Abstract. Himalayan glaciers are important natural resources and climate indicators for densely populated regions in Asia. Remote sensing methods are vital for evaluating glacier response to changing climate over the vast and rugged Himalayan region, yet many platforms capable of glacier mass balance quantification are somewhat temporally limited due to typical glacier response times. We here rely on declassified spy satellite imagery and ASTER data to quantify surface lowering, ice volume change, and geodetic mass balance during 1974–2006 for glaciers in the eastern Himalayas, centered on the Bhutan–China border. The wide range of glacier types allows for the first mass balance comparison between clean, debris, and lake-terminating (calving) glaciers in the region. Measured glaciers show significant ice loss, with an estimated mean annual geodetic mass balance of −0.13 ± 0.06 m w.e. yr−1 (meters of water equivalent per year) for 10 clean-ice glaciers, −0.19 ± 0.11 m w.e. yr−1 for 5 debris-covered glaciers, −0.28 ± 0.10 m w.e. yr−1 for 6 calving glaciers, and −0.17 ± 0.05 m w.e. yr−1 for all glaciers combined. Contrasting hypsometries along with melt pond, ice cliff, and englacial conduit mechanisms result in statistically similar mass balance values for both clean-ice and debris-covered glacier groups. Calving glaciers comprise 18 % (66 km2) of the glacierized area yet have contributed 30 % (−0.7 km3) to the total ice volume loss, highlighting the growing relevance of proglacial lake formation and associated calving for the future ice mass budget of the Himalayas as the number and size of glacial lakes increase.


Marketing carbon offset credits generated by urban forest projects could help cities and local governments achieve their financial self-sufficiency and environmental sustainability goals. Understanding the value of carbon credits sourced from urban forests, and the factors that determine buyers' willingness to pay a premium for such credits could benefit cities in strategically marketing carbon credits to generate revenue. This study surveyed business organisations participating in carbon trading in order to explore the factors influencing buyers' willingness to pay for urban forest carbon credits in alternative marketing scenarios (i.e., with and without explicit recognition of purchase). Results suggest that buyers are willing to pay a premium for carbon credits sourced from urban forests and the amount of this premium was influenced by the purchasing business's ownership type, size, geographical scope of operations, and the level of importance placed on the co-benefits provided by urban trees.


We present results of a re-analysis of archival EUVE data of the central region of the Virgo cluster. We employ the new analysis method developed by Bowyer, Berghöfer & Korpela (1999) and find diffuse emission reaching out to a distance of ≈ 13. The spatial distribution of this flux is incompatible with a thermal plasma origin. We investigate whether this emission is due to inverse Compton scattering of relativistic electrons against the 3 K black-body background. We show that this emission cannot be produced by an extrapolation to lower energies of the observed synchrotron radio emitting electrons and an additional component of low energy relativistic electrons is required. In addition to discussing the diffuse EUV emission, we present an analysis of the EUV emission originating from the jet in M87.


Objective: Sulfur mustard (SM) is an alkylating agent that can affect cornea and induce various complications. With regard to the role of the enzyme collagenase in dermatologic complications induced by SM and its role in other ocular disorders, we studied the effect of SM and nitrogen mustard (NM) on collagen degradation by collagenase. Materials and methods: This study included 7 groups of samples: The negative control group contained collagen without collagenase and toxins, the control group contained collagen and collagenase without any toxin, the positive control groups of NM and SM contained collagen and NM or SM without collagenase, the experimental groups of NM and SM contained collagen that was affected by NM or SM and collagenase, and the control group of collagenase contained only collagenase without containing collagen or receiving toxins. After incubation for 3.5 hours, the amount of hydroxyproline and the protein content of the samples were measured. Data were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: The protein concentrations of the negative control group and the positive control groups of SM and NM were significantly lower than those for all other groups of the study. There was a significant difference in hydroxyproline concentration of control group and negative control group; however, there was no significant difference between experimental group of SM and the positive conrol group of SM. There was no significant difference between the negative control group and the positive control group of SM in the hydroxyproline concentration of sediment samples. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, SM can affect the corneal collagen in a way in which collagenase cannot degrade it. In addition, it can be hypothesized that ineffective activity of this enzyme can result in increasing concentration of collagenase, which can lead to the destruction of the normal collagen of the cornea. The main result of this study confirms the hypothesis that SM inhibits the effect of collagenase on corneal collagen.


BACKGROUND
Health-care financing should be equitable. In many developing countries such as Kenya, changes to health-care financing systems are being implemented as a means of providing equitable access to health care with the aim of attaining universal coverage. Vertical equity means that people of dissimilar ability to pay make dissimilar levels of contribution to the health-care financing system. Vertical equity can be analysed by measuring progressivity.

OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to analyse progressivity by measuring deviations from proportionality in the relationship between sources of health-care financing and ability to pay using Kakwani indices applied to data from the Kenya Household Health Utilisation and Expenditure Survey 2007.

METHODS
Concentration indices and Kakwani indices were obtained for the sources of health-care financing: direct and indirect taxes, out of pocket (OOP) payments, private insurance contributions and contributions to the National Hospital Insurance Fund. The bootstrap method was used to analyse the sensitivity of the Kakwani index to changes in the equivalence scale or the use of an alternative measure of ability to pay.

RESULTS
The overall health-care financing system was regressive. Out of pocket payments were regressive with all other payments being proportional. Direct taxes, indirect taxes and private insurance premiums were sensitive to the use of income as an alternative measure of ability to pay. However, the overall finding of a regressive health-care system remained.

CONCLUSION
Reforms to the Kenyan health-care financing system are required to reduce dependence on out of pocket payments. The bootstrap method can be used in determining the sensitivity of the Kakwani index to various assumptions made in the analysis. Further analyses are required to determine the equity of health-care utilization and the effect of proposed reforms on overall equity of the Kenyan health-care system.


Background: Progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) is a group of heterogeneous autosomal recessive disorders attributed to hepatocellular cholestasis, characterized by low serum γ-glutamyl transferase (GGT) levels due to mutation in ATP8B1.
Case Presentation: We present a case of 2-year-old male child who experienced persistent marked pruritus, jaundice, and failure to thrive since 3 months of age. He was diagnosed as PFIC on the basis of histology, biochemical, and clinical finding. On genetic analysis by next generation sequencing, a novel homozygous missense variation in exon 19 of the ATP8B1 gene [chr18:g.55335672C>T; Depth: 71x] resulting in the amino acid substitution of Glutamic acid for Glycine at codon 733 [p.Gly733Glu;ENST00000536015.1], which was confirmed by sanger sequencing of parents.
Conclusion: We report a case of PFIC type 1 with a novel homozygous missense variation in exon 19 of the ATP8B1 gene with both mother and father as heterozygous carrier. Further confirmation of this variant in ATP8B1 mutation will occur by identification of similar phenotypes with similar mutation.


A Special Review Board (SRB) formed by the University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC) has investigated allegations of research misconduct brought to its attention by the U.S. Office of Research Integrity (Case DIO 3995) and found two instances of data fabrication in Figure 9 of the above article [Das S, Tosaki A, Bagchi D, Maulik N, and Das DK (2006) J Pharmacol Exp Ther 317:980–988; http://dx.doi.org/10.1124/jpet.105.095133]. The SRB voted unanimously that these instances represented research misconduct as defined in the UCHC's policy.


In response to scientific breakthroughs in biotechnology, the development of new technologies, and the demands of a hungry capitalist marketplace, patent law has expanded to accommodate a range of biological inventions. There has been much academic and public debate as to whether gene patents have a positive impact upon research and development, health-care, and the protection of the environment.

In a satire of prevailing patenting practices, the English poet and part-time casino waitress, Donna MacLean, sought a patent application - GB0000180.0 - in respect of herself. She explained that she had satisfied the usual patent criteria - in that she was novel, inventive, and useful:

It has taken 30 years of hard labor for me to discover and invent myself, and now I wish to protect my invention from unauthorized exploitation, genetic or otherwise. I am new: I have led a private existence and I have not made the invention of myself public. I am not obvious (2000: 18).

MacLean said she had many industrial applications. 'For example, my genes can be used in medical research to extremely profitable ends - I therefore wish to have sole control of my own genetic material' (2000: 18). She observed in an interview: 'There's a kind of unpleasant, grasping, greedy atmosphere at the moment around the mapping of the human genome ... I wanted to see if a human being could protect their own genes in law' (Meek, 2000).

This special issue of Law in Context charts a new era in the long-standing debate over biological inventions. In the wake of the expansion of patentable subject matter, there has been great strain placed upon patent criteria - such as 'novelty', 'inventive step', and 'utility'. Furthermore, there has been a new focus upon legal doctrines which facilitate access to patented inventions - like the defence of experimental use, the 'Bolar' exception, patent pooling, and compulsory licensing. There has been a concerted effort to renew patent law with an infusion of ethical principles dealing with informed consent and benefit sharing. There has also been a backlash against the commercialisation of biological inventions, and a call by some activists for the abolition of patents on genetic inventions.

This collection considers a wide range of biological inventions - ranging from micro-organisms, plants and flowers and transgenic animals to genes, express sequence tags, and research tools, as well as genetic diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical drugs. It is thus an important corrective to much policy work, which has been limited in its purview to merely gene patents and biomedical research. This collection compares and contrasts the various approaches of a number of jurisdictions to the legal problems in respect of biological inventions. In particular, it looks at the complexities of the 1998 European Union Directive on the Legal Protection of Biotechnological Inventions, as well as decisions of member states, such as the Netherlands, and peripheral states, like Iceland. The edition considers US jurisprudence on patent law and policy, as well as recent developments in Canada. It also focuses upon recent developments in Australia - especially in the wake of parallel policy inquiries into gene patents and access to genetic resources.


We investigate a negatively charged donor centre (D−) trapped by a quantum dot, which is subjected to a Gaussian potential confinement. Calculations are carried out by using the method of numerical diagonalization of Hamiltonian within the effective-mass approximation. The dependence of the ground state of the negatively charged donor on the dot size and the potential depth is studied. The same calculations performed with the parabolic approximation of the Gaussian potential lead to the results that are qualitatively and quantitatively different.


Current USFDA and EMA guidance for drug transporter interactions is dependent on IC50 measurements as these are utilized in determining whether a clinical interaction study is warranted. It is therefore important not only to standardize transport inhibition assay systems but also to develop uniform statistical criteria with associated probability statements for generation of robust IC50 values, which can be easily adopted across the industry. The current work provides a quantitative examination of critical factors affecting the quality of IC50 fits for P‐gp inhibition through simulations of perfect data with randomly added error as commonly observed in the large data set collected by the P‐gp IC50 initiative. The types of errors simulated were (1) variability in replicate measures of transport activity; (2) transformations of error‐contaminated transport activity data prior to IC50 fitting (such as performed when determining an IC50 for inhibition of P‐gp based on efflux ratio); and (3) the lack of well defined "no inhibition" and "complete inhibition" plateaus. The effect of the algorithm used in fitting the inhibition curve (e.g., two or three parameter fits) was also investigated. These simulations provide strong quantitative support for the recommendations provided in Bentz et al. ( ) for the determination of IC50 values for P‐gp and demonstrate the adverse effect of data transformation prior to fitting. Furthermore, the simulations validate uniform statistical criteria for robust IC50 fits in general, which can be easily implemented across the industry. A calibration of the t‐statistic is provided through calculation of confidence intervals associated with the t‐statistic.


Diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by persistent hyperglycemia. The two most common forms of diabetes are type 1 diabetes (T1D, previously known as insulindependent diabetes or IDDM) and type 2 diabetes (T2D, previously known as non-insulin-dependent diabetes or NIDDM). Both are caused by a combination of genetic and environmental risk factors. However, there are other rare forms of diabetes that are directly inherited. These include maturity onset diabetes in the young (MODY), and diabetes due to mutations in mitochondrial DNA.


To enable a comparison of different pressfit acetabular cups objective criteria are essential. The aim of this study is to describe the design features of this type of cup and to analyse currently available cups. 30 implants were systematically measured and analysed. The mean surface roughness (Ra) was determined and configurations established with the light section technique. For further evaluation the cups were transversely sectioned. The cups are made of pure titanium, titanium alloy or polyethylene coated with titanium. Five implants take the form of monoblocks. The configuration is predominately (n = 25) flattened spherical. The size of eight cups corresponds to the outer diameter, 19 cups have a larger outer diameter (overdimensioning), 3 cups have a smaller outer diameter (underdimensioning). The magnitude of overdimensioning is, on average, 1.9%. 9 cups are provided with plugs, hollow cylinders, fins or rings as outer stabilizers. Surface roughness achieved with corundum blasting is 6.8 microns. Titanium porous-coated implants have a surface roughness of 21-32 microns. 24 cups have polyethylene inserts, most of which are snap-fixed with equatorial lips. For 16 cups, full-ceramic inserts are available. 4 cups have a metal insert. Titanium implants with structured or HAC-coated surfaces have become the accepted standard for cementless acetabular cup implantation. Together with ceramic, metal, or modified polyethylene inserts they meet the requirement for permanent osteo-integrative stability.


This thesis aims to contribute to the existing literature relating to household finances and well-being by considering three related, yet distinct, topics. Recently, household finances and well-being have received increasing academic attention for numerous reasons, including the recent economic downturn. This thesis aims to explore household finances, well-being and the relationship between them.

Chapter 2, the first empirical chapter, investigates the determinants of household financial portfolio allocation in the U.S. by exploring the proportion of total financial assets allocated to four distinct asset categories. The chapter employs a variety of econometric techniques to ascertain whether accounting for the proportional nature of the dependent variables influences the estimated coefficients. The analysis shows that it is important to separate decisions over holding different asset types and the proportions held.

Chapter 3 explores the relationship between the household's financial position and well-being in Britain, Australia and Germany. Building on the existing literature by employing panel data techniques, the analysis suggests that subjective financial position is an important determinant of well-being, while monetary levels of the household's financial situation have a limited direct impact on well-being.

Chapter 4 aims to ascertain the determinants of the subjective financial position and further explores the relationship between the head of household's subjective financial position and overall life satisfaction in Australia and Germany. It is found that assets and net wealth are positively related to the subjective financial position, whereas debt levels are inversely related. In addition, risk attitudes are found to be an important determinant of subjective financial position.

For Australia, once a joint modelling approach is implemented, there is no statistical relationship found between the head of household's subjective financial position and overall life satisfaction. In Germany, the subjective financial position appears to mediate the relationship between monetary financial measures and overall life satisfaction.


As digital data sources grow in number and size, they pose an opportunity for computational investigation by means of text mining, NLP, and other text analysis techniques. The HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC) was recently established to provision for automated analytical techniques on the over 11 million digitized volumes (books) of the HathiTrust digital repository. The HTRC data store that hosts and provisions access to HathiTrust volumes needs to be efficient, fault-tolerant and large-scale. In this paper, we propose three schema designs of Cassandra NoSQL store to represent HathiTrust corpus and perform extensive performance evaluation using simulated workloads. The experimental results demonstrate that encapsulating the whole volume within a single row with regular columns delivers the best overall performance.


Objective: Asthma is a heterogeneous disease that affects millions of adults and children in the United States. The patho-mechanism of asthma is still being elucidated and therapies that control this disease have limitations. It is important to be able to distinguish various asthma phenotypes to allow personalized treatments.
Methods: Pediatric asthmatics from one single institution were enrolled for genomic DNA repository study if they fit the WHO guidelines for severe persistent asthmatics. Various personal health information of the first 100 children were reviewed including gender, age, smoke exposure, lung function test, ICU admissions, controller medication, insurance, body mass index, and allergy skin testing results.
Results: Review of the cohort showed a younger population with a median age of 9 years old. Most importantly, 97% of the patients were found to be atopic. Other findings include a predominantly African American population (89%), mainly holding public insurance (76%), and a significantly overweight and obese (56%) cohort.
Conclusion: The rate of atopy in our cohort of pediatric severe asthmatic children is extremely high, likely due to a warm and humid climate leading to high pollination, mold spores and dust mite content. Early aggressive environmental control and allergen immunotherapy, weight control and social changes are needed. Keywords: Severe asthma; Pediatric; Phenotype; Atopy; Obesity


Thermal models are used to predict temperature distributions of heated tissues during thermal therapies. Recent interest in short duration high temperature therapeutic procedures necessitates the accurate modelling of transient temperature profiles in heated tissues. Blood flow plays an important role in tissue heat transfer and the resultant temperature distribution. This work examines the transient predictions of two simple mathematical models of heat transfer by blood flow (the bioheat transfer equation model and the effective thermal conductivity equation model) and compares their predictions to measured transient temperature data. Large differences between the two models are predicted in the tissue temperature distribution as a function of blood flow for a short heat pulse. In the experiments a hot water needle, approximately 30 degrees C above ambient, delivered a 20 s heating pulse to an excised fixed porcine kidney that was used as a flow model. Temperature profiles of a thermocouple that primarily traversed the kidney cortex were examined. Kidney locations with large vessels were avoided in the temperature profile analysis by examination of the vessel geometry using high resolution computed tomography angiography and the detection of the characteristic large vessel localized cooling or heating patterns in steady-state temperature profiles. It was found that for regions without large vessels, predictions of the Pennes bioheat transfer equation were in much better agreement with the experimental data when compared to predictions of the scalar effective thermal conductivity equation model. For example, at a location r approximately 2 mm away from the source, the measured delay time was 10.6 +/- 0.5 s compared to predictions of 9.4 s and 5.4 s of the BHTE and ETCE models, respectively. However, for the majority of measured locations, localized cooling and heating effects were detected close to large vessels when the kidney was perfused. Finally, it is shown that increasing flow in regions without large vessels minimally perturbs temperature profiles for short exposure times; regions with large vessels still have a significant effect.


Most existing topology control algorithms assume homogeneous wireless networks with uniform maximal transmission power, and cannot be directly applied to heterogeneous wireless networks where the maximal transmission power of each node may be different. We present two localized topology control algorithms for heterogeneous networks: Directed Relative Neighborhood Graph (DRNG) and Directed Local Spanning Subgraph (DLSS). In both algorithms, each node independently builds its neighbor set by adjusting the transmission power, and defines the network topology by using only local information. We prove that: 1) both DRNG and DLSS can preserve network connectivity; 2) the out-degree of any node in the resulting topology generated by DRNG or DLSS is bounded by a constant; and 3) DRNG and DLSS can preserve network bi-directionality. Simulation results indicate that DRNG and DLSS significantly outperform existing topology control algorithms for heterogeneous networks in several aspects.


In this paper, the primary aim is to look at the fundamental melting/solidification processes of polyethylene glycol 1500 (PEG 1500) for energy storage – insulation to prolong the cooling time of pipelines in unexpected shut-down conditions, prevent/minimize the wax deposition, and hydrate formation. Polyethylene glycol 1500 was selected because its melting temperature is >317 K making it a suitable candidate as lagging material to prevent wax deposition and hydrate formation in subsea oil pipelines. Experimental apparatus was designed with the Perspex to give an insight into the melting process. Vertical and horizontal annular geometries were used to consider the real-life cases. The vertical annular enclosure length is 950 mm and 34 mm width (Height/Width=27.94). The horizontal annular enclosure length is 300mm and 15.9 mm width (Height/Width=18.87). The thermocouples and camera are used to collect the data for three cases of inner wall temperature of 333 K,343 K and 353 K where is the heat added to the phase change material (PCM) for both cases. The main conclusions are: i) the horizontal annular case melt faster than the vertical case, in particular, at higher heating surface temperature of 353 K, ii)The temperature of the inner region was remained hot for long time which provide a good evidence that support the concept of using the PCM as heat storage–insulation material; iii) the melting percentage for horizontal case is 100% higher from the melting percentage of vertical case at 333 K which reduced to about 20% for 343 K, iv) increasing the heating surface temperature substantially reduces the total melting time for both orientations.


Disease progression models are a powerful tool for understanding the development of a disease, given some clinical measurements obtained from longitudinal events related to a sample of patients. These models are able to give some insights about the disease progression through the analysis of patients histories and can be also used to predict the future course of the disease for an individual. In particular, Hidden Markov Models are suitable for disease progression since they model the latent unobservable states of the disease. In this work, we propose a HMM where the outcome is multivariate and its components are not independent; to accomplish our aim, since we do not make any usual normality assumptions, we model the outcome using copulas. We first test the performance of our model in a simulation setting and show the validity of the method. Then, we study the course of Heart Failure, applying our model to an administrative dataset from Lombardia Region in Italy, showing how episodes of hospitalization can give information about the disease status of a patient.


Beside a number of physical, physiological, psychological, and social impairments, cancer and its treatment can also reduce balance abilities. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of a one-week winter camp with an intense alpine skiing program on balance ability of pediatric cancer patients in the follow-up care. Eighteen pediatric cancer patients (intervention group IG; age 10.2 ± 4.6 years) and eight healthy children for comparison (healthy group HG; age 12.3 ± 3.3 years) participated in the intervention. The results were compared to corresponding readings of a control group that consisted of 13 pediatric cancer patients (control group CG; age 9.8 ± 2.4 years) of a conventional stationary rehabilitation program. Balance ability was tested by using a Nintendo Balance Board (NBB) equipped with a "Low Cost Force Lab" software as the measurement device, with the Mean Euclidian Distance as a measure for stability within a 30sec trial on both legs and on each leg separately. The results revealed that (a) the patients of the IG exhibited significantly lower balance abilities in the pretest in the one-leg trial for the left leg compared to the CG and the HG, (b) the IG improved their abilities significantly on both single-leg and the both-leg trial, and (c) that the IG improved their values close to that of the HG. The study showed that impaired balance abilities in pediatric cancer patients caused by the disease and its treatment can be improved within a rather short time period to the level of their healthy counterparts.


Abstract 4768

Background – India, with more than a billion population, has a huge burden of blood and cancer disorders many of which can be cured only by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). More than 1500 transplants have been done till 2005 over a 20 year period in about 10 centers out of which 880 have been allogeneic HSCT and all have been from matched related donors (MRD).Unrelated HSCT is the only option for the patients without a MRD. It is almost impossible to find an unrelated matched donor in India due to ethnic diversity and lack of unrelated donor registries. Some public cord blood banks have been set up in India. So finding a suitable cord blood unit within India is possible. Unrelated Cord Blood Transplant (UCBT) is the only feasible option for patients who need to undergo unrelated HSCT in India but lack of experience and huge costs are perceived barriers. Data from USA showed mean cost of graft for pediatric UCBT was $58,910 and mean cost per day survived in first 100 days (excluding graft cost) was $4522 ((Majhail NS et al. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2010;54:138–143). The costs of UCBT among children in India have not been described previously.

Method - We calculated the costs of UCBT within the first 100-days among four children who received UCBT at Sir Ganga Ram hospital from April 2008 to Dec 2010. We also analyzed costs of transplantation in relation to patient age, weight, single vs. double cord, conditioning, Graft vs. Host Disease (GVHD) and mean duration of stay before day 100.

Results - The 100-day probability of overall survival was 100%. The mean cost per day survived (excluding costs of graft acquisition) was $402 (range $360-460)) for UCBT recipients. Average total cost of each UCBT was $43500 (Range $32000-52000). Average duration of stay in hospital in first 100 days was 89 days (range 75–100). All grafts were procured from a public cord bank in India. Average cost of graft per cord unit was $5000. Diagnosis was thalassemia major-2, Familial Hemophagocytic Lympho Histiocytosis (HLH)-1 and AML-1. Lowest cost was for AML ($32000) and highest was for Pesaro class III thalassemia major ($52000). Mean age was 2.75 years (range 1–5 year). Mean weight was 12.25 kg (range 10–16 kg). Mean cell dose infused was 7 × 107 nucleated cells/kg weight of recipient (range 3–10 × 107nucleated cells/kg). Conditioning was Busulfan and Cyclophosphamide (BuCY) and Rabbit Anti-Thymoglobulin (ATG) for two patients (1 Thalassemia, 1 AML) costing $1500 per patient, Fludarabine & Melphalan and Campath for HLH costing $2500 and Treosulfan, Thiotepa, Fludarabine and ATG for class III thalassemia costing $7500. Mean cost per day for single cord was $385 and for double cord UCBT was $420. One patient rejected the graft. Three engrafted at median of 32 days (range 28 –39 days). GVHD was seen in two patients (both with double cord). CMV reactivation was seen in all cases. Invasive aspergillosis was seen in one patient who had thalassemia and it lead to highest expenditure. Campath based conditioning was associated with maximum hospital stay in child with HLH. All had Lansky score >90 pre-transplant No one needed dialysis, mechanical ventilation or hepatic veno-occlusive disease.

Conclusions - Total cost of UCBT in India is less than the cost of the UCBT graft in USA and mean cost per day in India is almost one tenth of cost per day in USA. Low cost of UCBT in India would make this treatment feasible for many more patients who need to undergo unrelated HSCT.

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Abstract : In this report, we discuss the validation of water level and current predictions from three coastal hydrodynamic models and document the resource and operational requirements for each modeling system. The ADvanced CIRCulation Model (ADCIRC), the Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM) and Delft3D have been configured and validated for the Chesapeake Bay region during a Navy exercise. Water level predictions are compared with a NOAA/NOS water level gauge at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel location while current predictions are validated with Acoustic Doppler Profiler (ADP) measurement records at three locations in the lower Chesapeake Bay. Statistical metrics such as correlation coefficient and root mean square error (RMSE) are computed. Both the vertically integrated currents and currents at varying water depths are compared as well. The model-data comparisons for surface elevation indicate all three models agreed well with water level gauge data. The two-dimensional version of ADCIRC, ADCIRC2D, and NCOM yield better statistics, in terms of correlation and RMSE, than Delft3D. For vertically integrated currents, ADCIRC2D has the smallest RMSE at Thimble Shoal and Naval Station locations while NCOM has the smallest RMSE at Cape Henry. For the horizontal currents over the water column, the fully three-dimensional, baroclinic ADCIRC model, ADCIRC3D, and NCOM both showed better agreement with the ADP measurement


ABSTRACT The Blue Economy is an emerging framework through which sustainable development is being pursued within the oceans. To date there is limited guidance into how a Blue Economy should be enacted. We propose four initial steps in the development of Blue Economy policies and plans. Firstly, we argue for early deliberation over what is meant by the Blue Economy within the relevant context. Secondly, consideration of the sectors that make up a Blue Economy should be articulated. Thirdly, we argue that Blue Economy plans should aim to be coherent within the existing policy framework. Therefore, an assessment is required of the existing policy settings for the relevant marine and coastal sectors, and the degree to which they are already coherent, or 'mutually consistent' with each other. Finally, a contextually sensitive and coherent Blue Economy policy can be designed which plugs policy gaps and adds value to the existing situation. We test the application of these four steps in two different case study areas, a region of Australia and Timor Leste. Despite substantial differences in context, the process identified ways in which Blue Economy policies could add value to existing governance arrangements in both settings.


Most tests of preferred habitat theory are indirect; they infer the existence of preferred habitat behaviour in financial markets by examining the behaviour of asset prices. We instead identify preferred habitat behaviour directly from whether investors show a preference towards a particular duration habitat. We do so by making use of a newly available and highly granular data set on the UK government bond (gilt) market, which allows us to examine investors' gilt transactions and their daily stock of gilt holdings during 2016 and 2017. Using cluster analysis, we find that investors can be classified into distinct groups, some of which more closely display the behavioural properties that theory associates with preferred habitat investors. We find that these groups of investors are less sensitive to price movements than other investor groups and include institutional investors, like life insurers and pension funds, which are typically associated with preferred habitat behaviour. Evidence from the Bank of England's QE4 purchase programme during August 2016 to March 2017 suggests that these investor groups sold relatively more of their gilt holdings to the Bank than other groups of investors.


Air temperature in urban areas is strongly influenced by the
properties of surface cover, material and structure, and by
human activity. Stewart & Oke (2012) quantified these
properties and used them to introduce the definition of local
climate zones (LCZs). LCZs should ex press characteristic
temperature regimes of local-scale areas, and are supposed to
be generic; however, their link to characteristic temperatures
needs to be established based on field measurements. We
investigated the link between LCZs and temperature in the
central European cities of Brno and Olomouc, which differ in
topography, relief, urban morphology and city size. We
delineated LCZs, applying a clearly defined algorithm that uses
data on the physical properties of the environment. In the next
step, we performed night-time mobile air temperature
measurements, and examined the differences between and within
the LCZs. The results show that during calm and clear weather,
the order of LCZ temperature was LCZ 2 > 5 > 8 > 6 > 9 > A = D
in Brno and LCZ 2 > 5 > 8 = 6 = 9 > B > D in Olomouc.
Temperature differences between LCZs, as well as their
significance, were more pronounced in the larger of the 2
cities (Brno). Similarly, intra-class temperature variability
was generally higher in the larger city, which has a more
complex topography. Overall, this study supports the general
LCZ temperature patterns and thus the validity of the concept
of LCZs.


With respect to the prevailing congestion problems in the more urbanised regions of the European Union, transportation planners and policymakers are facing a dilemma. Supply-side measures, i.e. increasing the capacities, might shorten the congestion duration, especially if bottlenecks can be removed. However, the addition of extra lanes in motorway bottlenecks is generally very costly, not only in terms of investment costs, but also in terms of space consumption and environmental effects. The strategy to build to provide, that is, adjusting the capacities to the expected peak demand, is sub-optimal from an economic point of view. Economists have shown that users tend to respond to congestion in a way that is not optimal from a system point of view (see for instance Waiters, 1968). In many cases, there is a mismatch between the congestion costs experienced by an individual user and the congestion costs caused by the same user, and demand-side measures might help to stimulate 'social' behaviour. The problem is, however, that it is hard to convince the public that measures like congestion pricing are really effective in preventing congestion. The allegation that congestion pricing would only result in paid queuing instead of free queuing has successfully been used in a campaign against the introduction of road pricing in the Netherlands. The objections against congestion pricing, especially the doubts about the effectiveness of this solution, are less irrational than some advocates of the pricing mechanism try to let us believe. An example is the mismatch between the willingness- to-pay of a potential road user and the utility of the planned trip, which results primarily from income differences. A related problem is the redistribution of welfare. Many (potential) road users are 'direct losers'; that is, their direct transportation costs are higher, though this might be (partially) compensated by a form of tax refunds (Thomson, 1998). Even more convincing, however, is the argument that a knowledge gap prevents even the most flexible congestion-pricing scheme to be optimal. In the ease of simultaneous pricing, the congestion costs can be calculated exactly, but the users cannot base their choices on the exact costs (Thomson, 1998). Hence, the tolls will have to be based on demand estimations, and should not vary too much. This might result in under-utilisation of the road if the tolls are too high, or, more likely, congestion if the tolls are not high enough. Moreover, since users are not capable of perfectly performing the utility-maximisation task assumed in classical economic theory, road pricing will never be a perfect way to avoid congestion.


The most prevalent cause of nosocomial bloodstream infection (BSI) among non-C. albicans Candida species, Candida parapsilosis, may not only be resistant to azole antifungal agents but also disseminate to vulnerable patients. In this survey of BSIs occurring at a large Italian hospital between May 2014 and May 2019, C. parapsilosis accounted for 28.5% (241/844) of all Candida isolates causing BSI episodes. The majority of episodes (151/844) occurred in medical wards. Across the 5 yearly periods, the rates of azole non-susceptibility were 11.8% (4/34), 17.8% (8/45), 28.6% (12/42), 32.8% (19/58), and 17.7% (11/62), respectively, using the Sensititre YeastOne® method. Among azole non-susceptible isolates (54/241; 22.4%), 49 were available for further investigation. Using the CLSI reference method, all 49 isolates were resistant to fluconazole and, except one (susceptible dose-dependent), to voriconazole. Forty (81.6%) isolates harbored the Erg11p Y132F substitution and nine (18.4%) isolates the Y132F in combination with the Erg11p R398I substitution. According to their genotypes, as defined using a microsatellite analysis based on six short tandem repeat markers, 87.7% of isolates (43/49) grouped in two major clusters (II and III), whereas 4.1% of isolates (2/49) belonged to a separate cluster (I). Interestingly, all the isolates from cluster II harbored the Y132F substitution, and those from cluster III harbored both Y132F and R398I substitutions. Of 56 non-Italian isolates included as controls, two Indian isolates with the Y132F substitution had a genotype clearly differing from that of the isolates from clusters II and I. In conclusion, these findings show the dominance of clonal Y132F isolates in our hospital and suggest detection of the Y132F substitution as helpful tool to prevent transmission among hospitalized patients at risk of BSI.


This article studies the impact that the Cuban Revolution had on conservative political actors in Chile during the 1964 presidential campaign. At that time, Cuba served as a dystopian example for anticommunist forces through the direct identification between the Cuban experience and the Chilean Left. They utilized a "language of family" to give meaning to their rejection of any possible establishment of socialism in Chile. In this sense, an eventual electoral victory of the Marxist Left was seen as an attack—as in Cuba—on the stability of the family, traditional gender roles, and even parental control of their daughters' sexuality. These representations were widely distributed through an anticommunist propaganda campaign known as the "campaign of terror," which forged transnational networks among local actors, the CIA, and conservative Brazilian women. This triple articulation of anticommunism, Cuba, and gender became a potent discourse in the Chilean electoral campaign.


Retrieving videos of a specific person given his/her face image as query becomes more and more appealing for applications like smart movie fast-forwards and suspect searching. It also forms an interesting but challenging computer vision task, as the visual data to match, i.e., still image and video clip are usually represented quite differently. Typically, face image is represented as point (i.e., vector) in Euclidean space, while video clip is seemingly modeled as a point (e.g., covariance matrix) on some particular Riemannian manifold in the light of its recent promising success. It thus incurs a new hashing-based retrieval problem of matching two heterogeneous representations, respectively in Euclidean space and Riemannian manifold. This work makes the first attempt to embed the two heterogeneous spaces into a common discriminant Hamming space. Specifically, we propose Hashing across Euclidean space and Riemannian manifold (HER) by deriving a unified framework to firstly embed the two spaces into corresponding reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, and then iteratively optimize the intra- and inter-space Hamming distances in a max-margin framework to learn the hash functions for the two spaces. Extensive experiments demonstrate the impressive superiority of our method over the state-of-the-art competitive hash learning methods.


ABSTRACT: The heat transfer in a 3-D rectangular microchannel heat sink (MCHS) for single phase liquid flow using nanofluids is numerically investigated for laminar flow )Re = 60-700). In the present work, the performance of microchannel using CuO/H2O nanofluid as a coolant with different volume concentrations ranged from 0 % to 5% is examined. The partial governing equations of fluid flow and heat are solved using ANSYS fluent 12.0 based on finite volume method. The evaluated microchannel performance was shown in terms of temperature and velocity contours, average Nusselt number and pressure drop. The thermo-physical properties of nanofluid are evaluated to study its effect on the flow and heat transfer at a reference bulk temperature. A Constant heat flux of 100W/cm will be provided to the bottom side of highly conductive silicon substrate. The present CFD calculated wall temperature and friction factor values were associated with the analytical data and good agreement is detected. The results revealed that the nanofluids aid to improve the coefficient of heat transfer by 11% when CuO/H2O nanofluid was used. The effect of the concentration of CuO nanofluid has been discussed with Reynolds number value and with the velocity of fluid. Furthermore, plots and calculations for the heat transfer coefficients and the average Nusselt number were carried out.


An essential component of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) therapy is the prolonged maintenance phase with daily 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) as the cornerstone. While 6-MP is generally well-tolerated, some patients suffer from significant side effects such as gastrointestinal (GI) toxicity, including hepatitis, hypoglycemia, nausea, and pancreatitis, which can substantially limit the tolerated dose of 6-MP. These toxicities are thought to result from skewed metabolism of 6-MP leading to an accumulation of the 6-methylmercaptopurine (6-MMP) metabolite. Here, we describe current knowledge behind the use of allopurinol to modify 6-MP metabolism and improve tolerance to therapy. This method has been successfully used in adults with inflammatory bowel disease refractory to purine therapy and has been modified for use in children with GI toxicities related to 6-MP in maintenance therapy for ALL. Use of allopurinol for 6-MP related toxicities should be reserved for patients in which an alternative cause of signs or symptoms has been excluded and for whom non-pharmacologic measures have failed. When allopurinol is used, simultaneous dose reduction of 6-MP is required to avoid severe myelosuppression and related side effects, though overall combination therapy appears to be well-tolerated and effective when instituted appropriately.


There appears to be little literature available -either descriptive or research-related - on language testing in the military. This form of specific purposes assessment affects both military personnel and civilians working within the military structure in terms of posting, promotion and remuneration, and it could be argued that it has serious social consequences if not carried out professionally and to the highest standard. This article provides a general overview of the language testing that is carried out by military teams in Central and Eastern Europe, using the findings of three surveys conducted with teams in this region. It explores the design problems the teams have had to deal with, the political issues that influence the work they do, and the progress they have been able to make over recent years. The article concludes with an attempt to link these findings to broader issues in the assessment of English for Specific Purposes.


Because foods are consumed in combination, it is difficult in observational studies to separate the effects of single foods on the development of diseases. A possible way to examine the combined effect of food intakes is to derive dietary patterns by using appropriate statistical methods. The objective of this study was to apply a new statistical method, reduced rank regression (RRR), that is more flexible and powerful than the classic principal component analysis. RRR can be used efficiently in nutritional epidemiology by choosing disease-specific response variables and determining combinations of food intake that explain as much response variation as possible. The authors applied RRR to extract dietary patterns from 49 food groups, specifying four diabetes-related nutrients and nutrient ratios as responses. Data were derived from a nested German case-control study within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Potsdam study consisting of 193 cases with incident type 2 diabetes identified until 2001 and 385 controls. The four factors extracted by RRR explained 93.1% of response variation, whereas the first four factors obtained by principal component analysis accounted for only 41.9%. In contrast to principal component analysis and other methods, the new RRR method extracted a significant risk factor for diabetes.


In a previous work, we introduced a fuzzy-based color image segmentation method for detecting the "relevant colors" of an image, founded on color histogram analysis. The present paper outlines the whole process and introduces the construction of a new fuzzy paradigm-based color histogram, which uses color components' stability degrees to modify a set of histogram positions according to the uncertainty of the pixel color components. The processing of such histogram provides a group of fuzzy sets that fit the number and domain of image's relevant colors better than the processing of the traditional color histogram. Moreover, the image segmentation results are more similar to the human visual perception of the scene.


Effects of substrate temperature and phosphor doping on electrochemical characteristics of the silicon film anode were investigated. The silicon thin films were synthesized directly on copper foil by radio-frequency capacitively coupled plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition (r.f.-CVD). The cyclability of the silicon anode greatly depends on the surface morphology and surface resistivity. The silicon film anodes which have granular structure and high conductivity showed higher cyclabilty than those of planer and low conductivity, respectively.


Current multi/many-core systems spend large amounts of time and power transmitting data across on-chip interconnects. This problem is aggravated when data-intensive applications, such as machine learning and pattern recognition, are executed in these systems. Recent studies show that some data-intensive applications can tolerate modest errors, thus opening a new design dimension, namely, trading result quality for better system performance. In this article, we explore application error tolerance and propose an approximate communication framework to reduce the power consumption and latency of network-on-chips (NoCs). The proposed framework incorporates a quality control method and a data approximation mechanism to reduce the packet size to decrease network power consumption and latency. The quality control method automatically identifies the error-resilient variables that can be approximated during transmission and calculates their error thresholds based on the quality requirements of the application by analyzing the source code. The data approximation method includes a lightweight lossy compression scheme, which significantly reduces packet size when the error-resilient variables are transmitted. This framework results in fewer flits in each data packet and reduces traffic in NoCs while guaranteeing the quality requirements of applications. Our cycle-accurate simulation using the AxBench benchmark suite shows that the proposed approximate communication framework achieves 62% latency reduction and 43% dynamic power reduction compared to previous approximate communication techniques while ensuring 95% result quality.


The objectives of this study were to find out: (1) whether or not there was any significant improvement in students' English vocabulary achievement after they were taught by using Role-Playing Game (RPG) Video Games and (2) the students' perceptions on using RPG video games in learning English vocabulary. This study involved 20 eighth grade students. However, only 14 students were taken as the sample for the vocabulary tests and 19 students as the sample for the preference questionnaire due to the students' absence during the vocabulary test and questionnaire administration. To collect the data, the students were given 4 vocabulary tests consisting of a pre-test, two progress tests, and a post-test, as well as a preference questionnaire which were analyzed by using paired sample t-test and percentage procedure. The findings showed that: (1) there was a significant improvement in the students' vocabulary achievement between the pre-test and the post-test (p=0.000 < α=0.05) and (2) 95% of the students preferred using RPG video game to study English vocabulary. In conclusion, RPG video game was effective and preferable to be used in teaching vocabulary for the eighth grade students of SMP LTI IGM Palembang.


As states become parties to international human rights treaties, they undertake the obligation to provide periodic state reports to UN human rights treaty bodies. Officially, state reports are paramount vehicles of factual information of a given state's human rights situation. Unofficially their status may be contested and their data reduced to state propaganda. This article examines this transformation through the submission of China's first state report to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The article shows how human rights documents of diverse genres join together in a continual ceremony of dialogue. It connects minute details of treaty body proceedings to more general developments in the international human rights field, and argues that beneath the veneer of diplomatic conduct accompanying human rights dialogue lays an intense struggle for representation and legitimacy. It further discusses how this struggle reflects the recent rise of Kantian theories of international law. These theories seek to re-evaluate the foundational concept of international law, namely 'sovereign equality', and thus continue the mission civilatrice that has characterized elements of international collaboration for centuries.


The authors develop a model of NLRB decision-making that, unlike the models employed in previous studies, distinguishes between decision-making in more important, complex cases and less important, simpler cases. Using a representative sample of Board decisions over 1957–86, they find that in deciding the minority (20%) of disputes that were particularly important or complex, Board members were influenced by their personal preferences and those of Presidents who appointed them—a finding consistent with the results of previous studies. In the remaining cases (about 80%), however, Board members were influenced in their decisions by little more than the recommendations of regional offices and administrative law judges. Another finding that substantially modifies the conclusions of earlier studies is that Board members appear to have been highly influenced by their accountability to the public when deciding more important, complex cases.


The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) reached pandemic world-wide especially in Italy from early March 2020 Many factors were under discussion among public health experts for the exorbitant mortality rate in Italy than other countries A coordinated global response was desperately needed to prepare health systems to meet this unprecedented challenge in Italy This review illustrates predictions, chronic comorbidities, effects of COVID 19 on Italian health system Covid disease affecting the elderly population with co-morbidities, the same was associated in the mortality rate among elder population in Italy in a greater rate The mortality rate in Italy was also higher due to the asymptomatic cases not being tested and isolated with initial screening The most serious outcome of COVID 19 pneumonia was recorded among the population in Italy Exhausted number of ICU's beds, ventilators and respirators revealed their un-preparedness for the covid-19 pandemic This review thus focuses on the various factors to be considered in future pandemics by analyzing the covid - 19 pandemic in Italy © 2020 Ubiquity Press All rights reserved


Student understanding of biological representations has not been well studied. Yet, we know that to be efficient problem solvers in evolutionary biology and systematics, college students must develop expertise in thinking with a particular type of representation, phylogenetic trees. The purpose of this study was to understand how undergraduates make sense of phylogenetic representations presented in a plant systematics course designed to promote student tree thinking expertise. The primary data sources were two-tiered pre/posttests and interviews with key informants. Using observations and document analysis as supporting data, we identified multiple misconceptions within students' knowledge of systematics not previously identified in the literature. Relying upon these misconceptions, students developed alternative types of reasoning that interfered with interpreting and using trees. We constructed a classification of student reasoning and identified a suite of varying levels of approaches that went beyond misreading the topology of phylogenetic trees to include the persistent use of nonevolutionary reasoning to address phylogenetic problems. We categorized student reasoning as extraneous, ecological, morphological, branch influenced, tree shape influenced, node influenced, limited phylogenetic, and phylogenetic. By better understanding our students reasoning by qualitative assessments, these findings have implications for curriculum, instruction, and assessment strategies. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed95:794–823, 2011


In this paper, a method for handling imperfect labels using belief functions has been presented. By extracting different types of features from data, the proposed method takes advantage of information redundancy and complementariness between sources. The initial label of each training sample is ignored and based on its closeness to prototypes of the main classes, it is then reassigned to one class or any subset of the pre-defined classes. Multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network is used as base classifier and its outputs are interpreted as basic belief assignment (BBA) and in this way, partial knowledge about the class of a test pattern is encoded. The BBAs are then discounted based on the reliability of the base classifiers in identifying validation samples and are pooled using Dempster's rule of combination. Experiments with artificial and real data demonstrate that, by considering the ambiguity in labels of the learning data, the proposed method can outperform single and ensemble classifiers that solve the classification problem using data with initial imperfect labels.


The results of the integrated study of metal waste from Almalyk Mining-Metallurgical Plant (AMMP) are reported. Non-ferrous, noble and rare-metal reserves in waste from the dressing and metallurgical conversion of copper-molybdenum and lead-zinc deposits were evaluated. Analysis of the chemical composition and distribution of non-ferrous, noble, rare and toxic metals and their mode of occurrence in artificial waste from AMMP has shown that they are highly complex ores which could be used to increase metal production at AMMP.


THE PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PHARMACOLOGICAL SOCIETIES in the UK have been aware for some time that statistical testing and data presentation in our journals can fall short of the high standards that we wish to maintain. Over recent years other medical and life science journals have made substantial efforts to address similar problems. For example, the BMJ set out to improve reporting in medical journals through a sustained campaign of education and guidance (5). Among basic life science journals, the American Physiological Society notably has tried to improve statistical reporting in its journals (1; 2). A more recent initiative was a series of revealing 'worked examples', starting in 2007 (4). Our Societies recently endorsed the ARRIVE guidelines for reporting experiments involving animals (3), which repeat the same advice on statistical reporting. Nevertheless, in many instances the quality of data presentation and statistical analysis can be poor, and this despite the widespread availability of books, articles, websites and easily used statistical packages. We feel that these messages, which are often a plea for simplicity, have not reached a critical mass of authors, and more needs to be done to raise reporting standards. To meet this need, we are publishing a series of short articles to provide clear non-technical guidance for authors on best practice in statistical testing and data presentation. Several other life science journals share our concerns and are also publishing the articles to broadcast the message as widely as possible. The articles will appear monthly over the next 15 months. Authorship of the series was a key question in early discussions. To get the project up and running we asked local authors to generate articles and get the project started. One of us, Gordon Drummond, Senior Statistics Editor for The Journal of Physiology, has had the help of a qualified medical statistician, Sarah Vowler (Cancer Research UK), in writing these articles. Others may become involved with future articles. We invite comment on the articles, as we are well aware that there is no single path, and valid differences of opinion should be considered. We recognise that in some fields, special means of data presentation and statistical treatment are required. We intend to address some of these fields and we would be happy to receive suggestions for topics. We may not explore these topics in depth, because the over-riding aim is to keep the articles simple to encourage easy reading and widespread application. The prime aim is to illustrate good practice and illuminate the perils and problems that often trap the unwary. The articles will be published under a non-exclusive licence to enable free re-use and duplicate publication in multiple journals. They will be published simultaneously in The Journal of Physiology, Experimental Physiology, The British Journal of Pharmacology, the American Physiological Society's Advances in Physiology Education, Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology, and Microcirculation. We have adapted our Guidelines for Authors to reflect the advice given in the articles and will collate the articles in virtual collections as a resource for authors, students and teachers.


This paper increases the bandwidth of a phosphorescent white light emitting diode (LED) employed in an indoor visible light communication (VLC) system. A new distribution pattern for the same number of used LEDs increased the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and enhanced the uniformity of the illumination. The indoor VLC system is modelled using the proposed pattern and the theoretical analysis is presented. Compared to other studied patterns, the average power received was increased from 1.62 dBm to 3.17 dBm, simulations using MATLAB show the improvement in the power received distribution within the room. The maximum bit error rate (BER) at a data rate of 30 Mb/s was also reduced from 3.26 × 10-25 to 1.59 × 10-25. A proposed design to the equalization circuit at the transmitter end was also presented that was able to extend the VLC link bandwidth from a few Megahertz (MHz) to 325 MHz.


Abstract Background Rectal gonorrhea (NG) and chlamydia (Connecticut) infections are common among men who have sex with men (MSM). Rectal douching/enema (RDE) is a common practice among MSM that can affect the rectal microbiome. It is unclear if this practice is associated with acquiring rectal infections (RI) with either NG or CT. Methods From 2013–2015, 398 adult HIV-negative MSM and transwomen were enrolled in a randomized controlled study on text messaging for adherence to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Participants were surveyed on sexual behavior, frequency of RDE, drug use, and nutritional habits in conjunction with routine sexually transmitted infection testing. Pearson's χ 2 and two sample t-tests were used to measure significance of RDE and other risk factors with RI. Multivariable logistic regression model was used to control for confounding and assess the association of RDE with RIs. Confounders (i.e., age, number anal receptive sex, number sex partners) were selected a priori for inclusion in the final model based on a causal model and statistical significance. Results Of 397 participants, 262 (67%) performed RDE and 132 (33%) had at least one NG or CT rectal infection over 48 weeks. Number of condomless anal receptive sex acts (mean = 19, P < 0.001), condom use for anal receptive sex (P = 0.017), number of male sex partners in past 3 months (mean = 14, P = 0.001), and the use of poppers (P < 0.001) were associated with RI. There was no significant association between nutritional habits, probiotic foods or supplements and RI, with the exception of energy bars (P = 0.029). Controlling for confounders, RI was associated with RDE less than weekly with OR = 1.02 (95% CI 0.52–1.99) while RDE weekly or more had OR = 2.08 (95% CI 1.03–4.17). Stratified by number of partners, MSMs with more than the median (>6) number of partners had OR = 4.96 (95% CI 1.29–19.03) if performing RDE less than weekly, and OR = 6.03 (95% CI 1.55–23.49) if weekly or more. Conclusion Rectal hygiene with douching/enemas is a common practice among MSMs on PrEP, which increases the odds of acquiring rectal NG and/or CT. This finding is suggestive for the use of rectal hygiene products/practices as potential targets for sexually transmitted infection prevention. Figure 1 Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.


We have developed an interferometric interpolation method for filling in trace gaps in common-shot gathers. There are two steps for implementation. First, virtual traces are created in the trace gaps by crosscorrelating recorded traces in a shot gather followed by summing correlated trace pairs over all shot positions. Second, a 1D matching filter is applied to the predicted events to correct for wavelet and amplitude distortions. By using a 1D assumption (assuming a layered medium around the midpoint in a common-midpoint (CMP) gather), the interferometric interpolation method can be applied to CMP gathers. It is a fully data-driven method that requires only the original data. Results with synthetic and field data empirically show that the near-offset traces can be interpolated; but because of the approximations introduced by a limited recording aperture, there are still some artifacts. For comparison, a 2D nonstationary prediction-error filter (PEF) was also used instead of a 1D matching filter in the se...


A thesis submitted to the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health Sciences,
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial
fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Master of Science, 2002


Polymorphisms in CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5), the major coreceptor of human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), have a major influence on HIV-1 transmission and disease progression. The effects of these polymorphisms may, in part, account for the differential pathogenesis of HIV-1 (immunosuppression) and SIV (natural resistance) in humans and non-human primates, respectively. Thus, understanding the genetic basis underlying species-specific responses to HIV-1 and SIV could reveal new anti-HIV-1 therapeutic strategies for humans. To this end, we comparedCCR5 structure/evolution and regulation among humans, apes, Old World Monkeys, and New World Monkeys. The evolution of theCCR5 cis-regulatory region versus the open reading frame as well as among different domains of the open reading frame differed from one another. CCR5 cis-regulatory region sequence variation in humans was substantially higher than anticipated. Based on this variation, CCR5 haplotypes could be organized into seven evolutionarily distinct human haplogroups (HH) that we designated HHA, -B, -C, -D, -E, -F, and -G. HHA haplotypes were defined as ancestral to all other haplotypes by comparison to theCCR5 haplotypes of non-human primates. Different human and non-human primate CCR5 haplotypes were associated with differential transcriptional regulation, and various polymorphisms resulted in modified DNA-nuclear protein interactions, including altered binding of members of the NF-κB family of transcription factors. We identified novel CCR5 untranslated mRNA sequences that were conserved in human and non-human primates. In some primates, mutations at exon-intron boundaries caused loss of expression of selected CCR5 mRNA isoforms or production of novel mRNA isoforms. Collectively, these findings suggest that the response to HIV-1 and SIV infection in primates may have been driven, in part, by evolution of the elements controlling CCR5 transcription and translation.


In Russia, two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Stalin's
 popularity soared in nationwide polls, as many recalled the country's former
 prestige and their previous sense of security. Likewise, many Serbs, who
 formed the largest group in former Yugoslavia, look back with nostalgia to a
 time of greater national pride and material comfort. By contrast the
 dominated ethnic populations in that same nation at that same time were
 frustrated in their striving for national pride. Each polity has a story
 fashioned by selected and connected events that promote its national
 interests. Although the physical battle in former Yugoslavia has ended, the
 divisiveness remains, and is perpetuated by competing narratives of what
 happened and why. And in Russia, an increasingly emergent "invisible
 Stalinism" has once again given victims of the repression little validation
 of their experience. This article offers preliminary observations on the
 disjunction of narratives in Russia and Serbia, and seeks to explain one of
 the key impediments to coming to terms with the past.


Civilization was achieved in north-central Peru during the 3rd millennium BC, between the Santa and Chillon valleys, including the interconnecting valleys toward the east and extending up to the Marafion and Huallaga Rivers (i.e., the region where civilization first emerged in the Central Andes consisted of coast, highlands and Andean forest). Here settlements with both public and domestic architecture have been identified. Prior to my own project, published archaeological research about the northcentral area of the Central Andes strongly suggested its precocious development. These previous investigations included coastal settlements such as Rio Seco (Wendt i964), Bandurria (Fung i988), and Aspero (Feldman 1980) as well as investigations in highlands sites such as La Galgada (Grieder et al. i988) and Huaricoto (Burger and Salazar-Burger 1980) and in Andean forest communities such as Kotosh in the Huallaga Basin (Izumi and Sono 1963; fzumi and Terada 1972) and Piruro in the Marafion Basin (Bonnier and Rozenberg 1988). These studies supported inferences that inhabitants lived in organized settlements with public buildings sharing architectural features as well as specific religious rites and ceremonies resulting from periodic interaction. The recurring presence of a group of cultural features in these societies has already been suggested to have been an integrated cultural complex, the Kotosh Religious Tradition (Burger and SalazarBurger 1980, 1985). The Supe Valley stands out among the valleys in this region for the quantity, size and complexity of monumental architecture within its settlements. The urban centers of Aspero, Piedra Parada, Era de Pando, Caral, Miraya, Lurihuasi, Pueblo Nuevo, Allpacoto, Pefiico and Huacache, among others in the Supe Valley, were inhabited nearly contemporaneously with the Sumerian cities of Mesopotamia and the construction of the Pyramid of Sakara or the later pyramids of Giza in Egypt. But unlike Old World societies such as Mesopotamia, Egypt and India that had exchange networks of goods and knowledge allowing them to benefit from each other's experiences, the Peruvian process took place in total isolation from other societies on the continent. Indeed, the rise of civilization in Peru preceded


A novel design methodology for filter and multiplexer design is presented. For the first time, finite-element electromagnetic (EM)-based simulators and space-mapping optimization are combined to produce an accurate design for manifold-coupled output multiplexers with dielectric resonator (DR) loaded raters. Finite-element EM-based simulators are used as a fine model of each multiplexer channel, and a coupling matrix representation is used as a coarse model. Fine details such as tuning screws are included in the fine model. The DR filter and multiplexer design parameters are kept bounded during optimization. The sparsity of the mapping between the design parameters and the coupling elements has been exploited. Our approach has been used to design large-scale output multiplexers and it has significantly reduced the overall tuning time compared to traditional techniques. The technique is illustrated through design of a five-pole DR filter and a ten-channel output multiplexer.


The Caribbean is well known for its tropical islands fringed by beautiful coral reefs. However, reefs nowadays shift from coral dominance to dominance by algae and cyanobacteria, probably due to eutrophication and overfishing. This is known for shallow reefs on the leeward side of islands. The deep (mesophotic, > 30 m deep) reefs are considered to be important as providers of offspring to shallow reef communities that are arguably more affected by climate change, overfishing and unsustainable coastal development. Mesophotic reefs are probably also important on the wind ward side of islands: due to high wave exposure benthic communities are largely confined to the mesophotic region. These mesophotic reefs are still mostly unexplored because of their remoteness or inaccessibility. Incidental deep dives and submarine dives have established sites where well developed reef communities have been found (Curacao), but also where large areas with cyanobacterial mats (Bonaire) were observed. Cyanobacteria are known to proliferate under eutrophied conditions and to be stimulated by global warming. We hypothesize that submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is a main and continuous nutrient transport route from land to sea on Caribbean islands and cause proliferation of cyanobacterial mats. Understanding its role in the onshore-offshore hydro(geo)logy of the island is a prerequisite for cost-effective waste (water) management on the island and consequently improved health of the coral reefs.


Synthesis of different kinds of nanotubes were considering after the discovery of carbon nanotubes . Lately has been noticed synthesis of vanadium oxide nanotubes. Vanadium oxide nanotubes are made of multilayer scrolls with thick walls built up from several vanadium oxide layers. This compunds be used as catalysts, molecular sieves, absorbents and energy storage devices. In this research study for the first time Titanium doped vanadium oxide nanotubes (VONTs) were synthesized and characterized. This nanotubes have been synthesized by hydrothermal treatment at 180OC.Vanadium metal is known to be a catalytically active center in different molecular materials. Ti-doped VONTs were performed by using hydrothermal method. The structure and morphology of the nanotubes were investigated by x- ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Brunaur Emmett Teller Theory (BET). In contrast to the undoped VONTs, the interlayer distance between oxide layers in the (V0.95Ti0.05)xONTs increases owing to replacement of some V in nanotubes by Ti. The main objective of the study is to titanium doped vanadium penta-oxide nanotubes. The results showed that Titanium 0.05wt% doped VONTs.


The paper adds a category to the list of possible negative steering effects of bibliometric indicators with a category for changes in credit assignment. The results of a longitudinal study of credit assignment practices in the fields of economics and information science are presented. The practice of alphabetization of authorship is demonstrated to vary significantly between the two fields. A slight increase is demonstrated to have taken place in economics during the last 30 years (1978-2007). A substantial decrease is demonstrated to have taken place in information science during the same period. A possible explanation for the demonstrated difference could be that information scientists have been much more aware of the bibliometric consequences of being first author compared to their colleagues in comparable fields (e.g., economics). This and other possible reactive tendencies of bibliometric indicators are presented and discussed.


Fluids engineering is extremely important in a wide variety of materials processing systems, such as soldering, welding, extrusion of plastics and other polymeric materials, Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), composite materials manufacturing. In particular, mixed convection due to moving surfaces is very important in these applications. Mixed convection in a channel, as a result of buoyancy and motion of one of its walls has received little research attention and few guidelines are available for choosing the best performing channel configuration, particularly when radiative effects are significant. In this study a numerical investigation of the effect of radiation on mixed convection in air due to the interaction between a buoyancy flow and an unheated moving plate induced flow in a uniformly heated convergent vertical channel is carried out. The moving plate has a constant velocity and moves in the buoyancy force direction. The principal walls of the channel
 are heated at uniform heat flux. The numerical analysis is accomplished by means of the commercial code Fluent. The effects of the wall emissivity, the minimum channel spacing, the converging angle and the moving plate velocity are investigated and results in terms of air velocity and temperature fields inside the channel and wall temperature profiles, both of the moving and the heated plates, are given. Nusselt numbers, both accounting and not for the radiative contribution to heat removal, are also presented.


As marine renewable resources begin to become a feasible energy source, it becomes crucial to investigate the nearshore impact of hydrodynamic and morphodynamic processes. As part of the implementation of turbines in the numerical modeling environment of Telemac-3D and Sisyphe modules, we conducted a 10-year run to evaluate nearshore impacts of turbines in the flow. We used five criteria to define viable locations. Turbines sites were added to a conversion energy model coupled into the hydrodynamic model in order to develop properly the flow changes towards the energy conversion process. The results revealed that in the three chosen spots, turbines were not converting equally the current energy within the site. In fact, the turbines located on the outer side of the farm developed greater conversion rates. This impacted the nearshore in the following ways: (1) the decrease in the currents intensity that generates strong adjustments in the water column, breaking the natural pattern of vertical circulation; (2) development of lateral flows that in time affects the bottom dynamics and results in changes in sediment deposition; and (3) increase in bedload transport rates around the turbine's field due to divergence in the flow. The idealized turbines sites produced 1,775 GWh in 10 years, which could provide electricity to 54,181 residences during this period.


In this paper, we present the theory, design and imple-mentation of generalized linear-phase paraunitary nonuni-form filter bank (GenLPPUNUFB). Tree structure of wavelet transform is regarded as nonuniform filter bank (NUFB), and it will be adopted in JPEG2000 which will become the next standard for still image coding. However 2-channel linear-phase paraunitary NUFB (LPPUNUFB) does not exist except for Haar function, so it isn't optimal in the sense of transform coding gain. Although direct structured LPPUNUFB, which overcomes tree structured LPPUNUFB (Haar function), has already been presented [3], it is not general. Therefore we develop lattice structure of GenLPPUNUFB, and we show some examples and confirm the validity of our method.


EXPLORING INTERACTIONS DURING MULTIORGANIZATIONAL POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: A CASE STUDY OF THE VIRGINIA COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM Madeleine Wright McNamara Old Dominion University, 2008 Director: John C. Morris, Ph.D. Organizations face implementation challenges compounded by complex and interconnected public problems. In the environmental arena, the inabilities of individual organizations to resolve these problems independently are exacerbated by the scope, duration, and tremendous diversity of tasks coupled with a lack of funding. As a result, multiorganizational arrangements are created as public, private, and nonprofit organizations work together to implement policy. These relationships increase organizational capacities through the diversification of resources and expertise. Multiorganizational implementation is complicated by various legal authorities, missions, goals, and operational procedures that guide individual organizations. One way to approach these complexities is to expand our understanding of the different types of interactions that occur between organizations. The purpose of this study is to explore the use of cooperation, coordination, and collaboration between 15 federal/state agencies, local governments, and nongovernmental organizations when working together to implement the Virginia Seaside Heritage Program. Inquiry into the empirical presence of different types of multiorganizational interactions makes two contributions to theory. First, the Multiorganizational Implementation Model is developed and presented as a framework that utilizes the policy implementation and interorganizational theory literatures to distinguish between cooperation, coordination, and collaboration. A theoretical foundation for comparing different types of interactions creates opportunities for consistent theoretical inquiry. Second, this is the first time that a model focused on different types of multiorganizational interactions is applied to a policy implementation setting. Broadening the scope of current inquiry to explore different types of interactions improves our theoretical understanding of policy implementation in multiorganizational arrangements. A continuum of interaction may help theorists move beyond a narrow reconciliation of the top-down/bottom-up approaches towards a fourth generation of implementation research. Textual data are gathered through document review and 34 semistructured interviews. Findings support the utility of the Multiorganizational Implementation Model in explaining interactions between organizations in this setting. In addition, administrators perceive collaborative interactions to occur within the multiorganizational arrangement when implementing the Virginia Seaside Heritage Program. Finally, interactions during multiorganizational implementation are initiated formally and informally in ways other than the current body of literature explores.


Prostatic abscess involving the seminal vesicle is a rare disease due to the widespread use of broad-spectrum antibiotics in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms. With the elevated risk of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA), a great emphasis on its pathogenicity in prostatic abscesses is required. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to describe the use of ultrasound perfusion imaging and traditional computed tomography to diagnose a patient with CA-MRSA prostate abscess involving the seminal vesicle. In the present case, the patient was successfully treated via adjuvant antibiotics and transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS)-guided prostate needle aspiration. Prostatic abscess involving the seminal vesicle is an uncommon disease with a potential risk of mortality if the appropriate treatment is not provided, and thus deserves particular attention. Ultrasound perfusion imaging plays an important role in the diagnosis of prostatic abscess involving the seminal vesicle. In the present case, early treatment with adjuvant antibiotics and TRUS-guided needle aspiration of the prostatic abscess resulted in a shorter hospital stay, and lower risk of local recurrence and mortality.


: Experimental fungal keratitis was established in the pigmented rabbit by intralamellar injection of Aspergillus fumigutus suspension after superficial corneal trephination. Examination of clinical manifestations was combined with light microscopy, SEM, TEM, and slit-lamp microscopy in the study of pathological and symptomatic development. The morbidity occurred in all the 45 eyes inoculated, as corneal ulcer (100%), immunity ring (72%), hypopyon (64%), and radial turbidity of hyphae growth (28%); satellite lesions were not found. The pathogenesis of keratomycosis possibly included direct damage by fungal extension, infiltration of polymorphonuclear leucocytes, and action of fungal toxins. The pathological basis for the clinical manifestations of keratomycosis was also discussed.


To achieve a balanced walking for a humanoid, it is necessary to estimate the dynamic stability of the system. However, in a small size humanoid with restricted system resource, it is hard to satisfy the performance level desired by dynamics analysis. Therefore, in this paper, we propose the feasible methods to generate gait pattern and stabilize walking based on coupled oscillators which have a clear correlation between oscillator parameters and system dynamics without a real time ZMP calculation. The proposed method was tested on the open humanoid platform DARwIn-OP for the evaluation, and the result showed that a real time gait pattern generation and stabilization were realized.


Manufacturing industry plays an important role in Malaysian business systems.This is because it contributes to the national economic growth by creating jobs.However, this industry in small and medium scale has generated a lot of job opportunities to the citizen of Malaysia. Thus, this study approaches small and medium scale business focusing in manufacturing industry to examine their productivity and efficiency in Malaysia.The measurement of productivity and efficiency are among the important indicator that are capable in showing the technology progress of manufacturing industry and being done in Kedah.This study has involving 40 manufacturing enterprises in Kedah.The information needed is gained through structural interview with the owner of the business.The data for measuring productivity and efficiency has been collected within the period of 2004 – 2007, which comprised of five main variables – one output and four inputs.The output variable of the study is sales, while the inputs are the employee salary, capital, material cost and cost of energy consumption. Both, parametric and non-parametric is used in the measurement.For the parametric approach, the Cobb-Douglas model that has been trans-log is being adapted to get the technology efficiency of the industry.On the other hand, the non-parametric approach is utilized in measuring 1) partial and total productivity, 2) the efficiency for each of the business unit via Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA).This study finds that the productivity progress for partial and total indicated the positive achievement for the period 2004 – 2007.The highest productivity level is 14.7%, coming from the employee productivity. While the lowest is the productivity based from capital, only around 1.5% for year 2007.The measurement of technology efficiency, that also known as technical progress has achieved 15% for that year. Also being found out is the percentage of business unit that get 100% score or one, which are 15%, illustrating that 85% of the research business unit are not efficient. It is also shown by the average of total efficiency score which is below 50%, only 0.42.These findings illustrated that, even though the productivity measurement always positive and the ratio is bigger than one, but the efficiency level of the business unit still need the good management in order to optimize their utilization of resources.


Even though many programmers rely on 3-way merge tools to integrate changes from different branches, such tools can introduce subtle bugs in the integration process. This paper aims to mitigate this problem by defining a semantic notion of conflict-freedom, which ensures that the merged program does not introduce new unwanted behaviors. We also show how to verify this property using a novel, compositional algorithm that combines lightweight summarization for shared program fragments with precise relational reasoning for the modifications. Towards this goal, our method uses a 4-way differencing algorithm on abstract syntax trees to represent different program versions as edits applied to a shared program with holes. This representation allows our verification algorithm to reason about different edits in isolation and compose them to obtain an overall proof of conflict freedom. We have implemented the proposed technique in a new tool called SafeMerge for Java and evaluate it on 52 real-world merge scenarios obtained from Github. The experimental results demonstrate the benefits of our approach over syntactic conflict-freedom and indicate that SafeMerge is both precise and practical.


"The Rough Guide to the USA" is your definitive state-by-state guidebook to this vast and fascinating country. From a baseball game in Chicago and Yellowstone's National Park to the towering Washington Monument and the astonishing southwest desert, the full-colour introduction highlights all the 'things-not-to-miss'. There are insider reviews of all the best places to stay, eat and drink, both on and off the beaten track, with the new 'Author's Pick' feature highlighting the very best options. There is plenty of expert advice on a multitude of activities, from hiking in the Grand Canyon to experiencing New York Coty nightlife. The guide takes a detailed look at the country's history, culture and people and comes complete with maps and plans for every region, state and major city. "The Rough Guide to the USA" is like having a local friend plan your trip!


ABSTRACT Analysis of the fate of retrovirally transduced cells after transplantation is often hampered by the scarcity of available DNA. We evaluated a promising method for whole-genome amplification, called multiple displacement amplification (MDA), with respect to even and accurate representation of retrovirally transduced genomic DNA. We proved that MDA is a suitable method to subsequently quantify engraftment efficiencies by quantitative real-time PCR by analyzing retrovirally transduced DNA in a background of untransduced DNA and retroviral integrations found in primary material from a retroviral transplantation model. The portion of these retroviral integrations in the amplified samples was 1.02-fold (range 0.2, to 2.1-fold) the portion determined in the original genomic DNA. Integration site analysis by ligation-mediated PCR (LM-PCR) is essential for the detection of retroviral integrations. The combination of MDA and LM-PCR showed an increase in the sensitivity of integration site analysis, as a specific integration site could be detected in a background of untransduced DNA, while the transduced DNA made up only 0.001%. These results show for the first time that MDA enables large-scale sensitive detection and reliable quantification of retrovirally transduced human genomic DNA and therefore facilitates follow-up analysis in gene therapy studies even from the smallest amounts of starting material.


Numerous employers provide flexible working schedules in order to attract a more diverse range of potential employees. However, not all employees use the flextime option provided by their employer. This study seeks to understand what types of employees in creative research and development (R&D) jobs utilize the flexible working time option. We present probit estimates based on data from our original repeated survey of Estonian creative R&D employees on a sample of seventy-two individuals from eleven entities. We find age, residential status, and the number of young children in the family to be associated with the use of flexible working schedules. Those who have families opt for flextime use with a significantly higher probability than those who are living alone. The more under-school-age children the employee has, the less likely it is that he or she uses flexible schedules. Older employees appear to be more likely to use flexible schedules than their younger colleagues. Although the sample for our study is small, these pilot results may provide some background information for employers in the R&D business for making decisions about the arrangement of work in light of employee diversity in flextime use preferences.


Polypeptoids have been of great interest in the polymer science community since the early half of the last century; however, they had been basically forgotten materials until the last decades in which they have enjoyed an exciting revival. In this mini-review, we focus on the recent developments in polypeptoid chemistry, with particular focus on polymers synthesized by the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides (NCAs). Specifically, we will review traditional monomer synthesis (such as Leuchs, Katchalski, and Kricheldorf) and recent advances in polymerization methods to yield both linear, cyclic, and functional polymers, solution and bulk thermal properties, and preliminary results on the use of polypeptoids as biomaterials (i.e immunogenicity, biodistribution, degradability, and drug delivery).


Adsorption of guest molecules on host surfaces can lead to dramatic changes in the spectral properties of the guest. One such effect is surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA), observed when the guest is adsorbed on, for example, thin films, metal surfaces, or nanotubes. p-Nitrobenzoic acid (p-NBA) exhibits a SEIRA effect when adsorbed on Ag and Au. Herein, the IR spectra of p-NBA adsorbed on a homemade rough Au surface, recorded in reflection mode with an angle of incidence of 16.5°, are reported. This SEIRA experiment reveals more bands than found by previous SEIRA studies. The intensities of both symmetric and asymmetric COO(-) and NO(2) stretching, in-plane CH, and C=C ring stretching modes are enhanced. Theoretical models constructed on the basis of density functional theory reveal the binding mode of p-NBA to gold "particles". The p-NBA anion binds to gold much more strongly than the neutral form, and interaction via the carboxylic oxygen atoms is preferred over the nitro group-gold contact. A significant charge transfer during chemisorption is found, which is considered to be crucial in leading to a high SEIRA enhancement factor.


The aqueous and ethanol extracts of Nerium oleander used for the treatment of infectious disease were tested for their active against gram positive and gram negative bacteria isolated from burns infection culture using the broth dilution and disc diffusion method. Results of this study revealed the presence of phytochemical which were active against gram positive and negative bacteria. Ethanol extracts of plant showed highest activity other than aqueous extract. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the aqueous extracts on the test organism was 25- 100 mg/ml, while that of the ethanol extract ranged between 25 -50 mg/ml on the test organisms, the minimum bacterial concentration (MBC) ranging between 25-100 mg/ml for ethanol extract, and 25-200 mg\ml for aqueous extracts. The highest activity at 45 o C was demonstrated by the ethanol extracts of Nerium oleander against Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella spp. In this study plant extracts against gram negative bacteria showed activity in acidic pH only in contrast of gram positive bacteria which were constant in plant extract. Nerium oleander contained essential elements at higher levels. The results of this study suggest the possibility of using the ethanolic extracts of plant in treating diseases caused by the test organisms, especially when prepared at acidic pH.


Background Injuries continue to be significant health problems and leading causes of death and disability in many populations. Aims A household survey was conducted to determine the external causes of injuries among people living in Tehran, Iran. Methods Using cluster random sampling approach, a household survey was conducted in April 2007, seeking information about external causes and severity of injuries occurred within families in past Persian year. External causes were classified according to ICD-10 and analysed using SPSS 16. Results Out of 9173 household participants, 765 ones (8.3%) had injuries with male to female ratio of 0.54 : 1 during the past Persian year. Injuries occurred mostly due to 'exposure to the inanimate mechanical forces', while the second and third causes were 'contact with heat or hot substances' and 'falls', respectively. When it comes to required attention injuries, the incidence rate was 175.5 per 10 000 person per year with male to female ratio of 2.37 : 1 and mostly associated with 'falls' and 'transport accidents'. Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces and also burns mostly occurred among middle aged women at home and leaded to open wounds and superficial burns respectively. Young boys were more vulnerable to falls which mostly took place at home and sport places and frequently resulted in superficial injuries and fractures. Traffic accidents mostly took place among middle aged men and leaded to fractures and superficial injuries. Contribution to the Field The priority in injury prevention programme should be given based on common external causes and to traffic and home injuries.