The blockchain-enabled wireless Internet of medical things (IoMT) system has recently drawn extensive attention due to the provision of highly-secured healthcare services. However, multiple simultaneous transmissions in blockchain-enabled IoMT (BC-IoMT) networks can cause interference, consequently degrading the overall performance of the system. It is necessary to investigate the performance of BC-IoMT networks. In this paper, we propose a novel analytical framework for wireless BCIoMT networks with consideration of both the spatial model on geographical random distribution of IoMT users and the temporal model on stochastic nature of data block transmission. With this framework, we derive a closed-form expression of the coverage probability in the wireless BC-IoMT network. Our extensive simulation results verify the accuracy of our theoretical analysis. From the analytical framework, we find that the path loss effect, the number of interfering medical sensor devices, and the threshold of successful transmission have a significant impact on the coverage performance of wireless BC-IoMT networks.


The cell culture clonogenic assay appears to have considerable application in predicting individual cancer patient response to chemotherapy. There are several obstacles in the way of its successful application, however, including problems of extrapolating in vitro tests to the in vivo situation, and technical problems related to successful selective in vitro growth of primary human tumour cells. The work in this thesis addresses this latter area, using a human carcinoma line RPMI 2650 as a model system.

Different disaggregation methods were compared; after short-term 0 incubation at 37 C, trypsin (0.25%) - EDTA (0.02%) produced the best viable single - cell suspension of RPMI 2650 cells. Following dissociation, RPMI 2650 cells and normal human fibroblasts were found to reaggregate spontaneously to form clusters. Clumps and clusters in cell suspensions contributed to final colony forming efficiencies; the significance of clumps and clusters in the clonogenic assay is discussed.

Use of low gelling temperature agaroses improved colony forming efficiencies under some conditions examined. Use of ultrapure water in the preparation of semi-solid media also improved colony formation.

Different incubation atmospheres were compared; RPMI 2650 colony formation was improved when the oxygen concentration was reduced from 20% to 3%. Colonies did not, however, grow under anaerobic conditions.

Medium without foetal calf serum did not support RPMI 2650 colony formation; growth was also poor in 1% and 2% f.c.s. Inclusion of HITES supplements did not reduce the requirement for serum. Other growth factors tested include TCGF, EGF, insulin and hydrocortisone.

Use of feeder cells improved colony forming efficiencies considerably; best results were obtained with mitomycin C-treated feeder cells. Inhibition was observed where high densities of feeder cells were used with high test cell densities.

The contribution of cell cycle to final colony formation was examined but did not appear to be a contributory factor to the low cloning efficiencies observed.

Normal human fibroblasts did not grow in either agar, agarose or methycelluloses, thus confirming the selective nature of the assay used in this laboratory.

Colony formation in agarose was inhibited at a lower ouabain
concentration than in monolayer; thioguanine inhibited colony formation in agarose and monolayer at the same toxic level. The significance of these findings is discussed and makes some contribution toward an understanding of the nature of anchorage-independent growth.


Background: Mobile applications are playing an increasing role in patient care, and their use in the oncologic field opens up promising possibilities in the fields of supportive cancer care and patient education. The objective of our study was to determine the effects on quality of life (QOL) of a mobile app–based training for supportive care of women with breast cancer using adjuvant endocrine hormonal therapy. Material and Methods: A single-blinded and randomized design was used. Participants were randomly assigned to either control group that receives routine care or intervention group that receives routine care plus access to mobile app–based training support for 12 weeks. QOL and symptom distress were measured before intervention (T0), after 12 weeks (T1) of intervention. This study is the application of three modality combinations: mobile app-based patient education (1), web-based management application (2), and nurse's tracking over the phone and mobile app (3). The mobile app-based training also provides basic information about breast cancer, symptom diary and lifestyle recommendations (adequate and balanced nutrition, regular physical activity, deal with stress effectively). Results: QOL of the treatment group after intervention increased and distress level was low compared to the control group; these results were statistically significant. The majority of the patients reported that the mobile application was "informative and useful". Conclusions: This demonstrated that the mobile app is an effective intervention for supportive care in women with breast cancer. The mobile app–based training, which is an innovative intervention, is recommended as a supportive care initiative for women with breast cancer.


There is evidence for non-nutritive flow routes within, or associated with, skeletal muscle. Large capillary-like structures are possible candidates. The proportion of flow distributed between nutritive and non-nutritive routes appears to be tightly regulated and can control muscle metabolism and contraction by regulating delivery and product removal. The portion of flow that is carried by the non-nutritive routes at rest affords a flow reserve for amplifying nutrient delivery as muscle begins to work and may determine post-exercise metabolism. Inappropriate signals, however, may diminish nutritive flow to the detriment of muscle performance and post-exercise recovery. New technologies should allow the identification of the non-nutritive routes.


To scale up independent living solutions we need to collect and share more evidence on their impact across Europe. However, a joint European framework of methodologies is missing in that area. For that reason ENGAGED organised a set of workshops gathering experts and stakeholders from all over Europe.Read more about our activities and the ENGAGED upcoming events in the project's third newsletter: ENGAGED third newsletter


Author(s): Greiner, Erin Rochelle | Advisor(s): Loo, Joseph A | Abstract: Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant, fatal neurodegenerative disorder characterized by movement disorders, cognitive impairment, and psychiatric deficits. Despite the discovery of the huntingtin (htt) gene more than 19 years ago, the biological function of normal and mutant huntingtin (Htt) protein still remain unclear in HD pathogenesis. We performed a spatiotemporal proteomic profiling of proteins co-immunoprecipitated with full-length Htt in BACHD and wildtype mouse brains to identify 747 Htt-interacting proteins that are highly enriched with known Htt interactors. In order to obtain an unbiased interpretation of this Htt interactome, we applied Weighted Gene Correlation Network Analyses (WGCNA) to define protein correlation relationships among the Htt interactors across 30 independent tissue (cortex, striatum, cerebellum), genotype (Wt vs BACHD), and age (2m vs 12m) conditions. The analysis established a verifiable rank of proteins based on their correlation strength with Htt, and also revealed the organization of Htt-interacting protein networks, with one such network containing Htt itself, 19 known Htt interactors, and 12 novel genetic modifiers of HD. Our study demonstrates a novel systems biology approach to interpret in vivo proteomic interactomes derived from complex tissues such as the brain, and the value of such an approach in illuminating known and novel molecular targets for HD. Recent studies suggest that the N-terminal 17 amino acids of Htt (N17 domain) immediately preceding the polyQ domain may constitute a critical domain for Htt function and HD pathogenesis. Biochemical characterization, proteomic profiling, and WGCNA network analysis of the full-length Htt interactomes from novel BAC transgenic mouse models of HD expressing human huntingtin with 97 glutamines, with 1) phosphomimetic Ser13 and Ser16 mutations (SD mice), 2) phosphoresisant Ser13 and Ser16 mutations (SA mice), and 3) deletion of Htt aa 2-16 (BACHD-∆N17 mice) reveal critical insights into how this domain regulates Htt nuclear toxicity, protein aggregation, and protein-protein interactions.


Objective: To compare two different home exercise programmes for patients with acute whiplash-associated disorders (WAD). A further aim was to describe the initial prognostic variables related to self-reported pain at six months follow-up. Design: A randomized treatment study with a follow-up period of six months. Settings: The study was undertaken in an orthopaedic clinic at a university hospital. Subjects: A total of 59 symptomatic (neck pain, stiffness, etc.) patients with acute whiplash injury. Interventions: Patients were randomized to a regular treatment group (RT group) and an additional-exercise treatment group (AT group). Main outcome measures: Pain Disability Index (PDI), Self-Efficacy Scale (SES), Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CSQ), neck range of motion (ROM), head posture, kinaesthetic sensibility, visual analogue scale (VAS). Results: Patients given an additional exercise did not improve more than patients with regular treatment. Only one CSQ item, 'Ability to decrease pain', showed a significant difference between the groups in its pattern of change over time: the AT group had a significant increase between three and six months whilst values in the RT group decreased. Nonsymptomatic patients at six months follow-up were characterized by initially better self-efficacy, lower disability and significantly different patterns in the use of 'behavioural coping strategies' when compared with symptomatic patients. The nonsymptomatic patients also reported more frequent training than symptomatic patients, i.e. they complied better with the treatment regime. Conclusion: This home exercise programme, including training of neck and shoulder ROM, relaxation and general advice seems to be sufficient treatment for acute WAD patients when used on a daily basis. Additionally, patients reporting low self-efficacy and high disability levels may profit from more attention initially, as these psychological factors are significant predictors of pain at long-term follow-up.


The study of spontaneous variation of Act. werraensis not subjected to the treatment with mutagens and stabilizing selection revealed 6 variants within the homologous series of hereditary variation of apigmental actinomyces. The example of revealing the proactinomycete-like variants in Act. werraensis confirmed the prognosticating principle of the homologous series law in the hereditary variation of actinomycetes. Correlation between the cultural and morphological features of the spontaneous variants and the antibiotic-production level was shown. It was found that the variants of Act. werraensis had a high variation coefficient characteristic of the wild type actinomycetes. A possibility of increasing the biosynthetic activity of Act. werraensis by selection of spontaneous variants with artificial mutagenesis was shown.


Hepatic chirrosis is a patological condition that show end stage od hepatic fibrosis and moves progressively that signed with distortion of hepar arsitecture and makes regenerative nodulus. This appearance was happened because of hepatocellular necrosis. A woman, 78 years old, came with a chief complaint of big stomach since 1 months ago, feel fullness and pain during 2 days and become more intense until offend daily activities. She also felt tight, nausea, vomitting, decreasing body weight, and swelling on her feet. The urine looks like a thick tea and the feces looks like a black coal. He had been diagnosed with "yellow sickness" 3 years ago. From physical examination, he was compos mentis with blood pressure 160/100 mmHg, pulse 80x/mnt, respiration rate 14x/mnt, temperature 36,8 o C, pretibialis oedema, conjungtiva pale, icteric sclera, ronkhi in pulmo auscultation. In abdominal examination, there was simetrical appearance, distention, tight, pain, abdominal diameter 105cm. From laboratory examination, the LED was 30,3 mm/ hour, trombosit 134.000/ul (normal: 150.000-400.000/ul), GDS 394 mg/dl (normal: 70-200mg/dl), ureu m 26 mg/dl, creatinin 0,96 mg/dl, SGOT 29 u/l, Gamma GT (GGT) 264 u/l, Total Bilirubin 1,11 mg/dl, Dire ct Bilirubin 0,47 mg/dl . M edikamentosa therapy is given Spironolakton 1 x 100 mg , Furosemid injection 1 amp ul / 24 injection, Sukralfat syrup 3xC1 , Ranitidin injection 1 amp ul / 12 jam , Vit amin K 1 x 1 , Bisoprolol 1 x 1 , Humulin injection 6-6-6 IU , Amlodipin 1 x 10 mg. Chirrosis hepatic in this pasien is because ofhepatitis B . Keywords : hepatitis B, hepatic chirrosis, oedem, shifting dullness.


Stuttering is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by frequent and involuntary disruptions during speech production. Adults who stutter are often subject to negative perceptions. The present study examined whether negative social and cognitive impressions are formed when listening to speech, even without any knowledge about the speaker. Two experiments were conducted in which naïve participants were asked to listen to and provide ratings on samples of read speech produced by adults who stutter and typically-speaking adults without knowledge about the individuals who produced the speech. In both experiments, listeners rated speaker cognitive ability, likeability, anxiety, as well as a number of speech characteristics that included fluency, naturalness, intelligibility, the likelihood the speaker had a speech-and-language disorder (Experiment 1 only), rate and volume (both Experiments 1 and 2). The speech of adults who stutter was perceived to be less fluent, natural, intelligible, and to be slower and louder than the speech of typical adults. Adults who stutter were also perceived to have lower cognitive ability, to be less likeable and to be more anxious than the typical adult speakers. Relations between speech characteristics and social and cognitive impressions were found, independent of whether or not the speaker stuttered (i.e., they were found for both adults who stutter and typically-speaking adults) and did not depend on being cued that some of the speakers may have had a speech-language impairment.


The air conditioning (AC) electric loads and their impacts on local weather over Beijing during a 5 day heat wave event in 2010 are investigated by using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, in which the Noah land surface model with multiparameterization options (Noah‐MP) is coupled to the multilayer Building Effect Parameterization and Building Energy Model (BEP+BEM). Compared to the legacy Noah scheme coupled to BEP+BEM, this modeling system shows a better performance, decreasing the root‐mean‐square error of 2 m air temperature to 1.9°C for urban stations. The simulated AC electric loads in suburban and rural districts are significantly improved by introducing the urban class‐dependent building cooled fraction. Analysis reveals that the observed AC electric loads in each district are characterized by a common double peak at 3 p.m. and at 9 p.m. local standard time, and the incorporation of more realistic AC working schedules helps reproduce the evening peak. Waste heat from AC systems has a smaller effect (~1°C) on the afternoon 2 m air temperature than the evening one (1.5~2.4°C) if AC systems work for 24 h and vent sensible waste heat into air. Influences of AC systems can only reach up to ~400 m above the ground for the evening air temperature and humidity due to a shallower urban boundary layer than daytime. Spatially varying maps of AC working schedules and the ratio of sensible to latent waste heat release are critical for correctly simulating the cooling electric loads and capturing the thermal stratification of urban boundary layer.


Grapevine varieties showing partial resistance to downy mildew, caused by Plasmopara viticola, are a promising alternative to fungicides for disease control. Resistant varieties are obtained through breeding programs aimed at incorporating Rpv loci controlling the quantitative resistance into genotypes characterized by valuable agronomic and wine quality traits by mean of crossing. Traditional phenotyping methods used in these breeding programs are mostly based on the assessment of the resistance level after artificial inoculation of leaf discs in bioassays, by using the visual score proposed in the 2nd Edition of the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) Descriptor List for Grape Varieties and Vitis species (2009). In this work, the OIV score was compared with an alternative approach, not used for the grapevine-downy mildew pathosystem so far, based on the measurement of components of resistance (RCs); 15 grapevine resistant varieties were used in comparison with the susceptible variety 'Merlot'. OIV scores were significantly correlated with P. viticola infection frequency (IFR), the latent period for the downy mildew (DM) lesions to appear (LP50), and the number of sporangia produced per lesion (SPOR), so that when the OIV score increased (i.e., the resistance level increases), IFR and SPOR decreased, while LP50 increased. The relationship was linear for LP50, monomolecular for IFR and hyperbolic for SPOR. No significant correlation was found between OIV score and DM lesion size, sporangia produced per unit area of lesion, length of infectious period, and infection efficiency of the sporangia produced on DM lesions. The correlation between OIV score and area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC) calculated by using the RCs and a simulation model was significant and fit an inverse exponential function. Based on the results of this study, the measurement of the RCs to P. viticola in grapevine varieties by means of monocyclic, leaf disc bioassays, as well as their incorporation into a model able to simulate their effect on the polycyclic development of DM epidemics in vineyards, represents an improved method for phenotyping resistance level.


The proximate composition, mineral contents and the effects of sodium sulphate salts on emulsion capacity (EC) and stability (ES) of mushroom species M 1 – Lentinus subnudus Berk, M 2 – Chlorophyllum molybditis , M 3 – Volvariella esculenta , M 4 – Coprinus tramentarius , M 5 – Pleurotus ostreatus Jacq, M 6 – Termitomyces microcarpus, and M 7 – Pleurotus pulmonarius  obtained from Nigeria were investigated using standard methods for analyses.  The mean of some of the results is:  Crude protein:  9.1±0.15 -13.80±0.15%, Crude fibre: 4.15±0.02 – 7.08±0.59%, Na: 177±2.56 – 910±2.56 mg/100 g, P: 480±2.31 – 884±2.43 mg/100 g and Cu: 0.23±0.23 – 0.23±0.23 mg/100 g. In the study, EC and ES were affected by different salt concentrations. In water, the EC results varied from 76.26±20.17 (M 2 ) to 85.70 ± 20.17% (M 7 ) and significantly differed from one another at p > 0.05. The EC of samples in different salt concentrations ranged as follows: 64.48 -86.18, 68.18 - 75.10, 67.18 - 74.51, and 61.48 -75.01% at 2, 4, 6, 8% of the salt concentrations respectively. Salt applications gave lowest ES and EC. These results indicated the interaction between the oil, salt solutions, the mushroom samples, and the blender used to form the emulsions. In stable ES, the interfacial area did not change with time. Consequently, such emulsions have a constant turbidity. In this report, it was observed that coalescence and oiling-off caused an irreversible reduction in the interfacial area. In conclusion, the good emulsifying capacity and stability showed the usefulness of the samples in the food industries and formulations.


Objectives
Infection is associated with impaired nutritional status especially of infants under 5 years old. We assessed the impact of infection indicated by both the acute phase proteins (APP), C-reactive protein (CRP) and α-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP), and as reported by maternal recall on the nutritional status of infants.

Methods
505 pregnant women were enrolled into a nested longitudinal cohort study of vitamin A. Data analysis was restricted to infant data at 9-months (n = 385 mother-infant dyads) postpartum. Incidence and severity of respiratory infection and diarrhea over the previous 14 days were assessed by maternal recall; information on infant/child feeding practices were also collected. Infant weight, recumbent length and heel-prick capillary blood collection were taken at 9-months postpartum. Indicators of VA status [(retinol binding protein (RBP)], iron status (Hb, ferritin) and subclinical inflammation APP, CRP and AGP, were determined. Subclinical inflammation was defined as CRP >5 mg/L and/or AGP >1 g/L. Impacts of infection on infant nutritional status were estimated with multivariable logistic regression models adjusted for clustering and differences at enrollment.

Results
Infection prevalence, based on elevated CRP and AGP levels, was 36.7%. For diarrhea reported symptoms, 42.4% of infants at 9-months had no indication of infection as indicated by CRP and AGP; whilst for acute respiratory reported symptoms, 42.6% had no indication of infection. There was a weak but significant positive association with infection among VA deficient (RBP <0.83 µmol/L) infants based on maternal reported symptoms but not with iron deficiency (ferritin <12 µg/L). The odds of having infection, based on raised CRP and AGP, in underweight infants was 3.7 times higher (OR: 3.7; P = 0.019). Infants with iron deficiency were less likely (OR: 0.40; P = 0.001) to have infection based on CRP and AGP, whilst infants with VA deficiency were 5 times more likely (OR: 5.06; P = 0.0001) to have infection.

Conclusions
Acute phase proteins are more useful in defining infection in a population compared to reported symptoms of illness. Not controlling for inflammation in a population while assessing nutritional status might result in inaccurate prevalence estimation.

Funding Sources
Supported by the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP53344).


Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are a class of smart materials that can fix a temporary shape and recover to their permanent (original) shape in response to an environmental stimulus such as heat, electricity, or irradiation, among others. Most SMPs developed in the past can only demonstrate the so-called one-way shape memory effect; i.e., one programming step can only yield one shape memory cycle. Recently, one of the authors (Mather) developed a SMP that exhibits both one-way shape memory (1W-SM) and two-way shape memory (2W-SM) effects (with the assistance of an external load). This SMP was further used to develop a free-standing composite actuator with a nonlinear reversible actuation under thermal cycling. In this paper, a theoretical model for the PCO SMP based composite actuator was developed to investigate its thermomechanical behavior and the mechanisms for the observed phenomena during the actuation cycles, and to provide insight into how to improve the design.


The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between dividend policy and stock price volatility. Two key variables; dividend yield and dividend payout have been taken as the independent variables after controlling for firm size and growth in assets. The stock price volatility has been taken as the dependent variable. Data collection was carried out with a sample of 40 companies listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange, for a period of ten years from 2003 to 2012. The results of cross section random effect model revealed that there is a significant negative impact from dividend payout, a significant positive impact from company size and no evidence of significant impact from dividend yield on stock price volatility. Furthermore, Granger causality tests revealed that there is no short term impact from dividend payout on stock price volatility and it showed a feedback exist between company size and stock price volatility in any lag level. It is evident that the dividend yield does granger cause stock price volatility and reported a unidirectional causality exists from dividend yield to stock price volatility in any lag level. Therefore, the findings suggest that, high dividend payout would lead to less volatile stock price, whilst higher dividend yield pave the way towards more volatility in stock price in the short run. This paper is the first to show that dividend yield has a significant impact on stock price volatility in the short run and the first to discuss the same phenomenon in the Sri Lankan context, to the best of the author"s knowledge.


The aim of this study was to estimate the rate of positive respiratory symptomatics among patients seeking treatment at primary health clinics in Vitória, Espírito Santo State, Brazil. This cross-sectional study included 603 individuals that answered a questionnaire with socio-demographic data and a question on cough in the previous three weeks. The prevalence ratio was calculated with 5% significance. The proportion of patients with positive respiratory symptoms in the municipality was 4%, varying from 1.6 to 11.7% between regions. The majority (71%) did not report cough as the reason for coming to the health clinic. Variables significantly associated with respiratory symptoms were: shortness of breath (PR = 6.29; 95%CI: 2.22-21.81) and lack of appetite (PR = 2.75; 95%CI: 1.08-6.82). Among patients with respiratory symptoms, cough was the principal reason for seeking treatment. This condition was only associated with two variables, thus demonstrating the need to adopt different strategies to identify these individuals among the daily patient flow in primary health clinics.


This study evaluated the demographic variables and socio-economic status on the prevalence of health hazards amongst residents of Akure North Local Government, Ondo State, Nigeria. The study was a descriptive research design of the survey type. The population for this study was estimated to be 131,587 residents. The sample consisted of 600 residents using stratified sampling technique. Pearson Product Moment Correlation and multiple regression analysis were used for the analysis and were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings on the disposal of solid wastes by the residents showed that there was a significant relationship between household solid wastes disposal and health hazards among residents of Akure North Local Government Area (r=-0.876, p<0.05). Also, all the demographic variables jointly influence the prevalence of health hazards, (F= 7.332, p<0.05) while socio economic status had no influence on the prevalence of health hazards among residents of Akure North Local Government. Therefore, there is the need to enhance environmental education programmes and public participation as it affects solid wastes management not only through the radio, television and print media but also through grassroots enlightenment campaigns via the chiefs and community leaders. Also, the women should be more empowered economically and be made to play an important role as it has been realized that women do a greater part of solid wastes handling and disposal in the community.  Keywords : Waste, age, gender, socio-economic, health hazards, community.


We study sample complexity of optimizing ``hill-climbing friendly'' functions defined on a graph under noisy observations. We define a notion of convexity, and we show that a variant of best-arm identification can find a near-optimal solution after a small number of queries that is independent of the size of the graph. For functions that have local minima and are nearly convex, we show a sample complexity for the classical simulated annealing under noisy observations. We show effectiveness of the greedy algorithm with restarts and the simulated annealing on problems of graph-based nearest neighbor classification as well as a web advertising application.


Background: Censorship of library materials denies people's right to access, use, retrieve, and store materials of their desire. Intellectual freedom is critical to eliminating the constraint of censorship. Issues such as illiteracy, societal standards, and selection policy hadbeen identified as challenges to intellectual freedom. The existing body of literature revealed that library materials are subjected to censorship and this denies readers' rights to access desirable information at any point in time. Aim: This research examined the perception of librarians on combating the challenges of intellectual freedom. Methodology: The target population for this study included professional librarians working in eight (8) selected academic libraries in Kwara State, Nigeria. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select 60 respondents from the 8 academic libraries involved in the study. A questionnaire of 6 research questions was developed for the collection of data. Findings: The results indicated: the majority of the respondents agree that there are equal opportunities for library users to access library materials, obscene and controversial materials are subjected to censorship, library selection policy restricts library users' access to desired materials. Lifting restriction of access to library materials was identified as the way to combat the challenges of intellectual freedom. Recommendations: The authors recommends that government should ensure that the Freedom of Information Bill (FOI) is passed to enable library patrons' have access to all information materials and that library stakeholders should create awareness, publicity, or enlightenment on intellectual freedom to inform the users of their rights to hold, use, and access information materials of their choice.


Surgery, requiring the use of general orotracheal anaesthesia, has been the traditional treatment for many inguino-scrotal conditions. Over a number of years a gradual implementation of an alternative procedure consisting in the adoption of locoregional anaesthetic techniques has taken place, allowing to shorten hospital stays with the subsequent benefit for both the society at large, due of lower costs, and the patient through avoidance of general orotracheal anaesthetics and a faster discharge and return home. Based on these premises, 54 procedures were performed (16 inguinal varicocelectomies, 6 transinguineal orchiectomies, 21 hydrocelectomies, 3 spermatic cord cyst removals, 6 orchidopexy and 2 orchiectomies in patients diagnosed with testicular torsion). Our results demonstrate that this is an excellent technique which allows a ruled surgical procedure well tolerated by the patient and which allows to perform surgery without need of hospital stay.


Microbial colonization of a neonate's gastrointestinal tract has significant perinatal and lifetime health consequences, with some clinical outcomes that have been linked to differences in the diversity and composition of gut microbiota. The effort to engineer intestinal ecosystem has led us to preserve the cultivable commensal microbiota. Here we investigated the association of cultivable bacterial diversity of neonates meconium from Indonesian National Referral Hospital Cipto Mangunkusumo (NRHCM) with mode of delivery and feeding patterns, as well as hyperbilirubinemia. We performed a cross-sectional study of meconium and clinical data collected from 14 Indonesian neonates born at NRHCM. Culture-dependent identification of bacterial isolates was conducted by performing simultaneous microbiological and molecular 16S rDNA PCR-Sanger sequencing methods. Phylogenetic tree and principal components analysis were employed to determine the bacterial profile and their association with clinical characteristics and outcomes. Cultivable bacterial profile indicates the predominance of Firmicutes (84,41%), with an abundant population of Staphylococcus (53.24%) with top three most significant population present are, i.e. S. hominis (12.99%), S. epidermidis (11.68%), and S. haemolyticus (10.39%). Bacterial diversity was associated with mode of delivery which showed that vaginal route populated by lower diversity of cultivable bacteria but by fewer opportunistics one than that of cesarean, with Staphylococcus hominis dominates the population, whereas with feeding patterns showed that the exclusive breast-fed was most populated by Staphylococcus, whereas non-exclusive one shared the same proportion of Staphylococcus and Bacterioides. While, non-hyperbilirubinemia group showed more abundant and diverse Staphylococcus than that of the opposite group.


The enigmatic star KIC 8462852, informally known as "Boyajian's Star," has exhibited unexplained variability from both short timescale (days) dimming events, and years-long fading in the Kepler mission. No single physical mechanism has successfully explained these observations to date. Here we investigate the ultraviolet variability of KIC 8462852 on a range of timescales using data from the GALEX mission that occurred contemporaneously with the Kepler mission. The wide wavelength baseline between the Kepler and GALEX data provides a unique constraint on the nature of the variability. Using 1600 s of photon-counting data from four GALEX visits spread over 70 days in 2011, we find no coherent NUV variability in the system on 10–100 s or month timescales. Comparing the integrated flux from these 2011 visits to the 2012 NUV flux published in the GALEX-CAUSE Kepler survey, we find a 3% decrease in brightness for KIC 8462852. We find that this level of variability is significant, but not necessarily unusual for stars of similar spectral type in the GALEX data. This decrease coincides with the secular optical fading reported by Montet & Simon. We find that the multi-wavelength variability is somewhat inconsistent with typical interstellar dust absorption, but instead favors a reddening law potentially from circumstellar dust.


The SMART‐s (Spectral Measurements for Atmospheric Radiative Transfer—spectroradiometer) acquires Sun/sky observations for retrieving optimal information on trace gases and aerosols with minimal assumptions. Overall, the algorithm of SMART‐s incorporates a series of retrievals, from fundamental quantities (i.e., column abundance of trace gases and aerosol loading) to higher‐order geophysical parameters (e.g., aerosol physicochemical properties and vertical profiles), utilizing Sun/sky spectral radiance measurements. This paper describes the theoretical basis for column retrievals of trace gases and aerosols. Associated profile retrievals will be presented in follow‐up papers. The current algorithm retrieves the fine/coarse mode of the particle size distribution and spectral complex index of refraction and, thereby, the spectral aerosol single‐scattering albedo ω0. SMART‐s retrieval is unique particularly in its high spectral resolution of the complex index of refraction and ω0 from near‐ultraviolet to near‐infrared wavelengths, which is pivotal information for atmospheric chemistry, climate and other inversions. We theoretically assessed information content and retrieval accuracy of the algorithm and compared different type of measurements including the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) and standard Pandora. For the same levels of radiometric accuracy, SMART‐s measurements provide the most informative aerosol retrievals based on theoretical error analyses. Higher spectral resolution measurements are particularly beneficial for particle size distribution and fine‐mode refractive index retrievals. We applied this algorithm to the AERONET Sun/sky measurements at Kanpur, India, in 2016 to assess algorithm consistency. Even with different assumptions and numerical methods for the inversion, SMART‐s retrieved aerosol parameters agreed well with the AERONET operational products (e.g., absolute mean bias errors less than 0.01 for ω0).


Aim: We aimed to determine the distribution of aeroallergen sensitization according to epidermal prick test results and to compare them with the previous atmospheric pollen analysis outcomes Materials and Methods: We retrospectively scanned our patient data between December 2019 and May 2021. The patients with sensitivity to at least one aeroallergen in the epidermal prick test were recruited in the study. Results: A total of 427 patients enrolled in the study and were clinically divided into three groups: 119 (27.9%) had allergic rhinitis, 181 (42.2%) had asthma and 127 (29.7%) had both allergic rhinitis and asthma. Concerning the whole study group, aeroallergen sensitivity was observed most against the grass pollen mixture (79.6%); other common aeroallergens were tree pollen (56.4%), weed pollen mixture (51.5%), house dust mites (16.9%), mold fungi (9.1%). Epidermal prick test pollen distribution was found compatible with previous atmospheric aeroallergen distribution. Conclusions: This is the first study comparing the results of the epidermal prick test with the previous atmospheric pollen measurement results in our country and revealed that they are related.


The burden of rising health care expenditures has created a demand for information regarding the clinical and economic outcomes associated with complementary and alternative medicines. Meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials have found Hypericum perforatum preparations to be superior to placebo and similarly effective as standard antidepressants in the acute treatment of mild to moderate depression. A clear advantage over antidepressants has been demonstrated in terms of the reduced frequency of adverse effects and lower treatment withdrawal rates, low rates of side effects and good compliance, key variables affecting the cost-effectiveness of a given form of therapy. The most important risk associated with use is potential interactions with other drugs, but this may be mitigated by using extracts with low hyperforin content. As the indirect costs of depression are greater than five times direct treatment costs, given the rising cost of pharmaceutical antidepressants, the comparatively low cost of Hypericum perforatum extract makes it worthy of consideration in the economic evaluation of mild to moderate depression treatments.


A simple molecular structure of ortho-derived perylene diimide (PDI) diploid (oo-2PDI), a PDI derivative, as well as two bay-derived PDI diploids (bb-2PDI and bo-2PDI), was designed and efficiently synthesized by efficient Ullmann coupling reactions. The photophysical and electrochemical properties indicate that oo-2PDI exhibits much stronger absorption than bb-2PDI in the visible region and a slightly higher lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) level, which are beneficial for harvesting much sunlight and improving open circuit voltage in the organic solar cell (OSC) devices. On using PTB7-Th with appropriate energy level alignment and well matched absorption as the electron donor, the active layer of PTB7-Th:oo-2PDI exhibits a favorable morphology, higher carrier mobilities and more balanced carrier transport. As a result, the device based on PTB7-Th:oo-2PDI shows a power conversion efficiency (PCE) as high as 8.30% and a high short circuit current (JSC) of 18.79 mA cm−2, which are much higher than those of the other two PDI diploids (bb-2PDI and bo-2PDI), highlighting the potential of ortho-derived PDI diploid to realize high efficiency non-fullerene OSCs. Such a concise molecular structure and the high efficiency make this compound promising for practical applications in OSCs.


Many exercise programs designed by trainers have the specific aim to enhance strength, endurance, or power of certain muscle groups to improve athletic performance. Muscle training is also an important component of rehabilitation to limit atrophy associated with immobilization, aging, or disease. To optimize exercise interventions, a good understanding of the response to various training programs and the identification of the mechanisms that influence muscle function are required. Changes in the performance of muscle contraction are associated, among other things, with muscle fiber-type expression and functional properties of the contractile apparatus. Chemically skinned, single fibers is the only model that allows study of the mechanical properties of human muscle fibers as a function of the expression of myosin heavy-chain isoforms. Recently, this model has been used to explore the functional adaptations after different types of solicitations. The current results of the literature indicate that cross-sectional area and force of a specific fiber type are enhanced after resistance training, whereas maximal unloaded shortening velocity is increased by endurance training. Plyometric training improves both fiber force and shortening velocity. Fiber peak power is increased after resistance or plyometric training, and on a long-term basis it is decreased after endurance training. Studies on elderly individuals indicate that this population may react differently with respect to some single-fiber adaptations after training. Generally, training regimens tend to decrease the proportion of type IIx fibers. The available data in the literature make it possible to formulate recommendations applicable to sport science and rehabilitation.


We have identified and described the characteristics of a unique tumor rejection antigen (tumor-specific transplantation antigen) obtained from the murine malignant melanoma S91. This antigen is highly restricted to the autologous melanoma and provides striking inhibition of its growth. Previously, we described common or shared tumor-specific transplantation antigens on the murine malignant melanomas B16 F10, K1735, JB/RH, and JB/MS. No cross-reactivity was obtained in this study between S91 and those four other malignant melanomas. The common tumor-specific transplantation antigen resides on a glycoprotein molecule with a molecular weight of 65,000, termed B700, that shares homology with serum albumin as determined by NH2-terminal amino acid sequencing. B700, however, purified from S91 proved to be ineffective as an immunogen.


In this study we compared perceptions of the campus climate for GLBT students from surveys returned by 80 GLBT students, 253 general students, 126 faculty members, 41 student affairs staff members, and 105 residence hall assistants. A snowball sampling strategy was used to collect GLBT student responses, all residence hall assistants were surveyed, and a stratified random sampling process was used for faculty, student affairs staff, and general students. Some survey scales were common across all groups and some were unique to each group. They focused on knowledge, interest, and involvement in GLBT topics, attitudes toward GLBT persons and issues, and perceptions of the campus climate. The authors believe the results suggest that sufficient differences exist across and within (sex and class for students, sex and academic discipline for faculty) campus community groups to warrant using a multiple perspectives approach when assessing the campus climate for GLBT students.


Reading is a skill that must be developed permanently in order to realize one self and to keep up with the times. For this, especially Turkish teachers must be good reader and then it is necessary to instill reading habit to students. Main purpose of this research is to specify books which are considered beneficial to read by Turkish teacher and preservice Turkish teacher. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with 25 faculty members who are working in six different universities' Turkish language education department and 25 Turkish teachers working in MoNE. In determining the participants in the study snowball sampling technique was used. To collect data of research, semi-structured data collection tool was developed. Descriptive analysis techniques were used while analyzing the data collected. At the end of the study, the majority of participants stated that Turkish teachers and preservice Turkish teachers don't read books regularly. So they noted that we must have book suggestion list for professional groups. Also, in accordance with the opinion of the participants a suggestion list consists of 100 books has been identified and they have been justified.


This study investigates the role that the notions of trauma and culture play in relation to the alleviation of distress within an war-affected population. It analyses how local, cultural conceptions of distress and those held by psychological service providers relate to one another, and how they contribute to improving the well-being of the displaced. Fieldwork was conducted with urban and rural displaced populations in the south-eastern province of Huila in Angola. Ethnographic, psychometric and participatory methods were used to examine issues of health, illness and distress amongst the displaced. Local idioms of distress in the form of pensamentos, mutima, madness and high and low blood pressure are common ways of expressing suffering related to war. The different explanatory models held about these illnesses and the various resources available in the popular, folk and professionals sectors of the health care system were explored. The religious and spiritual domains were found to be influential in the treatment of distress-related illnesses. The psychological services available in the war-displaced communities were examined in terms of their common theoretical and practical elements. These were then analysed in relation to the conceptualisations held by local populations, and points of similarity and difference were noted. Specifically, the conceptualisation of suffering as trauma and the cultural misunderstandings that arise as a result of this, and the representation of the displaced as traumatised and therefore dependent and passive people, are discussed. A particular subgroup in the community, the adolescents, was identified and participatory methods were employed to investigate the strategies and resources this group uses for coping with war-related distress. The youths predominantly make use of distraction, conselho, religious and cultural resources. The application of a PTSD scale, the EARAT, suggests that 71% of the adolescents had symptoms of trauma consistent with a diagnosis of PTSD. It is argued that for the vast majority such a conceptualisation does not reflect the adolescents' abilities to function on social, vocational, educational and physical levels. The implications of these findings for research and practice in the field of psychosocial work are discussed.


In this paper stochastic dynamic programming is used to investigate land conversion decisions taken by a multitude of landholders under uncertainty about the value of environmental services and irreversible development. We study land conversion under competition on the market for agricultural products when voluntary and mandatory measures are combined by the Government to induce habitat conservation. We show that land conversion can be delayed by paying landholders for the provision of environmental services and by limiting the individual extent of developable land. It is found, instead, that the presence of ceilings on aggregate conversion may lead to runs which rapidly exhaust the targeted amount of land. We study the impact of uncertainty on the optimal conversion policy and discuss conversion dynamics under different policy scenarios on the basis of the relative long-run expected rate of deforestation. Interestingly, we show that uncertainty, even if it induces conversion postponement in the short-run, increases the average rate of deforestation and reduces expected time for total conversion in the long run. Finally, we illustrate our findings through some numerical simulations.


A nonlinear medium that displays promise in all-optical communications is a nematic liquid crystal. A nematic liquid crystal exhibits a "huge" nonlinearity, so that nonlinear effects can be observed over millimetre distances for relative low powered input beams (milliwatt power). Spatial optical solitons, termed nematicons, are supported in nematic liquid crystals. A further property of nematic liquid crystals is that there optical response is nonlocal, in that the elastic response of the nematic extends beyond the optical perturbing beam. This nonlocal response allows two dimensional beams, such as nematicons and optical vortices, to be stable. The equations governing nonlinear optical beam propagation in nematic liquid crystals form a non-integrable, coupled system of an nonlinear Schrodingertype equation for the beam and a Poisson's equation for the medium response. This system has no known, general solutions. In this thesis, an approximate variational technique, termed modulation theory, and numerical solutions will be used to analyse the evolution and propagation of nematicons, both circular and elliptical in cross section, and optical vortices in a finite liquid crystal cell. Particular attention is paid to the effect of boundaries on the beam trajectory and stability. Modulation theory has the advantage that the coupled partial differential equations governing the beam are reduced to a finite dimensional dynamical system, which yields insights into the underlying physical mechanisms. In addition, modulation theory can be easily extended to account for the effect of the diffractive radiation shed as a beam evolves. Two methods are used to solve the equation for the medium response, Fourier series and the method of images, with the latter found to give a much more efficient solution. It is found that the cell boundaries act as a repulsive force on a beam, so that a beam has a spiral path down a cell. It is also found that interaction with cell walls can destabilise an optical vortex. A linearised stability analysis is used to determine the minimum distance of approach to a cell boundary before instability sets in. This minimum distance is found to be in excellent agreement with numerical solutions. Finally, the propagation of an elliptic nematicon with orbital angular momentum in a finite-sized cell is analysed. It is found that the inclusion of angular momentum loss to radiation is vital for the accurate description of this beam. This loss is included for the first time.


Objective: Conventional methods of fluid assessment in critically ill children are difficult and/or inaccurate. Impedance cardiography has capability of measuring thoracic fluid content (TFC). There is an insufficient literature reporting correlation between TFC and conventional methods of fluid balance and whether TFC predicts outcomes in critically ill children. We hypothesized that TFC correlates with indices of fluid balance [FIMO (Fluid Intake Minus Output) and AFIMO (Adjusted Fluid Intake Minus Output)] and is a predictor of outcomes in critically ill children. Design: Retrospective chart review. Setting: Pediatric intensive care unit of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Patients: Children <21 years, admitted to our Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) between July- November 2018 with acute respiratory failure and/or shock and who were monitored for fluid status using ICON® monitor. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: We collected demographic information, data on daily and cumulative fluid balance (CFB), ventilator, PICU and hospital days, occurrence of multi-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), and mortality. We calculated AFIMO using insensible fluid loss. We analyzed data using correlation coefficient, chi-square test and multiple linear regression analysis. We analyzed a total 327 recordings of TFC, FIMO and AFIMO as daily records of fluid balance in 61 critically ill children during the study period. The initial TFC, FIMO, and AFIMO in ml [median (IQR)] were 30(23, 44), 300(268, 325), and 21.05(−171.3, 240.2), respectively. The peak TFC, FIMO, and AFIMO in ml were 36(26, 24), 322(286, 334), and 108.8(−143.6, 324.4) respectively. The initial CFB was 1134.2(325.6, 2774.4). TFC did not correlate well with FIMO or AFIMO (correlation coefficient of 0.02 and −0.03, respectively), but a significant proportion of patients with high TFC exhibited pulmonary plethora on x-ray chest (as defined by increased bronchovascular markings and/or presence of pleural effusion) (p = 0.015). The multiple linear regression analysis revealed that initial and peak TFC and peak and mean FIMO and AFIMO predicted outcomes (ventilator days, length of PICU, and hospital days) in critically ill children (p < 0.05). Conclusions: In our cohort of critically ill children with respiratory failure and/or shock, TFC did not correlate with conventional measures of fluid balance (FIMO/AFIMO), but a significant proportion of patients with high TFC had pulmonary plethora on chest x-ray. Both initial and peak TFC predicted outcomes in critically ill children.


The order in which nodes are explored in a (depth-first) iterative deepening search strategy is principally determined by the condition under which a path of the search tree is cut off in each search phase. A corresponding criterion, which has a strong influence on the performance of the overall (heuristic) search procedure, is generally realized in the form of an upper cost bound. In this paper, we develop an effective and computationally efficient termination criterion based on statistical methods of change detection. The criterion is local in the sense that it depends on properties of a path itself, rather than on the comparison with other paths. Loosely speaking, the idea is to take a systematic change in the (heuristic) evaluation of nodes along a search path as an indication of suboptimality. An expected utility criterion which also takes the consequence of the suboptimal search decision on the solution quality into account is proposed as a generalization of this idea.


The accuracy of height predictions at various ages based on five different methods (Tanner-Whitehouse mark I; Tanner-Whitehouse mark II; index of potential height; Bayley-Pinneau; Roche-Wainer-Thissen) was compared at yearly intervals with final height achieved in 32 boys (78 predictions) and 100 girls (227 predictions) with constitutionally tall stature. The boys were initially seen at a mean (SD) chronological age of 12.5 (3) years whereas the mean chronological age in girls was 11.8 (2.1) years. In tall boys Tanner-Whitehouse mark II gives a good estimation of final height up to the bone age of 13 years with a mean overestimation of 1 cm. The overestimation of final height is higher in the bone age groups 13-14 years (2.7 cm) and 14-15 years (3.4 cm) mainly due to the tall boys with a height greater than 3 SD scores. Up to the bone age of 12 years the final height is massively overestimated by the Bayley-Pinneau method but this method give relatively accurate estimations thereafter. The estimated confidence limits are large (+/- 8 cm) for the two methods up to a bone age of 15 years. In tall girls the Tanner-Whitehouse mark II method was accurate from bone age nine to 12 years but overestimated final height in the bone age groups 12-13 years and 13-15 years by a mean of 1.8 and 1.4 cm respectively. The Bayley-Pinneau method overestimated final height in the bone age groups 12-14 years whereas the height predictions are accurate thereafter. Up to a bone age of 13 years the estimated confidence limits for the two methods are large, +/- cm, but tend to improve thereafter. It is concluded that there is no best or most accurate method for predicting adult height in tall children. There are methods of first choice differing with respect to sex and bone age. In addition, correcting factors may improve their accuracy and correct their tendency to overestimate or underestimate adult height.


Australia has had significant experience of language and culture issues in the courtroom and some of these have been studied in depth by scholars like Eades and Walsh on language in Australian legal practice, and by Gibbons on the language of the law. This article brings this research into the framework of the rapidly growing discipline of intercultural communication, with its wider perspective of intercultural differences. It surveys how these cultural factors interact with linguistic communication, andhow both can affect the work of legal professionals, and considers the different possible roles of judges in multicultural courtrooms. (Author abstract).


This forum contribution addresses the state of the art in the finance-security literature, identifying problems with the 'financialisation of security' and 'securitisation of finance' analytics, as well as a tendency to treat 'money' as a non-financial object in ways that fail to recognise money's own (financial) parameters of safety and security. In response, it calls for greater engagement with political and financial security, instead of merely (political) securitisation and financialisation.


GreAand GreB-induced transcript cleavage drives reverse translocation of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase on a DNA template in the absence of NTPs (Feng, G.-H., Lee, D. N., Wang, D., Chan, C. L., and Landick, R. (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269,22282-22294, accompanying report). During transcript elongation, the sizes of the DNA footprint and the single-stranded transcription bubble vary markedly among transcription complexes halted at different template positions. To test whether transcription complex intermediates formed during transcript cleavage-induced reverse translocation also display heterogeneous conformations at different template positions, we examined the structures of two different transcription complexes before and after GreA treatment. Transcription complexes halted at position +16 after initiation at the T7A1 promoter or paused at the trpL pause site exhibited strong blocks to transcript cleavage after removal of 6 to 10 nucleotides. In both cases, the downstream  contact  between RNA polymerase  and DNA moved little during transcript cleavage, thereby increasing its distance from the active site, whereas the upstream DNA contact and the borders of the transcription bubble moved in approximate register with the transcript 3'-end. The backward movements of halted E. coli RNApolymerase are similar to a recently postulated model for discontinuous translocation during transcription, but differ from those reported for arrested RNA polymerase I1 transcription complexes.


Weexplore the long-term political consequences of the Third Reich and show that current political intolerance, xenophobia, and voting for radical right-wing parties are associated with proximity to former Nazi concentration camps in Germany. This relationship is not explained by contemporary attitudes, the location of the camps, geographic sorting, the economic impact of the camps, or their current use.We argue that cognitive dissonance led thosemore directly exposed toNazi institutions to conformwith the belief system of the regime. These attitudes were then transmitted across generations. The evidence provided here contributes both to our understanding of the legacies of historical institutions and the sources of political intolerance.


ABSTRACT April Le Quéré, P.; Nistor, I., and Mohammadian, A., 2020. Numerical modeling of tsunami-induced scouring around a square column: Performance assessment of FLOW-3D and Delft3D. Journal of Coastal Research, 36(6), 1278–1291. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. In recent years, tsunamis have caused considerable damage to coastal infrastructures and inflicted numerous casualties in coastal communities in the impacted regions. The information, which the design requirements for tsunami-resistant infrastructures is based on, is still in its preliminary stages. The focus of the study was to investigate, by means of a numerical model, the scouring occurring around a single, square column subjected to tsunami floods. A three-dimensional (3D) hydrostatic numerical model (Delft3D) and a 3D nonhydrostatic model (FLOW-3D) were used to replicate a series of physical tests conducted at the University of Ottawa, which consisted of a dam-break wave impacting onto a single square column installed over a movable sediment bed. These experimental tests were conducted in the Dambreak Flume at the University of Ottawa. Four different turbulence models and two different sediment-transport models were tested to find the most appropriate combination, which could model the complex flow characteristics associated with a dam-break–type bore. An extensive review of the hydrodynamic and scouring performance of various numerical models was also included in this study.


This paper presents a level set based segmentation method with shape priors. The shape priors guide the level set deformations so that the contour extraction process is affected not only from the local image properties, but also from the expert knowledge in the form of manual contours. The method does not need an explicit training phase and it does not complicate the level set functional because level set deformations and incorporation of prior information are done separately. The system uses manual expert contours to produce new level set surfaces which are warped into the surface from the level set process. The prior information is incorporated into the level sets by re-initializing these warped surfaces as new level set surfaces. The resulting system is validated by running experiments on synthetic data and real MR and ultrasound cardiac images.


The cardiovascular effects of ketamine hydrochloride and thiopental sodium were studied in 11 dogs. During anesthesia, mean heart rate rose to 185 beats/min with ketamine and 147 beats/min with thiopental. Cardiac output was increased with ketamine but unchanged by thiopental. The maximum first derivative of the left ventricular pressure (dP/dt max) fell by 14% with thiopental but did not change significantly with ketamine. Propranolol resulted in attenuation of the tachycardia and a fall of 10% in dP/dt max with ketamine but had little effect on the response to thiopental. Phentolamine had no consistent effects on either drug. With pentolinium both drugs decreased dP/dt max. Intracoronary injection of ketamine decreased dP/dt max. Adrenalectomy had little effect on the responses to either anesthetic. The results lead to the conclusion that both ketamine and thiopental have myocardial depressant effects, but, whereas thiopental does not alter sympathetic tone, the depressive effects of ketamine are obscured by stimulation of cardiac sympathetic nerves.


Dr. Shane Brown conducts research on cognition and conceptual change in engineering. He received his bachelor's and Ph.D. degrees from Oregon State University, both in Civil Engineering. His Ph.D. degree includes a minor in Science and Mathematics Education. His master's degree is in Environmental Engineering from the University of California-Davis. Dr. Brown is a licensed professional civil engineer and has six years of experience designing water and wastewater treatment facilities in central California. He was the recipient of the NSF CAREER award in 2011. Dr. Brown's research focuses on theoretical approaches to understanding why some engineering concepts are harder to learn than others, and how the concepts are embedded in contexts.


Objective: Major depressive disorder and obesity has been rapidly increasing worldwide, and overlapping related factors has been discussed more and more. Especially, it is stated that depression is the leading psychological factor which is affecting eating attitude, and accordingly body mass index (BMI) is increased. It is also thought that, impulsivity is higher with the severity of depression, which negatively affects eating attitude and may cause change on BMI. In this study, we aimed to determine whether BMI affects eating attitude and impulsivity in case of presence of depression, and if so, to determine other related factors. Methods: To this cross-sectional study, 120 patients were included, who were diagnosed major depression first time according to DSM-5, and who do not have any other psychological or physical illness. Sociodemographic Data Form, Eating Attitude Scale, Barrat Impulsivity Scale-11 (BIS-11) and Beck Depression Scale (BDS) were applied to participants. Results were analyzed using SPSS 22.0. Results: The severity of major depression was found to be related with high BMI (particularly obesity). Positive relationship was found between BMI and lower education level, being married, having children and smoking. Increase in BMI has no effect on impulsivity. However, there was a relationship between severity of depression and impulsivity independent from BMI. It was found that patients with eating attitude disorder have significantly higher BMI, BDS, BIS-11 total scores and attention, non-planning sub-dimensional scores compared to patients with normal eating attitude. Discussion: Hence, BMI with high major depression severity may be related with obesity. However, our findings suggest that rather than BMI, depression severity affects impulsivity more. It should be considered that, for depressive and obese individuals, with the increase in depression severity, eating attitude may be affected and impulsivity may be higher.


Pneumatic systems are widely used in industrial automation for their advantages such as speed of motion, low cost of maintenance, safe operation and high power/ weight ratio, cleanliness, simplicity of operation as compared with other systems such as hydraulic and electro - mechanical technologies. In this work, a fuzzy PI controller is designed for improving the output displacement of the servo pneumatic system, in order to improve the position transient response. The aim of tuning is to reach minimum steady state error in the output displacement and also to compensate the effect of applying different types of external load forces. The parameters of the controller are tuned using a trial and error method. A comparison between the results of using Fuzzy PI controller and the PID controller showed that the Fuzzy PI controller has improved the maximum error ratio in position up to 45 % by adding a fixed external load force and up to 19 % by adding variable external load force with high compensation for the effects of any external load force.


The paper raises the problem of polilingual behaviour of Vilnius teenagers. The aim of this study is to reveal the frequency of linguistic features in the language of Vilnius teenagers of two age groups (13—14 and 15—17) as well as identify reasons for the informants' polylingual behaviour. Extracts of spontaneous interactions from the corpus of the language of Vilnius youth have been chosen for the analysis. The results of the quantitative analysis have revealed that the elderly informants' and younger boys' polylingual behaviour is characterised by frequent, repetitive Russian features and nonrecurrent occurences of English features. The predominant use of English features in younger girls' speech may imply that they have not yet mastered the Russian slang as well as point to their positive attitudes towards the English language. Within the framework of interactional sociolinguistics, the analysis of younger informants' speech has revealed a link between English, German, Polish features and language play. Differently from the elderly teenagers, younger teenagers tend to change identities, e.g. an experienced player, an expert at love affairs, an adult who can evaluate youth language, via the play with English items. Russian items, which make a major part of slang in elderly teenagers' speech, are used for sociopsychological purposes, as a means to display peer group identity. The study has revealed a varied polylingual production of Vilnius teenagers, which serves as a means of negotiating the social identity of a peer group member, creative and innovative teenager.


Using an isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics (IQMD) model, we study the 15C induced reactions from 30–120 MeV/nucleon systematically. Here the valence neutron of 15C is assigned at both 1d5/2 and 2s1/2 states respectively in order to study the density effect of reaction mechanism. It is believed that the existent neutron halo structure at the 2s1/2 state of 15C will affect the light particle emission evidently. In our calculation, the different density distributions of 15C at two states are calculated by relativistic mean field (RMF) model and introduced in the initiation of IQMD model, respectively. It is found that some observables such as emission fragmentation multiplicity, emission neutron/proton ratio and emission neutrons' kinetic energy spectrum are sensitive to the initial density distribution.


The motion of spin polarization in a high-sensitivity optically pumped atomic magnetometer is described by the Bloch equation. We propose a magnetometer having two nonparallel probe beams to measure both the x and y components of spin polarization, while a pumping beam propagates in the z direction. When a bias magnetic field is applied parallel to the pumping beam, the magnetic fields Bx and By both affect the x and y components of the spin polarization. The relation between the magnetic field and the magnetometer signal is correctly expressed in matrix form for a simple oscillating magnetic field. The relation enables us to solve the Bloch equation in the frequency domain and retrieve the original waveform of the time-dependent magnetic field waveform. This magnetometer also compensates for distortion of the waveform caused by the resonant nature of the Bloch equation. The magnetic field signal recovery is demonstrated by numerical simulation and the preferred parameter range for the proposed dual-probe magnetometer is shown. As a result, the proposed magnetometer will expand the possibility for weak magnetic field measurements, including biomagnetic fields.


Low concentrations of dissolved oxygen remain a global concern regarding the ecological health of lakes and reservoirs. In addition to high nutrient loads, climate‐induced changes in lake stratification and mixing represent additional anthropogenic menace resulting in decreased deepwater oxygen levels. The analysis of 43 years of monitoring data from Lake Geneva shows no decreasing trend neither in the areal hypolimnetic mineralization rate nor in the extent of hypoxia. Instead, hypoxic conditions are predominantly controlled by deep mixing in winter and much less by the trophic variations over the past decades. To reproduce winter mixing, the one‐dimensional hydrodynamic model SIMSTRAT was specially adapted to deep lakes and run for several climate scenarios. The simulations predicted a decrease in the maximum winter mixing depth from an average of ∼172 m for 1981–2012 to ∼136 m and ∼127 m in response to predicted atmospheric temperatures between 2045–2076 and 2070–2101 according to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scenarios. Concurrently, events with complete homogenization of temperature and oxygen in winter will decrease by ∼50%. Consequently, the hypolimnetic oxygen concentrations will significantly decrease. These results demonstrate that changes in deep mixing can have stronger impact than eutrophication on the deepwater oxygen levels of oligomictic lakes.


The secondary sex ratio (SSR) is affected by many factors, including the concentration of hormones and infection with some pathogens such as Toxoplasma gondii. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of hormone variability concentrations and toxoplasmosis infection on the secondary sex ratio. 150 pregnant women were selected, 60 infected with late toxoplasmosis (LT), 60 infected with early toxoplasmosis (ET) and 30 seronegative to toxoplasmosis. After tracking the birth outcomes of these women, we calculated SSR in each group. During the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, TSH, T4 and T3 concentrations were measured. The results of the three groups were compared. The results showed that female births outpaced in LT group, with SSR equal to (0.9:1.45), while the number of male births was higher in ET group and seronegative groups, with SSR was (1.5:1; 1.3:1), respectively. The difference in hormones concentration was significant at P ≥ 0.05. In LT group, progesterone and estrogen increased significantly in male pregnant women than in female pregnant women. Testosterone increased significantly in male pregnant women in all study groups. TSH level was the highest among female pregnant women in the LT and seronegative groups. The superiority of male pregnant women in the concentration of T3 hormone in all groups was significant. Male pregnant women were significantly superior with T4 concentration in LT and seronegative groups.
In conclusion, T. gondii has an indirect role in SSR. Important pregnancy hormones levels differ between male pregnant women and female pregnant women.
In conclusion, T. gondii has an indirect role in SSR. Important pregnancy hormones levels differ between male pregnant women o and female pregnant women.


Fe3O4/Halloysite nanotube magnetic composites (MHNTs) were firstly prepared via an effective polyol-medium solvothermal method, and then the surface of the MHNTs was endowed with reactive vinyl groups through modification with 3-(methacryloyloxy)propyl trimethoxysilane (MPS). Based on the MHNTs-MPS, temperature responsive and magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (t-MMIPs) were further synthesized by adopting methacrylic acid (MAA) and N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) as the functional monomer and temperature responsive monomer, respectively. The as-prepared t-MMIPs were characterized by FT-IR, TEM, TGA and VSM, which indicated that the t-MMIPs exhibit magnetic sensitivity (Ms = 2.026 emu g−1), magnetic stability (especially in the pH range of 4.0–8.0) and thermal stability and are composed of an imprinted layer. The molecular interaction between 2,4,5-trichlorophenol (TCP) and MAA was investigated by 1H-NMR spectroscopy and ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy, which suggest that hydrogen bonding may be largely responsible for the recognition mechanism. The t-MMIPs were then applied to selectively recognise and release TCP molecules at 60 °C and 20 °C, respectively. The maximum amount of binding at 60 °C was 197.8 mg g−1 and 122.6 mg g−1 for t-MMIPs and temperature responsive and magnetic non-imprinted polymers (t-MNIPs), respectively. At 20 °C, about 32.3%–42.7% of TCP adsorbed by t-MMIPs was released, whereas 25.3%–39.9% of TCP was released by t-MNIPs. The selective recognition experiments demonstrated the high affinity and selectivity of t-MMIPs towards TCP over competitive phenolic compounds, and the specific recognition of binding sites may be based on the distinct size, structure and functional group to the template molecules.


The application Advanced Road Design (ARD) developed by the company CadApps Australia, employs using AutoCAD® or AutoCAD® Civil 3D® platforms and offers advanced features for the design and rehabilitation of roads according to Romanian standards. It includes basic commands for drawing geometric elements of the road (plane and vertical), automatic connection of intersections, automatic generation of longitudinal and transverse profiles and calculating filling and cutting volumes involved. Already known to design engineers of roads in our country, the application Advanced Road Design enables the interactive design of longitudinal and transverse profile and of site plan so that changes made during the project will update quickly in the drawings and quantityreports. The road design aimed to preserve existing settlement (existing pavement) and avoid expensive earthmoving work. The route follows the field line, so as to ensure the discharge of rainwater from the road platform into the existing gullies, the width of the road system to the existing reshaped land, the rainwater drainage systems, downloads in gutters, culverts as well as the development of intersections with side streets. Advanced Road Design application is recommended especially due to its work capabilities in AutoCAD and that the user does not require extensive knowledge of AutoCAD. Advanced Road Design generates the AutoCAD elements from the project without having to use the drawing step that loses time with the details, that being an impediment to the completion of the project in time. Undoubtedly, we can say that with good 3D topographic survey there can be designed, at least 1 km / day, including final drawings and corresponding quantity reports.


Exposure of rat hepatocytes to 30 min anoxia resulted in a substantial decrease in O2 consumption on reoxygenation. Measurement of the sequestered Ca2+ pool of mitochondria by selective release with the protonophore, carbonylcyanide-p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone (FCCP), and quantitation with the metallochromic indicator, arsenazo III, showed that anoxia caused a marked decrease in mitochondrial Ca2+. This loss could, in part, be due to decreased electrophoretic uptake resulting from a 20% decrease in the magnitude of the mitochondrial transmembranal potential. The decrease was associated with a decrease in ATP synthase activity as expected from the Ca2+ dependence of endogenous inhibitor binding to the ATP synthase. These results show that short-term anoxia suppresses mitochondrial function in hepatocytes and suggest that mitochondrial Ca2+ content may be important in this regulation. Regulation of the ATP synthase and other ion transport systems may provide a means to preserve ion distribution and protonmotive force and thereby prolong the period during which cells can tolerate anoxia.


The mid-Miocene provides an important example relevant to the response of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) to future anthropogenic climate change. Geological observations and earth system modelling show a broad link between declining carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations and increasing size and sensitivity of ice sheets in the past. Future projections show CO2 concentrations could reach up to 1000 ppm before the end of the century, with global temperatures 4-5°C warmer - a climate not seen since the mid-Miocene. This time period is therefore becoming increasingly important to understanding future Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) response, as CO2 concentrations are already at Pliocene levels (∼400 ppm). An improved, more detailed understanding of the response of the AIS to past climatic variability provides important context for interpreting how the AIS will respond to future climate change under high CO2 scenarios.

A dynamic EAIS characterised the mid-Miocene, with major variations in both volume and extent of terrestrial and marine ice sheets. While global climate remained warmer than present-day throughout, this interval was punctuated by an episode of unusual warmth within the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO, ∼17-15 Ma). The MCO is one of the warmest intervals since the onset of Antarctic glaciation, with CO2 concentrations of up to 840 ppm during peak warmth and coastal regions characterised by temperate vegetation and mean summer temperatures (MST) of up to ∼10°C. This warmth terminated with major cooling and ice expansion across the mid-Miocene Climate Transition (MMCT, ∼14.8-13.8 Ma).

A ∼50 m thick ice-cemented terrestrial glacial sequence was recovered in drill cores from the Friis Hills, McMurdo Dry Valleys in 2016. A chronostratigraphic framework for the cores based on magnetostratigraphy, 40Ar/39Ar isotopic ages, and limited biostratigraphic constraints, revealed 15 sedimentary cycles of the advance and retreat of a temperate alpine glacier system between ∼15.1-13.8 Ma. Each cycle consists of traction tills and moraines deposited during ice advance and intervening glacio-fluvial to glacio-lacustrine lithofacies deposited during ice retreat. This record highlights the influence of increasing glacial-interglacial variability across the MMCT, with till facies becoming progressively thicker, drier and of wider provenance post 14.4 Ma, while interglacial sediments remained similar to those that characterised the late-MCO, sustaining tundra vegetation and MSTs of 6-7°C.

An ensemble of model simulations were produced for a recently published mid-Miocene topography and a range of CO2 concentrations, Transantarctic Mountain (TAM) uplift scenarios, and glacial-interglacial orbits in order to better understand the mechanisms driving EAIS variability during the early to mid-Miocene. Sedimentological and palynological data for glacial-interglacial periods of the early to mid-Miocene provide the primary constraint on ice extent and temperature variability. Results of this model-data comparison were used to assess the likely boundary conditions for the MCO and MMCT, and inferred TAM elevations of 300-500 m lower than present-day, modelled CO2 concentrations up to 780 ppm during periods of peak warmth, and a transition to lower CO2 across the MMCT. The onset of marine-based ice advance across the continental shelf was inferred between 280-460 ppm modelled CO2, however, the persistence of a significantly retreated, thick EAIS under even the highest modelled CO2 concentrations is not consistent with proxy data constraints and implies a strong hysteresis effect in the model. The presence of localised tundra vegetation under low CO2 concentrations in the model supports the persistence of higher plants in coastal lowlands post-MMCT, following their extinction at higher elevations after ∼13.8 Ma.

Terrestrial, marine, and far-field records were reconciled to assess glacial-interglacial variability and evolution of the EAIS across the mid-Miocene. While 15 cycles were identified within the Friis Hills record, only 7.5 of these are well enough constrained by the age model to be correlated to climate cycles in the δ 18O record, spanning ∼160 ka of the late-MCO and inferring a terrestrial-terminating AIS responding to local insolation controlled by precession. This is consistent with eccentricity modulated precession control implied in other coastal Antarctic and far-field records during the MCO, but results presented here also support a two stepped climatic shift at ∼14.6 and ∼13.8 Ma during the MMCT. This stepwise shift in climatic cooling is attributed to declining CO2, with two boundaries in long-term atmospheric CO2 concentrations crossed during this time: (1) A shift to CO2 concentrations below 460 ppm in the model supported the growth of annual sea-ice and advance of small-scale marine-based ice into the Ross Sea. (2) At 13.8 Ma, a further decline in CO2 concentrations to below 280 ppm supported perennial sea-ice development, limiting the influence of warm, deep-water upwelling, resulting in large-scale marine-based ice advance, ultimately stabilising the AIS. This stepwise mid-Miocene cooling implies threshold behaviour of the AIS during a long-term 200-300 ppm general decline in CO2 proxy records.


Fumarate hydratase-deficient renal cell carcinoma (FH-deficient RCC) is typically considered a high-grade, aggressive subtype of RCC that frequently arises in the setting of hereditary leiomyomatosis-renal cell carcinoma (HLRCC) syndrome. Increasing experience with HLRCC-associated RCC and FH-deficient RCC has resulted in recognition of tumors with lower grade morphologic features, overlapping with those of succinate dehydrogenase–deficient RCC and other low-grade oncocytic tumors. In this review article, we report a previously unpublished case that was recently encountered in our practice and review cases in the current literature with an aim of getting a better understanding of these oncocytic tumors and their morphologic spectrum. The 13 cases reviewed were approximately equally distributed across males and females, occurred at a younger age, and were more frequently seen in the right kidney, with both unifocal and multifocal presentations. While most presented an exclusive, low-grade oncocytic morphology, in 4 cases they were associated with either separate high-grade tumors, or as a secondary pattern in an otherwise conventional high-grade FH-deficient RCC. Loss of FH and 2 succinyl cysteine (2SC) positivity by immunohistochemistry supported their diagnosis, and are recommended to be performed alongside CD117, CK7, and CK20 in to aid classification in challenging oncocytic tumors. When occurring in isolation, these tumors are distinctive from their high-grade counterparts, with no reported adverse outcomes in cases reported thus far. As such, accurate diagnosis of this low-grade pattern among FH-deficient RCCs is worthwhile not only due to its association with HLRCC and need of genetic counseling and surveillance, but also due to more favorable prognosis. Finally, increasing experience with the low-grade end of the morphologic spectrum of FH deficient RCC reiterates that not all tumors of this subtype of RCC have a uniformly aggressive outcome.


Cholesterol is carried through the blood by low-density lipoprotein (LDL) ("bad" cholesterol) and then into cells by the LDL receptor. In this issue of Science (p. 518), the first receptor for high-density lipoprotein (HDL) ("good" cholesterol) is reported to be the cell-surface protein SR-B1. In his Perspective, D. Steinberg discusses this discovery and describes how the selective uptake of cholesterol mediated by SR-BI delivers cholesterol for steroid hormone synthesis to the liver, the adrenal gland, and the ovary.


Informal learning and how individuals learn in the workplace have gained increasing attention by researchers in recent years. In relation to other learning activities, informal learning constitutes a substantial part of an adult's life. This paper explores the informal workplace learning experiences of graduate student employees. Data was collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 14 PhD students who were employed at their universities. Thematic analysis was used to interpret the data. The findings revealed that graduate student employees learn at work by participating in various work practices, collaborating with colleagues and advisers, and meeting new challenges that provide learning opportunities. The challenges of a set task play a crucial role in learning and skill acquisition, and learning happens as a result of interaction between an individual, an activity and a context. The workplace also provides a social environment where people can grow in maturity and learn responsibility as well as skills. Learning is embodied in the everyday practices of work.


The paucity of solar radiation data is chiefly due to the lack of simple and portable instruments for direct readings. To fill this lack, there is described, under the name of "Solarimeter," a combination of a thermopile (modified Moll type), closed hermetically, under a hemispherical glass cover, and directly combined with an electrical measuring apparatus of a simple millivoltmeter-type. A system of two contact screws makes it easy to employ the solarimeter either for sun and sky observations on a horizontal surface or for pyrheliometric readings at normal incidence. For the latter a small pyrheliometric tube on a special holder is connected with the solarimeter box. All these new constructions should be considered as secondary instruments, which necessitate comparisons with normal pyrheliometers.Directions for using and testing the solarimeter are given, in which is emphasized the employment of a solar screen for determining the sky radiation by Doctor Kimball's method.A recording solarimeter (solarigraph) is also briefly discussed and the importance of sun and sky radiation measurements emphasized not only for meteorological stations, but also for agriculturists, botanists, for aviation (transparency of the atmosphere), and finally for photographic and medical purposes, by using violet and ultraviolet filters.


We present an approach for efficiently recognizing all objects in a scene and estimating their full pose from multiple views. Our approach builds upon a state of the art single-view algorithm which recognizes and registers learned metric 3D models using local descriptors. We extend to multiple views using a novel multi-step optimization that processes each view individually and feeds consistent hypotheses back to the algorithm for global refinement. We demonstrate that our method produces results comparable to the theoretical optimum, a full multi-view generalized camera approach, while avoiding its combinatorial time complexity. We provide experimental results demonstrating pose accuracy, speed, and robustness to model error using a three-camera rig, as well as a physical implementation of the pose output being used by an autonomous robot executing grasps in highly cluttered scenes.


Objective: The aim of this was to compare energy and macro-nutrients intakes in university hostel students in two Ccuntries of Asia
Methods: Female students from the hostels of International Islamic University, Malaysia, Kuantan Campus and NWFP, Agricultural University Peshawar- Pakistan were assessed for the energy and macro-nutrients intakes. A total of 140 students were registered who volunteered to participate in this study. The age range of the registered students was 22-26 years. On the day of the registration, age, height and weight were recorded; also, food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) were provided. The participants were asked to record alternately for three days whatever they ate during the prescribed week. Out of 140 students 139 returned the FFQs and one of the students failed to return therefore excluded from the study. From the anthropometry, the BMI was used to assess the under, ideal, over-weight and obese students. From the FFQs, energy and nutrient intakes were calculated using the food composition Tables for Malaysia & Pakistan and compared with the recommended nutrients intakes (RNIs).
Results: The body weight for the required height among the Malaysian students was lower by 7.81 percent than the reference value whereas the body weight of Pakistani students matched to the reference weight for height (Table 1). The Malaysian students were 28.0, 61.0, 5.5 and 0.9 % under, ideal, over-weight and obese respectively whereas Pakistani students were 100 % in the category of ideal-body weight. The total energy consumption was higher among Malaysian students by 9.93 % compared to the reference requirements whereas the Pakistani students claimed to meet the requirements. In terms of nutrients balancing the Malaysian students were having the ideal combination of the macro-nutrients and it was within the recommended range of 55-60, 15-20 and 25-30 % for carbohydrates, protein and fat respectively. These were poor among the Pakistani students and meet the energy requirements at the expense of fat consumption.
Conclusions: This study suggests that there is imbalance in macro-nutrients intake among the students


This paper examines the possibility of using ground-granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) as a partial replacement of filler in polymer grout. In this study, river sand was replaced by GGBFS at levels of 0 (control), 10, 20, and 30% by weight. The effects of five curing conditions on compressive strength at the ages of 7, 28, 90, 180, and 365 days were studied. Three specimens were used at each specific age and curing condition. After 1 year, the samples' microstructures, which were cured under natural weather and seawater, were studied using scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). A comparison was also made regarding the development of compressive strength between polyester grout with and without GGBFS. From the results, it was observed that GGBFS used as filler in the polyester grout matrix resulted in a better long-term compressive strength than that of the control resin. The positive effects of GGBFS on the compressive strength of polyester grout against Malaysia's hostile environment, along with its environmental and economic advantages, make this material a feasible additive.


The dense distribution of crime in a small number of micro places led to the formulation of a law of crime concentration applicable across cities and stable over time. This law has rarely been tested in Europe and has never been tested in Italy. In addition, there is a lack of extensive knowledge about its determinants. Therefore, the main objectives of this study are to test the presence and the stability of crime concentration in a different urban context and to explain this concentration. A street segment analysis and a group-based trajectory analysis were conducted to test the presence and the stability of crime concentration in the city of Milan (Italy), and negative binomial regression models were run to understand the main determinants of this concentration. The findings confirm the presence of crime concentration at street segment level, but only a few segments can be considered to be highly criminogenic over time. Social disorganization factors play an important role in explaining crime concentration, even though opportunity factors also coincide in this explanation. Despite their differences, cities around the world share the same crime concentration. The generalization of these findings is an important step in the development of common knowledge. Nevertheless, in Milan only a few segments are chronic hot spots. The stability pattern in the city needs to be further analysed using different methods. A theoretical integration approach considering both situational and social disorganization factors is promising in understanding why crime occurs in urban areas.


This paper deals with an issue of how to evaluate the possibilities provided by the public-private partnership (PPP) to optimize investments in public infrastructure. Literature analysis discloses this process being complex in nature, since it includes a variety of factors needed to be assessed as well as many aspects needed to be considered. Value for money (VfM) assessment is acknowledged as as a main decision-supporting tool to assess whether to implement investment project (IP) as the PPP. However, due to its multifaceted and somewhat controversial nature, this process is challenging and demanding, while results can be very different depending on the approach and assumptions applied, which, in turn, also causes critism and conflict over very PPP. To get reliable results, the rational public sector's comparator (PSC) model and the financially viable and affordable PPP model have to be constructed as well as it is required rational comparative tools. However, these aspects are analyzed only fragmentary. There is a lack of studies characterized by systemic and integrated approach to VfM assessment, which, in turn, also determines a lack of solutions, which could allow promoters to complexly solve the issues related to satisfaction of the above-mentioned requirements. To fill the gap, the model of evaluating the possibilities provided by the PPP to optimize investments in public infrastructure has been created. It consists of five stages: 1) preparation of the initial IP; 2) selection of IP for assessment of PPP; 3) PPP structuring and feasibility analysis; 4) VfM assessment of actual bids, and; 5) VfM monitoring, which includes ex-ante, actual and ex-post assessment. The model is tested in the hypothetical case study, where its suitability to solve the issues related to assessment of PPP's possibilities to optimize investment in public infrastructure in the case of both economic-based and social-based PPPs has been demonstrated. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.29.1.19101


Vast majority of data mining algorithms have been designed to work on centralized data, unfortunately however, almost all of nowadays data sets are distributed both geographically and conceptually. Due to privacy and computation cost, centralizing distributed data sets before analyzing them is undoubtedly impractical. In this paper, we present a framework for clustering distributed data which takes into account privacy and computation cost. To do that, we remove uncertain instances and just send the label of the other instances to the central location. To remove the uncertain instances, we develop a new instance weighting method based on fuzzy and rough set theory. The achieved results on well-known data verify effectiveness of the proposed method compared to previous works.


The struggle between the workers' parties and the right-wing Revisionists took an increasingly central place in Zionist history beginning in the 1930s. The Labor Movement gained political hegemony during the period of the Yishuv (pre-state Israel). When Jabotinsky tried to challenge Mapai's power position he suffered a bitter defeat. Most of Israel's first 13 years were marked by political polarity between Mapai and the Herut Movement (the latter led by Begin). Herut received a thrashing in the Knesset elections in 1951 and the General Zionists (GZ) became the second largest party after riding on the wave of middle class protest against the Mapai led government austerity regime. However, it failed to exploit its broad support into a permanent electoral base that would transform the right-center bourgeoisie into a political force that would serve as an alternative to Ben-Gurion's government. In the summer of 1955, Herut replaced the GZ as the second largest Knesset party, and in 1959, Begin became head of the opposition after Herut won 17 seats, twice as many votes garnered by the GZ, which was reduced to its political size of the first Knesset elections in 1949. The key political rivalry returned to the power struggle between the Zionist left and the nationalist right.


Abundance and availability of unconventional petroleum has led to intensified exploitation and exploration of the bitumen reserves. This has however led to environmental pollution. This study investigated the ability of Providencia stuartii isolated from heavy oil polluted soil to degrade natural bitumen. Temperature, pH and incubation period were independent variables used for optimization of degradation while optical density was used as dependent variable. Optical density was measured using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Residual bitumen/degradation products were analyzed using gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GC-MS). Optical densities obtained ranged from 0.002 to 0.408. Optimum optical density of 0.408 was obtained at 40 C and pH 7 after 13 days of incubation. There were significant changes in the composition of bitumen after analysis with GC-MS with detection of new compounds due to degradation. The GC-MS results showed the presence of some degradation products such as benzene (1-butylhexyl), benzene (1-propylheptyl) and 23, 28-bisnor-17.β.(h)-hopane. This study revealed the excellent ability of P. stuartii in degrading bitumen contaminated environment.