OBJECTIVE Neuropathic pain due to small-fiber sensory neuropathy in type 2 diabetes can be diagnosed by skin biopsy with quantification of intra-epidermal nerve fiber (IENF) density. There is, however, a lack of noninvasive physiological assessment. Contact heat–evoked potential (CHEP) is a newly developed approach to record cerebral responses of Aδ fiber–mediated thermonociceptive stimuli. We investigated the diagnostic role of CHEP. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS From 2006 to 2009, there were 32 type 2 diabetic patients (20 males and 12 females, aged 51.63 ± 10.93 years) with skin denervation and neuropathic pain. CHEPs were recorded with heat stimulations at the distal leg, where skin biopsy was performed. RESULTS CHEP amplitude was reduced in patients compared with age- and sex-matched control subjects (14.8 ± 15.6 vs. 33.7 ± 10.1 μV, P < 0.001). Abnormal CHEP patterns (reduced amplitude or prolonged latency) were noted in 81.3% of these patients. The CHEP amplitude was the most significant parameter correlated with IENF density (P = 0.003) and pain perception to contact heat stimuli (P = 0.019) on multiple linear regression models. An excitability index was derived by calculating the ratio of the CHEP amplitude over the IENF density. This excitability index was higher in diabetic patients than in control subjects (P = 0.023), indicating enhanced brain activities in neuropathic pain. Among different neuropathic pain symptoms, the subgroup with evoked pain had higher CHEP amplitudes than the subgroup without evoked pain (P = 0.011). CONCLUSIONS CHEP offers a noninvasive approach to evaluate the degeneration of thermonociceptive nerves in diabetic neuropathy by providing physiological correlates of skin denervation and neuropathic pain.


Raised shore platforms, are rocky surfaces formed by wave action and subaerial weathering during global high sea level stands. The present height of the raised shore platforms is attributed to several factors, mainly to eustatic sea level changes, isostatic changes in the relative level of land and sea, and vertical tectonic activities. The aim of this study is to investigate the detailed morphology of the raised shore platform along the rocky coastline between Daghmar and Dhabab, in the southeastern part of Muscat Governorate. The study also intends to establish a tentative chronology of the raised shore platforms development. The methodology is based on field observation and documentation, along with satellite and aerial photographs analysis. The results have shown that the study area has a sequence of five successive, well developed raised shore platforms and well preserved, except the platform at 10m altitude which is only found in isolated fragments. The formation of the raised shore platforms has been affected by a number of constructive factors including tectonic activity, and destructive factors such as fluvial action and subaerial weathering. No absolute dating has been reported or can be obtained from the study area, due to its erosional nature. However, dating from the shorelines adjacent to the study area, ranging in heights from 3 to 15m above sea level, revealed a narrow range of 26,400 to 29,600 years. This period coincides with the last glaciations when the sea level was at about 75m below the present level, and thus did not match with the altitudes of the platforms. This suggests that the platforms could be belong to the last interglacial high sea level, when the sea level stood at about 6m above the present level. Based on this scenario, the study concludes that the coastline of the study area has not experienced any significant uplift during the Late Quaternary.


[1] Using 59 days of magnetic field data from SCATHA, a study of the electromagnetic proton cyclotron instability as a generation mechanism for EMIC waves in the Earth's magnetosphere has been conducted. From 1181 events found, we selected 373 events that were not influenced by the presence of He + and O + ions, i.e., events with frequency above the local He + cyclotron frequency and that had all the required accompanying data. These events occurred in all magnetic local times (MLT) sectors, with L ranging from 5.6 to 8.1 and magnetic latitudes (MLAT) from -13.7° to 15.6°. Assuming a pure proton plasma, the proton temperature anisotropy, Ap, is determined from the maximum normalized frequency at which power is emitted. Using measured parameters and estimated total number density, the convective growth rate, S, of Electromagnetic Ion Cyclotron (EMIC) waves as a function of frequency depends only on the parallel proton temperature, T ∥ . Matching the observed peak in the frequency spectrum and the calculated peak in S allows the determination of T ∥ and the proton perpendicular temperature, T ⊥ , for each event. Analysis of the results yields a new empirical expression for A p as a function of the hot proton parallel beta, β ∥h , and the maximum value of the wave temporal growth rate. The relationship between A p and β ∥h is consistent with theoretical predictions. The dependence of Ap on T ∥ is consistent with the expectation that the free energy source of EMIC waves is energetic protons with T ⊥ > T ∥ .


The combination of hierarchical porous transition-metal oxides with ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) with a favorable electrochemical performance beyond single-component materials is still very challenging. The present work demonstrates the general and targeted synthesis of hybrid heterostructures by the integration of porous transition-metal oxides (TMOs, e.g. NiO, Co3O4 and Fe2O3) and 2D MoS2 nanosheets. The as-prepared vertically aligned MoS2–NiO hybrids exhibit an excellent pseudocapacitive performance, such as a high specific capacitance of 1080.6 at 1 A g−1 and long cycling durability with 101.9% capacitance retention after 9000 cycles at 2 A g−1. This facile strategy using low-cost precursors is regarded as a general method to hybridize 2D MoS2 with other porous TMOs, such as Co3O4 and Fe2O3, with largely improved pseudocapacitive performances due to a favorable synergistic effect between MoS2 and TMOs with an enhanced electronic/ionic transport. Asymmetric supercapacitors using MoS2–TMO hybrids as both positive and negative electrodes are also demonstrated. As a proof-of-concept, the as-assembled MoS2–NiO//MoS2–Fe2O3 asymmetric supercapacitor operating within the potential window of 0–1.8 V delivers a high energy density of 39.6 W h kg−1 with a long cycle life and excellent rate capability.


Previous approaches to fault and failure modeling are based on adding explicit models of faults/failures, and failure propagation to behavioral and architectural modes. This adds a lot of overhead (extra work), and also, is a cause of creating inconsistencies, especially by obtaining a mismatch between failures and violation of requirements or specifications. Instead of creating separate models for failures, the idea here is to exploit the fundamental definition of failures as violation of requirement or specification. We assume that the systems functionality is specified using a set of requirements, and in particular, requirements structured according to contracts theory. Instead of creating separate models for failure propagation, we exploit the structuring of requirements obtained when the system is specified using contracts theory. The use of contracts theory establishes a formal framework for how traceability links between requirements themselves and to the architecture are specified. It is further explained how fault and failure propagation models in the form of Bayesian Networks are obtained. One particular challenge is the modeling of faults/failure and their propagation when fault management mechanisms have been implemented. Therefore this area is covered in some extra depth.


Food has functioned both as a source of continuity and as a subject of adaptation in the course of human history. Onions have been a staple of the European diet since the Paleolithic era, while the orange is once again being cultivated in great quantities in Southern China, where it was originally cultivated. Other foods-such as the apple and pear in Central Asia, the tomato in Mexico, the chili pepper in South America, and rice in South Asia-remain staples of their original regions and of the world diet today.Still other items are now grown in places that would have seemed impossible in the past-bananas in geothermally heated greenhouses in Iceland, corn on the fringes of the Gobi, and tomatoes in space. But how did humans discover how to grow and consume these foods in the first place? How were they chosen over competing foods? How did they come to be so important to us? In this charming and frequently surprising compendium, Gregory McNamee gathers revelations from history, anthropology, chemistry, biology, and many other fields, and spins them into entertaining tales of discovery, complete with delicious recipes from many culinary traditions around the world. Among the 30 types of food discussed in the course of this alphabetically-arranged work are: the apple, the banana, chocolate, coffee, corn, garlic, honey, millet, the olive, the peanut, the pineapple, the plum, rice, the soybean, the tomato, and the watermelon. All of the recipes included with these diverse food histories have been adapted for recreation in the modern kitchen.


The coronavirus spike protein is a membrane-anchored glycoprotein responsible for virus-cell attachment and membrane fusion, prerequisites for a successful virus infection. In this thesis, two aspects are described regarding the molecular biology of the coronavirus spike protein: its membrane fusion mechanism and its assembly into the virion. Chapter 2 and 3 deal with the role in membrane fusion of two heptad repeat regions (a structural motif with a high propensity to form an alpha-helical coiled coil) in the spike protein of the mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) and the recently discovered SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) respectively. The membrane-distal (HR1) and the membrane-proximal (HR2) heptad repeat domain of the spike protein were biochemically and functionally characterized. Peptides corresponding to the HR1 and HR2 regions, when mixed together, assembled into a thermostable, rod-like six-helix bundle consisting of three HR1 and three HR2 helices oriented in an antiparallel fashion. This six-helix bundle complex supposedly represents a postfusion conformation that is formed after insertion of the fusion peptide, proposed here for coronaviruses to be located immediately upstream of HR1, into the target membrane. The resulting close apposition of fusion peptide, and spike transmembrane domain facilitates membrane fusion. The HR2 peptide of the MHV and SARS-CoV was found to be a potent inhibitor of the MHV and SARS-CoV infection respectively, presumably by binding to the HR1 region in the spike protein in a dominant-negative manner, thereby preventing membrane fusion. Chapter 4 deals with the cleavage necessity of the MHV spike protein for infection and cell-cell fusion, a requirement for the membrane fusion capacity of similar membrane fusion proteins of different virus families. Cleavage of the MHV spike protein was blocked in a concentration-dependent manner by a peptide furin inhibitor, indicating that furin or a furin-like enzyme, is responsible for this process. While cell-cell fusion was clearly affected by preventing spike protein cleavage, virus-cell fusion was not, indicating that these events have different requirements. Chapters 5 and 6 focus on the assembly requirements of the spike protein. In chapter 5 the flexibility of the virion was examined with respect to the incorporation of a recombinant spike protein extended at its cytoplasmic domain with the green fluorescent protein. The spike protein is incorporated into the assembling virion by interactions with the viral membrane (M) protein. The extension of the spike cytoplasmic domain did neither abrogate its interaction with the M protein nor its incorporation into virus-like particles. Moreover, a recombinant virus with the spike gene replaced by the S-GFP chimeric gene was viable and resulted in fluorescent virions bearing the S-GFP chimeric spikes. However, viruses carrying the S-GFP gene were genetically instable. Virion incorporation of spikes carrying the large GFP moiety was impaired and selected against during the assembly of virions. Chapter 6 describes a mutational analysis of the spike virion incorporation requirements. We show that the cytoplasmic domain, not the transmembrane domain, determines the association with the membrane protein M protein, and is sufficient to effect the incorporation into viral particles of chimeric spikes as well as of foreign viral glycoproteins.


to an infection control doctor. Case 3 was the case of a thighbone fracture patient. She had a chronic cough, but her condition was not informed to the doctor in charge. So we decide that the ward nurses should inform the respiratory condition of patients to the doctor in charge. Case 4 was the case of a tuberculous pleuritis patient. The culture examination of his pleural effusion was done., but not of his sputum. So when examinations of mycobacterium tuberculosis culture are ordered, we decide that sputum culture should be ordered to know elimination of mycobacterium tuberculosis.


This research was designed to understudy trace elements (zinc, magnesium and copper) implications in 120 subjects (60 sickle cell anemia patients and 60 non-sickle cell individuals) attending clinic at Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. Their blood samples were collected and their sera used for the estimation of zinc, magnesium and copper using inductively coupled Plasma-optical emission spectrometry technique. Their Mean ± SEM values for zinc, magnesium and Copper in 60 sickle cell anemic patients are 64.5 ± 5.9 μg/dL, 5.7 ± 1.7 mg/ L and 2.1 ± 0.1 mg/L, respectively. While those of normal or nonsickle cell patients i.e. control were 94.5 ± 4.8 μg/dL, 16.8 ± 2.9 mg/L and 1.9 ± 0.1 mg/L, for zinc, magnesium and copper, respectively). The result showed significant decrease (p < 0.05) in zinc and magnesium levels of sickle cell patients when compared with nonsickle cell subjects (control). Copper which have been implicated in antagonizing zinc for the same binding site showed no significant change in sickle cell patients when compared with the Hb-AA control group. Growth retardation factors (height and weight) significantly decreased (p < 0.05) in sickle cell patients when compared with control group. These results confirm that zinc and magnesium are deficient in sickle cell patients hence, trace element supplementation may be necessary in the management of sickle cell disease as it will arrest oxidative stress and per-oxidation with resultant stability of erythrocyte membranes as well as reduction in the rate of hemolysis and other symptoms often noticed in sickle cell anemic patients.


The association of alcohol and drugs with suicidal thinking and behavior is both causal and conducive. The subjective state of hopelessness is key to the disposition to actual suicide. Alcohol and drugs are influential in providing a feeling of hopelessness by their toxic effects, by disruption of interpersonal relationships and social supports, and, possibly, by manipulating neurotransmitters responsible for mood and judgment. Because alcoholism and drug addiction are leading risk factors for suicide and suicidal behavior, any alcoholic or drug addict should be assessed for suicide, especially if actively using alcohol or drugs.


Credit cards are complex financial instruments that have become important as tools for managing household finances. They provide a safe and convenient method of paying for goods and services, at times with added benefits such as rewards. They also provide an open-ended line of credit from which to borrow, often at rates that are higher than other forms of available credit. At the end of each billing cycle, cardholders can repay their balances in full. In doing so, they are said to transact a balance. Alternatively, cardholders may choose to repay only a portion of their balance, borrowing the unpaid portion. In this case they are said to revolve a balance. Unlike more traditional fixed term installment loans, such as mortgages or auto loans, credit card revolvers may increase or decrease the balances they revolve over time. Repayments associated with any given balance can also vary greatly, with cardholders paying as little as the minimum payment due, or as much as the total outstanding balance as of the payment due date. As a result, cardholders may revolve for short periods or for many months or years.

This report studies patterns of revolving and repayment of credit card accounts in the United States. Using data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) Credit Card Database (CCDB), it examines how often balances are revolved on an account, or borrowed, how long balances are revolved, and how regularly they are paid down. Previous CFPB reports have focused on the level and cost of outstanding credit card debt. This current report focuses on the duration of credit card indebtedness and the manner by which credit card debt is repaid. The analysis shows that about two thirds of actively used credit card accounts carry a revolving balance. Once consumers pay less than the balance due and begin to revolve on an account, they do so continuously for about 10 months on average, with approximately 15 percent revolving continuously for two years or more on that account. The longer a balance is revolved, the higher the chances that the consumer will continue to revolve a balance on the account.

Accounts also show variation in their repayment patterns. Some revolvers appear to take on debt and then make regular payments on this debt. Others show signs of revolving a more-or-less constant amount for long periods with little pay down until a lump-sum payment of the balance in full. Still others show an increase in balances over the length of their revolving debt, with rapid pay down just prior to complete repayment. These revolver types are found among prime and subprime cardholders. This suggests there may be a variety of factors underlying revolving decisions among households; furthermore, the variation in repayment profiles is observed for both high and low credit score accounts, which implies that repayment is not easily predicted by cardholders' credit score at the outset of revolving.

Finally, a cursory look at borrowing patterns across the United States reveals substantial geographic variation in both revolving rates and the duration of sustained debt periods. This
variation endures after accounting for differences credit scores just prior to revolving and is stable over time. This suggests that perhaps factors other than risk or market structure, such as for example preferences or local norms, may play a role in how and why individuals choose to revolve balances on their credit cards.


PURPOSE
The objective of this study is to investigate the relation between sport training and the risk of common illnesses: upper respiratory tract and pulmonary infections (URTPI), muscular affections (MA), and all-type pathologies in highly trained swimmers.

METHODS
Twenty-eight French professional swimmers were monitored weekly for 4 yr. Training variables included 1) in-water and dryland intensity levels: low-load, high-load, resistance, maximal strength, and general conditioning training (expressed as the percentage of the maximal load performed by each subject, at each intensity level over the study period); and 2) training periods: moderate, intensive, taper, competition, and postcompetition. Illnesses were diagnosed by a sports physician using a standardized questionnaire. Mixed-effects logistic regression analyses were used to model odds ratios for the association between common illnesses and training variables, adjusted for sport season, semiseason (summer or winter), age, competition level, sex, and history of recent events, whereas controlling for heterogeneity among swimmers.

RESULTS
The risk of common illnesses was significantly higher in winter months, for national swimmers (for URTPI), and in cases of history of recent event (notably for MA). The odds of URTPI increased 1.08 (95% CI, 1.01-1.16) and 1.10 (95% CI, 1.01-1.19) times for every 10% increase in resistance and high-load trainings, respectively. The odds of MA increased by 1.49 (95% CI, 1.14-1.96) and 1.63 (95% CI, 1.20-2.21) for each 10% increase in high load and general conditioning training, respectively. The odds of illnesses were 50%-70% significantly higher during intensive training periods.

CONCLUSION
Particular attention must be paid to illness prevention strategies during periods of intensive training, particularly in the winter months or in case of the recent medical episode.


This thesis represents the first extensive examination of the 'faithful fictions' of the Orkney writer George Mackay Brown (1921-1996). Until now, critical appreciations of the Catholic imagination informing Brown's opus have been vague and Brown has been seen as a throwback; his Catholicism only part of a reactionary impulse that denies modernity a place in his oeuvre. Through a thematic critical analysis of four major strands of Brown's corpus that display his Catholic imagination, it is contended that Brown has been misunderstood by the Scottish literary-critical tradition, and that his creative work on religious subjects is diverse, experimental and devotional. The thesis provides a biography of Brown's faith. It looks at his conversion accounts, and it discusses the interaction between these and other accounts of (spiritual) autobiography. The thesis looks in a detailed way at three mediators of grace in Brown's faithful fictions: the Virgin Mary, St Magnus, and Christ, whose nativity Brown frequently depicts. By discussing their different roles, depictions and the various literary forms that tell their stories, this study will discover the ways in which Brown encapsulates his Catholic faith in his creative work. The thesis questions whether Catholicism harms his literary output, as some critics have suggested, and shows the ways in which Brown's writing interacts with other Catholic literature – old and new, at home and abroad. Manuscripts, including several unpublished poems, plays and stories, will be referenced throughout, as will rare and unseen correspondence. The thesis takes in the entire scope of Brown's body of work and is not limited to a single mode or genre in his corpus. Ultimately, this study contends that Brown is an excellent case-study of the neglected Catholic writer in twentieth-century Scotland, and that there is much work to be done in appraising the Catholic imaginations of many post-Reformation Scottish Catholic writers.


A steam generator tube of a nuclear power plant is damaged by a fretting phenomenon caused by flow induced vibrations (FIV). In this work, the surface of the tube was coated with CrN or TiN as a measure to improve performance of the fretting wear resistance. Fretting wear regime was classified by determining a phase difference between friction and relative displacement signals and contact characteristics were analyzed. As a result, coating increased the friction coefficient. At a lower load, contact condition shifted from gross slip to stick slip.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


Background : Scleroderma is a chronic multisystem autoimmune disease of unknown aetiology. Scleroderma is characterized by widespread obliterative vasculopathy of small arteries and is associated with varying degrees of tissue fibrosis and multiple organ involvement. Pulmonary disease is an important component of SSc. It is estimated that 80% of patients with SSc have some evidence of pulmonary disease. Systemic sclerosis has the poorest prognosis amongst rheumatology diseases with the highest case-specific mortality of any of the autoimmune rheumatic diseases as well as causing major morbidity.
 Objective : This article will review pathogenesis, diagnosis and management of pulmonary disease in scleroderma.
 Data source : Literature review of relevant published literature from both Africa and the rest of the world.
 Data synthesis : The pathogenesis of lung disease in scleroderma involves a variety of pathways, including immunological/inflammatory activation and vascular injury. The primary cytokines responsible for the disease are unknown but it is postulated that it involves a complex interplay between inflammatory, B lymphocyte antibody production, oxidative stress and fibrotic pathways. This leads to the activation of lung fibroblasts by inflammatory and fibrotic mediators. Lung fibroblasts play a central role in the deposition of excess intracellular matrix. This inflammatory response leads to fibrosis and occurs in the setting of vascular derangements. The most common symptoms are dry cough and dyspnea on exertion. The high morbidity and mortality seen in SSc is generally attributed to the two major pulmonary manifestations of the disease: interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, or interstitial lung disease, and pulmonary arterial hypertension. Exertional dyspnea and dry cough are the most common presenting symptoms in patients
with SSc who develop pulmonary involvement Algorithm of diagnostic procedures in these patients does not differ considerably from the procedures of any other interstitial lung disease. At the current time, cyclophosphamide remains the best studied therapeutic agent although alternatives are actively being evaluated. The pathogenesis of pulmonary disease in scleroderma is still an enigma and is being actively researched. This will advance our understanding of the disease and ability to care for these patients.
 Conclusion : Pulmonary complications are common in SSc and are the leading causes of death. Careful evaluation by the clinician is warranted to detect the presence of an ILD and to select patients appropriately for consideration of therapy. It is a major clinical challenge largely due to the enigma of the disease pathology as well as limited therapeutic options available. This is compounded by the perceived lack of evidence for clinical effectiveness of those treatments that are currently in use. Clinical trials are underway and offer hope for novel approaches to this mysterious and often devastating manifestation of scleroderma.


A stationary camera system was used to study the small scale distribution of fish in the two offshore wind farms (OWF) Middelgrund and Lillgrund in Øresund Strait, between Denmark and Sweden. Fish distribution was examined at approximately 0, 25 and 50 m from the turbines. The study found that the fish fauna near the wind turbines was dominated by two-spotted gobies, Gobiusculus flavescens (Fabricius, 1779). There was a significant difference in numbers of fish for Lillgrund and Middelgrund OWF. At Lillgrund sediment was dominated of bare sand while Middelgrund had more heterogeneous sediment types with sand, boulder, pebbles and dense eelgrass areas. This suggests that OWF in areas with homogeneous sand sediment has a higher impact on the fish fauna compared to OWF in areas with heterogonous sediment. Furthermore, the effect of OWF on fish appears to be on a much smaller scale than previously thought.


Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) allows a mobile node to communicate directly to its peers while changing the currently used IP address. This mode of operation is called route optimization (RO). In the RO process, the peer node learns a binding between the home address and its current temporary care-of-address. Many schemes have been proposed to support RO in PMIPv6. However, these schemes do not consider the out-of-sequence problem, which may happen between the existing path and the newly established RO path. In this paper, we propose a scheme to solve the out-of-sequence problem with low cost. In our scheme, we use the additional packet sequence number and the time information when the problem occurs. We then run experiments on a reliable packet transmission (RPT) laboratory testbed to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme, and compare it with the well-known RO-supported PMIPv6 and the out-of-sequence time period scheme. The experimental results show that for most of the cases, our proposed scheme guarantees RPT by preventing the out-of-sequence problem.


Orbital angular momentum (OAM) beam emitters with compact structure and high performance are highly desirable for wireless communication and radar technology. Here, we propose a compact emitter that only consists of a ring resonator and a feed line. Continuously ‐ variable ‐ mode OAM beams are generated by adjusting the wavelength and transmission path. The basic design principle and specific evaluation index are discussed. Both the simulated and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed emitter obtains the capacity of generating variable ‐ modes. This approach opens a way for designing novel OAM beam emitter with desired properties.


During three decades human embryo and oocyte analyses have been performed based on morphological or cytogenetical evaluations; molecular techniques, like FISH and PCR, have been gradually incorporated. However, the development of new techniques of individual cell RNA amplification has allowed the analysis of gene expression in oocytes, cumulus-oocyte complex and preimplantation embryos. These techniques will change radically the study of human reproductive biology and assisted reproduction, allowing a powerful and objective analysis of the complex processes and the interactions that may explain the causes of infertility and generate new therapeutics.


There are several efforts for an advanced on-line health monitoring of a piping system by using a chemical condition monitoring, a X-ray radiography and a ultrasonic techniques. In order to increase the confidence of the understanding on the health condition of the underlying piping system, an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach has been adopted in this paper. Flow-Accelerated Corrosion (FAC) under an undesirable combination of the water chemistry, flow velocity and material composition has usually caused a pipe wall thinning. The condition monitoring tests on a piping elbow of a piping system have been conducted by using several advanced sensors such as an accelerometer, ultrasonic device, and chemical sensors.


This study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of some antimicrobials containing tiamulin and tilmicosin (as active principles) against Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) infection both in-vitro and in-vivo. For in-vitro investigation, the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of tiamulin and tilmicosin against MG organism was done. However, the in-vivo evaluation of tiamulin and tilmicosin against field MG infection was carried out on a commercial broiler chicken farm taken from MG infected farm and proved to have such infection through bacteriological and serological examination at day old. Once the birds suffered from respiratory signs at 22 days of age, this flock was divided into three separate houses. Chickens in house (1) were kept as MG-infected without treatment; chickens in the house (2) were treated with tiamulin in the drinking water (1 gram/1.5 liter) for 3 successive days and the birds in house (3) were also treated with tilmicosin in the drinking water (0.3 ml/liter) for 3 successive days. Just after appearance of the first clinical signs and mortalities, the clinical signs score was recorded, the birds were weighed and the serum samples were collected for serological examination. The clinical signs and the mortalities in each house were recorded daily during and after the treatment course till the end of the study (42 days of age). The body weight of the birds in each house was determined weekly till 6 weeks of age. Twenty birds from each house were sacrificed weekly for recording the air-sac lesion score and for re-isolation of MG. The air-sac lesion score and the re-isolation of MG were also detected from the dead birds. Serum samples were collected from sacrificed 20 birds just after appearance of clinical signs and from each house at the end of the work (42 days of age) for detecting the presence of antibodies for MG infection using serum plate agglutination test. The results of the in-vitro assessment revealed that the MIC of tiamulin and tilmicosin (μg/ml) was 0.1 and 0.05; respectively. In-vivo evaluation of tiamulin and tilmicosin denoted that there were significant (p<0.05) differences between MG-infected non-treated house and the treated houses, Tiamulin and tilmicosin succeeded in inducing significant reduction (p<0.05) in the mean clinical score, mortality rate, mean gross air-sac lesion score, re-isolation rate of MG and absence of MG antibodies in the treated houses than the infected control group. Moreover, significant (p<0.05) improvement in the mean body weights was observed in the treated chickens than the infected ones. Both tiamulin and tilmicosin were efficacious in the treatment of MG infection in broiler chickens; nevertheless tilmicosin medication was superior in controlling of such infection. It is recommended that testing the efficacy of the drugs in-vitro before application in-vivo to overcome the problem of drug resistance, also tiamulin and tilmicosin are effective in eradication programmes of field MG infection in the broiler chickens.


Purpose of the Study. Inhaled corticosteroids are the recommended treatment for all patients with persistent asthma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and tolerability of long-term treatment of patients with mild persistent asthma with once-daily budesonide. Study Population. Seven thousand two hundred twenty-two patients (aged 5–66 years) with mild persistent asthma diagnosed within 2 years of study entry, with wheeze, cough, dyspnea, or chest tightness weekly and demonstration of reversible airway obstruction, were enrolled into the study. Methods. This was a prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to age. Those patients younger than 11 years received 200 μg of budesonide via a dry-powder inhaler or placebo, and patients 11 years and older received 400 μg of budesonide via dry-powder inhaler or placebo. All treatments were administered for 3 years and in addition to the patients' usual asthma therapy. Results. Overall, 21 520 adverse events were reported (10 850 in the budesonide group and 10 670 in the placebo group). The most commonly reported events were respiratory infections such as rhinitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis, viral infections, and sinusitis. Oral candidiasis was more common in the budesonide group (1.2%) than in the placebo group (0.5%); the frequencies of other adverse effects previously reported to be associated with inhaled corticosteroids (skin disorders, psychiatric disorders, and allergic reactions) were similar between the 2 groups. The number of deaths and serious adverse events were similar for children and adults in both treatment groups. Conclusions. Three-year treatment with budesonide (200 or 400 μg) is safe and well tolerated in both children and adults who have recent onset of mild persistent asthma. Reviewer Comments. This study shows not only that budesonide dramatically reduces the overall risk of experiencing a severe asthma-related event but also that budesonide has very little risk of causing any significant adverse events. One of the most difficult, yet very important tasks as a physician is to educate the patient that inhaled corticosteroids are not the enemy, but rather that the patient's health is at greater risk from asthma itself. Clearly, early intervention is safe and effective. This study provides valuable information and should help patients and their families to feel comfortable with long-term inhaled corticosteroids use in asthma.


Improving the life quality of the European population is an important goal set in the cohesion policy, which is valid for the whole of the European Union's territory. The cohesion policy of the European Union strengthens the kind of European solidarity through which geographically different social groups receive similar opportunities to improve their life quality and well-being. To reach this positive goal, the accessibility programs created by the European Union are highly important. The ideology of European accessibility determines complex strategic objectives and imbues these with useful content. The group of elderly people is one of society's accessibility groups, whose representation will be more and more prominent in the future due to European demographic changes. Member states of the European Union have different approaches to the growing role of seniors in society, which is partly due to their cultural traditions. These viewpoints may provide different answers regarding the processes of ageing, however, the appropriate care of the elderly is a joint social responsibility of each of the member states. The shifting dialogue between generations can be viewed as a positive change, nevertheless, other environmental influences can affect the processes. These environmental impacts can be factors that contribute to ageing. The complex research results of these show that, despite previous stereotypes, during the biological ageing of the human body there is a healthy ageing process in which activity, vitality, success, happiness, well-being and the quality of life play a substantial role. We have studied a group of seniors who have exceptionally active lives and extraordinary results in Hungary. The results of this Hungarian group of seniors show which factors and individual impressions in a local environment contribute to a high-level life quality, which can be an outstanding example and model to be followed by other European senior groups.


Sawing yield is an important parameter for the sawmill profit. One way to increase the sawing yield is by a reduced saw kerf width, an adapted shrinking allowance, and a lower sawing allowance. The Swedish sawmills on the other hand see a risk of poorer sawing accuracy and sawing precision and at worst, more frequent saw blade failures. One problem with a reduced saw kerf width is the saw mismatch that may occur in double arbor saw machines. Saw mismatch occurs when the saw blades are displaced in axial direction with respect to each other due to wear, heat or mechanical disturbance. In this study the aim was to test the robustness of a laser triangulation unit used for measuring saw mismatch during sawmill operation. The aim was also to find a suitable response variable for saw mismatch which was evaluated by using the cant height, feed speed and average top diameter of the logs as predicting variables in a partial least squares regression. The goodness of prediction for each response variable was used to compare the response variables with each other. The results showed that the robustness when measuring sawmismatch by laser triangulation during ongoing sawmill production was satisfactory. The response variable with the best goodness of prediction (Q2 = 0.135) was defined using a sliding windowwith a size of 500 boards. Each element of the response variable was calculated as the share of boards within the sliding window exceeding a threshold value of 0.5 mm. This response variable was positively correlated with the cant height, feed speed and average top diameter of the log. Future work requires a designed experiment where the predicting variables are varied systematically and where the effect of characteristics and wear of the saw blades is also considered.


Dan Flavin is a key figure in 20th-century art. Leaving the classical genres of painting and sculpture behind him, from the early 1960s he focused entirely on exploring and realizing the artistic potential of light. Using commercial fluorescent light fixtures, he created installations that offered new dimensions on our perception of space. This book is dedicated to his earliest experiments with artificial light: eight wall-mounted pieces created between 1961 and 1964, which he called Icons. The Icons are wooden crates painted in one colour, onto which Flavin mounted coloured lamp bulbs or fluorescent light fixtures. Corinna Thierolf and Johannes Vogt, curators at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, explore the interface the Icons that so virulently forge between the religious mysticism of light, the flickering of the brightly illuminated billboards on Broadway and the neon shrines of popular art.


Self-sufficient itemsets are those whose frequency cannot be explained solely by the frequency of either their subsets or of their supersets. We argue that itemsets that are not self-sufficient will often be of little interest to the data analyst, as their frequency should be expected once that of the itemsets on which their frequency depends is known. We present tests for statistically sound discovery of self-sufficient itemsets, and computational techniques that allow those tests to be applied as a post-processing step for any itemset discovery algorithm. We also present a measure for assessing the degree of potential interest in an itemset that complements these statistical measures.


Lipid peroxidation and activity of antioxidant systems were studied in parodontium tissues of 64 cats; maximal activation of lipid peroxidation was detected in gingivitis both in gingiva and in alveolar process. Lipid peroxidation tended to normalization in gingiva only under conditions of light form of parodontitis, while in alveolar process--during parodontitis of middle severity. Deterioration of the antioxidant systems in bones during pathological state was more distinct as compared with gingiva; hence, metabolic alterations, occurred in response to activation of lipid peroxidation in gingivitis, were proceeded in bone structures of alveolar process and after the inflammation decrease in gingiva.


The development of cutting-edge techniques to study specific brain regions and neural circuits that regulate sleep–wake brain states and general anesthesia (GA), has increased our understanding of these states that exhibit similar neurophysiologic traits. This review summarizes current knowledge focusing on cell subtypes and neural circuits that control wakefulness, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, non-REM sleep, and GA. We also review novel insights into their interactions and raise unresolved questions and challenges in this field. Comparisons of the overlapping neural substrates of sleep–wake and GA regulation will help us to understand sleep–wake transitions and how anesthetics cause reversible loss of consciousness. Significance Statement General anesthesia (GA), sharing numerous neurophysiologic traits with the process of natural sleep, is administered to millions of surgical patients annually. In the past decade, studies exploring the neural mechanisms underlying sleep–wake and GA have advanced our understanding of their interactions and how anesthetics cause reversible loss of consciousness. Pharmacotherapies targeting the neural substrates associated with sleep–wake and GA regulations have significance for clinical practice in GA and sleep medicine.


This article, written by D Riviere, Md, Phd forms part of a series published in 'Sport Health' to look at the strengths and weaknesses of the Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM) systems in various countries, providing ideas and inspiration for all countries on how to improve infrastructure in this emerging specialty.


: The paper presents the results of clinical, epidemiological, and epizootological analyses of local cases of human dirofilariasis in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, which suggest that natural and climatic changes, namely the abnormally hot summer in 2010-2011 and increasing migratory processes among human beings and animals, open up possibilities for forming foci ofdirofilariasis outside habitats of Dirofilaria repens.


This thesis presents a sociological inquiry into the meanings that families bereaved by suicide attach to the suicide of a young man. Through in-depth interviews and an email based focus group, this study explores families' attempts to understand how and why their loved one chose to end his life. Whilst interviews and focus group discussions were centred on the life and death of the young man, it became clear that the narratives of the bereaved were as much tales of themselves as they were tales of the deceased. The narratives of the life and death of the young man are only ever reconstructions from the relative's perspective. Therefore the research developed a broadly dual focus. It begins by exploring the families' constructions of the young man's life and death before moving on to look the experiences of the bereaved and their (reconstructions of themselves and their families. A social constructionist approach was adopted in order to explore the most significant discourses in helping families make sense of their loved one's death. This thesis shows how the discourse of mechcal-psychiatry was especially salient in their attempts to reach an understanding of their young man's suicide. In particular, families either resisted, or appealed to its dominant construction of suicide as showing signs of mental illness. In addition, the meanings and understandings attached to the young man's death were highly sophisticated attempts to negotiate blame to establish who was responsible for their loved one's death. Importantly whether families appealed to or resisted the dominant medical-psychiatric discourse - the salient point in all the families' constructions was the need to place responsibility outside the family. Moreover, suicide is a devastating death, often leaving families feeling isolated and stigmatised. As such, this thesis also chronicles the families' experiences of being bereaved by suicide their attempts to manage such a profound disruption in their own lives.


Tomato is the most popular vegetable globally. However, in certain conditions, the vegetable is susceptible to plant parasites such as the root-knot nematode (RKN; Meloidogyne spp.). A proper detection method is required to identify RKN and eliminate related diseases. The traditional manual quantification of RKN using a microscope is a time-consuming and laborious task. This study aims to develop a semi-automated method to discern and quantify RKN based on size using an image analysis method. The length of RKN was assessed using three novel approaches: contour arc (CA), thin structure (TS), and skeleton graph (SG) methods. These lengths were compared with the manual measurement of RKN length. The study showed that the RKN length obtained by manual measurement was highly correlated to the length based on this method, with R2 of 0.898, 0.875, and 0.898 for the CA, TS, and SG methods, respectively. These approaches were further tested to detect RKN on 517 images. The manual and automated counting comparison revealed a coefficient of determination R2 = 0.857, 0.835 and 0.828 for CA, TS, and SG methods, respectively. The one-way ANOVA test on counting revealed F-statistic = 4.440 and p-value = 0.004. The ratio of length to width was investigated further at different ranges. The optimal result was found to occur at ratio range between 10–35. The CA, TS, and SG methods attained the highest R2 of 0.965, 0.958, and 0.973, respectively. This study found that the SG method is most suitable for detecting and counting RKN. This method can be applied to detect RKN or other nematodes on severely infected crops and root vegetables, including sweet potato and ginger. The study significantly helps in quantifying pests for rapid farm management and thus minimise crop and vegetable losses.


Abstract The implications for the co-called Italian transition of the 2008 election initially seemed significant – but have since become increasingly uncertain as Berlusconi's conflict of interests has risen higher up the political agenda. This underscores the pertinence of asking about the sense in which the notion of 'transition' is actually applicable to the Italian case at all – bearing in mind that it describes a process now supposedly underway for some 17 years; and bearing in mind that its end point can seemingly not be identified (though by definition 'transition' implies movement between two points). Discovering if the term applies to the Italian case and if so whether 2008 has brought its conclusion nearer requires exploring if the political protagonists that have emerged from the election as the most significant players – the Popolo della Libertà and the Partito Democratico – have sufficient commonality of view, sufficient desire and sufficient power to complete a process of constitutional overhaul. The evidence suggests that while they have the view and the desire, there are significant limitations on their power. The election might potentially have been a watershed in the so-called Italian transition in the broader sense of system performance, aside from formal constitutional change. Here too, however, the evidence points away from the idea that 2008 represents a real sea change – though the chances seem good that it will come to be perceived as such.


Through a linear stability analysis, we investigate the effectiveness of a noninvasive feedback control scheme in stabilizing travelling wave solutions, R eiKx+iωt, of the one-dimensional complex Ginzburg–Landau equation (CGLE) in the Benjamin–Feir unstable regime. The feedback control, a generalization of the time-delay method of Pyragas (1992 Phys. Lett. A 170 421), was proposed by Lu et al (1996 Phys. Rev. Lett. 76 3316) in the setting of nonlinear optics. It involves both spatial shifts, by the wavelength of the targeted travelling wave, and a time delay that coincides with the temporal period of the travelling wave. We derive a single necessary and sufficient stability criterion that determines whether a travelling wave is stable to all perturbation wavenumbers. This criterion has the benefit that it determines an optimal value for the time-delay feedback parameter. For various coefficients in the CGLE we use this algebraic stability criterion to numerically determine stable regions in the (K, ρ)-parameter plane, where ρ is the feedback parameter associated with the spatial translation. We find that the combination of the two feedbacks greatly enlarges the parameter regime where stabilization is possible, and that the stable regions take the form of stability tongues in the (K, ρ)-plane. We discuss possible resonance mechanisms that could account for the spacing with K of the stability tongues.


Purpose of review Investigations into the neural and hormonal control of pancreatic exocrine function have led to many exciting discoveries over the past year. This review seeks to identify those articles that further our understanding into the complex relation of the varying factors regulating pancreatic secretion. Recent findings Major findings include the new insights into the regulation of the pancreas through receptor-mediated mechanisms, investigations of pancreatic exocytosis, impairment of pancreatic exocrine function by insulin deficiency, the effects of surgical interventions for the treatment of chronic pancreatitis on pancreatic exocrine function, how exocrine function is altered by the cause of acute pancreatitis, and clinical observations relating to management of pancreatic disease and investigations of pancreatic function testing. Summary Over the past year, substantial new information has been published on the neurohormonal control of pancreatic exocrine function. These data provide insights into the physiology and pathophysiology of pancreatic secretion and diseases of exocrine insufficiency.


The increasing demand on air traffic has resulted in a growing concern in ground access to the Hong Kong International Airport by the Airport Authority Hong Kong together with various types of transport operators. In this study, the ground access mode choices to the airport are examined with the objectives of categorising the service performance both expected and received by passengers. Focus is on air passengers departing Hong Kong, exclude arriving and transfer/transit passengers. In an attempt to understand their access mode choices, interview surveys have been conducted. A structural equation model has been calibrated to determine how various personal and trip characteristics affect departing air passengers' modal choices. Latent variables regarding departing air passengers' expectation and perception on selected service attributes of the modal choices are considered in the analysis. The gap between passengers' service expectations and the actual service perceived to be happening were examined, while importance-performance analysis was used to construct evaluation maps to identify those service attributes necessitating improvement. The results provide source information for various types of transport operators in their quest to improve their individual services and increase their share of the airport ground access market.


Abstract This review combines fluid inclusion data from (HP-)UHP rocks with experimental research and thermodynamic models to investigate the chemical and physical properties of fluids released during deep subduction, their solvent and element transport capacity, and the subsequent implications for the element recycling in the mantle wedge. An impressive number of fluid inclusion studies indicate three main populations of fluid inclusions in HP and UHP metamorphic rocks: (1) aqueous and/or non-polar gaseous fluid inclusions (FI); (2) multiphase solid inclusions (MSI); and (3) melt inclusions (MI). Chemical data from preserved fluid inclusions in rocks match with and implement "model" fluids by experiments and thermodynamics, revealing a continuity behind the extreme variations of physico-chemical properties of subduction-zone fluids. From fore-arc to sub-arc depths, fluids released by progressive devolatilization reactions from slab lithologies change from relatively diluted chloridebearing aqueous solutions (±N2), mainly influenced by halide ligands, to (alkali) aluminosilicate-rich aqueous fluids, in which polymerization probably governs the solubility and transport of major (e.g., Si and Al) and trace elements (including C). Fluid inclusion studies point to a reconsideration of the petrological models explaining deep volatile liberation, and their flux into the mantle wedge.


The purpose of this study was to purify the hemagglutinin from H5N1 virus and to generate monospecific antibody appropriate for production of sensitive and specific immunoassay for H5N1 avian influenza. For this purpose, a local isolate H5N1 virus (A/Ck/West Java/Hamd/2006) was propagated in chicken embryos. The viral pellet was dissolved in a Triton-X-100 solution, undissolved viral particles were pelleted by ultracentrifuge, and the supernatant containing viral surface glycoproteins (Hemagglutinin and neuraminidase) was collected. The neuraminidase in the supernatant was absorbed by passing the supernatant through an Oxamic-acid-superose column. After dialyzing extensively, the filtrate was further fractionated with an anion exchange chromatography (Q-sepharose) column. Proteins adsorbed by the column were eluted stepwisely with 0.10, 0.25, 0.25 and 0.75 M NaCl in 20 m M Tris, ph 8. Hemagglutinin (H5) was found to be eluted from the column with the 0.5 M NaCl elution buffer. The purified H5 was free from other viral proteins based on immunoassays using commercial antibodies to H5N1 nucleoprotein and neuraminidase. When used as ELISA's coating antigen, the purified H5 proved to be sensitive and specific for hemagglutinin H5. Cross reactions with other type-A-influenza virus, H6, H7 dan H9, were negligibly low. For the production of monospecific antiserum, the purified H5 was separated with SDS-PAGE, the band containing the H5 monomer was cut out , homogenised and injected into rabbits. The antiserum was capable of detecting the presence of inactivated H5N1 virus in a very dilute suspension, with a detection limit of 0.04 heagglutination (HA) unit. The purified hemagglutinin and the serum raised against it should be useful for developing specific, sensitive and affordable immunoassay for H5N1 avian influenza. Key Words : H5N1, Hemagglutinin, Triton, Oxamic-acid Sepharose, Q sepharose, ELISA


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ShareAlike 2.5 Australia Licence. Under this Licence you are free to copy, distribute, display
and perform the work and to make derivative works. Support for the original work was provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching
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and Workplace Relations.


Introduction Exercise may improve cancer outcomes. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NC) for breast cancer provides a unique setting to evaluate intervention effects. Treatments leading to decreased post-neoadjuvant Ki-67 levels, smaller tumor size, and higher pathologic response are associated with improved survival and lower recurrence. This randomized, prospective pilot trial evaluates the feasibility of supervised exercise during NC for breast cancer. Methods Stage II-III, ER positive, cancer patients with BMI > 25 receiving NC were randomized to standard NC with supervised bootcamp (NC + BC) or NC alone. Ki-67, C-peptide, BMI, and tumor size were measured before chemotherapy and at time of surgery. Results There were no initial differences between groups in regards to tumor size, C-peptide, BMI, and Ki-67. The NC + BC (n = 5) group had a lower mean BMI at the conclusion of NC compared with those (n = 5) in the NC group (28.0 versus 35.8, P = 0.03). Final tumor size was 2.59 cm in the NC + BC group versus 3.16 cm for NC (P = 0.76) Mean Ki-67 for NC + BC was 7% versus 29% with NC (P = 0.14). C-peptide (ng/mL) was equivalent between the two groups (4.55 NC + BC versus 4.74 NC, P = 0.85). Conclusions Adding a supervised exercise program to NC is feasible, decreases BMI, and may lead to lower Ki-67 levels and improved survival.


Endocrine disruptors are a diverse group of chemicals that alter the functions of the endocrine system. A large proportion of endocrine disruptors have estrogenic effects, thus are called environmental estrogens. In the present study, an estrogen (E2) responsive rat pituitary cell line, MtT/E-2, was employed to examine 1) the potency of several endocrine disruptors including bisphenol A (BPA), o,p'-DDD, methoxychlor, 1,2,3,4,5,6-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) and dibromoacetic acid (DBAA) in terms of E2 responsive pituitary cell growth; 2) whether BPA has estrogenic action in vivo causing the growth of MtT/E-2 cells grafted in rats. Binding assays showed the test chemicals were able to compete with 3H-E2 binding to the estrogen receptor (ER). The compounds also stimulated growth of MtT/E-2 cells at rates corresponding to their ER binding affinity. Their transcription activation of an (ERE)3-SV40-luciferase reporter in MtT/E-2 cells was comparable to their stimulation of cell growth, with the exception of HCH which showed little induction of cell growth but strong stimulation in ERE dependent transcription activation. MtT/E-2 cells were inoculated into ovariectomized female F344 rats treated with E2 or BPA. The first tumors were noted at day 22 in the E2 treated group, at day 25 in the highest dose of BPA group and at day 41 in the control group. These results suggest 1) that the growth assay with MtT/E-2 cells provides simple and sensitive test for detection of estrogenic activity of environmental chemicals; 2) that BPA has estrogenic potency to stimulate E2 responsive cell growth in vivo as well as in vitro.


This study presents the identification of impact forces acting on isogrid-stiffened panels. A method based on experimental transfer matrices is employed to identify the impact location and the force history using the responses of surface bonded PZT disks. The experimental transfer matrix expresses the relationship between the impact force and the sensor response, and it is constructed based on the measured data obtained by conducting preliminarily impact tests. When the panel is subjected to an unknown impact, the impact location and the force history are identified by adjusting the sensor responses calculated with the experimental transfer matrices to the measured responses. Identification of impact forces acting on an isogrid-stiffened aluminum panel is demonstrated experimentally to verify the validity of the present method. The results reveal that the identified impact locations and force histories agree well with the measured ones. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/179


Abstract Mesoscale measurement from radars, aircraft and rawinsondes, and synoptic and satellite data are used to provide a detailed description of a warm front as it approached the Washington Coast. In many respects, the warm front was consistent with the classical model: temperature rises were concentrated within a forward-sloping frontal zone, winds veered with height and lapse rates were more stable within the frontal zone, clouds and precipitation were produced by upglide over the warm-frontal surface and, as the warm front approached, clouds lowered and precipitation generally increased. However, in several important respects the warm front differed from the classical picture. Air flowed through the warm front and the warm-frontal zone. Also, the warm-frontal zone had a "staircase" profile, with some segments nearly horizontal and other segments with steep slopes. Finally, precipitation was by no means uniformly distributed; instead, it occurred in both irregular and banded-shaped mesoscale features.


Injection molding is among the most widely used techniques for thermoplastics, and many complicated models are used in the mold enterprises. In the paper, the mold design flow by UG MoldWizard was analyzed. A mold for hair drier cover was successfully developed. How to search parting lines, create/edit parting surfaces, extract regions and create cavity and core were researched deeply. Best gate location analysis was studied by MoldFlow software, and a multi-cavity mold was designed. Angled-lift splits were developed to form the concave grooves. Lastly, the gating system and the cooling system were designed. It proved that MoldWizard can obviously improve the drafting efficiency and quality.


It has been suggested that TEP (transparent exopolymer particles) may provide a vehicle for non-Redfield excess carbon export into the deep sea. Here, the hypothesis that organic carbon produced in excess of the Redfield C:N ratio is sequestered in the deep ocean is tested by a model-based mass balance approach. The model looks for a value of the C:N ratio of export production which is consistent with current knowledge of the rapid change of organic matter fluxes over depth, the remineralisation C:N ratio in the interior of the ocean, and the observed C:N ratios of sinking particles in the deep sea and at the sea floor. It is estimated that the contribution of excess carbon export into the deep ocean is equivalent to 3 to 5.6% (medians, depending on model assumptions; overall range: –16 to 21%) of the conventional Redfield biological pump (C:N = 6.6). Elevated C:N ratios of sinking particles in the deep ocean of 9 to 23, and their increase with depth, can be explained by C:N ratios of export production being only slightly larger than the vertically integrated C:N ratio of remineralisation in the interior of the ocean. The basin scale effect of this preferential nitrogen remineralisation, within the seasonal thermocline, on carbon sequestration is 1 order of magnitude lower compared with Redfield equivalent remineralisation or CaCO3 sequestration. The often observed increase in the C:N ratio of sinking particles with depth does not require that the remineralisation C:N ratio increases with depth, but can also arise under conditions of constant C:N remineralisation ratios. It is concluded that only a small fraction of carbon overconsumption in the surface ocean is sequestered into the deep ocean. The majority appears to be remineralised in the upper twilight zone.


The diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is based on symptom assessment such as the Rome III criteria. It is sometimes difficult to clinically distinguish IBS from adult-onset celiac disease (CD). Individuals with CD presenting with relatively vague abdominal symptoms are at risk of been dismissed as having IBS. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of patients with CD among those that fulfill the Rome III criteria for IBS from among patients referred to the gastroenterology section of our hospital over the last 5 years. The study included a total of 968 patients with an average age of 32 years (range 18-59 years). Females constituted 95% of all patients. Duodenal biopsies were obtained during standard gastroscopy. Sections from these biopsies were stained with haematoxylin and eosin and immunostained for human leucocytes CD45 using the avidin-biotin complex (ABC) method. The sections were then histopathologically examined. Four patients had CD: one with Marsh type 3b, and 3 with Marsh type 1. All four of these patients were positive for tissue transglutminase antibodies (anti-t-TG) IgA and were females aged 24, 20, 36 and 38 years. These 4 patients fulfilled the Rome III criteria for the sub-type IBS-diarrhea. This amounts to a prevalence of 0.4% of CD in IBS patients. The present findings support the notion that IBS patients should be routinely examined for CD. This applies to all subtypes of IBS.


PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to fabricate monolithic 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) transdermal patch with microprocessor- controlled iontophoretic delivery, to evaluate the pharmacodynamic effects on Dalton's lymphoma ascites (DLA) induced in Balb/c mice, and to study pharmacokinetics in rabbits. MATERIALS AND METHODS The transdermal patches were prepared by solvent casting method; a reprogrammable microprocessor was developed and connected to the patches. DLA cells were injected to the hind limb of Balb/c mice (10 animals/group). In the first group of mice 5-FU was administered i.v. (12 mg/kg). In the second group of mice, transdermal patches (20 mg/patch/animal) were installed and kept for 10 consecutive days, while the third (control) group was kept without any treatment. The tumor diameter was measured every 5th day for 30 days, and the animal survival time and death pattern were studied. The electric current density protocol of 0.5 mA/cm(2) for 30 min was used in the pharmacokinetic study in rabbits. RESULTS There was a significant reduction in tumor volume in the animals treated with monolithic matrix 5-FU transdermal patch compared to untreated controls and i.v. therapy. Tumor volume of the control animals was 5.8 cm(3) on the 30th day, while in 5-FU with transdermal patch delivery animals it was only 0.23 cm(3) (p <0.05). DLA cells tumor-bearing mice treated with 5-FU with transdermal patch had significantly increased lifespan (ILS). Control animals survived only 21+/-1 days after the tumor inoculation, while i.v. 5-FU and 5-FU patches animals survived 24+/-2.7 days and 39.5+/-1.87 days with ILS of 25.58% and 88.09%, respectively (p <0.01). There was significant sustained release of 5-FU through microprocessor-controlled patches and half-life was significantly higher (p <0.05) compared to the i.v. route. CONCLUSION Cytotoxic concentration of 5-FU can be achieved through the transdermal drug delivery and effective therapeutic drug concentration can be maintained up to 24 h, with less toxicity. A new generation of transdermal drug delivery systems based on microprocessor-controlled iontophoresis is in the late stages of development and promises to enhance the treatment of local and systemic medical conditions. The incorporation of microprocessor into these systems has been an important advancement to ensure safe and efficient administration of a wide variety of drugs.


America is in the midst of an extraordinary public debate about police policy. "Conflicted conservatives," who are symbolically conservative but operationally liberal, may have a disproportionate influence on policy making. Specifically, conflicted conservatives may be more likely to vote across party lines because they attend more to utilitarian concerns about social conditions and government performance than to symbolic issues. Prior criminological research, however, typically has treated conservatives as a homogenous group. We use data from the General Social Survey to explore the extent and correlates of global and situational support for police use of force among conflicted conservatives and other political groups. The findings from logistic regression models estimated with two analytic samples (N = 11,119 and 2,069) indicate that conflicted conservatives' attitudes about police use of force are distinct from those of "consistent conservatives" who are both symbolically and operationally conservative, but do not reflect a unique consideration of utilitarian concerns over symbolic beliefs. Two other notable findings emerged: 1) Racial attitudes predicted support for police use of excessive force invariably across political groups and 2) public support for excessive force increased substantially during the first decade of the twenty-first century, sharply contrasting trends in general punitive sentiment.


INTRODUCTION
The major goal of endodontic treatment is to eliminate bacteria from the root canals and prevent re-infection. Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) has been attributed to be the most common organism for the endodontic treatment failures. The choice of endodontic material that have high antimicrobial efficacy can help in decreasing/avoiding growth of micro-organisms and facilitate the success rate of treatment.

AIM
The present study was designed with an aim to evaluate the antimicrobial efficacy of antibiotic coated gutta-percha cones on E. faecalis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The present study was an invitro experimental study, conducted at Department of Public Health Densitry and Department of Microbiology. Gutta-percha cones were coated with different medicaments like Zinc Oxide-Eugenol cement (ZOE i.e. Group A), ZOE plus Amoxicillin-Clavulanic acid combination (Group B), ZOE plus Amoxicillin (Group C), ZOE plus Ofloxacin-Ornidazole combination (Group D). Agar plates were inoculated with E. faecalis and antibiotic coated gutta-percha cones along with conventional gutta-percha cones (coated only with ZOE) were placed in those agar plates. After 24hours incubation; diameter of zone of inhibition around gutta-percha stick was considered to assess the antimicrobial activity. Results were statistically analysed with analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey post-hoc test for group-wise comparisons.

RESULTS
Mean diameter of zone of inhibition (in mm) obtained for Group A, Group B, Group C and Group D were 5±0.03, 26.6±0.05, 21.5±0.04 and 15.8±0.03 respectively. The difference in values of different antibiotics was statistically significant. The p-value < 0.001 was considered statistically significant.

CONCLUSION
Group B was most effective against E.faecalis compared to other combinations used which increase the success rate of endodontic treatment as compared to conventional gutta-percha cones.


Herein we report the synthesis of a magnetically separable core–shell-like Fe3O4@Boehmite-NH2-CoII NPs as an environmentally friendly heterogeneous catalyst. The as-prepared nanocatalyst was well characterized by various techniques such as FT-IR, XRD, BET, TEM, FE-SEM, EDX, TGA, H2-TPR, VSM, ICP-OES and elemental analysis and evaluated for the Suzuki–Miyaura and Heck–Mizoroki cross-coupling reactions in a green solvent (H2O). The results of characterization studies revealed the superparamagnetic behavior of the Fe3O4 NP core encapsulated by a Boehmite NP shell. Also, it was clearly found that the size of the particles was about 13–54 nm. In comparison with previously reported catalysts, Fe3O4@Boehmite-NH2-CoII NPs exhibited perfect catalytic efficiency for the Suzuki–Miyaura and Heck–Mizoroki cross-coupling reactions under mild conditions without using toxic solvents. The concerted effects between individual components of the catalyst and also its unique egg-like nanostructure led to the high catalytic performance of Fe3O4@Boehmite-NH2-CoII NPs. Also, the introduction of Co significantly lowers the cost of the catalyst. More importantly, the longevity of the nanocatalyst was studied and it was found that the magnetic nanocatalyst was stable under the reaction conditions and could be easily reused for at least seven consecutive cycles without a discernible decrease in its catalytic activity or metal leaching.


Nongaussian statistics are a powerful discriminant between inflationary models, particularly those with noncanonical kinetic terms. Focusing on theories where the Lagrangian is an arbitrary Lorentz-invariant function of a scalar field and its first derivatives, we review and extend the calculation of the observable three-point function. We compute the ``next-order'' slow-roll corrections to the bispectrum in closed form, and obtain quantitative estimates of their magnitude in DBI and power-law k-inflation. In the DBI case our results enable us to estimate corrections from the shape of the potential and the warp factor: these can be of order several tens of percent. We track the possible sources of large logarithms which can spoil ordinary perturbation theory, and use them to obtain a general formula for the scale dependence of the bispectrum. Our result satisfies the next-order version of Maldacena's consistency condition and an equivalent consistency condition for the scale dependence. We identify a new bispectrum shape available at next-order, which is similar to a shape encountered in Galileon models. If fNL is sufficiently large this shape may be independently detectable.


Abstract All regions of the US experience disasters which result in a number of negative public health consequences. Some populations have higher levels of social vulnerability and, thus, are more likely to experience negative impacts of disasters including emotional distress, loss of property, illness, and death. To mitigate the impact of disasters on at-risk populations, emergency managers must be aware of the social vulnerabilities within their community. This paper describes a qualitative study which aimed to understand how emergency managers identify social vulnerabilities, also referred to as at-risk populations, in their populations and barriers and facilitators to current approaches. Findings suggest that although public health tools have been developed to aid emergency managers in identifying at-risk populations, they are not being used consistently. Emergency managers requested more information on the availability of tools as well as guidance on how to increase ability to identify at-risk populations.


Related the physio-pathological process of COVID-19 disease it is interesting to focus to the aspect. Played by interaction of Sars-Cov-2 protein with integrins of human epithelial pulmonary cell. A bio molecular approach help in to deeply verify the involved factors and the results of this Activation RGD mediated. Of Great interest also the relationship with some vaccine strategy followed by the various pharmaceutical industry. The results of this work will be useful to think modification in some vaccine increasing the global safety and related some rare ADR.


Enterprise risk management (ERM) has become a crucial component of contemporary corporate governance reforms, with an abundance of principles, guidelines, and standards. This paper portrays ERM as an evolving discipline and presents empirical findings on its current state of maturity, as evidenced by a survey of the academic literature and by our own field research. Academics are increasingly examining the adoption and impact of ERM, but the studies are inconsistent and inconclusive, due, we believe, to an inadequate specification of how ERM is used in practice. Based on a ten-year field project, over 250 interviews with senior risk officers, and three detailed case studies, we put forward a contingency theory of ERM, identifying potential design parameters that can explain observable variation in the "ERM mix" adopted by organizations. We also add a new contingent variable: the type of risk that a specific ERM practice addresses. We outline a "minimum necessary contingency framework" (Otley 1980) that is sufficiently nuanced, while still empirically observable, that empirical researchers may, in due course, hypothesize about "fit" between contingent variables, such as risk types and the ERM mix, as well as about outcomes such as organizational effectiveness.


Osteoporosis causes bone to become fragile. Pharmacological treatments of osteoporosis are burdened with adverse effects and increase bone mineral density (BMD) only between 1% and 15% depending on the drug and time used. Thus non pharmacological treatments are needed to complement pharmacological ones. Physical activity is a non pharmacological treatment of osteoporosis and is essential for maintaining bone health at any age. However, physical activities have been identified to produce a modest improvement of spinal strength or just preserve it. In addition, it is not known how much exercise is optimal and safe for people with spinal osteoporosis. Most research employs conflicting definitions of physical activity and measure the effect of exercise on BMD alone instead of combining it with measurements of three dimensional bone strength. There is the need to offer a technique to measure the effect of physical activity on the overall strength of the spine, not only on its bone mineral content. Vibration transmissibility is a measurement of the mechanical response of a system to vibration expressed as stiffness or damping, thus offering a variable that represents structural strength. It can be employed to measure the mechanical response of the human spine during physical activity by attaching inertial sensors over the spine. However, it has not been employed to characterize the way vibration is transmitted through the osteoporotic spine during physical activity. Understanding the effects of osteoporosis and ageing on vibration transmission is important since such effects are related to the stiffness of the spine and thus very likely to the incidence of vertebral fractures. It is also often recommended that fast walking is beneficial to the bone, yet it is not known if fast walking affects the mechanical response of the spine of people with osteoporosis. The aims of this study were (1) to evaluate the feasibility of employing inertial sensors and a skin correction method to measure vibration transmission through the spine during physical activity (2) to characterize the transmission of vibration in the lumbar and thoracic spines of people with and without osteoporosis during physical activities, (3) to characterize the effect of osteoporosis on vibration transmissibility at levels of the thoracic spine which are known to fracture and (4) to investigate the effects of fast walking on vibration transmissibility. 100 young and healthy and older volunteers with and without osteoporosis were recruited. Participants were asked to perform straight walking, stair negotiation and turning while having inertial sensors attached to the skin over the spinous process of the first sacral (S1), twelfth (T12), eighth (T8) and first thoracic vertebrae (T1). Vibration transmissibility was calculated as the square root of the acceleration of the output (T12 for the lumbar and T1 for the thoracic spine) over the input (S1 for the lumbar and T12 for the thoracic spine) in the frequency spectrum. Vibration transmissibility was corrected for the movement of the skin-sensor interface and for the inclination of the sensor over the spine of every subject. All physical activities were performed at self selected normal and fast walking speeds. Lumbar and thoracic curvatures were determined with an electromagnetic device and BMD was measured through quantitative ultrasound. Skin measurement of transmission of vertical vibration is feasible with the inertial sensors and correction method presented. Vibration transmissibility through the human spine is significantly different between dissimilar physical activities and frequency dependent. Ageing significantly alters the vibration transmissibility of the spine. Osteoporosis has a minimal effect on vibration transmissibility of the spine. The effect of ageing and osteoporosis are frequency dependent. Older lumbar spines may receive greater stimulation than young and healthy ones, whereas older thoracic spines may receive lower stimulation during fast walking. There are significant differences in vibration transmissibility between lumbar and thoracic spines. A percentage of vibration transmission of the lumbar and thoracic spines is determined by their curvatures. This thesis has provided a technique that future research can employ to correlate vibration transmissibility with mechanotransduction signals in bone as well as volumetric bone health measurements and the risk of vertebral fractures. Until then it will be possible to prescribe physical activity taking into account individual capabilities, bone strength and differences in mechanical response between lumbar and thoracic sections.


Bigger and better, this fifth edition of a popular pediatrics book outgrows its designation of being a "synopsis" and emerges as a major, even though abbreviated, textbook that covers the essentials of the medical care of infants and children. In a preface to the first edition, Dr Hughes indicated that his intention was to solve the riddle of combining brevity and clarity with a proper degree of comprehensiveness. In this edition, he has succeeded. The 32 chapters cover the field of pediatrics in a traditional fashion and in this edition two new chapters appear: "Adolescence" and "Child Abuse and Neglect." From the first edition through this one, the temptation to treat problems in a "cookbook" fashion has been resisted: mechanisms and reasons for disease, with a clear delineation of principles of treatment, have been used throughout. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the outstanding chapter, "Common Fluid and Electrolyte


This paper presents a method to achieve optimal active and reactive power contributions from each energy storage system in an unbalanced distribution network to minimize power loss, while ensuring network current and voltage constraints are satisfied. By modeling loads as either constant current or constant impedance, the ac optimal power flow is transformed into a noniterative convex optimization problem. The application of capacity constraints, voltage constraints, and energy storage constraints in an unbalanced three-phase four-wire system is considered, addressing specific issues pertaining to unbalanced networks such as voltage unbalance and neutral voltage displacement. The proposed method is then used to demonstrate optimized dispatch of energy storage systems in a suitable four-wire unbalanced distribution test network. The contribution of losses in the neutral wire to the total losses is also determined for a test system under a range of operating conditions and various neutral earthing systems, highlighting the importance of considering this in a typical unbalanced distribution network.


Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) is an approach that considers models as first-class entities used in the software analysis, design and implementation. Although MDE has become popular in both academia and industry as an alternative for tackling the growing complexity of modern software, MDE has not been largely adopted in the software development process. A possible way to mitigate those problems consists of understanding how MDE has been applied in practice and what are the main barriers found by developers. Hence, this paper presents an exploratory study to analyse the discussions about MDE from two Q&A platforms: Stack Overflow and Software Engineering Stack Exchange. One hundred fourteen discussions have been analysed under four perspectives: discussion type, application domain, tools, and developer interest. As a result, we identified that 69, 30% of the discussions regard technical aspects, from which metamodelling is the most discussed topic, and Xtext is the most discussed tool. In addition, we observed that discussions in which developers suggest MDE-related tools tend to attract more views and answers.


Photosensitization, also known as photodermatitis, is an abnormal reaction of the skin when exposed to light and is caused by accumulation of photosensitizing substances in the skin, resulting in a severe dermatitis of the skin unprotected by unpigmented.
There are three types of photosensitization: (a) primary, in which photodynamic chemicals, or plant toxins, reach the skin through the circulation, (b) congenital porphyria, in which there is a metabolic, congenital defect in porphyrin metabolism, and (c) secondary (hepatogenous), which occurs when the capacity of the liver to excrete derived from the catabolism of alimentary chlorophyll is impaired. We consider that liver pathologies are the most important in animals from Romania.


Several forest inventory techniques utilize approaches that are similar to stereological approaches often applied in microscopy and other fields. Stereology is characterized by the description and estimation of properties of objects based on samples of lower dimension than the object, e.g., 2-dimensional slices from 3-dimensional objects, 1-dimensional probes from 3-dimensional or 2-dimensional objects and dimensionless points from higher dimensional objects. The stereological character of many forest inventory methods was historically developed independently of recognition of a relationship with stereology. Strip sampling of forests, common in the late 19th and early 20th century, can be considered as a sterelogical approach if the strip centerline is viewed as a 1-dimensional probe of tree inclusion zones on a land area. The stereological character of plot sampling and Bitterlich sampling becomes evident if one views these methods as samples of 1-dimensional probes for volume within tree inclusion zones, or dimensionless points sampling for basal area in inclusion zones. Traditional methods of estimation of tree stem volume include samples of 2-dimensional cross-sectional area at fixed points along the tree stem to estimate 3-dimensional volume. Though these traditional methods usually use a shape assumption (e.g., parabolic frustum) for short stem segments, we show how a random-systematic start estimator of stem cross-sections can provide a design-unbiased estimate of stem volume without using any stem shape assumptions. Monte Carlo integration estimators of tree volume such as importance sampling that are designed to depend on only a few (usually one or two) tree upper-stem height or cross-sectional samples can also be viewed as stereological methods. Several forest inventory methods such as Matern's individual tree basal area estimator and sector sampling can be viewed as local stereology, in which sample lines or slices pass through a central point. Finally, we suggest potential applications of stereological principles in the emerging "big data" era characterized by lidar and other remote sensing data and the assemblage of large tree and stand datasets. We suggest a new stem volume estimator which may have potential for future use with terrestrial lidar.


Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is the complex three-dimensional deformity of the spine. AIS is commonly accompanied by postural alterations and imbalance problems. Adolescents with a spinal curvature between 6-20 degrees are defined as being in the early stages of scoliosis. Generally, bracing treatment with a hard brace is only recommended for adolescents with a spinal curvature between 21-40 degrees, while observation with periodical re-examination of the spine is suggested for cases of early scoliosis. Nevertheless, more treatment options could be provided to adolescents with early scoliosis as opposed to only observation. Therefore, a posture correction girdle has been developed with the aim to reduce posture imbalance problems and the possibility of spinal curve progression. In this study, the immediate effects of the posture correction girdle on four adolescents with early scoliosis are reported. Each subject undergoes a 2-hour trial of the girdle. Data collection is carried out before and after the trial by using radiographic imaging and three-dimensional body scanning. To evaluate the immediate effects of the posture correction girdle, comparisons are made pre and post results. Apart from the radiographic analysis, the changes of the postural angles in the frontal, horizontal, and sagittal planes during standing are also considered. The evaluation results show that the girdle has positive effects on the subjects. Two of them show a significant reduction in their spinal curve, while all of them reduce their postural imbalance during the time that the posture correction girdle is worn.


1. This research examines the potential impact of the stock market crash of 2008-2009 on U.S. working households. The Great Recession caused financial problems for many households in terms of unemployment, business losses, and decreases in real estate values, but the broadly based decreases in stock indexes impacted households in all areas of the United States.2. Among households age 30 to 70 with a head employed full-time, the ratio of equity assets to total wealth (net worth plus human wealth) had a mean value of 4.2%.3. The decreases in stock market indexes between 2007 and 2009 had substantial impacts on the wealth of only a small proportion of working households, with a mean potential loss in wealth due to stock market decreases of only 1.3%.4. The relative impact of the stock market declines was highest for the oldest working households, but the mean potential loss in wealth for that group was only 1.9%, and only 5% of households in that age range had a potential loss of 8.0% or more of wealth.5. By framing the potential wealth loss from severe stock market decrease as a percent of wealth including human wealth, financial advisors can add another perspective to assist clients in thinking rationally about portfolio choices.


This paper reports the design, fabrication and evaluation of piezoresistive effect of Silicon Nano Wires (SiNWs). The SiNWs with the length of 2µm, thickness of 40nm and width ranges from 35nm to 480nm have been fabricated by electron beam (EB) direct writing and reactive ion etching (RIE). The SiNWs are protected by a thermally grown SiO2 to avoid the environment affect and to deactivate the outer layer, which was attacked during RIE. Dependence of piezoresistive effects on the width of the SiNWs has been evaluated. The results showed that when the width of the SiNWs reduces to nanometer size, the smaller the width, the bigger the piezoresistive coefficient. Longitudinal piezoresistive coefficient πl[110] along ≪110≫ crystallographic orientation increased up to 60% when the width of SiNWs down from 480nm to 35nm.


Each month hundreds of men, women, and children flee Eritrea as a result of grave violations of human rights committed by the Eritrean government. Travelling across borders, an estimated 36,000 Eritreans have been smuggled to Israel over the past seven years. For 31 per cent of those interviewed for this research, their migration involved abduction and forced movement for extortion among other abuses. Migrants have been abducted in Eastern Sudan near the border with Eritrea and then sold to criminal gangs along the Sudan-Egypt border. The gangs forcibly hold the migrants captive in the Northern Sinai desert. Many who made the journey reported being held hostage and subjected to brutal treatment in Eastern Sudan and the Northern Sinai desert, including gang rape of men and women, whipping, and various other methods of physical and psychological torture. Although not a traditional trafficking scenario, this paper explores the phenomenon in relation to borders. Intricate trafficking networks have exploited refugee outflows from Eritrea, turning the area around the Sudanese side of the Eritrea-Sudan border into a breeding ground for abductions, aggravated smuggling, and trafficking. While crossing borders to claim asylum may facilitate some protection from abuses perpetrated by the Eritrean government, it has created a new set of challenges for Eritrean migrants who now must find protection and safety from kidnappers. While refugees must cross borders to find safety, those same borders create the circumstances for trafficking networks to operate. Unless the dynamics of those involved changes, human rights abuses such as extortion, torture and human trafficking in Eastern Sudan and Sinai are expected to continue.


Sulfide droplets from fresh Mid-Ocean-Ridge Basalt (MORB) glasses show different textures. Some are fine-grained droplets consist of Monosulfide Solid Solution (Mss) and Intermediate Solid Solution (Iss) micrometric intergrowths with pentlandite at the Mss-Iss interface and disseminated Fe-oxide grains; other droplets display a characteristic "zoned" texture consisting of segregated massive grains of Mss and Iss, with euhedral Fe-oxides and pentlandite occuring as equant grains and as flame-shaped domains in the Mss formed by exsolutions. The difference in the textures implies a difference in the crystallization history of the sulfide droplets. These different textures are observed in droplets that are only millimeters apart in the same sample, and thus had an identical cooling history. Therefore, some other factors controlled the textural development. There is relationship between the size and the texture of the droplets. The larger sulfide droplets tend to have zoned textures and the smaller ones fine-grained textures. We propose that the latter have experienced greater undercooling before crystallization. The reason for the delay in crystallization could be that, in the small sulfide droplets, large stable grains with low surface to volume ratio cannot form, which results in higher effective solubility of the Mss. Due to the high degree of undercooling in the small droplets, there were numerous nucleation sites and the diffusion rates of the crystal components in the liquid were lower, leading to fine-grained Mss-Iss intergrowths. In contrast, larger droplets with lower effective solubility of Mss began to crystallize at higher temperature, and thus had fewer nucleation sites, higher diffusion rates, and more time for sulfide differentiation.


The use of Information Communication technologies (ICTs) as a management tool has gained widespread significance in recent years and the stock of management advantages provided by ICT cuts across disciplines and sectors. Management experts see this globalization of management options as the "super production and marketing input" needed by firms to boost their competitive edge. This paper assesses the adoption and use of ICTs on the economic performance of Agro-industries (ABFIs) in South-West, Nigeria. Primary data were collected from a total of 80 respondents from the study area. Budgetary analysis, t-test of mean differences and multiple regressions were used in the data analysis to actualise the study objectives. In assessing the effect of ICTs on the economic performance of the companies, the "before and after" scenarios were analysed. The results revealed an increase of about 14 percent increase in total profit after adoption of ICTs. The reduction in marketing cost brought about by adopting ICT s were found to be largely responsible for the increase in profit of the ICT adopting firms. The results also revealed that irrespective of the scale of operation, there was a general reduction in total marketing cost due to ICT adoption. The Cobb Douglas function fitted to explain the cost effect relationship between yearly firms' expenditure on ICTs and firm's characteristics revealed that the proportion of ICT literate staff to the total staff strength and age of firm were found to be significant positive determinants of ICTs expenditure. The study recommends the adoption and use of ICTs by agro-based firms as a cutting edge input that is not only cost effective but more efficient in the long run.


With some help from the Bishop of Birmingham Britain's doctors looked this week as if they had found just the right tone to strike in their continuing debate with the government over the reformed National Health Service.

In his sermon on Sunday to doctors gathering in Birmingham for the BMA's annual representative meeting the bishop, the Right Reverend Mark Santer, talked about the moral values embodied in institutions. He spoke of the achievements of the NHS in its first 46 years—and the fact that they were related to avowedly moral ideals: health care for all and equality of access. The NHS, he said, "has promoted and embodied a culture of generous service and unstinting care which continues to astonish those who receive it."

He contrasted this with the current business model of the internal market …


Vitamin D, a hormone critical to the body's maintenance of serum calcium and phosphorus concentrations, is currently the subject of much scientific interest. Low levels of vitamin D have been observed in many populations and epidemiological studies have suggested a link between this biochemical state and a range of diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. While the consequence of vitamin D deficiency is well documented for bone (rickets and osteomalacia), with mixed findings relating to falls and fractures, a causal link between vitamin D deficiency and these wider health outcomes has not been established. If these relationships were found to be causal, the morbidity and mortality resulting from low levels of vitamin D could be substantial; the current evidence base, however, most robustly supports the assessment of serum 25(OH)-vitamin D in the context of specific symptoms, low bone mineral density or biochemical abnormalities, rather than as an entity to treat in its own right or as the basis for a population-wide screening programme.