We estimate the total dust input from the cool evolved stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, using the 8 μm excess emission as a proxy for the dust-production rate (DPR). We find that asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and red supergiant (RSG) stars produce (8.6–9.5) × 10−7 M☉ yr−1 of dust, depending on the fraction of far-infrared sources that belong to the evolved star population (with 10%–50% uncertainty in individual DPRs). RSGs contribute the least (<4%), while carbon-rich AGB stars (especially the so-called extreme AGB stars) account for 87%–89% of the total dust input from cool evolved stars. We also estimate the dust input from hot stars and supernovae (SNe), and find that if SNe produce 10−3 M☉ of dust each, then the total SN dust input and AGB input are roughly equivalent. We consider several scenarios of SN dust production and destruction and find that the interstellar medium (ISM) dust can be accounted for solely by stellar sources if all SNe produce dust in the quantities seen around the dustiest examples and if most SNe explode in dense regions where much of the ISM dust is shielded from the shocks. We find that AGB stars contribute only 2.1% of the ISM dust. Without a net positive contribution from SNe to the dust budget, this suggests that dust must grow in the ISM or be formed by another unknown mechanism.


Background : The superior thyroid artery supplies the thyroid gland.  It usually arises from the proximal part of the external carotid artery.  However, the rare incidence of the superior thyroid arising from the common carotid artery have have reported.  There was no reported in Thai. Objective : To study the anatomy of the superior thyroid artery that aries from the common carotid artery in Thai. Results : Dissection of a 57 year old Thai male cadaver from 64 cadavers was revealed that the  left superior thyroid artery arose from medial side of the left common carotid artery.  It was 26.95 millimeters below to the bifurcation of the common carotid artery.  Results from dissection of this artery showed that this artery ran downward and forward without any branches.  At 5 millimeters distal to the origin this artery divided into 2 branches as anterior and posterior branches which each branch descended to anterior and posterior surface of the upper part of the thyroid gland, respectively. Conclusions : This report has emphasized that the superior thyroid artery arose from the common carotid artery.  The surgeon should be aware of this during surgery of the thyroid gland.


Background and Purpose. Physical therapists frequently attend continuing education courses with the goal of providing better care, yet the effectiveness of continuing education for improving outcomes has not been examined. Subjects. Data were obtained for all eligible patients (n=1,365; mean age=42.1 years, SD=14.0 years; 69.9% female) with a chief complaint of neck pain who were treated in 13 physical therapy clinics over a 24-month period. Disability data (Neck Disability Index scores) from the initial and final therapy sessions were recorded from clinical databases. Methods. Thirty-four of 57 physical therapists employed within the 13 clinics attended a 2-day continuing education course. Eleven of the 34 attendees also participated in an ongoing clinical improvement project for patients with neck pain. Clinical outcomes were compared in the pre- and post-course periods for therapists attending or not attending the course, and for therapists participating or not participating in the ongoing project. Results. There were no differences in clinical outcomes based on attendance at the continuing education course. There was an interaction between time and participation in the ongoing project, such that participants achieved greater change in disability after the course. The percentage of patients achieving at least the minimum detectable amount of change in disability with treatment increased significantly for participants after the course. Discussion and Conclusion. Attendance at a 2-day continuing education course was not associated with improvement in clinical outcomes, but participation in an ongoing improvement project did result in greater clinical improvement for patients with neck pain. Further investigation of educational methods to improve clinical outcomes is needed. These results suggest that traditional continuing education formats may not be effective for improving patient care.


The financial industry changed significantly through the 1990s as commercial banks pursued additional profits through non-traditional and off-balance sheet (OBS) activity. The regulatory bodies had to accept the changing risk nature of the industry and the response was the introduction of the 1996 Market Risk Amendment (MRA) by the Basle Committee. The MRA, through a series of 4 key announcements, was reached in January 1996 and fully implemented from January 1997, whereby banks were required to hold incremental capital to cover unexpected losses from market risk. In this study a multivariate regression model is used to investigate the effect of the MRA announcements on the returns to shareholders of commercial banks within G-10 countries (Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States). The empirical results suggest that bank shareholders in Italy, Sweden, and especially Japan benefited from the introduction of the MRA, while bank shareholders in the United Kingdom, Canada, and especially US experienced significant losses from 4 announcements that led to the final proposal of the 1996 MRA. The significant growth in income generated through OBS activities, such as trading and fee-based income, changed the risk profile financial institutions. This study employs four VaR methodologies (parametric, historical simulation, Monte Carlo simulation, and Extreme Value Theory) to calculate bank risk in a period of high 4 financial market volatility: 1992 through to 1998. The results show a strong increase in VaR for the years 1997 and 1998, with Japan showing the largest risk ranking over the period, while the US and Sweden were at the low end of the risk range. The VaR results indicate it may be misleading to compare risk scores across financial institutions if the reported numbers are based on different VaR methodologies. The results from the Monte Carlo (MC) and Extreme Value Theory (EVT) approaches result in the highest VaR estimates, while the parametric results were consistently lower. This thesis also employed Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to compute bank-level technical efficiency under Constant Returns to Scale (CRS) and Variable Returns to Scale (VRS) between 1992 and 1998. The results for the entire bank sample across the period of study show inefficiency levels of 39% and 33%, under CRS and VRS respectively. The inclusion of off-balance sheet (OBS) activity in the DEA score is found to be significant, and indicate that the exclusion of this variable as an output leads to a misspecification and underestimation of bank efficiency. A Tobit regression approach was used to examine the relationship between bank efficiency and various bank and environmental variables. The second stage findings show that inflation is detrimental to bank efficiency, while a negative relationship is found between VaR and efficiency, indicating inefficient banks appear to take on less risk. A positive relationship is found between the MRA dummy variable and bank efficiency.


Abstract Context: Clinacanthus nutans (CN) is used traditionally for treating various illnesses. Robust safety data to support its use is lacking. Objective: To evaluate the adverse effects of aqueous extract of CN leaves (AECNL). Materials and methods: The oral toxicity of the AECNL was tested following Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines. Mutagenicity (Ames test) of AECNL was evaluated using TA98 and TA100 Salmonella typhimurium strains. Results: No mortality or morbidity was found in the animals upon single and repeated dose administration. However, significant body weight loss was observed at 2000 mg/kg during sub-chronic (90 d) exposure. In addition, increased eosinophil at 500 mg/kg and decreased serum alkaline phosphatase levels at 2000 mg/kg were observed in male rats. Variations in glucose and lipid profiles in treated groups were also observed compared to control. Ames test revealed no evidence of mutagenic or carcinogenic effects at 500 μg/well of AECNL. Conclusion: The median lethal dose (LD50) of the AECNL is >5000 mg/kg and the no-observed-adverse-effect level is identified to be greater than 2000 mg/kg/day in 90-d study.


The network of stations for diffuse solar radiation measurements is scarce through the world, while global solar radiations are available for many locations. Since 1960s numerous studies have been developed to model diffuse fraction on the clearness index (that is based on global radiation). Recent comparative studies, based on polynomial regression, corroborated that hourly values of diffuse solar radiation are not very well modeled by only clearness index, even though there is a strong relation. On the other hand, neural network techniques were used to model satisfactorily the hourly values of diffuse radiation combining the clearness index with some environmental parameters such as latitude, longitude, time of the day, month, rainfall, air temperature, relative humidity and atmospheric pressure. Even tough neural network techniques gives satisfactory results, they are not a user-friendly tool for non-experts. In this work we propose a multiple linear regression that takes into account the clearness index, the particulate matter (PM10), the cloud effect and some environmental parameters available in conventional meteorological stations. The model we propose is easier to understand than the neural network and performs better.


Results of large patient surveys performed in different countries suggest that patients expect to receive good counselling, to be extensively informed and to get enough time and possibilities to communicate their concerns when visiting a physician. In some countries, this has resulted in reimbursing the provision of a "therapeutic conversation", which goes beyond the usual consideration of the patient's medical history. The same is true for Austria, where the therapeutic conversation is reimbursed up to a certain limit. The assessment aimed at providing a systematic review of the existing literature with regard to the effects of a therapeutic conversation. Several outcome parameters were investigated to answer the following question: Does the therapeutic conversation result in improvement of the quality of care offered in physicians' practices? The outcome parameters analyzed were attainment of therapeutic goals, patients' compliance, participation, self-management, satisfaction as well as a reduction of additional health care costs. The review included primarily high-quality studies (RCTs and systematic reviews of RCTs). Additionally, cohort studies, observational studies and several qualitative studies were identified. Overall, 49 publications were considered for the assessment.Reasonable evidence was found for the effectiveness of the therapeutic conversation on patients' self-management and satisfaction. For specific diseases/disorders, a reduction in additional health care costs was reported. For theremaining outcome parameters, evidence was less convincing. The report also covers reimbursement regulations in selected countries. In the final chapter, some options for maintaining or extending the coverage are discussed, taking into account the existing study results and the problems of transferring these results to the real care situation in Austria.


Bone marrow (BM) metastasis of breast cancer (BC) can recur even decades after initial diagnosis and treatment, implying the long-term survival of disseminated cancer cells in a dormant state. Here we investigated the role of microRNAs (miRNA) transmitted from BM stroma to BC cells via gap junctions and exosomes in tumor cell quiescence. MDA-MB-231 and T47D BC cells arrest in G(0) phase of the cell cycle when cocultured with BM stroma. Analyses of miRNA expression profiles identified numerous miRNAs implicated in cell proliferation including miR-127, -197, -222, and -223 targeting CXCL12. Subsequently, we showed that these CXCL12-specific miRNAs are transported from BM stroma to BC cells via gap junctions, leading to reduced CXCL12 levels and decreased proliferation. Stroma-derived exosomes containing miRNAs also contributed to BC cell quiescence, although to a lesser degree than miRNAs transmitted via gap junctions. This study shows that the transfer of miRNAs from BM stroma to BC cells might play a role in the dormancy of BM metastases.


Background

Passive integrated transponder devices (PIT tags) are a valuable tool for individual identification of animals. Similarly, the surgical implantation of transmitters and bio-loggers can provide useful data on animal location, physiology and behavior. However, to avoid unnecessary recapture and related stress of study animals, PIT tags and bio-loggers should function reliably for long periods of time. Here, we evaluated the retention of PIT tags, and of very high frequency (VHF) transmitters and bio-loggers that were either implanted subcutaneously or into the peritoneal cavity of Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber).
Results

Over a 21-year period, we implanted PIT tags in 456 individuals and failed to detect a PIT tag in 30 cases, consisting of 26 individuals (6% of individuals). In all instances, we were still able to identify the individual due to the presence of unique ear tag numbers and tail scars. Moreover, we implanted 6 VHFs, 36 body temperature loggers and 21 heart rate loggers in 28 individuals, and experienced frequent loss of temperature loggers (at least 6 of 23 recaptured beavers) and heart rate loggers (10 of 18 recaptured beavers). No VHFs were lost in 2 recaptured beavers.
Conclusions

Possible causes for PIT tag loss (or non-detection) were incorrect implantation, migration of the tag within the body, a foreign body reaction leading to ejection, or malfunctioning of the tag. We speculate that logger loss was related to a foreign body reaction, and that loggers were either rejected through the incision wound or, in the case of temperature loggers, possibly adhered and encapsulated to intestines, and then engulfed by the gastro-intestinal tract and ejected. We discuss animal welfare implications and give recommendations for future studies implanting bio-loggers into wildlife.


Determining the user intent of Web searches is a difficult problem due to the sparse data available concerning the searcher. In this paper, we examine a method to determine the user intent underlying Web search engine queries. We qualitatively analyze samples of queries from seven transaction logs from three different Web search engines containing more than five million queries. From this analysis, we identified characteristics of user queries based on three broad classifications of user intent. The classifications of informational, navigational, and transactional represent the type of content destination the searcher desired as expressed by their query. We implemented our classification algorithm and automatically classified a separate Web search engine transaction log of over a million queries submitted by several hundred thousand users. Our findings show that more than 80% of Web queries are informational in nature, with about 10% each being navigational and transactional. In order to validate the accuracy of our algorithm, we manually coded 400 queries and compared the classification to the results from our algorithm. This comparison showed that our automatic classification has an accuracy of 74%. Of the remaining 25% of the queries, the user intent is generally vague or multi-faceted, pointing to the need to for probabilistic classification. We illustrate how knowledge of searcher intent might be used to enhance future Web search engines.


Background: Diet is one of the leading factors contributing to the prevalence of non-communicable diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders. Dietary polyphenols, antioxidant components and anti-inflammatory agents of plant-based foods rich diets have been shown to modulate neuro-inflammation, adult neurogenesis and brain signaling, all of which are linked to cognitive function. As epidemiological evidence is limited and the results are contradictory, the aim of this study is to explore the association between dietary flavonoid intake and cognitive health among the adult population living in the Mediterranean area. Methods: The demographic and dietary habits of 808 adults living in southern Italy were analyzed. Food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) were used to assess dietary intake. Data on the polyphenol content in foods were estimated using the Phenol-Explorer database. The Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire was used as a screening tool for cognitive status. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to assess the associations. Results: A significant inverse association between higher dietary intake of total flavonoids (Q4 vs. Q1: OR = 0.39, 95% CI: 0.15, 1.00) and impaired cognitive status was found. Among individual subclasses of flavonoids, flavan-3-ols (Q3 vs. Q1: OR = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.11, 0.76), catechins (Q4 vs. Q1: OR = 0.24, 95% CI: 0.08, 0.72), anthocyanins (Q4 vs. Q1: OR = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.14, 1.00) and flavonols (Q3 vs. Q1: OR = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.11, 0.76) were associated with cognitive health. Among individual polyphenols, only quercetin was associated with cognitive health (Q4 vs. Q1: OR = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.10, 0.91). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that higher dietary intake of flavonoids may be associated with better cognitive health among adult individuals.


Friction-stir spot welding (FSSW) is a solid-state welding process suitable for the spot joining of lightweight low-melting-point materials. The process is performed by plunging a rotating pin that creates a connection between sheets in an overlap configuration by means of frictional heat and mechanical work. In this study the tensile-shear-strength and hardness variations in the weld regions are discussed. The results obtained are compared with those derived from the application of traditional resistance spot welding (RSW). The experimental results of the study show that FSSW can be an efficient alternate process to electrical resistance spot welding.


On the model of E. coli-induced acute infectious peritonitis in rats previously depleted on mast cells of peritoneal cavity the replacing effects of various doses of exogenous histamine, serotonin and heparin and their complex on leukocytic reaction of inflammatory focus and blood were studied. In was shown that all of the used substances had a meaning in the mechanisms of modulating effect of mast cells on leukocytes. The analogous on direction to mast cells ones effects on leukocytes were produced mostly by histamine and especially by the complex of substances.


In the current investigation, corrosion behavior and microstructural variations of explosion-welded joint of bronze-carbon steel dual-layer plates were studied. The resultant curves of potentiodynamic's polarization tests demonstrated that the lowest corrosion rate was related to the sample with maximum explosive load thickness, and the highest corrosion speed was for the sample with minimum standoff distance. EIS test results of welded samples were indicative of creating a passive layer at the beginning of immersion process which showed that the polarization resistance has been reduced by increasing of explosive load thickness. So, the corrosion mechanism included two stages; at the beginning of immersion, for the samples with the lower thickness of explosive load, a passive layer would be created around the component due to higher concentration gradient and then, by removing of this layer, the galvanic couple determines the corrosion rate.


Abstract Despite a vast amount of research into school bullying and the widespread implementation of anti-bullying policies and programs, large numbers of students continue to report that they are routinely subjected to bullying by their peers. In this theoretical article, I argue that part of the problem is that there has been a lack of critical discussion of the theoretical foundations upon which such studies are based. Drawing on recent theoretical contributions within the field of school bullying, the work of anthropologist James C. Scott, and the work of philosophers Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben, I take particular issue with the notion of power that has long been a foundational pillar of bullying definitions. Utilizing a Foucauldian understanding of power, I argue that rather than focusing on the power imbalance involved in bullying relations, focus instead needs to shift onto the role that bullying plays in power relations. Reimagining Agamben's figure of homo sacer as a victim of school bullying, I consider the ways in which some individuals are reduced to bare life and forced into a state of exception whereby social laws are no longer deemed applicable. The article concludes with a discussion of how this state of exception might be challenged.


Oxidized Ta2Si layers have been used as high-k dielectric layer for 4H-SiC MOSFETs. The gate insulator was grown by dry oxidation of 40nm deposited Ta2Si during 1h at 1050oC. The dielectric constant obtained from 4H-SiC MIS capacitors is ~20 with an insulator thickness of 150nm. These devices exhibit adequate subthreshold, saturation and drive characteristics. For the MOSFETs fabricated on a p-implanted and annealed region, a peak mobility up to 45cm2/Vs has been extracted. The specific on-resistance of this device is 29mW·cm2 at room temperature with VDS=0.2V and VGS=14V.


When living aboard a narrowboat on the waterways of southern England with the itinerant boat-dwellers who term themselves "Boaters," one has to be cautious and vigilant in the face of a number of potential threats to the safety and security of one's self and one's vessel. Moorings in certain areas are attacked and burgled frequently and most Boaters have stories of unwarranted violent attacks or, at least, heated confrontations with locals residents. The following paper discusses how Boaters bind together and create a sense of being a vigilant community as a reaction to these threats and challenges. It argues that Boaters make their community against a boundary formed by personal security threats from the outside and that an examination of these threats can shed light upon processes of Boater's identity formation and the emergence of intra-community tensions.


Background: Family planning (FP) refers to a conscious effort by a couple to limit or space the number of children they want using contraceptive methods. This study examined the determinants for child spacing among women of reproductive age at the family planning clinic of the UngwanRimi Primary Health Care facility, Kaduna North LGA, North western, Nigeria. Methods: The study was a retrospective cross-sectional review of the records of 1351 clients who accessed FP services at the facility between June 2010 and May 2017. A proforma was used to extract required information from the clients' records. Data was analyzed using the IBM SPSS Version 25.0 and STATA/SE 12. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05 Results: The median (IQR) age of the clients was 27 (8.0) years. Majority 883 (65.4%) completed at least secondary education. A greater proportion of the clients' 1119 (82.8%) desired child spacing compared to child limiting 232 (17.2%). Bivariate analysis showed that younger age (p<0.001), attainment of up to a secondary education (p=0.04), parity < 4, (p<0.001) and last child birth (LCB) <1year, (p<0.001) were significantly associated with desire for child spacing. Multiple logistic regression analysis further revealed that the older age group ≥ 35 years (AOR=3.72, 95%CI=2.216.63) parity of ≥ 4 (AOR=2.35, 95%CI = 1.6-3.46) and use of long acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) (AOR=1.40, 95%CI=1.02-1.91) were significantly associated with increased odds of no desire for child spacing. Conclusion: This study shows that clients' age group, parity and preference for LARC influenced behavioral attitudes for child spacing.


Music has long played a role in American presidential campaigns as a mode of both expressing candidates' messages and criticizing the opposition. The 2016 campaign was no exception and was a game changer similar to the development of music in the 1840 campaign, when "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" helped sing William Harrison into the White House.

The ten chapters in this collection place music use in 2016 in historical perspective before examining musical messaging, strategy, and parody. The book ultimately explores causality: how do music and musicians affect presidential elections, and how do politicians and campaigns affect music and musicians? The authors explain this interaction from various perspectives, with methodological approaches from several fields, including political science, legal studies, musicology, cultural studies, rhetorical studies, and communications and journalism. These chapters will help the reader understand music in the 2016 election to realize how music will be relevant in 2020 and beyond.


Intensification of biofuel resources is urgently needed considering the decrease in availability of world's fossil fuel. Palmyra palm (Borassus flabellifer) is highly potential to be developed as bioethanol source regarding the high sucrose content in its nira. It was observed that nira produced in dry season is sweeter than that in rainy season, which presumed to be influenced by a difference in expression level of sucrose-related genes during the two seasons. Studies on Sucrose Synthase (SUS) gene of palmyra are therefore required prior to study the gene expression. Palmyra SUS gene sequence is currently unavailable in GenBank, thereby pair of primers was designed from highly conserved region of SUS proteins among monocots. A 1866 bp partial cDNA fragment of SUS putative gene has been succesfully isolated from RNA of the young leaves of B. flabellifer. BLASTn and BLASTp aligments showed that either BfSUS cDNA or BfSUS polypeptide has high similarity with SUS cDNA and proteins from diverse plant species, with the highest similarity shown by Tulipa gesneriana. The phylogenetic tree showed that SUS protein sequences of monocot species were distinctively grouped and splitted from those of dicot species. The BfSUS was clustered in monocot group, although not specifically grouped with particular monocot species. Nevertheless, B. flabellifer showed nearest genetic distance with Tulipa gesneriana and Oncidium cv.'Goldiana'. Characterization of BfSUS polypeptide using Geneious 4.6.2 indicated the presence of sucrose synthase (SUS) and glycosyl transferase (GT) domains, four putative UDP-glucose binding pockets within the GT domain, and a calcium-dependent Ser/Thr protein kinase binding site within the SUS domain. These domains and motifs are highly conserved in SUS proteins across plant species, hence confirming that the cDNA fragment obtained in this study is the putative gene of sucrose synthase of B. flabellifer.


This paper summarizes the different algorithms developed in ATVS-UPM in order to submit a reliable Likelihood Ratio based forensic system, fully compliant with the bayesian framework for the analysis of forensic evidences, to 2003 NFI-TNO Forensic Speaker Recognition Evaluation. Once identified the main causes and consequences of the erratic estimation of Likelihood Ratios due to forensic conditions, mainly lack of data and mismatch between suspect and questioned speech, several algorithms are proposed and assessed using Switchboard data. Moreover, a new algorithm, TDLRA (Target Dependent Likelihood Ratio Alignment), guarantees efficiently the presumption of innocence for non-target speakers, which is a mandatory condition of any forensic system. The LR-based submitted system is then assessed with NFI-TNO forensic field data, showing an excellent performance in all evaluation conditions, preserving the presumption of innocence and providing a meaningful Likelihood Ratio for any questioned-speech/suspect-speech pair of the evaluation, which could be directly used for reporting to Court under this bayesian forensic framework.


This project investigates representations of the sky, atmosphere and weather in Western art in order to ascertain the effectiveness of the metaphorical use of atmosphere to convey notions of loss and transience. The exegesis examines the historical representation and meaning of the sky and atmospheric phenomena in Western visual art. This includes a critique of Romanticism and the philosophies of the Sublime. The research explores the conceptual underpinnings of the visual depiction of the sky and weather and the philosophical and socio-political discourse within which these works have been framed. It focuses on the differences between the visual apprehension of 'the sky' in the Romantic era and the twenty-first century. This research is informed conceptually and methodologically by phenomenology and focuses on contemporary artists whose practice incorporates phenomenological philosophies, collaboration with science and issues of identity. Contemporary German philosopher Gernot Bohme's new aesthetics and the affective power of atmosphere have been influential in determining the outcomes of this research project. Bohme's concept of atmosphere proposes a new way of overcoming dualism and intertwining environmental qualities and human states of being. It seeks to overturn the beauty versus the sublime dichotomy and allows for beauty, emotions and feelings to be incorporated back into aesthetics. Two locations were selected in which to conduct field-work for this project: one in the southern hemisphere in Australia, and the other in Scandinavia in the northern hemisphere. This provided a global perspective as well as an opportunity to examine the relationship between place and identity. I propose that the sky and atmospheric phenomena can act as a powerful metaphor for notions of change and loss. The exegetical research establishes that there is a direct relationship between the way in which the sky is depicted and a society's cultural beliefs regarding its attitude to nature. The work for the creative component of this project has been derived directly from my embodied physical engagement with the environment and it is intended to express an inner sense of sadness and melancholy about what I am presently witnessing. My aim for this project is to communicate a sense of loss and an awareness of what we are losing and to encourage further discourse surrounding the looming existential crisis we are facing globally due to the effects of climate change.


AIMS
The aim of this review was to focus on the knowledge of the cardiovascular benefits of moderate alcohol consumption, as well as to analyze the effects of the different types of alcoholic beverages.

METHODS
Systematic revision of human clinical studies and meta-analyses related to moderate alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease (CVD) from 2000 to 2012.

RESULTS
Heavy or binge alcohol consumption unquestionably leads to increased morbidity and mortality. Nevertheless, moderate alcohol consumption, especially alcoholic beverages rich in polyphenols, such as wine and beer, seems to confer cardiovascular protective effects in patients with documented CVD and even in healthy subjects.

CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, wine and beer (but especially red wine) seem to confer greater cardiovascular protection than spirits because of their polyphenolic content. However, caution should be taken when making recommendations related to alcohol consumption.


CONTEXT
Evidence for an association between child maltreatment and later psychopathology heavily relies on retrospective reports of maltreatment. The few studies using prospective ascertainment of child maltreatment show weaker associations, raising the possibility that it is not maltreatment, but rather the memory of maltreatment, that raises the risk of later mental disorders.

OBJECTIVES
To estimate associations between prospectively ascertained child maltreatment and a wide range of subsequently measured DSM-IV mental disorders and to show the influence of retrospectively reported maltreatment in the comparison group on these associations.

DESIGN
Retrospective cohort study.

SETTING
Nationally representative New Zealand community.

PARTICIPANTS
Respondents aged 16 to 27 years (n = 2144) from a mental health survey, 221 of whom were identified as having records on a national child protection agency database.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Twelve-month and lifetime prevalence of individual DSM-IV mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders, and disorder groups assessed with the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview.

RESULTS
After adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic correlates, child protection agency history was associated with several individual mental disorders, mental disorder comorbidity, and all mental disorder groups, both 12-month and lifetime. Odds of 12-month posttraumatic stress disorder were 5.12 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.42-10.83); of any 12-month mood disorder, 1.86 (95% CI, 1.12-3.08); of any anxiety disorder, 2.41 (95% CI, 1.47-3.97); and of any substance use disorder, 1.71 (95% CI, 1.01-2.88). These associations increased in magnitude when those who retrospectively reported child maltreatment were removed from the comparison group.

CONCLUSIONS
Prospectively ascertained child maltreatment is significantly associated with a range of subsequent mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders, indicating that maltreatment, not just the memory of maltreatment, is associated with subsequent psychopathology. There is a need for both targeted mental health interventions with the present and past clients of child welfare agencies and for concerted population-level strategies to meet the needs of the many other children who experience maltreatment.


We have measured K-shell x-ray spectra of highly ionized argon and phosphorus following charge exchange with molecular hydrogen at low collision energy in an electron beam ion trap using an x-ray calorimeter array with ∼6 eV resolution. We find that the emission at the high-end of the Lyman series is greater by a factor of 2 for phosphorus than for argon, even though the measurement was performed concurrently and the atomic numbers are similar. This does not agree with current theoretical models and deviates from the trend observed in previous measurements.


During the ripening phase, the pH values continually change, which impacts the survival and growth of all microorganisms
including Listeria monocytogenes (a foodborne pathogen). Toward this end, distribution and change of pH during
ripening of cylindrical (108 mm diameter; 32 mm height) Camembert cheese were measured at 16 locations and three vertical
cross-sections 120° apart. The pH at different locations had significant differences (P < 0.05) for each day of ripening. The
pH values in the top and bottom regions had higher values than in the top middle and bottom middle regions. In addition,
the pH in the surface region was higher than in the center region. The day had a significant effect (P < 0.05) on the pH values
during ripening. Overall, the pH values increased gradually and throughout the ripening of Camembert cheese. The pH value
was around 4.5 on day 1 and approximately 7.5 on day 35 of ripening. Within a set, the pH values had no significant difference
(P > 0.05) for each batch and each section. For across-set comparisons, the set had no significant effect (P > 0.05) on the
pH values during ripening. There were similar values for each batch and section on each ripening day. The pH values
measured in this research can be the basis for developing a mathematical model to predict the distribution of pH, which when
coupled with a dynamic predictive growth model, will enable the prediction of survival and growth of L. monocytogenes
during ripening of Camembert cheese.


The corneas of latently infected mice were UV irradiated to induce reactivation of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) in the trigeminal ganglion (TG). On days 1 to 4 after irradiation, TG were removed, serially sectioned and double stained to identify immune cells and virus antigens. Virus antigen was detected in small numbers (most commonly one) of neurons per ganglion as early as day 1, confirming the rapidity of reactivation and the neuron as the likely site of this event. The immune response was also rapid and effective since virus antigen was identified in immune cells at day 1 and by day 4 all samples were negative. The predominant infiltrating cells on days 1 and 2, when virus antigen was present and being cleared, were T cells, both CD4+ and CD8+. Later, large numbers of B cells appeared, suggesting that local antibody production may also be involved in controlling the reactivated infection. The observations suggest that a significant proportion of reactivation events do not result in disease of the eye or shedding of virus in the tear film. However, they also suggest that as little as one reactivating neuron in the ganglion may be sufficient to lead to such disease and/or shedding.


Introduction: Research shows that PwD and their carers often do not receive the type, quality and amount of support needed from health and social care services. This study, part of the Access to Timely Care (Actifcare) JPND-funded project, aimed to identify the (un)met needs of Irish people with dementia (PwD) living at home and to compare these to needs assessments from a family caregiver and an independent Actifcare researcher. Theory/Methods: Forty-three PwD (22 female, mean age 74.05, mean MMSE 20.34) and family caregiver (33 female, mean age 58.12) dyads participated. The Camberwell Assessment of Need for the Elderly (CANE) was completed at baseline, 6-months and 12-months. All raters reported met and unmet need. Caregivers and researchers also reported formal and informal supports received. Additional measures included: Quality of life (Qol-AD, ICECAP-O, Carer-QoL), Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPI-Q) and carer perseverance. Results: PwD perceived fewer met needs at baseline (M=4.79, SD=3.2) than caregivers (M=8.6, SD=3.78) and researchers (M=8.3, SD=3.6); particularly environmental and physical needs. Researchers identified significantly more unmet need (M=3.28, SD=2.33) than caregivers (M=2.19, SD=2.05) and PwD (M=0.72, SD=1.32). Unmet needs were typically psychological (memory) and social (daytime activities, company) and regularly rated as 'not the right type of care'. PwD sex had no impact on ratings, but group differences in unmet increased with dementia severity. Greater met needs were significantly related to higher NPI scores and greater functional need. Caregiver ratings of met need indicated longer care perseverance. Lower levels of unmet need were significantly associated with better quality of life. Similar patterns were found at 6- and 12-months with researchers increasingly identifying umet needs. Discussions: PwD reported fewest needs. Although often unaware of their psychological needs, these are generally identified by caregivers with the exception of support for memory difficulties; these were typically reported by researchers. Addressing unmet need positively influenced the dyadic quality of life, yet all groups reported high levels of unmet social need and found available services lacking and inappropriate. High levels of met physical need demonstrates a continued primary policy emphasis on soley supporting these needs.  Conclusions: Dementia needs assessments must address the full range of biopsychosocial needs of the PwD and their caregivers such that timely tailored supports can be provided. Case management approaches that integrate the provision of health and social care are recommended. Lessons learned: Meeting physical need alone is not sufficient to maintain quality of life. It is essential to take a holistic view of the individual and their environment in order to adequately assess the support needed. Limitations: Although all PwD were able to report their needs at baseline, fewer were able to do so at 6-months (n=38) and 12-months (n=33). Suggestions for future research: Future research could formally and regularly assess needs from diagnosis onwards. If coupled with analysis of the type, duration and benefits of supports used, greater insight will be gained to enable the development of integrated dementia care that better supports the complex biopsychosocial needs of PwD and their families.


OBJECTIVE: To investigate the cost-effectiveness of private umbilical cord blood banking. METHODS: A decision-analytic model was designed comparing private umbilical cord blood banking with no umbilical cord blood banking. Baseline assumptions included a cost of $3,620 for umbilical cord blood banking and storage for 20 years, a 0.04% chance of requiring an autologous stem cell transplant, a 0.07% chance of a sibling requiring an allogenic stem cell transplant, and a 50% reduction in risk of graft-versus-host disease if a sibling uses banked umbilical cord blood. RESULTS: Private cord blood banking is not cost-effective because it cost an additional $1,374,246 per life-year gained. In sensitivity analysis, if the cost of umbilical cord blood banking is less than $262 or the likelihood of a child needing a stem cell transplant is greater than 1 in 110, private umbilical cord blood banking becomes cost-effective. CONCLUSION: Currently, private umbilical cord blood banking is cost-effective only for children with a very high likelihood of needing a stem cell transplant. Patients considering private blood banking should be informed of the remote likelihood that a unit will be used for a child or another family member. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III


Preemptive analgesia is recommended in small animal medicine. However, many studies have evaluated the response to analgesic treatment by behavioral observation. Therefore, the influence of preemptive analgesia with meloxicam on postoperative cardiovascular and renal parameters remains to be clarified. The present study examined the changes in blood pressure, heart rate, double product and heart rate variability for 14 days and the changes in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and serum cortisol level for 24 hr after resection of the unilateral mammary gland in meloxicam and control groups consisting of 5 healthy dogs. All data were collected under unanesthetized and unrestrained conditions using a radio telemetry system. Blood pressure, heart rate and double product were significantly lower in the meloxicam compared with the control group, and the meloxicam group's diurnal changes became stable more than 36 hr earlier than those of the control group. The systolic, diastolic and mean blood pressure values of the meloxicam group were 5- to 20-mm Hg lower than those of the control group until 5 days after surgery. The maximum difference between the two groups in terms of the double product values 14 days after surgery was 2,000 bpm x mmHg. Autonomic activity inhibition was prolonged in the control group. There were no significant differences in the 24-hr changes in GFR or serum cortisol level. This study showed that perioperative administration of meloxicam reduced unfavorable postoperative changes in the cardiovascular system without influencing renal function.


Background:
 Multiple Myeloma (MM) represents 1.8% of all new cancers in the United States and is the second most common hematologic malignancy in the US with 30,000 new cases/year. The highest incidence is amongst African Americans (AA) (SEER, 2018). Increased use of autologous stem cell transplant (AHSCT) as well as introduction of proteasome inhibitors (PIs) and immunomodulatory agents (iMiDs) have led to an improvement in overall survival (OS) from 35.6% between 1998-2001 to 50.7% in 2008-2014 (Child et al. 2003; Pulte et al. 2014).
 Despite these improvements, outcomes in MM are heterogeneous and are influenced by sociodemographic factors like race and ethnicity, disease biology (laboratory markers, cytogenetics) and access to transplantation (Al-Hamadani, Hashmi, and Go 2014; Ailawadhi et al. 2016). Several large population-based studies report that Hispanics have low stem cell utilization rates, limited access to novel therapeutics and clinical trials as well (Ailawadhi et al. 2018; Costa et al. 2015; Schriber et al. 2017; Pulte et al. 2014). Hence, outcomes for Hispanics and AA lag behind non-Hispanic Whites as well (Pulte et al. 2014).
 We wanted to evaluate outcomes of MM patients at Montefiore Medical Center where AA and Hispanics have access to novel agents and therapeutics, and most of whom hail from a poor socio-economic status.
 Methods:
 We obtained a cohort of patients diagnosed with MM between 1/1/2000-12/31/2017 from the Montefiore Medical Center Cancer Registry database via Clinical Looking Glass software. Socio-demographic characteristics including self-reported ethnicity, date of diagnosis, histology, laboratory parameters (hemoglobin (Hgb), creatinine (Cr), albumin (Alb), serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)) within 30 days of diagnosis were obtained. Ethnicity and race variables were condensed to Hispanics, Non-Hispanic Whites (NHW) and Non-Hispanic African Americans (NHAA). Charlson comorbidity score and its age-adjusted version were calculated. Primary payor (Medicaid, Medicare, private insurance or self-pay) was identified for each patient. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed using STATA 15.1 statistical software. OS was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and HR and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using the cox proportional hazard model. All the variables in the Cox proportional hazard ratio model fulfill the proportional hazard assumption.
 Results:
 We identified 1630 patients during the study period; 1502 patients were available for analysis (Table 1) The mean age of diagnosis was 66 years, and NWH were diagnosed at older age when compared to Hispanics or NHAA (71 vs 64 vs 66, p=0.001) respectively. Hispanics had a higher proportion of Medicaid affiliation. The baseline mean Hb (p=0.02), Cr (p=0.02) and LDH (p=0.09) were different; however this difference is unlikely to be clinically relevant (Table 1).
 Median survival for the cohort was 63 months (95% CI: 59-69). Hispanics had better mean OS (118 months, (95% CI 96-128) as compared to NHW (49 months, 95% CI 40-68)) and NHAA (60 months, 95% CI 53-66) and others (32 months, 95% CI 21-46) (Figure 1). After controlling for age at diagnosis, gender, socioeconomic status, modified Charlson age score, race had a statistically significant impact on the outcome, with NHW (HR-2.01) and NHAA (HR 1.77) having poorer survival when compared to Hispanics (P<0.001). The results did not change after excluding the unknown group. Increasing age, Charlson score, earlier time period of diagnosis and male sex were independently associated with death (Table 2). Primary payor was not independently associated with worse outcomes.
 Conclusion
 The study cohort is significantly different to prior reports, with a higher rate of NHAA and Hispanics. Hispanics had a higher percentage of Medicaid as primary payor. Contrary to prior reports, we show that with access to novel agents and transplantation, MM in Hispanics has a better OS than AA and NHW. We also show that NHAA (41%) despite being diagnosed at a younger age than NHW continue to have poorer outcomes than Hispanics. Further characterization including risk stratification and cytogenetics is underway to identify factors leading to better and worse outcome in Hispanics and AA respectively.

 Janakiram: Seattle Genetics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.


Considerable progress has been made in developing a theoretical framework for modeling slug test responses in formations with high hydraulic conductivity K. However, several questions of practical significance remain unresolved. Given the rapid and often oscillatory nature of test responses, the traditional hydrostatic relationship between the water level and the transducer‐measured head in the water column may not be appropriate. A general dynamic interpretation is proposed that describes the relationship between water level response and transducer‐measured head. This theory is utilized to develop a procedure for transforming model‐generated water level responses to transducer readings. The magnitude of the difference between the actual water level position and the apparent position based on the transducer measurement is a function of the acceleration and velocity of the water column, test geometry, and depth of the transducer. The dynamic approach explains the entire slug test response, including the often‐noted discrepancy between the actual initial water level displacement and that measured by a transducer in the water column. Failure to use this approach can lead to a significant underestimation of K when the transducer is a considerable distance below the static water level. Previous investigators have noted a dependence of test responses on the magnitude of the initial water level displacement and have developed various approximate methods for analyzing such data. These methods are re‐examined and their limitations clarified. Practical field guidelines are proposed on the basis of findings of this work. The soundness of the dynamic approach is demonstrated through a comparison of K profiles from a series of multilevel slug tests with those from dipole‐flow tests performed in the same wells.


Previous research reports have suggested the emergence of novel club drugs as "legal high" alternatives to illegal hallucinogenic or entactogenic drugs such as 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). Among these are recent reports of the use of psychoactive derivatives of 2-aminoindane, including 5-Iodo-2-aminoindan (5-IAI). While much is known about the effects of MDMA, little is known about the physiological and cognitive effects of 5-IAI. When considered in terms of exposure during the neuropsychological development period of adolescence, the available information is completely absent. In the present investigation, beginning at 35 days of age rats were given 20 mg/kg doses of 5-IAI or saline until the animals reached adulthood. Behavioral testing occurred in adulthood when the rats were 124 days old and had been drug free for 65 days. Our assessments included measures of general activity, stepdown passive avoidance, and a series of Morris water maze spatial and non-spatial memory tasks. Depending on task demands, the performance of 5-IAItreated rats was inferior to that of the saline control animals. However, unlike the changes seen following MDMA exposure, no differences in serotonin and dopamine levels were found. The results are discussed in the context of the disruptive effects that 5-IAI may have on adolescent brain development and how such compounds may contribute to cognitive deficits and maladaptive behavior.


Purpose To evaluate the fourth-year medical student's assessment and management of an unstable patient. Method The authors compared the performance of fourth-year medical students in a clinical performance examination (CPX) across a spectrum of simulated stable conditions as compared with a case of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). All fourth-year medical students at the Medical University of South Carolina participated in an eight-station CPX. Student performance was graded as the percentage of correct steps performed according to checklists developed through a modified Delphi technique. Repeated analysis of variance was performed to compare performance on different stations. Data are reported as mean (standard deviation), and P < .05 was considered significant. Results A total of 143 fourth-year medical students participated in the study. The percentage of correct actions performed in the STEMI station was 47.8 (9.5), which was significantly lower than all other stations (P < .001). There was no difference in overall performance between any of the other stable encounters. Students performed significantly worse in the physical and management/treatment components of the STEMI station, as compared with history, differential diagnosis, labs/tests, and diagnosis. Conclusions Fourth-year medical students were less prepared to manage a simulated STEMI case compared with a range of nonacute conditions. Given the prevalence of coronary artery disease and the necessity of interns to be equipped to handle emergent situations, this deficiency should be addressed in undergraduate medical curricula.


Thank you for reading talk it over. As you may know, people have look hundreds times for their chosen books like this talk it over, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they cope with some infectious virus inside their laptop. talk it over is available in our digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can download it instantly. Our digital library hosts in multiple locations, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Kindly say, the talk it over is universally compatible with any devices to read.


Abstract The major destinations for labor migrants from rural southern Kyrgyzstan are Russia, Kazakhstan and Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. As well as searching for better income, younger men and women also migrate for educational reasons and to escape from traditions such as early marriage. Although these migration processes make both women and men vulnerable, women face particular forms of vulnerability that intersect with one another. Middle-aged migrating women do experience a devaluation of their education and struggle to handle the multiple roles and expectations of being breadwinner, mother, wife and daughterin- law, supporting the older and young generation left behind. The youngest generation, born during this transitional period since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, faces its own challenges of trying to take advantage of economic liberalization. Using an approach, which views the multi-local settings of families from women's perspectives, this article provides insights into perceptions and experiences of migration and their consequences for different generations.


The isothermal oxidation behaviors of MgAlON/Si3N4 composite which was synthesized by pressureless nitridation reaction sintering have been investigated in flowing air at 1100°C, 1200°C and 1300°C respectively. The results show that the composite represents excellent self-healing property of oxidation at 1300°C, which might be attributed to the formation of protective silicate film with reasonable viscosity, good spreading power and very low oxygen diffusion coefficient, and to the formation of compact surface resulted from the expansion effect of forming mullite from SiO2 and Al2O3. However, the self-healing property of it is relatively poor at 1100°C and 1200°C as compared to 1300°C.


The main purpose of this study is to analyze the stability of OPEC, based on approach of Danielsen's sacrifice ratio and the impact of Iran economic sanctions. For this purpose two concepts called the reserves sacrifice ratio and the capacity sacrifice ratio on Danielsen model framework have been used for investigating the stability of OPEC. Relationship between sacrifice ratios and variables such as population, gross domestic product (GDP), production and oil production capacities of all members of OPEC have been reviewed and analyzed. Iran sanctions as an important factor influencing on amount of sacrifice ratios and totally OPEC stability have been studied. Period of study has been chosen from 2000 to 2014. The results of this study show that during the examined period, there is a meaningful and negative correlation between population and sacrifice ratios. There is a meaningful and positive correlation between oil reserves and sacrifice ratio too. OPEC countries with large oil reserves have a tendency to restrict extraction of crude oil reserves. There is a meaningful and positive correlation between Iran economic sanctions and sacrifice ratio. Iran's oil production capacity has been reduced due to sanctions against Iran and consequently sacrifice ratios of reserves and oil capacities have been increased. According to results of this research there is no evidence to suggest OPEC collapse. As a result of this study, OPEC still considered a stable organization.


With the goal of building an hierarchical design methodology for quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) circuits, we put forward a novel, theoretically sound, method for abstracting the behavior of circuit components in QCA circuit, such as majority logic, lines, wire-taps, cross-overs, inverters, and corners, using macromodels. Recognizing that the basic operation of QCA is probabilistic in nature, we propose probabilistic macromodels for standard QCA circuit elements based on conditional probability characterization, defined over the output states given the input states. Any circuit model is constructed by chaining together the individual logic element macromodels, forming a Bayesian network, defining a joint probability distribution over the whole circuit. We demonstrate three uses for these macromodel-based circuits. First, the probabilistic macromodels allow us to model the logical function of QCA circuits at an abstract level - the "circuit" level - above the current practice of layout level in a time and space efficient manner. We show that the circuit level model is orders of magnitude faster and requires less space than layout level models, making the design and testing of large QCA circuits efficient and relegating the costly full quantum-mechanical simulation of the temporal dynamics to a later stage in the design process. Second, the probabilistic macromodels abstract crucial device level characteristics such as polarization and low-energy error state configurations at the circuit level. We demonstrate how this macromodel-based circuit level representation can be used to infer the ground state probabilities, i.e., cell polarizations, a crucial QCA parameter. This allows us to study the thermal behavior of QCA circuits at a higher level of abstraction. Third, we demonstrate the use of these macromodels for error analysis. We show that low-energy state configurations of the macromodel circuit match those of the layout level, thus allowing us to isolate weak points in circuits design at the circuit level itself


In this contribution we performed opto-electrical simulations of heterojunction silicon (HJ Si) solar cell with Indium-Tin-Oxide layers included in simulations as front and rear contacts. Two-dimensional numerical simulations using Sentaurus TCAD software were carried out. We studied the effect of defect state density in p- and n-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon layers on device performance. Rigorous analysis revealed mainly a decrease of FF in cases of high levels of defect densities, leading to degradation of conversion efficiency. The increase of defects in p-a-Si proved to be more detrimental than the same increase in n-a-Si, regardless whether the light enters through the p-a-Si or n-a-Si side of the device.


About the University – Alumni – Borrowing Items – Bruno Library – Citing Sources – Computers – Databases – Distance Education Issues – eBooks – Faculty Services – Finding Materials – Google – Gorgas Library – Graduate Student Services – Hoole Library – Interlibrary Loan – Journals – Library Annex – Library Policies – McLure Library – Media – Music Library – Newspapers – Printers – RefWorks – Reserve Readings – Rodgers Library – Sanford Media Center – Scout – Special Collections – Subject Liaisons – Tutoring – Undergraduate Student Services View All Topics University Libraries » Ask a Librarian


This paper challenges the view that mental contents can be innate and offers instead a developmental model in which mental contents emerge from the interaction of genes, brain and environment. Some key steps on this developmental pathway are traced, such as the formation of image schemas. The processes by which mental contents are evaluated and organized are described, notably those of perceptual analysis, representational re-description and appraisal. Jung's concept of the transcendent function is seen to have certain crucial features in common with each of these processes. The emergence of the capacity to symbolize is explored in relation to these concepts and it is suggested that the pinnacle of this capacity is achieved in the emergence of reflective function, in which mind is represented to itself.


By means of a unique longitudinal database with information on all plants and employees in the Swedish economy, this paper analyzes how geographical proximity influences the impact of spillovers and knowledge flows on the productivity growth of plants. Concerning the effects of spillovers, we show that the density of economic activities as such mainly contributes to plant performance within a very short distance and that the composition of economic activities is more influential further away. Regarding the influence of local industrial setup, proximity increases the need to be located near different, but related, industries whereas increased distance implies a greater effect of intra-industry spillovers. The analyses also demonstrate that knowledge flows via the mobility of skilled labor is primarily a sub-regional phenomenon. Only inflows of skills that are related to the existing knowledge base of plants and come from less than 50 kilometers away have a positive effect on plant performance. Concerning outflows of skills, the results indicate that it is less harmful for a dispatching plant if a former employee remains within the local economy as compared to leaving for a job in another part of the national economy.


Atopic dermatitis is a chronic multifactorial inflammatory skin disease, which has had a marked increase in prevalence during the last decades. Recently, a new nomenclature was recommended where the term 'atopic eczema/dermatitis syndrome' (AEDS) should be used to reflect the heterogeneity in this group of patients and where those patients without measurable IgE reactivity should be classified as either 'nonallergic AEDS' or 'non-IgE-associated allergic AEDS'. For nearly 20 years it has been discussed whether the opportunistic yeast Malassezia, previously designated Pityrosporum, is a contributing factor to AEDS. Today there are several reports that demonstrate specific serum IgE or positive skin prick test and/or atopy patch test reactions to Malassezia in patients with AEDS. Several IgE-binding components have been identified in extracts of Malassezia ranging in molecular mass between 10 and 100 kD. The genes for nine Malassezia allergens with molecular weights ranging from 14 to 36 kD have hitherto been identified and cloned. Six of them are now produced by recombinant techniques and used in diagnostic tests. At present the genus Malassezia is subdivided into seven different species, which all have been isolated from human skin. The respective contribution of different Malassezia spp. to AEDS and in what proportion they share allergens remains to be clarified. We summarize here data that Malassezia can play a role in eliciting and maintaining eczema in patients with AEDS.


Abstract Hagstromite, Pb8Cu2+(Te6+O6)2(CO3)Cl4, (IMA2019-093) is a new tellurate mineral from Otto Mountain near Baker, California, USA. It occurs on quartz in association with cerussite, fuettererite and thorneite. It is a secondary oxidation zone mineral and is presumed to have formed by oxidation of earlier formed tellurides, chalcopyrite and galena. Hagstromite occurs as light yellow–green blades, up to ~100 μm long. Crystals are transparent with adamantine to silky lustre. The mineral is brittle with two cleavages providing splintery fracture; the Mohs hardness is probably between 2 and 3. The calculated density is 7.062 g cm–3. Hagstromite is optically biaxial (+), with calculated indices of refraction for α = 2.045, β = 2.066 and γ = 2.102; 2Vmeas = 76(1)°; and optical orientation X = b, Y = a and Z = c. The Raman spectrum of hagstromite exhibits similarities with those of agaite and thorneite and confirms the presence of CO32–. The electron microprobe analyses provided the empirical formula Pb8.07Cu2+0.98Te6+1.96C1.17Cl3.83O15.34. Hagstromite is orthorhombic, space group Ibam, with a = 23.688(17), b = 9.026(8), c = 10.461(8) Å, V = 2237(3) Å3 and Z = 4. The crystal structure of hagstromite (R1 = 0.0659 for 284 I > 2σI reflections) contains a novel Cu2+Te6+2O12 chain assembled of corner-sharing Cu2+O4 squares and Te6+O6 octahedra. The O atoms in the chains form bonds with Pb2+ cations, which in turn bond to Cl– and CO32– anions, thereby creating a framework structure.


As a special class of materials, transition metal oxides exhibit in their crystalline phase a variety of interesting properties, such as metal–insulator transition, ferroelectricity, magnetism, superconductivity, and so forth. However, for industrially widely applied methods such as room temperature magnetron sputtering, during initial fabrication steps of these materials, they are mostly amorphous, and control of stoichiometry during fabrication is challenging. It is, therefore, of pivotal importance to control the stoichiometry of transition metal oxides during growth in the amorphous state. One particularly important example for the necessity of stoichiometry control is vanadium dioxide (VO2), where small deviations in stoichiometry during fabrication result in unfavorable changes in the electronic and structural properties, for example, the metal–insulator transition temperature and optical permittivity. In this work, the stoichiometry of amorphous vanadium oxides is adjusted to VO2 using in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry (in situ SE) and verified by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. After an annealing process, a monoclinic VO2 crystalline structure is observed through x-ray diffraction at 30 °C. At an elevated temperature of 150 °C, which is higher than the typical metal–insulator transition temperature in VO2 of around 67 °C, a rutile crystalline structure is observed, which verifies the correctness of the stoichiometry of VO2. A Mott metal–insulator transition is revealed by the change in the imaginary part of optical permittivity through SE as well.


The genetic consequences resulting from environmental exposure to ionizing radiation have a significant impact on both radiation regulatory policies and the comprehension of the human health risks associated with radiation exposure. The primary objectives of the study were to assess 1) genotoxicity of exposure to radiation as a function of absorbed dose and dose rate, and 2) induction of a radio-adaptive response following a priming dose at varying dose rates. Results demonstrated that sub-acute environmental exposures of 10cGy gamma radiation resulted in indistinguishable levels of chromosomal damage as compared to controls. A radio-adaptive response was observed in all experimental groups, exposed to a subsequent acute challenge dose of 1.5 Gy, demonstrating that low dose rates of low energy transfer (LET) radiation are effective in reducing genetic damage from a subsequent acute low-LET radiation exposure. Furthermore, the data presented herein demonstrate a potential beneficial effect of sub-chronic exposure to low levels of low-LET radiation in an environmental setting and do not support the Linear No Threshold (LNT) hypothesis.


It is often necessary to study on the seismic performance of the buried pipelines subjected to tunnel excavation, because the ground motion will inevitably endanger the nearby underground pipelines. In this paper, modeling and analysis of earthquake-resistant performance of tunnel excavation to the upper underground pipeline have been carried out. The changes of stress and displacement of the upper underground pipeline under action of the same seismic wave before and after tunnel excavation was compared. It is showed that there's a greater impact on the stress and displacement of upper underground pipeline under seismic action, and a tunnel with reasonable supporting would support the underground pipeline to some extent.


Nowadays, online games have become a highly profitable e-commerce application. Therefore, researchers increasingly believe that understanding online game player behavior is critical to the success of online game practitioners. The factors influencing the flow of online games are of major concern to academic researchers and online games practitioners. Drawing on the theory of flow, this study empirically explores how the interactivity and intrinsic beliefs impact flow experience, and how flow experience is related to replay intention. Then, confirmatory factor analysis is applied to test and the proposed research model is evaluated with partial least squares (SmartPLS 2.0). The results show that flow experience is a significant predictor of replay intention. Four antecedents to flow (telepresence, focused attention, skills and challenges) have positive influence on flow experience. Interactivity (social interactivity and human-machine interactivity) and intrinsic beliefs (perceived attractiveness, personal involvement) influence the antecedents of flow experience. Moreover, social interactivity has a stronger impact on the antecedents of flow experience than human-machine interactivity. This study finds that social interactivity is most crucial to online game success.


Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Abstract Recently, metamagnetic shape memory alloys have attracted much attention as candidates for the rare-earth free magnetic refrigerants. These materials undergo the martensitic transformation (MT) at around room temperature accompanied by a significant entropy change. The application of the magnetic field at the low-temperature martensitic phase realizes the magnetic field-induced martensitic transformation (MFIMT). Through the MFIMT, the materials show an unconventional magnetocaloric effect (MCE), which is called inverse magnetocaloric effect (IMCE). In this chapter, the direct measurement sys- tem of MCE in pulsed-high-magnetic fields is introduced. With taking the advantage of the fast field-sweep rate of pulsed field, adiabatic measurements of MCE are carried out at various temperatures. Using this technique, the IMCEs of the metamagnetic shape memory alloys NiCoMnIn and NiCoMnGa are directly measured as adiabatic temperature changes in pulsed fields. From the experimental data of MCE for NiCoMnIn, the entropy of spin system in the austenite phase is estimated through a simple mean-field model. By the combination of MCE, magnetization and specific heat measurements, the electronic, lattice and magnetic contributions to the IMCE are individually evaluated. The result for NiCoMnIn demonstrates that lattice entropy plays the dominant role for IMCE in this material.


The use of tobacco entails negative health consequences. In fact, it is reported that had the ill effects of tobacco been known much earlier in time, tobacco would have been a banned substance. Yet, in today's context tobacco has become part of legitimate trade, and the livelihoods in countries that export tobacco heavily depend on trade in tobacco. In the circumstances, could governments intervene on health and public policy grounds and regulate the manner in which tobacco products are marketed and sold? If so, to what extent? These are precisely the questions that fuel the gruelling dual between tobacco companies and health conscious countries, such as Australia that has recently enacted legislation making mandatory the plain packaging of tobacco products from December 2012. The Australian legislative measure, namely the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 (Cth), is currently under attack in several fronts, including the World Trade Organisation, though recently the Australian High Court upheld the constitutionality of the plain packaging legislation. The purpose of this paper is to approach the question of the legality of government intervention in totally prohibiting the striking elements of tobacco packaging from a purely international trademark law point of view. First, the paper identifies the scope of trademark protection as set out in the Agreement on the Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ("TRIPs") and then goes on to analyse the Australian plain packaging law in the context of its own trademark legislation. Thence, the paper considers whether the Australian plain packaging legislation complies with the core provisions on trademark protection enshrined in TRIPs, and lastly provides a possible compromise to reconcile the competing interests.


BACKGROUND
Side effects during hyaluronic acid (HA) injection are considered mild and reversible; however, an alarming trend of increased hypersensitivity reactions has recently been reported.

OBJECTIVE
The goal of this article is to review the hypersensitivity reactions reported in the literature and, in combination with the authors' experience, to create a classification system to sort the timing and clinical manifestations of these reactions, as well as a treatment schema to manage their clinical course.

METHODS
A literature search using PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, and Embase databases was performed with no date restrictions. Search terms included "hyaluronic acid and hypersensitivity" and "hyaluronic acid and nodules." Data analyzed included study type, number of subjects, HA filler type, injection location, adverse reaction, timing, treatment, and outcomes.

RESULTS
Thirty-six studies were identified, documenting hypersensitivity reactions to HA treatment. Twelve cases described events occurring within a week, 6 within a month, and 31 after a month of treatment. Combined with the authors' experience, a new classification system and management of hypersensitivity reactions to HA fillers is proposed of early (up to a week), intermediate (a week to a month), and late (over a month) hypersensitivity reactions.

CONCLUSION
The classification system proposed provides objective measurements and management options that can be helpful for physicians to navigate these hypersensitivity reactions and design treatment protocols that provide the best clinical outcomes for their patients.


This study proposes a new empirical approach to the exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) in Japanese imports using input-output (IO) analysis. We analyze how exchange rate changes are transmitted from import prices to domestic producer prices through numerous stages of production by employing the Japanese IO tables of 2000, 2005, and 2011. Specifically, calculating input coefficients among 108 industries at numerous production stages, we demonstrate that, contrary to the stylized fact, the extent of ERPT to domestic producer prices should be significantly higher than empirical results of the conventional ERPT analysis. Conducting a panel estimation of ERPT determinants, we show that a large dependence on intermediate input imports tends to increase the extent of ERPT. More importantly, we reveal that if the manufacturing sectors tend not only to import intermediate inputs from abroad but also to export their products to foreign countries, the degree of import pass-through to producer prices increases significantly. Thus, growing international production sharing will have a positive impact on ERPT to domestic producer prices.


As the dimensions of devices are shrunk quickly, the requirements of metallization become more critical. For VIA barrier and seeding layer filling and deposition, the process was mostly applied with the copper physical vapor deposition methodology in the back-end of line flow of the interconnection metallization. The criteria for barrier and seeding layer deposition are the metal continuity inside the VIA feature and grain size and orientation control for film diffusion barrier and qualities. Besides, while the interconnection size shrunk to nano-scale, the barrier thickness would be very thinner to maintain the VIA resistance; however, it would face the film conformity and continuity consistence within the wafer and different features. The integration solution would be developed and studied with the re-sputter process step adding into the convectional physical vapor deposition process. The resputter process step could not only improve the film conformity and continuity in the VIA's sidewall; but also reduce the resistance of VIA feature over 20%. The improvement of the resputter method adding into the deposition process would be contributed to the standard barrier deposition in the nano-scale feature of the interconnect. Besides, we also discussed the effect of the film properties after the resputter process introduced into the barrier deposition.


Venture capital has been one of the major drivers of the U.S. economy. Using the State of the Inner City Economies database of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, we found that secondary cities – which we have defined as cities outside the 40 largest U.S. metro areas – have received far less than their proportionate share of private equity deals and dollars. By failing to attract capital at similar rates to larger cities, secondary cities are missing a major engine of job and wage growth. Notably, however, a number of secondary cities have managed to assemble the right combination of factors to significantly outperform their peers. To understand this better, we interviewed the leaders of 17 venture capital firms (including both national firms and regional firms and firms representing more than one-half of the top 10 investors in secondary markets). We also interviewed and surveyed 53 companies in secondary markets that successfully received venture capital investment funds, as well as industry experts and venture funding facilitators. Based on these interviews and surveys, our research posits six plausible factors that enable successful secondary cities to attract more venture capital than their peers.


The relationship between people and deer has been a persistent theme within British Mesolithic Studies since the early twentieth century, and has been approached from a range of economic, ontological, cultural and chronological perspectives. Yet our understanding of the ways in which deer and people interacted has been undermined by a failure to recognise the plasticity of deer behaviour in different environments, and the variability of social contexts in which they might be encountered. This paper will seek to address this by considering the current body of knowledge concerning the ecology and behaviour of Cervus elaphus (Red deer), Capreolus capreolus (Roe deer) and Alces alces (Elk), and model the actions of these species within a range of different British Mesolithic environments. In doing so, it will create a platform for new discussions of the relationship between people and deer, in a way that affords the actions of the animals themselves an unprecedented level of agency.


During recent decades, like the proverbial bad penny, the problem of chronic overcrowding has turned up over and over again to haunt South African prison administrators. As this article indicates, however, overcrowding in South African prisons is not only a recent phenomenon. Overcrowding has been a significant feature of imprisonment in South Africa from the very introduction of this form of punishment into the country. This article examines overcrowding in the prisons of colonial Natal from 1845 until 1910. Through an analysis of the official discourse surrounding this difficult problem throughout the colonial period, this article shows that imprisonment as a form of punishment in South Africa has always been inextricably bound up with the problem of overcrowding. By illustrating the deeply entrenched nature of the problem from a historical perspective, this article hopes to provide present-day prison administrators with useful insights into the nature of their struggle to overcome the problem. The article is in two parts. Part 1 of the article covers the period 1845 to 1875, while Part 2 covers the period 1875 to 1910.


Within the framework of policies against the effects of climate change on public health, mobility policies based on zero carbon dioxide emissions have focused their interest on the implementation of bicycle lanes, the subsidy of bicycle engines and restriction of automobiles. In this sense, the objective of this paper has been to establish the reliability and validity of an instrument that measures the perceptions of risk and utility, as well as the intentions of voting in favor of electoral proposals and candidates that support the urban sustainability policy in Subject d mobility. A non-experimental, cross-sectional and exploratory study was carried out with a non-probabilistic sample selection of 250 residents of the metropolitan area of Mexico City. From a structural model. The factors cited were found to correlate positively and significantly, but it is recommended to extend the study to the contrast of the model in other scenarios with local elections and mobility policy based on the use of the bicycle


To determine whether thyroid cell apoptosis observed in autoimmune thyroid disease could be related to activation of the Fas pathway, we examined the expression and function of Fas on thyroid follicular cells in vitro. Fas messenger RNA was found to be present using two different techniques and was expressed at equal levels in thyrocytes cultured either in the presence or absence of TSH. Fas antigen protein expression was demonstrated by Western blot of thyroid cell lysates and by immunohistochemical staining of thyrocytes, and the amount of Fas protein present did not appear to vary regardless of culture conditions. Despite expressing substantial amounts of Fas protein, thyrocytes treated with anti-Fas monoclonal antibody failed to undergo apoptosis. The addition of either interferon-gamma or interleukin-1beta to the anti-Fas-treated cell cultures also did not promote apoptotic signaling through this pathway. In contrast, the concomitant administration of cycloheximide allowed the induction of apoptosis through the activation of Fas in thyrocytes. These results suggest that Fas is constitutively expressed in thyrocytes, but that the induction of apoptosis through the Fas pathway is blocked by a labile protein inhibitor.


Abstract The aim was to explore how job applicants use strategies when completing a personality test in a selection process, and further to identify factors that contribute to a positive test experience. The informants were eight former applicants for an actual job including management responsibilities. The applicants had completed the personality test OPQ32i. We used semi-structured interviews when collecting data, and thematic analysis was used as an analytic approach.. The candidates considered strategies as important during the testing to optimize their own test profile. Strategies used were related to strategic honesty, time use, consistency, and aiming not to obtain middle or extreme scores. Criteria for an optimal test experience were positive expectations for the test, previous experiences with personality testing, high belief in the test, perception of the test as fair and relevant for the job, as well as certain aspects related to the feedback interview. Our study has provided important knowledge about the subjective experience of a personality test situation in a selection process. The use of strategies should be seen in a more holistic perspective than only focusing on faking. The results address the importance of using the feedback interview as an integrated and central element when applying personality tests in personnel selection.


The following paper deals with criterion used to measure communication protocol efficiency in Wireless Sensor Networks. As energy is a crucial characteristic of those networks, it is necessary to pay attention both to the energy consumption and to the distribution of energy consumption, when using communication protocols, so as to increase the lifetime of the whole network. Our aim is to present and discuss criterion designed to analyze communication protocol effectiveness. When designing, for example, communication protocols, it is really important to measure performances with a suitable metric according to our application, else it would be difficult to analyze and to improve a protocol. In this paper, we draw a list of existing criterion, and then introduce two new ones : Average Node Percentage and Monitored Interest Point Percentage. We also point out the relevance regarding the required application for each criterion.


Nowadays, low cost, flexible, and high performance hardware-software co-design implementation of widely used image filtering methods is very important. In this work, image filtering processor is implemented through convolution, designed in Verilog Hardware Description Language, and softcore microprocessor. Microprocessor is synthesized on FPGA and removing of salt and pepper noises is examined. Convolution hardware is designed with and without DSP48 slice, which is dedicated hardware in FPGA, and obtained datas are compared. Also, synthesize of softcore microprocessor on FPGA is implemented for these two design and obtained datas are compared. Finally, one of selected basic algorithm is implemented on co-design and PSNR values are given.


Abstract Queenfish Seriphus politus were collected at coastal power plants from San Clemente to Ventura, California. Power functions best described relations between otolith length, width, or weight and either standard length (SL) or total body weight. The length–weight relationship was described by the following equation: weight = 10−5 × SL3.09. Individuals were aged to 12 years by using sagittal otolith sections. Females grew at a significantly faster rate than males. Both sexes reached 50% maturity by 100 mm SL, or shortly after age 1. The total annual instantaneous mortality coefficient was estimated at 0.42. Catalina Harbor (on the windward side of Santa Catalina Island) and Ventura were the most populous sites based on gill-net catch per unit effort from 1995 to 2006. Juvenile and adult queenfish populations have declined since 1980 in a significant relationship with nearshore plankton biomass. Larval queenfish densities recorded in King Harbor (Redondo Beach) have declined since 1987. Long-term recruitment estimates indicated peak recruitment prior to 1976, with three subsequent downward baseline shifts.


By [5] it is known that a geodesic γ in an abstract reflection space X (in the sense of Loos, without any assumption of differential structure) canonically admits an action of a 1-parameter subgroup of the group of transvections of X. In this article, we modify these arguments in order to prove an analog of this result stating that, if X contains an embedded hyperbolic plane H ⊂ X, then this yields a canonical action of a subgroup of the transvection group of X isomorphic to a perfect central extension of PSL2(R). This result can be further extended to arbitrary Riemannian symmetric spaces of non-compact type Y lying in X and can be used to prove that a Riemannian symmetric space and, more generally, the Kac– Moody symmetric space G/K for an algebraically simply connected two-spherical Kac–Moody group G, as defined in [5], satisfies a universal property similar to the universal property that the group G satisfies itself.


The present study aimed to determine the rate of microsporidiosis in larvae and adult beetles in Calosoma sycophanta L. (Coleoptera: Carabidae) mass-rearing laboratories. Eighty larvae and 7420 adults of C. sycophanta were dissected from the mass-rearing laboratories and investigated for the presence of microsporidiosis. Microsporidiosis was determined in all localities. Four hundred and forty-one adults of the dissected insects were found to be infected and the total infection rate was 5.94%. A total of 80 C. sycophanta larvae from Balikesir and Isparta examined in 2016 showed no microsporidiosis. The infection ratio was varied among populations and years. The total infection rate per year was 2% in 2015, 3.85% in 2016, 5.7% in 2017, and 12.3% in 2018. It was observed that microsporidiosis increases year after year. In addition, infection rates reached considerable levels, such as 26.3% in Izmir, 31.1% in Antalya, 30.2% in Balikesir, and 35.2% in Mersin localities. During the study, microsporidiosis in male and female beetles was also investigated. Twenty-four (2.49%) of 963 male and 41 (2.99%) of 1370 female beetles were found to be infected. These results confirm that the microsporidian pathogen has a high dispersal potential through the C. sycophanta mass-rearing laboratories and can be an undesirable suppressing factor in adult beetles.


This article provides a broad overview of "distant healing intention" (DHI) therapies, ie, intentional healing modalities claimed to transcend the usual constraints of distance through space or time. We provide a summary of previous reviews and meta-analyses that have explored a diverse array of DHI modalities, outcome measures, and experimental protocols. While some significant experimental effects have been observed, the evidence to date does not yet provide confidence in its clinical efficacy. The purported "nonlocal" nature of DHI raises significant methodological and theoretical challenges. We recommend several avenues for improving future research.


A series of benzimidazo[2,1-a]isoquinolines with carboxamide side chains at the 1-, 6-, 9- and 11-positions were prepared, in order to study the biological effects of varying the position of the side chain in this tetracyclic series. The 6-, 9- and 11-analogues were obtained by modifications to published chemistry. The 1-carboxamide analogue was obtained via a one-pot isocoumarin/isoquinolone conversion of 3-methylisocoumarin-8-carboxylic acid with o-phenylenediamine in buffered aqueous acid, which gave the required 1-acid. The compounds were evaluated in a panel of cell lines in culture. The 6-carboxamides, where the side chain is attached to one of the central rings, were not active, but the 1- and 11-carboxamides, where the side chain is attached to one of the terminal rings off the chromophore short axis, were reasonably cytotoxic (IC50s < 1 microM). Overall, the structure-activity relationships are broadly in line with those seen with other tri- and tetracyclic carboxamides, and are consistent with recent crystal structure studies of acridine-4-carboxamides bound to DNA. The most potent 1-carboxamide was highly active in vivo against s.c. colon 38 tumours in mice, providing a growth delay of 12 days.


Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are highly reactive chemical species that may cause irreversible tissue damage, and play a critical role in cardiovascular diseases. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a gasotransmitter that acts as a ROS scavenger with cardio-protective effects. In this study, we investigated the cytoprotective effect of H2S against H2O2-induced apoptosis in cardiomyocytes. H9c2 rat cardiomyoblasts were treated with H2S (100 μM) 24 h before challenging with H2O2 (100 μM). Apoptosis was then assessed by annexin V and PI, and mitochondrial membrane potential was measured using a fluorescent probe, JC-1. Our results revealed that H2S improved cell viability, reduced the apoptotic rate, and preserved mitochondrial membrane potential. An increased Bcl-2 to Bax ratio was also seen in myocytes treated with H2S after H2O2-induced stress. Our findings indicated a therapeutic potential for H2S in preventing myocyte death following ischemia/reperfusion.


PURPOSE
To test induction chemotherapy (IC) followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) or surgery/radiotherapy (RT) for advanced oropharyngeal cancer and to assess the effect of human papilloma virus (HPV) on response and outcome.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Sixty-six patients (51 male; 15 female) with stage III to IV squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx (SCCOP) were treated with one cycle of cisplatin (100 mg/m(2)) or carboplatin (AUC 6) and with fluorouracil (1,000 mg/m(2)/d for 5 days) to select candidates for CRT. Those achieving a greater than 50% response at the primary tumor received CRT (70 Gy; 35 fractions with concurrent cisplatin 100 mg/m(2) or carboplatin (AUC 6) every 21 days for three cycles). Adjuvant paclitaxel was given to patients who were complete histologic responders. Patients with a response of 50% or less underwent definitive surgery and postoperative radiation. Pretreatment biopsies from 42 patients were tested for high-risk HPV.

RESULTS
Fifty-four of 66 patients (81%) had a greater than 50% response after IC. Of these, 53 (98%) received CRT, and 49 (92%) obtained complete histologic response with a 73.4% (47 of 64) rate of organ preservation. The 4-year overall survival (OS) was 70.4%, and the disease-specific survival (DSS) was 75.8% (median follow-up, 64.1 months). HPV16, found in 27 of 42 (64.3%) biopsies, was associated with younger age (median, 55 v 63 years; P = .016), sex (22 of 30 males [73.3%] and five of 12 females [41.7%]; P = .08), and nonsmoking status (P = .037). HPV titer was significantly associated with IC response (P = .001), CRT response (P = .005), OS (P = .007), and DSS (P = .008).

CONCLUSION
Although the numbers in this study are small, IC followed by CRT is an effective treatment for SCCOP, especially in patients with HPV-positive tumors; however, for patients who do not respond to treatment, alternative treatments must be developed.


Integrating musical and sonic forms and materials from world music into music theory classes steeped in Western musical concepts raises challenging questions and pedagogical conundrums: How might instructors engender interest in students with no training or background in non-Western musical materials? Could non-Western music (NWM) stimulate deeper thinking and understanding about the broader contexts of music production, such as its culture, religion, politics, and history, as well as indigenous musical terms and concepts? To what extent should critical contextual consideration be given prior to the study of non-Western sounds, musics, or performances? How might students and instructors alike engage NWM without extending the troubling histories of colonialism, western hegemony, and privileged, white perspectives? To address these and other questions from multiple viewpoints, this article takes the form of a dialogue between two students and two music professors, the latter representing the disciplines of music theory and ethnomusicology. As these four interlocutors explore the questions above, they also consider and revise a "Pin Drop" assignment, in which music theory students explore the musical culture found at various locations selected around the globe. Rather than offer any final conclusions, the dialogue itself demonstrates how the productive tensions that arise when studying and teaching NWM in Western music classrooms, when examined from multiple disciplinary angles, can be mutually beneficial and enriching, making possible new musical insights, methodological syntheses, and pedagogical priorities.


Objectives: To assess the oral health characteristics and the treatments carried out on individuals with special needs a ending the Dental Clinic of Lagos University Teaching Hospital. Methods: A three-year retrospective study of all individuals with special needs that a ended the dental clinic of a tertiary health center. All relevant data including biodata, type of special need, oral health conditions and treatments carried out were extracted from the case notes and analyzed. Results: Out of 115 records extracted, there were 15 different types of special needs. More than half of the participants were males (54.8%) and their mean age was 12.4 years (SD±7.2). The most frequently recorded study participants with special needs were those with Down syndrome (20.9%). The most common oral conditions were gingivitis (65.2%) and dental caries (37.4%). Dental caries was significantly prevalent among participants with cleft lip/palate and the visually impaired (p=0.02). Of all treatments offered, preventive therapies were most commonly performed. Conclusion:The most common oral health problems among the study population were gingivitis and dental caries. There is need for improved oral health promotion strategies and provision of services for these underserved populations.


Teacher education is under assault from the corporatization of public education. There is evidence that reductive, essentialized/ing discourses of standardization and compliance exert intense pressures on teacher education, and a market-based, audit culture constricts conceptions of the "good teacher". Despite the pervasiveness of neoliberal discourses, little is known about how student teachers experience increased corporatization in education, or about how they act rather than are acted upon in this context. In examining these dynamics, we explore the following research questions: (a) How do student teachers make sense of neoliberal discourses in teaching? (b) How do student teachers experience the process of what Hammerness describes as "teacher visioning" in the context of neoliberal discourses? (c) What, if any, effect does visioning have on their responses to these discourses? We draw on qualitative data including focus groups, interviews, and document analysis from a group of early childhood student teachers enrolled in a public teacher education program and placed in field sites around eastern Massachusetts. Based on our findings, we argue that teacher visioning can, under certain circumstances, serve as an impetus for student teacher resistance to neoliberal pressures.