The best known upper bound on the number of topological changes in the Delaunay triangulation of a set of moving points in ℜ2 is (nearly) cubic, even if each point is moving with a fixed velocity. We introduce the notion of a stable Delaunay graph (SDG in short), a dynamic subgraph of the Delaunay triangulation, that is less volatile in the sense that it undergoes fewer topological changes and yet retains many useful properties of the full Delaunay triangulation. SDG is defined in terms of a parameter ± > 0, and consists of Delaunay edges pq for which the (equal) angles at which p and q see the corresponding Voronoi edge epq are at least ±. We prove several interesting properties of SDG and describe two kinetic data structures for maintaining it. Both structures use O*(n) storage. They process O*(n2) events during the motion, each in O*(1) time, provided that the points of P move along algebraic trajectories of bounded degree; the O*(·) notation hides multiplicative factors that are polynomial in 1/± and polylogarithmic in n. The first structure is simpler but the dependency on 1/± in its performance is higher.


"Although research into the processes and outcomes of radicalization has yielded significant discoveries regarding antecedent risk factors and the role played by societal circumstances and individual variables, research regarding the process of radical conversion remains in its infancy. We believe that the psychology of religion may hold the key to unlocking new insights into this conversion process. As a result of assessing both Lofland and Skonovd's religious conversion motifs
and Rambo's integrative model of religious conversion, we suggest that issues of culture, society and the individual which are prevalent in first-hand accounts of conversion to terrorism provide crucial insight into the application of theories of religious conversion to the process of radicalization, and that this application is ripe for helping to further develop existing pyramid and staircase models of radicalization."


An aim in development of new antidepressants (ADs) now includes increasing speed of action. New drugs are tested primarily in outpatients who are less severely depressed than the patients treated in earlier trials of the tricyclic drugs. To determine early efficacy requires measures sensitive to initial changes in components of the illness as well as in the severity of the entire syndrome of depression. This paper describes the development of a brief 'multivantaged' (MV) method for assessing the major behavioural and affective components of depression. The revised Brief MV was significantly reduced from the original to make it more feasible to apply in outpatient studies. In this study we determined the Brief MV's (1) reliability and comparability to the original and (2) its ability to detect the onset of specific behavioural effects in outpatients treated with paroxetine for 6 wk. The latter is compared to the ability of the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) to detect changes in global severity. The constructs derived from the Brief MV were found to be highly similar to those of the original version and as reliable. In depressed patients who responded to paroxetine, the HAMD and MV detected onset of improvement after 7 d of treatment. The Brief MV revealed that the improvement in global severity was due to the drug's action at this time on behaviours such as anxiety and distressed expression, as well as on a severity dimension of anxiety-agitation-somatization. Thus, the Brief MV, in uncovering underlying behavioural actions, represents an important addition to the current unidimensional HAMD approach in drug research.


ABSTRACT The largest non-associated gas reserve of the world is hosted by the Upper Dalan–Kangan (Upper Khuff equivalent) Permo-Triassic carbonate–evaporite successions. Detailed characterization of these strata in the South Pars field has shown that the reservoir properties are a function of both sedimentary and diagenetic processes at the field scale. Facies analysis of the studied units indicates that the sediments were deposited in the inner regions of a homoclinal carbonate ramp and were subsequently subjected to shallow diagenesis and minor burial. The vertical distribution of the facies shows cyclic patterns that impact reservoir quality. The rock type classes have been grouped on the basis of the dominant pore spaces, and have enabled distinct fields to be identified. This approach has demonstrated a relationship between poroperm values and rock type groups. Diagenetic overprinting has significantly affected the reservoir properties. Although the original poroperm heterogeneities in the studied reservoir are inherited from the Upper Dalan–Kangan palaeoplatform, they have been modified strongly by diagenetic overprinting. Consequently, tentative correlation may be possible between facies types and reservoir properties based on diagenetic effects. Therefore, for precise characterization of the Upper Dalan–Kangan reservoir properties it has been necessary to integrate both the depositional history and diagenetic features.


Background: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a non-invasive and innovative cancer therapy based on the photodynamic effect. In this study, we sought to determine the singlet oxygen production, intracellular uptake, and in vitro photodynamic therapy potential of Cetixumab-targeted, zinc(II) 2,3,9,10,16,17,23,24-octa(tert-butylphenoxy))phthalocyaninato(2-)-N29,N30,N31,N32 (ZnPcOBP)-loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles against pancreatic cancer cells. Results: The quantum yield (ΦΔ) value of ZnPcOBP was found to be 0.60 in toluene. In vitro cellular studies were performed to determine the dark- and phototoxicity of samples with various concentrations of ZnPcOBP by using pancreatic cells (AsPC-1, PANC-1 and MIA PaCa-2) and 20, 30, and 40 J/cm2 light fluences. No dark toxicity was observed for any sample in any cell line. ZnPcOBP alone showed a modest photodynamic activity. However, when incorporated in silica nanoparticles, it showed a relatively high phototoxic effect, which was further enhanced by Cetuximab, a monoclonal antibody that targets the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR). The cell-line dependent photokilling observed correlates well with EGFR expression levels in these cells. Conclusions: Imidazole-capped Cetuximab-targeted mesoporous silica nanoparticles are excellent vehicles for the selective delivery of ZnPcOBP to pancreatic cancer cells expressing the EGFR receptor. The novel nanosystem appears to be a suitable agent for photodynamic therapy of pancreatic tumors.


Silicon oxide (SiO/sub 2/) films have extensive applications in integrated circuit fabrication technology, including passivation layers for integrated circuits, diffusion or photolithographic masks, and interlayer dielectrics for metal-insulator structures such as MOS transistors or multichip modules. The properties of SiO/sub 2/ films deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) are determined by the nature and composition of the plasma, which is in turn controlled by the deposition variables involved in the PECVD process. The complex nature of particle dynamics within a plasma makes it very difficult to quantify the exact relationship between deposition conditions and critical output parameters reflecting film quality. In this study, the synthesis and optimization of process recipes using genetic algorithms is introduced. In order to characterize the PECVD of SiO/sub 2/ films deposited under varying conditions, a central composite designed experiment has been performed. Data from this experiment was then used to develop neural network based process models. A recipe synthesis procedure was then performed using the optimized neural network models to generate the necessary deposition conditions to obtain several novel film qualities, including zero stress, 100% uniformity, low permittivity, and minimal impurity concentration. This synthesis procedure utilized genetic algorithms, Powell's algorithm, the simplex method, and hybrid combinations thereof. Recipes predicted by these techniques were verified by experiment, and the performance of each synthesis method are compared. It was found that the genetic algorithm-based recipes generally produced films of superior quality. Deposition was carried out in a Plasma Therm 700 series PECVD system.


One hundred seventy-three bronchial challenge tests were performed as an outpatient procedure on 35 selected clinic patients. The incidence of positive tests was sufficiently high and the procedure tolerated well enough to suggest this as a practical office procedure if carefully done in properly chosen patients.


This study examines ERS-1 3-day repeat orbit scatterometer wind data from January through March 1992. The study region encompasses the North Pacific from 30° to 50°N and 160°E to 130°W longitude. The data are separated by orbit trajectory and binned to 26 km. These data are examined by direct comparative analysis to surface European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model analyses on daily, monthly, and 3-month timescales. The scatterometer wind fields compare favorably, but distinct, nonisolated differences exist. These differences, exhibited in the scatterometer winds, include slightly stronger wind speeds, more distinct curvature, and detail on structures smaller than the ECMWF resolution. Systematic relative northward displacements of cyclonic centers, 1°-3° in latitude, in ECMWF surface winds are also indicated. The scatterometer wind retrieval algorithm (CMODFD/NSCAT MLE) demonstrates some difficulty in selecting the true wind vector. Problems are generally identifiable by inspection. Complex empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis on the ascending and descending scatterometer wind fields reveal frequency and amplitude information about the sampled variance. The first four EOFs, for which the results suggest physically motivated phenomena, account for 50%-60% of the total variance sampled in the data. The EOF results partition the sampled variance in the ascending and descending data and suggest the more significant EOFs depict spatiotemporal bands of 18-21, 8-10, and 6-8 days, reflecting the planetary wave cycle, large-scale general circulation systems, and smaller-scale storm structures, respectively. The partitioning of the variance demonstrates only limited filtering capability in identifying erroneous ERS-1 wind vectors.


OBJECTIVE
Rapid review of the literature on strategies to increase participation rates in school-based epidemiological surveys.

BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN
Rapid review. MEDLINE and Embase databases were searched for articles written in English from 2000 onwards. Synthesised evidence and primary research were included as data sources from peer reviewed journals and reports.

INTERVENTIONS
Any strategy aiming to increase participation in school-based health surveys. The comparator was usual procedure or an alternative strategy to increase participation.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Primary outcomes included participation and consent rates. Secondary outcomes were feasibility, acceptability and adverse effects.

RESULTS
The search identified 591 unique records, of which 587 were excluded. Four studies were suitable for inclusion, including one systematic review, one randomised controlled trial, one cross-sectional study and one retrospective analysis. Based on very low certainty evidence, recommendations for maximising participation rates in one systematic review of US studies included: promoting the survey to school staff, parents and students; disseminating study information using direct rather than mediated methods; offering incentives to schools, staff and participants; following up non-responders; and employing a research team member to co-ordinate and monitor recruitment. However, UK studies found that different strategies did not increase participation more than that achieved by a standard approach (delivery of covering letter/consent forms via the child with no follow-up of non-responders).

CONCLUSION
Given the lack of evidence of effectiveness of alternative strategies in the UK, additional measures beyond existing standard approaches for active consent cannot be recommended.


In proximal tubules isolated from chicken superficial loopless reptilian-type nephrons, intracellular pH (pHi), measured with pH-sensitive fluorescent dye 2',7'-bis(carboxyethyl)-5(6)-carboxyfluorescein, was approximately 7.1-7.2 under control conditions (N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N'-2-ethanesulfonic acid-buffered medium with pH 7.4 at 37 degrees C), and was reduced to approximately 6.9 in response to NH4Cl pulse. The rate of recovery of pHi (control value approximately equal to 5 x 10(-3) pH U/s) from this acid level was 1) significantly decreased by removal of Na+ or both Na+ and Cl- from the bath or addition of 4,4'-diisothiocyanostilbene-2,2'-disulfonic acid (0.25 mM) to the bath, 2) significantly increased by high bath K+ (75 mM), and 3) unchanged by removal of Cl- alone from the bath or addition of ethylisopropylamiloride (1 mM) or Ba2+ (5 mM) to the bath. Resting pHi was 1) significantly decreased by Na+ or simultaneous Na+ and Cl- removal, 2) significantly increased by high K+, and 3) unchanged by Cl- removal alone or addition of Ba2+. The data do not fit the concept of pHi regulation by the most commonly suggested basolateral transporters (Na+/H+ exchanger, Na(+)-dependent and Na(+)-independent Cl-/HCO3- exchangers, or Na(+)-HCO3(-)-CO3(2-) cotransporter).


Rats were studied during cerebral hypoxic ischemia to determine whether neurons or blood vessels suffered the first damage. Ten or more minutes of unilateral carotid artery occlusion combined with systemic hypoxemia (PaO-2, 21 mm Hg) produced neuronal but not vascular damage in the ipsilateral cerebral hemispheres of 18 of 29 rats (62%); two and five minute stresses caused no visible neuronal abnormalities. The longer exposures produced more widespread damage, and neuronal loss and gliomesodermal reaction were evident after prolonged survival. Early neuronal changes correlated with abnormalities of motor behavior (P less than .005). Despite neuronal damage that was sometimes extensive, vascular no-reflow developed in only one of 24 animals after 20 and 30 minutes of hypoxia-ischemia. Production of neuronal and neurological abnormalities in the absence of hypotension or vascular no-reflow indicates that hypoxia-ischemia initially damaged cerebral neurons.


Currently we are witnessing a revolution in the production and processing of massive data (Big Data). Although the main users of such data are companies, social researchers have also found interesting possibilities in the analysis of Big Data, with new approaches to old questions or even with the approach to issues that could not be addressed with traditional data. This article is a review of research papers using geolocated massive data, Big (Geo)Data, and shows examples of their application in research, grouping the papers according to data sources: mobile phone calls records, social networks, communities of geolocated photos, credit card transactions records, transport smart cards, car navigators, etc. The paper concludes with some reflections on the advantages of Big (Geo)Data in social sciences research (high temporal and spatial resoluction, and, in many cases, global coverage and free of charge), but it also highlights some of the main problems arising from their use, such as bias, processing capacity and access barriers.


Two Superpave test sections were constructed at the Kansas Accelerated Testing Laboratory (K-ATL) with 12.5 mm (2 in.) nominal maximum size Superpave mixture (SM-2A) with varying percentages (15% and 30%) of river sand. A 150 kN (34 kip) tandem axle with dual wheels was used for 10,000 repetitions. Next the sections were loaded by three different tandem axle loads and three single axles for more than 30 repetitions in each configuration to estimate the relative pavement damage in the SM-2A layer due to different axle loads and configurations. All load application was done at a temperature of approximately 38 deg C (98 deg F) at the middle of the SM-2A layer. The test sections were instrumented at three locations on each test section with (i) transverse strain gages at the bottom of the SM-2A layer, (ii) pressure cells on the top of the subgrade, and (iii) temperature gages in the aggregate base, subgrade and SM-2A layers (mid-depth and bottom). Data were collected during load applications by the K-ATL tandem axle and a Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD). After 80,000 applications of the 150 kN (34 kip) tandem axle loading, severe rutting was observed on both test sections with no visible cracking, and the testing was terminated. The theoretical pavement responses were also calculated with a multi-layer elastic analysis program, ELSYM5, and compared to the test results. The measured vertical stresses on the top of the subgrade and tensile strains at the bottom of the SM-2A layer due to FWD loads are generally very close to those calculated by ELSYM5. However, measured tensile strains and vertical stresses on both sections were higher than those calculated by ELSYM5. In general, the measured tensile strains under the K-ATL wheel loads were found to increase with increasing number of wheel load repetitions, but the measured vertical stresses remained relatively constant. Fatigue tests were conducted on the beams fabricated from the loose SM-2A (15) mixtures sampled during construction. Fatigue and rutting damage analyses were also conducted on a set of test beams sawed from that section. The rutting and fatigue results were consistent with observed and predicted damage. The AASHTO load equivalency factors were found to be much higher than those calculated in this study. Finally, based on the measured pavement temperature data and the longitudinal profile data (dipstick measurement), a temperature variation along the depth of Superpave pavements and pavement deterioration based on International Roughness Index values were analyzed and reported. Several recommendations based on this study have also been made.


This study aimed to investigate the relationships between atmospheric parameters, seawater quality and green mussel production which were cultured in pond, estuary and coastal areas. Seawater and mussel samples were collected from mussel farms in the inner Gulf of Thailand from January to December 2019. Climate data were obtained from the Thai Meteorological Department. The correlations between selected atmospheric and seawater parameters were developed using linear and non-linear models. The influence of seawater quality on mussel production was evaluated using principal component analysis and stepwise multiple linear regression. The effects of atmospheric variation on green mussel productivity were simulated. The results showed that high air temperature and rainfall caused an increase in seawater temperature and a decrease in salinity, respectively. It was observed that the most influential factors affecting mussel production were nutrients and dissolved oxygen in ponds, temperature and salinity in estuaries, and nutrients and pH in coastal areas. The simulation indicated that mussel production can deteriorate when air temperature reaches 34°C and rainfall is higher than 200 mm per month. Our results suggest that under climate change events, locations with less riverine influence can provide higher mussel productivity. These results can be used as a guideline for farmers during a climate change event.


This study deals with fretting wear behavior of 40CrNiMoA steel on a SRVⅣoscillating friction and wear tester. The results indicate that with the frequency and load increasing, both the friction coefficient and fretting wear volume increase. With the amplitude increasing, the fretting wear volume increased too, but the effect of amplitude on friction coefficient was not simple positive correlation according to the experimental results. Meanwhile, the fretting wear mechanism is directly related to test frequency, load and amplitude. When they are small, the main fretting wear mechanism is abrasive wear, with these test parameters increasing, the main fretting wear mechanism turns to a combination of abrasive wear and adhesion wear. Based on the experimental results, the anti-fretting wear measures of steel worm gear pairs used in mechanical tracked regulator of tracked vehicle are discussed.


Percussion drilling has been widely used in oil and gas industry, yet it still has some shortcomings, such as severe damages to drilling tools, low energy transferring efficiency and low rock-fragmenting efficiency. Thus it is necessary to reveal the mechanism of interactions between the hammer bit and rock in geophysical prospecting percussion drilling. Taking account of the coupling effect of the Weight on Bit (WOB), impact force and rotary torque, this paper constructed a Finite Element Method (FEM) model using the finite element analysis software (ANSYS/LS-DYNA) and conducted a computer simulation of bit-rock interaction under rotating and simple impact effect, which showed the rock-fragmenting process of hammer bit and the curves of volume-time and depth-time of craters as well as the effective stress-time curves of the centre tooth, second-row tooth and peripheral tooth. The results showed that: the percussion drilling process under rotating impact effect is characterized as four fundamental processes; the crater depth mainly depends on impact force rather than rotary torque; the crater created under rotating impact effect is twice the volume of that under impact effect; the effective stress of each tooth changes severely: the stress of second-row tooth is the largest, centre tooth the second, and peripheral tooth the smallest. This study provided a guide for the structural optimization of hammer bit and general applications of percussion drilling.


The study gives an overview of the socio-economic consequences and implications of the COVID-19 outbreak in Africa. While it is of common knowledge that the damage caused by the pandemic to the global economy is real, the existing socio-economic crises in Africa could further degenerate. What remains salient is that the huge economic costs would be borne by regions bereft of strong institutional regulatory setup and proactive approach to effectively ameliorate the impact of the outbreak, in both short-run and long-run, to bounce back in relation to the magnitude of the shocks suffered. It is indeed affirmed that in most sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, such resilient measures seem to be absent or non-existent. Given the degree of behavioral responses and attendant vulnerabilities generated, African socio-economic problems may be potentially exacerbated with the majority of the population facing severe hardships in the continent.


Comparative embryological data presented in the paper support an idea that chondrification of the mesenchyme does not begin until the latter becomes condensated. Size and density of the skeletogenous rudiments are not the same in different vertebrates. As a rule, in animals with much of the mesenchyme (chondrichthyans, amniotes), the prochondral condensations contain more cells and have both greater mass and density. The distribution pattern of the mesenchyme is also significant for the future development of the cartilaginous elements which at the earlier stages grow largely by the recruitment of surrounding mesenchymal cells. Such kind of the growth mode is probably most similar to the cartilage fusion mode: both processed take place in the absence of the perichondrium. The non-skeletal dense structures influence on the development of the cartilaginous skeleton primarily by determining distribution pattern of the mesenchyme, particularly the condensation of skeletogenous cells. THe growing cartilages themselves can influence mechanically on the surrounding organs.


The p-dispersion problem is to locate p facilities on a network so that the minimum separation distance between any pair of open facilities is maximized. This problem is applicable to facilities that pose a threat to each other and to systems of retail or service franchises. In both of these applications, facilities should be as far away from the closest other facility as possible. A mixed-integer program is formulated that relies on reversing the value of the 0–1 location variables in the distance constraints so that only the distance between pairs of open facilities constrain the maximization. A related problem, the maxisum dispersion problem, which aims to maximize the average separation distance between open facilities, is also formulated and solved. Computational results for both models for locating 5 and 10 facilities on a network of 25 nodes are presented, along with a multicriteria approach combining the dispersion and maxisum problems. The p -dispersion problem has a weak duality relationship with the (p-1)-center problem in that one-half the maximin distance in the p-dispersion problem is a lower bound for the minimax distance in the center problem for (p-1) facilities. Since the p-center problem is often solved via a series of set-covering problems, the p-dispersion problem may prove useful for finding a starting distance for the series of covering problems.


Abstract The allergic reactions to fruits are lesser known among food sensitivities. The most common fruits belonging to the Rosaceae family that might cause allergic reactions are apples, pears and peaches. However, little is known about the potential allergic reactions caused by another member of the Rosaceae, the cherry. The aim of this study was to assess the risk of any allergic reaction or food hypersensitivity resulting from topical application and chronic oral administration of cherry fruits. The cherry fruits 'Sabina' cv. were produced in the orchard in Dąbrowice according to the principles of integrated (IFP) and organic (OR) productions. Fruits of 'Debreceni Bötermö' cv. were produced in Dąbrowice (IFP), and in the orchard in Nowy Dwór (OR). The experiments were performed on 65 outbred young, adult, white albinotic guinea pigs (Dankin Hartley). Three procedures were applied: I. Guinea-Pig Maximization Test (GPMT); II. Chronic administration of fruits and III. Skin prick (Dreborg) test. The skin reactions based on GPMT or Dreborg tests revealed no differences between the two cherry cultivars 'Sabina' and 'Debreceni' obtained from integrated or organic production. Similarly, it was not observed of any effect of cultivars of cherries nor the type of fruits production on the guinea pig skin reaction as a result of chronic feeding with fruits.


The Pawtucket Heart Health Program, a research effort testing a process of community activation for cardiovascular risk factor behavior change, risk factor change, and coronary heart disease event rate change, utilizes risk factor behavior change programs for the entire population of a northeastern city. A diversity of nutrition programs designed to teach new skills and to alter the nutrition environment have been delivered. These include group programs, highlighting restaurant menus, labeling grocery shelf items, screening for blood cholesterol levels accompanied by nutritional counseling, and provision of programs in schools. In addition to standard curricula, the Heart Healthy Cook-Off for both junior high school and high school students has been developed. Students select recipes, make substitutions to lower fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol content, analyze original and substitution recipe nutrient content using a microcomputer and nutrient analysis software, and prepare the food. A panel of judges assesses presentation, taste, and health-promoting characteristics. In one junior high school class, cholesterol measure before and after the cook-off decreased by 10.7% among those with elevated cholesterol. The Heart Healthy Cook-Off is an education program that influences the culinary practices of children in an enjoyable, challenging format.


ABSTRACT A common trend among hosts of women's international sporting events is to tout the opportunity to positively impact women's and girls' sporting and physical activity practices. Yet, many scholars have shown that such 'trickle down' effects from the event to society are seldom realised. Nonetheless, organisers continue in their attempts to 'leverage' large-scale sporting events to produce a range of positive impacts. Here, we use the extraordinary context of Aotearoa New Zealand hosting the Women's Cricket, Rugby, and Football World Cups in 2022 and 2023 to consider the potential prospects, pitfalls, and challenges involved in attempting to leverage such events to improve societal and sporting opportunities for women and girls. More specifically, we explore the proposed leveraging strategies for the tournaments and examine how such initiatives align with the New Zealand Government's 'Strategy for Women and Girls in Sport and Active Recreation' (WGS). Drawing upon strategy, planning and policy documents, press releases, and media coverage, we adopt a critical discourse analysis approach to understand how current strategies of organisers, national sports organisations, and governing bodies align with the three main 'pillars' of the WGS (leadership, participation, and visibility). Through our analysis we present empirical and theoretical challenges (and opportunities) faced by the tournament stakeholders. We end with a critical analysis of the challenges and possibilities hosting three world cups can have on enacting meaningful and important change for women and girls' sport in Aotearoa.


A micromachined thermal flow sensor is presented demonstrating sensing liquid flow rates as low as 2 microliters per minute capable of being used for biomedical applications. These flow sensors rely on the varying electrical resistance of sensors generated by forced convection at different flow rates. The sensor array presented was constructed using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) techniques including micro-molding, wet etching and dry etching utilizing biocompatible materials. A numerical model was built using COMSOL multi-physics in order to predict and optimize the electrical, thermal and fluid behavior of the sensor, which was verified with experimental data. The construction allowed for multiple thermal flow sensing operational modes. Here, constant current hot film and constant current calorimetric were simulated and tested. A variety of flow sensor geometries were compared to investigate maximum heat transfer to the sensors, thermal insultation, size, sensitivity and range capabilities. The sensor design is such that it is capable of detecting different flow direction and various flow ranges for different fluids. In addition to the performance capabilities outlined, the sensor is relatively inexpensive and should have a long lifetime due to the lack of moving parts.


This letter describes the extension of signal subspace processing (SSP) to the arena of anomaly detection. In particular, we develop an SSP-based, local anomaly detector that exploits the rich information available in the multiple bands of a hyperspectral (HS) image. This SSP approach is based on signal processing considerations, and its entire formulation reduces to a straightforward (and intuitively pleasing) geometric and algebraic development. We extend the basic SSP concepts to the HS anomaly detection problem, develop an SSP HS anomaly detector, and evaluate this algorithm using multiple HS data files


In order to research the aircraft impact damage, one symbolic fitting method for analyzing and forecasting the damage data is proposed based on genetic programming (GP). The method can be used to forecast the impact damage by recognizing the rule in some groups of actual data including impact parameters and damage hole size. The principle of GP symbolic fitting method is briefly introduced. The fitting model is created with some sample data respectively for training and testing from Sorenson experiential equation. The computation with Matlab program indicates the model has a good performance to fit and forecast the damage data with avoiding the noise. The application of GP symbolic fitting method can help to decrease the times of fire experiments. Since the method can recognize the complicated nonlinear relationship between the impact parameters and damage data, it is more applicable than theoretical analysis and experiential equation to forecast the aircraft impact damage.


Background If localised pain represent one end of a pain spectra, with overall better general health, chronic widespread pain (CWP) and fibromyalgia represent the other end of the spectra with worse general health and more comorbidities with other somatic diseases and mental illness. Sleep problems and fatigue are common among individuals reporting CWP and previous research indicate that sleep problems may be an important predictor for pain prognosis. Objectives The aim of this population-based study was to investigate if sleep problems and fatigue predict the onset of CWP 5 and 18 years later. Methods In order to get more stable baseline classifications of CWP, a wash-out period was used, including only individuals who had not reported CWP (according to ACR 1990 criteria for fibromyalgia) at baseline (−98) and three years prior baseline (−95). In all, data from 1249 individuals entered the analyses for the 5 year follow-up (−03) and 791 entered for the 18 year follow-up (−16). Four parameters related to sleep (difficulties initiating sleep, maintaining sleep, early morning awakening and non-restorative sleep), and one parameter related to fatigue (SF-36 vitality scale) were investigated as predictors for CWP. Binary logistic regression analysis were used for analyses. Results All investigated parameters predicted the onset of CWP five years later (problems with initiating sleep (OR 1.91; 1.16–3.14), maintaining sleep (OR 1.85; 1.14–3.01), early awakening (OR 2.0; 1.37–3.75), non-restorative sleep (OR 2.27; 1.37–3.75) and fatigue (OR 3.70; 1.76–7.84)) in a model adjusted for age, gender, socio-economy and mental health. All parameters except problems with early awakening predicted the onset of CWP also 18 years later. In all, 785 individuals did not report any of the sleeping problems at baseline (fatigue not included), 268 reported one of the problems, 167 two, 128 three and 117 subjects reported to have all four sleep problems. Reporting all four sleep problems was significantly associated with CWP at follow-up at both time points when adjusting for age, gender, socio economy and mental health (OR 4.00; 2.03–7.91 and OR 3.95; 1.90–8.20); adjusting for age, gender, socio economy and number of pain regions (OR 2.94; 1.48–5.82 and OR 2.65; 1.24–5.64) and in a model adjusting for age, gender, socio economy and pain severity (OR 2.97;1.53–5.76; and OR 3.02;1.47–6.21) for the 5 year and 18 year follow-up respectively, compared to not reporting any of the sleep problems at baseline. Conclusions Both sleeping problems and fatigue predicts the onset of CWP 5- and 18 years later. The results highlight the importance of the assessment of sleep quality in the clinic. Disclosure of Interest None declared


The precised calendar of Maastricht treaty for setting up the european System of central banks (ESCB) and the european central bank (ECB) with a single currency can merely be explained by the concern of the member countries of having such a monetary integration before the end of the century. There's every chance that ESCB be formed with limited number of countries, namely: France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands. If the objectives of price controls and non monetisation of debt assigned to ESCB are unequivocal, the responsability of fixing the parity of ecu vis-a-vis third currencies which belongs to the Council and the Parliament might deprive the ESCB of full scope in conducting monetary policy. In regard to fiscal policies, the coexistence of budgets of various natures and the conjonctural stabilizations programs in prospect render difficult any computation on future coordination policy or federal budget. Finally, ecu once in place as a single currency could extend beyond the communities, but its acceptance on financial and commercial markets beside the dollar and the yen is scarcely predictable. This tendancy toward currencies zone, thus repeating history of the years thirties, does not constitute any guaranty for the stability of international monetary System which would require a kind of multilateral surveillance.


Context This project was based in a busy district general's Paediatric resuscitation bay. Doctors, nurses and the resuscitation team were involved. Problem The Resuscitation Council states: 'Healthcare organisations have an obligation to provide a high-quality resuscitation service' and 'staff have immediate access to appropriate resuscitation equipment and drugs' with 'A reliable system of equipment checks and replacement in place'. It states that appropriate airway equipment should be immediately available and circulation equipment accessible within minutes. The current Paediatric resuscitation bay was felt to not fully meet the above criteria. The resus bay was not an intuitive area and had no clear restocking guidelines with trust incident forms being logged for missing equipment during resuscitations. Assessment of problem and analysis of its causes Two lists of equipment were devised: one of simple airway equipment and one of equipment required to gain IV access and give a dextrose bolus. We timed one SHO trying to find specific equipment in our current resuscitation bay. The results were discussed in departmental meeting to consolidate the opinion of the Paediatric team, the Anaesthetic team, the Resuscitation officers and the Paediatric nurses, an action plan was devised to address the failings noted by staff in the department. Intervention The main instigated changes involved creating uniform circulation trolleys containing all the required equipment for paediatric cannulation and giving a bolus of rescue fluid. The bay had 3 grab trolleys and all were identical. To aid restocking, a label was placed below each piece of equipment to state what should be there and photographic checklists were created. The same principle was used for the airway trolley which, while being organised for weight, had an identical layout in each drawer and the same labelling system and checklist. Study design This was an observational study based on the time taken for SHO's to find emergency equipment pre and post changes. Strategy for change The changes were implemented by a Paediatric SHO and F1 who redesigned, labelled and restocked the trolleys. This was organised prior to the new rotational doctors starting who were then inducted around the department by one of the study organisers. Measurement of improvement We timed SHO's finding equipment pre and post changes. Results Abstract G553(P) Table 1 Time taken for SHO's to find equipment pre and post changes SHO 1 (pre changes) SHO 2 (post changes) Airway test 2 mins 34 s 1 min 49 s Circulation test 6 min 31 s (incomplete) 1 min 7 s Prior to the changes SHO 1 took a protracted amount of time to find a paediatric non-rebreath mask and during the circulation speed test searched multiple drawers, could only find half a culture kit and used the last bag of 10% dextrose in the paediatric resuscitation bay. After our implementation, SHO 2 found all of the airway adjuncts in the airway trolley and only required one grab trolley to successfully collate all the circulation equipment with a decrease in time. Effects of changes Although two SHO's were used, both were of a similar grade and had had a similar amount of exposure and experience within the resuscitation bay. Simple measures, requiring no additional equipment or money, were taken to standardise the area. Substantial improvements in time were noted in both tests. Nursing staff and doctors reported finding the area easier to use, more logical and clearer to restock. Lessons learnt Simple changes can make a demonstrable difference and improve patient safety. Message for others We showed with no money or extra resources you can ensure a safer environment for patients by ensuring uniformity and clear labelling.


Serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels and its expression in liver tissue was studied in 50 cases of histologically confirmed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Serum AFP levels were elevated (greater than 20iu/ml) in 35/50 (70%) of the cases, 28 of whom had levels greater than 500 iu/ml, which is highly suggestive of HCC. These results indicate that serum AFP, by itself, is a relatively insensitive diagnostic test for HCC. Although elevated levels in high risk patients provide a specific clue, a negative result does not exclude the diagnosis of HCC. Expression of AFP by tumour cells paralleled that of serum in the majority of cases. However, tissue AFP was negative in 7 patients who had markedly elevated serum AFP. This observation may be a reflection of preferential excretion of the tumour antigen or differential expression of the antigen by the tumour cells. None of the patients with normal serum AFP demonstrated a reaction for tissue AFP. There was no correlation between AFP production and tumour differentiation.


In this article, free vibration analysis of variable stiffness composite laminate (VSCL) plates with flat and folded shapes is studied. In order to consider the concept of variable stiffness, in each layer of these composite laminated plates, the curvilinear fibers are used instead of straight fibers. The analysis is based on a semi-analytical finite strip method which follows classical laminated plate theory (CLPT). Natural frequencies obtained through this analysis for the flat plates are in good agreement with the results obtained through other methods. Finally, the effect of the fiber orientation angle, the folding order, crank angles and boundary conditions on the Natural frequencies is demonstrated.


The Sukuk market has become the fastest growing segment of the Islamic financial services industry. Governments and other corporate entities have started tapping the local and international Sukuk markets in order to raise the required funds. The investor base is also expanding and Sukuk has now become a popular and obvious choice for retail investors in a number of jurisdictions. However, because of lack of suitable market conditions and some cross-border restrictions, the international Sukuk market is not developed enough in Iran. Using international Sukuk issuance data for 2001-2015, this study investigates the determinants of international Sukuk issuance and the capacity of issuing such securities in Iranian financial market. We use ANOVA analysis and PCA to explore main factors. Using the data of 34 indicators for 21 countries that have issued international Sukuk, we found that the main determinants of international Sukuk issuance are the ratios of bank deposits to GDP (%), Stock market capitalization to GDP (%), International debt issues to GDP (%) and outstanding international public debt securities to GDP (%). After determination of the basic factors for the countries, using the discriminant model, we estimated the Iranian financial market's capacity for issuing international Sukuk.


We investigate the quantum-mechanical transmission of electrons in a four-terminal quantum waveguide (FTQW) subjected to an inhomogeneous magnetic field perpendicular to the FTQW plane with the use of the mode-matching technique. An electron incident through one channel of the waveguide can travel into the other three channels in the quantum ballistic regime. The results show that in zero field the transmission coefficients in two channels perpendicular to the main wire are of similar behavior, but different from that of the channel parallel to the main wire. However, in an applied magnetic field, the transmission coefficients in two channels perpendicular to the main wire exhibit quite difference from each other and depend sensitively on geometric parameters. When different magnetic configurations are applied in the structure, the transmission exhibits various patterns such as step drop, wide valley, sharp peak, and so on. Our results show that one may control the transmission property of the FTQW to match practical requirements in devices by adjusting magnetic configurations or structural parameters.


This study assessed 562 four-year-old children at the beginning and end of their prekindergarten (pre-k) year and followed them to the end of kindergarten. At each time point children were assessed on 6 measures of executive function (EF) and 5 subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson III academic achievement battery. Exploratory factor analyses yielded EF and achievement factor scores. We examined the longitudinal bidirectional associations between these domains as well as the bidirectional associations among the separate content areas and the EF factor. In the pre-k year, strong bidirectional associations were found for EF skills and mathematics and oral comprehension skills but not for literacy skills. After controlling for pre-k gains in both EF and achievement, EF skills continued to be strong predictors of gains in mathematics in kindergarten and a more moderate predictor of kindergarten language gains. These results provide important information on the interrelationship of the developmental domains of EF and achievement as well as support for efforts to determine effective pre-k activities and/or curricula that can improve children's EF skills. They also suggest that mathematics activities may be a possible avenue for improving EF skills in young children.


Low-power wearable recording of biopotentials requires acquisition front-ends with high common-mode rejection for interference suppression and adjustable gain to provide an optimum signal range to a cascading analogue-to-digital stage. A microcontroller operated double-differential (DD) recording setup and automatic gain control circuit (AGC) are discussed which reject common-mode interference and provide tunable gain, thus compensating for imbalance and variation in electrode interface impedance. Custom-designed variable gain amplifiers (ASIC) are used as part of the recording setup. The circuit gain and balance is set by the timing of microcontroller generated clock signals. Measured results are presented which confirm that improved common-mode rejection is achieved compared to a single differential amplifier in the presence of input network imbalance. Practical measured examples further validate gain control suitable for biopotential recording and power-line rejection for wearable ECG and EMG recording. The prototype front-end consumes 318 μW including amplifiers and microcontroller.


OBJECTIVES
Aberrant cAMP signaling is involved in the pathogenesis of somatotropinomas. The aim of the study was to screen acromegalic patients for the presence of variants of phosphodiesterase type 11A (PDE11A) gene, which have been recently identified in adrenocortical and testicular tumors.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
We sequenced the PDE11A gene-coding region in 78 acromegalic patients and 110 controls. Immunohistochemistry for PDE11A was performed in a subgroup of adenomas and normal pituitary samples.

RESULTS
We found 15 nonsynonymous germline substitutions in 13 acromegalic patients (17%), i.e. 14 missense variants (Y727C in six, R804H in one, R867G in four, and M878V in three) and one truncating mutation (FS41X), with a prevalence only slightly higher than that observed in controls (14%). Immunohistochemistry revealed PDE11A expression higher in somatotropinomas than in normal somatotrophs, without significant difference between tumors with or without PDE11A variants, with the exception of two tumors (one with loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at the PDE11A locus and one with FS41X mutation) showing markedly reduced PDE11A staining. No significant differences in hormonal and clinical parameters between patients with or without PDE11A variants were observed, although patients with PDE11A changes showed a tendency to have a more aggressive tumor compared with patients with wild-type sequence (extrasellar extension in 69 vs 45%).

CONCLUSIONS
This study first demonstrated the presence of PDE11A variants in a subset of acromegalic patients, which was only slightly more frequent than in controls. The normal expression of the enzyme in the majority of tumor tissues together with the lack of significant clinical phenotype suggests that these variants might only marginally contribute to the development of somatotropinomas.


As a result of changing temperature, water availability and nutrient availability plant diversity is declining. In particular wet grassland species suffer from fluctuating precipitation and competition with other plant species that are better adapted to environmental changes. Recent studies are suggesting that survival of species under such circumstances is dependent on the survival strategy that a species utilizes. In this study I test this hypothesis by using a diverse group of wet, mesotrophic and oligotrophic, grassland species. These species are subjected to a period of 2/3 weeks of drought and shade to simulate the environmental changes. Changes in photochemical efficiency, dryweight/freshweight ratio, rootweight/shootweight ratio, leafweight/stemweight ratio, Specific Leaf Area and stomatal density were measured after the treatment. Plants from different survival strategies were compared under each treatment. This study found that none of the plants adjusted physiological characteristics to the imposed environmental changes. Furthermore no expressed plasticity was found in plants despite differences in survival strategy and treatment. Overall it is concluded that plants barely apply plasticity when they reach an optimal state. This implicates that mesotrophic and oligotrophic grassland communities are more vulnerable for environmental changes rather than competition. The absence of plasticity effects in this study increases the importance of genetic diversity of the plant community. Habitat fragmentation is therefore thought to be a primary cause for the loss of biodiversity. Grasslands are indeed highly fragmented in the Lowlands. Creating sustainable oligotrophic grasslands is thus dependent on restoration efforts. Which in turn are dependent to changes in agricultural land use of the surrounding areas.


We assessed the association between serum cystatin C (CysC) levels and coronary slow flow (CSF) phenomenon in patients who underwent coronary angiography. A total of 210 patients (mean age 55.6 ± 10.9 years; 100 females) were included. Patients were divided into 3 groups, (patients with CSF [group 2], with coronary artery disease [CAD; group 3], and without CAD [group 1]). Serum CysC levels in patients with CSF were significantly lower than those with and without CAD (912.5 ± 135.6, 820.4 ± 104.2, and 1343.4 ± 236.6 ng/mL in groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively; P < .001). Serum CysC levels correlated with the number of vessels with CSF and mean corrected thrombolysis in myocardial infarction frame count (Spearman correlation coefficient [r s] = .192, P < .001 and r s = .261, P < .001 respectively). In conclusion, patients with CSF have lower CysC levels; this could be a useful biomarker of CSF involvement in patients who undergo diagnostic coronary angiography.


Abstract Youths who question their affectional orientation are increasingly identified as a group of young people with needs for support. These questioning youths are often included in groups intended for sexual minority youths, but may be ill served by them if the groups' developers fail to conceptualize their status as developmental. Rigid social expectations about sexual identity development may further complicate the experiences of these youths in schools and communities. This article reviews definitions of sexual orientation, identity, and questioning youths and suggests implications these have for youths and programs. Recommendations are made for school programs that support the alliances among youths regardless of sexual orientation and that include both social activities and group support.


Context. The mass loss from massive stars is not understood well. η Carinae is a unique object for studying the massive stellar wind during the luminous blue variable phase. It is also an eccentric binary with a period of 5.54 yr. The nature of both stars is uncertain, although we know from X-ray studies that there is a wind-wind collision whose properties change with orbital phase. Aims. We want to investigate the structure and kinematics of η Car's primary star wind and wind-wind collision zone with a high spatial resolution of ~6 mas (~14 au) and high spectral resolution of R = 12 000. Methods. Observations of η Car were carried out with the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) and the AMBER instrument between approximately five and seven months before the August 2014 periastron passage. Velocity-resolved aperture-synthesis images were reconstructed from the spectrally dispersed interferograms. Interferometric studies can provide information on the binary orbit, the primary wind, and the wind collision. Results. We present velocity-resolved aperture-synthesis images reconstructed in more than 100 different spectral channels distributed across the Br γ 2.166 μ m emission line. The intensity distribution of the images strongly depends on wavelength. At wavelengths corresponding to radial velocities of approximately −140 to − 376 km s -1 measured relative to line center, the intensity distribution has a fan-shaped structure. At the velocity of − 277 km s -1 , the position angle of the symmetry axis of the fan is ~126°. The fan-shaped structure extends approximately 8.0 mas (~18.8 au) to the southeast and 5.8 mas (~13.6 au) to the northwest, measured along the symmetry axis at the 16% intensity contour. The shape of the intensity distributions suggests that the obtained images are the first direct images of the innermost wind-wind collision zone. Therefore, the observations provide velocity-dependent image structures that can be used to test three-dimensional hydrodynamical, radiative transfer models of the massive interacting winds of η Car.


The dynamics of the gynecological morbidity in the antenatal clinic was analyzed. To establish the fullness of the clinical social pattern of the consulting contingent 500 women's visits to the out-patient reception in the antenatal clinic were investigated. The gynecological pathology as reported by the women while taking their case history and the gynecological diseases registered during the out-patient reception at the time of research carrying out was analyzed. The study of the nature and the rate of gynecological pathology during the out-patient reception gives an insight of both the structure of gynecological pathology and the directions of the organization of the ambulatory care. In view of the aforesaid the major organizational issue is to actively reveal and to prevent the gynecological diseases in the antenatal clinic.


IADC member James B. Dolan Jr. is a founding partner of Badger, Dolan, Parker & Cohen in Boston, Massachusetts. This article, which originally appeared in the January, 2006 Employment Law Committee newsletter, discusses employment practices liability insurance. ********** Employment practices liability (EPL) insurance is a form of coverage specially written to insure employers against liability for claims of discrimination, sexual harassment, and wrongful termination by their employees. Because of their dual role as counsel for others and employers in their own right, lawyers should be familiar with the specifics of this coverage. Plaintiff's counsel should be alert to inquiring about the existence of EPL coverage because it may facilitate settlement of claims and collection of favorable judgments. Insurance defense counsel may be retained to defend for EPL carriers. All defense counsel should carefully explore whether clients who did not purchase an EPL policy might have a right to defense or indemnity under other common policy forms. Coverage counsel may represent insurers, employers, or claimants in EPL coverage litigation. Finally, since lawyers are often employers as well, they may be involved in decisions about purchasing EPL coverage for their law firms. Anatomy of an EPL policy: EPL is commonly written either on a stand-alone basis or as a rider for all of the common employer's policies, including directors and officers, employers liability, and comprehensive general liability. In general, these policies offer broad coverage of the sorts of claims now usual in wrongful termination or employment discrimination cases. The policy is written on a claims-made basis with defense costs within its limits. Coverage is triggered by a lawsuit, an administrative proceeding, or a written claim of discrimination, sexual harassment, or wrongful termination. There are often exclusions for punitive damages, contract claims, company downsizing or plant closures, and intentional acts. Likely EPL coverage issues: Given the growth of EPL coverage in recent years, the paucity of reported decisions is surprising. In spite of this continued lack of guidance from the courts, interpreting these forms should not pose a formidable task for experienced coverage counsel. Because similar language has long been used for various types of errors and omissions insurance, EPL coverage case law will almost certainly follow the general lines of interpretation already laid down for these similar forms. One EPL coverage problem that may arise concerns the insurability of intentional acts. Ordinarily, discrimination is an intentional act. In general, liability insurance does not apply to what is expected or intended from the point of view of the insured. However, there is widespread agreement that, if the named insured is held vicariously liable for an employee's wrongful acts, coverage exists for the named insured but not for the wrongdoing employee. An employee claim against a corporate employer usually succeeds because the corporation is held strictly liable for discrimination by a supervisor or is found liable for negligent failure to prevent harassment. Hence the intentional acts problem is unlikely to prevent coverage for the typical business which purchases an EPL policy. EPL coverage is written on a claims-made basis. A much more significant coverage problem is likely to be encountered in seeking the answer to the question, what is a claim? Most of us would say that a claim is a written, or perhaps even oral, demand for money damages. However, to the extent that a reader thinks that only this type of claim can trigger coverage under a typical EPL policy, he or she would be sadly mistaken. Most policies, either in their definition of a claim or elsewhere, treat circumstances that make the insured aware of a possible future claim as if they were claims made during the policy period. This is true even if the eventual claim is not made until after the claims-made policy has expired. …


Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) are one of the most important key touch-points to reach the customers. The investment in ATMs and the impact on the banking industry is growing steadily. Therefore, in order to increase the profitability, banks seek to make their investments in the right places for ATMs. Banks have to take into consideration many factors such as traffic flow, competition, cost and safety in order to determine the optimum locations of ATMs. This paper proposes a decision support system that determines the importance value of ATM deployment decision criteria which can be used to decide the best ATM locations afterwards. Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (FANP) methodology is preferred to evaluate the importance levels of deployment criteria and Chang's extent analysis is employed for eliminating the vagueness of the decisions from the evaluation process. The decision-makers are asked to express their opinions on the comparative importance of various factors in linguistic terms. These linguistic variable scales are then converted into fuzzy numbers, since it becomes more meaningful to quantify a subjective measurement into a range rather than an exact value. Finally, the relative importance of the criteria is obtained. The decision process includes the identification of 17 criteria grouped into 5 clusters which are named financial, commercial, traffic, demographic and strategic. The application of the proposed method was performed for Turkish banking industry. Number of Bank's ATMs, Expected Level of Commission Income and Expected Level of Transaction Income were found as the three most significant criteria that should be analyzed deeply by the decision makers in ATM location selection decision. The results of the proposed method considered applicable and valid by the experts who included in the decision process and this analysis demonstrated by their responses to a set of questions.


As the population ages there are more and more individuals who can benefit from low vision services. Many optometrists, including the ones in Alberta Canada, are discouraged from low vision due to its complexity and time consuming nature. To outline the requirements for a successful low vision practice in Alberta it was necessary, along with a comprehensive literature search, to obtain information from the Alberta Association of Optometrists and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). To be a registered provider of low vision services and to be billed appropriately the practitioner must include specific procedures in the low vision exam and possess the required low vision equipment. It is also necessary to adapt the office for low vision patients to allow them more independence and comfort. To supplement the care provided by the optometrist, a low vision patient can also receive assistance from a few social service organizations including the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) which offer extensive low vision care. The CNIB are also responsible to register all legally blind individuals in Alberta. Select low vision patients who do not meet the medical standards for driving in Alberta may be eligible for a conditional drivers licensee upon approval from Alberta's medical review board.


Antarctica’s ice shelves play a key role in stabilizing their related ice sheets. The ice shelves of western Dronning Maud Land – including the Ekström, Atka, Jelbart, Fimbul and Vigrid ice shelves – currently buttress a catchment that comprises an ice volume equivalent to 0.95 meters of sea level. Any future increase in ice shelf mass loss, with basal melting likely being the main cause, will inevitably accelerate ice sheet drainage and contribute to global sea level rise. Since basal melting largely depends on ice-ocean interactions, it is crucial to attain reliable and consistent bathymetry models to estimate water and heat exchange beneath these ice shelves. We have constructed bathymetry models for an area of about 63,000 km2 beneath the ice shelves of western Dronning Maud Land by inverting airborne gravity data, tied to radar, seismic, and offshore depth reference points. New high-resolution airborne magnetic data across the ice shelves point to Jurassic intrusions and seaward-dipping reflectors originating from Gondwana breakup; enabling us to consider geological density variations as part of the bathymetry modelling process. Our bathymetric models reveal deep glacial troughs beneath the ice shelves, and sills close to the continental shelf breaks which currently limit the possible entry of Warm Deep Water from the Southern Ocean. The present-day average thermocline depth is comparable to the average depths of saddles along the sills, which present gateways into the sub-ice cavities. This leads us to suggest a high sensitivity for these ice shelves to changes in ocean temperature and especially thermocline depth in the future. Once a significant amount of warm water overtops the sills, the deep troughs will allow for fast access to the grounding line, after which it seems there may be little to stop basal melting from rapidly eroding the ice shelves of western Dronning Maud Land.


Commentary on : de Jong MJ, van der Meulen-de Jong AE, Romberg-Camps MJ, et al . Telemedicine for management of inflammatory bowel disease (myIBDcoach): a pragmatic, multicentre, randomised controlled trial. Lancet 2017;390:959–68.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic heterogeneous disease with high complexity, often requiring intensive management by a gastroenterologist and ancillary team with the goal of achieving clinical remission. Multiple prior studies have demonstrated the feasibility of implementing telemedicine into IBD practices via various technological platforms with resulting improved quality of life, disease knowledge and adherence, and a decrease in hospitalisations, emergency room visits and steroid use.1-3 This randomised controlled trial (RCT) examines quality of life and healthcare utilisation after implementation of a telemedicine system in four IBD practices in the Netherlands.4

This study was a pragmatic RCT comparing remote monitoring with telemedicine to standard of care. The system included monitoring of …


This paper discusses the reliable guaranteed cost control problem of networked control systems with timevarying sampling period and actuator failures for a given quadratic cost function. For linear time-invariant controlled plant, we assume that the time delay is constant and shorter than the sampling period, the sampling is time-varying within a certain known bound, the system is transformed into a time-varying discrete time system, and where the time-varying sampling period parts are considered as norm bounded uncertainties of the structure parameter. Based on the linear matrix inequality (LMI) method, we have derived a sufficient condition for the existence of a reliable guaranteed cost controller. Furthermore, we have also designed a convex optimization problem with LMI for optimal reliable guaranteed cost controller which can decrease the upper bound of the closed-loop system cost. A numerical example is given to illustrate the proposed method.


The traditional approach in aircraft conceptual design sizing for stability and control employs the so called "Tail Volume" method, which basically establishes static stability of the design via empirical handbook methods. The methodology dispenses with any formal definition of the Flight Control System architecture and topology, and, does not afford visibility of critical sizing scenarios to the designer. This situation creates a measure of uncertainty when attempts are made to model the flight physics problem, thus thwarting opportunities in performing an advanced assessment of flight handling qualities. This paper reviews the work-in-progress status of an innovative software package aimed at the conceptual design phase called Flight Control System Designer Toolkit (FCSDT) that permits Flight Control Systems architecture definition for primary and failure modes, facilitates generation of control laws, assists the designer in apportioning control allocation schedules, and finally, analyse the stability and control of aircraft models. Results regarding flight control system architecture design are based on a control surface layout obtained from the Boeing 747 technical manual. Stability and control assessments were based on aerodynamic data generated by the aerodynamic model builder interface to Digital DATCOM provided by the European funded Framework 6 Program based on the Boeing 747 geometry.


In recent years important progress have been done in the context of numerical approximation
of controllability problems for PDEs. It is by now well known that, often, numerical
approximation schemes that are stable for solving initial-boundary value problems, develop instabilities
when applied to controllability problems. This is due to the presence of spurious high
frequency numerical solutions that the control mechanisms are not able to control uniformly as
the mesh-size tends to zero. However, the theory is far from being complete. In this article we
present some new results in this framework for the wave and the heat equations, which also raise
a number of open questions and future directions of research. We first prove that a two-grid
method, introduced by R. Glowinski, that is by now well-known to guarantee convergence for
the 1 - d wave equation, also converges in the semilinear setting for globally Lipschitz nonlinearities.
This result provides a further evidence of the robustness of the two-grid method.
We then show that boundary controls for finite-difference space semi-discretizations of the heat
equation converge when applied all along the boundary of the domain, a fact that does not hold
for wave-like equations. This confirms that the strong irreversibility of the heat equation enhances
the control properties of its numerical approximation schemes. This result fails when the
control is restricted to some subsets of the boundary because of the lack of unique continuation
of some high frequency eigenvectors of the underlying discrete eigenvalue problem.


In a multicultural market, attitudes towards the sensory quality of a beer can vary largely across ethnic groups. People are more likely to react positively to the sensory characteristics of beers that they are familiar with in their homeland market, than to the sensory qualities of beers brewed in the host country, considering that familiarity dictates to a large extent what is acceptable or not in the food domain. Further, beer sensory characteristics of migrants' native markets can differ largely from sensory qualities of beers brewed in the host country, since culture is a powerful trait d'union able to create distinctions across countries. This study evaluated the sensory profile of beers on sale in the Balkans and in Poland because of the relevance that these minorities have in Italy. Fifty-two beer samples were studied, partitioned into Romanian (n = 11), Albanian (n = 4), Polish (n = 7), former Yugoslavian (n = 21) and Italian (n = 9) according to Quantitative Descriptive Analysis. The results of this study revealed that Romanian beers were significantly (P < 0.001) more bitter, carbonated, alcoholic, and astringent than beers brewed in the other countries. Polish beers were the fullest-bodied and the richest in malty taste, while the former Yugoslavian beers were the fruitiest and most floral. Albanian brands were the richest in papery, worty, grainy, cooked vegetable-like and caramel-like taste. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis revealed that dominant brands of the Italian market were closer to the Polish and Yugoslavian beers than to the Romanian and Albanian.


Background: Onychomycosis is accounting for upto 50% all nail disorders. It causes not only physical but also psychosocial and emotional distress to the patient. Treatment of the disease is far from satisfactory mainly due to high cost and long duration of therapy with poor patient compliance. Objective: to compare the efficacy of pulse therapy of oral Fluconazole, Terbinafine and Itraconazole. Methods: 90 patients of Onychomycosis were randomly divided into 3 treatment groups and followed up regularly. KOH smear and culture were done of all patients. Group A was given tablet Fluconazole 150 mg per week for 6 months in fingernail and 12 months in toenail onychomycosis. Group B was given tablet Terbinafine 250 mg and group C was given capsule Itraconazole 200 mg twice daily for 1st 7 days/month for 3 or 4 months in finger or toe nails involvement respectively.  Results: Male Female ratio was 1:2.46 with Mostly housewives (53.33%). Distal & Lateral Subungual Onychomycosis was the most common type in 82.22% patients. Grade IV improvement was seen in 46.66% patients in group B, 40% patients in group C and 33.33% patients in group A at the end of the study.   Conclusion: Both Terbinafine and Itraconazole pulse therapy is equivalent in terms of clinical cure and relapse. But Terbinafine being cost effective and having minimal drug interaction appears to be the best drug. Keywords: Onychomycosis, fluconazole, terbinafine, itraconazole


In order to investigate the effects of penicillin treatment in the course of syphilis, I have made observations on them from various standpoints in 75 cases of syphilis of every stadium, and obtained the following results: 1) By taking the average, spirochaeta pallida disappeared in 2.1 days, took 3.6 days for the granulation tissue to become fresh, 9.3 days to cure the chancre and 14 days for the induration to, disappear. Moreover, roseola disappeared in 9.3 days, papule in 7.2 days and in 6 to 10 days it showed an excellent effect on gumma. 2) The time needed for the disappearance of eruption depended on the amount of penicillin injected daily. 3) By examining the transition of the serum reaction in each stadium of syphilis, penicillin showed an exccllent effect on primary syphilis, and both in recent and latent secondary syphilis 10 cases of 14 turned negative or diminished in degrees, but in the late syphilis the effect of penicillin was not reliable. 4) Penicillin was also eflective on the so called anti therapeutic. syphilis in latent tertiary syphilis. syphilitie myelitis and congenital syphilis. 5) 5,400,000 to 6,000,000 units of penicillin as a total was the most effective quantity for penicillin treatment. 6) Injecting 600,000 units of penicillin at once every day was the most effective application. 7) 13 cases out of 75 showed slight reation due to the penicillin injection. 8) These reations tended to appear at the initial stage of penicillin treatment. 9) 84.7% of the patients lost more or less weight during the treatment, especially the late syphilis cases, who lost more weight, and also, they were be found more frequeutly in the cases which showed improvement in the serum reation. 10) Albumin, glycose and urobilin did not appear in the urine during the treatment. 11) The increase of the daily urine quanity was found in the recent and latent secondary syphilis and the latent tertiary syphilis. 12) Penicillin improved the occult insufficiency of the liver function caused by syphilis. 13) No cases showed insufficiency of the liver function due to the penicillin treatment. 14) The general symtom caused by syphlilis took a favourable turn with penicillin trcatment.


Water safety plans (WSPs) are risk management tools
designed to assure the safety of drinking water. This paper
outlines the development of a Geographic Information
System (GIS) to assess and manage risk data which supports
the development of the WSP. Findings presented in the
paper are based on research undertaken by the Water.
Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC) in collaboration
with the National Water and Sewerage Corporation
(NWSC) and Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.


Cardiovascular diseases represent a major global health burden, with high rates of mortality and morbidity. Autologous grafts are commonly used to replace damaged or failing blood vessels; however, such approaches are hampered by the scarcity of suitable graft tissue, donor site morbidity and poor long‐term stability. Tissue engineering has been investigated as a means by which exogenous vessel grafts can be produced, with varying levels of success to date, a result of mismatched mechanical properties of these vessel substitutes and inadequate ex vivo vessel tissue genesis. In this work, we describe the development of a novel multifunctional dual‐phase (air/aqueous) bioreactor, designed to both rotate and perfuse small‐diameter tubular scaffolds and encourage enhanced tissue genesis throughout such scaffolds. Within this novel dynamic culture system, an elastomeric nanofibrous, microporous composite tubular scaffold, composed of poly(caprolactone) and acrylated poly(lactide‐co‐trimethylene‐carbonate) and with mechanical properties approaching those of native vessels, was seeded with human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and cultured for up to 14 days in inductive (smooth muscle) media. This scaffold/bioreactor combination provided a dynamic culture environment that enhanced (compared with static controls) scaffold colonization, cell growth, extracellular matrix deposition and in situ differentiation of the hMSCs into mature smooth muscle cells, representing a concrete step towards our goal of creating a mature ex vivo vascular tissue for implantation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


BACKGROUND
In the formative period of the courses taken in medical specializations, new and greater responsibilities are accepted by physicians in personal and academic spheres. The interaction of several factors that encompass the practice of these physicians could surpass their capacity to cope, causing on these professionals a high level of stress and professional exhaustion, which will affect their academic development. The objective of this research was to establish if the occupational stress of these medical residents affects their academic progress.

METHODS
We administered the Spanish version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to 52 residents of three specializations in Oncology (Medical Oncology, Surgical Oncology, and Radio-Oncology). These residents accepted voluntarily at the same time of their third cognitive exam.

RESULTS
The prevalence of burnout syndrome was 13.5 %, with a high frequency among medical residents of first degree. Medical Oncology residents showed a higher emotional exhaustion and lower personal fulfillment. Considering the three specializations, the academic progress was higher in the third year, with a significant difference to Surgical Oncology and Medical Oncology (p = 0.026 and 0.015, respectively). No significant difference was found between burnout syndrome, academic progress and sociodemographic characteristics.

CONCLUSION
The presence of burnout syndrome does not affect the academic progress of Oncology medical residents.


This paper presents a spiral antenna backed by a mushroom-shaped EBG reflector. The antenna characteristics are investigated on the basis of the electric and magnetic fields obtained by using the finite-difference time-domain method. The investigation reveals that removing some patches from the EBG reflector improves the axial ratio.


The traditional residential houses in west Hunan, China were built on principle of be in harmony with the nature, with minimal alteration to the environment and with layouts that highlights natural environment. They are made of local building materials - renewable natural resources - with natural texture and simple processing procedure that takes the lowest transportation and processing cost. The structure system of the house is pre-cast timber frame construction highly developed during Chinese architectural history. It's safe, steady, economic, and makes use of timber resource high efficiently. These original and "low-tech" – compared with the modern "high-tech" concept – but most operational ways are the advantages of the traditional buildings that modern buildings should learn from with regard to the environment and sustainable development.


A noisy message-passing decoding scheme isconsidered for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes overadditive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels. The internaldecoder noise is motivated by the quantization noise in digitalimplementations or the intrinsic noise of analog LDPC decoders.We modelled the decoder noise as AWGN on the exchangedmessages in the iterative LDPC decoder. This is shown to renderthe message densities in the noisy LDPC decoder inconsistent.We then invoke Gaussian approximation and formulate a twodimensionaldensity evolution analysis for the noisy LDPCdecoder. This allows for not only tracking the mean, but also thevariance of the message densities, and hence, quantifying thethreshold of the LDPC code. According to the results, a decodernoise of unit variance, increases the threshold for a regular (3,6) code by 1.672dB.


Background: The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children are a major public health concern internationally. Recognition of overweight and obesity status is an important step to prevent unhealthy weight. This study was designed to assess the prevalence and to explore the perceptions of children and their parents towards overweight and obesity in children. Methods: A cross-sectional study approach was utilized surveying 635 children aged 11 to 14 years (males and females) in 12 randomly selected public schools in Kuwait. Trained nurses performed measurements of children's height and weight to determine their Body Mass Index.Valid questionnaire were used to assess children and their parent perception of child's weight. Results: One quarter of the surveyed children 25.5% (N = 162) were overweight. Over one third of the participants 36.5% (N = 232) were classified as obese. The nurses' measurements did not coincide with the children's perceptions but were better aligned with parents' perceptions of overweight and obesity. Conclusion: The results indicated that there is high prevalence of overweight and obesity among Kuwaiti children. Furthermore, both the children and their parents underestimate the child weight status. Health education programs are highly recommended.


Digital Twin (DT) is an emerging technology surrounded by many promises, and potentials to reshape the future of industries and society overall. A DT is a system-of-systems which goes far beyond the traditional computer-based simulations and analysis. It is a replication of all the elements, processes, dynamics, and firmware of a physical system into a digital counterpart. The two systems (physical and digital) exist side by side, sharing all the inputs and operations using real-time data communications and information transfer. With the incorporation of Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), 3D models, next generation mobile communications (5G/6G), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), distributed computing, Transfer Learning (TL), and electronic sensors, the digital/virtual counterpart of the real-world system is able to provide seamless monitoring, analysis, evaluation and predictions. The DT offers a platform for the testing and analysing of complex systems, which would be impossible in traditional simulations and modular evaluations. However, the development of this technology faces many challenges including the complexities in effective communication and data accumulation, data unavailability to train Machine Learning (ML) models, lack of processing power to support high fidelity twins, the high need for interdisciplinary collaboration, and the absence of standardized development methodologies and validation measures. Being in the early stages of development, DTs lack sufficient documentation. In this context, this survey paper aims to cover the important aspects in realization of the technology. The key enabling technologies, challenges and prospects of DTs are highlighted. The paper provides a deep insight into the technology, lists design goals and objectives, highlights design challenges and limitations across industries, discusses research and commercial developments, provides its applications and use cases, offers case studies in industry, infrastructure and healthcare, lists main service providers and stakeholders, and covers developments to date, as well as viable research dimensions for future developments in DTs.


Purpose – Travel and tourism is the second largest global industry with daily international revenues of approximately US$2 billion, and investments of 12 percent of world GDP. Though this is a highly competitive industry, there is a paucity of academic research on destination branding. This paper aims to present a branding framework for designing successful destination strategies. This exploratory study seeks to determine key factors that affect the strategic branding of destinations.Design/methodology/approach – Similar fields like place marketing, destination marketing, services, product and corporate branding were reviewed along with destination case studies. Based on this review and its extrapolation to the "destination context", a framework for strategic branding of destinations was formulated.Findings – Successful strategic branding of destinations is dependent on several inter‐related components, which are discussed. The paper highlights key issues in destination branding and provides a platform fo...


Introduction Dengue fever is the most prevalent arboviral disease in the Brazilian Amazon and places a major health, social and economic burden on the region. Its association with deforestation is largely unknown, yet the clearing of tropical rainforests has been linked to the emergence of several infectious diseases, including yellow fever and malaria. This study aimed to explore potential drivers of dengue emergence in the Brazilian Amazon with a focus on deforestation. Methods An ecological study design using municipality-level secondary data from the Amazonas state between 2007 and 2017 (reported rural dengue cases, incremental deforestation, socioeconomic characteristics, healthcare and climate factors) was employed. Data were transformed according to the year with the most considerable deforestation. Associations were explored using bivariate analysis and a multivariate generalised linear model. Results During the study period 2007–2017, both dengue incidence and deforestation increased. Bivariate analysis revealed increased incidences for some years after deforestation (e.g. mean difference between dengue incidence before and three years after deforestation was 55.47 cases per 100,000, p = 0.002), however, there was no association between the extent of deforestation and dengue incidence. Using a negative binomial regression model adjusted for socioeconomic, climate and healthcare factors, deforestation was not found to be related to dengue incidence. Access to healthcare was found to be the only significant predictor of dengue incidence. Discussion Previous research has shown that deforestation facilitates the emergence of vector-borne diseases. However, no significant dose-response relationships between dengue incidence and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazonas state were found in this study. The finding that access to healthcare was the only significant predictor of dengue incidence suggests that incidence may be more dependent on surveillance than transmission. Further research and public attention are needed to better understand environmental effects on human health and to preserve the world's largest rainforest.


This study investigates the long run dynamic interrelationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions as an environmental indicator in Jordan. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is tested for this purpose. In addition, the direction of causality in short and long run among the variables is tested. The study used data for the period (1980-2010). In doing so, the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach and vector error correction method (VECM) are applied. The empirical results reveal that the long run parameters of CO2 emissions model are consistent with (EKC) hypothesis. Furthermore, the study found a short and long run bidirectional causality among variables of CO2 model. Based on these findings, the study recommends: environmental considerations must be taken into account when macroeconomic policies are designed and industrial and transportation sector must be encouraged to import cleaner technologies.


In this paper, we develop a mean-field model for describing the dynamics of spin-transfer torque in multilayered ferromagnetic media. Specifically, we use the techniques of Wigner transform and moment closure to connect the underlying physics at different scales and reach a macroscopic model for the dynamics of spin coupled with the magnetization within the material. This provides a further understanding of the linear response model proposed by Zhang, Levy, and Fert [Phys. Rev. Lett., 88 (2002), 236601], and in particular we get an extra relaxation term which helps to stabilize the system. We develop efficient numerical methods to overcome the stiffness appearing in this new mean-field model and present several examples to analyze and show its validity.


The paper includes information concerning the possibility of emission of noxious components of fumes due to the use of the advanced system of fumes recirculation in the farm tractor engine equipped with an innovative supply system basing on classical solutions of a high-pressure injection pump. Moreover, the paper includes the concept of the advanced fumes recirculation system. The use of a new type of EGR valve that regulates the amount of fumes which are returned to an engine, cooperating with an integrated sensor O2/NOx placed in the outlet collector allows effective use of a configuration of the particular engine with a fumes cleaning system. The paper presents the results of the stand research of NOx emission and PM of an engine equipped with the described fumes recirculation system EGR showing the possibilities of reduction, especially of NOx in comparison to the standard fumes recirculation system. The use of the suggested solution allows considerable reduction of emission of this component.


Objective Focusing on the problem such as slow scanning speed, complex system design and low light efficiency, a new parallel confocal 3D profile detecting method based on optical fiber technology, which realizes whole-field confocal detecting, is proposed. Methods The optical fiber plate generates an 2D point light source array, which splits one light beam into N2 subbeams and act the role of pinholes as point source and point detecting to filter the stray light and reflect light. By introducing the construction and working principle of the multi-beam 3D detecting system, the feasibility is investigated. Results Experiment result indicates that the optical fiber technology is applicable in rotation. The measuring parameters that influence the detecting can easily be adapted to satisfy different requirments of measurement. Compared with the conventional confocal method, the parallel confocal detecting system using optical fiber plate is simple in the mechanism, the measuring field is larger and the speed is faster.


Cache-coherent non uniform memory access (ccNUMA) architecture is a standard design pattern for contemporary multicore processors, and future generations of architectures are likely to be NUMA. NUMA architectures create new challenges for managed runtime systems. Memory-intensive applications use the system's distributed memory banks to allocate data, and the automatic memory manager collects garbage left in these memory banks. The garbage collector may need to access remote memory banks, which entails access latency overhead and potential bandwidth saturation for the interconnection between memory banks. This dissertation makes five significant contributions to garbage collection on NUMA systems, with a case study implementation using the Hotspot Java Virtual Machine. It empirically studies data locality for a Stop-The-World garbage collector when tracing connected objects in NUMA heaps. First, it identifies a locality richness which exists naturally in connected objects that contain a root object and its reachable set— 'rooted sub-graphs'. Second, this dissertation leverages the locality characteristic of rooted sub-graphs to develop a new NUMA-aware garbage collection mechanism. A garbage collector thread processes a local root and its reachable set, which is likely to have a large number of objects in the same NUMA node. Third, a garbage collector thread steals references from sibling threads that run on the same NUMA node to improve data locality. This research evaluates the new NUMA-aware garbage collector using seven benchmarks of an established real-world DaCapo benchmark suite. In addition, evaluation involves a widely used SPECjbb benchmark and Neo4J graph database Java benchmark, as well as an artificial benchmark. The results of the NUMA-aware garbage collector on a multi-hop NUMA architecture show an average of 15% performance improvement. Furthermore, this performance gain is shown to be as a result of an improved NUMA memory access in a ccNUMA system. Fourth, the existing Hotspot JVM adaptive policy for configuring the number of garbage collection threads is shown to be suboptimal for current NUMA machines. The policy uses outdated assumptions and it generates a constant thread count. In fact, the Hotspot JVM still uses this policy in the production version. This research shows that the optimal number of garbage collection threads is application-specific and configuring the optimal number of garbage collection threads yields better collection throughput than the default policy. Fifth, this dissertation designs and implements a runtime technique, which involves heuristics from dynamic collection behavior to calculate an optimal number of garbage collector threads for each collection cycle. The results show an average of 21% improvements to the garbage collection performance for DaCapo benchmarks.


Option prices embed predictive content for the outcomes of pending mergers and acquisitions. This is particularly important in merger arbitrage, where deal failure is a key risk. In this paper, I propose a dynamic asset pricing model that exploits the joint information in target stock and option prices to forecast deal outcomes. By analyzing how deal announcements affect the level and higher moments of target stock prices, the model yields better forecasts than existing methods. In addition, the model accurately predicts that merger arbitrage exhibits low volatility and a large Sharpe ratio when deals are likely to succeed.


Bluetooth technology has been widely adopted in consumer or mobile devices due to its small form factor and low product cost. However increasing demand for high-speed multimedia applications continuously stimulates Bluetooth to adopt an alternative MAC and PHY technology. In this paper, we propose a dual-mode Bluetooth application which uses both a legacy Bluetooth module for low-speed communication and an alternative UWB module for high-speed Bluetooth communication. We modified legacy Bluetooth profiles for high definition video transmission and developed UWB SoC that can be used for high speed Bluetooth communication.


In this report, a novel silk fibroin hydrogel with a reversible sol–gel transition capacity is presented, in which the base material of this reversible hydrogel is hydrophilic silk fibroin (HSF) obtained by immersing a dried regenerated Bombyx mori silk fibroin (SF) condensate in deionized water (DI water) and collecting its lixivium. The resulting HSF sol can exhibit an enhanced sol–gel transition within several hours at suitable temperatures (25–50 °C) without any exterior additive, even at extremely low concentrations (<0.2%, w/v). The HSF gel can perform thixotropic, reversible gel–sol transitions triggered by a facile cycled shear-thinning and resting procedure. Reversible sol–gel transition kinetics analyses and dynamic measurements of the micro-structure transformation during the transition demonstrate that both the β-sheet self-assembling process and metastable hydrogen bonding (H-bond) interactions among these large scale β-sheet aggregates play essential roles in the significant enhancement of the reversible HSF sol–gel transition. Due to the reversible, thixotropic sol–gel transitions and suitable viscoelasticity of its shear-thinning system for matching random sizes/shapes, the HSF system is possibly an alternative injectable hydrogel for applications in 3-dimensional (3D) cell culture and tissue repair in situ.


Evaluation of diagnostic sensitivity and specificity was based on test results of 346 sera from pigs known to be infected and 139 sera from pigs known not to be infected. All sera were tested with a monospecific antigen (serotype 1) and a polyspecific antigen (serotypes 1-5). The sensitivity of the polyspecific antigen was approximately 85% at serum dilution 1:2 and was significantly higher than the monospecific antigen at all serum dilution levels. The specificity of the two antigen preparations was not significantly different at any dilution and increased from approximately 78% to 1:2 to 100% at 1:128. When pigs from herds with unknown incidence of infection were studied, it was found that a high proportion seroconverted, presumably as a response to subclinical infection. However, the antibody titres waned rapidly. This indicated that seroreaction expresses current or recent infection. Thus, the complement fixation test provides a reliable means of diagnosing pleuropneumonia of pigs and might be useful as a tool to control this disease.


This systematic review aims to investigate the evidence in applying a co-design, co-productive approach to develop social prescribing interventions. A growing body of evidence suggests that co-production and co-design are methods that can be applied to engage service users as knowledgeable assets who can contribute to developing sustainable health services. Applying the Preferred Reporting Items for Systemic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a systematic literature search was conducted. Peer-reviewed articles were sought using electronic databases, experts and grey literature. The review search concluded with eight observational studies. Quality appraisal methods were influenced by the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) Framework approach. A narrative thematic synthesis of the results was conducted. The evidence suggests that a co-design and co-productive social prescribing can lead to positive well-being outcomes among communities. Barriers and facilitators of co-production and co-design approach were also highlighted within the evidence. The evidence within this review confirms that a co-production and co-design would be an effective approach to engage stakeholders in the development and implementation of a SP intervention within a community setting. The evidence also implies that SP initiatives can be enhanced from the outset, by drawing on stakeholder knowledge to design a service that improves health and well-being outcomes for community members.