This study explores the discursive construction of literacy in a disadvantaged primary school. The researcher acted as a participant observer during literacy lessons over a two year period, 1992-1993, in four different classrooms. School archival records such as policy statements, newsletters and student report cards were also collected. Data, including transcripts of lessons and interviews and a large corpus of school and classroom artefacts, was treated as text and a poststructuralist discourse analytic approach, following Foucault, was employed in theorising and interpreting the problem. In addition an analysis was made of the constructs - 'literacy', 'pedagogy' and 'disadvantage' - in media, policy and academic sites. The researcher took a feminist standpoint in foregrounding literacy pedagogy both as contested terrain and as a part of
teachers' work. The study aimed to consider how competing discourses constitute literacy and the literate subject in a disadvantaged school context.

Discourse analysis of the public texts and the school generated texts indicated a multiplicity of formations of the literate subject at this time. Consistent across all sites was the belief that literacy could be empowering for disadvantaged groups in the community. In government policy, literacy was constructed as an essential functional skill which would contribute to a 'clever country' and to a globally competitive economy. In the popular press, literacy was portrayed as a problem. Poor children were also typically constructed as a problem, either as threats to normal society or as victims of abusive parents. At the same time headlines regularly attested to evidence of declining standards of literacy and public schooling generally.

A review of contemporary educational research indicated that children from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities are likely to perform below the norms on mainstream measures of assessment of literacy. Historically, educational theorists have understood the problems experienced by disadvantaged children as being related to 'deficit', 'difference', 'resistance' and 'structural inequalities'. Each of these explanations is still evident in contemporary educational discourses. Literacy pedagogies often make claims for their efficacy and particular appropriateness for disadvantaged students. In the period of the present study the major debate was constituted as a binary opposition between whole and genre pedagogies, although the emergence of critical literacy in
primary school education was also in evidence. Analysis of these public discourses provides a macro context in which to consider the construction of literacy in the school site.

In the school site teachers drew on a multiplicity of discourses in order to assemble a pedagogy for literacy. They deployed a number of normalising techniques to discipline the students to be made literate, including frequent 'pep talks', individualised student monitoring or 'patrols' and continual running commentaries or 'voice-over'. The ideal literate student was constituted as an ethical subject: as a self-regulating, productive and socially responsible worker. The literacy curriculum emphasised the quality of students' work and literacy as information production, and there was a notable absence of story writing and student generated projects. Teachers stressed the productive use of time and were highly concerned about raising the standards of students' work. To these ends students were trained in technologies of the self, 'self-assessments' where they regularly accounted for themselves in writing across a number of pre-specified domains. There was also evidence, however, that both teachers and students contested the regime of discipline to which they were subjected, by interrupting the literacy lessons through the use of humour and overt resistance. In addition students' responsiveness to one teacher's 'critical literacy' suggested the potential for literacy lessons to become sites of talk, reading and writing about social justice.

It is argued that the discourses available in the public sphere are recontextualised in this local site as teachers deal with institutional priorities. The study suggests that theories of literacy curriculum and pedagogy need to be reconsidered from a broader sociological perspective which takes into account postmodern conditions, diverse student populations and teaching as an institutionalised labour process. The researcher takes the position that university based literacy educators, researchers and theoreticians need to examine our own discursive practices and their effects in local sites. Finally it is suggested that a positive and productive way forward is for school and university based educators to work together theorising and taking action in local communities.


CONTEXT
Despite quality assurance standards, Papanicolaou (Pap) test characteristics remain less than optimal.

OBJECTIVE
To compare the societal costs and benefits of human papillomavirus (HPV) testing, Pap testing, and their combination to screen for cervical cancer.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND POPULATION
A simulation model of neoplasia natural history was used to estimate the societal costs and quality-adjusted life expectancy associated with 18 different general population screening strategies: Pap plus HPV testing, Pap testing alone, and HPV testing alone every 2 or 3 years among hypothetical longitudinal cohorts of US women beginning at age 20 years and continuing to 65 years, 75 years, or death.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Discounted costs per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) saved of each screening strategy.

RESULTS
Maximal savings in lives were achieved by screening every 2 years until death with combined HPV and Pap testing at an incremental cost of $76 183 per QALY compared with Pap testing alone every 2 years. Stopping biennial screening with HPV and Pap testing at age 75 years captures 97.8% of the benefits of lifetime screening at a cost of $70 347 per QALY. Combined biennial HPV and Pap testing to age 65 years captures 86.6% of the benefits achievable by continuing to screen until age 75 years. Human papillomavirus screening alone was equally effective as Pap testing alone at any given screening interval or age of screening cessation but was more costly and therefore was dominated. In sensitivity analyses, HPV testing would be more effective and less costly than Pap testing at a cost threshold of $5 for an HPV test.

CONCLUSIONS
Screening with HPV plus Pap tests every 2 years appears to save additional years of life at reasonable costs compared with Pap testing alone. Applying age limits to screening is a viable option to maintain benefits while reducing costs.


For 25 years Bill Wyman was "the silent Stone", the quiet bass player in one of the world's greatest rock and roll bands. Whilst maintaining an unassuming image both on and off stage, Wyman also kept a diary; the resultant autobiography represents a note by note rendition of the Rolling Stones' tumultuous years. From the outset the Stones were cast as the "bad boys" of rock. Wyman recalls the Stones' years of apprenticeship as they evolved their tough sound under the leadership of R and B devotee Brian Jones, and describes in the hair-raising chaos and violence of their early tours. He is frank when describing the wildness and intricacies of the Stones' personal affairs, the dynamics of the musicians in and out of the studio, their scandalous legal problems, financial and management crises, conflicts over songwriting credits, the effects of drugs on their music and lives, and the circumstances leading up to Brian Jones' tragic death on the eve of the Stones' and Britain's biggest ever rock concert.


The energy absorption characteristics of CFRP (Carbon-Fibre Reinforced Plastics) tubes have been investigated on static and dynamic tests. Axial static compression tests have been carried out using the static testing machine and dynamic compression tests have been utilised using a vertical crushing testing machine. When such tubes are subjected to crushing loads, the response is complex and depends on the interaction between the different mechanisms that could control the crushing process. The collapse characteristics and energy absorption have been examined for various tubes. Energy absorption of the tubes is increased as increased in the lay-up which may increase the modulus of tubes. The results have been varied significantly as a function of ply orientation and interlaminar number. In general, the stacking sequence [0/90] CFRP tubes absorbed more energy than the [15/-15] CFRP tubes.


In an effort to address some of the problems associated with mainstream organic certification (such as high costs, extensive bureaucracy, inflexible processes, and a lack of community development focus), groups around the world have begun to develop alternative systems commonly referred to as participatory guarantee systems (PGS). These systems are based on the standards of mainstream certification agencies, but differ in that they adapt them to suit local conditions, employ simple verification procedures, minimize bureaucracy and costs, and incorporate an element of environmental and social education for both producers and consumers. This paper presents the experience of PGS in Mexico, with a focus on the case study of the Tianguis Organico Chapingo (Chapingo Local Organic Market). It is based on participant observation and informal interviews conducted by the authors during the course of their work as scholar-activists developing and promoting PGS as a certification option for Chapingo, as well as for an additional 16 markets that form the Mexican Network of Local Organic Markets.


An accurate charge density study of trialanine is presented with the maximum entropy method (MEM), on the basis of the same reflection data as was used for a multipole refinement [Rödel et al. (2006). Org. Biomol. Chem. 4, 475-481]. With the MEM, the optimum fit to the data is found to correspond to a final value of chi(2) which is less than its statistical expectation value N(Ref), where N(Ref) is the number of reflections. A refinement strategy is presented that determines the optimal goal for chi(2). It is shown that the MEM and the multipole method are on a par with regard to the reproduction of atomic charges and volumes, general topological features and trends in the charge density in the bond critical points (BCPs). Regarding the values of the charge densities in the BCPs, agreement between quantum chemical calculations, the multipole method and MEM is good, but not perfect. In the case of the Laplacians, the coincidence is not as good and especially the Laplacians of the C-O bonds differ strongly. One of the reasons for the observed differences in the topological parameters in the BCPs is the fact that MEM densities still include the effects of thermal motion, whereas multipole densities are free from the effects of thermal motion. Hydrogen bonds are more convincingly reproduced by the MEM than by multipole models.


A guide to finding analysis and responses to novels, plays, poetry and films with a specific emphasis on VCE texts. The guide will be useful to anyone seeking tips on book reviews and literary criticism.


BACKGROUND
Insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) is an allergic dermatitis of horses caused by bites of Culicoides spp. IBH does not occur in Iceland because of the absence of Culicoides, but the prevalence is high in horses imported from Iceland to environments where Culicoides are present.

HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVE
Test, in a longitudinal study before and after Culicoides exposure, whether a primary sensitizing Culicoides allergen can be identified and if an increase of allergen-specific immunoglobulin (Ig)E or IgG subclasses precedes clinical signs of IBH.

ANIMALS
Thirty two horses imported from Iceland to Europe; 16 developed IBH and 16 remained healthy.

METHODS
Determination of IgE and IgG subclasses against recombinant (r)-Culicoides allergens and Culicoides extract in sera taken before first exposure to Culicoides and yearly over a period of 3-4 years.

RESULTS
Before Culicoides exposure, there were no significant differences in Culicoides-specific serum IgE levels between horse that developed IBH or remained healthy. Culicoides exposure induced an individual IgE response pattern (to a median of 4.5 r-allergens) in the IBH but not in the healthy end-point group. The increase in serum IgE levels to Culicoides r-allergens was concurrent with the initial onset of clinical signs of IBH. IBH-affected horses displayed significantly higher allergen-specific IgG1 and IgG5 levels than healthy controls. Recombinant Culicoides obsoletus 1 (Cul o1) and Cul o3-specific IgG5 was significantly higher in the IBH compared to the healthy end-point group, before clinical signs of IBH.

CONCLUSION/CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Allergen-specific serum IgE cannot be used as predictor for IBH, whereas allergen-specific IgG5 levels may have a predictive value.


This thesis focuses on the asymmetric reduction of N-protected derivatives of (3S)-3-amino-1-chloro-4-phenyl-2-butanone to their corresponding diastereomeric alcohol products, which are key intermediates in the synthesis of HIV protease inhibitors. Although the stereoselective synthesis of the (S,S) alcohol product is easily achieved, preparing the (R,S) diastereomer is much more challenging. I investigated three diastereoselective reduction processes: 1) Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley (MPV) reduction, 2) asymmetric transfer hydrogenation, and 3) boron reducing agents. The diastereoselectivity of the MPV reduction still favored the (S,S) product; however, I discovered a significant rate enhancement when the standard catalyst (aluminum isopropoxide) was replaced with aluminum tert-butoxide. Many reaction variables were investigated in the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation reaction and the diastereoselectivity was improved to give a ratio of the desired (R,S) diastereomer to the undesired (S,S) alcohol of 9.5:1. Using chiral oxazaborolidine catalysts, an unprecedented (R,S) to (S,S) ratio of 9.5:1 was achieved. Finally, I investigated the effect of the N-protecting group on the stereoselectivity of the reduction. When the original boc-protecting group was replaced with a phthalimide group, the diastereoselectivity of the MPV reduction was reversed to favor the desired (R,S) product.


Salicylate intoxication is frequently overlooked as a cause of noncardiogenic pulmonary edema and altered mental status in adult patients. We describe a 42-year-old woman who presented with two episodes of recurrent noncardiogenic pulmonary edema requiring intubation. The first admission to hospital triggered an extensive initial workup that did not indicate a cause for the pulmonary edema. At the second presentation, recognition of the clinical syndrome in the emergency department led to the correct diagnosis of salicylate intoxication. The patient was successfully treated with hemodialysis and urinary alkalinization, leading to rapid resolution of pulmonary edema and extubation. Several aspects of the clinical presentation suggest that the patient suffers from chronic salicylism, probably complicated by episodic superimposed acute intoxication, a condition often misdiagnosed or diagnosed late in the course of disease, contributing to substantial morbidity and mortality in these patients. Maintenance of a high index of suspicion and rapid institution of appropriate therapy including hemodialysis once the diagnosis is established is an important determinant of outcome in this serious but underdiagnosed disorder.


Between the late 1940s and mid-1960s, American organized labor emerged among the most enthusiastic supporters of the military–industrial complex. This study examines that emerging relationship, focusing on the efforts of a group of unionists to mold defense spending into a vehicle for promoting employment and addressing social and economic problems. During the Korean War, labor representatives drafted, lobbied for, and helped administration Defense Manpower Policy #4, a policy channeling defense spending to areas suffering high rates of unemployment. With the advent of the Eisenhower administration, preferential policies fell by the wayside, but organized labor continued to press, with some success for defense spending as a general antidote to economic downturns. Late in the 1950s, the Construction Trades Department of Congress of Industrial Organizations and the American Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO), reacting to double-digit unemployment in their ranks, became an active promoter of fallout shelter construction. Despite some initial success in reimplementing preferential policies during the early months of the Kennedy administration, organized labor's defense agenda quickly ran afoul of Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara's plans to systematize and rationalize the defense sector. In the end, resistance from military and business leaders greatly impeded labor's progress. At the very least, however, labor's defense agenda reflects a larger social vision and also suggests the very real attraction to many unionists of the military–industrial complex, a malleable economic realm, open to political influence and somewhat removed from the harsh forces of the market.


If the Dark Matter is the neutral Majorana component of a multiplet which is charged under the electroweak interactions of the Standard Model, its main annihilation channel is into W+W−, while the annihilation into light fermions is helicity suppressed. As pointed out recently, the radiation of gauge bosons from the initial state of the annihilation lifts the suppression and opens up an s-wave contribution to the cross section. We perform the full tree-level calculation of Dark Matter annihilations, including electroweak bremsstrahlung, in the context of an explicit model corresponding to the supersymmetric wino. We find that the fermion channel can become as important as the di-boson one. This result has significant implications for the predictions of the fluxes of particles originating from Dark Matter annihilations.


The occurrence of mites on Bauhinia variegata L., a species introduced in Brazil as ornamental, was studied. Two plants of this species were sampled monthly from May 2000 to April 2001. A total of 8,482 mites, belonging to 25 species in 11 families were collected. The abundance of phytophagous mites was higher, being Lorryia formosa Cooreman the dominant species. The dominance of L. formosa might be caused by stress conditions of sampled plants and low number of predaceous mites on those plants.


This paper explains how Mobile Network Operators ("MNOs") are transforming their networks to meet the 5G challenge and the implications this transformation has for the structure of the cellular industry and broadband competition more generally. It explores the requirements to support the wireless elements of 5G, which represents an order-of-magnitude improvement over 4G LTE. Meeting those performance targets will drive a number of important complementary changes in the design and operation of mobile networks that will have important economic implications. Among the many changes both large and small, the transition to 5G is driving MNOs to embrace: (a) agile management of diverse spectrum assets; (b) small cells; and (c) softwarization and virtualization.
Based on the scale requirements necessary to build 5G networks, I conclude the transactions that have occurred among facilities-based Commercial Mobile Radio Service ("CMRS") operators over the past decade are not only salutary but also likely to continue for the economic health of broadband and 5G—and the resulting consumer benefits—at least in the near term. I explain how the 5G Future will be a converged market in which promoting the survival of fewer but stronger MNOs will promote the healthy evolution toward 5G, which will contribute to promoting innovation and sustaining energized competition across the broadband ecosystem. Industry restructuring may happen in multiple ways, but the best way forward in terms of promoting prospects for robust competition is for there to be at least three national-scale facilities-based providers of comparable size.
These conclusions offer lessons for how regulators should assess the proposed merger between T-Mobile and Sprint to form a stronger MNO ("New T-Mobile").2 The merger should be regarded as pro-competitive for the larger broadband ecosystem because it will contribute to accelerating the race to 5G and its accompanying economic transitions that will materialize sooner and improve consumer welfare. Accelerating the race to 5G, in turn, will help intensify competition within the larger ecosystem from four important directions.
1. Economies of scale for nationwide wireless operators are increasing with advances in network technology and architecture, which makes sustaining the pace of investment required to remain competitive with Verizon and AT&T more challenging for smaller operators.
2. The move toward 5G will further drive the convergence of fixed and mobile broadband, which will increase the potential for intermodal competition between fixed and mobile providers and among wireless networking technologies (e.g., Wi-Fi and 4G-LTE-derived networks). The long-awaited convergence of fixed and mobile networking and the enhanced capabilities and localization of advanced wireless networking are creating new avenues for competition that increase the competitive pressure on the existing MNOs.
3. The transition to smaller cells and more dynamic/flexible and heterogeneous local networking requirements, coupled with advances in networking equipment and software solutions, will open opportunities for new types of local facilities-based wireless infrastructure providers. These opportunities will include venue networks and neutral host deployments.
4. The increased capabilities to virtualize every type of information communication technology ("ICT") resource (including network resources) and grow demand for customized networking services will lead to more vigorous Mobile Virtual Network Operator ("MVNO") competition.
Taken together, these factors—increasing scale economies and the efficiency of hybrid fixed mobile deployments—add more pressure on MNOs to realize more efficiencies in network architecture and technology. Unless smaller MNOs—such as T-Mobile and Sprint—can achieve greater economies of scale to realize these efficiencies, the top-two MNOs might increase their entrenched positions, if either or both achieve 5G capabilities that smaller providers cannot match by virtue of their smaller scale or more limited access to high-cost fixed assets or both.


Pakistan is one of the leading producers of important agricultural commodities in the world with a relatively high proportion of undernourished population (26 %). This study aims to examine the food security trends in Pakistan in general, and to find out the household level food security and its key determinants in the rural areas of the Punjab Province in particular. Both secondary and primary data were used. Secondary data were obtained from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Bank and Government of Pakistan's data sources. Primary data were collected from 1152 households in 12 districts of the Punjab province using questionnaire survey. The analysis was done in two phases i.e. (Phase-A) identification of food security trends, at national level and (Phase-B) household food security and its determinants. For Phase-A, graphical representations are produced and for Phase-B primary data were analyzed in two further stages. In stage one the food security status of households was calculated using the calorie intake method. The second stage focused on identifying the socio-economic factors affecting food security using the logistic regression. The secondary data revealed that Pakistan is a food sufficient as well as food secure country at the national level. But at the household level 23 percent of the sample households were measured to be food insecure. Econometric analysis revealed that monthly income, livestock assets, joint family system and education levels (middle, intermediate and graduation) were positively impacting the rural household food security. On the other hand, greater household heads' age and family size had negative impacts on household food security. It is suggested that income generating opportunities needs to be created along with improvements in secondary and technical education systems, and family planning programs to alleviate food insecurity in the study region.


Background KRAS mutant non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) are molecularly and histologically diverse. Epithelial-like cells are more KRAS dependent, whereas mesenchymal-like cells are less KRAS dependent. These two subtypes are designated KE (epithelial) and KM (mesenchymal), respectively. A KE versus KM subtype transcriptional signature reveals specific modes of KRAS dependent survival signaling in the KE subtype. This KRAS dependency signature is significantly enriched with predicted microRNA (miRNA) target genes of miR-205 and miR-34b/c. MiRNAs can function as tumor suppressors by coordinately regulating multiple oncogenic signaling pathways. The role of deregulated miRNA function in mediating the survival of KM versus KE NSCLC cells has not been investigated to date. Methods Differential miRNA expression in KRAS mutant cell lines was determined using Taqman low-density qPCR arrays (TLDA). Functional miRNA reconstitution experiments of downregulated miRNAs were performed in a panel of KM cell lines. Effects on apoptosis and autophagy were performed by Western blotting, immunofluorescence and live cell microscopy and caspase assays. The molecular targets of miR-124 were computationally identified by TargetScan or miRWalk and experimentally verified using 3'UTR luciferase-based assays. Functional rescue of miRNA-dependent cell viability defects was determined by ectopic predicted target gene expression. Results Comparison of KE to KM cells yielded a KE-KM miRNA subtype classifier/signature. This signature revealed a number of silenced or suppressed miRNAs in KM cell lines, including members of the miR-200 family. MiR-200 and miR-205 reconstitution in KM cells modulated epithelial plasticity by Zeb1 protein suppression and increased E-cadherin levels. Reconstitution of miR-124, miR-625 and miR-518-3p in KM cells caused pronounced loss of cell viability. Furthermore, miR-124 caused autolysosome maturation defects. We identified SQSTM1/p62, TRAF6 and RELA/p65 as key predicted targets of miR-124. MiR-124 reconstitution in KM cells caused decreased p62, TRAF6 and p65 protein levels. The effect of miR-124 on p62 expression was verified using a Luciferase-p62-3'UTR reporter construct. Overexpression of p62 in KM cells rescued the cell viability defects caused by miR-124. Conclusion These studies implicate miR-124 as a context-dependent tumor suppressor miRNA in KM subtype cells. MiR-124 directly suppresses expression of SQSTM1/p62 to promote defects in autolysosome maturation. In parallel, miR-124 suppresses RELA/ p65 and in some cases, TRAF6, to alter expression levels of several cytokines. Thus, miR-124 coordinately regulates autophagy and inflammation to disrupt the finely-tuned balance between pro and anti-inflammatory signals, resulting in cytotoxic effects in a specific subtype of mesenchymal-like KRAS mutant NSCLC cells. Citation Format: Anita K. Mehta, Kevin Hua, William Whipple, Mihn-Thuy Nguyen, Rushika M. Perera, Johanns Haybaeck, Joanne Weidhass, Jeffrey Settleman, Anurag Singh. MiR-124 suppresses p62 and p65/NFkB to regulate autophagy, inflammation and cell death in KRAS mutant mesenchymal NSCLC cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2524. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-2524


The Florida citrus industry will continue to face new and serious challenges throughout the rest of this century and into the 21st century. Issues such as increasing production and labor costs, competition from other regions of the world, environmental awareness, energy, water management, government regulations, among others will focus our efforts on more efficient production, handling, processing and marketing methods. The historical commitment by the U.S. to a strong and highly-organized system for agricultural research has helped to maintain a vital and competitive domestic and international trade stature. Similarly, research has helped to keep the Florida citrus industry viable and competitive through the many major scientific developments from Lake Alfred.Paper published with permission.Compilation Copyright © 2018 ASME


The fiber optic communications industry has undoubtedly revolutionized the information and telecommunications technology (ICT) offering higher-performance and more reliable telecommunication links with ever decreasing bandwidth cost [1]. Simultaneously with these developments, fiber optic sensor technology has been associated with the optoelectronic and fiber optic communications industry, and many of the components associated with these industries were often developed for fiber optic sensor applications [1]. Fiber optic sensors take advantages of the exceptional characteristics of the optical fiber, which include compactness and small size, fast response, high resolution and sensitivity, good stability and repeatability, multiplexing capabilities, remote sensing, high flexibility, low propagating loss, affordable fabrication costs, simultaneous sensing ability, and resistance to electromagnetic interference [2–5] [1]. As optics and fiber optics component prices have fallen and quality has improved, the competence of fiber optic sensors to displace traditional sensors has increased [1], [6]. Nowadays, sensors rule the world. Sensors play a fundamental role to control and predict different products and systems, from consumer electronics to industrial environments, passing by the weather monitoring and biological and healthcare diagnosis. Those applied to health care monitoring have many benefits: minimize the cost per analysis, easy access to remote places without laboratory facilities such as vulnerable populations, reduce the treatment time and optimize the resources of the government health care system, among others [7–10]. In Colombia, for example, some transmissible diseases most frequently affect the most vulnerable populations. Since the Ministry of Health and Social Protection in Colombia should guarantees free diagnosis and treatment, and many of Colombia's rural areas have no access to adequate health services due to geographical and demographic 26 Optical Fiber Sensors for measurements in Life Sciences characteristics, along with the difficulties caused by the armed conflict, and other situations of violence; the priority must be given to those rural areas. One of the main purposes of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection is to carry out continuous and systematic monitoring of the epidemiological behavior in transmissible diseases. This monitoring should be performed in accordance with processes established that allow the notification, collection, and data analysis. Thus generating valid and reliable timely information to guide prevention and control measures for those diseases [11]. However, achieving this purpose is very complicated if conventional methods used for the detection of the diseases fail to reach the population affected. Therefore, it is essential to adapt and improve the technology used to detect those diseases when it is required to collect information at the remote zones with difficulties in accessing health services. The optical fiber biosensensing technology exhibits a good promising future to solve the issues that the conventional diagnosis methods used present such as: long procedures, expensive equipment and reagents, specialized personnel, lack of portability, low sensitivities, and need of biomarkers. In addition to the sensitivity and selectivity, one of the fundamental characteristics that makes most biosensors so potential is the possibility of performing the analysis of the substance to be determined directly, i.e. without the need for a marker, and in real time. These two characteristics give biosensors the possibility to perform not only a qualitative and quantitative analysis, but also the possibility of evaluating the kinetics of the interaction (affinity constant, association and dissociation, among others) and, therefore, elucidate the fundamental mechanisms of such interaction. In this thesis it is studied a novel biosensing technology applied to immunoassays (detection of an antigen/antibody binding) based on the single-mode-multimode-single mode (SMS) fiber optic structure. This structure consists of optical fiber that relies on a multimode interferometry operating principle. Optical fiber SMS immunosensors here studied present several advantages: Optical Fiber Sensors 27 • The proposed structure has biosensing parameters comparable to those achieved by more complex structures like long period grating and surface plasmon resonances, which places this immunosensing device as a very promising option for biological and medical applications where high sensitivities, high selectivity and compact structures are required. • The sinusoidal spectrum of the SMS sensors proposed allows a sharp peak corresponding to the fundamental frequency to be observed. Consequently, it is possible to obtain a phase sensitive device by tracking the phase of this fundamental frequency as a function of the parameter to detect. FFT analysis technique is shown to have advantages since it could simplify the detection system making unnecessary the use of sophisticated optical interrogators. • The proposed structure and the bioassay performed is a label free assay, which implies that detection molecules are not labelled or modified. This means easier and lower cost procedures. The main results obtained using this concept of biosensors will be presented along this thesis as is described. First, Chapters 1 and 2, include an overview of the optical fiber sensors field, mainly focused on optical fiber biosensors. The sensors developed as a result of this thesis are presented as contributions in Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6. These contributions were submitted to peer-reviewed top scientific journals and conferences. Finally, Chapter 7 presents and discusses a series of conclusions, current work, and future perspectives derived from this thesis.


The determination of the causal pattern among inflation, money growth, and exchange rate has important implications for policymakers regarding appropriate stabilization policies in developing economies. Using Congolese data where the pace of broad money growth and hyperinflation (23,760% annual change) reached record levels in early 1990s, we use single−equation multivariate autoregressive models with the optimal lag selected using Hsiao fs approach to Granger causality. Results indicate feedback causality between inflation and money growth on one side, and unidirectional Granger causality from money growth to the exchange rate and from the exchange rate to inflation on the other. These results suggest that the over−riding goal of disinflation needs to be accomplished initially by exchange rate stabilization, followed by a direct inflation targeting.


Abstract Patch burning is the deliberate application of fire to a management unit in a heterogeneous manner, resulting in the heterogeneous distribution of grazing animal impact. The application of patch burning typically has been discussed within a framework of imposing heterogeneity on a homogeneous landscape or management unit, yet most landscapes and management units are actually distinguished by an inherent level of heterogeneity. Within landscapes and management units, differing topography and soils interact to create patterns of contrasting patches, also known as topoedaphic sites. Thus, introduction of a heterogeneous disturbance such as patch burning on a landscape or management unit is more accurately described as the imposition of one layer of heterogeneity onto a pre-existing layer of heterogeneity. We examined effects of patch burning on vegetation structure and animal distribution across contrasting topographical sites in sand sagebrush (Artemisia filifolia Torr.) shrubland of the southern Great Plains in North America. Landscapes at our study site were characterized by an inherent amount of heterogeneity in vegetation structure due to variability in topoedaphic sites, and the patch burning treatment superimposed additional heterogeneity that was constrained by topoedaphic characteristics. Shrub-dominated sites were more dependent on patch burning for heterogeneity of vegetation structure than sites dominated by short grasses. Distribution patterns of cattle (Bos taurus) were not significantly different across treatments, though they followed patterns similar to previous studies. We demonstrated that heterogeneity was dependent on topoedaphic patterns and the application of patch burning management for heterogeneity was dependent on the inherent variability of a landscape.


Most forest fragments in the oil palm plantation are remnants of unsuitable area for establishing oil palm estates. These areas consist of low diversity, density of birds because of its small area and isolated from large pristine forest. Studying bird ecology is essential in perceiving ecological complexity and quality in an area. In this study, bird species richness, abundance, and community composition were examined for the variations, from interior forest habitats and their edges into adjacent oil palm plantation in Bintulu for 13 months. Mist-netting method resulted in 342 individuals with 58 species and 23 families with 45 sampling days (completeness ratio= 0.766) whereas point count census resulted in 1954 observations that consisted of 33 families that were represented by 103 species in 286 observational hours (completeness ratio= 0.85). For mist-netting method, the highest number of bird species recorded was Little Spiderhunter (Arachnothera longirostra) with 43 individuals (12.57% from all the bird captured in this study) followed by Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) recorded with 38 individuals (11.11%) and Rufous-backed Kingfisher (Ceyx erithaca) recorded with 36 individuals (10.53%). For point-count census, sampling saturation was achieved on survey on day 30 as the species accumulation curve has reached an asymptote. The most frequently recorded bird species by using point count census was Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) (326 observations, 16.68% from the total bird observed in this study) followed by Rufous-tailed Tailorbird (Orthotomus sericeus) (152 observations, 7.78%) and Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) (129 observations, 6.6%). Transient species were eliminated from the analysis. Shannon diversity and evenness indices calculated for overall bird recorded in the study area was H= 3.751 and EH = 0.37, respectively. Diversity index of birds in the forest (H= 3.769) was significantly higher compared to the edge (H=3.386) and oil palm plantation (H= 2.198). Species evenness index in the forest was higher (EH= 0.5419) than the oil palm plantation (EH= 0.3752) and edge (EH= 0.4688). Besides, overall density of bird was estimated to 33.78 individual/hectare (SE= ±2.06, CVoverall=0.061, effective detection radius (EDR)= 19.48m). Other than that, bird density in the forest area is 23.214 individual/hectare (SE= ±1.9653, CVforest= 0.067), followed by the edge 40.159 individual/hectare (SE= ±2.6904, CVedge= 0.085), while in the oil palm plantation was 30.017 individual/hectare (SE= ±2.09892, CVplantation= 0.07). The edge zone was the most populated area when compared with the forest and the oil palm plantation. The effect of seasonality is apparent when most birds were recorded in January with relatively high diversity (H= 3.326). Insectivores were most dominant, followed by frugivore-insectivore. The forest and oil palm plantation were dominated by insectivorous (46%) followed by frugivore-insectivorous (20.87%) and the least is granivore (1.74%). Systematic surveys on the avian assemblage structure in forest fragments near the oil palm plantation is important as it would provide indication on the quality of the habitat. Long-term sustainability in maintaining and monitoring these bird species which act as pollinators and insect regulators.

Keywords: Bird conservation, diversity, density, fragmented forest, oil palm plantation, edge zone.


A . release and the fulfillment of the chilling requirement (CR) are critical physiological processes that enable uniform blooming in fruit tree species, including apple ( Malus · domestica ). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying these traits have not been fully characterized. The objective of this study was to identify potential master regulators of endodormancy release and the CR in apple. We conducted RNA-Sequencing (RNA-seq) analyses and narrowed down the number of candidates among the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) based on the following two strict screening criteria: 1) the gene must be differentially expressed between endodormant and ecodormant buds under different environmental conditions and 2) the gene must exhibit chill unit (CU)– correlated expression. The results of our cluster analysis suggested that global expression patterns varied between field-grown buds and continuously chilled buds, even though they were exposed to similar amounts of chilling and were expected to have a similar dormancy status. Consequently, our strict selection strategy resulted in narrowing down the number of possible candidates and identified the DEGs strongly associated with the transition between dormancy stages. The genes included four transcription factor genes, PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR 4 ( PIF4 ), FLOWERING LOCUS C ( FLC ) -LIKE , APETALLA2 ( AP2 )/ ETHYLENE-RESPONSIVE 113 ( ERF113 ), and MYC2. Their expressions were upregulated during endodormancy release, and were correlated with the CU, suggesting that these transcription factors are closely associated with chilling-mediated endodormancy release in apple.


Introduction: Maintaining and improving the health situation of children requires them to become more aware about personal hygiene through proper education. Based on several studies, teachings provided through informal methods are fully understandable for children. Therefore the goal of this study is to compare the effects of creative drama and storytelling education methods on increasing the awareness of children regarding personal hygiene. Materials & Methods: This is an applied study conducted using semi-empirical method in two groups. The study population consisted of 85 children participating in 4 th center for Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in Isfahan 40 of which were randomly selected and placed in storytelling and creative drama groups with 20 members each. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire created by the researchers whose content validity was confirmed by health education experts. The gathered information were analyzed using both descriptive (average and standard deviation) and analytical (independent t-test and paired t-test) statistical methods. Results: The findings showed that there was a meaningful difference between the awareness score of both groups before and after intervention. The average awareness score of storytelling group was increased from 50.69 to 86.83 while the average score of creative drama group was increased from 57.37 to 85.09. Also according to paired t-test results, there was no significant difference between average scores of storytelling and creative drama groups. Conclusion: The results of the current study showed that although both storytelling and creative drama methods are effective in increasing the awareness of children regarding personal hygiene, there is no significant difference between the two methods.


Following the introduction of the Milch technique as the preferred method of reduction of anterior shoulder dislocations in an A&E department, a retrospective study of the technique was carried out. A total of 187 patients with anterior shoulder dislocations were included. The Milch technique was attempted in 142 cases with a success rate of 86%. There was no statistical difference in the success rates of junior and senior staff. In 73% of the Milch cases either no analgesia or sedation or Entonox alone was used. This study shows that the Milch technique can successfully be used by inexperienced staff to reduce dislocated shoulders with a reduction in the requirements for sedation and anaesthetics.


The auxin response gene family adjusts the auxin balance and the growth hormone signaling pathways in plants. Using bioinformatics methods, the auxin-response genes from the grape genome database are identified and their chromosomal location, gene collinearity and phylogenetic analysis are performed. Probable genes include 25 AUX_IAA, 19 ARF, 9 GH3 and 42 LBD genes, which are unevenly distributed on all 19 chromosomes and some of them formed distinct tandem duplicate gene clusters. The available grape microarray databases show that all of the auxin-response genes are expressed in fruit and leaf buds, and significant overexpressed during fruit color-changing, bud break and bud dormancy periods. This paper provides a resource for functional studies of auxin-response genes in grape leaf and fruit development.


Alpine areas are extreme habitats that require special adaptations and involve major trade-offs in terms of life history. Amphibians have the ability to adapt both their life history and developmental traits to alpine environments. Temperate amphibians depend on the quality and availability of aquatic habitats for reproduction. We explored the aquatic habitat used by amphibians in the alpine area of Retezat Mountains, Southern Carpathians, Romania. We surveyed 40 aquatic habitats in a 380 ha area delimited by mountain crests and drained by a steep valley. Each aquatic habitat was characterized using 10 environmental variables. Only three amphibian species occur at elevations above 1900 m, the most widespread being the Common Frog Rana temporaria. The Common Frog showed preference for breeding aquatic habitats, the variables of importance being altitude, solar radiation, water chemistry and grazing. Higher elevation and lower solar radiation decreased frog occurrence, while the impact of grazing favored the use of water bodies. Acidification is eminent in the area with pH dropping below 5 in 20% of the water bodies. Overall, amphibian occurrence in alpine area can be partly explained by the characteristics of aquatic habitats.


man et al. S that patients experiencing repeat or complex operations with severe bleeding may benefit from dDAVP. Also, Hackman et al. suggest that the beneficial action of dDAVP in high-risk patients may be due to a mechanism independent of the von Wilde brand factor molecule. I. The intravenous dDAVP administration guidelines cited by Smith (0.3 ug/kg in 50 mL of NaCI 0.9% infused over 15-30 minutes) are based on studies conducted in healthy subjects or patients with hemophilia or von Wildebrand's disease." Perhaps a more conservative approach when high-risk cardiac surgical patients are concerned would be to infuse the dDAVP dose over at least 30 minutes with continual or frequent monitoring of blood pressure. If significant decreases in arterial blood pressure occur, the infusion should be immediately interrupted until pressures return to acceptable levels, at which time the infusion may be restarted.' To summarize, dDAVP is a potent vasorelaxant and its hypotensive potential when used intravenously should be very strongly emphasized. Intravenous administration of dDAVP should be accompanied by blood pressure monitoring, particularly in high-risk cardiac surgical patients. Also, dDAVP has been shown not to reduce blood loss associated with uncomplicated cardiac surgery and, therefore, its use for this indication may be more appropriately directed toward highrisk cardiac surgical patients.


With the introduction of the variational autoencoder (VAE), probabilistic latent variable models have received renewed attention as powerful generative models. However, their performance in terms of test likelihood and quality of generated samples has been surpassed by autoregressive models without stochastic units. Furthermore, flow-based models have recently been shown to be an attractive alternative that scales well to high-dimensional data. In this paper we close the performance gap by constructing VAE models that can effectively utilize a deep hierarchy of stochastic variables and model complex covariance structures. We introduce the Bidirectional-Inference Variational Autoencoder (BIVA), characterized by a skip-connected generative model and an inference network formed by a bidirectional stochastic inference path. We show that BIVA reaches state-of-the-art test likelihoods, generates sharp and coherent natural images, and uses the hierarchy of latent variables to capture different aspects of the data distribution. We observe that BIVA, in contrast to recent results, can be used for anomaly detection. We attribute this to the hierarchy of latent variables which is able to extract high-level semantic features. Finally, we extend BIVA to semi-supervised classification tasks and show that it performs comparably to state-of-the-art results by generative adversarial networks.


The cavity model is a widespread empirical approach for the numerical simulation of patch antennas. An attempt to give a rigorous mathematical background for this way to proceed is presented. The justification is carried out in the framework of a two-dimensional representation of the underlying radiation problem. It is obtained by a suitable application of the method of matched asymptotic expansions. Furthermore, it is shown how to improve the cavity model by pushing the asymptotic expansion to the next order. A remarkable outcome of the asymptotic expansions is that they clearly confirm that the way to feed the antenna only determines the level of its radiation pattern but not its shape. Some numerical experiments are given to illustrate the theoretical developments.


This research project examines the use of institutional repositories (IRs) by academic and research institutions in the Czech Republic. Six Czech institutional repositories are examined in context with the open access (OA) movement in the US and Europe in order to identify what goals have been achieved, what challenges lie ahead, and how the IR functions within the academic ecosystem. IR development in the Czech Republic has been driven by a government statute to provide electronic access to theses and dissertations (ETDs), yet five out of the six IRs hold more content than ETDs alone. Despite not being totally OA, the IRs are trending towards holding grey literature and data sets in addition to preand postprints of journal articles, University publications, and monographs. The majority of the institutions exhibit openness by having signed the Berlin Declaration and/or possessing an OA policy/mandate, and the European Commission's H2020 program is a hopeful guiding light to Czech OA policy alignment and IR administration. The IRs discussed have been successful and the institutions look forward to pushing for wider OA acceptance within their organizations despite researcher opposition. The institutions can promote the meaningfulness of their IRs to researchers through Czech-EU OA policy alignment and using outreach endeavors to incentivize the use of the IR.


Operating system level virtualization containers are commonly used to deploy virtual network functions (VNFs) which access the centralized network controller in software-defined networking (SDN) infrastructure. While this allows flexible network configuration, it also increases the attack surface, as sensitive information is transmitted between the controller and the virtual network functions. In this work we propose a mechanism for bootstrapping secure communication between the SDN controller and deployed network applications. The proposed mechanism relies on platform integrity evaluation and execution isolation mechanisms, such as Linux Integrity Measurement Architecture and Intel Software Guard Extensions. To validate the feasibility of the proposed approach, we have implemented a proof of concept which was further tested and evaluated to assess its performance. The prototype can be seen as the first step into providing users with security guarantees regarding the integrity of components in the SDN infrastructure.


A density functional theory study accounting for van der Waals interactions reveals the potential of metal surface vacancies as anchor points for the construction of user-defined 2D patterns of adsorbate molecules via a controlled self-assembly process. Vice versa, energetic criteria indicate the formation of regular adsorbate-induced vacancies after adsorbate self-assembly on clean surfaces. These processes are exemplified by adsorbing C₆₀ fullerene on Al(111), Au(111), and Be(0001) surfaces with and without single, triple, and septuple atom pits. An analysis of vacancy-adatom formation energetics precedes the study of the adsorption processes.


One of the common applications to decrease the soil compaction is the addition of organic material. In this study, effects of the organic materials (biosolid and manure, 30 ton ha -1 ) were applied to the clay-loam (Typic Xerofluvent) soil in an apple orchard on penetration resistance and it was investigated. The organic materials were mixed with the soil during the applications of soil tillage in spring. After second soil tillage, the values of penetration resistance and gravimetric moisture content at 20 cm soil depth were determined at five different dates between days 52-61. For the control and organic material applications, model values at the same moisture levels were estimated with the help of the exponential relations between the moisture and penetration resistance. The statistical analysis on the model values showed that the effects of the applications on the penetration resistance were significantly different (P<0.01). The highest penetration resistance value was found in the control application and the lowest value was obtained in the manure application.


With early life likely to have existed in a hot environment, enzymes had to cope with an inherent drop in catalytic speed caused by lowered temperature. Here we characterize the molecular mechanisms underlying thermoadaptation of enzyme catalysis in adenylate kinase using ancestral sequence reconstruction spanning 3 billion years of evolution. We show that evolution solved the enzyme's key kinetic obstacle—how to maintain catalytic speed on a cooler Earth—by exploiting transition-state heat capacity. Tracing the evolution of enzyme activity and stability from the hot-start toward modern hyperthermophilic, mesophilic, and psychrophilic organisms illustrates active pressure versus passive drift in evolution on a molecular level, refutes the debated activity/stability trade-off, and suggests that the catalytic speed of adenylate kinase is an evolutionary driver for organismal fitness.


Banks and financial institutions play a crucial role in the economic growth of any country. The present day banking operations in India have undergone a sea change due to the explosion of Information Technology and emergence of several Knowledge Management Practices. Knowledge Management impact on the organization performance is well recognized. Andhra Bank was founded on 28th November 1923 and was nationalized in April 1980. With about 3000 branches, 6875 Delivery Channels, 34 satellite offices as on 31.3.2017 Andhra Bank has been leveraging on Knowledge acquisition and technology management for enhancing customer service. An attempt is made in this paper to examine the perception on knowledge acquisition process among officer and clerical cadre employees of the Andhra Bank through an empirical analysis.


Ceramic matrix composite (CMC) parts create the opportunity for increased turbine entry temperatures within gas turbines. To achieve the highest temperatures possible, film cooling will play an important role in allowing turbine entry temperatures to exceed acceptable surface temperatures for CMC components, just as it does for the current generation of gas turbine components. Film cooling over a CMC surface introduces new challenges including roughness features downstream of the cooling holes and changes to the hole exit due to uneven surface topography. To better understand these impacts, this study presents flowfield and adiabatic effectiveness CFD for a 7-7-7 shaped film cooling hole at two CMC weave orientations. The CMC surface selected is a 5 Harness Satin weave pattern that is examined at two different orientations. To understand the ability of steady RANS to predict flow and convective heat transfer over a CMC surface, the weave surface is initially simulated without film and compared to previous experimental results. The simulation of the weave orientation of 0°, with fewer features projecting into the flow, matches fairly well to the experiment, and demonstrates a minimal impact on film cooling leading to only slightly lower adiabatic effectiveness compared to a smooth surface. However, the simulation of the 90° orientation with a large number of protruding features does not match the experimentally observed surface heat transfer. The additional protruding surface produces degraded film cooling performance at low blowing ratios but is less sensitive to blowing ratio, leading to improved relative performance at higher blowing ratios, particularly in regions far downstream of the hole.


The self-assembly propensity of peptides has been extensively utilized in recent years for the formation of supramolecular nanostructures. In particular, the self-assembly of peptides into fibrils and nanotubes makes them promising building blocks for electronic and electro-optic applications. However, the mechanisms of charge transfer in these wire-like structures, especially in ambient conditions, are not yet fully understood. We describe here a layer-by-layer deposition methodology of short self-assembled cyclic peptide nanotubes, which results in vertically oriented nanotubes on gold substrates. Using this novel deposition methodology, we have fabricated molecular junctions with a conductive atomic force microscopy tip as a second electrode. Studies of the junctions' current-voltage characteristics as a function of the nanotube length revealed an efficient charge transfer in these supramolecular structures, with a low current attenuation constant of 0.1 Å(-1), which indicate that electron transfer is dominated by hopping. Moreover, the threshold voltage to field-emission dominated transport was found to increase with peptide length in a manner that depends on the nature of the contact with the electrodes. The flexibility in the design of the peptide monomers and the ability to control their sequential order over the nanotube by means of the layer-by-layer assembly process, which is demonstrated in this work, can be used to engineer the electronic properties of self-assembled peptide nanotubes toward device applications.


The increasing prevalence of service-oriented architecture (SOA) has introduced another layer of abstraction (service-oriented) on top of already well-known object-oriented and component-oriented layers of abstractions. However, it has been found that the current traditional phase-based approach towards the development of SOA-based applications, contrarily, lacks agility, which mitigates against the needed ability to quickly respond to changes in business processes. Therefore, here, we suggest an agile approach to implement a flexible SOA. This paper, based on our industrial experience and case studies, presents the agile service-oriented process (ASOP) that had been constructed by using the agile software solution framework (ASSF), agile toolkit (ATK), situational method engineering (SME) and agile adoption and improvement model (AAIM) for the development of one of our industry (case study) service-oriented e-health project.


In this paper we examine the application of the classical conjugate gradient method to
queue theory. The parameters of the symmetric definite positive linear operator of a
quadratic cost functional were obtained from the various characteristic features of a
multi-channel queue system. The outcome was tested with numerical values and a
comparison was made for systems with two, three and four service points. The numerical
computations were carried out in a Maple 14 environment. The results obtained validate
previous work done with a single-channel system


Cytochrome P-450d was isolated from isosafrol-induced rat liver microsomes by affinity chromatography on 1.8-diaminooctyl-Sepharose 4B and chromatography on hydroxylapatite using a linear potassium phosphate gradient (45-250 mM). The enzyme has a molecular mass of 54 kDa, CO-maximum 448 nm is characterized by a high spin state; the rate of 4-aminobiphenyl hydroxylation is 54 nmol/min/nmol of cytochrome P-450d (37 degrees C), those, of 7-ethoxyresorufin O-deethylation and benz (a) pyrene oxidation are 1 nmol/min/nmol of cytochrome P-450d (22 degrees C) and 2 nmol/min/nmol of cytochrome P-450d (37 degrees C), respectively. The properties of cytochrome P-450d were compared to those of cytochrome P-450c isolated from 3-methylcholanthrene-induced rats. The yield of these cytochromes under the conditions used (10% P-450d from isosafrol-induced microsomes and 15% P-450c from 3-methylcholanthrene-induced microsomes) was relatively high. Antibodies to cytochromes P-450d and P-450c were obtained. Using rocket immunoelectrophoresis the percentage of these hemoprotein forms in 3-methylcholanthrene-induced (P-450d-20%, P-450c-70%) and isosafrol-induced rat liver microsomes (P-450d-50%, P-450c-15%) was determined.


Objective. Because the addition of carotid ultrasound (US) into composite cardiovascular (CV) risk scores has been found effective for identifying patients with inflammatory arthritis and high CV risk, we aimed to determine whether its use would facilitate the reclassification of patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) into the very high Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) risk category and whether this might be related to disease features. Methods. This was a cross-sectional study involving 206 patients who fulfilled ClASsification for Psoriatic ARthritis criteria for PsA, and 179 controls. We assessed lipid profile, SCORE, disease activity measurements, and the presence of carotid plaques and carotid intima-media thickness by ultrasonography. A multivariable regression analysis, adjusted for classic CV risk factors, was performed to evaluate whether the risk of reclassification could be explained by disease-related features and to assess the most parsimonious combination of risk reclassification predictors. Results. Forty-seven percent of patients were reclassified into a very high SCORE risk category after carotid US compared to 26% of controls (p < 0.001). Patients included in the low SCORE risk category were those who were more commonly reclassified (30% vs 14%, p = 0.002). The Disease Activity Index for PsA (DAPSA) score was associated with reclassification (β 1.10, 95% CI 1.02–1.19; p = 0.019) after adjusting for age and traditional CV risk factors. A model containing SCORE plus age, statin use, and DAPSA score yielded the highest discriminatory accuracy compared to the SCORE-alone model (area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve 0.863, 95% CI 0.789–0.936 vs 0.716, 95% CI 0.668–0.764; p < 0.001). Conclusion. Patients with PsA are more frequently reclassified into the very high SCORE risk category following carotid US assessment than controls. This was independently explained by the disease activity.


Accurately estimating probabilities from observations is important for probabilistic-based approaches to problems in computational biology. In this paper we present a biologically-motivated method for estimating probability distributions over discrete alphabets from observations using a mixture model of common ancestors. The method is an extension of substitution matrix-based probability estimation methods. In contrast to previous such methods, our method has a simple Bayesian interpretation and has the advantage over Dirichlet mixtures that it is both effective and simple to compute for large alphabets. The method is applied to estimate amino acid probabilities based on observed counts in an alignment and is shown to perform comparably to previous methods. The method is also applied to estimate probability distributions over protein families and improves protein classification accuracy.


On July 14, 1883, the first issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association was published in Chicago under the founding editorship of Nathan S. Davis, MD, whose portrait graces the cover of this week's issue. We now begin the 100th year of consecutive publication ofThe Journal. The progress that has occurred in medical science and practice in this century is astonishing. The state of accelerating acceleration of current change is so obvious to many of us today that it blunts the impact of just how much has occurred in this past 100 years. We intend to observe this centennial during a period of two years. The first phase is initiated today with the cover, the cover story (p 147), this editorial, and the initial offering of Lester King, MD (p 217), who will provide a series of essays, to appear monthly, under the general heading MEDICINE IN


In recent years the amount of unstructured data stored on the Internet and other digital sources has increased significantly. These data contain often valuable, but hardly retrievable information. The term unstructured data refers mainly to data that does not have a data structure. As a result of this, the unstructured data is not easily readable by machines. In this work, we present a simple method for automatic extraction of semantic relations that can be used to precisely locate valuable pieces of information.


Alzheimer disease (AD) is a progressive dementia affecting a large proportion of the aging population. The histopathological changes in AD include neuronal cell death, formation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. There is also evidence that brain tissue in patients with AD is exposed to oxidative stress (e.g., protein oxidation, lipid oxidation, DNA oxidation and glycoxidation) during the course of the disease. Advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) are present in amyloid plaques in AD, and its extracellular accumulation may be caused by an accelerated oxidation of glycated proteins. AGEs participate in neuronal death causing direct (chemical) and indirect (cellular) free radical production and consequently increase oxidative stress. The development of drugs for the treatment of AD that breaks the vicious cycles of oxidative stress and neurodegeneration offer new opportunities. These approaches include AGE-inhibitors, antioxidants and anti-inflammatory substances, which prevent free radical production.


The problem of matching production levels for individual products to demand fluctuations during multiple periods is known in the production planning literature as the multi-product multi-period (MPMP) problem. Linear programming (LP)-based solutions have been extensively reported in this respect. MPMP problems are commonly solved by using either analytic or simulation methods. More recently, hybrid solutions consisting of both analytical models and simulation analysis have been proposed where some operational criteria, e.g. the order of visit to machining centres, are taken into account. In this paper, results related to some of the literature based on hybrid solutions are used as the initial feasible solutions and then examined in the context of project scheduling by considering the influences of resource constraints. After converting the MPMP to a project network problem and assigning resources to activities and consequently levelling the resource profiles, it is discovered that machine utilization can be further improved by applying unused machine capacities. A LP model is therefore developed in order to maximize feasible production rates over all the production planning periods. The proposed approach results in improvements on the results of earlier hybrid solutions reported in the literature. Finally, three different planning problems are suggested for further applications of the proposed approach in the context of manufacturing environments.


A seismotectonic regionalization of the Great Basin and adjacent parts of the Basin and Range Province, forming six zones, is developed on the basis of generalized late Cenozoic patterns of deformation, relative Holocene strain rates, and historic seismicity. Belts of strike-slip movement are found to be significant in that they separate zones of differing strain rate, style of deformation, and historic seismicity. Within these zones, however, the distribution of historic seismicity may not represent that of Holocene or Quaternary time. Moment rates are computed from both Holocene strain rates and magnitude-frequency parameters of historic seismicity for each of the zones. Although the correlation of these moment rates is quite good, the average (geometric) ratio of Holocene to historic moment rates may be about a factor of two. If Holocene aseismic strain release is insignificant, then we might conclude that seismicity in Holocene time is approximately double that of historic time, averaged over the entire Great Basin. Alternatively, it is possible that Holocene strain has been generally overestimated or that much of it has been aseismic.


Firms are increasingly devoting attention to corporate citizenship initiatives. Despite the great interest in these initiatives, there is little academic research on their potential effects to guide managerial decisions. This article draws on theories from the consumer behavior literature to identify how socially oriented programs can foster both consumer and employee engagement, while also improving the welfare of society at-large and the financial fortunes of companies. In doing so, the authors advance a research agenda and offer prescriptive managerial advice.


Xunwu Diaocha (Report from Xunwu) by Mao Zedong was abundant in original material and local people's language and characterized by the Hakka culture, including the local Hakka dialect and vernacular, social customs, foods and tools, and other aspects. This makes it difficult for non-Hakka Chinese to understand its contents, let alone English speakers who know nothing about Hakka. In attempting to make the translation smoothly understood by English speakers while not losing the Hakka flavor, American translator Roger Thompson has done a good job. By comparing Xunwu Diaocha (the original) with its English version Report from Xunwu translated by Roger R. Thompson, this paper analyzes the English expressions of the Hakka culture and discovers four translation strategies that the translator has adopted to achieve the goal of cultural representation. The strategies are Chinese Pinyin plus explanation, literal translation plus explanation, free translation plus Chinese Pinyin, and free translation plus explanation. The study reveals that through the above-mentioned strategies, the translation has well represented the Hakka culture and realizes cultural representation in its translation. Hopefully the strategies employed to represent the Hakka culture can serve as solid guidance for translations of other texts involving rich cultures.


Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) were introduced into the Elkhorn Mountains of west-central Montana in the mid 1990s. The population increased in number to approximately 250 animals until the winter of 2007-2008 when about 84 percent of the population died from a pneumonia related epizootic. Management actions during the die-off were geared toward removing as many sick animals as possible in efforts to reduce overall mortality. Due to the stage of the epizootic removal of sick sheep was not effective in interrupting the die-off. Samples were collected from bighorn sheep, domestic sheep, mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), elk (Cervus elaphus) and domestic goats utilizing the same winter range. Pasteurella spp, Moraxella ovis and Mycoplasma ovipneumonia were isolated from lung tissue of dead bighorns and pharyngeal swabs collected from domestic sheep occupying similar range during the epizootic. Both the bighorn sheep and domestic sheep also shared similar gastro-intestinal parasites including Nematodirus spp and Eimeria spp. Testing tissues and fecal samples from sympatric mule deer suggested no shared bacterial pathogens and limited shared gastrointestinal parasites. Evaluation of fecal samples from domestic goats and elk also occupying bighorn sheep range identified few shared parasites that may have contributed to the epizootic.


A classical argument of de Finetti holds that Rationality implies Subjective Expected Utility (SEU). In contrast, the Knightian distinction between Risk and Ambiguity suggests that a rational decision maker would obey the SEU paradigm when the information available is in some sense good, and would depart from it when the information available is not good. Unlike de Finetti's, however, this view does not rely on a formal argument. In this paper, we study the set of all information structures that might be availabe to a decision maker, and show that they are of two types: those compatible with SEU theory and those for which SEU theory must fail. We also show that the former correspond to "good" information, while the latter correspond to information that is not good. Thus, our results provide a formalization of the distinction between Risk and Ambiguity. As a consequence of our main theorem (Theorem 2, Section 8), behavior not-conforming to SEU theory is bound to emerge in the presence of Ambiguity. We give two examples of situations of Ambiguity. One concerns the uncertainty on the class of measure zero events, the other is a variation on Ellberg's three-color urn experiment. We also briefly link our results to two other strands of literature: the study of ambiguous events and the problem of unforeseen contingencies. We conclude the paper by re-considering de Finetti?s argument in light of our findings.


Kusuma Sahid Prince Hotel is a service company operating in Tourism Sector. In the normal activity, Kusuma Sahid Prince Hotel frequently faces the problem relating to the material or good supply becoming the stock. The problem occurring every month after the stock opname. Some types of supply have the number different from the real number stored in either the computer or inventory card, so that there is a difference among the three of them. For that reason, the writer conducted a research on the supply the company has in the objective of find out the internal control system of supply as well as to find out the strength and the weakness of such system.
The standard operational implementation in the Kusuma Sahid Prince Hotel relating to the material or good supply include the supply purchase procedure, supply issuance procedure, and physical supply calculation procedure.
The conclusion of research shows that the implementation of Internal Control System of Supply in Kusuma Sahid Prince Hotel has been sufficiently enough and consistent well with the standard operational supply, however it is still different from the material supply document. It is because of the human error in both the calculation and recording. For that reason, it needs carefulness to minimize the calculation and presentation error, so that it can facilitate the accountability and realize the health practice.

Keywords: Internal Control System, Supply, Standard Operational Procedure.


James Victore is hell-bent on world domination, one graphic design project at a time. A self-taught designer, Victore's work is vivid, memorable and often controversial. In this funny and honest book Victore takes readers through a collection of his greatest hitsA", telling the stories behind the work, his inspirations, process and lessons learned. Throughout his career he has sought comrades, not clients - brave, smart collaborators who have given him the freedom to reinterpret old design solutions and to pressure viewers to think about issues and ideas in a new way. The result is a body of work that for 20 years has been plastered on the streets of New York, exhibited at MoMA and featured in magazines all over the world. The book will be wrapped in a poster jacket, created by Victore specifically for the book, and will have three edge black stain and hot pink ribbon bookmark, making it a must-have design object for students, graphic designers and anyone with an interest in the power of ink on paper. Award-winning designer Michael Bierut will contribute an introduction.


The global sensitivity analysis of electromagnetic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) by means of Sobol' indices are considered in this work. To reduce the computational burden, a sparse grid surrogate model is used. The latter can simply replace the true simulator to some extent, but it can also be used to numerically evaluate the integrals defining the Sobol' indices. In most of the NDE setups, the output is not a scalar quantity but functional data (e.g., a surface scan); a method is presented to take this into account. The sparse grid based sensitivity analysis is compared to classical techniques via examples drawn from electromagnetic NDE.


The synthesis of novel azo-azomethine dye derivatives of substituted Schiff bases were carried out by the reaction of substituted 1-naphtylamine with 4-nitro and 2-chloro benzenediazonium tetraflouroborate salts as a coupling component. These compounds were identified by IR, UV-Vis and 1H-NMR spectroscopic techniques, and elemental analysis.


The goal of this work was to study the impact of the concurrent application of mineral water from the lake of Shira (Khakassia) and phytotherapeutic preparations on the secretory and excretory stomach functions. Mineral water from the lake of Shira belongs to highly mineralized (18.4 g/l) hydrocarbonate sodium-magnesium waters with alkaline reaction (pH 8.9). Phytotherapeutic preparations included the following herbs: common St. John's wort--4 parts (6.0 g per liter), bay willow--5 parts (7.5 g), peppermint: 5 parts (7.5 g), quinquelobate motherwort--3 parts (4.5 g), and shelf fungus--3 parts (4.5 g).


The present study investigated differences in the conceptualization of teamwork and leadership in two countries with culturally diverse backgrounds, Romania and the United States. We expected to find between-culture differences in the conceptualizations of teamwork and leadership based on cultural antecedents (collectivistic societal and in-group values). We also investigated a potential cultural shift in the Romanian nation, based on age. The conceptualizations of teamwork and leadership were examined and compared using Pathfinder. The Romanian sample displayed higher collectivistic values than the U.S. sample. A cultural shift was observed in the Romanian nation, such that the younger participants reported lower collectivistic in-group values and higher collectivistic societal values when compared to the older Romanian participants. Unexpectedly, the younger U.S. participants reported higher collectivistic in-group values than the older U.S. participants. The older Romanian participants' teamwork schemas displayed lower coherence than the older U.S. participants' teamwork schemas. However, a comparison of the younger groups' (Romanian and U.S.) teamwork schema structure revealed that their average coherences did not differ. A comparison of leadership schemas revealed that the younger Romanian's schema structure was less coherent than that of the younger U.S. participants. Similarly, the older Romanian participants' leadership schema displayed lower coherence than that of the older U.S. participants'. In the present study, collectivistic societal and in-group values did not correlate significantly with either teamwork or leadership schema coherence.


A short and uplifting composition that is joyful in tone. Heaven is a track that is predominantly played on a real electro-acoustic mandolin - a versatile and sweet sounding instrument that punches above its weight to create a modern pop rock sound. The other sounds are a sampled bass, drums and a synth pad.


This study was designed to address some of the gaps in knowledge about interrogations conducted by military interrogators and provide information about methods from their perspectives, based on their experiences.  Kassin et al.  (2007) conducted the first self-report survey of best interrogation practices and beliefs of law enforcement officers. This study followed that model, using a different population from which to obtain the sample: military interrogators.  Like Kassin's study, this survey asked participants to address and self-report on a number of issues, some in common with law enforcement and others that apply specifically to military interrogations.  Participants were asked to estimate, rate and self-report on seven facets of their work. (Like the law enforcement study, the goal here was to obtain common practices, observations, and beliefs about interrogations directly from military interrogators).  Subsequent research can test the interrogation methods that the subjects of this study believe are the most effective and focus on practices and beliefs unique to the military context.  This study empirically supports, for the first time, the hypothesis that experienced interrogators favor rapport-building approaches over all other available techniques.


The use of aquatic invertebrates in biomedical research and as environmental sentinels has dramatically grown in recent decades, with an increased need in understanding of comparative pathology. The Unionids freshwater mussels are a group of worldwide distributed bivalves residing small ditches and ponds, lakes, canals and rivers, often used as animal test in eco-toxicological studies. Once one of the most abundant bivalve molluscs in ancient rivers around the world, now many of them are declining in many countries and consequently are nearly extinct in many areas. The causes of this decline are not fully understood but alteration and degradation of the freshwater habitat seemed to play a central role. To date, link causality to the observed losses during episode of mussel die-offs has been more difficult to establish, and disease and pathogen presence have been scarcely considered. In this article we provide a brief overview of unionids freshwater mussel conservation status, also describing reported diseases and pathogens and illustrating a few relatively well-documented studies.


Abstract Purpose People living with stroke and neurological conditions access rehabilitation at different times but self-management is often viewed as what happens post-discharge. Personalised models that integrate self-management support within everyday care are now advocated but this may require practitioners to change their behaviour to adopt and sustain new ways of working. The People1st project evaluated integration of an existing Supported Self-Management programme ("Bridges") across varied stroke and neurorehabilitation service contexts. Materials and methods Mixed-method evaluation of training for groups of healthcare practitioners across 24 UK National Health Service (NHS) Trusts, exploring how learning from Bridges was assimilated and enacted in practice, on an individual and collective basis. Results Staff growth in confidence and skill around supported self-management was demonstrated. Transformations to practice included changes to: the structure of, and language used in, patient interactions; induction/training processes to increase potential for sustainability; and sharing of successes. Bridges helped practitioners make changes that brought them closer to their professional ideals. Engaged leadership was considered important for successful integration. Conclusions Bridges was successfully integrated within a wide range of stroke and neurorehabilitation service contexts, enabled by an approach in line with practitioners' values-based motivations. Further work is required to explore sustainability and impact on service users. Implications for rehabilitation Personalised models of care and support for self-management are advocated for people living with stroke and neurological conditions; this requires practitioners to be supported to change behaviour and practices to adopt and sustain new ways of working. Staff from a wide variety of backgrounds in neurorehabilitation and stroke can learn collaboratively about self-management practices via the Bridges programme and can integrate those practices into their service contexts. Bridges can take practitioners closer to their professional ideals of caring and making a difference and empowers them to initiate change. Organisational commitment and engaged leadership are required to facilitate a culture of support for self-management in practice.


Article history: Received 10 September 2018 Received in revised form 25 November 2018 Accepted 6 December 2018 Available online 13 April 2019 Model of boundary layer flow over a moving plate in nanofluid with viscous dissipation effect is revisited. A new boundary condition is applied with the assumption that there is no nanoparticle flux at the surface. The nanoparticle volume fraction on the boundary is passively control rather than active control and this makes the model more realistic. A similarity transformation is introduced to reduce the governing non-linear partial differential equation into ordinary differential equation. The ordinary differential equations are computed numerically through numerical method namely Runge-Kutta Felhberg (RKF) technique. Validations of the result has been made by comparing the present results with results from the previous studies. In this study, it is found that the presence of viscous dissipation contributes to an increase in temperature profile. In addition, it is observed that an increment in Brownian motion parameter produce negligible effect on temperature profile. Furthermore, both nanoparticle concentration and temperature profile intensify with an increase of thermophoresis parameter.


The study aims to examine and discuss the extent to which, if at all, the organisation of elementary education changed and progressed between 1918 and 1939, with particular reference to schools situated within the boundaries of the ancient parishes of Bothal and Woodhorn, Northumberland. The investigation gives particular attention to school organisation and re-organisation, class-size, staffing and the provision of new buildings. Having reviewed the existing literature and identified questions for further study, the methodology and procedures to be adopted for the study are formulated. The policy and work of the Northumberland Local Education Authority and the experience of two contrasting schools, Pegswood Mixed School and Longhirst School are then discussed, with reference to the initial question and in the light of material drawn from surviving documentary evidence. The conclusion is reached that there is evidence to show that between 1918 and 1939 Northumberland Local Education Authority pursued a policy of change and progress in elementary school organisation and did much to implement that policy in the area addressed by the study, despite several set-backs which were largely the result of financial difficulties.


The paper describes the experimental research of thermos-chemical treatment of carbonitriding performed on samples of different brands of low alloy steels. The technological parameters whose influence on the carbonitrided surfaces hardness was studied are thermo-chemical treatment temperature and the percentage of ammonia in the carbonitriding medium. Thermo-chemical treatments of carbonitriding have been carried out at low, medium and high temperatures. The investigations were conducted with three values for the ammonia percentage, which lead to different results for the surface hardness of the samples subjected to the investigations. The duration of treatment of two hours and thirty minutes, constant for all experiments performed, was chosen as the one commonly used in gas carbonitriding technologies.


This paper relates to a wider research project on the ways in which intersubjective understanding is accomplished, sustained and enhanced in encounters involving interpreter-mediation. It is underpinned by an assumption that the general lack of attention to the existence of a professional interculture and its inner workings by service providers and interpreters has implications, inter alia, for the quality of service and ability of service providers to adapt to interpreter mediation in the workplace.
Investigating intersubjectivity is a multilayered process that appeals to a range of research traditions in building a picture of intersubjective understanding in interpreter-mediated encounters. My wider project concerns three strands of investigation: perceptual frames of the occupational other that are 'brought to' the interaction; discursive accomplishment of intersubjective understanding in interaction, and the self-reflexivity of the actor in responding to his/her context both during interaction and as a post-hoc activity.
This paper focuses on the second strand mentioned above, namely the discursive accomplishment of intersubjective understanding, and considers in particular the extent to which service providers and interpreters orient to each other's 'occupational otherness' during interaction to form shared understandings, and the extent to which the interculture is recognised and (re)constructed discursively during the interaction. The discussion is premised on an assumption that the lack of scope for the interpreter to 'display' his/her occupational otherness during interaction precludes the service provider from
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developing a deep understanding of the professional interculture and potentially limits the self reflexivity required to adapt to service delivery in this mode. The paper draws on research on workplace discourse practices from the conversation analytic tradition and sociocultural approaches to mind, in building a conceptual framework to analyse the discursive accomplishment of intersubjective understanding. Particular attention is given to the discussion of concepts such as the multivoicedness of meaning and the heterogeneity of voices (following Wertsch, 1991) and modes of talk in the workplace (following Roberts and Sarangi, 1999).


Tandem gas metal arc welding (GMAW) is a high productivity welding process which is applied
in many industries. However, a type of imperfection, known as cold lap, was revealed that
mostly accompanies the tandem GMAW process.
Cold lap is a small lack of fusion in size at the weld toe which can have a negative influence on
the fatigue life of the weld [1, 2]. It generally runs parallel to the surface of the parent plate. Due
to its small size, it has not been successful to detect cold lap by any non‐destructive test (NDT)
method. With a lot of work, it has been noticed that it is hard to produce a weld without cold
laps. Even for some post‐treatment methods, e.g. TIG‐dressing, cold lap cannot be eliminated
completely [2]. Therefore, a better understanding of the formation mechanism is required to be
able to avoid their formation.
The main objectives of this thesis are to classify cold laps, to characterise cold lap interfaces, and
to investigate the main influencing factors on cold lap formation. For this purpose, several series
tandem GMAW experiments were performed. Domex 355 MC was used as the base metal and OK
Autrod 12.51 Φ 1.2 was used as the consumable material. Different shielding gases (pure argon
and pure carbon dioxide) and surface conditions (blasted surface and milled surface) of the base
metal were applied. A sealed chamber was used in the experiment to ensure a non‐oxidising or
oxidising welding environment. Cross sections of the cold laps were prepared by a conventional
metallographic method, e.g. cutting, mounting, polishing, and etching (if necessary). The
metallographic samples were evaluated with the help of both a light optical microscope and a
scanning electron microscope (SEM) with an attached energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS).
Also, the interface between spatter and base metal was investigated using the same method as
an assistant study of cold laps.
The results showed three types of cold laps, i.e. spatter cold lap, overlap cold lap, and spatteroverlap
cold lap. The cold lap is mostly composed of voids and oxides. For the materials (welding
consumables and parent materials) used in the experiments, the oxides were shown to be
manganese‐silicon oxides (Mn‐Si oxides). It was also found that Mn‐Si oxides have a significant
influence on the occurrence of overlap cold lap. The blasted surface condition can have a minor
effect on enhancing cold laps. By studying the spatter/base metal interface, it is believed that
temperature/energy are the other important factors for the formation of cold laps.


MOVIE (multitasking object-oriented visual interactive environment) is the new software system for high performance distributed computing (HDPC), currently in the advanced design and implementation stage at Northeast Parallel Architectures Center (NPAC), Syracuse University. MOVIE System is structured as a multiserver network of interpreters of high-level object-oriented programming language MovieScript. MovieScript derives from PostScript and extends it in the C++ syntax based object-oriented interpreted style towards 3D graphics, high performance computing and general purpose high level communication protocol for distributed and MIMD-parallel computing. The authors describe the overall open systems based MOVIE design and itemize currently implemented, developed and planned components of the system.<<ETX>>


Abstract. We present here a new method for comparing the output of General Circulation Models (GCMs) with proxy-based reconstructions, using time series of reconstructed and simulated climate parameters. The method uses k-means clustering to allow comparison between different periods that have similar spatial patterns, and a fuzzy logic-based distance measure in order to take reconstruction errors into account. The method has been used to test two coupled ocean-atmosphere GCMs over the Mediterranean region for the last 500 years, using an index of drought stress, the Palmer Drought Severity Index. The results showed that, whilst no model exactly simulated the reconstructed changes, all simulations were an improvement over using the mean climate, and a good match was found after 1650 with a model run that took into account changes in volcanic forcing, solar irradiance, and greenhouse gases. A more detailed investigation of the output of this model showed the existence of a set of atmospheric circulation patterns linked to the patterns of drought stress: 1) a blocking pattern over northern Europe linked to dry conditions in the south prior to the Little Ice Age (LIA) and during the 20th century; 2) a NAO-positive like pattern with increased westerlies during the LIA; 3) a NAO-negative like period shown in the model prior to the LIA, but that occurs most frequently in the data during the LIA. The results of the comparison show the improvement in simulated climate as various forcings are included and help to understand the atmospheric changes that are linked to the observed reconstructed climate changes.


Study Design. Retrospective study. Objective. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of concave collar-button wires used as anchors to correct and maintain spinal alignment in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Summary of Background Data. Correction of idiopathic scoliotic deformity has been reported with various systems. We have added concave collar-button wires to a multihook, dual-rod system as an adjunct to translation and stabilization of the spine during correction of AIS. Methods. Sixty-seven patients failing brace treatment or with curve patterns >45° underwent spinal correction. Evaluation was obtained with preoperative standing posteroanterior, lateral, and recumbent right and left bending radiographs using the Cobb method. The initial postoperative films and latest radiographs were measured also. A dual-rod multihook construct with a derotation maneuver was used in all cases. Collar-button wire implants were placed from the convex side of the deformity toward the concave rod through the base of the spinous processes within the construct to achieve and augment correction and stability. Twenty-four patients underwent prior anterior release and fusion by video assisted thoracoscopic surgery. Results. Sixty-seven patients in total underwent this procedure. We achieved a 72.2% mean correction of thoracic curves and 63.2% mean correction of lumbar curves. There was a mean loss of correction of 2° in the thoracic area and 2.2° in the lumbar area after 2 years. Sagittal curve was unchanged after surgery. All patients demonstrated a solid fusion with no evidence of pseudarthrosis or junctional deformities. There were no cases of clinically significant wire breakage or hook pullout. Three delayed infections were noted. Conclusion. The use of multiple concave collar-button wires as anchors is a safe, easy, and reliable method of spinal stabilization in the coronal and sagittal planes. There is minimal loss of correction at long-term follow-up.