This paper addresses the issue of whether or not social capital explains per capita CO2 emissions dynamics in Swedish counties in an augmented environmental Kuznets curve framework. By accounting for issues of endogeneity in the presence of dynamic and spatial effects using georeferenced emissions data, we show that per capita carbon emissions in a county matters for other counties and that net of economic, demographic and environmental factors, social capital has the potential to reduce carbon emissions in Sweden albeit less robustly. We test two different social capital constructs; trust in government and environmental engagement. Specifically, trust in the government inures to the reduction in CO2 emissions. Membership and engagement in environmental organisations reduces CO2 emissions only through its interaction with per capita income or trust. The implication of our estimates suggest that investment geared toward increasing the stock of social capital could inure to reductions in CO2 emissions in addition to climate policy instruments in Sweden


Background: The implementation of the newly formed First Nations Health Authority presents opportunities and challenges for the expanded role of the Community Health Nurses (CHNs) who work with the First Nations communities in British Columbia. A clear theoretical approach will assist these changes to increase the leadership capacity of these CHNs. Purpose : The purpose of this abstract is to present an evidence-based approach in a qualitative study to enhance leadership knowledge and skills for the CHNs and support their expanded role.  This approach will encompass quantum leadership theory and the complex adaptive leadership model. Implications : The imminent proposed system changes create an urgent need to provide increased clarity in the identified body of CHNs' roles and responsibilities. The author hopes the proposed study will discover an emergent shared vision of role-clarity and an empowered voice to speak out constructively for CHNs and for the First Nations Communities. Conclusions : This oral presentation of this thesis study hopes to present a compelling rationale to foster leadership for CHNs to work at full scope and develop greater clarity in all domains. Participants in this session will learn about key components of the proposed study and how this author hopes augment the CHN's engagement in organizational change. This approach will be presented as it relates to the current situation in British Columbia, and how the new information generated by this study can be utilized and adapted in public/community/community health across Canada.


Introduction: The outcome of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is significantly influenced by the total tissue ischemic time. In spite of efforts for reducing the in-hospital delay by full-time provision of primary percutaneous coronary intervention (P-PCI) in the 24/7 program, pre-hospital delay still persists. As a first report in Iran, we aimed to assess the duration of pre-hospital delay and its contributing factors in STEMI patients in the P-PCI era. Methods: The present cross-sectional study evaluated 2103 STEMI patients who underwent primary PCI from 2016 to 2018. Demographic, personal and socioeconomic factors, index event characteristics, past medical history, pain onset and door times of patients were recorded and independent factors of pre-hospital delay were calculated. Results: Median (IQR) of pain to door (P2D) time was 279 (120-630) minutes. In multivariate analysis, female gender [Beta=0.064 (95%CI: 0.003-0.125); p=0.038], being uneducated [Beta=0.213 (95%CI: 0.115-0.311); p<0.001], the onset of chest pain between 00:00 to 6:00 [Beta=0.130 (95%CI: 0.058-0.202); p<0.001] or 7:00 to 12:00 [Beta=0.119 (95%CI: 0.049-0.190); p=0.001], self-transportation [Beta=0.098 (95%CI: 0.015-0.181); p=0.020] or referral from another hospital [Beta=0.253 (95%CI: 0.117-0.389); p<0.001], atypical chest pain [Beta=0.170 (95%CI: 0.048-0.293); p=0.006], history of hypertension [Beta=0.052 (95%CI: 0.002-0.102); p=0.041], and opium abuse [Beta=0.076 (95%CI: 0.007-0.146); p=0.031] were associated with a significantly higher log(P2D), while history of CABG was associated with shorter P2D. Conclusion: Our study showed that P2D is still very high in Iran and revealed the high-risk groups associated with longer P2D. Effective actions should be implemented to increase the public awareness about the symptoms of STEMI, and the importance of immediate appropriate help-seeking.


There is no common accepted way for calculating the valve power loss of modular multilevel converter (MMC). Valve power loss estimation based on analytical calculation is inaccurate to address the switching power loss and valve power loss estimation based on detailed electro-magnetic simulation is of low speed. To solve this problem, a method of valve power loss estimation based on the detailed equivalent simulation model of MMC is proposed. Results of valve power loss analysis of 201-level 500MW MMC operating at 50Hz~1000Hz are presented. It is seen that the valve power loss of a MMC increased by 12, 40 and 93 % under 200Hz, 500Hz and 1000Hz operating frequency. The article concludes that in a device with isolated inner AC system, MMC operating at higher frequency will be more competitive than typical 50Hz/60Hz MMC with moderate increase of operating power loss and significant reduction of the size of the AC components.


We consider the fixed-budget best arm identification problem where the goal is to find the arm of the largest mean with a fixed number of samples. It is known that the probability of misidentifying the best arm is exponentially small to the number of rounds. However, limited characterizations have been discussed on the rate (exponent) of this value. In this paper, we characterize the optimal rate as a result of global optimization over all possible parameters. We introduce two rates, R go and R go ∞ , corresponding to lower bounds on the misidentification probability, each of which is associated with a proposed algorithm. The rate R go is associated with R go -tracking, which can be efficiently implemented by a neural network and is shown to outperform existing algorithms. However, this rate requires a nontrivial condition to be achievable. To deal with this issue, we introduce the second rate R go ∞ . We show that this rate is indeed achievable by introducing a conceptual algorithm called delayed optimal tracking (DOT).


In this work, we demonstrate the nanofabrication of monolayer MoS2 islands using local anodic oxidation of few-layer and bulk MoS2 flakes. The nanofabricated islands present true monolayer Raman signal and photoluminescence intensity up to two orders of magnitude larger than that of a pristine monolayer. This technique is robust enough to result in monolayer islands without the need of meticulously fine-tuning the oxidation process, thus providing a fast and reliable way of creating monolayer regions with enhanced optical properties and with controllable size, shape, and position.


This paper discusses the paradoxical trajectory that China's HIV epidemic has taken and the important role that its border with Burma plays in determining this unique epidemic pattern. After providing some brief background on the region that serves as the 'ground zero' for China's HIV epidemic I offer a discussion on the meaning of borders. Borders take on various meaning and significance to local, national, and international governing bodies. They assume a different level of importance, yet, to the people who inhabit the border. The Chinese-Burmese border is remote yet economically and strategically significant to the Chinese and Burmese governments in Beijing and Rangoon. It also, of course, holds great significance to the local governments that directly control and inhabit the territory on either side of the border. And it holds different significance, yet, for the local people who call this borderland home. A discussion of the various meanings this border holds both locally and nationally will explain why the HIV epidemic in China started in such a remote area before spreading to more urban centers. It will also highlight the need for directing more programmatic and policy related attention toward this important and strategic border area. I describe a nexus of relationships at the local and national levels that have become economically interdependent in a region that is fairly removed from the global economy. Their situation in a region where they have access to illicit yet economically lucrative resources has created what Manual Castells calls a 'perverse economy' (Castells 1998); a black hole in the global economy that easily nurtures the development of an HIV epidemic. The black hole I describe, however, sits at the crossroads of Asia, giving it strategic significance in the region.


Question: Although the restinga vegetation lies adjacent to the species-rich Atlantic Rainforest, fewer species thrive due to low available resources of the sandy substrate. We asked whether there is a specific set of functional traits related to the ability to attain high dominance in a restinga dominated by a CAM photosynthesis tree.

Location: Restinga of Jurubatiba National Park, north of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Methods: We chose traits that are commonly used in large screenings, leaf mass per area (LMA), leaf longevity (LL) and leaf nitrogen concentration (LNC). We also measured the functional traits, midday leaf water potential (Ψmin), pressure-volume curves, nitrogen isotope discrimination (δ15N) and chlorophyll fluorescence. We compared species using ANOVA and ordination analysis.

Results: The two most dominant species differed from subordinate species in terms of leaf succulence (SUC) and Ψmin. However, they were also significantly different from each other in LMA, SUC, leaf thickness and LNC. Ψmin and δ15N had the strongest loadings on the third ordination axis, which, despite explaining only 18.2% of total variance, was the only axis reflecting variation in species dominance.

Conclusions: Despite high interspecific variation, the most common traits of the leaf economic spectrum were not directly associated with variation in species dominance. In contrast, the bulk modulus of elasticity, Ψmin and δ15N were important not only to track the connection between plant traits and environmental factors, but also between plant traits and community structure.


Material flows are often encountered in the area of manufacturing processes. Simulation tools for the simulation of such material flows are used widely in the industry to predict and optimize the throughput in preposition of factory alterations or (re-)constructions. The simulation process itself is made up by an iterative sequence of modeling and simulation of a certain layout configuration. This iteration terminates when an adequate configuration has been found. In that context adequate means the trade-off between the amount of work and the best throughput achieved by a layout configuration found so far. This means that the found solution is mostly not necessarily the optimum and could be optimized further. This work presents a way to approach the aforementioned problem of simulation model generation by the use of design languages. An abstract representation of the model is created that can be used as input to a simulation program. By means of rule-based information processing techniques the abstract representation can be modified, creating new input for the simulation tool and thus speeding up the generation of new simulation models. Furthermore these rules, so-called design patterns, contain the engineer's know-how and provide e.g. proven component configurations. The suggested design language approach to simulation model generation is outlined with several examples in the area of material flow simulation pointing out the potentials of design patterns. By using that approach it could be possible in the future to use e.g. genetic algorithms for creation of layout configurations to find suitable solutions as the whole simulation model generation consists only of a computerized execution of design patterns.Copyright © 2006 by ASME


The finite difference time-domain (FDTD) method is one of the most widely used computational methods in electromagnetics. Using FDTF, Maxwell's equations are solved directly in the time domain via finite differences and time stepping. the basic approach is relatively easy to understand and is an alternative to the more usual frequency-domain approaches. In order to take advantage of this, an interactive personal computer program based on FDTD has been developed. The program directly solves Maxwell's equation via finite differences. The solution is for one dimension, corresponding to normal incidence propagation through a planar stratified medium. The program displays an electromagnetic pulse as it propagates through the medium. Since Maxwell's equations are solved directly, the reflected and transmitted pulse amplitudes demonstrate how the reflection and transmission coefficients determine reflected and transmitted wave amplitudes. Since lossy material layers can be included, frequency dispersion can be demonstrated. >


We read with interest the Points/Counterpoints recently published in Clinical Chemistry by Longshore [1] and Nolte [2], discussing different models of delivering molecular diagnostics. Although we recognize the increased pressure to control costs in delivering services to patients, and in particular laboratory tests, the trend toward consolidation and volume-based models can be seriously questioned, especially considering how the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak has so deeply deranged our laboratory practice and almost dismantled our routine "comfort zone". The postulated advantages of core molecular laboratory and consolidated model advocated by Longshore, and based on "operating efficiency" and better utilization of testing platforms, have become almost obsolete, overwhelmed by the need for an effective, rapid and accurate etiological diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) on respiratory tract specimens, which shall be performed in almost every hospital and healthcare facility, for enabling timely identification and isolation of positive cases. Owing to potential preanalytical and analytical vulnerabilities of rRT-PCR assays [3], together with the huge number of patients' samples that need to be analyzed in many different settings, the centralized model not only generates bottlenecks for effective diagnosis and treatment of patients, but may also contribute to foster an explosive spreading of this pandemic. Most countries have so far demonstrated their capacity to test a modest, virtually insufficient, number of suspected coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, whereby molecular testing has only been reserved to severely ill patients or to highrisk patient groups (e.g. heavily symptomatic patients or contacts of positive cases). This limitation has been clearly perceived by many patients, physicians and politicians worldwide as soon as the SARS-CoV-2 has become pandemic. It has hence been soon realized that insufficient capacity to enable accurate and timely results of molecular diagnostics was due, at least in part, to consolidation, downsizing and general underfunding that clinical laboratories have experienced in the last decades, a process orchestrated for fulfilling the vision that laboratory tests are commodities, as a consequence of the scarce appreciation of their value in guiding patient management and favorably influencing clinical outcomes. The compelling need of very rapid turn-around time (TAT) for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 with RT-PCR, sample vulnerability during transportation, as well as the possibility that respiratory specimens of patients with negative test results but high clinical suspicion/probability of infection shall be recollected and re-tested, must now discourage further suggestion of adopting consolidated models. A more widely distributed organization based on integrated molecular technologies and professional expertise available in departments of laboratory medicine is now unavoidable for providing rapid, accurate and effective laboratory services in every hospital and healthcare facility, thus aiming for a "zero-kilometer" laboratory service [4]. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has contributed to emphasize the centrality of public clinical laboratories in accurate diagnosis, prognostication and therapeutic monitoring of COVID-19, as well as its vital role within projects of epidemiological surveillance [5]. This, in turn, should lead laboratory professionals, physicians and politicians to open a debate on the dangerous effects when consolidation models have been applied to laboratory medicine in the last decades.


Use this guide to find a wide range of interdisciplinary resources and information about public health topics. Resources that have mobile websites or apps


The search for novel pharmacological tools in spider venoms involves the need for precise and reproducible species identification methods. As an addition to morphological analysis, we have developed venom fingerprinting by reversed-phase chromatography and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS) as an efficient and precise venom identification tool. In order to compare the possible use of liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS) as an additional venom characterization tool, we have applied both methodologies to the study of several tarantula venom samples in the Pterinochilus murinus group. These species possess highly active venoms yet their taxonomy remains difficult. We demonstrate that both methodologies can be successfully applied to tarantula venom characterization. MALDI-TOFMS and ESI-MS gave similar overall profiles and allowed fine discrimination of samples. At least one venom sample was proven to belong to a completely different venom group. Coupling of ESI-MS with HPLC separation afforded a new dimension in venom analysis, with clear discrimination between components of similar Mr and gave a finer picture of venom composition, number of molecular species and molecular weight distribution.


Distributed generation is growing rapidly and it poses challenges to grid operations, especially on LV network. A set of sample networks are created based on the Hungarian LV distribution network to study the effects of distributed generation. These models represent accurately the overall LV network structure. Thus, conclusions based on them are valid for the Hungarian LV distribution network. Consumer models are also constructed, with focus on random behavior, based on actual measurements. The model networks utilize PV generation - as this gives over 99% of the DG in Hungary. Simulations are carried out on this model set to find the limits of PV DG in the network by voltage profile, without any smart control. Overhead lines will face voltage problems - even with just a small amount of PV generation, while cable networks can keep a good voltage profile. Two simple regulation methods are also tested.


Background Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an important risk factor for mortality from COVID-19. Remdesivir has been shown to shorten time to recovery in patients with severe COVID-19. However, exclusion of patients with severe kidney function impairment in clinical trials has led to concerns about kidney safety of remdesivir in patients with pre-existing kidney disease. Methods Retrospective propensity score matched cohort study of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 admitted with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) between 15 − 60 mL/min/1.73m2. Remdesivir-treated patients were 1:1 matched to historical comparators admitted during the first wave of COVID-19 (between March-April 2020) prior to emergency use authorization of remdesivir using propensity scores accounting for factors predicting treatment assignment. Dependent outcomes included in-hospital peak creatinine, incidence of doubling of creatine, rate of kidney replacement therapy initiation and eGFR among surviving patients at day 90. Results 175 remdesivir-treated patients were 1:1 matched to untreated historical comparators. Mean age was 74.1 (SD 12.8), 56.9% were male, 59% patients were white, and the majority (83.1%) had at least one co-morbidity. There were no statistically significant differences in peak creatinine during hospitalization (2.3mg/dL vs. 2.5 mg/dL, P = 0.34), incidence of doubling of creatinine (10.3% vs. 13.1%, P = 0.48), and rate of kidney replacement therapy initiation (4.6% vs. 6.3%, P = 0.49) in remdesivir-treated patients versus matched untreated historical comparators, respectively. Among surviving patients, there was no difference of the average eGFR at day 90 (54.7 ± 20.0 mL/min/1.73m2 for remdesivir-treated patients vs. 51.7 ± 19.5 mL/min/1.73m2 for untreated comparators, P = 0.41). Conclusions Remdesivir use in patients with impaired kidney function (eGFR between 15 − 60 mL/min/1.73m2) who present to the hospital with COVID-19 is not associated with increased risk of adverse kidney outcomes.


Heterogeneous ice nucleation occurs vis-à-vis nucleating agents already present in solution yet can occur within a rather broad range of temperatures (0 to ca. -38 °C). Controlling this temperature and the subsequent growth of resulting ice crystals is crucial for the survival of biological organisms (certain insects, fish, and plants that endure subzero temperatures), as well as in the context of medical cryopreservation and food science. In these environments, uncontrolled crystal shape and size can rupture the cell membrane causing irreversible and catastrophic damage. Antifreeze (AF) proteins and synthetic AF analogs address this issue to restrict crystal growth and to shape ice crystals. Yet, if the nucleation temperature is not controlled and occurs in a lower temperature range, nascent ice crystals will have grown to a significantly larger size before the AF agents can be active on their surface to halt or slow the Ostwald ripening process during recrystallization. At a higher nucleation temperature, diffusion of AF macromolecules is enhanced, and dynamic crystal shaping can start earlier, producing smaller crystals overall. While antifreeze proteins, the inspiration for these synthetic analogs, are always applied in a salt buffer aqueous environment (most typically phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) buffer), the heterogeneous nucleation events are stochastic and occur within a wide temperature range. Silver iodide (AgI), however, is a highly effective ice nucleation promoter as its crystal lattice structure is a 98% lattice match to the basal plane of hexagonal ice (Ih) crystals acting as a template for water molecule orientation and decreasing the interfacial free energy. Here, we expose the advantage of purposely seeding such nascent ice crystals with AgI at a defined and higher temperature (-7 °C) in ultrapure water (UPW) such that nucleation can only come from AgI (and also in AgI/PBS), resulting in the most potent synthetic IRI observed to date (at concentrations as low as 0.001 mg·mL-1).


Relative intensities of dielectronic satellite lines determined by radiative transition probabilities and autoionization rates are calculated for transitions 1s2lnl'-1s2nl', 1s2lnl'-1s22l (n = 4-10, l = 0-3) for Li-like ions with Z = 5-54 by using the perturbation theory method (Z-expansion). Relativistic effects are taken into account by the Breit-Pauli operators. It was observed that the relative factor intensity changes very sharply with n and Z due to redistribution between contributions of relativistic and correlation effects.


Excitatory amino acid transporter 2 (EAAT2), the gene of which is known as solute carrier family 1 member 2 (SLC1A2), is an important membrane‐bound transporter that mediates approximately 90% of the transport and clearance of l‐glutamate at synapses in the central nervous system (CNS). Transmembrane domain 2 (TM2) of EAAT2 is close to hairpin loop 2 (HP2) and far away from HP1 in the inward‐facing conformation. In the present study, 14 crucial amino acid residues of TM2 were identified via alanine‐scanning mutations. Further analysis in EAAT2‐transfected HeLa cells in vitro showed that alanine substitutions of these residues resulted in a decrease in the efficiency of trafficking/targeting to the plasma membrane and/or reduced functionality of membrane‐bound, which resulted in impaired transporter activity. After additional mutations, the transporter activities of some alanine‐substitution mutants recovered. Specifically, the P95A mutant decreased EAAT2‐associated anion currents. The Michaelis constant (Km) values of the mutant proteins L85A, L92A and L101A were increased significantly, whereas R87 and P95A were decreased significantly, indicating that the mutations L85A, L92A and L101A reduced the affinity of the transporter and the substrate, whereas R87A and P95A enhanced this affinity. The maximum velocity (Vmax) values of all 14 alanine mutant proteins were decreased significantly, indicating that all these mutations reduced the substrate transport rate. These results suggest that critical residues in TM2 affect not only the protein expression and membrane‐bound localization of EAAT2, but also its interactions with substrates. Additionally, our findings elucidate that the P95A mutant decreased EAAT2‐related anion currents. Our results indicate that the TM2 of EAAT2 plays a vital role in the transport process. The key residues in TM2 affect protein expression in the membrane, substrate transport and the anion currents of EAAT2.


High technology is challenging business enterprises to emerge into truly societal human systems. Such systems emerge by themselves, each time purposeful human beings interact with required systemic structures, for example, the bicycles and computers we interact with, purposefully. Human Systems Management (HSM) is responding pro-actively to this challenge. Building on the pioneering work of its founder, Dr. Milan Zeleny, HSM's Editorial Board is delighted to issue this call for research manuscripts that concern, of course, human systems management. Not long ago, we, the people, mutated from mere 'persons' into 'human beings'. Has the formal definition, however, of what a true system is – and what is not – also evolved or is this definition much more resilient, much more robust, than that of a human being? One stumbles on the word 'system' so frequently today, as if all things around us truly were systems, standing together unwaveringly steadfast, yet mostly under régimented constructs that produce an illusion of organization, namely those hierarchically bureaucratic (HB) ladders or pyramids of central authority and power. Their iffy, left-center-right particracy dogmas cause each successive 'crisis', wherein what 'the markets' will is what a few lustful for authority and power tyrants will. Can these obstinate business and economic failures end, without firms' exploring the coherently viable alternative of unified, whole systemic structures, which substitute the inappropriate technology of central authority and power, with the high technology of collegial control and responsibility? Can 'special' kinds of systems also help, namely autopoietic, self-managed and self-organized systems, just to name a few? How can régimented HB constructs ever be true systems, without being autopoietic, self-emergent and self-managed? Namely exactly how can a truly natural, societal human system be exogenously designed and managed, outside the spheres of allegory and science fiction? When starkly juxtaposed with the word 'management', as in 'systems management', a notion both statically complicated and dynamically complex comes alive. Add human purposefulness to systems management and voilà: the 'human systems management' notion comes to light. HSM seeks research manuscripts that assess the self-emergence process of business enterprises into the collegially societal human systems that new, high-technology goods and services require. Developing such goods and services also necessitates high-technology strategies and structures, which reciprocally support and are supported by the functional, business and corporate spheres of each business enterprise. All submitted manuscripts must reduce the anxiety caused by linguistic ambiguity. And they must contribute to the development of truly organizational, high-technology strategies and structures, which business enterprises both need and seek actively, not only to survive but also to prosper. Authors are requested to submit their manuscript electronically to the journal's Editorial Management System (http://msTracker.com/submit1.php?jc= hsm). For detailed instructions please visit http:// www.iospress.nl/journal/human-systems-managem ent/?tab=submission-of-manuscripts


Aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) has been used successfully to resect meningioma without leaving a residual mass. The authors report their experience resecting meningiomas in 17 patients using 5-ALA. Except for one case, all meningiomas fluoresced intra-operatively under the microscope. Invasion to the dura mater, brain parenchyma, or skull showed fluorescence, allowing for confirmation of residual tumor; total removal of the meningioma could be performed more easily, and unexpected neurological deficits could be prevented by precise removal of the tumor under the microscope. With invasion to the dura mater or skull in one case, the extent of dural removal was decided by 5-ALA fluorescence with 1- to 2-cm safety margins. In another case with parenchymal invasion, close removal of the tumor without leaving residual tumor could be performed with 5-ALA fluorescence. With the above methods, no serious side effects or complications occurred in this study. Not all meningiomas fluoresced with 5-ALA, and 5-ALA is available for about 95% of meningiomas. 5-ALA appears easy to use and helpful for finding residual tumor and preventing recurrences by total removal of meningiomas.


The commercial sale of herbicide resistant (HR) canola has raised questions about the benefits of this new technology for seed and chemical companies, farmers, consumers, and other players in the supply chain. In this paper, we argue that the pricing and adoption of HR canola in Canada can not be understood if producers are seen as being homogeneous. We develop a conceptual model of producer heterogeneity that represents the distribution of benefits among producers. In this context, some farmers benefit from the new technology leading to adoption, while others do not. Empirical evidence supports this argument. In addition, the new technology co-exists with the traditional technology.


Internet was born as a new technologic support, difference from analogous supports that shaped century xx masses' culture. Fragmentation, multiplicity, multidirectionality structure form systems foundational essence. Metaphor generated by rational thought, produce a wrong speech in the collective imaginary. Network is a long way from industrial notion,' of motorway information, to concentration a diagram that warrants security in a speed detriment. Internet is not defined by speed and instantiating values. Security and compatibility in information translation are the values that determine its configuration. Networks system organization is based on a functioning's diagram that industrial philosophy rejected as thought alternative. The most powerful intercommunication network between computer does not answer to the postindustrial line dynamism. In fact, it's alike to the labyrinthine space where Teseo emerged victorious, defeating Minotauro.


The existing ProCure21+ (P21+) framework deal for delivering healthcare construction projects for the NHS is due to end this September, and will be replaced by ProCure22, which could see a spend of £2 bn - £5 bn over four years. Against this backdrop, Ian Nunn ICIOB, a senior associate at multidisciplinary design, property, and construction consultancy solutions business, Pellings, reviews the different types of procurement options open to NHS Trusts, and considers their 'pros and cons'.


OBJECTIVES--To evaluate the role of Holter ST monitoring for identifying patients at risk of recurrent ischaemic events after acute myocardial infarction treated by thrombolysis. BACKGROUND--The natural history of myocardial infarction has changed with the introduction of thrombolytic treatment. There is now a lower mortality but a higher incidence of recurrent thrombotic events (reinfarction, unstable angina). Preliminary evidence indicates that Holter ST monitoring may be of prognostic value in patients with acute myocardial infarction, but there are limited data available in patients treated by thrombolysis. METHODS--Prospective observational study of 256 consecutive patients who presented with acute myocardial infarction treated by thrombolysis. All underwent 48 hour Holter ST monitoring early after thrombolysis (mean 83, range 48-180 hours) and were followed up for eight (range three to 12) months. RESULTS--Recurrent ischaemic events occurred in 45 patients (fatal reinfarction 17, non-fatal reinfarction 12, unstable angina 16). Also four patients died as a result of progressive heart failure, and a further 15 patients required revascularisation. Analysis of the Holter data showed that 32% of patients had at least one episode of isolated ST depression (> or = 0.1 mV) and 41% either ST depression or elevation (> or = 0.2 mV). Ischaemic episodes were silent in 95% of cases. Event free survival analysis showed a significant association between Holter findings and recurrent ischaemic events (ST depression: p = 0.009; ST depression or elevation: p = 0.002). The association remained significant when the end point was restricted to fatal or non-fatal reinfarction (ST depression: p = 0.005; ST depression or elevation p = 0.001), the period of greatest risk for patients with an abnormal recording occurred early after investigation. An abnormal Holter recording identified patients at risk of early (within 30 days) reinfarction with 79% sensitivity and 60% specificity. Although positive predictive accuracy was low (11%), a normal Holter recording was associated with 98% negative predictive accuracy. CONCLUSIONS--In patients treated by thrombolysis, ST change on Holter monitoring may be useful for identifying patients at increased risk of recurrent ischaemic events, and in particular early reinfarction.


Fluorescence microscopy, a central tool of biological research, is subject to inherent trade-offs in experiment design. For instance, image acquisition speed can only be increased in exchange for a lowered signal quality, or for an increased rate of photo-damage to the specimen. Computational denoising can recover some loss of signal, extending the trade-off margin for high-speed imaging. Recently proposed denoising on the basis of neural networks shows exceptional performance but raises concerns of errors typical of neural networks. Here, we present a work-flow that supports an empirically optimized reduction of exposure times, as well as per-image quality control to exclude images with reconstruction errors. We implement this work-flow on the basis of the denoising tool Noise2Void and assess the molecular state and three-dimensional shape of RNA Polymerase II (Pol II) clusters in live zebrafish embryos. Image acquisition speed could be tripled, achieving 2-second time resolution and 350-nanometer lateral image resolution. The obtained data reveal stereotyped events of approximately 10 seconds duration: initially, the molecular mark for initiated Pol II increases, then the mark for active Pol II increases, and finally Pol II clusters take on a stretched and unfolded shape. An independent analysis based on fixed sample images reproduces this sequence of events, and suggests that they are related to the transient association of genes with Pol II clusters. Our work-flow consists of procedures that can be implemented on commercial fluorescence microscopes without any hardware or software modification, and should therefore be transferable to many other applications.


This paper identifies five distinct mechanisms by which a population-based algorithm might have an advantage over a solo-search algorithm in classical optimization. These mechanisms are illustrated through a number of toy problems. Simulations are presented comparing different search algorithms on these problems. The plausibility of these mechanisms occurring in classical optimization problems is discussed. The first mechanism we consider relies on putting together building blocks from different solutions. This is extended to include problems containing critical variables. The second mechanism is the result of focusing of the search caused by crossover. Also discussed in this context is strong focusing produced by averaging many solutions. The next mechanism to be examined is the ability of a population to act as a low-pass filter of the landscape, ignoring local distractions. The fourth mechanism is a population's ability to search different parts of the fitness landscape, thus hedging against bad luck in the initial position or the decisions it makes. The final mechanism is the opportunity of learning useful parameter values to balance exploration against exploitation.


In keeping with the trend to greater use of digital circuits for signal processing, a project was undertaken to realize in an exploratory way an important telecommunication function using as great a proportion of digital hardware as possible. The function chosen is that of the A -channel bank; viz., the frequency division multiplexing (FDM) of 12 voiceband signals onto a single wire. Because of the nature of its operation the device to be described can also perform a translation between FDM analog signals and time division multiplexed (TDM) digital signals. This paper describes the overall system design of the device with particular emphasis on a noise analysis. The principal sources of noise are the A/D conversion points and the roundoff points that occur at the outputs of multipliers. Each noise source is examined in turn and its contribution to the total noise assessed. It is concluded that the A/D conversion points are the most important noise sources and the most costly to deal with.


Remote sensing tasks play a very important role in the domain of sensing and measuring, and can be very specific. Advances in computer vision techniques allow for the extraction of various information from remote sensing satellite imagery. This information is crucial in making quantitative and qualitative assessments for monitoring of forest clearing in protected areas for power lines, as well as for environmental analysis, in particular for making assessments of carbon footprint, which is a highly relevant task. Solving these problems requires precise segmentation of the forest mask. Although forest mask extraction from satellite data has been considered previously, no open-access applications are able to provide the high-detailed forest mask. Detailed forest masks are usually obtained using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that set particular limitations such as cost and inapplicability for vast territories. In this study, we propose a novel neural network-based approach for high-detailed forest mask creation. We implement an object-based augmentation technique for a minimum amount of labeled high-detailed data. Using this augmented data we fine-tune the models, which are trained on a large forest dataset with less precise labeled masks. The provided algorithm is tested for multiple territories in Russia. The F1-score, for small details (such as individual trees) was improved to 0.929 compared to the baseline score of 0.856. The developed model is available in an SAAS platform. The developed model allows a detailed and precise forest mask to be easily created, which then be used for solving various applied problems.


Research shows that placebo analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia can be induced through observational learning. Our aim was to replicate and extend these results by studying the influence of the type and colour of stimuli used as placebos on the placebo effects induced by observational learning. Three experimental and two control groups were tested. All participants received pain stimuli of the same intensity preceded by colour lights (green and red) or geometric shapes (circles and squares). Before receiving pain stimuli, participants in the experimental groups, but not in the control groups, observed a model who rated pain stimuli that were preceded by either green lights (green placebo group), red lights (red placebo group), or circles (circle placebo group) as being less painful than those preceded by either red lights (green placebo group), green lights (red placebo group), or squares (circle placebo group). As a result participants in the experimental groups rated pain stimuli preceded by either green lights (green placebo group), red lights (red placebo group), or circles (circle placebo group) as being less painful than the participants in the control groups did, indicating that placebo effect was induced. No statistically significant differences were found in the magnitudes of the placebo effects between the three experimental groups (green placebo, red placebo, and circle placebo groups), indicating that neither the type nor the colour of placebo stimuli affected the placebo effects induced by observational learning. The placebo effects induced by observational learning were found to be unrelated to the individual differences in pain anxiety, fear of pain, and empathy.


Orientation to the operating room is lengthy, complex, and challenging for everyone involved in its process. To assure success, everyone involved needs to be clear about expectations, goals, and ability to meet the challenges that perioperative patients require. Various teaching methods exist for direct learning activities. They are the most successful when they match the learner's needs and learning style. Critical thinking ability should also be stressed as the orientee learns to apply theory to real life situations.


Universal lesion detection in computed tomography (CT) images is an important yet challenging task due to the large variations in lesion type, size, shape, and appearance. Considering that data in clinical routine (such as the DeepLesion dataset) are usually annotated with a long and a short diameter according to the standard of Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) diameters, we propose RECIST-Net, a new approach to lesion detection in which the four extreme points and center point of the RECIST diameters are detected. By detecting a lesion as keypoints, we provide a more conceptually straightforward formulation for detection, and overcome several drawbacks (e.g., requiring extensive effort in designing data-appropriate anchors and losing shape information) of existing bounding-box-based methods while exploring a single-task, one-stage approach compared to other RECIST-based approaches. Experiments show that RECIST-Net achieves a sensitivity of 92.49% at four false positives per image, outperforming other recent methods including those using multi-task learning.


Abstract Bileaflet mechanical heart valves (BMHV) create unphysiological turbulent flow. Such turbulent flow involves multiple instability mechanisms interacting with one another in a confined geometry. For instance, an impinging leading-edge vortex (ILEV) instability creates disturbances at the leading edge of the valve leaflets, while potentially promoting turbulence downstream of the BMHV (Zolfaghari and Obrist, Phys. Rev. Fluids, vol. 4, 2019). In this article, we use adjoint-based methods to study the structural sensitivity of the ILEV instability in the BMHV, and to quantify the role of this instability in the maximum disturbance energy growth in the wake of the BMHV. We first present a direct numerical simulation to show the effect of the ILEV instability on the turbulent flow in the wake of the valve. Second, we perform a modal linear stability analysis on a two-dimensional subdomain attached to the leading edge of one leaflet. We investigate the sensitivity of the global modes associated with this flow using their adjoints, and then show a passive control scenario using a local feedback source. This results in a partial improvement in the flow oscillations downstream of the leaflets. We finally present a non-modal approach to identify the optimal initial conditions for achieving maximum energy growth at arbitrary locations. We show that, for sufficiently large times, the optimal initial condition for highest energy growth in the wake points at the leading edge, which includes the ILEV instability. Our study illustrates that an improved leading-edge shape can effectively reduce turbulence in the wake of the BMHV.


Interstitial brachytherapy for treatment of prostate cancer with radioactive gold--initially with liquid gold and later with seed technique--is based on an experience of more than four decades. With biopsy results approaching a 80% negative rate, and, at 5 years, a cancer specific survival of 100% for Stages A and B1, 90% for Stage B2, and 76% for Stage C, this form of treatment offers an effective and well-tolerated alternative mode of therapy for patients with localized prostate cancer.


Objective: To examine the attitudes among practicing physicians of various specialties toward homosexuality and its association with participants' religious affiliations in India.
Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among physicians about their attitudes toward homosexuality between December 2018 and January 2019. Participants completed a survey anonymously in hardcopy form or online. The survey was developed based on the Attitude Toward Homosexuality Scale for Indians (AHSI). A higher AHSI score indicates less homonegativity. It was modified by adding demographic details, career status, and personal experience with homosexual individuals.
Results: The study results showed that among 106 respondents, 81 were men with a mean (SD) age of 32.2 (7.3) years. Of the participants, 40 (37.7%) were MBBS graduates with no specialization, while 34 (32.1%) and 32 (30.2%) respondents were from medical and surgical specialties, respectively. The majority of the respondents were Muslim (43.4%), followed by Hindu (35.8%), Christian (10.4%), those not conforming to any religion (5.7%), and other religions (4.7%). The mean ± SD total score on the AHSI was 69.6 ± 17.7, which was higher than the mean neutral score of 60. The AHSI total score was significantly higher among women (P < .001). The total AHSI score was highest among the no religion category followed by Hindus, with the lowest for biblical religions; the difference was statistically significant (P < .001). No significant difference was seen between Muslims and Christians.
Conclusions: This study showed an overall positive attitude among the respondents toward homosexuality; however, those belonging to Abrahamic religions, especially Muslims, had more negative attitudes. The results highlight the need for antistigma campaigns and educational interventions targeting the physician population of India to reduce negative attitudes toward homosexuality and improve their knowledge of this topic.


Key Takeaways Following several individual initiatives by member state competition authorities to temporarily relax competition rules in specific sectors, the European Competition Network (which…


DISSERTATION: A Performer's Guide to Selected Solo Vocal Works of the Second Viennese School with a Complete Catalog STUDENT: Loralee Songer DEGREE: Doctor of Arts COLLEGE: Fine Arts DATE: December, 2010 PAGES: 320 This study presents pertinent information for singers and teachers of singers about selected vocal works written by three significant composers who were active during the first half of the twentieth century: Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg, also referred to as The Second Viennese School. The vocal works of these composers are often neglected due to the assumption that the works will be atonal and, therefore, musically unachievable for performers and unsatisfying for audiences. For each composer, information about his educational background and compositional style is provided, in addition to commentary on representative vocal works supported by musical examples. A significant part of this research includes interviews with renowned singers who supply advice for practice and performance-related suggestions. In order for singers and teachers to obtain essential information regarding these solo vocal works, a complete catalog is provided.


New bounds on the rate distortion function of certain stationary time-discrete and time-continuous sources, with a proportional-weighted mean-square error (MSE) distortion measure, are given. The growth, g, of the rate distortion function, as a result of changing from a non-weighted MSE distortion measure to a proportional-weighted distortion criterion is analyzed. It is shown in the time-discrete case that for a small distortion d, the growth g, and the difference between the rate distortion functions of a Gaussian, memoryless source and a source with memory, both with the same marginal statistics and MSE distortion measure, share the same upper bound.


Metal doping was adopted to modify TiO 2 (P-25) and enhance the photocatalytic degradation of harmful cyanides in aqueous solution. Ni, Cu, Co, and Ag doped TiO 2 were found to be active photocatalysts for UV light induced degradation of aqueous cyanides generating cyanate, nitrate and ammonia as main nitrogen-containing products. The photoactivity of Ni doped TiO 2 was greatly affected by the state of Ni, that is, the crystal size and the degree of reduction of Ni. The modification effects of some mixed oxides, that is, Ni-Cu/ TiO 2 were also studied. The activity of Ni-Cu/TiO 2 for any ratio of Cu/Ni was higher than that of Ni- or Cu-doped TiO 2 , and the catalyst at the Cu/Ni ratio of 0.3 showed the highest activity for cyanide conversion.


For several new applications, FPGA-based computation has shown better latency and energy efficiency compared to CPU or GPU-based solutions. We note two clear trends in FPGA-based computing. On the edge, the complexity of applications is increasing, requiring more resources than possible on today's edge FPGAs. In contrast, in the data center, FPGA sizes have increased to the point where multiple applications must be mapped to fully utilize the programmable fabric. While these limitations affect two separate domains, they both can be dealt with by using dynamic partial reconfiguration (DPR). Thus, there is a renewed interest to deploy DPR for FPGA-based hardware. In this work, we present Doing More with Less (DML) – a methodology for scheduling heterogeneous tasks across an FPGA's resources in a resource efficient manner while effectively hiding the latency of DPR. With the help of an integer linear programming (ILP) based scheduler, we demonstrate the mapping of diverse computational workloads in both cloud and edge-like scenarios. Our novel contributions include: enabling IP-level pipelining and parallelization to exploit the parallelism available within batches of work in our scheduler, and strategies to map and run multiple applications simultaneously. We consider the application of our methodology on real world benchmarks on both small (a Zedboard) and large (a ZCU106) FPGAs, across different workload batching and multiple-application scenarios. Our evaluation proves the real world efficacy of our solution, and we demonstrate an average speedup of 5X and up to 7.65X on a ZCU106 over a bulk-batching baseline via our scheduling strategies. We also demonstrate the scalablity of our scheduler by simultaneously mapping multiple applications to a single FPGA, and explore different approaches to sharing FPGA resources between applications.


Haematological indices and parameters of iron status were obtained from 29 normal male subjects and from 32 male blood donors. Percentage saturation of transferrin with iron and the usual erythrocyte parameters of iron status were similar in both group of subjects. The mean ferritin concentration was 64.75 ng/ml +/- 4.6 (SEM) in normal males and 49.19 ng/ml +/- 5.1 (SEM) in the male donors. This difference was statistically significant (p less than .05). Serum ferritin concentration thus appears to be a sensitive index of iron stores. The results also indicate that some blood donors may be pre-latent or latent iron deficient at the time of donation and may manifest as iron deficient after blood donation. Based on these findings, it is suggested that blood donors be given iron supplementation and those who do not meet the minimum screening haemoglobin concentration be further investigated and treated.


With increasing frequency the atmospheric attenuation of radio waves on Earth-space paths increases mainly because of absorption due to rain. To achieve operation of a 20/30-GHz satellite link with a high level of transmission quality, therefore, an effective measure to counteract distortion due to attenuation has to be established. Instead of implementing a high rain fade margin at each station, a fade countermeasure strategy is proposed combining up-link power control (UPC) and adaptive resource sharing (ARS) by allocating a common satellite-based back-up capacity to a link suffering from attenuation. Implementation of the common resource can be realised rather effectively within a TDMA network by allocating an extra time slot to the link(s) affected by attenuation. This additional time interval is used for transmission of redundant coding bits or for enabling utilisation of a lower transmission bit rate to meet the required transmission quality in case of degraded carrier-to-noise ratio. By proper allocation of the required resource with respect to the current attenuation level, economic use of the expensive satellite capacity can be obtained.


One of the big challenges facing the Government of Cameroon is how to finance and provide healthcare access to more than 79% workers in agriculture and the informal sector. This study intends to analyze the contribution of community health financing to the demand solvability of the worker's healthcare in the informal sector in Cameroon. Using the logistic regression model of use of health care services, which is based on descriptive statistics and survey data (EUDN-ILO, 2010) in certain regions of the country in particular the Centre, North-West and Far-North regions, findings reveal that community healthcare financing is an important tool for the solvability of workers in the informal sector, as concerns their demand for healthcare. In addition, the determinants that have proven to be significant regarding the participation of workers in the informal sector in community health financing are marital status (monogamy), level of education, religious affiliation and distance.


Hair follicles (HFs) are a well‑characterized niche for adult stem cells (SCs), and include epithelial and melanocytic SCs. HF cells are an accessible source of multipotent adult SCs for the generation of the interfollicular epidermis, HF structures and sebaceous glands in addition to the reconstitution of novel HFs in vivo. In the present study, it was demonstrated that HF cells are able to be induced to differentiate into cardiomyocyte‑like cells in vitro under specific conditions. It was determined that HF cells cultured on OP9 feeder cells in KnockOut‑Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium/B27 in the presence of vascular endothelial growth factors differentiated into cardiomyocyte‑like cells that express markers specific to cardiac lineage, but do not express non‑cardiac lineage markers including neural stem/progenitor cell, HF bulge cells or undifferentiated spermatogonia markers. These cardiomyocyte‑like cells exhibited a spindle‑ and filament‑shaped morphology similar to that presented by cardiac muscles and exhibited spontaneous beating that persisted for over 3 months. These results demonstrate that SC reprogramming and differentiation may be induced without resulting in any genetic modification, which is important for the clinical applications of SCs including tissue and organ regeneration.


Forty one cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever, confirmed by viral isolation, accompanied by neurological signs compatible to the diagnosis of acute encephalopathy were observed in 3 University Hospitals in Jakarta during the period November 1975 to December 1977. Two of these children showed typical signs and symptoms of Reye's syndrome confirmed by liver biopsy.


The paper presents the environmental impact of artisanal gold mining activities on the waters and sediments around Meli, northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia. Stream sediment, water, and tailing samples were collected in the dry season in January of 2019 and analyzed for heavy metals Cu, Zn, Pb, and As. The physicochemical parameters (pH, EC, major cations, and anions) of a few water samples were also measured. Flame atomic absorption spectrometry was used to determine the level of the metals in stream sediments. The results show that tailing has the highest concentration of metals followed by the stream sediments. The least concentrations are recorded in water for all metals. Pb has the highest mean concentration of all heavy metals in stream sediments, waters, and tailing samples. The mean Geo-accumulation Index (Igeo) and Contamination Factor (CF) suggest that the sediment represents uncontaminated to moderately contaminated classes. Concentrations of Cu and Zn in the water samples are generally within the maximum allowable concentration of the WHO, whereas concentrations of Pb and As are above the limit. Metal Index for surface and groundwater suggests that the area is polluted with heavy metals Pb and As. The main sources of the metals are assumed to be the sulfide ores facilitated by natural weathering processes and artisanal mining activities like excavations, crushing, grinding, and amalgamation processes.  The Gibbs and Durov plots show that major hydrogeochemical processes controlling the water chemistry are water-rock interactions with considerable mixing of water types.


In this paper, the aspect of "stability robustness" of linear systems is analyzed in the time domain. A bound on the structured perturbation of an asymptotically stable linear system is obtained to maintain stability using a Lyapunov matrix equation solution. The resulting bound is shown to be an improved bound over the ones recently reported in the literature. Also, special cases of the nominal system matrix are considered, for which the bound is given in terms of the nominal matrix, thereby, avoiding the solution of the Lyapunov matrix equation. Examples given include comparison of the proposed approach with the recently reported results.


In Finland, the incidence of cervical cancer has shown a decreasing tendency since the 1960s. The same trend, however, has not been noticed in the incidence of cervical adenocarcinoma. The reason for this is not known, although many studies have shown differences in the cause, epidemiology, and biology of the epidermoid and adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix. A total of 106 new patients with cervical adenocarcinoma were treated at our institution from 1976 to 1980, which represents 20.4% of all cervical carcinomas treated. The mean age of the patients was 58.1 years (range, 29 to 82 years) and the peak incidence was in the group 60 to 69 years of age. Most of the patients were postmenopausal (71.7%) and the main symptom was abnormal vaginal bleeding (78.3%). The proportion of Stage I was 61.3%. Combined operative and radiation therapy was used in 74.5% of the patients. The overall 5‐year survival rate was 65.1% (corrected 74.5%), which did not differ from that of patients with squamous cell carcinoma. The most significant prognostic factors were the size of the tumor, presence of pelvic lymph node metastases, and the stage of the disease.


Relief services for victims and others affected by emergencies and disasters are essential during these events and are often provided by nonprofit and voluntary organizations. The focus of this study was to assess informational communications provided through websites, focusing on emergency and disaster relief to determine if they communicated information with maximum effectiveness. The availability of information provided on these websites can directly affect how victims and the public are served. American Red Cross (ARC) chapters provided a convenient sample for study. We identified 646 ARC chapters in the United States; homepages were located for 588 (91.0%). We reviewed each homepage to document the availability (or absence) of nine elements recognized as being important for improving communications related to the provision of disaster and emergency services. ARC chapter website homepages had a mean of 3.4 (± 1.4) communication elements. Providing four examples, 74.3% included the organization's phone number, 32.0% provided links to other organizations involved in disaster response, 23.0% allowed visitors to sign up for automatic alerts or notifications, and 16.5% listed an email address for their organization. Emergencies and disasters are unpredictable. Having more communication elements available increases the likelihood that individuals affected by such events will connect with an organization's website and receive services. We suggest that our nine communication elements be considered when an organization develops or updates its homepage. Such contents can reinforce an organization's communication efforts by providing a recognizable source of consistent and reliable information for people experiencing emergency or disaster situations.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This study investigated impoliteness in relational contexts. Interlocutors analyzed the data from a Persian TV drama from two perspectives: intentionality and perception of impoliteness. Two relational contexts were identified: power-imbalance and power-neutral, each comprising two types of impoliteness: reciprocal and non-reciprocal. Reciprocal impoliteness occurred in hostile and conflictual situations where impoliteness was both intended by the speaker and perceived by the recipient as a direct face-attack. In non-reciprocal impoliteness, however, when power imbalance was due to family hierarchy, the recipient of impoliteness remained silent; in other situations, the intentional face-attack was tolerated, unless the recipient's social identity face was directly attacked. In power-neutral situations, impoliteness was not reciprocated when intimacy existed between the interactants. It was neither intended nor perceived as face-threatening; however, direct face-attack was reciprocal in hostile situations. The findings of the present study point to the significant role of the relational context in the interpretation of impoliteness.


OBJECTIVES
To determine the prevalence of thyroid auto-antibodies in specimens sent to Parirenyatwa hospital laboratory for thyroid function testing and to compare the thyroid status of these patients with that of apparently healthy subjects.

DESIGN
Cross sectional study.

SETTING
Immunology and radio-immunoassay laboratories, Parirenyatwa hospital, Department of Chemical Pathology, and Blood Transfusion Services, Harare.

SUBJECTS
212 blood samples submitted for thyroid function testing and 230 blood samples from apparently healthy blood donors.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Serum concentrations of free triiodothyronine (FT3), thyroxine (FT4), thyrotropin (TSH), and thyroid auto-antibodies; anti microsomal (M Ab) and antithyroglobulin (Ag Ab) antibodies.

RESULTS
The hyperthyroid subjects had median serum TSH level of 0.027 mIU/L (Q1 = 0.006, Q3 = 0.052), median serum FT3 level of 15.895 pmol/L (Q1 = 10.563; Q3 = 30.111), and a median serum FT4 level of 45.513 pmol/L (Q1 = 30.256; Q3 = 63.910). The goitrous subjects had median serum TSH level of 0.390 mIU/L (Q1 = 0.157; Q3 = 0.745). The blood donor group had median TSH value of 0.724 mIU/L (Q1 = 0.471; Q3 = 1.170). (Normal ranges: TSH = 0.167 to 2.80) Amerlite TSH-30 diagnostic kit; FT3 = 3.4 to 7.2 pmol/L; FT4 = 11 to 24 pmol/L) Amelex-MAB diagnostic kits) Thirty nine percent of the hyperthyroid subjects had either positive M Ab or Tg Ab or both. None of the goitrous subjects and the blood donors tested positive for neither M Ab, nor Tg Ab. No significant difference was found between the blood donors and the goitrous subjects for serum FT4 (P = 0.51). However, significant differences were found between the goitrous, the blood donor and the hyperthyroid groups with regards to serum TSH, serum FT4, and serum FT3 levels (p = 0.001).

CONCLUSION
Our findings indicate that the occurrence of thyroid auto-antibodies among the blood donors and the goitrous population was uncommon, but high in the hyperthyroid subjects. The increase of iodine intake through iodine prophylaxis could have had the side effects of iodine induced hyperthyroidism.


In the Shortest Superstring problem (SS) one has to find a shortest string s containing given strings s1, . . . , sn as substrings. The problem is NP-hard, so a natural question is that of its approximability. One natural approach to approximately solving SS is the following GREEDY heuristic: repeatedly merge two strings with the largest overlap until only a single string is left. This heuristic is conjectured to be a 2-approximation, but even after 30 years since the conjecture has been posed, we are still very far from proving it. The situation is better for non-greedy approximation algorithms, where several approaches yielding 2.5-approximation (and better) are known. In this talk, we will survey the main results in the area, focusing on the fundamental ideas and intuitions. 1998 ACM Subject Classification F.2.2 Nonnumerical Algorithms and Problems


Over the last decades, there has been a rapid growth in the size and complexity of electronic circuits. Since the clock speed of microprocessors is saturated around 3 GHz, computers are no longer able to keep up with the simulation challenges and new simulation approaches are required. SPICE-like simulation algorithms have many intrinsically sequential elements. With the availability of multi-core systems, several attempts have been made to speed up the circuit simulation process, in terms of parallelising the device evaluation or the matrix solution phase. However, these methods have resulted in limited speed-ups or compromised accuracy. Another existing issue is the barrier between device evaluation and matrix solution phases, which prevents the whole simulation process being parallelised. Most of the existing attempts on parallelising circuit simulation algorithm are based on the conventional and coarse grained methods. We propose new very fine-grained parallel approaches for the matrix solution and device evaluation phases with the possibility of mixed analysis of the two phases to totally parallelise the simulation process. Instead of the conventional direct matrix solvers we use highly parallel iterative methods. The motivation behind this approach is the availability of new parallel platforms and architectures for highly parallel and distributed simulations. SpiNNaker project is one of the new architectures which aims to model large-scale spiking neural networks on a massively parallel million-core system. The purpose of this work is proposing very finegrained parallel approaches and preparing the ground work for performing the proposed methods on highly parallel structures. In this work, the matrix solution part of the circuit simulation process is performed using a Jacobi-type iterative method. The proposed fine-grained parallel method distributes the solution of circuit equations across a large number of light-weight processors by allocating one processor to each circuit equation. The device modelling process is inherently a parallel task since modelling each device can be done independently. For the device modelling phase, we use the Secant method instead of conventional Newton-Raphson iterations to avoid the calculation of partial derivatives at each iteration. The proposed methods are applied to a number of benchmark matrices and test circuits and are optimised to work best on sparse systems. Simulation results confirm the functionality of the proposed Jacobi-type iterations in the parallel solution of matrix equations. Compared to a conventional direct matrix solution (LU-factorisation), the proposed fine-grained parallel iterative method performs better as the size of the problem increases with a speed-up of around 2.5x for the largest example matrix. Furthermore, by replacing the computationally intensive Newton-Raphson iterations for the device evaluation phase with the Secant method, which benefits from a much simpler algorithm, the simulation time is improved by a factor of 3 to 4 for the example circuits. Finally, simultaneous evaluation of the proposed parallel iterative method for matrix solution and the Secant method for device evaluation, to replace the conventional direct solution and Newton-Raphson iterations, resulted in a significant improvement in the simulation time of the under test circuits. The simulation results suggest that compared to the conventional sequential algorithm, the proposed fine-grained parallel approach has achieved an overall speed-up of 16x and 22x for the two test circuits.


Background: The essential constituents of cements like lime, silica and alumina are derived from earth's crust in which radioactive elements like uranium, thorium etc are also present in varying amounts almost everywhere. These two elements are considered as the parent elements of uranium and thorium radioactive decay series in which radon and thoron are produced respectively as decay products. In the present study the samples of ordinary Portland cement (OPC), Portland pozzolana cement (PPC) and some other cementious finishing materials like white cement, Plaster of Paris (POP), cement putty etc were collected and analysed for radium and radon concentrations along with radon exhalation rates. Materials and Methods: Alpha sensitive LR-115 Type II plastic track detectors commonly known as "Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors" were used to measure the radium and radon concentration. The alpha particles emitted from the radon causes the radiation damaged tracks. The Chemical etching in NaOH at 60 °C for about 90 minutes was done to reveal these latent tracks, which were then scanned and counted by an optical microscope of suitable magnification. By calculating the track density of registered tracks, the radon and radium concentrations along with exhalation rate of radon, were determined using required formulae. Results: The radon and radium concentration in various brands of cements found to vary from 333 ±9.9 to 506 ±13.3 Bq m-3 and from 3.7 ± 0.1 to 5.6 ± 0.2 Bq kg-1 while in various cementious finishing materials used in the construction, these were found to vary from 378 ±19.7 to 550 ± 9.8 Bq m-3 and from 4.2 ± 0.2 to 6.1 ± 0.1 Bq Kg-1, respectively. Based on the data the mass and surface exhalation rates were also calculated. Conclusion: The measurements indicate that there is marginal variation of the concentration of radium and radon in various brands of cements in India with lower levels in the cement samples having red oxide and higher levels in fly ash based cement samples but overall concentration levels of radon and radium are lower than that of average global values. Iran. J. Radiat. Res., 2006; 3 (4): 171-176


AIM
Anomalous maxillary median labial frenum may be associated with undesired effects such as persistence of diastema between anterior teeth or traction of marginal gingiva. The aim of this study was to propose a surgical frenum repositioning technique that is minimally invasive, safe, easy, reproducible, and predictable. Another objective of the study was to identify clinical scenarios that could have indication for labial frenectomy associated with early orthodontic therapy, so as to justify early frenum repositioning in children. A retrospective assessment of clinical outcomes of this technique is described.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 20 frenectomies were performed on children aged 8 to 10 years. Frenectomies were performed with Er:YAG laser set at 150mJ 2.25-3.0W and 15-20 pulse per second, with water spray. Recall visits were done at 7, 21 and 90 days and 1, 2, 3 and 4 years.

RESULTS
At post-operative visits, all patients reported no post-operative pain or minimal discomfort. None experienced post-operative bleeding at a distance of few hours. All patients reported that the procedure was well tolerated and "acceptable". No recurrences occurred 4 years after frenectomy.

CONCLUSION
The Er:YAG laser used in this study allowed considerable reduction of the operating time, reducing the amount of local anaesthetic used as well as avoiding surgical sutures. The surgical design and technique also minimised post-operative discomfort and complications resulting in stable healing overtime, making the procedure fully accepted by children.


Screening of bioactive components is important for modernization and quality control of herbal medicines, while the traditional bioassay-guided phytochemical approach is time-consuming and laborious. The presented study proposes a strategy for rapid screening of active components from herbal medicines. As a case study, the quantitative pattern–activity relationship (QPAR) between compounds and the osteoclastic inhibitory effect of Herba epimedii, a widely used herbal medicine in China, were investigated based on joint models. For model construction, standard mixtures data showed that the joint-action models are better than the partial least-squares (PLS) model. Then, the Good2bad value, which could reflect components' importance based on Monte Carlo sampling, was coupled with the joint-action models for screening of active components. A compound (baohuoside I) and a component composed of compounds with retention times in the 6.9–7.9 min range were selected by our method. Their inhibition rates were higher than icariin, the key bioactive compound in Herba epimedii, which could inhibit osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption in a previous study. Meanwhile, the half-maximal effective concentration, namely, EC50 value of the selected component was 7.54 μg/mL, much smaller than that of baohuoside I—77 μg/mL—which indicated that there is synergistic action between compounds in the selected component. The results clearly show our proposed method is simple and effective in screening the most-bioactive components and compounds, as well as drug-lead components, from herbal medicines.


This paper provides experimental estimates of the impact of a voucher for private care within the Nordic system of universal provision of public care. The private daycare voucher acted as a significant boost for new daycare entrepreneurs to enter the market thus increasing the overall daycare provision in the municipalities participating in the experiment. In a market that was providing high-quality, low-cost public daycare, a voucher is nevertheless found to have a significant, positive effect for the use of private daycare with zero to negligible effects on the use of public care and labor force participation.


The legendary jazz trumpeter Chet Baker was one of the most iconic jazz figures of the second half of the 20th century. Being one of the greatest exponents of the cool style, he captivated a whole generation of artists, not going unnoticed on the film scene. This artist was a source of inspiration for famed photographer Bruce Weber, who accompanied him during his last year on tour for his documentary Let's Get Lost. Likewise, the life of this legend has also been brought into the realm of fiction with the biopic of Robert Budreau. This work aims to carry out a comparative analysis between the films Let's Get Lost (Bruce Weber, 1988) and Born to be Blue (Robert Budreau, 2015). Although both works focus on the life of the acclaimed trumpeter, the approach chosen by the directors is quite different. Thus, the object of study focuses on examining their stylistic and thematic differences, also delving into the profile of each of the directors in order to analyze the control they exercise in their respective films to endow them with a great sensitive and narrative power. In the same way, the use of music in both films will be examined to determine the role that music plays in each of the works and which compositions have decided to be included in one and the other.


In this paper, we investigate whether, because of differing social organisation, the effect of greater equality may have opposing effects on economic growth in different societies. We investigate a simple endogenous growth model where agents care about their status. This is determined by their ordinal rank in the distribution of consumption. In such a situation, each individual's problem becomes strategic as her utility will depend on the consumption choices of others, so that the equilibrium consumption and investment choices depend on the distribution of income. In this model, if individuals are concerned with their status when young, greater equality leads to more intense competition for status and thus higher levels of conspicuous consumption for a large mass of individuals, with a possibility of lower investment, and thus lower growth. If individuals are concerned with their status when old, the results are reversed.


Today's networked economy is a strategic combination of many factors with electronic platforms and relationships underpinning competitive advantage. Enabled and driven by information and communication technologies (ICT) and connectivity, the networked economy is challenging the fundamental bases of established government frameworks, conventional business practices and traditional marketing disciplines. To achieve business success in this techno-economic paradigm requires new ways of thinking for all.


Asset ownership is frequently used to assess the welfare status of households in rural areas of developing countries. Researchers often want to know the prior status of households or how that status has changed over time. In a case study in the Brazilian Amazon, we compare recall data with contemporary reports on assets from a panel survey. We consider multiple dimensions of the consistency of retrospective and contemporary data and seek to identify characteristics that lead to more accurate recall. We find that although retrospective data provide some information on past assets owned by households, they do not provide a highly accurate measure of either individual asset ownership or counts of types of assets owned. Consistent with previous studies, we find that items with greater salience are recalled more accurately. We also find that wealthier households exhibit upward bias when recalling assets owned in a previous period.


deposit of tubercle. In both, the lungs were in the same condition a.s in the case under consideration. In one, the chest was repeatedly examined by a very able and experienced surgeon, as well as by himself, without the discovery of a single sign to indicate disease in the lungs. The only symptom was a state of lowv fever, protracted thrountgl seven or eight weeks. The second case occurred under similar circumstances, and was of five weeks duration. Both occurred in young children.


The impact on global warming of transportation and the infrastructure that supports it has been investigated over several decades. Anthropogenic heat and the generation of greenhouse gases from burning of fossil fuels and are major contributors to the warming process. An approach to mitigate these effects is discussed that considers semi-closed cycle gas turbine engines as a practical approach to slowing the release of greenhouse gases. Semi-closed cycle gas turbine engines have an inherent capability to reduce all regulated emissions while maintaining high efficiency, which in turn reduces CO2 emissions.With emerging technology development that includes higher component efficiencies, high temperature material development, improved control devices, and advanced combustor designs, aided by computational fluid dynamics, semi-closed cycle engines appear to have the potential to mitigate global warming with little economic or infrastructural impact. A specific semi-closed engine type is described, the high pressure recuperated turbine engine (HPRTE), along with the inherent mechanisms for control of NOx, CO, unburned hydrocarbons, and particulates. Results from a breadboard demonstration of the HPRTE are discussed, as well as emerging technologies which benefit this type of engine.© 2001 ASME


The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on Indonesia's education system. Learning has had to be conducted remotely to prevent students from contracting COVID-19. The purpose of this study was to determine the innovations implemented by teachers so that learning could continue and to find out how student character can be strengthened through distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative approach was taken, using a case study design. Data were collected through interviews with informants. The results showed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, learning was carried out in online networks by utilizing technology. ZOOM and WhatsApp were the applications most often used in the learning process. It was also found that the character of students can be strengthened through distance learning. For example, some teachers suggested that students pray together with their close family and other relatives. Teachers also encouraged students to help with the house chores of the family.
Keywords: pandemic, COVID-19, learning, innovation, technology, character, students


Abstract This study analyses the role of the payment vehicle when conducting non-market valuations of health care services using stated preference methods. Based on a contingent valuation study conducted in Denmark encompassing more than 3400 respondents three important conclusions are drawn. Firstly, it is found that the valuation of a publicly financed ambulance helicopter service is higher than for an identical privately financed service. Secondly, the results suggest that the public premium is likely to be partly driven by altruistic preferences, and that some citizens value access to this type of service for all. An important driver is also perceptions of quality of services across the private and public sector. Finally, it is shown that exclusion of protest bidders is problematic and may bias welfare estimates. The take home message is that it is difficult to isolate the value of a good per se, and that analysts should take care in applying the payment vehicle that is likely to be applied in real life when valuing non-market goods. There has been little awareness of the importance of choice of payment vehicle in the literature to date.


The research is conducted to analyze the instruction utterances found in the movie The King's Speech based on the politeness strategy. It explores the politeness strategy to deliver the instruction, the politeness strategy to respond the instruction, and the factors influencing the choice of the strategy. The research uses pragmatics study to analyze the speech act of instruction. It also employs the descriptive qualitative research. All of the instruction utterances in the movie The King's Speech are taken as the data. There are 46 data which have been analyzed by Brown and Levinson theory of Politeness strategy. The findings of the analysis are as follows: First, the characters in the movie The King's Speech employ four politeness strategies to deliver the instructions. They are bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record strategy. Second, the characters in the movie The king's Speech respond the instructions in verbal and non-verbal form. They apply four politeness strategies to give verbal responses to the instructions. They are positive politeness, bald on record, off record, and negative politeness strategy. Meanwhile, the characters respond the instructions by doing act in the non-verbal responses. Third, there are several factors influencing the speakers to choose the strategy. To deliver the instruction, the use of bald on record strategy is influenced by the expert power, the legitimate power, and the close relationship between participants. Then, the use of positive politeness strategy is influenced by the factor of competing goals. The speakers having social distance with the hearers and a big rank of imposition tend to use negative politeness strategy. Last, off record strategy is used when the speaker finds that the size of imposition is greater than that afforded by the negative politeness strategy. To respond the instructions, the use of politeness strategy is influenced by the factor of competing goals. Bald on record strategy is influenced by the close relationship between participants and the legitimate power. The hearers use off record strategy to increase the force of the message while they respond the instruction. Then, negative politeness strategy is influenced by the factor of social distance. The research is expected to be beneficial for the readers in studying the politeness strategy of instruction. It is also suggested that other researchers conduct other studies about instruction done by less power participant to superior one in order to know more about real description of politeness strategy in today's communication.


It is unknown whether a power series ring over a strongly clean ring is, itself, always strongly clean. Although a number of authors have shown that the above statement is true in certain special cases, the problem remains open, in general. In this article, we look at a class of strongly clean rings, which we call the optimally clean rings, over which power series are strongly clean. This condition is motivated by work in [DDGK12] and [DDI+13]. We explore the properties of optimally clean rings and provide many examples, highlighting the role that this new class of rings plays in investigating the question of strongly clean power series.


Cerebral gas embolism is a rare and potentially fatal event that may occur as a complication of medical procedures and trauma. Radiologic diagnosis is remarkable and favours immediate treatment. We present an unusual case of massive fatal cerebral air embolism, diagnosed with multidetector-row computed tomography (MDCT), where final appearance resembled a negative contrast angiogram.

A female patient born with a meningomyelocele developed chronic renal insufficiency. She underwent kidney transplantation from a cadaver donor when she was 20 years old.

The patient presented with persistent haematuria and haemoptysis 6 months after the procedure. A chest CT scan demonstrated multiple lung …


The employee engagement dynamics and resultant human capital interventions and outcomes may vary significantly depending on the industry or region of the model. Regardless, one thing is certain: employees and their behavior are at the center of business success (or failure). Ensuring that employees invest discretionary effort in their right behaviors will be critical in delivering the business results needed in conditions of recession, stagnation, or rapid growth. The objectives of the study was to establish the influence of job design on employee productivity at County Government of Kajiado, to identify the influence of workplace conditions on employee productivity at County Government of Kajiado, to establish the influence of career growth on employee productivity at County Government of Kajiado, and to identify the effect of employee remuneration on employee productivity at County Government of Kajiado. The study aimed at exploring the influence of employee engagement on employee productivity at County Government of Kajiado. The respondents was the official from County Government of Kajiado. The study considered the Theory of Work Adjustment, Hierarchy of Needs Theory, and Krumboltz's Theory. This study adopted a descriptive research design.The Target population in this study was County Government of Kajiado with respondents being 800 employees of County Government of Kajiado. To come up with an appropriate study sample, the study utilized stratified sampling technique where the Government of Kajiado was classified based on level of management. The strata's was the top management, middle management and lower level management. Purposive sampling was then used to pick employees to participate in the study. The study administered structured questionnaires to obtain data from respondents. Prior to administering study instruments, a brief introduction was made to the respondents explaining the nature and importance of the study to the respondents during pilot and main study. Data collection was done by the drop and pick method. Pilot study was done on 20 employees from the County Government of Kajiado. The employees were not involved in the final study. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the help of SPSS version 21. Data collected was presented using tables. The data was becoded, assigned labels to variables categories and entered into the computer. Factor analysis was conducted. The study concluded that job design, workplace environment, career growth and employee remuneration had a significant positive relationship with employee productivity in county offices. The research found out that employees' productivity will improve is their jobs are well designed. Employees will perform best when their roles and responsibilities are clearly outlined, methods of performing the job stated, and allowing them to work in various departments.


Professor Jacques Signoret died last July 2007 at the age of 75. He was a physicist, a naturalist, an eminent embryologist possessing an impressive knowledge and a distinguished teacher. His name has become internationally associated with "Transition Blastuleenne" (Blastulean Transition) which he defined for the first time in 1971 in the urodele Axolotl. Jacques Signoret started his scientific carrier in Paris, first in 1952 as Assistant Professor of Physics in Pr. Louis Leprince-Ringuet's laboratory, then in 1954 as Assistant Professor of Embryology at the Paris University of Science under the leadership of Pr. Louis Gallien. Research fellowships from NATO allowed him to carry out two post-doctoral positions in the USA, first in 1959 at the California Institute of Technology in Albert Tyler's laboratory and in 1960 at the Indiana University in Robert Briggs's laboratory where he succeeded in performing for the first time nuclear transplantations in Axolotl. He came back to France in 1962, bringing back the Axolotl as a laboratory model and was appointed Professor of Embryology at the University of Caen where he taught until 1998.....(continued)


Background Theoretical models of the development of childhood externalizing disorders emphasize the role of parents. Empirical studies have not been able to identify specific aspects of parental behaviors explaining a considerable proportion of the observed individual differences in externalizing problems. The problem is complicated by the contribution of genetic factors to externalizing problems, as parents provide both genes and environments to their children. We studied the joint contributions of direct genetic effects of children and the indirect genetic effects of parents through the environment on externalizing problems. Methods The study used genome‐wide single nucleotide polymorphism data from 9,675 parent–offspring trios participating in the Norwegian Mother Father and child cohort study. Based on genomic relatedness matrices, we estimated the contribution of direct genetic effects and indirect maternal and paternal genetic effects on ADHD, conduct and disruptive behaviors at 8 years of age. Results Models including indirect parental genetic effects were preferred for the ADHD symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity, and conduct problems, but not oppositional defiant behaviors. Direct genetic effects accounted for 11% to 24% of the variance, whereas indirect parental genetic effects accounted for 0% to 16% in ADHD symptoms and conduct problems. The correlation between direct and indirect genetic effects, or gene–environment correlations, decreased the variance with 16% and 13% for conduct and inattention problems, and increased the variance with 6% for hyperactivity problems. Conclusions This study provides empirical support to the notion that parents have a significant role in the development of childhood externalizing behaviors. The parental contribution to decrease in variation of inattention and conduct problems by gene–environment correlations would limit the number of children reaching clinical ranges in symptoms. Not accounting for indirect parental genetic effects can lead to both positive and negative bias when identifying genetic variants for childhood externalizing behaviors.


The great majority of the studies conducted on the problem of creative accounting concerns large countries with developed capital markets. Their results are not necessarily applicable to small countries that have a different setting. Thus, this opinion study investigates why, how, to what extent, and in what direction earnings management is practised in Greece. The results obtained indicate that, despite the detailed accounting regulation, creative accounting is practised in Greece frequently, especially the legitimate one, and to a considerable extent (i.e. around 25 per cent of pre‐managed earnings). The schemes employed and several of the motives for earnings management are pertinent to the Greek setting. As for the direction of earnings management, the large companies overstate profit, the overriding motive being the demand for external financing, while the small companies understate profit in order to reduce income taxes. These findings have important implications for the users of Greek accounts, especially for investors, auditors and regulators.


A Low-Energy intense-highly charged ion Accelerator Facility (LEAF) program has been launched at Institute of Modern Physics. This accelerator facility consists of a superconducting Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source, a Low Energy Beam Transport (LEBT) system, and a Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ). It is especially of interest for the extracted ion beam from the ECR ion source, which is transversely coupled, and this property will significantly affect the beam transmission in the LEBT line and the matching with the downstream RFQ. In the beam transport design of LEAF, beam decoupling in the LEBT is considered to lower down the projection emittances and the feasibility of the design has been verified by beam simulation with a transversely coupled beam from the ECR ion source.


A left ventricle assist device (LVAD) is a device composed mainly of a pump and a controller. It is used not only to save lives of patients who suffer from left ventricle failure, but also to help them live like healthy people. Due to the continuing increasing number of left ventricle heart failure cases and limited number of heart donations for heart transplant, the need for LVADs become more and more demanding.Copyright © 2002 by ASME


This paper proposed a novel visual information process model named artificial visual cortical responding model (AVCRM) to obtain the invariable time sequence response feature from the sub-image block in the image. By compressing the time sequence feature and selecting the important points in the sequence, we compared the compressed version of sequences with each other to generate the distance matrix. According to distance matrix, we clustered the sub-images into the initially manually assigned concept categories to attain the semantic distribution map of the image. This mechanism was proved to be effective through the experiments and made a good semantic foundation of the future content based image retrieval research work


Pattern separation and pattern completion are opposing yet complementary components of mnemonic processing that heavily rely on the hippocampus. It has been shown that processing within the dentate gyrus (DG) subfield promotes pattern separation while operations within the CA3 subfield are important for pattern completion. Schizophrenia has been associated with anatomical and functional hippocampal abnormalities, including within the DG and CA3. We hypothesized that an impairment in hippocampal circuitry in individuals with first-episode schizophrenia leads to deficits in pattern separation (mnemonic discrimination) and pattern completion (recognition memory), that these deficits contribute to delusions, and that antipsychotic treatment improves circuit functioning. We measured behavioral and neural responses during the identification of new, repeated, and similar stimuli using high-resolution fMRI in 45 medication-free or minimally-treated patients with first-episode schizophrenia and 49 matched controls. We found recognition memory and pattern separation deficits in patients and a negative association between memory performance and the severity of delusions. Neural analyses revealed deficits in both univariate BOLD responses and multivariate patterns in the hippocampus during mnemonic discrimination in patients compared to controls. Importantly, by investigating the association between trial-level neural activity and behavior before and after treatment, we found that antipsychotics normalized DG activity during pattern separation and CA3 activity during pattern completion. Lastly, trial-level cortical responses during mnemonic discrimination predicted performance in patients at baseline, suggesting a compensatory role. This study provides new insight into the impact of schizophrenia and antipsychotic treatment on memory systems and uncovers systems-level contributions to pattern separation and pattern completion.


SUMMARY A lyophilized turkey herpesvirus vaccine was evaluated for control of Marek's disease (MD). The chicks used were hatched from dams vaccinated at one day of age with live duck-cell-associated turkey herpesvirus (FC 126 strain). The chicks were vaccinated at one day of age with lyophilized turkey herpesvirus vaccine (same strain), and at 21 days postvaccination were challenged wilt live virulent MD virus. There were 7 doses of vaccine, ranging from 10 to 10,000 plaqueforming units (PFU), and one control treatment. The vaccine significantly (P<0.001) reduced the incidence of MD. Protection was provided by doses of 211 PFU or more; reduced protection was observed at doses of 56 PFU or less.