Charcot spine, also known as neuropathic spinal arthropathy and Charcot spinal arthropathy, is a rare and potentially devastating consequence of spinal cord injury. Treatment of this condition ranges from observation, immobilization with bracing or jacket, or surgical stabilization. A 52-year-old male, with a history of a C6-7 spinal cord injury over 30 years ago, presented to our hospital with complaints of worsening of his chronic low back pain over the prior 6 months. His pain was exacerbated with movement, and he also found it more difficult to sit up straight in his wheelchair. MR imaging of the spine demonstrated the large fluid collection with transection of the thecal sac and spinal cord at T10-11, along with the prior known spinal cord injury at C6-7. Given the patient's clinical presentation and signs of progressive degenerative changes with worsening kyphosis, the patient underwent a T7- L3 posterior instrumented fusion for stabilization. Through the same incision, an extracavitary approach was utilized for placement of an expandable titanium case for anterior column support. After the operation, he experienced a significant reduction in pain and noted improved posture in his wheelchair


Background and Purpose— Accurate information about hospital resource utilization is necessary for management of healthcare service. The purpose of this study was to determine the demographic and clinical predictors of length of hospital stay (LOS) of acute care hospitalization for first-ever ischemic stroke patients. Methods— A group of 330 patients who suffered from first-ever ischemic stroke and were consecutively admitted to a medical center in southern Taiwan were followed prospectively. Because our intention was to identify the major predictors of LOS from the information available at admission, we evaluated only those factors that could be assessed at the time of admission. Univariate analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to identify the main predictors of LOS. Results— The median LOS was 7 days (mean, 11 days; range, 1 to 122 days). Among the prespecified demographic and clinical characteristics, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score at admission, the quadratic term of the initial NIHSS score, modified Barthel Index score at admission, small-vessel occlusion stroke, sex, and smoking were the main explanatory factors for LOS. In particular, for each 1-point increase in the total score of NIHSS, LOS increased approximately 1 day for patients with mild or moderate (score 0 to 15 points) neurological impairments, while LOS decreased approximately 1 day for patients with severe (score >15 points) neurological impairments. Conclusions— The severity of stroke, as rated by the total score on NIHSS, is an important factor that influences LOS after acute stroke hospitalization.


Caching of Internet content in caches local to users is beneficial to both users and the network, because it reduces retrieval times for the user as well as reduces load on the network. However, it comes at the cost of storage in the cache, which can be large, particularly when multimedia objects are cached. In this paper, we address the problem of caching multimedia objects such as audio and video streams, in a cost-distortion optimized way. That is, we seek caching policies that minimize the cost of both storage and transmission while minimizing the distortion seen by the user (or equivalently, maximizing the quality seen by the user). Simulation results demonstrate that caching in a cost-distortion optimized manner leads to significant improvements over the case where no caching is performed.


A comparative qualitative and quantitative analysis of the fatty acid composition of total and lysosome membrane lipids of two cestode species Eubothrium crassum (from cold-blooded host) and Diphyllobothrium dendriticum (from warm-blooded host) has been carried out. It is shown that quantitative ratio of the fatty acids in the total and membranous lipids of the helminth of cold-blooded host was very similar whereas for the helminth of warm-blooded host fatty acid composition of membranous lipids was considerably more saturated compared with the one of total lipids. It is assumed that the high level of unsaturation of total lipids from D. dendriticum is associated with preadaptation mechanism of fatty acid spectra in parasites with the development coupled with a consecutive rapid change of different thermal regime habitats.


Many transient endocrinologic disorders are frequently seen in newborn period. Early diagnosis and treatment is important for babies. In this article, transient endocrinopathy of newborn and relevant literature were reviewed. Blood sugar problems, especially adrenal insufficiency due to adrenal problems, thyroid problems such as transient hypotirotropinemia, are frequently encountered by physicians. Genital and urinary problems should be evaluated differently according to gender. Problems related to calcium metabolism, problems associated with water metabolism and endocrine skin problems are other problems. It is essential to know the normals of the hormones in the neonatal period in order to recognize them properly, to evaluate them properly and to interpret the tests correctly.


Development of mathematical models for prediction of properties of materials is often complex and cumbersome. This led to the advent of simpler, and often more accurate, computational models based on artificial intelligence for predicting materials properties. The aim of this study is to predict the mechanical properties of a newly developed hybrid composite material made with sponge gourd, baggase and epoxy resin for golf club application using fuzzy logic (FL) and carry out a multi-objective optimization of the properties with modified desirability function (DF) and NSGA II algorithm. The inputs were %Wt of baggase, %Wt of Sponge gourd and Fiber size (µm) while the response variables were tensile strength, hardness, flexural strength, modulus, elongation and impact strength. The FL model was separately coupled, as fitness function, with the modified DF algorithm and the NSGA II algorithm respectively. The DF was optimized with particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The results showed that the FL model predicted the mechanical properties accurately and the minimum correlation coefficient (R) between the experimental responses and FL predictions was 0.9529. The modified algorithms took care of certain peculiarities in the desirability properties such as elongation whose desirability is constant over a range. The optimized properties were found to be worse if the optimization algorithms were not modified.


In this paper, a data-driven control approach is developed by reinforcement learning ( RL ) to solve the global robust optimal output regulation problem ( GROORP ) of partially linear systems with both static uncertainties and nonlinear dynamic uncertainties. By developing a proper feedforward controller, the GROORP is converted into a global robust optimal stabilization problem. A robust optimal feedback controller is designed which is able to stabilize the system in the presence of dynamic uncertainties. The closed-loop system is assured to be input-to-output stable regarding the static uncertainty as the external input. This robust optimal controller is numerically approximated via RL. Nonlinear small-gain theory is applied to show the input-to-output stability for the closed-loop system and thus solves the original GROORP. Simulation results validates the efficacy of the proposed methodology.


Background: Microbial pathogens cause human skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) and surgical site infections (SSI) after surgical procedures. These can result in the production of pus, yellowish fluid comprising of dead WBCs and cellular debris. The microorganisms responsible for pus production vary greatly in relation to their spectrum of prevalence in different hospital and also in their antibiotic sensitivity. Further, the antibiotic sensitivity also changes because of the emergence of resistant strains. It is therefore, important that the common bacterial pathogens causing infection in a particular hospital and their sensitivity should be known. This will help in the choice of prophylactic antibiotic and in initiating the empirical antibiotic prescription for the infected cases before the culture sensitivity report is made available which takes about 2-3 days. Objective: To identify the spectrum of aerobic bacteria which are responsible for SSTI and SSI and their antibiotic sensitivity pattern. Method: This cross sectional hospital based study was conducted in Nepalgunj Medical College and Teaching Hospital (NGMCTH), Kohalpur from January 2019 to November 2019. These pus swabs were obtained from the Department of Surgery and Department of Gynaecology & Obstretics. Samples were cultured in the Microbiology laboratory of NGMCTH, Kohalpur. Identification and characterization of isolates were performed on the basis of Gram staining and cultural characteristics. Antibiotic sensitivity test was performed in vitro by Bauer-Kirby method. Collected data were statistically analyzed using SPSS 20.0 and Microsoft Excel 2015. Results: During the study period, a total number of 311 pus swabs were obtained among which only 164 (52.73%) pus swab showed bacterial growth. Out of 164 pus swabs, 150 pus swabs yielded monomicrobial growth (150 bacterial isolates) and 14 pus swabs yielded polymicrobial growth (33 bacterial isolates). Gram Negative Bacteria (60.1%) was more prevalent than Gram Positive Bacteria (39.9%). Combined together, the most common isolate was S.aureus (36.1%) followed by E.coli (24.0%), Klebsiella (14.2%), Enterobacter (11.5%), Pseudomonas (9.8%), S.pyogenes (3.3%) and Proteus (1.1%). S. aureus was highly sensitive to Doxycycline (90.6%), Chloramphenicol (81.5%), Amikacin (79.5%) and Ceftraixone (72.7%). S. pyogenes showed 100% sensitivity to Cefexime, Amikacin, Chloramphenicol, Azithromycin and 80% sensitivity to Doxycycline. Similarly, most common gram negative isolate E.coli showed higher sensitivity to Chloramphenicol(71.4%) and Amikacin (66.7%) , Klebsiella showed higher sensitivity to Doxycycline(92.3%), Gentamicin(87.5%) and Amikacin (81.0%), Enterobacter showed higher sensitivity to Amikacin(90.9%) and Pseudomonas was highly sensitive to Chloramphenicol (71.4%) and Amikacin (66.7%). Piperacillin, Amikacin, Gentamicin, Ofloxacin and Ceftriaxone showed 100% sensitivity to Proteus spp. Amoxyclav, Cefepime and Cefexime (except in S. pyogenes) showed least sensitivity in both gram negative and gram positive bacterial isolates. Conclusion: In our study, the most common isolate wasS. aureus. Amikacin, as a single drug was found to be effective for empirical therapy of both gram negative and gram positive bacteria whereas Doxycycline and Amikacin was found effective in gram positive isolates. Amoxyclav and Cefepimewas commonly resistant in all bacterial isolates.


There are a number of techniques available for investigating the structures of materials. One of the most powerful techniques capable of providing information both about the structure of materials and about the dynamics of process within those materials is Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview on some of the most important aspects of the background theory of NMR.


. Ensemble Kalman inversion (EKI) is a technique for the numerical solution of inverse problems. A great advantage of the EKI's ensemble approach is that derivatives are not required in its implementation. But theo-retically speaking, EKI's ensemble size needs to surpass the dimension of the problem. This is because of EKI's "subspace property", i.e., that the EKI solution is a linear combination of the initial ensemble it starts off with. We show that the ensemble can break out of this initial subspace when "localization" is applied. In essence, localization enforces an assumed correlation structure onto the problem, and is heavily used in ensemble Kalman filtering and data assimilation. We describe and analyze how to apply localization to the EKI, and how localization helps the EKI ensemble break out of the initial subspace. Specifically, we show that the localized EKI (LEKI) ensemble will collapse to a single point (as intended) and that the LEKI ensemble mean will converge to the global optimum at a sublinear rate. Under strict assumptions on the localization procedure and observation process, we further show that the data misfit decays uniformly. We illustrate our ideas and theoretical developments with numerical examples with simplified toy problems, a Lorenz model, and an inversion of electromagnetic data, where some of our mathematical assump- tions may only be approximately valid.


This paper is concerned with how research candidate becoming is situated within the contemporary higher education policy context and in investigating alternatives. The idea for the paper arises out of a simple observation: that the Doctorate is a degree in philosophy. What does this observation have to offer for understanding research candidate becoming? Prevailing discourses tend to locate research education as a ready source of labour and commodities for the new economy, which is said to trade principally in knowledge. This stands in stark opposition to a time when knowledge was considered so scarce that even Socrates, perhaps the most significant philosopher of all time, considered that if he possessed any, it was knowledge of nothing—a paradox no doubt, but strikingly arcane in the current context. This paper explores the tensions between the notion of knowledge as a commodity and knowledge as ephemeral through Socrates' account of philosophical desire that appears in the Symposium. This provides fertile ground for exploring what becoming a researcher could mean today.


Since a defective ventilatory-control mechanism may have a role in the sudden-infant-death syndrome (SIDS), and hereditary factors influence the degree of ventilatory drive, we measured ventilatory responsiveness to carbon dioxide with and without increased airway resistance in 12 parents of SIDS victims and 12 control parents matched for age and size. Ventilatory response (delta VI/delta PCO2) and "respiratory drive" (delta P100/delta PCO2) were measured both with and without added resistance to inspiratory flow. SIDS parents had significantly lower ventilatory response with added resistance (P less than 0.05) and without it (P less than 0.01) and significantly lower respiratory drive with added resistance (P less than 0.001) and without it (P less than 0.05). Control parents had significantly increased respiratory drive when the resistance was added (P less than 0.005), whereas SIDS parents did not. The data suggest that a low ventilatory response to carbon dioxide and a diminished compensatory response to increased airway resistance may increase a potential parent's risk of having a child susceptible to SIDS.


A two-terminal interactive distributed source coding problem with alternating messages for function computation at both locations is studied. For any number of messages, a computable characterization of the rate region is provided in terms of single-letter information measures. While interaction is useless in terms of the minimum sum-rate for lossless source reproduction at one or both locations, the gains can be arbitrarily large for function computation even when the sources are independent. For a class of sources and functions, interaction is shown to be useless, even with infinite messages, when a function has to be computed at only one location, but is shown to be useful, if functions have to be computed at both locations. For computing the Boolean AND function of two independent Bernoulli sources at both locations, an achievable infinite-message sum-rate with infinitesimal-rate messages is derived in terms of a two-dimensional definite integral and a rate-allocation curve. A general framework for multiterminal interactive function computation based on an information exchange protocol which successively switches among different distributed source coding configurations is developed. For networks with a star topology, multiple rounds of interactive coding is shown to decrease the scaling law of the total network rate by an order of magnitude as the network grows.


Introduction: Piper sarmentosum is one of the herbaceous plants that has been used as natural antioxidant to treat diseases. This study was conducted to determine the total phenolic content (TPC) and free radical scavenging capacity in free and bound (soluble and insoluble) of P. sarmentosum. Methods: The TPC was determined by using Folin-Ciocalteu assay and is expressed as Gallic Acid equivalent (GAE) in miligrams per gram extracts. The antioxidant scavenging capacity was determined by using DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) assay. Results: Insoluble bound phenolic extract of P. sarmentosum showed the highest TPC value (1.54 ± 0.04 mg GAE/g DW) followed by soluble phenolic extract and free extract (1.13 ± 0.10 and 0.57 ± 0.06 mg GAE/g DW, respectively). The soluble phenolic fraction has expressed the highest radical scavenging capacity (76.57± 4.12%) followed by insoluble (69.79± 2.33 %) and free extracts (58.15± 4.44 %). The IC50 values for free, soluble and insoluble bound phenolic were 24.05 ± 3.81, 16.17 ± 1.84 and 18.49 ± 1.92 mg/ml, respectively. Conclusions: It can be concluded that different extracts of phenolic give different TPC value and antioxidant activity.

KEYWORDS: TPC, radical scavenging, DPPH assay.


Programs for studying nuclear reactions and structure of exotic nuclei available at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory project are introduced and discussed through demonstrating recent highlights. Special emphasis is given to present status and future plans of new devices.


COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented changes in society. Technological innovation enhanced pandemic crisis approach by improving detection, monitoring and mitigation of infection's impact. Simultaneously, compliance with healthcare authorities' guidelines challenged  conventional patient-physician relationship, fostering the transition to a new digital paradigm of healthcare by the implementation of telehealth solutions (teleconsultation). In this essay, we analyze the impact of technological innovation in addressing COVID-19 crisis, its impact on the digital transformation of CUF healthcare and we envision a future vision of our customer's journey, aware that the opportunity triggered by this crisis for this transformation will allow clinical efficiency and quality gains, by a new technological architecture that promotes a preventive, predictive and personalized medicine.


An unprecedented carbene-catalyzed radical trifluoromethylation of olefins with aldehydes in the presence of Togni reagent was developed, thus providing the β-trifluoromethyl-α-substituted ketones with a broad scope and moderate to high chemical yields. Notably, this process includes a single-electron-transfer process and utilizes the persistent N-heterocyclic-carbene-bound radical as a key intermediate to trigger the cascade radical cross-coupling.


Physico-chemical features of chitosan affect its biological activity on plants. In this work, the influence of chitosan molecular mass in potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.) yields was investigated. By using chitosan polymers of high (CH-1) and low (CH-2) molecular weight and a hydrolysed chitosan derivative (CHH), two experiments were performed under field conditions to determine the effect of these polymers on yields of two potato varieties, 'Call White' and 'Santana'. For this purpose, the foliar spray of low doses of the derivatives at three cultivation moments was performed and several yield variables were determined at crop harvest. All three chitosan compounds increased the performance variables determined respect to the control, depending on the variable, the dose employed and the mass of the derivative evaluated. In most variables determined, the two lowest doses (200 and 325 mg/ha) provoked the highest increments above control. Chitosans also affected distribution of mass per tuber size, particularly; in 'Santana' variety the two lowest doses enhanced the commercial tuber sizes. Among the polymers, CH-1 caused the greatest increases in performance, while, compared to the polymer, CHH provoked higher yields. In conclusion, foliar application at low doses of high molecular weight and hydrolysed chitosan enhanced potato yield between 15-30%.


This work investigates whether the use of a board game, which makes possible to teach the relationships between the printed word, a group of syllables, pictures, handwritten and spoken word, leads to the reading and writing of taught words (teaching words) and new words formed by the recombination of syllables from these words (generalization words). Nine children aged 5 and 6 participated in the study. The work was realized in 5 stages (Pre-test, Intervention, Investigation, Post -test, and Follow-up). During the Pre-test, the relationships between the printed word and the word spoken by the child, between the spoken word and the group of syllables, the spoken word and the handwritten word and between the written word and the picture were tested. Next, 15 board game sessions were conducted. Finally, these same relationships were once again evaluated (Investigation and Final Post test). In regards to teaching words, results showed an increase in the number of words read correctly, syllables selected correctly, picture and words matched correctly and syllables written correctly. As for the generalization words, there was an increase in number of syllables selected correctly.


Objective: To detect the potential association between dietary live microbe and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Methods: Data of 10,875 participants aged 18 years or older in this study were collected from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Participants in this study were divided into three groups according to the Sanders dietary live microbe classification system: low, medium, and high dietary live microbe groups. CVD was defined by a combination of self-reported physician diagnoses and standardized medical status questionnaires. The analyses utilized weighted logistic regression models. Results: After the full adjustment for confounders, patients in the medium dietary live microbe group had a low prevalence of CVD in contrast to those in the low dietary live microbe group (OR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.52–0.99, and p < 0.05), but no significant association with CVD was detected between the high and low dietary live microbe groups. Higher dietary live microbe groups were negatively associated with the prevalence of stroke (p for trend = 0.01) and heart attack (p for trend = 0.01). People who were male were more likely to suffer stroke due to low dietary live microbe (p for interaction = 0.03). Conclusion: A high dietary live microbe intake was associated with a low prevalence of CVD, and the significant association was detected when the analysis was limited to stroke and heart attack.


Objective: Algorithms to predict shock outcome based on ventricular fibrillation (VF) waveform features are potentially useful tool to optimize defibrillation strategy (immediate defibrillation versus cardiopulmonary resuscitation). Researchers have investigated numerous predictive features and classification methods using single VF feature and/or their combinations, however reported predictabilities are not consistent. The purpose of this study was to validate whether combining VF features can enhance the prediction accuracy in comparison to single feature. Approach: The analysis was performed in 3 stages: feature extraction, preprocessing and feature selection and classification. Twenty eight predictive features were calculated on 4s episode of the pre-shock VF signal. The preprocessing included instances normalization and oversampling. Seven machine learning algorithms were employed for selecting the best performin single feature and combination of features using wrapper method: Logistic Regression (LR), Naïve-Bayes (NB), Decision tree (C4.5), AdaBoost.M1 (AB), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Nearest Neighbour (NN) and Random Forest (RF). Evaluation of the algorithms was performed by nested 10 fold cross-validation procedure. Main results: A total of 251 unbalanced first shocks (195 unsuccessful and 56 successful) were oversampled to 195 instances in each class. Performance metric based on average accuracy of feature combination has shown that LR and NB exhibit no improvement, C4.5 and AB an improvement not greater than 1% and SVM, NN and RF an improvement greater than 5% in predicting defibrillation outcome in comparison to the best single feature. Significance: By performing wrapper method to select best performing feature combination the non-linear machine learning strategies (SVM, NN, RF) can improve defibrillation prediction performance.


This paper presents a simple and accurate nonlinear four-terminal floating nullor (FTFN) macromodel. The FTFN characteristics are simulated by using the new macromodel and are compared with the simulation results obtained by SPICE device models. The results show that the proposed FTFN macromodel represents the CMOS FTFN with approximately the same accuracy as semiconductor SPICE device models but with a significantly reduced computer time.


Abstract The behaviour of steels at multi-step cyclic loading was explored up to now almost exclusively in fatigue-life-oriented investigations. Thus, only few works exist dealing with the cyclic deformation behaviour at two- and multi-step loading. Therefore, the cyclic deformation behaviour at two-step experiments with a single amplitude change (2-block experiments) and with multiple changes between two blocks of certain length and different amplitudes (multi-block experiments) was investigated in this work at the technically important steel AISI 4140 (German grade 42CrMo4).


OBJECTIVES
To review all ladder fall injuries seen in a community ED and to identify patterns of injury, factors that contribute to falls, and what pre-event and event factors could have reduced the likelihood of a fall or a resulting injury.

METHODS
This was a retrospective, observational study involving patients who presented to a community hospital ED from January 1993 through December 1995 with injuries from a ladder fall. The medical records of all patients were reviewed. Patients then underwent a structured telephone interview to provide additional information about the circumstances of the fall.

RESULTS
There were 59 patients who sustained injuries relating to ladder falls. All were adults, aged > 18 years (mean 42.9 +/- 16.2 years), were predominantly male (93%), and had fallen a distance of 1-15 feet (mean 7.2 +/- 3.6 feet). Thirteen percent were admitted to the hospital, and there was 1 death. Fractures were observed in 21 patients (36%) and usually involved an extremity (77%). There was no relationship between the distance fallen and the occurrence of fracture. Other primary injuries included sprain (27%), contusion (24%), laceration (10%), abrasion (3%), and subdural hematoma (2%). Of the 59 patients, 42 (71%) were contacted directly. Most falls (79%) resulted from excessive reaching or incorrect ladder placement. Fifty percent of the described falls were occupationally related.

CONCLUSIONS
Falls from ladders, both in the occupational and nonoccupational settings, often result in significant injury. Simple safety measures may have prevented the majority of falls in this study. Public health efforts should emphasize education on safe ladder practices and techniques to reduce the possibility of injury in the event of a fall.


A moment magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck southern Puget Sound (Figure 1) on February 28, 2001, causing an estimated $0.7–$1.4 billion in damages to buildings and roadways in the region [Williams et al., 2001]. The earthquake source was 52 km deep, and the epicenter was located close to the Nisqually River delta in the same location as the epicenter of the magnitude 7.1 earthquake of 1949 (http://www.geophys.washington.edu/seis/pnsn/info_ general/). These deep earthquakes occurred in the eastward-dipping subducting slab of the Juan de Fuca plate and typically caused less damage than shallower, crustal events of the same magnitude. Details of the seismology and effects of the earthquake can be found at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/activity/latest/ eq_01_02_28.html.


Background Walking to/from school is an important source of physical activity for children. Parents' perceptions of dangerous traffic affect whether or not their child walks to/from school. The determinants of parent's perceptions of dangerous traffic are currently unknown. Aims/Objectives/Purpose To determine which objective measures of the built environment and traffic at elementary schools are related to parent's perceptions of traffic danger. Methods Trained observers conducted school site surveys, vehicle speed/volume measurements and counts of school transportation modes in Toronto, Canada during school drop-off time. Parent surveys were distributed to grades 4–6 classrooms in 20 schools. Parents rated traffic danger en route to school and at school during drop-off as 'not dangerous', or 'dangerous'. Multivariate cluster analyses were conducted. Results 729 parent surveys were returned with approximately ¼ of parents reporting either their child's route to school and/or school drop off time were dangerous. Higher measured car speed was a significant determinant of both dangerous route and drop-off. Parent-reported measure of distance and numbers of roads crossed were significantly related to dangerous route. Both ratings of danger were inversely related to reported walking to/from school. Significance Car speed was the only objectively measured built environment feature of the school site related to parent's perceptions of traffic danger. The relationship between features of the larger neighbourhood environment surrounding schools and parent perception of traffic danger requires investigation in order to further determine what influences children walking to school.


A combination mail and facsimile survey was used to survey all pallet manufacturers in the state of Texas. The resulting characterization illustrates the size and raw material consumption of this important segment of the wood products industry. Results indicate that in 1995 the 84 Texas pallet producers employed 1,730 production employees with a payroll of more than $20 million. Respondents averaged just under 21 production employees and paid an average hourly wage of$6.05. The wood raw materials consumed by respondents were evenly split between hardwoods and softwoods, with an estimated total industry consumption of 589 million board feet of lumber and cants. Pine was used most predominantly, with oak being the next most heavily used. Pine was predicted to see the largest percent increase in use for 1996. Survey respondents reported production of nearly 23 million pallets in 1995, with an estimated industry output totaling almost 32 million pallets. This production resulted in approximately $230 million in sales for the industry. The availability and cost of wood raw materials were noted as two primary issues facing the industry over the next 5 years.


The conventional two-oscillator model together with the assumption of an abrupt interface has been used to fit far-infrared reflection and transmission data for the epitaxial-substrate systems PbSe on NaCl, Pb0.79Sn0.21Te on Pb0.79Sn0.21Te, and InAs on semi-insulating GaAs. The model worked well for the first system but failed for the other two. These results suggest, as Tennant and Cape found for PbSnTe, that interface effects appear in far-infrared data. The interface phenomena appear to involve free-carrier mixing across the interface in the PbSnTe system and both carrier and lattice mixing in InAs–GaAs. The joint measurement of reflection and transmission was found especially helpful in analyzing interface behavior. A new high-power pumped far-infrared laser spectrometer was used to make the transmission measurements.


A new technique for measuring the polarization mode coupling of a polarization-maintaining optical fiber has been proposed that uses a modified optical time-domain reflectometry in which two kinds of backscattered signals coming through each principal axis of the fiber are utilized. This technique shows how the mode coupling occurs along the fiber. The extinction ratio evaluated by the present technique is in good agreement with that obtained by a conventional technique (within +/-0.5 dB).


Federal advisory committees—which may also be labeled as commissions, councils, or task forces—are established to assist the executive branch in deliberating and, in some cases, helping to solve complex or divisive issues. Congress, the President, or an agency head may establish a federal advisory committee to render independent advice or provide policy recommendations. This report offers a history of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), examines its current requirements, and provides data on federal advisory committees operations and costs.


With the growth of industrialization and urbanization in megacities, some emerging disasters occur such as air pollution mortality, increasing cancer risks, decreasing life expectancy, descending prosperity, and Human Development Indexes (HDI). In addition, with the raising population of cities, the quantity and quality of air pollutions are increased based on vehicle application rate, industrial activities, agricultural efforts and etc. In this research, with the application of Dose-Response Functions in air pollution, some parameters such as chronic disease-based mortality, life expectancy reduction based on chronic and acute effects, and ozone gas health risks are computed in a case study of Mashhad city, Iran. The outcomes have illustrated the life expectancy is reduced in a case study around 8.22 and 8.51 years for men and women, respectively. Plus, the results of statistical health scrutinizing have demonstrated that the mortality of chronic effects based on air pollution emissions is calculated around 20 percentages in the case study. Likewise, with the application of two different methods in Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) containing Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and ELimination Et Choice Translating Reality (ELECTRE) the responsibility of each pollution is determined. As per the mentioned computations, Particle Matter 2.5 (PM2.5) has the most role in increasing the health risk of air pollution in Mashhad City, Iran.


Abstract The fissioning of uranium in an aqueous solution creates 99Mo, the precursor to 99mTc, but also generates large amounts of hydrogen and oxygen from the radiolysis of the water. When the dissolved gases reach a critical concentration, bubbles will form in the solution, affecting both the fission power and the heat transfer out of the solution. Magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) was chosen as a surrogate for uranium sulfate salt in an aqueous solution for the experiments. A high aspect ratio tank was constructed to measure heat transfer from the solution with internal gas and heat generation. A fritted glass air injection manifold allowed the exploration of bubble characteristics and flow patterns on heat transfer from the heated pool to the cold walls. Experimental data analysis provided heat transfer coefficient values as a function of axial position, power density, and the superficial gas velocity in the pool. Results, including a recommended correlation for average heat transfer coefficients, are provided for superficial gas velocities between 0 and 0.3 cm/s and power densities of 200 and 400 W/L in pH 7 and pH 1 MgSO4 solutions.


The Robot Operating System (ROS) provides roboticists with a standardized and distributed framework for real-time communication between robotic systems using a microkernel environment. This paper looks at how ROS metadata, Unified Robot Description Format (URDF), Semantic Robot Description Format (SRDF), and its message description language, can be used to identify key robot characteristics to inform User Interface (UI) design for the teleoperation of heterogeneous robot teams. Logical relationships between UI components and robot characteristics are defined by a set of relationship rules created using relevant and available information including developer expertise and ROS metadata. This provides a significant opportunity to move towards a rule-driven approach for generating the designs of teleoperation UIs; in particular the reduction of the number of different UI configurations required to teleoperate each individual robot within a heterogeneous robot team. This approach is based on using an underlying rule set identifying robots that can be teleoperated using the same UI configuration due to having the same or similar robot characteristics. Aside from reducing the number of different UI configurations an operator needs to be familiar with, this approach also supports consistency in UI configurations when a teleoperator is periodically switching between different robots. To achieve this aim, a Matlab toolbox is developed providing users with the ability to define rules specifying the relationship between robot characteristics and UI components. Once rules are defined, selections that best describe the characteristics of the robot type within a particular heterogeneous robot team can be made. A main advantage of this approach is that rather than specifying discrete robots comprising the team, the user can specify characteristics of the team more generally allowing the system to deal with slight variations that may occur in the future. In fact, by using the defined relationship rules and characteristic selections, the toolbox can automatically identify a reduced set of UI configurations required to control possible robot team configurations, as opposed to the traditional ad-hoc approach to teleoperation UI design. In the results section, three test cases are presented to demonstrate how the selection of different robot characteristics builds a number of robot characteristic combinations, and how the relationship rules are used to determine a reduced set of required UI configurations needed to control each individual robot in the robot team.


Hanford's missions are to safely clean-up and manage the site's legacy wastes, and to develop and deploy science and technology. Through these missions Hanford will contribute to economic diversification of the region. Hanford's environmental management or clean-up mission is to protect the health and safety of the public, workers, and the environment; control hazardous materials; and utilize the assets (people, infrastructure, and site) for other missions. Hanford's science and technology mission is to develop and deploy science and technology in the service of the nation including stewardship of the Hanford Site. Pollution Prevention is a key to the success of these missions by reducing the amount of waste to be managed and identifying/implementing cost effective waste reduction projects. Hanford's original mission, the production of nuclear materials for the nation's defense programs, lasted more than 40 years, and like most manufacturing operations, Hanford's operations generated large quantities of waste and pollution. However, the by-products from Hanford operations pose unique problems like radiation hazards, vast volumes of contaminated water and soil, and many contaminated structures including reactors, chemical plants and evaporation ponds. The clean-up activity is an immense and challenging undertaking. Including characterization and decommissioning of 149 single shell storage tanks, treating 28 double shell tanks, safely disposing of over 2,100 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel stored on site, removing numerous structures, and dealing with significant solid waste, ground water, and land restoration issues.


The problem of infection with MPA is virtually limited to pulmonary infection in patients with CF. Conventional vaccine strategies may not be appropriate because the pathogenesis and epidemiology of the infection is so different from the usual acute bacterial infections. MPA strains appear to be suited to long-term parasitism of immune hosts so initial prevention of colonization may be a necessary function of a vaccine. Since infected hosts have antibody to many antigenic components of PA, vaccines which have been used for PA up until now may not have any protective effect for patients with CF. If the switch from NMPA to MPA colonization in vivo is due to the development of host immunity, some vaccines could conceivably promote infection with MPA. A vaccine which produces antibody to the alginate-like mucoid exopolysaccharide might, however, discourage colonization with MPA and studies of this strategy should be promoted.


A series of surveys of general surgeons in the State of New South Wales is reported. Each five years the number of general surgeons entering practice has been proportionately greater than population growth, and has also been proportionally greater than that of other surgical specialities. The speciality is not growing and is so saturated that almost half the general surgeons are engaged in general practice. It is suggested that the number of training posts be reduced to a level near that required to satisfy the requirement of our community for replacement of those leaving practice.


Automated scoring has the potential to dramatically reduce the time and costs associated with the assessment of complex skills such as writing, but its use must be validated against a variety of criteria for it to be accepted by test users and stakeholders. This study approaches validity by comparing human and automated scores on responses to TOEFL® iBT Independent writing tasks with several non-test indicators of writing ability: student self-assessment, instructor assessment, and independent ratings of non-test writing samples. Automated scores were produced using e-rater®, developed by Educational Testing Service (ETS). Correlations between both human and e-rater scores and non-test indicators were moderate but consistent, providing criterion-related validity evidence for the use of e-rater along with human scores. The implications of the findings for the validity of automated scores are discussed.


In this paper a modified decision tree algorithm for anomaly detection is presented. During the tree building process, densities for the outlier class are used directly in the split point determination algorithm. No artificial counter-examples have to be sampled from the unknown class, which yields to more precise decision boundaries and a deterministic classification result. Furthermore, the prior of the outlier class can be used to adjust the sensitivity of the anomaly detector. The proposed method combines the advantages of classification trees with the benefit of a more accurate representation of the outliers. For evaluation, we compare our approach with other state-of-the-art anomaly detection algorithms on four standard data sets including the KDD-Cup 99. The results show that the proposed method performs as well as more complex approaches and is even superior on three out of four data sets.


Self-efficacy is important to ensure self-care to improve the health-related quality of life for hemodialysis patients. This study aimed to determine the relationship between self-efficacy and self-care and the health-related quality of life in hemodialysis patients. The research method was a quantitative correlation design with a cross-sectional approach. The instrument of the study was a questionnaire. A total sampling technique for 64 hemodialysis patients at RSUD (Regional Public Hospital) Wates Kulonprogo was used. Data analysis was conducted through the Kendall Tau test. It showed that 41 respondents (64.1%) were in the moderate category of self-efficacy, while 50 respondents (78.1%) were in the moderate category for the self-care aspect. The results of Kendall Tau analysis showed that self-efficacy was significantly associated with self-care (p= 0.004) and the health-related quality of life (p=0.041) for hemodialysis patients. It is expected that the nurse will periodically assess the biological and psychological aspects of hemodialysis patients.


months after the bombings and thus excluded the effects of radiation doses received by fathers during the period of spermatogenesis-ie immediately before conception-whereas we reported an association with the dose estimated to have been received by fathers in the 90 days before conception. Referring again to table 4 of our paper,6 it will be seen that only in the studies of chronic exposure is it likely that the father was irradiated in the immediate preconceptional period and that these studies yield equivocal results. James' post-hoc comparison ofthe children born to mothers and fathers who had received


Purpose: The study examined factors related to the meaning in life in elderly in one city. Methods: The sample consisted of 217 subjects all of which were over 60 years of age and were recruited from two community senior centers from December 2008 to February 2009. Data collection instruments were the Meaning in Life Scale, Social Support Index, CES-D, and RULS questionnaire. SPSS/WIN 17.0 was used for descriptive analysis, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and correlation coefficient. Results: The mean of the score from the Meaning in Life was 50.04 (range 10~70). There were significant differences in subjects' perception of meaning in life according to age, level of education, religion, having a spouse, satisfaction with relationship with children, and frequency of visits to a community senior center. Meaning in life was significantly correlated with family support, depression, and loneliness, which were significant predictors (21.5%) of meaning in life. Conclusion: To improve meaning in life of the elderly who visited a community senior center, nurses may pay attention to depression, loneliness, and family support.


In many low-power networks, the power cost for a node to remain ON to listen to transmissions from other nodes or to transmit to other nodes can constitute a significant part of the total power consumption by the radio. Thus, unlike the traditional relay channel model, under a low power constraint, the relay node cannot stay ON and listen to the entire duration of the transmission. We study the slope of the capacity-power function at zero power for relay channels where the power cost of remaining ON is explicitly taken into account. We show that in this low-power limit, information is conveyed primarily through the ON-OFF activity of the source. The relay node should have significantly more power compared to the source node in order to improve the slope at zero power. The rough intuition is that, in order for a relay node to be useful, it needs to stay ON and listen during a significant portion of the time during which the source node may transmit. This fact limits the utility of the relay to those cases where the it has much higher power than the source node it is trying to help.


Rates of deposition of particles onto a spherical collector, immersed in a creeping fluid, are calculated as a function of Peclet number, aspect ratio, and the ratio of Hamaker's constant to kT for all cases of practical importance involving convective-diffusion and London forces. Boundaries of regions where London forces or Brownian motion may be neglected are established in terms of the above dimensionless groups. Gravitational forces were included in the calculations for some representative conditions but may be neglected for small or neutrally buoyant particles or for high flow rates.

Close agreement was noted between deposition rates calculated by summing individual contributions from each transport mechanism and deposition rates calculated from a rigorous consideration of their combined effect. Thus the additivity rule was verified for the cases studied.


The aim of this paper is to identify possible reasons why workers resign from their jobs and to examine the extent to which these factors are actually experienced. A number of dissatisfaction factors, either personal or job-related, were considered from an age comparison perspective. A questionnaire was elaborated for the purpose of this study, which includes items related to intention to quit, as well as potential and experienced dissatisfaction factors. Both personal factors and job-related factors for employee resignation are considered. The latter include three theoretical sub-dimensions: working conditions, organizational and structural changes, and job recognition. An exploratory factor analysis of the 58?items produced eight usable resignation factors: (1) lack of resources and autonomy; (2) work pressure; (3) lack of personal development; (4) job insecurity; (5) personal reasons; (6) organizational changes; (7) a hostile work environment and (8) a poor image of the company. The sample includes 1,772?workers from?11?Belgian companies. The response rate is 50.23?percent. All sectors of activity are included in the survey. We consider five categories of age (under 25?years old, between?25 and?35, between?36 and?45, between?45 and?55, and over?55?years). The results show that a large majority of workers consider organizational change to be a major reason for resigning; this is particularly the case for older workers. A lack of personal development is also seen to be an important factor. Although this is mostly experienced by the oldest workers, it is given as the main reason for leaving in all age groups. Personal factors are also seen as important by the youngest and the oldest workers. Whilst work pressure is a phenomenon encountered by all workers, particularly the youngest, it is considered to be less of a reason for leaving. Another finding is that job insecurity is experienced by the youngest workers. Finally, the differences between the young and the not so young are not very clear-cut, supporting the view that an age-based management perspective is worthy of consideration.


Elite college attendance significantly impacts students' entrepreneurship decisions and career dynamics. We find that an elite college degree is positively correlated with entrepreneurship (i.e., owning an incorporated business) but not with other self‐employment forms. Our overlapping generations model captures self‐selection in education and career choices based on heterogeneous ability and family wealth endowments over the life cycle. Our estimates show that (1) entrepreneurs and other self‐employed individuals require different types of human capital, and (2) elite colleges generate considerably more human capital gain than ordinary colleges, particularly for entrepreneurs. Distinguishing between elite and ordinary colleges improves our prediction of entrepreneurship decisions. Providing subsidies for elite colleges is more efficient than subsidizing their ordinary counterparts to encourage entrepreneurship, enhance intergenerational mobility, and enhance welfare. In contrast, although start‐up subsidy increases entrepreneurship, it does not improve their performance, and it is inferior to education subsidy in generating efficiency, equality, and intergenerational mobility.


Introduction: Many expecting Indigenous women suffer from disproportionally high risks and adverse outcomes relative to non-Indigenous women when seeking adequate prenatal care due to access barriers in Canada's healthcare system. Objective: The purpose of this literature review was to identify the barriers Indigenous women face when accessing prenatal care and to investigate programs and possible modifications to the health care system to improve prenatal care access for Indigenous women. The last objective was to determine if utilizing physician assistants may act as a potential solution to improving access to prenatal care for Indigenous women. Methods: A literature search using PubMed, Scopus, and CINAHL databases was performed using key terms pertaining to access barriers to prenatal care among Indigenous women in Canada. Five articles were found to meet the inclusion criteria and were analyzed in this literature review. Results: Three studies explored the challenges that Indigenous women experience when seeking prenatal care in Canada. Two studies investigated potential programming or system modifications to improve safe access to prenatal care among Indigenous women. Limited research was found regarding the use of physician assistants providing prenatal care among Indigenous women in Canada. Conclusion: The barriers to prenatal care among Indigenous women identified in this literature review fit under the social determinants of health, including transportation and geographical location, social support networks with family and providers, and lack of cultural awareness and understanding from providers. Strategies to improve access to prenatal care among Indigenous women included an interdisciplinary team using a holistic approach to provide culturally safe care to Indigenous women.


A cross-sectional study of changes in cat corneal endothelial cell morphology with age was conducted. The central corneal endothelium of 12 kittens and 70 adult cats was photographed using specular microscopy. Endothelial cell density (ECD), coefficient of variation of cell size (used as an index of polymegethism), and cellular shape factor (perimeter 2/area) were determined for each animal and analysed as a function of age. We found a rapid non-linear decrease in ECD and polymegethism in the first nine months of post-natal life. Subsequently there was a slight central cell loss of 11 cells/mm2 or 0.37% per year during adult life which was not statistically significant. However, polymegethism increased significantly with age during adult life. The shape factor for endothelial cells was 13.61 throughout adult life, indicating that the cat corneal endothelium consists predominantly of six-sided cells. Possible explanations for the finding of no significant decrease in cell density with age could include the higher peripheral ECD in the cat which may compensate for central loss, the short life expectancy of the cat and the large individual variation in corneal diameter.


Smoking and tuberculosis have great impact on health. Smoking is prevalent worldwide occurring in 20% of adults while uberculosis is a universal problem. Studies have shown that although smoking has no etiological role in TB, higher prevalence of TB has been observed in smokers. However, only few studies have evaluated the impact of smoking on TB treatment. General Objective: To determine the effect of smoking on the treatment outcome among patients being treated for pulmonary tuberculosis. Specific Objectives: To determine the prevalence of smoking among patients with PTB, incidence of treatment success and failure among patients being treated for PTB and to determine the association between smoking and treatment outcomes. Methodology: A prospective cohort study done in Dr. Jose Rodriguez Memorial Hospital, Directly Observe Treatment Strategy (DOTS) Center included all patients diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis, ages 18 years and above under the DOTS program. Demographics, co morbidities and smoking history were obtained by standardized interview. Initially CXR and sputum AFB were done. Sputum examination was repeated on 2nd, 4th month and on completion of treatment. Result: Of the 83 patients enrolled, 29 were non smoker while 54 had smoking history (24-previous smoker, 30- current smoker). Cavitary PTB was common among patients with smoking history. Only 3 patients had treatment failure, one was previous smoker while the other 2 were current smoker. Conclusion: Patients under DOTS program have high success rate. Although the study did not reach statistical significance, there was a strong trend on the association of smoking with treatment failure.


The influence of drying and wetting cycles on matric suction and volume characteristics of a compacted low-plasticity clay soil was studied experimentally. An apparatus was developed in which soil specimens were placed in direct contact with a high-suction tensiometer, then repeated drying and wetting cycles were applied, with drying by means of evaporation and wetting using the application of water droplets. The matric suction, vertical and radial displacement, and mass change of the specimens were all monitored continuously during the cycles. The equipment is the first to provide natural drying, unconstrained shrinkage, or swelling with continuous measurements of volume, suction, and water content in a way that could readily be used in engineering practice. The results indicated that drying-wetting cycles resulted in accumulated irreversible shrinkage. However, the amount of shrinkage decayed very significantly as the number of cycles increased, and the behavior became almost repeatable after the third cycle. It was also observed that the positions of soil water retention curves under drying-wetting cycles shift downwards with the increasing number of cycles; the larger the number of cycles, the smaller the difference between the curves, and after two or three cycles, the difference became steady. The shape of the curves changed very obviously under the first three drying-wetting cycles but less significantly after this.


We consider multiple-access interference (MAI) and intersymbol interference (ISI) suppressing receivers for asynchronous direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DS/SS) code-division multiple-access (CDMA) networks operating over wireless multipath channels with background Gaussian noise. By varying the degree of connectivity in the feedforward filter (FFF), which linearly processes the samples at the output of a chip-matched filter, and feedback filter (FBF), which linearly processes previous decisions, we define a group of decision feedback (DF) minimum-mean-square-error (MMSE) receivers. A performance evaluation for coherent binary 10 Mb/s transmission with processing gains from 7-10 elucidates some of the performance/complexity tradeoffs present in the combined suppression of MAI, ISI, and noise.


The management of reflux disease can be divided into three major phases, the first being diagnosis and severity assessment, the second, prompt initial control of symptoms, and the third, selection of a long term management approach that is tailored to meet individual patient needs and preferences. Throughout these phases of management, the major priorities should include achieving patient satisfaction and minimising management costs.


It is reasonable to expect that dental care for institutionalized persons in Norway will be considerably improved in the near future. Opinions and attitudes towards dentistry of the health personel working in the institutions, will, therefore, be of great interest. The present study which was performed by self-administered questionnaires, showed that most of the health personel at Lier sykehus, a mental hospital near Oslo, were willing to and interested in doing active preventive work. There was, however, lack of knowledge about how to perform preventive dentistry. In the future, information and instruction concerning how to prevent oral disease, will be a meaningful task for the dental health team.


France suffered, in 2016, the most extreme wheat yield decline in recent history, with some districts losing 55% yield. To attribute causes, we combined the largest coherent detailed wheat field experimental dataset with statistical and crop model techniques, climate information, and yield physiology. The 2016 yield was composed of up to 40% fewer grains that were up to 30% lighter than expected across eight research stations in France. The flowering stage was affected by prolonged cloud cover and heavy rainfall when 31% of the loss in grain yield was incurred from reduced solar radiation and 19% from floret damage. Grain filling was also affected as 26% of grain yield loss was caused by soil anoxia, 11% by fungal foliar diseases, and 10% by ear blight. Compounding climate effects caused the extreme yield decline. The likelihood of these compound factors recurring under future climate change is estimated to change with a higher frequency of extremely low wheat yields.


Abstract Cambodia's urban environments have changed rapidly over the last decades, and perhaps especially over the last few years. After the 2018 election, democracy was widely perceived as eroding. This change created a new context for real-estate investment, which appeared more stable than ever. As investments exploded, the already fast-paced construction business accelerated. Combining an STS focus on distributed agency with an anthropological interest in practices of worlding, this paper analyzes urban transformations in Phnom Penh (and Sihanoukville) as effects of assemblage. Setting in motion new material itineraries, patterned flows of people and things, the construction boom has been felt across the urban spectrum. Modularizing and segmenting cities and filtering populations, these itineraries have also catalyzed changing perspectives on life in the cities, on local and regional relations with "the Chinese," and on what the future has in store for Cambodia. Interspersing street-level observations and ethnographic materials with media reports and political commentary, I show tuk-tuk drivers, journalists, businessmen, politicians and academic scholars to be simultaneously engaged in assembling the city. Their vastly different projects and practices generate different urban scales – economic, cultural, political, and ethnic – which co-exist, layer, or overlap – incongruently. The resulting image is kaleidoscopic: Phnom Penh kaleidoscope.


The vesicle is found to form in the concentrated aqueous solution of ionic liquid 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide (C(12)mimBr) and β-CD. By decreasing the temperature, the vesicle changes into a novel supramolecular hydrogel constructed from lamellae. The process is reversible and reproducible. The mechanism for the formation of vesicles and supramolecular hydrogel is studied by various methods. It is suggested that the main driving force is hydrogen bonding between β-CDs, β-CD and the solvent, the imidazolium headgroup of C(12)mim(+), and the solvent. Accordingly, the basic structural features of the vesicle and supramolecular hydrogel based on ionic liquid and β-CD are illustrated. The structural evolution from vesicles to hydrogels is also discussed herein.


Steganography is the ability of hiding the very occurrence of communiqué by embedding secret messages into innocent looking cover up documents, such as digital images. Recognition of steganography, evaluation of message length, and its extraction belong to the field of steganalysis, which is actually a route for perceiving Stegnography. Bacterial foraging optimization (BFO) is a optimization technique projected by K.M. Passino in 2002, and is one of the latest techniques under Swarm Intelligence. To covenant with multifarious exploration problems of the real world, scientists have been drawing inspiration from environment and natural creatures for years. Bacterial foraging optimization is a burgeoning nature inspired procedure to find the finest elucidation of the problem. In this paper an algorithm for perceiving Stegnography has been introduced using the BFO Technique. The test to the RGB model based imagery through the proposed algorithm will help out to detect if something is Stegnographed in the


Metabolic cages are used for housing rats and mice for up to five days for collection of urine and/or faeces. The small, barren area of the metabolic cage compromises animal welfare as the animals lack a solid floor, shelter, nest material and social contact. We constructed and tested a practically-applicable enrichment device designed to meet behavioural needs for environmental complexity. The influence of this device on the cage preferences and stress levels of the animals was evaluated. A box-shaped enrichment device was designed and implemented in existing metabolic cages. Male Tac:SD rats were housed for five days in an enriched metabolic cage (EMC; n = 12) or a standard metabolic cage (SMC; n = 12), and data were collected on bodyweight, food and water intake, urination and defaecation, as well as urinary corticosterone and creatinine. Moreover, open-field behaviour and cage preferences were assessed. Rats in both groups gained significantly less weight when housed in metabolic cages. Furthermore, SMC rats failed to increase their weight gain after being housed in the metabolic cage. Defaecation was significantly higher in the SMC than in the EMC and so was urinary creatinine. No group differences were found in open-field behaviour. However, in comparing activity before and after housing in the metabolic cage, only SMC animals exhibited significantly lower total activity. In a preference test, a preference for the tunnel connecting the cages in the preference test and a side preference for the left side were found. This side preference was eliminated when the EMC was placed on the right side, whereas the right side was significantly avoided when the EMC was placed on the left side. Based on these results, we conclude that, to some extent, the enrichment device improved the welfare of rats housed in EMC, compared to those in SMC.


Learning is a powerful tool that can be used to boost a learner's self-awareness and self-esteem. It empowers learners to improve the quality of their life by their own effort. There are individual differences in the way learners internalize, process and remember new and complex learning material. In this book, the author identifies learning styles of students in Bondo District, Kenya. She recommends that educators should help learners to identify their preferred learning styles and plan learning environments and content in ways that are compatible with the learners' preferences. She observes that learners tend to be Visual-, Auditory- or Kinesthetic-oriented. Therefore, she points out that presenting learning material in methods consistent with the learner's perceptual preference and age makes a learner more active and ensures learning is more learner-centred. Further, Carolyne recommends that parents provide physical, social and emotional learning environment that stimulates the learner's perceptual development. This book is resourceful to educators, parents, policy-makers, and the general public.


Due to significant digital mobile device penetration around the world, many conventional media broadcast outfits use YouTube as a synergising channel. Understandably, what is herein coined as "YouTube-Casting" is usually intended to reach audiences who are assumed to view media contents via small-smart device screen -other than regular television sets. One may readily assume that YouTube-Casting is beneficial for conventional news dissemination towards partisan politics information awareness. In view of the resounding significance of contemporary partisan politics -which is usually tension filled, and can drive passions, conventional television ideological information exposure on mobile sophisticated attractive smart digital screens via YouTube is growing.  However, knowledge of the correlation between YouTube-Casting exposure to political information disseminated by conventional news organisations and partisan political awareness is limited. This research stems from such curiosity. While YouTube doubles as social media where people get exposed to entertainment among other light-hearted media contents, it remains doubtful how conventional television breast contents synergised via YouTube do offer partisan political information. This article -stemming from recruited survey research method that is built around the uses and gratification and rational choice theories found that audience research and ethical profiling is critical towards understanding phoned-based attitudes for enhanced efficient media convergence strategies. Digital channels such as YouTube, automatically provides for access to audiences towards dissemination of partisan political information. However, exposure to YouTube-Casting does not guarantee partisan Political awareness.


Adniamycin dosage should be reduced in patients with impaired liver function, since adniamycin disposition is in fluenced by liver metabolism and biliany excretion. It follows that drugs that increase the metabolism or excretory capac ity of the liver may decrease adniamycin concentrations to suboptimal values. Adniamycin metabolism was therefore studied in mice pretreated with phenobambital (75 mg/kg i.v.) by injection. After an iv. dose of admiamycin (30 mg/kg i.v.), plasma fluorescence due to drug and metabolites was less and disappeared at a greater rate in phenobambital pretreated mice than control animals. When extracted with chloroform:isopmopyl alcohol (1:1), the livers from the phe nobarbital-pretneated group yielded a greatenconcentration of aglycones. Experiments with livenmicmosomesconfirmed that aglycone production occurred at a more rapid initial rate in phenobarbital-induced livers. No increase in aldo keto reductase (daunorubicin reductase) activity was noted. Phenobarbital-pretreated mice, inoculated i.p. with 1 mil lion L1210 cells and then treated with adniamycin (6 mg/kg i.v.), had significantly lower survival than did controls (p < 0.01). These findings show that phenobarbital affects the disposition of adniamycin by microsomal enzyme induction and suggest that drugs that induce microsomal enzymes should not be used concurrently with adniamycin if optimal drug efficacy is desired.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the relative frequencies, average annual incidences, and patient characteristics of non-basal cell and non-squamous cell malignant neoplasms of the eyelid in a defined geographic population.

DESIGN AND SETTING
A retrospective study using the Florida Cancer Data System to identify malignant tumors of the eyelid, except for basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas, from 1981 through 1994. Cases were limited to persons who resided within Florida.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Incidence of histologically confirmed malignant eyelid tumors.

RESULTS
Two hundred six primary malignant eyelid tumors were identified. The 3 most common, in order of frequency, were melanoma, sebaceous carcinoma, and lymphoma. The median age at diagnosis for all patients was 73 years. Only 3 of the 206 malignant neoplasms occurred in blacks. The annual incidence of eyelid melanoma and sebaceous carcinoma in whites older than 20 years was 0.6 and 0.5 per million, respectively. Kaposi sarcoma was the most common type of mesenchymal tumor. Eleven different histologic types of lymphoma were found in the eyelid. Only 2 of 27 lymphomas had T-cell lineage.

CONCLUSIONS
Malignant tumors of the eyelid other than basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma are uncommon and usually occur in elderly white persons. Primary eyelid tumors of any type are rare in blacks. The risk of a non-basal cell and non-squamous cell malignant neoplasm of the eyelid in Florida is 6.4 times greater for whites than for blacks (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.1-20.2). A variety of B-cell lymphomas can be manifested as primary eyelid tumors.


The aim of the paper is to underline the role of space (understood as geographical location, neighborhood, distance between spatial units) in economic research. This article presents selected theories from disciplines such as spatial economy, new economic geography and regional science that gave an inspiration for development of contemporary spatial analysis methods and models.


The cold nuclear fusion (CNF) can be ensued by the usually rejected singular solution of the Schrödinger equation for an atom. This solution, when atom is confined inside matter, though singular, is normalizable. It can be an admixture to the standard solution. A possibility of CNF because of nucleus charge screening provided by the electron in the singular state is discussed.


The authors analysed bone marrow findings of sixteen cases of culture proven typhoid fever to reveal the pathologic changes according to the disease stage. The most frequent finding was chronic granulomatous inflammation (eight cases). Infection (bacteria) associated hemophagocytic syndrome (four cases), reactive marrow (two cases), and non specific findings (two cases) were also encountered. Granulocytic hyperplasia with hemophagocytosis appeared at the early stage and was followed by infection (bacteria) associated hemophagocytosis and granuloma in proliferative stage. In lysis (late) stage, granulomatous inflammation was noted. However, resolution of granulomatous inflammation was not distinct. Some nuclear debris and phagocytosis were remarkable in well-formed granulomas. Thrombocytopenia was the most remarkable peripheral blood finding at the time of biopsy. Anemia, leukopenia, and pancytopenia were also observed in descending order.


We show that off-mass-shell effects arising from the internal structure of the proton provide a new proton polarization mechanism in the Lamb shift, proportional to the lepton mass to the fourth power. This effect is capable of resolving the current puzzle regarding the difference in the proton radius extracted from muonic compared with electronic hydrogen experiments. These off-mass-shell effects could be probed in several other experiments. A significant ambiguity appearing in dispersion relation evaluations of the proton polarizability contribution to the Lamb shift is noted.


Downed woody material (DWM) is an important ecosystem component that performs many critical functions including influencing soil temperature and moisture, which affects plant growth and survival. Residential development along lakeshores has increased dramatically in recent decades in the northern Great Lakes region. Such development often leads to reductions in terrestrial and aquatic woody material. Although lakeshore restoration projects have occurred in the past few years in the region, there has been little effort to evaluate success. In 2007, a collaborative lakeshore restoration research project began on two lakes in Vilas County, Wisconsin. We investigated the benefits of the addition of DWM as part of these restoration projects. We randomly assigned three coverage treatments (0, 25, and 50%) of DWM on 3 × 3–m experimental plots (n = 10 per treatment) and monitored soil temperature and volumetric soil water content at a depth of 10 cm. All plots were planted with two native shrub species and five native understory herbaceous species. Mean maximum soil temperature, mean difference in daily high and low soil temperature, and percent change in soil moisture content were significantly lower in the 25 and 50% DWM plots. Plant canopy volume growth for snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) and Barren strawberry (Waldstenia fragaroides) was significantly greater in the 25 and 50% DWM plots. We conclude that the addition of DWM had a significant positive effect on regulating soil temperature extremes, soil moisture, and plant volume growth for two species of native plants used for restoration projects.


Lorenz curves have been used to describe inequality in plant size and fecundity, where the total inequality is summarized by the Gini coefficient. Here we propose a second and complementary statistic, the Lorenz asymmetry coefficient, which characterizes an important aspect of the shape of a Lorenz curve. The statistic tells us which size classes contribute most to the population's total inequality. This may be useful when interpreting the ecological significance of plant size or reproductive inequality.


Cloud applications are increasingly shifting from large monolithic services to complex graphs of loosely-coupled microservices. Despite the advantages of modularity and elasticity microservices offer, they also complicate cluster management and performance debugging, as dependencies between tiers introduce backpressure and cascading QoS violations. Prior work on performance debugging for cloud services either relies on empirical techniques, or uses supervised learning to diagnose the root causes of performance issues, which requires significant application instrumentation, and is difficult to deploy in practice. We present Sage, a machine learning-driven root cause analysis system for interactive cloud microservices that focuses on practicality and scalability. Sage leverages unsupervised ML models to circumvent the overhead of trace labeling, captures the impact of dependencies between microservices to determine the root cause of unpredictable performance online, and applies corrective actions to recover a cloud service's QoS. In experiments on both dedicated local clusters and large clusters on Google Compute Engine we show that Sage consistently achieves over 93% accuracy in correctly identifying the root cause of QoS violations, and improves performance predictability.


This study investigates a well-explored topic, the relationship between gender and language, with a unique set of data – Japanese translations of highly gendered discourse contexts in Cosmopolitan and Playboy magazines. In both magazines, being attractive, heterosexual (wo)men is one of the ultimate goals. Therefore, choosing the 'right' words and expressions to display their gender identities is expected to be important for the writers. For this reason, language use in both magazines is expected to correspond to hegemonic masculinities and femininities in today's Japan.Comparative analysis of the two languages is limited to an examination of the use of passive voice. The results suggest one gender-specific constraint – Japanese women avoid maintaining the inanimate subject of English passive sentences – and one language-specific constraint – Japanese passive sentences are preferred when the speakers discuss their personal relationships.In addition to the comparative analysis of passives in English and Japanese, gender differences for the Japanese data are also examined in other linguistic aspects. Over 14,000 Japanese sentences from Cosmopolitan Japan and Playboy Japan were divided into three groups of senders (authors) – male, female, and editorial – and compared in relation to the following three aspects: person referential forms, sentence endings, and directive expressions. The results suggest that male senders of both magazines are moderately masculine, while female senders of both magazines are extremely feminine. This may suggest that sociocultural pressure on Japanese women to preserve their 'women's language' is strong, while such pressure is not obvious with men's language use.This study further argues that male-centered and female-centered discourse communities in the two magazines provide their readers not only sociocultural conventions of language use, but also gender-specific socialization experiences and different senses of preferred social structures. More specifically, the readers of Cosmopolitan Japan learn the importance of peer approval, and the importance of gender difference, hierarchy, and politeness as a part of femininity. However, they may not learn how to make femininity and power coexist. In contrast, the readers of Playboy Japan learn the value of independence and may learn that gender and hierarchy/power are not rigid and that one can be simultaneously feminine and powerful, and masculine and polite.


The purpose of this chapter is to introduce a new approach for an assessment of the credit risks. The initial part of the chapter is to briefly discuss the existing models of assessment of the credit risks and justify the need for a new approach. Since a new approach is created for conditions of uncertainty, we cannot do without fuzzy mathematics. The proposed approach is based on group decision-making, where experts' opinions are expressed by trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. The theoretical basis of the offered approach is laid out in the metric space of trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. The new approach is introduced and discussed, and two realization algorithms are given. The toy example of application of the introduced approach is offered as well.


All patients in this study had advanced endometrical carcinoma. In the first part of the study 17-alpha-hydroxyprogesterone caproate was given intramuscularly to 7 patients at 750 mg/week 25 patients at 1500 mg/week and 9 patients at 3000 mg/week. In the second part of the study a new type of progestogen dihydroxyprogesterone acetophenide was given intramuscularly to 34 patients at 900 mg/week. Objective regression was defined as a reduction in size of more than 50% of all tumors and recalcification of osseous lesions for a period of at least 2 months with no evidence of any disease progression. Objective regression occurred in 10 (24.4%) of the patients in the first part of the study and in 9 (26.5%) of those in the second part of the study. The mean durations of improvement were in excess of 35 months and in excess of 18.5 months respectively (shorter interval for latter partly because of shorter term of study). Subjective improvement occurred in 13 of the 19 patients with objective regression and in 10 of the 56 who had no objective regression. The mean duration of treatment of the 19 favorable responders was 7-fold greater than that of patients who showed no improvement (p less than .0005). 9 of the 19 responders (47%) and 1 of the 56 nonresponders (1.8%) are still alive. The responders characteristically had slowly growing tumors deemed hormonally independent carcinomas. Pulmonary lesions responded the best. There are no contraindications to the use of sythetic progestogens in patients with disseminated endometrial carcinoma.


Master of Management in Finance & Investment
Faculty of Commerce Law and Management
Wits Business School
University of The Witwatersrand
2016


Introduction We assessed the incidence of redetection with the same human papillomavirus (HPV) genotype, predictors of first HPV detections and redetections, and prevalence of cytological lesions during HPV redetections. Methods The Ludwig-McGill cohort study followed women aged 18-60 years from Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1993-1997 for up to 10 years. Women provided cervical samples for cytology testing and HPV DNA testing at each visit. A redetection was defined as a recurring genotype-specific HPV positive result after one or more intervening negative visits. Predictors of genotype-specific redetection were assessed using adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) with Cox regression modeling. Results 2184 women contributed 2368 incident HPV genotype-specific first detections and 308 genotype-specific redetections over a median follow-up of 6.5 years. The cumulative incidence of redetection with the same genotype was 7% at 1 year and 15% at 5 years after the loss of positivity of the first detection. Neither age (aHR 0.90, 95%CI 0.54-1.47 for [≥]45y vs. <25y) nor new sexual partner acquisition (aHR 0.98, 95%CI 0.70-1.35) were statistically associated with genotype-specific redetection. High-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion prevalence was similar during first HPV detections (2.9%) and redetection (3.2%). Conclusions Our findings suggest many HPV redetections were likely reactivations of latent recurring infections.


Twelve strains of enterococci isolated from white cheese samples obtained from different regions of Turkey were screened for their antimicrobial activity against some Gram-positive and Gram-negative food-borne pathogens and contaminating bacteria, also against themselves and some other lactic acid bacteria (LAB), including some species of lactococci, lactobacilli and Leuconostoc. Antimicrobial activity was confirmed for all 12 strains, including six Enterococcus faecium, two Enterococcus faecalis and four Enterococcus durans. Antimicrobial agents produced by these enterococci exhibited a spectrum of activity, which is mainly directed against food-borne pathogens, specially Listeria monocytogenes and Bacillus cereus and some other Bacillus spp. and also some enterococci. Tested LAB was insensitive to inhibitory agents produced by them.


Molecular variations were investigated in four rabbit lines namely Alexandria, V-line, New Zealand white and California in order to find special molecular genetic markers which can differentiate among studied lines. Five out of 10 RAPD primers exhibited sufficient variability and were used to characterize the genetic similarity and diversity among studied lines. A total of 198 DNA bands were detected. Phylogenetic analysis using Nei and Hi method generally produced four clusters which were completely distinguished based on the locality of the rabbits. From the phylogenetic tree, the genotypes Alexandria and V-line appeared to be closely related, and also the genotypes V-line and California. So, the results indicated the efficacy of RAPDPCR technique to detect similarity among rabbit genotypes and their applicability in establishing genetic relationships among them.


The title compound, C26H25BrN2, is isomorphous with the chloro derivative [2-(4-chlorophenyl)-1-pentyl-4,5-diphenyl-1H-imidazole; Mohamed et al. (2013 ▶). Acta Cryst. E69, o846–o847]. The two phenyl rings and the 4-bromophenyl ring are oriented at dihedral angles of 30.1 (2), 64.3 (3) and 42.0 (2)°, respectively, with respect to the imidazole ring. In the crystal, molecules stack in columns along the b-axis direction, however, there are no significant intermolecular interactions present.


BACKGROUND
Scoliosis, the most prevalent orthopaedic condition affecting children and adolescents, may have lasting physical, psychological and social consequences. With limited evidence-base, scoliosis-specific exercise therapies are an option.

OBJECTIVE
An overview of the subject and description of a long-term follow-up study including adults who in adolescence were treated with a scoliosis-specific exercise programme investigating the association of the exercise regime with present physical activity, physical functioning and subjective wellbeing. To the authors' best knowledge, this is the first long-term outcome study on scoliosis-specific exercises, in opposition to a number of studies in adults who were braced or treated surgically in adolescence.

METHODS
Observational, registry-based case-control study. Adult subjects who in adolescence were treated with an exercise programme or were under observation are invited. Spine and trunk deformity, respiratory function, physical capacity and trunk muscles' function are measured. Health-related quality of life with generic and condition-specific instruments, general mental health, depression and anxiety symptoms, disability due to low back problems and physical activity are assessed.

CONCLUSIONS
The report is believed to provide the readers with an overview of this controversial aspect of rehabilitation, and that the proposed protocol will assist researchers designing their studies.


Experiments have been carried out on explanted chick embryos to test certain widely accepted concepts about the role of Hensen's node in somite formation. The relationship between elongation of the area pellucida and regression of Hensen's node has also been investigated. We conclude from these experiments that: (a) The timing of somite formation is not controlled by the regression of Hensen's node, nor by the shearing of the mesoderm into right and left halves. (b) Somite size and shape are probably controlled by local conditions in the chick embryo. (c) Elongation and regression are two different events. (d) The position of the probably depends on mechanical tensions in the area pellucida. (e) The notochord is not required for the stability of somites in vivo.


PUB, Singapore's National Water Agency, has been using polymeric UF membrane in drinking water plants to produce high quality water whilst requiring a smaller footprint. Submerged polymeric hollow-fiber membrane has been used since 2003 in Chestnut Avenue Water Works (CAWW). PUB decided to use submerged-type ceramic membranes for enhancement of production capacity at CAWW. The flat-sheet ceramic membrane system was retrofitted into two spare, empty tanks with a combined design capacity of 36,400 m3/d. The system has been successfully put into operation, running at a net flux of 160 L/m2-h (LMH) since June 2017. Membrane integrity testing is automatically carried out once a week to ensure the membranes' integrity. Stable filtrate quality has been achieved with a low turbidity of 0.018 NTU on average. Pretreatment for seawater desalination is another application in which a ceramic membrane system can be operated at higher flux compared to that for polymeric membranes. A pilot scale system was installed at PUB R&D facility in Tuas to investigate sustainable operating flux and permeate quality. FeCl3 was used as a coagulant before ceramic filtration, with a dosage of 4–6 mg/L. It was shown that sustainable flux can be 181–249 LMH in seawater treatment system with flat sheet ceramic membranes. The silt density index and turbidity of permeate were 1.6–2.2 and 0.04–0.10 NTU, respectively, which indicates that the system can produce high quality water for feed of reverse osmosis systems.


Background Hormone-dependent cancers (HDC) are among the leading causes of death worldwide among both men and women. Some of the established risk factors of HDC include unhealthy lifestyles, environmental factors, and genetic influences. Numerous studies have been conducted to understand gene–cancer associations. Transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS) integrate data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and gene expression (expression quantitative trait loci – eQTL) to yield meaningful information on biological pathways associated with complex traits/diseases. Recently, TWAS have enabled the identification of novel associations between HDC risk and protein-coding genes. Methods In the present study, we performed a TWAS analysis using the summary data-based Mendelian randomization (SMR)–heterogeneity in dependent instruments (HEIDI) method to identify microRNAs (miRNAs), a group of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) associated with HDC risk. We obtained eQTL and GWAS summary statistics from the ncRNA-eQTL database and the National Human Genome Research Institute–European Bioinformatics Institute (NHGRI-EBI) GWAS Catalog. Results We identified 13 TWAS-significant miRNAs at cis regions (±1 Mb) associated with HDC risk (two, five, one, two, and three miRNAs for prostate, breast, ovarian, colorectal, and endometrial cancers, respectively). Among them, eight novel miRNAs were recognized in HDC risk. Eight protein-coding genes targeted by TWAS-identified miRNAs (SIRT1, SOX4, RUNX2, FOXA1, ABL2, SUB1, HNRNPH1, and WAC) are associated with HDC functions and signaling pathways. Conclusion Overall, identifying risk-associated miRNAs across a group of related cancers may help to understand cancer biology and provide novel insights into cancer genetic mechanisms. This customized approach can be applied to identify significant miRNAs in any trait/disease of interest.


During the course of the publicly funded project "HotPowCon" (HPC) a two-phase transient liquid phase soldering technology had been developed [1], with the advantage of processing conditions being close to those for conventional soldering. Further developments of this HPC solder material have been made resulting in a stable process with increased quality of the interconnection layer, i.e. better homogeneity and less voiding. The mechanical properties of the multi-phase materials are different from traditional soft solders and depend strongly on the process, in particular the phase proportions. Materials with different proportions were produced and their properties were studied both experimentally and by FE-simulations. A parametric 3x3 particles model was used for the latter. Measurements on the thermo-mechanical deformation behavior were made by a grey scale correlation method, which is behind the microDAC® system applied. Good agreement was achieved, which allows future HPC solder properties prediction and design.


Abstract The SEM and EDS results of coatings obtained on pure niobium and titanium alloys (NiTi and Ti6Al4V) by Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation in the electrolytes containing of 300 g and 600 g copper nitrate in 1 litre of concentrated phosphoric acid at 450 V for 3 minutes, are presented. The obtained coatings are porous and consist mainly of phosphorus within titanium and copper. For each coating, the Cu/P ratios were calculated. The maximum of that coefficient was found for niobium and Ti6Al4V alloy oxidised in the electrolyte containing 600 g of Cu(NO3)2 in 1 dm3 of H3PO4 and equaling to 0.22 (wt%) | 0.11 (at%). The minimum of Cu/P ratio was recorded for NiTi and Ti6Al4V alloys oxidised by PEO in electrolyte consisting of 300 g of copper nitrate in 1 dm3 of concentrated phosphoric acid and equals to 0.12 (wt%) | 0.06 (at%). The middle value of that ratio was recorded for NiTi and it equals to 0.16 (wt%) | 0.08 (at%).


INTRODUCTION
Although the health impacts of heat waves and, to a lesser extent, cold spells in big cities in moderate climates have been well documented, little is known about the same impacts in the circumpolar region. An epidemiological study in an Arctic town presents considerable difficulties for the statistician because of small population sizes. When daily mortality counts are mostly 0, 1 or 2, they are not normally distributed and do not fit the independence assumption. The aim of this study was to take these difficulties into account and assess the impacts of extreme temperature events on mortality rates in Yakutsk, a city with a strongly continental climate, situated near the north pole.

METHOD
Long-term distributions of daily mean temperatures were analyzed for identification of heat waves and cold spells during the study period of 1999 to 2007. The authors investigated daily mortality from all non-accidental causes, coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular causes among the age groups 30-64 years and 65 years and over. Statistical analysis was in two steps. Step 1 involved Student's t-tests of samples, which consisted of cumulative mortalities during each heat wave. This provided a measure of the average health effect of all identified heat waves, and the same analysis was performed separately for cold spells. At Step 2, the authors compared the observed cumulative mortality during each individual temperature wave with expected seasonal mortality, using chi(2) tests.

RESULTS
The analysis of the impacts of six heat waves and three cold spells provided sufficient evidence that cardiovascular and non-accidental mortalities increased in Yakutsk during both heat waves and cold spells. The magnitude of established health effects was approximately the same for heat and cold. No significant differences were found between the two analyzed age groups in terms of relative excess mortality. Coronary heart disease mortality increased more than two-fold during some of the identified temperature waves, while non-accidental mortality increased by approximately 50%. The time lags between the temperature wave and observed increase in mortality varied between 8 and 14 days, which indicated that the health effects of temperature extremes were delayed rather than immediate. The evidence obtained of the effects of temperature waves on cerebrovascular mortality was not conclusive. Addressing the methodological implications of dealing with small cities, the authors linked the sensitivity of the applied statistical tests to arithmetic means and relative standard deviations of daily death counts, and to the duration of temperature waves.

CONCLUSIONS
The proposed methodology can be applied in other medium-sized towns (populations >200,000, approximately); however, only large relative increases in mortality will be statistically significant. For example, relative risks of less than 2.0 for coronary disease mortality and 1.4 for non-accidental mortality are likely to be non-significant.


Analysis of serial ultrathin sections of the human aortic intima detected a new cell yet to be described in the literature. These cells, which we have designated Vascular Dendritic Cells, appeared in contact with each other and with other intimal cells. Vascular dendiritic cells are characterised by ultrastructural features similar to those of dendritic cells, including a well developed smooth endoplasmic reticulum and the presence of several processes which were 3-5 or more times in excess of the size of the cell body. In areas of the normal aorta resistant to atherosclerosis, vascular dendritic cells were mainly localised in the subendothelial layer where they contacted both endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells. In areas of the normal aorta predisposed to atherosclerosis, vascular dendritic cells were distributed throughout the intima and the cellular interactions were altered with the vascular dendritic cells, developing multiple contacts with monocyte/macrophages and lymphocyte-like cells. Aortic areas predisposed to atherosclerosis showed the destruction of some vascular dendritic cell processes where they apposed endothelial cells. We speculate that vascular dendritic cells (VDCs) are a variety of dendritic cell and are involved in the maintenance of homeostasis in normal arterial intima. Vascular dendritic cells may be important in the development of atherosclerotic lesions, possibly through an immune mechanism.


To investigate causes of contact dermatitis in the metal spray process in a film-condenser factory, we developed a questionnaire survey for workers exposed to metal dust, analyzed the metal dust, and conducted patch tests with the metal dust and its constituents. In the questionnaire survey, we identified 12 workers (12/26, 46.2%) who had had dermatitis. The main symptoms were itching, itchy red skin and itchy papules. Analysis of the metal dust showed that there was no copper oxide, but nickel, not contained in the materials of the metal spray, was detected. One worker with dermatitis had a positive reaction to 2.5% nickel sulphate. Some of the workers showed primary irritant reactions to 5% copper sulphate. As a result, we considered that these cases of dermatitis involved irritant contact dermatitis due to copper and/or allergic contact dermatitis due to nickel. To prevent dermatitis, we recommended improvement in ventilation, reducing the room temperature to reduce sweating, and to educate workers on the importance of frequent hand washing. Thereafter, the incidence of dermatitis decreased, and there were no cases requiring medication.