The effects of hydrodynamic strain on diffusivethermal instabilities at low Lewis number were studied experimentally using a counterflow slot-jet apparatus with H2-O2-N2 mixtures. Three configurations were examined: single premixed, twin premixed and nonpremixed flames. For all three configurations a wide variety of nonplanar flame structures were observed. Two extinction limits, one at very high strain (corresponding to a residence time limitation) and one at low strain (corresponding to a heat loss extinction) were found. For premixed flames, nonplanar structures occurred for a wide range of mixtures. In many cases, near extinction the flame structures reduced to a single "flame tube" elongated in the direction of extensional strain. An examination of stoichiometry effects revealed a critical equivalence ratio for instability similar to that known to exist for flame balls. At low flow velocities a transition to flames attached to the jet exits in complicated ways was noted, and at high flow velocities transition to turbulent flow was noted. For nonpremixed flames, nonplanar flame structures were observed only for near-extinction conditions, but the resulting flame shapes were quite similar to those of premixed flames. These results are compared to recent theoretical predictions.


The influence of mountainous islands on the initiation of deep convection is investigated using the Consortium for Small‐scale Modeling (COSMO) model. A case study and sensitivity analysis is performed for 26 August 2009, when moist convection occurred over both Corsica and Sardinia islands in the western Mediterranean Sea. Sensitivity runs with systematically modified topography are explored to evaluate the relative importance of the land–sea contrast and the terrain height for convection initiation. Whereas no island precipitation is simulated when the islands are completely removed, all simulations that represent these land surfaces develop convective precipitation. Although convection initiates progressively earlier in the day over taller islands, the precipitation rates and accumulations do not show a fixed relationship with terrain height. This is due to the competing effects of different physical processes. Firstly, whereas the forcing for low‐level ascent increases over taller islands the boundary‐layer moisture supply decreases, which diminishes the conditional instability and precipitable water. Secondly, whereas taller islands enhance the inland propagation speeds of sea‐breeze fronts they also block these fronts mechanically and prevent them from reaching the island interior. As a result, the island precipitation is rather insensitive to island terrain height except for one particular case in which the island precipitation increases considerably due to an optimal superposition of the sea breeze and upslope flow. Comparing the two islands, convective precipitation develops earlier over Corsica due to its increased terrain height and reduced convective inhibition. However, precipitation amounts are substantially larger over Sardinia, where a stronger land–sea contrast gives rise to a more intense and organized line of sea‐breeze convergence. These results demonstrate the complexity of interactions between sea breezes and orography and reinforce that an adequate representation of detailed topographic features is necessary to account for thermally induced wind systems that initiate deep convection.


The Web services paradigm is considered as a revolution for the web in which a network of heterogeneous software components interoperates and exchanges a dynamic information. This computing technology can be used potentially to compose new distributed collaborative applications and make easy the development of more complex Web process. In this context, Web services based on Peer-to-Peer computing require special attention from collaboration and interoperability in a distributed computing environment. The P2P systems provide a decentralized model, which offers a better scalability, reliability, and performance for Web services composition. We present an unstructured P2P strategy for composing semantic Web services. We propose a collaborative workspace between different participants to achieve a specific goal through the composition of Web service. In this strategy, we define two principal concepts: the epidemic discovery algorithms and the composition table. The first one describes a distributed solution to discover semantic Web services in unstructured Peer-to-Peer networks. The second one is a distributed method to publish and preserve the description and the composition way of the peer-to-peer composed Web services.


We develop a new, principled algorithm for estimating the contribution of training data points to the behavior of a deep learning model, such as a specific prediction it makes. Our algorithm estimates the AME, a quantity that measures the expected (average) marginal effect of adding a data point to a subset of the training data, sampled from a given distribution. When subsets are sampled from the uniform distribution, the AME reduces to the well-known Shapley value. Our approach is inspired by causal inference and randomized experiments: we sample different subsets of the training data to train multiple submodels, and evaluate each submodel's behavior. We then use a LASSO regression to jointly estimate the AME of each data point, based on the subset compositions. Under sparsity assumptions ($k \ll N$ datapoints have large AME), our estimator requires only $O(k\log N)$ randomized submodel trainings, improving upon the best prior Shapley value estimators.


Today's IP backbones are provisioned to provide excellent performance in terms of loss, delay and availability. However, performance degradation and service disruption are likely in the case of failure, such as fiber cuts, router crashes, etc. In this paper, we investigate the occurence of failures in Sprint's IP backbone and their potential impact on emerging services such as Voice-over-IP (VoIP). We first examine the frequency and duration of failure events derived from IS-IS routing updates collected from three different points in the Sprint IP backbone. We observe that link failures occur as part of everyday operation, and the majority of them are short-lived (less than 10 minutes). We also discuss various statistics such as the distribution of inter-failure time, distribution of link failure durations, etc. which are essential for constructing a realistic link failure model. Next, we present an analysis of routing and service reconvergence time during a controlled link failure scenario in our backbone. Our results indicate that disruption to packet forwarding after link failures depends not only on routing protocol dynamics, but also on the design of routers' architectures and control planes. Thus our results offer insights into two basic components for defining network-wide availability, which we consider a more appropriate metric for service-level agreements to support emerging applications.


Ascaris lumbricoides is the largest and most prevalent of the human helminths. Ascariasis causes a unique type of intestinal obstruction with specific problems, having high morbidity and mortality. There is no management algorithm available in the literature to treat such cases. We aimed in this study to develop an algorithm for the management of intestinal obstruction due to ascariasis. A medline search of the English literature on the management of intestinal obstruction due to ascariasis was performed. Management of one of our patients with intestinal obstruction due to ascariasis is presented herein as an example of such cases. Intestinal obstruction due to ascariasis is a serious disease with a high morbidity and mortality, especially postoperatively. A management algorithm for the treatment was developed. The management of intestinal obstruction due to ascariasis was challenging and required difficult decisions. We think that this algorithm will be of great assistance in facilitating a rapid and successful treatment. This algorithm may prove to be of a great value for physicians treating such cases.


The trace metals that have the greatest potential value as tracers for circulation and mixing in the ocean are markedly non-conservative, with short oceanic residence times. Their distributions strongly reflect the influence of sources either at boundaries or within the water column itself. The signals arising from these inputs can act as indicators for sources and transport pathways. These characteristics are well exemplified by dissolved manganese, which shows variations in concentration within the ocean that reflect the advection and mixing of waters that have acquired enhanced concentrations as a result of three principal processes. First, injection at the sea floor in hydrothermal fluids leads to anomalies in deep-water concentrations that are detectable over about 1000 km in parts of the Pacific Ocean. At the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the advection of hydrothermal inputs is largely restricted by the topography of the axial rift valley, but the signals have proved valuable in exploration for hydrothermal sites. Secondly, pronounced maxima are associated with the highly oxygen-deficient waters of the oxygen minimum in parts of the eastern North Pacific Ocean. They are accounted for by in situ remobilization from particulate forms of manganese and by lateral advection from sources at the ocean margins. Interpretation of the data for the manganese maximum layer with two-dimensional box models has illustrated the potential to estimate lateral advective velocities on the basis of fluxes of manganese. Thirdly, the occurrence of maxima in the surface mixed layer of the ocean, which is particularly marked in areas where aeolian inputs appear to be an important source for dissolved manganese, suggests its potential use as a tracer for mixing and transport in the upper ocean. In all three cases, a more detailed and quantitative knowledge of the geochemical processes that determine the observed features will be needed if the potential for tracer applications is to be fully realized. Dissolved aluminium varies in concentration in deep-ocean waters by about two orders of magnitude, suggesting that it may be useful as a tracer for the movement and mixing of water masses. Systematic differences in concentration occur in water masses in the northwest Atlantic Ocean, but the origins of the differences remain to be clarified. Beryllium may also serve to identify water masses in the Atlantic Ocean. The few data available for cobalt suggest that this metal also may find applications as a tracer.


Volume 25, no. 14, p. 6112–6122, 2005. Page 6114, column 1, lines 44–47 should read as follows. "As a control, the VBS peptide was treated with papain and shown not to be a substrate of this protease. Furthermore, the VBS peptide did not affect self-cleavage of papain." Page 6118, Fig. 4, top right panel: Lanes 1, 3, and 5 were inadvertently erroneous. The VBS peptide was not always detectable with the silver stain that was used to produce this figure, which resulted in wrong images for these lanes. This error does not affect the results or conclusions of the study. Supplemental file 3: The last sentence of the legend to Fig. S2 should be deleted. Revised supplemental material is posted at http://mcb.asm.org/cgi/content/full/25/14/6112/DC1. Our results and conclusions are unaffected by these oversights. We apologize for any confusion they may have caused.


The TAC's vehicle safety campaigns began over a decade ago and focussed on encouraging consumers to purchase a safer car by consulting independent safety ratings provided at howsafeisyourcar.com.au. Recent campaigns have also focussed on specific safety features, electronic stability control (ESC) and curtain airbags, which were supported by research demonstrating their potential safety benefits. Technological innovation proceeds rapidly within the automotive industry with manufacturers introducing a range of new safety-based technologies which have the potential to improve safety outcomes. An especially important innovation in recent times is the introduction of Auto Emergency Braking (AEB) systems. The effectiveness of AEB has been investigated in a number of studies and a range of effectiveness was found but the overall trend is a reduced number of crashes for vehicles equipped with AEB. In 2014, the TAC ran a mass media public education campaign to raise awareness and encourage consumers to look for a vehicle with AEB when they next purchase a car. The AEB campaign was successful with regard to reach as well as message take out. The peak prompted recognition (69%) was in line with the target of (70%). Perhaps the most telling measure was the increase observed in awareness of AEB over the course of the campaign, rising to 80% of all Victorians. While there was lower than usual recall of any road safety advertising, and spontaneous recall of the campaign, this may relate to it not being perceived as a "road safety" campaign.


This thesis comprises two case studies which each examine a point of Greek law in the context of the Near East. Significant work has been done in recognising that the Greeks were in a network of exchange with the Near East; but whilst progress has been made in areas such as literature, less work has been done in legal history. In part, this is because a similarity found in a law cannot point to influence in the way it can in other fields. A difference in constitutional law has also erected a barrier. In the case of private law, however, the issues facing the Greeks were the same as the ones facing their neighbours. The first case study focuses on Athenian homicide pollution; which has been influenced by studies such as that of Robert Parker who believed it to be a relic of an earlier period that had no place in Classical Athens. A comparative study with similar beliefs in the Hebrew Bible instead demonstrates that in each society it represented the concerns of the community, who could not otherwise be involved in what was legally a private offence. The second focuses on adultery law. The Greeks differed from their neighbours in subsuming adultery into the broader offence of moicheia, and a comparative study with Near Eastern adultery law demonstrates that this created
an important difference in how it was punished. In the Near East, adultery was an offence committed by the wife and her lover against the husband, who was required to mete out an equal level of punishment to each. In Athens and Gortyn, the offence was by the moichos, and no punishment was imposed on the woman. Collectively, these case studies help to demonstrate the value of studying Greek legal history in a wider regional context.


Biological strategies to control plant diseases are regarded as environmental friendly alternatives to agrochemicals which may contribute to the development of sustainable cropping systems under humid tropical conditions. Only few studies have investigated the synergistic action of beneficial microorganisms such as Pseudomonas spp. and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to improve the growth and resistance of plants against soilborne diseases. The objective of this study was to test the efficiency of Pseudomonas proradix r © (Proradix r ©, Sourcon Padena, Tübingen, Germany) to improve mycorrhisation, nutrient acquisition and plant health of tomato, an important cash crop in Indonesia, affected by the aggressive root pathogen Fusarium oxysporum Schlecht f. sp. radicis-lycopersici Jarvis and Shomaker (FORL). Tomato seeds (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. var. Money Maker) were pre-cultivated in pots containing 50 g loamy clay soil/sand mixture (3:1) with and without Proradix r © (1.5× 1010 cfu per pot), without and with AMF-inoculum (about 8000 propagules of Glomus intraradices strain 510; Mycotec Biotechnik Gbr, Hannover, Germany). Subsequently the three weeks old seedlings were transplanted to pots containing 2 kg soil/sand mixture, fertilised with 100 N, 50 P, 150 K, 50 Mg, 0.06 Fe mg kg−1 loamy clay soil. Top and bottom layer of the substrate contained soil/sand mixture only. The middle layer of the substrate was mixed with a spore suspension of FORL strain 11r (provided by Prof. J.C. Tello Marquina, Universidad De Almeŕıa, Spain) at a rate of 4.5× 107 spores in 10 ml water per 100 mg substrate. As a control, only sterile water was added. Proradix r © significantly improved the root colonisation by AMF and the biomass production of tomato, which was particularly pronounced in the soil with FORL-spores inoculation. Combined application of Proradix r © and AMF lowered the disease severity of FORL and enhanced the concentrations of nutritional elements in the shoot tissue of tomato. To a smaller but still significant extent, disease severity was also decreased by single application of Proradix r © and AMF. These results suggest that Proradix r © functions not only as a mycorrhisation helper bacterium but also as a suitable biocontrol agents to restore plant growth and health when grown in severely FORL infested soils.


Although diamond tools have been used for over a century, the diamond grits distribution in the matrix is not uniform. This is because the large and light diamond grits tend to segregate from the small and heavy metal powder during the mixing process, hence diamond distribution in the diamond tools is intrinsically heterogeneous. As a result, the cutting performance of the diamond tools cannot be optimized. In 1997, Dr. James Chien-Min Sung applied two historical patents that can allow the design of diamond distribution according to a predetermined pattern. As the result, the life of diamond tools may be doubled; and the cutting speed, may also be twice as high. The three-dimensional saw segments with arrayed diamond grits were made back in 1999 with the improved performance as predicted. The Sung invention can allow the diamond tools industry to make ideal saw segment that has variable diamond size and diamond separation at different regions. Conventional diamond saws contain diamond grits that are distributed randomly in a metal matrix, as a result, their cutting speeds are slow and their sawing lives are short. In 1997, Dr. James C. Sung applied new patents that revealed revolutionary technology for making diamond tools with diamond grits set in a predetermined pattern. The diamond placement design was first appeared in a series of DiaGrid® products, such as wire saws and grinding wheels. In 1999, DiaGrid® pad conditioners was introduced and it has since become the world's standard for dressing pads, particularly those used for chemical mechanical planarization of semiconductor devices. In 2005, Shinhan adapted the idea and produced saw segments with diamond grits set in a predetermined pattern, their results confirmed that the sawing speed and the life were significantly improved over conventional designs.


Programming languages such as Java and C++ provide exception-handling constructs to handle exception conditions. Applications are expected to handle these exception conditions and take necessary recovery actions such as releasing opened database connections. However, exception-handling rules that describe these necessary recovery actions are often not available in practice. To address this issue, we develop a novel approach that mines exception-handling rules as sequence association rules of the form "(FC1<inf>c</inf>1…FC<inf>c</inf>n) ∧ FC<inf>a</inf> ⇒ (FC<inf>e</inf>1…FC<inf>e</inf>m)". This rule describes that function call FCa should be followed by a sequence of function calls (FC<inf>e</inf>1…FC<inf>e</inf>m) when FC<inf>a</inf> is preceded by a sequence of function calls (FC<inf>e</inf>1…FC<inf>c</inf>n). Such form of rules is required to characterize common exception-handling rules. We show the usefulness of these mined rules by applying them on five real-world applications (including 285 KLOC) to detect violations in our evaluation. Our empirical results show that our approach mines 294 real exception-handling rules in these five applications and also detects 160 defects, where 87 defects are new defects that are not found by a previous related approach.


Objective: To investigate the root and canal morphology of permanent mandibular anterior teeth in a Chongqing population using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Methods: CBCT images of 1,725 patients in a Chongqing population were selected, and a total of 9,646 mandibular anterior teeth were analyzed. The number of root canals and the canal configurations were investigated. Results: In total, 0.3% (11/3,257) of lateral incisors and 0.8% (26/3,014) of canines had double roots, and 3.8% (127/3,375) of central incisors, 10.6% (345/3,257) of lateral incisors, and 4.2% (127/3,014) of canines had multi-root canals. The difference in the incidence of multi-canals in lateral incisors between female and male was statistically significant. The frequency of multi-canals in the different age groups was 5.0% for central incisors for ages 21–30 years, 14.7% for lateral incisors for ages 41–50 years, and 8.1% for canines for ages 41–50 years. Conclusion: With the limitations of the current study, we found that a high percentage of mandibular anterior teeth had multiple canals in the studied Chinese Chongqing population. The current data may provide clinicians practicing in Chongqing with a more thorough understanding of root canal morphology.


The luminescent properties of SrAl2O4 based materials were studied systematically, which emit long persisting phosphorescence with high brightness and show greater chemical stability than the traditional ZnS:Cu,Co phosphor. In order to obtain the better dispersed powders, SrAl2O4:Eu2+, Dy3+ was synthesized by a dipping process. The as-received samples are yellow-green in color and display better dispersion than those synthesized by the co-deposition method. The optimized conditions of this dipping process were explored. The luminescent properties and the crystal structure were studied in detail.


This article investigates the problem of distributed online optimization for a group of units communicating on time-varying unbalanced directed networks. The main target of the set of units is to cooperatively minimize the sum of all locally known convex cost functions (global cost function) while pursuing the privacy of their local cost functions being well masked. To address such optimization problems in a collaborative and distributed fashion, a differentially private-distributed stochastic subgradient-push algorithm, called DP-DSSP, is proposed, which ensures that units interact with in-neighbors and collectively optimize the global cost function. Unlike most of the existing distributed algorithms which do not consider privacy issues, DP-DSSP via differential privacy strategy successfully masks the privacy of participating units, which is more practical in applications involving sensitive messages, such as military affairs or medical treatment. An important feature of DP-DSSP is tackling distributed online optimization problems under the circumstance of time-varying unbalanced directed networks. Theoretical analysis indicates that DP-DSSP can effectively mask differential privacy as well as can achieve sublinear regrets. A compromise between the privacy levels and the accuracy of DP-DSSP is also revealed. Furthermore, DP-DSSP is capable of handling arbitrarily large but uniformly bounded delays in the communication links. Finally, simulation experiments confirm the practicability of DP-DSSP and the findings in this article.


The Bicorb–Quesa diapir belongs to a complex system of evaporite diapirs located in the SE Iberian Peninsula. It was emplaced along the axis of a graben system flanked by two syn-diapir growth basins filled by Miocene sediments. The Miocene evolution of the diapir may be divided into three major phases: an initial extensional phase during which the graben system formed and the diapir rose; a second phase during which regional shortening closed the diapir; and a third phase characterized by normal faulting during which diapirism was reactivated, cutting the previously-formed thrusts and folds. This evolutionary trend demonstrates that diapirism was initiated and promoted by regional extension. During the two extensional phases, the diapir grew by reactive, active and passive rise. Sedimentation during the reactive stage was characterized by strong basin subsidence, sharp changes in sediment thicknesses, and major coarse-grained sediment input. During the active stage, the coeval basin-fill sequence displays progressive angular unconformities, gravitational deposits and subtle changes in thickness with the sediments unconformably overlying most of the earlier-formed faults. Finally, during the passive stage, the sediments synchronous with diapir formation include abundant components from the extruding rocks, and show gentler changes in thicknesses, a progressive decrease in the input of coarse sediments, and the deposition of mudstones and/or lacustrine carbonates that clearly extend onto the faulted basin margins.


Abstract Combining atmospheric Δ14CO2 data sets from different networks or laboratories requires secure knowledge on their compatibility. In the present study, we compare Δ14CO2 results from the Heidelberg low-level counting (LLC) laboratory to 12 international accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) laboratories using distributed aliquots of five pure CO2 samples. The averaged result of the LLC laboratory has a measurement bias of –0.3±0.5‰ with respect to the consensus value of the AMS laboratories for the investigated atmospheric Δ14C range of 9.6 to 40.4‰. Thus, the LLC measurements on average are not significantly different from the AMS laboratories, and the most likely measurement bias is smaller than the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) interlaboratory compatibility goal for Δ14CO2 of 0.5‰. The number of intercomparison samples was, however, too small to determine whether the measurement biases of the individual AMS laboratories fulfilled the WMO goal.


Revenue management (RM) enhances the revenues of a company by means of demand-management decisions. An RM system must take into account the possibility that a booking may be canceled, or that a booked customer may fail to show up at the time of service (no-show). We review the Passenger Name Record data mining based cancellation forecasting models proposed in the literature, which mainly address the no-show case. Using a real-world dataset, we examine the performance of the existing models and propose new promising ones based on Support Vector Machines. We also illustrate how the set of relevant variables to describe cancellation behavior is very different in different stages of the booking horizon, which confirms the dynamic aspect of this problem.


WHAT"S HOT AND WHAT"S NOT: THE EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUAL FACTORS ON THE IDENTIFICATION OF HOT AND COOL CRIME SPOTS Julie A. Hibdon, PhD George Mason University, 2011 Dissertation Director: Dr. David Weisburd Theoretical arguments suggest that crime escalates in disadvantaged and disorderly areas because these areas contain cues of danger and safety that signal individuals to stay away, thus reducing effective guardianship, a powerful protective factor against crime. Yet, there is very little knowledge on how perceptions of crime places translate into avoidance or withdrawal behaviors. Moreover, there is limited knowledge of how individual characteristics inform and influence these perceptions. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, this study seeks to understand the accuracy with which people can identify crime hot spots and cool spots within their community. Second, this study will examine the influence of individual predictors on respondents" abilities to identify crime and non-crime locations within the two study neighborhoods. Specifically, individual level predictors of individual demographics, perceptions of crime and disorder, and neighborhood familiarity and tenure are tested. Study measures are derived using two data sources including cognitive maps administered to active community members (N=168) through the Communities Problems and Issues Survey (CPIS) and calls for service to the Trinidad and Tobago Emergency Response System (E-999). Accuracy and the influence of individual predictors are tested using a mix of analytic techniques including descriptive diagnostics, t-tests, zero-inflated count regression analysis and ordinal logistic regression. Overall, the study supports past perception of crime research by determining that respondents are not accurate in identifying crime hot spots. Additionally, when testing the individual predictors that influence accuracy, two factors, gender and neighborhood familiarity, have a strong influence on whether respondents include crime hot spots in the areas they consider unsafe or dangerous. The study concludes with a discussion of the study"s implications for both practice and research.


Although large-scale pretrained language models, such as BERT and RoBERTa, have achieved superhuman performance on in-distribution test sets, their performance suffers on out-of-distribution test sets (e.g., on contrast sets). Building contrast sets often requires human-expert annotation, which is expensive and hard to create on a large scale. In this work, we propose a Linguistically-Informed Transformation (LIT) method to automatically generate contrast sets, which enables practitioners to explore linguistic phenomena of interests as well as compose different phenomena. Experimenting with our method on SNLI and MNLI shows that current pretrained language models, although being claimed to contain sufficient linguistic knowledge, struggle on our automatically generated contrast sets. Furthermore, we improve models' performance on the contrast sets by applying LIT to augment the training data, without affecting performance on the original data.


The information contained in this guide will help you with your studies in the field of Social Work here at Lancaster University.


Financial scandals and controversies have recently attracted much attention in the British press. The excesses of the bankers' bonuses, MPs' expenses scandals and those deemed 'benefit cheats' and welfare scroungers have been given prominence by the print news media, and the present Coalition government. The politicization of the current financial crisis has resulted in 'the privatization of loss and the socialization of costs'. Yet how do we make sense of this? Or how are those responsible for financial wrongdoings able to 'get away with it'? This article suggests that the interests of business as a class remain largely uncontested in contemporary political discourse. Just one way in which this is evident is through the coverage of financial crime, and this article offers as illustration a case study of the political construction of business crime (price fixing) in the pages of the British press. It is suggested that the way in which this crime is framed is reflective of a broader ideological discursive commitment which privileges business interests over the public interest.


Results were evaluated of the performance tests of Hungarian Sport Horse mares from the period of 1993-2009, covering scores of 593 three-year-old and 299 four-year-old mares, 109 of which were tested at both ages. Seventeen traits were scored, covering ten conformation, three free jumping performance and four movement analysis traits. Breeding value estimation was based on BLUP animal model. Test year, age and owner were included in the model as fixed effects. Variance components were estimated with VCE-6 software package. Heritabilities ranged from 0.32 (frame) to 0.50 (saddle region) for conformation traits, from 0.39 (jumping style) to 0.49 (jumping ability and jumping skill) for free jumping traits and from 0.20 (walk) to 0.48 (canter) for movement traits. Conformation overall impression showed close genetic correlations (0.66-0.97) with scores of other conformation traits. Genetic correlations among free jumping traits varied from 0.82 and 0.98. Genetic correlation for movement analysis traits ranged from 0.32 to 0.75. Genetic correlations among free jumping and movement analysis traits were positive, though standard errors were high in most cases.


There are two main hypothesized effects from movie piracy: a cannibalization effect which reduces legitimate sales, and a promotional effect which increases word-of-mouth and stimulates sales. While these two effects are commonly discussed, there has been no research to measure their relative impact on motion picture sales. In this paper we use a hidden Markov model adapted from MOVIEMOD to decompose, and separately measure, the cannibalization and promotional impacts of piracy.Using data from all wide release movies in the US from 2006 to 2008 we show that if piracy could be eliminated from the theatrical window then box-office revenues would increase by 15% or $1.3b per year. An analysis for the time period from 2011 to 2013 shows a similar increase of 14%. Our decomposition of piracy into separate cannibalization and promotional effects shows that the negative effects from piracy due to cannibalization dwarf any positive, promotional benefits: if piracy did not generate promotional effects through word-of-mouth communication then box-office revenues would drop by another 1.5%. We also find that, in rare instances (less than 3% of movies) promotional effects from pre-release piracy could increase revenue compared to piracy that occurs at release. Nonetheless, all of the movies in our counterfactual analysis would experience increased box-office revenue if piracy were eliminated altogether.


The paper attempts to analyze if the sentiment stability of financial 10-K reports over time can determine the company's future mean returns. A diverse portfolio of stocks was selected to test this hypothesis. The proposed framework downloads 10-K reports of the companies from SEC's EDGAR database. It passes them through the preprocessing pipeline to extract critical sections of the filings to perform NLP analysis. Using Loughran and McDonald sentiment word list, the framework generates sentiment TF-IDF from the 10-K documents to calculate the cosine similarity between two consecutive 10-K reports and proposes to leverage this cosine similarity as the alpha factor. For analyzing the effectiveness of our alpha factor at predicting future returns, the framework uses the alphalens library to perform factor return analysis, turnover analysis, and for comparing the Sharpe ratio of potential alpha factors. The results show that there exists a strong correlation between the sentiment stability of our portfolio's 10-K statements and its future mean returns. For the benefit of the research community, the code and Jupyter notebooks related to this paper have been open-sourced on Github1.


The velocity field in a river flow cross‐sectional area can be determined by applying entropy as done in 1978 by Chiu, who developed a two‐dimensional model of flow velocity based on the knowledge of maximum velocity, umax, and the dimensionless entropic parameter, characteristic of the river site. This is appealing in the context of discharge monitoring, particularly for high floods, considering that umax occurs in the upper portion of flow area and can be easily sampled, unlike velocity in the lower portion of flow area. The simplified form of Chiu's entropy‐based velocity model, proposed in 2004 by Moramarco et al., has been found to be reasonably accurate for determining mean flow velocity along each vertical sampled in the flow area, but no uncertainty analysis has been reported for this simplified entropy‐based velocity model. This study, therefore, performed uncertainty analysis of the simplified model following a procedure proposed by Misirli et al. in 2003. The flow velocity measurements at the Rosciano River section along the Chiascio River, central Italy, carried out for a period spanning 20 years were used for this purpose. Results showed that the simplified entropy velocity model was able to provide satisfactory estimates of velocity profiles in the whole flow area and the 95% confidence bands for the computed estimated mean vertical velocity were quite representative of observed values. In addition, using these 95% confidence bands, it was possible to have an indication of the uncertainty in the determination of mean cross‐sectional flow velocity as well. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Background: Malaria, earlier considered rare in neonates, has been reported with increasing frequency in the last decade. Neonatal malaria diagnosis is challenging because the clinical features are non-specific, variable and also overlap with bacterial infection. Aim: To determine the prevalence of neonatal malaria and the associated clinical features in newborn babies with fever. Patients and methods: One hundred and fifty neonates with fever admitted into the Newborn unit of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, over a six month period, were recruited consecutively. Symptoms and signs for each neonate were documented. Blood film for malaria parasites and investigation for sepsis workup were done before commencement of drugs. Results: One hundred and fifty babies were recruited. Most (85.3%) of the babies were aged ≤7 days. One hundred and thirty six (90.7%) of the mothers were booked for antenatal care (ANC). Most of the babies were from primiparous women (54.7%). Six babies (4%) had malaria parasitaemia with four (2.7%) being congenital malaria and two (1.3%) acquired malaria. Plasmodium falciparum was the only species identified. All six with malaria were from the 136 booked mothers. Four of the affected six neonates also had septicaemia. The clinical features in babies with malaria only were, fever, fast breathing and jaundice while those with malaria and bacterial co-infection had, in addition, poor suck. Conclusion: Malaria infection and septicemia can coexist in some Nigerian newborns and since the clinical presentation of each of these condition are closely similar, it is recommend that malaria parasite investigation be included as part of the investigation in the newborns with fever. This approach can help to avoid a delay in applying the appropriate therapeutic intervention


In this paper we utilize social network analysis to examine the interaction patterns between corporate blogs devoted to sustainability issues and the blogosphere, a clustered online network of collaborative actors. By analyzing the structural embeddedness of a prototypical blog in such a virtual community, we show the potentials of online platforms for engagement with an increasingly socially and ecologically aware customer base. It is furthermore demonstrated that consumer involvement via sustainability blogs is a valuable new practice for communications and brand management and opens new horizons for communicating corporate social responsibility issues to key constituencies online.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the soft tissue thickness and marginal bone loss around dental implants with sloped micro-threaded shoulder (35° angle) in comparing with conventional design, inserted 35° degrees angulated in post extraction sockets and immediate loaded with temporary prosthesis simulating the all-on-four protocol. Materials and Methods: Six fox hound dogs received forty-eight post extraction dental implants with the same diameter and length (Medentika, Germany), but with different neck configurations. Two group of implants were inserted 1mm subcrestal. Control group has a micro-threaded neck and the Test group has a sloped microthreaded neck. Immediate loading was applied using a constructed metallic structure. After three months, soft and hard tissue levels were assessed by histomorphometric analysis. Results: The mean soft tissue thickness (STT) was 2.5 ± 0.2 mm for the Control group and 3.3 ± 0.3 mm for Test group (p = 0.036), meanwhile the mean marginal bone loss (MBL) was 1.53 ± 0.34 mm for Control group and, 1.62 ± 0.22 mm for Test group (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Within the limitations of this experimental model in dogs, the findings showed that dental implants with microthreaded and microthreaded sloped necks installed in immediate post extraction sites with immediate load, presented a comparable perimplant tissue behavior.


Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of noncavitated occlusal dentine caries in permanent molars among students in a city with a low prevalence of caries. Combined radiographic and visual examinations were employed. Methods: The sample comprehended 1290 occlusal surfaces of permanent molars, in 179 students aged 12-15. The methods used were: visual inspection (VI), visual inspection with previous drying (VID) and Radiographic Examination (RE). For the statistic analysis, the DMFT and the DMFT modified (including RE, early lesions and microcaviteted lesions) indexes were used. Results: The mean DMFT was 2.3 (sd=2.5), and 32.5% of the students were free from caries on the VI. Of the 918 surfaces scored as clinically sound on VI, 241 demonstrated radiolucency in dentine on RE and the noncavitated occlusal dentine caries prevalence (per individual) was 56.4%. Of the 404 surfaces scored as clinically sound on VID, 75 (18.6%) demonstrated dentine radiolucency and the noncavitated occlusal dentine caries prevalence was 35.5%. Including dentine lesions on RE, the mean DMFT was 3.1 (sd=2.3), and 13.4% of the students were free from caries. Conclusions: The radiographic examination is effective in epidemiological surveys. However, new methods to replace this method should be evaluated, because the difficulty of transportation hinders its frequent use.


In recent years over half of all African states have re-introduced some form of universal basic service provision, though many more have done so in education when compared with health. Most existing explanations of these developments have emphasised the importance of demand side factors associated with democratisation. This paper argues that while democratisation has been important in generating pressure for reform, alliances with actors outside the state – such as donors and non-state service providers – have been the critical enabling factor allowing weak states to overcome their capacity constraints and respond. Two illustrative case studies are used to show how variation in alliance opportunities has led to differences in outcomes both between social sectors and across countries. An inter-sector comparison of health and education policy in Tanzania shows how a difference in donor policy preferences between sectors – donors having converged behind the principle of universal primary education but not universal healthcare – has led to variation in alliance opportunities and hence policy outcomes. A 'least likely' case of healthcare reform in Lesotho shows how an alliance with a non-state provider has made difficult reforms possible.


We are presenting a new case of EV which has association with three diseases: Epilepsy, achondroplasia and endocrine disturbances. We are considering that it is very much interesting the association existing between the previously mentioned diseases (all conditioned by genetic factors) and EV which is characterized by a generalized viral infection also conditioned by genetic factors.


The success of deep neural networks (DNNs) is heavily dependent on the availability of labeled data. However, obtaining labeled data is a big challenge in many real-world problems. In such scenarios, a DNN model can leverage labeled and unlabeled data from a related domain, but it has to deal with the shift in data distributions between the source and the target domains. In this paper, we study the problem of classifying social media posts during a crisis event (e.g., Earthquake). For that, we use labeled and unlabeled data from past similar events (e.g., Flood) and unlabeled data for the current event. We propose a novel model that performs adversarial learning based domain adaptation to deal with distribution drifts and graph based semi-supervised learning to leverage unlabeled data within a single unified deep learning framework. Our experiments with two real-world crisis datasets collected from Twitter demonstrate significant improvements over several baselines.


This study assessed attitudes toward HIV and awareness of previous HIV prevention campaigns among young black men in the United States of America (USA). The study also ascertained the appropriateness of HIV testing messages for young black men and explored the use of social networking sites to deliver HIV testing messages for social media marketing campaigns. Nineteen (n = 19) black male college students attending a public university in Atlanta, GA, USA from September 2016 to October 2016 participated in three focus groups. The focus groups consisted of a group interview querying experiences with HIV and STI testing, awareness of HIV campaigns, solicited feedback on campaign messages and the use of social networking sites to deliver messages. Data analysis involved the grounded theory approach to identify emergent themes. Fear, stigma and low risk perception were discussed as barriers to HIV testing. HIV prevention, social support and new sexual partners were discussed as reasons for testing. There was a general lack of awareness of existing HIV testing campaigns. Messaging with a universal appeal and disseminated through Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat may counter narratives of fear, stigma and low risk perception to increase HIV testing among young black men.


Due to an aging population and increased healthcare costs, hospitals are forced to use their resources more efficiently, meaning that the same amount of patients has to be treated with less resources or more patients with the same amount of resources. Practitioners in hospitals often think that by using resources more efficiently, the quality of care will decrease. On the contrary, the reduction achieved by improving the efficiency may also improve the quality of care as, e.g., unnecessary waiting time is reduced or even eliminated.
In this thesis it is shown that the efficiency of healthcare can be improved by carefully scheduling and planning the processes at the departments the patient visits during his stay. Procedures or appointments should be scheduled such that, e.g., (1) the waiting time for the patients is minimized, (2) the schedule is robust against changes in the procedure or appointment time, and (3) the arrival of emergency patients is accounted for. For some of the considered problems, some of these objectives are more important than the other objectives, and sometimes, the objectives are even conflicting. Therefore, often a balanced trade-off between different (conflicting) objectives has to be made.
Another challenging aspect of improving the efficiency in hospitals is that many uncertainties have to be taken into account. Including these uncertainties in the modeling process often leads to complex models that need to be simplified in order to solve them within a reasonable amount of time. Moreover, the considered problems are often already NP-hard without including uncertainty. To be able to get solutions for such problems, we either may approximate some part of the model and solve the resulting problem to optimality or we may use heuristics to solve the complete problem. Both approaches lead to suboptimal solutions as the first approach does not solve the original problem and the second approach often ends in a local optimum instead of a global optimum. Nevertheless, the results of the thesis show that approaches developed in this way form a good first step in solving these complex problems.


The behaviour of pharmaceutical excipients was studied in 2H, 3H-perfluoropentane (HPFP), a partially fluorinated liquid considered as a highly suitable model propellant for medicinal pressurized metered-dose inhalers (pMDIs) used in drug delivery to the lungs. The additives chosen belonged to three main categories: ethylene oxide oligomers and derivatives, chosen for their wide range of applications in pharmaceutical formulations, their harmlessness and low cost a hydrophobically modified cyclodextrin that shows potential for controlled release via host-guest interactions and some interesting solubility pattern in HPFP a family of tetrahydroxy diesters that act as unprecedented organogelators for mixtures of HPFP and a partially fluorinated alcohol co-solvent. By studying ethylene oxide oligomers and derivatives in HPFP and fully fluorinated analogue PFP, it was found that the solubility of the oligomers could be tuned by varying the nature of their end-group and the polarity of the fluorinated liquids employed. Methyl groups, either placed at the extremities, thus blocking the hydroxyl end-groups of dihydroxyl end-capped polyethylene glycols, or directly added on the polymer backbone, clearly enhanced their solubility. The Lower Critical Solution Temperature initially observed was either displaced or removed via the presence of the additional methyl groups. On the other hand, such phase separation could also be induced by the subsequent addition of PFP it is shown that such behaviours are dominated by end-group/solvent interactions. This study was published in two papers, Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, 2008, 60: p. 593-599 and International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 2008, 362: p. 147-152. As an attractive formulation means, the hydrophobic triacetylated-P-cyclodextrin (TAjJCD) was chosen amongst others for its partial solubility in model propellant HPFP. The observation that various batches of the same chemical entity lead to highly different solubility profiles in HPFP resulted in the full characterisation of two existing polymorphs for this compound. The monitored conversion of one form into the other was achieved, and the amorphous form could be fully recrystallysed into the higher energy form via a limited seeding process. HPFP acted as a discriminator of the two crystalline forms. More details may be found in Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2008,112: p. 14570-15578. The monitoring of the solubility via solvent properties, as seen in the first part, was also used in the formation of self-assembled supramolecular organogels. The addition of non-solvent HPFP to an initially stable sol composed of a small tetrahydroxy diesters in the fluoroalcohol 1H, 1H-heptafluorobutanol initiated their coming out of solution. However, instead of simply precipitating, the tetrahydroxy diester molecules self-assemble into long cylindrical fibres that form a 3-dimensional network capable of entrapping the fluorinated liquids, leading to a system that is both solid-like macroscopically and liquid-like microscopically. Such gels are thermoreversible and can be obtained at gelator concentrations as low as 0.1 wt%, thus, surface tension and capillary action are thought to be the principal forces behind these structures, along with hydrogen-bonding between the gelators molecules, rather than a specific gelator-solvent interaction. This work is the reference for both Chemical Communications, 2005,31: p. 3998-4000 and a manuscript to be submitted.


Aggressive behavior is observed across animal taxa and is likely to be evolutionarily conserved. Although potentially advantageous, aggression can have social and health consequences in humans, and is a component of a number of psychiatric disorders. As a complex genetic trait, it is modulated by numerous quantitative trait loci (QTL) with allelic effects that can vary in direction and magnitude and that are sensitive to environmental perturbations. Assays to quantify aggressive behavior in Drosophila melanogaster have been developed, making this an ideal model system in which to dissect the genomic architecture underlying manifestation of and variation in aggressive behavior. Here, we map QTL affecting variation in aggression between two wild-type Drosophila strains. We identified a minimum of five QTL in a genomewide scan: two on chromosome 2 and three on chromosome 3. At least three and possibly all five of these QTL interact epistatically. We used deficiency complementation mapping to subdivide two linked, epistatically interacting QTL of large effect on chromosome 3 into at least six QTL, and complementation tests to mutations identified four candidate quantitative trait genes. Extensive epistasis poses a serious challenge for understanding the genetic basis of complex traits.


To realize channel cross-connecting in optical communications systems, a high speed optical matrix switch was fabricated using z-cut LiNbO 3 . Four 2 x 2 directional couplers were integrated on one substrate for construction of a 4 x 4 switch. Single-mode optical waveguides were formed by Ti-diffusion at a wet O 2 atmosphere. Ti-diffusion profile, refractive index variation and waveguide morphology were analyzed by SIMS, Prism coupler and SEM, respectively. The optical properties of the fabricated switch was measured in terms of insertion loss, cross-talk, spectral flatness and switching speed.


Collard greens (Brassica oleracea var. acephala L.) were planted in the periph- eries of cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata L.) fields in the spring growing seasons of 1997 and 1998 to evaluate their effectiveness as a trap crop to manage the diamondback moth (DBM) (Plutella xylostella (L.)). The numbers of DBM never exceeded the action threshold for application of insecticides in any of the fields that were completely sur- rounded by collards, but did exceed the action threshold in three of the fields without collards on four sampling dates in 1998. In both years, the numbers of DBM larvae in the collards exceeded the action threshold of 0.3 total larvae/plant in eight of nine fields. Larval counts in cabbage surrounded with collards were not significantly higher than in the conventionally planted cabbage, even though the number of pesticide applications was reduced in the former. The few pesticide applications in fields surrounded by collards probably targeted the cabbage looper (Trichoplusia ni (Hubner)), which was not impeded by the collards from infesting the interior cabbage. There was no significant reduction in marketability, and damage to cabbage was similar to that in fields where collards were planted and in fields where only conventional pesticides were used. The reduced number of pesticide sprays, as well as the high concentration of host larvae in the collards, may help maintain populations of natural enemies of DBM in the agroecosystem. Planting collards in field peripheries is a potentially effective tactic to manage DBM in cabbage.


Two recent examinations of management practices in three federal departments provide contemporary evidence of the need to incorporate procedures like those of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the public sector. Although each department established what appeared to be well-designed internal controls, all lacked sufficient monitoring and assessment of the efficacy of those controls. By requiring senior management to attest to the strength of their control mechanisms, as required by the newly revised OMB Circular A-123, the quality of this monitoring should improve. Findings from a recent study of private-sector implementation of these reforms are described, along with suggestions for public administration research and practice at all levels of government.


Psychiatric disorders are not uncommon; almost 10% of the population worldwide is affected. They are characterized by disorganized thought process, bizarre behavior and emotional reactions, these individuals may experience delirium, hallucinations, confusion and may interpret the surrounding events differently. Overall prevalence rate of psychic disorders in India vary from 9.5 to 370 per 1000 population. A variety of psychotropic drugs combined with psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and family support help to cope with this illness. Antipsychotics are categorized as first generation (conventional or typical) and second (atypical) generation antipsychotics. Though they are safe and have high therapeutic index, they all come with wide ranging side effects i.e. sedation, postural hypotension, extrapyramidal signs (dystonia, tardive dyskinesia), disturbed metabolism, agranulocytosis, thrombocytopenia, dyslipidemia and prolactin levels. They also lead to oral manifestations such as dry mouth, increase in cavities, sialorrhea, taste abnormalities (dysgeusia, ageusia). The drugs which are routinely prescribed by an oral physician such as NSAIDs, erythromycin and tramadol may possibly interact with antipsychotics reducing their efficacies. Over the last few decades there has been a tremendous increase in the use of antipsychotics; consequently negative impact on oral health has been increasing. Tact and skill in diagnosis of mental illnesses/use of antipsychotics is essential due to social stigma associated with these disorders. Prejudicial attitude in health care workers is another hindrance which must be overcome. Hence dental health care worker should have an assiduous approach while dealing with these patients so as to reduce morbidity or life threatening circumstances.


Soluble oligomers formed by amyloidogenic intrinsically disordered proteins are some of the most cytotoxic species linked to neurodegeneration. Due to the transient and heterogeneous nature of such oligomeric intermediates, the underlying self-association events often remain elusive. NMR relaxation measurements sensitive to zero-frequency spectral densities (J(0)), such as the 15N - R2 rates, are ideally suited to map sites of self-association at atomic resolution without the need of exogenous labels. Such experiments exploit the dynamic exchange between NMR visible monomers and slowly tumbling oligomers. However,15N - R2 rates are also sensitive to intrinsic monomer dynamics, and it is often difficult to discern these contributions from those arising from exchange with oligomers. Another challenge pertains to defining a hierarchy of self-association. Here, using the archetypical amyloidogenic protein alpha synuclein (αS), we show that the temperature-dependence of 15N - R2 effectively identifies self-association sites with reduced bias from internal dynamics. The key signature of the residues involved in self-association is a nonlinear temperature-dependence of 15N - R2 with a positive ΔR2/ΔT slope. These two hallmarks are systematically probed through a thermal R2 correlation matrix, from which the network of residues involved in self-association as well as the hierarchy of αS self-association sites is extracted through agglomerative clustering. We find that aggregation is initiated by residues within the NAC region that is solvent inaccessible in αS fibrils and eventually extends to the N-terminal segment harboring familial PD mutations. These hierarchical self-association maps help dissect the essential drivers of oligomerization and reveal how amyloid inhibitors affect oligomer formation.


Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) juice was used to make a Japanese soft mitsumame-type dessert sweet. The dessert was prepared from extracted rhubarb juice, which was cooked with sugar, agar and guar gum, then allowed to set in sweet moulds. The total, soluble and insoluble oxalates were determined in the ingredients and the final products using HPLC chromatography. To reduce the soluble oxalate content of the dessert while retaining the colour and taste of the final product, increments of CaCl2 and CaCO3 were added to the test dessert mixes. The addition of CaCl2 reduced the pH from 3.55 ± 0.03 to pH 3.09 ± 0.02 while addition of CaCO3 increased the pH from 3.55 ± 0.03 to 4.96 ± 0.01. In both cases, the incremental addition of calcium reduced the soluble oxalate content of the sweets by converting it to insoluble oxalate.


Climate change is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level (IPCC, 2001). Therefore this study, aimed to explain impacts and adaptation mechanisms to climate change in the State of Benshangul Gumuz Region. In order to have relevant information for the study field survey, structured interview and focus group discussion were employed. 371 household heads were purposely involved in the survey from different climate zones. Encouraging level of awareness was observed among the rural communities on the impacts of climate change and the mitigation and adaptation strategies. The study also revealed climate change had lead to gradual deterioration of agricultural production, loss in livestock productivity and crop cultivation as a result which, the requirement for fertilizers was increased on a plot of land. Shortages of water, spread of water and vectorborne diseases after the rainfall, extinct of cultural crops, drought and famines, shortage of pasture, incidence of both plants and animal diseases seasonal migration of people had increased. High level of awareness was observed in the application of different mitigation and adaptation strategies. These strategies were mainly indigenous to the region and the local community.


To evaluate performance of different traffic generators, a comparison is required to find out most suitable traffic generator for particular application which could help researchers to evaluate a network in a better way. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of six most popular traffic generators. Traffic Generators are used to generate synthetic traffic to check network performance. Discussion on characteristics and capabilities of these tools help researchers to select particular tool for their application and also for developers to find new possibilities of development. Paper uses some prior experimental results to compare these tools on the basis of Throughput.


When treated with BuLi and KOCMe3 for 2 h at 0 Deg in hexane, the unsatd. monoterpenic alc. isopulegol is simultaneously deprotonated at the hydroxy function and the allylic Me group. The metaloxy allylmetal species thus generated can be silylated, alkylated, carboxylated, and oxidized to afford the expected products in good to excellent yields. Thus, a specific protection of hydroxy groups is not required, alcs. being instantaneously converted by superbases into alcoholates. [on SciFinder (R)]


ANAPHYLAXIS PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT IN SCHOOLS AND CHILDREN'S EDUCATION AND CARE Sandra Vale, Merryn Netting, Maria Said, Preeti Joshi, Wendy Freeman, Heather Roberts 1 National Allergy Strategy, Sydney, Australia; 2 Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA), Sydney, Australia; 3 Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia, Sydney, Australia; 4 The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia; 5 University of Adelaide. Adelaide, Australia; 6 Women and Kids Theme SAHMRI, Adelaide, Australia; 7 The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, Australia


STKE
Developmental patterning of the Drosophila wing requires the morphogen Hedgehog (Hh), which is secreted by posterior (P) compartment cells and acts at short range on a narrow strip of anterior (A) cells at the A/P border. Binding of released Hh to Patched (Ptc) serves to sequester Hh at the A/P border and to trigger subsequent signaling steps which are transduced by Smoothened. The appropriate localization of Hh also requires a post-translational modification in which cholesterol is covalently attached to the protein.

Burke et al. report that release of cholesterol-modified Hh is mediated by a protein called Dispatched (Disp). Like Ptc, Disp is a transmembrane protein containing a sterol-sensing domain, a motif found in proteins that regulate cholesterol metabolism. How Disp liberates Hh from P cells is not clear, but it appears to be specific for the cholesterol-tagged form of Hh because an artificial Hh construct containing a different membrane anchor was not released. Although Ptc and Disp are structurally similar, they perform seemingly opposite tasks in that the former sequesters Hh while the latter is required to release the morphogen.— LDC

Cell 99 , 803 (1999).


Current event-centric knowledge graphs highly rely on explicit connectives to mine relations between events. Unfortunately, due to the sparsity of connectives, these methods severely undermine the coverage of EventKGs. The lack of high-quality labelled corpora further exacerbates that problem. In this paper, we propose a knowledge projection paradigm for event relation extraction: projecting discourse knowledge to narratives by exploiting the commonalities between them. Specifically, we propose Multi-tier Knowledge Projection Network (MKPNet), which can leverage multi-tier discourse knowledge effectively for event relation extraction. In this way, the labelled data requirement is significantly reduced, and implicit event relations can be effectively extracted. Intrinsic experimental results show that MKPNet achieves the new state-of-the-art performance and extrinsic experimental results verify the value of the extracted event relations.


The impact of equilibrium helical flows on the stability properties of low shear tokamak plasmas is assessed. The corrections due to such helical flow to the equilibrium profiles (mass density, pressure, Shafranov shift, magnetic fluxes) are computed by minimising order by order the generalised Grad–Shafranov equation. By applying the same minimisation procedure, a set of three coupled equations, suitable for the study of magnetohydrodynamic perturbations localised within core or edge transport barriers is derived in circular tokamak geometry. We apply these equations to modelling the impact of strong poloidal flow shear in the edge region caused by a radial electric field on the stability of edge infernal modes retaining vacuum effects. Due to the poloidal flow shearing, the effect of plasma rotation is not simply a Doppler shift of the eigenfrequency. Stabilisation is found even for weak flow amplitude.


3D Object detection is a critical mission of the perception system of a self-driving vehicle. Existing bounding box-based methods are hard to train due to the need to remove duplicated detections in the post-processing stage. In this paper, we propose a center point-based deep neural network (DNN) architecture named RCBi-CenterNet that predicts the absolute pose for each detected object in the 3D world space. RCBi-CenterNet is composed of a recursive composite network with a dual-backbone feature extractor and a bi-directional feature pyramid network (BiFPN) for cross-scale feature fusion. In the detection head, we predict a confidence heatmap that is used to determine the position of detected objects. The other pose information, including depth and orientation, is regressed. We conducted extensive experiments on the Peking University/Baidu-Autonomous Driving dataset, which contains more than 60,000 labeled 3D vehicle instances from 5277 real-world images, and each vehicle object is annotated with the absolute pose described by the six degrees of freedom (6DOF). We validated the design choices of various data augmentation methods and the backbone options. Through an ablation study and an overall comparison with the state-of-the-art (SOTA), namely CenterNet, we showed that the proposed RCBi-CenterNet presents performance gains of 2.16%, 2.76%, and 5.24% in Top 1, Top 3, and Top 10 mean average precision (mAP). The model and the result could serve as a credible benchmark for future research in center point-based object detection.


In this paper, dynamic characteristics analysis is carried out for a large aqueduct of South-to-North Water Transfer Project using large finite element analysis software. Two kinds of connection supports are considered, namely elastic support and completely simple support. Six kinds of water depths are calculated by additional mass method: empty aqueduct, 1/4 water depth, 1/2 water depth, 3/4 water depth, designed water depth, full water depth. Results show that basin type rubber support strengthens the constraint to aqueduct, and strengthens the connection of aqueduct to pier, and also increases the system stiffness, therefore the natural frequency is higher than that of completely simple support; The influence of water to dynamic characteristics of the aqueduct is quite obvious, so water effect must be considered in computation; Water has no influence on the principal mode shapes of the aqueduct structure, i.e. the dry mode shape and the wet mode shape are similar in appearance.


Background: Midwives are globally recognised as health professionals who specialise in caring for childbearing women with a vital role in maternal and neonatal health care. Despite the midwifery profession being an autonomous profession, there are many struggles to attain recognition within its formal scope of practice in some countries. Objective: This study was undertaken to explore the views of pregnant women in Thailand regarding the role of midwifes and their selection of intrapartum care providers in order to understand their perceptions about giving birth with a midwife for normal pregnancies. Design and setting: An online descriptive survey collected the views of 149 Thai pregnant women. Findings: Not all participants were clear about the role of midwifes during labour and birth. Around one third of the women surveyed could identify all tasks of midwifery during labour and birth including conducting normal birth, placenta delivery, and perineal suturing; hence, the majority was unclear about what a midwife does. This study found that, although Thai women believe midwives play an important role in birth support, they did not necessarily consider them to be the main provider and/or be solely responsible for conducting the birth of the infant in healthy, low risk pregnant women. Instead the expertise of the physician was recognised as pre-eminent in conducting normal births. Pregnant women indicated they were more confident with a physician in comparison with the midwife during labour and birth. Conclusion and Implications for Practice: It is very concerning for midwifery as a profession that there is a current lack of visibility of the midwives to practice within their scope of practice in Thailand. More research is needed on the demonstrating the value of midwives as primary carer in the context of midwifery practice in Thailand. Thai midwives need be in a much stronger position to 33 Journal of Asian Midwives (JAM), Vol. 7, Iss. 2 [2020] Published by eCommons@AKU, 2020 2 make improvements to maternity care in Thailand and potentiating improved choice and empowerment for women whilst aiming for better pregnancy outcomes. There is a need to mobilize resources and strategies to introduce midwife-led continuity of care and improvements to midwifery care in Thailand.


The Middle East has witnessed dramatic changes in the last few years. Although some countries are experiencing new democratic changes, others face serious problems. Some state formal relations have changed from close relations to some unfriendly exchange of words and severed relations. Some countries are on the verge of civil war while others witness daily acts of terror. The main question this paper addresses is how the plurality of identities have led to security challenges in the Middle East. The article argues that the plurality of identities may explain many security challenges in the region. Following a look at the variety of discourses that constitute different political identities in the region, their impact on domestic and regional security will be discussed.


Sustainability values are often associated with the three pillars of economic growth, social equity, and environmental conservation. However, the definition comes with the unspoken disclaimer, that the achievement of these sustainability values must be within a well-established system (social, political, and economic system). Yet, in developing countries, the social, political, and economic system is different to its counterpart, besides they are still struggling with economic growth and so less consideration has been given to other pillars. Consequently, the use of this world-wide definition of sustainability values has resulted in a lesssustainable level for most cities in developing countries. On the other hand, cities in these emerging countries have other values which are rarely considered as "sustainable". For example, informal street markets in developing cities, which are often accused as being the main cause for traffic congestion, are in fact similar to the shared-street concept emerging in cities in developed countries. This paper explores the "other" and "hidden" sustainability values from Indonesian cities thus serving as the basis for redefining sustainability values in developing countries. The exploration is based on de facto observation of Indonesia cities, and is described by employing a qualitative approach. The main result of this study indicates that "informality" can be considered as part of social equity which also contributes to economic growth and local wisdom as part of environmental conservation.


A simple stability-indicating method was developed and validated to determine amprolium hydrochloride (HCl) in water soluble powder formulation. The method is based on zwitterionic hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (ZIC-HILIC) coupled with photo diode array detector (PDA). The separation was achieved on ZIC-HILIC column (250 mm  4.6 mm, 5 m) at 25°C temperature. The optimized mobile phase consisted of an isocratic solvent mixture of 200mM Ammonium acetate (NH4AC) solution and acetonitrile (ACN) (25:75; v/v) with pH adjusted to 5.7 by glacial acetic acid. The mobile phase flow was fixed at 0.5 ml/min and the analytes were monitored at 267 nm. The effects of the chromatographic conditions on the peak retention, peak USP tailing factor and column efficiency were systematically optimized. Forced degradation experiments were carried out by exposing amprolium HCl standard and the water soluble powder formulation for thermal, photolytic, oxidative and acid-base hydrolytic stress conditions. The degradation products were well-resolved from the main peak and the excipients thus proving that the method is a reliable and stability-indicating. The method was validated as per ICH and USP guidelines and found to be adequate for the routine quantitative determination of amprolium hydrochloride in commercially available water soluble powder dosage forms.


The reduction of p-nitroso-N-dimethylaniline, p-nitroso-N-diethylaniline, p-nitrosophenol and p-nitroso-N-phenylaniline with NADPH in the presence of aldehyde reductases 1 and 2 is described. The reactivity of these nitroso substrates is increased by hydrophobic substituents and those promoting OH- elimination from the molecule of the reduced substrate. NN-Dimethylbenzoquinonedi-iminium cation was proved to be the reaction product formed from p-nitroso-N-dimethylaniline. The kinetics of the reduction of p-nitroso-N-dimethylaniline catalysed with aldehyde reductase 1 are rather complex at pH 7, and the preferred-pathway mechanism is probably involved. The reaction sequence approaches the ordered pattern at pH 8.5. It was shown that NADPH in equilibrium NADP+ recyclization proceeds in the presence of NADP+, p-nitroso-N-dimethylaniline, cyclohexanol and aldehyde reductase 1, the alcohol oxidation being the slowest step in this reaction. However, the rate of cyclohexanol oxidation surpasses that of the dissociation of NADPH from the enzyme.


Background The development of normative reference Body Composition (BC) data in infancy, is an important step towards evaluation of postnatal growth in clinical practice. Weight gain fails to differentiate lean body mass (constitution) from fat mass (nutrition). Percentile ranks and length normalised indices of FFM and FM can define nutritional depletion or obesity. We present longitudinal data from a large dataset of stable growing infants. Methods BC data (n = 857) from 574 infants (22–42 wks) enrolled in 4 longitudinal studies, 2/3rd were preterm, was considered as independent data points. Preterms on fortified breast milk or formula (80 kcal/dL), term infants on breast milk or formula (67 kcal/dL). Time points of measurement : after reaching full enteral feeding, at term and two further time points until a maximum of 6 months of corrected age. BC was measured by Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (QDR 1500; Hologic). R software (GAMLSS) used for construction of growth curves. Results Length of preterms remain shorter than terms, both increases linearly at 0.7 cm/wk. Median FM/FFM in preterm is 500 g/2450 g (40 wks) and 1700 g/4500 g (60 wks) compared to 430 g/2790 g (40 wks) and 2400 g/4700 g (60 wks) for term. Preterm FMI centiles are higher than terms till 45–50 wks corrected. Preterm FFMI increases progressively till 40 wks, then remains constant over time like terms (Figure 1). Abstract PO-0459 Figure 1 Conclusion Growth pattern for preterm vary from term, justifying their higher nutritional requirement to support rapid FFM growth initially. FM being inverse of FFM, length normalised indices rather than percentages allow independent assessment of growth in each body compartment, while compensating for difference in body size of term and preterm infants.


Abstract Aim: To discuss the role of oxidant stress in preterm, premature rupture of the membranes (PPROM). Results: There is evidence to suggest that preterm, premature rupture of the membranes occurs secondary to focal collagen damage in the fetal membranes. Conclusion: Oxidant stress caused by increased ROS formation and/or antioxidant depletion may disrupt collagen and cause premature membrane rupture. We propose that supplementation with vitamins C and E may synergistically protect the fetal membranes, and decrease the risks of PPROM.


Purpose – The purpose of the research reported in this article is to understand how refugees learn to engage with a complex, multimodal information landscape and how their information literacy practice may be constructed to enable them to connect and be included in their new information landscape. Design/methodology/approach – The study is framed through practice and socio‐cultural theories. A qualitative research design is employed including semi‐structured face‐to‐face interviews and focus groups which are thematically analysed through an information practice lens. Findings – Refugees encounter complex and challenging information landscapes that present barriers to their full participation in their new communities. Social inclusion becomes possible where information is provided via sharing through trusted mediators who assist with navigating the information landscape and information mapping, and through visual and social sources. Research limitations/implications – The study is local and situated and therefore not empirically generalizable. It does however provide rich, deep description and explanation that is instructive beyond the specific research site and contributes to theory building. Practical implications – The study highlights the role, and importance, of social and visual information sources and the key role of service providers as mediators and navigators. Governments, funders and service providers can use these findings to inform their service provision. Originality/value – This is an original research paper in which the results provide practical advice for those working with refugees and which also extends theories of information literacy practice as an information practice.


Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) is a fiber optic sensing system that is used for vibration monitoring. At a minimum, DAS is composed of a fiber optic cable and an optic analyzer called an interrogator. The oil and gas industry has used DAS for over a decade to monitor infrastructure such as pipelines for leaks, and in recent years changes in DAS performance over time have been observed for DAS arrays that are buried in the ground. This dissertation investigates the effect that soil type, soil temperature, soil moisture, time in-situ, and vehicle loading have on DAS performance for fiber optic cables buried in soil. This was accomplished through a field testing program involving two newly installed DAS arrays. For the first installation, a new portion of DAS array was added to an existing DAS array installed a decade prior. The new portion of the DAS array was installed in four different soil types: native fill, sand, gravel, and an excavatable flowable fill. Soil moisture and temperature sensors were buried adjacent to the fiber optic cable to monitor seasonal environmental changes over time. Periodic impact testing was performed at set locations along the DAS array for over one year. A second, temporary DAS array was installed to test the effect of vehicle loading on DAS performance. Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) of the DAS response was used for all the tests to evaluate the system performance. The results of the impact testing program indicated that the portions of the array in gravel performed more consistently over time. Changes in soil moisture or soil temperature did not appear to affect DAS performance. The results also indicated that time DAS performance does change somewhat over time. Performance variance increased in new portions of array in all material types through time. The SNR in portions of the DAS array in native silty sand material dropped slightly, while the SNR in portions of the array in sand fill and flowable fill material decreased significantly over time. This significant change in performance occurred while testing halted from March 2020 to August 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. These significant changes in performance were observed in the new portion of test bed, while the performance of the prior installation remained consistent. It may be that, after some time in-situ, SNR in a DAS array will reach a steady state. Though it is unfortunate that testing was on pause while changes in DAS performance developed, the observed changes emphasize the potential of DAS to be used for infrastructure change-detection monitoring. In the temporary test bed, increasing vehicle loads were observed to increase DAS performance, although there was considerable variability in the measured SNR. The significant variation in DAS response is likely due to various industrial activities on-site and some disturbance to the array while on-boarding and off-boarding vehicles. The results of this experiment indicated that the presence of load on less than 10% of an array channel length may improve DAS performance. Overall, this dissertation provides guidance that can help inform the civil engineering community with respect to installation design recommendations related to DAS used for infrastructure monitoring.


The polarization residual Doppler frequency (difference between the VV and HH Doppler centroids) is investigated as a valid parameter in a sea surface SAR wind retrieval scheme. This parameter along with the normalized radar cross section are used as inputs to two purely theoretical geophysical model functions based on the Generalized Curvature Ocean Surface Scattering model. A cost function minimization is implemented as part of the proposed wind retrieval method. The methodology is tested using 21 co-polarized TerraSAR-X scenes where retrieved winds are compared against collocated in situ measurements. A 5.23 degree bias along with a 45.3 degree standard deviation and 0.88 correlation are obtained for the wind direction comparison, while a 1.49 m/s bias, 2.36 m/s standard deviation, and 0.72 correlation are obtained for the wind speed comparison.


Electrical steels, in particular Fe-Si alloys, are used as magnetic flux carrier in transformers and motors because of their excellent magnetic properties. They owe these magnetic properties in part to the presence of specific texture components such as the Goss ({110} <001>) or the cube components ({001} <010>), but also to the chemical composition which is optimum with 6.5 wt. % Si. This high silicon content provides a stable BCC lattice structure to the alloy over the entire solid state domain, but also renders the material more brittle. This embrittlement, which is induced by ordering phenomena, makes it impossible to produce the alloy in a conventional rolling process unless a specific thermomechanical route at high temperature is applied. In order to examine the working behaviour of high Si electrical steels, a series of room temperature plane strain compression tests was carried out on a Fe-3%Si alloy in hot band condition. The samples were compressed with a constant strain rate of 20 s-1 to a reduction of 10, 35 and 70% and subsequently annealed for different times at 800 and 900°C in an electrical furnace without protecting atmosphere. The hot rolled microstructure displayed an average grain size of 195 7m and the texture showed on the cube component ({001} <010>) of maximum 5x random levels. After plane strain compression the samples developed the conventional α (<110> // RD) / γ (<111> // ND) fibre texture by plastic shear which was also accommodated, in part, by mechanical twinning. With regard to the annealed material, it was observed that the recrystallisation started in grains with the higher stored energy and within the shear bands. After a reduction of 70% the samples that were annealed at 800°C for 4 hours displayed an average grain size of 27 7m and a relative maximum of 4x random on the cube component. Also other less intense components such as the rotated cube ({001} <110>) and the Goss ({110} <001>) were present in the annealing texture. The samples that were annealed at 900°C, after a reduction of 70%, were characterized by an average grain size of 36 7m and by the appearance of the {111} <121> γ fibre component with an intensity of 4.7.


Objective To determine the long-term association of hemoglobin levels and anemia with risk of dementia, and explore underlying substrates on brain MRI in the general population. Methods Serum hemoglobin was measured in 12,305 participants without dementia of the population-based Rotterdam Study (mean age 64.6 years, 57.7% women). We determined risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease (AD) (until 2016) in relation to hemoglobin and anemia. Among 5,267 participants without dementia with brain MRI, we assessed hemoglobin in relation to vascular brain disease, structural connectivity, and global cerebral perfusion. Results During a mean follow-up of 12.1 years, 1,520 individuals developed dementia, 1,194 of whom had AD. We observed a U-shaped association between hemoglobin levels and dementia (p = 0.005), such that both low and high hemoglobin levels were associated with increased dementia risk (hazard ratio [95% confidence interval (CI)], lowest vs middle quintile 1.29 [1.09–1.52]; highest vs middle quintile 1.20 [1.00–1.44]). Overall prevalence of anemia was 6.1%, and anemia was associated with a 34% increased risk of dementia (95% CI 11%–62%) and 41% (15%–74%) for AD. Among individuals without dementia with brain MRI, similar U-shaped associations were seen of hemoglobin with white matter hyperintensity volume (p = 0.03), and structural connectivity (for mean diffusivity, p < 0.0001), but not with presence of cortical and lacunar infarcts. Cerebral microbleeds were more common with anemia. Hemoglobin levels inversely correlated to cerebral perfusion (p < 0.0001). Conclusion Low and high levels of hemoglobin are associated with an increased risk of dementia, including AD, which may relate to differences in white matter integrity and cerebral perfusion.


The influence of rare-earth doping and noble metal inclusions (ε-particles) on H2O2 and O2 reduction and H2 oxidation on UO2 surfaces has been studied electrochemically. These reactions are important in determining the corrosion behaviour of nuclear fuel inside failed waste containers under permanent waste disposal conditions. Experiments were conducted on SIMFUEL electrodes doped with various amounts of non-radioactive elements in proportions appropriate to simulate the chemical effects of in-reactor irradiation. The results show that ε-particles catalyze all of these reactions. These results indicate that ε-particles can act as catalytic anodes and cathodes depending on the redox conditions prevailing within a failed container.


This study was undertaken to determine whether human papillomavirus (HPV) E6/E7 gene transcription in tonsillar carcinomas is correlated with viral DNA integration. Therefore, tonsillar carcinomas containing HPV-16 (n = 2) and HPV-33 (n = 2) DNA were analysed for the viral physical state and transcription of the E6/E7 region. Southern blot analysis, DNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and, eventually, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis revealed indications for the presence of only episomal DNA in the HPV-16-containing biopsies and only integrated DNA in one HPV-33-containing biopsy. The second HPV-33-containing carcinoma, from which one biopsy and two resected tumour specimens were analysed, showed a rather complex physical state profile. The biopsy of this tumour contained only episomal DNA, one resected tumour part contained only integrated DNA and the remaining tumour part contained both integrated and episomal HPV-33 DNA. Independent of the viral physical state, all biopsies and resected tumour parts tested showed the presence of E6/E7 transcripts as determined by RNA PCR. The results indicate that E6/E7 transcripts in tonsillar carcinomas can originate from integrated as well as episomal HPV DNA.


Wood is well known to be a heterogeneous native materialwith large variations in its composite properties, includingvariations whose origins have not yet been completelyidentified. Traditionally, the macroscopic variations in woodhave received the most attention; for example, the variation indensity from the pith to the bark in trees. On the fiber level,morphological variations, such as width and cell wallthickness, have been studied rather extensively, whereas thevariability in the properties of the cell wall has receivedless attention. The aim of this work was to demonstrate some ofthe variability in the chemical and physical properties offibers in annual rings and their effect on the elasticproperties in the transverse direction of the cell wall.Double radial cell walls were shown to express a largevariability in properties within the annual ring. FTIRmicroscopic measurements, combined with multivariate analysis,indicated an increase in the hemicellulose content and adecrease in the lignin content when going from earlywood tolatewood in the annual ring. Some of these variations were dueto an increased thickness and relative contribution of the cellwall layers, whereas some might have been due to a differencein their polymer concentrationin the secondary walls. Fibrilangle measurements, using polarization confocal microscopy andorientation of soft rot cavities, showed a large variability ofthe fibril angles, with a decreasing trend from thefirst-formed earlywood fibers to the middle of the annual ring.Latewood fibers had a lower fibril angle. The variability infibril angles of annual rings containing compression wood wasmore scattered and the fibril angles were generally higher bothin early- and latewood. The transverse elastic modulus wasfound to vary substantially from fiber to fiber, with earlywoodfibers tending to have a higher modulus than transition woodfibers. For example, the experimental transverse elasticmodulus of earlywood fibers was 1.5-3.0 GPa, whereas themodulus of transition wood fibers was 0.7-1.5 GPa. These valueswere lower than those values obtained from mathematical modelsbased upon the elastic properties of cellulose, lignin, andhemicellulose. It was shown, however, that it is possible toreduce the discrepancy between experimental and modeled data byusing lower and more orthotropic elastic constants ofhemicellulose and lignin in the modeling. In contrast to thelongitudinal elastic modulus of wood fibers, the variation inthe transverse elastic modulus between earlywood and transitionwood fibers was found to depend more on the relative thicknessand fibril angle of the S1-layer than on the fibril angle in the S2-layer.The main conclusion drawn from these observations was thatthe heterogeneity of the wood material is extensive, evenwithin an annual ring.Keywords: Cell walls, Chemical composition, Elasticconstants, Elastic strength, Fiber properties, Fibril angles,Mathematical models, Microscopy techniques,Picea abies, Stiffness, Tensile properties, Woodpolymers, Wood


Clapper Rails (Rallus longirostris) can potentially serve as an indicator species of estuarinemarsh health because of their strong site fi delity and predictable diet consisting predominantly of benthic organisms. These feeding habits increase the likelihood of individuals accumulating signifi cant amounts of contaminants associated with coastal sediments. Moreover, since Clapper Rails are threatened in most of their western range, additional study of the effects of potential toxins on these birds is essential to conservation programs for this species. Here we present techniques (DNA strand breakage, eggshell structure, and human-consumption risk) that can be used to quantify detrimental effects to Clapper Rails exposed to multiple contaminants in disturbed ecosystems as well as humans who may eat them. Adult birds collected near a site contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and metals in Brunswick, Georgia had a high degree of strand breakage, while those collected from a nearby reference area had no strand breakage. Although, results showed that eggshell integrity was compromised in eggs from the contaminated sites, these results were more diffuse, reemphasizing that multiple endpoints should be used in ecological assessments. This study also shows that techniques such as eggshell integrity on hatched eggs and DNA strand breakage in adults can be used as non-lethal mechanisms to monitor the population health of more threatened populations such as those in the western US. We also present results from human-based risk assessment for PCBs as a third toxicological endpoint, since these species are hunted and consumed by the public in the southeastern US. Using standard human-risk thresholds, we show a potential risk to hunters who consume Clapper Rails shot near the contaminated site from PCBs because of the additional lifetime cancer risk associated with that consumption.


Background: Birthmarks sometimes represent significant vascular anomalies that require diagnosis and treatment. This study was aimed at determining the demographic and clinical pattern of vascular lesions seen among patients attending The Oral and Maxillofacial Surgical Clinic at Muhimbili National Hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was done at Muhimbili National Hospital between 2008 and 2011. The study population consisted of patients attending the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgical unit with histologically/cytologically confirmed vascular lesions. Clinical and demographic data of these patients were recorded and analyzed. Results: Study consisted of 33 patients. The male to female sex ratio was 1: 1.1. The ages ranged from 1 month to 56 years with a mean of 9.4 years. The age group 0-9 years was the most commonly affected. Haemangioma was the commonest vascular lesion found in 19(57.6%) followed by lymphangioma in 12(36.4%). Cystic hygroma and syndromic vascular lesions were found less frequently. Females were slightly more affected with haemangioma compared to males while lymphangioma affected both sexes equally. Most haemangiomas 14(73.7%) presented after birth while most lymphangiomas 9(75%) presented at birth. The cheek and upper lip were the commonest sites affected in 11(33.3%) and 10(30.3%) respectively. The commonest location for haemangiomas were the cheek 7(21.2) and upper lip 5(15.2%). Lymphangiomas were commonly located on the upper lip 5(15.2%) followed by the cheek 4(12.1%). Conclusion: The Findings in our review concurred with previous studies on vascular lesions but differed on fact that haemangiomas were the commonest vascular lesion in the head and neck area instead of lymphangioma. This calls for a large multicentre study to confirm this finding. East and Central African Journal of Surgery . 2011 Nov/ December;16 (3)


Osteosarcopenia is a newly defined geriatric syndrome with serious consequences in the older population. Therefore, early identification of this syndrome and accurate prediction of poor outcomes and response to treatment are crucial. However, the diagnostic methods for sarcopenia and osteoporosis have several limitations. In this review, we briefly discuss the pathogenesis of osteosarcopenia in the light of new discoveries on the importance of local lipotoxicity induced by intramuscular and marrow fat. We also discuss the current and possible future diagnostic methods for osteosarcopenia focusing on the identification and quantification of tissue-embedded fat.


Recently, we presented a method using laser-induced ultrasound from an external absorber (passive element) to image the ultrasound transmission parameters of an object under photoacoustic tomographic investigation. The method suffers from long measurement times due to the requirement for a large number of views and consequently physical projections around the object. Here we propose and validate an approach that permits a multitude of views to be obtained within a limited projection scenario. The approach uses a plurality of spatially distributed external absorbers in the path of the light, that results in multiple laser-induced ultrasound sources to interrogate the object from a number of angles. This reduces the required number of rotation angles or physical projections around the object, permitting a considerable reduction in imaging time without significant degradation in image quality. The approach brings the concept of hybrid imaging of ultrasound transmission parameters together with photoacoustic imaging, into the realm of practical application.