The present study was conducted at Lake Hora-Arsedi located in Bishoftu town, 47 km south of Addis Ababa. The aim was to investigate the dive duration, pause duration, perching height, foraging band and population status of the white-breasted cormorant (Phalacrocorax lucidus) in the study area. Two sites were selected to carry out the observations. Data were collected from January–December 2014 to include dry and wet seasons mainly based on direct observational methods. Focal observations were carried out on randomly selected foraging cormorants within the two systematically oriented observation sites. A single individual was observed for 20 minutes. Total population count was made at two roosting sites along the shoreline following roost count technique. Roost count was made 15 times at each season. The total number of population during wet and dry seasons was 23 ± 0 .4125 and 33 ± 0.43498. The mean dive duration at site 1 during the dry season was 22.32 ± 0.84 and 30.3 ± 0.75 seconds during the wet season. The mean dive duration at site 2 during the dry season was 25.76 ± 0.68 seconds and it was 39.25 ± 0.96 during the wet season. The mean dive duration at both sites showed significant variation between seasons (P<0.05). Dive duration and pause duration were significantly positively correlated in both sites during both seasons. Dive efficiency ranged from 1.67 to 2.26. Mean perching height ranged from 1.8 ± 0.15 to 2.3 ± 0.25 and the variation was not significant. Mean foraging band ranged from 11.56 ± 0.91 to 22 ± 1.2 m and the variation was significant between sites of the same season (P<0.05) but was insignificant between seasons of the same site (P>0.05). Key words/phrases: Bishoftu, Dive duration, Foraging band, Great cormorant, Pause duration.


Functional logic employed by the nervous system for coding and processing information is determined by the wiring patterns among specific types of neurons. Therefore, detailed knowledge about neuronal circuits is essential for understanding the wide range of brain functions. In our opinion, an effective and long-awaited method for analyzing the neuronal connectivity patterns would be to selectively deliver tracers to specific types of neurons and simutaneously performing transsynaptic labeling of the target neurons. A unique property of plant lectins, such as wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) have the unique property of traveling across synapses and this property has been applied in classical neuroanatomical studies in order to label various neural pathways. In 1999, we developed a novel strategy that employs WGA cDNA as a transgene in order to visualize selective and functional neural pathways. Over the last decade, this method has gained popularity; further with substantial technical improvement and refinement, this method has been successfully employed for the analysis of various neural systems such as the olfactory, visual, gustatory, somatosensory, motor, and serotonergic systems. However, a few studies that employed this method failed because of the misinterpretation of the results. In this review, I summarize the principle, application, recent progress, and caveats of the WGA transgene technology.


A resorcinol-formaldehyde resin carbon (RFC) catalyst with a well-developed, ordered, mesoporous framework was prepared using a soft template method at room temperature. The carbon was sulfonated in water using sulfanilic acid under mild atmospheric conditions. The sulfonated RFC (S-RFC) was characterized by N2 adsorption–desorption, elemental analysis, TEM, XPS, and FT-IR. It was determined that S-RFC is an efficient solid acid catalyst for furfural production from xylose and corn stover in γ-valerolactone (GVL). The effects of reaction time, reaction temperature, catalyst loading, substrate dosage and water concentration were investigated. 80% furfural yield and 100% xylose conversion were obtained from xylose at 170 °C in 15 min with 0.5 g catalyst. Comparatively, 68.6% furfural yield was achieved from corn stover at 200 °C in 100 min when using 0.6 g catalyst. Since there was no discernable decrease in furfural yield after multiple conversions utilizing the same catalyst, the recyclability of the catalyst is considered good.


THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SOME of the results from a recently completed small–scale qualitative research study with a focus on three-year-olds and digital cameras in preschool. The aim of the study was to give children access to the agency of being camera users. The study is based on two assumptions: that photographic documentation of young children's learning and their development is an essential feature in Swedish preschools, and that it's almost always the teachers who use the camera devices. The results show—with the help of a new materialistic theoretical framework (Barad, 2003, 2007, 2014; Lenz Taguchi, 2010)—that children, together with the cameras, illustrate changed power relations when it comes to who is looking at whom, and that they make visible new and changed photographic aspects of daily activities in preschool.


Objectives: To study Malaysian dengue clinical practice guideline (CPG) warning signs (WS) in predicting severe dengue (SD) and its associated factors among confirmed cases presented to a teaching hospital in north-eastern Malaysia in 2014. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed in February 2015 using secondary data acquired from the hospital records. There were 2607 confirmed dengue cases presented to Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) in 2014. Seven hundred patients were selected after proportionate stratified random sampling conducted according to the number of cases in 12 different months in 2014. Data were collected and analysed using SPSS version 22.0. Results: Severe dengue outcomes represented 4.9% of cases. The prevalence of any of WS in SD was 91.2%. The most common WSs prior to SD were persistent vomiting (55.9%), and abdominal pain/tenderness (52.9%). The most sensitive warning sign in detecting SD was abdominal pain (59%). Specificity of individual WS were generally good, especially of clinical fluid accumulation (99%), hepatomegaly (98%) and mucosal bleeding (93%). Factors associated with SD were persistent vomiting (Adjusted odds ratio (aOR)): 2.41), mucosal bleeding (aOR: 4.73) and haematocrit rise with rapid platelet drop (aOR: 2.74). Conclusion: A focus on sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and association of a number of particular WS should be emphasized in order to better predict severe dengue outcomes.


Neuropathologic studies of AIDS patients have shown that brain capillary endothelial cells are a cellular target for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in vivo. We have established in vitro cultures of primary human brain capillary endothelial (HBCE) cells. Using this model system, we have shown a significant HIV infection of HBCE cells that is productive yet noncytopathic. The infection is mediated by a cellular interaction with gp120 that does not involve CD4 or galactosylceramide. HIV infection of HBCE cells may contribute to AIDS-associated neuropathology by disturbing the physiology of the endothelium and directly or indirectly facilitating dissemination of virus to the central nervous system.


The sound classification and indexing tools are organized into low-level descriptors (LLD), AudioSpectrumBasis and AudioSpectrumProjection, and high-level description schemes (DSs), SoundModel and SoundClassificationModel, which are based on the ContinuousHiddenMarkovModel and ProbabilityClassificationModel DSs defined in the Multimedia Description Schemes (MDS) document. The tools provide for two broad types of sound description; text-based description by class labels and quantitative description using probabilistic models. Class labels are called terms and they provide qualitative information about sound content. Terms are organized into classification schemes, or taxonomies, such as music genres or sound effects. Descriptions in this form are suitable for text-based query applications, such as Internet search engines, or any processing tool that uses text fields. In contrast, the quantitative descriptors consist of compact mathematical information about an audio segment and may be used for numerical evaluation of sound similarity. These latter descriptors are used for audio query-by-example (QBE) applications. They can be applied to many different sound types because of the generality of the low-level features. We start by discussing these LLD.


Aims. To constrain the physical processes that lead to the birth of high-mass stars it is mandatory to study the very first stages of their formation. We search for high-mass analogs of low-mass prestellar cores in W43-MM1. Methods. We conducted a 1.3 mm ALMA mosaic of the complete W43-MM1 cloud, which has revealed numerous cores with ∼2000 au FWHM sizes. We investigated the nature of cores located at the tip of the main filament, where the clustering is minimum. We used the continuum emission to measure the core masses and the 13CS(5-4) line emission to estimate their turbulence level. We also investigated the prestellar or protostellar nature of these cores by searching for outflow signatures traced by CO(2-1) and SiO(5-4) line emission, and for molecular complexity typical of embedded hot cores. Results. Two high-mass cores of ∼ 1300 au diameter and ∼ 60 M mass are observed to be turbulent but gravitationally bound. One drives outflows and is associated with a hot core. The other core, W43-MM1#6, does not yet reveal any star formation activity and thus is an excellent high-mass prestellar core candidate.


To support the increasing diversity of systems and protocols in the Internet, modern routers offer a variety of data path processing functions. Such "network services" are easy to implement on a single node, but a network-wide deployment is difficult. We discuss our implementation of a network service architecture that uses novel end-to-end abstractions to access and control advanced data path functions. To make such functions available to end-system applications, we introduce a "service socket" API. We demonstrate the operation of this network architecture and its socket API in the context of a video distribution scenario that we have implemented on a 60-node Emulab testbed.


Strips of rabbit aorta and pulmonary artery were used to study the effects of 4-chloro-2-(2-imidazolin-2-ylamino)-isoindoline hydrochloride (BE 6143 or BDF 6143) on pre- and postsynaptic alpha-adrenoceptors. BE 6143 caused contraction of both preparations with a potency slightly higher than and an intrinsic activity 0.7-0.8 that of phenylephrine. The effect was competitively antagonized by prazosin and rauwolscine. Conversely, BE 6143 antagonized contractile responses to phenylephrine, alpha-methylnoradrenaline and noradrenaline (norepinephrine) with pA2 values of 7.1-7.4. In strips preincubated with 3H-noradrenaline and then superfused, BE 6143 increased the electrically evoked overflow of tritium. Increases by 30% were produced by concentrations of about 1.5 nmol/l; high concentrations failed to change or even reduced the evoked overflow. BE 614 0.01 mumol/l also increased electrically evoked contractions whereas high concentrations were inhibitory. The drug shifted the log concentration-response curve of clonidine for inhibition of evoked tritium overflow to the right in parallel manner; from the shift, a pA2 value of 8.3 was calculated. When presynaptic alpha-adrenoceptors had been blocked by yohimbine or rauwolscine, BE 6143 0.01-10 mumol/l caused a decrease in evoked tritium overflow which was more pronounced, the higher the concentration of yohimbine or rauwolscine. It is concluded that BE 6143 acts as a partial agonist at the postsynaptic alpha 1-adrenoceptors and as an antagonist at the presynaptic alpha 2-receptors of rabbit aorta and pulmonary artery. It has higher affinity pre- than postsynaptically, and its affinity for the presynaptic receptors exceeds that of yohimbine and rauwolscine. In addition, however, BE 6143 inhibits the release of noradrenaline by a non-alpha-adrenergic mechanism.


Abstract. As a part of an ongoing revision of Sri Lankan scincid lizards, I review the genus Lankascincus Greer on the basis of their morphology and morphometric data. I demonstrate that the long-disputed Sphenomorphus megalops (Annandale) is in fact a Lankascincus species, and a neotype is designated. Lankascincus deraniyagalae Greer and L. munindradasai Wickramasinghe, Rodrigo, Dayawansa, and Jayantha are shown to be junior subjective synonyms of L. fallax (Peters) and L. taprobanensis (Kelaart), respectively. Lankascincus deignani (Taylor) is confined to the forests around Kandy and does not extend to Nuwaraeliya and its environs. Previous records of L. deignani from Nuwaraeliya and surrounding localities are reidentified as L. sripadensis Wickramasinghe, Rodrigo, Dayawansa, and Jayantha. Three groups of Lankascincus species are identified on the basis of their morphology and breeding biology: the fallax, taprobanensis, and dorsicatenatus groups. Each group has a unique combination of characters. Lankascincus taprobanensis is restricted to high-elevational regions (≥1,500 m above mean sea level). Previous records from lower elevations (Sinharaja, Knuckles Range, and Peradeniya) are based on misidentified specimens of other Lankascincus spp. Lankascincus fallax has a wide distribution in Sri Lanka. Lankascincus deignani is restricted to Gannoruwa Forest Reserve and the Ambagamuwa area and is the most endangered skink in Sri Lanka. Ecologically, Lankascincus comprises a largely forest-dwelling species group (L. deignani, L. dorsicatenatus (Deraniyagala), L. gansi Greer, L. greeri Batuwita and Pethiyagoda, L. megalops new combination, and L. taprobanensis) and a group of species that live in altered habitats (L. sripadensis, L. fallax, and L. taylori). The present study confirms that the genus Sphenomorphus Fitzinger is not represented in Sri Lanka. Because of a lack of comprehensive genetic data to support a previously described new family, Ristellidae Hedges for Lankascincus and Ristella Gray, here I assign both genera into a new tribe, Ristellini. Phylogenetic relationships of Lankascincus and Ristella remain unresolved.


Methyl Violet (MV) was removed from aqueous solutions by adsorption onto halloysite nanoclay (HNC) employing equilibrium, kinetics, thermodynamic data, molecular modellingR (MD), and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. The chosen experimental variables were pH, temperature, starting MV concentration, contact time, and adsorbent dosage. The adsorption rate was determined to increase with increasing contact time, initial dye concentration, pH, and temperature. The Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and Dubinin–Radushkevich (D-R) isotherms were utilized to determine the adsorption capacity of HNC. The Langmuir equation matched equilibrium data better than the other models, whereas the pseudo-second-order model better described kinetic data, and thermodynamic analyses revealed that the adsorption process was spontaneous, endothermic, and physisorption-based. This study focused on two distinct molecular mechanics-based theoretical approaches (MC and MD). These techniques enabled a molecular comprehension of the interaction between the MV molecule and the halloysite surface. Theoretical results were consistent with experimental findings. The outcomes revealed that HNC is an excellent dye adsorbent for industrial effluents.


Nitrogen stable isotope techniques are widely used in ecology, archaeology and forensic science to explore trophic relation-ships and provenances of organisms and materials, most widely using bulk δ15N values of whole organisms, tissues or other materials. However, compound-specific isotope values can provide more diagnostic isotope "fingerprints" and specific in-formation about metabolic processes. Existing techniques for nitrogen isotope analysis allow the determination of δ15N val-ues of 14 amino acids (AAs), accounting for ca. 75% of plant protein and collagen N. The majority of remaining N is from arginine, comprising 16% and 14% of collagen and plant protein N, respectively. We therefore aimed to develop a method to detect arginine and determine its δ15N value (δ15NArg) by GC-C-IRMS, to further contribute to the understanding of meta-bolic routing of this important AA. We demonstrate that arginine, as its N-acetyl isopropyl ester, is amenable to GC analysis using a 15 m mid-polarity DB 35 column, eluting with baseline resolution from other AAs. The recorded δ15N value by GC C IRMS was within error of that of the underivatized compound determined by EA-IRMS. The newly-developed GC C IRMS method was applied to modern plant protein and cattle collagen, enabling their δ15NArg values to be related to AA biosynthesis. Determinations of archaeological cattle collagen δ15NArg values confirmed the suitability of this method to provide further insights into past diets and ecosystems. Bulk collagen δ15N value reconstruction including δ15NArg values bet-ter reflect measured bulk values, as the isotopic ratio of 91‰ of collagen N can now be determined at the compound-specific level.


The triple-differential cross section for electron impact ionization of the 4s orbital of krypton (binding energy 27.5 eV) has been measured in coplanar symmetric kinematics. The experimental results are presented for outgoing electron energies of 85, 50, 20, 10 and 4 eV. The results are compared with two distorted wave Born approximation calculations; the influence of post-collision interaction (PCI) on the cross sections is investigated by incorporating correct final state boundary conditions in one of the calculations. The influence of PCI is found to be very important at the lower energies. Inclusion of the three-body final state boundary conditions improves the agreement between theory and experiment, but there are still significant discrepancies, indicating that additional physical effects (such as higher-order interactions) are important at lower energies.


Background: LGBTQ+ individuals are more likely to face healthcare discrimination and thus delay medical care which contributes to increased mental health and psychosocial distress. Specific to transgender individuals, insurance denials and a paucity of providers that  provide trans-specific treatment make it increasingly difficult to access care that has been shown to lower psychological distress. Being situated in a medically underserved, rural area, accessing LGBTQ+ inclusive and competent care is a challenge that has been echoed by many who frequent the Pride Center of Terre Haute.
Methods: A literature search was conducted via PubMed and JSTOR. The 2015 US Transgender Survery and peer reviewed articles from 2011 - 2022 were utilized. Local healthcare providers were contacted via phone or email to discuss their willingness and ability to provide an inclusive environment to all LGBTQIA+ persons, as well as hormone therapy for transgender individuals.
Results: Transgender individuals are one of the most underserved patient populations within healthcare. In discussions of the disparity faced by those trying to access care, three issues discussed in the literature were as follows: insurance denials or inadequate financial coverage, lack of proper training of the provider, and distance to travel for gender-affirming care. Rural physicians are not as frequently  exposed to transgender individuals and therefore are less likely to be educated and trained in providing gender-affirming care as demonstrated through discussions with providers local to the Wabash Valley.
Conclusions & Future Implications: This work is part of an ongoing initiative to better understand the challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community in a medically underserved area of southern Indiana. This study intends to further understand the challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ individuals in seeking care and also local healthcare providers' capability of administering competent trans-specific care.


HIV among injecting drug users is now a critical issue in global HIV control. Harm reduction strategies have been considered effective, safe and affordable for at least 15 years. In this article, based on a plenary presentation at the conference, Alex Wodak argues that the scientific debate about harm reduction is now over and that the paramount need is to overcome the conventional reliance on drug law enforcement, the major barrier to implementing harm reduction strategies in time and at sufficient scale.


Soil microbial use efficiency of straw carbon (C), which is the proportion of straw-C microbes assimilate into new biosynthetic material relative to C lost out of the system as CO2, is critical in increasing soil organic C (SOC) content, and hence maintaining soil fertility and productivity. However, the effect of chemical structures of the organic amendments (OAs) on the microbial use efficiency of straw-C remains unclear. The effect of the chemical structure of the OAs on microbial use efficiency of straw-C was elucidated by a combination of 13C-straw labeling with high-throughput sequencing and pyrolysis-GC/MS. We found a strong positive correlation between the microbial use efficiency of straw-C and the proportion of heterocyclic compounds (Hete_C). The microbial use efficiency of straw-C was highest in soil supplemented with Hete_C-dominant OAs, which significantly shifted microbial community structure toward fungal dominance. Specifically, fungal-to-bacterial ratio, fungal richness, and the relative abundance of Ascomycota were higher in soil with a higher proportion of Hete_C-dominant OAs. Together, our study suggests that OAs with high proportion of Hete_C promote the microbial use efficiency of straw-C by increasing the dominance of fungi in the soil microbial community in agroecosystems.


The emergence of wide bandgap semiconductors has led to development of new generation semiconductor switches that are highly efficient and scalable. To exploit the advantages of GaNFETs in power converters, in terms of reduction in the size of heat sinks and filters, a thorough understanding of the thermal behavior of the device is essential. This paper aims to establish a thermal model for wideband gap semiconductor GaNFETs commercially available, which will enable power electronic designers to obtain the thermal characteristics of the device more effectively. The model parameters is obtained from the manufacturer's data sheet by adopting an exponential curve fitting technique and the thermal model is validated using PSPICE simulations. The model was developed based on the parametric equivalence that exists between the thermal and electrical components, such that it responds for transient thermal stresses. A suitable power profile has been generated to evaluate the GaNFET model under different power dissipation scenarios. The results were compared with a Silicon MOSFETs to further highlight the advantages of the GaN devices. The proposed modeling approach can be extended for other GaN devices and can provide a platform for the thermal study and heat sink optimization.


In this paper, we investigate viewer responses to changes in the ideological content of television programming using variation induced by cadenas, unannounced takeovers of the public television airwaves by the government in Venezuela. Using high-frequency ratings data, we find that, consistent with the predictions of our choice model, the drop-off in ratings during cadenas is concentrated among viewers of news programming on opposition private channels, as opposed to viewers of news on pro-government public channels. Also consistent with the predictions of our model, the drop-off in ratings for private channels with moderate ideology takes an intermediate value. In addition, the drop-off is stronger for viewers with access to cable channels, which are not required to air cadenas. Consistent with this result, we also show that viewership of an opposition cable channel rises during cadenas. Complementing this analysis, we then estimate the parameters of the theoretical model in a structural analysis. Using these parameter estimates, we consider counterfactual scenarios, allowing for an examination of the dynamic responses of viewers of differing ideology to cadenas and an analysis of the welfare consequences of cadenas.


Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) provide a suitable mode for a large portion of population in many cities due to rider's personal convenience and the vehicle supposed easiness of manoeuvring. At the same time PTWs present serious safety issues compared to other motorized vehicles. This paper reports the main outcome of study carried out in Rome, where this mode is very popular and assesses the economic efforts to make infrastructure safer for PTWs. The methodology, extensively described in the paper, includes three steps: the accident analysis, the development of economic indicators of accidents costs, the maintenance priority. In the first step, the location of the PTWs local accidents are identified, then the accidents are analysed by means of the suitable indicators and, among these the Safety Potential – SAPO. Lastly, according to the results of the analysed indicators the need of infrastructure maintenance will be defined. As usually, SAPO is applied to rural areas, it has been adapted to describe the phenomena of the urban area in hand. As a result, the estimation of the saving potential to improve the infrastructure safety levels, thus reducing the amount of accidents, is presented, along with recommendations on how to upscale the SAPO at city level.


In this paper we review the literature on contextual conditions related to the school, the family, and ethnic or immigrant-group membership, and their association with adjustment outcomes of adolescent immigrants in Europe. Drawing on theories in the areas of acculturation and development, the first aim was to develop a conceptual framework, which integrates acculturative and developmental processes in early adolescence and can guide the literature review in this area. The second aim was to identify the most important conditions for adolescent immigrants' acculturation and adjustment outcomes in school and the family, and related to immigrant-group membership.


Purpose: This study examined to what extent personality on the one hand and the kind of positive experiences, which were noted within the " three good things" exercise (3GT), on the other hand had impact on the effectiveness of this intervention. The aim was to examine the processes of the 3GT in more detail by discovering when and for whom the exercise is effective. This is relevant to be able to apply the 3GT more constructively and with greater effectiveness in practice.
Method: Over a period of seven days 46 participants completed the 3GT intervention online. All respondents filled in the BFI-10 for the measurement of personality. Furthermore they completed the PANAS before and after the intervention to measure positive affect and negative affect. The hypotheses were tested using Pearson's correlation coefficient and linear regression analyzes.
Results: The results showed that both personality and the kind of positive experiences had little impact on the effectiveness of the 3GT. The intervention had no effect on positive affect and there was no correlation between the personality traits extraversion, neuroticism and affect. Negative affect appears to be decreased, after completing the intervention, on people who have noted positive experiences with either a moral or an ethical decision. An increased negative affect is found on very altruistic people. Finally, the content category 'doing right' is found to correlate negatively with the personality trait 'conscientiousness'.
Discussion: These findings have important value for the implication of the 3GT in practice. It appears that this exercise may be used for people with differently pronounced personality traits and that the kind of positive experiences has no limiting influence on effectiveness. In future research, it is useful to reinvestigate the correlation between the effectiveness of the 3GT, its content and personality in a larger sample. In addition, it is important to examine the connection between the 3GT and personality and to optimize the classification scheme for the content of the answers from the 3GT.


Moore's law and its mapping into International Technology Roadmap of Semiconductors have been the most powerful drivers for the development of the microelectronic industry. In the same silicon manufacturing facilities, micro-electro-mechanical systems have made their appearance, but, unlike CMOS, MEMS' development doesn't need to follow the lithography scaling law for technical and economical reasons. Micro-machined products are penetrating automotive, industrial, medical, and lately, consumer applications. But this is only the beginning. Future wireless sensor networks, domestic robots, smart pills and labs-on-chips have benefit tremendously from next generation, tiny, inexpensive, and low power-consumption MEMS devices


Background : The aim of this work is to study the clinical features and causative fungi of tinea pedis in diabetic and non-diabetic patients. Result : Tinea pedis was estimated to be the second most common skin disease in the United States, after acne. Up to 15% of the U.S., population may have tinea pedis. Across Europe and East Asia, prevalence rates reach 20 %. Methods: The Complete history taking regarding: age, sex, occupation, residency, history of diabetes and diabetic profile (fasting blood sugar and post prandial).and Clinical examination of the feet Aim of the study : The aim of this work was to study the clinical features and causative fungi of tinea pedis in diabetic and nondiabetic patients Conclusion : Tinea pedis is more frequent in tropical climates and may be associated with use of occlusive footwear. Males are more often affected than females. It is mostly affecting the web space between the fourth and fifth toes. Children do not often develop tinea pedis. Patients with atopic dermatitis or immuno suppressive disorders may be predisposed to developing tinea pedis


It is well documented that the traditional protocol for higher education doesn't suit each learner, the rhetorical method of lecturing while presupposing certain domain knowledge and experience is a very inefficient method of imparting knowledge. An ideal solution is to have a one-to-one system, where an instructor generates mathemagenic content for each learner. Obviously this is not an ideal situation considering the high increase of learners into higher education. One solution is for higher education to partially traverse into an online learning environment with an element of suitable adaptive content. Adaptive learning systems attempt to adapt learning content to suit the needs of the learners using the system. Most adaptive techniques however are constrained by the pedagogical preference of the author of the system and are always constrained to the system they were developed for and the domain content. This paper describes a personal profile that can be used to automatically generate instructional content to suit the pedagogical preference and cognitive ability of a learner in a tractable amount of time. The paper discusses the manifestation of measurable cognitive traits in an online learning environment and identifies cognitive resources that can be used to stimulate these manifestations. Additionally this paper describes a Content Analyser that is used to automatically generate Metadata to encapsulate cognitive resources within instructional content. The content is repackaged as independent Sharable Content Objects (SCOs) as described by the Sharable Content Object Reference Model. Finally the paper concludes with an example learning component that utilizes the CA for building course content to an expected predetermined minimum learning experience suited to each learner's cognitive ability and pedagogical preference delivered through Moodle.


Acute lymphoblastic leukemia with Burkitt type cells has been described in 1975. Until the mid-1980, with conventional treatments, the prognosis was very poor with very few long-term survivors. Failures were mainly due to central nervous system involvement at diagnosis or relapse. After that period a dramatic improvement has been observed with intensified treatments based on Burkitt's lymphoma therapy regimens. High-dose cyclophosphamide, high-dose methotrexate, high-dose ara-C in compact protocols completed in 6-7 months have been proven useful. 75% of the patients can be cured.


This paper presents the results from an experiment to determine the heat transfer from aluminum castings during solidification. An aluminum plate (alloy A356 600 mm by 600 mm) was cast in two different thicknesses (6.25 mm and 25 mm) in a horizontal configuration. An inverse analysis, using a sequential function specification method, was used to compute the surface fluxes from the solidifying metal to the mold. The inverse analysis accounted for temperature-dependent thermal properties of the mold sand. Special attention is devoted in this paper to selection of the appropriate value of regularization parameter and suitable error estimation for thermal experiments utilizing measurements from off-the-shelf thermocouples in an inverse estimation procedure.


Many high-end DSP processors employ both multiple memory banks and heterogeneous register files to improve performance and power consumption. The complexity of such architectures presents a great challenge to compiler design. In this paper, we present an approach for variable partitioning and instruction scheduling to maximally exploit the benefits provided by such architectures. Our approach is built on a novel graph model which strives to capture both performance and power demands. We propose an algorithm to iteratively find the variable partition such that the maximum energy saving is achieved while satisfying the given performance constraint. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.


BACKGROUND
AAV-based gene therapy is an attractive approach to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients. Although the long-term consequences of a gene therapy approach for DMD are unknown, there is evidence in both DMD patients and animal models that dystrophin replacement by gene therapy leads to an anti-dystrophin immune response that is likely to limit the long-term use of these therapeutic strategies.

OBJECTIVE
Our objective is to test whether the anti-dystrophin immune response is affected by immunomodulatory drugs in mdx mice after rAAV gene therapy.

METHODS
mdx mice were treated with rAAV microdystrophin alone or in combination with immunomodulatory drugs. Dystrophin expression in skeletal muscle was assessed by mass spectrometry. Immune responses were assessed by immunophenotyping, western blot for anti-dystrophin antibodies and flow cytometry assays for antigen-specific T-cell cytokine expression. The impact on muscle was measured by grip strength assessment, in vivo torque, optical imaging for inflammation and H&E staining of sections to assess muscle damage.

RESULTS
We found that AAV-9-microdystrophin gene therapy induced expression of microdystrophin, anti-dystrophin antibodies, and T-cell cytokine responses. Immunomodulatory treatments, rituximab and VBP-6 completely abrogated the anti-dystrophin antibody response. Prednisolone, CTLA4-Ig, and Eplerenone showed variable efficacy in blocking the anti-dystrophin immune response. In contrast, none of the drugs completely abrogated the antigen specific IFN-γ response. AAV-microdystrophin treatment significantly reduced inflammation in both forelimbs and hindlimbs, and the addition of prednisolone and VBP6 further reduced muscle inflammation. Treatment with immunomodulatory drugs, except eplerenone, enhanced the beneficial effects of AAV-microdystrophin therapy in terms of force generation.

CONCLUSIONS
Our data suggest that AAV-microdystrophin treatment results in anti-dystrophin antibody and T-cell responses, and immunomodulatory treatments have variable efficacy on these responses.


X-ray free-electron lasers offer the potential for fourth-generation ultra-high peak power and coherence X-ray beams in the hard X-ray (8 keV) spectral range. A critical review of three areas of potential application of such sources is presented. Owing to the enormous electric field strength at the focus of such beams, it is shown that matter would very rapidly form a plasma for focal spots of submicrometer dimensions. Thus, hologram formation would only be feasible for crystalline samples with dimensions of a few micrometers or greater. A new version of X-ray holography using interference between a sample and a reference two-dimensional crystal is proposed. Because of the very high peak intensity of the free-electron-laser pulses, a natural application is to time-resolved multibunch ;dynamic X-ray scattering' measurements. It is shown that this could provide information on dynamical processes in condensed matter complementary to that obtained using slow neutron beams. Finally, optical laser-induced pump-probe-type experiments are reviewed. There is the potential for extending the study of the charge distribution of electronic excited states to those with lifetimes in the submillisecond time range.


T lymphocytes are critical in mediating herpes simplex stromal keratitis (HSK). Using immunohistologic methods, we studied the T cell subsets and the T cell receptor variable region (TCR V beta) repertoire of T cells in the eye after corneal infection with HSV (KOS strain). We investigated the possibility that there might be differential V beta preferential usage in HSK resistant and susceptible BALB/c congenic mice that differ only in a small region associated with the Igh-1 gene locus. The inflamed corneas of HSK susceptible C.AL-20 mice were mainly infiltrated by CD4+ cells and by V beta 8 expressing cells. Such T cells were not seen in the corneas of resistant C.B-17 mice. Our results indicate that CD4+V beta 8+ cells are involved in mediating HSV-1 stromal keratitis.


To evaluate the efficacy of cefuroxime, a second generation cephalosporin, in minimizing the risk of per and postoperative infection complications in patients with urinary tract infection undergoing transurethral surgery, 86 patients (ASA I, II) with persistent urinary tract infection despite antibiotic therapy were studied. A double blind protocol was followed. Patients were randomly assigned to receive 10 minutes before surgery either I.V. cefuroxime (1.5 g) (group C, n = 39) or placebo (group P, n = 47) the incidence of positive peroperative systematic blood cultures was lower in group C (9.7%) than in group P (25.2%) (p less than 0.001). The incidence of postoperative blood cultures taken when clinical septic signs were present, was significantly lower in group C (0%) than in group P (21.7%) (p less than 0.05). However neither the incidences of both postoperative urinary tract infection at the 48th postoperative hour and the clinical signs of bacteraemia including fever nor the average length of hospitalization were significantly different in the 2 groups. This lack of significant clinical benefit was not explained by the pharmacokinetic properties of this antibiotic. Thus, preoperative administration of a single dose of cefuroxime, reduces the incidence of per and postoperative bacteraemias in ASA I-II patients with persistent urinary tract infection.


Interleukin 6 (IL6) cytokine signaling is based on classic and trans-signaling. Classic signaling utilizes the membrane bound Interleukin 6 receptor (IL6R), whereas in trans-signaling IL6 acts via a soluble form of the IL6 receptor. The signal transducing subunit gp130 of the IL6 receptor complex is ubiquitously expressed whereas the IL6R is only sparely expressed. The specific occurrence of the soluble IL6R (sIL6R) during acute and chronic inflammation massively increases the number of target cells for IL6. To address the question whether IL6 trans-signaling is important in vivo transgenic mice were generated, which overexpress the soluble designer receptor antagonist sgp130Fc. To achieve high level accumulation of the sgp130Fc protein in vivo a cDNA-optimization strategy (opt_sgp130Fc) was applied. These mice displayed an IL6-trans-signaling knock out phenotype, since sgp130Fc specifically inhibits only IL6 trans-signaling but not classic IL6 signaling. The transgenic mice are resistant to the IL6/sIL6R-mediated induction of acute phase response. Furthermore, it was shown that during acute inflammation the recruitment of mononuclear cells is strictly dependent on IL6 trans-signaling. The soluble IL6 receptor is released from activated neutrophils at the site of inflammation and in complex with IL6 induces a chemokine expression pattern, which leads to subsequent infiltration of mononuclear cells, and which is specifically blocked in opt_sgp130Fc transgenics.


The paper describes a vibro·acoustic model of small hermetically sealed reciprocating refrigeration compressors. The model has been developed by CETIM under the sponsorship of a working group composed of representatives of the french refrigeration industry. The model comprises three distinct parts: dynamics of compressor unit, gas pulsation (internal acoustics) and sound radiation (external acoustics). The input data are the thermodynamic parameters, mechanical parameters and the geometry of the compressor. The output is the vibration of the compressor shell and piping, gas pulsation generated by the compressor and finally the acoustic power radiated into the surroundings. The developed models are linked together within a single interactive computer programme (COMP_HER). Compared with the measurement results, the programme has been found to produce reliable results within the 0·1 000 Hz frequency band.


Flexible stretch forming is an appropriate process for manufacturing of components for aerospace, shipbuilding and architecture structures. Flexible stretch forming has several advantages including that it could be applied to form various shapes such as ones with double curved surfaces. In this study, a systematic numerical simulation was conducted for forming double curved surfaces using flexible stretch forming. The desired surface had a saddle type configuration. It had two radii one of 2500mm and the other of 2000mm along its length and width. In the simulation, the decrease of elastic recovery due to the stretching was confirmed. Experiments were also conducted to confirm the viability of the process. By comparing the simulation to the experiment results, the suitability of flexible stretch forming for double curved surfaces was verified. From the results, the maximum error from desired surface was confirmed at about 1.3mm at the edge of the surface. Hence, it is confirmed that flexible stretch forming has the capability and feasibility to manufacture curved surfaces for architectural skin-structures of buildings.


The aim of this study was to examine the effect of positively charged (amine-modified) and negatively charged (carboxyl-modified) polystyrene nanoplastics (PS NPs) on the nanostructural, nanomechanical, and antioxidant responses of the marine diatom Cylindrotheca closterium. The results showed that both types of PS NPs, regardless of surface charge, significantly inhibited the growth of C. closterium during short-term exposure (3 and 4 days). However, longer exposure (14 days) to both PS NPs types did not significantly inhibit growth, which might be related to the detoxifying effect of the microalgal extracellular polymers (EPS) and the higher cell abundance per PS NPs concentration. The exposure of C. closterium to both types of PS NPs at concentrations above the corresponding concentrations that resulted in a 50% reduction of growth (EC50) demonstrated phytotoxic effects, mainly due to the excessive production of reactive oxygen species, resulting in increased oxidative damage to lipids and changes to antioxidant enzyme activities. Diatoms exposed to nanoplastics also showed a significant decrease in cell wall rigidity, which could make the cells more vulnerable. Atomic force microscopy images showed that positively charged PS NPs were mainly adsorbed on the cell surface, while both types of PS NPs were incorporated into the EPS that serves to protect the cells. Since microalgal EPS are an important food source for phytoplankton grazers and higher trophic levels, the incorporation of NPs into the EPS and interactions with the cell walls themselves may pose a major threat to marine microalgae and higher trophic levels and, consequently, to the health and stability of the marine ecosystem.


Public commemoration of past atrocity, mass crime and particularly genocide has drawn attention both in the public realm and in scholarly debate, meeting general acceptance in recent years. However, the seeming opposite has also been advocated - forgetting. Variously, such forgetting is presented as a wiser approach in contradistinction to painstaking and evasive truth-seeking. Taking this tendency as a point of departure, I discuss here two cases that seem relevant to what might be called a strategy of amnesia, both relating to Namibia : (1) reference to the genocide perpetrated by the German colonial army in 1904-08, both in post-World War II (West) Germany and in the independent post-colony, and (2) the debates and conflicts within Namibia around the gross violations of human rights committed under the auspices of SWAPO during the 1980s. Without suggesting that these cases are in any way equivalent, I contend, however, that they are related in the minds of a fair number of Namibians and further, that there are certain connections in the ways both cases have been and are addressed within the public spheres of the two countries concerned.


Background: TTK, also known as Mps1, is a dual‐specificity kinase that is essential for the proper amphitelic attachment of chromosomes to the mitotic spindle during mitosis and for preventing anaphase progression until the chromosomes are properly attached. Given the role of TTK in genome integrity, we evaluated the effect of MPI‐0479605, a potent and selective inhibitor of TTK, on the p53 pathway. Materials and Methods: For image analysis, cells were fixed and stained with Hoechst dye and anti‐β‐tubulin and anti‐pericentrin antibodies. Images were taken on a BD Pathway high content imaging system. For cell cycle analysis, cells were fixed, stained with propidium iodide and analyzed by FACS. For Western blot analysis, cell lysates were run on SDS‐polyacrylamide gels and proteins were transferred to PVDF membrane. Membranes were probed with the indicated antibodies. Results: Inhibition of TTK induced severe defects in chromosome segregation, as shown by the presence of lagging chromosomes and/or anaphase bridges during mitosis and the formation of micronuclei at interphase. Anaphase bridges may result in DNA double‐strand breaks. Cell cycle analysis showed that a subpopulation of treated cells exhibited a tetraploid phenotype. Because either DNA damage or tetraploidy may induce the p53 pathway, we examined whether p53 was induced by treatment with MPI‐0479605. Expression of p53 was induced in a dose‐ and time‐dependent manner in response to MPI‐0479605, with maximal levels occurring between 24 and 48 hours of treatment. Induction of p53 correlated with an increase in p21 expression and a decrease in survivin protein levels, indicating that p53 is transcriptionally active. Using phosphospecific antibodies, we determined that p53 is phosphorylated on Ser15 in response to MPI‐0479605 treatment but not Thr18, Ser20, Ser37 or Ser46. Phosphorylation of γH2AX at Ser139, which is a marker for the presence of double‐strand DNA breaks, was induced by treatment with MPI‐0479605 in a time‐dependent manner similar to p53 induction. Phosphorylation of p53 on Ser15 and H2AX on Ser139 can be mediated by the DNA damage checkpoint protein ATM. ATM also phosphorylates Chk2 on Thr68 and induces its activity, but, treatment with MPI‐0479605 did not induce an increase in Chk2 Thr68 phosphorylation. Conclusions: Treatment of cells with the small molecule TTK inhibitor, MPI‐0479605, activates p53. This may be due to chromosome segregation defects, which cause subsequent DNA double strand breaks and/or tetraploidy. In response to TTK inhibition, we observe an increase in H2AX phosphorylation, followed by the phosphorylation (Ser15) and activation of p53. Given that inhibition of TTK induces an apoptotic cell death, activation of p53 may be one mechanism by which the apoptotic pathway is induced in response to MPI‐0479605. Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(12 Suppl):C203.


In this paper the design and kinematic performances are presented for a low-cost parallel manipulator with 4 driven cables. It has been conceived for an easy programming of its operation by properly formulating the Kinematics of the parallel architecture that uses cables. A prototype has been built and tests have experienced the feasibility of the system design and its operation.


In this paper, we first give a new equivalent optimization form to nonlinear complementarity problems and then establish a damped Newton method in which penalty technique is used. The subproblems of the method are lower-dimensional linear complementarity problems. We prove that the algorithm converges globally for strongly monotone complementarity problems. Under certain conditions, the method possesses quadratic convergence. Few numerical results are also reported.


A description is given of TASC-EDGE (The Analytic Sciences Corporation effective development through growth), and evolution methodology, which addresses the requirements uncertainty problem for information systems by using a natural-growth model which starts with a small version of the eventual product and extends and refines its capabilities in response to user feedback on evolving requirements until the final product is achieved. The methodology uses many tightly spaced incremental deliveries. The documentation is grown along with the system, fed by the computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools used during the system development. The methodology is described as it relates to the document production process, with emphasis on the integration of CASE and other prototyping tools. On the basis of TASC's experience with military standard development projects, improvements in the form and content of the documentation standards that offer the potential to enhance productivity and increase cost effectiveness are recommended.<<ETX>>


A fusion procedure for determining the nitrogen content of uranium mononitride materials has been developed. Recovery of 96·7 per cent. of the theoretical nitrogen was demonstrated with a sodium hydroxide melt containing 20 per cent. w/w of sodium carbonate at a fusion temperature of 500° to 525° C.The uranium mononitride reference used contained 600 p.p.m. of oxygen, 200 p.p.m. of carbon and less than 500 p.p.m. of halide impurities. Fifteen analyses of a stoicheiometric mononitride reference gave a nitrogen content of 5·37 per cent. w/w, average deviation of ±0·04 and standard deviation of ±0·06. Analyses of ammonium iron(III) sulphate and ammonium chloride for nitrogen by the alkaline fusion technique gave nitrogen recoveries of 98·9 and 100·5 per cent., respectively. Fusions carried out at temperatures below 475° C were not completely digested. Also, fusion analyses at temperatures above 575° C gave slightly lower nitrogen values because of partial decomposition of the ammonia.


Three-year-old peach trees [Prunus persica (L) Batsch. cv. Elberta] growing on old peach land where a high incidence of bacterial canker was suspected in previous plantings, were pruned or pruned and inoculated with Pseudomonas syringae van Hall in October, December, February, or April. All trees pruned and inoculated in October or December were either dead or dying by May. P. syringae was recovered from all of the October-inoculated and from 86% and 71% of the December- and February-inoculated trees, respectively. Also, 43% mortality occurred in February-pruned and inoculated trees. Uninoculated but early-pruned trees showed severe short life or decline symptoms with 43% mortality following October and December pruning. On the other hand, April-pruned trees, whether inoculated or not, showed less short life or decline symptoms than early-pruned trees and no deaths occurred in April-pruned and inoculated trees.


The widespread use of the Internet and the maturing of digital video technology have led to an increase in various streaming media application. However, new classes of hosts such as mobile devices are gaining popularity, while the transmission became more heterogeneous. Due to the characteristics of mobile networks such as low speed, high error bit rate, etc., the applications over the wireless channel have different needs and limitations from desktop computers. An intermediary between two communicating endpoints to hide the heterogeneous network links is thought as one of the best approaches. In this paper, we adopted the concept of inter-packet gap and the sequence number between continuously received packets as the error discriminator, and designed an adaptive packet sizing mechanism to improve the network efficiency under varying channel conditions. Based on the proposed mechanism, the packetization scheme with error protection is proposed to scalable encoded video delivery. Finally, simulation results reveal that our proposed mechanism can react to the varying BER conditions with better network efficiency and gain the obvious improvement to video quality for stored MPEG-4 FGS video delivery.


Introduction Although preterm birth is associated with respiratory morbidity in childhood, the role of family history of atopy and whether appropriate treatment has been instituted is unclear. Thus we assessed (i) the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, particularly wheezing, in childhood; (ii) evaluated the role of family history of atopy and mode of delivery, and (iii) documented the drug usage, all in preterm-born children compared to term-born control children. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional population-based questionnaire study of 1–10 year-old preterm-born children (n = 13,361) and matched term-born controls (13,361). Data (n = 7,149) was analysed by gestational groups (24–32 weeks, 33–34 weeks, 35–36 weeks and 37–43 weeks) and by age, <5 years old or ≥ 5 years. Main Results Preterm born children aged <5 years (n = 2,111, term n = 1,402) had higher rates of wheeze-ever [odds ratio: 2.7 (95% confidence intervals 2.2, 3.3); 1.8 (1.5, 2.2); 1.5 (1.3, 1.8) respectively for the 24–32 weeks, 33–34 weeks, 35–36 weeks groups compared to term]. Similarly for the ≥5 year age group (n = 2,083, term n = 1,456) wheezing increased with increasing prematurity [odds ratios 3.3 (2.7, 4.1), 1.8 (1.5, 2.3) and 1.6 (1.3, 1.9) for the three preterm groups compared to term]. At both age groups, inhaler usage was greater in the lowest preterm group but prematurity-associated wheeze was independent of a family history of atopy. Conclusions Increasing prematurity was associated with increased respiratory symptoms, which were independent of a family history of atopy. Use of bronchodilators was also increased in the preterm groups but its efficacy needs careful evaluation.


Rho GTPases control cell morphogenesis and thus fundamental processes in all eukaryotes. They are regulated by 145 RhoGEF and RhoGAP multi-domain proteins in humans. How the Rho signaling system is organized to generate localized responses in cells and prevent their spreading is not understood. Here, we systematically characterized the substrate specificities, localization and interactome of the RhoGEFs/RhoGAPs and revealed their critical role in contextualizing and spatially delimiting Rho signaling. They localize to multiple compartments providing positional information, are extensively interconnected to jointly coordinate their signaling networks and are widely autoinhibited to remain sensitive to local activation. RhoGAPs exhibit lower substrate specificity than RhoGEFs and may contribute to preserving Rho activity gradients. Our approach led us to uncover a multi-RhoGEF complex downstream of G-protein-coupled receptors controlling a Cdc42/RhoA crosstalk. The spatial organization of Rho signaling thus differs from other small GTPases and expands the repertoire of mechanisms governing localized signaling activity.


We report on a case of a patient with laryngo-tracheobronchial amyloidosis who complained of cough, sputum, and hoarseness. A chest X-ray showed consolidation in the right middle lobe. A chest CT scan showed diffuse, irregular narrowing of the tracheobronchial tree and atelectasis of the right middle lobe, with calcification of bronchial wall. Bronchoscopic findings were multinodular submucosal thickening of the right vocal cord, and yellowish multinodular submucosal thickening from the lower trachea through both main bronchi, as well as the lingular division of the left upper lobe, the right middle lobe, and the right lower lobe. The right middle lobe bronchus was nearly obstructed. The diagnosis of amyloidosis was made by multiple ronchoscopic biopsies on the right vocal cord and both bronchi. Pathologic findings were characteristic apple-green birefringence under polarized microscopy with Congo-red stain. The patient had no evidence of systemic amyloidosis. The patient is under conservative symptomatic treatment.


Heat-related morbidity and mortality is anticipated to increase as climatic change induced overheating become increasingly common. The development of building-specific predictive models has the potential to alert occupants and emergency services to the severity of impending risks. This research aims to
evaluate the implementation of a newly developed time series model for overheating prediction. Since risk
forecasting is contingent upon the accuracy of the model at different future time steps, the sensitivity of model outputs to the uncertainty in the data inputs needs to be understood. Internal and external climatic variables were monitored in an unoccupied domestic dwelling in order to evaluate the empirical model's predictive accuracy. The uncertainty related to the proximity of external weather stations was evaluated using data taken from four nearby weather stations and further bespoke data sets derived by interpolation. The results confirmed the overall accuracy of the newly developed time series predictive model, whilst highlighting the benefits of climatic data interpolation in reducing predictive uncertainties. The empirically derived modelling approach showed a low variance to the actual temperature evolution over a seven-day predictive
period, pointing to its validity as a robust model for the prediction of future overheating risks.


Introduction The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Global Patient Safety Challenge, 'Safe Surgery Saves Lives'1, in 2008 with the aim of reducing the number of deaths and adverse events resulting from surgical procedures. Central to this initiative is the WHO checklist that covers the various phases of a procedure. This checklist was modified and used for all endoscopic procedures performed in our trust. The Aim of the survey was to gather opinions from endoscopy staff about the recently introduced team debrief and the modified WHO checklist for endoscopy in our trust. We aimed to assess the staff's perception of the impact of the checklists (positive or negative) on patient safety, communication and team behaviour, staff satisfaction and their general effectiveness. We also aimed to assess the need for training on the use of the checklists and their potential to drive improvement with an additional section for their comments. Responses were obtained from the different grades of staff including nurses, health care assistants, trainees and consultants. Methods We designed a questionnaire according to the LIKERT2 scale, where the respondent could choose between five options including one neutral stance and the other four with varying degrees of agreement or disagreement with sixteen questions covering the above mentioned key categories. Participation in the survey was anonymous and voluntary. Results 78 staff across two hospitals of the trust responded to the survey, of which two were incomplete and hence excluded from analysis. Respondents included consultants (20), Specialist Registrars (8), nurses (29), health care assistants (12) and unknown (7). 81% perceived an improvement in patient safety and 75% in team communication. 75% were satisfied with the checklists. 80% believed that the checklists have the potential to drive improvement with 96% of them wanting to continue using these. The only negative aspect from the survey was that almost a half of the respondents (48%) felt that their feedback was not acted upon. 100% agreed that all staff needed to participate actively in the checklist and team briefs. Conclusion Our results suggest that the introduction of the adapted WHO checklist has been a positive experience based on this staff survey, enhancing patient safety and staff communication. This adapted checklist will continue to evolve based on staff feedback. We suggest that all endoscopy units should introduce an adapted WHO checklist and we understand that the BSG is developing one currently. Disclosure of Interest None Declared. References Safe Surgery Save Lives - WHO/IER/PSP/2008.07 Public Opinion and the Individual. Gardner Murphy and Rensis Likert. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1938


The main purpose of this paper is to create a palmprint recognition system (PPRS) that uses the curvelet transform and co-occurrence matrix to recognize a hand's palmprint. The suggested system is composed of several stages: in the first stage, the region of interest (ROI) was taken from a palmprint image, then in the second stage, the curvelet transform was applied to the (ROI) to get a blurred version of the image, and finally, unsharp masking process and sobel filtering were performed for edge detection. The third stage involves feature extraction using a co-occurrence matrix to obtain 16 features, while the fourth stage inclusion is the training and testing of the suggested approach. The algorithm ACO (ant colony optimization) has been adopted to evaluate the shortest path to the goal. CASIA PalmprintV dataset of 100 people (60 male and 40 female) was used in proposed work to rate the performance of the proposed system. ARR and EER metrics have been adopted to assess the performance of the proposed system. The experimental results showed a very high recognition rate (ARR) that reaches 100% for the right hand of a male and the left hand of a female. The overall accuracy rate (ARR) reaches 98.5% and EER equals 0.015.


An Arago disc that can be used to demonstrate the operation principle of the induction machine as well as to illustrate readily the characteristic shape of the torque-slip curve of this machine is described. A brief biography of D.F.J. Arago is included. A demonstration with Arago's disc is described. >


Graph problems such as traveling salesman problem, or finding minimal Steiner trees are widely studied and used in data engineering and computer science. Typically, in real-world applications, the features of the graph tend to change over time, thus, finding a solution to the problem becomes challenging. The dynamic version of many graph problems are the key for a plethora of real-world problems in transportation, telecommunication, and social networks. In recent years, using deep learning techniques to find heuristic solutions for NP-hard graph combinatorial problems has gained much interest as these learned heuristics can find near-optimal solutions efficiently. However, most of the existing methods for learning heuristics focus on static graph problems. The dynamic nature makes NP-hard graph problems much more challenging to learn, and the existing methods fail to find reasonable solutions. In this paper, we propose a novel architecture named Graph Temporal Attention with Reinforcement Learning (GTA-RL) to learn heuristic solutions for graph-based dynamic combinatorial optimization problems. The GTA-RL architecture consists of an encoder capable of embedding temporal features of a combinatorial problem instance and a decoder capable of dynamically focusing on the embedded features to find a solution to a given combinatorial problem instance. We then extend our architecture to learn heuristics for the real-time version of combinatorial optimization problems where all input features of a problem are not known a prior, but rather learned in real-time. Our experimental results against several state-of-the-art learning-based algorithms and optimal solvers demonstrate that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art learning-based approaches in terms of effectiveness and optimal solvers in terms of efficiency on dynamic and real-time graph combinatorial optimization.


Image compositing enables the generation of continuous and equidistant time series of vegetation indices (VIs) as a requisite for deriving phenological metrics. This is achieved by selecting a representative choice from available observations within a compositing period. Commonly, phenological processors associate the VI value with a reference date rather than the actual acquisition date. This letter focuses on a global assessment of the resulting temporal discrepancy between the assumed reference date and the actual acquisition date using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-VI day of composite (DOC) information from 2000 to 2015. It is shown that the long-term global mean DOC coincides with the midday of a compositing period (day 8.44 ± 0.44). The global summarized 2-D frequency distributions of succeeding compositing periods revealed that only 16.93% of all occurrences indicate a 16-day difference. The commonly used assumptions that the DOC coincides with the first, mid, or last day of the compositing period on average only hold true for 7.02%, 6.07%, and 6.03% of temporal succeeding compositing periods, respectively. Spatial patterns of 2-D frequency distributions occur as a result of climatic regions and seasonality. A MODIS tile is on average composed of more than 50% DOC combinations, indicating deviations (1–31 days) from the 16-day difference. Since information about the actual acquisition date is available, and methods for the incorporation of irregular data into phenological analysis do exist, it is recommended to incorporate this information into the phenology research based on VI time series to avoid unnecessary uncertainty.


Today, artisanal fisheries management measures in Chile consider the allocation of Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries (TURFs) among fishing communities traditionally exploiting benthonic resources such as Chilean abalone (Concholepas concholepas), sea urchins (Loxechinus albus) and macha clams (Mesodesma donacium), among others. Chilean fisheries legislation, the General Fisheries and Aquaculture Law (GFAL) enacted in 1991, allows the establishment of areas especially reserved for the use of specific artisanal fishing communities, through their legally constituted organizations (e.g., artisanal fishermen's associations and fishermen's cooperatives, among others). According to the GFAL, these areas are labeled as "Areas for Management and Exploitation of Benthonic Resources" (AMEBR), and may be allocated to artisanal fishing communities for a two-year period (upon submission and approval of a management and exploitation project related to a relevant benthonic resource). AMEBR may only be established in a strip of territorial waters ranging from the line of the lowest tide to 5 miles offshore, stretching from the northern border of Chile to the parallel 41 28.6′ south, as well as on inland and interior waters (mainly channels, fjords, rivers, lakes, and lagoons), reserved exclusively to artisanal fishing according to the GFAL. Upon completion of the two-year period, TURFs may be extended to an aquaculture lease in order to further exploit the AMEBR.


A controlled study has been made comparing a loading dose schedule of tolbutamide with a maintenance dose schedule in the initial therapy of fourteen patients with maturity-onset diabetes mellitus. No advantage of one dose schedule over another was found. Since hypoglycemia may occur when large doses of tolbutamide are used, these results provide supporting evidence for those who recommend use of low doses of this drug in the initial therapy of patients with diabetes mellitus.


On the bases of summarizing the functions, features and current status of digital map technologies, this paper analyzed the structure, technical workflow and characteristics of MGE digital mapping system. Then, the authors expounded some key technologies of MGE-based digital mapping system, such as data input and digitizing, color base and symbol base generation, map editing and color separation, as well as mutual conversion between printed maps and electronic maps. These technologies are very important to map designing, editing, plating, etc. Finally, the future of digital map integrated system are foreseen.


A few patients presenting with thyroid cancer characterized by the high risk of relapses are reported. Their combined treatment included therapy using fast-neuron with the energy of 6.3 MeV. The immediate and late results of the treatment of the reported cases are evaluated. The experience gained during the study gives evidence of the fairly good tolerability of the described radiotherapeutic modality producing neither acute radiation reactions nor lesions in the irradiated tissues and organs. Moreover, the treatment is described as a highly effective one.


Aim To explore the effects of angiotensinⅡon the activities of Ca2+-ATPase,Na+,K+-ATPase and mRNA expression levels of the plasma membrane Ca2+-ATPase isoform 1 (PMCA1) and Na+,K+-ATPase α1-subunit in cultured thoracic aortic vascular smooth muscle cells (ASMC) from Wistar-Kyoto rats and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Methods ASMC isolated from 14-week-old male Wistar-Kyoto rats and SHR were cultured,and treated with different concentrations (1×10-9,1×10-8,1×10-7 mol/L) of AngiotensinⅡ. The activities of Ca2+-ATPase,Na+,K+-ATPase were measured by biochemistry and enzymology. RT-PCR assay was employed to determine the relative levels of PMCA1 and Na+,K+-ATPase α1-subunit mRNA in ASMC. Results Low and moderate concentration (1×10-9,1×10-8 mol/L) of angiotensinⅡsignificantly increased the activity of Ca2+-ATPase in ASMC from Wistar-Kyoto rats(P0.05~P0.01),and the activity of Ca2+-ATPase was positively correlated with the intervention time of angiotensinⅡ( r=0.340,0.725),reached the maximum at 24 hours,up-regulated PMCA1 mRNA level at the same time (P0.05~P0.01); while high concentration (1×10-7 mol / L) angiotensinⅡ inhibited Ca2+-ATPase activity (P0.05),and the activity of Ca2 +-ATPase was negatively correlated with the intervention time(r=-0.348),reached the greatest effect at 24 hours,and simultaneously down-regulated PMCA1 mRNA level (P0.05). Angiotens inⅡ(1×10-9,1×10-8,1×10-7mol/L) decreased significantly the activity of Ca2 +-ATPase in ASMC from SHR (P0.05 ~P0.01),and the Ca2 +-ATPase activity was negatively correlated with the intervention time (r=-0.346,-0.493,-0.759),had the strongest effect at 24 hours,and simultaneously attenuated PMCA1 mRNA level. Three concentration of angiotensinⅡ (1×10-9,1×10-8,1×10-7mol/L) stimulated the activity of Na+,K+-ATPase in ASMC from Wistar-Kyoto rats in turn at24 hours,12 hours,6 hours (P0.05 ~P0.01),and increased the activity of Na+,K+-ATPase with α1-subunit mR-NA expression promoted in a dose-dependent manner at 24 hours (P0.05 ~P0.01),which was positively correlated with the intervention time of angiotens inⅡ(r=0.425,0.645,0.767 ). AngiotensinⅡ (1×10-9,1×10-8mol/L) didnot affect the activity of Na+,K+-ATPase in SHR (allP0.05),while angiotensinⅡ (1×10-7mol/L) significantly suppressed the activity of Na+,K+-ATPase,which was negatively correlated with the intervention time of angiotensinⅡ (r=-0.589),and reached maximum effect on the expression of Na+,K+-ATPaseα1-subunit mRNA at 24 hours (P0.05). Conclusion In Wistar-Kyoto rats,angiotens inⅡ has biphasic effects on Ca2 +-ATPase activity,PMCA1 mRNA expression,and activates Na+,K+-ATPase activity and α1 subunit mRNA expression in a dose-dependent manner in ASMC. Whereas,in SHR,angiotens inⅡ inhibits Ca2 +-ATPase activity and PMCA1 mRNA expression,and only highdose of angiotensinⅡ suppresses Na+,K+-ATPase activity andα1subunit mRNA expression in ASMC.


The transfer stiffness coefficient method is developed in order to improve the computation efficiency and the applicability of the transfer influence coefficient method with the introduction of the concept of the substructure synthesis method. In the new method, the structure to be analyzed is divided into substructures, each of which is equally divided into fundamental elements. Each substructure is reconstructed by connecting the fundamental elements and the computation cost is markedly reduced by eliminating the degrees of freedom at the inner nodes of substructures in the process of reconstruction. In addition, the computation procedure, which is the same as that of the transfer influence coefficient method, is applied to the entire structure reconstructed from the sub-structures in order to improve the computation efficiency even more. As the most fundamental example of the present method, an algorithm is formulated for the free and the forced vibration analyses of a straight-line beam structure. The validity of the present method is confirmed by the results of numerical computation.


The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate ontological relationality in literary theory and criticism by critically reflecting on modern theories of literature and by practically examining the literary texts of Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, and Oscar Wilde. Traditional studies of literary texts have been oriented toward interpretative or hermeneutic methodologies, focusing on an independent and individual subject in literature. Instead, I explore how relational ontology uncovers the interactive structures interposed between the author, the text, and the audience by examining the system of how the author's creative positioning provokes the reader's reaction through the text. In Chapter I, I critically inquire into modern literary theories of "irony" in Romanticism, New Criticism, and Deconstructionism to show how they tend to disregard the dynamic dimension of interactive relationships between different literary subjects. Chapter II scrutinizes Wilde's humor in An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) in order to reveal the ontological relationships triggered by a creative positioning. In chapter III, I examine Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (c. 1400) and the laughter in "The Miller's Tale" in particular, to examine the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of its interactive relationships. In Chapter IV, I explore Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99), Othello (1603-4), and The Winter's Tale (1609-11) so as to show how artistic positioning creatively constructs a relational system of dynamic interactions to circulate social ideals and values. In so doing, this dissertation is aimed at revealing the aesthetic values of literature and the objective scope of literary discourse rather than providing yet another analytical paradigm dependent primarily on a single literary subject. Thus, the ontological study is proposed as an alternative, yet primary, dimension of literary criticism and theoretical practice.


In addition to occupying itself with all aspects of traditional medicine; Health-and-Body Sociology also deals with the attitudes of laymen (non-experts) towards branches of modern medicine and the related professionals. In this very context; a lot of stereotypes which have developed among folks throughout ages are also involved. Indeed, such beliefs are deeply rooted in the popular culture. For instance, in former years, among typical townsfolk in Turkey, the phrase two clicks and a final gentle tap used to commonly describe the way an internist would examine his patient and pocket his earnings, fairly easily. Urology is a somewhat different branch of the medicine because the first associations coming to the mind relate it to the issue of sexual potency in the male and accordingly carry it onto a kind of alleged "luxury"-treatment plane. However; the entirety of the renal system of the human body is the topic of this scientific discipline; while female patients should normally fall into the same category, as well. This article involves certain personal experiences, inferences and claims, simply due to its very nature.


Screened hybrid exchange-correlation (XC) density functionals incorporating short-range exact exchange aid application of hybrid density functional theory to solids and surfaces. We explore screened hybrid XC functionals for a prototypical surface reaction, namely, adsorption and dissociation of ammonia on silicon. Screened hybrids are found to improve upon standard semilocal functionals for the dissociation barrier on Si9H12, reproducing accurate complete basis set extrapolated CCSD(T) results. Similar trends are found for realistic periodic Si(100)-2 × 2 surfaces. Screened hybrids also better reproduce experimental results for the relative barriers to different dissociation pathways. While the tested hybrid functionals tend to overestimate molecular adsorption energies, their good performance for kinetics motivates further exploration of screened exchange in surface chemistry.


Evidence is provided to show that: 1) the prepubic process, diagnostic of an ornithischian, did not provide the main support for the abdomen; 2) the abdomen was large and extended ventral to the pelvic girdle with a strong M. rectus abdominis that was not functionally replaced by the lateral abdominal muscles; 3) either the M. pubo-tibialis or the ventral part of the M. puboischio-femoralis internus originated on the lateral surface of the prepubic process. An important femoral protractor, the anterior part of the M. pubo-ischio-femoralis externus, had to be functionally replaced before the pubis changed position to lie close to the ischium in ornithischians and birds. This was accomplished by the development of a long anterior process to the ilium with the differentiation of a large M. ilio-tibialis 1. The lateral curvature of the anterior process of the ilium enabled it to clear the adjacent ribs and improved the mechanical position of part of the M. dorsalis trunci, the M. ilio-tibialis 1 and the dorsal part of the M. pubo-ischio-femoralis internus. A third dorsal muscle to the femur, the M. ilio-trochantericus, was differentiated in Hypsilophodon. The well-developed depression at the base of the fourth trochanter was the main insertion area of the M. caudifemoralis longus. The large size of the fourth trochanter of the ornithopod femur lengthened the moment arm of the M. caudifemoralis brevis during the initial part of femoral retraction; its pendant form resulted from stresses imposed by part of the M. gastrocnemius which originated on the tendon connecting the trochanter to the fibula. POSTILLA 131: 64 p. 15 MAY 1969.


Aim: To formulate Ubidecarenone chewable tablet containing 400mg and to evaluate organoleptic characters such as taste and flavour along with in vitro release studies. Plan of the work: Pre-formulation studies
Drug- Excipent compatability studies, Assay
Water content
In process Quality Control Checks for derived properties like Bulk Density, Tapped
Density, Compressibility Index, Hausner's Ratio and Angle of Repose for drug and
blends to be determined.
Optimization of concentration of ingredients such as Flavours, Sweeteners,
Disintegrant, Wetting agent, Glidant and Lubricant.
Formulation of Chewable tablets with optimized ingredients.
Evaluation of chewable tablets for post compression parameters like Uniformity of
Weight, Thickness, Hardness, Friability, Disintegration Time, Assay and in vitro drug
release characteristics to be studied.
Palatability test has to be done for the optimized batch.
Accelerated Stability Studies of the Ubidecarenone chewable tablets packed in 75 cc
Amber coloured HDPE Bottle with 33 mm PP Child Resistant Cap with Induction
sealed having 1 g of 6 g / yard cotton as dunnage, and 2 no's of 1 g Silica gel canister
as desiccant; shall be determined at 40 ± 2°C / 75 ± 5% RH at one month interval for
3 months and the following are used as raiders for evaluation while comparing with
Initial,
Appearancem, Uniformity of weight,Thickness and Hardness, Disintegration Time, Water content, Assay . Dissolution studies SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION:The aim of the present study was to formulate Ubidecarenone chewable tablets and
was achieved.
Ubidecarenone raw material had poor flow characteristics. Hence, it was blended
using directly compressible excipients which improve the flow property of the blend
and chewable tablets were formulated by direct compression.
The excipients used in the formulation were subjected to Drug- Excipient
compatibility study and found that the excipients were compatible with the drug.
Optimization study for flavouring agent was conducted and found that the
Combination of Orange flavour (0.83%) and Mint flavour (0.21%) were found to be
palatable.
Optimization study for sweetening agent was conducted and as a result 1.66% of
Aspartame and 0.42% of Saccharin Sodium were optimized and it was used to get
good sweet taste.
5% of Crospovidone (Polyplasdone XL 10) was optimized to get a rapid
disintegration of tablets.
Poloxamer 407 (Lutrol Micro 127 in 0.83%) produced a drug release of 88.25% at the
end of 45 minutes and it complies with USP limits. Thus it was optimized as good
wetting agent.
Colloidal Silicon Dioxide (Cabosil in 0.5%) and Sodium Stearyl Fumarate (Pruv in
0.5%) were optimized as the glidant and lubricant to produce tablets without sticking,
picking and striation.
The optimized formulation blend has a good flow property based on its angle of
repose value.
The optimized formulation blend (E III) was compressed by direct compression
technique in 16 station tablet compression machine using 21 x 10 mm caplet shaped
punches.
The formulated chewable tablets were evaluated for post compression parameters and
found that they were uniform in weight, thickness and hardness. The friability was
within the limits.
The disintegration time of chewable tablets for finalized batch (E III) was 1 minute 45
seconds. � The drug content of the chewable tablets was 98.14% and is within the USP limits
(90-110%).
Drug release of 88.25% was observed at the end of 45 minutes and 99.75% at the end
of 90 minutes for optimized batch (E III) and it was within the USP limits.
The formulated chewable tablets were subjected to accelerated stability studies and
the tablets were found to be stable.
The Ubidecarenone in the form of chewable tablets (400mg) will improve the
compliance of Parkinsonism patients.


Introduction: In photomicrography, two fundamental problems often arise in practice: The higher the magnification and the higher the thickness or three dimensional extension of the specimen, the lower is the depth of focus which can result in parts of the specimen being indistinct. The larger the area of the specimen, the lower is the resolution in images showing the specimen in a total view. Additional problems will occur, when the lowest magnification of the respective microscope is not low enough for inclusion of the specimen's total size so that only parts of the specimen will be visible in photo micrographic images. Table 1 presents the focal depth and lateral resolution of microscopic objectives with regard to their magnification and numerical aperture (modified from [4] and [7]). In this article, several solutions for these problems are described and discussed, based on optical components and specific software tools for computer-based image processing.


: Introduction: Myocardial infarction (MI) remains a leading cause of death worldwide. Myocardial ischemia occurs as a result of plaque build up in the coronary arteries, a disease formally known as atherosclerosis or coronary artery disease (CAD). Aims and objectives: The basic aim of the study is to analyse the low HDL levels as a major risk factor of acute myocardial infarction in Pakistan. Material and methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in DHQ teaching hospital Sahiwal during 2018 to 2019. The study was conducted according to the ethical committee of the hospital. The data was collected from 100 patients of both genders. The data was collected from those patients who visited the OPD of the hospital regularly. TC level in serum was measured using the endpoint test method. Results: The data was collected from 100 patients of both genders. The mean age was 45±5.46 years. The proportion of male subjects was higher in groups with high TG levels, while the difference in age was not statistically significant. With the increase in TG level, the proportion of people with a history of smoking increased, body mass index (BMI), SBP, DBP, FBG, UA and the rate of MI increased, while HDL-C level gradually decreased, and the differences were all statistically significant. Differences in TC and LDL-C levels were not statistically


Pleuropulmonary blastoma (PPB) is a very rare, highly aggressive and malignant tumor originating in either lungs or pleura. It is extremely uncommon and is considered to have a very poor prognosis. It is characterized by mesenchymal elements (including undifferentiated cartilaginous and muscle cells or fibroblasts of varying differentiation) and epithelial cells. PPB may be exclusively presented as a cystic component (type I), a solid component (type III) or both solid and cystic ones (type II). It is important to remember that the symptoms of PPB are nonspecific with frequent tense pneumothorax. Clinical observation of a complex PPB (type II) diagnostics in a 3-year-old girl is presented in the article. Key words: pleuropulmonary blastoma, children, oncology. (Onkopediatriya – Oncopediatrics. 2014; 4: 52-55)


Fumonisins are polyketide-derived mycotoxins produced by the maize pathogen Fusarium verticillioides. Previous analyses identified naturally occurring variants of the fungus that are deficient in fumonisin C-10 hydroxylation or that do not produce any fumonisins. In the current study, gene deletion and genetic complementation analyses localized the C-10 hydroxylation deficiency to a cytochrome P450 monooxygenase gene in the fumonisin biosynthetic gene (FUM) cluster. Sequence analysis indicated that the hydroxylation deficiency resulted from a single nucleotide insertion that caused a frame shift in the coding region of the gene. Genetic complementation localized the fumonisin-nonproduction phenotype to the polyketide synthase gene in the FUM cluster, and sequence analysis indicated that the nonproduction phenotype resulted from a nucleotide substitution, which introduced a premature stop codon in the coding region. These results provide the first direct evidence that altered fumonisin production phenotypes of naturally occurring F. verticillioides variants can result from single point mutations in the FUM cluster.


The Voronoi Covariance Measure of a compact set K of R^d is a tensor-valued measure that encodes geometric information on K and which is known to be resilient to Hausdorff noise but sensitive to outliers. In this article, we generalize this notion to any distance-like function delta and define the delta-VCM. We show that the delta-VCM is resilient to Hausdorff noise and to outliers, thus providing a tool to estimate robustly normals from a point cloud approximation. We present experiments showing the robustness of our approach for normal and curvature estimation and sharp feature detection.


When a transformer is initially energised, its iron core is driven into saturation, which will result in high-amplitude magnetising inrush current. For lessening this transient phenomenon, a voltage compensation-type inrush current limiter (VCT-ICL) is presented in this study. The VCT-ICL can automatically insert high impedance to restrain the sudden change in line current. After completing the restriction of inrush current, the VCT-ICL freewheels, and acts as a short circuit. Thus, other than performing the restriction, the VCT-ICL has a negligible effect in the circuit and the transformer seems to connect directly with the voltage source. When a load is connected at the secondary side of the transformer, to adjust the magnitude of DC reactor current so that it is equal to or higher than the peak of line current, there is almost no distortion to the load voltage and current waveforms during the steady state. A 5 kVA single-phase power transformer is used as an example to demonstrate the performance of the proposed limiter. According to the simulated and experimental results, the feasibility of the VCT-ICL has been verified. Moreover, increasing the insulation levels of the related components in the proposed limiter allows it to be applied in high-voltage distribution transformers.


Twitter, a microblogging platform, has developed into an increasingly invaluable information source, where millions of users post a great quantity of tweets with various topics per day. Heterogeneous information networks consisting of multi-type objects and relations are becoming more and more prevalent as an organization form of knowledge and information. The task of linking an entity mention in a tweet with its corresponding entity in a heterogeneous information network is of great importance, for the purpose of enriching heterogeneous information networks with the abundant and fresh knowledge embedded in tweets. However, the entity mention is ambiguous. Additionally, tweets are short and informal, making it difficult to mine enough information from a single tweet for entity linking. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised iterative clustering framework TELHIN to link multiple similar tweets with a heterogeneous information network jointly. Our framework takes three dimensions of tweet similarity into consideration: (1) content similarity, (2) temporal similarity, and (3) user similarity. The appropriate weights of different similarity dimensions for each entity mention are learned iteratively based on the metric learning algorithm by leveraging the pairwise constraints generated automatically. Experiments on real data demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework in comparison with the baselines.


Circular Migration between Europe and Its Neighbourhood: Choice or Necessity? by Anna Triandafyllidou (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 238pp., £55.00 (h/b), ISBN 9780199674510 This volume edited by Anna Triandafyllidou focuses on the topic of circular migration. It takes as a starting point the introduction of the circular migration concept in the EU policy framework with the European Commission Communication 'On Circular Migration and Mobility Partnerships' issued in May 2007 (pp. 1, 22). Recognising an existing gap regarding the 'realities of circular migration on the ground in Europe', the aim of this book is to fill 'this gap, by specifically concentrating on circular migration between EU member states and the region surrounding the EU' (p. 1). The book starts with two contextual chapters: the introductory chapter 1 offers an insight into the concept of circular migration and various debates over it; chapter 2 provides a useful policy and institutional framework on circular migration. The volume includes seven chapters/case studies that analyse the realities of circular migration more in depth in the following sets of countries: Albania and Italy, Albania and Greece, Italy and Morocco, Morocco and Spain, Hungary and Ukraine, Ukraine and Poland, Ukraine and Italy. A comparison between these cases, but also a highlight of the challenges and opportunities and various dynamics of circular migration, is given in the concluding chapter 10. This volume provides a structured theoretical and policy framework of circular migration. Also, the empirical research provides insights on various issues related to circular migration such as welfare policies, gender and migration, high-skilled migration, the labour market, and illegal migration. This combination will prove useful for researchers and policy-makers working on this topic. Despite focusing on EU and EU neighbourhood countries, the questions raised and the findings of the authors may very well serve as a reference for further analysis on circular migration in other regions. The book questions and makes a critical analysis of circular migration's triple-win situation (for the destination and origin countries and for the migrants themselves). Through their analysis, the authors shed light but also raise other questions on the dynamics, benefits and disadvantages of circular migration. The main overall finding of this volume is that the situation on the ground is quite different from what has been promoted by EU initiatives, and labour market dynamics and migrants' agency play a crucial role in shaping circular migration (p. 235). This book is noteworthy not only because of the abundance of research and information it contains but also because it emphasises the need for a stronger relationship between research and policy-making.


Introduction. The most important modern trend is the development of a «green» economy, especially in terms of efficient management of production and consumption waste. The infrastructural component of such a process is the development and adoption of a regional environmental standard that defines the model for the operation of enterprises that use natural resources and authorities in conditions of increased man-made load on the environment. This problem is extremely urgent for the Kemerovo region - Kuzbass because of the decisive role of coal mining and coal processing in the successful functioning of the region. Purpose of the work. To develop a waste management system for an industrial enterprise, as an element of the environmental standard of a coal-mining region. Research methods. The theoretical part of research includes the analysis of domestic and foreign scientific literature on the innovative organizational and technological solutions aimed at the efficiency of production and consumption waste management. The practical part of work was built on statistical processing of the official ecological data of the enterprise on production and consumption waste. Research results. A waste management system for an industrial enterprise is developed, which can be effectively integrated into the environmental standard of a coal-mining region to ensure its sustainable development. Conclusions. The developed waste management system, as an element of the environmental standard of a coalmining region, can be used by environmental authorities to determine the vector of development of a particular territory in the region in the field of waste management. The use of this algorithm by the enterprise will reduce the complexity of choosing the optimal environmentally friendly managerial solution aimed at reducing the anthropogenic load and increasing its economic performance.


Halophytes are capable of resisting salinity, and their root system is the part in direct contact with the saline soil environment. The aim of this study was to compare the responses of root morphology and rhizosphere characteristics to salinity between a halophyte, Suaeda salsa (suaeda), and a glycophyte, Beta vulgaris L. (sugar beet). The soil salt content was set to four levels (0.7, 1.2, 1.7, and 2.7%) by NaCl-treated plants. We investigated the soil pH, EC, nutrients and soil, plant ion (Na+, Cl−, K+, and Mg2+) concentration to evaluate the rhizospheric processes, and salt tolerance of suaeda by the root mat method. The highest biomass was in the 1.2% salt level for suaeda and in the 0.7% salt level for sugar beet. The root length and root surface area of suaeda showed similar trends to biomass, but the root diameter decreased by 11.5–17.9% with higher salinity. The Na+, Cl−, and K+ accumulations in the shoot of suaeda displayed higher than that in sugar beet, while the Mg2+ accumulation was lower in suaeda than that in sugar beet. High salinity resulted in increased pH and EC values in the rhizosphere for suaeda, but lower values of these parameters for sugar beet. Under high salinity, the Olsen phosphorus content was 0.50 g·kg−1 and 0.99 g·kg−1 higher in the rhizosphere than in the non-rhizosphere for suaeda and sugar beet. We concluded that the two species [halophyte, Suaeda salsa (suaeda), and a glycophyte, B. vulgaris L. (sugar beet)] showed diverse approaches for nutrient absorption under salinity stress. Suaeda altered its root morphology (smaller root diameter and longer roots) under salt stress to increase the root surface area, while sugar beet activated rhizospheric processes to take up more nutrients.


After decades of successful expansion, The Reader's Digest Association's products were mature. With an average readership age for the flagship Reader's Digest magazine of 50.3 in 2004, efforts to develop new products had so far failed to entice a significant number of younger customers. Following a financial downturn in 1996, positive financial results remained illusive. Several major changes instituted by Thomas O. Ryder, CEO since 1998, including acquisitions, re-capitalization, restructuring and systematic re-engineering of the corporate culture, had proven mildly successful, but RDA, as well as the entire publishing industry, faced a persistent decline in profitability. Could RDA fulfill its stated mission to create "products that inform, enrich, entertain and inspire people of all ages and cultures around the world", and could it do this by continuing to rely on the 80-year old Reader's Digest magazine?


This report describes the background and structure of the SEL organization, the SEL process improvement approach, and its experimentation and data collection process. Results of some sample SEL studies are included, it includes a discussion of the overall implication of trends observed over 17 years of process improvement efforts and looks at the return on investment based on a comparison of the total investment in process improvement with the measurable improvements seen in the organization's software product.