We report the first lidar observations of vertical fluxes of sensible heat and meteoric Na from 78 to 110 km in late May 2020 at McMurdo, Antarctica. The measurements include contributions from the complete temporal spectrum of gravity waves and demonstrate that wave‐induced vertical transport associated with atmospheric mixing by non‐breaking gravity waves, Stokes drift imparted by the wave spectrum, and perturbed chemistry of reactive species, can make significant contributions to constituent and heat transport in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). The measured sensible heat and Na fluxes exhibit downward peaks at 84 km (−3.0 Kms−1 and −5.5 × 104 cm−2s−1) that are ∼4 km lower than the flux peak altitudes observed at midlatitudes. This is likely caused by the strong downwelling over McMurdo in late May. The Na flux magnitude is double the maximum at midlatitudes, which we believe is related to strong persistent gravity waves in the MLT at McMurdo. To achieve good agreement between the measured Na flux and theory, it was necessary to infer that a large fraction of gravity wave energy was propagating downward, especially between 80 and 95 km where the Na flux and wave dissipation were largest. These downward propagating waves are likely secondary waves generated in‐situ by the dissipation of primary waves that originate from lower altitudes. The sensible heat flux transitions from downward below 90 km to upward from 97 to 106 km. The observations are explained with the fully compressible solutions for polarization relations of primary and secondary gravity waves with λ z > 10 km.


Intraspecific brood parasitism (laying eggs in another's nest) occurs widely in colonial cliff swallows (Passeriformes: Hirundinidae: Hirundo pyrrhonota). In colonies consisting of more than ten nests, up to 24 percent of the nests were sometimes parasitized by colony members. Laying eggs in a conspecific's nest may be a benefit of coloniality for parasitic individuals and simultaneously may represent a cost to host individuals within the same colony.


[1] Thunderstorm clouds may discharge directly to the ionosphere in spectacular luminous jets – the largest electric discharges of our planet. The properties of these "giants," such as their polarity, conductivity, and currents, have been predicted by models, but are poorly characterized by measurements. A recent observation of a giant, fortuitously illuminated by an unusual sprite discharge in the mesosphere, allows us to study their electric properties and effects on the atmosphere-ionosphere. We show from a first-principles model of the combined giant and sprite event that the observations are consistent with the nature of the giant being a leader in the stratosphere of line charge density 0.8 mCm 1 and of multiple streamers in the mesosphere. It is further shown that the giant modifies the free electron content of the lower ionosphere because of electric field-driven ionization, electron attachment and detachment processes. This is the first time that sprites are used for sounding the properties of the mesosphere. The results presented here will allow evaluation of theories for jet and gigantic jets and of their influence on the atmosphere and ionosphere.


The previous theoretical work showed the matching principles of analogy parameters for effusion-impingement cooling model. The mismatch of temperature ratios Tg/Tc may result in different matching performance in laboratory condition. Thus, the analogy principles of overall cooling effectiveness were evaluated by experiments in different laboratory conditions for effusion-impingement cooling model. The film plate had 8 rows of cylinder film holes with staggered arrangement and the impingement holes was also employed staggered pattern. Four kinds of cases with different temperature ratios, varied from 1.1 to 2, were tested under three momentum flux ratios and corresponding blowing ratios. The 2D contours of overall cooling effectiveness were measured by using IR thermography. The results for cases with the same mainstream side Biot number and momentum flux ratio show similar contours and values of overall cooling effectiveness, although temperature ratios of these cases are different. And the maximum deviation of overall cooling effectiveness is within 0.02 for these cases. However, there were 0.04∼0.08 difference in the overall cooling effectiveness when the blowing ratios were matched. The overall cooling effectiveness significantly decreases under each blowing ratios with the increase of temperature ratios.


We present an algorithm for automatic localization of landmarks on 3D faces. An active shape model, ASM, is used as a statistical joint location model for configurations of facial features. The ASM is adapted to individual faces via a guided search whereby landmark specific shape index models are matched to local surface patches. The algorithm is trained and tested on 912 3D face images from the face recognition grand challenge dataset. Results demonstrate that the automatic procedure successfully and reliably locates landmarks and, compared with an iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm, reduces the mean error for location of landmarks by nearly a half. ©2008 The Institution of Engineering and Technology.


Azadirachta indica has previously been demonstrated to act as a multi‑functional medicinal plant for >2,000 years in India, and its neighboring countries. Currently, it is considered a natural resource with great value used in industrial product development and as a medicine for various types of diseases. The present study investigated the neuroprotective effects of Azadirachta indica which improved functional recovery in the 6‑hydroxydopamine induced rat Parkinson's disease (PD) model. Catalase, glutathione‑peroxidase, tumor necrosis factor‑α, interleukin (IL)‑1β, IL‑6, nuclear factor (NF)‑κB p65, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and AChE activity levels were analyzed via ELISA. Western blotting was used to analyze B cell lymphoma‑2 associated X protein (Bax), cytochrome c and p53 protein expression. Treatment with Azadirachta indica significantly decreased the PD‑induced rotational behavior in rats. PD‑induced catalase, glutathione‑peroxidase, iNOS activity and iNOS protein expression were significantly suppressed by treatment with Azadirachta indica. Inflammatory factors, acetylcholinesterase activity and cyclo‑oxygenase‑2 protein expression levels were additionally significantly suppressed by treatment with Azadirachta indica. The protein expression levels of Bax, cytochrome c and p53 were decreased and caspase‑3 and caspase‑9 activities diminished, with treatment with Azadirachta indica. Therefore, Azadirachta indica was demonstrated to exhibit neuroprotective antioxidative and anti‑apoptotic effects in Parkinson's disease.


BACKGROUND
Ultrasound is a well-validated adjunct to central venous cannulation; however, previous reviews of ultrasound-guided radial artery cannulation have been inconclusive. The aim of this study was to assess the use of ultrasound in radial artery cannulation in adult and paediatric populations.

METHODS
A systematic search of five major databases for all relevant articles published until November 2015 was conducted. Randomized controlled trials of radial artery cannulation with and without ultrasound guidance were included. All studies were assessed for level of evidence and risk of bias. Studies were grouped in adult and paediatric populations for each outcome. A meta-analysis was performed to analyse the data.

RESULTS
Eleven randomized controlled trials (six adult and five paediatric) were found. In both the adult and paediatric populations, there was high-level evidence for significantly improved first-attempt success rate and number of attempts with the use of ultrasound guidance.

CONCLUSIONS
This is the first level one systematic review to demonstrate strong evidence for the use of ultrasound guidance in radial artery cannulation in adult and paediatric populations. In the adult population, ultrasound use significantly increased first-attempt success rate, which subsequently resulted in a significant reduction in the number of attempts. The benefits of ultrasound were also shown in the paediatric population, with a significant increase in first-attempt success rate and reduction in the number of attempts. The use of ultrasound as an adjunct to radial arterial cannulation should now be considered best practice.


Currently, over seven million people die of cancer each year; some of whom suffer from pain caused by bone metastasis. In their final stages of life, the pain is such that they cannot even roll over, one of the activities of daily life. With this in mind, in this research, we aim to develop equipment for patients with cancer bone metastasis to support roll-overs in terminal care. Specifically, the EMG signal, which is the input signal of the equipment, is discussed in this paper. The activities of four muscles affecting trunk movement were monitored during the process of rolling over. Following an EMG experiment with four subjects, the internal abdominal oblique (IO) muscle was seen to be active in the early stages of roll-over motion, although IO muscle was relatively prevalent in previous works. If we support roll-over at this point, the patient feels no pain, because the timing is detected before the strongest burden movement, which involves buoying the trunk and rotating the pelvis. Hence, the EMG signal of the IO muscle is suitable for the input of the signal to support roll-overs.


We treated 120 children between the ages of 12 and 31 months with 137 developmental dislocations of the hip and reviewed them at a mean follow-up of 14 years. We had used two-directional arthrography of all hips before reduction to evaluate the anterior, superior, and posterior portions of the limbus. Of the 137 hips, 64 had no interposed limbus in the AP view of the arthrogram, but 45 of these had an interposed anterior or posterior portion of the limbus. The hips with good stability and no interposed limbus in either AP or lateral arthrograms had excellent results by closed methods; in the other cases the results were less satisfactory. Our findings suggest that hips suitable for management by closed reduction can be identified by two-directional arthrography. Hips shown to have an interposed limbus are best managed by open reduction.


While annotations have been common in normal books for a long time it has never been a big hit in electronic documents. In normal books it has been proven that it can be useful to make annotations and to read other peoples old annotations. As electronic learning material is becoming more and more common a positive effect of adding such shared annotations should also be possible there. This thesis explores what attributes such a system would need to maximize the utility readers get from an annotated text and the technical challenges with implementing such a system. As previous studies have not found any conclusive results about the effect that sharing annotations have on readers this is also investigated by trying an implemented system on users. The fact that annotations change the structure of a documents based on how users annotate it is also discussed and suggestions are made to potential useful applications of this new structure. Based on a structured analysis of previous research and other implementations a set of attributes important for a shared annotation system are presented. A prototype system that attempts to implement a set of these attributes was also created to get insight into the technical challenges encountered. A set of common challenges were found and solved, with a solution for asynchronously updating annotations being the most novel solution found, but the whole system is a good example of a mash-up of different solutions. Users were also interviewed about the use of the system and they are all positive about the implications of a sharing annotations and think it will make it easier to effectively find additional material about a subject. As previous studies this indicates that students have at least a positive view on using such a system.


We present a case of intrauterine fetal death at 18 weeks of gestation associated with a retained intrauterine contraceptive device and asymptomatic intraamniotic and fetal infection by Candida albicans. The infection was verified by histopathologic examination of the placenta and umbilical cord, growth of C. albicans in samples of amniotic fluid and the presence of high levels of IL-6 in the amniotic fluid.


Increasingly stringent limitations imposed on aircraft engine emissions have led many manufacturers toward lean combustion technology, which involves a relevant increase in mass flow rate dedicated to primary combustion, leading as a consequence to a reduction of air dedicated to cooling of liners. One of the most promising cooling techniques in such conditions is represented by effusion cooling, which consists of an array of closely spaced discrete film cooling holes. This cooling method is based on a protective layer of cooling flow on the hot side of the liner, enhancing at the same time the heat removal within the holes. In the latest years many aero engine manufacturers have increased the research and technology investment on this combustion technology. Working in partnership with the University of Florence, specific component design tools and experimental techniques have been improved by Avio Aero for combustor gas turbine investigation.From a design perspective, CFD analysis has become a key tool up to the early stages of novel combustor design process, producing affordable direct 3D optimization of combustor aerodynamics. Nevertheless, a RANS simulation of even only a single sector of an annular combustor still presents a challenge when the cooling system is taken into account. This issue becomes more critical in case of modern effusion cooled combustors, which may contain up to two thousand holes for the single sector. For this reason, many efforts have been devoted to develop methodologies based on film cooling modeling. Among the approaches published in the literature, models based on local sources represent a good compromise between simplicity and accuracy, with the capability to automatically perform a Conjugate Heat Transfer analysis. This type of methodology has been already defined and validated by the authors, with comparison on effusion cooled plates in terms of experimental overall effectiveness measurements as well as the application on a tubular combustor test case. In the context of this work, the proposed approach has been applied to the analysis of a lean annular combustor with the purpose of investigating pressure losses, flow split and metal temperature field. The results obtained have been compared to experimental data and different numerical tools exploited during the preliminary design of these devices.© 2014 ASME


Studies on the perception of air pollution in China are very limited. The aim of this paper is to help to fill this gap by analyzing a cross-sectional dataset of 759 residents of the Jinchuan mining area, Gansu Province, China. The estimations suggest that perception of air pollution is two-dimensional. The first dimension is the perceived intensity of air pollution and the second is the perceived hazardousness of the pollutants. Both dimensions are influenced by environmental knowledge. Perceived intensity is furthermore influenced by socio-economic status and proximity to the pollution source; perceived hazardousness is influenced by socio-economic status, family health experience, family size and proximity to the pollution source. There are no reverse effects from perception on environmental knowledge. The main conclusion is that virtually all Jinchuan residents perceive high intensity and hazardousness of air pollution despite the fact that public information on air pollution and its health impacts is classified to a great extent. It is suggested that, to assist the residents to take appropriate preventive action, the local government should develop counseling and educational campaigns and institutionalize disclosure of air quality conditions. These programs should pay special attention to young residents who have limited knowledge of air pollution in the Jinchuan mining area.


Previous work has presented contrasting views of the last glaciation on Jameson Land, central East Greenland, and still there is debate about whether the area was: (i) ice‐free, (ii) covered with a local non‐erosive ice cap(s), or (iii) overridden by the Greenland Ice Sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Here, we use cosmogenic exposure ages from erratics to reconcile these contrasting views. A total of 43 erratics resting on weathered sandstone and on sediment‐covered surfaces were sampled from four areas on interior Jameson Land; they give 10Be ages between 10.9 and 269.1 kyr. Eight erratics on weathered sandstone and till‐covered surfaces cluster around ∼70 kyr, whereas 10Be ages from erratics on glaciofluvial landforms are substantially younger and range between 10.9 and 47.2 kyr. Deflation is thought to be an important process on the sediment‐covered surfaces and the youngest exposure ages are suggested to result from exhumation. The older (>70 kyr) samples have discordant 26Al and 10Be data and are interpreted to have been deposited by the Greenland Ice Sheet several glacial cycles ago. The younger exposure ages (≤70 kyr) are interpreted to represent deposition by the ice sheet during the Late Saalian and by an advance from the local Liverpool Land ice cap in the Early Weichselian. The exposure ages younger than Saalian are explained by periods of shielding by non‐erosive ice during the Weichselian glaciation. Our work supports previous studies in that the Saalian Ice Sheet advance was the last to deposit thick sediment sequences and western erratics on interior Jameson Land. However, instead of Jameson Land being ice‐free throughout the Weichselian, we document that local ice with limited erosion potential covered and shielded large areas for substantial periods of the last glacial cycle.


The offering of anonymity in relational databases has attracted a great deal of attention in the database community during the last decade [4]. Among the different solution approaches that have been proposed to tackle this problem, K-anonymity has received increased attention and has been extensively studied in various forms. New forms of data that come into existence, like location data capturing user movement, pave the way for the offering of cutting edge services such as the prevailing Location Based Services (LBSs). Given that these services assume an in-depth knowledge of the mobile users' whereabouts it is certain that the assumed knowledge may breach the privacy of the users. Thus, concrete approaches are necessary to preserve the anonymity of the mobile users when requesting LBSs. In this work, we survey recent advancements for the offering of K-anonymity in LBSs. Most of the approaches that have been proposed heavily depend on a trusted server component -- that acts as an intermediate between the end user and the service provider - to preserve the anonymity of the former entity. Existing approaches are partitioned in three categories: (a) historical K-anonymity, (b) location K-anonymity, and (c) trajectory K-anonymity. In each of these categories we present some of the most prevalentmethodologies that have been proposed and highlight their operation.


We report on pulsed-laser induced generation of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond facilitated by a solid-immersion lens (SIL). The SIL enables laser writing at energies as low as 5.8 nJ per pulse and allows vacancies to be formed close to a diamond surface without inducing surface graphitization. We operate in the previously unexplored regime where lattice vacancies are created following tunneling breakdown rather than multiphoton ionization. We present three samples in which NV-center arrays were laser-written at distances between $\sim 1$ $\mu$m and 40 $\mu$m from a diamond surface, all presenting narrow distributions of optical linewidths with means between 61.0 MHz and 78.3 MHz. The linewidths include the effect of long-term spectral diffusion induced by a 532 nm repump laser for charge-state stabilization, thereby emphasizing the particularly low charge-noise environment of the created color centers. Such high-quality NV centers are excellent candidates for practical applications employing two-photon quantum interference with separate NV centers. Finally, we propose a model for disentangling power broadening from inhomogeneous broadening in the NV center optical linewidth.


The concept of erotized transference is discussed from Freud's original writings on the subject to those of recent contributors. It is noted that there exists an almost complete absence of reports in the literature of male patients developing an erotized transference to their female analysts. The question of how significant the gender of the analyst is in the unfolding of the transference and its vicissitudes is raised. It is maintained that the four possible analyst/analysand dyads differ qualitatively in that resistance and identification in the transference may be enhanced or inhibited by the gender of the analyst and/or the homosexual or heterosexual nature of the dyad. The erotized transference to the female analyst is focused upon as a vehicle to the study of such qualitative differences. It is hypothesized that the expression of strong erotic urges to the female analyst by the male patient is somewhat inhibited by the fantasy of the overwhelming pre-oedipal mother. In contrast, such erotic feelings are freely expressed by the female patient. Two cases, a male and a female, are described to support the above hypothesis.


PurposeLittle is known about professional burnout among plastic surgeons. Our purpose is to describe its prevalence among a large national sample of plastic surgeons and identify contributing factors. MethodsA mailed, self-administered survey was sent to 708 plastic surgeons who were randomly sampled from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons national membership (71% response rate). The dependent variable was professional burnout, measured by 3 subscales from the validated Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey. "High" scores in either the emotional exhaustion or depersonalization subscale categories predict professional burnout. The independent variables included surgeon sociodemographic and professional characteristics. &khgr;2 was used for the bivariate analyses. ResultsNearly one third (29%) of surgeons scored high in subscale categories predictive of professional burnout. Factors associated with high emotional exhaustion scores included surgeon age, 40–50 years (P = 0.03); fair/poor physician health (P < 0.01); ER call (P < 0.01); >60 work hours per week (P = 0.03); primarily reconstructive practice (P < 0.01); private practice (P = 0.01); and group practice (P = 0.02). Factors associated with high depersonalization scores included fair/poor physician health (P= 0.01); ER call (P < 0.01); private practice (P = 0.01); and group practice (P = 0.02). ConclusionsNearly one third of plastic surgeons have signs of professional burnout. Middle-aged surgeons and those in poor health are most at risk; along with those who have a reconstructive rather than cosmetic practice, long work hours, ER call responsibility, a nonacademic setting. and group as compared to solo practice. These data have important implications for future workforce shortages and health care quality.


This paper mainly focuses on the role of regularization in Multi-Modal Learning (MML). Existing MML studies devote most of the efforts in maximizing the consensus of models from cues of different modalities. However, regularization methods are still far from fully explored. To fill in this gap, we propose a compact and efficient coding solution, termed by sparse Tikhonov-Regularized Hashing (STRH). The STRH enforces both the $\ell_{0}$-norm induced sparsity constraints and the Tikhonov regularization on the binary solution vectors which maximize cross-modal correlation. In addition, we raise the concerns on the challenging testing scenario of 'Multi-modal Learning and Single-modal Prediction' (MLSP). Finally, we demonstrate that the STRH is an efficient hashing solutions by showing its superiority under the MLSP scenario.


Aiming at the shortcomings of fuzzy C-means clustering analysis (FCM), which is easy to fall into the local minimum, and the sensitivity to the initial clustering center, this paper firstly used a density-based DBSCAN algorithm (ST-DBSCAN) to determine the number of clusters by calculating the distance and density between data. At the same time, based on the genetic simulated annealing algorithm (SAGA), this paper proposed a clustering analysis based on multi-population genetic simulated annealing algorithm. Firstly, it analyzed and evaluated FCM, and proposed the shortcomings of FCM in determining the number of clusters and clustering process. Then, it determined the number of clusters the ST-DBSCAN algorithm in the FCM. At the same time, it studied the genetic simulated annealing algorithm, and optimized the genetic simulated annealing algorithm by adding multiple groups of parallel genetic ideas. Finally, it combined FCM with a variety of genetic simulated annealing algorithms to optimize the clustering process. The experimental results show that the algorithm has better global search ability and convergence ability, and has certain advantages over traditional clustering algorithms in clustering effect and stability.


This study aims to investigate how the strength of ties (i.e. strong ties and weak ties) in megaproject networks influences project performance in terms of types of conflicts.,A questionnaire survey was undertaken with professionals in Chinese megaprojects and 445 valid responses were received. A conflict-based theoretical model was developed and tested with structural equation modeling.,The results indicated that task conflict had a constructive effect on project performance, whereas relationship conflict and process conflict had destructive effects. Both strong and weak ties positively affected project performance, and that weak ties exerted greater effects on performance. The introduction of conflicts significantly weakened the effect of strong ties on project performance. Strong ties indirectly affected project performance via task conflict and relationship conflict, whereas weak ties affected performance only through task conflict. Task conflict had a constructive effect on project performance, whereas relationship conflict and process conflict had destructive impact.,This study identified the positive effect of strength of ties on project performance as well as the constructive and destructive roles of conflicts. Furthermore, the findings provided evidence that strength of ties and conflicts were critical factors for project performance. While, there are still limitations. There are other attributes of megaproject networks, such as network nodes' characteristics and network structure, which may influence conflicts and project performance. Future research would be conducted to explore the role of these variables. Meanwhile, because different types of conflicts may mutually transform under certain conditions, future research would also address this issue in megaprojects.,As for the management strategies, project stakeholders should know the existence of project networks, exactly assess their resource endowment, especially their external and internal relationship network. In accordance with changes of the project network, stakeholders should share knowledge and learn techniques about how to respond to relationship disturbances, thus reducing relationship conflict and process conflict. Furthermore, stakeholders should place an emphasis on fostering and reinforcing communication and trust, thus effectively resolving task conflict, ambiguity and uncertainty engendered from network ties in a megaproject network.,The main contribution of this study is threefold. First, this study will enrich the literature on strength of ties by accentuating the roles of conflicts in megaproject context. Second, this study contributes to the theoretical development of a conceptual model for explaining the interrelationships among strength of ties, conflicts and project performance. Third, this study will respond to the call "which dimension, i.e. strong ties or weak ties, is more influential" by exploring the direct and indirect effects of strength of ties on project performance.


This book is an excellent guide to the challenge of providing palliative care in the community. The content reflects the comprehensive knowledge and experience of the authors in both primary and palliative care. They illustrate the integration of the well-established principles of palliative care into the ever changing health care arena. They promote and define the role of all health care professionals in the community or hospital involved in the delivery of care to a patient with advanced disease, and emphasize the need for effective communication across boundaries throughout the course of the patient's illness. The book examines the doctor– patient relationship and gives an understanding of the patient experience. It sensitively reviews their needs and those of their carers, and explores ways in which the primary health care team, through team working and the sharing of knowledge, may address them. The alphabetical listing of symptoms and their management allows for ease of reference. The ethical implications of treatment decisions are considered. The advice given is practical and sound. This is an ideal book for both reference and reflection.


The rudder normally operates in the wake of the propeller in the stern of the ship. This is needed in order to create enough lift for its main role, maneuvering, with the high speed flow leaving the propeller. When the ship is in free sailing condition, the rudder is only responsible for doing minor course corrections, normally carried out by the autopilot. Due to the pressure distribution over the rudder, different forces appear, mainly a longitudinal force that could be drag or push force and a transverse force affecting the ship's course. The wake adapted rudder is normally designed so as to improve the propulsive and maneuvering performance of the propeller – rudder unit. The amount of energy which is recovered will depend on the form and thickness of the profile of the propeller, the aspect ratio, Rn, the spatial distribution of the velocity upstream and the turbulence of the flow [1]. It is expected that a wake adapted rudder has less transverse force than a conventional one at 0o angle when a vessel sails in free run operation, therefore reducing the need for autopilot corrections. In single screw vessels there are also a force unbalance due to the asymmetry of the propulsion system which modifies the flow differently on port and starboard side depending on how the propeller rotation is. The flow is not stationary, mainly due to the rotation energy supplied by the propeller; also the presence of the rudder modifies the performance of the propeller compared to the open water case, partially blocking the water flow downstream the propeller. Analyzing this system by CFD means that the behaviour of the flow would imply the solution of an evolutionary problem on a moving mesh. These problems have high computational costs and are not suitable to be solved on a routine basis. A lot of articles consulted in the literature demonstrate that they can be dealt with in a quite precise way by means of Reynolds Averaged Numerical Stationary simulations so as to obtain integral values on the different regions of interest, among other can be cited Caldas et al. [2] Numerical simulations of a conventional and a twisted rudder with the same area are performed behind the running propeller of a vessel in order to determine how large the transverse forces at 0o angle are. A parametric study was done analyzing small variations of angle in order to search the optimum angle that minimizes net transverse. The simulations carried out included an analysis of the forces from each part of the ship i.e. rudder, propeller and hull. All the calculations are carried out using commercial CFD code STAR-CCM+.


Forest ecosystems are threatened by numerous damaging factors. In recent years, an increasing negative impact on forest ecosystems is attributed to climate change. Continuous monitoring of forest conditions is of great importance for detecting changes in forest ecosystems and determines the cause and effect relationships between the resulting changes and factors that affect forests. The first symptom of forest dieback is the appearance of defoliation and discoloration of trees and therefore their monitoring is of great importance. This paper presents the results of several years of monitoring of trees defoliation and discoloration of sessile oak, English oak, spruce, fir and beech. Assessment was carried out on five plots. In addition, impact of biotic and abiotic factors harmful to the condition of the trees was evaluated and analyzed. Most conspicuous defoliation of trees was found in trees of sessile oak and English oak. In these two species was noted a low percentage of trees without defoliation, and was recorded and drying of individual trees. The most favorable situation is found for the beech in which the percentage of trees without defoliation and discoloration was very high. Investigation showed a very strong insect, disease and drought influence on the results of assessments of the status of trees and their variation.


Human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell line SMMC-7721 treated with human leucocytic alpha-interferon was used as immunogen to prepare monoclonal antibody against HCC. The anti-HCC monoclonal antibody (HAb23) was used to reacte with 51 cases of HCC, 38 cases of cirrhosis, 33 cases of hepatitis, 25 cases of other liver diseases, 36 cases of normal tissues including cryosections of fetus tissues and 231 cases of malignacies from various tissues by immunohistochemical staining. The results showed that 42 cases of HCC were positive, with a positive rate of 82.3%. Immuno-electron microscopic localization showed that HAb23 was localized mainly on the surface membrane and on the cytoplasmic membranous structures of tumor cells. The radioiodine conjugated HAb23 could target to the xenografts shown by ECT scanning. The ratios of tumor/liver and tumor/blood were 1.94-3.66 and 0.56-1.65, respectively. Five nm colloidal gold labeled HAb23 could also target to the xenografts. Our data suggest that the HAb23 is more specific to HCC and has a targeting ability to HCC in vivo.


It is a standard result in linear-system theory that an nth-order rational transfer function of a single-input single-output system always admits a realization of order n. In some applications, however, one is restricted to realizations with nonnegative entries (i.e. a positive system), and it is known that this restriction may force the order N of realizations to be strictly larger than n. In this brief we present a class of transfer functions where positive realizations of order n do exist. With the help of our result we give improvements on some earlier results in positive-system theory.


This article examines sex segregation in Italian universities. The overall level and the detailed qualitative pattern of sex segregation are assessed by means of loglinear models, applied to the Reflex data. Although previous work has primarily focused on the divide between humanistic and scientific fields, this study indicates that this divide accounts for only part of the observed pattern of sex segregation. The degree of gender imbalance is highly variable within scientific fields, as well as as within humanistic fields. This is because a second, equally important gender divide is at work: it can be described ad the care-technical divide. Moreover, the analysis also points to an overall stability of sex segregation in recent decades in Itay. Finally, the level and the pattern of sex segragation in this country do not differ from those observed in other European countries. Taken together, these results suggest that cultural forces underlying gender segregation are highly resilient, not least because they are sustained by a number of structural developments in education and labor market institutions.


Objective:Continuous renal replacement therapy is commonly used in the treatment of acute kidney injury. Although the optimal anticoagulation system is not well defined, citrate has emerged as the most promising method. We evaluated the data of 143 patients with acute kidney injury subjected to citrate-based continuous venovenous hemodiafiltration. Design:Retrospective cohort study. Setting:Intensive care unit of tertiary care private hospital. Patients:Patients with acute kidney injury treated from February 2004 to July 2006. Interventions:None. Measurements and Main Results:The main cause of acute kidney injury was sepsis (58%). The mean dialysis dose was 36.6 mL/kg/hr allowing for excellent metabolic control (last tests: creatinine, 1.1 mg/dL; urea, 46 mg/dL). No significant bleeding, severe electrolyte, or calcium disorders were observed. Of the 418 filters used, almost 28,000 hrs of treatment, hemofilter patency was 68% at 72 hrs. Hospital mortality was 59%, and 22% of survivors were dialysis-dependent at the time of discharge. Within our sample, we identified 21 patients with liver failure (mean prothrombin time index, 21% vs. 67%, p < 0.001). This group presented with a lesser median systemic ionized calcium level (1.06 vs. 1.12 mmol/L, p < 0.001) and similar mean total calcium level (8.5 vs. 8.6 mg/dL, not significant), compared with patients without liver failure. These subjects also showed acidemia (median pH, 7.31 vs. 7.40, p < 0.001); however, they exhibited higher levels of lactate (median 29 vs. 16 mg/dL, p < 0.001), chloride (mean 109 vs. 107 mEq/L, p = 0.045) and had a trend to higher mortality rate (76% vs. 56%). Conclusions:Besides a trend toward higher mortality rate observed in the group with liver failure, we found that citrate-based continuous venovenous hemodiafiltration allowed an effective dialysis dose and reasonable filter patency.


Life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is a key part for selecting materials and techniques that optimize the service life of a pavement in terms of cost and performance. While the Alaska Flexible Pavement Design (AKFPD) software has been in use since 2004, there is no computerized analysis tool available to assist pavement engineers in developing this cost analysis for a given project. Including LCCA in the AKFPD software would be of immense benefit to pavement designers, allowing them to routinely improve infrastructure performance while making more cost-effective use of the design effort. This study seeks to update the current AKFPD program and create a single software package capable of executing the economic cost analysis and structural analysis functions. Upon completion, the project will provide the updated software, a modified AKFPD manual, and case studies with complete analysis processes to help the new user navigate the software. In the past year, the project team developed a new layout for the program. It also added new modules, including "equivalent single axle loads calculation" and "LCCA analysis," and designed more user-friendly interfaces for two other modules, "Mechanistic Pavement Design" and "Excess Fines Design."


Teamwork is an important component of engineering education programs; however, when not facilitated well, it can be a site of gender biases. The aim of this article is to thematically explore what and how engineering professors think about gender in the assessment of teamwork. In 2014 and 2015, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 39 engineering professors in the United States. Interviews covered a wide range of topics, with one section of the interviews devoted to teamwork specifically. For this article, the parts of the interviews about assessment of teamwork are analyzed. It was found that most participants were unaware of the ways in which gender can influence assessment and did not attempt to mitigate biases in self-evaluation, peer-evaluation, or team presentations. Recommendations for best practice are offered.


Background Intensive care unit nurses experience moral distress when they feel unable to deliver ethically appropriate care to patients. Moral distress is associated with nurse burnout and patient care avoidance. Objectives To evaluate relationships among moral distress, empowerment, ethical climate, and access to palliative care in the intensive care unit. Methods Intensive care unit nurses in a national database were recruited to complete an online survey based on the Moral Distress Scale–Revised, Psychological Empowerment Index, Hospital Ethical Climate Survey, and a palliative care delivery questionnaire. Descriptive, correlational, and regression analyses were performed. Results Of 288 initiated surveys, 238 were completed. Participants were nationally representative of nurses by age, years of experience, and geographical region. Most were white and female and had a bachelor's degree. The mean moral distress score was moderately high, and correlations were found with empowerment (r = −0.145; P = .02) and ethical climate scores (r = −0.354; P < .001). Relationships between moral distress and empowerment scores and between moral distress and ethical climate scores were not affected by access to palliative care. Nurses reporting palliative care access had higher moral distress scores than those without such access. Education, ethnicity, unit size, access to full palliative care team, and ethical climate explained variance in moral distress scores. Conclusions Poor ethical climate, unintegrated palliative care teams, and nurse empowerment are associated with increased moral distress. The findings highlight the need to promote palliative care education and palliative care teams that are well integrated into intensive care units.


The interrogation of highly diverse repertoires of heterogeneous cell populations on a single cell basis increases the likelihood that a cell with unique characteristics will be identified. This thesis describes the development of a new single cell analysis system comprising millions of bundled sub-nanoliter volume bio-incubation chambers for the identification and recovery of target specific antibody secreting cells (ASCs). This Direct Clone Analysis and Selection Technology (DiCAST) is a patented antibody discovery technology that can not only reduce the time and cost for their discovery but has the potential to find candidates that nobody else can. The application of this newly developed technology is applicable to screening both bacterial and mammalian antibody secreting cells and the implementation and feasibility of this platform in identifying target specific antibodies from bacterial and B cell libraries is investigated in this work. It offers a much enhanced alternative to traditional screening approaches in both fields as well as offering drastically improved throughput and multi-plexing capabilities when compared with competing single cell analysis technologies. In addition to development of this enhanced screening approach, complementary methods for automated (ELISA-based) and high throughput (SPR-based) screening of the selected antibodies were developed and deployed for routine use.


Objective: determining the training profile of the Internal Medicine residents in Colombia. Method: cross sectional descriptive trial, developed according to surveys about the post-graduate programs in Internal Medicine active up to 2005. Results: 17 out of 21 of those participating in active programs answered the survey. The time of the post-graduate program in Internal Medicine is three years. The internist to be trained should be a physician with a holistic vision, with an excellent scientific background with profound respect for the patient and the patient's family. 69% of his (or her) activity is dedicated to the patients admitted in the hospital and 31% to day care patients. Specialties such as cardiology, pneumology, nephrology, neurology, endocrinology, rheumatology and gastroenterology are obligatory in 100% of the programs, whereas dermatology, oncology and geriatrics are only for 71%, 43% and 29% respectively. Between 2002 and 2005, 203 internist physicians graduated in the program. Around 50% of them practice internal medicine today, while 45% have chosen a sub-specialty. Until 2005 approximately 1942 internists have been graduated in Colombia. Conclusions: the Internal Medicine post graduate program's architecture in Colombia is the traditional one and in the majority of cases is carried out at the patient's bedside, with the additional support of complementary thematic revisions. As gaps are identified the low involvement of the teachers with the university payroll, the lack of pedagogic training of the same, and the poor training of residents in palliative, geriatrics and oncology care, among others. There are some general recommendations to improve the programs and the relationship with the ACMI. (Colombian Association of Internal Medicine).


The present paper seeks to deal with the issue of technical and economic efficiency of rice producers in the Kou valley, located in the region of the high basins in the western part of Burkina Faso. The stochastic frontier approach was used to estimate the production function, from a Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier function and its dual which allow the estimation of the technical, allocative and economic efficiencies. The determinants of efficiency were simultaneously assessed along with the frontier functions through the FRONTIER 4.1 software. The data used herein are from a survey encompassing 130 rice producers, randomly chosen. Results show that farm size, fertilizer used, years of experience and literacy are the explicative factors of rice production in the Kou valley. The costs of the different production factors significantly contribute to explain the total production cost, and that is in concordance with the economic theory. The technical, allocative and economic efficiencies of producers are, on average, 80.15%, 92.7% and 74.43% respectively. A 25% improvement of rice production is possible if producers optimize their economic efficiency.


With the implementation of the Bologna declaration, European and other universities must change or adjust courses and programmes so they fit into the Bologna model. In Sweden this will take place during 2007. The intention with the declaration, for example, is that a basic course in one subject at one university should be treated as equivalent to the same type of course at another university. Once a year, the recently formed section for education of the Swedish Cartographic Society gathers university lecturers and others for an education conference to discuss matters concerning higher education in geomatics, geoinformatics, geography, etc. Last year's conference identified the need for a harmonized course curriculum in basic GIS. One of the advantages of such a course is easier transfer of study records for inclusion of course credits in study programmes at other universities. Therefore, an attempt has been made to write a harmonized course curriculum for basic GIS. The course will contain about 50% common content and about 50% of content decided by the individual university. The common content will be described as learning outcomes, and then it is up to the universities to place the learning outcomes into a context. Thanks to this common core, the course can be given for such diverse programmes as archaeology, land surveying, or economy, and still be able to include the required knowledge for students to continue on more advanced courses at other universities.


Objectives
To describe the trajectory of radiographic progression among patients with PsA who transitioned from conventional synthetic DMARDs to anti-TNF-α inhibitors in routine care.

Methods
A retrospective sample of patients with PsA (ClASsification criteria for Psoriatic ARthritis) was taken from the Bath longitudinal cohort. All patients had radiographs of the hands and feet taken: 5 years before (T0), at the time of (T1) and 5 years after (T2) commencing anti-TNF treatment. Radiographs were scored blinded using the PsA-modified Sharp-van der Heijde score (mSvdHS) and for osteoproliferation (Psoriatic Arthritis Ratingen Score) by A.Allard, A.Antony and W.T. This sample size was calculated to ensure 90% power to determine the smallest detectable difference of the mSvdHS to a 5% significance level. Cumulative probability plots were used to determine the probability of radiographic progression pre- (T0-T1) and post- (T1-T2) anti-TNF treatment.

Results
Eighty-four radiographs from 28 patients were selected for inclusion. The median [interquartile range (IQR)] disease duration at baseline (T0) was 8.5 (0-19.5) years. The interval between T0-T1 and T1-T2 was 4.2 years (3.34-6.65) and 4.9 years (4.25-5.87), respectively. The median mSvdHS at baseline (T0) was 8.5 (IQR 1.75-27.5). The median (IQR) rate of change in mSvdHS per year reduced after commencing anti-TNF, from 2.1 (0.88-3.92) between T0-T1 to 1.0 (IQR 0.05-2.35) between T1-T2 (P = 0.012).

Conclusion
The trajectory of damage accumulation over a 10-year period in this observational clinical cohort is low overall. The rate of radiographic damage as measured by the mSvdHS slows following commencement of anti-TNF.


Background Patients with type 2 diabetes and elevated urinary albumin:creatinine ratio (ACR) have increased risk of heart failure. We hypothesised this was due to cardiac tissue changes rather than silent coronary artery disease. Methods and results In a case-controlled observational study 130 subjects including 50 ACR+ve diabetes patients with persistent microalbuminuria (ACR >2.5 mg/mol in males and >3.5 mg/mol in females, ≥2 measurements, no previous renin angiotensin aldosterone (RAAS) therapy), 50 ACR-ve diabetes patients and 30 controls underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance for investigation of myocardial fibrosis, ischaemia and infarction and echocardiography. 30 ACR+ve patients underwent further testing after 1 year treatment with RAAS blockade with ace inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker. Cardiac extracellular volume fraction (ECV), a measure of diffuse fibrosis, was higher in diabetes patients than controls (26.1±3.4 and 23.3%±3.0% p=0.0002) and in ACR+ve than ACR-ve diabetes patients (27.2±4.1 vs 25.1%±2.9%, p=0.004). ACR +ve patients also had lower E' measured by echocardiography (8.2±1.9 vs. 8.9±1.9 cm/s, p=0.04) and elevated high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) 18 vs 4%≥14 ng/L (p=0.05). Patients with elevated hs-cTnT had significantly elevated native T1 and ECV (1293.3±80.2 and 1235.8±46.5 ms, p=0.0001 and 30.3±4.8 vs. 25.6%±3.2%, p<0.0001 respectively). Rate of silent myocardial ischaemia or infarction were not influenced by ACR status. Treatment with RAAS inhibition was associated with a significant decrease in serum aldosterone level (337.0±192.7 to 244.3±137 pmol/L, p=0.03) but no significant change in 24 hour blood pressure. RAAS blockade was associated with increased left ventricular ejection fraction (59.3±7.8 to 61.5%±8.7%, p=0.03) and decreased ECV (26.5±3.6 to 25.2±3.1, p=0.01) but no changes in diastolic function or hs-cTnT levels. Conclusions Asymptomatic patients with type 2 diabetes and persistent microalbuminuria have several markers suggestive of diffuse cardiac fibrosis including elevated ECV, hs-cTnT and diastolic dysfunction. The prevalence of silent myocardial ischaemia or infarction was not influenced by ACR status. Treatment with an ACE inhibitor was associated with improvement in LV EF and ECV regression. These findings suggest that increased risk in this patient group is mediated by subclinical changes in tissue structure and function rather than occult CAD, which may have implications for the management of these patients.


Agency - the capacity to plan and act - and experience - the capacity to sense and feel - are two critical aspects that determine whether people will perceive non-human entities, such as autonomous agents, to have a mind. There is evidence that the absence of either can reduce cooperation. We present an experiment that tests the necessity of both for cooperation with agents. In this experiment we manipulated people's perceptions about the cognitive and affective abilities of agents, when engaging in the ultimatum game. The results indicated that people offered more money to agents that were perceived to make decisions according to their intentions (high agency), rather than randomly (low agency). Additionally, the results showed that people offered more money to agents that expressed emotion (high experience), when compared to agents that did not (low experience). We discuss the implications of this agency-experience theoretical framework for the design of artificially intelligent decision makers.


The sat4 streptothricin resistance gene from Campylobacter coli BE/G4 was cloned into pUC18, and its nucleotide sequence was determined. Streptothricin acetyltransferase activity was detected in Escherichia eoli cells containing recombinant plasmid pAT132 which carries the sat4 gene as an insert. The deduced amino acid sequence displayed 21-27% amino acid identity with streptothricin acetyltransferases from E. coli and streptothricin producers Streptomyees lavendulae and Streptomyees noursei. The sat4 gene was detected by hybridization in clinical and environmental isolates of Campylobacter spp.


Abstract. The micropalaeontology of the mid-Cretaceous Derdere Formation (Mardin
Group) from outcrops close to the town of Derik in south-eastern Turkey is
described here. In thin sections from the carbonates that form the majority of
this formation, rich and diverse micropalaeontological assemblages are
present. These include larger benthonic foraminifera, planktonic
foraminifera, and other microfossils, including calcareous algae.
Alveolinid foraminifera are particularly common and include a new species – Simplalveolina mardinensis. In contrast to some previous studies, the majority of the section can be
demonstrated to be Cenomanian (notably middle Cenomanian) in age with no
confirmation of extension into the Albian or Turonian. Deposition took place
on a carbonate ramp within a range of discrete deposition settings ranging
from peritidal to outer ramp. A notable feature is the small-scale (a few
metres) shallowing-up cycles within the inner-ramp facies that may be
allocyclic or autocyclic in origin. Three major deepening events are
recognised within the succession, characterised by more open marine
microfauna and microfacies. These occur at the base of the formation,
within the mid-Cenomanian lower part, and towards the top of the formation.
These may correlate with three Cenomanian deepening phases seen in other
parts of the Arabian Plate.


This is a cognitive linguistic study of a cultural-specific metaphor of a leader in Ekegusii, an African Bantu language in Kenya. A descriptive research design was used whereby the natives were asked to identify and explain the Ekegusii leader metaphorical terms and phrases, describe the social cultural values and to account for the cognitive mapping processes involved. The data collected were analyzed using the Cognitive Metaphor Theory (CMT) of Lakoff and Johnson (1980) . The results show that a leader in Ekegusii is conceptualized as a plant, animal, object or the behavior the leader exhibits (also act as X domains). It was also found out that context, values, attitude of the speaker and cultural knowledge play a major role in interpreting and understanding Ekegusii leader metaphors. The study concludes by suggesting further research of metaphors in African and other languages to enable comparisons.


An influenza A protein recruits autophagy machinery to the plasma membrane to promote production of stable virus particles. Viruses and bacteria have not only evolved mechanisms for avoiding destruction by autophagy; some also coopt the autophagy machinery for their own benefit. Beale et al. report that the influenza A virus (IAV) ion channel protein Matrix 2 (M2) recruited the autophagosome marker LC3 to the plasma membrane to facilitate the production of stable virions. LC3 localizes to autophagosomal membranes and serves as a docking site for "cargo receptors," which are proteins that bind to substrates destined for autophagic degradation. Whereas fluorescently tagged LC3 was distributed throughout the cytoplasm and on autophagosomes in uninfected human A549 and HCT116 cells, LC3 accumulated perinuclearly and at the plasma membrane after infection with the H1N1 strain of IAV. Infection with IAV lacking M2 did not induce accumulation of LC3 at the plasma membrane. The authors identified a putative LC3-interacting region (LIR) in the cytoplasmic tail of M2 and demonstrated that this motif mediated binding of M2 to LC3 in vitro. The M2 LIR was required for the recruitment of LC3 to the plasma membrane upon infection but was not required for the perinuclear accumulation of LC3 in infected cells. Depending on the viral strain, IAV can bud as filaments or as spheres, with filamentous budding requiring more host cell membrane resources than spherical budding. Cells infected with the filamentously budding PR8-MUd strain IAV containing mutations in the M2 LIR produced fewer filaments than cells infected with wild-type PR8-MUd IAV. Viral replication was unaffected by mutations in the M2 LIR, but the infectivity of viral particles was reduced with mutations in the M2 LIR. When left at room temperature for 1 to 2 days, supernatants from cells infected with M2 LIR–mutant IAV contained fewer plaque-forming units than supernatants from wild-type IAV. This decrease in infectivity was more pronounced with the filamentous IAV strain than with a nonfilamentous strain. Thus, M2 recruitment of LC3 to the plasma membrane may help mobilize membrane resources that contribute to the stability of virus particles. The ion channel activity of M2 is required for viral entry, and M2 blocks the fusion of autophagosomes with lysosomes, leading to perinuclear accumulation of autophagosomes (see commentary by Münz). This newly identified role for M2 adds another important virulence function to this multifunctional protein's repertoire. R. Beale, H. Wise, A. Stuart, B. J. Ravenhill, P. Digard, F. Randow, A LC3-interacting motif in the influenza A virus M2 protein is required to subvert autophagy and maintain virion stability. Cell Host Microbe 15, 239–247 (2014). [PubMed] C. Münz, Influenza A virus lures autophagic protein LC3 to budding sites. Cell Host Microbe 15, 130–131 (2014). [PubMed]


BACKGROUND
Identification of biomarkers that predict severe Crohn's disease is an urgent unmet research need, but existing research is piecemeal and haphazard.

OBJECTIVE
To identify biomarkers that are potentially able to predict the development of subsequent severe Crohn's disease.

DESIGN
This was a prognostic systematic review with meta-analysis reserved for those potential predictors with sufficient existing research (defined as five or more primary studies).

DATA SOURCES
PubMed and EMBASE searched from inception to 1 January 2016, updated to 1 January 2018.

REVIEW METHODS
Eligible studies were studies that compared biomarkers in patients who did or did not subsequently develop severe Crohn's disease. We excluded biomarkers that had insufficient research evidence. A clinician and two statisticians independently extracted data relating to predictors, severe disease definitions, event numbers and outcomes, including odds/hazard ratios. We assessed risk of bias. We searched for associations with subsequent severe disease rather than precise estimates of strength. A random-effects meta-analysis was performed separately for odds ratios.

RESULTS
In total, 29,950 abstracts yielded just 71 individual studies, reporting 56 non-overlapping cohorts. Five clinical biomarkers (Montreal behaviour, age, disease duration, disease location and smoking), two serological biomarkers (anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies and anti-flagellin antibodies) and one genetic biomarker (nucleotide-binding oligomerisation domain-containing protein 2) displayed statistically significant prognostic potential. Overall, the strongest association with subsequent severe disease was identified for Montreal B2 and B3 categories (odds ratio 4.09 and 6.25, respectively).

LIMITATIONS
Definitions of severe disease varied widely, and some studies confounded diagnosis and prognosis. Risk of bias was rated as 'high' in 92% of studies overall. Some biomarkers that are used regularly in daily practice, for example C-reactive protein, were studied too infrequently for meta-analysis.

CONCLUSIONS
Research for individual biomarkers to predict severe Crohn's disease is scant, heterogeneous and at a high risk of bias. Despite a large amount of potential research, we encountered relatively few biomarkers with data sufficient for meta-analysis, identifying only eight biomarkers with potential predictive capability.

FUTURE WORK
We will use existing data sets to develop and then validate a predictive model based on the potential predictors identified by this systematic review. Contingent on the outcome of that research, a prospective external validation may prove clinically desirable.

STUDY REGISTRATION
This study is registered as PROSPERO CRD42016029363.

FUNDING
This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 25, No. 45. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.


ABSTRACT. Identifying the Influence of Morphometry on the Urban Morphology of Zalău Using GIS. The topography is considered to be the main component lying at the basis of human activities and settlements. Its analysis can highlight the territories which are favourable or restrictive for urban expansion and city development. The present study used cartographic databases and geoinformation software to identify the present distribution of edilitary constructions on elevation and slope angle intervals, two morphometric characteristics which have the strongest influence on the urban development of Zalău Municipality. In order to highlight the geomorphological processes which influence in a negative way the city expansion, the study has identified the building distribution in each neighbourhood on landslide probability classes, these specific categories being identified using the methodology described in the Governmental Decision 447/2003. Starting from these databases, the geomorphological risk map was created. This type of analysis, which relies on the current territorial expansion of the city, offers an overall image on the future development options and enables a sustainable planning of the analysed territory. Key-words: morphometry, urban development, G.I.S. modelling, Zalău


Dynamic analysis provides a powerful methodological framework for characterizing physiological systems. In particular, complex heartbeat dynamics related to autonomic control mechanisms are known to change at each moment in time, and complexity measures have been proven to have prognostic value in both health and disease. Nevertheless, an instantaneous measure of complexity for cardiovascular time series (or any other series of stochastic physiological "events") is still missing. In this study we introduce a mathematical framework serving instantaneous complex estimates of heartbeat dynamics to characterize different activities, tasks, and/or pathological states. In particular we propose new definitions of inhomogeneous point-process approximate and sample entropy where the discrete events are modeled by probability density functions characterizing and predicting the time until the next event occurs as a function of past history. These definitions are built on our previous work employing Laguerre expansions of the Wiener-Volterra autoregressive terms to account for long-term memory. We demonstrate an exemplary study on heartbeat data gathered from healthy subjects undergoing postural changes such as stand-up, slow tilt, and fast tilt. Results show that instantaneous complexity is able to effectively track the complex autonomic changes as they are affected by different postural changes.


During the past few years, there has been an increasing interest in rapid visual tests that could be performed outside the laboratory, for example on farms, in store houses or in food production plants. Hence, cost effective and simple screening methods are required for residual analysis of environmental and food samples on- site. Here, a simple and instrumental independent dipstick immunoassay for sulfamethazine detection is described. The polyclonal antibody was optimised in terms of coating dilution on a nitrocellulose membrane, dilution of peroxidase tracer conjugate, blocking agents and incubation times. Test results assessed by visual measurement can be available within 20 minutes. In buffer, water, skimmed milk and pig manure extract, sulfamethazine fortified at 50 and 100 µg/l has exhibited clear visual differentiation in colour development (lower intensity) in comparison to the control spot intensity (high intensity) of the dipstick.


The reaction of 3-phenyl-1-azabicyclo[1.1.0]butane (1a) with chlorodithio-formates (5) at room temperature yielded 3-chloro-3-phenylazetidine-1-carbodithioates (6). The same products were obtained in a two-step procedure by treatment of 1a with thiophosgene to give azetidine-1-carbothioyl chloride (7a), followed by treatment with the corresponding sulfane. 3-Chloro-3-phenylazetidine-1-thiocarbamides (8) and the corresponding O-methyl 1-carbothioates (9) were prepared by the reaction of compounds (7) with amines and methanol, respectively. These reactions open a new access to derivatives of azetidine-1-carboxylic acid.


The Global South harbors some of the planet's most precious natural resources and is hence key in addressing the pressing environmental challenges of the Anthropocene. Here, payments for ecosystem services (PES) have recently gained importance as a means of environmental governance, increasingly complementing conventional command-and-control approaches. For instance, climate change is now mitigated through carbon offset payments and biodiversity loss is addressed through wildlife conservation performance payments. However, such payment schemes in the Global South face numerous challenges as identified by a large body of literature. This paper investigates if blockchain technology can help address some of the challenges by reinforcing PES programs with tamper-proof blockchain smart contracts. To this end, the paper presents a proof-of-concept of a blockchain-based wildlife conservation performance payments scheme in Namibia: the habitat integrity of an elephant corridor is assessed by remote sensing algorithms, which in turn trigger fictitious blockchain smart contract payments to surrounding communities. The application allows to practically discuss the potential of blockchain technology regarding three key aspects of PES: (i) effectiveness (conditionality) of environmental monitoring (ii) efficiency and transaction costs, as well as (iii) equity and benefit distribution. The case presented here is an example for linking the digital Blockchain sphere to practical challenges of natural resource management in the physical world. As such, it illustrates some potentials of the technology, but also shows how Blockchain technology is unlikely to provide transformative solutions in geographies with complex environmental governance.


Extruded aluminum profiles are essential for lightweight constructions in contemporary transport and automotive applications. The reinforcement of such aluminum-based profiles with high-strength materials offers a high potential for weight reduction and an improvement of functional and mechanical properties. In comparison to conventional composite extrusion using fiber or particle reinforced billets, the alternatively developed process for the embedding of endless reinforcing elements provides enormous advantages regarding extrusion forces, load-adapted reinforcement, and tool abrasion. In this extrusion process with conventional billets, modified tools with portholes are used to position reinforcing elements from outside the pressing tool and to embed them into the material flow during the pressing operation. This composite extrusion process is part of the research work started in 2003 and carried out within the scope of the Collaborative Research Center SFB/TR10. To increase the potential of composite extrusion with endless reinforcing elements, the manufacture of composite extrusion profiles with high-strength non-metallic alumina wires is planned. Due to the wires' specific properties, e.g. high stiffness, their deflection behavior must be analyzed to guarantee a stable feeding-in process. In this paper the specific behavior of alumina reinforcing elements regarding the feeding-in process is analyzed by experimental investigations. The main influencing factors are determined and a process window is deduced.


rheumatology will continue to play a less effective role than that of which it is well capable and of which there is an overwhelming need. Now someone must believe that rheumatologists are required, as evidenced by the recognition of the specialty within general medicine by the Joint Committee for Higher Medical Training and its definition of the necessary period of training before accreditation as a consultant in rheumatology.' Not only this, but the Council for Postgraduate Medical Education in England and Wales in its publication "Careers in Medicine" (p 55) describes the training necessary and facilities likely to be made available. If locomotor and rheumatic disorders are "a major medical and socioeconomic problem," as Professor Buchanan and his colleagues say, then surely a specialty concerned with their management is a necessity. Let us hope then that this article and the other factors that I have mentioned will encourage the medical graduate to contemplate rheumatology as a worthwhile career within medicine and most especially within our teaching hospital departments of medicine.


Recently, more and more researchers have focused on the problem about how to automatically distinguish text images from non-text ones. Most of previous works have originated from local features, which are computational expensive, and usually employ GPU in their procedure. To address this problem, we propose a new and simple but effective scheme from an overall perspective. In the proposed scheme, a sort of holistic feature is first extracted from Fourier spectrum, which describes the characteristic of the image or the sub-image as a whole without local feature extraction; then, random forests are utilized to classify images into text and non-text ones. Experimental results in several public datasets demonstrate that this scheme is efficient and effective.


Device-quality GaAs thin films have been grown on miscut Ge-on-Si substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. A method of two-step epitaxy of GaAs is performed to achieve a high-quality top-layer. The initial thin buffer layer at 360 °C is critical for the suppression of anti-phase boundaries and threading dislocations. The etch pit density of GaAs epilayers by KOH etching could reach 2.25 × 105 cm−2 and high-quality GaAs top epilayers are observed by transmission electron microscopy. The band-to-band photoluminescence property of GaAs epilayers on different substrates is also investigated and negative band shifts of several to tens of meVs are found because of tensile strains in the GaAs epilayers. To achieve a smooth surface, a polishing process is performed, followed by a second epitaxy of GaAs. The root-mean-square roughness of the GaAs surface could be less than 1 nm, which is comparable with that of homo-epitaxial GaAs. These low-defect and smooth GaAs epilayers on Si are desirable for GaAs-based devices on silicon substrates.


The irregular nature of rainfall in the Australian arid and semiarid zones results in a heterogeneous distribution of resources in both time and space. The mammal species that reside in these regions are uniquely adapted to these climatic conditions, often occurring in naturally low densities and increasing significantly in numbers following major rainfall events. We investigated how these adaptations may influence genetic diversity and gene flow across the landscape in an endangered semiarid/arid-zone marsupial, the sandhill dunnart (Sminthopsis psammophila), from three known populations in southern Australia. Analyses of mitochondrial control region (CR) sequences and microsatellite loci revealed that S. psammophila had maintained similar levels of genetic diversity to other sympatric Sminthopsis species despite its endangered status. There was no evidence for significant phylogeographic structure within the species, but each population was genetically differentiated, based on the frequency of microsatellite alleles and CR haplotypes, suggesting that they should be considered as distinct Management Units for conservation. At a fine spatial scale, no significant genetic structure or sex-biased dispersal was detected within a study site of 240 km2. These findings suggest that both sexes are highly mobile, which allows individuals to locate localised resource patches when they become available. We detected evidence of a genetic bottleneck within the population, possibly caused by a recent drought. Our study highlights the importance of maintaining connectivity across the landscape for semiarid- and arid-zone species to enable them to track resource pulses and maintain genetic diversity.


An improved radioassay for analysis of phagocytosis has been used to quantitate and characterize the binding and internalization of zymosan by monolayers of rabbit pulmonary alveolar macrophages. This method distinguishes zymosan particles reversibly bound to the cell surface from those internalized. The zymosan was radiolabeled with technetium 99m(99mTc), a gamma-emitter with a 6-h half-life. Use of 99mTc as the radiolabel also permitted simultaneous determinations of pinocytosis and cellular protein content using [14C]sucrose and [3H]amino acids, respectively. All endocytic data were normalized per adherent cell based on this latter measurement. A significant fraction of the cell-associated particles was bound to the cell surface but not internalized. Failure to correct for this compartment would have resulted in overestimation of phagocytic rate and total cellular capacity. Both binding and ingestion of functionally unopsonized zymosan were found to be saturable, temperature sensitive, dependent on glycolytic energy, dependent on a trypsin-sensitive membrane component, described by a maximal rate, and limited by a finite capacity. The time courses of both processes were found to be similar. These results led us to conclude that, in our system, both binding and internalization were active processes and that the limited capacity to ingest zymosan was not explained by a concomitant reduction in binding of the particle to the cell membrane. Furthermore, it was found that phagocytosis did not change the rate of fluid-phase pinocytosis, consistent with the concept that the cell membrane is a functional mosaic as has been previously found by others for phagocytic and transport sites in this cell type.


This paper is really a technical remark on a paper by Diamantaras and Thomas (1990). In that paper, the no-envy concept due to Foley (1967) was refined to accommodate some kind of a radial no-envy comparison, inspired by Chaudhurai (1986). Simply put, each person compares his/her own consumption bundle with all possible radial expansions and contractions of every other person's consumption bundle. A Pareto Optimal allocation which is envy free against such a maximal expansion is the one selected by Diamantaras and Thomson (1990). Our framework differs from the Diamantaras and Thomson (1990) framework in that we consider only the pure exchange situation. Thus, since such technical issues with regard to existence of envy free allocation in the sense of Foley (1967) are somewhat secondary (though present) in our framework, we view this no-envy concept as a new equity criterion. In this framework, we prove the Diamantaras and Thomson (1990) result regarding the existence of an envy free allocation on a somewhat larger domain of preferences. We also feel that our existence proof is much simpler than the one due to the two authors, although it is difficult to say whether our proof would extend to the economies with production as studied by them.


This paper focuses on investigating the relationship between democracy and the respect for human rights, to underpin the culture of human rights, and to establish democratic societies that enable individuals and groups to treat their conflicts by the use of peaceful methods. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to produce suggestions and solutions for enhancing and consolidating democracy, to be more integrated into the three main pillars of the United Nations (Peace and Security, Human Rights, and development), and to consider democracy as a fundamental right. Our research is based on a historical and empirical study which proved that a significant relationship exists between Human rights violation and conflicts.


Four sediment cores from the central and northern Greenland Sea basin, a crucial area for the renewal of North Atlantic deep water, were analyzed for planktic foraminiferal fauna, planktic and benthic stable oxygen and carbon isotopes as well as ice-rafted debris to reconstruct the environmental variability in the last 23 kyr. During the Last Glacial Maximum, the Greenland Sea was dominated by cold and sea-ice bearing surface water masses. Meltwater discharges from the surrounding ice sheets affected the area during the deglaciation, influencing the water mass circulation. During the Younger Dryas interval the last major freshwater event occurred in the region. The onset of the Holocene interglacial was marked by an increase in the advection of Atlantic Water and a rise in sea surface temperatures (SST). Although the thermal maximum was not reached simultaneously across the basin, benthic isotope data indicate that the rate of overturning circulation reached a maximum in the central Greenland Sea around 7 ka. After 6–5 ka a SST cooling and increasing sea-ice cover is noted. Conditions during this so-called "Neoglacial" cooling, however, changed after 3 ka, probably due to enhanced sea-ice expansion, which limited the deep convection. As a result, a well stratified upper water column amplified the warming of the subsurface waters in the central Greenland Sea, which were fed by increased inflow of Atlantic Water from the eastern Nordic Seas. Our data reveal that the Holocene oceanographic conditions in the Greenland Sea did not develop uniformly. These variations were a response to a complex interplay between the Atlantic and Polar water masses, the rate of sea-ice formation and melting and its effect on vertical convection intensity during times of Northern Hemisphere insolation changes.


The first part of the presentation is a brief survey of the neural network models and their use in power systems, based on an analysis of more than 200 publications. The second part discusses the applications in static security assessment, with supervised and unsupervised neural network models. An example of static security assessment with the Kohonen classifier is developed: the Kohonen network is trained with vectors representing simulated states of the power system, with or without contingencies. The Kohonen map is used to assess unknown power system states in real time. The two approaches, supervised and unsupervised, are compared and finally, the perspective of industrial implementation is evaluated


We have no greater responsibility than providing the safety and security for our citizens, allies,
and partners and develop the economic environment that promotes opportunity and prosperity.
The use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) threatens these interests by killing, injuring, and
intimidating citizens and political leaders around the world, inflicting damage on security forces
on the battlefield, and disrupting transportation and the flow of commerce. The terrorists and
criminals responsible for these attacks are resilient, technologically adept and adaptable. They
employ the most recent and successful tactics, technique, and procedures gained from experience
in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world. The strategic environment, even after the Cold War, is
dangerous and ambiguous. Increased instability in the world has resulted in regional conflicts,
civil wars, insurgences, terrorist attacks, drug trafficking, and a variety of attempts of
intimidation. These challenges arise even during times of relative peace. With this threat, IEDs
will reduce the military commander's combat power, national politics, economic and
informational power. Because of this threat, military commanders and leaders responsible for
security at all levels must incorporate Counter IED support into their planning process. This will
ensure to be able to respond to these worldwide strategic challenges across a full range of
operations as part of a joint team.


In this paper, we study the valuation of stochastic cash flows that exhibit dependence on interest rates. We focus on insurance liability cash flows linked to an index, such as a consumer price index or wage index, where changes in the index value can be partially understood in terms of changes in the term structure of interest rates. Insurance liability cash flows that are not explicitly linked to an index may still be valued in our framework by interpreting index returns as so-called claims inflation, i.e., an increase in claims cost per sold insurance contract. We focus primarily on the case when a deep and liquid market for index-linked contracts is absent or when the market price data are unreliable. Firstly, we present an approach for assigning a monetary value to a stochastic cash flow that does not require full knowledge of the joint dynamics of the cash flow and the term structure of interest rates. Secondly, we investigate in detail model selection, estimation and validation in a Heath-Jarrow-Morton framework. Finally, we analyze the effects of model uncertainty on the valuation of the cash flows and how forecasts of cash flows and interest rates translate into model parameters and affect the valuation.


Haemolymph and external medium sodium concentrations have been investigated in three euryhaline amphipods, Gammarus duebeni (Lilljeborg), Chaetogammarus marinus (Leach) and Gammarus locusta (Linnaeus). These were subjected to various salinity regimes, including sudden and cycling salinity changes. The apparent permeability to water of these three species was investigated in various salinity regimes using THO as amarker. Of the three species, only G. duebeni demonstrated large and significant changes in apparent permeability to water. The bulk flow into and out of the animals was calculated showing a variation of responses in the three species, G. duebeni exhibiting the smallest bulk flow and G. locusta the largest. These results were related to the ecology of the three species.


1-amino anthraquinone (2) is the most important intermediate in the synthesis of acid dyes. This paper presents a new method for the preparation of title compound (2) in a highly chemo- and regioselective reduction of 1-nitro anthraquinone (1) by NaHS in water under mild conditions. This protocol is clean, operationally simple, easy work-up and could be applied in the industrial production.
Graphical_Abstract


The wear behaviors of a rectangular labyrinth seal fin against high speed rotor were experimentally investigated on the incursion test rig. The material losses, worn geometries, frictional temperature distributions, and contact forces of labyrinth fin in rubbing events were measured at three incursion rates, three final incursion depths and two rotor sliding velocities. The morphologies of the worn labyrinth fin tips were magnified to reveal the wear mechanisms in rubbing events. The transient temperatures and contact forces were detailed to analyze the thermal-mechanical interactions between two contacting parts. The results show that the material loss percentage in the labyrinth fin is higher at the early stage of rubbing process, accounting for 18% mass loss of the worn region, than at final stage. The material loss is decreased with increasing the incursion rate. The incursion rate and final incursion depth have pronounced effects on the mushroom region extensions and curlings. The friction coefficient is fluctuated significantly in the high sliding velocity and low incursion rate conditions, and the averaged value of friction coefficient is about 0.1-0.125 among all experiments. The temperature at labyrinth fin tip is increased with increasing the final incursion depth, incursion rate and sliding velocity. However, the temperature at fin tip is not increased further as it reaches about 1200°C. The heat convection from hot fin to ambient plays an important role in worn geometries and transient temperature distributions at fin tip.


We analyze the seismicity in northern Baja California, Mexico, that occurred one month before and one month after the 11 March 2011 ( M w 9.1) Tohoku‐Oki, Japan, earthquake and for two other large and remote earthquakes, the 27 February 2010 central Chile ( M w 8.8) earthquake and the 11 April 2012 northern Sumatra earthquake ( M w 8.6). The northern region of Baja California exhibits high microseismic activity and moderate‐size earthquakes. The seismicity in this region is monitored by the seismic network Red Sismica del Noroeste de Mexico (RESNOM) operated by the Centro de Investigacion Cientifica y de Educacion Superior de Ensenada (CICESE). We use the RESNOM seismic catalog to search for changes in local seismic rates that occurred after the passing of surface waves generated by the three large earthquakes studied. When we compare one month of seismicity before and after the M w 9.1 Japan earthquake, in the biggest of the three events analyzed, we observe the absence of triggered seismicity in the northern Peninsular Ranges and an increase of seismicity south of the Mexicali Valley, where the Imperial fault jumps southwest and the Cerro Prieto fault continues south. We also observe an increase of seismicity rate in the Cucapah fault and in the San Pedro Martir fault regions. The Cucapah fault region, the most active of the three regions during the studied period, shows an increase of seismicity several days after the 2010 Chile ( M w 8.8) and the 2011 Japan ( M w 9.1) earthquakes. This observation can be interpreted as evidence of delayed seismicity and confirms the observation of Rubinstein et al. (2009) that earthquakes tend to be triggered in regions with high ambient seismicity rates. We observed delayed triggering of earthquakes generated by two of the three remote earthquakes analyzed. These observations can be explained by dynamic triggering of prolonged fault creep as proposed by Shelly et al. (2011).

Online Material: Maps of seismicity and M c.


Intelligent transport systems (ITS) rely upon the connectivity, cooperation and automation of vehicles aimed at the improvement of safety and efficiency of the transport system. Connectivity, which is a key component for the practical implementation of vehicular light communications (VeLC) systems in ITS, must be carefully studied prior to design and implementation. In this paper, we carry out a performance evaluation study on the use of different vehicle taillights (TLs) as the transmitters in a VeLC system. We show that, the transmission coverage field of view and the link span depend on TLs illumination patterns and the transmit power levels, respectively, which fail to meet the typical communication distances in vehicular environments. This paper proposes an infrared-based VeLC system to meet the transmission range in daytimes under Sunlight noise. We show that, at the forward error correction bit error rate limit of 3.8 $ \times $10−3, the communication distances of the proposed link are 63, 72, and > 89 m compared with 4.5, 5.4 and 6.3 m for BMW's vehicle TL at data rates of 10, 6, and 2 Mbps, respectively.


Aim: To compile information regarding how ectodermal dysplasia is managed through various dental treatments. Materials and Method: A detailed search was performed on articles related to ectodermal dysplasia. Specifically, in this review, it focuses on the treatment plans in children with this disease. A search was performed in the PubMed (Medline) and Web of Science databases to collect relevant information on the restoration of oral function in ED patients using dentures. Results: 538 in total of related articles and abstracts were obtained from using the electronic search. During the initial screening, 420 articles were excluded. 118 articles were then completely evaluated resulting in only 53 being assesed as it fulfills the inclusion criteria of the systematic review. At the end, only 18 studies were used for assessment. Conclusion: In a nutshell, the capability of deciding on a treatment for patients that have hypodontia in accordance to the evidence is not yet possible. Although implant therapy for hypodontia patients have a better outcome, when dealing with children, removable partial denture is the most suitable choice.


When dealing with electrification of working machines, energy-efficient operation is key to maximise the usage of the limited capacity of on-board batteries. Previous research indicate that plenty is gained by reducing component and system losses by means of design. In contrast, this paper focuses on how to maximise energy efficiency by means of control optimisation. Dynamic programming with backward-facing simulation is used to find the optimal electric motor speed trajectory for a scooptram machine equipped with pump control, using digital displacement pumps with dynamic flow sharing as enabling technology. The results show that low shaft speed is preferred to minimise drag losses from parasitic components, partly facilitated by the relatively high and operation point-independent efficiencies of the pumps and electric motor. The results indicate energy reduction of 5 - 9 %, where higher figures could be expected for other, more hydraulic-intense applications, such as excavators.


: Hemoglobin A2 levels in members of an African American family with -88 C-->T beta(+)-thalassemia were measured, and two patients in whom iron deficiency anemia developed were evaluated during treatment. Iron deficiency may diminish the level of HbA2 in healthy control subjects and in patients with heterozygous beta-thalassemia; in addition, it may reduce the amount of variant hemoglobin in certain hemoglobinopathies. Although iron deficiency appeared to be associated with a reduction in HbA2 quantity in the patient with heterozygous beta-thalassemia, the level of HbA2 did not fall below the range characteristic of beta-thalassemia. It had been proposed that mutations in the beta-globin gene promoter may be associated with higher-than-expected levels of HbA2. However, this "mild" beta-globin gene promoter mutation did not seem to result in HbA2 concentrations higher than anticipated in the heterozygous beta-thalassemias.


Following myocardial infarction and atherosclerotic lesion development, monocytes contribute to myocardial protection and repair, while also partaking in myocardial ischemic injury. The balance of proinflammatory and reparative monocyte subsets is crucial in governing these therapeutic and pathological outcomes. Myocardial ischemic damage displays heterogeneity across the myocardium, whereby the subendocardium shows greatest vulnerability to ischemic damage. In this study we examined the transmural distribution of monocyte subsets in response to gradual coronary artery occlusion. CD14(+) monocytes were isolated from peripheral blood of New Zealand White rabbits and divided into two subgroups based on the expression of CD62L. We employed a rabbit model of progressive coronary artery obstruction to induce chronic myocardial ischemia and reinfused fluorescently labeled autologous monocytes. The distribution of fluorescently labeled autologous monocytes was examined with a high-resolution three-dimensional imaging cryomicrotome. The subepicardial layer contained the largest infiltration of both monocyte subgroups, with a significantly greater proportion of CD14(+)CD62L(+) monocytes at the time when the ischemic area was at a maximum. By targeting CD13(+) angiogenic vessels, we confirmed the presence of angiogenesis in epicardial and midmyocardial regions. These myocardial regions demonstrated the highest level of infiltration of both monocyte subsets. Furthermore, CD14(+)CD62L(+) monocytes showed significantly greater migration towards monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, greater adhesive capacity, and higher expression of C-C chemokine receptor type-2 relative to CD14(+)CD62L(-) monocytes. In conclusion, we note selective subepicardial distribution of monocyte subpopulations, with changes in proportion depending on the time after onset of coronary narrowing. Selective homing is supported by divergent migratory properties of each respective monocyte subgroup.


Synchrotron radiation identified in the radio domain for several tens of binary systems made of massive stars provides compelling evidence that a particle acceleration process is at work in these objects, hence their Particle-Accelerating Colliding-Wind Binaries (PACWB) status. Measurements of the synchrotron radio emission allow to investigate the non-thermal physics and to derive some of their properties. Non-thermal spectra are known to increase at lower frequencies, while thermal ones increase toward higher frequencies. In this context, it is worth investigating the expectations from longer wavelengths such as those measured by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India, in complementarity with the most abundant measurements at centimetric wavelengths obtained with other radio observatories such as the VLA or ATCA.


Introduction:
Multidisciplinary breast conference (BC) that discusses different
clinicopathological aspects of disease creates a sound, complete and unique
treatment plan for each patient. The aim of this study was to investigate the
role of weekly breast tumor boards in patient management and treatment
modifications. Methods: From June 2010 to June 2011, 242 patients (Stage 0 to
Stage 4 breast cancer) were prospectively presented before a multidisciplinary
team. Presentation included clinical data, imaging and pathological review
followed by prospective treatment plan formulated by the physician group. If
postoperative presentation, final histopathology of the tumor and adjuvant
treatment relevant to each patient was discussed. Breast conference was
performed via teleconference, including video projection of pathology slides
and images. Feedback evaluations were completed and returned to the Tumor Registry
for consistent weekly improvement of BC. Results: 102 patients (42%) had
modified management after being presented at BC,  38% (n = 39) surgical,
33% (n = 34) medical (chemotherapy/endocrine therapy), 17% (n = 17) radiation,
6% (n = 6) both medical and radiation treatment and 6% (n = 6) imaging changes.
Majority of changes were made to patients with Stage IA (27%) followed by Stage
0 (21%) breast cancer. Conclusion: Breast conference presents a significant
impact on patient management and serves as a model for best practice in cancer
care. Consultative discussion of each case permits every team member to be
acutely aware of the patient's condition, contribute to treatment plan and
permit a harmonious and cooperative team approach while assuring best treatment
for the patient.


Parents and students from different socioeconomic backgrounds value differently school characteristics, but the reasons behind this preference heterogeneity are not well understood. In the context of the centralized school assignment system in Mexico City, this study analyzes how a large household income shock affects choices over high school tracks exploiting the discontinuity in the assignment of the welfare program Oportunidades. The income shock significantly increases the probability of choosing the vocational track vis-a-vis the other more academic-oriented tracks. The findings suggest that the transfer relaxes the financial constraints that prevent relatively low-ability students from choosing the schooling option with higher labor market returns.


We present our work with a global online fashion retailer, Zalando, as an example of how a global retailer can utilize massive amount of data to optimize price discount decisions over a large number of products in multiple countries on a weekly basis. Given demand forecasts under a collection of discrete prices, Zalando's objective is to set discount levels to maximize total profit over the entire selling horizon while taking into account both local and global business constraints. Local constraints refer to single product level requirements, where Zalando needs to balance sales across different countries and over different weeks while adhering to a first-come-first serve policy. That is, as long as product inventory exists, a customer is served independent of the customer's origin country or time of arrival. Global constraints refer to specific targets set by management for different product categories and each country. We address these challenges by applying a three-step process. In the first step, we cluster products into groups that behave similarly and solve the aggregated problem in a way that allows us to decouple the problem into a problem for each product category. Each product category includes thousands of individual products (SKUs) and the various markets where products are sold, each of which with its own target sales and margins. In the second step, we decompose this problem using Lagrangian relaxation into a problem for each product (SKU) and provide an efficient way to identify the Lagrange multipliers. Finally, in the last step, we optimize decisions for individual products and also address local business constraints. For this new approach, which was implemented as part of Zalando's price discount decision process, we provide results from offline tests and field experiments to demonstrate its benefit.