Bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15) and growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9) are oocyte-secreted growth factors that are essential for fertility and ovarian development in many mammalian species. It is hypothesised that the ratios of these growth factors within ovarian follicles are unique to each species and determine litter size in mammals. The current detection method for these proteins is by Western blotting with monoclonal antibodies, however this methodology generates semi-quantitative results at best.  Systematic evolution via exponential enrichment (SELEX) is a method involving iterative rounds of affinity maturation. It has been used for generating synthetic DNA- and RNA-based sequences (aptamers) that are capable of recognising a target molecule with high sensitivity. To understand more about the biological functions of BMP15 and GDF9, reliable detection methods need to be developed so these proteins can be measured in biological samples. The generation of aptamers that recognise BMP15 and GDF9 of multiple species could enable a novel detection system to be developed to further explore the role of BMP15 and GDF9 in determining litter size in mammals.  In this study, recombinant BMP15 and GDF9 proteins from species that vary in litter size were produced and purified by IMAC and HPLC for aptamer validation. Membrane-SELEX was used to generate candidate aptamers against recombinant human GDF9. After ten rounds of SELEX, seven candidate aptamers were identified and sequenced. Alignment of the sequences revealed a conserved region of 29bp in four of the seven candidate aptamers. These sequences also showed a high (85-90%) guanine/thymine content consistent with G-quadruplex forming aptamers, a tertiary structure that increases specificity to the target molecule. These four sequences also showed homology with that of a previously published aptamer for BMP15. This is interesting as BMP15 and GDF9 are both members of the transforming growth factor beta superfamily and as such, share a high peptide homology suggesting convergent evolution occurred in two unrelated SELEX experiments against related proteins.  Whilst time constraints did not allow for characterisation of the resultant GDF9 aptamer candidates, nor their validation using recombinant ovine and mouse GDF9 produced herein, this study showed that GDF9 aptamer candidates were generated by SELEX that exhibited sequence similarities to an aptamer generated against a structurally-related protein.


In this paper, a very fast, noise robust and accurate video object plane (VOP) extraction algorithm based on wavelet transform and watershed segmentation techniques is proposed. The proposed algorithm firstly, applies the wavelet transform on incoming frames and uses the approximation coefficient matrix of the first level through out the algorithm. This not only increases the speed of the algorithm but also reduces the camera noise. The proposed method subsequently uses a prediction method to apply the watershed algorithm on those areas of the sub-image that might contain a moving object. This prediction stage increases the speed of the segmentation process efficiently. The experimental results show the superiority of the proposed algorithm when compared with other available schemes.


With the multitude of mobile communication devices supporting users, it is natural to expect that these devices would work ubiquitously anywhere and any time with high data rate support. 60 GHz is an obvious choice for the high data rate indoor communication. In this paper we present an holistic analytical model of 60 GHz link stability for indoor wireless networks. The model is built considering the indoor channel characteristics of 60 GHz radio, the antenna configuration and the mobility of persons. Also, we take an example to show the relevance of our model and its applicability in numerical evaluation. I. INTRODUCTION


The fundamental characteristics of the two-dimensional cavitating flow of liquid helium through a horizontal converging-diverging nozzle near the lambda point are numerically investigated to realize the further development and high performance of new multiphase superfluid cooling systems. First, the governing equations of the cavitating flow of liquid helium based on the unsteady thermal nonequilibrium multifluid model with generalized curvilinear coordinates system are presented, and several flow characteristics are numerically calculated, taking into account the effect of superfluidity. Based on the numerical results, the two-dimensional structure of the cavitating flow of liquid helium though a horizontal converging-diverging nozzle is shown in detail, and it is also found that the generation of superfluid counterflow against normal fluid flow based on the thermomechanical effect is conspicuous in the large gas phase volume fraction region where the liquid to gas phase change actively occurs. Furthermore, it is clarified that the mechanism of the He I to He II phase transition caused by the temperature decrease is due to the deprivation of latent heat for vaporization from the liquid phase


In recent years, many scholars have highlighted persistent difficulties faced by the European school systems to contest school dropout of immigrant students (dropouts, delays, grade retention, school evasion etc.). As noted by the Council of Europe, with regard to immigrant students the average rate of school dropout in the UE is double that native pupils. Considering this situation, the objective of the paper is, on the one hand, to identify the factors that contributed to increase a similar failure and, on the other hand, to understand how Europe is trying to reduce this phenomenon. In particular, my attempt is to explain what are the educational measures and strategies adopted by UE school systems not only to clash this phenomenon, but also to achieve the ambitious target, set by the European Commission in 2015, for reducing to below 10% the percentage of school dropout by 2020. Keywords : school dropout, immigrant students, Europe, school policies, integration, language skills


This thesis investigates the long-term evolution of legislation that contributed to the shift of China from a command economy to an economic powerhouse in the capitalist world economy. Few have discussed whether the concept of neoliberalization, defined as the process of adapting fiscal conservative and expert oriented policies, explains the longer-term trend of Chinese development. Therefore, this thesis sets out to make a determination whether China is evolving towards or away from the neoliberal model. To answer this question, this thesis analyzes two areas of legislation crucial in a free market: China's trade and labor laws since the 1970s. More precisely, this research explores, through the lens of legislation, whether a trend of convergence between Western, exemplified by the United States, and Chinese political economies exists, and how the trend itself has changed over time and why. Using interview data based on 15 interviews from foreign entrepreneurs who work in Shanghai or Suzhou, this thesis uses the entrepreneurs' perception of Chinese trade and labor to seek out reoccurring themes. Based on the information gathered from the literature on the Chinese development of wage and labor laws and the qualitative data in the interviews, this thesis found surprising similarities in Chinese and US policies, effects of those policies that were complementary, and a clear neoliberal direction in the 1980s-1990s in the United States and China. This thesis concludes, based on the policies implemented during the 2000s and 2010s, that this neoliberal direction shifts in both countries, and a different kind of model is taking shape in both China and the US that diverges from neoliberalism.


Background: This case study examines the utilization of Hexapod Truelok circular external fixation as well as the osteotomy site with respect to avoid further damage to the cutaneous perforators on patients that had a poor soft tissue envelope with performing angular lower limb deformity correction within the 55-year-old to 74-year-old age group with underlying comorbidities.
Methods: A prospective study was done on 17 patients with angular tibial/fibular deformities. 9 of them were males and 8 of them were females. Fixation of all cases was performed with utilization of Hexapod Truelok external ring fixation with injection of bone marrow 9X concentrate drawn from the tibia to the osteotomy region during the initial surgical intervention. An additional peripheral blood along with bone marrow concentrate with fluoroscopic percutaneous guided injection was placed into the osteotomy/lengthening site during the post-operative period when the footplate was removed.
Results: Circular Hexapod Truelok external fixation was applied for an average of 17 weeks post-operatively with no non-union, mal-union or infection.
Conclusion: Gradual correction for distal tibial and fibular osteotomy with combined orthoplastic approach allows for improved outcomes to be obtained. Hexapod Truelok application with external ring fixation is a useful alternative with correction of a multiplane deformity simultaneously in an easily applied prescription principle format.


The objective of this study is to develop a method to determine the zones of potential influence of a tailings pond on vegetation in its near vicinity. Negative impact of saline groundwater on crop and forest production has been defined as the possibility that direct contact or the contact through capillary rise occurs between saline water and the plant roots.

The MODFLOW software has been used to develop a hydrogeological model which made it possible to determine the depth of the groundwater table. The spatial extent of saline groundwater with a given concentration of chlorides has been assessed using the MT3D package. The root depths of plants cultivated in the vicinity of the tailings pond and the height of capillary rise in soils have been determined based on the data on the soil grain-size distribution, obtained from agricultural soil maps and from over 100 documented geological boreholes, and based on the data on how the land is used.

The results of the conducted analyses have made it possible to identify 14 zones of potential influence of saline groundwater in the near vicinity of the waste lagoon for the year 2004 and 10 zones after 15 years of continued use.


OBJECTIVE
To describe the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of meperidine after IM and subcutaneous administration in horses.

STUDY DESIGN
prospective, randomized, blinded, crossover trial.

ANIMALS
Six adult horses weighing 494 ± 33 kg.

METHODS
Treatments included meperidine 1 mg/kg IM with saline 6 mL subcutaneously, meperidine 1 mg/kg subcutaneously with saline 6 mL IM, and saline 6 mL subcutaneously and 6 mL IM, with a 7-day washout between treatments. Plasma meperidine concentrations and pharmacodynamic values (thermal and mechanical thresholds, physiological variables, fecal production) were collected at various time points for 24 hours. Accelerometry data were obtained for 8 hours to measure locomotor activity. Data were analyzed with a mixed effects model, and α was set at .05.

RESULTS
Meperidine terminal half-life (T1/2 ), maximal plasma concentrations, and time to maximal concentration were 186 ± 59 and 164 ± 56 minutes, 265.7 ± 47.2 and 243.1 ± 80.1 ng/mL at 17 ± 6, and 24 ± 13 minutes for IM at subcutaneous administration, respectively. No effect of treatment or time was observed on thermal or mechanical thresholds, heart rate, respiratory rate, locomotor activity, frequency of defecations, or fecal weight (P > .2 for all).

CONCLUSION
Maximum meperidine concentrations were achieved quickly with a short T1/2 in both treatment groups. Neither IM nor subcutaneous meperidine influenced thermal or mechanical threshold or physiological variables.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The short half-life and lack of detectable antinociceptive effect do not support IM or subcutaneous administration meperidine at 1 mg/kg for analgesia in horses.


To test a different approach to understanding the relationship between the sequence of part of a protein and its conformation in the overall folded structure, the amino acid sequence corresponding to an alpha-helix of T4 lysozyme was duplicated in tandem. The presence of such a sequence repeat provides the protein with "choices" during folding. The mutant protein folds with almost wild-type stability, is active, and crystallizes in two different space groups, one isomorphous with wild type and the other with two molecules in the asymmetric unit. The fold of the mutant is essentially the same in all cases, showing that the inserted segment has a well-defined structure. More than half of the inserted residues are themselves helical and extend the helix present in the wild-type protein. Participation of additional duplicated residues in this helix would have required major disruption of the parent structure. The results clearly show that the residues within the duplicated sequence tend to maintain a helical conformation even though the packing interactions with the remainder of the protein are different from those of the original helix. It supports the hypothesis that the structures of individual alpha-helices are determined predominantly by the nature of the amino acids within the helix, rather than the structural environment provided by the rest of the protein.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how to help improve a higher education institution's research profile by using existing resources and existing research outputs.

Design/methodology/approach

This study was based on quantitative data extracted manually from QS University Rankings-Asia 2016, the 2015 Ranking of Pakistani higher education institutions (HEI) and ResearchGate (RG). Resultant data were loaded into Excel and analyzed in SPSS version 21.

Findings

The results of this study indicate that, while there is no direct correlation between an institution's national/international ranking and its respective RG score, there is a tendency for lower-ranked institutions to have a lower RG score.

Research limitations/implications

This study was limited to data extracted from RG; however, it would be useful to apply the same methodology to other relevant academic scholarly network sites (ASNS).

Practical implications

This paper has suggested strategies which may be of relevance to those institutions in other countries which are aspiring to lift their national ranking through improved research profiles. Libraries are important contributors to the support of institutional research goals.

Originality/value

There have been no previous published research studies on either the potential for ASNS to contribute to enhancing research outcomes for Pakistani HEI or the role that libraries could play in supporting these outcomes.


The study explores the market and welfare effects of the introduction of a food nanotechnology innovation under different labeling regimes. An analytical framework of heterogeneous consumers who differ in their attitudes towards interventions in the production process and imperfectly competitive producers is developed to analyze the effects of food nanotechnology under different labeling regimes while considering different consumer preferences for food nanotechnology. Analytical results show that high consumer valuation of the enhanced attributes of nanofoods can lead to consumer acceptance of nanofoods even when consumers are averse to nanotechnology. In most cases, the introduction of food nanotechnology leads to a reduction in the prices and quantities of the existing food alternatives with the price and quantity decreases being greater when nanotechnology adoption costs are low. When this happens, welfare is lower for non-adopting producers and greater for nanofood adopters and for all consumers; consumers who benefit the most from the introduction of food nanotechnology are those who switch their consumption to nanofoods. Finally, labeling regulation has an adverse impact on consumer welfare when consumers are averse to food nanotechnology. Under this case, producers of substitute food products experience welfare gains at the expense of nanofood producers. The results, yet, are intriguingly divergent if consumers have no knowledge of or are indifferent to food nanotechnology in the absence of labeling. Moreover, if consumers perceive food nanotechnology as less invasive than conventional food technology, welfare gains and losses might be realized by different groups of consumers and producers depending on the relative magnitude of the model parameters.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to find out the most effective filter in albinism patient for enhancing their contrast and reducing their glare and to find out the improvement in visual status of albinism patients after their management with filters.  Methods: A total of 30 albinism patients were selected and they were checked with three filters amber filter, light grey and medium grey filter which were selected for this study. During data collection three visual functions (visual acuity, contrast and glare) were tested with and without these filters. The study was conducted within three months.  Major Outcome: All the three visual functions (visual acuity, contrast and glare) were improved with light grey filter only.  Results: In 80% of albinism patients visual acuity was improved with light grey filter. 20% show the same visual acuity but the level of comfort is raised. With light grey filter 20% shows very good contrast and 66.7% show very poor to moderate level of contrast sensitivity. For glare reduction all patients chose the light grey filter, and it shows highly significant results statistically in reduction of glare.  Conclusion: Both (ocular albinism OA, and oculocutaneous albinism OCA) shows same ocular effects with these filters because ocular features in both these types are almost same they only differ in severity of their symptoms. Among amber, light grey and mid grey filters all albino patients prefer light grey filter in improving visual acuity, enhancing contrast and reduction in their glare. So effectiveness of light grey filter is much better and significant in albinism than any other filter.  Key words: Albinism, Visual Acuity, Glare Sensitivity, Contrast Sensitivity, Filters.


This second edition of "Microeconomics" is filled with learning-by-doing problems that give students a chance to make economics their own. These fully worked-out problems provide a step-by-step road map to help students solve numerical problems. Each problem correlates to similar practice problems at the end of each chapter. In addition, the authors include many extensive real-world examples in the text. These examples are contemporary applications of the theory and are longer and more extensive to show the evolution of the example. Each chapter opens with an example to draw readers into the topic.


The cardiovascular and metabolic responses of five male subjects during submaximal exercise (80% Vo2 max) were examined after 24 h of wakefulness. The protocol consisted of two sets of two trials separated by 7-10 days: first, a 20 min exercise bout, then a normal night's sleep, followed by another 20 minutes of exercise; second, a 20-min exercise bout, 24 h of wakefulness, then another 20 min exercise trial. Exercise ventilation, heart rate, and oxygen uptake were not affected by sleep loss. However, sleep loss caused the recovery ventilation and oxygen uptake to remain higher than normal during the slow phase of recovery. Blood glucose levels were found to be greater during the sleep deprived trials compared to controls, but were similar to controls 15 min after exercise. Blood lactates were lower at the end of exercise after sleep deprivation and remained lower during the recovery period. Changes in plasma volume were not affected by sleep loss. These results suggest that although sleep loss may not overtly affect acute submaximal exercise performance, it attenuates the recovery process.


Fabs are under great pressure to produce more output with the same equipment set. However, if throughput is increased without productivity improvements, cycle time will naturally rise. Texas Instruments Incorporated is using a queueing curve approximation in order to determine a particular machine set's productivity improvements over time regardless of fab loadings. By measuring the machine set's monthly average throughput and cycle time, a fab can determine if true improvements have been made and also determine how much cycle time would increase or decrease with loadings. In order to have widespread use in fabs, a particular formula should be relatively simple and easy to use. We will discuss a queueing curve approximation and how it can be used in the fabs. We will also discuss its accuracy both under ideal conditions and conditions of data that are insufficient and/or rough approximations. Other formulation problems such as machine or lot dedication (one queue per machine versus one queue to all machines), various arrival/service time distributions and percentage improvement determination are also addressed.


EDITOR,-Jacqueline Adams and colleagues seem to have misunderstood the use of thrombolytic treatment in myocardial infarction.' The aim should not be to treat every patient who has a myocardial infarction but to treat those who are going to gain some benefit. The authors' conclusion, that any patient with a convincing history of acute myocardial infarction and with an abnormal electrocardiogram should be given thrombolysis, should be viewed with caution. The large trials of thrombolysis, such as the second international study of infarct survival,2 showed benefit in patients who presented with either ST elevation or bundle branch block. In contrast, patients presenting with just ST depression in their electrocardiogram receive no benefit from thrombolysis despite a high baseline mortality. Furthermore, there was no evidence of any benefit in patients with normal electrocardiograms. A considerable proportion of patients admitted to coronary care units with a history of continual chest pain and ST depression on electrocardiography in fact have unstable angina. There is good evidence from trials that thrombolysis does not benefit these patients.3 In fact, they may do worse with thrombolysis because of the risk of haemorrhage and because of the procoagulant risk of thrombolysis in unstable angina4; thus thrombolysis should be contraindicated in this group. There is also some evidence that thrombolysis may have no effect on recurrent ischaemic effects in patients with non-Q wave myocardial infarctions (Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction-IIIB investigators, meeting of the American Heart Association, New Orleans, 1992). A further point that needs to be considered is the production of neutralising antibodies after the administration of streptokinase, which is the thrombolytic agent most widely used in Britain. A recent paper reported that up to four years after being given streptokinase half of patients have neutralising antibodies capable of neutralising a conventional dose of streptokinase in vitro.' This high titre may affect the efficacy of any subsequent doses of streptokinase or anistreplase given to these patients. This group may therefore get further benefit only from using recombinant tissue type plasminogen activator, with the extra cost entailed. Adams and colleagues discuss the importance of risk-benefit analysis, which should be applied strictly to thrombolysis because of its haemorrhagic complications; thrombolysis should be used only in groups in whom it has proved prognostic value. Such groups should really comprise only patients without contraindications who present within 12 hours of an acute myocardial infarction with


The second generation Antarctic magnetic anomaly compilation for the region south of 60°S includes some 3.5 million line‐km of aeromagnetic and marine magnetic data that more than doubles the initial map's near‐surface database. For the new compilation, the magnetic data sets were corrected for the International Geomagnetic Reference Field, diurnal effects, and high‐frequency errors and leveled, gridded, and stitched together. The new magnetic data further constrain the crustal architecture and geological evolution of the Antarctic Peninsula and the West Antarctic Rift System in West Antarctica, as well as Dronning Maud Land, the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, the Prince Charles Mountains, Princess Elizabeth Land, and Wilkes Land in East Antarctica and the circumjacent oceanic margins. Overall, the magnetic anomaly compilation helps unify disparate regional geologic and geophysical studies by providing new constraints on major tectonic and magmatic processes that affected the Antarctic from Precambrian to Cenozoic times.


An experimental platform of arc pipe was built to measure the corresponding parameters of fouling and the equation of fouling characteristics was built based on principal component analysis and partial least squares, in which there are several input variables such as input and output temperature, wall temperature, flow rate and so on, and there is only one output variables—fouling resistance. In order to compare with the five-input-variables equation, the six-input-variables equation was also built. The prediction results show the model built in this paper is reasonable and feasible.


To test quantitatively whether there are systematic chromosome–chromosome associations within human interphase nuclei, interchanges between all possible heterologous pairs of chromosomes were measured with 24-color whole-chromosome painting (multiplex FISH), after damage to interphase lymphocytes by sparsely ionizing radiation in vitro. An excess of interchanges for a specific chromosome pair would indicate spatial proximity between the chromosomes comprising that pair. The experimental design was such that quite small deviations from randomness (extra pairwise interchanges within a group of chromosomes) would be detectable. The only statistically significant chromosome cluster was a group of five chromosomes previously observed to be preferentially located near the center of the nucleus. However, quantitatively, the overall deviation from randomness within the whole genome was small. Thus, whereas some chromosome–chromosome associations are clearly present, at the whole-chromosomal level, the predominant overall pattern appears to be spatially random.


Wildfires have produced black carbon (BC) since land plants emerged. Condensed aromatic compounds, a form of BC, have accumulated to become a major component of the soil carbon pool. Condensed aromatics leach from soils into rivers, where they are termed dissolved black carbon (DBC). The transport of DBC by rivers to the sea is a major term in the global carbon and BC cycles. To estimate Arctic river DBC export, 25 samples collected from the six largest Arctic rivers (Kolyma, Lena, Mackenzie, Ob', Yenisey and Yukon) were analyzed for dissolved organic carbon (DOC), colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and DBC. A simple, linear regression between DOC and DBC indicated that DBC accounted for 8.9 ± 0.3% DOC exported by Arctic rivers. To improve upon this estimate, an optical proxy for DBC was developed based upon the linear correlation between DBC concentrations and CDOM light absorption coefficients at 254 nm (a254). Relatively easy to measure a254 values were determined for 410 Arctic river samples between 2004 and 2010. Each of these a254 values was converted to a DBC concentration based upon the linear correlation, providing an extended record of DBC concentration. The extended DBC record was coupled with daily discharge data from the six rivers to estimate riverine DBC loads using the LOADEST modeling program. The six rivers studied cover 53% of the pan-Arctic watershed and exported 1.5 ± 0.1 million tons of DBC per year. Scaling up to the full area of the pan-Arctic watershed, we estimate that Arctic rivers carry 2.8 ± 0.3 million tons of DBC from land to the Arctic Ocean each year. This equates to ~8% of Arctic river DOC export, slightly less than indicated by the simpler DBC vs DOC correlation-based estimate. Riverine discharge is predicted to increase in a warmer Arctic. DBC export was positively correlated with river runoff, suggesting that the export of soil BC to the Arctic Ocean is likely to increase as the Arctic warms.


We report on a novel resonant THz sensor for the label-free analysis of DNA molecules. The sensor allows the direct detection of DNA-probe molecules at functionalized electrodes via hybridization. Subsequent time resolved photoconductive sampling of the THz transmission identifies the binding state between probe and target DNA. Integrating neighbouring sensors on a chip, this technique can be extended to a parallel analysis of multiple DNA sequences. A clearly readable sensor response is obtained with less then 40 fmol of 20-mer single-stranded DNA molecules, indicating at least a sevenfold sensitivity increase compared to previous approaches.


This paper reports on the effective incorporation of online technology tools in the University of Virginia's STARTALK Chinese Student Program. These tools contributed most importantly to the interactive component of online Chinese language classrooms, which can otherwise be absent or minimal. In 2018 the Virginia STARTALK program created a streamlined online learning process, organically strengthened by the combination of the online platform ZOOM and the teaching interactive software Nearpod, whose features include annotation, real-time testing, and online synchronization cooperation. These classroom activities were designed to fulfill specific learning objectives, achieve optimal language output, and enhance student learning efficiency and engagement. The application of technology tools has effectively strengthened online interactions between instructor and learners, thereby promoting more effective language learning and improving student satisfaction with the course. 关键字:线上教学、科技辅助工具、线上课堂活动设计、线上互动、 星谈项目


SARS-CoV-2 is currently considered to have emerged from a bat coronavirus reservoir. However, the real natural cycle of this virus remains to be elucidated. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to novel opportunities for SARS-CoV-2 transmission between humans and susceptible animal species. In silico and in vitro evaluation of the interactions between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and eucaryotic angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor have tentatively predicted susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection of several animal species. Although useful, these data do not always correlate with in vivo data obtained in experimental models or during natural infections. Other host biological properties may intervene such as the body temperature, level of receptor expression, co-receptor, restriction factors, and genetic background. The spread of SARS-CoV-2 also depends on the extent and duration of viral shedding in the infected host as well as population density and behaviour (group living and grooming). Overall, current data indicate that the most at-risk interactions between humans and animals for COVID-19 infection are those involving certain mustelids (such as minks and ferrets), rodents (such as hamsters), lagomorphs (especially rabbits), and felines (including cats). Therefore, special attention should be paid to the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection associated with pets.


Dementia is one of the greatest challenges facing seniors and their caregivers around the globe. Developed by experts in both research and practice, this guide for mental health clinicians explores the experience of caregiving in dementia, discussing the latest research developments and sharing clinical pearls of wisdom that can easily be translated to daily practice. The contributors explore the history of caregiving and then examine the current demographics of caregivers for persons with dementia. They discuss who provides care, the settings in which it is delivered, and the rewards and burdens of caregiving. They place special emphasis on understanding the psychological needs of both the person with dementia and the caregiver, as well as interpersonal bonds, spiritual dimensions, and reactions to grief and loss. Using a multidisciplinary approach to treatment for caregivers, this book addresses the role of pharmacotherapy, individual and family interventions, and social supports. Finally, the authors reflect on societal issues such as health care policies, ethnic elders, and ethics. This volume offers health professionals insights into the daily lives of caregivers, along with tools to provide their patients with the support they need.


SIR,-The letter from Professor J Parkhouse (22 January, p 235) seems likely to prQvoke a good deal of resentment. He appears to misunderstand the role of non-teaching hospitals, particularly so far as senior registrars are concerned. I am at present a senior registrar in a non-teaching hospital and have previously held posts both in undergraduate teaching hospitals and in non-teaching hospitals as senior house officer, registrar, and senior registrar, so perhaps I may be permitted to comment. Professor Parkhouse appears to consider that until a trainee specialist has reached senior registrar grade he is a liability to patients and staff. Conversely he implies that a senior registrar has much to offer and presumably he can then go as a missionary to the rude mechanicals of the service hospital. I had thought that one achievement of the NHS was to eradicate this type of condescension. It is to be hoped that as a senior registrar a trainee will have special knowledge of some subjects and thus can make a particular contribution, but in a hospital such as this there is little likelihood of a one-way traffic. A high academic standard is quite common in non-teaching hospital consultants, who often accept a very substantial teaching commitment at all levels. Even research is not unknown here in the backwoods-for example, the development of total hip replacement has been almost entirely the work of peripheral hospitals. It is true that there is a danger that a heavy service load may swamp a trainee who is under-supervised, just as in some "centres of excellence" the medical staff may so outnumber the patients that no single doctor gets much experience. A great achievement of the past 20 years has been the increasing interchange of trainees at all levels between different types of hospital and a recognition of the importance of teaching in every hospital. It is by improving further the teaching and facilities provided in hospitals such as this one that standards will rise, and not by retreating into ivory towers where academics can keep themselves clean from "service," formerly known as patients. J V PARKIN


Seventeen inorganic and organic anions, that normally are insufficiently separated via ion chromatography, were completely separated by the addition of an organic solvent to a solution of BGE combined with an adjustment of the apparent pH via CE in combination with indirect UV absorbance detection. Methanol, ethanol, and acetonitrile were examined for their utility in manipulating the selective separation of anions. Methanol and acetonitrile were better modifiers than ethanol at enhancing the resolution of anions comigrating in an aqueous solution of BGE. Methanol was selected as the modifier that provided the largest separation window that could achieve a complete separation of the target analytes. Via the use of methanol, manipulation of the selectivity between inorganic anions and that between inorganic and organic anions was enhanced, but the separation between organic anions remained difficult when only methanol was used. By varying the apparent pH of the BGE in the presence of 10% v/v methanol, however, the separation selectivity between organic anions was substantially improved. Eventually, 7 inorganic and 10 organic anions were simultaneously separated using BGE at a pH of 6.3 in the presence of 10% v/v methanol.


It is very important to predict the hot spots of castings properly, which is known as a criterion for riser design. In this paper, an improved geometric model for hot spot prediction is proposed, and subsequently, its application to hot spot analysis is presented. As we know, the heat dissipation potential of a location in a casting depends on its distance to the heat transfer surfaces. In a meshed casting, the reciprocal of distance from a certain cell to surfaces is calculated at all the six orthogonal directions, by which the heat dissipation potentials of every cell will be evaluated considering the influences of the neighboring grids. With the improved geometric model, there is no iteration during calculation, and only twice of cell traverse is required. The first traverse gets the distance reciprocal and the second focuses on the heat dissipation potential. The result of this model, which turns out similar to that of procedures based on heat transfer equations, reflects solidification sequence in a casting, hence the hot spots will be known instantaneously. Obviously this geometric model ignores many conditions during solidification process. However, messages like locations of hot spots are shown much faster and more conveniently than that of procedures based on heat transfer equations. Therefore, it is believed that it will shorten much time for casting technology design.


Heavy haul corridors are capital intensive and are relatively expensive to maintain. It is therefore imperative that heavy haul corridors are chosen with care, such that sufficient traffic is available on the corridors to ensure adequate returns. The strategic choice will be dictated by projected pattern and volume of freight traffic, projected pattern of passenger traffic and terminal facilities. Various choices may be obtained with different rolling stock and locomotive capacity to obtain scenarios with existing and future fleet characteristics, as well as future terminal facilities. Further, tactical operating plans for networks with heavy haul corridors should be designed properly to ensure maximum utilization of such corridors with a given set of customer demands, rolling stock and locomotive size and capacity, terminal facilities and capacity of peripheral networks. Such operating plans which might span from a fortnight to three months, include decisions regarding routes, frequency of services, aggregation and disaggregation policies, empties repositioning policies and direct or consolidating train service policies. These operating plans may also depend on the service level committed to a customer, which is again tied to a particular pricing. This paper proposes two operations research based models: (i) a model for choosing a heavy haul corridor(s) within an existing network and (ii) a model for design of an optimal operating plan for an existing network with a designated heavy haul corridor(s). The models are further demonstrated on a hypothetical railroad network with test data. The contributions of the proposed models are manifold, few of which are: scenario analysis with various combinations of demand patterns, fleet size and characteristics and terminal facilities; enabling investment decisions for up gradation of track, fleet or terminal facilities through comparative analysis of scenarios; and enabling service design to meet specific customer needs.


Islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) or amylin is a hormone candidate predominantly expressed in insulin cells. A role for IAPP in the regulation of glucose homeostasis and the development of non-insulin- dependent diabetes mellitus has been proposed. IAPP is structurally related to the sensory neuropeptide calcitonin gene-related peptide. In the present study, using in situ hybridization, immunocytochemistry, and immunochemistry, the expression of IAPP in sensory neurons in the rat was investigated. IAPP was expressed in a population of small- to medium-sized nerve cell bodies in dorsal root ganglia from all levels and in the jugular-nodose and trigeminal ganglion; IAPP-expressing nerve cell bodies constituted a subpopulation of those expressing calcitonin gene-related peptide. In addition, IAPP-like immunoreactivity occurred in nerve cell bodies storing substance P and pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide. IAPP-immunoreactive nerve fibers were encountered in the dorsal horns of the spinal cord, and to a lesser extent in peripheral tissues receiving sensory innervation; IAPP-immunoreactive fibers constituted a subpopulation of those containing calcitonin gene-related peptide and/or substance P. The immunochemical determinations demonstrated a low level of IAPP-like immunoreactivity in the dorsal root ganglia and spinal cord, which chromatographically coeluted with authentic rat IAPP. We conclude that IAPP is expressed in sensory neurons, thus being a novel sensory neuropeptide candidate for which a physiological role remains to be identified.


In the United States, drugs are jointly regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration, which oversees premarket clinical trials designed to ensure drug safety and efficacy, and the liability system, which allows patients to sue manufacturers for unsafe drugs. In this paper, we examine the potential welfare effects of this dual system aimed at ensuring the safety of medical products, and conclude that product liability exemptions for FDA regulated activities could raise economic efficiency. We show that while reductions in liability, such those associated with pre-emption, may lower welfare in the absence of the FDA, they may raise welfare in its presence. In the presence of the FDA, product liability may reduce efficiency by raising prices without pushing firms, who are already bound by the agency's requirements, to invest further in product safety. We consider as a case study the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which sharply reduced vaccine manufacturer's liability in 1988. We find evidence that the program reduced prices without affecting vaccine safety, suggesting that liability reductions can enhance economic efficiency in the presence of the FDA.


Natural scientists have offered reasons to think that some vile human acts have evolutionary explanations. Christians would describe some of these acts as sins, and indeed as sins potentially worthy of damnation. However, I argue that, on the supposition that such sins have evolutionary causes, the agents who commit these sins are not justly damnable for the acts in question. This is because the justice of damnation minimally depends on two criteria: 1) that sinful acts are properly voluntary; and 2) that asymmetrical fault between sinners and God holds for said acts. Because, on the assumption that dispositions to sin have evolved, one or both of these criteria cannot be sustained, theologians face a choice. They must either affirm the evolutionary origins of some sinful acts and deny damnation in the relevant cases, or, if they wish to affirm damnation in all relevant cases, they must deny that there are evolved dispositions to sin. Whichever way it is resolved, the dilemma is serious and concrete. Because it is serious, it requires careful attention from all theologians, not only theologyandscience specialists. Because it is concrete, it cannot be dissolved with methodological strategies alone.


The AD's design equation depicts the relationship between the functional requirements (FR) and the design parameters (DP) by the design matrix (DM), through a unique zigzag decomposition path. At the "zig part" of each level of the zigzag decomposition, the designer needs to find out the DPs that can fulfil the given FRs. This paper proposes that the designer has to perform three main actions in a zig process in order to define the design equation: to define the DPs at a nominal condition and its magnitude; to evaluate the interactions of the DP with the system at actual conditions; and to check back the set of FRs verifying if they fit inside the design range. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the actions performed on a zig, emphasising the changes that may occur in the arrangement of the design during the synthesis of the DM at any level of the decomposition. At each level of decomposition, the estimation of the DPs that fulfil the FRs allows the designer to define a subset of the DM, making it possible to evaluate afterwards the DM with all the interactions of the system. Moreover, in what concerns to the information content, it is possible to evaluate the probability of success of the system taking into account the interactions of the system and the tolerances of the DPs. This paper presents an example regarding the evaluation of the DM using the equations of the design for a variable air volume (VAV) air conditioning system.


Silicosis is an important disease not only for its prevalence and the degree of pulmonary insufficiency it entails but also because it provides a natural model of interstitial fibrotic disease in the lung which is of known origin. This can, in turn, help us understand the pathogenic nature of a great number of pulmonary fibroses whose cause is unknown. The fifty postmortem studies which we describe correspond to miners who had worked in underground mines in the mountainous region near Cartagena (SE Spain) for times ranging from 5 to 36 years. The autopsies showed that they had been exposed to dust containing abundant metallic particles, particularly iron oxide (mixed dust). Although the pathogenic action was related with silica, it was also clearly modified by the composition of the dust associated with it. The basic lesions which are produced in the lung after inhalation of silica (< 5 microns diameter) are coniosis, fibroconiosis and sclerohyalinosis. The sclerohyalino nodules are characterized by abundant collagenization and hyalinization, different types of which can be distinguished according to the disposition of the collagenous fibres. Nodular lesions gradually grow in size even when exposure to dust has ceased. As they grow they get nearer until they join to form conglomerate masses. When the diameter exceeds 3 cm this is called massive fibrosis. Pulmonary tuberculosis was found in 27% of cases. This took the form of lesions, which could be associated to or independent of silicotic lesions. Besides evolutive nodular lesions, a patient suffering from silicosis may show other unspecific lesions which must be correctly evaluated for a more correct clinical-pathological assessment, since, clinically, the respiratory function may be profoundly affected although such silicotic damage may be not very noticeable by radiological examination. Silicosis of the liver and spleen was not infrequent in the autopsies carried out, with basic lesions in all evolutive states being observed, the most evolved in the spleen. This means that silicosis should be considered as a systemic illness.


Background Recent guidelines from National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence emphasise health reinforcement in the periconceptual period. This places pressure to identify women prior to conception to advise on health behaviours, particularly smoking, alcohol consumption and folic acid. Pregnancies in obese women are associated with higher maternal and fetal complication rates but it is unknown whether health behaviours of obese women prior to and during pregnancy differ from non-obese women. Objective To assess health behaviours pre-conception and during pregnancy in severely obese women. Methods 164 obese (body mass index (BMI)≥40) and 53 normal-weight (BMI<25) pregnant women attending an antenatal metabolic clinic completed questionnaires concerning health behaviours. Results Obese women were significantly less likely to have taken folic acid prior to conception compared with controls (26.6% vs 58.3% p<0.0001). Obese women were more likely to smoke at time of conception (obese 21.4% vs control 8.5% p=0.046). There was no difference between obese or lean women in those who continued to smoke during pregnancy (61.8% vs 50% p=0.65). Obese women were more likely to consume alcohol within recommended limits prior to conception (57.7% vs 29.8%, p<0.0001). Social class differed between groups with higher deprivation scores among the obese group (4.3 (0.11) vs 3.1 (0.18), p<0.0001). Differences in health behaviours remained significant after adjustment for social class. Conclusion Our data suggest that severely obese women planning pregnancy comply poorly with lifestyle recommendations. Greater education regarding smoking, alcohol and folic acid intake among women of child-bearing age is required, particularly among this high risk obese group.


Iris Recognition (IR) across illumination variations is a problem of fundamental importance in computer vision. In this paper, we propose two novel techniques, viz., Triangular DCT based Feature Extraction (T-DCT) and Radon Transform based Pre-processing, to improve the performance of an IR system. T-DCT is used for efficient feature extraction and Radon Transform is used for curve detection in iris images. A Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (BPSO) based feature selection algorithm is used to search the feature space for optimal feature subset. Individual stages of the IR system are examined and an attempt is made to improve each stage. Experimental results obtained by applying the proposed algorithm on three benchmark iris databases, namely Phoenix, MMU and IITD dataset, show that the proposed system out performs other IR systems. A significant increase in the recognition rate and a substantial reduction in the number of selected features are observed.


Impacts of projected climate and glacier change on river discharge in five glacierized catchments in the northern Tien Shan, Kazakhstan are investigated using a conceptual hydrological model HBV-ETH. Regional climate model PRECIS driven by four different GCM-scenario combinations (HadGEM2.6, HadGEM8.5, A1B using HadCM3Q0 and ECHAM5) is used to develop climate projections. Future changes in glaciation are assessed using the Blatter–Pattyn type higher-order 3D coupled ice flow and mass balance model. All climate scenarios show statistically significant warming in the 21st Century. Neither projects statistically significant change in annual precipitation although HadGEM and HadCM3Q0-driven scenarios show 20–37% reduction in July–August precipitation in 2076–2095 in comparison with 1980–2005. Glaciers are projected to retreat rapidly until the 2050s and stabilize afterwards except under the HadGEM8.5 scenario where retreat continues. Glaciers are projected to lose 38–50% of their volume and 34–39% of their area. Total river discharge in July–August, is projected to decline in catchments with low (2–4%) glacierization by 20–37%. In catchments with high glacierization (16% and over), no significant changes in summer discharge are expected while spring discharge is projected to increase. In catchments with medium glacierization (10–12%), summer discharge is expected to decline under the less aggressive scenarios while flow is sustained under the most aggressive HadGEM8.5 scenario, which generates stronger melt.


Nearest neighbor queries are important in many settings, including spatial databases (find the k closet cities) and multimedia databases (find the k most similar images). Previous analyses have concluded that nearest neighbor search is hopeless in high dimensions, due to the notorious "curse of dimensionality". However, their precise analysis over real data sets is still an open problem. The typical and often implicit assumption in previous studies is that the data is uniformly distributed, with independence between attributes. However, real data sets overwhelmingly disobey these assumptions; rather, they typically are skewed and exhibit intrinsic ("fractal") dimensionalities that are much lower than their embedding dimension, e.g., due to subtle dependencies between attributes. We show how the Hausdorff and correlation fractal dimensions of a data set can yield extremely accurate formulas that can predict I/O performance to within one standard deviation. The practical contributions of this work are our accurate formulas which can be used for query optimization in spatial and multimedia databases. The theoretical contribution is the 'deflation' of the dimensionality curse. Our theoretical and empirical results show that previous worst-case analysis of nearest neighbor search in high dimensions are over-pessimistic, to the point of being unrealistic. The performance depends critically on the intrinsic ("fractal") dimensionality as opposed to the embedding dimension that the uniformity assumption incorrectly implies.


Purpose: COVID-19 pandemic makes outdoors rehabilitation a potential hazard. Patient education to perform simple home-based exercises seems to be an interesting and sometimes a mandatory option. This study provides a comparison between the conventional and home-based virtual rehabilitation after surgical repair of medial meniscus root tears. Methods: All patients who underwent MPRT repair with a modified trans-tibial pull-out technique from March 2019 to March 2021 were evaluated. Those who underwent surgery after December 2019 were trained to perform self-rehabilitation. The rest had undergone outdoors specialized rehabilitation according to a unified protocol and these were used as a historical control group. All patients were followed up for a minimum of 2 year after surgery. Final Lysholm scores were utilized to compare functional outcomes. Results: Forty-three consecutive patients with medial meniscal root tears were studied. Thirty-nine (90.7%) were women and 4 (9.3%) were men. The mean age of participants was 53.2 ±8.1 years. The total Lysholm knee score, and all its items were significantly improved in both groups at a two-year follow-up (p<0.05), except the "Using cane or crutches" item (p=0.065). Nevertheless, the final Lysholm knee score improvement was higher in patients who performed outdoors specialized rehabilitation and in patients with shorter time-to-surgery.Conclusion: Regardless of age and gender, home-based rehabilitation after meniscal root repair with the modified trans-tibial pull-out technique improved the patients' function at a two-year follow-up. Nonetheless, this effect was still significantly lower than that of the outdoors specialized rehabilitation. Future work is required to clarify basic protocols for home-based tele-rehabilitation programs and determine clinical, radiological and functional results.Level of evidence: Level IV, therapeutic, historically controlled study


This paper has two central themes. One is that to make sense of the results of work in mathematical economics over the past twenty years- the incredible richness of the models now being produced, the wide diversity of their policy implications and the evident failings of the welfare foundations of modern economics- requires an understanding of the enterprise of economics quite different from that of the pioneers of mathematical economics. The second theme is that the understanding of the enterprise of economics which Keynes evolved and practised is highly relevant to this new task of making sense of economics beyond the neoclassical synthesis. Keynes's conception of economics as a moral science, in which a wide variety of models are used as tools to guide practical judgement and the formulation of policy initiaves to achieve morally desirable goals, may have disappeared into the black hole of mathematics, but it is reappearing with new force out the other side.


The breakdown of the Czech Republic into individual regions causes the existence of territorial units with their specific characteristics. The economic level, living conditions or status of households represent the properties which allow us to characterize the differences between regions that are common for today's market economy and significantly related to the areas of public finances. The paper theoretically defines the selected indicators (gross domestic product, net disposable income, incomes in terms of their structure, taxes on personal income, health and social insurance) characterizing the income situation of households in each region and then identifies similarities and differences. The aim of this paper is to identify similar or identical characteristics of each region using mathematical and statistical methods by means of indicators relating to the income situation of Czech households and highlight dependencies between the examined indicators. Similarities of the regions will be expressed using clusters into which they are divided. The undertaken description followed by synthesis will contribute to understanding of the potential differences between regions and can provide relevant information to stakeholders of public finances. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of ECE 2014.


In this article the author presents a scientific perspective on what Hindu unscientific values should be abandoned. India has a unique opportunity to take advantage of a scientific framework for world transformation to reinvent itself and help transform the 21st century. This scientific framework consists of two components: (1) External excellence; and (2) Internal Excellence. It is interesting that that the two component of excellence are intricately related. That is, in the absence of an adequate level of internal excellence, we neither possess the capacity to materialize intentions, nor can quality initiatives such as six sigma and others deliver acceptable performance. India has to embrace both components of excellence if its vision of joining the ranks of developed nations is to become reality.


This paper analyzes and reviews the major problems of public Enterprises (PEs) in Ethiopia with particular focus during the 1974 - 1991 periods. Their objectives, role, significance and management structures, have been surveyed. At the same time, their financial performance and financial positions have been analyzed and reviewed in view of identifying their internal and external constraints. In view of improving the PEs financial performance and efficiency, in resource allocation and utilization, the paper concludes that the PEs in Ethiopia have to be restructured in such a way that the root causes of their poor performance or inadequate performance are properly addressed


Environmental education (EE) is a long-term process of developing the skills and behaviour necessary to understand and accept the relationships between people, culture and the natural environment. Its aim is to prepare society in practical decision making and to teach environmentally friendly behaviour. Nigerians are increasingly living with risks of a number of human and natural disasters. As the country's disaster management strategy has shifted from that of post-disaster response, relief and rehabilitation to that of mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in development processes, there are the needs to ensure that Nigerians become aware of disasters, their causes, how to prevent them, how to respond to them when they occur and how to minimise the risks to which they are exposed to disasters. Thus, EE has important role to play in Nigeria's disaster management efforts. This paper examines the ways in which EE can be mainstreamed into Nigeria's disaster risk reduction programs. The paper examines the ecological disasters Nigeria is at risk of, how people can be integrated into disaster management process, the need for EE and how it can be effectively mainstreamed into DRR efforts of the country. The paper concludes with a submission that the people should be made to have more important and proactive roles to play in this regard than what is presently obtainable and for this to be done, there is the need for a holistic, more comprehensive and all-encompassing approach that should cover all ensure full integration of EE in disaster risk management arrangements in the country at all levels so that the people can live in harmony with disaster risks. Some of the activities that are required in this regard include more effective involvement of the people in disaster risk vulnerability assessment, planning, information systems, institutional framework of development, warning systems, public education and training, development of a short-term and longer-term mitigation strategy.


Beef cows, particularly as part of seed stock and cow/calf enterprises, are farmed extensively in temperate environments in southern Australia. The fundamental premise of a productive beef enterprise is a calving interval of 365 days. However, production system efficiency can also be determined by comparing inputs, namely megajoules of energy in the form of food, to outputs, namely the number of kilograms of beef sold each year. This thesis examined two heritable and economically desirable traits and the impact that selection to improve these traits had on beef herd productivity – defined in this thesis as Maternal Productivity. Selection for reduced fatness, achieved by selecting animals on the basis of low Rib Fat EBVs, can increase profitability because of consumer demand for lean meat and because sellers of cattle for slaughter are penalised if the carcasses have too much fat on them. Selection for an improvement in feed-efficiency through the trait Net Feed Intake (NFI) can improve profitability because it allows an increase in stocking rates or a reduction in the number of megajoules supplied to the herd for the same level of production.

There are concerns about the continued selection for these traits, particularly when energy supply is restricted such as in times of drought. There is evidence from other intensive production industries that single trait selection can compromise other desirable and necessary traits and that reduced body fatness reduces fertility in the long term. The impact of selection for fatness or feed-efficiency on Maternal Productivity was reported in this thesis.

Two hundred Angus heifers, selected for a divergence in either fatness (Fat vs. Lean) or feed-efficiency (high-NFI vs. low-NFI), were subjected over two breeding cycles to either a high- or a low-nutritional treatment on an extensive grazing system in the south-west of Western Australia.

Lean animals were phenotypically leaner than Fat animals at all stages of the breeding cycle and had higher predicted carcass yields than Fat animals, confirming the assumed economic benefit for selection for leanness. This result also confirmed that using Estimated Breeding Values to select for a divergence in fatness works. Low-NFI animals were phenotypically leaner than high-NFI animals at all stages of the breeding cycle and had higher predicted carcass yields than high-NFI animals. This result showed that differences in fatness between high- and low-NFI cattle previously identified in finished, grain-fed animals, persisted in the female grazing herd over two parities. There were no differences between experimental Genotypes in estimations of post-partum anoestrus interval based on fortnightly measures of blood progesterone post-calving. There were no differences between experimental Genotypes in the production measures of days-to-calving or birth, growth and weaning weights but on the low-nutrition treatment days-to-calving increased, and growth and weaning weights were lower than on the high-nutrition treatment. Although not statistically significant, there was a strong trend indicating that low-NFI animals consumed fewer megajoules of energy per kilogram of beef weaned. Nutritional treatment did not affect one particular Genotype more than the other but in all Genotypes, animals on low-nutrition consumed fewer megajoules of energy for each kilogram of calf liveweight (beef) weaned. This result suggests that selection for increased feed-efficiency will enable producers to increase stocking rates and that restricted nutrition will not decrease productivity.

Blood parameters were measured before and after calving to determine whether the Genotypes were associated with different physiological responses to nutritional restriction. No single blood parameter could be used as a marker to distinguish one Genotype from another. Beta-hydroxybutyrate and leptin were most closely associated with body condition and energy balance and differed between Genotypes when there was a difference in adiposity.

Mutations in the bovine leptin gene were examined to determine whether associations with fatness and feed-efficiency, previously reported in North American cattle, were evident in Australian cattle. The mutations were found to exist in the experimental cattle but with differing distributions and associations to those previously reported. An association between one polymorphism (E2JW) and feed-efficiency was noted but shown to be inappropriate for use as a tool in marker-assisted selection. Other associations with circulating leptin concentrations were reported.

The studies reported in this thesis showed that after two breeding cycles, Bos taurus cattle selected for reduced fatness or increased feed-efficiency were not compromised in terms of Maternal Productivity when nutrition is restricted. Producers can be re-assured that continued selection for these desirable traits will not impact in a negative way on the female herd. However, it must be noted that the experiment will continue for another three generations and consequently the results might change.


This research was conducted to evaluate the potential of sugar palm residue as a raw material to produce the new green composites. The physical properties of sugar palm fibre reinforced unsaturated polyester composites from different part which are sugar palm frond (SPF/PE), sugar palm bunch (SPB/PE), sugar palm trunk (SPT/PE) and black sugar palm fibre (ijuk/PE) were studied. Samples were submerged in distilled water for 24 hours. The water absorption and thickness swelling were investigated in order to determine the dimensional stability of the composites. It is found that SPF/PE showed the higher value of water absorption and thickness swelling which are 1.57%, and 1.56% followed by SPB/PE (1.35%, 1.11%), ijuk/PE (0.65%, 0.76%) and SPT/PE (0.39%, 0.50%). Generally, this investigation is valuable for researchers in order to evaluate the potential and some possible application of sugar palm residues as a new natural composites product.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight into the influence of gyrotactic microorganisms and Hall effect on the boundary layer flow of 29 nm CuO-water mixture on the upper pointed surface of a rocket, over the bonnet of a car and upper pointed surface of an aircraft. This is true since all these objects are examples of an object with variable thickness.

Design/methodology/approach

The simplification of Rosseland approximation (Taylor series expansion of T4 about T∞) is avoided; thus, two different parameters relating to the study of nonlinear thermal radiation are obtained. The governing equation is non-dimensionalized, parameterized and solved numerically.

Findings

Maximum vertical and horizontal velocities of the 29 nm CuO-water nanofluid flow is guaranteed at a small value of Peclet number and large value of buoyancy parameter depending on the temperature difference. When the magnitude of thickness parameter χ is small, cross-flow velocity decreases with the velocity index and the opposite effect is observed when the magnitude of χ is large.

Originality/value

Directly or indirectly, the importance of the fluid flow which contains 29 nm CuO nanoparticle, water, and gyrotactic microorganisms in the presence of Hall current has been pointed out as an open question in the literature due to its relevance in imaging, ophthalmological and translational medicine informatics.


The package dcemriS4 provides a complete set of data analysis tools for quantitative assessment of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI). Image processing is provided for the ANALYZE and NIfTI data formats as input with all parameter estimates being output in NIfTI format. Estimation of T1 relaxation from multiple flip-angle acquisitions, using either constant or spatially-varying flip angles, is performed via nonlinear regression. Both literature-based and data-driven arterial input functions are available and may be combined with a variety of compartmental models. Kinetic parameters are obtained from nonlinear regression, Bayesian estimation via Markov chain Monte Carlo or Bayesian maximum a posteriori estimation. A non-parametric model, using penalized splines, is also available to characterize the contrast agent concentration time curves. Estimation of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) is provided for diffusion-weighted imaging. Given the size of multi-dimensional data sets commonly acquired in imaging studies, care has been taken to maximize computational efficiency and minimize memory usage. All methods are illustrated using both simulated and real-world medical imaging data available in the public domain.


Palaeogeographically, the area of the present day Bohemian Cretaceous Basin (BCB) formed a narrow Seaway between the North Sea Basin and the Tethys Ocean during the Late Cretaceous. The BCB together with adjacent Brannau-Regensburg Basin (Danubian Cretaceous Group) in Bavaria were a part of the peri-Tethyan shelf zone and contain a record of recurrent warm-temperate faunal assemblages with several incursions of Boreal fauna. The distribution of the coarse siliciclastic sediments demonstrate a significant control of stratigraphic architecture by tectonic activity and spatially variable sediment supply during the lifetime of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin. Intra-basinal correlations of the BCB are based on application of both, non-biostratigraphic and biostratigraphic or eventostratigraphic methods. Nevertheless, some difficulties still appear with intra- and interbasinal correlation of the BCB (e. g., continental/marine, nearshore-offshore, entry of biomarkers or Boreal/Tethys correlations).


Two previously published papers (Vaver and Koehler, 2011, 2012) describe a model for analyzing geo experiments. This model was designed to measure advertising effectiveness using the rigor of a randomized experiment with replication across geographic units providing confidence interval estimates. While effective, this geo-based regression (GBR) approach is less applicable, or not applicable at all, for situations in which few geographic units are available for testing (e.g. smaller countries, or subregions of larger countries) These situations also include the socalled matched market tests, which may compare the behavior of users in a single control region with the behavior of users in a single test region. To fill this gap, we have developed an analogous time-based regression (TBR) approach for analyzing geo experiments. This methodology predicts the time series of the counterfactual market response, allowing for direct estimation of the cumulative causal effect at the end of the experiment. In this paper we describe this model and evaluate its performance using simulation.


STUDY QUESTION
Is in vitro maturation (IVM) as successful as standard in vitro fertilization (IVF) for the treatment of patients with polycystic ovaries (PCO) in terms of fresh, frozen and cumulative pregnancy outcomes?

SUMMARY ANSWER
There was no difference in clinical pregnancy rates in fresh or frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycles between the two treatment groups however, the IVM group showed a lower clinical pregnancy rate cumulatively. There was significantly fewer live births resulting from IVM treatment for both fresh and cumulative cycle outcomes however, there was no difference in live birth rates resulting from FETs between IVM and IVF treatment.

WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY
IVM is well recognized as the only treatment option to eliminate completely the incidence of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. However, historically IVM has been less successful than standard IVF in terms of clinical pregnancy, implantation and live birth rates.

STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, AND DURATION
This paper represents a retrospective case-control study. The study involved 121 participants who underwent 178 treatment cycles. Cycles were completed between March 2007 and December 2012. All fresh cycles and subsequent FET cycles were included in the analysis to calculate cumulative outcomes.

PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, AND METHODS
All participants were prospectively diagnosed with PCO morphology or polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and underwent either IVM or standard IVF treatment. Their treatment outcomes were analysed with regard to embryological data, and the rate of biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy and live birth, in addition maternal and neonatal outcomes were assessed. Fifty-six patients underwent 80 cycles of IVM treatment and 65 patients underwent 98 cycles of standard IVF treatment.

MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE
For fresh cycles, the differences in the biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy or miscarriage rates between the two treatment groups were not statistically significant. The IVM group showed significantly lower live birth rates in fresh cycles in comparison to standard IVF treatment (18.8 versus 31.0%, P = 0.021). For frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycles the differences in biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, live birth or miscarriage rates between the two treatments groups were not statistically significant. The cumulative biochemical pregnancy (67.5 versus 83.7%, P = 0.018), clinical pregnancy (51.3 versus 65.3%, P = 0.021) and live birth rates (41.3 versus 55.1%, P = 0.005) were significantly lower in the IVM group in comparison to the standard IVF treatment group. There was no overall difference in the cumulative miscarriage rates between the two treatment groups. There was no difference between treatment methods with regard to the neonatal outcomes, and the IVM group had a significantly lower rate of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (0 versus 7.1%, P < 0.001).

LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION
This was an observational study and further randomized clinical trials are required to clarify the difference in outcomes between standard IVF and IVM for patients with PCO/PCOS.

WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS
This is the first study to compare IVM with standard IVF in PCO/PCOS patients using blastocyst development and single embryo transfer. Furthermore, it is the first study to show the results of fresh, frozen and cumulative treatment cycle outcomes between the two groups. Our results show similar success rates to those reported from other groups, particularly in relation to the incidence of miscarriage in fresh IVM cycles and improved success from FET cycles. Maternal and neonatal outcomes are consistent with the limited literature available.

STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTERESTS
The study was supported by the Women's and Infant's Research Foundation of Western Australia. Professor Hart is Medical Director of Fertility Specialists of Western Australia (FSWA) and a shareholder Western IVF. He has received educational sponsorship from MSD, Merck-Serono and Ferring Pharmaceuticals. T.H. is a consultant with FSWA and a shareholder in Western IVF. She has received educational sponsorship from MSD, Merck-Serono and Ferring Pharmaceuticals. The other authors have no competing interests.


This thesis is concerned with statistical modeling and prediction of disease processes subject to intermittent observation. Times of disease progression are interval-censored when progression status is only known at a series of assessment times. This situation arises routinely in clinical trials and cohort studies when events of interest are only detectable upon imaging, based on blood tests, or upon careful clinical examination. The work that follows is motivated by the study of demographic, genetic and clinical data available from the University of Toronto Psoriasis Registry and the University of Toronto Psoriatic Arthritis Registry, each involving cohorts of several hundred patients with the respective diseases. Chapter 2 deals with the problem of selecting important prognostic biomarkers from a large set of candidates biomarkers when the status with respect to an event of interest (e.g. disease progression) is only known at irregularly spaced and individual-specific assessment times. Penalized regression techniques (e.g. LASSO, adaptive LASSO and SCAD) are adapted to deal with the interval-censored event times arising from this observation scheme. An expectation-maximization algorithm is developed which is demonstrated to perform well in extensive simulation studies involving independent and correlated continuous and binary covariates. Application to the motivating study of the development of arthritis mutilans in patients with psoriatic arthritis is given and several important human leukocyte antigen (HLA) variables are identified for further investigation. Extensions of this algorithm are developed for settings in which data from different sources with distinct disease-related entry conditions are to be synthesized. The extended Turnbull-type expectation-maximization algorithm is based on a complete data likelihood which incorporates missing information from individuals not meeting the entry criteria of the respective registries. Simulation studies demonstrate good empirical performance and an application to the motivating study identifies HLA markers associated with the onset of psoriatic iii arthritis among individuals with psoriasis. This analysis is carried out using data from a psoriasis registry in which the times to psoriatic arthritis are left-truncated, and psoriatic arthritis registry in which the onset times are right-truncated. Chapter 3 deals with the challenge of assessing the accuracy of a predictive model when response times are interval-censored. Inverse probability weighted (IPW) and augmented inverse probability weighted (AIPW) estimators of predictive accuracy are developed and evaluated based on the mean prediction error and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. The weights are estimated from a multistate model which jointly considers the event process, the inspection process, and the right-censoring processes. We investigate the performance of the proposed methods by simulation and illustrate their application in the context of a motivating rheumatology study in which HLA markers are used for predicting disease progression in psoriatic arthritis. A two-phase model is developed in Chapter 4 for chronic diseases which feature an indolent phase followed by a phase with more active disease resulting in progression and damage. The time-scales for the intensity functions for the active phase are more naturally based on the time since the start of the active phase, corresponding to a semi-Markov formulation. In cohort studies for which the disease status is only known at a series of clinical assessment times, transition times are interval-censored which means the time origin for phase II is interval-censored. Weakly parametric models with piecewise constant baseline hazard and rate functions are specified and an expectation-maximization algorithm is described for model fitting. A computationally faster two-stage estimation procedure is also developed and the asymptotic variances of the resulting estimators are derived. Simulation studies examining the performance of the proposed model show good performance under both maximum likelihood and two-stage estimation. An application to data from the motivating study of disease progression in psoriatic arthritis illustrates the procedure, iv and identifies new human leukocyte antigens associated with the duration of the indolent phase, and others associated with disease progression in the active phase. Open problems and topics for ongoing and future research are discussed in Chapter 5.


The PhD thesis Architecture's Poetic Instrumentality is rooted in and driven by an enthusiasm of architectural practice— an enthusiasm for conceiving, constructing and deploying architectural artifacts that, as poetic instruments, intend to have an agency within urban environments. The title puts in tension the two notions of instrument and poesis (from the Greek poiesis, referring to a making activity but moreover to an activity of making up, situated here in those encountering architecture). Preparing the architectural artifact as a poetic instrument then puts the partly contingent adventures it helps affording at the center of the inquiry. Poesis, as an activity of making up, of sense-making, and agency, as a dynamic able to invoke such acts of poesis, are considered in this thesis as endowed with a transformative potential. They explicitly bring into scope the realm of architectural reception: the many uses, appropriations, occupations, and negotiations of architecture. In order to explore such poesis and agency, a variety of architectural artifacts have been developed within the time span of the research, spread across different collaborations. These artifacts propel the research, giving particular substance to the main methodological approach, that of research-through-practice. The exploration of a poetic instrumentality has been pursued through an exploration of architecture's capacity to act critically, politically, and ethically within situations. Such capacity is often, according to a variety of contemporary authors, atrophied or at least left partly unaddressed. Answering calls to re-activate architecture in that sense, this research aims to substantiate contributions that can help counter this deficit. It does so through edifying a heterogeneous set of architectural artifacts, developed as well as deployed within real urban surroundings and situations, working as acupuncture-like interventions. The research also develops a set of approaches, strategies, and attitudes. The audience is multiple as both those professionally practicing and conceiving of architecture as well as those practicing architecture through encountering it within daily situations are targeted. Architecture's Poetic Instrumentality is edified on two main experimenting grounds. One is the educational design studio COmplicating MAchines / COmplicating INteriors, the other the architecture firm STUDIOLOarchitectuur. Each advances a differently constrained terrain for experimentation, raising different challenges, assembling different contributions. What links the experimenting on both grounds together and characterizes all artifacts of the research is that they all seek to include dynamics often neglected in architecture: critical, political, and ethical dynamics; dynamics of projectivity, negotiation, conflict, dissensus, agonism; para-functional dynamics. Substantiating this inclusion has led to an other kind of architectural artifacts and to other ways of doing architecture, conceived not as an alternative to architecture, but as a promise and capacity that fundamentally reside within architecture and its artifacts. keywords: critical architecture; political architecture; ethical architecture; architectural agency; agonistic staging; dynamics of dissensus. main supervisors (double degree program): Professor Fredrik Nilsson, Chalmers University of Technology, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering; Professor Yves Schoonjans, KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture, Sint-Lucas campus.


: Acca sellowiana is an evergreen plant, that produces edible fruit whit high nutritional properties, and also contains clinically relevant bioactive compounds, including polyphenols and essential oils. Numerous biological activities were demonstrated for A. sellowiana fruits: antifungal and antitumoral and anti-oxidant. It was also showed a strong antibacterial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Fruit are generally considered recalcitrant plant tissues for the difficulty to obtain high quality protein due to a low protein content and the presence of interfering substances. For this reason, the objective of the present work was obtain high quantity of protein extract, to determine the location in the fruit of the molecules responsible for the antibacterial activity, separate them according to molecular weight, test their thermo resistance, study the timing of action, isolate the protein fraction having activity and hypothesize a mechanism of action directed against bacterial membranes. total final Positive control cells


GiveALink.org is a social bookmarking site where users may donate and view their personal bookmark files online securely. The bookmarks are analyzed to build a new generation of intelligent information retrieval techniques to recommend, search, and personalize the Web. GiveALink does not use tags, content, or links in the submitted Web pages. Instead we present a semantic similarity measure for URLs that takes advantage both of the hierarchical structure in the bookmark files of individual users, and of collaborative filtering across users. In addition, we build a recommendation and search engine from ranking algorithms based on popularity and novelty measures extracted from the similarity-induced network. Search results can be personalized using the bookmarks submitted by a user. We evaluate a subset of the proposed ranking measures by conducting a study with human subjects.


Exposure to higher levels of sociodemographic risk is associated with lower levels of academic achievement among young children. However, there is variability in the strength of this association, which may be traced to individual differences in physiological processes underlying self-regulation. In the current study, we examined whether the response of the parasympathetic nervous system to challenge, indexed by change in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), moderated the association between risk and school readiness at 5 years of age in a diverse sample of young children. We found that parasympathetic response to the Still-Face Paradigm moderated the effects of risk on a measure of school readiness, such that there was no association between risk and school readiness among children who exhibited RSA decreases during challenge at 6 months of age, a purported index of self-regulation at this age. For those infants who did not exhibit RSA withdrawal during this challenge, exposure to early cumulative risk was associated with lower scores on achievement assessment. These results speak to the possibility that certain patterns of parasympathetic response can serve as a protective factor for young children growing up in disadvantaged environments.


ABSTRACT Yellow chanterelles are one of the most common edible mushrooms found in Yunnan Province, China. Previous studies identified the species of these mushrooms as Cantharellus cibarius Fr. based on morphology alone. However, the diversity of yellow chanterelles comprises many species within the C. cibarius complex, including C. yunnanensis W.F. Chiu. We hypothesized that the latter species is widely marketed in Yunnan Province and does not actually belong to C. cibarius. Hence, to confirm the species identity, taxonomic re-evaluation using integrated taxonomic approaches is required. Herein, samples collected from different markets and from near the type locality were subjected to morphological and molecular analyses. We generated tef-1α sequences and analyzed them using the maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference methods. The study revealed that the specimens previously identified as C. cibarius with a wide distribution in southwestern China are indeed C. yunnanensis. Our morphological assessment was markedly influenced by the revision of the type specimen (C. yunnanensis) and its original description, as some characteristics of the specimen did not match the description (e.g., the size and shape of the spores). Similarly, our single-locus phylogenetic analysis strongly supported the identification of the marketed species in Southwestern China (Guizhou and Yunnan Provinces) as C. yunnanensis instead of C. cibarius. Following our findings, we epitypified C. yunnanensis. Additionally, we collected, identified, and confirmed the presence of C. cibarius in northeastern China.


Task-level control problems are ones that involve significant coordination of planning, perception and action. Robot systems capable of performing complex tasks are typically composed of many concurrent components. The design problem is to develop a control system that safely and reliably achieves its given tasks. We focus on two aspects of this problem: eliminating unwanted interactions amongs behaviors and dealing with uncertainty arising from incomplete models of the effects of actuators and sensors. Our basic approach to both problems involves combining causal (symbolic) and decision-theoretic reasoning techniques: the causal reasoning help frame the problem, focusing on relevant features, and the decision-theoretic techniques help in making optimal choices.


Although the ratio of female to male labor force participation rates is higher in Sub-Saharan Africa than in any other region, these high rates of female labor force participation mask underlying challenges for women. A large majority of employed women work in vulnerable employment. In addition, youth unemployment rates in Sub-Saharan Africa are double those of adult unemployment, and unemployment rates for women are higher than rates faced by men. This paper discusses the specific barriers that youth face in accessing employment in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the ways in which young women's employment is constrained above and beyond the constraints faced by male youth. The paper synthesizes the emerging lessons from a growing evidence base on interventions that aim to support young women's employment, and identifies knowledge gaps and priority research questions for the future. The objective is to develop a gender-informed policy and research agenda on youth employment that can guide practitioners, development partners, and researchers who seek to advance young women's empowerment and employment in the context of youth employment programming and policy making.


Although neurological symptoms associated with cerebral malaria (CM) are largely reversible, recent studies suggest that lasting neurological sequelae can occur. This may be especially true for children, in whom persistent deficits include problems with memory and attention. Because the malaria parasite is not thought to enter the brain parenchyma, lasting deficits are likely related to factors including the host response to disease. Studies with a rodent model, and with human postmortem tissue, suggest that glial activation occurs with CM. In this review, the authors will highlight studies focused on such activation in CM. Likely causes will be discussed, which include ischemia and activation of blood brain barrier endothelial cells. The potential consequences of glial activation will also be discussed, highlighting the possibility that glial-derived proteinases contribute to structural damage of the central nervous system (CNS). Of note, for the purposes of this focused review, glial activation will refer to the activation of astrocytes and microglial cells; discussion of oligodendroglial cells will not be included. In addition, although events thought to be critical to the pathogenesis of CM and glial activation will be covered, a comprehensive review of cerebral malaria will not be presented. Excellent reviews are already available, including Coltel {eaet al} (2004; Curr Neurovasc Res 1: 91–110), Medana and Turner (2006; Int J Parasitol 36: 555–568), and Hunt et al (2006; Int J Parasitol 36: 569–582).


Depression and anxiety in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients have been receiving much deserved attention in recent years, as consecutive studies demonstrated that these emotional disorders are both common and detrimental for IBD patients. The aim of the current study was to examine the prevalence of depression and anxiety in a national cohort of IBD patients in Israel.

 The epi-IIRN is a validated cohort of all IBD patients in Israel, ensured in four health maintenance organizations (HMOs). In this historical cohort study we included data from three HMOs, encompassing ~85% of Israeli population, between December 1997 [TD1] [UM2] and December 2019. Data included demographic data (age, sex and socioeconomic status), medical data (diagnosis type, time of diagnosis, medical regiments) and mental health status (a diagnosis of depression / anxiety defined by the relevant ICD9 codes or use of antidepressants / anxiolytics for at least two year quarters). For each IBD patient identified, three non-IBD subjects were allocated. Patients younger than 18 years or with a diagnosis of depression / anxiety preceding the diagnosis of IBD were excluded. Using cox regression and Kaplan Meier survival curve, we evaluated the prevalence of comorbid depression / anxiety at 5, 10 and 15 years following the diagnosis of an IBD.

 A total of 31340 IBD patients (48.1% females, mean age at diagnosis 38.6±15.9) and 91535 controls (48.7% females, mean age 39.9±16.1) were identified. The risk of depression / anxiety comorbidity was higher in IBD patients in comparison to controls at all evaluated timepoints: At 5 years following a diagnosis of IBD the hazard risk ratio (HR) was 1.48 (95% CI 1.43 – 1.53, p < 0.001, 15.5% vs 10.6%,); at 10 years HR was 1.38 (95% CI 1.34 – 1.42, p < 0.001, 22.9% vs. 17.0%) and at 15 years 1.37 (95% CI 1.33 – 1.40, p < 0.001, 27.5% vs 21.0%). For all analyses, female gender was a risk factor for development of depression/anxiety (HR~1.5, p < 0.001). IBD type (Crohn's disease / ulcerative colitis) was not significantly associated with the risk of comorbid depression / anxiety.

 Our national study highlights the substantial burden of depression and anxiety in IBD patients that is persistent for up to 15 years after diagnosis. Our findings emphasize the need to monitor for potential symptoms of depression and anxiety among our patients, as well as the need for prompt intervention and follow-up by a mental health care provider when such symptoms are identified.


At the present time, investigation of the histocompatibility (HL-A) background in human diseases is being extensively pursued. The popularity of this approach is exemplified by the four articles dealing with studies of multiple sclerosis (MS) and HL-A antigens in this issue of theArchives. Zeal for investigation of this type comes from the view that studies of histocompatibility may provide insight into the genetic predisposition and pathogenesis of human disease. The concept of histocompatibility was initially derived from transplantation studies. Tissue or skin from one individual grafted on to another individual is rejected through an immune response. The antigens on the transplanted tissue evoking graft rejection are called histocompatibility antigens. Breeding studies in animals, particularly mice, have established that histocompatibility is genetically controlled; thus, specific proteins on the cell surface are specified by the genetic composition of the individual. Further exploration of this phenomenon has revealed that specific regions of


The real times Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) analysis which corresponds to the charge and discharge process was reported in order to evaluate the relationships between impedance and potential for new high specific energy electrochemical double-layer capacitors (EDLC). Also the Niquist plots were presented and the impedance of the EDLC was discussed in terms of complex capacitance. It was found that the high frequency impedance changed with its potential in charging or discharging process, the medium frequency impedance Rct belonged to the resistance of ions diffusion into micro pore or the inner of electrode material decreased with increasing charge voltage and had a certain capacitance of about 1F.


Many studies have shown that plant or bird invasions can be facilitated by native species, but few have demonstrated the possibility of a positive interaction between introduced species. We analysed the relationships between four invasive alien fleshy-fruited plants, Clidemia hirta, Rubus alceifolius, Lantana camara, Schinus terebinthifolius, and an invasive alien bird, the red-whiskered bulbul Pycnonotus jocosus introduced to Reunion Island (Indian Ocean). We compared the distribution of food items in the bulbul diet according to seasons and to abundance classes of this bird. Pycnonotus jocosus is mostly frugivorous and frequently eats the main alien plants (more than 80% frequency of food items). Sites with alien species, such as Clidemia hirta, providing fruits throughout the year supported more birds than sites providing fruits, such as Schinus terebinthifolius, seasonally. The birds facilitated seed germination by removing the pulp of fruit: the final per cent germination (FG) of cleaned seeds was higher than those within the fruit for three of the four plant species and in some cases passage through birds significantly increased FG (Schinus terebinthifolius) or Coefficient of Velocity (CV) (Lantana camara).