Background: The upper aerodigestive tract (UAT) includes the nose and paranasal sinuses, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, and salivary glands. Cancers of the UAT constitute approximately 4% of all malignancies. In this study, the varied nature of the UAT cancers was studied to find out their incidence, etiology, and clinicopathological correlations. Materials and Methods: This prospective, observational, and clinicopathological study was conducted on 100 patients who were presented at outdoor in the Department of ENT, Government Medical College/Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, Punjab, India, from October 2016 to October 2018. Proven cases of UAT cancers were taken up and reviewed to gather data on multiple clinicopathological variables, such as age, sex, predisposing factors, and site of pathology. Histopathological differentiation was noted after conducting a biopsy. Results: Most patients of UAT cancers were in the age group of 40–70 years. Maximum incidence was among males (82%) compared to females (28%). The most common predisposing factor was alcohol + smoking (28%), followed by alcohol + chewing tobacco (25%). The most common symptom in the oral cavity was ulcer and odynophagia (38%) each. In oropharyngeal cancers, dysphagia (92%) was the most common symptom. In laryngeal cancers, dyspnea (68%) and hoarseness of voice (32%) were the most common. The most common site involved in UAT cancers was the oral cavity (31%), followed by oropharynx (28%), larynx (22%), hypopharynx (7%), and salivary gland (5%). The most common histopathological type was squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (90%). Most of the ulceroproliferative and exophytic growth was moderately differentiated SCC on histopathology. Conclusion: Studies are essential for education and awareness aimed at reducing exposure to habit-forming substances.


Abstract: Surficial shell accumulations from shallow marine settings are typically averaged over centennial-to-millennial time scales and dominated by specimens that died in the most recent centuries, resulting in strongly right-skewed age-frequency distributions (AFDs). However, AFDs from modern offshore settings (outer shelf and uppermost continental slope) still need to be explored. Using individually dated shells (14C-calibrated amino acid racemization), we compared AFDs along an onshore-offshore gradient across the southern Brazilian shelf, with sites ranging from the inner shelf, shallow-water (< 40 m) to offshore, deep-water (> 100 m) settings. The duration of time averaging is slightly higher in deeper water environments, and the AFD shapes change along the depositional profile. The inner shelf AFDs are strongly right-skewed due to the dominance of shells from the most recent millennia (median age range: 0–3 ka). In contrast, on the outer shelf and the uppermost continental slope, AFDs are symmetrical to left-skewed and dominated by specimens that died following the Last Glacial Maximum (median age range: 15–18 ka). The onshore-offshore changes in the observed properties of AFDs—increased median age and decreased skewness, but only slightly increased temporal mixing—likely reflect changes in sea level and concurrent water depth-related changes in biological productivity. These results suggest that on a passive continental margin subject to post-glacial sea-level changes, the magnitude of time-averaging of shell assemblages is less variable along the depositional profile than shell assemblage ages and the shapes of AFDs.


Microglia are immune cells colonized in the central nervous system (CNS) during the development of the embryo. They make up about 12% of the glial cell population in the brain. These cells play an important role in eliminating the damage that may occur in the CNS or in carrying out normal functions. Microglia cells, which are in morphologically inactive form, are characterized by small cell body, small amounts of cytoplasm and cellular extensions that are released towards the environment. They undergo a significant morphological change and switch to the active form in a pathophysiological condition in the CNS, and they have the ability to migrate to the damaged area by ameboid movement. In today's studies, microglial cells in the active form has been stated to show neuroprotective and neurotoxic effects in neuronal structures in addition to carrying out phagocytosis of metabolic residues in the medium. It has also been mentioned in recent studies that microglial cells located in the CNS have a highly sensitive activation mechanism against inflammation and pathological conditions. Understanding the microglial activation mechanism in neurodegenerative diseases is thought to may contribute to the diagnosis / treatment of neurological diseases as well as being a diagnostic marker for the etiology of the diseases. In this review, the general characteristics and activation mechanism of microglial cells and their functional roles in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis diseases were discussed in the current review.


Objective. —This article reviews the incidence of arterial thromboembolism in patients with heart failure who are not receiving anticoagulants. We also examine whether more severe ventricular dysfunction increases this incidence and the efficacy and risks of anticoagulation for patients in sinus rhythm. Data Sources. —English-language studies referenced in MEDLINE or EMBASE (January 1966 to September 1993) were reviewed. We used the search terms heart failure, congestive; congestive heart failure; heart failure; cardiac failure ; and dilated cardiomyopathy in conjunction with the terms anticoagulation, cerebrovascular disorders, stroke , and thromboembolism . Study Selection. —All studies with separate data for patients with chronic heart failure not receiving anticoagulants were included. Articles addressing valvular heart disease or heart failure secondary to acute myocardial infarction or Chagas' disease were excluded. Studies of the occurrence of left ventricular mural thrombi were also reviewed. Data Extraction and Synthesis. —Inclusion and exclusion criteria, prevalence of atrial fibrillation, mean follow-up, and the occurrence of arterial thromboembolic events were extracted. If the incidence was not given, this was estimated using the proportion of patients with events divided by the mean follow-up. Conclusion. —The incidence of arterial thromboembolism ranged from 0.9 to 5.5 events per 100 patient-years, with the largest studies reporting incidence of 2.0% and 2.4%. Findings regarding the relationship between ventricular function and thromboembolic events are contradictory. No controlled trial has assessed the efficacy or risks of anticoagulation for patients with heart failure and sinus rhythm, and reported efficacy in case series ranged from 0% to 100%. Until adequate studies are performed, anticoagulation should be discouraged for patients with heart failure who are in sinus rhythm. ( JAMA . 1994;272:1614-1618)


1. Introduction: The history of electronic publishing is very short if compared with traditional forms of publishing, but full of important events. The very first e-publishing came in the 1980's in the form of plain text e-mails. They were sent to the subscriber via a mailing list. After many changes, finally in the years 1994-95 appeared the very first e-journals. The first e-journal to be distributed was Electronics Letters online by IEEE (Institution of Electrical Engineers) (Pettenati, Corrado, 2001) The 24x7 availability of the online journals; facility to access the issues from any corner of the world with the help of internet and more importantly as the journals are available online there is no need to bound the issues at the end of the year and preserve it on the shelf for year together has forced the librarians to go for the electronic journals. Readers are also getting addicted to this new form of publication because it saves the time in searching the required information. Across all disciplines, faculty members and other users have come to value electronic access to scholarly literature, and use of such resources increases dramatically with their availability in electronic form (Guthrie and Schonfeld 2004; Tenopir 2004; Marcum and George 2003; Wolverton and Tenopir 2005) Seeing all the advantages of the online journals and in order to overcome the budget factors the libraries are either entering into the consortia for the subscription of the electronic journals or they are individually going for the databases where they can have access to the e-journals at a very discounted price. Through this the librarians have overcome the budget and the storage problem but are facing the new problem of archiving the subscribed electronic information for future use. 2. Profile of the University Library: The Library was established in January 1950 and was named in honor of the first vice-chancellor Dr. M.R. Jayakar. The library is one of the richest libraries in Western India in terms of collection and the services rendered by it to its users. Library is fully automated and is providing access to its collection through its webopac by using LIBSYS library software package. Presently the library has more than 4,65,000 documents in its collection which contains, books, bound volumes of journals, theses and dissertations etc.. The Jayakar library is also participating in the consortia program launched by UGC ( University Grant Commission) and INFLIBNET (Information and Library Network centre) called UGC-INFONET under which it is getting access to more than 4000 electronic journals covering all the subjects from science, social science and humanities. Apart from the access to electronic journals received under UGC-INFONET consortia, the library is individually subscribing for many of the electronic databases and journals such as Science direct, EBSCO, PsycArticle, Nature, Lexisnexis etc. (Jayakar Library Portal, 2010) taking into consideration all the journals received from UGC-INFONET and the journals subscribed individually, presently the library is having access to more than 8000 journals. The library has developed library portal which list out all the databases and journals subscribed by the library and is available for the user to use. 3. Services provided by the library: With the help of the electronic journals library is in a position to render many of the services to its users which they were not able to provide with its print collection of journals into the library. The following services are being provided to the users of the library. 3.1 Access to the electronic version of the subscribed printed journal: The library is subscribing to more than 550 printed journals which also contains the journals published by Sage and as per the policy of the publisher the users are getting free access to the electronic version of the printed one. …


Understanding population extinctions is a chief goal of ecological theory. While stochastic theories of population growth are commonly used to forecast extinction, models used for prediction have not been adequately tested with experimental data. In a previously published experiment, variation in available food was experimentally manipulated in 281 laboratory populations of Daphnia magna to test hypothesized effects of environmental variation on population persistence. Here, half of those data were used to select and fit a stochastic model of population growth to predict extinctions of populations in the other half. When density-dependent demographic stochasticity was detected and incorporated in simple stochastic models, rates of population extinction were accurately predicted or only slightly biased. However, when density-dependent demographic stochasticity was not accounted for, as is usual when forecasting extinction of threatened and endangered species, predicted extinction rates were severely biased. Thus, an experimental demonstration shows that reliable estimates of extinction risk may be obtained for populations in variable environments if high-quality data are available for model selection and if density-dependent demographic stochasticity is accounted for. These results suggest that further consideration of density-dependent demographic stochasticity is required if predicted extinction rates are to be relied upon for conservation planning.


Background: Childhood cancer as a life-threatening illness has negative consequences for both the patients and their family. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of child cancer on their mother's quality of life and to assess the association of quality of life with resilience among mothers of children with cancer. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 145 mothers of children with cancer participated. Data were collected by two questionnaires: (a) PedsQL™ Family Impact Module, (b) ConnorDavidson Resilience Scale. Datawere analyzed using SPSS version 13. Pearson correlation test was run for the analysis. Results: The result showed that total scale score, HRQOL Summary score, and the Family Functioning Summary Score were 41.68±20.62, 43.10±22.40, and 45.06±24.30, respectively. The mean score of resilience among mothers of children with cancer was 86.80±19.08. There was a positive association between resilience and all dimensions of life quality (p<0.05). Conclusion: Measuring HRQOL and resilience in a preventive strategy would help to address vulnerable mothers and to present psychosocial support for them. Designing and implementing family-oriented and parentfocused intervention strategies in health care systems are recommended for improving the quality of life of families with cancer children.


Background: Nausea is a common complaint of patients with chronic kidney disease due to an accumulation of urea. Hemodialysis therapy has some side effects that play a role in increasing nausea. The use of pharmacological treatment to deal with nausea may bring a risk of aggravating the work of the kidneys, and thus its administration should be limited. Benson relaxation is a complementary therapy which reduces nausea by increasing the relaxation response that affects the nausea center in the brain.
 Objectives: This study aims to determine the effects of Benson relaxation technique on decreasing nausea.
Methods: This study used a pre-posttest quasiexperimental research design with a control group. The samples were 30 patients recruited using consecutive sampling and were divided into the intervention group (n=15)andthecontrolgroup(n=15).Nauseawasmeasuredusinganumericratingscale. Theresultsshowedthattherewasadecreaseinthemeanofnauseaintheintervention group from 7.13 to 2.26, with p-value = 0.001. The mean value slightly decreased in the control group from 7.20 to 6.40, with p-value = 0.001.
 Conclusions: Benson relaxation affected the decrease of nausea in patients undergoing hemodialysis. Based on the results of this study, it is expected that nurses apply Benson relaxation technique as a non-pharmacological therapy to decrease nausea in hemodialysis patients.


OBJECTIVE
Patients who have sustained a stroke suffer from residual motor impairments. Stroke can limit their ability to employ their impaired upper limb properly. Hand function is particularly one of the most frequently persisting consequences of stroke. This paper introduces a new portable hand telerehabilitation platform (PHTP) for home-based personalized treatment of stroke patients. The aims of this study are (1) to document the iterative design and development process of the PHTP, and (2) to explore the therapists' perspectives on implementing home-based treatment of stroke patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Local therapists were involved early in designing and developing the PHTP. We collected views of 84 therapists practicing in North America via an online survey.

RESULTS
Therapists' perspectives on the introduced prototype support the use of the PHTP to provide home-based telerehabilitation for stroke patients. The System Usability Scale score was 70 for the PHTP, indicating that the platform is usable. The rest of the qualitative results obtained from custom questionnaires showed consistency in the platform design, high perceived usability and good acceptability among the therapists' community.

CONCLUSIONS
In sum, the results encourage and support fine-tuning of the PHTP, commercializing it, and conducting prospective clinical studies.


In this paper we present the DETOXIS task, DEtection of TOxicity in comments In Spanish, which took place as part of the IberLEF 2021 Workshop on Iberian Languages Evaluation Forum at the SEPLN 2021 Conference. We describe the NewsCom-TOX dataset used for training and testing the systems, the metrics applied for their evaluation and the results obtained by the submitted approaches. We also provide an error analysis of the results of these systems.


Condition monitoring of rotating machinery and machine systems has attracted extensive researches, particularly the detection and diagnosis of machine faults in their early stages to minimise maintenance cost and avoid catastrophic breakdowns and human injuries.
As an efficient mechanical system, helical gearbox has been widely used in rotating machinery such as wind turbines, helicopters, compressors and internal combustion engines and hence its vibration condition monitoring is attracting substantial research attention worldwide. However, the vibration signals from a gearbox are usually contaminated by background noise and influenced by operating conditions. It is usually difficult to obtain symptoms of faults at the early stage of a fault.
This study focus on developing effective approaches to the detection of early stage faults in an industrial helical gearbox. In particular, continuous wavelet transformation (CWT) has been investigated in order to select an optimal wavelet to effectively represent the vibration signals for both noise reduction and fault signature extraction. To achieve this aim, time synchronous average (TSA) is used as a tool for preliminary noise reduction and mathematical models of a gearbox transmission system is developed for characterising fault signatures.
The performance of three different wavelet families was compared and henceforth a criterion and method for the selection of the most discerning has been established. It has been found that the wavelet that gives the highest RMS value for the baseline vibration signal will show the greatest difference between baseline and gearbox vibration with a fault presence. Comparison of the three wavelets families shows that the Daubechies order 1 can give best performance for feature extraction and fault detection and fault quantification.
However, there are limitations that undermine CWT application to fault detection, in particular the difficulty in selecting a suitable wavelet function. A major contribution of this research programme is to demonstrate a possible route on how to overcome this deficiency. An adaptive Morlet wavelet transform method has been proposed based on information entropy optimization for analysing the vibration signal and detecting and quantifying the faults seeded into the helical gearbox.
This research has also developed a nonlinear dynamic model of the two-stage helical gearbox involving time–varying mesh stiffness and transmission error. Based on experimental data collected with different operating loads and the simulating results vibration signatures for gear faults are fully understood and hence confirms the CWT based scheme for signal enhancement. These results also indicate that the dynamic model can be used in studying gear faults and would be useful in developing gear fault monitoring techniques.


Past studies of South Georgia's climatic history were constrained to land-based sedimentary records, such as peat
bogs and coastal lakes, or to terrestrial geomorphology, such as terminal moraines. Hence, the current state of
knowledge on past climatic changes in South Georgia is characterised by a complete absence of records from
sedimentary marine archives in the fjords or coastal embayments of the region. This study comprises detailed
examination of one of the first marine sediment cores recovered on its northeastern shelf in Royal Bay Glacial
Trough. Alongside the analysis of new acoustic sub-bottom data, it is the first work to deliver extensive insight
into South Georgia's post-glacial climatic history from a marine perspective. The glacial troughs on the South
Georgia shelf radiate from the coast towards the shelf edge and represent major sediment traps as they form the
only key large-scale depressions in the shelf bathymetry. Sedimentary records, covering a period since at least the
Last Glacial Maximum, are thought likely to be recorded in most of them.
The sediment core of this study covers sedimentation dated from a maximum of 15,346 ±492 cal. yr BP until
the present day. Physical core parameters indicate a major change in climatic conditions around 14,000 cal. yr
BP, the time of the Antarctic Cold Reversal. Holocene climate variabilities are also recorded in the trough infill.
The acoustic data show a major change in sedimentation and a pronounced unconformity at the core site, which
appears to have had a widespread effect over a large area of the shelf. The origin of the unconformity remains
unclear, though several hypotheses, including bottom-current erosion, glacial overriding and earthquake activity,
are proposed and discussed.
Another important finding at the core site is the presence of methane-derived authigenic carbonates. They form
either as secondary precipitates in the subsurface or syndepositional at the seafloor as individual minerals or sediment
cements. The authigenic carbonates are linked to the widespread occurrence of cold methane seeps on the
shelf which are visible today as zones of acoustic blanking and wipe-out structures in the sub-bottom profiles.
These seeps are evidence of major biogenic productivity and carbon drawdown on the South Georgia shelf and
the subsequent decay of organic matter. This finding is an important consideration for future studies as authigenic
carbonate production and methane release have an impact on the isotopic composition of carbonate shells of marine
organisms. Thus, radiocarbon ages recovered from the South Georgia shelf need to be examined critically and
might require additional corrections.


The osteoinductive activity of bone matrix demineralized in acid metabolites of glycolysis and Krebs cycle have been studied in rats. The highest osteoinductive effect was reached during the demineralization in oxaloacetic acid, the lowest one--in the malic acid. The regulatory role of glycolysis metabolites and Krebs Cycle in posttraumatic osteogenesis is under discussion.


Background Otitis media with effusion (OME) often is considered a direct extension of the inflammatory process that occurs during long-lasting or recurrent episodes of acute otitis media. The observations above suggest that OME has an infectious etiology. Most bacterial and viral cultures of middle ear fluid that had been performed were often negative suggesting that other infectious agents may be involved such as fungi. Materials and methods Thirty patients (group A) suffering from chronic secretory otitis media (OME) were enrolled in this study. Three samples were collected and investigated using PCR assay with universal fungal primers and Sabouraud agar. The first sample was obtained from the fluid of the middle ear before insertion of the ventilation tube; the second sample was obtained from nasal secretions; and the third sample was obtained from the ipsilateral peritubal area of the nasopharynx. Thirty patients (group B) with comparable age group without history of ear diseases scheduled for tonsillectomy or adenotonsillectomy were added as a control group. Samples from peritubal area of the nasopharynx of patients and nasal secretion were tested using PCR assay with universal fungal primers and Sabouraud agar. Results PCR examination of the middle ear aspirate in group (A) cases was positive in 7 cases (23.3%), in nasal secretions samples 2 cases only (13.3%) were positive and no positive cases were detected in nasopharyngeal swab samples. In group (A), Sabouraud agar culture was positive for fungal culture of middle ear aspirates in 5 cases (16.6%) but in no cases for nasal secretion samples. Group A showed also negative (N 0 ) growth in 30 (100%) patients for nasopharyngeal swab on Sabouraud agar. In group B, the findings of nasopharyngeal swab were negative (N 0 ) growth in all examined samples on Sabouraud agar, and nasal secretions were also negative for fungal DNA detection using PCR assay. Conclusion In this study, fungal DNA could be detected in the middle ear fluid in seven (23.3%) of 30 patients with persistent OME using PCR assay, and fungi could be detected in five (16.6%) patients on Sabouraud agar. A significant relationship was found between detection of fungi in the middle ear fluid and the duration of the disease, associated adenoid, and history of asthma.


In this paper we have analyzed and modeled the failure probabilities (access time failure, read/write stability failure, and hold stability failure in the stand-by mode) of SRAM cells due to process parameter variations. A method to predict the yield of a memory chip designed with a cell is proposed based on the cell failure probability. The developed method can be used in the early stage of a design cycle to optimize the design for yield enhancement.


It is increasingly difficult to ignore the role of soil water management practices in watershed conservations. Watershed degradation has been a major intimidating problem in many catchments of developing countries, Tanzania inclusive. The general objective of this study was to analyze the limiting factors in soil water management practices of small holder farmers in Magamba sub-catchment of Lushoto District, Tanzania. Primary data was covered by use of structured questionnaire (for 100 small-holder farmers), researcher observation, and interview guide and in-situ soil moisture measurements (for 60 farm plots) based on different types of soil water management practices. Secondary data sources used constituted both unpublished and published data sources on limiting factors of small- holder farmers in soil water management practices and their effects on soil moisture. Qualitative technique for data analysis involved description of different types of soil water management practices. Quantitative data was analyzed using analysis of variance and regression statistical analysis. StataSE version 11.0 and Microsoft excel 2007 computer programs were used for analysis. Predominant types of soil water management practices identified included physical measures (fanya juu and bench terraces), agronomic measures (mulch, guatemala grasses and agro-forestry farming) and chemical measures (organic and chemical fertilizers). The study also found capital problems, low training and low technical assistance, market problems, lack of education, slope, physical distance and nature of crops as major limiting factors in soil water management practices in the study area. For soil moisture measurements, there were great variations across the three sections (lower, middle and upper) and on different types of soil water management practices in the sub-catchment. The p value= 0.0024<0.05; proved against null hypothesis and hence concludes that; there is significant difference of soil moisture contents and types of soil water management practices in the Magamba sub-catchment. Comparatively, high records of soil moisture were found in the lower section than the rest of the sections. The middle section gave low moisture contents compared to the upper section. This is because of limited vegetation cover compared to the upper section where large area is dominated by forest trees. The study recommends introduction of saving credit cooperative organizations to reduce problems of capital, encourage adult education for non educated farmers, promote universal agricultural training programs instead of top based training approach, introducing agricultural credit schemes, strengthen of the local markets, empowering female farmers, monitoring of soil water management practices and promoting groups and training centres for farmers and enhancement of soil moisture through planting of guatemala grasses in farming in the study area.


For the past 8 years (1998-2005), we have used adaptive optics imaging (with VLT/NACO and CFHT/PUEO) to explore Titan's atmosphere, which is currently scrutinized in situ by the Cassini-Huygens mission. In the course of our work, we have found variations, such as as seasonal and diurnal effects, as well as temporary features in the southern polar region. The north-south asymmetry is shown to have changed since 2000 in the near-IR and to be currently organized in a brighter northern than southern pole. We study this evolution here. With our data, we also have new significant statistical evidence of diurnal effects in Titan's stratosphere, with a brighter (as much as 19%) morning limb appearing in our images in many cases, when the phase effect is expected on the evening side. The southern bright feature is probably a time-limited seasonal and/or meteorological phenomenon, revolving around the south pole (confined in its motion within the 80$^{\circ}$S parallel) and located somewhere in the upper troposphere (18-40 km of altitude). Its behavior and possible nature are discussed here.


In experiments on anesthetized cats, switch on of additional inelastic respiration resistance (resistive load) produced, apart from slowing of the respiratory flows, an increase in the activity of motoneurons and inspiratory intrathoracic pressure. Bilateral vagotomy resulted in disappearance of resistive load-induced elevation of the phrenic nerve activity, but did not abolish the growth of the inspiratory effort. Analysis of the evidence obtained indicates that activation of phrenic motoneurons associated with increased respiration resistance is underlain by prolongation of the inspiratory phase that is consequent on relaxation of the inspiratory inhibition. It is suggested that, in addition to the mechanism depicted, the compensatory reaction to the resistive load involves, apart from diaphragm participation, other inspiratory muscles as well as enhanced contractions of respiratory muscles provided by the properties of muscular fiber.


In-situ cutting transport measurement is essential to understand the hydrodynamics and operational parameters required for efficient annulus cleaning. Electrical resistance tomography (ERT) has been a promising method in many industrial applications. This study aimed to provide comprehensive information on the use of a non-invasive ERT method to examine the volume fraction of solids in the presence of non-Newtonian fluid (0.5 wt percent of Flowzan) in a directional drilling annulus (80–90° from vertical orientation). The experiments were performed in a horizontal flow loop system where the annulus segment was 240 (6.16 m) inch long with an inner and outer diameter of 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) and 4.5 inches (11.4 cm), respectively. The results obtained indicated that the ERT device could effectively detect the volume fraction of the solids in the presence of non-Newtonian fluid (Flowzan) under different drilling conditions. Results also showed that the annulus' successful cleaning was observed with an increase in fluid mass flow rates indicated the relative increase in cuttings volumes (AVF = 7 to 9%). Besides, the rotation of the drill pipe often had a beneficial effect on cutting transport. Furthermore, it was observed that both (30%) eccentricity and inclination (80–85 °) cause a reduction in cutting volume fraction. Therefore, this study will provide an avenue for the industrial implementation of in situ ERT measurement technology in directional drilling operations, particularly in the case of non-Newtonian drilling fluids.


This paper addresses the following questions: How large are the output costs of disinflation in Canada? Are these costs temporary, as predicted by natural-rate models, or are they permanent, as predicted by hysteresis models? Are the costs of disinflation higher at lower rates of inflation? Are they higher when the economy is at or below […]


This paper presents an overview of the implementation of Application Layer Multicast (ALM) in OverSim, a simulation framework designed specifically for simulating overlay networks. OverSim builds upon the OMNeT++ discrete event simulator. In addition, the paper presents guidelines for further research work based on reliable and Quality of Service (QoS)-aware multicast overlay networks. This research work is part of a bigger research project, called "Routing in Overlay Networks (ROVER)" which is focused on unicast and multicast routing in overlay networks with QoS guarantees and congestion control facilities on top of existing and future Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks.


Opportunistic routing is a new routing paradigm that takes advantage of the broadcast characteristic of a wireless channel for data delivery in a wireless mesh network. Network coding has recently emerged as a new coding paradigm that can significantly improve the throughput performance of a WMN. In this article we explore the combination of opportunistic routing and network coding for improving the performance of a WMN. We first review existing opportunistic routing and coding-aware routing protocols, respectively, classify these protocols based on different criteria, and discuss their merits and drawbacks. We then propose a coding-aware opportunistic routing mechanism that combines hop-by-hop opportunistic forwarding and localized inter-flow network coding for improving the throughput performance of a WMN. Through opportunistic forwarding, CORE allows the next-hop node with the most coding gain to continue the packet forwarding. Through localized network coding, CORE attempts to maximize the number of packets that can be carried in a single transmission. Simulation results show that CORE can significantly improve the throughput performance of a WMN as compared with existing protocols.


In this short study, expert opinion and a literature review were used to identify the pathogens that should be prioritised by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) for the development of future standards for animal production food safety. Prioritisation was based on a pathogen's impact on human health and amenability to control using on-farm measures. As the OIE mandate includes alleviation of global poverty, the study focused on developing countries and those with 'in-transition' economies. The regions considered were Eastern Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America. Salmonella (from species other than poultry) and pathogenic Escherichia coli were considered to be top priorities. Brucella spp., Echinococcus granulosus and Staphylococcus aureus were also mentioned by experts. As Salmonella, and to a lesser extent pathogenic E. coli, can be controlled by on-farm measures, these pathogens should be considered for prioritisation in future standard setting. On-farm control measures for Brucella spp. will be addressed in 2010-2011 in a review of the OLE Terrestrial Animal/Health Code chapter on brucellosis. In Africa, E. granulosus, the causative agent of hydatidosis, was estimated to have the greatest impact of all pathogens that could potentially be transmitted by food (i.e. via contamination). It was also listed for the Middle East and thought to be of importance by both South American experts consulted. Taenia saginata was thought to be of importance in South America and Africa and by one expert in the Middle East.


Ca(+)-activated Cl(-) channel (CLCA) proteins are encoded by a family of highly related and clustered genes in mammals that are markedly upregulated in inflammation and have been shown to affect chloride transport. Here we describe the cellular processing and regulatory sequences underlying murine (m) CLCA4 proteins. The 125-kDa mCLCA4 gene product is cleaved to 90- and 40-kDa fragments, and the NH(2)- and COOH-terminal fragments are secreted, where they are found in cell media and associated with the plasma membrane. The 125-kDa full-length protein is only found in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and specific luminal diarginine retention and dileucine forward trafficking signals contained within the CLCA4 sequence regulate export from the ER and proteolytic processing. Mutation of the dileucine luminal sequences resulted in ER trapping of the immaturely glycosylated 125-kDa peptide, indicating that proteolytic cleavage occurs following recognition of the trafficking motifs. Moreover, the mutated dileucine and diarginine signal sequences directed processing of a secreted form of enhanced green fluorescent protein in a manner consistent with the effects on mCLCA4.


Many severe corrosion damages have been reported in steel structures constructed in a period of high economic growth. To ensure the safety of such structures, it is important to devise a method how corrosion develops in the service. However, method of predicting such behavior has not yet been established. In this research, semi-vari- ogram analyses were carried out on time-dependent corrosion surfaces of unpainted steel plates exposed to atmospheric environment to clarify the spatial autocorrelation structures and their time-dependence. In addition to this, by using the autocorrelation structures and an ordinary kriging technique, method of spatial statistical simulation for the time-dependent corrosion surfaces in various atmospheric corrosive environments was proposed. Moreover, example of the relationship between mean and maximum corrosion depths was proposed on the basis of simulated results of time-dependent corrosion surfaces of unpainted carbon steel plates.


A fundamental strategy of asymmetric cell division is to place different signaling molecules in each nascent daughter cell, which then go on to drive the two cells toward different fates. In Caulobacter crescentus, a bacterial model used to study this process, a critical molecular driver is a protein called DivK. The phosphorylated form of DivK (DivK∼P) maintains the daughter cell that contains it in a stalked, division-competent, stem cell–like form, while the nonphosphorylated form drives the differentiation of the other daughter into a flagellum-powered "swarmer" cell, free to roam its environment in search of new food sources (Figure 1).

Figure 1

The bacterium C. crescentus divides asymmetrically to produce daughter cells with distinct cell fates.

DivK interacts with another protein, DivL, whose presence is necessary for both turning on the gene program leading to swarmer cell differentiation and, conversely, for inhibiting that program in the stalked cell, but the molecular details of the interaction of the two proteins have been unclear. In this issue of PLOS Biology, W. Seth Childers, Qingping Xu, Ashley Deacon, Lucy Shapiro, and colleagues elucidate those details to show that DivL has taken an evolutionary path that allows it to serve as an unusual and highly specific sensor for the phosphorylation state of DivK.

The authors began by showing that DivL binds strongly and specifically to DivK∼P, but not to DivK. To explore the reasons for that specificity, they analyzed the crystal structure of DivL's so-called HK region. HK stands for histidine kinase, and DivL shares an evolutionary history and many structural features with other histidine kinases. One thing it does not share, though, is the eponymic histidine at the active core of the protein, having replaced it instead with a tyrosine, which, unlike the histidine, does not become phosphorylated as part of its normal action cycle. The significance of that replacement became clear when a histidine was substituted back in—cells survived, but the localization of DivL was altered, as was cell morphology and doubling time.

Like other HK's, DivL is a dimer, and the crystal structure revealed that the tyrosine sits near the interface between the two monomers. While the amino acid sequences of the monomers were identical, their conformation was not. Each monomer was made of several rigid substructures, whose orientations differed between the two monomers. In one monomer, two substructures, the small "input helix" and a larger substructure including the (nonfunctional) catalytic domain and the "output helix," were tilted away from the axis of a third substructure, the two-helix "docking module" that connected to the tyrosine in the "input helix." In the second monomer, these two structures were more aligned with the axis of the docking module. Mutation of several critical residues at the putative DivK∼P docking site did not prevent dimer formation but did significantly reduce DivK∼P binding, supporting the role of this site in linking the two proteins.

DivL also contains four PAS domains, a common signal-sensing structure found in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. To determine their effect on the DivL-DivK∼P interaction, the authors constructed DivL mutants with three, two, one, or no PAS domains. While the three-domain and two-domain mutants retained high specificity for the phosphorylated form of DivK, that specificity was lost entirely in the absence of any PAS domains, indicating that allosteric interactions among PAS domains and the other portions of the protein likely govern the selectivity of DivL for DivK∼P.

Canonical HK's are enzymatically active, but the authors showed that DivL was not, having neither detectable kinase nor phosphatase activity. That loss of activity, they suggest, is critical in allowing DivL to act primarily as a sensory protein, faithfully detecting the phosphorylation state of DivK without altering it through its interaction. A consequence of that loss of activity, they note, is that signal flow through DivL is the reverse of that through a typical histidine kinase. Instead of receiving a signal that then triggers phosphorylation of its substrate, DivL receives a signal regarding the phosphorylation state of its "substrate" DivK∼P and triggers downstream activity ultimately determining the fate of the daughter cell in which it resides (Figure 1).

The results in this study strengthen the understanding of asymmetric cell development in this important model organism. Whether a similar disabling of catalytic activity and subsequent "reverse flow" of information will be found in other cellular systems remains an open and intriguing question.

Childers WS, Xu Q, Mann TH, Mathews II, Blair JA, et al. (2014) Cell Fate Regulation Governed by a Repurposed Bacterial Histidine Kinase. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001979


To study the vertical distribution of the earliest stages of star formation in galaxies, three edge-on spirals, NGC 891, NGC 3628, and IC 5052, observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope InfraRed Array Camera (IRAC) were examined for compact 8 μm cores using an unsharp mask technique; 173, 267, and 60 cores were distinguished, respectively. Color–color distributions suggest a mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and highly extincted photospheric emission from young stars. The average V-band extinction is ∼20 mag, equally divided between foreground and core. IRAC magnitudes for the clumps are converted to stellar masses assuming an age of 1 Myr, which is about equal to the ratio of the total core mass to the star formation rate in each galaxy. The extinction and stellar mass suggest an intrinsic core radius of ∼18 pc for 5% star formation efficiency. The half-thickness of the disk of 8 μm cores is 105 pc for NGC 891 and 74 pc for IC 5052, varying with radius by a factor of ∼2. For NGC 3628, which is interacting, the half-thickness is 438 pc, but even with this interaction, the 8 μm disk is remarkably flat, suggesting vertical stability. Small-scale structures like shingles or spirals are seen in the core positions. Very few of the 8 μm cores have optical counterparts.


This thesis traces the experience of home, migration and belonging of an intergenerational group of Chileans who have remained in the UK after being exiled by the Pinochet regime (1973-1990). The Chilean diaspora of London form one of the 'new diasporas' who are not straightforwardly connected to The UK's imperial past but to its contemporary history. This case offers insight into diasporas' power to unsettle spatial and temporal delimitations and to reveal alternative geopolitical connections and social webs. The research involved a multi-method and multi-site ethnography. Through biographical accounts, fieldwork conducted in situ, and both archive and contemporary photographs, I followed a web of social scenes dating from the 1970s. Long-standing diasporic social scenes allow for a conceptualisation of 'home' as made through continuity and change, and in relation to diverse public domains rather than in seclusion. Through social scenes, home-making is achieved through embodied practices, material objects and physical landscapes, dynamics that allow for a grounded approach to diaspora and home, both of which emerge as a process rather than as given. In this grounded approach, diasporas' historical grievances and memories still matter. The focus is on how they are reinstated and made to matter in the local present. The thesis was accompanied by an exhibition which presented different research materials to provide to the reader alternative means to navigate and weave the lines that connect the scenes' different temporalities and spaces. Complementing the written account, it offered a more vivid approach to the scenes' connected actors, routines and atmospheres. Moreover, the exhibition established a parallel between ethnographic research and 'curating' – both involve managing, classifying, arranging and selecting 'objects', as well as using one's knowledge to collect relevant pieces and make them public. As a form of assembled scenery, the exhibition also contributed to an interactive, multidimensional and dynamic understanding of home.


Article history: Received: April 2015 Received in the revised form: July 2015 Accepted: July 2015 Herbs have been of great interest in recent years. Peppermint is one of the most popular species in Poland used in the form of herbal tea. The objective of the research was to determine and compare the content of essential oils obtained from peppermint in a loose state and after producing agglomerate therefrom. The scope of the research covered compression of grated peppermint and fractions separated from it. Fractions were separated with the use of a sieve with 2.5 mm square meshes and compressed with a hydraulic press with a closed matrix under the pressure of 193.86 MPa. Before and after the agglomeration process, density of the investigated material and the content of essential oils were determined according to the pharmaceutical requirements by a distillation method on Clevenger's apparatuses. The lowest content of essential oils was in case of the fraction of grated peppermint which did not go through the sieve with 2.5 square meshes. Compression of this material to the level o 1.038 g·cm resulted in the reduction of oil content by approximately 9%. In case of the remaining fractions, no losses of oil as a result of compression were reported.


Objective: Mercury is a neurotoxin that is introduced to pregnant women from the soil, air pollutants and fish intake. Mercury in the placenta can be a biomarker for both maternal and fetal exposure. The objective of this study was to investigate how dietary patterns and environmental conditions can affect mercury concentration levels in the human placenta. Method: Ethical consideration was granted to collect placental samples from participants at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), in November 2012 and Mandeville Regional Hospital (MRH) in July 2014. Cold vapour atomic absorption analysis was performed on the samples to determine the total mercury concentration in the placentae. The participants were interviewed on their fish intake and residence. The samples were categorized into industrial (Kingston and Mandeville) and agricultural areas (St Elizabeth, Clarendon and Trelawny). Results: The placental mercury concentration ranged from 0.45–3.7 μg/kg, median 0.5 μg/kg. The mean maternal fish intake per week for industrial and agricultural areas was 78.4 ± 52.3 g and 86.3 ± 90 g, respectively and the mean placental mercury concentrations were 0.67 ± 0.4 μg/kg and 0.58 ± 0.2 μg/kg, respectively. There was no significant difference between fish intake and placental mercury. There was a statistically positive correlation (p = 0.04) between the mean placental mercury and the study areas. The area with the highest soil mercury of 500 ppb, had the highest mean placental mercury 1.13 ± 0.2 μg/kg. Conclusion: The study showed that the environment can also influence placental mercury. The placental mercury levels in Jamaica were found to be below the 10 μg/kg reference level, at which fetal health could be adversely affected.


Tissue plasminogen activator, separated into variants I and II (differing in Mr by 2000-3000), was reduced and [14C]carboxymethylated. Fragments from cleavages with enzymes and cyanogen bromide (CNBr) were separated by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and subjected to sequence degradations. All seven CNBr fragments were purified and found to be compatible with the cDNA-derived amino acid sequence [Pennica, D., Holmes, W. E., Kohr, W. J., Harkins, R. N., Vehar, G. A., Ward, C. A., Bennett, W. F., Ylverton, E., Seeburg, P. H., Heynecker, H. L., Goeddel, D. V., & Collen, D. (1983) Nature (London) 301, 214-221]. Chemical characterization of 93% of the 527 residues recovered in 50 peptides confirmed the indirectly deduced primary structure of the protein. The tryptic peptide patterns from the two variants were found to differ for one peptide (T15). Since carbohydrate was present in this peptide for variant I and since a marked difference in chromatographic behavior for T15 was observed in variant II, we conclude that carbohydrate differences in this peptide (i.e., Asn-184 in the numbering system of the cDNA-derived amino acid sequence) are the explanation for the size differences between variants I and II. Carbohydrate was also found at two other positions in the protein, corresponding to Asn-117 and Asn-448. However, a fourth potential glycosylation site, Asn-218, is apparently not utilized for carbohydrate attachment. The enzyme is inactivated by diisopropyl phosphorofluoridate, which covalently modifies the serine residue corresponding to position 478, identifying this as the active site serine residue.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


To the editor: It was recently reported that influenza A was cultured in 62 double rooms at the Wisconsin Veterans Home over six seasons. The roommate was infected in 12 (19.4%). During 3,294 resident-seasons, influenza was cultured in 208 single rooms (6.3%). Those who lived in double rooms with a culture-positive roommate had a 3.07 relative risk (95% confidence interval 5 1.61–5.78) of acquiring influenza A. Identical methodology was used to analyze the 1992/ 1993 influenza season, in which influenza B was encountered. Case finding was based on intense prospective surveillance by research staff and has been previously described. This study compared the relative risk of influenza B in residents whose roommate had a positive culture with that of those who resided in single rooms. It is possible that a second infected roommate became infected outside of the room. To control for this possibility, the number of single rooms and the number of cases in single rooms each year were determined for comparison. Influenza B was introduced to 29 double rooms. A second culture-confirmed case was noted in 10 (34%). The second cases occurred 0 to 11 days (mean 3.9 days) after the initial case. Seven of these second cases had been vaccinated (70%). Overall, 85% of residents were vaccinated. During 489 resident-seasons in single rooms, influenza was cultured in 65 rooms (13%). Those who lived in a double room with a culture-positive roommate had a relative risk of 2.6 (95% CI 5 1.2–5.6) of acquiring influenza B compared to those who resided in single rooms As expected, the data confirm a greater relative risk of acquiring influenza B in roommates of residents with influenza B than in residents who did not have roommates. The excess risk associated with having a culture-positive roommate is troublesome because it has been demonstrated that culture-confirmed influenza B was associated with an excess 30-day mortality of 3.9% over baseline mortality (1.5%/30 days) in nursing home residents. A private room is optimal, but this is not possible in most nursing homes. Other interventions might include using any curtain or barrier that may exist between roommates. The roommates should be counseled to maintain hand hygiene and 3-foot separation with extra environmental hygiene provided by staff. The unaffected roommate should probably be offered chemoprophylaxis with a neuraminidase inhibitor, even if the entire unit is not placed on chemoprophylaxis.


Ensemble learning has emerged as a powerful method for combining multiple models. Well-known methods, such as bagging, boosting, and model averaging, have been shown to improve accuracy and robustness over single models. However, due to the high costs of manual labeling, it is hard to obtain sufficient and reliable labeled data for effective training. Meanwhile, lots of unlabeled data exist in these sources, and we can readily obtain multiple unsupervised models. Although unsupervised models do not directly generate a class label prediction for each object, they provide useful constraints on the joint predictions for a set of related objects. Therefore, incorporating these unsupervised models into the ensemble of supervised models can lead to better prediction performance. In this paper, we study ensemble learning with outputs from multiple supervised and unsupervised models, a topic where little work has been done. We propose to consolidate a classification solution by maximizing the consensus among both supervised predictions and unsupervised constraints. We cast this ensemble task as an optimization problem on a bipartite graph, where the objective function favors the smoothness of the predictions over the graph, but penalizes the deviations from the initial labeling provided by the supervised models. We solve this problem through iterative propagation of probability estimates among neighboring nodes and prove the optimality of the solution. The proposed method can be interpreted as conducting a constrained embedding in a transformed space, or a ranking on the graph. Experimental results on different applications with heterogeneous data sources demonstrate the benefits of the proposed method over existing alternatives. (More information, data, and code are available at http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~jing/integrate.htm.)


BACKGROUND
Severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy (SMEI) or Dravet syndrome has been long suspected of having a genetic origin. Recently, mutations in SCN1A and GABRG2 have been described in SMEI patients. The sporadic nature of the SMEI syndrome and the occurrence of SCN1A and GABRG2 mutations in a mild familial phenotype, termed generalized epilepsy with febrile seizure plus complicates genotype-phenotype correlations. In order to further investigate the role of SCN1A and GABRG2 in the pathogenesis of SMEI we have screened for mutations three families with at least two members affected by Dravet syndrome.

METHODS
Clinical criteria followed the international classification of epileptic syndromes. Mutational screening of SCN1A and GABRG2 genes was performed by denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) and direct sequencing of DNA fragments showing a variant chromatogram.

RESULTS
Thirty-eight fragments spanning 26 exons of SCN1A and nine exons of GABRG2 were analysed in three probands. Five variant chromatograms were identified; four corresponded to known polymorphisms, one to a novel dinucleotide insertion on exon 26 of SCN1A. The mutation leads to a frameshift and a premature stop codon at amino acid 1 779 of the protein. The mutation was present in the affected sibling and was inherited from the mother who had experienced a single febrile seizure in childhood.

CONCLUSIONS
Among three families analysed, a single family was mutant for SCN1A. Our study suggests that the syndrome is genetically heterogeneous. The variable expressivity we observed for the c5240insAA mutation suggests that other factors are needed for the development of the full SMEI phenotype.


This study was focused on the microbiological aspects of composting and on the behaviour of main prevalent microbial communities (non-pathogenic and selected pathogenic bacteria) during the composting process of municipal solid wastes and sewage sludge in a semi-industrial composting plant. Results showed that the dehydrogenase activity and Biomass C / Biomass N ratio showed a noticeable increase in the two windrows W1 (100% of municipal solid wastes) and W2 (60% of municipal solid wastes and 40% of dried sewage sludge) during the thermophilic phase (≥45°C for 100 days) and marked a high microbial activity during this period of the composting process. During the thermophilic phase, the removal of faecal indicator bacteria is in order of 2 Ulog10, and a total absence of Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella was observed. The re-emergence of faecal indicator bacteria at the end of the composting progress (cooling step) could constitute a major problem for the agricultural use of compost.


Several researches have dealt with the thermal initiation of Me methacrylate (MMA) in the past. Some of them already discussed the presence of peroxide contg. species that are formed from dissolved oxygen and the monomer itself as main reason for this initiation. However, a more detailed investigation as well as a kinetic description of this phenomenon is still due in literature. In this paper, the formation and decompn. of Me methacrylate peroxides are described. MMA that has been in contact with air forms macromol. peroxides at temps. below 100 DegC from phys. dissolved oxygen. These peroxides have mol. wts. of approx. 3 000-5 000 g . mol-1, depending on the temp. during formation. Above this temp., these peroxides decomp. quickly and initiate the radical polymn. Depending on the reaction conditions, monomer conversions from 15 to 30% are obtained. In combination with addnl. initiators, the MMA peroxides provoke an acceleration of the reaction rate and can also lead to bimodal mol. wt. distributions. An anal. method based on UV-spectrophotometry was developed for the quantification of the peroxide content in the monomer. The kinetic rate consts. for the formation were detd. in batch expts. with purified, air-satd. monomer to be kf,0 = 6.28 . 107 l2 . mol-2 . s and EA = 7.75 . 104 J . mol-1. The decompn. rate consts. were detd. from batch dead-end polymns. and found to be kd,0 = 4.73 . 107 l . mol-1 . s-1 and EA = 8.56 . 104 J . mol-1.


Deep neural networks (DNNs) fail to learn effectively under label noise and have been shown to memorize random labels which affect their generalization performance. We consider learning in isolation, using one-hot encoded labels as the sole source of supervision, and a lack of regularization to discourage memorization as the major shortcomings of the standard training procedure. Thus, we propose Noisy Concurrent Training (NCT) which leverages collaborative learning to use the consensus between two models as an additional source of supervision. Furthermore, inspired by trial-to-trial variability in the brain, we propose a counter-intuitive regularization technique, target variability, which entails randomly changing the labels of a percentage of training samples in each batch as a deterrent to memorization and over-generalization in DNNs. Target variability is applied independently to each model to keep them diverged and avoid the confirmation bias. As DNNs tend to prioritize learning simple patterns first before memorizing the noisy labels, we employ a dynamic learning scheme whereby as the training progresses, the two models increasingly rely more on their consensus. NCT also progressively increases the target variability to avoid memorization in later stages. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on both synthetic and real-world noisy benchmark datasets.


Ewing sarcomas/Primitive neuroectodermal tumors are aggressive tumors, typically seen in children and young adults. These tumors are of neuroectodermal origin and, also known as Ewing sarcoma family tumors. They are most commonly seen in the bones and soft tissues. Primary Ewing sarcoma of the kidney is rarely seen. It has nonspecific symptoms and imaging findings. Therefore, it is mostly diagnosed postoperatively. Its diagnosis is based on histological morphology, immunohistochemistry and, molecular genetic tests. A multi-modality treatment approach is very important. Here, we presented a male patient with primary Ewing sarcoma of the kidney, relatively in older age. A 54-year-old male patient admitted to the hospital with right flank pain and hematuria. He was operated successfully and than received adjuvant vincristine, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, and ifosfamide, etoposide chemotherapy regimens. No treatment-related toxicity was observed and the patient is still in remission. Despite using surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy in treat-ment, because of its rarity there was no randomized trial about kidney Ewing sarcomas. These rare tumors still need robust therapeutic treatment regimens.


Cellulose-based composites packaging films containing various amounts of modified nano-SiO2 were prepared by utilizing hardwood pulps as natural cellulose resource through NMMO-technology to improve the mechanical properties, permeability for oxygen and water vapor etc. The tensile strength, elongation at break, thermal stability and permeability of the cellulose composites films as a function of the content of modified nano-SiO2 were studied. The investigation suggested that the capabilities of composites films with 2 wt.% modified nano-SiO2 added were improved largely, compared to pure cellulose films, when the diameter of particles is 30nm. The tensile strength was increased from 8.95 to 17.37 MPa and the elongation at break of the cellulose composites films was improved from 41.11% to 58.34%. The composites films with rational mechanical properties have adjustable oxygen permeability (7.90×10-15-72.18×10-15 cm3·cm/cm2·s·Pa) and water vapor permeability (7.12×10-13-5.32×10-13g·cm/cm2·s·Pa). And thermal stability of the composites films was advanced through adding modified nano-SiO2.


Lobe reconnection is usually thought to play an important role in geospace dynamics only when the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) is mainly northward. This is because the most common and unambiguous signature of lobe reconnection is the strong sunward convection in the polar cap ionosphere observed during these conditions. During more typical conditions, when the IMF is mainly oriented in a dawn‐dusk direction, plasma flows initiated by dayside and lobe reconnection both map to high‐latitude ionospheric locations in close proximity to each other on the dayside. This makes the distinction of the source of the observed dayside polar cap convection ambiguous, as the flow magnitude and direction are similar from the two topologically different source regions. We here overcome this challenge by normalizing the ionospheric convection observed by the Super Dual Aurora Radar Network (SuperDARN) to the polar cap boundary, inferred from simultaneous observations from the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE). This new method enable us to separate and quantify the relative contribution of both lobe reconnection and dayside/nightside (Dungey cycle) reconnection during periods of dominating IMF By. Our main findings are twofold. First, the lobe reconnection rate can typically account for 20% of the Dungey cycle flux transport during local summer when IMF By is dominating and IMF Bz ≥ 0. Second, the dayside convection relative to the open/closed boundary is vastly different in local summer versus local winter, as defined by the dipole tilt angle.


In 1978, Cameroonian author and playwright Werewere Liking moved to Abidjan, Côte-d'Ivoire where she was able to find an artistic freedom and energy that was not possible at the time in her native Cameroon. In Abidjan, she created the artistic center and residence known as Villa Ki-Yi, a haven for both well-established and budding artists in need of a place to refine their art within a supportive community. Over the years, goals for the center evolved as Liking sought to fight social injustice through combining activism and the arts. The Village Ki-yi, as it is known today, is influenced by African matriarchal traditions, although it is surrounded by the realities of a patriarchal world, and these traditions come into play in its organization and mission. Liking is not only the mother of ideas at the Village, but also of the poor, marginalized, and sometimes abandoned or orphaned children whom she literally gathers in the streets of Abidjan, giving them a home and a future. This essay analyzes Liking's creative accomplishments using feminist theories pertaining to performance, literature, and activism, demonstrating how Liking is an agent for social justice and change on the African continent.


This paper considers a cyclic production system. The cycle consists of a production period with a fixed number of production times that can be used for production or idling, followed by a vacation. The duration of the vacation is independent of the production period. Demand arrives according to a (compound) Poisson process and is satisfied from stock or backlogged. The embedded process is modeled in discrete time and analyzed using generating functions. The optimal base stock level is derived from a news vendor type relation. The model is also extended to one with time slot dependent base stock levels.


The study is aimed at identifying barriers to the research career of women in the academic environment of a technical university. The authors present the results of their study of the women's status in the academic community. The study is based on a quantitative (questionnaire survey) and qualitative (biographical interviews) analysis of the opinions of students and teachers of STEM disciplines of a technical university about the features and problems of women's professional careers. It is established that women of the same university evaluate the presence and degree of influence of barriers to the research careers differently. In some cases, women assessing their professional status note that they do not feel professional discrimination on the basis of gender. In general, the analysis revealed that women who received a STEM education use a strategy of avoiding a research career and choosing alternative career options: either outside the academic environment, or by transitioning to teaching as a way to circumvent gender barriers in grant and publication activities.


This article tells how the world achieved a working consensus on the core principles of monetary policy. The story begins with the muddled state of affairs in the late 1970s. It then asks: How did Federal Reserve policy produce an understanding of the practical principles of monetary policy? How did formal institutional support abroad for targeting low inflation follow from an international acceptance of these ideas? And how did a consensus theoretical model develop in academia? The article tells how the modern theoretical consensus known as the New Neoclassical Synthesis (aka, the New Keynesian model) reinforces key advances: the priority for price stability, the targeting of core rather than headline inflation, the importance of credibility for low inflation, and preemptive interest rate policy supported by transparent objectives and procedures. The conclusion identifies important practical issues that remain to be explored in theory.


The usual way to investigate the statistical properties of finitely generated subgroups of free groups, and of finite presentations of groups, is based on the so‐called word‐based distribution: subgroups are generated (finite presentations are determined) by randomly chosen k ‐tuples of reduced words, whose maximal length is allowed to tend to infinity. In this paper we adopt a different, though equally natural point of view: we investigate the statistical properties of the same objects, but with respect to the so‐called graph‐based distribution, recently introduced by Bassino, Nicaud and Weil. Here, subgroups (and finite presentations) are determined by randomly chosen Stallings graphs whose number of vertices tends to infinity. Our results show that these two distributions behave quite differently from each other, shedding a new light on which properties of finitely generated subgroups can be considered frequent or rare. For example, we show that malnormal subgroups of a free group are negligible in the graph‐based distribution, while they are exponentially generic in the word‐based distribution. Quite surprisingly, a random finite presentation generically presents the trivial group in this new distribution, while in the classical one it is known to generically present an infinite hyperbolic group. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2013


For pt.I see ibid., vol.20, p.257 (1987). The authors suggest a picture of the intrinsic surface width in Eden models and show that it is a major source of corrections to scaling of the surface roughness. Using the multiple-hit noise reduction method, they can control the intrinsic width and thereby improve the scaling behaviour systematically as is demonstrated in detailed calculations on the square lattice. They calculate the number of excess perimeter sites as a function of time and find that its asymptotic value decays with a power law as a function of increasing hitting number. Substrate effects and anisotropy become more apparent if noise reduction is applied.


Most recent articles on the value of liquidity try to answer the following question: "What additional return should investors earn to compensate for the liquidity risk they take?" In this article, the authors propose a model that prices liquidity from the portfolio manager's perspective. The authors focus on the case of hedge fund managers, because the liquidity of hedge funds has been an important issue during the recent financial crisis, as managers have struggled with an important flow of redemption orders. The authors find that under normal market conditions, a liquidity risk premium of at least 50 basis points per year can be justified. More volatile and illiquid conditions justify a much higher premium. The authors' results are consistent with the idea that liquidity is a sort of put option on the illiquid asset and are also consistent with recent empirical findings.


Scientists have investigated methods for reducing odor emissions from livestock buildings for decades, yet few technologies have proven effective. Vegetative Environmental Buffers (VEB), which are specially designed combinations of trees, shrubs and grasses, have shown promise in recent years for reducing odors at poultry operations, but have seen less testing at swine farms. A field research project was conducted at two similar 8-barn swine finisher sites in Missouri to assess the effectiveness of VEBs for reducing downwind odor impacts from tunnel-ventilated swine barns. VEBs and fan plume deflectors were installed in spring 2009 at one 8-barn site, and the other site served as the control. Odor was monitored from July-Nov 2009, with trained human panelists at eight locations, upwind and downwind of the VEB, barns, and lagoons. Five aromatic Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs: phenol, 4-methylphenol, 4-ethylphenol, indole, skatole) were sampled from ambient air using sorbent tubes and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. As compared to the control site, the VEB reduced odor concentrations (Dilutions to Threshold, D/T) by 49.1% in the VEB and 66.3% at distance 15 m downwind of the VEB (p<0.001). There was a larger percentage of non-detect odor concentrations (D/T<2) at 15 m downwind for the VEB site (57.6%) as compared to the control site (16.4%). Mean upwind odor concentrations ranged from 1.4 to 2.4 D/T. Mean odor concentrations at the 300 m downwind location were 2.3 and 2.5 D/T for the control and VEB site (p=0.47). In late 2010, a laboratory wind tunnel was used to compare VOC flux from VEB vegetation samples before and after rinsing. Wind tunnel VOC fluxes from vegetation were 78 to 98% lower after rinsing, qualitatively showing that particulate matter (PM) captured on the vegetation reduces odor emissions. The results of these field and laboratory experiments confirm that VEBs reduce downwind odor by increasing dilution and capturing odorous PM in the vegetation.


Recent progress in the synthesis of π-conjugated porphyrin arrays of different shapes and dimensionalities motivates us to examine the band structures of infinite (periodic) porphyrin nanostructures. We use screened hybrid density functional theory simulations and Wannier function interpolation to obtain accurate band structures of linear chains, 2D nanosheets, and nanotubes made of zinc porphyrins. Porphyrin units are connected by butadiyne (C4) or ethyne (C2) linkers or "fused" (C0), i.e., with no linker. The electronic properties exhibit strong variations with the number of linking carbon atoms (C0/C2/C4). For example, all C0 nanostructures exhibit gapless or metallic band structures, whereas band gaps open for the C2 or C4 structures. The reciprocal space point at which the gaps are observed also show fluctuations with the length of the linkers. We discuss the evolution of the electronic structure of finite porphyrin tubes made of a few stacked six-porphyrin rings toward the behavior of the infinite n...


A 66-year-old woman was referred with a two-week history of a lump in her left breast. This had not changed in size, nor was there any associated pain or nipple discharge. She was otherwise fit and well and had suffered no illnesses of note. There was a mobile lump, 2 cm in diameter with a smooth surface, in the upper and outer quadrant of her left breast. There were no other abnormalities and no palpable axillary lymph nodes. She was admitted to hospital and the lump excised. The surgeon noted that the lump was solid and yellow with a necrotic centre. Histological examination showed a typical carcinoid tumour containing argentaffine cells (figure). The results of urinary 5-hydroxy indole-acetic acid assays were normal. She remained well 12 months after removal of the tumour and the results of further 5-hydroxy indole-acetic acid assays remain normal.


The desire for EAC countries to attract MNCs with a view of obtaining tax has brought challenge in curbing transfer pricing manipulation arising out international transactions by associated MNCs. In the absence of aggressive tax legislation, human and financial resources, such countries are at high risk of losing substantial right share of tax due to this vice. This concern raises question as to what can be done by EAC countries to address the risk and hence prevent potential tax loss. This study addresses this concern. It focuses on the adequacy of existing international and domestic transfer pricing laws in curbing transfer pricing manipulation. The study examines interplay between transfer pricing and MNCs theories, international transfer pricing standards, aggressive tax planning and their impact to existing manipulation of transfer prices. The study brings out the failure of existing transfer pricing standards in particular arm's length principle to curb the vice and the need to supplement the same. In order to obtain desired results doctrinal legal research methodology is mainly employed and supplemented by empirical and comparative methods. This study has found that the existing transfer pricing law in EAC countries are not adequately curbing transfer pricing manipulation. The study recommends for amendment of existing laws by offering theoretical insight of important issues which can be taken in to account in crafting transfer pricing laws.


BACKGROUND
Bleeding is one of the most common complications after kidney biopsy. Amyloidosis is thought to be 1 of the risk factors, but this has not been confirmed in a large study. We performed this study to assess the risk of bleeding after kidney biopsy in patients with amyloidosis.

STUDY DESIGN
Retrospective study.

SETTINGS & PARTICIPANTS
101 patients with and 188 patients without amyloidosis undergoing outpatient percutaneous kidney biopsy at a major medical center in the absence of abnormal partial thromboplastin time, prothrombin time international normalized ratio, or platelet count and/or uncontrolled hypertension.

PREDICTOR
Clinical diagnosis of amyloidosis.

OUTCOMES & MEASUREMENTS
Post-kidney biopsy bleeding confirmed by means of imaging. Bleeding was defined as major if it required blood transfusion, hospital admission, or other invasive procedures and minor if none of these interventions were needed.

RESULTS
Post-kidney biopsy bleeding was observed in 9.9% of patients with amyloidosis and 10.6% of controls (P = 0.8). Bleeding was major in 4% of patients with amyloidosis and 2.1% of controls (P = 0.4). Three patients from each group required blood transfusions and selective renal angiography. All except 1 patient from the control group underwent embolization.

LIMITATIONS
Retrospective data analysis and overall low event rate did not allow for independent risk-factor analysis.

CONCLUSIONS
The present study suggests that in the absence of a hematostatic disorder and/or uncontrolled hypertension, bleeding risk during kidney biopsy is not increased in patients with systemic amyloidosis. Kidney biopsy can be performed safely using the same screening criteria as for patients without amyloidosis.


Traditional input-output analysis is used to determine indirect and induced benefits resulting from spending on a particular projects. Emphasis has been on positive impacts to the economy in question, usually ignoring the related costs of paying for the project. Input-output was used in this study to see if the negative impacts brought about by payments for a projects were significant. Negative impacts were found to give rise to significant indirect and induced negative impacts on the economy suggesting that negative impacts be included as a standard feature in input-output analysis.


This paper empirically investigates whether developing countries can enforce their antitrust laws or not by measuring potential antitrust enforcement using two proxies: budgets and staffing levels of antitrust authorities. Data was collected from 40 developing countries since the adoption of the law until 2009. This dataset presents an alternative method to measure antitrust enforcement compared to the widespread use of formal enforcement proxies. The data shows that most developing countries actually are capable of enforcing their competition laws but with varying intensities. This finding challenges the assumption that developing countries only adopt antitrust laws to secure trade agreements and constantly fail to enforce these laws. Using this dataset the paper then assessed what issues contributed to the variation of antitrust enforcement across developing countries, using panel data estimation techniques to examine the relation between the potential antitrust enforcement proxies and variables representing macroeconomic, political, legal and institutional environments. The paper finds that the factors that heavily impact the level of potential enforcement are economic development, openness to trade and corruption.


Summary

1
Hen harriers Circus cyaneus can reduce the numbers of red grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus available for shooting. We conducted a supplementary feeding experiment on Langholm Moor, UK, in 1998 and 1999 to determine whether feeding hen harriers could reduce the numbers of red grouse killed. The experiment was done at two distinct stages of the breeding cycle: prior to incubation (spring experiment) and after hatching (summer experiment). In spring, Langholm Moor was divided into two areas, one with food and one without. In summer a number of birds were provided with food in both areas.

2
Providing harriers with food in spring had no significant effect on the breeding density of males or females, although feeding was associated with an increase in density on one area in one year. In addition, over the 2 years of the experiment, there was no evidence that feeding led to more chicks returning to breed in subsequent years. Fed harriers had larger clutches but did not lay earlier than unfed birds.

3
A minimum of 78% of the radio-tagged grouse that were killed during spring were killed by raptors. The mortality rates of adult grouse did not differ between the two areas or between the two years despite the availability of supplementary food and the large differences in harrier breeding density between areas. We infer that other raptors were responsible for much of the predation of adult grouse.

4
During the nestling period, female harriers took supplementary food at a higher rate than males. Females that were fed during the spring took more supplementary food in summer than those fed only during summer. Fed birds did not deliver more food overall to nests than those not provided with food.

5
Both male and female harriers at nests where supplementary food was available caught grouse chicks at a lower rate than harriers at nests not provided with food. For both years combined, fed harriers delivered on average 0·5 grouse chicks to their nests per 100 h, compared with 3·7 grouse chicks delivered to nests without supplementary food.

6
We estimated that feeding all harriers at Langholm would cost approximately £11 000 per annum. In both 1998 and 1999, the numbers of grouse chicks lost were 10 times higher than expected from harrier predation rates. Some other, unknown, factor had a strong influence on grouse chick survival in these years. Feeding some of the breeding harriers did not lead to an increase in grouse density at Langholm.

7
The results suggest that supplementary feeding may provide a useful tool in reducing the number of grouse chicks taken by harriers. Further experiments are now necessary to see under what conditions this reduced predation will lead to increases in grouse density.


During ODP Leg 124, late middle Eocene to Quaternary sediment sequences were recovered from 13 holes
drilled at five sites in the Celebes and Sulu basins. Paleomagnetic measurements and biostratigraphic studies using
calcareous nannofossils, planktonic and benthic foraminifers, radiolarians, and diatoms were completed and
summarized here. Two Neogene sediment sections recovered in the Sulu Basin yielded excellent core recoveries
and magnetic reversal records, allowing direct magnetobiostratigraphic correlations for the Pliocene and Quaternary
at Site 768 and for the middle Miocene to Quaternary at Site 769. The interpolated ages of biohorizons are not
consistent between sites and only a few of them are in good agreement with previous calibrations. The differences
may be the results of redeposition by turbidity currents and selective dissolution of key fossils.


Flood‐related fatalities in Africa, as well as associated economic losses, have increased dramatically over the past half‐century. There is a growing global concern about the need to identify the causes for such increased flood damages. To this end, we analyze a large, consistent and reliable dataset of floods in Africa. Identification of causes is not easy given the diverse economic settings, demographic distribution and hydro‐climatic conditions of the African continent. On the other hand, many African river basins have a relatively low level of human disturbance and, therefore, provide a unique opportunity to analyze climatic effects on floods. We find that intensive and unplanned human settlements in flood‐prone areas appears to be playing a major role in increasing flood risk. Timely and economically sustainable actions, such as the discouragement of human settlements in flood‐prone areas and the introduction of early warning systems are, therefore, urgently needed.


The research question addressed in this study is the impact of the CAP 2013 reform and alternative CAP scenarios on farm investment behaviour and economic performances in different farming systems. An ex-ante analysis of the farmers' response to different policy scenarios is performed simulating some of the main changes introduced by the reform in both CAP pillars, accounting for regional variations across Europe. The methodology consist in the implementation of a farm-level mathematical programming model. The model is cast as an integer dynamic linear programming model based on the model developed by Viaggi et al. (2010) using GAMS software. The models are calibrated using a set of real farms data and accouting for farmers stated intentions collected through survey (Lefebvre, 2014). In this paper we present the model structure, the policy scenario and the results of the simulations carried out on 50 models, each corresponding to a surveyed farm.


If the postmodernist ethical onslaught has led to the demise of literature by exposing its political agenda, if all literature is compromised by its entanglement with power, why does literature's subterranean voice still seduce us into reading? Why do the madness and the scandal of transgressive literature, its power to force us to begin anew, its evil, escape the gaze of contemporary literary criticism? Why do we dare not reject ethics and the ethical approach to literature? If the primary task of literary criticism is to correct others' ethical missteps, should we not begin by confronting the seductiveness of ethics, our desire for ethics, the pleasure we take in being ethical? And what is the relationship between ethics and history in the study of literature? What would be the ethical consequences of an erasure of history from literary criticism? In a series of essays on the writings of Kawabata Yasunari, Murakami Haruki, Karatani Kjin, Furui Yoshikichi, Mishima Yukio, Oe Kenzaburo, Natsume Soseki, and Kobayashi Hideo, Hosea Hirata visits the primal force of the scandalous in an effort to repeat (in the Kierkegaardian sense) the originary scene that initiates the obscure yet insistent poetry that is literature and to confront the questions raised.


Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is commonly recognised throughout theoretical and clinical accounts as one of the most challenging mental health disorders to treat however; there has been limited empirical investigation into characteristic psychologists reactions evoked by this diagnostic group. The aim of this study was to investigate cognitive and emotional responses of psychologists treating BPD. Method: Psychologists currently working with BPD clients gave informed consent to be interviewed regarding their responses to this client group. In addition, the Impact Message Inventory (IMI-C) and the Psychotherapy Relationship Questionnaire (PRQ) were completed. Transcripts from a semi-structured interview of psychologist's countertransference experiences were coded and scored to reflect core ideas and responses that were consistent across cases, whilst allowing for individual variation. Results: Major themes that emerged included significant psychologist anxiety and worry both before and after sessions, and confusion and frustration within the session in relation to implementing specific therapeutic tasks and skills. Self-report measures supported the transactional patterns found within the client-therapist dyad. The results from this study increase the current knowledge of common themes, origins and manifestations of countertransference reactions in the treatment of BPD, aiding psychologists to incorporate this clinically important information into the treatment process.


This paper examines the management accounting practices in three manufacturing companies within a public limited group company in Barbados. Semi-structured interviews were done with a financial controller, production/operations manager and supervisor in each company. Respondents perceived that management accounting practices enable management to obtain relevant information for meaningful decision making. Budgeting was used as a control tool within the planning process and for monitoring the cash flow. The majority of management accounting practices were widely used by the sample. No sophisticated management accounting software was used to generate information other than the normal accounting software. Timeliness, technology, effectiveness, information needs and an adoption of best practice were important factors influencing the choice of management accounting practices used. Respondents perceived that the management accounting practices employed within the three entities were very effective and contributed to the success of the entities. It was also found that the management accounting practices were consistent and standardised across the group.


We present a stochastic clustering algorithm based on pairwise similarity of datapoints. Our method extends existing deterministic methods, including agglomerative algorithms, min-cut graph algorithms, and connected components. Thus it provides a common framework for all these methods. Our graph-based method differs from existing stochastic methods which are based on analogy to physical systems. The stochastic nature of our method makes it more robust against noise, including accidental edges and small spurious clusters. We demonstrate the superiority of our algorithm using an example with 3 spiraling bands and a lot of noise.


In the study of power grid security, the cascading failure analysis in multi-contingency scenarios has been a challenge due to its topological complexity and computational cost. Both network analyses and load ranking methods have their own limitations. In this paper, based on self-organizing map (SOM), we propose an integrated approach combining spatial feature (distance)-based clustering with electrical characteristics (load) to assess the vulnerability and cascading effect of multiple component sets in the power grid. Using the clustering result from SOM, we choose sets of heavy-loaded initial victims to perform attack schemes and evaluate the subsequent cascading effect of their failures, and this SOM-based approach effectively identifies the more vulnerable sets of substations than those from the traditional load ranking and other clustering methods. As a result, this new approach provides an efficient and reliable technique to study the power system failure behavior in cascading effect of critical component failure.


This review describes a role of stress in formation of the primary drug-taking behaviour and the effects of stress on a drug-seeking behaviour after withdrawal of drugs. The psychophysiological and neurochemical mechanisms of the rewarding and aversive states during a drug taking and after its withdrawal are considered. A role of separate neurotransmitters and their interactions in formation of drug dependence and the effects of stress on neuroadaptive changes in these neurotransmitter systems are described. A review of the structures involved in mediation of the stress effects and a drug-seeking behaviour is also discussed.


Background: At least two-thirds of people with hemodialysis-dependent kidney failure have comorbid diabetes which associates with higher mortality. Some GLP-1 receptor agonists (RA) do not require renal dosing and could uniquely benefit dialysis patients, individuals with tremendous cardiovascular disease burden.
 Methods: Using data from a national surveillance system for kidney failure in the U.S. that includes Medicare Part D prescription drug claims, we: 1) calculated the quarterly prevalence of antihyperglycemic use among diabetic hemodialysis patients from 2012 to 2017 and 2) characterized antihyperglycemic users in October 2017.
 Results: Among the 129,865 hemodialysis patients with comorbid diabetes, insulin was the most prescribed agent (33%) , followed by sulfonylureas (SU, 7%) and DPP4 inhibitors (DPP4i, 5%) in October 2017. SU use fell, and DPP4i use rose from 2012 to 2017. Less than 5% of patients received combination therapy (insulin + a 2nd agent; Figure 1) . Disregarding kidney disease as an atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk factor, 64% of patients met American Diabetes Association ASCVD criteria and 98% were at high risk for ASCVD in 2017. GLP-1 RA were prescribed to <1% of patients, 20% of whom had an endocrinology claim in the prior 6 months.
 Conclusions: GLP-1 RA use by hemodialysis patients is limited. There is compelling need to establish the safety and efficacy of GLP-1 RA in this high-risk population.

 K. Klein: None. V. Pate: None. M. M. Assimon: None. T. Stürmer: Research Support; Novo Nordisk. Stock/Shareholder; Novartis AG, Novo Nordisk, Roche Pharmaceuticals. Other Relationship; AbbVie Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, GlaxoSmithKline plc., Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, UCB, Inc. J. B. Buse: Consultant; Alkahest, Anji, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, Cirius Therapeutics, Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Fortress biotech, GentiBio, Glycadia, Glyscend, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Mellitus Health, Moderna, Inc., Pendulum Therapeutics, Praetego, LLC, Stability Health, Valo, Zealand Pharma A/S. Research Support; AstraZeneca, Dexcom, Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk, vTv Therapeutics. Stock/Shareholder; Glyscend, Mellitus Health, Pendulum Therapeutics, PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Praetego, LLC, Stability Health. Other Relationship; Adocia, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Company, Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc., MannKind Corporation, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, Senseonics, vTv Therapeutics. J. Flythe: Advisory Panel; Fresenius Medical Care. Consultant; AstraZeneca. Research Support; Fresenius Medical Care.


Obturator hernia is a rare condition, characterized by the herniation of an intestinal segment between the obturator and the pectineus muscles through the obturator foramen. Obturator hernias usually occur in the elderly and are less common in males than in females, with a male-to-female ratio of about 1/14. In recent years, the use of diagnostic imaging, especially CT, to determine the causes of intestinal obstruction has been improved to allow for an early and accurate diagnosis, even of obturator hernias, which are extremely rare in male patients. We report a thin elderly man, without a history of surgery and with chronic constipation and an unremarkable Howship-Romberg sign, which was correctly diagnosed before surgery as an obturator hernia using CT.


The main objective of this study was to investigate the matrix influence on the fracture behavior of carbon/epoxy three-point bend specimens. The matrices investigated were a brittle Fiberite 1034 and a more ductile Fiberdux 914C epoxy matrix. For the analysis of strength and load versus displacement behavior of the specimens, a damage zone model (DZM) was used. The damage is represented by a Dugdale/Barenblatt cohesive zone, where the cohesive stresses are assumed to decrease linearly with an increased crack opening. Excellent agreement is obtained between predicted and measured fracture loads of the specimens. Also the nonlinear load versus displacement curves are accurately reproduced by the analysis. The present model is compared with previous models, such as the inherent flaw and the point stress criteria. The damage zone extension in the brittle and ductile matrix specimens was studied and compared with the DZM calculations, as an attempt to explain the difference in fracture behavior between the brittle and ductile matrix specimens.


Samba music, in the song creation of Brazilian composer Chico Buarque, becomes a revalued genre and a critical tool to express social and political ideas through a renewal on its lyrical style. The song Apesar de Voce studied in this paper was in 1970 Brazilian dictatorship a symbol of liberation. This paper brings up the composer's redefinition of the genre.


Risk communication among stakeholders is the essential element behind decisions about risk management measures in the food safety field. However, risk communication has not always been favorably done. Slovic (1999) pointed out that unsuccessful risk management can be traced, in part, to a failure to appreciate the complex and socially determined nature of the concept "risk". The majority of risk perception studies with Socio-psychological models have focused on multi-dimensional characteristics of risk/hazard that have substantial influence on the subjective evaluation of risks. The identified factors of characteristics in these studies, however, cannot suitably explain the characteristics of food related risks. In this study, we re-investigated the factors that influence the perceived magnitude of food-related risks by a laddering method survey in Japan, Korea and the U.S.. The results show that the public have judged the high/low of risk level by 3 categories of factors: perceived risk/hazard characteristics, perceived personal factors and perceived social factors. Severity of damage to health, cause of illness, accumulation in body, benefit and natural/artificial origin were the major factors categorized in perceived risk/hazard characteristics. Perceived personal factors consist of experience, knowledge and association of terrible scene/image. Exposure to information and trust in government/experts were regarded as perceived social factors. A structural model of food-related risk perception might possibly be constructed by adding worldview and general trust to the above 3 factors. This model will be statistically analyzed in the continuous empirical cross-cultural studies.