In this research, we explore semi-supervised learning based classifiers to identify articles that can be included when creating medical systematic reviews (SRs). Specifically, we perform comparative study of various semi-supervised learning algorithm, and identify the best technique that is suited for SRs creation. We also aim to identify whether semisupervised learning technique with few labeled samples produce meaningful work saving for SRs creation. Through an empirical study, we demonstrate that semi-supervised classifiers are viable for selecting articles for systematic reviews and situations when only a few numbers of training samples are available.


Limitations of angiography, the traditional invasive method for assessing vascular pathology, have led to an interest in alternative invasive techniques that visualize the arterial wall and allow characterization of plaque type. These alternative techniques, which include intravascular ultrasound, angioscopy, thermography, optical coherence tomography, near infrared spectroscopy, and intravascular magnetic resonance imaging are able to provide valuable information regarding plaque vulnerability, the composition of plaque, and luminal morphology.Intravascular Imaging: Current Applications and Research Developments presents all available intravascular imaging techniques and analyzes their impact in clinical practice and research. This publication aims to inform medical specialists, biomedical engineers, bioinfomaticians, and researchers of current developments and future trends in intravascular imaging techniques, promoting continued evolution of this discipline.


The study of host-parasite interactions is key to understanding ecological interactions since parasites play a crucial role in the regulation of populations of host species. The families Nycteribiidae and Streblidae (Diptera: Hippoboscoidea) are ectoparasitic flies specific to bats, which have evolved adaptations to their host. The host-parasite interactions are formed by coevolutionary processes and illustrate the current and historical associations between the species involved. For this reason, the use of ecological networks in parasite-host interactions allows us to elucidate how the structure of their interactions respond to biotic and abiotic factors. In the present study, we evaluated changes in the fly-bat interaction networks in two contrasting landscapes in the Department of Arauca of the Colombian Orinoquia Region. The first landscape is composed of savannas and alluvial forests and the second with anthropogenic disturbances composed of cocoa crops, livestock areas and human settlements. We used mist nets to capture bats and collect their respective parasitic flies. Using this data, we built a bipartite interaction network for each landscape, and we calculated the main metrics of each network. 19.8% of the 524 bats captured presented ectoparasitic flies, with a total of 326 flies belonging to nine genera of Streblidae and one genus of Nycteribiidae. The diversity and prevalence of ectoparasitic flies of bats was higher for the disturbed landscape in contrast to savannas and forests. The networks of both landscapes were characterized by being highly specialized and modular. Nonetheless, the network obtained in the savannas and alluvial forests showed greater specialization, and the landscape with anthropogenic impact presented greater modularity. Our results confirm the high specialization and modularity that characterizes the ectoparasitic bat-fly antagonistic network. Also, we provided new observations suggesting that a degraded landscape may affect the bat hosts and favors overcrowding and, consequently, the exchange of ectoparasites between bat species, reducing the level of specialization and promoting the increased prevalence of bat ectoparasitic flies.


Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is the main diagnosis and treatment for biliary and pancreatic diseases; however, ERCP requires a high level of technical skill and experience, and there is always a risk of complications. ERCP-related duodenal perforation is one of the most serious complications of ERCP, and although the incidence rate is relatively low, the mortality rate is high. Recently, the introduction of new classification methods and the development of endoscopic technology and equipment have made endoscopic therapy a new trend. This may change the management strategy of perforation. Therefore, we reviewed the latest developments in endoscopic management, surgical management, and conservative internal medicine management. In addition to introducing many new endoscope treatment methods, we also discussed the timing of interventions, the progress of endoscope and surgical indications, and corresponding prevention strategies. We aim to retrospectively analyse these treatment modalities to propose appropriate solutions to improve dynamic clinical therapy.


The aetiology of spastic cerebral palsy (CP), in the majority of cases, is not known but the general consensus is that cerebral impairment occurs prepartum. In monochorionic twin pregnancies, death of one twin late in gestation is recognised as being an important risk factor for the surviving cotwin to have CP. It has been suggested that a significant proportion of singletons with spastic CP may be the result of death of a cotwin in the second half of gestation. In this paper it is hypothesised that spastic CP of unknown aetiology is the result of the death of a monochorionic cotwin and that the death of the cotwin may impair the neurological development of the survivor throughout gestation. If so, vanishing‐twin syndrome, which is now a recognised phenomenon revealed by ultrasound examination in early pregnancy, is important in the aetiology of spastic CP.


To the Editor: Klinefelter syndrome is characterized by gynecomastia, hypogonadism, small testes, elevated levels of follicle-stimulating hormone and an extra X chromosome (ie, 47,XXY).1 These patients tend to have an increased risk of developing male breast cancer and mediastinal germ cell tumors.2,3 Hematologic malignancies including acute or chronic leukemia are also observed in these patients,4 but only a few case reports with Klinefelter syndrome who developed myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) were published.4–7 An 11.5-year-old boy was referred with complaints of fever, headache and cough, complicated with pancytopenia. He had a 3-week history of upper respiratory symptoms. Developmental milestones were normal; however, he had low grades at school. On admission, the physical examination revealed microcephaly, petechiae, ecchymosis, rales, minimal subcostal retraction, and hepatosplenomegaly. His height was 158 cm (at 75 to 90 percentile), his weight was 40 kg (at 25 to 50 percentile). Penile length was normal. He had scrotal hyperpigmentation. Testes were bilaterally descended; testicular volume was 6/6mL. Systemic examination revealed no other abnormalities. Hematologic tests demonstrated pancytopenia with a hemoglobin of 9.7 g/dL, platelet count 4000/mL, white blood cell count 2600/mL. Peripheral blood smear demonstrated; 16% blasts, 2% neutrophils, 74% lymphocytes, 8% monocytes with 3 lineage dysplasia. Bone marrow aspiration smear showed; 12% blasts, 1% promyelocytes, 3% metamyelocytes, 35% lymohocytes, 33% normoblasts, 13% myelocytes, 2% neutrophil, and 1% monocytes (Fig. 1). He was diagnosed with MDS. Phenotypical characteristics and chromosome analysis—both from bone marrow and peripheral blood—which demonstrated 47,XXY karyotype led to the diagnosis of Klinefelter syndrome. Chest computerized tomography was consistent with pulmonary infection and the patient was given broad spectrum antibiotics (vancomycin, meropenem, amikacin, clarithromycin, and trimethoprim sulfamethoxazole). After treatment of pulmonary infection, the patient underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) from his HLA-matched sibling. The transplant characteristics and the results of transplantation were shown on Table 1. Ten months after HSCT, he was admitted for shortness of breath. On examination he had rales and ronchi. His respiratory function tests revealed obstructive pattern. High resolution computerized tomography of the chest showed focal opacities with ground—glass densities in superior segment of inferior lobe of the right lung. He was diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans. He benefited from formoterol fumarate clinically and his respiratory function tests improved. There was not any evidence of chronic graft versus host disease other than bronchiolitis obliterans. At 8 years of follow-up, the patient is still in remission for MDS with normal hematological parameters and normal pulmonary function. His developmental status is within normal limits. He is being followed up with hypergonadotropic hypogonadism. In children and adolescents, MDS occurs in both de novo and secondary forms. Secondary MDS is seen in patients who received chemo or radiation therapy (therapy-related MDS), in patients with inherited bone FIGURE 1. Bone marrow aspiration smear of the patient.


The primary objective of this research is to develop a
general modelling facility for modular pneumatic servo-drives.
The component-oriented approach has been adopted as the modelling
technique to provide the flexibility of modelling a wide variety
of components and the segmentation of the non-linear system to
less complex uncoupled component modules.
A significant part of the research work has been devoted to
identify a series of component modules of the single axis linear
pneumatic servomechanism with standardised linking variables. The
mathematical models have been implemented in a simulation software
which produces time domain responses for design evaluation
purposes. Alternative components for different servomechanism
design were modelled as mutually exclusive modules which could be
selected for assembly as if they were real physical entities. The
philosophy of the approach was validated by tests on prototype
servo-drives with matching components. Design analysis could be
performed by simulating and comparing the performance of
alternative system structures. [Continues.]


Antisense therapy might offer an improved treatment for patients with malignant glioma. We studied the uptake and effects of urokinase antisense oligodeoxynucleotides on rat and human glioma cells in vitro and the uptake and toxicity of these nucleotides in rat carcinomatosis and brain tumor models. Cultured glioma cells readily incorporated fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated oligonucleotides, as demonstrated by immunofluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry. Effects on urokinase expression as assessed by immunofluorescence microscopy varied according to cell line. Northern blot analysis showed decreases in urokinase expression with oligodeoxynucleotide treatment. Uptake into tumor cells was also demonstrated in vivo, with no detectable toxicity at concentrations exceeding expected therapeutic levels. These data are encouraging for the further study of antisense oligodeoxynucleotides as a new therapeutic modality for malignant glioma.


In this Letter, we report on a crucial experiment showing that magnetic impurities reduce the ferromagnetic order temperature in thiol-capped Au glyconanoparticles (GNPs). The spontaneous magnetization of AuFe GNPs exhibits a fast decrease with temperature that contrasts with the almost constant value of the magnetization observed in Au NPs. Moreover, hysteresis disappears below 300 K. Both features indicate that Fe impurities reduce the high local anisotropy field responsible for the ferromagnetic behavior in Au GNPs. As a consequence, the amazing ferromagnetism in Au NPs should not be associated with the presence of magnetic impurities.


Cation channels of the Transient Receptor Potential Canonical (TRPC) group, which belong to the larger TRP superfamily of channel proteins, are critical players in cardiovascular disease. Recent studies underscored a role of TRPC3 in macrophage survival and efferocytosis, two critical events in atherosclerosis lesion development. Also, other members of the TRP channel superfamily are found expressed in monocytes/macrophages, where they participate in processes that might be of significance to atherogenesis. These observations set a framework for future studies aimed at defining the ultimate functions not only of TRPC3, but probably other TRP channels, in macrophage biology. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide a timely revision of existing evidence on the role of members of the TRP channel superfamily, in particular TRPCs, in macrophages and discuss it in the context of the macrophage's function in atherogenesis.


Background: We aimed to investigate the high-risk factors of stroke through logistic regressive analysis and using LightGBM algorithm separately. The results of the two models were compared for instructing the prevention of stroke. Methods: Samples of residents older than 40 years of age were collected from two medical examination centers in Jiaxing, China from 2018 to 2019. Among the total 2124 subjects, 1059 subjects were middle-aged people (40–59 years old) and 1065 subjects were elder-aged people (≥60 years old). Their demographic characteristics, medical history, family history, eating habits etc. were recorded and separately input into logistic regressive analysis and LightGBM algorithm to build the prediction models of high-risk population of stroke. Four values including F1 score, accuracy, recall rate and AUROC were compared between the two models. Results: The risk factors of stroke were positively correlated with age, while negatively correlated with the frequency of fruit consumption and taste preference. People with low-salt diet were associated with less risk of stroke than those with high-salt diet, and male had higher stroke risk than female. Meanwhile, the risk factors were positively correlated with the frequency of alcohol consumption in the middle-aged group, and negatively correlated with the education level in the elder-aged group. Furthermore, the four values from LightGBM were higher than those from logistic regression, except for the recall value of the middle-aged group. Conclusion: Age, gender, family history of hypertension and diabetes, the frequency of fruit consumption, alcohol and dairy products, taste preference, and education level could as the risk predictive factors of stroke. The Model of using LightGBM algorithm is more accurate than that using logistic regressive analysis.


Butter and cottage cheese considered as one of the safest foods, however, pathogenic bacteria, that can be transmitted through the dairy products is important from public health point of view. The survey was conducted on 150 respondents; 30 from each study site. In addition, samples of soft and dry curd cottage cheeses, as well as aged and fresh butters were collected following standard procedures and subjected to chemical, microbial, and sensory evaluation. The milk collection, storage and churning equipment were clay pot, gourd or plastic. Water sources were from river, spring and bore. Compared to the international standard the cottage cheeses and butter microbial count of most samples were beyond the acceptable quality. The dominant bacterial pathogens isolated from butter and cheese samples were Aeromonas hydrophila, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella spp., Shigella flexneri, and Staphylococcus aureus. The overall acceptance score of sensory attribute of cheese from Seka and butter from Serbo was better.


The dependence of the winter stratospheric and Euro-Atlantic climate response on ENSO amplitude is investigated using the HadGEM3 model. Experiments are performed with imposed east Pacific sea surface temperature perturbations corresponding to Niño-3.4 anomalies of ±0.75, 1.5, 2.25, and 3.0 K. In the North Pacific, El Niño (EN) deepens and shifts the Aleutian low eastward, while the equivalent magnitude La Niña (LN) perturbations drive anomalies of opposite sign that are around 4 times weaker. The muted North Pacific response to LN can be traced back to the weaker response of tropical convection and the associated anomalous Rossby wave source. The EN perturbations weaken the Arctic polar vortex, with the winter mean zonal mean zonal wind at 60°N and 10 hPa decreasing approximately linearly with Niño-3.4 anomaly by around −3.6 m s−1 K−1. For the strongest EN case (+3 K), the frequency of sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) increases by ~60% compared to the control experiment. Hence the results do not support a saturation of the stratospheric pathway for strong EN as suggested in previous literature. The equivalent amplitude LN perturbations cause a weak strengthening of the polar vortex and no substantial change in SSW frequency, in contrast to some reanalysis-based studies. EN induces a negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index throughout boreal winter, which increases approximately linearly with the Niño-3.4 anomaly by around −0.6 standard deviations K−1. Only the response to the strongest LN perturbations projects onto a weak positive NAO in November, suggesting that the mechanism for the Euro-Atlantic response to LN may be distinct from EN.


Political unrest, poor economic growth, low savings and tiny coverage of pension are making the elderly to face challenges to survive in Bangladesh. Health care costs of elderly affected their household living standard significantly due to the unbalanced financial liability in Bangladesh. In this study, we conducted a survey on elderly of 311 sample size from four thana: Dhanmondi, Gulshan, Uttara and Mohammadpur in Dhaka City. Both probability and non-probability sampling methods were used to collect demographic, economic, and health related information of elderly. Elderly mostly depend on their family and pension for their financial support at their retirement age, while they rarely depend on insurance in Bangladesh. Besides, price inflation is another cost driver for elderly. This paper focuses on exploring the current state of health and economic position of elderly. Therefore, the logistic regression model was derived to identify the significant key factors (income, pension, health Insurance, physical independence & gender) which were influencing the treatment cost of elderly. Hence, our study also suggests the policy implications (such as specialized bank, social insurance authority, security alert apps, subsidies catering companies, specialized pharmacies etc.) for the upcoming ageing challenges in Bangladesh.


In this article, we introduce the concept of FoT, a paradigm for on-demand IoT. On-demand IoT is an IoT platform where heterogeneous connected things can be accessed and managed via a uniform platform based on real-time demands. Realizing such a platform faces challenges including heterogeneity, scalability, responsiveness, and robustness, due to the large-scale and complex nature of an IoT environment. The FoT paradigm features the incorporation of fog computing power, which empowers not only the IoT applications, but more importantly the scalable and efficient management of the system itself. FoT utilizes a flat-structured virtualization plane and a hierarchical control plane, both of which extend to the network edge and can be reconfigured in real time, to achieve various design goals. In addition to describing the detailed design of the FoT paradigm, we also highlight challenges and opportunities involved in the deployment, management, and operation of such an on-demand IoT platform. We hope this article can shed some light on how to build and maintain a practical and extensible control back-end to enable large-scale IoT that empowers our connected world.


The brand is getting more important purchase factor in apartment market, so domestic construction companies have tried to differentiate it from others by creating the unique brand image. The purpose of this study was to investigate consistency of apartment brand image as a process which includes publicity, design and customer service and to analyze how using intergrated brand image affects brand preference and purchasing intention. To examine hypotheses, an empirical study using a survey questionnaire for residents living in 4 different brand apartments in Dongtan, Hwasung city was conducted. The collected data were treated with the SPSS Win Program 14.0. The study indicates that residents living in brand apartment generally preferred natural friendly image, high-class image and modern image to the others. And at first apartment brand images were created with image advertising on TV, catalog for sale and model house tour, but residents have most needs for customer service reflected in brand images. The study also has found that brand images in each process including publicity, design and customer service were not intergrated. However brand image intergration had positive effects on residential satisfaction and customer loyalty. The results of the study are expected to become the useful data in developing sustainable apartment brands and building effective marketing strategy of construction companies.


BACKGROUND
Cardiac arrest (CA) is a common cause of disability. Multimodal evaluation has improved prognosis but precocious biomarkers are not appropriate in determining long-term functional outcome.

AIM
To identify early prognostication markers of long-term functional outcome in post-anoxic coma.

DESIGN
Retrospective assessment of outcomes.

POPULATION
Individuals older than 18 years with post-anoxic coma hospitalized in intensive care units after cardiac arrest (CA) regardless of cause (cardiac or non-cardiac) and location of event (in or out-of-hospital).

METHODS
Clinical, biological and neurophysiological data were collected within 48 hours from CA. Clinical data included time of no and low flow, CA rhythm, pupillary reflex, Glasgow motor score at admission and hyperthermia. Biological marker was the highest creatinine level. Neurophysiological parameters included EEG pattern and reactivity, Somatosensory Evoked Potential (SSEP), and Middle-Latency (ML) SSEP evoked at low (10 mA) and high (50 mA) intensity stimulation. Level of Cognitive Functioning Scale (LCFS), Disability Rating Scale and recovery from coma (Revised coma Recovery Scale [CRS-R]) were collected at 12 months. A LASSO multiple regression analysis was fitted to data to investigate the best predictors of LCF, DRS and CRS-R. In-sample prediction was obtained to verify the quality of fitting, and accuracy indices (i.e., total error rate) produced.

RESULTS
Presence of short and medium latency SSEPs with low and high stimulation intensity were identified as prognostic predictors of outcome for all the scales. Error rate was 4.5% for CRS and LCF, and 9.1% for DRS.

CONCLUSIONS
Middle latency somatosensory evoked potentials associated with short latency somatosensory evoked potentials during the first 48 hours after a cardiac arrest are strong predictors of functional outcome at 12 months from the event. Replication on larger cohorts is needed to support their routine use as prognostic markers.

CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT
These markers could inform more appropriate allocation of resources, provide a basis for realistic goal-setting, and help the family to adjust its expectations.


Seven litter-mate pairs of male crossbred pigs were fed diets in which 50% of the dry weight was either corn starch or sucrose for 1 year. Unlike reports of two similar experiments published since our work was carried out, no lesions of the cardiovascular system were found in any of the animals at the end of the experiment. The sucrose-fed animals differed from those fed starch in the following respects: growth was faster during the first 9 weeks of the experiment, but became significantly slower during the remaining 43 weeks, with a less efficient food conversion. The pancreas was about 30% smaller but with no difference in gross or histological appearance. In the plasma there was a transient increase in concentration of insulin, a decrease in albumin, and a decrease in activities of glutamate-oxalacetate transaminase and lactate dehydrogenase. No significant changes in plasma cholesterol and triglyceride, phospholipid or glucose were observed.


A permutation group is highly transitive if it is n–transitive for every positive integer n. A group G of order-preserving permutations of the rational line Q is highly order-transitive if for every α1 < … < αn and β1 < … < βn in Q there exists g ∈ G such that αig = βi, i = 1, …, n. The free group Fn(2 ≤ η ≤ אo) can be faithfully represented as a highly order-transitive group of order-preserving permutations of Q, and also (reproving a theorem of McDonough) as a highly transitive group on the natural numbers N. If G and H are nontrivial countable groups having faithful representations as groups of order-preserving permutations of Q, then their free product G * H has such a representation which in addition is highly order-transitive. If G and H are nontrivial finite or countable groups and if H has an element of infinite order, then G * H can be faithfully represented as a highly transitive group on N. Some of the representations of Fη on Q can be extended to faithful representations of the free lattice-ordered group Lη.


We report the case of an 82-year-old woman who developed pneumothorax during treatment for nontuberculous mycobacterium (NTM). In year X, she was diagnosed with NTM at another hospital after abnormalities were pointed out on a chest X-ray. She received no treatment for NTM at that time. Antibiotic treatment was introduced at the department of respiratory medicine in our hospital in year X+15. The regimen was composed of clarithromycin (800 mg/day), ethambutol (750 mg/day) and rifampicin (600 mg/day); however, treatment with the three-drug antibiotic regimen was canceled at her request and changed to erythromycin. She was then referred to our department. However, right-side cavity wall thickening was detected on chest CT in year X+17.We resumed clarithromycin (600 mg/day), ethambutol (750 mg/day) and rifampicin (450 mg/day). On the 43rd day after treatment with three types of antibiotics, she felt dyspnea and she was admitted to the hospital and was diagnosed with right-side pneumothorax. The pneumothorax was thought to have been caused by a break in the adhesion of the cavity wall. The visceral pleura was weakened by the exacerbation of NTM and the thickness of the cavity wall was improved after the resumption of antibiotic therapy. This report is considered to be an important case in which pneumothorax developed as a complication in an elderly patient during treatment for NTM.


Along the last years, the practical use of active filters to mitigate harmonics has been extended in electric power systems. Different configurations of series active filters versus shunt active filters have been proposed, among them, hybrid topologies which combine active and passive filters. Nevertheless, there is not any clear accordance about the most suitable configuration for each type of harmonic sources. In this paper, four different topologies of active power filters to eliminate harmonics have been analyzed. An experimental prototype has been implemented to each configuration and have been submitted to different performance tests. With this objective, a test bank has been developed, which includes nonlinear loads kind harmonic current source, ahrmonic voltage source, and other whose behavior is between they both. The analysis of experimental results obtained allows the most suitable active filter power topology to be determined for each type of load.


In 60 breast cancer patients in stages I and II the blastogenic transformation of peripheral blood lymphocytes after phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) pokeweed mitogen (PWM) and concanavalin A (Con A) stimulation were assayed and estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PgR) receptor concentrations in tumor cytosol were measured. A negative correlation between lymphocyte reactivity to the mitogens and tumor steroid receptors concentration was found. The lymphocyte response to the mitogens in the patients with ER-PgR-tumors (R-) was significantly higher than in those with tumors either ER+PgR-or ER-PgR+ (R+) or ER+PgR+ (R++). There was also a negative correlation between lymphocyte response to PHA and either ER or PgR concentrations in the tumors. These results suggest that the presence of steroid receptors in tumor cells may be associated with the depression of immunological reactivity in breast cancer patients.


INTRODUCTION The ranks of the great old soldiers who went forth to fight in the Boer War, 1899-1902 on Anzac Day, have been continually reduced until today a veteran of the war is rarely seen. With their passing goes the chance of first hand confirmation of their service whilst in South Africa. There have been several books written on the Australians in the Boer War, but these are either limited in detail or inaccurate concerning the medals awarded. This is one reason for attempting a series of small books, aimed at the medal collector and student of Military History, on each of the Contingents to  leave Australia. The basis for the information contained was obtained from the War Office Library and the Public Records Office in London. The medal rolls submitted by Contingent Commanders have been the authority for deletion or Inclusion of all members mentioned. Some rolls were difficult to read and most had supplementary rolls which had to be married to the original roll. There are many interesting remarks shown on the original rolls and, when appropriate, these remarks have been included. Doubt still exists as to why such grand old soldiers as Jim Durham did not wear the clasps awarded for service in later Contingents. Where possible a lot of the veterans and their descendants were contacted to check authoritive records with actual fact. The modern day collector of medals awarded to Australians in this war, who reject a Queen's Medal with loose or missing clasps, would be well advised to look closer in to the circumstances surrounding the Issue of the medals. There is no doubt that some medals were issued with loose clasps; others had been issued separately from medals, and cases exist where King's Medals were issued without clasps as these had been issued previously with the Queen's Medal. The author is not foolish enough to think that this book is one hundred per cent accurate, as it is felt that the book on medals without a mistake is yet to be published. If any reader has a querie or can add information or point out error, then please contact the author who will acknowledge all letters. The reader who has any medals for disposal or requires an evaluation on medals would be well advised to contact the author, as some medals awarded during the Boer War are rare and consequently demand high prices. The non-collector of medals, it is hoped, will pick up some historical background which hopefully will lead to the creation of an interest in this neglected part of Australia's Military History. The collector of course can now select the medal desired from the roll, and then most likely spend the rest of his days looking for it.


This research examined the perspectives of teachers of students with visual impairments (TVIs) regarding the use and effectiveness of electronic assistive technology (EAT) purported to assist students who are blind in advanced mathematics subjects. The data for this study were collected via an online survey distributed to a convenience sample of teachers with experience teaching or supporting students who are braille readers in advanced mathematics classes. Questions were designed to gain information regarding which of 35 tools presented in the instrument were used to aid students, how were they used and perceived effectiveness. Open-ended response areas provided space for addition of tools not already listed, as well as other feedback. A total of 82 surveys were analyzed. Results indicated that 20 of the 35 devices were used; of these, 13 were used regardless of specific subject, while different sets were used for different subjects and tasks. Participants recommended another seven hightech devices in the open response question. Limitations of the study were the small sample size and possible survey fatigue. Implications for practitioners: This research provides a foundation for additional work on how to best equip teachers of students with visual impairments so they can support their students.


Recent technology developments, including fuel cells, microturbines and efficient storage devices, have increased the possibility of employing Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) dispersed throughout the system. DERs are potentially valuable providers of ancillary services such as load following and contingency reserve in distribution systems. In this paper, slow dynamic models for microturbines and fuel cells are presented to explore the feasibility and benefits of providing energy and ancillary services from DERs at the distribution level. An adaptive power flow algorithm, derived from a compensation-based method, appropriate for the simulation of slow dynamics in the distribution system is also presented. An optimal distribution power flow strategy is presented for the coordinated dispatch and operation of DERs. The algorithm decomposes the overall system problem into two components: economic dispatch for energy and ancillary services based on market prices at the system level; and loss minimization at the distribution level. For real time operation of DERs at distribution level, an AGC type control strategy is also presented.


Consciousness is scientifically challenging to study because of its subjective aspect. This leads researchers to rely on report-based experimental paradigms in order to discover neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs). I argue that the reliance on reports has biased the search for NCCs, thus creating what I call 'methodological artefacts'. This paper has three main goals: first, describe the measurement problem in consciousness science and argue that this problem led to the emergence of methodological artefacts. Second, provide a critical assessment of the NCCs put forward by the global neuronal workspace theory. Third, provide the means of dissociating genuine NCCs from methodological artefacts.


Single-class closed queueing networks, consisting of infinite-server and single-server queues with exponential service times and probabilistic routing, admit product-from solutions. Such solutions, although seemingly tractable, are difficult to characterize explicitly for practically relevant problems due to the exponential combinatorial complexity of its normalization constant (partition function). In "A Probabilistic Approach to Growth Networks," Jelenković, Kondev, Mohapatra, and Momčilović develop a novel methodology, based on a probabilistic representation of product-form solutions and large-deviations concentration inequalities, which identifies distinct operating regimes and yields explicit expressions for the marginal distributions of queue lengths. From a methodological perspective, a fundamental feature of the proposed approach is that it provides exact results for order-one probabilities, even though the analysis involves large-deviations rate functions, which characterize only vanishing probabilities on a logarithmic scale.


Abstract : The purpose of this study was to examine smoking prevalence in a large group of Navy men and to asses the impact of smoking on their physical fitness. Self-reported demographic and smoking information was provided by 1,357 Navy men stationed aboard ships in the San diego area. Physical fitness was measured as performance on the Navy's annual physical readiness test which includes a 1.5-mile run/walk, 2-minute sit-ups test, sit-reach flexibility test, and percent body fat assessment. Self-reported smoking status indicated that 49. 8% were current smokers, 20.3% were former smokers, and 29.9% had never smoked. Smokers were more likely to be non-Black enlisted personnel with lower education who had been in the Navy longer and tended to be older. Smoking also h ad a clear negative impact on physical fitness, most notably on cardiorespiratory endurance (1.5-mile run performance) and muscular endurance (sit-ups test). Study results suggest that the Navy's anti-smoking efforts should focus heavily on prevention. Men who had never smoked were leaner, could do more sit-ups, and scored higher on the overall physical fitness rating than current smokers and former smokers. Strong efforts to get people to stop smoking should also improve cardiorespiratory and muscular endurance as former smokers performed better on the 1.5-mile run and sit-ups tests than current smokers. Future research should focus on why smoking rates in the Navy are so high. Identification of factors associated with smoking would provide useful information for developing interventions to lower smoking rates. Successful interventions are vitally needed to help the Navy reach its goals for maintaining a healthy and fit force.


During the past decade, guidance counselors at all educational levels have pledged themselves to providing assistance to a diverse number of minority groups, ranging from the disadvantaged to the status of women. What we have perhaps neglected in our zeal to assist the less fortunate are the large number of "normal" children who daily file through the classrooms of our nation. Lacking the eloquent spokesmen of other movements, children are still being treated in many public schools as they were during the Industrial Revolution. What is desperately needed in public education is the development of increased numbers of spokesmen who will speak for this last great minority group. Numbered among these spokesmen should be the school counselor. The counselor can speak for and work toward the creation of schools where individual freedom and human dignity replace the shopworn curriculum as the key component of the educational process. In this context the counselor must become an active, doing individual who worries leas about his personal "role" and more about how children develop into healthy adults. He sheds the mantle of the isolated clinician, is active in the classroom, and uses his counseling skills to focus on assets rather than inadequacies. He views parents as partners in the educational scene, rather than as misdirected adults who badly need therapy. He is and must be a strong political force, for it is only through enlightened legislation that the last minority group will be served.


Background: Nutrient deprivation is a distinct feature of the tumor microenvironment that plays a crucial role in various cancers. However, the contribution and regulatory mechanism of nutrient deprivation on metastasis of pancreatic cancer (PC) have not been identified. Methods: PC cells were treated with normal medium, glucose-depletion or glutamine-depletion medium to observe the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). RT-qPCR and western blot assay were applied to evaluate the alteration of mRNA and protein of zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1), a crucial EMT regulator factor. Co-IP assay was utilized for evaluating the interaction between AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and ZEB1. LncRNA microarray was adopted to detect the potential lncRNA, which facilitates the association between AMPK and ZEB1. Gain- and loss-of-function experiments were performed to evaluate the roles of ZNFX1 antisense RNA 1 (ZFAS1) in EMT and metastasis of PC. Results: The present study reveals that nutrient deprivation including glucose and glutamine deprivation significantly induces EMT of PC cells, which is dependent on stabilization of ZEB1. We further discover that nutrient deprivation induces upregulation of lncRNA ZFAS1, which promotes the association between AMPK and ZEB1 to phosphorylate and stabilize ZEB1 protein. Notably, ZEB1 reciprocally promotes the transcription of ZFAS1 by binding to the promoter of ZFAS1, forming feedback with ZFAS1. Consistently, depletion of ZFAS1 obviously inhibits nutrient deprivation-induced EMT of PC cells and lung metastasis of PC in nude mice. Meanwhile, clinical data displays that ZFAS1 is overexpressed in PC tissues and correlated with high expression of ZEB1 and Vimentin (VIM), low expression of E-cadherin (E-cad), as well as poor prognosis in PC patients. Conclusions: Our study implicates that glucose and glutamine deprivation promotes EMT and metastasis of PC through lncRNA-mediated stabilization of ZEB1.


A self-consistent two dimensional numerical fluid model of rf plasmas under conditions close to those of the experiments for observing particle growth in silane rf plasmas has been developed. The geometry of the discharge chamber and the electrodes used in the model is cylindrically symmetric: two cylinders for the electrodes are surrounded by the grounded chamber. The rf plasmas are in SiH4(10%)/Ar(90%) at a pressure of 100 mTorr at 6.5 MHz. The results from the model, including the rf plasma structures and the generation rates for radicals, SiH, SiH2 and SiH3, are presented. Effects of the applied rf voltage and the secondary electron emission coefficient on the generation rates of the radicals are discussed.


Motivated by clinical trials, we study bandits with observable non-compliance. At each step, the learner chooses an arm, after, instead of observing only the reward, it also observes the action that took place. We show that such noncompliance can be helpful or hurtful to the learner in general. Unfortunately, naively incorporating compliance information into bandit algorithms loses guarantees on sublinear regret. We present hybrid algorithms that maintain regret bounds up to a multiplicative factor and can incorporate compliance information. Simulations based on real data from the International Stoke Trial show the practical potential of these algorithms.


Six rainfall datasets are compared over the Amazon basin, Northeast Brazil, and the Congo basin. These datasets include three gauge-only precipitation products from the Climate Prediction Center (CPC), Global Precipitation Climatology Center (GPCC), and Brazilian Weather Forecast and Climate Studies Center (CLMNLS), and three combined gauge and satellite precipitation datasets from the CPC Merged Analysis of Precipitation (CMAP), Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP), and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) product. The pattern of the annual precipitation is consistently represented by these data, despite the differences in methods and periods of averaging. Quantitatively, the differences in annual precipitation among these datasets are 5% more than the Amazon domain (08–158S, 508–708W), 22% more than Northeast Brazil (58–108S, 358–458W), and 11% more than the Congo domain (58N–108S, 158–308E). Over the Amazon domain the rainfall variation is well correlated between CPC, TRMM, GPCP, and GPCC (r 2 . 0.9) except for the northwestern Amazon, whereas CMAP and CLMNLS were different from these four datasets. Over the Congo basin, the coefficient of determination between these rainfall datasets is generally below 0.7. The empirical orthogonal functions analysis suggests large discrepancies in interannual and decadal variations of rainfall among these datasets, especially for the Congo basin and for the South American region after 1998. In general, CMAP, GPCC, TRMM, and GPCP significantly agree over the tropical areas in South America.


The title, as the study itself, has been inspired by four theoretical contributions: first, Stuart Hall's essay "Introduction: Who Needs 'Identity'" (in Questions of Cultural Identity, ed. Stuart Hall and Paul Du Gay. London: Sage, 1996); second, Paul Gilroy's The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness, which opens with the sentence: "Striving to be both European and black requires some specific forms of double consciousness. But saying this, I do not mean to suggest taking on either or both unfinished identities necessarily exhausts subjective resources of any particular individual" (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993, 1). Third, Diane Davis's question: "Is there a way to activate a sense of solidarity among singularities – a way to say 'we' – that doesn't automatically exclude, that doesn't just ask for trouble by simultaneously feeding this craving for … Gemeinschaft (in the name of which any number of 'we's have committed the most horrific atrocities in recorded history)?" ("'Addicted to Love'; Or, Toward an Inessential Solidarity," in Jac: A Journal of Composition Theory 19.3 (1999), 639); and fourth, Giorgio Agamben's The Coming Community (Minneapolis: Minnesota Press, 1993). The article consists of four sections, the first is a short theoretical background to the notion of identity. The second section is an examination of four major collective processes, two of them collective exclusionary operations and erasure, which Arabized Jews have undergone. The third section deals with the globalization and the search for inessential solidarities among Arabized Jews. The fourth section is the conclusion to the study, in which the notion of Arab-Jewish identity is revisited.


In the UK, children are entitled to have their views, wishes and feelings conveyed to a child protection conference in person or through professional representation. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study undertaken in a local authority in England which explored perspectives of attending a conference in person and investigated how children's views were represented when they were absent. Findings emerged through interviews with four children, focus groups conducted with four social workers and four conference Chairs, and case record analysis of reports submitted to and generated in child protection conferences for twenty-eight children. Three interrelating discourses of childism, participation and autonomous professional practice emerged within an overarching conceptualisation of power and generational ordering. The findings support contemporary understandings of the privileging of protection rights over participatory rights within child protection practices and add to the limited international evidence base concerning the extent to which young children can express their views, wishes and feelings. They also suggest a need to evaluate the impact of strengths-based practice frameworks, and approaches for assessment and recording practices that promote authentic participation for children across all age ranges.


Autism spectrum disorder is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. The symptoms invariably appear in early childhood and cause significant impairment in social, occupational, and other important functions. Various abnormalities in the genetic, neurological, and endocrine systems of patients with autism spectrum disorder have been reported as the etiology; however, no clear factor leading to the onset of the disease has been identified. Additionally, higher order cognitive dysfunctions, which are represented by a lack of theory of mind, sensorimotor disorders, and memory-related disorders (e.g., flashbacks), have been reported in recent years, but no theoretical framework has been proposed to explain these behavioral abnormalities. In this study, we extended Hebb's biopsychology theory to provide a theoretical framework that comprehensively explains the various behavioral abnormalities observed in autism spectrum disorder. Specifically, we propose that a wide range of symptoms in autism spectrum disorder may be caused by the formation of a rigid-autonomous phase sequence (RAPS) in the brain. Using the RAPS formation theory, we propose a biopsychological mechanism that could be a target for the treatment of autism spectrum disorders.


Understanding the dynamical behaviors of two-dimensional (2D) macromolecules is of fundamental importance for the precise modulation of their assembled structures and material performances. However, considerably less is known about how discrete macromolecular sheets aggregate into extended macroscopic assemblies in solutions. The absence of a quantitative description of the assembly process limits the precise structural control of assemblies. Here, we investigated the aggregation thermodynamic transition and kinetic behavior of 2D macromolecules in the model of single layer graphene oxide (GO). Combining Flory-Huggins theory with experimental observations, we unveiled the critical thermodynamic transition of GO to correlate with the solvent property. We proposed a theoretical falling-leaf model to quantitatively describe the kinetic aggregation process of 2D GO sheets. Experimental analysis validated the theoretical prediction that the thickness of GO aggregates has a power law relation with the poor solvent content. Our work provides a fundamental understanding of phase separation of 2D macromolecules and offers an insight into modulating the aggregated structures of their assembled materials.


Abstract Social commerce has become a hot topic since the beginning of Web 2.0 era; however, relevant research is scarce in emerging economies. This study aims to fill this research gap and answer the main research question of "what type of relevant personality traits and shopping motivations affect social commerce adoption intentions". The research model was developed upon personality traits (openness to experience, need for uniqueness and buying impulsiveness) that are deemed to be relevant to online shopping and social media use. An online questionnaire was conducted on social media users. A total of 269 valid questionnaires were analyzed via structural equation modeling to test for the proposed relationships, majority of which emerged as non-linear. The findings highlight the significance of socialization motives in addition to utilitarian and hedonic shopping motives on social commerce adoption intentions. Openness to experience emerged as a significant trait that has an indirect effect on social commerce adoption intentions. Age and education materialized as significant demographics influencing shopping motivations in a social commerce setting.


Extracellular Ca reduces parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels through several mechanisms, but many details of the intracellular steps involved have been difficult to elucidate because of the lack of a suitable parathyroid cell model. The present studies utilized our Ca-responsive bovine parathyroid organoid culture system (pseudoglands) to examine PTH mRNA in intact parathyroid cells. Increasing medium calcium from 0.4 to 3.0 mM reduced PTH mRNA to 20-30% of basal by 16 h. Reducing medium Ca from 3.0 to 0.4 mM restored PTH mRNA levels over a 24-h period. PTH mRNA was also reduced by the calcimimetic R-568, confirming the role of the calcium-sensing receptor. PTH decay rates were determined by placing pseudoglands in either 0.4 or 3.0 mM Ca for 2 h and then blocking gene transcription. PTH mRNA remained stable for at least 24 h in pseudoglands incubated in 0.4 mM Ca, but fell gradually by 62% in the presence of 3.0 mM Ca. Blocking transcription prior to the addition of high-Ca medium dramatically blunted the Ca-induced degradation of PTH mRNA, indicating that acceleration of PTH mRNA decay by Ca requires gene transcription. Pharmacologic investigation of the signaling pathways involved indicated that the Ca-induced reduction of PTH mRNA did not involve MAP kinase, phospholipase D, or cyclic AMP. However, increasing cytosolic Ca with thapsigargin or the Ca ionophore A23187 decreased PTH mRNA levels. In summary, Ca-mediated destabilization of PTH mRNA requires gene transcription and involves increases in cytosolic Ca.


Non-motor symptoms of parkinson's disease and their management. Non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease are often the first manifestations of the disease before diagnosis is made. These symptoms are diverse: psychic manifestations such as anxiety, depression or behavioral disorders, dysautonomia, pain, alteration of smell or vision, and sleep disturbances. These symptoms can be dramatic and confounding such as those seen in nonmotor fluctuations. Altogether, non-motor symptoms contribute to the impairment of the quality of life of the patients. Therefore, they must be systematically analyzed, and, when possible corrected.


Background RRM1 is functionally associated with DNA replication and DNA damage repair. However, the biological activity of RRM1 in pancreatic cancer remains undetermined. Methods To determine relationships between RRM1 expression and the prognosis of pancreatic cancer, and to explore RRM1 function in cancer biology, we investigated RRM1 expression levels in 121 pancreatic cancer patients by immunohistochemical staining and performed in vitro experiments to analyze the functional consequences of RRM1 expression. Results Patients with high RRM1 expression had significantly poorer clinical outcomes (overall survival; p = 0.006, disease-free survival; p = 0.0491). In particular, high RRM1 expression was also associated with poorer overall survival on adjuvant chemotherapy (p = 0.008). We found that RRM1 expression was increased 24 hours after exposure to gemcitabine and could be suppressed by histone acetyltransferase inhibition. RRM1 activation in response to gemcitabine exposure was induced mainly in the cytoplasm and cytoplasmic RRM1 activation was related to cancer cell viability. In contrast, cancer cells lacking cytoplasmic RRM1 activation were confirmed to show severe DNA damage. RRM1 inhibition with specific siRNA or hydroxyurea enhanced the cytotoxic effects of gemcitabine for pancreatic cancer cells. Conclusions Cytoplasmic RRM1 activation is involved in biological processes related to drug resistance in response to gemcitabine exposure and could be a potential target for pancreatic cancer treatment.


Purebred beagle dogs have been fed a diet supplemented with dl-tryptophan, 6 g/day, a dose which increased their normal daily intake of this amino acid approximately 7-fold. Marked focal hyperplasia of the transitional epithelium of the bladder was produced, accompanied by lymphocytic and macrophagic infiltration of the submucosa. These effects were uniformly observed in dogs fed this dose for from 3.5 months to almost 7 years. No correlation was observed between the severity of the effect and the period of feeding. These results suggest a possible role of tryptophan as a cocarcinogen in the induction of bladder cancer.


It would be generally agreed that the most striking feature of the Latin language is the independent effect of the sound of the words. Even more distinctive than alliteration, itself very common in some authors, is the sonorous play of long vowels, which creates some of the most memorable phrases: consider Horace, Odes II.1.36, quae caret ora cruore nostro, Plautus, Pseud. 686, in lab ore atque in dolore ut ntors obrepat interim. Professor A. Traina, one of the most distinguished of a generation of distinguished Italian latinists, has put together a collection of writings on the general theme of the effect on the form of a Latin word of the sound play desired by its user. Forma e suono. Sometimes it is clear that one out of two alternative spellings is chosen for phonetic reasons; or one synonym rather than another, perhaps the rarer word, to produce a rhyming phrase; on occasion the pressure towards such effects actually leads to neologisms, the creation of words or forms of words which are ungrammatical or previously non-existent in the language. There are five chapters, of very different length, four of them previously published. First comes a 1959 review of a work Interpretazioni grammaticali by A. Ronconi, entitled 'Tra filologia e linguistics', in which T. sets out the main theme of his book, and includes pages of examples of sound effects in Latin, Italian, French, German, and a little English (including 'See you later, alligator' and cockney rhyming slang), and pays some attention to the linguistic influences of advertising slogans on television. The next two chapters are the meat of the book. 'Forma e suono' originally appeared in 1964, but has been wholly rewritten. It presents the thesis that the desire for similarity of sound was responsible for variants in the language. It is written with great clarity and wide scholarship. The personal pudeo in Cm. 877 is argued not to be an archaic survival, but created to rhyme with paveo in the same line; edas (for the normal subjunctive edis) appears in doublets with bibas; ioca (a heteroclite plural of iocus) has been affected by seria; and so on. Latin phraseology is the subject matter, and particularly the characteristic doublets in asyndeton studied by the great F. Leo in 'Analecta Plautina: De figuris sermonis II' (1898) and 'III' (1906), now happily more available in the Ausgewdhlte kleine Scbriften (Rome, 1960). The chapter ends with ten pages of bibliography, which are supplemented by another nine pages at the end of the following one, the longest in the book, and written newly for the purpose, called 'Le iterazioni foniche e la loro incidenza sulla lingua di Plauto'. This continues and widens the study of assonance, and particularly pays attention to 'hapax legomena' in Plautus, considering the phonetic implications of their occurrence, whether they are neologisms or just rare words. The book ends with two brevities: on the alternation of -undand -endin gerunds and gerundives (where T. shows from the manuscripts of Terence that the difference is one of vowel dissimilation, utendus but gerundus); and a note giving a couple of examples relevant to the main theme of the book from the Latin writings of the nineteenth-century scholar poet G. Pascoli.


The article highlights aspects of oppositional, underground and alternative cultural production, specifically book publishing in Afrikaans, in apartheid South Africa. It provides an overview of contemporary cultural and literary events that re-evaluate anti-apartheid initiatives from within the Afrikaans community. The publishing history of a significantly important anti-apartheid print culture institution, the independent anti-apartheid publishing house Taurus (1975-1991), is reconstructed. This history is positioned within a broad historical overview of the origin of South African publishing and the struggle for press freedom; the origin and development of Afrikaans and the rise of Afrikaner nationalism and apartheid; the context of legislative restrictions; and the impact of censorship on the climate of cultural production. The article concludes with some remarks concerning the current state of censorship in post-apartheid South Africa. Innovation Vol. 35 2007 pp. 91-124


Endometritis is one of the main diseases that harms the dairy cow industry. Tanshinone IIA (TIIA), a fat-soluble alkaloid isolated from Salviae miltiorrhizae, has been reported to have potent anti-inflammatory properties. However, the anti-inflammatory effects of TIIA on a mouse model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced endometritis remain to be elucidated. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of TIIA on LPS-induced mouse endometritis. TIIA was intraperitoneally injected 1 h before and 12 h after perfusion of LPS into the uterus. A histological examination was then performed, and the concentrations of myeloperoxidase (MPO) and nitric oxide (NO) in the uterine tissue were determined. The levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in a homogenate of the uterus were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The extent of phosphorylation of IκBα and p65 was detected by Western blotting. TIIA markedly reduced the infiltration of neutrophils, suppressed MPO activity and the concentration of NO, and attenuated the expression of TNF-α and IL-1β. Furthermore, TIIA inhibited the phosphorylation of the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) p65 subunit and the degradation of its inhibitor IκBα. All the results suggest that TIIA has strong anti-inflammatory effects on LPS-induced mouse endometritis.


In western populations, cerebral aneurysms develop in approximately 4% of humans and they involve the risk of rupture. Blood flow patterns are of interest for understanding the pathogenesis of the lesions and may eventually contribute to deciding on the most efficient treatment procedure for a specific patient. Velocity mapping with phase‐contrast magnetic resonance angiography (PC‐MRA) is a non‐invasive method for performing in vivo measurements on blood velocity. Several hemodynamic properties can either be derived directly from these measurements or a flow field with all its parameters can be simulated on the basis of the measurements. For both approaches, the accuracy of the PC‐MRA data and subsequent modeling must be validated. Therefore, a realistic transient flow field in a well‐defined patient‐specific silicone phantom was investigated. Velocity investigations with PC‐MRA in a 3 Tesla MR scanner, laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were performed in the same model under equal flow conditions and compared to each other. The results showed that PC‐MRA was qualitatively similar to LDV and CFD, but showed notable quantitative differences, while LDV and CFD agreed well. The accuracy of velocity quantification by PC‐MRA was best in straight artery regions with the measurement plane being perpendicular to the primary flow direction. The accuracy decreased in regions with disturbed flow and in cases where the measurement plane was not perpendicular to the primary flow. Due to these findings, it is appropriate to use PC‐MRA as the inlet and outlet conditions for numerical simulations to calculate velocities and shear stresses in disturbed regions like aneurysms, rather than derive these values directly from the full PC‐MRA measured velocity field. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Tone reproduction attempts to scale or map high dynamic range image data such that the resulting image has preserved the visual brightness and better contrast impression of the original scenes. In this paper, we propose a systematic approach to tone reproduction by histogram equalization of macro edges. The proposed approach has been integrated with a robust image processing pipeline, and the experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is very stable for accommodating diverse illuminants and scenes.


Abstract: Limited data are available regarding cardiac diseases in birds of prey despite their prevalence in these avian species. Literature regarding valvular lesions in birds of prey is scarce and includes single reports of left atrioventricular valvular endocarditis in an adult, free-ranging, male bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and aortic valvular endocarditis in an adult, free-ranging, female red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence, signalment, gross necropsy findings, and histologic lesions of valvular lesions in eagles. In this retrospective study, necropsy reports for 24 free-ranging and captive eagles were evaluated over a 15-year period (July 3, 2006–February 28, 2021). Six (25%; 95% confidence interval: 8.9–58.9) birds, 5 bald eagles and 1 golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), met the inclusion criteria. Five (83.3%) of the 6 birds had valvular degeneration, 2 (33.3%) had endocarditis, and Staphylococcus aureus was cultured from 1 (16.7%) of the endocarditis cases. The 6 eagles with valvular lesions were all captive adults. Four of the birds were female (66.7%), and the aortic and left atrioventricular valves were equally affected. Acute or chronic cerebral infarcts were present in all 6 birds. Valvular cardiac disease should be considered as a differential diagnosis in eagles exhibiting respiratory distress, neurologic signs, syncope, or in cases of sudden death.


Purpose To analyze and compare choroidal thickness between keratoconus (KC) patients and age-matched non-KC subjects. Methods A cross-sectional, case-control study. One hundred and thirty-four keratoconic eyes and 78 control eyes, from individuals aged from 12 to 30 years old, were studied. Patients with KC followed in Corneal Department of Centro Hospitalar São João, Porto, Portugal, were identified and consecutively included between December 2017 and February 2018. A spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) using depth enhanced imaging was performed, and choroidal thickness in the center of the fovea and at 500 μm intervals along a horizontal section was measured and compared. Results The statistical analysis showed that keratoconic eyes present a thicker choroid in every measured location (p < 0.05). Mean subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) values obtained were 375.86 ± 89.29 and 322.91 ± 85.14 in keratoconus and control groups, respectively (p < 0.001). In a multivariate analysis, SFCT was significantly associated with spherical equivalent (p=0.004) and the presence of keratoconus (p < 0.001), but not with age (p=0.167), gender (p=0.579), or best-corrected visual acuity (p=0.178). In a "fixed model," keratoconus patients were found to have a 67.55 μm (95% CI 36.61–98.49) thicker subfoveal choroid compared to controls. Conclusion Keratoconus patients seem to have a thicker choroid than healthy individuals. The exact pathophysiological mechanism resulting in a thicker choroid in KC patients is not known, but it could possibly be associated with inflammatory choroidal mechanisms.


Operative repair of ascending thoracic aortic dissection and aneurysm often involves the placement of prosthetic aortic conduits and stents with wrapping of the native aorta around the prosthetic device. Postoperative assessment has been clinical because of the absence of an adequate noninvasive imaging modality and a reluctance to perform invasive contrast aortography. Magnetic resonance imaging was performed on ten patients after operative placement of a prosthetic ascending aortic graft. The MR images were reviewed and a grading system was devised based on appearance of the operative site. An increase in MR signal was noted in some patients between the graft and wrapped native vessel. In 20 percent of patients vascular lumen compromise was noted. Magnetic resonance imaging offers a noninvasive technique to assess postoperative complications and offers a viable alternative to invasive contrast aortography.


Background: Long-term follow-up surveys of Spanish-speaking Latina patients at increased risk for hereditary breast cancer who completed genetic cancer risk assessment (GCRA) in our underserved clinics revealed a need for ongoing education and support. Consequently, we invited patients back for a half-day educational conference, employing mixed methods research to better understand their medical and social/cultural issues and needs. Aims: The conference aims were to: 1) share medical advances in GCRA and cancer screening and prevention recommendations and resources and 2) explore GCRA-related experiences and needs, and access to risk-appropriate care. Methods: Invitees were Latina patients with personal and/or family history of breast cancer who completed GCRA between 2001-2009 and their family members. The conference, conducted entirely in Spanish, was held at the regional county medical facility where our underserved clinic is conducted. Educational information was delivered by podium-presentations, expert and patient panel discussions and interactive sessions and community resource booth exhibits. Mixed methods research (surveys and Audio Response System [ARS] mediated interaction and discussion) was used to explore GRCA experiences and access to care. Results: The 71 primarily Spanish speaking (96%) participants ranged in age from 18 to 71 years (mean age, 44), were female (93%), had children (78%), and had at least completed high school (71%). Of the 41 patient-participant, 78% were accompanied by at least one family member and/or friend. Thirty (73%) had a personal history of breast cancer; 4 also had ovarian cancer. Of the 35 tested, 20 (57%) were BRCA positive. Nearly all participants (96%) completed the voluntary survey and post-conference evaluation. On average, 87% responded to eight ARS questions related to the GCRA process and access to care. The majority of patient-participant (71%) understood why they were referred for GCRA, 15% did not, and 13% were uncertain. Eighty percent understood their cancer risk; however 20% expressed a need for more risk information. Although 83% understood cancer screening recommendations, 17% were unsure and requested more information. Interestingly, only 5% reported lack of access to care. More than 75% found the GCRA process stressful and desired more support and preparedness for sharing information with relatives. All responders (96%) reported that the conference met their expectations, valued the resources provided, and suggested allocating more time for questions in a future conference. Conclusion: The interactive conference format was highly rated and effective in providing Latina breast cancer patients and family members with ongoing education and support following GCRA, and provided important information to guide improvement in the risk assessment process. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 3073.


RATIONALE
The end of life (EOL) experience in the intensive care unit (ICU) can be psychologically distressing for patients, families, and clinicians. The 3 Wishes Project (3WP) personalizes the EOL experience by carrying out wishes for dying patients and their families. While the 3WP has been integrated in academic, tertiary care ICUs, implementing this project in a community ICU has yet to be described.

OBJECTIVES
To examine facilitators of, and barriers to, implementing the 3WP in a community ICU from the clinician and implementation team perspective.

METHODS
This qualitative descriptive study evaluated the implementation of the 3WP in a 20-bed community ICU in Southern Ontario, Canada. Patients were considered for the 3WP if they had a high likelihood of imminent death or planned withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy. Following the qualitative descriptive approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposively sampled clinicians and implementation team. Data from transcribed interviews were analyzed in triplicate through qualitative content analysis.

RESULTS
Interviews with 12 participants indicated that the 3WP personalized and enriched the EOL experience. Interviewees indicated higher intensity education strategies were needed to enable spread as the project grew. Clinicians described many physical resources for the project but suggested more non-clinical project support for orientation, continuing education, and data collection. A majority of wishes focused on physical resources including keepsakes, which helped facilitate project spread when clinician capacity was attenuated by competing duties.

CONCLUSIONS
In this community hospital, ICU clinicians and implementation team members report perceived improved EOL care for patients, families, and clinicians following 3WP initiation and integration. Implementing individualized and meaningful wishes at EOL for dying patients in a community ICU requires adequate planning and time dedicated to optimizing clinician education. Adapting key features of an intervention to local expertise and capacity may facilitate spread during project initiation and integration.


The dolphinfish, Coryphaena hippurus , is an oceanic epipelagic fish with economic importance to sport and commercial fisheries throughout its worldwide distribution in tropical and sub-tropical waters. In the eastern Caribbean, dolphinfish are generally piscivorous, eating a wide variety of fish species including small oceanic pelagic species (e.g. flyingfish, halfbeaks, man-o-war fish, sargassum and rough triggerfish), juveniles of large oceanic pelagic species (e.g. tunas, billfish, jacks, dolphinfish), and pelagic larvae of neritic, benthic species (e.g. flying gurnards, triggerfish, pufferfish, grunts). They also eat invertebrates (e.g. cephalopods, mysids, scyphozoans), suggesting that they are essentially non-selective foragers. This appears to be typical of dolphinfish from other locations and of tropical oceanic pelagic species in general. Post-larval flying gurnards and flyingfish rank as the most important prey species overall. However, the diet varies with season, and mysids are a very important component from October to December. Diet also varies slightly with predator size (small dolphinfish eat fewer flyingfish and more squid than larger sized dolphinfish), and with sex (males take proportionally more of the active, fast swimming species such as flyingfish, squid and dolphinfish than do females). From these results and a review of the literature to determine the diet of other tropical oceanic species and the predators of dolphinfish, it can be seen that predator-prey relationships and interspecies competition for food clearly involve other commercially important species. As such, interactions between the surface trolling dolphinfish fisheries, the surface gillnet flyingfish fisheries, and the subsurface longline tuna fisheries in the eastern Caribbean can be expected.


Mycetoma is a tropical disease caused by several fungi and bacteria present in the soil. Fungal mycetoma and eumycetoma are especially challenging to treat; therefore, prevention, early diagnosis, and early treatment are important, but it is also necessary to understand the geographic distribution of these pathogenic fungi. In this study, we used DNA metabarcoding methodology to identify fungal species from soil samples. Soil sampling was implemented at seven villages in an endemic area of Sennar State in Sudan in 2019, and ten sampling sites were selected in each village according to land-use conditions. In total, 70 soil samples were collected from ground surfaces, and DNA in the soil was extracted with a combined method of alkaline DNA extraction and a commercial soil DNA extraction kit. The region for universal primers was selected to be the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer one region for metabarcoding. After the second PCR for DNA library preparation, the amplicon-based DNA analysis was performed using next-generation sequencing with two sets of universal primers. A total of twelve mycetoma-causative fungal species were identified, including the prime agent, Madurella mycetomatis, and additional pathogens, Falciformispora senegalensis and Falciformispora tompkinsii, in 53 soil samples. This study demonstrated that soil DNA metabarcoding can elucidate the presence of multiple mycetoma-causative fungi, which may contribute to accurate diagnosis for patient treatment and geographical mapping.


: Background: Lung cancer is one of the most common cancer in Nepal causing 14.1%of total death among cancer. Nepal is a developing country with poor socio-economic and human development. The rate of lung cancer patient is in an increasing trend. Tobacco smoking is one of the major risk factors causing 70% lung cancer deaths. The major objective of the study was to find the association of cigarette smoking and relighting of cigarette butts while smoking with the occurrence of lung cancer in Kathmandu valley, Nepal. Methods: An unmatched case control study was conducted among 207 participants including 108 cases and 99 controls. The study areas were from National Hospital and Cancer Research Centre Pvt. Ltd., Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital and areas nearby the hospitals in Kathmandu. The duration of the study was from April 2017 to July 2017. Administered questionnaire including socio-demographic, smoking habits and secondary exposure to smoke characteristics section was used in the process of data collection. Descriptive statistics was done to summarize general characteristics. Bivariate analysis of factors showed p-value<0.2; and it included in the multivariable logistic regression where parsimonious model with backward regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals in order to find association of risk factors. Results: In multivariate regression, cigarette smoking was a strong associated risk factor for occurrence of lung cancer (OR=1.91,95%CI=1.001-3.66), even when adjusted with other 11 factors from the bivariate analysis (OR=2.85,95% CI=1.054-7.68).Whereas relighting of cigarette butts while smoking showed positively strong association with occurrence of lung cancer; when it was unadjusted (OR=4.47,95% CI=2.28-8.78) as well as adjusted for 17 factors from bivariate analysis (OR=37.63,95% CI=7.55-187.46). Conclusions: Smoking and relighting of cigarette butts were major associated risk factors for occurrence of lung cancer. This calls for strengthening the prevention aspect of tobacco control program to focus on behavioral change for reducing relighting of cigarette butts among the general population and tobacco addiction among the general population in Nepal.


Numerous studies show that semi-natural habitats within agricultural landscapes benefit native pollinating insects and increase resultant crop pollination services. More recently, evidence is emerging that agricultural diversification techniques on farms, as well as increased compositional and configurational heterogeneity within the cropped portion of landscapes, enhance pollinator communities. However, to date, only a few studies have investigated how diversifying the crops within the farm field itself (i.e., polyculture) influences wild pollinator communities and crop pollination services. In the Central Coast of California, we investigate how local crop diversification within fields, crossed with the proportion of natural habitat in the surrounding landscape, jointly affect pollinator communities and services to strawberry. On 16 organic farms varying in farm type (monoculture vs. polyculture) and proportion of natural land cover, we find that both factors enhance pollinator abundance and richness, although neither affect honey bee abundance. Further, natural cover has a stronger effect on pollinator richness on monoculture (vs. polyculture) farms. Although strawberry can self-pollinate, we document experimentally that pollinator exclusion doubles the probability of berry malformation, while excluding both pollinators and wind triples malformation, with corresponding effects on berry marketability. Finally, in post-hoc tests, we find that berry malformation is significantly higher with greater visitation by honey bees, and observed a trend that this reduction was mitigated by increased native bee richness. These results suggest that both polyculture and semi-natural habitat cover support more abundant and diverse pollinator communities, and that ambient levels of pollinator visitation to strawberry provide an important crop pollination service by improving berry marketability (i.e., by reducing berry malformation). Although further confirmation would be needed, our work suggests that honey bees alone do not provide sufficient pollination services. Prior work has shown that honey bees tend to visit only the top of the strawberry flower receptacle, while other native bees often crawl around the flower base, leading to more complete pollination of the achenes and, consequently, better formed berries. If honey bee visits reduced native bee visitation in our system, this could explain the unexpected correlation between increased honey bee visits and malformation.


The local environment of indium atoms in the chalcogenide glass with the stoichiometric composition Ge28. 33 In6 Se65 67 has been investigated using extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) technique. It is found that indium is only coordinated with selenium atoms with a value of three for its coordination number.


Digital Steganography explains the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that, apart from the sender and intended recipient, no one suspects the existence of the message, a form of security through the state of being unknown. The main two famous schemes used for image steganography are spatial domain embedding and transform domain embedding. The main aim of Wavelet Transform is used to transform original image (cover image) from spatial domain to frequency domain. But here in our proposed work, Integer Wavelet Transform is performed on a gray level cover image and in turn embeds the message bitstream into the LSB's of the integer wavelet coefficients of a the image . The main purpose of the proposed work is to focus on improving embedding capacity and bring down the distortion occurring to the stego image. The refinement of the algorithm plays an important role for accomplishing higher embedding capacity and low distortion rate. The experimental results prove that the assessment metric such as PSNR is improved in a high manner. The experimental results show that the algorithm has a high capacity and a good invisibility.


In this work, high‐oxygen‐content strong oxidizer perchlorate salts were successfully incorporated into current nanothermite composite formulations. The perchlorates were encapsulated within mild oxidizer particles through a series of thermal decomposition, melting, phase segregation, and recrystallization processes, which occurred within confined aerosol droplets. This approach enables the use of hygroscopic materials by stabilizing them within a matrix. Several samples, including Fe2O3/KClO4, CuO/KClO4 and Fe2O3/NH4ClO4 composite oxidizer particles, have been created. The results show that these composite systems significantly outperform the single metal oxide system in both pressurization rate and peak pressure. The ignition temperatures for these mixtures are significantly lower than those of the metal oxides alone, and time‐resolved mass spectrometry shows that O2 release from the oxidizer also occurs at a lower temperature and with high flux. The results are consistent with O2 release being the controlling factor in determining the ignition temperature. High‐speed imaging clearly shows a much more violent reaction. The results suggest that a strategy of encapsulating a very strong oxidizer, which may not be environmentally compatible, within a more stable weak oxidizer offers the opportunity to both tune reactivity and employ materials that previously could not be considered.


ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to genotype strains of Candida albicans to determine whether specific types were associated with chronic hyperplastic candidosis (CHC). A total of 67 candidal isolates from CHC patients (n = 17) and from patients with other oral conditions (n = 21) were genotyped by PCR fingerprinting employing two interrepeat primer combinations (1245 and 1246 primers or 1251 primer) and a single minisatellite-specific M13 primer. The most suitable primer for fingerprint analysis was found to be primer 1251, yielding well-resolved banding patterns. For the 67 isolates tested, PCR fingerprinting delineated 25 (1245 and 1246 primers), 27 (1251 primer), and 25 (M13 primer) profiles. The majority of C. albicans isolates from multiple sites within the mouth produced identical profiles (six out of nine subjects examined). For patients for whom a series of longitudinal isolates was available, strain persistence for up to 7 years was evident for five out of eight individuals, despite episodes of antifungal therapy. Computer-assisted comparison of the interrepeat PCR fingerprints identified seven distinct profiles that were shared among isolates from different individuals. However, no association was evident among isolates ofC. albicans from specific clinical conditions. Eight isolates that were initially identified as C. albicansbut having atypical PCR profiles were later confirmed as Candida dubliniensis. In conclusion, the genotypic data do not indicate clonal restriction of C. albicans with respect to CHC. Furthermore, these results have demonstrated that in the majority of individuals, colonizing populations of C. albicans are clonal in nature and exhibit strain persistence.


Introduction: Non invasive biomarkers from exhaled breath became high interest. The ion mobility spectrometry has better sensitivity and differentiation of volatile compounds then gas-chromatography. The high sensitivity of the method brings a couple of problems due to VOC9s from ambient air and environment. Methods: The aim of the study was to demonstrate standardized sampling, reproducibility and the discrimination of groups of volunteers by exhaled markers. The calculation of spectra and statistical discrimination was performed using a statistic program based on a Support-Vector Machine. For the investigation were included 57 volunteers, whose were recruited from two completely different environmental-occupational ambient air conditions. Results: There were collected repetitive samples on one day and within one week for each. Similar tests were performed on ambient air. It was possible to demonstrate significant differences in spectra of volunteers. It was possible to differentiate clusters from human biomarkers from the clusters which represent VOC9s from ambient air. Subgroups, e.g. sex, BMI, smoking, were possible to discriminate without disturbance from ambient conditions. Discussion: The DMS is suitable for the detection of VOCs in exhaled breath even in different environmental conditions. The fingerprints (clusters) in each measurement are characteristic for the individuals, groups and highly reproducible. Specific VOC9s from ambient are can be mostly excluded from patients markers. The ion mobility spectrometry may be a sufficient method for non-invasive detection of disease markers in breath. Supported by a Grant of the Federal Ministry for Economy and Technology: EURONORM. Germany


Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development Journal. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0) ABSTRACT Customers are loyal because they believe that they receive superior products or commendable services and favorable treatment from their service providers, and also because they believe they don't have a better alternative. However, these customers may not be aware of the influence or impact that their service provider's advertisements really have on keeping them hooked or bowed to their brand and customer loyalty. The general objective of the study was to analyze the contribution of television advertising to customer loyalty in insurance sector in Rwanda. Specific objectives were to ascertain the determinants that influence customer loyalty in insurance sector in Rwanda, to assess the strategies related to advertisement undertaken by insurance companies on customer loyalty and to establish relationship between television advertisement and customer loyalty in insurance sector in Rwanda. The study design was descriptive-analytical design, the population of this research was from insurance companies' customers and employees and the sample size of the study was 98 people. The researcher used Statistical Packaging for Social Sciences (SPSS) as the statistical tool. The data was presented according to the research questions and research objectives. Tables were used to present data. Data from completed questionnaires were edited, categorized and entered into SPSS and summarized using the percentage of respondents for analysis. Inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient was used to analyze data). This research used SPSS programm and found that the coefficient r equal to 0.969. According to Pearson, the correlation of 0.969 (96.9%) is categorized as positive correlation and this leads to confirm that there is significant relationship between television advertisement and customer loyalty. This study recommended that, to enable meaningful participation, management should focus on advertisement, customer loyalty, and corporate strategy with carefully selected representatives for the skilled employees. Successful Brand loyalty in Rwandan insurance companies requires a strong skilled local leadership through a process of leadership development, community mobilization, capacity building, education, and conscious.


In this study, the Self-adaptive strategy algorithm for controlling parameters in Differential Evolution algorithm (ISADE) improved from the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm, as well as the upgraded version of the algorithms has been applied to solve the Inverse Kinetics (IK) problem for the redundant robot with 7 Degree of Freedom (DoF). The results were compared with 4 other algorithms of DE and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) as well as Pro-DE and Pro-PSO algorithms. These algorithms are tested in three different Scenarios for the motion trajectory of the end effector of in the workspace. In the first scenario, the IK results for a single point were obtained. 100 points randomly generated in the robot's workspace was input parameters for Scenario 2, while Scenario 3 used 100 points located on a spline in the robot workspace. The algorithms were compared with each other based on the following criteria: execution time, endpoint distance error, number of generations required and especially quality of the joints' variable found. The comparison results showed 2 main points: firstly, the ISADE algorithm gave much better results than the other DE and PSO algorithms based on the criteria of execution time, endpoint accuracy and generation number required. The second point is that when applying Pro-ISADE, Pro-DE and Pro-PSO algorithms, in addition to the ability to significantly improve the above parameters compared to the ISADE, DE and PSO algorithms, it also ensures the quality of solved joints' values.


Empirically, the macroeconomic institutions and the macroeconomic policy approach in the Eurozone have failed badly, both in terms of preventing the global financial and economic crisis from becoming a euro crisis and in generating a rapid recovery from the crisis, in particular. In this contribution will argue that the dominating macroeconomic policy regime in the Eurozone can be seen as a version of what Steindl called 'stagnation policy'. We examine the macroeconomic institutions and the macroeconomic policy approach of the Eurozone which has been based on the New Consensus Macroeconomics, and we highlight its main deficiencies leading to stagnation policy. This will then provide the grounds for an outline of an alternative macroeconomic policy approach for the specific institutional setup of the Eurozone based on a post-Keynesian approach.


V/A-ATPase is a rotary ATPase that shares a common rotary catalytic mechanism with FoF1 ATP synthase. Structural images of V/A-ATPase obtained by single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) during ATP hydrolysis identified several intermediates, revealing the rotary mechanism under steady-state conditions. Here, we identified the cryo-EM structures of V/A-ATPase corresponding to short-lived initial intermediates during the activation of the ground state structure by time-resolving snapshot analysis. These intermediate structures provide insights into how the ground-state structure changes to the active, steady state through the sequential binding of ATP to its three catalytic sites. All the intermediate structures of V/A-ATPase adopt the same asymmetric structure, whereas the three catalytic dimers adopt different conformations. This is significantly different from the initial activation process of FoF1, where the overall structure of the F1 domain changes during the transition from a pseudo-symmetric to a canonical asymmetric structure. Our findings will enhance the future prospects for the initial activation processes of the enzymes with dynamical information, which contains unknown intermediate structures in their functional pathway.


Summary Differences in fertility between the three major ethnic groups (Malays, Chinese and Indians) in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore have existed since before the onset of fertility decline in the late 1950s and remain today, although the relative positions and the actual differences have changed due to the varying rates of decline. By 1987, the Malays experienced the highest fertility and the Chinese the lowest in both countries but in Singapore the Malay fertility was lower than the Chinese fertility in Peninsular Malaysia. The fertility differentials will lead to changes in the ethnic composition in both countries but more so in Peninsular Malaysia.


In the recent years, several research works are focusing on the use of STATCOM in electrical networks because it is used to regulate the voltage, to improve the dynamic stability of the power system besides allowing better management of the power flow. All these positive tasks have guaranteed an important position of STATCOM within a family of Flexible Alternating Current Transmission System (FACTS). In this paper study, the control and operation of a three levels 48-pulse GTO based STATCOM is implemented with series connected transformers. The system may, unfortunately, be prone to GTO switch faults and therefore may affect reactive power transiting. In this paper, a new diagnostic approach is proposed based on the Single-Sided Amplitude Spectrum (SSAS) method of the three-leg converter currents for detection and localization of open-circuit faults. The integration of the STATCOM reconfigurable fault tolerant to the system is also considered to ensure service continuity. Several results are presented and discussed in this paper to illustrate the performance of the STATCOM fault-tolerant diagnostic.


The ARIDFLO project takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the collection and analysis of data required to formulate appropriate environmental flow requirements for rivers in the Lake Eyre Basin. The key drivers of the ecological processes underpinning the health of these rivers are identified by modelling wholeof-ecosystem biological responses to hydrological events over a range of spatial and temporal scales. First, the hydrology of these poorly gauged (often ungauged) rivers needs to be modelled and validated to mimic real flow and inundation patterns at the catchment, reach and waterbody scale. Modelled and actual discharge data are then used to provide a suite of hydrological predictor variables which, in conjunction with other environmental variables, are used to model observed biotic responses. The key hydrologic and environmental drivers identified by the statistical models need to be taken into account when determining environmental flow requirements for these river systems. Further work is required to assess the predictive power of the models in the highly variable, complex systems of the Lake Eyre Basin rivers.


THOUGH the atiology of influenza has for 30 years been the concern of virus workers, the secondary ravages of bacteria are still recognized to be a very important feature of the disease. I shall not attempt a wide survey of this subject, which would take me far outside my own province, but will consider the role of bacteria in patients admitted to hospital with influenza during recent outbreaks, with particular reference to prevention and treatment of secondary staphylococcal infections. The importance of Staphylococcus aureus as a cause of pneumonia complicating influenza was reported from many sources during the Asian influenza epidemic of I957. For instance, the Public Health Laboratory Service (1958) described the isolation of staphylococci from the lungs or sputum of 62% of 477 patients who died from pneumonia during the epidemic; the staphylococcus was held responsible for most of the deaths in young, healthy patients. Oswald, Shooter and Curwen (1958) reported a mortality of 28% in 155 cases of staphylococcal pneumonia complicating influenza, compared with a mortality of i2% in 145 patients with non-staphylococcal pneumonia; the high mortality of the staphylococcal cases appeared in all age-groups, whereas the mortality of the non-staphylococcal pneumonia was highest (26%) in patients of 55 years of age or more, and low (o to 3%) in the lower age groups. In most reports Staphylococcus aureus appeared to be the worst bacterial invader, though not necessarily the commonest; indeed Forbes (1958) found Staphylococcus aureus in only five out of 34 fatal cases with bacterial complications, both pneumococci and Streptococcus pyogenes being commoner. The majority of staphylococcal infections are brought in, rather than acquired in hopital, by patients admitted with influenza (e.g. Public Health Laboratory Service, I958), but those who are admitted commonly acquire hospital strains of staphylococci. Oswald and his colleagues (I958) (Table i) found a much higher proportion of staphylococci of hospital type resistant to penicillin and tetracycline in the sputum of influenzal pneumonia patients after they had been in the ward for several days than in their first days after admission; a relative increase of hospital phage types was shown in a similar comparison by TABLE I SENSITIVITIES OF STAPHYLOCOCCI FROM INFLUENZA PATIENTS IN HOSPITAL WITH STAPHYLOCOCCAL PNEUMONIA