Abstract Body condition index is used as a measure for an individual's condition, usually with reference to its nutritional status and the energy reserves. Reproductive success, survival, and thus, population dynamics, depend on body condition of the organisms. In this study, the seasonal and annual body condition factor (a) and the relative body condition index (Krel) were estimated from the length–weight relationship of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) collected in 3 coastal lagoons of Baja California Sur during 2005–2007. Seasonal and annual differences in a, and differences between study sites and physical appearance (healthy or injured) of Krel were analyzed. Juveniles were the predominant age class (< 77 cm straight carapace length). Green turtles from Punta Abreojos (PAO) had a lower Krel than individuals of Laguna San Ignacio at a given size. In Bahía Magdalena (BMA) and PAO injured green turtles had a smaller Krel than turtles classified as healthy at a given size. Additionally, the increase in Krel per cm of straight carapace length of injured green turtles from PAO was lower than that of healthy ones. Body condition factor, a, varied between years in turtles from PAO, being highest during 2006. An increasing tendency in a, from winter to summer, was observed in PAO and BMA. The periods when green turtles had the highest body condition factor a (summer, 2005 BMA, 2006 PAO) coincided with periods of highest serum concentrations of glucose, proteins, lipids, calcium, and uric acid; nevertheless, the relative body condition index was not correlated with those parameters. The relative body condition index resulted in a simple and sensible method that provided an overall trend of the data under a number of stress conditions, detecting differences also between injured and healthy individuals. The body condition factor, in conjunction with blood biochemistry parameters, proved to be a useful tool as biomarkers of the apparent physical and nutritional status of the green sea turtles.


This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) achieved through Left Univentricular Pacing (LUVP) Beat-By-Beat Tracking (BBBT) of physiological Atrioventricular Delay (AVD). Thirty-seven patients undergoing CRT were enrolled, and their preoperative atrial premature conduction data were collected. Electrocardiogram (ECG) was used to optimize the LUVP, as well as the AVD, VV, and VR intervals of standard biventricular pacing. The interval from the LUVP pulse to the start of Right Ventricular (LVP-RV) intracavitary ECG was measured, and the LV priority coefficient (e) was calculated. The interval differences between two adjacent sinus heartbeats within 1 min, as well as between the maximum and minimum Atrial Sensing- Ventricular Sensing (AS-VS), were measured and compared. The regression equation for atrial premature AVD was P'R'=0.022+0.954 PR. The LVP-RV interval (102.6 ± 15.8 ms) was significantly greater than the V-R interval (19.31 ± 7.32 ms) (P<0.01), and e was 0.73 ± 0.04. The maximum difference between the AS-VS intervals of two adjacent sinus heartbeats within 1 min (6.43 ± 1.63 ms) was significantly lower than the difference between the maximum and minimum AS-VS intervals (16.54 ± 3.32 ms) (P<0.01). LUVP-BBBT could realize CRT.


The predictable recurrence of superficial transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder is responsible for the frequent utilization of intravesical therapy. In the past 2 years, we have changed our intravesical treatment strategy at Ohio State University in an effort to enhance efficacy and reduce patient inconvenience.


This thesis examines how social and environmental change is recorded in the stratigraphic profile and reflected in the site formation processes of mounded sites. Previous geoarchaeological studies have focused on sedimentological and radiometric data to examine Iron Age sites on the Mun River Floodplain, looking for correlation between site formation events and social and environmental change through an environmental determinist approach. This thesis moves away from that approach and examines the relationship between site formation processes and social and environmental pressures from the viewpoint that social memory is transmitted through the site's stratigraphy. The focus is Ban Non Wat (BNW), a prehistoric occupation mound that is still occupied today, resulting in a 4000 year archive of social and environmental change. This thesis argues that social and environmental change directly impacts site formation processes and suggests that sediment is not just a static vessel for cultural artefacts, but also a conduit for the transmission of social memory. This thesis will address the research question: Does the close examination of Ban Non Wat's site stratigraphy and depositional environment provide insight into changing social and political dynamics from the period of colonisation to early proto-Historic era? To fully address this question, the following subquestions will be explored:

• What was the nature of the pre-colonisation period identified by Boyd and Chang (2010)? What impact did the colonising community have on the landscape?

• Higham and Higham (2009) identified a period (Bronze Age 2 ~1000–900 BC) of extremely rich burials and marked social differences. What (if any) impact did this period have on the physical site formation processes?

• It has been argued by Higham (2014a), McGrath and Boyd (2001) and O'Reilly (2014) that the introduction of the moats at BNW (~200 BC) suggests a change in social and political dynamics. Is this change reflected elsewhere?

• Is the transmission of "social memory" identifiable in the stratigraphic record? How does applying this theoretical framework assist in understanding the interrelationships between site formation processes and change in social dynamics at BNW?

A multi-proxy approach is combined with social memory theory to develop a holistic representation of the social and physical site formation processes. This approach layers analytical and theoretical methods to build a profile of data on the site's formation processes. The methods used include stratigraphic, geochemical and radiometric analysis. According to the theoretical approach taken here, each sediment deposition event represents a social memory of the community that lived at BNW. This approach has been taken to challenge environmentally determinist approaches and expand on the previous work which narrowly focuses on social change through close examination of mortuary remains.

From the application of this approach, this thesis has identified four modes of sediment deposition. Deposition Mode (DM) 1 (before 1200 BC) is related to the initial settlement of the mound as a seasonal or satellite site for hunter-gatherer communities who became more sedentary over time. DM2 (1200 BC–700 BC) sees the central area of the mound maintained, through slow and methodical deposition. This central area becomes socially, politically and ritually important during the Neolithic and referred to here as the sala. During the Bronze Age, areas around the sala undergo rapid vertical growth through intense and continual occupation. The period identified as Bronze Age 2 by Higham and Higham (2009) has no significant effect on the fabric of the mound. DM3 (700 BC–AD 500) sees a change to the rapid horizontal expansion of the site. Similar to previous DMs, the rapid accumulation is the result of continual occupation on the margins of the mound, away from the sala. The construction of the moats (200 BC) alters the DM by constraining the community's ability to expand horizontally. DM4 (AD 500–modern) sees the site formation slow to a crawl, with sediment becoming homogeneous with the natural floodplain alluvium. The site does not appear to have been abandoned; rather, the mound gains monument status, with domestic activity moving off the site.

It is evident that site formation processes operate independently to the social and environmental changes. The close examination of the site stratigraphy and depositional environment has provided new avenues for investigating changes in social complexity. By taking these thesis outcomes and combining them with more traditional methods of investigation, a more holistic understanding of prehistory has been achieved.


The question of accessibility of genotype with the highest fitness for different fitness landscapes has a long history. Dating back to works of Wright and Fisher, there are two contradicting intuitions about behaviour of global accessibility when the genotype space grows. On the one hand, as the dimensionality of fitness landscape is increased, the sheer increase in the number of pathways should allow for circumventing fitness barriers, rendering the global maximum accessible. On the other hand, the increasing number of genotypes results in a higher number of local fitness maxima that act as evolutionary traps, effectively making the global optimum inaccessible from a distant (in terms of mutations) genotype. In the work by Franke et al. (PLoS Comput. Biol., 2011) authors revisited the question of evolutionary accessibility of mutational pathways for various fitness landscapes with underlying genotypes made of 0s and 1s. Here we extend this work by posting this question for fitness landscapes with higher number of possible states K A per position in the genotype. Specifically the case with K A = 4 might be seen as a proxy for the DNA fitness landscape where the four states represent the four DNA base pairs. Further the graph of possible mutations is a generalized hypercube such that any two genotypes (nodes) are connected only when they differ at a single position. We define accessibility as an average probability to reach the genotype with the highest fitness from the antipodal genotype by a series of mutations that increase fitness. By performing extensive numerical simulations for system sizes up to 2 28 genotypes we are able to estimate the accessibility for the infinite genotype length. Interestingly, even for the fitness landscape with uncorrelated fitness values ( e.g. drawn from uniform distribution), we find that accessibility is nonvanishing for infinite system sizes. Particularly, the increase of K A from 2 to 4 results in an order of magnitude increase of the accessibility asymptotic value, i.e. from 0.034(2) to 0.426(4) for the former and the latter case respectively. Furthermore, the relatively high level of accessibility for K A = 4 is almost not affected by introducing roughly 40% of mutant genotypes that are lethal (holes in the landscape), but it drops abruptly after exceeding this threshold.


Aliasing is a general problem in the analysis of any measurements that make sampling at discrete points. Sampling in the spatial domain results in a periodic pattern of spectra in the wave vector domain. This effect is called spatial aliasing, and it is of particular importance for multi-spacecraft measurements in space. We first present the theoretical background of aliasing problems in the frequency domain and generalize it to the wave vector domain, and then present model calculations of spatial aliasing. The model calculations are performed for various configurations of the reciprocal vectors and energy spectra or distribution that are placed at different positions in the wave vector domain, and exhibit two effects on aliasing. One is weak aliasing, in which the true spectrum is distorted because of non-uniform aliasing contributions in the Brillouin zone. It is demonstrated that the energy distribution becomes elongated in the shortest reciprocal lattice vector direction in the wave vector domain. The other effect is strong aliasing, in which aliases have a significant contribution in the Brillouin zone and the energy distribution shows a false peak. These results give a caveat in multi-spacecraft data analysis in that spectral anisotropy obtained by a measurement has in general two origins: (1) natural and physical origins like anisotropy imposed by a mean magnetic field or a flow direction; and (2) aliasing effects that are imposed by the configuration of the measurement array (or the set of reciprocal vectors). This manuscript also discusses a possible method to estimate aliasing contributions in the Brillouin zone based on the measured spectrum and to correct the spectra for aliasing.


This thesis is focused on possibility of constructing distributed underwater sonar which has an ability to increase or decrease number of sensor elements without any modification on its hardware. Each sonar module works individually. Its synchronization and communication between modules and the image processing unit are archived by using CAN protocol. This new design concept gives several advantages over conventional design.Only one prototype was made, but several modules must be combined in the actual application. The discussion about a complete system can be found in the future work section.The project composes of two main parts: design and building a prototype. The testing procedure and result of both parts are described and summarized with a conclusion.


ext mining automatically extracts information from the literature with the goal of making it available for further analysis, for example by incorporating it into biomedical databases. A key first step towards this goal is to identify and normalize the named entities, such as proteins and species, which are mentioned in text. Despite the large detrimental impact that viruses have on human and agricultural health, very little previous text-mining work has focused on identifying virus species and proteins in the literature. Here, we present an improved dictionary-based system for viral species and the first dictionary for viral proteins, which we benchmark on a new corpus of 300 manually annotated abstracts. We achieve 81.0% precision and 72.7% recall at the task of recognizing and normalizing viral species and 76.2% precision and 34.9% recall on viral proteins. These results are achieved despite the many challenges involved with the names of viral species and, especially, proteins. This work provides a foundation that can be used to extract more complicated relations about viruses from the literature.


The purpose of this study was to analyze the temporal and spatial patterns of expression of the inducible transcription protein Fos and the Fos-related antigens (Fra) in developing rat teeth. Immunoreactivity (IR) for Fos/Fra was analyzed at postnatal age 1-35 days. A transient gradient of Fos/Fra-IR was found in all the molars in the coronal odontoblasts along sites of dentinogenesis, with numerous cells and intense staining near the pulp horn tip, and fewer cells and less staining in mid-crown and cervical pulp. This gradient was well established in first molars of the one day old rats; it was first seen in second molars in the 2 day old rats; and it was found in third molars at 10 days. The Fos/Fra-IR was transient and faded after a few days. Rat molars have a tilted orientation so that maxillary molar crown cusps point in a posterior direction and mandibular crowns in the anterior direction. In each set of molars dentinogenesis was initiated along the side of each pulp horn closest to the gingival surface, i.e. anterior for maxillary crowns and posterior for mandibular crowns; and the Fos/Fra-IR first appeared next to those asymmetric sites. As the wave of dentinogenesis spread around the crown, it was accompanied by odontoblastic expression of Fos/Fra-IR that had decreasing intensity in mid- and cervical crown. Molar root pulp lacked Fos/Fra-IR, and incisor teeth only had odontoblastic and ameloblastic immunoreactivity in the 1 day old rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


In this paper, we propose new optical cross-connect switches using ultrasonic micro motors, whose features are self-hold, precise control, and low electric power consumption. Two methods are examined for optical beam deflection. One method is moving the lens and the other is rotating the mirror by using ultrasonic micro motors. The light from the optical fiber is collimated using a self-focusing (SELFOC) lens and is deflected by moving the lens, with an ultrasonic linear motor, perpendicularly to the fiber axis. The light is then coupled to another fiber. Another proposed method is to use reflection mirrors. This structure is composed of a magnetized material attached to a micro mirror and a permanent magnet mounted on a shaft of an ultrasonic rotation motor. The reflected beam is deflected by rotating the mirror. In both methods, precise beam deflection is demonstrated, and optical switching characteristics are confirmed.


. A vector field in n-space determines a competitive (or cooperative) system of differential equations provided all of the off-diagonal terms of its Jacobian matrix are nonpositive (or nonnegative). The main results in this article are the following. A cooperative system cannot have nonconstant attracting periodic solutions. In a cooperative system whose Jacobian matrices are irreducible the forward orbit converges for almost every point having compact forward orbit closure. In a cooperative system in 2 dimensions, every solution is eventually monotone. Applications are made to generalizations of positive feedback loops.


In this contribution, a facile and universal method is successfully reported to fabricate perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with enhanced efficiency and stability. Through dissolving functional conjugated polymers in antisolvent chlorobenzene to treat the spinning CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite film, the resultant devices exhibit significantly enhanced efficiency and longevity simultaneously. In‐depth characterizations demonstrate that thin polymer layer well covers the top surface of perovskite film, resulting in certain surface passivation and morphology modification. More importantly, it is shown that through rational chemical modification, namely molecular fluorination, the air stability and photostability of the perovskite solar cells are remarkably enhanced. Considering the vast selection of conjugated polymer materials and easy functional design, promising new results are expected in further enhancement of device performance. It is believed that the findings provide exciting insights into the role of conjugated polymer in improving the current perovskite‐based solar cells.


The aim of brace treatment in patients with scoliosis during growth is (1) to stop curve progression and (2) to improve appearance/cosmesis. There is high quality evidence available supporting brace treatment. According to recent publications, the outcomes of different braces vary to a high extent. Although most of the scoliosis cases will not affect the patient's health, the impact of braces on the cosmetic outcome to date is not well determined. Standardised asymmetric braces (mainly Chêneau derivatives) have better outcomes than symmetric compression braces and may also lead to significant improvements of the deformity. For symmetric braces, no evidence exists that these could significantly change the deformity. Soft braces have no indication and the use of night-time braces should be largely restricted due to poor outcomes when compared to current standards of full-time bracing.


Atrial fibrillation is associates with elevated risk of stroke. The simplest stroke risk assessment schemes are CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc score. Aspirin and oral anticoagulants are recommended for stroke prevention in such patients.
The aim of this study was to  assess status of CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores in Iraqi atrial fibrillation patients and to report current status of stroke prevention in these patients with either warfarin or aspirin in relation to these scores.
This prospective cross-sectional study was carried out at Tikrit, Samarra, Sharqat, Baquba, and AL-Numaan hospitals from July 2017 to October 2017. CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores were manually calculated.
One hundred patients were participated, 48 were men and 52 were women. Their mean age was 62.56 ± 14.36 years. Permanent type of atrial fibrillation, palpitation, and hypertension were the most diagnosed type, symptom and comorbidity recorded in this study respectively. Average scores of CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc were 2.34 ± 1.39 and 4.1 ± 2.05, respectively. These scores were not calculated for these patients in hospital setting. Aspirin and warfarin were prescribed regardless to these scores.
The result of this study indicated that CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores were often neglected in hospitals; and aspirin is still widely used as a strategy to minimize the risk of stroke.


The actions of acetylcholine (ACh) on endothelium mainly are mediated through muscarinic receptors, which are members of the G protein–coupled receptor family. In the present study, we show that ACh induces rapid tyrosine phosphorylation and activation of Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) in rat aorta. Upon JAK2 activation, tyrosine phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1 is detected. In addition, ACh induces JAK2/IRS-1 and IRS-1/phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase associations, downstream activation of Akt/protein kinase B, endothelial cell–nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), and extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK)-1/2. The pharmacological blockade of JAK2 or PI 3-kinase reduced ACh-stimulated eNOS phosphorylation, NOS activity, and aorta relaxation. These data indicate a new signal transduction pathway for IRS-1/PI 3-kinase/Akt/eNOS activation and ERK1/2 by means of JAK2 tyrosine phosphorylation stimulated by ACh in vessels. Moreover, we demonstrate that in aorta of obese rats (high-fat diet), there is an impairment in the insulin- and ACh-stimulated IRS-1/PI 3-kinase pathway, leading to reduced activation with lower protein levels of eNOS associated with a hyperactivated ERK/mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. These results suggest that in aorta of obese rats, there not only is insulin resistance but also ACh resistance, probably mediated by a common signaling pathway that controls the activity and the protein levels of eNOS.


The RNA virus families Togaviridae and Flaviviridae were considered one family as recently as 1983. These two families contain more than 100 members, many of which are important pathogens for humans and domestic animals. Studies
on members of both families which were undertaken to increase our understanding of the functions of the virus structural proteins and of RNA sequence elements that interact with virus proteins, and of the evolution of these two families of RNA viruses, are presented in this thesis. These investigations include two on the nature and function of a virus-encoded self-protease that functions in the
processing of the structural proteins, several studies on the role of the virus structural glycoproteins in assembly of progeny virions and viral virulence, and studies on the evolution of these viruses, including the demonstration that
recombination has occurred in the Togaviridae to produce an important new pathogen, and that RNA sequence elements have been conserved during the evolution of the Flaviviridae. Alphavirus structural proteins are translated from a subgenomic messenger RNA as a polyprotein, which is cleaved to the final products by proteolytic processing. This processing was studied by comparative sequence analysis of three temperature sensitive mutants of Sindbis virus (the type alphavirus) which have a defect in processing of the polyprotein at the nonpermissive temperature. These
mutations were localized in the C-terminal region of the capsid protein. From the position of these mutations and from sequence similarities between the alphavirus
capsid proteins and animal serine proteses, we hypothesized that the capsid protein was a serine autoprotease whose active site is formed by His-141, Asp- 147 and Ser-215. To study this capsid protein protease activity in more detail, we have altered the proposed catalytic triad of the protease by site-directed mutagenesis. We have assayed the protease activity in the mutagenized capsid proteins by in vitro transcription and translation, and attempted to rescue virus from mutagenized full-length "infectious" clones. The results supported our hypothesis. Sindbis virus matures when preformed nucleocapsids acquire their envelopes by budding through virus-modified areas of the cell surface membrane. ts103 is a mutant of Sindbis virus which has a defect in this late maturation step such that it generates multicored particles, and it has provided a good system for studying structure-function relationships during viral assembly and maturation. Hybrid genomes were constructed that were formed from a full-length cDNA clone of wild type Sindbis in which restriction fragments were replaced with cDNA from ts103. Virus rescued from these constructs were used to determine
the protein responsible for the multicored phenotype and to map the mutation. tsl03 was found to have a single amino acid substitution in glycoprotein E2. The implications of this mutation for our understanding of virus assembly are
discussed. Virus surface glycoproteins are believed to be important determinants of virulence and tissue tropism. Ne urovirulence of Sindbis virus for mice has been used as an animal model system in which to explore the effects of each individual protein or of a particular domain of a given protein, or even of a single amino acid residue, on neurovirulence. By constructing hybrid genomes among various strains of Sindbis virus at the eDNA level and rescuing virus in vitro using in vitro transcription and transfection, it was possible to evaluate the effect of each
protein on neurovirulence. From these studies, we concluded that Sindbis virus glycoproteins are important determinants of neurovirulence, but not the sole determinants. The virulence phenotypes of various recombinant viruses in both
weanling mice and suckling mice are discussed, with reference to the role of particular residues in producing the neurovirulent phenotype. We have also undertaken a study of virulence in flaviviruses. The 170 vaccine strain of yellow fever virus, the type flavivirus, is one of the most reliable and stable live virus vaccines ever developed. By comparison of the nucleotide sequences of the 170 vaccine strain and its parental virulent Asibi virus we have located all of the changes which occurred during the attentuation of yellow fever to produce the 170 vaccine. This comparison led us to the conclusion that changes in the viral envelope protein play an important role in attenuation. The 25 members of the genus Alphavirus have for the most part diverged by linear descent from a common ancestor. We have now found that Western equine encephalitis virus is an exception to this. Western equine encephalitis virus is a
close relative of Sindbis virus as determined by immunological cross-reaction, but it is a New World virus that causes encephalitis in humans and horses, whereas
Sindbis virus is an Old World virus not normally associated with encephalitis. The nucleotide sequence and deduced amino acid sequence of the structural proteins of
Western equine encephalitis virus reveal that it arose by recombination between Eastern equine encephalitis virus (or a recent ancestor of it) and a virus closely related to Sindbis virus. The importance of recombination in the evolution of RNA viruses and in the generation of new potentially pathogenic virus strains, as well as the implications of the amino acid changes which have occurred in Western equine encephalitis virus (subsequent to the initial recombination event) for our understanding of the interaction between the structural proteins of alphaviruses,
are discussed. To study evolution in flaviviruses, sequences at the 5'and 3'ends of several flaviviruses have been compared. Conserved structures or sequence elements have been identified, one pair of which could result in cyclization of flavivirus RNA. The significance of these sequences is discussed.


ABSTRACT The genus Mormyrus Linnaeus, 1758 has been well studied in western Africa where five species are currently recognized. Mormyrus subundulatus Roberts, 1989 was described in 1989, and, although morphologically and genetically close to Mormyrus rume Valenciennes, 1847, is still considered by the most recent studies as a distinct species. It is endemic to the Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana River systems. It was historically recorded from only three locations but is today very likely extirpated from one of them and threatened in the remaining two. It is categorized as "Vulnerable B1ab(iii)" by the IUCN Red List (Dankwa 2020). Although a few papers describe precisely the morphology and electric signal of the species, they are based on a very limited number of samples. In this paper, we present new data on the morphological characteristics of the species (extending the dorsal fin rays count range, which is the main morphometric criterium to distinguish M. subundulatus and M. rume) based on Museum samples and samples collected recently a few kilometers away from the type locality. Determination of the newly collected material was confirmed by the analysis of a fragment of the Cytochrome b gene, and we produced the first sequence fragment of the cytochrome oxydase subunit 1 (COI) for this species.


: The propose of these examination was studied antiradiation effect of lactoferrin (LF). It was determined, that subcutaneous injection LF (65 or 300 mkg/kg) guinea-pigs irradiated after 1-14 days after of total gamma-irradiation (2.5 Gr) had therapeutically effect attached to the bone marrow form of acute radiation disease (ARD). This effect was explained in increase of survive the animals with 53.8% to 92.8% and stimulation erythropoiesis, judge by number of reticulocytes and increase neutrophiles (12 days ARD) and lymphocytes (12 and 16 days ARD) by comparison with control animals. LF had no effect attached to intestinal form of acute radiation disease by mice. The injection of LF before total irradiation rats of electrons (energy 25 MeV) in doses 255 Gr decreased expression of some symptom of cerebral form of acute radiation disease: prolong time of beginning convulsive period with 5.7 hours to 14.1 hours and duration of life with 7.7 hours to 15.3 hours. LF had antioxidative activity.


Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is overexpressed in breast cancer and is associated with poor clinical outcomes. In addition, HER2 expression has been reported in other cancers, such as gastric, colorectal, lung, and pancreatic cancers. An anti-HER2 humanized antibody, trastuzumab, leads to significant survival benefits in patients with HER2-overexpressing breast cancers and gastric cancers. Herein, we established a novel anti-HER2 monoclonal antibody (mAb), H2Mab-119 (IgG1, kappa), and characterized its efficacy against pancreatic cancers using flow cytometry, Western blot, and immunohistochemical analyses. H2Mab-119 reacted with pancreatic cancer cell lines, such as KLM-1, Capan-2, and MIA PaCa-2, but did not react with PANC-1 in flow cytometry analysis. Western blot analysis also revealed a moderate signal for KLM-1 and a weak signal for MIA PaCa-2, although H2Mab-119 reacted strongly with LN229/HER2 cells. Finally, immunohistochemical analyses with H2Mab-119 revealed sensitive and spec...


The ATLAS detector is undergoing intense commissioning effort with cosmic rays preparing for the first LHC collisions late 2009. Combined runs with all of the ATLAS subsystems are being taken in order to evaluate the detector performance. This is an unique opportunity also for the trigger system to be studied with different detector operation modes, such as different event rates and detector configuration. The ATLAS trigger starts with a hardware based system which tries to identify detector regions where interesting physics objects may be found (eg: large transverse energy depositions in the calorimeter system). An accepted event will be further processed by more complex software algorithms at the second level where detailed features are extracted (full detector granularity data for small portions of the detector is available). Events accepted at this level will be further processed at the so-called event filter level. Full detector data at full granularity is available for offline-like processing with complete calibration to achieve the final decision. This year we could extend our experience by including more algorithms at the second level and event filter calorimeter trigger. Clustering algorithms for electrons, photons, taus, jets and missing transverse energy are being commissioned during this combined run period. We report the latest results for such algorithms. Issues such as hot calorimeter regions identification, processing time for the algorithms, data access (specially at the second level) are being evaluated. Intense usage of online and quasi-online (during offline reconstruction of runs) monitoring helps to trace and fix problems.


Introductions: The purpose of this study was to find out the effectiveness of educational intervention in improving knowledge and practice of universal precautions among nurses.Methods: This was a cross sectional observational study conducted at Patan Hospital in August 2008. Fifty nurses with minimum one year of experience were included. Twelve, out of 50 samples were selected by drawing lot for the study of practice of universal precautions. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to measure the knowledge and practice of universal precautions.Results: The findings revealed that there was significant difference in thepre and post-intervention test mean knowledge. The grand mean score ofknowledge and practice of universal precautions as a whole were 31.86 and 44.55 with standard deviations of 10.46 and 3.90; and 68.61 and 87.70 with standard deviations of 3.70 and 2.55 in the pre and post intervention tests respectively.Conclusions: Educational intervention had significant role in increasingknowledge and practice of universal precautions among nurses.Keywords: blood-borne infections, body fluids, knowledge and practice, needlestick injury, universal precautions


46 young adult men and women (mean age 19.7) were evaluated with a clinical test of binocular accommodative facility utilizing +1.00/-1.00 and +2.00/2.00 lenses. All of the subjects passed a clinical screening of binocular functioning. There were no significant differences between men and women in the number of cycles completed with either lens power and, no differences were found when the responses to both lens pairs were compared. The results are discussed as well as the clinical application of accommodative facility testing.


Here we report the remarkable anatomy of the eye of the Eastern Pale Clouded yellow butterfly, Colias erate. An ommatidium of C. erate bears nine photoreceptors, R1–9, which together form a tiered and fused rhabdom. The distal tier of the rhabdom consists of the rhabdomeral microvilli of R1–4 photoreceptors, R5–8 photoreceptors contribute the proximal tier, and the R9 photoreceptor adds a few microvilli at the base. In transverse sections, four spots of red pigment surrounding the rhabdom are evident in the ventral region of the eye. The red pigment acts as a strong red filter for the proximal photoreceptors. The arrangement of the pigment spots distinguishes the ommatidia into three types: trapezoidal (type I), square (type II) and rectangular (type III). In all types of ommatidia, the distal and the proximal tiers of the rhabdom are divided by a strong constriction, clearly to enhance the filtering effect of the red pigment. The ommatidial heterogeneity can also be observed by optical measurements. The eye shine, resulting from tapetal reflections, peaks in type I ommatidia at 660 nm, and in type II and III ommatidia at 730 nm. The far-red peaking eye shine indicates that C. erate has far-red-sensitive photoreceptors. Type I ommatidia fluoresce under violet excitation, implying the presence of a violet-absorbing pigment that acts as a short-wavelength filter.


This paper presents a method for coordinated control of hybrid four-wheel drive (4WD) vehicles (H4Vs), which consists of a front internal combustion engine and independent motor-driven rear wheels. H4Vs are equipped with electronic stability control (ESC), active front steering (AFS), and 4WD. For maneuverability and lateral stability, a yaw moment controller is designed. After generating a control yaw moment with a direct yaw moment control, it is distributed with ESC, AFS, and 4WD. Several actuator configurations of ESC, AFS, and 4WD are presented in the framework of the weighted pseudo-inverse based control allocation. Simulation-based tuning is proposed to improve the performance of the yaw moment distribution. Simulations show that the proposed method is effective for the coordinated control of H4Vs for enhanced maneuverability and lateral stability.


2 ABSTRACT: In today's world the high data speed mobile users are increasing day by day in 4G-LTE networks, as number of mobile user increases we need to serve all the mobile users with the same Quality of Service (QoS) and data rate in all region of the cell coverage area. In this project, the Variable Step Size Griffiths (VSSG) Algorithm is implemented which is responsible for steering the radiation pattern of the eNodeB with Multiple Input Multiple output (MIMO)antenna's from -90 degree to +90 degree. After steering the main beam, the detection is performed using MUSIC algorithm which detects the UE's located at cell boundaries during handover to provide better signal strength to meet the standards QoS of 4G-LTE. The radiation pattern is analysed for the various cases like, Less Antenna Elements & Single Jammer, Less Antenna Elements and Multiple Jammers, More Antenna Elements and Single Jammer and finally More Antenna Elements and Multiple Jammers.VSSG will have the lowest Mean square error convergence as compared to Leaky Least Mean Square Algorithm (LLMS), and Griffiths Algorithm. Finally the Capacity of Single input single output (SISO) and Multiple Input Multiple output (MIMO) are also compared and proved that the 4G-LTE (using MIMO-VSSG) has the better capacity as compared to other algorithms.


Coal Seam Gas (CSG) is a significant resource; it makes up 90% of the gas production in Queensland, Australia, most of it from the Surat Basin Walloon Coal Measures, (WCM). However, coal connectivity and distribution are poorly understood resulting in production and modelling challenges. Simplistic, homogeneous models cannot adequately explain volumes or flow rates of gas and water. Initially, the focus of the industry was on optimizing drilling, often without the aid of seismic data, relying on correlations based on wireline logs and cores alone. Those correlations were often based on lithology, and connected sand with sand and coal with coal. Those models seem to overestimate flow between wells and volumes of hydrocarbons or water (Cardwell, 2018). Here, log interpretation is integrated with 3D seismic using a sequence stratigraphic framework. Special attention is placed on the architecture of the WCM revealed by seismic. Seismic mapping of individual coal seams in the Springbok Sandstone or the WCM is difficult on a field scale. Most coals are below seismic resolution, yet have a strong influence on seismic amplitudes. Four methods of spectral decomposition are compared and evaluated on how well they predict known geology at many well locations throughout the 3D seismic survey. Sequence stratigraphy applied to core and log interpretation integrated with seismic produces an improved view of coal distribution and geometries. Coals are mostly thin and discontinuous and segregated by channels cutting through them that appear to be meandering through flood plains. Coal forms along channels and sands are likely to be present in point bars. Therefore, sands or coals identified in wireline logs are not likely to be connected to a large sand sheet, but are rather individual channels or sand bodies likely to be hydraulically isolated. In the next phase, it will be investigated how results of spectral decomposition can be used inform geostatistical algorithms for modelling to produce more representative static geological models.


With increasing efficiency standards and higher energy costs, the demand for reversible air-conditioning/heat pump systems is increasing throughout the stationary market. The heat exchangers in such reversible systems must perform reliably as both evaporator and condenser. The outdoor coil, specifically, is subject to very large changes in both operational pressures and temperatures. With this increase in demand and the gradual shift of the industry to aluminum microchannel coils, comes a need to better understand and quantify the reliability of the heat exchangers. This paper presents the development of an accelerated thermal cycling test method using refrigerant at typical pressures and temperatures to demonstrate the reliability of said heat exchangers. This method employs a technique of switching the heat exchanger between condensing and evaporation modes rapidly while monitoring strain at various locations of concern to quantify any shift in strain caused by fatigue.


This paper aimed to study the drug resistance patterns and the reliability of antibiogram and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns in epidemiological study of uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) isolated from the children with community acquired urinary tract infection (UTI). Totally ninety E. coli strains were isolated from urine samples of children with community acquired UTI and tested for susceptibility to fourteen different antibiotics, using disc diffusion method. To study the molecular epidemiology of these strains, their genomic patterns were determined using PFGE. Forty five patterns of resistance have been recognized for the E. coli strains. High prevalence of resistance to ampicillin (80.2%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (76%), and tetracycline (70.8%) was seen among the UPEC isolates. All the isolates were 100% sensitive to imipenem. In PFGE, sixty five patterns from the genome of E. coli strains were observed. Based on drawn dendrogram the sample patterns were divided into two groups. All the samples except two have different clonalities. In conclusions it seems that imipenem, amikacin and nitrofurantoin can serve as drug of choice for the treatment of UTI caused by E. coli, respectively. With regard to high differentiation power of PFGE method in comparison with antibiogram and according to the obtained patterns and high diversity of these profiles, no epidemic UPEC was determined in the studied population.


This article provides theoretical understanding for a development project that is reported in a separately published item. We discuss the implications of authenticity in music pedagogy, especially as regards popular music in general music education. First we problematize authenticity in music classroom through three themes: (1) how music sounds, (2) "glocal" music cultures, and (3) the role of mediation in framing the student's freedom of choice. After that we argue that the authenticity gap between the classroom and the "real-world" can be narrowed if classroom is understood as specific place for cultural production, in which the students can experiment on the use of technical tools guided by a variety of culturally specific psychological tools to construct their identity. Finally we vision what this could mean from teacher's perspective. Our article suggests that authenticity can be seen as a function of musical productivity that is meaningful both from the standpoint of the culture and from the standpoint of the individual learner.


The native European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) has declined throughout its range, due to over-exploitation, a situation mirrored in oyster stocks globally. There are three remaining oyster fisheries in England (Fal, Solent, and Thames Estuary). The Fal oyster fishery though employs traditional methods, using hand-hauled dredges from rowing punts or under sail and is home to the last commercial sailing fleet in Europe. Against a backdrop of temporary closures to protect dwindling stocks in the Solent and Thames Estuary, this study considers whether the longevity of the Fal oyster fishery is linked to the traditional methods that have been employed for centuries. Using GPS tracking in combination with on board observers, we demonstrate that dredging under sail is inefficient compared to more modern mechanically powered methods that are utilised elsewhere. A review of historical landings suggests that both overall landings and fishing effort have declined. The fishery appears to have gone through cycles of over-exploitation and one closure due to disease. However, the key to the long-term survival of the Fal oyster fishery may be linked to the traditional method of dredging. It is estimated that a switch from traditional methods to modern techniques would result in a greater than 9 fold increase in effort per season. The data presented highlight this unique fishery as a counterfactual to the increases in power seen in commercial fisheries over the last century and serve as a reference point for future studies.


Nicholas Boles, newly elected MP for Grantham and Stamford, is the founder and former director of the influential right-of-centre think tank, Policy Exchange. More importantly, this close friend of David Cameron and leading Conservative moderniser drew up the Tories' plans for government, making him more powerful than most members of the former Shadow Cabinet. In Which Way's Up, this leading political thinker looks at how David Cameron, at the head of a modern, coalition government, can transform Britain. This book is a wide-ranging examination of the problems (and solutions) facing Britain, from one of the new government's preeminent movers and shakers. It will also be a unique chronicle of the first six months of this historic new government.


Objective: Oral contraceptives are the second-most widely used contraceptives in Indonesia; however, a high percentage rate of withdrawal is seen owing to adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Only a small proportion of users have been provided information about other oral contraceptives such as newer generation progestin as an alternative option to minimize ADR. This study aimed to compare the prevalence of ADR between combined oral contraceptives containing levonorgestrel (LNG) (second generation) and desogestrel (DSG) (third generation), which was expected to have less side effects. Methods: The study has a cross-sectional comparative design with random sampling from users in six villages in Depok City, Indonesia. Data were collected through interviews. The sample includes 60 users of LNG and 40 users of DSG. Results: ADR complaints include intermenstrual bleeding (16.7% vs. 5%), headache (16.7% vs. 5%), nausea/vomiting (25% vs. 0%), breast tenderness (13.3% vs. 0%), impaired sexual intercourse (23.3% vs. 7.5%), weight gain (35% vs. 22.5%), acne (3.3% vs. 7.5%), and face spots/chloasma (28.3% vs. 5%). The LNG group showed significantly higher impaired sexual intercourse (odds ratio (OR): 3.75, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.003-14.050, p=0.039) and chloasma (OR 7.51, 95% CI: 1.629-34.647, p=0.004). Conclusion: Users' low knowledge of ADR and how to treat it could be a reason for drug withdrawal. Pharmacies must make efforts to provide counseling in this regard.


The structure of a stable O/W cream is characterized by a more or less pronounced mixed crystal bilayer.[1] The addition of co-emulsifiers in order to achieve a soft formulation often leads to a mixed crystal bilayer network of high viscosity and even phase separation. In order to ovoid this components of different chemical identities are used which often are not inert or harmless if they are absorbed. For this reason it seems to be interesting to use only components from one chemical family, e.g. to use only glycerides and their derivatives because in the case of absorption they are metabolized. The disadvantages of glyceride creams are, however, their low viscosity. The aim of this investigation was to find the optimum amount of co-emulsifier as consistency excipient for the basic formulation of an O/W glyceride cream. This was achieved by using differential scanning calorimetry; thermogravimetry, oscillation rheology and various stress tests. The amount of co-emulsifier used should not be too high, as it would crystallize increasingly during storage which gives the preparation an optical inhomogenity and a lack in softness which is needed for a suitable cosmetic acceptance. A slightly higher concentration than is necessary for the mixed emulsifier system can be advantageous, as the formation of a separate crystalline lipophilic network in the preparation increases its viscosity which will lead to a higher physico-chemical stability of the formulation. These results were obtained with the co-emulsifiers glyceryl monostearate (Imwitor® 900), cetylstearyl alcohol (Lanette® O), and PEG-20-glycerolstearate (Tagat® S2) as O/W emulsifier. As oil phase a mixture of Miglyol® 812 (caprylic/capric triglyceride) and Avocado oil was used.


This paper analyzes the effect of public spending on the probability of municipal reelection of
Spanish local governments during the 2000�2007 period, using Bayesian techniques. The results
indicate that, in general, increases in local government spending positively impact on the chances of
reelection of local governments. Moreover, the capital expenditure in the early years of the electoral
cycle affects positively to the reelection probability and the electorate rewards increases in current
expenditures in the period before elections. The use of Bayesian techniques is particularly interesting,
since results are not boiled down to a summary effect such as the average; on the contrary, it shows
exactly how a given covariate affects the probability of being reelected.


Building energy management may simultaneously integrate multiple energy areas and sources of information. The coordination of synergies allow better-informed decisions, such as performing forecasts and adjustments of energy production and storage, while adapting electrical loads to off-peak times, when energy rates are lower. This work targets the improvement and optimization of energy management operations in buildings and large complexes, by introducing a conceptual model for supporting real-time advanced reasoning and inference towards efficient energy management.


In order to better understand human preimplantation development we applied massively parallel RNA sequencing on 337 single cells from oocytes up to 8-cell embryo blastomeres. Surprisingly, already before zygote pronuclear fusion we observed drastic changes in the transcriptome compared to the unfertilized egg: 1,804 gene transcripts and 32 repeat elements become more abundant, among these the double-homeobox gene DUX4. Several genes previously identified as DUX4 targets, such as CCNA1, KHDC1L and ZSCAN4, as well as several members of the RFPLs, TRIMS and PRAMEFs1 were accumulated in 4-cell stage blastomeres, suggesting DUX4 as an early regulator. In the 8-cell stage, we observed two distinct cell types – a transcript-poor cell type, and a transcript-rich cell type with many Alu repeats and accumulated markers for pluripotency and stemness, telomere elongation and growth. In summary, this unprecedented detailed view of the first three days of human embryonic development reveals more complex changes in the transcriptome than what was previously known.


Ion channels selective for chloride ions are present in all biological membranes, where they regulate the cell volume or membrane potential. Various chloride channels from mitochondrial membranes have been described in recent years. The aim of our study was to characterize the effect of stilbene derivatives on single-chloride channel activity in the inner mitochondrial membrane. The measurements were performed after the reconstitution into a planar lipid bilayer of the inner mitochondrial membranes from rat skeletal muscle (SMM), rat brain (BM) and heart (HM) mitochondria. After incorporation in a symmetric 450/450 mM KCl solution (cis/trans), the chloride channels were recorded with a mean conductance of 155 ± 5 pS (rat skeletal muscle) and 120 ± 16 pS (rat brain). The conductances of the chloride channels from the rat heart mitochondria in 250/50 mM KCl (cis/trans) gradient solutions were within the 70–130 pS range. The chloride channels were inhibited by these two stilbene derivatives: 4,4′-diisothiocyanostilbene-2,2′-disulfonic acid (DIDS) and 4-acetamido-4′-isothiocyanostilbene-2,2′-disulfonic acid (SITS). The skeletal muscle mitochondrial chloride channel was blocked after the addition of 1 mM DIDS or SITS, whereas the brain mitochondrial channel was blocked by 300 μM DIDS or SITS. The chloride channel from the rat heart mitochondria was inhibited by 50–100 μM DIDS. The inhibitory effect of DIDS was irreversible. Our results confirm the presence of chloride channels sensitive to stilbene derivatives in the inner mitochondrial membrane from rat skeletal muscle, brain and heart cells.


Libraries abound with books on silent film history and numerous biographies on the legendary stars, but what about the thousands and thousands of actors who never obtained legendary status? Film enthusiasts with easy access to silent films today have become interested in those long ago players who supported the star. This necrology is devoted solely to the actors of the Silent Screen. The book includes entries for some 7,500 deceased actors as well as directors, producers, writers, politicians, and sports figures who appeared in silent films. Included are 50 biographical essays on former stars, leading players and comedians who until now have been primarily footnotes in film history. The essays relate the early demise of promising players, how some lived lives as tragic as any they portrayed on the screen and how some lived long lives on the fringes of past glory, totally forgotten. Invaluable to film researchers and enthusiasts who want to know what happened to the actors of the silent screen who made shadows an art form.


Observations which indicated a relation between ribonucleic acid (RNA) and embryonic induction were first reported by Brachet,' but most recent evidence has been inconclusive.2 It has been demonstrated, however, that the "organizer" or other embryonic tissue of urodeles, when explanted into hanging drops of a balanced salt solution, releases diffusible substances capable of initiating differentiation of the young gastrula ectoderm. Analysis of the medium withdrawn from such cultures suggested that the active component may be RNA.4 Studies with RNA isolated from mammalian organs have produced evidence of its capacity to cause differentiation and that the RNA may possess inductive specificity.5 When presumptive ectoderm cells were cultured in salt solution containing an appropriate concentration of RNA, freshly isolated from various sources, variations in the pattern of differentiation resulted. For example, some cultures treated with RNA from calf kidney had the appearance of tubule-like condensations. Liver RNA induced the formation of a morphological type not observed previously in any series employing the diffusible substances mentioned above, or kidney RNA. In the extension of these experiments, cultures with specific patterns were implanted into the upper flank of the posterior trunk of advanced embryos (stage 30-34). Later it was found that some implants had differentiated into structures which resembled embryologically the tissue source of the RNA.67 In this communication evidence is presented which suggests that extracts obtained from calf thvmus induced specific differentiation and that the active component of the extracts is RNA.


ABSTRACT The Housing First model has been shown to be a highly effective approach to achieving permanent housing for chronically homeless individuals with serious mental illness and chemical dependency. There are numerous components of the model that lend themselves toward achieving similar goals for homeless domestic violence (DV) survivors and their children. A leading cause of homelessness for women, many of whom are mothers, is DV. This article describes the commonalities between the Housing First model and the tenets of DV victim advocacy work and explores how Housing First can be adapted to effectively achieve safe and stable housing for DV survivors and their children. Preliminary evidence for the adapted model – termed Domestic Violence Housing First – is provided, and policy implications are discussed.


Millennial consumers are increasingly becoming important actors in business that account for sufficient purchasing power. However, Millennials are infamously narcissistic and their views of ethics are more relaxed than previous generations (i.e., Baby Boomers, Generation X). Millennials remain poorly understood in general, especially in the context of developing countries. Hence, the purpose of this study was to profile this generation by segmenting Millennials in Indonesia and investigating differences between these segments on their ethical beliefs and Machiavellianism, an important personality characteristic. This study used a convenience sample from a university in Indonesia (N = 540). The TwoStep cluster analysis produced three segments, namely, "The Religious Millennials", "The Lukewarm Religious Millennials" and "The Least Religious Millennials". Consumers who are highly religious are less likely to engage in various unethical behaviours. Interestingly, no significant differences were found between The Lukewarm Millennials and The Least Religious Millennials on their ethical beliefs. This research makes several research contributions. First, this study extended the Hunt–Vitell theory of ethics, where an individual (i.e., Millennials) confronts a problem perceived as having ethical content. Second, the study examined consumer ethics in the context of developing countries where religion plays a significant role in people's daily life. Third, through understanding different segments, the results assist educators, social marketers and public policy makers in creating an effective campaign to reduce unethical behaviour among Millennials.


Beyond the beautiful game, place is another factor in terms of importance for mix marketing. In football industry place is mainly related to the stadium where the football is produced and consumed from the fans of clubs. For football marketers the atmosphere of the stadium that must prevail to make the fans experience unique, remains one of the most important challenges every week of the seasons. Fans around the world tend to have special experiences in the stadiums, not only for the conditions and services but also mainly for the equipment with the latest technology around it. In Albania, poor quality stadiums and their hostile environment is still an obstacle to the development of football. The main purpose of this study is to understand how the place marketing factor affects football fans in Albanian championship. Using a national representative sample of football fans (N=800), we use exploratory factor analysis to analyze place marketing factor, thus exploring dimensions that define football consumption behavior. The analysis results in four factors, which display nuances of the place marketing factor in the football consumption of Albanian fans. Further, ANOVA is used to examine differences between groups.


Welcome to the ACT Business LibGuide! Here you will find Business-related information and resources for your class assignments and projects.


Rapid urbanization has led to the emergence of slums in many developing and industrialized nations. It degrades the quality of life and burdens the urban amenities resulting in uneven distribution of slums. The majority of people in the developing world live in squatter settlements and these random gatherings disrupt the economic and social developmental plans of the concerned country. No suitable planning framework has been created for replicability on a considerable scale, despite the fact that slum upgrading is acquiring worldwide importance as a political issue. In recent years Jammu City has witnessed high population growth rates resulting in an uneven provision of urban amenities and a surge in slum areas. This paper focuses on a method-based approach using Management Information System (MIS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) for upgrading slums and recommends a planning outline using the approach formulated by the Government of India under the scheme named "Rajiv Awas Yojna" (RAY). The aim of this study is to assess the status of slums, propose redevelopment plans, and highlight the roles of different planning agencies to accomplish the redevelopment goals. The study concludes by postulating several recommendations for upgrading slums and formulating a framework that can be used in other similar areas for development.


The "readiness potential" is an event-related potential that shows increasing negativity at vertex and motor strip scalp recording sites prior to voluntary, unilateral limb movements. Though speech involves movement on both sides of the midline, recent recordings of prespeech potentials suggest a pattern of bilateral activation that lateralizes to the dominant hemisphere just prior to the onset of articulatory movement. To determine whether this pattern of dominant hemisphere activation is present prior to a stereotyped, nonspeech movement of the mouth, the averaged potentials preceding a lip protrusion task were recorded at the cranial vertex and over the right and left motor cortex. Results were compared to potentials preceding a right finger extension task performed by the same subjects. Both the finger and the lip movements were initially preceded by slow negative potentials. Prior to the finger extension task, the negative amplitude became greatest over the left motor cortex, contralateral to the side of movement. Prior to the lip protrusion task, the amplitude of the potential remained even over the right and left motor cortices. The results suggest that, for this nonspeech movement of a midline structure, bilateral cortical control takes place. Control of lip movement is apparently not necessarily a dominant hemisphere function, though dominance may become part of the motor control strategy for more complex movements such as those used during speech.


The role and importance of military musicians changed and intensified in the late eighteenth century through two important processes. The first was the culture of display that took root in both the home-based army and units in the colonies. The second was the result of successive militia acts which effectively ensured that military units with bands would be systematically placed in every corner of the British Isles. It became evident that music as a component of military display served an important diplomatic purpose. Music performed in public spaces was heard by a population deeply sceptical of the army and with an essentially local sense of identity. The experience of the sight and sound of military music raised entirely new perceptions of nation and of the state as a benign power. Two important and related themes emerge here. The first is the historical process that led, almost accidentally, to a realization that music as part of military display had potential to influence populations across the country and in the colonies. The second, more challenging, theme concerns the nature of the evidence for this idea and how it is to be treated. It is an idea that is totally convincing if the experience of hearing and seeing military spectacle by the mass of the people can be shown to have had impact. What is the evidence of listening to music by those people at whom it was targeted, how robust is it and what can be made of it?


Perfluorocarbon nanoparticles consisting essentially of liquid perfluoro-octyl bromide (PFOB) core surrounded by a lipid monolayer can serve as highly specific site-targeted contrast and therapeutic agents after binding to cellular biomarkers. Based on previous findings that ultrasound applied at 2 MHz and 1.9 mechanical index (MI) for a 5-min duration dramatically enhances the cellular interaction of targeted PFOB nanoparticles with melanoma cells in vitro without inducing apoptosis or other harmful effects to cells that are targeted, we sought to define mechanisms of interaction and the safety profile of ultrasound used in conjunction with liquid perfluorocarbon nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery, as compared with conventional microbubble ultrasound contrast agents under identical insonification conditions. Cell-culture inserts were used to grow a confluent monolayer of human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Definity in conjunction with continuous wave ultrasound (2.25 MHz for 1 and 5 min) increased the permeability of monolayer by four to six times above the normal, decreased transendothelial electrical resistance (a sign of reduced membrane integrity), and decreased cell viability by /spl sim/50%. Histological evaluation demonstrated extensive disruptions of cell monolayers. Nanoparticles (both nontargeted and targeted) elicited no changes in these different measures under similar insonification conditions and did not disrupt cell monolayers. We hypothesize that ultrasound facilitates drug transport from the perfluorocarbon nanoparticles not by cavitation-induced effects on cell membrane but rather by direct interaction with the nanoparticles that stimulate lipid exchange and drug delivery.


Using the Maedi-Visna virus strain WLC1 (Weybridge) and different cell lines of sheep plexus chorioideus we were able to establish and improve a production procedure of MV-antigen for use in immunodiffusion assay. Our attention was focused mainly on the efficient virus multiplication in cell cultures and on standardisation of the procedure to find a method keeping the antigen loss as low as possible. Investigations with our antigen in 39 farms of 5 of the former districts in East Germany revealed a seropositive reagent rate between 0 and more than 60%, underlining the need for a complex diagnostic and eradication programme.


Backgrounds and Objectives: Assessing the educational services provided for students and determining the gap between the current status and the expected status can pave the way for developing programs to promote the quality of educational services. This study was performed aiming at determining the quality of educational services in Shahroud University of Medical Sciences in 2010. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 274 students of Shahroud University of Medical Sciences were selected by random sampling method. The data were collected using SERVQUAL standard questionnaire. The 27-question questionnaire included two sections of demographic data and five-dimension educational services quality, which was completed as self-administered. The data were analyzed through independent samples t-test, paired samples t-test, and one-way ANOVA. Results: There were quality gaps in all dimensions of educational services quality and the statements to assess them. The biggest quality gap was in the responsiveness dimension (-1.45), and the lowest gap was in the reliability dimension (-1.14). The mean gap scores in female students were higher than male students in all five dimensions of educational services quality, and this difference were statistically significant (p<0.001). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the students' expectations are not fulfilled in all service dimensions. Therefore, responsiveness, customer-orientation, improvement of work processes and physical spaces, and paying attention to other dimensions could play a key role in promoting the quality of educational services.


What is it like to make television comedy? How do writers get their ideas made, and how do commissioners and producers decide what to make? How do members of the comedy industry work with large broadcasters and production companies, and what does it mean to be creative – and stay creative? Drawing on interviews with many key writers such as Sam Bain, Paul Doolan, Graham Linehan, David Mitchell, Simon Nye and Sue Teddern, producers including Ash Atalla, Lisa Clark, Michelle Farr, Ali McPhail, Jon Plowman and Adam Tandy, and commissioners, the BBC's Shane Allen, Channel 4's Nerys Evans and Sky's Lucy Lumsden, Creativity in the British Television Comedy Industry explores the creative processes that lead to successful programme-making. With detailed discussion of the processes by which series such as People Just Do Nothing and After Hours came to our screens, this book examines how members of the comedy industry maintain careers, manage failure, develop their craft, and stay creative.  Creativity in the British Television Comedy Industry is essential reading for students and researchers with an interest in comedy studies, television production, and the creative/media industries.


Background and purpose: Recently, natural antimicrobials attracted a lot of attention due to increasing preference of consumers for organic products which are free of chemical additives. The aim of this study was to investigate the antibacterial activity of cinnamaldehyde in combination with acetic and lactic acids against L.monocytogenes. Materials and methods: The antibacterial effects of cinnamaldehyde, acetic and lactic acids were determined using minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). Fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) was also used to evaluate the combined antibacterial activity. Results: Based on our results, MIC values for cinnamaldehyde, acetic acid and lactic acid were 0.312, 2.5 and 5 μl/ml, respectively. FIC results showed that cinnamaldehyde combination with the organic acids had no interaction effects (1.0<FIC<4.0). Conclusion: Cinnamaldehyde, acetic and lactic acids were found effective in inhibiting the growth of L. monocytogenes. Meanwhile, organic acids can reduce the required amount of cinnamaldehyde.


Recently, compressive sensing has been studied in wireless sensor networks, which allows an aggregator to recover the desired sparse signal with fewer active sensor nodes. In this paper, we consider heterogeneous sensing environments, where the sensing quality varies due to the differences in the physical environment of each sensor node. We consider a Bayesian compressive sensing approach and propose two efficient algorithms that decrease the number of active sensor nodes while maintaining high performance. Both the selection algorithms aim to reduce the estimation error by minimizing the determinant of the error covariance matrix, which is proportional to the volume of the confidence ellipsoid. The first algorithm is the centralized greedy selection algorithm, which can achieve a nearly optimal solution in terms of the minimum confidence ellipsoid. It can also achieve almost the same level of performance as the combinatorial selection method, but has a lower complexity and outperforms the conventional convex relaxation method. The second algorithm is the decentralized selection algorithm, which is derived by approximating the determinant of the error covariance matrix. Unlike the centralized greedy algorithm, it can be done by each sensor node without heavy overhead or high complexity. Furthermore, we prove that the decentralized selection algorithm becomes equivalent to the centralized greedy algorithm as the number of sensor nodes increases. Our simulation results show that the centralized greedy selection algorithm provides the best performance while the decentralized algorithm performs nearly as well as the centralized algorithm as the number of sensor nodes increases.


There is a growing literature offering (competing) theories of particular doctrinal areas – theories of contract law, tort law, property law, criminal law, restitution law, etc. As theories of doctrinal areas – and, not limited in title or description to the doctrinal area of a particular jurisdiction or time period – they purport to describe, explain, or (and) justify all past, present, and possible versions of that doctrinal area. The audacious ambition of such claims has done little to slow the supply of these theories, though it may explain why so few among these projects pause to consider explicitly their methodology and grounds. In this paper, I explore what may justify these sorts of theories, and what problems they need to overcome. I use examples primarily from contract law, as it is the area I know best, but I suspect that the promise and problems of general theories of other areas of law will be similar. Part I examines what is meant by general and universal theories. Part II considers the practice of rational reconstruction, a practice that is both often at the core of what theorists of doctrinal areas do, and central to how they justify their project. Part III reflects more generally on the factors that might cause caution about the project of general theory. Part IV comes from the other direction, looking at the considerations that motivate or ground general theories. And Part V adds a few comments on prescriptive theories.


Ischemic stroke is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialized nations. We tested the effect of postischemic treatment of cyclo‐RGDfV (cRGDfV), a selective inhibitor of integrin αvβ3, in the middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model of ischemic stroke in rats. Rats were randomly divided into three groups: sham operation (n = 13), MCAO with no treatment (n = 18), and MCAO with cRGDfV treatment (n = 28). Focal ischemia was induced with the suture occlusion method for 2 hr, and treatment was given 1 hr after reperfusion (3 hr after ischemia). All animals were sacrificed 24 hr after reperfusion. Assessment included neurological scores, infarction volumes, brain water content, Evans blue exudation, IgG exudation, histology, immunohistochemistry, and Western blotting. Treatment with cRGDfV ameliorated neurological deficits, reduced brain edema, and reduced exudation of Evans blue dye and IgG, but failed to reduce infarction volumes. Western blotting showed a reduction in phosphorylation of one subset of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors in the cRGDfV treatment group. Western blotting also demonstrated a significant reduction of fibrinogen in the cRGDfV treatment group. We conclude that poststroke treatment with cRGDfV reduces blood–brain barrier breakdown in focal ischemia, possibly through inhibition of VEGF‐mediated vascular breakdown. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


BACKGROUND Clinical Learning through Extended Immersion in Medical Simulation (CLEIMS) is a new methodology for medical student learning, first reported at last year's conference. It involves students working in teams of 4-5 through the clinical progress of one or more patients over a week, utilising a range of simulation methodologies to enhance learning in associated workshops and seminars. A randomised educational trial comparing the methodology to seminars and workshops alone began in 2010. PURPOSE To report primary endpoint outcomes of the trial. METHODS 80 medical students volunteered to participate, of whom 44 were randomised to the intervention arm and 36 to the control arm. Participants undertook one week of the program in Year 3 in 2010 and will undertake a second week, focusing on the care of an Indigenous family, in Year 4 in 2011. They completed study-specific assessment at the end of each rotation as well as summative assessment at the end of each year. RESULTS No significant difference was seen between the study arms in multiple choice and script concordance questions on workshop content but intervention arm participants scored better in a prescribing exercise (mean score 67.9 vs 63.1, P= 0.02) and a resuscitation practical test (mean time-to-defibrillation 87 seconds vs 130 seconds, P=0.007) at the end of the first CLEIMS week. There were no significant between-arm differences in summative assessment marks, which avoided the stopping rule allowing the trial to continue into the second year. DISCUSSION Significant between-arm differences were seen in some primary endpoints but no significant differences in summative marks have been seen so far. Final primary endpoint outcomes will be presented at the conference. CONCLUSIONS The CLEIMS methodology appears to enhance some aspects of student learning.


: During special selection of self--functions of states methods of the kinetic scheme theory can be extrapolated on some probability processes. General solutions can be obtained with these methods, for the problem of casual wanderings in manymeric lattices for example. The general result of the work--distribution of average lifetime of a population in states is in the general case determined only by the topology of the scheme and is independent of the form of self-functions of states.


We use observations of quiet Sun (QS) regions in the Hα 6563 A, CaII 8542 A, and FeI 6302 A lines. We observe brightenings in the wings of the Hα and CaII combined with observations of the interacting magnetic concentrations observed in the Stokes signals of Fe I. These brightenings are similar to Ellerman bombs (EBs), i.e. impulsive bursts in the wings of the Balmer lines that leave the line cores unaffected. Such enhancements suggest that these events have similar formation mechanisms to the classical EBs found in active regions, with the reduced intensity enhancements found in the QS regions due to a weaker feeding magnetic flux. The observations also show that the quiet Sun Ellerman bombs are formed at a higher height in the upper photosphere than the photospheric continuum level. Using simulations, we investigate the formation mechanism associated with the events and suggest that these events are driven by the interaction of magnetic field lines in the upper photospheric regions. The results of the simulation are in agreement with observations when comparing the light curves, and in most cases, we found that the peak in the CaII 8542 A wing occurred before the peak in Hα wing. Moreover, in some cases, the line profiles observed in CaII are asymmetrical with a raised core profile. The source of heating in these events is shown by theMURaM simulations and is suggested to occur 430 km above the photosphere.


One of the key infrastructure components in all telecommunication networks, ranging from the telephone network to VC-oriented data networks to the Internet, is its signaling system. Two broad approaches towards signaling can be identified: so-called hard-state and soft-state approaches. Despite the fundamental importance of signaling, our understanding of these approaches--their pros and cons and the circumstances in which they might best be employed--is mostly anecdotal (and, occasionally, religious). In this paper, we compare and contrast a variety of signaling approaches ranging from "pure" soft state to soft-state approaches augmented with explicit state removal and/or reliable signaling, to a "pure" hard state approach. We develop an analytic model that allows us to quantify state inconsistency in single- and multiple-hop signaling scenarios, and the "cost" (both in terms of signaling overhead and application-specific costs resulting from state inconsistency) associated with a given signaling approach and its parameters (e.g., state refresh and removal timers). Among the class of soft-state approaches, we find that a soft-state approach coupled with explicit removal substantially improves the degree of state consistency while introducing little additional signaling message overhead. The addition of reliable explicit setup/update/removal allows the soft-state approach to achieve comparable (and sometimes better) consistency than that of the hard-state approach.


Some judiciously chosen local curvature scalars can be used to invariantly characterize event horizons of black holes in $D > 3$ dimensions, but they fail for the three dimensional Banados-Teitelboim-Zanelli (BTZ) black hole since all curvature invariants are constant. Here we provide an invariant characterization of the event horizon of the BTZ black hole using the curvature invariants of codimension one hypersurfaces instead of the full spacetime. Our method is also applicable to black holes in generic dimensions but is most efficient in three, four, and five dimensions. We give four dimensional Kerr, five dimensional Myers-Perry and three dimensional warped-anti-de Sitter, and the three dimensional asymptotically flat black holes as examples.


Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of intentional change of the frontal ramal inclination (FRI) from virtual to actual orthognathic surgery. Materials and Methods: A total of 16 patients who underwent orthognathic surgery for correction of facial asymmetry and took cone-beam computed tomography 2 to 3 weeks before surgery (T0) and 3 days after surgery (T1A) were selected. After reorientation of cone-beam computed tomography, the digital imaging and communications in medicine data was converted to StereoLithography format for the merging with dental cast scan using R2GATE software (MegaGen Implant, Daegu, Republic of Korea). During virtual surgery using Geomagic Freeform Plus software (3D Systems, Rock Hill, SC), bilateral FRI discrepancy was corrected (T1V) and 3D-printed surgical wafers and customized metal plates were manufactured using 3D printer (Meg-printer II, MegaGen Implant, Daegu, Republic of Korea) and computer numerical control milling machine (ARDEN, TPS Korea Ltd., Gwangju, Republic of Korea) accordingly. During surgery, FRI correction was done using surgical guide and customized plates. The difference between preoperative and virtually corrected FRI (Δ T1V — T0) and the difference between preoperative and actually surgically corrected FRI (Δ T1A — T0) were measured, and the achieved FRI correction in percentage ([Δ T1A — T0]/[Δ T1V — T0] × 100) was calculated. Results: The mean absolute value of virtual FRI correction (Δ T1V — T0) and actual FRI correction (Δ T1A - T0) were 3.0° and 2.9°, respectively (n = 32). In the increased (medial rotation) FRI group, mean virtual and actual correction amount were 3.2° and 2.8° (n = 17), whereas in the decreased (lateral rotation) group, mean virtual and actual correction amount were –2.7° and –3.1°, respectively (n = 15). No statistically significant difference between virtual and actual measurements were present in either group. The mean achievement rate was 102.8%. Tendency of undercorrection (91.2%) in the increased FRI group and overcorrection (116.0%) in the decreased FRI group were noted. Discussion: With virtual planning and computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing-made customized plates, it is possible to correct FRI during orthognathic surgery of patients with facial asymmetry.


Primary prevention has seemed an impossible dream for mental illness. Yet here is a study that comes up with interesting and provocative findings. The article by Ross et al. in this issue (1) is a rare and important scientific study of how a dietary supplement in pregnancy may alter infant behavior. The behavior that is altered is the infant brain's diminished reaction to a repeated sound. The measure was chosen because in adults, failure of this inhibitory brain system (prepulse inhibition) is seen in a high proportion of patients with schizophrenia and is also linked with the CHRNA7 genotype, which is associated with risk for schizophrenia (2).

While the neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia is the dominant model for schizophrenia today, the "model" simply posits that there are abnormalities in neurodevelopment that occur long before the onset of psychosis. The model allows for various genetic and environmental risk factors and various vulnerable time points in development (3). The study by Ross and colleagues reflects a novel approach: potential prevention through a specific prenatal dietary treatment. The outcome measure is, of course, not schizophrenia per se, which would occur many years later, but a surrogate marker of brain function that can be measured in infancy.

This study represents the latest step in a programmatic study of the biology and genetics of schizophrenia that formulated a specific neurodevelopmental model and proposes a potential preventive prenatal dietary treatment. The senior author, Robert Freedman, and co-workers have shown that α7-nicotinic receptors, which are decreased in the brains of patients with schizophrenia, are related to defects of brain habituation, which characterizes many patients with the disorder. This group has also shown that this ability of the brain to "adapt" to a repeated sound develops in infancy. Several risk factors for schizophrenia are associated with the failure of this system to fully develop in infancy.

Since choline is critical for the development of α7-nicotinic receptors, the authors carried out a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of choline supplementation given to 100 medically healthy pregnant women, starting in the second trimester and continuing until delivery. The major finding was that at 33 days of age, 76% of the infants who received choline had intact cerebral inhibition while only 43% of the placebo-treated group did so, a highly significant difference. The authors also present preliminary evidence from a separate group of infants studied 4 years earlier that deficient inhibition in infancy is associated with symptoms of inattention at age 4. This opens up the question of whether larger preventive studies for schizophrenia should be undertaken.

Prevention through maternal diet during pregnancy has been successful on rare previous occasions, most notably for neural tube defects, which are best prevented by supplementing the maternal diet with folic acid, which remains the best treatment for the disorder (4). While Ross et al. acknowledge that their choline study is not powered or planned to address prevention of schizophrenia, it represents a landmark proof of concept showing that such an approach might be possible.

The delayed development in inhibition was transient in this study, as no difference was seen at a second measure at 89 days. It is well known that many if not most of the early developmental abnormalities seen in subjects at high risk for schizophrenia are themselves gone before the onset of psychosis. Recent work has shown that childhood abnormalities in anatomic brain development may normalize in some siblings of patients with schizophrenia (5, 6). Other, as yet unknown brain abnormality clearly remains in these siblings, as the future risk for schizophrenia does not change.

Ongoing studies in these same subjects are examining functional imaging, which may be more sensitive to risk.

Where do we go from here? Improving infant brain inhibition is not prevention of schizophrenia. A surrogate marker is probably the only option for studying prevention of a disorder that will not occur for decades. The folic acid/neural tube defect studies had the research advantage of a disorder manifest early in life. Is it possible to carry out a large preventive study where the clinical outcome will not be known for so long? One hope is that neurodevelopmental improvement would be nonspecific and that choline treatment could improve multiple behaviors, such as attention (already suggested by the authors' data on 4-year-olds with poor inhibition in infancy), impulsivity, or mood instability, all of which could be measured long before the age of risk for psychosis. Even if such a treatment were effective, the many known risk factors for schizophrenia would mean that addressing any one of them might not make a significant difference in long-term outcome. For example, in a recent study genetic risk factors even in multiplex families accounted for only 0.4% of the risk for illness (7). At the other extreme, prevention of 44% of the cases of schizophrenia has been postulated through neonatal vitamin D supplementation for a particular Danish cohort of cases (8). It is probable that risk varies widely with time period and populations (9). Prenatal exposures to infection and malnutrition are the best bets for public health intervention, but a clear way forward is not yet compelling.


The patterns of access to primary health care for 27 154 people were examined, using the raw data of the 1974 General Household Survey about self-reported morbidity and use of services. Access rates were calculated for four categories of health: the not ill, the acutely sick, the chronically sick without restricted activity, and the chronically sick with restricted activity. Contrary to the conclusions of existing publications, the analysis shows that the NHS has achieved equity in terms of access to primary health care: there is no consistent bias against the lower socioeconomic groups and, in the case of some health care categories, these have proportionately higher rates of access than their rates of self-reported morbidity would indicate. The findings also show large variations in patterns of access both between and within these categories of health.


The intensive care unit (ICU) is an instance of a very dynamic health care setting where critically ill patients are being managed. It comprises of an extensive amount of communication amongst the role players, use of numerous information systems and operation of devices for monitoring and treatment purposes. The purpose of this research is to study error evolution and management within this environment. Ethnographic observation and semi-structured interview data were used to build individual pieces of the workflow dependent on the individual and the activity concerned. These pieces of the ICU workflow were used to develop a generalizable cognitive model to represent the intricate workflow in health care settings. The proposed model can be used to identify and characterize medical errors and also used for error prediction in practice.


Purpose: In vivo dosimetry using an electronic portal imaging device(EPID) may provide a uniquely effective means for preventing errors and may allow for real‐time beam interlocks. We present graphical processor (GPU)‐based fast EPIDdose computation and simulate the sensitivity for detecting errors caused by patient mispositioning. Methods: We implemented an enhanced superposition convolution algorithm to compute the EPIDdose. The patient was simulated using a digital cylinder phantom (15cm length and 15cm diameter) with air and bone structure built in. Setup parameters are: SAD 100cm, 12×12‐cm2 open field, 1.5×1.5×1.5‐mm3 dose grid, 6‐MV photon and isocenter at the center of cylinder. 2D doseimages were obtained at 1.6‐cm depth of a water slab positioned 60‐cm below the isocenter to simulate the EPID readout. To examine errors caused by mispositioning, we shifted the phantom left‐and‐right and up‐and‐down and compared dose profiles to those with no shifts. Gamma value of each pixel was calculated as an index to identify dose mismatch. Dose failure was determined as gamma > 1 using 3‐mm distance‐to‐agreement and 3% dose difference criteria. Results: Dose failures occur mainly in air‐tissue and bone‐tissue interfaces and in regions with rapid thickness change. Gamma is sensitive to the left‐and‐right shift, with a 3‐mm shift causing dose failure in ∼10% pixels; but is much less sensitive to the up‐and‐down shift, with dose failure detected only after a shift of several centimeters. Analysis with patient CTdata sets is underway and will be presented. Conclusions: In vivo EPIDdosimetry enabled by GPU‐based dose computation offers the potential for real‐time beam interlocks. Future directions include simulation of other error scenarios, optimization of dose computation, improved EPID modeling and comparison with measured EPID profiles.


In the world of action recognition research, one primary focus has been on how to construct and train networks to model the spatial-temporal volume of an input video. These methods typically uniformly sample a segment of an input clip (along the temporal dimension). However, not all parts of a video are equally important to determine the action in the clip. In this work, we focus instead on learning where to extract features, so as to focus on the most informative parts of the video. We propose a method called the non-uniform temporal aggregation (NUTA), which aggregates features only from informative temporal segments. We also introduce a synchronization method that allows our NUTA features to be temporally aligned with traditional uniformly sampled video features, so that both local and clip-level features can be combined. Our model has achieved state-of-the-art performance on four widely used large-scale action-recognition datasets (Kinetics400, Kinetics700, Something-something V2 and Charades). In addition, we have created a visualization to illustrate how the proposed NUTA method selects only the most relevant parts of a video clip.


This paper examines multi-purpose communal forests, called the dhina, which surrounds the Konso settlements. Qualitative research, primarily in-depth interviews and field observations, were employed to explore the multiple purposes and current status of dhina. Moreover, as a native to the study area, the investigator was able to utilize his personal experiences as another source of information. Results of the study show that dhina was purposefully conserved by the communities since the time the nucleated settlements in Konso were established. The forest has multiple purposes including: fire control, latrine, garbage dump, grazing land, fruit gathering, and hiding places during times of conflict. Moreover, the study shows that dhina harbors several indigenous plant and animal species. Finally, the result indicates that the process of modernization and development process threaten the survival of dhina.


PURPOSE
To predict the session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE) in soccer and determine its main predictive indicators.

METHODS
A total of 70 external-load indicators (ELIs), internal-load indicators, individual characteristics, and supplementary variables were used to build a predictive model.

RESULTS
The analysis using gradient-boosting machines showed a mean absolute error of 0.67 (0.09) arbitrary units (AU) and a root-mean-square error of 0.93 (0.16) AU. ELIs were found to be the strongest predictors of the sRPE, accounting for 61.5% of the total normalized importance (NI), with total distance as the strongest predictor. The included internal-load indicators and individual characteristics accounted only for 1.0% and 4.5%, respectively, of the total NI. Predictive accuracy improved when including supplementary variables such as group-based sRPE predictions (10.5% of NI), individual deviation variables (5.8% of NI), and individual player markers (17.0% of NI).

CONCLUSIONS
The results showed that the sRPE can be predicted quite accurately using only a relatively limited number of training observations. ELIs are the strongest predictors of the sRPE. However, it is useful to include a broad range of variables other than ELIs, because the accumulated importance of these variables accounts for a reasonable component of the total NI. Applications resulting from predictive modeling of the sRPE can help coaching staff plan, monitor, and evaluate both the external and internal training load.


Abstract We sampled five stream reaches within an agricultural landscape in southwestern Georgia for benthic macroinvertebrates and larval amphibians from 2002 to 2003 to determine whether cattle grazing impacts these faunal components. Two of the stream reaches had been fenced to exclude cattle (buffered), whereas the other three were not, allowing cattle access to the streams (unbuffered). We captured larval Eurycea cirrgera (Southern Two-lined Salamanders) incidentally in our benthic samples and compared salamander capture rates between buffered versus unbuffered streams. We also examined salamander stomach contents relative to the composition and abundance of benthic macroinvertebrates, comparing these data by stream type as well. Overall, capture success for larval salamanders was higher at buffered sites. Midge larvae (family Chironomidae) were the most frequent invertebrate taxon detected, both in the benthic and stomach content samples; however, we also observed cladocerans, copepods, and ostracods in each sampling regime. A linear electivity index revealed that larval Southern Two-lined Salamanders showed slight dietary selection for midge larvae in the subfamily Tanypodinae. This finding, coupled with the observation that chironomid larvae composed over half of Southern Two-lined Salamanders stomach contents, suggests some preference or selection for this benthic group. However, larval Tanypodinae were found at all sites, suggesting that their identification to species level may be necessary to determine whether differences in the prey base explained differences in salamander selectivity between buffered versus unbuffered streams. Factors other than prey selectivity, such as instream habitat quality, may also have influenced larval salamander abundance.


Introduction: In sickle cell anemia patients (SCA), the spleen suffers multiple occlusion of its microvasculature causing ischemia and subsequently autosplenectomy. Among the functions of the spleen is the production of gamma interferon (IFN-γ) which has several immunological roles. This function could be impaired in these patients. Therefore, this study aimed at determining the extent to which autosplenectomy affects the immunity of SCA patients as reflected by the level of IFN-γ, frequency of infections, and crises (vaso-occlusive, hemolytic, aplastic) in these patients. Materials and Methods: Forty SCA patients in steady state condition were recruited into the study. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by all patients, and venous blood sample was analyzed for IFN-γ levels. All patients underwent abdominal ultrasound scan. Results: Autosplenectomy was observed in 20% of the sickle cell patients. Bone pain was the most frequent type of crisis in the study population; this occurred in 100% and 85% of patients with autosplenectomy and those without autosplenectomy, respectively. Infection rates of more than once a year was reported in 87.5% of SCA patients with autosplenectomy compared with 50% of SCA patients without autosplenectomy. There was no significant difference in IFN-γ plasma levels between SCA patients with autosplenectomy and those without autosplenectomy. Conclusion: This study showed a higher prevalence of infection and bone pain crisis among SCA patients with autosplenectomy than in SCA patients without autosplenectomy. It also showed comparable level of IFN-γ in the 2 groups of patients. Patients with autosplenectomy may benefit from early institution of drugs such as hydroxyurea to improve quality of life.