Author(s): McNair, Heather | Advisor(s): Brzezinski, Mark A; Krause, Jeffrey W | Abstract: Ornately detailed frustules of silica encase the cells of one of the most productive primary producers in the world. Diatoms are responsible for roughly 20% of global primary production. They are unique among phytoplankton in their requirement of silicon for growth. Low concentrations of silicon in the surface ocean limit diatom silica production and possibly growth across ocean regions. The immense morphological and physiological diversity among diatoms suggests that community composition could be influenced by silicon availability and likewise difference in community compositions could affect the biogeochemical role of diatoms. However, until recently the ability to resolve relationships between community composition and silicon concentration was absent because methods to quantify differences in silica production and growth rate among co-occurring diatom taxa did not exist. The first part of this dissertation (Chapter 2) describes the development of a new method to quantify single-cell silica production rates in mixed diatom assemblages. The method leverages the co-deposition of the fluorescent tracer, PDMPO (2-(4-pyridyl)-5-((4-(2-dimethylaminoethylaminocarbamoyl)methoxy)phenyl)oxazole) with newly deposited biogenic silica to measure single cell silica production rates using confocal microscopy. This method was used to quantify taxon-specific silica production and growth rates in the California upwelling zone for the remaining dissertation chapters. Chapter three explores the contribution of co-occurring taxa to community silica production and examines the physiological attributes of the most influential diatom taxa. Over short time scales (~1 d) the most productive taxa in the community were the ones with the largest combined frustule surface area. This lead to a disproportionate fraction of community production occurring in large diatoms. Over longer timescales (3-10 d) the influence of growth rate increases so that over the course of the bloom a taxon with substantial cell size and high growth rate will be the largest contributor to silica production. These results offer a novel perspective into the mechanics of the influence of community composition in silicon cycling.Chapter four begins to tease apart the role of resource limitation in these communities by examining the hierarchical physiologic response of taxa to silicon limitation. Co-occurring taxa, experiencing the same environment, showed a large range of silicon limitation. However, the physiological response to limitation was generally conserved among taxa. Taxa that were silicon limited preferentially decreased the silica content of their frustule and to a lesser extent decreased the rate of production of new frustule with little alteration to growth rate. The short-term relative contribution of individual taxa to community silica production or the relative abundance of taxa was not altered by silicon limitation. The combined results from this dissertation highlight some of the mechanistic ways that diatoms influence biogeochemical cycling, with community composition dictating downstream nutrient availability and nutrient induced physiologic changes affecting the fate of diatom bound nutrients.


Several reports indicated that astaxanthin and zeaxanthin have more active anticancer activity than pro-vitamin A carotenes. β-carotene hydroxylase is a key enzyme to synthesize zeaxanthin and astaxanthin in carotenoids biosynthesis pathway. We isolated the ChyB gene encoding β-carotene hydroxylase from tomato leaves. The ChyB gene (1.5Kbp) fragment was cloned into the binary vector and designated to pIG121-ChyB-tom. Agrobacterium-mediated infiltration was used for transient assay in Nicotiana benthamiana. Leaf samples were collected 0, 1, 2, 3 days after infiltration (DAI). RT-PCR result showed that the expression of β-carotene hydroxylase transcripts was not detected in control (0DAI), but its expression was detected after 1 DPI and increased later on. When the activity of β-carotene hydroxylase was measured, the 1,1-diphenyl-pricryl hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity (27%) at 2 DAI was significantly higher than that (21%) at 0 DAI. These results indicated that anti-oxidant activity dramatically increased at 2 DAI in tobacco leaves was due to over expression of tomato β-carotene hydroxylase. These results can be the foundation to develop tomato cultivars with high oxy-carotenoids content using the ChyB gene transformation.


The authors present a new method to compute solutions to the general multiblock l/sub 1/ control problem. The method is based on solving a standard H/sub 2/ problem and a finite-dimensional semidefinite quadratic programming problem of appropriate dimension. The new method has most of the properties that separately characterize many existing approaches. In particular, as the dimension of the quadratic programming problem increases, this method provides converging upper and lower bounds on the optimal l/sub 1/ norm and, for well posed multiblock problems, ensures the convergence in norm of the suboptimal solutions to an optimal l/sub 1/ solution. The new method does not require the computation of the interpolation conditions, and it allows the direct computation of the suboptimal controller.


This paperwork presents the design and test of a microcontroller-based ECG (electrocardiogram) simulator. The ECG simulator is capable of generating nine ECG signals and a calibrated square wave (1 Hz, 1 mV at Lead II). The synthesized signals are: normal sinus rhythm (60 beats per minute – BPM, and 90 BPM), sinus bradycardia (30 BPM), sinus tachycardia (120, 180 and 240 BPM), sinus rhythm with tall T wave (6EC0 BPM), ventricular tachycardia (120 BPM), and a rhythm for asynchronous ventricular pacemaker (60 BPM). The simulated ECG signals can have their amplitudes continuously varied from zero to 2 mV at lead II, through a panel potentiometer, whose knob position does not affect the amplitude of the square wave calibrated signal. The technique used to synthesize the ECG signals, a modified direct digital synthesis (DDS), appeared superior in permitting the generation of signals of very good quality and yet using a relatively small amount of memory. This latter feature enabled the use of a simple 8-bit microcontroller together with an external precision D/A converter and a 2-pole lowpass active filter. The designed ECG simulator can be a handsome instrument to daily ECG machine test, maintenance and demonstration by hospital personnel and medical equipment maintenance groups and shops.


Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed neurodevelopmental disorder in childhood. It is a heterogeneous disorder in terms of clinical presentation that is probably due to the frequent occurrence of comorbidity. Children with ADHD more frequently report sleep disorders (notably delayed sleep phase syndrome) and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) than typically developing children. The aim of this article is to propose a narrative review of the assessment of EDS in the context of ADHD with first a summary of the subjective and objective tools used to measure it. Secondly, perspectives in terms of electroencephalogram (EEG) markers and neurofeedback are proposed. Then, possibilities for new kinds of evaluation are discussed (virtual reality, ecological momentary assessment, etc.). Lastly, we discuss specific clinical situations with EDS in the context of ADHD as links with narcolepsy, the comorbidity with other psychiatric disorders, and the context of sluggish cognitive tempo.


AIM
To compare quality of life and treatment satisfaction between patients who had selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) and those on medication.

METHODS
A prospective clinical trial on 143 glaucoma patients that received SLT and a control group that continued using anti glaucoma medication was conducted. Tear break-up time (BUT), punctuate keratitis, need for help, use of artificial tears and the treatment satisfaction survey of intraocular pressure (IOP) were measured at baseline, 6 and 12mo.

RESULTS
SLT was able to reduce the mean number of medications needed from 1.56±0.81 to 0.42±0.66 at six months and to 0.33±0.69 at one year. Punctuate keratitis was observed significantly less often (12.24%) after SLT than before (35.94%; P=0.03). Use of artificial tears and BUT did not change significantly after SLT (P>0.05). At baseline, patients in the SLT group were significantly less convinced of medication effectiveness (P=0.006) and complained more about side effects (P=0.003). After SLT, these patients had significantly more confidence in their therapy (P<0.001), showed less side effects (P=0.006), complained less about changes in appearance of the eyes (P=0.003) and were less inconvenienced by the use of eye drops (P<0.001).

CONCLUSION
SLT is able to improve treatment-related quality of life in glaucoma patients.


The reorganization of psychiatric services in the United Kingdom has resulted in relocation of many long‐stay patients, but such transfers are seldom evaluated. Twenty‐four chronic psychiatric patients destined for interhospital relocation were investigated prospectively. After transfer, no fatality occurred, but the group showed a significant deterioration in behaviour, with some changes persisting at 6 months.


MYC has a short half-life that is tightly regulated through phosphorylation and proteasomal degradation. Many studies have claimed that treatment with disulfiram (DSF) with or without copper ions can cause cancer cell death in a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent manner in cancer cells. Our previous study showed that the levels of c-Myc protein and the phosphorylation of threonine 58 (T58) and serine 62 (S62) increased in DSF-Cu-complex-treated oral epidermoid carcinoma Meng-1 (OECM-1) cells. These abovementioned patterns were suppressed by pretreatment with an ROS scavenger, N-acetyl cysteine. The overexpression of c-Myc failed to induce hypoxia-inducible factor 1α protein expression, which was stabilized by the DSF-Cu complex. In this study, we further examined the regulatory mechanism behind the induction of the c-Myc of the DSF-Cu complex in an OECM-1 cell compared with a Smulow–Glickman (SG) human normal gingival epithelial cell. Our data showed that the downregulation of c-Myc truncated nick and p62 and the induction of the ratio of H3P/H3 and p-ERK/ERK might not be involved in the increase in the amount of c-Myc via the DSF/copper complexes in OECM-1 cells. Combined with the inhibitors for various signaling pathways and cycloheximde treatment, the increase in the amount of c-Myc with the DSF/copper complexes might be mediated through the increase in the stabilities of c-Myc (T58) and c-Myc (S62) proteins in OECM-1 cells. In SG cells, only the c-Myc (T58) protein was stabilized by the DSF-Cu (I and II) complexes. Hence, our findings could provide novel regulatory insights into the phosphorylation-dependent stability of c-Myc in DSF/copper-complex-treated oral squamous cell carcinoma.


Introduction: Strategies for access and utilization of health care by all its citizens to ensure equity and equality in terms of quality health services is an important factor for governments to consider. The three basic goals of a country's health care system are illness prevention, treating the sick and protecting people from financial catastrophes that come with medical bills. Despite this, the threat that out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditures pose to households' living standards is increasingly recognized as a major consideration in financing health care Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the percentage contribution made by out of pocket expenditure on health care from the total household income of health care consumers in Kakamega County and also establish the association between out of pocket expenditure and insurance premium payments in Kakamega County. Design: The study design was a descriptive cross-sectional survey that utilized both quantitative methods. Setting: The study was carried out in Kakamega County Sample: A simple random sampling was applied to get participants ( n = 348 ) Analysis: Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, chi-square test of independence and logistic regression. Main outcome measures: Household income, expenditure on health and health insurance Results: Bivariate analysis on respondents' factors that are associated with household income showed that there was a borderline significant relationship between the level of education and household income in the study area (OR: 0.8; 95% CI: 0.6 – 1.2; p=0.02.Out of the 348 participants, 56.6%(n=197) of the respondents reported earning directly from business proceeds from their farm, as their key source of income,14.7%(n=51) reported to get income from a relative, while 11.5%(n=40) earned directly from employment. 53.2%(n=185) reported that they spent between 1000ksh-5000ksh on food monthly. 45.1%(n=157) reported that they spent between 5000ksh-10000ksh on rent monthly. 65.8%(n=229) of the respondents reported spending between 1000-5000ksh on relatives' medical expense in a month.62.4%(n=217) reported to spend 10000-50000ksh on inpatient healthcare in a month while. Bivariate analysis on health expenditures that are associated with household income showed that there was a borderline significant relationship between the health expenditure on relatives' medical expense and household income (OR: 1.2; 95% CI: 0.8 – 1.4; p=0.01). 84.5%(n=294) said they were aware of insurance premiums. 37.4% of the respondents said they heard about insurance from radios. 65.5%(n=228) reported to have a family member on health insurance premiums. The findings showed that there was a significant association between out of pocket expenditure on relatives' medical expenses and ownership of health insurance χ 2 (df=3) =9.112, p=0.028. Conclusion: Increased priority needs to be given to health, especially low-income countries which are in most need for additional spending on health. Article visualizations:


Abstract We investigate the interaction between a singular surface and a strong shock in the self-gravitating interstellar gas clouds with the assumption of spherical symmetry. Using the method of the Lie group of transformations, a particular solution of the flow variables and the cooling–heating function for an infinitely strong shock is obtained. This paper explores an application of the singular surface theory in the evolution of an acceleration wave front propagating through an unperturbed medium. We discuss the formation of an acceleration, considering the cases of compression and expansion waves. The influence of the cooling–heating function on a shock formation is explained. The results of a collision between a strong shock and an acceleration wave are discussed using the Lax evolutionary conditions.


IN RECENT DECADES MUCH HISTORICAL research has been published on the core role of public health in the formulation of various social practices. Additional research highlights the ongoing process of medicalization of daily life that has been taking place over the past two centuries-a process in which key events in our lives, from birth to death, have become legitimate subjects for discussion by various medical experts: physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, dietitians, and others.' One of the outstanding areas in which public health personal have played a significant role in the hegemonic machinery of the state is the formulation of policy vis-a-vis absorption of immigrants.2 Public health personnel stationed at points of immigration entry (such as at Ellis Island in the United States) have become part of a machinery for supervision and classification of immigrants in which preservation of the health policies within the homelands of the immigrants constitutes the guiding principle underlying their work. In recent years, questions of health and immigration have been fueled by accelerating globalization processes. The attitude of health systems workers toward immigration have even been the subject of conferences and countless articles.3 The "marking" of the immigrant as an Other by veteran populations-as a source of disease, crime, and social ills that contaminates local societies-is a recurrent theme in various host coun-


Numerous multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) methods have been proposed to support decision making: the evaluation and selection of alternatives based on multiple criteria. This study proposes a new three-factor fuzzy information channel model by expanding a two-factor fuzzy information channel model for MCDM problems. The two-factor fuzzy information channel model estimates criteria selection ratios for two selection criteria: one quantitative crisp criterion and one qualitative fuzzy criterion. We propose a three-factor fuzzy information channel model (model 1, weightless) to handle three criteria by increasing the number of qualitative fuzzy criteria to two. Next, we propose a weighted fuzzy information channel model (model 2, weighted) that considers the subjective weights of decision makers (DMs) for criteria. The proposed models resolve MCDM problems based on randomness–fuzziness entropy using both entropy for randomness and entropy for fuzziness, and can estimate the selection ratios of criteria based on a simple model. We study the performance of the proposed models by comparing them with the fuzzy multiobjective linear model, which is another MCDM method, using a practical supplier selection


Introduction. Longitudinal studies of human activity and metabolism revealed various anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antistress, antioxidant, and adaptogenic properties of such secondary plant metabolites as phenolic compounds and pigments. Human cells cannot synthesize these compounds. Therefore, food biotechnology requires new data on the photosynthetic potential of plants with good functional prospects. The research objective was to study the qualitative and quantitative profile of biologically active compounds of Rhodiola rosea L. harvested from various plant communities in order to define the potential of their extracts and minor compounds for food technologies.
Study objects and methods. The research featured three communities of Rhodiola rosea L. originally located in ecologically and geographically different habitats. They were introduced into Kuzbass from the Kuznetsk Alatau, Gorny Altai, and the Tunka alpine tundra belt in Buryatia. The experiment began in 2018, when the rhizomes were dissected into equal shares of 40–42 g and placed in a medicinal plant nursery. The methods of high-performance liquid (HPLC) and thin-layer (TLC) chromatography were used to study the biologically active substances in the plant biomass. The photosynthetic pigments were detected using the spectrophotometric method. The obtained data underwent a statistical analysis based on Statistica 6.0 software.
Results and discussion. The sample from the Gorny Altai community revealed twelve biologically active substances. Its rhizomes appeared rich in gallic acid with the maximum content (mg/g) of 10.26 ± 2.31, rosein (20.45 ± 3.46), daphneticin (13.80 ± 2.30), and salidroside (28.16 ± 2.27). The tops demonstrated the maximum content (mg/g) of astragaline (38.94 ± 2.21), tricine (13.07 ± 0.72), tricine-5-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (35.25 ± 1.66), tricine-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (30.23 ± 1.45), and tyrosol (21.80 ± 1.21). The Kuznetsk Alatau sample proved to possess five biologically active substances. Its rhizomes had the maximum content (mg/g) of rosavin (16.89 ± 2.11) and salidroside (14.35 ± 2.52). The sample obtained from the Tunka ridge in Buryatia had six biologically active substances with the maximum content (mg/g) of rosavin (20.72 ± 2.11), methylgalate (39.00 ± 1.05), and cinnamaldehyde (10.15 ± 1.93) in the rhizomes. The top biomass of Rhodiola rosea L. accumulated about 0.333 mg/g of chlorophylls and synthesized 0.109 mg/g of carotenoids on average. The research established the correlation coefficients between the content of photosynthetic components with morphometric characteristics, including two positive dependences between the content of carotenoids and the number of leaves (r = 0.89 ± 0.09) and the content of carotenoids and shoot length (r = 0.96 ± 0.22).
Conclusion. The samples of Rhodiola rosea L. demonstrated a good biotechnological potential for medicine and food industry. The Kuznetsk Alatau plant community proved rich in rosavin, salidroside, and methyl gallate. The Gorny Altai samples revealed high content of salidroside, gallic acid, daphnetitsin, and rosein. The Tunka samples appeared to synthesize a lot of methyl gallate, rosavin, and cinnamaldehyde. In addition, the top biomass of the Altai sample proved rich in tricine and its derivatives, astragaline and tyrosol. The research also established the possibility of commercial extraction of photosynthetic pigments from the top biomass of Rhodiola rosea L. for functional food production.


Introduction: As vector control for dengue has proven to be elusive, additional methods to protect against dengue are urgently needed. We have previously shown that pre-fabricated clothing impregnated with permethrin in a proprietary manner had a close to 100% 1 h knock-down and 24 h-mortality effect on Aedes mosquito vectors. However, this effect rapidly declined with repeated washing. Here we investigated different impregnation techniques to assess the best method with the lowest waning efficacy after washing. Materials and methods School clothes were impregnated with permethrin by two different technologies: pad-dry-cure versus exhaustion. Impregnated products were tested for their efficacy using laboratory-reared Aedes mosquito vectors using WHOPES cone test, before and after 10 washes.Results: The 1 h knock down effect and 24 h mortality rate of school clothes treated by both technologies were both found to be 100%. However, the clothes treated by pad-dry-cure technology could stand frequent washing better than those treated by exhaustion technology. The decrease in efficacy of up to about 60% of the clothes treated by pad-dry-cure technology was observed after washing 8 times while those treated by exhaustion technology showed decrease in knock-down effect (67.27%) and mortality rate (74.29%) after washing only 4 times.Conclusion: The knock-down and 24 h mortality results look very promising to support impregnated clothing as a potential strategy to protect against day-biting Aedes mosquito vectors to prevent dengue infections. However, rapid waning efficacy of impregnated clothing after <10 washes suggests that impregnation techniques for sustainable effect are sub-optimal and hence such an approach is not recommended at this point in time. Either new impregnation technologies will need to be developed to overcome the waning efficacy after washing, or clothing such as aprons or vests will need to be employed. Since school aprons are hanged in classrooms after daily use without washing through out the school term, they could potentially have a prolonged impact of permethrin on mosquito vectors (in terms of knock-down and mortality) and eventually dengue transmission in school.This research was funded by the European Union 7th Frame- work Programme through 'DengueTools' and Mahidol University.Disclosure: Nothing to disclose


This thesis presents a study of urban defence from a social or symbolic as well as a military perspective. For the past 150 years, Crusader castle research has provided many excellent studies. However, the field has been dominated by military historians, focussed on the evolution of architecture and debating stylistic origins. Urban fortifications are overshadowed by the imperious keeps standing within their walls unless they contribute to the discussion of military advancements. The study of these fortifications is further biased by their Frankish-centric material, rarely considering the biography of the site, thus downplaying Muslim elements. Other castle research, like that from Britain, has moved past this military focus, turning towards social or symbolic interpretations. Instead of incorporating both lines of interpretation, a divide was created leading to the interpretative straightjacket known as the 'war or status' rut. In order to rectify these biases and escape the straightjacket this PhD project seeks to answer the question: what are the military and social or symbolic functions of city walls? This thesis aims to: address the field's bias by evaluating the full biography of the city walls during the Frankish era (1099–1291); take into account both Frankish and Muslim occupations of the sites; incorporate evidence of city wall use from multiple disciplines, such as history, architecture, sigillography, and art; and analyze the data using the theoretical concepts of biography, monumentality and memory.

These aims are met through the case studies of Ascalon and Caesarea. By taking into account evidence from multiple fields, this thesis effectively unravels the functions of these cities' city walls so that they are no longer limited by their military treatments. These case studies demonstrate that the city walls did not stand idly throughout the course of the Crusader era. They were used as monumental demonstrations of elite power as well as objects of civic pride and community achievement. They provided apotropaic as well as military protection against their enemies and were used to display domination and victory, demonstrating one group's oppression and conquest over the other.


This research was motivated by the low literacy ability of students caused by less interesting learning media. This study aims to create and know the validation of digital learning media to improve students' basic literacy skills in integrated thematic learning in low-grade elementary schools. research starts from the Preliminary Research stage, Prototyping Stage, Assessment Stage. The instruments used in this study were interviews and validation sheets for research samples were students, data collection techniques were carried out using questionnaires and interviews. Based on the problems found in elementary schools, learning media is designed using digital learning media. The following results were obtained after being validated by five validators: content feasibility, presentation feasibility, linguistic feasibility, and graphic feasibility each fall into the excellent category. If the validity value is averaged, then the digital learning media developed is in the range of very valid categories.


The management of the humerus nonunion is one of the most challenging problems that the surgeon confronts in his practice. The procedures traditionally used are: I.M. Nailing, interlocking, plating, transplantation of allograft. In our series, 56 cases with nonunion has been treated by G.A. Ilizarov technique. The age range was: 21-62 years with an average of 32 years. The initial treatment was done by DCP, rush nails & plates with screw fixation. The duration of treatment ranged from 5-11 months (average 8 months). With the Ilizarov fixator application a good range of elbow & shoulder motion were achieved. The average follow up period was 15 years with a range of 1-22 years. Union was achieved in all the 56 cases.


Background: Various methods of midfoot and hindfoot arthrodesis for treating symptomatic Müller-Weiss disease (MWD) have been reported in the literature. In this study, we present the results of a previously unreported method of treatment using a calcaneal osteotomy incorporating a wedge and lateral translation. Methods: Thirteen patients (14 feet) with MWD were treated with a calcaneal osteotomy and retrospectively reviewed. These included 7 females and 6 males, with an average age of 56 years (33-79 years), and an average symptoms duration of 10.6 years (1-16 years). The disease was staged according to Maceira, which included 5 feet in stage II, 4 feet in stage III, 4 feet in stage IV, and 1 foot in stage V. Pre- and postoperative visual analog scale (VAS) score, American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS), radiologic examination, and patients' satisfaction rate of the surgery were evaluated at an average of 3.7 years (range, 1-8.5 years) following surgery. Results: The final follow-up visit showed satisfactory outcomes, with VAS score reducing from the preoperative 8 (7-9) to postoperative 2 (0-4), whereas the AOFAS score improved from the preoperative 29 (20-44) to the postoperative 79 (70-88). The patient's subjective ratings showed excellent results in 4 feet, good results in 8 feet, and fair outcomes in 2 feet. The hindfoot range of motion remained unchanged, as did the extent of the navicular complex arthritis, and no patient required an arthrodesis since surgery. Conclusion: A calcaneal osteotomy can be used as an alternative treatment option for selected MWD patients regardless of the radiologic stage of the disease. Level of Evidence: Level IV, retrospective case series.


Robot technologies have been developed for robots used in special environments such as industrial robots, maintenance robots for nuclear plants and robots used in space. Recently, the scope of robot applications has been expanded to include the medical and welfare fields, maintenance and patrolling of buildings, and home-use robots. Although some robots have already been developed, work on practical robots for this field has only recently begun. Toshiba's development of robot technologies has also reflected this trend (Matsuhira & Ogawa, 2004). Robots to support human life in the home, at public facilities, or outside of factories are called "life support robots". In this field, it is essential that robots understand the human intent and interact with humans and the environment. Thus, human-centric technologies are important not only for robots but also for all machines that humans use. On the other hand, Toshiba defined "humancentric technology" as technology that contributes to human life and society. Robots are representative of humancentric technology as shown in Fig. 1. Such robots will interact with humans by the integration of hearing, vision, and motion. Toshiba has already developed a conceptual model of a robotic information home appliance "ApriAlphaTM" to provide an interface between human and networked appliances (Yoshimi, et al., 2004). The robot is considered to be applicable to various fields. Based on ApriAlphaTM, two types of robots offering improved performance, namely, ApriAlphaTM V3 and ApriAttendaTM, are being developed. ApriAlphaTM V3 features an enhanced omnidirectional auditory function and ApriAttendaTM is a person-following robot. These two robots have been developed as part of the next-generation robot project of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and exhibited to verify the performance in the prototype robot exhibition in June at Aichi EXPO 2005. Toshiba and Tokyo University of Science collaborated on the development of ApriAttendaTM. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Chapter 2 explains the problems of life support robots. Chapter 3 explains ApriAlphaTM in terms of its performance as a robotic information appliance and the network communication technology it employs. Chapter 4 O pe n A cc es s D at ab as e w w w .ite ch on lin e. co m


Tuberculosis has been declared a 'Global Emergency' by the WHO. Owing to the magnitude of the problem, knowledge of unusual presentations at rare sites can help identify the disease early and achieve good to fair results. We present one such rare case of a child with an anterior midline swelling. An anterior midline swelling in a child raises multiple diagnostic possibilities. Although cervical lymphadenitis is a common cause of neck swelling, tuberculous suprasternal notch abscess, secondary to lymphadenitis, has rarely been described. Radiological investigations revealed necrotic tissue in the base of the suprasternal notch. The diagnosis was made using needle aspiration and cytology, which was suggestive of tuberculous lymphadenitis for the neck swelling. Antituberculous therapy gave good results, with complete healing of the ulcer and resolution of the abscess.


Absenteeism is a serious workplace problem and an expensive occurrence for both employers and employees seemingly unpredictable in nature. The term absenteeism refers to the failure to attend to work. It is one of the major problems faced by companies across the globe today. Unscheduled absenteeism badly hurts the progress of an organization resulting in loss of productivity, increased costs in hiring additional staff and low morale among the workers. Absenteeism affects the efficiency, productivity and discipline of an organization. It not only shows the irresponsibility of the employee but also their disloyalty towards the organization. Absenteeism reduces the satisfaction level of the employee and makes him unsecured about his job in the organization. This paper focus on absenteeism as a threat to the organization as it reduces the employee satisfaction and the ways to manage absenteeism in the Spinning Mill industry in order to improve the productivity of the organization. A productivity gainsharing incentive scheme is proposed to the industry to improve satisfaction level of employees and reduce absenteeism.


We propose an opportunistic spatiotemporal data dissemination protocol in order to solve the transmission failure problem in error-prone WSNs. Retransmission is well-known for recovery of transmission failure; however, this may cause the severe time delay possibly to violate the real-time requirement. To solve the problem, our protocol exploits both broadcasting nature and temporal opportunity concept. In a radio-range of a sensor node, there may be multiple neighbor nodes to satisfy the real-time requirement. By broadcasting property, all neighbors can receive a data from a node, and only each satisfying neighbor decides its relay toward the destination by using temporal selection function. The temporal function is related to the tolerable time period to be able to satisfy the real-time requirement. By giving the priority to the node with smaller tolerable time, we have more opportunities to forward toward the destination. That is, even if a node with a long tolerable time waits for the longer period of time, it still has a chance to forward with the real-time requirement. In summary, the proposed protocol attains the high reliability and real-time requirement by removing data retransmission and multiple opportunities with temporal consideration.


Valnemulin, a semisynthetic pleuromutilin derivative related to tiamulin, is broadly used to treat bacterial diseases of animals. Despite its widespread use, metabolism in animals has not yet been fully investigated. To better understand valnemulin biotransformation, in this study, metabolites of valnemulinin in in vitro and in vivo rats, chickens, swines, goats, and cows were identified and elucidated using ultraperformance liquid chromatography–quadrupole/time-of-flight hybrid mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q/TOF-MS). As a result, there were totally 7 metabolites of valnemulin identified in vitro and 75, 61, and 74 metabolites detected in in vivo rats, chickens, and swines, respectively, and the majority of metabolites were reported for the first time. The main metabolic pathways of valnemulin were found to be hydroxylation in the mutilin part (the ring system) and the side chain, oxidization on the sulfur of the side chain to form S-oxides, hydrolysis of the amido bond, and acetylization in the amido of the side chain. In addition, hydroxylation in the mutilin part was proposed to be the primary metabolic route. Furthermore, the results revealed that 2β-hydroxyvalnemulin (V1) and 8α-hydroxyvalnemulin (V2) were the major metabolites for rats and swines and S-oxides (V6) in chickens.


Qiptiyah M, Pudyatmoko S, Widyatmoko AYPBC, Nurtjahjaningsih ILG, Imron MA. 2019. Cytochrome-b mitochondrial DNA characteristic from non-invasive samples of wild population Javan Banteng (Bos javanicus d'Alton, 1823). Biodiversitas 20: 350-355. Javan banteng (Bos javanicus javanicus) is one of the protected big mammals in Indonesia, due to its population decline. The main populations of Javan banteng are currently in Ujung Kulon National Park (UKNP), Alas Purwo National Park (APNP), Meru Betiri National Park (MBNP) and Baluran National Park (BNP). These four remaining populations are fragmented with wide geographical distances. Population reduction and fragmentation between populations can promote depletion of genetic characters. This study aim to examine the genetic characteristics of Javan banteng based on cytochrome b region of mitochondrial DNA. Genetic materials were obtained by a non-invasive method (feces) from four national parks in Java.The sequencing results were aligned with cytochrome b mitochondrial DNA sequences from the other banteng (B. j. lowi and B. j. birmanicus) from the GeneBank sequence database. The results from this study revealed that the genetic distance of Javan banteng between UKNP, APNP, and BNP were 0, while the genetic distance between these populations with MBNP was 0.005. Moreover, the population of MBNP has only one haplotype that does not exist in the other populations. Based on these results, there should be caution in conducting genetic infusion of Javan banteng in their natural populations, especially in Meru Betiri National Park.


Objective: To assess the clinical presentation and neuroimaging abnormalities in a series of patients diagnosed as posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome at Military Hospital Rawalpindi. Study Design: Case series study. Place and Duration: Study was carried out at Military Hospital Rawalpindi from December 01 st , 2011 to May 31 st , 2012. Patients and Methods: Study included all the cases of the Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) admitted in the wards and intensive care unit (ITC). Neuroimaging was done and all the studies were reviewed by independent neuroradiologist. Different clinical and laboratory variables were also studied and correlated with neuroimaging. Follow up was done to look for the prognosis. Results: Of the seven patients labelled as PRES two were male and five were female. Two patients were over 50 years of age, out of them one was male and one was female. One patient had end stage renal disease (ESRD) secondary to diabetes mellitus (DM) and hypertension (HTN), one had eclampsia, one had pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) and one had just uncontrolled HTN. Peak spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) in 5 cases was 210 mm of Hg, four of which had seizures. Rest two had spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) of 160 out of which one developed seizures. Total out of 7, 5 experienced seizures and altered conscious state, rest two only had confusion. One patient had papilloedema. Follow up was done after 06 weeks, 02 patients died, 05 remained alive and symptoms of PRES had vanished. Conclusion: PRES is a neurological emergency, presents with a variety of symptoms and has a specific neuroimaging pattern. Early recognition and prompt treatment result in a good neurological outcome.


Helminth parasites that inhabit mammalian body surfaces have a highly evolved relationship with the immune system. Many of these resident helminths carry out functions to ensure their survival in the hosts. To attain this objective helminth parasites adopt immunoregulatory mechanisms to counter host's hostile immune response. Indeed, immunomodulatory molecules have been discovered in the worm's extracts and in their excretion/secretion. In this review, we discuss the state of our understanding of the interplay between helminths and immune pathways. We also highlight the key challenges that must be confronted in identification of the helminth-derived molecules involved in immune modulation.  We consider whether helminth-derived signaling hold promise for the design of novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of inflammatory disorders (inflammatory bowel disease, allergies, and autoimmune diseases).


The present study investigates the differences between panic disorder patients with and without angina-like chest pain. The patients were diagnosed according to DSM-III criteria and were divided into chest-pain and no chest-pain subgroups according to the occurrence of angina-like chest pain during their panic attacks. In the first stage of the study, transcutaneous arterial CO2 tension was recorded at rest, during and after a hyperventilation provocation test in 20 panic patients (8 with chest pain and 12 without chest pain during panic attacks) and 23 matched control persons. In the second stage of the study, panic symptom checklists, panic diary, depression, anxiety and fear questionnaires, and surface integrated EMG were documented in 85 panic patients (43 with chest pain and 42 without chest pain during panic attacks). The resting pCO2 level was significantly lower in panic patients with chest pain compared to the controls and to panic patients without chest pain. The pCO2 level after recovery was also significantly lower in the chest pain panic group than in controls. Further significant differences were identified between the two subgroups of panic patients, although the initial mean anxiety level failed to differentiate between subgroups. The surface integrated EMG and the sum of panic symptom checklist were higher in the chest-pain subgroup. The derealization score and the suicide subscale of Beck Depression Inventory were significantly higher in the no-chest pain group. These results underline the significance of reduction of pCO2 level in panic attacks with angina-like chest pain; that is, the significance of dissociation of cardiorespiratory and metabolic responses in this group of patients. These findings may offer an important link in the understanding of physiological responses in anxiety attacks.


Experiments were performed to determine if small particles are capable of passing through a turbo-molecular vacuum pump. A test aerosol was generated at atmospheric pressure and injected into the vacuum system upstream of the turbo pump. Particles were measured immediately upstream and downstream of the turbo pump using two laser-based vacuum particle detectors. Tests were performed with solid and liquid particles. Solid particles were found to pass through the pump, although the efficiency of transmission is not known. Liquid particles did not pass through the pump. These results indicate that vacuum particle counters employed downstream of turbo pumps may be sensitive to upstream particle levels.


Accurate knowledge of the seismic material properties in the immediate vicinity of the receivers represents a prerequisite for elastic wavefield decomposition. We present strategies for estimating the elastic material properties for both land and seabed multicomponent seismic data. The proposed scheme for land data requires dense multicomponent geophone configurations, which allow spatial wavefield derivatives to be explicitly calculated. The required information can be obtained with four three-component surface geophones positioned at the corners of a square, and a fifth geophone buried at a shallow depth below the center of the square. The technique yields local estimates of the near-surface P- and S-wave velocities, but the density cannot be constrained. Using a similar approach for four-component (three orthogonal components of particle velocity plus pressure) seabed recordings allows the P- and S-wave velocities as well as the density of the seafloor to be estimated. In this case, the proposed scheme does not require buried geophones, and it is applicable to multicomponent data recorded in routine seabed surveys. Compared to existing techniques, the new method allows the elastic seafloor properties to be more accurately determined, and it does not rely critically on the inclusion of large-offset data. Numerical tests indicate that the proposed schemes are robust and yield accurate results, provided that the signal used for the inversion contains sufficient horizontal energy and can be clearly identified and separated from other signals. Although the schemes are designed for application on the first arrivals, they are, in principle, applicable to any data window containing isolated P- or S-arrivals. The proposed scheme is successfully applied to a seabed data set acquired in the North Sea. In contrast, the application on a multicomponent land data set was unsuccessful, because of strong receiver-to-receiver variations in amplitude and phase, probably caused by differences in coupling and instrument response.


English is an important language since the world is becoming more interconnected and it is central to motivate Swedish pupils to study language. The Swedish Agency for Education states that motivation and learning increase when pupils access a living language and that teacher therefore should use authentic material. Yet, teachers of the English subject still rely a lot on textbooks. The aim of this study is to highlight the use of literature in the EFL classroom for grades 4-6, and to investigate teachers' attitudes to the use of literature and also examine how they use literature and what they want to achieve by that use. To answer those questions an empirical study was conducted through interviews and a questionnaire. The main findings of this study are that teachers have a positive attitude towards using literature with their pupils and wants to use it more than they currently do. The main reason teachers use literature is to increase the pupils' vocabulary and help them learn grammatical patterns as well as increasing their motivation. The most commonly used method is reading aloud. However, there are some hindrances for using literature such as the poor availability of English literature in schools.


The páramo is home to a significant proportion of global biodiversity and provides essential services for the development of life for millions of people in Ecuador. However, land use/land cover (LULC) changes threaten biodiversity and modify its functioning. The objectives of this study were: (1) to evaluate the conservation status of the herbaceous páramo (HP) ecosystem by analyzing its LULC in Ecuador's southern region. (2) to identify possible regions where the native páramo ecosystem is being restored. We analyzed Landsat 8 images using Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) and a Classifier Decision Tree (CDT) to achieve these objectives. The results show that the native herbaceous páramo (NHP) ecosystem is being transformed into an anthropogenic HP (AHP). The area covered by the NHP ecosystem (296,964 ha) has been reduced by 50% (149,834 ha). Nevertheless, we identified five regions where the NHP is upgrading. These regions are relevant for studying NHP regeneration in Ecuador's southern region, where soils are mostly andosols. The LU of the páramo, with cycles of exploitation, abandonment, and regeneration in a secondary páramo, is transforming the NHP ecosystem. These exploitation practices, global climate change, and lack of knowledge about the NHP ecosystem's regeneration and its soils' recovery threaten to substantially reduce the NHP area, its functionality, and its ecosystem services.


Background : Smoking remains the most preventable cause of premature death and morbidity in the US and the developed world. Cigarette smoking is the most well known risk factor for accelerating lung function decline in adults. This study aimed to evaluate pulmonary function tests abnormalities predictors in smoker patients Materials and methods: This case-control study was done Merjan teaching Babylon, Iraq, in the from December 2010 to March 2012. The study included 182 patients who were divided into 114 patients in obstructive group and 68 patients in restrictive group. Duration and amount of smoking were evaluated by pack years. Spirometry was done for each patient. The effects of smoking were compared between obstructive and restrictive chronic lung diseases. Results: The ages of patients in both groups ranged from 31-70 years. Most of patients were males (65% in obstructive group while 58% in restrictive group). There was significant correlation between pack years and degree of dyspnea (functional state),in addition there was significant correlation between pack years and severity of obstructive and restrictive diseases. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that effects of smoking were more in obstructive group than restrictive group. It was established that lung function (FEV1,FVC and FEV1%FVC) decreases with increasing number of pack years. Lung function was related inversely to pack years of cigarette use


Background. The status epilepticus of focal impaired-awareness seizures (SE FIAS) is a series of focal seizures with loss or change of consciousness, between which there is no complete recovery of consciousness. This status epilepticus occurs in patients with temporal (especially with hippocampal sclerosis) and frontal epilepsy. It is important to differentiate SE FIAS with the absence status epilepticus, with psychiatric disorder, with postictal confusion. As a rule, this status epilepticus is self-terminate, without special treatment.Objective: to study the features of epidemiology, etiology, diagnosis, therapy and prognosis in patients with SE FIAS.Materials and methods. The study included 1350 consecutive patients diagnosed with epilepsy.Results and discussion. A history of SE FIAS was found in 20 patients (14 women and 6 men), it occurred in the age range from 5 to 66 years. 13 patients (65 %) had mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, 5 patients (25 %) had frontal lobe epilepsy, and 2 patients (10 %) had lateral temporal lobe epilepsy. Only in 80 % of patients treatment was adequate before the development of SE FIAS, in 20 % of patients it was inadequate and subsequently caused the development of status epilepticus. In 40 % of patients the occurrence of SE FIAS is associated with their own non-compliance; in 30 % of patients the development of status epilepticus had iatrogenic causes. Measures to prevent the development of status epilepticus were ineffective only in patients with pharmacoresistant symptomatic epilepsy and in non-compliant patients.Conclusions. SE FIAS occurs in 1 % of patients with epilepsy. Among patients, women with temporal or frontal epilepsy dominate; status epilepticus occurs at any age and is often triggered by changes in therapy due to doctors' recommendations or patient non-compliance. Usually the status is self-terminating. To prevent its recurrence, adequate antiepileptic therapy is necessary. The prognosis in patients with SE FIAS is favorable; however, the general prognosis remains serious due to the severity of the course of epilepsy.


We previously reported that two out of seven artificially O-glycosylated calcitonin derivatives had an altered peptide backbone conformation as indicated by decreased helical contents, determined by CD measurement. In the present study, two of those derivatives, in which a GalNAc residue is attached to Thr6 or Thr21 of calcitonin, were analyzed by NMR in order to determine the structural changes induced by the O-glycosylation in more detail. Deviations in the chemical shifts suggest that the structural change is not global but only a local one and is located in the vicinity of each O-glycosylation site. The intensities of the NOE cross peaks, an indicator of alpha-helical structure, also were decreased around the O-glycosylation site. The hydrogen/deuterium exchange rates of the main chain amide protons increased at the N- or C-terminal portion of the alpha-helix corresponding to the respective O-glycosylation site and explains the results of the CD experiments. The inter-residual NOE cross peaks between the carbohydrate and the peptide portions, other than the O-glycosylated amino acid residue, showed that local structural contacts extended three or two residue distance for Thr6- or Thr21-glycosylated derivative, respectively. Thus, we conclude that the O-glycosylation induced a change in the local structure and that this structural perturbation modulated the original alpha-helical structure of calcitonin, resulting in the apparent decrease in the helical content deduced from CD spectra.


This paper presents a new method for extract three-dimensional (3D) discrete spherical Fourier descriptors based on surface curvature voxels for pollen particle recognition. In order to reduce the high amount of pollen information and noise disturbance, the geometric normalized curvature voxels with the principal curvedness are first extracted to represent the intrinsic pollen volumetric data. Then the curvature voxels are decomposed into radial and angular components with spherical harmonic transform in spherical coordinates. Finally the 3D discrete Fourier transform is applied to the decomposed curvature voxels to obtain the 3D spherical Fourier descriptors for pollen recognition. Experimental results show that the presented descriptors are invariant to different pollen particle geometric transformations, such as pose change and spatial rotation, and can obtain high recognition accuracy and speed simultaneously.


In crowded waterways, maritime traffic is bound to speed regulations for safety reasons. Although several speed measurement techniques exist for road traffic, no known systems are available for maritime traffic. In this paper, we introduce a novel vessel speed enforcement system, based on visual detection and reidentification between two cameras along a waterway. We introduce a newly captured Vessel-reID dataset, containing 2,474 unique vessels. Our vessel detector is based on the Single Shot Multibox Detector and localizes vessels in each camera individually. Our re-identification algorithm, based on the TriNet model, matches vessels between the cameras. In general, vessels are detected over a large range of their in-view trajectory (over 92% and 95%, for Camera 1 and 2, respectively), which makes the re-identification experiments reliable. For re-identification, application specific techniques, i.e. trajectory matching and time filtering, improve our baseline re-identification model (49:5% mAP) with over 20% mAP. In the final evaluation, we show that 77% (Rank-1 score) of the vessels are correctly re-identified in the other camera. This final result presents a feasible score for our novel vessel re-identification application. Moreover, our result could be further improved, as we have tested on new unseen data during other weather conditions.


White layer exists on the machined surface of the hard-cutting and affects the surface quality and mechanical properties of a workpiece. Accurate predicting the critical cutting speed of white layer formation is of great significance for controlling the surface quality and selecting appropriate cutting parameters. In this work, an austenite transformation driving force calculation model of the white layer formation was established based on phase transformation thermodynamics theory, in which the influence of cutting temperature, stress and strain on the austenite transformation driving force in the hard-cutting process was taken into account. Second, a finite element (FE) model of the hard-cutting process was built by using hardened AISI52100 steel as cutting material. Then, a prediction model of critical cutting speed of the white layer formation was developed in combination with the austenite transformation driving force model and the hard-cutting FE model. Finally, the critical cutting speeds of the white layer formation at different chip thicknesses, tool rake angles and different levels of flank wear were simulated by using the critical cutting speed prediction model.


The goal of this article is to examine the value of information sharing in outsourcing of logistics activities. Our examination is in the context of a fairly complex network in which location and capacity of carriers are considered. The current research also examines the moderating effect of network settings on the benefit of information sharing. A core component of our methodology is use of computational experiments to provide a variety of logistics network conditions under which we investigate information sharing value. The investigation involves comparing two strategies, namely full and no information sharing. Underlying the experiments are procedures to optimise the network under each strategy. The procedures are based on exact methods that combine integer linear programming with exhaustive enumeration. To gauge the robustness of the insights, we applied formal analysis of variance techniques to the data from the numerical experiments. The obtained insights are helpful to managers for selecting appropriate logistics service providers and level of information exchange.


This paper investigates the biaxial stretchability of polylactic acid (PLA)/poly (butylene adipate co-terephthalate) (PBAT)/thermoplastic cereal flour (TCF) ternary blends with a PLA/PBAT ratio close to 60/40 and a constant TCF content. A twin-screw extrusion process was used to gelatinize the starch and devolatilize the water in order to obtain a water-free TCF, which was then blended into a compatibilized or non-compatibilized PLA/PBAT matrix, introduced in the molten state. These blends were subsequently cast into sheets and biaxially drawn using a biaxial laboratory stretcher. The prepared ternary blends were found to present a typical ductile behavior. Scanning electron micrography highlighted dispersion and adhesion properties in the PLA/PBAT/TCF blends, where two different phases were observed. Moreover, the addition of the thermoplastic cereal flour did not significantly affect the biaxial stretchability of the PLA/PBAT blends but was found to lower the maximum stress before breaking. The modification of the interfacial tension between PLA and PBAT with the compatibilizer Joncryl before mixing with TCF had no effect on the durability of the PLA/PBAT/TCF sheet. Still, it slightly increased the maximum of nominal stress before failure.


The childhood obesity has rapidly increased, though little is known about the
impact of frequency of meals and portion size on weight and obesity. The
objective of this study is to compare and to determine the effective strategy for
obesity prevention by improving the consumption of portion size and meal
frequency. This study utilised the secondary data obtained from the Health Survey
for England for the child population aged between 2 to 15 years in United Kingdom.
This study combines the different strands of knowledge from nutrition, physical
activity and body metabolism and synthesizing this knowledge into a system
dynamics model which the model offers unique insights into the cause-and-effect
relationships among the influencing factors. Findings from the simulation analysis
demonstrated that reducing meal frequency is the most effective controlling
strategy for obesity prevention. This is asserted by the fact that the highest
reduction in average weight (3.14%-4.5%) and average body mass index
(3.14%-4.5%) between 2020 and 2030 was observed by improving meal
frequency. This paper concludes that system dynamics utilised in this study will
be advantageous to guide the food stakeholder to gain insight into the complex of
eating behavior and to experiment with various intervention strategies for obesity
prevention.


ABSTRACT Bacterial endophytes that colonize Populus trees contribute to nutrient acquisition, prime immunity responses, and directly or indirectly increase both above- and below-ground biomasses. Endophytes are embedded within plant material, so physical separation and isolation are difficult tasks. Application of culture-independent methods, such as metagenome or bacterial transcriptome sequencing, has been limited due to the predominance of DNA from the plant biomass. Here, we describe a modified differential and density gradient centrifugation-based protocol for the separation of endophytic bacteria from Populus roots. This protocol achieved substantial reduction in contaminating plant DNA, allowed enrichment of endophytic bacteria away from the plant material, and enabled single-cell genomics analysis. Four single-cell genomes were selected for whole-genome amplification based on their rarity in the microbiome (potentially uncultured taxa) as well as their inferred abilities to form associations with plants. Bioinformatics analyses, including assembly, contamination removal, and completeness estimation, were performed to obtain single-amplified genomes (SAGs) of organisms from the phyla Armatimonadetes, Verrucomicrobia, and Planctomycetes, which were unrepresented in our previous cultivation efforts. Comparative genomic analysis revealed unique characteristics of each SAG that could facilitate future cultivation efforts for these bacteria. IMPORTANCE Plant roots harbor a diverse collection of microbes that live within host tissues. To gain a comprehensive understanding of microbial adaptations to this endophytic lifestyle from strains that cannot be cultivated, it is necessary to separate bacterial cells from the predominance of plant tissue. This study provides a valuable approach for the separation and isolation of endophytic bacteria from plant root tissue. Isolated live bacteria provide material for microbiome sequencing, single-cell genomics, and analyses of genomes of uncultured bacteria to provide genomics information that will facilitate future cultivation attempts.


BACKGROUND
Peritonitis is considered to change peritoneal permeability and influences the long-term change in permeability during peritoneal dialysis. The objective of this study is to evaluate water transport across the peritoneum, expressed as drained ultrafiltration volume, before, during, and after episodes of peritonitis.

METHODS
A retrospective analysis of data from a group of patients was performed in which drained ultrafiltration volume and glucose concentration in dialysis fluid were recorded for each dwell time every day during time on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis treatment as a part of the clinical routine performed. Days with peritonitis and average of daily measurements 1 month before and after each peritonitis episode were evaluated separately for day and night exchanges. In all, 64 episodes of peritonitis in 30 patients were included in this study. Approximately 15,000 exchanges were recorded. Paired t-test and repeated-measures analysis of variance were performed.

RESULTS
Compared with the average for the previous month, there was a significant decrease in ultrafiltration volume for day exchanges occurring 2 days before the appearance of other clinical symptoms of peritonitis (P = 0.029). For night exchanges, the decrease in ultrafiltration volume occurred 24 hours before diagnosis (P < 0.001). Ultrafiltration volume was at its minimum the day of diagnosis for both the day (P < 0.001) and night (P < 0.001) exchanges compared with average volume for the previous month. Ultrafiltration volumes remained low for 2 days after diagnosis during both the day (P = 0.009) and night (P = 0.017) exchanges. Relative to the previous month, glucose concentration on the day of clinical diagnosis of peritonitis did not differ significantly (P = 0.328 and P = 0.963 for day and night shifts, respectively). Overall, no significant changes in ultrafiltration volumes or glucose concentrations from the month before to the month after the peritonitis episode were found (P = 0.99 and P = 0.27 for measurements during the day, respectively).

CONCLUSION
Osmotic forced ultrafiltration decreased during infectious peritonitis, most significantly for a long dwell time, consistent with an increase in both functional peritoneal surface area and hydraulic conductivity. This finding appeared 2 days before other clinical symptoms and remained significantly low 2 days after diagnosis.


Ambient intelligence refers to an electronic environment that is sensitive and responsive to the presence of people. Such an environment should be: 1) ubiquitous - surrounding the user by a multitude of interconnected systems; 2) transparent - integrated and "hidden" into the background; and 3) intelligent - adapting to the people that live in it. The potential to distribute functionality over a network of devices is determined by the power resources of the device, and upon considering these demands, it appears helpful to further classify in-home ambient intelligence "devices" into three distinct classes: the watt-node; the milli-watt-node; and the micro-watt-node. We try to map the system needs associated with these nodes, differing by orders of magnitude with respect to the amount of information to be processed as well as the available power, onto requirements for Si process technology choices.


Character animation based on motion capture provides intrinsically plausible results, but lacks the flexibility of procedural methods. Motion editing methods partially address this limitation by adapting the animation to small deformations of the environment. We extend one such method, the so‐called relationship descriptors, to tackle the issue of motion editing under large environment deformations. Large deformations often result in joint limits violation, loss of balance, or collisions. Our method handles these situations by automatically detecting and re‐positioning invalidated contacts. The new contact configurations are chosen to preserve the mechanical properties of the original contacts in order to provide plausible support phases. When it is not possible to find an equivalent contact, a procedural animation is generated and blended with the original motion. Thanks to an optimization scheme, the resulting motions are continuous and preserve the style of the reference motions. The method is fully interactive and enables the motion to be adapted on‐line even in case of large changes of the environment. We demonstrate our method on several challenging scenarios, proving its immediate application to 3D animation softwares and video games.


Abstract The prevalence of β-thalassemia (β-thal) carriers in Turkey varies according to region but in general it is 2.0%. Çanakkale is a city in the Aegean region of Turkey but no study about β-thal frequency in Çanakkale has been published to date. In this study, we aimed to investigate the frequency of β-thal mutations in this province. A total of 4452 couples (8904 individuals) applied for premarital thalassemia scans at the Çanakkale State Health Directorate Laboratory between January 2008 and June 2012 and scanning was done with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Of 125 β-thal carriers seen at the Medical Genetics Clinic, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Turkey, for genetic counseling, 46 participated in the study. The remaining 79 patients could not be reached. The prevalence for β-thal carriers in Çanakkale was identified as 1.4% (125/8904). One couple were both β-thal carriers. β-Globin gene analysis of 46 carriers found the total frequency of the three most common mutations was 45.6%. These mutations were found to be HBB: c.93-21G>A [IVS-I-110 (G>A)], 26.08% (12/46); HBB: c.17_ 18delCT [codon 5 (‒CT)], 10.85% (5/46); HBB: c.20delA [codon 6 (‒A)] 8.69% (4/46). This is the first report on the frequency and mutation profiles of β-thal for Çanakkale. The incidence of β-thal carriers in Çanakkale is below the average for Turkey. The most frequently observed mutation profile and rate of β-thal in our region is different from the other regions of Turkey.


One-step fermentation involving two microorganisms inoculated at the same time and two-step fermentations involving two inoculations of different microbes at different times were used to enrich corn meal. Starch in corn meal was first hydrolyzed by amylases of B. stearothermophilus , E. fibuligera or A. oryzae followed by the growth of C. utilis . The combination of E. fibuligera and C. utilis produced a significant (P<0.05) increase in lysine, methionine, tryptophan. The relative nutritive value (%), which reflected the amino acid balance, increased significantly (P<0.05) with this sequence of microorganisms. Niacin, riboflavin, and thiamin increased significantly (P<0.05) when mixed cultures of A. oryzae and E. fibuligera in combination with C. utilis were employed. When E. fibuligera alone was grown, no significant change was observed in thiamin content but significant increases occurred in niacin and riboflavin. A. oryzae by itself produced significant (P<0.05) changes in niacin, riboflavin and thiamin.


During the period between April 2016 and January 2017, a total of 1100 clinical specimens (burns, wounds, throat, urine, blood) were collected from two hospitals in Babylon province Al-Hillah Teaching Hospital and Medical City of Mirjan Hospital. All specimens were cultured and 17 Acinetobacter baumannii isolates were obtained from clinical specimens in a percentage of (1.5%) distributed in burn 11 (2.8%), wound 1 (0.6%), throat 1 (2%), urine 3 (0.7%) and blood 1 (0.9%). This study was conducted to determine the presence of carbapenem resistance Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) isolates and the prevalence of Ampc gene responsible for carbapenem-resistance among clinical isolates of A. baumannii collected from two hospitals in Hillah City. Isolates were identified according to VITEK2 system and further confirmed using PCR technique depending on housekeeping genes. Antibiotics susceptibility was assayed by using disks diffusion method according to CLSI recommendations and it's found 8 isolates was carbapenem resistant. The Carbapenem resistance Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) isolates were subjected to monoplex PCR targeting ampC gene, PCR experiments showed that seven (87.5%) isolates were harbored ampC gene. These results revealed that CRAB isolates constitute 47% of all A. baumannii that had been isolated from Al-Hillah Teaching Hospital and Medical City of Mirjan Hospital in Babylon province. This underlies the importance of their accurate identifications and reporting to prevent the emergence of complete resistance to the most potent drugs against A. baumannii in Babylon province.


We present a measurement of the cross section for $Z$ production times the branching fraction to $\tau$ leptons, $\sigma \cdot$Br$(Z\to \tau^+ \tau^-)$, in $p \bar p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$1.96 TeV in the channel in which one $\tau$ decays into $\mu \nu_{\mu} \nu_{\tau}$, and the other into $\rm {hadrons} + \nu_{\tau}$ or $e \nu_e \nu_{\tau}$. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 226 pb$^{-1}$ collected with the D{\O}detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The final sample contains 2008 candidate events with an estimated background of 55%. From this we obtain $\sigma \cdot$Br$(Z \to \tau^+ \tau^-)=237 \pm 15$(stat)$\pm 18$(sys)$ \pm 15$(lum) pb, in agreement with the standard model prediction.


Adenomas of the stomach are histologically classified into tubular, villous and mixed (tubulovillous) adenoma. In the literature, in two previous studies, only six cases of serrated adenoma of the stomach have been reported. In this communication, we report a newly identified case. The patient presented with gastric complaints. The endoscopic examination showed a pediculated protruding tumour localised in the gastric corpus. Biopsies were reported as tubular adenoma with high-grade dysplasia. A surgical local excision of the tumour was performed. The histological examination revealed elongated fronds with lateral crenated, saw-tooth-like notches as a result of scalloped epithelial indentations. Areas with high grade dysplasia but without invasive carcinoma were demonstrated. This seems to be the first case of serrated adenoma localised in the gastric corpus in the literature.

Rubio1 reported the …


This paper offers a phonological diagnostic for defining the word in Dagbani, a Gur language of Ghana. It shows that a morphological unit that constitutes a complete word blocks contrast-neutralising phonological processes from target segments within its boundaries when triggered across its boundary. In sub-word units, these processes (e.g. nasal place assimilation, vowel harmony, segmental deletion) apply to target sounds without restrictions. The result is the maintenance of contrast in words and neutralisation of contrast in sub-words. The paper further argues that the asymmetrical application of these rules is an indication of a morphological strength distinction between the word as a strong position where segments are fully specified for phonological features, and the sub-word domain as a non-privileged position where segments may be underspecified for features. A formal analysis of the asymmetry is presented using the theory of positional faithfulness within the framework of Optimality Theory.


A recent publication introduced the Directional Feedback Delay Network, a parametric artificial reverberation algorithm capable of producing direction-dependent energy decay. This method extends the capabilities of Feedback Delay Networks by using multichannel delay-line groups and a spatial transform to produce direction-dependent reverberation in the Ambisonics domain. In this paper, we present a modified formulation of the Directional Feedback Delay Network method that allows both frequencyand direction-dependent reverberation. Multichannel delay-line groups are used to manipulate signals incident on a spherical grid through independent recursive signal paths, while an early reflection module gives a physically-motivated spatial distribution of input signals in the system. The overall number of delay lines is reduced from the previous formulation, and the design allows flexibility to favor a lower computational cost over accuracy.


We report the results of the first systematic Lagrangian experimental investigation in a previously unexplored regime of very light (air bubbles in water) and large (D/η ≫ 1) particles in turbulence. Using a traversing camera setup and particle tracking, we study the Lagrangian acceleration statistics of ∼3 mm diameter (D) bubbles in a water tunnel with nearly homogeneous and isotropic turbulence generated by an active grid. The Reynolds number (Reλ) is varied from 145 to 230, resulting in size ratios, D/η, in the range of 7.3–12.5, where η is the Kolmogorov length scale. The experiments reveal that gravity increases the acceleration variance and reduces the intermittency of the probability density function (PDF) in the vertical direction. Once the gravity offset has been subtracted, the variances of both the horizontal and vertical acceleration components are about 5 ± 2 times larger than those measured in the same flow for fluid tracers. Moreover, for these light particles, the experimental acceleration PDF shows a substantial reduction of intermittency at growing size ratios, in contrast with neutrally buoyant or heavy particles. All these results closely match numerical simulations of finite-sized bubbles with the Faxén corrections.


When the data used for reinforcement learning (RL) are collected by multiple agents in a distributed manner, federated versions of RL algorithms allow collaborative learning without the need of sharing local data. In this paper, we consider federated Q-learning, which aims to learn an optimal Q-function by periodically aggregating local Q-estimates trained on local data alone. Focusing on infinite-horizon tabular Markov decision processes, we provide sample complexity guarantees for both the synchronous and asynchronous variants of federated Q-learning. In both cases, our bounds exhibit a linear speedup with respect to the number of agents and sharper dependencies on other salient problem parameters. Moreover, existing approaches to federated Q-learning adopt an equally-weighted averaging of local Q-estimates, which can be highly sub-optimal in the asynchronous setting since the local trajectories can be highly heterogeneous due to different local behavior policies. Existing sample complexity scales inverse proportionally to the minimum entry of the stationary state-action occupancy distributions over all agents, requiring that every agent covers the entire state-action space. Instead, we propose a novel importance averaging algorithm, giving larger weights to more frequently visited state-action pairs. The improved sample complexity scales inverse proportionally to the minimum entry of the average stationary state-action occupancy distribution of all agents, thus only requiring the agents collectively cover the entire state-action space, unveiling the blessing of heterogeneity.


Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in acute myocardial infarction (MI) has been associated with a high incidence of slow-, no-reflow. The slow-, no-reflow phenomenon is known to complicate both thrombolytic therapy and PCI. Removing intracoronary thrombus before PCI in acute MI patients may reduce the incidence of slow-, no-reflow phenomena. We studied the procedural outcome of 21 patients who underwent rheolytic thrombectomy using Possis® rheolytic thrombectomy catheter in the setting of acute MI as compared to twenty-eight patients who underwent PCI in the setting of acute MI using other modalities (PTCA with or without stenting) without thrombectomy. The study included 49 consecutive patients with 21 patients in the rheolytic thrombectomy group, and 28 patients in the no-rheolytic thrombectomy group. There was no significant difference between the two groups as regards to gender, age, and prevalence of coronary artery risk factors. The left ventricular ejection fraction was 44.7 ± 12 in the rheolytic thrombectomy group, and 37.6 ± 10.8 in the no-rheolytic thrombectomy group (p = 0.08). Thirty eight percent of the patients in the rheolytic thrombectomy group experienced slow flow, no-reflow, while 28.6% of the patients in the no-rheolytic thrombectomy group experienced slow flow, no-reflow (p = 0.5). In this matched series of patients with acute MI undergoing PCI, rheolytic thrombectomy by the Possis rheolytic thrombectomy catheter device does not appear to reduce the risk of slow flow, no-reflow, or in-hospital death, compared to standard PTCA and stenting of the infarct-related artery.


In the heavy-duty material test device, an electrohydraulic force servo system is usually utilized to load the tested samples. The signal from the pressure sensor is compared with the instruction and the difference between them is then fed to a digital servo valve to form a closed loop control to the target force. The performance of the electrohydraulic force servo system is not only closely related to how accurate to feed the flow rate to the hydraulic cylinder, but also the stiffness of the system which is dominated by the compressibility of oil. Thus the clarification of the characteristic parameters becomes the key of the solution to optimal force control. To identify the electrohydraulic force servo system various step signals are input to excite the dynamic response of the system. From the relationship between the step magnitude and the force response, the system model and the key control parameters are determined. The electrohydraulic force servo system is identified as a first order system with time constant varied with the pressure. Based on the identification of the system optimal control parameters are finally obtained and force rate error is reduced to 0.2% from original 3%.


Since the difference between the film and the quartz, there are problems in metallization process such as low bonding strength, poor wettability and the film stress; combined with the actual situation, carried out a series of exploration of the above problems, take different measures to solve the practical problems.


Within social work education there has been extensive interest and use of simulation for learning purposes. In recent years, this interest has broadened to the use of Virtual Reality Simulation (VRS) for teaching because of the benefits that include a safe environment in which to learn, flexibility and self-efficacy. Several examples of VRS have been developed that range from specifically designed computer-based programs through to Google Cardboard VR. While such efforts are to be lauded, what is missing is a deliberate attempt to build on the knowledge of such developments. This article will detail the creation and implementation of a VRS with Social Work and Early Help practitioners, but unlike previous examples, the study builds on the practitioners' sense of presence and reality. In doing so, it was found that the practitioners' practice experience and knowledge influenced their perception of the VRS. This finding has significant implications for the development of VRS for social work, in particular showing that there is a need to make a distinction between students and practitioners, and to appreciate that learners are not passive beings.


To inform healthcare policy for immunosuppressed patients there is a need to define SARS-CoV-2 vaccine responses. Here we report SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-induced antibody and T cell responses in patients treated with anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF), a commonly used biologic in inflammatory diseases, compared to patients treated with vedolizumab, a gut-specific antibody targeting integrin a4b7 that does not impair systemic immunity. In anti-TNF recipients, the magnitude of anti-SARS-CoV2 antibodies was reduced five-fold, and rapidly decayed towards the seroconversion threshold by 14 weeks after second dose of vaccine. In contrast, anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were sustained up to 16 weeks in vedolizumab-treated patients. Anti-SARS-CoV2 antibody decay was not observed in vaccinated patients previously infected with SARS-CoV-2. T cell responses were absent in one-fifth of anti-TNF and vedolizumab-treated patients after a second dose of either vaccine. Our data have important implications for anti-TNF recipients, including the need for vaccine prioritization, booster doses, and social distancing strategies.


Developing a method for understanding the inner workings of black-box neural methods is an important research endeavor. Conventionally, many studies have used an attention matrix to interpret how Encoder-Decoder-based models translate a given source sentence to the corresponding target sentence. However, recent studies have empirically revealed that an attention matrix is not optimal for token-wise translation analyses. We propose a method that explicitly models the token-wise alignment between the source and target sequences to provide a better analysis. Experiments show that our method can acquire token-wise alignments that are superior to those of an attention mechanism.


Standard thermoacoustic sources and refrigerators have the stack placed near one end in a standing wave tube. This selection of the stack position optimizes the thermoacoustic effect. For certain applications, however, the effect of a thermoacoustic stack on a traveling wave is of primary interest. Equations governing wave propagation through a thermoacoustic stack have been derived including equations for work flux. When the wave propagates in the direction of increasing temperature, the wave is amplified by an amount dependent upon the temperature gradient. Waves propagating in the opposite direction are attenuated. Counterpropagating waves in a standing wave tube encounter both. In this case, the results reduce to those developed earlier by Swift [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 84, 1145–1180 (1988)] and others. [Work supported by ONR.]


Industrial fermentation and biological wastewater treatment are usually based on redox processes taking place in living cells and on enzyme processes. The practical application of these redox processes is usually associated with electricity generation in microbial fuel cells or process enhancement in microbial electrolysis cells. The microbial fuel cell approach leads to straightforward wastewater treatment with less energy demand. Additional advantages of these processes are the direct removal of various pollutants and the avoidance of addition of chemical agents with the resulting waste products of treatment as it is familiar with the traditional chemical methods. Another option for the use of bioelectrochemical processes in practice is the approach of microbial electrolysis cells. The application of electric field on fermentation or microbial wastewater treatment processes might result in different aspects: either in purely electrochemical processes on the electrodes or in different types of bioelectrochemical stimulation of enzyme activity in the living cells. These applications are associated with the combination of enzyme activity with electrochemical processes to produce or remove certain compounds rapidly at high concentrations with no additions of other chemicals. In the present chapter, both approaches (microbial fuel cells and microbial electrolysis cells) are presented and discussed. Some practical applications and experimental examples of such bioelectrochemical redox processes stimulated by constant electric field are demonstrated.


This dissertation examines gendered fictional dialogue in popular works by D.H. Lawrence, Ernest Hemingway and E.M. Forster, including Howards End (1910), The Sun Also Rises (1926) and Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928). I apply Judith Halberstam's notion of female masculinity to direct speech, to explore how speech traits inform modernist literary aesthetics. My introduction frames this discussion in sociolinguistics, Judith Butler's theory of performativity, M.M. Bakhtin's discourse theory, and gender studies. It provides an opportunity to establish experimental dialogue techniques, and the manipulation of gendered talk, in transgressive texts including James Joyce's Ulysses (1922), Virginia Woolf's Orlando (1928) and Radcyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness (1928). The first chapter discusses taboos and dialect in D.H. Lawrence's fictional dialogue. The second chapter establishes gender subversion as a crucial element in Ernest Hemingway's dialogue style. The third chapter contrasts Forster's latently gendered speech with his techniques of dialect emphasis and dialect suppression. Finally, my conclusion discusses gender identity in the poetry of Dorothy Parker and Baroness Elsa von Freytag Loringhoven, and the temporality of gender in "Time Passes" from Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse (1927). New Woman characters like Lady Brett Ashley typified a crucial moment in women's liberation. They not only subverted stereotypes of womanhood through their dress or sexual freedom, they also adopted/adapted masculine idiom to shock, to rebel against and challenge male dominance. Different speech acts incited fashionable slang, became a political protest symbol or inspired psychoanalytic theory. The intriguing


Adenomyosis is a gynecological condition, which is characterized by stromal and glandular endometrial tissue infiltration inti the myometrium, resulting in an increase of uterine volume. The etiology of adenomyosis is presently unknown, but some theories assist us in understanding its pathogenesis and natural history. Clinical manifestations are increased menstrual flow and dysmenorrhea, abnormal uterine bleeding, chronic pelvic pain, and dyspareunia. The signs and symptoms suggestive of adenomyosis are complemented by diagnostic methods such as transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS), ideally with intestinal preparation, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and surgery; although currently, there are no precise criteria for the classification of findings on imaging studies. The clinical and surgical therapeutic approach must be individualized, taking into account the patient's characteristics, for instance, age, parity, depth and number of adenomyotic foci, uterine volume and, mainly, clinical manifestations. A causal relation between adenomyosis and infertility has been repeatedly suggested, mostly due to the anatomo-physiopathological conditions originated by the adenomyosis on the female genital tract; however, definitive conclusions are still lacking. This pathology is found in approximately 25% of infertile women, especially those who have had recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL), recurrent implantation failure, older women seeking In Vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, and those with concomitant endometriosis. To determine whether adenomyosis per se affects fertility, several researchers have focused on women who are affected by the condition and underwent IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI); for this model provides more accurate data about the influence of adenomyosis on embryo implantation. Therefore, our objective was to analyze, through a systematic literature review, the effect of uterine adenomyosis on the probability of pregnancy by IVF / ICSI, as well as trying to point out the main difficulties and gaps to establish a standard protocol for the management of these patients, since most of the patients with adenomyosis have other associated gynecological pathologies, mostly endometriosis; in addition to the heterogeneity of the studies still remaining as an obstacle to precise conclusions.


Gastrointestinal tumours are among the most common malignancies in Western society, the majority of which are associated with dietary and lifestyle factors. Many dietary or lifestyle factors have been identified which may have toxic or carcinogenic properties. However, several dietary compounds also able to reduce gastrointestinal cancer rates in both humans and animals have been characterized. Though the exact mechanism leading to the anticarcinogenic action of these compounds is not fully known, it has been demonstrated that this chemopreventive capacity may be due to elevation of the glutathione S-transferase detoxification enzymes. Here we have investigated the effect of several anticarcinogens on the gastrointestinal UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) enzymes. Diets of male Wistar rats were supplemented with ellagic acid, ferulic acid, Brussels sprouts, quercetin, alpha-angelicalactone, tannic acid, coumarin, fumaric acid, curcumin and flavone, separately, and combinations of alpha-angelicalactone and flavone. Hepatic and intestinal (proximal, mid and distal small intestine and colon) UGT enzyme activities were quantified using 4-nitrophenol and 4-methylumbelliferone as substrates. All anticarcinogens tested increased UGT enzyme activity with both substrates, at one at least of the five different sites investigated. alpha-Angelicalactone, coumarin and curcumin showed enhanced UGT enzyme activities at all five sites. Both small and large intestinal UGT enzyme activities were increased by quercetin, alpha-angelicalactone, coumarin, curcumin and flavone. Except for tannic acid, all agents induced hepatic UGT enzyme activity. Furthermore, dietary administration of alpha-angelicalactone and flavone, given individually or in combination, enhanced the UGT detoxification system in the liver and, to a lesser extent, in intestine. In conclusion, induction of gastrointestinal UGT enzyme activities after consumption of dietary anticarcinogens may contribute to a better detoxification of potentially carcinogenic compounds and subsequently to the prevention of gastrointestinal cancer.


Background: Diabetic peripheral sensorimotor neuropathy is one of the most prevalent neuropathic syndromes affecting around 50 % people with diabetes. Its development is gradual with subtle changes hence ignored. Early diagnosis using simple bedside tools is essential. Methods: The prospective study of evaluation of peripheral neuropathy in diabetes involved examination of 500 diabetic patients for neuropathy. Pinprick, vibration sensation, perception of 5.07 Semmes Weinstein monofilament and Achilles tendon reflex were examined and impairment noted. Results: 39 % patients had impairment of perception of Semmes Weinstein monofilament. Loss of pinprick sensation was found in 65.6 % in patients with diabetes for 5-10 years duration. Abnormal tendon reflex was seen in 64.2 % in patients with diabetes move than 10 years. Loss of Vibration (40.2 %), Wasting (16.6 %), loss of pinprick sensation (44.5%) and loss of abnormal tendon reflex (32.1 %) was found to be more common in type II diabetes. Conclusion: Sensorimotor peripheral neuropathy was more common in long standing diabetes mellitus especially with impaired glycaemic control and type II diabetes mellitus.


In the Australian nation's experiences of modernity and late modernity, Australian made films have become a popular conduit for the promulgation of national narratives. Employing a cultural studies paradigm, this study identifies, maps and describes some instances of the Australian national identity and nation building project's attempts at meaning-making, through an identification of various discourses associated with the national identity and the national character, as they have been represented in Australian made films, throughout the second half of the twentieth century. This study argues that the Australian national identity and national character is often defined, in Australian cultural, social and political life, by association with a set of discourses I label the representative regime, a discursive regime that uses as reference points notions associated with : Australian values (mateship, a fair go, egalitarianism), gender (with masculinity occupying most of this space), ethnicity (including notions of race, whiteness or indigeniety), the landscape (including the anxieties of belonging to this place) and class (including notions of 'the battler' and 'the Ocker'). The representative regime, while discernible in fields and spheres as diverse as political rhetoric, advertising and business practices are best described by reference to cultural products and practices. The instances of meaning-making that employ the referential regime remained constant over the period studied; however, the ways in which the reference points are employed change with the times. This study examines some examples of the films produced between 1945 and 2007 in the context of the times in which they were produced and viewed and from within social/cultural and political/economic/industry contexts. The discussion uses some film examples, chosen from various periods, to illuminate, illustrate and explain ideas around my contention that the main area of national identity meaning-making in Australian made film is to be found in the changing relationships between the mainstream of Australian society and some discourses (what I call the referential regime), associated with constructing, defining and bounding the national identity and national character. These are often deployed in an Australian made film, in an attempt to provide a shock of recognition . The result of these attempts at meaning-making, in the chosen film examples, is discussed. certificate acknowledgements abstract V


Adult sows fed a constant amount of a basal diet received purified cellulose either orally at levels of 0 and 475 g/animal.d (Experiment 1) or intracecally at levels of 0, 285, 570 and 855 g/animal.d (Experiment 2). Each experiment consisted of subsequent periods of faeces and urine collection with the animals re-allocated to the treatments each time. With that, a total of 36 observations on each parameter was achieved. The faecal samples were analyzed for the contents of organic matter, cell wall carbohydrates and various nitrogen fractions such as bacterial N and undigested dietary N. Furthermore, N balance, urinary allantoin excretion and plasma urea concentrations were determined. In a preliminary study, the effects of freeze-drying and of shaking of the faecal samples as suspensions with water (in order to release bacteria from fibre) on content and composition of faecal nitrogen had turned out to be reproducible. Cellulose significantly enhanced faecal nitrogen loss whereas N retention was not affected due to the counteraction of urinary N loss. Plasma urea concentration reflected the situation with urinary N. The proportion of undigested dietary N and of water-soluble protein in total faecal N was somewhat increased by cellulose at cost of the bacterial N proportion which accounted for about 72% of total N on average. Urinary allantoin did not respond to the higher bacterial activity in the hindgut in the presence of supplementary cellulose. Cellulose significantly decreased the apparent N digestibility by on average about 3 percentage units per 100 g of supplementary cellulose. True N digestibility was also reduced by cellulose but did not go below 95%. The supplementary cellulose was fermented in the hindgut at similar rates of on average about 60% regardless of the route of administration. The almost 100 g of native cellulose incorporated in the basal diets were lignified by about 20%, and that is why they were fermented at a rate of only about 30%. The rate of fermentation was only slightly decreasing with increasing amounts of supplementary cellulose, and a daily quantity of 564 g (11 g/W0.75) cellulose was fermented on average if the highest level of cellulose was provided. This was within a range exclusively reported for easily-fermentable carbohydrates but was achieved in the case of cellulose only at a consistently higher level of supply. The true efficiency of bacterial protein synthesis was 5.2 g bacterial protein/100 g supplementary cellulose on average. The apparent efficiency was 60% higher averaging 8.4 g bacterial protein/100 g further apparently fermented organic matter.


Critical gaps in understanding how species respond to environmental change limit our capacity to address conservation risks in a timely way. Here, we examine the direct and interactive effects of key global change drivers, including climate change, land use change, and pesticide use, on persistence of 104 odonate species between two time periods (1980-2002 and 2008-2018) within 100 X 100 km quadrats across the United States using phylogenetic mixed models. Non-target effects of pesticides interacted with higher maximum temperatures to contribute to odonate declines. Closely related species responded similarly to global change drivers, indicating a potential role of inherited traits in species' persistence or decline. Species shifting their range to higher latitudes were more robust to negative impacts of global change drivers generally. Inherited traits related to dispersal abilities and establishment in new places may govern both species' acclimation to global change and their abilities to expand their range limits, respectively. This work is among the first to assess effects of climate change, land use change, and land use intensification together on Odonata, a significant step that improves understanding of multi-species effects of global change on invertebrates, and further identifies conditions contributing to global insect loss.