Savannas form a large fraction of the total tropical vegetation and are extremely fire prone. We measured radiative, energy and carbon exchanges over unburned and burned (both before and after low and moderate intensity fires) open forest savanna at Howard Springs, Darwin, Australia. Fire affected the radiative balance immediately following fire through the consumption of the grass-dominated understorey and blackening of the surface. Albedo was halved following fire of both intensities (from 0.12 to 0.07 and from 0.11 to 0.06 for the moderate and low intensity sites, respectively), but the recovery of albedo was dependent on the initial fire intensity. The low intensity fire caused little canopy damage with little impact on the surface energy balance and only a slight increase in Bowen ratio. However the moderate fire resulted in a comprehensive canopy scorch and almost complete leaf drop in the weeks following fire. The shutdown of most leaves within the canopy reduced transpiration and altered energy partitioning. Leaf death and shedding also resulted in a cessation of ecosystem carbon uptake and the savanna turned from a sink to a source of carbon to the atmosphere because of the continued ecosystem respiration. Post-fire, the Bowen ratio increased greatly due to large increases in sensible heat fluxes. These changes in surface energy exchange following fire, when applied at the landscape scale, may have impacts on climate through local changes in circulation patterns and changes in regional heating, precipitation and monsoon circulation.


To determine the roles of the individual S4 segments in domains I and II to activation and inactivation kinetics of sodium current (INa) in NaV1.5, we used a tethered biotin and avidin approach after a site-directed cysteine substitution was made in the second outermost Arg in each S4 (DI-R2C and DII-R2C). We first determined the fraction of gating charge contributed by the individual S4's to maximal gating current (Qmax), and found that the outermost Arg residue in each S4 contributed ∼19% to Qmax with minimal contributions by other arginines. Stabilization of the S4's in DI-R2C and DII-R2C was confirmed by measuring the expected reduction in Qmax. In DI-R2C, stabilization resulted in a decrease in peak INa of ∼45%, while its peak current-voltage (I-V) and voltage-dependent Na channel availability (SSI) curves were nearly unchanged from wild type (WT). In contrast, stabilization of the DII-R2C enhanced activation with a negative shift in the peak I-V relationship by -7 mV and a larger -17 mV shift in the voltage-dependent SSI curve. Furthermore, its INa decay time constants and time-to-peak INa became more rapid than WT. An explanation for these results is that the depolarized conformation of DII-S4, but not DI-S4, affects the receptor for the inactivation particle formed by the interdomain linker between DIII and IV. In addition, the leftward shifts of both activation and inactivation and the decrease in Gmax after stabilization of the DII-S4 support previous studies that showed β-scorpion toxins trap the voltage sensor of DII in an activated conformation.


The possible mutagenicity of bidi smoke condensate (BSC), an indigenous form of an Indian cigarette has been studied using three short-term test systems. It was seen that BSC caused frame-shift mutations in Salmonella typhimurium strains TA 98 and TA 1538 and required metabolic activation. In the mammalian test systems, BSC induced 8 azaguanine resistant mutations in V79 Chinese hamster cells in the presence of S9 mixture and induced elevated frequencies of micronucleated erythrocytes in the bone marrow of Swiss mice.


Background: Learning in skills centers has a long tradition in nursing education. Nurse educators struggle to substantiate their opinions on the efficacy of simulation technologies over traditional methods of instruction and it is suggested that they should re-evaluate their methods when teaching psychomotor skills. A necessary step before evaluation is to unravel what the students are actually doing in the skills center. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore nursing students' practical skills training in the skills center to label and define generic learning actions used during the learning of two specific skills; wound care and dressing, and sterile gloving. Methods: A qualitative observational study of nursing students' practical skill training in the skills center was developed. Students across three cohorts were video recorded while practicing wound cleaning and dressing, and donning and removing sterile gloves. Verbal interaction on the video recordings was transcribed. The core analytical process was the joint listening to and watching of videos with following discussions of interpretations and development of categories. Results: Seven categories of learning actions were developed: Parallel action and self-instruction, watch and copy, collaborating to find solutions, giving support, seeking support, recontextualising the skill, and humorous enactment with the equipment. The categories are exemplified and discussed in light of learning theory and research on aspects of scaffolding. Conclusions: The learning actions described in this study are a starting point in detailing students learning actions during skills training. Students' learning in other practical nursing skills should be studied to accumulate more knowledge about students' learning actions and how peer interaction supports or hampers learning. The relevance of the learning actions should be explored in the clinical setting. A goal is to lay the groundwork for better design of learning in skills centers in nursing education.


This paper uses The Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore as a case study to investigate global art education. Under the title "Ausbildung fur die Zukunft" (Education for the future), the article takes a closer look at the college and its positioning in the city, the cultural policy and the creative industries in Singapore today and in the future. [Dieckvoss, Stephanie. Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapur: Ausbildung fur die Zukunft, in: Kunst lernen?, Kunstforum International vol. 245, March – April 2017, pp. 90-103]
This article is part of the themed issue of the German art publication "Kunstforum" (Volume 245, March/April 2017. It is titled: Kunst lernen? Kunstakademien heute. It asks how art academies educate today across the world and uses 8 academies as case studies for the investigation into the relationship between making as a "craft" versus concept based ideology. It asks how students and tutors today explore creativity. Based on interviews and conversations as well as visits with students, teachers, artists and curators, the focus lies on the central question of the relationship between workshop and studio practice and the idea of making in relation to concepts, ideas and reflection. The individual articles, read together, open up a debate – convergences and differences in different places - about material skills and notions of creativity today.


In 2003, the Government of Mexico was facing the challenge of declining production of oil from its producing fields, in particular from the Cantarell field. Another problem faced by the government was the growing demand for natural gas, which had outstripped the country's gas production. Exploration and development opportunities for Mexican gas were many, but the necessary capital was not available for Pemex, Mexico's state-owned oil company, to pursue them. Mexico had embedded in its Constitution the right to develop its oil and gas industry for its own benefit without foreign participation, but now, ironically, it was importing natural gas from the United States while domestic supplies remained undeveloped.The government, then under the leadership of Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN), sought to break through the limitations imposed by the constitutional provisions that prevented private participation in Mexico's oil and gas industry. The government asked Pemex to find a way to make this happen. An effort was made by Pemex to reach out to international oil companies (IOC) to find a way to permit them to invest in Mexican oil and gas opportunities. IOCs express interest but wondered how the government planned to structure an investment in the face of Mexico's constitutional and legal restrictions.Fox's administration and Pemex not only faced the strictures of the Constitution, but also the opposition of the other major Mexican political parties, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Consequently, any initiative to invite IOCs to invest in Mexico would have to occur without constitutional or legislative change. Indeed, the government's early experiences with enactment of new regulations resulted in court challenges initiated by PRI and PRD legislators, the government sought new investment in oil and gas without revisiting the regulations.


A field experiment was conducted to assess the effect of gibberellic acid (GA 3100 and 150 ppm), phloemic stress and combination of 100 ppm GA 3 and phloemic stress on Bougainvillea bract blooming, expansion, development and bract longevity under exposed sun light condition (400-700 μEm -2 sec -1). A seven-years-old Bougainvillea plant was used in this experiment. Fifteen selected brunches were applied with 100, 150 ppm GA 3, phloemic stress, 100 ppm GA 3+phloemic stress and water control. The results showed that 100 ppm GA 3 increased the length of petiole, bract size and shape by 40%. Bract blooming was three days earlier in 100 ppm GA 3 treated branches and 4 days earlier in 150 ppm GA 3 than in water control. Bract longevity (required days from bract initiation to abscission) was higher for 4 in phloemic stress and for 2 days in 100 ppm GA 3+phloemic stress than in water control. However, bract longevity was shorter in 100 and 150 ppm GA 3 than in control. The number of bracts per branch was higher in 100 ppm GA 3+phloemic stress and phloemic stress than the other treatments. Petal size and petiole length were the highest in 100 ppm GA 3. But there were no significant changes in bract size and color development in phloemic stress. Maximum chlorophyll fluorescence was observed in phloemic stress. Quantum yield (F√Fm) was higher in phloemic stress and 100 ppm GA 3+phloemic stress than in other treatments. The findings suggested that gibberellic acid played an important role to induce rapid bract blooming and expansion whereas, phloemic stress increased total number of bract and longevity. © 2009 Asian Network for Scientific Information.


Reciprocal teaching (RT) is an instructional procedure to teach students cognitive strategies that might lead to improved reading comprehension. However, self-monitoring (SM) strategy use can optimize instruction of comprehension. Thus, the present study analyzed: (a) the efficacy of RT in regular classes and (b) the efficacy of RT + SM of strategy use. A sample of 59 students in the fourth year of primary education was selected: 19 children were selected as an RT condition, 18 as an RT + SM condition, while the remaining 22 made up the comparison group. Two types of comprehension measures were used: tasks of specific effects (getting the main idea, writing a summary, comprehension-monitoring test) and transfer effect measures (standardised tests, word meaning inference, and free recall). Thus, the results show that both the RT condition and the RT + SM condition benefited from the instruction, performing better than the comparison group in measures of specific effects and in some of the transfer effect measures. This result shows that SM is not a necessary component in the instruction of reading comprehension with RT.


Investigating changes in an aquifer system often involves comparison of observed heads from different synoptic measurements, generally with potentiometric surfaces developed by hand or a statistical approach. Alternatively, head‐specified MODFLOW models, in which constant head cells simulate observed heads, generate gridded potentiometric surfaces that explicitly account for Darcy's Law and mass balance. We developed a transient head‐specified MODFLOW model for the stratified Cambrian‐Ordovician sandstone aquifer system of northeastern Illinois to analyze flow within its 275 m deep cone of depression. Potentiometric surfaces were developed using static heads from production wells regardless of open interval; hence assuming no vertical head difference. This assumption was tested against steady‐state, head‐specified models of each sandstone strata for 1980 and 2014. The results indicate that the original conceptual model was appropriate in 1980 but not 2014, where a vertical head difference had developed at the center of the cone of depression. For earlier years, when the head difference was minimal, the transient head‐specified model compared well with a traditional, flow‐specified model. In later years, the transient head‐specified model overestimated removal of water from storage. MODFLOW facilitates the development of a time‐series of potentiometric surfaces and can easily be modified to test the impacts of different conceptual models, such as assumptions on vertical head differences. For this study of a deep confined aquifer, MODFLOW also offers advantages in generating potentiometric surfaces and flow fields over statistical interpolation techniques, although future research is needed to assess its performance in other settings.


Over the several years that imaging energy filters have been available commercially, numerous and wide-ranging applications have demonstrated elemental mapping with a resolution approaching 1 nm. A few reports have even shown resolutions <0.4 nm. Elemental mapping by energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM) is clearly an attractive and powerful tool, but some aspects of the techniques can be complex, with many pitfalls awaiting the unwary. This tutorial aims to cover some practical aspects of elemental mapping by EFTEM. It is based largely on the author's work at the ORNL SHaRE User Facility, where EFTEM research has been performed since 1994 with a Gatan imaging filter (GIF) interfaced to a Philips CM30T operated at 300 kV with a LaBa cathode.120 Most of the applications have been to metals and ceramics, emphasizing interfacial segregation and precipitation. For quantitative composition mapping by EFTEM a number of interrelated parameters [field of view, resolution (δ),


Liquid water is not currently stable on the surface of Mars, but images provided by the Mars Orbiter Camera aboard the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft reveal erosional landforms previously interpreted to be geologically young gullies formed by groundwater seepage. We test the basic hypothesis that, as on Earth, the location of these gullies is controlled in part by the presence of an impermeable rock layer (aquiclude) and that the depths of the gully heads below the surface should thus be correlated to subsurface geology. We show that (1) gullies emanate from a specific cliff-forming layer, even if the layer is faulted, and (2) the depth of gullies below the local surface ranges from 70 to 800 m, and (3) is positively correlated to mapped geologic units. Gully formation is therefore dependent upon both favorable climatic conditions to produce and sustain liquid water and the presence of impermeable subsurface layers to collect the groundwater. Gullies may mark the distribution of subsurface impermeable layers globally, and are prime targets for the search for present water and life on Mars.


Low versus high glycemic load (GL) diet patterns are inversely associated with obesity and chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. These associations persist beyond the protection afforded by increased fiber alone, representing an important gap in our understanding of the metabolic effects of GL. We conducted a randomized, controlled, crossover feeding trial of two 28-day diet periods of high and low GL. Using LC-MS, targeted metabolomics analysis of 155 metabolites was performed on plasma samples from 19 healthy adults aged 18-45 years. Fourteen metabolites differed significantly between diets (P < 0.05), with kynurenate remaining significant after Bonferroni correction (P < 4 × 10(-4)). Metabolites with the largest difference in abundance were kynurenate and trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), both significantly higher after consumption of the low GL diet. Partial least squares-discriminant analysis showed clear separation between the two diets; however no specific pathway was identified in pathway analyses. We found significant differences in 14 plasma metabolites suggesting a differing metabolic response to low and high GL diets. Kynurenate is associated with reduced inflammation, and may be one mechanism through which protective effects of a low GL diet are manifested and warrants further evaluation. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00622661.


The design, modeling and control design of a 48-step inverter based static synchronous series compensator (SSSC) is presented in this paper. A magnetic circuit is chosen which contains eighteen single-phase three winding transformers and six single-phase two winding transformers to add the output voltages of eight three-phase inverters. An equivalent circuit model of the SSSC is derived and based on this model a proportional-plus-integral controller is proposed. The controller gains are chosen through eigenvalue analysis of the IEEE first benchmark model for subsynchronous resonance (SSR) analysis. The SSSC model, its control and the results of the eigenvalue analysis are then validated through PSCAD/EMTDC simulation. It is shown that for certain controller gains torque amplification of the shaft modes can occur.


: The analysis of immunological responsiveness and factors of nonspecific resistance in patients with relapsing meningiomas shows that there are prevalent autoimmune responses in the preoperative period and their gradual, but not final overcoming by the body after elimination of neoplastic relapse. At the same time the pathogenesis is closely associated with the formation of the autoimmune status in the peripheral system to a lesser extent and in the local immune one, to a greater extent after removal of primary meningioma in a patient.


This paper shows the scientific foundations of a natural phenomenon of undoubted interest and applicability in our day, fluorescence, and its possibilities for teaching at three educational levels: primary, secondary and university. It begins by describing the nature of the phenomenon and continues by explaining how we work with students of the levels mentioned. The method of teaching starts questioning them on fluorescent tubes and fluorescent material. These questions will lead to further research into three topics: 1) fluorescent materials; 2) features of the visual system; and 3) lighting systems, types of lamps and its characteristics. The work then demonstrates its usefulness as an interdisciplinary phenomenon and as a mean of motivating students' learning.


We present an analytical form of ground-truth k-space data for the 2-D Shepp-Logan brain phantom in the presence of multiple and non-homogeneous receiving coils. The analytical form allows us to conduct realistic simulations and validations of reconstruction algorithms for parallel MRI. The key contribution of our work is to use a polynomial representation of the coil's sensitivity. We show that this method is particularly accurate and fast with respect to the conventional methods. The implementation is made available to the community.


The penitential prayer in Ezra 9:6-15 The penitential prayer is a traditional Gattung used in ancient Israel. The prayer of Ezra 9:6-15 bears all the characteristic marks of this genre. In this prayer a historical scheme and themes such as "the land" are used to depict the Judean community's sin. In a study of its literary structure, macro narrative context and socio historic background, this article shows that the confession in the prayer in reality is a liturgical strategy to proclaim Yahweh's righteousness in his relationship with his people. Rather than imploring God, the community of faith expresses its belief in God and their identity as God's own people in this prayer.


Tasmania, one of the first locations to have communities connected to the national broadband network (NBN), provided the context within which to ask significant questions about the implications of the NBN for all levels and sectors of education. This paper reports findings from a research project that developed innovative methodology to explore the issues with 21 respondents categorised as "leaders" in the field of information and communication technology in education. The aim of the research was to conduct an audit of actual and planned implementation of new technologies in classroom teaching through in-depth interviews, to assess challenges faced in implementation and to facilitate dialogue between leaders in disparate education areas through provision of forums online and face-to-face. In this way the action research both contributed to an understanding of issues and acted as a change agent in stimulating the sharing of new approaches to what turned out to be a set of highly complex "wicked" problems. Resulting models using a causal layered approach demonstrate that whereas the NBN did not become the immediate solution to connectivity for these leaders, it provided the motivation to consider what a connected educational environment could be like.


Sheep, particularly lambs, with high circulating levels of Clostridium perfringens type D epsilon toxin develop severe neurologic signs and often die suddenly. On microscopic examination, in the brain, there is microvascular endothelial injury and diffuse vasogenic edema. The aquaporin (AQP) family of membrane water-channel proteins, especially AQP-4, is important in the regulation of water balance in the brain and facilitates reabsorption of excess fluid. In rats given epsilon toxin, generalized cerebral edema was demonstrated by marked albumin extravasation and was correlated with widespread upregulation of AQP-4 in astrocytes. These results suggest that AQP-4 has a role in the clearance of edema fluid from brains damaged by this clostridial toxin.


Islamic microfinance Institutions (IMFIs) provide credit to poor recipients, enabling them to gain access to financial assistance, while at the same time having their rights protected. To ensure that clients are protected, all IMFIs should adhere to basic corporate governance principles in ensuring uniform standards, transparency and good corporate governance practices in their institutions. This study explores on the client protection practices and sustainability of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM). The main objective of this study is to examine if client protection affects the sustainability of AIM. The main source of information is the questionnaire survey that has been conducted by taking AIM staff as respondents. Finding shows that the level of client protection in AIM is high. It shows that AIM has high awareness regarding client protection issue. Further analysis shows that accountability and debt collection process have significantly influence the level of sustainability of AIM whereas transparency and transaction costs have insignificantly impact the level of sustainability of AIM. This result implies that having better debt collection process policy and accountability will enhance the level of sustainability of AIM. This study has exclusively contributed to the industry of Islamic microfinance which it gives focuses on client protection issues, which is lacking in Malaysia. This also can be practiced by other IMFIs to ensure that they can sustain in the market for foreseeable future.


The notion of uniqueness, as articulated at the centre of most organisational inclusion literature, is inextricably tied to Western-centric idea(l)s of the autonomous, individual and self-sufficient subject, stripped of historical inequalities and relational embeddedness. Following a critical inclusion agenda and seeking alternatives to this predominant view, we apply a Bhabhaian postcolonial lens to the ethnographic study of organisational efforts to include indigenous Kalaallit people in the Greenlandic Police Force. Greenland has home rule, but is still part of the Kingdom of Denmark and is subject to Danish defence policy and the police force. With Bhabha's notion of mimicry, we explore how police officers, through performing 'Danish' (Western) culture and professionalism, both confirm and resist colonial stereotypes and even open up pathways towards hybridity. Building on the officers' experiences, we introduce the term 'hybrid inclusion' by which we emphasise two interrelated dimensions necessary for advancing critical inclusion studies: first, a certain understanding of the to-be-included subject as fluid, emergent and thus ontologically singular but at the same time relationally embedded in a collective colonial past and present; second, organisational practices for inclusivity that address and work with the actual impossibility of a 'happy inclusion story', free of contradictions and conflicts.


ABSTRACT Objective: This study examined the impact of coping motives for cannabis and alcohol use on the relation between social anxiety/depressive symptoms and severity of substance use for alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis among treatment-seeking smokers who also use cannabis and alcohol. Methods: The sample included 197 daily cigarette smokers (MAge 34.81 years, SD = 13.43) who reported using cannabis and alcohol. Results: Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted wherein separate models were constructed for each dependent variable. Among individuals with higher social anxiety, alcohol coping motives were associated with heavier drinking, and this was more pronounced among those low in depressive symptoms. Similarly, those at greater risk for nicotine dependence were anxious individuals with lower depressive symptoms who endorse coping-oriented motives for using cannabis. Further, among those with higher social anxiety, cannabis coping motives were associated with marginally greater drinking, particularly for those high in depressive symptoms. Conclusions: The present findings support the perspective that among multisubstance users, the interplay between social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and coping-oriented motives for using one substance (e.g., cannabis or alcohol) may pose difficulties in refraining from other substances (e.g., tobacco). This observation highlights the importance of tailoring multisubstance treatments to specific needs of multiusers for whom single-substance interventions may be less effective. Findings also support previous work exploring the benefits of concurrently treating co-occurring substance use and lend credence to the perspective that motivation to use substances for coping reasons is of central theoretical and clinical relevance.


Policy management is a management paradigm that has been extensively studied for the case of fixed networks but limited work can be found for migrating it to mobile environments. It enables dynamic adaptation of the network behavior to current conditions based on high-level business and operational objectives. Publish/subscribe has become an important architectural style for designing distributed systems and especially for mobile environments due to the loose coupling of the components involved namely the publishers and the subscribers. In this paper, we present a policy-based management system for Wireless Ad hoc Networks using the publish/subscribe paradigm for distributing policies to the managed nodes ensuring this way that all nodes will receive the related defined policies, in an asynchronous and loosely coupled manner, achieving the desired network-wide behavior. Moreover, we enhance the publish/subscribe system with a novel request/response mechanism for tackling the problem of how newly joined nodes will retrieve previously introduced policies. Finally, we describe our initial design and implementation of the proposed mechanism, evaluate it through simulation and testbed experiments and give pointers to our future work.


The paper discusses the particular reasons underlying decisions to begin voluntary work at the Icelandic Red Cross (IRC) and if social and demographic background predicts voluntary participation in the organization. A questionnaire was sent to all volunteers with the IRC (N= 2733) in 2014 and 901 replied. The findings show that a vast majority of the volunteers said the most important reason for volunteering was their basic values. However, other reasons also had influence, such as social and career related reasons. Demographic variables, especially age, had influence on how people ranked the reasons. It is more common that women volunteer for the IRC than men. Respondents over 50 years old volunteer more often  for the IRC than younger participants. Four out of ten of the volunteers had finished upper secondary education and a third had a university degree. Most of the respondents were in full time work and it was more common to do voluntary work if they lived in rural areas compared to urban areas. The results are mostly in accordance with international findings on welfare organizations and they provide important information about reasons Icelanders give for volunteering and show that the reasons are conditioned by demographic factors. Keywords: volunteers, reasons, demography, Icelandic Red Cross.


This paper puts forth projections designs for compressive classification of Gaussian mixture models. In particular, we capitalize on the asymptotic characterization of the behavior of an (upper bound to the) misclassification probability associated with the optimal Maximum-A-Posteriori (MAP) classifier, which depends on quantities that are dual to the concepts of the diversity gain and coding gain in multi-antenna communications, to construct measurement designs that maximize the diversity-order of the measurement model. Numerical results demonstrate that the new measurement designs substantially outperform random measurements. Overall, the analysis and the designs cast geometrical insight about the mechanics of compressive classification problems.


Background: Root canal is inhibited by many kind of bacteria. Enterococcus faecalis is one of many bacteria that can be found in root canal, which considered as the most resistant species in the oral cavity with the nature of alkali at pH 9.6 and salt concentrations of 6.9, especially in root canals and one of the possible causes of recurrence after treatment endodontic disease with a prevalence of between 24 % -77%. Calcium hydroxide paste used for the intracanal treatment, because it has a pH of 12.5 and produces an alkaline environment in the surrounding tissues through the diffusion of hydroxide ions into the dentin tubules, so with high pH can cause the bactericidal effect. Currently there are various calcium hydroxide with supporting additions in the market, including calcium hydroxide with iodoform and with barium sulfate. Therefore information about their efficacy in needed by dentist. Purpose: This study aims to determine whether the antibacterial effect of calcium hydroxide with iodoform is more effective than calcium hydroxide with barium sulfate towards Enterococcus faecalis. Method: From the calculation results of Kolmogorov Smirnov Test the entire group of inhibitory zone diameter measurements Enterococcus faecalis has a value greater than 0.05 (p> 0.05) which means that the data in the study group has a variance of normal distribution, so that data analysis can proceed Independent parametric test T-test, to see the significance of differences in inhibition zone diameter between the study groups. In the test Independent t-tests for comparison of inhibition zone diameters between treatment groups, obtained significance value smaller than 0.05 (p = 0.000, p <0.05), means that there are significant differences in inhibition zone diameters between groups iodoform with barium sulfate. Result: From this research, it's showed that Calcium hydroxide with iodoform and Calcium hydroxide with barium sulfate had a significance difference antibacterial effect towards Enterococcus faecalis. It's probably because iodoform is consisted by iodine, while barium sulfate had been added to provide radiopacity. Conclusion: Calcium hydroxide with iodoform has a better antibacterial effectiveness than Calcium hydroxide with barium sulfate towards Enterococcus faecalis.


LDLP and VLDLP have different biological functions: phylogenetically older LDLP transfer FA that serve as substrates for intracellular production of energy and ATP while VLDLP transfer FA--precursors of cell membranes and eicosanoids. The cells absorb LDLP via apoB-100 endocytosis and VLDLP through apoE/B-100 receptors. VLDLP consist of palmitic and oleic VLDLP and LDLP of linoleic and linolenic LDLP. The contribution of LDLP to the development of HLP atherosclerosis and atheromatosis is negligible. LDLP form palmitic and oleic VLDLP with hydrated LDLP density. Blockade of LDLP absorption by apoB endocytosis and deficit of poly-FA constitute the etiological basis of atherosclerosis. Its pathogenetic basis is the excess of palmitic VLDLP with LDPL density in the intercellular space that block absorption of linoleic LDLP with all transferred SC poly-FA. Atheromatosis is clinically and prognostically most significant symptom of atherosclerosis associated with accumulation of ligand-free VLDLP and LDLP in arterial intima of the elastic type as the local pool of interstitial tissue for intravascular pool of intercellular medium. Type 2 diabetes mellitus in aged patients is a symptom of atherosclerosis resulting from SC poly-FA deficit and GLUT4 incompetence. Insulin-dependent cells differ in the degree of insulin resistance. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, synthesis of a physiological palmitic TG by hepatocytes and excessive formation of palmitic VLDLP in liver integrate pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and hepatic steatosis. The main pathogenetic factor is the excess of palmitic s-FA and palmitic TG.


ABSTRACT Young children are often enrolled in either AM (morning) or PM (afternoon) sessions in early childhood programs. However, little research is available on this routine practice. We used multilevel analysis to investigate if there are differences in the literacy, math, and social outcomes for children who participate in AM or PM sessions beyond those that can be explained by differences in child, family, teacher, and session characteristics. Five hundred and eighty-eight preschool children in 63 half-day sessions participated in this study in five U.S. states. Results indicate there were no patterns of significant effects between time of day and preschool children's academic and social outcomes. However, a number of child, family, teacher, and session-level variables (e.g., child's age, gender, disability and language status, parents' education level, and teachers' years of experience) moderated the effect of time of day on children's cognitive and social outcomes. The findings highlight the need to further investigate how we constitute half-day programs and how enrollment patterns are established and implemented in preschool classrooms. Thus, the study has methodical implications for future research, policy, and practice.


More than one million people in Germany are in need of home care and elderly caregiving wives and their caretaking husbands are an important group in the society. Demographical changes with a shift to more elderly people in relation to younger people will further increase the importance of this group. Home care service organisations play an important role in supporting these couples, but they are still rarely made use of. To optimize the support that can be rendered by home care services, information is needed on what influences the decision of elderly couples to use or not to use such services. A set of data from an earlier study about the situation of more than 300 couples aged 60 years or older is used to determine influencing factors in bivariate and multivariate analysis. The theoretical framework is a behavioural model of service use. The need for care measured by loss of function in activities of daily living turns out to be the most important factor influencing the use of home service organisations. Other variables such as e.g. disability of caregivers play a minor role. It seems that home care services are used as a kind of "last resort" if there is no other way to handle the situation. In trying to optimize home care services, the different values of factors influencing their use should be considered. It is important to take into consideration that those who solicit home care aid wish to retain their autonomy at the same time.


This article analyses if and how recent changes within the Swiss political system have influenced different aspects of protest politics (e.g. level, issues, action repertoires, and transnationalization). We argue that opportunities for mobilization have emerged in recent years due to changes in the institutionalized political context and that these changes have at least partially led to a resurgence of protest activities in the early 2000s. In a longitudinal perspective, it is however rather moderate. Additionally, new social movements still dominate Swiss protest politics. Although social and migration-related questions gained in salience, the changes are not as dramatic as in the case of party politics. The rise of a new integration-demarcation cleavage has not (yet) shaken Swiss protest politics as heavily as Swiss party politics. Finally, even though they are not integrated into a pronounced new protest cycle, the early 2000s are marked by the global justice movement. In this context, we observe a slight radicalization of the action repertoire and police reactions, which is at least partially explained by the emergence of new "transnational" sites of contention.


New regulations required the 7.5 ML/d North East River Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility to upgrade to meet lower annual average effluent nitrogen and phosphorus limits. At the same time, facility planning was underway to expand the facility to 17.0 ML/d to accommodate planned growth in the service area. Following a pilot study to establish the performance capabilities of the existing process and a technology alternatives evaluation, a combination of a Carrousel ® 5-stage oxidation ditches followed by a membrane filtration system was used to convert the facility to a membrane bioreactor. This combination of technologies is unique among the more than 300 facilities recently upgraded for nutrient removal in the Chesapeake Bay region. The new process went into service in late 2015 and has demonstrated the ability to meet effluent performance requirements for total nitrogen and total phosphorus.


Vehicle safety is a very important design element for all types of vehicles designed for use on public streets or roadways. Traditional vehicles produced with liquid fuels have a long history of creating appropriate safety countermeasures. With the onset of new electric propulsion and charging systems, proposed for large scale production, new safety design elements will need to be provided to vehicle developers. This paper attempts to summary the usually protective measures against electric shock on electric vehicles and to analyze these measures to formalize a series of important safety references for vehicle developers.


Sp1 plays critical roles in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of certain cancer. However, few studies have indicated whether Sp1 is involved in the EMT of gastric cancer, and whether abnormal expression of Sp1 in gastric cancer EMT is regulated in a post-transcriptional manner, and the involvement of miRNAs in this regulation. In this study, we selected 20 cases of gastric cancers, their liver metastases and para-carcinoma tissues to examine the levels of Sp1 protein and mRNA by immunohistochemistry and fluorescent PCR, which showed that Sp1 was increased in gastric cancers and their metastases compared with adjacent tissues, but there was no difference in Sp1 mRNA between these three groups, suggesting changes in Sp1 may be attributed to inactivation of post-transcriptional regulation. We verified by a luciferase reporter system that miRNA-223 binds to 3'-UTR of Sp1 gene and inhibits its translation, in agreement with negative correlation between miRNA-223 and Sp1 protein levels in gastric cancer cells. By employing TGF-β1 to induce MGC-803, BGC-823 and SGC-7901, we successfully built cellular EMT model. Then, we overexpressed miRNA-223 in the model by using a lentiviral system, which diminished EMT indicators and suppressed proliferation and invasion ability, and induced apoptosis. Finally, we verified the specificity of the regulation pathway miRNA-223/Sp1/EMT. These findings suggest that low expression of miRNA-223 in gastric cancer cells is an important cause for EMT. miRNA-223 specifically regulates the EMT process of gastric cancer cells through its target gene Sp1. Overexpression of miRNA-223 in these cells inhibits EMT via the miRNA-223/Sp1/EMT pathway.


The effect of Si doping on the bioactivity and characteristics of hydroxyapatite/TiO2 composite films was investigated. Pure titanium plates were treated to form Ca, P and Si enriched titania-based films by using micro-arc oxidation (MAO). Then, some specimens were undergone a further hydrothermal treatment to produce a thin outermost layer of hydroxyapatite (HA). Experiments revealed that that the film, which was about 10μm thick, was composed of amorphous silicon dioxide, amorphous calcium phosphate, rutile and anatase. The film was porous and uneven, with the pore size of 1-4μm. No obvious cracks exist on the surface. In order to investigate the cytocompatibility of the films, periodontal ligament (PDL) cells were seeded onto the surface of the films. It was concluded that the Si ion did not influence the characters of MAO film but Si enriched hydroxyapatite/ TiO2 composite coatings exhibited an effect on cell attachment.


Variability in edaphic factors such as clay content, organic matter, and nutrient availability within individual fields is a major obstacle confronting cotton producers. Adaptation of geospatial technologies such global positioning systems (GPS), yield monitors, autosteering, and the automated on-and-off technology required for site-specific nematicide application has provided growers with additional tools for managing nematodes. Multiple trials in several states were conducted to evaluate this technology in cotton. In a field infested with Meloidogyne spp., both shallow (0 to 0.3 m) and deep (0 to 0.91 m) apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) readings were highly correlated with sand content. Populations of Meloidogyne spp. were present when shallow and deep EC values were less than 30 and 90 mS/m, respectively. Across three years of trials in production fields in which verification strips (adjacent nematicide treated and untreated rows across all soil zones) were established to evaluate crop response to nematicide application, deep EC values from 27.4-m wide transects of verification strips were more predictive of yield response to application of 1,3-dichloropropene than were shallow EC values in one location and both ECa values equally effective at predicting responses at the second location. In 2006, yields from entire verification strips across three soil zones in four production fields showed that nematicide response was greatest in areas with the lowest EC values indicating highest content of sand. In 2008 in Ashley and Mississippi Counties, AR, nematicide treatment by soil zone resulted in 36% and 42% reductions in the amount of nematicide applied relative to whole-field application. In 2007 in Bamberg County, SC, there was a strong positive correlation between increasing population densities of Meloidogyne incognita and increasing sand content. Trials conducted during 2007 and 2009 in South Carolina against Hoplolaimus columbus showed a stepwise response to increasing rates of aldicarb in zone 1 but not in zones 2 and 3. Site-specific application of nematicides has been shown to be a viable option for producers as a potential management tool against several nematode pathogens of cotton.


Recent mandates in the United States require federal agencies to incorporate climate change science into land management planning efforts. These mandates target possible adaptation and mitigation strategies. However, the degree to which climate change is actively being considered in agency planning and management decisions is largely unknown. We explored the usefulness of climate change science for federal resource managers, focusing on the efficacy of potential adaptation strategies and barriers limiting the use of climate change science in adaptation efforts. Our study was conducted in the northern Rocky Mountains region of the western United States, where we interacted with 77 U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management personnel through surveys, semistructured interviews, and four collaborative workshops at locations across Idaho and Montana. We used a mixed-methods approach to evaluate managers' perceptions about adapting to and mitigating for climate change. Although resource managers incorporate general language about climate change in regional and landscape-level planning documents, they are currently not planning on-the-ground adaptation or mitigation projects. However, managers felt that their organizations were most likely to adapt to climate change through use of existing management strategies that are already widely implemented for other non climate-related management goals. These existing strategies, (e.g., thinning and prescribed burning) are perceived as more feasible than new climate-specific methods (e.g., assisted migration) because they already have public and agency support, accomplish multiple goals, and require less anticipation of the future timing and probability of climate change impacts. Participants reported that the most common barriers to using climate change information included a lack of management-relevant climate change science, inconsistent agency guidance, and insufficient time and resources to access, interpret, and apply current climate science information to management plans.


The mammalian hairless protein (HR) is a 130 kDa nuclear transcription factor that is essential for proper skin and hair follicle function. Previous studies have focused on the role of HR in skin maintenance and hair cycling. However, the hairless gene (HR) is also expressed in brain and other tissues, where its role remains poorly understood. HR has been reported to contain functional domains that potentially serve in DNA binding, histone demethylation, nuclear translocation and protein–protein interactions. Indeed, HR has been shown to interact with and repress the action of the nuclear receptors for vitamin D and thyroid hormone as well as RAR‐related orphan receptor alpha, possibly via recruitment of histone deacetylases. HR may also have important functions in non‐skin tissues given that nearly 200 HR mutations have been identified in patients with various cancers, including prostate, breast, lung, melanoma, uterine, and glioma. This suggests that HR and/or mutants thereof have relevance to the growth and survival of cancer cells. For example, the reported intrinsic histone H3K9 demethylase activity of HR may activate dormant genes to contribute to carcinogenesis. Alternatively, the demonstrated ability of HR to interact with p53 and/or the p53 DNA response element to influence p53‐regulated pathways may explain, at least in part, why many cancers express mutated HR proteins. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of HR bioactions, how HR mutations may be contributing to alopecia as well as to cancer, and, finally, outline future directions in the study of this largely enigmatic nuclear protein. J. Cell. Biochem. 119: 69–80, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


To what extent does information in a person's face predict their likely behaviour? There is increasing evidence for association between relatively neutral, static facial appearance and personality traits. By using composite images rendered from 3D scans of women scoring high and low on health and personality dimensions, we aimed to examine the separate contributions of facial shape, skin texture and viewing angle to the detection of these traits, whilst controlling for crucial posture variables. After controlling for such cues, participants were able to identify Agreeableness, Neuroticism and Physical Health. For personality traits, we found a reliable laterality bias, in that the right side of the face afforded higher accuracy than the left. The separate contributions of shape and texture cues varied with the traits being judged. Our findings are consistent with signalling theories suggesting multiple channels to convey multiple messages. 2.


Objective To compare clinical characteristics, treatment patterns, and 30-day all-cause readmission and mortality between patients hospitalized for heart failure (HF) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods The study was conducted at 16 hospitals across 3 geographically dispersed US states. The study included 6769 adults (mean age, 74 years; 56% men) with cumulative 8989 HF hospitalizations: 2341 hospitalizations in COVID-19 pandemic (Mar- Oct 2020) and 6648 in the pre-COVID-19 (Oct 2018 – Feb 2020) comparator group. We used Poisson regression, Kaplan-Meier estimates, multivariable logistic, and Cox regression analysis to determine whether pre-specified study outcomes vary by timeframes. Socio-demographic indicators. Data-related to age, sex at birth (male and female), race (white and non-white), marital status (married and others), and body mass index (BMI). Physiological and laboratory measures . Values for systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), heart rate, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and creatinine on the day of admission. An average of 3 consecutive measurements of SBP, DBP, or heart rate were used for data analysis.


Nial is a programming language designed around a mathematical treatment of data as nested arrays. A goal of the research described is to integrate within Nial a functional style of programming based on the theory of arrays with the declarative capabilities of a logic programming environment. This is partially accomplished by storing logic clauses as arrays which can be manipulated using logic clauses. Arrays as terms are considered as part of the syntax of the clauses. The approach to logic programming is based on providing a flexible environment for experimenting with full clausal or Horn clause logic. A variety of predefined control strategies and the capability for user-defined control strategies have been provided. The expressive capabilities of combining logic and functional programming styles provides a suitable language for many application areas. The philosophy and design behind a combined logic/database model used to prototype a knowledge-based systems application are described. >


More than a decade ago, the Vietnamese Government announced an educational reform to enhance the quality of English language education in the country. An important aspect of this reform is the introduction of the localized test of English proficiency which covers four language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This high-stakes English test is developed and administered by only a limited number of institutions in Vietnam. Although the validity of the test is a considerable concern for test-takers and test score users, it has remained an under-researched area. This study aims to partly address the issue by validating a listening test developed by one of the authorized institutions in Vietnam. In this thesis, the test is referred to as the Locally Created Listening Test or the LCLT.  Using the argument-based approach to validation (Kane, 1992, 2013; Chapelle, 2008), this research aims to develop a validity argument for the evaluation, generalization and explanation inferences of the LCLT. Three studies were carried out to elicit evidence to support these inferences. The first study investigated the statistical characteristics of the LCLT test scores, focusing on the evaluation and generalization inference. The second study shed light on the extent to which test items engaged the target construct. The third study examined whether test-takers' scores on the LCLT correlated well with their scores on an international English test that measured a similar construct. Both the second and third study were carried out to support the explanation inference.  These three studies did not provide enough evidence to successfully support the validity argument for the LCLT. The test was found to have major flaws that affected the validity of score interpretations. In light of the research findings, suggestions were given for the betterment of future LCLTs. At the same time, this research helped to uncover the impacts of certain text and task-related factors on the test-takers' performance. Such insights led to practical implications for the assessment of second language listening in general. The results of this research also contributed to the theory and practice of test localization, a relatively new paradigm in language testing and assessment.


Distinct alterations in fatty acid composition and in the functional state of erythrocyte membranes were detected in 58 patients with sepsis; these alterations were phase-dependent and correlated highly with clinical picture. Considerable increase in content of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids and a decrease in concentration of lipoproteins were found in erythrocyte membranes under inauspicious conditions of sepsis development. In these patients activities of superoxide dismutase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase were decreased, while content of SH-groups was lowered and lipid peroxidation was inhibited. The alterations observed in fatty acid composition of erythrocyte membranes and a decrease in metabolic activity of red blood cells may be responsible for hemolysis in patients with sepsis.


Due to concerns about environmental and industrial hazards of lead, a number of military, law enforcement, and wildlife management agencies are giving careful consideration to lead-free ammunition. The goal of lead-free bullets is to gain the advantages of reduced lead use in the environment while maintaining equal or better terminal performance. Accepting reduced terminal performance would foolishly risk the lives of military and law enforcement personnel. This paper uses the established technique of studying bullet impacts in ballistic gelatin to characterize the terminal performance of eight commercial off-theshelf lead-free handgun bullets for comparison with earlier analysis of jacketed lead bullets. Peak retarding force and energy deposit in calibrated ballistic gelatin are quantified using high speed video. The temporary stretch cavities and permanent wound cavities are also characterized. Two factors tend to reduce the terminal performance of these lead-free projectiles compared to similar jacketed lead designs. First, solid copper construction increase barrel friction, which reduces muzzle velocity and energy, and thus reduces the ability of the bullet to exert damaging forces in tissue simulant. Second, the lower density of copper requires a longer bullet for a given mass and caliber, which reduces remaining powder volume in the brass cartridge case, which also tends to reduce muzzle velocity and energy. The results of the present study are consistent with earlier analysis showing that expansion is necessary to maximize the potential for rapid incapacitation of enemy combatants. In spite of some new non-expanding nose designs that moderately increase forces between bullet and tissue, the largest retarding forces and highest incapacitation potential requires expanding bullets which maximize frontal area.


A method is given for the calculation of axial stress in polarization-maintaining optical fiber and preform. Detailed calculations are presented for circular side-lobe (CSL) and bow-tie fibers and preforms. The axial-stress results explain why preforms are more fragile than fibers in these designs. On the other hand, the stress analysis also shows that these fibers are more crack resistant at the surface than conventional single-mode fibers. To reduce the fragility of the fiber, it is suggested that a larger drawing tension be used during the fiber pulling process.


Promoting affiliation between scientists is relatively easy, but creating larger organizational structures is much more difficult, due to traditions of scientific independence, difficulties of sharing implicit knowledge, and formal organizational barriers. The Science of Collaboratories (SOC) project conducted a broad five-year review to take stock of the diverse ecosystem of projects that fit our definition of a collaboratory and to distill lessons learned in the process. This article describes one of the main products of that review, a seven-category taxonomy of collaboratory types. The types are: Distributed Research Centers, Shared Instruments, Community Data Systems, Open Community Contribution Systems, Virtual Communities of Practice, Virtual Learning Communities, and Community Infrastructure Projects. Each of the types is defined and illustrated with one example, and key technical and organizational issues are identified.


alpha and beta parvalbumins are Ca(2+)-binding proteins of the EF-hand type. We determined the protein sequence of human brain alpha parvalbumin by mass spectrometry and cloned human beta parvalbumin (or oncomodulin) from genomic DNA and preterm placental cDNA. beta parvalbumin differs in 54 positions from alpha parvalbumin and lacks the C-terminal amino acid 109. From MS analyses of alpha and beta parvalbumins we conclude that parvalbumins generally lack posttranslational modifications. alpha and beta parvalbumins were differently expressed in human tissues when analyzed by immunoblotting and polymerase-chain-reaction techniques. Whereas alpha parvalbumin was found in a number of adult human tissues, beta parvalbumin was restricted to preterm placenta. The pattern of alpha parvalbumin expression also differs in man compared to other vertebrates. For example, in rat, alpha parvalbumin was found in extrafusal and intrafusal skeletal-muscle fibres whereas, in man, alpha parvalbumin was restricted to the muscle spindles. Different functions for alpha and beta parvalbumins are discussed.


SUMMARY We have used immunoelectron microscopy to investigate the subcellular location of Pfs16 in Plasmodium falciparum. It was detected in the outer membrane region of gametocytes and more specifically on the parasitophorous vacuole membrane (pvm), since, during gametogenesis when the pvm disintegrates, the majority of the antigen was detected on the remains of this membrane in multilaminated whorls and not on the gamete plasma membrane. The antigen was also present on other gametocyte cellular structures, including those which we believe to be Garnham bodies, present in the host cell cytoplasm of some gametocytes. The antigen was present too on the membrane surrounding cytostomes and the resulting food vacuoles in the parasite cytoplasm.


Purpose

This paper aims to explore the extent to which participation in a previous graduate recruitment programme affects graduates' organisational affective commitment and their desire to remain.

Design/methodology/approach

With the support of a Portuguese organisation that annually operates a trainee programme to attract the best graduates from top universities, a questionnaire with human resource management (HRM) practices, affective commitment and turnover intention scales was used, with data collected from 168 recent recruited graduates representing two groups: graduates with previous participation in the trainee programme and graduates non-trainees.

Findings

Despite the company's expectation that graduate trainees would present higher levels of affective commitment and lower intentions to voluntarily leave than employees recruited by traditional procedures, the t-test results show no significant differences between groups. However, correlations for both groups show a significant positive association between perceived HRM practices and affective commitment and a negative relation with turnover intention. These results suggest that placing a high value on HR practices leads to reinforcement of employment relations and a decrease in the desire to voluntarily leave.

Practical implications

The findings suggest the need for organisations to rethink their recruitment strategies and raise an interesting question with regard to organisational strategy: is it useful or fair to create two groups of graduates within the same organisation, because we may be promoting the development of two micro-cultures?

Originality/value

The study with this specific group is needed because of an increased implementation of trainee programmes all over Europe as a means of attracting graduates. The literature is scarce, focusing only on trainees' attitudes compared to those recruited through traditional procedures.


In this work, we present an evolution of the DDS (Damped & Delayed Sinusoidal) model introduced within the framework of the general signal modeling. This model is named Partial Damped & Delayed Sinusoidal (PDDS) model and takes into account a single time delay parameter for a set of (un)damped sinusoids. This modification is more consistent with the transient audio modeling problem. Then, we develop model parameter high-resolution estimation algorithms. Simulations on a typical transient audio signals show the validity of this approach.


Barium sulfate-contrast medium was instilled into the peritoneal cavity of three rats and three dogs and thus a (aseptic) barium peritonitis was induced. The experiments show that barium sulfate here causes not only local reaction but important is its general deleterious effect dependent on its quantity. This is not widely appreciated, yet seems to be an intoxication. Barium sulfate-medium only may be considered non toxic as long as staying in the intestinal tract.


Electrochemical fluorination of methyl(phenylthio)acetate was achieved using tetrabutylammonium fluoride (TBAF). Electrochemical fluorination was performed under potentiostatic anodic oxidation using an undivided cell in acetonitrile containing TBAF and triflic acid. The influence of several parameters including: oxidation potential, time, temperature, sonication, TBAF concentration and triflic acid concentration on fluorination efficiency were studied. It was found that the triflic acid to TBAF concentration ratio plays a key role in the fluorination efficiency. Electrochemical fluorination resulted in formation of mono-fluorinated methyl 2-fluoro-2-(phenylthio)acetate verified by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy. Under optimum conditions 44 ± 3% mono fluorination yield was obtained after a 30 min electrolysis. Electrochemical radiofluorination for the synthesis of methyl 2-[18F]fluoro-2-(phenothio) acetate was also achieved with the same optimized electrochemical cell parameters where TBAF was first passed through an anion exchange resin containing fluorine-18. A radiochemical fluorination efficiency of 7 ± 1% was achieved after 30 min of electrolysis.


We study the problem of learning a sparse linear regression vector under additional conditions on the structure of its sparsity pattern. This problem is relevant in Machine Learning, Statistics and Signal Processing. It is well known that a linear regression can benefit from knowledge that the underlying regression vector is sparse. The combinatorial problem of selecting the nonzero components of this vector can be "relaxed" by regularising the squared error with a convex penalty function like the l1 norm. However, in many applications, additional conditions on the structure of the regression vector and its sparsity pattern are available. Incorporating this information into the learning method may lead to a significant decrease of the estimation error. In this thesis, we present a family of convex penalty functions, which encode prior knowledge on the structure of the vector formed by the absolute values of the regression coefficients. This family subsumes the l1 norm and is flexible enough to include different models of sparsity patterns, which are of practical and theoretical importance. We establish several properties of these penalty functions and discuss some examples where they can be computed explicitly. Moreover, for solving the regularised least squares problem with these penalty functions, we present a convergent optimisation algorithm and proximal method. Both algorithms are useful numerical techniques taylored for different kinds of penalties. Extensive numerical simulations highlight the benefit of structured sparsity and the advantage offered by our approach over the Lasso method and other related methods, such as using other convex optimisation penalties or greedy methods.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework and conceptualization of approaches to salespersons' negative reactions to performance-improvement coaching. This is done by first depicting "negative reaction to coaching" (such as defensiveness, reluctance, fear, confusion, or apathy) as the manifestation of an underlying psychological "basic issue" held by the salesperson. Next, from the sales coaching and psychology literature, the theoretical underpinnings of the following coaching approaches are introduced: humanistic, behavioral, cognitive, and psychodynamic. Finally, applications of coaching conversations are presented for each "basic issue" and "coaching approach" pairing.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is conceptual and is depicted using a framework illustration (table) of how each negative reaction to coaching (i.e. basic issue) maps to a theoretical approach rooted in the psychology and coaching literature.

Findings

Dealing with a rep's negative reaction to performance-improvement coaching should be treated like the process of handling any sales objection, issue, or concern. This process consists of, first, recognizing, clarifying, or attempting to better understand the rep's negative reaction; and second, responding to the negative reaction using the appropriate psychology-rooted coaching approach to clarify or explain the purpose or rationale for coaching. Examples and sample coaching conversations are presented for each negative reaction–coaching approach pairing.

Research limitations/implications

The conceptual research presented in this paper provides scholars one way to view and understand such negative reactions to performance-improvement coaching from salespeople, as it maps to the underlying psychological basic issues (behind negative reactions) and theoretical basis (to coaching approaches). Using the framework of Argyris and Schon, this paper conceptualizes these negative reactions to coaching as "action strategies" as a rep's means to protect him/herself psychologically.

Practical implications

For practicing sales managers (coaches), a better understanding of negative reactions to performance-improvement coaching and underlying theoretical approaches to responding to them could better help shape the most constructive coaching conversations with reps. These conversations should follow the same format as responding to a customer objection (e.g. better understand the reaction and then respond to it).

Originality/value

This conceptual paper blends the theory and practice of sales coaching by providing a framework to aid sales managers in overcoming and minimizing the obstacles posed by salespeople when they are not open to coaching conversations.


Self gravitational fluid mechanical methods termed hydro-gravitational-dynamics (HGD) predict plasma fragmentation 0.03 Myr after the turbulent big bang to form protosuperclustervoids, turbulent protosuperclusters, and protogalaxies at the 0.3 Myr transition from plasma to gas. Linear protogalaxyclusters fragment at 0.003 Mpc viscous-inertial scales along turbulent vortex lines or in spirals, as observed. The plasma protogalaxies fragment on transition into white-hot planet-mass gas clouds (PFPs) in million-solar-mass clumps (PGCs) that become globular-star-clusters (GCs) from tidal forces or dark matter (PGCs) by freezing and diffusion into 0.3 Mpc halos with 97% of the galaxy mass. The weakly collisional non-baryonic dark matter diffuses to > Mpc scales and fragments to form galaxy cluster halos. Stars and larger planets form by binary mergers of the trillion PFPs per PGC, mostly on 0.03 Mpc galaxy accretion disks. Stars deaths depend on rates of planet accretion and internal star mixing. Moderate accretion rates pro-duce white dwarfs that evaporate surrounding gas planets by spin-radiation to form planetary nebulae before Supernova Ia events, dimming some events to give systematic distance errors, the dark energy hypothesis, and overestimates of the universe age.


Software reuse is crucial for organizations interested in productivity gains and software quality. In this context, Software Product Line (SPL) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) are two reuse strategies that share common goals and can be used together with the purpose of increasing reuse and producing service-oriented systems, customizable to specific customers, faster and cheaper than creating individual systems. In this sense, this work investigates the problem of designing software product lines using service-oriented architectures, and presents a systematic approach to design product lines based on services. The approach provides guidance to identify, design and document components, services, service compositions and their associated communication flows. In addition, an initial experimental study performed with the intention of validating and refining the approach is also depicted demonstrating that the proposed solution can be viable.


A highly interesting trend in mobile network optimization is to exploit knowledge of future network capacity to allow mobile terminals to prefetch data when signal quality is high and to refrain from communication when signal quality is low. While this approach offers remarkable benefits, it relies on the availability of a reliable forecast of system conditions. This paper focuses on the reliability of simple prediction techniques and their impact on resource allocation algorithms. In addition, we propose ICARO, a resource allocation technique that is robust to prediction uncertainties. The algorithm combines autoregressive filtering and statistical models for short, medium, and long term forecasting. We validate our approach by means of an extensive simulation campaign based on real measurement data collected in Berlin. We show that our solution performs close to an omniscient optimizer and outperforms a limited horizon omniscient optimizer by 10 - 15%. Our solution provides up to 30% saving of system resources compared to a simple solution that always maintains a full buffer and is close to optimal in terms of buffer under-run time.


The internet has become increasingly social, opening up new space for online collaboration and distributed project management. Decentralized management techniques such as open-source software, distributed development, and software-as-a-service allow software developers to easily connect online and to solve complex problems collaboratively. Online rockstars, who are well-respected in a community and are followed by numerous other users, often influence the decisions of project managers and clients in software development. Understanding the effects of these rockstars can greatly facilitate technology development and adoption in distributed project management. This paper presents a study of the GitHub social network to understand rockstar effect in distributed project management. In GitHub, developers often collaborate in distributed teams and interact in their online social networks, which evolve with popularity of software repositories and actions of rockstars. To understand how rockstars influence the popularity of software repositories, this research constructed temporal social networks during 2015 to 2017 between 13.5 million software repositories and 2.6 million GitHub users and examined the evolvement of behavior of 245,501 rockstar followers. The results show that the more followers a rockstar has, the more triadic events there are in his/her participated repository. And the difference of number of events between top rockstar and other rockstars is much higher in participative events than in contributive events, indicating higher triadic influence from top rockstar in those events for technology development in distributed project management.


The threat to human health from climate change means that all levels of government and private and public agencies will need to change their current practices to reduce carbon emissions. The health sector will also need to respond and change practice. The National Health Service in the United Kingdom is developing a systematic and strategic approach to reduce its carbon footprint, as described in the recently released NHS Carbon Reduction Strategy for England. The work is being led by the Service's new Sustainable Development Unit. While the Australian health care system has not yet embraced a shared vision for carbon reduction, there are examples emerging of how the sector is contributing to reduce greenhouse gas production. Examples from two NSW area health services to reduce energy use and promote active transport are presented. In both countries, these changes are supported by new legislation and policy.


We demonstrate the fully autonomous collaboration of an aerial and a ground robot in a mock-up disaster scenario. Within this collaboration, we make use of the individual capabilities and strengths of both robots. The aerial robot first maps an area of interest, then it computes the fastest mission for the ground robot to reach a spotted victim and deliver a first-aid kit. Such a mission includes driving and removing obstacles in the way while being constantly monitored and commanded by the aerial robot. Our mission-planning algorithm distinguishes between movable and fixed obstacles and considers both the time for driving and removing obstacles. The entire mission is executed without any human interaction once the aerial robot is launched and requires a minimal amount of communication between the robots. We describe both the hardware and software of our system and detail our mission-planning algorithm. We present exhaustive results of both simulation and real experiments. Our system was successfully demonstrated more than 20 times at a trade fair.


Abstract. We present new observations of trace gases in the stratosphere based on a cost-effective sampling technique that can access much higher altitudes than aircraft. The further development of this method now provides detection of species with abundances in the parts per trillion (ppt) range and below. We obtain mixing ratios for six gases (CFC-11, CFC-12, HCFC-22, H-1211, H-1301, and SF6), all of which are important for understanding stratospheric ozone depletion and circulation. After demonstrating the quality of the data through comparisons with ground-based records and aircraft-based observations we combine them with the latter to demonstrate its potential. We first compare it with results from a global model driven by three widely used meteorological reanalyses. Secondly, we focus on CFC-11 as recent evidence has indicated renewed atmospheric emissions of that species relevant on a global scale. Because the stratosphere represents the main sink region for CFC-11, potential changes in stratospheric circulation and troposphere-stratosphere exchange fluxes have been identified as the largest source of uncertainty for the accurate quantification of such emissions. Our observations span over a decade (up until 2018) and therefore cover the period of the slowdown of CFC-11 global mixing ratio decreases measured at the Earth's surface. The spatial and temporal coverage of the observations is insufficient for a global quantitative analysis, but we do find some trends that are in contrast with expectations; indicating that the stratosphere may have contributed to the slower concentration decline in recent years. Further investigating the reanalysis-driven model data we find that the required dynamical changes in the stratosphere required to explain the apparent change in tropospheric CFC-11 emissions after 2013 are possible, but with a very high uncertainty range. This is partly caused by the high variability of mass flux from the stratosphere to the troposphere, especially at time scales of a few years, and partly by large differences between runs driven by different reanalysis products, none of which agree with our observations well enough for such a quantitative analysis.


In the past decade, new communication schemes have been designed and retrofitted into substations by utilities to integrate data from relays and intelligent electronic devices (IEDs). The idea of standardising the language of communication between IEDs has evolved as the key for the advancement of connectivity and interoperability within a substation automation system. As a result of the standardization process, one very critical communication standard has evolved, the International electrotechnical commission (IEC) 61850. IEC 61850 describes how devices are to communicate in a substation as well as the related system requirements. Time synchronisation (TS) is the synchronisation of the date and time of all devices in a network. It is crucial in time-sensitive substation applications and its importance has further been clearly acknowledged in the IEC 61850 standard as a requirement. As part of an undertaken project, an object-oriented implementation of the IEC 61850 standard as a concrete application layer protocol was carried out and a message-oriented middleware architecture was proposed as a means of integrating the various functionalities that support the unique behaviour and communication needs of the IEC 61850 standard. This paper focuses on the implementation of a commercial off-the shelf TS protocol and its incorporation into developed communication model.


By employing the Stroh formalism for two-dimensional anisotropic thermoelasticity, fracture analyses of interface corners between two dissimilar anisotropic elastic materials under thermal loadings are considered in this paper. It was proved that the consideration of thermal effects will not influence the stress singularity but will induce heat flux singularity if the singularity of the temperature field is not permissible. To calculate the stress intensity factors via path independent H-integral, it was found that the one proposed previously for the mechanical loading conditions should be modified by adding an additional surface integral accounting for the thermal effects. Two examples considering cracks and corners in isotropic plates are presented to show the correctness and validity of the modified H-integral.


Background and Objectives A descriptive analysis of COVID-19 infection in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) receiving fingolimod or siponimod. Methods We reviewed the cases of COVID-19 from postmarketing or ongoing clinical trials reported to Novartis through December 27, 2020. Results As of December 27, 2020, 283 cases had been reported in fingolimod-treated patients. The mean age was 44 years (from n = 224; range 11–69 years), and 190 were women. Of 161 cases with available information, 138 were asymptomatic (6), mild (100), or moderate (32); 50 cases required hospitalization. At the last follow-up, 140 patients were reported as recovered/recovering, condition was unchanged in 22, and deteriorated in 3 patients; 4 patients had a fatal outcome. Information was not available for 114 patients. Of the 54 cases of COVID-19 reported in siponimod-treated patients, 45 were from the postmarketing setting and 9 from an ongoing open-label clinical trial. The mean age was 54 years (from n = 45; range 31–70), and 30 were women. Of 28 cases with available information, 24 were asymptomatic (2), mild (17), or moderate (5); 9 cases required hospitalization. At the last follow-up, 27 patients were reported as recovered/recovering, condition remained unchanged for 1, and 3 patients had a fatal outcome. Information was not available for 23 patients. Discussion Based on a review of available information, the risk of more severe COVID-19 in patients receiving fingolimod or siponimod seems to be similar to that reported in the general population and the MS population with COVID-19. However, limitations of spontaneous reporting, especially missing data, should be considered in the interpretation of these observations.


Objective Since the majority of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) that are used in the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are mainly metabolized by CYP3A4, it is hypothesized that inter-individual differences in CYP3A4 activity may be associated with the bioavailability of these agents. Methods The level of serum 4β-hydroxycholesterol (4βHC), a surrogate marker of CYP3A4 activity, was determined by LC-MS/MS in samples obtained from patients with HCV infection (CHCs) as well as healthy control subjects (CTLs). Serum samples obtained from patients treated with either asunaprevir/daclatasvir (ASV/DCV) or ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir (OTV/PTV/r) were used for additional assays. Results The serum 4βHC level in CHCs was significantly higher than that in CTLs, and a gender difference was seen among CHCs. In patients treated with OTV/PTV/r, the serum 4βHC level was observed to gradually decrease during the treatment period. In the cohort treated with ASV/DCV, 4 of 83 patients showed virological treatment failure. In pretreatment testing, an Invader assay detected a low prevalence of resistance-associated variants in these four patients. The average serum concentration of DCV/ASV in the treatment-failed group tended to be lower than that in the sustained virological response (SVR) group. The pretreatment serum 4βHC level in patients with treatment failure was significantly higher than that in patients with an SVR but in whom the prevalence of resistance-associated variants was low in the pretreatment setting. Conclusion The evaluation of CYP3A4 activity by measuring 4βHC before treatment may provide additional information that can potentially be used to select cost- and efficacy-optimized treatment of HCV.


Histones from the epicotyls of light-grown dwarf peas (Pisum sativum L. cv. Little Marvel) which had been treated with gibberellic acid were compared to histones from control dwarf peas by the method of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The histone complements were found to be unaltered in the electrophoretic mobility and relative quantity of the individual fractions. The ratio of histone to DNA was also unaffected by treatment with gibberellic acid. The investigation confirmed earlier reports that over 95% of the histone of peas is contained in seven molecular species and that one of these can exist both as an oxidized disulfide dimer and as a reduced monomer. Evidence is presented which indicates that only the monomer form exists in vivo in the pea epicotyl tissue and that the oxidized dimer is an artifact of extraction. The implications of the data concerning the mechanism of action of gibberellic acid are discussed.


Efficient focusing of X‐rays is essential for high‐resolution X‐ray microscopy. Diffractive X‐ray optics called kinoforms offer the highest focusing efficiencies in theory. However, they have long remained unavailable due to their challenging nanofabrication. Recently, various X‐ray optic geometries including kinoforms have been realized using 3D laser lithography at near‐infrared wavelengths. As the smallest features (period) of the kinoform determines the resolving power, there is a natural drive to find ways to fabricate kinoforms with ever smaller features. Here, a custom‐built 3D laser lithography setup with an excitation wavelength of 405 nm is used, which allows to half the smallest period of the kinoforms compared to previous work. A 40% improvement in scanning transmission X‐ray microscopy image resolution, that is, a cutoff resolution of 145 nm, and an efficiency of 7.6% at 700 eV is achieved. A reconstructed pixel size of 18.5 nm, reaching the limit imposed by the design of the microscopy set‐up, is demonstrated through ptychographic imaging of a magnetic sample which has a strongly reduced contrast mechanism. Moreover, X‐ray lenses manufactured by 405 nm 3D laser lithography have the potential to become much less expensive than X‐ray lenses made by other means.


In recent years the subject of plant-based alternatives to conventional animal products has gained a lot of attention. Combining existing research with our own quantitative analysis, we are exploring what the driving factors and the barriers are, which influence Swedish consumers when it comes to consuming these specific products. In order to do this, we make use of the Theory of Reasoned Action model. The most important criteria for Swedish consumers when choosing their foods are their health and the environment, but also the taste, the traditions attached to certain foods and how their entourage influences them. The importance of our study is confirmed by the fact that first of all, the subject is quite new, most similar papers have been written in the last ten years, and not much has been written on the consumer behavior towards these products in Sweden. Moreover the study combines the existing TRA model with some new approaches to investigate the problem of acceptance of plant-based alternatives. This resolves some of the criticism that has been expressed against the standard TRA model. In our conclusion we are then able to give some advise to companies in the plant-based replacements food sector for the future.


The paper is a synthesis of a multi-year research path carried out by University of Florence with Livorno Port Authority. This research, although born and developed within a specific context, the port one, is part of a more general debate concerning the planning, design and evaluation of urban transformations at a visual and scenic level in complex and stratified territories with historical permanence. The ultimate aim of this contribution is represented by the results of the experiments on the tools for measuring the visual and scenic impact, known at disciplinary level as View Management.


The artificial prosthesises currently used are only different in the femoral head size, neck length and stem thickness, but there is not any individualized prosthesis. At present, prosthesis looseness is the main problem of artificial femoral replacement, and individual matching level of joints is the bottleneck of restricting prosthesis replacement surgery. If we can design and produce corresponding individual artificial joints according to the patient's bone shape and bio-mechanical characteristics, there will be a significant impact on human health and medical treatment. In this paper, I complete the reconstruction process of the CT three-dimensional finite element model of femur, with the help of powerful image processing functions of medical imaging system MIMICS. I load force with the experimental data provided by the VIMS laboratory, analyze the biomechanical properties of femur and investigate the influence of anteversion angle parameter on mechanical properties.


Early detection of non-organic hearing loss (NOHL) is important in order to ensure appropriate management decisions. One possible audiometric test for achieving this is the tone-in-noise (TIN) test although its current format is not widely applicable and may not optimize accuracy. We sought to investigate a modified TIN test, using narrowband noise, and the influence of different noise levels and alternative approaches to determining the outcome. Seventy-five normal-hearing and 8 hearing-impaired subjects were asked to feign or exaggerate a hearing loss. The shift in genuine or exaggerated/feigned thresholds with the introduction of ipsilateral noise was determined. The TIN test was able to accurately separate between genuine and feigned thresholds when using narrowband noise presented at the effective masking level corresponding to the apparent tone threshold and using a 'fail' criterion of a repeatable threshold shift of ≥ 10 dB at one or more frequencies. It also produced similar shifts in exaggerated thresholds. In conclusion, this modified TIN test is a potentially accurate method to rapidly identify unilateral and bilateral NOHL in a wide range on contexts and could be applied to automated audiometry.


Wild diploid goatgrass, Aegilops tauschii Coss., is the D-genome donor to hexaploid bread wheat. Goatgrass has been crossed with tetraploid durum wheat (Triticum turgidum var. durum L.) and hexaploid bread wheat (T. aestivum L. ssp. aestivum) to broaden the genetic base of bread wheat. We examined the contribution of main stem water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) and current assimilates to grain yield in one goatgrass relative to those in one durum and four cultivars of bread wheat under well-watered and droughted field conditions across two years. Drought reduced grain yield and its components. Number of tillers per plant was higher in goatgrass, but 55% of tillers produced were sterile. Number of grains per spike was lower in goatgrass. Grain weight was the component severely limiting potential yield in goatgrass. Main stem WSC and concentration was lowest in goatgrass. Linear rate of grain growth in goatgrass was 20 and 17 mg spike−1 day−1 under well-watered and droughted conditions, whereas those in durum and bread wheats ranged from 55 to 73 and from 37 to 60 mg spike−1 day−1, respectively. Current assimilates were the major source of carbon to fill the grains under both irrigation regimes. A large number of goatgrass accessions and adapted durum cultivars should be examined for grain yield and its components to identify promising accessions to be used in producing synthetics.


BACKGROUND
Historically, some chiropractors have been critical of vaccination, and this has been the subject of recent media attention in Canada. We explored the association between media attention and public dissemination of vaccination information on Canadian chiropractors' websites.

METHODS
In 2016, we identified all Canadian chiropractors' websites that provided information on vaccination by extracting details from the regulatory college website for each province using the search engine on their "find a chiropractor" page. We assessed the quality of information using the Web Resource Rating Tool (scores range from 0% [worst] to 100% [best]), determined whether vaccination was portrayed in a positive, neutral or negative manner, and conducted thematic analysis of vaccination content. We revisited all identified websites in 2019 to explore for changes to posted vaccination material.

RESULTS
In July 2016, of 3733 chiropractic websites identified, 94 unique websites provided information on vaccination: 59 (63%) gave negative messaging, 19 (20%) were neutral and 16 (17%) were positive. The quality of vaccination content on the websites was generally poor, with a median Web Resource Rating Tool score of 19%. We identified 4 main themes: there are alternatives to vaccination, vaccines are harmful, evidence regarding vaccination and health policy regarding vaccination. From 2012 to 2016, there was 1 Canadian newspaper story concerning antivaccination statements by chiropractors, whereas 51 news articles were published on this topic between 2017 and 2019. In April 2019, 45 (48%) of the 94 websites we had identified in 2016 had removed all vaccination content or had been discontinued.

INTERPRETATION
In 2016, a minority of Canadian chiropractors provided vaccination information on their websites, the majority of which portrayed vaccination negatively. After substantial national media attention, about half of all vaccination material on chiropractors' websites was removed within several years.


BackgroundUndernutrition is one of the major public health concerns among infants and young children in the country. Childhood under-nutrition is widespread in low and middle-income countries. This study was initiated to assess the prevalence of under-nutrition and its associated factors among under-five children in Afar Region, Ethiopia. MethodsThe data for this study were extracted from the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) 2016. The information collected from 937 children born 5 years before the survey was considered in the analysis. A multivariable binary logistic regression analysis was used at a 5% level of significance to determine the individual- and community-level factors associated with childhood malnutrition.ResultsThe prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting in Afar region were 41.1%, 36.2% and 17.7%, respectively. About 26.7% of children in Afar region were both stunting and underweight, 12.7% were both underweight and wasting, 7.6% were both stunting and wasting and only 7.0% of children had all the three under-nutrition conditions. Among the factors considered in this study, age of a child in months, anemia level, mothers' BMI, household wealth index, size of child at birth, number of living children and place of residence were significantly associated with stunting, underweight and wasting in Afar Region. ConclusionsThe prevalence of all stunting, underweight and wasting was relatively high. Undernutrition is one of the major public health concerns among children in Afar Region. The effect of these factors should be considered to develop strategies to reduce under-nutrition in the study area. Thus, intervention should be focused on improving the under-nutrition determinants of the children to improve the child's nutritional status and reduce child morbidity and mortality.


Summary
Results of herpes simplex virus (HSV) isolation from a series of human postmortem trigeminal, thoracic and sacral ganglia were correlated with the HSV antibody type(s) detected in the sera by radioimmunoassay (RIA). HSV type 1 was isolated from trigeminal ganglia of 44 out of 90 individuals, from thoracic ganglia of 1 out of 25, and from sacral ganglia of 1 out of 68 cases. HSV type 2 was recovered from sacral ganglia of 8 out of 68 individuals. In all cases in which an HSV was isolated from ganglia and serum was available for testing, homologous, type-specific antibody was demonstrable, and in a few instances antibody to the heterologous HSV was also detected. In those individuals in which HSV type 1 was isolated from trigeminal ganglia and HSV type 2 from sacral ganglia, antibody to both virus types was present in the sera, indicating that simultaneous latent infections with each of the two viruses can occur, and that antibody is produced to each virus independently. Antibody to HSV type 1, 2 or both types was demonstrated in 8 out of 10 cases in which virus isolation attempts were negative, suggesting either a higher sensitivity of RIA for detecting HSV infection, or the presence of latent HSV at some other site in the body which was not sampled.


The phyllosphere represents the habitat provided by the aboveground parts of plants, and on a global scale supports a large and complex microbial community. Microbial interactions in the phyllosphere can affect the fitness of plants in natural communities, the productivity of agricultural crops, and the safety of horticultural produce for human consumption. The structure of phyllosphere communities reflects immigration, survival and growth of microbial colonists, which is influenced by numerous environmental factors in addition to leaf physico‐chemical properties. The recent use of culture‐independent techniques has demonstrated considerable previously unrecognized diversity in phyllosphere bacterial communities. Furthermore, there is significant recent evidence that plant genotype can play a major role in determining the structure of phyllosphere microbial communities. The main aims of this review are: (i) to discuss the diversity of phyllosphere microbial populations; (ii) to consider the processes by which microbes colonize the phyllosphere; (iii) to address the leaf characteristics and environmental factors that determine the survival and growth of colonists; (iv) to discuss microbial adaptations that allow establishment in the phyllosphere habitat and (v) to evaluate evidence for plant genotypic control of phyllosphere communities. Finally, we suggest approaches and priority areas for future research on phyllosphere microbiology.


Authoritative coverage focuses on a lawyer's fiduciary responsibility. Text describes the legal profession's self-regulatory system and the professional codes that have emerged. Examines lawyers and the legal profession, including regulation and discipline. Provides a detailed discussion of the client-lawyer relationship. Judges and the quality of justice are also addressed. Provides systematic examination of the issues covered in the 1969 Code of Professional Responsibility and the 1983 Model Rules of Professional Conduct.


A 78-year-old woman was admitted for pulmonary embolism requiring orotracheal intubation and positive end-expiratory pressure. The pulmonary angiography confirmed a massive pulmonary embolism as suggested by echocardiography. Heparin and recombinant tissue plasminogen activator were successfully administrated; nevertheless, cardiogenic shock developed. A diastolic morphology of the right-left cardiac pressures, despite a normalization of lung vasculature, was discovered by a repeated cardiac catheterization and pulmonary angiography. No tamponade was detected by echocardiography. Computed tomography demonstrated a large pneumomediastinum caused by positive end-expiration pressure, as a cause of the acute diastolic dysfunction. The patient died of a cardiac arrest after an unsuccessful drainage attempt.