This report reviews the available international and New Zealand research on temporary migrants' vulnerability and exploitation in the workplace, highlighting research gaps and whether there are effective interventions. Introduction Although New Zealand has long depended on immigrant settlers to supplement the national supply of labour, there has been a substantial increase recently in the number of temporary migrants arriving. Temporary migrants play an important role in the labour market, participating in both skilled and unskilled work. However, the vulnerability of this workforce has received increasing attention recently as concerns are raised about the potential exploitation they face and the vulnerable position in which their migrant status leaves them. These concerns have been documented in the media. For example, in November 2013, an Auckland-based Korean food-preparation factory was alleged to have exploited migrant workers with 16-hour working days with few or no breaks, paying below minimum wage with no employment contract. The New Zealand Government has also raised concerns about the vulnerability of temporary migrant workers, taking seriously its responsibility to ensure migrants are lawfully employed and not exposed to workplace exploitation. For example, at the 103rd session of the International Organization for Migration Council, held in Geneva in November 2013, Davis pointed to the expansion of legal penalties established to deter employers from exploiting migrant labour. Migrants are legally protected with regard to their labour market engagement, and it is a crime for any employer to exploit a migrant worker. The Immigration Amendment Bill (No 2) contains amendments to protect migrant workers from exploitation. The proposals will make it a specific offence to exploit migrants who hold temporary work visas. In addition, the Bill will enable immigration officers to enter and search a workplace, without notice, to determine whether an employer is complying with the Immigration Act 2009 and employees are complying with the work-related conditions of their visa. Policy settings have been introduced that are designed to directly protect the immigration status of those migrants who have experienced exploitation and reported it. Concerted efforts are also being made to appropriately and effectively communicate worker rights, including the new changes, to migrant workers. It is with this policy setting in mind that this review is carried out. The aim of this literature review is to provide a comprehensive understanding of international and New Zealand literature on vulnerable temporary migrant workers. Such an understanding will enable policy makers and researchers to consider what policy responses are required and identify specific areas for future research. Key areas of enquiry include the following: What is the nature and extent of migrant worker vulnerability and exploitation? What are the experiences of vulnerable migrant workers? What are effective interventions to mitigate migrant vulnerability and reduce exploitation? What are some 'best practice' methodological approaches when undertaking research related to vulnerable migrant workers? The report is organised in the following way. Chapter 2 outlines the methodology of this review, including the scope of literature searched and definitions of key terms. Chapter 3 provides an overview of temporary migrants in New Zealand. A brief description of each visa category is provided, along with international equivalents where appropriate. Demographic characteristics of this mobile population are outlined, particularly with regard to occupational concentration, geographical distribution, birthplace composition as well as age and gender patterns. Chapter 4 reviews international and local evidence regarding groups of migrant workers who are particularly vulnerable as they participate in the labour market: non-native English language speakers, low-skilled or unskilled workers, those arriving from low-income source countries, remittance workers, women and international students. The second part of this section concerns particular migrant statuses and their associated vulnerability. Chapter 5 examines those industries that have particularly large numbers of temporary migrant workers and the specific challenges those migrants face working in these industries. Chapter 6 is broad and concerns international and local literature regarding specific vulnerabilities as well as issues associated with subcontracting and self-employment; occupational, safety and health; and migrant responses to tenuous work environments (work–life balance and resistance and coping strategies). Chapter 7 turns to the international and domestic policy recommendations as outlined in the literature. Chapter 8, identifies the gaps and policy challenges evident from the literature and makes suggestions for future study. The final section, Chapter 9, contains conclusions


A dynamic tree growth model is described. The model derives the development of stem taper and vertical distribution of branch basal area from the pipe model, assuming that reuse of active pipes is regulated by foliage dynamics in a vertically explicit crown with a foliage distribution of constant shape. Based on empirical findings, the pipe model was modified slightly to allow the foliage/sapwood ratio to vary as a function of distance from the treetop. Growth was derived from carbon balance in a stand of different size trees that may shade each other. The model was applied to old and middle-aged trees growing in dense and sparse stands of Scots pine for which stand-level measurements are available as a chronosequence, but individual trees have been measured only once. Measured trees were compared with corresponding simulated trees for stem taper and vertical distribution of branch basal area. The results indicated that the pipe model assumptions, combined with a model of tree growth, are capable of producing realistic predictions of the vertical distribution of stem and branch diameter in trees of different sizes in the stand. A comparison of the results with a simple form of the uniform stress theory showed good agreement between the two models. However, a significant difference was found between the measured relative contribution of heartwood to total stem diameter and the predicted share of disused pipes in the stem. A possible explanation for this discrepancy is that the transition from sapwood to heartwood is gradual rather than abrupt as assumed in the model. A modification of the pipe model to incorporate a gradual transition is outlined.


In young adults, overweight and hypertension possibly already trigger cardiac remodeling as seen in mature adults, potentially overlapping non-ischemic cardiomyopathy findings. To this end, in young overweight and hypertensive adults, we aimed to investigate changes in left ventricular mass (LVM) and cardiac volumes, and the impact of different body scales for indexation. We also aimed to explore the presence of myocardial fibrosis, fat and edema, and changes in cellular mass with extracellular volume (ECV), T1 and T2 tissue characteristics. We prospectively recruited 126 asymptomatic subjects (51% male) aged 27–41 years for 3T cardiac magnetic resonance imaging: 40 controls, 40 overweight, 17 hypertensive and 29 hypertensive overweight. Myocyte mass was calculated as (100%–ECV) * height2.7-indexed LVM. Absolute LVM was significantly increased in overweight, hypertensive and hypertensive overweight groups (104 ± 23, 109 ± 27, 112 ± 26 g) versus controls (87 ± 21 g), with similar volumes. Body surface area (BSA) indexation resulted in LVM normalization in overweights (48 ± 8 g/m2) versus controls (47 ± 9 g/m2), but not in hypertensives (55 ± 9 g/m2) and hypertensive overweights (52 ± 9 g/m2). BSA-indexation overly decreased volumes in overweight versus normal-weight (LV end-diastolic volume; 80 ± 14 versus 92 ± 13 ml/m2), where height2.7-indexation did not. All risk groups had lower ECV (23 ± 2%, 23 ± 2%, 23 ± 3%) than controls (25 ± 2%) (P = 0.006, P = 0.113, P = 0.039), indicating increased myocyte mass (16.9 ± 2.7, 16.5 ± 2.3, 18.1 ± 3.5 versus 14.0 ± 2.9 g/m2.7). Native T1 values were similar. Lower T2 values in the hypertensive overweight group related to heart rate. In conclusion, BSA-indexation masks hypertrophy and causes volume overcorrection in overweight subjects compared to controls, height2.7-indexation therefore seems advisable.


Direct numerical simulations were performed to investigate the topological evolution of turbulence generated by a single square grid. Immediately behind the single square grid (i.e., in the irrotational dissipation region), the conditional mean trajectories (CMTs) of R and Q are distinctly different from those in homogeneous isotropic turbulence (HIT), where R and Q are the third and second invariants, respectively, of the velocity gradient tensor. In this region, the non-local influence of the pressure Hessian is dominant, which causes irrotational viscous dissipation. The anisotropic part of the pressure Hessian may be responsible for the irrotational viscous dissipation found at the turbulent/nonturbulent interface in turbulent jets [C. B. da Silva and J. C. F. Pereira, "Invariants of the velocity-gradient, rate-of-strain, and rate-of-rotation tensors across the turbulent/nonturbulent interface in jets," Phys. Fluids 20, 055101 (2008) and Watanabe et al., "Vortex stretching and compression near the turbulent/non-turbulent interface in a planar jet," J. Fluid Mech. 758, 754 (2014)]. In the transition region, the CMTs of R and Q gradually acquire an evolution pattern similar to that in HIT. The expansion of the (R, Q) map at Q > 0 is associated with the effects of the restricted Euler term. Finally, in the fully turbulent region, the CMTs of R and Q demonstrate a clockwise evolution toward a point close to the origin. However, the cyclic spiraling seen in HIT is not found. The lack of the cyclic evolution may be attributed to the considerably large effect of the viscous term owing to the relatively small local Reynolds number. On average, the combined influences of the restricted Euler term and anisotropic part of the pressure Hessian contribute to the generation of small-scale motions, and the viscous term tends to remove small-scale motions.


European tendering legislation aims to enhance competitiveness by promoting equality, proportionality, transparency and non-discrimination. This legislation applies to the purchase of software packages by large public institutions. This study aims to clarify how this tendering legislation shapes software selection processes. By examining the selection of a strategically important software package at a professional service organization, this study provides initial evidence on how the decision-making process in software selection is affected by the tendering process in terms of the following dimensions: 1) juridification, 2) objectivity, 3) linearity, 4) formalization and 5) communication. The decision-making quality of this tendering process is evaluated from the buyer's perspective against functional, economic and political norms of rationality. From each of these rationalities, the tendered software selection process results in losses as well as gains. A notable finding is that tendering does not exclude political manoeuvring, with power and influence practiced in other ways.


In this research,we have used arginine as a precursor of nitric oxide synthase and Nw-Nitro- L-ArginineMethyl Ester (LNAM) as an inhibitor of NOS, and the effect of these compound on alleviation of oxidative damages under drought stress has been investigated. The result showed that relative water content andmembrane stability index increased when tomato plants treated withArg. These results correspond wellwith lipoxygenase activity, which the activity of this enzyme decreased in plants, which were pretreated with Arg. In this research drought stress increased the activity of PAL and total phenol content, but arginine pretreatment had no effect on PAL activity and total phenol content. Our findings showed that the effects ofArg andArg+LNAMpretreatment had the same effects onmany parameters, and it seems that in these situations other pathways of Arg metabolism rather than NOS may activate. Increment in proline content and the molecular analysis of this research confirm this idea because in the Arg pretreated plants, the expression of arginase ² and ²² genes were higher than the non -Arg pretreated plants. Therefore, it seems that under these situations, protective effect of Arg is related to polyamines and or proline biosynthesis.


A firm facing liquidity constraints in a recession may increase its price to exploit locked-in consumers in an attempt to boost short-run profits. We find support for such behaviour for Swedish regional newspapers during a deep recession. Newspapers sell both subscriptions and advertising space, and arguably buyers of the latter are less locked in. Newspapers with low solvency raised their subscription prices relative to others. In contrast, the changes in advertising price were independent of the newspapers' financial positions. Hence financial constraints affected firms' pricing behaviour only when consumers were locked in.


In this research, we present a comprehensive, longitudinal empirical summary of the R package ecosystem, including not just CRAN, but also Bioconductor and GitHub. We analyze more than 25,000 packages, 150,000 releases, and 15 million files across two decades, providing comprehensive counts and trends for common metrics across packages, releases, authors, licenses, and other important metadata. We find that the historical growth of the ecosystem has been robust under all measures, with a compound annual growth rate of 29% for active packages, 28% for new releases, and 26% for active maintainers. As with many similar social systems, we find a number of highly right-skewed distributions with practical implications, including the distribution of releases per package, packages and releases per author or maintainer, package and maintainer dependency in-degree, and size per package and release. For example, the top five packages are imported by nearly 25% of all packages, and the top ten maintainers support packages that are imported by over half of all packages. We also highlight the dynamic nature of the ecosystem, recording both dramatic acceleration and notable deceleration in the growth of R. From a licensing perspective, we find a notable majority of packages are distributed under copyleft licensing or omit licensing information entirely. The data, methods, and calculations herein provide an anchor for public discourse and industry decisions related to R and CRAN, serving as a foundation for future research on the R software ecosystem and "data science" more broadly.


In this paper, the author initially determines the reasons of the lack of long term foreign capital investments in Turkey and then touches the application of International Accounting Standards in Turkish Capital Market as Turkey's being a candidate for European Union. Then he shows the detrimental consequences of applying existing taxation rules on the financial statements of foreign invested capital in Turkey by means of a case study. Then he proposes a tax rule change in order to attract more foreign investment flow to Turkey.


Mass-selected polyatomic cations and anions, produced by electrosonic spray ionization (ESSI), were deposited onto polycrystalline Au or fluorinated self-assembled monolayer (FSAM) surfaces by soft landing (SL), using a rectilinear ion trap (RIT) mass spectrometer. Protonated and deprotonated molecules, as well as intact cations and anions generated from such molecules as peptides, inorganic catalysts, and fluorescent dyes, were soft-landed onto the surfaces. Analysis of the modified surfaces was performed in situ by Cs (cid:2) secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) using the same RIT mass analyzer to characterize the sputtered ions as that used to mass select the primary ions for SL. Soft-landing times as short as 30 s provided surfaces that yielded good quality SIMS spectra. Chemical reactions of the surfaces modified by SL were generated in an attached reaction chamber into which the surface was transferred under vacuum. For example, a surface on which protonated triethanolamine had been soft landed was silylated using vapor-phase chlorotrimethylsilane before being returned still under vacuum to the preparation chamber where SIMS analysis revealed the silyloxy functionalization. SL and vapor-phase reactions are complementary methods of surface modification and in situ surface analysis by SIMS is a simple way to characterize the products produced by either technique. (J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 2009, 20, 949–956) © 2009 American Society for Mass Spectrometry


In this study, the tuning of the KOH electrolyte composition is proposed as a strategy to drastically limit the capacitance fade of vanadium nitride (VN) electrode. We demonstrate that the use of a V5+ (as VO43- vanadates anions) containing KOH electrolyte enhances the cycling stability of VN thin film electrode : a loss of 59% of the capacitance is observed for the electrode tested in KOH over 3000 consecutive cycles. After V5+ addition in the electrolyte, the capacitance fade is decreased to 23%. Furthermore, the presence of V5+ species in the solution leads to VN capacitance enhancement from 379 mF cm-2 for V5+ ions free electrolyte up to 577 mF cm-2 at 5 mV s-1 for V5+-containing KOH solution. The enhanced cycling stability is attributed to the stabilization of an oxide/oxynitride layer at the VN surface, instead of its dissolution, thanks to the chemical equilibrium shift of the VN dissolution reaction. This simple and innovative strategy consisting in tuning the electrolyte composition opens new pathways for other systems that suffer from electrode dissolution in the electrolyte while being electrochemically cycled.


This assessment reports the research made on the dynamic modeling for a first order
system of a mixing process using Simulink in Matlab. The research project consists of
two main tasks. The tasks are to develop a mathematical model of the process and also
to find and use an appropriate controller tuning design based on the transient response
criteria.
The research project conducted is meant to achieve three objectives. The objectives are:-
1. to develop the mathematical model that describes the mixing process
2. to study the response of the mixing process in manual mode
3. to study the step response of the process in automatic mode
Currently, there was not much information regarding the response's characteristic of the
outlet concentration of a mixing process. Thus, the problem statement of this research
project is to investigate how the characterization of response for the outlet concentration
of the mixing process.
For this study, the scope would be only to study the response characteristic of several
step responses in manual and automatic mode. This would be done by doing some
adjustment in setting up the valve opening or input flow before the responses is
investigated or study.
At this point, there is not much information regarding the mathematical model of a first
order reaction system of a mixing process. Through findings for this kind of a process,
there are a few parameters that should be taken into consideration which affects the
characterization response.
Currently, the simulation of this study has been completed. The next step would be to
investigate the characterization responses of the model. This will be done by adjusting
the input flow, valve opening and height or level of the mixing in the tank.


Listening to internal body sounds, or auscultation, is one of the most popular diagnostic techniques in medicine. In addition to being simple, non-invasive, and low-cost, the information it offers, in real time, is essential for clinical decision-making. This process, usually done by a doctor in the presence of the patient, currently presents three challenges: procedure duration, participants' safety, and the patient's privacy. In this article we tackle these by proposing a new autonomous robotic auscultation system. With the patient prepared for the examination, a 3D computer vision sub-system is able to identify the auscultation points and translate them into spatial coordinates. The robotic arm is then responsible for taking the stethoscope surface into contact with the patient's skin surface at the various auscultation points. The proposed solution was evaluated to perform a simulated pulmonary auscultation in six patients (with distinct height, weight, and skin color). The obtained results showed that the vision subsystem was able to correctly identify 100% of the auscultation points, with uncontrolled lighting conditions, and the positioning subsystem was able to accurately position the gripper on the corresponding positions on the human body. Patients reported no discomfort during auscultation using the described automated procedure.


The invention relates to a method for operating a solid fuel boiler, wherein a solid fuel in a primary combustion zone (1) and in a secondary combustion zone (2) is burned, wherein the solid fuel into the primary combustion zone (1) lying forms a firebed on a grate (3), and wherein cooled in the secondary combustion zone (2) arising flue gas and then through the combustion grate (3) is recycled to the bed of embers. According to the invention it is provided that the fire bed by the combustion grate (3) a total of an amount of oxygen is supplied that corresponds to a maximum of one half of the amount of oxygen required for stoichiometric combustion of the solid fuel.


Conjunctival melanoma is a rare and potentially deadly tumor. Therefore, adequate oncological resection is essential, commonly leading to total orbital exenteration, which causes patients' extensive functional and cosmetic impairment. As a result, it is essential to reconstruct the orbital region post-exenteration to obliterate the cavity, provide adequate and pliable cutaneous covering, and restore a stable vascularized tissue that can withstand adjuvant radiotherapy. In recent years, the techniques used for orbital reconstruction have included the transorbital temporoparietal fascial flap, the anterolateral thigh flap, and local flaps, such as the paramedian forehead flap. A free radial forearm flap is currently not commonly used for orbital reconstruction due to potential donor site morbidity and cosmetic issues. In our case, we report a free radial forearm fasciocutaneous flap that has been utilized with promising surgical outcomes to reconstruct the orbital region following orbital exenteration.


The application of machine learning methods for the identification of candidate genes responsible for phenotypes of interest, such as cancer, is a major challenge in the field of bioinformatics. These lists of genes are often called genomic signatures and their linkage to phenotype associations may form a significant step in discovering the causation between genotypes and phenotypes. Traditional methods that produce genomic signatures from DNA Microarray data tend to extract significantly different lists under relatively small variations of the training data. That instability hinders the validity of research findings and raises skepticism about the reliability of such methods. In this study, a complete framework for the extraction of stable and reliable lists of candidate genes is presented. The proposed methodology enforces stability of results at the validation step and as a result, it is independent of the feature selection and classification methods used. Furthermore, two different statistical tests are performed in order to assess the statistical significance of the observed results. Moreover, the consistency of the signatures extracted by independent executions of the proposed method is also evaluated. The results of this study highlight the importance of stability issues in genomic signatures, beyond their prediction capabilities.


Recent discovery of genetic diversity of Mycobacterium leprae such as variable number of tandem repeats opened a new era in molecular epidemiology of leprosy infection. It was revealed that the leprosy bacillus in residential environment of endemic villages is an important source of infection. The global elimination strategy will be revised taking new molecular epidemiological knowledge into account. Responsibility of leprosy specialist is to propose feasible control program to local administration based on the epidemiological analysis on transmission of the disease.


In recent years, H∞ control design has been vigorosly studied, and some design schemes have been established. However, the solution of H∞ control problems is, in general, not uniquely determined, and there are some freedom in the choice of the solution. Therefore, there arises a problem how to determine the free parameters to improve the closed loop properties. Especially. pole placement of closed loop system is the most important one, because it is not easy to express by H∞ norm. In this paper, we treat this problem in the context of the robust control system, whose H∞ norm of the complementary sensitivity function is minimized by state feedback control. At first, we consider asymptotical pole placement of a closed loop system using central solution, which is obtained by setting free parameters to zero. As a result, it is shown that some poles of this system are close to imaginary axis, when H∞ norm of the complementary sensitivity function is minimized. Next, we investigate the design of a robust control system whose poles are located at desired places, and show that it is possible to set almost all poles of closed loop system freely, if only we make one pole close to -∞. Therefore, it is made clear that there remains much freedom in the selection of robust controller.


Objective Liver inflammatory activity staging is critical to guide the treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus (CHB) infection. Here, we aimed to identify practical clinical biomarkers of moderate inflammatory activity in hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg)-negative CHB patients. Methods Treatment-naïve HBeAg-negative CHB patients who underwent liver biopsy at our hospital from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2016 were enrolled. Markers of inflammatory activity were analyzed using binary logistic regression. The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUROCC) was used to assess diagnostic accuracy. Results A total of 106 HBeAg-negative treatment-naive CHB patients were enrolled. According to their METAVIR inflammatory scores, 30.2% of patients were in stage ≥A2. Total triiodothyronine (TT3) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA levels were predictors of moderate inflammatory activity (A ≥ 2). The AUROCCs of TT3 and HBV DNA levels were 0.651 and 0.797, respectively. The optimal cut-off values for TT3 and HBV DNA were 1.755 nmol/L and 4.61 log10 IU/mL, respectively. Conclusions A sizable proportion of treatment-naive HBeAg-negative CHB patients required antiviral treatment (30.2%) after undergoing liver biopsy. TT3 and HBV DNA helps identify patients with moderate inflammatory activity (A ≥ 2), potentially reducing the need for liver biopsies and helping guide treatment of CHB patients.


Objective: This study was aimed at investigating the regulation of mitochondrial function by histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) and the role of HDAC6 in the development and progression of sepsis. Results: HDAC6 downregulated PHB1 and subsequently promoted the development of CLP-induced sepsis. Inhibition of HDAC6 significantly attenuated CLP-induced sepsis through inhibition of mitochondrial dysfunction and reduced oxidant production, thus protecting the rats from oxidative injury. Conclusions: In this sepsis model, HDAC6 inhibits the expression and function of PHB1 and alters the function of the mitochondrial respiratory chain mediated by PHB1, thus enhancing the production of oxidants and increasing oxidative stress and thereby leading to severe oxidative injury in multiple organs. Methods: The expression of HDAC6 and prohibitin 1 (PHB1) in humans and in a rat model of sepsis was measured by quantitative reverse-transcription PCR and western blotting. Sepsis induction by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) was confirmed by histological analysis. Concentrations of different sepsis markers were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and mitochondrial function was assessed via the mitochondrial respiratory control rate.


Objective: To review the literature on rates follow-up after abnormal medical tests with a particular focus on follow-up after abnormal mammograms and also propose a study using the Carolina Mammography Registry which will 1) determine if the CMR data can be used for this purpose, 2) establish rates of incomplete follow-up after abnormal mammograms in the patients in the CMR data base, 3) compare rates of incomplete follow-up among participating CMR mammography centers, and 4) identify patient and radiological demographics associated with lower rates of follow-up after an abnormal screening mammogram. Data Sources: Most of the articles in the review portion of the paper were found via PubMed searches and reports published by the Institute of Medicine. Design: The proposed study is a descriptive study using patients in the CMR who had an abnormal mammogram requiring follow-up between 1998 and 2003. The number of women without follow-up divided by the total number who had abnormal mammograms requiring follow-up will define the rate of incomplete followed-up. Setting: The CMR is a member of the National Cancer Institutes Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium. The CMR sites include mainly community based mammography facilities representing hospital-based, private radiology and multi-specialty facilities in 39 counties in North Carolina. As of 2004, data on over 1,450,000 records on more that 460,000 NC women are included in the database. Patients: The study will include all women in the CMR aged 40 years old and older without personal histories of breast cancer who had abnormal screening mammograms by Breast Imaging and Reporting Data System (BI-RADS®) assessment in between January 1998 and December 2003. Those who received follow-up within three months and those who did not receive follow-up within three months will be compared. Demographic data to be extracted include: race, age, education level, family history of a first-degree relative with breast cancer, personal history of breast procedures, time interval since the last mammogram, BIRADS assessment code, recommended followup procedure, and radiology facility. Follow-up interval will be established by assessing the number of days in between the mammogram reading and first date pertaining to follow-up information. The follow-up date will be abstracted from pathology specimen laboratory information, date of return to a follow-up facility as ascertained by the mammography sites, the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center's Rapid Case Ascertainment system, the North Carolina Cancer Registry or from other patient information supplied to a CMR site. Main outcome measure: Overall rates of abnormal screening mammograms that are not resolved within 3 months after the index abnormal MMG. This will be established for the CMR in the 1998-2003 interval and for individual radiology practices. Results: Rates of follow-up for the CMR will be calculated as well as rates of each particular mammography site. Bivariate analysis will be used to examine the relationship between lack of follow-up and patient and radiographic characteristics. Multivariate logistic regression will be performed to find the set of risk factors that best predict the probability of not returning for follow-up. Associations between demographic characteristics and the probability of not following up will be presented as adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals. Conclusions: The literature review supports the use of tracking and reminder systems by health care providers and care systems to improve upon the rates of follow-up after abnormal screening and other medical tests. We hope that findings will reveal that the


The study attempted to examine the socio-cultural factors which create problems in female primary education; to determine the role of families/parents in female primary education and to examine the lack of school facilities that creates hindrance in the school enrolment of the children. The study population of the study was all parents whose children were primary school age by using the interview schedule. The researcher used the stratified simple random sampling and selected the 300 respondents for the stu dy. The researcher used the SPSS software and did the descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. The findings of the study show that majority 155 (51.7) percent of the respondents were uneducated; majority 85(23.3) percent of the respondents whose monthly income was <6000; majority 95 (31.7) percent of the respondents were laborers; culture is significantly and positively correlated with parental and school facilities with p-values .011 and .000 respectively; furthermore, the parental attitude was significantly and positively correlated with school facilities with p-value .000. The results of ANOVA showed that the levels of cultural, parental, and school facilities among different academic qualifications of the Perennial Journal of History Vol. II No. II 173 household. The findings show that there is a significant difference in the levels of cultural, parental, and school facilities among different academic qualifications of the household with p-values .000, .000, and .000 respectively. The findings showed that there was a significant difference in the levels of cultural, parental, and school facilities among different monthly income levels of the household with p-values .000; .000, and .000 respectively. The study recommended that government may have to pay attention in the studied area; construct new schools, give scholarships to needy students and start awareness seminars at the local level.


The trade liberalization has resulted in massive food imports into Cameroon and this is affecting the livelihoods of the farmers, industries, traders, and service providers of the imported foods. Cameroon was selected by FAO as one of the 12 country case studies on the impact of food import surges in developing countries with the overall objective of studying and analyzing the impact of the most prevalent and frequent surge commodities (poultry meat, rice, and vegetable oils) on stakeholders. The methods and analytical approach used for this study are those for WTO Safeguards investigation as outlined in the FAO working document, "Extent and impact of food import surges in developing countries: An analytical approach and research methodology for country case studies". Information for the study was obtained from both secondary sources and from primary sources (stakeholders' survey). Quantitatively and qualitatively, import surges occurred and are occurring for vegetable oils in Cameroon. There were relatively low levels of these commodities imports into Cameroon until 1999-2004 at which time the import of vegetable oils increased by 366.3 %. Palm oil accounted for 55 % of vegetable oils imports. Domestic and exogenous factors contributed to the commodity import surge in Cameroon. A potentially negative correlation between the movements in import volumes and movement in domestic price, per unit import value, domestic production, and profits, key injury indicators were noted. Factors other than imports contributed to the injuries. Cameroon's policy responses to the surges and injuries were its main trade policy instrument, the tariff, creation of ad hoc committee to determine the level of production shortages and quotas to be imported and instituted reference price.


The behavior of two waveguides, which are decoupled at a single frequency when a broadband pulse is launched into one of them, was studied recently in the time domain. We reinvestigate it in the frequency domain. This contributes to the clarification of the scope of the validity of previous results and allows extending them to dispersive waveguides. New results include a power spectral density conservation law and a revised calculation of the pulse breakup distance.


The designated area of the columnar-lined esophagus (CLE) is anatomically defined by the distal limit of the lower esophageal palisade vessels (LEPV) and the term 'Barrett's esophagus' is equally used along with the name CLE in Japan. The aim of this study was to investigate the actual prevalence of CLE based on the Japanese criteria and to evaluate the criteria per se. A total of 42 esophagi consecutively resected at this institute were included. All subjects underwent a surgical resection for squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus. The position of the LEPV, squamocolumnar junction, the prevalence of CLE and intestinal metaplasia were investigated both pre- and postoperatively. Preoperative endoscopy revealed CLE based on the Japanese criteria in half of all patients. In the resected specimens the distal limit of LEPV was lower than the squamocolumnar junction in 95.2%. In other words, almost all cases had CLE (equivalent to Barrett's mucosa in Japanese criteria). However, most of the CLE areas were very short and their average maximum length was only about 5 mm. In addition, no intestinal metaplasia was observed in any of the CLE cases. Almost all individuals might therefore be diagnosed to have CLE or Barrett's mucosa based on precise endoscopic observations in Japan. The CLE located in a small area, e.g. less than 5 mm, defined according to the LEPV criteria without any other factor concerning typical Barrett's esophagus such as signs of gastroesophageal reflux should therefore be excluded from consideration as a high-risk mucosa.


Dear authors, reviewers and readers of Measurement Science and Technology, As a New Year dawns I would like to thank all those who have published papers with us in 2012, and offer a special thanks go to those of you who have given up much of your precious time and kindly reviewed articles for the journal. I would also like to take this opportunity to update you all on some of the developments on the journal as we look ahead to a 2013 that will be a very special year for MST. Something that many readers may not be aware of is that Measurement Science and Technology was the world's first scientific instrument journal, and in 2013 we will be celebrating 90 years since the journal was first published. In 1923 the Institute of Physics launched the Journal of Scientific Instruments in order to capture the essential information regarding the design and performance of instruments, which was then often unobtainable from books or articles focused on results. The journal has moved with the times over the 90 years since its first publication, changing its name and scope to ensure it reflects the community it serves, but the dissemination of useful measurement knowledge has always been its core purpose. In 2013 we will be celebrating the sustained success of the journal with a series of articles and events throughout the year. These include a one-day 'Frontiers of Measurement' meeting to be held at the Institute of Physics, London, on 21 March. We do hope you can join us and leading speakers for this exciting event. We also think you will enjoy reading the articles in this special reviews issue which will showcase some of the best research in the journal's scope as well as look back over the past 90 years with a historical perspective by Richard Dewhurst and a historical review of the measurement of dielectric properties of materials by Udo Kaatze. Regular readers will already be familiar with our special issue programme, collecting original research papers in areas of interest to our readers. We can look forward in 2013 to the publication of special issues on 3D velocimetry and optical fibre sensors, areas where we have a long history of publishing articles from the some of the best researchers in the field. In my first year as Editor, I have enjoyed gaining an overview of other fields, in particular through the review articles. Multidisciplinarity, bound by the common language of measurement, is a hallmark of Measurement Science and Technology. It still impresses me that I can be reading about the measurement of protein dynamics [1] in one issue and measuring the interior of volcanoes [2] in another! As is so often the case, translating methods across research fields can break through the limits of traditional approaches and produce a real game-changer. By signing up to receive table of contents alerts, one can browse the journal and pick out topics of interest as well as experience the serendipity that comes from seeing things from the perspective of another research field. This seldom happens when looking at more narrowly focused journals or subject alerts. As this is a special year for the journal we are planning to publish several perspectives articles from members of our Editorial Board. Those published already have proved very popular so far as they give a personal view on a topic of current interest and help express the unique character of the journal. When speaking to young researchers I am particularly aware that having their articles published in a timely fashion is important, and I am pleased that our publication times are highly competitive, with most authors receiving a publication decision within six weeks and most articles being published a month after acceptance. Looking forward to 2013, we will continue to rely on our esteemed reviewers, for their help in determining which articles make a significant contribution to the field of measurement. Their work is highly valued, not only by those of us who work directly on the journal, but also by the readers who can continue to refer to MST knowing that only work of a high standard is published here. Finally I wish to thank the Institute of Physics Publishing team and the whole Editorial Board of Measurement Science and Technology. Their professionalism, expertise and dedication have, together with the fine work of authors and reviewers, led directly to the journal's impact factor (a measure of the average number of times recent papers are referenced by others) rising to its all-time high of 1.494. Impact factor is often taken as an indication of the quality and relevance of recently published research, and although as researchers we develop our own instinct for recognizing journals of high quality, it is gratifying as an Editor to see the data from an independent organization (Thomson ISI) agreeing with my own assessment. In research, as in commerce, competition raises quality and it is especially encouraging that our impact factor is now, for the first time, the highest in the sector of wide-ranging instrumentation and techniques. There simply remains for me to say thank you again for your contribution to Measurement Science and Technology in 2012, and wish you all the very best for a successful 2013! References [1] Adamczyk K et al 2012 Measuring protein dynamics with ultrafast two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy Meas. Sci. Technol. 23 062001 [2] Okubo S and Tanaka H K M 2012 Imaging the density profile of a volcano interior with cosmic-ray muon radiography combined with classical gravimetry Meas. Sci. Technol. 23 042001


Cultivar characterization for fruit trees certification requires fast, efficient and reliable techniques. Microsatellite markers (SSR) were used in the molecular characterization of 29 Prunus spp. rootstocks. The DNA from the rootstocks was analyzed using five pre-selected SSR primers (UDP96-005, UDP96-008, UDP96-013, UDP96-18 and UDP98-414) and revealed 81 alleles, which allowed each genotype to be identified. The UDP96-005 marker generated the most information, i.e., 23 well-distributed, polymorphic alleles among all genotypes. The 21 polymorphisms produced by UDP96-013 occurred mainly as a result of high degree of variability among genotypes of the Prunophora subgenus. In the dendrogram, the five markers allowed the 29 rootstocks to be grouped into subgroups corresponding to the subgenus they belong to, either Prunophora or Amygdalus. Suitable cophenetic correlation coefficient (r=0.82) and good bootstrapping fitting value among the Prunophora subgroup cultivars were obtained. SSR markers proved to be efficient and reliable for the molecular characterization of Prunus spp. rootostocks.


Abstract Life-cycle cost (LCC) is used as a cost-effective decision support for maintenance of railway track infrastructure. However, a fair degree of uncertainty associated with the estimation of LCC is due to the statistical characteristics of reliability and maintainability parameters. This paper presents a methodology for estimation of uncertainty linked with LCC, by a combination of design of experiment and Monte Carlo simulation. The proposed methodology is illustrated by a case study of Banverket (Swedish National Rail Administration). The paper also includes developed maintenance cost models for track.


Mutations in the forkhead transcription-factor gene (FOXC1), have been shown to cause defects of the anterior chamber of the eye that are associated with developmental forms of glaucoma. Discovery of these mutations was greatly facilitated by the cloning and characterization of the 6p25 breakpoint in a patient with both congenital glaucoma and a balanced-translocation event involving chromosomes 6 and 13. Here we describe the identification of novel mutations in the FOXC1 gene in patients with anterior-chamber defects of the eye. We have detected nine new mutations (eight of which are novel) in the FOXC1 gene in patients with anterior-chamber eye defects. Of these mutations, five frameshift mutations predict loss of the forkhead domain, as a result of premature termination of translation. Of particular interest is the fact that two families have a duplication of 6p25, involving the FOXC1 gene. These data suggest that both FOXC1 haploinsufficiency and increased gene dosage can cause anterior-chamber defects of the eye.


Type 2 diabetes is one of the most serious health concerns and policy agendas around the world. Epidemiological evidence suggests that it will likely continue to increase globally. Diabetes is strongly associated with the patients' unhealthy lifestyle and behavioral patterns and socio-economic changes. New model of thinking is required to recognize whether the patients are in control of and responsible for the daily self-management of diabetes. Such a new approach should be based on 'empowerment and involvement' to be more applicable to daily activities in diabetic patients. Rapid changes toward patient empowerment and increasing involvement of patients in their care plan indicate more emphasis on disease prevention and health promotion and education than on mere disease and its treatment. Such changes make a step toward pervasive sense of responsibility among patients about their illness for their daily activities. Using the empowerment approach, healthcare professionals would help patients make informed decisions in accordance with their particular circumstances. Patient empowerment implies a patient-centered, collaborative approach that helps patients determine and develop the inherent capacity to be responsible for their own life. Empowerment is something more than certain health behaviors. Empowerment is more than an intervention, technique or strategy. It is rather a vision that helps people change their behavior and make decisions about their health care. It has the potential to improve the overall health and well-being of individuals and communities, and to change the socio-environmental factors that cause poor health conditions. The main concept of this change is the tendency to change.


When listening to music, the brain generates a neural response that follows the amplitude envelope of the musical sound. Previous studies have shown that it is possible to decode this envelope-following response from electroencephalography (EEG) data during music perception. However, a successful decoding and recognition of imagined music, without the physical presentation of a music stimulus, has not been established to date. During music imagination, the human brain internally replays a musical sound, which naturally leads to the hypothesis that a similar envelope-following response might be generated. In this study, we demonstrate that this response is indeed present during music imagination and that it can be decoded from EEG data. Furthermore, we show that the decoded envelope allows for classification of imagined music in a song recognition task, containing tracks with lyrics as well as purely instrumental tasks. A two-song classifier achieves a median accuracy of 95%, while a 12-song classifier achieves a median accuracy of 66.7%. The results of this study demonstrate the feasibility of decoding imagined music, thereby setting the stage for new neuroscientific experiments in this area as well as for new types of brain-computer interfaces based on music imagination.


This is the 26th president's discourse on issues of race, ethnicity, and American identity. The turn of the 20th century represented one of the most chaotic periods in the nation's history, as immigrants, Native Americans, and African Americans struggled with their roles as Americans while white America feared their encroachments on national identity. This book examines Theodore Roosevelt's public rhetoric - speeches, essays, and narrative histories - as he attempted to craft one people out of many. Leroy G. Dorsey observes that Roosevelt's solution to the problem appeared straight-forward: everyone could become "Americans, pure and simple" if they embraced his notion of "Americanism." Roosevelt grounded his idea of Americanism in myth, particularly the frontier myth - a heroic combination of individual strength and character. When nonwhites and immigrants demonstrated these traits, they would become true Americans, earning an exalted status that they had heretofore been denied. Dorsey's analysis illuminates how Roosevelt's rhetoric achieved a number of delicate, if problematic, balancing acts. Roosevelt gave his audiences the opportunity to accept a national identity that allowed "some" room for immigrants and nonwhites, while reinforcing their status as others, thereby reassuring white Americans of their superior place in the nation. Roosevelt's belief in an ordered and unified nation did not overwhelm his private racist attitudes, Dorsey argues, but certainly competed with them. Despite his private sentiments, he recognized that racist beliefs and rhetoric were divisive and bad for the nation's progress. The resulting message he chose to propagate was thus one of a rhetorical, if not literal, melting pot. By focusing on Roosevelt's rhetorical constructions of national identity, as opposed to his personal exploits or his role as a policy maker, "We Are All Americans" offers new insights into Roosevelt's use of public discourse to bind the nation together during one of the most polarized periods in its history.


This study examines undergraduate senior students' participation in high-impact practices (HIPs) and the relationship of that participation with engagement indicators, perceived gains, and overall satisfaction, as well as institutional outcomes of persistence and graduation based on race/ethnicity, first-generation status, and low-income status. Drawing on multiple years of data from 1,482 undergraduate seniors who completed the 2015 through 2019 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and enrolled in a comprehensive four-year state college, this study indicates that HIP participants reported higher levels of engagement, perceived gains, and overall satisfaction. Participation in HIPs is also positively related to improved persistence or graduation, particularly for racially minoritized students. While overall participation patterns were similar regardless of race/ethnicity or first-generation status, low-income students had higher participation rates in HIPs and participated in more kinds of HIPs as compared to their non-low-income counterparts. Implications of implementing and increasing access to HIPs for enhancing student success in similar institutions are discussed.


The rehabilitation of eroded teeth in patients suffering from bulimia nervosa generally includes ceramics. This study compared the roughness of three ceramics before and after exposure to simulated vomit solution (SVS) with a pH of 3.8. Surface roughness parameters Ra, RMS, and AH were calculated using atomic force microscopy before and after exposure to SVS (novel peristaltic pump for 24 hours at 37°C) and were analyzed statistically. Apart from the initial high AH values of the glass-ceramic, none of the parameters evaluated were statistically significantly different after acid exposure. Under the limitations of this in vitro study, the investigated ceramics seem suitable for use in bulimia nervosa patients.


TiO2:Ag nanocomposite thin films were prepared on plastic PET substrate in two steps. First, a sol–gel route and evaporation induced self-assembly (EISA) method were used to fabricate the TiO2 matrix. The use of thermal treatment being discordant with the plastic substrate, the mesoporosity was realized by chemical extraction or infrared annealing. Silver was then introduced in the film porosity in the form of ions by soaking the films into a silver salt. A reversible photochromic behavior was successfully demonstrated after successive cycles of UV and visible laser exposures without degrading the PET substrate. This laser-induced colour changes are based on the reversible growth and dissociation of silver nanoparticles within the titania matrix.


HD 156846b is a Jovian planet in a highly eccentric orbit (e = 0.85) with a period of 359.55 days. The pericenter passage at a distance of 0.16 AU is nearly aligned to our line of sight, offering an enhanced transit probability of 5.4% and a potentially rich probe of the dynamics of a cool planetary atmosphere impulsively heated during close approach to a bright star (V = 6.5). We present new radial velocity (RV) and photometric measurements of this star as part of the Transit Ephemeris Refinement and Monitoring Survey. The RV measurements from the Keck–High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer reduce the predicted transit time uncertainty to 20 minutes, an order of magnitude improvement over the ephemeris from the discovery paper. We photometrically monitored a predicted transit window under relatively poor photometric conditions, from which our non-detection does not rule out a transiting geometry. We also present photometry that demonstrates stability at the millimagnitude level over its rotational timescale.


The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is one of the most common protocols that are used for signaling function in Voice over IP (VoIP) networks. The SIP protocol is very popular because of its flexibility, simplicity, and easy implementation, so it is a target of many attacks. In this paper, we propose a new system to detect the Denial of Service (DoS) attacks (i.e. malformed message and invite flooding) and Spam over Internet Telephony (SPIT) attack in the SIP based VoIP networks using a linear Support Vector Machine with l1 regularization (i.e. l1-SVM) classifier. In our approach, we project the SIP messages into a very high dimensional space using string based n-gram features. Hence, a linear classifier is trained on the top of these features. Our experimental results show that the proposed system detects malformed message, invite flooding, and SPIT attacks with a high accuracy. In addition, the proposed system outperformed other systems significantly in the detection speed.


This work presents the results of detailed unsteady flow measurements in a rotating two stage shrouded axial turbine. The turbine was built at the Laboratory of Turbomachinery at the ETH Zurich as part of this thesis. The design, the rig engineering and the manufacturing of the turbine was one significant task of this work. The resulting very precise facility is used to experimentally study the evolution and convection of the unsteady secondary flow field and its interaction with the blade rows in a real multistage environment. The time-resolved flow field measurements in the second turbine stage are performed with highly sophisticated miniature fast response pressure probes and state-of-the-art pneumatic multi-hole probes for the steady flow field. The unique combination of this versatile research facility and the advanced measurement technology of fast response probes, makes the presented results very unique. Novel probe calibration models and probe designs are developed and validated in the turbine flow field. The engineering of highly automated data reduction systems (HERKULES) lead to a powerful software tool for the postprocessing of the fast response pressure data within a few hours for a typical area traverse of several hundred grid points. The interaction of the rotor indigenous vortices with the downstream blade rows are subject of significant loss generation due to the stretching of the vortices as they convect through the downstream blades. This highly unsteady process is measured in great detail at the exit plane of the first rotor. The unsteady flow field is classified into three time periods for one blade passing event. In the first period, the level of interaction between the vortices, the wakes and the downstream blades is moderate and the turbine losses are minimal. The second phase shows an interaction mechanism between the rotor vortical system and the rotor wake, as the vortices are pushed towards the rotor suction side due to the relative motion of the rotor and stator blades. The high loss fluid from the wake is rolled up into the passage vortex and increases loss at the rotor hub section. The turbine losses reach a maximum within the third period where the vortices are tilted and stretched in the streamwise direction. The associated increase of vorticity generates more shear and thus more loss. The measured mechanism is typical for unsteady flows and losses in this type of flow environment. The results of the labyrinth seal variation highlights the importance of the reentry path of the leakage flow into the mainstream and indicates that the hub and tip labyrinth design ought to be considered from different perspectives. The prediction of secondary flows and flow profiles is achieved by a novel flow model as shown in the thesis. The flow model is validated with experimental data wherein the results show excellent agreement with the measured data.


The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), once in operation, will represent approximately a 200-fold increase in stored beam energy with respect to previous high energy colliders. Safe operation will critically rely on machine and experiment protection systems. A review is given of possible beam failure modes at the LHC and of the strategy adopted in the LHC experiments to protect the detectors against such events. Damage limits for the detectors are discussed.


Studies of biological activity of cholera vibrios in cultures of chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO) have revealed their strong dependence on culture conditions. Elongation of CHO cells is caused only by choleragenic strains. Under stationary conditions of culture the vibrios were found to release haemolisin into the medium and had a cytotoxic effect. Most of cytotoxic supernatants exhibited a neuraminidase activity. Proteolytic activity was less dependent on the vibrio culture conditions. Strains with a high proteolytic activity caused rounding of the CHO cells.


Background: Inguinal hernia is the most common diversity accounting for roughly 75% of all hernia. The etiology of an inguinal hernia is clearly not understood. The technique of hernia repair is usually based on custom rather than evidence.4 According to data there is a good observation that open mesh repair is better than suture repair in terms of recurrences. The aim of this study to evaluated the effectiveness of prolene mesh rapair in incisional hernia.Subjects and Methods:A prospective hospital based study done on 30 cases in department of general surgery at RVRS medical college & associated group of hospitals, Bhilwara, Rajasthan. We randomly assigned 30 patients to suture repair or mesh repair of an incisional hernia. The patients were followed up by local physical examination at 1 month & 3 months were done as per standard protocol. Factors related to the operation including the surgical technique, presence or absence of seroma, hematoma, infection, dehiscence were recorded. Follow-up of cases was done at 1 month & 3 months after surgery on an outpatient basis for recurrence of hernia.Results:Our study showed that the majority of cases (43.33%) were seen in 40-49 years of age group. Small (0-5cm) gap size 90% cases and 10% cases have medium gap size in our study. Pain present in 26.66% patients in group A and 20% in group B at 1 month. The recurrence of hernia was present in 28% cases in group A and 4% in group B. It was statistically significant (P=0.0488*) at 3 months and the mostly were well built and have 27.27% wound infection present in these type of patients. Mostly infection occurred in obese patients (40%).Conclusion: We concluded that restoration with polypropylene mesh is superior to suture repair group with concern to the recurrence of hernia.


AIMS
Stress response, in terms of activation of stress factors, is known to cause obesity and coronary heart disease such as atherosclerosis in human. However, the underlying mechanism(s) of these pathways are not known. Here, we investigated the effect of heat shock factor-1 (HSF-1) on atherosclerosis.

METHODS AND RESULTS
HSF-1 and low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLr) double knockout (HSF-1(-/-)/LDLr(-/-)) and LDLr knockout (LDLr(-/-)) mice were fed with atherogenic western diet (WD) for 12 weeks. WD-induced weight gain and atherosclerotic lesion in aortic arch and carotid regions were reduced in HSF-1(-/-)/LDLr(-/-) mice, compared with LDLr(-/-) mice. Also, repression of PPAR-γ2 and AMPKα expression in adipose tissue, low hepatic steatosis, and lessened plasma adiponectins and lipoproteins were observed. In HSF-1(-/-)/LDLr(-/-) liver, higher cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) and multidrug transporter [MDR1/P-glycoprotein (P-gp)] gene expressions were observed, consistent with higher bile acid transport and larger hepatic bile ducts. Luciferase reporter gene assays with wild-type CYP7A1 and MDR1 promoters showed lesser luminescence than with mutant promoters (HSF-1 binding site deleted), indicating that HSF-1 binding is repressive of CYP7A1 and MDR1 gene expressions.

CONCLUSION
HSF-1 ablation not only eliminates heat shock response, but it also transcriptionally up-regulates CYP7A1 and MDR1/P-gp axis in WD-diet fed HSF-1(-/-)/LDLr(-/-) mice to reduce atherosclerosis.


Literature research has shown that there is no proven business model canvas for platforms. Such a canvas would be a vital tool that provides added value to companies and innovators for various purposes: sharing, communication (internal and external), description, analysis, management, planning and partnering. In addition, a platform business model canvas helps follow a systematic but also pragmatic approach with regards to the transformation of a pipeline business to a platform business, the task to design a new platform or to describe an existing platform business model. The goal of this research is therefore to create a platform business model canvas that is easy to use and helps capture platform business models in a comprehensive and effective way following the Design Science Approach. The basic components/building blocks and the necessary perspectives for the platform business model canvas, are derived from literature. The need for three or more perspectives, is furtherly discussed on basis of Osterwalder's business model canvas by outsourcing dimensions of control. Components and perspectives are subsequently verified through a qualitative analysis of the about-us-pages of 32 platform websites. The components/building blocks and perspectives are then put together to form a platform business model canvas, which is then evaluated through an illustrative case study explaining the platform business model of eBay.


OBJECTIVE To describe the clinical features, prognosis, and treatment of patients presenting with atypical forms of acute myocardial infarction. DESIGN Consecutive cases of possible acute myocardial infarction were sought from coronary care registers, biochemistry records, and hospital management systems. Case notes were reviewed and predefined epidemiological and clinical variables were abstracted. SETTING 20 adjacent hospitals in the former Yorkshire region. PATIENTS 3684 consecutive cases of possible acute myocardial infarction admitted in a three month period were identified, of whom 2096 had a first episode of confirmed acute myocardial infarction. RESULTS 20.2% of all patients admitted with an eventual diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction presented with symptoms other than chest pain. Compared with the group presenting with chest pain, these patients were older (76.6v 69.1 years, p < 0.001), were more often women (54.6% v 35.3%, p < 0.001), and were more likely to have a history of heart failure (18.6%v 6.9%, p < 0.001). They had a higher 30 and 365 day mortality (49.2% and 61.0%, respectively) compared with patients presenting with chest pain (17.9% and 26.2%). In a Cox regression analysis the hazard ratio for presentation without chest pain was 1.60 (95% confidence interval 1.30 to 1.97) (p < 0.001) adjusted for age, heart rate, blood pressure, left ventricular impairment, and infarction with ST segment elevation as covariates. Importantly, they were also less likely to receive treatments with a proven ability to improve prognosis. CONCLUSIONS Atypical presentation of myocardial infarction without chest pain is common and associated with increased mortality. This may result in part from a failure to use beneficial treatment strategies.


We introduce a new distortion measure for point processes called functional-covering distortion. It is inspired by intensity theory and is related to both the covering of point processes and logarithmic-loss distortion. We obtain the distortion-rate function with feedforward under this distortion measure for a large class of point processes. For Poisson processes, the rate-distortion function is obtained under a general condition called constrained functional-covering distortion, of which both covering and functional-covering are special cases. Also for Poisson processes, we characterize the rate-distortion region for a two-encoder CEO problem and show that feedforward does not enlarge this region.


ABSTRACT Li, L.-H., 2019. Numerical simulation of seismic performance of coastal corroded reinforced concrete column strengthened by carbon fiber cloth. In: Gong, D.; Zhu, H., and Liu, R. (eds.), Selected Topics in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 94, pp. 372–376. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. This test focuses on the corroded reinforced concrete column, and uses carbon fiber cloth to strengthen it. Through simulation tests, it analyzes the seismic performance of the strengthened corroded reinforced concrete column. By comparing the calculation results with the test results, it can be concluded that, using different carbon fiber cloth to wrap the corroded reinforced concrete column can improve its ductility to different extents. With the increase of the amount of carbon fiber cloth, the corroded column is improved more obviously.


Background:
 Stroke remains the third-leading cause of death and a major cause of disability in women. After a stroke, women have a 59% disability rate compared to 26% for men in the acute phase. Men and women share common stroke symptoms. However, women can also experience "unique" "atypical," or "nontraditional" stroke symptoms. Early recognition of stroke is crucial to better outcomes, but despite the fact that nurses play a crucial role in identifying stroke symptoms and activating care early, information is lacking on nurse's knowledge in recognizing stroke symptoms in women.

 Purpose:
 To examine nurse's knowledge and confidence level in recognizing common and unique stroke symptoms in women.

 Methods:
 In this quantitative study, nurses were recruited via targeted social media platforms to complete an online survey about women and stroke. Nurses self-declared that they met eligibility criteria. A nurse was defined as an individual who holds a license, is legally permitted to practice, and holds the title of Registered Nurse, Advanced Practice Nurse (masters or doctorate), or Licensed Practical Nurse. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent
 t
 -tests, and one-way ANOVA.

 Results:
 129 nurses completed the survey over four months. Nurses were 86% women with a mean age of 42 years, and 55% held advanced degrees. Over 80% identified the common stroke symptoms of stroke, and over 70% identified the additional stroke symptoms. However, less than 25% could identify unique stroke symptoms of women, including difficulty breathing or shortness of breath (7%), hallucination (11%). A majority of the nurses (76%) lacked the confidence to recognize stroke symptoms in women. Lower scores for common stroke symptom knowledge (
 p
 =0.01), confidence (
 p
 =0.01), and unique stroke symptoms in women confidence scores (
 p
 =0.05) were observed in nurses with < 20 years' experience.

 Conclusions:
 Nurses lacked knowledge and confidence in correctly identifying unique stroke symptoms in women with nurses who had fewer years of professional experience fairing worse. Education targeted at nurses should include strategies to enhance their knowledge and confidence level in recognizing stroke symptoms unique to women.


A highly integrated 1.7-2.0 GHz digitally programmable frequency synthesizer using a MEMS resonator as its reference is presented. Due to the dimensions of the MEMS device (e.g., 25 mum by 114 mum), the entire system with a total area of 6.25 mm2 can be housed in a small standard chip package. This considerably reduces the form factor and cost of the system, compared to using an external crystal as a reference. The MEMS resonators are clamped-clamped beams fabricated using a CMOS-compatible process. The main structural layer is made of silicon carbide, which provides the resonators with higher power handling capabilities and higher operating frequencies, compared to silicon. The resonators are electrostatically and thermally tunable - an 8.4% frequency tuning is demonstrated for a 9 MHz resonator. The 100 nm vertical transducer gaps of the resonators allow the use of electrostatic actuation voltages as low as 2 V. An integrated high gain-bandwidth trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) is combined with a resonator to generate the synthesizer's input reference signal. The TIA employs automatic gain control to mitigate the inherent low power handling capabilities and the non-linearities of the MEMS device, thus minimizing their effect on phase noise. The fractional- N synthesizer employs a 3rd-order 20-bit delta-sigma modulator to deliver a theoretical output resolution of ~ 11 Hz, in order to allow for high output frequency stability when used with an appropriate feedback loop. A fully integrated on-chip dual path loop filter is used to maintain a high level of system integration. With a supply voltage of 2 V, the phase noise for a 1.8 GHz output frequency and a ~12 MHz reference signal is -122 dBc/Hz at a 600 kHz offset, and -137 dBc/Hz at a 3 MHz offset.


This article analyzes the remarkable wave of metropolitan rebellions that inaugurated the 21st century around the world (2000–2016). It argues that they fuel an emergent politics of city-making in which residents consider the city as a collective social and material product that they produce; in effect, a commons. It investigates this politics at the intersection of processes of city-making, city-occupying, and rights-claiming that generate movements for insurgent urban citizenships. It develops a critique of the so-called post-political in anthropological theory, analyzes recent urban uprisings in Brazil and Turkey, distinguishes between protest and insurgent movements, evaluates digital communication technologies as a new means to common the city, and suggests what urban citizenship brings to politics that the national does not.


Action recognition in the realistic videos is a challenging problem in the computer vision. This paper presents a method of automatically recognizing the action performed by the human. The Spatio Temporal Scale Invariant Feature Transform (ST- SIFT) algorithm is made use of, for extraction of the keypoints in both spatial and temporal domain which is the extension of the 2D SIFT detector. The Spatio-Temporal Difference-of-Gaussian (STDoG) pyramid is initially built which is further used to find the maxima and the minima points that give the interest points. The keypoints are found in the xy,xt and yt planes where xy corresponds to the spatial plane, xt and yt planes correspond to the temporal domains. Experiment was conducted on a video containing a single action.


The presence of a varicocele was confirmed in 121 of 123 patients complaining of scrotal pain or infertility, in whom radionuclide scanning was performed. In the first 29 patients (retrospective study), a high ligation of the internal spermatic vein was performed. In 94 patients, a percutaneous venography was done via the jugular vein followed by embolization by Gianturco coils (occluding spring embolus, Cook Group Company, USA) in 84 of them. In eight patients, due to technical difficulties during the embolization trial, a high ligation was performed at a later date. Eleven patients underwent embolization after failed high ligation. A posttreatment follow-up radionuclide study revealed recurrences in two of the 95 patients who underwent embolization. Embolization can be performed on an outpatient basis with minimal risks. Reembolization is feasible, and it in no way prevents a further high ligation should this be necessary.


Jointed Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements are widely used for roadways construction. Inspection of PCC pavements revealed that it is common for tie bars across pavement longitudinal joints to be misaligned. A misaligned tie bar could inhibit the tie bars ability to provide load transfer across the joint and to prevent excessive joint opening. An experimental research study was performed to determine the effect of misaligned tie bars on the performance of pavement longitudinal joints. The experimental program consisted of testing 35 slab specimens that represented pavement sections with one tie bar placed across a joint. The test matrix included aligned tie bar configuration and four different misalignment configurations. Specimens with aligned tie bar configuration served as control specimens. The misaligned tie bar cases were vertical translation, vertical skew, longitudinal translation, and horizontal translation. For each misalignment configuration, four different misalignment magnitudes were investigated. The experimental results showed that tie bars with vertical translation, vertical skew, and longitudinal translation had negligible effects on the performance of the longitudinal joint. However, tie bars with horizontal skew resulted in reduced joint performance when compared to the aligned tie bar case.


Colibacillosis caused by Escherichia coli is the most important enteric disease in pig production, which may lead to death of the affected animal. The bacterium has a great ability to develop resistance to multiple antibiotics and disinfectants. Thus, investigation addressing mechanisms of resistance and profile of field samples is necessary. E. coli is widely used as a model for studies that explore the intrinsic and extrinsic resistance to multidrugs. In this paper, we attempt to associate the susceptibility profile of 62 isolates of E. coli to three disinfectants and 13 antimicrobials. Also 31 isolates were tested for the presence of efflux mechanism. Of the three disinfectants tested, alkyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride+nonyl phenoxy polyethoxy ethanol was the most effective (100%), followed by glutaraldehyde+alkyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride (95.2%) and alkyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride (88.8%). Among the antimicrobials tested, there was greater resistance to tetracycline (62.2%) and higher sensitivity to florfenicol (88.6%). The high sensitivity of the isolates against disinfectants may be related to the absence of efflux mechanism. The average index of multiple resistance to antimicrobials was 0.52, what demonstrates a profile of multidrug resistant isolates, showing the need for rational use of these drugs in pig production.


On 16/02/2016, the German Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection presented two pieces of draft legislation for the ratification of the international Agreement on the Unified Patent Court. After the fees for the "unitary patent" have been fixed and a proposal for the court fees and the limits of reimbursable representation costs at the Unified Patent Court has been provided, the political promise that the new system would support small and medium-sized enterprises ("SMEs") can be judged against the realities. It does not come as a surprise that it is not being fulfilled. Most recently, even the European Commission declared that cost risk would be so significant that SMEs required an insurance to cover it, while admitting at the same time that currently no such insurance is available. An overview on desire and reality as to the costs of the "unitary patent" and the Unified Patent Court.


Coefficients are derived for computing the polarization-corrected temperature (PCT) for 10-, 19-, 37- and 89-GHz (and similar) frequencies, with applicability to satellites in the Global Precipitation Measurement mission constellation and their predecessors. PCTs for 10- and 19-GHz frequencies have been nonexistent or seldom used in the past; developing those is the main goal of this study. For 37 and 89 GHz, other formulations of PCT have already become well established. We consider those frequencies here in order to test whether the large sample sizes that are readily available now would point to different formulations of PCT. The purpose of the PCT is to reduce the effects of surface emissivity differences in a scene and draw attention to ice scattering signals related to precipitation. In particular, our intention is to develop a PCT formula that minimizes the differences between land and water surfaces, so that signatures resulting from deep convection are not easily confused with water surfaces. The new formulations of PCT for 10- and 19-GHz measurements hold promise for identifying and investigating intense convection. Four examples are shown from relevant cases. The PCT for each frequency is effective at drawing attention to the most intense convection, and removing ambiguous signals that are related to underlying land or water surfaces. For 37 and 89 GHz, the older formulations of PCT from the literature yield generally similar values as ours, with the differences mainly being a few kelvins over oceans. An optimal formulation of PCT can depend on location and season; results are presented here separated by latitude and month.


Semantic similarity is an essential component of many Natural Language Processing applications. However, prior methods for computing semantic similarity often operate at different levels, e.g., single words or entire documents, which requires adapting the method for each data type. We present a unified approach to semantic similarity that operates at multiple levels, all the way from comparing word senses to comparing text documents. Our method leverages a common probabilistic representation over word senses in order to compare different types of linguistic data. This unified representation shows state-ofthe-art performance on three tasks: semantic textual similarity, word similarity, and word sense coarsening.


This paper presents findings from a research study into the role that communication plays in the safety of vulnerable road users (VRUs), including a literature review, a hypothesis, and a case study testing our hypothesis. Many governments and road authorities lack capital or have not made it a priority to implement full VRU safety measures, with many gaps in VRU infrastructure and networks. These gaps leave VRUs to take safety into their own hands, including use of conspicuity aids such as high-visibility wear, helmets, bells, and lights with differing levels of effectiveness. The knowledge gap regarding the conventional wisdom, "be safe, be seen," is the absence of communication and comprehension between road users (VRUs and vehicles). We hypothesize that communication aids are equally, if not more important than visibility aids for VRU safety. A case study was conducted to measure the effectiveness of several Hi-Viz safety vest designs including online surveys and separate in-field experiments using Instrumented Probe Bicycles. The results suggest that Hi-Viz safety vests using arrow designs (ArroWhere's proprietary products and designs) similar to those found in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) can increase VRU safety until road authorities can fully fund and complete proper and sustainable VRU networks.


The paper presents the problem of degradation of the former industrial complex PKWK "Jawiszowice" in Brzeszcze with its buildings and technical infrastructure, and examines the possibility of its re-use. It emphasizes the benefits of the area revitalization in the broad sense that seems to be the most sensible decision which may be made after the termination of extraction of the raw material. The main aspect is the implementation of innovative and creative solutions which consequently enable the creation of the development not only for the city of Brzeszcze but for the entire region. This example – which is the subject of the present discussion – was also the subject of author's previous studies conducted in the framework of the masters' thesis.


Given that Thoroughbred horses' canter is an asymmetric gait, not only speed but also leading or trailing limbs could affect muscle activities. However, the muscle activity during a canter remains poorly understood. Hence, we aimed to investigate speed and lead-side (leading or trailing) effects on surface electromyography (sEMG) during a canter. The sEMG data were recorded from left Musculus brachiocephalicus (Br), M. infraspinatus (Inf), long head of M. triceps brachii (TB), M. gluteus medius (GM), M. semitendinosus (ST), and M. flexor digitorum longus of seven Thoroughbreds with hoof-strain gauges at the left hooves. Horses cantered on a flat treadmill at 7, 10, and 13 m/s for 25 s each without lead change. Subsequently, the horses trotted for 3 min and cantered at the same speed and duration in the opposite lead side ("leading" at the left lead and "trailing" at the right lead). The order of the lead side and speed was randomized. The mean of 10 consecutive stride durations, duty factors, integrated-EMG values (iEMG) for a stride, and muscle onset and offset timing were compared using a generalized mixed model (P < 0.05). Stride durations and duty factors significantly decreased with speed regardless of the lead side. In all muscles, iEMG at 13 m/s significantly increased compared with 7 m/s (ranging from +15% to +134%). The lead-side effect was noted in the iEMG of Br (leading > trailing, +47%), Inf (leading > trailing, +19%), GM (leading < trailing, +20%), and ST (leading < trailing, +19%). In TB, GM, and ST, muscle onset in trailing was earlier than the leading, while offset in the leading was earlier in Br. In conclusion, different muscles have different responses to speed and lead side; thus, both the lead side and running speed should be considered during training and/or rehabilitation including canter or gallop.


We study the problem of optimal design of relay mappings for the Gaussian relay channel in order to maximize the reliable transmission rate. We consider both Gaussian and modulation constrained signaling at the source. To optimize the relay mapping, we use an iterative integral equation as a necessary condition for optimality. The optimized relay mappings demonstrate significant rate improvement over conventional linear relaying (amplify-and-forward). The optimized mappings allow an efficient utilization of the side information received via the source-destination link at the destination. Hence, the proposed mappings can be considered as an analog, memoryless approach to implementing compress-and-forward relaying with Wyner-Ziv compression in the relay.


Aspergillus infections are rare opportunistic infections in the course of AIDS and they mostly present as invasive pulmonary disease. Owing to the prolonged survival of profoundly immunocompromised patients with AIDS, invasive pulmonary aspergillosis is being reported with increased frequency. However, although pulmonary aspergilloma has been well described in immunocompetent patients, it has been rarely reported in AIDS patients. The treatment for pulmonary aspergilloma remains challenging and often needs lifelong treatment to minimize fatal haemoptysis, which can occur in up to 25%, and progression to secondary invasive aspergillosis. We report a case of pulmonary aspergilloma in a severely immunocompromised patient with AIDS who stopped taking systemic antifungal treatment in April 1998 and remained well with little progression of invasive aspergillosis up until March 2002 when he died of acute pancreatitis related to a drug interaction of didanosine and tenofovir.


The ongoing generalization of Internet of Things and its presence and application in multiple fields is generating a large amount of data that can be used to extract knowledge, among other purposes. In this context, algorithmic techniques and efficient computer systems provide an opportunity to successfully address efficient data processing and intelligent data analysis. As a result, multiple services can be improved, resources can be optimized and real-world problems of interest can be solved. This Special Issue on Algorithm and Distributed Computing for the Internet of Things gives the opportunity to know recent advances in the application of modern technologies hardware and software to the Internet of Things.


The fact that certain climatic variables are similar in high-latitude temperate zones and at high-altitude sites in the tropics, has led to assumptions about ecologically equivalent situations. The altitudinal differences between two data sets obtained in forests in temperate Denmark at sea level and in tropical Ecuador at 3000–3350 m above sea level provided a comparison suitable for examining whether high-altitude Andean forests are temperate or tropical from the standpoint of avian richness, abundance and trophic organization. Sampling methods at the two locations were similar. The Ecuadorian high-altitude sites were found to be significantly more species-rich than Danish temperate sites at all spatial scales studied (from point census to 10 km2). Additionally, species–area curves from the two countries displayed positive correlations, as expected, but with different rates of increase. The high-altitude Andean curve demonstrated a higher rate of increase causing the two curves to separate widely as more area was added. This means that when increasing areas are considered, proportionately more species squeeze into the Ecuadorian high-altitude forest landscape than do into the temperate Danish forest landscape. Corresponding to the data on richness, bird abundance was significantly higher at the Ecuadorian sites than at the Danish ones. The analysis of rank–abundance plots from Denmark and Ecuador throws light on the organization of bird species and abundance. The majority of communities in both countries fitted both the log-series and the log-normal models, making statistical distinction impossible. However, a visual inspection of the rank-ordered abundance distributions demonstrated that the Danish communities, in contrast to the Ecuadorian ones, had dominant species with relatively higher abundance, had more species with intermediate abundance, and had fewer species 'rare by abundance'. Some major food resources (especially fruit and nectar) exploited in high-altitude sites of Ecuador were not reliably available in temperate Denmark leading also to differences in the distribution of bird species within six major trophic categories. In conclusion, the ecological characteristics of birds of the high Andes apparently are similar to those of the tropical and tropical lower montane sites (increased richness and abundance, similar organization of richness and abundance, similar additional trophic categories, similar clutch sizes), and not to those of the high- and low-latitude temperate sites.


To the Editor.— In reference to "Psychiatric Status After Hysterectomy" by Martin et al (1980;244:350), all research should consider alternative hypotheses to explain differences found. May I suggest that patients scheduled for any major surgery within 72 hours have elevated anxiety levels that have realistic origins and are not caused by their uteri. This study could avoid this criticism by giving the psychiatric evaluations to patients scheduled for comparable major surgery and vasectomies to establish the importance of these variables.


Several types of supraventricular tachyarrhythmias occur commonly during intensive care. The specific type can usually be diagnosed using standard electrocardiographic techniques. Several new drugs have significantly improved the ability to successfully manage these arrhythmias.


We propose a novel quasi-Newton method for solving the sparse inverse covariance estimation problem also known as the graphical least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (GLASSO). This problem is often solved using a second-order quadratic approximation. However, in such algorithms the Hessian term is complex and computationally expensive to handle. Therefore, our method uses the inverse of the Hessian as a preconditioner to simplify and approximate the quadratic element at the cost of a more complex \(\ell_1\) element. The variables of the resulting preconditioned problem are coupled only by the \(\ell_1\) sub-derivative of each other, which can be guessed with minimal cost using the gradient itself, allowing the algorithm to be parallelized and implemented efficiently on GPU hardware accelerators. Numerical results on synthetic and real data demonstrate that our method is competitive with other state-of-the-art approaches.


A key generation system is disclosed that provides for the generation of privileged group keys based on the input of a privileged group. The system performing the key generation has stored component keys corresponding to every possible subset X of the unitary set, where subsets X have k or fewer members. The privileged group key is generated for the privileged set by passing ordered component keys of subsets X that do not contain members of the privileged set to a pseudo random function.


We propose a decoy-pulse protocol for frequency-coded implementation of B92 quantum key distribution protocol. A direct extension of decoy-pulse method to frequency-coding scheme results in security loss as an eavesdropper can distinguish between signal and decoy pulses by measuring the carrier photon number without affecting other statistics. We overcome this problem by optimizing the ratio of carrier photon number of decoy-to-signal pulse to be as close to unity as possible. In our method the switching between signal and decoy pulses is achieved by changing the amplitude of RF signal as opposed to modulating the intensity of optical signal thus reducing system cost. Our simulation results show a key generation rate of 1.5×10-4/pulse for link lengths up to 70 km. Finally, we discuss the optimum value of average photon number of signal pulse for a given key rate while also optimizing the carrier ratio.


A new kind of gyrotron - coaxial gyroklinotron with a conical cavity is presented. In such gyrotron with coaxial-conical configuration of the cavity the inclination of a surface level of electromagnetic field relating to longitudinal motion of electrons is formed. As a result, at sufficiently large length of the interaction area and the optimal configuration of coaxial - conical cavity all radial layers of the electron beam crossing through the level surface are on average at the equal conditions of interaction with the cavity field. Presented in the paper results of numerical simulation and design optimization of coaxial gyroklinotron with conical cavity are the evidence of its feasibility and prospects for a substantial increase of power of short-wave gyrotrons. Average electronic efficiency of coaxial gyroklinotron with a wide electron beam reaches 22.57% at mode H04 of conical cavity.


Honeybee larvae and pupae are extremely stenothermic, i.e. they strongly depend on accurate regulation of brood nest temperature for proper development (33–36°C). Here we study the mechanisms of social thermoregulation of honeybee colonies under changing environmental temperatures concerning the contribution of individuals to colony temperature homeostasis. Beside migration activity within the nest, the main active process is "endothermy on demand" of adults. An increase of cold stress (cooling of the colony) increases the intensity of heat production with thoracic flight muscles and the number of endothermic individuals, especially in the brood nest. As endothermy means hard work for bees, this eases much burden of nestmates which can stay ectothermic. Concerning the active reaction to cold stress by endothermy, age polyethism is reduced to only two physiologically predetermined task divisions, 0 to ∼2 days and older. Endothermic heat production is the job of bees older than about two days. They are all similarly engaged in active heat production both in intensity and frequency. Their active heat production has an important reinforcement effect on passive heat production of the many ectothermic bees and of the brood. Ectothermy is most frequent in young bees (<∼2 days) both outside and inside of brood nest cells. We suggest young bees visit warm brood nest cells not only to clean them but also to speed up flight muscle development for proper endothermy and foraging later in their life. Young bees inside brood nest cells mostly receive heat from the surrounding cell wall during cold stress, whereas older bees predominantly transfer heat from the thorax to the cell wall. Endothermic bees regulate brood comb temperature more accurately than local air temperature. They apply the heat as close to the brood as possible: workers heating cells from within have a higher probability of endothermy than those on the comb surface. The findings show that thermal homeostasis of honeybee colonies is achieved by a combination of active and passive processes. The differential individual endothermic and behavioral reactions sum up to an integrated action of the honeybee colony as a superorganism.


Genotypes responsible for interindividual differences in ability to activate or detoxify genotoxic agents are recognized as biomarkers of susceptibility. Among the most studied genotypes are human glutathione transferases. The relationship of genetic susceptibility to biomarkers of exposure and effects was studied especially in relation to the genetic polymorphism of glutathione S-transferase M1 (GSTM1). For this review papers reporting the effect of GSTM1 genotype on DNA adducts, protein adducts, urine mutagenicity, Comet assay parameters, chromosomal aberrations, sister chromatid exchanges (SCE), micronuclei, and hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase mutations were assessed. Subjects in groups occupationally exposed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzidine, pesticides, and 1,3-butadiene were included. As environmentally exposed populations, autopsy donors, coal tar-treated patients, smokers, nonsmokers, mothers, postal workers, and firefighters were followed. From all biomarkers the effect of GSTM1 and N-acetyl transferase 2 was seen in coke oven workers on mutagenicity of urine and of glutathione S-transferase T1 on the chromosomal aberrations in subjects from 1,3-butadiene monomer production units. Effects of genotypes on DNA adducts were found from lung tissue of autopsy donors and from placentas of mothers living in an air-polluted region. The GSTM1 genotype affected mutagenicity of urine in smokers and subjects from polluted regions, protein adducts in smokers, SCE in smokers and nonsmokers, and Comet assay parameters in postal workers. A review of all studies on GSTM1 polymorphisms suggests that research probably has not reached the stage where results can be interpreted to formulate preventive measures. The relationship between genotypes and biomarkers of exposure and effects may provide an important guide to the risk assessment of human exposure to mutagens and carcinogens.


The vocal control system of zebra finches shows auditory gating in which neuronal responses to the individual bird's own song vary with behavioral states such as sleep and wakefulness. However, we know neither the source of gating signals nor the anatomical connections that could link the modulatory centers of the brain with the song system. Two of the song-control nuclei in the forebrain, the HVC (used as the proper name) and the interfacial nucleus of the nidopallium, both show auditory gating, and they receive input from the uvaeform nucleus (Uva) in the thalamus. We used a combination of anterograde and retrograde tracing methods to show that the dorsal part of the reticular formation and the medial habenula (MHb) project to the Uva. We also show by choline acetyl transferase immunohistochemistry that the MHb is cholinergic and sends cholinergic fibers to the Uva. Our findings suggest that the Uva might serve as a hub to coordinate neuromodulatory input into the song system.