In many cases, the production prediction at the fracture design stage and later from the post-fracture pressure-matching exercise is never realized. The underperformance of fracture treatments is often attributed either to formation damage, proppant crushing and embedment, or to the poor reservoir quality despite a reasonably good reservoir property indicator from all sources including the pressure decline in a mini-fracture test. Based on several case studies, this paper highlights a number of issues that were found responsible for underperformance of fracture treatments. The understanding and mitigation of these issues require the application of comprehensive geomechanics.
 For each case, a comprehensive geomechanical model was built for the field, characterizing the depth profiles of all three stresses, rock mechanical properties and the direction of the horizontal stresses by integrating available data from various sources including drilling and logging data, laboratory rock test data and mini-fracture test data. The contrasts in stress and rock mechanical properties among various lithologies along the well path were created based on fundamental geomechanical principles. The hydraulic fracture growth was simulated as per the pressure-matching practice for each treatment carried out. The production condition was applied to the simulated propped fracture to predict the production and compare it with the actual production data where available.
 Issues that were found responsible for lower-than-expected production include (1) out-of-zone fracture growth that could not be predicted using the oversimplified geomechanics; (2) poor connection between wellbores and fractures for unfavorably oriented wells; (3) non-optimum perforation intervals that caused non-optimum fracture growth and near-perforation low conductivity; (4) malpractices in treatment execution that resulted in disconnected fractures with the perforations; and (5) suboptimal treatments for reservoir conditions. Appropriate mitigation strategies were recommended for wells in production, and increased productions were reported where the recommendations were implemented. One significant observation is that several oversimplified techniques currently used in the industry create significantly different stress contrast profiles than that was found based on fundamental physics of geomechanics, though all these profiles could be calibrated with the same closure pressure from a mini-fracture test. The use of such inaccurate stress contrast profiles is primarily responsible for unrealistic fracture and production predictions.


Young subterranean clover plants were raised at several levels of nitrogen supply, and then transferred to complete solutions and to solutions without nitrogen Subsequent leaf area response patterns were not related to the supply of combined nitrogen before transfer. The relative differences m leaf area between the two solutions were thought to depend on differences In nodulation caused by differences In the supply of combined nitrogen before transfer. Further experiments showed that the rates of leaf area Increase of inoculated and well-nodulated plants In solutions without nitrogen were similar to those of corresponding plants receiving combined nitrogen Plants that had not been inoculated showed markedly smaller leaf growth rates after transfer to solutions without nitrogen than in complete solutions Even when the previous supply of combined nitrogen had been adequate, plants transferred to solutions without nitrogen were unable to maintain leaf area Increases at rates comparable with those of the corresponding plants in complete solutions for more than 3 days. Reasons for the marked differences between these results and those of experiments with phosphorus, sulphur, potassium, and boron are discussed


Background: Adoption of the hybrid rice varieties by farmers is often impaired by the high price of hybrid seed, due to low yields in hybrid seed production fields. Female outcrossing ability (FOA) and female hybrid seed production ability (FHSPA), defined as the rate of filled spikelets of the male sterile (MS) line and as its grain yield under outcrossing, respectively, determine plant traits for hybrid seed yield. Breeding for FOA and FHSPA in rice has suffered from the lack of a high throughput phenotyping method and the inbred breeding approach used for the development of MS lines. We developed an innovative hybrid rice breeding strategy that uses the monogenic recessive male-sterility gene ms-IR36 for the reciprocal recurrent improvement of maintainer and restorer populations. Results: High throughput screening for FOA and FHSPA can be achieved by scoring the grain weight of MS plants and the grain yield of fertile plants of progenies extracted from breeding populations segregating for the ms-IR36 gene. Using this phenotyping method in seven field trials, each involving several hundred entries, we revealed a very broad diversity for FOA (ranging from zero to 89%) and FHSPA, within the F3 progenies of bi-parental crosses and within S1 and S2 progenies extracted from different breeding populations. The seven experiments produced convergent results and heritabilities of 0.59-0.90 for FHSPA and 0.45-0.72 for FOA. Correlations between FHSPA and FOA were tight and highly significant. Correlations were looser between FHSPA and grain yield of the selfed fertile sibling (GW-MF). Correlations between FOA and GW-MF were not significant. Tight significant correlation was also observed between FHSPA of S1 lines and S2 lines extracted from the former. Conclusion: Population breeding through recurrent selection, using the ms-IR36 gene as a tool for both recombination and seed production for testcrossing, is a favorable framework for harnessing rice genetic diversity for FHSPA. Rapid and cost-effective genetic gain for hybrid seed production can be achieved using results of the ms-IR36 gene mediated test cross seed production process as FHSPA early screening.


— Nurses are responsible for the care and treatment of individuals, as well as health maintenance and education. Medication administration is an important part of health promotion. The administration of a medicine is a common but important clinical procedure for nurses because of its complex structure. Therefore, medication errors are inevitable for nurses or nursing students. Medication errors can cause ineffective treatment, patient's prolonged hospital stay, disablement or death. Additionally, medication errors affect the global economy adversely by increasing health costs. Hence, preventing or decreasing of medication errors is a critical and essential issue in nursing. Nurse educators are in pursuit of new teaching methods to teach students significance of medication application. In the light of technological developments of this age, e-learning has started to be accepted as an important teaching method. E-learning is the use of electronic media and information and communication technologies in education. It has advantages such as flexibility of time and place, lower costs, faster delivery and lower environmental impact. Students can make their own schedule and decide the learning method. This study is conducted to determine the impact of e-learning on medication administration of nursing students.


With the main objective of substituting a generator without a conventional Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet (PM), this paper describes the application of ferrite PM to a 1.5 (kW) wind power generator and proposes a newly designed generator with similar performance and machine size as the equivalent conventional Nd-Fe-B PM generator. The conventional generator with Nd-Fe-B PM was slotless in order to eliminate the cogging torque resulting from the PM and the tooth-slot structure. The magnetic structure of the proposed ferrite generator was newly designed using an analytical approach to obtain satisfactory performance. All analysis results were validated through experiments with a manufactured model, confirming the possibility of substitution of Nd-Fe-B magnet with ferrite magnet in such generators.


The evolutionary history of marine predator-prey interactions is a topic with important implications for a broad array of paleoecological questions. Has predation of marine organisms intensified through time? How have mass extinction events affected these interactions over longer time scales? What is the role of predator-prey interactions in species diversity and paleoecological structure of marine communities? The conditions that lead to complex marine ecosystems and the response of these systems to disruptive events in Earth's history are of direct importance to understanding and predicting the response of modern ocean ecosystems to changing conditions in the Common Era.

Characterizing even the most general trends of marine predation through the Phanerozoic has proven to be a complex problem due to the difficulties in quantifying predation among and between the wide range of taxa, morphological adaptations, behaviors, and modes of life involved. In Vermeij's (1987) classic book on escalation, he outlined an impressive array of anti-predation adaptations distributed among many different phyla that can be quantified and tracked through time including shell thickness and size, degree of ornamentation, and the ability to cement or swim. In addition to these morphologic features, adaptive radiations of various specialized predators and changing frequencies of predation traces could be correlated to the appearance of many shelly invertebrate taxa with anti-predator adaptations. Most of the unique adaptations in predators and shelly prey were present by the Jurassic Period, while frequencies of predatory drill holes rapidly increased during the Cretaceous, leading Vermeij (1977) to term this phenomenon the Mesozoic Marine Revolution (MMR).

Identifying an escalatory influence between durophagous predators and their shelly prey requires more than correlation of appearances and taxonomic radiations of predators and prey (Harper and Skelton 1993; Deitl and Kelley 2002). Unlike the Cretaceous coupling of taxonomic radiations of predatory gastropods with increased frequencies of …


Integration and collaboration has been an important strategy for development of the health and welfare system in Sweden since the 1960s. This development has been intensified during the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s. This key note speech will focus on the development of interorganizational collaboration between health care, social service and other welfare services on the local level of the Swedish society. There will be examples from care of the elderly, social psychiatric care and vocational rehabilitation. Different organizational models will be presented and experiences of barriers as well as facilitating factors will be discussed.


During their lifetime, cells encounter many life or death situations that challenge their very own existence. Their survival depends on the interplay within a complex yet precisely orchestrated network of proteins. The Rel/NF-kappaB signaling pathway and the transcription factors that it activates have emerged as critical regulators of the apoptotic response. These proteins are best known for the key roles that they play in normal immune and inflammatory responses, but they are also implicated in the control of cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis and oncogenesis. In recent years, there has been remarkable progress in understanding the pathways that activate the Rel/NF-kappaB factors and their role in the cell's decision to either fight or surrender to apoptotic challenge. Whereas NF-kappaB is most commonly involved in suppressing apoptosis by transactivating the expression of antiapoptotic genes, it can promote programmed cell death in response to certain death-inducing signals and in certain cell types. This review surveys our current understanding of the role of NF-kappaB in the apoptotic response and focuses on many developments since this topic was last reviewed in Oncogene 4 years ago. These recent findings shed new light on the activity of NF-kappaB as a critical regulator of apoptosis in the immune, hepatic, epidermal and nervous systems, on the mechanisms through which it operates and on its role in tissue development, homoeostasis and cancer.


The present invention relates to a repeller for an ion implanter and an ion generating device comprising the same. According to the preset invention, it is possible to provide a part for an ion implanter and an ion generating device comprising the same, wherein a part such as a repeller, a cathode, a chamber wall, or a slit member, which constitutes an arc chamber of an ion generating device for ion implantation that is used to manufacture a semiconductor element, is provided with a semi-carbide layer-including coating structure for the purpose of thermal deformation stabilization, for the purpose of wear protection, or for the purpose of deposited material peeling resistance, thereby enabling a precise ion implantation process having no distortion of the ion generating position and no distortion of the equipment, and electrons can be evenly reflected into the arc chamber such that, by increasing the uniformity of the plasma, not only the efficiency of decomposition of the ion source gas is improved, but the service life is substantially improved compared with that of existing parts.


An interface crack between single crystal silicon (SC-Si) and silicone rubber is examined. The first term of the asymptotic solution for this interface crack is derived. Mixed mode fracture tests were performed on Brazilian disk specimens at different mode mixities. Finite element analyses (FEAs) of these tests were carried out in abaqus. A cubic (anisotropic) material model is used for SC-Si. Two different material models were used for silicone rubber: a linear elastic model for the asymptotic solution and a Mooney–Rivlin (hyperelastic) model for the FEA. The FEAs showed that large deformations were relegated to a small region surrounding the crack tip. Hence, a K-dominate region exists in which linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) may be used. From the FEAs of the Brazilian disk specimens, energy release rates were determined using the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT) and displacement extrapolation (DE) methods which were corroborated by J-integral values evaluated using the contour integral method. Elsewhere, it was demonstrated that properly implemented, the VCCT method may be used for interface cracks. A mixed mode failure criterion is obtained from the energy release rate data. The SC-Si failed before the interface crack propagated. Hence, the failure curve obtained in this study should be considered as a lower bound of the critical energy release rate for this material pair.


Background: Most of the present anti-bacterials are either semisynthetic modifications of some natural compound or are synthetic chemicals. All of them have acceptable spectrum of action and efficacy but none of them are devoid of side effects. For this reason a new anti-bacterial is needed which should have same acceptable efficacy with better safety. Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) is a well-known herb commonly used in cooking, folk medicine, pharmaceutical and food industries. In this study we have tested anti-bacterial activity of coriander oil against 5 microorganisms and compared the results with ampicillin and genatmicin. Methods: The study was done on five bacteria – Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebseilla, Pseudomonas and Salmonella. Antibiotic sensitivity testing was done on Mueller Hinton agar plates by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. After application of inoculum antibiotic discs of 2 mm diameter impregnated with ampicillin, gentamicin or coriander oil were placed 2 cm apart from each other. Each drug sample was used in triplicate. Incubation was done for 18-24 hours at 37 o C aerobically. The diameters of zones of inhibition were measured in mm and expressed as Mean±SD. Results: Coriander oil expressed highest antibacterial action against E. coli (10.73±0.21) which was better than Gentamicin (9.47±0.45). Coriander also inhibited growth of Salmonella (9.53±0.40) which was slightly less than Ampicillin (10.57±0.21) and least activity was expressed against Klebsiella (7.20±0.17) and that also was close to action of Ampicillin (8.43±0.25). Conclusions: Coriander oil demonstrated good anti-bacterial activity against commonly five occurring microorganisms but further extensive studies are required to isolate the active ingredient responsible for antibacterial action and develop coriander essential oil as a clinically proven antibacterial agent.


This paper considers the finite-horizon discrete-time minimax estimation problems related to the H∞ estimation cost. Based on the Lagrange multiplier technique, we show that the minimax estimators are identical to H∞ estimators in both filtering and onestep prediction cases. Moreover, necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of the minimax estimators are given in terms of an H∞ type Riccati difference equation (RDE) satisfying the positive definiteness of certain matrices. Using the RDE, we compare the minimax estimators with Kalman filter, and investigate the some properties of the minimax estimators. A numerical example is also included to show the applicability of the present minimax estimators.


Background/Aims: Xanomeline has been shown to bind in a unique manner at M1 and M3 muscarinic receptors, with interactions at both the orthosteric site and an allosteric site. We have previously shown that brief exposure of Chinese hamster ovary cells that express the M3 receptor to xanomeline followed by removal of free agonist results in a delayed decrease in radioligand binding and receptor response to agonists. In the current study, we were interested in determining the mechanisms of this effect. Methods: Cells were treated with carbachol, pilocarpine or xanomeline for 1 h followed by washing and either used immediately or after waiting for 23 h. Control groups included cells that were not exposed to agonists and cells that were treated with agonists for 24 h. Radioligand binding and functional assays were conducted to determine the effects of agonist treatments. Results: The above treatment protocol with xanomeline resulted in similar effects of the binding of [3H]NMS and [3H]QNB. When receptor function is blocked using a variety of methods, the long-term effects of xanomeline binding were absent. Conclusion: Our data indicate that xanomeline wash-resistant binding at the receptor allosteric site leads to receptor downregulation and that receptor activation is necessary for these effects.


Focused Clinical Question In patients presenting with generalized moderate to severe chronic periodontitis and continuing to smoke, does host modulation improve the maintenance of alveolar bone support and clinical attachment level? Clinical Scenario A 45-year-old woman with a 25-pack-year history of smoking presents for comprehensive periodontal therapy including four quadrants of regenerative surgery and is now receiving supportive care at 3-month intervals. Clinical examination reveals excellent oral hygiene, and the patient resists a referral for smoking cessation. The patient is anxious about the potential for tooth loss. See Figures 1 to 3 for clinical presentation.


The paper presents a method of profiling the phase currents to minimize the torque ripple of switched reluctance machines (SRM) operating in four quadrant mode over the entire speed range of operation. A single quadrant current profiling presented in [1] is extended to be applicable in the four quadrant mode of operation. The method is based on machine and controller design through coupled simulation of the finite element based machine model and the dynamic controller model. The coupled simulation considers the magnetic nonlinearities, electrical and magnetic losses, and mutual coupling. The research quantifies the effect of position sensor error and manufacturing build variations on the level of torque ripple minimization. The mitigation processes to account for those issues in mass production are also presented.


The first organically templated gallium oxalatophosphonate has been synthesized under hydrothermal conditions and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. The structure consists of GaO(6) octahedra and GaO(4) tetrahedra connected by methylphosphonate and bis-bidentate oxalate anions to form anionic sheets in the ab plane with the charge-compensating propylenediammonium cations and water molecules between the sheets. The methyl groups of the phosphonate ligands extend from both sides of the layers into the interlamellar region. Crystal data: monoclinic, space group P2(1)/n (No. 14), a = 8.8514(4) A, b = 16.3030(7) A, c = 15.0816(7) A, beta = 97.539(1) degrees, and Z = 4.


ABSTRACT We carried out a year-long survey of insects, using carrion-baited traps in the municipality of Campinas and five surrounding municipalities with different urbanization profiles, in southeastern Brazil. We studied the spatio-temporal variability and preferences for type of bait of three blow fly species that are forensically important in Brazil: Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann), Chrysomya megacephala (F.), and Lucilia eximia (Wiedemann). All three species preferred chicken. C. albiceps and L. eximia preferred the urban environment, while C. megacephala preferred the rural environment. Calliphoridae, Muscidae, Fanniidae, and Sarcophagidae were the most numerous families. No clear seasonal patterns could be recognized for the three species. The associations of species/municipality, species/environment, and species/bait are discussed from the ecological and forensic standpoints.


We report an adult female with a rare giant choledochal cyst. The patient presented following a normal pregnancy with the classical triad of an abdominal mass associated with jaundice and right upper quadrant abdominal pain. The cyst was excised using an intramural technique and biliary reconstruction achieved with a Roux‐en‐Y hepaticojejunostomy. Our patient has remained well with no evidence of malignancy over a 12 year review period. The aetiology and current management of this condition are discussed.


Model initialization is a matter of transferring the observed information available at the start of a forecast to the model. An optimal initialization is generally recognized to be able to improve climate predictions up to a few years ahead. However, systematic errors in models make the initialization process challenging. When the observed information is transferred to the model at the initialization time, the discrepancy between the observed and model mean climate causes the drift of the prediction toward the model-biased attractor. Although such drifts can be generally accounted for with a posteriori bias correction techniques, the bias evolving along the prediction might affect the variability that we aim at predicting, and disentangling the small magnitude of the climate signal from the initial drift to be removed represents a challenge. In this study, we present an innovative initialization technique that aims at reducing the initial drift by performing a quantile matching between the observed state at the initialization time and the model state distribution. The adjusted initial state belongs to the model attractor and the observed variability amplitude is scaled toward the model one. Multi-annual climate predictions integrated for 5 years and run with the EC-Earth3 Global Coupled Model have been initialized with this novel methodology, and their prediction skill has been compared with the non-initialized historical simulations from CMIP6 and with the same decadal prediction system but based on full-field initialization. We perform a skill assessment of the surface temperature, the heat content in the ocean upper layers, the sea level pressure, and the barotropic ocean circulation. The added value of the quantile matching initialization is shown in the North Atlantic subpolar region and over the North Pacific surface temperature as well as for the ocean heat content up to 5 years. Improvements are also found in the predictive skill of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and the barotropic stream function in the Labrador Sea throughout the 5 forecast years when compared to the full field method.


Background Pulmonary vein (PV) stump thrombus, a known source of cerebral infarction, develops almost exclusively after left upper lobectomy; however, the mechanism remains unclear. We therefore evaluated the hemodynamics in the left atrium with four-dimensional flow magnetic resonance imaging (4D-flow MRI), which enables the simultaneous depiction of blood flow at three locations and the evaluation of hemodynamics. Methods 4D-flow MRI was basically performed 7 days after lobectomy for cancer arising in the right upper lobe (n=11), right lower lobe (n=8), left upper lobe (n=13), or left lower lobe (n=8). We evaluated dynamic blood movement from the ipsilateral remaining PV, the resected PV stump, and the contralateral PVs into the left atrium using 4D-flow MRI. Results There were some characteristic blood flow patterns that seemed to either promote or prevent PV stump thrombus. Promotive flow patterns were significantly more frequent and preventive flow patterns were significantly less frequent in patients who had undergone left upper lobectomy than in those who had undergone other lobectomy. Accordingly, the degree of blood turbulence near the vein stump, as measured by the extent of change in the blood movement, was significantly higher in patients who had undergone left upper lobectomy than in patients who had undergone other lobectomy. Conclusions Our study revealed that left upper lobectomy likely causes blood turbulence near the vein stump through complicated blood streams in the left atrium, which can play a part in the development of vein stump thrombus. Further study to identify patients at high risk of vein stump thrombus is warranted.


Campylobacter jejuni is a major cause of human inflammatory enteritis, but colonizes the gastrointestinal tract of poultry to a high level in a commensal manner. In vitro, C. jejuni induces the production of cytokines from both human and avian-model epithelial cell and macrophage infections. This suggests that, in vivo, Campylobacter could induce proinflammatory signals in both hosts. We investigated whether a proinflammatory cytokine response can be measured in both day-of-hatch and 2-week-old Light Sussex chickens during infection with C. jejuni. A significant induction of proinflammatory chemokine transcript was observed in birds of both ages, compared with levels in mock-infected controls. This correlated with an influx of heterophils but was not associated with any pathology. These results suggest that in poultry there may be a controlled inflammatory process during colonization.


Sockeye salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka, are anadromous, semelparous fish that breed in freshwater—typically in streams, and juveniles in most populations feed in lakes for 1 or 2 years, then migrate to sea to feed for 2 or 3 additional years, before returning to their natal sites to spawn and die. This species undergoes important changes in behavior, habitat, and morphology through these multiple life history stages. However, the sensory systems that mediate these migratory patterns are not fully understood, and few studies have explored changes in sensory function and specialization throughout ontogeny. This study investigates changes in the olfactory rosette of sockeye salmon across four different life stages (fry, parr, smolt, and adult). Development of the olfactory rosette was assessed by comparing total rosette size (RS), lamellae number, and lamellae complexity from scanning electron microscopy images across life stages, as a proxy for olfactory capacity. Olfactory RS increased linearly with lamellae number and body size (p < .001). The complexity of the rosette, including the distribution of sensory and nonsensory epithelia and the appearance of secondary lamellar folding, varied between fry and adult life stages. These differences in epithelial structure may indicate variation in odor‐processing capacity between juveniles imprinting on their natal stream and adults using those odor memories in the final stages of homing to natal breeding sites. These findings improve our understanding of the development of the olfactory system throughout life in this species, highlighting that ontogenetic shifts in behavior and habitat may coincide with shifts in nervous system development.


Cuba is traditionally considered a country with an underdeveloped industry. The share of the mining and metallurgical industries in the gross industrial production of the republic is small – about 3 % of GDP. The development of deposits and the extraction of nickel ores is an important sector of the economy of the Republic of Cuba, since the largest reserves of nickel and cobalt on the North American continent are located on the territory of the country. The development of the country energy system can serve as a growth factor in this sector of the economy. Due to climatic features and impossibility of integrating new capacities into the energy system through the construction of hydroelectric power plants, solar energy is a promising direction. Determining the feasibility of using solar tracking systems to increase the generation of electricity from solar power plants is one of the main challenges faced by engineers and renewable energy specialists. Currently, there are no solar tracking systems in Cuba that can provide information to assess the effectiveness of this technology in the country. The lack of the necessary technologies, as well as the high cost of developing solar power plants with tracking systems, limit the widespread introduction of such complexes. Hence follows the task of creating an inexpensive experimental model that allows assessing the effectiveness of tracking systems in specific weather conditions of the Republic of Cuba. This model will allow in future to increase the efficiency of electrical complexes with solar power plants, which provide power supply to the objects of the mineral resource complex and other regions.


Myeloperoxidase-type antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (MPO-ANCA)-associated vasculitis may manifest various organ symptoms. Treatment allows recovery from early, but severe, organ involvement. However, the relationship between the initial organ involvement and the eventual clinical course has not been studied in this disease. Therefore, the current study evaluated 30 patients who were hospitalized and then categorized into ten clinical subtypes based on organ involvement. The relationship of these subtypes to development of clinical features, patient survival, kidney prognosis, and relapse were evaluated over an average observation period of 4.3 years. During this study, the most common clinical features were lung and kidney involvement. Twenty-one patients already manifested clinical features around the time of admission and did not commonly present new symptoms as long as they were receiving the treatment for vasculitis. In contrast, as far as pulmonary involvement type at the initial time was concerned and in those not being treated for vasculitis, 7 of the 12 patients progressed to pulmo-renal involvement and 5 of them went onto renal failure. Progression to renal failure also occurred frequently in patients with pulmo-renal type manifesting at the initial time. Thirteen patients died, including three patients due to vasculitis of systemic type, seven due to infections, and three due to malignancy. Death due to vasculitis occurred in the early phase of treatment and was associated with either pulmonary hemorrhage or gastrointestinal bleeding. Infectious death occurred throughout the entire course of treatment, mostly in patients with pulmo-renal or pulmonary type, and tended to be associated with opportunistic organisms. Death with malignancy was observed after several years of treatment. Regarding renal prognosis, ten patients underwent hemodialysis. At initiation of hemodialysis, nine patients had pulmo-renal type and only one had renal type. A relapse was observed in ten patients, mainly in patients with pulmo-renal or pulmonary type, and it occurred after about 2.7 years, even with treatment. Such relapses manifested in a similar manner to their initial clinical subtypes. These results suggest that pulmo-renal type as well as pulmonary type have a high chance to progress to renal failure or systemic type, and they were fairly commonly associated with vasculitic or infectious death. Therefore, classification of clinical subtypes at the initial time and on admission is meaningful to some extent for predicting patient survival, kidney prognosis, and relapse, in addition to indicating the appropriate treatment regimen.


Results from the initial findings of the interview found that Diponegoro university students were not satisfied with the services provided by Go-Jek, among others, apps are often error, the location of the remote driver, drivers pay less attention to passenger safety, and it is found that there is a gap between the number of downloaders and the number of Go-Jek transactions. This research was conducted to analyze the effect of brand image, consumer preference, word of mouth, trust and price perception on purchase decision Go- Ride service on Diponegoro University student. Data collection technique conducted in this study is a questionnaire. The sample was   chosen  by  purposive  sampling   technique.  Respondents   in   this   research  are Diponegoro University students who have used Go-Ride service for at least 2 times, with 110 respondents whose distribution includes 11 faculties. The technique used to analyze the influence of independent variables and dependent variable of this research is multiple linear regression analysis. Result of research prove that hypothesis one Brand image have positive effect to Purchase  Decision  accepted.  The  second  hypothesis  of  Consumer  Preference  has  a positive effect on Purchase Decision accepted. The third hypothesis of Word Of Mouth has a positive effects on Purchase Decision accepted. Fourth Hypothesis, Trust has a positive effect on Purchase Decision accepted. The fifth hypothesis, Price Perception has a positive effect on Purchase Decision accepted. Coefficient of determination test results stated that the five independent variables have an influence of 47.9% of Purchase Decision. Go-Ride service providers are advised to build a better brand image, by knowing their consumer preferences  so  that  it  is  expected  to  create  positive  word  of  mouth  and  consumer confidence to improve purchasing decisions.


The impact of adding a modified Ludzack–Ettinger (MLE) configuration with Nitrate Recycle (NRCY) on continuous-flow aerobic granulation has yet to be explored. The potential negative effects of MLE on sludge densification include that: (1) bioflocs brought by NRCY could compete with granules in feast zones; and (2) carbon addition to anoxic zones could increase the system organic loading rates and lead to higher feast-to-famine ratios. Two pilot-scale plug flow reactor (PFR) systems fed with real domestic wastewater were set up onsite to test these hypotheses. The results showed that MLE configuration with NRCY could hinder the sludge granulation, but the hindrance could be alleviated by the NRCY location change which to some extent also compensates for the negative effect of higher feast-to-famine ratios due to carbon addition in MLE. This NRCY location change can be advantageous to drive sludge densification without a radical washout of the sludge inventory, and had no effects on the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nitrogen removal efficiencies. The PFR pilot design for the MLE process with a modified NRCY location tested in this study could be developed as an alternative to hydrocyclones for full-scale, greenfield, continuous sludge densification applications.


Persistent sciatic artery is a rare congenital anomaly with a high incidence rate of aneurysmal degeneration and risk of thromboembolization or rupture. Despite a number of recognized associations, the presence of coexistent venous anomalies is extremely rare. We present the case of a 27-year-old woman with atypical left-sided varicose veins and soft tissue hypertrophy. Imaging showed persistence of both sciatic artery and vein. Whether these anomalies are an incidental finding or represent a discrete clinical syndrome remains unclear. We emphasize that unusual distribution varicose veins may be associated with underlying persistent sciatic vessels and recommend formal duplex scan assessment for these anomalies.


World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that globally there are about 5 million neonatal deaths per year. Ninety eight percent of them are occurring in developing countries in the first week of life. Infections are frequent and important cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine the common presenting symptoms and signs of neonatal sepsis in neonates admitted from emergency room to pediatrics ward in Khartoum North Teaching Hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional prospective hospital based study was conducted on 120 neonates presented with neonatal sepsis who had been admitted to Khartoum North Teaching Hospital general pediatrics ward over six months period (January 2013 to July 2013). History and physical examination were carried out and samples of blood were taken for blood culture and full blood count. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: 120 neonates were included in this study. The sepsis was confirmed by clinical and laboratory measures. 67 (55.8%) neonates were males and 53(44.2%) were females. Early onset sepsis was detected in 79 (65.8%) neonates while late onset sepsis was detected in 41 (34.2%). Fever was the most presenting feature found in 76 (63.3%), respiratory distress present in 53 (44.2%), 48 (40%) neonates were lethargic, 47 (39.2%) had impaired feeding, and 39 (32.5%) had refusal of feeding. 38 (31.7%) neonates had neonatal jaundice and Moro reflex was absent in 25 (20.8%). Conclusion: The common presenting features of neonates with neonatal sepsis in the paediatric ward at Khartoum North Teaching Hospital were being fever, respiratory distress, lethargy, impaired or refusal of feeding, jaundice, absent Moro reflex, hypothermia, convulsions bleeding disorder and bulging fontanel.


subsidence mapping with Sentinel-1 DTU Orbit (06/11/2019) Something is "subsiding" in the state of Denmark Operational prospects for nationwide subsidence mapping with Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) has proven to be a highly valuable tool for deformation monitoring applications, and with the emergence of the operational Sentinel-1 mission, the expectations have further increased. However, the technique is also notorious for being challenging, both in implementation and in interpretation. As such, it has mainly been applied in an opportunistic manner stacks of archived data were processed in batch over specific areas of interest, results would be somehow validated, and reported to the end-user.Due to lack of a stable and reliable SAR data source, it has so far been very hard to build an operational large-scale system for nationwide InSAR deformation monitoring.The Sentinel-1 constellation will bring a paradigm shift to the field with its operational characteristics: mission configuration, acquisition planning, and data distribution policy. However, operational workflows are still to be designed and deployed. State-of-the-art processing algorithms might be considered ready, but other components of the operational chain are still to be profiled if not designed from scratch. Moreover, an important factor for a nationwide mapping system is dissemination of the results to a broader audience than the one consisting of InSAR domain specialists.The objective of this contribution is to, as far as possible at this early stage, address the following questions and/or identify the bottlenecks, from the national-scale perspective:How to integrate algorithmic state-of-the-art in a single processing system?How to operationally deploy the re-defined state-of-the-art?How to validate results?How to communicate results to non-InSAR communities?These questions will be addressed through a case study for the country of Denmark. Specifically, a strategy for development of a nationwide Sentinel-1 InSAR deformation mapping system will be discussed. Denmark is a good case for a first assessment, both due to its size, and due to the expected signal characteristics. Moreover, the proposed map product will be periodically updated and will be of a different resolution for urban and non-urban areas. The availability of reliable in-situ measurements on both local and national scale therefore will over time allow for reliable validation.Initial results will be presented and will serve as basis for a discussion on how to communicate and streamline a portfolio of subsidence products to end users, which is a challenge in itself. We will conclude with a discussion on remaining open questions regarding how to address these issues as a community.This contribution will focus mainly on the overall system level, rather than on algorithmic details.


The thermal erasure decay at different temperatures of holographic gratings thermally fixed in iron-doped lithium niobate has been exhaustively studied. An activation energy of 0.94 eV was found to be independent of the grating fringe spacing. At a given temperature the decay time is strongly dependent on the grating spacing. This dependence is well fitted to a square fringe spacing law, as predicted theoretically. From the experimental data the room-temperature hologram lifetime under illumination is extrapolated, giving as a result t(years)=(5.2+/-0.2)?(2) , with the grating spacing ? in micrometers.


Many educational buildings still do not have proper ventilation systems, are not sustainable in use, and contribute to the spread of Covid-19 viruses. The biggest challenge for the future is to provide attractive, useable, healthy, and sustainable educational buildings in the Netherlands. But is this challenge realistic? Old buildings are usually demolished and replaced by new ones because the government hardly gives any compensation for building renovation or transformation. This leads to the demolition of many school buildings even though the application of new raw materials is not circular and has an impact on our climate and environment. Furthermore, many pre-war buildings are heritage that have a positive impact on neighbourhoods. It is unclear who is responsible for educational buildings, renovation, and financing all the ambitions. The government, the municipality or the school foundation? Problems will soon be exacerbated. At this moment the environmental impact (MilieuPrestatieGebouwen MPG) has no legal base however, this will rapidly change in the age of a circular economy and the upcoming renovation wave. Atelier PRO architects designs many educational buildings and they noticed a change of attitude in conceptualizing educational buildings the last years in the forerunner municipality Amsterdam. Based on these cases and experiences atelier PRO learned their lessons about the ideal renovation towards attractive, healthy and sustainable educational buildings.


Photocrosslinked hydrogels, such as methacrylate-modified gelatin (gelMA) and hyaluronic acid (HAMA), are widely utilized as tissue engineering scaffolds and/or drug delivery vehicles, but lack a suitable means for non-invasive, longitudinal monitoring of surgical placement, biodegradation, and drug release. Therefore, we developed a novel photopolymerizable X-ray contrast agent, methacrylate-modified gold nanoparticles (AuMA NPs), to enable covalent-linking to methacrylate-modified hydrogels (gelMA and HAMA) in one-step during photocrosslinking and non-invasive monitoring by X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). Hydrogels exhibited a linear increase in X-ray attenuation with increased Au NP concentration to enable quantitative imaging by contrast-enhanced micro-CT. The enzymatic and hydrolytic degradation kinetics of gelMA-Au NP hydrogels were longitudinally monitored by micro-CT for up to one month in vitro, yielding results that were consistent with concurrent measurements by optical spectroscopy and gravimetric analysis. Importantly, AuMA NPs did not disrupt the hydrogel network, rheology, mechanical properties, and hydrolytic stability compared with gelMA alone. GelMA-Au NP hydrogels were thus able to be bioprinted into well-defined three-dimensional architectures supporting endothelial cell viability and growth. Overall, AuMA NPs enabled the preparation of both conventional photopolymerized hydrogels and bioprinted scaffolds with tunable X-ray contrast for noninvasive, longitudinal monitoring of placement, degradation, and NP release by micro-CT.


The purpose of this paper is to find out whether it is possible to show that newspapers with divergent political positions linguistically display different attitudes when reporting news. In order to study this problem three news articles from the Internet editions of The Daily Telegraph (Conservative), The Guardian (Labour) and The Morning Star (Communist), respectively, have been selected. To make comparison possible the articles selected are of approximately the same length and dealing with the same topic. The topics chosen are more or less tied to politics, as differences in attitude are likely to be shown in news reports covering that field. A number of linguistic features of both syntactic and lexico-semantic character, such as passive and active voice, agentless passives, modality and value words, as well as the use of metaphors have been investigated.


This paper presents the SeeDev Task of the BioNLP Shared Task 2016. The purpose of the SeeDev Task is the extraction from scientific articles of the descriptions of genetic and molecular mechanisms involved in seed development of the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. The SeeDev task consists in the extraction of many different event types that involve a wide range of entity types so that they accurately reflect the complexity of the biological mechanisms. The corpus is composed of paragraphs selected from the full-texts of relevant scientific articles. In this paper, we describe the organization of the SeeDev task, the corpus characteristics, and the metrics used for the evaluation of participant systems. We analyze and discuss the final results of the seven participant systems to the test. The best F-score is 0.432, which is similar to the scores achieved in similar tasks on molecular biology.


A new and explicitly many-body aspect of the "leveraging" of the spin-orbit interaction is demonstrated, spin-orbit activated interchannel coupling, which can significantly alter the photoionization cross section of a spin-orbit doublet. As an example, it is demonstrated via a modified version of the spin-polarized random phase approximation with exchange, that a recently observed unexplained structure in the Xe 3d(5/2) photoionization cross section [A. Kivimäki et al., Phys. Rev. A 63, 012716 (2000)] is entirely due to this effect. Similar features are predicted for Cs 3d(5/2) and Ba 3d(5/2).


Diabetes induced memory dysfunction is found to be equivalent with Alzheimer's disease, disturbing normal physical, mental and social life of patients. Rosmarinic acid is flavonoid known to have pharmacological action against diabetes and diabetic complications. However, its effect in diabetic induced memory dysfunction and related oxidative stress has not been evaluated. Hence, present study was designed, conducted and analyzed for assessment of diabetes induced memory deterioration and oxidative changes in various parts of brain in Streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats. Diabetes was induced by streptozotocin (60 mg/kg, i.p.) in rats. After confirmation of diabetes treatment of Rosmarinic acid (12.5, 25, 50 mg/kg, p.o.) was started in separate group of animals. After 30 days diabetic rats showed significant memory deficits and also increased cholinesterase and MDA levels and depleted reduced glutathione levels in hippocampus and cerebral cortex. Moreover, chronic treatment of Rosmarinic acid had substantial influence on memory deficit in diabetic rats. Additionally, treatment of Rosmarinic acid significantly decreases blood glucose levels and MDA levels. Further, GSH levels found to be elevated in rosmarinic acid in diabetic rats. Also, cholinesterase levels are reduced which found to be elevated in diabetic rats. The result obtained from study points that treatment with Rosmarinic acid in diabetic rats ameliorates memory loss and oxidative stress.


Production of blood components for transfusion requires that users have confidence in the quality of the products and that they will be safe and efficacious. The assurance of blood product quality requires the collection of data that demonstrate products are within specification. However, the linkage between confidence that an individual blood component unit will perform as expected and the conduct of quality testing is imperfect because quality testing is often done after product release and monitors process control, not quality control. In addition, the standards to assess blood components often allow a percentage of units to fail to meet user specifications. Ideally, there would be real time quality control measures made prior to unit release to the hospital blood bank, and these measures would be highly predictive of product efficacy. As a community, much work must be done to reach this state. First we must identify product characteristics that are strongly predictive of transfusion efficacy to use as standards. Improved production methods are only one way to impact component quality; another is to manage the characteristics of the donors themselves. Donor variation includes not only recognized wide ranges of traditional characteristics of normal healthy humans, but also extends to storage characteristics of components made from individual donations. This review covers the state of the science of product quality and the regulation of blood products, including new information arising from clinical studies and the application of modern scientific methods such as proteomics and metabolomics to blood component quality.


Anorexia Nervosa is one of the important causes of depression. This paper also aims to
evaluate prevalence of all types of mood disorders in order to yield comparable estimates
of them in general. The possibility of anorexia nervosa as a depression equivalent or a
depression spectrum disorder must be seriously questioned. (Rawal Med J 2007;32:76-
78)


Introduction early commencement of antenatal care by pregnant women as well as regular visits has the potential to affect maternal and fetal outcomes positively. Even with antenatal care, the intervention requires fewer resources; however, most pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa have begun late for antenatal care services. This study aimed to assess the magnitude and contributors of late antenatal care initiation among pregnant women at selected public health institutions of the Bench-Sheko Zone in southwest Ethiopia. Methods a cross-sectional study was conducted among 509 pregnant women attending the Antenatal Care (ANC) service at selected public health institutions. The data were collected using a structured and pre-tested questionnaire. The data were entered using Epi-data version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 22. A binary logistic regression analysis was computed to determine the association using crude and adjusted odds ratios at 95% confidence intervals. Independent variables with a p-value of less than 0.05 in the multivariable logistic regression model were considered significant. Results of the 509 respondents interviewed, 337 (66%) reported late antenatal care initiation. The factors associated with late antenatal care initiation were mothers aged 25 years and above (AOR = 1.59, 95% CI [1.02, 2.48]), attended below secondary school (AOR =2.33, 95% CI [1.05, 5.19]), unplanned pregnancy (AOR=2.25, 95%CI [1.34, 3.77]), pregnancy recognition by missing period (AOR=0.61, 95%CI [0.39, 0.93]), perceived right time of ANC after 4 months (AOR=2.29, 95% CI [1.36, 3.85]), and did not get advice to have ANC (AOR=1.64, 95% CI [1.10, 2.45]). Conclusion the majority of pregnant women initiate their first antenatal care lately. We can conclude that late antenatal care initiation is a major problem in the study area. Therefore, providing continuous health education on the importance of initiating antenatal care visits early to prevent unwanted pregnancy outcomes is an important segment of intervention that can be done through health extension workers.


Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of penicillamine and zinc sulphate in copper-loaded rats and to compare the copper reduction in hepatic and brain tissues. Material and methods: Thirty-five male albino Wistar rats were equally divided into 5 groups. The control group (G 1) was given normal tap water, while the 4 groups (G2, 3, 4, 5) were supplied with copper-loaded water. After 5 weeks, rats in Gl and G2 were sacrificed. The remaining rats (G3,4, 5) were given normal diet for the following 4 weeks. During that period, the fourth group (G4) was given zinc sulphate (6.5 mg/kg) and the fifth group (G5) received penicillamine (20 mg/kg). The third group (G3) was left untreated. Results: Amounts of copper deposited in hepatic tissues of G2 were significantly higher than Gl (p = 0.008). In G3, brain copper levels were significantly higher than Gl and G2 (p < 0.001 and 0.01, respectively), while hepatic concentrations were not statistically different. Rats in G5 had significantly lower hepatic and brain copper levels than G3 (p = 0.023 and < 0.001, respectively). There was a significant reduction in brain copper levels in G4, as compared to G3 (p = 0.003). Conclusion: The reduction of copper levels in both hepatic and brain tissues with penicillamine in copper-overloaded rats suggests that other mechanisms than the redistributive effect in the brain may be responsible for the neurologic deterioration induced by penicillamine treatment in patients with WD. Furthermore, zinc may have an early effect in prevention of excess copper deposition, probably by inducing metallothionin synthesis in the liver. In conclusion, zinc may be used in conjunction with chelating agents for the initial control of patients with neurologic symptoms.


Background: Recent researches involving fatigue and Parkinson's disease (PD) sought to verify its incidence and the impacts of fatigue on quality life of patients with PD. Despite the importance of regular physical activity practice, there are only few studies that verified the influence of the levels of physical activity on fatigue in patients with PD. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare perception of fatigue between individuals with PD and neurologically healthy individuals (control group), considering the physical activity levels; and to verify the relation between physical activity levels and fatigue dimensions for individuals with PD and control group. Methods: Eighty individuals (40 patients with PD and 40 control individuals) participated in this study. Physical activity levels were evaluated through Modified Baecke Questionnaire for Older Adults. Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI) was used in order to evaluate fatigue dimensions (general, physical and mental fatigue, reduced motivation and activity). MANOVA two-way and Pearson linear correlation test were performed to analyze the data. Results: Patients with PD presented higher levels of fatigue, in all dimensions evaluated by MFI, comparing to control individuals. There was no association between physical activity levels and perception of fatigue for patients with PD and control individuals. Conclusion: Patients with PD showed increased perception of fatigue when compared to control individuals, due to PD characteristics. In addition, the perception of fatigue's symptom was not influenced and had no relation by the level of physical activity.


We study the many-body physics in thin-film topological band insulator, where the inter-edge Coulomb interaction can lead to an exciton condensation transition. We investigate the universality class of the exciton condensation quantum critical point. With different chemical potentials and interactions, the exciton condensation can belong to z=2 mean field, or 3d XY, or Yukawa-Higgs universality classes. The interplay between exciton condensate and the time-reversal symmetry breaking is also discussed. Predictions of our work can be tested experimentally by tuning the chemical potentials on both surfaces of the thin film through gate voltage. We also show that all the analysis of the exciton condensate can be directly applied to a spin-triplet superconductor phase with attractive inter-edge interaction.


In large first year science subjects, casual tutors deliver up to half of the face-to-face teaching through practical classes and tutorials. A smooth transition for first year students can be influenced by interactions with tutors, particularly through improved engagement with subject content and understanding Graduate Attributes (GAs). Casual tutors may not be aware of the political changes that impact the diversity of students they teach; for example, widening participation strategies mean in science we have students with a greater diversity of backgrounds, knowledge, literacy and numeracy skills. This raises questions of how to support casual tutors to deal with more diversity of student backgrounds. Subject coordinators are encouraged to embed GAs into subject content and assessments. Therefore, tutors need to understand faculty-wide GAs in the context of their discipline to effectively communicate these to students. We ran a training session for casual tutors teaching first year science subjects, to provide information on transition, diversity and faculty-wide GAs. Two follow-up surveys (early and late semester) enabled us to identifying the challenges faced by casual tutors and whether faculty-wide GAs were communicated to students. Future sessions will be tailored to support tutors as they assist our students through their first year transition.


The use of gas for fuel transportation in Australia is proposed as an interim strategy to address a looming oil shortage crisis and to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from transport vehicles as an important response to global warming.


The question addressed is, when do disadvantaged-group members accept their situation, take individual action, or attempt to instigate collective action? Ss attempted to move from a low-status group into an advantaged, high-status group and were asked to respond to their subsequent rejec tion. Ss who believed that the high-status group was open to members of their group endorsed acceptance and individual actions. When access to the high-status group was restricted, even to the point of being almost closed (tokenism), Ss still preferred individual action. Disruptive forms of collective action were only favored by Ss who were told that the high-status group was completely closed to members oftheirgroup. Ss who believed they were near togainingentry into the high-sta tus group favored individual protest, while Ss distant from entry were more likely to accept their position. The theoretical and societal implications ofthese findings are discussed.


The aim of this study was twofold. First, we examined depleting and enriching effects of employees' home domain (home demands and quality time spent at home) on unscheduled absence from work. Second, we tested the assumption of the medical and withdrawal models that absence duration and frequency are uniquely predicted by respectively health condition and job motivation. We used longitudinal, different-source data from 1014 employees. The results showed that home quality time was negatively related to absence frequency and duration in the following year through a physical pathway (less physical stress symptoms and health complaints) and through a psychological pathway (less psychological stress symptoms, increased job motivation). Employees with heavy home demands reported more physical and psychological stress symptoms, more health complaints, and lower job motivation. Accordingly, they had longer and more frequent sick leaves in the consecutive year. We conclude that the home domain adds to our understanding of absence from work. In addition, the model including cross pathways between health complaints and job motivation on the one hand, and absence frequency and duration on the other, best fitted the data. Thus, a clear distinction between volitional absence (frequency) and absence due to illness (duration) seems hard to justify


This paper proposes a pilot-aided joint channel estimation and synchronization scheme for burst-mode orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The scheme eliminates the need of an IFFT block while keeping the low number of parameters to be estimated for low complexity without sacrificing the performance and convergence speed. For fast convergence and high performance, we develop a linearized cost function of the carrier frequency offset (CFO), sampling clock frequency offset (SFO) and channel impulse response (CIR) coefficients based on received signal samples and pilot tones in frequency domain and the corresponding recursive least square (RLS) estimation and tracking algorithm. For channel responses, CIR coefficients are estimated to benefit their low number and then transformed to the channel transfer function in order to keep low complexity. The ICI introduced by rotation due to CFO and SFO is analyzed and modeled, and a simple maximum-likelihood (ML) scheme based on the preamble is developed for coarse estimation of initial CFO and SFO values to be used in suppression of dominant ICI effects and in fine RLS estimation and tracking. Simulation results demonstrate that, in large practical ranges of CFO and SFO values, the proposed pilot-aided joint channel estimation and synchronization scheme provides a receiver performance remarkably close to the ideal case of perfect channel estimation and synchronization.


Fifty years after independence, the discourse and practice of security/national security in Nigeria needs re-examination. Security is a contested terrain amongst nation at different stages of development. At the moment, the contest is over the referent-state or people. Have Nigerians ever face national security threat of the scale in countries of the North that threatened the existence of the state in the last fifty years? Have not we faced national security threats of the scale not peculiar with countries of the North that has continuously threatened the existence of the state in the last fifty years? More Nigerians are threatened by government policies than by neighbouring armies. What were the objectives, priorities and methods of national security in discourse and practice? Have we not been discussing and practicing security and national security wrongly thus endangering the very basis of security-the people? What do we mean when we talk about security and national security? Or when we make policies to protect and advance national security? This paper surveys the discourse and practice of national security in Nigeria using papers presented at the Historical Society of Nigeria congress on "Historicizing National Security, Order and Rule of Law".It examined the understanding of national security arguing that the ambiguity evident in the term sanctioned and legitimised similar disposition in its use by policy makers. It called for the people of Nigeria to be the referent object of security rather than the interest of the elite subsumed for the state.

 Key words: Security, national security, state, human beings, scholars.


Background: Caudal midbrain lesions involving the entire decussation of the superior cerebellar peduncles have a distinctive clinical picture: bilateral cerebellar ataxia, eye-movement disorders, and palatal myoclonus. Occasionally, unilateral lesions may produce a similar neurologic picture. Objective: To define the clinical and radiologic picture of patients with unilateral lower midbrain ischemic lesions of the decussation of the brachium conjunctivum. Methods: Five patients with MRI evidence of unilateral paramedian caudal midbrain infarction were investigated, after the acute stage. Results: All patients had bilateral cerebellar dysfunction characterized by dysarthric speech, truncal and gait ataxia, and dysmetric movements of the limbs, which were more pronounced on one side. Ocular movement abnormalities were observed in three cases. A constant MRI finding was a bilateral inferior olivary degeneration, but only one patient displayed a delayed palatal tremor. Conclusions: A single strategically placed unilateral lesion can cause bilateral dysfunction. In addition, a bilateral cerebellar syndrome can occur with unilateral lesions in the lower midbrain with a wide range of other clinical features.


This title presents a ravishing selection of shunga by the first full-colour woodblock-print masters: Harunobu and Koryusai. The prints used for this book are of a remarkable quality, their radiant colours perfectly preserved by the albums in which they were kept. The first volume in a series on erotic prints by famous Japanese woodblock-print artists, this book contains a detailed general introduction to the genre of shunga. In addition to a description of the historical and cultural settings of the prints, it focuses in particular on the locations and interiors where the erotic action takes place.


We define Drinfeld orbifold algebras as filtered algebras deforming the skew group algebra (semi-direct product) arising from the action of a finite group on a polynomial ring. They simultaneously generalize Weyl algebras, graded (or Drinfeld) Hecke algebras, rational Cherednik algebras, symplectic reflection algebras, and universal enveloping algebras of Lie algebras with group actions. We give necessary and sufficient conditions on defining parameters to obtain Drinfeld orbifold algebras in two general formats, both algebraic and homological. Our algebraic conditions hold over any field of characteristic other than two, including fields whose characteristic divides the order of the acting group. We explain the connection between Hochschild cohomology and a Poincare-Birkhoff-Witt property explicitly (using Gerstenhaber brackets). We also classify those deformations of skew group algebras which arise as Drinfeld orbifold algebras and give applications for abelian groups.


In the model of the perfused rat liver, we investigated the alterations of sinusoidal cells in the pathogenesis of liver injury caused by hypoxia and reperfusion. In sinusoidal endothelial cells, the activity of xanthine oxidase (XOX), a cytoplasmic marker enzyme, was located cytochemically and determined biochemically. Kupffer cells, identified by their endogenous peroxidase staining, were studied with regard to changes in their ultrastructure. In our experiments, parenchymal cells were shown to be severely damaged in contrast to sinusoidal lining cells, which showed minor signs of injury. In comparison with the control group, XOX activity increased significantly in the sinusoidal endothelial cells after low‐flow hypoxia; however, after reoxygenation of only 5 minutes, that activity was lower after hypoxia but higher after control perfusion. In Kupffer cells, hypoxia resulted in a strong suppression of phagocytic and endocytotic activity and in a disappearance of the lamellopodia. Kupffer cells were flattened, resembling sinusoidal endothelial cells. After reoxygenation phagocytic vesicles, lamellopodia, and cell volume of Kupffer cells increased markedly in comparison with the control group. In the hypoxia/reperfusion injury model, our observations revealed significant alterations of sinusoidal lining cells. It appears that sinusoidal endothelial cells respond to the hypoxic phase by producing oxygen‐derived free radicals and that Kupffer cells respond to the subsequent reperfusion phase by activation followed by the release of toxic mediators.


Recently, many clinical reports have suggested that the ascorbyl free radical (Asc∙) can be treated as a noninvasive, reliable, real-time marker of oxidative stress, but its generation mechanisms in human blood have rarely been discussed. In this study, we used upstream substances, enzyme inhibitors, and free radical scavengers to delineate the mechanisms of Asc∙ formation in human platelet-rich plasma (PRP). Our results show that the doublet signal was detected in PRP samples by using electron spin resonance, and the hyperfine splitting of the doublet signal was a H = 1.88 gauss and g-factor = 2.00627, which was determined to be the Asc∙. We observed that the inhibitors of NADPH oxidase (NOX), cyclooxygenase (COX), lipoxygenase (LOX), cytochrome P450 (CYP450), mitochondria complex III, and nitric oxide synthase (NOS), but not xanthine oxidase, diminished the intensity of the Asc∙ signal dose dependently. All enzyme inhibitors showed no obvious antioxidant activity during a Fenton reaction assay. In summary, the obtained data suggest that Asc∙ formation is associated with NOX, COX, LOX, CYP450, eNOS, and mitochondria in human PRP.


The present study was designed to identify strategies for tolerance to hydric deficit in Eucalyptus urocan seedlings. The experiment was conducted in a green house with 100% solar radiation capture. The completely randomized block design was used with five treatments (plants irrigated daily with water corresponding to 25, 50, 75, 100 and 125% daily evapotranspiration) and five replications. 120day-old E. urocan seedlings (hybrid result from the crossing between Eucalyptus Urophylla x Eucalyptus camaldulensis) were planted in pots containing 8 L of substrate composed by oxisol, sand and muck at 3:1:0.5 ratio, respectively. The seedlings were irrigated with different volumes of water for 13 days and then analyzed. Under hydric deficit condition, E. urocan plants showed significant investment in the root system, reduced the breathing rate and kept enough turgor for growth. E. urocan plants at initial growth stage are tolerant to hydric deficit and show dehydration delay as a strategy to tolerate drought.


Experiment was carried out to evaluate the response of growing Yankasa rams to complete sorghum stover based diets containing varying levels of different nitrogen sources with rumen buffer plant on digestible organic matter fermented in the rumen (DOMR), microbial nitrogen (MN) and rumen metabolites. Complete diets containing 16% crude protein (CP) was formulated for the experiment. Urea was incorporated into the diets at 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2% with cottonseed cake at 20, 15, 10, 5 and 0% and designated as diet 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5% respectively. Twenty growing Yankasa rams were used for the experiment and randomly allocated to five treatment groups of four animals each in completely randomized designed (CRD). Rams were fed experimental diets and water ad libitum . The result reveals (P<0.05) difference in DOMR and MN. Higher mean values of 0.37, 0.36 and 0.34 kg/d DOMR were recorded in animal fed diet 2, 3 and 5 with the least value 0.22 kg/day recorded in animals fed diet 4. MN production were higher 11.72, 11.65 and 10.81 g/day in animals fed diet 2, 3 and 5 while the least 7.03 g/day in animals fed diet 4. (P<0.05) difference were observed in rumen pH 0 hour before feeding, total volatile fatty acids (TVFA), acetate, propionate, butyrate and rumen NH 3 -N 0 hour before and 4 hours after feeding across the diets. NH 3 -N was within the optimal levels for microbial activities. Inclusion of urea at graded levels of up to 2% in a complete diet has no detrimental effect on performance, DOMR, MN production and rumen parameters. Diet 3 is therefore recommended for growing Yankasa rams.


Online Material: Tables of hypoinverse earthquake locations and velocity models.

To extract oil and gas in tight shale formations, hydraulic fracturing is used to stimulate fracture growth and increase permeability. Typically, low (−3.0 to 0.0 M w) magnitude earthquakes are produced during hydraulic fracturing (Maxwell et al. , 2002, 2009). In a few cases, however, hydraulic fracturing has been linked to widely observed larger, so‐called positive magnitude, earthquakes. Examples include earthquakes felt by the general population in such areas as Blackpool, England, M L 2.3 (de Pater and Baisch, 2011), Horn River Basin, Canada, M L 3.8 (British Colombia Oil and Gas Commission [BCOGC], 2012), and Oklahoma M L 2.9 (Holland, 2011, 2013) and more recently in Ohio (Skoumal et al. , 2014). In this paper, we show the first evidence of positive magnitude earthquakes on a previously unmapped fault in Harrison County, Ohio, that can be related to a hydraulic fracture operation.

A series of six earthquakes were located by the Array Network Facility regional seismic network using the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) EarthScope Transportable Array (TA) stations in Ohio on 2 October 2013. These earthquakes were located south of Clendening Lake in Harrison County near the town of Uhrichsville, Ohio, and included two M w 2.0 events. This series of earthquakes was followed by four more events with M w 1.7–2.2 from 3 to 19 October. There were no felt reports for any of these earthquakes. Upon inspection of the OhioSeis seismic network catalog (Hansen and Ruff, 2003) and other available historical catalogs in the region (Stover and Coffman, 1993), this series of earthquakes …


When Daniel Swetschinski's dissertation appeared in 1980, it immediately became an indispensable work. It was a wide-ranging, clearly-ordered synthesis of scholarship on the Portuguese—Jewish community of Amsterdam in the seventeenth-century, incorporating some important original research. It surveyed the community's legal, demographic, economic, and institutional history, with a brief chapter on certain aspects of its cultural life. Its most original contribution was a detailed study of demographic data gleaned from the Amsterdam puyboecken, the municipal registers of intended marriages. On the basis of these records, Swetschinski charted in detail the immigration to Amsterdam of ex-conversos with origins in the Iberian Peninsula. His examination of the community's institutional life relied to a considerable extent on existing studies in Dutch, but also incorporated his own archival work, and it raised important questions about the structure of the community. Moreover, at a time when this was the exception rather than the rule, it dealt with the Portuguese Jews in an unsentimental, unromanticized fashion. The dissertation was far from exhaustive—a task beyond the reach of any young scholar—but it was a valuable contribution to Jewish communal history.


Orla O'Connor is the Director of the "National Women's Council of Ireland" (NWCI), the leading national women's membership organisation with over 190-member groups. She has held senior management roles in several non-governmental organisations for over 25 years. Time magazine recognised her as one of the 100 Most Influential People in 2019 for her role as Co-director of "Together for Yes", the successful national civil society campaign that was influential in Ireland voting overwhelmingly in favour of removing the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution, a landmark referendum, which led to the legalisation of abortion in 2018. In addition to campaigning for women's reproductive rights, Orla has spearheaded several other prominent campaigns related to women's rights, including pension reform, social welfare reform, and the introduction of quality and affordable childcare. To mark the annual international campaign of the "16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence" – which started on 25 November with the "International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women", and ended on 10 December, "Human Rights Day" – Orla was interviewed on 8 November 2022. O'Connor discusses recent Irish legislation and policy developments in relation to Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence (DSGBV), in particular, the government's ambitious "Third National Strategy" on the issue – the "Zero Tolerance Plan" – published in 2022. The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.


This paper, prepared by a special task For 100 years, there has been no change in the basic structure of the electrical power grid the hierarchical, centrally controlled grid of the 20th Century is ill-suited to the needs of the 21st Century. To address the Challenge of the existing power grid. This project is analyzing the operation of a stand-alone wind turbine system with variable-speed permanent-magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) and a system for storing energy during wind speed and load variations. Energy storage devices are required for power balance and power quality in stand-alone wind energy systems. Initially, the holistic model of the entire system is achieved, including the PMSG, the boost converter, and the storage system.


A study of Egypt is appropriately included in this volume because it is genuinely at a crossroads, facing the same dilemmas as many of the transition economies around the world. Egypt is positioned at a strategic crossroads within the North African, Middle East and West Asian regions and has substantial opportunities to influence and to exploit the regional economic potential of the area. At the same time, the country is at a critical crossroads in its own economic strategy: thus it is seeking to switch from inward-oriented economic development to an outward-looking, export-oriented policy, in which multinational enterprises (MNEs) will inevitably have a focal role. But this is against the backdrop of fears of social and political unrest stemming from job losses associated with market reforms and privatization; and a lack of understanding of the potential benefits of foreign direct investment (FDI) and, indeed, fears of MNE domination. The aim of this chapter is to highlight the roles that FDI and MNEs currently play in the Egyptian economy, and to discuss some ideas for policy reform that would inter alia create greater integration between Egypt, MNEs and the global and regional economies. (This chapter draws substantially on UNCTAD (1998)). In 1914, Egypt was a totally open economy, with trade, finance and industry overwhelmingly concentrated in foreign – mainly French, British and Belgian – hands. In 1956, however, the open door closed, and in


Abstract Learning a foreign language is a complex and satisfying activity which encompasses a variety of skills used and learnt. It involves a sum of tools being used by the teacher to help and motivate students to study and remember and later use this knowledge to improve their performance in either writing or speaking English. My study has tackled one of the elements used by the teachers to motivate students and help their writing skills get better and last longer. In this observation of corrective feedback i have studied and questioned opinions of both students and teachers with regard to this process. The data was gathered by means of questionnaires and face to face interviews with students and teachers. I have addressed two main issues: First, what is the effectiveness of corrective feedback in learning writing in English and second how long do the skills learnt by corrective learning last.


This work introduces a new unsupervised representation learning technique called Deep Convolutional Transform Learning (DCTL). By stacking convolutional transforms, our approach is able to learn a set of independent kernels at different layers. The features extracted in an unsupervised manner can then be used to perform machine learning tasks, such as classification and clustering. The learning technique relies on a well-sounded alternating proximal minimization scheme with established convergence guarantees. Our experimental results show that the proposed DCTL technique outperforms its shallow version CTL, on several benchmark datasets.


With the opening of the international market and the requirements resulting from the natural process to make our country more competitive compared to other , Law 8.630/93 was instrumental in the organization and modernization of ports , especially the Port of Santos, Brazil , one of the most important Latin America . The main objective of this study was to find differences and consistencies between technological advancement and the need for professional training in the Port of Santos , through an exploratory methodology used as conducting a literature search and used as a method to reach the goal . With the results obtained from the research , it was possible to structure the authors' opinions on the subject matter, then issuing the final considerations . Key words : Modernization of port; Technological advancement ; Professional training; Port of Santos.


Canada needs to take a bigger part in the Indo-Pacific's development and support for a rules-based order or risk getting locked out of the region's economic, diplomatic and security benefits. Although the Indo-Pacific region is an economic dynamo, it's also institutionally underdeveloped and the source of numerous traditional and non-traditional security challenges. Traditional challenges include North Korea's WMD program and potential conflicts between China and neighbouring nations. Non-traditional challenges include piracy, illegal fishing and climate change. Conflicts, especially at sea, could disrupt communications, trade and energy flows.

Canadians know that much is at stake in Indo-Pacific region. A 2020 survey found that 83 per cent of Canadians believe that Canada should stand up to China when values like human rights and democracy are on the line. Opinions vary as to how Canadian engagement in the Indo-Pacific should look. Any such process should be clearly and meaningfully articulated to garner buy-in from Canadians. It should also be based on a realistic assessment of the capabilities and capacities Canada can bring to the region. Canada has already used existing institutions, such as military exercises among Indo-Pacific nations, to get involved in the area.

Options include bringing together middle-power countries to promote multilateralism and non-military solutions to Indo-Pacific challenges. North Korean denuclearization, vaccine distribution and the digital economy offer possibilities to create a diplomatic consensus among like-minded countries. Outreach should also concentrate on issues directly affecting Canada and its allies, like forging coalitions to resist hostage diplomacy and economic coercion. At the same time, Canada must develop a constructive relationship with China to mitigate regionwide challenges such as climate change. Canada shares an interest with the U.S., Australia, Japan and other countries in ensuring that the Indo-Pacific develops in a free, open and rules-based manner. A more Machiavellian approach founded on the presumption that might is right would see Canada and similar middle-power countries become marginalized and more vulnerable to security challenges. It's time for Canada to speak up and become more involved in the Indo-Pacific to prevent that scenario.


entire series of white patients. Several darker-skinned patientsof Latin descenthad been treatedwith no occurrence of pigmentary change. After varying periods of observation, the skin had remained well and there had been no regressionof appearance. Kurtin made the comment that it might take several hundred planings before the operator could develop a sense of dexterity and security. However, once the techniquehad beenmastered, planing could be carried out rapidly as an office procedure. At the same time, he offered a warning against overenthusiasm,particularly on the part of the patient, and stated that in many cases, despite pressure from the patient, further work had been discontinuedwhen it was felt that the magnitudeof the procedureoutweighed the possible benefits. The procedureis in no way to be disparagedon this account,as it undoubtedlyproducesvaluableresults. From their experience of the method, John C. Belisario and M. T. Havyatt' have found that although only from 40% to 80% improvementis obtainedasa rule with acnescars, the gratitude of the patients is out of all proportion to the improvement,and inferiority complexes,if present,are greatly lessened. In their paper,which was originally read at the Ninth Sessionof the AustralasianMedical Congress (British Medical Association) in Sydney in August, 1955, Belisario and Havyatt confine themselves mostly to a detailed description and discussionof the techniqueas it has been presentedby various workers, and as it hasbeen developed during their own extensive experience. Their generalconclusion is that for the treatmentof pitted acne scarring, the scars of smallpox, chicken-pox and herpes zoster, and also traumatic tattoos, dermabrasion,with a revolving steel wire brush or serratedsteel wheel, appears to be the method of choice today. Likewise, Allen A. Small,' from his experiencein some 94 cases in the past three years, is satisfied that this procedure is the best method to date for correcting the post-acne scar, as well as many other superficial skin lesions. He does not pretend that it is perfect, and the amount of improvementvaries considerablyfrom case to case. Hestatesthat the fairly sharp,well-defined,discrete, punched-outacne pit usually lends itself to good planing results, whereasthe deep, poorly defined, contracture-type of pit, which appears to involve and exert traction on deeper layers of corium, usually is much harder to eradicate. The sameis also true of the narrow "icepick" type of lesion. He stressesthe fact that almost all the patients affected have a psychological scar as well as a physical one. It is thereforeimportant that the dermatologist be understandingin taking the patient'shistory and frank in discussing the expected results. "Exaggerated claims must never be made. The procedureshould always be undersold. There will be an 'improvement'but not a 'cure'."


In recent years, many accounting scandals have been reported in companies not only in the United States, but also in Japan. The need for internal control is growing steadily. In particular, auditing logs are important for internal control, since internal control without audit evidence is incomplete. Moreover, logs are necessary not only as a defense mechanism, but also since they contain much information that can lead to improvements in the company. Consequently, the correct use of logs can be beneficial to a company. However, the cost of an information system is dependent on the amount of data, which in the case of log data can be very large. There are many different kinds of logs and storing them long term is necessary to realize an internal control system based on logs. Previously, we proposed a low cost system to store logs semi-permanently using a Virtual Large Scale Disk. However, this method has problems with cross-sectional searches of different formats and its overall effectiveness. Therefore, we proposed a log that can cope with changing schema on demand by integrating several kinds of logs into YAML format. We also proposed a log format able to search across several kinds of logs by consolidating the log format and combining the logs into a single file. However, this proposal is not usable in practice, instead an integrated log is needed. Thus, in this paper, we implement a method that ensures consistency when a log is converted into YAML format from a raw log and vice versa and a command to search the integrated log. We also present an evaluation of the proposed method.


The amount of computation for detecting moving objects by the optical flow algorithm is large. The optical flow information in the smooth region cannot be detected by the optical flow algorithm, and it is susceptible to noise in a complicated environment. In this study, an optimized Horn-Schunck (HS) optical flow algorithm based on motion estimation is proposed. To detect Harris corner in the image, the proposed algorithm is used in combination with the motion estimation algorithm based on macroblock to determine the region of interest (ROI) [1]. The ROI is then used as the initial motion vector for HS calculation to obtain the optical flow information. Filtering is conducted to eliminate the background noise. Experimental result shows that the application of the proposed algorithm improves the computational speed, avoids the interference of background noise, and enhances the robustness of HS. Moreover, the algorithm solves the problem rooted in the inability of the HS algorithm to detect the smooth part of optical flow information [2].


Background: The development of thrombotic coagulopathy is frequent in COVID-19 patients, but the timing after infection, cerebral venous system involvement, treatment and outcome are uncertain.Case Presentation: We report a case of massive cerebral venous thrombosis occurring in the late phase of COVID-19 infection. Mild respiratory symptoms, without fever, started three weeks before headache and acute neurological deficits. She had no dyspnea, although she was hypoxic and with typical COVID-19 associated interstitial pneumonia. Brain CT scan showed a left parietal hypodense lesion with associated sulcal subarachnoid haemorrhage. CT angiography showed a massive cerebral vein thrombosis. An asymptomatic concomitant right internal iliac vein thrombosis was found. Both cerebral venous thrombosis and deep venous thrombosis were effectively treated with unfractionated heparin started on the day of admission, then shifted to low molecular weight heparin, with a favorable clinical course. Nasopharyngel swab, repeated twice, tested negative for SARS-CoV-2. Serological tests confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Conclusions: Our case supports active surveillance and prevention of thrombotic complications associated with COVID-19, which may affect both peripheral and cerebral venous system. Early initiation of unfractionated heparin may lead to good neurological outcome.


A spinal cord injury or spinal cord injury is nerve damage to the nerves along the spine or in the spinal cord. With the highest cause of trauma due to traffic accidents 38%, in Indonesia the percentage of deaths due to spinal trauma is 24% and permanent disability is 45%. When spinal cord damage, it will cause complete or incomplete paralysis which can affect a person's functional activities. When this dysfunction occurs if not treated immediately with surgery it will cause secondary problems, therefore physiotherapy treatment in the acute phase has the main goal to prevent secondary problems that occur such as contractures, muscle atrophy, deep vein thrombosis, cardiopulmonary complications. The acute phase physiotherapy program are positioning as the importance of early movement and mobilization to prevent pressure decubitus, passive and active exercises to treat contractures, breathing exercises to prevent pulmonary complications due to bed periods, and the main porpose is to educate patients and families about exercises before surgery is performed.
Keyword: Spinal cord injury, acute, contracture, potitioning, mobilization


Non-communicable disease (NCD) represent a modern global health challenge, with decreased life expectancy and quality of life, and a greater increase in health costs. Overweight and obesity are recognized as key risk factors for NCD, and the major link between these states is low-grade inflammation (LGI). Adipose tissues are now established as major contributors of pro-inflammatory molecules.
One driver for low-grade inflammation is endotoxaemia (characterised by an increase in circulating endotoxin, or lipopolysaccharide (LPS)). Endotoxin is released in the gut lumen as part of the cell wall of Gram-negative bacteria, and endotoxaemia has been associated with high-fat high-calorie intake, one of the factors contributing to obesity. Thus high-fat high-calorie intake, endotoxaemia, LGI, obesity and NCD may all be linked and dietary approaches, such as functional foods with anti-inflammatory properties, may modulate this interaction.
Curcuminoids (polyphenols found in the turmeric root) have anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial effects and are potential dietary agents for preventing LGI and NCD. Little is known about the potential preventive action of curcuminoids on LGI. Therefore, this thesis aims to investigate the potential for curcuminoids to reduce endotoxaemia and LGI in apparently healthy overweight and obese people.
A systematic review of the evidence for the anti-inflammatory effect of curcuminoids in healthy people and people at risk of NCD was performed. Nine papers describing five intervention studies published in this context have been assessed. Promising effects were seen in reducing CRP level (mean difference -0.71 mg/dl; 95% CI: -1.31 to -0.12; p < 0.05) and increasing adiponectin level (mean difference 5.12 ng/ml; 95% CI: 3.78 to 6.45; p < 0.01). However, there was insufficient data to make a clear conclusion that curcuminoids reduce LGI in those groups, thereby justifying the need for further work on the topic.
In the second study, the phenolics and curcuminoids content in fresh turmeric root, turmeric powder, and four types of supplements were characterised to choose the supplement for a human intervention. Amongst all turmeric extracts assessed, the supplement BCM-95® (Dolcas-Biotech, Landing, NJ, USA) had the highest total phenolics (7.11 vs 1.94 mg GAE/g in average) and curcumin content (191.75 vs 13.7 mg/g in average). Therefore, BCM-95® was used in the later studies.
The fate and effect of curcuminoids in the human gut were investigated further using established in vitro models for digestion and fermentation. Phenolic compounds were released after gastric and intestinal digestion. The presence of oil during digestion increased the release of phenolics from turmeric extracts. The presence of curcuminoids in a 24 h fermentation by faecal bacteria in vitro did not affect the production of short-chain fatty acids from Raftiline, which was used as the substrate for fermentation.
The third study investigated the effect of curcuminoids on the intestinal permeability and endotoxin translocation using Caco-2 cell monolayers intestinal model. Administration of 115 nM of curcuminoids (in BCM-95®) for 3 day (3 h each day) unexpectedly resulted in increased monolayer permeability (by 30%) and endotoxin translocation (by 6-fold).
The final study was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial of curcuminoids supplementation (BCM-95®) for 21 days in healthy overweight and obese adults (n =14). Due to ongoing work in other parts of this project, the treatment code was not broken at the time of submission.
In conclusion, there is very little published data on curcuminoids and LGI, however the Caco-2 cell monolayers study in this thesis suggest that turmeric may impair gut permeability under the experimental conditions tested. The effect may be dependent on the type of curcuminoids, the dose, and the associated oils. From the digestion study, it would appear that it is better to consume supplements associated with oil in order to optimize the release of phenolics. Although we cannot determine which of the two treatments in the human study was the active compound, the study was feasible, no side effects were reported and there was a difference between treatments. The relevance of this will be known when the code is broken.


The purpose of this research was to employ diamines and their quaternary derivatives as carrier molecules for gamma-emitting radiation. The diamine putrescine is widespread in nature and has been reported to selectively concentrate in the rat ventral prostate and pancreas. This study confirms the selective uptake of radioactivity in the rat ventral prostate, but not in the pancreas, following administration of [14C]putrescine. The radioiodinated analogues of putrescine showed no predilection for either of these organs. On the other hand, radioactivity associated with a radioidinated quaternary derivative (3) was found to accumulate incartilaginous tissues such as trachea, intervertebral disks, and chondrosarcoma tumor in a manner simular to hexamethonium.


The aim of the project was to establish the whole-of-life environmental performance of passenger and freight movement that uses roads and rail. The performance indicators selected were life cycle energy consumption, life cycle stormwater contamination, and life cycle GHG emissions. This study was based on process assessment and considered material use, transport requirements, on-site machinery use, and fuel use. The impacts of traffic delays and rolling resistance were not considered. The study was undertaken in New Zealand between October 2009 and March 2011 using data for the year beginning July 2007 and ending June 2008. The results suggest that the environmental impact of pavements can be altered by earthworks (especially in hilly terrains), choice of construction system, and wearing-course construction. Rail emissions can be influenced by the source of the steel rails used. For passenger transport, fuel use is the dominant factor; for freight transport, infrastructure, vehicles and fuel are equally important. However, the use of rail for passenger and freight transport leads to far greater reductions in energy and carbon emissions when compared against all modes of road transport. The results derived using New Zealand data are significantly different from those using European data. It is therefore essential to use local data in evaluations of transport policies and actions.