Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine principals' experience and sensemaking of collaboration with private companies, focussing on leadership and school improvement.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper is set against the backdrop of a project where three public Swedish schools collaborated with private companies within their communities. Data were collected over three years and consisted of semi-structured interviews, meeting notes, field observations, field notes and document analysis. A qualitative content analysis was performed using the Atlas.ti 6.2 software tool.

Findings
The study shows that important sensemaking for the principals in this collaboration between schools and private companies is related to the sense of collective responsibility and involvement, development of improvement culture and trust between key actors, and common improvement initiatives based on mutual interest. Challenges in the collaboration are related to principal changes, a lack of implementation of the collaboration, and that there was no clear vision of external collaboration in two out of three schools. In terms of possibilities, the collaboration was based on the needs of the school, a collaborative culture was developed, and the development/activities were undertaken between involved schools and private companies during the collaboration.

Research limitations/implications
Inevitably, there are limitations that need to be identified and recognised in this study. First, the small number of cases in this multiple case study, as well as the specific social context, limits the possibility of generalising the findings. Second, the study was not independently selected, and the findings and analyses are linked to national and local contexts, which can be seen as a limitation and strength. Notwithstanding, this study contributes with in-depth information about how a beyond-school collaboration with private companies is practised as well as how involved principals made sense of the collaboration from the perspective of school improvement.

Originality/value
The originality is the collaboration between schools and private companies. The paper contributes with new knowledge about how principals experience and make sense of this collaboration as a vehicle for school improvement.


Security is the main concern in today's world. It is important to secure data from unauthorized access. Data encryption is often used to ensure security in open networks such as the internet. Each type of data has its own features; therefore, different techniques should be used to protect confidential image data from unauthorized access. This paper proposes a new algorithm. The first part of the algorithm aims to build a shifted table using hash function within encryption phase and decryption phase to generate an encrypted (shifted) image and the original image. The second part of the algorithm uses the shifted table resulted from the first part of the algorithm to generate newly shifted image (Encrypted) in which the rows and the columns of the original image are shifted and followed by encryption technique to increase the security of the image encryption. This implies a high similarity and a good quality of the retrieved image compared to the original image. The results show that the correlation between image elements has been significantly decreased using the proposed technique, and higher entropy has been achieved. By using differential analysis, i.e., MAE, NPCR and UACR, a small change in the original image has resulted in a significant difference in the cipher-image. Therefore, the proposed scheme has a high capability to resist anti differential attacks.


In high-speed gear systems for aeroengines, reducing the fluid dynamic loss, which accounts for the majority of power loss, can significantly improve fuel economy. However, few practical numerical examples are available regarding high-speed gas-liquid two-phase flows involving gear meshing and gear shrouds (gear enclosures, which are effective for loss reduction).
 Therefore, in this study, the porosity method for object boundaries including the gear meshing, the volume of fluid method, and the surface compression method for the gas-liquid interface were used as fast and numerically stable calculation methods. In addition, a gap was provided at the contact surface of the gear tooth surface to improve the calculation stability, and the oil properties were set considering the difference between the flow resistance in a two-phase flow and that in a single-phase flow (due to the separation of oil particles) to improve the calculation accuracy.
 To validate the numerical simulation method, a two-axis helical gearbox with a maximum peripheral speed of 100 m/s with specifications equivalent to aeroengine gears was used, and the air flow, oil flow, and fluid dynamic losses were validated. Once the practical accuracy was confirmed, the numerical simulation was used to understand the relationship among air and oil flows, torque, and the effect of the shroud. Consequently, the fluid dynamic loss could be classified phenomenologically.


FDI has really close relationship with China's international finance. From the point of the multinational company's overseas investment, the risks of multinational company's overseas investment will increasing if there is economic crisis, leading to the severe affection to the imports assets in our country. In this way, international financial trades would get affected and so on the development of multinational companies. Based on the data of regression model, some corresponding researches and discussions are made on FDI, which might play a positive role in the development of the international finance and trade in China. At the same time, it helps to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing the risk of overseas multinational companies through financial investment.


Drawing on the discourse of interpreter-mediated examinations of Korean-speaking witnesses in an Australian courtroom, this paper explores court interpreters' renditions of reported speech contained in witnesses' evidence. Direct reported speech is generally preferred in the courtroom because of the evidentiary rule against the admission of hearsay. However, Korean-speaking witnesses who are not familiar with this rule and with the discursive practices of the court tend to use indirect reported speech. This paper examines how Koreans' general preference for indirect reported speech is handled by court interpreters. The findings suggest that the tendency among Korean interpreters to convert indirect into direct reported speech in English renditions may have implications for the accuracy of interpreted evidence.


Superparamagnetic nanoparticles of magnetite (Fe3O4) 2 nm in size were produced by a co‐precipitation method. Superparamagnetic resonance (SPR) spectra at room temperature show a broad line with a Landé g ‐factor, g eff ≈ 2. It was observed that, as the temperature decreased to 24 K, the apparent resonance field decreases while the line width considerably increases. We used a theoretical formalism based on a distribution of diameters or volumes of the nanoparticles. The nanoparticles behave as single magnetic domains with random orientations of magnetic moments which are subject to thermal fluctuations. A Landau–Lifshitz line shape function presents adequate results which are in good agreement with the experimental ones. A single set of parameters provides good fits to the spectra recorded at different temperatures. At high T the SPR line shape is governed by the core anisotropy and the thermal fluctuations. By decreasing the temperature, the magnetic susceptibility of shell spins increases. As a result of this, the surface spins produce an effective field on the core leading to a decrease of resonance field, B r. Also, the effective anisotropy increases as the shell spins begin to order. So, the results are interpreted by a simple model, in which each single‐domain nanoparticle is considered as a core–shell system, with magnetocrystalline anisotropy on the core and surface anisotropy on the shell. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Bioleaching is a technology that uses specific bacteria to extract valuable metals from minerals. The advantages of this technique over traditional methods (chemical leaching) include low cost, high
efficiency and environment friendliness. Bioleaching allows to recovers metals from low grade ores at conditions where traditional techniques are not efficient and then, mining waste can be valorized and the
impact on the environment is reduced.
Chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) is the most abundant of the copper sulfides but at the same time, it is the most refractory too. The main microorganisms involved in the bioleaching of sulfide minerals are iron- and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (Rawlings 2002).
In the bioleaching process the ion Fe3+ plays an important role since it assists the process oxidizing the ore (Dorado et al. 2012). As a result, ferric iron is reduced to ferrous iron and then, the bacteria catalyze
the cyclic regeneration of ferrous to ferric to promote continuous leaching of the sulfide mineral.
However, Fe3+ ions have a low solubility and they can lead to the precipitation of iron (III) hydroxides and other ferric complexes such as jarosite, depending on the impurities of the mineral and the mineral
medium used to keep the biological activity. The precipitation affects negatively the mass transfer process and it causes the decrease in the extraction yield of the metal (Zhang et al. 2008). Moreover, the presence of precipitates makes the optical methods of monitoring not suitable for controlling the process. In this case, the use of microrespirometry allows the monitoring of biomass growth by means of low sampling volume (<1mL) and high precision. Additionally, negative effects over the activity of microorganisms can be detected immediately and corrected.
In this work, the microrespirometry was used to evaluate the effect of the mineral medium composition in the bioleaching of copper from a chalcopyrite ore. The microbial consortium was obtained from a
biotrickling filter treating high loads of H2S and the copper extraction efficiency was monitored by atomic absorption. As an example, Figure 1 shows the evolution of the respirometric rates at different moments
along the experiment.


Oriented fibres and films of a number of synthetic polypeptides have been prepared, and examined by X-ray diffraction. It is shown that the polypeptides can exist in a folded (α) and an extended (β) configuration. The observations on the α form are consistent with the presence of a twofold screw axis in symmetrical polypeptides, and lead to a value of about 5.5 Ǻ for the true fibre repeat distance. The fibre period in the copolymers is shown to be greater than 5.26 Ǻ. It is considered that the X-ray evidence favours a ribbon-like molecule, in agreement with the structure shown in I. The β forms of the polypeptides give X-ray diagrams similar to those of β proteins, and probably consist of extended polypeptide chains. It is shown that the polypeptides can undergo an α→β transformation similar to that encountered in the fibrous α proteins. The medium from which the peptide is regenerated has a very important influence in determining which form is obtained. Formic acid appears to be unique in producing the β modification of polypeptides which swell or dissolve in this liquid. A mechanism for this transformation is suggested. A number of copolymers containing glycine have been examined. These appear to exist mainly in the β form. The similarities in the behaviour of synthetic polypeptides and fibrous proteins are discussed.


Imiquimod, an imidazoquinoline amine, is an immune response modifier recently approved for the topical treatment of external genital and perianal warts. Although the majority of immunomodulatory agents available or in development inhibit pathways involved in immune activation, imiquimod is unique in that it activates immune function. The exact mechanism of imiquimod's antiviral activity is unknown; however, its effects are likely to be related to its immunomodulating properties. Although in vitro studies have shown that imiquimod has no direct antiviral effects, the drug does exhibit antiviral and antitumor effects in vivo through induction of cytokines and enhancement of cell-mediated cytolytic antiviral activity. Imiquimod stimulates the innate immune response through induction of cytokines, and the cellular arm of acquired immunity through induction of interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha), IFN-gamma, and interleukin-12. Results from animal studies have indicated a possible use for imiquimod in the prevention and treatment of herpes simplex virus infection. In addition, recent studies demonstrated that imiquimod activates Langerhans' cells and enhances allergic contact hypersensitivity.


This paper addresses the problem of joint data detection and channel estimation on continuous phase modulation (CPM) operating under a frequency-flat time-varying Rayleigh fading channel. The proposed framework comprises of two parts working in a joint manner: a symbol by symbol MAP CPM receiver and a channel tracking scheme. We first illustrate the robustness of MSK over modulation schemes without memory such as BPSK in joint data and channel estimation scheme. In order to adopt coherent demodulation, channel tracking is commonly used in time-varying channels. The underlying channel model in conjunction with data based estimate enables the Kalman filter to produce LMMSE estimates of the channel coefficients. Most literature do not consider the channel estimation error covariance in data detection. Here, A MAP data detection combined with Kalman tracking of channel coefficients is proposed in which we consider the channel error covariance for every step of MAP data detection. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme offers good performance in moderate or even high fading rate environments.


Cognitive radio (CR) technology is considered to be an effective solution to enhance overall spectrum efficiency, whereas a primary radio network (PRN) typically does not fully utilize an available spectrum. However, to realize the CR concept, it is essential to provide enough incentives to PRNs and extra revenue to the service provider such that CR mobile stations (CR-MSs) may accordingly utilize PRN spectrum bands, which provides a new challenge for spectrum management. In this paper, we consider a PRN consisting of a primary system base station (PS-BS) and multiple primary system mobile stations (PS-MSs), and we, therefore, construct a CR network (CRN) consisting of a PRN with multiple CR-MSs. We propose a spectrum-management policy framework based on the Vickrey auction such that CR-MSs can compete for utilization of the PRN spectrum bands available for opportunistic transmission of CR-MSs. PRN users are granted incentives at a discounting factor to access spectrum bands and are being compensated for possible operating interference from CR-MSs, whereas the interference is constrained under a tolerance level without losing satisfaction for the PS-MSs. Once CR-MSs are granted spectrum bands, they can utilize the spectrum bands for a certain duration with no spectrum handoff. Consequently, in addition to incentives to the PRN, the overall spectrum utilization, the profit of the service provider, and the opportunity to access the spectrum for the CR-MSs are enhanced to achieve a co-win situation for every involved party in CRNs. Realistic simulations by incorporating pretty bad channel conditions into system operations show the robust operation of our proposed system, which enables the CR concept.


Background. Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) binds to leukocyte adhesion receptors LFA-1 and MAC-1, and mediates leukocyte adhesion to target structures. During acute rejection there is increased expression of ICAM-1 in vascular and tubulointestial cells, and consequently accumulation of inflammatory leukocytes. Soluble ICAM-1 (sICAM-1) is released from ICAM-1 expressing cells and excreted into the surrounding fluid. Increased serum sICAM-1 levels are found in patients with acute rejections of various allografts, and high urinary levels in steroid resistant acute kidney allograft rejection. Methods. Urinary excretion of sICAM-1 was measured by EIA in 136 kidney allograft recipients during the first 1–6 post transplant weeks: 30 patients developed acute rejection, and 106 patients had stable graft function. The molecular weight, binding to hyaluronan, and the origin of urinary sICAM-1 were studied. Results. We show that urinary sICAM-1 circulates as a monomer with a molecular weight between 50 and 100 kD. It binds to immobilized, but not to circulating hyaluronan. About one week after transplantation the mean sICAM-1/creatinine ratio (306 ng/mmol) in transplanted patients was higher than in the healthy controls (167 ng/mmol, P <0.01), and remained basically unchanged during the follow-up in patients with stable graft function, whereas it increased in patients developing rejection, being about 2.5-fold above the initial level a few days before rejection (P <0.01). Urinary sICAM-1 did not correlate with the urinary albumin, whereas in patients developing rejection it correlated with urinary IL-2R (r=0.5146, P <0.001), a marker of lymphocyte activation. In the urinary sediment of rejecting patients ICAM-1 was demonstrated in the tubular epithelial cells, and in the macrophages. Conclusions. Increased urinary excretion of sICAM-1 was demonstrated in kidney transplanted patients a few days before acute rejection. It seems to originate from activated macrophages and/or from the tubular epithelial cells. The fact that urinary sICAM-1 is not bound to hyaluronan or to leukocytes suggests that it is not able to compete with membrane-bound ICAM-1 for these bindings, but may do so for the binding of activated macrophages.


Effects of Si and Cr additions on the fatigue properties of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu cast alloy were investigated by low and high cycle fatigue tests. It was found that in the low cycle fatigue test, fatigue life of base alloy showed the maximum value of 3,075 cycles, whereas in Si and Cr containing alloys, it was 2,993 and 1,413 cycles, respectively. The same trend was obtained in high cycle fatigue test, i.e., the fatigue strength in base alloy showed the highest value of 104MPa and decreased to 100MPa for Cr containing alloy and 81MPa for Si containing alloy. The fatigue ratio was about 0.20 for all three alloys. The tensile strength of base alloy also showed the maximum value of 513MPa, and decreased with the addition of Si and Cr to 400 and 500MPa, respectively. Metallographic observation revealed that the fatigue crack initiated at the surface and propagated along the grain boundary.


Objectives: Whether tinnitus is associated with pre-existing hypertension remains uncertain. This study explored the association between tinnitus and pre-existing hypertension. Methods: We obtained data on a retrospective cohort of 542 884 cases ≥18 years old with a first-time tinnitus diagnosis from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. We used propensity-score matching to select 542 884 matched controls and performed multiple logistic regression analyses to estimate the adjusted odds of prior hypertension among patients with tinnitus versus controls. Results: Bivariate analysis showed no significant difference in the prevalence of prior hypertension between the tinnitus and no-tinnitus groups (35.58% vs 35.5%, P = .617). Univariable logistic regression analysis confirmed the bivariate analysis finding, unadjusted odds of prior hypertension among the tinnitus group relative to controls, 1.002, 95% CI: 0.994-1.010, P = .617). After adjusting for age, sex, monthly income, geographic location and urbanization level, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, hearing loss, obesity, anemia, rheumatoid arthritis, alcohol abuse, nicotine dependence, anxiety disorder, depressive disorder and idiopathic intracranial hypertension, the odds of prior hypertension were similar among the tinnitus and no-tinnitus groups (OR = 1.006, 95% CI: 0.997-1.016, P = .178). Conclusions: Our population-based study found no evidence for an association between tinnitus and pre-existing hypertension.


: MR-tomography was employed for examination of 41 patients with arterial hypertension (AH). Aldosteroma was diagnosed in 11 patients, pheochromocytoma in 4 patients, paraganglioma in one patient. 25 patients with essential hypertension (EH) were entered into the comparison group and 16 healthy persons into the control group. Computerized tomography of the adrenals was performed in all the examinees. In MR-tomography normal adrenals were visualized as homogeneous formations of low intensity image surrounded by high intensity image of the retroperitoneal fat. In the patients with stage I-IIA EH adrenal shape and sizes did not differ from those in the control group. Certain enlargement and deformity of the adrenals were noted in the patients with stage IIB-III EH, especially in a malignant course of disease. Aldosteroma on MR-tomograms was visualized as an additional formation in the adrenal field, had a rounded or oval shape with regular clear contours; by intensity of image the tumor was similar to the liver. In the pheochromocytoma patients the tumor was also of a rounded shape, not always with clear borders, in one case with signs of the penetration in the vena cava inferior which was clearly visualized on the frontal sections. Paraganglioma found in one patients in the hilus of the left kidney, was of an oval shape with a high intensity signal, similar to that from the sympathetic chain. A study conducted in 3 reciprocally perpendicular planes clearly showed that the tumor adjoining the aorta was unconnected with the renal vessels.


Late stage juveniles and adults of Callinectes sapidus in Chesapeake Bay, USA, and Maja squinado off the Ria de Arousa, Spain, were compared for ontogenetic changes in movement patterns (speed, distance, orientation) and habitat selection (depth, substrate) using ultra-sonic telemetry and published information. After settling in submerged grass beds in the lower Bay, 20-mm juvenile C. sapidus disperse long distances into low salinity sub-estuaries to feed and grow to maturity in two years. Within the Rhode River sub-estuary, juvenile C. sapidus moved with a mean speed of 12 m h1 in nearshore shallows (1·1 m); whereas adults averaged 24 m h·1 in the deeper (2·9 m) channel areas and moved freely in and out of the main estuary. Individuals of both life stages exhibited a pattern of slow meandering (juveniles, 2 m h1, adults 10 m h·1) within a limited area, alternating with faster, directionally-oriented movement (both stages >50 m h·1) between meandering sites. Juvenile and adult males over winter in deeper water nearby, while inseminated females migrate long distances into high salinity areas to incubate the eggs. Callinectes sapidus completes the migration cycle only once per 2·5-y generation. Maja squinado settles on rocks in shallow kelp forests in the coastal zone, where they grow to maturity in 2 y. Juveniles moved slowly (0·5 m h·1) while meandering without directional orientation on shallow (4 m) small patch reefs during summer. After the pubertal moult in summer, adults also meandered slowly (1 m h·1) mostly on rocks at slightly greater depth (7 m). In late summer and autumn, newly mature and older adults moved with directional orientation into deeper (10·40 m) water for the winter, until migrating back to the shallows for the summer; whereas juveniles remained inshore on rocks for the winter. Adult M. squinado live several years after puberty and complete the seasonal migratory cycle several times during their lives.


To improve the water solubility of thymoquinone (TQ), a major constituent of Nigella sativa seed oil, a TQ-loaded self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (SNEDDS) was prepared. The SNEDDS formulation was optimized using almond oil (AO) (Oil; X1), tween 80 (surfactant; X2) and polyethylene glycol 200 (PEG 200) (cosurfactant; X3) compounds as independent variables. The results showed that the globule size ranged from 65 to 320 nm. In addition, a strong agreement was reached between the system estimation and the experimental values of globule size. To evaluate the gastroprotective effect of optimized TQ-loaded SNEDDS against indomethacin (Indo.)-induced gastric ulcers in comparison with non-emulsified TQ, the ulcer index and histopathological changes were estimated. Optimized TQ-loaded SNEDDS showed improved gastroprotective activity against Indo.-induced ulcers relative to the non-emulsified TQ. In addition, the gastroprotective index was improved by 2-fold in TQ-loaded SNEDDS as compared to non-emulsified TQ. This is attributed to the strong antioxidant and the cytoprotective activities of the TQ. These results demonstrate enhancement of the efficacy of TQ through the optimized SNEDDS.


Abstract Aposematic, toxic dendrobatids have received much attention in recent years, resulting in a greater understanding of their biology and evolution; in contrast, data on natural history, social behavior, and systematics are unavailable for most of the approximately 100 species of Colostethus, one of the basal, nontoxic clades of dendrobatids. We studied reproductive and social behavior in Colostethus caeruleodactylus, a species that occurs in igapó forest in the central Amazonian region of Brazil. Reproduction occurs during the rainy season. Males are territorial and can be distinguished from females and juveniles by bright blue coloration of the fingers. Courtship is prolonged and territoriality may serve to prevent interruptions by other males during this critical time. During courtship, which does not include amplexus, males guide females to rolled or folded leaves that serve as nests on the forest floor. Males continue to call and mate while attending nests, which may have more than one clutch. Tadpoles hatch but unlike other species of Colostethus remain in the nest until igapó forests are flooded late in the rainy season, thus providing the larval habitat. This constraint imposed by the delayed formation of the larval habitat may have implications for the structure of the mating system in this species. More information on social behavior of other species of Colostethus coupled with a reliable phylogeny showing relationships among the species will be necessary to interpret the evolution of reproductive behavior and mating systems in this complex group.


PURPOSE
To identify the gene locus underlying the inheritance of late-onset Fuchs corneal dystrophy (FCD) in a large white kindred.

METHODS
Genotypes of small tandem repeat polymorphisms were obtained from 17 affected and 3 unaffected family members, followed by genetic linkage analysis.

RESULTS
In this family, classic late-onset FCD appeared to be inherited as a single, dominant Mendelian trait. In two exceptional sibships, however, children aged 10 and 13 years had FCD. In each sibship, both parents were found to be affected, opening the possibility that this unusually early age of onset was the result of homozygosity for an FCD mutation. Genotype results, however, were not consistent with consanguinity of the parents, who appear to have independent cases of FCD. A whole-genome linkage scan mapped FCD to a single locus at 13pTel-13q12.13, with significant two-point LOD scores of 3.91 at D13S1236 and 3.80 at D13S1304. The 26.4-Mb disease interval contains the chromosome 13 nucleolus organizer (RNR1), the centromere, and 44 annotated protein-encoding genes. So far, exons of 10 of these genes have been screened, but no mutations have been found.

CONCLUSIONS
FCD1 is the first genetic locus to be identified for late-onset FCD, a common disease of the aging cornea. The exceptional early onset of the disease observed in two children is unusual and might be the result of digenic interaction between FCD1 and an independent late-onset FCD mutation.


Background Recent literature reports a strong thrombotic tendency in patients hospitalized for a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) infection. This characteristic is unusual and seems specific to COVID‐19 infections, especially in their severe form. Viral infections can trigger acquired thrombophilia, which can then lead to thrombotic complications. We investigate for the presence of acquired thrombophilia, which could participate in this phenomenon, and report its prevalence. We also wonder if these thrombophilias participate in the bad prognosis of severe COVID‐19 infections. Methods and Results In 89 consecutive patients hospitalized for COVID‐19 infection, we found a 20% prevalence of PS (protein S) deficiency and a high (ie, 72%) prevalence of antiphospholipid antibodies: mainly lupus anticoagulant. The presence of PS deficiency or antiphospholipid antibodies was not linked with a prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time nor with D‐dimer, fibrinogen, or CRP (C‐reactive protein) concentrations. These coagulation abnormalities are also not linked with thrombotic clinical events occurring during hospitalization nor with mortality. Conclusions We assess a high prevalence of positive tests detecting thrombophilia in COVID‐19 infections. However, in our series, these acquired thrombophilias are not correlated with the severity of the disease nor with the occurrence of thrombotic events. Albeit the strong thrombotic tendency in COVID‐19 infections, the presence of frequent acquired thrombophilia may be part of the inflammation storm of COVID‐19 and should not systematically modify our strategy on prophylactic anticoagulant treatment, which is already revised upwards in this pathological condition. Registration URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT04335162.


Abstract. This paper is the first part in a series of two articles and presents a data-driven wildfire simulator for forecasting wildfire spread scenarios, at a reduced computational cost that is consistent with operational systems. The prototype simulator features the following components: an Eulerian front propagation solver FIREFLY that adopts a regional-scale modeling viewpoint, treats wildfires as surface propagating fronts, and uses a description of the local rate of fire spread (ROS) as a function of environmental conditions based on Rothermel's model; a series of airborne-like observations of the fire front positions; and a data assimilation (DA) algorithm based on an ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) for parameter estimation. This stochastic algorithm partly accounts for the nonlinearities between the input parameters of the semi-empirical ROS model and the fire front position, and is sequentially applied to provide a spatially uniform correction to wind and biomass fuel parameters as observations become available. A wildfire spread simulator combined with an ensemble-based DA algorithm is therefore a promising approach to reduce uncertainties in the forecast position of the fire front and to introduce a paradigm-shift in the wildfire emergency response. In order to reduce the computational cost of the EnKF algorithm, a surrogate model based on a polynomial chaos (PC) expansion is used in place of the forward model FIREFLY in the resulting hybrid PC-EnKF algorithm. The performance of EnKF and PC-EnKF is assessed on synthetically generated simple configurations of fire spread to provide valuable information and insight on the benefits of the PC-EnKF approach, as well as on a controlled grassland fire experiment. The results indicate that the proposed PC-EnKF algorithm features similar performance to the standard EnKF algorithm, but at a much reduced computational cost. In particular, the re-analysis and forecast skills of DA strongly relate to the spatial and temporal variability of the errors in the ROS model parameters.


Young Lives research is particularly innovative in two areas: the measurement of mental health and the measurement of social capital, or social networks and support. Both of these areas pose particular challenges for researchers, and are of great interest to policymakers and planners. Thus, it is essential that methods and instruments used for measuring social capital and mental health be assessed for their efficacy.

This paper examines the reliability of two instruments used by Young Lives researchers in Vietnam for measuring mental health and social capital respectively. In Part I: Validity and Reliability of the Self-Reporting Questionnaire in Vietnam, the authors discuss the methodology and results of a survey of child well-being in Vietnam that included measurements of maternal mental health. In Part II: Validity of a Social Capital Measurement Tool in Vietnam, the authors discuss the methodology and results of a survey on social capital in Vietnam. The authors detail the findings of both surveys, and present conclusions and recommendations for further research.


Nine nematicide treatments were evaluated from 1993 through 1995 in field experiments on paprika pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). Materials tested included a chitin- urea soil amendment and six chemicals: fosthiazate, carbofuran, aldicarb, oxamyl, fenamiphos, and 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D). Stands at harvest were increased relative to the control by chitin-urea, fosthiazate, and 1,3-D, but only fosthiazate increased market- able fruit yield relative to the control. Aldicarb reduced preharvest nematode populations relative to the control, but aldicarb did not result in a significant fruit yield increase. Chitin-urea was the only treatment to produce a net increase in nematode counts from preplant to preharvest in all three years. Although fosthiazate was promising, nematicide treatments were of limited benefit under the conditions of these studies. Chemical names used: (RS)-S-sec-butyl O-ethyl 2-oxo-1,3-thiazolidin-3- ylphosphonothioate (fosthiazate); 2,3-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-7-benzofuranyl methylcarbamate (carbofuran); 2-methyl-2- (methylthio)propionaldehyde O-(methylcarbamoyl)oxime (aldicarb); methyl NN´-di- methyl-N-((methylcarbamoyl)oxy)-1-thiooxamimidate (oxamyl); ethyl 3-methyl-4- (methylthio)phenyl(1-methylethyl) phosphoramidate (fenamiphos).


Following the fractional cable equation established in the letter [B.I. Henry, T.A.M. Langlands, and S.L.Wearne, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100(2008) 128103], we present the time-space fractional cable equation which describes the anomalous transport of electrodiffusion in nerve cells. The derivation is based on the generalized fractional Ohm's law;and the temporal memory effects and spatial-nonlocality are involved in the time-space fractional model. With the help of integral transform method we derive the analytical solutions expressed by the Green's function; the corresponding fractional moments are calculated; and their asymptotic behaviors are discussed. In addition, the explicit solutions of the considered model with two different external current injections are also presented.


Biodegradation of textile dyes from the azo class by Bjerkandera sp.and microbial consortium from forest residues. Bjerkandera's degradation ability was evaluated in unsterile environment and put out of competition from the microbial consortium inhabiting forest residues. Microorganisms from forest residues were evaluated and transferred to soft wood shavings with maintained biodegrade performance. A continuous system was created containing anaerobic and aerobic parts and a successful degradation was monitored by spectrophotometer and High pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC).


Purpose The prevailing theory about the function of lamina cribrosa (LC) connective tissues is that they provide structural support to adjacent neural tissues. Missing connective tissues would compromise this support and therefore are regarded as "LC defects", despite scarce actual evidence of their role. We examined how so-called LC defects alter IOP-related mechanical insult to the LC neural tissues. Methods We built numerical models incorporating LC microstructure from polarized light microscopy images. To simulate LC defects of varying sizes, individual beams were progressively removed. We then compared intraocular pressure (IOP)-induced neural tissue deformations between models with and without defects. To better understand the consequences of defect development, we also compared neural tissue deformations between models with partial and complete loss of a beam. Results The maximum stretch of neural tissues decreased non-monotonically with defect size. Maximum stretch in the model with the largest defect decreased by 40% in comparison to the model with no defects. Partial loss of a beam increased the maximum stretch of neural tissues in its adjacent pores by 162%, compared with 63% in the model with complete loss of a beam. Conclusions Missing LC connective tissues can mitigate IOP-induced neural tissue insult, suggesting that the role of the LC connective tissues is more complex than simply fortifying against IOP. The numerical models further predict that partial loss of a beam is biomechanically considerably worse than complete loss of a beam, perhaps explaining why defects have been reported clinically but partial beams have not.


Over the past decade, we have seen the emergence of an enigmatic condition called nodding syndrome (1). This condition is characterized by episodes of repetitive nodding forward of head that may be the result of atonic seizure. The etiology of this seizure is unknown, although associations with other developmental conditions have been established (2,3). This syndrome is also characterized by significant brain atrophy near the hippocampal and glia matter along with cerebellar signs. The brain injury leads to life-long severe neurodisability and accompanying behavior problems, and high mortality (4).


In 1998 Seminars in Neurology began an educational initiative aimed at providing the journal to neurology residents in training through an unrestricted educational grant. In 2003, our grant shall allow us to mail the journal to senior residents in training (those in the final two years of neurology residency).The success of the program is contingent upon an accurate and updated listing of residents in training. Seminars in Neurology is most grateful for the assistance of the American Academy of Neurology for providing the 2003 mailing list to be used in this year's resident distribution program. The Editor in Chief and Guest Editors for 2003 wish to express their deepest gratitude to Mrs. Linda Hagan, whose services in the organization and preparation of Seminars in Neurology have been crucial to the success of this year's journal.


This study by Holloway et al reinforces the value of qualitative research that aims to describe the experience of being ill. The authors have provided thought provoking insight into the world of patients in hospital by focusing on the importance of time. This study provides evidence that time is an important facet of the hospital experience and confirms the findings of other authors who have investigated similar themes.1, 2 Holloway et al provide nurses with various issues for consideration in practice and future research.

Indepth interviews with a small sample of people will inevitably provide a rich range of opinions and experiences. It was interesting in this study to see that certain experiences seem to be shared among patients in hospital, such as feeling bored and isolated. Although these insights are not new, the study helps to put them in context and should encourage nurses to question their relevance to their own client groups. Also, this study encourages consideration of how to minimise time that is wasted by long waiting periods in clinics.

It would be helpful to have known more about the nature of the different illnesses involved. For instance, time might be more precious to patients with advanced cancer who want to use their remaining time as productively as possible.

Nurses often seek to improve their practice by relating interventions to the needs of patients. They can help people to cope with the demands that illness places on their sense of time through the use of relatively simple strategies. For example, the authors suggest that nurses can empower patients to have control over their day by abolishing some of the rituals, by tailoring care to individual needs (eg, allowing patients to choose at what time they get up), by providing clocks and calendars to reduce disorientation, by introducing patients to one another to help to pass the time, and by involving them in planning their discharge to reduce uncertainty about the length of stay. The findings should also encourage nurses to investigate this important issue further among other patient populations.


This chapter explores the question of 'theory' within the law of electoral democracy, by considering what it would mean for such a theory to exist given the contested nature of democracy itself.

It begins with a brief survey of the terms in question, including the emergence of electoral law as a field of study and its under-theorised state. It is quickly shown that, outside of a narrow and minimalist conception of a free election as one where votes are cast and counted, there is little agreement on the norms that should determine the law in this area, even on some fundamental concrete questions.

Normative coherence however can be demonstrated within competing approaches to the law. A social democratic theory of law is seen to provide salutary reminders. Reminders that democratic politics is collective more than individualist and that electoral democracy is not the whole of democracy. Within that tradition, the distinctive contribution of Keith Ewing to political finance – which he configures as party finance – is discussed.

Ultimately a four-sided functionalist account of the purposes of electoral law is offered. The four categories are: Structural Integrity, Democratic Values, Ritual Experience (all insider perspectives) and the cynical/outsider perspective of elections as a Game/Mask. The aim of the functionalist account is to show that whilst normative approaches may be sharply contested, we are not lost at sea: theory can help set the parameters of the ongoing debate over the shape of the law.


Abstract: A 10-year-old, female umbrella cockatoo (Cacatua alba) was presented for evaluation of a mass at the right commissure of the beak, with associated right periorbital swelling. A feather cyst was suspected, based on history and the results of a computed tomography scan and fine-needle aspirate. The cyst was surgically debrided and removed. Histopathologic results confirmed an infraorbital keratin cyst, most likely originating from a feather follicle. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a periorbital keratin cyst in a bird.


In this paper, the framework for a real-time view recommendation system is proposed. The proposed system comprises two parts: offline aesthetic modeling stage and efficient online aesthetic view finding process. A preference-aware aesthetic model is proposed to suggest views according to varied userfavorite photographic styles, where a bottom-up approach is developed to construct an aesthetic feature library with bag-ofaesthetics-preserving features instead of top-down methods that implement the heuristic guidelines (rule-specific features) listed in photography literatures, which is employed in previous works. The proposed model can cover both implicit and explicit aesthetic features and can adapt to users' preferences with a learning process. In the second part, the learned model is employed in a view finder to help the user to locate the most aesthetic view while taking a photograph. The experimental results show that the proposed features in the library (92.06% in accuracy) outperform the state-of-the-art rule-specific features (83.63% in accuracy) significantly in the photo aesthetic quality classification task, and the rule-specific features are also proved to be encompassed by the proposed features. Meanwhile, it is observed from experiments that the features extracted for contrast information are more effective than those for absolute information, which is consistent with the properties of human visual systems. Furthermore, the user studies for the view recommendation task confirm that the suggested views are consistent with users' preferences (81.25% agreements).


The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of common passion on community participation.It further demonstrates the relationship between common passion, community participation and sustainable development. A
combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was employed.A sample of 284 respondents from six communities were used while 24 interviewees were interviewed amongst 24 key community leaders in three selected oil producing states in the Niger Delta region, Nigeria.The research findings indicate that community participation plays crucial role in community
development sustainability.Further results from both analysis shows the common passion has a positive influence on community participation and
sustainable development.More so, community participation was found as a mediator on the relationship between common passion and sustainable community development.This study is limited in scope, coverage and of course generalization. It is limited to the Niger Delta region of Nigeria which is believed to be the richest among other regions in Nigeria. Thus, other regions in Nigeria were not put into consideration.The present study has created awareness and knowledge about the current state of development in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Secondly, it offers a framework to guide policy formulation, implementation and evaluation for sustainable development in the Niger delta region of Nigeria.It has also increased an understanding on the key factors that influence sustainable development of the Niger Delta people.The study offered an insightful result for the policy makers in government, non-governmental agencies and researchers in this field of study.The study contributes to community development practices and sustainability by identifying the relevance of group cohesion, interaction and common purpose as crucial element in facilitating community participation.The research opens up avenue for future study in examining those factors that stimulates community solidarity and group cohesion as catalyst for community driven development sustainability.


The present paper describes the design and simulation results of a position-sensitive charged particle detector based on the Double Sided Silicon Strip Detector (DSSSD). Also, the characteristics of the DSSSD and its testing result were are discussed. With the application of the DSSSD, the position-sensitive charged particle detector can not only give particle flux and energy spectra information and identify different types of charged particles, but also measure the location and angle of incident particles. As the detector can make multiparameter measurements of charged particles, it is widely used in space detection and exploration missions, such as charged particle detection related to earthquakes, space environment monitoring and solar activity inspection.


Current data concerning epidemiology, clinical picture, pathogenesis, prevention and treatment of Avian influenza H5N1, data of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of antiviral drugs--neuraminidase inhibitors and M2 channels inhibitors, also the recommendation of WHO for prevention prevalence of infection were discussed in the review. Strategic measures of WHO aims to protect humans from contact with infected poultry, in case of contact, to prevent transmission of this infection from human to human and occurrence of pandemic. Infected birds were the major source of the H5N1 influenza virus among humans in Asia. Mainly humans became infected by eating infected birds, by poor hygiene procedures when cooking infected birds, or by close contact with infected poultry. At present transmission of the H5N1 influenza from human to human by aerosol way hasn't been registered, but ongoing monitoring for identification mutation and adaptation of H5N1 influenza virus to human is needed. Season influenza and avian H5N1 influenza differ by the ways of transmission, clinical picture, severity, pathogenesis, response to treatment. Diagnostic of infection is difficult due to non-specific initial symptoms, in most cases disease begins with disturbance of under respiratory ways and in rare cases--from upper respiratory ways. High viral titre is identified in pharynx but not in nose. Initial symptoms of the H5N1 influenza are: fever greater then 38 degrees Celsius, mild cold, cough and shortness of breath, practically all patient have viral pneumonia, later secondary bacterial infection occurs, mild to severe respiratory distress, diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Conjunctivitis is rarely diagnosed contrary to season influenza. Sometimes gastrointestinal disorder begins a week early then respiratory symptoms. Complication also includes renal and multi organ failure. The cytokine storm is commonly developed during H5N1 influenza. For treatment and for prevention (under certain conditions) of the H5N1 influenza neuraminidase inhibitors such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) are recommended. Currently circulatory of the H5N1 strains are fully resistant to an older class of antiviral drugs--the M2 channels inhibitors (amantadine and rimantadine). The knowledge of epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical picture, treatment of the H5N1 influenza in humans, in spite of progress isn't complete. Future coordination of scientific investigation of the H5N1 influenza in humans should be provided not only in the countries where infection was revealed, but all around the world.


This book provides the most comprehensive and coherent discussion of wargaming written to date.

It brings together the professional military wargames and the recreational side of wargaming into one account. Based on a lifelong experience as a gaming hobbyist and a professional wargamer in the U.S. defence community. This dual perspective has enabled him to offer a thorough evaluation of the two arenas, to discuss their similarities and differences, and to assess their influence on each other. Perla looks first at the history of wargaming in both its hobby and professional guises, and especially at its use by the Naval War College.

Perla then draws on historical experience to define the fundamental principles of what wargaming is, and what it is not, and describes the subjects that wargaming is most useful for exploring. He also suggests how best to take advantage of its capabilities and downplay its limitations.

Finally, he examines modern trends in wargaming in the light of these historical perspectives and theoretical principles and projects them into the future


The electrical circuits and their Electronic Control Units (ECUs) in buses and coaches are essential for their good working. Drive, braking, suspension, opening door, security and communication devices must be integrated in a reliable and real time information system. The industrial communication networks or fieldbuses are a good solution to implement networked control systems for the onboard electronics in the public transport buses and coaches. The authors are working in the design of multiplexed solutions based on fieldbuses to integrate the body and chassis functions of city public transport buses. An example for the EURO5 model of the Scania manufacturer is reported in this paper. The authors are also working in the implementation of new modules based on FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) that can be used in these networked control systems.


This paper introduces and evaluates an auxiliary control strategy for downstream fault current interruption in a radial distribution line by means of a dynamic voltage restorer (DVR). The proposed controller supplements the voltage-sag compensation control of the DVR. It does not require phase-locked loop and independently controls the magnitude and phase angle of the injected voltage for each phase. Fast least error squares digital filters are used to estimate the magnitude and phase of the measured voltages and effectively reduce the impacts of noise, harmonics, and disturbances on the estimated phasor parameters, and this enables effective fault current interrupting even under arcing fault conditions. The results of the simulation studies performed in the PSCAD/EMTDC software environment indicate that the proposed control scheme: 1) can limit the fault current to less than the nominal load current and restore the point of common coupling voltage within 10 ms; 2) can interrupt the fault current in less than two cycles; 3) limits the dc-link voltage rise and, thus, has no restrictions on the duration of fault current interruption; 4) performs satisfactorily even under arcing fault conditions; and 5) can interrupt the fault current under low dc-link voltage conditions.


In this book, Professors Baumol and Oates provide a rigorous and comprehensive analysis of the economic theory of environmental policy. They present a formal, theoretical treatment of those factors influencing the quality of life. By covering both the theory of externalities and its application to environmental policy, the authors have retained the basic structure and organization of the first edition, which has become a standard reference in the field. In this edition, however, they have updated their analysis to incorporate recent research in environmental economics.


In this paper we illustrate the role of cross-border mergers in the process of corporate governance convergence. We explore in detail the corporate governance provisions in Rhone-Poulenc, a French company, and Hoechst, a German firm, and the resulting structure after the two firms merged in 1999 to create Aventis, legally a French corporation. We show that, despite the nationality of the firm, the corporate governance structure of Aventis is a combination of the corporate governance systems of Hoechst and Rhone-Poulenc, where the newly merged firm adopted the most protective provisions of the two merging firms. In some cases this resulted in Aventis' borrowing from the corporate governance structure of Hoechst while in others Aventis replicated Rhone-Poulenc's structure. Most interesting is the situation where Aventis introduced improved provisions over both systems. The resulting corporate governance system in Aventis is significantly more protective than the default French legal system of investor protection.


The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate how men understand and talk about their bodies, bodily habits, and feelings. The study was based on qualitative interviews with sixteen sportsmen, all of whom were handball players. Half of the players were on an elite team (aged twenty-five to thirty-five years), and the other half were on an old boys' team (aged thirty-five to sixty-five years). The players were very definite about how an ideal male body should be; they preferred a slim and well-trained body, with strong muscles. Training had become a necessity for many of these sportsmen, and they used physical activity as a way of handling difficult feelings. When they were together, teasing and joking was the usual way they managed embarrassing feelings, and they talked more easily with women than with men about their problems. Data are discussed in relation to what some researchers have described as men's fear of not being man enough and the theory of habitus.


In this study, a total of 300 packaged ice-creams (100 extrude, 100 stick and 100 cornet type) were taken from an industrial ice-cream plant and analysed microbiologically. The hygienic conditions of the same plant were also investigated. In terms of microbiological quality, no significant differences were determined among the ice-cream types. Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were not isolated in any of ice-cream samples. The average counts of aerobic mesophil bacteria, coliform and mould-yeast were 8.8x10 2 —2.5x10 3 cfu/g, 0.3—0.6 MPN/g and <10—35 cfu/g, respectively. All samples met national and international microbiological standards. The raw materials, the surface of the machinery and equipment, the water and the air were determined to be microbiologically safe. In hygiene checks of the staff's hands S. aureus was not isolated, but coliform bacteria were determined in three out of ten persons. The results of this study indicated that industrially produced ice-cream is of acceptable microbial quality, when the quality of the raw materials is high and the hygiene of plant is good.


Background Osteoid osteoma (OO) is a common benign tumor in children and adolescents, but intra-and juxta-articular OO is rare and difficult to diagnose. The purpose of this study is to investigate the distinctions between intra- and juxta-articular OO, trying to avoid delaying diagnosis and optimize treatment strategies. Methods Thirty patients diagnosed with OO in the intra- and juxta joint at our institution who underwent surgical resection were included. Clinical and epidemiological factors, preoperative radiograph parameters, including computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and bone scan, were documented. The outcomes of the involved extremity were evaluated at the final follow-up. Results Mean age at diagnosis, interval time, and follow-up time was 8.37±3.79 years old, 4.67±5.88 months, 3.57±2.18 years, respectively. Factors identified to be significantly associated with intra- and juxta-articular OO including pain with activity (P=0.004) and abnormal range of motion (P=0.00). The factor of abnormal range of motion (P=0.03) also influenced the existence of complications. Six children had a secondary operation to cure the recurrence. Conclusions It is essential for clinicians and radiologists to be aware of the atypical clinical and radiographic features of intra- and juxta-articular OO, as the delayed diagnosis can lead to unnecessary pain and further complications after surgeries. The pain with activity and abnormal range of motion is helpful to identify the location of OO. The persistently abnormal range of motion also significantly leads to complications. The open surgeries to resect the nidus in juxta-articular OO were effective.


The abnormality in the glycosylation of surface proteins is critical for the growth and metastasis of tumors and their capacity for immunosuppression and drug resistance. This anomaly offers an entry point for real-time analysis on glycosylation fluctuations. In this study, we report a strategy, glycan metabolic fluorine labeling (MEFLA), for selectively tagging glycans of tumor cells. As a proof of concept, we synthesized two fluorinated unnatural monosaccharides with distinctive 19F chemical shifts (Ac4ManNTfe and Ac4GalNTfa). These two probes could undergo selective uptake by tumor cells and subsequent incorporation into surface glycans. This approach enables efficient and specific 19F labeling of tumor cells, which permits in vivo tracking of tumor cells and in situ assessment of glycosylation changes by 19F MRI. The efficiency and specificity of our probes for labeling tumor cells were verified in vitro with A549 cells. The feasibility of our method was further validated with in vivo experiments on A549 tumor-bearing mice. Moreover, the capacity of our approach for assessing glycosylation changes of tumor cells was illustrated both in vitro and in vivo. Our studies provide a promising means for visualizing tumor cells in vivo and assessing their glycosylation variations in situ through targeted multiplexed 19F MRI.


This phenomenological study describes what it is like for people over 74 years to experience nursing care in acute medical and surgical wards, and relates their insights to implications for nursing practice. The six people who took part responded to newspaper stories inviting older people who had been in hospital recently to speak with a nurse researcher about the times they spent with nurses. They included eight episodes of hospitalisation in seven acute care public hospital wards. All chose to be interviewed in their own homes. The approach followed van Manen's (1990) method for researching lived experience. Their stories are contained in this thesis as individual chapters. The analysis moved from description largely in the respondents' own words, to the researcher's portrayal of the "free act of seeing" resulting in explication of salient features or structures of each story, and then to hermeneutic reflection using the four existentials of lived body, lived space, lived time and lived relation to others. Aggregation of the concerns revealed in each story illuminates the commonalities and differences of each and uncovers aspects of lived care for these people. Notions of care may be experienced negatively, as when care is absent or deficient in meeting patient need and expectation, or positively as when care is fully realised in the nurse-patient encounter. Nursing which includes negotiating the systems, mediating interpersonal issues, and practical help was excellent care for these patients. Value was given to the ability to quickly evaluate a patient's life ways of being and acknowledge these as of equal importance to the expected health outcomes from the particular medical diagnosis and intervention. The description of older people's experience of nursing care is useful for the potential to increase understanding of the needs and expectations of older people in acute wards. Through the phenomenological practice of reflecting and re-writing new perspectives on nursing are developed. These are expressed through myth and metaphor as one means of enhancing the caring work of nursing toward older people. The study offers some implications for nursing education, practice and the organisation of health (illness) care.


The concept of sustainability, from a psychological point of view, can be related to the promotion of personal resources that help people to find decent and meaningful work and live quality lives. In the psychological concept of sustainability and sustainable development, the sustainability of careers is related not only to individual career management, but also to the possibility for individuals to obtain a good quality of life despite the frequent changes and the unpredictability of the work context. The present study focuses on the constructs of self-perceived employability and meaningful work, analyzing their relationships with workers' quality of life. An empirical study was conducted on 660 Italian workers using the following measures: Self-perceived employability scale, work and meaning inventory, courage measure, satisfaction with life scale, and the flourishing scale. The results showed direct effects of employability and meaningful work on the indicators of quality of life (life satisfaction and flourishing); moreover, indirect effects of employability and meaningful work on the quality of life were found to be caused by the mediation of courage.


This paper is concerned with general nonlinear regression models where the predictor variables are subject to Berkson-type measurement errors. The measurement errors are assumed to have a general parametric distribution, which is not necessarily normal. In addition, the distribution of the random error in the regression equation is nonparametric. A minimum distance estimator is proposed, which is based on the first two conditional moments of the response variable given the observed predictor variables. To overcome the possible computational difficulty of minimizing an objective function which involves multiple integrals, a simulation-based estimator is constructed. Consistency and asymptotic normality fo r both estimators are derived under fairly general regularity conditions.


Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Rights, and Oil. By Ike Okonta and Oronto Douglas. New York: Verso, 2003. Pp. xii, 267. $17.00 paper. Just as I was writing this review, I received notice that the U.S. government has approved petroleum exploitation in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. This terrible mistake can better be understood as such by the story of community resistance in a powerful book that Shell for years tried to suppress. Since its publication, Where Vultures Feast has stood as the number one, worldwide legal authority on Shell, ChevronTexaco, and other big oil companies' devastations in the Third World. Nigerian resistance is chronicled with the keen eyes of those on the frontlines, enriched by direct statements by those who suffered and fought back. For instance, we hear how ChevronTexaco transport equipment conveyed armed security officers who massacred villagers as they asserted their land rights. A whole chapter is devoted to rip-off s and corruption by government office holders, often with the complicity of the hangers-on, the shady and dodgy lowlife who populate the interstices of Imperial oil, hubris bolstered by the Bush II regime. Shell is the primary vulture in this co-authored, exciting, and fast read, a vulture that feeds on the exquisite lands and waters of a very special place and people: those of West Africa's Niger Delta. From the 1600s on, millions of African captives were exported from the Niger Delta to produce the metals and foods in the Americas that fueled Europe's industrial revolution. Machinery's thirst for lubrication drew forth the Niger Delta's sequel to labor power-palm oil, which by the late 1900s had surpassed people exports. This labor-intensive, renewable source of light before kerosene and lubrication before rock oil or petroleum was massively available gave way, in the 1950s, to the Niger Delta's "curse"-oil and gas exploitation by Shell. Shell-BP was a creature, in some senses, of the British Colonial Office, or was it the other way around? By 1967 France and the USSR challenged Britain's imperial grip on the Delta by arming a breakaway Igbo faction of the military that was trying to create a sovereign Biafra encompassing the oil deposits. After a bloody three-year war in which a million people died, the British won; Nigeria remained a federation, and several oil majors joined Vulture Shell in a renewed feeding frenzy. This gathered steam with the quadrupling of oil prices in 1973 and their further doubling in 1979. …


This paper presents price transmission models explaining the farm-to-retail price spread and degree of competition in the meat marketing chains during the period of economic transition in Slovenia. The meat marketing chains in Slovenia are characterised by relatively large processing and marketing margins, which are expected to decline with market deregulation and integration into the international markets. As results of the economic restructuring and policy reforms, competitive market pressures in a marketing margin determination have increased, inducing pressures for efficiency improvements in the vertical market integration from the farm to the retail stage in the Slovenian meat sector. Co-integration models are applied to estimate vertical market integration and to assess the degree of price competition in the Slovenian beef and pork marketing chains. The tested econometric models confirmed the existence of the long run market integration in the meat chain and the speed of adjustment of price changes. Farm-gate meat prices are identified as weakly exogenous, indicating the crucial role of supply side processing and marketing factors in the retail meat price determination. The results of structural tests suggest a long-run mark-up price strategy in the beef, and a competitive price strategy in the pork, chain as the outcome of policy reforms. The increased competitive market pressures are very likely to increase efficiency in the beef markets. Efficiency improvements in the Slovenian food markets are needed in the increased competitive market pressures of the enlarged European Union markets.


ABSTRACT Brunelleschi's lost panel painting of the Florence Baptistery, created in the early 15th century, is frequently cited as the first work to accurately use perspective. The system he used is unknown, and the only information about the painting mentions a demonstration by which the painting was viewed through a hole in the panel as a reflected image in a mirror. The author argues here that the image was created in a camera obscura using the panel and a mirror in the same relationship as used in the demonstration. The author also proposes that the process revealed perspective's basic "rule": Vanishing points for parallel, horizontal lines exist at the eye level.


Leibniz's claim that this is the best of all possible worlds has been subject to numerous criticisms, both from his contemporaries and ours. In this paper I investigate a cluster of such criticisms based on the existence, abundance or character of worldly evil. As several Leibniz-inspired versions of optimism have been advanced in recent years, the aim of my investigation is to assess not just how Leibniz's brand of optimism fares against these criticisms, but also whether optimism as a philosophy has the resources to meet these challenges. I show that none of the criticisms considered has sufficient force to pose a threat to Leibniz's version of optimism or to one modelled on it.


in advanced economies has been often linked with the growth of spatial inequalities within countries, yet there is limited comparative research that studies the relationship between national and subnational economic inequality. This paper presents the first systematic attempt to create internationally comparable evidence showing how different countries perform in terms of geographic wage inequalities. We create cross-country comparable measures of spatial wage disparities between and within similarly-defined local labour market areas (LLMAs) for Canada, France, (West) Germany, the UK and the US since the 1970s, and assess their contribution to national inequality. By the end of the 2010s, spatial inequalities in LLMA mean wages are similar in Canada, France, Germany and the UK; the US exhibits the highest degree of spatial inequality. Over the study period, spatial inequalities have nearly doubled in all countries, except for France where spatial inequalities have fallen back to 1970s levels. Due to a concomitant increase in within-place inequality, the contribution of places in explaining national wage inequality has remained fairly constant over the 40-year study period, except in the UK where we document a significant increase. Whilst common global social, economic and technological shocks are important drivers of spatial inequality, this variation in levels and trends of spatial inequality opens the way to comparative research exploring the role of national institutions in mediating how global shocks translate into economic disparities between places.


The paper presents the analysis of the mechanism of reactivation of a deep landslide process which involves the western slope of Volturino in the Daunia Apennines (Southern Italy), where tectonized and fissured soils of poor mechanical properties outcrop. The reactivation, which is monitored by piezometers and inclinometers, takes place when the water table is approximately at the ground surface, i.e. during winter. Limit equilibrium back-analyses of the current landslide process, with a pore pressure distribution consistent with the field data, were performed to assess the in situ mobilised strengths and the depth of the sliding body. Drained finite element analyses were then carried out to simulate the reactivation mechanism by modelling the presence of a band of softened material within the slope along with the seasonal variation in seepage conditions. The results of the different analyses tend to confirm the higher instability of deep sliding bodies in the slope.


On May 13, 1999, NASA will eject a small, mirrored satellite from the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle orbiter Discovery during its STS-96 mission to the International Space Station, in an innovative space education experiment known as Project Starshine. More than one thousand alternating teams of school children around the world will visually track this satellite, during morning and evening twilight intervals, throughout its expected six-month lifetime, by observing flashes of sunlight reflecting from 878 mirrors mounted on its surface as the satellite sweeps across the star background. They will post their observations of its angular position on the project's web site, compute the satellite's orbit on a daily basis, observe changes in its orbit caused by atmospheric drag, and calculate the density of the Earth's upper atmosphere that produces that drag. They will also use the Internet to observe Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite images of solar storms as the current eleven-year sunspot cycle nears its peak, and they will relate the frequency and intensity of those storms to their own measurements of fluctuations in atmospheric density. If the first mission is successful, it will be repeated annually throughout a sunspot cycle. Updated Starshine information will be posted throughout the life of the project on the Internet at http//www.azinet.com/starshine.


Strategic Environmental Assessment aims to incorporate environmental and sustainability considerations into strategic decision making processes, such as the formulation of policies, plans and programmes. In order to be effective, the assessment must take the real decision making process as the departure point. Existing SEA approaches are frequently tailored after an EIA model conceived from a rational perspective on decision making. However, there are good reasons to assume that most strategic decision making processes are characterised by a bounded rationality. Furthermore, the predictability of environmental consequences generally becomes weaker at strategic levels than at the project level and complexity increases in terms of the numbers of actors involved in the decision. This paper examines various theoretical perspectives to decision making and discusses the implications for decision support in general and SEA in particular. The authors argue that the design of the SEA must be more sensitive to the real characteristics of the decision making context.


Part I O(2) Uptake of the Fresh Cells Using Candida albicans, C. krusei, C. parakrusei and C. tropicalis, the author studied the O(2) uptakes of the organisms at the expense of various carbon compounds or amino acids as substrate and the environmental factors to this. The following results were obtained. 1) The endogenous respiration of each strain was fairly high, and this respiration tended to decrease by the shaking of cell suspension without addition of substrates. Since prolonged shaking of the cell suspension may cause the inactivation of enzyme activity, the most advantage were given on the cell suspension that was previously shaken for 1-2 hrs. in order to study the enzymatic properties of the organisms. 2) Generally, the O(2) uptakes of Candida were high at the expense of glucose, acetate and citrte. Besides this, the O(2) uptake of C. albicans was also high at the expense of lactate and pyruvate. 3) As a whole, it could say that the greater enzyme activity was found on the cells of shorter cultivation compared with that of longer cultivation. And the organism cultured by shaking method showed more accelerated O(2) uptake at the oxidation of lactate, pyruvate and acetate than the cultured in still-standing method, this fact possibly implied that the metabolism of the former organism was carried out very satisfactory. Part II Properties of Freezing-dried Cell Preparation andFraction of Ground Fresh Cell As in the previous report, part I, using 4 strains of Candida, C. albicans, C. krusei, C. krusei, C. parakrusei and C. tropicalis, the author prepared the freezing-dried cell preparation and the fractions of ground fresh cells, studied O(2) uptake, catalase activity and action of inhibitors to these. The results obtained were following. 1) The freezing-dried cells showed an catalase activity in a same extent as the living cells, and a large amount of O(2) uptake with glucose, lactate, citrate and succinate; while a marked decrease of O(2) uptakes were found with pyruvate and acetate. 2) The supernatant fraction obtained from ground fresh cell at 40,000 rpm showed greater catalase activity, and greater oxidative capacity for pyruvate, acetate and citrate, and also accelerated endogenous respiration. On the other hand, the sediment separated by centrifugation at 40,000 rpm had no catalase activity; but revealed specifically much greater oxidative capacity for lactate and succinate. 3) It was confirmed that the action of inhibiter was more effective on the freezing-dried cells and the cell free extract than on the intact living cells; by an addition of KCN the O(2) upteak was not affected on the living cells, but was serionsly inhibited on the freezing-dried cells and the cell free extract.


In the last few years, research formal methods for the analysis and the verification of properties of systems has increased greatly. A meaningful contribution in this area has been given by algorithmic methods developed in the context of synthesis. The basic idea is simple and appealing: instead of developing a system and verifying that it satisfies its specification, we look for an automated procedure that, given the specification returns a system that is correct by construction. Synthesis of reactive systems is one of the most popular variants of this problem, in which we want to synthesize a system characterized by an ongoing interaction with the environment. In this setting, large effort has been devoted to analyze specifications given as formulas of linear temporal logic, i.e., LTL synthesis.
Traditional approaches to LTL synthesis rely on transforming the LTL specification into parity deterministic automata, and then to parity games, for which a so-called winning region is computed. Computing such an automaton is, in the worst-case, double-exponential in the size of the LTL formula, and this becomes a computational bottleneck in using the synthesis process in practice.
The first part of this thesis is devoted to improve the solution of parity games as they are used in solving LTL synthesis, trying to give efficient techniques, in terms of running time and space consumption, for solving parity games. We start with the study and the implementation of an automata-theoretic technique to solve parity games. More precisely, we consider an algorithm introduced by Kupferman and Vardi that solves a parity game by solving the emptiness problem of a corresponding alternating parity automaton. Our empirical evaluation demonstrates that this algorithm outperforms other algorithms when the game has a small number of priorities relative to the size of the game. In many concrete applications, we do indeed end up with parity games
where the number of priorities is relatively small. This makes the new algorithm quite useful in practice.
We then provide a broad investigation of the symbolic approach for solving parity games. Specifically, we implement in a fresh tool, called SPGSolver, four symbolic algorithms to solve parity games and compare their performances to the corresponding explicit versions for different classes of games. By means of benchmarks, we show that for random games, even for constrained random games, explicit algorithms actually perform better than symbolic algorithms. The situation changes, however, for structured games, where symbolic algorithms seem to have the advantage. This suggests that when evaluating algorithms for parity-game solving, it would be useful to have real benchmarks and not only random benchmarks, as the common practice has been.
LTL synthesis has been largely investigated also in artificial intelligence, and specifically in
automated planning. Indeed, LTL synthesis corresponds to fully observable nondeterministic planning in which the domain is given compactly and the goal is an LTL formula, that in turn is related to two-player games with LTL goals. Finding a strategy for these games means to synthesize a plan for the planning problem. The last part of this thesis is then dedicated to investigate LTL synthesis under this different view. In particular, we study a generalized form of planning under partial observability, in which we have multiple, possibly infinitely many, planning domains with the same actions and observations, and goals expressed over observations, which are possibly temporally extended. By building on work on two-player games with imperfect information in the Formal Methods literature, we devise a general technique, generalizing the belief-state construction, to remove partial observability. This reduces the planning problem to a game of perfect information with a tight correspondence between plans and strategies. Then we instantiate the technique and solve some generalized planning problems.


This paper evaluates the extent of inter- industry, and inter-regional wage spillovers across the UK. A large literature exists suggesting that wages elsewhere affect wage determination and levels of satisfaction, but this paper extends the analysis to examine the effects of inward investment in the process. Thus far the specific effect of foreign wages on domestic wage determination has not been evaluated. Using industry and regional level panel data for the UK the paper reports evidence that such wage spillovers do occur, and that they are more widespread for skilled, than for unskilled workers and also lower in areas of high unemployment.


With the development of underground rail, the problem that vehicle vibration affects the vehicle's life-span and harms the health of the passenger has been concerned. In this paper, a vibration test system has been formed with data collecting instrument and acceleration sensors to collect the signals of the metro vehicle floor when it running at the ATO (Auto Train Operation) mode in the tunnel, Analyzing the regulation of vehicle vibration signal change that come with the change of the route condition, such as curve, slope, and so on. Obtain the relationship between the road condition and vehicle vibration. The analysis result shows that, the vehicle vibration not only be affected by the structure of the vehicle itself and the geological condition on which the track laid, but also has close relationship with the route condition.


Recent experimental evidence suggests that most of the genome is transcribed into non‐coding RNAs. The initial transcripts undergo further processing generating shorter, metabolically stable RNAs with diverse functions. Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are non‐coding RNAs that modify rRNAs, tRNAs, and snRNAs that were considered stable. We review evidence that snoRNAs undergo further processing. High‐throughput sequencing and RNase protection experiments showed widespread expression of snoRNA fragments, known as snoRNA‐derived RNAs (sdRNAs). Some sdRNAs resemble miRNAs, these can associate with argonaute proteins and influence translation. Other sdRNAs are longer, form complexes with hnRNPs and influence gene expression. C/D box snoRNA fragmentation patterns are conserved across multiple cell types, suggesting a processing event, rather than degradation. The loss of expression from genetic loci that generate canonical snoRNAs and processed snoRNAs results in diseases, such as Prader‐Willi Syndrome, indicating possible physiological roles for processed snoRNAs. We propose that processed snoRNAs acquire new roles in gene expression and represent a new class of regulatory RNAs distinct from canonical snoRNAs.


Community-based public archaeology projects seek to reclaim aspects of the past while addressing the needs and concerns of local communities. Sometimes this work forces archaeologists to tack between the desire to conduct original research and the need to simultaneously navigate complex economic, social, and political conditions. The River Street Archaeology Project in Boise, Idaho is a perfect example of how archaeologists, historic preservationists, archaeology advocates, and a constellation of educational and government organizations collaborated in an attempt to reclaim the unwritten past of a multi-racial neighborhood. The 2015 field school is a case study in how archaeological data and history production can empower a community to reclaim its heritage.


A new vertical mesh transfer (VMT) technique has been developed to facilitate the rapid isolation of plant metal-tolerance mutants. The technique is quantitative, allowing comparisons of the growth responses of different strains or ecotypes. Using the VMT technique, we have characterized the dose responses of 10 ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana to Cu2+, Zn2+, Ni2+, Cr3+, Cd2+, and Al3+. Ecotypic variations in the highest concentration causing no inhibition and the lowest concentration causing complete inhibition for the six metals were observed. Two ecotypes, Ws and Enkheim, exhibited an inducible tolerance mechanism in response to copper. Pretreatment of Ws with the highest concentration causing no inhibition for copper resulted in a shifting of the lowest concentration causing complete inhibition to a higher value. Partial cross-induction and cross-tolerance between Cu2+ and Zn2+ were demonstrated. In addition, ethyl methanesulfonate-mutagenized Columbia seeds were screened for copper-sensitive (cus) mutants using the VMT procedure. Thus far, 59 putative cus mutants have survived retesting to the M4 or M5 generation. When grown on gellan gum supplemented with 30 [mu]M CuCl2, cus mutants develop marked toxicity symptoms. A copper dose-response curve of the cus1 mutant showed that the metal-sensitive phenotype is specific for the lower concentration range.


Objective: The microsatellite status and tumor immune microenvironment have a remarkable influence on tumor immunotherapy. This study was performed to investigate programmed cell death protein 1/programmed death ligand 1 (PD1/PDL1) expression and their correlations with CD8+ T cell/CD68+ macrophage (CD68+ M) densities in gastric cancer (GC) at different microsatellite statuses. Methods: The expression of MLH1, PMS2, MSH2, and MSH6 was detected via immunohistochemistry (IHC) to determine the microsatellite status in 215 GC samples obtained from surgical resections. Furthermore, the expression of PD1, PDL1, CD8, and CD68 was detected in the samples via IHC, and the differences and correlations in GC at different microsatellite statuses were then analyzed. PDL1 expression in tumor cells was labeled as PDL1[T], while expression of PD1 and PDL1 in tumor-infiltrating immune cells was labeled as PD1 and PDL1, respectively. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to evaluate the significance of PD1/PDL1 expression in determining overall survival. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed using SPSS software. P-values were determined using the log-rank test. Results: Our results indicated that PD1, PDL1[T], and PDL1 positivity rates were 59%, 35%, and 57% in 46 microsatellite unstable (MSI) GCs and 45%, 22%, and 40% in 169 microsatellite stable (MSS) GCs, respectively. Compared with MSS GC, PD1, PDL1[T], and PDL1 expression was higher in MSI GC (P = 0.109, 0.090, and 0.044, respectively). Additionally, CD8+ T cell and CD68+ M densities were higher in MSI GC than in MSS GC (P = 0.537 and <0.001, respectively). Additionally, CD8+ T cell/CD68+ M densities were evaluated according to tumor center and invasion front. We found that PD1 expression was significantly correlated with CD8+ T cell density at the invasion front of the MSI GC (P = 0.031), whereas PDL1 expression was significantly correlated to high CD68+ M density in the tumor center and invasion front of MSS GC (P = 0.001 and 0.014, respectively). Survival analysis showed that patients with PD1-positive and PDL1[T]/PDL1-negative GC had better prognosis (P = 0.012, 0.005, and 0.022, respectively). Multivariate Cox survival analysis showed that PDL1[T] was an independent prognostic factor for GC. Conclusion: The results suggested that PD1/PDL1 expression and immune response varied at different microsatellite statuses in GC. PD1/PDL1 expression was correlated with CD8+ T cell/CD68+ M densities in GC at different microsatellite statuses, especially at the invasion front. The patients exhibiting high PD1/PDL1 expression or high CD8+ T cell/CD68+ M densities MSI GC might be potential beneficiaries of PD1/PDL1 immunotherapy.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Hepatitis C is an infectious disease affecting approximately 170 million people worldwide. In addition to the liver disease, the virus causes extra-liver manifestations, such as peripheral neuropathy and essential mixed cryoglobulinemia. This study aimed at presenting a case of a patient with hepatitis C virus who developed cryoglobulinemia associated to peripheral neuropathy. CASE REPORT: Male patient, 62 years old, with hepatitis C subtype 1 diagnosed more than 10 years ago, with possible contamination after right knee surgical procedure. He presented initially "shock"-type pain episodes followed by hands and feet continuous paresthesia in boot-glove pattern, associated to Raynaud phenomenon and lower limbs petechiae. He evolved along the years with motor deficit in left fibular nerve leading to foot-drop. Plasma cryoglobulines test was positive. Pain became continuous, severe, symmetric, located in the distal third and lateral face of lower limbs. When the evaluation of the multidisciplinary pain and rehabilitation team was asked, tramadol (50 mg) every 6 hours and gabapentin (900 mg/day) were prescribed in association to pulse therapy with total resolution of pain in some weeks. Orthosis and daily rehabilitation were needed for several months. CONCLUSION: As early as possible, multimodal treatment with different classes of drugs associated to adequate rehabilitation is directly associated to a better prognosis for this type of neuropathy.


We define a notion of module over a monad and use it to propose a new definition (or semantics) for abstract syntax (with binding constructions). Using our notion of module, we build a category of exponential monads, which can be understood as the category of lambda-calculi, and prove that it has an initial object (the pure untyped lambda-calculus). Our definitions and results are formalized in the proof assistant Coq.


The classicaland and ab initio molecular dynamic (MD) simulation of the thermal expansion coefficient of the Ni3Al alloy has been performed in the temperature interval 300 - 1500 K with the increment δT = 100 K. The obtained results are compared with the experiment. It is found the classical MD overestimate and the ab initio MD underestimate the experimental results. The results of ab initio simulation is more close to the experiment without any adjustable parameters but it is very timeconsuming.


A common approach to detect multiple changepoints is to minimise a measure of data fit plus a penalty that is linear in the number of changepoints. This paper shows that the general finite sample behaviour of such a method can be related to its behaviour when analysing data with either none or one changepoint. This results in simpler conditions for verifying whether the method will consistently estimate the number and locations of the changepoints. We apply and demonstrate the usefulness of this result for a range of changepoint problems. Our new results include a weaker condition on the choice of penalty required to have consistency in a change-in-slope model; and the first results for the accuracy of recently-proposed methods for detecting spikes.


As an attempt to develop a more powerful authentication system, with low cost and good acceptance by users, we proposed here an authentication mechanism based on biometric information of human typing pattern. At the moment, we present a complete description of the architecture with multi pattern verification units and results of a first phase implementation of the mechanism based on a single pattern verification unit among Multi Layer Perceptron, Learning Vector-Quantization, Self-Organizing Neural Networks and Support vector machine.


Inflammasomes are intracellular complexes involved in the innate immunity that convert proIL‐1β and proIL‐18 to mature forms and initiate pyroptosis via cleaving procaspase‐1. The most well‐known inflammasome is NLRP3. Several studies have indicated a decisive and important role of NLRP3 inflammasome, IL‐1β, IL‐18, and pyroptosis in atherosclerosis. Modern hypotheses introduce atherosclerosis as an inflammatory/lipid‐based disease and NLRP3 inflammasome has been considered as a link between lipid metabolism and inflammation because crystalline cholesterol and oxidized low‐density lipoprotein (oxLDL) (two abundant components in atherosclerotic plaques) activate NLRP3 inflammasome. In addition, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, and lysosome rupture, which are implicated in inflammasome activation, have been discussed as important events in atherosclerosis. In spite of these clues, some studies have reported that NLRP3 inflammasome has no significant effect in atherogenesis. Our review reveals that some molecules such as JNK‐1 and ASK‐1 (upstream regulators of inflammasome activation) can reduce atherosclerosis through inducing apoptosis in macrophages. Notably, NLRP3 inflammasome can also cause apoptosis in macrophages, suggesting that NLRP3 inflammasome may mediate JNK‐induced apoptosis, and the apoptotic function of NLRP3 inflammasome may be a reason for the conflicting results reported. The present review shows that the role of NLRP3 in atherogenesis can be significant. Here, the molecular pathways of NLRP3 inflammasome activation and the implications of this activation in atherosclerosis are explained.


INTRODUCTION
The use of alveolar recruitment maneuvers during general anaesthesia of horses is a potentially useful therapeutic option for the ventilatory management. While the routine application of recruitments would benefit from the availability of dedicated large animal ventilators their impact on ventilation and perfusion in the horse is not yet well documented nor completely understood.

CASE HISTORY
A healthy 533 kg experimental horse underwent general anaesthesia in lateral recumbency. During intermittent positive pressure ventilation a stepwise alveolar recruitment maneuver was performed.

MANAGEMENT
Anaesthesia was induced with ketamine and midazolam and maintained with isoflurane in oxygen using a large animal circle system. Mechanical ventilation was applied in pressure ventilation mode and an alveolar recruitment maneuver performed employing a sequence of ascending and descending positive end expiratory pressures. Next to the standard monitoring, which included spirometry, additionally three non-invasive monitoring techniques were used: electrical impedance tomography (EIT), volumetric capnography and respiratory ultrasonic plethysmography. The functional images continuously delivered by EIT initially showed markedly reduced ventilation in the dependent lung and allowed on-line monitoring of the dynamic changes in the distribution of ventilation during the recruitment maneuver. Furthermore, continuous monitoring of compliance, dead space fraction, tidal volumes and changes in end expiratory lung volume were possible without technical difficulties. FOLLOW: up The horse made an unremarkable recovery.

CONCLUSION
The novel non-invasive monitoring technologies used in this study provided unprecedented insights into the physiology of lung collapse and recruitment. The synergic information of these techniques holds promise to be useful when developing and evaluating new ventilatory strategies in horses.


Abstract Introduction: Intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) are important causes of morbidity and mortality in patients with immunocompromising conditions. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of IPIs in different groups of immunocompromised patients, including hemodialysis patients (HD), renal transplant recipients (RTR), cancer and HIV/AIDS patients in comparison with healthy individuals in two central cities of Iran (Kashan and Qom). Methods: In this case–control study, the stool samples of 135 HD, 50 RTR, 60 cancer patients, 20 HIV/AIDS patients and 120 healthy subjects were tested using direct-smear, formol-ether concentration, Ziehl–Neelsen staining and Agar plate method. Results: The overall infection rate was 11.7% (31/265) in patient groups and 0% (0/120) in the control group. The frequency of parasites was 25% in HIV/AIDS patients, 11.9% (16/135) in HD, 12.0% (6/50) in RTR and 6.7% (4/60) in cancer patients. Blastocystis hominis (4.2%) and Giardia lamblia (3.0%) were the most prevalent parasites in patient groups. The infection rate was significantly higher in male (17.6%) than female (5.4%) patients (p = .002), but no statistically significant association was observed according to the age and educational levels. Conclusions: This study showed a high prevalence of IPIs in immunocompromised patients. The results of this study suggest that periodic stool examinations for screening of IPIs should be included as a part of routine medical care in these patients.