We present a morphological and ultrastructural study from one case of orbitary myositis in a 35 years old male patient with asymmetrical localytation and clinical behaviour as a tumor. The morphological study shows a chronic inflammatory lesion which causes atrophy and necrosis of the muscular tissue. On the ultrastructural image it is remarkable the atrophy of the muscle fibers with loos of the sarcomers, joined with signs of regeneration. The inflammatory infiltrate is polimorfous, with T and B cells immunihistochemically detected. There is also a macrophagic population identified by the morphology and immunohistochemistry with positivity for alfa-1-chymiotrypsin and alfa-1-anti trypsin. An important fibroblastic activity is show. On the discussion a possible pathogenesis for this entity is considered.


The purpose of the study is to evaluate work performance of school headmasters in Surabaya, Indonesia, in terms of the selection of school headmasters. The headmaster is the school personnel who is responsible for all school activities. Headmaster as a teacher who received additional assignments have multi-role, among others, as educator, manager, administrator, supervisor, leader, innovator, motivator and entrepreneur. The selection of headmaster is used to develop competence of headmasters, especially in managing school development with a correct understanding of the concept of the selection. The result has found that many of headmasters were not competent in managerial and supervision skills. This is very significant because these skills refer to the competencies of headmasters in leading schools to achieve good quality in education. Headmasters should have sufficient skills in managing school effectiveness. As a recommendation, training for managerial and supervision skills should be provided before the selection will be conducted.


In Reference without Referents, Mark Sainsbury aims to provide an account of reference that honours the common-sense view that sentences containing empty names like "Vulcan" and "Santa Claus" are entirely intelligible, and that many such sentences —"Vulcan doesn't exist", "Many children believe that Santa Claus will give them presents at Christmas", etc.— are literally true. Sainsbury's account endorses the Davidsonian program in the theory of meaning, and combines this with a commitment to Negative Free Logic, which holds that all simple sentences containing empty names are false. In this critical review, we pose a number of problems for this account. In particular, we question the ability of Negative Free Logic to make appropriate sense of the truth of familiar sentences containing empty names, including negative existential claims like "Vulcan doesn't exist".


The role of the gonadal hormone inhibin has not been extensively examined in the hen. A bovine radioimmunoassay kit has been used to assess plasma levels of immunoreactive inhibin throughout the ovulatory cycle, in response to follicle removal, and after stimulation of follicle growth. Homologous chicken radioimmunoassays for luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) were used to assay plasma gonadotropins. No significant peak of immunoreactive inhibin was detected throughout the ovulatory cycle in spite of a preovulatory surge of LH. Removal of preovulatory follicles caused a decrease of plasma immunoreactive inhibin whereas stimulation of follicle growth with equine chorionic gonadotropin increased plasma immunoreactive inhibin levels. Associated with the fall in inhibin level upon follicle removal is an acute rise in FSH with no concomitant change in LH.


In order to realize the scientific management of the light environment and achieve the purpose of saving energy and increasing efficiency for the hotel, this paper designs and implements an intelligent lighting control system for the room, manual control and automatic control of dual management for the room lighting [6]. The system uses the multi-layer distributed structure, combining organically with the embedded technology, Internet of things technology, sensor technology, CAN bus technology and so on, and the embedded ARM microprocessor is the core of the system, combining with the intelligent gateway module, I/O weak current digital input and output module, dimming module, illuminance sensor module and power module, and communicating with each other by the CAN bus, to realize the intelligent management of the room lighting. The Lighting Control System for Smart Hotel Rooms is facing up to the high star hotel, to improve the management level and service quality of the hotel, and save energy, scientific and intelligent management, and enhance the competitiveness for the hotel, it will be an important part of the Smart Hotel System which has a certain application value [14]. As a new and most promising light source, all kinds of lighting have attracted more and more attention for their energy saving, environmental protection and other advantages.


Broad-line radio galaxies (BLRGs) are active galactic nuclei that produce powerful, large-scale radio jets, but appear as Seyfert 1 galaxies in their optical spectra. In the X-ray band, BLRGs also appear like Seyfert galaxies, but with flatter spectra and weaker reflection features. One explanation for these properties is that the X-ray continuum is diluted by emission from the jet. Here, we present two NuSTAR observations of the BLRG 3C 382 that show clear evidence that the continuum of this source is dominated by thermal Comptonization, as in Seyfert 1 galaxies. The two observations were separated by over a year and found 3C 382 in different states separated by a factor of 1.7 in flux. The lower flux spectrum has a photon-index of , while the photon-index of the higher flux spectrum is . Thermal and anisotropic Comptonization models provide an excellent fit to both spectra and show that the coronal plasma cooled from kTe = 330 ± 30 keV in the low flux data to keV in the high flux observation. This cooling behavior is typical of Comptonizing corona in Seyfert galaxies and is distinct from the variations observed in jet-dominated sources. In the high flux observation, simultaneous Swift data are leveraged to obtain a broadband spectral energy distribution and indicates that the corona intercepts ∼10% of the optical and ultraviolet emitting accretion disk. 3C 382 exhibits very weak reflection features, with no detectable relativistic Fe Kα line, that may be best explained by an outflowing corona combined with an ionized inner accretion disk.


In wireless networks, users freely change their service points while they are connected. Mobility management in this environment is an essential technology for keeping track of the users' current location and for delivering data correctly. Then, the challenge is the design of an efficient IP-based mobility management scheme. Mobility management with provision of seamless handover is a key topic in Next-Generation Wireless Networks. Then, it is crucial to provide seamless mobility and service continuity in intelligent and efficient ways. This paper presents an analytical framework of fast handover for hierarchical MIPv6. In this paper, the impact of several wireless system factors, such as user velocity, user density, mobility domain size, and sessionto-mobility ratio are investigated on the network performance and the costs. Keywords– Handover, Hierarchical MIPv6 (HMIPv6), Next-Generation Wireless Networks (NGWN), Session-toMobility ratio (SMR).


S OF THE ARTICLES The soft budget constraint I János Kornai, Eric Maskin and Gérard Roland The authors propose a clarification of the notion of soft budget constraint, which is widely used in analysis of socialist, transitional and market economies alike. The interpretation in the study is broad enough to embrace most existing approaches to soft budget constraint phenomena and provides a classification of the causes and consequences of these. In the light of this, the study goes on to review the theoretical literature on the subject and compare it with work on other dynamic commitment problems in economics. Interest rates and price levels in a small open economy János Vincze The study examines what effects various interest rates have on the price level and nominal prices in an open (primarily small) economy with free flows of capital. A closed economy calls for a distinction only between nominal and real rates of interest, but in an open economy, questions of interest-rate parity have to be considered as well. It is necessary to clarify the factors behind the real interest rate important for price-level passthrough and for the scale of risk premium. Analysis of interest-rate effects begins with the mechanism whereby the interest rate influences the cost of fixed assets (explicit or implicit rents). Secondly, the mechanism behind the relation of export-sector production decisions and domestic interest rates is examined. It emerges that decisions of the export sector are independent of domestic interest rates. Thirdly, certain types of pricing behaviour are studied. It is shown that a rise in the interest rate that does not alter the present exchange rate is a price-raising factor for the importing country. It can be assumed that if the interest rate has a demand effect in a closed economy, this will presumably be much weaker in a small open economy. Target-zone rearrangement and exchange-rate behaviour in an options-based model Anna Naszódi This paper sets up an options-based model of the exchange rate in a target-zone system, according to which the observed exchange rate is equivalent to a floating exchange rate adjusted to the value of two options. The strike prices of the options are the limits of the band, but the two options are interrelated, which complicates valuation of them. Within that framework, the direct effect of the band rearrangement on the exchange rate can be Abstracts of the Articles 775s of the Articles 775 measured by the change of the option prices caused by the change of the strike prices. The author applies this options-based model to analyse depreciation of the forint in the summer of 2003. Depreciation is decomposed into (a) the direct effect of the band shift; (b) changing expectations relating to the final conversation rate in the EMU, and (c) changing uncertainty. Non-tariff obstacles to Hungarian exports. Lessons of a corporate survey Ádám Török and Zsuzsa Deli Non-tariff means of market protection and the increasing relegation of tariffs bring uncertain and incalculable sales conditions for firms expanding on international markets. Utilization of such means is arbitrary in most cases. It is decided by the situation, the exporter and the character of goods what means firms entering the market find themselves facing, while analysing the effects of such means and allowing for a strategic calculation of consequences is cumbersome and often impossible. The study sets out to summarize the non-tariff barriers encountered by Hungarian firms on foreign markets and thereby make Hungarian firms on foreign markets better acquainted with the range of means applicable and the effects of these. The effect of new ventures compared internationally László Szerb, Zoltan J. Acs, Attila Varga, József Ulbert and Éva Bodor Analysis of the effect of new ventures on the economy has been widely investigated in the last decade. However, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) international research organization was the first to provide a consistent, comparable estimation of entrepreneurial activity over nations. The study describes the main findings of the GEM research over the 2001–3 period, focusing on Hungary. For the two most important measures—the Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) and Firm Entrepreneurial (FEI) indices, Hungary is in the middle range of participating countries. Its situation compares well within the Central and Eastern European region – Croatia, Poland, Russia and Slovenia – and comes out slightly better than the EU average. Since the formation effect of new firms on economic growth and employment creation outweighs that of existing firms five to six times over, new firms should receive greater emphasis in Hungarian policy towards entrepreneurship. Corporate behaviour and chances of survival in a post-socialist transitional economy Béla Janky and György Lengyel The study uses panel data to examine the factor affected medium-term changes in the chances of survival among Hungarian manufacturing firms. The researchers revisited in 2000 firms surveyed in a 1993 sample. The figures show firms' survival chances vary essentially not only by industry, size of labour force and utilization of capacity, but according to managerial behaviour and corporate strategy. Those whose managers believed in 1993 that behaviour breaching accepted norms would succeed in the economy had a lower than average likelihood of surviving until the end of the decade. The survival rate was higher among those whose managers thought they would be successful or were 776 Abstracts of the Articles already applying crisis-management techniques of a remedial nature in 1993, than among those using delaying tactics to tackle a crisis caused by the transformational recession. The role of 'business angels' in developing small firms in Hungary with growth potential Zsolt Makra and Andreász Kosztopulosz The study presents a relatively little-known form of funding for small firms in Hungary. 'Business angels' are institutional venture capitalists who obtain a stake in unquoted companies with growth potential and often participate in developing them as well. A questionnaire survey was used to prove the existence of a rudimentary informal venturecapital market in Hungary. The findings point to a limited spread of business-angel activity in the country. Arguments are advanced for the importance of this type of investment and proposals made for developing the market for it.


CODI (formerly UCDO) is a government-funded urban poverty reduction programme in Thailand. At the centre of activities is a loan fund with multiple lending windows, including housing loans for the poor. This interview with CODI's Director is preceded by a short introduction to the programme, its strategies and activities. The role of savings are discussed and the importance of building strong community groups which can negotiate to resist eviction or to secure water supply infrastructure. The loan fund is designed to cover its costs and maintain its value through interest payments, and enterprise loans have a higher interest rate to cross-subsidize housing loans.


The aim of this thesis was to evaluate risk factors for fractures in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT), to study the association between preoperative variables and postoperative changes in bone density and to investigate long-term changes and peripheral PTH sensitivity in patients with elevated PTH levels after surgery. 203 pHPT patients were investigated with regard to clinical and biochemical variables and bone density. Serum levels of 25(OH)D3 and PTH, were the only variables independently associated with a risk of bone fracture. Thirteen patients with pHPT were investigated with a PTH infusion test six weeks after surgery. During the PTH-infusion test we found that patients with raised PTH had signs of decreased peripheral sensitivity to PTH with attenuated calcemic response. 99 pHPT patients were followed five years after surgery. 16% of the patients had elevated PTH levels. One group of patients that demonstrated fluctuation between normal and elevated PTH levels showed signs of renal insufficiency. In this group of patients, an increased risk for recurrent disease is postulated and long time surveillance could be suggested. Bone mass was investigated before and one year after surgery in 126 pHPT patients. Postmenopausal women had lower bone density compared to premenopausal women. 40-50% of all patients improved in bone density after surgery. It was not possible to predict the increase in bone mass. Considering that 18 % respectively 61% of patients had signs of vitamin D and calcium deficiency, we suggest that pHPT patients could be considered for calcium and vitamin D supplement postoperatively. (Less)


The AnTat 1.1 antigen type typically occurs late in a chronic infection by the EATRO 1125 stock of Trypanosoma brucei. The AnTat 1.1 gene, which is located 24 kb from a chromosome end, seems exclusively expressed by acting as a donor in gene conversion events targeted to the telomeric expression site. We report that this gene is sufficiently provided with the homology blocks required for recombination with the expression site, and is not interrupted by stop codons up to the 3′ block of homology. A possible reason for its low probability of activation is an inverse orientation with respect to the proximal chromosome end, since, if correctly positioned, it is readily expressed at an early stage of infection, following gene conversion. This suggests that interactions between chromosome ends may precede and favour the rearrangements leading to antigenic variation.


This article explores five stages of the development of feminist theology as a public theology. Starting with feminist theology in liberal Protestant seminaries in the US, it shows its development as multi-ethnic theology, then as international theology, including the third world, then as an interfaith theology and finally through transnational feminism. The article concludes with some suggestions about new horizons for feminist theology as a public theology in 2009.


Mean flow measurements taken in fully developed turbulent pipe flow over a wide Reynolds number range are used to evaluate current methods of correcting Pitot probe data. Based on this evaluation, a new form for the displacement correction is proposed which appears to be more accurate over a wider range of conditions than those currently available. The difficulty of obtaining the true near-wall velocity profile near the wall is explored.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) on the Italian real estate market, focusing on old buildings. The contribution of EPC labels to house prices and to market liquidity was measured to analyze different aspects of the selling process.

Design/methodology/approach

A traditional hedonic model was used to explain the variables of listing price, transaction price, time on the market and bargaining outcome. In addition to EPC labels, the building construction period and the main features of apartments were included in the model. A sample of 879 transactions of old properties in Turin in 2011-2014 was considered.

Findings

A first hedonic model let us suppose that low EPC labels (E, F and G) were priced in the market although EPC labels explained only 6-8 per cent of price variation. A second full hedonic model, which included apartment characteristics, revealed that EPC labels had no impact on prices.

Originality/value

In Italy EPC has been mandatory for house transactions since 2009, so there are few studies on the effect of EPC on the Italian real estate market at least to our knowledge. Furthermore, unusually for the Italian context, in this paper also transaction prices were analyzed, in addition to the more frequently used listing prices.


The aim of this paper is to report a salvage treatment for malpositioned stent graft due to mislabeled product during thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) in descending thoracic aneurysm (DTA). A 78-year-old male presented with 6.7×4.1 cm sized saccular DTA and 7.1×7.3 cm sized abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). DTA was initially treated by TEVAR and 2 months later AAA was treated by open aortic repair. Unfortunately, although the stent graft was correctly labeled for DTA, the actual size of product wrapped in a box was different contrary to our expectations. On completion angiography, proximal sealing zone showed no endoleak, however, celiac trunk and superior mesenteric artery (SMA) was found to be accidentally occluded. Through an emergent thoracotomy, distal part of stent graft was removed by cutting distal segment of stent graft and pulling out maneuver to restore blood flow. The completion angiography presented no endoleak, and celiac trunk and SMA were secured. Cutting distal segment of stent graft and pulling out maneuver is one of feasible rescue technique to maintain blood flow of occluded celiac trunk during TEVAR.


Maintenance and quality management is an important task that aims to maintain the quality and performance of a construction asset under its design and requirements, to ensure the safety and the needs of its owner(s) and us-er(s). However, in reality, the uniqueness and complexity of construction assets along with the diversity of stake-holders involved are significant challenges that make the maintenance has not achieved the desired effect and goals, thus affect the construction assets quality. The paper studies application of Building Information Modelling (BIM), and related technologies such as Barcode, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Sensor, Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality (AR) in many countries around the world; accompany with investigating into the readiness of these technologies in Vietnam. The study results show that all these technologies are available on the market in Vietnam. However, the technology readiness of the maintenance unit is narrow and needs to be im-proved. The study findings of the benefits and challenges of advanced technology adoption and the ability to implement them in Vietnam provide reliable ascertainment for researchers and construction asset managers in promoting the application of digital technologies to improve the quality and effectiveness of maintenance and quality management of construction assets in Vietnam.


Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy technology (SERS), using gold nanoparticles as a base, was developed for rapid and sensitive detection of virus strains. SERS can be used as a rapid and reliable method to distinguish the titers of viral replication. In the present study, we characterized H1N1 subtypes of influenza A virus strains in different conditions of pH or temperatures, while we analyzed data from SERS technology using gold nanoparticles as a base and cell cultures were employed to further confirm the data from virus strains. Origin8.0 was used to collect Raman spectra, smooth and homogenize data, and to contrast spectra. Our results indicated that the peaks of different virus strains in optimal environmental conditions (T=37 ℃/pH=7.2) reached ≥3 000. This criterion was verified by subsequent virological method. The present data indicate that the established SERS protocol can be used as a rapid and reliable method to distinguish the replication rate of virus, which can be further used in clinical samples.


This working paper examines the procedures followed during the three so far recapitalizations of Greek banks and the reform through reduce of the Greek banking system. To fulfill this objective, in the first part of the work, the basic concepts of banking are analyzed to the reader so that he is able to monitor the analysis of banks' balance sheet data that follows. The ultimate objective of this first part is to lay the foundations for reflection on the substantive success or failure of recapitalization. The second part is an analysis of the financial crisis and the progress of Greece before and during the crisis. The debt crisis in Greece, as noted, is closely connected with the banking crisis in the country: the political decisions concerning the signing of agreements for financing the Greek debt include terms for the Greek banks and influence them directly. In the third and last part, the terms and conditions of the three so far recapitalizations of Greek banks are analyzed in detail. The elements of the balance sheet are used to criticize the practice of mergers and acquisitions and examine the prospect of sustainability addressed in the future and the return to profitability through the achievement of the basic functioning of the real economy financing.


The purpose of this chapter is to describe and reflect on scholarlybased practices that can help facilitate comparative group work within the international and transnational context of adult education. The first section of this chapter situates comparative group work within the larger context of comparative adult education, followed by a focus on how to facilitate a group of diverse learners with different societal and cultural experiences. The chapter emphasiszes an outcome-based approach, describing how to set up incremental learning outcomes to enable comparative group work to be successful; a team-based approach, elaborating on coaching strategies to facilitate comparative work group; and a strength-based approach about adult learner-centered strategies for engagement, empowerment, mentoring, collaboration, fun, and accountability when facilitating comparative group work.


In the context of on-demand video streaming services, both the caching and the recommendation decisions have an impact on the user satisfaction, and thus, financial implications for the Content Provider (CP). The idea of co-designing these decisions has been recently proposed in the literature as a way to minimize delivery costs and traffic at the backbone Internet. However, related work does not take into account that every content exists in multiple versions/streaming qualities, or at best treats each version as a separate content, when it comes to caching. In this paper, we explore how transcoding a content at the edge could avoid placing multiple related versions of this content in the same cache, thus better utilizing capacity (leading to an increase of the CP's profit). To this end, we formulate the problem of jointly deciding on caching, recommendations, and user-transcoder assignments with the goal of increasing the profit (revenue minus the incurred costs). We propose an iterative algorithm that is based on a decomposition of the formulated problem into two subproblems. We show that both subproblems, although NP-hard, are equivalent to problems in the literature for which algorithms with approximation guarantees exist. Our numerical evaluations in realistic scenarios show that the proposed policy leads to important financial gains of up to 29% when compared to the scenario where edge transcoding is not exploited.


Data privacy and long-tailed distribution are the norms rather than the exception in many real-world tasks. This paper investigates a federated long-tailed learning (Fed-LT) task in which each client holds a locally heterogeneous dataset; if the datasets can be globally aggregated, they jointly exhibit a long-tailed distribution. Under such a setting, existing federated optimization and/or centralized long-tailed learning methods hardly apply due to challenges in (a) characterizing the global long-tailed distribution under privacy constraints and (b) adjusting the local learning strategy to cope with the head-tail imbalance. In response, we propose a method termed $\texttt{Fed-GraB}$, comprised of a Self-adjusting Gradient Balancer (SGB) module that re-weights clients' gradients in a closed-loop manner, based on the feedback of global long-tailed distribution evaluated by a Direct Prior Analyzer (DPA) module. Using $\texttt{Fed-GraB}$, clients can effectively alleviate the distribution drift caused by data heterogeneity during the model training process and obtain a global model with better performance on the minority classes while maintaining the performance of the majority classes. Extensive experiments demonstrate that $\texttt{Fed-GraB}$ achieves state-of-the-art performance on representative datasets such as CIFAR-10-LT, CIFAR-100-LT, ImageNet-LT, and iNaturalist.


The concept of co-amorphous systems is introduced in an integrated laboratory experiment, designed for advanced chemistry students, using solvent-free, environmentally friendly mechanochemistry. The dual-drug naproxen-cimetidine co-amorphous system (NPX-CIM) is investigated as an example of the emergent field of medicinal mechanochemistry. Students are trained in solid-state characterization techniques including X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermal analysis by differential scanning calorimetry. This lab experiment also provides an opportunity to discuss the relevance of different solid forms of pharmaceutics, emphasizing particular properties of disordered materials. This experiment can easily fit the curriculum of any Chemistry or Pharmacy master level degree in courses dealing with instrumental analysis, solid state chemistry, or green chemistry, for classes of 6 to 18 students, in a 5-h lab session. Suggestions to adapt it to the use of a single characterization technique are provided.


This technical report is a deliverable for the CLIMENGO project. This project is funded by the Swedish Energy Agency and is a collaboration between the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Lund University, Stockholm University and the Swedish Environment Institute (SEI) in Oxford. The project aims to (1) map the institutional complexity of global energy and climate governance, (2) to evaluate its effectiveness and legitimacy, (3) and to develop a knowledge-base for decision-makers. This first technical report is written to explain the methodology for data-gathering and analysis, in relation to the first objective of CLIMENGO: mapping the institutional complexity of global energy and climate governance. For more information and access to more output of the CLIMENGO project, please visit: www.climengo.eu.


A low frequency DC pulsed plasma used for iron nitriding is studied by means of an electrostatic probe and optical emission spectroscopy. The evolution of the electron density leads to the determination of the electron-ion recombination coefficient. The variations of this coefficient and the measurement of some emission lines of neutral iron and of excited states of neutral and ionic molecular nitrogen as a function of the percentage of H2 give additional insights into the role of hydrogen during the nitriding process. Thus the presence of vibrational states of nitrogen-N2(C3 Pi u, B3 Pi g, A3 Sigma u+), N2+(B2 Sigma u+)-late in the afterglow confirms their importance in such plasma assisted surface treatments.


Coatings in Arthroplasty: Review Paper The modern coatings used in arthroplasty for long term implants are reviewed. The phosphate coatings are the most popular technique to improve the bone-implant interfacial strength and promote the osseointegration. The plasma spraying, electrophoretic precipitation, powder metallurgy, ion beam sputtering, high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) combustion spraying, sol-gel technique, biomimetic deposition are mostly used to obtain the phosphate, usually hydroxyapatite coatings. The composite coatings based on HA are proposed to improve biochemical and mechanical properties. The Ti, Ti alloys, titania, zirconia, zinc particles and glasses are suggested to strengthen the HA matrix, and some organic compounds and polymers to improve the biochemical behaviour. Among another coatings, titania, zirconia, aluminia, carbon and organic, glass - ceramics and titania - silicate coatings are mostly proposed.


Abstract The Upper Cretaceous Helminthoid Flysch (HF) of the Northern Apennines consists of thick and regionally widespread deep-water carbonate turbidite successions, deposited during the initial stages of Alpine collision. The HF spans the time from Turonian to Early Eocene and is mainly composed of intrabasinal carbonate ooze mixed with clay; siliciclastic terrigenous beds are also present, but they are a volumetrically minor component of the successions. Petrographic and sedimentological signatures indicate that the HF was deposited in distinct basins located below the carbonate compensation depth. Bulk composition and heavy minerals of terrigenous beds indicate provenance from different crustal levels of the European and Adria plates. The petrographic and palaeobathymetric characteristics of these turbidites indicate the coexistence of an active-margin tectonic setting, a palaeogeographical position suitable for carbonate ooze production and storage, and limited supply of terrigenous detritus into the basin. Palaeotectonic reconstructions and stratigraphic data suggest that Adria represented a vast repository of penecon-temporaneous carbonate mud; the presumably intense seismic activity related to the pre-collisional Alpine orogeny promoted large-scale failures of shelf and/or slope biogenic muddy sediments, resulting in the deposition of a large volume of carbonate turbidites. Only occasionally, turbidity currents probably linked to exceptional fluvial floods generated pure terrigenous beds with different petrographic signatures for each HF succession.


Vaccine Development
Zika virus strains are of either African or Asian genetic lineage, and Asian strains are the cause of the outbreak in Central and South America. Dowd et al. report that natural antibodies produced by individuals infected with the presently circulating Asian strains can neutralize viruses from either lineage. This indicates a single Zika viral serotype and suggests that a single-strain vaccine could be broadly protective against diverse strains of Zika. Antibodies elicited by Zika virus target the envelope protein of the virion, for which the two genetic lineages share >95% amino acid identity.

Cell Rep. 10.1016/j.celrep. 2016.07.049 (2016).


It is my pleasure to introduce the first issue of volume 2 from Journal of Medical Research and Innovation (JMRI). The entire JMRI team is excited to begin our second year journey of publishing good quality-research from across all the medical-related disciplines, all the way from the bench to the bedside. Although we have some quite interesting things planned for 2018, in this Foreword, we will have a look back over some important highlights from volume 1 and some achievements of JMRI from the year 2017.


INTRODUCTION: Hyperhidrosis is characterized by uncontrollable excessive sweating, which occurs at rest, regardless of temperature. Symptoms can significantly affect quality of life. There is substantial variation in the secondary care treatment of hyperhidrosis and uncertainty regarding optimal patient management. The objective of the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) was to review the evidence and establish the expected value of undertaking additional research into effective interventions for the management of primary hyperhidrosis in secondary care. Capturing the perspectives of patients and clinicians treating hyperhidrosis was an important part of the research. METHODS: The assessment included a systematic review and economic model, including value of information analysis. Patients, dermatologists, a vascular surgeon and a specialist nurse (who set up the UK Hyperhidrosis Support Group) provided advice at various stages, including at an end-of-project workshop, to help interpret results and prioritize research recommendations. RESULTS: Patient and clinician advisors were unsurprised by the finding that there is evidence of a large effect of botulinum toxin injections on axillary hyperhidrosis symptoms in the short to medium term; there was consensus amongst patients and clinicians that botulinum toxin injections were very effective. The advisors agreed that a trial of botulinum toxin injections (plus anesthetic) versus iontophoresis for palmar hyperhidrosis would be useful. Patients and clinicians were happy with the sequence of treatments identified as being cost effective for axillary hyperhidrosis: iontophoresis, botulinum toxin injections, anticholinergic medication, curettage, endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy. All patients agreed that the Hyperhidrosis Quality of Life index (HidroQoL©) tool was superior to other commonly used tools for assessing quality of life in hyperhidrosis. CONCLUSIONS: Patients and clinicians considered the key findings of the systematic review and economic analyses to be appropriate. Advisors advocated a trial of botulinum toxin injections (plus anaesthetic) versus iontophoresis for palmar hyperhidrosis. Patients preferred the HydroQoL® tool over other commonly used quality of life tools in hyperhidrosis research.


We present fiber Bragg grating based transversal load sensing with a highly birefringent microstructured optical fiber. For the bare fiber, the change of the Bragg peak separation under a transverse line load was simulated with a finite-element model and experimentally verified. We also show that microstructured optical fibers with fiber Bragg gratings can be successfully embedded in a carbon fiber reinforced composite material. The linear dependence of the Bragg peak separation to a transversal stress in the composite sample was measured to be 15.3 pm/MPa.


Introduces NetBench, a benchmarking suite for network processors. NetBench contains a total of 9 applications that are representative of commercial applications for network processors. These applications are from all levels of packet processing; small, low-level code fragments as well as large application level programs are included in the suite. Using SimpleScalar simulator we study the NetBench programs in detail and characterize the network processor workloads. We also compare key characteristics such as instructions per cycle, instruction distribution, branch prediction accuracy, and cache behavior with the programs from MediaBench. Although the architectures are similar for MediaBench and NetBench suites, we show that these workloads have significantly different characteristics. Hence a separate benchmarking suite for network processors is a necessity. Finally, we present performance measurements from Intel IXP1200 Network Processor to show how NetBench can be utilized.


The structure and contents of undergraduate programs in economics and management sciences differ among the major European universities. Based on analyses of curriculums, course syllabuses, and adopted textbooks, the author looks at how much time is spent in pertinent programs, how time is allocated among different courses within programs, what common thematic denominators exist, and finally and most importantly, whether and in what way content taught in micro and macro courses differs. Based on examinations of how the coverage in major textbooks has evolved through successive editions, he also looks for trends and cycles in what is taught in undergraduate micro and macroeconomics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


Why did Utah voters-most of whom are Mormons-vote in favor of repealing Prohibition in 1933, and against a modest relaxation of Utah's liquor laws in 1968? In answering this question, we illuminate some important facets of the political behavior of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We hypothesize that Mormons are likely to "follow their leaders" on political questions when two conditions hold: (1) official endorsement of a position by LDS church leaders; and (2) internal agreement among those leaders. Each is necessary, but neither is sufficient alone. In 1933, only one of these two conditions held; in 1968 both did. Using ecological inference to generate estimates of individual-level behavior of Mormon and non-Mormon voters in Utah, we find that Mormon voters were significantly more likely to vote in accordance with the Mormon Church's official position in 1968 than in 1933. We further test our hypothesis by examining other referenda in states with a large Mormon population. We conclude with a discussion of when and how contemporary Mormon leaders get involved in political issues.


Effective interviewing skills are an essential core competency of psychiatric training, especially when eliciting sensitive clinical information from child and adolescent psychiatric patients. Since it is not always possible to interview patients with the full range of psychiatric disorders during training, simulations such as "standardized patients" (SPs), that is, actors hired to portray patients, are nearly universal in current medical education (1, 2), and have been used to evaluate trainees' skills with objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE) (3). Use of computer-generated "virtual human patients" (VPs) is increasingly appealing as technology produces VPs that are consistent and realistic (4–7). A recent randomized trial found that both VPs and SPs produced equivalent improvements in diagnostic ability among nurses, physicians, psychologists, and public health workers (8), and the versatility of VPs makes them well suited to teach clinical reasoning skills (9). VPs can be programmed to reflect a wide variety of clinical symptoms and behaviors useful in teaching trainees critical thinking and diagnostic acuity (9). VPs can also be utilized to evaluate psychiatric residents' and medical students' clinicalmanagement strategies. Both SPs and VPs offer a supervised practice for trainees before they encounter a challenging, live patient (e.g., patients with trauma exposure, sexual assault/rape, physical attacks, and physical/sexual abuse); however, VPs, unlike SPs, are not limited by potential financial constraints to train actors (2). At present, there is little published data to guide the design and integration of VPs into psychiatric education; thus, research is needed (9). The potential benefits of VPs in medical education are the unlimited realistic simulations of patients of all ages and diverse ethnic and cultural characteristics to students, in a safe and reproducible manner (10). The objective of this pilot studywas to investigate the feasibility of interviewing a virtual adolescent patient (VP) with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and to increase trainees' and educators' awareness of this technology (5–7).


OBJECTIVE
To study the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and cardiovascular risk factors among Chinese adult population.

METHODS
98 271 subjects aged 18 years or over were recruited from 162 surveillance points around 31 provinces in China's mainland in 2010, under a complex multistage stratified sampling method. The survey included face-to-face interview, physical measurement and laboratory testing, to collect information related to the prevalence of risk factors as smoking, drinking, diet and physical activities as well as the prevalence of main chronic disease as hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia. 24 kg/m(2)≤BMI<28 kg/m(2) was defined as overweight and BMI≥28 kg/m(2) was defined as obese. After a complex weighting on the sample, level and proportion of cardiovascular risk factors in groups of different BMI were analyzed.

RESULTS
The overall prevalence rates of overweight and obesity were 30.6% (95%CI:29.5%-31.7%) and 12.0% (95%CI:11.0%-12.9%) and were significantly higher in men for overweight (χ(2) = 16.09, P < 0.001) and those aged 45-65 years old for both overweight and obesity (χ(2) values were 485.17 and 112.23 both P < 0.001), respectively. The levels of systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and fasting blood insulin (FBI) showed a significantly increase on BMI and were seen higher in overweight (F values were 4 056.19, 6 860.70, 3 898.91, 1 624.73, 2 337.21, 2 558.01, 1 049.01 and 1 665.52, with both Ps< 0.001)respectively and obese participants (F values were 5 628.68, 9 949.81, 5 508.77, 1 656.34, 2 452.05, 2 365.92, 1 441.72 and 6 081.27, respectively; all Ps<0.001). The prevalence rates of hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, insulin resistance and clustering of cardiovascular disease showed a significantly increase on BMI and were higher in overweight (χ(2) values were 704.70, 521.86, 431.35, 449.13 and 686.83, both Ps<0.001), and obese participants (χ(2) values were 113.45, 645.03, 1 063.30, 1 547.86 and 1 909.66, both Ps<0.001), respectively. After adjustment for age and gender, participants with 24 kg/m(2) ≤BMI<28 kg/m(2) and BMI≥28 kg/m(2) increased the risks of hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, insulin resistance and clustering of cardiovascular disease by 2.5/5.5, 2.2/3.4, 1.8/2.9, 2.9/8.2 and 3.3/8.9 times than participants with BMI<28 kg/m(2), respectively.

CONCLUSION
The risk of cardiovascular disease parallelly increased with BMI among Chinese adults. Rational control on BMI should be viewed as priority on chronic disease prevention and control.


Plant extracts have been used as agent reduction capping to synthesise various nanoparticles due to the process is a low cost, large-scale method and environmental friendly. Herein, iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesized using ramie, lemon and dragon fruit extracts. The characterization results show that all synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles had almost similar diameters, shape and crystalline phases although different of plants extracts were used. Among the plants, ramie has cheapest market price in which the cost production of iron oxide nanoparticles can be reduced significantly. Keywords : iron oxide nanoparticles; scanning electron microscopy


The paper is a plea for SMEs to use workflow systems in business processes support. In this article we made a literature review regarding workflow systems, a new and very interesting theme. Then we applied the technology on a data structure that contains financial-economic information of Romanian SMES. In our case study we created a workflow system for the Romanian SMEs interaction in a Network Business Environment. The workflow surprise the: order - invoice reference - product delivery - payment registration - sending invoice process between two SMEs.


The intracellular levels of adenosine-3,5-monophosphate and guanosine-3,5-monophosphate were compared in 76 patients with different patterns of stomach pathology and 98 cases of colonic diseases. A significant decrease in concentration of cyclic nucleotides in malignant tumors of the digestive tract was observed. The results point to essential functional changes taking place at cellular level in the grossly intact mucosa of the stomach and colon in tumor pathology.


RECENTLY our practice treated an injured puppy out-of-hours for a 'non-client'. The puppy appeared to be about six to seven weeks of age, unchipped with no history of vaccination. During the course of taking the history, the owner admitted that he had brought the animal …


Introduction: The first open-sea (non-coastal) Marine Protected Area in Argentina, named "Namuncurá I" (NMPA), was created in 2013 at Burdwood Bank (BB), an undersea plateau located about 200 km south from Malvinas Islands (Falkland Islands) and 150 km east from Staten Island, SW Atlantic Ocean. It comprises three different management areas: the central one ("core", strict protection, only control and monitoring activities), surrounded by a "buffer" area (authorized activities, e.g. scientific research) and an external "transition" area (productive and extractive activities contemplated in the Management Plan). Beyond the transition area, only the southern shelf-break is protected, after the creation of the "Namuncurá II" MPA in December 2018. Objective: provide the inventory of polychaetes collected during 2016 and 2017 at the core (98 m depth), buffer (128 m depth), transition (133 m-189 m depth) areas of the Namuncurá I MPA, together with slope areas (220 m-798 m depth). Methods: taken with a trawl net used to characterize the faunal assemblages and to compare results with other Magellan areas. Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and Cluster Analysis (CA) were applied to a Bray-Curtis similarity index to assess polychaete assemblages in the NMPA - BB slope and Magellan region respectively; SIMPER (Similarity Percentage Analyses) and ANOSIM (Analysis of Similarities) were performed. Results: A total of 918 individuals, which correspond to 39 taxa distributed in 22 families, were recorded in samples from NMPA and BB slope, mainly epibenthic or associated with the large corals collected. Ampharete kerguelensis McIntosh, 1885; Hyalinoecia artifex Verrill, 1880; Idanthyrsus macropaleus (Schmarda, 1861); Laetmonice producta Grube, 1877; Onuphis pseudoiridescens Averincev, 1972; Pista mirabilis McIntosh 1885 and Terebellides malvinensis Bremec & Elias, 1999 constitute new records for Burdwood Bank. A similar polychaete assemblage characterized the three areas of NMPA and slope locations, while H. artifex characterized locations at the NW deepest slope of the bank. Conclusions: These results indicate strong connections between the fauna collected at NMPA and the polychaetes assemblage in other Magellan areas dominated by soft bottoms. The biogeographic importance of the BB as connection for benthic polychaete species between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula merits future investigation.


It is common knowledge that certain individuals are more susceptible than others to the effects of poison ivy and such other plants as primrose and sumac. Great individual variations in the capacity to develop sensitiveness exist and there is considerable evidence to show that previous contact, its degree and its duration, is the important factor in making one person more sensitive than another.
 The introduction of the patch test has been an important contribution. In 1896, J. Jadassohn (1) studied a patient sensitive to mercury and observed that a piece of "gray plaster" 5 cm. square applied to the upper arm gave rise to a violent local reaction which appeared under the plaster in twenty-four hours and then spread rapidly over the whole body. In 1920, Markley (2) had a patient whose pet guinea pig caused a dermatitis of her breast and forearm.


In this thesis we investigated whether the experience of stressful life events and depression were related to early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and whether this relation could be explained by alterations in hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis activity. To study this we used data from two large cohort studies, the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) and the Second Manifestation of ARTerial disease (SMART) study. First, we established the relation between stressful life events and long-term changes in HPA axis activity, by investigating the relation between life events and cortisol levels. Cortisol levels are a marker of HPA axis activity. In LASA, we found that early life stress was associated with lower levels of cortisol, whereas recent life events were associated with higher levels of cortisol. We found that older persons with high levels of cortisol had poorer memory performance, but that high levels of cortisol were not a risk factor for memory decline over a period of 4 years. However, in older persons with a genetic susceptibility for AD (apolipoprotein e4 carriers) we found that alterations in cortisol levels were associated with memory decline. In addition to the studies in LASA, we investigated in the SMART study whether stressful life events can lead to cognitive impairment via alterations in HPA-axis activity. We found no evidence for stress-related cognitive impairment, as the experience of life events was associated with better cognitive functioning. Moreover, the relation between stressful life events and cognitive functioning was not explained by HPA-axis activity. We further examined the relation between depression and hippocampal and entorhinal cortex volume and whether this relation could be explained by HPA-axis activity. We found a differential relation of age of onset of depression and hippocampal and entorhinal cortex volume; early-onset depression (before age of 50 years) was associated with smaller hippocampal volumes, whereas late-onset depression (after age of 50 years) was associated with smaller entorhinal cortex volume The relations between depression and brain atrophy were not explained by HPA axis activity. The findings of these thesis suggest that particularly late-onset depression is associated with smaller entorhinal cortex volume, which could be indicative of early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, whereas early-onset depression was only associated with moderate hippocampal volume decrease. We hypothesize that depression does not lead to brain volume loss; rather we think that late-onset depression and brain atrophy are both a result of a common causal factor, for instance Alzheimer's disease. In case of early-onset depression, it is likely that smaller hippocampal volumes precede the onset of depression and could even be a risk factor for the onset of depression. To conclude, psychosocial stress and depression were related to alterations in HPA-axis activity and elevated cortisol levels were also associated with cognitive impairment and brain atrophy, but we found no proof that psychosocial stress and depression lead to cognitive decline and brain atrophy via alterations in HPA-axis activity.


Understanding the value analysis and value creation of a company is essential for every financial manager in different situations. The value determination is carried out in various situations which may give positive or negatives results, resulting in serious jolts to the shareholders as well as to the goodwill of the company. Therefore, examining the shareholder value analysis is required to understand financial performance and it is critical to know whether modern techniques are supportive in creating value to the shareholders or not. This paper study the value analysis through modern techniques such as Economic Value Added (EVA), Market Value Added (MVA) and Stock Market Returns (StMr) of select twenty cement companies in India. This study evaluates the performance of the selected companies in terms of economic profit and market value and also tries to find the important metric among selected variables for creating shareholder wealth. In this study, twenty companies have been selected based on their market capital in Indian cement industry during the decade of 2005-06 to 2014-15. The study uses statistical tools for selecting the best metric among the variables through Mean, Coefficient and Multiple Regressions with Stepwise method with the help of SPSS.


Topologically protected chiral skyrmion is an intriguing spin texture, which has attracted much attention because of fundamental research and future spintronic applications. MnSi with the non-centrosymmetric structure is well-known material hosting skyrmion phase. To date, preparation of MnSi crystals has been investigated by using special instruments with ultrahigh vacuum chamber. Here, we introduce a facile way to grow MnSi films on sapphire substrate using a relatively low vacuum environment of conventional magnetron sputtering. Although as-grown MnSi films have polycrystalline nature, the stable skyrmion phase in a broad range of temperatures and magnetic fields is observed by magnetotransport properties including phenomenological scaling analysis of Hall resistivities contribution. Our findings provide not only a general way to prepare the materials possessing skyrmion phase, but also insight into further research to stimulate more degrees of freedom in our inquisitiveness.


From the Publisher:
Though companies have amassed an enormous amount of data, they haven't always been able to use it because it is unstructured, unintegrated, or polluted. This book shows how to transform this vast pool of data into information of strategic significance. Taking up where database marketing leaves off, it offers practical ideas for businesses to realize staggering response rates from mailings, focused marketing campaigns, and more.


Vagal nerve activity has been shown to play a role in the formation and maintenance of atrial fibrillation (AF). Nerves on the atria are now increasingly being targeted using ablation-based therapies for the treatment of paroxysmal AF. In vivo, changes in vagal activity are part of an integrated autonomic profile that invariably involves accompanying modulations in sympathetic activity. To date, it has not been possible to replicate endogenous profiles of autonomic activity with the experimental set-ups used to study the effects of vagal stimulation on AF development. In this paper, we describe an experimental set-up using an in situ preparation that addresses these challenges for the first time. A high resolution surface electrode array has been used to make recordings of atrial electrograms during baroreflex activation from a preparation with intact innervation from brainstem to heart. This provides a novel framework for relating reflex-mediated autonomic activity to altered regional impulse propagation and electrical rhythm in the atria.


The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the basic issues implicit in the design of confined state photodetectors. The basic device structure consists of repeated unit cells each comprised of a narrow gap semiconductor layer sandwiched between barrier layers of wider band gap material. Gain in these structures is derived through carrier multiplication via impact excitation of confined electrons out of the narrow gap semiconductor layer. Different device designs are considered in an attempt to maximize the device gain at minimum dark current. In some implementations, the barrier layers are chosen to be graded such that the leading edge discontinuity is at least twice that at the trailing edge of the well forming an asymmetric well design. It is found that an asymmetric well design offers a much higher impact excitation of electrons confined within the well at lower operating voltage than a symmetric well design however at the expense of increased dark current. Quantum versus classical confinement of the electrons within the well is also investigated.


Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and several collagen diseases have similarities with each other. For example, it has been pointed out that there are overlaps between SLE with arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis with positive LE test, suggesting some correlations in etiology between them. It has also been noticed that autoimmunity may play an important role in etiology of socalled lupoid hepatitis, or juvenile liver cirrhosis with positive LE test or with similar clinical findings to SLE, although the disease is not considered to be one of collagen diseases. On the other hand, it has been reported that there appear several factors, which show serological reactions to leukocytic protoplasma, nucleus, nucleoprotein, DNA, histone and non-histone protein besides LE factor in the sera of case with SLE. In this report, serum factors reacting to DNA, histone and nucleus were investigated in correlation with LE factor, in cases with SLE, rheumatoid arthritis and liver diseases, for the purpose of elucidating the mechanism for formation of LE factor. Fourteen cases with SLE, 113 with rheumatoid arthritis, 72 with hepatitis or liver cirrhosis and 128 with other miscellaneous diseases were studied.


Pharmaceuticals in the environment and public water supplies are believed to have serious impacts on human and environmental health. Current research suggests that exposure to certain drugs and their residues may result in a variety of adverse human health effects. Other studies more conclusively show that even minute concentrations of pharmaceuticals in the environment can have detrimental effects on aquatic and terrestrial species. Unfortunately, the cost of removing these pernicious substances is out of the financial reach of most municipalities and wastewater and drinking water treatment operators.Despite the concerns, little effort has been made to develop broad management, mitigatory, or disposal prevention strategies to address the potential threat from medications and their residues in the environment or in our drinking water. Neither the United States federal government nor the states have been able to formulate an adequate response.The purpose of this Article is to further awareness about the lack of governmental attention to the growing problem pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical residues pose to the environment and the nation's freshwater supplies. After describing the scope of the problem, as well as the deficiencies and loopholes in the existing statutory and regulatory regime, the Article contends that focusing regulations on pharmaceuticals once they reach the waste stream is an inadequate and ineffective approach to reducing pharmaceutical pollutants in the environment. Rather, federal and state governments should implement mechanisms that target the earlier lifecycle stages of pharmaceuticals so as to prevent pharmaceuticals and their residues from reaching the natural environment and, thereby, to reduce the risks to people, communities, species, and ecosystems.


The mechanical response of rectus abdominis muscles of Rana esculenta to potassium ions (5.6–23.5 mm in Ringer9s solution) shows two distinct phases. The twitch fiber reaction, giving rise to the first phase of the response curve, does not last more than 1–2 minutes. It can be provoked with KCl concentrations of the order of 5–7 mm; its intensity is not much influenced by increasing KCl concentrations higher than 10 mm; its intensity is reduced by high CaCl 2 concentrations, and also by shortening the length of the interval between two exposures of the muscle to increased KCl concentrations. The slow fiber reaction, giving rise to the second phase, is a true tonic contracture which can be obtained only with concentrations of KCl larger than 10 mm. Changes in the CaCl 2 concentration and in the length of the interval do not affect it so much as the first phase.


INTRODUCTION
HCV infection was common cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with hemophilia before 1986. We wanted to investigate the effect of treatment with combination therapy in HCV positive patients with hemophilia.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The research included totally 13 persons afflicted with hemophilia and HCV infection out of 21 tested. The patients were submitted to laboratory and clinical tests as well as genotypization, whereby a different hepatitis C virus genetic adherence was observed. Parallel with this subcategory the other one was put into comparison, consisting of 12 patients afflicted with chronic C hepatitis, marked as non-hemophilics. The both subcategories were treated with combination antiviral therapy (peginterferon alpha-2a and ribavirin) during 48 weeks for genotype 1 and 4, in reference to 24 weeks for genotype 2 and 3. Within the treatment, clinical and laboratory side-effects were noticed, which did not require therapy interruption. A more frequent hemorrhage during the therapy was found within the hemophilics, rather than before initiliazing it.

RESULTS
After the statistical processing of the results (Students' t-test), statistically significant difference among these two subcategories was noticed as values for ALT (***p<0.0001) after 24 weeks of therapy, red blood cells (*p<0.05), haemoglobin and haematocrite (***p<0.0001) 24 weeks after therapy completing By PCR examination of the patients, 6 months after the end of treatment, a sustained viral response (SVR) of the same percentage was registrated within both subcategories, which is even greater than what the other authors have described.

DISCUSSION
Main results were without important difference between two subgroups, except for higher number of spontanuous bleeding in group with hemophilia, which was somewhat expected. Most importantly, we didn't find any difference in SVR rates between groups.

CONCLUSION
HCV positive patients with hemophilia could be successfully treated with combination therapy of peginterferon alfa-2a and ribavirin.


We fit nonlinearly mean-reverting models to real dollar exchange rates over the post-Bretton Woods period, consistent with a theoretical literature on transactions costs in international arbitrage. The half lives of real exchange rate shocks, calculated through Monte Carlo integration, imply faster adjustment speeds than hitherto recorded. Monte Carlo simulations reconcile our results with the large empirical literature on unit roots in real exchange rates by showing that when the real exchange rate is nonlinearly mean reverting, standard univariate unit root tests have low power, while multivariate tests have much higher power to reject a false null hypothesis.


In the fields of development and public health, the decisions of the rural poor are often treated as simple, unanimous, and driven by cultural preconceptions and beliefs. This is particularly the case for sub-Saharan Africa, where a dehistoricizing tendency presupposes an ontological link between an African culture and its tendency to interpret the world through the lens of belief. Generally, household activities are not seen as the kinds of modes of objectifying social practice that are the outcome of complex historical struggles over representation, and pre-disposing cultural factors are presumed to be the key determinants of household behavior. The three papers that constitute this alternative-format, article-based dissertation interrogate these assumptions. Although they address diverse subjects (the rise of West African Pentecostalism; the logic of treatment-seeking behavior in Benin; credit and savings strategies in rural Mali), they share a methodological concern with close analysis of the complexity of household decision-making in the moment, study over time, and attention to local concerns in the context of larger social transformations. In both medical and economic contexts, this approach demonstrates not only that behavior is primarily determined by enabling factors, but that the cultural factors that do condition behavior can be understood as creative, rational, and instructive of larger concerns, rather than merely as an impediment to development goals.


This paper describes the design and development of a 2.5-Gb/s optical transceiver module as a mixed signal SOP for access networks. The module development consists of concurrent design of an optoelectronic package optimizing optical, electrical, thermal, mechanical functions and optical subassembly and RFICs housed in a chip-on-board package. The optical subassembly (OSA) consists of laser and photodiode assembled on a silicon substrate. The transmit and the receiver sections are combined into a single fiber through a polymer coupler on silicon. The splitter between the transmit and receive section is realized using a polymer waveguide. The electronic ICs are assembled on a multilayer organic substrate. The package design includes optical coupling design, impedance matched transmission line design for RF signals, electrical layout design for mixed signals and thermal design for the package. The module is housed in a plastic molded nonhermetic package to achieve low cost packaging. The assembly is completed using passive alignment of optical devices and attachment of electronic devices using adhesives. In this paper, we present the details of the component design and the development of packaging process methods to achieve the design specifications, test results and process guidelines for assembly and integration.


Bioinformatics and computational biology are driven by growing volumes of data in biological systems that also tend to increase in complexity. The research presented in this thesis focuses on the need to analyze such data volumes in such complexity. The results show that the application of high-performance compute technologies, preferably combined with low-cost hardware, is a successful approach to generate new bioinformatics approaches that allow addressing new types of data analyses and research questions in biology. An overview of the technologies and recent developments in biology and computer science relevant for this thesis (Chapter 1) identifies current high-throughput sequencing platforms as a key technology. Sequencing platforms now deliver data sets up to terabytes in size for elucidating genome structure, gene content, gene activity, as well as gene variants. The concepts and technologies from computer science to handle these large amounts of data include (a) grid technologies for compute parallelization while making more efficient use of existing low-cost infrastructure; (b) graphics cards for increased compute power and (c) graph databases for large data volume storage and advanced methods for analyses. This thesis presents novel applications and added value of these three concepts for bioinformatics research. Small RNAs are important regulators of genome function, yet their prediction in genomes is still a major computational challenge (Chapter 2). They tend to have a minimal free energy (MFE) significantly lower than the MFE of non-small RNA sequences with the same nucleotide composition. Evaluation of many MFEs is, however, too compute-intensive for genome-wide screening. With a local grid infrastructure of desktop computers, MFE distributions of a very large collection of sequence compositions were pre-calculated and used to determine the MFE distribution for any given sequence composition by interpolation. This approach allows on-the-fly calculation for any candidate sequence composition and makes genome-wide screening with this characteristic of a pre-miRNA sequence feasible. This way, MFE evaluation can be added as a new parameter for genome-wide selection of potential small RNA candidates (Chapter 2). The concept of large-scale pre-calculation of compute-intensive parameters is one of the options for future bioinformatics analyses. Sequence alignment is essential in the analysis of next-generation sequencing data. The gold standard for sequence alignment is the Smith-Waterman (SW) algorithm. Existing implementations of the full SW algorithm are either not fast enough, or limited to dedicated tasks, usually to optimize for speed, whereas popular heuristic SW versions (such as BLAST) suffer from statistical issues. Graphics hardware is well-suited to speed up SW alignments, but SW on graphics cards does not report the alignment details desired by biologists for further analysis. This thesis presents the CUDA-based Parallel SW Alignment Software (PaSWAS) (Chapter 3). PaSWAS gives (a) easy access to the computational power of NVIDIA-based graphics cards for high-speed sequence alignments, (b) information such as score, number of gaps and mismatches with the accuracy of the full SW algorithm and (c) a report of multiple hits per alignment. Two use cases show the usability and versatility of the new parallel Smith-Waterman implementation for bioinformatics analyses. It demonstrates the added value of the use of low-cost graphics cards in bioinformatics software. To further promote the use of PaSWAS, a new implementation, pyPaSWAS, provides the SW sequence alignment code fully packed in Python and the more widely accepted OpenCL language (Chapter 4). Moreover, pyPaSWAS now supports an affine gap penalty. This way, pyPaSWAS presents an easy Python-based environment for accurate and retrievable parallel SW sequence alignments on GPUs and multi-core systems. The strategy of integrating Python with high-performance parallel compute languages to create a developer- and user-friendly environment is worth to be considered for other computationally-intensive bioinformatics algorithms. Thanks to the accuracy and retrieval characteristics of (py)PaSWAS, it was noted that long sequencing reads on the PacBio platform can contain many artificial palindromic sequences. These palindromes are due to errors introduced by whole-genome amplification (WGA). Next-generation sequencing requires sufficient amounts of DNA. If not available, WGA is routinely used to generate the amounts of DNA required. The introduction of artificial palindromic sequences hampers assembly and severely limits the value of long sequencing reads. Pacasus is a novel software tool to identify and resolve such artificial palindromic sequences in long sequencing reads (Chapter 5). Two use cases show that Pacasus markedly improves read mapping and assembly of WGA DNA. In comparison, the quality of mapping and assembly is similar to the quality obtained with non-amplified DNA. Therefore, with Pacasus, long-read technology becomes feasible for the sequencing of samples for which only very small amounts of DNA are available, such as single cells or single chromosomes. Numerous tools and databases exist to annotate and investigate the functions encoded in properly assembled genomes, such as InterProScan, KEGG, GO and many more. Comparisons of functionalities across multiple genomes is, however, not trivial. The concept of graph databases is a promising novel approach from computer science for such multi-genome comparisons. For a data set of all (> 150,000) genes of 17 fungal species functionally annotated with InterProScan, the associated KEGG, GO and annotation data are imported and interconnected in a new Neo4j graph database (Chapter 6). Relationships in this database are visualized and mined with a newly refurbished and extended Neo4j plugin for Cytoscape. Inspection of (sub)graphs of functional annotations is an attractive way to compare and group functional annotation across species. In the use case of the seventeen fungal genomes, it helped to outline, compare and explain details of the life style of groups of individual species. The general discussion of this thesis provides an outlook on the future of bioinformatics in the context of the results here presented (Chapter 7). A grid infrastructure is recommended as a feasible and attractive cost-effective strategy to create compute power, as is the further inclusion of graphics cards. Full implementation of graph technology is considered necessary for advancing bioinformatics. The work presented in this thesis also shows that use of grids, graphics cards and graph technology imply the redesign of existing software applications. To be able to create novel stable, predictable and user-friendly applications in bioinformatics, formal training in software engineering principles is highly recommended. Courses and other programs are necessary for the life-long learning that will be crucial for the future of bioinformatics. The main challenges for bioinformatics in the years to come are all data centered: issues with growing data volumes, with more data types and with higher data complexity. To deal with these challenges, further integration of now separate fields of science is warranted in ways we cannot even image yet.


Education is the process of changing one's attitude or behavior groups of people to mature humans through teaching and training efforts. Since early humans have needed education in the process of its development into adulthood. The development of children in the first years is very important and will determine the quality in the future. Children are individuals who are different, unique, and have their own characteristics in accordance with the stages of his age. Therefore, early childhood development efforts should be done through learning and play.Growth and physical development have an important role in the lives of children. Growth and physical development is one of the major developmental tasks in the life of a child. Growth and physical development will affect the development and growth of children in other developmental dimensions. Parents and teachers really need to understand the growth and physical development of children, and instill healthy habits through physical activity of children from an early age.To help the physical development of children, teachers and parents need to provide guidance to them in order to have the awareness of sensory abilities, and also have a positive attitude towards him. Parents and teachers also need to understand the signs of developmental delays in children, parents and teachers need to be cautious in view of delays in child development and should consult with your doctor to make sure and give the child needed help, so that children can grow physically and develop optimally.  Keywords: physical development, early childhood


Given a triangulated 2-Calabi-Yau category C and a cluster-tilting subcategory T, the index of an object X of C is a certain element of the Grothendieck group of the additive category T. In this note, we show that a rigid object of C is determined by its index, that the indices of the indecomposables of a cluster-tilting subcategory T′ form a basis of the Grothendieck group of T and that, if T and T′ are related by a mutation, then the indices with respect to T and T′ are related by a certain piecewise linear transformation introduced by Fomin and Zelevinsky in their study of cluster algebras with coefficients. This allows us to give a combinatorial construction of the indices of all rigid objects reachable from the given cluster-tilting subcategory T. Conjecturally, these indices coincide with Fomin-Zelevinsky's g-vectors.


The distribution pattern of budesonide in the nasal passages and lungs was investigated in 10 healthy subjects after nasal inhalation. The subjects inhaled drug powder, radiolabelled with 99mTc, at maximum flow rate (46.3 +/- 6.8 l/min) and at 29.9 +/- 2.5 l/min via Turbuhaler. At both flows, the majority of the dose was deposited in the anterior part of the nasal cavity on a single, rather localized area, but some particles also penetrated more posteriorly into the main nasal passages and to the lungs. At maximum flow rate the nasal deposition was 65.2% (range 39.5-84.1%) and the lung deposition 4.7% (range 1.4-9.3%) of the metered dose, and at 30 l/min, the nasal deposition was 67.6% (range 49.7-81.6%) and the lung deposition was 4.2% (range 1.7-7.9%). A large fraction of the metered dose was deposited in the nasal adaptor of the inhaler during the administration (mean values 29 and 28%, for the two inhalation flows). Of the dose actually reaching the subject, 91 and 93% (mean values) was deposited in the nose. There were no statistically significant differences in distribution pattern between the two inhalation flows.


Analyzed in this paper are the 20-yr(1991–2010)tropical cyclone(TC)intensity from three forecast centers in the Western North Pacific,i.e.China Meteorological Administration(CMA),Japan Meteorological Agency(JMA),and Joint Typhoon Warning Center(JTWC)of the United States.Results show that there is more or less discrepancy in the intensity change of a TC among different datasets.The maximum discrepancy reaches 22 hPa/6h(42 hPa/6h,33 hPa/6h)between CMA and JMA(CMA and JTWC,JMA and JTWC).Special attention is paid to the records for abrupt intensity change,which is currently a difficult issue for forecasters globally.It is found that an abrupt intensity change process recorded by one dataset can have,in some extreme cases,intensity change in another dataset varying from 0 to≥10 hPa/6h with the same sign or the opposite sign.In a total of 2511 cases experiencing rapid intensity change,only 14%have consensus among all the three datasets and 25%have agreement between two of the three datasets.In spite of such a significant uncertainty,the three datasets agree on the general statistical characteristics of abrupt intensity change,including regional and seasonal distribution,the relationship with initial intensity and TC moving speed,and persistence features.Notable disagreement is on very strong systems(SuperTY)and TCs moving very fast.


Right atrial aneurysm is an extremity rare congenital heart defect. We report a case which was diagnosed during the early fetal stage and operated on in a 2 week old neonate. Following median sternotomy, aneurysmectomy was performed under a cardiopulmonary bypass. Histopathological examination of the resected atiral tissue showed a lipotomatous degeneration and reduction of the muscular elements. There were no postoperative complications.


In accordance with the trend for mobile terminals to be high intensity and to have thinner layers, low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) materials with outstanding dielectric loss characteristics and diverse dielectric constants have been in demand, and the need for high-strength materials that can withstand external shocks has increased. Ca[(Li1/3Nb2/3)1−xTix]O3−δ (CLNT) has a quality factor over 14,000 and τf ≤ 10 when the dielectric constant is 41 ∼ 46, but its sintering temperature is high at 1150 °C. Therefore, it cannot be used as a LTCC component. This study aimed to lower the sintering temperature to 900 °C by adding a low-melting-point glass such as B2O3·SiO2·BaO and B2O3·SiO2·Al2O3. As the glass content in CLNT was increased from 10 wt% to 20 wt%, the density and the Q·f0 property decreased, and the dielectric constant rose. When B2O3·SiO2·BaO was added to CLNT at 15 wt%, the dielectric constant was found to be 27, the Q·f0 property to be 3470, and the τf to be −18 ppm/°C. When B2O3·SiO2·Al2O3 was added to CLNT at 10 wt%, the dielectric constant was 20, the Q·f0 property was 3990, and the τf was −15 ppm/°C. As such, in both cases, excellent dielectric properties were observed.


The stability of the electric power system is divided into transient stability, steady state stability and dynamic stability. Things that affect the performance of the generator include the addition of generators, changes in the load that vary in the system which have an impact on system stability and the distance between the generator and the load. The addition of a Virtual Synchronous Generator (VSG) is needed to improve the power system that is integrated with Renewable Energy Systems Source in maintaining system stability. When the integration between conventional generators and Renewable Energy Systems Source without Virtual Synchronous Generator (VSG) has a frequency response of 58.2 Hz when the generating capacity is -40% of the initial state, while integration between conventional generators and Renewable Energy Systems Source with Virtual Synchronous Generator (VSG) has a steady state response of 60 Hz even though the generating condition is 40% of the initial capacity of the generator. This means that the Virtual Synchronous Generator (VSG) can stabilize the return frequency in its nominal value on the system.
Keywords : Inertia, Conventional Generating, Renewable Energy Systems Source, Virtual Synchronous Generator (VSG).


Components with extraordinarily high analyte contents, for example copper metal from wires or plastics stabilized with heavy metal compounds, are presumed to be a crucial source of errors in refuse-derived fuel (RDF) analysis. In order to study the error generation of those 'analyte carrier components', synthetic samples spiked with defined amounts of carrier materials were mixed, milled in a high speed rotor mill to particle sizes <1 mm, <0.5 mm and <0.2 mm, respectively, and analyzed repeatedly. Copper (Cu) metal and brass were used as Cu carriers, three kinds of polyvinylchloride (PVC) materials as lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) carriers, and paper and polyethylene as bulk components. In most cases, samples <0.2 mm delivered good recovery rates (rec), and low or moderate relative standard deviations (rsd), i.e. metallic Cu 87–91% rec, 14–35% rsd, Cd from flexible PVC yellow 90–92% rec, 8–10% rsd and Pb from rigid PVC 92–96% rec, 3–4% rsd. Cu from brass was overestimated (138–150% rec, 13–42% rsd), Cd from flexible PVC grey underestimated (72–75% rec, 4–7% rsd) in <0.2 mm samples. Samples <0.5 mm and <1 mm spiked with Cu or brass produced errors of up to 220% rsd (<0.5 mm) and 370% rsd (<1 mm). In the case of Pb from rigid PVC, poor recoveries (54–75%) were observed in spite of moderate variations (rsd 11–29%). In conclusion, time-consuming milling to <0.2 mm can reduce variation to acceptable levels, even given the presence of analyte carrier materials. Yet, the sources of systematic errors observed (likely segregation effects) remain uncertain.


As soon as the end of the XIXth century, the still young pharmaceutical industry wanted to promote their specialties, using various supports. Among them, one can find the so-called "house-organs" or company's journal which were characterized by a unique founding of one given company. The present article objective is to show the position of those journals within the advertising tools of the drug industry and to look at their contents, often more cultural than scientific ones. Some were published for several decades such as "Chanteclair" or "Visages du Monde", or for a short period of time. Those "house-organs" were considered as one of the best advertising tools for drugs, but only companies with large financial capabilities were able to sustain the publications for a while. Those journals disappeared almost totally after a century of presence on the pharmaceutical market.


Thyroid dysfunction is associated with multiple changes in lipoprotein metabolism, and we have determined the effects of thyroid dysfunction on plasma cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) activity. CETP is a plasma protein that mediates the exchange of cholesteryl ester and triglyceride between plasma lipoproteins and plays an important role in high-density lipoprotein metabolism and in the reverse cholesterol transport pathway. Plasma CETP activity was assayed in 18 hyperthyroid and in 17 hypothyroid patients, before and after treatment, by measuring the transfer of cholesteryl esters from exogenous radiolabeled high-density lipoprotein to apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins. Plasma CETP activity was increased in hyperthyroid patients, compared with their matched controls (22.11 +/- 8.92% transferred/5 microL.4 h vs. 16.75 +/- 6.48, P < 0.05), whereas in hypothyroid patients, plasma CETP activity was decreased (11.14 +/- 4.84% transferred/5 microL.4 h vs. 17.26 +/- 7.13, P < 0.01). Plasma CETP activity decreased after treatment of thyrotoxicosis, although a significant change was observed, mainly in the severely thyrotoxic patients with free T4 > 100 pmol/L (n = 11, 25.61 +/- 8.12% transferred/5 microL.4 h vs. 21.71 +/- 7.84, P < 0.05). In the hypothyroid patients, there was a significant increase in plasma CETP activity after thyroxine replacement (11.14 +/- 4.84% transferred/5 microL.4 h vs. 15.46 +/- 6.71, P < 0.01). There was a strong positive correlation between log(free T4) and plasma CETP activity (r = 0.51, P < 0.001). In summary, both hyper- and hypothyroidism are associated with significant changes in plasma CETP activity, and these changes are corrected when the patients have been rendered euthyroid.


The Oligocene-Miocene Catahoula Formation of the Texas Gulf coastal plain is a fluvial and lacustrine volcaniclastic unit composed of normal fluvial material mixed with distal rhyolitic air-fall ash. In the lower Texas Gulf coastal plain, it consists of stream-transported detritus from the volcanic source area in Trans-Pecos Texas and adjacent Mexico. This volcaniclastic component has altered to release uranium to mineralization processes in the lower Gulf Coast, but there has not been uranium production in the middle and upper Gulf Coast. To evaluate the potential of the upper Texas Gulf coastal plain for uranium ore deposits, a geochemical study was undertaken. The Catahoula Formation was analyzed for U, Th, K, Rb, Sr, Zr, and Ti to estimate the nature of volcanic glass and its abundance and alteration. Concentrations from three key outcrops were compared. They were also compared to samples from a volcanic area in Trans-Pecos Texas, which is chemically appropriate as a source for the volcanic material in the Catahoula Formation. In the lower Texas Gulf coastal plain, where uranium is produced, the glassy volcanic material has been pervasively altered, but in the upper coastal plain much glass remains. Because glass alteration is necessary for uranium release and concentration,more » the potential is low for large, shallow uranium ore bodies in the upper Texas Gulf coastal plain.« less


Uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) is a mitochondrial protein present in the inner mitochondrial membrane. They belong to the family of anion mitochondrial carriers. UCP2 are thought to have natural antioxidant effect by attenuating the generation of superoxides. Since cancer cells exhibit elevated oxidative stress, they can effectively adapt to this situation by upregulating UCP2. As a matter of fact, UCP2 is overexpressed in many forms of cancer including prostate, breast, lung and head & neck. Not surprising, our early studies demonstrate that knockout of UCP2 suppresses skin tumor formation in a multistage skin carcinogenesis model. The purpose of this study was to detect the impact of UCP29s upregulation on mitochondrial redox status and mitochondrial respiration, using the well characterized tumor promotion model, JB6p+ cells. Our results have demonstrated that UCP2 overexpression enhanced protein expression and activity levels of manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), a mitochondrial-resident enzyme that governs the egression of superoxides. To assess the impact of MnSOD upregulation on mitochondrial redox status, levels of superoxides and hydrogen peroxides were detected. Our results indicated that MnSOD upregulation maintained steady flow of hydrogen peroxides originating from mitochondria. We further examined the effect of UCP2 upregulation-induced MnSOD expression on mitochondrial respiration and glycolytic rate. In agreement with our data, cells overexpressing UCP2 had significantly higher oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and extracellular acidification rate (ECAR). In conclusion, our data suggests that UCP2 promotes carcinogenesis via decreasing superoxide generation whereas promoting hydrogen peroxide production via elevating MnSOD. Collectively, our results support the hypothesis that enhanced UCP2 expression sustains metabolic switch in cancer cells. Citation Format: Annapoorna Sreedhar, Yunfeng Zhao. The effect of UCP2 upregulation on cellular redox status and mitochondrial respiration. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 216.


Abstract We augment the $C^\infty $ conjugation approximation method with explicit estimates on the conjugacy map. This allows us to construct ergodic volume-preserving diffeomorphisms measure-theoretically isomorphic to any a priori given Liouville rotation on a variety of manifolds. In the special case of tori the maps can be made uniquely ergodic.


Abstract In a world with risk-neutral agents in which accidents occur with a positive probability, liability rules will only induce efficient behaviour if these rules impose the full (marginal) costs of an action on the parties. However, institutional restrictions or bilateral activity choices can prevent the full internalization of costs. A mechanism is proposed which guarantees an efficient outcome: monetary fines which are not related to the occurrence of an accident. Such a mechanism requires individuals to violate the standard of care in order to trigger the fine payments. Hence, efficiency requires an excessive standard.


It is well accepted that breast-feeding enhances the ability of newborns and infants to be protected against infection. Maternal nutritional status may affect this passive immunological defense mechanism because of either the change in the volume of milk or the alteration of the immunological components secreted in the milk. Diet restriction in lactating dams has been shown to influence the secretion of immunoglobulin in their milk. We investigated the specific role of caloric or protein restriction on immunoglobulin A (IgA) and IgG2a secretion in the milk of lactating rats. Both calorie- and protein-restricted dams had lower protein levels (milligrams per milliliter) than did the controls during the initial days of lactation (P less than 0.05). The levels (milligrams per milligram of protein) of IgA and IgG were higher in the milk obtained from calorie-restricted dams during the whole lactation period. The amount of IgA in the milk of protein-restricted rats was higher during 21 days of lactation, while the amount of IgG2a was higher only during the first 2 weeks of the lactation period compared with the respective values for the milk from control dams (P less than 0.05). Rats on a protein-restricted diet had lower IgA and IgG2a levels in their milk than those on a calorie-restricted diet at the second half of the lactation period (P less than 0.05). Our data suggest that the diet-restricted dams had a compensatory mechanism to ensure passive immunological protection for their pups during lactation. The compensation was diminished with a protein-restricted diet compared with a calorie-restricted diet.


New dihydroxytyrosyl esters 2a, 2c–2j of dicarboxylic acids were synthesized from methyl orthoformate protected hydroxytyrosol 3 and diacyl chlorides. New compounds were characterized (HRMS, FT-IR, 1H- and 13C-NMR), and tested for antioxidant activity both in vitro (ABTS) and on L6 myoblasts and THP1 leukemic monocytes cell culture by DCF assay. According to the ABTS assay, compounds 2a, 2c–2j showed a TEAC value of antioxidant capacity up to twice that of Trolox. Very high or complete ROS protections were obtained in the cell environment where lipophilicity and rigidity of dicarboxylic structure seem to facilitate the antioxidant effect. MTT assay and proliferation test were used for assessment of cell viability. These compounds can be envisaged as a new class of preservatives for food or cosmetic products.


At the Echo Bay mine, vein type U-Ni-Ag-Cu deposits occur along NE-SW-trending fracture zones in ca. 1,800 m.y. old andesitic tuffs. The temperatures of mineralization suggested by the occurrence of native bismuth and mckinstryite, the fluid inclusion filling temperatures, the sulphur isotopic compositions of coexisting sphalerite and galena, and the oxygen isotopic compositions of coexisting quartz and hematite were: around 120 degrees C for the first four stages, about 200 degrees C for stages 5 and 6, and below about 95 degrees C for the last stage. Data on the mineralogy, temperature, and the sulphur and carbon isotopic compositions of the hydrothermal minerals were used to evaluate the chemistry of hydrothermal fluids. The delta O 18 H2O and delta S 34 (sub sigma S) values and the initial high oxidation state of the hydrothermal fluids possibly reflect an origin as surface water. A model which involves the circulation and boiling of sea water caused by the intrusion of diabase at about 1,450 m.y. ago is presented to explain the concentration of salts, enrichment of O 18 , reduction of oxidation state, decreasing of pH of the fluids, and leaching of heavy metals from volcanic rocks.


Homeostatic control of plasma pH is a tightly-regulated mechanism that can be strongly influenced by dietary habits. The increased ingestion of acid-forming foods characterising Western diets can induce a mild but chronic metabolic acidosis documented by increased renal net acid excretion (RNAE). Increased consumption of fruit and vegetables as part of an alkalizing diet has been observed to reduce net endogenous acid production (NEAP), calculated here as dietary protein:K intake and used as a valid indirect estimation of RNAE. This analysis has examined differences in nutrient intake and NEAP between the intervention arm of the US WHEL Study (n 79), who consumed eight to nine portions of fruit and vegetables daily (WHEL diet), and the matched control arm (n 93), who consumed three to five portions of fruit and vegetables daily (National Cancer Institute (NCI) diet) over the first 48 months of the study. According to the US Food and Drug Administration one portion of vegetables is equal to one cup of raw leafy vegetables, or half cup of other vegetables (cooked or chopped raw) or three-quarters cup of vegetable juice; one portion of fruit is equal to one medium apple, banana, orange or half cup chopped, cooked or canned fruit or three-quarters cup of fruit juice. FFQ data were collected at baseline and at 12 and 48 months for 179 women followed in the northern California site of the WHEL study. Data were analysed for intakes of dietary Ca, K, Na, P, protein and NEAP. Plasma aand b-carotene concentrations were also measured, in concomitance with collection of FFQ, and used as markers of dietary compliance. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses were carried out using SPSS data analysis software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA); all variables were tested for normality. There were no differences in dietary composition, NEAP and plasma carotenoids concentrations between the groups at baseline. Both groups were compliant with dietary recommendations throughout the 48-month period. Plasma aand b-carotene concentrations were significantly higher in the WHEL group compared with the NCI group at both 12 months (P<0.005) and 48 months (P<0.005) after starting the dietary recommendations. The WHEL diet when compared with the NCI diet also provided higher intakes of Mg (mg/d) at both 12 months (372 (SD 94.1) and 329 (SD 88.2) respectively; P = 0.004) and 48 months (352 (SD 97.8) and 301 (SD 85.9) respectively; P= 0.001) and K (mg/d) at 48 months (3663 (SD 1055) and 2889 (SD 837) respectively; P= 0.001). There were no differences in protein intakes between the two groups at any point in time. Increased levels of K and steady intakes of protein resulted in a greater decrease in NEAP (mEq/d) for the WHEL group compared with the NCI group at 12 months (2166 (SD 524) and 1695 (SD 459) respectively; P= 0.001) and 48 months (2004 (SD 596) and 1561 (SD 467) respectively; P = 0.001). Increasing dietary K intake by consuming eight to nine daily portions of fruit and vegetables decreases NEAP compared with eating three to five servings daily. Lowering dietary net acid loads has been shown to lower urine Ca excretion and may be important for bone and muscle health. Further analysis of the effect of estimated dietary acidity on indices of bone health is currently underway.


As new computer technology moves into more and more workplaces, the study of its potential impacts on workers and their work is becoming increasingly common. However, such research is often weakened by a too-narrow conception of technology and technological change as primarily a technical issue. In fact, it is impossible to abstract the "impacts" of technology from the dense web of social relations and the complex milieu surrounding technology's design and use.

this article describes a different approach to studying technological change as a social and cultural process. Using ethnographic principles and methods, it reports on the key social and organizational issues surrounding the implementation of a complex computer system at a small manufacturing plant. It also argues that this ethnographic approach has special promise for helping work organizations analyze and understand their experiences with technological change.