This review intends to update what is known about and what is still a challenge in functional constipation (FC) in children regarding epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. Although FC is a common childhood problem, its global burden remains unknown as data from parts of the world are missing. Another problem is that there is a large variation in prevalence due to differences in study methods and defining age groups. The pathophysiology of FC remains unclear to date but is probably multifactorial. Withholding behavior is likely to be the most important factor in toddlers and young children. Genetics may also play a role since many patients have positive family history, but mutations in genes associated with FC have not been found. Over the past years, different diagnostic criteria for FC in infants and children have been proposed. This year, Rome IV criteria have been released. Compared to Rome III, it eliminates two diagnostic criteria in children under the age of 4 who still wear diapers. Physical examination and taking a thorough medical history are recommended, but other investigations such as abdominal radiography, transabdominal recto-ultrasonography, colonic transit time, rectal biopsies, and colon manometry are not routinely recommended. Regarding treatment, guidelines recommend disimpaction and maintenance therapy with polyethylene glycol (PEG) with or without electrolytes. But experience shows that acceptability, adherence, and tolerance to PEG are still a challenge. Counseling of parents and children about causes of FC is often neglected. Recent studies suggest that behavior therapy added to laxative therapy improves the relief of symptoms. Further homogeneous studies, better-defined outcomes, and studies conducted in primary care are needed.


falafel (flfl) encodes a Drosophila homolog of human SMEK whose in vivo functions remain elusive. In this study, we performed gain-of-function and loss-of-function analysis in Drosophila and identified flfl as a negative regulator of JNK pathway-mediated cell death. While ectopic expression of flfl suppresses TNF-triggered JNK-dependent cell death, loss of flfl promotes JNK activation and cell death in the developing eye and wing. These data report for the first time an essential physiological function of flfl in maintaining tissue homeostasis and organ development. As the JNK signaling pathway has been evolutionary conserved from fly to human, a similar role of PP4R3 in JNK-mediated physiological process is speculated.


Introduction: Circulating free (cf) microRNAs hold great promises in early detection and prognosis of human diseases such as cancer. However due to the very low amount of cf miRNA in plasma and serum, highly informative miRNAs are lost. Thus, there is an urgent need for highly efficient, sensitive, cost efficient technologies to measure low abundant miRNA in a quantitative manner. Previously, we have successfully measured and validated miRNA profiles of early onset breast cancer cases, healthy controls and breast cancer patients who had developed breast cancer metastasis during follow-up by applying TaqMan Low density arrays. We established and validated miRNA signatures for the early detection of early stage breast cancer, and prognosis and early detection of breast cancer metastasis. However more sensitive microarray platforms with highly dynamic ranges could even improve identified diagnostic signatures especially in respect of early detection of diseases and relapse. Here, we compared the sensitivity of the previously applied array platform TaqMan Low density array (TLDA) with Toray innovative 3D-Gene microarray technology by measuring plasma cf miRNA profiles of 40 individuals (10 healthy controls, 10 early stage breast cancer, 20 metastatic breast cancer patients). Experimental Procedures: Plasma samples were processed within 2 h after blood collection. EDTA blood was centrifuged for 15 min at 1200 g and the supernatant centrifuged again at 12.000 g for 10 min in order to remove any cell debris. Cf RNA was isolated from plasma. Cf miRNA profiles of plasma samples of 40 individuals (10 healthy controls, 10 early stage breast cancer, 20 metastatic breast cancer patients) were investigated A: via TaqMan low density arrays (TLDA) and B: via 3D-Gene microarray technology. Expression profiles between both array types and between cases, early stage breast cancer and metastatic breast cancer patients were compared. In addition selected miRNAs were measured with single TaqMan assays. These results were compared with the array based results. Conclusion: The result will be of importance for all scientists who intend to develop and improve diagnostic miRNA panels. Based on our results recommendations for a microarray platform for the investigation of cf miRNA will be given. Citation Format: Melanie Maierthaler, Eric Mennesson, Katarina Cuk, Dharanija Madhavan, Manuela Zucknick, Isabelle Fixe, Alexandra Foucher, Markus Wallwiener, Andreas Schneeweiss, Nadia Normand, Barbara Burwinkel. Comparison of different highly sensitive miRNA array platforms for the investigation of circulating cell-free microRNAs in blood. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 3973. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-3973


Abstract. This study investigated the sources of black carbon (BC) at two contrasting urban environments in Helsinki, Finland; residential area and street canyon. The sources of BC were explored by using positive matrix factorization (PMF) for the organic and refractory black carbon (rBC) mass spectra collected with a soot particle aerosol mass spectrometer (SP-AMS). Two sites had different local BC sources; the largest fraction of BC originated from biomass burning at the residential site (38 %) and from the vehicular emissions at the street canyon (57 %). Also, the mass size distribution of BC diverged at the sites as BC from traffic was found at the particle size of ~100–150 nm whereas BC from biomass combustion was detected at ~300 nm. At both sites, a large fraction of BC was associated with urban background or long-range transported BC indicated by the high oxidation state of organics related to those PMF factors. The results from the PMF analysis were compared with the source apportionment from the aethalometer model calculated with two pair of absorption Angstrom values. It was found that several PMF factors can be attributed to wood combustion and fossil fuel fraction of BC provided by the aethalometer model. In general, the aethalometer model showed less variation between the sources within a day than PMF being less responsive to the fast changes in the BC sources at the site. The results of this study increase understanding of the limitations and validity of the BC source apportionment methods in different environments. Moreover, this study advances the current knowledge of BC sources and especially the contribution of residential combustion in urban areas.


SUMMARY Biased assessment of tillage impacts on soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration are often associated with a lack of information on the initial level of SOC stocks. The present study reported the changes in SOC concentrations and stocks following 10-year different tillage practices relative to the initial SOC levels. The tillage trial included no tillage (NT), ridge tillage (RT) and mouldboard plough (MP) on a Black soil (Hapludolls) in Northeast China. Results showed that tillage, soil depth and time significantly affected SOC concentration and SOC stock. Tillage and crop residue retention had great impacts on the SOC concentrations in the top 0·1 m layer. Compared with MP and NT, RT resulted in higher SOC concentration and SOC stock in the plough layer (0–0·2 m), which became more obvious with time. The soil under NT and RT had higher stratification ratios (SR) of SOC (SR, the ratio of SOC concentration in 0–0·05 m to that in 0·1–0·2 m) than under MP. Significant positive and nearly identical linear relationships between the SR of SOC and the duration of tillage practices occurred for both NT and RT soils; the increased SR in NT resulted from both SOC increase in surface and SOC decrease in subsurface soils, but in RT, the increased SR was only from a substantial SOC increase in surface soil. Accordingly, the present study highlights that RT was more helpful than NT in carbon sequestration for the studied Black soil in Northeast China.


Abstract. We use the twice daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro–Radiometer (MODIS) snow cover product to study the regional influence of the Oceanic Niño Index (ONI) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) on snow cover in British Columbia (BC). We apply a locally weighted regression (LOWESS) interpolation to the MODIS normalized difference snow index (NDSI) time series to detect the timing and duration of snow. We confirm the general consensus from many previous in situ studies that both ONI and PDO have significant impacts on snow cover in BC. We add to this knowledge by performing seasonal and regional analysis using established hydrozones, and explore variation in our results by elevation bins of 500 m. We calibrated our method with in situ snow water equivalent (SWE) data, and found an optimal NDSI threshold of 30 for detecting continuous snow cover.We separate automatic snow weather station data into calibration (75 %) and validation (25 %) subsets and obtain mean absolute errors between the MODIS and in situ observations for the start, end and duration of 8.7, 8.9 and 13.1 days for the calibration data, and 12.7, 12.6 and 16.6 for the validation data, respectively. In general, the start date of snow is poorly correlated with both ONI and PDO, whereas end date and duration are strongly negatively correlated. Regional patterns emerge where northern and southern BC are most correlated to the PDO and the ONI, respectively. These relationships are generally stronger at lower elevations, and vary spatially. This study demonstrates that the suitability of ocean-climate teleconnections as predictors of the timing and duration of snow varies throughout BC.


A computer program for high‐speed simulation and optimization of electrophoretic processes has been developed for carrier‐free systems of all kinds. The calculations are based on the one‐dimensional dynamic (transient‐state) model. The three‐dimensional geometry of the simulation space can be chosen deliberately. With a highly efficient transport algorithm instead of complicated integration schemes for the transport equations, the calculation time can be effectively spent on various important parameters such as ionic strength, temperature, Joule heat, activity coefficients and concentration changes due to membranes. The parameter set of any carrier free electrophoretic method (i.e., continuous‐flow electrophoresis, capillary isotachophoresis and high performance capillary zone electrophoresis) can be imported directly into the computer program by means of a graphic user interface. The program performs overnight‐simulation of any electrophoretic system containing up to 15 components.


Abstract Background We aimed to update information on the prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Japan. We also explored whether CKD was properly recognized and managed. Methods We used data from annual health checkups in 2017, compiling records for 5 million persons. These included laboratory results and were linked to healthcare utilization records via personal identifiers. CKD was defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m2. The prevalence was compared with that in 2005. Healthcare utilization, including laboratory tests, disease coding and medication for comorbid diabetes mellitus (DM) and hypertension (HT), was used as an indicator for the recognition and management of CKD. Results Of the 761 565 records [median age 46 years (interquartile range 50–62)], CKD was found in 50 091 persons; the crude and age-adjusted prevalences were 63.1 and 71.8 per 1000 persons, respectively. CKD prevalence was significantly higher in 2017 than in 2005, with an increase of 14.1 per 1000 persons. Among persons with CKD, >95% sought medical services and 64.6% received laboratory tests within 180 days of the checkup. However, the diagnostic code suggestive of CKD was recorded in only 23.2% of patients and prescriptions for DM and HT were found in 31.2% (1590/5096) and 36.7% (8081/22 019) of comorbid persons, respectively. Conclusions The prevalence of CKD in Japan has increased over the past decade. However, recognition of CKD is likely suboptimal and there is room to improve the management of comorbid DM and HT.


Artificially induced partial closure of stomata can improve the efficiency with which plants use available water; in other words, there is a fall in the transpiration: photosynthesis ratio. The careful use of some metabolic inhibitors can achieve the required inhibition of stomatal opening, but properly controlled application under field conditions is difficult and metabolic inhibition of photosynthesis in the mesophyll can occur. In the search for a more specific inhibitor of the activities of stomatal guard cells, most attention has been focused on abscisic acid, a hormone which appears to function as an endogenous regulator of stomatal opening. External application of abscisic acid achieves a useful reduction in the transpiration: photosynthesis ratio. Studies are being made of the effects of chemical analogues of abscisic acid in the search for more active compounds. Another naturally occurring substance which induces stomata to close, all- trans -farnesol, has been found in water-stressed sorghum plants. Sorghum is better able to tolerate water shortage than most crops, and further studies of its physiological mechanisms should lead to a better understanding of how we can provide protection for more susceptible crops.


Funded by a collaborative NSF TUES type II project, a novel suite of affordable and evolvable Software Defined Radio (SDR) based laboratories was implemented and institutionalized at three institutions (Wright State University, Miami University and Central State University) to demonstrate its capability and adaptability. As a participating institution, Central State University worked closely with the other two institutions and successfully adapted the laboratory modules. Further, we developed and updated our own laboratory modules to improve undergraduate students' understanding and learning. The latest modules include Starting out with SDR, GNU Radio Companion, SDR with Python Programming, USRP Implementation (e.g. FM receiver) and Advanced USRP Implementation (e.g. Digital modulation constellation). The modules have been integrated into two undergraduate level courses for three years. The students' learning outcomes were internally evaluated by the PI at the institution and a reviewer from the leading institution, Wright State University; and externally evaluated by a reviewer who was neither from the participating institutions nor directly involved with the project. The achieved goals and discovered issues were reported and discussed. Overall, the results demonstrated a positive example of integrating modern technology and research into minority undergraduate education, thereby enhancing the minority undergraduate Computer Science curricula.


In control and stability studies, load models should realistically represent the aggregate load behavior of all kinds of individual components. In this paper, the development of a composite load model, where the load is represented as a combination of an RC circuit in parallel with an induction motor equivalent circuit, is presented. A procedure is developed for identifying a frequency-dependent composite load model using digital measurements from an on-line transient recording system, taking account of system frequency variation. A nonlinear model parameter estimation technique is described to derive the frequency-dependent load model. A computer program called LMSP has been developed. The program consists of five major phases: user-interface, data manipulation, load model identification; model conversion and system model response evaluation. A case study is presented to illustrate, in particular, the accuracy of the developed model for the representation of dynamic load behaviors of an actual power system. >


The constants for ion-pair formation with 2,4-dinitrophenol in benzene (KB), and the pKa, values in water, of thirty-three amines have been measured. According to the class of amine, two different situations can be observed: for primary amines and secondary cyclic amines, the effects of structural variations on basicity are higher in water than in benzene; on the other hand, for tertiary amines these effects are similar in the two solvents. KB, Values of primary amines give a good correlation with σ*. The Taft and Hancock equation allows a unifying treatment of KB, values of the various classes of amines.


In this work, a steady-state heat transfer equation in a side-pumped Nd:YAG laser rod was solved numerically using finite element method (FEA). The resulting temperature and stress distributions were calculated under the condition of totally and partially direct side pumping structures with LASCAD software. From the result of simulation, we compare between the different pumping lengths, and mainly indicate the effect of pumping lengths on the temperature distribution, stress, displacement and the optical path difference (OPD).


The littoral site of Ifri Oudadane is one of the most important recently excavated sites in the Mediterranean Maghreb. The shelter presents Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic layers and therefore offers the possibility to investigate the Neolithic transition in the region. Besides introducing the archaeological context, this paper focuses on palaeobotanical data in order to reconstruct Holocene environmental change and human use of plant resources for the period c. 11 to 5.7 ka cal. BP. Results show intense landscape transformations resulting from anthropic and climatic factors. First human occupations start at the beginning of the Holocene with favourable conditions in this otherwise harsh semi-arid stretch of land. A wooded environment with evergreen sclerophyllous oaks and riparian forests is documented and exploited by hunter-gatherers. From c. 7.6 ka cal. BP farming activities are well attested together with significant human impact, herding pressure and a progressive decline of arboreal components. After 6.6 ka cal. BP conditions become less favourable and markers for aridity increase. Riparian taxa disappear (Alnus) or decrease (Fraxinus, Populus, Salix); shrubs (Tamarix) and grasses (Artemisia) increase with a degradation of forest into shrubland (macchia). During 6.6 and 6.0 ka cal. BP there is a general occupation gap in arid and semi-arid Morocco and evidence for that change is also found in the alluvial deposits of the Moulouya, NE Morocco. Indicators for food production decrease at the same time and the site is abandoned during the first half of the 6th millennium cal. BP.


Market-based instruments have gradually become a significant tool of environmental policy in central European countries. By using the structural macroeconometric E3ME model we compare two alternative green tax based policy frameworks in the Czech Republic. While the first imposes a tax on emissions of classical pollutants (particulates, sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxides, and volatile organic compounds), the second consists of carbon taxation intentionally set at the level equalizing environmental effect measured by externalities that are avoided as result of both reductions in emissions subject to taxation and ancillary effects. We also analyze impacts of revenue recycling. The comparison of economic impacts of both considered policy set ups indicates that policy aimed at the taxation of classical pollutants outperforms carbon policies in cases without revenue recycling. On the other hand, mainly due to significantly higher revenues from carbon taxation, when the revenues are recycled, a carbon taxation framework appears to be a better option.


The energy-to-data ratio (EDR) was evaluated for quantum-dot based microdisk laser directly modulated without external cooling. The experimental values of EDR decrease with decreasing diameter of the microdisk and reach 1.5 pJ/bit for the smallest diameter under study (10.5 μm). In larger microdisks (with a diameter greater than 20 μm), the EDR varies in proportion to the square of the diameter. If this relationship were true for smaller microdisks as well, an EDR value of about 100 fJ would be achieved with a diameter of 4 μm. The observed deviation of EDR from the quadratic dependence on the diameter is associated with an increase in the threshold current density in smaller devices, which in turn may be caused by the contribution of nonradiative recombination on the microresonator sidewalls formed by deep etching.The energy-to-data ratio (EDR) was evaluated for quantum-dot based microdisk laser directly modulated without external cooling. The experimental values of EDR decrease with decreasing diameter of the microdisk and reach 1.5 pJ/bit for the smallest diameter under study (10.5 μm). In larger microdisks (with a diameter greater than 20 μm), the EDR varies in proportion to the square of the diameter. If this relationship were true for smaller microdisks as well, an EDR value of about 100 fJ would be achieved with a diameter of 4 μm. The observed deviation of EDR from the quadratic dependence on the diameter is associated with an increase in the threshold current density in smaller devices, which in turn may be caused by the contribution of nonradiative recombination on the microresonator sidewalls formed by deep etching.


It is well recognized that after any gastric operation in which the pyloric mechanism is destroyed, some patients develop postprandial symptoms which are a result of the treatment alone and not of the preexisting gastric pathology. The comparative incidence of this symptom complex, known as the dumping syndrome, after gastroenterostomy with vagotomy and partial gastrectomy, has been variously reported and is still a controversial subject. 4,10,13 The clinical impression of a lower incidence and severity of the dumping syndrome after gastroenterostomy with vagotomy is one of the arguments for its preferential use in the treatment of duodenal ulcer. The present study was undertaken to obtain additional comparative data by experimentally producing dumping symptoms in 2 groups of patients, after gastroenterostomy with vagotomy, and after partial gastrectomy. Material Twenty-eight patients were investigated. Half of them had undergone a Billroth II subtotal gastrectomy with an estimated two-thirds gastric resection. The other 14


This article analyses and summarizes the contemporary comic books and magazines, released in Lithuania during the year 1990–2005. It includes the original Lithuanian, foreign comics, published in Lithuania and the translations from foreign languages. The main tasks of the article are: to analyse the conception of the comics, to explain the term; to know the comic books and magazines de visu, to make the origins index; to explore the tipology of Lithuanian comics according to the maid index (compare comics genres for different contingent of readers, comics features, reveal the content of comics and their communicating characteristics). There were used document analysis, comparative and the method of questionnaire to get the material for the article. There was set the conclusion, that todays society forms a new look to the comics. Comics become valuable for their ability to sense some sort of ideas and traditions. Comics can be called a medium because of their original form. This form come step by step, from one panel satyrical picture to the series of pictures with one plot. Sequence is one of the leading elements of the comics structure. Entertaining and pleasure comics are the most common in Lithuania. Comics in Lithuania are ascribable to childrens literature. The most popular genres in Lithuania among young readers are: journey-adventure comics, comics about rollicking animals, superhero, action comics, detective and fantastic stories. All this genres belong to the spare time comics tipe. There also are comics for learning and spiritual enlightenment in Lithuania. The young readers are interested in entertaining and game functions of comics. Children read comics because of their humour, because they see the reflection of the society in comics and can actualize their imagination. Comics for children are laconic and clear. They use more pictures than text. Comics completeness is conditioned by reality, the fine arts and literary thing combination. Each of them is knowable through the senses, thinking and imagination.


In this paper we describe a new framework for planning functionally graded and multi-step fabrication processes for use in rapid prototyping applications. This framework is contributing to software tools that will simplify planning multi-material manufacturing processes and thereby make this type of manufacturing more accessible. We introduce the material description itself, low-level operations which can be used to combine one or more geometries together, and algorithms which assist the designer in computing manufacturing-compatible sequences. We then apply these tools to several example scenarios. First, we demonstrate the use of a Gaussian blur to add graded material transitions to a model which can then be produced using a multimaterial 3D printing process. Our second example highlights our solution to the problem of inserting a discrete, off-the-shelf part into a 3D printed model during the printing sequence. Finally, we implement this second example and manufacture two example components. The results show that the framework can be used to effectively generate the files needed to produce specific classes of parts.


Objectives: To understand the effect of the biomechanical differences by assessing pre and post retraction torque, amount of retraction and arch width changes in both techniques. Methodology: A three-dimensional geometric model of maxilla with all upper teeth except first premolar was generated based on computed tomography radiograph of a dry skull using the computer program Hypermesh. 13.0. Virtual models of 0.022 " Roth labial brackets and 0.018 " ORMCO 7th generation lingual brackets; and for labial brackets 0.019 × 0.025" SS archwire and for lingual brackets 0.016 × 0.024" SS archwire were constructed. Sliding mechanics was used during en-masse retraction by applying a 300 g distal force on both sides of the dentition from canine to the second premolar brackets in the labial and lingual simulation. The finite element program ANSYS 12.1 was used to calculate the torque and displacement. Results: The results stipulated that in transverse direction there was lingual tipping of anteriors, mild buccal flaring in second premolars and first molars and lingual tipping in second molar in lingual appliance. In the sagittal plane, the greater distal movement of posteriors and an up-righting tendency of molars were observed in lingual appliance. Extrusion of anterior teeth were observed in both appliances. Regarding the premolars and first molars, labial movements and relative intrusion were observed in lingual appliance compared to labial appliance. Conclusion: In lingual treatment, it is crucial to increase the lingual root torque. The amount of retraction and arch widening were more in lingual appliance compared to labial technique.


Hřebickova, S., Pacholik, V. & Mach, J. (2014). Personality characteristics and its effect on performance in the race BMX. J. Hum. Sport Exerc., 9(Proc1), pp.S245-S248. The aim of this study was to describe personality characteristics of top athletes ‐ 10 elite bicross (BMX) racers (18+ years), both men and women. For our research we used SPARO test ‐ monitoring of basal psychical autoregulation of personality, which was evaluated with t-test. Particular segments were compared with population and with top athletes of different sports. BMX racers had significantly higher (p < 0.05) intensity of autostimulation, airiness (-5.92±2.54), searching for emotional experiences (3.4 ±2.35) and higher willingness to risk (6,54±2,37). Simultaneously it confirmed higher anxiety (3.35±3,2.1), need of independence (3,73±2.00) and dominant need of experiential attitude (-2,55±2,38). Results show characteristics of BMX racers, which correspond with characteristic of this cycling discipline, and also show personality attributes which are important for success in this sport. Key words: PSYCHOLOGY, BICROSS, PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTIC.


Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data and spectral mixture analysis have been used to estimate vegetation green cover in the Great Basin, western United States, to /spl plusmn/4.0% green cover (%GC). In this paper, we compare estimates of percent green cover derived from EO-1 Advanced Land Imager (ALI) data to estimates derived from field-based analyses and to results derived from Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) data. These analyses define the precision and accuracy of ALI and ETM+ for making quantitative measurements of earth for semiarid ecological studies. The benefits of using ALI were not observed in the calculated uncertainty values (/spl plusmn/5.61%GC and /spl plusmn/6.15%GC for ETM+ and ALI, respectively). However, ALI did not return as many negative green cover estimates and exhibited lower spatial variance in regions of low green cover. These results were attributed to the better signal to noise and data precision inherent to the ALI sensor, and not to the increased number of multispectral bands. ALI was found to be internally inconsistent in that the third sensor chip assembly image swath contained multispectral band coregistration errors. This caused a less than 25%GC error in the ALI estimate of percent green cover along large vegetation gradients.


In this paper we present a model‐based approach for the development of physical hypermedia applications, i.e. those mobile (Web) applications in which physical and digital objects are related and explored using the hypermedia paradigm. We describe an extension of the Object‐Oriented Hypermedia Design Method (OOHDM) and present an improvement of the popular Model‐View‐Controller (MVC) metaphor to incorporate the concept of located object we illustrate the idea with a framework implementation using Jakarta Struts. We first review the state of the art of this kind of software systems, stressing the need of a systematic design and implementation approach we briefly present a light extension to the OOHDM design approach, incorporating physical objects and "walkable" links. We next present a Web application framework for deploying physical hypermedia software and show an example of use. We evaluate our approach and finally we discuss some further work we are pursuing.


The food properties often results from a set of complex chemical reactions initiated by technological treatments. The ultimate objective of this work is to develop rational operating strategies for foods in order to preserve the integrity of the nutritional compounds or to enhance the production of positive newly formed compounds. A "reaction engineering" approach will allow building robust and reliable knowledge on the mechanisms and on the reaction kinetics and then formalizing them into models to optimize the product/process system. The present paper describes the first stage of this approach. It consists in extracting an apparent identifiable reaction scheme on the basis of theoretical knowledge of the system and observable experimental data and on the use of statistical methods.


Therapeutic Area: This 256-page handbook aims to prepare healthcare administrators and practitioners for applying appropriate quality-related oversight of day-to-day activities. The book is a practical tool with specific examples that management staff can use to relate to their own departmental duties. Audience: The primary audience for this handbook is healthcare management staff. Examples focus on hospital scenarios, but they can be helpful for other areas in health care as well. Purpose: This handbook is coauthored by 3 experts in the quality management field, all of whom have been involved in developing an advanced quality management program within a large multi-hospital health system. From their extensive years of experience, they provide insight for the practical implementation of quality interventions such as developing accurate measures for evaluating the quality of care, utilizing data for process improvement, and methods for improving accountability. The authors stress the importance of addressing patient satisfaction despite encountering financial pressures. Content: The book is divided into 10 different chapters, with topics ranging from the role of a manager in promoting quality management, to basic tools useful in quality management data analysis, to performance improvement methods. Each chapter ends with a section titled "Things to Think About," which provides practical questions and issues that can be used on the job. Usability: The book would be a good addition to healthcare management training courses and provides a solid and practical foundation for classroom learning. This is an excellent handbook describing basic quality management concepts and practical tools for healthcare management to apply on a daily basis. It would be valuable to have this book available as a source of quality management techniques for healthcare management, and the $48 cost does offer good value for the price. Highlights: The strengths of this handbook include providing quality management concepts in basic and practical terms and correlating the concepts for use in a complex healthcare environment. Reviewer's Summary: Overall, the book is very well organized and easy to read, and it does not require the reader to have an extensive background in quality management in order to be able to apply the concepts. Reviewer: Kristin R Gericke PharmD, Associate Clinical Professor of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of California at San Francisco; Director, Clinical Pharmacy Management, CalOptima, San Francisco, CA


Allegations of nannyism on the part of the State are examined in relation to alcohol and drug policies. It is argued that some form of protectionism is inherent in public health, and that the argument turns not so much on whether the State has a mandate for such protectionism but what limitations should be placed on the State's mandate.


In this article, we develop functional a posteriori error estimates for discontinuous Galerkin (DG) approximations of elliptic boundary‐value problems. These estimates are based on a certain projection of DG approximations to the respective energy space and functional a posteriori estimates for conforming approximations developed by S. Repin (see e.g., Math Comp 69 (2000) 481–500). On these grounds, we derive two‐sided guaranteed and computable bounds for the errors in "broken" energy norms. A series of numerical examples presented confirm the efficiency of the estimates. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009


Abstract Embryonic diapause is a period of developmental arrest which requires coordination of a molecular cross-talk between the endometrium and blastocyst to ensure a successful reactivation, but the exact mechanisms are undefined. The objectives of this study were to screen the tammar blastocyst for potential diapause control factors and to investigate the potential for members of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) family to coordinate reactivation. A select number of factors were also examined in the mink to determine whether their expression patterns were conserved across diapause species. The full-length sequences of the tammar genes of interest were first cloned to establish their level of sequence conservation with other mammals. The uterine expression of EGF family members EGF and heparin-binding EGF (HBEGF) and their receptors (EGFR and erb-b2 receptor tyrosine kinase 4 (ERBB4)) was determined by quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry. Both HBEGF and EGF were significantly upregulated at reactivation compared to diapause. In the blastocyst, the expression of the potential diapause factors Forkhead box class O family members (FOXO1, FOXO3, and FOXO4), tumor protein 53 (TP53), cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1A (CDKN1A), and the EGF family were examined by RT-PCR and immunofluorescence. Nuclear (and hence active) FOXO expression was confirmed for the first time in a mammalian diapause blastocyst in both the tammar and the mink—CDKN1A was also expressed, but TP53 is not involved and EGFR was not detected in the blastocyst. These results indicate that the EGF family, FOXOs, and CDKN1A are promising candidates for the molecular control of embryonic diapause in mammals. Summary Sentence The FOXOs and CDKN1A are potential novel candidates tomaintain the blastocyst during diapause and the EGF family is confirmed in two species to be specifically expressed at reactivation from diapause.


Treatment.-Excision head of radius and tendon transplantation. A 2-inch transverse dorsal wrist incision was made in a skin crease. Posterior annular ligament preserved, extensor tendons found to be thin and atrophic except for radial extensors. Extensor carpi radialis brevior detached from its insertion and sutured to extensor communis with fingers extended and communis tendon mass sutured together. Tendon of extensor carpi radialis longior split for about 2j in. and one portion detached from its insertion threaded beneath posterior annular ligament with extensor pollicis longus, and sutured to that tendon with the thumb in extension. After-treatment.-Cock-up splint for five weeks, fixing wrist and metacarpophalangeal joints. Interphalan&eal joints moved from the first. There is now full flexion and extension of fingers and wrist and the elbow movements are normal. Scars are minimal, at dorsum of wrist and over head of radius. Patient is able to work as an artist and during the late war servedthroughout as an ambulance driver at home and overseas. (See photograph.)


A nonlinear finite element study has been conducted to investigate the effectiveness of strengthening RC beams with pre-stressed NSM CFRP rods in enhancing the flexural strength of the beams. Four beams have been considered. One acted as control to simulate an existing structural member. The other beams were strengthened with non-pre-stressed CFRP rod (0% prestressed), and pre-stressed CFRP rod (40%, or 60% pre-stressed of the CFRP rod tensile strength). The results of analysis showed that strengthening of the RC beams with non pre-stressed NSM CFRP rods improved both of the flexural capacity and deflection response. Increases in the cracking, yield and ultimate load of 17%, 20% and 48% were achieved. With a pre-stress level of 40%, an enhancement of 117%, 53% and 80% respectively over that of the control beam. For the beam strengthened with pre-stress level of 60%, more enhancements in response were achieved in term of the cracking and yield loads, but a slight reduction in ultimate loads (compared with lower level of pre-stress). Increments up to 160% and 67% in the cracking and yield load respectively. While 77% in ultimate load over that of the control beam were obtained.


Co-teaching has been, and continues to be, a growing trend in American schools since the late 1990s. As the popularity of this service delivery model increases, there is an imperative need for empirical research focusing on how co-teaching affects academic outcomes of students who receive special education services. Evidence regarding the academic outcomes of co-teaching is limited, and reports mixed results. The purpose of this study is to provide a synthesis of research examining academic outcomes of co-teaching on students who receive special education services. Quantitative information from each research report was coded, an overall effect size was computed, and a moderator analysis was conducted. Results suggest a significant effect (g = .281, k = 32, p < .05) of co-teaching on the academic outcomes of students with disabilities when compared to students with disabilities who did not receive instruction in co-taught settings; though a larger effect was found among dissertation reports (g = .439, k = 25, p < .001). Additionally, a significant effect was found when examining the academic outcomes of students in co-teaching compared to the academic outcomes of students in a resource classroom setting (g = .435, k = 27, p < .001. Lastly, effects were stronger the longer these students were in co-teaching environments. Implications of findings and recommendations for further research are discussed.


As an agreement of Muslim's ummah that Islamic politic is a necessity, because of it is flexibility and comprehensive and can accommodate a development in contemporary life. The goal is to manage the affairs of the Muslims, both internally and externally in accordance with the teachings of the Qur'an. As well as it aims to prove that the teachings of Islam is compatible to perform a justice in regulating a good citizens, and set up an organization and public institutions to serve peoples in the community securely and peaceful. It happened because of political Islam consistently seeks to go hand in hand with social development at any time as well as the general principles of Islam.


This paper outlines a new framework for gauging the properties of quasi-experimental estimates of the willingness to pay (WTP) for changes in environmental and other non-market amenities. As a rule, quasi-experimental methods cannot offer alternative hypotheses to judge the quality of their quasi random assignments of treatment and control outcomes to economic agents. Their results must be judged by the explanation of the event used to construct the assignment and the counter examples offered as robustness checks for the logic of each application. This paper develops a four-step procedure for situations that rely on housing price capitalization. It is a computational analog to Chetty's [2009] call for considering the measurement objectives as part of evaluating the relevance of reduced versus structural form modeling strategies. Two diverse applications are used to establish the method's relevance for environmental problems. The first examines the value of a conversion of land cover from xeric to wet landscape. The second examines the clean-up of hazardous waste sites. We find that even when quasi-experimental methods have access to statistically ideal instruments their performance in measuring general equilibrium WTP depends on other aspects of each application.


Since gaining its independence in 1965, Singapore has become one of the most competitive economies of the world and has seen enormous progress also in R & D. The author of this contribution has been part of Singapore's R & D life for more than a decade. In this contribution he tackles issues from the viewpoint of a visiting scientist, particularly with respect to the benefits and challenges of extending science using visitor's schemes and running satellite research programs in other countries. International collaborations are desirable but can be hampered by national interests, IP concerns, administrative hurdles, and other limitations. Cultural differences also exist, and concerns at home regarding loyalty, productivity, and occasional lack of appreciation must also be addressed. Nonetheless, intellectual cross-fertilization, enhanced productivity, and the benefits of nurturing and educating a new generation of "global" scientists are among the positive factors. These efforts may also lead to mutually beneficial innovations and commercial programs, using networks and local knowledge to succeed. As an example of scientific synergy, a case of global importance will be presented involving the science and international implications of marine fouling and the implementation of biomimetic strategies to avoid it. © 2014 American Chemical Society.


Introduction/Background Radical hysterectomy remains to be the primary surgery for selected early stage cervical and endometrial cancer. Functional disorders of the lower urinary tract are the most common complications following radical surgery necessitating catheterization. This study was undertaken to evaluate the average day of removal of urinary catheter after radical hysterectomy and assess the practicability of earlier removal of catheter without compromising the bladder function. Methodology A descriptive retrospective study of patients who underwent radical hysterectomy for cervical or endometrial cancer. Medical, intraoperative and anesthesia records and results of the histopathologic diagnosis of each patient were reviewed. Demographic, clinical and histopathologic data needed in this review were recorded. Results Between January 2016 and July 2018, a total of 26 patients underwent radical hysterectomy (25 patients for cervical cancer and 1 for endometrial carcinoma), with a median age of 51. Among patients with cervical cancer, 1 patient is stage IA2, 16 patients are stage IB1, 3 patients with stage IIA1, and 5 patients had central tumor recurrence after primary concurrent radiation plus brachytherapy. The average operative time is 2.48 hours and the average blood loss is 500 ml. No morbidities reported related to the surgery. The average size of cervix, length of vagina and lateral width of parametria were 3.0 cm, 2.2 cm and 4.2 cm, respectively. There was no parametrial metastasis. One patient had pelvic node metastasis. Catheters were removed between 3rdand 10thpostoperative day (median 4 days). All patients had adequate (more than 100 ml) spontaneous void within 6 hours after removal. Conclusion The primary outcome supports the hypothesis that an earlier removal of catheter seems to be a safe and practical option compared to long-term catheterization for patients undergoing radical hysterectomy without causing morbidities thus providing better quality of life after a radical surgery. Disclosure Nothing to disclose


Interpersonal spoken communication is central to human interaction and the exchange of information. Such interactive processes involve not only speech and spoken language but also non-verbal cues such as hand gestures, facial expressions, and nonverbal vocalization, that are used to express feelings and provide feedback. These multimodal communication signals carry a variety of information about the people: traits like gender and age as well as about physical and psychological states and behavior. This work uses wearable multimodal sensors to investigate interpersonal communication behaviors focusing on speaking patterns among healthcare providers with a focus on nurses. We analyze longitudinal data collected from 99 nurses in a large hospital setting over ten weeks. The results indicate that speaking pattern differences across shift schedules and working units. Moreover, results show that speaking patterns combined with physiological measures can be used to predict affect measures and life satisfaction scores. The implementation of this work can be accessed at https://github.com/usc-sail/tiles-audio-arousal.


ABSTRACT This paper first summarises a survey of logistics and production planning engineers in the automotive industry on the use of simulation models to solve planning tasks in logistics and production conducted by the authors. As a solution for the analysed trade-off between a required quick provision of simulation results and a tolerable inaccuracy of the simulation results, the authors describe and evaluate the application of mesoscopic discrete-rate-based simulation models for two typical production and logistics planning tasks in the automotive industry. In terms of level of detail, mesoscopic simulation models fall between object-based discrete-event simulation models and flow-based continuous simulation models. Mesoscopic models mainly represent logistics flow processes on an aggregated level through piecewise-constant flow rates by applying the discrete-rate simulation paradigm instead of modelling individual flow objects. This leads to fast model building and computation.


This case report demonstrates how to use intraoral mechanics to correct facial planes that are not parallel, namely the eye plane, ear plane and occlusal plane. Currently, our protocol states that the cranial and occlusal planes are treated first, followed by expanding (transversely or sagittally), if necessary, the maxillary arch to accommodate the dentition. This creates the template from which the remaining treatment will be rendered, which would include, proper TMJ position, correction of mandibular facial asymmetries that result from ramus growth deficiencies, (both frontal and profile), and determining the correct posterior vertical. At this point the case is in a Class I osseous relationship with all expansion completed. The teeth are then erupted into the correct positions for the orthodontic finishing of the case.


In this paper, we analyze efficacy of the fast gradient sign method (FGSM) and the Carlini-Wagner's L2 (CW-L2) attack. We prove that, within a certain regime, the untargeted FGSM can fool any convolutional neural nets (CNNs) with ReLU activation; the targeted FGSM can mislead any CNNs with ReLU activation to classify any given image into any prescribed class. For a special two-layer neural network: a linear layer followed by the softmax output activation, we show that the CW-L2 attack increases the ratio of the classification probability between the target and ground truth classes. Moreover, we provide numerical results to verify all our theoretical results.


Numerical modeling and simulation of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) systems have been recognized as the preferred means of obtaining an understanding of subsurface-scattering mechanisms. Among the techniques used, the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method has been distinctly popular due to its versatility in solving problems involving arbitrarily complicated inhomogeneities. In this paper, realistic three-dimensional GPR scenarios are simulated using the FDTD method and the perfectly-matched layer (PML) absorbing boundary conditions. The radar unit, which contains the transmitting and receiving antennas, moves over the ground-air interface on a predetermined path.


Throughout the year during agonistic encounters, black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) emit a vocal signal known as the gargle call. Each bird has a repertoire of structurally differing gargle calls; some are shared with others in the local area. As a basis for understanding the cultural evolution of this social signal, we initiated a study of gargle call repertoires of birds living in a narrow belt of continuous riparian habitat occupied throughout by a resident population of chickadees. During two consecutive winter seasons, we sampled repertoires at three locations over a distance of 8.4 km to quantify micro-geographical variation. Analyses of vocal sharing and population differentiation were carried out on whole gargle calls and on the individual acoustic units (syllables) from which the whole calls are constructed. We analysed 28 380 calls of 46 subjects in the two seasons of study. Birds averaged 7.6 different calls in their gargle repertoires. Calls were composed of about 10 syllables on average. Fifty-six different syllables were used to construct the calls of all birds. Each study site had some gargle calls unique to the local birds and some that were shared with one or both of the other two sites. There was significantly greater sharing of both calls and syllables among birds within sample sites than between sample sites. The frequencies of the different kinds of gargles and syllables were significantly correlated across the 2 yr of the study, but the correlation was stronger (r 2 = 0.93) for syllables than for whole gargle calls (r 2 = 0.61).


This paper is concerned with subaltern actions providing alternatives to development practice. I use Ghana's attempt at urban water privatization to illustrate that Ghana's development practice is characterized by a dependence on foreign sources of capital and expertise that illustrates a psyche and mindset of Eurocentrism associated with the elite and decisionmakers of the country. The rationale for water privatization, the how of privatization, and the anti-development opposition to privatization not only demonstrate this dependency but also the extent to which decisionmakers are willing to sacrifice sovereignty and culturally sensitive ways of doing things, to global capital, in exchange for development funds. In the state's zeal for Western or Occidental development, subalterns in Ghana have devised hybridities that are post-traditional and Oriental in nature to solve their water problems. These development solutions are couched within structures provided to human agency and suggest that development practice should therefore listen to subalterns in terms of how they imagine and solve their problems. The concern with subaltern voices shows the relationship between postcolonial studies and development practice.


AbstractIn just over a decade, robotic surgery has penetrated almost every surgical subspecialty and has even replaced some of the most commonly performed open oncologic procedures. The initial reports on patient outcomes yielded mixed results, but as more medical centers develop high-volume robotics programs, outcomes appear comparable if not improved for some applications. There are limitations to the current commercially available system, and new robotic platforms, some designed to compete in the current market and some to address niche surgical considerations, are being developed that will change the robotic landscape in the next decade. Adoption of these new systems will be dependent on overcoming barriers to true telesurgery that range from legal to logistical. As additional surgical disciplines embrace robotics and open surgery continues to be replaced by robotic approaches, it will be imperative that adequate education and training keep pace with technology. Methods to enhance surgical performance in robotics through the use of simulation and telementoring promise to accelerate learning curves and perhaps even improve surgical readiness through brief virtual-reality warm-ups and presurgical rehearsal. All these advances will need to be carefully and rigorously validated through not only patient outcomes, but also cost efficiency.


Macomb Hospital Center's ADR reporting program has increased interdisciplinary problem solving in the medication use process. Heightened awareness of ADRs has developed throughout the hospital. Issues identified through the ADR program mirror those found in the DUE process. A strong ADR reporting program is an integral part of quality management in organized health care settings.


This paper examines the various implications resulting from the use of English phonetic transcription in advertising in Poland. I focus on the problem of the use of phonetic transcription by copywriters as a graphic form and I make an attempt at showing that this technique can have pedagogical consequences, because a graphic form in which phonetic symbols are used is, in fact, a text message, not an image only. In addition, I analyze selected advertisements as a means of communication addressed to a specific recipient. In this case, I demonstrate that the use of advertising slogans in English and English phonetic transcription in Poland, does not guarantee that such advertising is effective.


This study offers different perspectives for observing the phenomenon of Strategic Practice of managers and sales persons in small stores located in an organizational field through the lens of Strategy as Practice and Institutional Theory. Qualitative participant observation procedures were used in the largest Latin-American cluster of bridal stores and involved strategic work using the institutional elements of Weddings. The results indicated that the institutional and dynamic elements of the symbolic ritual of wedding enable the interaction among practitioners in their strategic activities. This provides legitimacy and, consequently, the survival of the organizations. We present a model in which the propositions seek to direct future studies of S-as-P with the assumptions of Institutional Theory. The study also contributes analyzing strategic activities of small business practitioners to increase the potential for future empirical researches.


The results of therapeutic use of synthetic progestins (infecundin bisecurin Nonovion) in 353 patients with endometriosis are presented. Restoration of the menstrual function was achieved in 75.3 percent and of childbearing in 22.6 percent of the patients. An individual approach to the choice of a type and dose of synthetic progestins depending upon the patients age duration of the disease type of endometriosis and hormonal background is recommended. (Authors modified)


The mysticism of the seventeenth-century French cardinal, Pierre de Bérulle (1575–1629), contains an extended treatment of the relationship of the human and the divine in mystical union. Bérulle explores the nature of mystical union in detail and gives attention to the combination of the apparently incompatible elements of the human and divine and the historical and eternal. He prefers not to begin with the opposition between these elements but instead, by exploring the relationship between them, to use relational language, which brings together unity and difference. For this task, he draws on the tools of late medieval mysticism, which entail especially the metaphors of interior poverty, nuptial mutuality, and neoplatonic emanation. At the same time, he applies the categories of Christology to the problem of mystical relationality and difference. Christology deepens the ways in which to assert and to combine unity and difference between the human and the divine in mystical union. For the reader today, this provides an intriguing perspective on the question of mystical relationality.1 I intend here to set out Bérulle's understanding of mystical relationality and to focus on his christological development of questions of unity and difference.


During H. pylori infection, T cells are recruited to the gastric mucosa, but the host response is unable to clear the infection. We have previously shown that during infection H. pylori induces B7-H1 on the gastric epithelium, and interacting T cells are thus anegized. Recently, T regulatory cells (Treg) with a CD4+ CD25high FoxP3+ phenotype were found at an increased frequency in the H. pylori-infected gastric mucosa. Since B7-H1 promotes T cell anergy during H. pylori infection and Treg cells are present in the infected gastric mucosa, we hypothesized that B7-H1 expression by gastric epithelial cells during H. pylori infection promotes development of T regulatory cells. In order to investigate this, we examined by flow cytometry the induction of the Treg phenotype when naïve T cells were incubated with H. pylori-exposed gastric epithelial cells. The number of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ cells increased together with the production of IL-10 and TGF-β in the cultures. The frequency of Treg cells along with IL-10 and TGF-β production was markedly decreased when B7-H1 was blocked with monoclonal antibodies. The function of these Treg cells was investigated by sorting them for use in co-cultures with activated T cells, which effectively decreased proliferation of the activated T cells. B7-H1 may thereby play a crucial role in the development of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ Treg cells and the inadequate T cell response leading to chronic infection.


We seek to understand the fundamental mathematics governing infrastructure-scale interactions between humans and machines, particularly when the machines' intended purpose is to influence and optimize the behavior of the humans. To that end, this paper investigates the worst-case congestion that can arise in nonatomic network congestion games when a fraction of the traffic is completely altruistic (e.g., benevolent self-driving cars) and the remainder is completely selfish (e.g., human commuters). We study the worst-case harm of altruism in such scenarios in terms of the perversity index, or the worst-case equilibrium congestion cost resulting from the presence of altruistic traffic, relative to the congestion cost which would result if all traffic were selfish. We derive a tight bound on the perversity index for series-parallel network congestion games with convex latency functions, and show three facts: First, the harm of altruism is maximized when exactly half of the traffic is altruistic, but it gracefully vanishes when the fraction of altruistic traffic approaches either 0 or 1. Second, we show that the harm of altruism is linearly increasing in a natural measure of the "steepness" of network latency functions. Finally, we show that for any nontrivial fraction of altruistic traffic, the harm of altruism exceeds the price of anarchy associated with all-selfish traffic: in a sense, partial altruism is worse than complete selfishness.


In this work, we consider the problem of computing optimal actions for Reinforcement Learning (RL) agents in a co-operative setting, where the objective is to optimize a common goal. However, in many real-life applications, in addition to optimizing the goal, the agents are required to satisfy certain constraints specified on their actions. Under this setting, the objective of the agents is to not only learn the actions that optimize the common objective but also meet the specified constraints. In recent times, the Actor-Critic algorithm with an attention mechanism has been successfully applied to obtain optimal actions for RL agents in multi-agent environments. In this work, we extend this algorithm to the constrained multi-agent RL setting. The idea here is that optimizing the common goal and satisfying the constraints may require different modes of attention. By incorporating different attention modes, the agents can select useful information required for optimizing the objective and satisfying the constraints separately, thereby yielding better actions. Through experiments on benchmark multi-agent environments, we show the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm.


The adsorption of lipid vesicles on a hydrophobic substrate has been investigated in aqueous buffer solution by means of the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and ellipsometry. As a hydrophobic substrate, 1-octadecanethiol (ODT) was self-assembled on a gold-coated AT-cut quartz, and lipid vesicles were prepared by the injection method using the synthetic phospholipid l-α-dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC). Although the in-situ ellipsometry thickness measurement dictated that only a monolayered DPPC was formed on the ODT-modified gold substrate, the frequency change measured by QCM was found to correspond to the formation of nearly 30 layers of DPPC on ODT when the usual Sauerbrey equation was assumed to hold in the present system as well. To interpret the nonideal QCM behavior, we have developed a modified four-layer model for QCM operating in a liquid medium. On the basis of the model, the physical characteristics of QCM were related to the electrical parameters of the equivalent QCM circuit. The prop...


Patients, physicians, and the general public have increasingly greater access and exposure to orthopaedic information from a wide variety of sources. Some information is biased or commercial, while other information is evidence-based and accurate. The dividing lines may not always be clear to medical professionals or to consumers. This symposium considers the accuracy, availability, and influence of information that is available to patients on the Internet and observes the role of direct marketing to the public by the orthopaedic industry and pharmaceutical companies. Media coverage of orthopaedic topics, including what the media looks for in press releases, how the media interprets and presents the material provided to them, and how the public is impacted by such coverage, is also discussed. Furthermore, the validity of orthopaedic industry advertisements directed to physicians, as well as the role of industry in driving the focus of non-peer-reviewed publications and podium presentations, is considered.

The Internet, radio, television, and print media have overwhelmed the American public with medical information. When it is incorrect or misleading, patients become victims of medical misinformation. The consequences can be considerable and have negatively affected many doctor-patient relationships. As an example, a patient may read a nonvalidated infomercial in a magazine while on an airplane flight and develop erroneous opinions about diagnoses or treatments. A subsequent visit to a qualified physician may then be made difficult for the patient by conflicting opinions, the need for potentially awkward re-education, and by considerable skepticism. In contrast, a patient who has previously obtained accurate and understandable medical information can be an active participant in shared decision-making with a physician.

A frequent source of medical information, the Internet, may be as likely to help as it is to hurt. Beredjiklian et al. described the case of carpal tunnel syndrome1. The authors looked …


Many modern molecular imaging techniques, based on radiopharmaceuticals, can take advantage of sophisticated devices but are still based on the scintillation detector mechanism proposed by Anger. These devices can perform with millimeter spatial resolution and high detection efficiency, but the final performance is strongly affected by the algorithm used for the scintillation position detection. In this work, a detailed comparison of the effect on the imaging performances of three new position detection algorithms, in terms of spatial resolution, detection linearity and useful Field of View is performed on a prototype gamma detector. The detector, built by the authors, is based on a continuous LaBr3:Ce scintillation crystal coupled to an Hamamatsu MA-PMT H8500 and a single anode readout electronics. The experimental data are obtained scanning the detector surface with a Tc99m collimated source (0.4 mm ϕ) at 1.5 mm step. The overall imaging performances of the device are also tested by mean of a bar phantom. We conclude that the Anger-like algorithms give a 50% uFoV with a 1.30 mm ±0.05 mm spatial resolution while the proposed algorithms give a 80% uFoV and 1.10 mm ±0.06 mm spatial resolution.


Etingof and Schedler formulated a conjecture about the degree zero Poisson homology of an affine cone that admits a projective symplectic resolution. We strengthen this conjecture in general and prove the strengthened version for hypertoric varieties. We also formulate an analogous conjecture for the degree zero Hochschild homology of a quantization of such a variety.


The mechanism by which Helicobacter pylori, which has little or no invasive activity, induces gastric-tissue inflammation and injury has not been well characterized. Extensive research during the past 2 decades has revealed the mechanism by which continued oxidative stress can lead to chronic inflammation, which in turn could mediate most chronic diseases including gastritis. The present study is aimed to analyze the effect of H pylori Lipopolysaccharide LPS on immune system activation particularly oxidative stress. We have investigated the immunomodulatory effect of H. pylori LPS isolated from gastritis patients. LPS was challenged to neutrophils and macrophage, in response to which reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (NO) were measured by chemiluminescence technique and spectrophotometry respectively. Additionally effect on T-cells proliferation was also studied by radioactive thymidine incorporation using scintillation counter. In this study, we have found that out of 10 different samples of H. Pylori LPS, 6 of the LPS samples resulted in 2-6 μM of NO nitric oxide production in vitro. About 3 samples were aggravating reactive oxygen species production and almost all the samples moderately inhibited proliferation of T cell. All these events modulated by LPS clearly indicating the role of bacterial lipopolysaccharide in an increased proinflammatory activity which may lead to gastritis. Research Article Citation: Samreen Soomro, Sikander khan Sherwani, Shahana Urooj kazmi, et al. Immunomodulating Effect of Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) Isolated From Virulent Strains of H.Pylori. Microbiol Infect Dis. 2018; 2(1): 1-5.


The purpose of this study was to construct an interpretation of lower track science students' notions of expertise in science teaching. Data were collected and transcribed from focus groups, teacher journals, classrooms events, and student artifacts. Students responded to focus group prompts over the course of a years regarding how and why they chose to learn science from their teachers based on affective attributes, advocacy/impedance, and identity. Results showed that lower track science students closely associate affective teacher attributes with effective teaching strategies. In addition, students identified advocacy or impedance in academic success based on personal experience rather than other more overt characteristics such as race or gender as a major determinant for their successful science learning. Implications for research and teacher education in diverse settings are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 13–36, 2011


We use Patricia tries to represent textual and spatial data, and present a range search algorithm for reporting all k-d records from a set of size n intersecting a query rectangle. Data and queries include both textual and spatial data. Patricia tries are evaluated experimentally (for n up to 1,000,000) using uniform distributed random spatial data and textual data selected from the Canadian toponymy. We compared the performance of the Patricia trie for k-d points, k-d rectangles and k-d combined textual and spatial data to the k-d tree, R∗-tree, Ternary Search Trie and the naive method. Overall, our experiments show that Patricia tries are the best when F ∈ [0, log2 n] (F is the number of data in range). The expected range search time for Patricia tries was determined theoretically, and found to agree with experimental results when 2 ≤ k ≤ 20.


We present Recipe, a principled approach for converting concurrent DRAM indexes into crash-consistent indexes for persistent memory (PM). The main insight behind Recipe is that isolation provided by a certain class of concurrent in-memory indexes can be translated with small changes to crash-consistency when the same index is used in PM. We present a set of conditions that enable the identification of this class of DRAM indexes, and the actions to be taken to convert each index to be persistent. Based on these conditions and conversion actions, we modify five different DRAM indexes based on B+ trees, tries, radix trees, and hash tables to their crash-consistent PM counterparts. The effort involved in this conversion is minimal, requiring 30--200 lines of code. We evaluated the converted PM indexes on Intel DC Persistent Memory, and found that they outperform state-of-the-art, hand-crafted PM indexes in multi-threaded workloads by up-to 5.2x. For example, we built P-CLHT, our PM implementation of the CLHT hash table by modifying only 30 LOC. When running YCSB workloads, P-CLHT performs up to 2.4x better than Cacheline-Conscious Extendible Hashing (CCEH), the state-of-the-art PM hash table.


Photonic ionic elastomers (PIEs) capable of multiple signal outputs are intriguing in flexible interactive electronics. However, fabricating PIEs with simultaneous mechanical robustness, good ionic conductivity, and brilliant structure color still remains challenging. Here, the limitations are broken through introducing the synergistic effect of lithium and hydrogen bonds into an elastomer. In virtue of lithium bonding between lithium ions and carbonyl groups in the polymer matrix as well as hydrogen bonding between silanol on the surface of silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) and ether groups along polymer chains, the PIEs demonstrate mechanical strength up to 4.3 MPa and toughness up to 8.6 MJ m−3. Meanwhile, the synchronous electrical and optical output under mechanical strains can be achieved in the PIEs with the presence of dissociated ions contributed by lithium bond and non‐close‐packed SiNPs stabilized by the hydrogen bond. Moreover, due to their liquid‐free nature, the PIEs exhibit extraordinary stability and durability, which can withstand extreme conditions including both high and low temperatures as well as high humidity. This work provides a promising molecular engineering route to construct high‐performance photonic ionic conductors toward advanced ionotronic applications.


BACKGROUND
Subcutaneous dirofilariasis is zoonotic infection caused by Dirofilaria repens, the principal reservoir of which is the dog. Clinical expression is usually benign but problems of differential diagnosis are present in some cases. We report the first case of dirofilariasis diagnosed in our area (Sfax, southern Tunisia).

OBSERVATION
A 21 year-old woman consulted for multiple erythematous and pruriginous papules on the shoulders, limbs and buttocks. She was treated with antihistamines and dermatological topical steroids without improvement. The diagnosis was confirmed by histological examination, which revealed sections of an adult dirofilaria about 200 microm in diameter with a multilayered cuticle. The condition resolved spontaneously with disappearance of lesions after 3 months.

DISCUSSION
Subcutaneous dirofilariasis is rare in Tunisia. The prevalence is probably underestimated since clinical signs are non-specific and spontaneous cure is common.


An experimental and theoretical study has been made of electron transport over a series of wide AlxGa1-xAs barriers with graded interfaces, containing GaAs quantum wells in the central Al0.25Ga0.76As region. Extensive measurements of both the voltage and temperature dependence of the current were made, as well as measurements of magnetoresistance. In these structures tunnelling is expected to be negligible and hence drift-diffusion thermionic emission theory was used to interpret the data. Good agreement between theory and experiment was obtained using a low-field model for electric fields up to 10 kV cm-1. At applied electric fields greater than 10 kV cm-1 agreement between theory and experiment was obtained to within an order of magnitude when the model was modified to include a saturated drift velocity plus the effect of injected space charge. At high electric fields periodic negative differential resistance (NDR) oscillations were observed. The model usually given to explain these oscillations involves tunnelling and is, therefore, not obviously applicable to these structures. An alternative description of their origin is discussed, based upon the NDR associated with intervalley transfer.


In his search for the origins of the transgressive philosophical project of Georges Bataille, biographer Michel Surya turns to Bataille's experiences in Spain in 1922. Surya cites two commentaries on flamenco written by Bataille twenty-four years apart. In the first of these commentaries, written in 1922, Bataille describes a female flamenco dancer in erotic terms. In the second commentary, written in 1946, Bataille describes the experience of flamenco in terms of ecstasy and death, essential components of the experience of approximating "the impossible" or the void. The 1922 depiction of the dancer is Bataille's first known erotic writing, significant because of the critical role of erotic terminology in describing the experience of the void. From the quotes Surya provides, flamenco emerges in Bataille's consciousness not only as an instance of approximating the impossible, but also as the catalyst for the development of this concept. Bataille, however, derives this catalytic eroticism from a process of Othering that subverts the experience of the impossible. By constructing this inherently unstable concept, Bataille denies the utility of flamenco in lending the possibility of political transgression and sovereignty to women.


The Ethiopian government has been implementing a land restoration program that aimed to restore degraded ecosystems and double agricultural productivity throughout the country since 2010. However, the success of the restoration program has been limited due to the lack of integrating gully erosion control measures. Consequently, many reservoirs in Ethiopia and downstream riparian countries have lost their storage capacity due to sedimentation, and studies demonstrated that gully erosion is one of the degradation hotspots within watersheds and contribute considerable proportion of the total sediment loads from a particular watershed. This study was conducted in one of large gullies in the Debre-Mawi watershed, northwestern Ethiopia to quantify the effect of gully head treatment in reducing the amount of sediment load generated from uplands and from the gully itself. We measured discharge, and sediment load and concentration in 2013 and 2014 at the upstream (inlet) and downstream ends (outlet) of the studied gully. Before the 2014 rainy phase, a gully headcut was stabilized with gabions at the bed and the gully bank was regarded to 45o. The gully head retreated 12 m in 2013 but gully head retreat was stopped following the implementation of the treatment in 2014. The total sediment load and sediment concentration at the outlet was reduced by 42% and 30% respectively, in 2014 (i.e., after treatment) when compared to 2013 (i.e., before treatment). The result of this study support that controlling the upward retreat of gully head is effective in reducing sediment load and concentration as well as upward movement and expansion of gullies. However, maintenance of gully head control measures is the key to sustain the benefits.


Class IgA secretory antibodies (SigA) are an early line of antigen-specific immune defenses that are influenced by commensal microbial populations. Perinatal antibiotic exposures may affect the host microbiota and have long-term consequences on host immunity. We hypothesize that early-life pulsed antibiotic treatment (PAT) perturbs the intestinal microbiota leading to alterations in sIgA expression. To test this hypothesis, C57BL/6 mice were exposed to 5 therapeutic doses of the β-lactam, amoxicillin, or the macrolide, tylosin. Exposure to either the tylosin or amoxicillin delayed sIgA expression. sIgA expression recovered in β-lactam-exposed mice but was abrogated with macrolide exposure. Compared to age-matched controls, 1 or 3 tylosin pulses decreased sIgA levels by 40% and 75%, respectively. Alterations in sIgA production were associated with decreased bacterial richness (α-diversity), altered community structure (β-diversity), and changes in microbial compositional, including increased abundance of Enterobacteriaceae and Bacteroides uniformis. Whereas tylosin had multiple immunological effects on conventional mice, essentially none were detected in germ-free animals; indicating that an antibiotic-perturbed microbiota influences developing immunity. These results provide evidence that early-life alterations of the intestinal microbiota by PAT modulates sIgA production, phenotypes that may persist after microbial recovery, with long-term consequences to host immunity.


Postsecondary institutions are facing challenges in addressing demands of transparency, accountability, and rising costs. This quantitative content analysis study examined mission statements of higher education institutions based on the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) Standard I Mission and Goals. The mission statement articulates the institutional purpose, indicates whom the institution serves, and what it intends to accomplish. Using signaling theory, the study sought to explore how language is used in the mission statement to communicate to constituents. This study examined 206 public and private institutional mission statements in the MSCHE region that confer baccalaureate and master's degrees. DICTION 7.1 was used to conduct the content analysis. The results of the study suggest words and text patterns matter in the content of mission statements. This study found institutions used different words in the mission statements to institutionally differentiate in the higher education marketplace. Study results also found public institutions used words in their mission statements that more frequently conveyed characteristics of being common, certain, insistent, and complex than the mission statements of private institutions. This study's findings offer guidance to the higher education sector, accreditors, and institutional leaders. A process is identified to review and improve the content of mission statements of public and private institutions in the MSCHE region. Based on the results of the study, recommendations were suggested for future research, accreditors and higher education leaders to improve the language in the mission statement that may enhance communication and increase transparency to internal and external constituents. Document Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Education (EdD) Department Executive Leadership First Supervisor Shannon Cleverley-Thompson Subject Categories Education This dissertation is available at Fisher Digital Publications: https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/education_etd/286 Words Matter: A Content Analysis Study of Public and Private Higher Education Mission Statements in the Middle States Region


The phenomenon of electronic wave localization through disorder remains an important area of fundamental and applied research. Localization of all wave phenomena, including light, is thought to exist in a restricted one-dimensional geometry. We present here a series of experiments to illustrate, using a straightforward experimental arrangement and approach, the localization of light in a quasi-one-dimensional physical system. In the experiments, reflected and transmitted light from a stack of glass slides of varying thickness reveals an Ohm's law type behavior for small thicknesses, and evolution to exponential decay of the transmitted power for larger thicknesses. For larger stacks of slides, a weak departure from one-dimensional behavior is also observed. The experiment and analysis of the results, showing many of the essential features of wave localization, is relatively straightforward, economical, and suitable for laboratory experiments at an undergraduate level.


Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC

In mammalian systems, several aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are known to have distinct non-canonical functionality. For the first time, we demonstrate that human threonyl-tRNA synthetase (TARS) induces angiogenesis through endothelial cell signaling, and this induction can be blocked by the borrelidin derivative compound BC194. Upon stimulation with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) or tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), human endothelial cells secrete TARS into the extracellular space. Extracellular TARS induces and BC194 inhibits angiogenesis in both in vitro tube formation assays and in vivo chick chorioallantoic membrane assays. Furthermore, the anti-angiogenic effects of BC194 are specific to its inhibition of TARS angiogenic activity rather than an indirect stress response. Additional evidence supports a stimulatory role for TARS in endothelial cell migration as a mechanism for its angiogenic activity. Taken together, these findings reveal a previously undefined function for TARS as an angiogenesis inducer stimulated by hypoxic and inflammatory signals. Detecting or intervening in the non-canonical extracellular TARS signaling pathway may thus provide a novel means of diagnosing or treating angiogenesis and inflammatory responses involved in cancer.

Citation Format: Tamara Williams, Adam Mirando, Christopher Francklyn, Karen M. Lounsbury. A novel function for threonyl-tRNA synthetase as a stimulator of angiogenesis and endothelial cell migration. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3897. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-3897


Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) infection is still of continuing economic concern in commercial broiler breeder chicken flocks in Egypt. MG infection continues to emerge despite the application of vaccination programs in breeder flocks. This prompted flock surveillance including MG isolation and molecular characterization of the circulating MG strains. The present study was concerned with 15 broiler breeder flocks of different ages (5-51 weeks). Three flocks were apparently healthy and 12 flocks were diseased. The aim of the study was to characterize the MG strains recovered from tracheal swabs. Four positive MG DNA extracts identified by rt-PCR and confirmed by isolation were subjected to sequencing of the mgc2 gene and intergenic spacer region (IGSR). The current molecular study demonstrated the presence of 3 different wild-type MG strains (RabE1-08, RabE2-09 and RabE3-09) in vaccinated diseased flocks, while the fourth strain (RabE4-08), which was isolated from a nonvaccinated apparently healthy breeder flock, scored 100% of homology and similarity to the F-strain vaccine by the sequence analysis of mgc2 and IGSR. It can be assumed that the vaccine F strain, which is supposed to replace field strains not only failed to do that, but also infected nonvaccinated flocks. Accordingly, there is a need to revise the control program including vaccine strategy in parallel with biosecurity measures.


The regulated oscillation of protein expression is an essential mechanism of cell cycle control. The SCF class of E3 ubiquitin ligases is involved in this process by targeting cell cycle regulatory proteins for degradation by the proteasome, with the F-Box subunit of the SCF specifically recruiting a given substrate to the SCF core. We previously reported the cloning of NIPA (Nuclear Interaction Partner of ALK) in complex with constitutively active oncogenic fusions of ALK, which contributes to the development of lymphomas and sarcomas. Subsequently we characterized NIPA as a F-Box protein that defines an oscillating ubiquitin E3 ligase targeting nuclear cyclin B1 in interphase thus contributing to the timing of mitotic entry. Using a conditional knockout strategy we inactivated the gene encoding NIPA. NIPA-deficient animals are viable, but sterile due to a block of spermatogenesis. Moreover, our studies demonstrate that loss of NIPA has no substantive effect on the physiological cell cycle progression of primary MEFs indicating that this cell cycle checkpoint is inactive under optimal proliferation conditions. Interestingly, NIPA checkpoint control can be unmasked by oncogenic transformation by c-Myc. Here we show that transformed focus formation assays revealed higly significant differences in c-Myc-induced transformation in NIPA-null and wild-type MEFs. c-Myc transduction caused a pronounced upregulation of cyclin-B in NIPA-null MEFs, which was completely reversible by ectopic NIPA expression. This increased cyclin-B1 expression after c-Myc transduction in the absence of NIPA has considerable functional consequences for the cells: Focus formation ability of c-Myc-infected Nipa−/− MEFs was greatly reduced in comparison to wild-type MEFs (24.6% vs. 100%). Moreover, c-Myc expression caused 12.8% apoptotic subG1 cells in wild-type MEFs, whereas Nipa−/− MEFs were more affected by c-Myc-induced apoptosis (22.45%). By contrast, transduction with other oncogenes like k-Ras in p53 knockdown Nipa−/− and Nipa+/+ MEFs showed no differences in various transformation and apoptosis assays pointing out the exclusive role of the G2/M checkpoint NIPA in c-Myc induced transformation. Furthermore, we investigated the impact of these findings for the pathogenesis of c-Myc induced tumorigenesis in vivo. Recipient mice transplanted with c-Myc transduced wild-type bone marrow rapidly developed an AML-like disease (median survival 33 days) characterized by bone marrow infiltration and expression of the myeloid lineage markers CD11b and Gr1. In contrast, animals transplanted with c-myc transduced NIPA knockout BM showed a substantially delayed onset of leukemia and survived significantly longer compared to the control group (median survival 52 days, p<0.01). Taken together, our data demonstrate that NIPA is required for efficient c-Myc transformation in vitro and and in vivo in a murine bone marrow transplantation model. Moreover, our results highlight the functional importance of NIPA in cell cycle regulation and suggest that deregulation of the protein provides a substantial contribution during the process of tumorigenesis.


The development, implementation, and resultant cost savings of a revised enteral products formulary at a 430-bed, community teaching hospital are described. In 1982, a review of the available enteral nutrition products (ENPs) was performed by the pharmacy and food service departments in conjunction with the pharmacy and therapeutics committee. Three broad categories of products were identified--intact-protein, chemically defined, and modular formulas--with 11 subgroups. Products were then evaluated for inclusion on the restricted formulary on the basis of osmolality; source, quality, and proportions of protein, carbohydrate, and fat; electrolyte, mineral, and vitamin content; and cost. Fourteen products were admitted to the restricted 1983 formulary. Previously, 20 products had been stocked by the pharmacy. Products from two subgroups, blenderized and mild-base diets, were deleted from the formulary because of cost, infrequent use, and availability of suitable alternatives. To decrease inventory carrying costs, products are stocked in vanilla or unflavored form, with flavoring packets available. Educational efforts were undertaken to increase the medical staff's awareness of the revised formulary. Within three months of implementation of the revised formulary, purchase of nonformulary items had ceased. A considerable cost savings was achieved because of the formulary.


Background and Purpose— We systematically reviewed the literature on epidemiology, risk factors, presumed cause, clinical course, and outcome of perimesencephalic hemorrhage. Methods— PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched until March 2016. Quality assessment was done by 2 authors independently. Pooled prevalence ratios and pooled odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated for data extracted from case–control studies. Results— We included 208 papers. The incidence of perimesencephalic hemorrhage is ≈0.5 per 100.000 person-years, men are more often affected, and no risk factors were confirmed. Two decision analyses both found that a single, high-quality computed tomography angiography is the preferred diagnostic approach. Short-term complications, such as hydrocephalus or cranial nerve palsies, are rare, and usually transient, with the exception of acute symptomatic hydrocephalus necessitating treatment in 3% of patients. Lacunar infarcts in the brain stem were convincingly described in 4 patients only. Fatal rebleeding after installment of anticoagulation in the initial days after the hemorrhage was described in 1 patient. At long-term follow-up, death related to the hemorrhage has not been reported, disability is found in 0% to 6%, and neuropsychological sequelae are suggested. Conclusions— A single, high-quality computed tomography angiography is the preferred diagnostic strategy. Short-term complications are rare and often transient. Long-term outcome is excellent with respect to disability and death, but high-quality studies focused at neuropsychological sequelae are needed.


Traditional relay analysis is based on steady-state concepts, while the performance of a relay depends greatly on system transient. To deal with the relay transient characteristics, a relay modeling technique is developed and presented in this paper. As an example, a ninth-order mathematical model of the electromechanical Mho distance relay has been constructed using state space approach and validated by digital simulation. A key point of the model, derivation of the nonlinear electromagnetic torque, is described in detail. Since the model is capable of accepting inputs with arbitrary waveforms from PT and CT in computing its transient response, a set of truly dynamic characteristics of the relay was obtained. Combining the relay model with well-developed PT and CT mathematical models, the transient behavior of relays during a system contingency can be precisely predicted.


The structure and crystallography of the internal shell of the pulmonate gastropod slug Limax maximus were studied at the levels of light and scanning electron microscopy, revealing patterns of shell ontogeny and morphogenesis. The calcified portion of the slightly convex ovoid shell is composed of a single palisade layer of calcitic crystals. Numerous projections, 100 μm in width at the dorsal tip, are found on the dorsal surface of the shell and coincide with local nucleation sites of primordial calcium salt deposition onto the periostracum. With continued calcification these projections coalesce ventrally, forming the single crystalline shell layer. The organic portion of the shell includes the periostracum and an extensive PAS‐staining conchiolin. In EDTA‐etched preparations, conchiolin appears as a spongy network of fibers throughout the shell. Both horizontal and vertical components of the conchiolin are present, the former of variable thickness and occurring in an intercrystalline manner, the latter always occurring normal to the horizontal set. Macromorphogenic growth is characterized by three distinct temporal stages. Primary growth occurs radially from the umbonal region. Secondary growth is synonymous with shell thickening. Tertiary growth is characterized by both a lateral component, in which the shell extends beyond the primary growth boundaries, and a ventral component, in which the shell continues to grow in thickness. SEM of the ventral shell surface reveals a pattern of growth at the crystalmatrix interface. Proteinaceous fibers of the conchiolin occur unidirectionally in horizontal rows. Zones of incipient calcitic crystallization onto these hypostracal fiber bundles are contrasted by zones of increasing crystallization until the fibrous template (reduced hypostracum) is completely covered by crystals.


Reservoir siltation because of water erosion is an important environmental issue in Mediterranean countries where storage of clear surface water is crucial for their economic and agricultural development. The high density of gully systems observed in Mediterranean regions raises the question of their contribution to reservoir siltation. In this context, this study quantified the absolute and relative contributions of rill/interrill and gully/channel erosion in sediment accumulation at the outlet of small Tunisian catchments (0·1–10 km2) during the last 15 years (1995–2010). To this end, a fingerprinting method based on measurements of caesium‐137 and total organic carbon combined with long‐term field monitoring of catchment sediment yield was applied to five catchments in order to cover the diversity of environmental conditions found along the Tunisian Ridge and in the Cape Bon region. Results showed the very large variability of erosion processes among the selected catchments, with rill/interrill erosion contributions to sediment accumulated in outlet reservoirs ranging from 20 to 80%. Overall, rill/interrill erosion was the dominant process controlling reservoir siltation in three catchments whereas gully/channel erosion dominated in the other two catchments. We identified the presence of marly gypsum substrates and the proportion of catchment surface covered by soil management/conservation measures as the main drivers of erosion process variability at the catchment scale. These results provided a sound basis to propose guidelines for erosion mitigation in these Mediterranean environments and suggested to apply models simulating both rill/interrill and gully/channel erosion in catchments of the region. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The authors of a paper published in AGU's Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres have been selected by the executive council of the World Meteorological Organization as winners of the biennial Professor Dr. Vilho Vaisala Award for an Outstanding Research Paper. The 2010 paper, "Optimized fractional cloudiness determination from five ground-based remote sensing techniques" (R. Boers et al., J. Geophys. Res., 115, D24116, doi:10.1029/2010JD014661), was coauthored by H. K. Baltink, R. Boers, M. J. de Haij, M. Savenije, L. H. van Ulft, and W. M. F. Wauben of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (De Bilt, Netherlands) and by C. N. Long of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy (Richland, Wash.). The award consists of a diploma and medal and an award of $10,000 shared by the winners.


Point counts are the most commonly employed methodology in bird surveys. Survey points are usually spaced ≥250 m apart to prevent double counting. In cases where they are used in small (<200 ha) geographic areas, this spacing results in a very small sample size, which may substantially underestimate species richness. Alternatively, locating survey points closer together may produce more complete species lists, but result in excessive double counting of individuals, yielding biased population estimates. We investigated this tradeoff in surveys of breeding birds in predominantly grassland habitats in 5 small (73–114 ha) national park units with survey points spaced at 100 m intervals. Sampling at this distance captured 70–90% of the estimated species richness at 4 of the 5 parks. Approximately half of the species observed were rare, occurring at ≤3 sites. Approximately one-third of all birds were observed far enough from the survey point to be counted at another point. Based on rarefaction curves, increasing the distance between survey points from 100 m to 200 m would result in a 27–48% reduction of observed species. Conducting multi-species bird surveys in small geographic areas using single-visit point counts that are widely spaced (e.g., ≥250 m) will likely underestimate species richness, even with the use of statistical species richness estimators. As a result, rare species will be undersampled.