We are told that society changes. It evolves toward a more fluid, active and horizontal form of socialisation (Bauman, 2000; Castells, 2009; Sheller & Urry, 2006; Urry, 2000; Wittel, 2001). As much as a change in the social, it is also a change in the conception sociology gives to the sociality and society as large. There is a shift in social theory with recent raises of post-demographic perspective, and postmodernism (Latour, 2005, 2011, 2013; Ruppert, Law, & Savage, 2013).Along these, post changes, another revolution takes place, in the use of new technology and mainly the Web. These new uses are associated with an explosion of the quantity of digital traces, often labelled as Big Data.This Big Data paradigm brings radical changes in research that are perfectly suitable for computational researchers and other data scientists, and they are taking full advantage of it (Hey, Tansley, & Tolle, 2009). This new landscape, in society and in research, puts pressure on sociology, and other social sciences fields, to find adequate answers to these societal, theoretical and methodological challenges. The best proxy of these challenges and the tensions between scientific fields and the new form of social interactions are the Social Network Sites (SNSs). They represent the extreme case of horizontal and fluid interactions while producing an incredible amount of accessible digital traces.These digital traces are the essential bricks for all the research using SNSs. But despite this importance, few researches actually investigate and explain how these digital traces are produced and what is the impact of their context of access, collection and aggregation. This thesis focuses on these digital traces and the gap left in the literature. This empty space is however conceived as a central point of tension between sociological positions on how to define new social interactions, and methodological principles imposed by the logic of Big Data.The work is articulated around one specific social network, Twitter. The reason for this choice lays in its openness, the easy use of its APIs, and, in consequence, by the fact it is the most extensively studied SNS for now.I begin the work on the definition of the new form of sociality using the network concept as the key concept around which several notions, such as social, cultural and technological can be articulated. I conclude that none of these evolutions are independent and need to be seen as co-integrated. In consequence, the change in the social interaction needs to be seen as much as a factual change, than a change in our way to interpret it. From this conception of the network and the importance in our understanding of social interactions, I retrace the evolution of the notion of Big Data, specifically with the example of Tesco and their ClubCard. This is the first step to locate the technological changes into a more comprehensive methodological framework. This framework, the transactional perspective, is decomposed to understand the consequence of such position applied on SNSs and specifically on Twitter. This is the first explanation of why the research almost entirely focuses on the Tweets and what are the consequences on our understanding of the interaction on the social web service. Then I use this first iteration of the definition of a digital trace to build a new definition of what a Social Network Site is and centre this definition around the concept of activity and context.I operationalise these concepts on Twitter to develop a new method to capture social interaction and digital traces that are often put aside due to the difficulty of their access. This method takes into account the limits imposed by the Twitter APIs and describes the consequences they have on the generation of a dataset.The method is based on a constant screening of sampled profiles over time. This method allows people/us/you to reconstruct the missing information in the profile (the trace of the changes in the friends' and followers' lists). This information creates the measure of context (the user's network) and activity (tweeting and adding or removing links) defined earlier.The obtained dataset provides an opportunity to see the importance of the aggregation process and the flexibility offered by the digital traces. Then following this, I developed three analyses with different levels of aggregation for different purposes. The first analysis was to test the hypothesis of the influence on users' context activity on their own activity over time. The second analysis, did not use the time as a measure of aggregation but tested the same hypothesis on an individual level. And finally, the information about the activity itself is analysed in order to see to which extent the digital traces obtainable contain the sufficient information about the change in activity itself.


Swiss women are now as well educated as their male counterparts. However, progress remains to be made in the job market where both the supply and price of female labour are below that of men. While the participation rate for women is high and rising, it is offset by a heavy incidence of part-time work, reflecting both personal preferences and factors that limit their labour supply. The lack and high cost of childcare options for parents, as well as burdensome marginal income tax rates for second earners, create disincentives to work more. A falling but persistent net (i.e. unexplained) wage gap of about 7% in favour of men, coupled with under-representation of women as managers and entrepreneurs, further reduce the incentive for women to take full advantage of their high levels of human capital. Priority should be given to removing those barriers by increasing public spending on childcare and out-of-school-hours care at the cantonal and municipal levels. Existing regulations regarding childcare provision should also be investigated to see whether a broader range of price and quality childcare options is feasible. The implicit tax penalty for married women should also be removed, as the Federal Council is currently considering. More flexibility in working arrangements could further alleviate women's cost of reconciling work and family life. For instance, facilitating flexi-time, annualised hours, job-sharing, part-time and telework options for both women and men, and creating paternity and/or consecutive, take-it-or-leave-it parental leave could facilitate transition in and out of the labour market. Increasing competition in product markets should help reduce the wage gap by replacing old habits with the hunt for talent regardless of gender. Finally, a corporate governance code in favour of a more equal representation of women in leadership positions, and setting ambitious quantitative targets for women on boards combined with the "Comply or Explain" practise, or quotas, should help remove the so-called glass ceiling. This Working Paper relates to the 2013 OECD Economic Review of Switzerland (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/Switzerland).


Background and Aims: In asthma and COPD, a decreased capability of the production of interferon (IFN) in the airway epithelial cells has been demonstrated, and its relationship with exacerbations has been suggested. However, the mechanisms have not been clarified yet. In the present study, we examined whether oxidative stress, which is an important amplifying mechanism in airway diseases, affects a cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS)stimulator of interferon gene (STING) pathway, which is a novel DNA recognizing system in the cytoplasm related to IFN production. Methods: The release of INF-beta from Beas-2B cells after stimulation with poly(deoxyadenylic-deoxythymidylic) acid [poly(dA:dT)], a synthetic analog of dsDNA, was examined with ELISA. Results: In the Beas 2B cells, the expression of cGAS and STING was detected by western blot. Poly(dA:dT) significantly increased the release of IFN-beta in a dose-dependent manner, the effect of which was inhibited by a STING specific inhibitor, H151. Pretreatment with H2O2 significantly attenuated the release of IFN-beta from the epithelial cells after stimulation with poly(dA:dT). Also, pretreatment with cigarette smoke extract showed a similar trend. Conclusions: In the present study, we demonstrated that oxidative stress inhibited the production of dsDNA-induced INF-beta via STING pathway in airway epithelial cells. These data suggest that a decrease in the response of a DNA recognizing system in airway epithelial cells is involved in the pathophysiology of the exacerbations of asthma and COPD.


This study examined the racial attitudes of White undergradu ates (N = 15) enrolled in a service-learning design studio, in which students worked closely on landscape architecture projects with residents in a low-income African American community. Using a modified consensual qualitative research method, the authors analyzed a series of guided inquiry questions at three time points and a focus group discussion at the end of the studio. This resulted in the identification of themes linked to three domains: students' hopes and expectations prior to the servicelearning design studio; their experiences during the semesterlong service-learning project, and their reflections about the service-learning project upon its completion. Although some participants claimed enhanced awareness of their social location, students continued to blame community members for their living conditions. These themes are discussed with regard to cen tral concepts in multicultural psychology and education, such as racial color-blindness and White privilege, and implications for future research and multicultural service-learning courses are offered.


This book brings together discourse analysis and corpus linguistics in a cutting-edge study of figurative language in spoken and written discourse. The authors explore a diverse range of communities from chronic pain sufferers to nursery staff to present a detailed framework for the analysis of figurative language. The reader is shown how figurative language is used between members of these communities to construct their own 'world view', and how this can change with a shift in perspective - for example, when nursery staff are talking to each other about children in their care, and when they are communicating with the children's parents. Figurative language is shown to be pervasive and inescapable, but it is also suggested that it varies significantly across genres. Hence, the use of figurative language can both help and hinder communication, especially when boundaries between genres and discourse communities are crossed.


In the era of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, surveillance of pneumococcal disease and carriage remains of utmost importance as important changes may occur in the population. To monitor these alterations reliable genotyping methods are required for large-scale applications. We introduced a high throughput multiple-locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) and compared this method with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The MLVA described here is based on 8 BOX loci that are amplified in two multiplex PCRs. The labeled PCR products are sized on an automated DNA sequencer to accurately determine the number of tandem repeats. The composite of the number of repeats of the BOX loci makes up a numerical profile that is used for identification and clustering. In this study, MLVA was performed on 263 carriage isolates that were previously characterized by MLST and PFGE. MLVA, MLST and PFGE (cut-off of 80%) yielded 164, 120, and 87 types, respectively. The three typing methods had Simpson's diversity indices of 98.5% or higher. Congruence between MLST and MLVA was high. The Wallace of MLVA to MLST was 0.874, meaning that if two strains had the same MLVA type they had an 88% chance of having the same MLST type. Furthermore, the Wallace of MLVA to clonal complex of MLST was even higher: 99.5%. For some isolates belonging to a single MLST clonal complex although displaying different serotypes, MLVA was more discriminatory, generating groups according to serotype or serogroup. Overall, MLVA is a promising genotyping method that is easy to perform and a relatively cheap alternative to PFGE and MLST. In the companion paper published simultaneously in this issue we applied the MLVA to assess the pneumococcal population structure of isolates causing invasive disease in the Netherlands before the introduction of the 7-valent conjugate vaccine.


ABSTRACT At the risk of oversimplification, virtually all research that scrutinizes COVID-19 is propelled by identical points of departures which chief in their assessment, portray how the pandemic accentuates the likelihood of illiberal or autocratic regimes tightening restrictions upon civil liberties. This paper is no different as it is predicated along this initial starting point but is also carrying an ambition to bring to light how the pandemic context, perhaps counterintuitively has also provided authoritarian governments with the platform to uptake provisions that bring about a veneer of civil rights and the potential which this vacillation between increasingly authoritarian and considerably liberal approaches in handling the virus generates. This paper is offset by Foucault's theorizing on Governmentality and illuminates on how African governments have responded to the virus in the textbook manner Foucault envisages. In so doing, it challenges the generally advanced idea that Governmentality is only applicable in Western liberal contexts by looking at African countries response to the COVID-19 pandemic that has enlisted classic Governmentality techniques such as disciplinary power, surveillance and power/knowledge monopoly by African states.


The under-representation of women in STEM has received considerable research attention as scholars attempt to uncover predictors of girls' and women's choice of STEM careers. Our work suggests that congruity between one's family goals and the perception that STEM careers afford those goals may be important in increasing girls' and women's interest and motivation toward STEM. In this paper, we discuss women's family goals as a factor that affects career choice and the perception that STEM fields may not be compatible with caring for one's family. We then present studies that have aimed to increase the congruity between these constructs, and suggest ways that STEM careers can be perceived as "family-friendly" and ultimately change in themselves to become "family-friendly."


Two methods, direct maximum likelihood (ML) and the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm, can be used to obtain ML parameter estimates for structural equation models with missing data (MD). Although the 2 methods frequently produce identical parameter estimates, it may be easier to satisfy missing at random assumptions using EM. However, no single value of N is applicable to the EM covariance matrix, and this may compromise inferences gained from the model fit statistic and parameter standard errors. The purpose of this study was to identify a value of N that provides accurate inferences when using EM. If all confirmatory factor analysis model indicators have MD, results suggest that the minimum N per covariance term yields honest Type 1 error rates. If MD are restricted to a subset of indicators, the minimum N per variance works well. With respect to standard errors, the harmonic mean N per variance term produces honest confidence interval coverage rates.


Although there has been a drive in the cultural heritage sector to provide large-scale, open data sets for researchers, we have not seen a commensurate rise in humanities researchers undertaking complex analysis of these data sets for their own research purposes. This article reports on a pilot project at University College London, working in collaboration with the British Library, to scope out how best high-performance computing facilities can be used to facilitate the needs of researchers in the humanities. Using institutional data-processing frameworks routinely used to support scientific research, we assisted four humanities researchers in analysing 60,000 digitized books, and we present two resulting case studies here. This research allowed us to identify infrastructural and procedural barriers and make recommendations on resource allocation to best support non-computational researchers in undertaking 'big data' research. We recommend that research software engineer capacity can be most efficiently deployed in maintaining and supporting data sets, while librarians can provide an essential service in running initial, routine queries for humanities scholars. At present there are too many technical hurdles for most individuals in the humanities to consider analysing at scale these increasingly available open data sets, and by building on existing frameworks of support from research computing and library services, we can best support humanities scholars in developing methods and approaches to take advantage of these research opportunities.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: As enrollment in active surveillance (AS) expands, it is increasingly important to assess potential risks of deferred treatment. We evaluate the risk of prostate specific antigen (PSA) recurrence in a large cohort of men undergoing radical prostatectomy (RP) after initial AS. METHODS: The study included men undergoing RP after a period of AS with Gleason score (GS) 3+3 or 3+4 at diagnosis, clinical ⩽T2, and a low or intermediate risk Cancer of the Prostate Risk Assessment (CAPRA) score. Men were stratified by a composite variable of GS and volume of high grade cores at diagnosis. Primary outcome was recurrence after RP, defined as two consecutive PSAs ≥0.2 ng/ml or any secondary treatment within 12 months of RP. RESULTS: Of 1,812 men enrolled in AS between 1994 and 2016, 431 (23.8%) underwent deferred RP. Median time to RP was 26 months (IQR 15-46). At diagnosis, 378 men (87.7%) had GS 3+3 disease, 25 men (5.8%) had GS 3+4 disease with one high grade core, and 28 men (6.5%) had GS 3+4 with two or more high grade cores. Reasons for undergoing RP included biopsy upgrade to GS ≥3+4 (289 men, 67.1%), greater than 33% positive cores on surveillance biopsy (55 men, 12.8%), and PSA doubling time less than 36 months (9 men, 2.1%). At surgery, 92 (21.3%) had GS ≥4+3 tumors, 169 (39.2%) had pT3/4 disease, and 10 (2.3%) had positive lymph nodes. Recurrence free survival was 88% at 2 years after RP. Among men with PSA recurrence, median time to recurrence was 15 months (IQR 6-40). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed a significant difference in the risk of recurrence between patients with GS 3+3, 3+4 with one high grade core, and 3+4 with two or more high grade cores at diagnosis (log-rank p=0.02). On multivariable analysis GS 3+4 with two or more high grade cores at diagnosis was associated with risk of recurrence when compared to GS 3+3 disease (HR 2.65, 95%CI 1.23-5.69), while GS 3+4 with one high grade core did not differ from GS 3+3, adjusted for age and PSA density (see table). CONCLUSIONS: The majority of patients undergoing deferred RP after a period of AS did not have any adverse features at the time of surgery. Our results support the careful use of AS in men with GS 3+4 and one high grade core at diagnosis. Men with GS 3+4 and two or more high grade cores at diagnosis had a significantly greater risk of recurrence, and likely benefit from immediate treatment. Table. No title available. Source of Funding: Grant from US Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program (W81XWH-13-2-0074)


Invasive aspergillosis is a rare opportunistic infection mainly occurring in patients with a well-established risk such as neutropenia or conditions that lead to chronically impaired cellular immune responses. Systemic corticosteroids are a well-known risk factor for fungal infections. Recently, reports of invasive aspergillosis in patients treated with monoclonal biologic agents, such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors, have been increasing. We present the case of a 47-year-old female patient with seronegative spondyloarthropathy treated with infliximab and corticosteroids. The patient presented classical symptoms of an acute lower respiratory infection, and she was treated with a β-lactam antibiotic. Infliximab administration was deferred until nine days after clinical recovery. Fourteen days after drug administration, she was admitted with a symptomatic subcortical hematoma in the left parietal region. There was a rapid neurological recovery, and there were no risk factors for haemorrhagic stroke detected. The chest X-ray revealed an oval mass with an air crescent sign, and the CT scan was suggestive of aspergilloma. Bronchoalveolar lavage cytology identified Aspergillus spp. Voriconazole was initiated and, after one month of treatment, the patient was readmitted with a left facial palsy associated with hemiparesis and dysarthria. Laboratory evaluation showed leukocytosis and elevated C-reactive protein. A severe right middle cerebral artery stroke was present on the brain CT scan. Transesophageal echocardiogram revealed large mitral valve vegetation, and the diagnosis of Aspergillus endocarditis with cerebral embolization was made. Fungal infections are challenging due to the diagnosis infrequency and paucisymptomatic natural history. Despite being crucial in the treatment of autoimmune diseases, immunosuppressive drugs increase the risk of fungal infection. It is extremely important to consider Aspergillus infection in immunosuppressed patients, and the need for prophylaxis in non-neutropenic patients with risk factors should be clarified.


The article aims to present analysis of factors determining efficiency of rural community organizations in Lithuania. The last several years have witnessed a tremendous growth of a number of rural community organizations in Lithuania. These organizations may play a crucial role in tackling social exclusion of rural population. Using data of survey conducted by a group of researchers from Initiative of Open Society Fund of Lithuania "Towards Digital Communities" and Social Study Centre of Vilnius University in 2004, the author of the article briefly describes goals of activity of rural community organizations and reveals how successful these organizations are in mobilizing local population for collective activity and how the efficiency of organization is determined by human capital and social capital of organization.


The introduction of chlorpromazine and reserpine into the therapeutic armamentarium of the practicing physician has posed the problem of which drug to use in which type of nervous or mental disorder. The evaluation of the effectiveness of any treatment in psychiatric cases has always been difficult. This is made even more difficult when one is dealing with two drugs which are so similar in action and yet so consistent in their effect from one case to another. It has been my experience that the same patient may not be able to tolerate one drug and yet respond nicely to the other. Much time is lost in trying to find out which drug is the more effective. As a consequence, an increasing number of patients are being started on combined chlorpromazine-reserpine therapy initially, with satisfactory results. The following study is an attempt to compare the results of chlorpromazine alone with reserpine


The compatible solute 3-dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) is accumulated by certain salt-tolerant flowering plants and marine algae. It is the major biogenic precursor of dimethylsulfide, an important sulfur-containing trace gas in the atmosphere. DMSP biosynthesis was investigated in Wollastonia biflora (L.) DC. [=Wedelia biflora (L.) DC., Melanthera biflora (L.) Wild, Asteraceae]. After characterizing DMSP and glycine betaine accumulation in three diverse genotypes, a glycine betaine-free genotype was chosen for radiotracer and stable isotope-labeling studies. In discs from young leaves, label from [U-14C]methionine was readily incorporated into the dimethylsulfide and acrylate moieties of DMSP. This establishes that DMSP is derived from methionine by deamination, decarboxylation, oxidation, and methylation steps, without indicating their order. Five lines of evidence indicated that methylation is the first step in the sequence, not the last. (a) In pulse-chase experiments with [14C]methionine, S-methylmethionine (SMM) had the labeling pattern expected of a pathway intermediate, whereas 3-methylthiopropionate (MTP) did not. (b) [14C]SMM was efficiently converted to DMSP but [14C]MTP was not. (c) The addition of unlabeled SMM, but not of MTP, reduced the synthesis of [14C]DMSP from [14C]methionine. (d) The dimethylsulfide group of [13CH3,C2H3]SMM was incorporated as a unit into DMSP. (e) When [C2H3,C2H3]SMM was given together with [13CH3]methionine, the main product was [C2H3,C2H3]DMSP, not [13CH3,C2H3]DMSP or [13CH3,13CH3]DMSP. The stable isotope labeling results also show that the SMM cycle does not operate at a high level in W. biflora leaves.


ABSTRACT This study presents an ontology-based visualization support system for e-book learners which promotes both meaningful receptive learning and meaningful discovery learning. To examine the system effectiveness, two learning modes are used: (a) reception comparison mode, where at the outset learners are shown complete versions of expert-generated topic maps; and (b) "cache-cache comparison mode," where at the first stage of learning all information concerning relations is concealed, and at the second stage learners are encouraged to actively create those relations before comparing the learner-generated and expert-generated relations. The 50 control group participants studied in reception comparison mode while the 146 experimental groupparticipants studied in cache-cache comparison mode. Differences in learning perception and achievement between the two groups are examined, as is the effect of learner expertise level on learning mode effectiveness. Although the control group reported significantly more pressure and less satisfaction than the experimental group, no significant learning achievement differences were found between the two groups. However, in cache-cache comparison mode, the performance of learners with low prior knowledge increased more than that of learners with high prior knowledge; on the other hand, for learners with high prior knowledge, no significant effect of learning mode on learning achievement was found.


In addition to being observable, systems composed of interconnected subsystems must typically exhibit a particular subsystem structure, if their state is to be estimated successfully by a partition-based moving horizon estimator (PMHE). Suitable subsystem structures—also called system partitionings—can be unknown, may not be desirable for a particular application, or may not exist at all. In this contribution, we present the first PMHE without any restrictions on the system partitioning. We analyze the convergence of its iterations at each time step and the stability of its estimation error dynamics. The benefits of our solution are illustrated on a numerical example.


The impact produced by events occurring in the international arena in 1939 were felt by Romania starting with the summer of 1940 when the country was forced to give up without a fight the Romanian provinces acquired in 1918. Consequences were not only social and economic, but also political, causing King Carol II abdication in favour of his son, Mihai and the investment with full powers to run the Romanian state of General Ion Antonescu. Understanding the impact produced by the summer raptures in 1940 among the Romanian population, Antonescu decided to establish as main objective for both the foreign policy and the domestic one the recovery of these territories. Given his decision to participate in the summer of 1941 in the war against USSR, the present study aims to present different measures taken by his regime during September 1940 – June 1941 to regain the lost provinces.


Broadcast television and its audiences live a paradoxical situation: on the one hand, channels still schedule according to the concept of flow; on the other hand, viewers' zapping counters it. This paper wishes to ascertain the audiences' practices regarding their fidelity to flow. The research tries to answer these questions: how many viewers watch the same channel during a long consecutive period? How many viewers watch a complete programme? Are there significant differences in zapping versus flow faithfulness according to sex, age, socio-demographic class and cable TV access? Is "companionship television" still a viewers' consume practice? The research verifies the effectiveness of flow scheduling, which, while being an ideology and a scheduling and self-promotion practice, is not a practice of most viewers. The results show that flow faithfulness flow is a minority behaviour mainly of older people, women, lower classes and viewers without occupation.


An anomalous sound detection system to detect unknown anomalous sounds usually needs to be built using only normal sound data. Moreover, it is desirable to improve the system by effectively using a small amount of anomalous sound data, which will be accumulated through the system's operation. As one of the methods to meet these requirements, we focus on a binary classification model that is developed by using not only normal data but also outlier data in the other domains as pseudo-anomalous sound data, which can be easily updated by using anomalous data. In this paper, we implement a new loss function based on metric learning to learn the distance relationship from each class centroid in feature space for the binary classification model. The proposed multitask learning of the binary classification and the metric learning makes it possible to build the feature space where the within-class variance is minimized and the between-class variance is maximized while keeping normal and anomalous classes linearly separable. We also investigate the effectiveness of additionally using anomalous sound data for further improving the binary classification model. Our results showed that multi-task learning using binary classification and metric learning to consider the distance from each class centroid in the feature space is effective, and performance can be significantly improved by using even a small amount of anomalous data during training.


Current approaches to estimate the probability of a traffic collision occurring in real-time primarily depend on comparing traffic conditions just prior to collisions with normal traffic conditions. Most studies acquire pre-collision traffic conditions by matching the collision time in the national crash database with the time in the traffic database. Since the reported collision time sometimes differs from the actual time, the matching method may result in traffic conditions not representative of pre-collision traffic dynamics. In this paper, this is overcome through the use of highly disaggregated vehicle-based traffic data from a traffic micro-simulation (i.e., VISSIM) and the corresponding traffic conflicts data generated by the surrogate safety assessment model (SSAM). In particular, the idea is to use traffic conflicts as surrogate measures of traffic safety so that traffic collisions data are not needed. Three classifiers (i.e., support vector machines, k-nearest neighbours, and random forests) are then employed to examine the proposed idea. Substantial efforts are devoted to making the traffic simulation as representative of the real-world as possible by employing data from a motorway section in England. Four temporally aggregated traffic datasets (i.e., 30 s, 1 min, 3 min, and 5 min) are examined. The main results demonstrate the viability of using traffic micro-simulation along with the SSAM for real-time conflicts prediction and the superiority of random forests with 5-min temporal aggregation in the classification results. However, attention should be given to the calibration and validation of the simulation software so as to acquire more realistic traffic data, resulting in more effective prediction of conflicts.


We compare strategies to manage surgical waiting times in Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, and Wales to give policy insights into those that are most effective. Most of these countries have allocated dedicated funding and set explicit waiting time targets. Of the five countries, England has achieved the most sustained improvement, linked to major funding boosts, ambitious waiting-time targets, and a rigorous performance management system. While supply-side strategies are used in all five countries, New Zealand and parts of Canada have also invested in demand-side strategies through the use of clinical criteria to prioritize access to surgery.


INTRODUCTION
As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) hit the US, there was widespread and urgent implementation of telemedicine programs nationwide without much focus on the impact on patient populations with known existing healthcare disparities. To better understand which populations cannot access telemedicine during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, this study aims to demographically describe and identify the most important demographic predictors of telemedicine visit completion in an urban health system.

METHODS
Patient de-identified demographics and telemedicine visit data (N = 362,764) between March 1, 2020 and October 31, 2020 were combined with Internal Revenue Service 2018 individual income tax data by postal code. Descriptive statistics and mixed effects logistic regression were used to determine impactful patient predictors of telemedicine completion, while adjusting for clustering at the clinical site level.

RESULTS
Many patient-specific demographics were found to be significant. Descriptive statistics showed older patients had lower rates of completion (p < 0.001). Also, Hispanic patients had statistically significant lower rates (p < 0.001). Overall, minorities (racial, ethnic, and language) had decreased odds ratios of successful telemedicine completion compared to the reference.

DISCUSSION
While telemedicine use continues to be critical during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, entire populations struggle with access-possibly widening existing disparities. These results contribute large datasets with significant findings to the limited research on telemedicine access and can help guide us in improving telemedicine disparities across our health systems and on a wider scale.


We derive the maximum bias functions of the MM-estimates and the constrained M-estimates or CM-estimates of regression and compare them to the maximum bias functions of the S-estimates and the T-estimates of regression. In these comparisons, the CM-estimates tend to exhibit the most favorable bias-robustness properties. Also, under the Gaussian model, it is shown how one can construct a CM-estimate which has a smaller maximum bias function than a given S-estimate, that is, the resulting CM-estimate dominates the S-estimate in terms of maxbias and, at the same time, is considerably more efficient.


Research suggests "general education classrooms" promote progress for students with severe disabilities (Wehmeyer 2006 pp. 323). However most students with significant challenges which is the more appropriate term used to refer to students with severe cognitive impairments and multiple impairments continue to be educated in substantially separate classrooms which further limits their access to the general curriculum among many other features of an education provided in the least restrictive environment. The information sought from this study was to determine if the implementation of Pitt County's pacing guides paired with professional development would increase the grade appropriate core curriculum content taught to students with significant challenges in Pitt County. The lack of current research on approaches to improving teachers' capacity to ensure that students with significant challenges are taught general curriculum content drove the interest and potential findings of this study. A new Low-Incidence Instructional Coach process was implemented with all low-incidence teachers. As part of this process lesson plans were collected before and after the implementation of pacing guides and professional development. The purpose of the lesson plan analysis was to study what core curriculum content was being taught in these classrooms. The pacing guides are a tool that suggests a sequence that teachers could use to teach core curriculum content in their classrooms throughout the school year. The study examined baseline lesson plans collected at the beginning of the Low-Incidence Instructional Coach process and the lesson plans collected after the pacing guides had been implemented. There was hope that the tool training and continuous coaching (Low-Incidence Instructional Coach process) would help the teachers enhance the education of students with significant challenges.


Ovarian cancer is the deadliest of all cancers affecting the female reproductive system with very few effective treatments available. Prognosis is even worse among patients with certain subtypes of the disease. Now, researchers at The Wistar Institute have identified a new therapeutic target in a particularly aggressive form of ovarian cancer, paving the way for what could be the first effective targeted therapy of its kind for the disease.


Knowledge is an important asset in determining the success and survival of an organization in today's competitive markets. It becomes so important that many advanced Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Information Systems (IS) have been developed and employed by organizations specifically for Knowledge Management (KM). However, KM is not just a technical issue. Human is one of the important elements in KM. Human and technology must cooperate well so that KM can be facilitated. Therefore, how to motivate employees to share their knowledge becomes one of the most important KM issues. This paper aims to: (1) extend IS continuance model to study the behavior of using KMS to share knowledge within an organization and (2) integrate social factors in the model to study their relative importance to the use of KMS to share knowledge. It studied the impacts of perceived usefulness, satisfaction, social factors and task interdependence on the behavior of using KMS to share knowledge within an organization. Literature review and survey were conducted to provide supportive results. In the data analysis, the four factors were found to be significantly related to the behavior being studied and explained a significant proportion of the variance.


With a view to evaluating the human exposure to ion current generated under a dc power transmission line, the exposure was evaluated by means of a numerical method (1) a new ion current analysis method was developed which can be applied to bodies with complex shapes such as biological bodies. (2) The method is based on the boundary element method, (3) the space charge terms were processed under an assumption of a lumped source of ion current, and (4) comparing the theoretical and experimental data, the error was evaluated. The method was then applied to biological bodies. It was found that the electric field on the surface of the biological body in the ion current field becomes larger than the one obtained in the Laplace field without ion current. This result indicates the importance of the analysis of the ion current field. Further, the variation of the electric field concentration accompanied by changes in the posture of the human body were clarified. The variation of the surface electric field when a body is charged by the ion current was clarified, as well. Hence, this paper provides useful information on the determination of the safety standard and on evaluation of the biological effects of ion current field.


In this paper I will try to describe the kinship terms in two languages. Indonesian and Russian are two
languages that are not related genealogically and geographically but in both languages, there are some
similarities, as well as differences. Kinship terms found in these two languages are classified based onbiologic and nonbiologic relationship, and relationships by marriage. Data obtained from the dictionary
terms both languages, namely the Russian General Dictionary compiled by Kuznetsov and General
Indonesian Dictionary compiled by Badudu and Zain. From the data obtained there are a number ofasymmetrical terms in both languages. For examples there are 4 (four) terms in Russian and only 1 (one)
term in Indonesian to indicate a relationship based on marriage. The existence of asymmetric and lacunae
showed that every nation with its language has a specific cultural significance.
The description about kinship terms is very useful in describing the concept of the family in both
nations as the main concept for a larger study. Verbalization kinship through kinship terms indicate how
they view the world around them. Russian language tends to be more detailed in describing the relationships
within the family as compared to Indonesian. However, there are efforts to simplify these terms in Russian,
while there is a tendency of extension in Indonesian term to provide additional information.


Six male and three female patients previously iron deficient after a partial gastrectomy were investigated using a whole body counter to measure their percentage 59Fe retention. No significant difference in iron loss between postgastrectomy patients and controls was found in the majority of subjects over a study which lasted from 175 to 225 days. The detection of increased free iron loss requires a more sensitive double isotope faecal recovery method. Two patients developed acute bleeding during the study and the whole body counter provided clinically useful data on blood loss. If patients develop gastrointestinal blood loss after partial gastrectomy either a recurrent ulcer or a site of blood loss elsewhere (eg, in the lower bowel) should be excluded.


In recent years, many emerging market economies have switched or are in the process of switching to a floating exchange rate regime. Most of these economies have a history of high inflation and a high level of foreign currency denominated debt. Therefore, the stability of the exchange rate and the dynamics of its volatility are more crucial than before. This paper analyses the dynamics of exchange rate in Turkey in the aftermath of recent float in February 2001. The Turkish experience is a particularly important one, and provides valuable lessons for other countries as the Central Bank is trying to simultaneously contain the volatility of exchange rate and pursue an implicit inflation targeting policy. The reported findings indicate that the Central Bank policies, accompanied with favourable external factors, were effective in taming the volatility of the exchange rate in a relatively short period of time. However, there is a significant real appreciation of the currency during the same period. Given the high level of public debt and real interest rates, the current state of the economy is very susceptible to any adverse shocks.


Background—Chronic respiratory failure (CRF) is associated with nocturnal hypoventilation. Due to the interaction of sleep and breathing, sleep quality is reduced during nocturnal hypoventilation. Noninvasive mechanical ventilation (NMV), usually performed overnight, relieves symptoms of hypoventilation and improves daytime blood gas tensions in patients with CRF. The time course of the long term eVect of NMV on sleep and breathing during both spontaneous ventilation (withdrawing the intervention) and NMV was investigated in patients with CRF due to thoracic restriction. Methods—Fifteen consecutive patients (13 women) of mean (SD) age 57.9 (12.0) years with CRF due to thoracic restriction were included in the study. During the one year observation period four polysomnographic studies were performed: three during spontaneous breathing without NMV—before initiation of NMV (T0) and after withdrawing NMV for one night at six months (T6) and 12 months (T12–)— and the fourth during NMV after 12 months (T12+). Daytime blood gas tensions and lung function were also measured. Results—Spontaneous ventilation (in terms of mean oxygen saturation) progressively improved (from T0 to T12–) during both REM sleep (24.8%, 95% CI 12.9 to 36.9) and NREM sleep (21.5%, 95% CI 12.4 to 30.6). Sleep quality during spontaneous ventilation also improved in terms of increased total sleep time (26.8%, 95% CI 11.6 to 42.0) and sleep eYciency (17.5%, 95% CI 5.4 to 29.6) and decreased awakenings (54.0%, 95% CI 70.3 to 37.7). Accordingly, REM and NREM sleep stages 3 and 4 significantly improved. However, the most significant improvements in both nocturnal ventilation and sleep quality were seen during NMV at 12 months. Conclusions—After long term NMV both spontaneous ventilation during sleep and sleep quality in patients with CRF due to thoracic restriction showed evidence of progressive improvement compared with baseline after withdrawal of NMV for a single night at six and 12 months. However, the greatest improvements in nocturnal ventilation and sleep were achieved during NMV at 12 months. (Thorax 2000;55:308–313)


Facile yet rational design of an efficient reversible oxygen electrocatalyst is critical for many renewable energy conversion and storage technologies. Here we report a simple and general synthetic protocol for fabricating a hierarchically porous and heteroatom doped carbon catalyst, which exhibited outstanding oxygen reduction/evolution activities (with a metric potential difference of 0.72 V in 1 M KOH, the best value for metal-free catalysts reported to date) with good stability in different electrolytes. The excellent performances of the catalyst were primarily endowed by our synthetic protocol, which integrates good conductivity, abundant accessible dopant species and suitable porous architectures within an in situ pyrolysis reaction. As a result, the performances of rechargeable Zn–air batteries based on the optimized catalyst substantially outperform those afforded by a benchmark Pt/C catalyzer. Our work is expected to open up new avenues for developing other efficient catalysts in a facile and viable way.


This paper explores current understandings and proposes new directions for research on the place of race in rightist social movements in the contemporary United States. We examine two broad categories of rightist movements. The first is white-majority conservative movements that deny their participation in racialized politics but in which race is implicit in their ideologies and agendas, such as the Tea Party. The second is far-right movements that explicitly espouse racist ideologies and agendas, such as neo-Nazi groups. For conservative movements, we examine the extent to which racial factors shape agendas and motivate participants. For far-right movements, we examine how they define race and seek to enact their racial goals. We point to productive possibilities for new research on the racial positionality of scholars of social movements, the relationship between rightist movements and larger social trends, and processual and longitudinal aspects of rightist movements.


According to modern ecological theory, ecosystems are fragile combinations of diverse elements, and their resilience—or ability to recover after external shocks—varies as the system develops. Under conditions of low resilience, the system can collapse unpredictably and shift into a new state. Biodiversity in ecosystems, however, helps to maintain resilience. These basic natural principles also help to illuminate the social processes of empires. Like ecosystems, empires expand, grow, and collapse unpredictably when they lose the ability to respond to external shocks. Just as biodiversity increases resilience, imperial formations prosper when they are more cosmopolitan, incorporating diverse cultural elements that foster institutional innovation, and they suffer collapse when they limit participation by outside challengers. The author develops this analogy between ecosystems and imperial formations through a discussion of the Ming and Qing empires, concluding with reflections on the Maoist production system and the current resilience of China today.


Innovation events - the introduction of new products or processes - represent the end of a process of knowledge sourcing and transformation. They also represent the beginning of a process of exploitation which may result in an improvement in the performance of the innovating business. This recursive process of knowledge sourcing, transformation and exploitation we call the innovation value chain. Modelling the innovation value chain for a large group of manufacturing firms in Ireland and Northern Ireland highlights the drivers of innovation, productivity and firm growth. In terms of knowledge sourcing, we find strong complementarity between horizontal, forwards, backwards, public and internal knowledge sourcing activities. Each of these forms of knowledge sourcing also makes a positive contribution to innovation in both products and processes although public knowledge sources have only an indirect effect on innovation outputs. In the exploitation phase, innovation in both products and processes contribute positively to company growth, with product innovation having a short-term 'disruption' effect on labour productivity. Modelling the complete innovation value chain highlights the structure and complexity of the process of translating knowledge into business value and emphasises the role of skills, capital investment and firms' other resources in the value creation process.


A combination of simulations and experimental data analysis has been used to demonstrate that, because cardiovascular control represents a complex linking of input and output parameters, interpreting the variability of individual parameters such as heart rate and arterial pressure virtually requires the use of techniques that quantify control by relating these inputs and outputs. Transfer functions represent appropriate techniques for this purpose. Further, despite the complexities of in vivo physiological control, many of the control elements can be well characterized by only taking into account single inputs and outputs and using a bivariate AR model. However, occasionally when two control systems have a strong and simultaneous influence on a single output parameter, such as arterial pressure and respiratory activity on RR interval, an expansion of the model to the general multivariate case may be required for a complete interpretation. Finally, although not fully demonstrated here, because of the closed-loop nature of cardiovascular control it is likely that algorithms that include causality to account for this characteristic, such as the AR formulation, will most accurately identify the transfer relations.


Conclusion : ERNIE seeks to address the need for access to treatment for Australian children with one or more tree nut allergies by establishing the safety and tolerability of a novel protocol for multi-nut OIT. Experience to date supports the feasibility of recruitment and treatment initiation, with preliminary safety data demonstrating a low incidence of at home treatment-related anaphylaxis (1.2 per 1000 doses)


In the Philippines, there are more than 110 culturally diverse ethnic tribes and communities. As clearly stated in the 1987 Philippine Constitution, Article XIV, Section 17, the state shall recognize, respect, and protect the rights of the indigenous cultural communities to preserve and develop their cultures, traditions, and institutions. The Aeta, Agta or Ayta are indigenous people who live in scattered, isolated mountainous parts of Barangay San Jose (Anyao), Catanauan, Quezon. The researcher conducted an ethnological study to document the Indigenous People integrated pest management practices employing the descriptive survey method. Based on the result, 80% were still practicing the traditional way of managing the pest without harming the human and environment. The Aeta farmers leave the infected crops, manually pick burn or use smoke to eliminate the pest.Moreover, the farmers also practice crop rotation, mixed cropping, and properly manage the farm. Crop loss due to pests was one of the major problems resulting from reducing production and income. The chemical control of pests was predominant, but the Aeta farmers still practiced traditional pest control. The conventional pest control practices played a significant role in the management of agricultural land, and it was an inevitable practice for sustainable agriculture. The proper control of pests minimized economic losses and damage to the environment. Some of the respondents have insufficient skills and knowledge on the ethnological way of controlling pest and diseases using insect repellant like marigold or Amarillo, lemongrass or tanlad, oregano, and by spraying wild chili mixed with water. Based on the result, it was recommended to conduct seminars and workshops on Organic Agriculture as well as an awareness campaign on the effect of chemical fertilizer to human and environment


Background/Aims: Increased susceptibility of the kidney to acute renal failure (ARF) in the setting of sepsis even in the absence of systemic hypotension is well known. In the hypothesis that the proinflammatory cytokines and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in gram-negative sepsis can directly cause renal tubular cell apoptosis via Fas- and caspase-mediated pathways, we examined apoptosis and Fas, Fas ligand, FADD expression, as well as PARP cleavage in cultured human proximal tubular cells under the cytokine and LPS-stimulated conditions. Methods: HK-2 cell, immortalized human proximal tubular cell lines, were treated with 5 and 30 ng/ml of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), 5 and 20 ng/ml of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and 30 ng/ml LPS for 24 h. Fas expression was examined by RT-PCR and Fas ligand, Fas-associated protein with death domain (FADD) and poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) cleavage were examined by Western blot analysis. Apoptosis was assessed by flow cytometer using Annexin V-FITC and propidium iodide (PI) staining and also by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL) methods. Results: Fas mRNA expression (ratio of Fas/L-19) increased in the TNF-α 5, 30 ng/ml and LPS treated group (p < 0.01, p < 0.01, p = 0.02), but there was no difference between the low- and high-dose TNF-α groups. Fas ligand protein expression did not increase in the low-dose TNF-α treated group, but it increased significantly in the high-dose TNF-α treated group (p< 0.01), IL-1β- and LPS-treated groups (p < 0.01, p = 0.01, p < 0.01, p = 0.02). The intracellular adaptor protein, FADD expression also increased significantly in the high-dose TNF-α- and IL-β-treated groups (p = 0.04, p = 0.04), but in the low-dose TNF-α and IL-β treated group, it did not show statistically significant differences. In the LPS group, FADD expression also showed an increased tendency, but it was not statistically significant (p = 0.09). Western blot for PARP, a DNA repair enzyme mainly cleaved by caspase 3, showed increased 89- and 24-kD PARP cleavage products in TNF-α, IL-1β and LPS treated cells. The degree of apoptosis examined by DNA fragmentation and translocation of membrane phosphatidyl serine significantly increased in cytokines and LPS treated groups. Conclusion: These results suggest that Fas- and caspase-mediated apoptosis of tubular cells by inflammatory cytokines and LPS can be one of the possible mechanisms of renal dysfunction in endotoxemia.


ABSTRACT Developing strong language and communication skills in the first years of life provides young children with a foundation for a number of positive outcomes, including school readiness, early literacy skills, and self-regulation. High quality language supports in early childhood education programs are key to this development. Part of providing these high-quality language supports involves educators perceiving themselves as efficacious in their capability to support young children's language development. Using mixed methods, this study examines the extent to which there are changes in educators' language-focused self-efficacy after participating in professional development program focused on promoting infant/toddler language development. We examine the changes across two groups: (1) educators who participated in a workshop focused on infant/toddler language development and (2) educators who participated in the same workshop plus one-on-one practice-based coaching. Results suggest that participation in the workshop plus coaching compared to the workshop alone was related to greater growth in self-efficacy in language modeling and instructional practices. In follow-up interviews, coached educators reported on their perceptions of impact of the program on their practices and interactions with children. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.


Abstract. A future development site of a housing estate, an abandoned-brick yard with clayey slopes was studied in details to assess slope stability and to calculate the factor of safety. The Oligocene clay, the former raw material, is divided into two different geotechnical units in the clay pit. The lower one consists of grey impermeable clays while the upper unit is characterised by yellowish weathered clay having a limited permeability. At some localities the topmost weathered clay layers are covered by loess, and slope debris. Parts of the former pit were also used as a landfill site. The slope stability analyses were performed based on borehole information and laboratory analyses in order to provide necessary engineering geological data for further site development and urban planning. Two geotechnical codes Plaxis and Geo4 were used to model the slope failures and assess the slope stability. The aim of using two different approaches was to compare them since Plaxis uses finite elements modelling while Geo4 uses conventional calculation methods to obtain circular and polygonal slip surfaces. According to model calculations and field data, the main trigger mechanisms of landslides seem to be high pore pressure due to rainwater and small slope debris covered springs. The slip surface is located at the boundary zone of yellow weathered and grey unaltered clay. Two computer models gave very similar results; although Plaxis provides combined safety factor which is slightly more pessimistic when compared to the safety factor obtained by using Geo4.


Problem statement: The point-line geometry of type D4,2 was introduced and characterized by many authors such as Shult and Buekenhout and in several researches many of geometries were considered to construct good families of codes and this forced us to present very important substructures in such geometry that are hyperplanes. Approach: We used the isomorphic classical polar space Ω+(8, F) and their combinatorics to construct the hyperplanes and the family of certain codes related to such hyperplanes. Results: We proved that each hyperplane is either the set Δ2 (p) which consisted of all points at a distance mostly 2 from a fixed point p or a Grassmann geometry of type A3,2 and then we presented a new family of non linear binary constant-weight codes. Conclusion: The hyperplanes of the geometry D4,2 allow us to discuss further substructures of the geometry such as veldkamp spaces.


Abstract The primary purpose of this study was to determine awareness and use of the Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health (SGR) among Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES). A secondary purpose was to determine whether use of the SGR varied by physical activity level of the respondents. A total of 540 CHES completed a survey that included open- and closed-ended items regarding their awareness and use of the SGR and questions about their participation in physical activity. Twenty-five incomplete surveys were excluded from analyses, which resulted in a final sample of 515. The majority of CHES (78.3%, n = 403) had heard of the SGR. Of the 403 who were aware of the report, 52.8% (n = 208) had used the information from the report in their work setting. In addition, CHES who engaged in regular vigorous physical activity were more likely to use the report in their work setting than less active CHES (χ2 = 15.39, df = 3, p = .002). It is encouraging that a large number of CHES are using the SGR information within their own worksite physical activity programs.


This study investigates the existence of intercultural adjustment in the multicultural construction workplaces by examining the leadership orientations (task-/people-orientation), communication and conflict resolution skills (high/low-context culture), and power relationship styles (high/low power distance) of local Chinese and the British expatriate project managers in the multinational construction companies in Hong Kong. A sample of project managers (N = 40) and their subordinates (N = 61) were surveyed using the structured questionnaires. Statistical techniques (independent-samples t-test, and Pearson correlation analysis) were employed to evaluate the data. The results revealed a number of interesting findings. First, it was found that both project manager groups equally considered the importance of task performance and interpersonal relationship. The results of correlations analysis provide support for the linkages of the length of working abroad with the change in task/people orientation for Chinese and expatriate managers. The analysis revealed that those Chinese managers who have the longest length of time living or working in Western countries tended to measure higher on task-orientation. Similarly, those British expatriate managers who have the longest period of working in Hong Kong tended to be less task-orientated. Second, local Chinese managers were found to be more confrontational when they strongly disagree with their team members than their British expatriate counterparts. It would appear that stress from project deadline which increase the directness and terseness in communication acts, and retain the composure of project managers in dealing with the subordinates. Finally, our findings show that there is significant difference between local Chinese and British expatriate managers in their power relationship with subordinates. This implies that although the intercultural adjustment might influence perceptions of local and expatriate managers, some dominant deep-rooted cultural values and beliefs are still not easily altered. Conclusions are presented along with suggestions for future studies.


Accurately quantifying evapotranspiration (ET) is essential for modelling regional‐scale ecosystem water balances. This study assembled an ET data set estimated from eddy flux and sapflow measurements for 13 ecosystems across a large climatic and management gradient from the United States, China, and Australia. Our objectives were to determine the relationships among monthly measured actual ET (ET), calculated FAO‐56 grass reference ET (ETo), measured precipitation (P), and leaf area index (LAI)—one associated key parameter of ecosystem structure. Results showed that the growing season ET from wet forests was generally higher than ETo while those from grasslands or woodlands in the arid and semi‐arid regions were lower than ETo. Second, growing season ET was found to be converged to within ± 10% of P for most of the ecosystems examined. Therefore, our study suggested that soil water storage in the nongrowing season was important in influencing ET and water yield during the growing season. Lastly, monthly LAI, P, and ETo together explained about 85% of the variability of monthly ET. We concluded that the three variables LAI, P, and ETo, which were increasingly available from remote sensing products and weather station networks, could be used for estimating monthly regional ET dynamics with a reasonable accuracy. Such an empirical model has the potential to project the effects of climate and land management on water resources and carbon sequestration when integrated with ecosystem models. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Levels of differentiation in morphological traits (age at maturity, body length at age, egg mass and body depth) and spawning time were examined in sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka from three geographically proximate but physically distinct creeks in Lake Aleknagik, Alaska. Happy Creek fish had significantly greater values for most measured morphological traits, and Eagle Creek fish spawned significantly later than fish in the other creeks. Phenotypic differentiation between creeks, measured as PST, was then compared with microsatellite marker differentiation between creeks, measured as FST. No correlations were apparent between PST and FST values, and PST values were generally significantly larger than zero (PST ¼ 0� 0018–0� 31) whereas FST values were not (FST ¼ � 0� 0004 to 0� 0016). The insignificant pair-wise FST values between creek samples indicated that gene flow occurs between creeks, assuming the creek populations have reached migration–drift equilibrium. However, the strong homing behaviour of sockeye salmon precludes a scenario in which fish from the three creeks constitute a single population that segregates by body size. Rather, significant phenotypic differentiation suggests that strong divergent selection occurs on the phenotypic traits despite the homogenizing effects of gene flow.


The objective of this study was to determine the effect of different dietary levels of low-glucosinolate rapeseed meal (RSM) on growth performance, blood thyroid hormone concentration, carcass traits, and chemical composition, physicochemical properties, and fatty acid profile of breast meat in growing turkeys. The experiment lasted for 21 wk. Large White BIG-6 turkeys were fed isoenergetic and isonitrogenous diets containing 0, 60, 120, and 180 g/kg of RSM. Each experimental group was comprised of 7 replicates/pen of 28 birds each. There was no effect of graded levels of RSM on final BW. An increase in the inclusion rate of RSM was followed by a linear increase in feed conversion ratio, which was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in the group fed 180 g/kg of RSM. The blood levels of free triiodothyronine decreased significantly (P < 0.05) regardless of the dietary level of RSM. No significant changes in the carcass dressing percentage or the meat fat content were observed. Significant differences were found in the fatty acid composition and physicochemical properties of breast meat. The concentrations of margaroleic acid and saturated fatty acids, including myristic and palmitic acid, in meat from male turkeys fed 120 and 180 g/kg of RSM decreased linearly; whereas the levels of oleic acid and polyunsaturated fatty acids, including linoleic and linolenic acid (an n-3 fatty acid), increased linearly. An increase in RSM content of the diets was accompanied by the unfavorable changes in selected functional properties of meat, including a significant increase in drip loss in groups fed 120 g/kg of RSM (from 1.85 to 2.38%) and 180 g/kg of RSM (from 1.85 to 3.02%) and a decrease in Warner-Bratzler shear force values in turkeys fed 180 g/kg of RSM (from 19.1 to 15.8 N). The results suggest that the quality of turkey meat could be affected by impaired triiodothyronine secretion caused by dietary RSM.


Serious complications of spinal analgesia are fortunately rare, although minor and transient changes in the postoperative period are probably more common than is generally realised. The distinction should be made between complications of the spinal technique itself and those resulting from preexisting disease. Our experience in Athens of spinal analgesia employed in 2018 patients between 1975 and 1977 may be of interest. The method was used in a variety of operations including those of general surgery, gynaecology, urology, orthopaedics and plastic surgery. The patients in this series were aged between 40 and 70 years and the local analgesic agents used were lignocaine 2%, prilocaine 2% or prilocaine 4%. Only two patients developed neurological symptoms and signs in the postoperative period. Both had a history of alcoholism and in both patients complete recovery occurred. The first patient a 45-year-old man, underwent reduction of fractures of the tibia and fibula under spinal analgesia. On the fifth postoperative day he complained of weakness, paraesthesial and loss of sensation in the lower limbs. Neurological examination revealed no sensory deficit but there was diminution of muscle tone and tendon reflexes. Treatment with large doses of Vitamin B complex, thiosulfuric calcium (Versenate) and cortisone was instituted as well as physiotherapy. The symptoms subsided within 1 week and the electro-myelogram following discharge after 4 weeks in hospital was normal. The second patient, a 64year-old man, underwent prostatectomy under spinal analgesia. On the eighth postoperative day he developed tremor, especially of the lower limbs, with considerable muscle weakness on standing, and sensory changes. On examination there were increased spinal reflexes and hyperaesthesia of the skin of the lower limbs. The patient was treated with the same therapeutic regime as the earlier patient and the symptoms subsided within 18 days. The electromyelogram was normal at the time of discharge from hospital 4 weeks later. It would seem that the symptoms and signs which occurred in these two patients might have resulted from the fact that they suffered from chronic alcoholism. Alcoholic polyneuritis is the likely diagnosis and the spinal analgesia was probably not relevant. The experience of over 2000 spinal blocks gained here suggests that it is a useful and safe technique in experienced hands.


This thesis examines the mechanics of claim ascertainment and is primarily based on research carried out on the records maintained by the contract claims section of an abolished metropolitan authority.

The hypothesis that claims are often exaggerated and give no guide to the actual costs incurred is explored using data from 1,141 claim records. This examination shows that there was no correlation between the sums claimed and the eventual settlements.

The main head of claim are examined using actual claims, ascertainments and case law. Methods of presentation and ascertainment are illustrated using extracts from sixty claim files. This examination demonstrates that many claims are based on estimates of resources and costs rather than actual records. Also, it appears common for supervising officers to assess claims rather than carry ot detailed ascertainment.

The ex-metropolitan authority's contract claims section's procedure, which was based on the examination of contractors' actuall account records, is critically examined. From this examination it is clear that both accountancy and and estimating skills are required for the proper ascertainment of contractors' claims and it is suggested that these disciplines should be included in training courses or programmes of continuing education.

At the start of this research I considered that claims could be ascertained with reasonable certainty. However, movements in the law, which have legitimised new heads of claim and allowed a more generalised approach to the ascertainment of others, have made the ascertainment of some heads of claim extremely difficult and sometimes virtually impossible. There are some indications that a reversal of this movement in the law, which has discouraged strict ascertainment, may be underway.

Recommendations to control claims, including possible changes to conditions of contract, are made. Recently some of these proposals have been put into practice by various client organisations who appear to have come to similar conclusions. It is recommended that the main institutions should set up working parties to formulate and publicise the actual mechanics to be used for ascertainment. It is also suggested that major clients should combine and endeavour to standardise procedures to reduce the incidence of claims and adopt a unified system for ascertainment.

Where it is considered that proper ascertainment is impractical it is suggested that an alternative approach, which bases reimbursement on a predetermined weekly sum inserted in the contractor's tender, might be adopted.


Female genital mutilation with its attendant complications has been a harmful traditional practice that is difficult to eliminate despite all efforts by various government and non-governmental agencies in Nigeria. The aim of this study is to assess the experience and the knowledge of the health workers practicing in our environment on Female genital cutting (FGC). Two hundred and fifty were interviewed with self-administered structured questionnaire. Their mean age was 35.2±8.3 years. Type I 82(66.6%) was the commonest FGC seen by the health workers, type II 31(25.2%), type III 9 (7.3%) and type IV constituted 0.8%. Two hundred and two (202) (80.0%) of the respondents admitted to having sufficient knowledge in preventing FGC while 42 (16.8%) did not have. One hundred and twenty one (121) (48.4%) had been asked to perform FGC. It was concluded that female genital cutting is still a major health problem in Nigeria. There is need for all concerned to step up efforts in the elimination of the practice.


In this paper, we describe an interactive museum application dedicated to historical scale models. This comes from a joint work between multidisciplinary teams: industrial engineering researchers, historians, museum curators and interactive interface designer. We present here the result of the project, based on scientific methodology. Results include system architecture, hardware and software, some use cases and user evaluation figures. This paper also underlines some methodologies issues that illustrate future possibilities.


BACKGROUND
Basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas both arise in the epidermis of fair-skinned people in response to ultraviolet light, with the overall frequency of basal cell carcinoma being 4 times that of squamous cell carcinoma. Despite the similarities in the population at risk, and the presumed etiology of these tumors, it is unclear if any one individual has a proclivity to develop only one type of tumor.

OBJECTIVE
The study explores whether or not there is a pattern of expression of basal versus squamous cell carcinoma among people with these cancers.

METHODS
This case-control study involved patients with a total of more than 3 and fewer than 10 basal or squamous cell carcinomas. Patient age and gender, as well as number and location of diagnosed basal and squamous cell carcinomas were gathered and patterns within these values were sought.

RESULTS
Patients found to have at least one basal cell carcinoma tended to produce more basal cell carcinomas and patients found to have at least one squamous cell carcinoma tended to produce more squamous cell carcinomas.

CONCLUSION
The study supports the possibility that people who develop basal cell carcinoma are more likely to develop more basal cell carcinomas. Similarly, people who develop squamous cell carcinoma are more likely to develop more squamous cell carcinomas.


This work is motivated by the rapid increasing of the design complexity of many embedded systems. It aims at the proposing of solutions to resolve the hardware contention issues of non-preemptive processing elements shared among tasks and the cost optimization. A software solution based on the starting time management is proposed to interleave task executions on processing elements. Algorithms are proposed to determine the required processing elements of selected types, when there is no knowledge on the releasing time of any task: When task release orders are known a priori, an optimal algorithm is presented if processing elements have the same cost; otherwise, a pseudo-polynomial-time algorithm based on dynamic programming is presented for optimal solutions. The performance of the algorithms is also evaluated for general cases


We revisit the grid-point requirement estimates in Choi and Moin ["Grid-point requirements for large eddy simulation: Chapman's estimates revisited," Phys. Fluids 24, 011702 (2012)] and establish more general grid-point requirements for direct numerical simulations (DNS) and large-eddy simulations (LES) of a spatially developing turbulent boundary layer. We show that by allowing the local grid spacing to scale with the local Kolmogorov length scale, the grid-point requirement for DNS of a spatially developing turbulent boundary layer is N∼ReLx2.05 rather than N∼ReLx2.64, as suggested by Choi and Moin, where N is the number of grid points and Lx is the length of the plate. In addition to the grid-point requirement, we estimate the time-step requirement for DNS and LES. We show that for a code that treats the convective term explicitly, the time steps required to get converged statistics are Nt∼ReLx/Rex06/7 for wall-modeled LES and Nt∼ReLx/Rex01/7 for wall-resolved LES and DNS (with different prefactors), where Rex0 is the inlet Reynolds number. The grid-point and time-step requirement estimates allow us to estimate the overall cost of DNS and LES. According to the present estimates, the costs of DNS, wall-resolved LES, and wall-modeled LES scale as ReLx2.91, ReLx2.72, and ReLx1.14, respectively.


Introduction: With a growing number of approximately 1.2 million colorectal cancer (CRC) survivors, there is an urgent need for coordinated follow-up care for this population. National guidelines recommend implementing Cancer Survivorship Plans (CSPs) as the standard of care for CRC survivors. Despite this recommendation, little is known about the use of CSPs in clinical practice and patients9 interests and preferences. This study evaluated receipt and interest in CSPs and preferred modes of receiving CSPs in an ethnically and geographically diverse population of colorectal cancer survivors in New Mexico. Methods: Men and women with a history of local or regional stage colorectal cancer at diagnosis were identified through the New Mexico Tumor Registry. A mailed English- and Spanish-language survey was distributed to CRC survivors with a 62% cooperation rate. Survey items included interest, receipt, and communication preferences regarding CSPs. Descriptive statistics and chi square analysis were used to characterize respondents by ethnicity, primary language spoken at home, and rural urban commuting area (RUCA) codes. Results: Two hundred eighty-nine CRC survivors responded to the survey of whom 42% were Hispanic and 58% were non-Hispanic (NH). The median age was 63 (± 7.6) years and 52% were male. Overall, only 13% of patients reported they had received a CSP with an equal distribution amongst Hispanics and NHs. Only 23% of participants reported that their physician talked to them about a CSP. A significantly higher percentage of Hispanics reported being interested in receiving a CSP (76%) compared to NHs (35%) (p Conclusions: CSPs have the potential to improve the overall quality of life, health, and care delivery for CRC survivors. Although interest in CSPs was high, only a small percentage of CRC survivors reported having received a CSP. Ethnicity and primary language spoken at home are factors that contribute to interest in CSPs and may influence the preferred mode of delivery for CSPs. Citation Format: Jessie Padilla Medina, Kristina Fllores, Myra Murillo, Jean McDougall, Anita Kinney. Receipt, interest, and preferences for communication of cancer survivorship plans for colorectal cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Tenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2017 Sep 25-28; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2018;27(7 Suppl):Abstract nr C36.


This thesis investigates Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in German undergraduate programmes in the UK. At its core is a study of how one German department integrates the teaching of language and content in its undergraduate programmes and how instructors and students experience this approach. This micro-context is embedded in the wider macro-context of UK Higher Education and subject to outside forces - be they political, economic, socio-cultural - whose effects will manifest in more or less obvious ways. Data was collected via an online survey of Heads of German at British universities to determine the status quo of CLIL in UK Higher Education and to investigate how certain institutional parameters determine the introduction of CLIL in Higher Education. This project employs a mixed-method case study approach and is based on student questionnaires and semi-structured interview with German teaching staff. The study brings to light a number of significant aspects. For example, contrary to popular belief, content provision in the L2 is rather common at British universities, which is currently not reflected in the research. Student data indicates that German students perceive clear advantages in the university's approach to CLIL. They consider German-taught content classes challenging yet beneficial for their language development. Staff interviews have yielded intriguing information about perceived advantages and disadvantages of CLIL, about its implications for classroom practice, and about instructors' attitude towards teacher training, which echo findings from similar investigations in European contexts. Finally, the results of the macro-analysis and the case study are compared and contrasted with findings from European research on ICLHE/CLIL to determine differences and similarities with the British context, a set of recommendations is made regarding CLIL practice at the case study institution, and some implications these indings may have for the future of CLIL in British higher education are discussed.


In this paper, we present two learning mechanisms for artificial neural networks (ANN's) that can be applied to solve classification problems with binary outputs. These mechanisms are used to reduce the number of hidden units of an ANN when trained by the cascade-correlation learning algorithm (CAS). Since CAS adds hidden units incrementally as learning proceeds, it is difficult to predict the number of hidden units required when convergence is reached. Further, learning must be restarted when the number of hidden units is larger than expected. Our key idea in this paper is to provide alternatives in the learning process and to select the best alternative dynamically based on run-time information obtained. Mixed-mode learning (MM), our first algorithm, provides alternative output matrices so that learning is extended to find one of the many one-to-many mappings instead of finding a unique one-to-one mapping. Since the objective of learning is relaxed by this transformation, the number of learning epochs can be reduced. This in turn leads to a smaller number of hidden units required for convergence. Population-based learning for ANN's (PLAN), our second algorithm, maintains alternative network configurations to select at run time promising networks to train based on error information obtained and time remaining. This dynamic scheduling avoids training possibly unpromising ANNs to completion before exploring new ones. We show the performance of these two mechanisms by applying them to solve the two-spiral problem, a two-region classification problem, and the Pima Indian diabetes diagnosis problem.


Commercially pure titanium (Ti-cp) is extensively employed for dental implants applications due to its good biocompatibility, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. The present research work considers an innovative surface treatment, in order to improve the bone bonding ability of Ti-cp implants. The process include two phases: inorganic modification, aimed to obtain a thicker titanium oxide layer with a bioactive behaviour, micro and nano-textures and a high hydroxylazion degree, and functionalization with biomolecules able to promote osteointegration (alkaline phosphatase), in order to confer a more specific biological bioactivity. K Titanium, bone-integration, bioactivity, nanotexture


Various growth regulators are used for plant stress reduction. They help to maintain the osmotic pressure required in cells and protect against increased saline concentration in the nutrition medium. The purpose of the experiment was to determine the influence of bioactive products produced from amino acids: proline amino acid (PAA) Prolis, and glutamic amino acid and potassium sulphate (GAA-K2SO4) Pompa, and stem decapitation on the formation of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) minitubers of early cultivar 'Goda' and very late cultivar 'VB Aista' with different durat ion of plant ontogenesis. Amino acid products were used once (after potato microclone transplanting to the substrate) or twice (after microclone transplanting to the substrate and after 30 days) during the growing season. Stem decapitation was performed at growth stages BBCH 51 and 57. The influence of PAA and GAA-K2SO4 on the productivity of microclones was found to depend on the potato genotype. The minituber weight of potato late cultivar 'VB Aista' increased significantly (P < 0.05) after treating plants with GAA-K2SO4 once or twice during the growing season. Stem decapitation at stage BBCH 57 significantly increased the minituber weight of both cultivars and the number of minitubers of 'VB Aista'. A strong positive correlation was established between the minituber weight and nitrogen concentration in the potato leaves at the flowering stage.


Results: A total of 602 organ systems in 260 exams out of 193 patients were identified for this study (26 exams in the first trimester, 161 in the second, and 73 in third trimester). Table 1 shows the total number of organs scanned with 3DUS for each impact group. In the D group, the most significant findings were in these organs: face exams 10, brain 5 and uterine shape 4. In the I group, the most significant findings were in these organs: extremities 16 exams, urogenital system 15, placenta 15 and brain 10. In the V group, the most significant findings were in these organs: face 101 exams, spine 75, extremities 74 and skull 68. In the S group, the most significant findings were in these organs: heart 5 exams, and adnexa 3.


While empirical analyses of the relationship between regime type and international conflict are less common now than they were in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the theoretical foundations of "democratic peace" (the empirical pattern that democracies rarely fight each other) remain uncertain. In this paper we test propositions which place theoretical emphasis on one aspect of democracy, genuine competition among organized groups for power. This elite-based explanation points to the existence of a viable opposition as key to tempering conflict behavior. Our propositions about political competition are tested against competing explanations regarding political participation, which we relate to "selectorate" theory, which emphasizes the demand for public goods engendered in mass participation in genuine elections, another key aspect of democracy. We also examine institutions of constraint on executive governmental power. It is rare that specific components of regime type are tested against each other in the same models. This more nuanced specification of regime type, we argue, provides both a better test of competing theories, and a better specified econometric modeling approach. In order to provide a difficult test, we use data from regions which have previously shown little or no evidence for the democratic peace: Africa and Asia. Our modeling approach takes into consideration the potential complexity of the relationship between specific components of regime type, and external conflict behavior. We use selection models to account for the interrelated stages of conflict initiation and escalation. We have developed a new machine-learning based parameter estimation technique for Generalised Linear Models (GLM), and applied it to better understand the potentially complex interactions and non-linear effects between regime-type components and conflict and peace. We find that our proposed specification of monotonic and non-monotonic dynamics for the relationship between conflict initiation and escalation, on the one hand, and institutions of political participation and political competition, on the other, proves reasonably robust when tested on data for Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia. The major exception is that both sorts of institutions have very different effects on dispute initiation in East Asia, than in Africa or globally.


1451 questionnaires were used in a survey. With 87% the population showed great interest for health questions. 2 thirds satisfaction with the present health system combined with 1 third of pessimism, concerning the opinion that the health system in the present form cannot persist because of financial difficulties. Higher educational levels showed more critisism. 800 verbal statements demanded more time for medical conversation; more esthetics in hospitals; inclusion of dental and spectacle-supplies into the health system; more alternative medicine (with very different opinions what should be ment by it). Selection of special risk group, like smoking, adipositas and extreme-sports. Cures were charged very differently, from "regular cheating" to an importance of getting allocation for the cure more easily. In 3 panel discussions confirmation of the above-mentioned items and some additional new points could be obtained including the importance of rehabilitation in old age.


For compounds directed against molecular targets expressed in tumor cells, the ex vivo 3D tumor clonogenic assay (TCA) is a rapid and reliable ex vivo assay with a high predictive value for in vivo tumor sensitivity. Single cell suspensions prepared from patient-derived tumor xenografts (PDX) growing subcutaneously in nude mice or from cultured human tumor cell lines are seeded in semisolid medium and tumor colony formation is monitored in the presence or absence of test compounds over a period of one to three weeks. Based on experiments with up to 70 PDX, we have demonstrated that the TCA accurately replicates the in vivo sensitivity of PDX towards cMet inhibitors across all major tumor histologies. More specifically, all three NSCLC PDX that regressed in response to cMet inhibition in in vivo efficacy tests were sensitive to several cMet inhibitors in the ex vivo TCA. By contrast, data obtained with a 2D cell proliferation and survival assay did not correlate with the 3D and in vivo situations, suggesting that cMet function does not affect cell survival and proliferation on plastic but confers the capacity for anchorage-independent growth. The correlation of 3D but not 2D data with in vivo sensitivity was confirmed using anti-cMet siRNAs in selected PDX-derived non-small cell lung cancer cell lines. Preliminary immunohistochemical analysis revealed that PDX sensitive to cMet inhibitors expressed high cMet levels while not all PDX expressing high cMet levels were sensitive to cMet inhibitors. In conclusion, for cMet inhibitors the TCA replicates in vivo sensitivities of PDX to a high degree. Due to its short duration the TCA is an excellent tool for the screening of large numbers of cMet inhibitors and PDX. As all of the PDX qualified for use in the TCA (>200) have been extensively molecularly characterised (gene expression, gene copy number variation and mutation analysis) this assay is also an excellent tool for generating high quality biomarker hypotheses during the preclinical profiling of molecules intended for oncology indications. Citation Format: Sabine Gorynia, Jianing Guo, Andreas Ackermann, Armin Maier, Rebekka Krumbach, Gerhard Kelter, Vincent Vuaroqueaux, Thomas Metz, Thomas Metcalfe, Heiner H. Fiebig. Ex vivo 3D assay: rapid and reliable replication of the in vivo anti-tumor efficacy of c-Met inhibitors. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3835. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-3835


Hazard Services is a software toolkit that integrates information management, hazard alerting, and communication functions into a single user interface. When complete, National Weather Service forecasters across the United States will use Hazard Services for operational issuance of weather and hydrologic alerts, making the system an instrumental part of the threat management process. As a new decision-support tool, incorporating an understanding of user requirements and behavior is an important part of building a system that is usable, allowing users to perform work-related tasks efficiently and effectively. This paper discusses the Hazard Services system and findings from a usability evaluation with a sample of end users. Usability evaluations are frequently used to support software and website development and can provide feedback on a system's efficiency of use, effectiveness, and learnability. In the present study, a user-testing evaluation assessed task performance in terms of error rates, error types, response time, and subjective feedback from a questionnaire. A series of design recommendations was developed based on the evaluation's findings. The recommendations not only further the design of Hazard Services, but they may also inform the designs of other decision-support tools used in weather and hydrologic forecasting.

Incorporating usability evaluation into the iterative design of decision-support tools, such as Hazard Services, can improve system efficiency, effectiveness, and user experience.


Mootaz M. Ghazy Study of Corrosion Behavior for Welded Area of Stressed Austenitic Stainless Steel The corrosion behavior of austenitic steel was investigated under both static and dynamic conditions. In this study, corrosion behavior of welded and unwelded austenitic stainless steels, SS304,SS310,SS316 were investigated using three different stirring speeds,100,200,350 rpm and were subjected to two different corrosive environments seawater (3.5%NaCl) and acidic ferric chloride (FeCl3). The rate of corrosion was measured using spectrophotometry. The microstructure was examined using optical microscopy. Experimental results indicated that the highest corrosion rate was observed in acidic ferric chloride, 8.56 mg/(min*cm2) for SS304 at 350 rpm speed (high mechanical stress condition), compared to sea water under the same conditions,7.96 x 10-4 mg/(min*cm2). Welded stainless steel area was highly sensitive to the corrosive environment as a result of increasing the thermal stresses in both the weld zone and the heat affected zone (HAZ). Also, the corrosion rate was found to increase with increasing the stirring speed due to its effect on the mass transfer and mechanical and thermal stresses


Protoceratium reticulatum as a producer of yessotoxin (YTX) and its analogues is common in several coastal environments. The YTX‐producing strain of P. reticulatum, isolated from the German Bight (North Sea), was analysed to study toxin production under various autecological conditions. Experiments were carried out to investigate the influence of N/P ratio (2.44, 24.36 and 243.65), temperature (15 and 20 °C), salinity (5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 ‰ salinity) and growth phase on YTX formation, cell size and chlorophyll a concentration. P. reticulatum showed the highest growth at 15 °C and higher salinities (25 and 30 ‰ salinity). In particular, higher temperature led to a reduced growth. The total YTX concentrations were higher at lower temperature. However, a clear correlation between salinity and YTX production was not observed at lower temperature. Furthermore, P‐limited and control cultures exhibited the highest cell quota of YTX at the end of the stationary phase; a dramatic effect occurred at 15 °C under P‐limitation, when the toxicity increased to ten fold higher values. Slight variations of the composition of the YTX analogues under nutrient limitation were observable. In addition, the results indicate that N‐limitation cause a lower cell size, whereas P‐limitation leads to a higher cell size; an influence of the salinity on cell size was also observable.


OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the prevalence and therapy outcome of moderate and severe neuropsychiatric manifestations (NPM) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus admitted at the Hospital Geral de Fortaleza. METHODS: During two years, 110 patients with consecutive hospitalizations suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus, according to the American College of Rheumatology criteria, were evaluated for moderate and severe NPM. The following parameters were studied in these patients: cause of admission, presence of auto-antibodies, cerebral spinal fluid, radiological imaging, retrospective study of medical records and treatment. RESULTS: The prevalence of NPM was 16.4% (18/110), being seventeen women and one man; the mean age was 29 years; during the hospitalization term, only 33% (6/18) of the patients had an NPM. The occurrence of the first NPM was in 11% (2/18) of the cases before diagnosis, in 33% (6/18) during diagnosis and in 56% (10/18) after diagnosis. The mortality rate was 11% (2/18). The most common NPM's were: seizures and headache (50%), psychosis (22%), cerebrovascular disease (17%), syncope and major depression (11%). Treatment outcome: 28% (5/18) of the patients responded to oral corticoids, 17% (3/18) had a pulse of methylprednisolone and 56% (10/18) were treated with cyclophosphamide. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of NPM in the patients of this study was on the lowest limit reported by the related literature. With no controlled clinical trials, the approach to these patients is based on case reports and the professional experience of the service.