In previous work we studied linear and nonlinear left-invariant diffusion equations on the 2D Euclidean motion group SE(2), for the purpose of crossing-preserving coherence-enhancing diffusion on 2D images. In this paper we study left-invariant diffusion on the 3D Euclidean motion group SE(3), which is useful for processing three-dimensional data. In particular, it is useful for the processing of High Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging (HARDI) data, since these data can be considered as orientation scores directly, without the need to transform the HARDI data to a different form. In principle, all theory of the 2D case can be mapped to the 3D case. However, one of the complicating factors is that all practical 3D orientation scores are not functions on the entire group SE(3), but rather on a coset space of the group. We will show how we can still conceptually apply processing on the entire group by requiring the operations to preserve the introduced notion of alpha-right-invariance of such functions on SE(3). We introduce left-invariant derivatives and describe how to estimate tangent vectors that locally fit best to the elongated structures in the 3D orientation score. We propose generally applicable techniques for smoothing and enhancing functions on SE(3) using left-invariant diffusion on the group. Finally, we will discuss implementational issues and show a number of results for linear diffusion on artificial HARDI data.


This paper is concerned with the H∞ filtering problem for continuous-time Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy systems. Different from existing results for fuzzy H∞ filtering, the proposed ones are toward uncertain fuzzy systems with linear fractional parametric uncertainties. Attention is focused on the design of a fuzzy filter such that the filtering error system preserves a prescribed H∞ performance, where the filter to be designed is assumed to have gain variations. By a descriptor representation approach, two sufficient conditions for the H∞ filter design are proposed in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). When these LMIs are feasible, an explicit expression of the desired filter is given. A simulation example will be given to show the efficiency of the proposed methods.


The Aortic Arch and its Malfonnations with Emphasis on the Angiographic Features by Wade H Shuford MD and Robert G Sybers MD PhD pp xxii+264 illustrated $19.75 Springfield, lll.: Charles C Thomas 1974 This small monograph on the aortic arch and its malformations is based largely on angiographic studies and is written by two radiologists from Atlanta, Georgia. There are eleven well illustrated chapters describing first the embryology and developmental basis of the aortic arch and its malformations. This is followed by a description of the normal appearances. The various major anomalies are then described in the different chapters with their various and associated anomalies. Illustrative examples are given in most cases often accompanied by good line diagrams. This is a comprehensive work which will interest cardiac radiologists and physicians and also cardiac surgeons and pathologists. The pages are small and the book could easily be read in a few hours given the basic anatomical knowledge. Unfortunately, as with so many small American monographs, it seems unduly expensive for its size. DAVID SUTrON


Twenty four bacterial strains were picked randomly from CMG stock for screening of antagonism against five phytopathogenic fungi viz Macrophomina phaseolina, Rhizoctonia solani, Sclerotium rolfsii, Fusarium solani and Fusarium oxysporum that are major pathogens of cash crops of Pakistan. Among the twenty four bacterial strains, twelve were isolated from different agriculture fields of Pakistan whereas twelve were metal resistant strains isolated from metal contaminated sites of industrial area of Karachi. Eight of the twelve soil strains showed variable inhibition against the fungi while four did not inhibit any of the tested fungi. Soil strain CMG 159 (P. aeruginosa) showed inhibition against all five phytopathogenic fungi and produced maximum inhibition against Sclerotium rolfsii, Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium solani. Among all twelve metal resistant strains, five showed variable inhibition against the tested fungi while seven did not inhibit any of the tested fungi.

To determine the nature of antifungal activity, further experiments were conducted using the soil strains, CMG151 (Po aeruginosa), CMG152 (E. coli), CMG153 (P. aeruginosa), CMG154 (P. aeruginosa), CMG158 (P. aeruginosa), CMG159 (P. aeruginosa), CMG160 (P. aeruginosa) and CMG161 (P. aeruginosa) that showed antagonism towards fungi. Cell free supernatants of all strains did not show any antifungal activity. Continued antifungal activity in presence of protease enzyme showed that the antifungal activity was not protein in nature. Siderophores involvement was not possible as antifungal activity persisted at elevated concentrations of Fe3+ ions in the growth medium. Similarly, involvement of HCN as the cause of antifungal action was also ruled out, as picric acid test was negative.

Screening of extra chromosomal DNA showed that strains CMG 152, CMG 153, CMG 154 and CMG161 each harbored one single large plasmid DNA designated as pCMGI52, pCMGI53, pCMG154 and pCMG161 respectively. Size of pCMG152 was estimated to be 31.6 kb while other plasmids were 24.1 kb each. CMG 159 however, was also found to carry one small plasmid of approximately 8.8 kb, designated as pCMGI59.

CMG159 was selected for further genetic studies because it showed inhibition against all the tested fungi. Involvement of plasmid DNA in the antifungal activity of CMG 159 strain was ruled out, as elimination of pCMG 159 by curing did not abolish or reduce the antifungal action of the strain. In order to determine the gene(s) for the fungal antagonism, transposon mutagenesis of strain CMG 159 was carried out by introducing transposon Tn5 (km) into CMG159 to generate mutants defective for fungal inhibition (Af-). A mutant, CMG159m Af- was obtained which showed reduced inhibition and in some cases no inhibition against tested fungi. Southern blot analysis of EcoR1-digested chromosomal DNA of mutant CMG159m Af- confirmed transposon integration into the host genome as the probe for internal EcoR1 fragment of Tn5 hybridized to the complementary integrated DNA, thereby confirming, which inactivation of antifungal gene was caused by transposon mutagenesis.

To determine the chemical nature of the antifungal activity, extraction with organic solvents was done. Antifungal activity of CMG 159 could not be detected in hexane and ethyl acetate extracts. Vacuum layer chromatography was also performed with different polarity solvents but antifungal compound could not be extracted. Crude extraction from potato dextrose agar plates showed antifungal activity, which was correlated to a peak on high-pressure liquid chromatography analysis of the extract of wild type strain. The mutant CMG159m Af- showed reduction in the "antifungal" peak compared to the wild type strain, under same growth and extraction conditions. Therefore, loss of antifungal activity in mutant CMG 159m Af- suggested a link with the reduced peak seen on high pressure liquid chromatography analysis.

Finally, antifungal activities of the three soil strains, which produced good activity against tested fungi, were tested in vivo for the control of root rot infection of sunflower and mung bean. The strains were used along with a known biocontrol agent Trichoderma koningii by seed dressing and soil drench method. Soil strains showed significant (p

To compare the antifungal activity ofCMG159 and its derivative mutant CMG159m Af- experiments were done in vivo on root rot infection of sunflower caused by M phaseolina, R. solani, and Fusarium spp., by seed dressing and soil drench methods. CMG 159 significantly (p

In addition, antifungal activities of three metal resistant strains (CMG63, CMG52 and CMG58), were also checked in vivo against fungal infection in sunflower, by seed dressing and soil drench method. Metal resistant strains of Pseudomonas were observed not only to control the infection significantly but also increased the plant height and fresh weight of the shoot of sunflower. In vivo antifungal activity of metal resistant strains was also checked against cotton plants along with two known biocontrol agents T koningii and P. lilacinus. Combination of P. aeruginosa (CMG63, CMG52 and CMG58), T koningii and P. lilacinus produced significant (p


Objective: To analyse teachers' health views in order to obtain general trends in factors influencing health and health education and to fit them into the negative–positive model of health proposed by Downie and collaborators. Method: This large international study involved 15 countries from Western and Eastern Europe, North and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South America, with high socioeconomic and cultural diversity. The questionnaire constructed and validated by the European FP6 project BIOHEAD-CITIZEN was applied in each country to a balanced sample of pre-service teachers (Pre) and in-service teachers (In) of primary schools (P) and secondary schools, teaching biology (B) or national language (L). Results: Women, older persons, those having longer higher university education, primary school teachers (compared to secondary teachers) and language teachers (compared to biology teachers) have a more positive view of health. The major difference was found between countries, rather than religion, where five groups emerged from cluster analysis. Conclusion: The study does not lead to a comprehensive view of factors influencing teachers' perceptions of health but results showed that there is a variety of variables associated with health and health education views. These findings can contribute to facilitate developing appropriate specific health education teachers' training courses.


24-h monitoring of arterial pressure (AD) and heart rate (HR) was twice performed in 14 patients with panic attacks (in exacerbation and after a course of fluoxetine for 6 weeks). Panic attacks were followed by objective increase of both AD and HR in only 1/3 of the cases and by objective HR increase in 60% of the patients. Although patients with panic attacks were normothymics, hypertensive reactions can arise in them, during sleep for the most part. Alteration of HR variability in sleep-awakening cycle was the most paradoxical (excess HR variability in awakening state and decreased change during a sleep). These alterations of HR variability persisted after control of panic attacks with fluoxetine. This allows to consider HR variability as a factor which reflects predispositional peculiarities of autonomic system functioning in patients with panic disorders.


BACKGROUND
Personal debt is now recognized as one of the many factors associated with common mental disorders (CMD). We aim to estimate the prevalence of 'specific' mental disorders based on ICD-10 research diagnostic criteria by type of debt and quantify the additional influence of addictive behaviours.

METHOD
A random probability sample comprising 7461 respondents were interviewed for the third national survey of psychiatric morbidity of adults in England carried out in 2007. The prevalence of CMD was estimated from the administration of the CIS-R. Respondents were asked about sources of debt and their borrowing choices.

RESULTS
In 2007, 8.5% of adults were in arrears. Adults in debt were three times more likely than those not in debt to have CMD. The increased likelihood of CMD among those in arrears was found for all CMD and was irrespective of source of debt--housing, utilities and purchases on credit. The situation was exacerbated among those with addictive behaviours--alcohol or drug dependence or problem gambling. Those with multiple sources of debt and who had to obtain money from pawnbrokers and moneylenders had the highest rate of CMD, ≈ 50%.

CONCLUSIONS
Debt is one of the major risk factors for CMD. This has practical implications for both health services and financial services, which both need to be alert to the association and adapt and train their respective services accordingly so that people in debt can access help for mental disorders and people with mental disorders can access help for debt.


Based on the operator transformation technique, the multiple complex point sources required to generate a coherent superposition of waves are introduced and a closed-form analytical expression is derived for this composite wave. From the expression of the composite wave, the paraxial approximation and the nonparaxial corrections of all orders for the corresponding paraxial beam are determined. The paraxial composite beam uniformly represents off-axis Gaussian beams (GBs), sin(cos)-GBs, sinh(cosh)-GBs, nth-order modified Bessel-GBs, and Bessel-GBs with topological charge.


Reports were compiled of sunfish (family Molidae) by-catch in Peruvian small-scale fisheries and sunfish by-catch rates were estimated using data from shore-based and onboard monitoring programmes. A total of 114 sunfishes were reported in the longline and gillnet fisheries along the Peru coast from 2005 to 2017. Systematic monitoring effort of small-scale gillnets leads to an estimate of between 23 and 352 individuals captured annually by the fleet fishing from the northern port of Salaverry and central ports of Ancon and Chorrillos and suggests that the actual number captured by the Peruvian gillnet fleet is in the thousands of individuals. Thus, Peruvian small-scale fisheries have the potential to greatly affect populations of these still poorly studied species. Moreover, new occurrence locations are reported for the newly described Mola tecta, which was only observed south of 11° S. Because of physical similarities among Mola species it was difficult to identify sunfishes to the species level and thus further studies (e.g., genetics) will be required to provide more detailed information on individual species vulnerability to by-catch in Peruvian waters.


In general, shot peening is a surface treatment that improves the performance of engineering components, since application of surface compressive stresses reduces the tensile component of stress. In the shot peening process, the medium consists of small spheres, which are usually made of high-carbon cast steel; the diameter of the spheres is in the range from 0.3 to 1.2 mm. More recently, a new type of microshot has been developed to enhance the peening effect. The diameter of the new spheres is in the range from 0.02 to 0.15 mm. The effect of microshot peening on the residual stress of spring steel was investigated. The projective method of the microshot was of the compressed air type. The microshot of 0.1 mm diameter was high-carbon cast steel and cemented carbide, and the workpiece used was the commercially spring steel JIS-SUP10. The effect that process variables such as shot speed and peening time have primarily on residual stress was studied. The surface layer of the workpieces was sufficiently deformed by microshot peening. The residual stress was observed near the surface. At a large number of cycles to fracture, microshot peening can more effectively enhance the fatigue strength. The use of hard microshots such as cemented carbide was found to cause a significantly enhanced peening effect for spring steel.


Abstract. This study is an attempt to assess quantitatively social and economic factors that determine vulnerability of Russian regions to natural risk, to trace the space differences of the considered factors, and to group the regions by their similarity. In order to indicate the regional differences in social and economic development, equipment condition, dangerous substances accumulation, and social trouble four the most suitable parameters were estimated, including the per capita production of Gross Regional Product (GRP), capital consumption, volume of total toxic waste, and crime rate. Increase of the first parameter causes vulnerability reducing, the increase of the last three causes its increasing. Using multidimensional cluster analysis five types of regions were found for Russia according to similarity of the considered parameters. These types are characterized with higher value of a single (rarely two) chosen parameter, which seems to be sufficient enough to affect natural risks increasing in these regions in near future. Only few regions belonging to the fifth type proved to have rather high value of GRP and relatively low values of the other parameters. The negative correlation was found between a number of natural disasters (ND) and the per capita GRP in case when some parameters reached anomalously high value. The distinctions between regions by prevailing different parameters, which result in natural risk increasing, help risk management to find directions where to focus on.


In the development of molecular therapies, a great deal of attention has focused on tissue targets, gene delivery vectors, and expression cassettes. In order to become an approved therapy, however, a molecular therapeutic has to pass down the same product registration pathway as any other biological product. Moving from research into industrial production requires careful attention to regulatory, manufacturing and quality concerns. Early work on developing and characterizing robust and scaleable manufacturing processes will ultimately be rewarded by ease of implementation as the product is successful in clinical trials. Regulatory agencies require solid process and product characterization studies to demonstrate control and understanding of the molecular therapeutic. As the gene therapy industry matures, standards will continue to rise, creating an industry that is capable of producing safe, high-quality and effective therapies for many of the world's most difficult disease targets.


A recent paper by Dollar and Kraay (2001) finds that higher primary educational attainment of the workforce does not increase the income of the poor except for its effect on average income. We test the robustness of their finding by using a broader measure of human capital that accounts for international differences in the quality of education. Our findings suggest that more quality-adjusted education does increase the income of the poor in addition to its positive effect on average income. Hence effective education policies should be an essential component of any poverty-reduction strategy.


We extend Lucas's classic asset-price model by opening the stochastic process driving dividends to Knightian uncertainty arising from unforeseeable change. Implementing Muth's hypothesis, we represent participants' expectations as being consistent with our model's predictions and formalize their ambiguity-averse decisions with maximization of intertemporal multiple-priors utility. We characterize the asset-price function with a stochastic Euler equation and derive a novel prediction that the relationship between prices and dividends undergoes unforeseeable change. Our approach accords participants' expectations, driven by both fundamental and psychological factors, an autonomous role in driving the asset price over time, without presuming that participants are irrational.


smoking could be a hitherto unrecognised cause of cancer in non-smokers. Others have belittled this notion, and even the World Health Organisation concluded recently that passive smoking "is probably free of risk in the sense of producing serious disease."5 With the finding of Miller6 that wives of smoking husbands die, on average, four years earlier than wives of non-smokers, the likelihood of a carcinogenic effect of passive smoking became even stronger, and various other suggestive findings have also been reported.7 8 Now, with the major contribution from Dr Hirayama, the evidence becomes less circumstantial, and it seems that a carcinogenic effect can at last be attributed to passive smoking with some certainty. What degree of exposure is necessary to produce an effect? This question requires urgent attention. It seems likely that the presence or absence of a smoking husband provides only a crude measure of the degree to which a wife passively smokes. In many cases passive smoking outside the home could be more important, particularly with wives who work, or spend much of their time in places of entertainment; and whether there was exposure in childhood (or even in utero9) could also be important. Thus it is possible that some of the control women actually received greater exposure than members of the experimental group. Certainly it seems unlikely that the control group represented a truly "basal" lung cancer rate. As Dr Hirayama notes, in the rural setting passive smoking outside the home is likely to be less than in urban surroundings, and in fact in the younger couples working agriculturally the lung cancer rate in the women with non-smoking husbands was half that of their urban counterparts. Other workers have also found that the lung cancer rate is lower in rural non-smokers than in urban non-smokers.'0 From Dr Hirayama's work, though, it would seem that this advantage of rural living can be completely negated, and actually reversed, by living with a smoker, suggesting that passive smoking is a more important component of the so-called "urban factor" in the causation of lung cancer than general atmospheric pollution, at least in non-smokers. It is to be hoped that further studies will become available that confirm (or refute) Dr Hirayama's findings, and which take into account some of the other sources of exposure noted, so that the risk to non-smokers can be delineated and quantified with increased precision. In the light of Dr Hirayama's study, and other recent demonstrations of the harmfulness of passive smoking (not to mention aesthetic considerations), it will be remarkable if society continues to sanction such a ubiquitous and damaging form of pollution just so that a habituated minority can gratify themselves with a psychostimulant drug whenever they please. It is to be hoped that every effort will now be made by the authorities to minimise the pestilential and incredibly selfish practice of smoking in public. The smoker's right to smoke if he chooses is not denied; but he has no right to make that choice for other people and that is exactly what he does when he smokes in public, for those around him become involuntary smokers.


Food insecurity has been documented in countries throughout the range of national incomes. Most LatinAmerican countries, including Brazil, fall in the middle of this range. Although responses to problems of foodinsecurity need to be developed for specific contexts, valuable lessons for successful interventions can belearned from both low- and high-income countries. This article begins by describing a continuum of country-level food security contexts. The basic elements of food security, including food availability, access, and utilization,are reviewed as are more recent developments in the field, including livelihood analysis, vulnerability, and riskmanagement strategies. A selection of public sector food security interventions is described that focus onimproving agricultural production, increasing employment and household income, developing human capital,and distributing food. Recent international experiences and insights are used to develop themes for orientationof these types of food security interventions in Latin America. These include: the importance of planning reliefefforts to be synergistic with long-run development; the tailoring of interventions to the needs of specificcontexts; and the related expansion of information systems to support these activities. The article also describesthe need to improve food security without leading to over-consumption, a problem of increasing concernin Latin America and elsewhere. Finally, development of local capacity through community-basedparticipatory actions is suggested as a means for improving program outcomes as well as promotinghuman rights.


The mosquito fauna of Museum and Zoological Garden Complex (JZC), a major tourist attraction inJos Metropolis of Nigeria, was studied The choice of the complex was out of public health curiosity. A total of 627 mosquitoes comprising 4 genera, Aedes, Culex, Coquilletidia and Eretmapodites, and9 species were caught n two dfferent study trips. Five species, namely, Aedes aegypti, A. africanus, A. vittatus, Culex quinquefasciatus and Eretmapodites chrysogaster, caught by human bait method are known variously to be involved in the transmission of yellow fever and other viral diseases. Culex quinquefasciatus had the highest frequency followed by Aedes aegypti. Simpson's dominance and Shannon-Wiener diversity indices of 0.4942 and 0.4550 were respectvely recorded for the whole mosquitoes sampled by the human bait method. C. quinqefasciatus was the most frequent species with diversity values of 0.4444 (Simpson's) and 0.1174 (Shannon-Wiener), followed by A. aegypti with 00455 (Simpson's) and 0.1431 (Shannon-Wiener). Ecological statistics demonstrated a highly significant diference in diversity between samples in March, during the dryseason, and June in the rainy season (P Keywords: Mosquitoes, Zoo Complex, Public Health, Aedes, Culex, Eretmapodites, Coquilletidia


Secondary CaCO₃ is commonly found in soils of arid and semiarid regions in variable states of development as Bk, Bkk, Bkkm, Ck, or, more rarely, Ak horizons. Historically, a qualitative scale featuring various stages of development has been applied when evaluating carbonate-laden soils. By contrast, this study used portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry to determine the soil Ca concentration of 75 soil samples from four US states in relation to developmental stage, as determined independently by five pedologists from the USDA–NRCS Soil Survey Staff. Although they were experienced, the evaluators unanimously agreed on the carbonate development stage on only 22.6% of the samples while evaluating the samples ex situ. Portable X-ray fluorescence-determined Ca content generally increased from Development Stage I through VI for intact aggregates as well as ground soil samples. The widest variation in Ca content was found in Stage III for both conditions. No substantive differences in Ca content were observed between Stages V and VI. A strong positive correlation was observed between the Ca content of intact aggregates vs. ground soil samples (r = 0.89). Both support vector machine classification and interpretable rules were used to classify secondary carbonate development stages using total Ca concentrations for intact aggregates and ground soil. Using scans of both conditions offers stronger predictive ability than either condition independently. Portable X-ray fluorescence provides an important analytical tool available to field soil scientists for evaluation of soils containing Ca as part of CaCO₃.


2 Abstract: The problem of juice waste mixture as poultry diet was high in crude fiber and low in metabolizable energy contents. Experiments were performed to improve the nutrient quality of juice waste mixture by using steam pressure. The first experiment was designed in a completely randomized design with 4 differen t incubation times of juice waste mixture (0, 15, 30, and 45 minutes) in Autoclave (15 psi pressure and 121°C), and each treatment was replicated 5 times. Measured variables were crude fiber, crude protein, crude fat. The second experiment was to compare of crude fiber, crude protein, ether extract, NDF, ADF, cellulose, hemi-cellulose, lignin, nitrogen retention, amino acid profile, and metabolizable energy of juice waste mixture between treated vs. untreated one. The results showed that the crude fiber, crude protein, and crude fat of juice waste mixture were significantly affected (P<0.05) by incubation time in autoclave. The incubation time for 30 minutes decreased crude fiber and crude fat, but increased crude protein contents of the juice waste mixture. The crude fiber, ether extract, NDF, ADF, cellulose, and lignin contents between untreated vs treated reduced from 17.10, 6.24, 34.30, 24.40, 12.20, and 11.80% to 12.02, 4.06, 32.62, 22.05,10.50,11.55%, respectively. Meanwhile, nitrogen retention, crude protein, hemi-cellulose, and metabolizable energy increased from 59.99, 8.40, 9.90 %, and 1744 kcal/kg to 65.51, 13.35, 10.57 %, and 2550 kcal/kg, respectively. In conclusion, the incubation time for 30 minutes in autoclave was the best treatment for improving the nutrient quality of juice waste mixture.


ABSTRACT Asthma is a chronic heterogeneous disorder, which involves airway inflammation, airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and airway remodeling. The airway smooth muscle (ASM) bundle regulates the broncho-motor tone and plays a critical role in AHR as well as orchestrating inflammation. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to increased severity and exacerbations of symptoms in asthmatic patients. It has been shown to modulate both immune and structural cells, including ASM cells, in inflammatory diseases. Given that current asthma therapies have not been successful in reversing airway remodeling, vitamin D supplementation as a potential therapeutic option has gained a great deal of attention. Here, we highlight the potential immunomodulatory properties of vitamin D in regulating ASM function and airway inflammation in bronchial asthma.


The article reports the author's experience about the use of Gore-Tex Dual Mesh Biomaterial in large incisional hernia operations in patients over seventy. From January 1996 at present day we operated on 23 patients for treatment of abdominal wall defect. In all patients we used a Dual Mesh. Overall mortality was O. Morbility was 9.5%. Follow-up is too short for definitive considerations about the incidence of recurrences but our initial experience with this material encourages us to use it again for replacement of abdominal wall defects especially in the old patient.


African elephants are 'keystone' species with respect to biodiversity conservation in Africa since they maintain habitats that support several animal communities by changing vegetation structure through foraging and by dispersing seeds between landscapes. Elephants are also 'flagship' species because, given their impressive size, they can make people sympathetic and stimulate local and international concerns for their protection. Economically, elephants contribute to national revenues as tourists are willing to pay to watch them. Despite all these factors, little is known however about elephant movement and how they utilize resources, especially in miombo-wetland ecosystems. This thesis investigates how elephants utilize resources in a miombo-wetland ecosystem in the Ugalla landscape of Western Tanzania over different protected areas containing different resource users. Using Global Positioning System (GPS) collars fitted to six elephants, it was observed that some elephant families are not confined in one protected area in the Ugalla landscape. Rather, they moved readily between different protected areas. Elephant movements were restricted to areas near the rivers, especially the Ugalla River, during the dry season and were dispersed widely during the wet season. As they move, elephants in the miombo woodlands of Ugalla selected the most abundant woody plants for browsing. Common to many woody plants, the browsed plants were short of mineral nutrients (e.g., sodium, calcium). Elephants obtained additional minerals by eating soils from certain termite mounds. Soils from termite mounds are richer in mineral elements (e.g., sodium, calcium, iron) compared to soils from the surrounding flood plain or compared to the browsed plants. However, the recorded termite mounds from which elephants eat soils were not evenly distributed in the landscape but confined mainly to the flood plains in the Ugalla Game Reserve. The Ugalla River, which is the main source of water for the elephants and other animals and also supports fishing activities by the local people in Ugalla during the dry seasons, is infested by the water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes). Such infestation potentially limits access to these precious surface water supplies. In addition at the regional level, the Ugalla River is among the major rivers that flow into the Lake Tanganyika which is shared by the countries of Tanzania, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia. Thus, the spread of water hyacinth if left unchecked threatens to impact Lake Tanganyika, affecting many countries and ecosystem services. This thesis highlights that sustainable conservation of biodiversity in different protected areas in the Ugalla landscape requires an integrated management approach that will embrace conservation of different interrelated landscape resources required by both wildlife and the rural poor populations for their livelihoods. Regular coordinated wildlife anti-poaching patrols should be initiated across the entire Ugalla landscape because the elephants, among other wildlife, utilize different protected areas in Ugalla. Local communities should also be engaged in conservation initiatives (e.g., controlling the spread of the water hyacinth) as these directly impact local livelihoods.


Faust is a functional programming language dedicated to the specification of executable monorate synchronous musical applications. To extend Faust capabilities to domains such as spectral processing, we introduce here a multirate extension of the core Faust language. The key idea is to link rate changes to data structure manipulation operations: creating a vector-valued output signal divides the rate of input signals by the vector size, while serializing vectors multiplies rates accordingly. This interplay between vectors and rates is made possible in the language static semantics by the introduction of dependent types. We present a typing semantics, a denotational semantics and a correctness theorem that show that this extension preserves the language synchonous characteristics. This new design is under implementation in the Faust compiler.


This study aimed to compare the performance of bloodderived scaffolds with a well-known and accepted scaffold, chitosan, in maintaining cell cultures of ASCs and fibroblasts for future wound healing applications. Cells were characterized, immunophenotyped and cultivated into the following scaffolds: 1) Chitosan (CH, control), 2) Platelet gel (PG), 3) Chitosan blended with platelet-derived growth factors (CHPG), and 4) Fibrin glue (FG). Parameters were evaluated: i) Maintenance of cell morphology ii) Cell proliferation and iii) Citotoxicity. Our results show that ASCs and fibroblasts presented similar proliferation behaviors, which were scaffold-dependent. Regarding cell density, there were more cells in PG, followed by CHPG, FG, and CH scaffolds, for both cell types. Moreover, apoptosis assays revealed that CH had the highest rates of early (4.7%) and late apoptosis (13.9%). The proposed scaffolds demonstrated significantly lower levels of apoptosis, at less than 10%. For all these reasons, our findings demonstrate that when compared to CH, both ASCs and fibroblasts may be grown more efficiently in all three proposed scaffolds. Furthermore, we can also conclude that PG and CHPG seems to be the better choices as biomaterials for the expansion of these cells, due to higher cell proliferation, and lower apoptosis levels. Finally, it is possible to conclude that a surplus from blood bank components may be used as scaffolds with bioactive properties, providing a suitable microenvironment for cells, which could then be employed to establish tissue banks for wound healing applications.


Context. It is generally presumed that the outflows from a YSO are directed close to its rotation axis (i.e. along its angular momentum vector and orthogonal to any attendant accretion disc). Many YSOs are formed from dense prestellar cores embedded in filaments, and therefore the relative orientations of outflows and filaments may place a useful constraint on the dynamics of core formation. Aims. We explore this possibility, from the viewpoint of what it may tell us about the angular momentum delivered to a core forming in a filament. We stress that we are not here addressing the issue of the relationship of filaments and outflows to the prevailing magnetic field direction, although this is evidently also an interesting issue. Methods. We use data from the literature and the SCUBA archive to estimate the projected angles between 45 observed outflows and the filaments which appear to contain their driving sources. The distribution of these angles is then compared with model predictions, so as to obtain a statistical constraint on the distribution of intrinsic angles between outflows and filaments. Results. Using the limited data available, and neglecting any possible selection effects or correlations between nearby outflows, we infer that the observed outflows have a tendency to be orthogonal to the filaments that contain their driving sources. Specfically, in the cases where the directions of the filaments and outflows are well defined, we infer statistically that 72% of outflows are within 45 o of being orthogonal to the filament, and only 28% are within 45 o of being parallel to the filament. Conclusions. This suggests that the prestellar cores which spawned the YSOs driving the observed outflows had angular momenta which were approximately orthogonal to the filaments out of which the cores formed. We briefly discuss the implications of this for two proposed core formation mechanisms.


Background MTX is still a basic medicament used in treatment of patients with RA. One of its adverse reaction is its hepatoxicity. Previous studies have established high diagnostic accuracy of the ELF score to assess hepatic fibrosis in chronic viral hepatitis and fatty liver disease. Objectives The aim of the research was the evaluation of the usefulness of ELF markings, by patients treated with MTX, as an indicator which shows potential liver damage. Methods In the research were analyzed results of 96 patients with RA treated with MTX. Average age of patients was 60 (19–85 years old), median of body mass was 70 kg (46–140), median of BMI was 26 (16–46). Average time of taking MTX were 4 years and median of the accumulated dose was 3140 mg (12,5–27400mg). Disease activity in the moment of evaluation, evaluated by DAS 28, was 4,3 (0,98–8,42). Achieved results ELF, PIIINP were correlated with body mass, BMI, dose of MTX, other illnesses (e.g. diabetes), taken nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and statins. In statistical analysis were used Pearson correlation and U Mann-Whitney test. Results The ELF values correlated with age, accumulated dose and DAS 28. Along with the increase of accumulated dose of MTX, disease activity and by older patients, were observed higher ELF values (the differences were statistically significant). The PIIINP values correlated with patients' body mass, accumulated dose of MTX and disease activity, evaluated by DAS 28. The differences were statistically significant. Along with the increase of body mass, accumulated dose and DAS 28, were observed higher values of PIIINP. Patients with diabetes had statistically higher values of PIINP (average: 11.13, median: 11,38), than patients without diabetes (average: 8.06, median: 7.15). There was observed no relationship between ELF and PIIINP results with taken nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and statins. Conclusions The ELF test, and one of its elements, PIIINP, may be useful in the evaluation of patients with higher probability of hepatotoxic effect of MTX. Special attention should be paid to older, obese patients, with diabetes, patients who take higher accumulated dose of MTX and with higher disease activity. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Objective In this study, we aim to demonstrate that measurement of the malondialdehyde (MDA) level in the umbilical cord blood of newborn infants born via cesarean section (C/S) and normal vaginal delivery (NVD) is indicative of oxidative stress during the perinatal period. Methods The study was conducted at Bakirkoy Training and Research Hospital between January 2006 and April 2006 on 15 newborns born via elective C/S, 15 newborns born via emergency C/S, and 15 newborns born via normal vaginal delivery. Complete blood count, total bilirubin, glucose, creatinine phosphokinase (CPK), uric acid, iron, blood gas, and malondialdehyde levels were measured in the umbilical cord blood Findings Malondialdehyde levels in the umbilical cord blood in the emergency C/S and NVD groups were found to be statistically and significantly higher than those in the elective C/S group. In the emergency C/S group, it was determined that the malondialdehyde level increased as the oxygen saturation of the umbilical cord blood increased. In the NVD group, a positive correlation was detected between the total bilirubin and malondialdehyde levels in the umbilical cord blood. In the emergency C/S group, the malondialdehyde level was recorded to be high in the infants with high level of uric acid in the umbilical cord blood. Conclusion We concluded that the malondialdehyde level in umbilical cord blood could serve as an indication of perinatal oxidative stress and that it could thus help in preventing permanent damage.


The dependence of perceived brightness on flash luminance and duration was determined for dark-adapted observers, with target size, retinal location, and wavelength varied parametrically. In the first series of experiments, observers made magnitude estimations of the brightness of flashes of varying luminance and duration. Perceived brightness varied as a power function of luminance, with simple fractional exponents: 1, (1/2), (1/3). The exponents for brightness depend upon both target size and flash duration. The second series of experiments determined how the Broca–Sulzer brightness enhancement shifts to briefer or longer durations with changes of luminance. Observers adjusted the duration of constant-luminance flashes to produce a maximally bright flash. The flash duration producing maximum brightness varied as a power function of luminance with simple fractional exponents: −(1/2) for point sources and −(1/3) for extended sources. The regularity of the exponents suggests that a simple mechanism underlies the encoding of brightness information in the dark-adapted state.


In his review of a number of journals written by the first Iranian emissaries sent to Europe, the author states that contrary to European traders and diplomats travelling to the East, Iranian diplomatic envoys were, by and large, mostly interested in the more superficial manifestations of progress and modernity in the West. The Iranian preoccupation with mysticism and introspection in the 17th and 18th centuries was not conducive to the development of a spirit of adventurism and a sense of curiosity about worldly and material aspects of societal life. Furthermore, the persistence of despotic rule and the endemic social and political insecurity caused Iranians to travel abroad to relieve personal tension rather than to observe and learn.
However, in reviewing three of the most noted of the journals, Tohfat al-Alam, Masir-e Talebi and Safarname-ye Mirza Saleh, the author refers to their indirect impact on the devlopment of certain concepts in the course of Iranian constitutional movement. Indeed, the author believes, Tohfat al-Alam may be the first book in Persian that contains a number of references to democratic values and institutions in the West, including limited monarchy and the parliamentary system which were developed, according to the book's author, as a consequence of the separation of church and state.
The author of Masir-e Talebi, describes, on the basis of his first hand observations, a number of modem developments in England which merit adoption by the Iranians only when they are compatible with the tenets of Islam. The emphasis of the book on the rule of law in European societies and the attention paid to the "public interest" as opposed to private motives, is also, according to the author, one of the first references to these two concepts in Iranian writings. The most salient feature of the third journal, Safarname-ye Mirza Saleh is its subtle yet clear comparison of the democratic features of the European societies with the despotic and arbitrary nature of Iranian political structure.


Background: Enterococci were known to be less virulent in healthy individuals, but recently have become important opportunistic pathogens, especially in hospitalized patients because of their ability to colonize the gastrointestinal tract for long periods which is a crucial factor in the development of drug resistance and have become a major obstacle for treatment. Objective: 1. To determine the species of Enterococci isolated from various clinical samples. 2. To determine the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of Enterococci. Material and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted at a private tertiary care hospital in Shivamogga district of Karnataka, using secondary data of Enterococcal species isolated from various clinical samples such as urine, blood, pus, sputum, sterile body fluids which were maintained in the Microbiology laboratory registers for a period of 1 year from January 2014 to December 2014. Standard protocols were followed for Enterococcus isolation, identification and to assess their antibiotic susceptibility. Analysis was done using MS Excel 2010. Results: Out of 66 enterococcal isolates from various clinical samples majority i.e. 32 (48.48%) were isolated from urine followed by pus 22 (33.33%). Majority of the Enterococcus were isolated from females 34 (51.51%). E. faecalis was the predominant isolate i.e. 56 (84.84%). All the isolates were susceptible to Linezolid and Vancomycin. Maximum resistance was seen against Penicillin i.e. 26 (76.47%). Conclusion: Considering the general scenario of increasing drug resistance and prevalence of wide variety of Enterococcus species there is a need to carry-out regular surveillance of antimicrobial resistance of enterococci to recommend appropriate


In this study, we use hourly data on store traffic, sales, and labor from 41 stores of a large retail chain to identify the extent of understaffing in retail stores and quantify its impact on sales and profitability. Using an empirical model motivated from queueing theory, we calculate the benchmark staffing level for each store, and establish the presence of systematic understaffing during peak hours. We find that all 41 stores in our sample are systematically understaffed during a 3-hour peak period. Eliminating understaffing in these stores can result in a significant increase in sales and profitability in these stores. Also, we examine the extent to which forecasting errors and scheduling constraints drive understaffing in retail stores and quantify their relative impacts on store profits for the retailer in our study.


Many organisms have sex chromosomes with large non-recombining regions having expanded stepwise, the reason why being still poorly understood. Theories proposed so far rely on differences between sexes but are poorly supported by empirical data and cannot account for the stepwise suppression of recombination around sex-determining loci in organisms without sexual dimorphism. We show here, by mathematical modeling and stochastic simulations, that recombination suppression in sex chromosomes can evolve simply because it shelters recessive deleterious mutations, which are ubiquitous in genomes. The permanent heterozygosity of sex-determining alleles protects linked chromosomal inversions against expression of their recessive mutation load, leading to an accumulation of inversions around these loci, as observed in nature. We provide here a testable and widely applicable theory to explain the evolution of sex chromosomes and of supergenes in general.


In this study, jet current and jet life in roller electrospinning of polyurethane (PU) were measured. The relationships between jet current and jet life and number of Taylor cones/m2 (NTC/m2), spinning performance (SP), and fiber properties (diameter, non-fibrous area) were analyzed. In addition, the effects of PU and tetraethylammonium bromide (TEAB) concentrations on jet current and jet life were determined. It was observed that jet current increases with PU and TEAB concentration, while jet life decreases. According to the results, NTC/m2 and spinning performance increase with jet current and decrease with jet life. Moreover, it was observed that jet current movement gives an idea about jet life, and it was also determined that there is a relationship between jet life and fiber morphology.


A new surface pre-treatment procedure has been developed in one of our laboratories [1] for electroless nickel (EN) plating, which appears to be an effective and environmentally benign treatment for the following deposition of a sound and high quality surface nickel coating with good adhesion. For that purpose, the aluminium substrate was immersed in a mildly acidic solution (lactic acid) of sodium hypophosphite in order to modify the passive surface and make it suitable for the reductive chemical precipitation of the nickel-phosphorus nuclei from the electroless nickel plating bath. During this novel pre-treatment technique, the surface adsorption of the hypophosphite anions play an important role therefore several advanced surface testing and analytical techniques (Scanning Electron Microscopy-SEM, Transmission Electron Microscopy-TEM, Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry-EDX, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy-XPS were applied in order to monitor and characterize the surface reactions and adsorption phenomena taking place during the pre-treatment. The Al excited XPS (studying P 2p, O 1s, C 1s, Al 2p, Ni 2p photoelectron lines) proved to be one of the most powerful technique in the identification of the chemical species formed and present on the surfaces examined in this study.


The non-crimp fabric (NCF) have an advantageous combination of high material properties and low cost for processing, and overcomes the disadvantages of the crimp factor of woven fabrics, providing full use of modulus and strength of reinforcing fibre. For using NCF, different stitching tension and thread of non-crimp fabrics may cause the mechanical properties of CFRTP. In this study, it is aimed to clarify the effect of stitching tension and thread of non-crimp fabrics on tensile strength of CFRTP. The disorder degree of the thickness direction in the fibre bundle and the ratio of resin rich area were examined by the SEM image analysis. There is the inverse correlation between tensile strength and the disorder degree to the thickness direction in the fibre bundle.


This paper studies how the HP-Filter should be adjusted, when changing the frequency of observations. It complements the results of Baxter and King (1999) with an analytical analysis, demonstrating that the filter parameter should be adjusted by multiplying it with the fourth power of the observations frequency ratios. This yields an HP parameter value of 6.25 for annual data given a value of 1600 for quarterly data. The relevance of the suggestion is illustrated empirically.


Background: Excess adiposity has been associated with lymphomagenesis, possibly mediated by increased cytokine production causing a chronic inflammatory state. The relationship between obesity, cytokine polymorphisms, and selected mature B-cell neoplasms is reported. Method: Data on 4,979 cases and 4,752 controls from nine American/European studies from the InterLymph consortium (1988–2008) were pooled. For diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), follicular lymphoma (FL), and chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL), joint associations of body mass index (from self-reported height and weight) and 12 polymorphisms in cytokines IL1A (rs1800587), IL1B (rs16944, rs1143627), IL1RN (rs454078), IL2 (rs2069762), IL6 (rs1800795, rs1800797), IL10 (rs1800890, rs1800896), TNF (rs1800629), LTA (rs909253), and CARD15 (rs2066847) were investigated using unconditional logistic regression. BMI-polymorphism interaction effects were estimated using the relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI). Results: Obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) was associated with DLBCL risk [OR = 1.33; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.02–1.73], as was TNF-308GA+AA (OR = 1.24; 95% CI, 1.07–1.44). Together, being obese and TNF-308GA+AA increased DLBCL risk almost 2-fold relative to those of normal weight and TNF-308GG (OR = 1.93; 95% CI, 1.27–2.94), with a RERI of 0.41 (95% CI, −0.05–0.84; Pinteraction = 0.13). For FL and CLL/SLL, no associations with obesity or TNF-308GA+AA, either singly or jointly, were observed. No evidence of interactions between obesity and the other polymorphisms were detected. Conclusions: Our results suggest that cytokine polymorphisms do not generally interact with BMI to increase lymphoma risk but obesity and TNF-308GA+AA may interact to increase DLBCL risk. Impact: Studies using better measures of adiposity are needed to further investigate the interactions between obesity and TNF-308G>A in the pathogenesis of lymphoma. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 24(7); 1061–70. ©2015 AACR.


An ionic liquid-type phosphomolybdic salt comprising 1-cetyl-3-methyl-imidazolium chloride (CMImCl) and 1:12 phosphomolybdic acid (PMo12) was prepared by solid state grinding. The new phosphomolybdic salt of CMIm-PMo12 was immobilized on glassy carbon electrode by cast-coating. The cyclic voltammograms of the GC/CMIm-PMo12 showed three well-defined pairs of redox peaks due to the PMo12 system. The GC/CMIm-PMo12 electrode showed great electrocatalytic activity towards the reduction of iodate. The analytical feature of the electrode for amperometric determination of iodate was evaluated.


Metabolic Imaging and Applications in Protein and Lipid Homeostasis Yihui Shen Metabolic activity is an important functional parameter of a living cell. Microscopic techniques are demanded to resolve the heterogeneity of metabolic activity from cell to cell and among subcellular compartments. Towards this, work in the Min lab has been dedicated to developing a prevailing metabolic imaging platform that couples chemical imaging by stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy with small vibrational tags on precursor molecules. This thesis describes efforts along metabolic imaging by SRS microscopy, with focus on visualizing protein and lipid homeostasis. Chapter 1 describes the design principle of metabolic imaging, including selection of vibrational tags and setup of SRS microscopy, and an overview of successful demonstrations of metabolic imaging in protein and lipid metabolism. Chapter 2 describes adoption of such principle to visualize protein turnover with C-phenylalanine metabolic labeling under steady-state condition and various perturbations. The rest of this thesis (Chapters 3-6) switches focus to fatty acid metabolism and cellular lipid homeostasis. As the minimal tagging in vibrational imaging preserves the physicochemical property of lipid molecules to the largest extent, it motivated me to revisit fatty acid metabolism from a biophysical perspective. Bearing the question in mind whether the non-equilibrium metabolic activity could drive phase separation in biological membranes, I thus look into the principle of membrane organization and its implication in biological membranes in Chapter 3. Then in Chapter 4, I describe the discovery and characterization of previously unknown phase separation in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane caused by lipid synthesis. In this case, metabolic imaging by SRS enables identification of solid-like domains formed by saturated fatty acid (SFA) metabolites. This observation further raises the question whether phase separation bears any functional roles in the adverse effects of SFAs (or lipotoxicity). Towards this, Chapter 5 introduces the background of lipotoxicity including its definition and models. Then I review proposed mechanisms for lipotoxicity, which point to the central role of ER in mediating the stress transduction. In Chapter 6, I present our findings that suggest the association of the observed solid-like domains with ER structural remodeling and local autophagic arrest. Together, these efforts demonstrate the valuable capability of SRS imaging to reveal metabolic heterogeneity and how this aids in the investigation of metabolic stress.


In the enterprise software industry, large providers (hubs) are fostering partner networks with smaller companies (spokes) that complement their platforms. This study takes the perspective of these spokes and seeks to understand their motivation to partner. It is the first to simultaneously examine two theoretical perspectives that help explain partnership formation. The input-oriented perspective holds that organizations enter inter-firm arrangements in order to access external resources and capabilities. The output-oriented perspective posits that the complementarity of the partners' products influences the benefits obtained from a partnership. In order to examine the relevancy and possible interaction of these two perspectives, a multiple-case study is conducted. Qualitative data from 17 spoke organizations is gathered and thoroughly analyzed. The study confirms that the hub's reputation and its capability to provide integrated systems are generally important reasons for partnering. However, the extent to which the hub's innovativeness and its commercial capital motivate spokes to partner varies substantially. The key finding of this study is that these variations can be explained by differences in the level of product complementarity. This leads to the conclusion that there is a widely neglected interaction effect between the input- and output-oriented perspectives in explaining the formation of hub-and-spoke partnerships.


This paper seeks to argue that harmonious complementarity in leadership remains a necessary tool that will navigate environmental consciousness and sustainable development in Nigeria. The choice of harmonious complementarity in leadership is pragmatically intended to utilize the facilities of local circumstance to address the confronting challenges of our existence. Harmonious complementarity in this context, implies the socio-cultural integration, co-operation and cross fertilization of natural and gifted ideas by the people within a defined political entity for the purpose of confronting a task that is before them. Under this ideal and leadership construction, the collective opinions of the people are sought and the consciousness of sustaining, protecting, preserving and/or promoting the environment becomes the collective task of the people; both the leader and the led. This is because environmental consciousness and positive awareness by the leadership would have risen to the climax that inappropriate laws and policies that were impairing sustainable development and negative activities of the human elements on the environment will be a relic of the past. This paper shall employ analytic and rational methods to drive home its argument. Keywords: Harmonious Complementarity, Leadership, Sustainability, Environment


In the presented work we devote to creating a computer model of a professional service firm using the theory of business modeling. The whole model was programmed using the application Vensim. Another part of this work was to use this model to answer some key questions about the professional service firms. We were studying how projects' size influences company's performance. We have also identified optimal project size for our model settings. Such model could then be used for better understanding patterns of companies in the professional service industry and we can use it to manage the company more effectively in this environment.


Fever is initiated by the action of polypeptide cytokines called endogenous pyrogens, which are produced by the host during inflammation, trauma, or infection and which elevate the thermoregulatory set point in the hypothalamus. Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) supports the differentiation and survival of central and peripheral neurons. We describe the activity of CNTF as intrinsically pyrogenic in the rabbit. CNTF induced a monophasic fever which rose rapidly (within the first 12 min) following intravenous injection; CNTF fever was blocked by pretreatment with indomethacin. The fever induced by CNTF was not due to contaminating endotoxins. Increasing doses of CNTF resulted in prolongation of the fever, suggesting the subsequent induction of additional endogenous pyrogenic activity. After passive transfer of plasma obtained during CNTF-induced fever, endogenous pyrogen activity was not present in the circulation; CNTF also did not induce the endogenous pyrogens interleukin 1, tumor necrosis factor, or interleukin 6 in vitro. Nevertheless, a second endogenous pyrogen may originate within the central nervous system following the systemic injection of CNTF. Of the four endogenous pyrogens described to date (interleukin 1, tumor necrosis factor, interferon, and interleukin 6), CNTF, like interleukin 6, utilizes the cell-surface gp 130 signal-transduction apparatus.


Background Infection by Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) is the most prevalent sexually transmitted infection (STI) world wide. The most frequently used diagnostic test for CT is a nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT), which is highly sensitive and specific. To further shorten time delay until diagnosis has been made, in order to prevent CT spread, the use of point-of-care (POC) tests may be the way forward. Objectives The diagnostic performance of three POC tests, Handilab-C, Biorapid CHLAMYDIA Ag test and QuickVue Chlamydia test, was evaluated and compared with NAAT. Methods All women, above the age of 16 years, attending for a consultation at an STI clinic between September 2007 and April 2008, were asked to participate. Women were asked to complete a short questionnaire and to collect six self-taken vaginal swabs (SVS). SVS 2 was used for NAAT and SVS 3 to 5 were randomised for the different POC tests. SVS 1 and 6 were used for determining quantitative CT load to validate the use of successive SVS. All POC tests were performed without knowledge of NAAT results. NAAT was used as the 'gold standard'. Results 772 women were included. CT prevalence was 11% in our population. Sensitivities of the Biorapid CHLAMYDIA Ag test, QuickVue Chlamydia and Handilab-C test were 17%, 27% and 12%, respectively. Conclusions The evaluated POC tests, owing to their very low sensitivities, are not ready for widespread use. These results underline the need for good-quality assurance of POC tests, especially in view of the increased availability of these tests on the internet.


This doctoral research is rooted in the development of an expanded form of painting and
what I refer to as the production of 'Abstract places'. This in turn is based on my specific
cultural background, having lived and worked in both the Far East and the West. To open up
the meaning and potential that an expanded concept of painting could have for
contemporary painting I have imported certain concepts from Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. Merleau-Ponty insists that "The body is our general medium for having a world". In this way, my body is at the centre of my productions. All my works start from my body and are
the trace of my existence. I thus perceive my body as an integral part of the production of
expanded painting. For my project, phenomenology is itself a tool to be manipulated and reframed
from my own embodied cultural perspective.
Through a close reading of the work of Far-Eastern visual artists U-fan Lee (1936 - ) and Kunyong
Lee (1942 - ) I consider how an Eastern approach nuances and inflects some of the
conventional application of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. In the same way, in order to
develop my concept to create artworks in the expanded field of contemporary painting, I
also focus on the works of Western artists Robert Ryman (1930 - ) and Katharina Grosse
(1961 - ). In between the Far East and the West, I further consider mixed concepts and fresh
insights created by contemporary phenomenology of painting, and attempt to use these
concepts in order to extend the current discourse of expanded painting in the multicultural
field of the 21st century.


There are thousands of retirees from the Premier and Managerial and Professional (PMP) group of the Malaysian Public Service who, after the mandatory retirement at the age of fifty-five or fifty-six, could contribute to the community gleaning from an improved longevity index for both
male and female Malaysians in the recent years. This article attempted to decipher the difference between volunteer and non-volunteer retirees as far as the role of psychosocial and altruistic factors are concerned and what this difference would imply as far as motivating other retirees to engage in the voluntary work for the development of the Malaysian society. The psychosocial
dimension includes the environment, lifestyle, personality and resources while altruism includes empathy, reciprocity and spirituality. Independent sample t-test was used to determine whether there was a significant difference for the psychosocial variables and altruism between the volunteers and non-volunteers. Findings of the study revealed that there was a significant difference between
the volunteers and non-volunteers by looking at the effects of both psychosocial and altruism further indicating that these volunteers were more altruistic and whose psychosocial factors greatly influenced the volunteers' propensity to render voluntary service to the community.


Strains of a novel anaerobic, Gram-negative coccus were isolated from the supra-gingival plaque of children. Independent strains from each of six subjects were shown, at a phenotypic level and based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing, to be members of the genus Veillonella. Analysis revealed that the six strains shared 99.7 % similarity in their 16S rRNA gene sequences and 99.0 % similarity in their rpoB gene sequences. The six novel strains formed a distinct group and could be clearly separated from recognized species of the genus Veillonella of human or animal origin. The novel strains exhibited 98 and 91 % similarity to partial 16S rRNA and rpoB gene sequences of Veillonella parvula ATCC 10790T, the most closely related member of the genus. The six novel strains could be differentiated from recognized species of the genus Veillonella based on partial 16S rRNA and rpoB gene sequencing. The six novel strains are thus considered to represent a single novel species of the genus Veillonella, for which the name Veillonella rogosae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CF100T (=CCUG 54233T=DSM 18960T).


A highly selective solid state multilayer sensor is presented which enables fluorescence optical determination of potassium ions. It is based on co-extraction using valinomycin along with a fluorescent anion, both contained in different layers. The sensor membrane is composed of two layers of highly different lipophilicity. The lipophilic phase contains the carrier valinomycin whilst the hydrophilic phase contains the anionic fluorophore sulforhodamin B. On exposure to potassium ions, the lipophilic phase becomes fluorescent after coextraction of both potassium ions and the anionic fluorophore. To prevent leaching of the dye, an additional blocking layer (nafion) was spread on the sensor. The dynamic range is from 0.1 to 50 mmol/l K^+ with very low cross-sensitivity to pH and ionic strength. The response times vary from 1 to 2 h.


Continued improvement in computing efficiency requires functional specialization of hardware designs. We present an agile design flow for custom SoCs using the Chipyard framework, an integrated SoC research and implementation environment for custom systems. Chipyard includes configurable, composable, open-source, generator-based designs that can be used across multiple stages of the hardware development flow while maintaining design intent and integration consistency. Through cloud FPGA simulation and rapid ASIC implementation, we demonstrate an iterative agile hardware design cycle which enables continuous validation of physically-realizable customized systems.


Cell-division control affects many aspects of development. Caenorhabditis elegans cell-cycle genes have been identified over the past decade, including at least two distinct Cyclin-Dependent Kinases (CDKs), their cyclin partners, positive and negative regulators, and downstream targets. The balance between CDK activation and inactivation determines whether cells proceed through G1 into S phase, and from G2 to M, through regulatory mechanisms that are conserved in more complex eukaryotes. The challenge is to expand our understanding of the basic cell cycle into a comprehensive regulatory network that incorporates environmental factors and coordinates cell division with growth, differentiation and tissue formation during development. Results from several studies indicate a critical role for CKI-1, a CDK inhibitor of the Cip/Kip family, in the temporal control of cell division, potentially acting downstream of heterochronic genes and dauer regulatory pathways.


The last decade had seen the rise in the smart structural health monitoring (smart SHM) techniques. A smart SHM technique is the process of adopting a smart damage detection and characterization strategy for monitoring engineering structures. These are executed by latest smart materials which are usually surface bonded or embedded inside structures. Recently, researchers of smart materials (fiber optics or piezo electrics, etc.) successfully adopted cabled and wireless smart SHM strategies. In all these strategies, the smart materials behave as an actuator or a sensor or as both in the presence of relevant input-output devices. However the advent of metamaterials has raised curiosity among the academia and military for its passive behavior. These materials are neither actuators nor sensors in true sense unlike smart materials but they are facilitators and specially designed patches or engraved on the surface of host structures to be monitored. These when subjected to input electromagnetic radiations alter the properties of the radiations but do not interfere or disturb the structure unlike smart materials. In the last few years, these were adopted as biosensors in life sciences such as chemistry, biology and medicine. They are being used as sensors or as enhancers to sensors for improving sensitivity of existing sensors in life sciences. These materials attracted military, air force and navy as they can be used as 'shield devices' and make invisibility of key vehicles/ installations a reality in another 10 years. Metamaterials are useful especially in today's society which is suffering from terrorism and extremism where illusions can be created which can shield important infrastructures. However this paper presents the adaptation of these metamaterials for monitoring load on aluminum beams, which is the first of its kind in the world. Two types of experiments were performed for fixed-fixed and simply supported aluminum beams. In the first type, a circular metamaterial unit cell with input cable was attached on a probe using a cello tape, which was placed on the center of the simply supported beam. The next type comprised of a metamaterial attached to a form placed at a distance below the beam with fixed ends. In this second type, the metamaterial was not in contact with the probe or the structure under investigation. Both these strategies resulted in successful health monitoring signals that are transmitted during monitoring load in the range of 50 to 80N. Thus this new reusable metamaterial based SHM technique can be used in various load monitoring applications of civil, mechanical and aerospace engineering. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/81


This paper is concerned with regional policy differences in the UK. The classification of education in the UK as a concurrent rather than an exceptional policy by Rose (1982) is evaluated in this paper. It is argued that the Rose framework does not distinguish between policy content and policy impact. In failing to distinguish between these elements of policy, Rose and other authors implythat regional policy differences within the UK are minimal. However, whilst some policies can have the same content, they may havea different impact within the separate nations of the UK. The finding of this paper is that education policy in England and Wales is broadly concurrent in its content and exceptional in its impact in Wales. This is due to the role and influence of the education policy community in Wales.


A short-cut review was carried out to establish whether flushing an intraosseous needle with local anaesthetic or saline is more effective at reducing the pain injecting drugs or fluid via this route. Two studies were relevant to the question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these papers are shown in table 1. The clinical bottom line is that injecting lidocaine both before and after flushing an intraosseous needle is an effective method of reducing the pain of fluid infusion via this route.


Auxiliary-Task Learning (ATL) aims to improve the performance of the target task by leveraging the knowledge obtained from related tasks. Occasionally, learning multiple tasks simultaneously results in lower accuracy than learning only the target task, which is known as negative transfer. This problem is often attributed to the gradient conflicts among tasks, and is frequently tackled by coordinating the task gradients in previous works. However, these optimization-based methods largely overlook the auxiliary-target generalization capability. To better understand the root cause of negative transfer, we experimentally investigate it from both optimization and generalization perspectives. Based on our findings, we introduce ForkMerge, a novel approach that periodically forks the model into multiple branches, automatically searches the varying task weights by minimizing target validation errors, and dynamically merges all branches to filter out detrimental task-parameter updates. On a series of auxiliary-task learning benchmarks, ForkMerge outperforms existing methods and effectively mitigates negative transfer.


Four novel oxapenem compounds were evaluated for their s-lactamase inhibitory and antibacterial properties. Two (AM-112 and AM-113) displayed intrinsic antibacterial activity with MICs of between 2 to 16µg/ml and 0.5-2µg/ml against Escherichia coli and methicillin-sensitive and -resistant Staphylococcus aureus, respectively. The isomers of these compounds, AM-115 and AM-114 did not display significant antibacterial activity. Combination of the oxapenems with ceftazidime afforded protection against s-lactamase-producing strains, including hyperproducers of class C enzymes and extended-spectrum s-lactamase enzymes. A fixed 4µg/ml concentration of AM-112 protected a panel of eight cephalosporins against hydrolysis by class A and class C s-lactamase producers. In vivo studies confirmed the protective effect of AM-112 for ceftazidime against s-lactamase producing S. aureus, Enterobacter cloacae and E. coli strains in a murine intraperitoneal infection model. Each of the oxapenems inhibited class A, class C and class D s-lactamases isolated from whole cells and purified by isoelectric focusing. AM-114 and AM-115 were as effective as clavulanic acid against class A enzymes. AM-112 and AM-113 were less potent against these enzymes. Class C and class D enzymes proved very susceptible to inhibition by the oxapenems. Molecular modelling of the oxapenems in the active site of the class A. TEM-1 and class C P99 enzymes identified a number of potential sites of interaction. The modelling suggested that Ser-130 in TEM-1 and Tyr-150 in P99 were likely candidates for cross-linking of the inhibitor, leading to inhibition of the enzyme. Morphology studies indicated that sub-inhibitory concentrations of the oxapenems caused the formation of round-shaped cells in E. coli DC0, indicating inhibition of penicillin-binding protein 2 (PBP2). The PBP affinity profile of AM-112 was examined in isolated cell membranes of E. coli DC0, S. aureus NCTC 6571, Enterococcus faecalis SFZ and E. faecalis ATCC 29213, in competition with a radiolabelled penicillin. PBP2 was identified as the primary target for AM-112 in E. coli DC0. Studies on S. aureus NCTC 6571 failed to identify a binding target. AM-112 bound to all the PBPs of both E. faecalis strains, and a concentration of 10µg/ml inhibited all the PBPs except PBP3.


Rod-shaped nanocrystals (NCs) composed of ZnTe–AgInTe2 solid solution ((AgIn)xZn2(1−x)Te2, ZAITe) were synthesized in a 1-dodecanethiol solution. The resulting ZAITe NCs of 4–5 nm in width and 16–18 nm in length showed exciton peaks in the absorption spectra, regardless of their composition. The energy gap was enlarged from 1.2 to 1.6 eV by decreasing the x value of the NCs from 1.0 to 0.25. A sharp photoluminescence (PL) peak was observed in each PL spectrum of the NCs with x values of 1.0–0.5, assignable to band-edge emission, while NCs with x = 0.25 showed an additional broad PL peak originating from the defect sites due to the increased non-stoichiometry of NCs. With a decrease in x from 1.0 to 0.25, the band-edge PL peak was blue-shifted from 1010 to 809 nm in the near-IR region, accompanied by a decrease in the corresponding PL quantum yield from 47% to 0.07% due to the diminution of radiative recombination rate.


The tradeoff between speed and accuracy is a well-known constraint for human movement, but previous work has shown that this tradeoff can be modified by practice, and the quantitative relationship between speed and accuracy may be an indicator of skill in some tasks. We have previously shown that children with dystonia are able to adapt their movement strategy in a ballistic throwing game to compensate for increased variability of movement. Here we test whether children with dystonia can adapt and improve skill learnt on a trajectory task. We use a novel task in which children move a spoon with a marble between two targets. Difficulty is modified by changing the depth of the spoon. Our results show that both healthy children and children with secondary dystonia move more slowly with the more difficult spoons, and both groups improve the relationship between speed and spoon difficulty following one week of practice. By tracking the marble position in the spoon, we show that children with dystonia use a larger fraction of the available variability, whereas healthy children adopt a much safer strategy and remain farther from the margins, as well as learning to adopt and have more control over the marble utilized area by practice. Together, our results show that both healthy children and children with dystonia choose trajectories that compensate for risk and inherent variability, and that the increased variability in dystonia can be modified with continued practice.


The study of histology and morphology of seeds of genus Passiflora has been of high utility for the classification of species. In seeds of sweet granadilla, the histological characteristics and methodologies for their study are unknown. This study was aimed to know the tissue and morphological characteristics of the seed coats of seeds of sweet granadilla and to be able to determine its value in the differentiation of accessions. Five accessions collected in producing zones of the Province of Huila, Colombia, were analyzed. In morphological analysis, all accessions presented falsifoveate ornamentation and entire margin. The seeds presented high change in weight and size for every accession; there stood out the seeds of the accession PmN for presenting major size (7.42 mm long), weight (35.62 mg), homogeneity in these variables and a typical orange color. For the histological analysis, a protocol was adapted to realize sections of seed coats in parafin, by means of which one managed to obtain sections (7 µ) that in the optical microscope show clearly three well differentiated layers, belonging, possibly, to exotegmen (internal layer), mesotesta (medium layer) and exotesta (external layer). Every layer presented differences in the form of the cells, color and thickness, between the sections of the basal and medium parts of the seeds, but the differences between the analyzed accessions were not observed. The majority of seeds had a thickness of seed coats that varied among 235 and 475 µ


Author(s): Mercer, Brian Scott | Advisor(s): Papadopoulos, Panayiotis | Abstract: In this work, molecular dynamics modeling is used to study the mechanical properties of PPTA crystallites, which are the fundamental microstructural building blocks of polymer aramid fibers such as Kevlar. Particular focus is given to constant strain rate axial loading simulations of PPTA crystallites, which is motivated by the rate-dependent mechanical properties observed in some experiments with aramid fibers. In order to accommodate the covalent bond rupture that occurs in loading a crystallite to failure, the reactive bond order force field ReaxFF is employed to conduct the simulations. Two major topics are addressed: The first is the general behavior of PPTA crystallites under strain rate loading. Constant strain rate loading simulations of crystalline PPTA reveal that the crystal failure strain increases with increasing strain rate, while the modulus is not affected by the strain rate. Increasing temperature lowers both the modulus and the failure strain. The simulations also identify the C--N bond connecting the aromatic rings as weakest primary bond along the backbone of the PPTA chain. The effect of chain-end defects on PPTA micromechanics is explored, and it is found that the presence of a chain-end defect transfers load to the adjacent chains in the hydrogen-bonded sheet in which the defect resides, but does not influence the behavior of any other chains in the crystal. Chain-end defects are found to lower the strength of the crystal when clustered together, inducing bond failure via stress concentrations arising from the load transfer to bonds in adjacent chains near the defect site. The second topic addressed is the nature of primary and secondary bond failure in crystalline PPTA. Failure of both types of bonds is found to be stochastic in nature and driven by thermal fluctuations of the bonds within the crystal. A model is proposed which uses reliability theory to model bonds under constant strain rate loading as components with time-dependent failure rate functions. The model is shown to work well for predicting the onset of primary backbone bond failure, as well as the onset of secondary bond failure via chain slippage for the case of isolated non-interacting chain-end defects.


Objective: To determin the chemical compounds of Mentha suaveolens (M. suaveolens) and Pinus halepensis (P. halepensis) essential oils (Eos) and evaluate their antioxidant and antibacterial activities. Methods: The chemical composition of P. halepensis and M. suaveolens EOs was determined by GC-MS analysis. The antioxidant activity was evaluated using DPPH, ABTS and FRAP assays. The antibacterial effect was tested against 6 bacterial strains using the well diffusion method and micro-dilution assay. Results: The major components of P. halepensis EOs were β-caryophyllene (28.04%), myrcene (23.81%) and α-pinene (12.02%). However, piperitenone oxid (56.28%), piperitenone (11.64%) and pulegone (6.16%) were the major components of M. suaveolens EOs. M. suaveolens EOs showed remarkable antioxidant activities compared with P. halepensis EOs, showing antioxidant capacity values of IC50=(64.76±2.24) μg/mL, IC50=(82.73±3.34) μg/mL, and IC50=(93.35±4.45) μg/mL, revealed by DPPH, ABTS and FRAP assays, respectively. However, P. halepensis EOs showed interesting antibacterial effects against all bacterial strains. The most sensible strains to P. halepensis EOs were Staphylococcus aureus [(34.00±0.50) mm], Listeria monocytogenes [(31.00±1.50)] mm and Proteus mirabilis [(29.00±2.25)mm]. Furthermore, the lowest minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) values were revealed by P. halepensis EOs against Staphylococcus aureus [MIC=MBC=0.125% (v/v)] and Listeria monocytogenes [MIC=MBC=0.25% (v/v)]. Conclusions: P. halepensis and M. suaveolens EOs contain bioactive compounds that could have potential applications against bacterial infections and oxidative stress related diseases as well as for food conservation. However, further investigations are necessary to isolate and investigate the action mechanisms of these bioactive compounds.


We present a dynamic algorithm for MAP calculations. The algorithm is based upon Santos's technique (Santos 1991b) of transforming minimal-cost-proof problems into linear-programming problems. The algorithm is dynamic in the sense that it is able to use the results from an earlier, near by, problem to lessen its search time. Results are presented which clearly suggest that this is a powerful technique for dynamic abduction problems.


OBJECTIVE A qualitative exploratory inquiry was used to understand nurse managers' (NMs') perceptions of their role stressors, coping strategies, and self-health related outcomes as a result of frequent exposure to stressful situations in their role. BACKGROUND Strong nursing leadership is required for desirable staff, patient, and organizational outcomes. A stressed NM will negatively influence staff nurse satisfaction and retention, patient outcomes, and organizational performance. Stress can affect NMs' mental and physical heath, leading to job dissatisfaction and turnover. METHODS A qualitative exploratory inquiry was conducted using semistructured interviews with 23 NMs and 1 focus group interview. RESULTS Findings suggest that coping strategies may be inadequate, given the intensity and demands of the manager role, and could negatively impact NMs' long-term health. CONCLUSIONS Senior nurse leaders can significantly impact the health and productivity of NMs by minimizing the adverse effects of role stress and foster a positive work environment.


Abstract Lawvere intervals of a Möbius category are finite one-way categories. We investigate a simple connection between the Möbius function of a Möbius category and the Möbius functions of its Lawvere intervals. In this investigation we have taken into consideration that a large class of Möbius categories arise as skeletons of division categories (that are right cancellative with pushouts). In general, the computation of the Möbius function for a Möbius category is laborious. In our case it becomes a routine computation on finite lattices. As an illustration, the results of this study may be used to compute the Möbius function of a proper Möbius category.


Human cell-based assays for in vitro testing of drugs in preclinical and research studies, as well as in clinical practice, are gaining greater importance especially in view of personalized medicine, which is tailored to the individual needs and benefits of a patient. This chapter begins with an overview of contemporary cell-based assays, routinely used for a comparative in vitro potency testing of anti-TNF- α innovator biologics and their biosimilars. In sequel, based on the results of our original work, we will further discuss the establishment and use of 2D normal and osteoarthritic primary chondrocyte monolayer cultures and 3D microspheroidal articular cartilage tissues, prepared in hanging drops from osteoarthritic chondrocytes and chondrogenically differentiated mesenchymal stem cells. Both 2D and 3D cultures will be presented as models for assessing the neutralizing potency of the three well-known anti-TNF- α biological drugs: adalimumab, etanercept, and infliximab.


The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is one of the most endangered animals in the world, and it is recognized worldwide as a symbol for conservation. A previous study showed that wild and captive pandas, especially those of the Qinling subspecies, were exposed to toxicants in their diet of bamboo; the ultimate origin of these toxicants is unknown. Here we show that atmospheric deposition is the most likely origin of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the diets of captive and wild Qinling pandas. Average atmospheric deposition was 199, 115, and 49 g·m-2 ·yr-1 in the center of Xi'an City, at China's Shaanxi Wild Animal Research Center (SWARC), and at Foping National Nature Reserve (FNNR), respectively. Atmospheric deposition of heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Pb, Hg, Co, Cu, Zn, Mn, and Ni) and POPs was highest at Xi'an City, intermediate at SWARC, and lowest at FNNR. Soil concentrations of the aforementioned heavy metals other than As and Zn also were significantly higher at SWARC than at FNNR. Efforts to conserve Qinling pandas may be compromised by air pollution attendant to China's economic development. Improvement of air quality and reductions of toxic emissions are urgently required to protect China's iconic species.


Abstract
 In the last decades, blooms of Ostreopsis ovata are increasingly frequent in several Mediterranean coastal areas, sometimes causing problems to the public health. The quantification of O. ovata abundances is generally performed by quantifying the number of cells per gram of macroalga, often preventing the comparison of abundances from different sites if cell quantifications are performed on different algal species. In this paper we propose a sampling method based on the use of a modified plastic syringe designed to quantify benthic cells abundances independently from the type of substratum. The method was tested in the O. ovata monitoring carried out in the Gulf of La Spezia (Ligurian Sea) and along the Apulian coasts (Southern Italy) since 2007. In 2009 the "syringe" method was compared with the classic methodology used in national monitoring of O. ovata. The syringe method seems interesting in terms of time costs and effectiveness, both for sample collection and processing, allowing quick and simple sampling of several sites along the coastline. The technique turned out to be adequate when a fast and reliable estimate of O. ovata "reservoir" near the bottom was required, in order to forecast toxic algal blooms in coastal areas.


OBJECT
Hospitalization cost and patient outcome after acoustic neuroma surgery depend on several factors. There is a paucity of data regarding the relationship between demographic features such as age, sex, race, insurance status, and patient outcome. Apart from demographic factors, there are several hospital-related factors and regional issues that can affect outcomes and hospital costs. To the authors' knowledge, no study has investigated the issue of regional disparity across the country in terms of cost of hospitalization and discharge disposition.

METHODS
The authors analyzed the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database over the years 2005-2009. Several variables were analyzed from the database, including patient demographics, comorbidities, and surgical complications. Hospital variables, such as bedsize, rural/urban location, teaching status, federal or private ownership, and the region, were also examined. Patient outcome and increased hospitalization costs were the dependent variables studied.

RESULTS
A total of 2589 admissions from 242 hospitals were analyzed from the NIS data over the years 2005-2009. The mean age was 48.99 ± 13.861 years (± SD), and 304 (11.7%) of the patients were older than 65 years. The cumulative cost incurred by the hospitals from 2005 to 2009 was $948.77 million. The mean expenditure per admission was $76,365.09 ± $58,039.93. The mean total charges per admission rose from $59,633.00 in 2005 to $97,370.00 in 2009. The factors that predicted most significantly with other than routine (OTR) disposition outcome were age older than 65 years (OR 2.22, 95% CI 1.411-3.518; p < 0.001), aspiration pneumonia (OR 16.085, 95% CI 4.974-52.016; p < 0.001), and meningitis (OR 11.299, 95% CI 3.126-40.840; p < 0.001). When compared with patients with Medicare and Medicaid, patients with private insurance had a protective effect against OTR disposition outcome. Higher comorbidities predicted independently for OTR disposition outcome (OR 1.409, 95% CI 1.072-1.852; p = 0.014). The West region predicted negatively for OTR disposition outcome. Large hospitals were independently associated with higher hospital charges (OR 4.269, 95% CI 3.106-5.867; p < 0.001). The West region had significantly higher (p < 0.001) mean hospital charges than the other regions. Patient factors such as meningitis and aspiration pneumonia were strong independent predictors of increased hospital charges (p < 0.001). Higher comorbidities (OR 1.297, 95% CI 1.036-1.624; p = 0.023) and presence of neurofibromatosis Type 2 (OR 2.341, 95% CI 1.479-3.707; p < 0.001) were associated with higher hospital charges.

CONCLUSIONS
The authors' study shows that several factors can affect patient outcome and hospital charges for patients who have undergone acoustic neuroma surgery. Factors such as younger age, higher ZIP code income, less comorbidity, private insurance, elective surgery, and the West region predicted for better disposition outcome. However, the West region, higher comorbidities, and weekend admissions were associated with higher hospitalization costs.


Due to the similarities with the COVID–19 pandemic, there has been a renewed interest in the 1918–1919 influenza pandemic, which represents the most severe pandemic of the 20th century with an estimated total death toll ranging between 30 and 100 million. This rapidly growing literature in economics and economic history has devoted attention to contextual determinants of excess mortality in the pandemic; to the impact of the pandemic on economic growth, inequality, and a range of other outcomes; and to the impact of nonpharmaceutical interventions.
 Estimating the effects of the pandemic, or the effects of countermeasures, is challenging. There may not be much exogenous variation to go by, and the historical data sets available are typically small and often of questionable quality. Yet the 1918–1919 pandemic offers a unique opportunity to learn how large pandemics play out in the long run.
 The studies evaluating effects of the pandemic, or of policies enacted to combat it, typically rely on some version of difference-in-differences, or instrumental variables. The assumptions required for these designs to achieve identification of causal effects have rarely been systematically evaluated in this particular historical context. Using a purpose-built dataset covering the entire Swedish population, such an assessment is provided here. The empirical analysis indicates that the identifying assumptions used in previous work may indeed be satisfied. However, the results cast some doubt on the general external validity of previous findings as the analysis fails to replicate several results in the Swedish context. These disagreements highlight the need for additional studies in other populations and contexts which puts the spotlight on further digitization and linkage of historical datasets.


An analysis of a simple way to design generalised optical orthogonal codes to be used in optical code-division multiple-access systems is presented. They are random optical codes (ROCs). This novel family is especially suitable for optical networks with a large number of channels, low bit rate requirements, energy limitations and packed data. For example, sensor networks need these requirements. An application in an intra-spacecraft telecommand and telemeasurement (TC/TM) optical wireless network is also described. ROCs are selected randomly from all possible rearrangements. However, its probability of error is adequate in many useful parameter ranges. Moreover, ROCs present features not found in other families of codes such as huge cardinality and parameter adaptation to the system necessities. Here, the main contribution is to present a method to optimise the values of the parameters. Furthermore, the optimal weight of the codes is found, given two out of the other set of parameters, that is, the length, the number of users and the probability of error. In addition, a comparison between the length and the power consumption of ROCs and prime codes is also developed.


Post-independence India has had its share of controversies around mega-infrastructure projects that have pitted environmental preservation against development concerns. This article studies the environmental controversy around one such megaproject, the Konkan Railway, employing a framework that integrates the environmental values, beliefs and behaviour of individuals and groups with a historical understanding of political economy and ecology (science). Essentialist and over-simplified environmental discourses, without scientific credibility and not based on historical facts, are often influential in policy making, especially when channelled by the middle classes.  Better understanding our present concerns and guiding decisions and policies to deal with the problems we currently face, requires unmasking the romanticization of the countryside. We must replace the idyllic version of the past with a nuanced historical understanding of the interaction between nature and culture. This article also locates the controversy over the Konkan Railway within the frames used to study Indian environmentalism. The aim is to improve our understanding of the regional, ideological and cultural pluralities in environmental values, beliefs and behaviour of the middle class in India.


In order to adopt water electrolyzers as a main hydrogen production system, it is critical to develop inexpensive and earth-abundant catalysts. Currently, both half-reactions in water splitting depend heavily on noble metal catalysts. This review discusses the proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis (WE) and the progress in replacing the noble-metal catalysts with earth-abundant ones. The efforts within this field for the discovery of efficient and stable earth-abundant catalysts (EACs) have increased exponentially the last few years. The development of EACs for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in acidic media is particularly important, as the only stable and efficient catalysts until now are noble-metal oxides, such as IrOx and RuOx. On the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) side, there is significant progress on EACs under acidic conditions, but there are very few reports of these EACs employed in full PEM WE cells. These two main issues are reviewed, and we conclude with prospects for innovation in EACs for the OER in acidic environments, as well as with a critical assessment of the few full PEM WE cells assembled with EACs.