Purpose: The concept of 4πc radiotherapy is a radiotherapy planning technique receiving much attention in recent times. The aim of this article is to disprove the feasibility of the 4π radiotherapy using a cantilever-type linear accelerator or any other external-beam delivery machines. Materials and Methods: A surface integral-based mathematical derivation for the maximum achievable solid angle for a linear accelerator was carried out respecting the rotational boundary conditions for gantry and couch in three-dimensional Euclidean space. The allowed movements include a gantry rotation of 0–2πc and a table rotation of πc/2 - 0 - 3πc/2) . Results: Total achievable solid angle by cantilever-type linear accelerator (or any teletherapy machine employing a cantilever design) is 1/r2 π ∫ - θ=0 π ∫ φ=0 (rSinθdφ). (rdθ) = 2πc, which is applicable only for the foot and brain radiotherapy where the allowed table rotation is 90°–0°–270°. For other sites such as pelvis, thorax, or abdomen, achievable solid angle as the couch rotation comes down significantly. Practically, only suitable couch angle is 0° by avoiding gantry–couch–patient collision. Conclusions: Present cantilever design of linear accelerator prevents achieving a 4π radian solid angle at any point in the patient. Even the most modern therapy machines like CyberKnife which has a robotic arm also cannot achieve 4π geometry. Maximum achievable solid angle under the highest allowable boundary condition(s) cannot exceed 2πc, which is restricted for only extremities such as foot and brain radiotherapy. For other parts of the body such as pelvis, thorax, and abdomen, the solid angle is reduced to 1/5th (maximum value) of the 4πc. To obtain a 4πc solid angle in a three-dimensional Euclidean space, the patient has to be a zero-dimensional point and X-ray head of the linear accelerator has a freedom to rotate in every point of a hypothetical sphere of radius 1 m. This article establishes geometrically why it is not possible to achieve a 4πc solid angle.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate associations between post-operative complications in patients who survive surgery and in-hospital deaths and lengths of hospital stays of patients who undergo coronary artery bypass graft surgery

METHODS
Patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery and survived the operating theater were randomly selected. Information on complications and hospital lengths of stay until hospital discharge or death were retrospectively collected based on medical records and declarations of death. These aspects were estimated according to the presence of complications, frequency of complications, mortality, relative risk and attributable population risk. Mean hospital lengths of stay were compared using Wald's statistics.

RESULTS
Medical records indicating deaths in the operating theater were excluded, and 86.9% of the included records reported complications; the greatest loss of information (43.9%) was related to kidney failure. Hyperglycemia was estimated as the most frequent complication (74.6%), with an attributable risk of 31.6%. The population's attributable risks were greater than 60% for low cardiac output (77.0%), kidney failure (64.3%) and cardiorespiratory failure (60.4%). Twelve different situations were identified for paired combinations of significant differences between average post-operative hospitalization times and complications, according to the outcome of discharge or death.

CONCLUSION
Several complications were identified during the postoperative period of coronary artery bypass graft surgery, with different frequencies and impacts on mortality. Control of the myocardium at the risk of ischemia, hemodynamic stabilization and volume replacement strategies may be effective for controlling mortality rates and shortening hospital lengths of stay.


Recent investigations have highlighted the failure of a sum of R-6 terms to represent the dispersion interaction in parallel metallic, anisotropic, linear, or planar nanostructures J. F. Dobson, A. White, and A. Rubio, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 073201 2006 , and references therein . By applying a simple coupled-plasmon approach and using electron hydrodynamics, we numerically evaluate the dispersion noncontact van der Waals interaction between two conducting wires in a collinear pointing configuration. This case is compared to that of two insulating wires in an identical geometry, where the dispersion interaction is modeled both within a pairwise summation framework and by adding a pinning potential to our theory leading to a standard oscillator-type model of insulating dielectric behavior. Our results provide a further example of enhanced dispersion interaction between two conducting nanosystems compared to the case of two insulating ones. Unlike our previous work, this calculation explores a region of relatively close coupling where, although the electronic clouds do not overlap, we are still far from the asymptotic region where a single power law describes the dispersion energy. We find that strong differences in dispersion attraction between metallic and semiconducting or insulating cases persist into this nonasymptotic region. While our theory will need to be supplemented with additional short-ranged terms when the electronic clouds overlap, it does not suffer from the short-distance divergence exhibited by purely asymptotic theories and gives a natural saturation of the dispersion energy as the wires come into contact. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.77.075436


This work addresses the derivation of the phase difference-based maximum likelihood (ML) phase unwrapping algorithm. To this end, we derive the joint statistics of the phase differences on a two-dimensional grid for the multichannel case, where several scaled wrapped phase values are available. Subsequently, we determine and study the structure of the phase difference-based ML estimator and compare it to known phase unwrapping techniques. This work allows us to frame single and multichannel algorithms in a common formulation. Moreover, among the known single-channel phase difference-based procedures, we identify those attaining an ML solution. We also show that multichannel phase difference-based and, recently proposed, phase-based ML algorithms achieve equivalent solutions.


Habitat for Humanity Global Village is a sector of Habitat for Humanity that focuses on aiding in the construction of homes for those in need around the world. Habitat for Humanity Trinidad and Tobago has been part of Habitat for Humanity Global Village for many years and aids people in need on the Island of Trinidad in the Southern Caribbean. This paper will discuss the construction of a small home for a woman whose family was disowned by her father due to her reluctance to uphold traditional Indian values. Subsequently the family was living in poverty and currently residing in a small car. With the help of a local contractor and local labor, a team of volunteers broke ground on a simple concrete and concrete masonry unit structure to house the family in need. This project will include a complete composition of the building practices and materials used throughout the construction process in Trinidad as well as a schedule and analysis of the project. Personal experiences, including means and methods of construction and firsthand building experience, encountered throughout the build will also be discussed.


The Year of the Family, organised by the United Nations in 1994, offered an opportunity for John Paul II to draw up a Letter to families summarising his teaching on this issue. In regard to the actual social context of the industrialised societies the paper points out the fall in the birth rate, the de-facto-unions, and the ethical challenges raised by in-vitro-fertilisation. The identity of the family, approached from a theological point of view, finds its deepest roots in the similarity between the union of the divine Persons and that among human beings. When the spouses mutually bestow and accept each other a new relationship arises that embodies conjugal and parental natures. Pastoral theology introduces the mystagogical accompaniment into marriage preparation that invites engaged people to read their own history of love in the light of the history of salvation and of God.s unconditional love they receive.


Primary care physicians frequently have to respond to patients' requirements for medical documentation. Those include certification about fitness and ability to engage in specific activities and about inability to work due to ongoing health problems, which engages physicians' legal and profesionnal responsability. To clarify the rules and modalities of this activity, we present here the legal framework and the good practices. Regarding the sick leave certification, there are well-defined profesionnal and legal guidelines, which is not the case for certification about fitness.


A polarization-independent all-fibre comb filter with dynamically halved channel spacing is proposed. The filter is based on high-birefringent fibre Sagnac interferometers and its channel spacing can be dynamically halved by turning on an optical switch. A good agreement between the numerical simulation and the experimental results is achieved.


By the method of cyclic voltammetry with carbon fibrous electrodes the signal of 0.1 V was recorded from the dorsal hippocampus of male cats during natural sleep. Systemic injection of 50 mg of L-DOPA and 2.5 mg of isadrin did not influence the 0.1 V signal but the pyrroxan in a dose of 15 mg caused an increase of the signal amplitude. Parallel record of the EEG, myogram, oculogram and voltammogram showed that the 0.1 V signal, reflecting the level of alpha-adrenoreceptor norepinephrine content in the hippocampus increased in the first and last 1-2 minutes of the paradoxical sleep phase and was not stably recorded in the slow-wave phase and the middle part of the paradoxical phase of sleep. The conclusion is made that paradoxical sleep of cats consists of three parts. Initial and the final parts proceed against the background of the activity of the hippocampus alpha-adrenoreceptor norepinephrine innervation, triggering and stopping the basal phase of the paradoxical sleep, presumably activated by the serotonin innervation. On the basis of the present and previous studies the theory is suggested about the trigger function of the hippocampus and of the monoamines, innervating it, in the central mechanisms of conditioned behaviour and paradoxical sleep.


Simulation is an important step during the design of control systems. Based on the series tools of MATLAB\Simulink\xPC, the real-time simulation environment is constructed. By adopting the mixed modeling measures that comprise Simulink, Stateflow and S-function, models for satellite attitude dynamics, all sensors and actuators, control logics of the antenna and etc are all built successfully, then the modes selecting, scheduling and interfaces communication are realized effectively. The tracking and data relay satellite (TDRS) simulator is designed. It simplifies the experiment system. The turn table is eliminated and the experiment system can also reflect the effect of the attitude movement acting on the antenna pointing by using the TDRS simulator. The experiment results indicate that the experiment system can verify the antenna acquiring and tracking processes and is beneficial to the design of the user satellite's antenna pointing control system for engineers.


Accurately measuring water fluxes and associated nutrient or contaminant concentrations through the vadose zone is difficult because an appropriate suction needs to be exerted on the soil to sample water under unsaturated conditions. Passive capillary wick sampling systems are cheap and reliable instruments resulting in acceptable measurements of water fluxes in the vadose zone; however, their success in measuring realistic fluxes depends on their compatibility with the soil and climatic conditions in which they are installed. This study was developed in the preplanning phase of a field experiment with its main objective the monitoring of dissolved organic matter and the associated transfer of Cu 2+ and pesticides through the vadose zone. We studied a combination of two-dimensional and axisymmetrical three-dimensional numerical analyses using the HYDRUS-2D software to identify what sampler geometry, wick type, wick length, and number of wicks are most suitable for the soil conditions at the experimental site. An AM3/8HI wick with seasonally varying wick length (40 cm in winter and 100 cm in summer) was found to be most appropriate for the soil and climatic conditions of the experimental field. The numerical analysis indicated that well-designed wick samplers had a negligible effect on the soil moisture content close to the sampler. A double-ring wick sampler is proposed to minimize the effect of the area between the installation pit or trench and the sampler. This approach is easily applicable and transferable to other soil and wick types and climatic conditions. The study emphasizes the suitability of numerical modeling to optimize experimental design before installation.


A study of occurrence rates of binucleate cells in human femal gynecological specimens is described. Data is presented on probability of occurrence, nuclear spacing, and nuclear fluorescence of binucleate cells. Allowable binucleate recognition error rates for automated cytopathology are presented. Recognition techniques employing slit-scan cytofluorometry are discussed.


This is the official guideline endorsed by the specialty associations involved in the care of head and neck cancer patients in the UK. A rational plan to manage the neck is necessary for all head and neck primaries. With the emergence of new level 1 evidence across several domains of neck metastases, this guideline will identify the evidence-based recommendations for management. Recommendations • Computed tomographic or magnetic resonance imaging is mandatory for staging neck disease, with choice of modality dependant on imaging modality used for the primary site, local availability and expertise. (R) • Patients with a clinically N0 neck, with more than 15–20 per cent risk of occult nodal metastases, should be offered prophylactic treatment of the neck. (R) • The treatment choice of for the N0 and N+ neck should be guided by the treatment to the primary site. (G) • If observation is planned for the N0 neck, this should be supplemented by regular ultrasonograms to ensure early detection. (R) • All patients with T1 and T2 oral cavity cancer and N0 neck should receive prophylactic neck treatment. (R) • Selective neck dissection (SND) is as effective as modified radical neck dissection for controlling regional disease in N0 necks for all primary sites. (R) • SND alone is adequate treatment for pN1 neck disease without adverse histological features. (R) • Post-operative radiation for adverse histologic features following SND confers control rates comparable with more extensive procedures. (R) • Adjuvant radiation following surgery for patients with adverse histological features improves regional control rates. (R) • Post-operative chemoradiation improves regional control in patients with extracapsular spread and/or microscopically involved surgical margins. (R) • Following chemoradiation therapy, complete responders who do not show evidence of active disease on co-registered positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET–CT) scans performed at 10–12 weeks, do not need salvage neck dissection. (R) •Salvage surgery should be considered for thosewith incomplete or equivocal response of nodal disease onPET–CT. (R)


The North American freight railroad industry continuously strives towards improvements in the safety and security of freight transportation. One key effort focuses on the use of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) technologies to monitor and report mechanical and electrical component status for each railcar in real-time, as well as the status of the transported goods themselves. This allows real-time monitoring of railcar components such as air pressure, wheel bearing temperature, brake failure, wiring integrity, refrigeration unit failure, boxcar door opening, the detection of radioactive materials, dangerous substance leaks, and much more. The aggregated sensor data is transmitted to the locomotive, dispatch centers or regional offices for early fault detection and accident prevention.Our previous work [1] has shown that ZigBee technology based on the IEEE 802.15.4 faces numerous obstacles when applied to freight railcar monitoring. To address these problems our team proposed an alternate approach called Hybrid Technology Networking (HTN), which combines the benefits of ZigBee for low-power short-range communication and WiFi for high-performance long-distance communication between HTN sensor clusters.In this paper, we present our simulation results using our HTN protocol. We compare and discuss the performance of the ZigBee-only network environment with the proposed HTN and demonstrate the advantages offered by HTN. We also discuss our prototype sensor hardware platform using the HTN protocol and provide an outlook of the future work planned for HTN.© 2012 ASME


A case of acute severe mitral regurgitation with serious hemodynamic impairment in the setting of an inferior ST-elevation myocardial infarction is presented. Both transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography demonstrated a posteriorly directed eccentric jet of severe mitral regurgitation with flail anterior mitral valve leaflet. The rupture of the postero-medial papillary muscle attached via chords to the anterior mitral valve leaflet was found. The direction and eccentricity of the mitral regurgitant jet on transthorasic and transesophageal echocardiography helped to point the leaflet involved, but not necessarily the coexisting papillary muscle pathology.


The crime genre, or "giallo", which in Italy has experienced mixed fortunes that ranged from voracious consumption to total, if coerced, obliteration, is currently enjoying unprecedented popularity. In the years following the First World War, just as the first Italian-born strand of crime fiction was beginning to develop as an alternative to the foreign masters, the endeavours of writers such as Alessandro Varaldo, Arturo Lanocita, Augusto De Angelis and others were nullified by the onset of Fascism and its aversion to what it considered a potentially corrupting genre. The tenaciously censorious Fascist campaign, which culminated in July 1941 with the confiscation of all crime novels in circulation in Italy, Italian-authored and otherwise, continued in the following months with the closure of the two main dedicated series, I Libri Gialli and I Gialli Economici, both owned by Mondadori. If the end of the Second World War removed the stigma that the Fascist ideology had imposed on the crime genre, the creativity of the many writers who, from the 1950s onwards, were submitting their manuscripts to Mondadori (still a prime outlet for crime fiction) and other publishers, was stifled by a further form of restraint represented by the new market forces: the Italian readership, freed from years of coerced reading of carefully vetted and exclusively autarchic literature, craved the promises of exotic settings and plots suggested by foreign names which, in crime fiction, were Hammett, Chandler or Stout, and shunned national authors.1 This unconditional xenophilia began to relent from the late 1960s when the publishing industry became more attentive and responsive to Italian authors, partly due to a change in taste of the reading public, partly because some Italian novelists, operating a sort of genre contamination, incorporated crime fiction elements into "non genre" works and thus created innovative, appealing literature. Gadda, Sciascia and Veraldi, for instance, are writers who, extrapolating certain formulae of the crime genre and integrating them into their works, produced novels in which the mystery element became an instrument for the social and existential analysis of 'contemporary Italian reality and which were able to exercise a strong appeal on the Italian reading public.


This book is a concise introduction to the key concepts of classical field theory for beginning graduate students and advanced undergraduate students who wish to study the unifying structures and physical insights provided by classical field theory without dealing with the additional complication of quantization. In that regard, there are many important aspects of field theory that can be understood without quantizing the fields. These include the action formulation, Galilean and relativistic invariance, traveling and standing waves, spin angular momentum, gauge invariance, subsidiary conditions, fluctuations, spinor and vector fields, conservation laws and symmetries, and the Higgs mechanism, all of which are often treated briefly in a course on quantum field theory.


Software applications in the car are gaining in importance as a driver for innovation and value creation for the car manufacturers and their suppliers. These novel software functions, e.g., mobile services or car-to-car enabled applications, are increasingly designed and developed using early prototypes. Building on open innovation literature, this paper goes beyond extant knowledge on prototyping and proposes a novel paradigm of 'open prototyping'. It assumes that organizations can and should use external input as well as internal input in form of prototypes, as the firms look to advance their technology. Set in the empirical field of the automotive industry, we follow a designoriented research approach to design, develop and evaluate an open prototyping approach consisting ofa toolkit and process. The open prototyping toolkit, HIMEPP, has a component-oriented architecture. Combined with the open prototyping process, it supports the development of diagonal high-fidelity prototypes together with persons from outside the R&D department. The study allows for generalizations to other industries and points tosignificant managerial as well as academic implications, which can be expectedfrom opening the next step of the innovation process.


A system was developed that exploited defective interfering (DI) RNAs of coronavirus to study the role of free leader RNA in RNA replication. A cDNA copy of mouse hepatitis virus DI RNA was placed downstream of the T7 RNA polymerase promoter to generate DI RNAs capable of extremely efficient replication in the presence of a helper virus. We demonstrated that, in the DI RNA-transfected cells, the leader sequence of these DI RNAs was switched to that of the helper virus during one round of replication. This high-frequency leader sequence exchange was not observed if a nine-nucleotide stretch of sequence (UUUAUAAAC) at the junction between the leader and the remaining DI sequence was deleted. This observation suggests that a free leader RNA generated from the genomic RNA of mouse hepatitis virus may participate in the replication of DI RNA.


Preliminary studies in unipolar depression indicate that daily left prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) reduces symptoms of depression. rTMS treatment of depression occurring in the setting of bipolar disorder has been less well studied. To assess the efficacy and toxicity of rTMS in the depressed phase of bipolar disorder, we treated a man with bipolar disorder who was known to develop hypomania and mania with conventional antidepressants. A 47 year old man with Bipolar Disorder type 1, depressed phase, was entered into a double‐blind parallel treatment trial of left prefrontal rTMS. He was randomized to receive left prefrontal rTMS at low frequency (5 Hz) for 2 weeks, which was then followed by an open phase. The patient's Hamilton Depression scores decreased 44 per cent across the first 2 weeks. In an open extension, his mood further improved over another 2 weeks and he was gradually tapered from rTMS treatments. He had no side effects. Importantly, he did not develop mania, as had occurred with all prior antidepressant trials. After several months he experienced a recurrence of depressive symptoms, was retreated, and re‐responded. Further studies are warranted to investigate the optimum dose, duration, location and frequency of rTMS treatments for the depressed phase of bipolar disorder. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Vieja melanura is a Neotropical cichlid occurring in the Peten-lake district systems of Guatemala, as well as the Rio Grijalva-Usumacinta basin, and other systems in Southern Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. A caudal stripe, extending forward from the caudal peduncle, is characteristic of this species. This stripe is sloped downward in nearly all individuals of V . melanura , but the degree of the slope is highly variable throughout its range. The slope and shape of the stripe has previously been used in diagnosing and differentiating between species of Vieja . The purpose of this study was to use objective methods to investigate morphological variation in the caudal stripe and body shape throughout the range of V . melanura . We studied geometric morphometric analyses of body shape and empirical measurements of the slope of the caudal stripe in 215 specimens of V . melanura . We also used the mitochondrial cytochrome b marker to study population level patterns within V . melanura . Results from our analyses showed significant geographic variation in body shape and patterns of coloration with little mitochondrial phylogeographic structure. These patterns likely correspond to differences in riverine habitats throughout the species' distribution. In conclusion, these results can be used to inform other studies of color and shape variation as it applies to taxonomy and systematics.


Background: Poor personal hygiene of food handlers can act as source of infection. It becomes a serious issue if the food handlers serve in a busy community like Makkah where millions of visitors gather yearly for Hajj and Umura. This study was carried out to determine the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of personal hygiene among food handlers in south region of Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the south region of Makkah. Data was collected from 50 food handlers by questionnaires designed to elicit socio-demographic information and check-list which contained questions about KAP of food handlers. Data was recorded on Likert scale converted to 0-100 scale to simplify the presentation and interpretation of data. Results: Majority of participants (74%) was within the age range of 20-35 years and more than half of the participants (56%) were non-educated. Respondents knowledge, attitude and practice were 82 (95% CI 80-84), 66 (95% CI 61-72) and 66 (95% CI 58-73) respectively. Educational level appears to affect the attitude (p=0.001) and practice (p=0.009) of the participants. Conclusion: The study conirmed that food handlers in the south region of Makkah seems to be knowledgeable with a moderate level of attitude and practices.


The Modigliani-Miller theorem describes conditions under which the value of a firm is independent of its leverage ratio. It is one of the cornerstones of finance. A history of this result along with a modern perspective on its derivation is given in Rubinstein (2003). We extend this history by examining the relationship between the Modigliani-Miller theorem and quantitative models of credit risk. In the first part of the paper, we sort out the role of the Modigliani-Miller theorem and Merton's classical structural model. This material may be familiar to some readers. Subsequently, we explore the relationship between the Modigliani-Miller theorem and I(2), which is a hybrid structural-reduced form model based on incomplete information, Goldberg (2004). The I(2) model is not consistent with the Modigliani-Miller theorem. It provides a new way to measure the deviation of the real markets from the idealized markets in which the Modigliani-Miller theorem holds.


In the auditory system, large somatic synapses convey strong excitation that supports temporally precise information transfer. The information transfer of such synapses has predominantly been investigated in the endbulbs of Held in the anterior ventral cochlear nucleus and the calyx of Held in the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body. These large synapses either work as relays or integrate over a small number of inputs to excite the postsynaptic neuron beyond action potential (AP) threshold. In the monaural system, another large somatic synapse targets neurons in the ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus (VNLL). Here, we comparatively analyze the mechanisms of synaptic information transfer in endbulbs in the VNLL and the calyx of Held in juvenile Mongolian gerbils. We find that endbulbs in the VNLL are functionally surface-scaled versions of the calyx of Held with respect to vesicle availability, release efficacy, and synaptic peak currents. This functional scaling is achieved by different calcium current kinetics that compensate for the smaller AP in VNLL endbulbs. However, the average postsynaptic current in the VNLL fails to elicit APs in its target neurons, even though equal current suffices to generate APs in neurons postsynaptic to the calyx of Held. In the VNLL, a postsynaptic A-type outward current reduces excitability and prevents AP generation upon a single presynaptic input. Instead, coincidence detection of inputs from two converging endbulbs is ideal to reliably trigger APs. Thus, even large endbulbs do not guarantee one-to-one AP transfer. Instead, information flow appears regulated by circuit requirements.


Antiresorptive medications, such as bisphosphonates and denosumab, are an important class of medication used to treat a wide range of diseases from osteoporosis to multiple myeloma. Unfortunately, they are also associated with a rare but devastating side effect – medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ). First reported in 2003, much research has been done into the area; however, the exact pathophysiology continues to elude clinicians and researchers. What has been ascertained is that intravenous treatment, duration of treatment, and tooth extraction are major risk factors. Staging and treatment guidelines have been proposed; however, there has been no universal acceptance, and clinicians rely on various position papers. Over the next 30 years, the aging population is set to double, and with it, the prescription of antiresorptive medication and incidence of MRONJ will undoubtedly increase. In 2013, Gupta et al. published a paper on bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw; however, there have many changes since then. This paper aims to provide a succinct update on those changes.


Cysteines 265 and 287 of Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A (ETA) were substituted by serine, thereby eliminating a disulfide bridge within domain II, the putative membrane insertion-translocation domain. Purified mutant toxin was 80-fold less toxic for mouse L cells than was wild-type ETA while retaining the same specific activity in the ADP-ribosyltransferase reaction as did wild-type toxin. Binding of the nonionic detergent Triton X-114 by mutant ETA occurred at a slightly higher pH than did binding by wild-type ETA, suggesting that the mutant protein more readily undergoes a conformational change exposing hydrophobic regions. Data are presented supporting the notion that the mutant and wild-type toxins enter from the same intracellular compartment. The lower cytotoxicity of the mutant protein could be due to accelerated intracellular degradation or abortive, premature membrane insertion.


This paper presents a simple STATCOM scheme using a cascaded two-level inverter-based multilevel inverter. The proposed topologies have two VSI based two-level inverters are connected in cascade through open-end windings of a three-phase transformer and filter elements. Converter fed dc-link voltages is regulates at different levels to obtain four-level operation. The proposed STATCOM multilevel inverter has operates under MATLAB/SIMULINK environment and the results are verified in balanced and unbalanced conditions. Further, stability behavior of the topology is investigated. The dynamic model is developed and transfer functions are derives under different conditions. The system behaviors are analyzing under various operating conditions.


The aim of this study was to illuminate the meaning of being a relative of a stroke survivor in the first six months after hospital discharge. The study is a part of a larger research project focusing on pedagogic strategies for relatives of stroke survivors. Qualitative interviews were performed with nine relatives of stroke survivors. The data were analysed by means of phenomenological hermeneutic analysis. In the analysis two main themes emerged; (1) awareness of the irrevocably altered life situation and (2) being strong in the altered life situation, which revealed that relatives are actively involved in "a struggle for freedom", as they have no wish to adapt to the illness or its consequences. Instead, they want to choose their own way of life and write their own history. For that reason, they try to integrate the illness and its consequences by influencing and changing the stroke survivor, health professionals and their surroundings to suit their own needs. The results contribute to facilitating the health professionals' work by showing that the relatives are free and independent human beings who have the capacity and power to create their own history. Focus should be directed towards identifying and supporting the relatives capacity to create history, and therefore, health professionals need to heed them.


We have improved the microsolder bump technique previously used for fabricating a high-speed photoreceiver for high-speed and wideband coherent optical communication. To eliminate the damage caused by stress during vapor-phase deposi- tion of the solder material and to enable the application of various high-speed electrical and/or photonic devices in conjunction with high-density interconnections, we have developed a flip-chip- bonding technique that uses microsolder bumps with a diameter of about 26 and 40 m. These bumps are transferred from a car- rier substrate to a chip that is then bonded to the final substrate. This technique has three advantages. First, the stress during vapor-phase deposition does not damage the device because the bump formation process is separate from the device formation. Second, many applications are possible because we can make many carrier substrates with various chip sizes and bump pitches on a single Si wafer. Third, the chips with transferred microsolder bumps can be applied to devices that are known to be defect-free because the carrier substrates with the deposited solder bumps are individually aligned face-to-face with the base metal on the devices. We used solder materials of 100% In and 60% Sn-Pb in our experiments. From 8-546 transferred microsolder bumps were successfully formed on 0.5- to 4-mm-square chips (test samples and electrical and photonic devices). We also confirmed that this flip chip bonding was very stable after 1000 heat cycles. This new flip-chip-bonding technique should be very useful for making future high-speed optical transmission systems and the parallel optical interconnections required for electrical and photonic devices that will be used to create stable high-speed and high-density interconnections.


Microcracking has caused premature failure and reduction in properties in additively manufactured (AM) Hastelloy X. The purpose of this research is to meet or exceed the mechanical properties of wrought Hastelloy X by modifying the composition and build direction of Hastelloy X manufactured using Direct Metal Deposition (DMD). Tensile testing, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and metallography were performed on the samples. ANOVA was used to analyze the dependence that the properties had on build direction and composition. The nominal composition wrought samples had a yield strength of 310.1 MPa and a 60.79% Elongation. Alloy P60-X18 in a horizontal build had the highest yield strength of 363.67 MPa because it is the most solid solution strengthened alloy. Vertically-built P60-X18 had the highest ductility of 78.62%. Altering the composition had a greater effect on yield strength than changing the build direction. Overall, changing composition resulted in a higher yield strength while maintaining high ductility; therefore, the additively manufactured parts would be suitable for use in an application. Further modification of the solid solution strengthening elements could be performed to precisely match or exceed the wrought Hastelloy X properties. Additionally, corrosion, high-temperature, and application-specific properties should be verified in the new alloys.


Thyroid hormone in color vision development Cone photoreceptors in the eye enable color vision, responding to different wavelengths of light according to what opsin pigments they express. Eldred et al. studied organoids that recapitulate the development of the human retina and found that differentiation of cone cells into their tuned subtypes was regulated by thyroid hormone. Cones expressing short-wavelength (S) opsin developed first, and cones expressing long- and medium-wavelength (L/M) opsin developed later. The switch toward development of L/M cones depended on thyroid hormone signaling through the nuclear thyroid hormone receptor. Science, this issue p. eaau6348 Human retinal organoids offer an opportunity to study the pathways regulating development of color vision. INTRODUCTION Cone photoreceptors in the human retina enable daytime, color, and high-acuity vision. The three subtypes of human cones are defined by the visual pigment that they express: blue-opsin (short wavelength; S), green-opsin (medium wavelength; M), or red-opsin (long wavelength; L). Mutations that affect opsin expression or function cause various forms of color blindness and retinal degeneration. RATIONALE Our current understanding of the vertebrate eye has been derived primarily from the study of model organisms. We studied the human retina to understand the developmental mechanisms that generate the mosaic of mutually exclusive cone subtypes. Specification of human cones occurs in a two-step process. First, a decision occurs between S versus L/M cone fates. If the L/M fate is chosen, a subsequent choice is made between expression of L- or M-opsin. To determine the mechanism that controls the first decision between S and L/M cone fates, we studied human retinal organoids derived from stem cells. RESULTS We found that human organoids and retinas have similar distributions, gene expression profiles, and morphologies of cone subtypes. During development, S cones are specified first, followed by L/M cones. This temporal switch from specification of S cones to generation of L/M cones is controlled by thyroid hormone (TH) signaling. In retinal organoids that lacked thyroid hormone receptor β (Thrβ), all cones developed into the S subtype. Thrβ binds with high affinity to triiodothyronine (T3), the more active form of TH, to regulate gene expression. We observed that addition of T3 early during development induced L/M fate in nearly all cones. Thus, TH signaling through Thrβ is necessary and sufficient to induce L/M cone fate and suppress S fate. TH exists largely in two states: thyroxine (T4), the most abundant circulating form of TH, and T3, which binds TH receptors with high affinity. We hypothesized that the retina itself could modulate TH levels to control subtype fates. We found that deiodinase 3 (DIO3), an enzyme that degrades both T3 and T4, was expressed early in organoid and retina development. Conversely, deiodinase 2 (DIO2), an enzyme that converts T4 to active T3, as well as TH carriers and transporters, were expressed later in development. Temporally dynamic expression of TH-degrading and -activating proteins supports a model in which the retina itself controls TH levels, ensuring low TH signaling early to specify S cones and high TH signaling later in development to produce L/M cones. CONCLUSION Studies of model organisms and human epidemiology often generate hypotheses about human biology that cannot be studied in humans. Organoids provide a system to determine the mechanisms of human development, enabling direct testing of hypotheses in developing human tissue. Our studies identify temporal regulation of TH signaling as a mechanism that controls cone subtype specification in humans. Consistent with our findings, preterm human infants with low T3 and T4 have an increased incidence of color vision defects. Moreover, our identification of a mechanism that generates one cone subtype while suppressing the other, coupled with successful transplantation and incorporation of stem cell–derived photoreceptors in mice, suggests that the promise of therapies to treat human diseases such as color blindness, retinitis pigmentosa, and macular degeneration will be achieved in the near future. Temporally regulated TH signaling specifies cone subtypes. (A) Embryonic stem cell–derived human retinal organoids [wild type (WT)] generate S and L/M cones. Blue, S-opsin; green, L/M-opsin. (B) Organoids that lack thyroid hormone receptor β (Thrβ KO) generate all S cones. (C) Early activation of TH signaling (WT + T3) specifies nearly all L/M cones. (D) TH-degrading enzymes (such as DIO3) expressed early in development lower TH and promote S fate, whereas TH-activating regulators (such as DIO2) expressed later promote L/M fate. The mechanisms underlying specification of neuronal subtypes within the human nervous system are largely unknown. The blue (S), green (M), and red (L) cones of the retina enable high-acuity daytime and color vision. To determine the mechanism that controls S versus L/M fates, we studied the differentiation of human retinal organoids. Organoids and retinas have similar distributions, expression profiles, and morphologies of cone subtypes. S cones are specified first, followed by L/M cones, and thyroid hormone signaling controls this temporal switch. Dynamic expression of thyroid hormone–degrading and –activating proteins within the retina ensures low signaling early to specify S cones and high signaling late to produce L/M cones. This work establishes organoids as a model for determining mechanisms of human development with promising utility for therapeutics and vision repair.


A masking threshold constrained Kalman filter for speech enhancement is derived in the paper. A key step in a traditional Kalman filter requires minimizing an estimation error variance between a clean signal and its estimation. Our new method is to minimize the estimation error variance under the constraint that the energy of the estimation error is smaller than a masking threshold, computed from both time-domain forward masking and frequency-domain simultaneous masking properties of human auditory systems. The new Kalman filter provides a theoretical base for the application of the masking properties in Kalman filtering for speech enhancement. Due to the high computation cost of the proposed perceptually constrained Kalman filter, a perceptual post-filter concatenated with a standard Kalman filter is also proposed as a heuristic alternative for real-time implementation. The post-filter is constructed to make the estimation error obtained from the Kalman filter lower than the masking threshold. A wavelet Kalman filter with post-filtering is introduced to further reduce the computational load. Experimental results with colored noise show that the new constrained Kalman filter method produces the best performance when compared with other recent methods, and that the proposed heuristics with post-filtering can also produce a significant performance gain over other recent methods.


Abstract Fire has become more extensive in recent decades in southwestern United States arid lands. Burned areas pose management challenges and opportunities, and increasing our understanding of post-fire plant colonization may assist management decision-making. We examined plant communities, soils, and soil seed banks two years after the 2005 Loop Fire, located in a creosote-blackbrush community in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in southern Nevada's Mojave Desert. Based on a spring sampling of 20, 0.01-ha plots, live + dead cover of the exotic annual Bromus rubens averaged nine times lower on the burn than on a paired unburned area. Perennial species composition shifted from dominance by late-successional native shrubs (e.g., Coleogyne ramosissima) on the unburned area, to dominance by native perennial forbs (e.g., Sphaeralcea ambigua, Baileya multiradiata) on the burn. Species richness of live plants averaged 26% (100 m2 scale) and 239% (1 m2 scale) greater on the burn compared to the unburned area. Only 5% of Larrea tridentata individuals resprouted, compared to 64% of Yucca schidigera and baccata. Fire and microsite (interspace, below L. tridentata, or below Yucca) interacted to affect several 0–5 cm soil properties, with higher pH, conductivity, and total P and K on burned Yucca microsites. Bromus rubens density in 0–5 cm soil seed banks was four times lower on the burn, and its distribution among microsites reversed. Below-shrub microsites contained the most B. rubens seeds on the unburned area, but the least on the burned area. Intense fire below shrubs may have increased seed mortality, an idea supported by >3-fold decreases we found in emergence density after heating seed bank samples to 100°C. Our study occurred after a post-fire period of below-average precipitation, underscoring a need for longer term monitoring that characterizes moister years.


Background: Attentional fatigue is experienced as a decreased ability to concentrate, engage in purposeful activity, and maintain social relationships when there are competing demands on attention. Breast and prostate cancer are the 2 most common cancers in women and men, respectively. Most previous studies on self-reported attentional fatigue evaluated patients with breast cancer. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to determine if self-reported attentional fatigue differed in patients with breast cancer and prostate cancer before radiation therapy (RT) and to determine the relationships between attentional fatigue and other symptoms in these 2 groups. Methods: Patients (n = 155) completed questionnaires before RT. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and analysis of covariance were used for data analyses. Results: After controlling for age, patients with breast cancer reported significantly higher levels of attentional fatigue. In both groups, more attentional fatigue correlated significantly with more anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, and physical fatigue. These correlations were stronger for patients with breast cancer. Conclusions: The present study is the first to identify differences in self-reported attentional fatigue between these 2 groups before RT. Additional research is warranted to determine factors that contribute to these differences, as well as mechanisms that underlie the development of attentional fatigue. Implications for Practice: Clinicians should consider the capacity of their patients to direct attention when learning about RT and other treatments. It is important to simplify confusing healthcare terminology and reinforce teaching that is most important both verbally and in writing. Appropriate interventions for anxiety and depression may decrease attentional fatigue in these patients.


Abstract. Multiple year-round records of bulk and size-segregated composition of aerosol were obtained at the inland site of Concordia located at Dome C in East Antarctica. In parallel, sampling of acidic gases on denuder tubes was carried out to quantify the concentrations of HCl and HNO3 present in the gas phase. These time series are used to examine aerosol present over central Antarctica in terms of chloride depletion relative to sodium with respect to freshly emitted sea-salt aerosol as well as depletion of sulfate relative to sodium with respect to the composition of seawater. A depletion of chloride relative to sodium is observed over most of the year, reaching a maximum of  ∼ 20 ng m−3 in spring when there are still large sea-salt amounts and acidic components start to recover. The role of acidic sulfur aerosol and nitric acid in replacing chloride from sea-salt particles is here discussed. HCl is found to be around twice more abundant than the amount of chloride lost by sea-salt aerosol, suggesting that either HCl is more efficiently transported to Concordia than sea-salt aerosol or re-emission from the snow pack over the Antarctic plateau represents an additional significant HCl source. The size-segregated composition of aerosol collected in winter (from 2006 to 2011) indicates a mean sulfate to sodium ratio of sea-salt aerosol present over central Antarctica of 0.16 ± 0.05, suggesting that, on average, the sea-ice and open-ocean emissions equally contribute to sea-salt aerosol load of the inland Antarctic atmosphere. The temporal variability of the sulfate depletion relative to sodium was examined at the light of air mass backward trajectories, showing an overall decreasing trend of the ratio (i.e., a stronger sulfate depletion relative to sodium) when air masses arriving at Dome C had traveled a longer time over sea ice than over open ocean. The findings are shown to be useful to discuss sea-salt ice records extracted at deep drilling sites located inland Antarctica.


The major goal of this study was to elucidate how troponin T (TnT) dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) mutations in fetal TnT and fetal troponin affect the functional properties of the fetal heart that lead to infantile cardiomyopathy. The DCM mutations R141W and ΔK210 were created in the TnT1 isoform, the primary isoform of cardiac TnT in the embryonic heart. In addition to a different TnT isoform, a different troponin I (TnI) isoform, slow skeletal TnI (ssTnI), is the dominant isoform in the embryonic heart. In skinned fiber studies, TnT1-wild-type (WT)-treated fibers reconstituted with cardiac TnI·troponin C (TnC) or ssTnI·TnC significantly increased Ca2+ sensitivity of force development when compared with TnT3-WT-treated fibers at both pH 7.0 and pH 6.5. Porcine cardiac fibers treated with TnT1 that contained the DCM mutations (R141W and ΔK210), when reconstituted with either cardiac TnI·TnC or ssTnI·TnC, significantly decreased Ca2+ sensitivity of force development compared with TnT1-WT at both pH values. The R141W mutation, which showed no significant change in the Ca2+ sensitivity of force development in the TnT3 isoform, caused a significant decrease in the TnT1 isoform. The ΔK210 mutation caused a greater decrease in Ca2+ sensitivity and maximal isometric force development compared with the R141W mutation in both the fetal and adult TnT isoforms. When complexed with cardiac TnI·TnC or ssTnI·TnC, both TnT1 DCM mutations strongly decreased maximal actomyosin ATPase activity as compared with TnT1-WT. Our results suggest that a decrease in maximal actomyosin ATPase activity in conjunction with decreased Ca2+ sensitivity of force development may cause a severe DCM phenotype in infants with the mutations.


Abstract : In the dynamic electromagnetic environments, a polarization estimator is usually utilized by an adaptive polarization filter to acquire the knowledge of the polarization of the interference field, then optimal polarization is calculated for polarization filtering. In this sense, an adaptive polarization filter can be modeled as an open loop cascading system of a polarization estimator, an optimum polarization calculator and a polarization filter. Based on the dual channel orthogonal polarization measurements, theoretical performance analysis of the polarization estimation is derived. It is proved that the polarization estimation error obeys the Rayleigh distribution approximately. Finally, by studying the transmission process of the estimation error in a polarization filter, a series of analytic formulae on the performances of adaptive polarization filters are derived, which statistically reveal the relationship between the filtering performance and the signal to noise ratio clearly.


Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an asymmetric radio protocol, where uplink communication (from transponder to reader) is implemented with backscattering modulation. The idea was first demonstrated in the 1940's. One of the first consumer applications of RFID was access control, and key cards based on an inductive near field coupling are widely used even today. The introduction of Schottky diodes to CMOS processes enabled passive RFID, i.e. transponders without a battery, at ultra high frequencies (UHF) with reasonable cost and read range in the end of 1990's. This has opened up new applications and inspired new research on RFID. This thesis studies the radio frequency (RF) components and general RF phenomena in RFID at UHF and millimetre waves. The theoretical analysis of the radio path reveals that the read range of a passive UHF system is ideally limited by the downlink, i.e. the power transfer from reader to the transponder. However, the architecture of the reader RF front end is critical, because the transmitted signal may couple a significant amount of noise to the receiver, overpowering the faint reflection from the transponder. In the thesis, two adaptive RF front ends are introduced to eliminate the noise coupling from the transmitter. One of the most critical problems with UHF RFID has been the detuning of transponder antennas on different mounting platforms. The detuning may significantly diminish the read range of the transponder, especially on metal surfaces. In this thesis, two backscattering-based measurement techniques for the transponder antennas are presented. The detuning effect has been studied using these measurement techniques, and a platform tolerantantenna is introduced. RFID at millimetre waves enables miniaturisation of the reader antenna, and widening the data bandwidth over short distances. This could be used to access wirelessly mass memories with wide data bandwidth. A semipassive or active transponder could communicate, e.g., with automotive radars. The millimetre wave identification (MMID) has been theoretically studied and experimentally verified at 60 GHz.


In cardiac dynamic PET studies, the input function can be obtained directly from the reconstructed images. Therefore, there is a need to convert the time accumulated count to the time-activity curve (TAC). Conventionally, this is done by dividing the total counts in a localized region on the reconstructed image obtained during each scan frame period by its frame duration. This conversion, however, can significantly bias the estimates of rate constants of a compartmental model describing the dynamics of a PET tracer. Three new methods are formulated in this study. These new methods either use the accumulated counts in the input function directly or convert the accumulated counts to the input function more accurately. Computer simulation results show, for C-11 acetate and F-18 fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG), that the three new methods proposed can improve significantly the parameter estimates over the ones obtained by the conventional method.


Loyalty rewards are pervasive. Airlines offer frequent flyer programs; credit cards provide miles, points, and cash-back; and groceries stores and pharmacies offer points to redeem "free" products. Despite their framing, however, "rewards" can harm consumers. Academics have recently argued that while rewards lock-in consumers and increase the prices of goods, courts and regulators have paid little attention to them. However, they have also suggested that consumer learning can cure current problems loyalty rewards produce on markets.
In this article, I develop an alternative view, arguing that there are economic and psychological constraints to the self-corrective power of markets, and that loyalty rewards are more harmful than previously stated. Regarding the limits of markets to eradicate rewards, I argue that loyalty rewards provide sellers with valuable information about consumer behavior in an efficient way. This information allows sellers to segment the market and tailor especial marketing strategies to keep their most valuable consumers loyal to them and enhance their spending. In addition, I discuss that consumers tend to overestimate the value of rewards, which leads them to pick bundles that include rewards as part of the deal. According to psychological evidence, this is more patent when a reward is not valuable in itself but a medium that allows redeeming a valuable good in the future. This is the case of miles and points, which consumers tend to maximize despite not assessing their real exchange value.
I survey the evolution of rewards in the credit card and airline markets, claiming that loyalty programs cause particular problems in each market. Nonetheless, I argue that successful loyalty programs, in addition to lock-in and higher prices, may generally produce three other issues. First, loyalty rewards might produce affective reactions and cravings on buyers, which soften switching rates and lessen market competition. Second, loyalty rewards that involve "media" tend to create an illusion of advantage that distorts people's preferences and might lead to inefficiencies. Third, loyalty rewards can impose distributional costs on low-income consumers. This is patent in the credit card market, where loyalty rewards cause a general increase in prices but only a handful of high-income consumers benefit from loyalty rewards.
The main implication of this article is that both consumers and buyers tend to prefer markets with loyalty rewards. If the self-corrective power of markets is limited, then legal intervention may be necessary, as demonstrated by countries where regulators have in fact regulated rewards. Of course, a detailed market-specific assessment is necessary to determine whether regulation is worth its costs.


After a critique of several traditional philosophical ideas and ideals which refer to scientific cognition and knowledge, I introduce distinctions between early-modern, modern, and postmodern science, and adopt a more sociological approach to argue that the last category bears many features of postmodernity. Scientists live in the abundance of other scientists, goods (e.g., scientific equipment), and information (in particular, scientific knowledge). They have to combine cooperation with competition, keep pace with the flux of knowledge, and manage the relations between their research and other social practices (e.g., industry). Facing the lack of unquestioned, universal, and stable methodological rules, changeability of criteria of novelty or epistemic values of knowledge, as well as instability of social patterns, scientists have to self-constitute themselves as scientists, both individually and collectively. The level of self-constitution, allowed by freedom that is enabled by the autonomy achieved by modern science, is unparalleled either earlier in science or in any other sphere of postmodern societies.


Nondestructive measurements and evaluation has great significance in various domains of science, engineering and technology. The ob- jective of this research is to investigate the anisotropic behavior in a sandstone sample from non-invasive tests using Laser Doppler Vi- brometer coupled with Piezoelectric Transducer and to validate these results using a laboratory scale controlled hydraulic fracturing ar- rangement. High-resolution 3-component single-point seismograms were generated for the core sample using a combination of 1 MHz Piezoelectric Transducer as a source of elastic waves that travel within the reservoir rock sample and Laser Doppler Vibrometer as the re- ceiver. Hilbert transforms of the 3-component data were calculated to obtain the complex signal. Shear wave splitting phenomenon due to anisotropy in rock was examined and the resultant S H and S V wave polarizations were measured. Elastic tensor for the core sample was subsequently determined from the velocity picks within the Hilbert energy envelope followed by the estimation of Thomsen's parameters. The hodogram analysis was performed to assess the process of shear wave splitting in the rock sample that detects the anisotropy of the medium and this, in turn, specifies the characteristics of weakness planes. Laboratory scale controlled hydraulic fracturing was performed to verify whether the fractures propagate along the anisotropic planes of weakness. Real-time fracture detection was carried out during this process and its propagation features were studied. The fractured core sample was imaged under the slice Computed Tomography scan machine to perceive the mode and propagation of fractures in the rock specimen.


Abstract. Every year, people are victims of avalanches. It is commonly assumed that one way to decrease those losses is to inform about danger levels. This paper presents a study on current practices in the development and evaluation of smartphones applications that are dedicated to avalanche risk communication. The analysis based on semi-structured interviews with developers of six smartphone apps highlights the context of their development, how choices of content and visualization were made and how their effectiveness is evaluated by the developers themselves. It appears that all these communicators agree on the message to disseminate and the general representation concepts (i.e., use of the international avalanche danger scale and of a tiered approach). However, the specific ways this message is presented (e.g., maps, icons) is not uniform. Moreover, only simple evaluation processes (e.g., usage monitoring) are conducted by the developers. However, they are well aware that further efforts need to be made in order to thoroughly analyze the effectiveness of the smartphone apps in terms of their real impact (e.g., increase in awareness or change in behavior). This work also highlighted that the smartphone applications are in transition from being one-way communication tools to becoming two-way communication platforms, with the possibility for non-experts users to report on snow and avalanche conditions. This paper indicates challenges that avalanche risk communication is facing, although it is indisputably the most advanced and standardized practice compared to communication tools for other natural hazards. In addition to being relevant for the avalanche risk communication community, this research is therefore of interest for scientists and practitioners working on risk communication related to natural hazards.


During the COVID-19 outbreak, most face-to-face teaching and practice-based learning placements were suspended. Universities provided ongoing health and social care education, including interprofessional education, using online technology. Focusing on changes in the delivery of interprofessional education, this second article in a series on interprofessional education provides an international perspective through facilitators' case reports. It considers the key factors that enabled a rapid shift from face-to-face to online interprofessional education, and the key aspects that had to change. The significant changes reported from literature and case reports reflect on remote and online learning, the duration of education sessions, individual and team learning aspects and facilitation skills.


The increased application of quantum mechanical-based methodologies to the study of alloy stability has required a re-assessment of the field. The focus is mainly on inorganic materials in the solid state. In a first part, after a brief overview of the so-called ab initio methods with their approximations, constraints, and limitations, recommendations are made for a good usage of first-principles codes with a set of qualifiers. Examples are given to illustrate the power and the limitations of ab initio codes. However, despite the ''success'' of these methodologies, thermodynamics of complex multi-component alloys, as used in engineering applications, requires a more versatile approach presently afforded within CALPHAD. Hence, in a second part, the links that presently exist between ab initio methodologies, experiments, and CALPHAD approach are examined with illustrations. Finally, the issues of dynamical instability and of the role of lattice vibrations that still constitute the subject of ample discussions within the CALPHAD community are revisited in the light of the current knowledge with a set of recommendations.


Arabidopsis thaliana UV-Resistance Locus 8 (UVR8) is a UV-B-specific protein that regulates genes concerned with protection against ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation. Some of these genes encode chloroplast proteins including the RNA polymerase sigma factor, sigma 5 (SIG5) and one of the Early Light Induced Proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana (ELIP1). According to this discovery, UVR8 had been proposed to be involved in regulating chloroplast related genes that encode Photosystem II Reaction Center core proteins, the D1 and D2 proteins. This hypothesis was examined in this study. Several physiological approaches and measurements of transcripts and protein were done using uvr8-1, sig5.1, sig5-2 and elip1/2 mutants. This study showed that the uvr8-1 mutant is very sensitive to UV-B compared to wild type and other mutants and uvr8-1 had a reduction of its photosynthetic efficiency (measured as Fv/Fm values). Assessments of SIG5 and ELIP1 transcripts and measurements of photosynthetic efficiency showed that these genes are not essential in UV-B protection. Further, transcript measurements of psbA and psbD-BLRP, which encode the D1 and D2 protein respectively, showed that UVR8 is involved in accumulation of psbD-BLRP transcripts but little affected psbA transcripts. Moreover, UV-B caused reduction of D1 protein consistent with the reduction of the Fv/Fm values when wild type and uvr8-1 plants were exposed to UVB, but the role of UVR8 in this mechanism needs to be investigated further. However, the effect of UV-B on D2 protein still remains unclear.


Large area sprayed or silk screen printed CdS/Cu (_2) S solar cells are potentially cheap and efficient devices for the direct conversion of sunlight into electrical energy. They do not require the expenditure of large amounts of energy during fabrication as do silicon cells. There are, however, various degradation processes associated with the operation of the cells and the major mechanism is thought to be associated with a gradual oxidation of the copper sulphide. It is clear therefore that the degradation of single crystal and evaporated thin film cells must be better understood before the more difficult problems associated with the fabrication and operation of sprayed or printed layer cells can be solved. This thesis describes an investigation into the photovoltaic properties of CdS/Cu (_2) S heterojunctions. The cells were prepared by forming layers of CU (_2) S on single crystals and thin films of CdS. Undoped crystals with both high and low resistivity have been used as have low resistivity samples containing grown-in copper, indium and chlorine impurities. A study of the spectral dependence of the open circuit voltage and of the current-voltage characteristics, after baking in air at 200 C, shows that the maximum spectral sensitivity of the cells in the range 0.6 to 0.7 nm is associated with a photo- conductive region in the cadmium sulphide caused by a diffusion of copper into the cadmium sulphide. The effects of forming the cuprous sulphide layers on basal planes of opposite polarity have also been investigated. It was shown that the conversion of cadmium sulphide to cuprous sulphide proceeds 1.5 times faster on sulphur than on cadmium planes and the photovoltages of unbaked cells with the cuprous sulphide formed on sulphur faces are some 20% Larger than the photo- voltages from cells in which the cuprous sulphide is formed on cadmium faces. It was further shown that the plating temperature must be carefully controlled at 90 C to ensure production of stoichiometric Cu (_2) S.


We demonstrate that layered spatial light modulators (SLMs), subject to fixed lateral displacements and refreshed at staggered intervals, can synthesize images with greater spatiotemporal resolution than that afforded by any single SLM used in their construction. Dubbed cascaded displays, such architectures enable superresolution flat panel displays (e.g., using stacks of liquid crystal displays (LCDs)) and digital projectors (e.g., relaying the image of one SLM onto another). We introduce a comprehensive optimization framework, leveraging non-negative matrix and tensor factorization, that decomposes target images and videos into multi-layered, time-multiplexed attenuation patterns---offering a trade-off between image brightness, spatial resolution, and refresh rate. We develop a real-time dual-layer factorization method that quadruples spatial resolution and doubles refresh rate. Compared to prior superresolution displays, cascaded displays place fewer restrictions on the hardware, offering thin designs without moving parts or the need for temporal multiplexing. We validate these concepts using three prototypes: printed multi-layer films, a dual-modulation liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) projector, and a dual-layer LCD, with the latter emphasizing head-mounted display (HMD) applications.


As the push for carbon-neutral transport continues, the aviation sector is facing increasing pressure to reduce its carbon footprint. Furthermore, commercial air traffic is expected to resume the continuous growth experienced until the pandemic, highlighting the need for reduced emissions. The use of alternative fuels plays a key role in achieving future emission goals, while also lowering the dependency on fossil fuels. The so-called sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), which encompass bio and synthetic fuels, are currently the most viable option, but hydrogen is also being considered as a long-term solution. The present paper reviews the production methods, logistical and technological barriers, and potential for future mass implementation of these alternative fuels. In general, biofuels currently present higher technological readiness levels than other alternatives. Sustainable mass production faces critical feedstock-related challenges that synthetic fuels, together with other solutions, can overcome. All conventional fuel replacements, though with different scopes, will be important in meeting long-term goals. Government support will play an important role in accelerating and facilitating the transition towards sustainable aviation.


This paper presents our program in B-Prolog submitted to the third ASP solver competition for the Sokoban problem. This program, based on dynamic programming, treats Sokoban as a generalized shortest path problem. It divides a problem into independent sub problems and uses tabling to store sub problems and their answers. This program is very simple but quite efficient. Without use of any sophisticated domain knowledge, it easily solved 11 of the 15 instances used in the competition.


This paper presents a new diode free freewheeling and common-mode voltage (CMV) clamping branches for single phase transformerless grid connected photovoltaic (PV) inverter for complete leakage current elimination and low conduction losses. In the past, various isolation techniques have been proposed for leakage current elimination in transformerless PV inverters. However, galvanic isolation only cannot completely eliminate leakage current due to that a resonant path is created by the switch junction capacitors, which also generate leakage current. The proposed freewheeling branch consists of four MOSFETs along with a clamping branch, which consists of two MOSFETs and a capacitor divider. The divider is connected to the DC side of the converter to keep constant CMV in the freewheeling path. As a result, the improved CMV clamping has been achieved for complete leakage current elimination. The unipolar sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) technique and modified HERIC topology with AC-decoupling for galvanic isolation is adopted for lower conduction losses. The proposed topology consists of only MOSFET in the freewheeling and clamping path which provides lower conduction losses compared with diode based topologies. The performances of the proposed topology in terms of common mode characteristics, leakage current, total harmonic distortion and conversion efficiency are analyzed and compared with H5, H6, HERIC and HBZBR topologies. The detail analyses are performed using MATLAB/Simulink and PSIM.


Newcastle disease is a viral disease of birds caused by avian paramyxovirus 1 (APMV-1). For official control purposes, this disease is currently defined as the most severe form of the illness, which is caused only by certain viral strains. Many less virulent strains of APMV-1 also circulate among domesticated and wild birds. These viruses usually cause much milder clinical signs or infect birds asymptomatically. However, they can sometimes evolve to become the highly virulent strains that cause Newcastle disease. Newcastle disease is considered to be one of the most important poultry diseases in the world. Chickens are particularly susceptible, and may experience morbidity and mortality rates up to 100%. Outbreaks can have a tremendous impact on backyard chickens in developing countries, where these birds are a significant source of protein and this disease is endemic. In developed countries, where highly virulent APMV-1 strains have usually been eradicated from poultry, trade embargoes and restrictions cause significant economic losses during outbreaks. Newcastle disease can also affect other commercial poultry, game birds, ratites, and various pet, hobby and zoo birds. Some of these birds become ill, while others carry and shed virulent viruses asymptomatically. Subclinically infected birds, particularly illegally imported psittacines, can introduce Newcastle disease into countries where it does not usually exist. A number of recent studies have examined the epidemiology of APMV-1 in wild birds. Although these birds are mainly infected with low pathogenicity strains of APMV-1, highly virulent strains circulate in some cormorant populations in North America. Outbreaks occur periodically in cormorants, with severe illness and deaths in young birds. Viruses from cormorants can also infect nearby gulls, and could spread to other wild or domesticated birds. Strains of APMV-1 maintained in wild (and domesticated) Columbiformes may also be a concern, although these particular viruses generally tend to cause serious disease only in pigeons and doves. Recently, several papers described sporadic infections with virulent APMV-1 viruses in various wild birds throughout the world. The significance of this finding is still uncertain.


Africa's growing public debt has sparked a renewed global debate about debt sustainability on the continent. This is largely owing to the emergence of China as a major financier of African infrastructure, resulting in a narrative that China is using debt to gain geopolitical leverage by trapping poor countries in unsustainable loans. This policy insight uses data on African debt to interrogate this notion. It explains why African debt is rising and why Chinese loans are particularly attractive from the viewpoint of African governments. It concludes that the debt trap narrative underestimates the decision-making power of African governments. However, there are important caveats for African governments. These include the impact of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on African development agendas, the possible impact of spiralling debt on African sovereignty, and the complex impact of corruption.


This article presents the effect of increasing weight percentage natural nanoclay additives on the structure, morphology and mechanical properties of nylon-6-blown films. Combination of X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis and microscopy were used to determine nanocomposite film morphology. The nanoclay additives in the films act as nucleating agent facilitates γ-crystalline forms and results in fine grained spherulite with smaller lamellar size. Increase in tensile, burst, and tear strength is observed for films with up to 5% clay loading. Even though microscale property like tensile and tear strength drops at higher add on levels, near-surface nanoscale hardness and toughness of the film keep on increasing. There is a direct correlation between nanoclay additive add on level and increase in surface energy and wetting behavior of films.


The indigenous microbial members of deep oceanic environments mediate carbon fluxes in this realm and contribute to major biogeochemical cycles globally, yet their distribution, phylogenetic composition, and functional attributes are not yet well understood. Emerging concepts suggest the prevailing ecological processes and evolutionary constraints acting on these assemblages are more dynamic and heterogeneous than previously thought. In this context, the research presented herein examines the composition and genomic repertoires of bacteria, archaea, and eukarya from an extreme deep ocean environment, 6,000 m depth within the Puerto Rico Trench. The results identify depth-specific taxonomic and functional trends, as well as expanded gene inventories indicative of unique lifestyle strategies divergent from their photic-zone counterparts. The findings indicate significantly different bacterial communities in particle-associated and free-living fractions at depth, which has implication for future sampling practices and diversity estimates from deep ocean habitats. The disparity between the number of cultivated piezophilic ('high-pressure adapted') isolates and the expansive diversity identified using molecular techniques has limited further exploration of the physiological and biochemical properties of diverse piezophiles. This issue has been addressed through the application of dilution to extinction cultivation techniques at high-hydrostatic pressure and low temperature using a natural seawater medium. This work has led to the isolation and subsequent characterization of a unique piezophilic member of the Roseobacter lineage within the Alphaproteobacteria. The results provide further evidence for the temperature- pressure dependence of the growth rate for deep-ocean bacteria and substantiate hypotheses regarding piezophilic traits under nutritionally limiting conditions. This research concludes with the detailed genetic characterization of the unique flagellar motility system of the model piezophilic bacterium Photobacterium profundum SS9. It is the first investigation of motility as a function of high hydrostatic pressure in a deep-sea microbial species and highlights the profound value of genetically tractable systems to test hypotheses regarding high-pressure adaptation


Purpose To determine the in vivo effects of several particulate steroids on microvascular perfusion by using intravital microscopy in a mice model and to investigate the in vitro interactions between these particulate steroids and red blood cells (RBCs). Materials and Methods The study was conducted in agreement with the guidelines of the National Committee of Ethic Reflection on Animal Experimentation. By using intravital microscopy of mouse cremaster muscle, the in vivo effects of several particulate steroids on microvascular perfusion were assessed. Four to five mice were allocated to each of the following treatment groups: saline solution, dexamethasone sodium phosphate, a nonparticulate steroid, and the particulate steroids cortivazol, methylprednisolone, triamcinolone, and prednisolone. By using in vitro blood microcinematography and electron microscopy, the interactions between these steroids and human RBCs were studied. All results were analyzed by using nonparametric tests. Results With prednisolone, methylprednisolone, or triamcinolone, blood flow was rapidly and completely stopped in all the arterioles and venules (median RBC velocity in first-order arterioles, 5 minutes after administration was zero for these three groups) compared with a limited effect in mice treated with saline, dexamethasone, and cortivazol (20.3, 21.3, and 27.5 mm/sec, respectively; P < .003). This effect was associated with a large decrease in the functional capillary density (4.21, 0, and 0 capillaries per millimeter for methylprednisolone, triamcinolone, or prednisolone, respectively, vs 21.0, 21.4, and 19.1 capillaries per millimeter in mice treated with saline, dexamethasone, and cortivazol, respectively; P < .003). This was because of the rapid formation of RBC aggregates. However, no change in microvascular perfusion was associated with administration of cortivazol or dexamethasone. In vitro experiments confirmed the formation of RBC aggregates associated with the transformation of RBCs into spiculated RBCs with the same steroids. Conclusion Several particulate steroids have an immediate and massive effect on microvascular perfusion because of formation of RBC aggregates associated with the transformation of RBCs into spiculated RBCs. (©) RSNA, 2016 Online supplemental material is available for this article.


: Positive assortative mating for birthplace and nationality has been revealed by means of sample analysis of couples married in two districts of Kharkov in 1960 and 1985. The contingency coefficient measuring the association between birth places of husband and wife was K = 0.15 in one district in 1960 and K = 0.18 in the other, these values being K = 0.16 and K = 0.18 for these districts, respectively, in 1985. A higher degree of assortative mating was observed for the nationality character: K = 0.40 and K = 0.21 in 1960 and K = 0.23 and K = 0.25 in 1985. The mean marriage substance increased from 578 to 699 km for 25 years.


The presence of dissolved gas at the solid/liquid interface can play a crucial role in heterogeneous cavitation. Here we focus our attention on the relationship between gas conditions and cavitation nucleation at planar solid surfaces with alternating hydrophobic/hydrophilic properties. Tapping mode atomic force microscopy and optical microscopy were used to monitor the gas adsorption on the patterns before sonication. Scanning electron microscopy revealed the effects of collapsing cavitation bubbles on the irradiated surfaces. High intensity ultrasonic irradiation (20 kHz) induces the formation of an interfacial gas layer at the solid surface immersed in different liquid media (water saturated with different gases, such as argon, nitrogen or carbon dioxide) by accelerating the adsorption of dissolved gas. Subsequently, the gas rearranges in diverse nano- or microstructures which take further part in the cavitation process. A solvent-exchange method was also applied to induce the formation of artificial gaseous domains accumulated at the solid surface in order to facilitate the cavitation process. By varying the gas adsorption time it is possible to accelerate or to slow down heterogeneous cavitation. The experimental findings on heterogeneous cavitation are discussed in terms of interfacial bubble nucleation and bubble attraction and growth on patterned solid surfaces in liquid media.


A carboxy terminated poly-n-(butyl acrylate, acrylic acid, acrylonitryl) (PNBA) terpolymer was used as a modifier for three high-functionality epoxy resins, (i) epoxy novolac, (ii) triglycidyl-4-aminophenol (TGPAP) and (iii) tetraglycidyl diaminodiphenyl methane (TGDDM), used as matrix materials in polymer composites. The resin and elastomer were reacted using different amine catalysts at different temperatures. The progress of the reaction between the epoxy resin and elastomer was studied extensively by Fourier transform infrared (FMR) spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (psc). The results show that hydroxy esterification and etherification occurred during the epoxy-carboxy group reaction. The possible reaction mechanism involved is discussed on the basis of the results obtained.


The USC Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive makes available over 52,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Newborn pulse oximetry screening is recommended to promote early referral of neonates with critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) and reduce mortality; however, the impact of late referral on mortality is not well defined. The purpose of this population-based study was to describe the association between timing of referral to a cardiac center and mortality in 2360 liveborn neonates with CCHD. METHODS: Neonates with CCHD born before pulse oximetry screening (1996–2007) were selected from the Texas Birth Defects Registry and linked to state birth and death records. Age at referral was ascertained from date of first cardiac procedure at a cardiac center. Logistic and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate factors associated with late referral and mortality; the Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate 3-month survival. RESULTS: Median age at referral was 1 day (25th–75th percentile: 0–6 days). Overall, 27.5% (649 of 2360) were referred after age 4 days and 7.5% (178 of 2360) had no record of referral. Neonatal mortality was 18.1% (277 of 1533) for those referred at 0 to 4 days of age, 9.0% (34 of 379) for those referred at 5 to 27 days of age, and 38.8% (69 of 178) for those with no referral. No improvement in age at referral was found across the 2 eras within 1996–2007. CONCLUSIONS: A significant proportion of neonates with CCHD experienced late or no referral to cardiac specialty centers, accounting for a significant number of the deaths. Future population-based studies are needed to determine the benefit of pulse oximetry screening on mortality and morbidity.


Antimicrobial peptides are cationic proteins that are found in a wide range of organisms. Recent reports suggested that human -defensin 1 (hBD-1), a prominent group of antimicrobial peptides, is an important component of the innate immune response, particularly at mucosal surfaces that are vulnerable to colonization by potential pathogens. Therefore, hBD-1 may participate in providing intrinsic nasal mucosal defence against microbial infections. The present study aimed to look for hBD-1 mRNA in human nasal mucosa without obvious signs of inflammation. Total RNA was isolated from human inferior turbinate mucosa and hBD-1 mRNA was detected in these tissues by using reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). By in situ hybridization, hBD-1 mRNA was predominantly localized in superficial epithelial cells and submucosal glandular epithelium of human inferior turbinate mucosa. These data suggest that nasal epithelia and submucosal glands may secrete hBD-1, contributing to the mucosal defences of the nose.


Back pain is one of the most common complaints in the general population and chronic back pain is a major Public Health burden. However, the prevalence of chronic back pain in Germany is not known. The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence of chronic back pain in the general adult population in Germany and to identify highly affected population groups. A nation-wide computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) survey was conducted with 8,318 men and women aged 18 years and older residing in German households. Participants were selected using the Gabler-Hader telephone sampling method and the next-birthday method. The one-year prevalence of chronic back pain defined as daily or almost daily back pain over a period of three months was 16 % in men and 22 % in women, the lifetime prevalence 24 % in men and 30 % in women. The 12-months prevalence of any back pain was 66 % in women and 58 % in men. Back pain on the day preceding the interview was reported by 18 % of men and 27 % of women and had a median intensity on a 1 - 10 point scale of 5 in women and 4 in men. Factors independently associated with chronic back pain in the past 12 months were age, female sex, a history of arthritis, self-reported depression, lower educational level, current unemployment, overweight or obesity, no sports, smoking and living with a partner. In conclusion, chronic back pain is a highly prevalent complaint in the general population in Germany. The association not only with bone and joint diseases but also with depression, a lower level of education and with certain lifestyle behaviours emphasises that back pain should not be viewed only in the context of the spine.


MERMOS is the reference method used by Electricite de France (EDF) for Human Reliability Assessment, to assess the operation of nuclear reactors during incidents and accidents for Probabilistic Safety Evaluations. This method, like the other "second generation" methods, is not easy to understand, since it involves complex concepts : however, its results are easier to understand and use. Thus this paper approaches the MERMOS method using a "bottom-up" approach, starting with the method's results. MERMOS models the failure of a mission involving a "human factor" by describing qualitatively all the ways of failing, as a number of little stories ; it does not present a list of factors affecting the failure of the mission without defining the means by which they exercise their effect. Of course, the format of these short stories (or MERMOS "scenarios") is defined very strictly, to take into account as far as possible knowledge of the human sciences (ergonomics, psychology, sociology and accidentology) and of techniques (operational safety, probability studies and the operation of nuclear plants during accidents). We shall describe these little stories using an example (non-nuclear) to explain firstly how they are structured to allow realism and rigour ; and secondly which human-reliability concepts they use (modelling systems for behaviour during an accident, with reconfiguration and CICA (Important Configuration of Emergency Operation). A little story that leads to the failure of an HRA mission describes how a system may continue too long in a direction (or configuration) that proves inappropriate (or no longer appropriate) to the situation.


Background The vertebral osteonecrosis (VON) is much less known and less frequently diagnosed than peripheral osteonecrosis. VON is considered as result of delayed consolidation of a compression fracture due to ischemia, which creates a cavity within the vertebral body that could get filled with gas and appearing in X-rays as a radiolucent linear or semilunar shadow known as the vacuum cleft sign. This sign could be more easily recognized in CT, and could get secondarily filled with fluid as detected by MRI. Several risk factors have been associated including trauma and osteoporosis, but it is important make a correct differentiation between VON and simple compression facture, because former is more associated with severe pain and neurological complications. Objectives To analyze the clinical and radiological characteristics in a series of 18 patients with VON. Methods Methods: We carried out a descriptive, observational, transversal study from the clinical records of 18 consecutive patients diagnosed with VON, referred to a monographic consultation of osteoporosis in a university hospital between April 2009 and November 2011. Analyzed data were demography, risk factors, clinical manifestations, radiological findings (X-rays, CT and MRI), treatment and outcome. Results Mean age of patients was 78.9 years, with 15 women (83.3%). Most frequent clinical complaint was acute back pain in 14 patients (77.7%), irradiated in 6 (33.3%). 61.1% referred moderated to severe pain, requiring third step analgesia in 38.8%. The mean time elapsed since pain onset until diagnosis was 7.3 months. Trauma history was detected in 55.5%, osteoporosis and previous compression fractures in 44.4%, vitamin D3 deficiency in 38.8%, chronic liver disease in 11.1%, previous use of systemic corticosteroids, intestinal malabsorption or neoplasm in 16.6, and radiotherapy or chemotherapy in 5.5%, respectively. Most frequent location of VON were T12 (44.4%) and L1 (16.6%), with multiple affected vertebrae in 4 cases (22.2%). The vacuum cleft sign was evident by X-rays in 15 cases and by CT in 3/5. MRI was done in 15 patients and most frequent findings were intravertebral liquid sign in 9 cases, empty and interface signs in 3 cases for each one. It was also found posterior wall displacement in 11 cases, with associated myelopathy in 2 (11.1%). There was clinical neurological involvement in 3 cases, one of them with paraparesis. The management was surgical in 1 case, vertebral cementation in 2 and orthopaedic in 15 (back brace). A HIV-infected patient presented concomitant osteonecrosis in peripheral locations too. Conclusions VON is an important differential diagnose of compression fracture because occurs in older people who have an increased prevalence of osteoporosis too. VON has an important delay in diagnosis because most of the specialists do not take it in account and the vacuum cleft sign is not always easy to identify in X-rays, appearing in some cases only with hyperextension. There are some clinical characteristics that could guide to VON diagnosis as persistent severe pain, rapid evolution of kyphosis or neurological involvement. Recognize this entity could improve the prognosis with opportune surgical or orthopaedic treatment in patients with high risk of neurological complications. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Introduction Viral sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 has been used for outbreak investigation, but there is limited evidence supporting routine use for infection prevention and control (IPC) within hospital settings. Methods We conducted a prospective non-randomised trial of sequencing at 14 acute UK hospital trusts. Sites each had a 4-week baseline data-collection period, followed by intervention periods comprising 8 weeks of 'rapid' (<48h) and 4 weeks of 'longer-turnaround' (5-10 day) sequencing using a sequence reporting tool (SRT). Data were collected on all hospital onset COVID-19 infections (HOCIs; detected [≥]48h from admission). The impact of the sequencing intervention on IPC knowledge and actions, and on incidence of probable/definite hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) was evaluated. Results A total of 2170 HOCI cases were recorded from October 2020-April 2021, with sequence reports returned for 650/1320 (49.2%) during intervention phases. We did not detect a statistically significant change in weekly incidence of HAIs in longer-turnaround (IRR 1.60, 95%CI 0.85-3.01; P=0.14) or rapid (0.85, 0.48-1.50; P=0.54) intervention phases compared to baseline phase. However, IPC practice was changed in 7.8% and 7.4% of all HOCI cases in rapid and longer-turnaround phases, respectively, and 17.2% and 11.6% of cases where the report was returned. In a per-protocol sensitivity analysis there was an impact on IPC actions in 20.7% of HOCI cases when the SRT report was returned within 5 days. Conclusion While we did not demonstrate a direct impact of sequencing on the incidence of nosocomial transmission, our results suggest that sequencing can inform IPC response to HOCIs, particularly when returned within 5 days.


Palaeoenvironmental data are presented from the site of Garðar (modern Igaliku), the location of the cathedral and the bishop's farm in the Norse Eastern Settlement of Greenland. The latter was founded from c. AD 985 and abandoned some time during the fifteenth century. Inspection of drainage ditches located in close proximity to the settlement ruins revealed inter alia an organic-rich unit containing cultural debris (worked wood, animal bone, stone and charcoal) dated by AMS radiocarbon dates on seeds to the period c. AD 1110—1370. Fossil insect and pollen assemblages contained within the deposit appear representative of natural environments (primarily wet eutrophic meadows) but are mixed with high frequencies of a range of synanthropic insects, including human and animal ectoparasites that could only derive from indoor habitats. This is strongly indicative of the manuring of fields with waste from houses and byres in order to increase yields of hay. Large amounts of hay would have been necessary to provide winter fodder for the bishop's herd of cattle — the largest known in Norse Greenland — and dung from these animals seems likely to have been a significant component of the material used to fertilize the fields. The process of spreading the manure at Garðar was probably integrated with the careful manipulation of water resources across the site, indicated by the presence of a network of irrigation channels and dams in the archaeological record, and comparisons are drawn with similar systems elsewhere in Mediaeval Europe.


Classical Armenian is a poorly endowed language, that despite a great tradition of lexicographical erudition is coping with a lack of resources. Although numerous initiatives exist to preserve the Classical Armenian language, the lack of precise and complete grammatical and lexicographical resources remains. This article offers a situation analysis of the existing resources for Classical Armenian and presents the new digital resources provided on the Calfa platform. The Calfa project gathers existing resources and updates, enriches and enhances their content to offer the richest database for Classical Armenian today. Faced with the challenges specific to a poorly endowed language, the Calfa project is also developing new technologies and solutions to enable preservation, advanced research, and larger systems and developments for the Armenian language