The development of fatigue after non‐exhaustive and exhaustive exercise eliciting differing metabolic demands is poorly understood. Sixteen active males completed five cycling trials. The first trial established the lactate threshold (LT) and maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max). Two of the remaining trials were completed at a severe intensity (halfway between LT and VO2max, SI) and two at a moderate intensity (90% LT, MI). Each trial involved two non‐exhaustive bouts matched for work between intensities before cycling to exhaustion. Responses to stimulation of the femoral nerve and motor cortex were determined after each bout to determine peripheral and central fatigue. Corticospinal excitability, cortical silent period (cSP), short‐interval intracortical inhibition (SICI), and intracortical facilitation (ICF) were also assessed. Non‐exhaustive cycling induced greater peripheral and central fatigue in the SI compared with the MI (P < 0.05). At exhaustion, there was no difference between intensities; however, peripheral fatigue tended to be greater in the SI vs MI (−31% vs −17%, respectively, P = 0.051). Exhaustive cycling increased SICI (24%, P < 0.001) and reduced the cSP (−14%, P < 0.001) in the SI, whereas ICF was reduced in the MI (−16%, P < 0.001). These findings demonstrate exercise‐induced metabolic stress accelerates the development of peripheral and central fatigue, and differentially influences intracortical excitability.


A series of open loop tests was conducted on three vehicles instrumented per SAE J266 to determine the effect of a rear tire tread separation on the vehicles' behavior. The vehicles tested were a 1989 Ford Bronco II, a 1996 Ford Explorer, and a 1993 Ford Taurus. The tests were categorized as tread separation event tests and tread-separated tests. The tread separation event tests were designed to determine how the vehicle responds as the tread is separating from the tire carcass at speeds ranging from 58-119 km/h (36-74 mph). Tires were prepared in a manner that would initiate either a complete or partial separation of the tread. The vehicle was driven on a straight path with the steering wheel held fixed as the tread came off. The tread-separated tests were run on vehicles where the tread was removed from one of the rear tires. The maneuvers conducted were circle turns per SAE J266 (constant radius and constant steer) and step steer turns. These tests were run to evaluate the steady state and dynamic oversteer/understeer characteristics of the vehicles. The results of the tread separation event tests demonstrate that the vehicle's response is dependent on speed, duration, and the nature of the separation event. The vehicle responds by pulling to the side of the tread-separating tire. The longer the tread takes to come off, the greater the vehicle response. Once the tread had separated, the vehicle's response to the event ceased. Partial tread separations result in a significant vehicle response due to the continuous duration of the event. Higher speeds result in a greater vehicle response. The tread-separated tests show that the vehicles oversteer when the tread-separated tire is on the outside of the steering maneuver resulting in vehicle spinout. The vehicles transition to a steady state oversteer behavior at lateral acceleration levels of approximately 0.2 g.


The development of local food markets has provided a critical economic opportunity for small farms in New England. The collapse of Gulf of Maine groundfish stocks has motivated an interest in developing similar marketing opportunities for wild-caught, locally abundant seafood. Institutions, particularly schools and colleges, have been identified as a strategic entry point in the supply chain for such products. However, there has been a dearth of research on this topic. We undertake a case study that evaluates purchases of local groundfish by schools and colleges in New England. First, we analyze recently developed secondary data to assess the propensity and frequency of local seafood purchases. We find that local seafood purchases by schools in New England are not widespread even among the subset of schools that are undertaking farm to school activities, and that schools that are purchasing local seafood are doing so infrequently. We also find that colleges have been more proactive in sourcing local seafood products. There is a high degree of state-level variation within New England, as institutions in states with relatively more prominent commercial fishing sectors are sourcing local seafood products to a relatively greater degree. Further, colleges explicitly expressed that technical assistance in sourcing sustainable seafood products would be most beneficial in regions where there was less available supply. Second, to draw further inferences about the sustainability of local seafood purchases, we report the results of seafood procurement procedures from New England colleges. We find that these colleges source a wide variety of local groundfish principally for on-campus dining and that they place high value on seafood certification schemes as guidance for making sustainable purchases. We conclude by reviewing how data collection methods for local agricultural markets could be modified with regard to seafood distribution systems. This research article is available in Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics: https://cbe.miis.edu/joce/vol5/iss1/2


The authors discuss an object recognition system which uses tactile array data and mathematical transform techniques. The sensor consists of a grid of sensitive sites arrayed in a 10*16 orthogonal array. An object is placed onto the sensor and an instantaneous reading of the tactile image is transferred to an IBM-XT computer where the data are processed using two-dimensional mathematical transforms and correlation algorithms. Several test results are presented to illustrate the performance of the system. >


The kidney is a readily accessible organ to the ultrasonographer. In the past several years, improvements in instrumentation have allowed detailed visualization of the normal renal architecture as well as disease processes involving the kidney. Ultrasonographic evaluation should be considered a complementary modality to the intravenous pyelogram, and in cases where contrast material is contraindicated, it may become a primary imaging technique of the kidneys. The indications for a renal ultrasonic examination, techniques, and methods of imaging the kidney as well as normal anatomy will be presented. A review of several renal abnormalities will include mass lesions, hydroenphrosis, pediatric applications, assessment of transplants, and interventional techniques. An integrated radiologic approach to renal disease, including intravenous pyelography, ultrasonography, computed tomography, and angiography, will be suggested.


A weak evaluative culture undermines many attempts at building an effective evaluation and results management regime. This brief outlines practical actions that an organization can take to build and support an evaluative culture, where information on performance is deliberately sought in order to learn how to better manage and deliver programmes and services. Such an organization values empirical evidence on the results it is seeking to achieve.


Coastal areas as reservoirs of resources for hominid groups have been widely studied in recent years. These areas combine marine with terrestrial and wetland resources and would have been optimum sites for hominids, including Neanderthals. This is the case with the Cova del Gegant, a cave that today opens directly onto the Mediterranean Sea and is located in the north‐eastern Iberian Peninsula. The geomorphological evolution of the Massis del Garraf has provided evidence that during the late Pleistocene there was a littoral platform between 8 and 13 km wide in front of the Cova del Gegant. Within this framework, the data derived from analysis of the small vertebrates and large mammals recovered from Cova del Gegant, including taxa currently absent from the Massis del Garraf, suggest that the landscape surrounding the cave provided a richer terrestrial ecosystem for Neanderthals than is available in this zone today. Analysis of the small‐vertebrate association from the cave reveals that the landscape surrounding the cave was dominated by woodland‐edge and open environments and that the climate was Mediterranean. The results have been compared with the only Iberian site with similar characteristics to the Cova del Gegant, Gorham's cave (southern Iberia, Gibraltar), revealing differences and similarities in the landscape and climate on the basis of the small‐mammal assemblages as well as the differences in the accessibility to terrestrial mammalian resources for the Neanderthal groups. The landscape and the climate were reasonably similar at the two sites, but the differences in the accessibility of resources for the Neanderthals are directly related to the location of the sites and the coastal position. Whereas the Cova del Gegant was on a route of mammal migration (between the Ebro Valley and France) suited for securing terrestrial resources, Gorham's cave is located on a small peninsula with a lower abundance of terrestrial mammal resources. This is probably why the Neanderthal groups at Gorham's cave exploited marine resources, whereas there is no evidence of marine resources having been exploited at Cova del Gegant, even though the seashore was nearby. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Background The tackle is the most injurious game event in Rugby Union. We recently found that tackles account for 76% of head injury events in professional rugby. Specific analysis of the tackle is required to understand how interventions such as law change or educational programmes can minimize head-injury risk from tackles. Objective Analyze tackles to identify high risk situations and behaviors. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting 1,516 Rugby matches in six professional tournaments. Participants Head injury cases resulting from tackles. Assessment of Risk Factors A professional video analyst evaluated every tackle-induced head injury event. Propensity was calculated for various tackle characteristics. Main Outcome Measurements Head-injury propensity for tackles, focused on tackle type, player's speeds and body positions. Results 464 Head Injury Events (HIEs) occurred during tackles, with a propensity of 1.94 HIEs/1000 tackles. For body position, the greatest risk was for falling ball carriers (9.8 HIEs/1000 tackles), or for upright tacklers (2.44 HIEs/1000 tackles). In combination, risk was highest when both players were upright, particularly for active shoulder tackles (17.4 HIEs/1000 tackles). Regardless of the tackler position, the lowest risk was for a ball carrier bent at the waist (1.15 HIEs/1000 tackles). Regarding speed, for static or low-speed tacklers, HIE risk increased with ball-carrier speed. However, when the tackler was at high speed, HIE risk decreased from 6.1 HIEs/1000 tackles for a static ball-carrier to 3.3 HIEs/1000 tackles for a high-speed tackler. Conclusions Complex interplay exists between tackle type, body position and speeds. The ability to anticipate and protect oneself in a tackle is crucial for reduced risk, as is the correct selection of tackle type and direction based on relative speeds. The execution of higher force tackles to avoid high risk head impacts is also critical. Decision-making and tackle execution offer potential areas for intervention to reduce HIE risk.


Multilayer networks are a useful data structure for simultaneously capturing multiple types of relationships between a set of nodes. In such networks, each relational definition gives rise to a layer. While each layer provides its own set of information, community structure across layers can be collectively utilized to discover and quantify underlying relational patterns between nodes. To concisely extract information from a multilayer network, we propose to identify and combine sets of layers with meaningful similarities in community structure. In this paper, we describe the "strata multilayer stochastic block model" (sMLSBM), a probabilistic model for multilayer community structure. The central extension of the model is that there exist groups of layers, called "strata", which are defined such that all layers in a given stratum have community structure described by a common stochastic block model (SBM). That is, layers in a stratum exhibit similar node-to-community assignments and SBM probability parameters. Fitting the sMLSBM to a multilayer network provides a joint clustering that yields node-to-community and layer-to-stratum assignments, which cooperatively aid one another during inference. We describe an algorithm for separating layers into their appropriate strata and an inference technique for estimating the SBM parameters for each stratum. We demonstrate our method using synthetic networks and a multilayer network inferred from data collected in the Human Microbiome Project.


In rain-fed vineyards, water availability strongly influences vegetative and reproductive growth and, thus, berry quality. Narrow-band spectral indices might provide information on vine structure and physiological status and might be a useful tool for predicting berry quality. The present study tested the feasibility of using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the photochemical reflectance index (PRI) to assess berry quality in five commercial vineyards (cv. Xarel·lo) in 2009 and 2010. Measurements of predawn water potential (Ψpd), canopy to air temperature difference, fractional intercepted photosynthetic active radiation (fIPAR), exposed leaf area, and canopy reflectance were taken at veraison. Berry weight, total soluble solids (TSS), and titratable acidity (TA) were determined at harvest. Values of Ψpd indicated mild to moderate water deficits. NDVI characterized the effects of water availability on vine vigor (fIPAR), while PRI was related to water status (Ψpd). The extent of water deficits was a key factor in determining the aptitude of spectral indices at estimating berry quality attributes. Thus, consistent with the influence of vine vigor and water status on berry quality attributes, NDVI was related to both TA (r2 = 0.46) and IMAD (the ratio of TSS to TA; r2 = 0.27), whereas PRI was related to both TSS and IMAD (r2 = 0.23 and r2 = 0.34, respectively). In addition, PRI was positively related to berry weight (r2 = 0.68). The results suggest the potential of reflectance indices of canopy vigor (i.e., NDVI) and photosynthetic functioning (i.e., PRI) at estimating berry quality attributes in vineyards experiencing mild to moderate water deficits.


We and others have recently demonstrated by immuno-EM and mutation analysis that two oocyte-restricted maternal effect genes, PADI6 and MATER, localize, in part, to the oocyte cytoplasmic lattices (CPLs). During these ongoing studies, however, we found that the localization of these factors by confocal immunofluorescence (IF) analysis can vary dramatically depending upon how the oocytes and embryos are processed, with the localization pattern sometimes appearing more uniformly cytoplasmic while at other times appearing to be primarily cortical. We set out to better understand this differential staining pattern by testing a range of IF protocol parameters, changing mainly time and temperature conditions of the primary antibody solution incubation, as well as fixation methods. We found by confocal IF whole mount analysis that PADI6 and MATER localization in germinal vesicle stage oocytes is mainly cytoplasmic when the oocytes are fixed and then incubated with primary antibodies at room temperature for 1 hour, while the localization of these factors is largely limited to the cortex when the oocytes are fixed and incubated in primary antibody at 4°C overnight. We then probed sections of fixed/embedded ovaries and isolated two-cell embryos with specific antibodies and found that, under these conditions, PADI6 and MATER were again primarily cytoplasmically localized, although the staining for these factors is slightly more cortical at the two-cell stage. Taken together, our results suggest that the localization of CPL-associated proteins by confocal IF is particularly affected by processing conditions. Further, based on our current observations, it appears that PADI6 and MATER are primarily distributed throughout the cytoplasm as opposed to the oocyte subcortex.


One response by the Manitoba Government to STI/HIV rates among its youth has been the support of a Youth Health Education Service named Teen Talk. Teen Talk has developed two programs, the Workshops for Youth Program and the Peer Support Program.
In this mixed methods research study, the barriers and facilitators to implementing the Peer Support Program (PS) beyond the limits of the City of Winnipeg and the impact of the PS training on its participants were documented.
The results were organized into categories and diagrams were created. It was concluded that in order for the PS training to best meet the needs of its rural and northern participants, Teen Talk needs to become a part of larger community wide initiatives. Within Teen Talk a paradigm shift needs to occur where rural and northern training sessions are acknowledged as separate entities and appropriate financial and human resources are allocated.


The goal of this work is to bring semantics into the tasks of text recognition and retrieval in natural images. Although text recognition and retrieval have received a lot of attention in recent years, previous works have focused on recognizing or retrieving exactly the same word used as a query, without taking the semantics into consideration. In this paper, we ask the following question: can we predict semantic concepts directly from a word image, without explicitly trying to transcribe the word image or its characters at any point? For this goal we propose a convolutional neural network (CNN) with a weighted ranking loss objective that ensures that the concepts relevant to the query image are ranked ahead of those that are not relevant. This can also be interpreted as learning a Euclidean space where word images and concepts are jointly embedded. This model is learned in an end-to-end manner, from image pixels to semantic concepts, using a dataset of synthetically generated word images and concepts mined from a lexical database (WordNet). Our results show that, despite the complexity of the task, word images and concepts can indeed be associated with a high degree of accuracy.


We report on two new electrochemical sensors which, coupled to differential pulse voltammetry, constitutes a useful tool for diagnosis of heavy metal pollution. The electrochemical sensors AgHgNf/Cu and the AgBiNf/Cu were obtained by deposition of bimetallic particles of AgHg or AgBi on copper electrodes covered with a Nafion (Nf) film, respectively. Micrographs of the electrode's surface showed evenly scattered bimetallic particles, with an approximate diameter of 150 nm, embedded in the Nafion (Nf) film. In order to test the electrodes, the hydrogen evolution signal according to the Brdička reaction was measured for the determination of cysteine-rich peptides (CRp) produced by plants. To check the accuracy of the electrodes, real samples of Nicotiana tabacum cells exposed to cytotoxic levels of cadmium were tested. The AgHgNf/Cu electrode produced detection limits (DLs) of 0.088 µmol L−1 for Cysteine and 0.139µmol L−1 for Glutathione, while for the AgBiNf/Cu electrode DLs were 0.41 µmol L−1 for cysteine and 0.244 µmol L−1 for glutathione. Thus, the new electrodes could be a useful analytical electrochemical system very convenient for fieldwork. The electrodes were capable of direct, accurate, and sensitive detection of synthesized peptides, despite the complex matrix where the Nicotiana tabacum cells were grown.


A sensitive determination method for pethidine based on capillary electrophoresis-electrochemiluminescence detection was described. Analysis conditions affecting separation and detection were discussed and optimized in detail. The mixture solution of 5 mmol/L Ru(bpy)32+ and 50 mmol/L phosphate buffer at pH 7.46 were added to the detection reservoir. End-column detection of pethidine was performed. Sensitive electrochemiluminescence detection was obtained at applied voltage of 1.20 V. A baseline separation of pethidine was achieved using a phosphate running buffer at pH 7.46 by electrokinetic injection for 10 s at 10 kV. A detection limit of 5.0×10-8 M (S/N=3) was achieved.


The metric pump is widely used in the chemical industry and other industries which need fluid translation. It has the ability of accurate flow regulating. However, it is mainly by operating the hand wheel on the pump to regulate the flow of the pump at present. The accuracy of manual regulation is low, and the manual operated metric pump is not suitable to be used in the poisonous and dangerous circumstances. This paper chose AT89S52 as the main controller, which controlled the stepper motor. After reducing the speed by speed reducer, the stepper motor drove leadscrew to control the N-Shape Shaft, which is the flow regulating part on the pump. The system used LCD as the display unit, it can displayed the the setting values, and the values changed as the stepper motor moved. The system used 4×4 keyboard as the input interface, it has more keys which means more control funtions and inputing flow values is convenient. The experimental results indicate that the error between actual flow value and the setting value is within 2%. It reaches the factory demand. This flow regulation instrument has resloved unconvenience in manual regulation way and improved the control accuracy.


The main objective of this thesis is to develop a dynamic neural network-based fault detection and isolation (FDI) scheme for the Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (PPTs) that are used in the Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS) of satellites that are tasked to perform a formation flying mission. In order to accomplish these objectives three fault detection and isolation (FDI) approaches based on dynamic neural networks (DNN) are developed: (i) a "Low Level" FDI scheme, (ii) a "High Level" FDI scheme, and (iii) an "Integrated" FDI scheme. Based on data that is collected from the electrical circuit of the PPTs, our proposed "Low Level" FDI scheme can detect and isolate faults in the PPT actuators. Using a Confusion Matrix evaluation system we demonstrate that can achieve a high level of accuracy but the precision level is below expectations and the misclassification rate is expressed as False Healthy and False Faulty parameters is significant. Our proposed "High Level" FDI scheme utilizes data collected from the relative attitudes of the formation flying satellites. According to the simulation results, our proposed FDI scheme can detect the pair of thrusters which is faulty. It represents a promising detection capability, however its isolation capabilities are not adequate. Finally, our proposed "Integrated" FDI scheme takes advantage of the strengths of each of the previous schemes and at same time reduces their individual weaknesses. To demonstrate its capabilities, various fault scenarios were simulated. The results demonstrate a high level of accuracy (99.79%) and precision (99.94%) with a misclassification rate that is quite negligible. Furthermore, our proposed "Integrated" FDI scheme provides additional and interesting information related to the effects of faults in the thrust production levels that would not be available from simply the low and high levels separately.


There are many stages and a large investment of both time and money involved in the process of research and development before a new drug can be prescribed for clinical use. Of the thousands of new molecular entities, only one or two are approved for commercialization, after having endured a trajectory of 12 to 15 years in clinical trials in both animals and humans, demonstrating their therapeutic effectiveness and safety. There are three large administrators of medicines that control the process of new drug registration, the FDA--Food and Drug Administration of the USA being the largest and most well known. This article is based on their model and details the various stages that the molecule must undergo before finally being administered to patients. The future holds many exciting promises for new drug development with the advent of the human genome project and other highly advanced technological methods. However, the main challenge still remains, which is to guarantee the access of basic medicines to the majority of the world's population that is still without them.


The article presents a numerical inversion method for estimation of Q-factor and phase velocity in linear, viscoelastic, isotropic media using reconstruction of relaxation spectrum from measured or computed complex velocity or complex modulus of the medium. Mathematically the problem is formulated as an inverse spectral problem for reconstruction of spectral measure in the analytic Stieltjes representation of the complex modulus using rational approximation. A rational (Pade) approximation to the spectral measure is derived from a constrained least squares minimization problem with regularization. The recovered stress-strain relaxation spectrum is applied to numerical calculation of frequency dependent Q-factor and frequency dependent phase velocity for known analytical models of a standard linear viscoelastic solid (Zener) model as well as a nearly constant-Q model which has a continuous spectrum. Numerical results for these analytic models show good agreement between theoretical and predicted values and demonstrate the validity of the algorithm. The proposed method can be used for evaluating relaxation mechanisms in seismic wavefield simulation of viscoelastic media. The constructed lower order Pade approximation can be used for determination of the internal memory variables in TDFD numerical simulation of viscoelastic wave propagation.


Green tea (Camellia sinensis) has the potential to be developed as a natural agent for therapy of iron overload in thalassemia. The purpose of this research was to observe the ability of ethanol extract of green tea as a natural iron chelating agent in animal iron overload model. Ethanol extract of green tea leave (GTLE) was prepared by maceration using 70% ethanol. Sprague-Dawley male rats were divided into three groups (5 rats each), a normal control group (group I) received daily p.o. of deionized water, the iron overload group received 100 g/Kg BW (group II) of GTLE that given two hours before ferroussulfate0.5 g/Kg BW administrations and the last group (group III) received only 0.5 g/Kg BW of ferrous sulfate. GTLE and ferrous sulfate were given orally every day for 30 days. At the end of the experimental period, rat blood serum samples were collected. Iron content and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels were measured using a spectrophotometer followed by observing the histologic preparation of rat liver organ. The results showed that administration of green tea leaves ethanolic extract of 100 g/Kg BW was able to keep down iron and ALT levels in the rat blood to a normal level.


Various cutaneous and mucocutaneous manifestations that are associated with HIV infection and AIDS from the superficial Candida albicans to systemic infections such as that caused by Histoplasma capsulatum are discussed. Specific topics cover superficial fungal infections such as blastomycosis, coccidioidomycosis, cryptoccosis, histoplasmosis, paracoccidioidomycosis, and sporotrichosis; and manifestations from systemic fungal infections caused by Cryptococcus neoformans and Penicillium marneffei. Diagnostic advice involving these conditions is offered. In the area of diagnosis, it is advised that when considering the possibility that a mucocutaneous lesion in an HIV-infected patient is secondary to dissemination of a systemic fungal infection, a tissue biopsy of that lesion should be performed for histologic evaluational and microbiologic cultures. Light microscopic examination after routine staining with hematoxylin-eosin and/or special staining for fungi with either periodic acid-Schiff or Gomori methenamine silver is also recommended in diagnosing a systemic fungal infection. Diagnostic molecular microbiology is making progress in expediting diagnosis of some of these infections, but it is not yet routinely available.


More than one hundred fifty years ago, Moravian missionaries first landed along a so-called isolated stretch of HondurasAEs Mosquito Coast bordering the western Caribbean Sea. The missionaries were sent, with the strong encouragement of German political leaders and in the context of German attempts at colonization, to ospread the wordo of Protestantism in Central America. Upon their arrival, the missionar-ies employed a three-pronged approach consisting of proselytizing, medical treatment, and education to convert the majority of the indige-nous population. Much like the Spanish and English attempts before them, German colonizing efforts in the region never complete-ly took hold. Still, as Benjamin Tillman shows, for the regionAEs indigenous inhabitants, the Miskito people, the arrival of the Moravian missionaries marked the beginning of an important cultural interface. Imprints on Native Lands documents Moravian contributions to the Miskito settlement landscape in sixty-four villages of eastern Honduras through field observations of material culture, interviews with village residents, and research in primary sources in the Moravian Church archives. Tillman employs the resulting data to map a hierarchy of Moravian centers, illustrating spatially varying degrees of Moravian influence on the Miskito settlement landscape. Tillman reinforces Miskito claims to ancestral lands by identifying and mapping their created ethnic landscape, as well as supporting earlier efforts at land-use mapping in the region. This book has broad implications, providing a methodology that will be of help to those with an interest in geography, anthropology, or Latin American studies, and to anyone interested in documenting and strengthening indigenous land claims.


The best and worst major cities for business investment are identified in a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In "Business Tax Burdens in Canada's Major Cities: The 2017 Report Card" authors Adam Found and Peter Tomlinson compare business tax burdens in 10 Canadian cities, the largest in each province.


This five-year research and art commission project examines the materials as well as manufacture and engineering that together reflect changes in urban and social conditions along the Chelsea Embankment of the river Thames in central London. The project is a collaboration with architects Hawkins & Brown, the Royal Borough of Chelsea and Kensington, and Tideway, conceived as a major contribution to rethink and position the potential of sculpture in public space for the future regeneration of the Thames Embankment and a key instance of major public art commissioning fuelling and driving the wider discussion of art in the public realm affected by urban change and redevelopment.

The outcomes of this project are realised and disseminated through an integrated, serial and dispersed artwork partially submerged in the river Thames as a long- term installation reaching large numbers of diverse visitors.


The Internet and Intranet reduce much of the costs of information sharing, but they do not solve receivers' reading and interpretation limitations. Alternatively, browsers and navigators ease information retrieval but do not solve the problems of specifying information needs and evaluating retrieval results. This article approaches these problems as a non-optimal situation for supplier as well as buyer of information goods. The author applies insights from pure markets, networks and hierarchies to detect six types of information goods, whose trade can be facilitated by a corresponding trade service. The author argues that the development of these services contributes more to the reduction of under-utilisation and under valuation of information than technological developments alone.


Whether a word has an irregular inflection does not depend on its sound alone: compare lie-lay (recline) and lie-lied (prevaricate). Theories of morphology, particularly connectionist and symbolic models, disagree on which nonphonological factors are responsible. We test four possibilities: (1) lexical effects, in which two lemmas differ in whether they specify an irregular form; (2) semantic effects, in which the semantic features of a word become associated with regular or irregular forms; (3) morphological structure effects, in which a word with a headless structure (e.g., a verb derived from a noun) blocks access to a stored irregular form; and (4) compositionality effects, in which the stored combination of an irregular word's meaning (e.g., the verb's inherent aspect) with the meaning of the inflection (e.g., pastness) doesn't readily transfer to new senses with different combinations of such meanings. In four experiments, speakers were presented with existing and novel verbs and asked to rate their past-tense forms, semantic similarities, grammatical structure, and aspectual similarities. We found: (1) an interaction between semantic and phonological similarity, coinciding with reported strategies of analogising to known verbs and implicating lexical effects; (2) weak and inconsistent effects of semantic similarity; (3) robust effects of morphological structure; and (4) robust effects of aspectual compositionality. Results are consistent with theories of language that invoke lexical entries and morphological structure, and which differentiate the mode of storage of regular and irregular verbs. They also suggest how psycholinguistic processes have shaped vocabulary structure over history.


With the research on the emergency disposal, we build a new contingency scheme model based on the Petri net. The model can meet the needs of the emergency disposal of large ceremony. With this model, we can realize the automatic scheduling of the contingency scheme, control according to the feedback and help the commander to make the decision. It will make all people and departments work in harmony and shorten the response time. The model was used in the 29th Beijing Olympics opening ceremony and closing ceremony successfully.


Background and objective: Preoperative bedside screening tests for difficult tracheal intubation may be neither sensitive nor specific enough for clinical use. The aim was to investigate if a combination of the Mallampati classification of the oropharyngeal view with either the thyromental or sternomental distance measurement improved the predictive value. Methods: A total of 212 (109 male, 103 female) non-obstetric surgical patients, aged > 18 yr, undergoing elective surgical procedures requiring tracheal intubation were assessed preoperatively with respect to the oropharyngeal (modified Mallampati) classification, thyromental and sternomental distances. An experienced anaesthetist, blinded to the preoperative airway assessment, performed laryngoscopy and graded the view according to Cormack and Lehane's classification. Results: Twenty tracheal intubations (9%) were difficult as defined by a Cormack and Lehane Grade 3 or 4, or the requirement for a bougie in patients with Cormack and Lehane Grade 2. Used alone, the Mallampati oropharyngeal view, and thyromental and sternomental distances were associated with poor sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive values. Combining the Mallampati Class III or IV with either a thyromental distance <6.5 cm or a sternomental distance <12.5 cm decreased the sensitivity (from 40 to 25 and 20%, respectively), but maintained a negative predictive value of 93%. The specificity and positive predictive values increased from 89 and 27% respectively for Mallampati alone to 100%. Conclusions: The findings suggest that the Mallampati classification, in conjunction with measurement of the thyromental and sternomental distances, may be a useful routine screening test for preoperative prediction of difficult tracheal intubation.


Abstract Stress hyperglycemia is commonly identified in children with severe illness and previously normal glucose homeostasis. In the pediatric population febrile seizures are reported among stress-related conditions associated with stress hyperglycemia. The objective of this prospective study was to evaluate the possible association between blood glucose level and febrile seizure severity defined by fever degree, seizure type, seizure duration and hospitalization length. Among 167 febrile seizures the prevalence of stress hyperglycemia (blood glucose concentration over 150mg/dl) was 13.22%. There was a highly significant statistical association between seizure duration (exceeding 15 minutes) and increased blood glucose concentration (p= 0.001). Prolonged febrile seizures combined with high fever were significant risk factors for stress hyperglycemia. Further analysis on acute fluctuation of glycemia, persistence of hyperglycemia should be taken in consideration as possible prebdictive factor for stress hyperglycemia, by comparison to the peak blood glucose concentration .


Abstract In order to evaluate the railway track geometry condition and plan maintenance activities, track inspection cars run over the track at specific times to monitor it and record geometry measurements. Applying an adequate inspection interval is vital to ensure the availability, safety and quality of the railway track, at the lowest possible cost. The aim of this study has been to investigate the effect of different inspection intervals on the track geometry condition. To achieve this, an integrated statistical model was developed to predict the track geometry condition given different inspection intervals. In order to model the evolution of the track geometry condition, a piecewise exponential model was used which considers break points at the maintenance times. Ordinal logistic regression was applied to model the probability of the occurrence of severe isolated defects. The Monte Carlo technique was used to simulate the track geometry behaviour given different inspection intervals. The results of the proposed model support the decision-making process regarding the selection of the most adequate inspection interval. The applicability of the model was tested in a case study on the Main Western Line in Sweden.


Rapid advances in synthetic biology are driving the development of genetically engineered microbes as therapeutic agents for a multitude of human diseases, including cancer. In particular, the immunosuppressive microenvironment of solid tumors creates a favorable niche for systemically administered bacteria to engraft in the tumor and release therapeutic payloads. However, such payloads can be harmful if released in healthy tissues where the bacteria also engraft in smaller numbers. To address this limitation, we engineer therapeutic bacteria to be controlled by focused ultrasound, a form of energy that can be applied noninvasively to specific anatomical sites such as solid tumors. This control is provided by a temperature-actuated genetic state switch that produces lasting therapeutic output in response to briefly applied focused ultrasound hyperthermia. Using a combination of rational design and high-throughput screening we optimized the switching circuits of engineered cells and connected their activity to the release of immune checkpoint inhibitors. In a clinically relevant cancer model, ultrasound-activated therapeutic microbes successfully turned on in situ and induced a marked suppression of tumor growth. This technology provides a critical tool for the spatiotemporal targeting of potent bacterial therapeutics in a variety of biological and clinical scenarios.


Infrastructure managers are in charge of ensuring that infrastructure provides an acceptable level of service to society. To evaluate whether such a level of service can be maintained in the case of natural disasters, a generic risk assessment process was developed in the INFRARISK project. This process accounts for the complex interactions between a multitude of spatio-temporal systems, which may ultimately lead to negative impacts on society due to impairment of the infrastructure networks. Implementations of this process rely heavily on computer support to perform a large number of natural disaster simulations. The vast volume of resulting data additionally undergoes several aggregation steps, which leads to a high variety of different data classes, each with unique characteristics. The overall goal of this thesis is the development of visualization methods that enable an efficient analysis of the data generated during such risk assessments. For this purpose, a simulation environment was engineered to allow the execution of a multitude of simulations to investigate changes in the evolution of the modeled systems due to different input parameters. The simulation results are automatically postprocessed to yield several risk measures. Visualization methods described in the literature and suitable for the analysis of each of these data classes were determined. In two cases, no appropriate visualization method could be found. To fill these gaps, the state dependency graph (SDG) and the rendering-based analysis techniques were developed. The SDG facilitates the understanding of single simulations by representing each generated state of a system as a node and the dependencies between these states as edges. Encoding state information in the visual variables of the nodes and enriching the edges with impact information, such as maps depicting the location of a landslide, allow to easily comprehend the evolution of the represented systems, determine how impacts propagate through them, and compare the outcomes of different simulations. This technique is particularly useful when used with an interactive map in which the geospatial representation of a state of interest is displayed. Including maps in a visual analysis tool requires a powerful rendering engine that allows to navigate along time-series of data in real-time. Hence, the concept of rendering-based geospatial analysis is investigated. This approach allows to undertake typical geospatial operations as part of the GPUaccelerated rendering pipeline interactively, which is advantageous when dealing with a large volume of geospatial datasets. Because of the high speed at which these operations are conducted, the resulting datasets do not need to be physically stored, but can be immediately recomputed when required. This is useful when comparing different states by generating difference maps, for example, or when computing distance fields and buffers to obtain proximity information. In addition, the effects of parameter changes for many methods such as kernel density estimation and inverse distance weighting can immediately be investigated for multiple states. This simplifies the validation of the chosen parameters. The developed methods were integrated into a prototypical visualization tool that was successfully applied to risk assessment results of the INFRARISK project for the region of Chur, Switzerland.


Background The purpose of this study was to determine what issues are important to active individuals with hip lesions and to assess whether these issues are different from those that surgeons think are important. Hypothesis A discrepancy will be noted between what patients and surgeons believe to be important. Study Design Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods This study comprised 150 consecutive patients (73 men, 77 women) from the international practices of 9 orthopaedic surgeons specializing in the management of hip disorders. All participants were seeking treatment for musculoskeletal hip disease. Average patient age was 42 ± 11 years (range, 18-60). Patients and surgeons rated the importance of 146 potential hip outcome assessment items on a 6-point Likert-type scale. Results Of the 23 items identified as being important to patients, 16 were in the sports and recreation category. The top 11 items that the clinicians thought were most important were rated significantly lower by patients (P <. 0005). Specifically, surgeons rated several items as being important that fell into the symptoms, functional limitations, and occupational issues categories, whereas patients did not. That is, a difference was found between patients and clinicians in how they rated items related to symptoms, functional limitations, and occupation (P <. 01). A difference was not found between patients and surgeons in how they rated items related to sports and recreation and social-emotional lifestyle (P >. 01). Conclusion The hypothesis of this study was affirmed: a discrepancy was found between what issues patients believe are important and what surgeons perceive as being important to patients. This information may be particularly important when assessing treatment outcomes from a patient's perspective. Clinicians must be careful in presuming that the issues that they are attempting to improve with treatment are issues that are important to patients. These findings also emphasize the importance of discussing appropriate postoperative expectations for those considering surgery.


The philosophical premise of knowledge existing per se is adopted and against
this the nature of the arts in education is both examined and critically appraised.
The art and crafts area of the curriculum is determined as the particular
locus for investigation and the general picture of arts education in secondary
schools is portrayed. The concept of the creative arts department is defined
and its evolution is
areas. Three main
compared
types of
with curricular development in other subject
creative arts department are identified and
examined; art and design, expressive arts, and creative arts. Each is evaluated
and comparisons are drawn between them. [Continues.]


AIM
The aim of this paper was to explore trends, arguments and issues surrounding knowledge production and nursing practice, and to propose a paradigm of practice-based knowledge along with strategies to promote theory-based knowledge development in practice.

BACKGROUND
Practice-based knowledge has been marginalized in the current practice and research paradigms. Several reasons for this are presented, some of which may be addressed to facilitate a more inclusive approach to knowledge that can potentially advance patient care and the discipline.

EVALUATION
Classic and contemporary scholarly sources in nursing, philosophy, education, social sciences and other areas were critically reviewed and applied to support the argument and propose a paradigm of practice-based knowledge production.

KEY ISSUES
A key point identified in the paper is that theory, meaning conceptualizations at all levels of abstraction, is an important tool of knowledge development in nursing practice as it is in traditional research. Conclusions Various strategies exist that can be employed to promote development and use of practice-based knowledge in the clinical setting. The strategies are innovative yet practical, and require the support and encouragement of nursing management for their successful implementation.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT
Nursing managers can influence if not facilitate all of the strategies to promote practice-based knowledge development identified in the paper. These efforts could give voice to the caregiver's knowledge and, in turn, enhance patient care and the satisfaction and retention of nurses.


This is a guide created to help students doing research in music, music history, music education, the music business and more.


Photoacoustic imaging is becoming a very promising tool for the research of living organisms. It combines the high contrast of optical imaging and the high resolution of acoustic imaging to realize the imaging of absorption clusters in biological tissues. Since the scattering of ultrasound signals in biological tissues is 2-3 orders of magnitude weaker than the scattering of light in biological tissues, the endogenous absorption difference of tissues is directly used in the imaging process, so photoacoustic imaging has the advantages of deep imaging depth and non-destructive. As an important branch of photoacoustic imaging, photoacoustic microscopy can provide micron-level or even sub-micron-level imaging resolution, which is of great significance for biological research such as blood vessel detection. Since the lateral resolution of the photoacoustic microscopy imaging system depends on the focus of the laser, a higher resolution can be obtained by increasing the numerical aperture of the condenser objective. However, a large numerical aperture usually means a shorter working distance and makes the entire imaging system very sensitive to small optical defects. Therefore, the improvement of resolution through this method will be limited in practical applications. This paper implements a method of using iterative deconvolution to obtain a high-resolution photoacoustic image of the brain. The focal spot of the photoacoustic microscopy is measured to obtain the lateral PSF (point spread function) of the system. Making the measured PSF as the initial system PSF to perform Lucy- Richardson (LR) deconvolution. The image resolution of cerebral vasculature obtained by this method is higher. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of width of the same cerebral capillaries before and after deconvolution are 7 μm and 3.6 μm, respectively, and the image definition is increased by about 1.9 times. Experiments show that this method can further improve the clarity of photoacoustic images of cerebral capillaries, which lays the foundation for further research on brain imaging.


Pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) are the main precursors of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), known to induce cancer aggressiveness. Integrin alpha5 (ITGA5), a fibronectin receptor, was found to be overexpressed by CAFs in stroma and linked to poor overall survival (log-rank p=0.022, n=137) of patients with PDAC. In vitro, knockdown of ITGA5 in human PSCs (hPSCs) inhibited their adhesion, migration, and proliferation and also inhibited TGF-β-mediated differentiation. In vivo, co-injection of PANC-1 tumor cells and hPSCs (sh-ITGA5) developed tumors with reduced fibrosis and slower growth rate compared to those composed of PANC-1 and hPSC (sh-Ctrl). Furthermore, we developed a ITGA5-antagonizing peptidomimetic (AV3) which inhibited TGFβ-mediated hPSC differentiation by blocking ITGA5/FAK pathway. In vivo, treatment with AV3 intraperitoneally attenuated tumor fibrosis and thereby enhanced the efficacy of gemcitabine in patient-derived xenografts in mice. Altogether, this study reports the therapeutic importance of ITGA5 in PDAC and provides novel therapeutic peptidomimetic to enhance the effect of chemotherapy.


Abstract Objective: the pourpose of the study was to determine if there are any differences between placenta derived plasmatic levels of messenger RNA in normal and future preeclamptic pregnancies and if these placental transcripts can predict preeclampsia long before clinical onset Study design: we compared plasmatic expression of two placental transcripts from 12 women who ultimately developed preeclampsia with 224 controlled subjects, at the end of the first trimester of pregnancy. After multiplse-of-the-median conversion of markers we developed a multivariate model using logistic regression to determine preeclampsia risk. Results: we found lower multiples of the median values for both placental transcripts (mRNA corresponding to placental growth factor and pregnancy associated plasmatic protein A) in cases who ultimately developed preeclampsia and the multivariate model we obtained offered a preeclampsia detection rate of 75% at 10% false positive rate. Conclusion: specific early changes of placenta-derived messenger RNA could be used as preeclampsia predictors.


The aims of this study were to determine predictors of abnormal outcome, neurodevelopmental deterioration, new-onset epilepsy, refractory epilepsy, and recurrent status epilepticus in children presenting with status epilepticus. For all children presenting to Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, with status epilepticus between January 1987 and December 1996, demographic data, details of status epilepticus (etiology, duration, treatment, and investigations), developmental milestones, seizures prior to and following status epilepticus, recurrent status epilepticus, and neurologic examination findings at status epilepticus and at follow-up were collected by chart review, patient interview, and neurologic examination. Neurodevelopmental outcome was determined for all subjects except those who died during the initial hospitalization. Predictors of new-onset epilepsy, refractory epilepsy, and recurrent status epilepticus were determined for children followed for 3 months or more after status epilepticus. At follow-up, 79% were abnormal neurologically. Predictors included etiology (nonfebrile or nonidiopathic), perinatal difficulties, preceding developmental delay, abnormal initial neurologic examination; and abnormal neuroimaging. Thirty-four percent showed neurodevelopmental deterioration; predictors included etiology (nonidiopathic or nonfebrile), young age at status epilepticus (12 months or less), and abnormal neuroimaging. Thirty-six percent with no history of seizures preceding status epilepticus developed epilepsy and 25% developed refractory epilepsy. Fifty percent of children had recurrent status epilepticus. In conclusion, very few children presenting in status epilepticus were normal at follow-up. Sequelae were seen predominantly in those with a nonidiopathic, nonfebrile etiology, whereas those with idiopathic or febrile status epilepticus did well. (J Child Neurol 1999;14:787-794).


Objective: To evaluate effect of boiling for different durations on total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, antioxidant activity and alpha-amylase inhibitory activity of water extract of Lagenaria siceraria fruit, and to compare nutritional properties of its epicarp, mesocarp, seeds pulp and pedicle. Methods: The bioactivities of aqueous extract of fruit was evaluated after boiling for 10, 20, and 30 min. Moisture, ash, fiber, protein, carbohydrate and lipid contents and vitamin C of epicarp, mesocarp, seeds pulp and pedicle were determined using standard methods. Mineral elements (Fe, Cr, Cu, Ag, Mn, Zn, Ni, Co and Pb) were estimated by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Results: DPPH (1,1-diphenyl2-picrylhydrazyl) antioxidant and alpha-amylase inhibitory activities, and phenolic content drastically decreases with increase in duration of boiling. Flavonoid content and antioxidant capacity in phosphomolybdate assay exhibited a slight increase. Epicarp had higher percentage of protein, carbohydrate and vitamin C than other parts of the fruit, while pedicle had the highest content of fiber, zinc, silver and chromium. Epicarp had the highest content of Copper. Iron was in the range of 3.4-5.13, cobalt 0.14-0.31 and lead 0.5-1.8 mg/100 g. Amount of zinc in pedicle was highest among all the trace elements (6.5%) in all parts. Conclusion: The study revealed that boiling duration affects antioxidant and alpha-amylase inhibitory activities of the fruit of L. siceraria. Peel and pedicle of the fruit should not be discarded as they are rich in nutritional properties.


S27 Figure 1 INCREASED INCIDENCE OF COPD EXACERBATIONS FOLLOWING INFLUENZA VACCINATION doi:10.1136/thoraxjnl-2012-202678.034 GC Donaldson, BS Kowlessar, ARC Patel, AJ Mackay, R Singh, S Brill, JA Wedzicha. University College London, London, United Kingdom, Introduction Influenza vaccination prevents substantial morbidity, and mortality, and the spread of infection, but patients still sometimes refuse vaccinations due to concerns over adverse reactions. Our aim was to determine the relative risk of COPD exacerbations post-vaccination. Methods We analysed data before and after 162 vaccinations given to 112 patients in the London COPD cohort between 2009 and 2011. Patients recorded on daily diary cards increase in respiratory symptoms. Exacerbations were defined as ≥2 days of 2 major symptoms (new or increased breathlessness, sputum volume or purulence) or 1 major and 1 minor symptom (cold, increased cough, increased wheeze, sore throat). Patients were telephoned in Oct 2011 and asked about recent or forthcoming vaccinations; other dates were known from previous years when recorded diary cards or reported at clinic visits. The risk of COPD exacerbation in the two post-vaccination periods, days 1–2 and 3–14 were calculated relative to the patient's baseline risk assessed over the year before and after vaccination using a self-controlled case series approach. The data was also simply analysed with a Chi-squared test of the proportion of exacerbations in the two weeks before and after vaccination. Results There was a 3.31 fold (95% CI 1.5–7.4; P=0.004) increased risk of COPD exacerbation 1–2 days post influenza vaccination, and a 1.8 fold risk (1.2–2.9; p=0.007) 3–14 days afterwards. In the two weeks prior to vaccination there were 5/162 exacerbations and 26/162 in the two weeks post vaccination (p<0.001). All 5 of the exacerbations before and 17/26 exacerbations after vaccination were treated with antibiotics and/or oral steroids. Using thie healthcare utilisation definition of COPD exacerbations, there were still significantly more events post vaccination (p=0.008). Figure 1 shows the average number of new or increased respiratory symptoms recorded by the patients during the 3 weeks before and after vaccination. Conclusion The incidence of COPD exacerbation increases immediately after influenza vaccination. COPD patients should be warned about increased respiratory symptoms after their influenza vaccination. Future studies should investigate the mechanisms underlying these increased symptoms in order to intervene and prevent them effectively. S28 on M arch 3, 2021 by gest. P rocted by coright. httphorax.bm jcom / T hrax: frst pulished as 10.1136/thl-2012-202678.035 on 19 N ovem er 212. D ow nladed fom


Traditional analyses of the Japanese verb kuru 'come' involve mere itemization of its various senses. An image schema has yet to be presented to characterize its diverse instantiations. This paper undertakes this goal within the framework of Cognitive Grammar. A network model and a source-path-goal schema are proposed to capture the relatedness of the various senses of this verb. This study shows cognitive domain selection/shifting plays an important role in motivating its semantic extensions. This paper supports a semantic network model by demonstrating that all the senses of kuru are far from random and that all the extensions are related to its basic meaning through family resemblance. This study also shows that all the variants of kuru result from profiling different parts of the trajectory of the motion and that it is human conceptualization of phenomena (mainly metaphor) that directly motives extensions including grammaticalization of a particular lexical item. Keyword: Japanese verb kuru; semantic network; metaphor; Cognitive Grammar


This study examines the extent and trends of regional income inequality in China and Indonesia, and performs a comparative analysis between these two countries in terms of factors determining regional income inequality. There are a number of studies that have analyzed the relationship between economic development and regional income inequality in China and Indonesia. However, most previous studies employed provincial income and population data to measure regional income inequality and were thus unable to measure inequality within provinces. In order to rectify this drawback, we will use district-level income and population data, rather than provincial data, to measure regional income inequality, and examine not only between-province inequalities but also within-province inequalities by using the two-stage nested Theil decomposition method developed by Akita (2002). China and Indonesia are still at a relatively early stage of economic development; therefore, income-enhancing economic activities tend to have concentrated in a few districts in each province to enjoy agglomeration economies. We will show that a very large regional income inequality exists among the districts of China and Indonesia. This study will also conduct a regression analysis to explore possible determinants of within-province income inequality, in which the following variables are considered: foreign direct investment, economic dualism, and migration.


In Canada, agriculture and its related industries are undergoing rapid and significant changes. Among the many issues facing farmers and other agri-business people are the development of biotechnologies, the decline of on-farm and rural populations, the emergence of new public policies, concerns over food safety, globalisation of markets, sensitivity to environmental issues, and the influence of regional and global trade agreements. Given the complexity of these issues, and the distinctiveness of various regions, sectors and commodities produced in Canada, there is a need for national agricultural leaders who understand the issues, and have the skills and networks to construct effective responses to those issues. The Canadian Farm Business Management Council has supported the development and pilot testing of a national leadership development program known as Canadian Agriculture Lifetime Leadership (CALL). CALL is a two-year program that selects men and women with demonstrated leadership potential and commitment to the agricultural industry, and provides those men and women with an opportunity to become more effective leaders. In addition to CALL, Ontario and New Brunswick have provincial leadership development programs targeted to agriculture. This paper introduces the context of agricultural leadership development programs in Canada. It then provides a short review of the CALL program and its provincial counterpart in Ontario. Based on this review, and on the perspectives provided by program graduates, a vision for the future of agricultural leadership programs in Canada is presented.


Option models have provided insight into the value of flexibility to switch from one state to another (such as switching a mine or refinery from operating to closed status). More complex flexible processes offer multiple possibilities for switching states. A fabrication facility, for example, may offer options to shift from the current status to any of several alternatives (reflecting reconfiguration of basic facilities to accommodate different operating processes with different outputs). New algorithms enable practical application of complex option pricing models to flexible facilities, improving analysts' ability to draw sound conclusions about the effects of flexibility and innovativeness on share value. Careful attention to estimating the matrix of correlations among the values of potential alternative states allows explicit integration of financial analysis and strategic analysis—especially the influence of substitutes and the anticipated reactions of competitors, suppliers, and potential new entrants. [JEL: G31, G13]


If anecdotes are marginal notes on the pages of history, these will delight any reader who has ever been moved or entertained by the condition of the soldier. Few fields of human endeavor have inspired so many memorable anecdotes as warfare, from the Bible and Livy through Gibbon and Froissart, to the imperial wars of the nineteenth century and the world conflicts of the twentieth. This collection of is principally concerned with American and British conflicts, with, as the author says, "occasional forays among the ranks of foreign armies"--notably the Greeks, the Romans, and Napoleon's veterans. Hastings has sought stories that illustrate the military condition through the ages, both on the battlefield and in barracks: comic, eccentric, heroic, tragic. Here are Caesar at the Rubicon and the revolt of the Praetorian Guard; Alexander's horse and Prince Rupert's dog; the legendary Mother Ross enlisting in search of her lost husband in 1693; Evelyn Waugh as the least plausible of commandos; General George S. Patton's good luck charm "Charlie," a lump of lava rock carved into a Hawaiian warrior; and much more. Some of the stories will be familiar to students of military history while others are less well known, but all provide fascinating sidelights to history. Great war stories by Max Hastings, a leading military historian and war correspondent About the Author: Max Hastings is a well-known author specializing in military history. His most recent books include Bomber Command, Battle for the Falklands, and Overlord.


We investigate the time evolution of two different (GOY-like) shell models which have been recently proposed to describe the gross features of MHD turbulence. We see that, even if they are formally of the same type sharing with MHD equations quadratic couplings and conserved quantities, differences exist which are related to conserved quantities.


Grounded in a deconstructionist approach, this article identifies ideological elements in historical work on women's boxing, including my own. First, I examine the sources, practices, and evidence that have constituted historical facts on women's boxing. Then, employing some of the tactics of a deconstructive historian, I examine and critique the erasure of black female combatants from boxing history through an examination of various written sources about pugilism. To rectify this longstanding silence and exclusion, I provide a brief account of some black female boxers from the late nineteenth to mid twentieth centuries. This paper draws from mainstream and African-American newspapers, U.S. boxing periodicals, and a sample of scholarly and popular literature on the history of boxing.


As the number of corona virus cases continues to rise at an alarming rate across the globe, scientists and medical experts are making accelerated efforts to develop a vaccine fit for human use. Currently, there are more than 160 vaccine candidates in different stages of production and 27 of these have reached the human trials. While the vaccine created by Oxford University and drug maker AstraZeneca is considered one of the frontrunners in the race to develop a corona virus jab, Russia has become the first country in the world to launch its corona virus vaccine on Tuesday. President Vladimir Putin has announced that one of his daughters has already been vaccinated against the novel corona virus as Russia became the 'world's first nation' to register a corona virus vaccine on Tuesday


Step-stress accelerated testing of mechanical components offers great potential for improvements in reliability demonstration bench testing. Most mechanical products are designed to operate for a long period of time and in such a case, life testing is a relatively lengthy procedure. Lengthy tests tend to be expensive and the results become available too late to be of much use. To reduce the experimental cost significantly and provide an efficient tool to assess the life distribution for highly reliable products, a step-stress accelerated test was developed. Step-stress testing is achieved by testing the component at stress levels greater than operational levels in a stepwise fashion to reduce the time-to-failure, or life. Nelson's cumulative exposure model has been widely used to determine the reliability of the test parts under step-stress accelerated testing. The Nelson model does not provide information pertinent to failure mechanism and sites. Further, the model assumes that the previous exposure stress history of a test part is accounted for by the cumulative exposure distribution, instead of the damage curve. Therefore, damage curve analysis (DCA), double linear damage rule (DLDR), and linear damage rule (LDR) are adopted to assess the experimental results from step-stress accelerated testing. Investigation into Nelson's cumulative exposure model and the three cumulative damage rules to predict fatigue reliability of mechanical products under step-stress accelerated testing was performed. The predictions by Nelson's cumulative exposure model and DCA are better than DLDR and LDR. Due to its simplicity of implementation, LDR is also capable of estimating failure life distribution reasonably well.


This article discusses the functions and activities of a social work mentor are. The problem that one encounters at work is that the work of the social work mentor is not standardized. Thus it is difficult to evaluate its quality and its effect on the implementation and improvement of social work studies program. The goal of the article is to discuss the field of occupation and functions of the social work mentor. In the article, the concept of mentorship is defined, the functions of the mentor are described, the research that reveals the fields of mentor"™s occupation and functions in social work is presented. The article is based on published work related to the subject in general way, an analysis of documents pertinent to a social work mentorship at Vytautas Magnus University, and interviews with four mentors and one tutor at this university in 2008. Social work mentors carry out four basic functions: agreement with the student about the practical work, guidance for students in working in specific situations, assistance through consultation about questions and difficulties that arise during the practical work, and evaluation of the students"™ progress. All the mentors agreed on the importance of the initial meeting with students. During the period of practice, mentors also stressed the significance of getting feedback regularly from the student. Mentors take part in a life-long learning process which also helps them renew their own expertise and learn about new ideas. A social work mentor supervises student"™s practice and takes part in improving practice studies. The mentor is a person who shares his/ her knowledge, insights, wisdom and experience that is useful for student"™s professional and personal improvement. This complicated work demands certain competence; however, the occupation of the social work mentor and the needed competence were not fully discussed until now.


A generalization of artificial neuron by substitution of neural convolution to arbitrary multi-parametric function. Weights of synapses have been changed to the set of parameters and a learning algorithm has been modified as well. Even one single "smart neuron" is sufficient for finding complex multivariate dependencies without thinking about topology of neural network


This paper sets out to draw on, and simultaneously depart from Mosala's Black biblical hermeneutic of liberation in order to navigate liberating possibilities that Isaiah 58 could offer to the oppressed Black people in Southern Africa. First, the paper explores Mosala's trajectory in biblical hermeneutics. Secondly, from both the liberative and the African philosophical – African liberationist – points of view, Isaiah 58 is re-read in light of the Southern African context. Finally, the author submits that, if read from an African liberationist perspective, the text of Isaiah 58 could contribute positively to socio-economic redress, particularly to poverty alleviation and, subsequently, to rebuilding relationships in Southern Africa.


Objective: The present study evaluates the arterial stiffness and hemodynamic parameters in patients with a supraphysiological estrogen level due to in vitro fertilization (IVF) with controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH). Methods: A total of 82 female patients aged 24–45 years were included. Their arterial stiffness parameters were analyzed before and after the appropriate COH protocol involving arteriography using Mobil-O-Graph NG (IEM GmbH, Stolberg, Germany) 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitor. Results: Systolic, diastolic, mean, central systolic, and diastolic blood pressures, as well as peripheral vascular resistance, were significantly lower after COH therapy (p=0.001, 0.002, <0.001, <0.001, 0.040, and <0.001, respectively). In contrast, there was no statistically significant difference observed in heart rate, pulse pressure, or cardiac output. The pulse wave velocity measurement was significantly lower after COH than the baseline levels [5.3 m/s (4.5–6.9 m/s) versus 5.4 m/s (4.7–7.3 m/s,); p<0.001], but the augmentation index was not significantly different [28% (4%–41%) versus 29% (5%–43%); p=0.090]. When the patients were grouped according to the occurrence of a pregnancy after IVF therapy, all parameters were not different between the pregnancy (+) and pregnancy (-) patients (p>0.05). Conclusion: Arterial stiffness and hemodynamic parameters significantly decreased in IVF patients who underwent COH therapy. The long-term clinical significance of this short-term effect should be investigated with prospective studies. There was no significant difference in all parameters before and after COH when the pregnancy (+) and pregnancy (-) patients were compared.


OBJECTIVES
To identify the frequency, causes, and risk factors of early and late mortality among general adult patients discharged from ICUs.

DESIGN
Multicenter, prospective cohort study.

SETTING
ICUs of 10 tertiary hospitals in Brazil.

PATIENTS
One-thousand five-hundred fifty-four adult ICU survivors with an ICU stay greater than 72 hours for medical and emergency surgical admissions or greater than 120 hours for elective surgical admissions.

INTERVENTIONS
None.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
The main outcomes were early (30 d) and late (31 to 365 d) mortality. Causes of death were extracted from death certificates and medical records. Twelve-month cumulative mortality was 28.2% (439 deaths). The frequency of early mortality was 7.9% (123 deaths), and the frequency of late mortality was 22.3% (316 deaths). Infections were the leading cause of death in both early (47.2%) and late (36.4%) periods. Multivariable analysis identified age greater than or equal to 65 years (hazard ratio, 1.65; p = 0.01), pre-ICU high comorbidity (hazard ratio, 1.59; p = 0.02), pre-ICU physical dependence (hazard ratio, 2.29; p < 0.001), risk of death at ICU admission (hazard ratio per 1% increase, 1.008; p = 0.03), ICU-acquired infections (hazard ratio, 2.25; p < 0.001), and ICU readmission (hazard ratio, 3.76; p < 0.001) as risk factors for early mortality. Age greater than or equal to 65 years (hazard ratio, 1.30; p = 0.03), pre-ICU high comorbidity (hazard ratio, 2.28; p < 0.001), pre-ICU physical dependence (hazard ratio, 2.00; p < 0.001), risk of death at ICU admission (hazard ratio per 1% increase, 1.010; p < 0.001), and ICU readmission (hazard ratios, 4.10, 4.17, and 1.82 for death between 31 and 60 days, 61 and 90 days, and greater than 90 days after ICU discharge, respectively; p < 0.001 for all comparisons) were associated with late mortality.

CONCLUSIONS
Infections are the main cause of death after ICU discharge. Older age, pre-ICU comorbidities, pre-ICU physical dependence, severity of illness at ICU admission, and ICU readmission are associated with increased risk of early and late mortality, while ICU-acquired infections are associated with increased risk of early mortality.


This paper discusses the measurement error of energy meters operating under harmonic distortion. A system to determine the magnitude of the error caused by an individual harmonic is used to generate curves on which the error introduced by different frequency components is displayed. An algorithm using these data to predict the resulting measurement error of a linearly operating energy meter registering under circumstances of any known harmonics in the voltage and the current is presented.


ABSTRACT Chimpanzees have consistent individual differences in behaviour, also referred to as personality. Similar to human personality structure, five dimensions are commonly found in chimpanzee studies that show evidence for convergent and predictive validity (Dominance, Openness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Reactivity/Undependability). These dimensions are to some extent heritable, indicating a genetic component that explains part of the variation in personality scores, but are also influenced by environmental factors, such as the early social rearing background of the individuals. In this study, we investigated the role of epigenetic modification of the dopamine receptor D2 gene (DRD2) as a potential mechanism underlying personality variation in 51 captive chimpanzees. We used previously collected personality trait rating data and determined levels of DRD2 CpG methylation in peripheral blood samples for these same individuals. Results showed that DRD2 methylation is most strongly associated with Extraversion, and that varying methylation levels at specific DRD2 sites are associated with changes in Extraversion in nursery-reared, but not mother-reared, individuals. These results highlight the role of dopaminergic signalling in chimpanzee personality, and indicate that environmental factors, such as social experiences early in life, can have long-lasting behavioural effects, potentially through modification of the epigenome. These findings add to the growing evidence demonstrating the importance of the experience-dependent methylome for the development of complex social traits like personality.


Machine learning models are increasingly being deployed in practice. Machine Learning as a Service (MLaaS) providers expose such models to queries by third-party developers through application programming interfaces (APIs). Prior work has developed model extraction attacks, in which an attacker extracts an approximation of an MLaaS model by making black-box queries to it. We design ActiveThief – a model extraction framework for deep neural networks that makes use of active learning techniques and unannotated public datasets to perform model extraction. It does not expect strong domain knowledge or access to annotated data on the part of the attacker. We demonstrate that (1) it is possible to use ActiveThief to extract deep classifiers trained on a variety of datasets from image and text domains, while querying the model with as few as 10-30% of samples from public datasets, (2) the resulting model exhibits a higher transferability success rate of adversarial examples than prior work, and (3) the attack evades detection by the state-of-the-art model extraction detection method, PRADA.


Highway bridges across the US are getting older and increasing traffic demands engenders the safety of these structures. Therefore, requirements for methodologies to insure the safety of the public transportation which are using these infrastructures seem inevitable. Fiber optic based structural health monitoring systems are valuable tool in bridge safety management inventory. They can provide structural feedback in real-time about the performance of highway structures under railway and traffic loads. I have employed these systems for health monitoring of bridges in both super and sub structural systems.
Scour is the major cause for many bridge failures and damage to piers and abutments and is not easily noticeable because it is buried under the channel flow. I have developed, tested, and field implemented a new and simple type of scour sensor. The scour depth detection concept is based on measuring the fundamental frequency of vibration of a rod embedded in the riverbed. Then, a computational approach is developed based on the Winkler spring reaction soil model for automated calibration of the scour sensor during installation in the riverbed. The scope of the research included development of the theoretical basis for the sensor, establishment of the computational methodology for detection of the riverbed foundation properties, proof-of-concept laboratory tests, small-scale field verification tests, and installation and remote monitoring system on scour critical bridge in Illinois.
In addition, current research proposes a novel method for reference-free real time deflection measurement of bridges by employing the output of a smart sensor network installed on the bridge. This method estimates the actual deflection profile of the superstructure with a high order polynomial. To construct the polynomial profile curve, real-time rotation and curvature of the bridge, collected by tiltmeters and strain gauges were used. Several live load tests were performed on two highway bridges in the states of California and Illinois. The former bridge had a concrete girder box superstructure, while the latter had a continuous steel girder with concrete slab. Detailed finite element model (FEM) of these bridges were also developed. Results from the proposed method were compared with the recorded data and output of FEMs.


In many developing countries, food environments are changing rapidly, with modern food retailers – such as supermarkets and convenience stores – increasingly replacing or complementing traditional food retailers. In comparison to traditional food markets and shops, modern retailers often sell a different range of products, at different prices and packaging sizes, and in different shopping atmospheres, thus affecting people's food environments and potentially also their food choices, diets, and nutrition. Understanding the dietary and nutrition effects of a modernizing retail sector is important, as many countries in Africa suffer from a double or even a triple burden of malnutrition – i.e., the coexistence of undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overweight or obesity within the same communities, households, and even individuals – with serious negative health consequences. Recent research suggests that access to and affordability of healthy diets remain formidable challenges in many developing countries. However, empirical studies analyzing the effects of modern retailers on consumer diets, dietary costs, and nutrition remain scant. A few recent studies showed that the growth of modern retailers, especially supermarkets, in developing countries contributes to higher consumption of ultra-processed foods and rising rates of overweight and obesity among adults. For children, research on the links between modern retailers and child nutrition is still limited; the few existing studies found mixed results. In any case, the available evidence suggests that modern retailers may have different effects on dietary quality and nutrition among adults and children. One major drawback of existing studies is that they analyzed individual-level anthropometric data, yet without having individual-level dietary data to explain some of the underlying mechanisms. Therefore, none of the previous studies analyzed the effects of modern retailers – such as supermarkets – on dietary quality (i.e., nutrient intake) with individual-level dietary data to account for intra-household food distribution. Another drawback is that previous studies mostly focused on supermarkets, without accounting for the fact that other types of modern retailers – such as convenience stores and fast-food restaurants – are also gaining in importance as sources of food in urban Africa. Finally, the role of supermarkets and other modern retailers on the affordability of nutritious diets was not analyzed in any of the existing studies. We make several contributions to the existing literature by addressing the highlighted research gaps in the three papers of this dissertation. In the first paper, we examine the relationships between consumers' socioeconomic status, use of different modern and traditional retailers, and dietary patterns. The analysis uses household survey data from urban Zambia. We surveyed a total of 475 urban households in 2018. Results show that two-thirds of the households use modern and traditional retailers simultaneously, but that richer households are more likely than poorer ones to use supermarkets and hypermarkets. Use of modern retailers is positively associated with higher consumption of ultra-processed foods, after also controlling for income and other socioeconomic factors. However, the use of traditional stores and kiosks is also positively associated with the consumption of ultra-processed foods, suggesting that modern retailers are not the only drivers of dietary transitions. In the second paper, we provide the first empirical study that analyzes effects of modern retailers on dietary quality and nutrition with individual-level food-intake/dietary and anthropometric data in a developing country. We collected data from 475 randomly selected households that use modern retailers at different intensities in Lusaka, Zambia. In these households, individual-level anthropometric and food-intake data were collected from 930 adults and 499 children. The data are analyzed with control function regression models to address potential endogeneity problems associated with food purchases made in modern retailers. We find that use of modern retailers is positively associated with overweight in adults, but not in children. For children, we find a positive effect on body height, also after controlling for income and other relevant factors. Use of modern retailers increases dietary diversity, calorie, protein, and micronutrient intakes among both adults and children. Effects on protein and micronutrient intakes are channeled primarily through higher consumption of meat and dairy products. In the third paper, we analyze effects of using supermarkets on the affordability of recommended nutritious diets and dietary quality. We use individual-level food-intake data and food price data from our household survey conducted in Lusaka, Zambia, and control function regression models to account for the likely endogeneity of supermarket food purchases. We find that the cost of a recommended nutritious diet is US$1.22 per day, of which the largest share is the cost of starchy staples (68%), followed by fruits (11%), and meat, eggs, and fish (9%). However, this diet is not affordable to 41% of low-income group. Meat, fish, and dairy products are more expensive in supermarkets than in traditional retailers. Nevertheless, buying food in supermarkets increases dietary diversity and intake of nutritious diets, with varying effect sizes among demographic cohorts: men, women, boys, and girls. The positive effects of supermarkets on dietary quality largely come from animal source foods. We draw several conclusions and policy implications from the three papers in this dissertation. The findings underline that the growth of modern food retailers in developing countries influences people's diets and nutrition; the effects can be both positive and negative. The positive effects on child nutrition and dietary quality of both children and adults imply that further modernization of food environments should be promoted. However, due to higher quality food products and safety standards, modern retailers – such as supermarkets – offer higher prices for meat, fish, and dairy products than traditional retailers. Thus, the results suggest a need to shift food policy from focusing on energy-dense foods to affordable nutritious foods. Modern retailers could be one of the platforms to make nutritious foods – i.e., meat, fish, eggs, milk, and other dairy products – more affordable especially among poor households. Lower prices could come from improvements in local production, higher efficiency in procurements, marketing and trade, and infrastructure developments especially cooling facilities and warehouses. On the other hand, the increasing effect of modern retailers on the consumption of ultra-processed foods and adult overweight is undesirable and calls for certain policy regulations. Possible policy interventions include regulation of advertisement and promotional campaigns for unhealthy foods, regulation of health labels and portion/packaging sizes, taxes on ultra-processed foods and beverages with high contents of fats, added sugars and salts, among others. While the results cannot be generalized, effects may be similar also in other parts of Africa. Nevertheless, further research is needed to better understand the diet and nutrition effects of changing food environments in different geographical and socioeconomic contexts, and also focusing on long-run dynamics.


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The existence of cooperative in Indonesia, especially in rural area, has been known in long period. At the beginning of the New Order period, rural community had been introduced to the government cooperative, the Village Unit Cooperation (KUD), From the time that, the existence of KUD that was not based on the initiative of local community, has been in crisis when its performance has not been reflected its mission as the central pillar (soko guru) of rural economy activities. Therefore, it need re-orientation of KUD in order to vitalize the existence of cooperative.


Goal: Thermography-based infection screening at international airports plays an important role in the prevention of pandemics. However, studies show that thermography suffers from low sensitivity and specificity. To achieve higher screening accuracy, we developed a screening system based on the acquisition of multiple vital-signs. This multimodal approach increases accuracy, but introduces the need for sophisticated classification methods. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the multimodal approach to infection screening from a machine learning perspective. Methods: We conduct an empirical study applying six classification algorithms to measurements from the multimodal screening system and comparing their performance among each other, as well as to the performance of thermography. In addition, we provide an information theoretic view on the use of multiple vital-signs for infection screening. The classification methods are tested using the same clinical data, which has been analyzed in our previous study using linear discriminant analysis. A total of 92 subjects were recruited for influenza screening using the system, consisting of 57 inpatients diagnosed to have seasonal influenza and 35 healthy controls. Results: Our study revealed that the multimodal screening system reduces the misclassification rate by more than 50% compared to thermography. At the same time, none of the multimodal classifiers needed more than 6 ms for classification, which is negligible for practical purposes. Conclusion: Among the tested classifiers k-nearest neighbors, support vector machine and quadratic discriminant analysis achieved the highest cross-validated sensitivity score of 93%. Significance: Multimodal infection screening might be able to address the shortcomings of thermography.


In the present study, we assessed the bacteriological quality of water of drinking water sources in Kabale Municipality. A total of 28 water samples were collected from 14 water springs during the dry and wet season and analyzed for determination of Escherichia coli (E. coli), and Total Heterotrophic Bacteria (THB) using the membrane filtration method. Most water springs located in less than 20 meters away from residential areas were associated with bacterial contamination. The mean concentrations of E. coli, total coliforms, and THB were 24.07 CFU/100 ml, 85.71 CFU/100 ml, and 197.07 CFU/100 ml, respectively in the wet season. While in the dry season, the mean concentrations were 2 CFU/100 ml, 10 CFU/100 ml, and 91 CFU/100 ml for E. coli, total coliforms, and THB, respectively. There were significant differences between CFU of total coliforms, HTB, between wet and dry seasons (p = 0.026). Samples collected and analyzed during the wet season for total coliforms did not conform to WHO drinking water quality guideline value of no detection per 100 ml. The study concludes that the majority of spring water sources are located in less than 20 meters away from residential areas with significant paved areas, the presence of septic tanks and pit latrines. Wet season significantly affects the quality of domestic water sources than the dry season. The study recommends that spring water should be treated before drinking due to high bacteria concentrations which makes it unsafe for consumption.


Global and local microstructural weak links for spall damage were investigated using 3-D characterization in polycrystalline (PC) and multicrystalline (MC) copper samples, respectively. All samples were shocked via flyer-target plate experiments using a laser drive at low pressures (2–6 GPa). The flyer plates measured approximately 500 μm thick and 8 mm in diameter and the target plates measured approximately 1000 μm thick and 10 mm in diameter. Electron Backscattering Diffraction (EBSD) and optical microscopy were used to determine to presence of voids and relate them to the surrounding microstructure. Statistics on the strength of grain boundaries (GBs) was conducted by analyzing PC samples and collecting the misorientation across GBs with damage present, and it was found that a misorientation range of 25–50° is favorable for damage. Statistics were also taken of copper PC samples that had undergone different heat treatments and it was found that although the 25–50° range is less dominant, it is still favorable for damage nucleation. Removal of initial plastic strain via heat treatments and an increase in Σ3 CSL boundaries, indicative of strong annealing twins, also led to an increased amount of transgranular damage. 3-D X-ray tomography data were used to investigate the shape of the voids present in untreated, as received and heat treated samples. It was found that the as received sample contained a higher amount of "disk", or, "sheet-like" voids indicative of intergranular damage, whereas the heat treated samples had a higher fraction of spherical shaped voids, indicative of transgranular damage. MC samples were used to study microstructural weak links for spall damage because the overall grain size is much larger than the average void size, making it possible to determine which GBs nucleated damage. Simulations and experimental analysis of damage sites with large volumes indicate that high Taylor factor mismatches with respect to the crystallographic grain GB normal is the primary cause for the nucleation of damage at a GB interface and a low Taylor factor along the shock direction in either grain drives void growth perpendicular to the GB. Cases where experimental results show damage and simulation results show no damage are attributed to the presence of an intrinsic microstructural weak link, such as an incoherent twin boundary.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


We have identified the marine fish taxa that are most vulnerable to exploitation, by compiling an index of intrinsic vulnerability based on life history traits. Since 1950, the global fish catch has been increasingly dominated by species with low intrinsic vulnerability, indicated by a decline in mean vulnerability of the taxa in the catches. This decline is strongest in catches of coral reef fishes, probably as a result of overexploitation of the more vulnerable species. The change is less apparent in estuaries, where fish communities are more transient. The opposite is observed at seamounts, where more vulnerable species have become exploited and serially depleted in recent years. Rates of change in the mean vulnerability index in the catches from different areas are negatively correlated with the number of threatened fishes on the IUCN Red List. Particularly, catches from the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean regions are characterized by a high abundance of threatened fishes and by strong declines in the mean vulnerability index. Our findings suggest that fishing largely alters the community structure of coral reef fishes, which may detrimentally affect the ecosystem. Attention should also be given to deep water demersal and benthopelagic fish assemblages, especially those around seamounts, which are intrinsically vulnerable to fishing. The index of intrinsic vulnerability thus provides a novel tool for fisheries management and conservation.


The recent flattening of the yield curve has raised concerns that a recession is around the corner. Such concerns stem partly from the fact that yield curve inversions have preceded each of the past seven recessions. However, other factors affect the yield curve's shape besides the expected future health of the economy. In particular, a low term premium—as has been observed in recent years—makes yield curve inversions more likely even if the risk of recession has not increased at all.


To provide basic toxicity data for formulating risk characterization benchmarks, the effects of tungsten on survival, growth, and reproduction were investigated in the earthworm Eisenia fetida. Parallel studies with lead as a reference toxicant also were conducted. Although sodium tungstate (Na2WO4) was less acutely toxic than lead nitrate (Pb(NO3)2) in 14‐d spiked field soil acute toxicity assays (lethal concentrations for 50% of organisms: W, 6,250 mg/kg; Pb, 2,490 mg/kg), tungstate completely inhibited reproduction in 28‐ and 56‐d assays at all tested tungsten concentrations (≥704 mg/kg). By comparison, cocoon production was not significantly reduced for lead concentrations until concentrations reached 766 mg/kg, and cocoon production was still observed at the highest concentration tested (1,650 mg/kg). These data indicate that tungsten is a reproductive toxicant for earthworms and that, by comparison, its sublethal toxicity is greater than that of lead. Toxicity data for other soil invertebrate species are required to fully establish benchmark levels/ecological soil screening levels for tungsten.