects. For adjusting baseline differences in age, sex, race, BMI, type of anesthesia, American Society of Anesthesiology class, and medical comorbidities, the patients were classified into five quintiles according to a propensity score.

RESULTS
Out of a total of 1,759 patients who underwent both PSG and NCS, 471 met the study criteria. Of these, 282 patients had OSA, and the remaining 189 served as control subjects. The presence of OSA was associated with a higher incidence of postoperative hypoxemia (OR, 7.9; P = .009), overall complications (OR, 6.9; P = .003), and ICU transfer (OR, 4.43; P = .069), and a longer hospital length of stay (LOS), (OR, 1.65; P = .049). Neither an AHI nor use of continuous positive airway pressure at home before surgery was associated with postoperative complications (P = .3 and P = .75, respectively) or LOS (P = .97 and P = .21, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS
Patients with OSA are at higher risk of postoperative hypoxemia, ICU transfers, and longer hospital stay.


Widely disseminated in both national and international scenarios, greenhouses are agribusiness solutions which are designed to allow for greater efficiency and control of the cultivation of plants. Bearing this in mind, the construction of greenhouses should take into consideration the incidence of wind, and other such aspects of comfort and safety, and ensure they are factored into the design of structural elements. In this study, we evaluated the effects of pressure coefficients established by the European standard EN 13031-1 (2001) and the Brazilian standard ABNT (1988), which are applicable to the structures of greenhouses with flat roofs, taking into account the following variables: roof slope, external and internal pressure coefficients and height-span ratio of the structure. Using the ANSYSTM computer program, zones of columns and roof were discretized by the Beam44 finite element to identify the maximum and minimum stress portions connected to the aerodynamic coefficients. With this analysis, we found that, in the smallest roof slope (a equal to 20°), the frame stress was quite similar for standards adopted. On the other hand, for the greatest inclination (a equal to 26°), the stress was consistently lower under the Brazilian standard. In view of this, we came to the conclusion that the differences between stresses when applying both standards were more significant at the higher degrees of height-span ratio and roof slope.


This short communication describes a method to solve predictive simulations of human movements in a stochastic environment using a collocation method. The optimization is performed over multiple noisy episodes of the trajectory, instead of a single episode in a deterministic environment. Each episode used the same control parameters. The method was verified on a torque-driven pendulum swing-up problem. A different optimal trajectory was found in a stochastic environment than in the deterministic environment. Secondly, it was applied to gait to show its application in human movements. We show that nonzero minimum foot clearance during swing is energetically optimal in a stochastic environment. The amount of clearance increased with the noise amplitude.


The traditional model of disease takes no account of its implications in daily life. The concept of handicap originates from the medical, social and economic dimension essential for the individual as well as for the community. Notions of impairment, disability and disadvantage were used to construct a relationship model involving the whole chain of phenomena linked to the initial disease (ICIDH). The handicap situation results from an incompatibility in the triple confrontation of an individual, a life scheme and an environment. Whether disadvantage occurs or not for a same type of impairment, depends on the situation. Handicap means maladaptation of an individual to his context or his environment. Given the endless possible schemes, an individualized and methodical analysis is imperative to deliver comprehensive treatments respectively applied to: the individual himself directly (to do again or to do otherwise) or indirectly by means of appliances to avoid disability (to cope with), the social, occupational, physical and economico-administrative environment (not to be faced anymore with) by restricting as far as possible the number of solutions which imply deviations from the ordinary environment and thereby "stigmatize" the handicap. The plan has to be changed when previous measures are proved ineffective (not to have to do anymore); another plan for life has to be actively constructed and adopted. Anyway, maintaining independence is a significant goal ("to lead one's life according to one's own rules").


With the advent of novel and personalized therapeutic approaches for cancer and inflammatory diseases, there is a growing demand for designing delivery systems that circumvent some of the limitation with the current therapeutic strategies. Nanoparticle-based delivery of drugs has provided means of overcoming some of these limitations by ensuring the drug payload is directed to the disease site and insuring reduced off-target activity. This review highlights the challenges posed by the solid tumor microenvironment and the systemic limitations for effective chemotherapy. It then assesses the basis of nanoparticle-based targeting to the tumor tissues, which helps to overcome some of the microenvironmental and systemic limitations to therapy. We have extensively focused on some of the tumor multidrug resistance mechanisms (e.g., hypoxia and aerobic glycolysis) that contribute to the development of multidrug resistance and how targeted nano-approaches can be adopted to overcome drug resistance. Finally, we assess the combinatorial approach and how this platform has been used to develop multifunctional delivery systems for cancer therapy. The review article also focuses on inflammatory diseases, the biological therapies available for its treatment, and the concept of macrophage repolarization for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.


Ont the Feigned and Factitious Diseases of Soldiers and Seamen; with Hints for the Examination, and Rules for the Detection of Impostors. By HECTOR GAVIN, M.D., &c. Svo. pp. 416. This work appeared originally-as we are informed in the preface-in the spring of 1836, in the form of a thesis, to which a prize had been awarded by the Professor of Military Surgery in the University of Edinburgh. The favorable reception it met with from Sir James M'Grigor and the army medical officers has induced the author to extend the work to its present size, and in so doing he has added considerably to its utility in a practical point of view. Indeed it is now the best and most complete monograph on feigned and factitious diseases which we possess, and bids fair to supersede all other works on the same suibject. The study of this class of diseases was much neglected until of late years, when the attention of the army and navy surgeons was roused to it by the increasing number of cases of glaring imposition which were daily occurring and pressing heavy on the pension list. The great extent, says Dr. Gavin, to which this practice of feigning and dissembling disease prevailed, the frequency of its successful imitation, the greatpecuniary loss and numerous bad effects of the successful examples of fraud and imposition upon the discipline of the army and navy, have been the means of forcibly directing the attention of the military and naval me. dical officers to the observation of feigned diseases and the best means of detecting them, and have now rendered their study an important branch of the education of the military and naval surgeon. Feigned diseases are not confined to the army and navy; their occurrence amongst the patients of our hospitals and dispensaries, is by no means rare; on the contrary, these charitable institutions are frequently abused by impostors of this kind, and to a greater extent than is easily credite d. Even in private practice cases of this kind are not unfrequently met with, especially amongst females; many of them, also, become the subjects of legal investigation, and require medical testimony to be given in courts of law, for which reason alone every practitioner of medicine should make himself acquainted with the tricks and deceits by means of which both mental and physical disease is so often successfully feigned by the class of impostors above mentioned. Dr. Gavin proposes to arrange the various alleged corporeal disabilities under four heads:-1st, Feigned or purely fictitious diseases; 2d, Exaggerated diseases, or those which, existing in some form or degree, whether arising with or without the patient's concurrence, are pretended by him to exist in a greater degree or in a different form; 3d, Factitious diseases, or those which are wholly produced by the patient, or with his concurrence; 4th, Aggravated diseases, or those which originated without any design on the part of the patient, but which were afterwards increased by his use of artificial means. The numerous and varied subjects which come within the range of this classification, are elaborately described by the author. He has evidently taken up the subject con amore, aild the work throughout bears abundant evidence of hiis zeal, industry, and laborious research in the task he has undertaken. Independent of its professional value, the volume is exceedingly entertaining, inasmuch as it contains numerous curi' ous cases illustrative of the ingenious tricks and devices put in practice by malingerers, with the view of deceiving their medical attendant, and of obtaining their discharge from the service. The chapters which treat of feigned madness and moral insanity, are particularly interesting, especially with reference to the opinions recently pronounced in a court of law on these important subjects. We can recommend them to the attention of our readers, as containing many useful and instructive hints for the purpose of guiding medical witnesses when called upon to deliver an opinion on sus. picious cases before a legal tribunal.


Wireless power transfer in seawater removes the inherent risks and complexities of mating conductive surfaces in seawater. An effective underwater wireless power transfer system for subsea vehicles must maintain power transfer despite dynamic misalignment between the power transmission and receive elements, and therefore requires an adaptive system. We describe development and characterization of a transmit-receive coil pair optimized for seawater performance within the framework of the WiBotic adaptive resonant wireless power transfer technology, which automatically adjusts for misalignment and separation between the transmit and receive coils. Further, we demonstrate that transmit-receive coil pairs can be effectively tuned to provide adaptive wireless power transfer in saltwater, with no significant effects of increased pressure at depth.


The Reckless Mind is a study of how a number of important twentieth-century European intellectuals came to support tyrannical regimes and totalitarian political ideas. It is important both as a historical examination of the political failures of intellectuals and as a warning that they must not allow the passions of political engagement to overwhelm their responsibilities to sceptical philosophical inquiry. Lilla traces the intellectual and political trajectories of several of the most important European thinkers of the past century. Included are profiles of Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Karl Jaspers, Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, Alexandre Kojeve, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida. These profiles demonstrate how the convulsions of the twentieth century overwhelmed the inadequate political sensibilities of thinkers who lost faith in liberal democracy, and who believed the promises of Marxism and fascism to create a better society while closing their eyes to the brutal nature of those systems. Along with a concluding essay entitled "The Lure of Syracuse," these case studies show how the classical problem of the relation between philosophy and politics--a problem that found its most profound exploration in Plato's writings on tyranny--was, in the twentieth century, translated into a new problem: that of intellectual responsibility in an age of barbarism and totalitarianism. Lilla suggests that even though the threat of totalitarianism seems to have receded in our time, the dismaying political engagements of those he profiles illustrate the ongoing challenge of its possible allure: the need for intellectuals to think responsibly, critically, dispassionately, and sceptically about politics.


Abstract Multi-fault analysis is an ExxonMobil stochastic tool for analysing the impact and sensitivities of stratigraphic uncertainty and variability on cross-fault leakage of hydrocarbons in faulted traps. This juxtaposition-based method provides quantitative prediction of hydrocarbon contact levels through a complex system of structural spills and juxtaposition leak points in traps with stacked reservoir systems and one or more faults. Validation of the Multi-fault analysis technology was carried out by comparing pre-drill predictions to post-drill results from 41 faulted exploration prospects drilled from 1994–2001. Of the 41 prospects, 29 were valid tests in which we made 22 successful predictions. Of the 22 successful outcomes, 11 were discoveries and 11 were dry wells. Some of the dry wells were drilled assuming the presence of sealing fault-zone material to trap hydrocarbons despite a Multi-fault analysis failure prediction. The seven Multi-fault failures comprise four predicted successes that were failures and three predicted failures that were successes. Most of the Multi-fault prediction failures can be attributed to data quality and uncertainty; however, some may be associated with sealing fault-zone material. Other considerations in fault seal analysis (i.e. dip leak along faults and sealing fault zone materials), model input uncertainties, and using drill-well learnings are also discussed.


Abstract
Microservices architecture is widely used because of the ease of maintaining its microservices, as opposed to encapsulating functionality in a monolithic, which may negatively impact the development process when the application continues to grow. The migration process from a monolithic architecture to microservices became necessary, but it often relies on the architect's intuition only, which may cost many resources. A method to assist developers in decomposing monolithic into microservices is proposed to address that problem. Unlike the existing methods that often rely on non-source code artifacts which may lead into inaccurate decomposition if the artifacts do not reflect the latest condition of the monolith, the proposed method relies on analyzing the application source code to produce a grouping recommendation for building microservices. By using specific keyword extraction followed by Breadth First Search traversal with certain rules, the proposed method decomposed the monolith's component into several cluster whose majority of cluster's members have uniform business domain. Based on the experiment, the proposed method got an 0.81 accuracy mean in grouping monolithic's components with similar business domain, higher than the existing decomposition method's score. Further research is recommended to be done to increase the availability of the proposed method.


Control charts represent a very effective tool used for reducing process variability by early detection of the occurrence of assignable causes of variation. -charts are applied to detect changes in process mean whereas S-charts are used to detect the same in process variability. Both charts are generally based on the normality assumption. The S-chart utilizes an unbiased estimator of the population standard deviation . However, it is highly affected by any violation of the normality assumption. In this paper, we propose some alternatives of S-charts based on some robust estimate of scale parameters. We will also illustrate the performance of the proposed control chart.


Results are presented of (e, 2e) coincidence measurements on helium in the perpendicular plane, defined as the plane orthogonal to the incident electron trajectory. The incident energy is varied in the range from 10 to 80 eV above the ionization threshold and results are presented for both symmetric energy sharing, where the outgoing electrons have the same energy, and for non-symmetric sharing. The experimental apparatus used to collect these results is a fully computer controlled and computer optimized spectrometer able to access a wide range of geometries from the perpendicular to the coplanar geometry.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of BLS training in nursing students and their retention period. Methods: The participants were 48 nursing students enrolled in M University in Mokpo. Data were collected from September, 2009 through September 2010. Nursing students were tested for their knowledge, attitude, confidence before, immediately after, 4 weeks after, 8 weeks after, 6 months after, and 1 year after BLS training. In addition, their knowledge and skill of cardiopulmonary resuscitation were tested 5 times. Data were analyzed using the SPSS/PC 12.0 statistical program Results: Knowledge, attitude and confidence were significantly increased immediately after compared to before BLS training. Knowledge and confidence 6 months after, and attitude, performance ability and technical precision for ventilation and compression 4 weeks after BLS training were significantly decreased compared to immediately after. Conclusion: Overall retention of BLS training effects among nursing students, without reinforcement, decreases significantly after six months following initial training. BLS training in nursing students should be repeated every six months, especially performance training of BLS should be repeated every 4 weeks. In addition, to maintain the knowledge and skills of BLS, appropriate renewal time of certification and improvement of training programs are necessary.


This project aims to address the problems that are facing a large aluminum company in a) Developing Hot Rolling Mill Capabilities for Wider Widths Hard Alloys Rolling and b) Eliminate down time due to strip /coil slippage during hard alloys 5xxx rolling at Hot Mill. The challenge for the company was to cater the fast changing export demand for Flat Rolled products with its existing resources. By applying Six Sigma principles, the team identified the current situation that the rolling mills operations were in. Six Sigma DMAIC methodologies were used in the project to determine the project's CTQ characteristics, defining the possible causes, Identifying the variation sources, establishing variable relationships and Implementing Control Plans. The project can be useful for any company that needs to find the most cost efficient way to improve and utilize its resources.


Movies have been seen as an encouraging media in learning English, tuning out the formal fear of English. They have helped increase students' confidence and initiative to ask and answer the questions, and improve their listening skill and attention span in English drastically (O'Donnell, 1990). This article is intended to seek the applicability of the English sentences used in the movie Up and their uses for EFL learning in Indonesia. The 2013 curriculum was used as the standard guideline to determine the sentences' appropriateness. A qualitative research by imposing content analysis method was employed to conduct the data analysis in this article. The findings classified the specific numbers of sentences generated in this research into ten (10) categories of English tenses. Another finding also indicated the applicability of those sentences for teaching EFL/ESL in junior high schools. Remarkably, these findings were substantial for appending the teachers' resources in teaching English tenses.


To determine the prognostic value of Creatine Phosphokinase (CPK) levels after acute myocardial infarction in patients thought to be at low risk of death or major complications, 94 consecutive patients with definite myocardial infarction were divided into two groups according to peak CPK levels. Group I contained 23 patients with a peak CPK of less than 1000 units and Group II contained 71 patients with a peak CPK level of greater than 1000. They were followed for six months or to death. A CPK of greater than 1000 was significantly associated with left ventricular failure, major arrhythmias and late death and seemed therefore to have value as an indicator of poor prognosis.


Simav geothermal field, one of Turkey's most important fields, is located in Kütahya's Simav graben system of western Anatolia. This is on the eastern part of the graben and approximately 4 km north of Simav town and on the NE edge of the Simav plain, which is separated from the mountain by a high and steep escarpment. The plain covers an area of about 70 km and is at an altitude of about 780 m asl and lies on latitude 39 5' 23" N and longitude 28 58' 46" E. The thermal waters of Simav can be classified as Na-HCO3-SO4 type water with the dominant cations in increasing order of Na+K>Ca>Mg while the anions are HCO3>SO4>Cl. The Cl-SO4-HCO3 ternary diagram shows that the waters are peripheral/immature and more likely related to groundwater heated by steam from deeper reservoirs. Quartz, aragonite, calcite and chalcedony are oversaturated at discharge temperatures while at a recomputed temperature according to the reservoir composition, only quartz, dolomite and chalcedony are oversaturated. The silica geothermometer shows reservoir temperatures between 83 182C. The Na-K-Ca-Mg correction cation geothermometer gave reservoir temperatures close to the measured reservoir temperature on site in Eynal which is between 148 and 163C. The waters plot along the meteoric trend line suggesting the source from local meteoric water and are rich in 18O. This situation points to the existence of fluid-interaction in the system and/or boiling due to the high temperature in the reservoir.


BACKGROUND
The electrocortical background contains prognostic information in full-term asphyxiated newborn infants already during the first postnatal hours. In preterm infants with intra-ventricular hemorrhages (IVH) the background activity in EEG and amplitude-integrated EEG (aEEG) is depressed during the first days of life, and the extent of the depression correlates with the degree of IVH. However, it has not been previously evaluated whether very early aEEG can predict later outcome also in pre-term infants.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate if early prediction of outcome is possible from aEEG in preterm infants with large IVH.

METHODS
aEEG recordings from the first postnatal week were investigated in 64 preterm infants with IVH grade III - IV. For every 24-hour period the aEEG background pattern was classified, and the maximum and minimum numbers of bursts/h, respectively,were counted. Outcome was divided into three categories: died (n = 36), survived (n = 28) with "poor" outcome, i.e., severe cerebral palsy and not able to walk and/or mental retardation (n = 8), and survived with "fair" outcome, i.e., healthy or mild cerebral palsy (n = 19). One surviving child was lost in the follow-up.

RESULTS
There were significant differences in maximum bursts/h (MaxB) at 0-24 hours (p = 0.033), 24-48 hours (p = 0.011), 48-72 hours (p=0.049) and 72-96 hours (p=0.032), respectively, between the infants who died and the surviving infants. At 24-48 hours the median (range) MaxB in the surviving infants with "fair" outcome was 156 (103-179) versus 102 (73-156) in the surviving infants with "poor" outcome (p = 0.002). With the assumption that MaxB < 130 was predictive of death or survival with "poor" outcome, 68 % and 78% of infants were correctly predicted at 0-24 hours and 24-48 hours, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that outcome may be predicted with aEEG already during the first days of life in preterm infants with large IVH. The findings should be confirmed in prospective studies since they may have clinical implications if specific medical interventions become available.


Abstract Brazil has the second largest number of reported AIDS cases in the world. Porto Alegre, like most other large urban centres in Brazil, has been greatly impacted by an AIDS epidemic driven by high rates of drug use and risky sexual behaviours. While epidemiologic surveillance of HIV/AIDS and treatment initiatives for HIV-infected individuals are well developed in Brazil, comparatively little attention has focused on developing interventions directed toward high-risk populations. Intervention programmes, particularly those tailored for chronic drug users, are lacking. This pilot project successfully adapted and tailored a cognitive behavioural HIV intervention developed in the US to the cultural setting in Porto Alegre. The project established feasibility and acceptability of the approach for targeting risky drug and sexual behaviours among a group of male Brazilian drug users. A sample of 120 male cocaine users was recruited from a public health clinic serving the target population in the city of Porto Alegre. The average age of the participants was 29; they averaged less than 8 years of formal education; and less than half (41%) were married. Lifetime self-reported drug use was high with 93% reporting cocaine use, 87% reporting crack use, and 100% reporting marijuana use. 43% of the sample reported ever injecting drugs. Reports of risky sexual behaviours were similarly elevated. Almost half (45%) tested positive for HIV. Preliminary evidence suggests that intervention acceptability was high among participants. Given the reported high risk sexual and drug use behaviours among these men, HIV interventions must be evaluated and expanded to include this population as well as their sexual partners.


Background and Purpose— Rapid and reliable assessment of the perfusion-weighted imaging (PWI)/diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) mismatch is required to promote its wider application in both acute stroke clinical routine and trials. We tested whether an evaluation based on the Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) reliably identifies the PWI/DWI mismatch. Methods— A total of 232 consecutive patients with acute middle cerebral artery stroke who underwent pretreatment magnetic resonance imaging (PWI and DWI) were retrospectively evaluated. PWI-ASPECTS and DWI-ASPECTS were determined blind from manually segmented PWI and DWI volumes. Mismatch-ASPECTS was defined as the difference between PWI-ASPECTS and DWI-ASPECTS (a high score indicates a large mismatch). We determined the mismatch-ASPECTS cutoff that best identified the volumetric mismatch, defined as VolumeTmax>6s/VolumeDWI≥1.8, a volume difference≥15 mL, and a VolumeDWI<70 mL. Results— Inter-reader agreement was almost perfect for PWI-ASPECTS (&kgr;=0.95 [95% confidence interval, 0.90–1]), and DWI-ASPECTS (&kgr;=0.96 [95% confidence interval, 0.91–1]). There were strong negative correlations between volumetric and ASPECTS-based assessments of DWI lesions (&rgr;=−0.84, P<0.01) and PWI lesions (&rgr;=-0.90, P<0.01). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that a mismatch-ASPECTS ≥2 best identified a volumetric mismatch, with a sensitivity of 0.93 (95% confidence interval, 0.89–0.98) and a specificity of 0.82 (95% confidence interval, 0.74–0.89). Conclusions— The mismatch-ASPECTS method can detect a true mismatch in patients with acute middle cerebral artery stroke. It could be used for rapid screening of patients with eligible mismatch, in centers not equipped with ultrafast postprocessing software.


We study the focusing properties of a double-ring-shaped azimuthally polarized beam through an annular high NA objective lens. It is shown that a subwavelength focal hole (∼0.5λ) with a quite long depth of focus (∼26λ) is achieved near the focus. This kind of nondiffracting focal hole is called dark channel, which may have applications in atom optical experiments, such as with atomic lenses, atom traps, and atom switches.


The lipid peroxidation of unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) in the retina not only threatens visual cells but also affects the physiological health of the retina. In this work, the potential damages caused by daily visible light exposure on retinal UFAs were evaluated via a simulated in vitro model. At the same time, the benefits of dietary supplementation of blueberries to the eyes were also assessed. After prolonged light exposure, lipid peroxidation occurred for both docosahexaenoic and arachidonic acids (DHA and AA, respectively). The oxidized UFAs presented obvious cytotoxicity and significantly inhibited cell growth in retinal pigment epithelium cells. Among the different blueberry polyphenol fractions, the flavonoid-rich fraction, in which quercetin was discovered as the main component, was considerably better in preventing visible light-induced DHA lipid peroxidation than the anthocyanin- and phenolic acid-rich fractions. Then the retinal protective activity of blueberry polyphenols against light-induced retinal injury was confirmed in vivo. On the basis of the above results, inhibiting lipid peroxidation of UFAs in the retina is proposed to be another important function mechanism for antioxidants to nourish eyes.


Abstract The time scales in the s process appears to be an approriate aspect to discuss at the occasion of Roberto's 70th anniversary, the more as this subject has been repeatedly addressed during the 20 years of collaboration between Torino and Karlsruhe. The two chronometers presented in this text were selected to illustrate the intense mutual stimulation of both groups. Based on a reliable set of accurate stellar (n, γ) cross sections determined mostly at FZK, the Torino group succeeded to develop a comprehensive picture of the various s-process scenarios, which are most valuable for understanding the composition of the solar system as well as for the interpretation of an increasing number of astronomical observations.


The success of deep learning has led to the rapid transformation and growth of many areas of computer science, including computer vision. In this work, we examine the effects of this growth through the computer vision research paper itself by analyzing the figures and tables in research papers from a media archaeology perspective. We ground our investigation both through interviews with veteran researchers spanning computer vision, graphics and visualization, and computational analysis of a decade of vision conference papers. Our analysis focuses on elements with roles in advertising, measuring and disseminating an increasingly commodified"contribution."We argue that each of these elements has shaped and been shaped by the climate of computer vision, ultimately contributing to that commodification. Through this work, we seek to motivate future discussion surrounding the design of the research paper and the broader socio-technical publishing system.


This study was designed to investigate the effects of Korean Lycii fructus water extract in Al (Aluminum) administered rats. Forty-eight male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into six groups: Control group, water extract group with 3% Lycii fructus, 1000 and 2000 ppm of Al groups, and 1000 and 2000 ppm of Al with 3% Lycii fructus water extract group. The Al content of rat tissue in the Al administered group was lower than that in rat tissue in the Al with 3% Lycii fructus water extract group. Plasma levels of renin and aldosterone activity was higher in the Al administration group, compared with the 3% Lycii fructus water extract group and Al administered group. Aspartate amino transaminase and alanine amino transaminase activities were elevated in the Al administered group and lower in the 3% Lycii fructus water extract group. Lactate dehydrogenase was lower in the 3% Lycii fructus water extract Al group than in the Al group. Choline acetyltransferase was higher in the 3% Lycii fructus water extract Al group than in the Al group.


In recent years, firms are experiencing challenging shifts in their business environments. Technological developments and changing patterns of customer demand severely shorten the live spans of the prevailing business models. In order to survive and expand in such turbulent environments, firms must constantly question their established routines and processes. However, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are alarmingly unaware of the business model concept and dedicate little attention to business model innovations (BMIs). As a starting point to overcome this challenge, it is crucially important to accurately identify both, the environmental factors that necessitate business model changes, and the internal firm capabilities to conduct them.

By referring to the Dynamic Capabilities View (DCV) literature as well as to the largely case study driven literature stream on business model innovations, the study in hand recognizes seven potential influence factors for business model transformations in incumbent SMEs. To empirically verify these factors, an internet-mediated, quantitative survey among executive managers of 89 German SMEs (net response rate: 10.80\%) was conducted. Subsequently, the resulting data was analyzed using a Partial Least Squares Regression (PLS-R) approach to handle multicollinearity related problems.

The results indicate that four factors, namely, Strategic Sensitivity, Resource Fluidity, Market Turbulence and Technological Turbulence, are significantly related to the degree of Business Model Innovativeness for at least one size class of firms (differentiating micro, small and medium sized firms). Given the lack of quantitative studies in the field, this thesis contributes to the literature by supplying empirical findings that are not limited to certain cases or specific industries. Also, the originality of this work is expressed by the fact that it is the first to empirically conceptualize environmental turbulence in the context of business model innovation.


Some recent approaches have been presented as simple and highly accurate corner finders in the sketches including curves, which is useful to support natural human-computer interaction, but these in most cases do not consider tangent vertices (smooth points between two geometric entities, present in engineering models), what implies an important drawback in the field of design. In this article we present a robust approach based on the approximation to parametric cubic curves of the stroke for further radius function calculation in order to detect corner and tangent vertices. We have called our approach Tangent and Corner Vertices Detection (TCVD), and it works in the following way. First, corner vertices are obtained as minimum radius peaks in the discrete radius function, where radius is obtained from differences. Second, approximated piecewise parametric curves on the stroke are obtained and the analytic radius function is calculated. Then, curves are obtained from stretches of the stroke that have a small radius. Finally, the tangent vertices are found between straight lines and curves or between curves, where no corner vertices are previously located. The radius function to obtain curves is calculated from approximated piecewise curves, which is much more noise free than discrete radius calculation. Several tests have been carried out to compare our approach to that of the current best benchmarked, and the obtained results show that our approach achieves a significant accuracy even better finding corner vertices, and moreover, tangent vertices are detected with an Accuracy near to 92% and a False Positive Rate near to 2%.


INTRODUCTION
Immune recovery vitritis (IRV) is symptomatic vitritis of > 1 + severity associated with inactive cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis. It is an opportunistic infection of the eye, in the patients who suffer from AIDS, and is treated with a highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). As a result of this therapy, there is an immune reconstitution in the body and inflammation of the vitreous body.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to show the incidence of IRV in patients treated with HAART.

METHOD
A retrospective study was conducted in patients who suffered from CMV retinitis. Twenty-one were treated with HAART and had the diagnosis of CMV retinitis, as well. All of them were examined by the same ophthalmologist who peformed slit lamp examination with mydriasis and indirect ophthalmoscopy.

RESULTS
Nine of 21 patients developed IRV as a complication of HAART, two had cystoid macular oedema (CMO).

CONCLUSION
CMV retinitis develops when the number of CD4+ T lymphocytes drops below 50/mm3. This results in necrotic retinitis which, if untreated, leads to complete loss of vision. With the introduction of HAART, we learned that the reconstitution of immune status was achieved as well as life expectancy, but there was a dramatic decline in the opportunistic infection, including CMV retinitis, as well. With the immune reconstitution, the inflammation develops in the eye, known as IRV. Sometimes, it is neccessary to treat this condition, but in the case of our patients, the inflammation was mild, and no treatment was neccessary.


This work aimed to evaluate the performance of modified vertical flow treatment wetlands (VF-TWs) in terms of depth and medium to assess the effect of the feeding/resting periods and footprint (FP). The modifications were proposed for treating domestic wastewater in rural areas with flow variations such as tourist sites. The experimental setup included six laboratory-scale VF-TWs: (a) normal (VF-N), bed depth 1.0 m, filled with sand and (b) modified (VF-M), bed depth 0.5 m, filled with sand (upper) and zeolite (bottom, saturated). The operation was divided into three phases (3 months each), varying the feeding/resting period and FP: phase I, 5 d/10 d, 2.6 m2/person-equivalent (PE); phase II, 3.5 d/3.5 d, 1.7 m2/PE; and phase III, only feeding no resting, 0.85 m2/PE. Influent and effluent grab samples were taken every 2 weeks. The results showed effective removal (above 60%) of total solids, organic matter, and pathogens for both VF-N and VF-M. Regarding nutrients, VF-M showed a phosphate removal below 60%, but no consistent removal (15-60%) of total nitrogen. Thus, the results suggest that proposed modifications can be an option to be established in tourist sites, but further work should be conducted to improve and optimize total nitrogen removal.


Seizure activity regulates gene expression for glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) and neurturin (NRTN), and their receptor components, the transmembrane c-Ret tyrosine kinase and the glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored GDNF family receptor (GFR) alpha 1 and alpha 2 in limbic structures. We demonstrate here that epileptogenesis, as assessed in the hippocampal kindling model, is markedly suppressed in mice lacking GFR alpha 2. Moreover, at 6 to 8 wk after having reached the epileptic state, the hyperexcitability is lower in GFR alpha 2 knock-out mice as compared with wild-type mice. These results provide evidence that signaling through GFR alpha 2 is involved in mechanisms regulating the development and persistence of kindling epilepsy. Our data suggest that GDNF and NRTN may modulate seizure susceptibility by altering the function of hilar neuropeptide Y-containing interneurons and entorhinal cortical afferents at dentate granule cell synapses.


During recent years, developments in the area of virtual reality and its applications in architecture have undergone a number of important transformations that point out the need of an updated revision and adjustment as regards its current situation status and also that which concerns its potentialities within a foreseeable future. This paper seeks to provide an ample vision about recent developments of VR in architectural applications and, also, about its potential developments within the settings provided by such imminent phenomena as the upcoming Internet II and its future impact on the three dimensional and multisensorial qualities of the information that will move within cyberspace in the next decades. The paper also comments on experiencies underway at the Laboratory of Advanced Techniques in Design, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Universidad Central de Venezuela in collaboration with the Laboratory of Computer Graphics, School of Computing, also at UCV, Caracas. Finally, a number of considerations and conjectures are dedicated to the new field of VR multi-access worlds and its potential to virtual architectural modeling in the Intenet-WWW.


This paper examines the prevalence of drinking and driving (DD), DD knowledge, attitudes, behavioural intentions and perceived risks. Data was collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire from a purposive sample of 110 undergraduate university students aged 17 to 24 years. The study revealed that more than three-quarters of the sample (89.2%) had no driver's license, but they drove anyway; the majority did not own cars (98%) and they generally drove less than 5 hours/week (80.9%). The majority of the respondents (89.1%) had not driven after drinking. However, of those who had admitted to DD, males (7.9%) constituted a higher percentage than females (3%). Approximately three-quarters (74.3%) of the respondents had experienced being passengers in cars driven by drivers under the influence of alcohol, with males (44.6%) again eclipsing the female number (29.7%). DD knowledge was generally low as more than 50 percent were unsure about the definition of DD, the definition of BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration), and the safe limit of alcohol consumption. More than 50 percent of the respondents had negative attitudes towards DD as they stated that it is neither okay to DD, or RDD (riding with someone who has been DD) nor safe. Generally respondents had no inclination to DD, as they intended to prevent friends from DD, to seek alternatives to DD, to take a taxi when their driving ability has been impaired by alcohol, and to remain abstinent if they know that they would be driving. The perceived risks for DD were low, as more than 50 percent of the respondents reported that chances were low that an impaired driver will be stopped by police, will be involved in an accident, will have his/her license taken away, will be imprisoned or will pay a heavy fine. The results of this study have implications for professionals in the alcohol and traffic safety field in terms of policy and programme formulation, curriculum development and service delivery.


Abstract We present a new approach for inference about a univariate log-concave distribution: Instead of using the method of maximum likelihood, we propose to incorporate the log-concavity constraint in an appropriate nonparametric confidence set for the cdf F. This approach has the advantage that it automatically provides a measure of statistical uncertainty and it thus, overcomes a marked limitation of the maximum likelihood estimate. In particular, we show how to construct confidence bands for the density that have a finite sample guaranteed confidence level. The nonparametric confidence set for F which we introduce here has attractive computational and statistical properties: It allows to bring modern tools from optimization to bear on this problem via difference of convex programming, and it results in optimal statistical inference. We show that the width of the resulting confidence bands converges at nearly the parametric rate when the log density is k-affine. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


BACKGROUND
The optimal sequence of chemotherapy (CT) and radiotherapy (RT) remains uncertain after breast-conserving surgery (BCS). The current study was performed to evaluate whether the concurrent RT with CT increases the toxicities.

METHODS
Two hundred and thirty-eight patients with stages I and II breast cancers were prospectively allocated to concurrent CT and RT (n = 133) and sequential CT and RT (n = 105) after BCS. In the sequential group, RT was started after the completion of three cycles of CT and additional three cycles of CT were delivered after RT.

RESULTS
There was no significant difference in Grade 3 or 4 hematologic toxicities during CT between the two groups. Radiation related adverse effects were not different between the two groups. During the median follow-up period of 42 months (range: 16-60 months), 18 patients (13.5%) of the concurrent group had systemic recurrence of breast cancer, whereas 20 patients (19.1%) of the sequential group had systemic recurrence. Disease-free survival and local recurrence were not different between the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Concurrent CT and RT were not associated with increased toxicity and showed reasonable cosmetic results. The current study indicates that concurrent RT and CT after BCS is a feasible treatment modality with an advantage of shortening the treatment time.


A case of destructive ocular myiasis resulting in complete loss of the globe in two days time is documented. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of such a severe involvement in a healthy and non-compromised host. Mechanical removal and good local hygiene helped heal the wound. The larvae were isolated to be that of Chrysomyia bezziana (screwworm fly). This is possibly the first report of destructive ocular myiasis caused by Chrysomyia bezziana from the Indian subcontinent and the second in world literature. Infestation of human eyes with larvae of flies (myiasis) has been reported. Serious consequences of destructive myiasis are seen in emaciated and diseased patients. Only one report of total destruction of the globe by maggots of Chrysomyia bezziana exists in the literature. As in previous communications, the patient in this report had no predisposing factors both systemic and local. We here in document a case of orbital myiasis leading to rapid destruction of the globe within two days in a healthy and a non-compromised patient.


Race and Poverty Status as a Risk for Overall Mortality in Community-Dwelling Middle-aged Adults Recent data1 highlighted the association between income and longevity in the United States, particularly the increasing differences during 2001 through 2014 in life expectancies for people in the top 5% range of household income compared with those in the bottom 5%. However, as Woolf and Purnell2 note in their Editorial, these results depend on removing potential effects of race on mortality, especially the consequences of segregation, discrimination, and unequal resource distribution. It is important to know that income and longevity are associated, but addressing how this association contributes to health disparities and using this information to formulate public policy is impossible without considering the role of race differences.


AIM: To evaluate the characters, risks and benefits of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) in cirrhotic portal hypertension (CPH) patients.METHODS: Altogether 80 patients with symptomatic gallbladder disease and CPH, including 41 Child class A,32 Child class B and 7 Child class C, were randomly divided into open cholecystectomy (OC) group (38 patients) and LC group (42 patients). The cohorts were well-matched for number, age, sex, Child classification and types of disease.Data of the two groups were collected and analyzed.RESULTS: In LC group, LC was successfully performed in 36 cases, and 2 patients were converted to OC for difficulty in managing bleeding under laparoscope and dense adhesion of Calot's triangle. The rate of conversion was 5.3%. The surgical duration was 62.6±15.2 min. The operative blood loss was 75.5±15.5 mL. The time to resume diet was 18.3±6.5 h. Seven postoperative complications occurred in five patients (13.2%). All patients were dismissed after an average of 4.6±2.4 d. In OC group, the operation time was 60.5±17.5 min. The operative blood loss was 112.5±23.5 mL. The time to resume diet was 44.2±10.5 h.Fifteen postoperative complications occurred in 12patients (30.0%). All patients were dismissed after an average of 7.5±3.5 d. There was no significant difference in operation time between OC and LC group. But LC offered several advantages over OC, including fewer blood loss and lower postoperative complication rate, shorter time to resume diet and shorter length of hospitalization in patients with CPH.CONCLUSION: Though LC for patients with CPH is difficult, it is feasible, relatively safe, and superior to OC.It is important to know the technical characters of the operation, and pay more attention to the meticulous perioperative managements.


We report a case of a 66-year-old man who presented with an abnormal sensation, tenderness, and pain in the middle of his chest in May 2006, two years after a mitral valve replacement for severe mitral regurgitation and a MAZE operation for chronic atrial fibrillation elective cardiac. He was immediately admitted, and the x-ray examination revealed an abnormal elongation of the xiphoid process. At the time of discharge after the initial operation in 2004, x-rays indicated that the length of the xiphoid process was 3 cm; however, in 2006 it had elongated to 6 cm and was prominent in the anterior view. The patient underwent surgical extirpation of the xiphoid process while he was under local anesthesia. Histological examination of the resected xiphoid process revealed no signs of neoplastic or maligant change. The cause of the elongation of the xiphoid process was believed to be distraction tissue neogenesis. The xiphoid process, which fractured and separated from the sternum at the initial operation, was pulled down inferiorly by the rectus abdominis muscles, following which the xiphoid process became elongated and reconnected with the sternum. In cases of a fractured or amputated xiphoid process after median sternotomy, the xiphoid process should be resected to avoid its neogenesis.


Background Despite evidence supporting an involvement of mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of some neurodegenerative disorders, there are inconsistent findings concerning mitochondrial haplogroups and their association to neurodegenerative disorders, including idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods To test this hypothesis for the Greek-Cypriot population, a cohort of 230 PD patients and 457 healthy matched controls were recruited. Mitochondrial haplogroup distributions for cases and controls were determined. Association tests were carried out between mitochondrial haplogroups and PD. Results Mitochondrial haplogroup U was associated with a reduced PD risk in the Cypriot population. After pooling mitochondrial haplogroups together into haplogroup clusters and superclusters, association tests demonstrated a significantly protective effect of mitochondrial haplogroup cluster N (xR) and supercluster LMN for PD risk only in females. In addition, for female PD cases belonging to UKJT and R (xH, xUKJT) haplogroup, the odds of having a later age of onset of PD were 13 and 15 times respectively higher than the odds for female cases with an H haplogroup. Conclusion Statistically significant associations regarding PD risk and PD age of onset were mostly detected for females thus suggesting that gender is a risk modifier between mitochondrial haplogroups and PD status / PD age of onset. The biological mechanisms behind this gender specificity remain to be determined.


The fascinating properties and diverse applications of zeolites and their analogs are a direct result of their unusual microporous structures. Consequently, structure analysis is central to the understanding of their chemistry. However, these materials tend to be produced and used in polycrystalline rather than single-crystal form, so powder diffraction is often the only option available for such investigations. In principle, a powder diffraction pattern contains all the structural information of a single-crystal diffraction pattern. It is just that some of that information is obscured by reflection overlap. Over the years, zeolite crystallographers have devised different ways of dealing with this problem in their attempts to elucidate the crystal structures of zeolitic materials, and as a result a colorful palette of deciphering techniques has emerged. Sometimes the framework type is known, and further structural details, such as the location of the structure directing agent in the pores, the arrangement of cations after ion exchange, or the effect of calcination on the framework geometry, are of interest. In this case, the framework structure can be used as a starting point for phasing, and difference Fourier analysis combined with Rietveld refinement to complete and refine the structure. With the quality of the data that can now be measured, surprisingly detailed structural information can be determined in this way, if care is taken. If, however, the framework structure is not known, it must first be determined, and this presents a different challenge to the zeolite crystallographer. The unit cell dimensions, and some symmetry information can usually be gleaned from the powder diffraction pattern, but direct extraction of reliable reflection intensities suitable for standard structure solution programs is difficult if the degree of reflection overlap is high. To overcome this problem, methods to estimate the relative intensities of overlapping reflections based on information from the non-overlapping reflections have been developed, two experimental methods involving the collection of multiple datasets on perturbed samples have been devised, and direct methods programs have beeen adapted to deal with the intensity ambiguity. In the past, novel zeolite framework structures were solved primarily by building a physical model consistent with all available information (not just the powder pattern), and comparing the powder pattern calculated for the model with the experimentally measured one. In this way, the problem of reflection overlap could be circumvented. Despite the amazing advances that have been made in computing power and instrumentation, this method remains the most powerful one available to us. When all other methods fail, this one still might work. However, success is heavily dependent upon the skill and experience of the model builder. Fortunately, some of the ideas used in model building have now been successfully incorporated into automated structure determination algorithms. Thus, a zeolite crystallographer has a rich array of decoding methods at his disposal. The question is, which should he use? m30.o03


Three clinical types of arthritis in meningococcal disease are presented; their classification is based on a review of the literature from 1887 and on experience with pediatric patients treated in Dallas, Texas. The most common type is arthritis complicating acute meningococcal disease; it occurred in 1,180 of the patients reviewed or approximately 5% of children and 11% of adults with meningococcal disease. Septic or allergic pathogenesis was documented in fewer than 5% of these, 1,180 patients. However, the search for an immunologic basis, conducted in a small number of patients, produced results suggesting that immune complexes are involved in many patients with sterile effusions. Large joints, especially the knee, were involved in 95% of the cases, and almost half the patients had polyarthritis. Chronic meningococcemia, an infrequently reported clinical entity, was accompanied more often by arthralgia than arthritis. Primary meningococcal arthritis, which is a rare form of acute septic arthritis, affected large joints almost exclusively and was polyarthritic in about one-third of cases. The management was the same for all types of meningococcal arthritis and consisted primarily of specific antimeningococcal chemotherapy. Evacuation of pus is recommended, since this treatment may be expected to shorten the relatively long symptomatic course. The prognosis for patients with meningococcal arthritis is excellent, and joint residua are rare.


Recently, several studies have investigated active learning (AL) for natural language processing tasks to alleviate data dependency. However, for query selection, most of these studies mainly rely on uncertainty-based sampling, which generally does not exploit the structural information of the unlabeled data. This leads to a sampling bias in the batch active learning setting, which selects several samples at once. In this work, we demonstrate that the amount of labeled training data can be reduced using active learning when it incorporates both uncertainty and diversity in the sequence labeling task. We examined the effects of our sequence-based approach by selecting weighted diverse in the gradient embedding approach across multiple tasks, datasets, models, and consistently outperform classic uncertainty-based sampling and diversity-based sampling.


A checklist of 110 species of fishes belonging to 10 orders, 31 families and 78 genera was recorded with their scientific, common and Bangla or local names. These fish specimens were collected from the rivers, beels, haors, ponds and swamps of middle to North-east Bangladesh (Jamalpur, Netrokona, Kishorganj, Munshiganj and Bogra Districts). The order Cypriniformes (37%) was recorded higher followed by Perciformes (24%), Siluriformes (23%), Clupeiformes (6%). The global and national IUCN categories of these species are also provided. Based on local IUCN criteria, around 23% fish species belongs to threatened level and 5, 8 and 10% are denoted as critically endangered (CR), endangered (EN) and vulnerable (VU), respectively. Although collection and preservation is comparatively hassle-free, however, due to mingle nature of few fish species; it seems difficult to error free identification of the collected fishes by morphological traits alone. Two individuals from Sanondabari, Jamalpur (MHBSFMSTU Fish 92 and Ghaglajur Bazar, Netrokona (MHBSFMSTU Fish 84), morphologically very similar but they are completely two separated species i.e. Gagata cenia and G. youssoufi, respectively. Phenotypic plasticity is a barrier to name the fish species accurately, suggesting the presence of putative candidate species or existence of hidden diversity in the collected specimens of Sisoridae family. Due to anthropological effects, the biodiversity and fishing grounds are losing their qualities, resulting the low number of freshwater fish species in these sampling sites. The systematic, ecology, distribution, habitats of these fish fauna need to be studied exclusively and a well-planned conservation strategy need to implement as early as possible for protecting our valuable freshwater tasty fishes. Further, the output of the current study will also guide the government and non-government organization to come forward and take necessary measure for the betterment of the country, its economy, and fisheries resources.


Stable oxygen isotope ratios (delta18O) have become a valuable tool in the plant and ecosystem sciences. The interpretation of delta18O values in plant material is, however, still complicated owing to the complex interactions among factors that influence leaf water enrichment. This study investigated the interplay among environmental parameters, leaf physiological properties and leaf water relations as drivers of the isotopic enrichment of leaf water across 17 Eucalyptus species growing in a common garden. We observed large differences in maximum daily leaf water delta18O across the 17 species. By fitting different leaf water models to these empirical data, we determined that differences in leaf water delta18O across species are largely explained by variation in the Péclet effect across species. Our analyses also revealed that species-specific differences in transpiration do not explain the observed differences in delta18O while the unconstrained fitting parameter 'effective path length' (L) was highly correlated with delta18O. None of the leaf morphological or leaf water related parameters we quantified in this study correlated with the L values we determined even though L was typically interpreted as a leaf morphological/anatomical property. A sensitivity analysis supported the importance of L for explaining the variability in leaf water delta18O across different species. Our investigation highlighted the importance of future studies to quantify the leaf properties that influence L. Obtaining such information will significantly improve our understanding of what ultimately determines the delta18O values of leaf water across different plant species.


Responses to a recent survey revealed that it has become increasingly difficult for people to find consistent full-time jobs, and that this in turn makes it more difficult for many to pay their bills and save for emergencies and retirement. Recognizing this concern among our community stakeholders around the issue of underemployment and taking note of the larger trend in involuntary part-time employment highlighted by Fed economists, we dug into the facts, the numbers, and the research to find out: Are lower-income households more directly impacted by the recent rise in part-time employment and, if so, why is that happening and what does it mean for LMI communities?