Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of hypothyroidism on the treatment outcomes of the postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) treatment. Materials and Methods: A total of 50 patients with hypothyroidism who were also diagnosed with PMOP according to the lumbar and femur neck bone mass density (BMD) evaluation with dual X-ray absorptiometry who did not receive any treatment for PMOP, including calcium and vitamin D, were included in the study. The control group consisted of 47 patients with PMOP but had no comorbidity. Demographic features including age, height, weight, occupation, the level of education, menarche and menopause age, clothing style, daily calcium intake, tobacco and/or alcohol consumption, daily physical activity level, personal (or maternal) history of fragility fracture, and duration of hypothyroidism were recorded. Biochemical parameters including the BMD scores, calcium, phosphate, alkaline phosphatase, parathormone, calcidiol, osteocalcine, urine calcium, phosphate levels, and creatinine clearance were also recorded. Patients were treated with bisphosphonate, calcium, and vitamin D, and same parameters were evaluated at the end of the first and fifth year. Results: The average age of all individuals was 58.25±8.89 years, and the average duration of hypothyroidism diagnosis was 4.00 years. The demographic features and biochemical parameters before the PMOP treatment were not different between the patient and the control groups (p>0.005). The BMD scores of both groups were significantly improved at the end of the first and fifth years of the treatment (p<0.005), but the variations of the scores were not different. Conclusion: Hypothyroidism with stable or unstable thyroid functions does not affect the PMOP treatment prognosis in Turkish population.


The subcutaneous injection of cells of any one of five unselected murine tumors resulted very rapidly in the liberation into the circulation of a small molecular weight factor that severely impaired the capacity of the host to resist experimental infection with Listeria monocytogenes and Yersinia enterocolitica. It was found that the factor appeared in blood within 8 h of injecting tumor cells subcutaneously. That it possessed potent physiological activity was evidenced by the demonstration that an infusion of as little as 0.015 ml of tumor-bearer serum strikingly suppressed the capacity of normal recipients to resist bacterial infection. It was reasoned on the basis of the knowledge that the only cells in mice with the capacity to destroy Listeria are macrophages, that suppression of antibacterial resistance was caused by the ability of the tumor-suppressor factor to interfere, either directly or indirectly, with the antibacterial functions of these mononuclear phagocytic cells. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that at least some malignant neoplastic cells are naturally selected to avoid destruction by native and acquired antitumor mechanisms of mononuclear phagocytes.


Dutch navy ships are designed and built to have a low underwater signature. For low frequencies however, tonal vibrations of a gearbox can occur, which might lead to increased acoustic signatures. These vibrations are hard to reduce by passive means. To investigate the possibilities of active vibration control to reduce the underwater signature, a full scale experiment was performed with an active vibration control system on board of a navy ship. For this purpose six special, high efficiency, actuators were built and mounted on the gearbox. A MIMO adaptive feedforward control system was used to reduce the tonal vibrations of the gearbox which were excited by the diesel engine. Vibrations onboard and underwater acoustic pressures were used to monitor the performance of the system during full scale runs on the underwater acoustic range in Bergen, Norway. It can be concluded that the system is able to reduce the vibration and the acoustic signature significantly.


Sanctions seem to have become a permanent element in relations between the EU and Russia. They have contributed to curbing the war in Donbas but are not capable of forcing Russia to return Crimea to Ukraine and implement the Minsk agreements. In 2017, consensus within the EU on sanctions against Russia is more fragile than it has been previously. As a result, therefore, the EU needs to consider now what strategic steps it should take next.


External possession constructions are defined as constructions in which a semantic possessor-possessum relation is expressed by coding the possessor as a core grammatical relation of the verb and in a constituent separate from that which contains the possessum. One construction representative of this phenomenon is that with the dative case as a marker of the possessor, which is known as the dative of possession (DP) and is widely attested in European languages as an areal feature. In this article, I analyze the DP in Croatian, both its standard variety and dialects, particularly from a (micro-)areal-typological perspective, to locate the place of Croatian among Slavic, paying special attention to the correlation between the use of DP and its areal tendency. My analysis led me to conclude that Croatian occupies a place between West Slavic and Slovene, which tend to have a narrower sphere of the use of DP, and Balkanized Slavic, which has a wider sphere of it. This finding can be explained by the fact that West Slavic and Slovene are more habere-type languages than Croatian, which still preserves more esse-type language features that can be also found in the Balkanized Slavic languages.


The prognostic value of QRS score (Selvester), ST depression, ST elevation, extrasystoles, P terminal force in V1, and QTc derived from the predischarge 12 lead electrocardiogram was assessed after myocardial infarction in 474 patients without intraventricular conduction defects, ventricular hypertrophy, or atrial fibrillation. The usefulness of these results in risk assessment was compared with that of other clinical data. During follow up 45 patients died. Logistic regression analysis showed that QRS score, ST depression, and QTc were independently predictive of cardiac mortality. When multivariate analysis was applied to clinical and electrocardiographic data together, however, the 12 lead electrocardiogram did not provide independent information additional to that provided by other routine clinical findings and laboratory tests such as a history of previous myocardial infarction, clinical signs of persistent heart failure, indication for digitalis or antiarrhythmic drugs at discharge, and enlarged heart on chest x ray. In conclusion, the electrocardiogram has important prognostic value; however, it is not powerful enough to further improve the risk assessment of post-infarction patients.


In July 2011 Moody's Investors Service Hong Kong issued a report that used a system of red flags to highlight corporate governance and accounting risks in a specified population of listed companies. Although the report is not itself a credit rating, it remains unclear whether Moody's publication of it should be subject to the disciplinary powers of the Securities and Futures Commission ("SFC"). At issue is the construction of section 193(1)(d) of the Securities and Futures Ordinance ("SFO"), which provides that an act or omission relating to the carrying on of a regulated activity is liable to be regarded as misconduct subject to the disciplinary powers of the SFC under section 194 SFO. The earlier determination of the Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal and the judgment of the Court of Appeal both supported a broad, purposive interpretation of relation to find that the SFC's disciplinary oversight applied. Moody's appeal to the Court of Final Appeal is likely to have ramifications that go well beyond the credit rating industry. As the case concerns the interpretation of a disciplinary provision that all regulated persons are subject to, the Court's ruling will have significant implications on the ambit of the SFC's disciplinary powers over all companies engaging in regulated activities that require a license from or registration with the SFC. This article examines the approach taken by the Tribunal and the Court of Appeal and suggests it is flawed and ill suited to the complexities of the business environment surrounding the undertaking of regulated activities. In the absence of an acceptable degree of legal and commercial certainty, there is a risk that regulatory oversight of a wide range of activities other than statutorily defined regulated activities may be introduced via a backdoor opened by the prospect of the SFC's discipline. An alternative view of relation is proposed that may assist develop a test of relation that better serves statutory purposes, as well as regulatory and commercial needs. It is hoped the Court of Final Appeal will take the opportunity to clarify the law in this area in order to facilitate greater certainty as to the extent of the regulatory obligations of licensed corporations as well as the ambit of the SFC's disciplinary powers.


Ancestral graphs are a prevalent mathematical tool to take into account latent (hidden) variables in a probabilistic graphical model. In ancestral graph representations, the nodes are only the observed (manifest) variables and the notion of m-separation fully characterizes the conditional independence relations among such variables, bypassing the need to explicitly consider latent variables. However, ancestral graph models do not necessarily represent the actual causal structure of the model, and do not contain information about, for example, the precise number and location of the hidden variables. Being able to detect the presence of latent variables while also inferring their precise location within the actual causal structure model is a more challenging task that provides more information about the actual causal relationships among all the model variables, including the latent ones. In this article, we develop an algorithm to exactly recover graphical models of random variables with underlying polytree structures when the latent nodes satisfy specific degree conditions. Therefore, this article proposes an approach for the full identification of hidden variables in a polytree. We also show that the algorithm is complete in the sense that when such degree conditions are not met, there exists another polytree with fewer number of latent nodes satisfying the degree conditions and entailing the same independence relations among the observed variables, making it indistinguishable from the actual polytree.


The rationale is presented for the continuation of the advanced architecture development, established by the PAVE PILLAR initiative, under the PAVE PACE program. The goals are to achieve: (a) practical and affordable airborne versions of modular parallel-processing network architectures for a large array of new applications (currently beyond real-time implementation), (b) highly available avionics for use across all avionics, and, (c) dramatically improved techniques to reduce the cost of software development and support. A novel approach to the overall design structure for future avionics is also presented. Continued use of the PAVE PILLAR high-speed data bus and operating system is recommended as the means to integrate and control the data input and output of physically and functionally separate parallel networks.<<ETX>>


INTRODUCTION AND AIM: Hepatitis B infection which is a life-threatening infection, is a major global health problem. Occupational exposure may be an important route of transmission. The aim of this study was to evaluate Knowledge of Hepatitis B Virus Infection and infection control practices among Faculty of Dentistry Staff, in Aydin province.
MATERIAL METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, hepatitis B vaccination status of the participants; knowledge levels, history of work accidents, general infection control practices were questioned. Knowledge levels were assessed with 63 propositions, each correct answer calculated as 1 point to calculate total knowledge score and then subgroup scores such as general information, information level scores for transmission routes, prevention approaches and risk groups, were calculated.
RESULTS: 54.4 % of participants told that they had received education about HBV infection, 67.5% told they had been vaccinated with Hepatitis B vaccine. 46.3% of those who stated that they had been vaccinated told that they checked antibody levels after vaccination. 27.8 % of participants stated that they had periodic inspection checks and 18.8 % stated that they had an occupational accident in terms of infection risk in the previous year. The mean total knowledge score over 63 propositions was 42.3±13.3. Total knowledge score were found lower in participants who were younger or dental students, who did not receive education about general infection control precautions and hepatitis B infection, who did not vaccinated with HBV, who did not have a history of contact with HBV-infected patients, who did not had an occupational accident in the previous year and who had less than a year of occupational experience.
CONCLUSION: In conclusion oral and dental health workers' knowledge about hepatitis B infection and infection control practices were not at desired level. It is important to give educational activities regarding causes of infections and standard infection control precautions as earlier as possible in order to prevent horizontal transmission between patients and health workers.


Search algorithms such as LAO* and LRTDP coupled with admissible heuristics are widely used methods for optimal probabilistic planning. Their effectiveness depends on the degree to which heuristics are able to approximate the optimal cost of a state. Most common domain-independent heuristics, however, rely on determinization, and ignore the probabilities associated with different effects of actions. Here, we present a method for decomposing a probabilistic planning problem into subproblems by constraining possible action outcomes. Admissible heuristics evaluated for each subproblem can then be combined via a weighted sum to obtain an admissible heuristic for the original problem that takes into account a limited amount of probabilistic information. We use this approach to derive new admissible heuristics for probabilistic planning, and show that for some problems they are significantly more informative than existing heuristics, leading to up to an order of magnitude speedups in the time to converge to an optimal policy.


The design and development of modern Large-Scale systems and System-of-Systems (SoSs) requires the use of new Modeling and Simulation (M&S) methods, models and techniques so as to manage their ever-increasing complexity. In this context, distributed simulation (DS) can effectively support the analysis and design of these systems by enabling the evaluation and comparison of different design choices. In the DS domain the IEEE 1516-2010 - High Level Architecture (HLA) represents the most mature standard. Unfortunately, the development of DS compliant with the HLA standard is a challenging and costly task. To overcome this problem, the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) standard could represent a viable solution, since it offers a standardized graphical notation based on a flowcharting technique that allows developers to easily specify the behavioral view of such a system in terms of business processes. The paper presents a Model-Driven method that, according to the Model-Driven systems engineering paradigm, allows to generate the HLA-based simulation code from BPMN models by use of a chain of model-to-text transformations.


In this paper we present a study that unveils the technological and organizational preferences of various industries for mobile payment developments in Switzerland. Despite the expected success, mobile payments remain at an early stage of development in most countries. At this point, there is a real need for better understanding of the factors hindering the deployment of mobile payments. We conducted several series of interviews involving key Swiss experts to elicit the preferences of the different industries involved in the mobile payment market. The findings indicate that card-based solutions are still preferred to mobile phone-based solutions from an industry point of view. However, in terms of industrial settings, the situation is not as clear for determining the dominant actors who would lead mobile payments solutions in the future. At this stage, this study already reveals some weak market signals concerning the future developments of mobile payments in Switzerland.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
The ability to predict future clinical deterioration early in patients who present to an emergency care center with a hepatobiliary tract infection is difficult. We studied the clinical usefulness of the initial serum levels of procalcitonin in a hepatobiliary tract infection as an indicator for predicting aggravation in the early stages.

METHODS
Of the patients who presented with the clinical symptoms of a hepatobiliary tract infection, 99 were diagnosed with a hepatobiliary tract infection by imaging studies and subsequently enrolled in the study. Laboratory tests were obtained in the early stage of disease after presentation to an emergency care center. We assessed and compared the serum levels of many early inflammatory markers (white blood cell [WBC] counts, C-reactive protein and procalcitonin) between patients whose symptoms were initially stable upon arrival to an emergency care center but then deteriorated to, those whose symptoms remained consistently stable. Thus, we examined if the above serum markers are useful in predicting the possibility of future symptom aggravation.

RESULTS
Of a total of 99 patients, 27 were assigned to the symptom aggravation group. The serum levels of WBC counts and C-reactive protein in the aggravation group were elevated. However, the median value (interquartile range) of procalcitonin was relatively increased at 2.28 (0.41-7.84 ng/ml), demonstrating a significant difference.

CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, initial serum levels of procalcitonin might be used as an indicator for aggravation in patients with hepatobiliary tract infection at the emergency department, even though there is hemodynamic stability.


OBJECTIVE
 The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of pedicle screw placement at the canine lumbosacral junction using a novel unilateral three-dimensional printed patient-specific guide (3D-PSG) versus a freehand drilling technique. Additionally, accuracy of screw placement between a novice and an experienced surgeon was determined.

STUDY DESIGN
 Preoperative computed tomography images from 20 lumbosacral cadaveric specimens were used to design a novel unilateral 3D-PSG for the L7 and sacral vertebrae which was printed in acryl-nitrile butadiene styrene plastic. A novice and an expert surgeon each placed 3.5mm cortical screws in 10 cadavers; on the left using the unilateral 3D-PSG and by the freehand (anatomic landmark) technique on the right.

RESULTS
 Sixty screws were placed using the unilateral 3D-PSG and 60 using the freehand technique. There was no statistical difference in accuracy for the comparison between methods performed by the expert (p = 0.679) and novice (p = 0.761) surgeon, nor between an expert and novice surgeon overall (p = 0.923). Unexpectedly, the use of a unilateral 3D-PSG increased variability for the expert surgeon in our study (p = 0.0314).

CONCLUSION
 Using a novel unilateral 3D-PSG did not improve the accuracy of screw placement for lumbosacral stabilization by a novice surgeon compared with an expert surgeon in lumbar spine surgery. This may reflect a suboptimal PSG design.


The aim of the research project "Tramtrain - Innovative public transport" is to describe and analyse if and how regional transport systems with tramtrains as an integrated part can contribute to more efficient and sustainable transportation in Swedish cities and regions. The aim is reached by describing and analyzing the prerequisites, design and consequences of a regional public transport system based on tramtrains. The research questions were applied and answered by designing and analysing a possible scenario for the future public transportation with buses, trams and trains in the East Gothia region in the southeast part of Sweden.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. OBJECTIVES: To describe the role of the clinical nurse specialist, an advanced practice registered nurse in the intensive care setting. The value and impact of the clinical nurse specialist role as a member of the ICU is presented along with a review of clinical nurse specialist education, licensure, and certification requirements as well as a description of the clinical nurse specialist role, scope of practice, and competencies. In addition, a selected review of clinical nurse specialist–led quality improvement and research that resulted in improved patient outcomes is provided. DATA SOURCES: Review of published medical and nursing literature and expert opinion guidance from a collaborative effort between the Society of Critical Care Medicine, American Association of Critical Care Nurses, and National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists. STUDY SELECTION: Not applicable. DATA EXTRACTION: Not applicable. DATA SYNTHESIS: Not applicable. CONCLUSIONS: The utilization of a clinical nurse specialist, an advanced practice role, in the ICU is a unique and valuable approach for organizations who strive to move evidence into sustainable practice and drive quality through an interprofessional approach. The valuable contributions made by the clinical nurse specialist efficiently and effectively meet the needs of patients, clinicians, and organizations while improving patient outcomes and optimizing cost avoidance strategies, which further lower economic demands on the healthcare system.


This book provides an independent assessment of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Initiative for the World Bank as well as the broader development community. It offers a in-depth review of the progress thus far, with particular focus on the role and effectiveness of the Bank's support, drawing from extensive discussions with national stakeholders in Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP) countries, research and analytical work, and country case study reports on ten PRSP countries: Albania, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Tajikistan, Tanzania, and Vietnam. The author of The Poverty Reduction Strategy Initiative concludes that the Initiative has led to improvements in national strategies and processes in some low-income countries, such as an increased poverty focus, a higher profile for monitoring results, and better donor-government dialogue. However, the contribution to broad poverty reduction, especially in more difficult country environments, is largely in jeopardy without significant changes. The author argues that the Initiative should be reoriented toward improving domestic processes and less on completion of documents, customizing the approach to particular country circumstances, filling analytical gaps to better understand which actions will provide the greatest poverty pay-off, and making sure the assistance programs of external partners are anchored in the country's poverty reduction strategy.


From 1960 through 1978, a total of 274 patients who had a diagnosis of Scheuermann kyphosis were treated with a Milwaukee brace at the Twin Cities Scoliosis Center. We analyzed the long-term results in 120 patients who had used the Milwaukee brace and had been followed for at least five years after the completion of treatment. The average age of the patients at the initiation of treatment was twelve years and five months, the average age at the completion of treatment was sixteen years and one month, and the average age at the last follow-up examination was twenty-four years. Of the patients who wore the brace consistently, seventy-six showed improvement in the kyphosis between the initial evaluation and the evaluation at final follow-up, while twenty-four showed worsening and ten were unchanged. Seven of the twenty-four patients who were worse had had surgery before the review for this study. The indication for surgery was a kyphosis of more than 60 degrees that was increasing and was not controlled by the brace. Ten patients were inconsistent in their use of the brace. Two of the ten patients had improvement and eight had worsening of the kyphosis; three of the latter eight had a spinal fusion. This study showed that the Milwaukee brace is usually an effective method of treatment for patients who have Scheuermann kyphosis; however, four of fourteen patients who had an initial kyphosis of more than 74 degrees required a spinal fusion.


The purpose of writing is to describe the movement of literacy in Indonesian language learning based on local wisdom towards students characterized by using text close to the student environment. Problem-based research method and literature literature review. The result of the research shows that literacy movement in Indonesian language learning can be related to local wisdom considering that the values prevailing in society are not fully understood by the students. The development of students character values in Indonesian language subjects is done through learning language skills, namely writing and reading skills. In accordance with the purpose of learning Indonesian, which is to develop students competence in the use of Indonesian language in accordance with the context of student life. The utilization of learning resources based on local wisdom will affect the results and values of the characters. Utilization of the texts of the observation of the existing environment near the students will affect the literacy movement of writing and reading.
Keywords: Literacy, Local Wisdom, Character


Concern over water quality impacts from an ever increasing array of potential contaminants has become a major challenge for water resource managers. To better understand the linkages between sources of a constituent, its effect on water quality, and the costs and benefits of controls, the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) has undertaken a research challenge entitled "Linking Receiving Water Impacts to Sources and to Water Quality Management Decisions". This report describes one of the efforts undertaken as part of this research challenge.

Purpose

The purpose of the overall WERF "Linkages" research challenge is to develop a better understanding of the linkages between:

  • Sources of a constituent;

  • The predicted and measured adverse impacts of the constituent on receiving waters; and

  • Controls available to address these adverse impacts and their total costs and benefits.

Additionally, it is a goal of this research challenge to identify the knowledge and information gaps that need to be addressed such that a comprehensive and cost effective pollutant control strategy can be developed and implemented for a given set of constituents.

Scope

Linking water quality impacts to the many constituents of concern is a daunting task, and several research efforts are included in this WERF research challenge to adequately address the major constituent categories. The focus of this report is on developing a state of the knowledge approach to establishing the linkages listed above, and to apply this approach to nutrients as a source constituent.

Nutrient pollution is one of the leading causes of water quality impairment in the nation, and the quantity of nutrients reaching the nations waters has dramatically escalated over the past 50 years (EPA, 2009). Nitrogen and phosphorus loadings to waterbodies impact water quality by stimulating plant and algae growth which subsequently may result in depletion of dissolved oxygen, degradation of habitat, harmful algal blooms, and impairment of drinking water sources.

Effectively controlling nutrient pollutant loadings to receiving waters has thus become a major challenge for resource managers. Recent requirements by EPA for numeric nutrient criteria in Florida have made this an urgent need, especially for nitrogen since it is the limiting nutrient in Florida's coastal waters. The linkage of Florida receiving water impacts to nitrogen sources will therefore be used as a case study for an initial demonstration of the approach developed in this project. Specifically, the scope of this project is to:

  • Develop a technically defensible framework for assessment of the linkage between nitrogen sources and water quality responses;

  • Understand how the source-response linkage is influenced by nitrogen source controls;

  • Develop an approach to evaluate the effectiveness of nitrogen source control strategies;

  • Gather and summarize available information and data relative to the Florida nitrogen situation, and identify any data or knowledge gaps that would need to be filled to implement the recommended approach in Florida.

This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series .

ISBN: 9781843395386 (eBook)


Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is a severe inflammatory demyelinating disease often associated with a highly specific autoantibody, aquaporin‐4 antibody. Although the classic syndrome involves the optic nerves and spinal cord, aquaporin‐4 antibody has been important in defining the true spectrum of NMO, which now includes brain lesions in areas of high aquaporin‐4 expression. Brainstem involvement, specifically area postrema involvement in the medulla, has been associated with intractable vomiting in some patients with NMO. We describe a 14‐year‐old female with positive aquaporin‐4 antibody whose clinical course was dominated by severe anorexia with associated weight loss (from 68‐41kg; body mass index 25.2–15.6). Magnetic resonance imaging showed lesions in the medulla, pons, and thalami. Although she had asymptomatic radiological longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis, she never had symptoms or signs referable to the spinal cord or the optic nerves. We propose that anorexia and weight loss should be considered part of the NMO spectrum, probably related to area postrema involvement.


Software applications for manufacturing systems developed using software from different vendors typically cannot work together. Develop¬ment of custom integrations of manufacturing software incurs costs and delays that hurt industry productivity and competitiveness. Software applications need to be tested in live operational systems. It is impractical to use real industrial systems to support dynamic interoperability test¬ing and research due to: 1) access issues - manu¬facturing facilities are not open to outsiders, as proprietary data and processes may be compro¬mised; 2) technical issues - operational systems are not instrumented to support testing; and 3) cost issues - productivity suffers when actual production systems are taken offline to allow testing. Publicly available simulations do not exist to demonstrate simulation integration issues, validate potential standards solu¬tions, or dynamically test the interoperability of simulation systems and other software applica¬tions. A new, dynamic, simulation-based interoperability testing facility for manufacturing software applications is being developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).


Aqueous solubility is a limiting factor in the oral bioavailability of a certain class of poorly water soluble drugs. A consequence of low aqueous solubility is a slow dissolution rate. For the drugs with low aqueous solubility and high permeability the dissolution rate will be the rate limiting step for absorption. The most successful techniques that are employed for dissolution enhancement are micronization, formulation of amorphous systems and cyclodextrins containing dosage forms. This combined approaches to improve the dissolution of some poorly soluble drugs. Micronization increases the dissolution rate of drugs through increased surface area. The high surface area of drug micro/nano particles renders them thermodynamically unstable, promoting agglomeration and crystal growth. Microparticles of the poorly water soluble drugs were produced by the supercritical antisolvent method and simultaneously mixed with pharmaceutical excipients in a single step to prevent the drug agglomeration of drug particles. In the third approach cyclodextrins (CDs) were used as pharmaceutical solubilizers and inclusion complexes of drugs with β-CD. Key words : micronization, supercritical antisolvent, cyclodextrins


This 30-year longitudinal study examined pathways from problematic childhood behavior patterns to future disadvantaged conditions for family environment and child rearing in adulthood. Participants were mothers (n = 328) and fathers (n = 222) with lower income backgrounds participating in the ongoing Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project. Structural Equation Modeling was used to examine pathways from childhood aggression and social withdrawal to future high school drop-out, early parenthood, parental absence, and family poverty after the participants became parents. Childhood aggression directly predicted early parenthood and parental absence in both mothers' and fathers' models, and high school drop-out for the fathers (for the mothers, this path was indirect via achievement in primary school). Childhood aggression predicted family poverty indirectly, with some gender differences in significant pathways.


This study examined the relationships between the preventive dental behaviors (PDBs) of children from 495 American families, their mothers' socioeconomic status (SES), health beliefs, and dental behaviors. Mothers' PDBs were the cofactors most strongly correlated with children's PDBs.


It is generally accepted there has been a shift from defined benefit to defined contribution provision in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, along with which comes a shift of pension risk to individuals. Having trust in defined contribution arrangements, and those involved in providing them, may be regarded as a strategy for coping with that risk. As the United Kingdom moves to adopt widespread auto-enrolment defined contribution provision in an attempt to increase retirement savings, these issues of risk and trust become even more important. Pension providers and regulators are aware of this, although the extent to which they can successfully enhance trust remains open to question. What may be crucial is the ability of individuals to "actively" engage in the development of trust in defined contribution pension provision. This relies on the structure of the United Kingdom's new auto-enrolment and National Employment Savings Trust framework, along with the positive engagement of employers, in tackling what has generally been a lack of public understanding and interest in pensions. The potential success of such reliance is open to question.


This paper deals with the cluster exponential synchronization of a class of complex networks with hybrid coupling and time-varying delay. Through constructing an appropriate Lyapunov—Krasovskii functional and applying the theory of the Kronecker product of matrices and the linear matrix inequality (LMI) technique, several novel sufficient conditions for cluster exponential synchronization are obtained. These cluster exponential synchronization conditions adopt the bounds of both time delay and its derivative, which are less conservative. Finally, the numerical simulations are performed to show the effectiveness of the theoretical results.


Background: The association between psoriasis, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease remains largely unelucidated in the Indian population. Aims: To study the prevalence of diabetes, insulin resistance, lipid abnormalities, and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with chronic plaque psoriasis. Materials and Methods: Seventy-seven patients of chronic plaque psoriasis and ninety two age- and sex-matched controls were enrolled in the study over a period of one year. Clinical and biometric data were noted and fasting venous blood samples were collected. Nondiabetic patients were subjected to an oral glucose tolerance test with 75 g glucose and postprandial venous blood samples collected at 120 mins. The fasting glucose, insulin, lipid levels, postprandial glucose and postprandial insulin levels were measured in samples from nondiabetic patients whereas fasting lipid levels only were measured in diabetic patients. Results: The prevalence of impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, and diabetes mellitus in psoriatics was 5.2%, 9.1%, and 32.5%, respectively, as compared to 6.5%, 3.3%, and 15.2%, respectively, in the controls. The difference was statistically significant. The odds ratio of having an abnormal glucose metabolism in psoriasis was 2.63. Smoking had a positive association with insulin resistance in psoriatic cases. The serum cholesterol levels were elevated in 29 (37.7%) cases with a mean of 186.27 ± 43.18 and 34 (37%) controls with a mean of 194.38 ± 57.20. The serum HDL-cholesterol levels were reduced in 50 (64.9%) cases with a mean of 53.29 ± 15.90 as compared to 71 (74.7%) in controls with a mean of 48.76 ± 12.85. The serum LDL-cholesterol levels were elevated in 38 (49.4%) cases with a mean of 102.56 ± 44.02 and 36 controls with a mean of 115.62 ± 54.37. The serum triglyceride levels were elevated in 25 (32.5%) cases with a mean of 129.99 ± 61.32 and 38 (41.3%) controls with a mean of 141.04 ± 80.10. The differences between the two groups were not statistically significant. The two groups did not differ with respect to other cardiovascular risk factors such as increased body mass index, increased waist size, increased waist-to-hip ratio, and hypertension. Conclusion: There is a positive association between insulin resistance and psoriasis. No association between psoriasis and dyslipidemia has been found in this study.


Average-case bounds for the complexity of path-search by N. Pippenger Extended generalized shuffle networks: Sufficient conditions for strictly nonblocking operation by G. W. Richards and F. K. Hwang Constructing nonblocking multicast switching networks with fanout reduction by C.-F. Chan and C.-T. Lea Multirate broadcast switching networks nonblocking in a wide sense by D. S. Kim and D.-Z. Du Repackable networks-The concept and applications by A. Jajszczyk and M. Kubale Modeling the blocking behavior of Clos networks by Y. Yang and N. H. Kessler Performance of a new decomposition algorithm for rearrangeable fault-tolerant Clos interconnection networks under sub-maximal and no-fault conditions by J. D. Carpinelli and C. B. Wang Non-blocking multistage interconnection networks with limited depth by I. Busi and A. Pattavina Isomorphism of classical rearrangeable networks by M. D. McIlroy and J. P. Savicki Characterizing bit permutation networks by G. J. Chang, F. K. Hwang, and L.-D. Tong Structure and density of sparse crossbar concentrators by E. Gunduzhan and A. Y. Oruc Non-blocking routing properties of Clos networks by T. T. Lee and P. P. To An algorithm for the construction of concentrators from 2 X 2 sorters by S.-Y. R. Li, G. M. Koo, and H. Li Strictly nonblocking conferencing meshes by Y. Du and G. M. Masson An $O(N^{1.695})$ permutation routing algorithm on augmented data manipulators by E. S. Elmallah and C.-H. Lam Preventing conflicts in input buffering baseline-based ATM switches by H. Cam Routing strategy and performance evaluation of multiple-ring ShuffleNet topology for high speed wavelength-division multiplexed optical communications by D. Huang and K. Kiasaleh Multispace search for quorumcast routing by J. Gu, B. Du, D. H. K. Tsang, and W. Wang On 3-rate rearrangeability of Clos networks by G.-H. Lin, D.-Z. Du, W. Wu, and K. Yoo.


Dye molecular aggregation and other interactions on clay mineral surfaces cause phenomena such as methachromasy (change in color), fluorescence enhancement, or quenching, which represent significant changes in the spectral properties of the dye. These phenomena can be used to control the photophysical properties of hybrid systems based on cationic organic dyes. In the present study, the aggregation of two structurally similar cyanine dyes, 3,3'-diethyl-oxocyanine iodide (OxCy) and 3,3'-diethyl-2,2'-thiacyanine iodide (ThCy), in colloidal dispersions of three smectites (saponite, hectorite, and montmorillonite) was studied by absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy for a broad range of dye/smectite loadings. Spectral data were analysed by chemometric methods (principal component analysis, PCA, and multivariate curve resolution, MCR). Detailed analysis of the OxCy absorption spectra by the chemometric methods revealed the formation of two types of oblique aggregates exhibiting light absorption in both H- and J-bands. The existence of such similar aggregates, with similar splitting of excitation energies, appears to be related to the existence of two stable conformational isomers of this dye. On increasing the smectite CEC and dye/smectite loading, fluorescence quenching occurred. The ThCy dye exhibited a stronger tendency for molecular aggregation than OxCy. On increasing the smectite CEC, the formation of oblique aggregates with dominant H-bands also increased. On aging of the hybrid dispersions, equilibria of ThCy aggregates were shifted to the species with dominant J-bands. This behavior had a significant impact on the shape and intensity of the fluorescence emission of the hybrid dispersions. Using different smectites enables control of the dye aggregation and significant change to the photophysical properties of the hybrid systems. These systems can be used for the detailed study of the photophysical properties of cyanine dyes in various states. The colloidal systems with cyanine dyes can be used as precursors for the preparation of novel hybrid materials. In addition, the sensitive response of the photophysical properties of cyanine dyes to the clay mineral surface can be applied to the characterization of clay minerals.


The cutaneous lesion of erythema ab igne is characterized by a reticulate erythema, hyperpigmentation, fine scaling, epidermal atrophy and telangiectasis. Currently the lumbar region is the most affected, due to the use of hot water bottles to relieve chronic pains, and by constant exposure to deep heat in physiotherapy sessions. The authors call attention to a dermatosis that is not often diagnosed, and that may be more prevalent, because of the high frequency with which such physiotherapeutic treatments are performed.


Residual solvents are potentially undesirable substances in herbal formulations when present above the permissible limits given by ICH guidelines in 1997 and they must be regulated properly in order to avoid their deleterious health effects. The present paper provides a recent update on the regulations for residual solvents, different Pharmacopoeial guidelines and analytical techniques available for the screening of residual solvents


A novel 4H-SiC BJT of high current gain with a suppressing surface traps effect has been proposed. It is effective to improve the current gain due to the lower electrons density in the surface region by extending the emitter metal to overlap the passivation layer on the extrinsic base surface. The electrons trapped in the extrinsic base surface induce the degeneration of Si C BJTs device performance. By modulating the electron recombination rate, the novel structure can increase the current gain to 63.2% compared with conventional ones with the compatible process technology. Optimized sizes are an overlapped metal length of 4 m, as well as an oxide layer thickness of 50 nm.


This study examines hedging strategies for commodity processors generally and soybean crushers specifically. Processors require hedging strategies built around processing multiple batches each year. Each batch requires the purchase of inputs, transformation of inputs into outputs, and sale of the resulting output. The more batches processed, the greater the transaction frequency, the smaller each batch's size. Increased transaction frequency reduces risk because of the smaller batch size. This study distinguishes between batch (accounting) profits and periodic profits (cash flows). Traditional hedging models have focused on batch profits but we argue that hedging cash flows are also a legitimate hedging target because (a) discounted cash flow is the capital investment decision criterion, (b) costs are associated with managing working capital, (c) cash flow and profits converge in annual aggregation, and (d) stabilizing periodic cash flow stabilizes annual profits but the converse does not hold. Weekly cash and futures prices from 1990 through 2003 are used to compare averages and standard deviations of direct-hedged and unhedged profits and cash flows with transaction frequencies of 1, 2, 4, 13, 26 and 52 weeks. Our findings are as follows. (1) Increased transaction frequency reduces the variance of unhedged profits and cash flows. Two effects account for this. Both profit and cash flow risks are reduced by smaller batch size associated with increased transaction frequency but only profit risk is reduced by closer integration of input and output markets as transaction frequency increases. (2) As transaction frequency increases, the amount of hedgeable risk declines (finding 1) and the effectiveness of traditional hedges also declines. (3) Anticipatory hedging of soybean processing does not offer much risk protection. (4) Traditional hedging of batch profits tends to destabilize periodic cash flows. Several areas meriting additional investigation are also discussed.


Response time (RT) is an oft-used but "noisy" behavioral measure in psychology. Here, we combine modeling and psychophysics to examine the hypothesis that RT variability may reflect ongoing statistical learning and consequent adjustment of behavioral strategy. We utilize the stop-signal task, in which subjects respond to a go stimulus on each trial, unless instructed not to by a subsequent, rare stop signal. We model across-trial learning of stop signal frequency (P(stop)) and stop-signal onset time (SSD) with a Bayesian hidden Markov model, and within-trial decision-making as optimal stochastic control. The model predicts that RT should increase with expected P(stop) and SSD, a prediction borne out by our human data. Thus, it appears that humans continuously monitor environmental statistics and adjust behavioral strategy accordingly. More broadly, our approach exemplifies the use of "noisy" RT measures for extracting insights about cognitive and neural processing.


A solution is developed for the evolution of buildup, steady, and postarrest dissipative pore-fluid pressure fields that develop around a finite-radius conical penetrometer advanced in a saturated linearly elastic porous medium. The analog with cone penetrometer testing is direct and is used to enable continuous distributions of permeability and diffusivity to be determined with depth. This analysis reveals the direct dependence of penetration rate on the induced fluid pressure field magnitudes, and predicts that a penetration rate threshold limit exists with respect to pore-pressure generation. This represents the essence of a partially drained system. The developed pore-pressure field is determined to be a function of the dissipation rate of the material, the penetration rate, and the storage effects of the advecting medium. Analysis of the pore-pressure field under start-up conditions reveals that the time required to reach steady state is strongly influenced by the penetration rate and the pressure-dissipation properties of the material. Analysis of the developed stable pressure fields illustrates the inversely proportional relationship that exists between penetration rate and pore-pressure magnitudes at the cone surface; representing the influence of storage in the medium on stable pore-pressure magnitudes. Stable pressure fields below the penetration threshold limit, UD10 1 , form a spherical response around the cone tip transitioning to an elongated radial response for penetration rates above this limit. Postarrest analysis indicates that the prearrest penetration rate strongly influences the dissipation rate and pattern of dissipation. The developed analysis can be correlated with CPTu-recovered data to independently evaluate permeability magnitudes during steady penetration.


High-accuracy numerical simulations are performed to study aeroacoustic source mechanisms of wavy leading edges (WLEs) on a thin aerofoil undergoing vortical disturbances. This canonical study is based on a prescribed spanwise vortex travelling downstream and creating secondary vortices as it passes through the aerofoil's leading edge. The primary aim of the study is to precisely understand the relationships between the vortex-induced velocity perturbation and the wall pressure fluctuation on the WLE geometry. It is observed that by increasing the size (amplitude) of the WLE the source strength at the peak region is reduced rapidly to a certain point, followed by a saturation stage, while at the root (trough) it remains fairly consistent regardless of the WLE size. This observation is demonstrated to be the consequence of three-dimensional vortex dynamics taking place along the WLE. One of the most profound features is that a system of horseshoe-like secondary vortices are created from the WLE peak region upon the impingement of the prescribed vortex. It is found that the horseshoe vortices produce a significantly non-uniform velocity perturbation in front of the WLE leading to the disparity in the source characteristics between the peak and root. The alterations to the impinging velocity perturbation are carefully analysed and related to the wall pressure fluctuation in this study. In addition, a semi-analytic model based on Biot–Savart's law is developed to better understand and explain the role of the horseshoe vortex systems and the source mechanisms.


Aesculus L. is a small genus of horticulturally important trees and shrubs comprising 13 species. Frequent hybridization among species, particularly in cultivation, has contributed to taxonomic confusion and difficulties in identification of plants. At the same time, disease is threatening the future of some species in horticulture. One species, A. hippocastanum, is emerging as a model for documenting phenological responses to climate change, but it is unclear whether there is significant intraspecific variation in this species. These factors have prompted the morphological and molecular reconsideration ofAesculus taxonomy, with emphasis on plants in horticulture in the UK, and the investigation of the inter-and intra-specific variation in phenology for these species. A detailed morphological study based on 101 morphological characters scored 48 plants. Multivariate analyses and scrutiny of the data against the existing descriptions of species, varieties and cultivars, including hybrids, were used to identify plants, but highlighted the deficiencies of current identification tools .. The plants from the morphological study were included In a molecular survey. New sequence data for one nuclear (ITS) and two chloroplast regions (trnHK, matK) were generated. Bayesian phylogenetic analyses of these sequence data, along with published data, supported previously existing infra-generic lineages. However, no evidence for intraspecific lineages of A. hippocastanum was found in the morphological or molecular analyses.
A phenological survey of plants on the University of Reading Whiteknights campus was made for 51 plants, 34 of A. hippocastanum and 17 representing other species. For two years, each plants' phenological stage (budburst, leaf development, shoot development, flowering, fruiting and beginning of dormancy) was recorded. Consistently early trees and early species were identified. For A. hippocastanum the number of days between the first tree's bud burst and the last tree's budburst was 29 days in 2013 and 38 days in 2014; the time between the earliest bud burst in 2013 and in 2014 was 13 days. Thus, intraspecific variation in budburst time within years is much greater than inter-annual differences.


The randomised controlled education intervention study recruited 430 adults aged 25-65 years with established diagnosis of T2DM (M = 130, F = 309) via a multi-stage double-blind stratified sampling procedure from 22 hospitals and health centres in Doha, Qatar. The intervention group (n = 215) were assigned to a six-week, 2-hourly structured educational class based on the specifically designed DPET, plus their usual one-to-one routine clinical care; the control group (n = 215) used the DPET for home self-study, plus their usual one-to-one routine clinical care.

Adherence to the programme in the intervention group (n = 109; M = 40, F = 69) was 50.7% compared to 84% among controls (n = 181; M = 50, F = 131); an overall non-adherence rate of 32.6%. Repeated measures ANOVA showed a highly significant change in each of diabetes knowledge, attitudes and practice among intervention compared to controls at 12 month follow-up (p<0.0001).

The intervention had no significant overall impact on systolic blood pressure (p = 0.632) nor diastolic BP (p = 0.421) but improvements in BMI among the intervention group (p = 0.001). Repeated measures ANOVA also showed differences in overall change in HbA1c (p = 0.012), fasting blood glucose (p = 0.022), HDL-cholesterol (p<0.0001) and albumin-creatinine ratio (p<0.0001) in the intervention group but not total cholesterol (p=0.204), LDL-cholesterol (p = 0.203) and total triaclyglycerol (p = 0.200) from baseline values after 12 months follow-up. Post-sessional self-assessment tests of knowledge, attitudes, practices and goal-setting used as a proxy measurement of empowerment showed a significant improvement in the empowerment scores from baseline in the intervention group (p<0.0001).


It is evident from previous research that learner preference, cognitive load and effective learning are interconnected. Designers' individual characteristics and preferred modality of information delivery in the design studio has direct relation to the effective use of the information delivered. This study evaluates and discusses possibilities of using XR (Extended Reality) technology within the framework of constructivist learning approach in the interior design studio by measuring its effectiveness as a pedagogical tool. The nature of the design studio and its pedagogy stayed nearly analogous throughout the past century (Bashier, 2014; Koch, 2006). The exponential advancement of information, communication technologies and generation Z's assertiveness toward electronic 'device' oriented lifestyle are the two major challenges that today's design studios yet to adopt for effective design education. With an overview of contemporary design pedagogy and the potential use of XR for a constructivist learning environment; this study explores students' learning styles and identifies how these learning preferences affect their learning outcome in traditional and Extended Reality based learning environment.


CQAes Desk Reference on the States is the ideal reference source for all readers who want a better understanding of state government. The book covers more than 500 questions students and citizens are likely to ask about state government. Organized in sections on the governorship, legislature, and court systems as well as elections and basic functions, readers can find the information they seek via either the table of contents or through the detailed subject index. The bookAes Q&A format make it an ideal volume to browse. Readers will be amazed at the variety of questions and answers that will help them to better understand their federal system in which the states play the key role. "


The field of complex services contains several actors. First it is the complex service companies that supply a professional service supplier. The professional service provider acts in many cases as a consultant. Secondly, the professional service provider works together with the client to reach a more efficient marketing. That marketing is then directed towards the customer. The customer is the client's client and the end result.The purpose with this dissertation is to investigate if it is possible to standardize the working procedure in order to make it as efficient as possible. We choose to investigate this based on interviews with two firms: Marklyss, a domestically operating firm, and GFK, an internationally operating firm. Our limitation is due to the ability to find participating firms.Based on the interviews, we analysed the collected information through different theories such as 7K and standardization versus adaptation model. This was done to find similarities and differences between the companies. We found that there were some similarities that could be used to create a standardized platform for the working procedure. Also we found some differences that could be investigated further if there is any possibility to find out why and if it is possible to transform it into a similarity.


Education is a dominating application area for adap- tive hypermedia. Web-based adaptive educational systems incor- porate complex intelligent tutoring techniques, which enable the system to recognize an individual user and their needs, and con- sequently adapt the instructional sequence. The personalization is done through the user model, which collects information about the user. Since the description of user knowledge and features also in- volves imprecision and vagueness, a user model has to be designed that is able to deal with this uncertainty. This paper presents a way of describing the uncertainty of user knowledge, which is used for user knowledge modeling in an adaptive educational system. The system builds on the concept domain model. A fuzzy user model is proposed to deal with vagueness in the user's knowledge descrip- tion. The model uses fuzzy sets for knowledge representation and linguistic rules for model updating. The data from the fuzzy user model form the basis for the system adaptation, which implements various navigation support techniques. The evaluation of the pre- sented educational system has shown that the system and its adap- tation techniques provide a valuable, easy-to-use tool, which pos- itively affects user knowledge acquisition and, therefore, leads to better learning results.


Objectives Israel is traditionally considered to have the lowest prevalence of cervical cancer compared with that in other countries of the Western world. The aim of the present study was to establish the human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes distribution among Israeli Jewish women with premalignant and cervical cancer. Methods Fifty-two specimens with invasive cervical cancer and 50 specimens with high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2/3) were identified. Human papillomavirus genotyping in paraffin-embedded specimens was performed by deparaffinization of the tissue sections and DNA extraction, followed by HPV genotype detection using a validated polymerase chain reaction (PCR)–based HPV GenoArray test kit, to simultaneously identify 21 HPV genotypes. Results Forty-eight (48/52; 92.3%) cervical cancer samples demonstrated PCR-amplifiable DNA (non-HPV DNA). Forty (83.3%) of 48 samples were high-risk (HR) HPV positive. Six (12.5%) of 48 patients showed multiple HR HPV infections. Human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 dominated covering 28 (58.3%) and 14 (29.16%) of 48 samples. Human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 coinfected all 6 cases of multiple HR HPV infections. In CIN2/3 samples, 37 (78.7%) of 47 samples demonstrated PCR-amplifiable DNA (non-HPV DNA), and 20 (54.0%) of these 37 samples were infected by HPV. Human papillomavirus type 16 was found in 19 (95.0%) of 20 cases. Human papillomavirus type 18 was found in 3 (15.0%) of 20 cases; hence, HPV16 and HPV18 contributed to 100% of the cases. Conclusions Human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 were responsible for the vast majority of invasive cervical cancer and CIN2/3 specimens (81.2% and 100%, respectively). Therefore, it is essential to include the HPV vaccine in the vaccine schedule of the Israeli population.


The identification of core habitat areas and resulting prediction maps are vital tools for land managers. Often, agencies have large datasets from multiple studies over time that could be combined for a more informed and complete picture of a species. Colorado Parks and Wildlife has a large database for greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) including 11 radio-telemetry studies completed over 12 years (1997-2008) across northwestern Colorado. We divided the 49,470-km 2 study area into 1-km 2 grids with the number of sage-grouse locations in each grid cell that contained at least 1 location counted as the response variable. We used a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) using land cover variables as fixed effects and individual birds and populations as random effects to predict greater sage-grouse location counts during breeding, summer, and winter seasons. The mixed effects model enabled us to model correlations that may exist in grouped data (e.g., correlations among individuals and populations). We found only individual groupings accounted for variation in the summer and breeding seasons, but not the winter season. The breeding and summer seasonal models predicted sage-grouse presence in the currently delineated populations for Colorado, but we found little evidence supporting a winter season model. According to our models, about 50% of the study area in Colorado is considered highly or moderately suitable habitat in both the breeding and summer seasons. As oil and gas development and other landscape changes occur in this portion of Colorado, knowledge of where management actions can be accomplished or possible restoration can occur becomes more critical. These seasonal models provide data-driven, distribution maps that managers and biologists can use for identification and exploration when investigating greater sage-grouse issues across the Colorado range. Using historic data for future decisions on species management while accounting for issues found from combining datasets allows land managers the flexibility to use all information available. 2013 The Wildlife Society.


In this study, the activity, stability and performance of carbon supported platinum (Pt/C) electrocatalyst in cathode and carbon supported Pt and ruthenium (PtRu/C) electrocatalyst in anode of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) were studied. The Pt/C and PtRu/C electrocatalysts were prepared by impregnation reduction method. The β-D-glucose was used as protection agent to reduce the particle size and improve performance of prepared electrocatalysts. The prepared electrocatalysts were characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. The results of XRD and TEM showed that the average particle size of metals in prepared electrocatalysts is between 2-3 nm. The cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and chronoamperometry were used to investigate electrooxidation of methanol and electrocatalytic activity of prepared electrocatalysts. The results showed that PtRu/C electrocatalyst has better activity in methanol condition due to its smaller average particle size of nanoparticles, superior activity for methanol oxidation and its higher carbon monoxide (CO) tolerance. The single DMFC cell consisted of protected electrocatalysts exhibited a 28 % increase in the peak power density in room temperature, with the maximum peak power density of 22.13 mW cm-2.


Author(s): Shields, Laura Grace | Abstract: Composed of a mixture of chemical species and phases and existing in a variety of shapes and sizes, atmospheric aerosols are complex and can have serious influence on human health, the environment, and climate. In order to better understand the impact of aerosols on local to global scales, detailed measurements on the physical and chemical properties of ambient particles are essential. In addition, knowing the origin or the source of the aerosols is important for policymakers to implement targeted regulations and effective control strategies to reduce air pollution in their region. One of the most ground breaking techniques in aerosol instrumentation is single particle mass spectrometry (SPMS), which can provide online chemical composition and size information on the individual particle level. The primary focus of this work is to further improve the ability of one specific SPMS technique, aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ATOFMS), for the use of identifying the specific origin of ambient aerosols, which is known as source apportionment. The ATOFMS source apportionment method utilizes a library of distinct source mass spectral signatures to match the chemical information of the single ambient particles. The unique signatures are obtained in controlled source characterization studies, such as with the exhaust emissions of heavy duty diesel vehicles (HDDV) operating on a dynamometer. The apportionment of ambient aerosols is complicated by the chemical and physical processes an individual particle can undergo as it spends time in the atmosphere, which is referred to as "aging" of the aerosol. Therefore, the performance of the source signature library technique was investigated on the ambient dataset of the highly aged environment of Riverside, California. Additionally, two specific subsets of the Riverside dataset (ultrafine particles and particles containing trace metals), which are known to cause adverse health effects, were probed in greater detail. Finally, the impact of large wildfires on the ambient levels of particulate matter in Southern California is discussed. The results of this work provide insight into single particles impacting the Southern California region, the relative source contributions to this region, and finally an examination of how atmospheric aging influences the ability to perform source apportionment


With the increased emphasis on market valuation in accounting rules and solvency regulation, the proper modeling of interest rate dynamics has become increasingly important for pension funds. A number of pension fund characteristics make these models particularly demanding. First, as the obligations of pension funds stretch far into the future, the model should be reasonable both for short rates and very long term rates. Second, as the value of liabilities increases enormously if interest rates approach zero, especially the probability of very low rates should be modeled correctly. Third, as pension rights are usually indexed, the interaction between interest rates and inflation should be addressed. Fourth, in order to allow for long term analysis, the simulation results should preferably be stationary. Fifth, account has to be taken to possible structural breaks in the inflation and interest rate dynamics, if only to comply with maximum return assumptions of supervisors. In this paper we present a new affine discrete-time, three-factor model of the term structure of interest rates that meets these criteria. The factors are the short term rate, expected inflation and stochastic risk aversion. The model is applied to an unbalanced panel of German/euro area zero-coupon yields for maturities of one to sixty years, and estimated using the extended Kalman filter.


CONTEXT
The optimal frequency for on-treatment serum T measurement used for dose adjustment after transdermal T gel application is unknown, especially in older men with thinner skin and slower metabolic clearance.

OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the study was to determine the variability of postgel application serum T concentrations and assess whether single levels are reflective of average serum T concentrations over 24 hours (Cavg0-24).

DESIGN
This was a double-blinded, placebo-controlled randomized trial.

SETTING
The study was conducted at five academic centers.

PARTICIPANTS
Forty-seven symptomatic men 65 years old or older with an average of two morning T concentration less than 275 ng/dL participated in the study.

INTERVENTION(S)
Transdermal T or placebo gel was applied for 120 ± 14 days. Monthly dose adjustments were made if necessary to target serum T between 400 and 500 to 800 ng/dL.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Variability of serum T 2 hours after the gel application on two outpatient visits and at multiple time points over 24 hours during the inpatient day was measured.

RESULTS
On-treatment T levels varied substantially on the 2 ambulatory days and over 24 hours during the inpatient day. Ambulatory 2-hour postapplication T levels did not correlate significantly with either 2-hour postapplication serum T or Cavg0-24 measured during the inpatient day. Only 22.2% of men receiving T had a Cavg0-24 within the target range of 500-800 ng/dL; 81.5% had a Cavg0-24 within the broader 300-1000 ng/dL range.

CONCLUSION
Large within-individual variations in serum T after T gel application render ambulatory 2-hour postapplication T level a poor indicator of average serum T on another day. Our data point out the limitations of dose adjustments based on a single postapplication serum T measurement.


Most existing works on dialog systems only consider conversation content while neglecting the personality of the user the bot is interacting with, which begets several unsolved issues. In this paper, we present a personalized end-to-end model in an attempt to leverage personalization in goal-oriented dialogs. We first introduce a PROFILE MODEL which encodes user profiles into distributed embeddings and refers to conversation history from other similar users. Then a PREFERENCE MODEL captures user preferences over knowledge base entities to handle the ambiguity in user requests. The two models are combined into the PERSONALIZED MEMN2N. Experiments show that the proposed model achieves qualitative performance improvements over state-of-the-art methods. As for human evaluation, it also outperforms other approaches in terms of task completion rate and user satisfaction.


Although Chaceon affinis is practically unknown to Canarian fishermen, relatively abundant quantities of deep-sea red crab C. affinis have been found in all trap surveys conducted around the Canary Islands in the last 10 yr, in which waters deeper than 550 m have been examined. From July 1994 to May 1996, monthly samples were taken from north-eastern waters off Tenerife using a variety of trap designs. Crabs were caught at depths ranging from 550 to 1200 m on muddy- rocky bottoms. A variety of measurements were taken from each specimen, and most of these showed linear and isometric growth relative to carapace width (CW). Male chela width (ChW) and female abdomen width (AW) did not show such evident allometry as other crab species. Changes in growth of these features, considered as secondary sexual characters, were used to discriminate morpho- metrically immature crabs from mature crabs, using hierarchical cluster analysis. Different morpho- metric groups were distinguished, for both males and females, and male ChW and female AW were plotted against CW. Regressions were calculated separately for each cluster to test the discrimination statistically. Morphometric size at maturity was initially estimated and compared with data on gonad stage. This comparison revealed a high correlation in males between morphometric and sexual maturity, which is reached at about 129 mm CW. However, most females become morphometrically mature before their ovaries mature and before copulation (at sizes of ~99, 108 and 113 mm CW, respectively).


I was going to entitle this WarmUp " Paris, 'Outliers' and Kudos to Scandinavia" but that would have meant that people Googling the Paris Hilton video would have ended up here. Didn't want them. Why mention Paris (the place)? What struck me on a recent vacation in Paris was not its stunning architecture, amazing art collections or expensive cappuccinos — it was the level of smoking! Beautiful young Parisians clearly in love — with cigarettes. Smokers pack the best tables on streetside cafes; literally cheek by anoxic jowl with each other. The City of Lights is now the City that Lights. But relevance to BJSM you ask?

The persistence of Parisian smoking in the absence of effective legislation illustrates what has been described as the "socioecological model" of behaviour change.1 In short, you cannot change societal behaviour one clinical consultation at a time. In lay language you can think of the expression "it takes a village to raise a child" — big changes need multi-level efforts. In popular literature, …


The redox cycling of iron is intimately linked to the cycling of C, S, N, P as well as the speciation, mobility, and bioavailability of various toxic contaminants in soils and sediments. Within these environments, the cycling of iron is catalytically driven by iron-oxidizing (FeOB) and iron reducing bacteria (FeRB) which mediate the formation, transformation, and dissolution of various iron-bearing minerals. Under oxic conditions, FeOB promote the formation of iron oxides on or in close proximity of their cell walls and extracellular polymeric substances, and such composite, termed biogenic iron oxides (BIOS), offers highly reactive heterogenous sites that efficiently immobilize trace metals and contaminants alike. However, under reducing conditions, FeRB mediate the reductive dissolution of BIOS and in turn lead to the remobilization of associated contaminants. Conversely, contaminants may become immobilized by secondary iron minerals that form from the metabolic activity of FeRB. Therefore, determining the factors that influence the reactivity of BIOS, as well as the formation of secondary iron minerals is of critical importance to develop a better understanding of the geochemical cycling of iron and in turn the transport of contaminants in the environment. This thesis investigated (1) the impact of simulated diagenesis (ageing for ~5 years at 4oC) on the mineral stability and reactivity of BIOS towards reduction by Shewanella putrefaciens CN32, (2) the effects of phosphate at an environmentally relevant (10µM) and excess (3.9mM) concentration on the rates and extent of microbial reduction of synthetic 2-line ferrihydrite and BIOS, as well as the formation of secondary iron minerals, and (3) the impact of sterilization by γ-irradiation on the mineral stability and reactivity of BIOS. It was found that simulated diagenesis did not affect the mineralogical composition of BIOS but significantly lowered the reactivity of BIOS towards microbial reduction. The concentration of phosphate was found to have contrasting effects on the rates of reduction of ferrihydrite and BIOS, but in general, excess concentration of phosphate enhanced the extent of Fe(III) reduction. The formation of a specific secondary iron mineral was also found to depend on the concentration of phosphate, as well as, in the case for BIOS, the presence of intermixed cell derived organic matter. γ-irradiation did not alter the mineralogy and reactivity of BIOS towards microbial reduction, and it was concluded to be a suitable technique to sterilize BIOS.


European semi-natural, cultural and artificial landscapes are significantly different than those of China and so are the cartographies of these landscapes. Feng-Shui for instance (an ancient Chinese method for assessing and mapping strong-favourable and weak-unfavourable aspects of landscapes and places) is still thought to be practiced by a large share of the Chinese, today. However strange the Asian methods may seem to the European mind, they constitute an essential part of traditional Chinese architecture, garden arrangement, and moreover landscape design. The relationship between humans and landscapes is very complex and the relevance of attitudes formulated by the Chinese in the past to the attitudes of today may have far-reaching consequences for the man-landscape relationships today. Equally interesting is the south-east Asian and Chinese cartography of parks and forests from the cultural point of view, particularly in relation to its relevance with the ancient Asian cosmologies. The comparative examination of European and Chinese cartographies may lead to a considerable re-evaluation of the perception of the role of humans in the landscape.


Antigenically similar chitin-binding lectins are present in the embryos of wheat, barley, and rye, members of the Triticeae tribe of the grass family (Gramineae). However, the lectins display different localization patterns in these embryos. Lectin is absent from the coleoptile of barley but is present in the outer surface cells of this organ in wheat and in both inner and outer surface cells of rye coleoptiles. All three cereals contain lectin at the periphery of embryonic roots. Similar lectins were not detected in oats and pearl millet, members of other tribes of the Gramineae. Rice, a species only distantty related to wheat, contains a lectin that is antigenically similar to the other cereal lectins and located at the periphery of embryonic roots and throughut the coleoptile.


A microfluidic-based system was developed for the in situ monitoring of the 7-ethoxyresorufin O-dealkylation (EROD) activity of primary rat hepatocytes by measuring the fluorescent intensity of both cells and their surrounding media. The microfluidic chip was designed to allow the cell suspension and test reagent to be introduced in a layer-by-layer flow format, thereby resulting in a short mixing time by diffusion. A good linear relationship was obtained between the resorufin concentration up to 30 microM and fluorescent intensity over the chip's circular chamber area. The EROD activity was determined with 3-methylcholanthrene (3-MC)-induced hepatocytes. The inhibition effect of alpha-naphthoflavone was also examined on EROD activity resulting in an IC(50) value of 12.98 microM.


This paper proposes methods for combining cepstral and acoustic waveform representations for a front-end of support vector machine (SVM)-based speech recognition systems that are robust to additive noise. The key issue of kernel design and noise adaptation for the acoustic waveform representation is addressed first. Cepstral and acoustic waveform representations are then compared on a phoneme classification task. Experiments show that the cepstral features achieve very good performance in low noise conditions, but suffer severe performance degradation already at moderate noise levels. Classification in the acoustic waveform domain, on the other hand, is less accurate in low noise but exhibits a more robust behavior in high noise conditions. A combination of the cepstral and acoustic waveform representations achieves better classification performance than either of the individual representations over the entire range of noise levels tested, down to - 18-dB SNR.


In the manufacturing process of HDD, ball swaging method is commonly used to joint the Head Gimbal Assembly(HGA) with the arm of the actuator. The hub on the HGA is placed into the hole of the actuator arm, and the hub and arm is bonded by the pressure of steel ball. The pressure for plastic deformation on the baseplate causes the undesirable deformation on HGA, such as tilting, flying height change of head. After obtaining the key parameters that have large sensitivity on the swaging process, the optimal shape of baseplate is proposed to increase the static performance during swaging process. Contribution of the proposed design for the swaging performance is verified by contact simulation with elasto-plastic deformation.


Gastric lipase, pancreatic colipase-dependent lipase, and bile salt-stimulated lipase all have potential roles in digestion of human milk triacylglycerol. To reveal the function of each lipase, an in vitro study was carried out with purified lipases and cofactors, and with human milk as substrate. Conditions were chosen to resemble those of the physiologic environment in the gastrointestinal tract of breast-fed infants. Gastric lipase was unique in its ability to initiate hydrolysis of milk triacylglycerol. Activated bile salt-stimulated lipase could not on its own hydrolyze native milk fat globule triacylglycerol, whereas a limited hydrolysis by gastric lipase triggered hydrolysis by bile salt-stimulated lipase. Gastric lipase and colipase-dependent lipase, in combination, hydrolyzed about two thirds of total ester bonds, with monoacylglycerol and fatty acids being the end products. Addition of bile salt-stimulated lipase resulted in hydrolysis also of monoacylglycerol. When acting together with colipase-dependent lipase, bile salt-stimulated lipase contributed also to digestion of tri- and diacylglycerol. We conclude that digestion of human milk triacylglycerol depends on three lipases with unique, only partly overlapping, functions. Their concerted action results in complete digestion with free glycerol and fatty acids as final products.


The article analyzes the fundamental constitutional enigma of the European Union (EU), namely whether the EU can be considered as a (from its Member States) separate and independent constitutional legal order. The EU is often referred to as a legal order sui generis, i.e. of a unique character that defies traditional definitions. More specifically, the notion of an independent and separate EU is at odds with the idea of the sovereign state. The notion of the EU as a legal order sui generis is too much influenced by the models of the sovereign state and sovereignty (in the vein of Thomas Hobbes). The key component in the Hobbesian idea of sovereignty is freedom as non-interference. A sovereign state is consequently a state that is free from, i.e. not interfered with by, external actors like, for example, the EU. Put differently, either the EU is sovereign or the Member States are sovereign. By shifting the perspective to a neo-Roman republican understanding of freedom as non-domination the constitutional picture of the EU will become more nuanced. Res publica is best understood as what citizens hold in common and above their narrow self-interest. According to a republican notion of the constitution the purpose of the law is to eliminate the possibility of arbitrary domination. For that reason, not all interference is to be considered as a restriction of freedom but only those restrictions that cannot be justified according to the res publica. Viewed through the republican prism it can be argued that the EU represents an important advancement in securing freedom as non-domination without implying that the EU must become a state. The fundamental enigma can thus be rephrased as a clash between two diverging concepts of freedom. Whereas the EU will always be at odds with the idea of sovereignty (however framed) it will be much easier to reconcile with the republican ideal.


Preschool institution as a first level of the unified system of education bases its activity on the "student centered" philosophy of education which promotes different ideas from that of traditional education. Through organized activities in all its field activities foreseen in a curricula, the preschool institution with its structured environment in harmony with the goals and concrete objectives offers numerous possibilities to develop general abilities of children, which create appropriate conditions to prepare and offer optimal readiness to master the reading and writing skills. The activities that we handle and which aim accomplishment of this concrete objective come out and are supported by the living context of children in accordance to fulfillment and urging of the knowing interests for developing and deepening the knowledge of letters, sounds, reading and writing. In this view, children should not be imposed or prevent the interest they show in order to learn letters, sounds, reading and writing. Working with children of this age in order to understand and learn letters isn't a program-based obligation because this is the school's duty and not the preschool institution's obligation. Obligations cause unwanted consequences which generate different psych-neurotic disorders. Overwork and heavy workload of these children, diminishes or misplaces children's trust on possibilities of overcoming difficulties in learning basic letters, sounds, reading and writing. In addition, it diminishes and misplaces their interest in continuing school and the learning process. Therefore in order to prevent these negative consequences, there is an immediate need for a general preparation which offers children a possibility to transfer and generate skills in specific fields and content. The best strategy to prepare children to recognize letters, sounds and master reading and writing is no doubt activity through games which in this case represents the main substance for organizing activities in aspects of integrated education within preschool institutions.


This study aims to propose alternatives to improve the residential environmental of National Rental Housing for Elderly. To proceed the study, we draw elements of plan for apartment housing for Elderly through literature review, explore actual conditions of residential environment on National Rental Housing for Elderly in Ha-dong, Kim-Jae, do IPA analysis using survey data, and finally, propose prior alternatives for the improvement of National Rental Housing for Elderly based on IPA analysis results. In the results, a lot of the planning elements of apartment housing for Elderly was applied for this site. But living conditions of residents need to be improved based on the result that importance (3.55) is higher than performance (3.18). this study is critical in drawing the direction of plan and improvement alternative by surveying actual residents, and will be used as the source for the National Rental Housing for Elderly project.


The layered feature of scalable video coding (SVC) offers a sufficient adaptation to unreliable transmission. When network condition drops sharply, enhancement layers will be abandoned, and only base layers are delivered. However, this will cause noticeable visual artifacts due to quality differences between different layers. To alleviate this problem, we novelly introduce a deep learning-based method into video reconstruction phase of scalable bitstreams. A super-resolution motivated recurrent network is proposed to extract and fuse features from both previous high-resolution frames and the current low-resolution frame. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to improve the performance of scalable bitstreams reconstruction by a specifically designed super-resolution network. By seamlessly integrating the accessible features, significant video quality improvements in terms of PSNR, SSIM, and VMAF are achieved. At the same time, the improvement of overall visual quality stability is apparent under packet lossy networks, indicating both efficiency and robustness of our approach.


This paper presents a forecasting exercise that assesses the predictive potential of a daily price index based on online prices. Prices are compiled using web scrapping services provided by the private company PriceStats in cooperation with a finance research corporation, State Street Global Markets. This online price index is tested as a predictor of the monthly core inflation rate in Argentina, known as "resto IPCBA" and published by the Statistics Office of the City of Buenos Aires. Mixed frequency regression models offer a convenient arrangement to accommodate variables sampled at different frequencies and hence many specifications are evaluated. Different classes of these models are found to produce a slight boost in out-of-sample predictive performance at immediate horizons when compared to benchmark naive models and estimators. Additionally, an analysis of intra-period forecasts, reveals a slight trend towards increased forecast accuracy as the daily variable approaches one full month for certain horizons.


The purpose of this study was to understand the relationships between the molecular mechanisms of disease progression and higher-order features such as tissue stiffness, extent of disease and cellularity in the tumor microenvironment, TME. Using samples of human high-grade serous ovarian cancer metastases, ranging from normal to heavily diseased, we identified molecular components of the TME using transcriptomic and proteomic analysis. We integrated these data against higher-order features of the tissue, namely the biomechanics, cellularity, and disease score. We then used bioinformatics and multivariate statistics to identifying components of the TME that best model the higher-order features. For the first time, we revealed the complexity of extracellular matrix remodeling during metastases development, defining patterns of extracellular-matrix associated genes and proteins that predicted both extent of disease and tissue modulus. This allowed us to identify a core group of twenty-two matrix-associated molecules that modeled the dynamic process of tissue remodeling during tumor progression. We used these data to generate a 'matrix index', a quantitative measure of the gene expression of the twenty-two molecules. In cancer transcriptomic databases, this matrix index had prognostic significance in thirteen solid cancers including high-grade serous ovarian cancer, even after multivariate analysis. We conclude that there may be a common host matrix response to human solid cancers. Citation Format: Frances R. Balkwill, Oliver M. Pearce, Robin Delaine-Smith, Eleni Maniati, Sam Nichols, Jun Wang, Conrad Bessant, Martin Knight. Deconstruction of a human tumor microenvironment [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5558. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-5558


ABSTRACT
 Physical activity is one of the most important interventions to improve the health and well-being of populations. Gaining sufficient physical activity can often be difficult for older people, who are less likely to be involved in formal exercise. Older people are also more likely to suffer from social isolation. Active transport is an ideal opportunity to increase both the physical and social well-being of older populations. This literature review investigates the impact of public transport on the health and well-being of older adults and discusses policy implications. A literature search was conducted in CINAHL, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science and ProQuest Social Science databases to identify relevant articles. Fifty-eight articles were identified. Despite the prevalence of public transport including free and subsidised services worldwide, there is only a small body of research on the impact on older people. While limited, the literature on free and subsidised public transport and older people highlights that access has clear benefits for health and well-being. Public transport both promote active transport by encouraging older people to incorporate incidental activity into daily routines. We review literature showing that active transport positively affects older people's physical health, as well as their mental health by enabling them to maintain social networks, thus reducing social isolation.


Farmers are challenged to integrate changes in the biophysical and societal environment in the farm strategy. Scale enlargement is a dominant strategy for dairy farmers in The Netherlands and is a possible threat to vulnerable assets of regions. Regional development programmes aim to support farm development in such a way that vulnerable assets are protected. Stakeholders in regional development may differ in their perceptions on viability of options for farm development. New services and functions in rural areas are often seen as desirable options for farm development. The farmer as entrepreneur chooses a strategy based on the options perceived by him as viable for future farm income: the perceived Room for Manoeuvre (pRfM). For effective regional development programmes it is important to understand differences between (groups of) farmers in the pRfM. In a case study of 79 dairy farmers 4 clusters were found: 1) based on output (29 farmers), 2) based on the use of on-farm resources (21 farmers), 3) based on on-farm non-dairy activities (21 farmers), 4) based on off-farm income and ending dairy production (8 farmers). The clusters have a different focus on their location in relation to farm strategy. The clusters were related to current, planned and preferred activities using cross tabulation. 'Fullspeed' dairy farming is preferred by 35 farmers of which 17 are outside cluster 1. Intensification of dairy farming is planned on 14 farms of which 9 are in cluster 2 and 3. Many farmers have a strong preference for more intensive dairy production, even when options for diversified farming are perceived as viable. Results may be influenced by the fact that all farmers in this case study were tenant farmers. This study shows that the construct perceived Room for Manoeuvre allows to distinguish between groups of farmers on their farm strategy in relation to farm location. In regional development this knowledge can be used in the design of support programmes for farm development, increasing the likelihood of a successful programme.


Introduction: Asthma is the most common chronic diseases in children. Its diagnosis and management are still poorly implemented in Benin.
Objective: Assess the management of asthma in children aged six to 18 years according to GINA 2002 criteria in three university teaching hospitals located in the city of Cotonou.
Patients and methods: The research work was a case control study with assessment purpose; it was conducted from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2015.
Results: A total of 115 asthmatic children were identified, i.e. a hospital-based frequency of 0.2%. Sex ratio was 1.5 and male predominance was noted. Asthma was diagnosed based on clinic symptoms and peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) values (peak flow data measurement) in 60.9% of patients.  Asthma attack was classified according to GINA criteria in 33.3% of patients and severity sought in 67.8% of cases. The dose of inhaled corticosteroids was compliant with treatment guidelines in 66.1% of children. Follow-up was ensured on a regular basis and adapted to asthma severity in 60.9% of children and 70% of them had a controlled asthma.
Conclusion: In the pediatric units of CNHU-HKM and CHU-MEL university teaching hospitals, children with asthma were provided care only during attacks. At CNHU-PP they were adequately followed up and their asthma was controlled in 70% of cases.


Ownership is one of the fundamental notions in the Civil Code and yet far too often writings on the subject have presented a narrow view of it. Obviously, its has a well determined genetic code since its general attributes are usus, fructus, abusus and vis attractiva, while its specific features include exclusivity, perpetuity and absolutism ; still it remains a pliable concept. For on the one hand, though core prerogatives remain with the holder of the right, the attributes and features of ownership may not be so well affirmed, which immediately infers the existence of modalities of the right. Yet on the other, the core may be broken down since the object to such ownership then becomes a source of real rights, thus there is dismemberment. The flexibility of ownership resides in the numerous modifications it can undergo and which all potentially exist in ownership. Before attempting to study various hypotheses leading to the recognition of spatio-temporal ownership, it is indispensible to adopt a wide view of this notion since any other approach cannot produce satisfactory results. Among hypotheses under consideration, introducing a new modality seems the best solution. It does, however, have its drawbacks as the notion of spatio-temporal ownership runs against the grain of qualities inherent in the right of ownership. First of all, the holder of this right only exercices a limited abusus and in this respect he is not alone, for precedents exist with the holders of other means of ownership (substituted property, inalienable property, trust property). Furthermore, there would be an obstruction to the perpetual nature of such ownership. This proposal is, however, to be rejected since the spatio-temporal ownership is perpetual, although discontinuous. Once the initial obstacles are overcome, the introduction of an additional modality of ownership essentially requires the recognition of a fourth dimension in the object of ownership, namely its temporality. An abstract notion if ever there was one, temporality raises the question of the need for conceiving an owned piece of property as being a concrete and materialized thing. Nonetheless, ownership may be dematerialized for in fact, real estate property can be represented as a cube of space and not just a flat plane. The only obstacle to this new modality in ownership would be the impossibility of conceiving innominate changes to the right of ownership. In all the code, case law and authoritative writings presently recognize the capacity of the human mind to conceive additional modifications to rights of ownership. Spatio-temporal ownership depends upon the recognition of the temporal dimension of the object of such right and thereby constitutes a modality of ownership whose peculiarities derive from the individual form of its object. Although recognition of modality in ownership seems to be the only way for arriving at spatio-temporal ownership, we may consider various solutions based upon an arrangement of existing institutions in the law relating to ownership —which would allow the constitution of a spatio-temporal right of ownership. Despite its popularity, usufruct does not seem to us to be a satisfactory answer. Joint ownership is more attractive despite the ever-present expectation of a petition to partition. A covenant between undivided coproprietors would provide, in our opinion however, a delay in such partition and this covenant would be enforceable on both parties and beneficiaries. If doubts persist as to the legality of such a covenant, the revision announced in the proposed Civil Code of Quebec will calm such fears. Besides allowing the postponement of partition for a maximum period of thirty years, this revision will make possible the assignment of a piece of property to a durable end and ipso facto a waiver of partition. One must remain aware of the fact that despite the technique used to avoid partition, the right ownership is plural. It is only by the identification of an additional modality of ownership that there may be true spatio-temporal ownership.