This study recapitulates the Diamond-Blackfan anemia hematologic features of reduced erythropoiesis but normal myelopoiesis by disrupting FLVCR1 in human hematopoietic stem cells. See related perspective article on page 1601. Background Diamond-Blackfan anemia is a fatal congenital anemia characterized by a specific disruption in erythroid progenitor cell development. Approximately 25% of patients have mutations in the ribosomal protein RPS19 suggesting that Diamond-Blackfan anemia may be caused by a defect in ribosome biogenesis and translation. However, it is unclear how these defects specifically disrupt early erythropoiesis. Recent studies have shown that the retroviral receptor/heme exporter FLVCR1 is critical for early erythropoiesis. FLVCR1 null mice, despite dying in utero and having reduced myeloid and lymphoid cell growth, show a disruption in early erythropoiesis and have craniofacial and limb deformities similar to those found in some Diamond-Blackfan anemia patients. Design and Methods In this study, we recapitulated the Diamond-Blackfan anemia hematologic features of reduced erythropoiesis but normal myelopoiesis by disrupting FLVCR1 in human hematopoietic stem cells. Results We found that CD71high cells, which are enriched for immature erythroid cells, from Diamond-Blackfan anemia patients negative for RPS19 gene mutations express alternatively spliced isoforms of FLVCR1 transcript which encode proteins whose expression and function are disrupted. More importantly, our results suggest alternative splicing of FLVCR1 is significantly enhanced in Diamond-Blackfan anemia immature erythroid cells. Furthermore, we also observed enhanced FLVCR1 alternative splicing and a dramatic reduction of FLVCR1 protein expression in RPS19 down-regulated human K562 cells, which were used as a model to represent RPS19 gene mutated Diamond-Blackfan anemia. Conclusions Taken together, our results suggest enhanced alternative splicing of FLVCR1 transcripts and subsequent FLVCR1 insufficiency as an additional contributing factor to the erythropoietic defect observed in Diamond-Blackfan anemia.


Understanding the magnitude of illegal logging and related timber trade as well as illegal trade flows is critical to addressing the problem. This chapter provides an overview of the estimates of illegal logging and related international timber trade, as well as providing a summary and comparison of estimation methods. Major legal and illegal international timber trade flows are portrayed along with domestic, regional and global wood products markets, and supply chains representing key agents in producer, processing and consumer countries. The chapter also presents financial flows associated with illegal logging and timber trade. Finally, data gaps are identified, and new developments in illegal logging and timber trade are discussed along with possible solutions.


Two cases of equilibrium for a highly conducting plasma are investigated for their stability. In the first case, a plasma is supported against gravity by the pressure of a horizontal magnetic field. This equilibrium is found unstable, in close correspondence to the classical case of a heavy fluid supported by a light one. The second case refers to the so-called pinch effect. Here a plasma is kept within a cylinder by the pressure of a toroidal magnetic field which in turn is caused by an electric current within the plasma. This equilibrium is found unstable against lateral distortions.


We deal with the equations of a planar magnetohydrodynamic compressible flow with the viscosity depending on the specific volume of the gas and the heat conductivity proportional to a positive power of the temperature. Under the same conditions on the initial data as those of the constant viscosity and heat conductivity case (Kazhikhov 1987 Boundary Value Problems for Equations of Mathematical Physics (Krasnoyarsk)), we obtain the global existence and uniqueness of strong solutions which means no shock wave, vacuum, or mass or heat concentration will be developed in finite time, although the motion of the flow has large oscillations and the interaction between the hydrodynamic and magnetodynamic effects is complex. Our result can be regarded as a natural generalization of the Kazhikhov's theory for the constant viscosity and heat conductivity case to that of nonlinear viscosity and degenerate heat-conductivity.


Alkylcyclobutanones have been recognized as chemical markers of irradiated lipid-containing foods since 1970. They are important because they are produced solely as a result of irradiation and not any other processing method. This study investigated the formation of 2-dodecylcyclobutanone (2-DCB) and 2-tetradec-5'-enylcyclobutanone (2-TDCB) in irradiated ground beef patties from commercial and noncommercial sources. Patties were irradiated using a (60)C source (gamma-irradiation) and electron beam irradiation, at five targeted absorbed doses of 0.5, 1.0, 2.5, 5.0, and 7.0 kGy. Commercially available irradiated patties were also studied. A supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) procedure was optimized and used for the extraction and isolation of the alkylcyclobutanones. Samples can be used for extraction without a prior cleanup step, which makes this procedure rapid and convenient to use. Identification and quantitation of the cyclobutanones were done by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. 2-DCB was detected in all of the irradiated samples (including commercial patties), and its concentration increased linearly with the irradiation dose. Electron beam irradiation produced a greater amount of 2-DCB compared to gamma-irradiation at dose levels >2.5 kGy. 2-TDCB was detected only at the two higher irradiation doses, whereas both marker compounds were not detected in the non-irradiated samples.


Both complete and incomplete game Theoretic Models of Voter Turnout (Palfrey and Rosenthal, 1983,1985) have the problem of multiple equilibria, some of which seem unreasonable. How can the counter intuitive high turnout equilibria be explained? Palfrey and Rosenthal (1985) suggest that the main reason is that strategic uncertainty is too low in a complete information model. We show that this is not the main problem with these equilibria - incomplete information may exacerbate the problem of multiple equilibria. We propose a very intuitive criterion based on voter learning to distinguish reasonable equilibria. This paper makes precise the sense in which the high turnout equilibria in the Palfrey-Rosenthal model are not robust. We show how the model can be used to qualitatively explain several phenomena observed in reality.


To achieve efficient field formulations and fast numerical computations, the reciprocal relations and equivalence between tangential and normal boundary conditions for electromagnetic fields are discussed in terms of the Maxwell's differential equations. Using the equivalence of each boundary condition, we propose the six essential boundary conditions, which may be applicable to matching electromagnetic discontinuities to efficiently design RF devices. In order to verify our approach, the reflection characteristics of a rectangular waveguide step are compared with respect to six essential boundary conditions.


A method and apparatus deploys a hydrophone array in a predetermined pattern. A master buoy includes a float and an anchor which hold a central portion at a predetermined depth in the water. A number of hydrodynamically shaped glide vehicles are disengaged from the central portion and glide radially outwardly from it. When the glide vehicles come to rest, strings of hydrophones are released and buoyed along the bottom in a preestablished pattern. Acoustic energy impinging on the hydrophones, optionally is fed to a transmitting unit on the float or to a remote installation via a cable lying on the bottom.


Early in 2011, the Journal of Australian Political Economy (JAPE) published a special issue titled, 'Challenging Climate Change'. It brought together a number of papers by climate change researchers and activists who had been invited during 2009 to contribute their perspectives to a one-day forum covering four different aspects of the climate change debate: carbon markets and the regulation of renewable energy; technological pathways toward sustainability versus a low-tech, ecosufficiency future; climate justice; and the experiences of a variety of environmental NGOs in campaigning for policy reform (Goodman and Rosewarne, 2011: 7). The aim of the forum and those who organized it was to stimulate a more robust debate about climate change policy in Australia and the international negotiations focused on reducing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Goodman and Rosewarne, 2011: 5).


High speed railway (HSR) services sharply improve the accessibility among cities and induce the reformation of intracity economic activities. Using Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach to obtain the HSR network accessibility measures for Chinese cities, including point degree, closeness centrality and average travel time, we construct econometric models to estimate the changes in average urban house price(HP) and HSR accessibility improvement, spatial equity, as well as the distribution effects across various hierarchies of cities, regions and types of premises. We have two main findings: 1) Generally, HSR accessibility improvement has a significant effect on increasing average urban house prices, and on average for a Chinese city, one HSR line more will lead to an increase in HP by 10.9% and one minute less of average travel time will lead to a rise in HP by 0.17% during our research period. 2) Economic convergence effects were observed cross regions, city hierarchies, while the gap between HSR cities and non-HSR cities widened in China. The real estate markets of some central cities and small cities in underdeveloped regions have been stimulated, and residential as well as office premises are the biggest beneficiaries.


ABSTRACT Artemisinin (ARS) and its semi-synthetic derivatives are effective drugs to treat malaria and possess multiple therapeutic activities based on their endoperoxide bridge. Here, we showed that ARS displayed antibacterial efficacy in Drosophila systemic infections caused by bacterial pathogens but killed only Vibrio cholerae (VC) in vitro, involving reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and/or DNA damage. This selective antibacterial activity of ARS was attributed to the higher intracellular copper levels in VC, in that the antibacterial activity was observed in vitro upon addition of cuprous ions even against other bacteria and was compromised by the copper-specific chelators neocuproine (NC) and triethylenetetramine (TETA) in vitro and in vivo. We suggest that copper can enhance or reinforce the therapeutic activities of ARS to be repurposed as an antibacterial drug for the treatment of bacterial infections.


Human leukocyte antigen-G (HLA-G) is a non-classical major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class Ib molecule predominantly expressed in cytotrophoblasts, where it acts as a specific immunosuppressor. Literature data have shown that grafts in some settings, such as cardiac and liver/kidney-associated transplantations, express HLA-G and this expression is associated with less severe rejection and also reduces the incidence of rejection. Fourteen-base pair deletion/insertion polymorphism has been reported in exon 8 of the 3'-untranslated region of HLA-G. This polymorphism within exon 8 of the HLA-G gene might influence transcription activity, which in turn may influence the stability of HLA-G transcripts. This influences the stability of the HLA-G protein and therefore is of potential functional relevance. In order to determine a possible correlation between the 14-bp insertion/deletion polymorphism and kidney allograft outcome, we isolated genomic DNA from 83 patients who had received isolated kidney allografts, and we classified the 83 specimens into two groups, grafts presenting Banff features of rejection group and a non-rejection group, and compared them with a control group of 97 healthy subjects. The 14-bp polymorphism at exon 8 was genotyped in all groups. There was no significant difference in allelic frequencies of 14-bp insertion/deletion polymorphism between normal controls and kidney transplant patients. In the RG, the homozygous genotype +14/+14 bp (P = 0.0238) was significantly increased in the group with acute rejection compared with the healthy control group. Analysis of other HLA-G polymorphisms and functional studies on immune regulation are essential to elucidate the role of HLA-G in kidney allografts.


BACKGROUND:The optimal extent of resection for surgical treatment of lesional epilepsy is a controversial issue. OBJECTIVE:For patients with mesial temporal lobe lesions visible on magnetic resonance imaging, we compared the surgical outcome of selective lesionectomy with that of standard anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) and amygdalohippocampectomy. METHODS:We conducted a retrospective analysis of the seizure outcome of 40 patients treated for lesional mesial temporal lobe epilepsy between 1993 and 2008. Before 2006, patients were managed by ATL (n = 29) and from 2006 onward, by selective lesionectomy via the transsylvian-transcisternal approach (n = 11). RESULTS:The postoperative seizure-free rates for the 2 groups were comparable: 93% (27/29) for the ATL group and 91% (10/11) for the selective lesionectomy group (P = .814). In both groups, patients with persistent seizures commonly showed incomplete lesion resection, with complete resection often improving seizure outcome. Postoperative visual field defects were more common in the ATL group (21%) than in the selective lesionectomy group (0%) (P = .102). CONCLUSION:Transsylvian-transcisternal selective lesionectomy is an effective and safe therapeutic modality in children with lesional mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. Completeness of resection is an important variable for seizure control regardless of surgical modality.


255 Cardiac Arrest in a Patient with History of Peripartum Cardiomyopathy Abstract Type: Case Report/Case Series Kallol Chaudhuri, M.D., Ph.D.; Jessica Meyers, M.D.; Madhav Swaminathan, M.D.; Adeyemi Olufolabi, M.D. Duke University Medical CenterType: Case Report/Case Series Kallol Chaudhuri, M.D., Ph.D.; Jessica Meyers, M.D.; Madhav Swaminathan, M.D.; Adeyemi Olufolabi, M.D. Duke University Medical Center Introduction: Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is the development of cardiac failure in the last month of pregnancy or within five months after delivery, in the absence of both an identifiable cause of cardiac failure and of recognizable heart disease prior to last month of pregnancy. In the US, the incidence is predicted to be 1 per 3000 to 4000 births. We present an unusual case of sudden cardiovascular compromise, which developed prior to cesarean delivery in a patient with history of PPCM. Case History: A 36 year-old G6P2 African-American female presented at 38-weeks gestation for possible preeclampsia. Past medical history was relevant for PPCM (diagnosed 9 years ago), along with chronic hypertension, asthma, and obstructive sleep apnea. Physical examination revealed a BMI 59.9, HR 107, BP 150's/90's, FHR 130's, and 2+ pretibial pitting edema. A recent transthoracic echocardiogram showed normal LV systolic function (EF >55%) with moderate LV hypertrophy. Given her history, decision was made to proceed with urgent cesarean section under spinal anesthesia with invasive hemodynamic monitoring. During placement of central venous catheter, the patient felt claustrophobic and sat up; she quickly became dyspneic, and then unresponsive. Patient was immediately positioned supine with left uterine displacement; SBP was in the 60's, with FHR in the 70's. She was immediately intubated following rapid sequence induction with IV propofol and succinylcholine. With nonpalpable pulses, chest compressions were initiated and multiple boluses of IV epinephrine were administered. Fetus was delivered immediately by c-section. Resuscitation was continued, and femoral pulse became palpable following delivery of the fetus. Chest compressions were discontinued and dopamine and epinephrine infusions were intiated. An intraoperative transesophageal echocardiogram showed severe LV hypertrophy with septum measuring 2.5cm; EF was estimated to be >55% with significant reduction of LV cavity size. Aggressive fluid replacement with Voluven (1.5 L), PRBC (1 U), and LR (2 L) improved the patient's hemodynamic status and inotropic infusions were discontinued. The patient was transported to the ICU in fair condition; she was extubated on POD#2 and discharged home on POD#5. Discussion: Sudden cardiac arrest in this patient with a history of PPCM displayed an interesting picture. In spite of her history, poor left ventricular function, thromboembolism or myocardial infarction did not appear to be causative factors. The cardiac decompensation resulted from severe hypovolemia; probable contributory factors included intravascular volume depletion from chronic hypertension, inadequate fluid intake, and peripheral vasodilation. Her history of PPCM initially restrained us from aggressive fluid resuscitation; severe hypovolemia was not considered in the differential diagnosis until intraoperative echocardiogram provided the direction for medical management.


It is often argued that energy policy is too fragmented across EU Member States and should be "Europeanized" to pave the way towards an efficiently organized European power system, which rests on the internal market for energy and a pan-European super-grid. However, this view neglects i) the heterogeneity of European energy policies in terms of harmonization and centralization, ii) economic arguments in favor of decentralization and iii) legal as well as political-economic obstacles against centralization of decision making. In this vein, we point out that a plea for a stronger role of the EU needs to be made with care and differentiation.


Although atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most commonly encountered cardiac arrhythmia, the basic mechanisms underlying this disorder remain incompletely understood. During the past decade or so, it has become clear that alterations in intracellular Ca2+ handling may play a role in the pathogenesis of AF. Studies in small and large animal models, as well as atrial samples from patients with different forms of AF, have implicated ryanodine receptor type 2 (RyR2) dysfunction and enhanced spontaneous Ca2+ release events from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) as a potential cause of proarrhythmic cellular ectopic (triggered) activity in AF. The molecular mechanisms leading to RyR2 dysfunction and SR Ca2+ leak depend on the clinical stage of AF or specific animal model studied. This review focuses on the mechanisms and role of calcium‐mediated cellular triggered activity in AF, and addresses some of the current controversies in the field.


Visual function affects working ability in occupational health. We investigated the frequencies and grades of low vision in working age people who have glaucoma, and studied patients who were receiving low vision care, for example eye movement training. Among 3,905 patients aged 15 to 64 years old who visited Murakami eye clinic from October 2013 to September 2014, there were 363 patients suspected of having glaucoma and 138 patients diagnosed with glaucoma and receiving treatment. We measured their visual acuity and visual field to calculate their functional vision score (FVS). We studied the amount of reduction in visual ability and the number of patients undergoing low vision care by age groups. The vision test and visual field test showed that 18 patients had reduced visual ability, according to the FVS. Their FVS classification was from class 1 (mild vision loss) to class 3a (severe vision loss). The FVS matches the statistics of the WHO and can predict the reading and walking ability in each class. Reduced visual ability was recognized in about 14% of the glaucoma patients older than 45 years of age. 78% of the patients were classified in class 1. In FVS, class 2 (moderate vision loss) or greater is defined as low vision, and class 1 is a condition with no visual reserve. Although such patients have no problems in daily life and office work, they are challenged by on-site work and the on-site environment, and occupational health staff intervention becomes necessary.


A case of traumatic epidural haematoma associated with von Willebrand disease (type 3) is reported. A 32-year-old man fell and hit his frontal region against the floor. CT scan on admission showed acute epidural haematoma of the right frontal region 45 mm in width and 60 ml volume. Considering moderate clinical symptomatology, a possibility of complication in connection with a congenital coagulation disorder and, above all, lack of patient's consent, prophylactic treatment with clotting factor concentrates was undertaken. Complete resorption of epidural haematoma has been obtained. In our opinion, in the presence of relative contraindication to operative intervention, even in cases with a large intracranial haematoma and inborn clotting deficiency prophylactic treatment may be considered. The following conditions must be met before such treatment is undertaken: prompt use of appropriate clotting factors, CT scan, clinical observation as well as possibility of prompt operative intervention in the neurosurgical department must all be available.


The theory of "preventive war" states that, under certain conditions, states respond to rising adversaries with military force in an attempt to forestall an adverse shift in the balance of power. British and French passivity in response to the rapid rise of Germany in the 1930s would appear to constitute one of the leading empirical anomalies in the theory, one the theory's proponents must explain. After clarifying the meaning of the preventive motivation for war and specifying the conditions under which it should be the strongest, we examine French and British behavior in the crises over the Rhineland in 1936 and Sudeten Czechoslovakia in 1938 through an intensive study of government documents and private papers. We argue that French political leaders, anticipating a continuing adverse shift in relative power, wanted to confront Hitler, but only with British support, which was not forthcoming. British leaders believed, even by 1936, that the balance of power had already shifted in Germany's favor, but that German ascendancy was only temporary and that British rearmament would redress the balance of power in a few years. We contrast our argument with alternative interpretations based on domestic political pressures and ideologically driven beliefs and interests.


A formulation describing electric-dipole absorption and resonance-enhanced diffraction of x-rays is applied to a ion in an octahedral crystal field and subject to a magnetic field. Analytical results are given for both the idealized and the complete forms of the scattering length. The contributing atomic quantities are discussed in detail, e.g. the spin - orbit interaction and the quadrupole moment of the valence holes. The model calculation was chosen to illustrate the use of a completely general formulation of the scattering length, from which one obtains the attenuation coefficient and cross-sections for elastic and inelastic scattering. Relevant tensor operators are referred both to unit tensors, and to appropriately coupled operators of spin and orbital angular momentum. The quantities that appear in the linear dichroic signal differ from corresponding results in the literature, and reasons for this finding are discussed.


A neurochemical sensor system is being developed to spatially sense and process neurotransmitters. This paper reports the design and VLSI implementation of a multichannel potentiostat that interfaces to a nitric-oxide (NO) sensor array. Picoampere to microampere input currents are range-normalized with programmable gain, and digitized by a bank of current-mode delta-sigma analog-to-digital (A/D) converters. First-order noise shaping and 4096-fold oversampling provide high signal-to-noise ratio for the low-frequency NO transients. A shift register scans the buffered decimated delta-sigma outputs in bit-serial format providing asynchronous sequential readout. An 8-channel potentiostat in 0.5 /spl mu/m CMOS measures 1.5 mm/spl times/1.5 mm, and consumes 0.5 mW power. The device is expected to serve as a valuable tool for neurophysiological research and implantable neural prostheses.


During the past several years, there has been increasing interest in the effects of estrogen on neural function. This enthusiasm is driven, in part, by the results of early clinical studies suggesting that estrogen therapy given after menopause may prevent, or at least delay, the onset of Alzheimer's disease in older women. However, later clinical trials of women with probable Alzheimer's disease had contrary results. Much of the current research related to estrogen and brain function is focused in two directions. One involves clinical studies that examine the potential of estrogen in protecting against cognitive decline during normal aging and against Alzheimer's disease (neuroprotection). The other direction, which is the primary focus of this review, involves laboratory studies that examine the mechanisms by which estrogen can modify the structure of nerve cells and alter the way neurons communicate with other cells in the brain (neuroplasticity). In this review, we examine recent evidence from experimental and clinical research on the rapid effects of estrogen on several mechanisms that involve synaptic plasticity in the nervous system,including hippocampal excitability, long-term potentiation and depression related to sex and aging differences, cellular neuroprotection and probable molecular mechanisms of the action of estrogen in brain tissue.


A robust proportional integral (PI) observer design for time-delay systems is proposed. It is based on the factorisation approach for time-delay systems. A PI observer in the general form is used. The existence condition for all PI observers is obtained. The parameterisation for all PI observers and their error dynamics for time-delay systems are given. It is indicated that the proposed PI observer is composed of an identity PI state observer and a disturbance signal attenuator. A systematic design procedure for a robust PI observer is presented.


METHODS: A retrospective cohort of patients who underwent DRR from 2005 to 2016 was identified. A propensity score was calculated based on age, smoking, injury mechanism, procedure type, vein graft and number of digits injured. Patients were matched 1:3 by one standard deviation caliper width of the propensity score, to create two groups of patients with similar risks of receiving IV heparin post-operatively. McNemer test was used to determine differences in failure rates between groups.


A modified, priority-based probe algorithm for deadlock detection and resolution in distributed database system is presented. Various examples are used to show that the original priority-based algorithm, presented by M.K. Sinha and N. Natarajan (1985), either fails to detect deadlocks or reports deadlocks that do not exist in many situations. A modified algorithm that eliminates these problems is proposed. The algorithm has been tested through simulation and appears to be errorfree. The performance of the modified algorithm is briefly discussed. >


In the wake of recent advances in machine learning research, the study of pharmacogenomics using predictive algorithms serves as a new paradigmatic application. In this work, our goal was to explore an ensemble machine learning approach which aims to predict probable antidepressant treatment response and remission in major depressive disorder (MDD). To discover the status of antidepressant treatments, we established an ensemble predictive model with a feature selection algorithm resulting from the analysis of genetic variants and clinical variables of 421 patients who were treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. We also compared our ensemble machine learning framework with other state-of-the-art models including multi-layer feedforward neural networks (MFNNs), logistic regression, support vector machine, C4.5 decision tree, naïve Bayes, and random forests. Our data revealed that the ensemble predictive algorithm with feature selection (using fewer biomarkers) performed comparably to other predictive algorithms (such as MFNNs and logistic regression) to derive the perplexing relationship between biomarkers and the status of antidepressant treatments. Our study demonstrates that the ensemble machine learning framework may present a useful technique to create bioinformatics tools for discriminating non-responders from responders prior to antidepressant treatments.


Indonesia's forest is decreasing rapidly, and it is affecting the country's commitment to curb carbon emission by 29 percent by 2030. Per a report published by GermanWatch in 2016, our country's Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) fell three places from 19 to 22 due to inadequate forest protection policy. This research will look into the urgency for the government of Indonesia to draw an agenda to push forward forest andpeatland reform to stop deforestation. Through a comparative analysis, this paper will compare two government regimes: the second term of President SusiloBambangYudhoyono (2010-2014), where REDD+ was used as the catalyst for forest and peatland governance reform; and the first two years of President JokoWidodo (2014-2016), where promising actions to restore and to protect Indonesia's forest and peatland still need stronger political will and leadership to meet the 29 per cent commitment to curb greenhouse gas emission in 2030.


Analysts commonly use execution traces collected at runtime to understand the behavior of applications running on parallel and distributed systems. These traces are inspected post mortem using various visualization techniques that are generally incapable to scale properly for many events. This issue, mainly due to human perception limitations, is also the result of the screen size, which prevents the proper drawing of many graphical objects. Several visualization techniques tackle these issues by reducing the representaton complexity, using visual or data aggregation, or even clustering. Nevertheless, these solutions have drawbacks that hinder the analysis. We first evaluate existing trace visualization techniques using different criteria, involving how they are readable, their fidelity to represent the trace content without modifying its meaning, and so on. The objective is to determine which factors are responsible for the issues mentioned above. Second, we show how the combination of several aggregation techniques, data and visual, through a coherent and uniform treatment on spatial and temporal dimension, helps us to fulfill better the different criteria. This example enable us to claim the necessity of formalizing an aggregation methodology to provide decent spatiotemporal trace overviews for performance analysis.


20 seconds later you have a fully developed, fine grain negative and a positive that matches the negative in every respect. Positive and negative develop in their own packet outside the camera, outside the darkroom. The negative needs only to be washed and dried to be ready to print or enlarge. Resolution is better than 150 lines per mm. Type 55 P/N film is one of four special Polaroid Land films for 4 x 5 photography. Type 52 film produces a virtually grainless paper print in 10 seconds. It has an A.S.A. rating of 200 and is ideal for general purpose 4 x 5 photography. Type 57 Polaroid Land film has an A.S.A. rating of 3000 for use in extremely low light conditions. It also produces a finished print in 10 seconds. New Type 58 Polacolor 4 x 5 film is now available. It produces a fullcolor print just 50 seconds after exposure. The colors are rich and beautiful and skin tones are especially accurate. Speed is 75 A.S.A. The Polaroid Land 4 x 5 system gives your camera more versatility, opens up new opportunities for you in 4 x 5 photography. .POLAROID" AND "POLACOLOR"@ et al. (1), using an electrophysiological technique. 4) We agree with Wharton et al. that our assignment of a band at 12.5 ,u to an isopropylidene group was an unfortunate one. The assignment was based on the absence of this band from the infrared spectrum of the hydrogenated attractant. Gas chromatography of the hydrogenated attractant and the synthetic saturated product on packings different from those described has indeed shown the presence of several peaks, identical in the two preparations. In spite of the marked instability of our cockroach sex attractant, we are attempting to synthesize this material. In the final analysis, only synthesis can serve as the decisive factor. MARTIN JACOBSON MORTON BEROZA Entomology Research Division, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland


PURPOSE
To examine the composite-to-dentin shear bond strengths over 2 yrs of three chemically different single bottle dentin adhesives: water-based Syntac Single Component (SSC); acetone-based Prime & Bond 2.1 (PB), and; ethanol-based and filled OptiBond Solo (OS).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Extracted human molars stored in 0.2% sodium azide were randomly assigned to each of three dentin bond groups for testing at 5 time periods (n=15). The crowns of the teeth were sectioned to expose occlusal dentin and the roots embedded in acrylic. The dentin was etched with 37% H3PO4 for 20 s, rinsed and dentin adhesives applied per manufacturers' instructions. A column of Z-100 composite was bonded to the treated dentin surface and light cured. Teeth were stored in distilled water at 37 degrees C and thermocycled for 1,000 cycles between 5 degrees C and 55 degrees C and tested in shear at 24 hrs (baseline), 6, 12, 18 and 24 months. Mean +/- SD shear bond strengths (SBS) were determined.

RESULTS
ANOVA at a significance level of P< 0.05 revealed OS had significantly higher SBS at 6 and 12 months compared to baseline. PB had significantly higher SBS at 12 months compared to baseline. SSC had significantly higher SBV at 18 months compared to baseline. However, at 24 months the SBV for OS and SSC were significantly lower than at baseline. During all time periods, OS and PB had significantly higher SBS than SSC.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The long-term stability of resin-based composite to dentin bond strengths from single bond adhesives is questionable because after 2 yrs, bond strengths for two of the three tested dentin adhesives, OptiBond Solo and Syntac Single Component, were significantly lower than initial strengths.


We used data from the 1998–2009 waves of the National Health Interview Survey to investigate cohort differences in low birthweight among US-born children of mothers arriving in the United States between 1955 and 2009, cohort-adjusted patterns in low birthweight by maternal duration of residence in the United States, and cohort-adjusted patterns in low birthweight by maternal duration of US residence stratified by age at arrival and region of origin. We found a consistent deterioration in infant health with successive immigrant cohorts and heterogeneous effects of cohort-adjusted duration in the United States by age at arrival and region. Most notably, we found evidence that maternal health (as proxied by low birthweight) deteriorates with duration in the United States only for immigrant mothers who came to the United States as children. For mothers who arrived as adults, we found no evidence of deterioration. The findings underscore the importance of considering age at arrival and place of origin when studying post-migration health trajectories and provide indirect evidence that early life exposures are a key to understanding why the United States lags other developed nations in health.


Automating the analysis of neurons in culture represents a key aspect of the search for neuroactive compounds. A number of commercial neurite analysis software packages tend to measure some basic features such as total neurite length and number of branching points. However, with only these measurements, some differences between neurite morphologies that are clear to a human observer cannot be identified. The authors have developed a suite of image analysis tools that will allow researchers to produce quality analyses at primary screening rates. The suite provides sensitive and information-rich measurements of neurons and neurites. It can discriminate subtle changes in complex neurite arborization even when neurons and neurites are dense. This allows users to selectively screen for compounds triggering different types of neurite outgrowth behavior. In mixed cell populations, neurons can be filtered and separated from other brain cell types so that neurite analysis can be performed only on neurons. It supports batch processing with a built-in database to store the batch-processing results, a batch result viewer, and an ad hoc query builder for users to retrieve features of interest. The suite of tools has been deployed into a software package called HCA-Vision. The free version of the software package is available at http://www.hca-vision.com.


Treatment with dichloromethane diphosphonate (Cl2MDP, 10 mg P/kg s.c. for 3 days) did not abolish the rapid hypocalciuric effect of acute administration of parathyroid hormone (PTH) to thyroparathyroidectomized (TPTX) rats. Cl2MDP impaired, however, the slower hypercalcemic response to PTH. This latter effect of Cl2MDP did not result from increased renal excretion of calcium. Thus, Cl2MDP does not interfere with the kidney but with the bone effect of PTH. This finding explains, at least in part, why, under treatment with Cl2MDP, there is still an effective regulation of plasma calcium.


Microalgae are the source of various compounds with high potentials for being
used in different industries. The production of such compounds can be raised under extreme conditions.
In the present study, four cyanobacteria and one coccoid green alga were examined which were isolated
from hot springs in high background radiation areas in Ramsar, a city in the north of Iran.

Cadmium adsorption from aqueous solution, response towards cadmium stress, antioxidant
activity, total phenolic compound and drought tolerance were investigated in these microalgae.

 The results showed that these extremophile microalgae contain valuable biological compounds
which can be useful in remediation of heavy metals from contaminated water and soils and pharmaceutical
applications. The unicellular cyanobacterium, Chroococidiopsis thermalis IBRC-M50002, was the
best strain with the highest biological activity in various testes such as cadmium adsorption (225 mg
g-1), cadmium tolerance stress (100 mg ml-1), antioxidant activity (IC50= 18 μg mg-1) and total phenol content
(100 μg ml-1). The coccoid green algae Grasiella emersonii IBRC-M50001, also exhibited significant
antioxidant activity (IC50=10 μg mg-1) and total phenol compound (116 μg ml-1), but its cadmium adsorption,
tolerance at cadmium stress and desiccation were lower than Chroococidiopsis thermalis.

 HBRAs microalgae, isolated from extreme conditions, are useful microorganisms for the
production of bioactive substances and natural antioxidants. In other words, they exhibited high capacity
to be used in pharmaceutical, industrial and commercial applications.


In our country, potato is a highly important national crop, as a basic food element (almost the population's second bread), while for the Apuseni Mountains area, potato holds the highest percentage and at the same time represents an essential food for locals and their animals, as a paramount food support of the population in the area.
Its specific renders this crop as a highly demanding species of plant in terms ecologic conditions, humidity and temperature, as well as nutritive elements, as it forms an abundant vegetative mass and a high tuber quantity for the surface unit. It is a highly consuming nitrogen, potassium , magnesium and calcium plant, as well as with respect to macroelements. Once the potato is harvested, the export of mineral elements from the soil is high, thus determining the rapid soil depletion and demanding for a suitable fertilization of potato crop, adequate to the household system specific to the mountain area.
Numerous researches conducted in the area under study reveal the fact that, from a pedoclimatic point of view, there are good and very good conditions for potato crop, considering the climatic abnormalities in the last period. But the severity of the climatic impact varies from one region to another and exerts a serious effect on agriculture. In this highly important sector, climate changes would influence crop harvest, animal breeding and location of production. The increased probability and severity of weather events will considerably increase the risk of crop calamities. The climate change will exert an influence on the soil, by decreasing the organic matter content- a major contributor to soil fertility. In this context, considering the basic occupation of locals in the area, especially animal breeding, alarge quantity of organic fertilizers is used and by meas of their rational employment, they represent the main fertilizatio source of crops in the area, recovery and maintenance of soil fertility.
Alongside being the basic food product of population in the area, the importance of potato increases once the altitude of the area also increases, being used as fodder for animal husbandry, due to the fact that the assortment of cultivated plants is limited to potato, rye, oat, some fruit trees, certain vegetables, while the rest of the surfaces is covered with natural pastureland and forests. In this respect, potato covers the largest surface, as corn hybrids, even early ones do not manage to reach maturity in this mountain area.


The information technology body of knowledge (BOK) is reviewed for its support to IT as an emerging profession. The author discusses the IT BOK for the important roles it can fulfill in support of education, certification, professional stature, professional development, and organizational improvement. Efforts to develop and maintain the IT BOK also have beneficial side effects, such as focusing attention on global perceptions and practices and keeping the characterization of IT current. The author offers recommendations for IT professionals to enhance the IT BOK by participating in its development, experimenting with ways to represent it more effectively, and assessing the potential benefits of creating a new BOK oriented to IT professional practice.


There can be no reasonable doubt that a relation exists between the physiological action of a substance and its chemical composition and constitution, understanding by the latter term the mutual relations of the atoms in the substance. There are numerous indications of such a relation, and attempts have been made to express it formally in certain cases. Thus it has been long observed, that the salts of the same base have a common physiological action, and it has been pointed out by Mr Blake that, with some exceptions, the salts of isomorphous bases have a similar action. A corresponding likeness in physiological action may be traced in salts having the same acid, but beyond these generalisations we are not aware that any approach has been made to the statement of a law connecting the physiological action of a substance with its chemical constitution.


Objective: To study the value of antibodies to citrullinated proteins/peptides for predicting joint outcomes in patients with recent onset rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: 191 patients with RA onset within the past year were followed up prospectively for five years. Serum samples obtained from 145 patients at baseline before disease modifying antirheumatic drug treatment were examined using three anticitrullinated protein/peptide antibody assays: antiperinuclear factor (APF) by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF), antikeratin antibodies (AKA) by IIF, and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) antibodies by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Radiographs of the hands and feet taken at baseline and after three and five years were evaluated using Sharp scores modified by van der Heijde. Results:Anti-CCP ELISA was positive in 58.9% of patients. APF/anti-CCP agreement was 77%. The likelihood of a total Sharp score increase after five years was significantly greater among patients with anti-CCP antibodies (67%; odds ratio (OR) 2.5; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.2 to 5.0) or APF (57%; OR 2.4; 95% CI 1.2 to 4.9) but not rheumatoid factor (RF; OR 0.7; 95% CI 0.3 to 1.5). Mean values for radiographic damage, erosion, and joint narrowing scores at the three times were significantly higher in patients with anti-CCP or APF than in those without. AKA did not significantly predict radiographic damage. In separate analyses of patients with and without RF, anti-CCP or APF was better than RF for predicting total joint damage and joint damage progression after five years. Conclusion: Antibodies to citrullinated proteins/peptides determined early in the course of RA by APF IIF or anti-CCP ELISA are good predictors of radiographic joint damage. Further studies of clinical, laboratory, and genetic parameters are needed to improve RA outcome prediction in clinical practice.


Abstract Preliminary economic analyses for baseload electricity generation with carbon capture and storage (CCS) in a recent UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) study are extended to include existing pulverized fuel (PF) plant retrofitted with an advanced supercritical boiler and turbine and with solvent scrubbing. Predicted generation costs are in the region of 3.2–3.5 p/kWh. This appears to be comparable with recent IEA predictions for electricity costs from new IGCC plant. Ways in which CCS plant, and solvent scrubbing plant in particular, can provide the flexibility required to complement a high proportion of renewable generation are also discussed.


An acute massive epidemic of arsenic poisoning in Argentina involved 718 subjects. Urine samples were obtained from 307. The 49 with urine arsenic 76-500 micrograms/dl and 12 with urine arsenic greater than 500 micrograms/dL received dimercaprol treatment. Symptomatology increased with the urine arsenic with increased diarrhea, vomiting and systemic symptoms at urine arsenic greater than 75 micrograms/dL.


This paper develops the concept of the nanoconductivity of insulators as applied to the space technology aimed at creating discharge-free space vehicles and discusses the ways to achieve this. Feasibility analysis of advanced, next generation, discharge-free satellites widely using nanoconducting insulators in spacecraft electronics proves that such a transition is not only necessary but is also practicable. We have performed computer simulations of a multivibrator, which is a typical representative of the digital technology, using the LTspice software. As any spacecraft dielectric is a potential source of the electrostatic discharges, it is advisable to implement the nanoconductivity concept by replacing high-resistivity insulators with the nanoconducting dielectrics featuring electrical conductivity around  $10^{-9}\Omega ^{-1}\text{m}^{-1}$ .


BACKGROUND/AIMS
Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is now becoming increasingly popular. However, an increasing number of complications has also been reported. Regarding such complications, iatrogenic perforation of the colon is considered to be the most dangerous.

METHODOLOGY
We routinely check the course of the colon using preoperative abdominal computed tomography with air injected into the stomach (pre-PEG CT), and thereafter the patients are classified into two groups, consisting of a Low-risk group and High-risk group, according to the locations of the stomach and colon. The patients in the High-risk group underwent PEG in combination with contrast radiography of the large intestine. We evaluated the safety and feasibility of PEG placement using a Pre-PEG CT and contrast radiography of the large intestine.

RESULTS
A Pre-PEG CT showed a Low-risk type in 84.4% and a High-risk type in 15.6%. High-risk type patients underwent contrast radiography on the large intestine in conjunction with PEG. As a result, we were able to perform PEG safely with no iatrogenic perforation in any patients.

CONCLUSIONS
A pre-PEG CT and contrast radiography of the large intestine combination with PEG are thus considered to be an effective modality for reducing the incidence of serious complications of PEG.


In this paper we present a novel approach for inducing word alignments from sentence aligned data. We use a Conditional Random Field (CRF), a discriminative model, which is estimated on a small supervised training set. The CRF is conditioned on both the source and target texts, and thus allows for the use of arbitrary and overlapping features over these data. Moreover, the CRF has efficient training and decoding processes which both find globally optimal solutions.We apply this alignment model to both French-English and Romanian-English language pairs. We show how a large number of highly predictive features can be easily incorporated into the CRF, and demonstrate that even with only a few hundred word-aligned training sentences, our model improves over the current state-of-the-art with alignment error rates of 5.29 and 25.8 for the two tasks respectively.


This paper reviews recent advances in graphene active plasmonics for terahertz (THz) device applications. Two-dimensional plasmons in graphene exhibit unique optoelectronic properties and mediate extraordinary light–matter interactions. It has been discovered theoretically that when the population of Dirac fermionic carriers in graphene are inverted by optical or electrical pumping, the excitation of graphene plasmons by the THz photons results in propagating surface plasmon polaritons with giant gain in a wide THz range. Furthermore, when graphene is patterned into a micro- or nanoribbon array by grating metallization, the structure acts as an active THz plasmonic amplifier, providing a superradiant plasmonic lasing with a giant gain at the plasmon modes in a wide THz frequency range. These new findings can lead to the creation of new types of plasmonic THz emitters and lasers operating even at room temperature.


John Dryden, in his poem, To my honoured kinsmen, writes: "The wise for a cure on exercise depend". This is good advice that the NHS is only just beginning to take seriously. Current policy has rightly focused its attention on improving services to treat the big killers: coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer. The challenge to reduce premature mortality from these diseases is huge—for example, the National Service Framework on Coronary Heart Disease, published earlier this year, has created a blueprint both for improving quality of services (from prevention to palliative care), and for improving access to these services across the country. In the drive to modernise the NHS more emphasis is being placed on the important role that prevention and early intervention can play. Many are aware of the risk to health from smoking, but far fewer realise that the relative risk from physical inactivity is of a similar order. People who are physically inactive carry twice the risk of coronary heart disease and three times the risk of stroke as their more active counterparts. If it is to bring continued health benefits, physical activity needs to be embedded in the daily lives of many more people. Six out of ten men and seven out of ten women in England, between the ages of 16–74, are not physically active enough to benefit their health. The recently published National Diet and Nutrition Survey of 4–18 year olds has shown that children are becoming less active. About 40% of boys and 60% of girls spent, on average, less than an hour a day in activities of at least moderate intensity and therefore failed to meet our recommendation for young people's participation in physical activity. Moreover, participation in physical activity—such as, sports and walking, is strongly related to household income. However, this association between socioeconomic group and physical activity is partly oVset by the higher levels of occupational activity in manual social classes. As a result, approximately 50% of men in social classes IV and V do not meet current recommendations in levels of physical activity, compared to two thirds of men in classes I and II. Overall, the picture for women is worse. In social classes IV and V, nearly 80% of women fail to achieve the recommended level of physical activity. Although activity levels in class I are not significantly diVerent, levels for social classes II and non-manual III are slightly higher. Physical activity must be one of the most undervalued interventions to improve public health. Its benefits are great. Physical activity is closely associated with better health and reduced all cause mortality, including reduced mortality from coronary heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, and reduced fatality after a heart attack. Exercise helps to reduce blood pressure and hypertension, and can protect against the development of type II diabetes mellitus. It is a vital component of weight control. Weight bearing activity helps to maintain bone mass density and to reduce the risk of osteoporosis; and physical activity generally helps with improved balance, coordination, and endurance in older people. It has an important role in helping people to manage chronic conditions—such as, asthma and arthritis. It also has psychological benefits, including improved self esteem, and lower risk of mild to moderate depression. It is not surprising that exercise has been described by Professor Jerry Morris, one of the great figures in public health in the last century (and now in his nineties), as "the best buy in public health for the West". Although the evidence of benefit, which has accumulated steadily over the past 10 years, is now compelling, some health professionals have not kept up with the developments in sport and exercise science. Few undergraduates receive any training in sport and exercise science during their medical training. It is small wonder that they feel ill equipped to give sound advice. Few exercise and sports science graduates are employed in the NHS. This is a challenge for health professionals. We need to be better equipped to meet the challenge of overcoming existing barriers to physical activity, both by simply extolling its virtues—telling people that it is good for them—and by helping with the practical provision of high quality, cost eVective, and accessible programmes. This is particularly important in addressing the socioeconomic gradient. There is evidence to show that the availability of accessible and aVordable facilities is a major factor in the levels of physical activity among diVerent groups. This is especially true for older adults. But there are also wider influences: the fear of crime, which may deter some people from travelling; public transport strategies, which may deter people from walking or cycling; and the location of retail facilities, which may encourage rather than discourage car use. A policy to promote physical activity also needs to address factors such as these. Primary health care professionals should see the promotion of physical activity as an integral part of their responsibilities. There have been several attempts to build these new responsibilities into a coherent and sustainable plan. Not all have been successful, but many are increasingly deserving of support. General practitioner referral schemes oVer an opportunity to link public health and exercise, and to bring together the patient, the exercise professionals, and the health professionals in a partnership for better health. I believe that the opportunities which exist in primary care for exercise promotion are gradually being recognised and exploited by the exercise science community. Some months ago, King called for primary care advice on physical activity to be given in conjunction with referral to appropriate community organisations, in order to facilitate long term increases in exercise participation rates. It is a view I share because it recognises the significance of multiagency collaborative working in public health. A good example of such joint working is a project to oVer "exercise on prescription" in the Oldham area. This project was established in 1996 between Oldham Education and Leisure Services and West Pennine Health Authority, and Oldham Primary Health Care Teams, and is still in progress today. The scheme provides people with tailored exercise programmes to benefit their own particular health needs. If we as health professionals must face a challenge, so must those involved in exercise and sports science. As with any health promotion activity, we need more convincing evidence about what interventions work and how to influence behaviour, particularly amongst those who are most at risk from their sedentary lifestyle. Sport and exercise Br J Sports Med 2000;34:409–415 409


Protosappanin‐A (PrA) and oleanolic acid (OA), which are important effective ingredients isolated from Caesalpinia sappan L., exhibit therapeutic potential in multiple diseases. This study focused on exploring the mechanisms of PrA and OA function in podocyte injury. An in vitro model of podocyte injury was induced by the sC5b‐9 complex and assays such as cell viability, apoptosis, immunofluorescence, quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction, and western blot were performed to further investigate the effects and mechanisms of PrA and OA in podocyte injury. The models of podocyte injury were verified to be successful as seen through significantly decreased levels of nephrin, podocin, and CD2AP and increased level of desmin. The sC5b‐9‐induced podocyte apoptosis was inhibited in injured podocytes treated with PrA and OA, accompanied by increased protein levels of nephrin, podocin, CD2AP, and Bcl2 and decreased levels of desmin and Bax. The p‐AKT/p‐mTOR levels were also reduced by treatment of PrA and OA while AKT/mTOR was unaltered. Further, the effects of PrA and OA on injured podocytes were similar to that of LY294002 (a PI3K‐AKT inhibitor). PrA and OA were also seen to inhibit podocyte apoptosis and p‐AKT/p‐mTOR levels induced by IGF‐1 (a PI3K‐AKT activator). Our data demonstrate that PrA and OA can protect podocytes from injury or apoptosis, which may occur through inhibition of the abnormal activation of AKT‐mTOR signaling.


Epilepsy is the most common serious neurological condition in the world, with an estimated prevalence of 1% of the population. The highest incidence occurs in childhood and in the elderly, with lower levels in early adulthood. Traditional epilepsy management includes pharmacological treatment, epilepsy surgery, and vagal nerve stimulation. Despite these therapies, 25% of children continue to have uncontrolled seizures. The ketogenic diet (KD), which has been in use since 1921, is a treatment option for many of these children. A meta-analysis of 19 studies with a combined sample of 1084 pediatric patients was completed in 1998 by Blue Cross Blue Shield. Estimates of the overall efficacy of the KD in controlling seizures were reported as follows: 16% became seizure free, 32% had a >90% reduction in seizures, and 56% had a >50% reduction. The KD is high in fat, moderate in protein, and low in carbohydrates. This combination of energy results in a sustained ketosis that somehow serves to abate seizures through an unknown mechanism. Strict adherence to the diet is required for it to be effective. Newer, more liberal versions of the KDs have been recently introduced and are being studied in children and adults. Administration of all of these metabolically adjusted diets must be medically managed as there can be adverse effects. The focus of this review is on the pediatric application of the KD.


In a retrospective analysis of 146 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients seen over a 5 year period, 17 patients of tuberculosis (TB) were identified yielding a prevalence rate of 11.6%. The median duration of SLE was 12 months (range 2-96 months) and 12/17 patients had disease activity score of more than five. The median duration of steroid treatment was 12 months (range 0-96 months) and the median cummulative dose of steroid was 7.75 gms (range 0-22.1 gms). Pulmonary TB (miliary-5, nonmiliary infiltrates-7 and pleural effusion-2) was the commonest type and there was an average diagnostic delay of approximately 1 month. While, majority of the patients responded adequately to treatment, 1 patient had a relapse and 1 expired due to a combination of active lupus and disseminated TB. Only 1 patient had received prophylactic isoniazid.


Condition monitoring sensors have the responsibility of reducing occupational failures or unscheduled shutdowns especially in power transmission line systems. Existing sensors that are used for condition monitoring are mostly battery-dependent. Powering up these sensors in difficult to access areas where high voltage transmission line usually runs is a challenge because batteries usually have a limited life cycle. Power sources other than batteries such as harvesting from solar energy, magnetic energy, radio frequency energy either produces insufficient energy or not entirely available all the time. Electric Field Energy Harvesting (EFEH) overcomes many of these disadvantages and provides a quality and continuous power source to be used to power up devices especially the monitoring sensors that are used in transmission line monitoring. This paper presents key aspects and drawbacks of six types of energy harvesting methods and a review of existing energy harvesters. The concept of electric field and the usage of EFEH in power transmission line system are explained and a comparison between EFEH with typical energy harvesting methods is discussed. This paper finds that EFEH devices have potential to provide sufficient energy for low powered condition monitoring sensors. Moreover, several improved EFEH approaches are proposed, and future trends are discussed.


We view the Information Bottleneck Principle (IBP: Tishby et al., 1999; Schwartz-Ziv and Tishby, 2017) and Predictive Information Bottleneck Principle (PIBP: Still et al., 2007; Alemi, 2019) as special cases of a family of general information bottleneck objectives (IBOs). Each IBO corresponds to a particular constrained optimization problem where the constraints apply to: (a) the mutual information between the training data and the learned model parameters or extracted representation of the data, and (b) the mutual information between the learned model parameters or extracted representation of the data and the test data (if any). The heuristics behind the IBP and PIBP are shown to yield different constraints in the corresponding constrained optimization problem formulations. We show how other heuristics lead to a new IBO, different from both the IBP and PIBP, and use the techniques from (Alemi, 2019) to derive and optimize a variational upper bound on the new IBO.
We then apply the theory of general IBOs to resolve the seeming contradiction between, on the one hand, the recommendations of IBP and PIBP to maximize the mutual information between the model parameters and test data, and on the other, recent information-theoretic results (see Xu and Raginsky, 2017) suggesting that this mutual information should be minimized. The key insight is that the heuristics (and thus the constraints in the constrained optimization problems) of IBP and PIBP are not applicable to the scenario analyzed by (Xu and Raginsky, 2017) because the latter makes the additional assumption that the parameters of the trained model have been selected to minimize the empirical loss function. Aided by this insight, we formulate a new IBO that accounts for this property of the parameters of the trained model, and derive and optimize a variational bound on this IBO.


The number of Internet users is growing exponentially in China and Chinese netizens are slowly developing social groupings online that influence events and situations in the "real" world. The Chinese government is predictably wary of these developments as an emerging community of netizens is increasingly becoming aware of its great potential influence. Over the past two years (2006 and 2007) an uneasy unofficial truce has emerged so that netizens are relatively free to criticize and discuss local issues or events, while the central government suppresses everything it regards as excessive criticism or as an attack against the ruling party. Chinese netizens seem to have accepted these conditions to a large extent, and often explicitly support the central government while attacking local officials, businesses, institutions, etc. or even other netizens perceived to have broken the unwritten rules of Chinese cyberspace.


Adrenal corticoids are valuable for short-term use in acute or subacute allergies (e.g., status asthmaticus, serum or drug allergy, severe urticaria and angioedema, allergic dermatitis). They are also valuable for long-term use in chronic intractable asthma, making useful citizens of asthmatic cripples. They have but little value and only temporary effects in other allergies (e.g., allergic rhinitis, hay fever, chronic urticaria). In 34 of the author's patients, the corticoids have been used continuously for periods up to 7 years. In a double-blind study of 40 patients, triamcinolone seemed superior to prednisone. In general the author believes that the newer corticoids (methylprednisolone, triamcinolone, and dexamethasone) are better than the older ones, but he considers corticoid therapy an adjunct to, not a substitute for, the usual treatment of allergies.


Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is the most common disorder of the heart rhythms. There are about 2.3 million people in United States and 4.5 million people in the European Union with AF [Go et.al, 2001]. It is also one of the factors that may contribute to mortality and morbidity. Researchers who apply spectral techniques show that certain areas of the atria can have higher activation frequencies than other areas. Frequency analysis is used to measure changes in Dominant Frequency (DF). We access the electrical propagation inside the atria by spectrogram plotting and examining the effect of isoprenaline and atropine on frequency changes.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


Studying nanoparticles for catalytic applications in situ is a challenge because their working environment is often harsh in terms of temperature, pressure and chemical reactivity. Nonetheless, the ability to study the chemistry of nanoparticles while reactions occur in or around them is of great interest in many fields, including heterogeneous catalysis, and indirect plasmonic sensing (INPS) has shown to be an effective strategy for this purpose. Nevertheless, INPS experiments are still hampered by the fact that, for instance, sample temperature changes (e.g. due to dissipated reaction heat or in transient experiments) can affect the measured plasmonic parameters and induce unwanted signals that complicate ambiguous measurements.

To conceptually address this issue, we have previously demonstrated a method that utilizes indirect plasmonic sensing on specifically tailored asymmetrical heterodimers consisting of a symmetrical inert sensor paired with a smaller reactive particle1. By monitoring the structures using two probing light polarizations simultaneously, changes in the small reactive particle can be effectively singled out and drift as well as temperature-induced plasmon shifts can be efficiently eliminated. The reason for this is the near-field coupling that occurs between nanoparticles placed close to each other when light polarized along the dimer long axis is applied. The fabricated structures are therefore dichroic and changes occurring in the small reactive particle adjacent to the inert element in the dimer are only detectable in the polarization parallel to the dimer axis.
Here we have applied this method to study, in situ, the oxidation and reduction kinetics of Cu nanoparticles in a temperature range of 20-300°C, and in different surrounding oxygen concentrations. We find that changes in the plasmonic response obtained from the Au-Cu dimers' simultaneously monitored orthogonal polarization readouts stem from several contributions, including temperature changes, spill-over processes to the support, and the targeted oxidation of the Cu. Using the difference between the two polarization direction signals, however, we can again elegantly single out the sensor response stemming exclusively from the Cu oxidation and reduction process, as also proven by corresponding FDTD simulations of the dimer structure.
We will also report on our progress of applying the above strategy at the single nanoparticle level, to further expand the possibilities of single particle plasmonic nanospectroscopy for the characterization of catalytic processes at the individual nanoparticle level, as we recently demonstrated possible on the example hydrogenation of individual Pd nanocrystals with different size and shape2. Combining these two methods creates an effective analysis platform for a wide set of chemical reactions with the possibility to be both accurate and selective.

1. Wadell, C. & Langhammer, C. "Drift-corrected nanoplasmonic hydrogen sensing by polarization." Nanoscale , no. 7 (2015): 10963–10969.
 2. Syrenova, S. et al. "Hydride formation thermodynamics and hysteresis in individual Pd nanocrystals with different size and shape." Nature Materials, no. 14 (2015): 1236–1244.


PURPOSE
This study was carried out to assess the carriage rates, counts and species distribution of Candida in saliva of 6- to 12-year-old Yemeni children and relate that to their caries experience.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
One hundred eighty children were recruited. Oral hygiene and caries were assessed using the simplified oral hygiene index and dft/DMFT index, respectively. Detection and quantification of 4 Candida species in unstimulated saliva were performed using CHROMagar Candida medium. Data were analysed using regression analysis.

RESULTS
Candida was detected in 60% of the children with a mean count of 923 ± 1875 CFU/ml. C. albicans accounted for 60% of the isolates and was the only species to be detected with more than 1000 CFU/ml. Non-albicans candida and unidentified species represented 16.3% and 23.1% of the isolates, respectively. One novel finding was that a significant proportion (38%) of the carriers harboured two or more species, which for the first time allowed the identification of four age-dependent carriage patterns (clusters). Another somewhat new observation was that carriage at ≥ 1000 CFU/ml in particular significantly correlated with caries in primary and permanent dentitions (r = 0.23 and 0.18, respectively) as well as a caries-active status (OR = 6.9). Interestingly, the C. glabrata cluster had significantly lower primary caries scores than other clusters.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings substantiate claims of geographical variations in candida carriage and the relation between candida carriage and caries. The validity of carrier clusters and the use of 1000 CFU/ml as a risk marker should be further investigated.


One of the grand current research challenges is to improve the energy efficiency of residential and commercial buildings, which cumulatively consume more than 40% of the energy generated globally. In addition to improving the comfort of the inhabitants and mitigating the growing energy consumption problem, new building materials and technologies could provide a safe strategy for geoengineering to mitigate global climate change. Herein, recent progress in developing such advanced materials from nanocellulose, which is often derived from wood or even dirty feedstocks like waste, is reviewed. By using chemical and bacteria‐enabled processing, nanocellulose can be used to fabricate broadband photonic reflectors, thermally super‐insulating aerogels, solar gain regulators, and low‐emissivity coatings, with potential applications in windows, roofs, walls, and other components of buildings envelopes. These material developments draw inspiration from advanced energy management found in nature, such as the nanoporous photonic structures that evolved in cuticles of beetles. Fabrication of such materials takes advantage of mesoscale liquid crystalline self‐assembly, which allows for pre‐designed control of cellulose nanoparticle orientations at the mesoscale. With the potential fully realized, such materials could one day transform the current energy‐lossy buildings into energy plants on Earth and possibly even enable extraterrestrial habitats.


Therapy of Darier disease is rarely satisfactory. Oral retinoids can improve the skin lesions. Because of previous positive results with topical retinoids, which were often not practical because of marked skin irritation, two patients were treated with the new, topical acetylene-retinoid tazarotene in a 0.01% gel preparation. In both patients skin cleared within 2 to 4 weeks. After stopping the medication patients did not develop any new skin lesions for 12 months. In a third patient, healing with tazarotene gel 0.025% was faster than with a topical preparation containing 10% urea. Tazarotene is an important addition to the therapeutic possibilities in Darier disease.


AbstractObjective: To investigate the impact of burning mouth syndrome on the quality of life by means of Oral Health Impact Profile 14 (OHIP-14) and to compare the OHIP-14 scores in different underlying conditions.Methods: The study was executed at the Department of Oral Diagnosis, Ziauddin College of Dentistry, Ziauddin University from June 2018 until June 2019. Fifty-four individuals suffering from BMS were included in this study out of which 33 were females and 21 were males aged between 18 and 60 years. The individuals were required to fill out a form which included details of their demographics, any known systemic conditions that they were suffering from and details of any medications being taken. The patients were then distributed into different groups according to any comorbid condition or any medications they were taking. The conditions according to which the patients were grouped were diabetes, postmenopause, gastroesophageal reflux disease, Sjogren's syndrome, intake of anti-hypertensives or psychological factors. In addition, patients were interviewed using the Oral Health Impact Profile 14(OHIP-14). For the statistical analysis, frequencies and percentages were used for categorical data and means and standard deviations were employed for the numerical data. Kruskal-Wallis test was applied to see if associated conditions had an effect on the severity of BMS measured in terms of Oral Health Impact Profile 14.Results: The scores for the domains of physical pain and physical disability were highest whereas the lowest scores were observed in the categories of psychological discomfort and psychological disability. The data was not homogenous; therefore, the non-parametric test Kruskal-Wallis test was carried out tofind if there was any significant difference in the OHIP scores in the different groups namely diabetes, post-menopause, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, Sjogren's syndrome, intake of anti-hypertensives or psychological factors. A p-value of 0.169 was calculated indicating that there were no significant differencesobserved in the OHIP-14 scores among the different groups.Conclusion: Burning mouth syndrome has a negative impact on the quality of life according to the OHIP-14 scores. However, associated comorbid or other underlying conditions namely diabetes, post-menopause, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, Sjogren's syndrome, intake of anti-hypertensives or psychological factors did not alter the OHIP-14 results significantly.


In this column of the journal we wish to offer our readers, by means of summaries with annotations and discussions, the opportunity to be informed on many articles which, on account of the massive scientific production, are hardly attainable, either due to the impossibility to get them, or to the loss of time that bibliographical researches requires. Outstanding scientists, Italian or foreigner, whose field of interest is general medicine or urology, as well as young colleagues already scientifically qualified for the purpose, voluntarily accepted the hard and difficult task. To all our valuable collaborators we here wish to express our deep gratitude. We are glad to offer our new initiative to our readers and sincerely hope it will be welcomed by all of litem.


Cross-silo federated learning (FL) enables multiple clients to collaboratively train a machine learning model without sharing training data, but privacy in FL remains a major challenge. Techniques using homomorphic encryption (HE) have been designed to solve this but bring their own challenges. Many techniques using single-key HE (SKHE) require clients to fully trust each other to prevent privacy disclosure between clients. However, fully trusted clients are hard to ensure in practice. Other techniques using multi-key HE (MKHE) aim to protect privacy from untrusted clients but lead to the disclosure of training results in public channels by untrusted third parties, e.g., the public cloud server. Besides, MKHE has higher computation and communication complexity compared with SKHE. We present a new FL protocol ESAFL that leverages a novel efficient and secure additively HE (ESHE) based on the hard problem of ring learning with errors. ESAFL can ensure the security of training data between untrusted clients and protect the training results against untrusted third parties. In addition, theoretical analyses present that ESAFL outperforms current techniques using MKHE in computation and communication, and intensive experiments show that ESAFL achieves approximate 204 times-953 times and 11 times-14 times training speedup while reducing the communication burden by 77 times-109 times and 1.25 times-2 times compared with the state-of-the-art FL models using SKHE.


Based on the data obtained during the production experiment, it was proved that adding of mannanoligosaccharides in the form of a prebiotic Bio-Mos into the composition of feed during the entire period of fattening positively affects the qualitative and quantitative compound of the digestive tract of pigs growing for meat. According to the results of the experiment, prebiotic Bio-Mos, as a feed additive during the whole period of fattening, helps to increase the intensity of pigs'growth on fattening due to changes in the number of conditionally pathogenicand symbiotic microorganisms. The accumulation of symbiotic microflora in feces provides harmful effects on the environment and does not cause infection of animals and humans.


This paper studies the synchronization control of linear multi-agent systems with unmeasurable states, finite communication data rate and switching topologies. A class of adaptive quantized-observer based dynamic encoding-decoding schemes for information communication and a class of Certainty Equivalence principle based control protocols for synchronization are proposed for overcoming the uncertainties of network environments. It is shown that if the network topology flow is jointly connected, the communication channels are periodically active, and the agent dynamics are observable and with orthogonal system matrices, then the proposed protocols can drive the dynamic network to synchronization exponentially fast with finite bits of information exchange per step.


: Mixtures of oppositely charged surfactants are used for applications requiring extensive foaming. This holds true for cat-anionic systems. Their bulk behavior is known in detail, when surface, or interface, properties do not attract the same attention. The thermodynamic features of such systems and the strategies interrelating the behavior in bulk to that at surfaces are outlined. Such systems are strongly not ideal. So, the interaction parameters for bulk and surface phases, β surf and β mic , respectively, are introduced. Efforts to connect the two quantities were made. The definition of interaction parameters comes from the regular solution theory. Originally applied to micelle formation, it was later extended to the saturation of fluid surfaces. In this context, the interaction parameters were applied to the surface properties of selected cat-anionic systems and their links with bulk ones discussed.


A report by the Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care (SBU) has reviewed, classified and evaluated the scientific literature on treatment of panic syndrome, specific phobias, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive syndrome (OCD), generalized anxiety syndrome (GAD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The review included treatment of children, adolescents and adults. The report concludes that there is effective treatment available for all anxiety syndromes. However in general, the effect is often moderate and symptoms reappear when the treatment period is discontinued. For adults, scientific evidence supports the use of paroxetine and sertraline for all syndromes except specific phobias. For the other SSRI's there is also evidence for the use of fluoxetin in OCD and PTSD, for fluvoxamine in social phobia and OCD and for escitalopram in social phobia. Other antidepressant drugs with a strong scientific support is venlafaxin in social phobia and GAD, imipramin in panic syndrome and chlomipramine in panic syndrome and OCD. Among psychological treatments, there is scientific evidence for cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for treatment of panic syndrome, specific phobias, social phobia, PTSD and GAD. Exposure, with or without other psychotherapeutic interventions, has scientific support for efficacy in panic disorder (both in terms of number of panic attacks and for agoraphobia), specific phobias, OCD and PTSD. Use of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) has scientific support for treatment of PTSD.


A common requirement for autonomous cars is a safe locomotion which is evaluated by the method of hybrid verification applied online. The approach checks avoidance of static obstacles and dynamic traffic participants, which are described by imprecise data on their positions and velocities. The nonlinear dynamics of the autonomous car and other traffic participants is conservatively abstracted to Markov chains, which allows the efficient computation of their future positions probabilistically. The result is the probability of a crash for a given time horizon, showing if a given control strategy may lead to unsafe situations.


The modern day Australian law school is expected to educate and engage law students. Ideally law school will instil a sense of passion (or at least appreciation) for the law, promote a positive professional identity, foster a sense of community, and provide general support to law students. Collectively, the Australian legal academy is struggling with these goals. Significant numbers of students feel isolated, disconnected and unengaged throughout their tertiary legal education. Teaching students from increasingly diverse backgrounds, who spend less time on campus and less face-to-face time in class, many law academics feel ill-equipped to respond to the challenge of engaging law students in time and cost efficient ways. Intentionally learning and using student names has potential to humanise the law school experience, build community, and positively impact upon the wellbeing of students and staff.


The greatest happiness principle is the ultimate standard of morality set up by classical utilitarianism (see Utilitarianism). That classical creed conceives of good as happiness (see Happiness) and holds that right actions are those which maximize the total happiness of the members of the community. As John Stuart Mill (see Mill, John Stuart) explains in Utilitarianism (1861), "The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness" (1969: 210). Moreover, happiness is understood in hedonistic terms, "By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure" (see Hedonism; Pleasure).

Keywords:

Bentham, Jeremy;
ethics in economics;
history of philosophy;
Mill, John Stuart;
normative ethics;
Rawls, John;
Sidgwick, Henry;
Williams, Bernard;
justice;
pleasure


A contemporary development in nursing in Australia is the move to independent private practice. This move is made in support of autonomy for the individual nurse practitioner and in the interests of improved patient care. This paper examines this development using the literature as data and critical theory as the framework of analysis. Critical theory argues that much human knowledge is bound by 'ideological' interests in either the technical or interpretative. Emancipatory knowledge attempts to peel off the various ideological layers in search of truth. Using work to examine the 'technical interest' and professionalism to examine the 'interpretative interest', it is argued that in the contemporary Australian health care system the nurse's claim to autonomy through independent practice calls for continuing debate and reflection.


Moisture, ash and trace elements such as iron, cobalt, zinc, manganese and copper present in medicinal seeds, popularly used and available in Pakistan, were determined by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry. The highest moisture content was found in Cucumisativis (Kheira), while, the lowest was in Parsley (Ajwain). The highest content resulted from complete burning of Planpagomajorlill (Burtung). Carumcarvi (Caraway) was found to contain the highest amounts of trace elements determined, while Cichorimintybus (Wild Cichory) contained their lowest amount. Copper was found to be highest in Trigonellafoenumgracum (Medicago), while it was lowest in Planpagomajorlill (Burtung) and Cucumisativis (Kheira). Zinc, manganese and cobalt were found highest in Carumcarvi (Caraway), Cichorimintybus (Wild Cichory) and Cumin (Sufaid Zeera) and lowest in Phyllanothusmaderoslimm (Kanocha), Planpagomajorlill (Burtung) and Cichorimintybus (Wild Cichory).


Boosting algorithms, especially AdaBoost, have attracted great attention in computer vision. In the early version of boosting algorithms, the weak classifier selection and the strong classifier learning are linked together. It has been demonstrated that decoupling of these two processes can provide more flexibility for training a better classifier. In these studies, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) has been adopted to select weak classifiers independently based on class separability rather than a training error that occurs normally in AdaBoost. It is observed that LDA is successful only if a large number of labeled training samples is available. However, a large-scale labeled training set is not always available in many computer vision applications such as object classification. To tackle this problem, this paper proposes semisupervised subspace learning combined with a boosting framework for object classification, through which unlabeled data can participate in the boosting training to compensate for the lack of enough labeled data. With the proposed framework, this paper develops three various approaches that utilize unlabeled data in different ways. According to the experiments on several public image data sets, the proposed methods achieve superior performance over AdaBoost and existing semisupervised algorithms.


Grown in a chemically defined medium containing glucose at a dilution rate of D = 0.065 h-1, Fusobacterium nucleatum D212B-2 produced large amounts of intracellular polyglucose. Aliquots of this culture were starved by anaerobic incubation at 37 degrees C and at various times, assayed for intracellular polyglucose content and viability. This protocol was repeated using cells grown under the same conditions in a chemically defined medium, a medium lacking carbohydrate and in which the organism produced no intracellular polyglucose. Both cultures had 50% survival time values of about 1.5 h and were not eliminated even after 32 h of starvation. It was, therefore concluded that starvation-survival is not influenced by intracellular polyglucose. Starvation-survival was also determined for cells grown in a chemically defined medium at D = 0.048 h-1 and D = 0.12 h-1. The faster-grown cells had a 50% survival time of 3.8 h but were completely eliminated after 8-16 h of starvation. In contrast, slower-grown cells had a 50% survival time of 1.5 h but were not completely eliminated after 32 h of starvation. This illustrates the importance of cell history and technique standardization in comparing the starvation-survival of different organisms.


After analyzing the record of climate of the Chosun era with the weather data written on the true history of the Chosun Dynasty, and in comparison with the latest weather data in Seoul, the following conclusion has been reached. It s not easy to restore the climate of the Chosun era with the true history of the Chosun Dynasty only, for the data of the Chosun era is nothing but 5.4% of that the recent 10 years, centering around Seoul. The number of days of the praying for rain and fine weather have nothing to do with those of precipitation. The monthly number of days of precipitation and hail are similar to those of the recent 10 years, even though the data is not enough. The situation of the days of frost and fog are very different from that of the recent ,10 years. This suggests that they recorded the situation when there was a lot of casualties to men and property, while they didn't record it when there were no casualties because the precipitation occured at the time.


Background In July 2013 an Independent Review of the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) recommended that it should be phased out and replaced by an individual end of life care plan. The review emphasised the need for robust education for clinicians involved in caring for dying patients. It is therefore crucial we understand how staff review the education they receive on the LCP. Aim To evaluate clinical staff's views on education they receive on the LCP. Method Two wards in Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust were randomly chosen. In June 2013, all their staff were invited to complete an anonymous survey. Currently, end of life training is not mandatory and staff access education as per their needs. Results Current training 47% of clinical staff responded. 31% were confident they had received training on using the LCP. 46% of respondents felt they were confident in using the LCP. Future Training 51% of respondents felt that the LCP should be part of mandatory training. 63% would access further training if available. Limitations Our results are based on less than 50% response to the survey and may therefore not represent the full views of all staff. Discussion Our survey shows that the majority of staff are not confident in the use of the LCP. This may reflect lack of training but also lack of clarity around what education staff may need for caring for dying patients. In contrast, clinical staff are clearly keen to improve their knowledge and feel a need for mandatory end of life training. Conclusion This survey has shown that clinicians perceive a lack of education around the use of the LCP. This will need to be addressed in order to build a confident and competent end of life care workforce.


Although Economic Value Added (EVA™) might improve the measurement of organisations' performance, it seems not to be used widely in South Africa. The need to measure financial performance and the different metrics that can be used should be investigated to establish the best measure for each sector. The purpose of the reported study was to determine the extent to which EVA™ is used by South African organisations. Furthermore, this investigation focused on methods used by these organisations to calculate EVA™ and aimed to determine the South African business sectors in which it is most likely to be implemented. A focus group discussion was conducted with financial experts, which included consultants, analysts and statisticians, to discuss EVA™ and challenges relating to its implementation. It was established that South African companies will benefit from using EVA™ in conjunction with other metrics. Management needs to understand its own organisation to be able to implement the most appropriate performance metric applicable to the organisation. It is recommended that companies do a thorough internal analysis of their organisations to assist them in making an informed decision regarding the appropriate performance metric, which includes EVA™.


Although paddle is the second most practiced sport in Spain, the scientific knowledge about the players' work-load is still very low. The serve is a critical situation because the team has the opportunity to start the point attacking by approaching the net straight after the serve. However, the distance covered by the serve team still has not been studied in padel. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyse the distance covered by the serve team according performance level. It was hypothesized that the server would cover more distance than his partner due to the approach to the net after the serve. Moreover, it also was hypothesized that the difference between serve and partner would be greater to the highest performance level. METHODS: We analysed a sample of 1500 points divided in 3 levels of performance (high, medium and recreational, 500 points each one). We compared the distance covered between the server and his partner in 500 hundred points to each level performance. The points were taken from 14 matches (4 of high, 5 of medium and 5 of recreational level). SAGIT software (Vuckovic et al., 2002) was used to get the data. Analyses were performed with Microsoft Excel and SPSS 20.0. RESULTS: Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test were performed. At high level, the median of distance covered by the server was of 10.7 meters, significantly greater than the 7.5 meters covered by the partner of the server (Z = -11.7; p < .001). At medium level, the median of distance covered by the server was of 9.2 meters, also significantly greater than the 6.6 meters covered by the partner of the server (Z = -12.1; p < .001). At recreational level, the median of distance covered by the server was of 8.4 meters, also significantly greater than the 6.1 meters covered by the partner of the server (Z = -10,2; p < .001). DISCUSION: Independently of the level performance, the player serving covered more distance than his partner. These results have implications to training and tactics used in games, as the decision about what player is going to start serving each set, the skill fullest or the toughest.


Purpose This study quantifies the level of neuron-specific fluorescence in the cornea of transgenic mice expressing yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) driven by the thy1 promoter and examines the viability of using thy1-YFP mice as a model for studying nerve regeneration in vivo. Methods The structure of corneal innervation in mice homozygous for the thy1-YFP transgene visible with reporter gene fluorescence was compared with that visible with traditional immunofluorescence techniques. The percentage of corneal nerves with YFP fluorescence in whole-mounted corneas and trigeminal neuron cultures was determined. Regeneration of fluorescent corneal neuronal processes after wounding was monitored in vivo. Results In the mouse cornea, neuron-specific immunostaining determined that nerve bundles traveled in the stroma after entering at the limbus and then sent branches anteriorly to form a sub-basal plexus beneath the corneal epithelium. Fine nerves from this plexus traveled superficially to the ocular surface. Neuron-specific expression of YFP allowed visualization of nearly all large nerve bundles of the stroma, but many finer nerves of the sub-basal plexus and surface were not visible. In the sub-basal neuron plexus, 46% of the total neuronal processes exhibited YFP neurofluorescence. In vitro, 22% of cultured trigeminal neurons exhibited YFP neurofluorescence. After corneal nerve sectioning, nerve processes distal to the site of injury degenerated, whereas those proximal to the site regenerated in a pattern different from original nerve architecture. Conclusions Thy1-YFP mice display corneal neurofluorescence and provide a novel model for monitoring the patterning, injury, and growth of corneal nerves in vivo.


Natural hydraulic lime-based grouts are often used in the structural consolidation of old stone masonry walls, mainly to re-establish the monolithic behaviour of masonry constructions. To ensure an adequate grouting operation, it is essential to have good fresh and hardened grout properties. The motivation of the present study was to examine the fresh and hardened properties of natural hydraulic lime grouts with nano-silica (NS) and silica fume (SF). The contribution of these materials and the dosage of a high range water reducer admixture (HRWR) were investigated on the rheological properties, water capillarity, open porosity and mechanical strength of injection grouts. The effects on rheology were analysed through plastic viscosity and yield stress. The results indicated that, even for reduced NS content, an increase in plastic viscosity and yield stress occurred, which required a higher HRWR content in order to not compromise the grout's rheological performance. The results also showed that, when NS and SF were combined, a beneficial joint effect occurred, resulting in a substantial and positive change on the mechanical strength and microstructure of the hardened injection grouts. Taguchi's method was used to optimize the grout's formulation and to fulfil the required performance concerning the fresh and hardened state.


Listeners discriminated changes in the spatial configuration of two-to-eight consonant-vowel (CV) stimuli spoken by different talkers, all simultaneously presented from different loudspeakers in various azimuthal spatial configurations. The number of CVs, spatial configuration of the sound sources, and similarity of the talkers speaking the CVs were varied. Experiment I used a same-different procedure to determine the discriminability of different spatial configurations of multiple sound sources. In experiment II, listeners determined the direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) of sound source rotation over eight rotational steps. In both experiments, performance declined as the number of sound sources increased beyond two.