We investigate the escape dynamics of oligochaeta Lumbriculus variegatus by confining them to a quasi-2D circular chamber with a narrow exit passage. The worms move by performing undulatory and peristaltic strokes and use their head to actively probe their surroundings. We show that the worms follow the chamber boundary with occasional reversals in direction and with velocities determined by the orientation angle of the body with respect to the boundary. The average time needed to reach the passage decreases with its width before approaching a constant, consistent with a boundary-following search strategy. We model the search dynamics as a persistent random walk along the boundary and demonstrate that the head increasingly skips over the passage entrance for smaller passage widths due to body undulations. The simulations capture the observed exponential time-distributions taken to reach the exit and their mean as a function of width when starting from random locations. Even after the head penetrates the passage entrance, we find that the worm does not always escape because the head withdraws rhythmically back into the chamber over distances set by the dual stroke amplitudes. Our study highlights the importance of boundary following and body strokes in determining how active matter escapes from enclosed spaces.


Author(s): Harsolia, Khadija Mohiuddin | Advisor(s): Liu, Benjamin | Abstract: In early modern Spain, the Crown forces its subject minority Muslim population, the Mudejars, to convert to Catholicism (1501-1526) thus giving birth to the Moriscos. Alongside the forced conversions would come strict restrictions on Morisco cultural practice making even the use of Arabic language illegal. Therefore, an underground literature whose roots lie in hispanophone Mudejar Islam emerges defiant in the Morisco context for its Arabic script yet Spanish content. This hybrid literature known as Aljamiado inversely reflects a Morisco reality of Christian appearances on the surface yet Muslim loyalties within and accordingly aids the Moriscos in their struggle to survive as faithful Muslims in an increasingly hostile environment. This study undertakes a multi-disciplinary approach incorporating literary, historic and theoretical methods to explore Aljamiado literature as read by Mudejars and Moriscos alike as well as the subsequent influence of the Morisco experience on some of the greatest works of modern Spanish literature. As such, key Aljamiado texts including El poema de Yusuf, La leyenda de la doncella Carcayona, El breviario sunni and La tafsira, are considered for revealing the common themes of captivity, confinement, and above all resistance that characterized the Morisco condition for innovating creative strategies to maintain Islam relevant. Moreover, representations of the Morisco in popular culture such as the comedias of Amar despues de la muerte and El Hamete de Toledo function as case studies of the ¨Morisco predicament¨ increasingly portrayed as the "other," further revealing the applicability of DuBois' theory of "double consciousness" to the Moriscos. Once expelled from Spain in the early 17th century, however, the Moriscos' memory endures in the works of Cervantes' Don Quijote de la Mancha as well as the comedy Los moriscos de Hornachos analysed here for their contrasting reactions towards the decision to expel Spain´s Morisco minority.


Isoprostanes (iPs) are a group of natural products formed in vivo by a free-radical oxygenation of arachidonic acid. They are isomeric with prostaglandins; whereas enzymatically produced prostaglandins, such as PGF2α have the two side chains in the trans stereochemistry, the side chains of the isoprostanes are mostly in the cis configuration. A novel synthesis of iPs is described and illustrated with the synthesis of iPF2α-V, 8. The synthetic material allowed us to identify this iP in human urine. Because of this cis relationship between the two side chains in the structures of iPs, we selected a synthetic design based on the Diels−Alder rection which will guarantee that the two side chains, which will be derived from the diene part, will be cis to each other. By substituting the OH of the hydroxycyclopentenone 14 with a bulky TBDPS group, we controlled the face selectivity of the approaching diene 17a from the less hindered top face of the five-membered ring. We would obtain eventually the two OH groups ...


Analysis of five microsatellite loci in 500 Melaleuca alternifolia individuals produced 98 alleles that were useful for population genetic studies. Considerable levels of observed heterozygosity were recorded (HO = 0.724), with ≈ 90% of the variability being detected within populations. A low level of selfing (14%) was suggested to be the principal cause of excess homozygosity in a number of populations (overall FIS = 0.073). This study showed low levels of inbreeding in certain populations as well as a significant isolation‐by‐distance model. Only two groups of populations (Queensland and New South Wales) constituted different genetic provenances as a result of geographical isolation. The M. alternifolia data suggest that microsatellite loci did not always arise by a stepwise mutation process but that larger jumps in allele size may be involved in their evolution.


From accumulated evidence it is known that both the cytoplasmic. factor kappa and parameciii act in extremely minute quantities.. Sonneborn (1946) has previously pointed out that the biochemistry of these factors might be of a sort very different from that usually visualized, in which the laws of mass action are supposed to operate. Biochemical investigations of the nature of the gene K-kappa-paramecin system were initiated about a year ago. Since the presence of paramecin, the end product of this system, can be easily demonstrated and quantitatively determined, it seemed advantageous to attack the system in Paramecium from this end. No new techniques for testing the presence of this factor in solutions had to be developed and the work could proceed from the solid foundation laid by Sonneborn and associates. Once the properties and the chemical character of paramecin are established, one might predict with more certainty the character of its determinant kappa, and thereby facilitate the experimental approach to the whole system. Sonneborn, Jacobson and Dippell (1946) had already presented evidence indicating the extreme instability and the apparent large molecular size of paramecin. Before any successful attempts towards isolation could be made, a further investigation of the properties of para-


Evidence from our group revealed that the benefits of preconditioning ischemia extend beyond infarct size reduction via up-regulation of cardioprotective signaling. We found that brief antecedent ischemia: i) attenuates molecular indices of platelet activation-aggregation (i.e., P-selectin expression, fibrinogen binding); and thus ii) improves arterial patency in models mimicking unstable angina. However, two issues limit potential translation of this endogenous anti-platelet effect: the conditioning stimulus was applied directly to the heart, as a pretreatment . Our current aim was to establish whether brief ischemia applied at a remote site (skeletal muscle), after the onset of recurrent coronary thrombosis, would improve subsequent coronary patency.

Methods: Recurrent platelet-mediated coronary thrombosis was initiated in anesthetized dogs by application of a stenosis at a site of vessel injury. At 1 h after injury + stenosis, dogs received: i) remote ischemic conditioning (RIC: 4 5-min episodes of bilateral hindlimb ischemia); or ii) a time-matched sham-control period. Coronary blood flow was monitored throughout the 1 h before treatment and for 2 h after the RIC/sham stimulus. Primary endpoints were: i) area of the flow-time profile (index of coronary patency, expressed as % of baseline flow); and ii) % duration of total thrombotic occlusion (flow=0).

Results: Both groups displayed poor coronary patency during the 1 h pretreat period: flow-time area averaged 31-32%, and duration of total thrombotic occlusion was 19-25%. Patency remained unchanged in controls throughout the protocol. In contrast, RIC evoked an immediate attenuation of recurrent thrombosis: flow-time area was increased to 63±10% (p<0.01) and duration of total occlusion was reduced to 4% (p=0.11).

Conclusion: Remote ischemic conditioning, applied during episodes of recurrent platelet-mediated thrombosis mimicking unstable angina, improves subsequent coronary patency.

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Oxygen consumed by the kidney (Q(O(2))) is primarily obligated to sodium reabsorption (T(Na)). The relationship of Q(O(2)) to T(Na) (Q(O(2))/T(Na)) may be altered by hormones and autacoids. To examine whether Q(O(2))/T(Na) depends on the mechanism of sodium reabsorption, we first evaluated the effects on Q(O(2)) and Q(O(2))/T(Na) of benzolamide (BNZ), a proximal diuretic that works by inhibiting membrane carbonic anhydrase. During BNZ infusion in anesthetized rats, Q(O(2)) increased by 50% despite a 25% decline in T(Na). However, BNZ failed to increase Q(O(2))/T(Na) when given along with the adenosine A1 receptor blocker, DPCPX, which inhibits basolateral Na-bicarbonate cotransport (NBC1), or EIPA, which inhibits sodium-hydrogen exchange (NHE). Incubating freshly harvested rat proximal tubules with BNZ also caused Q(O(2))to increase by 62%, an effect that was prevented by blocking the apical NHE3 with S3226. Blocking NBC1 or NHE3 in the proximal tubule will have opposite effects on cell pH, but both maneuvers should reduce active chloride transport. In conclusion, inhibiting membrane carbonic anhydrase in the proximal tubule increases Q(O(2)) and reduces the energy efficiency of sodium reabsorption by the kidney. This is not purely due to shifting the burden of reabsorption to a more expensive site downstream from the proximal tubule. Instead, increased cost may be incurred within the proximal tubule as the result of increased active chloride transport.


Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is a common procedure with good success rates. The literature shows resection accuracy plays a crucial role in device longevity1. Computer guidance is used by some sur...


Aim: To characterize the effects of a heavy increase in training stress followed by a reduced stress on fasting plasma leptin levels in highly trained male rowers. Methods: 12 rowers underwent a 3-week period of maximally increased training stress followed by a 2-week tapering period. Results: A mean 22% increase in training stress caused a significant decrease (by 8%) in the leptin concentrations. A further increase in training stress by 25% significantly reduced leptin further by 35%. A 1st tapering week, during which the training stress was rapidly reduced by approximately 50%, significantly increased the plasma leptin concentrations by 29%. Plasma leptin was significantly increased further (by 4%) during the 2nd tapering week. Conclusion: Leptin is sensitive to pronounced changes in training stress in highly trained male rowers.


Modern programming environments foster the integration of automated, extensible, and reusable tools. New tools can thus leverage the available functionality and collect data from program and process. The synergy of both will allow the automation of current empirical approaches. This leads to automated assistance in all development decisions for programmers and managers alike: "For this task, you should collaborate with Joe, because it will likely require risky work on the mailbox class".


Tetranitromethane (TNM), a small aqueous reagent that specifically modifies solvent-accessible tyrosine residues to o-nitrotyrosine, was used to probe the topology of the GlyR. Homomers of human alpha1 GlyR were recombinantly expressed via a baculovirus system, affinity-purified, and reconstituted in lipid vesicles of defined composition. The native-like reconstituted receptors were then reacted with TNM, and GlyR reaction products were isolated by SDS-PAGE. After proteolytic digestion, TNM-labeled residues were identified using mass spectrometry by observing the mass shift corresponding to the nitrate moiety. In this manner, we have identified TNM modifications of tyrosine residues at positions 24, 75, 78, 161, 223, and 228 in the receptor. Of significance, nitrations at Tyr 223 and Tyr 228 occur within the first putative transmembrane helix (M1) of the receptor, and their labeling suggests a non-helical secondary structure for M1 for the glycine receptor. In a previously published report [Leite et al. (2000) J. Biol. Chem. 275, 13683], we also identified proteolytic cleavage sites within M1. Taken together, these studies support a topological model where the "historical" M1 segment cannot be entirely alpha-helical and may contain an extramembranous surface loop. Furthermore, we have also identified a tyrosine modification (Tyr 161) within a region of the N-terminal domain critical in agonist and antagonist binding.


Employees of an agricultural research unit were evaluated for selection as rum tasters. Prospects were classified and ranked considering their relative consistency in four organoleptic tests of four rum samples and their evaluation relative to those of an experienced rum taster. Statistical techniques used were variance analysis of Latin squares for the scores of the evaluation of 10 rum attributes and the calculation of a rum evaluation index for each taster using a linear discriminant function.


A technique for constructing shape representation from images using free-form deformable surfaces is presented. The authors model an object as a closed surface that is deformed subject to attractive fields generated by input data points and features. Features affect the global shape of the surface, while data points control its local shape. This approach is used to segment objects even in cluttered or unstructured environments. The algorithm is general in that it makes few assumptions on the type of features, the nature of the data, and the type of objects. Results for a wide range of applications are presented: reconstruction of smooth isolated objects such as human faces, reconstruction of structured objects such as polyhedra, and segmentation of complex scenes with mutually occluding objects. The algorithm has been successfully tested using data from different sensors including grey-coding range finders and video cameras, using one or several images.<<ETX>>


The article studies the essence of the mechanism of management of investment activity of enterprises of railway transport, identifies its main components, among which the traditional control system components are: planning, analysis, organization, evaluation, supervision and motivation of investment activity, as well as mechanisms to attract investments, the allocation of investment resources, state support, implementation of organizational and managerial innovation, increasing investment activity and ensuring investment attractiveness. Analyzed the sources and instruments of investing in rail transport, the directions of improvement of management of investment activity of the enterprises of the railway sector, including through the development of public-private partnerships and strengthening the state support. The conclusion about necessity of transition of the investment mechanism in a more flexible, mobile form of functioning that will help him / her under the present conditions of farming.


The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of cefepime/sulbactam in patients with intra-abdominal infection, nosocomial pneumonia (NP) or ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in actual clinical practice. Material and methods. The study was conducted in 14 Russian Clinics from October 2019 to March 2020. Study design: an open-label, prospective, non-comparative, multicenter, observational study. The study included patients who met the inclusion/exclusion criteria and signed a written informed consent. The studied antibiotic: cefepime/sulbactam (Maxictam®-AF). The primary parameter for effectiveness evaluation was the clinical effect after the conclusion of cefepime/sulbactam therapy — recovery/improvement or no effect. Results. The study included 140 patients (average age — 60.8 years) who received at least one dose of cefepime/sulbactam; 37 of them had intraabdominal infection, 72 — NP, and 31 — VAP. Most of the included patients were in the ICU department (82.1%) and their condition was severe: the average APACHE II score was 15.5 points, SOFA — 5.4 points, the Mannheim peritonitis index value in patients with intra-abdominal infection was from 14 to 35 points, with an average of 24.3 points. The majority of patients treated with cefepime/sulbactam (68.6%) had one or more risk factors for multi-resistant pathogens upon hospital or ICU admission. Cefepime/sulbactam was prescribed as the 1st or 2nd line of empirical therapy at a daily dose of 4 g (in 68.3%), 6 g (2.9%) or 8 g (28.8%); most patients were prescribed cefepime/sulbactam in monotherapy (72.3%). The average duration of therapy with cefepime/sulbactam was 9.6±3.5 days. The final assessment of treatment effectiveness was carried out in 132 patients: recovery or improvement was noted in 80.6% of patients with intra-abdominal infection, the effectiveness in NP and VAP was slightly higher — 95.6 and 89.3%. The effect was absent in 5.3% of patients, relapse or superinfection was noted in 3.0 and 1.5%. The majority of patients (81.3%) treated with cefepime/sulbactam were discharged from the hospital. No serious side effects were observed. In patients with a positive effect, age and values of APACHE II were significantly lower (59.58 years and 14.79 points) compared to those with no effect (67.95 years and 18.39 points). A multivariate analysis found that the probability of recovery of patients treated with cefepime/sulbactam did not depend on the diagnosis of infection, ICU admission, the presence of sepsis or septic shock. Conclusion. The multicenter study has established a high clinical efficacy of cefepime/sulbactam in real clinical practice in the treatment of patients with severe intraabdominal infection, nosocomial pneumonia or ventilator-associated pneumonia.


There is an increasing shift of hope from international negotiations to local actors for promoting sustainability by 'thinking globally while acting locally'. Municipalities are such carriers of hope, taking on increasing responsibility as implementers of sustainability. The problem is that sustainability is a social construction site, and implementing it means 'making it up as you go'. With this background, this thesis analyzes the story of the partnership between Tangshan, China and Malmo, Sweden and their inter-municipal learning project TangMa as a case of co-construction of sustainability. Initially designed for transferring expertise, strategies and know-how, the project has unintendedly evolved from its original objectives to become something entirely different: a project that trains skills needed to successfully construct sustainability. Accidentally breaking out of its boundaries makes TangMa a case with important implications for learning theory. But it also risks having its outcomes disregarded as unimportant or not worth mentioning, being viewed as a failure to deliver on its promises. Drawing on social and organizational learning theory and literature on inter-municipal learning, two tools are devised to analyze results from a qualitative research approach inspired by journalistic Story-based Inquiry. The result is a story told from two angles, official and 'behind the scenes', which reframes the project and its outcomes to uncover hidden insights into learning for sustainability. TangMa ultimately shows that effective learning for sustainability above all consists of processes that train skills like critical thinking, reflective capability and 'listening'.


This paper investigates a type of construction in Turkish which is similar to Ingason's (2016) "caused experience" construction in Icelandic. The study draws a distinction between experiencers and applicatives through an investigation of novel data, and contends that these two arguments occupy distinct syntactic positions in the structure. The caused experiencers in Turkish are introduced by the syntactic head Aff(ect) of Bosse and Bruening (2011); Bosse et al. (2012), whereas applicatives are introduced by the Applicative head (Pylkkänen, 2008). The proposal also captures the at-issue meaning of the sentence as well as not-at-issue meaning (an implicature) of the sentence.


In this paper we present a review of advances made and problems still existing in the application of the theory of chaos and dynamical systems to time series. In particular we discuss issues pertaining the estimation of dimensions, Lyapunov exponents and nonlinear prediction from an observable. We analyze the problems and discuss proper ways to deal with them.


This proposal focuses on the multifaceted interplay between video games, connectiveness, and online communities in a time of emergency; COVID-19 has presented challenges for teenagers, forcing them to re-mediate their interactions with peers. Digital entertainment has been frequently accused to be a bearer of negative attitudes and anti-social behaviors, but there is also relevant evidence about how video games can foster bonding and inclusion. Nevertheless, updated lenses are needed for understanding the impact of the pandemic on playing and vice versa; in other words, video games can become a lens through which we can understand how teenagers and young adults experience and see the world around them, especially during these turbulent times. Moreover, video games are increasingly experienced in multiple ways, from watching live shows on Twitch.tv to discussing games on Reddit; as such, this additional layer must be investigated too for situating the impact of gaming practices on social and individual schemes. This article intends to provide a snapshot of how this medium can be used as a catalyst for social research, looking at its consumption but also at the social halo it conveys. More specifically, an ethnographic approach has been chosen for providing an intensive analysis of how the acclaimed video game Animal Crossing was perceived and used as a socializing tool by a teenager.


Sustainable development has reached a center stage in the international agenda. The most different international actors – States, international organizations and non-state actors – have been taking efforts to launch conferences on the issue, to negotiate and to implement all sort of international commitments in order to promote sustainable development. It has become a global objective. Despite its leading role within the international community, sustainable development remains an unclear issue in international law. There is neither a universal agreed concept, nor a consensus on its legal nature. Nonetheless, these gaps are fulfilled by a rich literature that explores both issues, and, even though a compromise has not been reached as to many facets of the discussion, the fact is that a consensus is found regarding the crucial role sustainable development could perform in the decision-making.


The
metabolic and endocrine disorders are either increasing across the globe or may
have been observed with more focus in recent years. It is not uncommon now to
find out neither patients of endocrine and metabolic disorders nor a physician
of the associated diseases. There were 42 million people who had thyroid
disorders including hypothyroidism according to the survey of endocrine society
of India. Hypothyroidism is said when less activity of thyroid glands is
observed then the normal. So, to evaluate the quality standard, empowerment and
patient centricity in Pakistan with present prevalence of hypothyroidism in
different age groups, gender along with the prescribed medication against pre
diagnosed disease and associated co-morbidities, the study is designed with a
questionnaire development including both qualitative and quantitative
variables. Study was conducted on various OPD's, profit and not for profit
secondary and tertiary care hospitals and consultant clinics during July 2013
to Jan 2014 and it was given consideration to include people from all areas of
life with minimization of any unforeseen biasness and comprehensive data. After
full filling the inclusion criteria, 102 patients were selected as study
participants. After completion and reviewing the questionnaire, data were
analyzed by 21.00 SPSS version. Chi square/ fisher test, spearmen's rank
correlation were applied for categorical quantitative variable. Paired t test
before and after were applied for qualitative variable. Highly significant
reliability of items in the questionnaire was found along with inter item
correlation (P < 0.05). Out of 102 patients of the study, 80 patients fell
into the inclusion criteria, while 22 were excluded. A total of 80 patients
were registered in the incorporate duration. Among the total samples 36 (42.9%)
were males and 44 (52.4%) were females. Mean age males and females included in
the study were 34.89 ± 17.73 and 33.36 ± 13.73 years respectively. The systolic
and diastolic blood pressure (120/80 mg Hg) was observed in 18 (40.9%) females'
and 13 (36.1%) males' patients. Quality, patient centricity and empowerment
were the poor areas which need additional consultations and counseling for
crutches free environment.


We study, using dissipative particle dynamics simulations, the effect of active lipid flip-flop on model fluid bilayer membranes. We consider both cases of symmetric as well as asymmetric flip-flops. Symmetric flip-flop leads to a steady state of the membrane with an effective temperature higher than that of the equilibrium membrane and an effective surface tension lower than that of the equilibrium membrane. Asymmetric flip-flop leads to transient conformational changes in the membrane in the form of bud or blister formation, depending on the flip rate.


We present ToloMEo (TOpoLogical netwOrk Maximum Entropy Optimization), a program implemented in C and Python that exploits a maximum entropy algorithm to evaluate network topological information. ToloMEo can study any system defined on a connected network where nodes can assume N discrete values by approximating the system probability distribution with a Pottz Hamiltonian on a graph. The software computes entropy through a thermodynamic integration from the mean-field solution to the final distribution. The nature of the algorithm guarantees that the evaluated entropy is variational (i.e., it always provides an upper bound to the exact entropy). The program also performs machine learning, inferring the system's behavior providing the probability of unknown states of the network. These features make our method very general and applicable to a broad class of problems. Here, we focus on three different cases of study: (i) an agent-based model of a minimal ecosystem defined on a square lattice, where we show how topological entropy captures a crossover between hunting behaviors; (ii) an example of image processing, where starting from discretized pictures of cell populations we extract information about the ordering and interactions between cell types and reconstruct the most likely positions of cells when data are missing; and (iii) an application to recurrent neural networks, in which we measure the information stored in different realizations of the Hopfield model, extending our method to describe dynamical out-of-equilibrium processes.


The genus Alternaria belongs to the phylum of Ascomycota, order Pleosporales, and family to the Pleosporaceae. These fungi include nearly 300 species, and mostly known as saprophytic or an opportunistic pathogen. The fungi have been reported to infect over 4000 host plants. Among the species, there remain overlapping morphological characteristics, and often it is not easy to differentiate the species microscopically. These pathogens usually appeared in anamorph, or asexual reproductive stage and the sexual reproduction is mostly known. Hyphae are septate and brown to black; conidiophores (17-40 x 3-3.9 µm) are simple or branched, brown and septate. Conidia are ovoid or obclavate, muriform, two to several celled, and pale brown, with an elongated beak-like apical cell, often in chains and or solitary. The dimension of conidia varies from 18-45 x 6.5-15.5 µm and beaks 2.5-35 x 7-7.5 µm. There are very few studies on the genetic structure and evolutionary trajectory of the pathogen populations in the agroecosystems. The spores (conidia) are usually produced on leaf lesions, and often colonize in plant wounds. Asexual spores are larger than other anemophilous pollen and fungal spores, but they are found in high quantities in the air. The spores can disperse through air currents and rainfall. However, they are also known to be an allergenic fungus. A recent study in Europe has shown that Alternaria sp and its aerial asexual spores (conidia) inhalation of patients escalated the allergy by 8.9%. And it has also been pronounced as a risk factor for the development, persistence, and severity of asthma. Therefore, it has become a potential health concern for allergic patients all over the world. Since the genus, includes large species (300), and they have overlapping morphological characteristics. Hence, it is necessary to detect and identify the indoor and outdoor Alternaria species that are particularly involved in allergenic or asthma reactions.


The starting point for this paper was Anthony Griffiths' short twelve page article, Early Mezzotint Publishing in England--I John Smith, 1652-1743. Griffiths' focus in the article was a rather obscure artist of the late-seventeenth-early-eighteenth-century, John Smith (1652-1743). With a decidedly unassuming name, it is not difficult to imagine that such an individual might easily be forgotten to history. However, what Mr. Griffiths' rightly points out is that Smith was considered the premier artist of the mezzotint printing technique of his time. Until this moment, the British struggled to establish themselves in the artistic world. The empire typically relied on expatriates of other nations and the imported techniques they brought with them to provide the nation with an artistic identity. Such was the case with the mezzotint technique. Popularized during the seventeenth-century by Dutch artists, mezzotint was well suited to the replication of portraits. It became so extensively used in England, that internationally it was known as la maniere anglaise. With Smith, the English found themselves a national artist and technique. Smith's earliest prints were completed under the direction of other print publishers. However by 1689, Smith acquired the workshop of his publisher, Isaac Beckett, and began a long-standing business relationship with the portraitist Godfrey Kneller. With the acquisition, Smith was no longer simply an artist. He was now both printmaker and publisher in absolute control of his market. England's eighteenth century portrait print market is understood as a multilayered industry dependent on the cooperation of several autonomous key agents closely working together: the portrait painter, printmaker, patron, publisher and sitter. The complex roles of these individuals were often not clearly defined and generally complicated the market's business structure. This paper will focus on the question of the conception of authorship and originality that were possible in a market that encouraged the displacement of its structural order and dependent on multiplicity.


This article discusses the problem of pharmaceutical waste as hazardous to both the environment and human health. Persistently low ecological awareness in society, coupled with a small number of reception places where such waste can be delivered, prevent it from adequate segregation. In effect, together with other household waste, it is sent to municipal landfills, which in most cases lack the suitable protection measures necessary to prevent negative environmental impact. Only recently have medicine manufacturers been under an obligation to include in their leaflets a notice of special precautions to be taken during the disposal of unused pharmaceuticals and their waste. At present, a selective collection of medicines constituting hazardous waste from the municipal sector is carried out to a very narrow extent. From the legal standpoint, constructing reception systems for all municipal waste is the obligation of the municipal authorities. A number of pharmacies cooperating with local governments volunteer to participate in the segregation of pharmaceutical waste, providing special containers for medicines that are past their sell-by date. The study also describes procedures for expired psychotropic medicines and narcotics, which due to social reasons present a substantial problem in terms of their disposal. Legal regulations require strict procedures while handling this type of medicine.


The Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol ubiquitously enables energy-efficient wireless communication among resource-constrained devices. To ease its adoption, BLE requires limited or no user interaction to establish a connection between two devices. Unfortunately, this simplicity is the root cause of several security issues. In this paper, we analyze the security of the BLE link-layer, focusing on the scenario in which two previously-connected devices reconnect. Based on a formal analysis of the reconnection procedure defined by the BLE specification, we highlight two critical security weaknesses in the specification. As a result, even a device implementing the BLE protocol correctly may be vulnerable to spoofing attacks. To demonstrate these design weaknesses, and further study their security implications, we develop BLE Spoofing Attacks (BLESA). These attacks enable an attacker to impersonate a BLE device and to provide spoofed data to another previouslypaired device. BLESA can be easily carried out against some implementations of the BLE protocol, such as the one used in Linux. Additionally, for the BLE stack implementations used by Android and iOS, we found a logic bug enabling BLESA. We reported this security issue to the affected parties (Google and Apple), and they acknowledged our findings.


A method of manufacturing a heat exchange device having at least one heat exchange tube is disclosed. The method includes: determining a peak heat flux area of the at least one heat exchange tube; and disposing in the at least one heat exchange tube an flow enhancement device for creating a desirable flow pattern in a process fluid flowing through the at least one heat exchange tube; wherein the flow enhancement device is disposed in the at least one heat exchange tube upstream of or at the determined peak heat flux area of the at least one heat exchange tube.


Symmetry analysis is a tool for classifying one- and two-dimensional patterns. A total of seven arrangements are possible for one-dimensional patterns. This project applied symmetry analysis to the embroideries on traditional women's chemises from various regions of Greece to determine preference for specific symmetry types. The embroidered bands, columns, and free-standing motifs on the hems of three hundred-eighteen chemises were analyzed. The data were sorted to determine the frequency of pattern arrangements as they pertain to each region and ethnic group. The results showed that although each of the seven possible pattern arrangements were present in the embroideries of the chemises analyzed, only two symmetries were dominant. Vertical reflection was the most commonly found classification followed by vertical and horizontal symmetry occurring simultaneously. Pattern arrangements varied by region rather than by ethnic group. Chemises with horizontal bands displayed a greater variety of symmetry types than chemises with vertical columns and free-standing motifs. The technique of symmetry analysis has widespread applicability to other textile designs with repeating patterns.


This contribution to the Festschrift concentrates on 'nano-s', a topic which is central in Ilya Ovid'ko scientific work in the field of materials physics. In particular, we concentrate on a rather new alloying design concept of so-called High-Entropy Alloys (HEA) that was proposed by Yeh et al. in Adv Eng Mater. 2004;6:299-303. The original idea is that a negative Gibbs free energy of mixing can be achieved, even when the enthalpy of mixing is positive or close to zero, through an increasing mixing entropy contribution with increasing temperature. From theoretical analyses based on the density functional theory, no ordered nanostructures in the Al-Co-Cr-Fe-Ni high-entropy alloys were predicted. However, in contrast ordered fcc nanoparticles were discovered by us experimentally in the fcc matrix of Al-Co-Cr-Fe-Ni as well as in other systems. In the present paper, we also discovered a novel phenomenon, i.e., the onset of the phase distribution of the bcc phase in the fcc matrix of Al-0.3 CoCrFeNi. This paper concentrates on the initial stage of locally ordered distribution of bcc phase and reports on the crystallographic orientation relationship between them as (1-1 0)(bcc) //(200)(fcc), [001](bcc) //[001](fcc)


Cluster label quality is crucial for browsing topic hierarchies obtained via document clustering. Intuitively, the hierarchical structure should influence the labeling accuracy. However, most labeling algorithms ignore such structural properties and therefore, the impact of hierarchical structures on the labeling accuracy is yet unclear. In our work we integrate hierarchical information, i.e. sibling and parent-child relations, in the cluster labeling process. We adapt standard labeling approaches, namely Maximum Term Frequency, Jensen-Shannon Divergence, Chi Square Test, and Information Gain, to take use of those relationships and evaluate their impact on 4 different datasets, namely the Open Directory Project, Wikipedia, TREC Ohsumed and the CLEF IP European Patent dataset. We show, that hierarchical relationships can be exploited to increase labeling accuracy especially on high-level nodes.


A technique is described wherein substituent-dependent excited-state properties of gas-phase porphyrins can be accurately quantified. Dissociation lifetimes of photoexcited porphyrin cations were measured in an electrostatic ion storage ring. From these data, upper limits for the triplet quantum yield of the following protonated porphyrins were obtained: protoporphyrin IX (0.63 +/- 0.04), tetraphenylporphyrin (0.73 +/- 0.03), tetra(p-methylphenyl)porphyrin (0.75 +/- 0.03), and tetra(p-cyanophenyl)porphyrin (0.71 +/- 0.03). The values compare well with those for porphyrins in solution.


Information resources for the course SOCI H396 Violence and Democracy taught by Dr. L. Voigt at the Monroe Library, Loyola University New Orleans.


SiO2-doped Na+-β/β″-Al2O3 was synthesized via a solid-state reaction, and the relationship between the SiO2 content and properties of Na+-β/β″-Al2O3 was investigated. Respective specimens were doped with 0 – 5 wt.% SiO2 as a liquid phase sintering promotor and sintered. The specimens were characterized by XRD, SEM, densimeter and impedance analyzer. In the sintered samples, the phase fraction of β″-Al2O3 decreased as the SiO2 content increased, whereas the relative sintered density was enhanced with the inclusion of less than 0.7 wt.% SiO2. The relative sintered density of Na+- β/β″-Al2O3 sintered specimen with 0.7 wt.% SiO2 doping reached 99.2 % of the theoretical density and the sintered density decreased when the amount of SiO2 was larger than 1 wt.% result from excessive liquid-phase formation during sintering. Similarly, the ionic conductivity of SiO2-doped Na+-β/β″-Al2O3 was enhanced by doping with a small amount of SiO2, whereas the addition of more than 1 wt.% SiO2 negatively affected the ionic conductivity of Na+-β/β″-Al2O3 due to a decrease in the sintered density and unfavorable phase relationship. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.25.3.14246


The authors present the internal energy distribution of Na2+ molecular ions formed in the associative ionization (AI) reactions Na(3p)+Na(3p) to Na2++e- and Na(4d)+Na(3s) to Na2++e-, as measured in a single beam by electron spectrometry. In both reactions the population of the higher vibrational levels is favoured. The cross section of the second reaction is about two orders of magnitude larger than that of the first. The internal energy distribution of Na2+ due to the first reaction is independent of the polarization of the colliding laser excited atoms. This is in agreement with theoretical findings that only one molecular potential curve leads to AI in the first process. Also the distribution itself, with maximum population for the vibrational levels nu =2 and nu =3, agrees well with theory.


Background. Suffering violence has both short- and long-term negative effects on women's health. We set out to study the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics of women attending three Family Planning Centers (FPCs) in France and the violence they experienced and to the association between women's perception of their health status and their exposure to violence. Methods. We conducted an observational survey of clinical practice from December 2018 to February 2019 at three FPCs in Seine-Saint-Denis (Ile-de-France). All women patients aged 18 years or older were eligible. We solicited data on social characteristics, precariousness, and suffering violence. We measured health status on a 10-point scales for six different symptoms.Results. Of the 274 women who participated, 28% had experienced violence. This percentage was higher among women living in socially precarious situations compared to the not or slightly precarious (39.3% vs 15.8%, respectively). Experiencing violence was significantly associated with being between 25 and 44 years old, being in a temporary or irregular administrative situation, being unemployed or seeking a job, and being in a precarious to very precarious situation. The proportion of women reporting domestic violence was more than twice as high in those consulting in FPC-1 (42%) than in FPC-2 (20%) or FPC-3 (16.2%). Regardless of age, history of violence was significantly associated with poor sleep, poor diet, low morale, and poor health in general for all FPCs and all levels of precariousness. Conclusion. Our study reveals that reports of violence against women increased with migratory status and precariousness, unemployment or job-seeking, and a poorer state perception of one's own health in a population drawn from three Family Planning Centers in Seine-Saint-Denis. It also suggests a structure specifically dedicated to the management of women victim of violence that FPC-1, may be perceived more attractive by women exposed to domestic violence. The study was retrospectively registered: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04304469


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To provide a systematic review of the secondary prevention practices of cancer survivors guided by the Interaction Model of Client Health Behavior.

DATA SOURCES
Articles published in peer-reviewed journals from 1996-2007.

DATA SYNTHESIS
Despite their increased risk for second cancers, few cancer survivors maintain regular follow-up with a clinician knowledgeable of late effects. Cancer screening rates for cancer survivors are below optimal levels recommended for the general population. Multiple antecedents explain survivors' health practices. Few tested interventions are available to promote secondary prevention practices among cancer survivors.

CONCLUSIONS
Cancer survivors are less likely to adopt secondary prevention practices than individuals without a cancer history.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Nurses can encourage cancer survivors to adopt secondary prevention practices by providing positive reinforcement, support, and education. As more comprehensive, evidence-based guidelines for longitudinal care become available, nurses will be able to provide care to survivors with greater confidence and certainty.


The use of fast-growing trees is a good economic strategy for charcoal production. Wood with adequate chemical and physical properties generally is positively correlated with charcoal quality. The objective of this research was to evaluate wood quality from fast-growing hybrids for charcoal production. Three Corymbia citriodora x Corymbia torelliana and four Corymba torelliana x Corymba citriodora hybrid clones were evaluated. Parameters used to evaluate wood quality were wood basic density, elemental and structural chemical composition, energy efficiency and thermogravimetric analysis and the parameters evaluated for charcoal quality were apparent relative density, gravimetric yield, high heating value, proximate analysis and energy efficiency. All clones had wood basic density superior than 0.5 g cm-3 and ash inferior than 1%, which are desirable for a good quality of charcoal. Lignin content did not differ among clones with an average less than the 28% recommended for energetic use. Besides clones differed in wood parameters, as dry matter, high heating value, energy density, total extractives, holocellulose content, it did not reflect in charcoal quality differences. Wood from all clones had equal and satisfying high heating value of charcoal and energy efficiency quality for charcoal production and differed in apparent relative density and ash content.


BACKGROUND
Conventional upper endoscopy (EGD), EGD with side-view endoscope and ileoscopy are established procedures for endoscopic evaluation of patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). However, we still have little data on the frequency and relevance of adenomas in those parts of the small bowel which are not accessible to EGD and ileoscopy. Adenomas distal to the duodenum are found more often in FAP patients with known duodenal adenomas. The question is, whether these patients can benefit from additional endoscopic and/or radiographic examinations.

METHODS
Between July 2001 and August 2006 we performed comparative small bowel studies with push enteroscopy (PE), capsule endoscopy (CE), ileoscopy (IL) and enteroclysis (EC) in 25 FAP patients known to have duodenal adenomas. The number, size and location of any adenomas detected were documented.

RESULTS
PE: The examination revealed duodenal adenomas (max. size 80 mm) requiring treatment in 9 of the 25 patients examined. In 12 of the 25 patients the PE showed adenomas distal to the ligament of Treitz with a maximum size of 15 mm. CE: In 22 of the 23 examined patients the CE revealed adenomas of the small bowel. Thirteen of these 22 patients also had adenomas in regions not accessible to PE or IL. These adenomas had a maximum size of 10 mm. IL: In 12 of the 25 patients adenomas were found in the region of the ileal pouch. The maximum size of the adenomas was 10 mm. EC: In 19 of the 23 examined patients the EC examination produced a false-negative result. in 8 of these 19 patients the adenomas not detected radiologically measured >or= 10 mm.

CONCLUSIONS
FAP patients with duodenal adenomas particularly often have adenomas distal to the duodenum. CE is a safe and convenient method for evaluating the small bowel in these patients. EC is considerably inferior to the endoscopic procedures for evaluation of the small bowel and is therefore not suitable for the diagnosis of adenomas in FAP.


This paper presents an approach to the architectural design and analysis of secure software systems based on the system requirements elicited in the form of use cases and misuse cases. We identify architectural components and their connections and analyze whether or not a candidate architecture can address security concerns. This provides a smooth transition from requirements specification to high-level design for engineering secure software systems, and greatly improves the traceability of security concerns, which allows a system developer to know what requirement an architectural component references back to. We demonstrate our approach through a case study on a security-intensive hospital information system.


The increasing prevalence of anthelmintic (drench) resistance in gastrointestinal parasite populations is decreasing the profitability of the sheep industry in Western Australia (WA). A strategy, referred to as refugia management, has the potential to delay the development of resistant parasites by not exposing a proportion of the worm population to chemical control. A dynamic bioeconomic model is used to assess the economic value of refugia for management of the worm species Teladorsagia circumcincta and Macrocyclic Lactone drenches in Western Australian sheep flocks. A low rate of refugia (2 per cent) is most profitable under standard circumstances because it slows the development of resistance, but also reduces the cost accruing to production losses that arise from maintaining a proportion of the worm population in refugia. The optimal drenching strategy is to drench heavily early in the time horizon to minimise worm populations in subsequent years. This study highlights the optimality of minimising production losses by maintaining high levels of consistent control.


Many‐body dynamics problems are expected to handle millions of unknowns when, for instance, investigating the three‐dimensional flow of granular material. Unfortunately, the size of the problems tractable by existing numerical solution techniques is severely limited on convergence grounds. This is typically the case when the equations of motion embed a differential variational inequality problem that captures contact and possibly frictional interactions between rigid and/or flexible bodies. As the size of the physical system increases, the speed and/or the quality of the numerical solution decreases. This paper describes three methods – the gradient projected minimum residual method, the preconditioned spectral projected gradient with fallback method, and the modified proportioning with reduced gradient projection method – that demonstrate better scalability than the projected Jacobi and Gauss–Seidel methods commonly used to solve contact problems that draw on a differential‐variational‐inequality‐based modeling approach. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We propose an efficient numerical method for a class of fractional diffusion-wave equations with the Caputo fractional derivative of order . This approach is based on the finite difference in time and the global sinc collocation in space. By utilizing the collocation technique and some properties of the sinc functions, the problem is reduced to the solution of a system of linear algebraic equations at each time step. Stability and convergence of the proposed method are rigorously analyzed. The numerical solution is of order accuracy in time and exponential rate of convergence in space. Numerical experiments demonstrate the validity of the obtained method and support the obtained theoretical results.


: Study of the time-course of psychophysiological parameters in relation to the effect of meteoheliofactors revealed a significant correlation of the studied processes in all the examinees. The most sensitive to such an effect was higher nervous activity. The atmospheric pressure exerted the most pronounced influence on the parameters. There were two major (positive and negative) and the intermediate (inert) types of responses. Reactions of some patients either preceded or occurred some time after exposure to meteoheliofactors.


According to a recent Deloitte study, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to place a huge strain on the global health care sector. Covid-19 has also catalysed digital transformation across the sector for improving operational efficiencies. As a result, the amount of digitally stored patient data such as discharge letters, scan images, test results or free text entries by doctors has grown significantly. In 2020, 2314 exabytes of medical data was generated globally. This medical data does not conform to a generic structure and is mostly in the form of unstructured digitally generated or scanned paper documents stored as part of a patient's medical reports. This unstructured data is digitised using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process. A key challenge here is that the accuracy of the OCR process varies due to the inability of current OCR engines to correctly transcribe scanned or handwritten documents in which text may be skewed, obscured or illegible. This is compounded by the fact that processed text is comprised of specific medical terminologies that do not necessarily form part of general language lexicons. The proposed work uses a deep neural network based self-supervised pre-training technique: Robustly Optimized Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (RoBERTa) that can learn to predict hidden (masked) sections of text to fill in the gaps of non-transcribable parts of the documents being processed. Evaluating the proposed method on domain-specific datasets which include real medical documents, shows a significantly reduced word error rate demonstrating the effectiveness of the approach.


The term ``transition costs`` describes the potential revenue shortfall (or welfare loss) a utility (or other actor) may experience through government-initiated deregulation of electricity generation. The potential for transition costs arises whenever a regulated industry is subject to competitive market forces as a result of explicit government action. Federal and state proposals to deregulate electricity generation sparked a national debate on transition costs in the electric-utility industry. Industry-wide transition cost estimates range from about $20 billion to $500 billion. Such disparate estimates raise important questions on estimation methods for decision makers. This report examines different approaches to estimating transition costs. The study has three objectives. First, we discuss the concept of transition cost. Second, we identify the major cost categories included in transition cost estimates and summarize the current debate on which specific costs are appropriately included in these estimates. Finally, we identify general and specific estimation approaches and assess their strengths and weaknesses. We relied primarily on the evidentiary records established at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission to identify major cost categories and specific estimation approaches. We also contacted regulatory commission staffs in ten states to ascertain estimation activities in each of these states. We refined a classification framework to describe and assess general estimation options. We subsequently developed and applied criteria to describe and assess specific estimation approaches proposed by federal regulators, state regulators, utilities, independent power companies, and consultants.


Graph theoretical approaches have become a powerful tool for investigating the architecture and dynamics of complex networks. The topology of network graphs revealed small-world properties for very different real systems among these neuronal networks. In this study, we observed the early development of mouse retinal ganglion cell (RGC) networks in vitro using time-lapse video microscopy. By means of a time-resolved graph theoretical analysis of the connectivity, shortest path length and the edge length, we were able to discover the different stages during the network formation. Starting from single cells, at the first stage neurons connected to each other ending up in a network with maximum complexity. In the further course, we observed a simplification of the network which manifested in a change of relevant network parameters such as the minimization of the path length. Moreover, we found that RGC networks self-organized as small-world networks at both stages; however, the optimization occurred only in the second stage.


Background: COVID-19 related critical illness is associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE).

                     Objective: These evidence-based guidelines of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) are intended to support patients, clinicians, and other health care professionals in decisions about the use of anticoagulation in patients with COVID-19.

                     Methods: ASH formed a multidisciplinary guideline panel, including three patient representatives, and applied strategies to minimize potential bias from conflicts of interest. The McMaster University GRADE Centre supported the guideline development process, including performing systematic evidence reviews (up to January 2022). The panel prioritized clinical questions and outcomes according to their importance for clinicians and patients. The panel used the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach to assess evidence and make recommendations, which were subject to public comment. This is an update to guidelines published in February 2021 and May 2021 as part of the living phase of these guidelines.

                     Results: The panel made one additional recommendation, a conditional recommendation for the use of prophylactic-intensity over therapeutic-intensity anticoagulation in patients with COVID-19-related critical illness who do not have suspected or confirmed VTE. The panel emphasized the need for an individualized assessment of thrombotic and bleeding risk.

                     Conclusions: This conditional recommendation was based on very low certainty in the evidence, underscoring the need for additional, high-quality, randomized controlled trials comparing different intensities of anticoagulation in patients with COVID-19-related critical illness.


Darier-White disease (DWD), commonly called Darier disease or keratosis follicularis, is a genodermatosis seen in clinical practice. It exists more commonly in the generalized form but can present as a localized condition. Localized DWD is a rare entity characterized by epidermal changes that are like those seen in the generalized form but that are confined to a small area of skin. This entity is postulated to result from a postzygotic mutation and has the potential to be transmitted to offspring, which may result in the severe generalized form. We report a case of localized DWD diagnosed after biopsy of a recalcitrant linear dermatitis and discuss the salient features of this condition.


A new physically-based approach to unstructured mesh generation via Monte-Carlo simulation is proposed. Geometrical objects to be meshed are represented by systems of interacting particles with a given interaction potential. A new way of distributing nodes in complex domains is proposed based on a concept of dynamic equilibrium ensemble, which represents a liquid state of matter. The algorithm is simple, numerically stable and produces uniform node distributions in domains of complex geometries and different dimensions. Well-shaped triangles or tetrahedra can be created by connecting a set of uniformly-spaced nodes. The proposed method has many advantages and potential applications.
The new method is applied to the problem of meshing of voxel-based objects. By customizing system potential energy function to reflect surface features, particles can be distributed into desired locations, such as sharp corners and edges. Feature-preserved surface mesh can then be constructed by connecting the node set.
A heuristic algorithm using an advancing front approach is proposed to generate triangulated surface meshes on voxel-based objects. The resultant surface meshes do not inherit the anisotropy of the underlying hexagonal grid. However, the important surface features, such as edges and corners may not be preserved in the mesh.
To overcome this problem, surface features such as edges, corners need to be detected. A new approach of edge capturing is proposed and demonstrated. The approach is based on a Laplace solver with incomplete Jacobi iterations, and as such is very simple and efficient. This edge capturing approach combined with the mesh generation methods above forms a simple and robust technique of unstructured mesh generation on voxel-based objects.
A graphical user interface (GUI) capable of complex geometric design and remote simulation control was implemented. The GUI was used in simulations of large fuel-cell stacks. It enables one to setup, run and monitor simulations remotely through secure shell (SSH2) connections. A voxel-based 3D geometrical modeling module is built along with the GUI. The flexibility of voxel-based geometry representation enables one to use this technique for both geometric design and visualization of volume data.


The construction of the SPring-8 (Super Photon ring 8 GeV) linac was started in 1991 March. The preinjector of linac (2856 MHz, 60 pps) was already installed in Tokai Establishment of JAERI, and its commissioning is under way. We obtained the initial data of the electron gun, bunching section and several monitors. The electron beam is emitted by thermal cathode assembly, and extracted by 200 kV high voltage. Three types of grid pulsers were prepared to generate different pulse length, 1 nsec, 10-40 nsec and 1 /spl mu/sec. On the 1 nsec mode, this gun generated 22 A peak currents. The electrons were transported to the prebuncher along the magnetic field, about 600 Gauss, by eight helmholtz coils. The bunching efficiency was obtained to be 64-65%, and the energy spread was obtained /spl plusmn/2% at the energy of 9 MeV after the buncher with 2 MW RF power.<<ETX>>


The proton-translocating pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase of Escherichia coli is composed of two types of subunits, alpha and beta, organized as an alpha(2)beta(2) tetramer. The protein contains three recognizable domains, of which domain II is the transmembrane region of the molecule containing the pathway for proton translocation. Domain II is composed of four transmembrane helices at the carboxyl-terminus of the alpha subunit and nine transmembrane helices at the amino-terminal region of the beta subunit. We have introduced pairs of cysteine residues into all of the loops connecting the transmembrane helices of domain II of the beta subunit. Crosslinking between the two beta subunits of the tetramer was induced spontaneously, or by treatment with cupric 1,10-phenanthrolinate or o-phenylenedimaleimide. Crosslinks between pairs of betaA114C, betaS183C, and betaA262C residues were observed, suggesting that pairs of domain II transmembrane helices 11, 12, and 14 were in proximity. These results, together with previous data (Bragg and Hou (2000) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 273, 955-959) suggest that the transhydrogenase tetramer is formed by apposition of alpha(2) and beta(2) dimers. Crosslinking between pairs of cysteine residues in the same beta subunit was not observed, possibly because the interhelical loops of the domain II region of the beta subunit were too short to allow correct orientation of the sulfhydryl groups for crosslinking.


PURPOSE: Financial hardship (FH) in cancer care is a growing challenge for patients, their caregivers, and health care providers with impact on morbidity and mortality. In this study, we report on a standardized approach to describe the prevalence and predictors for FH as part of routine clinical workflow. We also report on the association of FH with survival in our cancer patient population. METHODS: This study includes patients who completed a FH screen at least once between 2018 and 2020. Demographics, disease state, and mortality data were extracted from the medical records. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine association of sociodemographic and disease variables with FH. By using propensity score weighting to account for differences in demographic and clinical factors between patients with and without FH, we then fit Cox proportional hazards models to examine the relationship between FH and survival. RESULTS: The study cohort included 31,154 patients. FH was reported by 14% (n = 4,250) of the patients. A significantly higher likelihood of having FH (P < .001 for all) was reported by racial/ethnic minority patients; those who were unemployed/disabled, single, or divorced; patients from disadvantaged neighborhoods; and those who were self-pay or had government insurance. Older age, being retired, and living farther from the cancer center were associated with significantly less likelihood of endorsing FH. Patients who endorsed FH had a lower survival (hazard ratio for mortality 1.46). CONCLUSION: Our study identified key groups more likely to report FH in a relatively affluent population at a large cancer center and showed an adverse association between FH and survival. Further research is needed to develop clinical care pathways for patients at high risk for worse financial and clinical outcomes.


Governance, Risk Management and Compliance are key success factors for corporations. Every company worldwide must ensure a proper compliance level with current and future laws and regulations, but managing the dynamic nature of the regulatory environment is a challenge, for both small and medium business as well as large corporations. Specifically the challenge is knowing and interpreting which regulations impact a particular business. Governments and standard bodies keep producing new, revised legislation, and businesses today rely on employees and consultants for tracking and understanding impact on their operations.
 This paper introduces a novel prototype solution that addresses these concerns through the use of advanced text analytics. In particular the system is able to discover sources of regulatory content on the world wide web, track the changes to these regulations, extract metadata and semantic information and use these to provide a semantically guided comparison of regulation versions. Moreover, by leveraging the IBM DeepQA architecture, the solution is able to cross reference business objectives with the regulatory database and provide insights about the impact of new and revised laws on a company's business.


Theta rhythms have been recorded from rat brain slices of the posterior hypothalamic area (PHa), including the supramammillary and posterior hypothalamic nuclei. Additionally, in numerous studies theta‐related neurons were identified in the PHa according to the classification of Bland and Colom (Progress in Neurobiology, 41, 157–208, 1993). It is currently widely accepted that the PHa contributes to the process of HPC theta frequency programming at least in certain behavioral states. The postnatal development of the HPC and its ability to generate theta has also been a subject of studies. Specifically, it was found that theta oscillations are present in the HPC of 8–10 days old rat pups and turn into a well‐synchronized and high‐amplitude activity in the following few days. In our current study, we therefore focused on the postnatal development of cholinergically‐induced theta rhythm and theta‐related neuronal activity in PHa slices obtained from 8 to 24 days old rat pups. Theta activity was observed in the PHa preparations at the age of 8–10 days and then progressively increased its probability of occurrence, amplitude and synchrony up to the age of 22–24 days when it reached a plateau phase. A steady increase in the number of recorded neurons correlated with local theta oscillations was also observed.


When Canadian medical tourists go abroad, they are often accompanied by friends and family, referred to as caregiver-companions, who provide informal care. These individuals play a role in patient decision-making and are stakeholders in medical tourism, yet little is known about their participation in this consumer health practice. To examine the roles that Canadian caregiver-companions play while accompanying medical tourists abroad, and to identify how multi-perspective qualitative data can augment our understanding of these roles, primary and secondary analysis was undertaken on datasets generated from multiple qualitative studies: semi-structured interviews with medical tourists, caregiver-companions, and international patient coordinators, and a survey with medical tourism facilitators. The findings from the triangulated analysis of these qualitative datasets serve to better understand the multiple, overlapping perspectives of different stakeholders in medical tourism. Results show that medical tourism caregivers act as companions, providing physical and emotional care; navigators, providing logistical assistance; and knowledge brokers, participating in decision-making and information exchange between medical tourists and professionals. Using data triangulation to examine the narratives of multiple stakeholders confirmed, altered, and augmented our knowledge of caregiver-companion roles. The unique perspectives offered by each participant group augment our understanding of caregiver roles and the practice of medical tourism.


The high prevalence of craniovertebral junction malformation in Northeastern Brazil is historically associated with brachycephalic biotype (flat head), also common in this region. It has been postulated that this trait was introduced to this region by the Dutch during the colonial period in Brazil's history. Based on the confrontation of this paradigm against some historical facts, the authors concluded that the brachycephalic phenotype was inherited from prehistoric ancestors (Amerindians) who were already living in this region when white European men arrived.


Objectives The purpose of this study was to (1) assess the degree of motoneuron cell loss and (2) the combinatorial effects of electrical stimulation (ES) and testosterone propionate (TP) on cell survival following an intracranial facial nerve crush injury and (3) compare these results to distal injuries. Study Design Prospective, randomized, controlled animal study. Methods Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: intracranial sham surgery or intracranial crush injury with or without ES and TP treatments. The intracranial sham group underwent exposure of the meatal segment of the right facial nerve. The intracranial crush groups underwent a crush of the meatal segment following exposure with or without ES and TP treatment immediately following the injury and followed for 8 weeks. Brain sections were thionin-stained, and facial motor nuclei (FMN) were counted using light microscopy. Results were compared to intratemporal and extracranial facial nerve crush injuries. Results Intracranial crush injury resulted in a significant decrease in cell survival (n = 6) of 65.6% as compared to the sham group (99.4%; n = 9). The treatments increased cell survival to 93.8% (n = 2). The cell loss in the intracranial facial nerve injury is more substantial than the intratemporal (85.8%; n = 7) and extracranial (103.3%; n = 4) injuries. Conclusions Intracranial injury results in a more profound cell loss compared to the distal injuries. These data suggest a critical importance for the development of treatment modalities that can help improve cell survival following facial nerve injuries.


Visual-Inertial Odometry (VIO) utilizes an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to overcome the limitations of Visual Odometry (VO). However, the VIO for vehicles in large-scale outdoor environments still has some difficulties in estimating forward motion with distant features. To solve these difficulties, we propose a robust VIO method based on the analysis of feature confidence in forward motion estimation using an IMU. We first formulate the VIO problem by using effective trifocal tensor geometry. Then, we infer the feature confidence by using the motion information obtained from an IMU and incorporate the confidence into the Bayesian estimation framework. Experimental results on the public KITTI dataset show that the proposed VIO outperforms the baseline VIO, and it also demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed feature confidence analysis and confidence-incorporated egomotion estimation framework.


In a fault rupture model used in seismic hazard mappng, changes in assumptions regarding fault and rupture lengths, the Gutenberg-Richter b value, minimum and maximum magnitudes, and acceleration variability may significantly affect accelerations estimated at a site, but the effects vary greatly depending on the location of the site relative to the fault and on the acceleration level. For a given attenuation function, modeling earthquakes along a linear fault as finite length ruptures, rather than as point sources, may cause the acceleration with a specified return period to increase by 25 to 50 per cent at a site near the center of the fault, but only negligibly at a site near the end of the fault. However, if the fault is fairly short, the treatment of rupture lengths may also affect accelerations determined at sites near the end of the fault. Increasing the minimum magnitude m by one unit from m = 4.0 to m = 5.0 may decrease the accelerations for short return periods at a site near the fault by a factor of 2 to 10; the same change in minimum magnitude will have a smaller effect on the return period of a fixed acceleration for a site further from the fault. Including acceleration variability may increase the return period of lower accelerations at a site, but decrease the return period of higher accelerations by a factor 1.4 to 2.0, and by considerably more at the highest accelerations. If the total number of earthquakes is held constant and the Gutenberg-Richter b value is varied, an increase of 10 per cent in the absolute value of b may cause a 20 to 30 per cent decrease in the acceleration calculated for a given return period. Changing the assumed maximum magnitude may significantly affect return periods of higher accelerations at a site; the size of the effect depends upon the attenuation function used.

In the fault rupture model being analyzed, ground motion at a site is a function of earthquake magnitude and closest distance from the site to a rupture along a linear fault segment; ruptures must be contained wholly within the fault, and occur with equal probability at all allowable rupture locations. The model is compared with a rupture model in which the rupture may extend beyond the end of the fault by one-half rupture length, and also with a point source model in which earthquakes occur as points along a linear fault.


Using cultured human keratinocytes, three bioassays for retinoic acid-like substances have been developed. They are based on the ability of these substances (1) to inhibit cross-linked envelope formation, (2) to inhibit the synthesis of the K1 keratin, and (3) to stimulate the synthesis of the K19 keratin. The data, expressed as 50% inhibitory or activating concentrations were used to rank compounds according to their activity.


Case: McArdle disease, a glycogen storage disorder, often manifests as exercise intolerance secondary to muscle ischemia. Few authors have reported on rhabdomyolysis or compartment syndrome following inciting events among patients with McArdle disease. We present the case of a 40-year-old woman who developed spontaneous compartment syndrome of the right forearm and subsequently underwent emergency fasciotomy. Conclusion: On the basis of the present case and our review of the current literature, we advocate a high level of suspicion for compartment syndrome in patients with a history of McArdle disease.


Due to its interdisciplinary nature and its pace in penetrating into various facets of everyday activities, ebusiness has become an increasingly popular topic over the last two decades. While early 1990s e-business research grounded in ICT (information communication technology) theories covered topics such as, internal systems capabilities, adoption, and technology investments' impact on success, the new millennium with the dot.com crash, witnessed a flux of interest in performance management, value creation and strategy formulation. Related intellectual capital literature grew, accompanied by technology mergers and acquisitions underscoring the need for valuing "digital capital". This entire technological craze in adopting to change is necessitating the adoption of a futuristic vision on part of professionals and academicians. This paper attempts to offer a roadmap for interdisciplinary scholars by providing insight of what has been studied so far in e-business research, what topics face extinction due to technological advancement and what the future beholds for us in this realm. Its distinctiveness lies in its use of an integrated methodology combining broad literature review (spanning through the almost two decade-long lifetime of e-business literature between the years 1995-2013) and content analysis of 41 global e-business events organized by prominent academic and professional institutions in 2013. The trilingual (Turkish, English and German) keyword search process used in reaching current event information and the translation of such into English, may spearhead future studies of this kind. To the best of the knowledge at hand, this study is the first to provide a comprehensive literature review of past e-business research from a generalist perspective and utilize practitioners' event as a tool for forecasting future research topics.


After the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system, Austria adhered to an exchange rate policy of adjustably pegging the schilling to a basket of stable currencies. Over the years the basket changed according to the respective priorities of overall economic policy and eventually shrunk to a single hard currency, the deutschmark. The resulting effective appreciation of the schilling was intended to import price stability. In the second half of the 1970s, that policy became inconsistent when monetary and fiscal policies were eased to counter the consequences for growth and employment of the spreading international recession. As a consequence the deficit on current account increased rapidly and eventually, by mid 1977, resulted in a de facto tightening of monetary policy and a (slight) depreciation of the schilling against the deutschmark. The official arguments in favor of maintaining the hard currency policy can be traced either to the (long-run) "Scandinavian" model of inflation transmission or to the vicious circle hypothesis (a depreciation induces inflation which in turn leads to further depreciation) or to considerations of an optimum currency area comprising Germany and Austria. In the paper it is shown that (i) the Scandinavian model must be heavily adapted to deal with short-run policies, (ii) a vicious circle was unlikely to develop given the remarkable real wage flexibility in Austria, and (iii) a currency union with Germany was harmful to real sector developments in Austria. The paper concludes that Austria, given the change in policy priorities from inflation targeting to fighting unemployment, maintained the hard currency policy much too long.


Development organizations often do not have time to perform security fortification on every file in a product before release. One way of prioritizing security efforts is to use metrics to identify core business logic that could contain vulnerabilities, such as database interaction code. Database code is a source of SQL injection vulnerabilities, but importantly may be home to unrelated vulnerabilities. The goal of this research is to improve the prioritization of security fortification efforts by investigating the ability of SQL hotspots to be used as the basis for a heuristic for prediction of all vulnerability types. We performed empirical case studies of 15 releases of two open source PHP web applications: Word Press, a blogging application, and WikkaWiki, a wiki management engine. Using statistical analysis, we show that the more SQL hotspots a file contains per line of code, the higher the probability that file will contain any type of vulnerability.


In this study a simple statistical model has been used to estimate hourly solar global radiation over Bangladesh for two different time periods. Only the visible channel (0.63 μm) data of NOAA-AVHRR digital images, obtained from Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organization, has been processed to find the cloud index, a parameter which includes the horizontal extension of clouds and its optical thickness. Ground measured (pyranometer) data, obtained from Bangladesh Meteorological Department, has been used to obtain the total atmospheric transmission factor. One set of cloud index-atmospheric transmission factor data pairs has been used to find the regression coefficients using a statistical model. Once these coefficients are obtained these are then applied to the other set to calculate the ground irradiation. Ground solar global irradiation for two places has been estimated for two months through application of this method. Accuracy of the method for calculating surface insolation has been checked in two ways. Reasonably good correlation between the measured and estimated irradiation has been observed for all cases. The root mean square error (RMSE) varies between 7.99% and 13.62% and mean bias error (MBE) from -7.22% to +9.54%. The method can be used for calculation of hourly irradiation over areas in a tropical environment. Dhaka Univ. J. Sci. 61(1): 71-74, 2013 (January) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/dujs.v61i1.15099


Retrosynthesis prediction is a fundamental problem in organic synthesis, where the task is to identify precursor molecules that can be used to synthesize a target molecule. Despite recent advancements in neural retrosynthesis algorithms, they are unable to fully recapitulate the strategies employed by chemists and do not generalize well to infrequent reaction types. In this paper, we propose a graph-based approach that capitalizes on the idea that the graph topology of precursor molecules is largely unaltered during the reaction. The model first predicts the set of graph edits transforming the target into incomplete molecules called synthons. Next, the model learns to expand synthons into complete molecules by attaching relevant leaving groups. Since the model operates at the level of molecular fragments, it avoids full generation, greatly simplifying the underlying architecture and improving its ability to generalize. The model yields $11.7\%$ absolute improvement over state-of-the-art approaches on the USPTO-50k dataset, and a $4\%$ absolute improvement on a rare reaction subset of the same dataset.


In this paper, two methods are presented. One involves the separation of calcipotriol, a new synthetic analogue, from two related compounds, specifically cholecalciferol (Vitamin D3) and calcitriol (1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3). The other involves the isolation and assay of calcipotriol from a topical ointment. The study was performed with reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography using an RP18 column and ultraviolet detection. Applying the method of Snyder, a mobile phase mixture containing methanol-acetonitrile-water (67:23:10, v/v) was found which achieved a total separation within 18 min. A mobile phase of methanol-water (80:20, v/v) attained a slower elution of calcipotriol. For isolation and assay of calcipotriol from an ointment (Daivonex), dissolution in chloroform gave the highest recovery (> 98%). The isolation and assay process can be performed within 2 h.


Electrical stimulation of peripheral nerves is an established modality in treatment of chronic pain. Although introduced half a century ago, it has enjoyed rapid growth in popularity and acceptance over the last decade or so. The spectrum of clinical situations where peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) has been successfully used includes chronic pain in extremities, neck, lower back, chest and abdominal wall, and head and face regions. Based on several multicenter studies, PNS has been recently approved for clinical use in Europe for treatment of chronic low back pain and intractable chronic migraines. Such administrative recognition of clinical value of PNS necessitates update on PNS status for interested readers. The goal of this article is to provide a comprehensive overview of the different types of peripheral neurostimulation that are used today and providing the most updated information on the current state of the modality. As clinical interest and experience with PNS continue to grow, we expected steady accrual of objective evidence in terms of safety, efficacy, best indications and optimal stimulation parameters, all of which will be necessary for worldwide regulatory approval of PNS and for the benefit of patients who are still suffering from chronic neuropathic pain.


Abstract. The marine oil spill is a sudden event, and the airborne hyperspectral means to detect the oil spill is an important part of the rapid response. Sun glint, the specular reflection of sun light from water surface to sensor, is inevitable due to the limitation of observation geometry, which makes so much bright glint in image that it is difficult to extract oil spill feature information from the remote sensing data. This paper takes AISA+ airborne hyperspectral oil spill image as data source, using multi-scale wavelet transform, enhanced Lee filter, enhanced Frost filter and mean filter method for sea surface glint suppression of images. And then the classical SVM method is used for the oil spill information detection, and oil spill information distribution map obtained by human-computer interactive interpretation is used to verify the accuracy of oil spill detection. The results show that the above methods can effectively suppress the sea surface glints and improve the accuracy of oil spill detection. The enhanced Lee filter method has the highest detection accuracy of 88.28 %, which is 12.2 % higher than that of the original image.


The main objective of this study was to identify the most vulnerable areas to soil erosion in Guna-Tana watershed, Blue Nile basin; Ethiopia by using the Geographic Information System based decision support system use that of multi-criteria evaluation (MCE). This study focus on the identification of soil erosion-prone areas in Guna-Tana watershed (area: 3528 sq km), which drains overall catchment to Lake Tana. Using the MCE analysis, an attempt was made to combine a set of factors (land use, soil, slope, Rainfall, altitude, and TWI) to make a decision according to the stated objective. Raster-based pairwise comparison methods considering six soil erosion driving parameters have been done in ArcGIS 10.3 environments. MCE is used to quantify the raster-based qualitative spatial erosion vulnerable model produced through pairwise comparison. Raster-based spatial model reveals that out of total watershed area, 202.84 sq km (5.75%), 227.65sq km (6.45%), 1091.02sq km (30.93%), 1681.99sq km (47.68%) and 324.03sq km (9.19%) areas are extremely sensitive, Highly sensitive, Moderately sensitive, Marginally sensitive and Less sensitive prone to soil erosion respectively. The results of this research can help decision-makers and policy-makers identify the "hotspots" of soil erosion and the relevant soil and water  conservation measures. Keywords: Soil erosion; Guna-Tana watershed; MCE; GIS; Pairwise comparison; Ethiopia


The aim in this study was to make a quantification of sclerosis of the ulnar trochlear notch in dogs with fragmentation of the medial coronoid process. On this moment it is difficult to diagnose FCP on radiographs alone. In practice it could be useful to diagnose FCP only on radiographs, because this method is widely used in practice. There is proven that sclerosis is more present in elbows positive for FCP. It seems that the sclerosis plays an important role in elbows positive for FCP. The sclerosis in this study is assessed on density and expand. We used two methods derived from Proks et al. 2010 and from Smith et al. 2009 to make this quantification. In this study was the main cause to conclude if this methods could be used in the diagnosis of FCP in individual dogs. There is a difference between healthy and FCP elbows in density and expand. On this moment the methods used in this study cannot be used in the individual patient, but maybe they could be used in future.


Abstract. Yellow dung fly (Scathophaga stercoraria (L.)) populations on cow pastures in Central Europe usually show a characteristic summer decline in fly numbers. This has been related to their sensitivity to hot temperatures, but where and in what state the flies spend the summer has remained unclear. Field enclosure experiments revealed no evidence for survival over summer in the pupal stage, as adults never emerged in early autumn from eggs laid in late spring. Laboratory and field evidence shows instead that adults acclimatize physiologically by suppressing reproduction in favour of accumulating lipid (but not glycogen) reserves. Apparently they spend the summer in cooler, forested areas close to the pastures. As reproduction is not entirely shut down, it is suggested that this represents quiescence rather than diapause. Presumably this increases the survival of the flies during the hottest time of the season, and appears to be a flexible life‐history strategy, particularly for late‐born spring generation individuals.


Atraumatic care is the important action which should be done by nurse especially at children who has hospitalized; it is focused to prevent psychic and psychology traumatic. Atraumatic care principles which must be practiced by nurse are to prevent the effect of separation family, to reduce the injury and painful, not to do the violence to children and modify the environment to children.
This research has purpose to get describe about the perception of parents about implementation of atraumatic care in hospitalized. The method in this research is description quantitative. The populations are 171 parents and the sample 35 person in purposive sampling method chosen by researcher. The research instrument is questioner and the data has been examined by univariate analysis.
The research has explanation that the perception of parents about implementations of atraumatic care is "good" into 18 persons (51, 4%) from respondent totally 35. The perception of parents to prevent the effect of separation family is good into 30 persons (85,7 %), to reduce the injury and painful is middle into 23 persons (67,5 %), not to do the violence is good into 21 persons (60 %) and to modify the environment to children is less into 31 persons (88,6 %).
The conclusions of research show that the perception of parents about implementation of atraumatic care at Ibnu Sina room, PKU Muhammadiyah Hospital of Yogyakarta is good.


The author explores the effect of carrier interaction with tail states on the mobility in amorphous silicon hydride for various model density of states profiles. Upon the assumption that multiple trapping of electrons dominates the transient response at short times, it is found that a shift in the demarcation energy, Ed*, between multiple trapping and tunnelling, to shallower energies can lead to an enhancement in the mobility for temperatures lower than 100 K.


Measurements of film cooling on a simulated turbine blade are conducted using a mass transfer technique. Under the influence of the endwall, dramatic changes of film cooling performance occur on the convex surface of the blade as compared to the region where the flow is two dimensional. The result is a triangular region, where coolant is swept away from the surface by the three-dimensional vortex-driven flow present between adjacent blades. In order to predict the area of this unprotected region, the influences of several parameters including density ratio, blowing rate, and number of rows of injection holes are studied. The presence of the endwall affects the film cooling performance on the concave surface only slightly.


In 2010, a group of Canadian trade unions, labour academics and environmental groups began a five year funded community-university research project, Work in a Warming World (W3), to develop effective ways for labour to take leadership in the struggle to slow global warming. We stated the problem this way: How can labour broaden and deepen its capacity to protect work and workers from the unique threats posed by climate change, all the while contributing to the struggle to slow global warming within the context of increasingly pessimistic climate science, global economic crisis, a hostile national government and strategic paralysis in the national and international political arena? In this 2013 paper, the authors explore the challenges and dilemmas for labour leadership in relation to environmental responsibility in the current political climate in Canada, drawing on W3 research and the unexpected uses that research can be put to, using the case of the Canadian Union of Postalworkers in catalyzing and internationalising activist engagement for climate bargaining.


As the complexity of commercial cellular networks grows, there is an increasing need for automated methods detecting and diagnosing cells not only in complete outage but with degraded performance as well. Root cause analysis of the detected anomalies can be tedious and currently carried out mostly manually if at all; in most practical cases, operators simply reset problematic cells. In this paper, a novel integrated detection and diagnosis framework is presented that can identify anomalies and find the most probable root cause of not only severe problems but even smaller degradations as well. Detecting an anomaly is based on monitoring radio measurements and other performance indicators and comparing them to their usual behavior captured by profiles, which are also automatically built without the need for thresholding or manual calibration. Diagnosis is based on reports of previous fault cases by identifying and learning their characteristic impact on different performance indicators. The designed framework has been evaluated with proof-of-concept simulations including artificial faults in an LTE system. Results show the feasibility of the framework for providing the correct root cause of anomalies and possibly ranking the problems by their severity.


This study investigates total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the Malaysian palm oil mill sector over the period 2005-2010, using a Stochastic Frontier Approach (SFA) model. TFP growth was decomposed into three components, namely, technical efficiency (TE), technical progress (TP) and scale components (SEC). The empirical results show that productivity growth was driven mainly by TE for all palm oil mills, followed by TP. However, a change in the scale components had a negative effect on productivity growth. Overall, the study suggests that there are opportunities to improve productivity growth in the Malaysian palm oil mill sector.


A new model of implosion is proposed and the possibility of stable imposion is discussed on the basis of this model. The model indicates a relaxation of the restrictions on the peak power and the culmination time of laser light required for pellet implosion


Decision-making in public bureaucracies should be guided by rules and formal procedures, securing predictability, impartiality and fair decisions. Studies show that public bureaucracies are highly mediatised – but knowledge about media impact on political outcomes is scarce. In this article, we study if, how and why media affect agendas, resource allocation and case decisions within public bureaucracies. Empirically, we apply a mixed method approach to the case of Norway, utilising a comprehensive survey among civil servants in ministries and agencies, as well as in-depth interviews with civil servants and political leaders. The results clearly support the notion that media can influence agendas, resource allocation and decision-making in ministries and agencies. When media pressure and broad public support build up, action is particularly taken when the issues are deemed important by political actors, suggesting that both push and pull forces are involved when media influence public bureaucracies.


Sierra de Gador is a complex, Triassic age aquifer system formed by dolostones and limestones with interbedded gypsum. On top, a thick Neogene-Quaternary series gives rise to shallow aquifers. F-Pb-Zn stratabound deposits are found within the Triassic carbonate formations. Their mineral paragenesis includes sphalerite, galena, pyrite, marcasite, fluorite and barite. The Sierra de Gador groundwater is the principal water resource for this semiarid environment, and the population is potentially exposed to hazardous elements related to mining activities and wastes. In October 1966, an intensive precipitation event (190 mm day−1) broke several old tailing structures, flooding part of the Berja village with polluted sludge. Fluorine values in some boreholes and springs were found higher than 1.5 mg l−1, the maximum value permitted by Spanish regulation for human consumption. Hydrogeochemistry data, statistical tools and geochemical simulations were used in this study to assess the physicochemical processes and the fluorine sources within this carbonate aquifer. Most of the analysed water samples are close to equilibrium with respect to carbonate minerals but are undersaturated with respect to fluorite and gypsum. About 39% of the samples have fluorine concentration higher than the regulatory limit. A statistical analysis indicates that fluorine has a low correlation with other variables. Inverse and mixing models, performed with the code PHREEQC, differentiate the predominance of water–rock interaction processes within the carbonate aquifer and water mixing between the carbonate and shallow aquifers. The results indicate that some fluorite dissolution must occur in the carbonate Triassic aquifer, whereas the shallow aquifers leach fluorine from mining wastes. Both types of aquifers are interconnected, and their waters mix below the flooded area. There, the high fluorine values appear to have two sources: (i) the regional fluorine enrichment due to the mineralization; and (ii) the polluted 1966 flood that reached the deep carbonates via the shallow aquifer.


CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASEAlthough only 34 cases of the new human brain disorder linked to eating beef from cattle infected with "mad cow disease"--called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)--have been confirmed in Britain since 1996, no one knows if these are isolated occurrences or the first signs of a major epidemic. Getting a handle on this crucial question has been made more difficult by the lack of a diagnostic test for vCJD. Now, help may be at hand: In the 16 January issue of The Lancet , a team of U.K. researchers reports that sensitive immunological and molecular tests can detect in tonsil biopsies an abnormal protein linked to vCJD.