To the Editor: Dr Yaffe and colleagues recently reported that lower levels of plasma -amyloid 42/40 were related to worse rates of cognitive decline. A major finding was the observation of an interaction between cognitive reserve (as measured by education, literacy, or apolipoprotein E [APOE] ε4 status) and plasma -amyloid 42/40. Although this finding is intriguing, and the consistency of the interaction across all 3 measures of cognitive reserve is suggestive, nonetheless caution is warranted. Yaffe et al found little association between -amyloid 42/40 levels and cognitive decline in those with at least a high school education. However, in a previous study, we found strong relations between plasma -amyloid 42/40 (measured at mid life and again in later life) and subsequent cognitive decline among participants in the Nurses' Health Study, all of whom had more than a high school education (ie, associate degree and above). In addition, while Yaffe et al reported that women with less education had a lower baseline ratio of -amyloid 42/40, we found that women with the lowest ratio of -amyloid 42/40 had the highest educational attainment (master's or doctoral degree). It would be interesting for cohorts with information on -amyloid level to reassess their data with respect to educational attainment or other markers of cognitive reserve.


Technologies are being developed under the Buried Waste Integrated Demonstration (BWID) program to facilitate remediation of the US Department of Energy's (DOE) buried and stored low-level radioactive, transuranic (TRU), and mixed radioactive and hazardous buried wastes. The BWID program is being coordinated by the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) in southeastern Idaho, a DOE site that has large volumes of buried radioactive wastes. The program is currently focusing its efforts on the problems at INEL's Subsurface Disposal Area (SDA) of the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC). As specific technologies are successfully demonstrated, they will be available for transfer to applications at other DOE buried waste sites. The purpose of this study is to present buried waste technology needs that have been identified for DOE sites other than INEL.


The Nodwell brought gear from Churchill. It was a Canadian Forces vehicle and the support was lent to the group as part of a training exercise. The small green building was a storage hut obtained from the old Fort Churchill site after it was decommissioned. The huts were brought to camp that same spring.


There is a huge need for remote monitoring capabilities in today's healthcare system to reduce the strain on our services and allow people to remain in their homes for longer thus reducing costs and maintaining peoples' quality of life. Policy-makers and the healthcare industry leaders must come together to find the most suitable route for which to implement these innovations. Scotland is already driving change in this area with over 100 active companies in the digital healthcare industry. The use of remote patient monitoring capabilities allows for the development of personalised care plans whereby medication/care can be adjusted based on the data collected about that person.


The purpose of this project was to design, fabricate and test a self balancing control system for a four wheeled climbing robot. A HM-RF transparent wireless data link module was used for transferring the data between the remote control and robot. A programmed microcontroller ATmega16 was used to generate an appropriate signal for each of the remote control buttons. The control system balances the robot during the climbing by separately adjusting the rotation speed of each DC motor proportional to the tilt angle of the robot frame. Pulse-width modulation technique was used to control the speed of DC motors. A two axes tilt sensor was used for concurrently measuring the tilt angle of the robot in both X and Y axes. A microcontroller ATmega64 was used to analyze the received data from the tilt sensor and the remote control and to generate an appropriate PWM signal for each DC motors. For programming, the microcontrollers were used in Bascome IDE interface in basic language. An electronic board was designed to connect the sensor, data receiver and motors to the microcontroller. The robot tested in field and maximum tilt angle was 8 and 6 degrees for Y and X axes, respectively.

 Key words: Agricultural robot, tree climbing, speed controller, remote control, PWM.


Numerous studies have reported on the roles of activins in gonadal regulation; however, little is known about their specific roles in early folliculogenesis. Ovarian follicular growth was investigated in 10-day cultures of day 4 postnatal whole ovaries treated with activin A (ActA; 50 ng/ml), with or without FSH (100 ng/ml) in vitro. We hypothesized that treatment with ActA±FSH would affect rates of growth and atresia in follicles. None of the treatments affected primordial follicle activation, and antral follicles were not observed after 10 days in culture. Primordial follicle numbers from all treatment groups were ∼20% of those in day 4 fresh ovaries, indicating that activation had occurred. In the presence of ActA, preantral follicle numbers increased significantly (P<0.0001). ActA alone decreased the proportion of atretic follicles in the primary and preantral classes, whereas the combined treatment of ActA+FSH increased the proportion of atretic preantral oocytes. Real-time PCR analysis revealed that follistatin, FSH receptor, and activin βA and βB subunits were all expressed at significantly higher levels in the ActA-only treated group but not in the ActA+FSH group. Here, we report novel findings supporting the role of FSH in primordial follicle survival through an action on apoptosis and a stimulatory role of ActA in the primordial to primary and preantral stages of follicle development, suggesting an inhibitory action of activin on oocyte apoptosis.


Low income earners have volatile incomes and most financial providers shun this group of borrowers even though they are motivated in managing the limited resources they have through savings and investments as a means to lower the fluctuations of their income. Peer groupings of the low income earners can assist in pooling the resources they have and improve the group risk mitigation process as group members act like social collateral in credit lending. The study used Kenya Kenya Financial Diaries data of from households to analyze and understand the credit quality levels and credit scores of peer groups versus individuals among men and women. Hidden Markov model classified the low income earners into credit risk profiles wih a view of understanding the role of groups in low income group lending. Peer groups diversify risk inherent in individual borrowers with women only groups having higher credit quality levels as compared to men only groups. Women and their respective peer groups are more stable with less variability as compared to men. Financial technology providers can incorporate the wide array of soft information to lend to low income earners through mobile based peer groups.


The evaluation of writing in the ESL classroom has traditionally been the teacher's prerogative and as such it has remained outside the interactive model of student learning. Our goal is to bring evaluation into the classroom in order to increase learners' awareness of criteria for good writing, promote greater improvement of writing by giving learners an instructional and diagnostic tool which they could use, reinforce in-process feedback with end-of-process evaluation, and foster more positive attitudes towards writing. The students in our pilot investigation are high intermediate level adults from diverse backgrounds studying part-time during a four-month term. Our investigation is in two parts. Part one involves adapting an appropriate evaluation scale, training students in its use, and having them use the scale throughout the term to evaluate their own and their peers' writing. In part two we study various end-of-term effects the use of the scale had on students: we test the hypothesis that students trained in the use of the scale will have a concept of good writing more congruent with that of instructors than will a control group; we compare the criteria most often cited by both groups as they judge the quality of a set of compositions; we examine the responses of both groups to a survey on their attitudes towards writing. Our results show a slight trend in the predicted direction between the experimental group and one of the judges. We also find indications that the experimental group is using a different set of criteria in judging compositions. As well, the experimental group responds more positively to all ten statements on a writing attitude survey.


The conditions for high production of nisin Z and pediocin during pH‐controlled, mixed‐strain batch cultures in a supplemented whey permeate medium with Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis UL719, a nisin Z producer strain, and variant T5 of Pediococcus acidilactici UL5, a pediocin‐producing strain resistant to high concentrations of nisin, were studied. Mixed cultures were performed at 37 °C and pH 5·5 by first inoculating with variant T5 and then with L. diacetylactis UL719 after 8 h incubation, and were compared with single‐strain batch cultures. High productions of both nisin Z and pediocin were obtained after 18 or 16 h incubation during mixed cultures, with titres of 3000 and 730 AU ml−1, or 1060 and 1360 AU ml−1, respectively, corresponding to approximately 75 and 55, or 25 and 100 mg l−1 of pure nisin Z and pediocin, respectively. In pure cultures, nisin Z and pediocin productions were higher than in mixed cultures, and maximum activities were obtained after 10 h incubation, with approximately 10 000 AU ml−1 (250 mg l−1 pure nisin Z) and 2500 AU ml−1 (190 mg l−1 pure pediocin). During mixed cultures, significant pediocin degradation was observed in the culture supernatant fluid after 16 h incubation, together with a sharp drop in Ped. acidilactici UL5 cell viability. In the test conditions, the feasibility of producing a nisin/pediocin mixture by mixed‐strain fermentation was demonstrated. The bacteriocin mixture produced in a supplemented whey permeate medium could be used as a natural food‐grade biopreservative with a broad activity spectrum.


Thermosolutal convection caused by the solute build up ahead of the growing arrays of cells and dendrites results in macrosegregation along the length of the Pb-Sn alloy (10 to 58 wt pct Sn) specimens when they are directionally solidified in a positive thermal gradient (melt on top, solid below, and gravity pointing down). At a constant thermal gradient, the extent of macrosegregation increases with decreasing growth speed as the microstructure changes from dendritic, to cellular and to planar. An empirical parameter, effective partition coefficient, obtained from the dependence of the longitudinal macrosegregation on fraction distance solidified can be used to represent the extent of macrosegregation.


A retrospective review of obstetric records for 1979 in two major Calgary hospitals was undertaken to determine the rate of compliance with postpartum Rh isoimmunization prophylaxis in Alberta. The charts of 4528 women ranging in age from 13 to 46 years were reviewed. The prevalence rate of Rh negativity was found to be 16%. Of the 710 Rh-negative women 490 (69%) were eligible to receive Rh immune globulin (RhIG); that is, they had no anti-D antibodies, and the baby/fetus was Rh-positive or Rh-unknown. RhIG had been administered to 93.6% of the eligible women; the compliance rate ranged from 66.7% for obstetric emergencies (i.e., spontaneous abortion, antepartum or early-pregnancy hemorrhage, or ectopic pregnancy) to 98.2% for postpartum diagnoses. In more than half (54.7%) of the women who underwent amniocentesis Rh type was not determined; the implications of this finding are discussed. Although poor compliance with postpartum RhIG administration is not a reason for withholding antepartum administration of RhIG, maximum compliance with the more cost-effective programs should be attained before antepartum programs are fully implemented.


We report the case of a 42-year-old patient with contralateral inguinal seminoma metastasis. He had a history of prior bilateral open inguinal hernia repair and scrotal vasectomy. Staging CT revealed no further lymphoma or organ metastases. After discussion of adjuvant treatment options and contacting a referral centre for testicular cancer, adjuvant treatment was performed with 3 cycles of cisplatin, etoposide and ifosfamide. The development of the contralateral inguinal metastasis is most likely caused by the prior inguinal and scrotal surgery, whereas a primary atypical retrograde metastatic route can't be ruled out. Physical examination of the inguinal lymph nodes should be performed in all patients with testicular cancer and prior inguinal and scrotal surgery.


Active vibration control using time delay for a cantilever beam is developed in this paper. The equation of motion of the system is developed using the discrete standard formulation, and the discrete quadratic function is used to design the controller. The original contribution in this paper is using a genetic algorithm to determine the optimal time delay feedback for active vibration control of a cantilever beam. Simulations of the beam demonstrated that the genetic algorithm correctly identified the time delay which produced the quickest attenuation of unwanted vibrations for both mode one and mode two. In terms of frequency response, the optimal time delay for both modes reduced the resonant amplitude. In a mixed mode situation, the simulation demonstrated that an optimal time delay could be identified.


This article describes a curricular innovation in a post-intermediate EFL university course. The aim of the project was to build on the reading proficiency of the learners to improve their much less fully developed oral and written communication skills. An experimental course was developed around a connected series of group and individual projects on the topic of American Indians. The main psychopedagogical guidelines for the course were provided by the maturation process as described by the Russian psychologists Vigotsky (1962) and Leontiev (1981) and by the notion that shared knowledge is a prerequisite to purposeful and meaningful interaction (Castelfranchi and Parisi 1980, Hartmann 1980). University students from different study areas used reading materials to develop proficiency in speaking and writing. In the final project, a videotaped simulation of a court hearing involving an Indian land claim, each of the 18 students delivered a speech and participated in a debate. For this and the preceding projects in the course, the issues of teacher roles, learner roles, materials, skill transfer, and empathy-building activities are discussed. There was considerable evidence for the validity of the three assumptions on which this pedagogical experiment was based: 1) It is feasible to reverse the canonical sequence of skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) in language learning; 2) needs analysis is an ongoing process of learner observation which takes into account both cognitive and affective responses; and 3) language teaching can be usefully conceived as action-based research aiming at learner-specific procedures.


The objective of this study was to identify effects of two known Sertoli cell toxicants on the secretion of proteins by seminiferous tubules (ST) isolated from adult rats at different stages of the spermatogenic cycle and cultured in vitro for 24 hr with [35S]methionine. Adult rats received a single oral dose of 50 mg/kg metadinitrobenzene (m-DNB) or 300 mg/kg nitrobenzene (NB). Long lengths of ST at stages II-V, VI-VIII or IX-XII were then isolated from control and treated rats at 1 or 3 days post-treatment; selection of stages was based on the stage specificity of the early (24-72 hr) adverse effects of m-DNB and NB on spermatogenesis in vivo. In addition, ST at the same stages were isolated from untreated rats and cultured in the presence or absence of m-DNB or NB (10(-4)M). Incorporation of [35S]methionine into secreted proteins was assessed and the pattern of protein secretion evaluated using two-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D SDS-PAGE). ST isolated from rats pretreated 24 hr earlier with NB in vivo showed a significant decrease in the overall incorporation of [35S]methionine into secreted proteins at stages VI-VIII and IX-XII, whereas ST at stages II-V showed no such change; comparable protein changes were observed when 10(-4) M NB was added in vitro for 24 hr to ST isolated at the same stages from untreated rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Since the discovery of the Moon's asymmetric ejecta cloud, the origin of its sunward-canted density enhancement has not been well understood. We propose impact ejecta from meteoroids on hyperbolic trajectories (β-meteoroids) that hit the Moon's sunward side could explain this unresolved asymmetry. β-meteoroids are submicron in size, comparable to or smaller than the regolith particles they hit, and can impact the Moon at very high speeds ∼100 km s−1. Therefore, their impact regime may differ from the significantly larger and slower sporadic meteoroids responsible for generating the bulk of the lunar impact ejecta cloud. We compare lunar impact ejecta production to β-meteoroid fluxes observed by multiple spacecraft. If β-meteoroids are able to liberate similar sized submicron particles, orbital dust detector measurements from the Lunar Dust Experiment on board the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer spacecraft only need to detect one ejecta grain out of every 106 β-meteoroid impacts to the lunar surface to explain the sunward asymmetry with this additional population. This finding suggests β-meteoroids may also contribute to the evolution of other airless surfaces in the inner solar system, and by extension, at exozodiacal systems.


We report a case of a patient with a unique lymph node relapse after right hepatectomy and aggressive lymph node dissection for gallbladder cancer. There was extensive involvement of the hepatic parenchyma from the primary tumor, but no extension to the lymph nodes or other adjacent organs. Seventeen months later, the patient underwent re-dissection of the retroperitoneal lymph nodes with right nephrectomy and partial resection of the vena cava because of lymph node recurrence at the hilum of the right kidney. This pattern of lymph node metastasis to the right side of the vena cava from gallbladder cancer invading the liver is probably due to the distinct lymphatic drainage of the liver.


Discriminative learning methods are widely used in natural language processing. These methods work best when their training and test data are drawn from the same distribution. For many NLP tasks, however, we are confronted with new domains in which labeled data is scarce or non-existent. In such cases, we seek to adapt existing models from a resource-rich source domain to a resource-poor target domain. We introduce structural correspondence learning to automatically induce correspondences among features from different domains. We test our technique on part of speech tagging and show performance gains for varying amounts of source and target training data, as well as improvements in target domain parsing accuracy using our improved tagger.


This article investigates a social media-enabled customer co-creation project at the front-end of innovation (FEI) in a well-known, large-scale food manufacturer. It sheds light on the role of social media technology in transforming the characteristics of FEI in terms of boundaries and knowledge distance. What type of exploratory or exploitative innovation ideas does a project of this sort enable? How did the project evolve? What lessons can be learned from this project? A longitudinal case study of Barilla was carried out through two rounds of interviews with Marketing, Business Dev. & Innovation, and Digital Communication managers. The evidence gathered highlights the emergent evolution of this customer co-creation project from an initial stage of idea exploitation to a more complex and fruitful stage in which both exploitation and exploration were simultaneously accomplished.


This paper engages in debates about the spatiality of social movements which have argued that examining politics purely through territorial or relational understandings of space does not adequately grasp the ways in which social movements undertake their activities. The paper argues that a possible route through this debate lies in the concept of assemblage, which has recently been deployed in geography in order to understand the emergence and practice of social organisation and activity. The paper develops these ideas through an empirical discussion of the practices that help to maintain a particular social movement organisation – a Tibet Support Group (TSG). Through ethnographic engagement with a particular TSG, the paper argues that through the quotidian activities like delivering the mail we can understand how sociospatial practices within an organisation display both territorial and relational elements at the same time. This develops an account that advances knowledge of the spatiality of political action, and with it the ability of assemblage to understand organisational practices, but also develops theoretical insights into TSGs as a particular type of organisation.


Media is an institution playing a key role in the construction or destruction of any society. Radio is an effective tool of Media that has a strong effect on the thoughts and behaviors of people and it plays an important role in the process of setting minds of people towards an issue both in positive or in negative way. In Malakand division of Pakistan where the literacy level is low, areas are vast and means of communication are insufficient, FM broadcasting is very effective, important and advance instrument due to the locality, closeness, quickness, easy access, easy operating, cheap, and large scale reach. In this research paper it has been investigated that radio has many effects on the behavior of people of this area. It has been also questioned and discussed that in the era of militancy FM radio played a negative role and misguided the innocent people of the area towards extremism and social instability. The FM broadcasting is used to change the mind and attitude of people towards extremism and insurgency. This study aims to find out the content of these FM stations and impacts on audience in the cited area. It is examined how the FM radios are used as a tool of war in the area by different groups and how these strongly affected the mind of innocent people of the area. Public perception indicates that FM stations delivered hatred information instead peace and development. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s2p678


Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease, which can cause endless suffering to the patients and severely impact their normal lives. To treat RA, the drugs in use have many serious side effects, high cost, or only focus on their anti-inflammatory mechanisms without taking joint lubrication into consideration. Therefore, in this study, we aim to construct a novel anti-RA drug composed of hyaluronic acid/curcumin (HA/Cur) nanomicelle to resolve these problems. Characterizations show that Cur is bound to HA by ester linkages and self-assembles to form a spherical nanomicelle with a diameter of around 164 nm under the main driving of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic forces. The nanomicelle enjoys excellent biocompatibility that effectively promotes the proliferation of chondrocytes. When injected to the RA rats, the nanomicelle significantly lowers the edema degree of the arthritic rats compared to other groups; more critically, a dramatic decrease in friction between the surfaces of cartilage around the joints has been found, which protects the cartilage from the RA-induced damage. Additionally, systematic mechanism investigation indicates that the nanomicelle diminishes the expression of related cytokines and vascular endothelial growth factor, finally leading to the excellent performance. The newfound nanomicelle has a potential for clinical practice of RA therapy, which will contribute significantly to alleviating the pain of patients and improving the quality of life for them.


Abstract This article addresses two related aspects of King Edgar's visit to Chester — why he went there and how he got there. Interpretations of its purpose have generally been based upon English sources and have paid less attention to Welsh evidence: this article attempts an alternative perspective. The first of the two aspects is a stage in the development of the 'Kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons' expressed in the coronation at Bath and a tenth-century durbar at Chester when the might of the King of all England was pronounced to the outside world. The second, which was linked to that and specifically directed at the North-West, was a determined attempt to define and strengthen the north-western frontier of the extended kingdom and tighten Edgar's grip upon the northern Welsh princes whose constant infighting presented an opportunity for Norse and/or Irish incursions. His actions became an economic as well as a military necessity, to maintain the English grasp on North Wales and to protect the important trading links between Chester and Ireland.


This paper deals with a new method which detects impossible bigrams in a space of $V^2$ bigrams designed from a vocabulary V and which discards them from a statistical language model. We claim that discarding ungrammatical events, which are impossible in a well written text, will improve language models and as well, reduce the complexity of search algorithms in speech recognition. The Purged Language Model (PLM) needs a set of impossible bigrams, which are detected by using automatic rules based on a class model, phonology rules, etc. Methods for redistributing the sum of probabilities issued from impossible bigrams among possible events have been developped. This idea allows us to take advantage of natural language constraints and to include linguistic criteria in statistical language models. The PLM has been tested on a test corpus of 2M words and achieves a perplexity improvement of 51% under certain conditions.


Syntheses of 11 beta,13 beta- and 13 beta,16 beta-propano derivatives of 17 alpha-ethynyl-17 beta-hydroxygon-4-en-3-one are described. The 13 beta,16 beta bridge was constructed by intramolecular alkylation of the C-16 enolate anion from 3-methoxy-13 beta-[3'-(tosyloxy)propyl]gona-3,5-dien-17-one, the latter being obtained via Birch reduction of both aryl groups of 17 beta-hydroxy-3-methoxy-13 beta-(3'-phenoxypropyl)gona-1,3,5(10),8-tetraene (1). The 11 beta,13 beta bridge was constructed by Prins cyclization of 17 beta-acetoxy-3-methoxy-13 beta-(3'-oxopropyl)gona-1,3,5(10),9(11)-tetraene, itself obtained via Birch reduction of only the side-chain aryl group of 1. Binding affinities of certain of these compounds and substituted 13 beta-propyl derivatives of 17 alpha-ethynyl-17 beta-hydroxygon-4-en-3-one for the uterine cytosol receptor of progesterone are reported, and the origin of the high progestational activity of norgestrel and 11 beta-substituted progestins is discussed.


Abstract One-pot reaction of iron(III) acetylacetonate, Fe(acac)3, [or Fe(acac)3 and M(acac)2 where M = Mn and Co], with 1,2-alkanediol, oleic acid, and oleylamine in high boiling organic solvent leads to monodisperse ferrite MFe2O4 nanoparticles. Depending on the concentration of the metal precursors, surfactant-to-metal precursor ratio and the solvent used in the reaction, the particle size from this one-pot reaction can be tuned from 4 to 15 nm. The as-synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles have an inverse spinel structure, and their magnetic properties are controlled by particle size and M in the MFe2O4 structure. The hydrophobic iron oxide nanoparticles are readily transformed into hydrophilic ones by functional phospholipid addition to the as-synthesized particles and as a result, the monodisperse nanoparticles are readily functionalized with biotin, -COOH, -SH, and -NH2, facilitating their link to biomolecules for biomedical applications.


The value of products imported into a country each year goes a long way to tell us how much the product is appreciated in the country. Some products form the major imports of some countries yearly. Previous studies have focused on the major determinants of imports in some countries, including Nigeria. In the present study, we used a regression approach to identify the major significant imports in Nigeria. This will help in the effective distribution of human resources and services and improve balance of payments. In using the above approach, the method of stepwise regression and transformation of the data via first-order differencing were employed to remove multicollinearity from the data. A predictive model was then specified for the prediction of future imports in the country. Our results show that the major significant imports in Nigeria during the period under study are miscellaneous manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment, food and live animal, beverages and tobacco.


Acellular scaffolds derived from Bombyx mori silk fibroin were investigated for their ability to support functional tissue regeneration in a rabbit model of urethra repair. A bi-layer silk fibroin matrix was fabricated by a solvent-casting/salt leaching process in combination with silk fibroin film casting to generate porous foams buttressed by homogeneous silk fibroin films. Ventral onlay urethroplasty was performed with silk fibroin grafts (Group 1, N = 4) (Width×Length, 1×2 cm2) in adult male rabbits for 3 m of implantation. Parallel control groups consisted of animals receiving small intestinal submucosa (SIS) implants (Group 2, N = 4) or urethrotomy alone (Group 3, N = 3). Animals in all groups exhibited 100% survival prior to scheduled euthanasia and achieved voluntary voiding following 7 d of initial catheterization. Retrograde urethrography of each implant group at 3 m post-op revealed wide urethral calibers and preservation of organ continuity similar to pre-operative and urethrotomy controls with no evidence of contrast extravasation, strictures, fistulas, or stone formation. Histological (hematoxylin and eosin and Masson's trichrome), immunohistochemical, and histomorphometric analyses demonstrated that both silk fibroin and SIS scaffolds promoted similar extents of smooth muscle and epithelial tissue regeneration throughout the original defect sites with prominent contractile protein (α-smooth muscle actin and SM22α) and cytokeratin expression, respectively. De novo innervation and vascularization were also evident in all regenerated tissues indicated by synaptophysin-positive neuronal cells and vessels lined with CD31 expressing endothelial cells. Following 3 m post-op, minimal acute inflammatory reactions were elicited by silk fibroin scaffolds characterized by the presence of eosinophil granulocytes while SIS matrices promoted chronic inflammatory responses indicated by mobilization of mononuclear cell infiltrates. The results of this study demonstrate that bi-layer silk fibroin scaffolds represent promising biomaterials for onlay urethroplasty, capable of promoting similar degrees of tissue regeneration in comparison to conventional SIS scaffolds, but with reduced immunogenicity.


Abstract Ongoing research on the taxonomically complex genus Cheilanthes (Pteridaceae; Cheilanthoideae) has resulted in the identification of a new species from Loja Province in Ecuador, Cheilanthes ecuadorensis, described and illustrated herein. Originally collected in 1988 and identified as C. cf. rufopunctata, C. ecuadorensis is clearly distinct from that species in having pubescent adaxial blade surfaces and narrow, poorly-differentiated false indusia (rather than the glabrous adaxial surfaces and wide false indusia of C. rufopunctata). Among the South American species currently included in Cheilanthes, C. ecuadorensis is superficially most similar to C. pilosa. However, our molecular phylogenetic analyses indicate that C. ecuadorensis is sister to C. micropteris, the morphologically disparate generitype of Cheilanthes. Here we examine the phylogenetic relationships, morphology, cytogenetics, and geography of these four South American Cheilanthes species in a study that, once again, highlights the importance of herbaria in the process of new species discovery.


This paper derives the closed-form expressions for nonparaxial phase flipped Gaussian (PFG) beams propagating in free space, through a knife edge and an aperture, which enable us to study nonparaxial propagation properties of PFG beams and to compare nonparaxial results with paraxial ones. It is found that the f parameter, offsetting distance of the knife edge and truncation parameter affect the nonparaxial beam propagation properties. Only under certain conditions the paraxial approximation is applicable. The results are illustrated by numerical examples.


Many people dream of going into business with friends. The Partnership Book shows how to turn that dream into a sound partnership agreement.The book thoroughly explains the legal and practical issues involved in forming a partnership. In plain English, it covers:* partnerships compared to other business forms * the financial and tax liability of partners * contributions of cash, property and services * what happens if a partner wants out * how to value partnership assets * admitting new partners * buying out a partner's interest * death of a partner * limited partnerships * and much moreIn print for over 20 years, the 6th edition of The Partnership Book is totally revised and updated to reflect the law and realities of today's business world. All the forms for creating a partnership agreement are provided as tear-outs and on CD-ROM.


Abstract : This paper presents a new integrated methodology for the optimization of turbomachinery blade shapes coupling a user interface, a blade geometry generator to an automatic CFD solution process and an optimisation algorithm. The methodology relies on the interaction between a genetic algorithm, a database and user generated objective functions and constraints. The latter includes aerodynamic, geometrical and structural constraint functions, while future developments will extend these to aero-acoustic optimisation objectives. Several examples, covering gas turbine configurations are presented.


The paper presents the main research results of interests and political attitudes of students conducted in 2014 at the Kazan Federal University and its affiliates in the territory of the Republic of Tatarstan. The choice of students as a reference group is due to several factors, among which are the highest intellectual and creative potential and high social and political mobility that allows us to speak about the students as potentially active power of social and political changes in the country, and Kazan Federal University was chosen for the reason that it is the largest the highest educational institution in the region including humanitarian, social-science and natural-science directions that allows to consider specifics of respondents. Obtained in the survey data, in comparison with results of previous studies, including results of researches and sociological surveys conducted by the Fund of "Public opinion" (FPO), the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (RPORC) and others leading research centers in Russia, allow us to determine the dynamics of the social and political attitudes of students in the region.


In Reply We thank Cazzador et al for their appreciation of the Viewpoint "Surgical Considerations for Tracheostomy During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons Learned From the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Outbreak."1 Since the publication, several other groups have also developed guidelines for tracheostomy in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), with similar goals of minimizing perioperative aerosolization risks.2 We agree with Cazzador et al that an optimal timing for tracheostomy in patients with COVID-19 has not been clearly established. Given that open tracheostomy performed with the necessary personal protective equipment has proven to be safe during SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and COVID-19,1 in general, we would consider tracheostomy in a patient approaching 14 days of intubation without the possibility of imminent successful extubation. We have thus far not advocated early tracheostomy in patients with COVID-19 in the absence of any compelling evidence to do so. Evaluating benefit from early tracheostomy in patients with COVID-19 is a challenging task, given the variable clinical severity of COVID-19 among patients and the multiple risk factors that are associated with disease severity. In a multicenter cohort study of 53 patients with COVID-19 who underwent tracheostomy, Chao et al3 reported that 56.6% of patients were liberated from the ventilator at a mean (SD) of 11.8 (6.9) days after tracheostomy. The authors observed a weak positive correlation between time to tracheostomy and posttracheostomy ventilator dependence, suggesting some support for earlier tracheostomy. Nonetheless, the authors also acknowledged the possibility of selection bias of healthier patients for earlier tracheostomy and delayed tracheostomy in patients with questionable prognoses. A randomized clinical trial with specific patient selection criteria would be ideal to address this question. However, it has been our experience, and also the experience of others,4 that most patients with COVID-19 who require intubation can be successfully extubated within the first 14 days. Therefore, careful selection of patients who will benefit from tracheostomy is required for such a clinical trial. In relation to percutaneous tracheostomy techniques, there have been reports of percutaneous tracheostomy being safely performed in patients with COVID-19, with special emphasis on minimizing aerosolization, including complete paralysis of the patient and pausing ventilation during instrumentation of the airway.3 A technique involving placement of the bronchoscope alongside the endotracheal tube (rather than inside of it) to minimize aerosolization has been described.5,6 Nonetheless, one should be cognizant of the aerosolization risks involved, especially during a difficult percutaneous tracheostomy procedure or one in which a complication occurs. If these risks are unacceptable, then an open tracheostomy with direct surgical control of the airway would be the safest approach. We once again thank Cazzador et al for their thoughtful comments and the opportunity to discuss these issues.


Sublethal concentration (2.6 mg/l) of a triterpene based piscicidal glycoside of A. indica damaged the neurons, fibre tracts and central correlation sites for gustatory, tactile and visceral sensory impulses in medulla oblongata of fish after prolonged poisoning. The fear, sinking to bottom, lack of schooling and non discriminatory pattern in treated fish were because of neurodepression. The jerky movement, ventilatory inefficiency, swallowing air bubbles and light pinkness of gills were due to the degradation of respiratory centres in the vagal lobes of toxified fish.


Andrei Rublev (1966) was Andrei Tarkovsky's second feature film. It was banned for five years in his own country but won the International Critics Prize at Cannes in 1969. Other films by the director include Solaris (1972), Mirror (1975), Stalker (1979), Nostalgia (1982) and Sacrifice (1986). The Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986) was especially interested in the relationship between art and religious experience. This concern is exemplified in his 1966 feature Andrei Rublev, still considered by many today as one of the greatest achievements in the history of film. It was Tarkovsky's belief that art should have a metaphysical function, urging the observer to strive with "the crucial questions of his existence", and, at its most sublime, to be expressive of the Transcendent and induce in the beholder what can be called a Religious Epiphany. Here this term denotes the core religious experience common to all spiritual efforts: an apprehension of the absolute, the infinite, of Truth or God. In discussing the aesthetic and thematic ambitions of Andrei Rublev I wish to elucidate the possibility of religious epiphany and, with it, Tarkovsky's own fundamentally Christian assessment of the role of art and artist. This article is available in Journal of Religion & Film: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol3/iss2/4


In this article, we are trying to analyze the connection between Mentality and TenseAspect Verb Forms both in Russian and English Languages. The main task of our research is to reveal analytically what this or that form of the verb means in English and what meaning can the similar verb form be understood in Russian. The results of this study in the form of recommendations for achieving maximum pragmatic effect in the translation of English and Russian texts can be a good help for interpreters. Moreover, analyzing language through the prism of mentalities allows us to gain a deeper understanding of linguistic phenomena and develop a strategy to facilitate the process of learning English. The purpose of this study is to analyze the nature of verb as the most difficult section of the grammar from the perspective of reflecting the mentality in its grammatical forms and semantic meanings both in Russian and in English to create a list of recommendations that contribute to the correct understanding of English texts and their adequate translation


&NA; Examining a crossroads in nursing through a case study &NA; SymbolSymbol Symbol. No caption available. Symbol. No caption available. BACKGROUND: The field of genetics and genomics is rapidly expanding, particularly in oncology. Genetics and genomics can lead to ethical concerns. Oncology nurses must balance the need for evidence‐based oncology care with that of ethical care for patients and their family members. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of cancer genetics and ethics and their impact on oncology nurses, patients, and families. METHODS: A case study of familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is offered to illustrate the impact of a hereditary cancer syndrome on several generations of a family and ethical issues surrounding cancer genetics. In addition, a brief review of FAP, gene and tissue biobanking, and genome editing is provided. FINDINGS: Genetics, genomics, and pharmaco‐genomics are ubiquitous in cancer diagnosis and management. Nurses must be knowledgeable about the ethical issues related to cancer genetics and oncology care to advocate for the needs of patients with cancer. Communication with and education of patients and their families before germline genetic testing may reduce the emergence of ethical dilemmas.


Security has become a very demanding parameter in today's world of speed communication, one of the methods to ensure information integrity is the use of hash function which generates a stream of bytes (hash) which must be unique. The Keccak hash function is one of more than fifty candidates accepted by NIST for the SHA-3 hash function competition. In this article, an optimal implementation of this function will be presented. This implementation intended to reducing circuit complexity, and increasing performance hardware implementations of this cryptographic hash function. The proposed design is coded in VHDL and implemented on Virtex 5 FPGA.


Mandalay, a multi-cultural city was a globally connected city in the 19 th century. It has undergone many changes since its creation (occupation by British and Japanese) isolation during the socialist reign and now is in the process of another grand cultural re-formation through the work of the military ruling elite who seek to promote the 'real Myanmar cultural heritage'. This paper aims to understand and expose the multiple cultural heritages of Mandalay as identified and described in the terms of the contemporary residents of the city. It is proposed that while the distinct and characteristically unique Burmese feature of Mandalay lies in its universal Buddhist peaceful potential, its complex multiplicity of life's meanings, and its impermanence, Mandalay now represents a city of many separate lives as a result of a brief 150 years of transformations. The paper concludes that the complexity of urban cultural heritage demonstrates that no one simplistic perspective of urban identity makes sense for Mandalay. Life here is a tangle of an elusive cultural heritage.


Studies on the operant conditioning of central nervous system activity have produced results interpreted as demonstrating that responses, certain properties of responses, or response-produced stimuli can function as discriminative stimuli. It is assumed that the feedback stimulus in biofeedback makes the subject aware of the internal response and that by becoming aware of the response, the subject can acquire voluntary control over it. In this context, awareness is operationally defined as the ability to use the response as a discriminative stimulus. Since direct evidence for the assumed relationship between control and discrimination is lacking, an attempt was made to test the hypothesis that discrimination of a response automatically leads to control over that response. The discriminative stimuli were the presence and absence of occipital alpha electroencephalograph (EEG) activity. Data from two experiments are reported. The first study, employing naive subjects, was designed to answer the following questions: (a) Since pilot data indicated that subjects seemed to match their responses to the more probable type of trial, would increases in the probability of a correct response result when the probabilities of alpha and nonalpha trials were held near .50? (b) If correct responding does increase, would performance of these subjects in an alpha feedback task be enhanced relative to that of subjects not previously given discrimination training? and (c) If subjects could not learn the discrimination task, would feedback training enhance their performance in a subsequent discrimination task? Results from this study indicate that holding the probabilities of alpha and nonalpha discrimination trials near .50 results in an absence of learning curves, but leaves open the possibility that sophisticated subjects are capable of discriminating alpha and nonalpha activity. The second study deals with two questions: (a) Can sophisticated subjects learn to discriminate occipital alpha activity from nonalpha activity? and (b) Does the procedure of providing subjects with salient stimuli, contingent on the presence and absence of alpha activity, establish stimulus control of the presence and absence of alpha activity? Results indicate that it is not possible to conclude that subjects can learn to discriminate alpha and nonalpha activity. However, learning to increase percent-time nonalpha or decrease percent-time alpha with respect to baseline levels by means of EEG-contingent stimulation provides subjects with the ability to suppress percent-time alpha in the absence of feedback. Information gained in both studies through subject interviews indicates that subjects most often acquired their control of alpha activity during feedback by a specific strategy and then used the strategy during the stimulus-control tests.


We address the question of the relevance of thermalization and scrambling to the increase of correlations in the quench dynamics of an isolated system with a finite number of interacting bosons. Specifically, we study how, in the process of thermalization, the correlations between occupation numbers increase in time, resulting in the emergence of the Bose-Einstein distribution. Despite the exponential increase of the number of principal components of the wave function, we show, both analytically and numerically, that the two-point correlation function before saturation increases quadratically in time according to perturbation theory. In contrast, we find that the out-of-time-order correlator increases algebraically and not exponentially in time after the perturbative regime and before the saturation. Our results can be confirmed experimentally in traps with interacting bosons and they may be relevant to the problem of black hole scrambling.


Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) is a tumor marker that has been widely used for HCC, but there has been no increased AFP in 35-45% patients with HCC. Protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist II (PIVKA-II) is abnormal prothrombin secreted in HCC and is expected to be used as a diagnostic marker of HCC. The objective of this study was to compare serum PIVKA-II levels in the patients with HCC, cirrhosis, and healthy control and determine the diagnostic value of PIVKA-II for hepatocellular carcinoma. This was a cross-sectional, analytical observational study to identify the diagnostic value of PIVKA-II for HCC diagnosis. The diagnosis of 20 cirrhotic patients and 15 patients with HCC was established by using medical history, physical examination, and additional tests according to the diagnosis criteria. A group of 12 individuals with normal liver function was used as healthy control subjects. Serum PIVKA-II levels were analyzed with the immunoassay method. For the comparison study, the independent-samples Kruskal Wallis test was used. Also, to determine sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value (PPV and NPV), ROC curve analysis, and 2x2 contingency table was used. The serum PIVKA-II levels in the patients with HCC were significantly higher than in cirrhotic patients (p=0.000) and healthy control (p=0.000). Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of PIVKA-II for diagnosis of HCC in cirrhotic patients at a cut-off value of 140.85 mAU/mL were 93.33%, 75%, 73.68%, and 93.75%, respectively (AUC=0.87).PIVKA-II had a high diagnostic value for HCC diagnosis. Diagnostic tests that compare serum PIVKA-II levels in any size of HCC nodules might be needed in the future.


 Abstract —The moving surface boundary control (MSBC) has been a Centre stage study for last 2-3 decades. The preliminary aim of the study was to ascertain whether the concept can improve the airfoil characteristics. Number of experimental and numerical studies pointed out that the MSBC can superiorly enhance the airfoil performance albeit for higher velocity ratios (i.e. cylinder tangential velocity to free stream velocity). Although abundant research has been undertaken in this area on different airfoil performances but no attempt was seen to study effect of MSBC on NACA0021 airfoil for and also effects of lower velocity ratios. Thus, present paper focusses on numerical study of modified NACA 0021 airfoil with leading edge rotating cylinder for velocity ratios (i.e.) between 1 to 1.78 at different angles of attack. The numerical study indicates that the modified airfoil possesses better aerodynamic performance than the base airfoil even at lower velocity ratios (i.e. for velocity ratios 0.356 and beyond). The study also focusses on reason for improvement in aerodynamic performance by close look at various


Syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone release (SIADH) is a condition defined by the unsuppressed release of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) from the pituitary gland or nonpituitary sources or its continued action on vasopressin receptors. Of the many causes of SIADH, an important one includes tumours that secrete ADH. We describe a rare case of a patient with colonic adenocarcinoma presenting initially as SIADH. A 60-year-old man presented with confusion and vomiting. Over the previous month he had fatigue and loss of weight. Baseline investigations showed a low serum sodium level of 108mmol/l. He was euvolaemic on examination and fulfilled the criteria for SIADH. Further evaluation and imaging tests revealed that the patient had adenocarcinoma of the colon. It is remarkable that our patient did not present with any of the cardinal symptoms/signs suggestive of colorectal carcinoma including haematochezia, change in bowel habits or iron-deficiency anaemia. Initial therapy with hypertonic saline, fluid restriction and salt diet for management of SIADH was unsuccessful. Tolvaptan was added to the treatment regimen and the patient improved dramatically. Oncology consultation was initiated, and chemotherapy for the carcinoma was planned.


Operating systems (OS's) are important to software engineering for four fundamental and significant reasons. 1) OS's define the abstract machines in terms of which subsystems and application programs must be implemented and upon which they must be executed. 2) OS's play a significant role in defining the programming environment for development of subsystems and applications. 3) OS's have in the past motivated and been the experimental vehicles for the development of many of the fundamental concepts of software engineering. 4) OS's research is, of necessity, leading the way in the development of the technology for the utilization of distributed systems and object oriented systems. This article attempts to place the concepts of OS's research and development in a software engineering perspective and to develop insights on the future contributions of OS's research to software engineering. An analysis of OS's research with a broader perspective is given by Denning, Browne, and Peterson [1]. Items 1) and 2) also explain why OS's and their characteristics are important not only to software engineers, but to all users of computer systems. The user who finds the OS of his computer system sometimes inconvenient to use should turn to the hardware reference manuals for his system and imagine directly using these incredibly detailed interfaces.


Disability from chronic lung disease is usually associated with COPD and pulmonary rehabilitation programs are designed to address this population. There are a number of chronic nonobstructive lung diseases, however, that can produce disability and that also may benefit from pulmonary rehabilitation. This article discusses how to classify nonobstructive lung disease patients and examines their evaluation, rehabilitation, and outcomes.


The U.S. Department of Energy has supported development of the Solar Advisor Model (SAM) to provide a common platform for evaluation of the solar energy technologies being developed with the support of the Department. This report describes a detailed comparison of performance-model calculations within SAM to actual measured PV system performance in order to evaluate the ability of the models to accurately predict PV system energy production. This was accomplished by using measured meteorological and irradiance data as an input to the models, and then comparing model predictions of solar and PV system parameters to measured values from co-located PV arrays. The submodels within SAM which were examined include four radiation models, three module performance models, and an inverter model. The PVWATTS and PVMod models were also evaluated.


Paraplegia complicating a block of the coeliac plexus with 6% aqueous phenol for carcinoma of the pancreas is described. The patient had no previous neurological abnormality and it is postulated that vascular ischaemia of the spinal cord was responsible for the sequence of neurological events.


Regional approaches to conflict prevention, mediation and crisis management have received increased attention over the past decade. They are particularly relevant today, when security threats often transcend state borders and challenge regional security. This is why regional intergovernmental organisations are key actors, offering regional approaches to security threats. They can ensure complementarity and subsidiarity between the United Nations (UN), continental organisations such as the African Union (AU) or the European Union (EU), their member states and civil society.


Background Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASC) might act as a cellular source of soluble factors exerting anti-inflammatory or trophic effects on cells. Osteoarthritis (OA) is characterized by the progressive loss of structure and functionality of articular cartilage. Objectives In the present study we explored the effect of conditioned medium from adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASC-CM) on the metabolism of OA chondrocytes in primary culture. Methods ADC were isolated from adipose tissue of patients subjected to abdominal lipectomy surgery, by collagenase treatment. Cells were incubated in DMEM/F12 + 15% human serum. Cell phenotype was analysed by flow cytometry with specific antibodies anti-CD105-PE, anti-CD90PerCP-eFluo 710, anti-CD34APC, and anti-CD45-PE (International Society of Cellular Therapy), and cellular viability with propidium iodide. ASC-CM was collected after 48h of culture, centrifuged and stored at -80°C in sterile conditions. Protocols were approved by the Institutional Ethical Committee. Chondrocytes were isolated from knee cartilage samples from patients with diagnosis of advanced OA. OA chondrocytes in primary culture were stimulated with 10 ng/ml interleukin (IL)-1β for 1 or 5 days. We have evaluated the senescence marker β-galactosidase by histochemical staining of cells. Collagen II production was analyzed by immunofluorescence, gene expression by real-time qPCR and protein expression by ELISA. Results The percentage of senescent chondrocytes was increased by IL-1β treatment after 1 or 5 days whereas ASC-CM significantly counteracted this effect. When OA chondrocytes were treated with IL-1β and/or ASC-CM for 5 days, we observed a significant maintenance of collagen II expression in chondrocytes cultured with ASC-CM either in basal conditions or in the presence of IL-1β stimulation. Cytokine stimulation of chondrocytes augmented gene expression and protein release into the culture medium of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Our data indicate that ASC-CM significantly decreased the production of MMP-13. In addition, AC-CM reduced gene expression and protein levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 and enhanced the production of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. Conclusions We have shown that ASC-CM treatment of OA chondrocytes prevents the appearance of senescence features and the production of degradative mediators. These findings suggest a protective role for ASC-CM in OA chondrocytes. Acknowledgements This work was funded by grants SAF2010-22048 (MINECO), RETICEF RD06/0013/2001 (MINECO, ISCIII, FEDER), and Prometeo2010-047 (Generalitat Valenciana). Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Fe, Zn and Mn) pollution of water in two waste disposal sites in Port Harcourt and its environs in Nigeria were examined using the atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The two sites were Abattoir Dump site (ADS) at Rumuokoro and Rison Palm Dump site (RDS) at Ubima. The results showed that concentrations of lead (<0.01mg/1) was below the World Health Organization (WHO 1983) recommended standard (0.05mg/l) for portable water. Similarly, zinc has lower concentrations in both sites,( 1.98mg/l and 0. 17mg/l). These figures were lower than WHO recommended standard (5.00mg/1). However,  significantly increased concentrations were recorded for Cd, Fe and Mn in the two sites examined. Cadmium concentrations in both ADS and RDS (<0.01mg/1) were -higher than WHO recommended standard  (0.005mg/1). Iron concentration was ADS (0.75mg/1) and RDS (4.89mg/1) as against WHO (0.10mg/1). Manganese was also found to have higher concentrations in both sites (ADS 0.73mg/1) and RDS 1.10mg/1) than WHO standard (0.05mg/1) for portable water. The high concentrations (mg/l) of Fe, Zn, Cd and Mn in the two studied sites indicates that water in these areas may be polluted by these heavy metals and could be toxic for agriculture Key words : Waste disposal site, Pollution, Heavy metals, Concentrations, Portable water, Toxic, Agriculture, WHO Standard, Port Harcourt Environment.


We present a series of results providing evidence that the incentive problem with approximate VCG-based mechanisms is often not very severe. Our first result uses average-case analysis to show that if an algorithm can solve the allocation problem well for a large proportion of instances, incentives to lie essentially disappear. We next show that even if such incentives exist, a simple enhancement of the mechanism makes it unlikely that any player will find an improving deviation. Additionally, we offer a simulation-based technique to verify empirically the incentive properties of an arbitrary approximation algorithm and demonstrate it in a specific instance using combinatorial auction data.


Interpretation of 1,200 geophysical logs in the northern Powder River basin, Montana, reveals the paleodrainages influencing coal deposition during the deposition of the Tongue River member (Paleocene, Fort Union Formation). Four channels with associated crevasse splay deposits are recognized: (1) an east-west "Rosebud" drainage near Colstrip, (2) a north-south "Wall" channel near Birney, (3) a north-south "Dietz" drainage near Tongue River Reservoir, and (4) a north-south "Anderson" channel in the vicinity of Moorhead. These channels support the concept of a major northeast-flowing drainage system during deposition of the Tongue River Member. Identification of these channels serves as a guide to future coal exploration. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1340------------


Small molecule natural products are key modulators of many types of intra- and interspecies communication. The availability of genome sequences allows the discovery of pathways to previously unknown natural products. We describe here a pathway in which a ribosomally synthesized small peptide serves as a catalytic scaffold on which a small-molecule anti-metabolite is biosynthesized in Pseudomonas syringae. First, a cysteine residue is transferred from Cys-tRNA to the C-terminus of the peptide, a reaction that replaces ribosomal protein synthesis. Then, a translocation of the cysteine thiol from the β-carbon to the α-carbon is catalyzed by an oxidase that removes the β-carbon as formate. The resulting thiol is carboxymethylated and proteolysis releases 3-thiaglutamate, in the process regenerating the peptide scaffold. This pathway features three previously unknown biochemical processes.


Intelligence analysts engage in information seeking, evaluation, prediction, and reporting behavior in an extremely information-intensive work environment. A Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) was conducted on intelligence analysts to capture data that will provide input to support development of a computational model of the analyst's processes and analytic strategies. A hybrid method was used to conduct the CTA, including a modified version of the critical decision method. Participants were asked to describe an example of a critical analysis assignment where they had to collect, analyze, and produce a report on intelligence of a strategic nature. Procedures used to conduct the CTA are described in this chapter along with initial results. Several factors contribute to making the analyst's task challenging: (i) time pressure, (ii) a high cognitive workload, and (iii) difficult human judgments. Human judgments are involved in considering the plausibility of information, deciding what information to trust, and determining how much weight to place on specific pieces of data. Intelligence analysis involves a complex process of assessing the reliability of information from a wide variety of sources and combining seemingly unrelated events. This problem is challenging because it involves aspects of data mining, data correlation and human judgment. Section 1: Cognitive Task Analysis of Intelligence Analysts 8


In this paper the authors examine how residual oil trapping by mobile water affects the recovery performance of miscible EOR processes. The objectives of the study are (1) to develop a multiphase, numerical model to investigate factors affecting water-blocking and the release of oil from dendritic states; (2) to evaluate performance of miscible processes and forecast displacement efficiency and recovery under a variety of operating conditions, and (3) to determine the ``optimum`` water-solvent ratio to be used in a miscible Water-Alternate-Gas (WAG) process. Using the multiphase flow model, the authors considered the oleic phase as two parts, a mobile phase and a trapped phase, and studied the effects of capillary forces, solvent viscosity, fraction of trapped oil, dispersion and mass transfer coefficients on recovery performance. Guidelines for determining the optimum water-solvent ratio to be used in a miscible WAG process are discussed.


Objective: Sandia National Laboratories conducted an experiment for the National Nuclear Security Administration to determine the reliability of visual inspection of precision manufactured parts used in nuclear weapons. Background: Visual inspection has been extensively researched since the early 20th century; however, the reliability of visual inspection for nuclear weapons parts has not been addressed. In addition, the efficacy of using inspector confidence ratings to guide multiple inspections in an effort to improve overall performance accuracy is unknown. Further, the workload associated with inspection has not been documented, and newer measures of stress have not been applied. Method: Eighty-two inspectors in the U.S. Nuclear Security Enterprise inspected 140 parts for eight different defects. Results: Inspectors correctly rejected 85% of defective items and incorrectly rejected 35% of acceptable parts. Use of a phased inspection approach based on inspector confidence ratings was not an effective or efficient technique to improve the overall accuracy of the process. Results did verify that inspection is a workload-intensive task, dominated by mental demand and effort. Conclusion: Hits for Nuclear Security Enterprise inspection were not vastly superior to the industry average of 80%, and they were achieved at the expense of a high scrap rate not typically observed during visual inspection tasks. Application: This study provides the first empirical data to address the reliability of visual inspection for precision manufactured parts used in nuclear weapons. Results enhance current understanding of the process of visual inspection and can be applied to improve reliability for precision manufactured parts.


Leukorrhea is a common problem that is often experienced by many women, the risk of developing vaginitis which causes a bad odor which affects emotional distress, infertility and cancer of the reproductive organs. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of health education on the level of knowledge, attitude and action about the prevention of pathological leukorrhea in adolescent girls. This study used a pre-experimental research design with a one group pre-post test design approach with a purposive sampling of 150 students. The research data were obtained by means of a questionnaire and tested using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test with a significance level of p <0.05. The results of statistical tests showed that there were significant differences in knowledge (p = 0.000), attitude (p = 0.000) and action (p = 0.000) after being given health education. Providing health education is an alternative in increasing the knowledge, attitudes and actions of adolescents. It is expected that, after this, the respondent can understand the concept of leukorrhea and can prevent the occurrence of leukorrhea pathology. Clinical article (J Int Dent Med Res 2021; 14(3): 1240-1245)


Extraction of plastic and aluminum foil from beverage cartons with biological processes is one environmentally friendly approach that is appropriated for paper recycling. The other remained parts including plastic and foils can thus be utilized. This research aimed to improve the capability in digestion of cellulose paper of microbes, isolated and screen from fruit, durian and jackfruit, in degradation of beverage cartons. In the small scale processes, reducing sugar indicating the efficiency of the degradation process of the boxes was released from the hydrolysis of paper and determined by biochemical method of Benedict test. The controls of alkali and water immersion were utilized for these experiments. In the medium and large scale digestion processes, the results showed that microorganisms helped separate sheet papers from the plastic and aluminum foils shortly in 14 days after boiling in water for 10 min. The bacteria digestion were well adapted within 14 days, and prolonged their high degradability until 28 days. They could degrade the cellulose components better than the fungi with the separation efficiency of 70 percent and 66 percent, respectively. Therefore, from overall, the biodegradation process of microorganisms have a high potential in digestion of various paper products for recycling and can be applied in industrial applications.


Simple hydrochemical reservoir models based on the mobile anion concept are described for the Birkenes and Storgama catchments in southern Norway with acidified streamwater. Key processes modelled include water routing, sulphate adsorption-desorption, ion-exchange reactions, weathering and a gibbsite equilibrium condition. The models reproduce much of the daily and seasonal variations in streamwater chemistry which have been observed over several years. Model considerations have been used in an attempt to explain the acidification of streamwater in these two areas. It is hypothesized that soil acidification has occurred and that acid precipitation is at least partly responsible. The results are tentative largely because the models are derived from present-day streamwater chemistry.


Digital video delivered over wired-to-wireless networks is expected to suffer quality degradation from both packet loss and bit errors in the payload. In this paper, the quality degradation due to packet loss and bit errors in the payload are quantitatively evaluated and their effects are assessed. We propose the use of a concatenated forward error correction (FEC) coding scheme employing Reed-Solomon (RS) codes and rate-compatible punctured convolutional (RCPC) codes to protect the video data from packet loss and bit errors, respectively. Furthermore, the performance of a joint source-channel coding (JSCC) approach employing this concatenated FEC coding scheme for video transmission is studied. Finally, we describe an improved end-to-end architecture using an edge proxy in a mobile support station to implement differential error protection for the corresponding channel impairments expected on the two networks. Results indicate that with an appropriate JSCC approach and the use of an edge proxy, FEC-based error-control techniques together with passive error-recovery techniques can significantly improve the effective video throughput and lead to acceptable video delivery quality over time-varying heterogeneous wired-to-wireless IP networks.


Aims and objectives: This study investigates the extent to which young heritage speakers' oral narratives in their first language (L1) differ from monolinguals' narratives with regard to lexical richness (lexical diversity and lexical sophistication). It also explores which demographic factors (age, age at emigration and length of emigration) and/or socio-linguistic factors (frequency of heritage language use and parental attitudes toward heritage language maintenance) account for the differences. Data and analysis: The participants were a group of 25 young speakers of Persian as a heritage language, who were either born in or emigrated to New Zealand, and a group of 25 monolingual counterparts in Iran. Demographic information about the heritage speakers as well as information about parental attitude and practices regarding heritage language acquisition and maintenance were collected through semi-structured interviews with their parents. A film-retelling task was used to elicit the oral narratives, and these were analyzed for lexical diversity (by means of the Measure of Textual Lexical Diversity) and for lexical sophistication (by counting the incidence of low-frequency words). Findings and conclusion: As expected, the monolinguals' narratives tended to manifest greater lexical richness than the heritage speakers', especially according to the measure of lexical sophistication. Against expectation, frequency of heritage language use and parental attitude toward heritage language acquisition and maintenance were not found to be significant predictors of the young heritage speakers' results. For the heritage speakers who were born in New Zealand, the results were predicted best by their age, while for those who arrived in New Zealand at a later age, the best predictors were both their age and how old they were at the time of emigration. This suggests that the demographic factors overrode the potential influence of the socio-linguistic variables examined. Originality: This study sheds light on (factors that contribute to) young heritage speakers' L1 lexical competence, a topic that has hitherto been under-investigated. Significance and implications: A major implication of this study is showing the association of age and heritage speakers' lexical richness. Although the statistical analyses did not show the effect of socio-linguistic variables, this finding indirectly supports the effect of parental input on heritage language proficiency in young bilinguals. Limitations: Limitations of the study include the relatively small number of participants, the use of only one task to elicit speech samples and the reliance on parents' self-reported family language habits.


July-August mean temperatures of AD 1657-1998 were reconstructed using two local chronologies of Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) growing in subalpine regions (1500-1600 m) of Sorak Mountain in the central Korean peninsula. Calibration function for the instrumental period (A.D. 1909-1949) was obtained by using linear regression with the lagged chronology at t-1. The calibration was verified by independent data of A.D. 1953-1995. The reconstruction indicates that the 1700-1730 and 1830-1850 periods were coolest in last 340 years. The warming trend was not found in summer temperature during the 20th century.


Background: Neonates on long-term parenteral nutrition (PN) may develop parenteral nutrition-associated liver disease (PNALD). Aluminum (Al) is a known contaminant of infant PN, and we hypothesize that it substantially contributes to PNALD. In this study, we aim to assess the impact of Al on hepatocytes in a piglet model. Methods: We conducted a randomized control trial using a Yucatan piglet PN model. Piglets, aged 3–6 days, were placed into two groups. The high Al group (n = 8) received PN with 63 µg/kg/day of Al, while the low Al group (n = 7) received PN with 24 µg/kg/day of Al. Serum samples for total bile acids (TBA) were collected over two weeks, and liver tissue was obtained at the end of the experiment. Bile canaliculus morphometry were studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and ImageJ software analysis. Results: The canalicular space was smaller and the microvilli were shorter in the high Al group than in the low Al group. There was no difference in the TBA between the groups. Conclusions: Al causes structural changes in the hepatocytes despite unaltered serum bile acids. High Al in PN is associated with short microvilli, which could decrease the functional excretion area of the hepatocytes and impair bile flow.


Mortality associated with complications of pregnancy and childbirth remains disproportionately high in the developing world. This paper reports on a study into the reasons for the poor uptake of referrals to specialist medical units in a group of 276 women in a rural area in the state of Rajasthan, India. Of the 276 cases that were referred, 242 (88%) of the women failed to attend for specialist consultation. In-depth personal interviews were conducted and a series of focus group discussions was held with the women and with their spouses and spouses' mothers. A range of geographic, cultural, socio–economic and medico–administrative factors was identified as influencing decisions to attend referral units. Recommendations for improving uptake include improving facilities at referral units, providing additional training for healthcare staff (covering technical, managerial and behavioural aspects) and in counselling techniques, a better defined role for traditional birth attendants, improved understanding of the mother's needs by her family (particularly the spouse and his mother) and increasing public awareness of the importance of referral. Finally, there is the requirement that women are encouraged to realize and understand their own needs.


We have developed a novel approach for DNA detection as well as genetic screening of mutations by uniquely combining DNA-responsive and optically diffracting materials. This approach entails the polymerization of a photonic crystal within a hydrogel network that alters the diffraction of light in response to a target DNA strand. The utility of this approach, which permits label-free sensing, was demonstrated via the detection of a target sequence from the DNA binding domain of the major tumor suppressor protein p53. Using a complementary capture probe strand, we were able to detect down to picomole concentrations of the target p53 sequence. Moreover, we demonstrated that this approach could readily detect a single base pair mutation in the target strand, which corresponds to the hotspot cancer mutation R175H in p53. The sensitivity of detection was increased by lowering the rate of annealing of the target strand and adjusting the solution ionic strength during optical characterization. Changes in ionic strength during characterization impact the melting temperature of the bound target DNA and the Donnan potential between the hydrogel and solution, which influence detection. We further showed that this approach is sensitive to epigenetic changes via the detection of a fully methylated form of the target p53 sequence. Ultimately, this approach represents a new paradigm for DNA detection and specifically genetic screening of p53 as well as other disease markers and nucleotide modifications that alter the properties of DNA (e.g., epigenetic alterations and adducts with chemical carcinogens).


The author replies to a letter to the editor from Felicitas Sofia Holzer concerning Wenner's article "The Social Value Requirement in Research: From the Transactional to the Basic Structure Model of Stakeholder Obligations," in the Hastings Center Report's January-February 2019 issue.


CONTEXT
Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) infections have been reported in patients with recognized predisposing risk factors in several cities in the United States and across the world. Reviewing risk factors in adult patients with CA-MRSA in Kentucky has not been reported.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the risk factors of 15 patients with CA-MRSA in Louisville KY, to compare the sensitivities of each pathogen and to recommend management.

SETTING
An infectious diseases private practice in Louisville, KY.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This is a case series of patients with CA-MRSA. The disease course for each patient was reviewed for risk factors, such as participation in physical contact sports and prison exposure. The antimicrobial sensitivities of each pathogen were also reviewed. Recommendations were produced from the information obtained.

RESULTS
A total of 15 patients were reviewed. Five patients had a family member or significant-other with a current CA-MRSA infection. Three had traditional risk factors (healthcare workers). All of the isolates were susceptible to vancomycin and resistant to oxacillin. All of the isolates tested for trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX), tetracycline, and rifampin were sensitive. A majority (83%) of those tested for clindamycin and only 50% of those tested for levofloxacin were sensitive. All isolates tested for cefazolin were resistant.

CONCLUSIONS
An emerging risk factor for acquiring an MRSA skin and soft tissue infection is having a significant-other with a current diagnosis of CA-MRSA. After incision and drainage, a review of the antimicrobial sensitivities indicates that oral treatment may be adequate for a selection of cases.


This special edition of the QUT Law Review considers the international debate over the introduction of Australia's pioneering plain packaging of tobacco products. This collection explores the various legal issues raised by tobacco control under public health law, constitutional law, intellectual property, international law, international trade, investor-state dispute settlement, human rights, and sustainable development. Australian scholars consider Australia's legal defence of plain packaging of tobacco products in an array of arenas - including the High Court of Australia, an investor-state dispute settlement tribunal, and the World Trade Organization. International experts consider the introduction of plain packaging of tobacco products in New Zealand, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, and other pioneering public health countries. This collection also considers the adoption of new complementary tobacco control measures - such as tobacco divestment initiatives.

Foreword

The Hon. Nicola Roxon (Victoria University)

It gives me great pleasure to write a forward on this topic at a time when there is such a groundswell of international support for plain packaging of tobacco products. World No Tobacco today in 2016 had as its tag line "Get ready for plain packaging" and the world's health ministers are doing just that.

When Australia became the first country in the world to remove all colours and logos on tobacco packs in 2011 – recognising their allure to young new smokers – the tobacco industry tried every move in their book to stop us. Lobbying, donations, advertising campaigns, threats, dodgy research, front groups, overblown claims and legal action dominated our political debate for two years.
When all these local manoeuvres failed, the industry switched its effort to ensuring we were the only country to take this step.

Writing in November 2016, it is clear that those efforts, both local and international, have manifestly failed. Country after country – France, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Norway, New Zealand – are implementing plain packaging, passing their laws or consulting with the community before introduction and many more countries will move this way in the coming months and years.

Plain packaging of tobacco products is now truly an international movement. It is an epidemic of the best sort, as countries catch on to its value, purpose and ease of implementation. We will now see its introduction spread like wildfire around the world.

When we announced the introduction of plain packaging in Australia, it was a world first.

The Government I was part of has received much praise for our resolve and foresight to see this through, from smooth implementation to the great early results already showing significant impact in the reduction of smoking rates across the country.

Table of Contents

(1) 'Tobacco Plain Packaging in Australia: JT International v Commonwealth and Beyond'

Dr Catherine Bond (UNSW)

(2) 'Regulatory Chill: Learnings from New Zealand's Plain Packaging Tobacco Law'

Professor Jane Kelsey (University of Auckland)

(3) 'Property and Proportionality: Evaluating Ireland's Tobacco Packaging Legislation'

Dr Eoin O'Dell (Trinity College Dublin)

(4) 'The Tobacco Industry's Challenge to the United Kingdom's Standardised Packaging Legislation - Global Lessons for Tobacco Control Policy?'

Professor Jonathan Griffiths (Queen Mary, University of London)

(5) 'Making the Case for Canada to Join the Tobacco Plain Packaging Revolution'

Dr Becky Freeman (University of Sydney)

(6) 'Investor-State Dispute Settlement and Tobacco Control: Implications for Non-Communicable Diseases Prevention and Consumption-Control Measures'

Dr Hope Johnson (QUT)

(7) 'The Global Tobacco Epidemic, The Plain Packaging of Tobacco Products, and the World Trade Organization'

Professor Matthew Rimmer (QUT)

(8) 'Tobacco-Free Investment: Harnessing the Power of the Finance Industry in Comprehensive Tobacco Control'

Dr Bronwyn King, Clare Payne, and Emily Stone (Tobacco-Free Futures)


In Summers v. Earth Island Institute, the U .S . Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision written by Justice Antonin Scalia rejected the concept of organizational standing based upon the statistical probability that some members of a plaintiff organization will likely be harmed in the near future by the defendant's future actions. The Court held that the plaintiff organizations failed to establish that they would suffer an "imminent" injury necessary for standing to sue in federal courts because they could not prove the specific places and times when their members would be harmed in the future by the defendant government's allegedly illegal policy of selling fire-damaged timber without public notice and comment. By contrast, Justice Stephen Breyer's dissenting opinion in Summers would have applied a "realistic threat" test to determine if some members of the organization were likely to be harmed in the future by the defendant government's actions even if it were impossible to determine when and where those members would be harmed by those actions. The Summers decision also arguably placed a higher standing burden on plaintiffs who challenge the government's alleged violation of a mandatory procedural requirement. In footnote seven of Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife (Defenders), Justice Scalia's majority opinion stated that plaintiffs who may suffer a concrete injury resulting from a procedural violation by the government are entitled to a more relaxed application of both the imminent injury and the redressability standing requirements to sue in federal courts. Seventeen years after the Defenders decision, Justice Scalia's Summers majority opinion did not overrule the analysis in Defenders' footnote seven, but his opinion arguably suggested that the Court was tightening the circumstances where it would relax the imminence standing requirement in cases where a plaintiff organization alleges that its members will be harmed in the future by the government's alleged violation of procedural requirements, but the plaintiff can provide no specific allegations about where and when those violations may occur.The lower courts are just beginning to grapple with the standing implications of Summers . This Article first reexamines the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's 2006 decision in Natural Resources Defense Council v. EPA (NRDC II), which was the strongest lower court decision before Summers upholding substantive probabilistic standing. Because the plaintiffs' evidence was of an inherently statistical and probabilistic nature, NRDC II is arguably distinguishable from Summers, a case where the probabilistic claims by the plaintiffs were relatively weak and where a future suit by the plaintiffs might present better evidence involving an actual injury.


Ocean warming is causing declines of coral reefs globally, raising critical questions about the potential for corals to adapt. In the central equatorial Pacific, reefs persisting through recurrent El Niño heatwaves hold important clues. Using an 18‐year record of coral cover spanning three major bleaching events, we show that the impact of thermal stress on coral mortality within the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) has lessened over time. Disproportionate survival of extreme thermal stress during the 2009–2010 and 2015–2016 heatwaves, relative to that in 2002–2003, suggests that selective mortality through successive heatwaves may help shape coral community responses to future warming. Identifying and facilitating the conditions under which coral survival and recovery can keep pace with rates of warming are essential first steps toward successful stewardship of coral reefs under 21st century climate change.


The influence of interactions in a reservoir coupled to a level on the width of the filling as a function of the chemical potential and the position of the level is studied. The density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method is used to calculate the ground state of a finite-size interacting reservoir, linked to a single state dot. The influence of the interactions in the lead as well as dot-lead interactions is considered. It is found that interactions in the reservoir result in a decrease in the resonance width, while the dot-lead interaction has an opposite effect. These effects are explained within the random phase approximation as an effective change in the inverse compressibility of the reservoir, while the dot-lead interactions renormalize the position of the level.


An interesting way to improve Terrain-Aided- Navigation (TAN) accuracy may consist in finding the best trajectory which gathers the maximum of information coming from the terrain sensor. This paper proposes a universal approach for improving the TAN accuracy based on a new criterion derived from the fundamental Cramer Rao Lower Bound (CRLB). Under few hypotheses the local contribution of the terrain to the navigation accuracy can be extracted from a recursive expression of the CRLB interpreted in term of information. A navigability map can also be defined in computing this criterion at each node of a regularly spaced grid. This map can be computed for every kind of vehicle using any kind of geophysical sensor. Any classical path planning algorithm can thus be used to find trajectories maximizing the cumulated navigability score, even under mission constraints. This paper demonstrates the main capabilities of this criterion through three different applications. A precision airdrop application from an aircraft equipped with a multi-beam scanner laser and an erroneous embedded Digital Elevation Map shows the ability to take advantage of an error model associated to the map. A marine vessel navigation in a GPS-denied environment illustrates that this criterion performs well for any kind of TAN, in particular for a navigation with a gravity anomaly map (gravimetry). Finally an altimetry terrain following application exhibits this new criterion's ability to outperform the well-known and widely used roughness.


Purpose Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists have been used with adjuvant chemotherapy to protect ovarian function. However, there are no data on the actual pregnancy rates among young breast cancer patients receiving GnRH agonists and concurrent chemotherapy in Korea. Methods Among patients who underwent surgery from January 2002 to April 2012, premenopausal patients aged between 20 and 40 years were included in the analysis. We retrospectively reviewed clinicopathologic features (e.g., age, obstetric and menstruation history), recurrence, and survival status. The rate of resumption of menstruation was calculated in all patients. In the married group, pregnancy and delivery rates were also recorded. Results Among 101 patients, 19 were lost to follow-up and 82 were eligible for the analysis. Among them, 31 were married, 10 of 51 got married, and 41 remained unmarried through the follow-up period. Among the married patients, 15 became pregnant and gave birth to 19 babies, whereas 26 did not become pregnant. The pregnancy rate in the married group was 50.0% (15/30). Three of 15 pregnancies (20.0%) were multiparous. Most of the delivered babies were healthy and 80.0% of patients had no problems breastfeeding (12/15). More than half the patients in all groups recovered menstrual status within 12 months. Conclusion Fifty percent of young breast cancer patients who attempted pregnancy succeeded in pregnancy after adjuvant chemotherapy and GnRH agonists. Further studies that include control groups are required to confirm whether the use of GnRH agonists improves pregnancy.


Ultrasound and pulsed electromagnetic energy therapies arc increasingly used for perineal trauma sustained during childbirth. The study included 414 women with moderate or severe perineal trauma randomly allocated to receive active ultrasound, or active pulsed electromagnetic energy, or corresponding placebo therapies; the allocation was double‐blind for each machine. Overall, more than 90% thought that treatment made their problem better. There were no clear differences between the groups in outcome either immediately after treatment, or 10 days or 3 months postpartum, other than more pain associated with pulsed electromagnetic energy treatment at 10 days. Bruising looked more extensive after ultrasound therapy but then seemed to resolve more quickly. Neither therapy had an effect on perineal oedema or haemorrhoids. The place of these new therapies in postnatal care should be clarified by further controlled trials before they become part of routine care.


For Kristeva, in a world immersed in readymade images, art or aesthetic experience is a practice that constitutes both a subject (a sense of self) and an object that is able to transform meaning and consciousness.Kristeva Reframed examines key ideas in Kristeva's work to show how they are most relevant to artists, and how they can be applied in interpreting artworks. With examples from the paintings of Van Gogh and Picasso, the work of contemporary feminist painters, the photography of Bill Henson and the film and animation work of Van Sowerine, Estelle Barrett demonstrates how Kristeva can illuminate the relationships between artist and art object, between artists, artworks and audiences, and between art and knowledge. Through these relationships she explores what Kristeva's work reveals about the role and function of art in society and offers a smooth passage through Kristeva's ideas and her relevance to visual culture.


The emergence of anti-democratic movements is a central puzzle to social science. We study a novel and rich dataset covering Swedish municipalities during the interwar years and nd a strong link between the presence of a military garrison and the emergence of fascist parties. We interpret these results as suggesting that fascist mobilization in Sweden was driven by discontent with the process of disarmament brought about by democratization. By contrast, economic hard times, as captured by local poverty and the size of the tax base, seem to have little connection with such parties. We relate these results to in influential theories of democratization.


Aim: To describe the characteristics and outcomes of patients hospitalized H1N1 influenza infection.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of the medical records of patients hospitalized with H1N1 infection in our hospital (August09/April10). All patients underwent nasopharyngeal PCR swab for H1N1. Results are expressed as mean ± standard deviation for quantitative variables.

Results: 93 patients (18.34%) were positive for influenza A virus. The clinical features, risk factors and outcomes are available in the tables.

View this table:

Table 1. Risk Factors

View this table:

Table 2. Clinical features and outcomes

The presenting symptoms were fever (89.2%), cough (92%), dyspnea (65.5%), digestive problems (26.9%), myalgia and headache (53%). 52.2% had community acquired pneumonia on admission. Major complications during hospitalization were (15.6%): respiratory insufficiency (50%), Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (8.9%), pneumothorax (3.3%), pleural effusion (1.1%) and multisystem organ failure (3.4%).

Conclusions: Patients hospitalized for H1N1 infection are mainly middle-aged. Pneumonia and/or decompensate co-morbidities were the main causes of hospitalization. The most common risk factor was the chronic lung disease.


This paper proposes a novel approach to model multiphase flow of hydroca rbons in unconventional shale reservoirs. Understanding the storage/flow mechanisms from such reservoirs as in the Eagle Ford, Woodford, and Bakken, is crucial in the overall effort to increase the ultimate hydrocarbon production . Based on the geological evidence, three different pore systems with distinctive storage/transport characteristics hav e been recognized in the shale reservoirs inorganic medium, kerogen (or organic matter), and natural/hydraulic fractures. Our simulation results show that compared to oil, gas recovery in shale reservoirs can be more efficient due to a dual Darcy/diffusive flow mechanism of the gas phase (as a result of molecule-wall collisions). Darcy flow is considered as the only flow means for the liquid phase transport in such reservoirs. Although oil-wet kerogen is considered to be a rich source of hydrocarbon, nano-darcy permeability of the rock hinders oil pro duction in organic-rich shale. Our sensitivity analysis shows that considering diffusive flow will increase gas recovery by facilitating gas transport in kerogen. On the other hand, although increasing adsorption capabilities in the rock means more hydrocarbon is stored in the organic carbon, the oil-wet nature of the hydrocarb on-saturated kerogen will control the depletion process in this media. Therefore, the limited pressure decrease in the kerogen reduces the effects of hydrocarbon desorption on oil and gas recovery.


While the terms "redundancy" and "consensus" are often used as synonyms in the context of quantum objectivity, we show here that these should be understood as two related but distinct notions, that quantify different features of the quantum-to-classical transition. We show that the two main frameworks used to measure quantum objectivity, namely spectrum broadcast structure and quantum Darwinism, are best suited to quantify redundancy and consensus, respectively. Furthermore, by analyzing explicit examples of states with nonlocally encoded information, we highlight the potentially stark difference between the degrees of redundancy and consensus. In particular, this causes a break in the hierarchical relations between spectrum broadcast structure and quantum Darwinism. Our framework provides a new perspective to interpret known and future results in the context of quantum objectivity, paving the way for a deeper understanding of the emergence of classicality from the quantum realm.