Repeated observation based on large permanent monitoring plots is a key method for directly understanding forest regeneration dynamics. Karst forests grow slowly in adverse habitats and possess a special regeneration mode. However, no data can support these properties because no repeated observations have been performed. The mortality, recruitment, and net change in live woody biomass (NPPlw) of a karst evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest in Central Guizhou Province, Southwestern China, were studied on the basis of a short-term continuous monitoring (3 years) of a 2 ha plot. The species richness of individuals with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 1 cm decreased from 66 to 58 during the study period. Eight species disappeared, and no new species appeared. The individual number declined from 16,821 to 15,003 because most species indicated more deaths than recruitments. Trees presented the lowest mortality rate, and shrubs presented the highest recruitment rate among the species. Individual death number decreased with the increase in DBH classes. The estimated aboveground NPPlw was 8.41 t ha−1 year−1. The survivors, recruitments, and deaths contributed 10.88, 0.11, and −2.58 t ha−1 year−1, respectively. Trees (8.37 t ha−1 year−1), rather than shrubs (0.04 t ha−1 year−1) and lianas (−0.004 t ha−1 year−1), were the major contributors. The karst forest presented higher mortality and lower NPPlw than nonkarst forests in subtropical China and in the world.


The desalination is an important technological process applied not only to obtain drinking water, but also for wastewater treatment from e.g. dyes, textile and mining industry. In this process, membrane processes such as reverse osmosis, pervaporation, electrodialysis and membrane distillation are quite commonly used. This work focuses on membrane distillation. The research was carried out in order to produce membranes absorbing solar radiation, to use this energy in the distillation process. Membranes were produced using the phase inversion method from polysulfone polymer at various proportions of ingredients to select the optimal blend composition. The fabricated membranes were investigated to assess wettability, maximum pore size and execute preliminary tests of the membrane distillation process.


The aim of this master thesis is to investigate the notion of passion within an entrepreneurial context. Data for this research were obtained through interviews and conversations with entrepreneurs as well as persons who are in a direct relationship with the entrepreneurs. Notably, passion is a multi-faceted conceptualization affecting entrepreneurs throughout their entrepreneurial journey. In order to prevent initial passion from turning into consuming obsession, entrepreneurs are required to nurture and develop their respective passions. This represents a complex undertaking. At the heart of this paper there is a thorough discussion about the three elements of 'the self', 'the business' and 'the people'. The research concludes that it remains inevitable for entrepreneurs to balance their passions between the three aforementioned elements if they want to keep it continuously alive as an enduring source of satisfaction, well-being and happiness.


Climate change is an often-cited control on geomorphic processes in the arid southwestern United States, but links to direct climatic factors and vegetation change remain under debate. Hillslopes at a site in the eastern Mojave Desert in southern Nevada are mantled by 0–1.5 m of colluvial deposits. Accumulation of weathered bedrock combined with eolian inputs of fine sand and silt led to the formation of well-developed soil profiles. Surface sediments from both sources were incorporated into colluvium, allowing both processes to be dated with optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). OSL ages indicate a period of increased colluviation in the Late Pleistocene facilitated by enhanced bedrock weathering and dust deposition. Hillslope aspect strongly controls predominant soil environments and associated vegetation. Well-developed soils with dense grass cover extensively mantle the mesic north-aspect hillslopes, while more xeric south-aspect hillslopes are dominated by thin colluvium with minimal soil development, extensive bedrock exposure, and desertscrub vegetation. Remnants of older colluvium with moderately developed soils on south aspects, however, indicate they were once more extensively mantled by thicker colluvial deposits. The transition to drier conditions in the Holocene diminished vegetation cover on more xeric south aspects, triggering widespread erosion, whereas the more mesic north aspects retained denser grass cover that minimized erosion. The transition to drier conditions in the Holocene altered the vegetation; however, persistent perennial grass cover minimized erosion into the middle Holocene. Increasing aridity during the middle Holocene significantly reduced grass cover on more xeric south aspects, triggering erosion and alluvial deposition. OSL dates of dust incorporated into terrace sediments indicate late Middle Holocene aggradation and soil development in the Late Holocene. In contrast, maintenance of substantial perennial grass cover on mesic north aspects minimized erosion from those hillslopes throughout the Holocene.


We construct new topological theories related to sigma models whose target space is a seven-dimensional manifold of G2 holonomy. We define a new type of topological twist and identify the BRST operator and the physical states. Unlike the more familiar six-dimensional case, our topological model is defined in terms of conformal blocks and not in terms of local operators of the original theory. We also present evidence that one can extend this definition to all genera and construct a seven-dimensional topological string theory. We compute genus zero correlation functions and relate these to Hitchin's functional for three-forms in seven dimensions. Along the way we develop the analogue of special geometry for G2 manifolds. When the seven-dimensional topological twist is applied to the product of a Calabi–Yau manifold and a circle, the result is an interesting combination of the six-dimensional A and B models.


The literature concerning the reasons for and the effects of a restriction of the forage intake of dairy cows (grazed herbage in summer, grass silage in winter), and the effects of providing additional conserved forage as a buffer feed, is reviewed. 2) In a 24 week experiment with grazing dairy cows the effects of stocking rate and the provision of hay as a buffer feed were examined. Herbage intake was restricted by stocking cows at a higher rate and during inclement weather. Offering hay increased total DM intake and milk yield but had no effect on milk composition. Details of grazing behaviour (in particular grazing and ruminating times) were obtained at monthly intervals. 3) A second experiment examined the response to a buffer feed of silage during the early part of the grazing season. Silage was offered either after morning milking, or indoors overnight at a restricted level or ad libitum. Offering silage had no effect on total DM intake, slightly reduced milk yield but increased milk fat content. The behaviour of the cows was recorded both indoors and at pasture and showed that grazing times were depressed by offering silage. 4) A similar experiment examined the response to a buffer feed of silage in the late grazing season. Offering silage increased total DM intakes which increased animal production, particularly when silage was offered overnight ad libitum. Similar grazing behaviour studies to the previous experiment were carried out. 5) In a winter feeding regime an initial changeover experiment with three week periods examined the effects of restricting the silage ration and of offering hay as a buffer feed. Restricting silage intake primarily resulted in loss of live weight and offering hay increased total DM intake and milk yield. 6) A second changeover experiment, also with three week periods, examined the effects of a greater restriction of silage intake, and of offering straw or ammonia-treated straw as a buffer feed. Restricting silage intake resulted in loss of live weight and reduced milk production. The intakes of straw or ammonia-treated straw were too low to restore forage DM intakes and consequently were of little value in increasing animal production. 7) A final experiment in a winter-feeding regime examined the effects of a longer-term restriction of silage intake, and the provision of a nutritionally-formulated strawmix as a buffer feed. Restricting the silage ration resulted in loss of live weight compared to cows offered ad libitum silage. Provision of strawmix as a buffer feed to restricted silage restored forage DM intakes to ad libitum levels but did not prevent loss of live weight, although it was of some benefit in improving milk composition. 8) The effect of offering a buffer feed in reducing the daily variation in forage DM intakes and milk yields is also studied in these experiments. In addition, the differences between cows and heifers in their response to forage restrictions are examined, in particular the effect on ingestive behaviour. The effects of restricting forage intake and of offering buffer feeds on farm stocking rate are considered - farm stocking rate can be increased by restricting forage intake, and loss of milk production averted by the provision of a purchased buffer feed.


The Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to an abrupt halt of many Alzheimer's disease (AD) research studies at sites spanning the world. This is especially true for studies requiring in-person contact, such as studies collecting biofluids. Since COVID-19 is likely to remain a threat for an extended period, the resumption of fluid biomarker studies requires the development and implementation of procedures that minimize the risk of in-person visits to participants, staff, and individuals handling the biofluid samples. Some issues to consider include structuring the visit workflow to minimize contacts and promote social distancing; screening and/or testing participants and staff for COVID-19; wearing masks and performing hand hygiene; and precautions for handling, storing, and analyzing biofluids. AD fluid biomarker research remains a vitally important public health priority and resuming studies requires appropriate safety procedures to protect research participants and staff.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the effects of dry needling against trigger point (TrP) injections (wet needling) applied to TrPs associated with neck pain.

METHODS
Electronic databases were searched for randomized clinical trials where dry needling was compared to TrP injections (wet needling) applied to neck muscles and collected outcomes on pain or related-disability. Secondary outcomes consisted of pressure pain thresholds, cervical mobility, and psychological factors. The Cochrane risk of bias (RoB) tool, the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) score, and GRADE approach were used.

RESULTS
Six trials were included. TrP injection reduced pain intensity (MD -2.13, 95%CI -3.22 to -1.03) with a large effect size (SMD -1.46, 95%CI -2.27 to -0.65) as compared to dry needling. No differences between TrP injection and dry needling were found for pain-related disability (MD 0.9, 95%CI -3.09 to 4.89), pressure pain thresholds (MD 25.78kPa, 95%CI -6.43 to 57.99kPa), cervical lateral-flexion (MD 2.02° 95%CI -0.19° to 4.24°) or depression (SMD -0.22, 95%CI -0.85 to 0.41). The RoB was low, but the heterogenicity and imprecision of results downgraded the evidence level.

CONCLUSION
Low evidence suggests a superior effect of TrP injection (wet needling) for decreasing pain of cervical muscle TrPs at short-term as compared to dry needling. No significant effects on other outcomes (very low-quality evidence) were observed.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
Therapy, level 1a.

REGISTRATION NUMBER
OSF Registry - https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/3H6GS.


This is an index of Australian journalism and news media-related articles and books from 1992 onwards. The index is in two main parts: a listing by author, and a listing by subject matter in which an article may appear a number of times. Multi-author articles are listed by each author.


A new block-units method for rapid conformational calculation of large nucleic acid fragments has been developed. Atomic structure of polynucleotides has been approximated by the block-units structure. Each monomer of the polynucleotide consists of three one-center block units: phosphate, ribose, and nucleic base. Full conformational energy of the polynucleotide is separated into two parts. The first part is the energy of the short-range interactions between adjacent block units and is calculated on the basis of the potential energy surface model of the dinucleotide fragment pXp (where X = A, G, T, U, C). The second part is the energy of the middle- and long-range interactions between separated block units, and is calculated as a sum of the effective interaction energies between centers of the block units. The present block-units method is in agreement within the range of +/- 0.5 kcal/mol with the method of the atom-atom potentials, but the former is 30-100-fold faster. The block-units method is recommended for screening of the probable conformations of the large polynucleotide systems.


The rotary smelting furnace is a cast iron smelting furnace with the working principle of raw material rotated in a melting drum. The difficulty of this type of furnace is if the furnace wall is damaged, it will be very difficult to determine the appropriate conduction coefficient material as a replacement material. Numerical simulations are required to obtain the heat transfer information that occurs on the furnace wall. This analysis aims to (1) obtain the temperature distribution occurring in the furnace wall, and (2) obtain the heat transfer coefficient on the wall surface on the inside, center, and outside of the melting furnace. Calculation of numerical simulation in this research is assisted by using Ansys software. The theoretical basis of numerical heat transfer simulation analysis can be determined by using the conduction temperature equation in each node. The load conditions in this case are assumed as thermal loads. The result obtained temperature distribution on the inner wall is 1590 oC, middle 1470 oC, and outside 1104 oC.


High-performance thin-layer chromatography has been used to follow the synthesis of some quinoxalinone derivatives by biocatalysis in a one-pot reaction, as an alternative route to the poor Hinsberg reaction. The progress of the one-pot reactions can be followed by HPTLC without previous isolation of the different intermediates arising from them. Biocatalytic synthesis of quinoxalinone derivatives leads to an irreversible reaction which gives a single product of high purity and yields in excess of 90–95%.


The Support Vector Machine (SVM) has emerged in recent years as a popular approach to the classification of data. One problem that faces the user of an SVM is how to choose a kernel and the specific parameters for that kernel. Applications of an SVM therefore require a search for the optimum settings for a particular problem. This paper proposes a classification technique, which we call the Genetic Kernel SVM (GK SVM), that uses Genetic Programming to evolve a kernel for a SVM classifier. Results of initial experiments with the proposed technique are presented. These results are compared with those of a standard SVM classifier using the Polynomial or RBF kernel with various parameter settings.


Many spectral clustering algorithms have been proposed and successfully applied to image data analysis such as content based image retrieval, image annotation, and image indexing. Conventional spectral clustering algorithms usually involve a two-stage process: eigendecomposition of similarity matrix and clustering assignments from eigenvectors by k-means or spectral rotation. However, the final clustering assignments obtained by the two-stage process may deviate from the assignments by directly optimize the original objective function. Moreover, most of these methods usually have very high computational complexities. In this paper, we propose a new min-cut algorithm for image clustering, which scales linearly to the data size. In the new method, a self-balanced min-cut model is proposed in which the Exclusive Lasso is implicitly introduced as a balance regularizer in order to produce balanced partition. We propose an iterative algorithm to solve the new model, which has a time complexity of O(n) where n is the number of samples. Theoretical analysis reveals that the new method can simultaneously minimize the graph cut and balance the partition across all clusters. A series of experiments were conducted on both synthetic and benchmark data sets and the experimental results show the superior performance of the new method.


In this paper, a reliable design strategy, capable of optimally picking out the geometrical parameters of the 3-RRR planar parallel manipulators, is presented. The distribution charts for singular loci and usable workspace shape are obtained in the non-dimensional design space. Based on the singularity-free workspace and good force transition capacity, the optimum kinematic parameters are determined by means of the global conditioning index. An example shows that the strategy is useful for realizing the singularity-free workspace optimally.


Prolonged running is known to induce hemolysis. It has been suggested that hemolysis may lead to a significant loss of red blood cells; however, its actual impact on the erythrocyte pool is unknown. Here, we test the hypothesis that prolonged running with high hemolytic potential decreases total red blood cell volume (RCV). Hemolysis (n = 22) and RCV (n = 19) were quantified in ultra‐marathon runners before and after a 166‐km long mountain ultra‐endurance marathon (RUN) with 9500 m of altitude gain/loss. Assessment of total hemoglobin mass (Hbmass) and RCV was performed using a carbon monoxide rebreathing technique. RUN induced a marked acute‐phase response and promoted hemolysis, as shown by a decrease in serum haptoglobin (P < 0.05). Elevated serum erythropoietin concentration and reticulocyte count after RUN were indicative of erythropoietic stimulation. Following RUN, runners experienced hemodilution, mediated by a large plasma volume expansion and associated with a large increase in plasma aldosterone. However, neither Hbmass nor RCV were found to be altered after RUN. Our findings indicate that mechanical/physiological stress associated with RUN promotes hemolysis but this has no impact on total erythrocyte volume. We therefore suggest that exercise 'anemia' is entirely due to plasma volume expansion and not to a concomitant decrease in RCV.


In this paper we describe a project (IMPRESS) which utilised a machine learning tool for the validation of an air traffic control domain theory. During the project, novel techniques were devised for the automated revision of general clause form theories using training examples. This technique involves focusing in on the parts of a theory which involve ordinal sorts, and applying geometrical revision operators to repair faulty component parts. The method is illustrated with experimental results obtained during the project.


Richard I, the Lionheart, remains forever (and perhaps wrongly) the mythical king of England who preferred to wage war than to rule over his empire. The familiar epithet conveys all the principal features of his indomitable character: courage, valor, prowess, the pursuit of glory, the thirst for fame, generosity in war and peace, a sense of honor combined with a sort of haughty dignity made up of both arrogance and pride. In this book, Jean Flori examines both Richard's role as prince and king in history, and also analyses the different and sometimes controversial elements which, for the chroniclers of his day, helped to make Richard a true model of chivalry. Among the questions addressed are: What influences formed his character and determined his behavior, real or assumed? Why did the image of Richard as a king who was also a knight so quickly and so soon supplant all others, creating a quasi-definitive point of reference? Why did Richard deliberately, it would appear, choose to present himself in this chivalric guise and disseminate this image of himself by what we would today call a media campaign, using all the methods then at his disposal, limited perhaps but by no means ineffective? Last but not least, what is the historical and ideological significance of the choice and, even more, success of this image, which has been adopted by history and disseminated by legend, an image based on historical accounts and documents in which history and legend are sometimes inextricably interwoven? The first part of the book takes a straightforward chronological approach to Richard's life, from his birth in 1157, through conflict with his father, Henry II, and his brothers, to his coronation and his years of crusading and fighting the French; culminating in his death in battle in 1199. The second part analyses Richard's image in relation to medieval chivalry.


In this study, the authors analyse the impact of channel estimation error (CEE), feedback delay (FD), and co-channel interference (CCI) on the performance of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems deploying maximum ratio transmission (MRT). In particular, the authors derive closed-form expressions for the ergodic capacity and the symbol error rate (SER) as well as the outage probability (OP). In addition, to reveal the effect of CEE, FD and CCI on the MIMO-MRT system, the authors adopt more simplified and tractable formulas in terms of asymptotic expressions for the ergodic capacity, SER and OP. The analysis shows that the system performance is degraded considerably under imperfect transmission conditions such as CEE, FD and CCI. However, the authors can compensate part of this degradation by deploying MRT transmission with a large number of antennas at the transmitter and receiver. Finally, the selected examples exhibit consistency between analytical results and Monte Carlo simulations.


There is increasing interest by the public and by many providers in the enactment of a universal access plan for the more than 60 million Americans who are now without health insurance benefits at some time during each year. After discussing the heterogeneous characteristics of those such a plan would cover, the reasons that some key players are now supporters of a minimal benefit plan, and the funding options for such a proposal, it is concluded that there is growing support for a universal access plan to be enacted soon. The almost insurmountable issues of such a plan involve the determination of eligibility and the specific benefits to be provided, the cost and administration of the new coverage, and the predictable increase in the nation's expenditure for health care services. This article concludes with the opinion that the passage of a universal access plan is a necessary and incremental step that will provide additional time for the discussion of whether and, if so, when the United States will be prepared to implement the final steps toward a more single-payer, centrally controlled health care delivery system.


We propose a novel Bayesian nonparametric process prior for modeling a collection of random discrete distributions. This process is defined by including a suitable Beta regression framework within a generalized Dirichlet process to induce dependence among the discrete random distributions. This strategy allows for covariate dependent clustering of the observations. Some advantages of the proposed approach include wide applicability, ease of interpretation, and availability of efficient MCMC algorithms. The motivation for this work is the study of the impact of asparginage metabolism on lipid levels in a group of pediatric patients treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia.


The ancient Greeks subscribed to the thesis of the Unity of Virtue, according to which the possession of one virtue is closely related to the possession of all the others. Yet empirical observation seems to contradict this thesis at every turn. What could the Greeks have been thinking of? The paper offers an interpretation and a tentative defence of a qualified version of the thesis. It argues that, as the Greeks recognized, virtue essentially involves knowledge – specifically, evaluative knowledge of what matters. Furthermore, such knowledge is essentially holistic. Perfect and complete possession of one virtue thus requires the knowledge that is needed for the possession of every other virtue. The enterprise of trying to reconcile the normative view embodied in this conception of virtue with empirical observation also serves as a case study for the field of moral psychology in which empirical and normative claims are often deeply and confusingly intertwined.1


The narrative of Danish director Nicolo Donato's 2009 film, Brotherhood, demonstrates how both the coming out and outing of a gay Neo-Nazi creates dramatic moments of transformation within the film's storyline. As a result, the audience has to confront the representation of unstable and asymmetrical acts of sexual, social, and political identification. These moments of identification involve acts of violence and betrayal that lead to the creation of a fluid sexual identity on screen. This article examines the choices of the characters within the film and the homosocial world that those characters purposely construct. In order to carry out that examination, key aspects of contemporary Danish political culture are assessed with a view to better understand the ascendency of the far right, anti-migration rhetoric, and the centrality of that political culture within the stories that are told in Brotherhood. The collisions within the Neo-Nazi group over what defines hyper-masculinity, family, violence against migrants, and same-sex desire are best observed through an interdisciplinary analysis that combines film, queer, and sociological research. In the film, a violent, hyper-masculine Neo-Nazi authors a coming-out moment that is both unique and tragic. This assessment of the collisions between homosociality and homoeroticism in the lives of these men creates space for the important and productive analytical deconstruction of hyper-masculinity in a fictionalized Danish far-right political movement.


An analysis of seismic resistance of the Gran˛ arevo concrete dam Some results obtained by calculating stability and safety of the Gran˛ arevo concrete arch dam, as conducted at the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Podgorica, are presented. Two numerical models are used in the analysis: one for the linear and the other for the non-linear behaviour of materials. Both models take into account the interaction between the dam body and its surroundings (rock mass and water in the storage reservoir). This analysis was conducted in order to determine the actual behaviour of the dam when subjected to static and dynamic actions.


Here, we examine grain boundaries (GBs) with respect to non-GB regions (grain surfaces (GSs) and grain interiors (GIs)) in high-quality micrometer-sized perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 (or MAPbI3) thin films using high-resolution confocal fluorescence-lifetime imaging microscopy in conjunction with kinetic modeling of charge-transport and recombination processes. We show that, contrary to previous studies, GBs in our perovskite MAPbI3 thin films do not lead to increased recombination but that recombination in these films happens primarily in the non-GB regions (i.e., GSs or GIs). We also find that GBs in these films are not transparent to photogenerated carriers, which is likely associated with a potential barrier at GBs. Even though GBs generally display lower luminescence intensities than GSs/GIs, the lifetimes at GBs are no worse than those at GSs/GIs, further suggesting that GBs do not dominate non-radiative recombination in MAPbI3 thin films.


Service quality is the great differentiator of the 1990s. It means understanding and consistently meeting customer requirements. A lack of complaints is a poor indicator of customer satisfaction. Reliability is the most important factor affecting your customers' perception of quality. This article outlines a do-it-yourself process for creating and enhancing a quality culture in a clinical laboratory. This process requires understanding the nature and importance of quality; adopting quality goals and performance measurements; asking for customer input; rewarding satisfactory performance; creating self-managed teams that aim for continuous improvement; and encouraging unrelenting service directed at delighting customers. In a competitive marketplace, quality is the great differentiator that pays impressive dividends.


We consider convex nonsmooth optimization problems whose objective function is known through a (fine) oracle together with some additional (cheap but poor) information – formalized as a second coarse oracle wih uncontrolled inexactness. It is the case when the objective function is itself the output of an optimization solver, using a branch-and-bound procedure, or decomposing the problem into parallel subproblems. Minimizing such objective function can be done by any bundle algorithm using only the (fine) oracle. In this paper, we propose a general scheme to incorporate the available coarse information into bundle-type methods in view of generating better iterates and then accelerating the algorithms. We study two pratical versions of the scheme: a (simple) inexact Kelley method, and a (sophisticated) level bundle method. We prove that these methods are convergent, and we present numerical illustrations showing they speed up resolution.


Colloidal self-assembly is an efficient method to obtain ordered three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures. However, the self-assembled nature of colloidal crystals invites the possibility for the formation of intrinsic crystal defects, such as point defects, line defects, and stacking faults, which have profound impacts on the macroscopic properties of materials. The intentional introduction and control of crystal defects are of considerable significance in material science, optical science and nanotechnology. The formation energy and interactions of crystal defects have been studied experimentally and numerically. However, current studies are mainly restricted to two-dimensional crystals and an understanding of the dynamics of crystal defects during colloidal self-assembly is still lacking. In this research work, we investigate the defects formation in 3D colloidal crystals through discrete element method (DEM) based simulation of colloidal self-assembly process. Using an in-house developed simulation platform, we demonstrate ordered 3D self-assembled colloidal structures with different type of crystal defects as a consequence of the variations of suspension confinement and fluid flow. The crystal defects and the formation mechanism of different defects are theoretically studied and compared through numerical simulation.


Demand for renewable energy resources to reduce greenhouse gases for EU targets,
has led to a recent rapid development of Offshore Wind Farms (OWF). As
OWFs become larger and multiple sites are developed, it becomes increasingly
important to determine the wind farms impact on the coastal environment for
design and planning. It is well established that the wind turbine monopiles at
OWFs modify the flow in the localised area of the structure, to create a complex
3D flow structure, which ultimately results in scour hole formation.
This present research aims to determine the impact of an OWF at both the
localised and coastal scale through large scale modelling with the structures represented
as islands in the mesh. This method is thought to be an improvement
on the typical method of representing the structures as a resistance term in the
grid, as it is able to capture some of the complex flow at the structure. The
TELEMAC modelling package is used, with the hydrodynamics determined by
the TELEMAC-3D module, the waves by the TOMAWAC module, and sediment
transport by the SISYPHE module. Validation of the model at the structure
showed good agreement with empirical data in the near field of the structure.
Tidal flows are well predicted across the water depth, whilst scour formation is
well predicted in front of the pile, there are areas of accretion in the wake which
are unexpected.
The large scale impact of the wind farm on coastal processes was assessed and
compared over two wind farm sites, representing different coastal environments.
The Burbo Bank wind farm is situated in a coastal bay, whereas Scroby Sands
OWF is an open coast site. In both cases the wind farm was seen to block the flow
and influence the large scale coastal sediment pathways. At Burbo Bank the wind
farm enabled stirring of sediment into suspension, and influenced the sediment
transport over the south east corner of Liverpool Bay. The Scroby Sands wind
farm was found to reduce the sediment flux magnitude in the vicinity of the array.
The long term morphological impact is also determined for the Burbo Bank
OWF over a year period, with a morphological acceleration factor. Two methods
are compared for generation of a set of representative waves, based on frequency
of occurrence and wave energy. Both methods indicate that over a year period the
wind farm has a large influence on sediment transport pathways, and increases
sediment flux across the Great Burbo Flats. Maximum scour depth predictions
at the structures showed good agreement with empirical formula. The pattern
of scour for the representative waves based on frequency of occurrence, fits well
with measured scour at the wind farm array.


Abstract Quartzites tend to be compositionally homogeneous, and because of this, deformation related fabric elements (foliations and lineations) are poorly developed in them. This makes structural analysis of deformed quartzites challenging. The measurement of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) is useful for recognizing structural imprints in rocks that lack mesoscopic fabrics and the present study is carried out with an aim to demonstrate the robustness of AMS in analysing such deformation imprints in quartzites. AMS data of samples from folded quartzites located in an approximately 10 km2 area around Galudih (eastern India) are presented. Although on a regional scale, superposed deformation and ductile shearing are known from the area, the investigated quartzites do not preserve mesoscopic evidence of these large-scale features and have developed folds that plunge gently towards the SE with a vertical NW–SE-striking axial plane. The magnetic foliation recorded from AMS analysis is parallel to the axial plane, while the orientation of the magnetic lineation varies from SE through vertical to NW. This is similar to the large-scale fold axis variations recorded in various regional domains mapped over an area of about 200 km2. It is concluded that although the imprint of regional superposed deformation is not obvious on the mesoscopic scale in the quartzites around Galudih, this imprint can be detected from the magnetic fabric. The present study thus highlights the usefulness of AMS in analysing superposed folds in quartzites.


When developing new products, it is important to understand customer perception towards consumer products. It is because the success of new products is heavily dependent on the associated customer satisfaction level. If customers are satisfied with a new product, the chance of the product being successful in marketplaces would be higher. Various approaches have been attempted to model the relationship between customer satisfaction and design attributes of products. In this paper, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) based ANFIS approach to modeling customer satisfaction is proposed for improving the modeling accuracy. In the approach, PSO is employed to determine the parameters of an ANFIS from which better customer satisfaction models in terms of modeling accuracy can be generated. A notebook computer design is used as an example to illustrate the approach. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, modeling results based on the proposed approach are compared with those based on the fuzzy regression (FR), ANFIS and genetic algorithm (GA)-based ANFIS approaches. The comparisons indicate that the proposed approach can effectively generate customer satisfaction models and that their modeling results outperform those based on the other three methods in terms of mean absolute errors and variance of errors. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Backdoor attacks (BAs) are an emerging threat to deep neural network classifiers. A victim classifier will predict to an attacker-desired target class whenever a test sample is embedded with the same backdoor pattern (BP) that was used to poison the classifier's training set. Detecting whether a classifier is backdoor attacked is not easy in practice, especially when the defender is, e.g., a downstream user without access to the classifier's training set. This challenge is addressed here by a reverse-engineering defense (RED), which has been shown to yield state-of-the-art performance in several domains. However, existing REDs are not applicable when there are only {\it two classes} or when {\it multiple attacks} are present. These scenarios are first studied in the current paper, under the practical constraints that the defender neither has access to the classifier's training set nor to supervision from clean reference classifiers trained for the same domain. We propose a detection framework based on BP reverse-engineering and a novel {\it expected transferability} (ET) statistic. We show that our ET statistic is effective {\it using the same detection threshold}, irrespective of the classification domain, the attack configuration, and the BP reverse-engineering algorithm that is used. The excellent performance of our method is demonstrated on six benchmark datasets. Notably, our detection framework is also applicable to multi-class scenarios with multiple attacks. Code is available at https://github.com/zhenxianglance/2ClassBADetection.


In an initial study with 120 patients with reactive mood and associated atypical symptoms, phenelzine sulfate was superior to imipramine hydrochloride and placebo. Since their response to phenelzine appears to be unique, this suggests that atypical depression may be a distinct subgroup of unipolar depressive illness. Unexpectedly, the benefit of antidepressants was limited to patients who also had spontaneous panic attacks. To help establish the validity of this syndrome, a new sample of 90 atypical depressives was studied. The clinical and demographic characteristics of the original and replication sample were virtually identical at baseline. In addition, the treatment response with either placebo, imipramine, or phenelzine was also indistinguishable in the two patient groups. The outcome in the replication study supports the hypothesis that this may be a distinct unipolar depressive subgroup. In the replication sample, a history of panic attacks did not appear to be a relevant predictor. We discuss the explanations for this discrepancy in the two patient samples.


High-density lipoprotein (HDL) is shown by ligand blotting to bind membrane-associated polypeptides with sizes of 60, 100 and 210 kDa. Binding was concentration-dependent and competed by excess unlabelled HDL. All the major apolipoproteins of HDL, apoA-I, apoA-II and apoA-IV, bound independently. The 100 kDa and 210 kDa HDL-binding activities were purified from membranes of Hep3B tumour cells by ion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration. The binding activities at 100 kDa and 210 kDa co-purified. After treatment with disulphide-reducing reagent, the 210 kDa band was no longer present and an increase was observed in the amount and binding ability of the 100 kDa polypeptide. The 100 kDa binding protein labelled at the cell surface with 125I could be immunoprecipitated after cross-linking to cell-surface-bound HDL. It is proposed that this HDL-binding activity, a putative cell-surface receptor for HDL, exists totally or in part as a high-molecular-mass complex composed of 100 kDa subunits.


Because little is known about why and how nurse educators teach for social change, this research breaks new ground. A review of the general literature on teaching for social change revealed that few educators have attempted to analyse and understand it in relation to personal narrative inquiry. However, critical feminist educators provide a useful framework for theorising about teaching for change that addresses issues of hegemony, agency, praxis, individual voice, difference, justice and equity.
Six women Pakeha/Tauiwi nurse educators from throughout New Zealand volunteered to participate in this research and share their lived experiences of teaching for social change. In-depth conversations over two years unfolded new and rich material about how and why these six women continue to teach the evaded subjects, like mental health, women's health, community development and cultural safety. All teach in counter-hegemonic ways, opening students' eyes to the unseen and unspoken.
Among the significant things to emerge during the research was the metaphorical construct of shape-shifting as an active process in teaching for social change. It revealed the connectedness and integrity between life as lived and the moral imperative that motivates the participants to teach for difference. Shape-shifting was also reflected in other key findings of the study. As change agents, the participants have had significant shape-shifting experiences in their lives; they live and work as shape-shifters within complex social and political structures and processes to achieve social justice; and, they deal with areas of health practice where clients are socially and politically displaced.
The research also generated new methods for gathering life-stories and new processes for analysis and interpretation of life-stories. It is hoped that this research will open pathways for other nurse educators to become shape-shifters teaching for social change.


Background: Lead is a toxic metal which is widely distributed in the environment and can be accumulated in the many organs such as gastrointestinal system. Several clinical signs suggest lead poisoning include anemia, abdominal pain, constipation and/or neurologic signs. We report a case series of patients with abdominal pain due to lead contaminated opium who underwent diagnostic work up including plain abdominal radiograph and/or CT scan. Methods: We hereby describe 119 consecutive patients hospitalized in our emergency department who presented with complains of acute, severe abdominal pain due to lead contaminated opium (September 2015 - October 2016). Upon admission they were first suspected to have lead poisoning due to their abnormal imaging findings. Demographic, clinical and laboratory data, imaging and levels of lead were collected for all patients. Results: Of 119 enrolled patients, 116 subjects (97.5%) were male. The mean age of our patients was 50.4 13.4 (18 - 92 years). They all had a history of oral consumption of opium on a daily basis. Half of the patients had a history of several hospitalizations. One also had a history of a negative laparotomy. Several tiny metallic densities were visualized in the colon in the obtained plain abdominal radiographs that were confirmed in CT scan in some patients. Laboratory data revealed anemia in majority of them with mean hemoglobin 10.4 2.4 g/dL. Mean blood lead level was 76.2 fL (range 20 - 316). Serum lead level was classified into four levels: lead level 100 (n = 25; 21.0%). All patients were referred to psychiatrist for quitting opium. Conclusions: Our case series highlights the role of imaging in possibility of lead poisoning among opium users, that presented with acute abdominal pain with an unknown cause.


Deficient endometrial decidualization has been associated with unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (URSA). However, the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. Here, we aimed to investigate the temporal cytokine changes and the involvement of the cyclin D-cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)4/CDK6 and cyclin E-CDK2 pathways in the regulation of the G1 phase of the cell cycle during decidualization in a murine model of URSA. Serum and decidual tissues of URSA group and normal pregnant (NP) group mice were collected from gestation day 4 (GD4) to GD8. The embryo resorption and abortion rates were observed on GD8 and the decidual tissue status was assessed using hematoxylin and eosin staining. Cytokine levels in decidual tissues were analyzed using western blotting and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. We found that the embryo resorption rate was significantly increased in the URSA group compared to that in the NP group on GD8. The expression of the decidualization marker prolactin in the serum and decidual lysate of the URSA group was significantly decreased on GD6-8 compared to that of the NP group. Cyclin D, CDK4, CDK6, cyclin E, CDK2 and pRb levels in the URSA group mice were significantly lower compared to those in the NP group mice on GD6-8. Our results suggest that the hyperactivated cyclin D-CDK4/CDK6 and cyclin E CDK2 pathways inhibit the decidualization process on GD4, leading to deficient decidualization on GD8. Moreover, they clarify the role of cytokines in the cyclin D-CDK4/6 and cyclin E-CDK2 pathways during decidualization and provide new insight into URSA pathogenesis.


: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of demographic variables, illness factors and symptom factors on the quality of life in schizophrenic patients. Data were collected by personal interview and self-report questionnaire druing the month from February to March in 1995. A total of 155 schizophrenic patients purposefully selected from a psychiatric teaching hospital in Kaohsiung participated in the study. The data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. The quality of life was assessed in terms the following five parameters: activity, family support, psychological well-being, physical well-being, and economic function. In addition, the work status, subjective deficits symptoms and type of treatment program were uses as predictors of the total quality of life. These parameters shared 38% of their variance in stepwise multiple regression analysis. The findings indicated that schizophrenic patients who had participated in a rehabilitation program could maintain a well quality of life than in outpatient care only.


We consider the coincidence problem for the square lattice that is translated by an arbitrary vector. General results are obtained about the set of coincidence isometries and the coincidence site lattices of a shifted square lattice by identifying the square lattice with the ring of Gaussian integers. To illustrate them, we calculate the set of coincidence isometries, as well as generating functions for the number of coincidence site lattices and coincidence isometries, for specific examples.


The ITTC78 method was originally designed for conventional single screw ships, but has later been modified to adapt twin screw ships and podded propulsors. Nowadays even more unconvensional propulsors are introduced, and the need for a new powering performance method is increasing. This thesis covers the load varying self propulsion method, and looks into how this corresponds to the standard ITTC78 method. The load varying method uses data from a self propusion test only, and uses a predefined increment value to change the revolutions during each run. In this way there are no need for an open water test or a resistance test, and time can be saved. In addition the vessel is tested as a unit, and not broken down into separate pieces like with the ITTC78 method.


In response to international concerns about scientific literacy and students' waning interest in school science, this study investigated the effects of a science‐writing project about the socioscientific issue (SSI) of biosecurity on the development of students' scientific literacy. Students generated two BioStories each that merged scientific information with the narrative storylines in the project. The study was conducted in two phases. In the exploratory phase, a qualitative case study of a sixth‐grade class involving classroom observations and interviews informed the design of the second, confirmatory phase of the study, which was conducted at a different school. This phase involved a mixed methods approach featuring a quasi‐experimental design with two classes of Australian middle school students (i.e., sixth grade, 11 years of age, n = 55). The results support the argument that writing the sequence of stories helped the students become more familiar with biosecurity issues, develop a deeper understanding of related biological concepts, and improve their interest in science. On the basis of these findings, teachers should be encouraged to engage their students in the practice of writing about SSI in a way that integrates scientific information into narrative storylines. Extending the practice to older students and exploring additional issues related to writing about SSI are recommended for further research.


Much of the recent literature on the future of health administration education notes the importance of strengthening linkages with practitioners by incorporating them into more formal roles within programs. This article describes the Rush University Department of Health Systems Management's process of implementing the practitioner-teacher model. The results of a faculty time commitment study support the conclusion that practitioners can play a key role in the development and administration of a graduate health care management program while maintaining their operational responsibilities. The implications of operating a fully integrated practitioner-teacher model and those aspects transferable to other graduate education settings are discussed.


Integrable deformations of type IIB superstring theory on AdS5 × S5 have played an important role over the last years. The Yang–Baxter deformation is a systematic way of generating such integrable deformations. Since its introduction, this topic has seen important conceptual progress and has among others led to the intriguing discovery generalized supergravity, a new low-energy effective theory. This review endeavors to not only introduce the historical development of the Yang–Baxter deformation, but also its relation to generalized supergravity, non-geometric backgrounds, non-abelian T-duality and preserved Killing spinors. We supplement the general treatment with a wealth of explicit examples.


: Occupational dermatosis is a common occupational disease. Contact dermatitis is its commonest presentation. New chemicals are introduced into the industry every year. Often they are potential skin irritants and allergens. Besides contact dermatitis, these chemicals can cause serious systemic effects which sometimes produce cutaneous manifestations e.g. chloracne and scleroderma. Prevention remains the most effective way of reducing the incidence of occupational dermatoses. Physicians should be familiar with advances in occupational dermatology in order to recognize them. This paper reviews some recent advances in this field.


An electrically controlled optical chopper based on holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal grating (H-PDLC) and its application within the fluorescence microscopy has been investigated in this paper. The H-PDLC chopper has the characteristics such as free waveform, easy and precise tunable working frequency, no moving parts etc. In order to testify its application, a two-channel frequency division multiplexing confocal fluorescence microscopy (FDMCF) has been established, where the integrated H-PDLC chopper array modulates the individual exciting laser beam with different carrying frequency. The FDMCF microscopy detects two-channel fluorescent signals from the two different spots of the specimen's surface synchronously. The successful experiments testified the optical chopper device based on H-PDLC technique, and explored its application possibility within the modern integrated optical system as well.


Biofield science is an emerging field of study that aims to provide a scientific foundation for understanding the complex homeodynamic regulation of living systems. By furthering our scientific knowledge of the biofield, we arrive at a better understanding of the foundations of biology as well as the phenomena that have been described as "energy medicine." Energy medicine, the application of extremely low-level signals to the body, including energy healer interventions and bio-electromagnetic device-based therapies, is incomprehensible from the dominant biomedical paradigm of "life as chemistry." The biofield or biological field, a complex organizing energy field engaged in the generation, maintenance, and regulation of biological homeodynamics, is a useful concept that provides the rudiments of a scientific foundation for energy medicine and thereby advances the research and practice of it. An overview on the biofield is presented in this paper, with a focus on the history of the concept, related terminology, key scientific concepts, and the value of the biofield perspective for informing future research.


The direct detection of hydrocarbons with the seismic technique is one of the main goals of current geophysical research. Amongst the many direct hydrocarbon indicators which have been proposed, the AVO technique has received by far the greatest attention in the literature. The technique has inspired confidence in large part through its ability to relate the observed phenomena directly to rock and fluid properties through robust seismic modeling and rock physics relationships.


Background Pediatric hand burns are a difficult problem because they lead to serious hand deformities with functional impairment due to rapid growth during childhood. Therefore, adequate management is required beginning in the acute stage. Our study aims to establish surgical guidelines for a primary full-thickness skin graft (FTSG) in pediatric hand burns, based on long-term observation periods and existing studies. Methods From January 2000 to May 2011, 210 patients underwent primary FTSG. We retrospectively studied the clinical course and treatment outcomes based on the patients' medical records. The patients' demographics, age, sex, injury site of the fingers, presence of web space involvement, the incidence of postoperative late deformities, and the duration of revision were critically analyzed. Results The mean age of the patients was 24.4 months (range, 8 to 94 months), consisting of 141 males and 69 females. The overall observation period was 6.9 years (range, 1 to 11 years) on average. At the time of the burn, 56 cases were to a single finger, 73 to two fingers, 45 to three fingers, and 22 to more than three. Among these cases, 70 were burns that included a web space (33.3%). During the observation, 25 cases underwent corrective operations with an average period of 40.6 months. Conclusions In the volar area, primary full-thickness skin grafting can be a good indication for an isolated injured finger, excluding the web spaces, and injuries of less than three fingers including the web spaces. Also, in the dorsal area, full-thickness skin grafting can be a good indication. However, if the donor site is insufficient and the wound is large, split-thickness skin grafting can be considered.


AIMS
The aim of this study was to describe the demographic details of patients who sustain a femoral periprosthetic fracture (PPF), the epidemiology of PPFs, PPF characteristics, and the predictors of PPF types in the UK population.

METHODS
This is a multicentre retrospective cohort study including adult patients presenting to hospital with a new PPF between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2018. Data collected included: patient characteristics, comorbidities, anticoagulant use, social circumstances, level of mobility, fracture characteristics, Unified Classification System (UCS) type, and details of the original implant. Descriptive analysis by fracture location was performed, and predictors of PPF type were assessed using mixed-effects logistic regression models.

RESULTS
In total, 720 femoral PPFs from 27 NHS sites were included. PPF patients were typically elderly (mean 79.9 years (SD 10.6)), female (n = 455; 63.2%), had at least one comorbidity (n = 670; 93.1%), and were reliant on walking aids or bed-/chair-bound prior to admission (n = 419; 61.7%). The study population included 539 (74.9%) hip PPFs, 151 (21.0%) knee PPFs, and 30 (4.2%) dividing type PPFs. For hip (n = 407; 75.5%) and knee (n = 88; 58.3%) arthroplasty UCS B type fractures were most common. Overall, 556 (86.2%) were treated in the presenting hospital and 89 (13.8%) required transfer for treatment. Female sex was the only significant predictor of fracture type (A/B1/C type versus B2/B3) for femoral hip PPFs (odds ratio 0.61 (95% confidence interval 0.41 to 0.91); p = 0.014). Sex, residence type, primary versus revision implant PPF, implant fixation, and time between arthroplasty and PPF were not found to predict fracture type for hip PPFs.

CONCLUSION
This multicentre analysis describes patient and injury factors for patients presenting with femoral PPFs to centres across the UK. These patients are generally elderly and frail, comparable to those sustaining a hip fracture. These data can be useful in planning future services and clinical trials. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2022;104-B(8):987-996 .


Background Nowadays tuberculosis continues to be a global public health problem. In 2009, 6,131 cases of respiratory tuberculosis were notified in Spain, making it the 8th European country with the highest number of cases notified. Purpose To analyse the use of tuberculostatic drugs on patients admitted and diagnosed with tuberculosis in a Spanish tertiary care hospital. Materials and methods A retrospective observational study was carried out for which The authors located patients admitted in the period from September 2010 to September 2011 diagnosed with infection by M. tuberculosis, undergoing treatment with any of the drugs in the following therapeutic groups: J04AB, J04AC, J04AK and J04AM. The authors created a data gathering sheet which included demographic data (sex, age, country of origin) as well as information regarding the treatment received, taking into consideration resistances, intolerances and adherence to the treatment. Results The authors located 33 patients (68% men) admitted and diagnosed with tuberculosis, of which 14 (42%) were not of Spanish nationality (8 Rumanians, 2 Moroccans, 1 Congolese, 1 Colombian, 1 Bolivian and 1 Peruvian). All the Spanish patients received the first-choice treatment indicated: rifampicin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide and ethambutol, while out of the patients of other nationalities, 12 were found to have first-choice treatment, of which 2 also received amikacin and/or levofloxacin as second-choice drugs used on patients with high suspicion of multi-resistant infection. Another 2 patients showed confirmed multi-resistant infection after various failed treatments carried out over the last few years, and therefore, second-choice drugs had to be used, including ethionamide, cycloserine, p-aminosalycilic acid and ofloxacin. Conclusions The results obtained confirm the trend observed in the last few years in the most industrialised countries, with a notable increase in the number of cases of tuberculosis among immigrants. Furthermore, in these cases a greater rate of resistances of mycobacterium to traditional drugs has been observed, which complicates therapeutic handling and makes the use of 2nd-choice drugs essential.


Immigrant children and youth are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, and so their prospects bear heavily on the well-being of the country. Children of Immigrants represents some of the very best and most extensive research efforts to date on the circumstances, health, and development of children in immigrant families and the delivery of health and social services to these children and their families. This book presents new, detailed analyses of more than a dozen existing datasets that constitute a large share of the national system for monitoring the health and well-being of the U.S. population. Prior to these new analyses, few of these datasets had been used to assess the circumstances of children in immigrant families. The analyses enormously expand the available knowledge about the physical and mental health status and risk behaviors, educational experiences and outcomes, and socioeconomic and demographic circumstances of first- and second-generation immigrant children, compared with children with U.S.-born parents.


Polar liquids are being studied as switch media for the generation of sub-microsecond pulses with nanosecond or even shorter rise times. The inherent dielectric strength of polar liquids allows for small gap lengths, down to less than 1 mm even for voltages up to 100 kV, and consequently enables the reduction of the switch inductance. Most of the breakdown studies to date have been conducted for longer gap distances and pulse durations in the microsecond range. Empiric equations for the breakdown strength under these conditions, which do not include effects of electrode materials, have been developed by J. C. Martin. In recent studies, we found that for shorter, high voltage pulses of only 200 ns duration, the dielectric strength of sub-millimeter water gaps can be much higher than expected from these empirical formulas. Moreover, the dielectric strength strongly depends on the electrode condition. By polishing the stainless steel electrodes of a pin-to-plane geometry (diameter of the pin electrode: 1.7 mm) the breakdown strength in a 200 m gap was increased from 1 MV/cm up to 1.8 MV/cm. For propylene carbonate, a breakdown strength of 2.2 MV/cm was achieved instead of only 1 MV/cm for unpolished electrode surfaces J. Kolb et al., (2003). Experiments indicate that the initiation of breakdown is independent of the conductivity of the bulk, but depends on effects at the liquid-electrode interface. To explore this hypothesis further, experiments were conducted using electrode materials of different work functions (zirconium, silver, stainless steel). The conductivity of the liquid dielectric was varied by adding salt (NaCl) in different concentrations to distilled water. For comparison, similar experiments were carried out with propylene carbonate. In order to relate the breakdown strength in sub-millimeter water gaps to results for longer gap distances, increasingly longer pulses, of up to 5 s, were applied


An experiment was conducted to study the effect of growth retardants on flowering and yield parameters and shelf life of spanish jasmine. The experiment comprised of eleven treatments each replicated thrice was executed following the principles of randomized block design. The treatments included foliar spray of CCC @ 1000, 1500 and 2000 ppm, alar @ 1000, 2000 and 3000 ppm, ethrel @ 1000, 1500 and 2000 ppm, pruning and untreated control. In this study, the application of CCC 1500 ppm exerted favourable influence and enhanced the flower bud characters viz., flower bud length (2.98 cm), flower stalk length (2.36 cm) and total length of the flower (5.34 cm). The yield and yield attributes viz., hundred flower buds weight (9.90 g), flower buds yield plant-1(4.23 kg), flower buds yield plot-1(33.84 kg) and flower buds yield hectare-1 (14.1 t ha-1) were also found to be the maximum in the plants treated with CCC 1500 ppm. The plant growth retardants did not show any significant effect on shelf life of flowers.


Writing centers are feeling the effects of budget reductions across higher
education nationwide. Like other student services that don't offer credits or
produce revenue, writing centers are particularly vulnerable to budget cuts.
Community colleges, four-year colleges, and universities across the country are
asking writing centers to make hard choices–choices that will affect consultant
hiring, pay, and benefits as well as hours of operation, services, technological
resources, and administration.


ABSTRACT State-of-the-art Diesel engines used for on-highway operation are integrated systems containing multiple subsystems for performance and emissions enhancements. The drive to lower tailpipe emissions on on-highway engines drives system complexity which is both undesired and unnecessary for military ground vehicles. There are, however, on-highway technologies such as high pressure fuel injection systems and advanced turbocharger systems that allow improving the engines' efficiency and therefore lowering its fuel consumption. The aforementioned technologies are currently available and present possible near term opportunities for military ground vehicles. The adaptation to allow reliable operation in military vehicles will be discussed as part of this near term view. The authors will also discuss the electronic controls architecture requirements that come along with these sophisticated technologies and discuss the advantages and opportunities that present themselves using advanced electronic controls for condition based maintenance and diagnostics.


We present a theoretical investigation of optical self-focusing effects in light scattering with condensates. Using long (>200 µs), red-detuned pulses we show numerically that a non-negligible self-focusing effect is present that causes rapid optical beam width reduction as the scattered field propagates through a medium with an inhomogeneous density distribution. The rapid growth of the scattered field intensity and significant local density feedback positively to further enhance the wave generation process and condensate compression, leading to highly efficient collective atomic recoil motion.


Background Extending contact with participants after initial, intensive intervention may support maintenance of weight loss and related behaviors. Objective This community-wide trial evaluated a text message (short message service, SMS)-delivered, extended contact intervention ('Get Healthy, Stay Healthy' (GHSH)), which followed on from a population-level, behavioral telephone coaching program. Methods This study employed a parallel, randomized controlled trial: GHSH compared with no continued contact (standard practice). Participants (n=228) were recruited after completing a 6-month lifestyle telephone coaching program: mean age = 53.4 (standard deviation (SD)=12.3) years; 66.7% (152/228) female; mean body mass index (BMI) upon entering GHSH=29.5 kg/m2 (SD = 6.0). Participants received tailored text messages over a 6-month period. The message frequency, timing, and content of the messages was based on participant preference, ascertained during two tailoring telephone calls. Primary outcomes of body weight, waist circumference, physical activity (walking, moderate, and vigorous sessions/week), and dietary behaviors (fruit and vegetable serves/day, cups of sweetened drinks per day, takeaway meals per week; fat, fiber and total indices from the Fat and Fiber Behavior Questionnaire) were assessed via self-report before (baseline) and after (6-months) extended contact (with moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) also assessed via accelerometry). Results Significant intervention effects, all favoring the intervention group, were observed at 6-months for change in weight (-1.35 kg, 95% confidence interval (CI): -2.24, -0.46, P=.003), weekly moderate physical activity sessions (0.56 sessions/week, 95% CI: 0.15, 0.96, P=.008) and accelerometer-assessed MVPA (24.16 minutes/week, 95% CI: 5.07, 43.25, P=.007). Waist circumference, other physical activity outcomes and dietary outcomes, did not differ significantly between groups. Conclusions The GHSH extended care intervention led to significantly better anthropometric and physical activity outcomes than standard practice (no contact). This evidence is useful for scaling up the delivery of GHSH as standard practice following the population-level telephone coaching program.


Twenty-four subjects with suspected ischaemic heart disease underwent a treadmill exercise stress test (TEST). Nine individuals developed ischaemia as defined by standard criteria. Total plasma antioxidant status (TPAS), and serum concentrations of vitamin E were measured pre-TEST, and 0, 1, 2, 4, 8 and 24 h following the treadmill test. Mean serum vitamin E concentrations fell by 33% in the group as a whole (from 9.53 +/- 0.92 mg/L pre-TEST to 6.39 +/- 1.06 mg/L immediately post stress test, P < 0.02) and rose to baseline over the subsequent 24 h. The levels of serum vitamin E fell by 34% in the group of patients who had a positive TEST, and 32% in those who did not develop ischaemia during the TEST. Serum cholesterol concentrations also fell significantly during the TEST. In the total group serum cholesterol fell by 6.5% (P = 0.0052), and in the subgroup who were positive for ischaemia the fall in serum cholesterol was 10.3% (P = 0.004). The reduction in serum cholesterol was 4.1% in the subgroup who did not develop ischaemia (P > 0.05). Mean total plasma antioxidant status showed no significant temporal change for the group as a whole, although there was a nonsignificant decrease immediately post-TEST in the ischaemic group and a slight rise at 8 h in the group negative for ischaemia.


Monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) and –B (MAO-B) are attractive targets for a broad range of treatments against pathologies including depression, anxiety disorders, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Most current MAO inhibitors lead to side effects by a lack of affinity and selectivity towards one of the isoforms. Recently, the crystal structures of hMAO-A and –B in complex with inhibitors opened the way towards the discovery of new, more selective and potent inhibitors. Thus, the main objective of this work, was the design of new, more potent, reversible and selective MAO-A or –B inhibitors derived from β-carboline and 5H-indeno[1,2-c]pyridazin-5-one scaffolds respectively, following a classical strategy including experimental (synthesis and biological evaluation) and theoretical (molecular modeling) approaches. The MAO inhibitory potencies showed that the replacement of the methoxy group of harmine by more lipophilic groups increases the inhibition for MAO-A. Studies on 5H-indeno[1,2-c]pyridazin-5-one scaffold bearing lipophilic groups in the 3 and 8-positions showed that the substitution in the 3-position dramatically influences the MAO-B-inhibiting properties. Furthermore, the involvement through a same metabolic pathway and the similarity in the structural properties of MAO with indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) and lysine specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) respectively, led us to the investigation of the -carboline and 5H-indeno[1,2-c]pyridazin-5-one derivatives as potential IDO and LSD1 inhibitors. However, the two series show no inhibition of those two enzymes and are thus selective of MAO. Finally, starting from the same strategy used for MAO, we are also interested in the synthesis of two new 3-substituted--carboline derivatives with amino groups and directly derived from 3-butyl--carboline, a known IDO inhibitor. Indeed, these two compounds display a positive charge at physiological pH which might establish an additional coulomb interaction with 7-propionate of the heme compared to 3-butyl--carboline. Howerver, first results tend to demonstrate that the introduction of a positive charge abolishes the inhibition of IDO.


Limited research has focused on different types of cycling events and how these participants differ in terms of their socio-economic and behavioural profiles. This research attempts to fill the gap in the literature regarding the travel motives of participants in cycling events. A sample from the participants at two different cycling events in South Africa was extracted in order to identify and compare different market segments at these events. The two events selected were an ultracycling event (Cape Argus Cycling Tour) and an endurance race (Cape Epic). Surveys were conducted during the registration period in March 2012 and a factor analysis was performed in order to identify the motives of the participants. The t-test was conducted to identify significant differences between road cycling and mountain bikers in terms of their profiles and their motives to compete. Results confirm that the profile and motives for participating differed according to the type of cycling event. Marketers and sports event organisers need to be aware that not all participants share the same profiles and reasons for competing. The findings of this study provide valuable and clear guidelines on how to expand exposure and grow the sport of cycling in the country.


In this work we devise eecient algorithms for nding the search directions for interior point methods applied to linear programming problems. There are two innovations. The rst is the use of updating of preconditioners computed for previous barrier parameters. The second is an adaptive automated procedure for determining whether to use a direct or iterative solver, whether to reinitialize or update the preconditioner, and how many updates to apply. These decisions are based on predictions of the cost of using the diierent solvers to determine the next search direction, given costs in determining earlier directions. These ideas are tested by applying a modiied version of the OB1-R code of Lustig, Marsten, and Shanno to a variety of problems from the NETLIB and other collections. If a direct method is appropriate for the problem, then our procedure chooses it, but when an iterative procedure is helpful, substantial gains in eeciency can be obtained.


Hepatitis D virus (HDV) is a subviral agent which depends on the envelope proteins (HBsAg) of hepatitis B virus (HBV). Therefore, hepatitis D is observed only in patients infected with HBV. Chronic hepatitis D is the least frequent albeit most severe form of chronic viral hepatitis. A resurgence of chronic hepatitis D has been observed in Northern and Central Europe, mainly due to immigration of patients from regions with high prevalence. Every HBsAg-positive patient should be screened for concurrent HDV infection. Standard treatment consists of pegylated interferon-alpha for at least one year. Sustained virological response rates are approximately 20%. Liver transplantation should be considered in patients with advanced cirrhosis or limited hepatocellular carcinoma. Preventive measures for hepatitis D are the same as for hepatitis B.


A granular vulvitis syndrome associated with ureaplasma infection was first recognized in Ontario dairy herds in 1972. The acute form of the disease was characterized by a purulent vulvar discharge, an inflamed hyperemic vulvar mucosa and varying degrees of granularity. In the chronic form, there was an absence of a purulent discharge and a gradual decline in the severity of the hyperemia and granularity. Epithelial inclusion cysts were observed in the vulvar epithelium of approximately 10% of affected cows.A seasonal variation in the incidence of the disease was observed. Herd morbidities during the summer months reached a low of 37% and increased to 75% during the winter months with constant housing.When widespread in herds, the acute form of the disease had a significant effect on fertility. In four herds examined, first service conceptions dropped on average by 27%. The chronic form of the disease had a less detrimental effect on fertility with first service conceptions being reduced on average by 13%. Intrauterine infusions of a tetracycline 24 hours postbreeding were found to be of value in improving conception rates in acutely affected herds.


The purpose of this study is to understand how western-developed leadership theories are translated and practiced in the Modern Arab Middle East (MAME). Over the past century the notion of leadership has progressed through phases of understanding, definition, and practice. This evolution continues today and is no longer contained to the academic and practice-oriented institutions of North America and Europe. Through western-styled educational institutions and professional industries, western-developed leadership theories have stretched around the globe, including the MAME. While this is known, what is much less understood is how these theories are adopted and adapted. This study's objective is to understand what theories of leadership are taught at Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs in the Modern Arab Middle East and how are they applied in local contexts. The research design was qualitative, interpretivist, and exploratory in nature. Data was collected from the MBA programs, their faculty alumni, and by the observations of the researcher. Publicly available documents were gathered by from online sources and during visits to the programs. Interviewed with respondents were conducted both in-person and through phone and digital conversations. Documents and transcripts were catalogued and thematically analyzed with the resulting themes constituting the findings of the study. The first set of findings centers around the question of how leadership is situated as well as what leadership theories are taught and how. It was found that leadership is professed to be highly valued, is broadly defined, and that is taught through traditional educational methods. The second set of findings pertain to what practitioners do with this education. It was found that leadership was spoken of in nine ways: local, regional, and internationally; a changing environment; entrepreneurship; family business; management preferred over leadership, and professional or personal development. Additionally, respondents reported that they experience the concept of leadership to be enigmatic, for a few, and future oriented. This study is hoped to be one of a series to come that considers how westernleadership theory is used in the MAME with an aim that theory may be useful and congruent within local and regional contexts.


A total of 205 specimens positive for rotaviruses obtained during 1990-93 surveillance studies of hospitalized patients with diarrhoea were tested by ELISA for G serotypes. Of these, 107 (52.19%) specimens could be serotyped. Seventy four specimens were assigned to one of the G1-G4 serotypes. Of the 74 specimens, 49 (66.2%) reacted with MAb against G2. Of 107 typeable specimens, 33 showed dual or multiple reactivity. Eighteen specimens reacted with MAb specific to G1 and G2 serotypes. Five specimens reacted with MAb specific to G2 and G4. RNA profile of some of the specimens showing dual reactivities did not show additional RNA band. The specimens showing reaction to G1 and G2, had long RNA pattern, those with G2 and G4, showed short RNA pattern. Ten (9.17%) specimens reacted to 3 or more rotavirus serotypes. Of these, three reacted to MAb raised against G6, a bovine rotavirus. Ninety eight specimens could not be serotyped.


Climate variability represents a significant risk to farming enterprises. Effective communication and extension of climate information may improve climate risk decision making and adaptive management responses to climate variability on farms. However, extension services are under strain worldwide due to cost and time constraints. Innovative applications of emerging digital technologies are likely to play an increasingly important role in this space.

Evaluation of stakeholder responses to new web-based virtual world 'discussion-support' tools (short scripted video clips or machinima filmed in Second Life) indicate that they may provide a potentially revolutionary way to present and cost-effectively disseminate consistent and highly targeted information about climate, climate risk and climate risk adaptation to large numbers of farmers. Leveraging the social and observational learning aspects of farming, these tools also incorporate and apply recent advances in the use of digital technologies in education. With contextualised settings and relevant and engaging storylines, the tools model discussions between farmers about climate information, risk and on-farm practices. Follow up discussion among real life farming groups and farming families, stimulated by the tools, will potentially assist farmers to make better on-farm decisions to manage climate risk which, in turn, will support sustainable food and fibre production systems and reduce environmental harm.

Prototype machinimas were developed for and trialled in the Australian sugar cane farming industry (Fig. 1). This industry is located in coastal regions of north-eastern Australia (Queensland and northern New South Wales) which experience high levels of climatic variability ranging from drought to intense rainfall events associated with tropical lows and cyclones. Improved access to targeted climate information, better understanding of climate risk and adaptation through adoption of recommended farm management best practice have been a key focus of sugar industry extension programs, In the sugar industry, as in other agricultural sectors, farmer participation in conventional face-to-face workshops, though effective in influencing adoption rates, is limited and likely to become more so as resources supporting extension services diminish. At the same time, online dissemination of technical information, though far-reaching, is often ineffective. Even the development of high-level decision support tools has seen only limited uptake among farmers. It is generally recognised within extension circles that the key to farmer engagement is through participatory processes and relevant discussion.
The discussion support machinimas developed in this project deal with specific scenarios within the sugar cane farming calendar: specifically, irrigation; fertiliser application; harvesting; and planning. Evaluation of the machinimas was conducted, firstly, through a series of climate workshops where the tools were used to generate discussion of climate risk associated with each of these situations. These workshops were followed up with a phenomenographic study in which selected participants were interviewed about their response to the machinimas and transcripts were then analysed thematically. This study was designed to investigate the value of these tools in stimulating discussion about climate risk and adaptation within a farmer group and, subsequently, farming families. Secondly, the machinimas and an on-line survey questionnaire were posted to the website of the sugar cane farming peak body, CANEGROWERS Australia, whose membership numbers approximately 4,000 cane farmers. This survey was designed to investigate both farmer responses to the tools and the effectiveness of the tools, when disseminated electronically, in stimulating discussion and potentially influencing on farm decision making. Results suggest that these virtual world tools positively engage farmers and, while not replacing face-to-face extension, provide cost-effective support for climate risk decision making on Australian sugar cane farms.

Future development of the machinimas will enable rapid updates of relevant seasonal climate information to farmer groups to ensure access to the best available information as a basis for discussion and decision making. Increasing capacity to deliver such tools online, given expanding access to the internet and uptake of mobile technologies, also suggests potential to digitally engage large numbers of farmers globally. The virtual world platform in which the machinimas are made allows ready contextualisation of climate risk information for a target audience through customised representations of landscapes, farming systems, characters (avatars) and scripted dialogues that reflect the real life experiences of farmers, wherever they are. Discussion is a key element of social learning. By modelling conversations and stimulating further discussion, these tools may assist in providing cost-effective targeted support for learning and on-farm decision making, thereby enhancing the adaptive capacity of farmers and the development of more sustainable food production systems.


The dynamic immunological characteristics of COVID-19 patients are essential for clinicians to understand the disease progression. Our data showed that the immune system and function have gradually remodeled and declined with age from 16-91 years old in 25,239 healthy controls. Analyzing the relationship between the number of lymphocytes and age showed that lymphocytes and subsets tended to decline with age significantly, whereas, the number of natural killer cells tended to increase with age significantly. SARS-CoV-2 specific immunity has declined with age in fatal cases. Furthermore, SARS-CoV-2 specific immunity is associated with survival time in fatal cases. The loss expansion of SARS-CoV-2 specific immunity could be expanded in vitro. A concurrent decline in SARS-CoV-2 specific cellular and humoral immunity and prolonged SARS-CoV-2 exposure predicted fatal outcomes. Our findings have provided a basis for further analysis of SARS-CoV-2 specific immunity and understanding the pathogenesis of fatal COVID-19 patients.


It is uncommon in clinical practice to discover cancer as either a metastasis within soft tissue or containing heterotopic bone formation. These rarities are documented primarily through case reports in the literature. This report describes a patient with colon cancer whose painful wrist lesion was proven to exhibit both of these unusual features. It is important to recognize soft tissue metastases, as these are managed differently than a carcinosarcoma, for instance. In addition, although heterotopic bone formation does not alter the prognosis or management of colon cancer, it can prove a valuable starting point for understanding carcinogenesis.


On September 1, 2009, the Guardianship Law (Betreuungsgesetz) changed for the third time. Thus, the rights of the people living in Germany have been improved with reference to the preventive instruments. The aim of the work was to find about the subject to what extent patients understand the subject and how many of them have such a preventive document. The area of research has been examined on the basis of a standardized questionnaire drawn up by means of anonymous data collection in the quantitative research design. After the pretest, the survey was done in form of a documented Face-to-face-questioning in the HELIOS hospital Leisnig. The sample size comprised 139 patients from which 84 patients (37 female, 47 male) agreed with the survey. 25 percent of the questioned patients knew the law of living will (Patientenverfügungsgesetz) and 27 percent knew about the content of preventive instruments. 46.4 percent of the surveyed patients, aged between 70 and 75, had at least one preventive instrument. 63.1 percent of the patients believed that a living will has to be in a written form. 21.4 percent said that, in addition, the document has to be authenticated by a notary public. A study by van Oorschot claims that between ten and 15 percent of the people living in Germany have a living will (van Oorschot 2008, p. 443, Sahm & Schroeder 2009, p. 98). The results of this study show a much higher proportion of existing living wills. For the majority of respondents a preventive instrument plays still a minor role, but 46 percent of the population already use a preventive instrument to make provisions for themselves. 27 percent did express their will in theform of a living will. Nevertheless, the survey shows a lack of knowledge of the correct handling of the living will.


Internet banking has become the new self-service delivery channel that allows banks to provide information and offer services to their customers with more convenience via the web services technology. An understanding of corporate customer acceptance of Internet banking can assist banks to assess the real business value of Internet banking implementation. This study examines four benefits and three barriers that influence corporate customer adoption. The four benefit factors are information quality, information accessibility, information sharing, and transaction benefits. The three major barriers are related to trust, legal support, and organization barriers. Information quality and transaction benefit factors are far more important than other in discriminating Internet banking users from non-users. In addition, information sharing and distrust of the web are two drawbacks of Thai Internet banking adoption. As Thai banks decide to use Internet technology as a new self-service delivery channel, they have to enhance acceptance from corporate customers. This does not seem to be merely a matter of getting corporate customers to recognize benefits, but banks probably need to lower barriers to Internet banking adoption to provide actual benefits to corporate customers.


Abstract Political uncertainty leads to greater information asymmetry among contracting parties to the firm, resulting in an increased demand for accounting conservatism. Exploiting the exogenous variation in political uncertainty induced by the U.S. gubernatorial election cycle over the period 1963–2016, we find that the asymmetric timeliness of news recognition increases with political uncertainty. Our political uncertainty hypothesis operates through the contracting demand channel. Accordingly, we find that the political uncertainty effect is more pronounced for firms in states with lower electoral participation, for firms with greater industry exposures to contracting needs, for firms with higher leverage and lower managerial ownership, and for firms with stronger internal corporate governance mechanisms.


Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic degenerative disease characterized by elevated hyperglycemia, triggering a series of processes and culminating in chronic, uncontrolled, cellular and vascular damage in different organs. Objective: To assess whether the elevated glycosylated hemoglobin, microalbuminuria, and the time evolution of more than 10 years of diabetes mellitus are associated with elevated resistance index of the interlobar renal arteries assessed with pulsed Doppler in patients with metabolic uncontrolled diabetes mellitus. Material and methods: Transversal-analytical, observational, Gaceta Medica de Mexico. 2016;152 214 prospective study that included diabetic patients attending UMAE abdominal ultrasound in 25 of IMSS, from October 15, 2014 to November 15, 2014, which was performed for pulsed Doppler index resistance of vascular interlobar renal arteries and was collected from electronic medical records: age, sex, glycated hemoglobin, and microalbuminuria. The association between metabolic uncontrolled diabetes mellitus was analyzed with the elevation of resistance index by χ2 test or Fisher, being significant with a value of p < 0.05, and to assess the magnitude of the association that was measured with a response magnitude of 95%. Results: 63 patients with type 2 diabetes were examined, with an average age of 52.3 ± 14.2 years, 41 were older than 50 years (65.0%), 26 with hypertension (41.2%), 32 with higher levels of glycated hemoglobin 7 (50.8%), 35 with normoalbuminuria (55.6%), 28 with microalbuminuria (44.4%), and 39 with a time evolution of diabetes of more than 10 years (61.9%). We observed a statistically significant difference between microalbuminuria and increased duration of diabetes mellitus with high resistance index. Conclusion: The alterations in renal microvasculature conditioned by the occurrence of microalbuminuria in diabetic nephropathy and the duration of diabetes are strongly associated with higher resistance index. (Gac Med Mex. 2016;152:213-7) Corresponding author: Martin Barrios-Perez, email@example.com


Understanding the trade-offs in improving the precision of agricultural measures through survey design is crucial. Yet, standard indicators used to determine program effectiveness may be flawed and at a differential rate for men and women. The authors use a household survey from Mozambique to estimate the measurement error from male and female self-reports of their adoption and knowledge of three practices: intercropping, mulching, and strip tillage. Despite clear differences in human and physical capital, there are no obvious differences in the knowledge, adoption, and error in self-reporting between men and women. Having received training unanimously lowers knowledge misreports and increases adoption misreports. Other determinants of reporting error differ by gender. Misreporting is positively associated with a greater number of plots for men. Recall decay on measures of knowledge appears prominent among men but not women. Findings from regression and cost-effectiveness analyses always favor the collection of objective measures of knowledge. Given the lowest rate of accuracy for adoption was around 80 percent, costlier objective adoption measures are recommended for a subsample in regions with heterogeneous farm sizes.


Rangnar Nilsson: Good science: How researchers' conceptions of science expressed in peer review documents change in three different disciplines (God vetenskap: Hur forskares vetenskapsuppfattningar uttryckta i sakkunnigutlåtanden förändras i tre skilda discipliner). Ph.D. Dissertation in Swedish, with a summary in English. Department of Literature, History of Ideas and Religion, University of Gothenburg, 2009. ISBN: 978-91-7346-638-7. This dissertation examines the variety in perceptions of science and research in the academic communities of political science, literature studies and physics in Sweden 1950-1995 as expressed in expert evaluations of professorship candidates. The study relates commonalities as well as differences in these perceptions to internal conditions of the research field, and to the extramural settings and conditions of Swedish academia. Research is thus considered as a historically situated, socially entangled and contingent societal activity that produces knowledge in close concurrence with the surrounding society. The analysis of quality assessments for each discipline examines which of the following aspects of the works reviewed by expert panels are focused in their evaluation reports: problem, method, theory, object, results, writing, the totality of the work or the researcher himor herself. Based on the panelists' treatment of these aspects the thesis highlights the concomitant internal perceptions of science and research in each case. It is found that early on in expert evaluations, political science tends to be depicted as a research field largely focused on the research methods. The methods frequently define areas of research, and credibility is typically attained through proper use of reliable methods. Towards the end of the 1900s, political scientists took a new interest in theory, while the knowledge produced was described in less definitive or absolute words. Expert panels reviewing literature studies were traditionally more inclined to focus on the object of research or its material, whereas the methods used were rarely diagnosed. With time, however, one finds a theoretical turn, in as much as theory gained a new appreciation in this discipline as well, and it is, moreover, clearly considered as an active ingredient in knowledge production in the 1990s. As in political science, the descriptions of results as depicted in evaluations change from rather final pronouncements to ones that are more tentative. Such a trend may also be seen in the physicists' evaluations. In that case evaluation reports largely home in on the results in general, but they also when actual results are described make explicit references to linkages with external actors or industry. The respective differences identified are analyzed as products of the history of each discipline, inherent requirements and differential relationships to the society outside of the academia.


This paper examines whether a randomized auction ending time reduces market manipulation. Using the random auction ending rule implemented on the Singapore Exchange, we examine changes in indicators of market manipulation and market efficiency. We find that end of day price swings and price dislocation probability both declined, suggesting a lower risk of market manipulation. In addition, the variance ratio and market-adjusted return volatility measures have decreased indicating a more efficient and less volatile price discovery process. We do note that there are still telltale signs of manipulation in the pre-auction opening and pre-closing phase suggesting that the length of time of this phase is important. Overall, our results indicate that the randomized auction ending can curb market manipulation and improve price efficiency.


Despite continuing interest in fat embolism, the precise pathogenesis and the best treatment of the syndrome are still in doubt. To assess the effect of a high index of suspicion about the outcome of the syndrome, we have compared 37 patients seen from 1962 to 1968 with 16 patients seen from 1968 to 1974. The study of the original group of patients generated considerable interest in the diagnosis and management of the syndrome at our institution. The two groups are well matched for age, sex, and source of injury. The more recent group (1968-1974) seemed to have had more severe injuries as judged by number of fractures and need for blood transfusions. Despite this increase in severity of injury, the mortality rate for the period 1968-1974 was only 12.5% as opposed to 21% for the period 1962-1968. This improvement in mortality was achieved without resort to many of the popular pharmacologic regimens, including steroids and heparin. A high index of suspicion leading to an early diagnosis of respiratory dysfunction and aggressive supportive therapy has been responsible for the improved results. Language: en