Dialysis associated steal syndrome (DASS) is a relatively rare but debilitating complication of arteriovenous fistulas. While mild symptoms can be observed, if severe symptoms are left untreated, DASS can result in ulcerations and limb threatening ischemia. High-flow with resultant heart failure is another documented complication following dialysis access procedures. Historically, open surgical procedures have been the mainstay of therapy for both DASS as well as high-flow. These procedures included ligation, open surgical banding, distal revascularization-interval ligation, revascularization using distal inflow, and proximal invasion of arterial inflow. While effective, open surgical procedures and general anesthesia are preferably avoided in this high-risk population. Minimally invasive limited ligation endoluminal-assisted revision (MILLER) offers both a precise as well as a minimally invasive approach to treating both dialysis associated steal syndrome as well as high-flow with resultant heart failure. MILLER is not ideal for all DASS patients, particularly those with low-flow fistulas. We aim to briefly describe the open surgical therapies as well as review both the technical aspects of the MILLER procedure and the available literature.


Introduction: The presence of depressive symptoms and cognitive impairment are highly correlated with aging. In addition to this, there are other variables that also influence the presence and severity of existing cognitive disorders, such as schooling level. Objective: compare the cognitive performance among the elderly of different educational levels with and without depressive symptoms through the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT). Methods: a cross-sectional study with elderly people of different scholarities, with and without depressive symptoms. To evaluate the depressive symptoms, the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was used and the Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test (RBMT) and the Mental State Mini Examination (MMSE) were applied for the evaluation of cognition. Results: the study included 69 elderly people with a mean age of 68.4 years (SD ± 5.9) and a mean educational level of 7.9 years (SD ± 3.7), the mean GDS score was 3.3 points (SD ± 3.8) and the mean RBMT score was 16.19 points (SD ± 3.8). Conclusion: in the studied sample, there is a significant difference in the performance of the elderly with and without depressive symptoms in the RBMT test when stratified by schooling.


A hybrid numerical method coupling a modal description in regular parts of the waveguides and a Finite Element computation in the vicinity of guide perturbations has been developed several years ago. This approach enables the simulation of complex defects interaction and the computation of the wave field generated by a source located inside the waveguide or on its surface. A study combining generation and interaction of guided waves through a complex structure is presented.


The aim of this review is to explore the changing utility of radiotherapy in the treatment of patients with glioblastoma over the past decades. Surgery and radiotherapy has always been the cornerstone of treatment of glioblastoma, but techniques have significantly advanced over this time. We selected the main studies that support the advances of radiotherapy in the present day as well as controversies in several aspects of the treatment will be approached; definition of the target volume in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) planning, size of the margins around the target volume; prescribed dose (satnadard vs. hypofactionated); management of glioblastoma in elderly; review role of radiosurgery past and new potential use in recurrence and the evidence of reirradiation in patients with local recurrence. Finally, continued development on many fronts have allowed for modestly improved outcomes while at the same time limiting toxicity.


Digital society challenges the traditional perception of legal sources. The use of maps as a basis for public administration dates far back, but e-Government's use of digital maps that include legal information creates new legal obstacles. In the coming decades, the inspire directive of 2007 will determine the interplay between geographic data and technology in the fields of environmental legislation, environmental policy and environmental management. This article examines the legal regulation of spatial information as established by the inspire directive, on one hand, and on the other hand, examines legal regulation as spatial information. It aims to deepen the understanding of spatiality as a core element of environmental law, and to connect it to the basic concept of representation used in giscience. It concludes that the future path for e-Government demands a shift in legal paradigm, from maps showing representations of applied legal norms, to maps build on datasets that have legal authority. That will integrate legal and geographic information systems, and improve the legal accountability of decision support systems used in e-Government services based on spatio-legal data.


Ptx-Pd(1-x) nanoparticles supported on amorphous silica (SiO2) were prepared by wetness impregnation techniques with choroplatinic acid (H2PtCl6) and palladium chloride (PdCl4) with different concentrations of Pt and Pd at about 1% in overall metallic weight. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the physical properties as physisorption (BET), X Ray Diffraction XRD, High Resolution Electron Microscopy HREM, Transmission Electron Microscopy TEM couple with XEDS energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry and chemical properties to determine the activity in cyclohexene reaction of these materials supported. Bimetallic nanoparticles are made of a single solid solution of Pt and Pd atoms, and the particles diameter of about 3-5 nm was estimated by HREM and Bright field image, the Pt-Pd nanoparticles were found mainly to have truncated cuboctahedral shape with fcc packing,. by using energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (XEDS) and their values were found to be close to the stochiometric relative concentrations in weight of the metals in the precursor aqueous solution.


Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has become a worldwide, significant public health challenge. Dental care providers are at high risk due to the nature of their profession, which necessitates close proximity to the patient's oropharyngeal region and the use of droplet and aerosol-generating procedures. Methods: A review of the evolving literature on the COVID-19 pandemic was conducted. Published articles addressing SARS-CoV2 transmission modes and risks, and infection control procedures required in the dental office to protect dental patients and health care providers were assessed. Also, clinical guidelines on the management of dental patients during the pandemic were reviewed. Results: The established modes of transmission of SARS-CoV2 appear to be through respiratory droplets and through close contact with either symptomatic or asymptomatic patients. In addition to standard precautions of infection control widely followed in dental practices, extra precautionary measures are needed to control the spread of this highly infectious disease. Dental treatment during the pandemic is limited to emergent and urgent cases after a meticulous patient risk assessment and dental needs are triaged to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission and avoid cross-contamination. Conclusion: Dentists should be aware of the recently updated knowledge about COVID-19 modes of transmission and the recommended infection control measures in dental settings. Effective management protocols to regulate droplet and aerosol contamination in the dental clinic should be implemented to deliver dental care in a safe environment.


Objective To describe the experience of planning and developing online refresher courses in nursing management for nurses in the contexts of Brazil and Portugal. Method The instructional design was based on meaningful learning theory, andragogy, and dialectical methodology, so it valued interaction between the actors, emphasizing the scenarios of practice and applying the concepts covered. The course structure is divided into nine theoretical units, four case studies, and an essay exam. Results The course was positively evaluated by the participants, who reported opportunities for acquisition of new knowledge, interaction and exchange of experiences, motivation to study the topics, and self-learning. Conclusion It is expected that description of this experience will stimulate proposals for new courses and programs in distance education modalities, improving the processes of teaching and learning so as to give support to future analyses of their impact on the development and enhancement of management skills in nursing.


Aim/Purpose: This article aimed to design and evaluate a pedagogical technique for altering students' classroom digital multitasking behaviors. The technique we designed and evaluated is called course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). With this technique, the students wrote a research article based on a multitasking experiment that the instructor conducted with the students. The students conducted a literature review, developed their own research questions, they analyzed experiment data, and presented results. This study evaluated the how the CURE contributed to student multitasking behavior change.

Background: Multitasking is defined as doing more than one thing at a time. Multitasking is really the engagement in individual and discrete tasks that are performed in succession. Research showed that students multitasked very often during courses. Researchers indicated that this was a problem especially for online teaching, because when students went online, they tended to multitask. Extant research indicated that digital multitasking in class harmed student performance. Multiple studies suggested that students who multitasked spent more time finishing their tasks and made more mistakes. Regardless of students' gender or GPA, students who multitasked in class performed worse and got a lower grade than those who did not. However, little is known about how to change students' digital multitasking behaviors. In this study, we used the transtheoretical model of behavior change to investigate how our pedagogical technique (CURE) changed students' digital multitasking behaviors.

Methodology: Using a course-based undergraduate research experience design, a new classroom intervention was designed and evaluated through a content analysis of pre- and post-intervention student reflections. As part of the course-based undergraduate research experience design, the students conducted a literature review, developed their own research questions, they analyzed experiment data, and presented results. This study evaluated the how teaching using a course-based undergraduate research experience contributed to student multitasking behavior change. Transtheoretical model of behavior change was used to investigate how our pedagogical technique changed students' digital multitasking behaviors.

Contribution: The paper described how teaching using a course-based undergraduate research experience can be used in practice. Further, it demonstrated the utility of this technique in changing student digital multitasking behaviors. This study contributed to constructivist approaches in education. Other unwanted student attitudes and behaviors can be changed using this approach to learning.

Findings: As a result of CURE teaching, a majority of students observed the negative aspects of multitasking and intended to change their digital multitasking behaviors. Sixty-one percent of the participants experienced attitude changes, namely increased negative attitude towards multitasking in class. This is important because research found that while both students and instructors believed off-task technology use hinders learning, their views differed significantly, with more instructors than students feeling strongly that students' use of technology in class is a problem. Moreover, our study showed that with teaching using CURE, it is possible to move the students on the ladder of change as quickly as within one semester (13 weeks). Seventy-one percent of the students reported moving to a higher stage of change post-intervention.

Recommendations for Practitioners: Faculty wishing to curb student digital multitasking behaviors may conduct in-class experimentation with multitasking and have their students write a research report on their findings. Course-based undergraduate research experiences may make the effects of digital multitasking more apparent to the students. The students may become more aware of their own multitasking behaviors rather than doing them habitually. This technique is also recommended for those instructors who would like to introduce academic careers as a potential career option to their students.

Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers should explore changing other unwanted undergraduate student behaviors with course-based undergraduate experiences. Researchers may use the transtheoretical model of change to evaluate the effectiveness of techniques used to change behaviors.

Impact on Society: The negative outcomes of digital multitasking are not confined to the classroom. Digital multitasking impacts productivity in many domains. If techniques such as those used in this article become more common, changes in multitasking intentions could show broad improvements in productivity across many fields.

Future Research: This paper constitutes a pilot study due to the small convenience sample that is used for the study. Future research should replicate this study with larger and randomized samples. Further investigation of the CURE technique can improve its effectiveness or reduce the instructor input while attaining the same behavioral changes.


We present the first applications of proof mining to the theory of partial differential equations as well as to set-valued operators in Banach spaces, in particular to abstract Cauchy problems generated by set-valued nonlinear operators that fulfill certain accretivity conditions.
In relation to (various versions of) uniform accretivity we introduce a new notion of modulus of accretivity. A central result is an extraction of effective bounds on the convergence of the solution of the Cauchy problem to the zero of the operator that generates it. We also provide an example of an application for a specific partial differential equation. For such operators as well as for operators fulfilling the so-called $\phi$-expansivity property, again in general real Banach spaces, we give computable rates of convergence of their resolvents to their zeros. We give two applications of proof mining to nonlinear nonexpansive semigroups, analysing two completely different proofs of essentially the same statement and obtaining completely different bounds. More specifically we obtain effective bounds for the computation of the approximate common fixed points of one-parameter nonexpansive semigroups on a subset of a Banach space and (for a convex subset) we give corollaries on their asymptotic regularity with respect to Krasnoselskii's and Kuhfittig's iteration schemata.

The bounds obtained in all the above works are all not only effective, but also highly uniform and of low complexity.

We finally include a short comment on a different perspective of a (potential) proof-theoretic application to partial differential equations, namely a reverse mathematical study of a proof for the existence of a weak solution of the Navier-Stokes equations motivating future work.


A significant amount of research has been conducted on the buckling behavior of delaminated composite laminates. However, none of the investigations has been focused on establishing similarity and scaling laws for buckling response of composite laminated with delamination. The main objective of this study is to demonstrate the applicability of similitude theory in designing scaled down models for predicting the buckling behavior of delaminated laminated beam subjected to uni-axial compression. The results presented herein indicate that, for buckling response of delaminated beam-plates, based on structural similitude, a set of scaling laws can be found which use to develop design rules for small scale models. For models with the same material properties and stacking sequence as prototype, distorted models with different number of delaminations, delamination length and depth than those of the prototype can predict the behavior of the prototypes with good accuracy.


BACKGROUND
Obesity is a strong risk factor for type 2 diabetes. However, few studies have compared the predictive power of overall obesity with that of central obesity. The cutoffs for waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) as measures of abdominal adiposity remain controversial.

OBJECTIVE
The objective was to compare body mass index (BMI), WC, and WHR in predicting type 2 diabetes.

DESIGN
A prospective cohort study (Health Professionals Follow-Up Study) of 27 270 men was conducted. WC, WHR, and BMI were assessed at baseline. Covariates and potential confounders were assessed repeatedly during the follow-up.

RESULTS
During 13 y of follow-up, we documented 884 incident type 2 diabetes cases. Age-adjusted relative risks (RRs) across quintiles of WC were 1.0, 2.0, 2.7, 5.0, and 12.0; those of WHR were 1.0, 2.1, 2.7, 3.6, and 6.9; and those of BMI were 1.0, 1.1, 1.8, 2.9, and 7.9 (P for trend < 0.0001 for all). Multivariate adjustment for diabetes risk factors only slightly attenuated these RRs. Adjustment for BMI substantially attenuated RRs for both WC and WHR. The receiver operator characteristic curve analysis indicated that WC and BMI were similar and were better than WHR in predicting type 2 diabetes. The cumulative proportions of type 2 diabetes cases identified according to medians of BMI (>/=24.8), WC (>/=94 cm), and WHR (>/=0.94) were 82.5%, 83.6%, and 74.1%, respectively. The corresponding proportions were 78.9%, 50.5%, and 65.7% according to the recommended cutoffs.

CONCLUSIONS
Both overall and abdominal adiposity strongly and independently predict risk of type 2 diabetes. WC is a better predictor than is WHR. The currently recommended cutoff for WC of 102 cm for men may need to be reevaluated; a lower cutoff may be more appropriate.


We report a case of tracheal adenoma presenting as hemoptysis and reversible airflow obstruction in an ex-smoker. A questionable defect in the tracheal air shadow on a posteroanterior chest radiograph was shown on CT to be a pedunculated, mid-tracheal tumor. Two-stage bronchoscopic laser resection resulted in an apparently normal tracheal mucosa. Results of postresection spirometry were normal.


The challenge of mobile text entry is exacerbated as mobile devices are used in a number of situations and with a number of hand postures. We introduce ContextType, an adaptive text entry system that leverages information about a user's hand posture (using two thumbs, the left thumb, the right thumb, or the index finger) to improve mobile touch screen text entry. ContextType switches between various keyboard models based on hand posture inference while typing. ContextType combines the user's posture-specific touch pattern information with a language model to classify the user's touch events as pressed keys. To create our models, we collected usage patterns from 16 participants in each of the four postures. In a subsequent study with the same 16 participants comparing ContextType to a control condition, ContextType reduced total text entry error rate by 20.6%.


We examined the effects of knowledge, motivation, and the type of message on ad processing and on product judgments. The data suggest that, regardless of subjects' prior knowledge, they could be motivated to process message information in detail. However, experts and novices differed in the types of information that prompted detailed message processing. Experts are more likely to process a message in detail when given only attribute information, while novices are more likely to do so when given benefit (or benefit and attribute) information. Experts and novices also differed in how they processed messages; experts' detailed message processing was evaluative, while novices' was more literal. Copyright 1990 by the University of Chicago.


Discrepancy measures between probability distributions are at the core of statistical inference and machine learning. In many applications, distributions of interest are supported on different spaces, and yet a meaningful correspondence between data points is desired. Motivated to explicitly encode consistent bidirectional maps into the discrepancy measure, this work proposes a novel unbalanced Monge optimal transport formulation for matching, up to isometries, distributions on different spaces. Our formulation arises as a principled relaxation of the Gromov-Haussdroff distance between metric spaces, and employs two cycle-consistent maps that push forward each distribution onto the other. We study structural properties of the proposed discrepancy and, in particular, show that it captures the popular cycle-consistent generative adversarial network (GAN) framework as a special case, thereby providing the theory to explain it. Motivated by computational efficiency, we then kernelize the discrepancy and restrict the mappings to parametric function classes. The resulting kernelized version is coined the generalized maximum mean discrepancy (GMMD). Convergence rates for empirical estimation of GMMD are studied and experiments to support our theory are provided.


Overwrite in particulate tape media is studied utilizing a micromagnetic simulation model. Seven different media, including traditional thick tape and thin metal-particle tape, are simulated to study the effect of tape thickness and demagnetizing ratio on overwrite. Recording head parameters, such as the record gap, the record current, and head-medium spacing, are analyzed for overwrite in the thick tape media. An analytical formula is developed to describe the overwrite ratio as a function of the frequency ratio before and after overwrite.


The main objective of this paper is to assess the quality of drinking water at the out skirts of Khartoum State. The objectives include studying the effects of practices employed by the inhabitants of Al-Hella Al-Jadeeda in handling, transporting and storing water. In addition to statistical analysis of data collected through questionnaires, samples from different sources and locations of wells, tanks, carro carts and drinking water containers, were collected and examined physically, chemically and microbiologically. The results revealed that, the water is physically and chemically acceptable for human consumption except for some doubts in its lead content. The lead content was found to be varied between 0.03 to 0.667 mg/L, which indicates a quantity far above the maximum allowable limits. Tests conducted on microbiological quality of water showed that water samples, were highly contaminated with coliform bacteria, which implies that fecal contamination is evident. It could be concluded that the pollution found is due to poor environmental sanitation awareness and carelessness of people on their personal hygiene. The study recommended that a network distribution system should be established in the area. Meanwhile, traditional drinking water carriers and distributors must be periodically cleaned, regularly disinfected with chlorine to remove any public health hazards. It is also recommended to introduce low-cost technologies such as sand purification systems in addition to the enhancement of awareness on the health hazards of polluted water.


Tremendous progress in the science of extrasolar planets has been achieved since the discovery of a Jupiter orbiting the nearby Sun-like star 51 Pegasi in 1995. Theoretical models have now reached enough maturity to predict the characteristic properties of these new worlds, mass, radius, atmospheric signatures, and can be confronted with available observations. We review our current knowledge of the physical properties of exoplanets, internal structure and composition, atmospheric signatures, including expected biosignatures for exo-Earth planets, evolution, and the impact of tidal interaction and stellar irradiation on these properties for the short-period planets. We discuss the most recent theoretical achievements in the field and the still pending questions. We critically analyze the different solutions suggested to explain abnormally large radii of a significant fraction of transiting exoplanets. Special attention is devoted to the recently discovered transiting objects in the overlapping mass range between massive planets and low-mass brown dwarfs, stressing the ambiguous nature of these bodies, and we discuss the possible observable diagnostics to identify these two distinct populations. We also review our present understanding of planet formation and critically examine the different suggested formation mechanisms. We expect this review will provide the basic theoretical background to capture the essentials of the physics of exoplanet formation, structure and evolution and the related observable signatures.


Land cover classification over large geographic areas using remotely sensed data is increasingly common as a result of the requirements of national inventory and monitoring programmes, scientific modelling and international environmental treaties. Although large‐area land cover products are more prevalent, standard operational protocols for their validation do not exist. This paper provides a framework for the accuracy assessment of large‐area land cover products and synthesizes some of the key decision points in the design and implementation of an accuracy assessment from the literature. The fundamental components of a validation plan are addressed and the framework is then applied to the land cover map of the forested area of Canada that is currently being produced by the Earth Observation for Sustainable Development programme. This example demonstrates the compromise between the theoretical aspects of accuracy assessment and the practical realities of implementation, over a specific jurisdiction. The framework presented in this paper provides an example for others embarking on the assessment of large‐area land cover products and can serve as the foundation for planning a statistically robust validation.


Based on preparation of Al2O3/ZrO2 (4Y) by combustion synthesis in high-gravity field, the microstructure transformation and properties of the materials are investigated through adjusting the ZrO2 (4Y) content in the composites. As the content of ZrO2 changed from 37% to 40%, the microstructures of the ceramics transformed the sphere-like tetragonal ZrO2 crystals from the rod-shaped colonies with nanocrystalline structures. Al2O3/33%ZrO2 (4Y) had the maximum relative density, hardness and flexural strength due to the low solidification temperature, the highest volume fraction of the colonies, small-size defect and high fracture toughness, whereas Al2O3/44%ZrO2 (4Y) was somewhat weakened in strength in despite of its highest fracture toughness.


: Two hundred and forty-three patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis were examined. Their sera were tested for the level of stable nitric oxide (NO) metabolites, by using the Griess reagent after previous reduction of nitrates to nitrites by a copper-impregnated cadmium reducer. The frank active pulmonary tuberculosis was ascertained to follow the lower serum levels of NO metabolites. The serum NO level did not correlate with inflammatory markers, but reduced when the process was recurrent or chronic. By taking into account the role of NO in the performance of the body's different systems, its serum reduction in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis should be probably referred to as the manifestations of metabolic decompensation as the suppressed endothelial NOS activity that determines the level of NO in circulation.


Study Objectives: This study evaluated the utility and ecological validity of the 3-minute psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) completed by safety-critical personnel in an air medical transport operation as part of a fatigue risk management program. Methods: Crewmembers in an air medical transport operation self-administered an alertness assessment incorporating a 3-minute PVT at different time points during their duty schedule. The prevalence of alertness deficits was evaluated based on a failure threshold of 12 errors considering both lapses and false starts. To evaluate the ecological validity of the PVT, the relative frequency of failed assessments was evaluated relative to crewmember position, timing of the assessment within the duty schedule, time of day, and sleep quantity in the last 24 h. Results: 2.1% of assessments were associated with a failing PVT score. Crewmember position, timing of assessment within the duty shift, time of day, and sleep quantity in the last 24 h were found to affect the relative frequency of failed assessments. Obtaining less than 7–9 h of sleep was associated with systematic increases in the failure rate ( F [1, 54 612] = 168.1, p < .001). Obtaining less than 4 h of sleep was associated with a frequency of a failed assessment 2.99 times higher than the frequency of a failed assessment when obtaining 7–9 h of sleep. Conclusions: Results provide evidence for the utility and ecological validity of the PVT as well as the suitability of the PVT failure threshold to support fatigue risk management in safety-critical operations.


In regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, many materials are developed to mimic the extracellular matrix (ECM). However, these ECM-mimicking materials do not yet completely recapitulate the diversity and complexity of biological tissue-specific ECM. In this review, an alternative strategy is proposed to generate ECM, namely synthesizing a material that functions as a drug delivery system, releasing molecules that target cellular metabolic pathways and thereby stimulate the local cells to create their own ECM. This is based on the fact that ECM synthesis, modification, composition, signaling, stiffness, and degradation are modulated by cellular metabolism. Metabolism can be targeted at different levels, ranging from modulating the availability of substrates or co-factors to regulating the activity of essential transcription factors. Depending on the drug of interest, its characteristics, mechanism of action, cellular target, and application, a different drug delivery system should be designed. Metabolic drugs modulating the ECM require cellular uptake for their function, therefore reversible linkers are recommended. Preferably the metabolic modulators are only released when needed, which will be upon a specific metabolic state, a change in ECM stiffness, or ECM remodeling. Therefore, reversible linkers that respond to an environmental stimulus could be incorporated. All in all, a novel strategy is suggested to develop a tissue-specific ECM by generating a synthetic material that releases metabolic molecules modulating the ECM. Various ways to modulate the ECM properties via the metabolism are reviewed and guidelines for the development of these materials are provided.


This Note presents a labour utilisation composite index (LUCI) for the New Zealand economy. We use principal component analysis to extract the underlying movements from a set of seventeen labour market variables. The LUCI fits the New Zealand business cycle well, and is particularly useful in situations when different labour market variables give contradictory signals, or when individual labour market variables have idiosyncratic movements.


Buster Keaton (1895--1966) was a brilliant comedian and filmmaker who conceived, wrote, directed, acted, and even edited most of his ten feature films and nineteen short comedies, which are perhaps the finest silent pictures ever made. With a face of stone and a mind that engineered breathtakingly intricate moments of slapstick, Keaton has become an icon of the American cinema. Marion Meade's definitive biography explores his often brutal childhood acting experiences, the making of his masterpieces, his shame at his own lack of education, his life-threatening alcoholism, and his turbulent marriages. Based on four years of research and more than 200 interviews with notables such as Billy Wilder, Leni Riefenstahl, Gene Kelly, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Irene Mayer Selznik, as well as members of Keaton's family who had previously refused to discuss him, Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase is a startling and moving account of the troubled life of a cinematic genius.


The kinetics of aging of key tire properties both in the field and in oven exposures at different temperatures has been interpreted by using a combination of empirical models and accelerated shift factors. Crosslink density and rubber modulus increase with aging while peel strength and elongation-to-break decrease. In the case of oven aging, the rate of property change increases from 40 °C to 70 °C and then decreases. In the case of field aging, the rate of property change is greatest in hotter climates such as Phoenix and is slower in cooler climates such as Detroit. Spare tires age at a rate that is ∼70% as fast as on-road tires. Below 70 °C, the rate data for all of the aging changes can be fit to an Arrenhius relationship with an activation energy of ∼69 kJ/mole, a value that is consistent with the aging process resulting from diffusion limited oxidation. The measured acceleration factor of oven aging at 70 °C relative to on-road aging in Phoenix is independent of the property change measured confirming that it is possible to chemically age tires in ovens. It takes 6-7 weeks of oven aging at 70 °C to produce a tire that is aged 4 years in Phoenix. Field results show that the rate of tire aging varies by over a factor of 5 for the different tire types and brands studied in this work. The implications for tire durability testing are discussed.


A new offset reduction strategy for CMOS Hall devices is proposed. The novelty is to fragment the Hall device into multiple Hall blocks, distributed over the silicon area and easy to interconnect. The suitable number of Hall blocks and the bias current level in each block can be adjusted according to the requirements in terms of offset, offset drift and signal to noise ratio. A chip was fabricated in 0.35 μm CMOS standard technology to demonstrate the potential of this architecture. The chip shows promising results, and in particular, a very low offset drift was observed at the front-end output stage (of the order of 10 nT/°C).


A dynamic icon is an icon whose graphical representation is computed and varies over time with changes in the properties of the object it represents. Dynamics icons make possible use of iconic representation of objects whose dynamic behavior must be reflected in their representation. The visual language PT incorporates dynamic icons to model dynamic object behavior in executing programs. This use of dynamic icons provides a natural program animation mechanism. Dynamic icons and their use in PT are discussed.<<ETX>>


In this article the quantitative analysis of constructions of switches is done, the indices of operating reliability of  work of switches are determined and the accrued operating times of switches by the different criteria are analyzed.


Due to largely considerable role of basic sciences curriculum as a primary phase on academic education, facing challenges during education may have adverse impacts on their future medical education or their professional career. In addition, a curriculum evaluation based on long term periods may provide a better and broader vision for educational planning. In current cohort study, all of medical students from Semnan University of Medical Sciences enrolled in comprehensive basic science exam during 2001-2010 were randomly selected. Data collection was permitted and approved by the institutional review board of medical faculty and processed descriptively. The participants of this study consisted of 316 students; the highest (32) and the least (3) amount of members enrolled in pre-internship exams were related to Feb 2001 and Feb 2009, respectively. The highest educational score average was 145 that obtained in Feb 2001 and the lowest educational score average e was calculated 100 and obtained in Feb 2009; furthermore, that group whose educational scores related to February exam with a mean score of 128.8 revealed better educational performances in comparison to September exam groups with a mean score of 114.2; scores obtained in the first-five-year period with a mean score of 125.7 indicated better educational performance when it compared to the second-five-year period with a mean score of 117.1. While the highest educational performance was observed in pathology, microbiology, physiology, and immunology courses, the lowest educational performance were obtained in biophysics, embryology and public health courses. Hence, further research seems required to have a better understanding of the underlying factors in educational performance and thus institutional research is recommended to conduct long term assessment of educational performance.


Mooring systems are among the most critical sub-systems for floating marine energy converters (MEC). In particular, the occurrence of peak mooring loads on MEC mooring systems must be carefully evaluated in order to ensure a robust and efficient mooring design. This understanding can be gained through long-term field test measurement campaigns, providing mooring and environmental data for a wide range of conditions. This paper draws on mooring tensions and environmental conditions that have been recorded (1) for several months during the demonstration of an MEC device and (2) over a period of 18 months at a mooring test facility. Both systems were installed in a shallow water depth (45 m and 30 m, respectively) using compliant multi-leg catenary mooring systems. A methodology has been developed to detect peak mooring loads and to relate them to the associated sea states for further investigation. Results indicate that peak mooring loads did not occur for the sea states on the external contour line of the measured sea states, but for the sea states inside the scatter diagram. This result is attributed to the short-term variability associated with the maximum mooring load for the given sea state parameters. During the identified sea states, MEC devices may not be in survival mode, and thus, the power take-off (PTO) and ancillary systems may be prone to damage. In addition, repeated high peak loads will significantly contribute to mooring line fatigue. Consequently, considering sea states inside the scatter diagram during the MEC mooring design potentially yields a more cost-effective mooring system. As such, the presented methodology contributes to the continuous development of specific MEC mooring systems.


The desire to prevent domestic violence and support its victims has driven a number of changes in governmental law and policy in the UK, particularly since the 1970s. This culminated with the implementation of a multi-agency approach in the 1990s that is still used today. The specific needs of immigrant women, however, have not always been taken into account when introducing these changes. This article assesses whether and how current UK legislation and policy on domestic violence address immigrant women's added vulnerabilities. It does so by reviewing this legislation and policy against the socio-economic, cultural and individual barriers that immigrant women are most likely to experience in accessing justice in the country of destination. It suggests that the current provision does not adequately support immigrant women to overcome these barriers, and that greater awareness of their experiences and socio-cultural positioning is needed to better assist them when seeking help to escape domestic violence.


This essay locates itself in the context of "narrative criminology". By means of analyses of the categorization work performed by young defendants in interviews, it is reconstructed how they conceptualize themselves interactively as subjects and/or "perpetrators". This categorization not only performs a location within the, respectively, told story and the interactive situation of the interview; the interviewees also position themselves in cultural criminal discourse. The analysis of corresponding narrations can therefore contribute to understanding the connection of individual and public narratives on criminality. This is described on the basis of three case examples. With a "sad story", a heroic story and references to individual cases that received particularly great public attention, the interviewees each develop context-specific categorizations and cultural positionings of "their" criminality and biography.


The gastric oxyntic glands are maintained by gastric stem cells that continuously supply all differentiated cell types within the corpus epithelium. Stem cells are supported by stromal cells that make up the stem cell niche. In this issue of the JCI, Fischer et al. report on their use of genetically engineered mouse models and organoids to study the role of R-spondin 3 (RSPO3) in the stomach. RSPO3, one of the major stem cell niche factors, primarily promoted secretory differentiation in the normal stomach, but also contributed to regeneration following injury. Mechanistically, RSPO3 was upregulated in the stroma by loss of chief cells and then activated the YAP pathway in gastric stem and progenitor cells, which appeared to be critical for regeneration of the secretory lineage. These data substantially advance our understanding of the regulation of gastric stem cells and highlight a function for RSPO3 in the gastrointestinal tract, which is as the gatekeeper of secretory differentiation.


The scope of extreme-environment diving defined within this work encompasses diving modes outside of the generally accepted no-decompression, open-circuit, compressed-air diving limits on selfcontained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba) in temperate or warmer waters. Extreme-environment diving is scientifically and politically interesting. The scientific diving operational safety and medical framework is the cornerstone from which diving takes place in the scientific community. From this effective baseline, as evidenced by decades of very low DCS incidence rates, the question of whether compressed air is the best breathing medium under pressure was addressed with findings indicating that in certain depth ranges a higher fraction of oxygen (while not exceeding a PC 2 of 1.6 ATA) and a lower fraction of nitrogen result in extended bottom times and a more efficient decompression. Extremeenvironment diving under ice presents a set of physiological. equipment, training and operational challenges beyond regular diving that have also been met through almost 50 years of experience as an underwater research tool. Diving modes such as mixed-gas, surface-supplied diving with helmets may mitigate risk factors that the diver incurs as a result of depth, inert gas narcosis or gas consumption. A close approximation of inert gas loading and decompression status monitoring is a function met by dive computers, a necessity in particular when the diver ventures outside of the single-dive profile into the realm of multi-level, multi-day repetitive diving or decompression diving. The monitoring of decompression status in extreme environments is now done exclusively through the use of dive computers and evaluations of the performance of regulators under ice have determined the characteristics of the next generation of life-support equipment for extreme-environment diving for science. These polar, deep and contaminated water environments require risk assessment that analyzes hazards such as cold stress, hydration, overheating, narcosis, equipment performance and decompression sickness. Scientific diving is a valuable research tool that has become an integral methodology in the pursuit of scientific questions in extreme environments of polar regions, in contaminated waters, and at depth.


Smartphones allow users to carry a mobile phone, games console, music player, camera, calendar, and Internet browser all in one small handheld device, with their limitations governed only by the types of applications downloaded onto them. They have become an indispensable part of the daily life. While smartphones have made life more convenient with their advantages, they have also brought many side effects especially on the health. This chapter crosses literature data on the side effects of smartphone in terms of health, especially in children. Nonetheless, it may affect peo - ple's psychology, behavior, and health especially those of children. A mobile phone battery when heated explodes as a bomb. Awareness should be raised on the dangers of smartphones for children as telephone has become a real life partner in everything. Telephony companies as well as parents should join their effort, and measures should be taken to protect children and teenagers to ensure their welfare as they use smartphones. It is not enough to say that the humanity is in permanent danger. It is nec- essary to prioritize the protection of health while we rejoice in these technological advances.


The paper is concerned with communication mechanisms in which a record in shared memory is maintained by a writer to provide a coherent and up-to-date data reference which may be accessed at any time by a reader. The dynamic properties of several possible designs are briefly discussed before concentrating on a fully asynchronous form called a four-slot mechanism. This takes its name from the four-element array through which data is routed. Coherence is maintained by means of an orthogonal avoidance strategy without recourse to conventional synchronisation techniques such as semaphores, rendezvous, monitors or critical sections. Various implementation options are considered including software and hardware designs. It is seen that the fully asynchronous mechanism completes the range of basic communications options available to digital system designers.<
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System Verilog Assertions (SVA) is widely used by hardware designers and verification engineers to apply Assertion Based Verification (ABV) methodology on their hardware designs. However, the ambiguity of design specifications specified by different protocol standards in general and JEDEC memory protocol standards in specific imposes numerous difficulties on designers and verification engineers when translating design specifications into SVA. This motivated us to find a simple way to capture design specifications from JEDEC standard and automatically generate SVA that can be used as checkers for DDR memory protocols. In this paper, we propose a new method to capture design specifications using a timing diagram tool that documents the captured design specifications in a Timing Diagram Mark up Language (TDML) based format and generate SVA from the TDML document. The viability and the potential of our work are demonstrated with an Industrial case study using JEDEC LPDDR3 Memory Protocol Standard.


Examines the practical experience of benchmarking in the UK local government sector during the period leading to the introduction of an important policy initiative for local government under "New Labour". Argues that, under conditions of fiscal control, benchmarking has been subsumed under the wider practice of performance measurement in the sector. A critical factor is the primacy of the role of performance monitoring in local government, which in turn results from the controlling nature (in fiscal and political terms) of UK central government. The corollary is a conflation of two distinct views of benchmarking: benchmarking as a rigorous and challenging scrutiny of local government processes; and benchmarking as an instrument of central government control. Such a state of affairs would appear to offer a number of advantages to those policy makers whose blueprint for the reform of local government encourages the use of benchmarking across the sector.


The effect of a mixed powder on the wide gap transient liquid phase diffusion bonding of a directionally solidified Ni base superalloy, GTD-111 was investigated. The mixed powder consisted of a mixture of a powdered Ni base filler (GNi-3) and powdered base metal (GTD-111). The range of the base metal powder was 40 to 70wt%. Bonding was performed at a temperature of 1463K, using various holding time. In the case of a lower 50wt%, the base metal powders completely melted and base metal mating at the interface dissolved at an early time, and extent of dissolution of base metal decreased with increasing mixing ratio. Liquid was eliminated by isothermal solidification, which was controlled by the diffusion of B into the base metal. The solids in the bonded interlayer grew epitaxially from the mating base metal inward from the insert metal and the number of grain boundaries formed at the bonded interlayer corresponded with those of the base metal. The finishing time for isothermal solidification was about 74ks. In the case 60wt% and higher, the base metal powders partially melted and remained in the vicinity of bonded interlayer. The solid was formed from the remaining powder and base metal mating at the interface. Finally, the bonded interlayer underwent the poly-crystallization when isothermal solidification was complete. The contents of Al and Ti in the bonded interlayer with a holding of 74ks were equal to that of the base metal.


Learning algorithms for neural networks involve CPU intensive processing and consequently great effort has been done to develop parallel implemetations intended for a reduction of learning time. This work briefly describes parallel schemes for a backpropagation algorithm and proposes a distributed system architecture for developing parallel training with a partition pattern scheme. Under this approach, weight changes are computed concurrently, exchanged between system components and adjusted accordingly until the whole parallel learning process is completed. Some comparative results are also shown.


To investigate whether or not pressor responses to repeated stimulation of central cholinoceptive neurons are desensitized, mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) were measured following repeated injections of neostigmine, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, into the third cerebral ventricle in conscious, unrestrained intact or adrenalectomized (ADX) rats. Neostigmine (5 x 10-9 or 5 x 10-8 mol) in 1 put saline increased MAP dose-dependently and increased HR in intact rats. The peak values in MAP and HR after three repeated injections at 4 hour intervals did not wane. Neostigmine (5 x 10-8 mol) also increased MAP in ADX rats, and the peak values after the first injection were higher in the ADX rats than in the intact rats. The pressor responses to the second and third injection, however, were less than to the first injection in the ADX rats. HR responses to the repeated injections in the ADX rats were identical to those in the intact rats. These findings suggest that the adrenal gland plays a role in antagonizing the development of desensitization in the neostigmineinduced pressor response.


In maritime surveillance, supporting operatorspsila situation awareness is a very important issue for enabling the possibility to detect anomalous behaviour. We present a user study which conceptualises knowledge to be implemented in a rule-based application aiming at supporting situation awareness. Participatory observations were used as a method for extracting operatorspsila knowledge. The result of the user study is in the form of a number of identified rules emerging from organisational factors, group thinking and individual experience. A description of the rule-based prototype is presented a long with the result from the user study. This is also discussed together with the applicability of rule based systems and how to support situation awareness.


In this paper an experimental Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) platform is introduced as an aid in teaching location techniques based on RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) in the frame of a an radiolocation course at graduate level. The platform is implemented using low-cost commercial modules and one easy-to-use software program. The teaching methodology tries to develop the learning by doing theory and it is completed with a final practice that implements the learning-through-play theory. Both techniques have resulted in positive learning outcomes by enhancing the student role in the learning process.


My paper elaborates Herta Müller's Gulag novel, Atemschaukel (2009; published in English under the title of The Hunger Angel in 2012), in the historical, political and ethical contexts of twentieth-century forced migrations by placing the novel among those exodus narratives that have unfolded the parallel history of Romanian-German and Jewish communities during and after the Second World War. Given the fact that the memory of forced migrations and of the Gulag is a "soft memory" (Etkind 2004), there are no consensual remembrance policies in any concerned East or East-Central European country regarding their history. In the absence of official ownership, the legacies of these colletive and individual traumas became predominantly text-based (rather than image- or monument-based). One must therefore study those aesthetical forms by which literature is able to encode the physical, psychological, moral, social-political conditions of any totalitarian rule—and thus, attempt to establish the perceptional and sensational frames on which the universe of the Gulag can be re-constructed. Accordingly, my paper gives an amplifying view of the tendencies by which Müller's Atemschaukel both preserves and subtly re-orchestrates the conventions of the genre of the Gulag novel. One of the main achievements of her (politics of) aesthetics consists in re-creating the image of the labor camp through an ethically grounded conception of literary testimony, which, at the same time, gains and fulfills a mediative (mimetic) function.


Critical limb ischemia (CLI) is the final stage of peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Endovascular infrapopliteal treatment of patients with CLI using percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) and bail-out bare metal stenting (BMS) is hampered by restenosis. The PADI (Percutaneous transluminal Angioplasty and Drug-eluting Stents (DES) for Infrapopliteal lesions in critical limb ischemia) trial was conducted to assess whether DES improve patency and clinical outcome of infrapopliteal lesions. Adults with CLI and infrapopliteal lesions were randomized to receive PTA±BMS or DES. Primary endpoint was 6-month primary binary patency of treated lesions. Severity of treatment failure was assessed with an ordinal score, ranging from vessel restenosis (>50%), through occlusion, to clinical failure (re-intervention, major amputation, CLI-related death). Seventy-four limbs (73 patients) were treated with DES and 66 limbs (64 patients) received PTA±BMS. Six-month patency rates were 48.0% for DES and 35.1% for PTA±BMS (P=0.096). The ordinal score showed more severe treatment failures for PTA±BMS versus DES (P=0.041). The observed major amputation rate remained lower in the DES group until 2 years post-treatment (P=0.066). Less minor amputations (below ankle level) occurred after DES until 6 months post-treatment (P=0.03).Also at long-term up to 5 years follow-up, treatment of infrapopliteal lesions in CLI patients with DES yielded more favourable clinical results than with PTA±BMS. The estimated 5-year major amputation rate was lower in the DES arm than in the PTA±BMS arm (19.3% vs. 34.0%, respectively, P=0.091). The 5-year amputation-free survival and event-free survival (survival free from re-intervention or major amputation) rates were significantly higher in the DES arm (DES: 31.8% versus PTA±BMS: 20.4%; P=0.043; and DES: 26.2% versus PTA±BMS: 15.3%; P=0.041, respectively).Diabetes mellitus (DM) was highly prevalent in the PADI trial and as well in the JUVENTAS (reJUVenating ENdothelial progenitor cells via Transcutaneous intra-Arterial Supplementation) trial, a randomized controlled trial conducted in equivalent CLI patients. The two trials were pooled on patient level. The 5-year major amputation rate was higher in patients with DM than in non-diabetics (34.1% versus 20.4%, P=0.015). Death rates were comparable. Model factors with significant hazard ratios (HRs) in the multivariate analysis were baseline Rutherford category (HR 1.95; 95% CI 1.24-3.06) and ankle-brachial index (ABI) >1.4 (HR 2.78; 95% CI 1.37-5.64). CLI patients with DM are thus at significantly higher risk of major amputation than CLI patients without DM. This increased risk is associated with a higher prevalence of baseline ABI>1.4 and more severe ischemia at initial presentation in patients with DM.The prognostic value of the ABI concerning major amputation and survival in CLI patients with proven arterial obstructive disease was assessed in more detail in the same cohort of patients. Patients with a high (>1.4)/immeasurable ABI showed a significantly higher 5-year major amputation and lower 5-year amputation-free survival rates than those with an intermediate (0.7-1.4) and low (<0.7) ABI. High/immeasurable ABI at baseline was associated with a significantly higher risk of major amputation or death (HR 2.95, P<0.001). Incorporating high/immeasurable ABI in the existing PREVENT III prediction model regarding outcome in CLI significantly improved its performance.


The EC program to complete the internal market is designed to allow the free movement of goods, persons, services, and capital within the Community by the target date of December 31, 1992. This paper provides a comprehensive description and analysis of the EC program for the financial sector, with emphasis on the relationship of this program to overall issues regarding international trade in financial services. ; The first section of the paper presents a brief historical survey of the origins of the internal market program. The second section provides an overview of the EC program for creation of a "European Financial Area," a term used by the EC Commission to refer to both the removal of barriers to capital movements and the establishment of a framework for a Community-wide market for financial services. The third section, which is the main focus of the paper, is a conceptual analysis of the internal and external dimensions of the EC program for financial services and markets; the section analyzes the EC approach of mutual recognition as a means of achieving integration of the Community's financial sector and also sets forth a general framework for considering approaches to market access for third-country firms. The fourth section presents the conclusions. A series of appendices provide detailed explanations of the EC programs for banking, investment services, securities markets, and insurance.


Scaling language models with more data, compute and parameters has driven significant progress in natural language processing. For example, thanks to scaling, GPT-3 was able to achieve strong results on in-context learning tasks. However, training these large dense models requires significant amounts of computing resources. In this paper, we propose and develop a family of language models named GLaM (Generalist Language Model), which uses a sparsely activated mixture-of-experts architecture to scale the model capacity while also incurring substantially less training cost compared to dense variants. The largest GLaM has 1.2 trillion parameters, which is approximately 7x larger than GPT-3. It consumes only 1/3 of the energy used to train GPT-3 and requires half of the computation flops for inference, while still achieving better overall zero-shot and one-shot performance across 29 NLP tasks.


The aim of our study is to examine the cardiovascular endurance systems of sedentary high school students. The 112 sedentary individual was taken to the 1600 meter walking test run, and the 120 sedentary individual Harward step test. While both individuals were participating in the same test, weight, height, oxygen saturation, and heart rate of participants were measured before starting the test. As soon as the test is finished (recovery period), oxygen saturation and heart rate variability of individuals are measured at 1, 3, 5 minutes. All measured variables were analyzed and compared. Analysis of the data was done according to the SPSS statistical program and the significance level was accepted as p <0.05. In the 1600-meter walking test, it was observed that there was a significant difference in mean heart rate between males and females p<0.05. There was a significant difference between the mean values of the time of completion of the 1600 m running test by males and females (p < 0.05). During the 1600-meter walking and Harward step test recovery period, there was no difference in the participants' parameters. There was no significant difference between oxygen saturations at beginning, recovery 1st, 3rd, and 5th minutes in both tests. Significant differences were found between heart rate and oxygen saturation values (beginning, recovery 1st, 3rd, and 5th minutes) in the intra-group comparisons of both groups. Participants' heart rates began to increase with exercise, but remained above the initial heart rate level during recovery. Participants' body mass indexes were observed to be within normal values. We think that can be increased cardio respiratory and cardiovascular fitness levels and can been created lifelong exercise habits by regular exercise programs are given to Sedentary high school students. Thus, we believe that the young population can be prevented from getting sick by providing healthier, social, active individuals.


In this paper we study the equivalence problem in the model of sequential programs which assumes that some instructions are commutative and absorbing. Two instructions are commutative if the result of their executions does not depend on an order of their execution. An instruction b absorbs an instruction a if the sequential composition a;b yields the same result as the single instruction b. A.A. Letichevskij in 1971 proved the decidability of equivalence checking problem in this model of programs. Nevertheless a possibility of building polynomial time equivalence checking procedures remains an open problem till nowadays. The main result of this paper is the description of a polynomial time algorithm for checking the equivalence of sequential programs with commutative and absorbing instructions. The paper includes 9 sections. In Section 1 we introduce informally the model of programs under consideration, the equivalence checking problem, and give a brief overview of the preceding results in the study of equivalence checking problem for this model. In Sections 2 and 3 the syntax and a semigroup-based semantics of propositional model of sequential programs are formally defined. The algebraic properties of semigroups of commutative and absorbing program instructions are studied in Section 4. In Section 5 we introduce a graph of joined computations which is the key structure in designing our equivalence checking techniques. In Section 6 and 7 we show that the cumulative absorbing effect of finite sequences of commutative instructions can be specified by means of finite automata; this is another key step in building the decision procedure. In Section 8 we show that equivalence checking of two programs is reducible to a traversal of a bounded fragment of the graph of joint computations of these programs; the latter can be performed in time polynomial of the size of programs to be checked.


Due to X-ray attenuation being approximately proportional to material density, it is possible to measure the inner density through Industrial Computed Tomography (ICT) images accurately. In practice, however, a number of factors including the non-linear effects of beam hardening and diffuse scattered radiation complicate the quantitative measurement of density variations in materials. This paper is based on the linearization method of beam hardening correction, and uses polynomial fitting coefficient which is obtained by the curvature of iron polychromatic beam data to fit other materials. Through theoretical deduction, the paper proves that the density measure error is less than 2% if using pre-filters to make the spectrum of linear accelerator range mainly 0.3 MeV to 3 MeV. Experiment had been set up at an ICT system with a 9 MeV electron linear accelerator. The result is satisfactory. This technique makes the beam hardening correction easy and simple, and it is valuable for measuring the ICT density and making use of the CT images to recognize materials.


BACKGROUND
There have been numerous reports of clustered outbreaks of Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) at renal transplant centers over the past 2 decades. It has been unclear whether these outbreaks were linked epidemiologically to 1 or several unique strains, which could have implications for transmission patterns or strain virulence.

METHODS
Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis was used to compare Pneumocystis isolates from 3 outbreaks of PCP in renal transplant patients in Germany, Switzerland, and Japan, as well as nontransplant isolates from both human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected and uninfected patients.

RESULTS
Based on RFLP analysis, a single Pneumocystis strain caused pneumonia in transplant patients in Switzerland (7 patients) and Germany (14 patients). This strain was different from the strain that caused an outbreak in transplant patients in Japan, as well as strains causing sporadic cases of PCP in nontransplant patients with or without HIV infection.

CONCLUSIONS
Two geographically distinct clusters of PCP in Europe were due to a single strain of Pneumocystis. This suggests either enhanced virulence of this strain in transplant patients or a common, but unidentified, source of transmission. Outbreaks of PCP can be better understood by enhanced knowledge of transmission patterns and strain variation.


Airports are particularly sensitive infrastructures due to the high volume of people and already perform delicate operations. In case of disaster, telecommunications play a vital role in facilitating the coordination of the different elements involved. Cooperation in these cases may even reduce the magnitude of the disaster itself. In this TFC TETRA technology is presented as the ideal system to take responsibility for airport communications, especially in Catalunya, where the telecommunication networks of the Autonomous Police, firefighters and emergency medical use such technology. Ensure the availability of network coverage of emergency is a direct result of a good radio planning and one of the most important parameters is the method of calculation used. This TFC develops a methodology to select the most appropriate model for radio simulation, which involves making field measurements of TETRA emissions, comparing the measurements with simulations with the different propagation models available and choosing the most right. Applying the conclussions of this TFC can ensure that the theoretical coverage made with the tools available are as close to reality as possible, so you can rely on in case of emergency can count on the expected service.


"Bound" insulin preparations obtained from pooled human sera inhibited the uptake of crystalline insulin by isolated rat muscle (hemidiaphragm) and epididymal adipose tissue. When crystalline insulin alone was incubated with isolated tissues, its concentration in the incubating medium declined gradually, as shown by immunoassay of samples obtained at various intervals during the incubation. Addition of "bound" insulin preparations into the incubation medium greatly reduced the rate of disappearance of the crystalline insulin, "bound" insulin inhibiting the uptake of insulin by the tissues. The inhibition of insulin uptake by muscle, caused by "bound" insulin, was accompanied by inhibition of the biologic activity of insulin on this tissue. Preincubation of the isolated tissues with "bound" insulin, with whole fasting human sera from maturity-onset diabetics, or with crystalline insulin, prior to the addition of crystalline insulin, also resulted in significant inhibition of insulin uptake by these tissues. Synalbumin preparations obtained from fasting human sera by acid-ethanol extraction, as described by Vallance-Owen and collaborators, also inhibited the uptake of crystalline insulin by isolated muscle and adipose tissue and the biologic activity of insulin on muscle. Like "bound" insulin, the synalbumin extracts were inactive on isolated muscle and unreactive with anti-insulin antisera but exerted insulin-like activity on isolated adipose tissue. Their action when injected intraperitoneally into intact rats was similar to that of "bound" and crystalline insulin on the muscle and the adipose tissue. It is suggested that the synalbumin preparations obtained from sera by acid-ethanol extraction may contain the bulk of the serum "bound" insulin which contributes, at least in part, to the insulin inhibitory properties of these preparations.


Purpose
Exposure to high-trauma work has been associated with negative outcomes for individuals and organisations. Support for these employees can buffer and protect against mental health problems. Frontline managers (FLMs) are well placed to provide for employee support needs but are often not effective in doing so. The purpose of this paper is to identify and understand barriers to provision of four different types of social support as identified by House (1981) by FLMs to employees in a high-trauma workplace.

Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study investigates three Australian ambulance service organisations, including 72 interviews.

Findings
Nine barriers to support are identified that can obstruct the provision of optimum employee support. These relate to the FLM themselves, the workplace context and employee-centric factors.

Research limitations/implications
This paper is a single industry case study; further complexity may exist in other high-trauma industries. Future research should consult policy makers to develop strategies to address the barriers to FLM support.

Practical implications
FLMs are critical support persons as they are well placed to provide many employee support needs. Emotional support is the foundation for facilitating all other types of support to employees but results here indicate it is often lacking for workers in high-trauma workplaces for a range of individual and organisational barriers that operate in isolation and combined.

Originality/value
This paper juxtaposes House's (1981) support framework with study findings to provide a model of the barriers to optimal employee support. This model contributes to a reconceptualisation of the relationship between employee and direct manager that is particularly pertinent for high-trauma contexts.


As part of a G20 commitment to improve transparency and mitigate systemic risk in derivatives markets, many OTC derivatives will be required to be traded on exchanges or electronic platforms by the end of 2012. It is important that liquidity on the new trading platforms is resilient, both during normal and stressed market conditions. This article discusses how liquidity is provided in different trading models and how liquidity resilience can be achieved. The article shows that liquidity provision depends on many factors, including the willingness of dealers to provide continuous prices, their ability to manage the inventory risk arising from their role as market makers, and the ability of customers to execute large or sensitive trades with minimum price impact. The article also suggests that conceptually, liquidity resilience can be achieved in a variety of trading models.


In this paper we present the DBOM (Disassembly Bill of Materials) standard, which attempts to facilitate the transfer of product disassembly and recycling data from OEMs to the recycling community. We believe this standard will not only improve disassembly and recycling economics, but will also increase the number of product types that are demanufactured. The DBOM provides a representation of the physical structure of the product in a disassembly context. Our analysis reveals that to facilitate efficient disassembly, the DBOM must contain information about the parts, the fasteners, and the fastening structure. We present a standard coding structure for documenting and transmitting this knowledge. The DBOM part list is usually an aggregated version of the assembly bill of materials, since details about all parts is typically not required. We provide guidelines to determine whether a group of mating parts should be listed as one part in the DBOM. The DBOM also relates each part to a material recycling stream and provides an estimate of its purity. In the future we expect the product manufacturer to create and distribute the DBOM to potential collection and disassembly facilities through product labeling or a public access website.


: Fifteen turkey vultures were each given xylazine (1 mg/kg of body weight, IM) and ketamine (10 mg/kg, IM). In 5 of the birds (controls), the mean (+/- SD) induction time was 5.4 +/- 1.0 minutes and the mean duration of anesthesia was 109.8 +/- 25.4 minutes. The remaining 10 vultures (test birds) were given tolazoline (15 mg/kg, IV) 45 minutes after administration of xylazine and ketamine. In the test birds, the mean induction time was 4.5 +/- 1.6 minutes and the mean duration of anesthesia was 49 +/- 2.1 minutes. After administration of tolazoline, the birds regained consciousness in 3.7 +/- 1.9 minutes and were standing with normal posture in 14.2 +/- 5.4 minutes. All birds remained moderately sedated yet ambulatory and responsive to stimuli for 30 to 60 minutes after tolazoline administration. Results indicated that tolazoline was useful in controlling the duration of xylazine-ketamine-induced anesthesia in turkey vultures.


We present a costly voting model in which each voter has a private valuation for their preferred outcome of a vote. When there is a zero cost to voting, all voters vote and hence all values are counted equally regardless of how high they may be. By having a cost to voting, only those with high enough values would choose to incur this cost. Hence, the outcome will be determined by voters with higher valuations. We show that in such a case welfare may be enhanced. Such an e¤ect occurs when there is both a large enough density of voters with low values and a high enough expected value.


Object-Z is an extension of Z which facilitates specification of large, complex software by defining a system as a collection of independent classes. A number of contributions have been made so far to map Object-Z to various object-oriented languages. However, the given mapping rules do not cover some Object-Z specification constructs, such as class union, object aggregation, object containment and some operation operators. Also, most of the existing works propose rules in a general way. In other words, they do not consider all cases in a detailed way needed to automate the mapping. In this paper, we present a much more comprehensive way to animate Object-Z specifications using C++ such that mapping rules are described with enough details that facilitate automation capability. Also, the given method covers some constructs that have not been considered in the literature yet.


In this paper we explore the sustained and multifaceted attempt of Jurgen Habermas to reconstruct Kant's theory of cosmopolitan right for our own times. In a series of articles written in the post-1989 period, Habermas has argued that the challenge posed both by the catastrophes of the twentieth century, and by social forces of globalization, has given new impetus to the idea of cosmopolitan justice that Kant first expressed. He recognizes that today we cannot simply repeat Kant's eighteenth-century vision: that if we are to grapple with the complexities of present-day problems, it is necessary to iron out certain inconsistencies in Kant's thinking, radicalize it where its break from the old order of nation-states is incomplete, socialize it so as to draw out the connections between perpetual peace and social justice, and modernize it so as to comprehend the "differences both in global situation and conceptual framework that now separate us from him."1 His basic intuition, however, is that Kant's idea of cosmopolitan right is as relevant to our times as it was to Kant's own. If it was Kant's achievement to formulate the idea of cosmopolitanism in a modern philosophical form, Habermas takes up the challenge posed by Karl-Otto Apel: to "think with Kant against Kant" in reconstructing this idea. What follows is a critical assessment of Habermas's response to this challenge. We focus here on the dilemmas he faces in grounding his normative commitment to cosmopolitan politics and in reconciling his cosmopolitanism with the national framework in which he developed his ideas of constitutional patriotism and deliberative democracy.


BACKGROUND
The food-borne viruses in Europe (FBVE) network database was established in 1999 to monitor trends in outbreaks of gastroenteritis due to noroviruses (NoVs), to identify major transmission routes of NoV infections within and between participating countries and to detect diffuse international food-borne outbreaks.

METHODS
We reviewed the total of 9430 NoV outbreak reports from 13 countries with date of onset between 1 January 2002 and 1 January 2007 for representativeness, completeness and timeliness against these objectives.

RESULTS
Rates of reporting ranged from a yearly average of 1.8 in 2003 to 11.6 in 2006. Completeness of reporting of an agreed minimum dataset improved over the years, both for epidemiological and virological data. For the 10 countries that provided integrated (epidemiological AND virological) reporting over the 5-year period, the completeness of the minimum dataset rose from 15% in 2003 to 48% in 2006. Two countries have not been able to combine both data types due to the structure of the national surveillance system (England and Wales and Germany). Timeliness of reporting (median days between the onset of an outbreak and the date of reporting to the FBVE database) differed greatly between countries, but gradually improved to 47 days in 2006.

CONCLUSION
The outbreaks reported to the FBVE reflect the lack of standardization of surveillance systems across Europe, making direct comparison of data between countries difficult. However, trends in reported outbreaks per country, distribution of NoV genotypes, and detection of diffuse international outbreaks were used as background data in acute questions about NoV illness and the changing genotype distribution during the 5-year period, shown to be of added value. Integrated reporting is essential for these objectives, but could be limited to sentinel countries with surveillance systems that allow this integration. For successful intervention in case of diffuse international outbreaks, completeness and timeliness of reporting would need to be improved and expanded to countries that presently do not participate.


We determined whether the benefits provided by the consumption of Euglena gracilis (Euglena), which is a unicellular photosynthesizing green alga and rich in insoluble dietary fiber paramylon, can be enhanced by the co-consumption of vegetables that are rich in soluble dietary fiber. Nine-week-old male C57BL/6J mice were divided into four groups: group 1 received normal diet, whereas groups 2, 3 and 4 received normal diet containing 0.3% paramylon, 1.0% Euglena, or 1.0% Euglena plus 0.3% vegetables (barley leaf, kale and ashitaba), respectively. Mice were fed ad libitum until 18 weeks of age. Euglena intake significantly decreased serum markers of inflammation and co-consumption of vegetables enhanced this reduction. Notably, we observed an increase in the fraction of beneficial bacteria producing short-chain fatty acids, a reduction in harmful bacteria that cause inflammation and an increase in short-chain fatty acid production. Visceral fat accumulation was also reduced. Subsequent analyses showed that co-consumption of Euglena with vegetables reduced adipocyte area, suppressed the expression of genes related to fatty acid synthesis and increased the expression of genes related to adipocyte growth and lipolysis. Therefore, co-consumption of Euglena with vegetables enhanced its anti-inflammatory effect and the inhibitory effect on visceral fat accumulation likely by modulating the composition of gut microbiota.


Choice experiment studies eliciting values for quality attributes provide relevant information to fruit agribusiness managers in various ways. First, it helps orchard managers to know if novel cultivars possess the attributes most valued by consumers. Second, it benefits warehouse and re-tail store managers to apply appropriate techniques to enhance fruit quality characteristics most appealing to consumers. Third, it is valuable for marketing managers to base their strategies on research-based information on consumers' preferences. Results from a choice experiment showed that consumers were willing to pay $0.19, $0.16, $0.16, and $0.06 for a one unit increase in Anjou pears' sweetness, texture, juiciness, and firmness liking scores, respectively.


A current source, which is to be employed in the calibration of low-current meters (picoammeters and electrometers), is presented here. The output current range is 100 fA to 100 pA and is directly traceable to calibrated standards of dc voltage, capacitance, and time period. The source is based on a low- frequency (ap1 mHz) trapezoidal signal generator, which charges and discharges a gas-dielectric capacitor; the voltage is monitored with a voltmeter that is triggered by a precision time base. The source has been employed during March 2006 for the Italian participation to the supplementary comparison EUROMET.EM-S24 and will be part of an extension of the Italian national standard of dc current. However, being composed of low-cost electronics and common commercial instrumentation, the source can also find useful application in secondary calibration laboratories.


Background: Potential donors of human milk are screened for Ebola virus (EBOV) using standard questions, but testing for EBOV and Marburg virus (MARV) is not part of routine serological testing performed by milk banks. Research aim: This study tested the hypothesis that EBOV would be inactivated in donor human milk (DHM) by standard pasteurization techniques (Holder) used in all North American nonprofit milk banks. Methods: Milk samples were obtained from a nonprofit milk bank. They were inoculated with EBOV (Zaire strain) and MARV (Angola strain) and processed by standard Holder pasteurization technique. Plaque assays for EBOV and MARV were performed to detect the presence of virus after pasteurization. Results: Neither EBOV nor MARV was detectable by viral plaque assay in DHM or culture media samples, which were pasteurized by the Holder process. Conclusion: EBOV and MARV are safely inactivated in human milk by standard Holder pasteurization technique. Screening for EBOV or MARV beyond questionnaire and self-deferral is not needed to ensure safety of DHM for high-risk infants.


There is an ongoing professional tension in the LIS community about the structural relationship between LIS education and professional practice in terms of the best way in fostering and strengthening the education program for librarianship. This is increasing becoming an urgent issue due to the pressing demands of a rapidly changing information environment. The divergent viewpoints and approaches of these two professional bodies toward one of the most important issues of their common interest are further aggravated by each of their own entrenched professional provincialism as well as by their isolated professional undertakings. These factors are inevitable threatening the vitality and thriving of further into a mutually self-destructive situation, it is suggested in this paper that librarians by solving this thorny issue of this professional tension which has multi-dimensional adverse impacts on both professional enterprises. The collaboration of these two parties can serve as a catalyst to bring the two professional groups together more closely and in an organic way to reconstruct a sound LIS educational program with an integral component of professional practicum such as the case of National Science Library, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The author believes that the integration of LIS education with professional practicum being offered at National Science Library of CAS (NSL) may shed light onto a new vista of hope for those who are so dedicated themselves to the changes of the LIS education.


Predicting user response is one of the core machine learning tasks in computational advertising. Field-aware Factorization Machines (FFM) have recently been established as a state-of-the-art method for that problem and in particular won two Kaggle challenges. This paper presents some results from implementing this method in a production system that predicts click-through and conversion rates for display advertising and shows that this method it is not only effective to win challenges but is also valuable in a real-world prediction system. We also discuss some specific challenges and solutions to reduce the training time, namely the use of an innovative seeding algorithm and a distributed learning mechanism.


The decentralization and transparency have provided wide acceptance of blockchain technology in various sectors through numerous applications. The claimed security services by blockchain have been proved using various cryptographic techniques, mainly public key infrastructure and digital signatures. However, the use of generic cryptographic primitives using large prime numbers or elliptic curves with logarithms is going to be an issue with quantum computers as those techniques are vulnerable in post-quantum era. Therefore, the paradigm shift from pre-quantum to the post-quantum era has necessitated new cryptographic developments which are robust against quantum attacks and applicable in blockchain for post-quantum decentralization. Therefore, we have presented a solution for post-quantum decentralization in the blockchain. It uses lattices with polynomials for identity-based encryption (IBE) and aggregate signatures for the consensus to ensure efficiency and suitability in post-quantum blockchain applications. We experiment the proposed approach based on delay, throughput, energy consumption and complexity. The comparative results prove that the presented work is efficient.


Collaborative filtering is a useful technique for exploiting the preference patterns of a group of users to predict the utility of items for the active user. In general, the performance of collaborative filtering depends on the number of rated examples given by the active user. The more the number of rated examples given by the active user, the more accurate the predicted ratings will be. Active learning provides an effective way to acquire the most informative rated examples from active users. Previous work on active learning for collaborative filtering only considers the expected loss function based on the estimated model, which can be misleading when the estimated model is inaccurate. This paper takes one step further by taking into account of the posterior distribution of the estimated model, which results in more robust active learning algorithm. Empirical studies with datasets of movie ratings show that when the number of ratings from the active user is restricted to be small, active learning methods only based on the estimated model don't perform well while the active learning method using the model distribution achieves substantially better performance.


thousand words? Well, there is a growing trend in HCI research toward more diverse publication formats, such as exhibitions, videos, and demonstrations. At the DIS 2014 conference, a new format was explored: pictorials. These aimed to fulfill the practice-oriented nature of design by encouraging HCI and design researchers to express and unpack their design practices and research through imagery. In this issue we extend this effort with a Special Topic on pictorials, guest edited by Eli Blevis, Sabrina Hauser, and William Odom. We are also happy to present a cover story by one of the most recognized contemporary philosophers specializing in technology, Peter-Paul Verbeek. He has attracted a lot of attention in the past few years with his books What Things Do: Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency, and Design and Moralizing Technology: Understanding and Designing the Morality of Things. In "Beyond Interaction: A Short Introduction to Mediation Theory," Verbeek explores the relationship between technology and the user. He writes that "humans and technologies should not be seen as two 'poles' between which there is an interaction; rather, they are the result of this interaction." As a consequence, he claims that interaction design is not only the design of technological artifacts "but also the design of the human subjects who interact with these objects." Read and reflect! In other news, following an engaging cover story in our January– February 2015 issue, Elisa Giaccardi has changed the focus and name of her forum to Connected Everyday. We wish Elisa good luck with this new direction. This is also the final issue in which Gerrit van der Veer is in charge of the Community Square column; he is retiring from his role as president of ACM SIGCHI. We thank Gerrit for his faithful reporting on SIGCHI activities over the years and look forward to working with his successor. The Interactions website (interactions.acm.org/) is growing with more articles and an active community of bloggers. Take a look! Ron Wakkary and Erik Stolterman email@example.com


Spreading fake news according to paragraph 14 of Special Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Restoration is lex specialis to spreading rumor about epidemic according to paragraph 63 Communicable Disease Control Act and the former is time-limited The former norm could consist of the element of crime with focus on the act that the rumor of epidemic or fake news about coronavirus disease 2019 had been already spread and on the consequence that the spreading might cause the public or others damage By investigating the application of the norm with the existed fake news as an example, the object of the crime should be narrowed to the fake news, whose content is about cases of illness which has existed or assembling, to avoid the extension of punishment


Ignimbrites within calderas host intrusions with hazardous and/or economically significant hydrothermal systems. The Hvítserkur ignimbrite at Breiðuvík caldera, north-eastern Iceland, is intruded by basaltic dykes. Our data show that the ignimbrite immediately adjacent to the dyke is hard, dark-coloured, recrystallised quartz, plagioclase, and alkali feldspar with a low permeability and porosity and frequent macrofractures. At 1-2 m from the dyke, the ignimbrite is hard, dominantly glassy with pervasive perlitic microfractures, has high permeability, but low porosity and frequent macrofractures. A narrow zone of pervasive unlithified clay exists 2 m from the dyke. Beyond this, the ignimbrite is soft and zeolite-rich, has low permeability, high porosity and fewer macrofractures. The dyke intrusion promoted a narrow zone of welding, fracturing and perlitisation in the ignimbrite resulting in high permeability and focussed alteration. Our study shows how intrusions and their thermal aureoles create vertical pathways for, and horizontal barriers to, geothermal fluid flow.


Cartilage has a poor healing response, and few viable options exist for repair of extensive damage. Hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogels seeded with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) polymerized through UV crosslinking can generate functional tissue, but this crosslinking is not compatible with indirect rapid prototyping utilizing opaque anatomic molds. Methacrylate-modified polymers can also be chemically crosslinked in a cytocompatible manner using ammonium persulfate (APS) and N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED). The objectives of this study were to (1) compare APS/TEMED crosslinking with UV crosslinking in terms of functional maturation of MSC-seeded HA hydrogels; (2) generate an anatomic mold of a complex joint surface through rapid prototyping; and (3) grow anatomic MSC-seeded HA hydrogel constructs using this alternative crosslinking method. Juvenile bovine MSCs were suspended in methacrylated HA (MeHA) and crosslinked either through UV polymerization or chemically with APS/TEMED to generate cylindrical constructs. Minipig porcine femoral heads were imaged using microCT, and anatomic negative molds were generated by three-dimensional printing using fused deposition modeling. Molded HA constructs were produced using the APS/TEMED method. All constructs were cultured for up to 12 weeks in a chemically defined medium supplemented with TGF-β3 and characterized by mechanical testing, biochemical assays, and histologic analysis. Both UV- and APS/TEMED-polymerized constructs showed increasing mechanical properties and robust proteoglycan and collagen deposition over time. At 12 weeks, APS/TEMED-polymerized constructs had higher equilibrium and dynamic moduli than UV-polymerized constructs, with no differences in proteoglycan or collagen content. Molded HA constructs retained their hemispherical shape in culture and demonstrated increasing mechanical properties and proteoglycan and collagen deposition, especially at the edges compared to the center of these larger constructs. Immunohistochemistry showed abundant collagen type II staining and little collagen type I staining. APS/TEMED crosslinking can be used to produce MSC-seeded HA-based neocartilage and can be used in combination with rapid prototyping techniques to generate anatomic MSC-seeded HA constructs for use in filling large and anatomically complex chondral defects or for biologic joint replacement.


Self-supervised pretraining has achieved remarkable success in high-level vision, but its application in low-level vision remains ambiguous and not well-established. What is the primitive intention of pretraining? What is the core problem of pretraining in low-level vision? In this paper, we aim to answer these essential questions and establish a new pretraining scheme for low-level vision. Specifically, we examine previous pretraining methods in both high-level and low-level vision, and categorize current low-level vision tasks into two groups based on the difficulty of data acqui-sition: low-cost and high-cost tasks. Existing literature has mainly focused on pretraining for low-cost tasks, where the observed performance improvement is often limited. However, we argue that pretraining is more significant for high-cost tasks, where data acquisition is more challenging. To learn a general low-level vision representation that can improve the performance of various tasks, we propose a new pretraining paradigm called degradation autoencoder (De-gAE). DegAE follows the philosophy of designing pretext task for self-supervised pretraining and is elaborately tai-lored to low-level vision. With DegAE pretraining, SwinIR achieves a 6.88dB performance gain on image dehaze task, while Uformer obtains 3.22dB and 0.54dB improvement on dehaze and derain tasks, respectively.


Context: The relationship between the staffs and the nursing students is an essential factor that affects the clinical learning experience of the nursing students. However, students conveyed negative experiences in the clinical setting that provided a negative impact on their learning process. Aims: This study explored the challenges and difficulties encountered by nursing students during their internship year. Settings and Design: This study used descriptive qualitative design. It was conducted in select hospitals in Qassim Region that provides clinical internship to nursing students. Subjects and Methods: Data were gathered using face-to-face semi-structured interview among select 17 nursing interns from three colleges of nursing in Qassim Region: Qassim University, AlGhad Private Colleges, and Buraydah Colleges between December 2016 and February 2017. Analysis Used: Data were analyzed using thematic content analysis established by Morse and Field (1996). Results: The nursing interns experienced inappropriate treatment from the clinical staffs through lack of communication, disregard, and exploitation from the staffs. Further, they perceived feeling lost because of the identified gap in the organizational structure in the training department of some hospitals, scarcity in regular follow-ups from the college, and lack of willingness to teach from the clinical preceptors. Furthermore, they feel shocked from reality due to the existence of some staffs who were found to have unsatisfactory knowledge and skills in the clinical area and the limitations set by the hospital policies and procedures in the scope of practice of nurses in their institution. Conclusions: There is a vast need to improve the internship program for nursing students in the Qassim Region. A joint effort between the hospital and college administrators should be encouraged to establish an internship program with well-defined policies and procedures.


Plant performance is strongly dependent on nitrogen (N), and thus increasing N nutrition is of great relevance for the productivity of agroecosystems. The effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi on plant N acquisition are debated because contradictory results have been reported. Using 15N-labeled fertilizers as a tracer, we evaluated the effects of AM fungi on N uptake and recovery from mineral or organic sources in durum wheat. Under sufficient N availability, AM fungi had no effects on plant biomass but increased N concentrations in plant tissue, plant N uptake, and total N recovered from the fertilizer. In N-deficient soil, AM fungi led to decreased aboveground biomass, which suggests that plants and AM fungi may have competed for N. When the organic source had a low C:N ratio, AM fungi favored both plant N uptake and N recovery. In contrast, when the organic source had a high C:N ratio, a clear reduction in N recovery from the fertilizer was observed. Overall, the results indicate an active role of arbuscular mycorrhizae in favoring plant N-related traits when N is not a limiting factor and show that these fungi help in N recovery from the fertilizer. These results hold great potential for increasing the sustainability of durum wheat production.