Purpose Increasing evidence suggests a role for macrophages in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). This study examined choroidal macrophages and their activation in postmortem eyes from subjects with and without AMD. Methods Choroids were incubated with anti-ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1 (anti-IBA1) to label macrophages, anti-human leukocyte antigen-antigen D-related (anti-HLA-DR) as a macrophage activation marker, and Ulex europaeus agglutinin lectin to label blood vessels. Whole mounts were imaged using confocal microscopy. IBA1- and HLA-DR–positive (activated) cells were counted in submacula, paramacula, and nonmacula, and cell volume and sphericity were determined using computer-assisted image analysis. Results In aged control eyes, the mean number of submacular IBA1+ and HLA-DR+ macrophages was 433/mm2 and 152/mm2, respectively. In early AMD eyes, there was a significant increase in IBA1+ and HLA-DR+ cells in submacula compared to those in controls (P = 0.0015 and P = 0.008, respectively). In eyes with neovascular AMD, there were significantly more HLA-DR+ cells associated with submacular choroidal neovascularization (P = 0.001). Mean cell volume was significantly lower (P ≤ 0.02), and sphericity was significantly higher (P ≤ 0.005) in all AMD groups compared to controls. Conclusions The average number of IBA1+ macrophages in submacular and paramacular choroid was significantly higher in early/intermediate AMD compared to that in aged controls. HLA-DR+ submacular macrophages were significantly increased in all stages of AMD, and they were significantly more round and smaller in size in the submacular AMD choroid, suggesting their activation. These findings support the concept that AMD is an inflammatory disease.


Kiplamai K. Festus, Waudo Judith and Mike K. Boit Introduction: The primary cause of increase in the prevalence of glucose intolerance in Africa is the lifestyle changes commonly known as the "nutrition transition". Objective: To determine the effects of dietary intake and anthropometric characteristics on the glucose intolerance of two rural communities of the Lake Victoria Basin in Kenya. Methods: Data from 304 subjects (8/24, M/F with glucose intolerance; 126/146, M/F control subjects) were analyzed in a case control study. Their height, weight, hip circumference (HC), Waist Circumference (WC) Middle Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC), calf circumference (CC) and % Body Fat (BF) were measured. Diet intake was assessed using 24 hour recall and the food frequency questionnaire. Glucose intolerance (IGT + Diabetes) was assessed using the fasting blood glucose level followed by the OGTT test using 75grams of glucose. Results: The BMI (p=0.003), %BF (p=0.002), and HC (p=0.004), differed significantly among glucose intolerant and the controls. Glucose intolerant (GI) subjects were found to have a significantly (p=0.017) lower percentage of protein (12%) intake in their diets than the control (14%). The intake of Poly unsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFA) also differed significantly (p=0.042) with the glucose intolerant group consuming less than the controls. There was significant differences (p=0.015) in the vegetable intake among the two groups with the controls having reported increased intake of the vegetables. Conclusions: Increasing BMI, % BF and HC independent of age and sex are risk factors for glucose intolerance. A high overall protein percent intake in the diet and an elevated PUFA intake have desirable effects in the management of blood sugar metabolism. Increased intake of vegetables was found to have protective effects against glucose intolerance. Recommendations: Individuals are strongly advised to have non-elevated BMI, %BF and HC for purposes of managing the body tolerance to glucose. Increasing the protein percentage, PUFA and vegetable intake in the diet is recommended for all age groups and in both males and females. Corresponding Author: Kiplamai Festus, Kenyatta UniversityKenya: P. O Box 43844-00100 Nairobi: Tel: +254722310973 Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


The luminous fungus that we have described as a presumably new species, Omphalotus af. illudent, grows in rain forests in the south of Vietnam on the dead tree wood, mostly on the rubber tree (Hevea). It emits exceptionally bright light in all phases of its life cycle, from germinate spores and mycelium to fruiting bodies. This study describes the life cycle of Omphalotus af. illudent (Neonatapanus) and determination of the optimal parameters of the temperature, humidity, pH, concentration of mineral elements, and composition of the nutrient media. Measurements have been performed to determine the destructive enzymatic activity of the mycelium towards some of the wood components. Optimal mycelial growth and luminescence have been found to occur under different conditions. The study of the parameters of Omphalotus af.illudent provided a basis for successful large-scale cultivation of this fungus and, hence, preparation of sufficient quantities of material for studies of the biochemical and genetic mechanisms underlying fungal bioluminescence and examination of the biochemical components of the fungus that are potentially valuable for pharmacology (illudin etc.). The brightness and steadiness of Omphalotus af. illudent luminescence make this fungus a good candidate for continuous bioluminescent analytical systems.


A historical cohort study was carried out in an agricultural research institute in the Republic of Ireland to investigate a perceived excess of cancer deaths among employees. The objectives of the study were (a) to confirm whether or not total or cause specific death rates among selected employees were higher than expected based on national figures, and to quantify any excess, and (b) to identify centres and employee grades associated with any excess risk. The cohort comprised all administrative, research, and technical staff employed for at least two years between 1960 and 1980, giving a final total for analysis of 1323 employees. Employment history was categorised by place of work and employment grade. Deaths among the cohort were identified and causes of deaths verified. Overall the cohort had a lower than expected mortality compared with national rates (O/E = 0.67). Female deaths were too few for analysis but, among the male employees, there was an excess of all cancers (O/E = 1.24; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.8-1.9), in particular brain cancer (O/E = 4.69; 95% CI 1.2-11.4) and bladder cancer (O/E = 9.31, 95% CI 1.9-27.2). The pattern of brain tumour deaths was consistent with an occupational aetiology but it was not possible to identify specific exposures associated with the excess. All four cases occurred among research workers in the plant and soil science area. The pattern of bladder cancers was difficult to interpret. The authors are at present participating in a multicentre study to further investigate cancer risk in laboratory workers.


Abstract Oxidative stress biomarkers may have a role in the future to assist clinical decisions regarding the use of antioxidant therapies and their efficacy. The aims of this study were to evaluate the within and between-individual variability of plasma oxidative stress biomarkers and investigate factors affecting their variability. Plasma F2-isoprostanes and protein carbonyls were measured in 14 hemodialysis patients every 2 weeks for 10 weeks. Within-individual coefficients of variation (CVs) were isoprostanes = 30.4% (range = 6.1–66.7%) and protein carbonyls = 16.3% (8.4–29.5%). Between-individual CVs were isoprostanes = 34.4% (28.9–40.2%) and protein carbonyls = 19.5% (15.6–24.5%). There were no significant (p > 0.05) relationships between the oxidative stress biomarkers and dietary antioxidant intake, medications, clinical and demographic parameters.


This article explores how the International Criminal Court (ICC) is shaping justice in geopolitical terms by examining the ICC's interaction with the concepts of sovereignty and the border. It argues that the ICC's reliance on state power strengthens the nation-state, and in doing so reinscribes territorial borders and the exclusionary powers of the sovereign state. At the same time, the ICC also supports emerging supranational configurations of power, as it is underpinned by the ideals of cosmopolitanism and universalism, which decouple law from territorial confines. Through its supranational prosecutions, the ICC designates the 'friends and enemies of mankind' and thereby contributes to new 'nomos' that shapes international space beyond the sovereign border. However, as the ICC remains embedded in a system of nation-states and reliant on more powerful countries, it is often hamstrung by the interests of powerful actors and used as a tool in geopolitical struggles. This means that the ICC inadvertently contributes to neo-liberal border-reconstruction projects that create 'nomos' based on emerging amalgamations of power defined by the gap between powerful and weak countries and delineation of the insiders and outsiders of the global world.


Heterarchical shop floor control systems have had more attention than other forms of control systems over the last decade, as they promise modularity, robustness, fault-tolerance, maintainability, extendibility and cost-reduction. This paper presents design and implementation of an agentbased, heterarchical shop floor control system using an industrial framework, Windows-DNA. A model for adapting agent-based systems to the three-tier architecture of Window-DNA is proposed. The details of the design in each tier of the model are presented and the critical issues that should be considered for the ultimate harmony of an agent-based system with DNA are addressed. The designed system is implemented in an experimental manufacturing cell and example views of the human interfaces in action are presented.


The bulge is the oldest component of the Milky Way. Since numerous simulations of Milky Way formation have predicted that the oldest stars at a given metallicity are found on tightly bound orbits, the Galaxy's oldest stars are likely metal-poor stars in the inner bulge with small apocenters (i.e., Rapo ≲ 4 kpc). In the past, stars with these properties have been impossible to find due to extreme reddening and extinction along the line of sight to the inner bulge. We have used the mid-infrared metal-poor star selection of Schlaufman & Casey (2014) on Spitzer/Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire data to overcome these problems and target candidate inner bulge metal-poor giants for moderate-resolution spectroscopy with Anglo-Australian Telescope/AAOmega. We used those data to select three confirmed metal-poor giants ([Fe/H] = −3.15, −2.56, −2.03) for follow-up high-resolution Magellan/Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle spectroscopy. A comprehensive orbit analysis using Gaia DR2 astrometry and our measured radial velocities confirms that these stars are tightly bound inner bulge stars. We determine the elemental abundances of each star and find high titanium and iron-peak abundances relative to iron in our most metal-poor star. We propose that the distinct abundance signature we detect is a product of nucleosynthesis in the Chandrasekhar-mass thermonuclear supernova of a CO white dwarf accreting from a helium star with a delay time of about 10 Myr. Even though chemical evolution is expected to occur quickly in the bulge, the intense star formation in the core of the nascent Milky Way was apparently able to produce at least one Chandrasekhar-mass thermonuclear supernova progenitor before chemical evolution advanced beyond .


SSD (Single Shot Detector) is one of the state-of-the-art object detection algorithms, and it combines high detection accuracy with real-time speed. However, it is widely recognized that SSD is less accurate in detecting small objects compared to large objects, because it ignores the context from outside the proposal boxes. In this paper, we present CSSD–a shorthand for context-aware single-shot multibox object detector. CSSD is built on top of SSD, with additional layers modeling multi-scale contexts. We describe two variants of CSSD, which differ in their context layers, using dilated convolution layers (DiCSSD) and deconvolution layers (DeCSSD) respectively. The experimental results show that the multi-scale context modeling significantly improves the detection accuracy. In addition, we study the relationship between effective receptive fields (ERFs) and the theoretical receptive fields (TRFs), particularly on a VGGNet. The empirical results further strengthen our conclusion that SSD coupled with context layers achieves better detection results especially for small objects (+firstname.lastname@example.com on MSCOCO compared to the newest SSD), while maintaining comparable runtime performance.


It has been recently reported that the population of Fusobacterium, particularly Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn), is overrepresented in colorectal cancers (CRCs) and adenomas. The promoting effects of Fn infection on adenoma and/or carcinoma formation have been shown in ApcMin/+mice. Characteristics of Fn-associated CRC were identified through studies using human CRC cohorts and include right-sided colon location, CpG island methylation phenotype (CIMP)-high, high level of microsatellite instability (MSI-H), and poor patient prognosis. A subset of Fn-associated CRC exhibits a low level of microsatellite instability (MSI-L) and elevated microsatellite alterations in selected tetra-nucleotide repeats (EMAST) induced by translocation of MSH3 from the nucleus to the cytoplasm in response to oxidative DNA damage or inflammatory signals. The association between CIMP/MSI-H and Fn infection can be explained by the role of the mismatch repair protein complex formed between MSH2 and MSH6 (MutSα) to repair aberrant bases generated by reactive oxygen species (ROS) to form 7,8-dihydro-8-oxo-guanine (8-oxoG). Clustered 8-oxoGs formed at CpG-rich regions including promoters by ROS is refractory to base excision repair. Under these conditions, MutSα initiates repair in cooperation with DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) and the polycomb repressive complex 4. DNMTs at damaged sites methylate CpG islands to repress transcription of target genes and promote repair reactions. Thus, continuous generation of ROS through chronic Fn infection may initiate (1) CIMP-positive adenoma and carcinoma in an MSH2/MSH6-dependent manner and/or (2) MSI-L/EMAST CRC in an MSH3-dependent manner. The poor prognosis of Fn-associated CRC can be explained by Fn-induced immune-evasion and/or chemoresistance.


Cocoa bean fermentation is a spontaneous process driven by an ordered microbial succession of a wide range of yeasts, lactic acid and acetic acid bacteria, some aerobic sporeforming bacteria and various species of filamentous fungi. The process of cocoa fermentation is a very important step for developing chocolate flavor precursors which are attributable to the metabolism of succession microbial. The microbial ecology of cocoa has been studied in much of the world. In Venezuela, studies have been carried out with Criollo, Forastero, and Trinitario cocoa, fermented under various conditions, the results obtained coinciding with the reported scientific information. Fermentation must be associated with the type of cocoa available, carried out knowing the final processing and derivative (paste, butter, powder). The results shown in this chapter correspond to investigations carried out with cocoa from three locations in Venezuela. The quantification, identification, isolation, functionality of the most representative microbiota involved in the fermentation of these grains was sought. This to give possible answers to the fermentation times and improvement of the commercial quality. Likewise, generate greater interest on the part of the producers in carrying out the fermentation.


BACKGROUND
Vulvar cancers, although rare, are becoming an increasingly serious threat to women's health. Cancer of the vulva accounted for 0.3% of all new cancers in the United States in 2019, with 6,070 newly diagnosed cases. This review details the epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, staging, and treatment of vulvar malignancies.

OBJECTIVE
To review cancer entities of the vulva, including vulvar intraepithelial neoplasms, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), malignant melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, neuroendocrine tumors, and adenocarcinomas.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Literature review using PubMed search for articles related to cancer of the vulva.

RESULTS
Vulvar intraepithelial neoplasms represent premalignant precursors to SCC of the vulva. There are several different histopathologic subtypes of SCC, and treatment is dependent on characteristics of primary tumor and lymph node involvement. Melanoma is the second most common cancer to affect the vulva, and staging is based on tumor, node, and metastatic spread.

CONCLUSION
Vulvar malignancies are rare, and diagnosis is dependent on biopsy and pathologic evaluation. Treatment for vulvar malignancies depends on histopathologic diagnosis but ranges from wide local excision with or without lymph node biopsy or dissection to radiation therapy with chemo- or immunotherapy. Overall survival varies by diagnosis.


Data obtained during the last 20 years from selected hydrographic stations throughout the Arctic Ocean basins and at the continental slopes and northern parts of the surrounding shelf seas are examined to estimate the contribution of Atlantic water to the upper part of the Arctic Ocean water column, and to follow the circulation of the Atlantic derived halocline waters around the Arctic Ocean basins. A substantial fraction of the Atlantic water entering the Arctic Ocean in the two inflow branches, the Fram Strait branch and the Barents Sea branch, is transformed into less dense waters. The inflow through Fram Strait encounters and melts sea ice. Its upper part becomes less saline, and in winter, ice formation homogenizes this low salinity upper part into a winter mixed layer, which follows the boundary flow eastward. The inflow over the Barents Sea mainly becomes colder, less saline and denser due to cooling and net precipitation, but melting of sea ice also here creates a less dense upper layer, which is subsequently homogenized by haline convection. Both these components enter the Nansen Basin via the St. Anna Trough and flow eastward along the Siberian continental slope. A third component of the Barents Sea inflow, mainly comprising Norwegian Coastal Current water, remains on the shelf, where it absorbs the runoff from the large Siberian rivers and evolves into low salinity shelf water. This part continues as far east as the Laptev Sea before a major inflow to the deep Arctic Ocean basins occurs. Winter convection, which in most of the Nansen Basin extends to the Atlantic layer, then becomes limited to the injected low salinity shelf water, and the more saline upper layers of the Fram Strait and the Barents Sea branches are transformed into halocline waters. The Fram Strait branch supplies the halocline water of the Amundsen, Makarov and part of the Canada basins, while the upper part of the Barents Sea branch, initially confined to the Siberian continental slope, becomes the main source of the lower halocline below the Pacific water in the Canada Basin beyond the Chukchi Cap. Less dense Pacific water close to the North American continent prevents the Atlantic derived upper layers from fl owing through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and their main exit is Fram Strait. Only some of the Barents Sea branch halocline water passes through Nares Strait and may occasionally renew the deep and bottom waters of Baffin Bay.


Throughout the 2000s, donor organizations successfully argued for the inclusion of men who have sex with men (msm) in the global response to HIV/AIDS. These efforts have had unintended consequences for msm and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (lgbt) populations in sub-Saharan Africa. Focusing on Malawi and Senegal, we find that donors' emphasis on msm provided new urgency and sources of support for nascent lgbt- and msm-identified groups to organize around sexual identities and disseminate prevention strategies to their communities. These interventions increased the visibility of msm and lgbt populations in both countries; however, this new visibility also positioned msm and lgbt organizations between Western donors and political elites, contributing to political backlash against lgbt Malawians and Senegalese by the late 2000s. Further, while some msm- and lgbt-identified organizations in Malawi and Senegal ultimately expanded their activism to include lgbt rights, other HIV organizations working with msm to gain access to new donor funding did not advocate for the rights of lgbt populations. We discuss the implications of these processes for development initiatives and argue for a more expansive definition of health in HIV and development work to address a broader set of community concerns.


The increasing usage of information technology in military affairs raises the need for robust high capacity radio networks. The network will be used to provide several different types of services, for example group calls and situation awareness services. All services have specific demands on packet delays and packet losses in order to be fully functional, and therefore there is a need for a Quality of Service (QoS) mechanism in the network. In this master thesis we examine the possibility to provide a QoS mechanism in Ad Hoc networks by using priority queues. The study includes two different queuing schemes, namely fixed priority queuing and weighted fair queuing. The performance of the two queuing schemes are evaluated and compared with respect to the ability to provide differentiation in network delay, i.e., provide high priority traffic with lower delays than low priority traffic. The study is mainly done by simulations, but for fixed priority queuing we also derive a analytical approximation of the network delay. Our simulations show that fixed priority queuing provides a sharp delay differentiation between service classes, while weighted fair queuing gives the ability to control the delay differentiation. One of those queuing schemes alone might not be the best solution for providing QoS, instead we suggest that a combination of them is used.


We investigate the role of the nuclear-spin quantum dynamics in hyperfine-induced spin relaxation of hopping carriers in organic semiconductors. The fast-hopping regime, when the carrier spin does not rotate much between subsequent hops, is typical for organic semiconductors possessing long spin coherence times. We consider this regime and focus on a carrier random-walk diffusion in one dimension, where the effect of the nuclear-spin dynamics is expected to be the strongest. Exact numerical simulations of spin systems with up to 25 nuclear spins are performed using the Suzuki-Trotter decomposition of the evolution operator. Larger nuclear-spin systems are modeled utilizing the spin-coherent state P-representation approach developed earlier. We find that the nuclear-spin dynamics strongly influences the carrier spin relaxation at long times. If the random walk is restricted to a small area, it leads to the quenching of carrier spin polarization at a nonzero value at long times. If the random walk is unrestricted, the carrier spin polarization acquires a long-time tail, decaying as 1/t. Based on the numerical results, we devise a simple formula describing the effect quantitatively.


The transcription factor heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) plays a key role in the expression of several genes, such as heat shock protein (hsp) genes, which are cytoprotective against several pathological conditions, including inflammation. Cyclopentenone prostaglandins (cyPG) are able to activate HSF1 and induce the synthesis of the 70-kDa hsp (hsp70) in mammalian cells. These molecules are characterized by the presence of a reactive alpha,beta-unsatured carbonyl group in the cyclopentane ring (cyclopentenone) which is the key structure for triggering HSF1 activation. In the present study, we investigated, in carrageenin hind-paw edema, an acute model of inflammation, the effect of double-stranded oligodeoxynucleotides with consensus HSF1 sequence as transcription factor decoys to inhibit HSF1 binding to native DNA sites. We show that HSF1 activation and hsp72 expression occurs in inflamed tissue and that this effect is associated with the remission of the inflammatory reaction. Moreover, we studied the effect of prostaglandin 15-deoxy-delta12,14-prostaglandin (PG) J2, of its precursor, PGD2 and, for the first time in vivo, the effect of the cyclopentenone ring structure itself, 2-cyclopenten-1-one. Our results demonstrated that all agents used had anti-inflammatory properties and that this effect was associated with HSF1-induced hsp72 expression in vivo, suggesting that the use of cyclopentenone derivatives may represent a novel therapeutic approach to the treatment of inflammatory diseases.


ABSTRACT This essay aims to contribute robust grounds to question the Susskinds' influential, consequentialist logic when it comes to the legitimacy of automation within the legal profession. It does so by questioning their minimalist understanding of the professions. If it is our commitment to moral equality that is at stake every time lawyers (fail to) hail the specific vulnerability inherent in their professional relationship, the case for wholesale automation is turned on its head. One can no longer assume that, as a rule, wholesale automation is both legitimate and desirable, provided it improves the quality and accessibility of legal services (in an accountable and maximally transparent way). The assumption, instead, is firmly in favour of designing systems that better enable legal professionals to live up to their specific responsibility. The rest of the essay outlines key challenges in the design of such profession-specific, 'ethics aware' decision-support systems.


Introduction: People who are attracted to children may be at elevated risk for suicidal ideation and behavior compared to the general population. However, factors associated with suicidal ideation and behavior in this population represent a gap in the literature.Methods: The current study used multilinear regression to explore the impact of self-esteem and perceived social support on suicidal ideation and behavior in a sample of 154 adults attracted to children. Mediation analysis was conducted to investigate the role of lifetime major depressive disorder and hopelessness in these relationships.Results: Results showed high prevalence of past-year and lifetime suicidal ideation and behavior in the sample. Both self-esteem and perceived social support demonstrated significant, inverse relationships with suicidal ideation and behavior after adjustment for covariates. Mediation analyses provided support for the role of hopelessness, but not depression, in these relationships.Conclusion: Results demonstrate high rates of suicidal ideation and behavior among adults attracted to children and highlight important opportunities for prevention and intervention. Improving self-esteem, bolstering perceived social support, reducing hopelessness, and removing barriers to help-seeking may be targets for improving mental health and preventing suicidal ideation and behavior in this population.


This study was undertaken in an effort to understand the role of cytokines in T lymphocyte trafficking into inflamed synovium and in the potential enhancement of antigen presentation by human synovial fibroblasts. We found that interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha), and interferon-gamma (IFN gamma) each increased the cell surface expression of intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) on human synovial fibroblasts in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Maximal ICAM-1 expression occurred within 8 hours of induction, with the following order of efficacy: IFN gamma greater than TNF alpha greater than IL-1 beta. The number of cells bearing the ICAM-1 antigen also increased, from a basal level of approximately 30% to more than 83% after cytokine induction (for all 3 cytokines). ICAM-1 expression rapidly decreased following cytokine removal. The expression of lymphocyte function-associated antigen 3 was also examined, but it was not changed by any of the 3 cytokines. Class I major histocompatibility complex antigen expression was increased modestly by all 3 cytokines, and expression was maximal by 24 hours after treatment. Only IFN gamma induced HLA class II antigen expression, and this expression persisted for up to 6 days following removal of the lymphokine. IL-6 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor had no effect on any of the parameters examined. Our data support an interactive role for inflammatory cytokines and the expression of adhesion ligands and HLA antigens by human synovial fibroblasts in the pathogenesis of synovial inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis.


The pollution accumulation characteristics of insulators are directly related to the flashover voltage. In this paper, for an inverted T - type insulator string, the natural fouling state of the inverted T-type simulation string was detected after three years of hanging in the outdoor test site of the d-level pollution area. It is found that the average equivalent salt density of insulator tension part is about 59.0% of its suspension part, and the average ash density is about 57.4% of the latter.


In product family approaches such as software product lines, product configuration is a key activity that deals with the constrained combination and parameterization of reusable core assets as a means to achieve correct product assembly. The configuration process is highly collaborative in which different players, each with a particular perspective on the product under development, interact and negotiate configuration decisions. In this scenario, conflicts commonly occur as each part attempts to promote its own interests. As a consequence, there is an urge for approaches to effectively coordinate configuration decisions. In this paper, we present a process-centric approach to collaborative product configuration. Our approach attempts to anticipate and solve decision conflicts by allowing decision makers to define priority schemes. Major configuration decision support issues are discussed and a novel algorithm to derive executable process models is introduced. Finally, an illustrated example is shown demonstrating the approach's feasibility


Can poverty and gender relations be disentangled? Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have spread throughout Latin America and beyond based on the claim that they are an effective social policy tool to combat poverty. While changing gender relations is not among CCTs' explicit objectives, gender relations are nonetheless shaped by these policies. Unfortunately, the debate concerning how CCTs shape gender relations has treated gender inequality as a one-dimensional matter. In this paper, we seek to overcome this limitation by offering a multidimensional analysis of programs in Chile, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. On the basis of empirical evidence provided, we argue that patriarchal materialism is still at the core of Latin America's new social policies. At the same time, we recognize the potential for CCTs to transform gender relations should mechanisms allowing childcare facilities and encouraging male participation in domestic labor become an integral part of these programs.


In economic geography, geographical proximity has been identified as a key driver of M&A activity. In this context, little attention has yet been drawn to the effect of industrial relatedness, which refers to the similarity and complementarity of business activities. We examine 1,855 domestic M&A deals announced between 2002 and 2008 in the Netherlands, and we assess the extent to which geographical proximity and industrial relatedness affect M&A partnering. Our study shows that geographical proximity drives domestic M&A deals, even at very detailed spatial scales like the municipality level. We also found evidence that companies that share the same or complementary industries are more likely to engage in an M&A deal. Logistic regressions show that the effect of industrial relatedness is stronger than the effect of geographical proximity and that the effect of geographical proximity is stronger in unrelated than related target selection.


The major aim of the study is to explore the effect of present law and order situation of Karachi on academic performance. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of present deteriorating situation on teaching-learning process and on academic achievement. The target population of the study comprised of all head teachers of Government and Private Secondary Schools in Karachi. However, sample of the study was comprised of head teachers (Headmasters/Headmistresses) of 40 head teachers of Government Secondary Schools and private secondary schools located in Karachi. The instruments of data collection (questionnaires) was developed and validated. The data was collected through personal visits. The analysis was made by using SPSS. The major findings of the study were irregular teaching-learning experience during present law and order situation, lack of government efforts for peace keeping, leadership at all levels (political/local) is not working in the city with harmony, law enforcement agencies are proactive to secure the people's daily life activities, media is communicating information to public with true text and context, community is addressing its public issues during 'fragile situation', parents and teachers are not satisfied with the academic performance of the students in the present law and order situation so the recommendation is that peaceful environment is necessary for continuous teaching-learning experience and better educational performance.


Describes a subnanosecond-gate array with 2000 gates fabricated by an advanced bipolar process. A 700-ps delay time was achieved for a basic ECL gate under a general usage condition of a 3 fan-in, 3 fan-out and 3-mm wiring length, with power dissipation of 1.9 mW/gate. A 450-MHz typical toggle frequency has been obtained by using a series-gated flip-flop. Utilizing an integrated computer-aided design system, 100% routability has been attained for automatic placement and wiring in spite of 90% cell utilization. Low thermal resistance (6/spl deg/C/W) packages are used for this LSI chip to permit its installation in an air-cooled system.


We consider a geometrically thin, Keplerian disk in the orbital plane of a binary black hole (BHBH) consisting of a spinning primary and low-mass secondary (mass ratio q < 1). To account for the principle effects of general relativity (GR), we propose a modification of the standard Newtonian evolution equation for the (orbit-averaged) time-varying disk surface density. In our modified equation the viscous torque in the disk is treated in full GR, while the tidal torque is handled in the Newtonian limit. Our GR-hybrid treatment is reasonable because the tidal torque is concentrated near the orbital radius of the secondary and is most important prior to binary-disk decoupling, when the orbital separation is large and resides in the weak-field regime. The tidal torque on the disk diminishes during late merger and vanishes altogether following merger. By contrast, the viscous torque drives the flow into the strong-field region and onto the primary during all epochs. Following binary coalescence, the viscous torque alone governs the time-dependent accretion onto the remnant, as well as the temporal behavior, strength and spectrum of the aftermath electromagnetic radiation from the disk. We solve our GR-hybrid equation for a representative BHBH-disk system, identify several observable EM signatures of the merger, and compare results obtained for the gas and EM radiation with those found with the Newtonian prescription.


In the field of Intelligent User Interfaces, Spoken Dialogue Systems (SDSs) play a key role as speech represents a true intuitive means of human communication. Deriving information about its quality can help rendering SDSs more user-adaptive. Work on automatic estimation of subjective quality usually relies on statistical models. To create those, manual data annotation is required, which may be performed by actual users or by experts. Here, both variants have their advantages and drawbacks. In this paper, we analyze the relationship between user and expert ratings by investigating models which combine the advantages of both types of ratings. We explore two novel approaches using statistical classification methods and evaluate those with a preexisting corpus providing user and expert ratings. After analyzing the results, we eventually recommend to use expert ratings instead of user ratings in general.


In China, the intensive livestock farming produces massive livestock wastewater with high concentration of phosphorus. Discharge of these compounds to surface water not only causes water eutrophication but also wastes phosphorus resources for plant growth. Therefore, it's necessary combining the removal of phosphorus from livestock wastewater with its recovery and reuse as fertilizer. As a valuable slow-release mineral fertil- izer, struvite crystallization has become a focus in phosphorus recovery. In this chapter, struvite crystallization mechanism, reaction factors, crystallizers, and the applications of struvite as fertilizer are discussed. Two steps of nucleation and crystal growth for struvite crystallization from generation to growth are introduced. The reaction factors, including molar ratio of magnesium and phosphate, solution pH, coexisting substances, and seeding assist, of struvite crystallization are summarized. Several innovate types of crystallizer, which relate to the shape and size of harvest struvite to realize the phosphorus recycling, are demonstrated. Due to the influence of toxic or harmful impurities in struvite on its reuse as fertilizer, the environmental risk evaluation of struvite application is introduced. In conclusion, struvite crystallization is a promising tool for recovering phosphorus from livestock wastewater.


Background
Anaplastic gangliogliomas (GGGs) are rare tumors whose natural history is poorly documented. We aimed to define their clinical and imaging features and to identify prognostic factors.

Methods
Consecutive cases of anaplastic GGGs in adults prospectively entered into the French Brain Tumor Database between March 2004 and April 2014 were screened. After diagnosis was confirmed by pathological review, clinical, imaging, therapeutic, and outcome data were collected retrospectively.

Results
Forty-three patients with anaplastic GGG (median age, 49.4 y) from 18 centers were included. Presenting symptoms were neurological deficit (37.2%), epileptic seizure (37.2%), or increased intracranial pressure (25.6%). Typical imaging findings were unifocal location (94.7%), contrast enhancement (88.1%), central necrosis (43.2%), and mass effect (47.6%). Therapeutic strategy included surgical resection (95.3%), adjuvant radiochemotherapy (48.8%), or radiotherapy alone (27.9%). Median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 8.0 and 24.7 months, respectively. Three- and 5-year tumor recurrence rates were 69% and 100%, respectively. The 5-year survival rate was 24.9%. Considering unadjusted significant prognostic factors, tumor midline crossing and frontal location were associated with shorter OS. Temporal and parietal locations were associated with longer and shorter PFS, respectively. None of these factors remained statistically significant in multivariate analysis.

Conclusions
We report a large series providing clinical, imaging, therapeutic, and prognostic features of adult patients treated for an intracerebral anaplastic GGG. Our results show that pathological diagnosis is difficult, that survivals are only slightly better than for glioblastomas, and that complete surgical resection followed with adjuvant chemoradiotherapy offers longer survival.


Background Chorea, rigidity, dystonia and muscle weakness are characteristic defects of Huntington's disease (HD). These motor defects underlie the gradual loss of function and mobility for people with HD as the disease progresses. Provision of an individualised exercise programme is one of the principal physiotherapy interventions in the management of HD (Zinzi et al2007). Physiotherapy intervention should be tailored to the specific stage of the disease but also the address the specific signs and symptoms that effect functional performance and mobility (Quinn and Busse 2012) Case histories We currently have six long term care residents: One of whom is in the early stage of the disease, four are in the mid stages and one is in the late stage of HD. Within this cohort, reduced motivation, behavioural problems and cognitive deficits are issues arising to varying degrees. To promote adherence and therapeutic effect, ongoing modification of exercise programmes is necessary. For most residents, the exercise programme is delivered on an individual basis, however some residents are able to attend group based sessions. Therapy settings also vary, e.g. ward based, physiotherapy gym or outdoors, in an attempt to provide the appropriate level of stimulation while suiting functional level. Alteration of exercise frequency, intensity, duration and mode is imperative as HD progresses while frequent review of the resident's goals helps to enhance their motivation. Conclusions Exercise regimes need continual progression within the limitations of the individual as Huntington's disease progresses. This involves alteration of the many variables that underpin an individualised exercise programme.


ABSTRACT This study investigates two Korean heritage language teachers' motivational practices in relation to their identity positioning as heritage language (HL) teachers. Constant-comparative analyses of teachers' interviews and classroom practices showed that the two teachers' identity positioning as HL teachers was partially shaped by their earlier teaching experiences in specific cultural contexts and by the degree to which they understood their students as a result of their earlier interactions (or lack thereof). In addition, the teachers' identity positioning of themselves and their students as well as their positioned relationships with students are closely tied to the teachers' use of various classroom motivational discourses and practices (e.g. various types of autonomy-supportive versus controlling practices). This study concludes that HL teachers need to reflect on their implicit positioning and practices to better address the needs and perspectives of students in language-teaching contexts, where sociocultural complexities are continually evolving.


17beta-Oestradiol (17betaE(2)) has vasorelaxant properties that may contribute to its beneficial cardiovascular effects. The mechanism of vasorelaxation remains controversial, but does not appear to involve interaction of 17betaE(2) with its nuclear receptor. The present study examined the effects on resistance arteries of 17betaE(2) and its isomer, 17alpha-oestradiol (17alphaE(2)), which does not bind to the classical oestrogen receptor. In arteries precontracted with either noradrenaline or KCl, 17betaE(2) and 17alphaE(2) caused comparable relaxation in a concentration-dependent manner over the concentration range 0.1-10 micromol/l, with no significant difference in the maximal effect obtained. Pre-incubation of the arteries with 17betaE(2) or 17alphaE(2) for 15 min reduced the magnitude and duration of the force generated with both noradrenaline and KCl to a comparable degree. Vasorelaxation induced by either 17betaE(2) or 17alphaE(2) was not blocked by an inhibitor of NO synthase or by protein synthesis inhibitors, indicating that vasodilatation is not dependent upon either NO generation or protein synthesis. In the absence of extracellular calcium, both oestradiols still relaxed arteries precontracted with NA, suggesting that they inhibit intracellular calcium release. Both 17betaE(2) and 17alphaE(2) therefore have important and comparable vasorelaxant properties that do not require interaction with the nuclear oestrogen receptor. Direct interactions with the cell membrane or with ion-channel proteins may be responsible.


BACKGROUND
Ototoxic effects of carbon monoxide exposure: a review.

AIM
To analyze the literature on hearing and Carbon Monoxide (CO).

METHODS
To describe the physical properties, the absorption, distribution and metabolism of CO, as well as its origin, production, sources and the international standards for occupational exposure. Several studies about the effects of CO exposure to the auditory system of humans and experimental animals were discussed. The main economic sectors where the combined exposure to noise and CO takes place were identified. A description of the basic CO toxic mechanisms that are able to raise occupational noise-induced hearing loss was given.

CONCLUSION
The review of the literature indicated the following: 1. Examples of CO exposure sources include air pollution, smoking and second-hand smoking, and occupational exposures. 2. CO's main toxic mechanism can lead to hypoxia due to the conversion of oxyhemoglobin to carboxyhemoglobin. 3. Rats have been the most used experimental animals in CO auditory effects studies, this group of studies has demonstrated the combined effects of acute exposure to CO and noise. 4. Studies about the negative effects of CO exposure over the human auditory system were mainly carried out after acute exposures to CO. These studies did not control or report exposure to noise as a contributor to the observed hearing deficits. Currently the available evidence indicates the need for further research on the effects of CO exposure to the auditory system, alone or in combination with noise.


Peritoneal dialysis is a medical procedure used to remove dialyzable (endogenous and exogenous) toxins, both in acute kidney injury and in chronic kidney disease. Each animal which has indication for peritoneal dialysis needs a rigorous clinical examination before the procedure, and also biochemical and haematological blood analyses, as well as urinalysis. It is important to know the etiology, the evolution of the disease, as well as the existence of other conditions or the treatment the patient is receiving.
Complications of peritoneal dialysis are common but can be easily managed if known or addressed early. The most common complications are peritoneal catheter obstruction, electrolyte imbalances, hypoalbuminemia and bacterial peritonitis.


Adakite, found in both the eastern and western parts of Mindanao Island, Philippines, is a rare rock type, characterized by low heavy rare earth elements and Y contents together with high Sr/Y ratios, and is considered to be the result of the melting of young subducted oceanic crust, which leaves an eclogite residue. Pliocene-Quaternary adakites from western Mindanao (Zamboanga Peninsula) are probably derived from the melting of the young Miocene Sulu Sea crust, which is currently subducting beneath Zamboanga. Associated Nb-enriched basalts are thought to come from mantle metasomatized through interaction with adakitic melts. In eastern Mindanao, Pliocene-Quaternary cones and plugs of typical adakitic composition mark the trace of the Philippine fault in Surigao and north Davao. The underlying Philippine Sea crust is of Eocene age and therefore cannot melt under normal subduction thermal conditions. Thermal models indicate that melting at the start of subduction can occur. Subduction of the Philippine Sea plate began 3 to 4 Ma beneath eastern Mindanao and probably accounts for the presence of adakites along the Philippine fault.


We develop methods for analysing decision problems based on multi-attribute utility hierarchies, structured by mutual utility independence, which are not precisely specified due to unwillingness or inability of an individual or group to agree on precise values for the trade-offs between the various attributes. Instead, our analysis is based on whatever limited collection of preferences we may assert between attribute collections. These preferences identify a class of Pareto optimal decisions. We show how to reduce the class further by combining rules which are almost equivalent and introduce general principles appropriate to selecting decisions in an imprecise hierarchy. The approach is illustrated by the design of a university course module.


Purpose: This paper aims to explain the development of the dialogical conference, develop a framework for understanding the social construction of the dialogical conference and provide research priorities for further developing the practice in the services marketing discipline. Design/methodology/approach: The growing challenge for service researchers is to generate new theory and knowledge to solve complex problems. Dialogical conferences offer an avenue to develop solutions in response to this challenge. Value co-creation provides a useful lens through which to view dialogical conferences. We draw on Ranjan and Read's (2016) value-in-use and value co-production and Ramaswamy and Ozcan's (2018) interactive engagement platforms for value co-creation. Mindful of the contributions of both, the paper presents an integrative framework that describes the relationships between the concepts to provide a firm grounding for developing dialogical conferences. Findings: By mapping value co-creating activities in dialogical conferences according to the APPI framework – artifacts, persons, processes and interfaces – on to value-in-use and value co-production, we propose a new category of value-in-use, equality, to the conceptualisation of value co-creation outcomes. Equality in contribution, attribution and effort is under-represented in value co-creation. Originality/value: Dialogical conferences are increasingly important for knowledge generation and creating potential for action, yet are underexplored in service research. This paper contributes to the literature by using service logic and dialogical conferences to extend our knowledge of value co-creation interactive platforms and outcomes. Second, we demonstrate the value of dialogical conferences for facilitating meaningful service research and knowledge development. Finally, the authors identify research priorities to encourage further work on extending the understanding and application of dialogical interactive platforms and value co-creation to enable the service community to be responsive in solving complex problems through service offerings.


Energy efficiency is an important issue as the amount of high rate multimedia wireless communication grows substantially in order to accommodate more users. Over the past 10 years, there has been an unprecedented growth in the wireless information transfer volume and the associated wireless node density. This is especially true in urban areas in which over 50% of the world's population reside. Currently, there are over 7 billion active handsets and 4 million cell-sites globally. Additional infrastructure, in particular Wi-Fi hotspots in urban areas, has reached over 350 nodes per square kilometre.

On the other hand, telecommunications operators and vendors are also facing a serious challenge as the total energy consumed by network infrastructure as well as the CO2 emissions resulting from their manufacturing and operation increase significantly. Recently, it has been reported that energy costs can account for as much as half of a mobile carrier's annual operating expenses. Moreover, the environmental and financial consequences would also be disastrous if the aggregate energy consumption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) were to follow the predicted growth trajectory. The current combination of the energy consumption of service centres and wireless communication networks accounts for 2–4% of global CO2 emissions and is expected to reach up to 10% in less than 10 years. Therefore it is essential for the research community to investigate state-of-the-art technologies, such as energy-efficient network architecture and protocols, energy-efficient wireless transmission techniques, energy-efficient home networking, and opportunistic spectrum sharing without causing tremendous harmful interference pollution to meet the challenges to improve energy efficiency in communications.

As there are many ways to improve energy efficiency in wireless communications illustrated above, this thesis mainly focuses on improving the energy efficiency through the enhancement of network capacity. It starts to examine the relative merits of Long Term Evolution (LTE) femtocell access points (FAP) and 802.11n Wi-Fi radio access technologies (RATs) so as to establish a baseline system-level performance. The results from Monte-Carlo simulations reveal that LTE-femtocells best suit small home networks, providing a high level of spectral- and energy-efficiency. With this result in mind, attention is paid to the next generation of heterogeneous cellular networks, in more detail, in the DownLink (DL) of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) based LTE networks.

The thesis furthers the study of interference avoidance for a heterogeneous network and applies a novel Radio Resource Management (RRM) algorithm for indoor femtocells. After this, the thesis examines how to create an algorithm that optimises the location of home FAP(s) with respect to the dominant interference. This investigation covers the scenarios of single room single FAP, single room multiple FAPs and multi-room multi-floor multi-FAPs. Finally, special attention is paid to evaluate the system-level performance using a stochastic-geometry theoretical framework which acts as a fundamental basis in the analysis of heterogeneous networks and paves the way for the study of mitigating interference using a frequency-selective-surface (FSS) and the work of the trade-off between interference mitigation via FSS for indoor home network and outdoor-indoor resource sharing by turning on and off the FSS.


While mainstream academic literature tends to emphasise the place of 'participatory democracy' as key to realising the public interest in planning policy, this paper argues that the statutory framework as well as a fair judicial system both need to underpin the ideal of the public interest in planning development. The legal cases analysed in this paper illustrate why citizen participation have failed to change values or practices in Japanese planning, even in recent years. The paper demonstrates how the hierarchy of law, such as the statutory power between central and local government and the separation of power between the executive and judiciary, has essentially defined the idea of the public interest in Japanese planning.


Abstract : This paper suggests a reference model for PHM processes that aids the customer of PHM in developing a business case for adopting PHM in his or her supply chain. Various PHM systems have been envisioned and developed in order to produce a prognosis of system or component behavior by collecting physical data from some section of a system, analyzing it and reporting the results to the entity that benefits from it, notably the supply chain that manages the components and receives the resulting cost benefit from PHM. All these systems have varying configurations that involve the collection of different types of data in different ways, the analysis of varying types of physical behavior and have different types of customers (different supply chain configurations). The customer needs to include the cost and complexity of the PHM system in his or her business model but has no formal standard to determine bounds on the complexity of the PHM system. Just as there are reference stacks for service-oriented architectures, this paper proposes a functional stack for PHM that can become a reference architecture for developing or purchasing a PHM system for an organization. The stack of PHM services ranges from the data acquisition layer through analysis functions to supply chain decision support services.


In this study, the application of eucalyptus essential oil/vapour as beverages preservative is reported. The chemical composition of eucalyptus oil was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and solid phase microextraction GC-MS (SPME/GC-MS) analyses. GC-MS revealed that the major constituents were 1,8-cineole (80.5%), limonene (6.5%), α-pinene (5%), and γ-terpinene (2.9%) while SPME/GC-MS showed a relative reduction of 1,8-cineole (63.9%) and an increase of limonene (13.8%), α-pinene (8.87%), and γ-terpinene (3.98%). Antimicrobial potential of essential oil was initially determined in vitro against 8 different food spoilage yeasts by disc diffusion, disc volatilization, and microdilution method. The activity of eucalyptus vapours was significantly higher than the eucalyptus oil. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) varied from 0.56 to 4.50 mg/mL and from 1.13 to 9 mg/mL, respectively. Subsequently, the combined efficacy of essential oil and thermal treatment were used to evaluate the preservation of a mixed fruit juice in a time-dependent manner. These results suggest eucalyptus oil as a potent inhibitor of food spoilage yeasts not only in vitro but also in a real food system. Currently, this is the first report that uses eucalyptus essential oil for fruit juice preservation against food spoiling yeast.


: Drug-use pattern of anti-malarial has been associated with development of resistant strain and therapeutic failure. This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out to assess anti-malarial drug-use practices among dwellers of Adigbe communities within Abeokuta environment. The study documented the knowledge, the attitude and behaviour of three hundred and fifty (350) respondents in terms of drug preference, attitude to drug use and the effects of non-compliance to antimalarial drug. Structured questionnaires were used for data collection, as total of 370 questionnaires were distributed and 350 questionnaires were retrieved for analysis. One hundred and twenty five (125) (35.71) of the respondents frequently experienced malaria attack and practiced self-medication. One hundred and fifteen (115) (32.86%) of the respondents treated their malaria episode with Sulphadoxine-Pyrimethamine (SP) combination while 90 (25.71%) of the respondents frequently purchased Artesunate as monotherapy for malaria treatment due to cost-implication of the newer and available Artemisinin combination therapy (ACT's). The finding reveals that 43 (12.29%) of the respondents only purchased Artemisinin-Combination Therapy (ACTs). One hundred and eight can 118 (33.71%) of the respondents practiced self-medication with anti-malarial drug. The results revealed therapeutic failure to conventional use of Sulphadoxine-Pyrimethamine (SP) by the respondents as One hundred and thirty nine (139) (33.71%) of the respondents experienced no cure and have to repeat the treatment with anti-malarias. If drug-use pattern of anti-malarials is not monitored, there is possibility of early emergence of resistance to the highly effective anti-malarial drugs presently in use..


The temporal-spatial dimensions of the Indian Ocean have been variously explored and described, the historical narrative adapted according to the interests of its invaders and inhabitants alike. Yet against the sometimes overlapping claims of Pax Indica, Pax Sinica, Pax Islamica, Pax Britannica and Pax Americana, the ocean was never a 'lake' controlled or owned exclusively by any single power based outside or inside its geographical boundaries. For millennia, it was a cosmopolitan arena animated by encounters between East and West, where Asians, Africans and Caucasians participated together in a sophisticated structure of commerce and politics shaped by the cycle of monsoons. The Indian Ocean arena, extending to the South China Sea, had been central in international history well before the rise of the Atlantic and the Pacific. The Indian Ocean's centrality in international geopolitics is again becoming apparent, with the end of the Western colonial empires and the emergence of independent nation-states throughout Africa and Asia; and, more recently, the conclusion of the Cold War, the concurrent rise of India and China, the growing concerns over energy supplies, and the continuation of post-9/11 asymmetric conflicts. But what has all this meant for Singapore, a 'global' port-city located at the eastern fringe of that 'globalizing' arena? To what extent are the fortunes of Singapore bound up with the security and destiny of the Indian Ocean? From a geo-economic viewpoint, the stability of the Indian Ocean arena remains vital to Singapore, which, overlooking a key choke point and sea-lanes between two oceans, has long relied upon seaborne commerce for its viability. From a geo-strategic viewpoint, Singapore continues to espouse a multiplicity of policies and partnerships that it perceives would better guarantee its survival and success in the region. This paper examines the evolutionary dynamics of Singapore's strategic involvement in the Indian Ocean.


Recycling of printed circuit boards (PCBs) is an important subject not only from the treatment of waste but also from the recovery of valuable materials including rare metals. We have tried a special and selective grinding such as parts detachment from the board using drum typed agitation mill to concentrate a part of "rare metals". The objective of this study is revealing the mechanism of parts detachment process from PCBs. A simulant PCBs on which nine capacitors were solder-mounted were used for the communition test using the agitation mill. Effects of rotation speed and the number of boards for parts detachment or board breakage were investigated. Both of parts detachment rate and board breakage rate were increased as rotation speed increased. On the other hand, as the number of boards increased, parts detachment rate was increased while board breakage rate was slightly increased. DEM simulation with and without particle breakage model was conducted. DEM simulation with spherical particle model (without particle breakage model) showed that board breakage was strongly affected by collision of PCBs to the wall in the normal direction while parts detachment was affected by both of collision of PCBs to the wall in the tangential direction and interaction between PCBs. To investigate the mechanism of parts detachment process more directly, DEM simulation with particle breakage model was also conducted. Simulation results obtained from DEM with particle breakage model corresponded to these experimental trends successfully.


The present study was undertaken to analyze the effects on unitary activity of inferior olive (IO) neurons elicited by activation of cerebellar lateral nucleus (LN), in rats submitted to the chronic destruction of MDJ structures, i.e. in animals in which the LN-evoked effects in IO should be depended only on activation of GABAergic cells of LN. It has been observed that about two-thirds of the olivocerebellar neurons are significantly affected by LN stimulation, and > 68% of those cells were inhibited. Two-thirds of the inhibitory responses were compatible with a monosynaptic linkage, whereas the remaining inhibitions were probably due to polisynaptic linkages. The majority of LN-induced inhibitions was abolished or greatly reduced following application of GABA antagonists.


With the growing interest in veganism and its potential health benefits to athletes, it is imperative to consider whether dietary practices could influence athletic performance. The purpose of this research is to find out whether veganism leads to a better performance in endurance runners. We also examine recent studies that attempt to highlight the positive and negative impacts of veganism on athletes' health. This study adopts a similar framework to the Nutritional and Running High Mileage (NURMI) study, which aims to investigate the relationship between different diet types and running performance. 200 volunteers in Singapore will participate in a cross-sectional online survey and undergo an experiment where they will follow a controlled training diet program. Regression analysis will be used to analyze the factors that affect running performance and T-test to determine if there are any statistically significant differences in performance between vegans and omnivores in terms of their 42km marathon timing and VO2 Max. The results from this comparative study aim to help endurance runners to make better decisions when considering adopting a vegan diet and whether it will indeed be beneficial to them.


Using deep 21-cm HI data from the Green Bank Telescope we have detected an ~18.3 kpc-long gaseous extension associated with the starbursting dwarf galaxy IC 10. The newly-found feature stretches 1.3 deg to the northwest and has a large radial velocity gradient reaching to ~65 km/s lower than the IC 10 systemic velocity. A region of higher column density at the end of the extension that possesses a coherent velocity gradient 10 km/s across ~26 arcmin) transverse to the extension suggests rotation and may be a satellite galaxy of IC 10. The HI mass of IC 10 is 9.5x10^7 (d/805 kpc)^2 Msun and the mass of the new extension is 7.1x10^5 (d/805 kpc)^2 Msun. An IC 10-M31 orbit using known radial velocity and proper motion values for IC 10 show that the HI extension is inconsistent with the trailing portion of the orbit so that an M31-tidal or ram pressure origin seems unlikely. We argue that the most plausible explanation for the new feature is that it is the result of a recent interaction (and possible late merger) with another dwarf galaxy. This interaction could not only have triggered the origin of the recent starburst in IC 10, but could also explain the existence of previously-found counter-rotating HI gas in the periphery of the IC 10 which was interpreted as originating from primordial gas infall.


A stress intensity factor K was used as a fracture parameter to determine the true material property, i.e. plane strain fracture toughness KIC of AZ61 magnesium alloy using a single edge notch bend (SENB) specimen in accordance to ASTM E399 testing method. Five different specimen thicknesses of 2 to 10 mm were used in the test. A sharp fatigue pre-crack was initiated and propagated to half of specimen width at a constant crack propagation rate of about 1 x 10-8 m/cycle before the specimen was loaded in tension until the fracture stress is reached and then rapid fracture occurred. The fracture toughness KC values obtained for different thicknesses showed that KC value decreased with increasing specimen thickness. The highest KC value obtained was 16.5 MPa√m for 2 mm thickness specimen. The value of KC became relatively constant at about 13 MPa√m when the specimen thickness exceeds 8 mm. This value was then considered as the plane strain fracture toughness KIC of AZ61 magnesium alloy. Calculation of the minimum thickness requirement for plane strain condition and the size of the shear lips of the fracture surface validate the obtained KIC value.


The formation and structure of the Charente-Maritime marshes are described and the leading features of their drainage networks stated. This is followed by a brief analysis of the governing ditch design principles and network operating characteristics, especially those having a direct bearing on maintenance requirements, i.e. the following: (i) The importance of the tertiary ditch network as regards the regulating capacity of the network, in which the flow is tidal; (ii) The low flow velocities, which are conductive to weed growth; (iii) Water level variations due to the intermittent flow. The main ditch maintenance methods are then described, i.e. the following: 1. Chemical weed destruction. The most important weeds todestroy are listed, also produets in current use and the most frequent forms of treatment, i.e. treatment of the plants in situ above or under water, and sterilization. 2. Mechanical weeding. The main types of mechanical ditch-clearing equipment are briefly reviewed, including mechanical shovels, suction dredgers, helical clearers, etc. The author dwells at length on special equipment of the helical type made in Germany and prototypes of similar equipment produced in the Charente-Maritime region. The report closes with a few words on maintenance methods for wideditches, tidal ditches and small ditches, the common feature of which is that they aIl involve the use of chemical weed-killing techniques and mechanical maintenance equipment.


Slope protection with vegetation is a new technology which is using vegetation to preserve water and soil, so reduce slope instability and corrosion, simultaneously beautify ecological environment. Using vegetation for slope protection can protect slope, and can overcome the shortcoming of traditional slope protection ways.This article takes Northeast Forestry University tree farm as an experimental field. According to climatic conditions of northeast area, soil texture conditions of highway slopes and other conditions, this text selects 6 different common herbs to plant, observes ecology compatibility and preserving soil ability of each kind of plant, then uses mathematical method to appraise slope protection effect of each kind of plant.Results indicate that different type of grass has different slope protection effect.


The registration of data received from remote units or other facilities with surveillance data derived from a unit's own organic sensors (principally radars) is called gridlocking. This function is fundamental to the successful employment of the external data for coordinating a ship's activities with other units or forces and cueing the unit to possible threats. Accurate registration requires precise knowledge of the relationship between the ownship-derived data and the remote data. This relationship depends partially on knowing positions for the sensors which developed the various data. Because of the presence of sensor biases, the positions which provide the most accurate registration often do not correspond to the true geodetic position of the receiving unit and/or the remote sensors. Depending on the overlap between the remote sensor coverage volume and local ownship coverage volume, it can be shown that the role of navigation in developing this registration varies.

Recent investigations, utilizing various data bases collected simultaneously from multiple physically separated naval radar suites, have shown that precise alignments can be achieved with minimal or, in some cases, no navigational input as long as common targets are held by the radar suites (i.e., relative gridlocking). Extension of these results to cases where no common coverage region exists (i.e., geodetic gridlocking) indicates that navigational positions from cooperative units within the local unit coverage volume could provide a possible standard for defining the relationship between ownship sensor coordinates and the absolute navigational coordinates. If the remote sensor data are also aligned to absolute coordinates, precise registration can then be achieved even in these cases.


ABSTRACT We sought to assess the degree of cross-protective immunity in a mouse model of chlamydial genital tract infection. Following resolution of genital infection with the mouse pneumonitis (MoPn) biovar ofChlamydia trachomatis, mice were challenged intravaginally with either MoPn or human serovar E or L2. The majority of animals previously infected with MoPn were solidly immune to challenge with either of the two human biovars. Surprisingly, approximately 50% of animals became reinfected when homologously challenged with MoPn, although the secondary infection yielded significantly lower numbers of the organism isolated over a shorter duration than in the primary infection. Primary infection with serovar E also protected against challenge with MoPn or serovar L2, although the degree of immune protection was lower than that resulting from primary infection with MoPn. Blast transformation and assessment of delayed-type hypersensitivity indicated that mice previously infected with either human or murine biovars produced broadly cross-reactive T cells that recognized epitopes of either murine or human biovars of C. trachomatis. Immunoblotting demonstrated that primary MoPn infection produced immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody to antigens of MoPn as well as at least three distinct antigenic components of human serovar E, one of which was identical in molecular weight to the major outer membrane protein (MOMP). Primary infection with serovar E produced IgG antibody reactive against serovar E but not MoPn MOMP and against at least one ca. 60-kDa protein of both chlamydial strains. Our results indicate that primary genital infection of mice with murineC. trachomatis induces immunity against challenge with either of two human biovars.


We sat down for A Conversation With... UT Dallas President Emeritus Robert Rutford. Dr. Rutford is an Antarctic explorer and scientist of international acclaim, having been recognized with the naming of the Rutford Ice Stream and Mount Rutford, in Antarctica. A main thoroughfare on the campus of UT Dallas was named in his honor. He served with distinction as president of UT Dallas throughout a very formative period during the University's 40-year-history, 1982 to 1994. During his tenure as president, the university secured approval for a School of Engineering, added freshmen and sophomores to its student body, and built the first on-campus housing. During our visit, Dr. Rutford shared his thoughts on: * The uniqueness of UT Dallas and what prompted him to seek and later accept the position of president. * The uphill battle to secure a School of Engineering at UT Dallas. * How adding freshmen and sophomores helped to advance the University and enhance its culture and diversity. * His lasting sense of pride on the impact he was able to make and his enjoyment watching the University thrive and prosper.


This volume contains contributions that are interdisciplinary and inter- national. The editors believe this is an especially timely and promising enterprise, for both sources of diversity are needed for improving our abilities to identify the young child at risk and to prevent disability. In terms of diSciplines, the volume brings together papers by health care providers (such as pediatricians and public health nurses) as well as educators and psychologists. Each of these groups works in dissimilar settings and faces dissimilar problems: Health care providers seek sim- ple identification procedures for use in busy primary care settings; psy- chologists emphasize well-constructed research designs; and educators reflect the need for early identification and education. Each of these spe- cialist groups has something to offer the other, but too often each tends to limit its publications and readings to its own discipline, thus failing to capitalize on a wider scope. of knowledge and practice. We hope that this selection of papers will allow all readers addressing the early iden- tification of children at risk to generate a more integrated interdiscipli- nary perspective. We also hope this volume reflects the sense of excitement that we feel from a sharing of international perspectives. There is no single ap- proach to the early identification of children at risk that is universally applicable to all countries. In addition, approaches within each country vary because of availability of financial and human resources and dif- fering expectations of local communities.


Background Surgical care is an important burden in healthcare, and the complications and harm related to surgery are of special concern. Clinical practice guidelines in perioperative care should provide the opportunity to minimise these risks and improve surgical outcomes, but their quality has not yet been evaluated systematically. Objective To evaluate the quality of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for the prevention of perioperative adverse events. Materials and methods A systematic search of scientific literature published between 1990 and 2008 was undertaken to identify and select CPGs related to the treatment of surgical patients, particularly those seeking to prevent surgical adverse events. The authors searched the main guideline databases and guideline developer websites, and completed the search in MEDLINE. Three independent reviewers assessed the eligible guidelines using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) instrument. Their degree of agreement was evaluated with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Results Twenty-two CPGs were chosen for evaluation from a total of 6181 references. The overall agreement among reviewers was moderate (ICC: 0.68; 95% CI 0.46 to 0.84). The scores for each of the AGREE domains were: scope and purpose 80.9% (range: 40.7–100%); stakeholder involvement 51.3% (range: 8.3–88.8%); rigour of development 61.2% (range: 26.9–96.8%); clarity and presentation 69.7% (range: 33.3–94.4%); applicability 42.5% (range: 7.4–92.5%); and editorial independence 57% (range: 27.7–100%). Most of the appraised guidelines could be recommended (n=10) or recommended with provisos (n=10) for use in clinical practice. Guidelines developed by research agencies or guideline developers were of a higher quality than those developed by scientific societies. The authors did not detect any improvement over time in guideline quality. Conclusions The quality of guidelines for perioperative care is moderate. Measures should be taken to guarantee that CPGs are based on the best available evidence and rigorously developed and reported. Greater efforts are needed to provide high-quality guidelines that serve as a useful and reliable tool for clinical decision-making in this field.


Large-scale serological testing in the population is essential to determine the true extent of the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Serological tests measure antibody responses against pathogens and use predefined cutoff levels that dichotomize the quantitative test measures into sero-positives and negatives and use this as a proxy for past infection. With the imperfect assays that are currently available to test for past SARS-CoV-2 infection, the fraction of seropositive individuals in serosurveys is a biased estimator of the cumulative incidence and is usually corrected to account for the sensitivity and specificity. Here we use an inference method—referred to as mixture-model approach—for the estimation of the cumulative incidence that does not require to define cutoffs by integrating the quantitative test measures directly into the statistical inference procedure. We confirm that the mixture model outperforms the methods based on cutoffs, leading to less bias and error in estimates of the cumulative incidence. We illustrate how the mixture model can be used to optimize the design of serosurveys with imperfect serological tests. We also provide guidance on the number of control and case sera that are required to quantify the test's ambiguity sufficiently to enable the reliable estimation of the cumulative incidence. Lastly, we show how this approach can be used to estimate the cumulative incidence of classes of infections with an unknown distribution of quantitative test measures. This is a very promising application of the mixture-model approach that could identify the elusive fraction of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections. An R-package implementing the inference methods used in this paper is provided. Our study advocates using serological tests without cutoffs, especially if they are used to determine parameters characterizing populations rather than individuals. This approach circumvents some of the shortcomings of cutoff-based methods at exactly the low cumulative incidence levels and test accuracies that we are currently facing in SARS-CoV-2 serosurveys.


This work presents a low-complexity IR-UWB chipset which achieves synchronization and demodulation at the receiver relying only on a ring oscillator clock. The modulation scheme used, synchronized-OOK (S-OOK), permits low power timing acquisition and data reception with a static CMOS digital synchronizer and demodulator counting 61 logic elements. The receiver consists of a modified energy detector (ED) that allows to asynchronously receive UWB pulses in presence of narrowband interference (NBI) with power levels up to -5 and -16 dBm for 5.4 and 2.4 GHz continuous wave interfering signals respectively. The sensitivity is -60/ -66 dBm with an overall energy dissipation of 2.9/3.9 nJ/bit for a 1 Mbps S-OOK PRBS data stream and a 100% power duty cycle. The complete demodulation and synchronization digital back-end consumes only 0.2 mW (including on-chip output buffers) during normal operation. The IR-UWB transmitter is based on a gated LC oscillator and achieves pulse durations of ~2 ns for bandwidths of 500 MHz. It consumes 249 pJ/bit energy per bit at 1 Mbps OOK.


Kennedy's Disease (KD) Bulbar and spinal muscular atrophy (BSMA) is an adult onset, X-linked, recessive disorder caused by expansion of a polymorphic CAG tandem repeat. Because Kennedy's clinical symptoms overlap with some other neuromuscular disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or spinal muscular atrophies, KD sometimes is misdiagnosed or left unnoticed. Here we describe a case of Kennedy's disease confirmed by genetic testing who had been diagnosed and treated with ALS for three years. We describe a 56-year-old man presented with progressive onset of lower limbs muscular atrophy, weakness, and fasciculations since five years ago. He also complained of instability and fatigue when walking. Since three years ago, he had difficulty in swallowing and talking. He denied any sensory symptoms and sphincter disturbances. On examination at disease beginning he had normal mental status, bilateral facial palsy, tongue atrophy and fasciculation. The patient had lower limb muscle atrophy with mild weakness. The deep tendon reflexes all were depressed and the plantar responses were abolished. There were no sensory and cerebellar signs. Neuroimaging didn't show any significant pathology. Electrodiagnostic examination (EDX) revealed neurogenic pattern with low compound muscle action potentials (CMAP) and acute and chronic denervation pattern in tested muscles, so the patient diagnosed with ALS and treatment started with Riluzole, six months ago we visited him again with new onset sensory symptoms of face and limb parenthesis. Sensory examination revealed mild impairment of pinprick and thermal senses at limbs although senses of vibration and joint position were normal. He had also perioral and facial fasciculations. Since patient's signs and symptoms progression was gradual with developing of sensory findings we questioned the initial diagnosis and reevaluate it later on, EDX study showed decreased lower extremities CMAP with absent F-wave and H-reflects. All sensory parameters were near absent. Genetic studies revealed an increased CAG repeat number (50 normal up to 34), confirming the diagnosis of Kennedy disease. KD is the most common disease which is confused with ALS and recognition of KD is important because its prognosis, natural history, family testing, and management is different from ALS so it is necessary to rule out KD in suspected male cases of ALS. Keywords: Amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Kennedy's Disease (KD)


Accurate prediction of petroleum reservoir performance requires reliable models of the often complex reservoir heterogeneity. Geostatistical simulation techniques generate multiple realizations of the reservoir model, all equally likely to be drawn. Traditional to geostatistics, geological continuity is represented through the variogram. The variogram is limited in describing complex geological structures as it measures correlation between rock properties at two locations only: it is a two-point statistic. Reservoir analogs such as outcrops can serve as training images depicting the interpreted geological structure. Due to scarcity of well data, the variogram models are often borrowed from such training sets. However, the same training images could be utilized to extract more complex information in the form of multiple-point statistics measuring the joint dependency between multiple locations. This paper compares a traditional variogram-based geostatistical model vs. a novel geostatistical method utilizing multiplepoint statistics borrowed from training images. The comparison is made on the basis of flow performance for a typical North Sea reservoir. To obtain such comparison a ''true'' reference reservoir is generated using object-based simulation that depicts the complex intertwining of fluvial channels. Next, a different but similar reservoir is generated, termed the ''training reservoir.'' The latter is used to extract the necessary structural information, be it variograms or multiple-point statistics, to build multiple geostatistical models of the true reservoir conditioned to sparse well data. A waterflood flow scenario with an inverted five-spot pattern is simulated using ECLIPSE on the true reference and the various geostatistical models. Water breakthrough characteristics and water saturation distributions are used for comparison.


The authors propose the idea of associating and presenting metadata (attribute information) of digital archive objects in a virtual space. In the presentation using a virtual space, we introduce two methods. One is called InfoLOD, which dynamically associates and controls metadata (attribute information) with archive objects (2D/3D images) in the 3D space. We propose to control the level of detail (LOD) of attribute information based on orientation and distance. We extend this idea to control the LOD of hierarchically-described metadata (such as XML data) based on distance, orientation, and differentiation. LOD control based on differentiation compares the hierarchical data of spatial objects visible from one's viewpoint in 3D space, and presents the dissimilarities in the objects having similar data. The other method is called passive viewing, and it realizes users to watch and listen automatic presentation of 3D objects and their metadata. Some of our implementations are shown to illustrate our ideas.


Patent application numbers grow exponentially in many industries, a phenomenon that has been linked to high fragmentation of patent ownership. Contradicting these findings and theoretical arguments, we show that such fragmentation is not a precondition for sudden and strong increases in patenting. We describe and analyze a patent portfolio race in an industry with highly concentrated patent ownership, namely the newspaper printing machines oligopoly. Triangulating data from patent analysis, interviews, and document research, we find that patent strategy change by one player triggered a patent portfolio race with its main competitor. Implications for managers are that increasing patent output may yield temporary advantages but, as in a price war, implies the risk of a prisoner's dilemma-type outcome with potentially severe implications for effectiveness and efficiency of the innovation process.


Projected changes in climate are expected to shift the ranges of many tree species poleward and to higher elevations. Here, we examine past changes in forest composition in Pacific Canada using a paleoecological approach and investigate the role of past changes in climate and differences in species traits in changing forest compositions. We present a new pollen record from a mid-elevation fen on central Vancouver Island, British Columbia that shows (1) Pinus contorta-dominated communities starting 14,000 cal yr BP, (2) an abrupt transition to Pseudotsuga menziesii and Tsuga heterophylla forests by 10,600 cal yr BP, and (3) a gradual transition to Tsuga heterophylla-dominated forests in the mid-Holocene. We combine this mid-elevation record with nearby pollen records along a 1,400-m elevation gradient to assess sorting of dominant woody plant taxa and their life history and stress tolerance traits over the last 14,000 years. Multivariate time series confirm elevational sorting of woody plant taxa through time with the modern elevational zonation of tree taxa established by 6,000 cal yr BP. Some taxa have consistently occupied low and middle elevations (P. menziesii, Alnus rubra) or high elevations (Tsuga mertensiana), whereas other taxa (P. contorta, T. heterophylla) have occurred at a wider range of elevations. Three-table statistical techniques reveal significant relationships among forest composition, independent paleoclimate records, and species traits. Tree species with similar traits tend to be most abundant at similar times and those that are functionally dissimilar are separated in time. For example, species with "fast" life history strategies (e.g., P. contorta, Alnus viridis) are most abundant in late-glacial plant communities, while those with "slow" life history strategies (e.g., T. heterophylla, T. mertensiana) are most abundant in mid-late Holocene forests. This research highlights that woody plant taxa and their functional traits are sorted on long timescales in association with environmental change. Turnover in forest composition is driven primarily by changes in climate, which acts as a filter on species traits to direct changes in forest dynamics.


In this study, control characteristics and energy performance with flow rate control methods were reviewed with the simulation. The heating system is classified such as fan coil unit and HVAC system currently used in buildings with valve control and pump inverter control. The simulation analysis program is made by TRNSYS ver. 15 with the actual data. As a result of this study, the central heating system with pump inverter control decreases electricity energy and reduces gas consumption. Inverter control method shows better performance in comparison with valve control one for energy saving.


The Sustainable Engineering and International Development course was first offered to engineering majors at the Iowa State University (ISU) in 2005. The course is focused on describing, discussing and comparing the key concepts of sustainability, sustainable development and sustainable engineering. In 2005, sustainability was not a major part of the engineering curricula and students had little to no knowledge about these concepts. Nine years later, sustainability has become an integral part of our daily lives. In this study, we wanted to understand student perceptions, knowledge, and understanding of sustainability, sustainable development and its implementation across various engineering systems. The assessment techniques used for the study were a pre-test and a survey at the start and end of the semester, respectively. Survey results indicated that students' ranking on usefulness of the course modules varied over the years mainly due to different engineering majors of the students in the class with diverse learning styles and pre-existing knowledge. The results of the pre-test indicated that students have knowledge about basic sustainability concepts, thus the difficulty level of the pretest was low. In the near future, focus group discussions along with the survey will be conducted to better understand student perceptions on the effectiveness of the teaching methods and overall course materials. In addition, a post-test will be conducted for the questions set developed with input from experts in specific subject areas.


Description Strong magnon-phonon coupling may help develop superfast optical drives Magnetic materials are central to information storage devices, with ongoing research seeking to develop faster and more energy-efficient systems. The individual bits of data, written as 1's and 0's, can be stored as different orientations of magnetic moments. Conventionally, an electromagnetic head is used to flip these bits between 1 and 0, and the read and write speeds using this method are currently limited to gigahertz frequencies. A substantial amount of energy is used to drive electric currents that generate the magnetic fields. Instead of manipulating magnetic moments with slow or static magnetic fields, an intriguing alternative involves coupling light from a laser to their quantum mechanical states. On page 1608 of this issue, Mashkovich et al. (1) report the coupling of light, magnetism, and the crystal structure of a material, which opens new possibilities for controlling the magnetic state of materials on very short time scales.


Guides for courses that relate to the Old and New Testaments.
Also, general information that will aid in the understanding and reflection of the Bible.


Adenoviruses (AdVs) are diverse pathogens of humans and animals, with several dozen bat AdVs already identified. Considering that over 100 human AdVs are known, and the huge diversity of bat species, many bat AdVs likely remain undiscovered. To learn more about AdV prevalence, diversity and evolution, we sampled and tested bats in Cameroon using several PCR assays for viral and host DNA. AdV DNA was detected in 14 % of the 671 sampled animals belonging to 37 different bat species. There was a correlation between species roosting in larger groups and AdV DNA detection. The detected AdV DNA belonged to between 28 and 44 different, mostly previously unknown, mastadenovirus species. The novel isolates are phylogenetically diverse and while some cluster with known viruses, others appear to form divergent new clusters. The phylogenetic tree of novel and previously known bat AdVs does not mirror that of the various host species, but does contain structures consistent with a degree of virus–host co-evolution. Given that closely related isolates were found in different host species, it seems likely that at least some bat AdVs have jumped species barriers, probably in the more recent past; however, the tree is also consistent with such events having taken place throughout bat AdV evolution. AdV diversity was highest in bat species roosting in large groups. The study significantly increased the diversity of AdVs known to be harboured by bats, and suggests that host behaviours, such as roosting size, may be what limits some AdVs to one species rather than an inability of AdVs to infect other related hosts.


&NA; In opioid substitution treatment, nursing builds and provides the primary and main therapeutic relationship and care with patients. Despite its essential contribution to the treatment of drug‐dependent patients, nursing in substitution treatment tends to be overlooked. Also, little is known about their work in heroin substitution in particular. The aim of this article is to describe the nursing actions provided in the care of patients in the PEPSA (experimental drug prescription program in Andalusia, Spain) trial, mainly concerned with patients receiving intravenous diacetylmorphine. The study was conducted in the Centre for diacetylmorphine prescription within the context of a heroin clinical trial, Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital, Granada, Spain. The nursing team was responsible for overall care for the patient, focusing on his/her needs. Care provided to each patient was individualized, with verbal communication being the main tool to facilitate a two‐way exchange of information between the patient and the nurse providing care. The protocol for nursing performance comprised the administration and supervision of the treatment and other actions aimed at reducing harm, encouraging healthy habits, monitoring the patient and counseling. The general process included: admission of the patient; assessment of his/her general health status; delivery of the treatment; and assessment of the patient's response receiving injected diacetylmorphine. The care of patients who are addicted to drugs provided calls for a relationship that ensure seamless care. This relationship should be aimed at fostering and maintaining therapeutic communication. This relationship involves nurses providing empathy, active listening, assertiveness, acceptance, respect, offering consistent information and avoiding a judgmental approach. In this trial, the nurses attempted to motivate change, detecting and providing positive reinforcement of any changes made, while always respecting the patient's choices. The fundamental aim was harm reduction, which involves reducing any adverse consequences arising from the use of drugs, without necessarily reducing the use of drugs.


This paper presents a novel framework, MGNER, for Multi-Grained Named Entity Recognition where multiple entities or entity mentions in a sentence could be nonoverlapping or totally nested. Different from traditional approaches regarding NER as a sequential labeling task and annotate entities consecutively, MGNER detects and recognizes entities on multiple granularities: it is able to recognize named entities without explicitly assuming non-overlapping or totally nested structures. MGNER consists of a Detector that examines all possible word segments and a Classifier that categorizes entities. In addition, contextual information and a self-attention mechanism are utilized throughout the framework to improve the NER performance. Experimental results show that MGNER outperforms current state-of-the-art baselines up to 4.4% in terms of the F1 score among nested/non-overlapping NER tasks.