Introduction The effectiveness of full dose azathioprine (FDA) for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been questioned in recent scientific literature. A popular strategy to improve its outcomes recommends the use of low dose azathioprine with allopurinol co-therapy (LDAA) for patients profiled as "hypermethylators" (30% of non-responders). The aim of this study was to determine the safety and efficacy of LDAA without using thiopurine metabolite (TM) profiling. Methods Records of IBD patients treated with LDAA were retrospectively analysed. Patients who had poor response and/or side-effects to FDA were offered LDAA by all Consultants whilst a single IBD physician also offered LDAA to thiopurine-naïve patients. Azathioprine dose was reduced to 25% of the thiopurine methyl transferase (TPMT) adjusted dose (0.5 mg/kg for wild type and 0.25 mg/kg for heterozygotes) followed by conventional haematological monitoring. Non-adherence was assessed by TM measurements. Full response (FR) was defined as steroid free remission (Harvey Bradshaw index ≤3, Truelove-Witts normal) for greater than 3 months after a 3 month induction period for LDAA. Results Of 300 LDAA patients, adequate data was available for 295 cases. Group 1 (G1) were treated 1st line (n,105) and Group 2 (G2) were switched from FDA to LDAA (n,190). Overall, for both groups, there were 207 (70%) full responders (FR), 20 partial responders (PR) and 68 non-responders (NR). Full response rate was 78% in G1 and 66% in G2. The commonest indication for switching to LDAA was non-response to FDA (n,118). Abstract OC-006 Table 1 Clinical response (n) Indication FR PR NR Total AZA/6MP Naive (LDAA without FDA exposure) 82 7 16 105 Switched from FDA to LDAA Poor response GI intolerance Hepatotoxicity Myelotoxicity "Flu-like" symptoms Other 125 13 52 190 81 10 27 16 n/a 11 7 1 3 13 2 1 3 n/a 1 5 n/a 9 Analysis of haematological indices revealed significant changes (p < 0.05) in erythrocyte sedimentation rate, white cell count and platelet count after therapy induction. Myelotoxicity occurred in 5 patients (all NR, WCC >2 and <3.5) and 12 patients had asymptomatic hepatotoxicity (ALT range: 100–700) which resolved by increasing allopurinol to 200 mg in 9 patients (all FR). Time on treatment: 208 patients took LDAA for more than twelve months with a median length of therapy of 24 months. Conclusion Appropriately dosed LDAA therapy delivers a therapeutically effective dose of azathioprine without the need for dose escalation. It appears to be more effective, better tolerated and safer (less haematological disturbance) than FDA. These results will serve to allay the fear of toxicity of LDAA and question the need for thiopurine metabolite level profiling prior to using this apparently superior therapeutic approach. Disclosure of Interest None Declared.


303 Abstract:Introduction:The nonagenarian population will increase in the next 30 years. Physically and cognitively, they look "more robust". We purposed to look for characteristics which make them different from elderly of lower age when hospitalized in GU. Material and methods:61 nonagenarians (mean age: 92.4) and 60 old over 75 years (mean age: 81.9) hospitalized in GU were studied. Each of the patients underwent, in addition to the medical history and the usual clinical examination a geriatric assessment. This evaluation included Katz's and Lawton's indices which were completed based on the functional state prior to hospitalization outside any acute phenomenon, a walking test and the hand-grip test. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment was used to assess the cognitive condition. These evaluations were all performed at the end of hospitalization. The nutritional condition was also verified with the short MNA test. The water swallow test according to Di Pipo was also performed to detect any risk of aspiration. Each group was followed by a telephone call, 3, 6 and 12 months after discharge. Death, condition of living, evolution of the illness, weight, falls and rate of hospitalization were performed. The two groups were compared by the Mann-Withney non-parametric tests, for continuous variables, and chi-square for categorical variables. Results were significant at p<0.05. Results:Nonagenarians had the same ADL scores as octogenarians but their IADL scores were higher (P=0.040). They had lower power at the handgrip test (P=0.035), tended to have worse walking test (P=0.10) and took fewer medications (P=0.0017).No significant differences are observed in the other assessment. The length of hospital stay does not differ. The median for the two groups is 15 days. The death rate at the hospital is also the same. (6 nonagenarians and 4 persons under 90 years). Concerning the number of persons contacted after the discharge, there is only a significant difference at 12 months between the 2 groups (p=0.035). After 3 months 10 nonagenarians are dead against 6 for the octogenarians (p=ns), 3 months after discharge, 40.0% of the octogenarians are living at home, with help for only 14.8% of the nonagenarians (p=0.013). After 6 and 12 months there are no statistical differences in the situation of living between the 2 groups. No difference is observed between the 2 groups according the evolution of the illness of the weight and of the incidence of falls but the rate of hospitalization is particularly low in the 2 populations; from 21.6% after 3 months to 19.2% after 6 months in the octogenarians and from 14% after 3 months to 0% after 12 months in the nonagenarians (p = 0,017). Conclusion: This study shows that nonagenarians admitted to GU have albeit the same functional pattern than octogenarians but take fewer medications. Despite the fact that their walking speed is lower (< than 0.6m/sec) is associated with a risk of greater functional and/or cognitive decline their outcomes don't differs very significantly from the younger's even if they are more in nursing home during the 6 months after discharge. No difference in this topic is observed after one year. With 10 years older their functional profile look as well efficient as octogenarians.


The history of Orthodoxy and science invites contrasts with other religious traditions. In contradistinction to the Latin West, for example, Eastern Orthodoxy throughout its history embraced the "pagan" scientific achievements of ancient Greece. Also unlike in the West, where ecclesiastical institutions often supported scientific activities, scholars in the East—in both the Byzantine and Ottoman periods—relied primarily on temporal sources to sustain their investigations of nature. Islam, with its strenuous resistance to any assimilation of the human to the divine, provides another contrasting example, as does the later Protestant justification for science grounded in the need to restore a fallen world through the application of experimental research. Not surprisingly, Eastern Orthodox believers seem to have paid little attention to non-Christian faiths, with the exception of Islam and Judaism, until well into the twentieth century.


Thymic hormones induce T-cell markers and functions. These polypeptide hormones have also been shown by means of immunocytochemistry to localize in thymic epithelial cells. Employing biochemical isolation procedures, we have studied the concentration of two thymic hormones, prothymosin alpha and thymosin beta 4, in the thymus of three thymoma patients. After a brief boiling step, thymic tissue obtained from each patient was individually homogenized and centrifuged. The supernatant was then fractionated by gel filtration on Sephadex G-100 and further purified by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Purified components were characterized by amino acid analysis and HPLC tryptic peptide mapping. Our results revealed that the extract from benign thymoma had both prothymosin alpha and thymosin beta 4, similar to normal human thymus. However, the thymus from a patient with invasive malignant thymoma contained only thymosin beta 4, but no prothymosin alpha. In the extract from an undifferentiated carcinoma, neither prothymosin alpha nor thymosin beta 4 could be detected. These results disclose the possible correlation of thymic hormones and the type and differentiation stage of thymomas. The inability of malignant thymic tumors to produce normal amounts of thymic hormones may contribute to their etiology. It is suggested that information on the thymic hormone content might add a new parameter to pathological diagnosis in thymic tumors.


We provide an analytical framework for balanced realization model order reduction of linear control systems which depend on an unknown parameter. Besides recovering known results for the first order corrections, we obtain explicit novel expressions for the form of second order corrections for singular values and singular vectors. The final result of our procedure is an order reduced model which incorporates the uncertain parameter. We apply our algorithm to a system of masses and springs with parameter dependent coefficients.


The intention with this paper is to compare Islensk orðabok , a monolingual Icelandic dictionary, published 1983 and a new edition from the year 2002,  take a look at the editors' principles and the methods they chose. The focus will especially be on loanwords and foreign words which until now have not been accepted in  Icelandic dictionaries without a special marking. In the editions 1963 and 1983 they were marked with a question mark to show that they were not accepted into the language. In the new edition quite many foreign words are now to be found, the question mark is no longer used, and new markings were chosen instead which will be discussed. At the end dialectal words will be mentioned as well as personal names.


Fuchsia parviflora is a dioecious shrub that depends on biotic pollination for reproduction. Previous studies suggest that the male plants produce more flowers, and male-biased sex ratios have been found in some natural populations. To assess whether the biased sex ratios found between genders in natural populations are present at the point at which plants reach sexual maturity, and to identify possible trade-offs between growth and reproduction, we performed a common garden experiment. Finally, to complement the information of the common garden experiment, we estimated the reproductive biomass allocation between genders in one natural population. Sex ratios at reaching sexual maturity in F. parviflora did not differ from 0.5, except in one population, which was the smallest seedling population. We found no differences between genders in terms of the probability of germination or flowering. When flowering began, female plants were taller than males and the tallest plants of both genders required more time to reach sexual maturity. Males produced significantly more flowers than females, and the number of flowers increased with plant height in both genders. Finally, in the natural population studied, the investment in reproductive biomass was seven-fold greater in female plants than in male plants. Our results showed no evidence of possible trade-offs between growth and reproduction. Despite the fact that female plants invest more in reproductive biomass, they were taller than the males after flowering, possibly at the expense of herbivory defence.


Features of spatial and biotopical distribution of the oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus) in east part of the Gulf of Finland and on adjacent territories of the North West of Russia and their dynamics during the last decades are considered in this article. Data on new places of reproduction are provided. The analysis of long-term data shows that oystercatchers breed far not every year even on many sites with optimum conditions. It can be connected with features of reproductive behavior of the birds nesting at borders of its area, as well as with reproductional strategy of species nesting in unstable biotopes of open sand-stony beaches. On the one hand oystercatcher is very sensitive to a recreational human press and occupies the sites most seldom visited by people. On the other hand its reproduction may be successful in very small natural biotope with absent recreational loadings which can be in the close neighbourhood with places of a high anthropogenous press. It means that the network of small seasonal reservates can play the leading role in oystercatchers protection.


Genealogical links between three Swedish families with hereditary pyrophosphate arthropathy were found in the 18th century, indicating a possible founder effect, similar to earlier findings in Slovakia, France and Chile. However, no connection between the Swedish and other European families with the disease has so far been found. In accordance with other reported familial aggregations of pyrophosphate arthropathy, the transmission of the disease in the Swedish families appeared to be autosomal dominant with incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity. Severe symptoms related to homozygotic cases reported in some other families were not found in Sweden.


ix Diabetes mellitus is a chronic, multisystem heterogeneous metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia which attacks both microvessels and macrovessels throughout the body resulting in the development of the specific microvascular and macrovascular complications.Diabetic retinopathy (DR), a disease of the retina, is the most common and specific microvascular complication of diabetes which remains a major cause of visual impairment worldwide among the people in working age and is a leading cause of visual loss in older patients.DR is a duration-dependent disease and both the prevalence and the incidence of retinopathy increase with increasing duration of diabetes. Diabetic retinopathy is a complex disease and the precise mechanism remains unknown. The multiple metabolic pathways have been implicated in this disease but inflammation and oxidative stress have emerged as the key players in the development of this disease. Due to this multifactorial nature the treatment of this complex disease is difficult and limited treatment options are available. The surgical procedures-laser photocoagulation and vitrectomy are currently the primary treatment options available for diabetic retinopathy. However, the use of antioxidants and antiinflammatory agents as treatment options for this disease has shown promising results in several animal studies and clinical trials. In this study, we evaluated the effect of aqueous extract of the plant Arnebia benthamii on the oxidative stress and inflammatory processes in mouse model of diabetic retinopathy. Arnebia benthamii is a traditional medicinal herb of Ayurvedic, Unani and other indigenous systems of medicine and has been known to possess antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory and wound-healing properties and also antioxidant properties. In our study and under the conditions used, we found that the aqueous extract of Arnebia benthamii instead of ameliorating the inflammation and oxidative stress associated with the disease rather further induced the pro-inflammatory and oxidative stress markers. Further study is therefore required to find if any of the individual components of the extract may be having anti-inflammatory and/or antioxidative property and or even pro-inflammatory role.


In the era of concrete, concrete is exposed to chemical, such as carbonation and chloride adulteration break down the alkaline barrier in the cement. Subsequently, steel in the concrete becomes corrosive. Such phenomena lead to erosion of concrete at the reinforcement level, cracking and spelling of concrete due to volume increase of steel reinforcement. Different methods were investigated to overcome corrosion by numerous researchers. According to A.S.T.M D792-13 standards the density of H.F.R.P bars have been evaluated the experimental value with 0.1mg precision. As per the standards, the H.F.R.P bars are weighed. Then, the H.F.R.P bar is immersed in distilled water at 230C and the wet weight of the bar is noted. The weight of the Sinker in immersed condition is also noted. The laboratory tests carried out to evaluate the physical and mechanical properties of the newly developed H.F.R.P bars and are compared with that of conventional bars. The bond properties of H.F.R.P bars with concrete is also determined. Finally, it explains the experimental investigations on the flexural behavior of concrete one-way slabs reinforced with H.F.R.P reinforcements under static loading and are compared with conventional ones. The stress-strain performance of the sand-coated H.F.R.P bar is linear, lacking yield point up to the failure transverse shear strength is 3 times lesser than the tensile strength of the H.F.R.P bars. Thermal properties of fibers are substantially different in the longitudinal and transverse direction. Therefore the thermal characteristics vary between products according to the fiber, matrix and the fiber volume ratio. In this study the longitudinal Coefficient of linear thermal expansion is 7.5 x 10 -6/oC to 9x 10 -6/oC. Whereas the transverse Coefficient of linear thermal expansion is between 15 x 10 -6/oC to 20 x 10 -6/oC. Load -deflection graphs drawn exhibits the accordance between experimental and FEM (ANSYS) observations. The reduced deflection of FEM is due to the rigidness of meshing. The results also confer about the effect of tension stiffening and the bond slip. From the comparison it has been observed that experimental deflections vary from 1.03 to 1.37 times higher than the FEM deflections.


In this paper, we deal with the problem of stabilization of uncertain systems in the presence of input constraint. First algebraic conditions are derived for input-to-state stability of linear system with saturated linear feedback of low dimension. Then a recursive design procedure is derived for robust stabilization of block upper triangular nonlinear systems with feedforward structure.


Abstract The case study of chimney liner corrosion addresses three specific cases of damage of chimney systems from of stainless steels. These systems were used for flue of gas arising from the combustion of brown coal in small automatic boilers, which are used for heating. Detailed analyzes implied that the cause of devastating corrosion of the steel AISI 316 and 304 steel (CSN 17349, 17241) was particularly high content of halides (chlorides and fluorides), which caused a severe pitting corrosion, which led up to the perforation of the liner material. Simultaneous reduction of the thickness of the used sheets was due to by the general corrosion, which was caused by the sulfur in the solid fuel. The condensation then led to acid environment and therefore the corrosion below the dew point of the sulfuric acid has occurred. All is documented by metallographic analysis and microanalysis of the corrosion products.


A supplement method based on reusing the original bridge structure is suggested in order to expedite construction and reduce costs. And the theoretical analysis of the single pile bearing capacity is conducted, primarily involving the calculation of bridge pile foundation settlement, horizontal resistance, and axial bearing capacity. At the same time, considering that the time series data generated in the actual process often has characteristics of imbalance between classes, a cost sensitive hybrid network (CSHN) model is also constructed. Its significance is to analyze the bridge reinforcement performance data. The experimental results showed that compared with the cross entropy loss function, the introduction of a cost-sensitive loss function can significantly improve the monitoring accuracy of abnormal data sets. The score of ACC-, G-means, and F-measures is higher than that of specific cross entropy loss function. The permissible bearing capacity of muddy clay determined by a network model complies with engineering standards in the evaluation of bridge reinforcing performance. As a result, the reinforcing reliability of this form of reinforcement is improved.


-University is relatively considered a stressful moment in the life of students due to numerous academic workloads and academic activities. The situation is further aggravated by the fact that some university students are in emerging adulthood, a developmental period which is psychologically fraught with uncertainty, instability and identity issues among others. Added to these, the context of most universities like Cameroon which is marred with political, economic and social turbulence common to other developing societies in the sub Saharan region makes life unbearable. Looking at the challenges that confront tertiary education students in the third decade of life, increases possibilities of fears that they will founder thus narrowing the route to a blossomed transition into adulthood and through the university from home into the world of work. However, observations reveal that some have remained hopeful as they continuously believe in themselves and their worth. As such, they have resiliently shrugged off the vast burden placed on them by the adult society as they struggle intentionally with continuous efforts to succeed. Being hopeful and self-efficacy beliefs are observed to be some of the effective drivers that pull emerging adults through the storms of university transition thus facilitating positive development into subsequent life stages. Unfortunately just a paucity of literature albeit theoretically actually narrates via scholarly corridors the monumental successes recorded by students as they sail flourishingly through university in the midst of storms an in the third decade of life. This paper examines and addresses the foregoing through the lenses of some theories.


To assess the performance of intubation skills by advanced trained ambulance personnel, a prospective study was carried out of the intubation of cardiac arrest victims by ambulance personnel in the field. Twenty-eight ambulance personnel attempted the intubation of 87 patients over 2 years. Eighty-five patients were initially successfully intubated, one endotracheal tube became displaced and cuff leakage occurred on three occasions. This was treated appropriately in each instance. Ambulance personnel can perform the skills of intubation successfully in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims.


Femoral neck geometry parameters are believed to be as good as bone mineral density as independent factors in predicting hip fracture risk. This study was conducted to analyze the roles of genetic and environmental factors in femoral properties measured in a sample of Spanish families with osteoporotic fractures and extended genealogy. The "Genetic Analysis of Osteoporosis (GAO) Project" involved 11 extended families with a total number of 376 individuals. We studied three categorical phenotypes of particular clinical interest and we used a Hip structural analysis based on DXA to analyze 17 strength and geometrical phenotypes of the hip. All the femoral properties had highly significant heritability, ranging from 0.252 to 0.586. The most significant correlations were observed at the genetic level (ρG). Osteoporotic fracture status (Affected 2) and, particularly, low bone mass and osteoporotic condition (Affected 3) had the highest number of significant genetic correlations with diverse femoral properties. In conclusion, our findings suggest that a relatively simple and easy to use method based on DXA studies can provide useful data on properties of the Hip in clinical practice. Furthermore, our results provide a strong motivation for further studies in order to improve the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanism underlying bone architecture and the genetics of osteoporosis.


The focus of this presentation will be on issues arising from a three year action research project, exploring young people's creative uses of digital technology, outside of formal education. The project, based at the University of Central England in Birmingham, and Jubilee Arts in Sandwell, has sought to both engage young people in a creative process, and provide access to digital technology. The research was formulated as a means of exploring the ways in which young people might utilise digital technology creatively, given access, outside of formal education.


Ebola outbreak in eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2018–2020 proved that the virus remains highly hazardous for humans, and the outbreak in West Africa in 2014–2016, which was the largest Ebola outbreak in history, showed that it could be imported to other continents, including Russia. In 1993 the Federal State Budgetary Institution "48th Central Scientific Research Institute" of the Russian Ministry of Defence developed a specific equine immunoglobulin for emergency prophylaxis of Ebola in risk groups. The evaluation and improvement of the product's properties is an important area in the development of biological defence technologies.The aim of the study was to examine the properties of the equine anti-Ebola immunoglobulin which had been stored for a long time at 2–8 °C.Materials and methods: the authors studied batches of heterologous anti-Ebola immunoglobulin that had been stored for 17–22 years. The properties of the product were evaluated according to the requirements of the State Pharmacopoeia of the Russian Federation, 14th ed. (Ph. Rus. 14 ed.). The specific activity of the product was determined in a plaque reduction neutralisation test using Ebola virus and African green monkey kidney cells (GMK-AH-1(D)). Immunoglobulin molecular parameters were determined by size-exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography using the test methods described in the European Pharmacopoeia 9.6 and Ph. Rus. 14 ed.Results: the storage of anti-Ebola immunoglobulin for 17–22 years at 2–8 °C resulted in a four-fold reduction of the level of virus-neutralising antibodies against Ebola, decrease in the proportion of monomers from 98 to 74–90%, increase in the proportion of dimers and polymers, and formation of immunoglobulin molecules' fragments. Signs of toxicity for mice were observed in one of the three product batches. Conclusions: the obtained results suggest the need to perform more studies to test the quality of antiEbola immunoglobulin batches that were stored for shorter periods of time in order to assess the stability of their initial characteristics.


Miscanthus, a promising energy crop, was used for ethylene glycol (EG) production through one-pot catalytic conversion. With a binary catalyst composed of commercial tungstic acid and Raney Ni, the miscanthus with 1 % concentration was transformed into EG with a yield of 35.5%. However, the yield dropped to 13.6% as the miscanthus concentration was increased to 10 %. The underlying reason for the yield decrease was disclosed through analysis of the liquid products, investigation of pretreatments, and characterization of the catalysts. It was found that the protectors on the surface of miscanthus and the lignin component underwent decomposition under reaction conditions, resulting in the formation of some organic acids and unsaturated compounds that preferentially poisoned the Raney Ni catalyst and consequently decreased the EG yield. When the inhibitors were effectively removed by base solvent pretreatment, the EG yield was successfully improved to 39.0% even under 10% concentration of feedstock. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 60: 2254–2262, 2014


The objective of this study is to measure the seismic response of fluid filled fractures, trying to evaluate which acquisition survey parameters can better highlight this feature. The scope of fracture modelling is simulating the presence of a fracture system in the area of interest verifyin if it is detectable and describable by a 3D P-wave or PS-wave seismic data, for issues related to operative aspects but also for future support to the drilling activity. A system of aligned fractures can be described as an effective anisotropic medium when the dominant wavelength is long compared to the fracture scales. In order to model the behavior of seismic waves in fractured media, we can characterize the model with normal and tangential crack compliances, Coates and Schoenberg (1995). The main measurable effects on seismic data are the shear wave splitting and p-wave AVOaz anomalies. Shear-wave splitting due to the alignment of vertical cracks can be recognized by the polarization of the fast split shear-wave, which is usually parallel to the local strike of cracks and can be used to characterize fracture orientation. The time delay between fast and slow shear-waves is closely related to the intensity of crack-induced anisotropy in the medium (proportional to the fracture density). The main question to answer is if a 3D multicomponent survey can detect the travel time shift between parallel and perpendicular directions generated by the investigated formation. The second subject is to investigate the potentiality of fluid discrimination with PS waves but also PP waves. Modeled data is generated using elastic anisotropic finite difference code. The analogies between cracks systems and anisotropic media have been analyzed in order to infer interesting considerations about fractures characterization. The anisotropic parameters and the geophysical model have been assumed on the basis of inplace data measurements. The obtained results demonstrated the correlation between the seismic features and the fracture characteristics, such as crack density, fractures orientation, fluid content and AVO anomalies.


In this paper, a cellular automaton model considering game strategy update is proposed to study the pedestrian evacuation in a hall. Pedestrians are classified into two categories, i.e., cooperators and defectors, and they walk to an exit according to their own strategy change. The conflicts that two or three pedestrians try to occupy the same site at the same time are investigated in the Game theory model. Based on it, the relationship between the pedestrian flow rate and the evacuation time as well as the variation of cooperative proportion against evacuation time is investigated from the different initial cooperative proportions under the influence of noise. The critical value of the noise is found when there is a small number of defectors in the initial time. Moreover, the influences of the initial cooperative proportion and strength of noise on evacuation are discussed. The results show that the lower the initial cooperative proportion as well as the bigger the strength of noise, the longer the time it takes for evacuation.


In Nunavik, chlorine-treated water is delivered daily, by tank truck, to the houses, where it is stored in tanks. A large part of the Inuit population continues to depend on an untreated water supply, however. This traditional activity poses certain risks in a region with an abundant presence of migratory animals. Nunavik has also experienced significant climate warming since the beginning of the last decade. The main goal of this study, which took place in 2003 and 2004, was to evaluate drinking habits that may place Nunavik residents at an increased risk of gastroenteric diseases in the context of climate change. During the Amundsen cruise in fall 2004, we observed that raw water from the collection sites most frequently visited (brooks, lakes, rivers) was of good quality in most of the villages. Regular monitoring of these sites is necessary, however, and the public should be warned when the sites become contaminated. Of particular concern was the water from the individual storage containers, which was much more contaminated than the water at the collection sites. To develop or improve the climate change adaptation strategies in this area, we propose 1) establishing an appropriate environmental monitoring system, 2) improving wastewater disposal and municipal water systems, 3) involving nursing staff in microbiological testing of the water at community sites, 4) raising public awareness of the risks related to raw water consumption, and 5) gathering strategic health information during the periods of the year when cases of gastroenteric diseases are most frequent, in order to establish whether there is a link between these disorders and water quality.


In this study the combined effect of bay (Laurus nobilis L.) essential oil (0.5% v/w) with modified atmosphere (MAP) (20%CO2/80%N2) and vacuum packaging in ground chicken breast meat stored at 4°C was investigated. Microbial populations of inoculated Listeria monocytogenes AUFE 39237 in chicken meat and Escherichia coli and total viable counts (TVC) were also monitored during 0,1,3,5,7 th days of storage. MAP packaging with/without bay oil gave significantly (p<0.01) higher reductions of microbial populations. Vacuum packaging and bay oil combination was also found significantly effective (p<0.01) against E. coli in ground chicken meats. The preservative effect of MAP and vacuum packaging against some food pathogens can be increased with bay essential oil in chicken meats.


Popular and political notions about Theodore Roosevelt's larger-than-life, masculine persona helped him to shape many of the issues facing the country at the turn of the twentieth century. His legacy of masculinity, however, has overshadowed his rhetoric about women's rights. Whether he was an opportunistic politician who sought to garner female support for his own ends or a staunch ally for women in their search for equality, Roosevelt responded to women's plight in the same way he did regarding many of the nation's problems—he invoked the Frontier Myth as a catalyst for change. His prepresidential rhetoric constructed the frontier woman as an essential actor in the early development of the country and as a synthesis of competing ideologies in modern America: she embraced the rugged individualism needed on the wild frontier and proved her equality with men, but she also upheld her civic responsibility to birth a mighty nation. In his presidential and postpresidential discourse, Roosevelt evoked that mythic memory of the frontier woman as a lesson for modern women to consider as a means to achieve some level of cultural equality.


The non-classical HLA-G is a well-known immune-modulatory molecule. In physiological condition, HLA-G surface expression is restricted to the maternal–fetal interface and to immune-privileged adult tissues, whereas soluble forms of HLA-G are detectable in various body fluids. HLA-G can be de novo expressed in pathological conditions including tumors, chronic infections, or after allogeneic transplantation. HLA-G exerts positive effects modulating innate and adaptive immune responses and promoting tolerance, or detrimental effects inducing immune escape mechanisms. HLA-G locus, in contrast to classical HLA class I gene, is highly polymorphic in the non-coding 3′ untranslated region (UTR) and in the 5′ upstream regulatory region (5′ URR). Variability in these regions influences HLA-G expression by modifying mRNA stability or allowing posttranscriptional regulation in the case of 3′ UTR or by sensing the microenvironment and responding to specific stimuli in the case of HLA-G promoter regions (5′ URR). The influence of genetic variations on the expression of HLA-G makes it an attractive biomarker to monitor disease predisposition and progression, or response to therapy. Here, we summarize the current knowledge, efforts, and obstacles to generate a general consensus on the correlation between HLA-G genetic variability, protein expression, and disease predisposition. Moreover, we discuss perspectives for future investigation on HLA-G genotype/expression in association with disease predisposition and progression.


The comparative analysis of changes in acid production according to the data of pH-metry in 266 patients with duodenal ulcer disease after surgical treatment was carried out. The peculiar features of the dynamics of gastric acid production and dependance of the incidence of ulcer recurrences on a volume of the intervention performed have been established.


Although the need to develop objective assessment tools in different cultures is well-recognized, there is a severe lack of objective measures about emotional functioning in the Chinese context. This project conducted three studies to validate the Chinese version of the Differentiation of Self Inventory (DSI). Study 1 looked at the factor structure, internal consistency, concurrent validity, and construct validity of the C-DSI. Study 2 examined the test-retest reliability of the C-DSI. Study 3 tested the discriminant validity of the C-DSI in a clinical sample and in a nonclinical sample and examined its correlations with the General Contentment Scale (GCS). The study results suggested that the C-DSI possesses good psychometric properties. Findings also indicated implications of divergent cultures and hinted at treatment implications--taking the familistic orientation and the Chinese meaning of self into consideration to understand the differentiation of self in the Chinese culture context.


Mineral fibre concentrations and characteristics were evaluated by the same electron microscope methods in 15 bronchoalveolar lavage samples and in 40 surgical lung tissue samples of subjects with no occupational exposure to asbestos. Both fibre alveolar load and lung burden evaluated by transmission electron microscopy were higher in the groups of industrial workers with no specific asbestos exposure than in the groups of individuals exposed only to general environmental pollution. In both types of samples, the fibre burden consisted of extremely small fibres (mean length less than 2 microns, mean diameter less than 0.1 micron), with a trend towards a further reduction in mean length in the lung tissue as compared with the alveolar load. These data suggest that there is a need for a critical reconsideration of the methods of evaluating environmental fibre pollution and of those for assessing exposure-effect relationships.


OBJECTIVE
To study the effects of transcutaneous electrical stimulation during sleep on obstructive sleep apnea syndrom (OSAS).

METHOD
Sixteen patients with OSAS were studied by polysomnography during all-night sleep with and without submental transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TES) of the genioglossus.

RESULT
Fourteen of the 16 patients (87%) who accepted the TES were treated successfully (reduction of Al > 50%). The average apnea index showed a decrease of 29 events per hour when the TES were performed (P < 0.001). The average apnea time decreased from 22 to 7 sec (P < 0.001). The apnea time/TST decreased from 27% +/- 11% to 7% +/- 3%. The lowest SaO2 increased from 71% to 87% (P < 0.001). TES did not cause arousal. The sleep stages of SWS, and REM sleep effect (SE) increased significantly.

CONCLUSION
TES is a conservative but effective treatment in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, although it failed to improve central sleep apnea.


Research of fuel depletion aims at development and introduction of advanced types of burnable absorbers (BA) in nuclear fuel. BAs compensate for the initial reactivity excess and consequently allow for lower power peaking factors and longer fuel cycles with higher fuel enrichments.The paper describes the comparison of selected BA elements (Gd, Eu, Er) for 3 different nuclear fuel types (VVER, PWR and SFR). The effect of harder VVER spectra and the effect of thermal vs fast neutron spectra is evaluated and commented. Uniformly distributed BAs in the fuel were assumed.Comparison calculations were performed with the newly developed UWB1 fast fuel depletion code and with the SERPENT Monte Carlo code. The comparison of UWB1 and SERPENT codes is included in the analysis. Next steps of improving the UWB1 code are suggested.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Productivity in nursing care is a major concern in all residential facilities, as is improving the quality of care. Pervasive computing offers great promise in this area. In this paper we discuss requirements analysis, multiphase prototyping, and effective use of commercial off-the-shelf technologies to improve communication and situation awareness in nursing teams. We developed a wearable prototype with only a person-month of development time, using existing electronic meeting technologies for its multimodal communication platform.


Successive pig slurry application can increase the copper and phosphorus levels in the soil and the losses of these elements by surface runoff and percolation. The objective of this study is to evaluate the losses and the forms of both copper and phosphorus in the surface runoff and also in/on the percolation solution, on soils with successive pig slurry application under no tillage system. The experiment was installed in 2000, at Typic Hapludalf soil. The treatments consisted of successive applications of 0, 40 and 80m 3 ha -1 of pig slurry applied on soil surface in no tillage system. Samples of surface runoff and percolated solutions were collected during the life cycle of oat (Avena strigosa) in the 2006 winter, when the soil had a history of 16 pig slurry applications. The following parameters have been evaluated: Cu, P, cation, anion and pH, dissolved organic carbon and electric conductivity. The Visual MINTEQ program version 2.15 was utilized to estimate the copper and phosphorus ionic speciation. The surface runoff is the most important form of copper and phosphorus loss of the soil. In addition, copper was found in the organic form (CuCOD) and phosphorus in the free forms (HPO4 2e H2PO4 ) in the


We examine management discretion to decide when and how much to write down an asset, in a unique case where a tracking stock provides an observable market value for the asset. We find that, despite market evidence that Inco Ltd.'s financial statements substantially overvalued the Voisey's Bay nickel mine throughout 1997 to 2000, management chose not to write down the mine until 2002. Inco management used an independent fairness opinion to justify its December 2000 redemption of the tracking stock at 25% of its initial value, indicating almost surely that Inco management was aware of the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) impairment. This case illustrates that GAAP's reliance on undiscounted cash flows for impairment decisions allows huge unrecorded disparities between book and market value. The management discretion exercised in this case provides a concrete example of the subjectivity inherent in fair valuation.


Lymphadenopathy may be difficult to diagnose using imaging results alone. Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) may help to diagnose and determine the appropriate management of lymphadenopathy. EUS-FNA has been used as a safe and less invasive method for obtaining pathologic specimens from extraluminal lesions using endoscopic ultrasound. The present study evaluated the usefulness of EUS-FNA for lymphadenopathy. Between July 2013 and December 2016, 72 patients undergoing EUS-FNA for lymphadenopathy that could not be diagnosed solely using imaging were included. The present study evaluated the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value, overall accuracy, helpfulness in determining the management of lymphadenopathy and EUS-FNA-associated complications. Of the 72 included patients, 8 were diagnosed with benign (inflammatory or reactive) lymphadenopathy. The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value, and overall accuracy were 95.3, 100, 100, 72.7 and 95.8%, respectively. While EUS-FNA of metastatic nodes identified the origin in the majority of cases, the procedure resulted in a different histopathological diagnosis from the previous image-based diagnosis in 9 patients. Consequently, 2 patients with testicular cancer were administered bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin. An individual with GIST was administered imatinib, and a patient with prostate cancer was administered degarelix (antihormon drug). A total of 5 other patients received palliative medicine due to the change in diagnosis. EUS-FNA also helped determine the appropriate cancer management plan in other patients; specifically, based on the cytology of the metastatic lymph node, EUS-FNA helped determine the cancer stage, and to identify recurrence or the primary cancer from which tissue could not be collected. No EUS-FNA-associated symptoms were reported. To conclude, the present study suggested that EUS-FNA of suspected metastatic lymph nodes appears safe and useful for cancer staging and diagnosing recurrence. It may also useful for diagnosing patients whose collection of samples from the original cancer appeared impractical. EUS-FNA for lymphadenopathy that may not be diagnosed with imaging alone may assist in diagnosis and help to determine the appropriate management strategy.


The use of lasers in microsurgery is now an accepted procedure. As we learn more about the absorption properties of biologic tissue, we can use different electromagnetic wave lengths to accomplish surgical alteration of these tissues. The electromagnetic wave length of the Argon laser is compatible for surgical alteration of the soft tissue and bone of the middle and inner ear. Thirty patients requiring external ear canal or middle ear surgery were treated using the Argon laser during the course of the surgical procedure. The treatment of soft tissue pathology included tympanoplasty with fascia graft, control of bleeding, lysis of adhesions, and myringotomies performed using the Argon laser. Osseous disease of the external canal was removed and stapedectomy was performed, using the Argon laser on 15 patients.


The aim of this paper is to show how to calculate the weight of criteria that influences the decision making process of potential hotel guests. By taking into consideration the growing importance of electronic word-of-mouth and the popularity of hotel reviews websites, this research note exposes the framework to calculate the weight of the 6 TripAdvisor criteria by using the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) – Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. 250 tourists in Paris (France) have been interrogated in order to apply the AHP method and to illustrate how to determine the weight of 6 criteria: location, bed quality, comfort & equipment, service, value for money and, cleanliness. By doing so, this research note facilitates the understanding of AHP method and its application to the hotel sector. The empirical study proposes weight for each criterion by taking into consideration tourists' point of view.


The sensing of network security situation (NSS) has become a hot issue. This paper first describes the basic principle of Markov model and then the necessary and sufficient conditions for the application of Markov game model. And finally, taking fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model as the theoretical basis, this paper analyzes the application fields of the sensing method of NSS with Markov game model from the aspects of network randomness, non-cooperative and dynamic evolution. Evaluation results show that the sensing method of NSS with Markov game model is best for financial field, followed by educational field. In addition, the model can also be used in the applicability evaluation of the sensing methods of different industries' network security situation. Certainly, in different categories, and under the premise of different sensing methods of network security situation, the proportions of various influencing factors are different, and once the proportion is unreasonable, it will cause false calculation process and thus affect the results.


This study aims to discuss pitch slope on Korean intonation curve in spontaneous speech data. For this study, 656 utterances were taken in the spoken corpus and used 'close-copy stylization'. And then the physical feature of pitch movements was extracted for the study. The pitch slope was calculated on the basis of time and pitch range in each utterance. As a result, the average and distribution of pitch slope is similar between men and women in the range of the pitch movement except for essential differences. The slope of pitch movement confirms that there are no differences between men and women. Pitch slope on a scale of -10 to 10 is 90% of the entire pitch slope; pitch slope that moves by time scale without curve is 33.1%; pitch slope that moves half of the pitch bandwidth during the average time for pitch movement is 23.4%; pitch slope that moves 100% of pitch bandwidth during a half of the average time for pitch movement is 10.4%. Those results imply the possibility of standardization methods of Korean intonation by pitch slope.


A pyrene-containing phenylboronic acid (PBA) functionalized low-molecular-weight hydrogelator was synthesized with the aim to develop glucose-sensitive insulin release. The gelator showed the solvent imbibing ability in aqueous buffer solutions of pH values, ranging from 8-12, whereas the sodium salt of the gelator formed a hydrogel at physiological pH 7.4 with a minimum gelation concentration (MGC) of 5 mg mL(-1) . The aggregation behavior of this thermoreversible hydrogel was studied by using microscopic and spectroscopic techniques, including transmission electron microscopy, FTIR, UV/Vis, luminescence, and CD spectroscopy. These investigations revealed that hydrogen bonding, π-π stacking, and van der Waals interactions are the key factors for the self-assembled gelation. The diol-sensitive PBA part and the pyrene unit in the gelator were judiciously used in fluorimetric sensing of minute amounts of glucose at physiological pH. The morphological change of the gel due to addition of glucose was investigated by scanning electron microscopy, which denoted the glucose-responsive swelling of the hydrogel. A rheological study indicated the loss of the rigidity of the native gel in the presence of glucose. Hence, the glucose-induced swelling of the hydrogel was exploited in the controlled release of insulin from the hydrogel. The insulin-loaded hydrogel showed thixotropic self-recovery property, which hoisted it as an injectable soft composite. Encouragingly, the gelator was found to be compatible with HeLa cells.


The authors discuss the automatic checking of the consistency of interfaces between components of large, distributed systems. The approach is based on executable specification languages and has the following characteristics: use of specification languages for partitioning an overall system, specifying interfaces between the components, and composing rules to describe the functionality of each component; static analysis of the specifications for consistency and completeness; and automatic generation of procedural programs for rapid prototyping. It is proposed that configuration and data-specification languages be used for automatic interface checking. In contrast to conventional programming methodologies, communications between the components and message ordering are explicitly specified. New interface-checking algorithms that are based on regular expressions are developed. The checking is performed at the specification level, and no knowledge of the underlying programs is required.<<ETX>>


Abstract Chromatographic columns with chiral stationary phases based on chemically - bonded derivatized cyclofructans were evaluated for HPLC enantioresolution of underivatized α-amino acids. The analytical study of chiral separation of these analytes was focused on the selection of suitable chiral stationary phase and mobile phase. Using isopropyl carbamate cyclofructan 6 as a chiral stationary phase, α- amino acid optical isomers were separated. The retention and enantioseparation of chiral amino acids were also influenced by a mobile phase composition. The mixture methanol/acetonitrile/acetic acid/triethylamine (75/25/0.3/0.2 v/v/v/v) was found to be the most effective mobile phase for HPLC separation of studied compounds. HPLC enantioresolution of chiral amino acids was thermodynamically studied. Based on the enthalpy and entropy contribution values calculated from the van´t Hoff equation, HPLC enantioseparation under chosen chromatographic conditions was found to be an enthalpically driven.


Abstract From preliminary reports of the GATE experiment it was concluded that there is some strong evidence that mesoscale waves with a periodicity close to 2 days exist in the equatorial regions. The dynamics of unstable internal gravity waves due to trapeze instability was discussed by means of a two-dimensional, β-plane numerical model. It was concluded that the trapeze instability may be the means by which the observed 2-day waves are excited.


Despite the progress of higher-level languages and tools, Register Transfer Level (RTL) is still by far the dominant input format for high performance digital designs. Experienced designers can directly express their microarchitectural intuitions in RTL. Yet, RTL is terribly verbose, burdened with trivial details, and thus error prone. In this paper, we augment a modern RTL language (Chisel) with new semantic elements to express an imprecise specification: a sketch. We show how, in combination with a naı̈ve, unoptimized, but functionally correct reference, a designer can utilize the language and supporting infrastructure to focus on the key design intuition and omit some of the necessary details. The resulting design is exactly or almost exactly as good as the one the designer could have achieved by spending the time to manually complete the sketch. We show that, even limiting ourselves to combinational circuits, realistic instances of meaningful design problems are solved quickly, saving considerable design and debugging effort.


In Drosophila similar to other eukaryotes, SAGA and ATAC HAT complexes exhibit different specificities in the targeted histone lysines and have essential but distinct functions as it is shown by the different phenotypes occurring in their absence. Besides Gnc5, Ada3 is also an important member of both types of HAT complexes. Loss of dADA3 function results in similar chromosome structural defects like the dGcn5 and dAda2a. The abnormal polytene chromosome structure of dAda3 mutants is visible most clearly on the X male chromosomes which appear bloated. Immunostaining indicates that the level of dADA3 protein is increased on the wild type male X. Nonetheless, the levels of K16 acetylated histone H4, a marker of dosage compensation is similar both in the mutant and wild type male X chromosomes. ATAC displays a preferential specificity towards acetylating histone H4. Besides already known acetylated lysine's (H4K5 and K12) recent findings suggest a possible role of ATAC in H4K16 acetylation. This marker is well known as being specific for X male chromosome which is double transcribed in males compared to females. We have data that show a 2 fold increase in binding of dAda3 protein was observed on the male X that can be easily associated with increase transcriptional activity on the X. Also, the JIL-1 kinase that is not part of the MOF histone acetyltransferase has been shown to be implicated in dosage compensation. Phosphoryllation of H3 at Serine 10 has been shown to modulate chromosome condensation during mitosis. Reduced phosphorylation of H3S10 can also be observed in ATAC mutants.


Background: The WHO defines different COVID-19 disease stages, where pathophysiological mechanisms differ. Clinical, radiological, histological, microbiological, and immunological characteristics of different COVID-19 disease stages were evaluated. Methods: Forty-four PCR-confirmed COVID-19 patients were included in a prospective minimal invasive autopsy cohort. Patients were classified according to WHO disease classification in mild-moderate (n=4), severe-critical (n=32) and post-acute disease (n=8) and clinical, radiological, histological, microbiological, and immunological data were compared. Results: Classified according to Thoracic Society of America, patients with mild-moderate disease had no typical COVID-19 images on CT-Thorax versus 71.9% with typical images in severe-critical disease and 87.5% typical images in post-acute disease (p<.001). Diffuse alveolar damage was absent in mild-moderate disease but present in 93.8% and 87.5% of patients with severe-critical and post-acute COVID-19, respectively (p=.002). Other organs with histopathological changes were liver and heart. Interferon-g levels were significantly higher in patients with severe-critical COVID-19. Overall, 72% of patients had positive anti-SARS CoV-2 IgM and 51% positive IgG. Conclusion: Significant differences in pathological and immunological characteristics between patients with mild-moderate disease compared to patients with severe-critical disease were found, whereas differences between patients with severe-critical disease and post-acute disease were limited. This emphasizes the need for tailored treatment of COVID-19 patients.


Fetal hydrops due to Rh (D) alloimmunization can be reversed by ultrasound-guided intravascular transfusions with improvement in perinatal morbidity and mortality. We report a case of in utero intravascular transfusion in hydropic twins which reversed all the hydropic findings within 3 days. A simple intraperitoneal transfusion was performed in each twin 2 weeks later, and only one neonatal exchange transfusion was required for the ultimate survival of both twins.


The security of computer systems is a very hard and complex problem. IT staffers who apply security patches or use layered approaches have lulled themselves into a false sense of security. This perceived security is illusionary at best and destructive in the extreme. True security will increasingly require the use of hardened servers and guards. Defense in depth with distributed guards serving as penetration detectors and reporting attacks on corporate systems provides strong protection against both external and internal attackers. This strategy lets system managers minimize damage and greatly improve the recovery of damaged systems and data. Corporations that choose not to appropriately secure their systems will likely regret it. In the future, companies will probably face liability for third-party losses that arise from system compromises.


Plasmonic color has played a critical role for its applications in color printing and display owing to the advantages of high-resolution and durability. Recently, increasing attempts have been performed to actualize dynamic structural color. Here theoretically proposed is the generation of wide color gamut in symmetric Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) based metamaterial absorber. By introducing a periodic metallic nanodisk array on top of the composite structure, the color variation arises from GST transition between amorphous phase and crystalline phase can be enhanced significantly. Due to the interplay of the localized/propagating surface plasmons, Fabry–Perot cavity mode and Wood's anomaly with different resonant frequencies, both hue and saturation of the structural color can be tuned accordingly through adjusting the structural geometry of the nanodisks. It is demonstrated that up to 74% and 94% of the sRGB and CMY(K) space can be obtained with this phase-change metamaterial display. This finding paves the way toward the development of practical platform for color printing and display applications.


First results from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have demonstrated considerable success in identifying genetic variants associated with colorectal cancer (CRC). To date, 10 CRC susceptibility loci have been identified. However, these marginal single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations explain only ∼6% of the heritable variation underlying CRC risk. We employed a pathway-based approach using our recently developed Gene-set Ridge Regression in Association Studies (GRASS) method to assess whether sets of functionally related genes are enriched for SNPs associated with colon cancer risk. We used GWAS data from three studies: The Women9s Health Initiative (WHI; 483 cases and 530 controls); the Prostate, Lung, Colon and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (PLCO; 546 cases and 1177 controls); and the Diet, Activity and Lifestyle population-based case-control study (DALS; 698 cases and 719 controls). Samples were genotyped on Illumina HumanHap 300K + 240K, 550K or 610K platforms. After applying stringent quality control criteria, our final analysis included 392,361 SNPs. We used genomic partition to assign SNPs to nearby genes and defined pathways using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database. We restricted our analysis to 170 pathways with 10 or more genes (range 10-253 genes). Our GRASS method uses eigenSNPs derived from principal components analysis within each gene. Regularized regression is performed for each pathway, using a novel group ridge penalty function. The penalty function results in selection of the most representative eigenSNPs within genes while assessing the association of all the genes, within a pathway, with disease risk. Permutations are used to standardize the test statistics and obtain p-values. The false discovery rate (FDR) was calculated using the Benjamini-Hochberg method. We analyzed WHI, PLCO and DALS separately, adjusting for age, sex, and genetic ancestry derived from principal components analysis, and performed a meta-analysis to combine the results. Five pathways were significant at a p-value cutoff of 0.05. The top pathway, the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) signaling pathway (p-value=0.009), also met a FDR cutoff of 20%. This pathway remained significant (p=0.014) after excluding the known CRC susceptibility loci and all SNPs with linkage disequilibrium r2>0.2 with those 10 loci. The top genes in the pathway were TFGB1, SMAD4, FST, TFGB2, INHBA, PITX2, BMPR2 and PP2R2B (all p Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4733.


The medicalisation of the behaviour of children is a phenomenon that is attracting growing attention, with particular concern about the increased likelihood of children living in disadvantaged contexts receiving a medical diagnosis, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and treatment. This paper reports on a study of professionals involved with children experiencing behavioural problems. The professionals interviewed in this study articulated their own reservations about the medicalisation of children's behaviour and revealed a number of strategies for interrupting the process towards diagnosis. These interruptions, analysed using Deleuze and Guattari's concept of deterriorialisation, took place along linguistic, visual and affective planes and were successful in encouraging teachers and head teachers to see alternatives to the medical route. The findings have implications for existing practice in the response to, and support for, behavioural problems and for teacher education.


Min-max saddle-point problems have broad applications in many tasks in machine learning, e.g., distributionally robust learning, learning with non-decomposable loss, or learning with uncertain data. Although convex-concave saddle-point problems have been broadly studied with efficient algorithms and solid theories available, it remains a challenge to design provably efficient algorithms for non-convex saddle-point problems, especially when the objective function involves an expectation or a large-scale finite sum. Motivated by recent literature on non-convex non-smooth minimization, this paper studies a family of non-convex min-max problems where the minimization component is non-convex (weakly convex) and the maximization component is concave. We propose a proximally guided stochastic subgradient method and a proximally guided stochastic variance-reduced method for expected and finite-sum saddle-point problems, respectively. We establish the computation complexities of both methods for finding a nearly stationary point of the corresponding minimization problem.


The paper considers the fundamental principles of the Russian countermeasures system validated successfully in multiple long-term missions to the Russian space stations. The system adopted on the ISS Russian segment is detailed. In particular, it is pinpointed that physical training of cosmonauts was adjusted to the demands of the stages of ISS assembly and utilization. The locomotion training performed with departures from the flight documentation (ODFs) is described. The concluding section of the paper lays out the picture of vistas for the system of countermeasures in future exploration missions.


The year 2021 was marked by the rise of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). The widespread use and sales volume of NFTs have created a wide range of legal problems regarding contract, property, capital markets, intellectual property, consumer law, and criminal and tax laws. The first step toward resolving these legal problems would be to define crypto assets and determine how they relate to NFTs. Even though most governments in the world have opted for the regulation of crypto assets, or at least are preparing to do so, NFTs fall into a grey regulatory zone. This is true for both civil law countries and common law countries. For instance, most NFT marketplaces in the world do not apply 'know your customer' (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) requirements. The taxation of NFTs is highly debated. It can even be concluded that most countries are somehow reluctant to regulate NFTs and NFT marketplaces. To understand the legal regime that will be applied to NFTs, currently, the definition of the term 'crypto asset' or 'virtual asset' is observed. Is the regulation of crypto assets fit for the unique characteristics of NFTs? Should legal systems develop a specific and unique understanding of NFTs? Or has that time not come yet?
Regulation, Web 3.0, NFT, Crypto assets, Digital assets, Blockchain


We consider the problem of best arm identification in a variant of multi-armed bandits called linked bandits. In a single interaction with linked bandits, multiple arms are played sequentially until one of them receives a positive reward. Since each interaction provides feedback about more than one arm, the sample complexity can be much lower than in the regular bandit setting. We propose an algorithm for linked bandits, that combines a novel subroutine to perform uniform sampling with a known optimal algorithm for regular bandits. We prove almost matching upper and lower bounds on the sample complexity of best arm identification in linked bandits. These bounds have an interesting structure, with an explicit dependence on the mean rewards of the arms, not just the gaps. We also corroborate our theoretical results with experiments.


Many real-world robotic applications such as search and rescue, disaster relief, and inspection operations are often set in unstructured environments with a restricted or unreliable communication infrastructure. In such environments, a multi-robot system must either be deployed to i) remain constantly connected, hence sacrificing operational efficiency or ii) allow disconnections considering when and how to regroup. In communication-restricted environments, we insist that the latter approach is desired to achieve a robust and predictable method for cooperative planning. One of the main challenges in achieving this goal is that optimal planning in partially unknown environments without communication requires an intractable sequence of possibilities. To solve this problem, we propose a novel epistemic planning approach for propagating beliefs about the system's states during communication loss to ensure cooperative operations. Typically used for discrete multi-player games or natural language processing, epistemic planning is a powerful representation of reasoning through events, actions, and belief revisions, given new information. Most robot applications use traditional planning to interact with their immediate environment and only consider knowledge of their own state. By including an epistemic notion in planning, a robot may enact depth-of-reasoning about the system's state, analyzing its beliefs about each robot in the system. In this method, a set of possible beliefs about other robots in the system are propagated using a Frontier-based planner to accomplish the coverage objective. As disconnections occur, each robot tracks beliefs about the system state and reasons about multiple objectives: i) coverage of the environment, ii) dissemination of new observations, and iii) possible information sharing from other robots. A task allocation optimization algorithm with gossip protocol is used in conjunction with the epistemic planning mechanism to locally optimize all three objectives, considering that in a partially unknown environment, the belief propagation may not be safe or possible to follow and that another robot may be attempting an information relay using the belief state. Results indicate that our framework performs better than the standard solution for communication restrictions and even shows similar performance to simulations with no communication limitations. Extensive experiments provide evidence of the framework's performance in real-world scenarios.


For almost half a century H.G. Wells was an international phenomenon, the only writer of his time who could command an audience with both Roosevelt and Stalin. His circle of friends included George Bernard Shaw, Rudyard Kipling, G.K. Chesterton, Somerset Maugham and, of course, the young Rebecca West, with whom he had a long term affair. Equally illustrious were his circle of enemies, including the indomitable Hilaire Belloc, who destroyed Wells in a vicious and public argument. Unlike any previous biographer, Michael Coren shows that while many have considered Wells to be on the side of the angels, he was in fact invariably on the wrong side in the major political and literary debates of the age. This work delves deep into the paradoxes that characterized Wells - the utopian visionary and staunch advocate of women's suffrage who was also a misogynistic womanizer; the epitome of liberal tolerance who was also a social engineer and thoroughgoing anti-Semite. Wells has hitherto remained untouched by charges of anti-Semitism, but Coren reveals for the first time his disturbing views on `the Jewish problem', views he defended vehemently even through the 1930s. The avuncular author of "Kipps" and "The Time Machine" is depicted, shockingly, as one who advocated concentration camps, racial eugenics and the incarceration or execution of those who did not `fit in'.


Structural measurements from core from the sheeted dike complex recovered during Ocean Drilling Program Legs 137 and 140 to Hole 504B have been reoriented using the paleomagnetic stable declination. Two dike margins observed in the core restore to an approximately east-west strike, and a steep dip to the north, parallel to the orientation of the Costa Rica Rift. Veins can be divided into two sets. The veins of one set are perpendicular to the dike margins, with a range of dips; these veins are interpreted as cooling fractures, formed by the thermal contraction of the dikes. The veins of the second set are parallel to the dikes, dipping steeply and striking approximately east-west. We suggest that these were formed by hot brines with high fluid pressures generated during dike intrusion by contact of fluids in the host rock with molten lava. Unmineralized fractures in the core probably result from anelastic stress-relaxation when the core is brought to the surface. Two dominant orientations occur: subhorizontal discing fractures, and subvertical fractures, which are subparallel, with a mean strike of 131°, approximately parallel to the minimum horizontal in-situ stress estimated for borehole breakout studies. The samples have a weak anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility, with a distribution of maximum axes with a dominantly shallow inclination. The origin of this fabric is not clear. In geographic coordinates the maximum axis corresponds closely to the present maximum horizontal stress direction, which suggests that the fabric may result from internal stresses. In sample coordinates the maximum fabric corresponds to the long axis of the core. This suggests that the fabric may be related to the sample, rather than being an inherent petrologic property.


Background The non-fluoroscopy approach with the use of a three-dimensional (3D) navigation system is increasingly recognized as a future technology in the treatment of arrhythmias. However, there are a limited number of articles published concerning transseptal puncture without the use of fluoroscopy. Methods Presented in this paper is the first series of patients (n = 10) that have undergone transseptal puncture without the use of fluoroscopy under transesophageal echocardiography control using a radiofrequency transseptal needle and a 3D navigation system. Results All patients were treated without complications. In 6 patients, re-pulmonary vein isolation was performed. In 5 cases, linear ablation of the left atrium for treatment of left atrial macro re-entry tachycardia was provided. In 2 patients, focal atrial tachycardia was treated, 1 patient underwent cavo tricuspidal isthmus (CTI) ablation and 1 patient, re-CTI ablation. The ablation of complex fragmented atrial electrograms was done in 2 patients. In 1 case, right atrial macro re-entry tachycardia was treated. Conclusions Transseptal puncture without using fluoroscopy is safe and effective when using a radiofrequency needle, a 3D navigation system and transesophageal echocardiography.


The average age of the global human population is increasing, leading to increased interest in the effects of chronic disease and multimorbidity on health resources and patient welfare. It has been posited that the average age of the general veterinarian-attended horse population of the UK is also increasing, and therefore it could be assumed that chronic diseases and multimorbidity would pose an increasing risk here also. However, evidence for this trend in ageing is very limited, and the current prevalence of many chronic diseases, and of multimorbidity, is unknown. Using text mining of first-opinion electronic medical records from seven veterinary practices around the UK, Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard modelling, we were able to estimate the apparent prevalence among veterinarian-attended horses of nine chronic diseases, and to assess their relative effects on median life expectancy following diagnosis. With these methods we found evidence of increasing population age. Multimorbidity affected 1.2% of the study population, and had a significant effect upon survival times, with co-occurrence of two diseases, and three or more diseases, leading to 6.6 and 21.3 times the hazard ratio compared to no chronic disease, respectively. Laminitis was involved in 74% of cases of multimorbidity. The population of horses attended by UK veterinarians appears to be aging, and chronic diseases and their co-occurrence are common features, and as such warrant further investigation.


This study investigated use of social media for political participation among youths in Oyo state, Nigeria; specifically, the types of social media used for political participation, the types of political activities social media are used for, as well as factors influencing use of the media for political participation. Survey research design was adopted for the study. Data was collected through questionnaire from 322 youths in three Nigerian universities. Findings reveal that social media was highly used by the youths for political participation. Facebook (98.8%) was found to be the most used, followed by Whatsapp (93.8%), Instagram (60.2%), Twitter (55.3%), and Yahoo Messenger (50.9%) respectively. Majorly, the youths used social media to participate in political advocacy (95.3%), political campaigns (91.9%), communicating with politicians (90.7%), political discussions (87.3%), monitoring and reporting electoral malpractices (85.1%), public consultations (80.4%), joining interest groups that engage in lobbying (64.9%), blogging about political issues (64.9%), and writing letters to public officials (51.2%). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norms, and computer self-efficacy significantly influence use of social media for political participation, which suggests that these factors could be considered when promoting use of social media for political participation among youths. Given the growing popularity and penetration of social media and the way they influence peoples' lives, the empirical findings of this study add to understanding how and why social media use will function in motivating citizens to be involved in political activities.


Photo-degradation is an irreversible alteration in the chemical, mechanical and physical properties of polymers, these alterations are a result of photon absorption from sunlight. UV-light is considered to be the main factor for initiating photo-degradation process of polymers. To extend the lifetime of polymers, their durability, overall minimization of the rate of photo degradation and protection of polymers against environmental factors, stabilizers are introduced to polymers. In addition, since the interaction of the polymer with its environment occurs mainly at the surface of the polymer, therefore surface modification of polymers is used to enhance the UV photo-stabilization. This method can also provide a more durable, weather resistant and photo-stable polymers.


Official free textbooks for basic education have been consolidated as the main instruments for teach in Mexican classrooms and fort he institutionalization of the school praxis. Since they  are  designed  following  the  approach  of  the  educational  reform  current at the time, teaching practices are usually focused on these materials that, to a certain extent, determine the dynamics, activities and information that students receive. Children attend school to build knowledge and achieve an integral development. The function of formal education is not limited to the dissemination and transmission of data and facts, but also it contributes to the construction of an image of the subject, of his peers, of his space and of his role in society. Hence, the official educational editions have become an opportunity for the characterization of the Mexican people. This article attempts, precisely, to observe the construction of an image of national identity through the study of textbooks for schoolchildren. This analysis focuses on the volumes titled Spanish. Reading texts for the six grades of elementary education, distributed on the 2017-2018 school year


DOI: 10.26650/IstanbulJPharm.2018.414805 In this study, the cytotoxic effects of 1H-indole-2,3-dione 3-[N-(4-sulfamoylphenyl)thiosemicarbazone derivatives namely, 4a-d were evaluated using cell kinetic parameters including the cell index, mitotic index, labelling index and apoptotic index on HeLa cells taken from a human cervix carcinoma. All compounds were evaluated using cell index parameters at 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 100 and 160 μM concentrations. As a result of this, it was seen that all 4a-d compounds were effective in different concentrations. Different cell death mechanisms were proposed for 4a-d. When all the parameters were examined, it was found that the bromine substituted 4c was the most potent antiproliferative compound in the tested compounds. The difference was significant between the control and experimental groups (p<0.01). In addition, a statistically significant difference was noted among all experimental groups (p<0.01).


We develop a mathematical description of the response of weakly nonlinear systems to second-order memory mechanisms. Our description is based on a time-varying gain-modulation function. We show that intermodulation (IM) products arising from interactions at baseband have phase symmetries different from both interactions at second harmonic frequencies and gain compression and, thus, may be readily distinguished through measurement. We also demonstrate a technique for measuring and aligning the phase of IM products outside the measurement bandwidth of our instrumentation to identify contributions to memory with broad frequency response.


Abstract Congenital fibrinogen disorders (CFDs) encompass a heterogeneous group of fibrinogen defects with a wide spectrum of biological and clinical features. An accurate diagnosis is thus essential to assure the optimal management for the patient. Diagnosis involves a multistep approach starting with routine coagulation assays and assessment of functional and antigenic fibrinogen followed by identification of the molecular anomaly. However, the diagnosis of CFD can be challenging as the sensitivity and specificity of coagulation assays depend on the fibrinogen level as well as on the fibrinogen variant. In addition, patients suffering from CFD have a heterogeneous clinical course which is often unpredictable by routine coagulation assays. To better determine the patient's clinical phenotype, global hemostasis assays and an assessment of the fibrin clot properties are performed in research laboratories. In this review, we summarize the fibrinogen work-up highlighting some common pitfalls and provide an update of the research on CFD.


Intratumoral hypoxia is well known as a hallmark of most solid tumors. Here, we studied expression level of about 200 microRNAs in a panel of cancer cell lines from different tissues, and identified a microRNA miR210, its expression was prominently up‐regulated by hypoxia. Over expression of miR210 in cancer cell lines partially reversed the hypoxic gene expression signature and allowed cells to escape from hypoxia‐induced cell‐cycle arrest. We then identified MNT, a known MYC antagonist, as a key miR‐210 target. miR‐210 directly down‐regulated MNT transcript and protein via recognition sites in the transcript 3′ UTR. Consistent with a role for MNT as a miR‐210 target, RNA interference‐mediated knockdown of MNT phenocopied miR‐210 over expression cell cycle effect. Furthermore, loss of MYC abolished the ability of miR‐210 to override hypoxia‐induced cell‐cycle arrest. Thus, miR‐210 could function as a modulator in cancer cells in response to hypoxic conditions through Myc network. Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(12 Suppl):A65.


BACKGROUND
The objective was to assess the effect of two contact insecticides, lambda-cyhalothrin and flonicamid, and three systemic insecticides, pymetrozine, dimethoate and imidacloprid, on the behavior and potato virus Y (PVY) acquisition of three aphid species, Macrosiphum euphorbiae (Thomas), Rhopalosiphum padi L. and Aphis fabae (Scopoli).

RESULTS
At 1-4 days after application, contact insecticides strongly modified aphid behavior and intoxicated them. Dimethoate sprayed on potato plants did not change the behavior of the three tested aphid species, while imidacloprid slightly reduced the probing behavior of M. euphorbiae and intoxicated several R. padi. The residual effect of the insecticides (10-21 days after application) was almost non-existent. No intoxication was found, and only slight changes in the behavior of R. padi and A. fabae were observed. The acquisition of PVY by R. padi was reduced on lambda-cyhalothrin- and dimethoate-treated plants that were sprayed a few days before the test.

CONCLUSION
One systemic and two contact insecticides were effective at intoxicating aphids and reducing probing behavior soon after application. Some insecticides might sporadically reduce the spread of PVY either by modifying the behavior or reducing PVY acquisition, but their action is likely limited to a short period of time after application.


Cervical cancer mortality rates have declined in the United States, primarily because of Papanicolaou testing. However, limited information is available about the incidence of the disease in the US‐Mexico border region, where some of the poorest counties in the United States are located. This study was undertaken to help compare the patterns of cervical cancer incidence among women in the US‐Mexico border region and other parts of the United States.


Considering the high percentage of female farmers involved in Indian agriculture as key agri-food stakeholders, the extension system has traditionally overlooked their specific farming needs. In India, the transformation of agricultural extension has been strongly influenced by the changing international and national economic, political and social climates. The Indian government has initiated moves toward mainstreaming gender concerns into agricultural extension delivery, but this will be hard to achieve unless there is an improved understanding of how gender issues can be identified and effectively incorporated into agricultural extension programmes and projects. This study draws on data from a range of public, private and non-government organisations involved in extension delivery as well as private sector companies and the NGO sector. It examines the perceptions of terms such as gender within the institutional framework surrounding agricultural extension delivery and also seeks to identify factors which contribute to barriers which constrain the implementation of gender equitable extension. There was a considerable variability in understanding of how terms such as gender is interpreted and used in extension delivery and this could be considered as a key problem in implementing gender-based programmes and projects. Social customs imposed the greatest barriers to achieving gender equity and education and training from women's empowerment was identified as the main suggestion to removing this barrier. Unless the types of problems related to these underlying inconsistencies are tackled then changes at policy level will meet with little success. As a consequence the overarching goal of empowering women as key agri-food stakeholders in the future and to enable them to adapt their practices in line with current changing climates remains futile.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether dogs in New York, NY are naturally infected with Rickettsia akari, the causative agent of rickettsialpox in humans.

DESIGN
Serologic survey.

ANIMALS
311 dogs.

PROCEDURE
Serum samples were obtained from dogs as a part of a study on Rocky Mountain spotted fever and borreliosis or when dogs were examined at area veterinary clinics for routine care. Dog owners were asked to complete a questionnaire inquiring about possible risk factors at the time serum samples were obtained. Samples were tested for reactivity to spotted fever group rickettsiae by use of an enzyme immunoassay (EIA). Twenty-two samples for which results were positive were tested by use of an indirect immunofluorescence antibody (IFA) assay followed by confirmatory cross-absorption testing.

RESULTS
Results of the EIA were positive for 24 (7.7%) dogs. A history of tick infestation and increasing age were significantly associated with whether dogs were seropositive. Distribution of seropositive dogs was focal. Seventeen of the 22 samples submitted for IFA testing had titers to R rickettsii and R akari; for 11 of these, titers to R akari were higher than titers to R rickettsii. Cross-absorption testing indicated that in 6 of 7 samples, infection was caused by R akari.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Results suggest that dogs can be naturally infected with R akari. Further studies are needed to determine the incidence of R akari infection in dogs, whether infection is associated with clinical illness, and whether dogs can serve as sentinels for human disease.


Recommendation of Leukapherais as Well as Combination Chemotherapy of Adult T-cell Leukemia To the Editor: Since adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) was reported by Uchiyama ef al.,' it is well known that ATL is usually refractory to chemotherapy, even t o a chemotherapeutic regimen including adriamycin, and that the median survival time from diagnosis is two months.' Recently Newland el aL2 reported considerable improvement in one patient with T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia after leukapheresis and combination chemotherapy. We report here a patient with ATL who achieved partial remission after leukapheresis and combination chemotherapy. A 60-year-old man presented in April 1980 with facial edema and an itchy exanthema. He was found to have moderate hepatosplenomegaly and some systemic lymphadenopathy. The H b was 14.3 g / d l , platelets 174 X 109/1, a n d WBC 215 X 109/1, 95 per cent of the cells being typical ATL. The bone marrow aspirate contained 74.8 per cent of cells of similar morphology. Marker studies showed that 90 per cent of the leukocytes formed sheep RBC rosettes, 93 per cent possessed T-cell surface antigen of peripheral T-cell type, and none of the leukemic cells had TdT or common ALL antigen. None of leukemic cells possessed B-cell markers, e.g., SmIg, CIg, Ia-like antigen, or EAC receptors. Diagnosis of ATL was also supported by pathologic findings in a biopsied lymph node. His treatment and progress are shown in Figure 1. Leukapheresis was carried out three times with removal of a total of 5.88 X 10" cells. Lymphocyte count, palpable lymph nodes, skin lesions, ,and edema were all improved. This treatment and the following combination chemotherapy resulted in rapid and sustained clinical improvement, progressive reduction in the spleen size, which became impalpable after two months, a fall in the WBC count, and the great reduction of leukemic cells from blood and bone marrow (Fig. 1). In September 1980, the blood count was normal with few recognizable leukemic cells. As far as we know, this is the first report of leukapheresis therapy of ATL. Repeated leukapheresis may be advisable from the beginning in ATL, in addition to combination chemotherapy.Nobutaka Imamura, M. D.. Kosuke Okada, M. D.. Atsusi Karamoto, M. D.. Department of Internal Medicine, Research Institute f o r Nuclear Medicine & Biology, and Division of Blood Transfusion, Hiroshima University Hospital, Hiroshima University. Hiroshima, Japan.


As a result of the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, sensory testing protocols were established for reopening closed seafood harvest areas. In order to improve this method and quantitatively assess petrochemical taint, a new method using solid phase microextraction (SPME) and a 5975T transportable GC/MS was developed. This method can analyze 40 samples per instrument per day and could be an alternative to the human sensory panel. In seafood samples collected from supermarkets in the Washington D.C. area and the Gulf of Mexico, all compounds related to petrochemical taint were below the method detection limit (MDL) (0.14-2.6 ng/g). Additionally, to address consumer concerns regarding the presence of n-alkanes and iso-alkanes in seafood, these compounds were investigated in samples purchased in the Washington D.C. area and the Gulf of Mexico. Concentrations in Gulf of Mexico finfish ranged from 0.066 to 1.2 mg/kg, which is within the same background range of iso- and n-alkanes measured in seafood samples purchased in the Washington D.C. area (0.0072-1.6 μg/g). These automated methods provide a transportable option to obtain rapid results for compounds indicative of petroleum taint and iso- and n-alkanes in case of a future disaster.


Long decay periods of electron counts, which follow abrupt rises and last from weeks to months, have been observed by the HEO3 spacecraft in the vicinity of the slot region between the years 1998 and 2007. During the most stable decay periods as selected, e‐folding timescales are extracted and statistically analyzed from observations as a function of L‐shell and electron energy. A challenge is to reproduce the observed timescales from simulations of pitch angle diffusion by three acting waves—the plasmaspheric hiss, lightning‐generated whistlers, and VLF transmitter waves. We perform full numerical simulations to accurately compute electron lifetimes. We choose to use the method and wave parameters proposed by Abel and Thorne in 1998 with the goal to assess whether they can reproduce lifetimes extracted from HEO observations. We show how hiss dominantly affect high energy electrons (E > 2 MeV) for L in [2, 3.5] and VLF transmitter waves control residency times of low energy electrons (<0.4 MeV) around L = 2. These interactions induce characteristic shapes of the lifetime profiles that will be discussed. We show how the wave amplitudes can be adjusted for the particular energy particles that are dominantly affected by one wave type only. Using these amplitudes, mean HEO lifetimes are reproduced within a factor 2 to 5. VLF occurrence rates and hiss amplitude turn out significantly higher than those proposed by Abel and Thorne. The wide energy response of the sensors complicates the analysis because it blurs the electron lifetime dependence on energy, increases the overall lifetimes, and reduces the differences between the different channel lifetimes. In particular, our simulations suggest the flux measured by an integrated energy sensor aboard HEO has a variable slope, i.e., a variable lifetime, during 10–20 days in our data, due to the faster decay of the low residency time particles while slower decaying particles control the steady decay. It can explain some of the multi‐slopes decays observed by HEO. HEO electron long decay timescales are also compared to the timescales previously observed from Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) and Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES) with differences attributed to factors such as instrument characteristic and different satellite orbits.


Ecology requires training in data management and analysis. In this paper, we present data from the last 10 years demonstrating the increase in the use of R, an open-source programming environment, in ecology and its prevalence as a required skill in job descriptions. Because of its transparent and flexible nature, R is increasingly used for data management and analysis in the field of ecology. Consequently, job postings targeting candidates with a bachelor's degree and a required knowledge of R have increased over the past ten years. We discuss our experiences teaching undergraduates R in two advanced ecology classes using different approaches. One approach, in a course with a field lab, focused on collecting, cleaning, and preparing data for analysis. The other approach, in a course without a field lab, focused on analyzing existing data sets and applying the results to content discussed in the lecture portion of the course. Our experiences determined that each approach had strengths and weaknesses. We recommend that above all, instructors of ecology and related subjects should be encouraged to include R in their coursework. Furthermore, instructors should be aware of the following: learning R is a separate skill from learning statistics; writing R assignments is a significant time sink for course preparation; and, there is a tradeoff between teaching R and teaching content. Determining how one's course fits into the curriculum and identifying resources outside of the classroom for students' continued practice will ensure that R training is successful and will extend beyond a one-semester course.


Bowers Ridge is a large, arcuate sub-marine ridge that extends north and west from the Aleutian Ridge and separates the abyssal Aleutian and Bowers Basins in the Bering Sea. Two multichannel seismic-reflection lines recorded in 1976 over Bowers Ridge and the adjacent basins confirm the existence of 8- to 10-km-thick sediment wedges on the north side of Bowers Ridge and at the base of the Bering continental margin. Deformed sediment within the Bowers wedge indicates that subduction of the adjacent ocean crust beneath the ridge probably occurred prior to middle Cenozoic time. Flat-lying reflectors near the bottom of the trench suggest that a bathymetric trough and large ridge existed in Mesozoic time. The major period of underthrusting, subsidence, and in-filling of the trench probably occurred from Mesozoic to early Tertiary time. Small amounts of underthrusting may have continued after the early Tertiary development of the Aleutian Ridge; however, by middle Miocene time, the formerly subaerial Bowers Ridge had subsided below sea level. The multichannel seismic data do not show evidence for a buried spreading center within the eastern Aleutian Basin. Consequently, the sediment wedges (trenches) at both Bowers Ridge and the Bering continental margin are believed to be the consequence of subduction that occurred during the convergence of the ridge and the margin. The large size of Bowers Ridge suggests that a large amount of convergence has occurred since Mesozoic time. If Bowers Ridge was a large feature in Mesozoic time, as suggested by the apparent bathymetric trough, then the ridge may be as old or older than the Aleutian Ridge to which it connects.


Abstract Lebanon's lung cancer rates, among the highest in the Arab region, contribute to the burden of noncommunicable diseases. A number of studies have shown that lung cancer risk increases when smokers vs. nonsmokers exposed to elevated radon levels are compared. This research employs indoor and outdoor space and time concentration surveys across Lebanon, where the smoking rate among the population is among the highest in the world. The distributional properties of measured radon concentration were shown to be lognormal with median indoor and outdoor concentrations of 17 and 10 Bq m−3, respectively. Standard deviation for indoor concentrations was 1.2 times smaller than its outdoor counterpart, suggesting that weather-related patterns affect outdoor radon concentration variability. No significant spatial association was detected across seasons for indoor and outdoor radon concentrations. Geographical location, proximity to faults, and housing construction material had no significant impact on outdoor and indoor radon concentration variations. When lognormal distributions were used to determine exceedance probability of the recommended reference radon concentration, they were smaller than 0.1%. While exhibiting high seasonal variability, the study shows that radon does not appear to be a public health concern in Lebanon.