Background and Objective: Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, yet approximately one-third of adults diagnosed with major depressive disorder do not receive treatment. Health coalitions are one strategy towards addressing this issue through collaborative, multi-sector interventions implemented within community organizations. In this narrative review, we examine what evidence exists that coalitions may improve outcomes of depression.

Methods: A search for peer-reviewed literature was conducted using PubMed, CINHAL, MEDLINE, and PsychINFO databases. The search was limited to studies published in the English language. No limitations were placed on location or date of publication. Initial search produced a total of 236 articles. Of these, 34 met inclusion criteria. Papers that did not address depression interventions in the context of community health coalitions were excluded.

Results: Community Partners in Care, a double-blinded randomized control trial, is the primary model in literature that describes outcomes of coalitions in addressing depression. 6-month outcomes revealed that participants treated through a coalition model (n=504) as opposed to those in a non-coalition approach (n=512) had significantly improved self-reported mental health related quality of life and a reduced number of behavioral health hospitalizations. 3-year and 4-year outcomes revealed participants in the coalition model had increased odds of clinical depression remission. While many other studies documented coalition-based interventions, there was little to no report of treatment effectiveness.

Project Impact: Current literature suggests that coalitions may be an effective method of addressing depression, particularly in under-resourced areas where community members are more likely to access care through social services. In addition, churches and schools were identified as key partners for coalitions, as trusted informal networks for mental health support. While results support coalition utility for mental health intervention, more research is needed to determine what, if any, unique attributes of coalitions are necessary to insure effective mental health interventions.


The affecting laws of boron and silicon on structure and properties of Fe-based superalloy were studied by analyses of scanning electron microscope (SEM), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Proper content of boron could not only purify the matrix and restrain the polymerizing and growing of carbides effectively, but also promote the forming of secondary precipitate of borides, which dispersed in form of micro particles to strengthen grain boundaries and enhance the heat strength for Fe-based superalloy. Boron was an adverse element to high temperature oxidation resistance. Silicon could toughen the matrix by solid solution strengthening. Overfed silicon in alloys caused great dropping of strength and toughness. The component of SiO2 endowed the oxide scale with flat and compact structure, fine and even grains, and few exfoliating. The optimum contents of boron and silicon in Fe-based superalloy are 0.02wt.% and 1.5wt.% respectively by comprehensive consideration of high temperature mechanical properties and oxidation resistance.


Visual working memory (VWM) and distractibility are two core executive functions in human cognition. It has been suggested that schizophrenia (SZ) patients exhibit worse VWM performance and lower resilience to distraction compared with healthy control (HC) subjects. Previous studies, however, have largely investigated these two functions separately. It still remains unclear what are the mechanisms of the deficits, especially the interactions between the two cognitive domains. Here we modify the standard delay-estimation task in VWM and explicitly add distractors in the task so as to examine the two domains simultaneously. We find that SZ indeed exhibit worse performance compared with HC in almost all VWM load and distraction levels, a result consistent with most prior experimental findings. But adding distractors does not selectively impose larger impacts on SZ performance. Furthermore, unlike most previous studies that only focused on behavioral performance, we use the variable precision model to disentangle the distraction effect on different computational components of VWM (resources and resources allocation variability etc.). Surprisingly, adding distractors significantly elevates resources allocation variability—a parameter describing the heterogeneity of resource allocation across different targets—in HC but not in SZ. This counterintuitive result suggests that the internal VWM process in SZ is less interfered by the distractors. However, this unexpected higher resilience to distraction might be associated with less flexible cognitive control mechanisms. In sum, our work demonstrates that multiple cognitive functions might jointly contribute to dysfunctions in SZ and their interactions might manifest differently from merely summing their independent effects.


We present VaccinItaly, a project which monitors Italian online conversations around vaccines, on Twitter and Facebook. We describe the ongoing data collection, which follows the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination campaign roll-out in Italy and we provide public access to the data collected. We show results from a preliminary analysis of the spread of low- and high-credibility news shared alongside vaccine-related conversations on both social media platforms. We also investigate the content of most popular YouTube videos and encounter several cases of harmful and misleading content about vaccines. Finally, we geolocate Twitter users who discuss vaccines and correlate their activity with open data statistics on vaccine uptake. We make up-to-date results available to the public through an interactive online dashboard associated with the project. The goal of our project is to gain further understanding of the interplay between the public discourse on online social media and the dynamics of vaccine uptake in the real world.


Abstract Studies published between 1999 and 2011 demonstrated increased blood culture contamination with catheter-drawn cultures compared with percutaneously-drawn cultures. Studies published between 2012 and 2015 reported that use of antiseptic barrier caps on central venous catheter hubs significantly reduces the incidence of catheter-drawn blood culture contamination. Local guidelines regarding sites for blood culture collection should reflect institution-level blood culture contamination rates for percutaneously-drawn and catheter-drawn cultures using currently available technologies that reduce contamination at both sites.


Three‐dimensional near‐fault coseismic deformation fields from high‐resolution differential topography provide new information on the behavior of the shallow fault zone in large surface‐rupturing earthquakes. Our work focuses on the 16 April 2016 Mw 7.0 Kumamoto, Japan, earthquake, which ruptured ~40 km of the Futagawa‐Hinagu Fault Zone on Kyushu Island with an oblique strike‐slip mechanism and surface offset exceeding 2 m. Our differential lidar analysis constrains the structural style of strain accommodation along the primary fault trace and the surrounding damage zone. We show that 36 ± 29% and 62 ± 32% of the horizontal and vertical deformation, respectively, was accommodated off the principal fault trace. The horizontal strains of up to 0.03 suggest that the approximate elastic strain limit was exceeded over a ~250 m width in many locations along the rupture. The inelastic deformation of the fault volume produced the observed distributed deformation at the Earth's surface. We demonstrate a novel approach for calculating 3‐D displacement uncertainties, indicating errors of centimeters to a few decimeters for displacements computed over 50 m horizontal windows. Errors correlate with land cover and relief, with flatter agricultural land associated with the highest displacement uncertainty. These advances provide a framework for future analyses of shallow earthquake behavior using differential topography.


The structure of the Drosophila melanogaster Antennapedia (Antp) gene has been investigated by the isolation and sequencing of different cDNAs and genomic clones. Northern analysis, S1 mapping and primer extension experiments reveal a complex and unusual gene structure. The gene is composed of two promoters, eight exons spanning >100 kb, and two termination processing regions. Four major polyadenylated transcripts were found, two of them starting at a second internal promoter in front of exon 3. All four transcripts have extremely long untranslated leader and trailer sequences in the range of 1‐2 kb. Despite the complex transcriptional organization, the open reading frame is the same in all transcripts, and starts in exon 5 giving rise to a protein of mol. wt. 42 800. The putative protein is rich in glutamine (18%) and proline (10%). The homeobox, a region which previously has been shown to be highly conserved among homeotic genes, is contained in the open reading frame and located in the last exon. Functional implications of the complex structure with respect to development and its relation to the mutant phenotypes are discussed.


Looking forward for the advent of the future European navigation system Galileo, we anticipate a big part of its potential users to utilize combined GPS/Galileo receivers. It will allow such users to get benefits of observing two satellite constellations (= more satellites in view), and utilizing services of two independent navigation systems (= more reliability). The combined use of GPS and Galileo requires the systems to be interoperable. Already on the early stages of the Galileo program, interoperability with GPS was set as a goal for Galileo design and implementation. Leaving aside such issues like signal design, frequency allocation, signal processing etc, we concentrate here on the timing aspects of the interoperability. Like GPS today, Galileo will establish an independent timescale - Galileo System Time (GST) - which will serve as a basis for system operation and computation of satellite orbits and clock parameters. Both GPS Time and GST will be steered to the International Atomic Time (TAI). Their residual offsets to TAI will be available to users in the navigation messages. However, due to uncertainties of the TAI offset determination and of the steering, the accuracy with which the offset between GPS Time and GST will be known to users is expected to be in order of 10 ns. This uncertainty will cause a slowly changing bias between GPS and Galileo measurements in a combined navigation solution. The first part of the paper is dedicated to an estimation of the magnitude of the bias and its impact on the accuracy of user positioning which is taken as a function of the geometry of GPS and Galileo constellations (Dilution of Precision), equivalent user range error (UERE), and the uncertainty of the GPS Galileo time offset. With these three parameters we simulate the accuracy of the combined positioning solution for a world-wide grid, and empirically assess its dependence on the GPS Galileo time offset. The simulation allows us to obtain the upper limit for this offset at which its impact on the user positioning accuracy is below a selected significance level. The current Galileo baseline foresees the determination of the GPS Galileo time offset (GGTO) on system level and its dissemination to users in the Galileo navigation message. In the second section of the paper we discuss two options for the GGTO determination, namely: a) using a combined GPS/Galileo receiver, and b) using a GPS time receiver connected to the physical realisation of GST as generated at the Galileo Precise Time Facility (PTF). First, we assess the limits for accuracy of the GGTO determination set by the stability of GPS Time and GST, and propose a model which can be used to simulate the dynamic behaviour of GGTO. Then we study GGTO determination accuracy for both of the options listed above using simulated GPS and Galileo observations and the GGTO model we obtained. The simulations were made considering the accuracy of both today´s and modernized GPS. Finally, we check the simulation results by processing GPS measurements collected in the time laboratories of German Aerospace Center (DLR) and of the Royal Observatory of Belgium. In both processing tests, the timescale of the laboratory that hosts GPS receiver is assumed to represent GST. GPS data are processed with three types of satellite ephemeris - broadcast ephemeris, precise ephemeris computed by IGS, and broadcast ephemeris with correction from EGNOS (simulated) - to identify a candidate scenario for the operational implementation. Finally, we study the scenario where GGTO is determined in the user receiver as an additional unknown in the navigation solution. We simulate GPS and Galileo observations both for users with an unobstructed sky view and for users in a typical urban environment where the number of satellites is limited because of obstructions inherent to "cityscape". We simulate urban environments making use of known statistical models of cities implemented in DLR´s simulation software. These simulations allow to compare the two GGTO determination scenarios - on system level (broadcast of GGTO in the navigation message), and on user level (GGTO determination in user receiver) - in terms of user position accuracy and availability of the navigation service for the two types of users introduced above.


The purpose of this study was to prepare activated carbon from an agricultural solid waste and assess its effectiveness in adsorptive removal of lead from aqueous solution. Activated carbon was prepared from coconut coir and its characteristics were compared with that of a commercial bituminous coal-based activated carbon. The coconut coir activated carbon possessed higher surface and micropore areas, micropore volume and average pore diameter, and well developed meso- and micropores. Adsorption of lead from aqueous solution by the coconut coir activated carbon was examined. Batch adsorption test showed that extent of adsorption was dependent on lead concentration, contact time, pH and activated carbon dose. Adsorption was low at acidic pH and increased up to pH 5, with marginal increase up to pH 6. Equilibrium adsorption was attained in 2.5 h. Lead adsorption followed pseudo-second order kinetics. Equilibrium lead adsorption data for the coconut coir activated carbon and commercial activated carbon were described by the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Coconut coir activated carbon showed higher lead adsorption capacity [7.75 (Langmuir) and 3.63 (Freundlich)] compared with the commercial activated carbon [7.55 (Langmuir) and 1.87 (Freundlich)]. Coconut coir activated carbon is a suitable substitute for commercial activated carbon in the adsorptive removal of lead from water.


Scholars of the Hindavi Nath sampraday have placed particular importance on the two largest and most comprehensive works attributed to Guru Gorakhnath: the Sabadi and the Pada. Engaging with Allison Busch's research, this essay investigates the significance of the lesser-known texts of the Gorakhbani, often called granths, and examines how they were composed to address specific audiences and topics. In particular, Marrewa-Karwoski considers the Narvai Bodh (Instructions to the King) and explore how the Nath sampraday negotiates power and sovereignty in a text that specifically addresses ruling elites.


The influence of different oral contraceptives on the prevalence and severity of dysmenorrhea was investigated in a representative sample of 19-year-old women from an urban Swedish population. The prevalence and severity of dysmenorrhea were significantly (p less than 0.01) reduced amongst users of progestogen-dominated oral contraceptives compared to a control group of women who used neither oral contraceptives nor an intrauterine device. However, there was no significant difference in the prevalence and severity of dysmenorrhea between users of oral contraceptives with low progestogen activity and the same control group. Thus, the relative progestogen activity of the oral contraceptive used appears to be of importance for the effective treatment of dysmenorrhea. Possible reasons for the superior therapeutic efficacy of progestogen-dominated oral contraceptives are discussed. Further studies are, however, necessary to evaluate the importance of the progestogen activity of oral contraceptives in the treatment of dysmenorrhea.


Personnel performance is a benchmark in determining whether or not the performance of theorganization. Transformational leadership is a leadership style that is appropriate in shaping theorganizational culture in order to improve the performance of personnel in the Supadio Air Force Base.This study aims to analyze the influence of transformational leadership on the performance ofpersonnel through organizational culture as an intervening medium in Supadio Air Force Base. Tofacilitate troubleshooting, research was conducted by using linear regression analysis, path analysis,and Cronbach alpha using SPSS 15.0. The variables used in this research is independent ofTransformational Leadership, Organizational Culture as an intervening medium and personnelperformance as the dependent variable. This research uses the questionnaire data from a sample of 70respondents. In accordance with the above research goal, so in this research was formulated by 3hypotheses. The first hypothesis,  transformational leadership has significant positive effect onorganizational culture. The second hypothesis, Organizational Culture has significant positive effect onpersonnel performance. The third hypothesis, transformational leadership has significant positive effecton personnel performance .The results of this research indicate that, Transformational Leadership hassignificant positive effect on organizational culture. Organizational culture has significant positive  effect in mediating the effect of transformational leadership on personnel performance. Where asTransformational Leadership is not  significant positive impact on the personnel performance atSupadio Air Force Base. Suggestions for further research, when using the questionnaire data should bedone with direct interviews in order to avoid  respondents' answers from misunderstanding grainsquestions in the questionnaire. It also needs to be added variables are still closely related to thevariables used in this research.  Keywords: Transformational Leadership, Organizational Culture, and Personnel Performance .


Industrial robots have seen limited use by industries for over a decade but until the auto industry introduced robotics for spot welding applications in the late 60s the robot was not considered seriously. Now they are readily accepted throughout industry. The reasons for their current popularity are the rapidly increasing costs of labor and the seemingly declining productivity of todays workers. In addition, robots today are credited for additional product and quality improvements not seriously considered in the past. Benefits similar to those that have long been attributes associated with hard automation. This paper looks at robotics from a users viewpoint and addresses some of the benefits and concerns attributable to their use. To this end, this paper will describe several applications that are currently used in production with results relative to production gains, side benefits and operator acceptance.


A human HL-60 leukemia cell line selected for resistance to mitoxantrone, HL-60/MX2, displays cross-resistance only to agents whose cytotoxicities result from interaction with the nuclear enzyme DNA topoisomerase II (topo II). The topo II catalytic activity is reduced 2-fold in the drug-resistant cell line in association with the absence of the M(r) 180,000 isoform of topo II and the finding of novel M(r) 160,000 topo II alpha-related immunoreactive protein in these cells by immunoblot. The topo II alpha (M(r) 170,000) protein levels in nuclear extracts from the HL-60/MX2 cells were noted on average to be approximately 40% lower than in comparable HL-60 nuclei. Studies of the subcellular localization of topo II by immunohistochemical and fractional extraction techniques demonstrated that the M(r) 160,000 topo II alpha-related protein is primarily localized in the cytoplasm. Levels of the 6.3-kilobase topo II alpha mRNA were noted to be reduced 2-fold in the HL-60/MX2 cells in association with the finding of a novel 4.8-kilobase topo II alpha-related mRNA transcript that was present in HL-60/MX2 but not HL-60 cells. The absence of topo II beta protein in nuclear and whole cell extracts from the HL-60/MX2 cells was associated with the virtual absence of detectable topo II beta mRNA in those cells by Northern blot analysis. Using a reverse transcription-PCR assay we were able to demonstrate the presence of very low levels of topo II beta mRNA in HL-60/MX2 cells, representing < 1% of that found in the HL-60 cells. In contrast, the nuclear catalytic activity and cellular mRNA levels of the related nuclear enzyme DNA topoisomerase I were nearly identical in the two cell types. Southern blot analysis of DNA extracted from the drug-sensitive and drug-resistant cells revealed a structural alteration in one topo II alpha allele in the HL-60/MX2 cells, but there was no evidence of rearrangement or hypermethylation of the topo II beta locus. These results indicate that the reduced levels of topo II alpha and beta isoenzymes observed in mitoxantrone-resistant HL-60/MX2 cells are related to changes in the levels of their respective mRNA transcripts. The identification of structural changes in one topo II alpha allele in the HL-60/MX2 cell line suggests that the altered allele may serve as the source of the unique 4.8-kilobase topo II alpha-related mRNA transcript and the M(r) 160,000 protein discovered in those cells.


Architecture in the South Pacific: The Ocean of Islands recounts the recent developments of the South Pacific and its fascinating architecture. This volume traces the European architectural overlay onto this scattered group of islands as well as the transition of these same islands towards a regional identity that has been fashioned by the remoteness of each location, the incomparable setting, and the distinctive ethnic mix of its inhabitants. A series of themed essays present the story of architectural development in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Wallis and Futuna, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Samoa and American Samoa, and French Polynesia. Recent architecture typifies the evolution of the islands as they have been subjected to the transformative waves of alien trade, religion, colonization, war and tourism, followed by post-colonialism and revived nationalism. As with the Pacific region itself, the most prominent characteristic of the architecture is its diversity. The blending of the universal and the local sets the stage for a fresh vision of the South Pacific across a wide range of building types, from spectacular mission churches to sensational resorts in paradise. This book, in full colour, will appeal to architects, armchair-tourists, students and all those for whom the South Pacific is the idyll of their dreams.


Primary production including subsistence production, accounts for about 60 per cent of the national income of Papua and New Guinea. The bulk of the indigenous people are subsistence farmers, or have contact with the cash economy through agriculture, and the agricultural industries provide virtually the sole source of export earnings. The position is nevertheless changing rapidly.


Chairman Gibson: For a good many years, it seems to me, we have been hashing over the same old problems of rheumatic fever without making much progress in our knowledge of the disease. Recently, however, I think there are hopeful signs that we are learning a little bit more about rheumatic fever and will be a little better able to deal with it. As you all know, rheumatic fever is a disease with many varied manifestations. Some cases are so outright that even a junior medical student could make a diagnosis; other cases are so obscure that at a given time and in a given case one is quite unable to make a definite diagnosis. Yet within a wide scope of variations it seems to me that rheumatic fever does show a definite group of phenomena which, by careful study, one can usually evaluate in the course of time and thereby determine whether rheumatic fever is present. I felt we might best handle the subject by dividing our discussion on rheumatic fever into 4 parts: etiology, recognition, prevention and treatment. At this time I want to introduce to you Dr. Edward C. Lambert, who is my associate in this Round Table discussion. He is at the University of Buffalo Medical School in Pediatrics and in charge of the Cardiac Children9s Clinic. Dr. Edward C. Lambert, Buffalo: About 50 years ago Dr. Osler defined rheumatic fever as an acute noncontagious febrile infection depending on an unknown infectious agent, characterized by multiple arthritis and a special tendency to involve the heart.


Measurements for film condensation of steam, R113 and ethylene glycol on a horizontal wire-wrapped tube are reported. All measurements were made at near atmospheric vapor pressure and with coolant at around 20 °C. Care was taken to avoid error due to the presence of air in the vapor. Complete wetting (film condensation) was observed in all cases. Wire diameter and pitch of winding were systematically varied and heat-transfer measurements made for a range of coolant flow rates. Data, in the form of heat flux and vapor-to-surface temperature difference, are presented. These were used to determine enhancement ratios (ratio of heat flux or heat-transfer coefficient for a wire-wrapped tube to the corresponding value for a plain tube at the same vapor-to-surface temperature difference). Enhancement ratios exceeding 3 for R113 and 2 for steam and ethylene glycol were obtained. The results are discussed in the light of earlier measurements and theory.


The primary goal of copyright law is to benefit the public. By rewarding authors with exclusive rights, such as the power to enforce copyright infringement, copyright protection is the means through which copyright law accomplishes this goal. Another way that copyright law pursues its goal is through the fair use doctrine—an invaluable utilitarian limit on copyright protection. However, fair use is, among other things, vague. The current application of fair use as an affirmative defense magnifies the doctrine's problems and makes copyright law hospitable to abusive copyright litigation. Current proposals in this area of reform target either fair use or abusive copyright litigation. This Note targets both problems with a single solution: applying fair use as a right. Applying fair use as a right alleviates some of the doctrine's inherent problems and is the best long-term solution for eliminating abusive litigation from copyright law. As a right, fair use protects copyright's core values and goals, alleviates the burden on courts, and cultivates creation. A review of the motivation behind fair use reveals that as a right, fair use is best able to serve the purpose for which it was designed.


Future telecommunication systems will integrate "wireline" and "wireless" networks in a single advanced infrastructure, and it is expected that such systems will exploit asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology. This paper considers some aspects of this integrated telecommunication infrastructure. In particular, we propose and analyze an improvement, for wired networks, of the virtual connection tree (VCT) concept, while for the wireless part, a new model for the analysis of a dynamic channel allocation scheme is presented. The obtained analytical results, confirmed by simulation in a wide range of load conditions and user mobility, allow us to evaluate the main system performance parameters, in terms of blocking probability of new calls, handoff blocking probability and forced termination probability.


A robust testing method for detecting circuit faults within two-dimensional Cellular Neural Network (CNN) arrays is presented. The functional tests consist of a sequence of input vectors that toggle all internal nodes of the conceptual CNN model and propagate the result to the output pins. The resultant output vectors reveal nodes that exhibit opened, shorted, or stuck-at faults. The generated test vectors are universal, detect faults independent of the size or topology of the CNN array, and can be applied to any particular CNN implementation with little effort.


A Rytov series approximation for rough surface scattering is presented for an analytical description of the close relation of topographic statistics and topo- graphic scattering. The Rytov series approximation is not subject to the stringent restrictions that apply to the Born series approximation. Numerical calculations of the Rytov series approximation are conducted for several benchmark models. Comparisons with the full-waveform numerical solution and the Born series approx- imation are made for all examples to investigate the ranges of validity of the Rytov series approximation. The first-order Rytov approximation ignores multiple scatter- ings between any two surface points. In general, it has been considered valid for the large-scale roughness components. The high-order Rytov approximation accounts for multiple scattering between surface points and, therefore, becomes a realistic method for multiscale surfaces. Tests with the Gaussian/semicircular convex topographies and two randomly rough topographies show that the Rytov series approximation improves the Born series approximation in both amplitude and phase. For the two sharp edges in the semicircular convexity model, the fourth-order Rytov approximation is required to account for strong wave fluctuations. For general rough surfaces without infinite gra- dients and extremely large surface heights, the second-order Rytov approximation might be sufficient to guarantee the accuracy of rough surface scattering.


Micro-psychokinesis (micro-PK) research studies the effects of observers' conscious or unconscious intentions on random outcomes derived from true random sources such as quantum random number generators (QRNGs). The micro-PK study presented here was originally planned, preregistered, and conducted to exactly replicate a correlational finding between two within-subject experimental conditions found in an original micro-PK dataset (n = 12,254) using a QRNG. However, after data collection and analyses, a data error was detected in the original to-be-replicated dataset. A reanalysis of the original correlation effect after error correction revealed strong evidence for the absence of a correlation in the original data. This study's primary goal was to test the existence of a correlational micro-PK effect in the present data as specified in the pre-registration. In addition to this replication attempt, the present study also can be considered an unsystematic case report or field study on experimenter psi (e-psi), since a strong expectation was formed initially about the occurrence of an effect that indeed was objectively absent from the original data. This study's results indicate no evidence for the existence of a correlational (and standard) micro-PK effect. In other words, the actual correlational data did not meet the experimenters' conscious expectations, and thus no consciously based effect of e-psi on micro-PK was found. However, the change in evidence for the effect across time described by the sequential Bayes factor resembled a data pattern that also was frequently reported by the experimenters in past studies. Although these data did not meet the criterion of statistical significance, the marginal effects might be interpreted as weak influences based on unconscious e-psi. In addition, the trend observed matches both experimenters' general beliefs about the occurrence of e-psi in micro-PK. These findings' implications for the application of scientific methods to the study of micro-PK and psi in general are discussed.

KEYWORDS

Experimenter effects, experimenter psi (e-psi), micro-psychokinesis (micro-PK), quantum random number generator (qRNG)


Aims/Hypothesis: The aim of this study was to assess the effect of ethnicity on the association between age and body mass index as well as the prevalence of diabetes. Methods: We selected population-based studies carried out after 1980 in the DECODE/A studies representing different ethnic groups: 11 European, 1 Maltese, 3 Indian, 2 Chinese and 3 Japanese surveys. The total numbers of subjects were 14,240 men and 15,129 women who were 30 to 89 years of age. Diabetes was diagnosed according to the 1999 World Health Organization criteria based on a standard 75 g OGTT. Sex-specific prevalence of diabetes by age and BMI was stratified by ethnic group, in particular the interaction of ethnicity on the associations between age/BMI and the prevalence of diabetes. Results: The prevalence of diabetes was higher in studies from India and Malta compared to Japan, China, and the rest of Europe. The association between BMI and diabetes, adjusted for age, showed noticeable differences between the ethnic groups with an increase in prevalence starting at a BMI between 15 and 20 kg/m 2 in the Maltese and Indian populations compared to 25 kg/m2 in Europeans. Conclusion/interpretation: The effect of BMI on the age-adjusted prevalence of Type 2 diabetes was modified by ethnicity with considerably lower thresholds in Indian and Maltese subjects compared to those from the rest of Europe. This difference should be reflected in national and international recommendations regarding "optimal" BMI.


OBJECTIVE:The combined effect of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and secondary insult on biochemical changes of cerebral tissue is not well known. For this purpose, we studied the time-course changes of parameters reflecting ROS-mediated oxidative stress and modifications of cell energy metabolism determined in rats subjected to cerebral insult of increasing severity. METHODS:Rats were divided into four groups: 1) sham-operated, 2) subjected to 10 minutes of hypoxia and hypotension (HH), 3) subjected to severe diffuse TBI, and 4) subjected to severe diffuse TBI + HH. Rats were killed at different times after injury, and analyses of malondialdehyde, ascorbate, high-energy phosphates, nicotinic coenzymes, oxypurines, nucleosides, and N-acetylaspartate (NAA) were made by high-performance liquid chromatography on whole-brain tissue extracts. RESULTS:Data indicated a close relationship between degree of oxidative stress and severity of brain insult, as evidenced by the highest malondialdehyde values and lowest ascorbate levels in rats subjected to TBI + HH. Similarly, modifications of parameters related to cell energy metabolism were modulated by increasing severity of brain injury, as demonstrated by the lowest values of energy charge potential, nicotinic coenzymes, and NAA and the highest levels of oxypurines and nucleosides recorded in TBI + HH rats. Both the intensity of oxidative stress-mediated cerebral damage and perturbation of energy metabolism were minimally affected in rats subjected to HH only. CONCLUSION:These results showed that the severity of brain insult can be graded by measuring biochemical modifications, specifically, reactive oxygen species-mediated damage, energy metabolism depression, and NAA, thereby validating the rodent model of closed-head diffuse TBI coupled with HH and proposing NAA as a marker with diagnostic relevance to monitor the metabolic state of postinjured brain.


This thesis deals with three actual issues of ruminant degradation and escape of dietary components:One of the main emphasis has been on how particle size distribution of concentrated feed affects the degradation and ruminal escape. Feed manufacturers producing compound feeds for ruminants want to increase the fraction of undergraded starch and protein feed passing out of the rumen, and the particle size distribution of the feed may be used to increase this fraction. The residence time distribution of concentrate particle was not much affected by the particle size in the range from 0.1 to 2.8 mm, but the degradation kinetics of barley and maize was substantially depressed by increased particle size. For maize the ruminal degradability was strongly dependent of the particle size, but for barely this effect was much weaker because the degradation kinetics was much faster than the passage kinetics. However, expander treatment of barely to reduce protein degradability would probably increase the effects of particle size on degradability since this treatment decrease the degradation rates. The second part of this thesis deals with the possibilities to simplify the laborious in situ technique used for ruminal degradation measurements in Norway. This study showed that the number of incubation times could be reduced to two or three without sacrificing much accuracy. The amount of human work and the total incubation time could therefore be reduced by this method.In the last part of this thesis we study the degradation of soluble nitrogen fractions of fresh grass and grass silage, which are the main forages in Norway. Half or more of the total N in grass silage is in the form of soluble non-protein nitrogen – mainly small peptides and free amino acids. Therefore, it is important to know how much of the soluble peptides and free amino acids that escaped the rumen to improve the accuracy of determination of the protein value of grass and grass silage. The results obtained showed that approximately 10% of the soluble dietary nitrogen escaped the rumen, and the data also indicated that the synthesis of microbial protein from fresh grass was more efficient than silage, caused by a better access to energy for this synthesis.


Inserted between the inverter and the ac motor for the purpose of providing clean sinusoidal voltage at the motor terminals, the pure sine filter (PSF) involves common-mode and differential-mode suppression components. When using PSF in a motor drive and employing advanced pulsewidth modulation (PWM) techniques with discontinuous modulation waveforms, a large common-mode current may circulate through the inverter and the filter resulting in overcurrent stress in the inverter and significant acoustic noise in the filter inductors. This paper first discusses the PSF and advanced PWM techniques, then investigates the performance issues that may arise when combining advanced discontinuous PWM methods with PSF and provides a curement for the overcurrent stress problems by means of a rate of change limiter. The simulations and detailed experimental studies illustrate the inverter overcurrent stress problems and the feasibility of the proposed method to cure the problems. Via experimental performance evaluation of various PWM methods, the paper also suggests, along with PSF, the use of advanced continuous and discontinuous PWM methods with reduced common-mode voltage for the purpose of performance enhancement and filter size reduction.


In this paper, adaptive control of systems using switching techniques is investigated. It is assumed that the plant model belongs to a known finite set of models. It is also assumed that a set of controllers which solve the robust servomechanism problem for the family of plant models and a set of simultaneous stabilizers for certain subsets of plant models are given. It is shown that by using the above set of controllers and simultaneous stabilizers and choosing a proper switching sequence, one can minimize the number of switchings to destabilizing controllers. This can significantly improve the transient response of the system, which is one of the common weak points in most switching control schemes. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method in improving the transient response.


The intention of this study is to identify what criteria Photographic Curators/Pictorial Librarians in New Zealand Heritage Institutions use when cataloguing post-mortem photographs (mort photographs). In addition to the main intent, this study will endeavour to proffer theories about the popularity or lack of popularity of post-mortem photography in New Zealand during the years spanning 1870-1940. This time period, the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, heralded many cultural changes and saw post-mortem photography become a major part of mourning tradition in countries such as England, America and parts of Europe. Data will be gathered from the photographic cataloguing field on topics such as; the number of post-mortem photographs held in New Zealand collections; policies surrounding the collection and display of images of deceased people/animals (often under the policy umbrella of human remains, war and sensitive cultural topics) digitisation of these photographs and the style and processing of images available in New Zealand. By researching the institutional, historical and anthropological handling of mort photographs, the data will form theories as to how the tradition of mort photography was viewed in a New Zealand social context. The value in this study will be two fold. Looking at the decisions cataloguers make when working with sensitive topics will initiate a discussion on policy surrounding the most sensitive areas of our photographic collections. By using post-mortem photographs as an example, the researcher will hypothesis theories as to how difficult subjects may be researched and approached for discussion in the institution and with the general public by using educating them and dispelling a long held taboo. The second point of value will be enhancing the understanding of aspects of early New Zealand society and how our distinctive cultural backgrounds has have moulded our present day traditions, beliefs and national identity. The beneficial outcomes of this study are multi-faceted. In addition to the sociological insights, the researcher will endeavour to propose how an institution, such as the Auckland War Memorial Museum, can best catalogue, digitise and display items such as morts. The primary benefactor will be the Library at the Auckland War Memorial Museum as a case study based on this research will offer a series of guidelines on which a collections policy could be built for the acquisition, description and digitisation of a collection of post-mortem photographs. Another benefit of this study will be from undertaking research into the social history of New Zealand during its formative years. The topic of death and mourning in early New Zealand history has very little research at this point. Understanding death and how we have traditionally processed our grief will pose questions for further anthropological research such as traditions surrounding death and mourning, sociological studies into grief & loss, visual ethnological studies into the inclusion of photographs as extant documents in historical research and information studies into the cataloguing and digitising of sensitive items.


Abstract Much of the work undertaken in forensic settings, such as diagnosis, formulation, and judgements about treatment and placement are based on information gathered through clinical forensic interviewing. Despite this, the evidence base on which clinical forensic interviewing is founded is extremely limited. This article is divided into two sections. The first section examines the nature of interviewing and introduces this area of practice. Drawing on some of the research undertaken with specific forms of interview such as those for diagnosis and investigative purposes allows factors such as the evidence concerning interview quality, interview effectiveness, underlying competencies and methods for skills training to be outlined. The second part of the article, which provides the main focus, describes a forensic clinical interview framework which seeks to draw together a broad range of considerations and areas for research in relation to the clinical forensic interview. This framework is explicitly intended to provoke and guide practitioners and researchers in the pursuit of evidence-based interviewing.


[1] During an interval of steady northward IMF on 10–11 January 1997, Geotail and Interball spacecraft data at X = −5 to −15 RE on the dusk flank reveal magnetopause boundary layer motions caused by both solar wind pressure discontinuities and the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. Several large, sudden changes in solar wind density caused the magnetopause to move across both spacecraft. Relative timing of these crossings along with corresponding geosynchronous and ground magnetic field changes allow study of the propagation of pressure fronts in the magnetosheath and the associated wave propagation in the magnetosphere. The wave in the boundary layer propagates down the tail faster than the pressure front in the magnetosheath, producing boundary motion ahead of the magnetosheath front. This boundary layer wave can bulge out the magnetopause, causing a spacecraft in the magnetosheath to become immersed in the magnetosphere for as long as 2 or 3 min before the higher density magnetosheath plasma arrives and compresses the boundary. The tailward convecting magnetosheath pressure front moves more slowly near the magnetopause than it does further out in the magnetosheath, distorting the front and enhancing the likelihood that the boundary layer wave will outrun the magnetosheath front. Integrating the velocity perpendicular to the boundary shows that the boundary waves can have amplitudes of at least 1 or 2 Re. During periods of steady solar wind pressure, waves with periods of several minutes are observed in a boundary layer that are consistent with exitation of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. Magnetograms from five ground magnetometer chains show both pulsations initiated by the pressure discontinuities and ongoing wave trains probably related to the KH instability.


Background
Gastric carcinoma is the most common malignant tumor in upper gastrointestinal. According to epidemiologic data, gastric adenocarcinoma intestinal type and diffuse type showed different carcinogenesis. Recently, targeting therapy for adenocarcinoma has established. The aim of the study to know the relationship between HER-2 expression and histopathologic type according to Lauren's classification and grading of gastric adenocarcinoma.
Methods
This study has done in Department of Anatomical Pathology Faculty of Medicine University of Indonesia/Cipto Mangunkusumo National Hospital, Jakarta. HER-2 expression is analyzed to see the relationship with histopathologic type and differentiation of gastric adenocarcinoma. The specimens were from resection and biopsy (2007-2011). Histopathologic type evaluated with Hematoxylin Meyer's staining. HER-2 expression evaluated with immunostaining with HER-2 antibody.
Results
We found 55 cases from 2007 until 2011 (76.4% men and 23.6% women). The mean age is 50.55 years (the range of age 29-73 years). HER-2 expression 3+,2+ and 1+ are 14.5%, 34.5%, and 25.5% sampling. 25% sample did not show HER-2 expression. We found overexpression HER-2 (3+) in 8 cases (14.5%) of adenocarcinoma gastric intestinal type.
Conclusion
There is a significant relation between HER-2 expression with histopathologic type (p=0.021). There is no significant relation between HER-2 with grading (p=0.253).
Key words: grading, gastric adenocarcinoma, HER-2.


Rationale: +/- 3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; Ecstasy) consumption has increased globally over the past two decades. Human studies have demonstrated that in a small proportion of users MDMA consumption may become problematic. Limited preclinical studies have evaluated the abuse potential of MDMA. Objectives: The present study sought to determine if MDMA selfadministration has similar addictive properties as other abused substances. Initial experiments sought to determine if MDMA could function as a reinforcer. Subsequent experiments assessed whether dopamine played a role in MDMA self-administration, whether MDMA self-administration was maintained by the presentation of a conditioned stimulus, and if extinguished MDMA self-administration could be reinstated. Methods: Animals were surgically implanted with indwelling intravenous catheters that allowed delivery of MDMA solution upon depression of an active lever. MDMA self-administration was examined in drug naïve and cocaine-trained animals. Further assessment of the reliability of self-administration was assessed using a yoked procedure, dose effect curves were obtained, vehicle substitution occurred, and progressive ratio procedures were used. The underlying role of dopamine in mediating MDMA self-administration was determined using the D1- like antagonist, SCH23390, and D2-like antagonist, eticlopride. Manipulation of the light and/or drug stimulus was used to provide initial assessment of the conditioning properties of MDMA. The ability of 10 mg/kg MDMA to reinstate responding previously maintained by MDMA was also determined. Results: MDMA was reliably self-administered in drug naïve and cocaine trained animals. Responding was selective to contingent MDMA administration, reduced with vehicle substitution, sensitive to dose manipulation, and increasing demand. A rightward shift in the dose effect curve was demonstrated after administration of SCH23390. Removal of both the light and drug stimuli produced a rapid reduction in responding. Removal of either the light or drug stimulus produced a gradual reduction over 15 days. Administration of MDMA reinstated responding previously maintained by MDMA. Conclusion: The demonstration of reliable MDMA self-administration provided a baseline for assessing MDMA abuse potential. MDMA selfadministration was mediated by dopaminergic mechanisms which may be similar to those demonstrated for other abused substances. MDMA selfadministration also produced conditioning - a feature of compulsive drug use. Responding previously maintained by MDMA was later reinstated by MDMA, demonstrating that MDMA use may result in relapse. MDMA has similar behavioural properties as other commonly abused substances.


Virtual environments (VE) are becoming an important tool for simulating manufacturing systems. A problem in their adoption is the lack of an easy and effective approach to building large and complex virtual environments that are required by many manufacturing simulation tasks. This paper reports on research into this problem and presents a novel approach - domain-analysis-based top-down construction - to constructing complex virtual manufacturing environments. Based on this approach, a software system is designed and implemented to provide easy-to-use and flexible tools that enable users to construct virtual environments rapidly and with minimum modelling effort.


Abstract. Although it is well known that forest canopies reduce the amount and intensity of precipitation at the ground surface, little is known about how canopy interception modifies extreme events. The effects of forest cover on intensity-duration-frequency relationships were investigated, using a stochastic model to extrapolate measured rainfall and throughfall to throughfall expected during extreme events. The model coupled a stochastic model of rainfall with stochastic representations of evaporation and precipitation transfer through canopies. Stochastic evaporation was governed by probability distributions sensitive to storm size, and transfer through canopies was governed by a black-box linear system. The modelled reduction of extreme-event intensities by canopies was 5–30%, depending on duration and return interval. The reduction was 15–20% in low return interval events (2 y) at all durations. In contrast, intensities of high return interval events (90 y) were proportionally more reduced at short durations (~30% reduced) than at long durations (~5% reduced). The model suggested that evaporative losses reduced intensity in the frequent events (2 y return interval), but water transfer through the canopy was more important for the reduction in intensity in the rarest extreme events. High return intervals of long duration were least affected by canopies because evaporative losses were the least proportion of rainfall. Extreme events larger than 10- or 20-y return interval probability threshold occurred only 31–69% as often in throughfall as in rainfall. Keywords: canopy interception, throughfall, stochastic rainfall modelling, rainfall intensity, linear systems, landslides


Arab world is essentially an urban society, whose typical examples are the primate capital cities in the Arab countries. In case of Amman, the capital of Jordan, it grew rapidly with the economic development in recent decades, and currently has 40% of national population. Its spatial expansion took place without urban planning, and is associated with many social and economic problems. However, the singularity of Amman is in its development in relation to migration. Since the independence of Jordan in 1946, Amman has accommodated the refugees and migrants that flowed into whenever wars and conflicts occurred in the Middle East. As such, Jordan is one of the most important buffer states in the Middle Eastern politics. There are few empirical studies based on statistical data on Amman urban society, and detailed studies that focus attentions on its spatial transformation are rare. Our paper aims at providing the basic information concerning the socioeconomic situations in Amman based on the data derived from the Amman Household Survey 2008, in view of the future research on the urban development of Amman. Originality of our paper lies in setting 'district' (liwa') as a base of analysis. By doing so, we categorize the 'districts' from socioeconomic point of view, and clarifies the socioeconomic characteristics of 'districts' which reflect the close relationship between social structuring and migration from inside and outside Jordan.


In this detailed study of Estonians' role in the Holocaust, Anton Weiss-Wendt casts light on a largely unexplored subject. A country known for its benevolent treatment of ethnic minorities, Estonia had a small number of indigenous Jews, and anti-Semitism existed on a relatively limited scale. However, many ethnic Estonians, acting as auxiliary security forces under the guidance of the German security police, participated in the murder of thousands of Estonian, Czech, and German Jews. Weiss-Wendt investigates these acts of genocide by posing the simple question: what prompted the Estonians to cooperate with the Nazis? He argues that the actions were voluntary but that the reasons varied. Narrating the history of Estonia's involvement, Weiss-Wendt presents lucid explanations regarding the relationships between nation-building, mass violence, and the brutal effects of authoritarian oppression on occupied states. The first book-length exploration of this aspect of the Holocaust, "Murder Without Hatred: Estonians and the Holocaust" enriches our knowledge of ethnic violence and reinvigorates the current debates over the roots and operation of the Holocaust.


Tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 2 (TRAF2) is an essential component of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) signaling that regulates nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathways, and compelling evidence has demonstrated that TRAF2 suppresses TNF-α-induced cytotoxicity. On the other hand, it has been reported that oxidative stress-induced cytotoxicity is potentiated by TRAF2, indicating that TRAF2 both positively and negatively regulates stress-induced cytotoxicity in a context-specific manner. However, the causal role of TRAF2 in DNA damage response (DDR) remains to be explored. In this study, we assessed the function of TRAF2 in DDR induced by cisplatin, a representative DNA-damaging agent, and found that TRAF2 exerts pro-apoptotic activity through p53-dependent mechanisms at least in human fibrosarcoma cell line HT1080. TRAF2 deficient cells exhibit significant resistance to cell death induced by cisplatin, accompanied by the reduction of both p53 protein level and caspase-3 activation. Moreover, cisplatin-induced JNK activation was attenuated in TRAF2-deficient cells, and pharmacological inhibition of JNK signaling suppressed p53 stabilization. These results suggest that TRAF2 promotes p53-dependent apoptosis by activating the JNK signaling cascade in HT1080 cells. Thus, our data demonstrate a novel function of TRAF2 in cisplatin-induced DDR as a pro-apoptotic protein.


Techniques such as ensembling and distillation promise model quality improvements when paired with almost any base model. However, due to increased test-time cost (for ensembles) and increased complexity of the training pipeline (for distillation), these techniques are challenging to use in industrial settings. In this paper we explore a variant of distillation which is relatively straightforward to use as it does not require a complicated multi-stage setup or many new hyperparameters. Our first claim is that online distillation enables us to use extra parallelism to fit very large datasets about twice as fast. Crucially, we can still speed up training even after we have already reached the point at which additional parallelism provides no benefit for synchronous or asynchronous stochastic gradient descent. Two neural networks trained on disjoint subsets of the data can share knowledge by encouraging each model to agree with the predictions the other model would have made. These predictions can come from a stale version of the other model so they can be safely computed using weights that only rarely get transmitted. Our second claim is that online distillation is a cost-effective way to make the exact predictions of a model dramatically more reproducible. We support our claims using experiments on the Criteo Display Ad Challenge dataset, ImageNet, and the largest to-date dataset used for neural language modeling, containing $6\times 10^{11}$ tokens and based on the Common Crawl repository of web data.


The CDAN2 gene, responsible for congenital dyserythropoietic anaemia, type II (CDA II), was recently mapped to 20q11.2. We report data on an additional member of a previously studied CDA II family. This member had always been regarded as haematologically normal. Unexpectedly, she had the same microsatellite assortments around the CDAN2 alleles as her three sisters with CDA II. In particular, she was a homozygote for microsatellites D20S863 and D20S841. This prompted an analysis of all facets of her phenotype. The Ham test was negative. The bone marrow smears contained a normal proportion of binucleate erythroblasts. Electron microscopy revealed the absence of extensive stretches of cisternae beneath and parallel to the inner surface of the erythroblast plasma membrane. Proteins of the endoplasmic reticulum, which contaminate the reticulocyte plasma membrane in CDA II patients, were missing. Only the shape of the band 3 peak appeared slightly altered. This case exemplifies that homozygosity (or compound heterozygosity) for a deleterious gene may be silenced, or almost completely silenced. In recessively inherited diseases, suppressed phenotypes tend to be overlooked in siblings where both patients and unaffected individuals are expected.


Blackleg, a major disease in rapeseed, can be managed using varietal resistance. However, to minimize resistance breakdown, other management techniques must also be used. We studied current agricultural systems used to manage rapeseed and blackleg on farms by means of a survey in two French regions. The data obtained were summarized and eight main systems were identified with an associated risk level of resistance breakdown. Rapeseed return time and varietal diversity were not the only techniques used by farmers to manage blackleg. Each system was also characterised for its capability of integrating current agronomic advice. Risky types were not always found in areas where blackleg was relatively rare. Less risky types would be able to improve their management whereas risky types may not have any leeway to include agronomic advice in their system. These data are now used to develop farming systems integrating agronomic advice and farmer's objectives and resources.


Patent Challenges for Standard-Setting in the Global Economy: Lessons from Information and Communication Technology examines how leading national and multinational standard-setting organizations (SSOs) address patent disclosures, licensing terms, transfers of patent ownership, and other issues that arise in connection with developing technical standards for consumer and other microelectronic products, associated software and components, and communications networks including the Internet. Attempting to balance the interests of patent holders, other participants in standard-setting, standards implementers, and consumers, the report calls on SSOs to develop more explicit policies to avoid patent holdup and royalty-stacking, ensure that licensing commitments carry over to new owners of the patents incorporated in standards, and limit injunctions for infringement of patents with those licensing commitments. The report recommends government measures to increase the transparency of patent ownership and use of standards information to improve patent quality and to reduce conflicts of laws across countries.


The article analyses the late results of surgical treatment of 123 patients with parasagittal meningiomas of various localization along the superior sagittal sinus (SSS) and falx cerebri (FC). Invalidism of patients after operations for meningiomas of the middle third of the sagittal line is still high because of stable motor defects. The results of operations for SSS resection without restoration of venous outflow of the hemisphere are poorer. Recurrences of the disease were revealed in one fourth of patients in different periods after surgery. The possibility of rehabilitation of the patient after an operation for recurrences of the tumor considerably reduces with each subsequent recurrence.


Over the last twenty five years commodity crop farms have steadily declined in number and grown in average size, and production has shifted to larger operations. During the same period, the share of agricultural payments going to large farms has increased, in large part because payments are tied to actual or historical crop production. This study evaluates whether payments from federal farm programs may have contributed to the concentration of farmland. Using zip code-level data constructed from the micro files of the 1987-2002 Agriculture Censuses the study estimates the association between government payments per acre and subsequent growth in weighted median farmland area. A semi-parametric generalized additive model controls for location and initial concentration levels, and narrows comparisons to nearby zip codes with similar average farm sizes. Findings indicate, both with and without spatial controls, that government payments are strongly associated with subsequent concentration growth.


Effective separation and transfer of photogenerated charge as well as sufficient visible light harvesting play a crucial role on the photoelectrochemical performance of photoelectrodes. Hence, in this work, the WO3 photoanode modified by plasmonic Ag nanoparticles (surface) and Pt nanoparticles (bottom) was designed and fabricated for the first time to realize efficient water splitting. In this Pt/WO3/Ag photoanode, the Ag nanoparticles as photosensitizers enlarge the absorption spectrum and facilitate charge separation due to its fascinating SPR effect; moreover, the Pt layer serves as an electron collector to trap the electrons and then transfer them to the FTO substrate, where their synergistic effect leads to efficient charge separation and transfer. As a result, the Pt/WO3/Ag photoanode yields an enhanced photocurrent of 1.13 mA/cm2 at 1.23 V vs RHE under AM 1.5G illumination in a 0.2 M Na2SO4 solution, which is nearly 3.32 times that of bare WO3. Furthermore, a hole transfer Co-Pi layer was introduc...


Monitoring radioactive xenon in the atmosphere is one of several methods used to detect nuclear weapons testing. To increase sensitivity, monitoring stations use a complex system of separate beta and gamma detectors to detect beta-gamma coincidences from the Xe isotopes of interest, which is effective, but requires such careful gain matching and calibration that it is difficult to operate in the field. To simplify the system, a phoswich detector has been designed, consisting of optically coupled plastic and CsI scintillators to absorb beta particles and gamma rays, respectively. Digital pulse shape analysis of the detector signal is used to determine if radiation interacted in either or both parts of the detector and to measure the energy deposited in each part, thus using only a single channel of readout electronics to detect beta-gamma coincidences and to measure both energies. Experiments with a prototype detector show that the technique can clearly separate event types, does not degrade the energy resolution, and has an error rate for detecting coincidences of less than 0.1%. Monte Carlo simulations of radiation transport and light collection in the proposed detector were performed to obtain optimum values for its design parameters and an estimate of the coincidence detection efficiency (82-92%) and the background rejection rate (better than 99%).


One of the largest causes of fluctuations in the size and structure of populations is changes in the environment. In nature, these changes are often temporally autocorrelated and the strength and direction of the autocorrelation can affect population dynamics. These effects are mediated by complex, simultaneously occurring ecological and evolutionary processes, such as phenotypic plasticity and selection. Determining how these processes interact to affect responses of different life histories to autocorrelated environmental fluctuations is of paramount importance to infer which taxa are likely to go extinct or become invasive under global change. Here, we assessed the effect of autocorrelation in environmental states on the trait and population dynamics of different life histories using an evolutionary explicit individual-based modeling approach. We found that, in general, higher positive temporal autocorrelation caused more variation in population size. Fast life histories were more affected than slow ones as they were able to adapt more quickly to varying environmental optima and therefore experienced larger initial decreases in population size when optima changed. Including adaptive phenotypic plasticity buffered the effects of autocorrelation on population dynamics while nonadaptive plasticity amplified them, especially for slow life histories, which recovered less from maladaptation. This study highlights that integration of phenotypic plasticity, selection, and population dynamics is important to improve our understanding of how different life histories deal with autocorrelated climate variability.


A simple and efficient cluster model containing only seven metal atoms was proposed to investigate the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity of various metal catalysts by density functional theory (DFT) calculation. The model was validated by comparing ORR volcano plots obtained from the cluster model in this work and the slab model in the literature. We then used this model to investigate the influence of the support of Ag nanoparticles on ORR activity, which is hard to describe by the slab model. The calculations revealed the binding energy of oxygen atoms on Ag/COOH-CNTs or Ag/OH-CNTs changed to 2.04 and 2.09 eV respectively, in comparison to that of Ag/CNTs (2.13 eV). As a result, the ORR current density improved to 2.24 and 1.88 mA cm-2 at the potential of 0.7 V (vs. RHE) for Ag/COOH-CNTs and Ag/OH-CNTs respectively, in comparison to that of Ag/CNTs (1.66 mA cm-2). The cluster model could simultaneously reduce the computing time and make it possible to consider the influence of catalyst supports, which would provide new insight to design more effective ORR metal catalysts.


As XPath is the core of most XML query languages, the efficiency of processing XPath expression has been a main part of the cost in XML queries. However, most existing XPath processing algorithms, which don't take index structure into account, spend lots of costs on spaces and time. This paper proposes an efficient XPath query processing mechanism based on structural index that makes full use of XML structural index to quickly retrieve XML data. Coming together with the mechanism, the Compressed XPath Query Tree based on structural index is proposed, which significantly reduces many join operations. Then query algorithms are used to deal with all the structural relationship using our mechanism. Finally, experiments will run the algorithm on real XML datasets and query workloads to report the performance of our mechanism and show the efficiency compared with other mechanisms.


ABSTRACT Oh, S.M.; Moon, I.-J., and Kwon, S.J., 2016. Increasing the highest storm surge in Busan harbor, In: Vila-Concejo, A.; Bruce, E.; Kennedy, D.M., and McCarroll, R.J. (eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International Coastal Symposium (Sydney, Australia). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 75, pp. 760–764. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. One of the most pronounced effects of climate change in coastal regions is sea level rise and storm surges. Busan in particular, the fifth largest container handling port in the world, has suffered from serious storm surges and experienced a remarkable mean sea level (MSL) rise. This study investigates a long-term variation of annual maximum surge height (AMSH) using sea level data observed in Busan over 53 years (1962∼2014). The decomposition of astronomical tides and surge components shows that the AMSH has increased 18 cm over 53 years (i.e., 3.5 mm/year), which is much larger than the MSL trend (2.5 mm/year) in Busan. This significant increase in AMSH is mostly explained by the increased intensity of landfall typhoons over the Korean peninsula (KP), which is associated with the increase of sea surface temperature and the decrease of vertical wind shear at mid-latitudes of the western North Pacific. In a projected future warming environment, the combination of an increasing MSL and AMSH will accelerate the occurrence of record-breaking extreme sea levels, which will be a potential threat in Busan harbor.


Strongly correlated electronic systems in two dimensions have constantly been a source of new discoveries. For example, the integer and fractional quantum Hall (QH) effects have emerged when such systems have been subjected to strong perpendicular magnetic fields. Recently, in the transitional regions between QH plateaus, strong magneto-transport anisotropies have been observed below ca. 100mK. In this paper, we explain the emergence of broken rotational symmetry at half-filled valence Landau levels in terms of quantum liquid crystalline states with nematic order. Quantum Monte Carlo simulations indicate that while isotropic states are stable in the lowest and first excited Landau level, there are regions of instability towards liquid crystalline states in higher Landau levels. A possible connection of the recently discovered magneto-transport anisotropy in low magnetic fields and these liquid crystalline states is discussed. r 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 73.43.!f; 73.20.Dx; 64.70.Md


Though recent advancements in media and computing technologies have fostered greater instructor adoption of student media assignments, few studies have examined the role these projects play in the development of student media production skill sets. This study surveyed 12 first year college students in a postsecondary education class, each responsible for producing a digital story project communicating issues related to water sustainability. Students responded to a self-efficacy survey questionnaire before and after the production process, rating their confidence on ability to perform specific required and optionally suggested production tasks related to media components in the assignment. A paired t-test was employed to compare student responses from the pre and post self-efficacy survey questionnaires. Results from this study indicate significant gains in student self-efficacy beliefs on media production tasks that were required, while response changes for the optional tasks were found to be not statistically significant. Findings from this study suggest that digital storytelling projects can be beneficial in the development of student media production skill sets. To optimize opportunities for this development, instructors are encouraged to consider specific required media components with relevant production tasks and skill sets when designing a digital storytelling assignment.


A new murine T-cell growth factor, designated P40, which supports growth of helper T-cells in the absence of interleukin-2, interleukin-4 and antigen has been isolated from helper T-cell lines in sufficient quantities (100 micrograms) to permit its complete amino acid sequence determination. This was achieved by a combination of sensitive peptide mapping using microbore reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography and automated microsequence analysis. Attempts to obtain N-terminal sequence data on P40 were unsuccessful due to N-terminal blockage of the native molecule. The nature of this N-terminal blocking was established using a combination of amino acid analysis, fast-atom-bombardment mass spectrometry and peptide synthesis. The P40 molecule, a single polypeptide chain comprising 126 amino acid residues, is structurally distinct from other known T-cell growth factors. No similarity was revealed when the amino acid sequence of P40 was compared with other proteins whose biochemical structure is known. The protein sequence data reported here predict four N-linked glycosylation sites in the P40 molecule.


Tajoura Nuclear Research Center (TNRC), Libya, will implement the technology for Mo isotope production using LEU-foil target (This target is made of a LEU metallic uranium foil inserted between two concentric aluminum cylinders), to obtain new revenue streams for the TNR-reactor and desiring to serve the Libyan hospitals by providing the medical radioisotopes. Korean target will be used in this work which will be irradiated for 72 hours in the reactor core at flux equal to 1.0 x 1014 N/Cm.S. The target will stay 10 h. in the reactor pool for cooling before disassembling it inside a hot cell located in the reactor building. The LEU-foil will be transferred to chemical hot cell pneumatically. A special set up has been designed for the processing of LEU-foil. The set up consists of the dissolver with controlled pressure, nitric acid will be used for dissolution, cold trap cooled in liquid nitrogen for removing the fission gases, precipitation of Mo-99 by fresh 2 % alpha-benzoin-oxime will be done and purification of the final product by using two chromatographic columns: the first one contains AgC ( carbon coated with silver nitrate) and the second one is a combined column with C, HZO-1 (hydro zirconium oxide) and AgC. The final product of Mo-99 solution will be filtered with 0.22 μm filter. The final radioactivity of Mo-99 expected to be >150 Ci and 95 % purity. PRODUCTION AND APPLICATION OF RADIONUCLIDES POSTERS 269 PAR-P11, (Id: 204) A NEW WAY FOR SEPARATION OF Tc FROM CYCLOTRON IRRADIATED Mo FOIL Aleksander Bilewicz, Magdalena Gumiela, Ewa Gniazdowska Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology email@example.com Tc is at present, without any doubt, the most extensively used radiotracer in nuclear medicine imaging [1]. Usually, the operation period of research reactors used for the production of Mo is about 40-50 years. Most reactors used in the preparation Mo have already reached this age, or will reach in the near future. There is a growing interest in exploring cyclotron production of Tc using Mo(p,2n)mTc reaction, a method first proposed by Beaver and Hupf nearly 40 years ago [2]. There is a real necessity to develop separation technologies suitable for use in novel modes of Tc production. Separation of technetium from irradiated molybdenum may be carried out using either ''wet'' or ''dry'' chemical processes. "Wet" separation techniques require dissolving of the metallic target under oxidative conditions and then separation of pertechnetate can be achieved using one of many strategies, e.g. liquid–liquid extraction [3], ion-exchange chromatography [4], aqueous biphasic extraction chromatography using ABEC resin [5] and electrochemistry [6]. The aim of our studies is to investigate the possibility of separating microquantities pertechnetate from macroquantities molybdate anions. These studies have been carried out using a natural molybdenum powder. Molybdenum forms heteropolyacids such as ammonium molybdenum phosphate (AMP) precipitating as a characteristic yellow solid. In the first step metallic molybdenum target is dissolved in 3,5 M HNO3. Next, triammonium phosphate is added and Mo is precipitated from the solution according to the reaction: (NH4)3PO4 *3H2O + 12MoO4 + 24H (NH4)3P(Mo3O10)4 + 5H2O We have optimized four parameters of the process: NH4NO3 and (NH4)3PO4•3H2O concentrations, temperature and the time of precipitation. From performed studies it can be concluded that the proposed process is promising and allows fast separation of macroamounts of Mo from the solution without co-precipitation of Tc. After optimization of the precipitation conditions, the lowest concentration of MoO4 was only 0.37 mg ml-1. The final solution may be required additional purification by separation of TcO4 by ABEC resin, extraction by HDEHP or by nano-ZrO2. Acknowledgments: This work was carried out as part of the Applied Research Project PBS1/A9/2/2012, p.t. "Alternative methods of Tc production" supported by The National Centre for Research and Development, Poland. [1]. Arano Y.: Annl Nucl Med,16:79–93 (2002). [2]. Beaver J, Hupf H.: J Nucl Med 12, 739–41(1971). [3]. Dallali N., Ghanbari M., Yamini Y., Fateh B., Agrawal Y. K.: Indian. J. Chem. Sect. A, 46A, 1615–1617 (2007). [4]. Chattopadhyay S., Das S.S., Das M. K., Goomer N. C.: Appl Radiat Isot., 66, 12, 1814-7 (2008). [5]. Rogers R. D., Bond A.H., Griffin S.T., Horwitz E.P.: Solvent Extr. Ion Exch., 14: 919–946 (1996). [6]. Chakravarty R., Dash A., Venkatesh M.: Nucl.Med.Biol., 37, 21–28 (2010). PRODUCTION AND APPLICATION OF RADIONUCLIDES POSTERS 270 PAR-P12, (Id: 286) CYCLOTRON PRODUCTION AND RADIOCHEMICAL ISOLATION OF Sn Gospodin Bozhikov, Nikolay Aksenov, Sarkis Karamian, Gennadiy Starodub, Sergey Dmitriev Joint Institute for Nuclear Research firstname.lastname@example.com In the recent years there has been significant interest in the production of certain isomers, especially the ones with potential applications in the field of nuclear medicine. Sn has been considered as an emerging radio therapeutic isotope, which is particularly promising due to its favorable nuclear decay proprieties: T1/2 = 13.60d, 100 % IT decay mode and main gamma emission of 159 keV (86 %). There are number of potentially available ways for the production of Sn. In the current study the cyclotron method for mSn production by α-particles induced reaction on Cd has been investigated. The target consisting of enriched Cd (98 %) in oxide form was irradiated at U-200 under the following conditions: beam current 5,5 μA and energy of the accelerated α-particles 35 MeV. The cross section of reaction Cd(He,3n) has been taken in consideration in order to optimize the irradiation conditions. For Sn separation from the target material La(OH)3 and LaF3 precipitations were used. In order to achieve deep purification and concentration, ion exchange chromatography was applied using a micro column loaded with Dowex 1x8 resin in Fform. The radiochemical recovery of Sn through the separation procedure was above 90 %, with high specific activity of the final product. This work was partially supported by JINR grants No. 13-501-01 and 04-5-1076 and Federal Grantin-Aid Program «Human Capital for Science and Education in Innovative Russia» (Governmental Contract No. 8176) PRODUCTION AND APPLICATION OF RADIONUCLIDES POSTERS 271 PAR-P13, (Id: 287) RESEARCH OF RADIUM NEEDLES PROCESSING FOR RECYCLING OF Ra-226 Jan Krmela, Josef Podlaha ÚJV Řež, a.s. firstname.lastname@example.com ÚJV This theme is the first step to research and develop novel technologies and procedures for recycling and valorisation of historical radiation sources containing Ra-226. Recycling would include their reprocessing to a form suitable for irradiation in a nuclear reactor, production and separation of Ac-227 from Ra-226 and its use for the construction of Ac-227 /Ra-223 radionuclide generator. Ra-226 would be recycled and reused in next irradiations. Ra-223 would then be used for the preparation of radiolabeled biologically active compounds and verification of their properties in model in vitro and in vivo systems (cell cultures, small laboratory animals, plants). In the first step, a method for opening and processing the radium needle under adequate radiation protection was proposed. For the handling with Ra-226 a procedure and equipment for its processing was designed. Source of Ra-226 (radium needle) with required documentation was obtained and semi-hot cell for opening radium needle with research of radium needle was prepared. This theme of project TA03010027 is supported by TA CR. PRODUCTION AND APPLICATION OF RADIONUCLIDES POSTERS 272 PAR-P14, (Id: 330) EXTRACTION CHROMATOGRAPHY AND ION EXCHANGE CHROMATOGRAPHY AS A METHOD TO OBTAIN NP TRACER FOLLOWING PROTON ACTIVATION OF URANIUM TARGET AT 60 MeV Renata Kierepko, Miroslaw Bartyzel, Jerzy-Wojciech Mietelski, Ryszard Misiak The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) email@example.com Anthropogenic nuclides as: Pu, Am, Np and other actinides are present in the components of terrestrial and marine ecosystems as a result of atmospheric nuclear weapon tests, nuclear accident and releases from nuclear installation. In recent years, radiological situation of Pu and Am in environment become better understood since measurements of these elements were more common. This is not the case of Np (Np-237). One of the most important reason of it is lack of available isotopic spike for chemical recovery of Np fraction from samples. Our goal was to test and develop a methodology of purification Np tracer from wide range of elements. For this purpose, uranium (U-235, U-238) target was activated by proton beam (E = 30 MeV or E = 60 MeV, respectively, Imax<40nA) in cyclotron AIC-144 at the IFJ PAN (Poland). One of the products was Np-234 –gamma decay transuranic element with T1/2 = 4.4 days. Activated target , which was a mix of activation, fissionand decaysproducts, including Np-234 was subjected to separation using extraction and ion exchange chromatography. These two methods are ideally suited to purification of Np fraction from another elements, because of their good selectivity and simplicity. The most important parameter which decided about the choice of the methodology was time saving concerning short half life time nuclides appeared in the source. This became the starting point for development of methodology dedicated to purification Np fraction. The results of separation were satisfactory and will be presented during Conference. It is planned to search for Np-235 and Np-236 if any present in the obtained Np fraction using ICPMS. Acknowledgement: The work was done within framework of Polish Governmental Strategic Project: Supporting technologies for the development of safe nuclear power, Action 4: "Development of techniques and technologies supporting management of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste (No SP/J/4/143321/11)" and Action 6 "Development o


Microturbines and fuel cells are currently attracting a lot of attention to meet future users needs in the distributed generation market. This paper addresses a preliminary analysis of a representative state-of-the-art 50 kW microturbine coupled with a high-temperature solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The technologies of the two elements of such a hybrid-power plant are in a different state of readiness. The microturbine is in an early stage of pre-production and the SOFC is still in the development phase. It is premature to propose an optimum solution. Based on today's technology the hybrid plant, using natural gas fuel, would have a power output of about 389 kW, and an efficiency of 60 percent. If the waste heat is used the overall fuel utilization efficiency would about 80 percent. Major features, parameters and performance of the microturbine and the SOFC are discussed. The compatibility of the two systems is addressed, and the areas of technical concern, and mismatching issues are identified and discussed. Fully understanding these, and identifying solutions, is the key to the future establishing of an optimum overall system. This approach is viewed as being in concert with evolving technological changes. In the case of the microturbine changes will be fairly minor as they enter production on a large scale within the next year or so, but are likely to be significant for the SOFC in the next few years, as extensive efforts are expended to reduce unit cost. It is reasonable to project that a high performance and cost-effective hybrid plant, with high reliability, will be ready for commercial service in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century.While several microturbines can be packaged to give an increased level of power, this can perhaps be more effectively accomplished by coupling just a single gas turbine module with a SOFC. The resultant larger power output unit opens up new market possibilities in both the industrial nations and developing countries.Copyright © 2000 by ASME


Abstract— An active RFIC X-band phase shifter is implemented using IHP SiGe HBT 0.25 μm SGB25V technology with an improved vector sum method. The chip is formed by a three way Wilkinson power divider, three phase delays for 0-120-240
degrees, three similar RFIC LNAs and a final three way Wilkinson power combiner on the same chip and occupies an area of 4x1.8 mm2. The circuit provides both phase and amplitude control without the need of any additional digital circuitry. Phase shifting is simply based on the weighted vector sum of three vectors which are separated by 120o from each other. All 0-360 degree phase can be scanned simply by this method with the addition of amplitude control. The RFIC LNA circuit is fabricated and measurement results show that LNA has
a gain of 10 - 13 dB with in the band of 6-9 GHz and 2-3 dB NF within the same band. The simulation results show that the phase can be scanned from 0-360 degrees with average 7 degree resolution for a 2 dB amplifier gain change. The gain of the overall active phase shifter circuit is 12-13 dB with output gain
flatness is 1 dB and the circuit consumes 15.36 mW power. The circuit combines the amplifier with phase shifter and can be used for X-band applications.


The present paper has introduced an innovative, efficient and real-time cost beneficial technique that enables user to hear the contents of text images instead of reading through them. It combines the concept of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Text to Speech Synthesizer (TTS) in Raspberry pi. This kind of system helps visually impaired people to interact with computers effectively through vocal interface. Text Extraction from color images is a challenging task in computer vision. Text-to-Speech conversion is a method that scans and reads English alphabets and numbers that are in the image using OCR technique and changing it to voices. This paper describes the design, implementation and experimental results of the device. This device consists of two modules, image processing module and voice processing module. The device was developed based on Raspberry Pi v2 with 900 MHz processor speed.


The albA gene from Klebsiella oxytoca encodes a protein that binds albicidin phytotoxins and antibiotics with high affinity. Previously, it has been shown that shifting pH from 6 to 4 reduces binding activity of AlbA by about 30%, indicating that histidine residues might be involved in substrate binding. In this study, molecular analysis of the albA coding region revealed sequence discrepancies with the albA sequence reported previously, which were probably due to sequencing errors. The albA gene was subsequently cloned from K. oxytoca ATCC 13182(T) to establish the revised sequence. Biochemical and molecular approaches were used to determine the functional role of four histidine residues (His(78), His(125), His(141) and His(189)) in the corrected sequence for AlbA. Treatment of AlbA with diethyl pyrocarbonate (DEPC), a histidine-specific alkylating reagent, reduced binding activity by about 95 %. DEPC treatment increased absorbance at 240-244 nm by an amount indicating conversion to N-carbethoxyhistidine of a single histidine residue per AlbA molecule. Pretreatment with albicidin protected AlbA against modification by DEPC, with a 1 : 1 molar ratio of albicidin to the protected histidine residues. Based on protein secondary structure and amino acid surface probability indices, it is predicted that His(125) might be the residue required for albicidin binding. Mutation of His(125) to either alanine or leucine resulted in about 32 % loss of binding activity, and deletion of His(125) totally abolished binding activity. Mutation of His(125) to arginine and tyrosine had no effect. These results indicate that His(125) plays a key role either in an electrostatic interaction between AlbA and albicidin or in the conformational dynamics of the albicidin-binding site.


We analysed 132 case forms of pregnant women who delivered in a special maternity hospital for patients with cardiovascular diseases. Complex disorders of heart rhythm (paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, frequent ventricular extrasystoles, and II - III degree atrioventricular block) were revealed in 64 (48.5%) of women. Etiological factors of these arrhythmias and blocks in 50% of cases were organic and functional derangements of cardiovascular system. In other 50% of cases causes of heart rhythm disorders were not established and they were classified as idiopathic. Perinatal outcomes in women with arrhythmias and blocks were worse than in women without this pathology. They appeared as intrauterine retardation of fetus development and various derangements of central nervous system in newborns.


This paper introduces the "National Diamond Model" and reviews the literature concerning the export of flower seedlings. Then it analyzes the production and export of Chinese flower seedlings, as well as the factors (factor endowments, foreign demand, related industries and industrial organization) influencing the production of Chinese flower seedlings based on Diamond Model. Finally, this paper puts forth the recommendations for the enhancement of the export competitiveness of Chinese flower seedlings.


Two studies investigated what instructional issues may be involved when second-language television recordings with first-language subtitles are used in the second-language classroom. The experiments were conducted in an English-as-a-Second-Language class in advanced listening for native Chinese-speakers. In the first experiment, conducted at mid-term, 14 students watched British mysteries, subtitled in Chinese, and summarized them, transcribed a portion word-for-word, commented on the utility or hindrance of subtitles, and commented on their own listening ability with regard to the program. In the second experiment, conducted as a final project, ten of the students were given recordings of "X-Files" programs in English with Chinese subtitles and asked to perform the same tasks. Results indicate that: (1) most technical and semi-technical vocabulary can be accessed through subtitles; (2) idioms, slang, and culture-specific referents were more difficult to comprehend; and (3) perfect tenses and subjunctive forms, already difficult for the students, were often contracted in conversations and difficult to understand. Students with good listening skills found subtitles slowed their progress, but did benefit from them. Students with lesser listening skills depended more on subtitles. Some found errors in the subtitles. (MSE) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************************


Incorporation of carbon at the molecular level can create unusual amorphous and nanostructures of Si–C–O polymer-derived ceramics by controlled pyrolysis of crosslinked polysiloxanes. These ceramics can resist crystallization to ultrahigh temperatures. In this work, we support earlier studies that the resistance to crystallization of these nanodomain networks is due to thermodynamic as well as kinetic factors. Calorimetric measurements of heats of dissolution in a molten oxide solvent show that these ceramics posses a negative enthalpy relative to their crystalline constituents (silicon carbide, cristobalite, and graphite). Si–C–O ceramics pyrolyzed at 1000° and 1450°C appear somewhat more energetically stable than those prepared at 1200°C.


Background Chest physiotherapy and high-frequency chest wall oscillation (HFCWO) are routinely used after lung transplant to facilitate removal of secretions. To date, no studies have been done to investigate which therapy is more comfortable and preferred by lung transplant recipients. Patients who have less pain may mobilize secretions, heal, and recover faster. Objectives To compare effects of HFCWO versus chest physiotherapy on pain and preference in lung transplant recipients. Methods In a 2-group experimental, repeated-measures design, 45 lung transplant recipients (27 single lung, 18 bilateral) were randomized to chest physiotherapy (10 AM, 2 PM) followed by HFCWO (6 PM, 10 PM; group 1, n = 22) or vice versa (group 2, n = 23) on postoperative day 3. A verbal numeric rating scale was used to measure pain before and after treatment. At the end of the treatment sequence, a 4-item patient survey was administered to assess treatment preference, pain, and effectiveness. Data were analyzed with χ2 and t tests and repeatedmeasures analysis of variance. Results A significant interaction was found between mean difference in pain scores from before to after treatment and treatment method; pain scores decreased more when HFCWO was done at 10 AM and 6 PM (P = .04). Bilateral transplant recipients showed a significant preference for HFCWO over chest physiotherapy (11 [85%] vs 2 [15%], P = .01). However, single lung recipients showed no significant difference in preference between the 2 treatments (11 [42%] vs 14 [54%]). Conclusions HFCWO seems to provide greater decreases in pain scores than does chest physiotherapy. Bilateral lung transplant recipients preferred HFCWO to chest physiotherapy. HFCWO may be an effective, feasible alternative to chest physio therapy. (American Journal of Critical Care. 2013;22:115-125) PAIN AFTER LUNG TRANSPLANT: HIGH-FREQUENCY CHEST WALL OSCILLATION VS CHEST PHYSIOTHERAPY Pulmonary Critical Care


Inborn errors of metabolism are genetic disorders due to impaired activity of enzymes, transporters, or cofactors resulting in accumulation of abnormal metabolites proximal to the metabolic block, lack of essential products or accumulation of by-products. Many of these disorders have serious clinical consequences for affected neonates, and an early diagnosis allows presymptomatic treatment which can prevent severe permanent sequelae and in some cases death. Expanded newborn screening for these diseases is a promising field of targeted metabolomics. Here we report the application, between 2007 and 2014, of this approach to the identification of newborns in southern Italy at risk of developing a potentially fatal disease. The analysis of amino acids and acylcarnitines in dried blood spots by tandem mass spectrometry revealed 24 affected newborns among 45,466 infants evaluated between 48 and 72 hours of life (overall incidence: 1 : 1894). Diagnoses of newborns with elevated metabolites were confirmed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, biochemical studies, and genetic analysis. Five infants were diagnosed with medium-chain acyl CoA dehydrogenase deficiency, 1 with methylmalonic acidemia with homocystinuria type CblC, 2 with isolated methylmalonic acidemia, 1 with propionic acidemia, 1 with isovaleric academia, 1 with isobutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency, 1 with beta ketothiolase deficiency, 1 with short branched chain amino acid deficiency, 1 with 3-methlycrotonyl-CoA carboxylase deficiency, 1 with formimino-transferase cyclodeaminase deficiency, and 1 with cystathionine-beta-synthase deficiency. Seven cases of maternal vitamin B12 deficiency and 1 case of maternal carnitine uptake deficiency were detected. This study supports the widespread application of metabolomic-based newborn screening for these genetic diseases.