Objective. To determine the effects of arginine in the rates of sputum conversion in patients with drug-sensitive pulmonary tuberculosis.
Methods. Studies from PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, and Cochrane were reviewed and appropriate studies were included. Randomized controlled trials comparing arginine with placebo in adult patients with drug-sensitive pulmonary tuberculosis were included. The risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. A metaanalysis of the rate of sputum conversion at 8 weeks, was conducted. Post hoc analyses of sputum conversion at 4 weeks, and cough reduction at 4 and 8 weeks were done.
Results. Three articles included in this study had a pooled population of 452 participants. This meta-analysis showed no significant difference in the sputum conversion at 4 and 8 weeks, with a relative risk of 0.96 (95% CI 0.77-1.20) and 1.07 (95% CI 0.96-1.19), respectively. However, cough was significantly reduced at 4 and 8 weeks, with subtotal relative risks of 0.91 (95% CI 0.82-1.00) and 0.43 (95% CI 0.22-0.81), and a total relative risk for cough reduction of 0.83 (95% CI 0.73-0.93).
Conclusion. While arginine may not significantly reduce sputum conversion rates, it may be used as an adjunct to decrease cough in patients with tuberculosis.


Five experiments demonstrate that brands cause priming effects (i.e., behavioral effects consistent with those implied by the brand), whereas slogans cause reverse priming effects (i.e., behavioral effects opposite to those implied by the slogan). For instance, exposure to the retailer brand name "Walmart," typically associated with saving money, reduces subsequent spending, whereas exposure to the Walmart slogan, "Save money. Live better," increases it. Slogans cause reverse priming effects and brands cause priming effects because people perceive slogans, but not brands, as persuasion tactics. The reverse priming effect is driven by a nonconscious goal to correct for bias and can occur without any conscious mediation (i.e., following subliminal exposure to the word "slogan"). These findings provide evidence that consumer resistance to persuasion can be driven by processes that operate entirely outside conscious awareness.


Sensitive radioimmunoassays for the placental proteins PP5 and SP1 were used to investigate possible ectopic synthesis of these proteins by breast tumors. Elevated serum levels of the proteins were found in a small proportion of patients who had undergone mastectomy for malignant tumors, but little useful information on tumor spread could be gained from such measurements. In two patients with elevated pre-operative serum PP5, the levels fell to normal upon resection of the tumor, suggesting that PP5 may be a product of the tumor. PP5 and SP1 were found to be present in the majority of homogenates of malignant and benign breast lesions; the highest concentrations of SP1 were found in malignant tumors, whereas with PP5, especially high levels were found in cases of simple cystic disease.


The purpose of the present study was to examine the acute effects of the bench press exercise with predetermined velocity loss percentage on subsequent bench press throw (BPT) performance with raised legs or feet on the floor among disabled, sitting volleyball players. Twelve elite sitting volleyball athletes (age = 33 ± 9 years; body mass = 84.7 ± 14.7 kg; relative bench press maximum strength = 1.0 ± 0.3 kg/body mass) took part in this study. The experiment was performed following a randomized crossover design, where each participant performed a single set of bench press with a 60% one-repetition maximum (1RM) to a 10% decrease of mean bar velocity as a conditioning activity (CA). The BPT with a 60%1RM was performed to assess changes in peak power (PP), peak velocity (PV) before and after the CA. The differences between analyzed variables before and after the CA were verified using two-way repeated-measures ANOVA (condition × time; 2 × 2). The ANOVA showed a significant main effect of time for peak bar velocity (p = 0.03; η2 = 0.312) and peak power output (p = 0.037; η2 = 0.294). The post hoc comparison showed a significant increase in post-CA peak bar velocity and peak power for raised legs condition in comparison with pre-CA value (p = 0.02, p = 0.041, respectively). The present study showed that the subsequent BPT performed with raised legs could be enhanced by the bench press with a 60% 1RM to a 10% mean bar velocity decrease as a CA among disabled sitting volleyball players. Therefore, athletes and coaches can consider performing a bench press throw with raised legs without compromising performance.


PURPOSE
To identify the prognostic value of extraocular extension in enucleated uveal melanoma (UM) patients and to correlate extraocular extension to chromosomal aberrations, metastasis-free survival (MFS), and clinico-histopathological risk factors.

METHODS
Retrospective study of patients with UM treated with enucleation between 1987 and 2011. Melanoma-related metastasis and death were recorded. Statistical analysis (log-rank test or Cox regression analysis) was performed to correlate MFS with tumor characteristics, extraocular extension, episcleral diameter of the extraocular extension, cell type, extracellular matrix patterns, inflammation, loss of chromosome 3, and gain of chromosome 8q.

RESULTS
In 43 (12%) of 357 patients, extraocular extension was observed. In this subset of patients, we noted a reduced survival of 70 months (105.5 months, P = 0.010) compared with patients without extraocular extension (175.8 months). Patients with gain of chromosomal region 8q in UM with extraocular extension had an increased risk of metastatic disease (P < 0.001). In multivariate Cox proportional hazard analysis, largest basal tumor diameter (P = 0.001), extracellular matrix patterns (P = 0.009), episcleral diameter of the extraocular extension (P = 0.016), loss of chromosome 3 (P < 0.001), and gain of 8q (P < 0.001) were independent predictors for MFS.

CONCLUSIONS
Larger episcleral diameter of the extraocular extension and additional gain of chromosome 8q in extraocular extension UM correlates to a worse prognosis. MFS is significantly reduced in UM with a large basal tumor diameter, extracellular matrix patterns, loss of chromosome 3, and gain of chromosome 8q.


Point-of-Interest (POI) recommendation has been an important service on location-based social networks. However, it is very challenging to generate accurate recommendations due to the complex nature of user's interest in POI and the data sparseness. In this paper, we propose a novel unified approach that could effectively learn fine-grained and interpretable user's interest, and adaptively model the missing data. Specifically, a user's general interest in POI is modeled as a mixture of her intrinsic and extrinsic interests, upon which we formulate the ranking constraints in our unified recommendation approach. Furthermore, a self-adaptive location-oriented method is proposed to capture the inherent property of missing data, which is formulated as squared error based loss in our unified optimization objective. Extensive experiments on real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and advantage of our approach.


An integrated model developed by ArcelorMittal and NSC to predict the microstructural evolution of austenite in conventional and microalloyed HSLA steels during multi-pass hot rolling is described. The prediction of austenite grain size, recrystallized fraction, residual strain and precipitation state are given. Applications of this model during mono-deformation tests and during multi-pass rolling are presented.


Classification algorithm is one of the key techniques to affect text automatic classification system's performance, play an important role in automatic classification research area. This paper comparatively analyzed k-NN. VSM and hybrid classification algorithm presented by our research group. Some 2000 pieces of Internet news provided by ChinaInfoBank are used in the experiment. The result shows that the hybrid algorithm's performance presented by the groups is superior to the other two algorithms.


Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the pattern and trends in the prevalence of self-reported diabetes mellitus among the elderly in India, 2004–2014. Research Design and Methods: The required data were extracted from National Sample Survey Organization's (NSSO) 60th round in 2004 and 71st round in 2014. Self-reported morbidity information of elderly with reference period of 15 days before the survey has been used for the analyses. From NSSO 2004, a total of 35,569 elderly persons were included in the study, and from NSSO 2014, a total of 28,397 elderly persons were included in the study. Age- and sex-standardized prevalence rate was calculated to make valid comparisons across two time periods. Results: The prevalence of self-reported diabetes has increased more among elderly males than among elderly females during 2004–2014.The increase in prevalence percentage is more among young old than the rest. There is a clear-cut rural–urban differential in the burden of diabetes in India. The eastern and southern regions of India marked a higher prevalence as well as increase in diabetes prevalence than the rest of the nation. Those with diabetes are also likely to be burdened by the existence of other chronic conditions such as heart disease and hypertension when compared to persons without diabetes. This burden is higher for women. Conclusion: The prevalence of self-reported diabetes appears to have increased and is higher among males. The apparent rural–urban and regional variations can be attributed to urbanization-induced lifestyle changes, increasing access to screening and treatment and reporting bias.


In this study, two kinds of industrial filter bags were tested for their filtration performance to apply the existing bag filter systems. Experimental variables were examined for pressure drop, cleaning interval, residual pressure drop, cleaning efficiency, fractional grade efficiency, total collection efficiency according to the filter bag structure. According to these results, the filter bags tested in this study demonstrated good performance in dust collection. This was also true for the double surface filter bag. The lifetime was longer than the round type filter bag because the filtration area was more than 1.6 times wider and the filter quality factor was much higher. Therefore, double surface filter bags are suggested to be used in order to increase filtration performance of the bag filter systems.


This study examines the informational efficiency of the orphan equity market during the 2000 to 2010 period. We identify firms emerging from Chapter 11 via the LoPucki Bankruptcy Research Database and find that the market is not surprised by their equity return performance. Using different tests, we provide support for the presence of informational efficiency in this market. In addition, we find that while orphan equities are associated with positive returns in the 150 days following emergence, they are poor investments in the long-run. Conducting cross-sectional regressions, we find that the expected return, as proxied by an asset pricing model, best explains the cross-sectional variation in realized returns in the long run. In the short run, a higher post-emergence price on the first day of trading is associated with lower realized returns.


By examining uses of quality ( ) factors for in- ductors in silicon integrated circuit design, new methods for estimating quality factors are proposed. These methods extract factors by numerically adding a capacitor in parallel to measured data of an inductor, and by computing the fre- quency stability factor and 3-dB bandwidth at the resonant frequency of the resulting network. These parameters are then converted to effective quality factors using relationships for simple parallel RLC circuits. By sweeping the numerically added capacitance value, effective quality factors at varying frequen- cies are computed. These new techniques, in addition to being more relevant for circuit design, provide physically reasonable estimates all the way up to the self-resonant frequencies of inductors. At moderate to high frequencies, the commonly used definition can significantly underestimate and can even give unreasonable results. Data obtained using the new methods suggest that quality factors remain high and integrated inductors remain useful all the way up to their self- resonant frequencies, contrary to the behavior obtained using . These indicate that the commonly used technique can lead to improper use and optimization of integrated inductors.


We present a new open-access electronic resource named the Russian Constructicon that offers a searchable database of Russian constructions accompanied by descriptions of their properties and illustrated with corpus examples. The project was carried out over the period 2016–2020 and at present contains an inventory of over 2200 multi-word constructions of Contemporary Standard Russian. We prioritize "partially schematic" constructions that lie between the two extremes of fully compositional syntactic sequences on the one hand and fully idiomatic (phraseological) expressions on the other hand. Constructions of this type are difficult to account for in terms of either lexicon or grammar alone, and are often underrepresented in reference works of Russian. A typical construction in our database contains a fixed part (anchor words) and an open slot that can be filled with a restricted set of lexemes. In this paper we first focus on key characteristics of this resource that make it different from existing constructicons of other languages. Second, we describe how the new interface will be designed and how it will serve the needs of both linguists and L2 learners of Russian. In particular, we discuss various search possibilities relevant for different users and those parameters that are available for specifying the retrieval output. An example of an entry is given to show how the information about each construction is structured and presented. Third, we provide an overview of our multi-level semantic classification of constructions. We argue that our system of semantic and syntactic tags subdivides our items into meaningful classes and smaller groups and eventually facilitates the identification of constructional families and clusters. This methodology works well in turning the initial list of constructions as unrelated units into a structured network and makes it possible to refine and expand the collected inventory of constructions in a systematic way.


The occurrence of natural gas in Michigan has been recognized for many years, but commercial quantities of gas were not developed until the discovery of the Muskegon field in 1927. The total gas production from the Muskegon field to August 1, 1931, has been 6,420,949,662 cubic feet. The Central Michigan area now shows a potential open-flow capacity of more than 60 million cubic feet from 22 wells, but withdrawals have been small because of inadequate pipe-line facilities. Gas production is obtained from Mississippian sandstones and porous Devonian dolomitic limestones, the latter being most prolific of gas in structures marginal to the Michigan "basin." The Michigan stray sandstones of Mississippian age are evidently overlapping sandstone bodies in the central part of the state that are the product of the reworking of the Marshall sandstone by a northwestward transgressing sea. The "Dundee" productive horizon is of Devonian age and its porosity is the result of solution due to the presence of the Dundee-Traverse unconformity. The structures which have affected the accumulation of natural gas in Michigan are comparatively gentle, asymmetrical anticlines with 50-70 feet of closure. The steep dip on the basinward side varies from 100 to 240 feet per mile and the gentle dip is generally about 50 feet per mile. The general shape of the anticlines in many places is arcuate, and the intersection of the prevailing northwest-southeast structural trend with areas of northeast-southwest cross-folding seems to localize the occurrence of natural gas in the state.


A 40-year-old nonpregnant woman with symptomatic focal atrial tachycardia (FAT) (Figure 1 A) refractory to medical therapy and with no other chronic conditions was referred for catheter ablation. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) showed slightly enlarged atria with no other anomalies within the heart and aortic root (AR). On 24-hour Holter monitoring over 16 000 supraventricular ectopic beats, including 252 FAT episodes, were recorded. The patient was referred for zero-fluoroscopy 3D electroanatomical mapping (3D-EAM) facilitated by the EnSite NavX system (Abbott, St. Paul, Minnesota, United States). One diagnostic 10-pole catheter (ViaCath) and one ablation electrode (AE; AlCath, 4-mm gold-tip, irrigated catheter; both Biotronik, Berlin, Germany) were advanced through the femoral vein. The decapolar catheter was advanced into the coronary sinus for reference and activation mapping. Short runs of FAT were inducible by every single extrastimulus delivered. Rapid activation mapping was performed in the right and left atria through the patent foramen ovale. The earliest activation site was found to be in the para-Hisian region and interatrial septum (IAS). Therefore, we decided to examine the AR with a retrograde femoral arterial approach. The cusp was identified as noncoronary (NCC) based solely on large atrial and small ventricular intracardiac electrograms in the AR region just posterior to the mapped His bundle potential (Figure 1 B). It was presumed to be the closest site to the arrhythmia's origin despite the lack of capture of the atria and ventricle by the maximum output pacing. Single radiofrequency application (60 s, 35 Watt, 42oC) was delivered, resulting in non-inducibility of FAT within the first 10 s of delivery. No fluoroscopy was used during the procedure (procedure times: mapping, 14 min; ablation, 1 min; total, 30 min with 15 min of observation). On CMR at day 7, the application site in the NCC was identified by the radiologist at least 2 cm away from the coronary ostia and reaching 6 mm deep into the IAS (Figures 1 C and D). Within 3 months no recurrent palpitations were reported by patient and no episodes of arrhythmia were detected by several applications of Holter monitoring (4 × 24 h). The 2019 European Society of Cardiology Guidelines recommend catheter ablation as the first-line treatment for recurrent or incessant FAT [1]. FAT may originate from the NCC only in 4.1% of patients [2]. Therefore, there is no consensus on the approach to such cases. Intraprocedural AR imaging is generally recommended to guide AE and assess the distance to the coronary ostia. However, in our case, AR imaging had not been performed, so AE was guided solely by mapped anatomical landmarks. Zero-fluoroscopy NCC ablation has previously been described in pregnant women only [3, 4]. Our case shows that the zero-fluoroscopy 3D-EAM approach with no intraprocedural AR imaging is feasible due to the specific location of the NCC – directly next to the para-Hisian region of the IAS. Moreover, CMR confirmed that a single application may penetrate 6 mm deep into nonstimulated tissue and ablate the arrhythmia focus. However, further studies evaluating the safety of such an approach in comparison to intraprocedural imaging techniques are needed.


A case of chronic ectopic pregnancy mimicking pelvic malignancy is presented, indicating significance of ectopic pregnancy in discrimination of pelvic masses. A heterogenous solid mass measuring 72x50x44 mm was sonographically visualized in the right adnexal area of a 24-year-old primiparous woman presenting with six-week-long intermittent pelvic pain and irregular vaginal bleeding. Betahuman chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and CA 125 levels were respectively 6.02 IU/ml and 205.4 U/ml. Right salpingoopherectomy was done and histopathologic examination revealed ectopic pregnancy. Chronic ectopic pregnancy usually presents with prolonged clinical symptoms which are often misleading. Although the adjoint use of sonography and beta-hCG assay increases dianostic accuracy, a negative beta-hCG value does not rule out chronic ectopic pregnancy. Increased awareness of chronic ectopic pregnancy allows its preoperative diagnosis and prompt treatment.


Event-based social network analysis is an important task for monitoring the potential threats to the security of a nation and identifying various trends that are popular among the people. In this paper, we propose content-based tweets clustering and analysis method, which aims to cluster tweets based on the events represented by them. The proposed method starts with modeling tweets into a similarity graph (aka social network), in which each node represent a tweet and an edge connecting a node-pair represents the degree of similarity between the tweets represented by them. For social graph generation, each node is represented as a feature vector which is generated using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) from the respective tweet and edge weight is determined as the similarity between the nodes. Finally, the generated social graph is partitioned into a number of clusters (sub-graphs) using Markov Clustering (MCL) algorithm, where each sub-graph represent an event. We have generated a data set of 5000 tweets related to four different events – Uri attacks, Delhi assembly election, Union budget 2015, and Israel-Gaza conflict to evaluate the proposed method. The experimental results are encouraging, showing high accuracy in grouping tweets based on their contents. We have also performed a comparative analysis of the Cosine similarity and Euclidean distance based similarity graph generation, and it is found that the Cosine similarity yields better results than the Euclidian distance measure. KeywordsTwitter data analysis; Similarity graph generation; Key term extraction; Graph clustering; Event classification.


Relative damage-index based on the leadfree interconnect transient strain history from digital image correlation, explicit finite-elements, cohesive-zone elements, and component's survivability envelope has been developed for life-prediction of two-leadfree electronic alloy systems. Life prediction of pristine and thermally-aged assemblies, have been investigated. Solder alloy system studied include Sn1Ag0.5Cu, and 96.5Sn3.5Ag. Transient strains during the shock-impact have been measured using digital image correlation in conjunction with high-speed cameras operating at 50,000 fps. Both the board strains and the package strains have been measured in a variety of drop orientations including JEDEC horizontal drop orientation, vertical drop orientation and intermediate drop orientations. In addition the effect of sequential stresses of thermal aging and shock-impact on the failure mechanisms has also been studied. The thermal aging condition used for the study includes 125°C for 100 hrs. The presented methodology addresses the need for life prediction of new lead-free alloy-systems under shock and vibration, which is largely beyond the state of art. Three failure modes have been predicted including interfacial failure at the copper-solder interface, solder-PCB interface, and the solder joint failure. Explicit non-linear finite element models with cohesive-zone elements have been developed and correlated with experimental results. Velocity data from digital image correlation has been used to drive the attachment degrees of freedom of the submodel and extract transient interconnect strain histories. Explicit finite-element sub-modeling has been correlated with the full-field strain in various locations, orientations, on both the package and the board-side. The survivability of the leadfree interconnections under sequential loading (thermal aging and shock-impact) from simulation has been compared with pristine circuit assemblies subjected to shock-impact. Sequential loading changes the failure modes and decreases the drop reliability as compared to the room temperature experimental results. Damage index based survivability envelope is intended for component integration to ensure reliability in harsh environments.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


of the poet Lucilius 651/103. Sometimes the honour was accepted, and the money declined. § 8. Funus censorium = amplissimum = imperatorium. Contrary to the opinion of Nipperdey and Becker, the f unus censorium was carried out by the consuls or duoviri. The expression dates from Augustus, who wished to be buried in a censor's robe. § 9. Documenta, 17 pages; chiefly from the Corpus Inscriptionum. The article in the Dictionary of Antiquities follows Marquardt (Privatleben i. 350 sq.) in regarding the funerals of Syphax and Perseus as funera publica ; the f. censorium being the magistrate's funeral of highest grade; but Marquardt adds that the f. c. was not due to the censor's edict. Vollmer thinks the story about Valerius Poplicola is due to Valerius Antias and consequently untrustworthy as far as any vote of the people is concerned; and, with reference to Menenius, he utterly discredits Dion. Hal. (6, 76). This is the weak part of the treatise, and we must regard the /unus publicum and collaticivm as still confused. Military funerals, both of privates and officers, were not necessarily publica; the senatus consultum is the decisive thing; often, as in the case of Hirtius and Pansa, the funeral was both militare and publicum. As to Syphax and Perseus, their funerate were in a sense public, but Vo]Jmer is right in separating them from the ordinary class. The value of his treatise is conditioned by the importance of the subject; but at any rate the author seems to have exhausted the topic.


Abstract—Determination of genetic variation is useful for plant breeding and hence production of more efficient plant species under different conditions, like drought stress. In this study a sample of 28 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of wheat developed from the cross of Norstar and Zagross varieties, together with their parents, were evaluated for two years (2010-2012) under normal and water stress conditions using split plot design with three replications. Main plots included two irrigation treatments of 70 and 140 mm evaporation from Class A pan and sub-plots consisted of 30 genotypes. The effect of genotypes and interaction of genotypes with years and water regimes were significant for all characters. Significant genotypic effect implies the existence of genetic variation among the lines under study. Heritability estimates were high for 1000 grain weight (0.87). Biomass and grain yield showed the lowest heritability values (0.42 and 0.50, respectively). Highest genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation (GCV and PCV) belonged to harvest index. Moderate genetic advance for most of the traits suggested the feasibility of selection among the RILs under investigation. Some RILs were higher yielding than either parent at both environments.


Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a devastating and fatal disease for which effective therapies have been developed over the last 10 years. Unfortunately these therapies are expensive. The New Zealand health system which has no discernible strategy to deal with the issue of high-cost treatments has, through its agent, PHARMAC, failed to either clearly state that they recognise the need to fund treatment for this condition or to refuse all effective treatments and defend such a decision in the public arena. Bosentan, an endothelin antagonist, improves symptoms and extends life substantially in this condition, but access has been near impossible as it is expensive. PHARMAC have for the last 18 months refused to fund any effective therapy through the Community Exceptional Circumstances Panel. However, clinicians can approach the patient's DHB to fund treatment and yet the treatment offered and the duration is decided by the Hospital Exceptional Circumstances Panel of PHARMAC. Power without either clinical or fiscal responsibility?


The Objective of the current study is to investigate effectiveness of using a new strategy which is founded by the researcher and had been called (Lego Building Technique), proposed strategy appropriates for practical fashion courses such as: hand embroidery, machine embroidery, fabrics dyeing, fabrics printing and painting, textile structure and design, hand weaving, hand crochet and tricot and all hand crafts courses. The proposed strategy (Lego Building Technique) had been launched through the experience of teaching hand Embroidery course for Nizwa University students- Fashion Design Program Autumn term/2020. The final project of the course –after teaching and learning hand embroidery stitches- was focusing on the goal of the fashion program which is represented in enhancing the creativity skills of designing fashion, the researcher/ course professor proposed a project of embroidering some cut motifs of felt material, then gather embroidered motifs on a foam mannequin in many designs, selecting the best design or structure, finally attach the embroidered felt motifs together for forming the selected structure by the student/designer producing a unique fashion piece. Thus the project which represents the new proposed strategy (Lego Building Technique) achieved three main goals, first: verification of accessing embroidering skills for the students, second: enhancing creativity thinking skills for the students as fashion designers, third: enhancing the employing of the accessed skills in creating unparalleled fashion. The results -executed designs- of the experience had been evaluated through a rating scale and the proposed strategy had been evaluated through a questionnaire. From this point the proposed strategy can be generalized in many other practical courses. The researcher used descriptive and experiment methodologies for the procedures and accessing the statistic results of the study. The study recommends adopting the proposed strategy in teaching practical courses in Fashion Design Programs.


Due to the increasing demand for energy worldwide, photovoltaic cooling systems have become an important field of research in recent years. The most important factor affecting the performance of a solar PV cell is its operating temperature. For harvesting heat from solar PV systems, phase change material (PCM) is regarded as the most effective material. As a result, this study discusses and describes the effect of using PCM and NanoPCM (NPCM) in cooling PV cells. This research reviews the various feasible hybrid PVT-PCM and PVT-NPCM methods used for cooling PV. The concept focusing on PV cooling technology is discussed where air, water and nanofluid are used as the working medium in combination with PCM and NPCM. It is observed that when high performance heat transfer and improved cooling rate are needed, active cooling methods are favoured, whereas passive cooling methods rely on themselves and don't require extra power. It is also found that the effectiveness of applying PCM or NPCM for thermal control is heavily influenced by atmospheric air temperatures as well as the precise PCM or NPCM used. It is envisaged that this review will help new researchers better understand the qualities and capabilities of each cooling strategy. They are offered to help investigators quickly identify the basic science that led to the development of the thermal performance system and also improve the overall performance of the PV system.


Globally, 10–20% of children and adolescents experience mental health conditions, but most of them do not receive the appropriate care when it is needed. The COVID-19 deaths and prevention measures, such as the lockdowns, economic downturns, and school closures, have affected many communities physically, mentally, and economically and significantly impacted the already-neglected children and adolescents' mental health. As a result, evidence has shown that many children and adolescents are experiencing psychological effects such as depression and anxiety without adequate support. The consequences of not addressing the mental health conditions in children and adolescents extend through adulthood and restrict them from reaching their full potential. The effects of COVID-19 on children and adolescents' mental health highlight the urgent need for multisectoral home-grown solutions to provide early diagnosis and treatment and educate caregivers on home-based interventions and community outreach initiatives to address children and adolescents' mental health challenges during this pandemic and beyond.


The creation and development of carbon nanomaterials promoted material science significantly. Bottom-up synthesis has emerged as an efficient strategy to synthesize atomically precise carbon nanomaterials, namely, molecular carbons, with various sizes and topologies. Different from the properties of the feasibly obtained mixture of carbon nanomaterials, numerous properties of single-component molecular carbons have been discovered owing to their well-defined structures as well as potential applications in various fields. This Perspective introduces recent advances in molecular carbons derived from fullerene, graphene, carbon nanotube, carbyne, graphyne, and Schwarzite carbon acquired with different synthesis strategies. By selecting a variety of representative examples, we elaborate on the relationship between molecular carbons and carbon nanomaterials. We hope these multiple points of view presented may facilitate further advancement in this field.


Canon Law is an unappreciated scholarly field both within and without the Church. This essay does not deal with the motives behind this lack of appreciation but rather proposes methodological pathways to establish a new relation between Canon Law and juridical science. I follow the writings of Max Weber who highlighted the unique contribution of Canon Law in guiding Civil Law towards the path of rationality. Canon Law's cultural capital, accumulated over a period of two millenia, can illuminate the comparative study of western juridical traditions


Body fat and lean body mass was assessed in young college students by two different techniques involving NIR method and body circumference measurements. NIR technique significantly over-estimated the body fat as compared to the results obtained by the other method. The difference between the methods was 23-30% high for fat and the variation was 5-9% low for lean body mass for the whole group. Results obtained by the body girth size measurements agreed well with fat and lean body mass values from other studies on Indian subjects which had employed different methods.


A field investigation was conducted at College farm, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, Telangana, India during kharif (July to January, 2021–22)to optimise the planting density and nitrogen dose on cotton yield and economics. The experiment was laid out in factorial RBD consisting of four levels of planting densities viz. 90×15 cm2, 90×20 cm2, 90×30 cm2 and 90×60 cm2 as factor I treatments and 4levels of nitrogenviz., 90, 120, 150,180 kg N ha-1 as factor II treatments and replicated thrice. The results revealed that with higher planting density ofspacing 90×15 cm2 (74,074 plants ha-1) reported significantly higher seed cotton yield (2176 kg ha-1), Gross returns (` 1,31,114 ha-1) and net returns (` 70,150 ha-1) and was at par with spacing 90×20 cm2 (55,555 plants ha-1) over other planting density of spacing 90×30 cm2 (37,037 plants ha-1) and 90×60 cm2 (18,518 plants ha-1). Lower plant density of spacing 90×60 cm2 significantly performed better with respect to yield attributes viz, number of picked bolls plant-1 (18.2), boll weight (5.1 g) and seed cotton yield (95.0 g plant-1). Among the nitrogen doses, 150 kg N ha-1 recorded significantly higher seed cotton yield (2072 kg ha-1), Gross returns (`Rs. 1,24,818), Net returns (`Rs. 69,407) and B:C (2.25) over other nitrogen doses tested. However, the interaction effects did not differ significantly for all the parameters studied.


A limited number of studies have identified multilevel determinants of chief executive officer (CEO) commitment to the status quo (CSQ). Using an unintrusive measure of CEO CSQ developed through computer-aided content analyses of CEO letters to shareholders, this study confirmed that determinants of CEO CSQ are multilevel, including factors at the individual (CEO age and tenure), organizational (size and financial slack), and industry (extent of industry discretion) levels of analysis. In addition, as an important extension to prior research, the authors find that CEO CSQ is associated with future performance changes depending on a firm's industry environment. They find that in high-discretion industries, firms whose CEOs are committed to the status quo suffer future financial and market performance declines as compared with their competitors, whereas such performance deterioration does not occur in low-discretion environments. Indeed, when future performance is market based and measured as Tobin's Q, the authors find that compared with competitors, a firm's performance actually improves in low-discretion industries if its CEO is committed to the status quo.


In the title compound, C26H25NO6S, the phenyl ring forms a dihedral angle of 82.5 (1)° with the indole ring system. The molecular structure is stabilized by weak intramolecular C—H⋯O interactions and the crystal structure is stabilized by weak intermolecular C—H⋯O interactions.


To successfully implement sustainability innovations, it is crucial to gain knowledge about their acceptability by potential users. This paper addresses the acceptability of land pools for the sustainable revalorization of wetland meadows using two case studies in a cultural landscape (CL) in Germany. The aim of this study is to analyse factors that influence the decisions of landowners and farmers towards these land pools. Therefore, we developed a sociologically driven framework of acceptability. We applied structured qualitative text analysis for analysing qualitative interviews. The results show that acceptability differs between the two case study areas and between interviewees. The value-based appreciation of the CL is high, but does not lead "per se" to a positive acceptance of the land pools. Reasons for this are the lack of shared values and the existence of diverging opinions about the objectives of land pools. Additional important factors are previous experiences, level of participation, and trust in actors or institutions. A recommendation is that discussion of values of nature supports the identification of shared values. A clear description of the problem and embedding the concept in a systematic strategy for regional development could enhance acceptability. For the success of similar sustainability innovations, it is essential to design a fair innovation process (transparent communication and active actors' involvement). A theoretical-conceptual conclusion is that the acceptability framework supports qualitative, in-depth and actor-centred analyses focussing on linkages between values and arguments on different levels. The framework also reveals diverse and previously unknown factors.


Suspension components play key roles in the running behaviour of rail vehicles, and therefore, mathematical models of suspension components are essential ingredients of railway vehicle multi-body models. The aims of this paper are to review existing models for railway vehicle suspension components and their use for railway vehicle dynamics multi-body simulations, to describe how model parameters can be defined and to discuss the required level of detail of component models in view of the accuracy expected from the overall simulation model. This paper also addresses track models in use for railway vehicle dynamics simulations, recognising their relevance as an indispensable component of the system simulation model. Finally, this paper reviews methods presently in use for the checking and validation of the simulation model.


Thermoluminescence glow peaks are calculated numerically for a one-trap - one-recombination-centre model using a generalized approach. Except in extreme cases the peaks are seen to change in position and shape with a change in dose. These glow peaks are fitted to the general-order kinetics model and the values of the kinetic parameters, namely the activation energy, pre-exponential factor and order of kinetics are determined by finding the best fit. In this way an attempt is made to correlate the empirical parameters with the physically meaningful ones in the framework of the adopted model. The fitted value of the activation energy matches reasonably its input value used in the generalized approach model calculations. The fitted values of the order of kinetics and the pre-exponential factor parameters change with the initial occupancy of the traps (dose) in all cases in which the order of kinetics (KO) is found to be in the range in which 1< KO< 2. The KO decreases with increasing trap occupancy whereas the pre-exponential factor increases. The latter parameter undergoes a change also in its units. It is observed that, when the found value of the KO is such that 1< KO<2, the best fitted general-order kinetics peak deviates significantly from the computed peak. A better fit is found with two peaks, one of which is approximately of first order and the other approximately of second order. The KO parameter at saturation dose has been correlated with the ratio of the re-trapping and recombination cross sections. These theoretical results are discussed in the perspective of experimental observations in general. Plausible reasons for disagreements between theory and experiment are also discussed.


This article discusses how tourism companies can change practices and thereby innovate employee–tourist encounters, changing them from traditional service encounters to encounters that focus on creating experiential value for tourists. The article combines service innovation, practice, and experience economy theory. The analysis is based on a multiple qualitative service innovation field experiment in five Danish tourism companies. The experiments showed how front-line employees in tourism companies could act as creative experts in innovation processes that focused on developing new reflective encounter practices aimed at experiential value creation. However, the experiments also illustrated how a number of factors influenced the process, including a trust-based organizational environment, an organizational setup in which front-line employees' ideas could be developed and shared, organizational structures and mind-sets that supported front-line employees' reflective practice, as well as more specific "rooms" for creativity, such as facilitated workshops. Conversely, strong service mind-sets acted as a barrier to change towards experience-focused encounter practices. The article suggests new strategic approaches to innovation practices in tourism companies. Involving front-line employees in innovation processes becomes central for tourism companies that want to go beyond service production and create new experiential value.


Fifteen Maya Ixil and K'iche' women of Chajul, Guatemala, were interviewed 17 years after publishing their feminist participatory action photovoice research. Their book documents gross violations of human rights during nearly 36 years of armed conflict and their memories of survivance and persistence. A constructivist grounded theory analysis of in-depth interviews with these Maya Ixil and K'iche' women contributed to the authors' "bottom up" meaning making of the women's narratives – stories that reflect memories of participatory, community-based workshops and community actions in the wake of genocidal violence. The latter included performances of: presence despite absences; profound losses amidst ongoing suffering; renewed and transformative engagement with traditional beliefs and practices; women's protagonism evidenced through enhanced skills; new capacities performed in multiple contexts within and beyond their community's borders. We analyze these narratives of protagonism and persistence to elucidate some of the multiple contributions of long-term feminist community-based accompaniment and participatory processes as resources for rethreading life and wellbeing in the wake of war.


The use of veterinary drugs in medical treatments and in the livestock industry is a recurrent practice. When applied in subtherapeutic doses over prolonged times, they can also act as growth promoters. However, residues of these substances in foods present a risk to human health. Their analysis is thus important and can help guarantee consumer safety. The critical point in each analytical technique is the sample treatment and the analytical matrix complexity. The present manuscript summarizes the development, type of synthesis, characterization, and application of molecularly imprinted polymers in the separation, identification, and quantification techniques for the determination of veterinary drug residues in food samples in extraction, clean-up, isolation, and pre-concentration systems. Synthesized sorbents with specific recognition properties improve the interactions between the analytes and the polymeric sorbents, providing better analysis conditions and advantages in comparison with commercial sorbents in terms of high selectivity, analytical sensitivity, easy performance, and low cost analysis.


Abstract Introduction The Comparison of Methylphenidate and Psychotherapy in adult ADHD Study (COMPAS) was a prospective, randomized multicenter clinical trial, comparing methylphenidate (MPH) with placebo (PLAC) in combination with cognitive behavioral group psychotherapy (GPT) or individual clinical management (CM) over the period of 1 year. Here, we report results on treatment safety. Methods MPH and PLAC were flexibly dosed. Among 433 randomized patients, adverse events (AEs) were documented and analyzed on an "as received" basis during week 0–52. Electrocardiogram data were recorded at baseline and week 24. Results Comparing 205 patients who received ≥1 dose of MPH with 209 patients who received PLAC, AEs occurring significantly more frequently in the MPH group were decreased appetite (22 vs. 3.8%), dry mouth (15 vs. 4.8%), palpitations (13 vs. 3.3%), gastrointestinal infection (11 vs. 4.8%), agitation (11 vs. 3.3%), restlessness (10 vs. 2.9%), hyperhidrosis, tachycardia, weight decrease (all 6.3 vs. 1.9%), depressive symptom, influenza (both 4.9 vs. 1.0%), and acute tonsillitis (4.4 vs. 0.5%). Syncope occurred significantly more often in the PLAC group (2.4 vs. 0%). Clinically relevant ECG changes occurred very rarely in both groups. Serious AEs were rare and without a significant group difference. The comparison of 206 patients treated with GPT versus 209 patients who received CM revealed no major differences. Serious AE classified as psychiatric occurred in 5 cases in the CM group and in 1 case in the GPT group. Conclusion In this so far longest-running clinical trial, methylphenidate treatment was safe and well-tolerated.


On 30 May 2000, the same day as the complaint against Brazil, the US (again joined by the EC) filed a complaint against Argentina, alleging that its patent laws violate the TRIPS Agreement in a number of ways.


We present a way to generate heuristic mathematical models based on the Darwinian principles of variation and selection in a pool of individuals over many generations. Each individual has a genotype (the hereditary properties) and a phenotype (the expression of these properties in the environment). Variation is achieved by cross‐over and mutation operations on the genotype which consists in the present case of a single chromosome. The genotypes 'live' in the environment of the data. Nested Sampling is used to optimize the free parameters of the models given the data, thus giving rise to the phenotypes. Selection is based on the phenotypes.The evidences which naturally follow from the Nested Sampling Algorithm are used in a second level of Nested Sampling to find increasingly better models.The data in this paper originate from the Leiden Cytology and Pathology Laboratory (LCPL), which screens pap smears for cervical cancer. We have data for 1750 women who on average underwent 5 tests each. The data on indi...


In the interest of safety, each new version of NCHRP Report 350 makes new requirements for collision performance. These requirements usually follow technical improvements, but in some cases are a reflection of newly perceived need. A serious concern before changes are made is increasing the cost of structures which are already performing reasonably well. Guardrail end treatments can be improved in performance but is that improvement needed and cost effective? Eight "side hit" crash tests are described here demonstrating low cost design changes for guardrail end treatments which make them safer during the 90o yaw collision. This is a collision with a side of the vehicle leading, a test termed "optional" by Report 350 and expected to remain optional in the ongoing revision. Four of these tests present low cost modifications of extruder type end treatments and slotted rail terminals. Remarkable safety improvement is shown by an end attachment called CPSI (Collision Performance Side Impact) to both extruder types and slotted rail terminals, although some extruders may be modified to accommodate side hit without the addition of CPSI.


Unlike images, words are representational symbols. The associative details inherent within a word's meaning and the visual imagery it generates, are inextricably connected to the way words are processed and represented. It is well recognised that the hippocampus associatively binds components of a memory to form a lasting representation, and here we show that the hippocampus is especially sensitive to abstract word processing. Using fMRI during recognition we found that the increased abstractness of words produced increased hippocampal activation and that critically this was independent of memory. Interestingly, word recollection produced hippocampal activation independent of word abstractness, while the parahippocampal cortex was sensitive to concrete word representation, independent of memory. We reason that the hippocampus has assumed a critical role in the representation of uncontextualized abstract word meaning, as its information-binding ability allows the retrieval of the semantic and visual associates that, when bound together, generate the abstract concept represented by word symbols. These novel findings not only offer insights for research drawing on word representation, memory, and hippocampal integrity, but critically, they throw important light on how the human brain may have adapted to encode and represent abstract words and concepts as they emerged in our language.


Abstract. The concentrations of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) modulate cloud
properties, rainfall location and intensity, and climate forcings. This work
assesses uncertainties in CCN measurements and the apparent hygroscopicity
parameter (κapp), which is widely used to represent CCN
populations in climate models. CCN measurements require accurate operation of
three instruments: the CCN instrument, the differential mobility analyzer
(DMA), and the condensation particle counter (CPC). Assessment of DMA
operation showed that varying the ratio of aerosol to sheath flow from 0.05
to 0.30 resulted in discrepancies between the κapp values
calculated from CCN measurements and the literature value. Discrepancies were
found to increase from <1 % to 13 % for both sodium chloride and
ammonium sulfate. The ratio of excess to sheath flow was also varied, which
shifted the downstream aerosol distribution towards smaller particle
diameters (for excess flow < sheath flow) or larger particle diameters
(for excess flow > sheath flow) than predicted. For the CPC instrument,
undercounting occurred at high concentrations, resulting in calculated
κapp lower than the literature values. Lastly, undercounting
by CCN instruments at high concentration was also assessed, taking the effect
of supersaturation on counting efficiency into account. Under recommended
operating conditions, the combined DMA, CPC, and CCN uncertainties in
κapp are 1.2 % or less for 25 to 200 nm diameter
aerosols.


BACKGROUND
Breast reconstruction following mastectomy has become increasingly popular in recent years. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of cervical epidural patient-controlled analgesia (CEA) and intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IV-PCA) for controlling the postoperative pain and the side effects after mastectomy with immediate Latissimus dorsi (LD) flap breast reconstruction.

METHODS
Sixty patients who were to undergo mastectomy with immediate LD flap breast reconstruction were randomly assigned to receive CEA [Group CEA, (n = 30), 0.15% ropivacaine + fentanyl 4 microg/ml] or IV-PCA [Group IV-PCA (n = 30) fentanyl 20 microg/kg + ketorolac 3 mg/kg] for postoperative pain control via a PCA pump (basal rate: 2 ml/h, bolus: 2 ml, lock out interval: 15 min) after their operation. Before general anesthesia, an epidural catheter was inserted at the cervical (C)7-thoracic (T)1 level in the patients of the CEA group. The resting visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain, the systolic blood pressure, the heart rate and the side effects were recorded for 48 hours after operation.

RESULTS
The VAS at rest was significantly lower in the CEA group than that in the IV-PCA group at 16 hours after surgery. The CEA group required less additional analgesics as compared with the group IV- PCA. There were no significant differences in the systolic blood pressure, the heart rate and the incidence of side effects between the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that cervical epidural analgesia, as compared with intravenous patient-controlled analgesia, provides effective pain control and it shows a similar incidence of side effects after mastectomy with immediate LD flap breast reconstruction.


BACKGROUND
Existing measures fail to capture the perceived benefits attributed to exercise participation by older adults themselves. Noticeable improvements in sleep, energy level, bodily aches and pains, constipation, and other psychophysical aspects of "feeling good" may represent ongoing sources of motivation for continued participation. The Vitality Plus Scale (VPS) was developed to measure these potential health-related benefits of exercising.

METHODS
The 10-item VPS was developed using an inductive approach, in collaboration with regularly exercising older adults and their instructors. Multiple samples of exercises and nonexercisers ranging in age from 40 to 94 were used to examine the reliability and validity of the new scale.

RESULTS
The VPS showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability over one week. Scores were able to discriminate on the basis of various indicators of health status and self-reported level of physical activity, and were related to two measures of functional mobility. Convergence was found with several subscales of the SF-36, whereas low correlations emerged with a measure of episode-specific sensations. Responsiveness to change was found with various types of exercise for individuals with low to moderate scores prior to participation.

CONCLUSIONS
Improvements in sleep, energy level, mood, and generally feeling good appear to be the most noticeable benefits of exercising for many adults. These associations are reinforced by sustained exercise participation. Capturing these interrelated psychophysical constructs in a single, short measure will enable exercise researchers and instructors to measure incremental improvements previously reported only anecdotally.


We demonstrate an interferometric method to provide direct, single-shot measurements of cavitation bubble dynamics with nanoscale spatial and temporal resolution with results that closely match theoretical predictions. Implementation of this method reduces the need for expensive and complex ultra-high speed camera systems for the measurement of single cavitation events. This method can capture dynamics over large time intervals with sub-nanosecond temporal resolution and spatial precision surpassing the optical diffraction limit. We expect this method to have broad utility for examination of cavitation bubble dynamics, as well as for metrology applications such as optorheological materials characterization. This method provides an accurate approach for precise measurement of cavitation bubble dynamics suitable for metrology applications such as optorheological materials characterization.


This paper investigates the capabilities of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Digg and others, for their current and potential impact on the supply chain. In particular, this paper examines the use of social media to capture the impact on supply-chain events and develop a context for those events. This paper also analyses the use of social media in the supply chain to build relationships among supply-chain participants. Further, this paper investigates the of use of user-supplied tags as a basis of evaluating and extending an ontology for supply chains. In addition, using knowledge discovery from social media, a number of concepts related to the supply chain are examined, including supply-chain reputation and influence within the supply chain. Prediction markets are analysed for their potential use in supply chains. Finally, this paper investigates the integration of traditional knowledge management along with knowledge generated from social media. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The objective of this study was to evaluate wheelchair propulsion biomechanics under cross-slope degrees and surface types. Testing course consisted of three cross-slopes (0 ̊, 1 ̊, and 2 ̊) and three types of surfaces (Blind-Guide, Teflon, and Wood). We compared biomechanics data using two-way repeatedmeasures ANOVA. The result showed that the resultant force, torque, and cadence were not significantly different between surface types and cross slope conditions. While self-selected speeds decreased with the increase of cross slope angles (p=0.026) and subjects tended to slow down on the Teflon surface. Push angle had liner decreasing relation with increasing cross slope angles and remained consistently larger among subjects on the Teflon surface. These results indicate that slight cross-slopes, slippery and rough surfaces may not result in significant biomechanics loading on a short duration. However, the difference noted between degrees and surfaces highlight the change of push pattern and decrease propulsion efficiency.


Phloridzin is relatively abundant in species of genus Malus Miller, of which China is the most important origin and diversification center. In this study, phloridzin contents in fruits and leaves of six wild Malus species were analyzed using a RP-HPLC system. The phloridzin content varied significantly among species. The highest phloridzin content in fruits was found in M. xiaojinensis (0.63 mg/100mg), whereas the lowest in M. maerkangensis (0.04 mg/100mg); meanwhile, the highest phloridzin content in leaves was found in M. transitoria (14.36mg/100mg), whereas the lowest in M. kansuensis (4.08 mg/100mg). Interestingly, phloridzin content showed no significant distinction among different populations of M. toringoides, however, there is a wide range of variation among individuals of the same wild Malus species. Different genetic constitution is the most likely reason for variation of phloridzin content among species, whereas variation among individual may be caused by heterogeneous environmental factors. Our preliminary study provides important information for potential novel utilization of wild apple germplasm in China.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) are small, noncoding RNA molecules that are closely associated with the occurrence and development of tumors. miR-20b is overexpressed in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines and tissues. However, it is not clear whether miR-20b can promote the proliferation of hepatocellular carcinoma cells. In the present study, the proliferation of H22 mouse hepatocellular carcinoma cells was detected using the Cell Counting Kit-8 assay. MiRanda software was used to predict the binding sites of miR-20b to the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN). The 3'-UTR sequence of the PTEN gene was amplified using the polymerase chain reaction in H22 cells. The recombinant plasmid or empty plasmid was co-transfected with miR-20b mimics or miR-20b scramble into HeLa cells, and luciferase activity was assessed by Dual-Luciferase® Reporter Assay System 24 h post-transfection. In the present study, miR-20b knockdown significantly inhibited the proliferation of H22 mouse hepatocellular carcinoma cells. In addition, miR-20b inhibition upregulated the expression of PTEN, and it was revealed that miR-20b may directly target the 3'-untranslated region of the PTEN gene. Downregulation of PTEN partially reversed the anti-proliferative effect of miR-20b on H22 cells. In conclusion, miR-20b may promote H22 cell proliferation by targeting PTEN, providing a rationale for further study investigating novel therapeutic strategies for liver cancer.


The beginning of the veterinary profession in Indonesia dates back to the middle of the 19th century. During the Dutch colonization period a development program for large ruminants was started by the 'Nederlandsch-Indië' government. In 1907 this government established a veterinary laboratory, planned by Dr. J.K.F. de Does. The laboratory was then merged with a veterinary training course for Indonesian (bumiputera) 'veterinarians' named 'Cursus tot Opleiding van Inlandsche Veeartsen'. In 1910 the name of the training course was changed to 'Inlandsche Veeartsenschool', and in 1914 the school was named 'Nederlandsch-Indische Veeartsenijschool' (NIVS). During the Japanese occupation (1942-1945) the veterinary school was named 'Bogor Semon Zui Gakko'. After the declaration of independence by Indonesia in August 1945, it became the High School of Veterinary Education. In 1946 the curriculum was extended from 4 to 5 years. Thereafter the school was closed and re-opened a few times due to the changing political circumstances. In 1947 the first Faculty of Veterinary Medicine ('Diergeneeskundige Faculteit') of the University of Indonesia was established in the former building of NIVS at Taman Kencana Campus in Bogor. Between 1948 and 1963, four more veterinary faculties were established in Indonesia: Gajah Mada, Syiahkuala, Airlangga and Udayana. The Indonesian Veterinary Medical Association (IVMA) was established on January 9, 1953. The membership now exceeds 20,000 veterinarians and the association has 15 special interest groups. Since 2008, five new faculties of veterinary medicine have been established, bringing the total to 10.


There is recent increased interest in investigating the way corporate reports are used to convey management's view of organizational performance. While previous research was mainly conducted in developed economies, the case of emerging economies in Southeast Europe provides new insights as these countries are characterized by poorer corporate governance mechanisms, a lack of transparency and higher ownership concentration. We fill this gap in literature by investigating the letters to shareholders issued by OMV Petrom, the largest oil and gas producer in Southeast Europe. Using content analysis, we evaluate the tone used by managers in their disclosures in order to identify any reporting biases via impression management techniques. Even though OMV Petrom is perceived in literature as a benchmark for reporting transparency, our results provide evidence of promotional aspects used in corporate narratives.


As a result of the persistent increase of container vessel dimensions, future problems regarding navigation draught in the presence of tunnels are becoming more likely to occur. Hence, possible solutions to this problem have been investigated for the Beneluxtunnel. Several design options have been elaborated to determine the technical and economic feasibility of a possible lowering of the tunnel. Important subjects involved are the consequences of increasing the slopes, the cross-sectional concrete capacity, the use of joint rotations, the construction methods and the costs. This initial exploration of the subject shows lowering the Beneluxtunnel seems to be possible and is expected to be economically attractive. However, further research into certain boundary conditions and risky aspects of construction is required to ascertain this statement.


A laboratory study of the hydrodynamics of a seagrass meadow was conducted to investigate the effect of water depth and velocity variations during a tidal cycle on the mean and turbulent velocity fields in and above the vegetation layer. The principal goal was to characterize the turbulence structure of a depth-limited canopy, a gap that presently exists in the knowledge concerning the interaction of a unidirectional flow with an assemblage of plants. The experiments were carried out in an open channel flume with a model seagrass canopy. Proper modeling of the system for both the geometric and dynamic behavior of natural Zostera marina communities allows the results to be e~1rapolated to the conditions in a coastal, tidal meadow. The results also serve as an important comparative case to the characterization of turbulence within atmospheric plant canopies. The laboratory study included the measurement of the mean and turbulent velocity fields with the use of an acoustic Doppler velocimeter and a laser Doppler velocimeter. Standard turbulence parameters were evaluated including the velocity moments, the turbulence spectra. the turbulent kinetic energy budget and the quadrant distribution of the Reynolds stress. Each of these provided a means of describing the effect of submergence depth and the degree of canopy waving (monami) on the transport of momentum and mass between the canopy and its surrounding fluid environment. In addition. surface slope measurements were made with surface displacement gauges. the plant motion was quantified using video and camera images. and the canopy morphology was recorded from measurements taken from a random sampling of the model plants. The investigation showed a clear link between the shear generated eddies arising at the interface of the canopy and the surface layer and the vertical exchange of momentum. the plant motion characteristics and the turbulence time and length scales. The turbulence field within the seagrass meadow was composed of a shear-generated turbulence zone near the canopy height and a wake-generated zone near the bed In addition. a mean flow due to the pressure gradient from the water surface slope created a region of secondary maxima in the mean velocity profile near the bed. The parameter determining the seagrass turbulence structure was found to be the characteristic depth (H}l). defined such that the effective canopy height h. reflects the plant deflection. Across the range of values considered for H/h. the flow characteristics showed a clear transition from a confined to an unbounded canopy flow. This transition was observed in all the principal turbulence parameters. From this analysis. a critical surface layer depth governing the transition between the two extreme canopy flow conditions was identified as half the effective canopy height. H'h = 1.50. Thesis Supervisor: Heidi M. Nepf Title: Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering


In this paper, we propose Scale Stream, a new algorithm to support scalable multimedia streaming in peer-to-peer networks, under strict resources constraints. With the growth of multimedia consumption over the Internet, achieving scalability in a resource-constrained environment is indeed becoming a critical requirement. Intuitively, our approach consists in dynamically replicating the multimedia content being streamed, based on bandwidth and memory constraints. Our replication management strategy maximizes the number of consumers being served concurrently, while minimizing memory usage, under strict bandwidth constraints.


Introduction & Aim: The birth of a premature infant who needs to be admitted to neonatal intensive care unit from birth impedes early communication and participation of mother in her infant's care. The best way to prevent infant's harm in hospital is to participate in the care of infant. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of empowerment program on the participation of mothers with premature infants admitted to neonatal intensive care unit of Sayyed Shirazi hospital in Gorgan, Iran. Materials and Methods: This study was a randomized clinical trial in 2018, which was conduct on a sample of mothers with premature infant who had randomly been divided into two intervention and control groups. The data collection tools were the Parents' Participation Inventory designed by Melnick in 1994. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics (tables, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent t-test, paired t-test and covariance) using SPSS-16 software. Results: There was no significant difference in the level of mothers' participation in the care of their infants between the two groups before the intervention (p = 0.45). But after the empowerment training program, the results showed that mothers' participation in the intervention group (19.10 ± 3.09) was higher than the control group (16.8 ± 2.01), (p = 0.01). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that implementation of empowerment training program increases mothers' participation in the care of their premature infants. Early intervention and the use of written information along with the booklet will increase the mothers' participation in the care of their infant.


This paper presents two visual trackers from the different paradigms of learning and registration based tracking and evaluates their application in image based visual servoing. They can track object motion with four degrees of freedom (DoF) which, as we will show here, is sufficient for many fine manipulation tasks. One of these trackers is a newly developed learning based tracker that relies on learning discriminative correlation filters while the other is a refinement of a recent 8 DoF RANSAC based tracker adapted with a new appearance model for tracking 4 DoF motion. Both trackers are shown to provide superior performance to several state of the art trackers on an existing dataset for manipulation tasks. Further, a new dataset with challenging sequences for fine manipulation tasks captured from robot mounted eye-in-hand (EIH) cameras is also presented. These sequences have a variety of challenges encountered during real tasks including jittery camera movement, motion blur, drastic scale changes and partial occlusions. Quantitative and qualitative results on these sequences are used to show that these two trackers are robust to failures while providing high precision that makes them suitable for such fine manipulation tasks.


While research and practitioners agree that there needs to be shared understanding (SU) between business and IT in any type of collaboration to achieve high performance, empirical studies examining SU have always focused on specific contexts. Thus, the literature has so far remained silent about a more generalized concept of SU that can be applied to different research contexts – like strategic planning, software development projects, or IT operations. Based on a generic multi-dimensional conceptualization of the SU construct, our research objective is to analyze the influence of two contextual characteristics – complexity and relevance – of a collaborative task between business and IT on the importance of these different SU dimensions. In this explorative research we exploit data from 21 case studies, in which we analyze the formation and influence of SU dimensions related to the context of the collaborative task. We find that different aspects in the conceptualization of shared understanding become more (or less) important when changing the task characteristics. Thus, our findings indicate that the importance of SU cannot be discussed separately from the practical context in which SU is created and utilized.


Textbooks are essential components in the learning process. They assist in achieving educational learning outcomes and developing social and cultural values. However, limited studies provide comprehensive frameworks for comparing textbooks. Most have focused on a specific textbook perspective within a particular discipline. Therefore, this study used a triangulation method to develop a comprehensive framework for textbook comparison. Through a systematic literature review and a two-round Fuzzy Delphi method with 155 textbook experts, a textbook comparison framework with four indicators (structure, content, expectations, and language) was developed. Additionally, some of the developed framework indicators and sub-indicators could be relevant for comparing textbooks in a particular discipline. For example, the page count sub-indicator was proven to be useful for comparing humanities and social science textbooks but not natural science textbooks. The findings of this study could facilitate the process of comparing textbooks, hence promoting the understanding of knowledge design and acquisition in different contexts, such as when comparing textbooks from different countries.


Introduction Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are clonal hematologic disorders characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis, dysplasia and increased risk of progression to acute myeloid leukemia. The development of targeted therapies for MDS has been lagging behind and remains a key clinical challenge that has been hampered, at least in part, by difficulties to establish in vivo model systems that recapitulate disease heterogeneity and complexity. Attempts to generate a xenograft model of lower risk MDS have only achieved low and often transient levels of engraftment. Recent evidence from mouse studies suggests that MDS is a disease in which both the hematopoietic system and the bone marrow microenvironment might be involved. Thus, we hypothesized that a specific MDS microenvironment might be required for the successful modeling of low risk MDS in mice, proposing a dependency of the "disease propagating cells" on their corresponding niche cells in human MDS.

Methods Our study is based on xenotransplantation of material from 19 MDS patients classified as follows: IPSS low risk (n=6), intermediate-1 risk (n=13), WHO 2008 classification: MDS 5q- (n=7), MDS RCMD (n=7), MDS RAEB I (n=3), MDS-U (n=1), MDS RARS (n=1). MDS CD34+ cells were co-injected with patient-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) directly in the bone marrow cavity (i.f) of NOD.Cg-Prkdscid Il2rgtm1Wjl/Szj (NSG) or NSGS (NSG mice expressing human SCF, IL3 and GM-CSF) mice. Molecular tracking of MDS cells was carried out by copy number analysis (Affymetrix SNP 6.0 Arrays), metaphase cytogenetics, interphase FISH, Roche 454 deep sequencing and pyrosequencing of known mutations. Mice were analyzed after a minimum of 16 weeks post transplantation.

Results We show that co-injection of MDS CD34+ cells with their corresponding MSCs leads to significant and long-term engraftment of over 77% of the MDS patients analyzed, both in NSG (10/13 patients, range hCD45+= 1-18%) and NSGS mice (7/8 patients, range hCD45+=2.2-74%). In contrast, absence of MSCs or co-injection of healthy age-matched MSCs only gave rise to limited engraftment in NSG mice (2/7 patients (hCD45+=1-3.8%) and 1/2 patients (hCD45+=2%), respectively). Transplanted samples exhibited a clear myeloid bias and significant engraftment of cells with progenitor (CD34+CD38+) and stem cell phenotype (CD34+CD38-) that could be serially transplanted. In addition, presence of morphologically dysplastic cells was readily detectable in NSGS mice. Importantly, molecular analysis of the engrafted cells confirmed their "diseased" origin as they carried identical lesions to the ones present in the original MDS patient. Furthermore, we could demonstrate that disease-propagating stem cells in lower risk MDS exclusively reside within the lin-CD34+CD38- stem cell fraction. Finally, RNA sequencing analysis comparing MDS and age-matched healthy control MSCs revealed altered expression of key genes involved in cellular adhesion, extra-cellular matrix (ECM) remodeling and cellular cross-talk in diseased MSCs, strongly supporting the notion of a complex interplay between MDS hematopoietic cells and their corresponding stroma. In addition, patient MSCs exhibited clear molecular features of fibrosis, a clinical feature often associated with MDS.

Conclusion In this study we have identified patient-derived MSCs as a critical functional component of lower risk MDS. Together with MDS stem cells, these patient MSCs form a functional stem cell-niche unit, which allows the propagation of the disease in a xenograft recipient. The striking changed expression in diseased MSCs of genes involved in processes like cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, cellular adhesion, ECM remodeling as well as hypoxia further suggests that diseased MDS cells might alter the function of the normal HSC niche into one that can support the requirement of MDS cells. Studying the interaction of MDS stem cells and MSCs at the cellular and molecular level will provide a platform for unraveling the molecular basis of clonal dominance in MDS as well as allow the design of targeted strategies aimed to disrupt the MDS stem cell-MSC niche interactions.

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


In self-assembly, the anisotropy of the building blocks and their formation of complex structures have been the subject of considerable recent research. Extending recent research on Janus particles and completing the study of Janus spheroids, we conduct a systematic investigation on the self-assembly of Janus prolate spheroids based on a primitive model that we proposed. Janus prolate spheroids are particles that have a prolate spheroidal body and two hemi-surfaces along the major axis coded with different chemical properties. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate the effects of the aspect ratio on the self-assembly process. In contrast to the vesicle-like aggregates for Janus oblate spheroids, we obtain various ordered cluster structures for Janus prolate spheroids through self-assembly. With an increasing aspect ratio, we find a transition of cluster morphology, from vesicles to tubular micelles and micelles. In particular, a relatively small change in the aspect ratio leads to a rather significant change in morphology. We apply a cluster analysis to understand the mechanism associated with such a transition.


Postgraduate medical education underwent substantial change during the 1970s: medical-school classes grew, the internship year was eliminated, and the numbers of M.D.s entering primary-care specialties increased. The purpose of this study is to develop a planning model of graduate medical education that can project the impact of these and other changes on the numbers and specialty mix of physicians completing training. The model is applied to an analysis of trends in graduate medical education and to the probable consequences of policy recommendations made by the Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee (GMENAC). The results show that the trend toward increasing percentages of M.D.s entering primary-care specialties from 1970 to 1976 changes to no increase from 1976 to 1980. Thus, the GMENAC policy recommendation to increase primary care further is not likely to occur spontaneously in the near future.


Noting the signals coming from the community of complex critical infrastructures management indicating, on the one hand, a definite preoccupation with identifying and properly characterising system vulnerabilities and, on the other hand, a dissatisfaction with (generally) expert capabilities to provide the effective ways and means sought, this paper submits that contributing to the situation is experts being caught in an unfortunate spiral of attempting to match objective complexity with increasingly complex, sometimes unintelligible for the stakeholders, solutions. It is suggested that an occasional change of lane in methodology, on the less analytical yet surprisingly insightful path lead by heuristic methods including cellular automata schemes may bring in just the breath of fresh air that may restore some degree of confidence in 'what nerds can usefully tell practitioners'.


CALPUFF model and ISCST3 Gaussian dispersion models were evaluated for odor
modeling in predicting downwind concentrations and back-calculating area source odor emission
rates. The comparison between predicted downwind concentrations and field-sampled downwind
concentration measurements indicated that CALPUFF could fairly well predict average odor
downwind concentrations. However, ISCST3 tended to predict concentrations less than the
measured concentrations. Both CALPUFF and ISCST3 models failed to predict peak odor
concentrations using constant average emission rate. Odor emission rates obtained by back-calculating fluxes using CALPUFF and ISC models with the same field measurements of downwind
odor concentrations are significantly different. It indicates that back-calculated emission rates are not
exchangeable for different models. The modeled emission rates tended to be higher than flux
chamber source sampling results. The flux chamber protocol may under-estimate odor emission
rates.


Many processes involved in the accretion of lower oceanic crust remain enigmatic. To investigate some of these processes, the principal focus of this study is drill core 'CY-4', an unbroken 2.2km long section through sheeted dykes and mafic and ultramafic cumulates of the Troodos ophiolite lower crust, Cyprus. The generally accepted hypothesis states CY-4 intersected an axial magma chamber that was intruded by an off-axis pluton, based on a 'stepped' increase in clinopyroxene titanium content at 1331 m depth. This comprehensive structural, textual and trace element examination throughout CY-4 indicates a single, open system, plutonic sequence. It is comprised of high-level, varitextured gabbros, underlain by foliated gabbronorites and low-level, banded, gabbronorites and ultra mafic cumulates. Steeply inclined planar and linear fabrics were generated by upward migration of magma. Flow was predominantly channelised through the upper cumulates and diffuse through the lower cumulates, with corresponding differences in preserved structures and textures. Channelised flow and magma remobilisation in the rapidly cooled and poorly equilibrated upper cumulates is responsible for the decametre-scale textural and chemical variations. Syn-tectonic porous flow through the slower-cooled banded cumulates led to grain-scale textural and chemical interactions. Any initial mineral co-variations were erased during supra-solidus equilibration and efficient expulsion of incompatible element-rich melts. Any early-formed layering was transposed. A new model of CY-4 accretion is proposed in which a broad range of depleted and boninitic magma compositions were efficiently homogenised in the lower crust to yield the narrower ranges of extruded compositions. Correlations with Troodos Lower an Upper Pillow Lava series may indicate sources within the foliated gabbronorites, and the deeper ultramafic region respectively. The structural resemblance of the CY-4 cumulate series to fast-spreading lower crust can be reconciled with the slow spreading rate calculated for Troodos if CY-4 intersected a ridge axial node of magma upwelling


The EUDET milestone of delivering a prototype readout system for the Linear Collider TPC (LCTPC) has been met. The readout system will be used to study the performance of the 'large' prototype TPC, built in preparation for the International Linear Collider (ILC). The front end electronics is based on a system used in the ALICE experiment at the LHC, but with modifications needed to be compatible with new gas amplification systems and small pad sizes foreseen for the final TPC at the ILC. The data acquisition system uses the hardware and the drivers of the ALICE experiment, but the software necessary for the new readout system has been developed.


There is an increasing demand for innovation in petroleum system replacements.
Towards this aim, lignocellulosic biomass is suggested as a possible sustainable source for the
manufacturing of fuels and chemical production. This paper aims to investigate different kinds of
β-O-4 lignin model compounds for the production of value-added chemicals in the presence of ionic
liquids. Especially, cheap β-O-4 lignin model guaiacol glycerol ether (GGE) (Guaifenesin) is introduced
to produce valuable chemicals and novel products.

The research related to chemical depolymerization of lignocellulosic biomass activity is
reviewed and an account of different methods such as thermal and microwave for the last 10 years is
presented. So, this work provides an excellent background for academic research and it gives an efficient
strategy for the manufacturing of novel value-added chemicals at an industrial scale.

The review concludes that ionic liquid microwave-assisted synthesis is a power-saving,
cost-efficient, fast reaction, and clean way with high selectively and purity for the production of
high-value chemicals rather than conventional heating. Guaiacol and catechol are some of these valuable
chemicals produced from β-O-4 lignin model compounds with high demands and large industrial
scale prospects.

The β-O-4 lignin model compounds such as guaiacol glycerol ether (GGE) (Guaifenesin)
are a good platform for developing food materials, perfumery, biorefinery, and pharmaceutical
industry by ionic liquids-assisted lignin depolymerization method.


A dynamic Bayesian Vector Autoregressive model of the U.S. dairy price complex is estimated based on the Normal-Wishart distribution. The Gibbs sample technique is use with the Normal-Wishart distribution to provide conditional forecasts on the future time-paths of the model variables. The conditional forecasts for key prices are examined. Confidence intervals are calculated for the conditional forecasts.


This article examines the socio-historical and political context that underlies the current demands of indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants in the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua for securing communal land property rights. It examines the significant advances in the legalization of indigenous territories and assesses contemporary challenges relating to efforts to increase the degree of control over newly titled territories. Important challenges exist in order to attain effective realization of collective rights to land and indigenous self-governance within the broader framework of a regional autonomy regime that remains institutionally weak.


Subsidy programs are widely offered in both developing and developed countries to encourage consumption of products that generate positive social, health and environmental externalities. We study the effect of subsidies on product consumption under uncertain market demand. To reach a target consumer population, the program sponsor may subsidize a for-profit or a not-for-profit firm on each unit of the product purchased by the firm or on each unit of the sale generated by the firm. We show that subsidy programs provide stronger incentives to a not-for-profit firm than to its for-profit counterpart in inducing a large consumption whenever the sponsor is having a very limited budget or a very generous budget. When subsidizing a not-for-profit firm, the sponsor should always choose the purchase subsidy over the sales subsidy, because the former can induce a larger consumption than the latter with the same subsidy spending. However, this is not always true when the subsidy program is administered through a for-profit firm, unless the firm is a price taker in the market or the sponsor has a limited budget. Our analysis leads to new theoretical development of price-setting newsvendor problem for both the for-profit and not-for-profit operations under subsidy.


This note is to indicate the new sphere of applicability of the method developed by Mlak (W. Mlak, Partitions of spectral sets, Ann. Polon. Math. 25 (1971), pp. 281–288) as well as by the author. Restoring those ideas is summoned by current developments concerning K-spectral sets on numerical ranges.


The reaction of a variety of α-aryl-α-diazo ketones with activated olefins, catalyzed by the adamantyl glycine-derived dirhodium complex Rh2(S-PTAD)4, generates cyclopropyl ketones with high diastereoselectivity (up to >95:5 dr) and enantioselectivity (up to 98% ee). Intermolecular C−H functionalization of 1,4-cyclohexadiene by means of carbenoid-induced C−H insertion was also possible with this type of carbenoid.


Mine drainage is one of the mining industry's undesirable effects on the environment. Mining operations disturb the chemical equilibrium of the surrounding rocks by suddenly exposing them to oxidising conditions. The chemical reactions that take place generate effluents that are usually acidic and contain SO4
2-, Fe, Mn, etc. After the mines are closed and abandoned, the suspension of dewatering and drainage leads to progressive flooding of the workings. The waters drain these effluents to overflow points, springs and rivers. It is therefore necessary to predict any flow modifications and changes in water quality in order to install new management schemes for this resource.


It is shown that the continuous time random walk (CTRW) method provides a simple and natural way of treating problems with age-dependent transition rates (ADTRs) that arise in many theories of non-exponential dielectric relaxation. In particular, ADTRs are especially suitable for analysing systems in which after any transition from one state to another there is initially an increased probability of a return transition to the original state. An extreme example of this is provided by a system of independent symmetric two-state dipoles having ADTRs, and for this system the CTRW method provides simple exact results. It follows from these results that the dielectric relaxation of such systems at short times is usually associated with a distribution of ADTRs. The results of calculations on some model systems are presented and discussed.


THE OLIN DINITROTOLUENE (DNT) PROCESS A. B. Quakenbush and B. T. Pennington Olin Corporation Since 1988, Olin has been developing a commercial DNT production process that does not use mixed acids for nitration. This innovative new process avoids use of sulfuric acid by using high strength nitric acid to synthesize DNT, a precursor of TDI. The overall philosophy has been to develop an economically superior process with minimized waste and environmental impact. The major advantages of the Olin process include reduced raw material consumption and significantly lower capital investment for waste treatment facilities. These advantages are derived from careful control of the reaction conditions. Unwanted cresol and phenolic by-products are minimized inside the reactor and do not have to be removed in later product washing steps. Since product purification requirements are reduced, water leaving the Olin process can be distilled to


This paper contributes to the recent interest in household decisions in activity-based analysis. It focuses on the joint participation of male–female heads of household in nonwork activities and attempts to model the timing and duration decisions of these activities by using decision tree induction. The data used originate from the 2004 National Travel Survey in the Netherlands. The results show that activity type has the most significant influence in both models. In addition, time availability for nonwork activities during morning off-peak periods has a strong influence on start-time decisions. The results also suggest a strong influence of duration decisions on start-time decisions. Overall, modeling household decisions for the timing and duration of joint activity participation is shown to have some clear advantages.


The intrinsic stochastic effects in chemical reactions, and particularly in biochemical networks, may result in behaviors significantly different from those predicted by deterministic mass action kinetics (MAK). Analyzing stochastic effects, however, is often computationally taxing and complex. The authors describe here the derivation and application of what they term the mass fluctuation kinetics (MFK), a set of deterministic equations to track the means, variances, and covariances of the concentrations of the chemical species in the system. These equations are obtained by approximating the dynamics of the first and second moments of the chemical master equation. Apart from needing knowledge of the system volume, the MFK description requires only the same information used to specify the MAK model, and is not significantly harder to write down or apply. When the effects of fluctuations are negligible, the MFK description typically reduces to MAK. The MFK equations are capable of describing the average behavior of the network substantially better than MAK, because they incorporate the effects of fluctuations on the evolution of the means. They also account for the effects of the means on the evolution of the variances and covariances, to produce quite accurate uncertainty bands around the average behavior. The MFK computations, although approximate, are significantly faster than Monte Carlo methods for computing first and second moments in systems of chemical reactions. They may therefore be used, perhaps along with a few Monte Carlo simulations of sample state trajectories, to efficiently provide a detailed picture of the behavior of a chemical system.


Purpose: This study assesses the potential acute effects of heatwaves on human morbidities in primary care settings. Methods: We performed a time-stratified case-crossover study to assess the acute effects of heatwaves on selected morbidities in primary care settings in Flanders, Belgium, between 2000 and 2015. We used conditional logistic regression models. We assessed the effect of heatwaves on the day of the event (lag 0) and X days earlier (lags 1 to X). The associations are presented as Incidence Density Ratios (IDR). Results: We included 22,344 events. Heatwaves are associated with increased heat-related morbidities such as heat stroke IDR 3.93 [2.94–5.26] at lag 0, dehydration IDR 3.93 [2.94–5.26] at lag 1, and orthostatic hypotension IDR 2.06 [1.37–3.10] at lag 1. For cardiovascular morbidities studied, there was only an increased risk of stroke at lag 3 IDR 1.45 [1.04–2.03]. There is no significant association with myocardial ischemia/infarction or arrhythmia. Heatwaves are associated with decreased respiratory infection risk. The IDR for upper respiratory infections is 0.82 [0.78–0.87] lag 1 and lower respiratory infections (LRI) is 0.82 [0.74–0.91] at lag 1. There was no significant effect modification by age or premorbid chronic disease (diabetes, hypertesnsion). Conclusion: Heatwaves are associated with increased heat-related morbidities and decreased respiratory infection risk. The study of heatwaves' effects in primary care settings helps evaluate the impact of heatwaves on the general population. Primary care settings might be not suitable to study acute life-threatening morbidities.


ABSTRACT: As an administrative tool of police reform, the introduction of house numbering in eighteenth-century Geneva was the result of a broad desire for urban transparency that resulted in the production of a new 'regime of visibility'. This article examines how the logic of 'number' transformed the way in which urban space was conceived, organized and governed. As a political technology, the spatial practice of house numbering enabled governmental officials to divide, count, identify and classify urban populations in order to regulate the spaces of circulation in the modern city. Although the city's house-numbering system is taken for granted by most of the town-dwellers today, the current study illustrates how these police techniques encountered considerable resistance when they were initially imposed during the latter half of the eighteenth century.


Abstract The present study assessed the ability of chitosan‐based coatings incorporating savory and/or tarragon essential oils (EOs) to preserve the postharvest quality of kumquats. Changes in weight loss, titratable acidity, total soluble solids, and vitamin C content were determined over 30 days of storage at 7°C. Savory (Satureja hortensias L.) essential oil was characterized by thymol (29.1%), carvacrol (26.6%), and γ‐terpinene (24.72%) as major constituents. While, in the tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus L.) essential oil, estragol (81.89%), β‐cis‐Ocimene (4.62%), and β‐trans‐Ocimene (3.44%) were the main ones. The CH‐EOs coatings were effective in reducing weight loss of kumquats fruits during storage. Moreover, the tested composite coatings showed positive effects in maintaining vitamin C and fruits treated with CH‐oil coatings retained good sensory acceptability. The obtained results demonstrate the potential of the combined application of chitosan and savory and/or tarragon EOs as a promising postharvest treatment for maintaining the postharvest quality of kumquats fruits.


The Council for International Exchange of Scholars is still accepting applications for Fulbright awards to lecture in the sciences in the Soviet Union for academic year 1989–1990. Because the original deadline, September 15, has passed, applications will be processed immediately, and the 1989–1990 Fulbright Scholar Program Faculty Grants close when an adequate number of applicants is approved for nomination.

Applications can be in the "Any Field" category or in the more specific categories sought by the Soviet Union, including geophysics at Tashkent; geology at the Gubkin Institute of Oil, Chemical, and Gas Industry; environmental sciences (cultivation of microalgae in sewage; continental shelf development, water resources protection, and economic aspects); and forest restoration technology. Awards are also available in chemistry, life sciences, and physics and astronomy.