Abstract We have studied by in-situ neutron diffraction the recrystallisation behaviour of HDA ice in the pressure range 0.3–3.9 GPa, i.e. the entire stability range of HDA. We report quantitative and detailed structural information on the various high pressure ice phases formed metastably at low temperatures. We find that between ~0.4–0.7 GPa, HDA transforms at 175 K to mainly phases IV and V, and XII, and at 1–1.2 GPa to a mixture of ice VI and XII. On isothermal compression at 100 K, HDA recrystallises to an ice VII-like structure which is either partially ordered or mixed with ice VIII. Full structural data obtained by Rietveld refinements are reported for all these phases at low temperatures. Phases IV, V and XII are fully hydrogen disordered when obtained from HDA. The transformation behaviour in the 0.5–1.2 GPa range is in good agreement with the picture reported from quenched-recovered samples, although some differences persist in the recrystallisation to IV/XII mixtures. The recrystallisation behaviour of HDA over the entire pressure range appears to follow closely that of liquid water under pressure.


Prilled and poultry fat were fed at 2% to 58-wk-old hens and at 4% to 2-wk-old hens for 8 wk. Comparisons by dietary fat source were made within age groups for BW, feed consumption, egg production, egg weight, yolk cholesterol, and fatty acid composition, egg quality, plasma cholesterol, dietary fatty acid utilization, dietary ME, and gastrointestinal transit time of feed. Old hens fed prilled fat had lower egg weight, increased egg production, lower plasma high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (P < 0.08), and reduced energy. Young hens fed prilled fat were lighter in weight and had lower plasma total and low density and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol. Young hens fed prilled fat had a lower utilization of stearic acid (P < 0.07) but a higher utilization of linoleic acid. In both groups, prilled fat increased yolk saturated fatty acids and decreased polyunsaturated fatty acids. Gastrointestinal transit time of feed was increased by 29 to 31 min (P < 0.09) in young hens fed prilled fat.


In the 1920s, many black regional jazz bands were recorded and became products of the entertainment industry, which was altering the face of America from the handmade, homemade, homemade society of the ninteenth century to the mass-produced, mass-consumed technological culture of the twentieth century. Making use of the files of African American newspapers, such as the "Chicago Defender," as well as published and archival oral history interviews, Hennessey explores the contradictions that musicians often faced as African Americans, as trained professional musicians, and as the products of differing regional experiences. From Jazz to Swing follows jazz from its beginnings in the regional black musics of the turn of the century in New Orleans, Chicago, New York, and the territories that make up the rest of the country.


This study focuses on highly accurate prediction of the onset of type-2 diabetes. We investigated whether prediction accuracy can be improved by utilizing lab test data obtained from health checkups and incorporating health claim text data such as medically diagnosed diseases with ICD10 codes and pharmacy information. In a previous study, prediction accuracy was increased slightly by adding diagnosis disease name and independent variables such as prescription medicine. Therefore, in the current study we explored more suitable models for prediction by using state-of-the-art techniques such as XGBoost and long short-term memory (LSTM) based on recurrent neural networks. In the current study, text data was vectorized using word2vec, and the prediction model was compared with logistic regression. The results obtained confirmed that onset of type-2 diabetes can be predicted with a high degree of accuracy when the XGBoost model is used.


This article discusses the successful bid for the 2016 Lillehammer winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) and its incorporation within the broader youth sport strategy within organised sport in Norway. Although it is widely accepted that the argument that major sports events are a solution to problems of low levels of involvement in sport is not generally supported by evidence Norwegian sport organisations used this argument as a primary justification for hosting the YOG. The aim of the research is to investigate: a) why NIF used this argument even though there was so little evidence to support its validity; and b) how and why this seemingly contradictory argument was successfully 'sold' to the public. The research was guided by the methodological approach of discourse analysis and the theoretical framework of the neo-institutionalist concept of legitimacy. Based on this analysis I show how the institutionalised rhetoric of the Norwegian youth sport policy (YSP) adopted by the Norwegian Olympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF) became the main argument for the YOG bid. Further findings show that rather than responding to the youth sport participation problem, NIF used the development of youth sport as a convenient rationale to bid for the YOG in order to secure legitimacy from two of its main stakeholders – the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Norwegian government. Rather than hosting the YOG as solution to a youth sport participation problem, NIF used the institutionalised rhetoric of the YSP, defining a problem to fit the solution.


Connectomics is a sub-field of Neuroscience aimed at determining connectomes – exact structures of neurons and their synaptic connections in nervous systems. A number of ongoing initiatives at the present time are working towards the goal of ascertaining the connectomes or parts thereof of various organisms. Determining the detailed physiological response properties of all the neurons in these connectomes is out of reach of current experimental technology. It is therefore unclear, to what extent knowledge of the connectome alone will advance a mechanistic understanding of computation occurring in these neuronal circuits, especially when the high-level function(s) of the said circuit is unknown. We are pursuing a research program to build theory in order to investigate these issues. In previously published work [1], towards this end, we have developed a theory of connectomic constraints for feedforward networks of neurons. Specifically, for feedforward networks equipped with neurons that obey a deterministic spiking neuron model, we asked if just by knowing the structure of a network, we could rule out spike-timed computations that it could be doing, no matter what response properties each of its neurons may have. Our neurons were abstract mathematical objects that satisfied a small number of axioms that correspond to certain broadly-obeyed properties of neurons. Here, we develop additional theoretical tools and notions to address these questions. The idea is to study the space of all possible spike-train to spike-train transformations. We are interested in asking how the subset of transformations spanned by networks of specific architectures can be related to hierarchical subsets of the space that are characterized by particular mathematical properties of transformations. In particular, given such a hierarchy of subsets, what is the "smallest" subset that contains the set of transformations spanned by networks of a specific class of architectures? Even if one cannot establish such a subset exactly, proving bounds on it (according to the hierarchy) might offer insight. After setting up the mathematical framework to make these notions precise, we construct explicit classes of hierarchies and prove a number of such lower bounds.


Feature selection for ensembles has shown to be an effective strategy for ensemble creation due to its ability of producing good subsets of features, which make the clas-sifiers of the ensemble disagree on difficult cases. In this paper we present an ensemble feature selection approach based on a hierarchical multi-objective genetic algorithm. The underpinning paradigm is the " overproduce and choose ". The algorithm operates in two levels. Firstly, it performs feature selection in order to generate a set of classifiers and then it chooses the best team of classifiers. In order to show its ro-bustness, the method is evaluated in two different contexts: supervised and unsupervised feature selection. In the former, we have considered the problem of handwritten digit recognition and used three different feature sets and multi-layer perceptron neural networks as classifiers. In the latter, we took into account the problem of handwritten month word recognition and used three different feature sets and hidden Markov models as classifiers. Experiments and comparisons with classical methods, such as Bagging and Boosting, demonstrated that the proposed methodology brings compelling improvements when classifiers have to work with very low error rates. Comparisons have been done by considering the recognition rates only.


Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS) is a rare genetic disorder, distinguished by the following characteristics: macrosomia, macroglossia, abdominal wall deformities such as omphalocele, visceromegaly, hemihypertrophy and elevated risk of developing tumors such as nephroblastoma or hepatoblastoma. A 2.5-year-old female patient came to the Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry with a complaint of abnormally large tongue along with difficulty in swallowing and slurred speech. On clinical examination, the built of the patient was greater than normal. Intraoral examination revealed an enlarged tongue that led to the inability to close her mouth. Preliminary tests like blood tests, ECG, etc., were done before proceeding further to correct the enlarged tongue surgically under general anesthesia. The patient was intubated nasally, and a keyhole incision pattern was marked on the dorsum of the tongue at the central part. Reduction glossectomy was performed using electrocautery and the two parts were thereafter sutured with 5-0 vicryl sutures. The patient was kept under observation for one week and then discharged. Satisfactory healing was observed. Early diagnosis, close monitoring by healthcare specialists, and a thorough treatment plan that includes speech therapy, food support, and dental care can help manage the issues associated with BWS macroglossia.


A comprehensive review of the current state of research and use of task analysis for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), this multi-authored and diligently edited handbook offers the best reference source available on this diverse subject whose foundations date to the turn of the last century. Each chapter begins with an abstract and is cross-referenced and indexed to other chapters. Divided into five parts--each prefaced with a rationale and brief summary of its chapters--this volume presents contemporary thinking about task analysis together with a representative set of methods. Part I opens with seven chapters that form a book-within-a-book and introduce most of the main concepts, methods, and techniques discussed in more detail in later parts. Part II describes the use of task analysis in commercial IT projects and recognizes some of the important constraints on its use. Part III primarily concentrates on human issues--most relying on some particular psychological or ergonomic model. Part IV presents task analysis methods targeted at software engineering development. These methods, particularly where supported by CASE tools, are therefore practical for use in commercial projects. Lastly, Part V focuses on outstanding issues associated with task analysis, highlighting the main problems with it and analyzing how these might be resolved in due course.


The scalar sector of the 3-3-1 model with axion like particle is studied in detail. In the model under consideration, there are two kinds of scalar fields: the bilepton scalars carrying lepton number two and the ordinary ones without lepton number. We show that there is no mixing among these two kinds of scalar fields. We analyze in detail the CP-odd scalar sector of the model to find the physical fields of the axion like particle and a pseudoscalar with mass in the range 100 GeV to 1 TeV. The results are different from others which have been published before. The CP-even scalar sector of the model is analyzed as well. The results of our analysis of the scalar sector allow us to accommodate scalar masses in the $100$ GeV-$1$ TeV region. Furthermore we analyze the implications of the model in several flavor changing neutral decays of the top quark as well as in rare top quark decays. Besides that, the leptonic decays of the SM like Higgs boson as well as the meson oscillations are also analyzed. Our numerical analysis show that the model under consideration is consistent with the experimental constraints imposed by these processes.


In this study, a new amperometric biosensor based on immobilized uricase was developed for the determination of uric acid. Polypyrrole - p -toluene sulphonate film was prepared on the surface of a platinum (Pt) electrode by electropolymerization of pyrrole in the presence of p -toluene sulphonate as an anionic dopant. Uricase enzyme were immobilized in polypyrrole - p -toluene sulphonate via the entrapment method. Determination of uric acid was performed by oxidation of enzymically generated H 2 O 2 at 0.3 V. Some factors that affect response current were studied such as temperature, pH and substrate concentration. Operation stability and storage stability of the biosensor was determined. The biosensor retained 76.6% of its initial performance after 30 assays and it lost 58% of its initial performance after 60 days. Effects of interferants on the current response of the biosensor were examined. The performance of the biosensor was measured in serum of healthy individuals.


The accuracy of the formulation of the zakat fund utilization program still has not found effective results. This is because the evaluation measuring instruments are classic and conventional. Even the program is left without evaluation of the results. Every financial institution should have modern measuring instruments capable of controlling and ensuring its success. This study aims to analyze the implementation of the program and the social rate of return of the Tangguh Cart program at LAZNAS Daarut Tauhiid Peduli Surabaya. This success impact measurement instrument uses the Social Return On Investment (SROI) model. This study found that there are 8 impacts resulting from the program, namely increasing the income of members of the tough cart business group, increasing the business assets of the tough cart group, increasing knowledge and skills in running a business, improving communication and organizational skills, increasing business creativity, increasing awareness and ability to give some of its sustenance to others, improving the beauty and cleanliness of the environment, and increase operating income. The greatest impact value is derived from the impact of increasing the income of members of the resilient cart business group. The results showed that the value of social returns reached a ratio of 2.57:1, meaning that every Rp 1 invested would provide a profit of IDR 2.57 for stakeholders


The doping of nitrogen into reduced graphene oxide (NRGO) is achieved by reduction of graphene oxide with hydrazine hydrate and ammonium hydroxide. Boron (BRGO) or phosphorus (PRGO) doped reduced graphene oxide (RGO) is obtained by annealing of RGO (prepared by reduction with sodium borohydride) with boric acid or phosphoric acid, respectively. The successful preparation of the doped RGO is confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. A remarkable enhancement in thermal oxidative stability of RGO is achieved by doping of these heteroatoms. The enthalpy values of BRGO and PRGO during the thermal oxidation decrease remarkably compared with that of RGO, indicating the reduced heat release by the doped heteroatoms. The mechanism for improvement in thermal oxidative resistance by doping of heteroatoms is demonstrated clearly. Doping of boron atom not only lowers the electrons density on the reactive carbon atoms and the Fermi level of carbon, but also contribute to graphitization of RGO, leading to inhibition of thermal oxidation of RGO. Phosphorus containing complexes, in the forms of metaphosphates, C–O–PO3 and C–PO3 groups, can poison the active sites on RGO and function as physical barrier for the access of oxygen. Retarding oxidation of RGO against air may be strengthened by forming more thermostable structure in NRGO, for example: pyrrolic-N (NC2), pyridinic-N (NC2) and graphitic-N (NC3). The doping of heteroatoms will provide an important strategy for broadening RGO application at the elevated temperature.


The incidence and intensity of bacteremia following tooth extraction in children were measured by blood culture. The effects on bacteremia of the number and type of teeth extracted, oral hygiene, gingival health, presence of abscess, and antibiotic prophylaxis were assessed. Antibiotic prophylaxis reduced the incidence of bacteremia from 63% to 35%. The intensity of bacteremia was 2 cfu/mL of blood or less in 80% of the children. An agar pour-plate method of blood culture was significantly more effective than broth in culturing the small volumes of inoculum. Of 83 bacterial strains characterized, 39 were strict anaerobes or micro-aerophilic, and the remainder mainly streptococci. S. mitior and S. sanguis were most commonly isolated, often in pure culture, and were generally sensitive to antibiotics. No direct association was demonstrated between the plaque and gingival indices and incidence of bacteremia or between the number of teeth extracted and the incidence or intensity of bacteremia. It is concluded that all children at risk from infective endocarditis require antibiotic prophylaxis prior to tooth extraction, since it is impossible for the likelihood or intensity of transient bacteremia to be clinically predicted.


Aspects of batch centrifugal operation are considered in terms of washing, discharging and energy consumption with a view to lowering the operating cost within the sugar factory. In addition the impacts of MA and CV on losses in continuous centrifugals are assessed. The impact of poor batch centrifugal operation is calculated in terms of the cost of evaporating excess wash water, recrystallising dissolved sugar, and the load on the factory. The cost of sugar lost through continuous centrifugal screens due to both incorrect screen selection and poor massecuite boiling is estimated. Results indicate that optimised modern batch centrifugals have higher sugar yields, minimising recirculation of sugars, thus lowering the overall production costs and load on the factory. Improved sugar boiling and better screen selection will prevent sugar being lost to the final molasses, resulting in the recovery of more sugar. The importance of good centrifugal operation should not be underestimated as the costs of poor operation are very high, in some cases running to many thousands of US dollars per year.


Stable structures of polar, nonpolar, and semipolar GaN surfaces undergoing oxide vapor phase epitaxy (OVPE) growth were examined with first-principles calculations. The relationships between temperature and pressure growth conditions and stable surface structures are described in surface phase diagrams. The results revealed that an O atom was stably incorporated into the N vacancy site in the N-polar and nonpolar surfaces. The desorption energy of the O atom from the GaN surfaces was estimated to be about 7 eV or higher. This indicates that the O atom did not readily desorb from the GaN surfaces under OVPE growth conditions at 1500 K. The desorption energy from the surface was the highest and that from the surface was the smallest among the calculated values. There was no significant difference in desorption energy among other surfaces.


Ontology tools play a key role in the development and maintenance of the Semantic Web. Hence, we need in one hand to objectively evaluate these tools, in order to analyse whether they can deal with actual and future requirements, and in the other hand to develop benchmark suites for performing these evaluations. In this paper, we describe the method we have followed to design and implement a benchmark suite for evaluating the performance of the WebODE ontology engineering workbench, along with the conclusions obtained after using this benchmark suite for evaluating WebODE.


Aims: To analyse which factors influence nursing home placement (NHP) and time until NHP in long-term cholinesterase inhibitor treated patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: The Swedish Alzheimer Treatment Study (SATS) is an open, on-going, non-randomized, multicentre study in a routine clinical setting. Patients with the diagnosis of AD, living at home at the time of inclusion, receive treatment with donepezil, rivastigmine or galantamine. They are assessed with MMSE, ADAS-cog, IADL and PSMS at baseline and every 6 months over the course of 3 years. The first 883 subjects that had the opportunity to complete the full study were investigated concerning NHP; 210 of these patients were admitted to nursing homes. The following risk factors for the event NHP (Chi-square and T-tests) and the time until NHP (Cox regression) were investigated: gender, APOE e4-carrier, living alone or with spouse, education level, age, illness duration, cognitive and functional level at baseline and decline in cognition and function prior to NHP. Results: Females (p=0.002), patients living alone (p<0.001), older age (p=0.002), longer illness duration (p=0.004) and lower cognitive and functional status at baseline (p<0.001) are risk factors for admission to a nursing home. The distribution of time until NHP was significantly affected by gender (p=0.048), living alone (p<0.001) and MMSE and IADL score at baseline (p<0.001). Conclusions: Female gender, patients living alone and lower cognitive or functional ability at baseline demonstrated larger risk of early NHP. Cognitive or functional decline prior to NHP did not influence time until NHP. (Less)


In order to evaluate the effects of domestic landfill leachate to bivalves Corbicula fluminea, clams were exposed to different leachate concentrations (v/v): 2, 3, 6 and 10 percent, corresponding to dilutions observed along a stream that receives this effluent, or only to clean water for comparisons. After 5 and 15 days of exposure the activity of the biotransformation enzymes 7-ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) and glutathione S-transferase (GST), the multixenobiotic resistance mechanism (MXR) and lipid peroxidation (LPO) in gills and digestive gland and metallothionein (MT) content in gills were evaluated. Differences in biomarkers responses were observed between gills and digestive gland, except for MXR that decreased in both tissues of clams exposed to 6 percent for 5 days. EROD activity in gills was reduced in all leachate concentrations after 5 days and only in 2 percent after 15 days exposure, while an EROD increase was observed in digestive gland after 15 days exposure to 6 percent. GST activity increased only in the gills of clams exposed to 10 percent for 5 days. LPO varied between tissues and different conditions. A significant increase in LPO was observed in the gills, after 5 days exposure to 2 and 6 percent, and in digestive gland after 5 and 15 days exposure to 2 and 3 percent. MT content in the gills increased after 15 days exposure to 2 percent. In conclusion, different leachate concentrations tested here caused biochemical changes in C. fluminea, but due to the observed variability in biomarkers responses among leachate concentrations, it was difficult to determine patterns or thresholds concentrations. & 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


With this work we propose spatio-temporal sampling strategies for video using a lenslet array computational imaging system and explore the opportunities and challenges in the design of compressive video sensors and corresponding processing algorithms. The redundancies in video streams are exploited by (a) sampling the sub-apertures of a multichannel (TOMBO) camera, and (b) by the computational reconstruction to achieve low power and low complexity video sensors. A spatial and a spatio-temporal sampling strategy are considered, taking into account the feasibility for implementation in the focal-plane readout hardware. The algorithms used to reconstruct the video frames from measurements are also presented.


We present the Extragalactic Serendipitous Swift Survey (ExSeSS), providing a new well-defined sample constructed from the observations performed using the Swift X-ray Telescope. The ExSeSS sample consists of 79,342 sources detected in the medium (1-2 keV), hard (2-10 keV) or total (0.3-10 keV) energy bands, covering 2086.6 deg2 of sky across a flux range of f0.3-10keV ∼ 10−15 − 10−10 erg s−1 cm−2. Using the new ExSeSS sample we present measurements of the differential number counts of X-ray sources as a function of 2-10 keV flux that trace the population of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in a previously unexplored regime. We find that taking the line-of-sight absorption column density into account has an effect on the differential number count measurements and is vital to obtain agreement with previous results. In the hard band, we obtain a good agreement between the ExSeSS measurements and previous, higher energy data from NuSTAR and Swift/BAT when taking into account the varying column density of the ExSeSS sample as well as the X-ray spectral parameters of each of the samples we are comparing to. We also find discrepancies between the ExSeSS measurements and AGN population synthesis models, indicating a change in the properties of the AGN population over this flux range that is not fully described by current models at these energies, hinting at a larger, moderately obscured population at low redshifts (z ≲ 0.2) that the models are not currently taking into account.


The exclusive ability of dendritic cells (DCs) to stimulate primary and secondary immune responses favors the use of antigen‐loaded human monocyte‐derived DCs (MoDCs) in vaccinations against tumors. Previous studies demonstrated that PGE2 is fundamental during MoDC maturation to facilitate migration toward lymph node‐derived chemokines. A recent study challenged the use of PGE2, as PGE2 induced IDO in mature MoDCs. In MoDCs compatible for clinical use, we now demonstrate that PGE2 is responsible for IDO induction if matured by soluble CD40 ligand, LPS, or cytokines. In contrast, IDO expression in MoDCs matured by TLR3 triggering occurs independently of PGE2. It is surprising that despite active IDO protein, MoDCs matured with PGE2 display a greater potential to stimulate naïve CD4+ and CD8+ T cell proliferation, which is not increased further by IDO inhibition. Moreover, we found elevated levels of tryptophanyl‐tRNA‐synthetase (TTS) in T cells cultured with PGE2‐matured MoDCs. Our data demonstrate that PGE2 induces IDO in MoDCs but that T cell‐stimulating capacities of PGE2‐matured MoDCs overcome IDO activity, probably through TTS induction. As PGE2 is critical for DC migration and enhances the capability of MoDCs to induce T cell proliferation, we highly recommend supplementing DC maturation stimuli with PGE2 for use in clinical trials.


The development of linear and nonlinear /spl Hscr//sub /spl infin// controllers for a monocycle is outlined. Specifications for the design emphasize performance with limited control activity. The controllers are shown to have slightly different stabilization properties, but the /spl Lscr//sub 2/-gain of the system with the nonlinear /spl Hscr//sub /spl infin// controllers is slightly better and they may realize a faster tracking response by using larger control actions.


Competition for prey resources among ecologically similar populations that occur in sympatry can be reduced by spatiotemporal resource partitioning. Understanding patterns of habitat use of cetaceans can be difficult since they are highly mobile and can have large home ranges. We used passive acoustic monitoring at 15 sites along the coast of Washington State, USA, to assess habitat use patterns of 2 sympatric populations of fish-eating killer whales Orcinus orca: northern residents (NRKW) and southern residents (SRKW). This area is part of the ocean distributions of a number of important runs of Chinook salmon Oncorhyncus tshawytscha, the preferred prey of both populations, and is proposed critical habitat for SRKW. We compared monthly occurrence of both populations at recorder locations grouped by their proximity to the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the north and the Columbia River to the south in one analysis and by their distance from shore in a second analysis. NRKW and SRKW were detected throughout the year with spring and fall peaks in occurrence. The northernmost sites accounted for 93% of NRKW detections, while less than half of SRKW detections were at these sites. SRKW were most frequently detected at nearshore sites (83% of detections), while the majority of NRKW detections were at mid-shelf and deep sites (94% of detections). This study provides further information about the habitat use of these resident killer whale populations with implications for their management and conservation.


The climate-smart agriculture (CSA) concept reflects an ambition to improve the integration of agriculture development and climate responsiveness. It aims to achieve food security and broader development goals under a changing climate and increasing food demand. CSA initiatives sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience, and reduce/remove greenhouse gases (GHGs), and require planning to address trade-offs and synergies between these three pillars: productivity, adaptation, and mitigation [1].


Abstract In contrast to the immense effort that has been put into the geological survey and stratigraphic study of the Neogene of Bocas del Toro region (Panama), little research has been done on the systematics of this region's rich gastropod assemblages. This is the first paper dealing primarily with the Bocas Neogene gastropod assemblages (Strombidae) since the pioneer work of Olsson (1922). Neogene strombid assemblages of the Dominican Republic have recently been reviewed and updated, and, therefore, the Strombidae are a suitable starting point for the revision of the gastropod assemblages from the Neogene of Bocas del Toro. Six species of Strombus are described, three of them new: S. acanthospira n. sp., S. pugiloides, S. gatunensis, S. elegantissimus n. sp., S. vermeiji n. sp. and S. cf. floridanus.


This paper takes its starting point in the literature dealing with "merger waves". A merger wave basically denotes a period of time when an abnormal amount of mergers and acquisitions takes place. Such merger waves are usually described as occurring in cyclical patterns, and a number of them have been described over the last centuries. Merger waves are mostly studied as a macro level phenomenon, as an aggregate of mergers and acquisitions occurring over time within an industry or in the general business environment. A merger or an acquisition inevitably changes the type of linkages between the involved companies since two companies are consolidated to one or get the same owner. Furthermore, earlier studies show that a merger or an acquisition may change the involved companies' relationships to customers and suppliers, as well as to competitors and partners. However, what is lacking in the literature is a deeper understanding of how merger waves emerge (and evolve) through structural linkages between firms. Mergers and acquisitions are strategic decisions made at the micro-level, i.e. in companies, that potentially accumulate into merger waves and thereby become manifested at the macro-level. It is interesting to ask what happens in between these levels, in networks of inter-firm relationships, which ultimately mediate the emergence of merger waves. Therefore, in this paper we will examine acquiring companies' inter-firm linkages in order to shed light on the meso-level of merger waves.A number of questions drive our analysis. Who gets involved in acquisitions besides the acquirer and the target? Is the merger wave just a result of the strategic actions of a few active acquirers, so called "sharks", or are the waves truly an industry-wide phenomenon? And to whom do merger waves matter? Do they involve only a few active companies or should every firm in the business be concerned? Is it possible to connect several acquisitions through inter-firm linkages over time, and in this way describe the emergence of a merger wave? In these analyses, different perspectives come to use, and ultimately the question should be asked whether it is at all relevant to talk about merger waves.The empirical material consists of data on 723 acquisitions that were made between 1994 and 2003 in Sweden. The acquiring companies are either IT-companies or companies acquiring IT-companies. Thus, the setting represents a turbulent era, which often is referred to as the "IT-boom", "IT-crash" or "IT-bubble" with many start-ups, but also with many mergers and acquisitions. By analysing acquisitions, it is possible to identify active and less active acquirers over the time period. Also, by studying inter-firm linkages, not only to the target, but also some customers of the acquirer and the target, we are able to "decompose" the merger wave and show that strategic actions, such as acquisitions, may have wider consequences to the business through the inter-firm linkages forming business networks.


We demonstrate a new and simple method of forming light-guiding interconnections in an integrated optical circuit. This involves bridging the devices with a thin film having tapered ends that form naturally during the deposition process. Experiments show that there is no specific requirement for the thickness, refractive index, or relative position of the bridging film. A theory of composite waveguides provides an understanding of these interconnections.


The purpose of the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) project CP-1038 is to evaluate and develop non-thermal plasma (NTP) reactor technology for Department of Defense (DoD) air emissions control applications. The primary focus is on oxides of nitrogen (NO{sub x}) and a secondary focus on hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), especially volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Examples of NO{sub x} sources are jet engine test cells (JETCs) and diesel-engine powered electrical generators. Examples of VOCs are organic solvents used in painting, paint-stripping, and parts cleaning. Because pollutant-containing air-emission streams within the Department of Defense (DoD) frequently span a broad range of pollutant concentrations, flow rates, and gas conditions (e.g., temperature, humidity), a single type of NTP reactor is not expected to fit all types of emissions streams. Additionally, stand-alone NTP reactors may provide neither an adequate means of pollutant removal nor an acceptable economic solution. Therefore, hybrid systems (combinations of different NTP reactor types or architectures), which employ adsorbents and/or catalytic media are being examined by researchers in this field. This report is intended to provide a preliminary summary analysis of a few representative hybrid systems as a means of introducing the hybrid or staged-system concept.


The accurate prediction of ductile fracture behaviour plays an important role in structural integrity assessments of critical engineering structures under fully plastic regime, including nuclear reactors and piping systems. Many structural steels and aluminium alloys generally exhibit significant increases in fracture toughness, characterized by the J-integral, over the first few mm of stable crack extension (Δa), often accompanied by large increases in background plastic deformation. Conventional testing programs to measure crack growth resistance (J-Δa) curves employ three-point bend, SEN(B), or compact, CT. However, laboratory testing of fracture specimens to measure resistance curves (J-Δa) consistently reveals a marked effect of absolute specimen size, geometry, relative crack size (a/W ratio) and loading mode (tension vs. bending) on R-curves. These effects observed in R-curves have enormous practical implications in defect assessments and repair decisions of in-service structures under low constraint conditions. Structural components falling into this category include pressurized piping systems with surface flaws that form during fabrication or during in-service operation.This paper presents the on-going work to develop specimens and test procedures to study geometry effects (e.g., triaxiality effects) in the brittle to ductile transition of carbon-manganese steels, the basic idea being to compare the results obtained on these specimens with the results obtained on CT specimens. A clamped SENT specimen was chosen for this study. Finite element computations have been made to optimize the specimen shape and to develop the η-factor, the shape factor F (to compute K) and the normalized compliance μ. Preliminary tests have been conducted, showing that some adjustments of the test procedure should be made. Tests on new specimens are on-going.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Many transformation systems for program optimization, program synthesis, and program specialization are based on fold/unfold transformations. In this paper, we investigate the semantic properties of a narrowing-based unfolding transformation that is useful to transform rewriting logic theories. We also present a transformation methodology that is able to determine whether an unfolding transformation step would cause incompleteness and avoid this problem by completing the transformed rewrite theory with suitable extra rules. More precisely, our methodology identifies the sources of incompleteness and derives a set of rules that are added to the transformed rewrite theory in order to preserve the semantics of the original theory.


Non-linear models for microwave and millimetre wave devices are commonly based on DC and S-parameter measurements, due to the absence of vectorial large-signal measurements in the past. At present, accurate prototype measurement systems are being developed, which implies that new non-linear modelling techniques can be explored. We will show experimental results of a method that allows the direct extraction of the HEMT's state-functions from vectorial large-signal measurements.


Proximate compositions and physico-chemical characteristics of different brands of evaporated milks in Nigeria were determined using standard methods. The moisture content ranged between 68.85 % and 71.86 %, the ash content 1.32 %-1.96 %, the fat content 7.52 %-8.83 %, the percentage protein 7.65 %-11.42 % and the percentage carbohydrate 7.67 %-11.34 %. Acidity levels (0.50-0.72 %) of all the samples were above the 0.45 % lactic acid minimum literature value, while the energy value ranged between 602.80 KJ/100 g and 676.45 KJ/100 g. The milk samples were also analyzed for some important minerals, viz:- Zn, Fe, Mg, and Ca using Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (FAAS). The levels of these elements were; Zn (4.15-17.85 µg/g); Fe (0.14-1.42 µg/g); Mg (296.00-371.50 µg/g) and Ca (1165.00-1335.50 µg/g) with few exceptions. The results obtained show good agreement with literature values and provide information on the nutritional value of some of the common evaporated milks sold on Nigerian markets. Keywords : Milk, proximate analysis, physico-chemical, AAS IFE Journal of Science Vol. 9 (1) 2007 pp. 109-114


Ankle sprain is a frequent type of sports injury leading to lateral ligament injury. The anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL) is a primary ligamentous stabilizer of the ankle joint and typically the most vulnerable ligament injured in a lateral ankle sprain (LAS). This study aimed to quantitively investigate the effect of the thickness and elastic modulus of ATFL on anterior ankle joint stiffness (AAJS) by developing nine subject-specific finite element (FE) models under acute injury, chronic injury, and control conditions of ATFL. A 120 N forward force was applied at the posterior calcaneus leading to an anterior translation of the calcaneus and talus to simulate the anterior drawer test (ADT). In the results, the ratio of the forward force to the talar displacement was used to assess the AAJS, which increased by 5.85% in the acute group and decreased by 19.78% in the chronic group, compared to those of the control group. An empirical equation described the relationship between AAJS, thickness, and elastic modulus (R-square 0.98). The equation proposed in this study provided an approach to quantify AAJS and revealed the effect of the thickness and the elastic modulus of ATFL on ankle stability, which may shed light on the potential diagnosis of lateral ligament injury.


We provide evidence that lenders differ in their ex post incentives to internalize price-default externalities associated with the liquidation of collateralized debt. Using the mortgage market as a laboratory, we conjecture that lenders with a large share of outstanding mortgages on their balance sheets internalize the negative spillovers associated with the liquidation of defaulting mortgages and are thus less inclined to foreclose. We find that zip codes with higher concentration of outstanding mortgages experience fewer foreclosures, more renegotiations of delinquent mortgages, and smaller house prices declines. These results are not driven by prior local economic conditions, mortgage securitization or unobservable lender characteristics.


In this paper, cloud-based services aimed for the connectivity, monitoring, and management of the IoT devices are presented. To set up a network with a large number of devices in the constrained environment can be a challenge. Also, collecting, storing and analyzing data generated from sensors attached to the devices most often requires developing custom-made applications which imply time and cost consumption. Several cloud providers are offering IoT services that unite needed features into full solution offering connectivity between devices and the cloud, processing of data sent from devices and interaction with connected devices through the application. One of them is AWS IoT (Amazon Internet of Things) which is fully scalable, reliable and simple to use. This platform can collect data from a large number of different devices and connect them to endpoints for other tools, allowing a developer to tie received data into the independent application. Other aspects, like security, resource management, integration and centralized management are also covered. In this paper, we will evaluate the performance of the AWS IoT web services by connecting small, single board computers, like Raspberry Pi through different scenarios.


The Rotterdam-Dokhaven Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) is operational since July 1987.With a biological capacity of 470,000 population equivalents it is not nearly the largest STP in the Netherlands. But an underground sewage treatment plant with a city park on top, in the midst of a developing residential quarter is very unusual. The designers had to be innovative in order to meet the severe environmental requirements based on the Nuisance Act. The plant is characterised by extensive ventilation facilities, a two-step activated sludge process: A-B system, application of PVC-lining on large-scale to prevent concrete corrosion, a separate sludge handling site where the washed ventilation air is expelled by a chimney stack.


Population transfer in three-level atomic systems with high efficiency and selectivity is desirable for practical applications in laser spectroscopy, trace analysis, and isotope separation. The effective excitation method for achieving this population transfer in three-level atomic systems using coherent two-photon excitation with two optimally detuned counterpropagating pulsed lasers, initially investigated analytically assuming monochromatic lasers and Doppler-free systems, is studied numerically by solving the density matrix equations incorporating finite laser linewidth and effective Doppler width. A three-level Yb system is chosen for illustration of numerical results. The effects of laser linewidth and effective Doppler width on the values of optimal detunings and maximum third-level population are discussed.


As the title indicates, the aim of this study was to identify the effectiveness of field training in preparing for the labor market as perceived by An-Najah National University economics and journalism graduates. To that end, the researcher has used the analytical descriptive approach. He developed a 43item questionnaire, covering three main domains: the extent of the training institution's cooperation with the graduates during the practical training period, the extent of commitment of the graduates to the work environment conditions of the training institution, and the extent of the benefits obtained by the graduates after completion of the training in the institution. After presenting the questionnaire to a number of referees to test its validity, the researcher produced an electronic form, using the Google Drive program. He then sent it via SMS to all the study population: all graduates of the Faculty of Economics and Journalism (3,791) who graduated between 2014-2018. Of the total number of graduates, who responded (464), 222 graduates received practical training opportunities in a number of institutions, where they formed a source of access to the study goals. For data analysis, the researcher used the frequencies, percentages, T-test and One-way ANOVA. After data analysis, it was found that the training institutions were cooperative with the trainees in preparing them for the labor market in accordance with a clear training program and an appropriate work 2 An-Najah University Journal for Research B (Humanities), Vol. 34 [2020], Iss. 11, Art. 6 https://digitalcommons.aaru.edu.jo/anujr_b/vol34/iss11/6 ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ ةمغارد عفار ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ 2085 ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ ةلجم ةعماج حاجنلا لأل ثاحب ( مولعلا ةيناسنلإا ) دلجملا 34 ( 11 ) 2020 environment. The results also showed the graduates' commitment to the conditions of the training institution and respect of its culture and labor laws. It was also found that the fresh graduates got a number of benefits. About 94% of them said that practical training allowed them to discover their potentials and know the extent of their suitability for future careers as well as the expectations of these careers. They also said that the training allowed them to learn how to market their skills and competencies. The results also showed that more than 20% of these trainees were employed in the same institutions they had received training in. In the light of these findings, the researcher recommends dissemination of a culture of training among students, enhancement of the role of university recruitment/ career units to coordinate with training institutions, creation of a database for graduates who have received training in institutions. This is in addition to giving priority to potential jobs and honoring institutions active in the field of training of university fresh graduates.


In this study, the utility and safety of granisetron alone (Group G) and granisetron plus hydroxyzine hydrochloride (Group G/H) for nausea and vomiting were evaluated in patients with head and neck cancer treated by cisplatin-containing chemotherapy. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in the severity of nausea or frequency of vomiting, although all patients in the G/H group showed complete response (no nausea or vomiting) from the fifth day after cisplatin administration. The clinical utility rate was higher in Group G/H than in Group G. The only side effect observed was headache in one patient from Group G. No drug-related abnormality in laboratory tests was observed. These results demonstrate that the antiemetic efficacy of granisetron can be augmented by the addition of hydroxyzine hydrochloride, providing superior control of emesis induced by cisplatin-containing chemotherapy.


The stability of He in hcp-Ti is studied using the ab initio method based on the density functional theory. The results indicate that a single He atom prefers to occupy the tetrahedral site rather than the octahedral site. The interaction of He defects with Ti atoms is employed to explain the relative stabilities of He point defects in hcp-Ti. The relative stability of He defects in hcp-Ti is useful for He clustering and bubble nucleation in metal tritides, which provides the basis for development of improved atomistic models.


Data on the catalytic activity and stereospecificity of alkaline-earth metals in the polymerisation and copolymerisation of unsaturated monomers are summarised, and the nature of the active centres is examined togeher with the kinetics and the mechanism of these processes. The principal methods of preparing initiators for anionic polymerisation that contain compounds of these metals are outlined, and the most probable immediate prospects for practical application of the compounds in polymerisation processes are noted. A list of 175 references is included.


Sarcoidosis is a multi-facets disease. Along with environment, the role of genetic component in this immune-mediated granulomatous disorder is undisputable, irrespective of the tissue/ organ involved (lung, eyes, heart, etc.). Due to undefined etiology of this complex disorder, it has remained as challenge to control the disease progression. Further, identification of prognostic genetic maker for this disease at functional as well as non-functional level has remained intriguing. To understand the sarcoidosis susceptibility at genetic level, several molecular approaches, such as meta-analysis of GWAS, significant association of coding and rare variants, fine mapping of susceptible loci, gene networking and their associated mechanism, copy number variations, single nucleotide polymorphisms in miRNAs (mirSNPs) and epigenetic changes in case control studies across cohorts of different ethnic groups would reveal a better insight.


BACKGROUND
Treatment of severe obesity is difficult; in the past, lifestyle measures did not prove effective. Recently, however, intensive behavioral interventions using meal replacements and low-energy diets have enabled some severely obese persons to achieve nonobese weights.

OBJECTIVE
We assessed rates of weight loss, changes in risk factors and medication requirements, and long-term weight maintenance in patients who lost >or=100 pounds (45.5 kg).

DESIGN
Over a 9-y period, we prospectively identified patients who lost >or=100 pounds (45.5 kg) and actively recorded follow-up weights. Charts were systematically reviewed to assess outcome measures and side effects. The intervention included meal replacements (shakes and entrées), low-energy diets, weekly classes, and training in record keeping and physical activity. Assessments included weekly weights, laboratory studies, medication use, lifestyle behaviors, side effects, and follow-up weights.

RESULTS
Sixty-three men and 55 women lost >or=100 pounds. At baseline, the subjects' average weight was 160 kg, 97% had >or=1 obesity-related comorbidity, and 74% were taking medications for comorbidities. Weight losses averaged 61 kg in 44 wk. Medications were discontinued in 66% of patients with a cost savings of $100/mo. Despite medication discontinuation, significant decreases in LDL cholesterol (20%), triacylglycerol (36%), glucose (17%), and systolic (13%) and diastolic (15%) blood pressure values were seen. Side effects were mild, and only 2 patients had severe or serious adverse events. At an average of 5 y of follow-up, patients were maintaining an average weight loss of 30 kg.

CONCLUSION
Intensive behavioral intervention can be very effective with minimal risk for certain severely obese persons.


The only photographic field guide you can use in the wild Identifying mushrooms correctly is vital -- eat the wrong species and you could be dead. Mushrooms vary dramatically in shape and colour depending on their age, making them even harder to identify. By combining the most comprehensive collection of photographs with clear, easy to understand text (with the most important features highlighted in italic), this new guide to mushrooms gives you everything you need to positively identify what you are about to eat. The book covers every common species of mushrooms, over 1,000 species, and is the most comprehensive photographic guide on mushrooms ever published. If you want to find chanterelles, or ceps, this book is a must.


Small-scale Alfvturbulence in the outer helio- sphere is mainly determined by a source which is connected with the instability of the initially highly anisotropic velocity distribution of interstellar pick-up protons. The main portion of the generated turbulent energy is subsequently absorbed by the pick-up protons themselves due to the cyclotron- resonant interaction between waves and particles. A small fraction of this energy can be transferred to solar wind pro- tons resulting in their heating. The heating is more efficient in the high-speed solar wind.


The aim of this paper was to determine the effect of surface roughness of cavitation generators made from two different materials: P265GH steel, with a ferritic-pearlitic structure, and X2CrNi18-9 (304L) steel with an austenitic structure on the mass loss and cavitation wear. Cavitation generators were tested in the conditions of cavitation wear environment continuously for 500 PMHs in a specially designed and constructed author's stream and flow device. Based on the carried out experiments was confirmed that the highest mass loss - 0.1752 g is seen for a sample of P265GH steel wet sanded with paper with the grain size of 1000. The smallest mass loss was recorded for the cavitation generator made of X2CrNi18-9 (304L) steel, sanded with sandpaper with the grain size of 2500. Certainly, the smallest number of cavitation wear effects was found for a cavitation generator made of austenitic steel X2CrNi18-9 (304L). Few places were identified based on macroscopic photographs, especially near the edges of the straight-through openings, but their number was much smaller than for the ferritic-pearlitic steel, which is associated most of all with the properties of austenitic chromium - nickel steel.


In response to interest generated by the 1 st Satellite Symposium on Rare Cardiovascular Diseases (Paris, ESC 2011), a session devoted to managing patients with rare cardiovascular diseases was organized this year again, at the annual congress of the ESC, by the team of the Krakow Centre for Rare Cardiovascular Diseases. The 2 nd Satellite Symposium on Rare Cardiovascular Diseases, part of the official Programme of the 2012 ESC Congress, was held in the ESC Munich Messe (Berlin Hall) on 28 August 2012. The session, moderated by Professor John GF Cleland (Kingston‑upon‑Hull, UK) and Dr Piotr Musialek (Krakow, PL), was opened by the Director of the Centre for Rare Cardiovascular Diseases in Krakow, Professor Piotr Podolec. Professor Podolec acknowledged the crucial role of the EU Project MRPO 08.02.00‑12-424/10 in establishing the Krakow Centre and in making it possible to organize the Symposium. He briefly characterized the key activities of the Krakow Center for Rare Cardiovascular Diseases in 2011–2012. The key focus has been education and patient tele‑consultations within a newly‑established network that brings together the Krakow Centre's physicians, the Partner Centers and the leading European experts in various aspects of rare cardiovascular disease. Introduction of regular, structured tele‑consultations enabled to determine an optimal management for a significant series of "orphan" patients – in the context of best knowledge and expertise, taking into consideration local feasibilities in Partner Centers. Professor Podolec also characterized the registries coordinated by the Krakow Centre including in particular pulmonary hypertension, grown‑up congenital heart disease, rare cardiomyopathies and rare cardiac rhythm abnormalities patients. Professor Podolec announced the first issue of a newly‑launched peer‑reviewed Journal of Rare Cardiovascular Diseases, and concluded with inviting the participants of the symposium to the First International Conference on Rare Cardiovascular Diseases – "Raising Awareness" (18–19 October 2012, Krakow, Poland). The Keynote Lecture entitled 'Rare Diseases: a Priority in Public Health and Research' was given by Professor Segolene Ayme, ORPHANET Director and Head of the European Union Committee of Experts on Rare Diseases (EUCERD). Professor Ayme explained why managing patients with rare diseases has become a burning medical and public health problem that is currently listed within top EU priorities. She also described the (greatly varying) current situation in the EU member states with respect to rare diseases support structures and patient access to diagnostic tests and expert care. Professor Ayme acknowledged the role of the Krakow Center for Rare Cardiovascular Diseases as a leading center officially recognized by ORPHANET. The Symposium included two case‑based debates centered on determining optimal treatment steps (and their sequence) in a pregnant patient with Turner syndrome and an aortic aneurysm, and in a 'rare‑within‑rare' (to use Professor Nazzareno Galie's words) patient with pulmonary hypertension causing important diagnostic and therapeutic challenges (presenters: Dr Lidia Tomkiewicz‑Pajak and Dr Grzegorz Kopec, Krakow, discussants: Professor Segolene Ayme, Paris, Proferssor Eloisa Arbustini, Pavia, Professor Nazzareno Galie, Bologna, Professor Zbigniew Gasior, Katowice, Professor Piotr Hoffman, Warszawa, and Dr Pawel Rubis, Krakow). The vivid discussion that followed illustrated the upcoming role for strengthened expert networks in determining the most appropriate diagnostic tests and optimal management in rare disease patients. The currently existing inter‑country differences (causing a geographic 'luck' …or 'lack of luck' for a particular patient in access to diagnostic and therapeutic modalities and expert care) became yet again very apparent. Importantly, the discussion demonstrated the necessity to fill many important gaps in existing knowledge; a step that requires setting up common, well‑controlled multi‑center registries and therapeutic programs. This led to a debate on the role of industry and EU research structures in funding programs devoted to patients with rare cardiovascular disease. In relation to the data presented earlier by Professor Ayme, Professor Cleland raised the issue of a 'desired' balance between the number of Rare Disease Centers (per country? per million population? disease‑specific?) and the quality of care related to experience in managing particular group of patients. The debate, going beyond the scheduled programme of the symposium (feasible because of some extra time secured in advance), brought Professor S. Ayme back to the podium. Professor Ayme concluded the debate by stressing the role of preparing high‑quality multi‑centre grant applications that can successfully bid for EU research funds. The final presentation of the symposium (Dr Jakub Podolec, Krakow) encouraged everyone to become a frequenter at the Centre for Rare Cardiovascular Disease webpage ( www.crcd.eu ) and highlighted the role of information technology in networking the rare disease centers and experts. This was bridged to the key aims of the  Journal of Rare Cardiovascular Diseases – a platform for communicating research and exchanging experience in managing the 'unwanted' patients. The session, with the lecture hall found nearly too small to accommodate the high turn‑up of participants, was attended by 237 doctors from 19 countries including not only Europe but also Australia, India, South Africa, Brazil and USA. The Symposium had true participants rather than just 'audience'; the Participants were extremely focused and interactive, clearly united through a common goal. After official closing of the session, as many participants stayed in the room to exchange contact addresses and join ad hoc interactions and discussions. In conclusion, the content of the session and the level of participation highlighted the importance of the subject of rare cardiovascular disease in today's cardiology and the burning need to find the right diagnostic and therapeutic answers for the "unwanted" patients. Congratulations on the concept of the Symposium – and many thanks to all those who worked hard to organize the session and to make it a success. A motto of the Krakow Rare Cardiovascular Disease Conference that follows the Munich ESC symposium is ' Because fear is driven by lack of knowledge' . Good luck then – for 2013 and beyond – in breaking the existing barriers and erasing the fear by filling knowledge gaps through a common endeavour!


Nowadays, the Mediterranean freshwater systems face the threat of water scarcity, along with multiple other stressors (e.g., organic and inorganic contamination, geomorphological alterations, invasive species), leading to the impairment of their ecosystem services. All these stressors have been speeding up, due to climate variability and land cover/land use changes, turning them into a big challenge for the water management plans. The present study analyses the physicochemical and phytoplankton biomass (chlorophyll-a) dynamics of a large reservoir, in the Mediterranean region (Alqueva reservoir, Southern Portugal), under diverse meteorological conditions and land cover/land use real scenarios (2017 and 2018). The most important stressors were identified and the necessary tools and information for a more effective management plan were provided. Changes in these parameters were further related to the observed variations in the meteorological conditions and in the land cover/land use. The increase in nutrients and ions in the water column, and of potentially toxic metals in the sediment, were more obvious in periods of severe drought. Further, the enhancement of nutrients concentrations, potentially caused by the intensification of agricultural activities, may indicate an increased risk of water eutrophication. The results highlight that a holistic approach is essential for a better water resources management strategy.


Background: TNBC is characterized by the lack of hormonal receptors and HER2 expression and occurs most frequently in Black and Hispanic than in Caucasian population. We compare clinicopathological and outcome variables between TNBC and non-TNBC Hispanic patients (pts). Methods: We reviewed 1044 cases of operable breast cancer treated at INEN, Lima-Peru (2000 — 2002). Phenotypes were categorized by IHC into TNBC and non-TNBC. Variables in both groups were compared with the X2 test. We used Kaplan-Meier method for comparing disease free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), post recurrence survival by phenotype (TNBC v non-TNBC) and the hazard rate (HR) for different times. Results: 212 pts (20.3%) were TNBC and 832 non-TNBC (79.7%); median for age was 48 and 49 years (y), for tumor size 3.5 and 2.9cm; TNBC was more likely to have involved nodes (55.7 v 45.6%; P=0.009), tumors > 5cm (14.2 v 8.1%; P=0.011) and histological grade 3 (62.7 v 29.0%; P Recurrence sites and phenotype Median of follow-up was 7.63 and 7.57y; there was not significant differences for DFS between TNBC and non-TNBC (72.8 v 76.6%;P=0.057), but in OS had differences (73.2 v 79.9%; P=0.014). The HR for recurrence was calculated to 1y (7.9 v 2.7%); 2y (8.8 v 5.8%); 3y (8.0 v 6.5%); 4y (2.7 v 3.3%) and to 5y (3.5 v 3.9%) and the HR for death to 1y (4.3 v 0.8%); 2y (6.7 v 2.6%); 3y (8.4 v 3.8%); 4y (5.5 v 2.8%) and to 5y (2.6 v 4.5%) for TNBC and non-TNBC, respectively. HR for recurrence and death was higher in TNBC until the first 3y and 4y, respectively, then HR were similar for both groups. Post recurrence survival show differences between TNBC and non-TNBC (HR=1.7; 95% IC 1.2 - 2.3; P=0.002). Conclusion: In early breast cancer, TNBC is more aggressive than non-TNBC; present a higher RR in brain, distant nodes and other soft tissues; strongly time-dependent HR for recurrence and death, and a worse Post recurrence survival. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2010;70(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-09-18.


Background
Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) therapy was introduced nearly 300 years ago. However, its effect on thrombus formation is unclear. This may be because platelet and coagulation functions are unstable, yielding variable results; hence, accurate measurement is difficult. Our study aimed to analyze changes in thrombus formation before and after HBO2 therapy by using a total thrombus formation analysis system (TTAS).

Methods
Six patients were prescribed HBO2 therapy for skin and soft tissue ulcers, and necrotic fasciitis. Blood samples were collected immediately before and after treatment. Then samples were put into a reservoir that connected to AR-chip to assess changes in the thrombus formation ability of both platelets and coagulation factors. We examined the differences in the thrombus formation ability using T-TAS. Time until the onset of white thrombus formation (T10) and complete occlusion of the capillary (T80) were analyzed by a two-way repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Results
The duration to pressure increase of samples after HBO2 therapy was longer than the duration before HBO2 therapy (p<0.05). This suggests decreased clot adhesiveness to the inner surface of the simulated blood vessel and reduced clot formation ability.

Conclusions
The results for T10 and T80 suggest that HBO2 therapy reduced thrombus formation ability in the enrolled patients. We believe that T-TAS is a promising method to predict the efficacy of HBO2 therapy.


The North Branch Au Sable River, located in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan near Lovells, Michigan, has historically been known for its brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and its status as a blue ribbon trout stream; however, within the past few decades, there has been a decline in fish population. The objectives of this study were to assess if concentrations of organic chemicals were present in quantities in the North Branch Au Sable River that may potentially harm aquatic species and to establish current baseline concentrations of organic chemicals against which future data can be compared. Passive sampling technology was used to collect information on the concentration, occurrence, transport, and fate of organic chemicals; these samplers absorb dissolved organic chemicals in the river over several weeks, as the timing and intensity of pesticide applications and the frequency of storm events and irrigation can cause fluctuations in organic chemical loading to surface waters. The chemical classes investigated as part of this study included pesticides (both legacy [organochlorine] and current use), polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Passive samplers, including semipermeable membrane devices and polar organic chemical integrative samplers, were deployed at four locations along the North Branch Au Sable River, near Lovells, Mich., in June 2018 for a total of 28 days. Several organic chemicals were detected in the North Branch Au Sable River at low concentrations. Organic chemicals were detected at every sampling location on the North Branch Au Sable River; however, not all chemicals were detected at every location. The highest number of organic chemicals were detected at the most downstream sampling site (North Branch Au Sable River at Kellogg's Bridge), and the lowest number of organic chemicals were detected at the next site upstream (North Branch Au Sable River at Twin Bridge Road). The organic contaminants most frequently detected at all sampling locations include the legacy pesticides pentachloroanisole, trans-chlordane, p,p'-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene, and p,p'-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane; the PBDE PBDE-28; and the PAHs 2-methylphenanthrene and perylene. Organic chemical concentrations detected on the North Branch Au Sable River were below almost all water-quality benchmarks included in this report. However, low concentrations of organic chemicals may still pose a risk to aquatic organisms and throughout the trophic hierarchy because of low-dose additive and synergistic mixture effects, transgenerational effects, and a lack of established water-quality benchmarks for many organic chemicals. This report provides data on the current (2018) state of the North Branch Au Sable River and provided a baseline of organic contaminant data against which future data on the North Branch Au Sable River can be evaluated.


Higher-order cognitive functions can be seen as a class of cognitive processes which are crucial in situations requiring a flexible adjustment of behaviour in response to changing demands of the environment. The cognitive assessment of these functions often relies on tasks which admit a dynamic, or longitudinal, component requiring participants to flexibly adapt their behaviour during the unfolding of the task. An intriguing feature of such experimental protocols is that they allow the performance of an individual to change as the task unfolds. In this work, we propose a Latent Markov Model approach to capture some dynamic aspects of observed response patterns of both healthy and substance dependent individuals in a set-shifting task. In particular, data from a Wisconsin Card Sorting Test were analysed in order to represent performance trends in terms of latent cognitive states dynamics. The results highlighted how a dynamic modelling approach can considerably improve the amount of information a researcher, or a clinician, can obtain from the analysis of a set-shifting task.


This Article is brought to you by the Special Collections at ePublications@bond. It has been accepted for inclusion in Triathlon Australia Collection by an authorized administrator of ePublications@bond. For more information, please contact Bond University's Repository Coordinator. Recommended Citation Jane Hunt. (1996) "Literature review and study proposal prepared for Triathlon Australia Ltd. on hypoxic training and hyperbaric intervention as a means of speeding recovery post exercise" ,, .


Mesophyll conductance to CO2 (g m) limits the diffusion of CO2 to the sites of carboxylation, and may respond rapidly (within minutes) to abiotic factors. Using three Eucalyptus species, we tested the rapid response of g m to irradiance under 21% and 1% O2. We used simultaneous measurements of leaf gas exchange and discrimination against 13CO2 with a tuneable diode laser absorption spectrometer. Measurements under 1% O2 were used to limit uncertainties due to 13C-12C fractionation occurring during photorespiration. Switching irradiance from 600 to 200µmolm-2s-1 led to a ≈60% decrease of g m within minutes in all species under both 21% O2 and 1% O2. The g m response to irradiance is unlikely to be a computation artefact since using different values for the parameters of the discrimination model changed the absolute values of g m but did not affect the relative response to irradiance. Simulations showed that possible rapid changes of any parameter were unable to explain the observed variations of g m with irradiance, except for13C-12C fractionation during carboxylation (b), which, in turn, is dependent on the fraction of leaf C assimilated by phospho-enol pyruvate carboxylase (PEPc) (β). g m apparently increased by ≈30% when O2 was switched from 21% to 1% O2. Again, possible changes of β with O2 could explain this apparent g m response to O2. Nevertheless, large irradiance or O2-induced changes in β would be required to fully explain the observed changes in g m, reinforcing the hypothesis that g m is responsive to irradiance and possibly also to O2.


Methane yield is one of the important factors that indicate the methanization process efficiency. The anaerobic digestion (AD) is an available treatment of recycled pulp and paper sludge (RPPS) and recycled pulp and paper wastewater (RPPW). This process protects the environment and produces methane, which is considered as renewable energy. In this study, the anaerobic treatment of the RPPW and RPPS were studied using 1L completely stirred tank reactor (CSTR) at laboratory scale with mesophilic conditions. However, a kinetic study was carried out using four models in order to compare and adjust the experimental results. The experimental results show that the RPPW and RPPS methane productions were between 691 and 945 mL/g based on volatile solid (VS), and the corresponding digestion time was about 26 days for the both experiment. The corresponding digestion time could be understood through the methane production kinetic models by digestion experiments within a short time. Different kinetics models were tested including Richards, Logistic, modified Gompertz and Cone models. The obtained results show the modified Gompertz model as the suitable model since it gives the lowest deviation from experimental results. Therefore, the proposed model could be used to accurately predict behavior of AD processes.


The long-span deck slab for the two-girder composite bridge has different design bending moments compared to the Short-span deck slab for the multi-girder composite bridge. This is because the effects disregarded in the design of the short-span deck slab become important in the design of the long-span deck slab. Those are the effects of flexural stiffness of the girders, the front and middle wheels, the number of design lanes, and the two-way action of the deck slab. Therefore, for the reasonable design of the long-span deck slab, those effects should be properly considered. This paper proposes, based on the numerical parametric analyses considering those effects, two design bending moment formulas in perpendicular and parallel to bridge axis for the long-span deck slab that has girder span length between 4 m and 12 m. Reasonable margin of safety based on reliability theory is applied to the proposed formulas. The proposed formulas are verified by the results of independent and detailed finite element analyses. The differences between the design formula in the code and the proposed are also discussed.


We examine whether corporate investment, financing, and cash policies are interdependent and follow a predictable pattern in line with the firm life-cycle. We find that investments and equity issuance decrease with firm life-cycle, while debt issuance and cash holdings increase in the introduction and growth stages and decrease in the mature and shake-out/decline stages of the firm's life-cycle. These results are robust after using various proxies for life-cycle and controlling for firm, CEO and board level characteristics. Collectively, our results show that corporate policies follow a firm life-cycle.


For this study, we examined how recognizing the writing process of calligraphy influences the cognitive and affective processes related to appreciating it, with the aim of contributing to both graphonomics and the psychology of aesthetics. To this end, we conducted two Web-based experiments in which some participants were instructed to view calligraphy by tracing it with their eyes (the tracing method), while others were told to feel free to think and imagine whatever they wanted. Study 1 (N = 103) revealed that the tracing method elicits stronger admiration, inspiration, and empathy in viewers. Study 2 (N = 87) showed that the tracing method decreases the average heart rate of those who do not frequently engage in calligraphy appreciation as they gaze at calligraphy for a minute-and-a-half (during the second half of the stimulus duration); this suggests that the tracing method could keep viewers from becoming bored while looking at calligraphy. In sum, the tracing method has positive effects on viewing calligraphy. From a broader perspective, the results imply that how in detail viewers recognize the process of creating an artwork will be a key determinant of art appreciation. In addition, our findings demonstrate how we can measure cardiac activities using the emerging technology of the photoplethysmogram (PPG).


Background Systemic Lupus Erithematosus (SLE) is a complex disease of unknown etiology, involving both genetic and environmental factors. Objectives The aim of this study was to analyze the more relevant epidemiological characteristics in a large cohort of patients with SLE and controls in the Spanish population. Methods A cross-sectional, comparative, multicenter study of patients with SLE and hypernormal healthy subjects for IMID diseases was performed. All patients were recruited through the Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases Consortium (IMIDC).The IMIDC is a network of Spanish biomedical researchers focused in the study of the molecular basis of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. All patients included in the present study were selected from the outpatient clinics of 13 Rheumatology Departments at different Spanish University Hospitals. An epidemiological questionnaire developed by experts at DNA National Bank was applied to obtain all data Results 1,070 SLE patients and 1,558 healthy subjects were included. 93% of SLE patients and 40% of controls were female. The mean age of SLE patients and controls was 45±13 years and 49±7 years respectively. In the univariate analysis, we observed that the height and weight of the control subjects was significantly higher than in patients with SLE. The level of statistical significance was decreased by introducing gender and age as covariates. Both SLE patients (55%) and control subjects (68%) mostly had secondary or higher education. The physical exercise was significantly more frequent in controls. The gender and age affect the assessment of physical activity performed by both groups of patients. Regarding employment status, most patients with SLE (35%) were housewives whereas in the control group were external employers (44%). Both SLE patients (36%) and controls (52%) most frequently use their private cars. The average consumption of tobacco, alcohol was higher in the control group but the significance level decreased in multivariate analysis, confirming the influence of gender and age on these variables. We observed a statistically significant diference on the average consumption of coffee and frequency of smoking after adjusting by confounding factors. No statistically significant differences were observed in the average number of children when comparing both groups. Conclusions In this large comparative study we describe for the first time the general epidemiological characteristics in patients with SLE and healthy subjects representative of the Spanish population. SLE patients are younger, have lower consumption of coffe/tea and smoke more often than healthy controls. The influence of gender confirms the significance level of variables such as physical activity, alcohol intake, weight and height. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Objective: Cervical tubercular disease (CTB) is a rare pathology and constitutes 3–5% of all spinal TB. It includes atlantoaxial TB and sub-axial TB. As the literature evidence on this subject is scarce, majority of issues concerning CTB are still controversial. The current narrative review comprehensively discusses the various aspects related to CTB. Literature search: An elaborate search was made using keywords cervical tuberculosis, atlantoaxial tuberculosis, sub-axial tuberculosis, and cervico-thoracic tuberculosis, on pubmed and google (scholar.google.com) databases on 2 December 2020. We identified crucial questions regarding CTB and included relevant articles pertaining to them. Results: The initial search using keywords cervical tuberculosis, atlantoaxial tuberculosis, sub-axial tuberculosis, and cervico-thoracic tuberculosis yielded 4128, 76, 3 and 9 articles on 'pubmed' database, respectively. A similar search using the aforementioned keywords yielded 1,96,000, 2130, 117 and 728 articles on 'google scholar' database. The initial screening resulted in the identification of 178 articles. Full manuscripts were obtained for these articles and thoroughly scrutinised at the second stage. Review articles, randomised controlled trials and level 1 studies were given preference. Overall, 41 articles were included. Conclusion: AATB and SACTB constitute 0.3 to 1% and 3% of spinal TB, respectively. The incidence of neuro-deficit in CTB is significantly more than other spinal TB. The general principles of management of CTB are similar to spinal TB elsewhere and medical therapy remains the cornerstone. Surgery is advocated in specific scenarios involving gross neuro-deficit, later stages of disease with significant bony/ligamentous disruptions, altered sagittal balance, drug resistance, and poor response to medications. The surgical approaches for AATB include anterior-alone, posterior-alone and combined approaches, although posterior access is the most preferred. Most of the studies on SACTB have supported the role of anterior approach. Additionally, posterior stabilisation may be necessary in specific scenarios. The overall long-term outcome in CTB is favourable.


A steady-state ExB plasma was formed by applying a strong radially inward dc electric field near the mirror throats. Most of the results were for hydrogen, but deuterium and helium plasmas were also studied. Three water-cooled hollow cathodes were operated in the hot-ion plasma mode with the following results: (1) thermally emitting cathodes were not required to achieve the hot-ion mode; (2) steady-state operation (several minutes) was attained; (3) input powers greater than 40 kW were achieved; (4) cathode outside diameters were increased from 1.2 cm (uncooled) to 4.4 cm (water-cooled); (5) steady-state hydrogen plasma with ion temperatures from 185 to 770 eV and electron temperatures from 5 to 21 eV were produced. Scaling relations were empirically obtained for discharge current, ion temperature, electron temperature, and relative ion density as a function of hydrogen gas feed rate, magnetic field, and cathode voltage. Neutrons were produced from deuterium plasma, but it was not established whether thay came from the plasma volume or from the electrode surfaces.


Abstract Abstract. The cache recovery behaviour of Clark's nutcrackers was investigated with a new, more refined technique in which nutcrackers were presented with small clusters of test holes to search during recovery sessions. The first experiment evaluated the usefulness of the cluster technique. The birds performed extremely well, making many fewer errors than would be expected by chance and avoiding clusters that did not contain cache sites. The second experiment employed the cluster technique to investigate the tendency of nutcrackers to revisit old cache sites emptied earlier in recovery. During the first half of recovery testing, the birds were tested with three cluster types: (1) good clusters: cache sites with seeds in them; (2) plundered clusters: cache sites from which the experimenters had removed the seeds; and (3) bad clusters: with no cache sites. The birds performed accurately in both the good and plundered clusters, but avoided bad clusters. During the second half of recovery testing, the birds were presented with good, bad and old clusters. Old clusters included both good clusters that had been visited and emptied, and plundered clusters that had been visited during the first half of testing. The birds were less likely to enter old clusters, and their behaviour was less well-directed towards cache sites in old than in good clusters. These results demonstrate that nutcrackers can discriminate good sites from emptied ones, probably by either 'tagging' the location by remembering it or by forgetting it.


Autonomous driving vehicles (ADVs) are implemented with rich software functions and equipped with many sensors, which in turn brings broad attack surface. Moreover, the execution environment of ADVs is often open and complex. Hence, ADVs are always at risk of safety and security threats. This paper proposes a fast method called Multi-IF, using multiple invocation features of system calls to detect anomalies in self-driving systems. Since self-driving functions take most of the computation resources and upgrade frequently, Multi-IF is designed to work under such resource constraints and support frequent updates. Given the collected sequences of system calls, the combination of different syntax patterns is used to analyze and construct feature vectors of those sequences. By taking the feature vectors as inputs, one-class support vector machine is adopted to determine whether the current sequence of system calls is abnormal, which is trained with the feature vectors from the normal sequences. The evaluations on both simulated and real data prove that the proposed method is effective in identifying the abnormal behavior after minutes of feature extraction and training. Further comparisons with the existing methods on the ADFA-LD data set also validate that the proposed approach achieves a higher accuracy with less time overhead.


The global in time continuation to the three- dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations remains the major unsolved problem in the mathematical fluid mechanics. This issue somehow drives qualitative mathematical analysis of the viscous incompressible flows toward the enormous development, but only a little interest pointed to the analytical methods which provide a quantitative understanding. It is discussed in the book that finding the appropriate methods for analytical treatment of the full set of incompressible Navier- Stokes equations is very important task from theoretical and practical point of view. The scope of the current investigation is to solve the three- dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations and continuity equation by self developed analytical techniques which may also be applied to other equations as well. The phenomenological issue is also addressed following preliminary validating processes which are discussed in a concise manner for each case.


Mutism following posterior fossa tumor resection in pediatric patients has been previously recognized, although its pathophysiology remains unclear. A review of the available literature reveals 33 individuals with this condition, with only a few adults documented in the population. All of these patients had large midline posterior fossa tumors. To better understand the incidence and anatomical substrate of this syndrome, the authors reviewed a 7-year series of 110 children who underwent a posterior fossa tumor resection. During that time, nine (8.2%) of the 110 children exhibited mutism postoperatively. They ranged from 2.5 to 20 years of age (mean 8.1 years) and became mute within 12 to 48 hours of surgery. The period of mutism lasted from 1.5 to 12 weeks after onset: all children had difficulty coordinating their oral pharyngeal musculature as manifested by postoperative drooling and inability to swallow. Further analysis of these cases revealed that all children had splitting of the entire inferior vermis at surgery, as confirmed on postoperative magnetic resonance studies. Lower cranial nerve function was intact in all nine patients. Current concepts of cerebellar physiology emphasize the importance of the cerebellum in learning and language. The syndrome described resembles a loss of learned activities, or an apraxia, of the oral and pharyngeal musculature. To avoid the apraxia, therefore, the inferior vermis must be preserved. For large midline tumors that extend to the aqueduct, a combined approach through the fourth ventricle and a midvermis split may be used to avoid injuring the inferior vermis.


This study presents a method of simultaneous detection of both traditional and newly emerged drugs of abuse in wastewater. The method is based on solid phase extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. This analytical method separates 25 drugs from different classes including amphetamines, cathinones, tropane alkaloids, piperazines plus ketamine, amitriptyline, diazepam and morphine. In addition, newer compounds (methcathinone, mephedrone, butylone), and isomers (1-(2-methoxyphenyl) piperazine, 1-(4-methoxyphenyl) piperazine; 1-(2-flurophenyl) piperazine, 1-(4-flurophenyl) piperazine; 1-(3-trifluoromethylphenyl) piperazine, 1-(4-trifluoromethylphenyl) piperazine) have been separated, with greater sensitivity (×100 order of magnitude). This work reports the detection of butylone, mephedrone, 1-(4-methoxyphenyl) piperazine, 1-(2-flurophenyl) piperazine and 1-methyl-4-benzylpiperazine for the first time in waste water. This suggests that with changes in drug use patterns, constant monitoring of waste water entering treatment plants should be carried out and treatment processes need to be put in place for their removal.


Human schistosomiasis is the second most prevalent parasitic disease in the tropics, and has a huge impact on public health and socio-economic development. It is estimated that 652 million people live at risk of infection and that 193 million people are actually infected. Of the 120 million symptomatic cases, 20 million are suffering from severe disease. At present, 85% of all these cases are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and they cause an estimated morbidity burden of 3.5 million disability adjusted live years (DALYs). Since the advent of safe, effective, single dose drugs, the emphasis in schistosomiasis control has been on morbidity control. Since praziquantel is active against all schistosome species and has become relatively inexpensive, it is used as the drug of choice. For effective control of schistosomiasis, it is now of central importance to make the drug available to the communities at highest risk of infection. The distribution of schistosomiasis is extremely focal and since resources for health are seriously limited in most schistosomiasis endemic countries, there is a great need to identify high risk communities, so that resources can be better allocated. Due to the focal nature of the disease, neighbouring villages often show different patterns of schistosomiasis morbidity, resulting in large inter-village variation in perceived disease and actual public health importance. A simple procedure using questionnaires has been developed for rapid screening for Schistosoma haematobium infection and it proved to be reliable, non-intrusive and highly cost-effective in 8 African countries. Based on these experiences, WHO published guidelines for district health managers to be used as a first stage in the process of schistosomiasis control. Cote d'Ivoire is now the first country, that has taken advantage of these guidelines and translated them into direct application. In a first step, the feasibility and diagnostic performance of the questionnaire was rigorously validated in an S. haematobium endemic area in central Cote d'Ivoire. Correctly completed questionnaires were obtained from 124 schools (return rate: 91%), with 12,479 children interviewed. Following, previously trained teachers screened 5,959 children with reagent sticks. The questionnaire showed a good diagnostic performance with sensitivity and specificity values between 79% and 96% to detect correctly those schools where the pupils were at high risk of infection. These findings were in agreement with previous studies from other African countries, and the questionnaire approach was recommended for use at the national level. At present, the questionnaires are already being applied in 5 out of 16 districts. The active involvement of University students in distributing and collecting questionnaires in this survey, is a promising innovative approach. Based on the excellent performance of questionnaires for rapid screening of S. haematobium and linked to the ongoing process in Cote d'Ivoire, there was a demand asking for support with implementing this technique also in the Niger State of north-western Nigeria. Questionnaires were returned from 58 schools (return rate: 97%). A total of 3,033 children were interviewed and 2,479 children were screened with reagent sticks by previously trained teachers. Questionnaires also proved to be reliable in this setting, and identified schools at high risk of S. haematobium with sensitivity and specificity values ranging between 64% and 96%. The identification of high risk communities is an important component in the management and implementation of cost-effective schistosomiasis control programmes. For S. mansoni infection, reliable rapid methods have not yet been developed. Therefore possible ways of extending the questionnaire method for S. mansoni were assessed in Cote d'Ivoire. In a first study, perceived signs and symptoms for intestinal morbidity were assessed in focus group discussions with schoolchildren in an area highly endemic for S. mansoni. The most frequently perceived signs and symptoms were then used in a preliminary questionnaire in three schools. Comparison of the results with levels of S. mansoni infection revealed that reported blood in stool was the most reliable symptom to predict an infection (adjusted odds ratio: 2.87; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.56-5.31). Based on these findings, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to 134 schools. Correctly filled-in questionnaires were returned from 121 schools (90%), with 12,227 children interviewed. 5,047 children were screened by a biomedical team with two consecutive Kato- Katz thick smears. For an individual diagnosis, the two symptoms "blood in stool" and "bloody diarrhoea" were significantly correlated with an S. mansoni infection: adjusted odds ratio 1.59 (95% CI: 1.38-1.83) and 1.34 (95% CI: 1.14-1.58), respectively. For community diagnosis, these two symptoms showed a high sensitivity (88%) and a moderate specificity (58%). Subsequently, it was assessed whether the diagnostic performance of the questionnaire could be improved by asking questions about water contact patterns. Although a positive response to a particular water contact pattern correlated significantly with an infection with S. mansoni, the diagnostic performance was again only moderate. In view of these findings, it was concluded that there is still a considerable amount of research needed before questionnaires can be adopted as a tool to screen for S. mansoni at the community level. Morbidity control in schistosomiasis requires effective initial treatment and the prevention of re-infection. In view of recent concern that praziquantel-tolerance/resistance might develop, there is a great need for research and development of novel substances with antischistosomal properties. Artemether has been identified in China as a promising product for early treatment and prophylaxis. It showed prophylactic effects in animals experimentally infected with S. japonicum, and was a successful prophylactic agent in humans exposed to S. japonicum. Further laboratory experiments showed a prophylactic effect also against S. mansoni. We conducted the first randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial of oral artemether to prevent S. mansoni infections. 354 schoolchildren were enrolled. Stool samples were examined over four consecutive days, followed by two mass treatments with praziquantel four weeks apart. All S. mansoni negative children were randomly assigned to receive 6 repeated doses of a placebo (n=151) or artemether (n=138) at a dose of 6 mg/kg, spaced by 3 weeks. At the end of the study, the incidence and mean intensity of S. mansoni infection were assessed by examining four consecutive stool samples from the children. The group that received artemether had a significantly lower incidence of S. mansoni infection (31/128 vs. 68/140, relative risk: 0.50, 95% CI: 0.35-0.71, p<0.001). Furthermore, the geometric mean egg output among positive children in the artemether group (19 eggs/g stool) was significantly lower than in placebo recipients (32 eggs/g, p=0.017). Oral artemether was found to be safe and no adverse events occurred. Since artemether is already widely and effectively used against malaria, the use of artemether against schistosomiasis should not be recommended for widespread application in areas where malaria is endemic because of the potential risk of developing drug resistance in the malaria parasite. However, the use of artemether might contribute to a more effective schistosomiasis control in particular epidemiological settings. The findings of the present investigations clearly contributed to means of rapid identification of high risk areas of urinary and intestinal schistosomiasis in general and to the development and management of a national schistosomiasis control programme in Cote d'Ivoire in particular. We are optimistic that in the years to come considerable progress will be seen with the use of artemether (and hopefully also other drugs yet to be discovered) and that these products will take a promising place in a comprehensive strategy for schistosomiasis control.